castalie | Reading

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...

Posted and commented on bnha_fans.

Commented on journalsandplanners.

Commented on addme_fandom.

Posted on getyourwordsout.

Promoted anime_manga, bnha_fans, c_ent, booknook.

Signal boosts:

Via dw_community_promo, latam is a new multilingual comm centered on Latinx culture!
Folks asking for CSS help on ao3_skins, for the CSS-minded people out there who weren't aware of that comm :D (although I think the latest post might have been deleted since I saw it 🤔 but for next time!!)

settiai

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

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: accomplished

starwatcher

Grab them here.

Pass it on wherever you like.

starwatcher

Does anyone know Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles? Probably not; it goes back to 1979. But I listen to the "Oldies" station on the car radio, or if I want music in the house, and I've heard it often enough that I recognize it.

The entrance to the chorus (?) is a female voice singing, "Oh, ah-oh!" (At about the 30-second mark on the video.)

So Monday evening, I was out cleaning pump filters for the pond and water tubs, and a bird was calling nearby. I swear, part of his call matched the "ah-oh" in cadence and note-interval. (My ear isn't good enough to know if it was the right notes, or just the right relationship between notes.) It was distinct enough, and recognizable enough, that it immediately reminded me of the song, and there I was, trying to sing it.

(Unfortunately -- or maybe fortunately? -- I know only four lines of the song, two of which are, "Video Killed the Radio Star." LOL!)

I wasn't able to get a visual sighting of the bird, but it wasn't one I recognize by call. We don't have that many varieties of birds around here, and I know most of the calls. (House finch, dove, mockingbird, grackle, meadowlark, quail are most common.) It could have been passing through, heading for more northern latitudes. I'll be alert for hearing it again, but it could well have been a one-time occurrence.

Nothing big, here. Just a possibly interesting snippet of outdoor life in rural New Mexico.

writerlibrarian

Health

I would welcome some sunshine and warmth. It would help so much. Hurry up April.

Teacher stuff

Next week's class is done. I can rest a day or two and start on to the next. I have 3 classes left. Time flies. Next week's class is on Book clubs. It's a whole different whole of book clubs in the 21 century.

Reading

One of the homeworks my students had was to give me a reading recommendation of Nordic noir novel with little or no graphic violence with a police detective or amateur detective. I got one recommendation (the homeworks are not mandatory) and it fit so well with the request. I went through it in 3 days.

Sara Lövestam. Chacun sa vérité / The Truth Behind the Lie. This is noir just a little bit off on the psychological side. Original, stunning and completely not typical with a twist you might not see coming. I didn't. I'm starting book 2. There are 4 in this series.

Made some progress on These Violent Delights but got sidetrack by the noir novel.

I have Les carnets de l'apothicaire #7 and #8 waiting. #8 is coming out in English next week.

Watching

I do not normally watch k-drama. I find them very different and less to my taste than c-drama. But... I watched Love Scout last week-end since I am not going back to Pursuit of Jade until all the episodes are available. I liked it. It's green flag all the way and a nice grown up modern romance. But man, the villain characters male and female are really, really caricatures. Larger than normal and not in a good way. Still for the leads, the little girl, the book shop and the team of secondary characters of the FL business, it's worth a watch, Just fast forward the baddies parts.

I'm rewatching while cross-stitching You are my hero because I need some cute Bai Jing Ting, an atypical FL, a good Wang Yang (yes I still like his work even if I was disappointed by the whole Magnolia awards two years ago). I'm fastforwarding through the second leads romance, they are cute but second time around they are a little boring. The mature romance Wang Yang and Zhang Yao is much more interesting and lovely.

Crafting

My red fox is coming along I'm almost at 75% done.

My pyrography class last week was really nice. I even got myself a kit and will eventually do more.

Here my first piece. A tulip. I did a partial image transfer and worked on the shading and the lines.

starwatcher

Based on comments under his first entry, the guy who developed the app has made some changes and improvements. He added a "warrant canary," and expanded the map -- it now can toggle between "within 25 miles" and "all sightings." He also adds some computery-type identification that people can verify.

So, if folks were hesitant to try it before, check out the new post. It might answer your questions and concerns.

And again, feel free to pass this link and/or info on wherever you think it might be useful.

delphi

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

settiai

The Crow Contracts Exchange, a Dragon Age exchange focusing on the Antivan Crows, went live yesterday, and I just now got the change to read my gifts because of the craziness of everything.

I got not one, not two, but a whopping three amazing stories!

First up is Fourth Spaces, focusing on the gen relationships between Lucanis (and Spite) and Bellara, Lace, and Taash in a world state where Rook kept her distance from him. 2334 words.

Next is Gotta Kill Them All, focusing on the relationship between Lucanis and Spite. 520 words.

And last was One by day, one by twilight, a delightful Lucanis/Neve/Spite fic from Spite's POV. 7625 words.

Current Mood: excited

turps

It was a full week last week.

James had to take the rest of his annual leave or lose it, so only worked two days last week. And will only work two this week and then one next week, so score for him.

Which meant we got to get a lot done. One day we finally renewed our Beamish annual ticket and had our first visit there this year. We walked half the site, and had a really nice day in the spring sunshine. James did a post to his TikTok account if you want to see some of the site, that's here.

That same day we also picked up one of Re.F.Use's waste not fruit and vegetable boxes, and came home with a big crate of fresh food. I was the first person picking -- they leave the crates in a covered area, and you just pull up and pick up the one you want, so I went for the one that had a punnet of blueberries on top. Of course there were the usual lemons and grapefruit I never know what to do with, but mostly it was an excellent selection. The extra this time was each crate had a bunch of tulips on top and very pretty they were too.

Another day we went to the cinema to see Mother's Pride, and I enjoyed it lots.

On the not so enjoyable side, I came down with a horrible head cold, and started to declutter the garage which was a dirty and challenging job. But, a load of stuff went to the tip yesterday so we've made a start.

Saturday was another craft fair, and we actually made more than we spent this time, so things are going in the right direction. But, I must admit, after four Saturdays in a row, I'm glad we're having a break from craft fairs this weekend coming.

Rosie was also back, so I went to two classes. The weekend before Monday's class she sent a group message asking people not to ask her why she'd been off as it was complicated. Which, fair enough, I would have hoped no one would ask anyway, but she obviously needed that extra reassurance. Class went well, a bit awkward at times as she seemed a bit reluctant to chat as much as she used to. No doubt worried what people would say, but it was only a small group of people who've been with her for a very long time, so by the end things seemed back to normal.

Wednesday was the talk/exercise class plus we had a one to one after class, so I'll cut as I'm going to talk about weight stuff. ( behind here )

Class should have been this morning but wasn't on, though Rosie did stress this was a planned thing and everything will be back to normal from Wednesday. So I've been to the gym first thing, along with half the population of my town it seemed.

delphi

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

starwatcher

From this post in Daily Kos. "I built an ICE tracking app that can't be pulled from the App Store. Because it was never in one."

This person developed an app that tracks when ICE is present in the vicinity, and sends an alert to your phone. No cost. No ads. No presence in an app store for TPTB to pull it. Hosted in the Netherlands, so the US government can't issue a takedown order to the provider.

There's lots of discussion in the comments about "what if" and conversations about coding that I can't follow, but it might be reassuring to those on the fence... or maybe a red light. I don't know. But if you live in an area where ICE is -- or might be -- active, it's worth taking a look.

Forgot to say -- The developer wants news of this to spread as far as possible. So feel free to link to this post, or to the source post in DK, to share the information.

delphi

Continuing the queer short film recs, thanks to

muscle_wizard sharing this one in my last post:

Watch on YouTube

An older woman with a crush on someone in her circle approaches her younger co-worker for advice on how to ask out another woman for the first time. This really got me—charming and moving at the same time.

delphi

Dandelion is a very sweet short film starring Ava Lalezarzadeh as Margaret, a queer teen in the foster care system in the 1970s, and Vic Michaelis as Joyce, the volunteer trying to find her a new placement after she's kicked out of convent school. The short's a lovely standalone, but I was really happy to hear it's being made into a full-length movie!

Watch on YouTube

vriddy

300th fic posted on AO3 :D
(overall, I mean. Not just for K-9!!!!!!!!!! ;D Not yet 😌)

We've seen multiple times in canon now how Ren always waits for teenage girls to wake up after they get involved in Sin-related incidents usually way bigger than they are. Even if she has nothing to say, even if she knows her encouraging words won't be enough. She waits, says something kind, doesn't mind if she gets talked to rudely, then goes on her way, back to her work trying to fix all this.

Another thing I like to do when I'm tired of thinking about K-9 directly (haha as if) is trying to analyse the story structure, how information gets drip-fed to us, what kind of information. What questions are raised, which ones get answers, what new questions those bring up. I am enchanted. May I write such fascinating stories with fascinating casts when I grow up :D <3

Vigil | K-9 | Ren | 300 words | rated T

Summary: Ren always waits for the girls to wake up at the hospital afterwards, like no one did for her.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

vriddy

For a few months last year, I set up a weekly planning/review system related to my writing habits. I'm not totally sure when I stopped, but I think it might have been because I've internalised a lot of what I was learning. My goal was to teach myself to write more often, so I'd start the week's planning with "write 8 times this week" with the understanding that 15 minutes puttering around a project counts as a writing session (can be brainstorming, writing, editing, organising my notes if my brain struggles with the other things, so the project at least stays familiar in my head). I wish I could sustain like 4h writing marathons, but at this current point in my life, logistics and health stuff means longer sessions are just not happening. That's why I've been exploring whether writing more often can work for me.

As part of the planning, one of the questions I was told to write the answer for is "What are the obstacles?" That's something I always consider now. For example, if I have family visiting, am travelling, or preparing for a stressful presentation, whatever, it's going to affect my focus. So how am I going to mitigate that? Maybe it's fairer to plan for 5 sessions after all. Or maybe I should assume a session's length of 5 minutes is fair for that week, even if that means just spending 5 minutes rereading what I wrote before to keep the story alive in my head. Maybe both, maybe something else. Preparing and writing down the mitigations as part of the planning really helped me because I don't always think straight in the middle of it all.

Anyway, two obstacles I nearly always ended up writing down are:

Can't make myself focus
Can't make myself start

Like, I have a very good system for writing in the morning, it's part of my routine, but later in the day nearly always felt like bodyslamming against a wall. In the end, the solutions that turned out to be effective were the same for both. And after a while, I just printed them out so I have a poster with the list beside my computer! (Not that I always remember to look at it 🥲 but after a couple of days of sighing and doing nothing, my eyes will usually land on it and I'll go, oh!! Who knew!!!!!).

Anyway, here are the tips I landed on to mitigate this in a way that works well with my brain:

Sanctuary mindset
Deep breaths, 3-5 times
Quiet music with no lyrics. If that's not enough, same but with headphones.
Separate computer profile for writing
Wifi off

( Digging a bit more into the details and also why I think this works well for my specific brain and issues )

vriddy

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...

Posted and commented on

bnha_fans.

Commented on

add_a_writer.

Commented on

joicon.

Commented on

getyourwordsout.

Commented on

anime_manga.

Commented on

booknook.

Edit: Also signal-boosting

newcomers /

the_great_tumblr_purge where

soc_puppet has been posting helpful Dreamwidth tutorials, since the latest Tumblr hiccup (that TPTB since temporarily reverted) caused another surge of new people popping by Dreamwidth :)

settiai

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

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: accomplished

delphi

Fandom 50 #4

Continuing my list of fifty Canadian songs I love from the past fifty years, how could I kick off the '80s and not go for some pulpy lesbian new wave?

High School Confidential by Rough Trade

Watch on YouTube

delphi

The first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy just wrapped up, and man, that was a season of television that did my heart good.

I didn't initially think this show was going to be for me. Hopefully it goes without saying that this wasn't for any of the range of awful reasons people have wanted to hang a grievance or grift on it. Media with protagonists in their teens and twenties just usually aren't my thing, and so while I was glad to see Trek branching out, I went in aware I wasn't the target audience and figured I'd watch an episode or two to see if any of the older characters appealed to me.

Well, they definitely did. Free-spirited, complex, centuries-old school chancellor Nahla Ake might be my favourite character I've met this year. I am in love with her. The Doctor (from Voyager) and Jett Reno (from Discovery) are both back in supporting roles with some really wonderful scenes, and Jett has a hot and hilarious Klingon/Jem'Hadar wife (Lura Thok) who is definitely worth moving across the galaxy for.

But to my surprise, I also really love the kids! Not all the moments landed for me, but I ended up legitimately invested in their coming-of-age stories and journey into becoming a little family. I don't want to spoil some of the things I loved, but I am always here for mentorship, adoptive parent-child relationships, and queer romance, and I wasn't disappointed. Add in some good solid science fiction and a lot of classic Trek optimism and belief in the work of building a better world, and this was exactly what I needed right now. My only real complaint is that it was such a short season.

Watch on YouTube

settiai

It looks like the Buffy the Vampire Slayer sequel that was in development isn't going to happen after all.

But apparently Firefly of all things might be getting an animated series set between S1 and the movie.

Current Mood: surprised

Profile

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January 2023

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Page Summary

vriddy - Community Thursday
settiai - Aurendor D&D: Summary for 3/24 Game
starwatcher - Cozy Mystery sale through March 29
starwatcher - Birds singing oldies
writerlibrarian - What I'm doing Wednesday
starwatcher - Update to anti-ICE tracking app
delphi - Post and Jam: Field Behind the Plow by Stan Rogers (1981)
settiai - Crow Contracts Exchange
turps - (no subject)
delphi - Six Sentence Sunday
starwatcher - Anti-ICE tracking app
delphi - What's Making Me Happy Today: Sew into You (2025)
delphi - What's Making Me Happy Today: Dandelion (2025)
vriddy - New K-9 fic: Vigil (Ren)
vriddy - My tips for improving my writing focus and/or helping myself get started
vriddy - Community Thursdayyyy
settiai - Aurendor D&D: Summary for 3/18 Game
delphi - Post and Jam: High School Confidential by Rough Trade [1980]
delphi - What's Making Me Happy Today: Starfleet Academy
settiai - Didn't see that coming.

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Style: Modernity for Line Up by timeasmymeasure

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Page generated Mar. 28th, 2026 05:11 am

Her Life is a WIP

You Don't Go to Hell for a Being a Lesbian or a Slasher. Only for Being Lame

Reading

Community Thursday

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 3/24 Game

Cozy Mystery sale through March 29

Birds singing oldies

What I'm doing Wednesday

Update to anti-ICE tracking app

Post and Jam: Field Behind the Plow by Stan Rogers (1981)

Crow Contracts Exchange

(no subject)

Six Sentence Sunday

Anti-ICE tracking app

What's Making Me Happy Today: Sew into You (2025)

What's Making Me Happy Today: Dandelion (2025)

New K-9 fic: Vigil (Ren)

My tips for improving my writing focus and/or helping myself get started

Community Thursdayyyy

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 3/18 Game

Post and Jam: High School Confidential by Rough Trade [1980]

What's Making Me Happy Today: Starfleet Academy

Didn't see that coming.

Profile

January 2023

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