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Sunshine Revival #5: Be a Carnival Barker!
Jul. 17th, 2025 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
althea_valara
Challenge #5
Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.
Creative prompt: Write a fic or original story about a character reluctantly doing something they are hesitant about.
Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
(I am not going to write a fic, but I read the prompt and went OH, IT'S ME!!! I am very hesitant about the things I need to do these days, and pretty reluctant to actually do them. But I'm trying. By gods, I'm trying.)
Re: the journaling prompt: it doesn't include "your favorite game", HOW RUDE. But I am going to natter at you about Final Fantasy XIV anyway, because (a) most of my media consumption is through games these days, (b) I get to meme at you.
*takes a deep breath*
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MMORPG
FINAL FANTASY XIV
WITH AN EXPANDED FREE TRIAL
WHICH YOU CAN PLAY THROUGH THE ENTIREY OF
A REALM REBORN
AND THE AWARD-WINNING
HEAVENSWARD
EXPANSION
AND ALSO THE AWARD-WINNING
STORMBLOOD
EXPANSION
UP TO LEVEL 70
FOR FREE
WITH NO RESTRICTIONS
ON PLAYTIME?
https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com
( a bunch of reasons wny I love Final Fantasy XIV )
Sunshine Revival 3 (Summer Foods) & 4 (Smiles)
Jul. 17th, 2025 10:07 amalthea_valara( Challenge 3: Summer-associated Foods )
( Challenge 4: What makes you smile? )
(morning writing)
Jul. 17th, 2025 07:23 amelainegreyYesterday storm cells passed around us. I picked elderberries to the sound of much rumbling thunder, and while driving to the grocery i saw a faint double rainbow over the Fearrington farm and inn. After groceries i put the elderberries on the dehydrator and ran them over night. I dried them on the stem: i think separating the dried berries from the stems will be less messy - and has less of a time pressure.
--== ∞ ==--
The challenges continue, but at least not with me going to emergency rooms.
Dad was experiencing some intense fatigue on Tuesday, and was advised to go to the emergency room. He was there until late and was found to be in great shape other than the heart issue, which hadn't progressed to an emergency. (There's a blood test for heart failure.) He was en route to leaving before i had to go to bed -- i was planning on joining him early in the morning. So, some adrenaline and cortisol there.
And yesterday sister L-- texted my brother and i letting us know her distressing situation has progressed to stage S . That had me experiencing a rare challenge in falling asleep, but turning on a sleep meditation seemed to help (i don't recall anything after the first instruction).
Dad's health and L's situation are longer haul issues. I need to teach myself to not hold myself in ready mode for months and months. I still need to recover from everything else.
Recent reading
Jul. 16th, 2025 04:00 pmegretObery M. Hendricks, Jr, Christians Against Christianity - A justified screed on why conservative/evangelical Christians are wrong to support Trump and Christian nationalism.
Tom Bower, Revenge. Scandalous royal family gossip about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. As an American, I enjoy British Royal Family gossip as a soap opera distraction. It’s entertaining to read about PROTOCOL and TRADITION and TASTE and TACKY when it has nothing to do with me. So I read this gossip book from the library during a terrible brain melting heatwave and it distracted me from how hot it was.
Lynette Eason, Too Close to Home and Don’t Look Back. These are from the Women of Justice series of Christian mysteries by Eason. In each one a woman law enforcement officer solves crimes and falls in love with another LEO, often having to lead him first to church and/or Christ. Eason is good at creating genuinely scary situations that keep you in there, and her characters are likable and relatable. The villains are a little wildly over the top and I guessed who the second one was about a quarter of the way through, but I didn’t get bored listening. So I endorse these if you like Christian mysteries. If not, the proselytizing might put you off. Currently listening to the 3rd one which is A Killer Among Us. Oh, did I mention that all the main character women are sisters? So you hear about what’s happening with the other sisters as you move through the series. Another thing these books lean into is the danger of stalkers and women’s safety of movement. I would like to dismiss this as paranoia but it’s really not. I follow a discussion group about walking and people are always sharing their playlists and books for listening to while walking to prevent boredom. I’m always a bit amazed because I never listen to headphones when I’m walking because I need to listen to what’s going on around me to stay safe. I can’t even say this is just a woman’s issue: No one should be so lost in the clouds while they’re walking around in public. Perhaps this comes from living in a city my whole life. But I think even in the country I would listen for bears or something. OK, this is a tangent.
Loves of His Life - Lesley Ann Jones - this is an older rehash/update of her Freddie Mercury biography focusing on his relationships. I pre-ordered her dubious book about his alleged secret daughter, which is releasing on his birthday, but in the process of doing so I found this unread and lurking on my Kindle. Main new contribution is a theory that Freddie was more traumatized by the Zanzibar revolution and the income extremes around Mumbai than he liked to discuss and that trauma explains his avoidance of Africa and India for the rest of his life. (I don’t totally dismiss this theory and add that the one time he did return to Africa — to shamefully perform at Sun City during the boycott — he lost his voice, which sounds psychosomatic as heck.)
Currently: Alaska Twilight by Colleen Coble. Another Christian one that’s not even the beginning of the series. It’s about a wildlife photographer traveling in Alaska to film a guy who gets too close to bears. She has brought a dachshund into the Alaskan wilderness and if that little dog is eaten by a bear I will stop listening. Listening to it because it reminds me of Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man documentary and because other things I have on hold have not arrived yet. Still have not finished Herland and have de-emphasized it in favor of writing my fall syllabi.
Portmerion again
Jul. 15th, 2025 08:54 pmlurkingcat
This was originally the facade of the bath house at Arnos Court in Bristol. Arnos Court is just down the hill from our home, so this would have been part of the view when our late 1920's house was first built. The bath house was damaged by bombs in the Second World War and was scheduled for demolition by the council in the late 1950s but Clough William-Ellis, the architect of Portmeirion came to the rescue and transported the colonnade to the village and had it rebuilt there.
We'd planned an expedition today but the temperature dropped dramatically overnight and the forecast rain and windy was extremely rainy and extremely windy, so we decided to stay relatively local. We got a takeaway lunch from the extremely nice street food kiosk in the village. The weather was so bad that the usual queue was completely absent and the only other customer was a small bedraggled blue tit that was determinedly eating the contents of a mayo packet.
This afternoon we went out to Porthmadog and strolled up and down the high street and visited the maritime museum and the local bookshop. I've been trying to learn Welsh so I picked up a Welsh grammar book and a kids book in Welsh to see if I could translate any of it. The cashier rang everything up, thanked me for the purchase, and I automatically said thank you back while I was putting my purse away. It wasn't until we left the shop that
battlehamster said I'd got a big smile from the cashier because her last sentence had been in Welsh and my thank you had been in Welsh too. So, I guess that despite the brain fog, I've managed to pick up something from Duolingo. Which is encouraging.
Stewardship
Jul. 15th, 2025 11:20 pmtcpipI suggested to Karl (inspired by the skill in the Pendragon RPG, no less) that the most appropriate term was "stewardship". The word, from Old English (stigweard) itself, originally means "hall guardian". It has semi-religious overtones as well, an trend in the Judeo-Christian tradition that represents an active and responsible engagement with the environment, a point I strenously made in an address to the Unitarian Church some eight years ago, and one which our political and economic leaders have manifestly failed; we are supposed to "serve the garden in which we have been placed" (Genesis 2:15). There is a grim irony that an rational atheist and emotional pantheist finds himself appealing to Biblical verse when our nominal leaders profess a faith that they do not seem to even aspire to practise. But of course, there are very profound secular reasons as well why stewardship is the right noun to describe human interaction with our environment, rather than a protectionist laissez-faire or indifferent exploitation.
Stewardship most of all entails a sense of responsibility. Starting from oneself, it entails a sense that one will not engage in self-sabotating behaviour and put effort in making the best use of one's mind ("the mind is a terrible thing to waste") and time ("Life is short, death is long, use your time wisely"). Extended to households, whether shared or singular, it means being responsible for creating an home that is both stimulating and a sanctuary, and extended to the social world, to paraphrase Hannah Arendt, it is engagement in the public realm where social freedom, through action and dialogue, becomes manifest, within the context of the natural world as a whole. Ultimately, stewardship is the responsible and ethical planning and management of resources, whether personal, social, or environmental, and as Lamb pointed out, the greater the power, the greater the responsibility. How careless are our rulers! As Frankl remarked, without responsibility, freedom degenerates into arbitrary whims, these rampaging childish pathological monsters who crush others underfoot with their indifference.
(f&f)
Jul. 14th, 2025 06:34 amelainegreyWritten Sunday midday
So humid. Yesterday i was soaked by sweat picking mulberries. That's in the shade and hardly moving. Admittedly, late morning, but still.
After showering, we went to the Mexican restaurant my Dad favors for a family lunch. My sister joined us. My brother is in the states and arrived Friday to study for the California Bar at my Dad's - fewer distractions. He complains frequently that what he specializes in is not covered.
Home, to prep for a dinner visit from Christine's sister D. We took a break to watch Clarkson's Farm, which was about stressful preparations by a deadline. I will admit to spoiling things for myself by using google maps. Christine was not relaxed by the episode. I did not manage time well, so my dream of making blueberry bread did not come to pass. However, we had plenty of food and didn't get to desert. I did have a couple glasses of sparkling wine, as D enjoys her wine. This bottle has been in the fridge ... since the pandemic? It did not want to come uncorked.
D also brought her dog Lula who is somewhat bigger than Carrie. 55 to Carrie's 40 pounds? I hope that Christine and D see each other more often, and i think that will happen if Carrie and Lula can get along. The dogs were somewhat distracting as we tried to watch a Jaws documentary, but it was a good first visit.
I had a text from sister asking for a call that i had missed during D's visit; sent a message apologizing and noting where i would be in the morning.
I woke early to ferry my dad and brother to the airport. They head to the Chicago area to watch nephew D graduate from the Navy ROTC New Student Indoctrination course. To get them there i needed to leave at 6:15. It was a beautiful morning with the humidity in the air -- and fog, and low clouds -- creating lovely atmospheric effects.
On the way back my sister calls, distressed about REDACTED. I join her, and we have tea, and she cries and i hold her. It is reasonable distress, and i affirmed her. I also recognize an tendency i have in myself, which is if X is a possible outcome, wanting to just get X over with. Instead there is messy, uncertain work to get where she needs to be, which may or may not involve X. Instead, we talked about step B. I suspect (because it's what i would do) that she wants to rush through and be done with the distressing things, and we talk through the steps of just starting step B and how that will take a while.
(no subject)
Jul. 13th, 2025 11:57 pmtellshannon815Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.
There is one house I can think of that must have seen a lot over the years, would have stories to tell if it could, and that is Colony House in the TV show From.
Title: No One Here Is Free
Fandom: From
Characters: Colony House, Jasmine, Smiley, Old Lady Creature, Donna, Victor, Ellis, Fatima, Jade, Boyd, Nicki, Acosta, Kevin, Clara
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers all through S3, mentions of character deaths
Summary: Colony House was originally a family home.
( Read more... )
Holiday
Jul. 13th, 2025 09:36 pmlurkingcatOn Monday we went to Slimbridge Wetlands Centre and ambled around admiring the birds:
There were a truly surprising number of flamingos there:
...and a very odd looking chicken. Not sure what breed that one was:
We pottered out to Weston Super Mare on Wednesday to visit the tiny museum there as they currently have a Paul Kidby Discworld exhibtion. I spent quite a lot of time giggling at the descriptions and I was not the only visitor doing that. The musuem has some exhibition space downstairs and a very nice cafe and the permanent town history exhibits are upstairs. I'm still a little confused about this sign though:
Is a Werechurch a church by day or by night?
