thedeadparrot

Yuletide request #1 for 2026

(posted by

petra on Apr. 24th, 2026 01:31 pm)

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill + ... well really I would take just about any fictional or fictionalized city, so that's why I feel comfortable floating it as a possibility for Yuletide.

The original inspiration was "The Pushcart War set in Gotham City." I would take just about any year setting. The OG era. The social media version, complete with vigilantes with pea pin shooters.

jadelennox suggests that Alfred and General Anna are old besties, and I concur.

But, in the grand tradition of my Yuletide requests, typing this up makes me realize how much I want this story in any fictionalized 'verse of which I am sufficiently knowledgeable.

The Rivers of London take sides! You know Lady Ty is for the truckers.

Mountie under suspicion! Benton Fraser seen with pea-tack shooter! Claims it is reusable straw. Is Big Red Green?

Mélusine + trucks. Not necessarily including our protags from canon; the city is sufficiently a character to count for my purposes.

The Slow Horses investigate the pea-tack problem with their usual bumbling flair.

The Pushcart War was part of what spurred the Earth of the Expanse to implement UBI. Eh? Ehhhhh?

Manchester in 1973 is not maybe the best place, but London in 1981? Give me the Alex Drake peapin saga.

Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler III vs. trucks? :D If Palpatine can find time to reproduce, so can Throat.

My cup's already overfilled.

(posted by

hannah on Apr. 23rd, 2026 08:42 pm)

Earlier today, I overheard someone saying that she ate "like a pig" last night, largely for her having eaten ice cream. I wanted to make a joke about acorns or truffles, but decided against it on the grounds that I knew she wouldn't know what I was talking about.

It did get me thinking, though, and it had me fairly pleased to find out that acorn ice cream is a thing people do - not on any commercial scale, but individual restaurants and kitchens. I'd thought it might taste malty, and all the descriptions provided agree with that.

I highly doubt I'll get a chance to try it anytime soon, but knowing it already exists is good enough for tonight.

Vid Rec: Laugh Track

(posted by

hannah on Apr. 22nd, 2026 09:18 pm)

Laugh Track [Fanvid] (0 words) by periru3
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Sidney Freedman & Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, B. J. Hunnicutt & Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, B. J. Hunnicutt/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
Characters: Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, Sidney Freedman, B. J. Hunnicutt
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Embedded Video, Mental Institutions, Infant Death, Angst, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Episode: s11e16 Goodbye Farewell and Amen
Summary:

All I am is shreds of doubt.

Goodbye Farewell Amen: the vid. periru3 took the prompt and ran with it to suitably heartbreaking triumph.

mostly about podfic

(posted by

celli on Apr. 22nd, 2026 08:07 pm)

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

Fragaria vesca

(posted by

schneefink on Apr. 22nd, 2026 10:35 pm)

I planted two wild strawberry plants in my living room window box today :)

Last year I was lazy and didn't plant anything after the many herbs I had before all died (after I barely used most of them.) But this weekend I visited a botanical garden ~fair with a friend and she convinced me to get the strawberries, fingers crossed they'll grow and I can eat some. Apparently they can have fruits the whole summer.

I want to put some sage with the strawberries, and some flowers in the box of the window that is hard to open, and some herbs in the box on my kitchen window sill but I haven't decided yet which ones of parsley, chives, basil, and mint. Maybe all four will fit, even, if I can put them close together? Maybe I'll just go to the once-a-week-every-spring gardening stand nearby and see what they have/say.

Search maintenance

(posted by

mark posting in

dw_maintenance on Apr. 22nd, 2026 09:19 am)

Happy Wednesday!

I'm taking search offline sometime today to upgrade the server to a new instance type. It should be down for a day or so -- sorry for the inconvenience. If you're curious, the existing search machine is over 10 years old and was starting to accumulate a decade of cruft...!

Also, apparently these older machines cost more than twice what the newer ones cost, on top of being slower. Trying to save a bit of maintenance and cost, and hopefully a Wednesday is okay!

Edited: The other cool thing is that this also means that the search index will be effectively realtime afterwards... no more waiting a few minutes for the indexer to catch new content.

See if it changes the scene.

(posted by

hannah on Apr. 21st, 2026 10:49 pm)

Two things I like to see in my TV shows: women who are allowed to get justifiably angry, and women who are allowed to eat. They're not the greatest things about Rome, but they're up there.

Walking back to my place instead of taking a bike, I spotted a cardinal in the park, perching inside the flowering cherry blossoms. A male, easily identified, a darker red than the surrounding pinks, and it fit very nicely in with all the petals. I thought to take a moment to rummage through my bag and grab my phone, then decided not to bother. I stood and listened a bit, and felt satisfied with that. I took note of the last lilacs and magnolias, and felt satisfied with those.

It didn't last, but it was nice in the moment.

Ny | Rubynye | MinoanMiss | browngirl's cause of death - COVID-19

(posted by

petra on Apr. 21st, 2026 09:31 pm)

Covid: Speaking Out About Rubynye by

werpiper.

Passing it along.

(posted by

hannah on Apr. 20th, 2026 08:42 pm)

In today's case of remarkable timing, I grabbed a book from the little free library in my parents' basement - David Bowie: The Last Interview - before heading to the gym twelve floors up. I was pretty sure the library had a copy and I didn't need the physical object, but it looked worth grabbing and carrying around.

Partway through my workout, a guest comes into the gym. From seeing him last week, I know he's the son of a resident and is only here another few days before leaving for LA to return to life as a working musician.

I think the library's probably got it. I think books are great for long trips in metal tubes. I think he's a musician and would get a lot out of it.

I don't know what went through his head when I offered it to him - he didn't see me go and get it from my backpack, just that it more or less materialized out of thin air - but once he got over the surprise, he was quite happy with it. And the library's copy is checked out, which is fine, since I know it'd have taken me ages to get around to it anyway, while he'll be reading it this Thursday.

Busy our hands.

(posted by

hannah on Apr. 19th, 2026 08:00 pm)

Thanks to neighbors moving out of their apartments, not only do I have enough laundry pods to last at least another six months, I've got more lentils than I know what to do with. No, really. There's six kinds of lentils in my apartment right now, not counting the dried chickpeas, unroasted peanuts, and dried red beans. It's going to be the summer of lentils. My strategy's going to be to work through the smaller amounts first before moving onto the larger ones - there's enough red lentils for one or two meals, but the green ones will keep me fed for weeks.

I'm checking the usual websites, looking through my cookbook shelf, thinking of how to make them interesting and palatable when I'll be eating so much of them. I figure that once I'm done with Rome, a dive through the rest of Steven Spielberg's movies should be good enough distraction to carry the lentils those last few days when I don't want to pay too much attention to what I'm having for lunch.

I've also got some quinoa and rice and black soybeans, if I want to shake things up somewhat. Farro, too, down in a bag somewhere.

Weekly proof of life: media intake

(posted by

umadoshi on Apr. 19th, 2026 03:11 pm)

(Thank you for the comments on my post yesterday about Claudia. I'll try to respond at least a bit.)

Reading: I finished Rachel Reid's Tough Guy, and then my digital hold on Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shroud came in from the Queens library, so I started in on that. I'm maybe a bit more than halfway through that now? It's interesting and I plan to finish it, but it took a long before I actually got interested, and I mainly kept reading through that chunk because I've enjoyed the handful of Tchaikovsky's other work that I've read quite a lot more than I was enjoying the beginning of this one, so I kept figuring I'd give it a bit longer. I doubt I'll wind up loving it, but I do want to see how things play out.

Watching:

scruloose and I have finished everything we were watching! (And glancing at last week's proof-of-life post to see where we were then reminded me to cancel Crave just now, so yay for that. We'll be back eventually, Crave.) "Everything" in this case was the second seasons of OPLA, Frieren, and The Pitt.

My thoughts on Frieren at this point are, I think, more to do with the experience as filtered through its translation, and I'm going to ignore that for now and instead say the most important thing that I can possibly say at the end of that week of TV watching.

And that thing is this: against all odds, the live-action One Piece (which, as I have said countless times aloud and probably at least once here, if not more, should never have worked at all because it's One Piece, FFS) pulled off Chopper. I am floored. I am agog. I am delighted. I am still sort of mumbling "WTF???" about it under my breath once in a while. CHOPPER.

I won't say that he ever feels so natural to me that I forget he's a marvel of technology onscreen, but he works, and the voice is wonderful, and somehow even when I was at my most aware that he's not being performed by an actor in intensive makeup, he felt like...a stuffed animal/puppet brought to life? Not like CG? (Nothing like the plush Luna from the Sailor Moon drama, for the record.) It's incredible work and I love him so much. (I should also note that I haven't watched any making-of material, so all I know about the creation of Chopper is what Naye mentioned about his huge, shiny eyes accurately reflecting what he's looking at.)

As for what I'll/we'll watch next...I still haven't seen past the initially-released chunk of Justice in the Dark, so I'm trying the tactic of seeing if

scruloose will watch it with me, which means an excuse to start over and refresh myself on the drama, as opposed to my blurry combination of memories from watching those episodes and from reading the fan translation of the novel ages ago.

scruloose is willing to at least give it a shot, so hopefully even if they don't wind up sticking with the show, I'll get some momentum on it.

The ocean's open hand.

(posted by

hannah on Apr. 18th, 2026 10:42 pm)

It's always a nice feeling to exclaim "What the -" when heading out somewhere. Today it happened just before I wandered into a five-block street fair. I had some DVDs to return to the library and decided to fold a visit to Sakura Park into the trip, and on the way there, a street fair blocked my way. I had to park the bike and go on foot, which I'm not complaining about. It gave me the chance to taste a couple small-batch distilleries' bourbons.

One vendor said he drank his stuff neat. I asked if there was any other way to drink it, and he liked that. He commented on very harsh commercial bourbons and I said they're good in marinades, they burn off, and he really liked that. It got me moving, and I worked my way through the crowds, glancing around and enjoying the bright colors and sounds before stepping out to the much quieter streets. No traffic, no noise. It made the park even more pleasant once I got there.

There's some lilacs blooming, and the cherry trees are in enough variety for staggered blooms. Some are in full leaf and a good number are in heavy bloom. The gazebo's got several sparrow nests in the eaves. Biking back, I took the route by Riverside Park, and the entirety of that cherry collection is still in hard color. No reports on sparrow nests in those trees, though those might be ones who take traffic light apartments.

A sour note came when I went somewhere to buy coffee, ordering a cold brew without ice, and when someone called out they had a medium iced coffee, I kept waiting. The person behind the bar asked if it was mine; I said it wasn't, and it turned out they'd made that one in error thinking it was what I'd ordered. I'm more than a little puzzled about that.

Six years on (CN: far-from-fresh pet loss)

(posted by

umadoshi on Apr. 18th, 2026 12:22 pm)

( years-ago pet loss; old grief and random thoughts )

Shades of the same.

(posted by

hannah on Apr. 16th, 2026 08:54 pm)

It got sticky enough today to warrant the tower fan for cooling purposes. It's not even May. The day wasn't helped by the very little sleep I got last night, so between the fallout nausea and the heat, very little got done.

But, on the plus side, the home transcription gig's been given the go-ahead to more or less be a temporary full-time job, so I may take that as the smallest possible win.

My first fanfiction in many, many fandoms + thoughts

(posted by

petra on Apr. 16th, 2026 06:45 pm)

teland tagged me in a Tumblr meme, which I completed here for legibility/copy-paste-ability.

Here are my present thoughts about the first story I wrote in each of 30 fandoms, selected because those are the ones in which I have written more than 3 works longer than a drabble, with the occasional guest star of "All right, I mostly wrote drabbles in this fandom, but I really want to list it."

If that sounds like a meme you want to do, consider yourself tagged! The original meme was just "First story you wrote in each fandom" but I'd be here for a month if I did all of them.

The list of fandoms where stories appear is: Ashes to Ashes, Aubrey-Maturin - O'Brian, Battlestar Galactica (2003), Dark is Rising - Cooper, DCU (Comics), DCU Animated - Timmverse, Discworld - Pratchett, Doctrine of Labyrinths, due South, Falsettos - Finn & Lapine, Generation Kill (TV), Good Omens - Gaiman & Pratchett, Jeeves & Wooster, Les Misérables - Hugo, Life on Mars (UK), The Magicians (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, then known as Avengers (2012), Men's Ice Hockey RPF, Promethean Age - Bear, Singin' in the Rain (1952), Slings & Arrows:, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars RPF, Supreme Power, Tales of the City - Maupin, Twitch City, Vorkosigan Saga - Bujold, and White Collar.

( I am not monofannish )

Fic I wrote for MCYT Battleship

(posted by

schneefink on Apr. 16th, 2026 11:19 pm)

I think the exam this morning went well, that is a big relief (though I won't find out for sure for six weeks or so.) Finally time to catch up on fandom things!

I participated in

mcytbattleship this year - the first one, technically, since last year was AUFest in battleship format - and I had a lot of fun. I was on team Tide and we won!! It was extremely close, too, team Bolt was missing one board tag at the last check.
I came into the event planning to write at least one fic, and I ended up writing six, which I'm very happy with, and two of those (the last two in this list) especially. All six stories were for Hermitcraft/Life series, and all featured ZombieCleo - yes I have a clear favorite. (I started fics without them too but those didn't come together.)

The Watcher at the End of His Games, Hermitcraft/Life series
1k, Cleo&Etho&Grian, Watcher!Grian
Summary: After the last game ended badly, Grian invites Cleo and Etho to one more world.
Notes: Roomies <3 This needed more editing to come together the way I wanted it too but not bad I think.

Waxen Care, Hermitcraft
0.7k, Cleo & Joe, came back wrong, platonic wax play
Summary: Cleo's body was changed, again. Joe helps.
Notes: I think several tags I was aiming for a very obvious, and I do like Joe taking care of Cleo.

Find the Missing, Life series
1.2k, Cleo/Etho, superhero AU
Summary: The downside of having a famous superhero ex is that you might get kidnapped to get to him. The upside is that he will come and rescue you, and you might even find out how much you still care about each other.
Notes: This is an urban fantasy AU so technically I could have tagged this Hermitcraft but idk Life Series seemed to fit this version of them better. Not written in second person btw, for some reason I put the summary like that.

Parsec High Club, Hermitcraft
0.6k, Cleo/Etho/OFC, brainship AU
Summary: Due to the limitations of being a spaceship, Cleo could sometimes use some assistance in properly taking care of their captain.
Notes: I just had to write something to hit "AU - Brainship" ^^ Sidenote, this one and the next had five tags from the rare tags list which gives me a golden ticket for next year, need to figure out what to use it for...

/keep @server hermit 2, Hermitcraft RPF
1.1k, Cleo & Grian, IRL Hermits on Hermitcraft isekai
Summary: Being on Hermitcraft is different when the Server doesn't let you leave.
Notes: My first actual MCYT RPf fic, and I have wanted to see more Hermits-on-Hermitcraft for a while. The recipient called it "kinda horrifying, actually. But also lovely." which is pretty much what I wanted :)
I really liked my idea to use a made-up gamerule for the title; I don't know anything about gamerules but I got some feedback that made me think it's maybe not immediately clear but makes sense in context.

The Swarming of Hermits, Hermitcraft
2.8k, Cleo/Everyone (Cleo/Grian, Cleo/Etho, Cleo/Cub), e-rated xeno harem with lots of breeding kink
Summary: The Time of Swarming has begun, and Hermits from all over the place have gathered together.
Cleo breeds her swarm.
Notes: This year there was a battleship tag "grasshopper-style gregarization," and I found a prompt for it that also included xeno, oviposition, and breeding kink, and somehow I came up with this. Definitely the kinkiest fic I have ever posted! Feels a bit awkward to reread but I'm also proud of it. And I have many thoughts about the worldbuilding that I will hopefully write down at one point.

US Politics: Biggest triumphal arch in world proposed commemorating MAGA

(posted by

petra on Apr. 16th, 2026 01:12 pm)

Feed the hungry? Heal the sick? Stop the war? Naaaaaah. Let's BUILD BIG ART.

Is it to celebrate Trump getting the FIFA Peace Prize? JD pwning the Pope?

Trump Admin triumphs: footage not found.

The mere concept of building a big monument to fuckall while we are actively ~~at war~~ illegally bombing another country without the consent of Congress, with no victory conditions and less motivation than the average divorce, offends me to the core. Triumphing over common sense is not a triumph.

Planter and seeds acquired!

(posted by

umadoshi on Apr. 16th, 2026 09:14 am)

Our planter is here! Getting it wasn't actually a saga, but it felt a bit like one. ( TL;DR: delivery service annoyance )

We also both took yesterday off (and I'm off the rest of the week, but got up at my usual workday time today in hopes of getting a fair amount of manga work done), and ventured out to buy veg seeds for the planter. (We also still need to get soil/fertilizer/etc., but want to read up on it more first. I think I might order a hard copy of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, which I got on sale in ebook recently and like so far.)

Yesterday's important lesson: when noting down which seed varieties we like the looks of, include the source, because our local store, at least, has separate displays for each originating company, and knowing that would make it much easier to check for the various varieties. Anyway, here's what we wound up with (descriptions are in my last post):

Basil: Devotion.

Cabbage: Early Golden Acre (green) and Serpentine F1 (savoy).

Spinach: Bloomsdale and Renegade.

Lettuce: Brighton (Butterhead), Black Seeded Simpson (green leaf), Red Salad Bowl (red leaf), Grand Rapids (green leaf), Freckles (romaine), and Drunken Woman.

Down the path.

(posted by

hannah on Apr. 15th, 2026 07:21 pm)

I got the date wrong on an appointment. I knew I had something on the 22nd, as well as the adjacent week, but I'd forgotten it was the week of the 29th, not today. I understand how I made that mistake and I'm not sure what to do to keep it from happening again, other than writing it down in a dedicated weekly planner instead of on a post-it note.

But, I ran a couple errands I'd wanted to get done. I found that swings got installed at Lincoln Center for the summer and rode one for a few minutes, and now I know they're around for another sunny day sometime soon. I was able to visit a grocery store near where my appointment would've been held and got a few things there on discount - a couple dollars less than the prices at my usual store, and while the leftover dollars went to fancy coconut water, it about balanced out. Walking downtown, someone I met at a party recognized me from the street and called out my name and we had a nice little chat. I took the time I would've spent at the appointment, went home, and got some good writing done ahead of going out tonight.

So all in all, I'm not upset about how things went today.

self-recommendations?

(posted by

gingicat on Apr. 15th, 2026 08:41 am)

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

Yuletide request #1 for 2026

My cup's already overfilled.

Vid Rec: Laugh Track

mostly about podfic

Fragaria vesca

Search maintenance

See if it changes the scene.

Ny | Rubynye | MinoanMiss | browngirl's cause of death - COVID-19

Passing it along.

Busy our hands.

Weekly proof of life: media intake

The ocean's open hand.

Six years on (CN: far-from-fresh pet loss)

Shades of the same.

My first fanfiction in many, many fandoms + thoughts

Fic I wrote for MCYT Battleship

US Politics: Biggest triumphal arch in world proposed commemorating MAGA

Planter and seeds acquired!

Down the path.

self-recommendations?

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