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Jan. 15th, 2026 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadarasSometimes adulthood is going "oh wow for once I don't have anything I need to do once I get off work" and promptly going and doing an errand and then washing dishes and doing laundry once getting home.
Assorted brief notes:
1.
My dojo is doing kyu testing this coming Saturday, which will be delightful. The two people testing are more than ready for these tests. (There's another person who we've been trying to get to test for years and it's just a matter of "please come consistently for a few months and take this test already!" at this point.)
2.
Wednesday evening classes are just. Draining. I do not like needing to be at school from 5pm-8pm. I didn't even when I was in college! Now it's just like "I wake up at 4:30am because of work, why must I suffer like this."
Also next week is going to be very boring because this week was a "oh shit the guest instructor suddenly can't make it" week and so they sort of half-assed an unprepared version of what they were gonna do next week. So. You know. I understood what they were teaching from the half-assed version, the teachers know that, but since most of the cohort was like ???, next week will be them going step-by-step through it with more prep. Which will be useful, and is good pedagogy, but is also going to Bore Me.
3.
h/t totrobadora for talking about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which mostly got me going back to Star Trek: Discovery, since Academy is set after Disco.
which means I am currently re-watching the first episode of s3, because I watched the first two episodes when they first aired and then fell off because... idk, it was Oct/Nov 2020 and I was running headfirst into QZGS and infinite flow cnovels...? But hey, Disco is a fun show, I'm so fond of Michael Burnham, and s3 is in some ways a soft reboot due to being right after the timeskip, so! Looking forward to actually getting to know the future timeline.
I do think that a huge amount of why I fell off is just... 2020 being 2020. Because I don't think I had nearly as much fun with this the first time I watched it, and now I'm just like "wow this is such good tropey fun, s3e1 is using so much good trope stuff to set up Michael/Book".
4.
god I feel like I had some other things. hm.
A podcast reminded me that Escaflowne exists, and that it's an anime that I probably would have been obsessed with as a teenager if I'd seen it then. Mecha and guys with wings. Normal things. xD I feel like it should be on crunchyroll but it's not? Alas. Probably for the best if I'm going to actually watch Star Trek right now, but I do want to at some point experience this show.
5.
Work is very nonsense.
...I think I was going to give examples, but, idk. just. nah. it's! a lot! and mostly not outright bad, just tiring, and takes too much time, as work does.
Assorted brief notes:
1.
My dojo is doing kyu testing this coming Saturday, which will be delightful. The two people testing are more than ready for these tests. (There's another person who we've been trying to get to test for years and it's just a matter of "please come consistently for a few months and take this test already!" at this point.)
2.
Wednesday evening classes are just. Draining. I do not like needing to be at school from 5pm-8pm. I didn't even when I was in college! Now it's just like "I wake up at 4:30am because of work, why must I suffer like this."
Also next week is going to be very boring because this week was a "oh shit the guest instructor suddenly can't make it" week and so they sort of half-assed an unprepared version of what they were gonna do next week. So. You know. I understood what they were teaching from the half-assed version, the teachers know that, but since most of the cohort was like ???, next week will be them going step-by-step through it with more prep. Which will be useful, and is good pedagogy, but is also going to Bore Me.
3.
h/t to
trobadora for talking about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which mostly got me going back to Star Trek: Discovery, since Academy is set after Disco.which means I am currently re-watching the first episode of s3, because I watched the first two episodes when they first aired and then fell off because... idk, it was Oct/Nov 2020 and I was running headfirst into QZGS and infinite flow cnovels...? But hey, Disco is a fun show, I'm so fond of Michael Burnham, and s3 is in some ways a soft reboot due to being right after the timeskip, so! Looking forward to actually getting to know the future timeline.
I do think that a huge amount of why I fell off is just... 2020 being 2020. Because I don't think I had nearly as much fun with this the first time I watched it, and now I'm just like "wow this is such good tropey fun, s3e1 is using so much good trope stuff to set up Michael/Book".
4.
god I feel like I had some other things. hm.
A podcast reminded me that Escaflowne exists, and that it's an anime that I probably would have been obsessed with as a teenager if I'd seen it then. Mecha and guys with wings. Normal things. xD I feel like it should be on crunchyroll but it's not? Alas. Probably for the best if I'm going to actually watch Star Trek right now, but I do want to at some point experience this show.
5.
Work is very nonsense.
...I think I was going to give examples, but, idk. just. nah. it's! a lot! and mostly not outright bad, just tiring, and takes too much time, as work does.
In memoriam: Renfrew Christie, who sabotaged South Africa's nuclear weapons program
Jan. 15th, 2026 07:42 pmredbirdAs is sometimes the case, I only heard about Christie and his part in the anti-apartheid fight after he died.
Renfrew Christie was a white South African scientist and member of the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress. He went to Oxford University and studied South Africa's history of electrification "so I could get into the electricity supply commission’s library and archives, and work out how much electricity they were using to enrich uranium," he told the BBC. That in turn let them figure out how much enriched uranium South Africa had, and many bombs it could build.
When he returned to South Africa, he was arrested and, after 48 hours of torture, wrote a forced confession, which he told the BBC was the best thing he ever wrote
Christie died of pneumonia last month, at the age of 76.
I'm linking tosiderea's post, which includes the text of the (paywalled) NY Times obituary.
Renfrew Christie was a white South African scientist and member of the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress. He went to Oxford University and studied South Africa's history of electrification "so I could get into the electricity supply commission’s library and archives, and work out how much electricity they were using to enrich uranium," he told the BBC. That in turn let them figure out how much enriched uranium South Africa had, and many bombs it could build.
When he returned to South Africa, he was arrested and, after 48 hours of torture, wrote a forced confession, which he told the BBC was the best thing he ever wrote
noting that he had made sure the confession included “all my recommendations to the African National Congress” about the best way to sabotage Koeberg and other facilities.
“And, gloriously, the judge read it out in court,” Dr. Christie added. “So my recommendations went from the judge’s mouth” straight to the A.N.C.
Christie died of pneumonia last month, at the age of 76.
I'm linking to
siderea's post, which includes the text of the (paywalled) NY Times obituary.
What were you taught about atoms?
Jan. 15th, 2026 11:40 pmkaberettExpanding on one of the things I mentioned yesterday: for Pain Project reasons, I'm interested in knowing what you learned about atoms at school, and roughly what age you were. I'm especially interested in whether (and when) you were exposed to the Bohr model (there's a nucleus, with electrons orbiting around it at fixed distances) and the current consensus model (electron orbitals defined as regions where an electron is most likely to be found).
( Read more... )
Links to dig into next week
Jan. 15th, 2026 06:17 pmflamingswordhttps://www.comrades.education/ - “Comrades Education provides educational programming, community building, and skill development in service of grassroots, working class, antiracist, and decolonial movements“
Including: https://www.comrades.education/before-we-were-white “
Before We Were White is a core piece of curriculum that Comrades Education (formerly known as White Awake) has offered annually for the past eight years. The program offers an ancestral recovery experience for people with European descent (whether you are white or multiracial) that is explicitly antiracist and decolonial.”
https://www.multiamory.com/podcast/181-kim-tallbear - Settler Sexuality w Dr Kim Tallbear on the Multiamory podcast [listen to next week]
https://playradical.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/play-shapes.pdf The Shapes of Autistic Play
https://projects.propublica.org/rx-inspector/ Prescription Inspector by Pro Publica
De-Goggling project:
https://ellipsus.com/
https://cryptpad.fr/
Protonmail
https://followersforever.net/
Including: https://www.comrades.education/before-we-were-white “
Before We Were White is a core piece of curriculum that Comrades Education (formerly known as White Awake) has offered annually for the past eight years. The program offers an ancestral recovery experience for people with European descent (whether you are white or multiracial) that is explicitly antiracist and decolonial.”
https://www.multiamory.com/podcast/181-kim-tallbear - Settler Sexuality w Dr Kim Tallbear on the Multiamory podcast [listen to next week]
https://playradical.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/play-shapes.pdf The Shapes of Autistic Play
https://projects.propublica.org/rx-inspector/ Prescription Inspector by Pro Publica
De-Goggling project:
https://ellipsus.com/
https://cryptpad.fr/
Protonmail
https://followersforever.net/
Stand with Minnesota
Jan. 15th, 2026 10:59 pmcosmolinguistWebsite I found out about today.
Minnesotans are organized and activated to respond to this violence. But they need our help.
This directory of places to donate to all comes from activists on the ground, plugged into the situation. Everything is vetted, with the exception of individual GoFundMes (not everyone is in our networks, and we don’t want to pick and choose who is worthy of help.)
If you don’t have resources to give, please amplify what you are hearing and seeing about Minnesota, across social media, but also to your networks, friends, and family offline.
Read our testimonies and know what life is like in Minnesota right now.
The Friday Five for 16 January 2026
Jan. 15th, 2026 05:41 pmanais_pf posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thefridayfiveThese questions were written by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frieliegh.
1. If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?
2. Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being life partners for many years?
3. Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?
4. If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?
5. Which would you rather hear--the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
frieliegh.1. If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?
2. Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being life partners for many years?
3. Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?
4. If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?
5. Which would you rather hear--the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!