Life advice

Jul. 2nd, 2025 04:35 pm
petra: A blonde woman with both hands over her face (Britta - Twohanded facepalm)
[personal profile] petra
Do not allow ants in your pants. They might bite you on the genitals, which would Really, Really Hurt. They do not make you fidgety; they make you miserable.

Dear NFE Writer!

Jul. 2nd, 2025 01:49 pm
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
[personal profile] edenfalling
Note: I am repurposing my stock Yuletide letter here, which is why some of the sections may seem slightly off-topic for a single fandom exchange.

Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write context-free porn, I'll be thrilled just to get a response to one of my prompts. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)

---------------

General Information )

Okay. On to specific prompts.

---------------

Jadis & the Gods of the Narnian World )

---------------

The Secret Life of Lasaraleen's Pet Monkey )

---------------

Arthuriana & Morgan Le Fay )

---------------

Telmarine Aeneid )

---------------

Journey to an Alternate Charn )

---------------------------------------------

And that is that.
oursin: Sleeping hedgehog (sleepy hedgehog)
[personal profile] oursin

For hedjog is going floppp.

Travel troubles today: being unable to see where the hell the alleged railway station near hotel was, and taking a taxi instead; railway out of order this evening, Ubers were summoned to take participants to hotel.

Yr hedjog was Living Bit of History in opening roundtable.

And in later sessions, there was a certain amount of That There Dr [personal profile] oursin going on in the questions/comments....

Some good conversation - even if hearing aids not too helpful in crowded rooms - but have noped out from evening meal, feeling too tired, will go for light meal here and early night (I hope).

wherein Liz has moved!

Jul. 2nd, 2025 12:26 pm
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
[personal profile] edenfalling
Hey, quick update: I am IN MINNESOTA!

More specifically, I am in my parents' basement, because apparently this is my current millennial life milestone to hit. *wry*

Anyway, the U-boxes were delivered on Monday, we sorted and packed Tuesday and Wednesday, and then decided to order a third U-box because my dad was uneasy about the weight limits. So on Thursday the delivery guy (who is also apparently the local warehouse manager) picked up one box that we had completed and dropped off an empty replacement. We finished packing both boxes that afternoon and moved on to packing the cars and cleaning. Friday morning the delivery guy picked up the two remaining U-boxes, we finished cleaning, and I turned in my keys to Landlord Dude in return for my security deposit refund.

(I stayed in my parents' hotel room Wednesday and Thursday nights, since we packed my bed on Wednesday.)

Then we drove from Ithaca to the Twin Cities in two days (Friday and Saturday), which was kind of a lot and included two stints on local city streets in downtown Chicago because of a nasty traffic jam on I-90. My mom kept going through stoplights just as they turned yellow so I had to follow on red; it was extremely stressful. But we made it!

I have spent the past few days changing addresses with assorted companies and getting my license, car title, and car registration switched from NY to MN. Today I may or may not see about getting a local library card and visiting a Verizon store to see if they can clear some unwanted apps off my phone (I would do this myself but they came pre-installed and don't seem to have a delete option) and also ask about international calls to/from Canada. Also I will try switching my car insurance and AAA membership to MN -- I couldn't do either of those before I got my car paperwork dealt with.

We have been eating down some food brought from my fridge and freezer, since my parents' freezer was very full already. I have seen Vicky briefly when she picked up Alfie (her dog) Sunday evening -- my parents were watching him while Vicky and some friends were staffing a booth/table at a local Pride festival. Also my dad had a colonoscopy yesterday, my mom had a cardioversion this morning (for her afibrillation), and my aunt should currently be getting knee replacements. It has been a medically exciting week!

I believe I still have one refill left for both of my prescriptions, and my Ithaca pharmacy said that although they can't mail medications, I can have a Minnesota pharmacy contact them and they can transfer the authorization. So that is a relief, though I should still find a local primary care doctor sooner rather than later.

Oh! And signups for the 2025 Narnia Fic Exchange are open until July 11, so if you have any interest, please check that out over at [community profile] narniaexchange!

Squid Game Season 3

Jul. 2nd, 2025 05:33 pm
profiterole_reads: (Nobuta wo Produce - Shuji to Akira)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
Netflix's k-drama Squid Game Season 3 was great. S2 & S3 go together as a whole game, so it's nice that they were released only 6 months apart.

Spoiler )

Feet

Jul. 2nd, 2025 01:06 pm
lexin: (Default)
[personal profile] lexin
I had a visit from my chiropodist today, and she spotted a problem with my right big toe. [personal profile] aunty_marion and I travelled hither and yon in North Wales during the last couple of weeks and it turned out I got a blister.

She wants me to take it either to the diabetic nurse, Scary Mary, or the local podiatrist service. So I’ve sent in an online request and await contact.
oursin: a hedgehog lying in the middle of cacti (hedgehog and cactus)
[personal profile] oursin

Wot a saga, eh, wot a saga, first time I have ventured significantly forth these many years -

And to start with, MAJOR HEAT EVENT.

In anticipation, I had - or so I thought - prudently booked a taxi via taxiapp, with a certain amount of leeway, just in case -

- which turned out very prudent, as when I went to check the booking this morning the app was showing 'network error' and this was clearly on their end rather than mine, and a little looking about suggests that this is not their first rodeo server problem.

So when, at designated time, taxi cameth not, I set out towards the Tube, not without some hope that a black cab might pass me on my way, but that Was Not To Be -

And on reflection, I should perhaps have waited for a Bank train, because getting out on Charing X platforms at Euston involves rather too many stairs.

However, Avanti kindly texted me the approx time my train would be boarding, and this all seemed set - although my (1st class) seat was aisle, backwards, there was nobody in the other 3 seats so I switched -

HAH.

When we reached Coventry, choochoo sighed and gave up, and we had to debouch and take the next Birmingham bound train - which was delayed....

At Birmingham New Street had considerable faff trying to discover a Way Out that would take me to a taxi rank.

When I finally arrived at hotel booked by conference organisers there was an immense performance trying to find the right group booking, as it was not under any title that I might have thought of but that of some hireling booking agency.

However, I am now in nice cool room and have had tasty room service snack. Even if I have had to wrestle with getting my laptop to talk to the free wifi...

Ants Waking by RJ Huneke

Jul. 1st, 2025 07:11 pm
profiterole_reads: (Naruto Shippuuden - Sasuke and Naruto)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
I was sent an advance review copy of the novella Ants Waking by RJ Huneke in exchange for an honest review. A student in a magical Cambridge tries to find a way to bring their friend back to life.

This book has a lyrical writing style and reads like a fairy tale about the power of stories. The invented mythological figures are fascinating.

The protagonist is non-binary and on the autism spectrum.

Ants Waking releases on October 28th, 2025. For every book sold, the author will be donating $1 to the Global Action for Trans Equality and $1 to the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
maggie33: (strumiłło mandale 1)
[personal profile] maggie33
I’m a bit sick, ugh. Nothing serious, just a sore throat and a bit of a cold, probably because I’m sweating a lot (ahh, my lovely frenemy menopause 😒), and when I go out there is a strong chilly wind outside (and has been for the last two weeks or so), and of course air conditioning inside everywhere.

Also I have the attention span of a gnat lately and started watching so many new things, I don’t know when I’ll finish all of them. 😊

I mean, ok, I did finish a few things. Amongst them:

Kpop Demon Hunters

This is Netflix’s new animated movie everybody is talking about right now. It’s about three demon huntresses, who form a kpop girl group named Huntrix, and use their songs to build the protection spell around the world, to save all the humans from a big scary demon, who wants to eat their souls. So this demon sends five demon boys to form a kpop boy group to compete with Huntrix and steal their fans and their fans’ souls from them.

Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds, and it’s also funny and entertaining, and touching and sweet. I enjoyed it a lot. And I didn’t expect much, just an hour and a half of fun and cuteness and a few catchy songs. And it was all that, but it also made me teary-eyed at the end.


Spoilers here.And not because of Jinu’s sacrifice. But because I’m a sucker for ‘power of friendship saving the world’ stuff. And that movie delivered so well on that front. Rumi, Mira and Zoey’s friendship was my favorite part of the movie.

Also – this cover of Your Idol is very good.




My Sweet Brother in Law

The last episode aired last week and it was bit of a letdown after decent and enjoyable four episodes.


Spoilers here, tooThat went into a full OTT dramatic soap opera in the last episode: a cheating psycho wife, a homophobic dad throwing his gay son out of the house, a stabbing, Bao saving Khanh’s life and ending in a coma for six months, and then a cliffhanger with a sudden arrival of Bao’s handsome ex-boyfriend. I think they hope for the 2nd season. And you know what, I hope they will make it. In general I enjoyed this drama. For my first Vietnamese BL it was great.

Even though I do wish they didn’t make Khanh’s wife a gold digging cheating psycho, to make it okay that Khanh cheated on her with Bao. After watching the first three episodes I was so pleased that the women involved weren’t vilified in this drama, and unfortunately, that didn’t last.


I also watched two other BL dramas. And they both had a very similar plot. Chinese and Taiwanese BL dramas sure do love dramatic, full of longing and forbidden desire, step-brothers pairings, don’t they? 😊 And sometimes I get a craving for such pairings, too.

So first I watched Moon and Dust, a new short (6 episodes) Chinese BL. An older boy rescues a younger boy from homelessness and suffering, ends up raising him, and then of course a younger boy falls desperately in love with his Da Ge and tries to quash those feelings, but can’t help confessing in an emotional scene. And the older brother clearly feels something more than brotherly feelings, too, but can’t admit it, because he doesn’t want to recognize those feelings for what they are, and he feels that as an older brother he has to be the responsible one and refuse his brother’s love.

I liked this short drama a lot. It’s cheaply made, cheesy and OTT sometimes, but good actors with very nice chemistry made it work for me.


Spoilers for the ending here.This is not a happy ending. I would say it is ambiguous. It’s clear they both have feelings for each other. But they don’t get together, and it ends with the older one rejecting the younger one’s feelings. But there is no tragedy or death or anything like that. So you can imagine very easily a post-canon fix-it with them getting together in a few months or a few years.

The 1st episode is available for free on Youtube here. When the drama was airing they did make each new episode available for free for the limited period of time, and now you can still watch the last 6th episode there, but episodes 2-5 are available for members only.


And since Moon and Dust was so short I decided to finally watch Unknown, Taiwanese BL from 2024 with the same trope. I did watch the first episode back then when it started airing, but it was rather dark and violent, and I wasn’t in the mood for something like that then, so I never watched more. But now I watched all of it.

My opinion – it’s very uneven. The first half is good, and then it starts falling apart. It took me a week to watch the last two episodes, because they were either super boring (episode 11) or made me cringe so hard (episode 12).

The weak script in the second half was the main problem for me. Exacerbated by me not really seeing much romantic and sexual chemistry between leads. As actors they are both good, but it was very hard for me to buy Qian reciprocating Yuan’s feelings.


More complaining with spoilers here.And seriously, everybody around them is perfectly fine with Qian and Yuan’s relationship, and so accepting as soon as they hear about it? And people in Qian’s office instantly start gossiping about who’s the top and who’s the bottom. And then they openly ask Qian about it. I cringed from second hand embarrassment so hard and instantly pressed a fast-forward button. Why? Why do BL dramas still do that in 2024?


And this post got quite long already so I’ll write about all those other, started things the next time. And now I’m going to watch some of them, and maybe I’ll even mange to finish something else today. 😊
petra: Harley Quinn hugging Poison Ivy blissfully (Harley & Ivy - Femslash yay!)
[personal profile] petra
And were too afraid to ask (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala & Sabé
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Sabé (Star Wars)
Additional Tags: Drabble, Sex Education
Summary:

Padmé skipped health class and did double diplomacy instead.



*

Come as you are (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Characters: Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: Drabble, Yuri, Theology
Summary:

Who the Mother loves; who the Bastard loves.



*



Belated discovery (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cyteen Series - C. J. Cherryh
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Catlin AC-7892 II/Ariane Emory II
Characters: Ariane Emory II, Catlin AC-7892 I
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:

For the prompt, "What took you so long?"



*

Pasta e amore (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: due South
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elaine Besbriss/Francesca Vecchio
Characters: Francesca Vecchio, Elaine Besbriss
Additional Tags: Drabble, Disney References
Summary:

"Aw, c'mon." Frannie holds out a forkful of capellini to Elaine. "We can make it work."



*

Palimpsest of self (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Mirror Philippa Georgiou
Characters: Michael Burnham, Mirror Philippa Georgiou
Additional Tags: Drabble, Yuri
Summary:

Michael and Philippa compare scars.



*

Tea, tea, and tea (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tales of the City Series - Armistead Maupin
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Anna Madrigal & Mary Ann Singleton
Characters: Mary Ann Singleton, Anna Madrigal (Tales of the City)
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:

Mary Ann has tea with the landlady.



*

Her favorite curse (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan & Alys Vorpatril
Characters: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, Alys Vorpatril
Additional Tags: Drabble, Sex Education
Summary:

Cordelia wants to go shopping for a different body part this time.



*

Lie down with actresses (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hornblower (TV), Slings & Arrows
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kitty Cobham/Ellen Fanshaw
Characters: Ellen Fanshaw, Kitty Cobham
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:

Ellen takes a trip.



*

A union in partition (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Slings & Arrows
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Anna Conroy/Maria
Characters: Anna Conroy, Maria (Slings & Arrows)
Additional Tags: Drabble, Morning After
Summary:

Anna wakes up.

Rebuilding journal search again

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:18 pm
alierak: (Default)
[personal profile] alierak posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

Every Kind of Craft now open!

Jun. 30th, 2025 01:28 pm
yourlibrarian: Every Kind of Craft on green (Every Kind of Craft Green - yourlibraria)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] sewing101


Do you make crafts? Do you like to look at crafts? Would you like to get (or give) advice about crafts? All crafts are welcome. Share photos, stories about projects in progress, and connect with other crafty folks.

You are welcome to make your own posts, and this community will also do a monthly call for people to share what they are working on, or what they've seen which may be inspiring them. Images of projects old or new, completed or in progress are welcome, as are questions, tutorials and advice.

If you have any questions, ask them here!

Every Kind of Craft now open!

Jun. 30th, 2025 01:25 pm
yourlibrarian: Every Kind of Craft on green (Every Kind of Craft Green - yourlibraria)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] knittingpix


Do you make crafts? Do you like to look at crafts? Would you like to get (or give) advice about crafts? All crafts are welcome. Share photos, stories about projects in progress, and connect with other crafty folks.

You are welcome to make your own posts, and this community will also do a monthly call for people to share what they are working on, or what they've seen which may be inspiring them. Images of projects old or new, completed or in progress are welcome, as are questions, tutorials and advice.

If you have any questions, ask them here!
profiterole_reads: (Nü Er Hong - Shi Yi and Hua Yu Tang)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
The Ministry of Guidance and Other Stories by Golnoosh Nour was excellent. It's a collection of modern, even rebellious, short stories offering a daily look at the Iranian culture.

One of the stories is called "Tehran Yaoi", which was most unexpected.

It's sometimes f/f, sometimes m/m, sometimes bi f/m.
oursin: Grumpy looking hedgehog (Grumpy hedgehog)
[personal profile] oursin

How is it the end of June already? Where did it go?

And tomorrow I have to travel to Birmingham for a conference.

I am telling myself that I survived the Hot Summer of 76 in an un-airconditioned office where, if one opened a window in came the noise and fumes of a heavily traffic-polluted thoroughfare.

Of course, I was Much Younger in those days.

I see that it is supposed to get somewhat cooler (and wetter) on Weds.

rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
* SAVE OFTEN, especially in the early game when you may be very fragile and the game's auto-save is infrequent.

BUT -- don't reload from a save unless you actually die or otherwise hit a "game over."

This game is about failing, and it rewards you for playing forwards through failure. Some of the best moments in the game come from failed checks. There are always alternative routes and ways forwards. If you tried to savescum it, you would miss most of the game and all of the point. Embrace failure.

Okay there are those two specific checks where failing is so emotionally devastating I would not judge anyone for savescumming. But apart from those.

* You can just pick one of the Archetypes for a starter build, and leave messing around with custom character creation until you've seen the stats in action and understand how the system works. Don't stress about it. Or, if you want, you can throw yourself into custom character creation despite not having a clue how it works, and you will also have a fun time. Your initial build and your later choices about what you put points into will radically change your experience of the game, but you can't do it "wrong"; there are no optimal builds which are "better".

* Press tab to highlight objects you can interact with, or activate "detective mode" in the settings to do it automatically. Yes I know this is the sort of thing that is probably obvious to people who have played video games before.

* If your Health or Morale (displayed on the lower left of the screen) fall to zero, you have about 5 seconds to apply a healing item (if you have one) by clicking the cross above that stat.

This is the one timed element in the game, and also the one mechanic that some of us initially have trouble grasping.

With all the other mechanics in the game, you can not only learn them by flinging yourself in and floundering about, this is IMHO the best and most enjoyable way to learn them. No idea what the Thought Cabinet is or what Internalizing A Thought means? Try it and find out!

* Perhaps the most important tip of all:

If you feel you are flailing around and failing on most of the checks you try and you've just been informed you have acquired a Thought you can internalize in your Thought Cabinet and you have no clue what that means or maybe you just had a heart attack and died before you even got out of your hotel room or you had a nervous breakdown because a child insulted you and you have no idea what you're doing and it's been three days and you still haven't got the body down from the tree --

THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME "BADLY". THIS IS IN FACT THE UNIVERSAL DISCO ELYSIUM EXPERIENCE AND MEANS YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME CORRECTLY. WELL DONE.
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)
[personal profile] larryhammer
For Poetry Monday, after an influencer of Pound, Pound himself—at least in part:


The Sole Survivor, Rai San’yō, tr. Ezra Pound

A force cut off
Fighting hard,
Shut around.

I burst the bonds,
I alone,
I returned,

Fleeing by night
Through the crags of the border.

My sword is broken,
My horse fallen.
The hero drags his corpse to his native mountains.

Rai (1780-1832) was an Edo-period historian and poet. In November 1915, Pound attended a London performance of sword dances by Itō Michio (1892-1961), some of which were accompanied by songs sung by Uchiyama Masami (I can’t find good dates on this guy), one of them being this. This translation (made with Uchiyama’s assistance, credited as “from notes by”) was first published in the Dec 1916 issue of Future without naming the author. The original title was “Kogun Funto,” which more literally means “exhausted warrior,” and the original form was a single four-line stanza.

—L.

Subject quote from Anti-Hero, Taylor Swift.

Id Pro Quo reveals

Jun. 30th, 2025 10:41 pm
meteordust: (Default)
[personal profile] meteordust
The story I wrote for Ori_Cat was:

Title: The Pillar of Heaven
Fandom: The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien
Characters: Elros Tar-Minyatur
Rating: General
Tags: No Archive Warnings Apply, Religious Devotion, Choice of the Peredhil, Gift of Men, Meneltarma, Númenor, Second Age, Second Person POV
Summary: Elros believes.

Thank you again to liesmyth for your lovely Captive Prince story, every good thing, which was exactly the kind of happy futurefic I hoped for.

hockey draw - woot!

Jun. 30th, 2025 09:12 am
tielan: (SGA - john)
[personal profile] tielan
I made foccacia. It was good.

We also drew our hockey game on Sunday! 1-1!

(We won for the first time a couple of weeks back and it was Very Good.)

hockey report )

I've spoken about how this is a tricksy year for hockey in a post earlier this year. But I am enjoying some of the games, even when we're getting beaten. And we are improving.

But it can still be frustrating to see players who aren't ready for this grade (and aren't improving) struggle in the face of it.

A sweaty sausage

Jun. 29th, 2025 09:32 pm
dhampyresa: (Default)
[personal profile] dhampyresa
So I have tendinitis in my wrist, which means I now need to wear a brace. This is really annoying because it gets in the way of doing anything. I can't draw with it on :( Even typing is a fucking hassle. Wearing it in the heat makes me feel like a sausage. A sweaty, sweaty sausage.

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