owlmoose | Reading

On Bluesky, Wenella reports that "Dongjj Rescue, starring Zhu Yilong, Ni Ni, and Leo Wu, will be released in the US on Aug 22, 2025. The film will be released in mainland China on Aug 8." Time to start haunting the Cineplex site in hopes of Canadian showtimes!

I took today off in hopes of getting a bit more sleep (done, although not an impressive amount) and actually starting in on my next manga rewrite. I have just over a couple of hours before I need to venture out, so...we'll see how the latter goes in practice.

I can't remember if I've mentioned here that almost two months ago, I concluded that I'm going to sell my poor basically-unused etrike. ( In case I haven't, here's the gist )

Anyway, this comes to mind because for once I have a little venture that would, in fact, be perfect for taking the trike if I were at all in the habit of/comfortable with using it. Ah, well.

In related news, at least we're not under a heat warning anymore, unlike the last few days. (It's still currently 22°C and humid as hell, resulting in a 30°C humidex, and it's supposed to be a couple degrees warmer later this afternoon. But it's still an improvement.)

Current Mood: melancholy

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: awake

elainegrey

Yesterday storm cells passed around us. I picked elderberries to the sound of much rumbling thunder, and while driving to the grocery i saw a faint double rainbow over the Fearrington farm and inn. After groceries i put the elderberries on the dehydrator and ran them over night. I dried them on the stem: i think separating the dried berries from the stems will be less messy - and has less of a time pressure.

--== ∞ ==--

The challenges continue, but at least not with me going to emergency rooms.

Dad was experiencing some intense fatigue on Tuesday, and was advised to go to the emergency room. He was there until late and was found to be in great shape other than the heart issue, which hadn't progressed to an emergency. (There's a blood test for heart failure.) He was en route to leaving before i had to go to bed -- i was planning on joining him early in the morning. So, some adrenaline and cortisol there.

And yesterday sister L-- texted my brother and i letting us know her distressing situation has progressed to stage S . That had me experiencing a rare challenge in falling asleep, but turning on a sleep meditation seemed to help (i don't recall anything after the first instruction).

Dad's health and L's situation are longer haul issues. I need to teach myself to not hold myself in ready mode for months and months. I still need to recover from everything else.

snickfic

- As mentioned, I signed up for

battleshipex. I guess this was a good decision(??), becuase I've now written 8400 words across six fics in the past six days. That plus an impulsive art piece meant I capped out for board 1, which feels like absolute crazypants. I hope I like the fics okay when I go back and edit them...

I might be a little burned out now. If my team reaches board 2 before I leave for my trip, then maybe I will feel like writing a couple more things, but if not, that's also fine. I've more than doubled my participation the other year I played, so!

- I continue to play Cult of the Lamb. It's so fricking cute. I've beat the main boss and am now indulging in the extras like sending my cute followers to the mating tent where they make eggs that hatch into more cute followers. My only complaint is that the music is extremely repetitive, just one samey jingle for the home base and another for combat.

- The Oasis tour has started, and I've been trying to avoid hearing too much about it, but I DID have friends sending me tons of photos and videos from the first couple of nights, and they hugged?? Noel CRIED????? They walked out together, and Liam took Noel's hand and lifted it like he was a prizefighter? Have I mentioned Noel CRIED.

The first gig was July 4, which meant I was getting all this at the same time I was trying to be social at a cookout.
Me on the outside: So you finished that degree? Congratulations!
Me on the inside: OH MY GODDDDDDD THEY HUGGGGGGED.

I peeked at the forum around that time, and everyone there was absolutely euphoric. Cannot WAIT to see it all for myself! SOON.

lassarina

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rionaleonhart

Late last year, I posted an entry examining the titles of my fics that year, and explaining why I'd chosen those titles. It was an interesting exercise, so I thought I'd repeat it whenever I accumulate a good handful of fics!

In reverse chronological order, my fic titles for this year so far:

( Rambling about why I chose fic titles. )

I'm not sure whether this post-titling analysis is actually making me any better at choosing titles, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless!

lea_hazel

What's really fucked up is that "feelings are facts" and "feelings aren't facts" are both statements that are true and necessary and important, despite the fact that they seemingly contradict each other.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: curious

muccamukk

That I haven't seen anyone else mention.

ONE.
I like that they cast an older actor. AS is closing in on 50, and it might be a Hollywood 50, but he looks like he's seen some miles along the road. It makes things hit different than if they'd cast a thirty year old who looked like they just hatched. I know they compressed the timespan in the show, but in the book it'd been something in the range of four years between when it disabled its governor module and the start of All Systems Red, plus however long it'd been enslaved before that, which it doesn't even really remember. Which I think is better represented by someone with some lines around their eyes.

TWO.
Nenya speculated about if they were going to do the later books (and I think they'll do three seasons to cover the first four novellas, combining Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol into the second season, and then call it a day), and if so, if we'd see the ship from System Collapse. I'd been thinking that, actually, ( mild spoiler for System Collapse )

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: content

rionaleonhart

doreyg reminded me of a detail in the first Danganronpa that means, if you do certain Free Time events, Naegi's probably going to end up blaming himself for the events of the second chapter. This fic grew out of that thought!

I really struggled with which names to use for this fic! Naegi has always been Naegi in my head, but there are other characters heavily involved who I think of by their given names, rather than their family names. I ended up going with the conventions of the official English release, referring to everyone by given name, but I can't tell you how many times I accidentally wrote 'Naegi' instead of 'Makoto'.

Title: a little too late
Fandom: Danganronpa
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2,200
Summary: It's the second case. Makoto pieces some things together.

( a little too late )

snickfic

Authors have revealed!

I wrote: everybody's on the run, Cuckoo (2024), Ed/Gretchen and Gretchen & Alma, post-canon, 2k. This fic was a surprise. I matched on Creator's Choice of Fandom, which meant I could write whateverfandom I wanted, and fresh off finishing my 20k Re-Animator fic, I planned to write more Re-Animator. I came up with several ideas, managed to write a solid 1100 words on one, and just completely stalled out. Instead I wrote this entire fic on the day of the deadline.

I think it turned out okay, though! I enjoyed this movie so much when I saw it earlier this year, especially the messy worldbuilding, and the ending is very wish-fulfillment, I feel, for a certain kind of viewer (which I guess I am, lol). It was fun to try to imagine what the immediate aftermath of everything might look like for these three.

Meanwhile, I received: You, Me, and the Serum Makes Three, Re-Animator, by

psychomachia. Dan/Herbert, mpreg, 3k. Absolute galaxy-brained way to knock Dan up, A+. Just a very fun series of relationship development and pregnancy vignettes.

schneefink

We've now played four half-day sessions of our "Stars Without Number" campaign and I'm having a lot of fun.

Our party owns and operates a mining ship, and our first two sessions featured quite a bit of asteroid mining, and also a rescue mission and exploration. Then the space pirates attacked! Not us directly but the space station we are currently based at, so we helped fight them off. And then our latest session was mostly shopping & intel gathering & planning: it sounds like there's an entire fleet of pirates, likely from outside the system, and they've sabotaged and possibly taken over several stations/planets/routes. We'll find out more next time!, which sadly won't be until September because of vacations.

I really like my character. I'm a teleporter! (Talk about wish fulfillment.) Partial psychic/partial expert, because I thought being a full psychic would be overwhelming and I was mostly interested in one discipline anyway. Being able to teleport is so cool. I can teleport 1000 kilometres already and take three people with me.
I'm also really happy with my role in the party. In our main campaign I'm the youngest cat in a group of older and more headstrong cats, which I found difficult sometimes. This time I decided to play a character with more authority, and I've enjoyed it a lot. While all of our party members own the ship together and have equal say, on the bridge I'm the captain; and more importantly, I'm the one keeping track of our money and inventory. (Idk why our GM was surprised that I made a budget and business plan after the first session ^^ )
Our DM told us to prepare back-up characters in case we die, and I did, but I really hope I survive. I even ordered a nice mini figure for her :) As a party I think we've good odds of survival: we have a medic, a biopsionic (=healer), and I can teleport us out in emergencies. Fingers crossed.

I also really enjoy the system, both the setting and mechanically. Playing in a sci-fi world is a welcome contrast after around three years playing in a fantasy world as cats. And playing someone with supernatural abilities feels especially cool after three years as a non-magical archer.
One thing I didn't expect to enjoy this much is leveling up. In our previous system we earn adventure points and we can spend those on improving abilities/skills/etc., but it's more gradual, which tbh makes more sense in-universe. Buuut, leveling up just feels cool. Especially when I can pick new abilities.
What I like less is how ship combat works. So far it's been a little tedious as it seems like half the party always has very little to do; but I suspect that's also because our combat options as a mining ship are limited. We'll see how it goes. We just upgraded our weapons because of the pirates.

Once again our GM has underestimated how long it'll take us to get through his plot so we'll have to see how far we get/what happens when our fifth cat comes back from her year abroad. But until then I really look forward to our next adventures.

umadoshi

I was sort of kitchen-assistanting for both of last week's cooking ventures, with

scruloose doing most of the heavy lifting, but hey.

Last weekend we made this carnitas recipe that E.K. Johnston linked to (and she mentioned mango-lime salsa, which I hadn't had before but sounded good, so I bought some of that too, and liked it a lot), and it was really, really tasty. We got three meals out of it (and between that and a two-meal HelloFresh box, that pretty much covered last week's suppers).

Later in the week we roasted strawberries basically using this method (that recipe is also how I learned you can toast sugar, which I'd like to try sometime), but the only thing we added to the berries was sugar--specifically the summer fruit sugar blend from Silk Road Spices ("a delicious blend of maple and turbinado sugars with mint, ginger and freshly ground green cardamom"). This approach involves roasting the berries in a baking dish, while others do it by spreading them out in a single layer on baking sheets. I'd like to try it that way at some point too.

I also want to try slow roasting them at some point to compare the result.

Current Mood: hungry

oracne

I’ll be at Readercon 34 this weekend after spending most of the last couple of weeks doing massive re-reads.

If you’ll be there, please feel free to stop and say hello! My schedule is below.

The Works of P. Djèlí Clark
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT
Andrea Hairston [moderator]; Leon Perniciaro; Rob Cameron; Tom Doyle; Victoria Janssen
Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!

The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT
Storm Humbert [moderator]; Anne E.G. Nydam; Charles Allison; Ellen Kushner; Victoria Janssen
Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.

Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing
Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Cecilia Tan; Jedediah Berry; Sarah Smith; Steven Popkes
It’s becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.

Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen
Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

The Works of Cecilia Tan
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Charlie Jane Anders; Laura Antoniou; Cecilia Tan (i)
Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov’s, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America’s other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia’s many talents and accomplishments.

Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Alexander Jablokov; J.M. Sidorova; Laurence Raphael Brothers; Steven Popkes
In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison’s The Goblin Emperor and Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction
Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT
Kate Nepveu [moderator]; Claire Houck/Nina Waters; Laura Antoniou; Victoria Janssen
In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how “2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides.” Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?

lea_hazel

Caught up on Murderbot!

Time to go back and read some plot recaps, reviews, etc. I read the books long enough ago that I don't quite remember enough to be sure of what they changed for the show.

elainegrey

Written Sunday midday

So humid. Yesterday i was soaked by sweat picking mulberries. That's in the shade and hardly moving. Admittedly, late morning, but still.

After showering, we went to the Mexican restaurant my Dad favors for a family lunch. My sister joined us. My brother is in the states and arrived Friday to study for the California Bar at my Dad's - fewer distractions. He complains frequently that what he specializes in is not covered.

Home, to prep for a dinner visit from Christine's sister D. We took a break to watch Clarkson's Farm, which was about stressful preparations by a deadline. I will admit to spoiling things for myself by using google maps. Christine was not relaxed by the episode. I did not manage time well, so my dream of making blueberry bread did not come to pass. However, we had plenty of food and didn't get to desert. I did have a couple glasses of sparkling wine, as D enjoys her wine. This bottle has been in the fridge ... since the pandemic? It did not want to come uncorked.

D also brought her dog Lula who is somewhat bigger than Carrie. 55 to Carrie's 40 pounds? I hope that Christine and D see each other more often, and i think that will happen if Carrie and Lula can get along. The dogs were somewhat distracting as we tried to watch a Jaws documentary, but it was a good first visit.

I had a text from sister asking for a call that i had missed during D's visit; sent a message apologizing and noting where i would be in the morning.

I woke early to ferry my dad and brother to the airport. They head to the Chicago area to watch nephew D graduate from the Navy ROTC New Student Indoctrination course. To get them there i needed to leave at 6:15. It was a beautiful morning with the humidity in the air -- and fog, and low clouds -- creating lovely atmospheric effects.

On the way back my sister calls, distressed about REDACTED. I join her, and we have tea, and she cries and i hold her. It is reasonable distress, and i affirmed her. I also recognize an tendency i have in myself, which is if X is a possible outcome, wanting to just get X over with. Instead there is messy, uncertain work to get where she needs to be, which may or may not involve X. Instead, we talked about step B. I suspect (because it's what i would do) that she wants to rush through and be done with the distressing things, and we talk through the steps of just starting step B and how that will take a while.

forestofglory

Since it's more than halfway through the year I started to write a reflection on my reading goal for the year: "Read Joyfully" But I found I didn't have much to say about it other than it turns out its easier to engage with new to me fiction when I actually get enough sleep.

However I do have some thoughts on things I've read and watched recently to share:

The Truth Season 3cases 9 and 10 — The last two cases, I’m sad that this is over now! This was so, so much fun! The second to last case featured my favorite costumes of the whole show in show with many excellent costumes. This really a fairly frivolous show but I love it so much! (Content note: the final case involved a dead kid)

Mu Guiying Takes Command ep 1-4— I wanted to love this. It is an adaptation of The Generals of the Yang Family, a story dating back to at least the Ming Dynasty that features women in command of the military. The FL is very badass. However I got fed up with how childish both the leads were acting.

Also this was released in 2012 which isn’t really that long ago but it feels like a whole different era.

Medieval Textiles across Eurasia, c. 300–1400 by Patricia Blessing, Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Eiren L. Shea— This is a novella length overview of the topic. About 80 pages with a lot of pictures. I liked how it tied together such a big area and a long time period. Zooming out helped me put the stuff I know about (Chinese textiles, mostly Tang dynasty) into a larger context. I read it for the FTH biography I’m creating on Liao textiles.

A Song for You & I by Kay O'Neill— My friend Maureen, who is a children’s librarian, recced this graphic novel by the author of the Tea Dragon Society books in her most recent newsletter. And I’m glad she did because I haven’t been keeping up with recent releases and this was really good. It's a very gentle story that’s kind of coming of age with a lot of travel. One of the characters has a flying horse! The art is really good. I kept stoping to admire the color gradients. Just a very lovely book.

Please Be My Star by Victoria Grace Elliott— Reading a A Song for You & I reminded me that my library has lots of graphic novels and I checked out a whole pile of them including this one. Please Be My Star is a YA romance featuring teens putting on a play. It was very cute though once or twice I got a little too much second hand embarrassment.

Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born ep 1-4— This kdrama sounded so exactly my thing. It’s got preforming arts, tons of women, and crossdressing girls! It’s also very pretty and well done. So I’m baffled as to why after four episodes all I feel about it is “meh”

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.

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.)

Current Mood: okay

chanter1944

New birds added to the life list while camping at Lake Kegonsa: Osprey, courtesy the nest built on a doubtless purpose-created platform along a local trail. So, so, cool. :D Also least flycatcher, which was a total random chance surprise. :)

Warm fuzzy of the day in a different category entirely, though, was getting love from a rescue puppydog while on the way back to the apartment with a bag of groceries. The groceries were set safely down before the (possible pitty/lab mix, there were characteristics of both for sure, shorter fur and slightly perked ears, but also fluffy double coat and super happy otter tail) got pet. According to her people, I made her day. My reaction was, she made mine! :)

Random post is random.

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KJ

Reading

Z1L movie-release news | An etrike update I may not have mentioned | Weather

this and that

(morning writing)

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What Are You Playing Wednesday

At Some Point I Should Analyse What Makes Me Decide To Go Lowercase.

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Fannish history

Two Brief Murderbot thoughts

update

Fanfiction: a little too late (Danganronpa)

H/C Exchange

Stars Without Number, With Adventures

Foodstuffs from last week

Readercon 2025

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Media Round Up: Ups and Downs

Weekly proof of life: mainly media

land stewardship FTW

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April 2025

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