juliet | Network

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Periodically I pick a series on Netflix to...not exactly "binge" which implies large volumes in a short period, but to use as my default background while doing evening things. Murder mystery series tend to be my preference. (Other types of series I tend to play more attention to.)

So currently I'm watching The Closer, a police procedural centering around an eccentric deputy chief of a murder investigations unit, starring Kyra Sedgwick.

Now, to be sure, this show is copaganda because you're invited to see the cops as the heroes (by virtue of being the central characters). But it undermines the copaganda angle on a regular basis, by highlighting the unbelievable volume of lies and intimidation used by the police. (The central character is even overtly depicted as a compulsive liar who misdirects even her family and love interest in order to avoid confrontation and dodge responsibility.) But there are occasional episodes where the show solidly critiques when cops go "beyond the line," while still allowing their tactics to be effective.

Kyra Sedgwick's character is also clearly depicted as having ADHD, which interacts toxically with her workaholism. She's scattered, clumsy, and highly distractable. She also has severe problems with authority and regularly dismisses safety regulations, both in her own job and when interacting in other contexts. (The event that inspired me to finally post this review was when she was told not to use a cell phone in a hospital cardiac unit and she pooh-poohed the request as unimportant. And then there was the episode where she re-entered an apartment that had been evacuated due to a bomb threat to try to retrieve evidence in the face of direct orders to the contrary.)

So...I'm not sure whether she's supposed to be a sympathetic character or not. I'm just glad I don't work with her. And I'd hate to be involved in any incident, whether as victim or perpetrator, that she was investigating. But I keep watching with train-wreck fascination.

musesfool

MY SHOW! MY SHOW IS BACK!!! Ahem.

The Pitt: 7 am - 8 am
( spoilers, mostly just incoherent squeeing )

My show is back! I AM EXCITE!!!

*

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Heartbreak a Stranger - Bob Mould

pauamma posting in

efw

Demand that members flame each other abundantly for OP's entertainment or face unspecified dire fates. No apparent awareness of admin privilege or power imbalance.

mecurtin posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, January 8, to midnight on Friday, January 9 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34060 Daily check-in poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 9

How are you doing?

I am OK
6 (66.7%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
3 (33.3%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
5 (55.6%)

One other person
3 (33.3%)

More than one other person
1 (11.1%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

shadowkat

Taking a break from whining about my life - and posting a list of good news items (well depending on one's point of view, mileage, it varies).

Disclaimer: As in all things, good news is in the eye of the beholder. [I've not been posting a lot of them - because I can't just post a bunch of court cases any longer - I feel like I'm recapping an endless legal ping pong match. It makes me tired. The below, suffice it to say, is NOT a bunch of court cases. There might be a few in there - but not the endless line of legal ping pong, which is frankly depressing.]

I don't know about anyone else? But I could use a little good news?

( 42 good news or relatively good news items' )

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5740

thank you, past jeph, for setting up this callback

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5740

maevedarcy posting in

little_details

Hello, everyone!

So, I'm writing a fic where a plane disappears in the US. As in, it drops from all radars for a few minutes and it's presumed down for a few hours. I need to know any plausible flight routes within the US from Boston where this could happen. Any stretches of land where a pilot could make an emergency landing and the plane still be presumed down for like an hour or three is good for me.

kaffy_r

Stupidity and Mice

It's not the mice that are stupid. Well, they're not very bright, I know that, poor little buggers. I like them. I just don't like them in my home, something I posted about back before Christmas. Well, we had a new mouse adventure recently, one that ended with me wishing ill fortune to the complete fucking idiots who gut rehabbed our building back in 1999 or so, a few years before we bought our condo. Yep. They're the stupid ones, not mus musculus in general.

But let me not get ahead of myself. *clears throat*

One of the two mice we saw at the very beginning of the incursion escaped from Carter and ducked, we figured, into a small space between one side of our refrigerator and the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. We shone a flashlight in there, and saw what appeared to be the spot where he/she/they probably got into our place. So we figured we'd get the fridge out of the very small alcove it's been in for the past 22 or so years, then mouse-proof that area, either with steel wool or the fast-expanding, fast-hardening foam that works very well as a barricade against mice, possibly both. Not quite easy-peasy but fairly straightforward.

Ha. And I repeat, ha.

Tonight, Bob and I are recovering from hauling the fridge out of that alcove in order to do the proofing. We manhandled and half-inched the fridge out and viewed what no one has seen for decades. I knew it was going to be horrid back there, and it certainly was. But you know what made me want to hunt down the "rehabbers" (yes, they're snicker quotes, why do you ask?) and harm them?

The fact that they didn't think it was necessary to put baseboards behind the fridge.

There. were. no. baseboards.

What there were lots of were holes and cracks in the walls down near the floor (which was also exceedingly badly laid, we discovered, so there's that as well). I told BB we were lucky that we hadn't been snowed under by mice years ago. We put down the anti-mouse foam around where there should have been baseboards, and I did as much cleanup as I could stand while the foam hardened. I cleared out some gunk that might have been interfering with an air intake section of the fridge. Then I manhandled the fridge back into place and put the kitchen back to rights.

We've probably effectively mouse-proofed the kitchen (or at least I most devoutly hope so) and I suppose we can consider that a win.

But no baseboards. No. Fucking. Baseboards. Those guys deserve to be peed on by many, many, many mice. I certainly hope our mice can be aimed at them. Idiots.

Current Mood: angry
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Ateez "Treasure Ep. 2"

mific posting in

drawesome

Deep pink banner with clusters of red and pink hearts and challenge text.

 Challenge #75: Romance

 It's been a heady, romantic holiday season for some of us in fandom, so the first theme of 2026 is ROMANCE! You can draw characters from a romance, or put characters from any fandom, or no fandom, into a romantic situation. Or you can draw and paint anything connected with romance, whatever that means to you - like an anniversary, gifts, or a romantic memory. Make it as schmaltzy as you like, or as tragic and angsty, and don't forget "enemies to lovers", and other romance tropes! ❤️

The challenge will run through February as well, to cover Valentine's Day.

A round-up post for submissions to this challenge will be done at the end of February.

mific posting in

drawesome

December and 2025 are over, and we'd love to have you check in and chat with us. How have things been with you this past month? This past year?

Did you sign up for or take part in any fandom activities in December, or have you been working on any personal art projects? Are you currently trying to meet a deadline? Feel free to share upcoming art challenges that have got you excited, any frustrations you've been experiencing, possible goals for the next month, and so on.

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: curious

twistedchick

I haven't written much about myself here in a while... ( so pass on by if you aren't interested )

fandom_secrets_feed

Posted by Fandom!Secrets

https://fandomsecrets.livejournal.com/2334680.html

momijizukamori

A new year means time for one of my six posts a year here, lol. I'm most active on Bluesky at the moment but 90% of it is reposting TKRB fanart and replying to friends.

2025 was weird in that I kept being like 'wait how is it [date] already???' but also there is stuff where I'm like 'wait that was this year????'. Time, man. Anyway!

* Big thing this year - top surgery! Was early June, and everything went smoothly, so all the initial healing has been done for a few months and it's now the long tail of like, nerve regrowth and scar remodeling. I was also extremely lucky in that my health insurance covered basically all of it!
* Related to the above, I did my first truly shirtless cosplay at Dragon*Con, which was also my first time trying to do fake facial hair - Goro Majima from Yazuka for an 'oops all Majima group with friends'. We also got badge ribbons made to hand out for the first time.
* After years of refusing to care about 2.5D stuff, I made new sword friends at Katsucon who convinced me to give it a go and two months later I had watched basically all the Musical Touken Ranbu back catalogue and I now own more blu-rays that I'm sure I want to admit. Half the songs are like 'these lyrics are so dumb but this melody line slaps so hard'
* I bought a kit to copperplate 3d prints - I've only done a few small things so far, so my technique still needs a lot of refinement, but it's very neat to be able to basically turn things into actual metal.
* I took an intro blacksmithing class! It was offered through the community education program at a localish vocational high school and was very resonably priced. It was really need and got me interested in learning more, even if most of my creations from the class are extremely janky-looking (no, we didn't get to make knives, being at a school meant no weapons)
* Went outside the US for the first time in... probably close to a decade? Only as far as Montreal to visit family for Christmas, but look, the world's been weird. Managed to forget cellphone roaming was a thing, but we spent most of the time inside watching movies and playing with cats anyway.
* Got around to setting up my lathe, and turned one extremely messy test piece out of some scrap pine I had, then realized I needed better safety gear before getting more into it. So more to come on that this year hopefully.
* Signed up for an e-learning course on sewing machine servicing and maintenence, in part because the place I used to take my machines to closed and in part because I want to Learn All The Things.
* I finally saw Labyrinth. Yes, the 1986 Jim Henson film. Yes, I somehow managed to have not seen it before. It was delightful, I want most of Jareth's clothes, and afterwards we watched the making-of featurette filmed at the same time as the movie and it was super-cool to see all the stuff that went into the puppets and effects.
* Bought a smart ring in September, which feels hopelessly tech-bougie of me, but I wanted some fitness/heartrate tracking and the one I have (Oura) is particularly good at tracking sleep as well as having good privacy policies. We'll see how useful it ends up being.

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6943 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 10 secrets from Secret Submission Post #991.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

mcsweeneys_feed

Posted by Gail Mackenzie-Smith

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/what-youre-watching-isnt-what-youre-really-watching

“Federal and local officials dispute the circumstances that led an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer to fatally shoot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday” — NPR

You think you’re watching a woman being shot in the face by an ICE agent, but what you’re really watching is a woman trying to run an ICE agent over and the agent firing at her in self-defense.

You think you’re watching an ICE agent walk up to a woman’s car asking her to leave, which she does, but what you’re really watching is a woman turn her car around and try to run the agent over.

You think you’re watching a woman drive away with an ICE agent following, then shooting her four times in the face, but what you’re really watching is an ICE agent in fear of his life and acting in self-defense.

You think you’re watching a video shot by a bystander who screams at the ICE agent, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh fuck, oh fuck, what did you do?!” But you’re really watching the bystander scream at the woman for trying to run over the ICE agent.

You think you’re watching a woman drive away when asked, but what you’re really watching is the woman attempting to run over all the ICE agents while they try to free their vehicles stuck in the snow.

You think you’re watching an ICE agent murder an innocent woman, but what you’re really watching is a federal agent being the victim of a domestic terrorist.

You think you’re watching a woman who’s been shot four times in the face lying dead on the front seat of her car, but what you’re really watching is the ICE agent alive and well after the “disorderly” woman hit him with her vehicle.

You think you’re watching an innocent woman being shot and killed by an ICE agent, but what you’re really watching is the radical left threatening, assaulting, and targeting law enforcement officers and ICE agents daily, who are just trying to do the job of making America safe.

You think you’re watching an innocent woman being shot and killed in cold blood by the federal government, but what you’re really watching is the death of the United States of America.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/what-youre-watching-isnt-what-youre-really-watching

rachelmanija

A new comic from Ignite Press by Stephanie Williams, Letizia Cadonici (main artist) and Juliet Nneka (alternate covers.) At the turn of the century, Etta, a young Black woman, studies both science and a book of old remedies she inherited from her mother, along with some dire warnings she doesn't heed.

This is a really interesting historical fantasy with elements of cosmic horror and dark academia. Each issue has alternate covers in very different styles. I like both of them.

I'll be following this one.

Content notes: So far racism is part of the world and why the characters make some choices, rather than violent or constantly present on-page. The rabbits are used in experiments that are not cruel - Etta tests a healing ointment on one that has an injury - but they seem likely to eventually turn into zombies or get possessed by cosmic horrors or merge with eldritch plants.

$radiantfracture: a white rabbit swims underwater (water rabbit)$

radiantfracture

Where is there to sit exactly
If everything is shining on me

Friend, you have buttsense
you have stone buns, as your grandma says
Here in the driftwood feeling sundrunk, sunbent
Sensate among the ebb tones of the sea

I thought you said stun bone
You draw with a stick among the ebb stones
The tide wriggles up the sand grooves
Your breathing makes the subtones shimmer

You draw the water up to bait our shoes
Just for the craft of it, just because you can do it
Like a gull riding on the sky tide
Laughing at our temporary ruin

* * * * * *

Every morning very nearly without fail I solve the Merriam-Webster Blossom puzzle, and then I re-solve it to see if I can get a higher score, and if I'm not careful this becomes a kind of intellectual busywork I can use to distract myself from actual writing.

So a thing I'm trying to do (among all the other things) is to use the puzzle as a prompt. Inevitably each group of letters generates a semantic zone. Real and nonce words produce themselves. The letterset today was BENOSTU.

Here's a less complete poem from Sunday (letterset EINRTVW):

The riverine interview of winter,
that inept vintner: cool distillate
interrogates the view, shreds and repurposes it,
turns window to vitrine
where the morning light, when it comes,
cold citrine, tobacco stain,
will ennerve us, animate the inert twin

...Not sure what I planned to do with that twin, but I will let you know.

§rf§