(no subject)

Dec. 7th, 2025 09:49 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Care and Feeding,

My sister openly doesn’t like me (and has said so publicly and directly), though we manage well enough for family events. I get along with my brother and his wife, but they are horrible at communication and interact with my sister more frequently. My dad gets along with all of us and is good at communication, but lives in denial of all weird family dynamics.

Around every holiday season or major family function, I get left out of crucial information regarding plans, transportation, emergency changes, etc. One consistent hurdle: Brother or Dad tells Sister something and assumes she will pass it on to me, and she doesn’t. I have explicitly told them both to stop doing this, and they just forget, leaving me scrambling when they ask why I haven’t RSVP’d/contributed to a group gift/etc. On the flip side, neither of my siblings is particularly good about getting back to me when I reach out to them, so asking directly doesn’t help either. (Brother and his wife are notoriously bad at responses with everyone, so it’s not personal, just frustrating.) One workaround I’ve discovered is to ask Dad to reach out on my behalf, because that guarantees an actual response, but it’s irritating that I have to resort to that to get basic information like, “What time do you expect me to arrive at your house?” Is there anything I can do to make this easier?

—It’s Mean Girls Meets Finding Dory


Read more... )

Absence, sweet absence

Dec. 7th, 2025 02:05 pm
dolorosa_12: (beach path)
[personal profile] dolorosa_12
This weekend ended up being a lot less eventful than originally planned, due to the combination of the week-long slow build-up to a cold finally descending with a vengeance upon me, and the relentlessly rainy weather (it's currently pouring). Other than a quick trip out to the market for food truck lunch and mulled wine yesterday, therefore, I've mainly been ensconced in the house, watching a film (The Killer, the absolute definition of style over substance in which a contract killer in Paris baulks at killing an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of a hired hit job, and things spiral from there), reading, editing Yuletide fic, and watching biathlon.

This week's reading )

I have another talking meme prompt for today, this one from [personal profile] vriddy: an anecdote involving an animal or pet.

This is a very Australian story )

I do also have a bunch of stored up links, but I think I might leave that for a later post. I hope everyone's been having nice weekends!

To-read pile, 2025, November

Dec. 7th, 2025 01:48 pm
rmc28: (reading)
[personal profile] rmc28

Books on pre-order:

  1. Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May 2025)

Books acquired in November (and all read!)

  1. Testimony of Mute Things (Penric & Desdemona) by Lois McMaster Bujold
  2. Goalie Interference (Austin Aces) by Kim Findlay [7]
  3. After Hours at Dooryard Books by Cat Sebastian

Books acquired previously and read in November:

  1. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
  2. Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
  3. Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
  4. Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan [May 2016]

Borrowed books read in November:

  1. Murder at the Grand Raj Palace (Baby Ganesha 4) by Vaseem Khan [3]

Rereads in November:

  1. Heated Rivalry (Game Changers 2) by Rachel Reid
  2. Tough Guy (Game Changers 3) by Rachel Reid
  3. Common Goal (Game Changers 4) by Rachel Reid
  4. Role Model (Game Changers 5) by Rachel Reid
  5. The Long Game (Game Changers 6) by Rachel Reid

Yes there's a TV adaptation of Heated Rivalry, no it's not available (legally) in the UK yet, also I have had no time to watch it even if it were. But watching it is very definitely in my future plans.

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

November books

Dec. 8th, 2025 12:33 am
littlerhymes: (Default)
[personal profile] littlerhymes
Artists in Crime - Ngaio Marsh
The Chosen and the Beautiful - Nghi Vo
Ocean's Echo - Everina Maxwell
Foxhole Court - Nora Sakavic

small month )

Pumpkin Patch Results

Dec. 6th, 2025 11:44 pm
luminousdaze: The Minions 2015 movie, a smiling one-eyed Minion is dressed as a Dracula (Minions #2)
[personal profile] luminousdaze in [community profile] iconthat
Congrats everyone! 🎉🎈🏅 Thank you to all the participants and voters.
The tally when needed is in the comments of the voting post.
If you would like an award banner for this challenge, please comment below & request one.

Challenge 198: Pumpkin Patch Six - Winners

1st Place icon
by [personal profile] abyss_valkyrie

2nd Place icon
by [personal profile] wickedgame

3rd Place icon
by [personal profile] picnicnic

4th Place icon
by [personal profile] wickedgame

Best Color icon
by [personal profile] magicrubbish

Best Crop icon
by [personal profile] tinny

Best Composition icon
by [personal profile] abyss_valkyrie

Mod's Choice icon
by [personal profile] spiderbraids


asakiyume: (feathers on the line)
[personal profile] asakiyume
Still not as online as I'd like to be, but here are some easy things to share. First, tendrils!

I planted some seeds from a passion fruit and got some seedlings, and I noticed the other day that they'd started sending out tendrils. Here one tendril is reaching round a ginger leaf:

passion fruit tendril reaching round a ginger leaf

I broke off a dried asparagus fern skeleton from the outside garden and brought that in for the passion fruit to climb on instead:

passion fruit seedling curling round a dried asparagus fern skeleton

And then I thought everyone could enjoy "Nope," demonstrated both by enlarged emoji and by Little Springtime. It was in my old hometown's public library for a display of picture books about saying no to stuff.

little springtime and nope sign

Now the verbal images. I was at R's place because I was going to take her and her kids to get green card photos, and I'd taken off my boots in the apartment. The boots are tall--they go to my knees. Her younger son looked at them standing by the door and said, "They're like military boots," and demonstrated marching. Which, wow. You compare a thing to things you're familiar with. I've been told the refugee camp these guys were in was close to active fighting.

And this last isn't so much an image as a metaphysical something-something. Or a failure of Google Translate. Or both. At a different point in the day, R and I were waiting in my car for her kids to get off the bus, and she typed a question into Google translate. I could see the English words change and rearrange themselves as she rephrased and added to the Tigrinya. The final result was:

How do I know what I don't know?

I wrote back, That's a very big question!

I think, based on her efforts to narrow down what she was asking, that she wanted to know about cars, about eventually getting a car, but the 10,000-foot-level question was a great one.

on the first roll of the dice

Dec. 6th, 2025 08:25 pm
musesfool: danny and rusty  (and the living is easy)
[personal profile] musesfool
I was so glad to log off last night and put a period on this work week. This morning, I had to be up for the cleaning service at 9 am, and they told me the company is closing, but the team who has been cleaning my place for the last 7 years is going out on their own and wants to keep me as a client, so I will get in touch with them in the new year to set up the new arrangement. I hope it all goes smoothly!

I also made another 2 lbs of candied pecans, so I have six jars filled and have to wash the other jars so they can also be filled.

Then I took a nap that felt way longer than it was, and so even though it's only like 8:20 I keep thinking it's 11:30 pm or something. Time is so weird.

*

Challenge 199: Film Fandom Fest

Dec. 6th, 2025 04:56 pm
luminousdaze: Kiri from Avatar: The Way of Water (Movies Sci-Fi #1)
[personal profile] luminousdaze in [community profile] iconthat
Challenge 199
The new theme is...
Film Fandom Fest
🎥 🎬 🎞️
For this one we can create icons of movies. Movies for this challenge means any film that was released in theaters, or that was released via web streaming media service or that was first released on television as a film but that is not part of TV series or a miniseries episode.
Please no movies that are documentaries, recorded stage shows or sporting events.
🍿📽️ 📼
Film Fandom Five
If you want make the challenge tougher you could try a making a matching but different set of five icons.
Ideas: One Film Each from 2020-2025, One Actor or Director 5 Different Movies, One Character in 5 Different Movies, Top Five Fave Films of `25, Five Disney Movies, Five Star Wars Movie Characters, and so on.
This is optional for amusement.

Inspo Icons. ... )
Challenge Guidelines, Directions & Rules... )

Update to a fustercluck

Dec. 6th, 2025 12:59 pm
ysobel: (Default)
[personal profile] ysobel in [community profile] agonyaunt
[Originally posted in chat; I have added paragraphs for readability]

My brother has organized an ill-advised surprise party for my father's 75th birthday.

Our father is a complete introvert and also very exacting. He likes things to be a certain way, and gets tense and angry if everything is not perfectly to his taste. He hates loud places and large groups of people. Unfortunately, he's always used excessive alcohol to handle social engagements and gets belligerent when drunk.

Because of all of this, I was surprised when my brother, "James" told me that he'd planned a surprise birthday party of 30 guests for my dad at a new restaurant. The guest list includes the following extremely awkward confirmed attendees: our aunt (dad's semi-estranged sister) who is an overbearing religious fanatic none of us can stand; our mother (dad's ex-wife) who is resented by our dad and hated by our aforementioned aunt because of the divorce; and a number of neighbors who our dad has been feuding with off and on for the last 20 years.

I asked my mom why she was going along with this and she said James called in a big favor she owed him and she felt like she couldn’t say no, so he’s pulling out all the stops to make this happen.

I don't know how James could possibly think this is a good idea, except that he has a huge ego and believes this will be some fairy tale reunion where everyone will suddenly make nice. I don't mean that James is a bad guy but he has a tendency to steamroll over people and do things "for their own good." Every argument I've made against this party has prompted him to lecture me and act like he knows so much better because he's 7 years older than me.

It's true that my Dad can be difficult but I don't want him to feel ambushed on his birthday. If James keeps refusing to cancel should I warn my dad? Or do I just kick back with a glass of wine and watch the drama unfold?


response and update )
falena: cropped  image of waterloo tube station sign, reading only 'loo' (london)
[personal profile] falena

This is a trilogy of historical m/m romances by KJ Charles, the queen of the genre. Now, anything penned by KJ Charles is a cut above anyone else's, imho,  so if you haven't read anything of hers, you totally should. Characterisation, plot, intrigue, smut, excellent writing, her books have it all. The Will Darling Adventures are set in London in the 1920s. It's a spy/action series with an amazing love story at its heart, where the conflict is absolutely real and the characters have an emotional growth arc across the three books. It's the most satisfying kind of romance. You will fall in love with the two MCs, it's impossible not to. Once you've finished the books you'll be left wanting more, so here's some fic to tide you over. These are all Kim/Will, with a touch of DS/Archie, and won't make much sense unless you've read the books, I'm afraid. Btw, the audiobook version of the books, narrated by Cornell Collins, is just sublime. 

the world is but a word. 1.6K words. Will was speaking with a customer when Sir Archibald Curtis walked into his bookshop. A lovely little vignette. Podfic availbale, though I haven't listened to it yet. 

scrape out what's left (at the end of the year). 2.2K words. The drive to Holmclere was uneventful, leisurely, and most importantly: not completely overshadowed by one or both of them being framed for murder. At least it had that going for it. Lovely epilogue for the whole seriesscrape out what's left (at the end of the year). 

one shade the more. 3.9K words.Perfect Will and Kim voice, their banter kills me. 

The Pitt

detect my sudden existence on your sonar by [archiveofourown.org profile] Lirazel . 25K words Mel/Frank. Mel thought everything would get easier when he came back. Instead, it's a new kind of torture. This fic is, to me, the definitive take on Mel's POV. I'm not on the spectrum, I've little experience with people who are, so I may as well be talking out of my arse, but reading this story is just such an immersive experience, ti does such an excellent job of sucking you in and making you feel like you're living it all as Mel would. And the pining is exquisite. So good it's almost unbearable. Gah. 

New story in anthology -- out now!

Dec. 6th, 2025 03:29 pm
genarti: Ocean water with text "no borders, no boundaries." ([misc] no boundaries)
[personal profile] genarti
I have various longer posts to make (job transition news, a write-up of a truly hilarious theater experience, etc), but in the meantime, a quick post to let you know that the Murderfish anthology, which I have a story in, is now officially out and available for purchase!

Murderfish is, as it says on the tin, an anthology of stories about murderous fish. (Its predecessors were Murderbirds and Murderbugs, which cracks me up every time I think about it.) Each story features a different kind of sea life, as well as very cool art of them all! I haven't read all the rest yet, but I'm excited to, and it looks like there are a whole lot of genres involved. My story, "In Sheets of Seaweed," is about a woman in the simultaneously privileged and precarious position of being a prince's mistress, who dreams increasingly of sharks calling to her; I called it my "shark selkie" story for a long time before I thought of a title, and in fact after. I'm very fond of this story, and I'm delighted it's found a home at last.

The ebook is available here and the paperback here. The audiobook is coming soon, but hasn't been unveiled quite yet.

Those are both Amazon links, though not affiliate ones. If you're like me and prefer to avoid buying things through Amazon, full support, but for the moment that's all I have. I've asked if it'll be available on other sites as well, and I'll update when I get an answer.

(no subject)

Dec. 6th, 2025 01:33 pm
skygiants: Moril from the Dalemark Quartet playing the cwidder (composing hallelujah)
[personal profile] skygiants
I am home! with my own cats! and my own computer!! This is very exciting because I have spent most of the last two weeks traveling, including last Monday when I spent about 24 hours total stumbling through different airports getting rerouted onto different flights before finally getting to achieve my dearest wish at that point, Be Horizontal.

In the course of that extremely long day I watched two French movies on planes:

Au revoir là-haut/See You Up There )

La venue de l'avenir/Colors of Time )

Off to Oxford

Dec. 6th, 2025 12:58 pm
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

I'm playing for Cambridge Womens Blues against Oxford Womens Blues tonight. My BUIHA stats page tells me this will be my second game for Cambridge WBs against Oxford WBs, hopefully it goes better than the last one three years ago. None of my teammates from that game are playing today, although five of the Oxford women are the same (and one of those five was on my Biarritz tournament team this summer).

My stats page also tells me that I have scored more points against Cambridge Huskies than for them (1 is more than 0), and that two of my current teammates were my opponents in my WBs v Huskies game three years ago. I have no memory of either of them in that game.

The Womens Blues game is immediately followed by a matchup between the Mens Blues teams, so I'm looking forward to watching that, before we all pile on the coach back to Cambridge.

Site update! (Sort of.)

Dec. 6th, 2025 08:00 pm
flamebyrd: (Default)
[personal profile] flamebyrd
I ate'nt dead and all that...

We upgraded Ubuntu on our webserver, which upgraded PHP, which broke the CMS I was using for random.fangirling.net. The CMS (PicoCMS) is no longer supported or under active development, as is the way of such things, and it makes sense to me because the niche it filled - flat file CMSes - was quickly squeezed out by static site generators.

So I figured I should rebuild it using a static site generator (SSG), and spent some time playing around with Astro and Eleventy before I got too frustrated by how hard it was to build a site with the file structure I wanted. And then I thought, why did I spend all that time writing a static site generator if I wasn't going to use it?

And thus, here we are. random.fangirling.net is now mostly functional again. Please let me know if anything seems amiss!

The biggest thing that's missing is the breadcrumb navigation, which was the only kind of navigation I had on the site but which is difficult to generate with my script. So that's on the TODO list.

I thought I might make the code I use to generate the site public too, as a demo for how to use my makesite.py fork. Something to ponder!
brokenframe: (Default)
[personal profile] brokenframe in [community profile] vidding
Title: Sirens
Characters/Pairing: Philip Swift/Syrena
Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Music: Sirens by Fleurie
Length: 3:08
Streaming/download at: DW | Tumblr
sdwolfpup: (parks&rec: leslie smile)
[personal profile] sdwolfpup
That's right - next month More Joy Day is back for the 19th year in a row!

What's More Joy Day? In short it's this:

Every year since 2008, in the interest of spreading more joy, I’ve proposed that on a designated day in early January we each engage in one act, either online or physical space (or both!), which brings joy to another person, in the hopes that that person will spread that joy further, and exponentially onward.

This act can be as simple as leaving a comment on a fanwork to as complicated as planting a tree or flower in someone's honor and sharing a photo of it and why you chose that person. If you want the longer version (and more suggestions) you can check out this tumblr post from 2024 which provides both.

In 2026, More Joy Day will be Thursday, January 8! 

(The first MJ Days were on Thursdays, and then I moved them to Fridays, but I'm going back to Thursday this year because I think a regular work day could use more joy than a Friday. Let's see how it goes.)

On More Joy Day, I'll post here and you can share your MJ Day activity so other people can feel the radiating waves of joy just from reading about it. :) I hope to see you there!



2026 Theme Suggestions

Dec. 5th, 2025 03:06 pm
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
[personal profile] runpunkrun in [community profile] fancake

Hey all, it's December and that means it's time to share your suggestions for next year's themes!

You can comment on this post with up to 10 suggestions. Comments will be screened, but I'll unscreen mine so you can get a feel for how it goes.

Suggested themes should be new to the comm and broad enough to sustain a month of recommendations, and I'm going to be more particular than I have in the past, as I'd like to focus on general themes that make it easier for everyone to participate. To give you an idea of what this means, I'm aiming for themes that have at least 5,000 completed works on AO3. I've also preloaded the list with some common genres that, surprisingly enough, we haven't done yet, like fantasy.

I'll drop by your comments and let you know which of your suggestions meet these guidelines. As part of this process I may offer slight alterations or rework themes to make them more inclusive.

If you can, check out our spreadsheet of past themes before commenting to make sure your suggestions aren't already on there.

If you need some inspiration:

I'll add the suggestions to this post once they've been confirmed, but I still, somehow, don't have all the past themes memorized, so if I make a mistake or if I accept a suggestion that is hurtful or badly worded, let me know.

Theme suggestions will be voted on later this month and the most popular will advance to the monthly theme polls in 2026.

Confirmed Theme Suggestions )

If you have any questions or need help, come find me!

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