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I spent four days hyperfocused on learning how to art on Procreste, the art program that's available on the iPad.

I can see a very obvious progression of ability and skill in the nine pieces of art I did, and this explains my family. They'd hyperfocus on something and five days later they're really good at it and ready to move on.

It explains a few of my things as well.

Still. Nine pieces of art. Eight of them were gifts to people, one was my DR character.

Definitely going to ease up on it now.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Rat te Kāinga

lassarina

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azurelunatic

My immunotherapy infusion yesterday may have been my last!! I have a scan on Monday that will probably say that. Belovedest celebrated by cracking into the Strategic Redpop Reserve. This will mean much more leeway to leave town and such.

Colonoscopy results: mostly normal, one pre (not sure how many pre-s to put here) cancerous "lesion", and all of them removed. Repeat in two years, this time with Extended Prep. (My understanding of "lesion" and the medical definition may not align entirely well.)

Started the new injectable after the colonoscopy. I can definitely feel the impact. It remains to be seen exactly what kind. One of my friends has a new injectable too; she's getting some sinus clearance from it. Of all the random effects.

After the infusion, Belovedest and I trekked up-city to pick up a package for

alexseanchai. All Pampered Chef, and a high proportion of likely goodies vs. likely duds. There were some varying scrub brushes. The utensil/knife scrub brush looks like dentures that are actually a scrub brush, but I can see that coming in handy. There was also a quarter-sheet pan with two eighth-sheet pans. And then we trekked back down when Belovedest realized they'd left their tablet at the cancer center. Freakin' ADHD. We're on The Assassins of Thasalon in our progress through Penric.

I have a smallish makeup hobby. Part of that is sometimes going all Weird Barbie on my face with eyeliner or whatever. Tonight I've convinced myself (via iridescent green eyeliner) that some kind of moon phase forehead jewelry might really slap.

linky

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Current Mood: tired

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mcu100 is a a bi-weekly MCU themed community challenge where you join a team and write as many 100 worded drabbles to earn points for your team

allbingo is hosting Fall Fest through the month of October. There are both pre-made bingo cards or you can create your own with the available prompts.

ficortreat is open for another round. You can create a "door" (instructions at link) and offer what you're willing to create and then go around other people's "doors" and see what they're offering too.

booknook is still accepting sign-ups for October Review-a-Thon 2025, where you pick a book and sign up for a date to post your review.

cap_ironman, a Steve/Tony community, is running 2025 Holiday Exchange and Community Gifts. Sign-ups for the exchange close on October 9th, 10PM EDT.

koreanfandomsex, a multifandom exchange for Korean fandoms, is open for sign-ups until October 12th, 11:59PM Pacific.

be_compromised, a Clint/Natasha community, is running Secret Santa 2025. Sign-ups are open until October 13th, 4PM GMT.

julybreakbingopresents is running for Halloween Horror Bingo. Sign-ups are open until October 13th, 11:59PM Eastern.

amperslashexchange, a fic and art exchange for ambiguous relationships that are hard to definitively classify as either platonic (&) or romantic/sexual (/), is open for sign-ups until October 14th, 11:59PM UTC.

holmestice, a gift exchange for all Sherlock Holmes fandoms, has opened signups for Winter 2025 until October 14th.

Rainbow Connection Flash Exchange is a multifandom flash exchanged hosted on AO3, dedicated to rainbow or colour themed fics. Both nominations and sign-ups are open until October 16th, 3PM EDT.

seasonsofdrabbles is accepting nominations for their Fall Round. Nomination will remain open even once sign-ups open and will close on October 19th, 11:59PM Eastern.

smallfandombang, a Big Bang challenge for small fandoms (less than 2000 works), is open for author sign-ups until October 31st.

elasticella is running Hotties Haunting the Narrative: a festive femslash ficathon until November 1st.

fancake's theme of the month is: uncommon settings. Click on the banner below to learn more.

Photograph of the full moon encircled with added text: Uncommon Settings, at Fancake.

wychwood

Even with the first storm of the season coming in on Friday, we've had some really lovely weather. I was waiting for the bus on Sunday morning in beautiful sunshine and crisp coolness. It's gone a lot colder, though - since the weekend I am wearing the official First Hoodie of the autumn, and in the last couple of weeks I've gone from sleeping under a sheet to a duvet with a blanket on top, at least to warm up.

We had a fancy dinner out on Thursday with the suppliers for our new system, who have been great colleagues, so it was nice to spend some time with them. It was a Chinese "banquet", with lots of terrifying whole-animal courses (a whole turbot! a giant dismembered lobster! what looked like an entire suckling pig with, like, the ribcage removed, splayed out on a platter with its face on one end and four trotters on the corners!), but they'd spent a couple of weeks negotiating with the restaurant to make sure there was enough I could eat, so I definitely had plenty of options. The highlight for me was some particularly good salt and pepper baked tofu, but I also had egg fried rice, and half-a-dozen vegetable dishes, and crispy noodles, and I forget what else.

But actually the nicest part was that the suppliers called me the project MVP right there in front of everyone! Which is of course extremely flattering. And I did put in a lot of work, including some serious project management effort, so it's nice to have that recognised.

The next day was moderately entertaining, because practically everyone was massively hung-over in the office ("I'm not feeling very clever", said Boss Lady). One colleague had driven, so also didn't drink, and she and I congratulated each other (privately!) about it. I did have a bit of a social hangover ("oh no, did I talk too much?? did I say anything stupid? was I super embarrassing???") but mostly I tried to console myself with the fact that practically everyone else was drunk, so probably they wouldn't have noticed or remembered if I did. Ahhh, the joys of being socially awkward.

Now I could do with a resurgence of those project management skills, because there is still Too Much Going On at work, and I am not doing a very good job of, like, properly engaging with it. But I did at least go through the 52 IT Service Desk emails in my inbox and reduce them down somewhat; the "under 100 email" inbox is within my grasp, possibly.

trobadora

I just discovered that you can make the perfect peppermint hot chocolate with Ritter Sport Peppermint. (I expect After Eight mints or similar would work too.) It turned out super delicious, so I need to share the joy!

Proportions: 250ml milk / 25g Ritter Sport Peppermint.

Just put the chocolate into the milk and heat in the microwave in short bursts, stirring thorougly in between, until it's entirely melted. (It pays to use a glass and not a porcelain mug, so you can see whether it's fully incorporated. *g*) Add a little sweetener to taste. YUM. :D

trobadora

Woohoo,

guardian_wishlist revealed this morning with over 60 new Guardian & related works!

There is so much fantastic new stuff, and I haven't had time to properly look at much yet, but I need to share the three fantastic gifts I got:

from awanderingcoyote, lovely Guardian/Stargate Atlantis crossover art with a bunch of inspired concept notes for a crossover that's also a fix-it/sequel to the Guardian ending

from facethestrange, gorgeous Guardian RPF art that brilliantly combines the implications of the infamous weight-lifting BTS video with an interview question that, as the artist says, totally could be real

and from nnozomi, an absolutely delightful ficlet about Jiajia and Professor Zhou (and Shen Wei, of course, in absentia), combining them in ways I'd never considered before

So so many thanks to all of you, and everyone else who is part of this fest! You are all amazing! ♥ ♥ ♥

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ficortreat

svgurl's Door

DW username:

svgurl

Light is on for: anybody

What's in the Bowl? fic, fic recs, simple icons (fandom & stock; see examples in my icon tag), baking recipes, picspam, fanmix

Let Me Know: A fandom/pairing and a prompt or some likes for fics and screencaps for icons if you want something I don't have access to/want a specific moment or scene. Also your AO3 account if you want fic gifted to you there :)

Fandoms/Ships I can/am willing to write for: (all fic is posted on AO3, username

svgurl410)
9-1-1: Buck/Eddie, Buck/Eddie & Christopher, Buck & Christopher, Buck & Maddie, Eddie & Chris, Eddie & Maddie [you can ask about other gen dynamics - with icons, I am open to requests for anyone currently on the 118, Dispatch, Madney, Bathena, and HenRen)
All My Children: Aidan/Greenlee, Kendall/Ryan, Bianca/Maggie [you can ask if you want a specific gen dynamic and I'll see if I'm open to it]
DCEU: Lois & Diana, Lois & Martha, Clark & Lois & Martha, Clark/Lois, Diana/Steve
Gilmore Girls: Rory & Lorelai, Rory & Lane, Rory & Paris; Rory/Paris, Rory/Jess
MCU: Bucky/Natasha, Bucky/Sam, Natasha/Sam, Peggy/Steve, Steve/Tony
One Tree Hill: Brooke & Peyton, Brooke & Haley, Brooke & Karen; Brooke/Lucas, Brooke/Peyton, Brooke/Rachel, Brooke/Lindsey, Haley/Nathan, Peyton/Jake
Power Rangers: Kimberly/Tommy
Smallville: Clark/Lois, Clark/Lois/Oliver, Clark/Oliver, Lois/Oliver, Lois/Lana, Lois/Tess, Lana/Tess [you can ask about gen dynamics]
Superman (2025): Clark/Lois

If there is a fandom/ship/dynamic you think I may like/be familiar with/have written before, you are welcome to ask!

Other info: I will not write explicit/pwp, character/ship bashing, sexual assault/rape, violence, domestic/child abuse, underage, omegaverse, kinks involving non sexual bodily fluids, horror themes, villain AUs, reader fics, cheating/adultery. There may be things I've forgotten which I will tell you if you ask for them.

linky

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Current Mood: creative

nicki

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lassarina

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linky

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Current Mood: creative

yourlibrarian

1) From

osteophage, a post about The Good Web Graveyard, "a link compilation on departed websites that had marketed themselves in terms of ethics." I think one doesn't have to be an out and out cynic to assume that it's difficult for a company to do well when it's not on a level playing field with unethical companies. But it's good to consider that good intentions aren't enough in surviving long-term online.

2) My Britbox subscription has run out, and at an inopportune moment. I was speed watching Passengers, by which I was skipping some of, or entire, episodes and relying on their recaps to keep up with developments. Unfortunately I was interrupted near the end of the final episode and by the time I got back to it, the subscription had ended. ( Read more... )

4) Some interesting details of the AOL sale: "AOL's website traffic has grown 20% year-over-year among the users aged 25 and 54, outpacing the growth in the category of users aged 55-plus...The growth was driven by the introduction of multiple new content categories to AOL.com, including Health, Fitness, Animals, Science & Tech, Home & Garden, Lighter Side, True Crime, Local, amongst others"

I wonder if AI searches can account for this? Granted the nature of these new topic pages was designed to attract views, but I've hardly ever seen AOL as a site turn up in any searches I do.

"Bending Spoons... agreed a deal to take private video platform company Vimeo for $1.38 billion, its largest acquisition to date." I was also surprised to find out that AOL owns Last Pass, so that has a new owner now as well.

4) I know everyone's upset at the rising cost of everything. But sometimes it's the little things that make you mad. My main supermarket has recently switched its sales period from Wednesday to Tuesday after 20+ years (maybe always, for all I known) of doing Sunday to Saturday. This is making a mess of their shelf and data system, because the ad says one thing but there's nothing showing on the shelf and they don't ring up on sale. ( Read more... )

5) "Consumer Reports’ fourth annual digital assessment shows a 50 percent increase in texting and messaging scam attempts over the past year. Meanwhile, a 10,500-person poll from Talker Research indicates that Americans field around 100 scam attempts per month compared to an average of 84 in the United Kingdom. Australians, however, experience half the number seen in the US. But while scams continue to frequently target older demographics, one of the most dramatic upticks concerns younger populations."

The main reasons? Group texts which disguise unknown numbers, and quick access to money apps.

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I forgot I was doing this. Well, here's part 4 of

maevedarcy's 72 Multifandom questions to ask a fangirl

Favorites and Preferences

1. Who is your favorite character or member within your fandom, and why?
When it comes to Smallville, well, Superman has always been my favorite hero and even SV Clark had my heart early on and then Lois once she showed up. I think as I got older, I somehow got more sympathetic towards him. He's so young and tried his best, even when he made mistakes. With the MCU, it's Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson. Again, the "boy scout" characters tend to have my heart, especially when they're more complex than on paper. With my current fandom, 9-1-1, that would be Eddie Diaz. I was really drawn to him from the first episode he was in and he just kept growing on me. He's just fun and snarky and competent and such a good dad.

#2-12

2. What is your favorite installment, episode, or album from your fandom?
I do like the early seasons of Smallville, specifically 3, but even though it's wacky, for a long time, 4 was my favorite. Probably because it leaned into the really weird and I kinda enjoyed the cracky moments. I don't love the doom and gloom all the time. The first half of s8 was strong and then it weakened. 9 was my favorite after that.

I don't love the handling of SHIELD but CA: TWS is probably my favorite MCU movie.

Season 3 and season 4 are tied for my favorite 9-1-1 seasons.

3. Do you have a favorite quote, lyric, or saying from your fandom?
Clark's "I stand for truth, justice, and ... other stuff" does still make me laugh, because of the delivery.

Athena's voice over in the s2 finale of 9-1-1 (I miss the voice overs), specifically, "This is how we save ourselves, by saving each other, because nobody, not anybody, has ever been saved alone."

4. What’s your favorite fan-created content (art, music, video, story) related to your fandom?
Yeah, there's no chance I can narrow it down to one or even five for any fandom. :D

5. Who is your favorite pair or group within the fandom in terms of chemistry or dynamics?
I've always been drawn to Clois in most versions of Superman and Smallville wasn't an exception. I did start writing fic for Clark/Oliver, a ship that snuck up on me and then inspired me to join fandom because barely anyone else was writing them and I figured I would give it a shot. I love a bit of a push/pull dynamic with ships so Steve/Tony after The Avengers and Sam/Bucky post CACW. With 9-1-1, it's Buck/Eddie. I actually didn't expect to ship them when I started watching the show. As much as I like friends to lovers, the best friend ships rarely appeal to me and I tend to prefer them as just friends, and my brain can be a little contradictory in general when it comes to the juggernaut, but this one really stuck.

6. Do you have a preferred genre when it comes to fan fiction or fan works in your fandom?
Probably romance/drama. I like canon level action fics (can't handle anything too violent), and while I enjoy fluff, if it is longer than a couple of thousand words, I need some sort of plot.

7. What’s your favorite piece of lore or backstory within your fandom’s universe?
With Smallville, I've read that Lois's nickname for Clark (calling him "Smallville") was an accidental slip by Erica Durance and it just stuck, which I love. I also like that it was her idea to nix the kiss in 8.15 "Infamous" and to jump on Clark after the secret reveal in 10.05 'Isis'.

When it comes to 9-1-1, the fact that Ryan Guzman and Oliver Stark seemed to have a hand in naming "Buddie" is my favorite. I wasn't in the fandom/watching back then, but I found a screencap of an old post from the official 9-1-1 account asking people if they were on "Team Buck or Team Eddie". And I think Oliver Stark must've called them "Beddie" because RG's replied, correcting it to Buddie, and OStark agreed that they can go with that. So if that was the first showing of the ship name, that's pretty great.

8. Is there a particular scene, moment, or episode that always makes you emotional or excited?
With Smallville, Clark & Ryan always gets me emotional, especially in the hot air balloon moment. There are a ton of Clois moments I love, but one of my favorites will always be the Dunk Tank scene because Clark & Lois have such good chemistry already and it's just a few episodes in. Plus she is a pro at getting him to smile, even when he tries to be annoyed with her. Even Tom Welling had said that Lois brings out a different side of Clark. It's true, she does. The Piggy Bank conversation also gets to me because she understands him so well even without knowing his secret, and isn't afraid to be firm while being sympathetic at the same time (which is something I love about her). There was also a moment toward the end of 9.04 "Echo" with Clark & Oliver talking on the balcony and the way Clark told Oliver he still believed in him was so good, even if they handled Oliver's very real suicide attempt badly. s8 was such a rough go for their relationship and I was frustrated. To see them have a moment like this in s9 really gave me hope.

In 9-1-1, all the Tsunami scenes in early season 3 get to me, especially the one where Buck is explaining to Eddie that he lost Christopher. It's so painful to watch Buck try to explain and the resignation, moving on to grieving look on Eddie's face, before Chris is found. Of course Eddie telling Buck about his will remains a top moment too.

9. What’s your preferred platform for engaging with fellow fans and content (forums, social media, etc.)?
I've always preferred journal based sites, probably because I was mostly on fandom in the peak LJ days, so I still love Dreamwidth best, but I do like Tumblr for the gifs, and it is nice to chat on Discord from time to time, even if I can't really keep up with any of the servers.

10. Can you name a favorite moment when the community came together to support the fandom or a cause?
I've seen a lot of works created for a 9-1-1 for Gaza event but I can't say I know the origins, but that was awesome. I generally think it's great when fandom does that kind of thing. Whether it's the

sunflower_auction or Marvel Trumps Hate or Fandom Trumps Hate.

11. What’s your favorite way to show your fandom pride (cosplay, apparel, tattoos, etc.)?
I don't know if I really have a way. I don't really go out searching for fandom merch, mostly because I know it will collect dust somewhere and I'm so bad about being organized already. The only time I actively went out for something was Tom Welling & Erica Durance were featured on the TV Guide cover. I still have that issue.

12. Who’s your favorite content creator, artist, or writer within the fandom, and what do you love about their work?
Fanfic is hard to narrow down, but I've enjoyed watching fanvids again once I got to 9-1-1/Buddie so a couple of vidders I like are:

butchdiaz

JuliGrisel

akapotatogirl

linky

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Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Sukeban Deka 1 OST

jducoeur

Having just finished the leftovers, a few conclusions about TooHot, a new restaurant in Harvard Square:

Far as I can tell, it is seriously authentic Szechuan, not something one often comes across in these parts.
As a consequence, the name of the restaurant is accurate. The waiter asked whether I wanted it "mild", and I said no, I like spicy, so "medium" maybe? As I suspected, "medium" is somewhere near the top of my spice tolerance: this place really likes its peppers.
It's already impressively popular (after being open just a few months), especially with people who are actually Chinese (based on glancing at the crowd) -- at 6pm on a Tuesday, they had to think about whether they could seat three people without reservations.
The specialties of the house are also pretty authentic.
Authentic Szechuan apparently involves a lot of frog.
Frog mostly tastes like chicken, except with a lot more bones.
So many bones.
Too many bones.

So overall: excellent restaurant, especially if you like spicy food. But I think the frog dishes may be more effort than I'm willing to put in.

naraht

The only two things certain in life are death and taxes. In the hangover from Yom Kippur I've just finished filling out my Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, which I loathe with a passion. But death seems more significant this year.

Last night I got back from Yom Kippur services exhausted and still a bit light-headed from the twenty-five hour fast. The first thing I saw was an email from my mother about "the attack on Manchester." Amazingly it was the first I'd heard of it. The security people at the synagogue must have known but I don't think most people did. I should have realised when I saw a police car outside in the afternoon that something must have happened.

This is apparently "the first deadly attack on a British synagogue" and the deadliest attack ever on a place of worship outside Northern Ireland. (Per a useful thread by Sunder Katwala.) Also last night one (1) of my colleagues sent me an expression of sympathy, for which I was, and am, ridiculously grateful. Local and national Muslim leaders have also posted statements of solidarity, but taking the mood as a whole right now it's easy to feel (and maybe this is because I'm still exhausted, but I feel I've been exhausted for a long time) that most non-Jews are not interested in solidarity with the Jewish community right now because they don't think it's compatible, rhetorically at least, with being against what Israel is committing in Gaza. (And the ones who are, are interested for the wrong reasons.)

Hearteningly, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez did post a statement of sympathy – but most of the comments (on BlueSky! not even on X!) were variants on "Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism" or "Criticism of Israel is legitimate." I would be a whole lot more convinced by the former if comments like this didn't keep cropping up on posts about Jewish holidays and/or the death of Jews.

(Feminism isn't transphobia, but you'd be amazed how many purported feminists haven't got the memo. Being anti-crime isn't racist or anti-immigrant, in theory, but you'd be amazed by how many people use one thing as cover for the other. I could go on.)

Anyway, the other email I came home to was from Caledonian Sleeper, saying that my journey to Aberdeen this evening has been cancelled due to a storm. I managed to quickly rebook, so I'm now going straight to Inverness on Monday for my writing retreat at Moniack Mhor. It's a shame I'm going to miss my weekend in Aberdeen but maybe I needed the rest. And it doesn't seem so important right now. I would really like to wear my little magen david necklace up to Moniack Mhor but it gives me pause that so many people seem to be unable to distinguish "I am proud to be Jewish" from "I support genocide."

Like I said, I'm exhausted.