replyhazy | Network

Current Mood: accomplished

Title: I Got the Boys to Make the Noise

author:

cornerofmadness

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Characters/Pairing: Husk, Niffty Angel Dust, Charlie & Lucifer Morningstar, Vaggie, Arackniss

Summary: Arackniss regrets ever walking into Vee Studio. The job they want him to do is trouble whether he says yes or no. The last thing Angel expected was to see his brother walk through the hotel doors and will do what he needs to in order to keep his friends safe.

Warnings: bad language, dysfunctional family, mistrust

Artist: Quiet Riot
Album: Footloose Soundtrack
Song: Bang Your Head (Mental Health)

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/der-mensch-bezwingt-den-kosmos-the-potsdam-mosaic

Soviet mosaics are perhaps not what one would expect to see in the city of palaces, yet this is one of its most famed public art pieces. The Potsdam mosaic was created in 1972 after the design of Fritz Eisel, who used it to decorate three sides of an otherwise boring socialist building.

The mosaics show different scientific achievements, such as the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and Aleksey Leonov’s spacewalk in 1965. It also pays tribute to the people who made it possible, showing several panels of scientists and workers in scientific settings. One panel in particular has been the source of much discussion, as it shows the Earth wrong (some people believe that this is due to a misunderstanding of Eisel, who wanted to show the planet from the perspective from the space ship, but others believe that it was done as a form of silent protest from the workers).

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/der-mensch-bezwingt-den-kosmos-the-potsdam-mosaic

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/de-tijdtrap

Most parking garages are purely functional spaces, but beneath Rotterdam Market Hall lies one with a unique twist—a history lesson of the city’s past.

Dig beneath an old city, and you’ll often find layers of discarded history. That’s what ‘de tijdtrap’ (or ‘The Stairs of Time’) tries to show. It’s a descent through the centuries.

The journey starts in 1273 with the oldest found items, and works its way up until current day.

The research also resulted in a cookbook that discussed food habits during this period.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/de-tijdtrap

fflo

marinarusalka

Current Mood: awake

There were a lot of those too!

( soooo many photos )

Also, The Boy's photo gallery is here, and if you see my photos are cool, you ain't seen nothing yet.

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

Today is partly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

.

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/aqsa-mosque

Qadian rooftop, Minaratul Masih, and Masjid Mubarak.

While the Golden Temple in Amritsar is a world-famous symbol of Indian Punjab, Sikhism is not the only religion that was founded in the state. In the late 19th century, the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam was founded in the small town of Qadian.

The Aqsa Mosque was built at what was then the home of Ahmadiyya's founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He claimed to be the second coming of Jesus Christ as well as the Mahdi, who, in Islam, is to deliver justice during the end times. Ahmad stated the goals of his movement to be peaceful moral reformation and the global revival of Islam. Through his numerous publications and public debates with those of other religions, Ahmadiyya spread across British India. It had 400,000 followers by the time of Ahmad's death in 1908.

To back up his claim of being the Messiah, Ahmad cited a hadith (anecdote of the prophet Muhammad) stating that Jesus would return at a white minaret east of Damascus. He also claimed that Muhammad acended to heaven from Qadian, rather than the Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. Although Ahmad interpreted the white minaret as merely symbolic, he committed to building a real one representing the pre-eminence of Islam. The White Minaret was completed after his death in 1916, and is now on the Ahmadiyya flag as a symbol of the movement.

After the partition of India in 1947, the Ahmadiyya moved their headquarters to Pakistan. (Due to continued religious discrimination, they relocated again to the UK in 1984.) However, several hundred members known as the darveshān-i Qādiyān (dervishes of Qadian) were ordered to remain to oversee the Aqsa mosque. Today, it has been greatly expanded to a capacity of 15,000, compared to just 200 when it was originally founded by Ghulam Ahmad's father, Mirza Ghulam Murtaza.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/aqsa-mosque

pauraque

Note: Stronach came out as trans after this book was published, so earlier reviews may misgender her, as does the cover bio.

In this first book of a planned fantasy trilogy (of which two books have so far been released), we're introduced to the city of Hainak, a seaport that's just been through a political revolution, as well as an alchemical-biological magitech revolution. Our main character is Yat, a naive cop who wants to be a hero, but instead she's just been demoted for being queer. As her life crumbles into a haze of drugs and disillusionment, she stumbles into the doings of a secret faction, gets murdered, and finds herself resurrected with new powers that allow her to manipulate life force with her mind, all of which gives her a very different perspective on what a hero is and what she actually wants to fight for.

So... I really wanted to like this. I did enjoy the Māori-inspired worldbuilding and the author's vivid visual imagination, filling the city with a profusion of bizarre wonders as well as a strong sense of place. I also liked a lot of the characters and cared what happened to them. But ultimately I found the book didn't have enough structure to hold together.

It's being marketed as akin to Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series, and I think that comparison pinpoints the problem. Many aspects of the book do seem similar—there's magic with body horror, fantasy with sci-fi, loads of queerness... as well as byzantine political intrigue, misdirections about characters' identities, conversations that don't specify what's being discussed, and long monologues from unidentified speakers. But the reason all the confusing stuff works when Muir does it is that she does eventually provide enough information for you to fit all the pieces together, and on re-reading you discover that all the things that initially confused you actually make complete sense and Muir had a plan all along. And maybe Stronach also has a plan in her head, but if so it didn't make it onto the page. The book ends in a muddle of events that seem superficially dramatic but don't actually explain that much or draw the needed connections between the disparate plot elements.

The part of the book that's presented the most clearly is Yat's journey of realizing that the police only protect the powerful and serve the status quo, so if she wants to be a hero to the downtrodden then being a cop isn't the way to do it. Which would be a perfectly reasonable character arc, except that Yat's backstory is that she was an orphan living on the streets and she saw firsthand on a daily basis what cops are like, so why is her story about her "realizing" something she already knows? I guess she's supposed to be in deep denial, but it just didn't make any sense to me.

Some reviews I read had also led me to believe that the book has a lot more pirate content than it actually does. I mean, it does have pirates! But I felt cheated that we didn't spend more time with them, both because pirates are awesome and because the backstory of these specific pirates was super intriguing but criminally underexplained. I often felt like the book was barely intersecting the outskirts of a way more interesting story centered on the pirate captain and her crew, and wondered why they weren't the main characters.

Anyway, I think there was a lot of potential here but it didn't cohere enough for me to want to continue with the series. Too bad.

conuly

( Read more... )

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sampuru-shops-kappabashi-street

It's hard to believe these replicas aren't actually edible.

Kappabashi Street, affectionately known as Tokyo’s “Kitchen Town,” is a culinary wonderland that serves as a magnet for anyone with a passion for food. The street is lined with an array of shops catering to every aspect of kitchens, cooking, and culinary culture, from professional-grade knives and exquisite crockery to specialized cooking utensils. Among them are shops dedicated to the Japenese art of sampuru—food replicas.

As you stroll along Kappabashi-dori, a selection of shop windows present a feast for the eyes, showcasing perfectly preserved culinary creations. Ramen noodles bathed in permanently glistening broth, tempura prawns with an everlasting crisp texture, and frosted mugs of beer that appear perpetually icy cold. These are meticulously crafted food samples that serve as visual menus for Japan’s restaurants. These hyper-realistic replicas blur the lines between art and appetite, but they aren’t simply decorative items; they play a vital role in the Japanese dining experience. Selections of sampuru outside restaurants allow diners to preview the mouthwatering meals that await within.

In Japan’s early Showa period, restaurants began displaying wax replicas of their dishes to attract customers. These early sampuru were painstakingly crafted from wax, requiring immense skill and artistry but quickly melted when displayed outside or near the kitchens. Over time, the use of plastic resin and vinyl, as well as development in techniques, allowed for even greater realism and durability. Today, artisans employ intricate moulding, painting, and finishing techniques to create these lifelike food samples.

Several sampuru workshops even offer visitors a chance to try their hand at this delicate art, learning the intricate techniques of moulding and painting to create mouthwatering masterpieces.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sampuru-shops-kappabashi-street

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-taskmasters-house

Inside a gated driveway off the Great Chertsey Road in Chiswick, London, lies an unassuming little house that has become a major landmark for fans of British comedy.

In the 1920s, the orchards and meadows occupying the meander of the Thames south of Chiswick’s Grove Park neighborhood were bought by the local council from the noble landowner, the Duke of Devonshire, and transformed into a public leisure area called Dukes Meadows. A groundskeeper’s cottage was constructed shortly after, and when a golf course opened in that part of Dukes Meadows in the 1990s, the cottage passed into private ownership.

The three-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage was available for rent throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s. And while the UK government property register shows it as “Ibis Cottage,” it is unclear when or how it got that name. Today, it is better known as the Taskmaster House.

When it came time to pick a filming location for the first season of Taskmaster, the comedy panel show where comedians compete to complete various ridiculous tasks, creator Alex Horne selected the house from a few options given to him by location scouts. The cottage with its identifiable curved facade was thus transformed into the Taskmaster House. Obscured from the street by the gate, and backing onto the golf course, the house’s grounds were the perfect setting for the increasingly ridiculous escapades of each season of the show, which began airing in 2015.

From seemingly simple tasks like “Camouflage yourself” and “Get the banana in the bottle” to increasingly complicated directives like “Write and perform a song for a stranger” and “Film something that will look impressive in reverse,” the Taskmaster House has been the backdrop for a cavalcade of iconic moments. Along with the interior rooms, additional structures in the garden, such as a caravan, a shed, a stage, and a clear geodesic dome, play host to various task attempts.

The house is still owned by the golf course, although, as of 2025, Avalon Productions (the production company behind Taskmaster) is its only long-term tenant.

The house is not open to the public, nor is it visible from the street, but curious fans passing through Chiswick might be able to get a glimpse through the fencing or surrounding greenery.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-taskmasters-house

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/post-houston

Built in 1934, POST was built as a depot adjacent to Houston's Grand Central Station. The building was designed by Wilson, Morris, Crain and Anderson—the same architects behind the Astrodome—and later served as the headquarters for the U.S. Postal Service in Houston.

It still features multiple nuclear bomb shelters and “spy tunnels” once used to make sure employees weren’t stealing mail. When the building opened to the public in 1961, the celebration was so grand it included lions from the Houston Zoo.

Decommissioned in 2015, the building hosted the Day for Night music festival. Today, POST houses a music venue, art club, and cyberpunk-themed dining hall serving global cuisine. Its rooftop garden is open to the public and offers a great view of the downtown skyline. The building still nods to its past, with features like a bar named Return to Sender and old vaults near the side entrance.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/post-houston

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/golden-age-collectables

Seattle’s Pike Place Market itself is more or less a cabinet of curiosities, but it is also home to what has been described as the world’s oldest comic book shop.

Established in 1961, Golden Age Collectables was a dime-a-dozen comic book shop when, in 1971, its owners sold it to then-19-year-old Rod Dyke, their “best comic book buyer.” Managing it with his mother, he would soon see that it was going to grow into a great business, with the arrivals of the Comic Book Price Guide, which established comic books as valuable collectibles, and, a few years later, the geeky culture surrounding the Star Wars franchise.

Today, the shop is a treasure trove of niche, nerdy novelties and nostalgic knick-knacks where the past meets the present, with shelf after shelf of comic books and graphic novels of all sorts, be it Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, or Shonen Jump, a jaunty space filled with a fine selection of Star Wars figures, Funko Pops, film posters and memorabilia. It also has a vast inventory of party games, a variety of Fluxx, Cards Against Humanity, and pop culture-themed tarots.

Golden Age Collectables claims to be a dish best served hot, and does not have an online store despite its huge following. It’s certainly best to experience it in person, and maybe pick up a graded vintage Batman or the latest issue of Uncanny X-Men.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/golden-age-collectables

jazzyjj posting in

awesomeers

It'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!

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Eric: My husband and I have been estranged from our 17-year-old granddaughter for eight years. We were loving, supportive grandparents but after the mother of our granddaughter broke up with our son, the father, she stopped our granddaughter from seeing us as well.

For eight years, I have tried to keep contact with our granddaughter with gifts and cards on her birthday, Christmas and other times. I do not receive a response of any kind from her. We believe her mother forbids her from contacting us.

My question is should I continue to send cards and gifts to her? I’m ready to stop. I don’t want her to forget us but I’m very tired of attempting to reach out to her with no response.

– Estranged Gramma

( Read more... )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Eric: I’m married with four kids and have a sizable extended family. One son, who is in seventh grade, runs track and finished the season with personal records in his events, which also happen to place second in his school’s all-time best records.

I sent out a family text to all of our extended family raving about his achievements. This is common amongst all of the aunts and uncles. We got a load of congrats. However, my husband’s brother side-texted my eldest daughter, “tell your brother to stop being first loser.” (He did not text any “congrats” to the group text.)

My daughter showed me the text and chuckled. I’m not sure if she showed my son. I’m so deeply angry about this. I know that everyone will tell me he was joking. Or that I’m misinterpreting his meaning. I just cannot get over it.

My initial feeling is to keep my son as far away from his uncle as possible for the rest of his life. My second feeling is to call said uncle to tell him he is a complete loser himself (which would be super biting as he just got laid off, has to sell his house and downsize everything). I know I won’t do either but I am having a hard time imagining being around him this summer as our families usually get together each summer for a few days.

How do I express by complete disdain for his comments without upsetting the entire extended family? Am I being oversensitive?

– Second to None

( Read more... )

dancing_serpent posting in

c_ent

Welcome to Topic Tuesday! Right away I want to stress that discussion posts are always welcome to the community, you don't have to wait until a Topic Tuesday rolls around, and then maybe be disappointed by the current topic of discussion. Whenever you want to talk about something, please simply make a separate entry to this comm, no matter the week, the time, or the topic. All right? *g*

The topic I picked for today is Underrated Dramas. It comes from a list of suggestions to a post I made on Bluesky, and I'm very happy with all the ideas people came up with!

Quoting directly: Underrated dramas? Not necessarily those that have low ratings on MDL (because we all know those are not always reliable), but those that managed to fly below the radar and are still liked by the comm members.

Do you have a drama you really like, but feel like it somehow passed by people, hidden among the huge number of constant rew releases? Tell us all about it - people might appreciate a rec!

As usual, if you want to talk about spoilers, please use one of these codes to hide them.

or

selenak

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Bamberg

About a month ago, I bought the Big Finish episodes around the War Doctor in which the late John Hurt reprises his role. They're basically three episode storyarcs - "Only the Monstrous", "Infernal Devices", "Agents of Chaos" and "Casualties of War" - all set during the Time War. Now, because of the setting, the usual Doctor-Companion combinations are out, though the Doctor meets a likeable idealistic person in each of these three episode adventures (and can save some though not all). But the great charm of any Doctor Who tale are those relationships. So what did Big Finish do? It had the inspired idea of pairing up John Hurt with Jacqueline Pearce, playing, no, not Servalan, but a ruthless female politiician nonetheless, a member of the Gallifreyan War Council named Cardinal Ollista. She and the Doctor are the sole characters in all the four story arcs I've listened to, and the way their relationship develops was probably my favourite aspect in these stories.

Because this is the Time War, and this regeneration of the Doctor specifically is on a self loathing maximum while fighting it, Ollista is initially a good foil because she, who really does only prioritize Gallifrey and initially sees everyone not a Time Lord as expendable, shows that despite what he's telling himself, he is still the Doctor, he still has ethics and lines he won't cross and will fight for and have another way. But Ollista isn't simply an Evil McEvil megalomaniac, either, hence me saying "Gallifrey" and not "her personal power", and so the Doctor in the course of those stories develops a grudging respect for her while she while denying she does so finds herself defending, in the last story arc, precisely the kind of (non-Gallifreyan) people she in the first story arc would have dismissed as necessary casualties of war. Whether they argue or work together, all the Doctor-Ollista scenes are golden, and with both John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce now gone, I am really glad they had the chance to work together near the end of their lives and create two more remarkable characters for us to appreciate.

sweh

New blog post in which I asked ChatGPT to write some code for me; it went about as well as can be expected (TLDR; it mostly worked but smelled very bad): https://www.sweharris.org/post/2025-06-10-chatgpt-oauth/

rolanni

What went before ONE: All righty, then!

In my small, as yet uninvaded by Marines corner of the US, where it is cloudy, cool, and damp, I did go see the chiropractor, which was good, because back pain had continued escalating, until I was forced to sacrifice one of my precious Meloxicams to stem the pain and it was exactly like throwing a snowball at Hell.

I'm not gonna lie: getting smacked with a hammer in precisely the places I hurt most wasn't fun. OTOH, the relief was damn' near immediate. I came home, threw down some muscle relaxants, in order to get ahead of the cycle, got an ice pack and laid down in the bed, where I was immediately joined by Rook in what may be his first solo nursing gig. When I woke up, he was still curled against my knee, and I had Firefly and Tali bracketing my hips, so obviously this was considered a Serious Event by the care staff.

I have another appointment with the chiropractor tomorrow afternoon, but the absence of pain is a benediction, as ever.

I'm out for the rest of the day, obviously, but hope to be functional tomorrow.

Everybody stay safe.

Oh! Someone had asked about my neighbor: I've seen him round and about, though not to talk to -- so I guess he's Clearing Stuff Out.

'night

What went before TWO: The names! The names! Obviously, I knew about the Sasanoa, but Upper Hells Gate and Hockomock have somehow eluded me for 35 years...

Cruise the upper Sasanoa River through Upper Hells Gate into serene Hockomock and Montsweag Bays. These tidal channels connect the Sasanoa River, Back River, and Sheepscot Rivers and once served as the primary rout for transportation between coastal communities like Bath, Wiscasset, and Boothbay. Their brackish waters host abundant fish and wildlife and serve as beautiful backdrops for photography opportunities. -- Maine Maritime Museum Tours

Tuesday. Mizzling and cool. Trash and recycling are at the curb. It would be nice if it didn't rain on one Trash Day so I could finish getting the Winter Boxes out of the garage before it's Winter again.

Breakfast was oatmeal with inclusions. Lunch may well be the leftover pretend chicken parm.

I am sneezing. Happily my back does not hurt this morning, so I may do so with impunity.

Follow up with chiropractor at 3 today; sewing at 5 (or, really, whenever I get there); grocery shopping after. In-between, one's duty to the cats, and the work of the house. I could, yanno, throw in a load of laundry, if I'm feeling particularly ambitious.

Two of the cruises offered from the Maine Maritime Museum hit the six lighthouses along the Kennebec River, and, Readers, I Am Tempted, because there's no other way I'm going to be able to view these lights. All I need to do is figure out if I can cope with two to three hours trapped with strangers and their kids on a tour boat, and what I'm going to do about not burning to a crisp.

Last night, the cats and I finished up Season 1 of Ncuti Gatwa's Dr. Who, and, having now seen the Whole Arc, I applaud Mr. Davies' storytelling (yes, yes, I know; y'all are experts on Everything Who; allow me my discoveries in their own time). Firefly Did. Not. Approve. of Suketh. She threw herself onto the couch and aggressively snuggled against my side, purring, and occasionally looking up at me. I had to assure her several times that Ruby would Fix It, with help from the Man Person.

Ah. And today marks 300 days of traveling with Perry Wink in Finch. A melancholy celebration in its way, but, hey -- any excuse for a party.

The younger staff members are playing tag in the back hall; Trooper is asleep on the co-pilot's chair.

Have a picture of the rose bush:

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January 2013

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Reply Hazy, Ask Again Later

View From Inside the Magic 8 Ball

Network

2025 album challenge

Der Mensch bezwingt den Kosmos (The Potsdam Mosaic) in Potsdam, Germany

De Tijdtrap in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Postcard of the Day

Costa Rica highlights part 2: critters that aren't birds

Birdfeeding

Aqsa Mosque in Qadian, India

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach (2019)

Prodigy

Sampuru Shops of Kappabashi Street in Tokyo, Japan

The Taskmaster’s House in London, England

POST Houston in Houston, Texas

Golden Age Collectables in Seattle, Washington

Just one thing: 10 June 2025

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Topic Tuesday - Underrated Dramas

Doctor Who: The War Doctor

ChatGPT wrote my code

Doctor on Deck

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January 2013

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