Murderbot through 1.6

Jun. 17th, 2025 09:08 pm
lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


1.6 sure was a combination of "funny" and "I cannot look at the screen". So there's that. It's still entertaining but I may be getting to the point where I have to fast forward through my extreme embarrassment squick going on with Ratthi when it comes to Pin-Lee.

The situation: Arada and Pin-Lee are married. Arada wants to bring Ratthi into their relationship; they've had a third in their relationship before and it hasn't worked out. Pin-Lee isn't really into the idea, it's being heavily pushed by Arada. Pin-Lee then eventually agrees to it for Arada's sake.

Here's where it gets to the part where I just keep having second-hand embarrassment: Ratthi doesn't know this. Ratthi thinks that both Arada and Pin-Lee are equally happy to have him in the relationship, and he's really really into this relationship. He seems to want this to be permanent and is just really happy with it. And he keeps having interactions with Pin-Lee where Pin-Lee is very uncomfortable and doesn't want to be having these interactions with Ratthi, but, crucially, has not said any of this to Ratthi. Ratthi has no way to know that Pin-Lee isn't as into him as he's into them.

And so we keep getting these moments where Ratthi doesn't fucking know that the person he's trying to have a good faith relationship interaction with does not want this, but yet has never said anything about it.

Somebody please break up Ratthi from Arada/Pin-Lee for the sake of everyone. Or maybe Pin-Lee can actually say something, rather than seemingly 1) being content to suffer in silence for the sake of the Arada/Pin-Lee relationship (Arada has never said Ratthi was a necessary addition to the Arada/Pin-Lee relationship for the sake of its continuance), or 2) expecting someone in this relationship to read their mind and magically divine their discomfort and break it up for them.

I suspect this was added to the show for narrative reasons, including mirroring with the Sanctuary Moon stuff (still delightful, still clear that everyone involved in that is having the time of their life), but zomg. It is excruciating.

lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Title: And Though The Static Walls Surround Me.
Author: [personal profile] lannamichaels
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Series: Part 11 of Are You Out There, Can You Hear This?
Rating: G
A/N: The title is from Are You Out There by Dar Williams.
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Miles is hanging out with mercenaries. Gregor has a headache and would rather be listening to the radio. Or: Warrior's Apprentice in radioverse.


Let's do the time skip again! )

siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
I have a question about eye safety, maybe someone here can advise me on.

Apropos of the protests going on, I've seen a lot of helpful pointers about preparing for getting tear gassed or pepper sprayed, such as not to wear contacts and to have tight-fitting chemists' goggles. But not wearing vision correction is not an option for those who need it, and the alternative to contacts is glasses, which are apparently incompatible with most eye protection from gas or particulates.

I am aware of the existence of some models of full-face gas mask that have internal mounting hardware for glasses, but in addition to being expensive themselves, they require getting lenses made and fitted to the gas mask (i.e. not compatible with regular glasses). I'm surmising the existence of these means that other, cheaper, spectacle-compatible eye protection doesn't really exist, but I thought I'd ask.

My personal interest in the topic is less about protecting myself from chemical ordnance at protests – I only wish I could attend protests (though if things got spicy in the right location I suppose I could collect my fair share of tear gas at home) – than from wildfire smoke. The conjunction of the No Kings protests and the local air quality alerts from fires in Canada reminded me I should really be doing some preparation in this space.

I'm allergic to smoke. (It turns out it wasn't con crud I kept getting at Pennsic.) My reactivity to smoke only seems to be gradually getting worse over time. So when I've heard reports or seen pictures from the left coast of the sorts of wildfire smog they have there, I'm like "...not enough steroids in the world." I mostly manage this threat by not crossing the Mississippi, but it could happen here. Or upwind of here. It has. If not quite so "blot out the sun" bad, certainly bad enough for me to feel it.

So I've been looking at half-face elastomeric respirators, but that leave eyes unprotected.

Any suggestions?

Edit: I'm getting a lot of suggestions that aren't really helpful because:

1) Most safety goggles are for protection against impact or splashes, and as such literally have vent holes that make them useless against gases and airborne particulates.

2) Involve buying a prescription eyepiece. The whole point of my question was looking for alternatives to buying additional prescription lenses. Like I said, I am already aware of options that entail ordering custom lenses, I am looking for alternatives that don't involve that and are compatible with regular glasses the wearer already has.

There may not be any*, which would be good to know, but that is the question.

Allow me to put a finer point on this. If there is no affordable, readily available option for eye protection against gas/powder attacks for people who are dependent on vision correction, then that implies something important about protest safety that is entirely missing from all of the discourse of the sort that recommends having a gas mask to go to a protest.

* Since posting, I learned the term PAPR, and am now wondering why they're so expensive and whether that's a technology ripe for DIY.
lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Title: And If You're Under Him, You Ain't Getting Over Him.
Author: [personal profile] lannamichaels
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Pairing: Ges Vorrutyer/Aral Vorkosigan, Ges Vorrutyer/Serg Vorbarra
Rating: R
A/N: The title is from New Rules, sung by Dua Lipa, written by Caroline Ailin, Emily Warren, and Ian Kirkpatrick.
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Ges Vorrutyer has ex-boyfriend problems.


This has languished in Scrivener since 2019... )

lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
[personal profile] lannamichaels
Somehow we got a spring this year -- after so many years of maybe a week between winter and summer -- and I am so so so happy and relieved. Summer is certainly icumen in, but we have had spring. An actual spring. Yay.
siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
2025 Jun 7 11:40 am: [profile] benjalvarez1 on Twitter:

WATCH THIS: https://x.com/BenjAlvarez1/status/1931375699786334704

Click through to see the video. You really, really should. Sound is irrelevant.

Text: "Tanks, fighting vehicles and howitzers arrive in Washington, D.C. ahead of next week's military parade. They departed from Texas on June 2." Two minutes and forty seconds.

Allegedly that train is a mile long and is transporting:

• 28 Abrams tanks (M1A2 main battle tank)
• 3 armored recovery vehicles (M88)
• 28 Bradleys (M2A3 infantry fighting vehicle)
• 5 Paladins (M109A7 self-propelled howitzer), and
• 28 Strykers (infantry carrier vehicle)

Source: 2025 Jun 6: @USAMilitaryChannel on YT [not official military channel]: "1-Mile Military Train -Texas to D.C. with Tanks, Armor, and More for Army's 250th Parade". I do not know if that source is reputable or if that inventory is accurate.

USA Today is reporting that "The military vehicles will be joined by 1,800 soldiers". (Source: 2025 Jun 6, USATODAY on YT: "Watch: Tanks, fighting vehicles head to DC for Trump's military parade", CW: face full of Trump, alt: screenshot).

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that maybe the guy who attempted one coup already bringing a well-armed military force into our capitol city and, crucially, within artillery-range of the Pentagon, is just throwing himself a birthday party, but also maybe not.

ETA: For those of you confused by this, thinking, but doesn't he already control the military? You might want to watch this video about the rise of Xi Jinping.

Now, obviously, Trump would never play a long game like Xi did. But, 1) there are other ways to achieve the same end and 2) he doesn't have to, because his buddies, the Dominionists, did.
lannamichaels: Brachos 2a, caption: "There's a debate about that" (daf yomi)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Notes on the first 4 prakim of Tractate Oaths, of which two of them were not about oaths at all.

Read more... )

Page generated Jun. 18th, 2025 07:58 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios