fanifesto | Member Posts

1) Curious events yesterday. A takeout place we order from every other month or so couldn't be reached. Its website was not working over a half hour period. I looked up their number and at least 3 other sites listed the same one. Called it and was told it was not a valid number. Since I wanted more oranges, I figured I'd stop by to see if the restaurant had closed down.

Nope. They seemed completely unconcerned the website was down, and told me I'd used the wrong number (also seeming completely unconcerned a wrong one is widely available!) But at least we are not down yet another restaurant.

2) Got many yummy oranges but this store sells them by count not by weight. So I picked all the largest oranges I could and I swear some of these are bigger than both fists.

3) Nesting time for ducks is great for all the adorable little fluffs we will be seeing soon. It is definitely not so when we have to keep watching drakes attacking the female ducks. This week there was one poor female attacked simultaneously and sequentially by 5 drakes. She was finally able to get out of the lake (I felt half sure she had drowned) and one followed her and kept attacking her on land, which was the first time I'd seen that happen.

4) Was watching Life of Chuck and can I say I am incredibly tired of the romantic convention of looking at stars together and (usually the man) pointing out the constellations to the person they are wooing. Come up with something else!

That said, it was a nice little film. ( Read more... )

5) Belatedly I was not impressed with the Oscars. I was glad there were only 2 of the nominated songs sung and that there was no opening number, but I also would have preferred to skip that whole pre-filmed Conan bit and just have a very strong monologue (which I didn't think it was). ( Read more... )

Poll #34383 Kudos Footer-565

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goodbyebird

+ London, San Francisco and Beijing achieve ‘remarkable reductions’ in air pollution.
“This report shows that cities can achieve what was once thought impossible: cutting toxic air pollution by 20-45% in a little over a decade,” said Cecilia Vaca Jones, executive director of Breathe Cities, one of the organisations behind the report. “This isn’t just happening in one corner of the world; from Warsaw to Bangkok, cities are proving that we have the tools to solve this crisis right now.”

+ Fifty years after New Zealand stopped whaling, humpback population showing signs of recovery.

+ Two pairs of beavers released in Cornwall.
Beavers became extinct from the wild in England more than 400 years ago due to hunting for their pelts, meat and glands.
The charity said beavers were increasingly recognised as one of nature's most important keystone species - animals whose presence shapes entire ecosystems.

+ The river otter’s remarkable comeback.

+ European Parliament Votes Overwhelmingly For "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women".
Significantly, the vote gathered support not only from left-leaning groups but also from the majority of the European People's Party, the largest and most powerful center-right bloc in the European Parliament. The center-right support drew sharp criticism from the far right: the Patriots for Europe group, which includes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally, voted against the resolution and denounced its exclusion from negotiations over the text. The European Conservatives and Reformists, the group of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia, also voted against. But their combined opposition was not enough to block the resolution, which passed with support from a broad cross-ideological majority.

+ Ireland’s basic income for the arts scheme becomes permanent.

+ Why comics needs its own Criterion Closet, an inside look at THE STACKS.

+ stop counting. what you love matters..
Cardiff University's Dr Lucy Bennett put it well in that same piece: "Once taste is turned into a scoreboard with ratings, competition then inevitably follows." Which, yes — but I'd push that further. Competition doesn't just follow. It replaces something. In the war to protect a number, the actual shows get swallowed whole. Nobody in these review threads is talking about what made "Ozymandias" so devastating, or what any of these subsequent shows did differently. They’re just defending territory. The number had stopped being a representation of the thing and had become the thing itself.

+ Marvel Comics has the optimisation sickness.
The current status quo at Marvel seems to be that if a storyline is successful they'll publish too many comics about it and it will get derailed. If a storyline isn't successful enough they'll publish too many comics about it and it will get derailed.

+ The Secretive Company Filling Video Game Sites With Gambling And AI.
Chris Button, an Australian tech journalist and former contributor, wasn't pleased to see his old profile alongside the AI authors. All of his former articles were edited to include closing sections pointing to casino and betting guides. He attempted to have his author profile removed by emailing the new management of GamesHub, but he never received a response. However, he no longer appears on the Meet the Team page. Button is disappointed with what the site has become. "Seeing GamesHub transformed into a site promoting gambling is devastating, not just for those who wrote for the site, but for the industry the publication championed", he said.

+ Friendly reminder that The Importance of Being Earnest is available to watch for free a little while longer. Chaotic fun, highly recommend.

ysabetwordsmith

Earth's changing climate is harming crop diversity exactly where the security of global food production needs it most

A new study warns that if global warming surpasses 1.5°C, vast regions could lose critical crop diversity, heightening the risk to worldwide food security.

Researchers predict that about one-third of global food production may be in jeopardy due to higher temperatures, underscoring how climate change is expected to reshape agriculture, especially in vulnerable low-latitude countries.

You know what? I think they're barking up the wrong tree here. Humans have done FAR more damage to the foodstream than climate change has so far. I'm sure climate change will get around to that, but it's late to the party. Humans have already discarded many traditional crops because they don't lend themselves to commercial growing, drastically limiting the typical diet.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

rekishi

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

ysabetwordsmith

Today is sunny, less cold, with a light breeze. This is a huge improvement. :D

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/18/26 -- I did a bit of work outdoors.

The mower has been picked up for its spring tuneup.

EDIT 3/18/26 -- I picked up more junk from the parking lot.

I've seen a lot more sparrows and house finches, plus a fox squirrel.

EDIT 3/18/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/18/26 -- I started trying to unearth the edge of the sidewalk bordering the parking lot on the south side. It is exhausting, and must be done before the stump-grinder guy arrives early tomorrow. D:

EDIT 3/18/26 -- I hacked away at the east end of the sidewalk. There are still several feet of the middle buried.

EDIT 3/18/26 -- I continued hacking at the sidewalk edge.

EDIT 3/18/26 -- I did more hacking at the sidewalk edge. I think it's about as good as I can get it. There's a big patch in the middle that I couldn't clear due to roots and brush, but at least the edge is more-or-less visible at both ends.

I've seen a male cardinal at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 3/18/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. Still have not attempted books. Currently getting over a migraine. I have to say, if I am now down to one migraine a week (which would be great, actually) I don't see why it has to be on Comics Wednesday two weeks in a row so that all my comics reviews are ass because I am clearly having difficulty comprehending comics.

Perhaps I could wait until Thursday to read them? No. It must be Wednesday. Otherwise the internet will spoil me.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Captain America #8, Sorcerer Supreme #4, Ultimate Wolverine #15, Ultimates #22 )

What I'm Reading Next

Look, I'd be happy if I just got to read a book ever again.

Current Mood: tired

rionaleonhart

Yet more fanfiction for The Goes Wrong Show!

Here's a game you can play: see if you can guess what Chris named the main characters in his play before you read this, on the assumption that Chris just asked himself 'what names do gay men have?'

Title: Ad Libitum
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show
Rating: 14
Pairing: Robert/Chris
Wordcount: 1,800
Summary: Chris and Robert play lovers on stage. Things do not go as planned.

( Ad Libitum )

definitely_not_an_alb

My reading has been steadily ramping back up since I left school, but this year I am reading much more than previously; I am up to as many books per month as I was managing in a whole year half a decade ago (though not in January, because I hit my head). Also a short note: I read the entirety of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series last year (twice) but never posted about it, so if you’re confused why I am suddenly obsessed with dragons, that’s why. Sorry! I'll get around to it eventually.

Fiction

Mexican Gothic (2020) by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – This was a solid modern gothic novel. In 1950s’ Mexico, a young woman travels to a remote country house to see after her cousin, whose health and mental state seems to have rapidly fallen apart after a hasty marriage to a charming white gentleman. Once arrived, she finds herself soon ensnared and threatened by the strange practices of the isolated family. This checked all the classic Gothic tropes on top of having something to say about colonial and racist violence. I did thoroughly enjoy it, but it didn’t really stay with me, and even the more creepy/body-horror-y aspects didn’t linger much. Overall, I think my only complaint is that the very active contemporary twitter-bubble writing style, pacing and occasional over-explaining didn’t let the book fully escape its Tales from the Crypt-vibes—like, I feel similarly about the horror aspects here as I do about slockier Kings, even though it definitely has all the elements of being atmospheric and elevated past that. I did read this with the lingering effects of a concussion, though, so that might be it.

A Brother’s Price (2005) by Wen Spencer – this is a batshit matriarchy romance novel that I suspect started out as a P&P rewrite at some point. The end-result involves cowboy/regency-era gunslinger-princesses in a vaguely Australian fantasy Ruritania fighting over beautiful, submissive men on river-steamboats, though, so the origins are largely incidental. In the vain of Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, this world features a sharp difference in the sex* ratio, with women outnumbering men something like 20:1, making boys prized, coveted and oppressed marriage tokens traded between families for horrendous prices in matrifocal sororal polygyny. The main romance is between a rural lad catching the eye of the realm’s Princesses and getting embroiled in court intrigue (oh my). It also actually has a plot and some well-written action set pieces. I love this kind of bullshit, and wish there where more insane matriarchies out there, lol. *Not very concerned with themes of gender, but not obviously TERFy (a rare feat in the genre). Content warning for sexual violence and rape.

Temeraire: Golden Age and other Stories (2017) by Naomi Novik – collection of short stories. These were all nice, and some of the drabbles were cute. Felt very much like a relict of a previous age with the inclusion of fanart and fancrafts.

( NSFW discussions from here on out! )

sholio

... resulting from making that vid this past week.

One thing that I was thinking about is the sheer challenge of costuming this show, because most of the costumes are directly patterned after their manga/anime looks. So whereas most of the time in most shows, you can probably source the characters' everyday wear from basic mass-produced clothes or even vintage or secondhand shops, aside from really specific superhero costumes or whatever, this is more like a historical production in that everything has to be made from scratch. (Only, if possible, worse, because unless you're doing an unusual time period, normally you could probably go to the warehouses of Elizabethan or Regency costumes or Roman togas that no doubt exist.)

Here, even the relatively normal clothes are directly echoing something specific, like the patterns on

season 2 character's

Tashigi's

distinctive shirt, or

another season 2 character's

Miss Valentine's lemon-patterned

dress.

Anyway, it's just interesting to think about. Even the simplest costumes are more complicated than they seem, because it's not just an unusual shirt that the costume people found at a vintage shop; they're having to explicitly pattern-match or color-match or style-match items from the manga and anime.

( More specific spoilers about characters' fighting skills )

adore

In the week leading up to and week of my moontime I mistakenly thought I'd relapsed into depression, because my PMS symptoms were that bad. The day after I finished bleeding, I wrote the rest of Dollshops & Deathmages, in a dramatic restoration of my spirits and creativity. I don't want to be miserable and listless for half a month, even if I'm in a creative flow for the other half. In quite the synchronicity, The Cozy Creative posted a video about how her menstrual cycle affects her creativity.

Watch on YouTube

It made me feel better, knowing that I'm not alone in having to plan my writing work around moontime, but I really wish my symptoms would be limited to the week of moontime because two weeks is a lot of time lost.

Now to wait for the other authors participating in the cozy fantasy anthology to finish their stories. I've also talked to my cover designer about a cover for Dollshops & Deathmages, because after the anthology has run its course the participating authors will release their stories individually as they see fit. I'm hoping to make Dollshops & Deathmages an evergreen prequel novella and occasional reader magnet for the subsequent cozy books I have planned, so it needs its own cover.

Back when I was employed, I saved up and got myself covers for a couple of the cozy books I'm writing (Dragons & Debutantes and Pumpkin Jack Proposes) since covers are the biggest authorial expense. Dollshops & Deathmages wasn't planned for because I didn't know I was going to participate in a cozy anthology until the opportunity came up, and I crafted this story specifically for this anthology. So I have had to commission the cover for this now, not in advance like the others.

My parents are decently supportive about this indie author project and funded the cover for Dollshops & Deathmages, but I'm not decently grateful because I wanted their support long before this and didn't get it. If I'd gotten their support before this I would've had a job and would've been able to pay for my own covers. Their opposition to me taking that job was very gendered, so I don't feel privileged at all. Even though I am.

I'm bitter and prideful whenever I have to ask them for money, and when they sweetly tell me I have only to ask them, I'm overwhelmed by anger because they could have been supportive all along but only chose to be after I was driven into a corner and had no options left.

I think the contrast between them happily giving me handouts vs. their crashout when I wanted to work at the bookstore is probably because they like me being at home and dependent. I mean it makes no sense that they're supportive about this, but weren't supportive about the stable salaried thing.

Current Mood: thoughtful

sholio

So this is apparently the latest installment in an accidental series about gardens. This is based off some bits in

hauntinghouses's lovely post-canon fixit Out of the Woods (not necessary to read before this one, but you should read if you like Londo & G'Kar stuff; it's lovely, with some neat Narn worldbuilding), which was in turn inspired by one of my older ones. This is not meant to be in direct continuity with either hauntinghouses' fic or the other fic it was inspired by; it's off happily living its best life in its own AU 'verse.

Green Growing Things (Londo & G'Kar, 2800 wds)
It is post-canon, and there are gardens.

( Fic also posted under the cut )

( Bonus extras from Tumblr )

ysabetwordsmith

Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

This is today's freebie, inspired by a prompt from LJ user My_partner_doug.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

sineala

I have slightly more brain now and maybe enough energy to post more? Let's find out. I'm sure you've missed me posting about random video games.

Anyway, Slay the Spire 2, the sequel to my most favorite roguelike deckbuilder Slay the Spire came out in Early Access two weeks ago, and is apparently stunningly popular -- it had 500,000 concurrent players its first weekend, beating basically everything else on Steam at the time, which no one was really expecting from, you know, an indie card game.

I haven't played it enough to give a full review, because even in EA there is a lot more content -- there are five characters, two of which are brand new, all of which have new cards, and there are all sorts of new mechanics and events I haven't discovered yet. So far I have now beaten what exists of the game with four of the five characters and I know I haven't seen anywhere near everything yet. I think it's currently balanced harder than the original game, but the subreddit is full of people saying it is way too easy, so I guess we will see what happens when the balance patches start coming out.

But the really cool thing about this game is the multiplayer, which we only found out existed in a trailer that they released, like, two weeks before the actual game. It has co-op with up to four players! I only have one friend who plays this game, as far as I know --

gelishan, who actually introduced me to the original game -- and we played a game of it the other night, and I have to say that co-op is absolutely the most fun way to experience the game. It helps to be on voice chat, so you can coordinate things like 'who are we targeting first" or "if you have anything inflicting Vulnerable, please play that first" or "do you need this Strength Potion" or "do you want me to play Piercing Wail this turn so you don't take 35 damage straight to the face" or whatever, but I guess theoretically you could play it in silence and just deal with the fact that everyone is playing their turns simultaneously.

Anyway, that is clearly the way this game has always been meant to be played and I need to do this again at some point. The co-op multiplayer is absolutely amazing! I don't know that I would recommend the game in its current single-player state to people who haven't played the original, just because it is already a hard game and it helps to have some idea of how three of the five characters play, if you're going to play it by yourself. But if you are playing multiplayer, I think you can just go for it and you and your friends can take turns carrying each other through the game.

So, yeah, that's what I've been up to, as I slowly regain some brain. Slaying the Spire anew!

(Also it's really weird to actually talk to someone you have known on the internet for, like, 25 years, but you've never heard their voice before.)

Current Mood: nerdy

olivermoss

* There is talk of letting 19 years olds from Canadian juniors play in the AHL. They should be allowed to go AHL as soon as they are drafted. Otherwise, franchises have to put baby rookies on NHL ice or not be able to develop them. This isn't the biggest issue in hockey, but how this intra-league weirdness is currently feeds into / causes / etc a lot of problems so I really want to see this changed.

* Also, randomly since I am hockey posting... There are identical mirror twins in the upcoming draft and it's not impossible they wind up on the same team. I think it's Vancouver who has the right combo of picks to get them? Imagine the drama if a team goes for a matched set of very practiced line mates and someone snipes the other brother.

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy and cold. At least the howling wind stopped.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

Many of the plants that were sprouting have died from the hard freeze. :/ Some still look fine though. At least some of the sprouts in my jug and tub greenhouses have survived.

EDIT 3/17/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/17/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a large flock of sparrows and two male cardinals.

EDIT 3/17/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

yvannairie

I'm already seeing posts with all capital letters and H1 titles saying shit like "never reblog something with a comment, keep it in the tags, leave a reply" and I'm afraid Tumblr's internal culture is going to take care of killing any and all interactions on the site.

First they made it so that OPs of posts will yell at me if I leave tags they don't like because they don't know how to turn off tag view in their Activity, and now I'm gonna get a totally different kind of person yelling at me for reblogging with a comment b/c I'm "taking away notes" from OP, and all this time I have replies disabled on my blog because a third kind of person will spend all their time arguing with someone else in my replies.

Kill Tumblr. Let it be over.

goodbyebird

+ Dune Messiah traile dropped! I treated myself to one peek and one peek only. But I am vibrating.

Watch on YouTube

+ The mountain in the middle of town is ah. On fire. 240 evacuated so far, including two of my friends and two of my friends' parents. Real windy outside. Not a good time.

Current Location: an increasingly dense smoke

yourlibrarian

1) Whoa, the changes at Tumblr have meant a flood of people signing up for accounts at Pillowfort. I just went through a feed four times longer than usual.

2) We've watched four episodes of Starfleet Academy and are both pleasantly surprised by it. I confess I haven't been very enthused by the new crop of shows. In fact my favorite season was one that it seems most viewers didn't care for, which was S1 of Discovery. ( Read more... )

3) Looks like it isn't just late night shows that are winding to a close but talk shows and entertainment news. I can see why podcasts would be far cheaper to make and competing with the audience, but I do wonder if most can put out episodes as consistently as is done with larger productions. (I note, for example, that Access Hollywood has four hosts).

4) Not being a reader of Outlander, I had no idea there was a separate Lord John Grey series. A spinoff based on the books sounds great, and you'd think with the success of Heated Rivalry (it was a Jeopardy question this week!) that the timing would be perfect. Granted, a period piece with a large cast would be significantly more expensive, but it also has a built in audience via its linked TV show and books.

5) Watched Zootopia 2 and enjoyed it. I particularly liked how they worked in references to favorite things from the first film without having it slow down or detract from the story in progress. For us this was wolves starting a howl, and the appearance of the sloth. There were lots of little in-jokes (such as the Hulu menu) and things moved along quite well, with fun new characters to meet.

Poll #34380 Kudos Footer-562

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Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

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Kudos!
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yvannairie

I am currently working night shift and the inability to play Beat Saber after work is genuinely making me a little bit stir crazy. Over on Tumblr I commented that I really want to make a mod that makes the song title increasingly gory the more times I've failed to pass a song -- I genuinely feel like that is more achievable than actually passing some of the songs in my queue b/c I feel the rust every time I have a chance to go back to the game.

Maybe I should see if I can struggle the Linux version to work. Then I could play in ten minute increments again and not have to commit to a full play session the way switching OSes requires.

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A community for fannish manifestos (This thing is AMAZING. Here's why.)

Member Posts

Odds and Ends

Fire is under control, celebratory linkspam? :D

Science

Ilya and Shane and what shaped them as players

Birdfeeding

Wednesday Reading Meme

Fanfiction: Ad Libitum (The Goes Wrong Show, Robert/Chris)

Reading Update: January 2026

Fiction

A handful of random One Piece Live Action thoughts ...

I finished writing Dollshops & Deathmages!

Babylon 5 fic: Green Growing Things

Cuddle Party

Poem: "Who Once Knew Better Words"

Slay the Spire 2

(no subject)

Birdfeeding

Tumb-LEP

I guess we uh, take the good with the bad.

Things to Like

LEP 17.3.

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February 2026

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