Too good not to share.

First primrose of the season. The (irritating) neighbors even have a crocus blooming, and the daffodils by my front door are only a few days out. Nice change from all this fucking rain. I’m not one to whinge about the weather, but JFC I am sick of this shit.

One meme to save us all.

I didn’t love season 4, but I think For All Mankind is one of the best series ever. It charts whole new categories of goodness and relevance.

So, it’s official: the Cornwall chapter ends and the Sussex chapter begins on May 3. I hope I haven’t inadvertently fucked myself by arranging to move over a bank holiday weekend, but whatever. I have an AirBnB in Worthing for a month. Will have the stuff I’m keeping stored. And yeah. Finally. 🥂

A drag queen who’s a physics professor by day: Farrah Day-Cage!

Friends, submissions close at midnight, EST. Send out those last minute flares into the night, for morning shall soon be breaking, and the darkness lifting. heroinchic.weebly.com

An excellent read.

Greetings from Moisture House. My conservatory roof, unfixed by my landlord, is leaking badly. The whole floor in there is wet, and it’s getting into the living room.

Five concerts you’ve seen with women lead singers Eurythmics Tori Amos Kylie Minogue Lady Gaga Cat Power Interestingly, we were seated a few seats down from Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-Wai at the Cat Power show (which was in Macau). It was an interesting night.

!!!🚀!!!

The dense fog tonight is eerie and I would go caper in it but the streetlights all get switched off at some point and it would be just my luck to encounter actual monsters, because, you know, Cornwall.

Epic Landman finale.

On an unrelated note, how did I miss a new Depeche Mode single? “In the End” is terrific. It kind of came out of nowhere but was recorded in the Memento Mori sessions. It’s a slow burn but really good.

The first episode of Starfleet Academy was exactly what I needed after a long day. I don’t want to set unreasonable expectations, but it was really fucking good. Holly Hunter was god-level good casting. So was Sandro Rosta. I didn’t know who the hell he was either but now we do. 🚀

A browse of Clearsky this evening revealed that a certain mentally unwell individual in the gay publishing community has blocked me - has in fact singled me out for the privilege - and I feel radiant and powerful in this knowledge.

No, autistics do not “lack empathy”: “Where researchers had assumed impairment, they found autistic people applying moral principles more consistently—even to strangers, even when costly.” By Ludmila Pradlova. **This includes non-speakers &/or peeps w/ID** www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/posi...

How did I end up with a cold? How does this always happen at the beginning of the semester? I was supposed to go out today but changed my plans. Blah. Sofa time with lots of tea. ☕️

This would not be surprising.

Spices/seasonings I use the most (other than the obvious ones): Miso, Zanzibar curry powder, chipotle powder, shichimi, fleur de sel, dill, hickory smoked salt, smoked paprika, za’atar, grains of paradise, and yes I know how this looks and sounds. 👀

Hope everyone in the UK is holding up in this storm. I was worried about my conservatory roof for a while there, but the wind seems to be dying down. The leakage is pretty bad but I have towels and power and an outstanding bottle of Riesling, so there’s that.

Have you noticed 🇺🇸 ICE vehicles screeching to a halt and snatching people off the street? Ever wonder how they knew about that person's location? Here's how 👇 www.404media.co/inside-ices-...

The Stranger Things finale stuck the landing. Sad it’s over but delighted it went out on such a high note.

My approach to 2026, summed up.

Just making sure that 2025 is definitely over

Happy 2026!

A little something to close out 2025 and start 2026 on a cautiously optimistic note. Happy New Year, y’all! Or may it be at least less craptastic.

Further thoughts on ending explainers: inevitable result of low-engagement viewing habits. If you spend half the show scrolling on your phone, you’re not likely to understand the ending.

My curmudgeonly thought for the day: We would not need so many "The ending of blahblahblah EXPLAINED" videos if full-length works of narrative fiction were still routinely taught in grades 5-12. If fairly straightforward plotlines are baffling this many people, something has gone seriously wrong.

Dear AHC family, we are so happy to announce that we will be returning from our year long hiatus in the New Year! We are currently running a fundraiser to help facilitate our return and hope you'll consider donating or sharing with your network. Much love! donate.stripe.com/bJe3cw7H99v1...

As much as I love Stranger Things 5, there’s one thing I don’t love about the writing. The dialogue. The dialogue that uses a noun repeated in a follow-up sentence plus a little more detail. The dialogue that makes all the characters sound the same. It’s impossible to unhear once you notice. 🤪

Oh good. As much as I like my car (a Toyota Auris), the touchscreen panel is by far my least favorite bit. My fingers are usually cold, so I don’t get along with touchscreens very well.

Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄

Did I see something somewhere about scammy emails being sent to writers, offering a profile in some bullshit periodical or other for a fee? One just landed in my trash folder. I deleted it, of course, but I wonder if a Nigerian prince actually wrote it while guarding my lotto winnings.

Woke up to pounding next door. Not the fun kind, though. Saws and hammers. There’s a loft ladder replacement service van parked out front. Also have to drive down to Helston today. It’s pouring. So far Thursday is Thursdaying as hard as it can.

It’s official, y’all: I’ve been nominated for the Pushcart!

This is a very intelligent analysis of the sex scenes in Heated Rivalry. I had noticed these dynamics but not in the same level of detail. Perhaps I should watch the first three episodes again. Strictly for research purposes, of course.

Oh yay, this weather mess has a name now: Storm Bram. Apparently it’s mostly missed Cornwall and is pounding the shit out of Devon. But the sound of the rain on my conservatory roof keeps getting louder, so I’m thinking another couple of towels on the floor before I go to bed. 🌀

How are bare male torsos adult content?

Some of the latest iOS updates suck balls. Who wanted or needed the alarm to be included with an overly complicated sleep monitor? And then some transparent Veil of Blackness showed up at 1030pm to remind me it was sleepy time? I keep ADHD vampire hours. I’m eating dinner at 1030, not going to bed.

This is wisdom.

Unimpressed with Revolut right now. ID verification failed due to tech glitch on their end. I’ve been in queue for support for 3 days now. Read that again: 3 DAYS. Good experiences previously, but this is how you lose customers. Are there any non-terrible banks in the UK? Recommendations?

This is devastating. The whole time I lived there, I worried something like this could happen.

Winterville: continuity edit now that I’ve made an atlas to keep up with all the geography. I’ve cut dead wood I knew was there and had been reluctant to part with. Now it’s turning into the book I meant for it to be, at last. When you read something you wrote and are like “I wrote this?”, yeah. ☃️

Back to London and Worthing for the holidays. Suddenly this move thing is getting real. I’ll be using my time in Worthing to look for a flat or a house to rent until I can buy something. Which itself is a whole new layer of holy crap, I’m about to do that.

🌀

Is anyone else having WTAF vibes from Drag Race UK? I don’t remember the last time the contestant who so obviously lost, won.

It me. 🚊

Oh thank fuck. I’m planning to move in a few months’ time, and one of the criteria I’ve been considering is whether the new place will be pet-friendly. I don’t currently have a cat, but I had already decided I wouldn’t choose a new place that forbade them. (Also, hard nope on street parking.) Yay!