Phew, it's been a while

Apr. 22nd, 2025 12:14 pm
winter_doggo: Sprite art of Dragonair, a snake-like Pokémon (Default)
[personal profile] winter_doggo
A lot of assorted things have happened the past few months, but the one I came here to post about is my progress with Japanese.

It's going very well! I've learned and can understand so, so much more than before. Soon, I'll have finished my first game you need basic reading ability to fully enjoy... while properly, actually reading it! (The game being わんこと魔法のぼうし、which I have enjoyed in English, and beat in Japanese for speedrunning, but hadn't been able to actually comprehend until more recently). I'm having such a good time with this.

Mahou no Boushi stuff )

Anyway playing games is a fun and cool way of learning and keeping myself at maximum motivation (alongside other ways of studying ofc). So I've set out a plan for after I finish Mahou no Boushi:
- I want to play THE DOG ISLAND -ひとつの花の物語-. it's similar as a game, but it's longer and has a bit more going on plot-wise, so I think it'll be good for solidifying things.
- By around 2 months from now, I want to have started playing Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney. I've already picked up on a lot of courtroom words from prior prods at it, but I think I can have an honest shot at it if I keep at this sort of pace.

There are lots of Ace Attorney games, and I already have the GBA versions of the original trilogy (which I originally bought because I saw them for cheap and liked Ace Attorney and thought they would be awesome to have, but had no idea if I would actually ever be able to understand at the time). I certainly won't be short of material ^^ And, y'know. It's DGS' fault I'm doing this anyway. If I play a lot of lawyer games then the Meiji era lawyer game that's the end goal will become an easier nut to crack.
wychwood: G'Kar knows that each voice lost diminishes us (B5 - G'Kar each voice)
[personal profile] wychwood
Bad news all round the last few days - TERFs winning a court case to allow anyone who wants to deny GRCs last week, and then Pope Francis dying this morning. Of course he'd been in terrible health for much of the year, but I'm still sad about it.

I didn't agree with everything he said (of course!) but the work he did on refocussing the Church and particularly the media voices away from spending all their time on ABORTION and HOMOSEXUALITY towards, you know, poverty and injustice and all the things that Jesus spent most of his time talking about was just amazing. Now we're left worrying about who will take over, and what agenda they might have; he's appointed a good share of the current voting-age cardinals, which hopefully means that whoever it is won't immediately undo everything. RIP Pope Francis, and thank you.

Today was my big DAY OFF and I have, on the one hand, done two weeks' worth of ironing, three loads of laundry, a week's worth of washing up, and a fair amount of assorted tidying up; on the other hand, I read a JD Robb book, played an hour or two of Dragon Age: Veilguard, had a nap, and spent enough time in idleness that I feel reasonably well-rested. My dad said to me yesterday when I was leaving to come home, "You're really tired today, aren't you?" and I thought about whether I was tired and spontaneously started leaking tears (always a sure indication!!). I feel much more emotionally stable today, fortunately.

Unfortunately I am now going back to their house for the next two days as part of a rota to make sure that Mum has someone around for a) dinner prep and b) potential crises while Dad's in France making sure the house hasn't fallen down since he had to rush back in January. It should be relatively peaceful - there'll be some assorted chores around stripping, laundering, and remaking beds, maybe a bit of restoring order after the departure of the houseful of guests, but I'm taking several books, a few DVDs, and my booklog file to hopefully make some progress on. But no video games, alas. I'll leave there to go to choir, then back home for work on Thursday followed by book group followed by back into the office on Friday, because the fun just never stops!! but honestly the next few weeks are moderately reasonable.

Tiny joys in gross work

Apr. 21st, 2025 02:51 pm
sporky_rat: A Giant Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man cruisin' down the street in NYC (oh shit!)
[personal profile] sporky_rat

Vacuuming for the flea issue does lead to some glee when you see all the dead fleas in the water tank of the vacuum.

Quick rec

Apr. 21st, 2025 02:22 pm
cesy: "Cesy" - An old-fashioned quill and ink (Default)
[personal profile] cesy
I’ve just done basic CPR training in 15 minutes with British Heart Foundation’s free digital tool RevivR. All you need is a smartphone or tablet and a cushion. It's boosted my confidence in first aid, and reminded me of stuff I learned on previous first aid courses.

https://revivr.bhf.org.uk/?shar=1

Easter again

Apr. 19th, 2025 05:02 pm
wychwood: Rodney has lists of the ways you are wrong (SGA - Rodney list of wrong)
[personal profile] wychwood
Have survived most of Holy Week! Such minor crises as Fr Bernard accidentally skipping over the Gloria and having to reinsert it right before the Gospel were largely invisible to the congregation, which is nearly the same as not happening, right...

Just the biggest one left tonight. I think we're ready??

Choir went OK - I was a bit disappointed in us, but people I've talked to from the audience seemed to think we sounded good!

And then it's into family stuff for a few days...

Meme: 20 questions for fic writers

Apr. 18th, 2025 02:42 pm
lannamichaels: "(but I digress)" written in black text on textured background (but i digress)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Via [personal profile] sophia_sol most recently! And this reminded me that I haven't done the April hits meme yet, oops.

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

1,158

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

3,109,186. Caveat that this includes a lot of co-written fics, including a very long one where I didn't write much on it overall. Knocking out the stuff I didn't write myself probably removes about a million words.

3. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Scenes From An Inconvenient Espionage Love Story. - Les Mis/James Bond - 2,581 kudos as of this writing
2. Earthlings Gonna Earth. -- The Martian -- 2,450 kudos
3. Things To Do In New York City When You're No Longer Brainwashed. - Avengers - 1,478 kudos
4. The Family Dursley. - Harry Potter - 1,310 kudos
5. Interstitial. - The Martian - 1,104

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Complicated question, but my actively working on WIPs are Vorkosigan fandom and Harry Potter at present. Other fandoms on WIPs started in the last 3 years's folders in scrivener (2023-2025): Discworld, Westing Game, The Parent Trap, Pride & Prejudice, Hero Elementary (a spitefic sequel to the spitefic Hero Elementary fic I've already posted), and Glass Onion.

5. Do you respond to comments? why or why not?

Sometimes. I used to try to reply to all comments and I do not do that anymore.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I've done some stuff to characters but possibly the one that qualifies most here is not actually angst but one that someone asked me about the ending specifically for reccing for a specific person reason and I had to say "do not rec this to that person dealing with this stuff": Not Like I Faint Every Time We Touch. (Star Wars), which is Jyn Erso having a crush on Leia Organa, who is straight.

So it is not angsty! But also I tagged it "The Most Accurate Thing I Have Ever Written" and I am not one to overuse freeform tagging in that manner.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

So this is cheating but the Petyaverse has the happiest best ending in the world because it all built up to that (with diversions) and once I got to the end, it was all definitely over, so that was nice. Happiest for me, happiest for the characters, happiest for the ability to do a character and story arc!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yep.

9. Do you write smut?

Yep.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Yep.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yep! There was, apparently, a college newsletter in Alberta (?) -- somewhere in Canada, I think it was Alberta -- that had a segment called Tim (as opposed to Time) and they ripped off one of my LOTR fics. Just reproduced it entirely without attribution (but with the same title). To this day I have no idea why. Like, certainly it was to mock fanfiction, that goes without saying, but it also didn't seem to have any mocking? Did someone just submit it as a gag? As an original story?

Someone in fandom gave me some lawyerly things to say to them and I sent it to them and they took it down.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Yep!

14. What's your all time favourite ship?

I mean. I haven't read it in at least a decade, but Aragorn/Boromir really was something, wasn't it. Many fond memories.

15. What's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Teenage Single Dad Gregor Vorbarra, earliest notes date in the file is December 2016.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action and description.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I used to do this and then it was like, why. Why do this. When I could just write "X said in Y language" right after it. Also then you have to deal with translations. Plus getting someone to give you the phrase in the other language in the first place, or rely on Babelfish (but I date myself). Not worth it!

When I read a fic, by the way, I am never looking into the end notes for translations, and since I read a lot on my phone, I also can't hover for them. Either I can work it out by context or it's not actually important to the story or it's so incessant that I give up and close the fic. Those are the options. Me keeping the end notes open in another tab and going back and forth is not happening.

How does this mesh in with the glossaries I usually remember to add to fics in Yinglish? Absolutely it doesn’t but also Yinglish is English, right? Right? :P

(Also those fics are short and the Yinglish is the point, the glossary is just there to be helpful, but it's not like oh hey, this character is French, let's have a discussion in French.)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Star Wars.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

My favorite child is I scrolled through the entire stats list on ao3 for this question and I am settling on Hogwarts by Allen Ginsberg. It's probably my best pastiche and it was harder than the Fight Club one.

IDK. There's fics I like and fics I'm meh on and fics I dislike, but I can't really come up with an all-time favorite.

I keep wanting to turn this into "what's the most experimental" or "what was the hardest" but anyway, actually, here are the most personal ones -- because that's quantifiable and easy enough to answer: And Enoch Still Walks With God. (Highlander) (if I were posting that today I'd be brave enough to use Chanoch not Enoch but anyway), the soul is innocent and immortal it should never die ungodly in an armed madhouse (Vorkoisgan), and Waiting For Methuselah. (Highlander).

sporky_rat: Atia from Rome looking very pleasant and kind. Text: Die screaming you pigspawn trollop (pigspawn!)
[personal profile] sporky_rat

AUGH THE FLEAS THE WRETCHED FLEAS STARTED EARLY

(Also wow this year has been bad already, we haven't had a year this bad in A WHILE)

onepageatatime: Me outside St John's before my confirmation at the Easter Vigil 2016 (Default)
[personal profile] onepageatatime
My hometown's men's hockey team has reached the playoffs for the first time in something like seven years, so it's fun to look forward to playoff hockey. (The city's women team is currently in the final playoff position in its league, but in a tight race with three games to go for each team after the league's current international break.)

Soccer season in Canada is getting off to a less than stellar start. The streaming service that streams the Canadian Premier League's games has changed hands since last season… but their Apple TV app is not yet functional, and that's my main way of watching games. And my subscription just expired yesterday. And… I'm feeling anxious. I want to support the league (and that same city's team, who have started with four points in their first two games of the season)… but I don't want to pay for a year's worth of a service without knowing how long it will take to have their app working properly, nor do I want to overpay for their monthly charge. (I suspect that I will give in Saturday, when Atlético Ottawa next plays, but… I won't be thrilled about it, especially if the app still isn't working properly.)

On a more positive note, the Northern Super League, Canada's first professional women's soccer league has their first game tonight. I won't be watching live (because it's happening on the West Coast), but… I also know that I'll be able to see at least half of the league's games (through ESPN+) and… there may be options for the games ESPN+ doesn't carry. (I am slightly frustrated because I haven't yet figured out the rhyme or reason for which games they carry and which games they don't.)
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
[personal profile] brainwane
Over in this MetaFilter thread I've been going on and on about:

the books use the medium of prose well, including unreliable narration; how can the TV series adapt that? can it?

the bookending of the two big rescues at the start and end of All Systems Red, and how Wells describes people helping each other overcome their automatic patterns

etc.

I welcome your thoughts! I have spent like 3 hours this week talking about this stuff and would happily talk 3 more.



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