Demonic Ox spoiler discussion space

Jul. 13th, 2025 01:55 pm
[syndicated profile] lois_mcmaster_bujold_feed
As per my usual custom, I provide here a place for folks who have already read the story and want to chat about it to talk to each other, without risking spoiling those who don't want to be exposed to such. Who are presumed to realize they should skip this till they're ready.

Click back to the immediately prior post for all the publication details.

As of today Amazon, B&N, and Apple Books US are known to have the book up. Kobo and Google Play Books seem to be lagging, and there's something odd going on with Apple worldwide versus our Spectrum editions that we haven't sussed out yet. I will update when there's something new to say.




Have fun!

Ta, L.

(As always, word of mouth is the lifeblood of my career, so mentions of the story out and about elsewhere are very much appreciated.)

posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on July, 13
switchbladeeyes: Leonard and Daniel from Grantchester, reading, Leonard's head on Daniel's lap (Leonard and Daniel)
[personal profile] switchbladeeyes posting in [community profile] trope_of_the_month
Title: What Happens Now?
Creator: [personal profile] switchbladeeyes
Fandom: Grantchester
Characters/Pairings: Leonard Finch/Daniel Marlowe, Leonard Finch, Daniel Marlowe, Sidney Chambers, Mrs. C (mentioned)
Rating: Explicit
Word Count: 7,826
Prompt: First Times
Summary: Finding the courage to be honest with himself, Leonard accepts his feelings for Daniel. What happens now?
Warnings: referenced past suicide attempt, sexually explicit/NSFW
Link to work: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67377645.

It's Alive!

Jul. 13th, 2025 09:48 pm
dhampyresa: (Default)
[personal profile] dhampyresa
Gonna run the Ukraine auction again.

If anyone wants to run a similar event (watermelon_auction?), I'm happy to share whatever I can (my backend post-automating code is already available here, though I haven't used it since).
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Annie: I have a frustrating problem with my mother. I'm 40 years old, but she still treats me like I'm a teenager. She expects me to answer every call immediately and freaks out if I'm unavailable, often roping in my cousin to text me if I don't respond since my mom doesn't know how.

This has been going on since I was a teen. When I was 18, I was expected to call when I left or arrived anywhere. I once forgot to call her after leaving a bookstore, and by the time I got to the library, I was accosted by three separate employees saying my mother had been calling. My aunt and cousin think it's a cute story, not infuriating like I do.

Last year, I mentioned I was heading to Walmart. Remember that I'm 40. I didn't check my phone for 10 whole minutes, and in that short time, my mom called several times and had our cousin text to "see if I was OK."

Most recently, I missed a text and then a call from my cousin -- she was picking me up -- because my phone was on silent after I got home from work and I'd stepped into the bathroom. My mom later confronted me about the "stunt" I pulled, how it was so rude I'd done that and told my cousin they shouldn't pick me up anymore.

How do I explain to her that she's suffocating me? I know she worries, but I'm 40 years old. I'm not a highly sought after princess the world is about to kidnap at any moment; I'm just another random person, not a highly coveted commodity. The more she does this, the more she pushes me away. -- Smothered in a Small Town


Read more... )
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I'm pulling these out and posting them separately (out of order of when they were actually read) or my Wednesday post will be Very Long.


Book 58 of 2025: Lantern in the Lighthouse (The Inn at Holiday Bay) (Kathi Daley)

Enjoyable story. spoilers )

Marshmallow fluff, but that’s all I was expecting, so I’m giving it five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥



Book 59 of 2025: Hint in the Hashtag (The Inn at Holiday Bay) (Kathi Daley)

Pretty good. spoilers )

I mostly enjoyed this story; I’m giving it four hearts.

♥♥♥♥



Book 60 of 2025: Pawn in the Pumpkin Patch (The Inn at Holiday Bay) (Kathi Daley)

Good book. spoilers )

I enjoyed this story and am giving it five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥



Book 61 of 2025: Secret in the Santa (The Inn at Holiday Bay) (Kathi Daley)

Good story. spoilers )

This story was enjoyable enough that I’m giving it five hearts despite the inconsistency.

♥♥♥♥♥
smallhobbit: (Holmes Watson 221B)
[personal profile] smallhobbit posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: In The Mirror
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: G
Length: 281 words
Summary: Watson contemplates Holmes' and his face.

[syndicated profile] smbc_comics_feed

Posted by Zach Weinersmith



Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I saw an article that said it was a 3 minute read then offered an AI summary, and I believe it may be included in an eventual epitaph for civilization.


Today's News:

Recent Reading

Jul. 13th, 2025 08:26 am
sanguinity: woodcut by M.C. Escher, "Snakes" (Default)
[personal profile] sanguinity
I am very brain-dead from going to a work conference in Atlanta this week. Getting up at what amounts to 4am personal time, to then spend sixteen hours go go go with way too many people, none of whom are comfortably anonymous strangers but also none of whom are friends, is exhausting. I got home late Thursday and took Friday off, even napping on Friday afternoon, which is something that I'm generally incapable of. But that's exhaustion for you, I suppose.

(The last time I napped, come to think of it, was after my last work conference, in which not only was I sleep deprived all week, but I came down with a case of literal hives on the airplane home. Ugh.)

Anyway. None of you are here to hear about all that. ;-)


Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign (1999)

Read aloud with [personal profile] grrlpup. First time for her; re-read for me.

This was one of my favorites from my first read of the series; I'm happy to say I liked it even better on re-read. I'm not sure how well it can be read as a stand-alone, as it assumes a working knowledge of Komarr. But I do like the strong ensemble of characters, and that the conflicts are mostly social and personal, instead of military or mystery. (Which does not stop it from rising to an action-packed climax at the end: I believe Grrlpup and I read the final three chapters in one day!)

Grrlpup's favorite characters were Dr. Enrique Borgos and his beloved butter bugs, and it is true: it is always a delight when they come on the page. Armsman Pym was also a favorite; she'd very much like to see his pov. (Alas, we do not, as I recall, ever get it in the series. I wonder if anyone has written Jeevsian fic for him?) And once again Lady Alys is serving strong Judith Martin vibes -- I do wonder if Martin was an inspiration for the character.


Lois McMaster Bujold, "Winterfair Gifts" (2004)

Read aloud with [personal profile] grrlpup. First time for her; re-read for me.

Taura, my beloved! *hearts-eyes* And I am fond of Armsman Roic, too (although I don't think this satisfied Grrlpup's desire for a Pym-centered story). Quick and sweet read, like a delicious chocolate truffle.


Daniel M. Lavery, Dear Prudence: Liberating Lessons from SLATE.com's Beloved Advice Column (2023)

I don't read many advice columns, but I find them most satisfying when there is an implied code of social logic that underlies them. (Make! The social! World! Make! Sense!) Lavery clearly has such a code, and the code tallies nicely with mine, which made this a pleasant read. I do enjoy the bits where he reconsiders the advice he originally gave; it's nice to know that even confident advice-givers grow and change over time. There's a chapter or two of letters on transitioning and/or coming out, presumably as Lavery himself was transitioning at the time and drawing more of that kind of question than I usually expect to see in a general-topics advice column.


Saeed Jones, How We Fight For Our Lives: A Memoir (2019)

Brief, lyrical, eminently readable memoir of growing up gay and black in the 1990s in Texas, attending university in the 2000s in Kentucky, and the death of his mother in the 2010s. There are some painful topics (gaybashing, homophobia, Christian evangelism, racism, a sexually self-destructive phase, and his mother's aforementioned death), and consequently the material gets heavy at times, but I raced through this in a day, always willing to turn the page and see what other thoughts and experiences he had had.


I also have a gob of Hum 110 bookgroup reading to write up, but I'll save that for their own posts.

Sunshine Revival Challenge #4

Jul. 13th, 2025 10:25 am
pauraque: common raven in silhouette among bare branches (raven)
[personal profile] pauraque
[community profile] sunshine_revival's next challenge is:
Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.
Birds always make me smile, so let's do a bird list! To narrow it down a bit, I'll talk about a few of the birds I only got to know after I left San Francisco and moved to New England. The order is going to be arbitrary because of course all birds are equally fantastic, but I'll play along with the top 10 theme.

Top Ten New England Birds [photo heavy] )

Miscellaneous recs

Jul. 13th, 2025 04:20 pm
maggie33: (sexy icon 1)
[personal profile] maggie33
It’s so hot here again. And it’s this kind of stifling, humid heat that happens before the storm. I went to have a coffee in my favorite café in the morning and came back drenched in sweat. Ugh... No more going outside today, so instead I’m making this recs post with a lot of cute, funny and exciting things. 😊


Ballboy Tactics

This short Korean BL was super adorable and sweet, even though it didn’t avoid mentioning heavier topics, like for instance homophobia in sports.

Both leads are talented, pretty and have great chemistry. Just look at these two cuties:



And wow, that was some nice kissing, boys. And a very nice NC scene. For Korean BL that was very explicit. And long, and sensuous, and beautifully filmed.

And you know what that means, don’t you? It means two kissing gifs behind the cut (NSFW of course). And some spoilers, too. 😊


Read and see more.




I like that Jeong Wu was confused for like a week, and then he accepted that he was in love with Ji Won. And he instantly went all in in flirting with Ji Won. And in kissing Ji Won. And right after flirting and kissing he came out to his friends, without much hesitation and anxiety.

And the secondary couple is very cute, too. Consisting of that one knowledgeable best friend, who instantly recognizes what was happening with Ji Won and Jeong Wu, and of that other clueless and dumb best friend, who not only doesn’t notice anything about Ji Won and Jeong Wu, but doesn’t recognize his own feelings. Well, ok, it seems he finally did get a clue right at the end. 😊



Teaser trailer for Twelve

This is an upcoming short (8 episodes) supernatural kdrama, which starts airing in August. I was sold just by the summary and cast. To quote Mydramalist:

12 animals who received a call from heaven and came down to the human world to save it. They are each given their powers to protect humans and are reborn as 12 angels. Led by the tiger angel Tae San, the leader of the angels, the 12 angels fight a bloody battle against Asura, the king of demons who was hated by God and banished, and the demons to protect the human world.

There are Ma Dong Seok, Seo In Guk, and Ko Kyu Pil as angels. And in addition to that there is Park Hyung Sik as a cruel villain with beautiful black wings. I’m so in. 😊


Why 42 languages have the same word for "pineapple".

This vid from my favorite category of language history is funny and informative at the same time.





Some canons are just perfect for ‘POV outsider + social media’ fics, and Kpop Demon Hunters is one of them. And this fic is hilarious. I have never watched anything by that Todd guy, but it didn’t prevent me from enjoying this fic.

ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Soda Pop" by Saja Boys (3183 words) by glitterlessgold490
Fandom: KPop Demon Hunters (2025), Todd in the Shadows - Fandom
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Fake Song Review, Fake Video Essay, Swearing, Screenplay/Script Format, RPF, (technically it's a fake review by a real person of a fake band's song), Songfic, an incredibly niche crossover that's only for me, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, But Todd really doesn't know what canon is, in-universe
Summary:

They popped onto the scene in 2025 with one hit single and fizzled out just as quickly - what happened to Saja Boys? Forced by the whims of Patreon subscribers, YouTube Music Reviewer Todd in the Shadows covers the rise, fall (and possible sabotage?) of KPop's briefest boyband, while desperately trying to untangle the innuendos of "Soda Pop".

Weekly proof of life: mainly media

Jul. 13th, 2025 11:01 am
umadoshi: (summer light (florianschild))
[personal profile] umadoshi
We made it to the little market down the road for the second week running and found the first vendor we visited down to his last several boxes of raspberries, so we bought two and headed back home. First raspberries of the season!

(I think yesterday was the first time I ever actually stopped and noticed why raspberries are called that.)

Reading: In non-fiction, I'm still reading through Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace.

On the fiction front, last week I read Cameron Reed's The Fortunate Fall, relatively recently (and finally!) reissued under her current name after its first life as an award-winning SFF novel under her deadname literal decades ago. (I believe her upcoming novel is her first since this one!) It didn't actually hit my emotional buttons very hard (which isn't indicative of how anyone else might react), but it's beautifully constructed and executed. I see why it's so beloved by so many people. ^_^

I also read We Are All Completely Fine (Daryl Gregory), which I didn't realize was a novella until I started reading, so it went by pretty quickly. Interesting horror worldbuilding, although other than the characters' specific histories it's almost entirely hinted at or nodded to; I, at least, came away with almost no actual idea of what's actually going on on a larger scale.

And I read the new Murderbot story ("Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy") that Martha Wells released for the show finale (note that Murderbot itself isn't actually present in the story).

Watching: No Leverage this week, I don't think. [personal profile] scruloose and I have agreed to switch this to an "I watch this when I feel like it, and if they're around and feel like it, they'll watch with me" show rather than one we're Watching Together. They enjoy it, but don't feel a burning need to see every episode.

I kind of wonder if I haven't been started a show on my own for so long because I'm sort of subconsciously waiting to be able to watch the rest of Justice in the Dark whenever the whole thing is subbed somewhere.

We've seen the Murderbot finale, and I'm awfully glad the show's been renewed.

Beyond that, the two of us have now watched the very first episode of Silo, having had good luck with Apple SFF shows. I haven't read the books, so I know almost nothing about it.

(I have food stuff to talk about, but I think I'll call this a post and hope to write more later.)
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I got in a walk around the park and a walk with the dogs at home, during which I picked some black raspberries! There were a ton on this one bush, but I didn’t feel like getting all scratched up, so I just picked what I could reach easily. (About a cup and a half, I’m guessing.)

I also did two loads of laundry (both washed, dried AND folded), hand-washed some dishes, made egg salad, and scooped kitty litter before I left for mom’s a little before 11am. I picked up some books at the library on the way there. I left at 3pm as has become the norm and did another load of laundry (mom’s, washed, dried and folded since I have to return it today) and hand-washed more dishes. I didn’t have to make Pip’s supper because it was too hot for him to have anything hot, so he snacked on an egg salad sandwich (open-faced) and hard salami.

I read fanfic, the new Murderbot novella and another Holiday Bay cozy, and watched two eps of Smoke.

If you haven’t had a chance to read the new Murderbot novelette Rapport (which is one of those ‘takes place in the Murderbot Diaries ‘verse’ stories) you can find it for free at Reactor Magazine or purchase it from Amazon (on Kindle for $1.99). Or both.

Temps started out at 71.8(F) and reached 92. We had two rounds of thunderstorms during which it rained very heavily and ended up with an inch of rain.


Mom Update:

Mom is finding it easier to get going in the morning, but then she gets tuckered out. more back here )

june booklog

Jul. 13th, 2025 11:57 am
wychwood: Frannie smiling, with a heart (due South - Frannie heart)
[personal profile] wychwood
53. Beautiful Just - Lillian Beckwith ) I don't love this any more, but I can see why I did.


54. The Whig Supremacy - Basil Williams ) Moving into ever more familiar territory...


55. A Tale of Time City, 56. Eight Days of Luke, 61. The Game, and 62. Dogsbody - Diana Wynne Jones ) Apparently I have strong feelings about Dogsbody still. But these were all very readable, if in some cases rather slight.


57. A Problem for the Chalet School and 58. The Chalet School Triplets - Elinor M Brent-Dyer ) Always a pleasant time re-reading these.


59. A Sorceress Comes to Call - T Kingfisher ) Kingfisher is just generally reliable for me, and this is not an exception.


60. The Incandescent - Emily Tesh ) I enjoyed this a lot, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing where Tesh goes next! Recommended to anyone with an interest in pedagogy and school stories; what a great combination that definitely should be more common.
sholio: tv murderbot andrew skarsgard looking to the side (Murderbot-MB)
[personal profile] sholio


I watched this like 4 times in a row. It definitely contain spoilers, but it's divorced enough from the actual plotline of the show that if you don't mind SOME spoilers and want to get an idea of what the show is like, this might be a nice one to watch. (Warning for some gore.)

On AO3

(no subject)

Jul. 13th, 2025 04:26 pm
thawrecka: (Bleach - fighting is better back to back)
[personal profile] thawrecka
I finished my reread of Bleach and I've now watched through episode 273, which I think means I've watched about 80 episodes of Bleach in a couple of weeks. Unhinged behaviour. I think for the most part the animation of the lust arc was pretty good! Captured a lot of the feeling of reading it, though it was faintly amusing they didn't show the exact moment of Ichigo stabbing Ishida, which blunted that impact a little. It had not ever occurred to me before that Ulquiorra's final attack on Ichigo was because he was moved by Orihime desperately wanting Ichigo not to kill Ishida, but I feel like that's the implication in the anime, and I'm willing to internalise that interpretation of it. It certainly works with the things Ulquiorra says just before he fades away (oh man, and with Orihime stepping forward to try to grab his hand a moment too late, that always gets me; tbh the arc is equally good for Ulquiorra/Orihime or Ichigo/Orihime).

Back to the rest of the fights and blergh Yammy. Not that I dislike what the manga does with Yammy, but the thing with this whole arc being so long in the manga and yet the anime expands it even more is that sometimes the anime gives an entire fight scene to something briefly touched over in the original and it's often kind of boring.

Like everyone else on the planet I have now seen KPop Demon Hunters. It's cute! I see why half a dozen people I follow on Tumblr are now gaga for it. It commits to its premise 100%. Sony animation is doing some real interesting stuff and making some fun choices.
sholio: tv murderbot andrew skarsgard looking to the side (Murderbot-MB)
[personal profile] sholio
[personal profile] scioscribe gave me a delightful Murderbot TV-verse prompt, hidden because it's somewhat spoilery for the finale:
Click to viewPost-finale Gurathin, burdened with all these memories of Sanctuary Moon, still doesn't like the show but now can't resist getting into nitpicky arguments about it on futuristic forums, where he and Murderbot keep crossing paths and gradually realize who they're talking to and get very fond about it without admitting to anything.


600 words or so of future fan forum shenanigans )
mific: (Atlantis gold sunset)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG1
Characters/Pairings: Teyla Emmagan, Cam Mitchell, John Sheppard, Jack O'Neill, Ronon Dex, Daniel Jackson, Sam Carter, Miko Kusanagi, Rodney McKay, Teal'c
Rating: Gen
Length: 1505
Creator Links: LtLJ on AO3
Themes: Working together, Teams, Humor, Action/adventure

Summary: Five things that happen on missions where SG-1 and SGA-1 go through the gate together.

Reccer's Notes: A great example of the 5-things format - five dramatic, telling, and sometimes amusing times when members of the premium gate teams of Earth and Atlantis worked together. The last one's an absolute classic!

Fanwork Links: Five Joint Missions, Post-Retrograde on AO3
and I podficced it, here.

Derek Hale Fan Video - Titanium

Jul. 12th, 2025 09:32 pm
brokenframe: (Default)
[personal profile] brokenframe posting in [community profile] vidding
Title: Titanium
Character: Derek Hale
TV Series: Teen Wolf
Music: Titanium by Sia
Length: 3:55
Streaming/download at: DW | Tumblr

Daily Happiness

Jul. 12th, 2025 08:01 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We had originally been planning to go to Disneyland this morning, but last night I was just feeling tired and suggested we skip our weekend trip since we're going to a show (Paul F. Thompkins' Varietopia again) tomorrow already, and just have one stay at home day. Well, turned out to be for the best because apparently JD Vance is at Disneyland this weekend and so not only is there extremely heightened security inside and protests outside, but the thought of being at the park at the same time as him is a bummer and would just ruin the trip. So we'll just wait and go sometime this week. It's not like we haven't been recently lol.

2. Instead of going to the farmers market or Disneyland, our usual Saturday morning choices, we walked up to a local bagel place and got fancy bagels. We each got two half bagels with different toppings. She got the laika (smoked salmon, cream cheese, pickled red onions, cucumber, capers, and dill) and the scarlett (cream cheese, lightly grilled tomatoes, lemon zest, and chili flakes), and I got the mia (avocado, pickled red onions, chili flakes, and cilantro) and the pre-jam (cream cheese, peaches, honey, and mixed berries). We also got a yuzu strawberry lemonade ice tea and a vanilla orange latte. Everything was so good!

They always have super long lines on the weekends so we've been curious but I'd never been before. Carla's been a couple times on weekdays, when it's not as crowded, but she'd only gotten the scarlett before and hadn't tried anything else. They have online ordering but I didn't know what time Carla would wake up, so I didn't put in an order early, and by the time she woke up around 9:30, there were no more order slots, so we just walked up, but the line wasn't bad yet (maybe fifteen minutes or so and then a bit more of a wait to get the order). Definitely worth it, though.

3. Later in the morning, Carla was talking about some Lush product she'd seen mentioned recently and it got us thinking about Lush again. There was another product she used to use all the time when they had a location here in Santa Monica, but that one's been gone for ages and it was sort of out of sight out of mind. But it turns out there's one at the mall in Culver City, so we decided to go check it out.

We got several things and then headed to the Target at the end of the mall and passed by a super cute hobby shop that had a bunch of knock-off lego type bricks with all sorts of licensed characters, and they also had a bunch of book nooks and other wood craft type stuff and we ended up buying quite a few things lol. Facebook/Instagram has been pushing book nooks on me for a while so it felt like fate. I got one book nook and Carla got three wood craft dinosaur sets and a Kung Fu Panda brick set (this brand is a lot less cheap looking than most non-lego brand bricks I've seen).

I have been trying to find some new plain t-shirts I can wear to work as I currently only have one that both fits well and feels nice (though I do have others that are tolerable). It's really hard for me to find shirts because I am sensitive about fabrics. I usually buy most of my clothes from Target because I don't like shopping and am lazy, but they don't have any good t-shirts right now, so while we were at the mall I checked out Uniqlo and Old Navy, and neither had good shirts (the Uniqlo ones I couldn't even bear to try on because the fabric felt so NOPE to me just from a quick touch), but at least I can mark those off my list of possibilities.

We then went to Target and got some random stuff (mostly food, but also a nice Encanto puzzle) and then while I was waiting for Carla to check out I got a pepperoni cheese pretzel from Auntie Anne's. Haven't eaten there in literal decades, but it was delicious. Also had tasty watermelon lemonade.

Overall it was a very nice trip. We used to go to the mall all the time years and years ago and never go, but this one is not at all dead and has lots of nice shops. Kind of seemed like back in the heyday of malls. We should do that more often!

4. Look at Tuxie's snoot! So cute!

bluerosekatie: 3D render of a Bionicle character wearing a purple mask. (Default)
[personal profile] bluerosekatie posting in [community profile] smallfandomfest
Title: better than hospital food (interlude)
Author: bluerosekatie
Fandom: Bionicle - All Media Types
Pairing/Characters: Hahli/Jaller, background Gali/Takua | Takanuva
Rating/Category: Gen, Het
Prompt: Bionicle - All Media Types, Hahli/Jaller, writer's choice
Spoilers: References major events in the Toa Metru arc.
Summary: Hahli makes good on her promise to Jaller -- and they discuss a little of what they've learned since the Turaga decided to tell their story.
Notes/Warnings: Archive-locked to avoid AI scraping. Part of a larger series with this particular human AU.

Read it on AO3 here!

Weekly Reading

Jul. 12th, 2025 05:49 pm
torachan: onoda sakamichi from yowamushi pedal with a huge smile (onoda smile)
[personal profile] torachan
Currently Reading
A Slash of Emerald
82%. Second in the Dr Julia Lewis mystery series. It's been a while since the first one and tbh I've been reading/listening to so many historical murder series that they start to blend together a bit so I don't entirely remember the first one (though I did give it four stars so I clearly liked it) but I feel like I'm enjoying this one even more than the first? It's definitely good.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
4%. Title is self-explanatory. Just started but it seems like an interesting topic!

Kill Her Twice
6%. YA murder mystery set in 1930s LA Chinatown. So far so good, but I've only just gotten started.

Just Happy to Be Here
26%.

Sister Outsider
32%.

Recently Finished
Riding the Rails
This was good! Felt a little repetitive and the best parts were short chapters that focused on individuals rather than the longer chapters that were supposedly organized by topic but kind of wandered a bit.

Murder at the Patel Motel
I really liked this a lot. It looks like the other books the author has written are middle grade and I'm going to check them out, but I hope he does some more mysteries because this was a lot of fun.

Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy
New Murderbot short story. It's available free here. This is set after the most recent book and is about ART and crew. I enjoyed it.

Astronautical!
Cute middle grade graphic novel set in a universe where a planet has broken apart into little bits and one can travel between the chunks in boats. Things like gravity and oxygen are hand-waved and it's very vibes-based and ultimately a little too silly for me, but it was cute.

Koyubi-sensei no Reiteki Sakusen
New manga by Uguisu Sachiko. This is a single volume collection of what were originally one-shots, so although they have the same characters, there's not really any plot arc. I've read (and scanlated) a couple of the stories but the rest were new to me. I like all her stuff and this was no exception.

Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri vol. 17
This really feels like it's wrapping up. There was an announcement for the next volume in the back and it was listed as volume 18 rather than final volume, but I would be surprised if it went more than another volume or two after that. tbh I'm fine with that. I've enjoyed the series but I liked it more before it developed an over-arching plot. (My same complaint with Katekyo Hitman Reborn, which also started as a gag manga and evolved into something with silly elements but overall more serious.)

Mission! vol. 4

Saint Young Men vol. 21
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss


I am 98% of the way through my character conversions. I still need to note errata that has come out since for my character. See that full sheet of paper nearest the camera? That is most of what should go into one tiny square on my character sheet, but obvs it wont fit so I made a reference sheet. When I took the picture I hadn't realized I'd missed a few things.

Not shown: multiple tracker sheets for things like milestone leveling

And that is just me working on Alec. Tristan wasn't quiet as bad, but I still need to finish one of his reference sheets. Alec is my Leyfarers main, but Tristan is my alt so I can put off finishing him. So many rules changed for my main. Like, he still has Favored Enemy, but those words point to a completely different game mechanic than they did in the old rules. Ditto Stonecunning, ditto a lot of stuff.

This is why I am unlikely to write The Gang Plays D&D for most canons, but The Gang Gets Pulled Into a Let's Play For Charity has a lot of potential

Saturday Morning Exchange: My Gift

Jul. 12th, 2025 06:40 pm
senmut: Upper Torso shot of Slade Wilson from Justice League Crisis movie (Cartoons: DCAU Slade)
[personal profile] senmut
New Home (571 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Aristocats (1970)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Duchess/Thomas O'Malley, Berlioz & Marie & Toulouse (Disney: Aristocats)
Characters: Thomas O'Malley, Duchess (Disney: Aristocats), Berlioz (Disney), Marie (Disney: Aristocats), Toulouse (Disney)
Additional Tags: Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Character Study, of sorts
Summary:

Thomas O'Malley reflects on his new home.

elidelio: (gold)
[personal profile] elidelio posting in [community profile] tinyfandomflash
Title: The Sweet and Honourable Carter Tillinghast
Author: [archiveofourown.org profile] timegoesby 
Fandom: Time For Chaos (Podcast)
Rating: General
Category: F/M
Relationship(s): Carter Tillinghast/Margarete "Margot" Sauer
Character(s): Carter Tillinghast
Word Count: 1,000
Spoiler: Season 3 cast change.
Summary: Carter doesn’t believe she’s really gone at first. Or rather, he doesn’t want to believe it. He can’t.
Maybe this was always how it was going to end.
Notes/Warnings: Alcohol as a coping mechanism. Cross-posted to [community profile] vocab_drabbles 

The Sweet and Honourable Carter Tillinghast )

Home

Jul. 12th, 2025 09:41 pm
lexin: (Default)
[personal profile] lexin
I just took my hearing aids out because I’m trying to watch TV and the social club across the road from my home has just started to play host to live music. With my aids in, the TV and the music were an absolute jumble.

FIC: Test Flight

Jul. 12th, 2025 01:02 pm
blueraccoon: (kinky bitch)
[personal profile] blueraccoon
Title: Test Flight (Sanctuary #4)
Author: blueraccoon/rebecca
Rating: NC-17
Summary: “So. Your friends want to meet me. At the dungeon, presumably?”

“Oui, I think that is the idea,” Jean-Rene says. “Brent suggested I bring you this Saturday night. There will be a public scene involving ropes.”
Notes: Not exactly a PWP (look! character development!) but there's an awful lot of kink and smut in this one. Note the tags on AO3.

If you are unfamiliar with previous stories all you need to know is I invented a members-only dungeon in Manhattan named Steel Rose that has public and private play spaces, and where anyone who's anyone in the kink scene goes to watch or play.

A terrible comic about baseball

Jul. 12th, 2025 05:54 pm
[syndicated profile] wondermark_feed

Posted by David Malki !

On social media recently, it was “Make a Terrible Comic Day.” Since making terrible things comes naturally to me, I decided to participate! Here is my contribution.

It was fun to draw this by hand, which I am quite out of practice at.

You can see more “terrible comics” using the #makeaterriblecomicday2025 hashtag on Bluesky and Instagram!

petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
I had the opportunity to go to a concert of his recently and enjoyed his part of the show exceedingly. The opening act, Puddles Pity Party, was very much not my thing, alas, but Mr. Yankovic is exuberantly himself, the costume changes are lolarious, and the music is inimitably Weird. If you like his work, you'll almost certainly like his concert. Extra points awarded for the songs (not all of them, alas) that had text videos, effectively functioning as closed captioning with a sense of humor.

Also, the audience was full of people wearing extremely cheerful shirts, and made great viewing.

I have not seen the most recent Murderbot yet, but I did spot David Dastmalchian as John Deacon in a clip of Weird-the-biopic which was played at the concert, so that's almost the same thing, right? I was very proud of my facial recognition software for picking up on that. I would like to belatedly award points to the casting department for finding a way to get another MENA-descended person into Queen, which is a great joke I didn't get at the time.

I loved the new Murderbot short story, which I read aloud to my SO.

(no subject)

Jul. 12th, 2025 11:29 am
skygiants: the aunts from Pushing Daisies reading and sipping wine on a couch (wine and books)
[personal profile] skygiants
lest you think that having returned The Pushcart War to its rightful owner I went away with my bookshelves lighter! I did NOT, as she pushed 84, Charing Cross Road into my hands at the airport as I was leaving again with strict instructions to read it ASAP.

This is another one that's been on my list for years -- specifically, since I read Between Silk and Cyanide, as cryptography wunderkind Leo Marks chronicling the desperate heroism and impossible failures of the SOE is of course the son of the owner of Marks & Co., the bookstore featuring in 84, Charing Cross Road, because the whole of England contains approximately fifteen people tops.

84, Charing Cross Road collects the correspondence between jobbing writer Helene Hanff -- who started ordering various idiosyncratic books at Marks & Co. in 1949 -- and the various bookstore employees, primarily but not exclusively chief buyer Frank Doel. Not only does Hanff has strong and funny opinions about the books she wants to read and the editions she's being sent, she also spends much of the late forties and early fifties expressing her appreciation by sending parcels of rationed items to the store employees. A friendship develops, and the store employees enthusiastically invite Hanff to visit them in England, but there always seems to be something that comes up to prevent it. Hanff gets and loses jobs, and some of the staff move on. Rationing ends, and Hanff doesn't send so many parcels, but keeps buying books. Twenty years go by like this.

Since 84, Charing Cross Road was a bestseller in 1970 and subsequently multiply adapted to stage and screen, and Between Silk and Cyanide did not receive publication permission until 1998, I think most people familiar with these two books have read them in the reverse order that I did. I think it did make sort of a difference to feel the shadow of Between Silk and Cyanide hanging over this charming correspondence -- not for the worse, as an experience, just certain elements emphasized. Something about the strength and fragility of a letter or a telegram as a thread to connect people, and how much of a story it does and doesn't tell.

As a sidenote, in looking up specific publication dates I have also learned by way of Wikipedia that there is apparently a Chinese romcom about two people who both independently read 84, Charing Cross Road, decide that the book has ruined their lives for reasons that are obscure to me in the Wikipedia summary, write angry letters to the address 84 Charing Cross Road, and then get matchmade by the man who lives there now. Extremely funny and I kind of do want to watch it.

Brick

Jul. 12th, 2025 05:26 pm
profiterole_reads: (Kings - Jack and David)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
Netflix's German movie Brick was intriguing. People end up stuck in their building when a mysterious black wall suddenly surrounds it.

I thought the explanation at the end was solid (movies like that tend to either leave you without an explanation or have an explanation so basic that no explanation would have been better).

Matthias Schweighöfer (Ludwig Dieter in Army of Thieves, Jack of Hearts in Heart of Stone) stars in this.

Reading adventures

Jul. 12th, 2025 05:16 pm
cimorene: Pixel art of a bright apple green art deco tablet radio with elaborate ivory fretwork (is this thing on?)
[personal profile] cimorene
I haven't been able to get invested in reading a specific fandom in several years. Every now and then I look at fandoms I have read in the past and manage to spend a few weeks rereading some of them before I run out of patience to keep looking, but that's not very long.

About a month ago, I tried to read some 911 fic from [personal profile] waxjism's spreadsheet. She is keeping a spreadsheet of every fic in this fandom she has read. She records the title and author; pairing (even though they're all the same pairing); summary - which is sometimes the author summary and sometimes she writes something in this field like a comment, or a whole rant, that doesn't actually include a summary; a column called "good/no" where she categorizes them as very good, good, above mid, mid, "sub mid", or bad; and a column called "comments" where she sometimes rants, or continues the rant from the summary columnn, and sometimes just says things like "fun-ish" or "not flawless" or "pretty hot" or "unbearably written by a child or a super-offline person". This is different from how I, at least, used to keep track of a recs list when I had to do it manually, because she puts in everything she starts even if she DNF immediately, and also it's for private use. I tried to use it to find things to read, and it's not like I'm unfamiliar with reading fanfiction without canon but also I had seen some of this show accidentally while she was watching it. I did keep trying for a while and I read... some... number of the ones she marked very good or good, based on the comments and summaries, but I kept getting bored and annoyed at the characters. It just wasn't grabbing me. Very disappointing because there would've been a lot to read. (A huge amount of the things on this spreadsheet are marked bad or sub-mid even by her, and I think she is in general more forgiving in judging quality than I am even though unlike me she never reads things that seem kinda bad or mediocre to her for fun. And she has never gone archive-spelunking or read directly from the tag: she ONLY reads from recs and bookmarks. There's no control to test it here, but I think this bears out my personal conviction that there is a 0% increase in quality from recs and bookmarks (of random people that you don't know as opposed to someone vetted and trusted) vs. the slushpile (the entire content of the archive at random)).

A couple of weeks ago I saw a post on Tumblr that said something like, paraphrased, "There's a very popular notion that in the past all literature was good quality compared to now, but that's not true. This is survivorship bias. The stuff we still know and read in the present day is the good stuff, but a vast quantity of bad and mediocre stuff is lost to time." Someone responded by linking to The Westminster Detective Library, a project investigating the earliest history of the detective fiction genre. Apparently the professor who began it was initially inspired by a conviction that Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue was not actually the first detective short story based on features of its writing which in his opinion betrayed the signs of a genre history. The website contains transcribed public-domain detective fiction that was published in American magazines before the first Sherlock Holmes story's publication. I have been enjoying reading through it chronologically since I read the post. Reading in one genre is a bit like reading in one fandom, and reading very old fiction has several special points of interest to me because I love learning about history and culture in that way. Of course on the minus side, it isn't gay. But I'm getting fascinating glimpses of the history of the genre and the history of jurisprudence in both America and Britain. And although there is definitely mediocre and "sub-mid" writing published in the periodicals of the 18th-19th centuries, awash in silly cliches and carelessly proofread if at all, they are still slightly more filtered for legibility and literacy than the experience of reading modern fanfiction (even, as mentioned in the last paragraph, from recs lists and bookmarks, unless you have a supply of trusted and well-known reccers to follow. I sometimes come near tears remembering the days when I could always check what [personal profile] thefourthvine and [personal profile] norah were recommending, but I can't blame them for the decline, either, because I was generally reading and at least bookmarking if not reccing just as productively at the time).

The other thing that has happened to affect my reading is that my little sister's high school best friend got engaged and invited my sister to her engagement party in Florida, which is going to be "Gatsby-themed". The 1920s is possibly my single oldest hyperfixation, dating from before the age of 10, and it's the historical period that I know and care the most about. For the past ten years or so the term "Gatsby" has, consequently, inspired me with the most intense rage and irritation, because its popularity after the movie version of The Great Gatsby flooded the internet with so much loathesomely inaccurate "information" about and imagery of the 1920s as to actually make it harder to find real information, and nearly impossible to filter out this dreck. So my sister began shopping for her Engagement Party Outfit, which is supposed to be "Gatsby"-themed, and I am the permanent primary audience for this (just as she is the permanent primary audience any time I am planning outfits or considering my wardrobe). This has led me to reading 1920s magazines online from the Internet Archive and HathiTrust - initially the middle-class fashion magazine McCall's; then also Vogue and Harper's Bazar (much more pretentious and bourgeois). I tried to branch out into interior design magazines of the same period (House & Garden and Better Homes & Gardens), but it has been harder to find scans of them. I find 1920s romantic fiction (serialized copiously in all these magazines) much less readable and enjoyable than the 1920s detective fiction which I am more familiar with (I've read plenty of it thanks to my interest in Golden Age detective stories)... but I've also learned a lot more physical and aesthetic details about women's fashion and interiors from the romantic fiction, which makes me think I perhaps need to seek out more of it.

Two more new BtVS vids!

Jul. 12th, 2025 09:29 am
tafadhali: ([art] intricate rituals)
[personal profile] tafadhali posting in [community profile] vidding
[personal profile] periru3 and I have posted two more vids in our ongoing vid album Jagged Little Slayer, a mashup of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alanis Morissette:


Title:
 You Oughta Know
Character/Pairing: Buffy/Faith, S4
Summary: I'm not gonna fade as soon as you close your eyes.

AO3 | DWTumblr


Title:
 Ironic
Character/Pairing: Minor characters suffering mishaps
Summary: Isn't it ironic, dontcha think?

AO3
| DW | Tumblr

Sydney Film Festival 2025

Jul. 12th, 2025 11:24 pm
littlerhymes: (Default)
[personal profile] littlerhymes
I saw a bunch of movies at Sydney Film Festival, several weeks ago. My favourite was probably The Circle (2000, Jafar Panahi) screening as part of a Panahi career retrospective. He's an Iranian director who has been persecuted, imprisoned, and forbidden to leave Iran at various times, and has won numerous film awards.

This movie is set over the span of one day, starting in a hospital maternity ward and ending in a prison cell, giving glimpses into the lives of women under the Islamic State regime. A grandmother laments the birth of a girl because it will mean her daughter (the baby's mother) is likely going to be divorced by her husband; a young woman newly out of prison tries to secure passage home; a woman tries to secure an abortion; and so on, through all the hours of the day. It's so skilfully directed and so naturalistically acted and shot, each storyline bleeding into the next so simply. Panahi was present at this screening and took questions after the movie (some much worse than others, as is the way with public Q&As).

I also had a great time, in a very different way, with Lesbian Space Princess (2025, Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese). Princess Saira of Clitopolis, a world entirely peopled by lesbians, must go on a quest to rescue her ex-girlfriend, who has been kidnapped and held hostage by Straight White Maliens. This is a silly, funny and very Australian animation with art in a style that reminded me of Adventure Time. The humour is mostly as obvious and silly as indicated by the names; and the other villain of the story, aside from the incels, is Saira's own lack of self-esteem.

There's some very knowing nods here - there is a "problematic (space) ship", the main character's magical girl moment is straight from Revolutionary Girl Utena, one of the other main character is from a "gay-pop" group who runs away from overwork, etc. This session was introduced at the film festival by the directors, who said "we are two nervous people, between us we made up one confident person who could direct this movie."

I liked The Mastermind (2025, Kelly Reichardt). Set in 1970s against the backdrop of the student protests against the Vietnam war, a struggling suburban dad decides to rob a museum of several artworks. He recruits a few people and so begins a rather terrible heist. This is a slow moving, understatedly funny movie, watching all of his schemes unravel in the most obvious ways.

And I liked Twinless (2024, James Sweeney) - when Roman's twin Rocky dies, he ends up at a grief counselling group where he meets Dennis, who has similarly lost his twin Dean. The two strike up a friendship, with Roman the gruff hockey loving straight guy from Idaho, and Dennis the urbane gay guy. Then the movie flashes back, and there's several very funny and/or devastating reveals. It's structurally interesting and the black humour made my neighbour physically cringe at times with second hand embarrassment.

And then there were 2 movies I straight up did not enjoy. Both were documentaries unfortunately lol.

Tokito (2024, Aki Mizutani) subtitled "The 540-Day Journey of a Culinary Maverick" is purportedly a documentary about chef Yoshinori Ishii, who opened a new restaurant in Japan in 2023 after many years living and working overseas. I say 'purportedly' because this is nothing more than a glossy advertisement. It is beautifully shot, gorgeously filmed, but it is just an ad.

The Shadow Scholars (2024, Eloise King) is a documentary about Oxford Professor Patricia Kingori's research into the world of "contract cheating", focusing on the booming trade in Kenyan writers selling their work to students in the global north. The subject is fascinating and I was so interested to hear from the Kenyan writers - these intelligent writers who are capable of doing the work on their own merit but the credit and qualifications go to the privileged students who can buy their labour, reinforcing global inequalities. However - it's a very clumsy and vague documentary that spends a lot of time on filler interstitials - my god, yet another panning shot of Oxford?

lab results are in

Jul. 12th, 2025 08:57 am
lunabee34: (Default)
[personal profile] lunabee34
1. I've been on tenterhooks waiting for my lab results from my initial consult with Dylan's rheumatologist. I will never, ever allow their phlebotomist to stick me ever again. She stuck me five times, including in my hand and down my forearm, and I still am bruised up to hell and back. To add insult to injury, she then refused to stick me anymore and I had to go to an independent LabCorp. That phlebotomist stuck me once and it didn't even hurt. I'll be getting all my lab work done there from now on. I had it done on July 3, and I've been so antsy to get the results but the holiday clearly backed everything up. Anyway, I got the results today, and they are super fucked up! Hooray! I am testing positive for things I did not before on previous tests and on tests I've never taken before. She also sent me for an interminable set of x-rays on my knees and back. I am really hopeful for a diagnosis, but who knows. I've been disappointed before. It looks like the most likely possible diagnoses will be lupus, mixed connective tissue disease, and/or ankylosing spondylitis (hence all the x-rays). We'll see. She might just tell me I'm old and fat. *sigh*

2. Stranger Things recs )
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I went downtown like ‘usual’ and hit CVS (I needed one item that I have gotten there in the past and they didn’t have it!), Price Chopper (for a couple of veggie items to go with meals), and the Bakery (for Pip’s deli meat). I also got in a walk around the park and stopped at the veterinarian on the way home for Ti's special dog food.

After unloading the car and putting everything away, I got to mom’s ~10am and stayed until ~3pm. Today’s chores, before and after I went to mom’s, included: two loads of laundry (both washed AND dried, one folded), hand-washed dishes, hard-boiled eggs, grilled steak for Pip's supper, scooped kitty litter, and shaved.

I started and finished the next two Inn at Holiday Bay cozies and watched the current ep of Murderbot.

Temps started out at 65.7(F) and reached 93.7. It was hot. Thankfully I didn't need to spend much time outside.


Mom Update:

Mom had just finished cleaning the bathroom when I arrived! more back here )

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