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I found this intriguing. YouTuber KnittingCultLady, who is an Air Force veteran and author about two books on military culture from the standpoint of cults(!), put out this rather frustrated video clarifying how members of the military respond to illegal orders. The tl;dr is they will follow orders of ambiguous legality, and refuse to follow orders of obvious illegality, and what is obviously illegal may not be what civilians think.

2026 Jan 18: KnittingCultLady on YT: Some Examples of Recent Malicious Compliance from the Military, ALSO Listen Carefully To My Words:

Watch on YouTube

She doesn't put it this way, but it sounds from what she says that what makes something obviously illegal is that it resulted in a courtmartial or other nigh-universal condemnation when tried previously. Orders that are for doing things that are war crimes by the letter of the law but which did not result in prosecution or other negative consequences for the perpetrators when done in the past do not trigger the sense that they are illegal, e.g. if it was okay for Bush to seize Noriega, then clearly it must be legal for Trump to seize Maduro.

Not dead. Just a lot of stuff.

Mom has been moved to the new place (which is also memory care -- she hates being locked in) and when I visited her last week it was not great at all. The place looks nice but mom was insistent that she needed to go back to OldPlace and I could take her. (I declined. Six times.). I need to decide how often I'm visiting her, because I can't do every week.

Wrote a story for Yuletide (pinch hit) and I love the source and I have no energy to write up all the stuff I want to say

Have FOP flareup under my jaw. I can still chew but mouth opening is restricted -- about the size of a slice of bread's thickness -- and chewing is effortful. Have to take smaller bites so there's more chewing needed too. Have started prednisone (ee) so hopefully that will help. No clue if this is permanent or will resolve. At night it feels like I have something heavy resting on my neck; it doesn't interfere with breathing but it's kinda uncomfortable and getting to sleep is harder.

I've been playing a (free with gacha elements) casual life sim game called Heartopia. So cute. I've just adopted a cat (golden spotted, looks like a bengal) and have unlocked the option to adopt a dog but can't decide which one (golden retriever I name Phoebe? Black lab named Yahtzee? Shiba Inu? Corgi? Husky?). Also you can interact with wildlife. So much cuteness! I love.

Thanks to a lot of work by

fuzzyred, you can now read A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows on its own landing page. :D This series of linguistic poetry uses novel words presented in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

Current Mood: accomplished

Reminder for locals in Minneapolis: The general strike is scheduled for 2026 January 23 Friday.

People are posting photos and stories of cars left abandoned in the middle of neighborhood streets or on the side of highways after ICE took away their occupants. I can't remember if I've mentioned it already, but since ICE is taking unfair advantage of "public space" to enter businesses and arrest shoppers or employees (even after benefiting from the staff's labor first), some businesses are closing the public space. One grocery store I visit locks the doors now, so patrons have to wait for staff to unlock the door to let them enter or exit. A local business magazine tells this story about statewide business changes, including this new practice of locking the doors. Local KSTP News aired this piece about business closures in downtown Minneapolis. When our plutocrats notice, then something might finally change.

You know it's bad when local police from various cities have to hold a press conference to tell the public (paraphrased), "Please, stop hating on us because we're not the ones committing these obviously unconstitutional crimes. Our own off-duty officers are being racially targeted for illegal harassment by ICE."

Watch on YouTube

Click to read details about today's tiring tasks...

I had yesterday off from work due to national holiday (ironically MLK Day), and I scheduled vacation for today and tomorrow. I didn't know when I requested the vacation days that I wouldn't get to sleep excessively and play computer games during all of my waking hours. I didn't know that instead of rest and relaxation, I'd need to organize myself to protest my country's turn to fascism.

On the plus side, I walked to the library, printed out my informational notices for neighbors (and got my Prince library card because they still had some available!), walked to the store to buy nylon cord for whistle necklaces, and walked around my block delivering every single paper notice and a few requested whistles.

I'm disappointed that I'm getting too old for this resistance effort. Everything hurts now: feet, waist, back, hands. I had to go find my arthritis cream for my hands while I was trying to tie knots in the cord for the whistles and notices.

When I was leaving a house that I believe to include Native Americans, I saw a car stopped directly in front of that sidewalk, with what I guess to be a Native American person at the wheel, staring at me. Hopefully they calm down once they finally check their mailbox and see my note. In better news, one of my neighbors offered eggs to me from their chickens, so I'll have to talk to them another day and learn how that process should go. I didn't think to ask for details at the time. I left a notice at every house, even the one with the NRA sticker on the door.

But, at least it's all done now. Within a 1-block radius of my house, I know homes that include each of the currently-targeted ethnic identities: hispanic, asian, native american, and somali. I hope these notices (redacted here for sharing publicly) that I delivered can help in at least some small way, and it isn't just me spinning in circles wondering what to do.

In an all-time record for my minimal presence in fandom, I am now participating in my third year of

threesentenceficathon. I have written four fills to date and taken the rare step of transferring all of them to AO3. Once again all selections are obviously me.

Current Music: Dry Cleaning, "Secret Love (Concealed in a Drawing of a Boy)"

The wind chill when I left today was -16°C. Now it's up to a toasty -9°C and tomorrow it will get to almost above freezing! ...and then on Friday it'll drop down to -22°C overnight. Welp.

This morning I overthrew my entire usual days in the office tradition and, rather than have a traditional Japanese breakfast with rice and pickles and miso soup, I had avocado toast and Greek yogurt with raspberries and almonds on it. Much more filling, honestly, but not something I want to do every day. There's something nice about being able to take the already-made shiozake out of the fridge, crack the rice cooker open to get the already-hot rice... Just enough time-saving to let me enjoy my mornings.

I went to the work canteen today and got a meal from Taste of China and it made me put another category in my Notes app list of work restaurants. Right now I have "Restaurants Yes" (home to places like Tandoor Char House) and "Restaurants No." I ordered mabo dōfu with egg fried rice and...it was fine. Worth the $9 I spent on it, I guess. I'll think about it when I see it in the future. And when I realized I had that reaction, I made a "Restaurants Maybe" list and put it on there. We'll see what else gets put there.

Tomorrow is a soul food restaurant and, well, no thanks. Nothing against soul food, I just don't trust that I can eat any of it. Maybe if Michael Twitty cooked it for me.

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: Lazerhawk - King of the Streets

so why. why why why. Do I so often come across fic where the author clearly a) doesn't have any idea how far apart two places are, or how to get from one to the other, and b) never thought to check google maps?

Just read a fic where one character is thinking that "it's only an 8-hour plane ride!"

and. I have driven basically between those two places.

It's a 6-hour drive unless traffic is really bad. if you hit the most congested bits exactly at rush hour, it might take you 8 hours. to drive.

Flying? Well, if you were starting at a small regional airport and needed to make a connection, it might take you four hours.

I actually mind this shit more than the big stuff. The big stuff is hard to research. Google Maps is really really quick and easy.

Finally put up a new chapter of WWMBD? (Ao3’s going down for a few hours tomorrow, for a code update or something, so read it tonight or wait): WWMBD (15246 words) by moon_custafer
Chapters: 10/?
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Musicians, Academia, Romantic Comedy, Rock and Roll, Age Difference, 1990s, Smoking, Bodyswap, Trans Character

Public

History will really not be kind to the people who could have stopped this, some of them years ago, people who were not True Believers but who refused to act when they could.

Cowards.

Current Mood: discontent

Cow are the latest animals observed using tools, reopening the debate about animal intelligence

Researchers report the first documented case of tool use in cattle, based on a Swiss Brown cow named Veronika who doesn’t just grab an object and rub it against herself.

She chooses the “right” part of a tool for the job, changes her technique depending on where she’s scratching, and repeats those choices in a way that looks consistent and intentional.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Today is sunny and cold.

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/20/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/20/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen at least one starling.

EDIT 1/20/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

We brought in more firewood to stack beside the stove.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

Further developments here.

A routine bus trip from New York City to D.C. took a harrowing turn for passengers last night (Monday) when the driver reportedly decided to ditch their intended destination for a journey into the unknown.

Here's an interesting observation:

Hey ding-dongs, let’s have a chit-chat about Ablaut reduplication.

If you have three words, the order usually goes 'I-A-O.'
-tic-tac-toe

If there are only two words, ‘I’ is the first and the second is either ‘A’ or ‘O.’
-click-clack
-King-Kong

I can think of a few exceptions, like "bone-dry," and more rhymes like "helter-skelter." Some like "merry-go-round" seem to follow a similar high to low pattern.

Current Mood: busy

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: What are your crafting goals for 2026?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: tired

( Read more... )</>

I think this is the last year I do

fandomtrees because like last time I didn't make as many gifts as I wanted and feel bad...

But I did write a post-canon Silksong drabble I'm quite proud of:
Silk Snare for

knave_of_swords
post-canon Lace(&Hornet) drabble
Summary: Much Silk was needed to see her sustained.
Notes: One of my favorite fannish drabbles I've written, I think it works very well.

I got pretty icons under my tree: some Hornet icons by

gimmighoulcoins and some Grian icons by

sarajayechan :D Lovely.

And I also got two other Silksong gifts recently:
Sunlight Dyed by

CrushingOnGogh
stained glass art
Summary: Hornet from Silksong, depicted in stained glass
So pretty! The lights and the colors and the shapes!

reprieve by

strifetxt
1k, Hornet & Shakra gen
Summary: Hornet, a conversation, and a musing.
Aaah the Hornet feelings <3

Last year I played a game a month, and actually accomplished it! This year...I did not. I had plans but everything was overthrown in the first part of the year. These are the games I played in 2025:

Vintage Story
Jupiter Hell
Forgive Me Father
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (review pending)

I was originally playing Horizon's Gate and then Vintage Story hit me like a truck and consumed all of my time. I spent the first six months or so of the year playing that, then played some Cataclysm and other games for a bit before picking up Jupiter Hell, played Witch Spring R but didn't beat it--I'm playing in Japanese so it's taking quite a while--and near the end of the year I bought Clair Obscur on sale and played it right through the end of the year. No review yet because I'm cleaning up all the post-game stuff, but soon.

Not as many games as last year, but boy did I enjoy all that time with Vintage Story.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Vintage Story - Vintage Story

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

Do you watch educational TV shows or documentaries? What makes these shows watchable or interesting to you? Are there particular ones that spoke to you?

New Year's meme time.

( Read more... )

Happy New Year to everyone!

Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: Midnight Kids - All-Nighter

Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland,

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frenzy

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¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Network

An explanation of US military perspective and behavior re illegal orders [mil/US, Ω]

(no subject)

Website Updates

the holiday that wasn't

Does everybody know he's a ghost?

Taste of China

Google Maps exists

Writing update

All I can say tonight is this

Animal Intelligence

Birdfeeding

Huh

Linguistics

Check-In Post - Jan 20th 2026

Childhood Friend and Girlfriend #15

I wrote a Silksong drabble and got Silksong gifts

Gaming in 2025

TV Tuesday: Well, I Didn't Know That

New Year's Retrospective 2025

The old order is not coming back

Profile

January 2026