Sometimes there are influential old people in your life, or even just old people who were around as a passing fixture of your life because they were fellow members of your community. A good several of mine were teachers - the old Chinese man who taught me violin since 5th grade and hosted student recitals in his backyard, the Russian woman who taught me piano and did her damndest to teach expressive body language when I didn't understand why it mattered or how to feel it in my performance, the other old Chinese man who ran an art class at my local Chinese school and gave me unexpected gender and life goals. They're important parts of your life but only for as long as you're doing the thing that keeps you in contact. And then you quit, or get a different teacher, or graduate and move away, and you leave each other's orbits. You look at the calendar year and remember how long ago it was when you knew them, and you don't know exactly how old they were when you were last together but you can sure do the math on the odds of life expectancy.
I have no way of knowing if these people are still alive, or how their lives are going. For some of them, I'm not sure I deserve that information, in the sense that we were only tangentially connected and a next door neighbor who you never really talked to Isn't the kind of relationship you get intimate life details for. But the fondness is still there, the well wishes are still there. Even if I don't know that anyone is there to receive them anymore.
United Healthcare getting suedby its investors, because it didn’t warn them that the CEO getting murdered (by the tendrils of their unmitigated greed) was going to lead to them approving more claims (for covered services that they had no right to deny) is a cartoonish example of exactly why their CEO got murdered.
Their argument is essentially “You promised us a specific profit margin that is not possible to achieve under this increased public scrutiny of your unethical practices. We only agreed to invest because of those unethical practices. So we demand compensation because you didn’t warn us that you’d be behaving more ethically”
And idk. Satire isn’t just dead. We’ve pissed on its corpse and now it’s dissolving in lye.
this is one of those little details that jumped out and stuck with me since hearing about this.
crazy to take a business to court because they need to take “aggressive, anti-consumer” tactics. like right, making life increasingly harder and worse for everyone in the pursuit of short term profits is very intentional, and sometimes someone will just come right out and say it.
Can we also talk about how batshit fucked up it is to refer to patients as health care “consumers”? Like we have a choice in needing care?
Truly optional shit already isn’t covered.
THEY feed on US.
[Image description: a screenshot of an excerpt from the article: “The group, which seeks unspecified damages, argues that the public backlash prevented the company from pursuing ‘the aggressive, anti-consumer tactics that it would need to achieve’ its earnings goals.” Description ends]
Hey, remember when Republicans said that the Affordable Healthcare Act would lead to Death Panels? Turns out, we’ve had death panels all along.
oh and especially happy disability pride month to black disabled people diagnosed or not we’re a whole different level of neglected and its fuckin hard out here man
We were expecting it to be crowded today because of the holiday weekend but it was actually one of the least crowded days we've ever experienced at the parks.
Challenge #1: Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.
My primary goal for July is to finish the first draft of my Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang fic. I would like to but do not expect to finish it before the Mereth Aderthad.
*
Challenge #2: Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping. Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like.
Right now, the summer-related thing I want to do the most is to sit on the lakeshore at the cabin and read a book for hours on end. I was able to do that last summer and I really miss not being able to do so this summer. Right on the shore, the lake breezes kept the mosquitos and flies away; even ten feet inland this didn't happen. The lapping of the waves, the sky, the ever-changing clouds (when there are clouds), the birdsong and insects buzzing in the forest: I need this.
And now for the poem:
Natural fireworks: lightning storms, lightning bugs. Fireflies are preferable-- they're less dangerous. But I love both.
Fireflies I can hold in my hand: light on, light off -- and then they're off back into the wider world.
Tunnel of Love Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.
Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like
I'm going to be a bit wayward over the Journalling part of this challenge, but I think a bit of romantic fiction does squeeze into the category, so here goes.
Beast and I have lately started watching Bridgerton. I don't think it was the reason we decided to spend a little while chez Netflix, but it was one of the first things that sprang to my mind, at least. ( Not spoilers, probably, since this is old news, but anyway.... )
Sometime in the last couple of months, someone posted a link to a site that had interesting looking shirts made of linen, for lower prices than most places charge. I forgot to bookmark it. Can anyone point me to it? or to something else that fits that description, even if you didn't see it here?
Edited to add: A the shirts were less expensive than I expected, which is a large part of why I'm interested. Those may have been sale prices, I don't remember.
Also, the were made of either linen or a linen blend, not "line".
Chapter 17: Guo Changcheng can't get ahold of the rest of the team, and drives alone to the nearest town. An angry crowd is begging the police to find their loved ones who went missing at Spring Harbor Resort. Guo Changcheng manages the crowd and promises them that the SID is already on the case. Zhao Yunlan's sacrifices some of the true Soul-Guarding Order to save Shen Wei. Shen Wei defeats the Chaos shadow that chased them, but Ghost Face stabs him in the heart with an icicle and takes him away, demanding that Zhao Yunlan brings him the Soul-Guarding Lamp in exchange.
Chapter 18: Zhao Yunlan asks the Magistrate to take him to the Reincarnation Cycle in order to awaken Kunlun's spirit. Lin Jing regains the use of his senses and finds himself imprisoned at the Seal, surrounded by youchu. Ghost Face brings Shen Wei there too, and shackles him to the Merit Tree. Shen Wei is in pain, but he mocks Ghost Face and reveals that he's always had the power over the Mountain-River Awl, and that he has tracked Ghost Face and manipulated his actions. Ghost Face attacks him with the icicle again and Shen Wei passes out.
The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC/the fan translation are 98-99.
Are you as surprised by Xiao Guo's bravery and competence as he is? What do you think about Zhao Yunlan's decision to sacrifice the Soul-Guarding Order? What's your favorite comic relief moment? Favorite angsty moment? Any thoughts about the many parallels between these chapters and their drama adaptation?
You can answer as many or as few questions as you like, or just comment without answering any of them at all! And if you see this post and you're not actually reading the novel, I would love to know what you think about any of this with limited context. :D
And here is the schedule, where you can sign up to host a post!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dismallyoriented![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fic_rush_48![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
capricorn_0mnicorn_feed
Jul. 5th, 2025 08:55 pm
