Member Posts

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Sunglasses At Night - Corey Hart

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Sunshine Revival 2025 - Challenge #1

I'm going to be slightly delayed in posting for the

sunshine_revival challenges this July (because Battleship!) but I've been playing along at a distance throughout and hope to catch up on my entries as soon as I can. Here's my first!

Challenge #1 Creative Prompt
Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want and share it with your community.

This challenge inspired me to finally put together a collage for the 'Hotel Reverie' episode of Black Mirror's latest series. I'd been collecting things for it since I first watched.

However, I'm not completely happy with how it turned out... I think it would have been much cooler in black and white, like the majority of the episode. So, as I'm not feeling entirely confident about it, I'm sharing some others I've made recently that I am happy with ^^

Click to embiggen!

Under the cut are fandom collages for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Reservoir Dogs, and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, plus one non-fandom collage :)
( Under here... )

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Farewell: Tess Williams

I have been informed that Tess Williams passed away earlier this week.

Tess was a family friend*, a valued member of the local fannish community, and a gifted writer. I thoroughly recommend their books Map of Power and Sea As Mirror if you can get hold of them.

They will be missed.

*in this case, part of my mother's extended social crowd in my teenage years.

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University Library

One of the weirdnesses about being on the current campus is that while I've never studied here, I have a long history of being here.

In either 1980 or 1982 (probably the latter, but it doesn't quite add up) my mother was doing a Post-Grad Dip to convert from being a math teacher to a school psych. For reasons I either didn't know or have forgotten, I would be collected from school one day a week by one of the other students, and taken to campus. There, in theory, I was in the care of P--a friend of my mother's--who was a/the computer tech in what was then the psych building. I certainly hung out in their workshop a lot, learning a stack about computer games, and a small amount about other computer based skills.

I also hung out in two other spots. The first of these is the courtyard of the psych building, which has a water feature and what are now some very well developed trees. I went and had lunch there a couple of weeks ago and got a bit teary, because I lost track of P (who was incredibly important later on) and I suspect at this point they have passed on and I'll never actually get to have some of the conversations I regret not having. (Also, that there is a significant chance that the next I hear about my mother will be their funeral; or worse, post that).

The second was the library. Seven floors, of which I think five were accessible to non-librarians at that time. I used to wander around and find things to read. And books for doing my (primary school) assignments. It was musty and dusty and full of books and absolutely heaven for a book minded child. It continued to be like that for future encounters, including during my undergraduate years, where sometimes the journals I needed were not available at any of the libraries of the university I was enrolled at (there were, if I remember correctly, four libraries I used regularly which were 'on campus' if one counts the Med library as campus) and so I trekked elsewhere.

In the last few years, it has been significantly upgraded, remodelled and modernised. To the point that there are almost no books on floors 3-7. There is a locked area full of compactus on floor 2, as well as a set of borrowable books in an accessible space. The ones in the compactus have to be requested; so far my experience is that it takes 2-3 hours for them to become available, so a quick look can't happen (unless one is lucky and the book one wants is available in ebook, which is, I gather, between 80 and 90% of the collection). I haven't had a good look at the readily available for borrow ones, but it is a smaller area than the smallest suburban library I've been in. So, no just wandering and finding a book.

Except! They have fiction books scattered in sections over most of the floors. And these are borrowable on an honour system. You don't have to do anything to borrow them except pick them up and walk out with them. They aren't catalogued. It is so neat an idea that I've borrowed two (because I ended up in the library for a couple of hours for nothing else to do, so I borrowed a second before I'd finished the first).

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Saturday plans

Original plans for today: get brunch (with Youngest and Artisanat), and go past the place that does the good peanut butter on the way home. Achieved! We went to 'The Little Olive'* in, hmm, probably-Melville. They had GF spinach and ricotta rolls, so that was breakfast. They also have an interesting range of sweets, so we got two to share between us. Stopped at Kardinya to get peanut butter; also looked for the good muesli bars in Coles (assumption: they have been discontinued) and got some alternatives; went to the UK Lolly Shop and got rhubarb and custard hard lollies.

And then home. Where my goal for the afternoon is not to waste time on the internet. Being on the internet is fine, just not faffing around. So far I've watched about an hour and a half on Obsidian, note-taking, and related topics while progressing the hat I'm knitting; read some of Room With A View (which I continue to be underwhelmed by) and am now closing old DW tabs (skimming, but not replying) -- there are over 200, because I open what I don't have time to read in the morning, and plan to come back 'later'.

Plans for the evening are date night, which will involve finding something I want to cook. Other wishlist items are cooking stock paste, and making bikkies. Also tidying the bedroom enough that the dog has somewhere to lie down while visiting.

* given I'm now at uni on Fridays, Saturday is the new Friday, and Coffee Fridays happen when they happen. This is the first new to us cafe in some time (not counting Albany, because we didn't actually end up doing brunch).

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critical role

(no subject)

This was a week where a huge part of my motivation to push through it was the knowledge that next week I will be in San Diego. We've already started putting our schedules together. I had honestly resigned myself to the Critical Role panels likely being on Friday and Saturday, and so was very delighted when I learned they were both on Thursday, when I can go. Though I do wonder what those doing the scheduling were thinking, having the second in Ballroom 20 only an hour and a half after the first one gets out! I suppose I shall not be eating lunch that day...
Also, what those responsible for scheduling the tickets sales for next years live shows were thinking, having all the sales the same week as Comic Con! I'm probably going to try to get tickets for the one in Atlanta anyway, since that's the one it's feasible for me to attend.
The week also got better when my meds finally showed up on Tuesday. I am now back at full dosage and will remain so for the immediate future, though I'm starting to wonder if it might be worth trying to get a doctor's appointment related to a couple of the problems it's supposed to treat.

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Lake Lewisia #1279

The tourist insisted, over breakfast in the local diner, that he was on an arts and culture tour of the region, focused mainly on music. The brochures and hand-written itineraries spread out next to the syrupy remains of his meal, however, made no mention of concert halls or bands playing in barrooms or basements, and instead talked a great deal about hikes in wooded areas and the best kept secret spots around the lake. Fairy forts and the dens of lake monsters might not be the hot music scenes most people thought of, but he seemed eager enough to brave the dangers in pursuit of the next new melody.

---

LL#1279

Animorphs: 6, 7, 9

One advantage to the simplicity of the prose and deliberate vagueness of the setting is that the reader has to visualize quite a bit. A lot of things that I remember as being a big deal take up very little space in the text - so much of my past experience with these books are what I brought to them.

( Read more... )

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(no subject)

So, yesterday I started on Casey Johnstone's Couch to Barbell program, in the hopes that weightlifting would prove beneficial to my fibromyalgia and back pain.

It seemed like not very much exercise. 14 minutes worth with mandatory rest periods between each set. Stage One follow-along video

But today I am wiped out. Absolutely flattened. Admittedly I did go to belly dancing while my legs were still like jelly, but I don't think belly dancing is the culprit.

I'm telling myself that the fact that my legs are so sore must mean that it is in fact doing something, and I could definitely do with stronger legs, so onward! I'm on a mandatory rest day today, but she hardly needed to tell me, I'm not fit to do anything today even if I wanted to.

Yesterday I also made over a £10 second hand denim jacket on the model of some gorgeous £60 ones I saw at a festival. Shout out to my local haberdashery for carrying some interesting fabrics for £9 per half metre. I'm pleased with this:

Upcycled denim jacket

I could only do that because yesterday it was cool enough to go in the conservatory where the sewing machine is. Today is not, so I'm not sure what I can achieve today. Maybe some writing?

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: The Call - Backstreet Boys

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PokeTube - 10 Channel & Video Recs

I watch a lot of PokeTube, so I thought I'd share some of the videos and channels I've enjoyed watching lately in case they bring you joy!

adef

Adef makes amazing Pokemon + Math + Science videos. His stuff is really fun to watch, even if you're not very STEM minded. I love his "Mathmatically Proving" series, in which he thinks too seriously about the physics of Pokemon moves and abilities. Here's my favourite of those!

( The rest are under here... )

more Animorphs thoughts

( Read more... )

Current Mood: trouble-maker
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

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political

PSA: Across America Let's Make "Good Trouble"

Five years ago today Representative John Lewis -- an icon of civil rights -- died, but his message lives on and we declare it today all across America with this Good Trouble Lives On National Day of Action. As Representative John Lewis said: "Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America".

Click here to find today's event details including a map that shows where a "Good Trouble" event is taking place near you today.

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books-a-go-go

New month, new book post!

Re-reads. HUH

* Towards Zero by Agatha Christie (Classic mystery) - A group of ppl gather at Gulf's Point, home of Lady Tressilian. Among the guests is famous tennis pro Neville Strange, Kay Strange (his second wife), Audrey Strange (his first wife), and a handful of other folks. There's a palpable tension that keeps climbing once murders begin to occur...

I first read this book when I was in 6th or 7th grade. After hearing that the BBC was gonna drop a new adaptation (and having watched another version), I decided to pick this novel up to refresh my memory. Even though it's the 5th in the Superintendent Battle series, I first read this book as a standalone and that's how I approached it this time around.

FWIW, I was disappointed with the story this second time. It had a good build-up, great atmosphere, etc. However, the whole plot kinda dissolves in the last two chapters. There are sudden coincidences that help solve the crimes and reveal the murderers identity. But everything was so convenient that I almost felt secondhand embarrassment. I gave this book a 2 out of 5.

I DNF'd

* Making It Fierce by Ian O. Lewis and Luke Jameson (M/M romance) - Elijah was a marine for 14 yrs until an accident led to him getting discharged. Now he's making a living as an audiobook narrator and voice actor. Lucas is a radio DJ and audio producer. They meet when Elijah rents studio time to record a v. important (for his career) audiobook.

The gist of the story is that both MCs want to love and be loved. For Elijah, that means meeting someone who doesn't mind he's got some physical injuries (including disfigurement) and also PTSD. Meanwhile, Lucas is tired of being everyone's one night stand.

Frankly, the writing was ATROCIOUS. Both MCs sounded exactly the same. And, for some weird-ass reason, the authors decided to dedicate entire pages to the het (really bad) romance that Elijah was recording. Awfulness all around. Thankfully, I'd borrowed this from my library cuz I'd have been pissed to have spent money on this. I gave this a 0.5 out of 5.

Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there)

* The Duke Who Didn't by Courtney Milan (Historical Romance) - Set in the late 1800s England, the story is abt Chloe trying to help her father set up a business for the upcoming village festival. She's got NO time for anyone's nonsense. Especially Jeremy.

Meanwhile, Jeremy is back in Chloe's life (after being away for years). He's DETERMINED to woo her and (hopefully) marry her. His only problem is figuring out how to tell her that he's the duke that everyone in Chloe's village seems to despise...

Funnily enough, I bought this book in 2020 (when it was published), started reading it, and stopped by chapter 3 for no reason I can think of. So I went back to the start and managed to read it all the way through.

FTR, the writing was AMAZING (as expected from a Courtney Milan book). I also really liked the relationship between Chloe and her father, the many perspectives on being part of a diaspora, and the description of all the yummy food Chloe's father cooked. Oh, and I loved how grumpy Chloe was; she had a fun personality and was someone v. easy to root for.

OTOH, however, it took me AGES (at least until the last two chapters?) to finally warm up to Jeremy. On top of that (and despite enjoying a lot abt the book), I'm still not fully convinced abt Chloe and Jeremy's romance? In part, I think it's because, once the romance part gets going, there's a v. strong screwball comedy vibe that comes to the foreground. Chloe's hyper-organized and serious vibes vs. Jeremy's carefree and chaotic good ones. I found it tiresome. YMMV.

The OTHER thing that lowered the rating for me is a

HUGE SPOILER

OK, so Jeremy's ENTIRE CONFLICT is abt Chloe's v. likely negative reaction once she finds out he's the Duke. He's STRESSING THE FUCK OUT abt this from the second he shows up in the novel. HOWEVAH, by chapter 5 or 6, there are a couple of character who let him know they know he's the Duke. And, OFC, after "coming clean" to Chloe, it turns out that she's known he's Duke FOR YEARS. As a matter of fact, the GORRAM ENTIRE VILLAGE knows and collectively decided to just, you know, play along for funsies?

NGL, I HATED THIS SO MUCH!!! In part cuz I guess I was somewhat emotionally invested in the goings on. Other readers have loved this twist. IDEK, y'all. It is a pretty low-angst book and the intimate scenes were good too. My local library does have the next 2 books in the series, so I'm planning to get around those eventually. I gave this book a 2.1 out of 5

Had a good time

* You're Ours by D.C. Emmerson (M/M/M romance novella) - Tyler works as a comptroller in a nameless company. One night, he accepts a dinner invitation to Jackson (a fellow comptroller) and SKy (Jackson's husband)'s place. The mood turns hot and then all three tumble into bed...

NGL, I was ready to DNF this novella cuz I can be v. picky/techty when it comes to office romances. [NB: technically, Jackson is one level above Tyler, but that's handled mostly OK and then there's a good resolution that works for everyone w/o breaking up the triad. I'm just mentioning it in case anyone else gets as (potentially) squicked abt these kind of unequal work dynamics as I do.] But this is a v. low-angst book. Or, better said, the angsty part has some weight to it. I also liked that all three characters were ADULTS with real jobs and stresses.

There was a smidgen too many sex scenes (which were good). Also toward the end, the author seems to have run out of space cuz there was a lot of telling instead of showing. THAT SAID, the writing was good, I liked the fact that no one was freaked out abt one of the characters being a trans dude, there was no cheating, etc. I'm giving this one a 3 out of 5.

* The Silent Places by Skyla Dawn Cameron (Mystery/Thriller) - As the anniversary of her husband's disappearance draws near, Imogen is still trying to survive all of the gossip and side-eyes thrown at her in the village of Red Fox. Everyone says she's killed her husband (but she didn't). And now there's someone sniffing around her story and her husband's. Imogen is worried cuz there are things she really, really does not want to be uncovered...

This was my first time reading this author and I gotta say WOWZA! Excellent writing, fantastic tension, and the kind of ending I'm STILL thinking abt. I also liked seeing POC and queer characters. FWIW, IDK why I can't give it a top rating, but I still gave this novel a 4 out of 5 and I'm planning to read more from this author.

Current fic tally

There's been a bit of progress in some ways (have picked up 134 fics, DNF'd 70). BUT, a lot of the fics I've been reading are 60k+ so it's slow going. Still having a good time, tho!

As for my profic reading, hmmm. June went on pause cuz of BORAMONTH + OT7 reunion, 4 different online concerts I had to wake up at 3-4 a.m. for, and lots of random livestreams. It's not like things have settled down per se, but I find myself getting back onto reading a bit more than before.

Up next...

Was finally able to borrow The Thursday Murder Club after, like, 10 weeks on hold. Have also borrowed a hot Adriana Herrera novella, am re-reading something regarding movies, and there are a handful of other things I've got my eye on. Good times altogether.

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Rec: RADIOACTIVE by Murderbot [vid], by pollyrepeat

I was like, can I make this work for

fancake's "Working Together" theme? And I decided I could not.

So I'm going to slap it in here for now because it's too good not to share immediately:

RADIOACTIVE by Murderbot [vid] (30 words) by pollyrepeat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Murderbot (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)
Additional Tags: The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon (Murderbot Diaries), Fanvids, Video Format: Streaming, Embedded Video
Summary:

A vid or fanvid is a video edit, often set to music, produced by fans, known as "vidders."

No spoilers for Murderbot, and all the spoilers, I guess, for The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.

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book report

Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy, by Martha Wells

Perihelion's people notice it's been acting strangely since it returned from its last solo mission. A short story set after Artificial Condition.

My favorite thing about this series is Murderbot and ART and their favorite humans. My least favorite thing is all the descriptions of walking around. This has both. I would have liked it a lot better if it had spent half as much time describing the path they took through the spaceport facility and twice as much time exploring Iris and Peri's relationship because that's the important stuff, right? I wanted to learn more about their relationship and the ways Peri changed after meeting Murderbot and what Iris thinks about those changes. Here I was thinking ART was always like this, but it seems Murderbot might have had more of an effect on ART then it could have known.

Instead: Transit schedules. :(

Read it for free at Reactor.

Entry tags:

dir,
fic

fic: The sort of beauty that's called human (Will/Bran, G for now)

The sort of beauty that's called human (873 words) by lotesse
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Bran Davies/Will Stanton
Characters: Bran Davies, Will Stanton (Dark is Rising), Owen Davies, Herne the Hunter (Dark is Rising)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Loss of Parent(s), Immortality
Series: Part 4 of Wherein was bound a child
Summary:

“We have to go,” Bran said, his voice coming out hoarser than he’d expected. “Rhys called. Trouble with my da. A stroke.”

No more needed to be said aloud. They were going back to Wales.

Entry tags:

fic,
narnia

fic: Not time’s fool, Narnia, Caspian/Lucy, 5/?

Not time’s fool (8098 words) by lotesse
Chapters: 5/?
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Caspian/Lucy Pevensie
Characters: Lucy Pevensie, Caspian (Narnia), Ramandu's Daughter | Liliandil, Edmund Pevensie, Peter Pevensie, Polly Plummer, Digory Kirke, Eustace Scrubb, Lord Rhoop (Narnia)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Romance, Sailing, Prophecy
Series: Part 3 of An ever-fixèd mark
Summary:

“You see,” Edmund began, and all leaned in, visibly listening, “it wasn’t just romance that kept Lucy in Narnia. She is with Caspian, now, but she also had a – a vision isn’t quite right. She was shown a prophetic image in a magical book, and Aslan vouched, later, personally, for its truth. She acted as she did to attempt to divert what she saw, and I think we’d better do likewise, on our end. Here’s what you all need to know.”

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Lake Lewisia #1278

However much the cars to the back of the line honked out their frustration, there was nothing to be done for the delay--not when trees were blocking the road. That message was passed from window to window, shouted back over idling engines, until someone with a truck full of landscaping tools got the idea to bring out the chainsaw. Instead of a felled tree, he found the road ahead blocked by a steady stream of saplings, ambling along on many squiggling roots, companion birds and squirrels clinging to their swaying branches, as they set out from the forests of their parents in search of sunlight and water of their own.

---

LL#1278

Entry tags:

bl,
chinese fandom

confused

Revenged Love is listed on mydramalist as a new BL drama produced? airing? in China. Is this accurate? Meanwhile, more danmei writers are getting arrested.

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misc.

1. The Fulbright grant awards were tampered with this year, and 11 out of 12 board members resigned in protest.

2. I watched a South Korean film called Aloners yesterday, mainly because I was scrolling through a list of films distributed through Film Movement, and it looked interesting. It was. I cried.

3. I'm still reading Station Eleven, but it keeps jumping back and forth in time, and some segments give me a creeping sense of dread.

4. I finished watching season two of Severance (?!?) and started on Murderbot. So far I'm entertained.

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event: ficortreat

Fic or Treat Roundup

Better late than never? Back in October 2024 (gah) I took part in

ficortreat for the first time, and I absolutely loved it. I wanted to make a masterpost of all the beautiful gifts I was lucky enough to receive during that event, so here it is, quite a few months late but still making me happy :-)

My hope from this post is that you find something new and small to enjoy, as most of the works created for the event are doodles, drabbles, and small icon batches.

Fandoms you'll find under the cut are: Pokemon, The Terror, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Loki, Monty Python, Rogue One, Mulan, Harry Potter, Our Flag Means Death, No One Dies From Love (Tove Lo), and Original Work!

Mediums: Fanart, podfic, fic, icons, word searches, and links 💜
( Under here )