Pho pho pho pho fashion

[st_aurafina]

I had pho for lunch yesterday and I will do the same today. It has a fuckton of ginger in it and I have a streaming cold so hopefully it will help. Yesterday, David Bowie came on while I was eating. ETA: Omg so much ginger. So much chilli. *fans face*

I have been quiet! But here and reading and also writing. Australia is (maybe) having a postal vote to determine if we will (finally) have same sex marriage. You'd think that would be a good thing, but the campaign for No is utterly vomitous. Like, I get up in the morning, casually read about how my relationship is the gateway to legalising bestiality, then get on with my job. As you do. And I know there are bigger and more life-endangering crises happening around the world, but that's a nasty and heavy stone to for me carry around. It has been leaving me very wordless at the end of each day.

It is also making me quite tense. AS YOU CAN FREAKING IMAGINE. But there's a stupid platform game where Tony Abbott appears and shoots lasers from his eyes. It's cheap. But it made me laugh: Going Postal

I can tell from my linkspam collection that I went into silent survival mode around the time of the Charlottesville attacks.


Activism and Disaster Recovery
Charlottesville
- Hymn: A New Poem by Sherman Alexie
This was shared on poetry on the weekend of Charlottesville and I was glad I had read it. I've kept "We will be courageous in our love" at the front of my mind since.

- Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide
via thisfinecrew which has been great at rounding up links these past few weeks.

Southeast Asia Flooding:
Via goats and soda: Epic Floods Challenge Aid Workers On Opposite Sides Of The World
Donate at Oxfam's portal: South Asia floods

Hurricane Harvey:
- via sage:
This ActBlue donation page lets you give to 14 different Texas nonprofits (all of whom are doing hurricane recovery) at once, either dividing your donation equally among them or letting you apportion as you like. It includes Portlight, the Houston, Galveston & Corpus food banks, animal rescues, a diaper bank, Meals on Wheels, etc.
- San Antonio foodbank is pooling its resources with all of South Texas, including Rockport, Aransas Pass, etc. for Harvey survivors.
- Via thisfinecrew again, Here Are Ways You Can Help People During Hurricane Harvey


There's also a fandom auction comm started: harvey_fanaid



Science Links. For Science!
This reminds me: the first ep of Ch 4's Bake-Off was actually pretty good - I mention this under Science because I am currently rooting for the science lesbian who is adorable and hilarious and very, very clearly one of us.

- Heart Rhythm Disorders
Apologies for the facebook link, but this video explaining heart rhythm disorders is super cute. (FWIW, disco sinus is not actually a thing.)

- How do reusable coffee cups stack up?.
Choice did a review of BYO coffee cups. I have a keepcup, which didn't rate highly in terms of keeping coffee hot, but was pretty good otherwise. Also it's super pretty, which has value for me in terms of cheering me up. (lilacsigil's is lilac!)

- Australian Genetics of Depression Study
Fellow depressed Aussies! I'm in this depression study, and it's looking for more people to recruit. You do an online survey and if you meet their criteria for further investigation, they send you a tube which you fill with spit. If you'd like to be in some science, this is an easy and free way to do it.

It was a bit difficult to generate all the saliva they needed for the sample (I think it was 15ml?) because the dose of Pristiq I'm on has been giving me mega dry mouth. But I made a discovery! Sugarless gum really helps me make saliva! I know it's kind of obvious, and it's something I suggest whenever I dispense an initiating script for someone starting an antidepressant, but you know. It takes a while for me to take my own advice. So I've been chewing gum before bed, and it's definitely helped with my morning dry mouth, but it's also unexpectedly improved my eustachian tube function. I'm a glue ear baby, and my ears only pop when I manually do the Valsalva manoeuvre. (And you can hear it across the room, like a really loud click.) But they've started venting on their own since I've been using gum. My sinuses are clear, my crops are watered etc, all thanks to gum. *weird*

- Speech study finds ‘Al’ of a sound in the south-west (I love these old school headlines they use in our paper.)
Apparently my region is developing an accent. lilacsigil and I tried on each other, and yeah, we can't tell the difference between Ellen and Allan. Even though I think I'm making different sounds when I say them. It's interesting because Australia doesn't so much have regional accents as social ones. I can pick an Adelaide person (clipped, a hint of British/German) and Queensland (much more broad than Melbourne, a bit more rural sounding to my ear), but that's about it for regional accents.



Craft
- Aviator cat hat (Paid pattern, but super cute.)

- Via boing boing, How to make a good lighting rig with a hamburger box and a flashlight

- Knitters wanted as War Memorial plans to unveil handmade poppies display (Also crocheters!)

Joy
- Westeros: trailer for spoof Thrones spinoff set in the 21st century
Via boing boing, this trailer is seriously fun and I would watch the crap out of this show.

- shitduosays. (Shit Duolingo Says)
I am so pleased that it's not just Italian that throws out some really weird stuff. (Italian Duolingo is really obsessed with death.)

- via umadoshi, Black Widow and Elektra fight (or at least their stunt doubles do, and it's AWESOME.)

- there's a Steve/Bucky exchange starting up: stevebucky_exchange.


Fic Recs
Surveillance by nestra
(Person of Interest, G)
Short and bitey Carter ficlet.

It's all fire and brimstone, baby by canadianwheatpirates
(Person of Interest, Root/Shaw, Teen)
AU in which Root is a crossroads demon. I don't usually rec (or even read) wips but what's here is really good.

hush, hush (we both can't fight it) by citadelofswords
(The Penumbra podcast, Juno Steel/Peter Nureyev, Teen)
Just a really goofy, romantic five kisses, set some time before Season Two.

this is how it began (this is the secret between) by notcaycepollard
(MCU, Clint/Natasha/Laura, Mature)
I really like fic where Laura has a job, you know? She's a professional and she knows what she's getting into when you start a relationship with an agent. She's a translator here.

Clint Barton's Wedding Rules by out_there
(MCU, Clint/Coulson, Mature)
For unconventionalcourtship. I love that SHIELD has a wedding season - it's that kind of close-quarters high-danger work environment that would generate such a thing. And Clint is delightfully Clint in this - tripping over the very obvious, creating elaborate plans that are just disastrous. Really romantic and lovely.

It's a Pleasure by willowbilly
(Kilgrave/Jessica/?Will, Hannibal/Will, Mature)
This is a mindfuck of a crossover, and really, really tense. Non-con warnings for the canon level of nastiness that is Killgrave. I love fics that turn Hannibal's tendencies to the heroic without changing his fundamental nature. I found this so satisfying.


Stay safe, people. If you're in a flood-risk area, I am thinking of you and hoping you are high and dry.

If you're an Aussie and you're suffering the onslaught of homophobia that is the media right now, please look after yourself. Remember self-care. Remember you don't have to interact with the garbage that is being spouted in your face. You are beautiful, and valuable and belong here in the world.

Comments

[singe]

Be of good cheer, if the USA (crammed damn full of whackadoo hatemongers) can push through same-sex marriage then Australia certainly can.

[st_aurafina]

Yeah, it's pretty overdue at this stage!