The Spy Who Loved Me - chapters 8 & 9

Dec. 30th, 2025 11:42 am
themis1: Lightning (Default)
[personal profile] themis1 posting in [community profile] girlmeetstrouble
!!!Content warning for violence and threats of rape!!!

Chapter 8: Read more... )

Comment: Viv is in a very tough spot, but does her best to arm herself and think of a way to escape. The villains are extremely one-dimensional ...

Chapter 9: Read more... )

Comment: A really nasty chapter – despite all Viv’s efforts, she only manages to slightly wound the men. I'm guessing help is on the doorstep!

Mudlarking 76 - Grant's Quay Wharf

Dec. 30th, 2025 11:23 am
squirmelia: (Default)
[personal profile] squirmelia
A lunchtime lark and the foreshore was full of tourists.

One man was showing his small daughter how you should scrape the top level off, in an area where no surface disturbance is allowed. That annoyed me.

Anyway, apart from the tourists, there was one other mudlark there that lunchtime, wearing wellies, mostly in the mud.

I didn't find a lot. A chunk of a John Maddock plate, possibly from between 1906 and 1927. I don’t usually find sherds with words on in this area. A bit of a plastic flower. A bit of glass that said 72 on it. A piece of Staffordshire style slipware, some bits of Bellarmine. I was happy to find a button.

It was near to low tide so I walked underneath Grant’s Quay Wharf. It's a bit dark under there so more difficult to mudlark but it feels like you're somewhere secret when you're amongst the wooden struts.

Mudlarking finds - 76

Underneath Grant’s Quay Wharf

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Yuletide Recs (2025 Part 1)

Dec. 30th, 2025 10:30 am
thisbluespirit: (reading)
[personal profile] thisbluespirit posting in [community profile] yuletide
22 recs in As You Like It, British Airways, Cabin Pressure, Cadfael, Dogsbody, Enigma, Flower Fairies, The Good Place, Georgette Heyer, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, Ludwig, The Prisoner, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare & Hathaway, Time Master, Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully & Yes Minister at my journal.

December Days 02025 #29: w00t

Dec. 29th, 2025 11:25 pm
silveradept: A green cartoon dragon in the style of the Kenya animation, in a dancing pose. (Dragon)
[personal profile] silveradept
It's December Days time again. This year, I have decided that I'm going to talk about skills and applications thereof, if for no other reason than because I am prone to both the fixed mindset and the downplaying of any skills that I might have obtained as not "real" skills because they do not fit some form of ideal.

29: w00t )

Mudlarking 75 - Solstice

Dec. 30th, 2025 08:37 am
squirmelia: (Default)
[personal profile] squirmelia
I was awake at 5AM and I was the only person to get on the first train of the day at my station.

It was Solstice, and at sunrise, I was on the foreshore, staring at the Thames and the pink sky.

I found a broken plastic domino! I found a jack (alley gob) similar to the one I found previously!



I found a sherd from an inventor who exhibited in the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace!

The sherd says 17 Silver-Street, Wood Street on it.

Mayo & Co were located at this address and appear in a catalogue for the Great Exhibition, which was held at Crystal Palace in 1851.

Description from the catalogue:
“Patent syphon vases, for containing aerated or gaseous mineral waters. They afford the means for withdrawing at pleasure such quantities as may be desired, whilst that which remains for subsequent use retains its purity and effervescence. The vases exhibited are specimens of the combination of metal with pottery. The process of manufacture is the invention of the exhibitor.”

Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851:
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pdp6m5e3/items?canvas=406&manifest=2&shouldScrollToCanvas=true

Silver Street no longer exists, but there is still a small garden - St Olave Silver Street, where a church once stood. There's also a plaque in the garden for Shakespeare as he had lodgings on Silver Street.



I found a pink plastic star spokey-dokey, that may once have been attached to a bicycle.

I found an orange button.

I found a stoneware sherd that says “gin”, but it probably contained ginger beer.

Two pieces I haven’t figured out:
The dark brown sherd that has the word “king” visible
The lighter brown sherd that has “N.Higg” visible.

Glass:


A good chunk of a bottle that says “216 Kingsland Road” and “Batey” on it. Batey made ginger beer and mineral water and “Batey’s Britannia Steam Works” was located at 216 Kingsland Road from 1847.

How it looked in 1920:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrLNoPDW4AELDkw?format=jpg&name=medium

212 - 216 Kingsland Road is now the Suleymaniye Mosque.



Another piece of a medicine bottle with “Sp” on it, which would have had measurements for tea spoons or table spoons on it.

R Whites, always so much lemonade.

“Ingsland” - likely another Batey.

“Bourne Denby 09” - Probably from 1909.

Not yet identified:

“eet.w.”

“re”

“ford”


Mudlarking finds - 75.2


Mudlarking finds - 75.1

Dominoes and jacks - the white ones were the ones I found this time:
Dominoes and jacks


(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Yuletide 2025 recs

Dec. 30th, 2025 07:11 pm
proteinscollide: (shorn)
[personal profile] proteinscollide posting in [community profile] yuletide
9 recs over at my journal for: IVE, Two Husbands One Wife, Bend It Like Beckham, Billy Elliot, Blackadder, NMIXX, Revenged Love, Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild, Set It Up
radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)
[personal profile] radiantfracture


Because when I make fan art, I like it to be as obscure as possible

Sure, it looks like a linocut of a loon but really it's a symbol of queer hockey transcendence



§rf§

[ETA: I want to use some of the shimmering ink* to create the iridescent effect of the black feathers and to do the red eye -- painting ink on overtop of the print didn't do what I wanted, so maybe painting it right onto the printing block somehow?]

* specifically, Octopus Fluids' Witch, pine green with purple sheen

Story! Yuletide recs

Dec. 29th, 2025 07:27 pm
sonia: Quilted wall-hanging (Default)
[personal profile] sonia
a knock at your front door by anonymous, Chalion Saga, World of Five Gods - Lois McMaster Bujold. Five Gods in modern times. Vividly written, highly recommended.

The long way out of a dark tower by Anonymous, The Tower at Stony Wood - Patricia A. McKillip. I'm a longtime McKillip fan for the RiddleMaster of Hed series and Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and I thought I had read everything she wrote, including this one, but the characters didn't sound familiar at all. I'll have to go back and find it. Anyway, you don't have to know canon, lovely story.

Three of the best: IPv6

Dec. 29th, 2025 11:32 pm
[syndicated profile] apnic_blog_feed

Posted by Timothy Hildred

The IPv6 transition continues throughout the Asia Pacific region at different rates. Here are three of the best IPv6 posts in 2025 on the experiences and misconceptions about the transition.

2025 publications in review

Dec. 29th, 2025 09:11 pm
swan_tower: (Default)
[personal profile] swan_tower
Man was this an unusual year for me and publications.

Not the part where I didn't have a novel out. That's happened before, and it will again, thanks to the vagaries of scheduling; I have years with multiple novels out which more than make up for it.

And not really the part where I only published two short stories, thanks to a drop-off in my production of new stories (after an absolute flood of short fiction writing for a few years prior). Those are:



No, the unusual part is where I published EIGHT POEMS in 2025. There are plenty of poets who outpace that, but for me it's a lot! All are either free to read online, or out of their period of exclusivity so I have made them available myself:



. . . actually, I published nine poems, but one of them is a piece I tucked into one of my own self-pubbed collections as a bonus piece. There were two such collections this year:



So that's it for 2025! I have three things slated to come out in January, though -- a short story and two poems -- so I'll be hitting the ground running next year. Let's see what else 2026 has in store!

(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/9nTgOX)
ffutures: (Default)
[personal profile] ffutures
This is an offer of material for the RPG The Burning Wheel by Luke Crane. It's described as "the landmark indie RPG of dynamic characters and searing choice-driven stories."

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/BurningWheel

  

While I have no problems with indie rules systems, I'm not very keen on games that ask all of the players and referee to be familiar with the rules and avoid using "house rules" or simplifying things. I'm not playing pure fantasy games any more, so haven't gone into this one in any detail, but the general consensus I have on it from friends who have played it is that it's rules heavy and fairly complex, which really isn't my style of play. The price seems reasonable for the amount of material you get, more than 1000 pages, beyond that I recommend looking at reviews before making a decision about this one. There's a reasonable video review here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj30rzCgO5o
oursin: Fotherington-Tomas from the Molesworth books saying Hello clouds hello aky (Hello clouds hello sky)
[personal profile] oursin

Out for my walk today, went through the pocket park behind the house, and there was a lady with a small terrier (I think), that was going absolutely spare under some trees -

- and looking up I finally saw, right up at the very top where it had attained to, a squirrel, which was presumably the reason for the agitation.

Had some passing converse with the dog's owner anent this, who claims that he will never actually catch a squirrel, even though they are tame enough that if you go and sit on one of the park benches they will come and look you over.

Mostly the dogs that one sees being walked in the park are less vociferous, perhaps they have grown wise to the ways of squirrels.

So anyway, I passed on to the other somewhat larger park, and see no advance yet in what is supposed to be a development involving a pergola (???) and further eco-stuff but at least there is no longer unsightly work being done at that spot.

Have only very lately discovered that two objects which I vaguely thought, had I thought at all, were maybe bird-houses, are actually insect-houses. Much to my chagrin, I can find nothing about this on the park website which boasts of various eco and environment good stuff that goes on there (I am still trying to work out what the sparrow-meadow is, have not seen plume nor feather of a sparrow on my ambles).

However, I can at least point dr rdrz at this site where I perceive that insect houses are quite A Thing: designed to provide safe nesting, hibernation, and breeding spaces for beneficial pollinators such as solitary bees, butterflies, ladybirds, and lacewings'.

I assume solitary bees are a specific species, and have not actually been expelled from their hive for some vile transgression, to roam the earth etc etc etc like an apian ancient mariner.

Bundle of Holding: The Burning Wheel

Dec. 29th, 2025 02:08 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


An all-new Burning Wheel Bundle presenting The Burning Wheel, the medieval-themed tabletop fantasy roleplaying game about vibrant, dynamic characters whose beliefs propel the story.

Bundle of Holding: The Burning Wheel
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Morbid question, but let's be serious here: If you were trapped in a house with nothing to eat but your recently deceased pet, wouldn't you at least think about it?

People talk about this like it's so shocking, or like it means your pet obviously doesn't really love you, but c'mon. I love my cat, but I'd eat her in a heartbeat if she was already dead and there was nothing else left. She's my cat, she's not my baby. It's not like I've gone full on Donner Party - and let's be clear, if that was all that was left on the table, and they were already dead, I'd do that too. At least, I'd think about doing it. I suppose I might not be able to bring myself to go that far, but I wouldn't find it shocking if another person did!

Yuletide recs (part 2)

Dec. 29th, 2025 10:38 am
snickfic: "Nobody can explain a dragon" (Le Guin quotation) (mood fantasy)
[personal profile] snickfic posting in [community profile] yuletide
More recs at my journal, including:

Possibly in Michigan
The Secret History
The Raven Tower
Impromptu/19th Century RPF
The Dispossessed
The Long Walk -Stephen King
Waking the Moon
Rope

8 recs in 7 fandoms

Dec. 29th, 2025 06:26 pm
mrs_redboots: (Default)
[personal profile] mrs_redboots posting in [community profile] yuletide
If you go to my journal you will find recs for stories in the following fandoms:

Puck of Pook's Hill/Callendar Series
Sussex Set
Swallows and Amazons (two stories)
Cadfael Chronicles
Chalet School
The Secret Garden 
and Dragonriders of Pern

There may yet be more to come.... 


Pithy Realization

Dec. 29th, 2025 12:08 pm
jesse_the_k: One section pulled out from peeled orange (shared sweetness)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

Since we met in 1977, MyGuy has always eaten the spongy white stuff which dwells between an orange and its skin (whether he picks it off the whole peeled orange or nibbles it away from the cut-open peel).

Yesterday I tried it. It's delicious! Michigan State University claims it also has as much vitamin C as the fruit.

What else am I missing?

one last post before the new year

Dec. 29th, 2025 12:07 pm
kareila: Wall-E & Eve return to Earth (wall-e)
[personal profile] kareila
Not much to report from the last 2+ weeks, just the usual December madness. The Messiah was sung. Everyone had a nice holiday. I did far too much crochet and knitting. My dad continues to ignore me. Whatever.

I got bogged down on Day 10 of Advent of Code and never completed it or looked at the problems for the final two days, but maybe I'll find time this week.

I don't think that I'm going to finish the most recent Dungeon Crawler Carl book before the end of the year, but I'm down to only 6 library books checked out, and half of them are non-fiction. Next year I want to focus more on my TBR, which is up to 850. If I could get it down to 800 (while presumably continuing to add to it) that would be a big success.

Denver and New England both won their NFL divisions - yay!

On New Year's Eve we're planning a Freaky Friday D&D session where we randomly switch up characters. Should be hilarious.

My resolutions for 2025 were to get the old house sold, see Connor graduate from high school, and stay healthy. I guess two out of three ain't bad. Robby is finally getting to the end of his fix-it list, and I have pretty much forbidden him to add anything else to it until we get a licensed inspector to check things over and see what he points out.

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