kaj_22 | Reading

+ I'm back at work, though one day later than I expected to be. It'll be a shorter trip of only four weeks, so now I just need the fishery to be good. I'd love to come home without my brain leaking out my ears; it took me over two weeks to recoup last time.

+ 2026 is shaping up to be a great movie year. I highly recommend both The Testament of Ann Lee and Project Hail Mary, plus there's both Pillion and Dune 3 to look forwards to. I guess I can hope really hard they don't fuck up Ready or Not 2? (I'm definitely showing up either way, if only for the cast)

+ Other things to look forward to: Microsoft Flight Simulator is set to get its VR update sometime next month. So long as it's not borked on the base PS5, that's a day one purchase for me. There's a bunch of cities to fly around, a safari/hot balloon thing, helicopter rescue missions, etc. It might even be just the thing to let my mom play.

+ And on the subject of my mom: she'll be moving back home! My brother and his partner are splitting up, and my nephew is old enough that she doesn't see him that much anymore, so now she's looking for an apartment to buy. I'm really happy about it. Both for my own sake and for hers.

Now I just have to bee diligent with looking for places we can visit in England. Hoping we can do a fun two week vacation there in August.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3224/

Yes, the cosmic microwave background is great, but what about the earthly microwave foreground?

https://xkcd.com/3224/

pocketmouse

The Torchwood renaissance is trickling down, as I've gone through just about everything worth rereading on the AO3 (it's been a while since I've had the issue of 'I want to read about Character X, but they've been tagged for their supporting role in 80% of the fics they're tagged in, making filtering useless') and I'm not about to try trolling through LJ or even DW.

I have managed to somehow write over 11k of stuff, but it's largely unactionable stuff. Half of it's reliant on the context of the RP I was in back in the day, so most readers would lack the context for anything I wrote (not that I care about other readers, but why post it at that point). The rest is just so abstracted and ephemeral scenes stuck together that I'll be lucky if I manage to wrangle even one of it into a postable fic. So we'll see. And I've reviewed the 95% complete AMTDI fic, and yeah, the problem really is 'this fic is required to end on a dis-satisfactory return-to-stasis note,' which is too quiet a tragedy for 'I'm going to go out screaming' Owen, even if it's par for the course for quiet Tosh. Torchwood loves a good failure, and 'Owen and Tosh fuck but nothing comes of it' is just a 'meh' failure. There's no emotional oomph.

Also I think at this point to finish it properly I'd have to chance rewatching canon and I don't know if I can convince myself to do that. I'm bad at watching stuff these days. I keep thinking I should watch something, but I'm never in the mood for any of the stuff on my list, or I keep thinking 'no, there was something else I'd been meaning to watch, but I'm not sure what it was.' And nothing I have managed to get off my ass and watch has struck my strongly enough to get fannish about it. None of the new Treks have done it enough for me that I haven't even bothered to watch the last of SNW or any of the new Academy one (feels like it would give me the motts). I have zero interest in even approaching Heated Rivalry. What are we doing for poly fandoms these days anyway?

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

Cinder House by Freya Marske, which is a gothicy Cinderella retelling except that Cinderella is a ghost. For some reason I had osmosed it was f/f, which it is not, though it's not strictly het. The various analogs to the fairy tale were mostly quite charming, and the various rules of ghostness and magic as well - I enjoyed it a great deal. More of a novella than a novel.

What I've recently finished watching:

It looks like I didn't say anything after I finished Pluribus; it was...okay, interesting, some weird plot-gaps (not exactly holes, but) that had me thinking, "yes, but..." a lot.

We watched A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which was enjoyable enough, though I could have done without certain graphic disgustingness.

Bridgerton S4 was fun as usual. Sophie was delightful (another Cinderella story, hee, complete with evil stepmama!) and the resolution there surprised me a little but I liked it. I was expecting a different outcome of Francesca's story due to osmosis about the books, but I guess that will happen next season. I was completely gobsmacked to see Cressida again but as usual her terrible sartorial choices made for excellent comic relief.

Okay, this was definitely a shorter media review than usual, but I need to finish packing - we're heading out on a camper van roadtrip vacation tomorrow morning. See you all sometime in April!

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the Smoke alarms poll, 80% of respondent have smoke alarms on ceilings/walls, and 16% have some in piles around the place. Ten percent have inadequate coverage. Forty percent of respondents assume it's a battery issue when they go off.

In ticky-boxes, hugs came first with 80%, followed by iridescent bubbles with 62%, and pizza with 48%. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
I've put The Pursuit of... by Courtney Milan aside for now, in favour of Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell. I'm hoping it will help me finish my Yuletide stories, but I'm still in the drafting section, and that's not so much my problem. Still, it has some useful thoughts. Written with pantsers/discovery writers in mind.

In audio, I started The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley, read by Sid Sagar. It's set in ancient Thebes, and Pulley's tendency to exoticise/other her non-white characters is transposed onto othering a god, which, okay, fair enough. I'm enjoying the voice.

Kdramas
Same as last week: Undercover Miss Hong, One Spring Night, and Love Scout (ahhhh!). A delicious three-course meal. (I may have oversold One Spring Night last week when I compared it to Austen. What I meant was it's observational. It doesn't have the kinds of flashbacks you usually get in a Kdrama, showing the POV characters' thought processes and emotional reactions. Instead, it seems equally interested in everyone, in a way. The editing is so slow that it feels like a play: the actors' reactions linger on the screen, rather than the camera flicking away.)

Other TV
Finished Ponies, the spy story set in 1980s Moscow, which was great, sometimes brutal, sometimes funny. Ended on a cliffhanger. Emilia Clarke is awesome!

1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed -- a documentary made up of interviews with mixed-race kids in the Bay Area. Lovely, thought-provoking, reminded me of the movie Uproar in which Minnie Driver plays the solo mum of Māori kids.

More of The Pitt. (The latest episode was super upsetting, and it really stuck with me. It's so good.)

Rooster, a new comedy set on an Ivy League campus, starring Steve Carell and feat. unexpected Jamie Tartt. Quirky and charming (and that's despite my side-eyeing Carell because of his role in The Morning Show and my difficulty with compartmentalising). We've watched the three available episodes.

Started a rewatch of Paper Girls, which contains one of my all-time favourite narrative devices (people meeting their child selves; see also Disney's The Kid and one of Richard Bach's books). It's such a great show. I'm still so sad it was cancelled on a cliffhanger.

The first episode of the Scrubs reboot. (I never watched the original, but this is fun enough.) And some more Cheers.

Regularly scheduled Fringe and Bluey with my sister.

Audio entertainment
The usual suspects, but not much. I'm having a rest week.

Onling life
520 Day sign-ups (part 1) are open for two more days. \o/

Offline life
I stood on a wasp, and wow, that hurt. | We went up the coast to see my parents (lovely sunny day, nice drive, good to get out of town). | Been biking a lot. | Indulging in too many hot cross buns. | My day's to-do list is super daunting; I may have to give myself a 24-hour extension.

Writing/making things
My first rewrite of WIP #1 didn't work out, so I've spent a lot of this week revising again, and I think I've finally cracked it. It's back at beta. Cross your fingers for me!

I have about 9 days to finish WIP #2, but they're busy days (by my standards). Ahhh!

Link dump
America built the greatest cultural machine in history. Then quit. Here's what filled the vacuum. (Rodrigo Brancatelli substack chronicling the rise and fall of US soft power, and what South Korea learned from the US's example).

Good things
Nada Bakery hot cross buns. To-do lists. Awesome betas and co-mods. Figuring out writing stuff. Guardian! Dreamwidth! You all!

Poll #34413 Favourites

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40

View Respondents

Do you have a favourite colour?

View Answers

yes
25 (64.1%)

sort of
8 (20.5%)

no
4 (10.3%)

other
2 (5.1%)

Ticky-boxes

View Answers

Ticky-box full of rainbows
29 (72.5%)

Ticky-box full of strong opinions about your blorbos' underwear
5 (12.5%)

Ticky-box full of raccoon chefs folding trays of dumplings
18 (45.0%)

Ticky-box full of being signed up for at least one exchange/fandom event
10 (25.0%)

Ticky-box full of huge hugs
35 (87.5%)

sage

gnu Ny

minoanmiss/

rubynye's obituary is here.

The GoFundMe for Ny's burial costs is 88% funded at this writing. Please help get it to 100% if you can spare a few $$.

books
- A Ghastly Catastrophe (Veronica Speedwell #10). 2026. Dracula. Utterly ridiculous. Also: 2 books about evil gays in a row, WTF!? :(((
~ Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Vera Wong #1) by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Cute, though the ending is so slapdash.
~ The Crow Moon (Crow Investigations #10) by Sarah Painter. 2026. The end of the series.
+ King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution—A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson. 2025. The US is so very bad at dealing with Iran.
currently reading: Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany. 2022.

Iran war
I am so very pissed off at: the Trump Administration, the Netanyahu regime, and the Iranian clerical regime. I've read SO MANY books on Iran and its culture, pre-Revolution. This is not how effective regime change works.

yarning
Missed yarn group yet again, though I was dressed and ready to go. Just couldn't get out the door. Made an ADORABLE tarbasaurus for my cousin's son's third bday. Made 3 catnip-silvervine snakes to restock the shop. Sold the brown and tan kickbunny (finally), which I need to arrange pickup for.

healthcrap
The vertigo is much better, which makes me think it was a viral inner ear thing. My sleep is shattered. I've been sleeping til noon, despite turning the light out at ten. Healthcare renewal appt #2 is tomorrow afternoon.

#resist
Mar 28: No Kings Protest #3
Never start a land war in Asia.
RIP Robert Mueller.

I hope you're all doing well! <333

myrmidon posting in

fandom_icons

Resident Evil Requiem (2026)
[ leon s. kennedy ]

[ here @

axisandallies ]

momentomoris posting in

fandom_icons

tv; bridgerton, band of brothers, dead boy detectives, lost in space, stranger things, heated rivalry, the walking dead
movies; red white and royal blue
celebrities; nicola coughlan, claudia jessie, connor storrie, hudson williams, lauren cohan

(so i carry the grief, it repeats)

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. It's migraine time yet again.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Dungeons of Doom #3, Fantastic Four #9, Iron Man #3, New Avengers #10, Ultimate Endgame #3, Wiccan Witches Road #4 )

What I'm Reading Next

IDEK. I'm gonna go have a NSAID.

Current Mood: lethargic

rattfan

I'm somewhat bleh at the moment, not sure why. I did just have my Reandron shot yesterday, and it was definitely due, so perhaps a contributor. There seems to be a new rule, according to the nurse who gave it me, that a doctor has got to put eyes on you before you get the shot. So I had to wait around until Dr K was free. She eventually appeared in the doorway, saw me, said "Oh, it's him, yes, he can have it!" and disappeared again.

After I had the Reandron shot, I needed to see a barber for a haircut. New place. The place I went before decided to go with a very fancy - probably AI created - online website. It was now all "bronze" and "silver" and "platinum experience." I could honestly not find an entry for "haircut with clippers and scissors" like they had before, so I found a place that is ONLY walk-ins, just like Sami's in Bassendean. Tony the barber did a very nice job and also cheaper :-) Before me was a bloke with a magnificent white beard, so when it was my turn, I despaired of my current stubble and asked, "You think I should give up on it?" "Yeah, probably," said Tony. "You want me to get rid of it?" Two seconds later, all clean.

Being a nerd, I speculated that if this was 500 years ago, those two appointments would have been at the same place with a barber-( Read more... )

shallowness

Butterfly - 1.3 Busan

( Read more... )

In other news, I was saddened to learn that Nicholas Brendon had passed away (so soon after James Van Der Beek, who became famous around the same time, a time when I was becoming an adult along with the characters that they played, and after Michelle Trachtenberg also passed.)

adafrog

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

goodbyebird

Hey. Psst. Were you one of those kids that would find a pretty rock when out walking and you'd carry it with you for the rest of that adventure and put it in your pocket and whatnot? Go see Project Hail Mary at the cinema. Don't check out the trailer, just go.

(also featured: science! teamwork! nice knitted sweaters!)

grey853 posting in

ds_noticeboard

Title: February
Part 28 of the Alphabet series
Author: Grey/Grey853
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: Explicit
Tags: Male slash, alternate universe-canon divergent, explicit sexual content, explicit language, case fic
Word Count: 24,456

Summary: Ray becomes a Canadian.

Link:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/81743581

Snippet:

His father’s ghost straighten slightly and then said, ″Now, about the Yank.″

″What about him?″

″I hear he’s supposed to be a Canadian after this weekend.″

Ben beamed with pride. ″Yes. He’s taking the oath on Saturday.″

″Congratulations. But I have one question.″

″What’s that?″

″What am I supposed to call him once he’s converted?″

″He’s not converting, Dad. Being Canadian isn’t a religion.″

″Speak for yourself. At any rate, I won’t be able to call him Yank anymore. So what should I call him?″

″Call him Ray, Dad.″

″Ray is is then. Give him my blessings.″ His father hesitated and then met Ben’s gaze. ″I have to go now. I won’t be back to see him sworn in, but I’ll be there in spirit.″

″Isn’t that the way you’re always around?″

His father actually chuckled. ″An attempt at humor, Son?″

″I try.″

″Keep trying.″

Then his father blinked away and Ben heard Ray shuffling in from the bedroom. ″What’s going on? Who are you talking to?″

″My father was here.″

″Yeah? Been a while. He have anything good to report?″

″Only that he won’t be calling you Yank anymore.″

Ray smirked. ″About time. It only took renouncing my country and joining you guys across the border to finally make that happen.″

″Indeed.″

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Current Music: "O'Canada" by Stan Rogers

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3223/

Depending what corners of the internet you hang out on, 'regular' may at times awkwardly coexist with 'sexy.'

https://xkcd.com/3223/

shewhomust

When you hear that a fragment of "lost" medieval manuscript has been discovered, you can be pretty sure that it was found in a library, and specifically that it has been used in the binding of a more recent volume. What is different about the recent story about the discovery of a page of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin is the astonishing tech that was used to examine it.

Cambridge University explanation, with lots of technical details, excellent graphics and - thankyou, Cambridge University - a summary of the contents. This explains, for example, why the manuscript (whose existence was already known) had been catalogued as part of a Gawain story: part of the narrative is indeed about Gawain.

The BBC reports the story under the heading 'Futures': they are more interested in the technology than in any literary content. Which is fair enough, but doesn't explain their summary of the fragment:

In it, the magician becomes a blind harpist who later vanishes into thin air. He will then reappear as a balding child who issues edicts to King Arthur wearing no underwear.

I know nothing about the Vulgate cycle (it's in prose!): this doesn't match Cambridge University's account of their fragment, but does it come anywhere else in the romance?

There's a talk later this week, as part of the Cambridge Festival.

mergatrude

I've been laid low with a nasty dose of this year's flu for a couple of weeks, on top of creeping depression about upcoming changes at work. Mostly hanging out in my (tiny) tumblr feed for feelgood pics of cats and other people's blorbos, and playing Merge Dragons. I did manage to focus enough to knit my co-worker a pair of fingerless mitts.

lightbird

I made a bag charm/bag ornament. I've actually made this design twice: once as a Christmas ornament for a friend (which I posted here), and now the bag charm for me. The finishing for the bag charm was challenging and some of the irregular border finishing snagged. So not perfect, but cute and looks good on my bag.

Compare:
Chili Pepper as bag charm
pepper

Chili Pepper as Christmas ornament (green cording all the way around)

Not sure what projects I will work on next, but I'll definitely post pictures once they're done.🙂

glinda

Oooft, I have missed skating.

(For the newer readers, I used to be a roller derby referee. Roller skating - quad skates - was a big part of my life for the back half of my twenties and my early thirties. I drifted away from it after I moved up to Inverness, but I’ve loved roller skating since I was a little kid, so while I don’t really miss derby these days I do miss skating.)

I’m still on my ice hockey kick after the Olympics and one of the knock-on effects is being really aware of how much I miss skating. I’ve been meaning to check when the public ice skating sessions are and try to convince one of my skating buddies to chum me along to a session for ages, and this weekend I finally did it. And it was great!

I haven’t been on any sort of skates since before the pandemic and I think the last time I was actual ice skates was in Princess Street Gardens just before Xmas 2013 when my then girlfriend decided that would be a cute date idea and then spent the whole session clinging to either the edges or my hand! I wasn’t sure how well it would go, but after a slightly wobbly start it all came back to me satisfyingly fast. (My buddy was even rustier but also got the hang of it eventually, we did a fair bit of skating round holding hands like kids because she’s had a stressful week and was getting into her head about it. That was pretty fun too. We had a lot of fun reminiscing about ice discos from our teen years.) The ice was a mess so I didn’t dare try crossovers or anything too fancy. (The kids team had practice that morning, and I don’t think they bothered to send the zamboni out between sessions as we got there at the start of the session and it was pretty roughed up already.) The rink skates are super rigid so my feet are a bit sore from that - actually I ache all over from nearly 90 minutes of skating, but I had so much fun. My buddy gave up after the first 45 mins of so and went and got a hot drink and heckled from the sidelines while I went zooming around gleefully with a big stupid grin on my face. I was high as a kite, all the good endorphins. We’re going back - or at least we’re going to try the rink at Aviemore instead. I cannot stop grinning!

( I do not need my own ice skates. I do not.)

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: David Guetta feat Sia - Titanium

squidgiepdx

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kajcarter

March 2017

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The Zoo

My kind of people

Reading

Buttering my muffin.

Centimeter Wavelengths

stumbling blocks

wednesday reads and things

Me-and-media update

What I'm Doing Wednesday

Resident Evil Requiem [2026]

(no subject)

Wednesday Reading Meme

A good dose of leeches will fix that.

Blended family bonding time!!

Tuesday March 24th

Go treat your inner child.

New DS Fic: February

Inflation Timeline

Manuscript discovered in library

It's alive!

Another Needlepoint Update

Glinda Go Zoom!

Life, Like what even anymore?

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March 2017

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