Putin is testing NATO's limits

Sep. 24th, 2025 10:23 pm
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[personal profile] fridi posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
Russia has repeatedly tested NATO's resolve with drone flights over Poland, fighter jet incursions into Estonian airspace, and surveillance activities in the Baltic Sea, including the most recent incident - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/21/german-jets-scrambled-after-russian-military-plane-flies-over-baltic-sea

NATO's recent consultations under Article 4 show that these provocations are no longer being treated as routine incidents. Estonia has even raised the issue at the UN Security Council.

The central question is how Europe should respond. Some argue that Russian aircraft violating NATO airspace should, if necessary, be shot down. This would not be an act of escalation, but a defensive measure, similar to Turkey's downing of a Russian jet in 2015, which effectively deterred further incursions into its territory.

The risk today, however, is higher. With the war in Ukraine ongoing and US foreign policy shifting under Trump, Europe cannot rely on America to manage the crisis. Russia is probing NATO to see how far it can push without facing real consequences.

Europe needs both deterrence and diplomacy. Re-armament programs are a step toward self-defense, but they must be matched by serious diplomatic initiatives to prevent escalation. Without this balance, the cycle of provocation and retaliation could spiral into open conflict (which might not go well, by the way) - https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/nato-would-lose-a-war-against-russia

As the BBC noted in its coverage of NATO airspace violations, Moscow's actions are deliberate tests of Western resolve - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yg921rjrko
Europe must show that its borders are not negotiable, while also keeping channels open to avoid sliding into a war no one wants.

Musings During a Rainstorm

Sep. 24th, 2025 12:04 pm
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[personal profile] haunted_cherries
Had quite a few people tell me today that I have an infectious laugh and give great hugs that make them feel safe and I have to say that knowing that I can leave the world a little better than I found it for at least a few people means a lot. ; u; 💕
[syndicated profile] cosmic_dreaming_feed

Posted by dani

Estas vacaciones como salí a diferentes partes, he hecho compras bien diversas, así que aprovechando que le saque foto antes a todas las cosas, les traigo un pequeño haul.

El primero es de las cosas que compré hace un par de semanas en el persa Bio Bio, a donde fuimos principalmente a comer, asi que no hay tanto que mostrar. Ese día me compré un par de lápices, que me sirven principalmente para el Journal ya que son acrílicos y Matte asi que sirven para pintar sobre variadas texturas c: también encontré unos stickers vintage de hello kitty y ya probé uno y milagrosamente el pegamento sigue funcionando. Y tambien pude comprarme una carcasa protectora para mi celular que fuera totalmente trasparente, porque me encanta poner imagenes al estilo photocard de kpop, asi que ahora puedo llevar al kirk y al Sr. spock conmigo siempre que los necesite ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)

El domingo pasado fuimos a comer hamburguesas al Jhonny Rocket y para mi desazon, el que nos queda mas cerca es uno que queda dentro del mall costanera center. Aprovechamos ese lugar horrible para ver maquillaje, y compre sin planificarlo un lapiz de ojos iridiscente y un lip gloss de Nyx mucho mas oscuro de lo que suelo usar y que me da las vibras góticas de halloween; estoy ya lista para que vengan esas fechas jiji. 

Como breve reseña, les puedo decir que este gloss es super humectante y da mucho color, así que es una buena opción si son como yo que no les gusta tanto las cosas mattes y quieren algún otro tipo de color que no sea los rosados de los tintes coreanos.


Finalmente, esta semana con mi polola fuimos a patronato y aparte de la comida que compramos (unos mooncakes y un pote de kimchi), pasamos a una tienda que nos salió en tiktok, Estrella en pleno patronato y tienen muchos accesorios que venden a un precio al por mayor desde las 24 unidades, así que teníamos la misión de comprar varias cosas, al final nos pasamos un poco (upsi) pero tenemos un montón de accesorios nuevos y yo me lleve también un bolso de hello kitty, aunque yo quería el color amarillo que vi en internet pero ya están agotado, decidiéndome finalmente llevarlo porque el azul me encantan y los girasoles también y es muy summer sozai japan neocities core. 🌻

Eso han sido mis compras de estas mini vacaciones primaverales, pronto entraré al trabajo nuevamente y me estoy mentalizando pasarla bien en mi trabajo, evitando caer en sobre pensar en las cosas que pueden salir mal.

Les deseo un lindo inicio de la primavera a todes, y a la gente del cono sur: lo hicimos chicos, logramos salir y sobrevivir el invierno ‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.  𐦍༘⋆

Saluditos amigos imaginarios de blogspot

malamute

Sep. 24th, 2025 07:24 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
malamute (MAL-uh-myoot) - n., an Alaskan breed of husky.


who's a good malamute? you are!
Thanks, WikiMedia!

A particularly large breed of husky, bred for hauling heavy freight sleds. The name (which English has used since the 1890s) is short for Malamute dog, which is named after the Malamute people, a subgroup of Inupiaq of the Kotzebue Sound region and Kobuk River valley. Where they got their name, I can't track down atm, but it's an Inupiaq endonym. [Sidebar 1: To oversimplify a confusing situation and nomenclature system, the Inupiaq are those Inuit peoples who live in Northern Alaska, in contrast to those Inuit who live in Canada and the Greenlandic Inuit who live in, well, Greenland -- the modern nation boundaries happen to nearly align with borders between cultural and linguistic zones.] [Sidebar 2: I should have addressed this by now, but the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples, formerly all collectively called Eskimo, have a separate heritage from all other Indigenous peoples of the Americas, having crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia much later, "only" around 3000* years ago.]


* Exact timing disputed.


---L.
incomplete_ruler: (Default)
[personal profile] incomplete_ruler
Hehe I did the thing
elyusion: お手! (hand)
[personal profile] elyusion
(Watch on Inviduous?)


This was livestreamed... there was a countdown and everything... all just for one singular trailer. For a mobile game. Before the stream the chat was mostly looking forward to ports of old games, including Kiniro no Corda Star Orchestra (their previous mobile game that EOS'd), so when the livestream ended it was a bunch of "おわり?" ("That's it?") LMAO. Some people were asking for a new Haruka game though, and I don't think anyone is mad about there being a new game, but this being All They Wanted To Say is... ...........

A few days ago Konami announced remasters of two Prince of Tennis otome games. They're trilingual releases (Japanese, English, Chinese), and they'll be on Steam, Switch, and Switch 2. Doesn't Koei feel stupid announcing 3 days later a single monolingual mobile game? I genuinely think they hate money. (Or they hate Ruby Party??) I do wonder how popular The Prince of Tennis is in the anglosphere... My high school library had it, so I'll guess it's the kind of thing that was pretty popular among otaku women here but fell off badly. Like Yami no Matsuei. Or Weiß Kreuz.

Disappointment over things I was/we were never promised aside... The game looks beautiful. There's a new artist, but unlike how I felt about Angelique Luminarise, this person's art style is cute and handsome and stylish and cool and I like it. It's a card battle game with skinship, sleeping together, the usual Haruka emphasis on the four seasons by means of interactions that change depending on the time and season (unsure if real time but hopefully yes), and the ability to choose between staying friends or becoming lovers. However, they don't mention period tracking, so clearly this game is unplayable. (/joking!!)
Character Info )
We'll get more info during the Tokyo Game Show this Friday at 17:25 (5:25 P.M. Japan Time), so look forward to that!

In the meantime, here's the official site, which has other links for more information. English articles about the game can be found here and here.

This was originally going to be a short post with links to other things going on in the joseimuke world too... But I've been at this for four hours, believe it or not. That's all from me for today!

I have some goals today :D

Sep. 24th, 2025 08:17 am
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[personal profile] incomplete_ruler
Goddamn I just realised that one of the gl mangas I said I was planning to read next month has its anime coming out in october. But whatever, I'll still read the source material. Not like I kept up with seasonal anime anyway but also the art style seems cute.

Do You Remember

Sep. 24th, 2025 05:18 am
mific: (Art brushes pencils)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] drawesome
Title: Do You Remember on AO3
Artist: [personal profile] mific
Rating: Gen
Fandom: Musicians
Characters/Pairings: Members of Earth Wind and Fire
Summary: The 21st night of September.
Content Notes: Created in Procreate. It's a bit after the 21st now, but I started it then. Some of Earth Wind and Fire, singing "September".


(no subject)

Sep. 23rd, 2025 10:37 am
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[personal profile] stardust_rifle
After multiple close calls, I finally got sideswiped by a bike. Should I make a sign that says “I CANNOT HEAR VERY WELL OUT OF MY RIGHT EAR, IF YOU ARE APPROACHING ME FROM THE RIGHT ON A BIKE I MOST LIKELY CAN NOT HEAR YOU”?

kayak

Sep. 23rd, 2025 06:50 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
kayak (KAI-ak) - n., a light narrow boat that has both ends tapered to a point and a surface deck that is propelled by sitting person with a double-bladed paddle, specifically: a) a traditional boat of Inuit, Aleut, and Yupik made of a frame of wood or bone covered with animal skin that closes watertightly around the waist; b) a modern boat that resembles this, typically made of wood or fiberglass.


A traditional one, being used by a seal-hunter with a harpoon:

Inuit seal hunter in a kayak armed with a harpoon
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Also a verb, to travel by kayak. A flexible purpose boat, made in different styles for different environments -- originally, it was mostly a hunter's boat. We got the word in the 1750s from Inuktitut name qayaq, where the qai- part means surface/top.

---L.
incomplete_ruler: (Default)
[personal profile] incomplete_ruler
Active dreamwidth feeds are a beast of its own. They can range from chaser forums to actually useful/informative to an ao3 tag for a hetalia ship

these useless days are your becoming

Sep. 22nd, 2025 04:19 pm
geodine: (whisper)
[personal profile] geodine
the festival was such a gem of an experience, but MAN, getting back into the swing of things after a break is rough! 

i've been pacing around and knocking off every possible item on my todo list besides editing work. part of it is that i've finally gotten to Part III of this draft, which is where things get reallyyyyy hazy. last night i planned out all the changes and reorganizing for the next few chapters, but actually Doing it is a different story ........

like i always say, there's a pendulum to these things, and i have firmly swung back into the "wow, this thing is hot garbage!" area after a good long while of feeling pretty good about it. i've just been editing for so Long, and the end is so far from sight.... i don't even know what draft i'm on! i really thought this was going to be my last "developmental" edit, but i already feel like there are some major changes i'm going to be making on my next go around. considering i'm coming up on two years of this, it's easy to start feeling like it's just. unsalvageable! time and time again with this project i've come to the crossroads of trying to decide whether i should pack it up and work on something new.

But ! got some mail from caz that included a very silly drawing of briar that says "do it for him" and this alone was enough to save me from the hole. if other people are drawing MY little guy then i can limp him over the finish line. a long time ago em sent me a letter talking about pactbound and i still turn to those words whenever i feel doubtful too. i've been trying to snip most assurance seeking behaviors in the bud, because i think this is the sort of thing you just have to be able to do of your own volition, but MAN does it help.

even if this book is never sellable, i want to be able to show the people who have given me their support something worth supporting!! caz and felix and tuki and em and romeo and azen, this is for you!!!!!! (and everyone else who i'm not remembering right this second Wow dedications are hard ....) when i think of it as a story for friends, it really does get less intimidating, doesn't it? it's not like i'm out here pitching lit fic!

SO . ALL THAT SAID . i WILL get the rewrite of the Part III opening done tonight, AND (fingers extremelyyy crossed) edit chapter 23, too! FOR THE PEOPLE!!!! 

( or i will fail to do anything and this post will mysteriously disappear ...... )

Assorted thoughts update #2

Sep. 22nd, 2025 07:59 pm
fitia: A cartoon digital drawing of a smiling black woman, with pink hair in two braided side-loops tied with ribbons. She is wearing a checkered pink top with puffed sleeves. She is smiling kindly at the viewer. (Default)
[personal profile] fitia
I've been getting into the groove of living on my own for the first time, and it was definitely scary and stressful at first. But I think I'm managing a lot better, now! I've set consistent habits for myself to build, and have gotten better at setting reachable goals (though the fact that I'm at a point in time where I have a lot of errands to do might be helping with that), and overall, I think I'll be able to make this new chapter of my life manageable.

I actually didn't have anything particular in mind to share when I opened the site today and started writing this, so I'm finding things as I go:
  • There was a whole week I'd spent on Youtube scrolling through a bunch of K/J-Music performances, and while doing so I happened to find some new singers I enjoyed and whose discographies I'd like to take the time to discover at some point. Chief among them being Sheena Ringo, who I imagine is popular enough that admitting I've only just discovered her probably makes me sound like I've been living my whole life under a rock, lol. I've been loving this song of hers in particular. The music video is really fun, too.
  • I've also watched the movie Mississippi Masala recently! It was an incredible watch, and got me teary-eyed. Maybe I'll think to write a longer review some other time, I've just realized that I've gotten sleepier while typing this.
  • Currently, I'm reading La Confession d'un enfant du siècle by Alfred de Musset. I was interested in reading something from the perspective of a Frenchman living in unstable times, post-Napoleon, and the first chapter seemed promising in that regard, but the next parts took a sharp turn towards some unbearable misogyny that I've been having less and less fun the further I go. I'm thinking that if the author doesn't change the subject soon, I'll have to DNF it.
I think that's all for what's presently on my mind. Though maybe I'm also less encouraged to type at the moment because I'm writing this very sleepy and on my phone, and it isn't the most pleasant experience. Should remember to always, always make my Dreamwidth updates while using a computer!

igloo

Sep. 22nd, 2025 07:17 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
I thought I was done with words from Native American / First Nations languages of North America, only to remember I haven’t covered words from Inuit, Aleut, and Yupik peoples (the latter two also living in northeastern Russia) —for they indeed have given English enough common-enough words for a theme week. [Sidebar: for a discussion of the term Eskimo, see husky.] Starting with the most obvious one:


igloo (IG-loo) - n., a durable, domed shelter constructed of blocks cut from hard snow.


Contrast with tupik, which is a tent-like summer shelter made from animal skins. Although we associate igloos with all Inuit, not to mention Inupiat of Alaska and Yupik of eastern Siberia, they’ve been most commonly built in central Arctic Canada and adjacent northwestern Greenland. [Sidebar: TIL the blocks are not laid down in rings but a rising spiral.] We got the word from Inuktitut iclu, which means a house of any construction—somehow in English it got applied to only a snowhouse, which is icluvijaq in Inuktitut. Inuktitut is, broadly speaking, the main Inuit language of Canada, though it’s better described as a dialect continuum than a single language: across its range, speakers from one band can understand those from neighboring bands but not from further off.

---L.

weekly good things

Sep. 22nd, 2025 07:01 am
geodine: (shin)
[personal profile] geodine


-> world's best chili on sunday night

-> posted a letter And got my delivery from caz :)

-> TYPED UP PB PII . none know how huge this is i fear ....... not long left now 

-> the wholeeeee music festival was too great to really wrap up in words here waauuguhh ..... every time i think "i've gotta get to a regular jam band" because it is just SO much fun to play with a group

-> managed to draft up next story for submission while i was out there which was one of those "yeah i'll probably have time for that" things that i never actually end up doing so. Win

-> saw spencer reid go through a lot



looking forward to next week . . . 

-> d&d Again ??? 

He's such a bitch I love him

Sep. 22nd, 2025 08:26 pm
incomplete_ruler: (Default)
[personal profile] incomplete_ruler
Taking reference photos and realising how much of a tortured diva my main character is.

I CAN DO IT

Sep. 22nd, 2025 07:39 pm
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[personal profile] incomplete_ruler
Currently trying to master the art of not giving a fuck