Days of What

Sep. 3rd, 2025 07:53 am
kalloway: (Panilla Saga 2 Mephisto)
[personal profile] kalloway
I know I had something that I wanted to mention... Ah well.

It's honestly kinda nice that the work-week is half over already. Last night wasn't bad at all, either, just normal-busy with a few bits of bad timing. I ended up taking a few bits of a model kit (Starfall) in because while I don't mind gently reaming a single tight hole with my hobby knife now and then, fourteen of the same part is kind of pushing it for patience and safety. So I found an appropriate drill bit in the big box and just quietly took care of all of that between calls. ^^;;

I'm in a couple of gunpla discord servers and in one of them, a handful of people are basically playing tariff-chicken and reporting back. Current (and more research is needed) studies suggest that if a holy grail pops up on Suruga-ya in the $100-150 range, or an order around that amount is made, fees+tariffs pretty much negate the free shipping. Obnoxious but not horrific.

[community profile] bitesizedcleaning has their Annual September Stampede running right now. I haven't actually started on it, but I do want to give it a try. Flat surfaces... ^^;;

Oh, now I remember - I don't think I even mentioned this, but there was an anime convention last weekend a couple of towns away. I didn't go because it was a first year con, looked messy, and the single-day badges were something like $60. in this economy?! Anyway, some Youtuber guest of theirs was running a non-sanctioned predator sting and while a couple of people were arrested after being confronted, one of them was carrying a (completely legal) gun. I guess that while the police and con-ops were cooperative, they were also very much like 'uh, don't actually do this and we didn't think it'd be during con hours what the actual fuck'. So yeah I do not have words for how catastrophic that could have been and I am very glad I didn't go.

Two poems!

Sep. 3rd, 2025 04:07 pm
swan_tower: (*writing)
[personal profile] swan_tower
I have not one but two new poems out this week! Putting me up to double digits in the number of poems I've had published so far, whee.

The first is in Merganser Magazine: "Hallucination," about AI, linguistics, and the wish for a better world.

The second, "Cutting the Cord" in Small Wonders, is probably the closest to straight-up science fiction I've ever written? It's got aliens and a space elevator in it, anyway.

Both are free to read online, so enjoy!
yhlee: a stylized fox's head and the Roman numeral IX (nine / 9) (hxx ninefox)
[personal profile] yhlee
a.k.a. I haven't had time to code anything yet lol.



cf. [personal profile] telophase's once-upon-a-time of sketch featuring BUSTY BLONDE CHERIS with her SPACE FERRET. (I still have the pic, [personal profile] telophase, not sure if I have permission to reshare or where there's a link? XD)

wednesday reads and things

Sep. 3rd, 2025 01:02 pm
isis: (leopard)
[personal profile] isis
What I've recently finished reading:

Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio went back to the library, because my hold on Summer in Orcus came in. Sorry, Chris, I might try it again sometime.

Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher - again a book that someone on my flist recommended. 11-year-old Summer gets whooshed to another world by Baba Yaga, supposedly to find her "heart's desire", though she isn't really sure what that is or how to get it, and oops, the world she's ended up in, Orcus, is in crisis. Other reviews compared it to Narnia (as a more-realistic version), although I didn't really see that - though that's probably because I'm not super familiar with Narnia other than having read it ages ago and mostly forgotten it, as the author's afterword actually mentions the Narnia influence. To me it felt almost like a skewed retelling of The Wizard of Oz: a girl and her pet dog (er, accompanying talking weasel?) pick up companions with issues on a road trip (following a road of a particular color!) to see a powerful being who turns out to be a lot less powerful than everyone thinks. It's even precipitated by a witch and a house! Anyway, I enjoyed it okay, though I kinda wish
spoiler the Forester (or Summer, or Baba Yaga, or even Reginald) could have actually helped the Queen-in-Chains - I felt sorry for her, trapped by a rash wish made as a teenager. Some people, like the Forester, can grow (maybe literally!) to live with their limitations. Some need help.

What I'm reading now:

I'm rereading Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe, which was given to me by a friend years ago, and I read and enjoyed, but after trying and failing to find the sequels at my library, gave up on. Now one of my library systems has the sequels, so I am going to read them, but I figured I should first reread the first book since I've mostly forgotten it.

What I recently finished watching:

The Leopard, the Netflix miniseries, which is apparently a remake of a 1963 movie; both are based on a historical novel published (posthumously) in 1958, by Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. It's basically one noble family's drama around their (for the most part) inability to cope with the 1860 revolution that led to the consolidation of Italian states into the Kingdom of Italy. The family and the titular "Leopard", a minor Sicilian prince, are fictional but apparently based on Lampedusa's ancestors.

It's a costume drama with gorgeous dresses, heaving bosoms, and horses, mostly, plus a little history. It was enjoyable enough to watch, anyway, and it did inspire me to look up some of the actual history.

What I'm watching now:

Just started S2 of Wednesday! We giggled through the entire first episode.
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
[personal profile] runpunkrun posting in [community profile] fandomcalendar
Photograph of steel spoons and spices in a dramatic setting with added text that gives it the look of a gourmet magazine cover: September 2025. Food & Cooking, at Fancake. Steel teaspoons are arranged in an elogated oval to suggest a fish, with the bowls acting as scales and some of the handles left visible to create the fins and tail, giving the creature a spiky appearance. The concave bowls are dusted with a powdery orange spice for color and one spoon at the front of the fish is filled with a coarse black spice to create an eye. The fish is on a black surface with a rough texture and around it are three skinny green peppers, a mound of salt, a mound of orange spice, and a dipping bowl filled with a clear amber liquid.
[community profile] fancake is a thematic recommendation community where all members are welcome to post recs, and fanworks of all shapes and sizes are accepted. Check out the community guidelines for the full set of rules.

This theme runs for the entire month. If you have any questions, just ask!

latest spinning WIP

Sep. 3rd, 2025 07:47 am
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee


Sorry about the laundry in the background. Meanwhile, it's not even 8 a.m. and it's too hot already to stay outside. Nice sunny day means at least the laundry will dry quickly?!

Oasis and some other things

Sep. 2nd, 2025 09:39 pm
snickfic: Valkyrie looking up, well-lit (Val)
[personal profile] snickfic
- Seen on Bluesky, someone is seeking your old LJ icons for their icon zine.

- My top five songs for August according to Tidal were four live tracks from the Oasis tour and their one "unplugged" release from the upcoming anniversary edition of (What's the Story) Morning Glory? They're all from a playlist I made called "new Oasis," which is an amazing playlist to have in 2025!!

- At some point I want to make a post of some more shippy highlights from the Oasis tour, but I keep not doing it and they keep adding new ones. They just... like each other so much? That is not something I would say about them in any other era, even back when they were at their weirdest about each other. These days they are just uncomplicatedly happy to see each other. It's wild.

- Speaking of the tour, on Friday I fly down to LA to see my second and final show, at the ROSE BOWL. Check that one off the bucket list, I guess!! The logistics of that trip have changed a bunch of times in the past three weeks, but I think I might finally have all the pieces nailed down, as of tonight (then again I thought that yesterday, too...). This trip feels really self-indulgent, like come on, I saw them at Wembley Stadium, surely that's enough for any one person. I am very excited to get to see them from the general admission area this time, though, and excited about the buddy I'm going with.

- I decided to focus on this Oasis WIP instead of signing up for Jump Scare, which was a great decision, because I just crossed the 10k mark on the Oasis WIP, and I've been working on it less than three weeks. Alas, I'm now convinced this 10k I have written is just lots of pieces that don't fit together or add up to anything! I'm going to focus on one scene that I know the shape and let the others rest for a bit, and hopefully I'll find the thread again.

- There are a lot of reasons I really want to finish the WIP, but one is that there is just nothing in the tag right now that I want to read. ;__;

- In November I'll have been more or less active in Oasis fandom for six years, which makes it my longest running active fandom. Hockey is the next closest, and I was in it a little less than five years. I wrote my first MCU fic in 2014, but I wouldn't consider myself active in the fandom until 2018, and then I left in 2021. It feels crazy a) that I've been into Oasis that long and b) that it of all things is my longest fandom, but on the other hand it's been an incredibly newsworthy six years for the fandom.

- I had a nice time with Seasons of Drabbles after defaulting last time. (Yes, on a 100-word exchange. It was a very busy spring.) I mostly requested only actual drabbles this time, rather than the double or triple drabbles or series thereof, and that was really nice. I mainly read actual drabbles, too, and that was also really nice. Somehow 200 words is just a lot harder to read than 100 words!

- On the last day of Fic in a Box signups, I swapped out my Re-Animator request for, wait for it, Heimdall/Loki/Valkyrie. I haven't requested a Thor ship in a full-length exchange in five years, but I wasn't feeling Re-Animator, and the last I checked there were still zero of this ship on AO3. I'm much happier with my slate of requests now.

2025 Sign-Ups

Sep. 3rd, 2025 04:05 pm
modzilla: Godzilla with a clipboard (Default)
[personal profile] modzilla posting in [community profile] fffx
I'm so glad we're here! I am very grateful to my tagmod helpers (who did a lot more work than me this time, honestly) and to everyone answering queries.

Sign-up instructions

You can sign up at the collection.

Sign-ups are open until 11:59pm EDT, September 11.

Basics
-Ask for 4-10 fandoms, 1-10 "relationship" tags in each, and in each of your requests, tick at least one of the additional tags that specifies what kind of gift you're interested in.

-Offer 1-10 fandoms, 1-10 "relationship" tags in each, and in each of your offers, tick at least two of the additional tags that specifies what kind of gift you're willing to create.

-In fffx's tagset, the "relationships" field covers characters, relationships, and worldbuilding. fffx uses OR matching - you will get, or create, a gift focusing on one of those tags. If you want specific characters to interact, select a single "relationship" tag that names all of them and uses & and / as appropriate.

-You can repeat fandoms in your requests - ie, you can ask for Original Work twice. You still need 4 unique fandom requests. Offers can be be as minimal as you like, but you will need someone to create for in order to receive an assignment.

-Please list dealbreaking Do-Not-Wants in your sign-ups. You must also put some other, positive information about your interests in each request - this can be a likes list, some prompts, or just talking about what you like about the canon & characters.

Please consider your DNWs carefully. "DNW: unrequested relationships" might suit a 1k relationship-based exchange that also matches on freeforms like "trapped together in an elevator", but may cause stress to someone considering a longer plot. DNWs should give guidance but not constrict your author to a plot that is dramatically narrower than the possibilities of the tag you requested.

-Participants must be aged 18 or over.

-Do not use "AI" generative tools for fic or art. Please reach out to me directly if you're not sure if your assistive tool counts.

-There is a space in Offers - Title - for "Notes to Mod". You can use this space to tell me more about your matching preferences, if you like. You can also leave it blank. If you have Do-Not-Match requests, I may follow up with you for more information - ie, how pinch hits will be handled.

-You are not eligible to sign up if you have not commented on previous gifts (check your name here) or discussed the situation with me. You are not eligible to sign up if you posted a placeholder for which I banned you, unless you've posted a make-up work.

-You are not eligible to sign up if you took part last year and either defaulted after check-in, didn't check in during check-in, or checked in then didn't post a work. However, if that happened to you in any of rounds 1-4, you're welcome to sign up again now.


How the Additional Tags Work
If you request Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic, you will receive 1 gift that is a comic of at least 10 pages or at least 40 panels. (Ie, if there are 40 distinct panels, it can have 9 pages. If there are 10 full pages, it's okay if there are only 36 panels.)

If you request Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic OR 2 x 5-Page Comics at Artist's Discretion, you may receive 1 gift that is a comic of 10 pages or at least 40 panels, or you may receive 2 gifts of 2 comics that are each half that long. (If selecting that option, I recommend also selecting Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic - there are no drawbacks. But you don't have to.)

If you request Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic, you will receive 1 gift that is a fanfic of at least 10,000 words.

If you request Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic OR 2 x 5000-Word Fics at Author's Discretion, you may receive 1 gift that is a fanfic of at least 10,000 words, or you may receive 2 gifts of 2 fic that are each half that long. (If selecting that option, I recommend also selecting Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic - there are no drawbacks. But you don't have to.)

It is possible that if you select both Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic OR 2 x 5-Page Comics at Artist's Discretion AND Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic OR 2 x 5000-Word Fics at Author's Discretion, you may get two gifts, one of which is a 20-panel comic and 1 of which is a 5,000-word fic. It is possible that if you select "2 x 5" tags for more than one fandom, you will get half-length gifts from two different fandoms. This is up to your creators.

You have to offer two Additional Tags. If you are someone who creates only in 1 medium, you can select both the Fanart tags, or you can select both the Fanfic tags.


Groups
Groups & Creator's Choice tags works like this:
"Thop the Gribble & the Splonks"
This means a story focusing on Thop and his platonic relationship with two characters who fit into the category of Splonk. The characters chosen from the Splonks are up to the creator.

"Gribbles/Splonks"
This means a sexual or romantic relationship including at least two Gribbles and at least two Splonks.

"Gribbles & ALL: Splonks"
This means a story featuring platonic relationships between at least two Gribbles and all of the characters who can be defined as splonks.

"Creator's Choice of Gribble & Splonks"
This means a story featuring platonic relationships between ONE Gribble and at least two Splonks.

When ALL is part of the tag, all members of the group must play significant roles in the work. If it isn't, the creator gets to choose which character feature. Requesters may not select within the tag or DNW members of the group.

Groups that are nominated in this way should be discrete and clearly defined.

If an existing group or Creator's Choice tag doesn't work for you, please use your supplementary nominations slots to nominate a tag between specific characters.

If requesting a group, I recommend using your prompts to talk about who you see as part of the group, just in case your creator has a different idea.



Unusual Things fffx Is Doing
-Comments are really important. This exchange is scheduled to reveal on March 14 2026; I recommend thinking twice abut signing up if you think you'll struggle to comment during the anonymous period or soon after. It is a requirement of this exchange that you must comment on any gifts you receive or, if you cannot, refuse the gift.

-Please don't link to a letter (an external document containing prompts, general preferences, etc) unless you're confident you can complete it by September 21. I know you can't predict the future - please just plan in good faith. Letters, of course, are optional - you don't have to link one at all. If you do link to a letter, please consider keeping a status message at the top to let readers know whether it's complete or not and when it was last updated.

-This exchange requires you to put prompts, or general likes, or something you like about the canon, in the AO3 form. It doesn't have to be long or eloquent, but something other than your DNWs is required. Ie, Optional Details are only optional for creators - they are not completely optional for requesters.

-Please sign up with one account only.

-There are also extra deadlines - September 21 for asking to swap your assignment for any other assignment & for finishing your letter, and November 30 for confirming you're still committed to your assignment, as well as the posting deadline of January 24.

Some previous nominations queries remain

Please see previous post.

Additional nominations

Nominations will be re-opened tomorrow, for 3 fandoms/3 tags. If you care about recording what you've already nominated, please save that information now.

Errors in tag set

There will inevitably be some. Feel free to let me know and I'll do what I can to sort them out (this may not be until sign-ups close). I mostly care about errors that could cause confusion or difficulty in matching.

Welcome.

Clicky

Sep. 2nd, 2025 09:48 pm
kalloway: Tieria from Gundam 00 looking grumpy (Tieria)
[personal profile] kalloway
The grocery store had a small rack of clicker-style Sakura Gelly Roll pens; I immediately bought a pack. (I will probably buy more.) Of course, being very used to normal Gelly Rolls, I keep trying to yank the 'cap' off them. ^^;; I'll get used to it... (I hope.)

I am not entirely sure, but last night might've been the first time in my years that we didn't even get close to finishing shop start-up. It was bad. It was not personally terrible for me; I was busy but never overwhelmed. But overall, yeah, machines hate long weekends. Or, perhaps, also do not want to go back to work after them. ^^;;

Of my international Kickstarters/Crowdfunding, one just went 'oh fuck US shipping dunno what I'm gonna do but I'll let you know', one said that a few weeks back, and I've not heard a peep from the last that I can think of. (That one is a ways out, though.) At least two other int'l projects are launching this month. I don't know what options will even be. (I wouldn't blame the one smaller one for just excluding US backers altogether.)

I picked up a September Bingo card on [community profile] lyricaltitles. Much like last year, I expect the fun will be picking songs and I won't actually manage to write anything.

Books read, April

Sep. 3rd, 2025 01:46 pm
cyphomandra: (balcony)
[personal profile] cyphomandra
Favourites for this month were Black Water Sister and The Library at Mount Char, plus for sheer prose quality A Diary without Dates.

A diary without dates, Enid Bagnold
The Lord of Stariel, AJ Lancaster
The library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins
Home truths, Charity Norman
Fast connection, Megan Erickson
The friend zone experiment, Zen Cho
Careless people, Sarah Wynn-Williams
A month in the country, JL Carr
Cat gamer 7, Water Nadatani
Dinosaurs sanctuary 6, Itaru Kinoshita
My year in the middle, Lila Quintero Weaver
The shots you take, Rachel Reid
A rake of his own, AJ Lancaster
The husband, Dean Koontz
All systems red, Martha Wells
The Venice hotel, Tess Woods
Life among the savages, Shirley Jackson (re-read)
Black water sister, Zen Cho
The song machine, John Seabrook
The body in the blitz, Robin Stevens


I've stuck them under here rather than clutter up everyone's reading page. )

Nachos

Sep. 2nd, 2025 08:15 pm
primeideal: Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader duelling (vader)
[personal profile] primeideal
I was listening to the Cubs game last night and the announcers were laughing at one of the Atlanta players, because his displayed name is "Nacho." And I was like, "that's not that uncommon a name, it's just the diminutive form of 'Ignacio,' which is a reasonably common Spanish-language name." But I guess the cognate form is not that common in English.

And then it hit me...
joke possibly in bad taste )
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
[personal profile] yuletidemods posting in [community profile] yuletide_admin
As we all start planning our nominations and requests, mods have been reviewing our rules around the number of fandoms that can be nominated and requested.

Traditionally, Yuletide has allowed participants to nominate a maximum of 3 fandoms to the tagset, with up to 4 characters each. We increased that to 4 fandoms in 2023 and got positive feedback about that change.

During signups, participants have been required to request at least 3 fandoms, and up to 6 fandoms if they choose. They must offer a minimum of 4 fandoms.

We've needed to limit the tagset size due to a combination of AO3 technical limitations as well as the logistical effort to confirm each fandom is eligible while avoiding duplicate fandoms. The good news is that we’ve found AO3’s tagset interface loads the moderation tools a bit faster lately. We've also developed more scalable processes and a group of wonderful, experienced volunteers to help with that checking. We think we can handle more nominations this year, but we won’t know until we try!

Change to nominations:


For 2025 only, we are going to increase the number of tagset nominations from 4 fandoms to 5 fandoms per person. The maximum number of characters will remain at 4 per fandom.

We’ll see how this goes, and whether the additional workload seems manageable to us, before deciding whether to keep the increased limit in 2026.

Change to requests:


For 2025 only, we are also going to increase the maximum number of fandom requests from 6 to 8. The minimum of 3 will not change. This means you must request at least 3 fandoms, and up to 8 fandoms if you choose.

Everything else remains the same: for each fandom, you will still be able to request up to a maximum of 4 characters. You will still be required to offer at least 4 fandoms with a minimum of 2 characters each.

Again, we will evaluate how it goes, and how this affects our workload, before deciding whether to keep the increased limit in 2026.

We hope this opens up some exciting possibilities for you in the 2025 round! Please stay tuned for our usual eligibility and evidence posts.

Past Life

Sep. 3rd, 2025 02:10 am
schneefink: stickers for all five seasons of the Life series (Life Series stickers)
[personal profile] schneefink
Past Life ended, and it was great. The teams were fantastic, the gimmick was fun but more in the background than in the previous too which was a nice change of pace, the improv was on point, the stories came together so well again.

I watched several videos each week, sometimes more sometimes less, and there's plenty I still want to watch eventually and some I want to watch again. I wanted to go over my notes again too to clean them up and add some more, but if I don't post them now I don't know when it will happen, so here is the first draft. (Which is already at 7k.)
I'm typing this while admiring my shiny new Life series desk mat btw, very pretty.


#1 Early early on )

#2 Tango with a mustache )

#3 The Secret Society )

#4 Joel with a mustache )

#5 The Proposal )

#6 Fire! )

#7 - Records are made to be broken )

#8 - The Finale )

Seasons of Drabbles!

Sep. 2nd, 2025 02:02 pm
snickfic: (Oasis walkon)
[personal profile] snickfic
I both wrote and received Oasis drabbles, and I'm really tickled how neatly they slot together as the before and after of Noel Gallagher:
kidhood by Anonymous, Liam/Noel in the 90s
irreconcilable differences by me, Liam/Noel now

I also got some other goodies, all 100 words. <3
glovework by [archiveofourown.org profile] TheFlirtMeister, Saw, Lawrence character study
Mouthwash by [archiveofourown.org profile] embraidery, Stardew Valley, Willy/Marlon
Sunset by [archiveofourown.org profile] embraidery, Stardew Valley, Willy/Marlon
Morning Musing, Stardew Valley, Sandy

And I bring some recs! All 100 words unless noted.
Brick and Bone by [archiveofourown.org profile] Kantayra, The Haunting of Hill House, Nell post-canon
Cheek to Cheek by [archiveofourown.org profile] septemberbells, ST:TOS, Chapel/Uhura, very sweet
The Seal's Child by [archiveofourown.org profile] Daeger, OW, 200 words, daughter of a selkie, dark/horror
undeath by [archiveofourown.org profile] Pornabus_Sockerton, 300 words, The Terror, Hodgson canon divergence, brrrrr
the ever-fleeting warmth by [archiveofourown.org profile] Ekevka, 200 words, The Terror, Collins character study, also brrrr

 

A universe of unmapped grief and love
And new master light is beyond
The pleiades and plow and southern stars.

O soaring
Icarus of outworld, burn bright
The traceries of known skymarks,
Slide the highway planets behind
Your clear waxed wings.

Go conquer the everywhere left
Beyond your sad confinement
In a predicted bonehouse,
Witch thrown riddle of flesh
And water.

O soar until nothing
remains but great glittering holes
In the black godspun shirt over your head.

- John Fairfax