darkoshi | Network

These are the photos that I uploaded in 2025, mostly pictures from my yard or local nature sites.

• 1401 photos
• Created 03.01.2025
• Updated 26.12.2025

Wow, that's a lot. :D It's nowhere near all of them, even all of the ones good enough to share.

These are the ones I selected to share in Three for the Memories as my most memorable (not most aesthetic or most technically ept) from 2025.

Current Mood: accomplished

These are the three pictures I selected as most memorable (not the most aesthetically beautiful or technically ept) from 2025 for

threeforthememories.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

Giffen plot and breakdowns, Bill Loebs script, Bart Sears pencils.

The JLE, at this point, was 50% isolated dads. Captain Atom was reconnecting with his kids after missing two decades of their lives in his own title; Animal Man (Buddy) had just seen his wife and children killed in his; Rocket Red (Dmitri) was in Paris missing his kids in the USSR; and Metamorpho (Rex) had just learned about his child’s existence in JLE #5. This issue focuses on those four, mostly on the last three, MOSTLY mostly on the last ONE, as Rex decides to start asserting his visitation rights.

( And maybe committing some visitation WRONGS. )

Difficult, long, and tedious work week requiring a touch more patience than I wished to give it - not helped by the cold snap. Although my knees did appreciate it, since I need to ice them anyhow. Nor helped by issues with subways earlier in the week, resulting in more walking and more steps.

But it's Friday, finally! Thank god. And I've got a three day weekend - since we get Martin Luther King Day off - most people do in NYC.

I can sleep in. Rest my knee. And get some chores done. Also maybe a few watercolors.

Been entertaining myself with Buffy podcasts - which require little to no attention, and I find entertaining. Did learn a few things? ( Read more... )

It's really hard to know what is true and what isn't in this day and age. Information Age, my foot - more like Mis-Information Age.

***

Finally finished re-watching Hells Bells - I've mixed feelings about this episode. It's alas a Xander episode - which well pretty much tells you everything right there. That said - it's a mixed bag? When the story is focusing on the Scooby Gange or main leads, it's actually pretty good? But when it shifts to the twenty or so never-seen, rarely seen, and never to be seen again - ancillary characters - it loses focus. ( Read more... )

I realized today why I find this show so comforting and feel the need to write about it. It's central theme is "don't give up, life is painful and hard, but don't give up, the people you meet throughout it - make it worth it". I think that's why I love the later seasons - I find them oddly to be the most relatable.

**

PT went okay. He said that it's the muscles around the knee that are sore and hurting, because they are weak or strained, so to ice them and do the exercises.

**

I'm not enjoying the Angelica Huston Memoir as much as the others, partly because...I don't much like Angelica Huston? ( Read more... )

We made it through the second week of January. This is enough to get a better grasp of progress with New Year's resolutions. It's also into the period of rapid die-off. We have reached the second Friday in January, also known as Quitter's Day because so many people give up their New Year's resolutions then. See also the parallel check in post over on

goals_on_dw.

Feel free to copy the idea of a New Year's resolution check-in to your blog or other venue, to encourage yourself and your friends. Many people find that social support helps maintain resolutions. This is one area where online activity works as well as or better than facetime activity. Apps work too, with trackers for most popular goal categories. Consider the pros and cons of getting your friends to help. Here on Dreamwidth we have

awesomeers and

do_it that may prove helpful for social support of goals. Some craft communities like

get_knitted and

justcreate also have check-in posts.

According to an email from Facebook, the survey found that those who shared their New Year's resolution on Facebook were 36 percent more likely to stick to it. Additionally, 52 percent of those surveyed agreed that sharing their resolutions with others is helpful when it comes to accomplishing them. In my experience, saying (or posting) things out loud definitely makes them feel more real. Plus, if other people know about a goal you're trying to achieve, it may motivate you to keep working at it so you can provide future updates on your progress.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

Was out scraping packed down snow from the front sidewalk, now temps are however briefly above 'frozen solid', and had to step back for a gaggle of school kids coming up the street, lagging behind their impatient mother and dragging toboggans behind them. Shortly followed by NND and M heading out down the street with a toboggan. NND confirms that schools are still closed even though the streets are plowed. Whoever else may or jay not be enjoying this old fashioned winter, the kids must surely be in heaven. A four day weekend and infinite tobogganing, how cool is that?

Garbage trucks did make it out this evening, though I shall be surprised if people then put their bins back. Still don't see me going out any time soon. See: snowploughs creating mountain ridges at all street corners. Or pools, since tomorrow will be above freezing. Cooked a turkey roll and did a dark wash and tried to get the kitchen floor clean with indifferent success, and that was my day.

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

Crossposts: https://highlander-ii.insanejournal.com/469725.html http://highlander-ii.deadjournal.com/295182.html

The Long Back Yard

#
Friday. Cloudy. Breezy. Cold.

The weather beans tell me that it's not going to snow today, but I'm watching flakes kind of just lazily drifting out of the sky so that's interesting.

I slept solid and never woke up until 7:30. The exciting end of book writing schedule is just exhausting. All together now: Writing is hard.

I'm sitting in the comfy chair overlooking the long backyard with the happy light on. Eventually I'll get up and get some breakfast and do my duty to the cats and wander off down coast for a bit.

I hope everybody has a good day.

Dictated to my phone.

Pine Point

#
Well. It was a nice day for a drive. Too cold to walk on the beach, though I saw some brave souls out there.

The spine doctor says keep doing what I'm doing. I have a referral to an osteo in Augusta, for manipulation, and also an extension on my PT ticket, since next time is the last time. I at least want that on file in case I need to go back, sorta like running a credit balance on your credit card.

Since it was all nice and sunny and all, and because I haven't practiced with my navigator for a while, I drove home up Route 9, and let the navigator take me through Portland.
Got home to find, despite the instructions being in my FedEx file AND the garage door being open so it would be easy to just sit the box inside, the deliveryperson had opted to throw the 50-lb box against the front door. That's right, so it didn't open.

I struggled, and got the door open, whereupon the latch on the screen door flew free and splotted on the driveway.

Went inside, took care of business, came back to go through the door and get my Stuff out of the car and! That's right! The door doesn't open.

I get out my phone to call my neighbor, only -- I can't make a call. I can, however, text, and she's home and she promises to come right over and let me out, just as soon as she gathers her tools, in case it was an easy fix.

While I'm waiting for her, I look out needlenose pliers, which don't work, and only then realize I can reach through the window and open the latch from the outside, which I do.

Neighbor arrives. We get the latch back on, precariously. We come to the mutual conclusion that the set screw has come loose. We collaborate on a temp fix. Neighbor goes home, comes back with husband who has arrived home in the meanwhile. He sets the screw, diagnosis a worn-out spring, and performs a more stable temporary fix. My mission next week (after I finish this. damned. book) will be to go to the hardware store and see if they can sell me another latching mechanism.

In the meanwhile, I tried to call my cell from my landline and learned that my number is not in service.

So! I guess I should go see what the Verizon page has to say to me about that.

And how was your Friday?
#
Verizon will call me back when it's my turn -- at 3:30 pm tomorrow.

So, that's fun. I hope nobody snabbles up my phone number in the meantime.

I bought a sandwich at the Saco Hannaford, but with one thing and something else, I never got around to eating it, so I'm thinking, I'll search up Coon Cat Happy Hour, pour a glass of wine and open my sandwich.
#
Late updatery: I rebooted my phone and it is now Fully Operational.

I have canceled my litter order from Petco, so I never have to deal with FedEx again. It cost me a little bit of a pang, because it was one of the systems Steve had put into place, but he never meant it to get this stoopid.

I will be writing tomorrow, Saturday, and the next day, Sunday. With only a little bit of luck, I'll finish this damned draft.

Today's blog post brought to you by Blue Oyster Cult, "Godzilla"

Note: this aired in the UK on BBC TV in December 2025. It is expected to air worldwide on Disney+ sometime in early 2026.

Just finished watching this Doctor Who spin-off. I’m going to jot down some brief thoughts with mild spoilers in them, avoiding some of the biggest stuff. But to be on the safe side I’ll still put this into spoiler space.

( spoilers )

Here are the character notes for "People of Every Ethnic Persuasion."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Today's frivolous low-stakes question is: if following a recipe, to what extent do you consider "mixed lettuces", "mixed greens", and "mixed leaf salad" synonymous?

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

The fact that I can usually manage to see the humour in situations and don't get moody and sulky about minor stuff.

The fact that I'll try creating for any character once and give them all some attention rather than sticking to the same old favourites.

The fact that you always know where you are with me, I can't be doing with fake bullshit/not saying what I mean/expecting people to be psychic/not using my words type crap.

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

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: on my Chandler/Joey chair
Current Music: Listening to Kat_lair get excited about the X-files :)

This week I've been working on making a good start to one of my resolutions, to start a new recipe notebook. (When I first started learning to cook in an organised fashion, while I was going my post-grad, I took a nice notebook I had and wrote down all my succesful recipes in it. It's a multi-coloured decade's worth of recipes that I refer to regularly even now that I'm a vegetarian and many of the recipes aren't one's I'd ever cook now.) I've been meaning to start a new one for a few years now, but never got round to it, because, well I had my tablet and most recipes I was cooking that weren't in actual cookbooks were on the internet and it was just easier to look them up, but it's really come home to me in the last year when I've gone to look something up and it's just gone. (Not even random people's food blogs, but places I'd expect things to be like the guardian or the good food magazine page.) So I've started in on recipes from my 'cook new recipes' challenges from the past few years, and a significant percentage of them are lost to link rot and paywalls.

But the other thing I've noticed - and part of what makes me want to keep the project up - is that my handwriting is really rusty. I've had to make fairly heavy usage of my tippex mouse because I keep missing letters out of words, not even in the analogue version of typos just I'm so out of practice of writing by hand that I'm half-forgetting how to form the letters properly. I used to have a problem with missing out letters when I wrote essays because I was writing so fast to keep up with my brain - the main reason I switched to typing, as it's much easier to keep up with the speed of thought/ideas that way - but I'm just copying out recipes here. Though on the plus-side, forcing myself to slow down, to form the letters properly is making it a more meditive experience than I expected it to be.

I've always prided myself on having nice handwriting. Ever since we did a unit on the Victorians and spent that whole term perfecting copperplate script I've written a minorly adapted version of that. (I adjusted some letters to be more easily read by modern eyes, so I wouldn't get marked down for mis-spelling words because my teachers that didn't recognise my old-fashioned letters.) All through secondary and university my preferred method of studying was to make notes and the rewrite my notes and I still have piles of notebooks about the place in neat multi-coloured copperplate. So it's both weird and minorly upsetting when my handwriting isn't neat despite my best efforts. No doubt with regular practice it'll improve but at the moment I'm falling a low way short of my own high standards for my handwriting.

It's a ridiculous thing to be having feelings about, I am aware, but nonetheless, I am having them. My handwriting isn't as nice as it used to be - less smooth, more effort for less pleasing results - and it annoys me. I'm feeling a little rusty here, it's a thing.

Current Music: Radio 3 - Unclassified

In the spirit of enjoying the process more than the product, I've been picking up an old hobby this month: collecting alphabets.

I was feeling a bit nostalgic for language learning in December, and I thought that in January I might study Arabic or Mandarin, since I already have textbooks for those, and maybe I should try to keep up my French ... and then I watched Kpop Demon Hunters.

In university I taught myself Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, because it's really cool. It was invented by King Sejong in 1443 specifically so that peasants could learn to read without having to learn Chinese characters.

한글 (Hangeul) doesn't look like an alphabet if you're used to western ones, but each of the character blocks is actually made up of separable letters. So (simplification) ㅂ is b or p, and 비빔밥 is bibimbap, and you can see ㅂ in four places in that word, three times at the beginning of a syllable (upper left) and once at the end.

The thing is, my goal is not actually to learn Korean. If I wanted to be able to have a conversation or watch a movie in Korean, I would need to take a class so I could actually hear it spoken and make sure I was pronouncing the sounds correctly and practice using it with real human beings. It's awkward having both an interest in languages and social anxiety.

If I had done that in university, I might have remembered the alphabet over the intervening 15 years, instead of forgetting 90% of it because all I used it for is sounding out signs.

But I like being able to sound out words, even if I never pick up the vocabulary properly. It makes me feel like I am part of a multicultural society. So I got a Korean textbook from the library, and I'm going through it focusing on learning to read, but also finding out interesting things about Korean language and culture as I go. (Two sets of numbers!)

I thought I still had Korean flashcards I'd made in university, but it turns out they're actually from when I tried to learn Arabic. When I think I've gotten what I can from this book maybe I'll try Arabic again.

About this time last year I read a book on statistics and then one on combinatorics, making notes and doing the math exercises. They didn't stick as much as I hoped they would, but I enjoyed studying them anyway.

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

Public

350/365: Ludlow Castle above Dinham Bridge
Click for a larger, sharper image
All right, only the one castle. I did acquire two shoes, though! A nice pair of only very slightly worn Clarks for a tenner in the Blue Cross shop. Result, that is! As the caption will tell you, I was in Ludlow today, for the first time in a while. Still some snow in patches on Clee Hill, and it must have been fairly deep there judging by the remnants of snowdrifts. This is Dinham Bridge, much the newer of the town's two bridges over the River Teme having been built in 1823. Above looms Ludlow Castle, once the seat of the Council of Wales and the Marches and with a history dating back to the 11th century; unlike many other Norman castles, there was no earlier wooden structure: this was stone from the start. The outer bailey wall you can see here dates from the late 12th century.

Current Mood: chipper

Is anyone I know going to Arisia this weekend? I'm thinking of going for a day but haven't decided which day. Masking is the only way I feel safe going to this kind of event, but masking also makes it harder to make a long relaxed day of it because I can't go out to a restaurant with half a dozen friends for 90 minutes in the middle of the day. Even so, I'd like to see people if that's possible.

We went to the Boston rally against ICE last Saturday. One of my study partners asked afterwards if it made me fired up with solidarity, and inspired to resist more strongly? Not really. Not this time. But my presence made the crowd a bit bigger, and I hope a bigger crowd inspired others incrementally more.

I saw a kid near the T station, on the edge of the crowd, and heard her ask, "Mommy, what's ab abol abolish?" She was of an age to be fairly new to reading, so she had to sound out the word on the "Abolish ICE" signs. Her mother said abolishing was when you got rid of something completely by making a law against it, like the abolition of slavery. It made me wonder about little kids tagging along when when Bostonians marched for abolition in the 19th century.

Still catching up on things I wrote in 2025, although I believe this is the last of them.

Most people who might care have seen it already, but for the sake of completeness: I wrote a Flight of the Heron story for the "Pomegaverse" square of Keep Fandom Weird Bingo.

What is Pomegaverse? According to Fanlore's page on Pomegaverse:

In these works, a human character experiences so much stress that they transform into a Pomeranian dog. They can only revert back to their human form if the stress is relieved via receiving love and affection from other people.

I haven't made a serious effort at the rest of that bingo card, but as soon as I saw that square, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it:

Form'd for Idleness and Ease

Keith & Ewen

Pomegaverse, Animal Transformation, Bad Things Always Happen to Keith, Let's Get That Man Some Affection For a Change, Or At Least a Mini-Vacay as a Beloved Lapdog

Captain Keith Windham's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day just got worse. Ewen, of course, is a perfect gentleman about it all.

Of course, this all demands an answer to the question of how the war proceeds if soldiers keep turning into lapdogs every time they get stressed out. (The Highland Charge continues to be effective -- perhaps even more so! Culloden... either gets that much horrific, or fizzles out for want of soldiers still standing.) I have no immediate plans to actually do this, but I am a little bit tempted to follow this mechanic through all five meetings of the book, just to see what happens.

Profile

Darkoshi

Darkoshi's Enchantment

January 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

ysabetwordsmith - 2025 Photos
ysabetwordsmith - Photos: Three for the Memories from 2025
tcampbell1000 in scans_daily - Daddies’ Issues: JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #11-12 (JLI 45)
shadowkat - Friday...finally...now to sleep and dream of other days
ysabetwordsmith - New Year's Resolutions Check In
flemmings - (no subject)
highlander_ii - Snowflake Challenge #8
rolanni - History points out again and again
vivdunstan - The War Between the Land and the Sea
ysabetwordsmith - Character notes for "People of Every Ethnic Persuasion" Part 1 Rakin's Family
kaberett - you are all magnificently helpful - thank you <3
tellshannon815 - (no subject)
pushkin666 - First Lines Meme - Part 1 - January to April 2025
glinda - Old Skills a Little Rusty
violsva - Collecting Alphabets
cyberghostface in scans_daily - Exquisite Corpses #8
loganberrybunny - Shoes and castles
adrian_turtle - Arisia
adrian_turtle - Mommy, what's abolition?
sanguinity - Heron fic: Form'd for Idleness and Ease

Style Credit

Base style: Abstractia by chiming
Theme: Violet Night by nornoriel

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Saturday, January 17th, 2026 04:09 am