sovay | Network

AHHH sorry I thought I already did this! I guess that's what I get for trying to think about writing in this economy... Anyway, the Rush will be next weekend, 19-21 Sep. Calling all mods past, present, and future! If you can, please claim an anchor post or indicate you'll be in the general vicinity.

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the_shoshanna

We managed to pack all our stuff up again and move on to Fishguard!

An uneventful last morning in Hay-on-Wye: we had breakfast, chatting again with Mary. Geoff meant to ask her about the local effects of Brexit (prefacing the question with "I know this might be a sensitive or political subject, if you don't want to talk about it I certainly understand"), but she misheard and thought he was asking about the local experience of COVID.

So that's what we ended up hearing about!

She said it wasn't so bad; there were a handful of deaths, mostly among the elderly (one man was a hundred and three), but not much sickness otherwise, although she did also mention the twenty-something son of a friend who was very ill and has never fully recovered. When they were under lockdown, the whole community divvied up responsibility for checking on people; she was responsible for one side of her street, and every day she would go knock on doors and check in, take grocery requests and deliver the groceries after the designated shopper had got them, and so on. (The nearest grocery store is actually in England, over the border, and they were under a different set of restrictions, but the people tasked with getting everyone's groceries just went anyway, because the alternative was to go ridiculously far to the nearest one in Wales, in Brecon.) In one row of houses inhabited mostly by older people, they would all sit out in their back gardens and chat across the fences. One day one of the women Mary was checking on didn't answer her door, and the neighbors said they hadn't seen her the previous day but since the weather had been bad they hadn't thought anything of it; but Mary figured, well, risk or no risk I've got to go in and check on her. So she went in, and the woman wasn't sick but had fallen quite badly; it sounded like she'd dislocated her knee! Mary knew some first aid from having worked with the Scouts and got it back in, and within two days the woman was basically fine.

Mary said that probably COVID hadn't been so bad there because it's so isolated and everyone is mostly spread out; I mean, yes there's a town, but it's not city-dense, and there's also plenty of people up on the farms who might see no one for a week at a time. She hadn't heard anything about the horrific death rates in the Montreal seniors' homes, or the refrigerated trucks outside the New York City hospitals, or (I assume) the huge pop-up hospitals in China, etc.; I got the sense that her local experience was just that the community put their heads down and got on with it. She at least, and her circle, weren't paying much attention to the larger situation. It was wonderful to hear about such solid and thorough community mutual care!

Then we packed up (paranoically checking for anything that might have rolled out of sight and be at risk of being left behind), shouldered our own huge hiking packs for the first time since landing at Heathrow, and walked ten minutes to a bus stop on the street below Hay Castle.

(I love my huge hiking pack, by the way. I can carry so much with, relatively speaking, so little effort, because it's well made and balanced. It's from Osprey; they make excellent gear.)

I had discovered by the merest fluke, about two weeks before we started this trip, that the bus we were depending on to get from Hay-on-Wye to the Hereford rail station had been cancelled and replaced by a different service, run by a different company, and leaving fifteen minutes earlier. Thank God I saw that! Although I probably would have discovered it anyway, if somewhat later, in the course of last-minute double-checking; there's several reasons I'm mostly in charge of logistics on our trips, but my tendency toward compulsive re-confirmation is certainly one of them. I'd even found a live bus tracker and checked on the previous day or two to get a sense of whether it tended to run on time, because it only runs every two hours and if we missed it we'd be in trouble. Anyway, thankfully it wasn't raining, and we got to the stop in plenty of time, had a pleasant wait (including chatting with another waiting passenger), and got on with no trouble.

We really weren't much of tourists in Hay-on-Wye. We wandered through the castle lawn but didn't pay to go inside; we wandered through bookshops but didn't explore the town otherwise; we strolled along the river path. I couldn't tell you a thing about its history. But we had a nice restful time there!

The bus ride to Hereford rail station was an hour long. The bus route began about a half hour before where we boarded, and there were six or eight people already on it when we arrived; I think three got off, and we were two of about eight getting on, at least half also with luggage, clearly traveling some distance/going on a trip. After that more and more people got on at the various stops in various small towns (interestingly, the bus also seemed to stop when waved down for a pickup, or when a passenger asked to get off, even when it wasn't a posted stop). But I don't think anyone got off again until we'd reached the outskirts of Hereford. I suppose people go into the big city for various things they can't get in the little towns, but have little reason to go from town to town, unless maybe they're visiting friends or something.

Then we had about an hour wait for a train to Fishguard, our next stop. The train was crowded and we couldn't sit together for a while, until there was a lot of passenger reshuffling at Cardiff (unsurprisingly) and we were able to move, and the overhead luggage rack didn't look wide enough for our big hiking packs even when there was enough space available for them lengthwise, so we had to have them at our feet and wedge our legs around them; poor Geoff started out sitting next to a woman who had one bag at her feet and another big one on the floor in front of his seat, so he had to put his big pack on his lap and I'm not sure he could even see around it! But once the train emptied out a bit we were able to be more comfortable. It was about a four-hour ride, with the usual gorgeous scenery of hills patchworked with fields and studded with cattle and sheep, with a few towns and industrial bits for variety, and some impressive tidal flats as we ran along the seaside for a while. Our host at our next B&B had texted (aha! Texting!) to confirm that he'd meet us at the station, and he said to sit on the left side of the train for some beautiful seascapes after Swansea, but I think the tide must have been out.

As we approached our stop, by which time the train had of course emptied out greatly (ours was the second to last on the line), a young woman (twenties?) sitting across from us asked if we were hiking, and we stuck up a conversation. She was coming to Fishguard to do rowing; she's on the Welsh team, she said! (She also said she was Australian; I guess rowing teams recruit from all over, like other sports teams?) We've been to Australia, though nowhere near where she was from, so we chatted about that a little; and she'd been to Canada, though nowhere near where we're from! So I said, "Well, if you're ever in Ontario, feel free to look us up!" -- I meant it mostly as a joke but it ended up serious, and Geoff gave her his card and she said she'd drop him an email with her contact info. I don't think she has, though; I mean, we only chatted for ten minutes. It was fun, though!

Then we arrived at our station, disembarked, and met our host Mike; he and his partner Christine run our B&B here. They have a working smallholding (mostly timber at this point, I think, plus a kitchen garden? Christine also keeps chickens, and we have six of their eggs in our wee fridge), and they rent out one self-contained attached apartment. Their home is a rebuilt and modernized (obviously) twelfth-century farmhouse, and our bit is at the end, what used to be the barn. (In the pictures on their website, we have the far right end: http://ffynnonclun.co.uk/index.htm.) The ground floor is a small room, but big glass double doors let in lots of light during the day, and there are some small windows as well. The floor is stone tiles, there's a loveseat and an armchair, a small dresser and a dropleaf table that we're just using as surfaces to put things on, a small wood stove that we're not using, and off of on one side of the very end is a bathroom with a shower stall with on-demand heater and -- blessed device -- a washing machine! We have done so much laundry. Paralleling the bathroom on the other side is a small but well-equipped kitchen; this is a self-catering B&B, they provide food but we have to cook it and clean up from it. As well as the eggs, the fridge is stocked with bacon, pork and apple sausages, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, a loaf of homemade laverbread, butter, homemade apple-blackberry jam, and milk, and everything that isn't homemade comes from neighbors, pretty much. The milk isn't homogenized, which was fun to discover! I'm not sure I've ever even seen unhomogenized milk before. Apparently it's just not a thing around here. Mike did confirm that it's pasteurized, though, not raw. And the water comes direct from their own springs! (Filtered and UV-treated, delicious, but he did say not to drink it after it's sat for a day, like if you didn't empty your water bottle but just kept drinking the same water, because it's not chlorinated and things will eventually grow in it.)

The walls and ceiling of the room are whitewashed or plastered, and there are two huge tree trunks, bark still on them, embedded in the ceiling and running the length of the room, as ceiling beams. The walls are a good two feet thick. And between the doorways to the kitchen and the bath, a steep ladder leads up to the sleeping loft! There's a thick sturdy rope looped around each step of the ladder for handgrips (they are wide flat steps, not just rungs), and two birch tree trunks, each about as thick as Geoff's wrist, embedded from the loft floor to the (quite low by that time) ceiling, also for hanging on to as you ascend or descend! The booklet of info about the place warns, "No socks on the ladder!" and that is a rule we are holding to. There's a window and a skylight in the loft.

The fuses for the hob and oven, the washing machine, the on-demand shower, and the immersion heater for hot water from a tap each have to be switched on individually before they can be used, and you won't have hot water from the tap for an hour after you switch on the immersion heater (but if you're using the wood stove, that also heats the water tank, so you don't need the electric immersion heater). In some ways this is very rustic! On the other hand, on-demand hot water means an infinite supply, and there's (solar-powered) underfloor heating that can also be switched on (oooooooh so cozy), as well as things we take for granted now, like, obviously, wifi. Mike gave us a quick tour of all the switches and how to use everything. Also there's a washing machine but no dryer, and the weather didn't seem conducive to hanging laundry outside, so he helped us set up a big drying rack in his plastic-sheeted shed, which will be dry and warm, and which holds, as well as the usual collection of shed clutter, several tomato plants and also their big solar batteries.

He and Christine had been incredibly helpful and friendly in our correspondence ahead of time, with suggestions of things to see and do, offers of lifts, and so on, and while obviously this is a business for them, it's not like staying in a hotel or even a large multi-room B&B; it's very personal. So I brought them a gift: a half-liter jug of local maple syrup I picked up at a farmer's market before we left. That's part of the reason my bag has been so heavy; I've been hauling that around for a week! Mike and Christine (who came by as he was showing us around) seemed surprised and delighted to be given it, which is exactly the reaction you want to such a gift! (And Christine actually lived in Toronto for some years, many years ago, so she's familiar with it; years ago we brought some to someone in Australia, and they were like, ".....thanks? What do I do with it?" And then we were trying to explain that it can be used as sweet (e.g. on pancakes) or as savory (e.g. with pork) and that clearly did not compute.)

The B&B is up a long steep hill from town; Mike gave us a ride down to a pub he recommended for dinner, where Geoff had duck and I had fish pie, along with tasty local beers. Then Mike picked us up on his way home from picking up his son, who lives in Cardiff and was arriving for a visit; he'd intended to be on a train, but the train broke down and there was a lot of back and forth on plans, but eventually the train company put him in a taxi to the station and the timing worked out perfectly for Mike to fetch all three of us home.

We had a very cozy night in our loft, warm under a thick comforter and with the lasting warmth of the underfloor heating still radiating upward (stone holds heat!), and Geoff only bonked his head on the low-sloping ceiling once.

And that brings us up to the end of yesterday, but it's eight-thirty pm and I've got to stop writing things up for the evening. I will hope to write up today tomorrow: short version is, today was great.

ysabetwordsmith

No one knows what these strange larvae grow into

Constructing the tree of life for parasitic barnacles and their relatives.
Not all barnacles just sit on rocks and ships. Some invade crabs, growing like a parasitic root system that hijacks their bodies. A mysterious group called y-larvae has baffled scientists for over a century, with no known adult stage. Genetic evidence now reveals they’re related to barnacles and may also be parasites — lurking unseen inside other creatures.

Current Mood: busy

cosmolinguist

I met someone tonight called Ambrose.

senmut posting in

no_true_pair

Title: Connections (Multi-verse Slide 3)
Fandom: Transformers [Bay Movies & G1]
Pairing/Characters: Mikaela Banes & Midnight [OC]
Content Notes: none
Prompt: 4 & 5 - with the title "Connections"

( Mikaela watched the strange femme )

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny and hot.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds. The honeybees had drained the metal birdbath again.

.

Current Mood: busy

bloodydisgustingrss_feed

Posted by Randall Colburn

https://bloody-disgusting.com/podcasts/3900722/the-long-walk-the-losers-club-podcast/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-long-walk-the-losers-club-podcast

https://bloody-disgusting.com/?p=3900722

The Long Walk is going to get a lot of comparisons to The Hunger Games, especially since it’s directed by Francis Lawrence, the fella behind most of the films in that franchise. But Stephen King started writing The Long Walk as a college freshman in 1966, and first published it under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman, in 1979. The comparison is understandable, though, as both stories unfold in dystopian societies where young adults are compelled by their governments to participate in televised spectacles of brutality.

Plenty of talented directors have attempted to adapt The Long Walk over the last four decades, including George A. Romero, Frank Darabont, and Andre Ovredal. Now, with a fantastic script by J.T. Mollner (Strange Darling), Lawrence’s white-knuckle adaptation trudges into theaters with Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson starring as two of the 50 walkers angling to outlast the rest. Whoever wins is awarded untold riches. Whoever doesn’t… well, it ain’t good.

In the latest episode of The Losers’ Club, co-hosts Randall Colburn, Jenn Adams, Dan Pfleegor, and Justin Gerber lace up their Nikes to discuss what’s easily one of the best King adaptations of this century. After a chat about the book’s long road to the screen, they dig into the killer ensemble of young bucks, its subversion of the jump scare, and how Lawrence and Mollner update the ideas baked into its high-concept premise for the modern era. Bonus: Shortly after, they also speak to Mollner himself!

Stream the episode below and stay tuned next week for another trip to The Stacks, which sees your Losers revisiting the magnum opus all summer long. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

The post ‘The Long Walk’ Is One of the Best Stephen King Adaptations of This Century [The Losers’ Club Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

https://bloody-disgusting.com/podcasts/3900722/the-long-walk-the-losers-club-podcast/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-long-walk-the-losers-club-podcast

https://bloody-disgusting.com/?p=3900722

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Claire Goforth

https://www.themarysue.com/raising-canes-dj-times-square/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=893903

woman sharing her canes experience (l) DJ at Raising Cane's (r)

Under the right circumstances, a DJ can take an experience to the next level. How many weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and parties go from memorable to unforgettable with just a few songs?

One woman recently found herself wondering why a DJ was performing at a Raising Cane’s in New York City. Jade (@jadenicolelorraine) posted a clip of a DJ slinging beats during lunch service on a random Wednesday at one of the Louisiana-based eateries in Times Square.

https://www.themarysue.com/raising-canes-dj-times-square/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=893903

aeroargonic posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

ysabetwordsmith

I’m exhausted but am surviving. How can I heal from burnout without expensive time off?

You can't. Burnout comes from exceeding your capacity over the long term, doing more than your body and mind can handle sustainably. It can permanently injure you. It can kill you. As long as you continue overworking yourself, burnout will get worse. Before you can heal a knife wound, you must first remove the knife.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

joseph_teller

Here's the Short Quick Analysis Of Who the Killer Was

Maga On Maga Violence : What Killed Charlie Kirk? MAGA

#OurModernTimes #News #CharkieKirk #MagaMurderedMaga #TrumpsPeople

elasticella posting in

femslashfete

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

jalopnik_feed

https://www.jalopnik.com/1962009/internal-combustion-engine-claims-doesnt-need-oil/

It would have been revolutionary: an internal combustion engine without oil. And it might have worked. But lots of real-world issues got in the way.

https://www.jalopnik.com/1962009/internal-combustion-engine-claims-doesnt-need-oil/

elasticella posting in

femslashfete

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

james

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

jalopnik_feed

https://www.jalopnik.com/1962003/best-new-cars-under-30k/

The experts at Consumer Reports just released their list of the best new cars and SUVs for under $30,000,

https://www.jalopnik.com/1962003/best-new-cars-under-30k/

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Ljeonida Mulabazi

https://www.themarysue.com/labubu-gas-station-gift/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=893917

For those who haven’t been on TikTok lately, Labubu fever is everywhere.

The little goblin-like figurines, created by Pop Mart, have exploded in popularity with fans lining up at stores, camping out online drops, and paying hefty resale prices just to get their hands on them.

https://www.themarysue.com/labubu-gas-station-gift/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=893917

neonvincent

Watch on YouTube

Who played it better, this drum corps or U$C?

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Music: drum corps

oursin

Seem to have been seeing a cluster of things about litter, and picking it up, lately, what with this one Lake District: Family shouted at for picking up litter, and the thing I posted recently about the young woman who was snarking on the Canals and Rovers Trust about what she perceived as her singlehanded mission to declutter the local canal bank: "Elena might feel alone in tackling London's litter waste", and then this week's 'You Be The Judge' in the weekend Guardian is on a related theme:

Should my girlfriend stop picking up other people’s litter?

(She is at least throwing it away in a responsible fashion: I worry about the couple whose flat is being cluttered up with culinary appliances where one feels maybe the ones that aren't actually being used anymore could be rehomed via charity shops before they are buried under an avalanche of redundant ricecookers etc).

As far as litter and clutter goes, National Trust tears down Union flag from 180-year-old monument. Actually, carefully removed, and we think there are probably conservation issues involved: quote from NT 'We will assess whether any damage has been caused to the monument'. See also White horse checked for any damage caused by flag. We do not think respect and care for heritage is uppermost in the minds of people who do these jelly-bellied flagflapping gestures.

jalopnik_feed

https://www.jalopnik.com/1961996/why-banked-corners-arent-more-common-f1/

While the higher speeds allowed by banking excite both drivers and fans, the feature has been deemed too unsafe for top-level competition since 1969.

https://www.jalopnik.com/1961996/why-banked-corners-arent-more-common-f1/

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sovay

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Page Summary

xandromedovna in fic_rush - Round 154 Dates
the_shoshanna - A long update that doesn't even catch me up to now!
ysabetwordsmith - Wildlife
cosmolinguist - Trans people have the best names
senmut in no_true_pair - Family Meeting (Transformers [Bay Movies & G1], Mikaela Banes & Midnight [OC]
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
bloodydisgustingrss_feed - ‘The Long Walk’ Is One of the Best Stephen King Adaptations of This Century [The Losers’ Club Podcas
the_mary_sue_feed - ‘Raising roofs and canes’: Woman goes to Raising Cane’s in Times Square. Then she sees a DJ inside.
aeroargonic in fandomcalendar - Ninjago: Masters of Promptjitsu
ysabetwordsmith - Safety
joseph_teller - He is a Groyper: The Conflict Between Nick Fuentes, Charlie Kirk, and the Groyper Movement
elasticella in femslashfete - Challenge #065: Foe
jalopnik_feed - This Internal Combustion Engine Didn't Need Oil, At Least On Paper
elasticella in femslashfete - Roundup: Dulcet
james - Saturday
jalopnik_feed - These Are The Best New Cars For Under $30,000 According To Consumer Reports
the_mary_sue_feed - ‘Probably a tracker’: Man gives woman Coca-Cola Labubu at gas station as a gift. Then she takes a cl
neonvincent - Now a drum corps from the Philippines playing 'Golden'
oursin - Rubbish
jalopnik_feed - Why Banked Corners Aren't More Common In Formula 1

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Myth Happens

Network

Round 154 Dates

A long update that doesn't even catch me up to now!

Wildlife

Trans people have the best names

Family Meeting (Transformers [Bay Movies & G1], Mikaela Banes & Midnight [OC]

Birdfeeding

‘The Long Walk’ Is One of the Best Stephen King Adaptations of This Century [The Losers’ Club Podcas

‘Raising roofs and canes’: Woman goes to Raising Cane’s in Times Square. Then she sees a DJ inside.

Ninjago: Masters of Promptjitsu

Safety

He is a Groyper: The Conflict Between Nick Fuentes, Charlie Kirk, and the Groyper Movement

Challenge #065: Foe

This Internal Combustion Engine Didn't Need Oil, At Least On Paper

Roundup: Dulcet

Saturday

These Are The Best New Cars For Under $30,000 According To Consumer Reports

‘Probably a tracker’: Man gives woman Coca-Cola Labubu at gas station as a gift. Then she takes a cl

Now a drum corps from the Philippines playing 'Golden'

Rubbish

Why Banked Corners Aren't More Common In Formula 1

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September 2025

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