pennswoods | Reading

There is an archaic Scottish term that I have become rather fond of as of late: "hurkle durkling," which refers to the practice of lingering in bed, long past the hour that one should be getting up and busy with daily affairs.

This past weekend, the Twin Cities experienced a snowstorm. I ran errands and went to the grocery store (what a madhouse) on Saturday.

On Sunday, everything was cancelled. The newspaper was cancelled. Church was cancelled. All the stores were closed. The day involved some serious lounging about. I did eventually get out and shovel the front and back walk. I had a kind neighbor who took his snowblower to my driveway and the sidewalk in front of the house, however, so I managed to avoid the worst of the chore.

The snow wasn't as deep as some of the weather predictions had speculated it might be, but it was enough to grind the city to a halt. And it turned out that I didn't mind. A quiet descended over everything: call it winter's last hurrah.

Yes, indeed: I found that I really didn't mind a bit.

Image description: background: a city street where the road and all the parked cars are covered with snow. Lower third: rumpled bed covers with a tray holding a teapot and cookies resting on top. A woman's feet in red and white striped socks are stretched out beside the tray.

Hurkle Durkling

11 Hurkle Durkling

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Current Mood: peaceful

$radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)$

radiantfracture

As usual, true scholars, please forgive my dilettante's sense of discovery over things you have always known.

When searching for some examples of "pleasing the heart" as erotic joy, as per

sovay's information, I arrived at this (in the ETCSL).

( A love song of Shu-Suen )

§rf§

1. Well, a balbale, but the immediate internet is of limited use in defining this except as a form that uses variety in repetition.

2. For those interested, the transliterated Sumerian given for this phrase is ^dcu-^dsuen cag₄ ^dmu-ul-lil₂-la₂-ke₄ ba-ze2-be₂-en-na-ju₁₀.

I assume the subscript numbers refer to different versions of the cuneiform character. I dunno about the superscript d.

$radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)$

radiantfracture

This comes from Sleeping in the Courtyard: Contemporary Kurdish Writers in Diaspora (2025, Ed. Holly Mason Badra), which I am reading and getting much from.

Object Exercise

First you must gather the objects.
Open the polish and polish each object
until every object is coded in polish,
a thin film that takes on the shape
of the object. Then dissect every
object with a circumstantial blade.
When the object is fully dissected,
remake it, but more in your image.
Then use concise scissors to prune
the object, removing what wilts
or yellows. Turn up the object
sound. Then dissect again. Hold
each piece to check for resistance:
if it withers, it's an object.
If it's shudders, it's a subject.

naye

Having been a One Piece fan since 2004, I was INCREDIBLY surprised when I went from "but why would you do that?" about the then forthcoming One Piece live action adaptation to head over heels in love with the writing, acting, production, and music. I was absolutely psyched for season two, which came out on Tuesday. My old friend

shayera suggested getting together to watch it, so she came over to hang out with

doctorskuld and me this weekend. We've all been into One Piece for 20+ years, and are fans of the magnitude where we have all written One Piece fic and made One Piece vid, as well as gone to events in Japan. (Seeing Oda Eiichiro live and getting to be in the crowd shouting "Arigatou!" at him is forever going to be a highlight of my fannish life.)

Which is to say: we are probably the worst kind of audience to try to please. But, of course, we all loved it. It is a tour de force in every way. THIS is how you adapt a manga! This is how you pour your heart and soul into making something so good it's impossible not to be won over by it.

I really was excited when the incomparable Sonya Belousova & Giona Ostinelli released two tracks from the S2 OST (not yet released) ahead of the premiere. The first was the absolutely epic Pray to the Sun, featuring none other than THE HU as well as Declan de Barra. Listen to that sound! That is 100% what Elbaph music sounds like! It's got such a wild range of instruments, from Nordic nyckelharpa to Mongolian morin khuur, and those lyrics are - well. Let's just say that if you're up to date on the anime they will mean more than you may think.

Then they released their collaboration with baritone saxofonist Leo P, Whiskey Peak Saloon. Amazing energy! Amazing fun! I highly recommend Sonya Belousova's Instagram for lots of informative (and enthusiastic!) behind the scenes information on the OST.

As for the eight episodes - I am so glad season 3 is already in production, because I need more immediately. It's so bonkers and fun in the best way, at the same time as it manages to capture both the emotional heart of the story. And the production is so good?? Not just the amazing quality of everything from costume and props to sets, but the level of details that goes into everything - and also the way they've adapted the story...! There were so many great easter eggs, shout-outs, and treats for fans of the manga and anime, and I've put several on Tumblr already. Let's see...

This moment, when Dragon turns around in episode 1, and the camera focuses on the man standing behind him? Yeah, I made a teakettle noise of surprised delight. I also think there may be a relevant Wanted poster very out of focus in the background when they enter Loguetown.

Another fun Loguetown background thing that actually comes back in episode 5 is Hero of the Marines: The Musical about Garp. Just. The amount of namedropping that happens in the legible part of the review of said musical is astounding.

There's also a lot of legible text in the Baroque Works files that we see in episode 5.

Finally, for fans who've watched through Wano there is a huge easter egg standing around on Dorry's chest in episode 4. (I believe for fans up to date on the manga there are two Easter Eggs.)

...I say "finally" though I am pretty sure I am not done with discovering fun things in OPLA. I mean. I haven't even made a gif set for it yet...!

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

pegkerr

As I have referred to obliquely before, I am Doing Something with regard to the events in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Signal

I was pulled in as a volunteer, oh, perhaps a month and a half ago. I was asked to set up the project, and despite my genuine nervousness at the responsibility I was handed, I did. I analyzed what needed to get done, wrote documentation to describe the process, and handled it alone for three days. Then more volunteers were added, and I was asked to train them. Then the team was doubled again, and I had to train them, too, and incorporate them into the team. Then I had to set up a couple of subteams, hold standup meetings, and start thinking about process, team building, donor relations, technological security, resource sharing, and budget.

Rather to my astonishment, now that I have retired, I have become for the first time in my career, no kidding, an actual manager, overseeing a team of ten people.

Over the last week, things have ratcheted up, and the phrase "It's like herding cats" has definitely floated across my mind.

I've been told I'm rather good at it. But it's a bit daunting. I'm definitely spending more hours at it than I spent at my job at the Synod.

Wow. I'm an actual manager. Who knew?

Image description: Lower third: a double monitor showing a world map, and a hand holding a phone, also showing a map. Center: a hand holds a marker writing the words "Project Planning" in red letters. Just below stands a row of cats, lurching forward in an uneven line. Upper right: a partial view of a woman with the word "Manager" superimposed over her. Upper left: Signal icon.

Manager

10 Manager

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Current Mood: accomplished

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Professor of Sherlockology and Advanced Snape Studies

Lover of snarky assholes, high-functioning sociopaths, and their loyal friends

Reading

2026 52 Card Project: Week 11: Hurkle Durkling

more stumbling through ancient poetry

Poem Post: Tracy Fuad, "Object Exercise"

A little bit OPLA S2 stuff

Performing some traffic maintenance today

2026 52 Card Project: Week 10: Manager

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March 2026

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