Daily Happiness

Jan. 7th, 2026 07:47 pm
torachan: (cartoon me)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We walked up to Layla for bagels this morning, only I didn't end up getting a bagel after all, because they have a new seasonal pastry, orange blossom babka. I love orange, so I couldn't resist, and it was definitely a good choice. The smell was very faint, so I wasn't sure how orangey it would actually taste, but it turned out to be very flavorful. I'm not sure I'll actually get it again, since I'm trying to not eat pastries for breakfast very often, but I would get it again if the opportunity every arose.

2. The front yard is covered in soooooo many berries. Just a gross carpet of berries. But I did manage to rake up quite a bit of it and get it into the yard waste bin for tomorrow's pickup.

3. Gemma looks so proud of her hunt lol.

[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Jesse Kessenheimer

Things are bleak this week, there's no denying it. Fresh off the holiday high, workers are back in their swivel chairs, work boots, and regular shift rotation, and a 40-hour work week is starting to feel more like a prison sentence than your normal, everyday schedule. 

Cat lovers have spent the last two weeks at home cosplaying as a house cat, cuddling with their felines, sipping cocoa, and letting the kittens tug on the loose strings of their Christmas pajamas. We aren't meant for the cold, harsh world of full-time employment! 

At home, we had all of the comforts of the world at our disposal. The fire in the hearth was going strong, warming the home and smelling like cedar. The cats dined on the finest of turkey leftovers, flicking their tails with delight. And after visiting family, we realized the cat we grew up with has a few more salt n' peppa flakes in their fur, but it's still the snuggly bundle of warmth you remembered as a kid. 

Now, cat lovers are thrust back into the flow of the workforce; they dread their commutes and dream of the simpler times of the holiday season before the turn of 2026. Back when the cat's meowing woke them up and their favorite feline made biscuits on their chest as a good morning ritual. Under the cover of their down comforter and without management breathing down their necks, our cats bespoke of a simpler time. 

Alas, now, when we leave the house, the cats taunt our folly, mewing in mockery at our human debacle. Cats never have to clock in, they never have to laugh at a coworker's jokes at 8 AM, and they'll always have the freshest canned food in the bowls at night. Purrhaps, we humans got too comfortable over the break, cosplaying like a feline and enjoying our funemployment. For when the farmer's away, the cats will play, as they say. So we just know that the kitties are at the house right now, throwing a feline party of the century, celebrating the human's return to the workplace as we mourn our change in schedules. 

Oh, to be a furry feline freeloader instead of a responsible adult. 

Challenge 199 - Results

Jan. 7th, 2026 06:49 pm
luminousdaze: Te Feti from Moana (disney animation 08)
[personal profile] luminousdaze posting in [community profile] iconthat
Congratulations, everybody! Thank you to all the participants and voters. 🎉🏆🏅
The tally if needed is in the comments of the voting post.

Challenge 199: Film Fandom Fest - Winners

icon
1st Place
and
Best Composition
by [personal profile] magicrubbish

icon
2nd Place
and
Best Crop
by [personal profile] mulhollands

icon
3rd Place
by [personal profile] word_never_said

icon
4th Place
and
Best Color
by [personal profile] innitmarvelous_og

icon
Mod's Choice
by [personal profile] spiderbraids

1/7/2026 Wildcat Marsh Staging Area

Jan. 7th, 2026 04:19 pm
mrkinch: Erik holding fieldglasses in "Russia" (bins)
[personal profile] mrkinch
There are several places along the Richmond shoreline I want to get to, and today I drove up to Wildcat Marsh Staging Area. It's very small but is adjacent to the marsh and Landfill Loop, and the trail to Landfill Loop passes a series of settling ponds or similar, the southern most of which has in the past had great birds. Unfortunately I could no longer see the western end or much of the water's surface. Not sure what's changed. I'd like to climb up the embankment but am not sure I can. To the west there are natural ponds in the marsh that I could see easily. So I saw shorebirds, lots of Black-necked Stilts and a few Greater Yellowlegs, but not ducks. The list: )

The trail continues east from the parking lot, under Richmond Boulevard, following Wildcat Creek (the same Creek as in The Nature Area) up into Alvarado Park. I don't think there a path along the entire length, certainly it's been buried for a Foodmax.:) Right now the water is very high but I hope to take a look at the western end when it's drier.

I made a few stops on the way home, in Miller/Knox Regional Park and at Meeker Slough, but didn't stay long at either place. At Miller/Knox there was a single Greater White-fronted Goose hanging with Canada Geese - omg so tiny! about half the size - who's been reported since the middle of December. At Meeker I could see Black Skimmers flying above the outer shore but that's a long ways away and I didn't count or report.

January 7, 2026...

Jan. 7th, 2026 08:30 pm
shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
Question a Day Meme - January:

6. In 1709 The Great Frost began during the night, a sudden cold snap that remains Europe's coldest ever winter. What temperature will it reach today where you live?

It's actually warmer this week? So it reached 45 degrees, and is supposed to reach 51 on Friday. Also supposed to rain. But hopefully not when I'm off to see the doctor on Friday.

7. In 1803, Henri Herz, an Austrian pianist and composer, was born in Vienna, Austria. Have you ever learned the piano? If not, would you like to?

Yes. When I was 13, my mother and I took lessons separately, but from the same teacher. I sucked at it - dysgraphia/dyslexia and piano don't mix well. I could play with one hand, but both? And use the pedals? And read the music? Uh, not without a great deal of difficulty.

The teacher went to my mother and told her - that I'd never be able to learn to play the piano and to not waste any more time on it.

My family can draw, paint, write - but we are not musically inclined. We love music, we just can't sing or play an instrument to save our lives.

***

Buffy S6 Rewatch.

I like S5 and S4 better? Even though S6 is much riskier. The production design is slightly off in S6 - hair, makeup, etc. Also Gellar and Marsters apparently decided they had to lose fifty pounds for all those sex scenes.
(Sigh.) They are TOO thin. So is Emma Caulfield. Meanwhile Xander keeps gaining weight. Weirdly, wardrobe has decided to play with Spike's wardrobe - he's gotten a wardrobe upgrade. Actually, Buffy, Spike, and possibly Willow have the best wardrobe.

The writers are having a lot of fun implying sex - without really showing anything? And they seem to be hunting about every way to do it, available.
Read more... )
Tags:
[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Sarah Brown

Not long ago, cats weren't really part of the plan for this person. That changed one summer afternoon when two tiny kittens appeared in the alley behind the house, flea-covered, loud, and completely unafraid. They walked straight up, meowing like they already knew the answer. In that moment, the decision felt less like a choice and more like an understanding. They were coming inside, and life was about to shift.

Since then, those two small souls have grown into healthy, happy kittens who have fully settled into home life. They've developed into a bonded pair, rarely seen apart, moving through the house as a unit. They sleep tangled together, play endlessly, and seem to find comfort simply in being near each other. Their connection feels natural and steady, the kind that's quietly reassuring to watch.

Each kitten brings something different to the household. Stormy, the tuxedo, is openly affectionate and always looking for closeness. Laps, shoulders, and nearby spots are all fair game if it means being near a person. August, the calico, is softer in her approach. She observes first, takes her time, and chooses her moments carefully. When she does lean in for affection, it feels earned and deeply meaningful.

Together, they've changed more than just routines. They've reshaped how the house feels. What started as an unexpected rescue has turned into daily joy, gentle companionship, and the kind of love that sneaks up quietly and stays for good. Sometimes, the best things show up unannounced and refuse to leave.

Somehow lacking a specific fandom icon.

Jan. 7th, 2026 08:56 pm
hannah: (OMFG - favyan)
[personal profile] hannah
Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!


Of all the glimmers of Old Internet I come across these days, few made my jaw drop like TomCruiseFan.com did a couple years ago, because it'd been ages since I'd seen an honest-to-God tribute site - and my jaw dropped again when I saw how extensive and detailed it was. As much of a figure of fascination as Cruise is for me, the way people look at him - and I include myself in that - is its own subject worth examining, and beyond that, it's simply nice to see an old-fashioned fan's tribute site still kicking around. It pleases me to know there's still a few of those out there. The part of me that'd stay up late in college to browse screencap and icon galleries, especially.

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

Hockey babble, sorry

Jan. 7th, 2026 06:14 pm
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
* There is a Hockey sub on DW, but the last post was that the player lock out is over. That was a very long time ago. Would be nice to have a hockey discussion or friending meme on here, but I have retired from running that sort of thing.

* Kraken had an amazing pair of days. Had to play back to back games, won both. One rookie got his NHL first goal in one game, the other rookie got his first *and* second in the other. Veteran team player and OG Kraken McCann got a goal with four tenths of a second remaining. In hockey, it's not just the seconds that count it's the tenths of a second.

* In response to the photo of Melanson with the puck from his first goal people on reddit were all like 'wow that is a hockey player alright'. Our team's own announcers have been saying he looks like the first google result for hockey player. What do they mean?? )
Tags:
[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Sarah Brown

Cats treat shopping like a very serious field trip. Whether they're riding in a cart, peeking out of a tote, or supervising from a window while bags get unpacked, they approach the whole experience with intense curiosity and zero shame. Shopping isn't just an errand to them. It's an opportunity to inspect, judge, and generally be in charge.

They have strong opinions about aisles. The snack section gets a slow blink of approval. The paper goods are suspicious. Anything that crinkles is immediately interesting and possibly theirs. Cats don't rush through stores. They browse. They scan shelves like they're comparing prices, even though the only thing on their list is vibes. A good shopping trip requires patience, and cats have perfected the art of taking their time.

Once purchases come home, the real fun begins. Every bag must be inspected for quality control. Boxes are claimed before anything is unpacked. Receipts are batted around like toys. Cats move from bag to bag, conducting a full paws-on audit to make sure nothing important was missed.

What makes cats shopping companions so endearing is how seriously they take their role. They're not just along for the ride. They're pawssistants. They help choose the best seat in the cart, provide moral sup-purr-t at checkout, and make sure no bag is left unopened.

Shopping may be a chore for humans, but cats turn it into an event. Add whiskers, toe beans, and a little cattitude, and suddenly even the most routine errand feels like a paw-some experience worth repeating.

Lake Lewisia #1353

Jan. 7th, 2026 04:39 pm
scrubjayspeaks: Town sign for (fictional) Lake Lewisia, showing icons of mountains and a lake with the letter L (Lake Lewisia)
[personal profile] scrubjayspeaks
She stepped onto the stage, wide-eyed and white knuckled around the gathered black plastic bag in her hands, and tentatively shuffled into the sizzle of the spotlight. Applause burst out from the audience, visible only around the very edges of the light as shadowy wings and horns, at the sight of her in her moth-eaten sweater and her coziest slippers. When she had stepped through her apartment door to take out the trash, she had expected to enter a hallway, rather than an elaborately dressed stage in mid-production somewhere in the fae realms, and she had no idea what to expect when she made it all the way to stage right.

---

LL#1353
[syndicated profile] icanhascheezburger_feed

Posted by Briana Viser

Tuxedo man and calico girl – the purrfect couple. 

Have you ever felt like you fit so aesthetically well with your partner? There's something about a contrast of colors, of tastes and vibes that people are complimenting you when you're out. Finding that purrfect partner is never easy for anyone. If you find someone who completes your world, who fulfills your soul, who you can have fun with and also manage each other's deepest array of emotions, and also look cute together on top of all the intimate things going on inside, then you've really found the right person. 

Take these two kitties as an example. A tuxedo guy and calico girl were spotted in an alley behind a kind human's home. He claims they were small, meowing, and covered in fleas but he brought them home anyway. He's decided to make them furrever his. From photoshoots together, to nap time intertwined, to playing with each other, he claims they're inseparable. What could be cuter than a little cat couple? This human really hit the jackpot on the cats, and they hit the jackpot of love with each other. 

At least the cats have their relationship and their love. It's not an easy world to find love, and maybe it never was. But with modern dating apps, brain rot, and the desensitization of intimacy, it may seem impossible to find someone loving and mature enough to make a good companion. No one wants to be alone, despite the era of situationships and casual flings amongst us all. There's a cute tabby, or elegent tuxedo man out there for a good girl, and a beautiful calico, or a fluffy Persian out there for a guy. 

Music Wednesday

Jan. 7th, 2026 04:23 pm
muccamukk: Orville Peck in a red Nudie suit, singing and playing guitar, while a pink and white musical score swirl behind him. (Music: Orville Peck)
[personal profile] muccamukk

Going back to Cry Cry Cry these last few weeks. I'm so obsessed with the storytelling in the music, especially the percussion (and some kind of drone?) around 2:54 to 3:20, before the mandoline comes back in.
[personal profile] sixbeforelunch
Snowflake Challenge: A mug of coffee or hot chocolate with a snowflake shaped gingerbread cookie perched on the rim sits nestled amidst a softly bunched blanket. A few dried orange slices sit next to it.

Challenge #3: Write a love letter to fandom.

John Green says of going to home games for AFC Wimbledon, "I'm with 8,000 people whose love is oriented in the same direction as mine." That, to me, is fandom. It's a group of people who have oriented their love in a similar direction, whether that's toward a show or an actor or a band or a character or a hobby or something else entirely. (Honestly, love oriented in the same direction might be foundational to almost all human-built institutions, and the problem with some of them is that the object of their love doesn't inspire pro-social behavior, but that's outside the scope of this post.) It doesn't matter what the object of the love is so much as the way that all that love aimed at a similar place amplifies itself, like vector multiplication.

The funny thing is, the way I do fandom these days, It's almost less about the object of the fandom and more about the idea of fandom, the love and the passion it inspires. Which is not to say that I'm not in some fandoms. I'm very active in Star Trek fandom, and love hanging out with people who love it with me. It's always fun to find people who share some of my other current interests like Sherlock Holmes, Murder She Wrote, Superman, and Jane Austen, or to reminisce happily with people who remember the loves that I'm less active in but still remember fondly like X-Files and Stargate.

But there are definitely people in fandom spaces with whom I share no fandoms, and I still enjoy their company, because they're doing the fandom thing too. That is, they're passionate about something, and so passionate that they want to talk about the thing, and make more of the thing, and put their joy and passion into the world so that other people can share it. Elsewhere on this year's snowflake, someone mentioned how much they love seeing someone be passionate about something, even if they don't share that passion. I like that. It is a joy to see humans be happy and excited about things they love, and to be unabashedly passionate about them.

Let people enjoy things has become a meme, almost a cliche, but that's because it so often needs to be said. Fandom at its best is a safe place where people are allowed to enjoy things without mockery or disdain, and in a world where that is all too often not the case, that's a very valuable thing.

Let's Get Literate! 2025 Reading Recap

Jan. 7th, 2026 04:31 pm
renay: photo of the milky way from new zealand on a clear night (Default)
[personal profile] renay posting in [community profile] ladybusiness
2025 was the first year my reading started to feel less like a miracle and more like, "oh yeah, reading! I do that without struggling." I read 78 books, although a lot of them were rereads. I'm happy to reread The Murderbot Diaries and a bunch of my favorite romance novels a few times a year. The brain craves familiarity.

I have elevenish favorites this year (I combined books in series, because I make the rules). My top book, which is no big secret as I've been shouting about it for months, is the only one ranked; the rest are here in alphabetical order.

Favorite Books )

The numbers and musings )

That's a wrap on 2025! If you read any of my favorites and have readalikes, I'm always hyped for recs. If you wrote a favorites post for your SFF reading, I'd love to see it (and then link it in Intergalactic Mixtape, haha).

Profile

beanside: Papa Perpetua V from Ghost (Default)
beanside

January 2026

S M T W T F S
     1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 1314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 14th, 2026 04:01 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios