billroper | Network

Conservative and Christian? US right champions psychedelic drugs
Texas governor among those to call for expanded access to ibogaine, said to help with treating veterans with PTSD
Mattha Busby
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/26/us-right-champions-psychedelic-drugs

A child is born: Italians celebrate village’s first baby in 30 years
Feted birth of bambina Lara in Pagliara dei Marsi highlights sticky national debate over country’s ‘demographic winter’
Angela Giuffrida in Pagliara dei Marsi
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/26/italian-village-first-baby-in-30-years ( Read more... )

susandennis

In the olden days (like a few months ago), Biggie only really peed once a day and pooped once a day usually in the mornings. Then he got this bladder issue about the same time as I changed the litter. I thought he was just going to the litter box so frequently to play with the new litter but, turns out, bladder issue. Then we switched foods to fix that to a food he does not love. And, in a stroke of genius, I decided to cut back on his OCD medication (and the vet said ok, so dumb and dumber). So for about a week he was all over the place, in and out of the yarn bins, in and out of my lap, in and out of the litter box, running all over the place always and chewing on shit.

SOOOO back onto the daily OCD meds. And the anxiety calmed right down. But then yesterday, he barely moved. When he did, he was chipper, but he spent all day napping in his bed and only got up a couple of times briefly. And no pee. He ate ok and was alert when he did arouse but still.

This morning, he's his normal Biggie. A nice big pee that was not nearly as nearly looking as previous pees. And he ate and he begged for his treat and then he went back to finish his morning nap. We go back to the vet week after next for retest and I'll be a little less stressed then but still, it's Biggie, so there will always be something.

I was going to skip the pool this morning and I still might. I'm lazy and my skin needs a break.

I did not talk to a single soul yesterday and it was lovely. Tomorrow is volleyball and elbow coffee - lots of souls so I think today, I'll go out and puzzle some - ease my way back into people. But, mostly, I'll do my usual stuff right in my lovely little apartment.

calimac

The huge 'wine country gift box' I brought home from the Christmas gift exchange measures 23 x 12 x 10 with the lid closed, which was only possible to do after I removed all the wine bottles and those snacks I wouldn't care to eat (which I gave to B., figuring correctly that she'd like most of them, and the rest she could take to the snack table of her orchestral rehearsals). It was also so heavy that I shouldn't have carried it intact from the car into the house. It proved to contain:

6 bottles of wine (4 reds, 2 whites including a sparkling; 3 from Sonoma County and one each from Napa, Paso Robles, and Oregon)
8 boxes of various cookies
3 of biscuits, one with fruit filling (some of the cookies were also labeled biscuits, apparently in French)
6 of various crackers and hard breads
3 pastries
3 veggie snacks (2 asparagus, 1 olive)
1 each of madeleines, brownies, snack mix, kettle corn, jellies, ginger chews, lemon cakes, dip mix, dipping sauce, olive oil, hummus, and spreadable cheese

Most of the wine is probably destined to be regifted, but when will we manage to eat the rest of this stuff?

james_davis_nicoll

An assortment of stories from the late fantasy magazine Unknown, presented in a one-off A4 work.

From Unknown Worlds edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

princessofgeeks

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

Current Mood: sleepy

fred_mouse

I am a little bemused to discover that it is more than a week since I last posted. I am entirely failing to work out what has been going on. Surgery recovery seems to be going better than the first time, although there might be some contribution from the fact that staying nearly flat on my back is the best way to not irritate the pulled shoulder muscle.

The last two days have been having Weather! with yesterday's temperature (in the city, so 15km north) peaking at 43°C. Today is quite mellow; it is currently 20°C and I'm resenting the breeze for not being warm enough. We have, however, swapped the warm quilt/doona for the very thin one made by Artisanat's mother.

There are fires, with friends currently hosting parents who have been evacuated (D&F, D's parents, I believe). The gold mine at Boddington is listed as on fire. I am choosing to not go down the rabbit hole of working out what that means, although I suspect it is actually bushland on the same site that is on fire.

Youngest finished up their internship on Friday last week, and is beyond bored. Fortunately, they are reasonably good at keeping themself amused (although, if it weren't that all retail and hospitality work is already grabbed for the season and winding down, I suspect they would be out there trying to get another job).

I have been working on two low energy tasks - digital decluttering, and finishing books. Over in the Discord for the Habitica Book Club, I signed up for a bingo card with 16 books that I have abandoned ('paused') over the last however long. The challenge runs December/January, and I've finished three and progressed two. Which isn't really as much as I would like, but is well within the goal of 'make progress'. I probably won't get around to writing those up, and I'm kind of okay about that.

I do have a stack of other notes that might get turned into blog posts at some point, but I'm very much allowing life to just happen, and if the enthusiasm hits, that is a win.

As for uni: I took this week off entirely as recovery / summer break, and I'll go back (work from home) on Monday. I have to have a stack of my ethics application done by mid-January, and before that can be written I need to have a solid theoretical framework for what questions I want to ask. Which means reading about 50 papers next week ('reading').

Craft wise I have abandoned hope on getting Eldest's quilt top done by the end of the year. Not being allowed to do much with the right arm and having upset the shoulder has meant that sewing has been Too Hard. I do have thoughts about just getting the pieces cut though, and maybe I'll do that this evening.

ysabetwordsmith

These are the location notes for "Genuinely Sufficient Resources."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

These are the character notes for "Genuinely Sufficient Resources."

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Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

This poem is spillover from the February 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from

alchemicink,

dialecticdreamer,

kellan_the_tabby, and

rix_scaedu. It also fills the "Taking It Slow" square in my 2-1-25 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It directly follows "When You're Lost, You Question Everything,"

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today's theme is Learning.

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Current Mood: busy

jbwoodford posting in

girlgenius_lair

...but that doesn't mean you should!

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251225.html

A star forming region

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251225.html

genarti

This is just a quick drive-by post to say: hello! I hope that those of you who are celebrating Christmas have had a lovely one, and that those of you who aren't have had a nice Thursday.

We're at my parents' place having a pleasantly low-key celebration (lots of joy! but also, us plus two elderly people = a lot of lying around on the couch reading, and not a lot of impetus to go all-out for the decorations and feasting), and meanwhile the weather is giving us scenic snow all around.

And also! I got an INCREDIBLY GOOD Yuletide fic!

The Villainous Princess Saves Her Kingdom is a note-perfect post-canon story for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born. I mostly enjoyed the heck out of that kdrama, in which everyone is a dramatic lesbian who cares deeply about their all-female melodramatic theater, but the heroine makes many incredibly stupid choices and there were various things that frustrated me about the ending. This story focuses on Seo Hyerang, a secondary character who does not care at all about our beloved stupid heroine (and that's beautiful to me), and it deftly and delightfully fixes almost all of my complaints, and made me cackle several times. It's everything I hoped and dreamed for in a Jeongnyeon fic! I'm so happy!!!

I think it's readable without canon knowledge, but you'll have to do a certain amount of piecing things together as you go, and the emotions won't hit as hard. I had many emotions, though. What a treat, what a delight!

ysabetwordsmith

This poem is spillover from the November 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from

siliconshaman,

fuzzyred,

mama_kestrel , and

see_also_friend. It also fills the "Fairies" square in my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

cornerofmadness

It was a better one than I was imagining. The people I didn't want to be there didn't come. Whoo hoo.

We had dinner at mom's. We got fried chicken from the store (they do a nice chicken) a few days ago. My cousins made stuffed shells. Yum. And of course, cookies, so many cookies

Mostly we drank (booze helps) played games (I won trivia and the gambling ones) and they finally left like quarter to Midnight.

And literally that was the whole day so I'll leave you with this, happy holidays, if you celebrate, and if not, hope you had a great day. And also enjoy my pictures of Gallipolis in Lights. They're pretty

( All the pretty sparkling lights )

Current Mood: drunk
Current Music: Death in Paradise

ndrosen

I have read Charles Murray’s new book, Taking Religion Seriously, a work that itself deserves to be taken seriously. Briefly, Murray makes an argument from design, that the fundamental physical constants of the universe appear to be very finely tuned to make possible a universe that permits the existence of long-lived stars, of stable atoms, and so forth, enabling the development of life. Then, updating C.S. Lewis, he makes an argument that the existence of the moral sense indicates an awareness of a transcendent, divinely ordained moral order.

Evolutionary biology and psychology have made progress since the 1940s, so there is a counterargument which Lewis would not have needed to address: kin selection. People whose genes incline them to behave in ways that favor the survival of others, especially their near kin, are likely be more successful at passing on their genes. A man who runs a substantial risk of losing his own life in order to save the life of his child or his sibling may be an evolutionary success, even if his altruism leads to his own early death, because his behavior promotes the survival of others carrying many of the genes which he carries. Murray argues that maternal love and the impulse to behave heroically to rescue people who are not close kin are more than evolution could account for. He may not settle the question, but he makes a plausible argument, with a dramatic example from his own experience.

Then Murray addresses the Gospels specifically, presenting arguments that they are reasonably accurate accounts of actual events, written when witnesses were still alive, rather than myths written down later. He also makes an argument, or set of arguments, from the shroud of Turin, as an artifact that could not plausibly have been faked by non-supernatural means.

I still identify as an agnostic, but my view of the chance that religion, specifically Christianity, is true has definitely shifted since I have read the book. I may have more to say about this.

skygiants

I am not allowing myself to dive into the Yuletide archive this year until after reveals due to a bunch of other reading commitments that have to get done by early January, BUT! I obviously made an exception for my own

THREE

INCREDIBLE

GIFT

FICS:

The Knight Under the Apple Tree

“Our crop is well tended,” Celia protested, despite all evidence that it was not. “It grows copiously out yonder.”

Oliver turned his head to look out the window. “Indeed, the grass outside does grow most mightily.”

“It is a sheepcote, sir; as the name suggests, it is for the keeping of sheep. Thus grass is essential.”

“And yet I do not see the sheep.”

I asked someone to sell me on As You Like It's Celia/Oliver side ship and I have completely received my wish: this fic is SO cute and does such a lovely job filling out the relationship between these characters until it feels like something that fully exists and that I want to root for

A rainbow-stripe in another proper world

“None of it ever happened,” said Uncle Nirupam in his precise way, “and so we have no memories of it, of course. But the instincts remain. I felt the same way when I first visited this world. I thought, is this where they burn people like us?”

The first of two excellent Witch Week fix-it fics -- this one is a short little outsider-POV gem in which Janet Chant and Nan Pilgrim are married, which is not something I would have ever thought of in a million years but which delights me deeply! galaxy brain!

Remember, Remember

“To produce the required crispiness, the mandrake is dipped in wallpaper paste, dredged in sawdust, and then pan-fried until it is completely burnt on all sides,” Nan recited obligingly. “It is served with a side of slugs poached in their own slime. Their chewy texture provides a perfect complement…” Estelle was howling with laughter by this point. Nan, as always in such moments, felt as though she were being carried along by an inexorable flood of words quite independent of herself. A rhyme was pushing insistently at the inside of her head, and she let it out without the least idea where it was going to finish up:

“Crispy mandrake, extra fancy,

Bring me something

Chrestomanci!”

and THIS one is a luxurious and voice-perfect THIRTEEN THOUSAND WORDS spent with my beloved terrible children as their memories are returned by way of an encounter with the TRAGICALLY ABANDONED SENTIENT GARDEN IMPLEMENTS. ABSOLUTE GALAXY BRAIN AGAIN ... I'm so happy ...

and having been Yuletided well beyond my deserts, I now leave the archive for now but I look forward to reading everyone's recs on the other side!

ysabetwordsmith

These are the notes for "Technique, Timing, and Leverage."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

This poem came out of the June 4, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from

siliconshaman and

wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "Family" square in my 6-1-24 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One and Kraken threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

calimac

The downpour was severe most of the way up, and all the way back, to/from our niece T's house for Christmas dinner. This and the lighter rain we've been getting for the past week have been the first precipitation in over a month, so we ought to be glad to have it, local flooding nonwithstanding.

Inside, it was warm and cozy, though a bit underpopulated due to various constraints. Still, T's husband and both of their sons were there, including the one who's attending university a couple thousand miles away, and so were my brother and his wife, visiting from their home which is even slightly farther away. Another visitor was C., a supervisee of T's from work who's from Singapore and had no chance to celebrate with relatives, so she invited him over to her house.

T. insisted that we all participate in the all-food white elephant gift exchange, promising B. that she wouldn't get stuck with an assortment of hot sauce as happened one year. Most of the gifts were chocolate and/or wine. C. was mystified by opening presents in the presence of the giver, which is not the custom among his people. I got the last item nobody wanted to take, a huge 'wine country gift box' that T. was given as a reward for some professional service. It appears to have crackers and olive oil, among other things, in addition to wine. But I don't know what else is in it, because it's still out in the trunk of my car. Although it's wrapped in plastic, I didn't want to struggle in with it in the rain. Tomorrow is supposed to be lighter and the rain goes away after that.

For the dinner, I made my broccoli with garlic and cashews that had been such a success at Easter, and it was mostly devoured, despite being a large batch. So that was gratifying.

But now we're glad to have gotten safely home, and so are the cats, who'd been wondering when they were going to be fed.

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billroper

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December 2025

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Page Summary

lsanderson - 2025.12.26
susandennis - Biggie gave me a nice pee for Christmas
calimac - and it contained ...
james_davis_nicoll - From Unknown Worlds edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.
princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry S1
fred_mouse - Time keeps escaping from me
ysabetwordsmith - Location notes for "Genuinely Sufficient Resources"
ysabetwordsmith - Character notes for "Genuinely Sufficient Resources"
ysabetwordsmith - Poem: "Genuinely Sufficient Resources"
ysabetwordsmith - Follow Friday 12-26-25: Learning
jbwoodford in girlgenius_lair - Friday's Comic
apod_feed - Unicorn, Fox Fur and Christmas Tree
genarti - Yuletide!!
ysabetwordsmith - Poem: "The Heart to Change the World"
cornerofmadness - Merry Christmas
ndrosen - “Taking Religion Seriously”
skygiants - (no subject)
ysabetwordsmith - Notes for "Technique, Timing, and Leverage"
ysabetwordsmith - Poem: "Technique, Timing, and Leverage"
calimac - I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas

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Page generated Dec. 28th, 2025 02:57 pm

Bill Roper's Journal

Network

2025.12.26

Biggie gave me a nice pee for Christmas

and it contained ...

From Unknown Worlds edited by John W. Campbell, Jr.

Heated Rivalry S1

Time keeps escaping from me

Location notes for "Genuinely Sufficient Resources"

Character notes for "Genuinely Sufficient Resources"

Poem: "Genuinely Sufficient Resources"

Follow Friday 12-26-25: Learning

Friday's Comic

Unicorn, Fox Fur and Christmas Tree

Yuletide!!

Poem: "The Heart to Change the World"

Merry Christmas

“Taking Religion Seriously”

(no subject)

Notes for "Technique, Timing, and Leverage"

Poem: "Technique, Timing, and Leverage"

I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas

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December 2025

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