elisi's humble abode

I have shared this before, but. For UK peeps:
Petition: Decriminalise Abortion
I am calling on the UK government to remove abortion from criminal law so that no pregnant person can be criminalised for procuring their own abortion.

The Surprising Afterlife of Used Hotel Soap
Hotel guests leave behind millions of half-used bars of soap every day. A nonprofit is on a mission to repurpose them.

Taking Leave (John Scalzi on the NG situation.)

Aljazeera: The man behind the graffiti that sparked the Syrian revolution
“I would write these phrases again and again.” The Syrian revolution was sparked by a few teens who wrote anti-government graffiti on the walls of their school in Daraa. Al Jazeera spoke to one of them, a month after the fall of the regime they dedicated their life to fight.

If you are interested in the trans allegories of the Matrix, then Tilly Bridges has written a whole book.

Huff Post: Liz Truss's Attempt To Stop People Saying She Crashed The Economy Has Quite The Opposite Effect
Was this a miscalculation almost as large as her £45bn of unfunded tax cuts?
(This just made me laugh. Because it's better to laugh than to try to think through the fact that this woman single-handedly crashed the economy.)

Movie rec:

Love In The Big City (Kmovie HD - link goes to facebook, sorry. But I don't think it's available anywhere else)

This is a rec I got from Kerk, and here is his summary:

It is about a friendship between a straight woman and a gay man, over the span of approx 13 years. There's so much love as they go through pain and tears and happiness together.

It's on my to-watch list, but I know that there are a lot of k-drama fans on my flist so thought I'd throw it out there sooner rather than later. (Also who knows what will happen to content like this now? It might be gone before we know it.)

ETA: Oh, it really is absolutely LOVELY. Highly recommended!

So here are a few things from Mastodon:


A gentle soul on Twitter ages ago got me to change from making new years resolutions to making a bingo card of different things I wanted to try and do in the new year.

This massively improved my life. Instead of a big-stakes failbomb, I have a mix of big to small goals that let me incrementally work towards larger goals.

It's also great to see your progress throughout the year!

Also I give myself a little treat whenever I complete a new bingo, which rules.
(x)

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Adorable cat picture

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Don't forget to write 2025 as
1³+2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³+8³+9³
(next opportunity is only in 3025)!
(x)

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Aljazeera: The pope is right about Israel and Gaza. This is cruelty, not war

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ETA: And finally, to say Happy New Year:

Just a few links.

Petition: Tell the new government it’s time to #GoPesticideFree

Fundraiser: Crips for eSims for Gaza

From the BBC (via Kerk <3):

BBC Proms: Doctor Who Prom

Michael Sheen explores the strange art of acting, from Stanislavsky to the present day.

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I hope everyone in the path of Hurricane Milton stays safe. 🙏

ETA: conuly has some hurricane links

Vogue: Why Walking Is The Best Thing You Can Do For Longevity.

purplecat has some lovely Ruby icons.

thissterlingcrew: Open letter opposing the ban on puberty blockers

ETA: Context from Pink News: Labour’s Wes Streeting ‘to make trans puberty blocker ban permanent’

Guardian article: My family and other Nazis
My father did terrible things during the second world war, and my other relatives were equally unrepentant. But it wasn’t until I was in my late 50s that I started to confront this dark past

ETA2: From X (sorry): Palestinian Christians throw stones at Israeli soldiers while flying a flag bearing the Cross of Jerusalem at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, 2000.

Counterpunch: The Unbelievable Stories About the Children of Gaza.

The End of Star Wars and the Rise of Dune; Archetypal Analysis

^This is really good. (With thanks to Proton <3) Is it depressing that the story we need right now is basically without the possibility of a happy ending (except in the far far distant future)? Yes. But also it feels necessary. The world is bleak. I want hope, but I also want realism. Naive fairy tales with a simplistic happily ever after are inadequate.

Also, the video digs into how the different 'verses look at the causes of evil, which is v interesting.

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Life has just... vanished recently. Entirely forgot to post a link when I posted this:

Chapter 20: Life is Just This (Almost 9k. /o\)

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And hey, here is a fabulous trio of stories. I had read the first one, but not the two follow ups.

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ETA: I also meant to say that we have started to watch Stacey Solomon: Sort Your Life Out, which is perfect TV for when you need something not complicated, but nice and uplifting. It's also caused us to finally clear stuff out that we have been meaning to do for YEARS (and which is now more possible with two children moved out for good), so that is a positive.

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ETA2: Petition for those in the UK:

Create a Palestinian Family Visa Scheme for Palestinian people affected by war

BBC: Princess of Wales says she is undergoing cancer treatment

UK links:

From Stonewall: Support trans youth: Respond to the government consultation

The consultation closes on 12 March - please follow the link above for guidance.

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Really useful link for getting in touch with your representatives (councillors, MP etc):

https://www.writetothem.com/

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US link - Petition:

Biden: Stop the Destruction of Gaza

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And unrelated to everything:

London Overground rail lines get names and colours to ease navigation

They're just very neat.

Here is a fun New Year's story:

Astounded by the nonstop fireworks
Traveler Luke Miani spent the New Year’s Eve in Iceland, and he posted a video from New Year’s Eve on TikTok that has been very popular.

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Yesterday was three years since the Insurrection. It feels unreal.

Reuters: Defining images from the Jan 6th Capitol attack

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I posted Chapter 11: Free the Knot (II) of 'All Breakages Must Be Paid For.

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And I came across this beautiful quote on Tumblr:

It is sometimes so bitterly cold in the winter that one says, 'The cold is too awful for me to care whether summer is coming or not; the harm outdoes the good.' But with or without our approval, the severe weather does come to an end eventually and one fine morning the wind changes and there is the thaw. When I compare the state of the weather to our state of mind and our circumstances, subject to change and fluctuation like the weather, then I still have some hope that things may get better.

It's by Vincent van Gogh and here is the letter it's from.

Came across this one yesterday and it made me laugh:



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Also posted Chapter 10: Free the Knot (I) of 'All Breakages Must Be Paid For'. (I finally got them off the planet!)

ETA: OMG this Tumblr post!! that ‘pakige?’ post but me, a couple hours after posting a fic, like ‘comints?’ With cat illustrations. <3 <3 <3

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And here is a beautiful Art Deco AO3 theme. Instructions in the comments (on AO3).

This will be a random round-up.

Firstly, then I began re-reading a few Good Omens fics and MAH HEART.

Have a city wall and a trampoline.
Summary: n their cottage in the South Downs, when Crowley eventually succeeds in getting Aziraphale to use a laptop, it takes Aziraphale literal hours to get past the default Windows screensavers of picturesque locations because 'oh, look, isn't it lovely, Crowley!'

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5 times Crowley knows he’s in love with Aziraphale + 1 time he knows the reverse.

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A fascinating article:

Smithsonian: When Did Humans Start Settling Down?

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Would anyone be interested in this?



Click on the banner and read the post. There are many ticky boxes! :)

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Via makamu:

little_details, is now active on DW. A summary:

Little Details is a community that helps writers with their research and fact-checking. We're here to answer questions such as:

If I drop a brick on someone's head from twenty stories high, what will happen?
How big does an asteroid need to be to destroy the Earth?
How do I say "it's not you, it's me" in French?
Can people have freckles on their penises?

All types of fiction writers (professional, amateur, fanfiction, original, dungeon masters) are welcome to post questions. Our focus is factual accuracy rather than general writing advice.

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I was going to write up something about Threads (and Twitter and Blueskye etc), which I might yet do. For now, just one thing: Please read the fine print before you sign up to new services, guys. Most of these places will profit off of everything you post and steal all your data. (One of the reasons I'm on Mastodon. <3 I will post a guide one of these days.)