Saturday 7 March 1662/63
Mar. 7th, 2026 11:00 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
pepysdiary_feedUp betimes, and to the office, where some of us sat all the morning. At noon Sir W. Pen began to talk with me like a counterfeit rogue very kindly about his house and getting bills signed for all our works, but he is a cheating fellow, and so I let him talk and answered nothing. So we parted.
I to dinner, and there met The. Turner, who is come on foot in a frolique to beg me to get a place at sea for John, their man, which is a rogue; but, however, it may be, the sea may do him good in reclaiming him, and therefore I will see what I can do. She dined with me; and after dinner I took coach, and carried her home; in our way, in Cheapside, lighting and giving her a dozen pair of white gloves as my Valentine. Thence to my Lord Sandwich, who is gone to Sir W. Wheeler’s for his more quiet being, where he slept well last night, and I took him very merry, playing at cards, and much company with him. So I left him, and Creed and I to Westminster Hall, and there walked a good while. He told me how for some words of my Lady Gerard’s1 against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queen, the King did the other day affront her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queen by the King; which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite.
Thence by water home and to my office, wrote by the post and so home to bed.
Footnotes
I beat Dark Souls, AMA
Mar. 7th, 2026 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rydra_wong
[ID: shot of my character from the back as she looks into the blasted ruins of the Kiln of the First Flame. She is wearing mismatched red and yellow clothes and a silver helmet, and holding a halberd.]
And it only took 8 months, and a number of hours I will not disclose. Though, to be fair, since I unexpectedly got into the multi-player, a lot of the total hours actually represent me reading a book while waiting to be summoned.
Dark Souls is slow, janky, eccentric, flawed, wilfully obscure about some of its mechanics, and one of the best games I've ever played. I am in love. Ask me anything.
07/03/2026
Mar. 7th, 2026 12:45 pmlhune posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
3_good_things_a_day1) Enjoyed a long lie in this morning ^_^
2) Soup for lunch in the veiled sunshine
3) Clean bedlinen for tonight
2) Soup for lunch in the veiled sunshine
3) Clean bedlinen for tonight
Just One Thing (07 March 2026)
Mar. 7th, 2026 09:39 amnanila posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Week 3: Dante and the Companioned Journey
Mar. 7th, 2026 09:22 ammalcolm_guite_feed
As usual, on each Sunday in Lent I am posting a week’s worth of recordings from from my book The Word in the Wilderness, for those who are following that this Lent.I am providing the texts of the poems and you can find my commentaries on those poems in the book itself. I am also taking the opportunity to correct one or two errors which crept into the printed book, in transcribing passages from Robin Kirkpatrick’s beautiful translation of Dante, which is used here with permission. The wonderful pilgrim image above is once again kindly provided by Lancia Smith and was taken by her on a recent visit to share in the life the church in South Africa.
As always you can hear me read the poems by clicking on the title or on the ‘play’ button
SUNDAY
Late Ripeness Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004)
Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year
I felt a door opening in me and I entered
the clarity of early morning.
One after another my former lives were departing,
like ships, together with their sorrow.
And the countries, cities, gardens, the bays of seas
assigned to my brush came closer,
ready now to be described better than they were before.
I was not separated from people, grief and pity joined us.
We forget ‒ I kept saying ‒ that we are children of the King.
From where we come there is no division
into Yes and No, into is, was and will be.
Moments from yesterday and from centuries ago ‒
a sword blow, the painting of eyelashes before a mirror
of polished metal, a lethal musket shot, a caravel
staving its hull against a reef ‒ they dwell in us,
waiting for a fulfilment.
I knew, always, that I would be a worker in the vineyard,
as are all men and women living at the same time,
whether they are aware of it or not.
MONDAY
‘There is another road’ Dante
As I went, ruined, rushing to that low,
there had, before my eyes, been offered one
who seemed -long silent- to be faint and dry.
Seeing him near in that great wilderness,
to him I screamed my ‘miserere’: ‘Save me,
whatever – shadow or truly man – you be.’
His answer came to me: ‘No man; a man
I was in times long gone. Of Lombard stock,
my parents both by patria and Mantuan.
And I was born, though late, sub Iulio.
I lived at Rome in good Augustus’ day,
in times when all the gods were lying cheats.
I was a poet then. I sang in praise
of all the virtues of Anchises’ son. From Troy
he came ‒ proud Ilion razed in flame.
But you turn back. Why seek such grief and harm?
Why climb no higher up at lovely hill?
The cause and origin of joy shines there.’
‘So, could it be’, I answered him, (my brow,
in shy respect bent low), ‘you are that Virgil,
whose words flow wide, a river running full?
You are the light and glory of all poets.
May this serve me: my ceaseless care, the love
so great, that made me search your writings through!
You are my teacher. You, my lord and law.
From you alone I took the fine-tuned style
that has, already, brought me so much honour.
See there? That beast! I turned because of that.
Help me ‒ your wisdom’s known ‒ escape from her.
To every pulsing vein, she brings the tremor.
Seeing my tears, he answered me: ‘There is
another road. And that, if you intend
to quit this wilderness, you’re bound to take.’
(The Divine Comedy, I Inferno, lines 61−93)
TUESDAY
Through the Gate Malcolm Guite
Begin the song exactly where you are,
For where you are contains where you have been
And holds the vision of your final sphere.
And do not fear the memory of sin;
There is a light that heals, and, where it falls,
Transfigures and redeems the darkest stain
Into translucent colour. Loose the veils
And draw the curtains back, unbar the doors,
Of that dread threshold where your spirit fails,
The hopeless gate that holds in all the fears
That haunt your shadowed city, fling it wide
And open to the light that finds, and fares
Through the dark pathways where you run and hide,
Through all the alleys of your riddled heart,
As pierced and open as his wounded side.
Open the map to Him and make a start,
And down the dizzy spirals, through the dark,
His light will go before you. Let him chart
And name and heal. Expose the hidden ache
To him, the stinging fires and smoke that blind
Your judgement, carry you away, the mirk
And muted gloom in which you cannot find
The love that you once thought worth dying for.
Call him to all you cannot call to mind.
He comes to harrow Hell and now to your
Well-guarded fortress let his love descend.
The icy ego at your frozen core
Can hear his call at last. Will you respond?
WEDNESDAY
Dante and Virgil emerge from hell and begin the ascent of mount purgatory
So now we entered on that hidden Path,
my Lord and I, to move once more towards
a shining world. We did not care to rest.
We climbed, he going first and I behind,
until through some small aperture I saw
the lovely things the skies above us bear.
Now we came out, and once more saw the stars.
…
To race now over better waves, my ship
of mind -alive again- hoists sail, and leaves
behind its little keel the gulf that proved so cruel.
And I’ll sing, now, about the second realm
where human spirits purge themselves from stain,
becoming worthy to ascend to Heaven.
Here, too, dead poetry will rise again.
for now, you secret Muses, I am yours…
…
Dawn was defeating now the last hours sung
by night, which fled before it. And far away
I recognised the tremblings of the sea.
Alone, we walked along the open plain,
as though, returning to a path we’d lost,
our steps, until we came to that, were vain.
Then, at a place in shadow where the dew
still fought against the sun and, cooled by breeze,
had scarcely yet been sent out into vapour,
my master placed the palms of both his hands,
spread wide, lighty and gently on the tender grass.
And I, aware of what his purpose was,
offered my tear-stained cheeks to meet his touch.
At which, he made once more entirely clean
the colour that the dark of Hell had hidden.
(The Divine Comedy, I Inferno,canto34 lines 133−end, and II Purgatorio,Canto 1 lines 1−8 and 115−29)
THURSDAY
I thank my God I have emerged at last,
Blinking from Hell, to see these quiet stars,
Bewildered by the shadows that I cast.
You set me on this stair, in those rich hours
Pacing your study, chanting poetry.
The Word in you revealed his quickening powers,
Removed the daily veil, and let me see,
As sunlight played along your book-lined walls,
That words are windows onto mystery.
From Eden, whence the living fountain falls
In music, from the tower of ivory,
And from the hidden heart, he calls
In the language of Adam, creating memory
Of unfallen speech. He sets creation
Free from the carapace of history.
His image in us is imagination,
His Spirit is a sacrifice of breath
Upon the letters of his revelation.
In mid-most of the word-wood is a path
That leads back to the springs of truth in speech.
You showed it to me, kneeling on your hearth,
You showed me how my halting words might reach
To the mind’s maker, to the source of Love,
And so you taught me what it means to teach.
Teaching, I have my ardours now to prove,
Climbing with joy the steps of Purgatory.
Teacher and pupil, both are on the move,
As fellow pilgrims on a needful journey
FRIDAY
Over my suppliant hands entwined, I leaned
just staring at the fire, imagining
bodies of human beings I’d seen burn.
And both my trusted guides now turned to me.
And Virgil spoke, to say: ‘My dearest son,
here may be agony but never death.
Remember this! Remember! And if I
led you to safety on Geryon’s back,
what will I do when now so close to God?
Believe this. And be sure. Were you to stay
a thousand years or more wombed in this fire,
you’d not been made the balder by one hair.
And if, perhaps, you think I’m tricking you,
approach the fire and reassure yourself,
trying with your own hands your garments hem.
Have done, I say, have done with fearfulness.
Turn this way. Come and enter safely in!’
But I, against all conscience, stood stock still.
And when he saw me stiff and obstinate,
he said, a little troubled: ‘Look my son,
between Beatrice and you there ‘s just this wall….’
Ahead of me, he went to meet the fire,
and begged that Statius, who had walked the road
so long between us, now take up the rear.
And, once within, I could have flung myself ‒
The heat that fire produced was measureless ‒
For coolness, in a vat of boiling glass.
To strengthen me, my sweetest father spoke,
as on he went, of Beatrice always,
saying, it seems I see her eyes already.’
and, guiding us, a voice sang from beyond.
So we, attending only to that voice,
came out and saw where now we could ascend.
‘Venite, benedicti Patris mei!’
sounded within what little light there was.
This overcame me and I could not look.
(The Divine Comedy, II Purgatorio, Canto 27 lines 16−32 and 46−60)
SATURDAY
Dancing Through the Fire Malcolm Guite
Then stir my love in idleness to flame
To find at last the free refining fire
That guards the hidden garden whence I came.
O do not kill, but quicken my desire,
Better to spur me on than leave me cold.
Not maimed I come to you, I come entire,
Lit by the loves that warm, the lusts that scald,
That you may prove the one, reprove the other,
Though both have been the strength by which I scaled
The steps so far to come where poets gather
And sing such songs as love gives them to sing.
I thank God for the ones who brought me hither
And taught me by example how to bring
The slow growth of a poem to fruition
And let it be itself, a living thing,
Taught me to trust the gifts of intuition
And still to try the tautness of each line,
Taught me to taste the grace of transformation
And trace in dust the face of the divine,
Taught me the truth, as poet and as Christian,
That drawing water turns it into wine.
Now I am drawn through their imagination
To dare to dance with them into the fire,
Harder than any grand renunciation,
To bring to Christ the heart of my desire
Just as it is in every imperfection,
Surrendered to his bright refiner’s fire
That love might have its death and resurrection.
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Friday 6 March 1662/63
Mar. 6th, 2026 11:00 pmpepysdiary_feedUp betimes, and about eight o’clock by coach with four horses, with Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten, to Woolwich, a pleasant day. There at the yard we consulted and ordered several matters, and thence to the rope yard and did the like, and so into Mr. Falconer’s, where we had some fish, which we brought with us, dressed; and there dined with us his new wife, which had been his mayde, but seems to be a genteel woman, well enough bred and discreet.
Thence after dinner back to Deptford, where we did as before, and so home, good discourse in our way, Sir J. Minnes being good company, though a simple man enough as to the business of his office, but we did discourse at large again about Sir W. Pen’s patent to be his assistant, and I perceive he is resolved never to let it pass.
To my office, and thence to Sir W. Batten’s, where Major Holmes was lately come from the Streights, but do tell me strange stories of the faults of Cooper his master, put in by me, which I do not believe, but am sorry to hear and must take some course to have him removed, though I believe that the Captain is proud, and the fellow is not supple enough to him. So to my office again to set down my Journall, and so home and to bed. This evening my boy Waynman’s brother was with me, and I did tell him again that I must part with the boy, for I will not keep him. He desires my keeping him a little longer till he can provide for him, which I am willing for a while to do.
This day it seems the House of Commons have been very high against the Papists, being incensed by the stir which they make for their having an Indulgence; which, without doubt, is a great folly in them to be so hot upon at this time, when they see how averse already the House have showed themselves from it.
This evening Mr. Povy was with me at my office, and tells me that my Lord Sandwich is this day so ill that he is much afeard of him, which puts me to great pain, not more for my own sake than for his poor family’s.
Friday 06/03/2026
Mar. 6th, 2026 03:50 pmlhune posting in 3_good_things_a_day1) Delicious lunch with Kana
2) Chance encounter with my mum afterwards and I stayed for a drink
3) Yummy strawberries
2) Chance encounter with my mum afterwards and I stayed for a drink
3) Yummy strawberries
To María - Pastora Alomía de Guerrero
Mar. 6th, 2026 11:36 ambruces_poems_feedAre you leaving for the countryside, my dear friend!
What gift can I offer you upon your departure…?
Only a sad and tender farewell
Is all my love can give you, sweet María!
Read more »What gift can I offer you upon your departure…?
Only a sad and tender farewell
Is all my love can give you, sweet María!
Oh Oh Oh, Opal!
Mar. 6th, 2026 11:00 amdaily_otter_feedVia Monterey Bay Aquarium, which writes:
✨Opal is ready for her close-up!
This confident and curious otter explores the world with her teeth. Behind Opal’s fluffy whiskered face is a powerful bite rivaling the king of the jungle! 🦁
Orphaned Opal was rescued and raised behind the scenes as part of our sea otter surrogacy program. Now this sparkly otter’s making a splash by inspiring conservation and awareness for her threatened species.
We’re working with Opal in hopes she’ll become a surrogate herself one day, giving orphaned pups a second chance at survival by teaching them the skills they need for re-release into the wild. 💙
Just One Thing (06 March 2026)
Mar. 6th, 2026 08:34 amnanila posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
sequenza21_feed
In this album, which gathers art songs by Pablo Ortiz (b. 1956), one encounters a coastline of sounds where fragments arrive through tides of memory: a piece of driftwood, a coil of rope, a shell whose interior still whispers of the sea that shaped it. Melody, rhythm, and dynamic inflection refract through the texture of the music, producing a spectrum that unfolds across the horizon, colors emerging through proximity. In Ortiz’s hands, words are not pressed into musical molds; the music grows from them. The poems breathe because the composer allows them space. In soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, he finds interpreters who understand that love—hovering over much of this repertoire—refuses a single definition. It is tidal, advancing and receding, leaving small relics that reveal its scale.
The program opens with three poems by Katie Peterson (b. 1974), whose attention to detail carries the precision of a camera shutter freezing the instant before motion dissolves. “Earth” opens girlhood through the discovery of a dusty box in an abandoned house facing the sea. Recollection appears in the manner of glass discovered along a shoreline, polished by time yet still capable of cutting. Near the close, a gentle pulse begins to knock at the threshold of consciousness, asking whether the dream of becoming what others expect can survive the erosion of self-perception. “From This House That House” introduces a bright undertow with a brackish bent. The song charts distance, relocation, and the geography of identity; one leaves a house only to find oneself in another. The piano moves with restless motion while Fitz Gibbon’s line rises and falls, life stretching and slackening in alternating breaths as entropy continues its patient mission. A tense piano introduction opens “Speech on a Summer Night,” creating an atmosphere charged with nervous droplets and hesitations. The voice then enters with stark clarity, cutting into memoir. The gesture wounds the past yet leaves it living. Confession operates through such injuries.
Two poems by Rosario Castellanos (1925–1974) follow. In “Elegía,” the body and its signs scatter outward through invisible currents. Resignation appears alongside tenderness toward dispersal. Identity travels across time and geography until its fragments recognize one another again. Eternity emerges not through revelation but through the gradual convergence of distant echoes. Its companion, “Nocturno,” unfolds with extraordinary patience. Absence becomes a second language.
Sidney Hall Jr.’s “McClure’s Beach” (b. 1951) presents the world eroding. The theme slowly releases its energy, the textures thinning without dramatization. Clarity arrives in subdued shades. McCullough shapes these textures with care, tracing each contour with close attention. Thomas Hardy’s “Neutral Tones” (1840–1928) continues this meditation on fragile states of being, its rhyme scheme dissolving into ambiguity, allowing the imagery to move with unsettling grace. Hardy’s landscape is drained of warmth, yet fascination percolates through its pallor. There is beauty in this indifference.
Two poems by María Negroni (b. 1951) follow. “chorus musicus” provides the album’s most chromatic moment, both linguistically and musically. Verses flash with unusual brilliance. The recurring image of a ship returns, though this vessel hesitates at the threshold of departure. It drifts near fire, suspended between ruin and buoyancy, water restraining the threat of combustion. “los cementerios de Paris” turns inward and unfolds with solemn foresight, opening a view onto the difficult terrain of the human heart, across which Fitz Gibbon sustains ethereal continuity. A reprise of “From This House That House” restores earlier ground, reinforcing the cycle of departure and return while revealing a changed shoreline. The album then closes with a setting of Yehuda Halevi (1075–1141), “When a long silver hair,” performed by Fitz Gibbon alone. Couched in intimate humor, it dots the “i” of aging with a flourish.
Remarkable about this collection is its sense of discovery. Each song preserves evidence of passage without insisting on final interpretation. The listener becomes a wanderer gathering impressions whose meanings lie open. Perhaps this uncertainty forms Ortiz’s deeper question. Human life unfolds through fragments whose origins are partly hidden. We inherit gestures, languages, memories, and desires without knowing the flows that carried them to us. Yet dignity emerges from that uncertainty. Recognition of the fragment acknowledges that meaning rarely appears in finished forms. Truth persists even in partial remains, luminous despite the missing edge.
here at the end of the world is available from False Azure Records.
The post Lucy Fitz Gibbon/Ryan MacEvoy McCullough: here at the end of the world – art song of Pablo Ortiz appeared first on Sequenza21.
Thursday 5 March 1662/63
Mar. 5th, 2026 11:00 pmpepysdiary_feedRose this morning early, only to try with intention to begin my last summer’s course in rising betimes. So to my office a little, and then to Westminster by coach with Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten, in our way talking of Sir W. Pen’s business of his patent, which I think I have put a stop to wholly, for Sir J. Minnes swears he will never consent to it.
Here to the Lobby, and spoke with my cozen Roger, who is going to Cambridge to-morrow. In the Hall I do hear that the Catholiques are in great hopes for all this, and do set hard upon the King to get Indulgence. Matters, I hear, are all naught in Ireland, and that the Parliament has voted, and the people, that is, the Papists, do cry out against the Commissioners sent by the King; so that they say the English interest will be lost there. Thence I went to see my Lord Sandwich, who I found very ill, and by his cold being several nights hindered from sleep, he is hardly able to open his eyes, and is very weak and sad upon it, which troubled me much. So after talking with Mr. Cooke, whom I found there, about his folly for looking and troubling me and other friends in getting him a place (that is, storekeeper of the Navy at Tangier) before there is any such thing, I returned to the Hall, and thence back with the two knights home again by coach, where I found Mr. Moore got abroad, and dined with me, which I was glad to see, he having not been able to go abroad a great while. Then came in Mr. Hawley and dined with us, and after dinner I left them, and to the office, where we sat late, and I do find that I shall meet with nothing to oppose my growing great in the office but Sir W. Pen, who is now well again, and comes into the office very brisk, and, I think, to get up his time that he has been out of the way by being mighty diligent at the office, which, I pray God, he may be, but I hope by mine to weary him out, for I am resolved to fall to business as hard as I can drive, God giving me health.
At my office late, and so home to supper and to bed.
Use Lion With Egg
Mar. 5th, 2026 11:58 pmailbhehttps://xiphias.dreamwidth.org/2008/08/09/
This has been in my thoughts for a long time, I realise. It crops up quite a lot.
This has been in my thoughts for a long time, I realise. It crops up quite a lot.
have a daffodil(s)
Mar. 5th, 2026 11:23 pmkaberett
About twenty metres up the road is a front garden that is, at this time of year, full of ridiculous daffodils. It is an Annual Delight. I took this photo yesterday, and then I dragged A out to visit it at lunchtime today, in glorious weather. It has been a good day.
dahlia day!
Mar. 5th, 2026 06:14 pmstarandreaI removed the dahlia tubers from their cool spot by the back door over the weekend, but didn't get to putting them in dirt until today.
Last year I put them straight into large containers that they lived in all summer. They grew taller than me and had to have supports constructed around them so they wouldn't fall over. I put a freeze cloth over them to keep them blooming late into the fall, and between them and a few pots of cannas they transformed our back deck into an amazing jungle.
This year I have too many overwintering plants already, plus more dahila tubers than last year, and I do not have space for giant containers indoors, let alone indoors under high-powered grow lights. So the dahlias went into little containers from which they will be transplanted to a garden in... two months. Which surely will not be enough time for them to turn into beanstalks that I regret starting early!
( pictures )
Last year I put them straight into large containers that they lived in all summer. They grew taller than me and had to have supports constructed around them so they wouldn't fall over. I put a freeze cloth over them to keep them blooming late into the fall, and between them and a few pots of cannas they transformed our back deck into an amazing jungle.
This year I have too many overwintering plants already, plus more dahila tubers than last year, and I do not have space for giant containers indoors, let alone indoors under high-powered grow lights. So the dahlias went into little containers from which they will be transplanted to a garden in... two months. Which surely will not be enough time for them to turn into beanstalks that I regret starting early!
( pictures )
The Friday Five for 6 March 2026
Mar. 5th, 2026 03:09 pmanais_pf posting in thefridayfiveThese questions were suggested by dray.
1. Do you know of any other words for snow? What's your favourite and why?
2. What's your ideal temperature range for winter?
3. Favourite winter activity? What about it makes it your favourite?
4. What are three things you can't do without when winter arrives?
5. Do you have favourite winter holiday activities?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**
dray.1. Do you know of any other words for snow? What's your favourite and why?
2. What's your ideal temperature range for winter?
3. Favourite winter activity? What about it makes it your favourite?
4. What are three things you can't do without when winter arrives?
5. Do you have favourite winter holiday activities?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**
(no subject)
Mar. 5th, 2026 02:14 pmkayreI'm trying to improve my YouTube channel to the point that anyone searching the web for Thomas Commuck will find me. Today I re-recorded my little setting of UNCAS and improved the listing. It's a very sparse, exposed arrangement, so while it's not a perfect recording, I'm satisfied!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l33a_tJQ604
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l33a_tJQ604
David Lang, note to a friend (Theo Bleckmann & Attacca Quartet) (Cantaloupe, CA21216)
Mar. 5th, 2026 01:57 pmsequenza21_feed
(photo credit: Peter Serling)
TRIGGER WARNING: This review contains references to suicide and depression, which some readers may find distressing. Advice on suicide and mental health-related support can be found on the following websites: International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP), World Health Organization (WHO), and Find a Helpline. Alternatively, text 988 or visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s chat to connect with a trained crisis counsellor.
There’s a photograph of composer David Lang that in certain ways encapsulates his music. Occasionally popping up as a profile picture on various websites and streaming services, Lang is shown close-up, freeze-framed by a silent scream. Like the famous Edvard Munch painting that the photo appears to reference, Lang’s static scream is heightened and magnified, yet at the same time silenced by the visual medium in which it’s represented. We bear witness not so much to a suppressed cry as to one that’s erased and eradicated, its sonic source obliterated.
The Munch and Lang images differ in fundamental ways, however, which in turn offer further clues to the American composer’s creative approach. Whereas Munch’s cacophonous shriek is externalised—an expression projected outwards—Lang’s mute cry is internalised. One can really hear him not screaming.
His music exists in a similar state. We get journeys that travel across barren emotional landscapes and inhabit bleak terrains. Thoughts are endlessly worked over and obsessively analysed. Such themes lie under the surface of earlier Lang works, for example sweet air (1999), where a physical experience (an injection to numb the pain at a dental clinic) takes on cerebral form. However, in compositions such as death speaks and the loser, internal thoughts acquire more power, purpose, presence, and poignancy.
It’s as if Lang’s music has undergone a gradual purging process over time where it’s become leaner and leaner; a process described by Kate Molleson as one where layers of clutter are stripped back in search of “some nugget, some essence”.
This approach sets Lang somewhat apart from Bang on the Can stablemates Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon, whose music (broadly speaking) tends to project outwards rather than inwards—whose subject matter highlights collective and group participation (or individuals’ roles within wider societal structures and frameworks) rather than forming parallels with Lang’s fragile, solipsistic sound world.
As a result, he has become almost by default the most minimal of post-minimal composers, whose aesthetic is predicated on the notion that incremental shifts in tone and nuance are equal to—or even possibly more important than—sharp juxtaposition, volume, weight, power, and force of numbers. It’s not by accident that Lang’s music is at its most effective in chamber contexts. Film directors have also been drawn to its subliminal qualities and subtle impact. Less is most definitely more in Lang’s case.
Commissioned by the Japan Society in New York and Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Centre, note to a friend is Lang’s silent scream writ large. Scored for baritone and string quartet, the hour-long monodrama was premiered at New York’s Prototype Festival in January 2023. Divided into nine numbers (or “scenes”), its subject matter draws on the writings of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, one of the most important literary figures in Japanese culture during the early twentieth century.
Tragically, Akutagawa committed suicide in 1927 at the age of only thirty-five, having set out his reasons in a suicide letter later published as “A Note to a Certain Old Friend”, hence the opera’s title. The letter, along with other texts by Akutagawa, furnish Lang’s libretto.
Unlike suicide notes by well-known artistic figures such as Virginia Woolf and Vincent van Gogh—whose message is directed towards a recipient or addressee—Akutagawa’s letter evinces a sequence of internal thought processes from which one is led to conclude that there can only be one outcome. Beginning with the bold statement, “people who kill themselves don’t usually tell you what they think about killing themselves”, Akutagawa’s thoughts and words grapple with the ungraspable: they attempt to make sense of the nonsensical.
Mixing autobiography, reflection, guilt, introspection, analysis, and self-realization, Lang’s operatic character (called “the dead man”) probes into the tangled and troubled interstices of Akutagawa’s tormented mind. It’s as if we’re guided through the various stages of suicide in the opera—a stark psychological journey moving from pain and hopelessness to ideation and volition, planning, preparation, and ultimately death.
After a modal, plangent, and hymnlike “prelude”, the first “aria” (“people who kill themselves”) presents a haunting three-note melody that becomes entangled in a clutch of claustrophobic minor thirds. In a change of mood, the first of several aggressive outbursts slice through the bleak atmosphere as the dead man states that “I am not like them”. These interjections are accompanied by stabbing rhythms and sharp silences as he admits being haunted by thoughts of death for many years.
More narrative dimensions support the opera’s middle sections, where the bare bones of the dead man’s sorrowful tale are fleshed out in a series of autobiographical reflections. We hear about his mother’s descent into insanity and death (“my mother had lost her mind”). The dead man becomes plagued by the spectre of his sister’s untimely death (which occurred before he was even born), prompting fears of “some phantom woman watching over me”. After a chorale-like instrumental interlude (“amen”), the man experiences a sense of emotional detachment and distance while witnessing his father’s slow and ineluctable death.
The music’s compulsive repetitions merely serve to heighten the death drive trajectory that drags the dead man’s story towards its inevitable conclusion. A fragmentary folk melody in “my mother, my sister, my father” magnifies his troubled thoughts. Caught in a ruminative loop during the ticking-clock-like patterns in “I wanted to die”, a final visceral outburst to the words “what we think of as our life force is just our animal nature, our animal power” evaporates into silence. A brief reprise of the chorale-like “amen” section in the “long silence” ends with a single note hanging briefly in the air before life is snatched away.
Aided by Theo Bleckmann’s beautifully restrained and quietly conversational vocal delivery and Attacca Quartet’s subtly measured and perfectly weighted support, note to a friend inhabits a liminal space between life and death where, as Katelyn Simone has observed, “the border between us and the dead is more porous”. Anguished outbursts sometimes rise to the music’s surface with a shuddering jolt, offering temporary release, but ultimately there’s no escape from death’s clutches.
And perhaps therein lies a final clue to Lang’s music. Its power lies in its ability to present itself through the thoughts and ideas of other characters in such a way as to make us believe that they are, in fact, speaking. As Lang has stated, every piece presents an opportunity for the composer to reexamine himself. Perhaps it’s a mask that Lang wears to hide his silent scream. But these fragile studies in self-examination ultimately open the door to a whole bunch of truths about humanity, which we can all relate to, identify with, learn from, share, and understand.
The post David Lang, note to a friend (Theo Bleckmann & Attacca Quartet) (Cantaloupe, CA21216) appeared first on Sequenza21.
Throwback to Sea Otter Pup Luna's Rescue
Mar. 5th, 2026 11:20 amdaily_otter_feedThis is from VAMMRS's rescue of baby Luna in July 2024; after about five weeks under their care, Luna was transferred to Vancouver Aquarium.
How much Does A Sunset Cost? - Jeremy Tiboth
Mar. 5th, 2026 11:13 ambruces_poems_feedSlowly, you were becoming indistinguishable from it all.
it only took a glimpse for it to paralyse you
i would have guessed you froze time again
if it weren’t for the golden dust particles dancing
in the sweet summer silence
Read more »it only took a glimpse for it to paralyse you
i would have guessed you froze time again
if it weren’t for the golden dust particles dancing
in the sweet summer silence
[Outliers] J.W. Marriott: Building an Empire Without a Master Plan
Mar. 5th, 2026 10:30 amfarnam_street_feedBill Marriott built the largest hotel company in the world. But he didn’t open his first hotel until he was 55 and he fought against it the whole way.
Public Release: March 10.
Members have access now.
Join us.
In fact, the man that would go on to build the world’s largest hotel chain started with a nine-seat root beer stand in Washington, DC with $6,000 and a simple goal: serve people well and build something that lasts.
In this episode of Outliers, we explore how Marriott turned that single stand into a $4 billion empire without a master plan. We break down his obsession with downside risk, how he isolated variables like location, and why his refusal to rely on forces he couldn’t control allowed him to expand during the Great Depression while his competitors folded.
Coming Soon: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Transcript
The post [Outliers] J.W. Marriott: Building an Empire Without a Master Plan appeared first on Farnam Street.
Thursday 05/03/2026
Mar. 5th, 2026 12:03 pmdark_kana posting in 3_good_things_a_day1) Working at home and listening to good music
2) Quick library visit during my lunch break
3) Lazy evening and a nice long hot shower
Just One Thing (05 March 2026)
Mar. 5th, 2026 08:02 amnanila posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Endings in sight
Mar. 5th, 2026 07:56 amrmc28The university hockey season is nearly over. Huskies have played our last league game (I say 'our' but I was actually playing with Warbirds in a different city at the time), Varsity is coming up Saturday week, and then there's Nationals in April before we move into summer ice training. We had our Varsity dinner on Tuesday in Clare College and I became sharply aware during that evening that all things come to an end and some people will graduate this summer and leave. This is a university, people are always arriving and leaving, but it's nearly thirty years since I first arrived in Cambridge and I'm still not used to friends leaving.
I love everyone in this photograph (and a couple more teammates who didn't make it to the dinner).
Varsity: Saturday 14 March, tickets go on general sale at noon today, I didn't make the Huskies ("mixed 2nds") Varsity squad but I'm playing in the alumni game and helping out with (at least) Huskies and Women's Blues.
more about the New Orleans trip
Mar. 4th, 2026 10:56 pmredbirdThe trip to New Orleans was very good for cattitude, who had an easier tiee finding food he could eat and enjoy than Adrian and I, but the few days of warm weather did us good as well. (And then the trip home was physically difficult and painful for Adrian, unfortunately.)
I did more walking each day, including but not only the travel days, than I expected or planned, and found it less difficult than I would have predicted.
Saturday afternoon we met my brother at House of Blues, because they had outdoor music and a performer he liked. That was fun, and Adrian enjoyed dancing with an enthusiastic stranger. I think that was the day we took a streetcar downtown in search of lunch, only to find lines for the relatively small number of places with outdoor seating. But I'd wanted to ride a streetcar--streetcars are part of the New Orleans transit network, not just a tourist attraction, so we could get one a couple of blocks from our hotel.
Our hotel had a courtyard, which was part of why Cattitude chose it. The courtyard had an unexpected, charming cat. The drum circle I mentioned in the previous post was in the park across the street from our hotel, which is part of why Mark recommended it.
Also, the New Orleans airport terminal plays music, not very loudly, over the PA system, which is entirely fitting for an airport named after Louis Armstrong, and much better than what comes over the PA at most airports.
cattitude, who had an easier tiee finding food he could eat and enjoy than Adrian and I, but the few days of warm weather did us good as well. (And then the trip home was physically difficult and painful for Adrian, unfortunately.)I did more walking each day, including but not only the travel days, than I expected or planned, and found it less difficult than I would have predicted.
Saturday afternoon we met my brother at House of Blues, because they had outdoor music and a performer he liked. That was fun, and Adrian enjoyed dancing with an enthusiastic stranger. I think that was the day we took a streetcar downtown in search of lunch, only to find lines for the relatively small number of places with outdoor seating. But I'd wanted to ride a streetcar--streetcars are part of the New Orleans transit network, not just a tourist attraction, so we could get one a couple of blocks from our hotel.
Our hotel had a courtyard, which was part of why Cattitude chose it. The courtyard had an unexpected, charming cat. The drum circle I mentioned in the previous post was in the park across the street from our hotel, which is part of why Mark recommended it.
Also, the New Orleans airport terminal plays music, not very loudly, over the PA system, which is entirely fitting for an airport named after Louis Armstrong, and much better than what comes over the PA at most airports.
Wednesday 4 March 1662/63
Mar. 4th, 2026 11:00 pmpepysdiary_feedLay long talking with my wife about ordering things in our family, and then rose and to my office, there collecting an alphabet for my Navy Manuscript, which, after a short dinner, I returned to and by night perfected to my great content. So to other business till 9 at night, and so home to supper and to bed.
[migraine] a belated realisation
Mar. 4th, 2026 10:41 pmkaberettThis evening I am having A Headache. It's an annoying headache; it's definitely a distracting headache; but it's "just" A Headache. No other symptoms that I'm noticing.
... except that it's Exactly The Right Time For A Migraine, and yesterday I had a bunch of migraine prodrome symptoms. (Being Too Warm. Wanting to close my eyes a lot. Nausea. Overwhelming despair.)
I find myself Wondering whether my regular menstrual migraines actually started on 1st January 2021, or if that's just the point at which symptoms tipped over into very obviously photosensitive migraine. At that point I was on continuous acute pain relief, and it is slowly dawning on me that An Annoying Headache with no other symptoms distinguishable from background noise (anxiety, depression, thesis-related stress, ...) is the kind of thing I'd have just merrily ignored, and for that matter that I'd still be ignoring if I weren't now Keeping A Headache Diary...
Evening Song - Elisaveta Bagyrana
Mar. 4th, 2026 05:47 pmbruces_poems_feedТhe rosary of my human days
Is coming unstrung, has come unstrung.
Slipping unstoppable
Through my weary fingers,
Are its black and white beads.
Read more »Is coming unstrung, has come unstrung.
Slipping unstoppable
Through my weary fingers,
Are its black and white beads.
Expectation
Mar. 4th, 2026 08:18 amrizzy_rosie8 posting in poetryThe well shall not
Dry up
The river shall not
Stop running
So long as we are clouds
And our hopes are drops of rain.
- Fouzi El-Asmar
Dry up
The river shall not
Stop running
So long as we are clouds
And our hopes are drops of rain.
- Fouzi El-Asmar
Just One Thing (4 March 2026)
Mar. 4th, 2026 08:37 amnanila posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
in my thug era
Mar. 4th, 2026 08:24 amrmc28This is possibly my favourite photo yet of me playing ice hockey:
- In women's hockey I am big
- We play non-checking, that doesn't mean non-contact. I am entirely legally shoving that attacking player away from the net.
- See how far the goalie is from the net? My linemate and I cleared the puck on that occasion. The visiting team scored 20 goals on us (ouch), but not that one.
Wednesday 04/03/2026
Mar. 4th, 2026 08:06 amdark_kana posting in 3_good_things_a_day1) delicious yoghurt with granola
2) reading during lunchbreak
3) hubby's mum is staying for dinner
WARNING
Mar. 4th, 2026 06:55 amrydra_wongThat Puzzle has hit Tumblr:
https://www.tumblr.com/vassraptor/810048615228866560
Take the warnings seriously, if you are at all susceptible to the lure of Sorting Things.
From the tags:
#if you’ve ever thought about taking a quick break from keeping yourself alive properly #this will make you forget to drink water
It's not even a "logic puzzle" per se, just an invitation to sort a very large number of things into different groups.
A friend sent it to me in December and I lost a solid day to it. Had a great time, but wow it really was like having my brain hijacked.
You know that odd bit of vampire mythology in some countries/traditions where you can delay a vampire chasing you by throwing down sand or seeds or other tiny objects because they will be compelled to stop and count every grain?
Some of us are like that with Sorting Things. You know who you are. Protect yourself.
(On the other hand, if right now you need to be not thinking about some things, and you don't have urgent tasks that can't wait a day or two, and having your brain consumed sounds good: CAN REC.)
https://www.tumblr.com/vassraptor/810048615228866560
Take the warnings seriously, if you are at all susceptible to the lure of Sorting Things.
From the tags:
#if you’ve ever thought about taking a quick break from keeping yourself alive properly #this will make you forget to drink water
It's not even a "logic puzzle" per se, just an invitation to sort a very large number of things into different groups.
A friend sent it to me in December and I lost a solid day to it. Had a great time, but wow it really was like having my brain hijacked.
You know that odd bit of vampire mythology in some countries/traditions where you can delay a vampire chasing you by throwing down sand or seeds or other tiny objects because they will be compelled to stop and count every grain?
Some of us are like that with Sorting Things. You know who you are. Protect yourself.
(On the other hand, if right now you need to be not thinking about some things, and you don't have urgent tasks that can't wait a day or two, and having your brain consumed sounds good: CAN REC.)
using one wearable (improves HRV) to make another wearable give me a better grade (in HRV)
Mar. 3rd, 2026 10:40 pmstarandreafriend: how does it improve HRV?
me: I have no idea. I still haven't got a clear explanation of what heart rate variability even is, so.
me: basically I'm using one piece of technology I don't understand to make another piece of technology I don't understand do a thing. That I don't understand. am I winning? I'm not sure.
friend: i think you are very much winning!!! you've improved the thing you don't understand by using a variety of incomprehensible tools. How could there be a downside?
me: I have no idea. I still haven't got a clear explanation of what heart rate variability even is, so.
me: basically I'm using one piece of technology I don't understand to make another piece of technology I don't understand do a thing. That I don't understand. am I winning? I'm not sure.
friend: i think you are very much winning!!! you've improved the thing you don't understand by using a variety of incomprehensible tools. How could there be a downside?
Tuesday 3 March 1662/63
Mar. 3rd, 2026 11:00 pmpepysdiary_feed(Shrove Tuesday). Up and walked to the Temple, and by promise calling Commissioner Pett, he and I to White Hall to give Mr. Coventry an account of what we did yesterday. Thence I to the Privy Seal Office, and there got a copy of Sir W. Pen’s grant to be assistant to Sir J. Minnes, Comptroller, which, though there be not much in it, yet I intend to stir up Sir J. Minnes to oppose, only to vex Sir W. Pen. Thence by water home, and at noon, by promise, Mrs. Turner and her daughter, and Mrs. Morrice, came along with Roger Pepys to dinner. We were as merry as I could be, having but a bad dinner for them; but so much the better, because of the dinner which I must have at the end of this month. And here Mrs. The. shewed me my name upon her breast as her Valentine, which will cost me 20s. After dinner I took them down into the wine-cellar, and broached my tierce of claret for them. Towards the evening we parted, and I to the office awhile, and then home to supper and to bed, the sooner having taken some cold yesterday upon the water, which brings me my usual pain. This afternoon Roger Pepys tells me, that for certain the King is for all this very highly incensed at the Parliament’s late opposing the Indulgence; which I am sorry for, and fear it will breed great discontent.
Runoff Vote for the Patron category of the 2026 Rose & Bay Awards
Mar. 3rd, 2026 06:50 pmfuzzyred posting in crowdfundingThere is a three-way tie in the Patron category, so there will be a runoff vote. The voting
will run from March 3 - March 15 and the winner will be announced March 16. As this is a runoff vote, each person may only vote for one project.
will run from March 3 - March 15 and the winner will be announced March 16. As this is a runoff vote, each person may only vote for one project.
Poll #34319 Runoff Vote for Patron
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6
Vote for your favourite Patron.
View Answers
Anthony Barrette patron of "Poetry Fishbowl" by Elizabeth Barrette aka Ysabetwordsmith
1 (16.7%)
Siliconshaman patron of "Poetry Fishbowl" by Elizabeth Barrette aka Ysabetwordsmith
3 (50.0%)
Elizabeth Barrette aka Ysabetwordsmith patron of Feathering the Nest by Sarah Williams aka Dialecticdreamer
2 (33.3%)
bad news about @minoanmiss
Mar. 3rd, 2026 01:05 pmredbird[Ny is gravely ill, unconscious, and unlikely to recover:]
Update: Ny is gone. As of a couple of hours ago, she no longer has brain function, and will be moved off life support after evaluation for organ transplant, and allowed to die peacefully, not necessarily immediately.
[my earlier info was via princessofgeeks, who linked togoss's post]
Update: Ny is gone. As of a couple of hours ago, she no longer has brain function, and will be moved off life support after evaluation for organ transplant, and allowed to die peacefully, not necessarily immediately.
[my earlier info was via princessofgeeks, who linked to
goss's post]
Insulin resistance (10) NAC might make you diabetic
Mar. 3rd, 2026 02:00 pmhyperlipid_feedHere is the next paper
Complexity of NAC Action as an Antidiabetic Agent: Opposing Effects of Oxidative and Reductive Stress on Insulin Secretion and Insulin Signaling
The Antioxidant N-Acetylcysteine Does Not Improve Glucose Tolerance or β-Cell Function in Type 2 Diabetes
I can't find a paper where NAC actually precipitated DMT2 but I had a vague recall that vitamin B3, a favourite of the orthomolecular practitioners, could occasionally precipitate glucose intolerance.
Complexity of NAC Action as an Antidiabetic Agent: Opposing Effects of Oxidative and Reductive Stress on Insulin Secretion and Insulin Signaling
Amongst the many, many things that this group did there is this section from Fig 9. They injected a set of mice with a dose of insulin typical for an insulin tolerance test. Fifteen minutes later they euthanised them and extracted muscle tissue for assessment of insulin signalling as represented by the phosphorylation of AKT. Half the mice had been on NAC in their drinking water, half hadn't. All were eating chow.
Here are the Western Blots
and here is the darkness of the blots converted to numerical form:
Both groups of mice received exactly the same dose of insulin, 0.75iu/kg, high enough to seriously kick the insulin signalling cascade but still with a fairly low incidence of serious hypoglycaemia. The intention is to get a near maximal insulin response *without* lethal hypoglycaemia.
If we go to the doodles from the last post this is what that dose is trying to achieve:
The 0.75iu/kg will produce *exactly* the same ROS signal in all of the mice, on or off of NAC. But in those mice on NAC a large proportion of the signalling ROS are simply mopped up by the NAC. So instead of getting the phosphorylation of AKT we expect we get much less:
The dose of insulin is identical, the ROS signal is identical but the NAC non specifically reduces those ROS which carry the onward signal.
The insulin effect is mediated through ROS, NAC limits it.
At low levels on insulin the small ROS signal would be completely wiped out.
At higher levels of exposure insulin will actually signal and should increase its downstream target activation, but not as effectively as it should. We're looking at the three points circled in red here if Fig 9B :
which are responsible for a significant increase in the AUC calculated for glucose.
The initial rise in glucose is unaffected by NAC, which might be surprising if you don't view it from the Protons perspective.
We are sightly stuck because we don't know the insulin exposure at times 15 and 30 minutes, which may not be comparable between the two groups.
We can guesstimate the insulin levels in the control group using the data from this paper for after a six hour fast. It looks like this, added on to the above. No units included for the insulin, it's the pattern I'm interested in:
Now, an OGTT is designed to elicit a maximal insulin response within the physiological range. A maximal physiological response will allow peak utilisation of glucose and, at some time point when combined with elevated plasma glucose, will produce insulin-induced insulin resistance as soon as the the mitochondrial delta psi rises high enough.
The signal to resist is, obviously, ROS.
A significant proportion of which disappears in to the soup of NAC so insulin-induced insulin resistance is blunted, so glucose continues to be disposed of at peak insulin. We're thinking about events somewhere within the time points circled in red:
If you choose your dose of NAC very carefully you can generate the above curves. This is NOT normality, this is balancing pharmacology against differing aspects of physiology.
How well this happens depends on your dose of NAC and probably on the metabolic state of your mice. Not all control groups are as free of metabolic disease as you might like.
Hence the results in JustPeachy's nice paper:
The Antioxidant N-Acetylcysteine Does Not Improve Glucose Tolerance or β-Cell Function in Type 2 Diabetes
I can't find a paper where NAC actually precipitated DMT2 but I had a vague recall that vitamin B3, a favourite of the orthomolecular practitioners, could occasionally precipitate glucose intolerance.
It turns out you need a massive study to pick up the small effect demonstrated in the second hour of the mouse OGTT above using the effective antioxidant B3 rather than NAC but I did find this bias-confirming meta-analysis (you know, one, two, skip a few, 99, 100):
Niacin therapy and the risk of new-onset diabetes: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
Personally I avoid antioxidants. A few decent ROS is my preferred approach.
Niacin therapy and the risk of new-onset diabetes: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
Personally I avoid antioxidants. A few decent ROS is my preferred approach.
Peter
Just one thing: 3 March 2026
Mar. 3rd, 2026 06:46 amjazzyjj posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Dawn of Darkness - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Mar. 3rd, 2026 11:25 ambruces_poems_feedI know, I know,
It threatens the common gestures of human bonding
The handshake,
The hug
Read more »It threatens the common gestures of human bonding
The handshake,
The hug
Do you have a family phone solution? [tech, domesticity]
Mar. 3rd, 2026 04:29 amsidereaI have been kicking around a post idea for something like a year or a year and a half, but I've been torn between wanting to write it as a post (and tell you things) and wanting to ask for solutions.
Mr. Bostoniensis and I have been trying to consolidate our household, and the Brave New World of the Internet is... not facilitating this. Vendor after vendor, platform after platform, is organized around the concept of a single user account. Even when company accounts nominally allow multiple user accounts, typically one user account is the real user account and the other has restricted access.
For instance, when setting up joint financial instruments, we split up the work: I would set up the joint bank accounts, he would set up the joint credit cards. We subsequently discovered that he can't access the statements and tax documents in our nominally-joint bank account's online portal, and I can't have an independent login at all for our allegedly joint credit cards that show up on my credit report.
This is infuriating. What we want to happen is that he and I have equal full access to the accounts we share, such that either of us can do what needs to be done on them, which I thought was a pretty normal approach to, well, life. I did not think heterosexual marriage was some sort of weird counter-cultural edge-case, and it offends my software developer soul to be reduced to sharing usernames and passwords.
But that is exactly the case, and I would just hold my nose and do it, except for one thing.
Two-factor authentication.
If I want to be able to two-factor into an account that uses his phone number, I have to access his phone. Something best done while he is not asleep, which, unfortunately, is precisely when I am most likely to want to be paying bills or doing online shopping. Likewise, if he wants to two-factor into an account that uses my phone number, he'll need access to my phone. Which, honestly, he could probably slip into the room and grab off the charger while I'm asleep – which is precisely when he'll be wanting into those accounts – but that does him no good if say I were out of town or in the hospital or some such.
And more and more 2FA is becoming mandatory. You can't turn it off. (Or in the notable case of one of our credit cards, you can turn it off. It will two-factor you anyways, but the account settings assure you it's off.)
Two-factor authentication is stupid and awful for so many reasons, but it has only recently dawned on me that one of them is that 2FA is intended to keep anyone else from logging in to your account and I actually want someone else to log into my account. Legitimately, I think.
So.
Obviously, the Bostoniensis household requires some sort of telephony solution such that:
• text messages (SMS) sent to a single phone number propagate to two cell phones; *
• either of the two cell phones can originate text messages from that single phone number which is not the phone number of either of those phones; **
• and the phone that didn't send the reply gets a copy of it, so it can stay in sync with the convo; ***
• voice calls sent to that single phone number propagate to one, the other, or both simultaneously of the two cell phones, depending on a on-the-fly configurable schedule of when which call goes where; ****
• either cell phone can originate a voice call that will appear to come from the shared number; ****
• ideally, both cell phones could conference into the same call with a third party, but that's a bonus;
• must be compatible with Android phones, an probably needs to support iOS as well; we'd love a solution that also supports web and/or MacOS desktop access, but that's a bonus.
I am looking for recommendations for solutions that (are known to) meet this specification. There are lots of solutions for small businesses, but r/smallbusiness drags a lot of them for filth, and also we're cheap and don't want to pay a fortune, especially for a lot of businessy services we don't need like the ability to spam-SMS 10k prospective customers an hour or (all the rage right now) deploy an AI receptionist or surreptitiously surveil our customer service agents' work for quality and training purposes or integrate with Salesforce.
Also, crucially, a lot of these services seem to be based on a phone tree model, where each handset gets its own extension, and I'm really unclear how that would work with automated voice-call 2FA. Not well, I am guessing.
So what I am looking for is knowing recommendations that can answer from direct experience as to whether a solution will support our intended use case.
Has anybody else even tried to solve this problem? Or does everybody else just accept that financial instruments, online retail accounts, and virtual services can only really belong to one member of a couple at at time?
This seems like something there should be an obvious commercial service for, targetted at families, but the only one I found no longer is in the Play store and also may be wholly defunct.
As a side note, this isn't only relevant for couples. It's relevant to all sorts of multi-adult households, from polycules to multigenerational households. It is of particular relevance to people with aging elders who might want to be able to get into the elder's accounts to help them from afar. Especially adult siblings of aging parents, where no one sibling should be the only person stuck with all the administrative work. It's surprising that I haven't found a commercial solutions to this yet, and wonder if there already is one everybody else already knows about.
* Necessary to allow either member to receive a 2FA text message when either one initiates a log in.
** Necessary in the case we want to revoke texting permission to a third party by "text STOP to end".
*** Necessary not to engage in an inadvertent Abbot and Costello routine.
**** Necessary because every once in a while a 2FA system will barf on texting VOIP numbers, and only successfully get through with automated voice call 2FA. Also it would be nice for one of our other use cases – the "get Siderea's doctor's office to call back and make sure a human answers no matter when they do" use case – for there to be one number that rings through to both of us. But also necessary that we can schedule it not to ring when one or the other of us are asleep, while still ringing through to the other. I need to be able to 2FA at 2:00 A.M. and Mr. B very much needs my doing so not to cause his phone to ring.
***** Maybe not strictly necessary, but there's a lot of systems that react poorly, or at least with more scrutiny, to customer calls about accounts other than the ones associated with the number the call is coming from. It would be better if we just only ever called NStar from the number they have on record for us, but that means we need to be able to originate voice calls from the same number we'll be using with them for security purposes.
Edit: I'm really hoping for a non-Google, commercial solution.
Mr. Bostoniensis and I have been trying to consolidate our household, and the Brave New World of the Internet is... not facilitating this. Vendor after vendor, platform after platform, is organized around the concept of a single user account. Even when company accounts nominally allow multiple user accounts, typically one user account is the real user account and the other has restricted access.
For instance, when setting up joint financial instruments, we split up the work: I would set up the joint bank accounts, he would set up the joint credit cards. We subsequently discovered that he can't access the statements and tax documents in our nominally-joint bank account's online portal, and I can't have an independent login at all for our allegedly joint credit cards that show up on my credit report.
This is infuriating. What we want to happen is that he and I have equal full access to the accounts we share, such that either of us can do what needs to be done on them, which I thought was a pretty normal approach to, well, life. I did not think heterosexual marriage was some sort of weird counter-cultural edge-case, and it offends my software developer soul to be reduced to sharing usernames and passwords.
But that is exactly the case, and I would just hold my nose and do it, except for one thing.
Two-factor authentication.
If I want to be able to two-factor into an account that uses his phone number, I have to access his phone. Something best done while he is not asleep, which, unfortunately, is precisely when I am most likely to want to be paying bills or doing online shopping. Likewise, if he wants to two-factor into an account that uses my phone number, he'll need access to my phone. Which, honestly, he could probably slip into the room and grab off the charger while I'm asleep – which is precisely when he'll be wanting into those accounts – but that does him no good if say I were out of town or in the hospital or some such.
And more and more 2FA is becoming mandatory. You can't turn it off. (Or in the notable case of one of our credit cards, you can turn it off. It will two-factor you anyways, but the account settings assure you it's off.)
Two-factor authentication is stupid and awful for so many reasons, but it has only recently dawned on me that one of them is that 2FA is intended to keep anyone else from logging in to your account and I actually want someone else to log into my account. Legitimately, I think.
So.
Obviously, the Bostoniensis household requires some sort of telephony solution such that:
• text messages (SMS) sent to a single phone number propagate to two cell phones; *
• either of the two cell phones can originate text messages from that single phone number which is not the phone number of either of those phones; **
• and the phone that didn't send the reply gets a copy of it, so it can stay in sync with the convo; ***
• voice calls sent to that single phone number propagate to one, the other, or both simultaneously of the two cell phones, depending on a on-the-fly configurable schedule of when which call goes where; ****
• either cell phone can originate a voice call that will appear to come from the shared number; ****
• ideally, both cell phones could conference into the same call with a third party, but that's a bonus;
• must be compatible with Android phones, an probably needs to support iOS as well; we'd love a solution that also supports web and/or MacOS desktop access, but that's a bonus.
I am looking for recommendations for solutions that (are known to) meet this specification. There are lots of solutions for small businesses, but r/smallbusiness drags a lot of them for filth, and also we're cheap and don't want to pay a fortune, especially for a lot of businessy services we don't need like the ability to spam-SMS 10k prospective customers an hour or (all the rage right now) deploy an AI receptionist or surreptitiously surveil our customer service agents' work for quality and training purposes or integrate with Salesforce.
Also, crucially, a lot of these services seem to be based on a phone tree model, where each handset gets its own extension, and I'm really unclear how that would work with automated voice-call 2FA. Not well, I am guessing.
So what I am looking for is knowing recommendations that can answer from direct experience as to whether a solution will support our intended use case.
Has anybody else even tried to solve this problem? Or does everybody else just accept that financial instruments, online retail accounts, and virtual services can only really belong to one member of a couple at at time?
This seems like something there should be an obvious commercial service for, targetted at families, but the only one I found no longer is in the Play store and also may be wholly defunct.
As a side note, this isn't only relevant for couples. It's relevant to all sorts of multi-adult households, from polycules to multigenerational households. It is of particular relevance to people with aging elders who might want to be able to get into the elder's accounts to help them from afar. Especially adult siblings of aging parents, where no one sibling should be the only person stuck with all the administrative work. It's surprising that I haven't found a commercial solutions to this yet, and wonder if there already is one everybody else already knows about.
* Necessary to allow either member to receive a 2FA text message when either one initiates a log in.
** Necessary in the case we want to revoke texting permission to a third party by "text STOP to end".
*** Necessary not to engage in an inadvertent Abbot and Costello routine.
**** Necessary because every once in a while a 2FA system will barf on texting VOIP numbers, and only successfully get through with automated voice call 2FA. Also it would be nice for one of our other use cases – the "get Siderea's doctor's office to call back and make sure a human answers no matter when they do" use case – for there to be one number that rings through to both of us. But also necessary that we can schedule it not to ring when one or the other of us are asleep, while still ringing through to the other. I need to be able to 2FA at 2:00 A.M. and Mr. B very much needs my doing so not to cause his phone to ring.
***** Maybe not strictly necessary, but there's a lot of systems that react poorly, or at least with more scrutiny, to customer calls about accounts other than the ones associated with the number the call is coming from. It would be better if we just only ever called NStar from the number they have on record for us, but that means we need to be able to originate voice calls from the same number we'll be using with them for security purposes.
Edit: I'm really hoping for a non-Google, commercial solution.
Tuesday 03/03/2026
Mar. 3rd, 2026 09:11 amdark_kana posting in 3_good_things_a_day1) Going out for a walk in the sunshine with a colleague
2) My parents are coming over dinner
3) If I still have some time afterwards, I'm going to work on my photo's of 2025
Monday 2 March 1662/63
Mar. 2nd, 2026 11:00 pmpepysdiary_feedUp early and by water with Commissioner Pett to Deptford, and there took the Jemmy yacht (that the King and the Lords virtuosos built the other day) down to Woolwich, where we discoursed of several matters both there and at the Ropeyard, and so to the yacht again, and went down four or five miles with extraordinary pleasure, it being a fine day, and a brave gale of wind, and had some oysters brought us aboard newly taken, which were excellent, and ate with great pleasure.
There also coming into the river two Dutchmen, we sent a couple of men on board and bought three Hollands cheeses, cost 4d. a piece, excellent cheeses, whereof I had two and Commissioner Pett one.
So back again to Woolwich, and going aboard the Hulke to see the manner of the iron bridles, which we are making of for to save cordage to put to the chain, I did fall from the shipside into the ship (Kent), and had like to have broke my left hand, but I only sprained some of my fingers, which, when I came ashore I sent to Mrs. Ackworth for some balsam, and put to my hand, and was pretty well within a little while after.
We dined at the White Hart with several officers with us, and after dinner went and saw the Royal James brought down to the stern of the Docke (the main business we came for), and then to the Ropeyard, and saw a trial between Riga hemp and a sort of Indian grass, which is pretty strong, but no comparison between it and the other for strength, and it is doubtful whether it will take tarre or no.
So to the yacht again, and carried us almost to London, so by our oars home to the office, and thence Mr. Pett and I to Mr. Grant’s coffee-house, whither he and Sir J. Cutler came to us and had much discourse, mixed discourse, and so broke up, and so home where I found my poor wife all alone at work, and the house foul, it being washing day, which troubled me, because that tomorrow I must be forced to have friends at dinner.
So to my office, and then home to supper and to bed.
Fleeting reunions
Mar. 2nd, 2026 06:26 pmrmc28I had a little run of "brief meetings with old hockey friends" in the last two weekends. A few words, a hug, sometimes just a wave in passing while we both briefly occupied the same ice rink. All of them put a smile on my face.
Saturday before last was the Varsity matchup between Oxford Vikings A and Cambridge Narwhals at Cambridge rink, before my Kodiaks 2 team played visiting team Invicta Dynamics. Three of my tournament buddies from Biarritz were on the Vikings team. The next day Kodiaks were away at Bristol. I had an expected brief chat with my friend C from Hull camp but also complete surprise appearances from M who coaches Hull camp and goalie J, both of whom are tournament buddies. M was there with the away team for the previous game, J now lives in Bristol, which I theoretically knew but had forgotten.
Saturday just gone I had an evening game in Peterborough with Warbirds. I arrived a bit early and saw the previous game in progress: Phantoms Dev women were playing Streatham Storm Dev (my first ever hockey team). I recognised the jerseys first, and then a bunch of the faces. I dumped my kit in the changing room and went to lurk next to their bench and cheer them on for their last ten minutes. The timing worked out for me to see the end of their game (they won!) and walk with them back to their changing room before I needed to join Warbirds in ours.
Just one thing: 2 March 2026
Mar. 2nd, 2026 09:24 amjazzyjj posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Singularity - Tibor Babiczky
Mar. 2nd, 2026 02:08 pmbruces_poems_feedWhen you step forth as
yourself, in full armour,
with each step making
the caverns of the subconscious
collapse, and all wisdom shrinks back.
Read more »yourself, in full armour,
with each step making
the caverns of the subconscious
collapse, and all wisdom shrinks back.