thedeadparrot

I started a story!

(posted by

petra on Jun. 11th, 2026 10:41 pm)

We went to see the steam engine Big Boy No. 4014 at Letchworth State Park, which was fascinating, crowded, and hot. The enormous train whistle echoing through the gorge, which is known as the Grand Canyon of the East, will stick with me.

We got there two and a half hours early, so we settled in to wait. While I waited, I started writing Last Week Tonight: Petrova Truthers. Anyone who is familiar with Project Hail Mary -- particularly the book, but the movie, too -- and John Oliver's voice is invited to come help me with it.

After I got home, I shared the draft-so-far with

buggery, who read it aloud via phone and laughed immoderately. That was a great feeling.

My previous effort in John Oliver voice is:

Last Week This Benduday with J'hon Olivah: Clone Soldiers (5516 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (TV), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Characters: John Oliver, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker, Original Clone Character(s)
Additional Tags: In-Universe News Broadcast, John Oliver Pastiche, Jedi Discourse, Galactic Republic (Star Wars), Galactic Republic Politics (Star Wars), Parody of Satire, Turtles all the way down - Freeform, Screenplay/Script Format, Mancrush, Comedy, Dark Comedy
Series: Part 42 of Petra's Favorites Of Their Own Work, Part 1 of Star Wars Prequels in 2020s Media
Summary:

Last Week This Benduday with J'hon Olivah is a Coruscanti late-night talk and news satire program available throughout the Republic via the holonet. The main story from this week's episode discusses the clone soldiers fighting the current war, their origins, and what responsibility the Jedi Order bears for them, including interviews with current and former Jedi.

*

I am pretty sure that, while the Jedi pressure their heroes to do press, Eva Stratt has infinite numbers of better things to do.

What's the over/under on whether Grace does science education outreach via late night satire? John would hit on him so hard and tell him, "It's really, truly okay for you to say 'Fuck.'"

( Project Hail Mary spoiler )

Don't know why you say goodbye.

(posted by

hannah on Jun. 11th, 2026 08:54 pm)

Chopped out and rewrote about 400 words for the better is one of those things where I'm moving, but it doesn't feel like I'm moving forward. It's still movement, though, and I'm focusing on that part. They're more useful words than what I had before because I know where to go next.

That was about the only thing of merit today, besides carting some materials to the library to be processed by professionals for resale or recycling. I might've been able to push a bit at one point or another to do some paying work, and a two and a half-hour movie in the middle of the afternoon might not have been the best plan to help with that, though I can't say I quite regret it. Disclosure Day was a ride of a time and sitting in the theater was where I figured out how to move those words around. I'd probably have figured it out anyway, but it definitely helped it happen today.

I miss my cat

(posted by

celli on Jun. 11th, 2026 06:58 pm)

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All the way from those windows.

(posted by

hannah on Jun. 10th, 2026 07:42 pm)

I managed a session at the gym. I managed some cooking for future lunches and breakfasts. I realized that while some of the letters I need to annotate are missing the years, if the person wrote down the day of the week, there's only so many years where they lived at this address and, for example, April 22 was a Thursday. There's not many, but there's enough I can feel good about realizing I had an additional piece of metadata to use. I added a thousand words to the present work in progress.

I'm not happy with how little work I did today.

I can live with it if I manage better in the coming days.

Identification.

(posted by

hannah on Jun. 9th, 2026 10:59 pm)

Spending the day feeling at 80% at best and staying up late demonstrates an inability to learn a lesson. Freely admitting to that doesn't help any, but at least I'm identifying the problem.

Another problem I identified this afternoon was being unable to address people in the gym when they're being loud enough I can hear them over whatever podcast I'm listening to. Cranking up the volume to drown them out would be to put it at the maximum, which wouldn't be a fix.

having a bit of post-posting pondering...

(posted by

celli on Jun. 9th, 2026 09:29 pm)

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Thrill rides.

(posted by

hannah on Jun. 8th, 2026 09:45 pm)

There's an elegance to a pristine film print, whether it's new or kept in good condition, where you can lean in and see the grain and take in the depth and breadth of the color. There's also a wonder to an older print that's been seen many times before, where you see the scratches and the flecks and the flickers, and when it hits just right, it's almost a living thing breathing in the dark with you - and because you see the film stock itself, you understand it's all the more real because you know it's a story, and it's easy to fall in love with a story.

Miracle Mile was playing as part of Bleak Week at a local theater. I knew what kicked off the plot, so taking that with it being Bleak Week, I had a good idea of where the movie was going, but not how it'd get there. I'd had one too many cups of coffee today and took an electric bike over to the theater, which unintentionally put me in exactly the right kind of excited state to focus and let myself be carried along by a very tightly told story that knew how to keep me engaged the whole time.

There was still a bit of light in the west when I left the theater. I took a regular bike back, enjoying the smooth ride. On my way there, I'd passed by the Lincoln Center premiere of Disclosure Day, and some of the installations were still there hours later. I'm seeing that one later this week, too. I expect it'll make for a curious double feature. I don't think it'll be a Killer of Sheep/Sinners experience, but it looks like there's enough in common to work as a conversation.

The Vampire Lestat 1x01 / IWTV 3x01

(posted by

petra on Jun. 8th, 2026 09:18 pm)

For the duration of the episode, I was no longer aware that I had stood up for an eleven-hour workday.

The actors had so much fun, especially Reid. But all of them.

The writers had so much fun with Lestat's voice c. 2025. He's perfectly too much.

The set dressers had so much fun. ( Setting spoilers )

I look forward to ( Character appearance spoilers )

Heated Rivalry taxfic

(posted by

celli on Jun. 8th, 2026 08:24 pm)

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I am a grownup

(posted by

petra on Jun. 7th, 2026 10:53 pm)

I will not stay up all night writing the current ship of my heart, even if I did just rewatch The Empire Strikes Back and need the triangulation-comfort Luke/Leia novel.

I will not stay up all night listening to text-to-speech reading me my story History turner, either. But I may download it for bedtime reading.

I will not stay up all night watching John Oliver so I can write Petrova Truthers, because I am only in the middle of listening to the audiobook of Project Hail Mary and I need a better grasp on the canon before I feel comfortable really putting the lie to Andy Weir's And Everybody United narrative.

I will not stay up all night reading The Astrobiology Immersion Program, even though Grace & Rocky bodyswap, well done, is so, so delightful.

And I will not even stay up late enough to watch The Vampire Lestat ep 1, even though I have it in my hot little hands, because I want to watch it with

sage or

hannah or

buggery or a combination thereof.

Because! I am a grownup! Yes, I am.

Recommendations: Downtime - Project Hail Mary story | An XKCD reference

(posted by

petra on Jun. 7th, 2026 03:19 pm)

Downtime (6 words) by Hannah
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Carl/Eva Stratt
Characters: Eva Stratt, Carl (Project Hail Mary 2026)
Additional Tags: Microfic
Summary:

0500-0530.

*

Hannah is so right, and Stratt is so dangerous.

*

And then before I could post it, Hannah linked me to this post about Little Bobby Tables, so that gets a call-out, too, because it made me literally scream with laughter.

Title: Downtime

(posted by

hannah on Jun. 7th, 2026 03:24 pm)

Sixth of the sixth.

(posted by

hannah on Jun. 6th, 2026 08:42 pm)

Night comes early with evening thunderstorms. Looking out the window, I knew there was a sunset behind the dark sky, and watched it slowly go from dim to dark. I heard it coming in from miles away, and I practically turned around and blinked and it'd gone from a storm coming to a storm arrived. Loud thunder, shocking lightning, it's been going for over an hour now and it'll probably stay a while long. I hope it does. It makes for a wonderful sound, and it's a wonderful scent, too.

I ate the first cherries of the season as it came down. It's summertime here, no question about it.

There was just my brother J. and his daughter A. coming over today. The allergist test came back for chicken eggs and peanuts, and they're figuring out a plan to build up a safe tolerance under controlled conditions. I didn't stay long; I needed to decompress after a frustrating day of holding patterns. They got off late because errands ran late, and didn't say until quite late. Also, I wanted to do some more editing and composition, and it wouldn't have been possible if I'd stayed out this evening. I had to get back and get the words out. And I did, not long before the rain came in. Suitable timing.

New Vid: The Analyst | The Imperial Coroner

(posted by

aurumcalendula posting in

vidding on Jun. 6th, 2026 06:00 pm)

Title: The Analyst
Fandom: 御赐小仵 |The Imperial Coroner (2021)
Music: The Analyst by Delta Goodrem
Summary: 'she's always the analyst'
Notes: Premiered at

vidukon_cardiff 2026.
Warnings: flickering lights, mild gore, violence

AO3 | bsky | DW | tumblr | YouTube

Weekly proof of life: a couple weeks' worth of reading, mainly

(posted by

umadoshi on Jun. 6th, 2026 12:45 pm)

Reading: On the fiction front, over the last couple of weeks I read:

--Remember You Will Die (Eden Robins), which is SF told entirely through news and obits and correspondence and does some very neat things. It didn't give me any particular feelings, but I enjoyed it.

--The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Shannon Chakraborty), which is pretty much a delight from start to finish.

--The Book of Love (Kelly Link) unfolds in all kinds of interesting ways and had a lot of...emotional momentum?...for me, although I didn't come away with deep feelings about or attachment to any of the characters.

--The Everlasting (Alix E. Harrow), which I finished a few days ago and have seen several people discussing since (probably because it's up for a Hugo). I liked it more than some of you did, but didn't love it.

I haven't started another novel(la) since. After talking to Kas (who's most of the way through the series-so-far) last weekend, I went ahead and put the second Dungeon Crawler Carl on hold, and somehow my brain seems to think that's what I'm going to read next, which is awkward given that I don't expect it to arrive in the super near future.

On the nonfiction front, I read a bit more of Braiding Sweetgrass, flipped through some gardening books, and started rereading Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace in hard copy (I read it in ebook almost exactly a year ago). I really like the feel and the spirit of this, and it's packed full of information that flows in a way that makes it hard for me to actually retain a lot of said information. I picked up the hard copy from Book Outlet in hopes that having a physical book would give me better odds of actually being able to usefully refer to bit of it.

Watching: Some more of both Justice in the Dark and Witch Hat Atelier.

Growing: Yesterday we acquired and planted five tomato seedlings (and a few other seedlings that still need planting). More on that in another post later, hopefully.

US Politics & Anthony Stewart Head in memoriam - People supporting trans kids

(posted by

petra on Jun. 6th, 2026 10:07 am)

Kansas Judge Eviscerates Anti-Trans "Experts" Jamie Reed, Chloe Cole, James Cantor; Blocks Care Ban -- the ban struck down applies to gender-affirming care for trans youth.

A heartwarming story about Buffy’s Anthony Stewart Head going out of his way for a young trans fan from 2019.

Good Omens s3 fact -- no, I have not watched it

(posted by

petra on Jun. 6th, 2026 12:57 am)

I hadn't read the credits because, well, I was scared.

Neither my favorite British humorist (deceased) nor my favorite British humorist (living as of this post) contributed to s3 of Good Omens.

I feel a little better, knowing that, about my complete absolution from ever having to give a shit. It's credited to the rat bastard and some people I have never heard of, who may well have done excellent work, but I do not need to care, tra la.

Every time I see "USA 250" merch, I think, in the tones of Roger Allam, "You’re going to meet the King of Liechtenstein wearing a medal you got for being alive in the year 2000!" [citation] And now I don't even feel bad about it.

Dear Mr Finnemore,

I don't know whose choice it was that you didn't return, but thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

- Petra

So I finished Umineko!

(posted by

alias_sqbr on Jun. 6th, 2026 11:04 am)

My initial review.

Overall, I really liked it!

It continued to be a sprawling, layered, long-winded but fascinating mess to the end. But some of my favourite characters and perspectives showed up quite late, and made me look back a more positively on some earlier sections of the story, so my opinion of it now is higher than it was in my last review, if still kinda mixed.

The ending made me cry in a cathartic way, and I am left with a bunch of fun chewy thoughts about stories in general and possible fanfic in particular.

Hella content warnings though, I had to stop at one point because it was skirting very close to triggering me, and then spoiled myself for the next little bit of plot to see if it was going to get Too Dark (which it didn't)

Content notes for the game, which are both possibly triggering themselves and also spoilery

Parental abuse, suicide, rape, incest, sympathetic portrayal of fascists, gore, torture, sexy immortal young girls (real young girls are not sexualised but do get joke flirted with), major character death, probably other things.

( No spoilers )

Reporting.

(posted by

hannah on Jun. 5th, 2026 08:56 pm)

My niece A. had an allergic reaction earlier this week. She's fine, she's doing well, and her parents are concerned because they don't know what set it off yet. An appointment with an allergist has been scheduled. They're also not traveling to Texas this weekend.

Not because of their daughter, though. According to my mother, the reason they're staying in New York the same week A. had a bad enough allergic reaction to warrant calling an ambulance for an EMT home visit is because the flight was mistakenly booked to Houston instead of Austin.

They're coming over to Manhattan tomorrow instead of flying out to Texas, and I'm not complaining about it. Hopefully both her parents will come by. Of course, I'm also hoping I'll have about thirty minutes to go to the library and pick up a couple of hold items that came in. Both those things are on about the same level right now.

US Politics: Pete Hegseth wants the US military to shrink

(posted by

petra on Jun. 5th, 2026 02:30 pm)

He's been taking women and men of color off the promotion list.

Fuck that guy.

He's kicked out trans people.

Fuck that guy.

He's been limiting the number of faiths the US military chaplain service will support.

Fuck that guy.

On the other hand, I am all for the US military shrinking down to the size where, like Grover Norquist's ambition for the government, I can drown it in the bathtub, so -- the enemy of my enemy is my ally? Mmmmmaybe?

Okay, so, you go, Pete Hegseth. Alienate everyone! Only straight cis Christian men should die for our country! Throw everyone else out! And then we can -- just maybe -- reduce the budget by an order of magnitude or five.

It Makes a Fellow Proud to be a Soldier is today's Tom Lehrer earworm.

I started a story!

Don't know why you say goodbye.

I miss my cat

All the way from those windows.

Identification.

having a bit of post-posting pondering...

Thrill rides.

The Vampire Lestat 1x01 / IWTV 3x01

Heated Rivalry taxfic

I am a grownup

Recommendations: Downtime - Project Hail Mary story | An XKCD reference

Title: Downtime

Sixth of the sixth.

New Vid: The Analyst | The Imperial Coroner

Weekly proof of life: a couple weeks' worth of reading, mainly

US Politics & Anthony Stewart Head in memoriam - People supporting trans kids

Good Omens s3 fact -- no, I have not watched it

So I finished Umineko!

Reporting.

US Politics: Pete Hegseth wants the US military to shrink

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