The Fathoms they abide

[emwheezie]

Cats with knives.

[felictyporter]

THE AMERICANS, 1x01 "pilot"

[icewindandboringhorror]

If you could wake up and instantly have ONE of these things tomorrow, which would you choose?

A spouse/partner (exact perfect match for you, soulmate, etc.)

A house (your dream property, any location of your choice, fully paid off, etc)

One time payment of $1,000,000 (no catch, fully legally acquired, not taxed)

A solid friend group (no drama, dream compatibility, reliable support system)

Your dream job (success in any one area of your choice, complete job security)

One person of your choice dies in a random accident (never traced to you)

Bring one person of your choice back to life (never draws suspicion, no catch)

Become 10 years younger physically (no resulting health issues, no catch, etc)

Become expert level at any one skill (skill cannot be lost, no work to maintain)

Become famous instantly (at whatever level of fame is desirable to you)

Voting ended onApr 3, 2025

(also feel free in the tags to clarify Why you made the choice you made!! :0c)

[wendelah]

It's been awhile

so I thought I should ask: Is it only okay now to reblog something from people who follow you? It seems like only the names of people I know are still on the posts. Do the blank spaces where names use to be mean they blocked me? Or that they left tumblr? I'm just curious. I'm enjoying paging through my tumblr though it's mostly other people's pretty things and thinky thoughts.

Also, Hi!

[chylerleighs]

[rosenkranz-does-things]

x files studies but this time I tired to achieve that VHS feeling. I very vaguely remember watching some episodes as a kid, and I think this is as close as I've ever got to recreating that memory of a small, grainy tv in a dark room

[huntedreader]

These all have killed me and thank you for sharing

[kerirussellnews]

I get a little protective. I’m like, “Can someone get her a fuckin’ robe, please?! She’s standing there naked, we’ve cut for five seconds, Jesus Christ.” (Laughter.) And they’re like, “Dude, this is the fourth season.

[broadlybrazen]

if i can convince americans to value our federally funded biomedical research as the crown jewel that it is & start defending that with the rabid fervor it deserves, i will be satisfied.

this is your birthright, your inheritance, and your legacy. this work was done in your name, with your money, for you. this federally funded work underlies nearly every great biomedical breakthrough that has saved lives & improved care, including in ways that most of us are not even aware of. it is yours, it has always been yours. i wish you were as joyful & proud & possessive of it as you deserve to be.

[roarkeve]

I need like an AO3 algorithm. You’ve read all of @slippinmickeys may we suggest *insert just as awesome similar authors* you’ve binged all of @aloysiavirgata perhaps you’d enjoy *inserts all the stories that are fantasticly similar.

Oh you’ve reread @syntax6 *insert similar works which are amazing and compelling stories.*

And sometimes the algorithm will suggest too much of that one fic you started and kinda hated but felt you had to finish cause everyone loved it and then you have to go and re read all the @malibusunset-xf-blog Terra firma series to get your suggestions back on track.

[roarkeve]

I assure, im not being lazy. I’ve read exclusively xfiles fanfic for almost 2 years. I’ve explored no longer maintained websites, authors bookmarks, fic rec post for multiple bloggers compiles, xlibris, fic of the days and authors own websites. That’s also not limited to published books by Charles grant and other various authors.

I’ve hit the point that after 2 years of reading from as many avenues as I can find I’m left with the issue of people tagging xfiles and having to root through South Park fics and other random not related content.

From a fandom that’s now over 30 years old that i entered into the fic world late, I know there’s a lot of content but there’s not a lot of new content. There’s a lot of quick fics that are under 5k words but im looking for longer novel length fics and have been coming up empty on new stories.

So I assure you, this has nothing to do with being lazy. Just looking to be able to continue to read.

[unremarkablehouse]

Yeah AO3 search is fundamentally flawed because hits or kudos don’t necessarily make something a writing style I’ve enjoyed and I’ve found some great fics by having to stalk through other people’s bookmarked works (which people aren’t doing as much) and find them. I love Today-in-fic on Tumblr when it’s really active though but if there was a txf fic book club I would totally join it 🤣 love the recommendation lists @lilydalexf and @randomfoggytiger put out. Also @baronessblixen has introduced me to some of my favorite fic authors (and she’s one of my all time faves).

I’m totally in the same boat, I want to read a good multi chapter or novel length fic but it’s hard to get into directly in AO3 (which is why we all use the curated lists). I do think there could be a balance of privacy where you can choose if your fic is part of the algorithm and if you want to opt into using a recommendation engine. A lot of the long time fans are so used to hunting and peck, with text based archives and using the way back machine for websites that don’t exist, it’s like A03 is an improvement it’s funny to think of asking for additional features when we’re used to so little, lol.

[baronessblixen]

I personally don't find AO3's search flawed at all. It's amazing - if done right. The tag system is a great tool if you're looking for something specific. I grew up reading fics on fanfiction.net and all you had there was a summary. A summary!

The bookmark thing seems to be the closest thing to peer-reviewed recommendations. I'd try that. I just had that conversation yesterday with people but there will never be a consensus about what is "good". We all like different things and different aspects of someone's writing.

Frankly, an algorithm on AO3 would just give you fics with similar tags - and you don't need that cause you can already look for that. You can even choose the fic length you want to be reading.

[leiascully]

I don't know who said you were lazy (that's rude and I am sorry if someone did), but @baronessblixen is right and if there were an AO3 algorithm (which there won't be), it would likely just give you similar tags. You can sort by length on AO3. I think you can also sort by length on Gossamer. That doesn't guarantee you'll find a fic in the style you like, but pretty much nothing does unless it's a rec from a trusted pal. It's all about community, as others have said.

I personally would opt my fics out of an algorithm if one existed, but I'm delighted if anyone recs them. There's a big difference between a reader saying "oh, this reminded me of xyz author's stuff!" and some kind of equation or code doing something similar - I find the human touch much more reliable.

There also used to be an XF book club on Livejournal run by @wendelah.

[wendelah]

Forgive the late comment. I am not sure when this was written? (I don't remember how to format comments or create links. If this turns into a big block of unreadable text, I am sorry.) Here is the aforementioned XF bookclub from livejournal, which was imported to Dreamwidth for safekeeping: https://xf-book-club.dreamwidth.org/. It has been on hiatus since 2016. It wasn't a recs community per se; it was a fanfic discussion community, a concept which is wildly out of style now. I loved many of these stories, and at least a couple of the novels we discussed were never archived at Gossamer or AO3. The links were fixed before the import but it's been eight years, and it's an old fandom.

https://www.tumblr.com/201daysofxfiles is a community I created to accompany my rewatch of the entire series before the premiere of season ten. I made it through season seven and posted what were in retrospect some rather harsh episode reviews, along some enthusiastic recs for episode tags, when I could find something to recommend. There will be many broken links.

When I first started reading xf fanfic back in 2006 (I think?), I found recs at https://crack-van.livejournal.com/tag/the%20x-files. I made many recs there while the community was still active. (Yes. Broken links. So many broken links.) Recs are always a bit of a crapshoot--how much does my taste overlap with yours--but I hope this will be of some help to some readers.

Apropos of nothing, this afternoon, I started rereading an old fic by prufrock's love, "Hiraeth," because a book I've been reading brought it to mind. "The Fool's Tale" by Nicole Galland is a historical novel with the same setting--medieval Wales--and even some of the same secondary characters, but whereas Galland makes me laugh, there is nothing funny about "Hiraeth." It's a good fic, but tragic from start to finish.

[movie-gifs]

Jyn & Cassian in Rogue One | 2016

[robertreich]

Bezos and Musk Vs. Workers

Two of the world’s richest men want to end unions once and for all. 

Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Amazon are both arguing in court that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional on the grounds that it combines judicial and executive functions.

The NLRB is the agency that supervises union organizing and collective bargaining as established by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 — a cornerstone of FDR’s New Deal that guarantees the right of workers to organize. It is, in effect, the referee of labor management relations.

If Bezos and Musk get their way, two of the richest people in the world will have gutted the enforcement of labor laws designed to protect the right of average workers to unionize. Corporations could fire employees who try to organize, without any repercussions. It could also be a death knell to unions that already exist.

Corporate giants Starbucks and Trader Joe’s have similarly advanced their own legal arguments echoing the same anti-union, anti-worker sentiment. So much for being “progressive” companies, huh?

Beyond their copycat legal arguments, what do all of these corporations have in common? A history of bashing unions and preventing workers from exercising their right to organize.

The NLRB has charged these companies with hundreds of violations of workers’ rights. They’ve fired pro-union workers, retaliated against organizers by cutting their hours, closed stores that tried to unionize, denied benefits being provided to non-union workers, and refused to bargain. And now Musk and Bezos are even going after the referees — the NLRB—  so unions and workers don’t stand a chance.

It’s not the first time their argument has been trotted out by robber barons. A similar case made its way to the Supreme Court way back in 1937. The opinion in that case upheld the NLRB and its decision to punish steel barons who fired workers who tried to organize a union.

Modern-day robber barons Bezos and Musk are hoping today’s Supreme Court will reverse its 1937 ruling and return America to a time before workers had a referee to ensure their rights.

Evidently, it’s not enough for Bezos and Musk to amass more wealth than any two people on the planet. No, they want even more wealth and covet even more power — and don’t want to share it with their workers.

You see, unions are one of the greatest champions of equality. And unions don’t just help unionized workers — they help all workers. There’s a ripple effect that occurs when workers organize: Non-union workers often receive the benefits of higher wages and safer working conditions fought for by organized labor. Unions also play a political role: They provide countervailing power to the overwhelming political power of giant corporations.

We will all suffer if unions are not there to have the backs of workers.

Now these cases may take a while to snake their way through the courts.

In the meantime, please share this video. These corporations win this fight only if the public doesn’t know what’s happening.

And support your local unions. When they go on strike, join a picket line. Better yet, join a union if you can.

We all need to voice our support for organized labor now more than ever.

[harsh-repose]

"Starfish" by Eleanor Lerman, read by James Marsters, with minor commentary on Eyes Wide Shut.

[denynothing1]

Bror Lindh

[denynothing1]

Physalis

Mig Wyeth

[arinewman7]

Dimanche des Rameaux

Anselm Kiefer

oil, emulsion, shellac, soil and branches on board, 2007

[paintedout]

Anselm Kiefer

[abstracteddistractions]

Anselm Kiefer, “Lead Star Book” (Secret Life of Plants for Robert Fludd),

Executed in circa 1996,

Oil and lead on fabric,

39 5⁄8 x 49 5⁄8 x 27 1⁄2in. (100.5 x 126 x 70cm.)