Member Posts

'Cause I'm the serpent, I'm the flame, the mortal world is scared to say my name.

I bring you another song from Hazbin Hotel. All you need to know is that the first singer is Lucifer, and the second is the megalomaniacal sinner who's trying to take over Hell. The song includes the phrase "we'll make hell great again." It's awesome.

We're almost to Friday, y'all! I'm still coughing, but I'm hoping it clears up in the next day, because we have a TON of games scheduled. Or that I can butch through what we've got. It looks like someone can't do our Sunday game, so that's one less that I have to DM. I was looking forward to it, but it's okay, we can reschedule, and that gives me a little downtime on Sunday.

Yesterday was a good day. A lot of calls, but also a lot of shcedule wiggling. I got a lot of patients in for urgent appointments which alsways makes me happy. I like taking someone who's scared and worried, and getting them in quickly. Hopefully they'll have good outcomes. Today, I've got a Cardiac CT slot to fill for tomorrow, and then whatever else the day brings.

dine frequently does the question of the day on her journal. Todays was: Do you look back on your school days with fondness? What was your favourite subject to learn? I had an initial response that was just a hiss, but then I thought about it.

And my second answer is still a hiss. I hated school. I was a little anxious kid with learning disabilities in the 1970s and 1980s. In elementary school, I would have panic attacks. In Kindergarten, they gave me a plastic stretch bracelet with flowers. I was supposed to use it (?) to ward off my inconvenient crying jags. Did it work? Fuck no. Then, I got to first grade and reversing letters (b and d? c'mon now), they put me part time into special education. Where to help with this, they taught me cursive. (yes, really) Then, they'd send me back to my regular class where I...wasn't allowed to use cursive. Second through 4th was okay, but then in 5th, I had a massive allergic reaction to an antibiotic. Full anaphylaxis. The teacher was not sympathetic. It was a real pain in the ass.

In Middle School, the anxiety came roaring back, and brought it's friend, depression. I had one good year, and then it went to shit. I failed Science and Social studies. So, to allow me to pass, they had me take summer school in...math? They didn't have science or social studdies, so they decided to put me into math class, which I'd passed just fine. It was not a good crowd. I nearly got my ass beaten repeatedly by my fellow students. It was great. I faked an asthma attack to leave early on the last day, becaause I was getting my ass kicked that afternoon, I had been assured.

High School sucked even more, as I went in on day one and thought "I can't do this for four years." I failed to turn in work, missed a ton of time where I just refused to go in, and then would come in and ace the final exam. The one teacher was nearly in tears that he had to fail me, when I'd gotten the highest grade on the final. He actually cared. The rest were just too burned out. I dropped out in (what would have been) my junior year and got my GED.

My favorite subject was probably history. We had to take a year of civics class, and I loved that.

The depression would continue to be a problem until I hit about 27, when I had a doctor who finally gave me zoloft. I mean, it's been a problem off and on since, but I've at least been medicated.

Today, I have a few packages coming. One is seafood, one is meats and one is my slippers. I am excited for all of them, but the seafood is high on the list. It's going to include Dungeness crab, which makes me very happy. Whether I cook that tonight or tomorrow is up in the air, but we'll see.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have a terrific Thursday!

Entry tags:

my writing: fics: k-9

New K-9 fic: The Shirt Bandit Incident(s) (Ren/Oboro/Fujimaru/Kagari)

It's been SIX DAYS without an update on the (still uncategorised) K-9 fandom tag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

I want to make a new icon, too. (Edit: Did it :D)

The Shirt Bandit Incident(s) | K-9 | Ren/Oboro/Fujimaru/Kagari | 1.3k words | rated T

Summary: Everyone in Division 9 is issued with the same standard black shirt, so it's easy to get confused about which belongs to whom. Easy to pretend to be, anyway.

Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.

Entry tags:

my writing: fics: kn8

Kaijuu No. 8 fic update: Warm as life (Kafka/Reno/Narumi, Reno/Iharu, Kafka/Hoshina) - WIP 5/7

The revisions for this chapter involved reducing the instances of "annoying", "annoyed", "annoyance" to huh fewer than the original 15 times but probably still too many XD That's what Narumi inspires, I suppose ;)

Warm as life | Kaijuu No. 8 | Kafka/Reno/Narumi, Reno/Iharu, Kafka/Hoshina | 9k words (WIP, 5/7) | rated M

Summary: The new threat posed by No. 9 weighs heavily on everyone. Under these circumstances, emotions run high and what starts as a way of relieving stress can easily bloom into unexpected feelings. Some people find that easier to admit than others.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

d&d: aurendor

Aurendor D&D

To add to a previous posts on the subject, my cleric, Siân, has had a really, really, really bad couple of weeks in-game. Over the course of the last three weeks or so, she has:

( A list of bad things under the cut. )

Poor Siân really is well on her way towards a complete and total mental breakdown at the rate she's going.

Current Mood: sleepy

Entry tags:

d&d: aurendor

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 1/7 Game

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Entry tags:

dreamwidth: community thursdays

Community Thursday WOOOO

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week... I have apparently been very very active??! XD Had to check I didn't accidentally leave in my notes from last week!

Posted and commented on bnha_fans. Vigilantes season 2 started! :D

Commented on anime_manga.

Commented on candyheartsex (that is, did a canon promo for K-9 :D ACT SURPRISED, QUICK!!). You might still be able to sign up in time today?? In the next huh 10 minutes I guess good luck

Commented on goals_on_dw.

Commented on common_nature (heron! ice!)

Commented on threeforthememories, a comm that I look forward to seeing on my reading page every January. Consider this a signal boost, too!

Commented on getyourwordsout.

Commented on smallbatchicons.

Promoted octobercest, finalfantasy, friending_memes, snowflake_challenge.

Signal boosts:

findthatbook - I like plugging this comm because the more readers know about it, the more helpful it becomes... and also someone needs help right now!!
moodthemeinayear is starting up again, if you'd like to try your hand at creating a mood theme for Dreamwidth this year, together with a chill and supportive community :D There are various ways to go about it so it's not as overwhelming as it might first sound.
Via followfriday, there's a new comm for the Heated Rivalry folks around here :D gamechangerhr
Also cultivativity, a space for cultivating creativity but without the pressures that can come with a challenge, may be of interest to some of you here!

[red, gold, and green; red, gold, and green]

Five things about today:

1) I am very happy to have Josh Charles back on my TV
2) some days it's a very good thing to not have a chance to check the interwebs during the workday
3) morning walks are a LOT easier when it's warmish and sunny than when the temperature unequivocally says winter
4) my watch is telling me I'm asleep and I'm not sure it's wrong
5) apparently a song that I've loved for 40 years is about being gay and I didn't know lolol

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring

Somehow lacking a specific fandom icon.

Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

Of all the glimmers of Old Internet I come across these days, few made my jaw drop like TomCruiseFan.com did a couple years ago, because it'd been ages since I'd seen an honest-to-God tribute site - and my jaw dropped again when I saw how extensive and detailed it was. As much of a figure of fascination as Cruise is for me, the way people look at him - and I include myself in that - is its own subject worth examining, and beyond that, it's simply nice to see an old-fashioned fan's tribute site still kicking around. It pleases me to know there's still a few of those out there. The part of me that'd stay up late in college to browse screencap and icon galleries, especially.

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

sex, and slash sex scenes, and Heated Rivalry

kass recently reminded me of this post I made fourteen years ago(!) titled “sex, and slash sex scenes,” in which I discussed how

slash was the only genre of literature I had ever found [at the time I found it, circa 1989] that followed the characters into bed and back out of it; that investigated and demonstrated how the people they were outside of bed were connected to the people they were in bed; that modeled how to be with someone in everyday life, go to bed with them, and then wake up next to them and continue everyday life with them. In slash, "everyday life" wasn't differentiated from "sex life." Who people were outside of bed and during the day critically, obviously, demonstrably influenced how they behaved in bed with each other, and vice versa; but the characters never lost themselves or turned into different (wimpy wispy sappy) people because they had fucked. (Okay, sometimes they did, but those were the bad stories, the ones we mocked.) The two parts of life weren't disjunct; indeed, they were crucially connected, mutually influential, even indivisible. In fact, that indivisibility was often the whole point.

Kass wondered how this might relate to Heated Rivalry, which I continue to be moderately obsessed with. I’m really grateful to her for pulling this up (hi,

kass! Thanks!),

because I think it relates a lot.

HR has gotten a lot of press for being horny, for being extremely sexually explicit. (And hot. Which there's nothing wrong with. Fiction is often created with a goal of making the reader happy, or sad, or angry, or tense, along the way as part of the experience; "hot" is also a legit way for fiction to try to make the reader feel. Not that I think the people reading this need to be convinced of that!) But the sex is not "gratuitous" (i.e., existing only to make the reader hot); it is absolutely integral to the story being told. The way Shane and Ilya relate to each other through sex is what their relationship is built on. The long, detailed, explicit sex scenes are the places where they (and we) discover how they relate to each other: where Shane learns that Ilya may be an asshole but he is also scrupulously concerned with Shane's sexual consent, where Ilya is charmed by Shane's dorkishly careful folding of his clothes (the moment when, according to Rachel Reid, Ilya fell in love), where they learn to trust each other, to work together; and also where they are most vulnerable to each other and have to deal with that. (Or fail to deal with it. Cf. tuna melts, oh my heart.)

The sex scenes' importance as character development is illustrated in the negative by episode 3, the Kip and Scott episode. We get very little, comparatively speaking, of Kip and Scott in bed, because we don't need it. Kip and Scott have their own issues and concerns, but they're not sexual ones. We see them in bed so that we can see Scott say how into Kip he is, and his own moment of asking for explicit consent; and so that we can see a moment of them laughing together in bed, having fun, which I don't think we see Ilya and Shane doing until episode 6 ("Sir, I'm just the bellboy!"). Other than that we don't need to see the actual sex; the important sexual aspects of their relationship are conveyed by things like Scott flinging himself onto Kip on the couch (can I just say, those eyeglasses give me "sexy Daniel Jackson" vibes!) and by the "Can I fuck you?" "Absolutely" exchanges. The sex scenes in HR overall aren't "gratuitous," as demonstrated by the fact that, when they're not serving plot and character development, they're not there.

And it's illustrated even more in episode 5, which has no sex scenes at all, although Shane and Ilya have sex twice in it. The friend I did the Boxing Day marathon with commented, "We don't need to see the sex, now that they've learned to use their words," and I was like, "Yes! Words like 'Shane' and 'Ilya.'" And of course the sex in episode 6 is warm and playful and emotionally intimate in ways that they've never had before, and it's important for us to see that.

(Check out this paired gifset paralleling the ep 1 and ep 6 blowjobs: almost exactly the same moves, but one in a dark secret hotel room and one in the sunshine they both deserve. My heart.)

Basically, HR is the absolute quintessential of what I said in that 2011 post I was so glad to find in slash.

There are a lot of other reasons I love HR. I want to have the brain to post about its sound design at some point! But it is a god damn master class in telling a story involving, and through, sex.

(I lost some time trolling icon communities -- remember those? -- looking for a good HR icon, but none of the ones I found really worked for me. So I went with this one, because when the credits rolled on ep 6 as I finished my watchthrough with

dorinda, I punched the air and exulted, "My tax dollars at work!")

A higher power underground from seraph skies and now to chaos bound

It's Wednesday! We're at the halfway point of the week. Day 8 of whatever fucking bug this is. It's still going strong.

I'm so sick of coughing. It passed annoying and has moved into loathing. It doesn't seem to want to let go and I need it to leave now. It's had it's fun, I've coughed until I've gagged, that's it. I'm done with it. Yet here I am coughing. It's like this virus doesn't respect my boundaries at all. I actually went to the urgent care, only to get a pat on the head and a pack of steroids, which I don't want to take. They make me angry, and I don't like that. I always feel snappish and bitchy. I figure I'll give it til day 11 or 12. If it's still hanging around, I'll consider it.

I knew Urgent Care was a useless idea. Honestly, all I wanted from that visit was a codeine cough syrup. I did not get it.

It's a shame gummies aren't anti-tussive. That I can just get.

We'll see if my voice holds out today. Yesterday, it was getting very wispy, but we'll see how it goes.

We tried a new Yemeni restaurant called House of Mandi yesterday and the food was amazing. Very flavorful. I got what was basically a biriyani, called Chicken Zorbian. It was so good. I could actually taste it, which has been a bit of a problem from all the congestion.

Last night, our tea order from Whistling Kettle came. It was too late to try things, but I'm looking forward to trying the butterscotch or cotton candy tea today. Both smell amazing. I'm leaning towards the butterscotch, but we'll see.

I also got our salt order, which is lovely. I ordered from Saltverks, which is a company based out of Iceland. I ordered their flaky sea salt and their Arctic Thyme see salt. They're hand harvested, and taste lovely. I'm looking forward to feeling better so I can use them when I cook.

I also got a jug of the white chocolate mocha sauce from Fontana. It's the sauce that Starbucks uses, but the company is not at all affilliated with them. Thus, I can have my sauce and uphold the boycott. It's very tasty in my coffee this morning.

Lastly, we got an amazon order that had some little travel clocks in it. I've heard that during the Alaska cruise, your phone doesn't always sync with ship time, so it's important to have a clock that is independent of that. We have two clocks, one for the living room and one for the bedroom.

I don't think I have a whole lot else that we need to get for the cruise. I think we've got all our stuff.

I've got other packages coming this week. Nothing exciting, just some little things, though I do have slippers coming. My feet are always cold while I'm working, since my desk is by the window, so I thought I'd grab a pair of supportive slippers. Fed Ex says it's coming today, but I think maybe not, since the last tracking is in New Jersey.

Okay, time for me to relax and sip my coffee and hope it melts some of the gross snot in my throat. Everyone have a stupendous Wednesday!

Entry tags:

writing

Need to have a word with past-me

A couple of days ago, I dug out a Wind Breaker fic I've been puttering on since June last year... Honestly, it's just every single character involved in this panel losing their shit over what happened in that moment, because why should I be the only one suffering?! But anyway, slapping an ending on it has been hard, with a lot of false starts. I outlined another one that's meh and started writing it -- at some point, one just needs to finish things!! There are a lot of good lines in the first few chapters at least XD

Then this morning I went back to edit the kn8 fic, as usual. Once I was done, I checked the notes app on my phone because I'm going somewhere today that I haven't been to in a long time, and sometimes I leave myself tips about directions, how long it actually takes, things like that.

I scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled to try to find a note from around that time (which didn't actually exist btw), and stumbled across a detailed note with... an ending for that fic?! One that includes a super fun concept I'd never have thought of except apparently I did?! *shakes past-me* WHY DID YOU NOT TELL MEEEE?!?!!! Haha. I'll have to remove/adjust some of the stuff I wrote a couple of days ago because the characters are in different locations, but I really really want to use that idea now in some way now XD

Thank you past-me............ I guess?! Hahaha

Current Mood: thoughtful

Entry tags:

real life: d&d

On the D&D front...

It's been several weeks since I played any D&D at all, and I've missed it a lot.

My Wednesday game has been on break the last two weeks because of people having plans for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, which wasn't particularly unexpected once we realized both of those holidays fell on Wednesdays this year. We're supposed to be back this week, though, so hopefully nothing happens to push it back. 🤞🏻

... although that reminds me that I still haven't recorded the summary video of the last game. Oops. I should get that done during my lunch break so that I can get it uploaded.

My Friday game has been on hiatus since mid-October because A. the DM desperately needed a mental health break and B. a number of people were going to be unavailable in November and/or December. Right now, the plan is that we're going to start back next week. One player may still be unavailable for a while because of work reasons, but we've got a plan for where her character will be for a bit.

And then there's my Sunday game, which went on hiatus at the end of November. It's a bit more up in the air at the moment when it will start back. One of the players is in the middle of planning his wedding and another is currently in Ireland until the end of February, as they're visiting their boyfriend (and presumably soon-to-be-fiancé if things work out well) to see if living together more long-term works out. She also plans on moving to Ireland if things do work out, so making sure it's somewhere they could see themself living long-term is important too.

We took all of December off just because everyone's schedules were super busy, but as far as I'm aware the plan is that we might have some mini sessions here and there in January and February. We're doing a time skip in the game, so there's lots of opportunities for one or two characters to have some side adventures. Plus we can shift times and even days around a bit for those, depending on people's availability.

The plan is that we'll be back to playing regularly in March once the currently-in-Ireland player is back in the United States, but we'll see if that changes at all.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: Innocent - Our Lady Peace

Stand up on your own.

Challenge #3: Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favorite character, anything at all.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Dear Fandom,

You've changed. That isn't a bad thing. I'd go so far as to call it a good thing.

I remember when we met - properly, that is. Not the shy glances, not the vague hellos, the genuine, meaningful introduction. When I announced myself. I'd better remember it; I did it several times. You had to, in those early days. Everywhere we met, even if I already knew someone there, I had to introduce myself all over again. There was some fun to be had in that.

I remember when it was just us, you and me. At least, it felt like that. When I didn't dare speak your name and hid behind euphemisms and vague half-truths. When the party was small enough you could fit it onto one dance floor. When I think back on it, the excitement of being private and secretive, of having something all to myself, was a powerful feeling.

You're not my secret anymore. You've come roaring out into the world, with everyone aware of you and many people taking you seriously. There's power in that, too. I know I've known you longer than most people out there. It's still not something I want to explain. I don't think I should have to, and even with so many people knowing about you, I'd rather keep things quiet. They know you their way. I know you mine. The way I know you isn't just the way I remember you; it's the way I'm constantly getting to know you. There's things I can say about how you used to be - the phrases, the trends, the arguments of the day, the sudden new shiny thing appearing out of nowhere - and most of those things are pointless, because there's always going to be arguments and trends, with some of those arriving new and some simply wearing new clothes and I love that I've gotten to know you well enough to recognize which is which. To parse where the impulse comes from. To perceive the motivations. What's happening now would've happened back then and it'll happen in the future.

That's part of what I love about you that I've only recently fallen in love with. I couldn't have loved it back when we met. I didn't know you well enough.

I miss the thrill that came from knowing you, just from knowing you. But people meeting you for the first time are feeling that same thrill themselves. I've learned enough to know that. I've learned enough to love that people are always falling in love.

Best,
Hannah

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FIC: Capital of Emor (Tempestuous Tours)

Most travellers to the Emorian borderland take the opportunity to visit the capital of Emor, located immediately north of the borderland.

With walls higher and thicker than those of any other city in the Three Lands, Emor's capital looks from the outside to be a garrisoned fort. This appearance is deceptive. Once you pass through the heavily guarded gates, you will find yourself in a bustling city, full of trade and games.

My strong advice is that your first task should be to find a place to stay. The capital's inns are crowded year-round; the more crowded they are, the higher the prices they charge. If it is at all possible, see whether you can find an acquaintance to stay with – though I'm bound to say that the capital's residents are so used to "friends" showing up at their homes without notice that many of them now charge boarding fees almost as high as those charged by the inns.

You could easily spend a year perusing all the sights in Emor. I can only touch on a few of them here.

[Translator's note: The gates to Emor's capital feature in a spiritual vision in Death Mask.]

Entry tags:

dear purimgifts author

Dear Purimgifts Author

Dear Purimgifts Author,

Thank you so much for writing me a story! I love all of these things and I know that whatever you write for me, I will love it too.

In general I am a big fan of: chosen family, happy endings, competence, characters being awesome, theology, snark and banter, kindness. I'm happy with anything that feels right to you given the characters at hand. If you want to cross a given fandom over with Megillat Esther, or with Tanakh in general, that is always my jam. (But you don't have to if you don't want to.)

Write something that makes you happy, and it will make me happy.

Please, no betrayal or unquenchable angst or people being awful to each other or grisly death or anything like that. There's enough of that in RL. Thank you kindly.

In closing: yay Purim! Yay you! Thank you so much!

Kass

( My requests: Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal, Parks and Rec, The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn, Murderbot, The Diplomat, Stardew Valley )

For the dreams that you dreamt can become just as real as the blood that was shed

It's Tuesday! I survived Monday! Work was bugfuck busy, so I tried to limit the amount of time I spent off the phones doing callbacks. I ended up taking about 50 calls. By the end of that, my voice was drifting. I sounded kinda porn star-ish most of the day, my voice getting progressively more throaty. By 4:30, it was starting to fade out for a syllable here and there. So it would be "thank you for call--- Johns Hopk-- Radiology." It was kinda sad.

Patients were mostly nice though. And we got great news mid day in the form of an email asking if we wanted to do the same thing we did last year for MLK. Technically, we're closed, but because the sites are open, they asked for a few volunteers to work that day. You get time and a half, plus 8 hours of PTO put into your bank. 1. I can always make use of the money. 2. I can damn sure use the extra PTO! I'm going to be cutting it close for the cruise, but an extra day will loosen thing up just a touch. And it'll mean that in 4 weeks when I get that PTO, I can book out both of the Mondays I need. They're harder to get, so I want to do them first up. Then, I'll fill in the rest as we go. I hit reply on that email SO fast, and now I'm scheduled for 10hr that day.

Still feeling like ass today. Coughing, sneezing and congested. I am not enjoying this cold or whatever the fuck it is. It's tested negative for everything. I tried to get an appt last night to just touch base with the doctor, but she never showed up. I sat in the virtual meeting room for 45 min, and no doctor. I'm a little pissed about that. I'm going to call during my break and see what the fuck happened, and ask if my doctor can prescribe something for the nighttime cough. I'm tired of not sleeping.

Wow, the blue/green dress took that poll in a landslide victory! I have one more dress coming, but I think it'll be tough for it to top how flattering the green dress is on me. I'll put up another poll when it gets here, or at least a picture. I had kind of wanted a longer dress, but if I put on some nice tights, It'll look good. Plus, no pile of alterations! Thank you all for voting. (The Black dress will probably be coming on the cruise too for the gala night, so It'll get it's chance to shine.)

I'm debating on dining for the cruise. As part of the Have It All package, Jess and I got free dining credits to the specialty dining. The Morimoto pop up isn't part of the package, so we've got two specialty dining credits banging around. I'm tempted to book something else, but I don't know which one, and on which night. I kind of want to start and finish in Club Orange, which is the special dining room for suite passengers. Which leaves four nights we could do it. First sea night on Sunday, Tuesday in Skagway, Thursday in Ketchikan. Or, I could do it on our last sea night if I wanted to finish with a specialty.

As far as the cuisine, there's the steakhouse, or there's the French restaurant or there's the Asian fusion. Steakhouse would probably be better for everyone, but I also love French Food. I probably would skip the Asian, as we're doing Morimoto on Wednesday. I will think on this and look at menus.

Today is sure to be another busy day at work. We'll see if my voice holds out! For now, time to consider getting ready for work. Everyone have the very best Tuesday!

Entry tags:

my writing: fics: kn8

Kaijuu No. 8 fic update: Warm as life (Kafka/Reno/Narumi, Reno/Iharu, Kafka/Hoshina) - WIP 4/7

Warm as life | Kaijuu No. 8 | Kafka/Reno/Narumi, Reno/Iharu, Kafka/Hoshina | 7.3k words (WIP, 4/7) | rated M

Summary: The new threat posed by No. 9 weighs heavily on everyone. Under these circumstances, emotions run high and what starts as a way of relieving stress can easily bloom into unexpected feelings. Some people find that easier to admit than others.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

Entry tags:

Things I've Been Reading and Watching

1) "Bloomberg found that in areas near significant data center activity, wholesale electricity prices rose as much as 267% in a single month. After analyzing 25,000 “grid nodes” they found that more than 70% of those showing price increases were located within 50 miles of data center activity. With data centers forecast to account for 9% of all US power demand by 2035, the reporters said the “unprecedented granularity” of their data showed what is at stake for those living nearby this AI infrastructure."

Another data research story looked into climate change conspiracies, revealing "that hashtags were predominantly pushed by accounts with ties to oil interests in Gulf states and uncovered a coordinated effort to amplify climate conspiracy narratives through networks of automated and semi-automated accounts."

2) Been watching Celebrity Name That Tune and recently Christian Siriano was on it. In some ways this was the funniest one because neither he nor the other person were any good at identifying songs. By the second round they were tied and they ended up going through 4 tie breakers before he finally got one so that he could go on to the third round. Jane Krakowski ended up sitting down on stage while they went through song after song.

3) It's always great to celebrate new content in the public domain. It's still too little but major characters and works are now there, including Poirot and Miss Marple, Nancy Drew, Lord Peter Wimsey, various cartoons, art and music.

4) Cementing its reputation as worst company ever, Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off government pressure to crack down on scammers. This includes making "scam ads “not findable” when authorities search for them."

5) Amid so many retail closures and the growth of audiobook sales, bookstores were growing in 2025. "This year, 422 newly opened stores joined the American Booksellers Association — nearly a hundred more than joined last year. Barnes & Noble added 55 stores around the country and Books-A-Million added 18. By comparison, Books-A-Million opened seven new stores in 2024.Genre-specific bookshops are also thriving." This even though 40% of Americans read no books at all. However "Only 14% of Americans say they prefer to read digital books, but these are some of the country’s heaviest readers. 13% of them say they read 50 or more books in 2025, compared to 4% of those who prefer physical books and 5% of those who prefer audiobooks."

Poll #34050 Kudos Footer-554

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Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

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Kudos!
8 (100.0%)

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2025 in Books

It's the eleventh day of Christmas and high time to post this roundup.

2025 Reading Stats

144 books read, of which 12 were a reread
By gender: 45.5 (32%) by men, the rest by women and other genders
By race: 62 (45%) by people of color
By language: 28 (19%) in Japanese, 8 (0.5%) in translation
New books: 37 (26%) published in 2025
New-to-me authors: 27

…versus 2025 Resolutions

Read 125 books ==> Success! 144, an all-time high!
Read 25 physical books owned since 2023 or earlier ==> Success! 29
Read 35 books by authors of color ==> Success! 62
Read 10 books in translation ==> Fail
Read a volume of manga a week in Japanese ==> Well, I got closer than I have before?
Read all the comics bought before 2025, both physical and digital ==> Fail. But I did buy a refurbished 2021 iPad mini and reading comics on it in Kindle is a pretty good experience, unlike my old iPad which had been blinking off randomly for years. And I think I have done the physical part of it? Except for a few random bandes-dessinées I have lying around.

General Comments
I feel like I'm not entirely sure how I managed to read this many books (well, I read six Lumberjanes collections on the trains to and from New York on New Year's Eve, and I ruthlessly read a lot of novellas that had piled up in December), but I'm pleased about it. I'm especially pleased about reading so much manga, and also that I've gotten faster at reading Japanese again. Which is good because I still have so. much. manga to read. And I buy more every time I go to Japan. I'm also pleased about the physical TBR progress, which includes sorting a bunch of books lurking on the bookshelf for years into piles of "read this and then sell it back," which I will continue doing. Sadly Half Price in town closed because of landlord greed, so now I have to go to either Fremont or Pleasant Hill. Other than that, I did de-prioritize new books to focus on older ones, so there's a lot of good 2025 books that have piled up. Too many books, too little time!

Best of 2025

The Witch Roads and The Nameless Land (duology) by Kate Elliott
Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen
The Wall Around Eden by Joan Slonczewski
Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
Metal from Heaven by august clarke
Fuichin zaijian! (10 vols) by Murakami Motoka
Absolute Wonder Woman vol. 1 by Kelly Thompson et al.
Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill

2025 Reading Resolutions

Read 125 books
Read 25 physical books owned since 2024 or earlier
Read 35 books by authors of color
Read 10 books in translation
Read a volume of manga a week in Japanese
Read all the comics bought before 2025, both physical and digital

Current Mood: thoughtful

Entry tags:

real life: advent calendar

Advent Calendar: Cheese

I was able to grab a 12 day cheese advent calendar from Aldi for pretty cheap because I got it in mid-December so it was on sale by that point. They presumably thought it was too late to properly use it, but in my mind a 12 day advent calendar works great for starting it on December 25 vs. a 24/25 day advent calendar which starts at the beginning of the month and goes through Christmas.

So, hey, I ended up getting to have two advent calendars after all! I picked up with this one the day after I finished my Adagio tea one.

( Cheeses under the cut. )