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Current Mood: thoughtful

ODB: Daring Selection

Aug 11, 2025/in Our Daily Bread/by YMI

August 11, 2025

When they saw the courage of Peter and John . . . , they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

As Franco Zeffirelli prepared to film his critically acclaimed version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he made a daring decision. He chose two unknowns to play the lead characters and insisted they be close to the age of the characters as Shakespeare had penned them. Zeffirelli ultimately selected seventeen-year-old Leonard Whiting as Romeo and sixteen-year-old Olivia Hussey as Juliet.

Some might think that Jesus took a similar risk with the selection of His disciples, who later took His message of forgiveness to the world. That’s when the religious leaders arrested and questioned some of them. Then Acts 4:13 says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished.”

Any assumed risk was more than overwhelmed by the real story behind these simple fishermen: “They took note that these men had been with Jesus” (4:13). The seemingly unqualified disciples had not only been with Christ, but they also had His promise to be with them always (Matthew 28:20). We share that promise as well (Hebrews 13:5) and can be assured that, in His presence and with His grace, no task set before us will be too great for Him.

— Bill Crowder

When you have felt overwhelmed, how have you typically responded to the pressure? How might you invite Jesus to help you during those challenging times?

Dear Jesus, please forgive me for the times I try to forge ahead in my own strength and wisdom. I want to rely on You in all of life’s moments.

Source: Our Daily Bread

I've fallen down a fractal core rabbit hole straight into the Dark Zone.

I can't tell if this is synchronicity or my hyperfocus just raging out of control, but this video popped up on my youtube feed while on the flight to San Francisco, and I watched it, and now I'm rewatching the entire series and looking at it in the context of current events.

I'm speaking of course of the late 90s-early 2000s sci fi series LEXX.

And if you are wondering if it has aged well: I'd answer that the parts of it which have not aged well were probably written to be deliberately offensive in the first place, as a counter to what one showrunner referred to as the "preachiness" of 90s-era Star Trek. But my response to this is to fall back on the joke, "You couldn't make Blazing Saddles today. Because people would watch it and go, "Hey, this is Blazing Saddles."

Also: while parts of it can be said to have not aged particularly well, there are other parts of it which come off as fairly progressive by today's standards. (For example, I kind of like how the character Zev, after having grown up in an Intergalactic Patriarchy which has denied her agency and bodily autonomy for her entire life, is ready to dismantle that patriarchy 8:00am day one once she escapes. And there are so many metaphors for late-stage capitalism. So many. And I'm still trying to decide if Kai could be interpreted as being Ace-coded or not. I mean, the only other canon Ace character I can think of from that point in my life is...what, Tarma from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar book series?)

For those unfamiliar with the show, the vibe falls somewhere between "Warhammer 40k and Heavy Metal meet Barbarella" or maybe "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia In Outer Space."

[A title card which reads The Gang Steals A Planet-Killing Superweapon From The God Emperor, meant to evoke the title cards from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.]

So I've been working on this all week, and I can't tell you how much fun it is to just work on a fricking fansite like it's 2000 again, and 9/11 hasn't happened yet. This thing is growing faster than a swarm full of Mantrid drones, and I hope to have the character blurbs and some essays up shortly.

Current Mood: happy

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more D&D shenanigans (now with cake)

One day last May, apropos of nothing in particular, our DM happened to mention to me in chat that at some point he had prepared a one-shot storyline based on the movie Hackers. My response to that was: "Ok well now I know what I want for my birthday."

So today it came to pass that our intrepid group of adventurers teamed up with a band of rogues who bore more than a passing resemblance to the heroes of that movie, and mayhem ensued. It was great!

On top of that, the baker in our party made a birthday cake that looked like the head of Wally the Red Sox mascot. She's fantastically talented and I was blown away. Unbeknownst to me, Robby had bought a small pack of those plastic ball caps that they use for ice cream in order to use one as a cake topper, but they also happened to be the perfect size to fit on the head of my crocheted steel defender, so now he has yet another hat (I also have made him at various points over the past year-plus a sun hat, a pirate hat and a Santa hat).

It's all very silly and I can't stop smiling.

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Le vendredi des podcaaaaaasts, le dimanche

L’état du jeu - La peur: Se lier d’amitié avec celle qui nous empêche de foncer

Un épisode simple mais efficace qui discute de la façon dont nous devrions faire face aux défis qui nous causent beaucoup d'anxiété.

Worth it?

As I've mentioned before, of my watches, the one I've owned the longest is a slightly beat-up Timex Ironman (with Indiglo!) I've had for almost 30 years. Part of its retro charm is that there's no modern watch that looks like it.

Except... Timex Japan has reissued the watch for the first time since the 90s. Right down to the black case, silver bezel, and orange highlights. They did other colour schemes, too (like a surprisingly chic all-grey), but for the first time in 25 years it's possible to get that watch again. So I could have one without big scratches across the face, or a cracked and half-missing bezel, or legible buttons that work every time. All for only $150+shipping.

Is it worth replacing? Despite the fact that I never considered this to be something that would be possible... no? Part of the reason I still wear this dinged-up timepiece is for the story and the continuity. Truthfully it doesn't quite match with my aesthetic as it has developed, but it's fun to say that this is a watch I've been wearing for three decades. If I didn't have this watch, would I buy it? If the historical example never existed, probably not.

It's worth noting that I'd be shocked if I paid more than $40 for it originally. In 1996 money, but still.

On the other hand... maybe? It's pretty much exactly what I want in a digital watch: unflashy, legible, timer that count both up and down (although my phone is better for this nowadays, there are still a handful of scenarios that make having it on the watch more convenient). I'd be bummed to lose the one I have now, but if I had both, I suspect one would just go into storage until the other disappeared.

So I have my answer, but it's still cool to discover that this thing I thought was irreplaceable is again (however briefly) an acquirable object again.

....!!!

https://comicbook.com/anime/news/homestuck-animated-series-hazbin-hotel-creators/

From the little I've absorbed about Hazbin Hotel, the creators might just be the correct kind of disturbed to do justice to Homestuck.

(no subject)

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vital functions

Reading. ( Allie Brosh, Jeannie Di Bon, Helena Attlee, Louis MacNeice, friends misc. )

... and several of the magazines that have been sat around causing Guilt and a sense of Obligation, subsequent to which I have happily recycled them. Favourite fact from the three so far: Garden Organic/the Heritage Seed Library are trialling using tuning forks to pollinate their tomato crops! ( Facebook | Instagram )

Bonus: sifting through a pile of notebooks etc to try to work out who the hell they belong to, mostly salvaged from the pile that was due to go out to event-freecycle on the basis that SURELY I could do something useful with them if, you know, I sat down with them at a time that wasn't in a field under Significant time pressure while Very tired. And I could! One and a half remain unidentified (I say "half" because We're Working On It).

Writing. A lot of lost property e-mails.

Cooking. One new recipe from East: paneer, spinach and tomato salad, accompanied by the herbed naan from the Leiths How to Cook Bread book (this is probably on my To Cook Through list). I was into this!

Also vaghareli makai ("spiced Indian corn") by way of David Lebovitz, and a slightly underwhelming lemony fennel and broccoli pasta (significantly improved by the addition of pine nuts).

Eating. STRAWBERRIES. Blackberries. Local plums are starting to be ripe!

Exploring. Poked around the green belt a bit to see how the plums were doing! And I think that's most of it?

A very brief poke around the entrance to the Pimp Hall Nature Reserve following a successful drop-off of Objects to the adjacent Household Waste Recycling Centre; tragically the signs on the gates claimed that they'd be locked at 4 p.m., which we had not quite anticipated, and we only reached them at 3.58. Next time, perhaps!

Creating. Hmm. Does sitting around knolling for the purposes of the big lost property post count? I think it probably does; certainly while the photos still aren't good (am I contemplating a lightbox and a tripod of some kind of this specific terrible hobby? to my slight horror, I kind of am...) the arrangements are getting much easier to parse visually, I discovered upon going back through a bunch of them, which I am pleased about.

Growing. Found a surprise pocketful of dried Sugar Magnolia pods, so I am definitely in the black when it comes to number of seeds for next year, which is a pleasant surprise!

Current Mood: Not as accomplished as I woul
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: Ship of Stone

Done Since 2025-08-03

Up and down. Ame's thirty-fifth birthday, and the atomic bombings 80 years ago. OTOH m's return from the US Wednesday, and for some reason I noticed being in a good mood shortly before bedtime. Possibly from getting out of one of my support groups early. Or it could have been something somebody said in the group. Also, my balance seems to be improving a little after finding a test that I can practice against. But I should also find some exercises.

Not exactly a good week for walking either. I skipped Tuesday because (IIRC) I was running late after helping N give Cricket her meds, and had a doctor's appointment after that. Then I did something unpleasant to my right ankle Friday morning, probably on the stairs with an excessively heavy bag of garbage. (Mostly cat litter.) I went to the end of the block and back this morning but didn't want to push my luck. I have no idea what became of my little plastic bin full of knee, ankle, and wrist braces.

On the gripping hand, I have the old household server, Nova, running again. That's notable mainly (only?) because it's still running Mint version 21.3, so it still has Python 2 installed, so I can run my Dreamwidth posting client on it. (I also have it on Raven, but N is borrowing it. When she's done with it I'll be able to upgrade it.)

Nova is headless. I could ping it, but not ssh to it, which turned out to be because it was on the wrong subnet. Fixable by widening the netmask on Nova and one laptop. That was an interesting exercise, though, because I had to do it over ssh (i.e. without a display), which meant that I had to learn the text user interface for Network Manager. Feeling mildly accomplished from that.

Also, m and I had a good rehearsal of Ship of Stone yesterday. The plan is to do one song per day to use as scratch tracks for the next album. My intended recording hardware was not cooperating -- I seem to be missing one of my large-diaphragm vocal mics. May have to fix that. Meanwhile I used my trusty old Zoom H2, which is perfectly adequate for scratch tracks.

In links, last week Mastodon was added to the Digital Public Goods Alliance’s Registry, which is pretty cool. And the World’s first Facebook museum helps users face the future after its hoped-for demise.

( Notes & links, as usual )

I've taken a lot of photos.

My Dropbox Camera Uploads folder was up to 115GB and 18,000 files (dating back to 2010). So I went through and divided it into subfolders based loosely on years. Turns out that I take as many photos per year since Sophia was born as I took in the whole time from 2010 until her birth.

And that I take about 2,000 photos/videos per year, coming to about 15GB.

I also discovered that if you move 2,000 files from one Dropbox folder to another then it takes about 15 minutes to process the changes!

Entry tags:

photos,
pixelfed

Photo cross-post

Pretty big fire on Arthur's Seat.

(The kids were just discussing whether the volcano had erupted, which I think we're pretty safe from.)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Current Mood: thoughtful

YMI -- ODB: 10 August 2025

ODB: Unfounded Fears

Aug 10, 2025/in Our Daily Bread/by YMI

August 10, 2025

READ: 1 Kings 11:34-39; 12:31-32

I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 1 Kings 11:38

“I love you. I’ll never leave you.” Julia saved her husband’s text message so she could read it whenever she was afraid. A troubled childhood had left her with a fear of loved ones abandoning her. She’d often ask for reassurance from her husband, and she would wait anxiously for him to come home from work.

Prayer and counseling helped Julia respond to her fear in healthier ways. “I’d look at my fear in the light of my husband’s loving promises to me,” she says. “I’d think, His promises are true! and behave accordingly.”

King Jeroboam also had unfounded fears. Because of Solomon’s apostasy, God had already promised Jeroboam, “I will take the kingdom from [David’s] son’s hands and give you ten tribes” (1 Kings 11:35). God assured him that if he obeyed Him, He would “give Israel to [him]” (v. 38).

Yet Jeroboam was afraid. “If these people . . . offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem,” he thought, “they will . . . return to King Rehoboam” (12:27). His fear drove him to set up nearby sites of idol worship to prevent his subjects from turning to Solomon’s son (vv. 26-33). As a result, Jeroboam faced God’s judgment (14:7-16). If only he’d trusted God’s promises!

We don’t have to deal with unfounded fears on our own. God has given us the safety of His promises in Scripture. Let’s allow His loving truths to illuminate our mind and steps.

— Karen Huang

What unfounded fears do you have? What does Scripture say about them?

Dear God, please teach me how to respond to my fears and help me obey You.

Source: Our Daily Bread

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Current Mood: okay
Current Music: TWICE - Takedown (TWICE Ver.)

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/run/media/silveradept

/run/media/silveradept: KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

So, on the recommendation of many (including seeing things related to it popping up in my channels regularly, and a fair number of people who are apparently all-in for the main trio being a trio romantically), I watched KPop Demon Hunters.

Have some non-spoilery thoughts, in no particular order:

I wonder how ONCE feels about having gotten TWICE to be the group doing the movie credits version of one of the songs played in snippets throughout the movie.

Daniel Dae Kim and Ken Jeong make perfect sense for the roles they're cast in.

Speaking of voices, the one they cast for the greater-scope villain was delightfully correct, although the casting direction seems to have suggested that he move in the direction of "clipping syllables in an English-as-Second-Language" way. I don't want someone to speak in something that isn't comfortable to them, or to not sound like themselves, but it felt more like a conscious direction rather than someone's natural cadence to do it that way, and it made the greater-scope villain come off slightly more like a Bond villain being played for a bit of camp than as the greater-scope villain. Maybe I'm reading too much into the delivery, or maybe the intention was for this character to sound just slightly off from the rest of the cast.

The Netflix subtitlers managed not to figure out something that fansubbers of various Asian series have known for decades, and even those who subtitle K-Pop releases: how to properly subtitle songs. Which is a major strike against them for a movie that has an awful lot of singing! We didn't necessarily have to go full-on for the kind of karaoke-style, rainbow, motion-filled subtitles that fansubbers of anime and toku series got (get?) made fun of for using in their releases, but these subtitlers went in the direction of just putting the syllables of the words in the subtitles, or otherwise doing Revised Romanization of the spoken or sung Korean and leaving it at that. So there's no context to those lines, nor what they look like in Hangul (which you can see in one of the shots that is the behind-the-scenes for TWICE recording the song playing over the first part of the credits), nor a translation of what the Korean says into English (or whichever language you want as the subtitles.) Admittedly, it would be more offensive to just put [Korean] or [Speaking/Singing in a Global Language] for those sections, but only just. The purpose of the subtitling there is so that someone can follow along with the audio track and make sure they're not missing anything, and if the audio track includes singing in Korean or rapping in Korean, as it does in this movie, the subtitlers have a responsibility to render it comprehensibly. (Bets on whether Tumblr has a transcript of all the songs that renders them correctly and translates them correctly at this point?)

I'm very unhappy with the job the subtitlers did on this movie, and I think Netflix needs to release a revision to accurately reflect what happens in the movie.

I suspect there are more than a few things about the movie that I missed, because my understanding of symbology of both Korean cosmology and mythology and the intricacies of K-pop fandom isn't as complete as it should be to fully appreciate what's going on here. (I did at least understand the light sticks, banners, appearances on various shows and the part where the performers are basically on their public game anywhere the public might see them, which includes never ever wanting to say or do anything that would say there was a relationship between idols and anyone at all, including other idols. Not that it stops the fans from shipping them, either in their own groups or possibly with other groups that they're seen with or rivals with.) Most of my understanding of K-Pop comes from people like brithistorian and andersenmom, so thank you for your help and answering the silly questions that I've had over time.

I did appreciate the music through the decades montage at the beginning, and I'm not sure the average watcher will realize just how much Korean music is influenced by American styles of music through those eras, before the phenomenon that we know of as K-pop comes into existence. (And which exchanges/inherits a fair amount of its cues and norms with Japanese pop idol culture, such that we think of them as J-pop and K-pop, at least over here in my neck of cultural existence.)

Related to this, however, it looks like Sony Animation went with the same general style and animation timing that they used on the Spider-Verse movies at times while I was watching it. While, for Spider-Verse, the animation timing is a deliberate decision and works for the comic-book nature of the multiverse being portrayed, here, the dance sequences that should be smooth as butter in the animation, probably even with some extra key frames to make sure it all goes well, several of them hitched and were otherwise more jerky than I would have expected out of a studio trying to match the intricate choreography that can accompany K-pop. It's possible that these hitches and jerkiness were my Internet connection having hiccups or my computer having a hitch, but I don't think so. Others can tell me how smooth their watch was of the movie, but for the moment, I'm chalking this up to Sony Animation's house style and timing clashing with what you would want animated K-Pop to look like. (There were noticeably fewer hiccups in the action sequences, which is why I think I think it was a style decision rather than a slowdown, because action animation would be more likely to have degradation than the dance sequences, in my opinion.)

Yes, but what did you think about the plot?

It was a perfectly serviceable plot. You'll recognize all the beats if you watched the first Frozen movie, although it is harsher to the lesser-scope villain than most Disney films would be. This particular version of the movie leans heavier into the "Demon Hunters" part of the title, and I don't know if that was the right decision for the plot, because the plot sets up both a movie where action and stylish fighting, accompanied by singing, will determine the outcome (the direction they took) and a movie where the principal heroines and their principal opposition are in a for-all-the-marbles stakes idol game to be determined by who has the bigger fanbase after the agreed-upon final duel at the Idol Awards competition. That would have made the K-pop part of it much more important, and given them all the tools they needed to wage an epic battle across various releases, appearances, and the rest that wouldn't have to involve all that many attempts at direct sabotage or fighting between the two groups, even if there was an awful lot of things that could be excused as "special effects." I'm pretty sure if the writers had enough experience with how idol systems work and the less than savory elements of the companies and managers of the various idols, they could write a very good movie full of underhanded tactics, diss tracks, "accidental" social media leaks, and all the rest of it. I think focusing on the K-pop aspect would also make the internal divisions and the character conflicts in the protagonist trio work better, as each of them starts giving in to more of their worser aspects in trying to beat their rival team, and that would make the parts of the plot that are about secrets and lies work better, since the character hiding the biggest secret will have had the opportunity to see the very worst aspects of the team and believe such things are their actual selves, instead of their more restrained forms. (Which will also make the ultimate climax portion of the movie work better, as well, to make it much clearer why the protagonist team ends up where they do and the way they do before the final battle.)

Final thought: The movie could cut the gag about certain members of the trio having heart eyes and popcorn eyes about the prettiness of the pretty boys in the rival group. It doesn't actually contribute to the plot, and it makes the characters shallower in a way that doesn't suit them. They could certainly make commentary on the boys being eye candy, even supernaturally so, because that's how they're drawn to be, but the majority of the movie shows this trio as a focused, work-first, idol trio who want to enjoy their downtime, except for that one member who keeps pushing them to not take their breaks. They're not shown as flighty or otherwise susceptible to that kind of distraction, and they primarily work through it when it happens, so thy could just cut the gag entirely and replace it with something else that would work better. Like an offhand comment about how those boys are trying to get by on their looks, while they're getting by on great songs. And then eventually admit to themselves that the boys have catchy songs, too, but stay primarily focused on making their own, better songs to beat them, since they never really try to change their look to be more attractive to the fans than the pretty boys.

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REC: Until It Doesn't Hurt by CATastrophy (Our Flag Means Death, Izzy Hands)

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Current Mood: thoughtful

YMI -- ODB: 9 August 2025

ODB: Aristotle at the Table

Aug 9, 2025/in Our Daily Bread/by YMI

August 9, 2025

READ: Matthew 26:26-29

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:28

Aristotle said that no one can be friends with a god. Why? Because friendship requires equality, and what god would step down from their heavenly status to become equal with lowly human beings?

I wonder what Aristotle would’ve done if he’d been present at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:26-35). For there, Jesus—the Creator of all, who left His heavenly status to become a lowly human being (Philippians 2:6-8; Colossians 1:16)—told His disciples He no longer called them servants but friends (John 15:15).

Aristotle would’ve been surprised too at who sat at that table. There was Matthew, the Roman-friendly tax collector; and then Simon, the Roman-denouncing Zealot (Matthew 10:3-4); along with James and John, the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17) sitting with quiet Philip. I imagine Aristotle watching quizzically as Jesus described some bread and wine as His “body” and “blood,” broken and poured out for the “forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). What god would die for mere mortals, even those who’d soon abandon Him (v. 56)?

That’s one reason Communion is so profound. Through Jesus, God became friends with humans and enabled friendships between those with political and temperamental differences. As we eat and drink at the Lord’s Table, we celebrate the one who rewrote friendship’s rules, human and divine.

— Sheridan Voysey

How else does Jesus rewrite the rules of friendship? How can His example help you reach across relational differences today?

Dear Jesus, thank You for making me a friend of God and others.

Source: Our Daily Bread

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Red Sox game

Entry tags:

film,
tv

MCU meme

via

sholio

( Read more... )

I don't think I stopped watching the new ones as they came out because of the storytelling - I mean, how would I know if I haven't seen them? But because 2020 happened, and we just stopped going to movies for a while, and everything was on Disney Plus for "when we got around to it" which we never seem to. Which is the case for most things in my life, not just MCU stuff. *shrug* A new MCU movie just wasn't An Event any more, like it used to be up through Endgame. And there are some I want to see but I feel like I have to do my homework first, like finishing Wandavision before seeing Multiverse of Madness, and watching Wakanda Forever before getting into Ironheart.

I do own almost all the ones that I've seen on DVD. I even have a DVD of Spider-Man: No Way Home that I haven't watched yet.

Entry tags:

film

Room With a View

Found out about a neat arthouse cinema that shows a lot of older films & restorations presented by different academics or film enthusiasts. As part of a series on fashion in film, they had a one-night-only screening of the 4k restoration of A Room With a View. Since it's been over a decade since I last saw that film, I decided to check it out. There was a quick presentation at the beginning about Edwardian women's fashion and the rapidly changing styles of dress. In particular, women's enthusiasm for tennis spurred a desire for more practical athletic wear. The presentation was short and sweet, and then we got into the film.

Merchant and Ivory really knew what they were doing, huh? It was and remains an absolutely beautiful film. I mean, I'm sure you could just stick a camera on a roof in Florence and get some pretty images, but everything here is so beautifully composed and edited. It has to be: the story doesn't work if you aren't overwhelmed by Italy's beauty. The performances are also great, of course. I'd forgotten how funny this movie is, but it really is full of laugh-out loud moments, both heavy-handed (the pond scene...) and more subtle (Maggie Smith's supposedly delicate but incredibly obvious manipulations).

The only thing I don't particularly like would probably be hard to resolve. As an adaptation of Forster's novel, it is excellent; the humour comes through more clearly and the use of music as an analogy for Lucy's inner state is easier to understand. However, because we don't see Lucy's interior world in the same way we do as a novel, parts of it fall flat. This is supposed to be a story of her discovering her inner desires, shaping her aesthetic and philosophical views, but in the film she comes across as overly influenced by George rather than truly coming into her own.

Entry tags:

A polite request.

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Interesting Links for 11-08-2025

YMI -- ODB: 11 August 2025

ODB: Daring Selection

I've fallen down a fractal core rabbit hole straight into the Dark Zone.

more D&D shenanigans (now with cake)

Le vendredi des podcaaaaaasts, le dimanche

Worth it?

....!!!

(no subject)

vital functions

Done Since 2025-08-03

I've taken a lot of photos.

Photo cross-post

YMI -- ODB: 10 August 2025

ODB: Unfounded Fears

Interesting Links for 10-08-2025

/run/media/silveradept: KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

REC: Until It Doesn't Hurt by CATastrophy (Our Flag Means Death, Izzy Hands)

YMI -- ODB: 9 August 2025

ODB: Aristotle at the Table

MCU meme

Room With a View

A polite request.