hannah: (Zach and Claire - pickle_icons)
([personal profile] hannah Sep. 1st, 2025 08:56 pm)
Three weeks to the day of Rosh Hashanah is an auspicious way to start a month. The season as a whole, really. It's not summer right now, no matter what produce I can find in the markets - it hasn't been for a while now, I just haven't admitted it yet. This year it ended for me on the 18th, waking up the morning after a big gullywasher cleaned out the last of the lingering humidity and giving me two weeks of the kind of days that wind up in movies and on postcards. And now it's September, with fall officially beginning.

Yes, that was the day after the Tom Cruise retrospective wrapped.

I've still got some cherries and rhubarb and plums in my fridge, and a quarter of a honeydew melon. The melon and cherries won't last much longer. But I'm not cooking with pumpkin until October, if I can help it.
scintilla10: Zari wearing a cowboy hat and smiling (Legends of Tomorrow - Zari in Wild West)
([personal profile] scintilla10 Sep. 1st, 2025 06:02 pm)
I've had a chill long weekend with few obligations (!!), so had the chance to bask in recent reveals from two exchanges that I didn't sign up for this year: [community profile] raremaleslashex and [community profile] caseficexchange. Here are some of the works I enjoyed! (All works still anonymous!)

Casefic recs

Bigpaw Walks Among Us (fic)
Bunnicula series - James Howe, ensemble, 9391 words, rated general audience
omg, this was a gem! A perfect extension of the books, charming, goofy, and fun. The animals set out to solve the mystery of Bigpaw, with schemes, hijinks, and puns.

Paw and Order: The Absent Author (fic)
due South, Fraser & Ray K & Diefenbaker, 4269 words, rated general audience
This is so cute, charming, and fun, a cozy mystery wrapped up in typical dS quirky magical realism. Plus silliness with dogs!!

Love This Face (Love the Person Wearing It) (fic)
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Edgin/Xenk, Edgin & Holga, 6332 words, rated teen
A great casefic where Edgin & Holga follow a lead on a monster, and Xenk shows up tracking the same thing. Nicely paced plot, solid characterization, and great simmering chemistry between Edgin/Xenk.

who hosts house parties on a monday (fic)
Legends of Tomorrow, Zari 1.0/Ray Palmer, 5083 words, rated teen
A cute and fun undercover-as-a-couple mission fic, with canon-typical Legends shenanigans! A great caper, super fun.

[Minicomic] Retrofit (comic)
Original Work, Female Veteran Battle Android turned Private Investigator, rated teen
Loved this character design! Such a cool combo of cyberpunk and noir, and great use of a limited colour palette.

RMSE recs

Anything but Equinox (fic)
Brilliant Minds, Josh Nichols/Oliver Wolf, 4501 words, rated teen
A fantastic post-S1 take on the tension, reservations, and reconciliation between Josh and Oliver. Lovely characterization and sharp dialogue - really loved this.

galeocerdo (fic)
Jaws movies, Martin Brody/Matt Hooper, 1442 words, rated mature
Loved the intensity of this! Matt uses a blowjob to get Brody to go back out onto the boat. Excellent stuff.

All Ears (art)
Star Trek DS9, Jake Sisko/Nog, rated teen
Aww, art of a soft and intimate oo-mox scene!
Tags:
yhlee: pretty kitty (Cloud)
([personal profile] yhlee Sep. 1st, 2025 04:58 pm)


Still fussing with the settings on the wheel (especially how aggressive I want takeup). Cloud seems to think the e-spinner is purring.
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)
([personal profile] azurelunatic Sep. 1st, 2025 01:37 pm)
I picked a hotel based on price and reviews, and I think I picked poorly. Housekeeping was by request only, but they communicated that exactly bloody nowhere. The staff were universally friendly and courteous, but the lack of communication about that vital issue was overwhelming. I had to request housekeeping on Sunday twice, and the second time the person who arrived with fresh towels and to take away the garbage said something peculiar, about having us on the housekeeping list the next morning. I inquired, and learned that it is a lingering Covid safety policy. I would rather have universal masking as the lingering Covid safety policy.

Spicy mango frozen margaritas are delicious. We went to a local brewery, I think on Friday after the parish hall setup for the party. S & Z went for the frozen margarita "flight" and we passed the little goblets around for tasting. I tried the raspberry daiquiri (non frozen) and found it too sour. But I was able to enjoy the hot rim on the mango margarita, to the extent that I looked up recipes and got a bottle of Tajín after we got home. We played Sushi Go (except for Mums) and Wizard (except for me). There was no duckie in the big fishbowl drink as they were out. Alas. Hot Rim is our new band, and all the titles of the songs are double entendres, each followed by a B-side entitled "... Vociferously!"

Pips' partner H came for Saturday and Sunday, and it was very good to meet them. Belovedest has a sticker on their water bottle reading "I'm the enby sheep", and H is another such enby sheep. And Goth. We took to each other immediately.

The anniversary party was a hit. I even convinced Belovedest to dance with me to "I Will Survive", which I named as "our song" — not incorrect, but it's my song from nerd camp, and I believe their song by way of yeeting the evil ex, rather than our song together.
Cleanup on site was very swift, and we didn't actually have to stack all the chairs. Afterwards at home (the parental home), V and Mums put away leftovers and sorted the salad (cucumber and tomato separate from the lettuce) while the rest of the kid generation gossiped and played games and I carefully pulled the photos off the science fair board and sorted them back into their ziplock bags.

There was Sunday brunch, and I think we may not go there again — both of us and perhaps more of the party had mild food poisoning symptoms that afternoon. It didn't ruin our days fully, but I was glad to have my fully stocked medical kit on hand.

Squaredle is one of the family preoccupations. It's a NYT game that resembles Boggle, except it's a composed game rather than random, and the boards vary in size and shape. (One recent one was a 5x5 doughnut, with the middlemost letter missing.) There were also games of Boggle.

I did have the new folding power chair for the trip, which saved my strength for the important things. The acquisition is its own story, with the Bastard & Our Lady's own lucks. (This is a distinct entity from the folding scooter, which should arrive later this month.)

Crochet updates:
My #10 crochet cotton super Goth beaded choker is finished with the structural crochet work and needs the final outside beading. I'm waiting on more of the beads.
The self-striping granny triangle shawl has the first triangle complete, and I could wear it like that if I wanted to. Now that I know how it's sized, I've started the second triangle of three to make it a trapezoid.
Secret #10 crochet cotton project with a due date: I need to make a crucial measurement, but I found the perfect button in my collection. Awaiting the first chain. And I am pleased beyond measure to have been commissioned it.

Yellface is extremely glad we're home. She lectured us at length about having left, in tones I've never heard from her before. That was the extent of her displeasure, fortunately.

I experimented, and got us a first class upgrade on our way out. There was almost enough foot room for Belovedest, and enough elbow room for me. I even napped some. There was a cheese plate, and I felt secure enough in my prophylactic meds to partake. The only problem was the combination of my swoopy sleeves with armrest cup holders, so my right sleeve became saturated with ginger ale for a while.
Coming back was very crammed, even though we were in the premium seats with some extra foot room.

I'm glad I went.
([syndicated profile] otw_news_feed Sep. 1st, 2025 07:48 pm)

Posted by therealmorticia

Now that the 2025 election is over, we’re happy to share with you our voter turnout statistics!

For the 2025 Election, we had 15,138 total eligible voters. Of those, 2,197 voters cast a ballot, which represents 14.5% of the potential voters.

Our voter turnout is lower than that of last year, which had a turnout of 22.8%.

We also saw a decrease in the number of ballots cast, from 3,415 to 2,197, which represents a 35.6% decrease.

Elections is committed to continuing to reach out to our eligible members to encourage them to vote in elections. Whoever is elected to the Board of Directors can have an important influence on the long-term health of the OTW’s projects, and we want our members to have a say in that.

For those who might be interested in the number of votes each candidate received, please note that our election process is designed to elect an equal cohort of Board members in order to allow them to work well together, so we do not release that information. As a general rule, we also won’t disclose which of our unsuccessful candidates received the fewest votes, since we don’t want to discourage them from running again in the future when circumstances and member interest might be different. However, as there were only 3 candidates this year, revealing that information is unavoidable.

Once again, a big thank you to everyone who participated at every stage of the election! We hope to see you at the virtual polls again next year.

rachelmanija: (Books: old)
([personal profile] rachelmanija Sep. 1st, 2025 01:12 pm)
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 73


Which books would you most like me to review?

View Answers

Hemlock & Silver, by T. Kingfisher. The first book of hers I've actually liked!
44 (60.3%)

Lone Women, by Victor LaValle. Fantastic cross-genre western/historical/horror/fantasy.
21 (28.8%)

Into the Raging Sea, by Rachel Slade. The best nonfiction shipwreck book I've read since Shadow Divers.
26 (35.6%)

The Blacktongue Thief/The Daughter's War, by Christopher Buehlman. Excellent dark fantasy.
17 (23.3%)

The Bewitching, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Three timelines, all involving witches.
13 (17.8%)

Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Exactly what it sounds like.
25 (34.2%)

Archangel (etc), by Sharon Shinn. Lost colony romantic SF about genetically engineered angels.
24 (32.9%)

We Live Here Now, by Sarah Pinborough. Really original haunted house novel.
22 (30.1%)

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones. Outstanding indigenous take on "Interview with the Vampire."
29 (39.7%)

When the Angels Left the Old Country, by Sacha Lamb. A Jewish demon and angel leave the old country; excellent voice, very Jewish.
43 (58.9%)

Some other book I mentioned reading but failed to review.
2 (2.7%)

It's that time again — for me to pop unexpectedly to say "I aten't dead" — and to host a month of Write Every Day. *Waves*


What is Write Every Day (or as we affectionately type it to save typing, WED?)

Once again copied from previous stints as host:

Write Every Day is an informal writing challenge that moves from journal to journal, hosted by different people instead of on a central comm. It's probably a weird way of doing things, but that's how it's set up and — it's worked so far!

I'm hosting it this month. Every day I'll make a post where people can check in to comment on what they've written that day, whether a single sentence or thousands of words; or to talk about problems, ask questions, and generally cheer each other on.

There are no sign-ups. Anyone is welcome to join at any time. Just comment and voila! You have joined.

What counts as "writing" is fairly relaxed, and can include working on research, plotting, RPG text, free-writing, and the ever-useful "alibi sentence," which is what it sounds like, a single sentence written primarily to count as writing for that day.

The goal is to write every day, but it's not required. A tally is kept of everyone's daily writing check-in, but it's to help people stay on track. It isn't a race.

The challenge is meant to help each other develop a consistent writing habit, keep procrastination at bay, get through difficult times, overcome writer's block, and to just keep at it.

If you want more information, read [personal profile] zwei_hexen's, ([personal profile] ysilme and [personal profile] sylvanwitch) Welcome to Write Every Day! which goes into the rules (mostly guidelines) in more depth.


Goals & Plans for the Month

If you have any special goals or plans for the month, feel free to share them! My only plan for the month is to write every day. ;-)


Quote of the Day:

"When you aren’t inspired to work on whatever it is you should be working on, do an exercise, or a series of them. Make up your own exercises. Do them even if you feel dull and unimaginative. Something may come of it, and it is better than doing nothing."

— Lydia Davis, Essays One (2019)


Onward!
Tags:
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
([personal profile] yhlee Sep. 1st, 2025 12:46 pm)






Finished yarn! This one's going to [personal profile] niqaeli. Spun on an Ashford Traveller, plied on an EEW 6.1.
runpunkrun: close-up of kryptonite necklace, text: K is for meteor rock (k is for meteor rock)
([personal profile] runpunkrun Sep. 1st, 2025 09:12 am)
My Smallville fics have been doing modest numbers over at AO3 for weeks now, due to, I can only assume, the new Superman movie. I've never had my old fics gain such sudden and sustained popularity because of a new installment to canon; in fact, this didn't happen with the previous Superman movies. Not that I was paying attention, but didn't Zach Snyder release like three of them? Or the same one three times? IDK you hear things.

Anyway, it's delightful that people are finding and enjoying my Smallville fics even if I have no idea how they're doing it. It's not like they're going to end up at the top of any filter sorted by engagement....or date.
lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
([personal profile] lightreads Sep. 1st, 2025 10:23 am)
Rakesfall

3/5. Chandrasekera’s first book made a splash, but this one really didn’t. I didn’t know why until I read it, and now I’m pretty sure it’s because no one wants to talk about it and demonstrate that they have no freaking clue what it’s about.

I’m . . . sort of . . . kidding. This is a strange passage of a book. It is ostensibly about two people who are instantiated across many lives over huge spans of time, and how they relate to each other, and how they don’t. It’s also about colonialism and modes of resistance and a sort of cosmic war. Probably?

Mostly, it’s a beautifully written piece with extremely clever intertextual stylings that is disorienting (on purpose, but I suspect he thought he was being much clearer than I think he is) and that does the reader only a few very basic favors in trying to figure out what is what. Or who is who, from chapter to chapter. Read if you like that sort of experience of disorienting fragments stitched together into something that, for me, did not resolve much at all.

Content notes: Many kinds of interpersonal and terroristic violence.
copracat: alia from Children of Dune, eyes bright blue, strands of hair blowing across her face (alia)
([personal profile] copracat Sep. 1st, 2025 01:56 pm)
I'm at the penultimate episode of Coroner's Diary and there are simply too many cinnamon rolls of the kind who die tragically. I am on melodramatic tenterhooks for the second, third and fourth couples. If it all goes too pear-shaped I am watching A Dream Within A Dream again.

In other news my copy of Hetty McKinnon's latest, Linger, has arrived. Coronation cauliflower and chickpeas is calling to me.
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mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
([staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance Aug. 31st, 2025 07:37 pm)

Per the [site community profile] dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

hannah: (Friday Night Lights - pickle_icons)
([personal profile] hannah Aug. 31st, 2025 08:56 pm)
Picking up a new fandom used to mean picking up a new icon. It turns out I already had one. I'd thought it was nice looking and atmospheric with no knowledge whatsoever about the character in it, and to no one's surprise, I managed to pick out my favorite without even trying.

Going from MASH to Top Gun to Friday Night Lights is something where I could easily pull out a through-line beyond that it's a trio of ensemble casts working within and against the rigid structures they're living in, whether or not it's by choice. Something about maintaining a sense of self and self-worth both externally and internally, but I'm only about halfway through the first season. I know that it ends well, but not how it ends, or how it gets there, and I'm enjoying the process quite a bit.

There's no word for the feeling of watching something and being hit with the thought, "So that's where that icon comes from!" Sometimes it's reading and getting to a quote, sometimes it's a fraction of a moment caught up in a 100x100 square. But since the experience isn't unique, simply highly specific, I might a well just call it "fandom."
lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
([personal profile] lightreads Aug. 31st, 2025 12:50 pm)
Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi

3/5. A novella in a series about a world where people who are murdered come back to life 999 times out of 1,000, except natural deaths still stick. I was hiding from my library book (shut up, it happens) and let Audible give this to me for free.

I read the second novella first by accident, and had a decent time. It’s one of those stories that I’m never going to really love because it is built around thinking through the implications of a single premise and how that would change society, but there’s no attempt to actually explain anything, and that’s probably for the best because there is no explanation that would be interesting or satisfying. The implications are mildly interesting, though – how do you murder someone under these constraints, for one? So, entertaining enough, but meh.

Then I realized I read the second one first and tried to read the first one and no, please, stop. The tortured infodumping is just so bad, I cannot. Apparently ‘second in a series, we assume you already know how this works’ is the degree of explanation I want for this sort of shallow construct.

Also, Zachary Quinto narrates these (Audible Originals, they do that sort of thing) and he’s . . . aggressively okay at it. Aggressively okay is kind of the whole vibe.
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
([personal profile] yhlee Aug. 31st, 2025 10:57 am)


Two singles; will ply them tomorrow, I expect. Assuming no plying/finishing disasters, this will go to [personal profile] niqaeli. ♥
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
([personal profile] yhlee Aug. 30th, 2025 06:04 pm)
Cloud is SO HAPPY with her new nesting material:



Y'all. I'd missed an earlier message (thanks, FaceBook!) but I managed not to pick out sheep fleece (breed unknown). Due to the holiday weekend, this wasn't an in-person transaction, although I hope to return in a bitand be able to talk to the farmer in person!

...I am sitting on a few pounds each of alpaca (definitely huacaya, not sure if one is suri) and angora goat fiber a.k.a. MOHAIR. Mind you, I would have been very happy to work with raw WOOL.

Well, I'll be picking through vegetable matter and sorting this VERY SLOWLY for the rest of 2025 lol. :) I do own hand carders but I think I save my pennies for a drum carder for the holidays...
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