Friday, January 30th, 2026 10:50 pm
And more than a little dystopian. It may be time to leave entirely.
Friday, January 30th, 2026 07:17 pm
Friday, January 30th, 2026 09:18 pm
Ugh, this week felt like it was EIGHT WEEKS long, and everyone I spoke to at work today agreed. I did not get everything on my to do list done but I don't even care. There was no way I was focusing on much after a 2 hour team meeting. I logged off at 4:45 and took a glorious nap, and then put together the dough for everything bread, which I will bake tomorrow.
In other news, I was so sorry to hear Catherine O'Hara died. RIP. What a legend!
*
I really enjoyed last night's episode of The Pitt. Again, my brain is soup, so I'm not really up for saying much about it, but I did literally yell, "NO!" when the credits rolled. Sometimes I am okay with an episode ending (or at least it feels like it reached a good stopping point) but last night was not one of those times.
This weekend, I will watch the new episode of Shrinking, plus the new episodes of Bridgerton, and possibly I will continue with Pluribus, which I didn't love but kind of want to see why everyone else raves about it. It could click at some point or it could be like Severance, which I also don't love the way many other people do. *hands* Sometimes, that's just how it goes.
*
In other news, I was so sorry to hear Catherine O'Hara died. RIP. What a legend!
*
I really enjoyed last night's episode of The Pitt. Again, my brain is soup, so I'm not really up for saying much about it, but I did literally yell, "NO!" when the credits rolled. Sometimes I am okay with an episode ending (or at least it feels like it reached a good stopping point) but last night was not one of those times.
This weekend, I will watch the new episode of Shrinking, plus the new episodes of Bridgerton, and possibly I will continue with Pluribus, which I didn't love but kind of want to see why everyone else raves about it. It could click at some point or it could be like Severance, which I also don't love the way many other people do. *hands* Sometimes, that's just how it goes.
*
Friday, January 30th, 2026 10:26 pm
There's been a bit of a fuss today about the unveiling of a third Edinburgh tram line route. And my thoughts about it aren't simple enough to stick into a link title, so I thought I'd ramble a little.
Firstly, it seems to me that this is not a council announcement of anything. The map is plastered with the repeated word "concept". It contains both Picardy Place and York Place (Picardy Place was created when York Place was removed, when the tram extension was carried out in 2023). I've seen discussions that it's based on an old version of the existing routes taken from Wikipedia.
The source is a Scotsman article, rather than a council publication. And even then the coverage is mostly taken from a speech given at the Rail in Scotland conference - where the council's transport convener said he "was excited at taking a closer look" - but it's not the main priority. Certainly there's nothing on the council's news page mentioning it.
So I'm not convinced that this is more than a "Here's an interesting possibility"
Secondly, I'm not convinced it's viable financially. Which isn't to say that trams, in general, can't be worthwhile. If Edinburgh hadn't badly botched the construction of the first tram line then it would be well in profit now. But that tram line runs from one of the most densely populated parts of the city (Leith Walk) to one of the business hubs (Gyle and Gogar), through some of the most touristy stretches (Princes Street).
Much though I love the idea of a tram that literally stops in my road and goes to both the airport and Portobello, nearly the whole route is low-density. The bus route that is closest to it is the 38, which is so low-use outside of rush hour that it's a single-decker that has to be subsidised.
Admittedly, it's cheaper to build than a new tram line, as it's mostly a question of re-using the old train line. But I'd like to see a concrete business case for it, that checked that the number of potential users would support running tram-trains along that route.
Firstly, it seems to me that this is not a council announcement of anything. The map is plastered with the repeated word "concept". It contains both Picardy Place and York Place (Picardy Place was created when York Place was removed, when the tram extension was carried out in 2023). I've seen discussions that it's based on an old version of the existing routes taken from Wikipedia.
The source is a Scotsman article, rather than a council publication. And even then the coverage is mostly taken from a speech given at the Rail in Scotland conference - where the council's transport convener said he "was excited at taking a closer look" - but it's not the main priority. Certainly there's nothing on the council's news page mentioning it.
So I'm not convinced that this is more than a "Here's an interesting possibility"
Secondly, I'm not convinced it's viable financially. Which isn't to say that trams, in general, can't be worthwhile. If Edinburgh hadn't badly botched the construction of the first tram line then it would be well in profit now. But that tram line runs from one of the most densely populated parts of the city (Leith Walk) to one of the business hubs (Gyle and Gogar), through some of the most touristy stretches (Princes Street).
Much though I love the idea of a tram that literally stops in my road and goes to both the airport and Portobello, nearly the whole route is low-density. The bus route that is closest to it is the 38, which is so low-use outside of rush hour that it's a single-decker that has to be subsidised.
Admittedly, it's cheaper to build than a new tram line, as it's mostly a question of re-using the old train line. But I'd like to see a concrete business case for it, that checked that the number of potential users would support running tram-trains along that route.
Friday, January 30th, 2026 05:14 pm
12 recs in 8 fandoms: Cherry Magic, Khemjira, Moby Dick, Never Let Me Go, The Old Kingdom, Perfect 10 Liners, Thai Actor RPF, and ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat.
See them here.
See them here.
Tags:
Friday, January 30th, 2026 05:09 pm
A bit late, but I have 12 recs in 8 fandoms: Cherry Magic, Khemjira, Moby Dick, Never Let Me Go, The Old Kingdom, Perfect 10 Liners, Thai Actor RPF, and ThamePo Heart That Skips a Beat.
See them here.
See them here.
Tags:
Friday, January 30th, 2026 09:55 pm
A friend of mine in Minneapolis has found a way I can help from here. It meant I did an onboarding call this evening. It's nice to be able to contribute. It was nice to hear familiar accents again! I think even that is enough to calm my lizard brain a little bit.
D's nexus of skills and experience is incredibly relevant right now too, and I'm so proud of him doing what he is good at.
Tags:
Friday, January 30th, 2026 10:44 am
I finished my second Sarah Waters book this week after devouring most of it on my flight to Texas and she has surely done it again! This book was Affinity, a much less-talked about one of her novels, which concerns Victorian lady Margaret Prior, who in an effort to overcome her grief for her recently deceased father and a mysterious illness that gripped her around that time, decides to become a "Lady Visitor" to a women's prison: someone who comes to talk with them from time-to-time. She almost immediately becomes enraptured with a young medium, Selina Dawes, doing time for murder and assault.
I don't usually like to do extensive summaries in these reviews, but I want to highlight what USA Today called "thinly veiled erotica" in this book. This book is best approached, I think, with a measure of dream logic (or porn logic, if you prefer), where things can be deeply erotic in concept that in real life would certainly not be. Nothing illustrates this better than the opening chapter of the book.
In the opening chapter, Margaret makes her first visit to Millbank prison. Waters does an excellent job of making the prison itself a terror; a winding maze of whitewashed, identical hallways inside a cocoon of pentagonal buildings set unsteadily into the marshy bank of the Thames within which Margaret immediately becomes turned around. She is passed from the gentleman family friend who first suggested she become a Lady Visitor to the matrons of the women's side of the prison, a realm populated entirely by women. As Margaret passes into this self-contained place which feels entirely removed from the rest of the world (the prisoners are allowed to send correspondence four times a year) she becomes keenly aware of the strange blurring and even erasure of the boundaries, rules, and customs of the outside world. Furthermore, Margaret is reassured over and over again that she is, effectively, in a position of power over all these vulnerable women, trapped in their cells and subject to the harsh rules of Millbank. The prison fully intends for Margaret to be someone for them to idolize and look up to, someone whose attention can make them strive to better themselves. Margaret, a repressed Victorian lesbian, is dropped into this strange realm of only women in which she operates above the rules that strictly govern the rest of them.
It is in this state, after this long journey through Millbank, that Margaret first catches sight of Selina Dawes, and is taken from the start.
The book is not heavy on plot, and some reviewers have called it dull, but I was riveted. The plot is the development of Margaret and Selina's relationship, and the progress of Margaret's mindset on the question of whether Selina's powers or real, or if she's just a very talented con artist. These are by nature things which progress gradually. Practically, it's true that not much happens: Margaret visits the prison. Margaret goes to the library. Margaret has a disagreement with her mother. But her mental and emotional changes across the book are significant.
There are also the vibes. Waters does such a good job of capturing a very gloomy, gothic atmosphere where Margaret (and the reader!) are constantly sort of questioning what's real and to what degree and there's a powerful sense of unease that permeates the entire story. It ties in so well with Selina's role as a spiritual medium and the Victorian obsession with such things; it creates a very holistic theme and feel to the book that I just sank into.
On the flip side of the erotic view of the prison we see early in the book, Waters also uses it to terrifying effect to simulate the paranoia of a closeted gay person at this time in England. As Margaret's feelings for Selina develop and become more explicit, she lives in terror that the matrons of the prison will realize that her interest in Selina is not the polite interest of a Lady Visitor in her charges. She is always analyzing what the matrons can see in her interactions with Selina and what might go under the radar; she is constantly wondering if rude comments or looks from this matron or that is simple rudeness, or a veiled accusation of impropriety. The panopticon pulses around Margaret more and more but she can't keep away from Selina even to protect herself from the danger of being caught.
On the whole, I thought this book was fantastic. I enjoyed it even more than Fingersmith. Waters was really cooking here and I've added several more of her books to my TBR, because she obviously knows what she's doing.
I don't usually like to do extensive summaries in these reviews, but I want to highlight what USA Today called "thinly veiled erotica" in this book. This book is best approached, I think, with a measure of dream logic (or porn logic, if you prefer), where things can be deeply erotic in concept that in real life would certainly not be. Nothing illustrates this better than the opening chapter of the book.
In the opening chapter, Margaret makes her first visit to Millbank prison. Waters does an excellent job of making the prison itself a terror; a winding maze of whitewashed, identical hallways inside a cocoon of pentagonal buildings set unsteadily into the marshy bank of the Thames within which Margaret immediately becomes turned around. She is passed from the gentleman family friend who first suggested she become a Lady Visitor to the matrons of the women's side of the prison, a realm populated entirely by women. As Margaret passes into this self-contained place which feels entirely removed from the rest of the world (the prisoners are allowed to send correspondence four times a year) she becomes keenly aware of the strange blurring and even erasure of the boundaries, rules, and customs of the outside world. Furthermore, Margaret is reassured over and over again that she is, effectively, in a position of power over all these vulnerable women, trapped in their cells and subject to the harsh rules of Millbank. The prison fully intends for Margaret to be someone for them to idolize and look up to, someone whose attention can make them strive to better themselves. Margaret, a repressed Victorian lesbian, is dropped into this strange realm of only women in which she operates above the rules that strictly govern the rest of them.
It is in this state, after this long journey through Millbank, that Margaret first catches sight of Selina Dawes, and is taken from the start.
The book is not heavy on plot, and some reviewers have called it dull, but I was riveted. The plot is the development of Margaret and Selina's relationship, and the progress of Margaret's mindset on the question of whether Selina's powers or real, or if she's just a very talented con artist. These are by nature things which progress gradually. Practically, it's true that not much happens: Margaret visits the prison. Margaret goes to the library. Margaret has a disagreement with her mother. But her mental and emotional changes across the book are significant.
There are also the vibes. Waters does such a good job of capturing a very gloomy, gothic atmosphere where Margaret (and the reader!) are constantly sort of questioning what's real and to what degree and there's a powerful sense of unease that permeates the entire story. It ties in so well with Selina's role as a spiritual medium and the Victorian obsession with such things; it creates a very holistic theme and feel to the book that I just sank into.
On the flip side of the erotic view of the prison we see early in the book, Waters also uses it to terrifying effect to simulate the paranoia of a closeted gay person at this time in England. As Margaret's feelings for Selina develop and become more explicit, she lives in terror that the matrons of the prison will realize that her interest in Selina is not the polite interest of a Lady Visitor in her charges. She is always analyzing what the matrons can see in her interactions with Selina and what might go under the radar; she is constantly wondering if rude comments or looks from this matron or that is simple rudeness, or a veiled accusation of impropriety. The panopticon pulses around Margaret more and more but she can't keep away from Selina even to protect herself from the danger of being caught.
On the whole, I thought this book was fantastic. I enjoyed it even more than Fingersmith. Waters was really cooking here and I've added several more of her books to my TBR, because she obviously knows what she's doing.
Friday, January 30th, 2026 11:41 am
You may recall that I translated the novella ChloroPhilia by Cristina Jurado. Over at the Climate Fiction Writers League, Cristina and Debbie Urbanski discuss the story and the ideas behind it.
Cristina: “Funny enough, I wrote ChloroPhilia after moving to Dubai, when my children were very small. We had to learn how to deal with real sandstorms, floods caused by poor drainage, extremely high temperatures and humidity, and a life designed to be lived mostly indoors. My experience raising them in a hostile environment with hyper-modernized infrastructure definitely influenced the kind of apocalypse I chose to write about. The climate crisis is something we experience in our daily lives here, and we’ve had to adapt.”
Read more here about ideas for our future from Cristina and Debbie.
***
At last year’s Capricon Science Fiction Convention, I took part in the Speculative Literature Foundations reading. I read the flash fiction piece, “Magic Rules Zero Through Four.” It’s four minutes long, and I’m kind of shouty because the microphones didn’t work. Watch me emote at YouTube.
Friday, January 30th, 2026 10:37 am
Challenge 13: Talk about a community space you like.
My main fannish space right now is the Ad Astra Discord community. It's a good group of people, and great for talking all things Star Trek, with occasional digressions into other things. It's an OC-friendly community, almost everyone who posts there has a collection of OC characters and at least one OC-heavy series, and everyone is super supportive of other people blathering about their OCs and favs. Nicely inclusive of all of the Trek eras too.
Challenge 14: Create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom.
Can I interest you in Murder She Wrote? I don't know what I was expecting when I started watching it, but what I got is an intelligent, competent, woman-of-a-certain-age who is allowed to have a full and exciting life. And (with the exception of the pilot) she never gets romantically entangled. Men go after her, but she's clearly uninterested. The combination of being desired and deciding 'nah, I'm good' hits my id in just the right way. (It's not about turning the men down to be clear. There are actually two separate things going on. I love seeing an older woman being treating as an object of desire, and I love seeing any sort of woman being able to have a complete life absent romance. Either would be good. Both together is amazing.) Honestly, Jessica is pure wish-fulfillment fantasy with her cozy Maine home and her exciting trips and her best-selling writing career and her fancy outfits. I am here for it.
Oh, also there are murder mysteries and they're generally pretty good.
Challenge 15: How did the Snowflake Challenge go?
I sort of ran out of steam toward the end, but with everything that's going on both in my personal life and the world at large, it's hard to focus right now. I finished it, and interacted with people, and I had a good time. That's a win, especially right now.
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Friday, January 30th, 2026 08:15 am
When we first began to discuss Year of Sail, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
littlerhymes and I knew we wanted to give the Aubrey-Maturin series a try. But we approached it with some trepidation, as we have each separately attempted Aubrey-Maturin before and bombed out.
I don’t know the details oflittlerhymes’ first attempt, but I first tried it in the early 2000s, when I was a young teenager, after I read sartorias’s post about the series. I struggled through chapter three, in which Stephen Maturin receives an incredibly technical tour of the ship’s* rigging, and then he and Jack Aubrey discuss the case of a seaman who is supposed to be court-martialed for committing sodomy on a goat (!). The combination defeated me utterly.
*The ship is not in fact a ship but actually a brig, another point that agonized my tiny teenage brain. “Aren’t they all boats?” I wailed, thus sending all seamen within hearing distance into a state of apoplexy.
I am happy to report that this time we made it past chapter three! Made it all the way to the end of the book, and indeed enjoyed it enough to plan to read the next one! I still have no idea what’s going on with the brig’s rigging or why there’s a type of boat called a snow, but as an older and wiser reader I simply drift past these technical details. Possibly over time it will all fall into place. By the end of Year of Sail I might be talking about topgallants with the best of them.
In the meantime, let me introduce our protagonists.
Jack Aubrey, master and commander of the brig Sophie, which is like being a captain but also, technically, not a captain. The anti-Hornblower. Where Hornblower is cool, logical, awkward, and good at math, Jack Aubrey is warm, loud, emotional, terrible at math, and actually also kind of awkward but in a way where he is almost always completely unaware of it. Witness the scene where he complains to Lieutenant Dillon that lots of new sailors of Irish Papists, remembers that Dillon is Irish and realizes with horror that Dillon might take this as an insult to the Irish, so tries to cover himself by doubling down on how much he hates Papists. JACK.
Stephen Maturin, who becomes the Sophie’s surgeon, even though technically he’s a physician which is WAY better than a surgeon. “We call this thing by a thing that is not its name” is a definite theme here. Part Irish, part Catalan, all naturalist. Loves birds, beasts, medicine, music, and Jack. “He’s so stupid (affectionate),” he explains to Lieutenant Dillon, whom he knew previously when they were both members of the United Irishmen, a non-revolutionary party that perhaps became revolutionary? I’m unclear about the details. Anyway, now quite a dangerous association to have in one’s past.
James Dillon, lieutenant of the Sophie. Not over Jack’s attempt to apologize for the Irish thing by emphasizing that it’s PAPISTS he has a problem with. All but accuses Jack of cowardice, which is almost as wrong-headed as accusing Stephen of not loving insects enough. Realizes Jack is not a coward, briefly likes Jack, then hates Jack again for reasons that are in fact unrelated to Jack.
( spoilers )
Queeney. A childhood friend of Jack’s who helps him get his appointment as captain of the Sophie. Not a protagonist, but I had to include her because I was so proud of recognizing her as a real life person: Hester Thrale’s eldest daughter! Evidence: Hester Thrale’s eldest daughter was called Queeney. Hester Thrale was a great friend of Samuel Johnson’s, and Queeney mentions the family friendship with Samuel Johnson. Jack goes on about how Queeney’s mom married a PAPIST, and indeed after Hester Thrale’s first husband died, she married an Italian Catholic music master named Piozzi, to the horror of Queeney and everyone else in England. (They were so horrified that she’s still usually referred to as Hester Thrale even though actually she should probably be called Hester Piozzi, since that’s the name she published under and the husband she actually loved.)
Both Queeney and the subplot about the United Irishmen are good examples of Patrick O’Brian’s total mastery of his period, as of course is literally everything he says about the rigging. Just casually tosses in Hester Thrale Piozzi’s daughter! A bit of tragic Irish backstory just for fun! Sometimes I do yearn for him to slow down just a bit and explain, but of course that would make the story far less immersive. We are perhaps getting a small taste of the landlubber’s experience of finding oneself at sea and having no idea what the heck is going on.
And so we sail onward. For now the plan is to bop back and forth between Hornblower and Aubrey-Maturin, but over time one series may win out. We shall see!
littlerhymes and I knew we wanted to give the Aubrey-Maturin series a try. But we approached it with some trepidation, as we have each separately attempted Aubrey-Maturin before and bombed out. I don’t know the details of
littlerhymes’ first attempt, but I first tried it in the early 2000s, when I was a young teenager, after I read sartorias’s post about the series. I struggled through chapter three, in which Stephen Maturin receives an incredibly technical tour of the ship’s* rigging, and then he and Jack Aubrey discuss the case of a seaman who is supposed to be court-martialed for committing sodomy on a goat (!). The combination defeated me utterly. *The ship is not in fact a ship but actually a brig, another point that agonized my tiny teenage brain. “Aren’t they all boats?” I wailed, thus sending all seamen within hearing distance into a state of apoplexy.
I am happy to report that this time we made it past chapter three! Made it all the way to the end of the book, and indeed enjoyed it enough to plan to read the next one! I still have no idea what’s going on with the brig’s rigging or why there’s a type of boat called a snow, but as an older and wiser reader I simply drift past these technical details. Possibly over time it will all fall into place. By the end of Year of Sail I might be talking about topgallants with the best of them.
In the meantime, let me introduce our protagonists.
Jack Aubrey, master and commander of the brig Sophie, which is like being a captain but also, technically, not a captain. The anti-Hornblower. Where Hornblower is cool, logical, awkward, and good at math, Jack Aubrey is warm, loud, emotional, terrible at math, and actually also kind of awkward but in a way where he is almost always completely unaware of it. Witness the scene where he complains to Lieutenant Dillon that lots of new sailors of Irish Papists, remembers that Dillon is Irish and realizes with horror that Dillon might take this as an insult to the Irish, so tries to cover himself by doubling down on how much he hates Papists. JACK.
Stephen Maturin, who becomes the Sophie’s surgeon, even though technically he’s a physician which is WAY better than a surgeon. “We call this thing by a thing that is not its name” is a definite theme here. Part Irish, part Catalan, all naturalist. Loves birds, beasts, medicine, music, and Jack. “He’s so stupid (affectionate),” he explains to Lieutenant Dillon, whom he knew previously when they were both members of the United Irishmen, a non-revolutionary party that perhaps became revolutionary? I’m unclear about the details. Anyway, now quite a dangerous association to have in one’s past.
James Dillon, lieutenant of the Sophie. Not over Jack’s attempt to apologize for the Irish thing by emphasizing that it’s PAPISTS he has a problem with. All but accuses Jack of cowardice, which is almost as wrong-headed as accusing Stephen of not loving insects enough. Realizes Jack is not a coward, briefly likes Jack, then hates Jack again for reasons that are in fact unrelated to Jack.
( spoilers )
Queeney. A childhood friend of Jack’s who helps him get his appointment as captain of the Sophie. Not a protagonist, but I had to include her because I was so proud of recognizing her as a real life person: Hester Thrale’s eldest daughter! Evidence: Hester Thrale’s eldest daughter was called Queeney. Hester Thrale was a great friend of Samuel Johnson’s, and Queeney mentions the family friendship with Samuel Johnson. Jack goes on about how Queeney’s mom married a PAPIST, and indeed after Hester Thrale’s first husband died, she married an Italian Catholic music master named Piozzi, to the horror of Queeney and everyone else in England. (They were so horrified that she’s still usually referred to as Hester Thrale even though actually she should probably be called Hester Piozzi, since that’s the name she published under and the husband she actually loved.)
Both Queeney and the subplot about the United Irishmen are good examples of Patrick O’Brian’s total mastery of his period, as of course is literally everything he says about the rigging. Just casually tosses in Hester Thrale Piozzi’s daughter! A bit of tragic Irish backstory just for fun! Sometimes I do yearn for him to slow down just a bit and explain, but of course that would make the story far less immersive. We are perhaps getting a small taste of the landlubber’s experience of finding oneself at sea and having no idea what the heck is going on.
And so we sail onward. For now the plan is to bop back and forth between Hornblower and Aubrey-Maturin, but over time one series may win out. We shall see!
Friday, January 30th, 2026 12:00 pm
- 1. Hampstead ponds trans access challenge dismissed by High Court
- (tags:lgbt transgender GoodNews law uk )
- 2. AI on Australian travel company website sends tourists to nonexistent hot springs
- (tags:australia tourism ai fraud )
- 3. Edinburgh Teviot, the world's oldest purpose-built student union, has been refurbished
- (tags:Edinburgh university photos )
- 4. Why banning social media for under-16s would harm queer young people
- (tags:LGBT socialnetworking teenagers regulation )
- 5. Not sure what I think of the Kill Bill/Fortnite crossover
- (tags:movies animation QuentinTarantino video )
- 6. Have you ever wanted to run a bookshop? Now you can do that for a couple of weeks as a holiday experience!
- (tags:books shopping holidays viaMyBrotherHugh )
Tags:
Friday, January 30th, 2026 10:50 pm
A small catch-up with works I've posted to AO3 recently and not mentioned in other posts. There are three seasonal exchanges I take part in each year, so it's been a productive time for me. I also feel much less blocked in terms of writing fic, with Heated Rivalry getting me fannishly excited again, and my other fandoms have been benefiting.
Things I wrote, podficced, or arted in Procreate:
due South seekrit santa:
Roommates (Fraser/Ray Vecchio & Ray Kowalski, Dief)
Stargate Atlantis secret santa:
The Ancient Texts (Gen, Ronon & John)
Bribery (Jack O'Neill Gen, background John/Rodney - a mod treat)
SGA Discord Server annual fic exchange:
A Good Walk, Spoiled (Team, John/Rodney, Action/adventure)
and It Takes a Village (Gen, Radek & Biro)
and in the Leftover Treats category of the exchange:
A New Lease of Life (older John/Rodney, Explicit)
and The Way To a Man's Heart (Ronon/Rodney, Teen)
In podfic, just the one:
Christmas At Dukes Denver by Persiflager for ITPE (Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. Harriet/Peter)
My fanart's still all Heated Rivalry - unsurprising, with such inspiring material!
Ya Tebya Lyublyu (I Love You) for the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
drawesome romance prompt (Shane/Ilya)
Shane's Emotional Support Crotch (2 chapters/works so far, maybe planning more) (Shane/Ilya, NSFW)
Touch Yourself (Shane)
And of course I've enrolled for way too many Big Bangs etc, in HR. One is ICE OUT a tumblr-based HR fanworks auction to raise funds to support those combating ICE. Sign ups as a creator are almost closed, and the bidding starts in a couple of days.
Things I wrote, podficced, or arted in Procreate:
due South seekrit santa:
Roommates (Fraser/Ray Vecchio & Ray Kowalski, Dief)
Stargate Atlantis secret santa:
The Ancient Texts (Gen, Ronon & John)
Bribery (Jack O'Neill Gen, background John/Rodney - a mod treat)
SGA Discord Server annual fic exchange:
A Good Walk, Spoiled (Team, John/Rodney, Action/adventure)
and It Takes a Village (Gen, Radek & Biro)
and in the Leftover Treats category of the exchange:
A New Lease of Life (older John/Rodney, Explicit)
and The Way To a Man's Heart (Ronon/Rodney, Teen)
In podfic, just the one:
Christmas At Dukes Denver by Persiflager for ITPE (Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. Harriet/Peter)
My fanart's still all Heated Rivalry - unsurprising, with such inspiring material!
Ya Tebya Lyublyu (I Love You) for the
drawesome romance prompt (Shane/Ilya)Shane's Emotional Support Crotch (2 chapters/works so far, maybe planning more) (Shane/Ilya, NSFW)
Touch Yourself (Shane)
And of course I've enrolled for way too many Big Bangs etc, in HR. One is ICE OUT a tumblr-based HR fanworks auction to raise funds to support those combating ICE. Sign ups as a creator are almost closed, and the bidding starts in a couple of days.
Tags:
Friday, January 30th, 2026 08:50 am
( Saiyuki )
( Saiyuki Gaiden )
( Saiyuki Ibun )
( Weiß Kreuz )
( Weiß: Side B )
( Crossover Fandom )
( DNWs )
Friday, January 30th, 2026 01:48 am
History, what do you mean that Folkways Records was founded by the son of Sholem Asch who, as one last trick after the scandals of Jewish lesbians and Christian novels, wrote a version of the Nativity recorded for his son's record label by Pete Seeger? What kind of concatenation is that to drop on an unsuspecting person? And is there a reason no artist is credited with the pen-and-ink illustrations depicting the story in 1963 even as the prose sticks to its historical setting, which are maddening me with their sketch-expressive familiarity, although perhaps only because my grandmother had that kind of loose, scribbly, ink-washed line? Ben Shahn at least had the decency to sign his album art. The Claibornes' "Listen, Mr. Bilbo" could have had the luck to lose its relevance since 1946. History, the other kind of convergence was more fun. Listen while I tell you that the foreigners you hate are the very same people made America great.
Thursday, January 29th, 2026 09:03 pm
I got tagged into this on Tumblr but might as well give you lot a chance too.
Here's a list of all the WIPS I've touched in the last three years, listed by working title. The deal is that I write 100 words for every vote (no deadline.)
No, you don't get to ask for any more info, though I have talked about some of them before. The oldest one is about twenty-five; the newest was started for yuletide this year. There are 25 different fandoms involved, which is definitely part of the problem, yes.
Here's a list of all the WIPS I've touched in the last three years, listed by working title. The deal is that I write 100 words for every vote (no deadline.)
No, you don't get to ask for any more info, though I have talked about some of them before. The oldest one is about twenty-five; the newest was started for yuletide this year. There are 25 different fandoms involved, which is definitely part of the problem, yes.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 45
Which WIP?
View Answers
A novel example of three-factor, one locus sex determination in a Terrestrial chordate
1 (2.2%)
a shadow on snow
0 (0.0%)
All Men Raising
0 (0.0%)
Arha the Ninth
3 (6.7%)
Chappa'ai
2 (4.4%)
Cheris the First
3 (6.7%)
Children of Barrayar
6 (13.3%)
Clark Knows Better
1 (2.2%)
The #@%$^$ Coffeeshop Fic Fine
2 (4.4%)
Dyson Swarm
1 (2.2%)
The First Sedoretu of Ankh-Morpork
12 (26.7%)
The Hanahaki Protocols
1 (2.2%)
Hello My Name Is
1 (2.2%)
Hikarigakure
0 (0.0%)
I <3 Boobies ch 2
0 (0.0%)
If A Body Meet A Body
1 (2.2%)
I Was The Yiling Laozu's Concubine And All I Got Was This Gauzy Robe
5 (11.1%)
Kobayashi Gusu
0 (0.0%)
Necro-Gothic
0 (0.0%)
One Is One And All Alone
1 (2.2%)
Paris Lui-Meme Imite
1 (2.2%)
Peace love & Quebecois
1 (2.2%)
The Second Master of Yiling
1 (2.2%)
Slow Like Honey
1 (2.2%)
Something Rotten
1 (2.2%)
Tiger Burning Bright
0 (0.0%)
Untitled Shous Game
0 (0.0%)
The White Dynasty Does An Activism
0 (0.0%)
Friday, January 30th, 2026 02:20 pm
Okay, so this vid is wonderful (courtesy of a rec by dine). It's long, lushly romantic, and Jesus, why is the kissing montage in the middle so goddamn hot?
a thousand years by mybelovedismine
Thinking about why some vids work for me and others don't. First, I have to like the song. If I don't, no amount of clever editing will save it. Sometimes a really great song will carry me through average editing, but not vice versa. But a good song plus clever editing, so the vid's coherent and well-matched to the lyrics? That's the very best.
And here are some maybe controversial recs: not everyone likes RPF, so dl;dr. It's damn hard not to be delighted by Hudson and Connor, though, with their obviously close friendship and the way they cheerfully talk about loving each other at the drop of a hat.
I hate it when people read more into that and make shit up, causing drama in public spaces like social media - as Jacob said, Shane and Ilya are for the fans, Hudson and Connor are private. But creating RP fiction about them in a fanspace like AO3 doesn't bother me at all as long as no one brings it to their attention. Fanwriters have created RPF for years and although I've never been in any of the big RPF sports fandoms like hockey or baseball, I've enjoyed Joe/David RPF in Stargate Atlantis, in particular. Plus there's the whole Jared/Jensen pairing in Supernatural.
There's some incredibly good Hudcon RPF. There's also some very mediocre stuff, so here are a few of my specially selected recs. The writing is top tier in all of these, and they're all rated explicit.
Carterhaugh, Ontario by charlotte_stant. After filming, the boys go back to Connor's room to hang out, and end up fucking. Gorgeous banter, funny and nuanced, just great characterisation. Hudson's pov.
"Ya Blew It!" with Jay and Dan & Obvious - a 2-part series by falsescience (YankingAwry). This features complex relationships as the boys inveigle Jacob into a throuple – the first one's in Jacob's pov, with Hudson seducing him at the TSN SportsCentre set. Brilliant insights into actors & directing, funny, and super hot. The second part is Connor's pov - Hudson and Connor hanging out, fucking, and talking about what happened with Jacob, with Hudson setting Connor up for his own encounter. Amazing characterisation, and the Jacob aspect wasn't off-putting for me as the Hudson/Connor relationship is so resilient and lovely. (Also, have you seen JT's IMDB pic from younger years? He was hot!)
for the sake of auld lang syne by twnkwlf. This is Connor's pov, while he's staying with Hudson in Vancouver for New Years. It's mostly them hanging out lazily and talking, then fucking, and like the other recs here the characterisation is funny, subtle and feels bang on target. Excellent stuff.
that indescribable feeling by thermocline. Six encounters, real or imagined, in their developing, complex relationship. Beautifully written, balanced on an aching edge of ambiguity, and fundamentally hopeful. Alternating POVs.
dine). It's long, lushly romantic, and Jesus, why is the kissing montage in the middle so goddamn hot?a thousand years by mybelovedismine
Thinking about why some vids work for me and others don't. First, I have to like the song. If I don't, no amount of clever editing will save it. Sometimes a really great song will carry me through average editing, but not vice versa. But a good song plus clever editing, so the vid's coherent and well-matched to the lyrics? That's the very best.
And here are some maybe controversial recs: not everyone likes RPF, so dl;dr. It's damn hard not to be delighted by Hudson and Connor, though, with their obviously close friendship and the way they cheerfully talk about loving each other at the drop of a hat.
I hate it when people read more into that and make shit up, causing drama in public spaces like social media - as Jacob said, Shane and Ilya are for the fans, Hudson and Connor are private. But creating RP fiction about them in a fanspace like AO3 doesn't bother me at all as long as no one brings it to their attention. Fanwriters have created RPF for years and although I've never been in any of the big RPF sports fandoms like hockey or baseball, I've enjoyed Joe/David RPF in Stargate Atlantis, in particular. Plus there's the whole Jared/Jensen pairing in Supernatural.
There's some incredibly good Hudcon RPF. There's also some very mediocre stuff, so here are a few of my specially selected recs. The writing is top tier in all of these, and they're all rated explicit.
Carterhaugh, Ontario by charlotte_stant. After filming, the boys go back to Connor's room to hang out, and end up fucking. Gorgeous banter, funny and nuanced, just great characterisation. Hudson's pov.
"Ya Blew It!" with Jay and Dan & Obvious - a 2-part series by falsescience (YankingAwry). This features complex relationships as the boys inveigle Jacob into a throuple – the first one's in Jacob's pov, with Hudson seducing him at the TSN SportsCentre set. Brilliant insights into actors & directing, funny, and super hot. The second part is Connor's pov - Hudson and Connor hanging out, fucking, and talking about what happened with Jacob, with Hudson setting Connor up for his own encounter. Amazing characterisation, and the Jacob aspect wasn't off-putting for me as the Hudson/Connor relationship is so resilient and lovely. (Also, have you seen JT's IMDB pic from younger years? He was hot!)
for the sake of auld lang syne by twnkwlf. This is Connor's pov, while he's staying with Hudson in Vancouver for New Years. It's mostly them hanging out lazily and talking, then fucking, and like the other recs here the characterisation is funny, subtle and feels bang on target. Excellent stuff.
that indescribable feeling by thermocline. Six encounters, real or imagined, in their developing, complex relationship. Beautifully written, balanced on an aching edge of ambiguity, and fundamentally hopeful. Alternating POVs.
Thursday, January 29th, 2026 07:33 pm
As a post-Christmas treat, I bought myself this Emile Henry dutch oven and the instructions say to boil milk in it (and then clean it out) before using it the first time? I've never heard of that, but my other dutch ovens are enameled cast iron, not ceramic. Has anyone heard of this/done this?
anyway, mainly I bought it because I want to try this no-knead everything bread but didn't want to deal with my 6 qt cast iron dutch oven, which is extremely heavy and also tucked away in a closet somewhere. My plan is to mix it up tomorrow after work since it needs an on-the-counter overnight rise, and then bake it Saturday morning. We'll see how it goes!
I might also make garlic and bread soup again this weekend, and also maybe some version of citrus and soy noodles (it's a ramen recipe but I'm just going to use angel hair instead since I already have it) for dinner tomorrow. Oh, and those orange cranberry scones again - the cranberries are still taking up too much room in my freezer and must be used up!
*
anyway, mainly I bought it because I want to try this no-knead everything bread but didn't want to deal with my 6 qt cast iron dutch oven, which is extremely heavy and also tucked away in a closet somewhere. My plan is to mix it up tomorrow after work since it needs an on-the-counter overnight rise, and then bake it Saturday morning. We'll see how it goes!
I might also make garlic and bread soup again this weekend, and also maybe some version of citrus and soy noodles (it's a ramen recipe but I'm just going to use angel hair instead since I already have it) for dinner tomorrow. Oh, and those orange cranberry scones again - the cranberries are still taking up too much room in my freezer and must be used up!
*
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Thursday, January 29th, 2026 07:19 pm
Fandom: MCU (but you don't need to have any MCU knowledge for this)
Characters/Pairings: Sam Wilson/Riley
Rating & Warnings: T (more PG than PG-13), slash, no other warnings
Estimated Fic Length: Currently around 1k. I do plan to write a bit more but definitely nothing over 10k.
Notes: It's a pre-canon, canon-divergence story that is really a world-building excuse, so I don't necessarily need a beta with MCU knowledge, though it'd be a bonus. I'd love to find someone to talk with about flow and just to help me structure it out! No need for much grammar beta-ing, more big-picture. I'm not looking for anything too time-intensive, if that's a concern.
Right now it's a bunch of vignettes, and I'd appreciate help grounding it in a solid story!
Thanks!
Arella
Thursday, January 29th, 2026 11:40 pm
Or at least I assume that's what the call I missed because [reasons this margin is too small to contain] was about, based on (i) the voicemail that said They'll Call Back Tomorrow, and (ii) the continued absence of the relevant test results in the NHS app.
I... think I am going to suggest that they ask my GP to issue a bloods request form, for me to pick up from the surgery and take up the hill to phlebotomy. Because! this is ridiculous! blood loss remains my job!!!
Other things today has contained include: TOKEN RIDICULOUS PUZZLE; Very Picturesque Bread; the Child assigning us all Pronouns and Genders and Sexualities more-or-less at random (from an LGBTQIA+ sticker book); PAKIDGES many and various Including another book on pain and box sets for the last two seasons of Elementary; lots of ridiculous windows in the general vicinity of Bank. I am very tired.
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