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check-in post
Sep. 9th, 2026 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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thisfinecrewIt's been a while since I posted a check-in/recap post. There have been seven posts in the community in the last few months:
On April 23, flamingsword post asking people to tell the FCC that trans characters are not adult-oriented entertainment.
On June 4, fabrisse asked people to contact Congress about Hegseth’s removal of all women and many men of color from the Navy promotion list.
On June 5, sathari posted a link to an article about the role of child development in democracy.
On June 13, petra posted about a proposal to link the US and Israeli militaries.
On June 29, petra posted about a proposed anti-trans HUD rule change.
On July 13, petra posted about an anti-trans OMB rule change.
On July 17, fabrisse was looking for any organizations fighting Trump’s attempt to federalize elections, and asking about lawsuits or other ways to fight this.
On July 21, otter provided a link to a group that is working to involve disabled people in policy research.
On August 14, fabrisse posted about military mental health and long deployments.
On Sept. 1, chestnut_pod posted about get-out-the-vote
textbanking with a Jewish LGBTQ+ group
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18
In the last few months, I
View Answers
called one or both of my senators
4 (22.2%)
called my member of Congress
3 (16.7%)
called my governor
2 (11.1%)
called my mayor, state representative, or other local official
1 (5.6%)
voted
7 (38.9%)
did get-out-the vote work, such as post-carding or phone-banking
5 (27.8%)
sent a postcard/email/letter/fax to a government official or agency
8 (44.4%)
went to a protest
6 (33.3%)
participated in an in-person activist group
2 (11.1%)
went to a town hall
0 (0.0%)
participated in phone or online training
0 (0.0%)
participated in community mutual aid
4 (22.2%)
donated money to a cause
10 (55.6%)
worked for a campaign
1 (5.6%)
did text banking or phone banking
0 (0.0%)
took care of myself
11 (61.1%)
not a US citizen or resident, but worked in solidarity in my communityiti
2 (11.1%)
committed to action in the coming month
4 (22.2%)
did something else--tell us in comments
2 (11.1%)
As usual, you can comment on the pinned post or DM me if you want a tag added or other help with the community.
Platform Decay, by Martha Wells, performed by Kevin R Free
Sep. 9th, 2026 09:42 amrunpunkrunFive stars for Kevin R Free's performance—especially his voice for Naja (and the pirates)—but I don't know, I feel like half of this novella could have been an infographic. You know, like a theme park map? I'm thinking of Libertarian Disneyland again.*
I'm here for Murderbot and its humans and its murderous BFF and that one part where Murderbot's like: "Emotion check. Yes." I'm not here for an exhaustive level of detail about our transit options, and I'm sorry to say that the turn-by-turn directions are even less interesting the second time around. So three stars for the actual book. (Here's my review of the actual book.)
System Collapse, which I re-read right before this, suffers from the same problem, but at least all those tunnels do eventually become relevant, and the walking is (mostly) balanced by Murderbot's emotional journey. I felt more satisfied with it this time around, which I wasn't expecting after eyerolling my way through all those descriptions of tunnels for the third time.** At the end of Platform Decay, I mostly felt relieved it was over. And that was with sort of fuguing out every time Free described which passageway went where. Because just when you think you're done walking, there's more walking.
In an attempt to be fair to Wells, I was like, well, maybe it's just the way Murderbot interacts with the world. It's a SecUnit after all and this attention to navigational detail has been present throughout the series. But then I remembered the recent short story Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy, and Murderbot's not even in that and we still have to hear about our transit options in exhausting detail. So it's not a character choice. It's just...a choice.
*Status update at 38%: "This section of the book is like if Murderbot brought Nana, its wife's wife, and their kid to Libertarian Disneyland, and there were people trying to kill them while they visited the gift shop and got snacks on their way out to the parking lot."
**Status update at 52.42%: "Weeping with how little I care about all these hatches and hangars."
I'm here for Murderbot and its humans and its murderous BFF and that one part where Murderbot's like: "Emotion check. Yes." I'm not here for an exhaustive level of detail about our transit options, and I'm sorry to say that the turn-by-turn directions are even less interesting the second time around. So three stars for the actual book. (Here's my review of the actual book.)
System Collapse, which I re-read right before this, suffers from the same problem, but at least all those tunnels do eventually become relevant, and the walking is (mostly) balanced by Murderbot's emotional journey. I felt more satisfied with it this time around, which I wasn't expecting after eyerolling my way through all those descriptions of tunnels for the third time.** At the end of Platform Decay, I mostly felt relieved it was over. And that was with sort of fuguing out every time Free described which passageway went where. Because just when you think you're done walking, there's more walking.
In an attempt to be fair to Wells, I was like, well, maybe it's just the way Murderbot interacts with the world. It's a SecUnit after all and this attention to navigational detail has been present throughout the series. But then I remembered the recent short story Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy, and Murderbot's not even in that and we still have to hear about our transit options in exhausting detail. So it's not a character choice. It's just...a choice.
*Status update at 38%: "This section of the book is like if Murderbot brought Nana, its wife's wife, and their kid to Libertarian Disneyland, and there were people trying to kill them while they visited the gift shop and got snacks on their way out to the parking lot."
**Status update at 52.42%: "Weeping with how little I care about all these hatches and hangars."
rydra_wongand I've got to say, it's up there:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/b-c-swimmer-crosses-strait-of-georgia-under-nine-hours-9.7316260
Please read it, even if -- perhaps especially if -- you do not engage in or follow Sporting Activities.
Also her expression in the photo with the balloon exactly matches the emotion she describes.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/b-c-swimmer-crosses-strait-of-georgia-under-nine-hours-9.7316260
Please read it, even if -- perhaps especially if -- you do not engage in or follow Sporting Activities.
Also her expression in the photo with the balloon exactly matches the emotion she describes.
#695, Bashō
Sep. 6th, 2026 09:09 amrunpunkrunbuilding a bridge
between snow-covered mountains
white egrets
-1690
Translation by Jane Reichhold.
( 俳句 )
between snow-covered mountains
white egrets
-1690
Translation by Jane Reichhold.
( 俳句 )
ID.me sucks for U.S. people
Sep. 5th, 2026 01:39 pmamalthiaToday I made the mistake of trying to setup the id.me so I can log into Treasury Direct, because next month you can no longer log in with the original credentials used for the site.
After an hour of trying to set this up, my account was suspended.
I had to switch browsers on my phone from FireFox to Chrome, clear my cache so I could receive text message with link, and just when I thought things were working I took too many selfies and they suspended my account. I'm not sure what went wrong with the selfie, maybe not enough light, or bad angle for my face they didn't say and they didn't tell me there was a limit. Otherwise, I would have stopped and switched to the video call option. If I don't get this fixed in the next two months I won't be able to log into any of the government services that are now requiring id.me verification.
My recommendation for anyone starting out, is to skip the doing it yourself and opt for the video call, though prepare for plenty of time, on reddit some users are reporting waiting for hours.
What really bugs me though is finding out id.me isn't even a government service website, it's a 3rd party contractor that the United States Government paid to perform online identity verification.
I personally think it's a VERY bad idea to put all the ID eggs in one basket for cyber-criminals (or government criminals) to target. But what do I know about data security beyond reading about all the hacked databases with user information stolen on a monthly basis.
After an hour of trying to set this up, my account was suspended.
I had to switch browsers on my phone from FireFox to Chrome, clear my cache so I could receive text message with link, and just when I thought things were working I took too many selfies and they suspended my account. I'm not sure what went wrong with the selfie, maybe not enough light, or bad angle for my face they didn't say and they didn't tell me there was a limit. Otherwise, I would have stopped and switched to the video call option. If I don't get this fixed in the next two months I won't be able to log into any of the government services that are now requiring id.me verification.
My recommendation for anyone starting out, is to skip the doing it yourself and opt for the video call, though prepare for plenty of time, on reddit some users are reporting waiting for hours.
What really bugs me though is finding out id.me isn't even a government service website, it's a 3rd party contractor that the United States Government paid to perform online identity verification.
I personally think it's a VERY bad idea to put all the ID eggs in one basket for cyber-criminals (or government criminals) to target. But what do I know about data security beyond reading about all the hacked databases with user information stolen on a monthly basis.
Hemlock & Silver, by T. Kingfisher
Sep. 5th, 2026 08:44 amrunpunkrunA middle-aged healer with an expertise in poisons is approached by the king to find out who's poisoning his daughter, and even Anja, a scholar more interested in puzzles than people, knows it's not the kind of request you can say no to.
Loved Anja. Loved her origin story and her scientific mind and her bluntness and practicality and sense of humor. The romance was, let's say, present. It felt more like a rousing friendship that got shoved into the romance hole, but that's not an obstacle in enjoying the story because not much time is spent on it. Let us spend no more time on it.
The worldbuilding is inventive and spins out naturally, describing the place and the people, the saints they pray to, what they do with their dead, what kind of trade they do and where, the plants and animals and bugs that surround them. It's a fantasy world, but similar enough to our own that it goes down easy. Plus a super creepy secondary world that feels like something Frances Hardinge would whip out. There's also some interesting tension between what you expect to get from the fairy tale elements, and what you actually get.
But I think the pacing was a bit off for me. I often found myself frustrated with Anja and all the questions she wasn't asking. It could easily have been sold as being part of her character—the people-related puzzles get overlooked because she just doesn't think that way—if the story had moved more quickly and the author had dangled some shinier (more urgent) things in front of the reader, but there's a lot of, like, musing and scientific exploration, which is very cool, especially in a fantasy setting, but it gave me too much time to think about all the really basic things Anja wasn't considering and they showed up like plot holes. The final explanation at the end is neatly done, though, clever, logical, and funny, and answered one of the (many) questions I'd been asking myself.
Contains: descriptions of disease and sickness, and, separately, body horror; addiction, overdose; child harm/death.
Loved Anja. Loved her origin story and her scientific mind and her bluntness and practicality and sense of humor. The romance was, let's say, present. It felt more like a rousing friendship that got shoved into the romance hole, but that's not an obstacle in enjoying the story because not much time is spent on it. Let us spend no more time on it.
The worldbuilding is inventive and spins out naturally, describing the place and the people, the saints they pray to, what they do with their dead, what kind of trade they do and where, the plants and animals and bugs that surround them. It's a fantasy world, but similar enough to our own that it goes down easy. Plus a super creepy secondary world that feels like something Frances Hardinge would whip out. There's also some interesting tension between what you expect to get from the fairy tale elements, and what you actually get.
But I think the pacing was a bit off for me. I often found myself frustrated with Anja and all the questions she wasn't asking. It could easily have been sold as being part of her character—the people-related puzzles get overlooked because she just doesn't think that way—if the story had moved more quickly and the author had dangled some shinier (more urgent) things in front of the reader, but there's a lot of, like, musing and scientific exploration, which is very cool, especially in a fantasy setting, but it gave me too much time to think about all the really basic things Anja wasn't considering and they showed up like plot holes. The final explanation at the end is neatly done, though, clever, logical, and funny, and answered one of the (many) questions I'd been asking myself.
Contains: descriptions of disease and sickness, and, separately, body horror; addiction, overdose; child harm/death.
PSA: ferritin
Sep. 5th, 2026 11:46 amrydra_wongSo it turns out I’ve probably been significantly iron-deficient for a while.
Based on how long it’s been since I last had this much energy, it’s probably been the case for multiple years, culminating in the first few months of this year when I was so exhausted all the time I was terrified I had chronic fatigue syndrome.
As a result, I have accumulated a certain amount of knowledge about the subject in a very short time, and thought I might as well share, in the hope that anyone else dealing with this shit figures it out much sooner.
Standard disclaimers, I am not a doctor and do not play one on the internet, this is not medical advice, etc. etc., just a quick and dirty introduction.
Here are some things I think should be more widely known: ( Cut for length )
Based on how long it’s been since I last had this much energy, it’s probably been the case for multiple years, culminating in the first few months of this year when I was so exhausted all the time I was terrified I had chronic fatigue syndrome.
As a result, I have accumulated a certain amount of knowledge about the subject in a very short time, and thought I might as well share, in the hope that anyone else dealing with this shit figures it out much sooner.
Standard disclaimers, I am not a doctor and do not play one on the internet, this is not medical advice, etc. etc., just a quick and dirty introduction.
Here are some things I think should be more widely known: ( Cut for length )