Reading

Entry tags:

my day

Beads have arrived!

I lost the beads I was going to use for the two crocheted necklaces. (I think it's safe to say in *this* venue that I got commissioned to make a second one, and the second one is going more smoothly than the first one in all respects so far.)

Since the replacement beads included ones shipped from Czechoslovakia, I've been nervous that I won't be able to finish on time. (Which I still probably won't, but I can make An Effort now.)

The last of the replacement beads arrived today, and I am very happy with this. Will I get cracking on it? Well, probably not today.

Additionally, it's been a not as terrible as usual leg day. Hooray for physical therapy (and remembering to do it), and hooray for pain meds. (Yesterday I completely spaced my pain meds until bedtime. Surprised Pikachu was surprised at how horrible a leg day it was.)

Entry tags:

12/14/2025 Crab Cove, Elsie Roemer, and Garretson Pt

This is Christmas Count season, when everyone is out finding unexpected birds, so today rather than meeting in Tilden we went looking for two of them, a Yellow-billed Loon and a Green-tailed Towhee, with mixed success. The loon was amazing and easy to see, a walk-up in that as we walked out to the point at Crab Cove a birder called out, she's coming towards you, she'll be there in two minutes! And there she was, a huge loon, lighter than a Common Loon overall, with a big, ivory-colored bill, so close to shore I didn't need bins. She more than made up for some of the birds we've dipped on recently. There were other good birds there, in particular an Eurasian Wigeon, something I always look for in a flock of American Wigeon. And of course a Spotted Sandpiper. ( The first list: )

I'd seen one back in 1976 but I never made an historical ebird entry for it. I'm pretty sure I didn't see it so well as I saw this one, so that was very satisfying. Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary is on the way to Garretson Point so we stopped briefly. The tide was still high but there was a nice selection of shorebirds including a large flock of Dunlin flying around, and Forster's Terns lined up on a distant breakwater, each one exactly the same distance from the next. ( The second list: )

The second rare bird was the Green-tailed Towhee at Garretson Point, part of MLK Jr Regional Shoreline. U saw the bird, Chris got a glimpse, and I missed it entirely, not an unusual result.:) ( The third list: )

But I saw my first Ruddy Duck of the season, surprisingly late. And on the way back to the car we were treated to a small flock of Black Turnstones on an even smaller rock yelling at each other. They are very loud.:)

Entry tags:

Enough of my yappin'. Let's start the links!

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

Current Mood: amused

Entry tags:

ficathon: yuletide

Yuletide

The deadline is officially in less than 48 hours at this point. I'm not quite at the point where I'm properly worried yet, but that may be coming by this time tomorrow depending on how much fic writing I'm able to get done between phone calls at work tomorrow.

Still, I try to save the proper panic for the minus 12 hours and counting point, so I still have plenty of time before that arrives. It's fine. Compared to some previous years, I'm doing significantly better already.

Current Mood: creative

Entry tags:

FIC: When Trouble Came (Avengers, Steve/Tony, E)

When Trouble Came (87848 words) by Sineala
Chapters: 16/16
Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Fix-It, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Pining, Depression, Getting Together, Romance, Love Confessions, Suicidal Thoughts, Alcoholics Anonymous, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Drug Addiction, Past Drug Use, Past Child Abuse, Post-Marvel Comic Event: Secret Empire (2017), Post-Marvel Comics Event: AXE Judgment Day (2022), Comic: Avengers Vol. 8 (2018)
Summary: After the defeat of the Progenitor, Tony is surprised to find that Steve has changed his mind and would now like to take him up on his offer to relax in the hot springs. Steve, more depressed than Tony has ever seen him, would like to compare notes on their respective judgments and find out how Tony's been doing in his newly-sober life. He'd also like to reveal a few long-held secrets about his feelings for Tony -- and there's more than one surprise here.

Remember me? I used to write fic! This is mostly unedited, but also it's been sitting here for about three years and I mostly just wanted it off my hard drive. Thanks to Blossom for cheerleading this while I was writing it.

This is about 90,000 words of meta disguised as fic, about Judgment Day and about how much I hate Cantwell's Iron Man run. Steve and Tony spend this entire story conversing in the Avengers Mountain hot springs. Then they fuck. That is the actual plot. There is also a short epilogue from Steve's POV, coming soon. They go to a different room for that one.

(When I say "short," I mean "35,000 words.")

Entry tags:

Rec-cember Day 15: Firefly

A quick one, because tonight I'm shattered. In the unlikely event someone isn't familiar with the show or the movie, Fanlore has a good rundown.

My main ship back then was Mal/River (now that I'm older I'm slightly squicked by the age difference though River is so much more powerful that Mal that this redresses the balance a little), so my recs reflect this. Also, Firefly seems to be the little black dress of crossovers, as it goes well with any fandom. I remember reading loads of very fun crossovers, unfortunately I had only a handful saved in my bookmarks.

No Power In the 'Verse by vialethe. 24K words. Mal/River. Having no choice but to feel, River cherishes all the more deeply the ability to act. If only she knew what action to take." A believable and gorgeously written take on this unlikely pairing. Very good River voice, which must be a bitch to get right.

I Fall by Kass/River. River knows what she wants. Probably the first story that made me fall for this pairing. It's adorable how persistent River has to be and how flustered Mal is.

Whiskey and Wry by musesfool Mal/River. There's a difference between what a man wants and what he knows is right. Exquisite yearning, lovely character voices.

Good Luck Charms by Nary. Pre-series Wash/Zoe. Lovely backstory for one of the best married couples in TV.

And Then It Went all F*ing Stargate by **indyhat. Firefly/Generation Kill. Gen. Spot-on character voices. Hilarious.

The Pitt

never waste a Friday night by morphosynctactic. Trinity/Whitaker. Don't hit the back button! I know this have siblings vibes. Yet this works. It's tremendously in character. And hot. And sweet. And hilarious. You would think that sleeping with Trinity Santos (who isn't actually that into him) would rip Dennis' self-esteem to shreds. But it turns out that when she texts him "i thought your dick was going to be kind of weird but it’s pretty solid” and "your fingerblasting is adequate" he knows that's the truth and nothing but the truth.

Watched the weather report today.

Today's temperatures: Started below 20, "feels like" in the single digits. But not to worry, within a week we should be in the 50s!

And they just said that, with no commentary, like it's not absolutely bizarre to go from 19F - 56F within a single week in December.

And it's not just the high temperatures that are bizarre, the low ones are too. I can't speak to the decades before 1990, I guess, but NYC weather used to be temperate - we got more snow, but that's because the winter temperatures were in the snow range - close to the freezing point, not so warm it melted, not so cold that it just didn't happen.

Update

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

Entry tags:

General Hospital icon Anthony Geary dies at age 78

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

Current Mood: apathetic

Wake Up Dead Man

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Entry tags:

genre (and not) links

Director Rob Reiner dead at age 78

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

Two buses canceled in a row

and I had to take a car, which I can not afford. At least the corner store hadn’t shut down and the cashier let me wait inside. Either he’s very friendly and chatty or he’s flirting with me, but the important thing is I still have all my toes.

Entry tags:

lamplighters,
llg

To Write

In my current project, here are the bits I need to write before I am done with this chapter (I have been so close to finishing for two months now; I've just been short on time and mental mana):

The political route
- Finish the conversation with Damithi, which is a three part thing. First, the MC interjects during Damithi's convo with reporters. Then, Damithi and the MC play a game of Truth. Finally, if the MC impresses during the game, Damithi hands over what the MC wants. (If the MC doesn't impress, they get a partial victory instead).
- Plan and write the conversation with Erim Kyte. This one should be harder than Imaric's, but easier than Damithi's.
- Plan and write the blackmail scene with Erim's paramour.

Plan and write the council meeting and the vote on Feylon's plan. At some point during this meeting, I need a good enough cliffhanger to entice readers to buy the book. That cliffhanger will likely be the announcement of the vote results.

Double-check my logic to make sure everything is resolved correctly.

Test for errors

It both is and isn't a lot. I just need to sit down and write.

Current Mood: sad

Entry tags:

celebrity: death

RIP Rob Reiner

The news broke a little while ago that Rob Reiner and his wife were found dead in their home.

Based on several articles, it looks like it's being investigated as a possible (or maybe probable would be the better word if the rumors some sites are reporting are true?) homicide.

Entry tags:

auspol

and the hits just keep coming

Work is gonna be slightly stressful the next three weeks. Apart from managing two systems until mid-January (and three for the 10 days after Christmas), they've instigated KPIs on basic tickets, and at least two of mine went overtime, in part because I was waiting for someone to get back to me. *grr*

I hate waiting for people to get back to me.

--

The shooting at Bondi Beach - a public Channukah event was targeted, one of the shooters was non-white, one of the members of the public who disarmed him (and was shot twice but survived) was middle eastern. Reports debate whether he was a Christian or a Muslim: the name suggests Muslim, his country background suggests Christian. Of course the cookers are already calling for a halt to immigration and trying to start up the culture wars again, the conservatives are yelling at our PM (centrist party), and the "anti-semitism adjudicator" has once again used this to basically declare that if you're not 100% for Israel in everything then you're antisemitic.

a few thoughts

It shouldn't need saying but we say it all the same.

Was the shooting at Bondi antisemitic? Absolutely.

Is disavowing Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza in the removal of/bombing of/cruelty towards Palestinian locals antisemitic? Not even close.

I'm hoping Ahmed el Ahmed is Muslim, at the very least for the optics. Nevertheless, whatever his background, he's definitely a hero to the majority of Australians, and I suspect the fruit shop he runs will be well-frequented in the coming months and he will never need to pay for a meal while out for the rest of the summer.

Whatever faith or origins are revealed of any of the players, this was an awful day for all Australians who aren't cookers (Americans would call them RWNJs). Fear breeds distrust, and events like this breed both copycats and retaliation, and tear at the fragile fabric of our communities and our societies.

And the gun control argument is going to be so fucking stupid, too. The 2A Seppos are all in our faces jeering about us having gun violence, too, and the old "good guy with a gun" shit is coming out of the woodwork - never mind how many people are pointing out that the guy who did successfully disarm one of the gunmen wasn't armed. And the cookers just want violence to justify their itty bitty penii and their terrible self-esteem (cause they can't get jobs when the coloureds take the opportunities)...

God have mercy on us. All of us.

--

A friend tested positive for COVID after we had dinner together (with some other friends) on Saturday night. She thinks she got it at her work Christmas Party on Thursday.

--

I'm standing for the presidency of my permaculture club again, with an eye to changing the way things are done - they're not working for us as a volunteer-based organisation anymore.

Of course, the COVID diagnosis means I'm not going to tonight's meeting with the election. I'll try to put together a short video talking about the forward vision for the club. IDEK.

Anyone want anything?

Anyone want anything? Drabble, meta, rant, ridiculous lyrics that scan to I Had A Little Driedel, complete bullshit about a topic I know nothing about, etc? ;)

(These posts don't expire.)

Entry tags:

vital functions

vital functions

Reading. ( Scalzi, Bourke, Barber + Bayley, Boddice, Cowart )

Writing. I have a document that contains the outline and extensive transcribed quotations for the Descartes apologia! ... it's already over 5000 words long! And that's before I even get into the argument about Against New Dualism! I think. It is going to wind up needing to be split into two essays. One of which is the quotations about How People Summarise Descartes + What Descartes Actually Said, and the second of which will then be the polemic about how you don't get to rail against mind-body dualism if you then replicate it unfailingly with commitment to the absolute separation of central sensitisation and peripheral nociception. With the former as non-essential background reading for the latter...

Watching. Encanto, courtesy of The Child. I had retained approximately none of the plot from the Encanto-flavoured Baby Yoga we did together recently, happily, and also I Did A Cry. (I am also genuinely impressed that "fish is in terrible bowl" was an indication of where things were going...)

Listening. The Instructions For Getting To The Child, while cycling, via the bone-conduction headphones. V pleased.

Playing. The Little Orchard avec Child! Using some definite House Rules. Also being Someone With Long Arms for various self-directed play. I continue to be told Many Numberblocks Facts. :)

Eating. I put in an order with Cocoa Loco, maker of My Favourite Chocolate For A While Now, for the purposes of A Convenient Present; I also acquired, because Why Not, a single brownie portion and the cocoa nibs & hazelnut bar. I'm not sure I think the cocoa nibs particularly enhance the experience but I do like the Good Dark Chocolate With Hazelnuts of it all; I think I prefer My Default Brownie Recipe to their brownie BUT I also think that having a bag-safe well-wrappped calorie-dense food was extremely valuable in the context of some of this week's more questionable adventures, and I did enjoy it a great deal while I was, you know, inhaling it.

Exploring. BIG HECKIN BIKE RIDE. Many fewer birds along the canal than last time I did that route (on an unseasonably warm day in April); extremely excited to confirm that Walthamstow Wetlands is Within Scope for a trip At Some Point, though possibly not until it's warmer again.

And then today I learned of the existence of and attended an event at the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre, just across the bridge from Blackfriars, which they blurb as "The London LGBTQ+ Community Centre is a sober, intersectional community centre and café where all LGBTQ+ people are welcome, supported, can build connections and can flourish." They have comfy sofas and a permanent clothes swap and a wee library and a very large bookshelf full of boardgames, and a whole bunch of structured social groups as well as walk-ins. I am charmed, I am pleased with my purchases (including MORE BULLSHIT CERAMICS), and I... am contemplating maybe actually getting myself out to some more of their events, not just when I have a friend visiting from abroad who suggested Attending A Market.

Entry tags:

Rec-cember Day 13 : Suits

This is not a fandom I was much obsessed with. The tv show was all right, in its early seasons at least, eminently watchable. Not something I've ever wished to revisit. However I remember enjoying some of the fic back in the day.

Only one has withstood the test of time. needs must by thatotherperv. 98K Harvey/Mike. Extremely explicit. When Grammy needs an upgrade in care, Mike knows that the usual one-off gig as a paid submissive won't be enough. He takes a job he's been refusing for a while - a long-term, full-time contract. He expects his client to be a sadistic asshole. He expects not to like it. He's wrong on both counts. It's an AU where Mike is a prostitute. Dom/sub. Now, BDSM is totally not my cup of tea, but this fic does such a great job of explaining this dynamic that I could totally see the appeal. Also, everything is perfectly in character. And there's lots of plot (the first two seasons are basically re-written, IIRC). And emotional growth. Plus, it comes in podfic form too, read by the crazily-talented dodificus. I lost count of how many times I listened to this story and every damn time it grabs me by the throat and never lets me go for the whole 11 hours of it.

I quite like Donna/Harvey as a pairing, unfortunately it was never very popular in the fandom. I remember being so happy when I found this little gem: Happy To See Me by Zinnith (I originally had bookmarked on LJ, just to give you an idea of how old some of my fic recs are; it was easy enough to track down in the Ao3 too, though). Great character voices and lovely, lyrical prose.

The Pitt

One of the aspects that made the previous Dom/sub story work for me was how explicit and detailed the kink negotiation was. That reminded me of an excellent fic that hinges on that very concept in this fandom: Red Light, Green Light by avocadomoon. Now, it's avocadomoon, the BNF author for Kingdon, so I don't think I have to say more. Her fic are consistently the ones with the highest number of hits on the Ao3 for a reason. Anyway, for my DW friends who are not into the Pitt, this story features Mel and Langdon becoming friends-with-benefits. I'm making this sound boring. It's so much fun. I always giggle when I re-read certain parts.

Current Mood: excited

Entry tags:

ficathon: the joining exchange

The Joining Exchange

The Joining Exchange, a Dragon Age exchange focusing on Grey Wardens that just started this year, went live a little while ago. I got not one, not two, but three lovely gifts this year!

First up is Something Out Of The Ordinary, set during Dragon Age: Inquisition and featuring Alistair/Cullen Rutherford/Female Surana. 23,267 words.

Next is L’Hymne à L’Amour, set prior to Dragon Age: The Veilguard and featuring Antoine/Evka Ivo. 3,142 words.

And then there's in on it, set after Dragon Age: The Veilguard and featuring Antoine/Ashur | The Viper/Evka Ivo/Tarquin. 1,539 words.

The sun's going down, so Happy Hanukkah pretty soon?

Poll #33957 Chag sameach!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

But really, how do you spell it in English?

View Answers

Hanukkah
25 (71.4%)

Chanukah
6 (17.1%)

Hanukah
1 (2.9%)

Something else
3 (8.6%)

Also, please take a poem

Edit: Also, also, two videos