AKC Courtneyyyyyy Culture Festival #218: Hashimoto Haruna
Apr. 22nd, 2026 06:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sonofgodzillaWe're still talking about Team 8, I'm so sorry, but we have to, Team 8 is what makes the backbone of current AKB. So, alongside her fellow members, Abe Mei, Okabe Rin, Okubora Chinatsu, Nagano Serika, Fujimura Natsuki, Onishi Momoka, Kuranoo Narumi, Shitao Miu, Cho Kurena, Hamamatsu Riona, Fukuchi Rena, Honda Hitomi, Yokomichi Yuri, the other Yokoyama Yui, Yoshino Miyu, Oda Erina, Oguri Yui, Yoshikawa Nanase, Hayasaka Tsumugi, Hirose Natsuki, Iwasaki Moeka, Yaguchi Moka, and Takahashi Ayane, Hashimoto Haruna, born in the early summer of 2000, made her debut 14 years later!
Like her peers, Harupyon debuted as part of Team 8's revival of PARTY ga Hajumaru yo—performing Skirt, Hirari—and the later revival of Aitakatta—performing Nagisa no CHERRY. Also like the rest of Team 8, her first recorded debut was 47 no Suteki na Machi e on the B side of Kokoro no Placard in 2015. I won't go through all the B sides that Harupyon has appeared on—you can guess them based on previous Team 8 entries alone—but I will mention that during her time in the group, she became close friends with Rissen Airi, who joined Team 8 in 2018, and now works elsewhere for another agency. I will also mention how much I instantly fell in love with her introductory speech as soon as I read it:
"I will work hard to deliver smiles to everyone! Wait for my visit with smiles as a souvenir!!"
If that doesn't tell you all you need to know then I don't know what does!
Initially debuting at the SKE48 theatre performance with Yaguchi Moka, Hirose Natsuki, Hayasaka Tsumugi, and others, she also joined Moka in gaining a concurrent position in Team K in 2017, and then moving to Team B in 2021 where she stayed until the teams were eventually all folded up into the situation we have here. This gives me an opportunity to talk about Team B Oshi once more. I was a little hard on the idea of Team AKB Oshi last time we spoke about the song. Team B Oshi implies the existence of Team A Oshi. As far back as 2014, when Harupyon was first joining the group, this was being performed at concerts. The difference is that I will excuse this because it's Takahashi Team A. If Takamina says it's okay, it's okay, basically.
Haruna, always hopping like a rabbit, dreamed of being an idol since elementary school, and now here she is, the self-styled girl with glasses from Toyama Prefecture. Team 8 may be "on hiatus" but, at the same time, Team 8 now is AKB48, and in the spirit of that sentiment: who's your Team 8 oshi?
Like her peers, Harupyon debuted as part of Team 8's revival of PARTY ga Hajumaru yo—performing Skirt, Hirari—and the later revival of Aitakatta—performing Nagisa no CHERRY. Also like the rest of Team 8, her first recorded debut was 47 no Suteki na Machi e on the B side of Kokoro no Placard in 2015. I won't go through all the B sides that Harupyon has appeared on—you can guess them based on previous Team 8 entries alone—but I will mention that during her time in the group, she became close friends with Rissen Airi, who joined Team 8 in 2018, and now works elsewhere for another agency. I will also mention how much I instantly fell in love with her introductory speech as soon as I read it:
"I will work hard to deliver smiles to everyone! Wait for my visit with smiles as a souvenir!!"
If that doesn't tell you all you need to know then I don't know what does!
Initially debuting at the SKE48 theatre performance with Yaguchi Moka, Hirose Natsuki, Hayasaka Tsumugi, and others, she also joined Moka in gaining a concurrent position in Team K in 2017, and then moving to Team B in 2021 where she stayed until the teams were eventually all folded up into the situation we have here. This gives me an opportunity to talk about Team B Oshi once more. I was a little hard on the idea of Team AKB Oshi last time we spoke about the song. Team B Oshi implies the existence of Team A Oshi. As far back as 2014, when Harupyon was first joining the group, this was being performed at concerts. The difference is that I will excuse this because it's Takahashi Team A. If Takamina says it's okay, it's okay, basically.
Haruna, always hopping like a rabbit, dreamed of being an idol since elementary school, and now here she is, the self-styled girl with glasses from Toyama Prefecture. Team 8 may be "on hiatus" but, at the same time, Team 8 now is AKB48, and in the spirit of that sentiment: who's your Team 8 oshi?
Girl Genius for Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Apr. 22nd, 2026 04:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
girlgenius_main_feedThe Girl Genius comic for Wednesday, April 22, 2026 has been posted.
(no subject)
Apr. 22nd, 2026 05:08 amapod_feed
Why are there three arches across the sky instead of two?
Bandicoots bounce back in Brown Hill Creek
Apr. 22nd, 2026 04:48 ammetafilter_feedBandicoots bounce back in Brown Hill Creek as team works towards "superhighway". A small colony of endangered brown bandicoots just south of Adelaide continue to breed as conservationists hope to connect them with other populations.
The SPLC indictment, the Klan history behind it...
Apr. 22nd, 2026 04:21 ammetafilter_feedThe SPLC indictment, the Klan history behind it... ... and the ignominy of Todd Blanche. A very detailed legal explainer of the background of the recent court case.
If you are so inclined, the Southern Poverty Law Center accepts donations.
If you are so inclined, the Southern Poverty Law Center accepts donations.
tantamount
Apr. 22nd, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 22, 2026 is:
tantamount • \TAN-tuh-mount\ • adjective
Something may be described as tantamount to something else if it is equal in value, meaning, or effect.
// The pop star’s fans see any criticism of her music as tantamount to a crime.
Examples:
“... conducting requires more than merely gesturing with a baton—some pieces of music are tantamount to 80 minutes of hard cardio ...” — Mark Shanahan, The Boston Globe, 15 Mar. 2026
Did you know?
Although tantamount (from the Anglo-French phrase tant amunter, meaning “to amount to as much”) was used three different ways in the early 17th century—as a noun, verb, and adjective—the adjective form has since proven paramount to English users: it’s still in use while the noun and verb are obsolete. This is not to say that the adjective hasn’t experienced change over the years. While it was once acceptable to use tantamount in a variety of different sentence structures, nowadays it is almost always followed by the word to. And to use it before a noun, as in “the two old friends exchanged tantamount greetings,” would now be considered, er, tantamount to riding a penny-farthing or boneshaker onto the expressway.
what I've been up to recently (writing edition)
Apr. 21st, 2026 09:13 pmhafniaSee also: oh right there's a bunch of stuff up on AO3 and I should probably talk about it solely so I don't forget that I, like, did it.
( Beneath the jump, since not everyone's interested in this. )
I...think that's it? At least now I can feel less weird being like, "oh yeah, I haven't been posting, because I've been doing other stuff" when that "other stuff" is, like. THE ABOVE. Ha.
( Beneath the jump, since not everyone's interested in this. )
I...think that's it? At least now I can feel less weird being like, "oh yeah, I haven't been posting, because I've been doing other stuff" when that "other stuff" is, like. THE ABOVE. Ha.
Tuesday word: Futz
Apr. 21st, 2026 09:23 pmsimplyn2deep posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
1word1dayTuesday, April 21, 2026
Futz (verb, noun, verb phrase)
futz [fuhts]
verb (used without object)
1. to pass time in idleness (usually followed by around ).
noun
2. a fool; simpleton.
verb phrase
3. futz (around) with to handle or deal with, especially idly, reluctantly, or as a time-consuming task: I spent all day futzing with those file folders.
Origin: First recorded in 1905–10; apparently a euphemism for fuck;
Example Sentences
If you didn’t want to futz with the word blockchain but did want Bitcoin exposure, you could buy MicroStrategy stock.
From Slate • Feb. 3, 2026
More important: AI gives you easier access to settings, so you don’t have to futz with menus.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 11, 2026
You can futz with the bread, you can gild the cheese, but if the core is bland or watery or vaguely funereal, the whole enterprise collapses.
From Salon • Dec. 4, 2025
It was incredibly hot to wear silicone, so there wasn’t as much time to futz around.
From New York Times • Feb. 22, 2023
I’m so ambivalent about dieting and my body, but I’m also happy to futz with my double chin.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2020
Futz (verb, noun, verb phrase)
futz [fuhts]
verb (used without object)
1. to pass time in idleness (usually followed by around ).
noun
2. a fool; simpleton.
verb phrase
3. futz (around) with to handle or deal with, especially idly, reluctantly, or as a time-consuming task: I spent all day futzing with those file folders.
Origin: First recorded in 1905–10; apparently a euphemism for fuck;
Example Sentences
If you didn’t want to futz with the word blockchain but did want Bitcoin exposure, you could buy MicroStrategy stock.
From Slate • Feb. 3, 2026
More important: AI gives you easier access to settings, so you don’t have to futz with menus.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 11, 2026
You can futz with the bread, you can gild the cheese, but if the core is bland or watery or vaguely funereal, the whole enterprise collapses.
From Salon • Dec. 4, 2025
It was incredibly hot to wear silicone, so there wasn’t as much time to futz around.
From New York Times • Feb. 22, 2023
I’m so ambivalent about dieting and my body, but I’m also happy to futz with my double chin.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2020
Haircut
Apr. 21st, 2026 07:46 pmranunculusSince 2020 I've been cutting my own hair. It is certainly the cheap way to deal with hair, but my own cuts, with the exception of one, never felt like they turned out very well. Twice I ventured out to a salon and returned feeling that I was doing just about as good a job as the stylist did. My hair is very thick and definitely has a mind of its own. My last attempt at hair cutting was a bit pathetic and for some reason this week my wrists are sore; so today I was determined to find a place that would at least trim the front out of my eyes. Entirely at random I walked into a place called Dream, and by dint of being very flexible, talked the stylist into squeezing me in this afternoon. Boy was that the right decision. Great, if very short, haircut (I asked for it short), nice conversation, including with other patrons and the tiny salon did not smell like chemicals or perfume. I believe it is a one woman shop run by a lady who is almost my age. I've made an appointment for June....
Poem: "Where You Find Light"
Apr. 21st, 2026 10:26 pmysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the August 5, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from dialecticdreamer, rix_scaedu, and jake67jake. It also fills the "Before the Fact" square in my 8-1-25 card for the Crime Classics Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It is the first in a triptych, followed by "When You Learn to Read" and "No Faster or Firmer Friendships."
( Read more... )
dialecticdreamer, rix_scaedu, and jake67jake. It also fills the "Before the Fact" square in my 8-1-25 card for the Crime Classics Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It is the first in a triptych, followed by "When You Learn to Read" and "No Faster or Firmer Friendships."( Read more... )
I would like to have all of the rest of the world disappear and live with you here.
Apr. 22nd, 2026 04:56 amexistence101 posting in addmeName: Simone
25poemsamonth, if that counts as a fandom.
Age:
Closer to 40 than 30.I mostly post about:
I've only just started this journal, though I've used Dreamwidth sporadically before. I plan to mainly write about my writing progress, my writing projects, thoughts on writing, authors/poets I'm reading (English) and similar.My hobbies are:
Poetry, roleplaying, writing, ballet, art, icon making (sporadically and mostly RP-related) and scrapbooking/collage-making.My fandoms are:
I'm not active in any fandoms rn, though in the past I've been active in the Takarazuka Revue fandom and the Danish ballet fandom. I am, however, running the poetry prompt challenge community,25poemsamonth, if that counts as a fandom.I'm looking to meet people who:
Like to write, will share their writing with me, their writing progress, ups-downs, writing journal, research, thoughts. Just writing, ok.My posting schedule tends to be:
Honestly, probably sporadic, but as I'm beginning to work on an English-language verse novel soon, I hope to be a little more active than just once a month.When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
No gen AI. No queerphobia, transphobia, racism, etc.Before adding me, you should know:
Can't really think of anything. I live in Denmark, so might post at weird times compared to the many American folks here.Delenda Est Dracunculus
Apr. 22nd, 2026 02:24 ammetafilter_feedGuinea worm disease is poised to become the second human disease in history to be eradicated. When the Carter Center's work began in 1986, Guinea worm disease afflicted an estimated 3.5 million people every year in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. In 2025 there were only 10 reported human cases. The eradication effort is the first to be done without vaccines or medicine. Instead, thousands of community volunteers were recruited, teaching people to filter all drinking water and keep infected people and animals away from water sources.
"Guinea worm disease, or dracunculiasis, is contracted when people consume water from stagnant sources contaminated with Guinea worm larvae. The parasite's incubation period is long. That means anyone affected is not aware until about a year after infection, when the adult female Guinea worm – measuring up to 3 feet long – creates a painful blister, often on the leg or foot, and slowly emerges over the course of weeks. The disease incapacitates people for extended periods. Secondary infections, often caused by traditional efforts to pull the Guinea worm out, compound the suffering and prolong the time of disability."
"Guinea worm disease, or dracunculiasis, is contracted when people consume water from stagnant sources contaminated with Guinea worm larvae. The parasite's incubation period is long. That means anyone affected is not aware until about a year after infection, when the adult female Guinea worm – measuring up to 3 feet long – creates a painful blister, often on the leg or foot, and slowly emerges over the course of weeks. The disease incapacitates people for extended periods. Secondary infections, often caused by traditional efforts to pull the Guinea worm out, compound the suffering and prolong the time of disability."
The Artisans and the Engineers [hist, eng, text, anthro]
Apr. 21st, 2026 10:19 pmsiderea(h/t conuly)
This longform article is framed as being a "ha ha isn't it wacky NASA hired a lingerie company for the Apollo missions". Ignore that. It turns out to be about an organizational culture clash around documentation and specification requirements that will speak to all the therapists and software developers in the room. Also of interest to fans of the US space program, the history of women in NASA and in tech, and clothing construction.
2023 April 14: Nautilus: "The Bra-and-Girdle Maker That Fashioned the Impossible for NASA" by Nicholas de Monchaux, Head of Architecture, MIT. Adapted from his book, Spacesuit. Recommended.
conuly)This longform article is framed as being a "ha ha isn't it wacky NASA hired a lingerie company for the Apollo missions". Ignore that. It turns out to be about an organizational culture clash around documentation and specification requirements that will speak to all the therapists and software developers in the room. Also of interest to fans of the US space program, the history of women in NASA and in tech, and clothing construction.
2023 April 14: Nautilus: "The Bra-and-Girdle Maker That Fashioned the Impossible for NASA" by Nicholas de Monchaux, Head of Architecture, MIT. Adapted from his book, Spacesuit. Recommended.
why not here
Apr. 21st, 2026 07:18 pmthistleingreyJinwoo Park, Oxford Soju Club (2025): character-centric spy thriller from a Canadian publisher, which I picked up while glancing at a different library epub (by someone who blurbed Soju Club). Subject line is from ch. 5.
If you know which Korean surnames are border-straddlers, you'll find them well represented amongst Soju Club's associates, either directly or via central-casting allusions to kpop/kdrama stars' names (including the voice actress for Meitantei Conan's Korean dub, if I'm not mistaken). One character totes around a copy of The Golden Compass, thus named. The Oxford around Soju Club and another pub is barely sketched in, a liminal space for crossings, as though to assert that there's no need for the Arctic; southern England is unlikely enough.
Soju Club is the type of novel that, while layering secret-handshake refs that most readers wouldn't see (I caught the doublings related to Sacheon in Yeongnam, but I know I've missed a bunch), tries suggesting that it doesn't matter that gyopo Park did his homework for those resonances and evocations as though preparing for a Suneung he never took. If you catch the Korean bits, you won't catch the UK-related or NorAm-related ones.
All you need are the sense that you won't catch everything Park has learned while touring himself out of some boxes, and the fact that he did a master's at Oxford and then some writing/managing for computer games. The latter furnishes the novel's vignette-driven scrambled sequence: turn the page or tap the screen to find the next puzzle-segment.
I think that Park, with this debut novel, doesn't imagine the author to be dead.
If you know which Korean surnames are border-straddlers, you'll find them well represented amongst Soju Club's associates, either directly or via central-casting allusions to kpop/kdrama stars' names (including the voice actress for Meitantei Conan's Korean dub, if I'm not mistaken). One character totes around a copy of The Golden Compass, thus named. The Oxford around Soju Club and another pub is barely sketched in, a liminal space for crossings, as though to assert that there's no need for the Arctic; southern England is unlikely enough.
Soju Club is the type of novel that, while layering secret-handshake refs that most readers wouldn't see (I caught the doublings related to Sacheon in Yeongnam, but I know I've missed a bunch), tries suggesting that it doesn't matter that gyopo Park did his homework for those resonances and evocations as though preparing for a Suneung he never took. If you catch the Korean bits, you won't catch the UK-related or NorAm-related ones.
All you need are the sense that you won't catch everything Park has learned while touring himself out of some boxes, and the fact that he did a master's at Oxford and then some writing/managing for computer games. The latter furnishes the novel's vignette-driven scrambled sequence: turn the page or tap the screen to find the next puzzle-segment.
I think that Park, with this debut novel, doesn't imagine the author to be dead.
Welcoming the 2026 APNIC general and Policy Fellows
Apr. 22nd, 2026 12:19 amapnic_blog_feedAPNIC is pleased to welcome the successful applicants to its 2026 general and Policy Fellowship programs. This year’s Fellows reflect the diversity and talent of network practitioners and community contributors from across the Asia Pacific region.