Solstice
Dec. 21st, 2025 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmc28Sunrise at 08:07
Sunset at 15:49
On this shortest day of the year, Nico and I went to Clip-n-Climb first thing, cycling there and back together through a heavily overcast but weirdly mild December day. We did a little Co-op run on the way home, and then I unpacked the hire car before returning it. I decided against buses or scooters and walked the hour or so back home, including a little diversion to collect a yoga towel from Decathlon. If all goes to plan, I will cycle to hot yoga this evening in the dark (and quite probably the rain) for the first of my "festive pass" sessions.
(I mean it about being weirdly mild: both cycling and walking I had to take my hoodie off because I was too hot.)
Technically I started the 21st of December still awake at midnight, and watching the first couple of episodes of Shoresy, a Canadian comedy TV show about ice hockey, on a friend's recommendation. (Same director/executive producer as Heated Rivalry although I didn't realise that until after I'd started watching.) Very crude, very funny.
Ice hockey, climbing, walking outdoors, yoga. Spending time with my offspring, thinking of my friends, and taking care of myself. If this is a turning day of the year, it's a good set of things to mark it.
Strictly we are not yet into the "mellandagarna", the in-between days of Christmas-to-New-Year. I'm still working until lunchtime on Wednesday, but a lot of the usual rhythms of my life and my household are paused now. School's out, hockey practice is out, everything has "holiday opening hours" listed and I'm feeling a bit unmoored. (Being ill most of the last fortnight probably hasn't helped.) My yoga pass is part of my attempt to put a little structure on the downtime.
One book, one December meme response
Dec. 21st, 2025 02:09 pmdolorosa_12Happy Gravy Day to those who celebrate! It's been a bit of a disjointed few days. I'm working right up to (and including) 24th December, so there's the usual mad scramble to deal with the inevitable mad scramble of students and researchers wanting to 'wrap things up before Christmas,' I'm trying to get all the food shopping and Christmas preparation done around that, and to top it all off, both Matthias and I have been sick. He's mostly better now, and I'm on the way to recovery, but the timing was less than ideal.
author_by_night suggested that I talk about the discrepancy between conventional understanding of history (based to a large extent on the experiences of the upper echelons of society), and the realities of ordinary people's lives for the December talking meme, and although I don't really feel qualified to provide a definitive answer to this, I'll do my best.
( See more behind the cut )
I've picked up The Dark Is Rising for my annual winter solstice reread, but haven't finished it yet, and have otherwise only finished one other book this week: The Art of a Lie (Laura Shepherd-Robinson), another great novel by one of my favourite writers of historical fiction. This was a page-turning, enjoyable read with all the features I've come to enjoy about Shepherd-Robinson's books: a scammer in eighteenth-century London embarks on a new con job on a wealthy widow, and finds he's picked a more savvy and complicated mark than his usual targets. The book switches perspectives, each time revealing more unreliabilities in its pair of narrators, pulling the rug out from each other and from the reader with every shift in point of view. As always, the author's extensive research and rich evocation of this period in history is on full display — I was delighted to learn more about eighteenth-century confectionary- and ice-cream-making, law-enforcement in London before it had a dedicated police force, and all the various opportunities for scamming and corruption (most of which are essentially unchanged to this day — there was a common 'Spanish prisoner' scam which is identical to today's 'Nigerian prince' scam).
And that's about it for this week. I hope everyone else is having a restful time.
author_by_night suggested that I talk about the discrepancy between conventional understanding of history (based to a large extent on the experiences of the upper echelons of society), and the realities of ordinary people's lives for the December talking meme, and although I don't really feel qualified to provide a definitive answer to this, I'll do my best.( See more behind the cut )
I've picked up The Dark Is Rising for my annual winter solstice reread, but haven't finished it yet, and have otherwise only finished one other book this week: The Art of a Lie (Laura Shepherd-Robinson), another great novel by one of my favourite writers of historical fiction. This was a page-turning, enjoyable read with all the features I've come to enjoy about Shepherd-Robinson's books: a scammer in eighteenth-century London embarks on a new con job on a wealthy widow, and finds he's picked a more savvy and complicated mark than his usual targets. The book switches perspectives, each time revealing more unreliabilities in its pair of narrators, pulling the rug out from each other and from the reader with every shift in point of view. As always, the author's extensive research and rich evocation of this period in history is on full display — I was delighted to learn more about eighteenth-century confectionary- and ice-cream-making, law-enforcement in London before it had a dedicated police force, and all the various opportunities for scamming and corruption (most of which are essentially unchanged to this day — there was a common 'Spanish prisoner' scam which is identical to today's 'Nigerian prince' scam).
And that's about it for this week. I hope everyone else is having a restful time.
Vegas Pro bundle is back
Dec. 21st, 2025 02:47 pmgoodbyebird in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
viddingHumble Bundle is running a package with Vegas Pro 22, Sound Forge Pro 17, Music Maker 2024, and movie Studio 2024 Suite. The minimum is €48.56, and it supports the World Central Kitchen.
It's up for another four days.
It's up for another four days.
Various theatricals, the third
Dec. 21st, 2025 11:46 pmlittlerhymesI was looking forward to the Bell Shakespeare production of Coriolanus - the Bell Shakespeare marketing team really outdid themselves with "Vote 1 Coriolanus, Consul for Rome!" posters and a post-election press-release to coincide with the Australian federal election. Then in the days before the show, I got an email letting me know that I would be seated on the "Plebian" side of the audience, with the other half designated the "Patricians" - it was definitely an interesting way to stage the play!
However, this was probably the least interesting Coriolanus of the 3 versions I've seen. The Ralph Fiennes movie from 2011 is very good. The Tom Hiddleston Donmar Theatre version from 2014 is pretty good. This one I think got the tone not quite right, with too much yelling and a bit of slapstick that felt really out of place, and some pacing that dragged. Mostly, I think this production reads the character of Coriolanus wrong. He's depicted not as an anti-hero or a divisive figure - he's much more straightforwardly a villain, someone who went to war for fame and glory - and I think that's less interesting and complex than the Coriolanus in the text, who doesn't care what people think of him and really is a good general, but is utterly unsuited to public life in peacetime. On the upside the yaoi energy with Aufidius was still good.
( excerpt from the email about the seating arrangements )
By contrast I have also seen and read a couple versions of The Talented Mr Ripley, and I think this version from Sydney Theatre Company holds up very well. It's a good adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith book, about wannabe Tom Ripley who is seduced by the luxury of Dickie Greenleaf's charmed life, and by Dickie himself, until it all goes so sour. At 2 hours 10 minutes it's nice and sharp, trimming the book down but keeping the character and flavour of this tale of homoerotic murder in Italy.
Belvoir's new adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando was at least 50% of an excellent play, and for that I'll forgive a lot. This production has four different actors (all trans or non-binary) playing the central role as they move through the ages. It starts in the Elizabethan era, with all the actors whizzing around stage on rollerskates, including a young, dreamy male Orlando. Then in the Restoration period, Orlando is a woman, who at first enjoys the frippery and flirtation of the court until she realises how little she is allowed to do or be - but the women of the court have their own secrets, revealed in a big musical number. I really loved the playfulness and excitement of these two acts, the campiness and colour and the big performances. But the production lost me a bit in the Victorian era, all very gloomy and dark, and the final era set in contemporary times felt very perfunctory and a bit trite.
STC's Whitefella Yella Tree was more even. Two teenage Aboriginal boys meet up, scuffle, fall in love. They're dressed in hoodies and sneakers - but this is a story from years ago, as white colonisers are just starting to encroach on their lands. The anachronistic costume and dialogue work really well, making the story feel so immediate. But the lives they should lead, the sweet romance they deserve, is disrupted by the colonisers. A simply but effectively staged two-hander, that starts out quite light and funny, and ends up quite tragic. It didn't blow me away but I thought it was really solid.
But hey, it can't all be good, and Dracula the ballet by Biglive was really - something. Did you know Dracula starts with an action scene, with Dracula fucking shit up on the battlefield? Well, now it does. "What about London?" I said at interval. This production said FUCK London. Also, no Van Helsing or cowboy or doctor! NO LUCY! Only brides of Dracula! Only Mina and Jonathan and Dracula! Sure okay!
The music choices were egregiously bad throughout. If there was an obvious music choice to make, they made it. Mendelssohn wedding march for the Harker wedding. Night on Bald Mountain for Dracula's origin story. An utterly ludicrous Mina girl power ending to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. No rhyme or reason or thought - just throwing in the Greatest Hits of classical music every whichway, all mashed up.
I couldn't figure out if this was a vanity project or a shameless cash grab, but I think it tends to be the latter. It felt like a cheap and lazy dumbing down, a Cliff Note's version of a night at the ballet. Not to be mistaken for the actual good Dracula ballets, of which there is at least one.
Final note - Rent the musical, which I saw in Seoul, in the Korean language, for the purpose of seeing Solji from EXID as Mimi and Jo Kwon as Angel. I'll probably do a fuller write up in my kpop dw at some point but suffice to say: this was my first Rent experience (YEAH), and so large swathes of the story went over my head, but I did enjoy it. I don't know if I would see this again in English - I didn't like the songs that much and the story seemed so over the top - but it was a fun thing to see once.
However, this was probably the least interesting Coriolanus of the 3 versions I've seen. The Ralph Fiennes movie from 2011 is very good. The Tom Hiddleston Donmar Theatre version from 2014 is pretty good. This one I think got the tone not quite right, with too much yelling and a bit of slapstick that felt really out of place, and some pacing that dragged. Mostly, I think this production reads the character of Coriolanus wrong. He's depicted not as an anti-hero or a divisive figure - he's much more straightforwardly a villain, someone who went to war for fame and glory - and I think that's less interesting and complex than the Coriolanus in the text, who doesn't care what people think of him and really is a good general, but is utterly unsuited to public life in peacetime. On the upside the yaoi energy with Aufidius was still good.
( excerpt from the email about the seating arrangements )
By contrast I have also seen and read a couple versions of The Talented Mr Ripley, and I think this version from Sydney Theatre Company holds up very well. It's a good adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith book, about wannabe Tom Ripley who is seduced by the luxury of Dickie Greenleaf's charmed life, and by Dickie himself, until it all goes so sour. At 2 hours 10 minutes it's nice and sharp, trimming the book down but keeping the character and flavour of this tale of homoerotic murder in Italy.
Belvoir's new adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando was at least 50% of an excellent play, and for that I'll forgive a lot. This production has four different actors (all trans or non-binary) playing the central role as they move through the ages. It starts in the Elizabethan era, with all the actors whizzing around stage on rollerskates, including a young, dreamy male Orlando. Then in the Restoration period, Orlando is a woman, who at first enjoys the frippery and flirtation of the court until she realises how little she is allowed to do or be - but the women of the court have their own secrets, revealed in a big musical number. I really loved the playfulness and excitement of these two acts, the campiness and colour and the big performances. But the production lost me a bit in the Victorian era, all very gloomy and dark, and the final era set in contemporary times felt very perfunctory and a bit trite.
STC's Whitefella Yella Tree was more even. Two teenage Aboriginal boys meet up, scuffle, fall in love. They're dressed in hoodies and sneakers - but this is a story from years ago, as white colonisers are just starting to encroach on their lands. The anachronistic costume and dialogue work really well, making the story feel so immediate. But the lives they should lead, the sweet romance they deserve, is disrupted by the colonisers. A simply but effectively staged two-hander, that starts out quite light and funny, and ends up quite tragic. It didn't blow me away but I thought it was really solid.
But hey, it can't all be good, and Dracula the ballet by Biglive was really - something. Did you know Dracula starts with an action scene, with Dracula fucking shit up on the battlefield? Well, now it does. "What about London?" I said at interval. This production said FUCK London. Also, no Van Helsing or cowboy or doctor! NO LUCY! Only brides of Dracula! Only Mina and Jonathan and Dracula! Sure okay!
The music choices were egregiously bad throughout. If there was an obvious music choice to make, they made it. Mendelssohn wedding march for the Harker wedding. Night on Bald Mountain for Dracula's origin story. An utterly ludicrous Mina girl power ending to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. No rhyme or reason or thought - just throwing in the Greatest Hits of classical music every whichway, all mashed up.
I couldn't figure out if this was a vanity project or a shameless cash grab, but I think it tends to be the latter. It felt like a cheap and lazy dumbing down, a Cliff Note's version of a night at the ballet. Not to be mistaken for the actual good Dracula ballets, of which there is at least one.
Final note - Rent the musical, which I saw in Seoul, in the Korean language, for the purpose of seeing Solji from EXID as Mimi and Jo Kwon as Angel. I'll probably do a fuller write up in my kpop dw at some point but suffice to say: this was my first Rent experience (YEAH), and so large swathes of the story went over my head, but I did enjoy it. I don't know if I would see this again in English - I didn't like the songs that much and the story seemed so over the top - but it was a fun thing to see once.
The Mighty Nein 1x07
Dec. 21st, 2025 02:50 amsettiaiContinuing on my previously posted thoughts about episode 1x05, I just finished watching episode 1x07.
( Spoilers under the cut. )
Yes, I'm well aware what time it is. I couldn't sleep, though, so I figured I might as well accomplish something while I was wide awake at 3am.
( Spoilers under the cut. )
Yes, I'm well aware what time it is. I couldn't sleep, though, so I figured I might as well accomplish something while I was wide awake at 3am.
(no subject)
Dec. 20th, 2025 09:49 pmskygiantsLast time I got the chance to hang out with raven, about a year ago -- there would have been another time recently but, alas!, airline crimes interfered -- I ended up with two books shoved into my hands: Mavis Doriel Hay's Murder Underground and Death on the Cherwell.
I was not particularly familiar with Hay's game before this; she falls squarely in the Golden Age but only ever published three novels before focusing all her attention on Rural British Handicrafts.raven is right however that these books are both very fun and worthy of attention for their structure: neither of them have a kind of traditional primary detective figure, and both of them instead focus on a group of people in the murder victim's broader community who sort of collectively solve the crime by bouncing against each other in various directions until the right information comes to light.
In Murder Underground, the unloved landlady of a boarding house is found murdered on the subway, and her Bertie Wooster of a nephew promptly bumbles his way all over the crime scene and makes himself prime suspect number one (Dorothy Sayers, in her review, called this man one of the most feckless, exasperating and lifelike literary men that ever confused a trail and I couldn't put it better! god bless!) We spend a good chunk of the book following the Feckless Nephew and another good chunk just hanging out with the people who live in the boarding house, all of whom have Opinions, Mostly Incorrect.
Death on the Cherwell has some returning characters from Murder Underground but mostly focuses on a group of Young Lady Students who have been having an inaugural meeting for their we-hate-and-curse-our-bursar club when they happen to see said bursar floating down the river in a boat, presumably pre-cursed because she's very obviously dead. The police detective on the case has more to do in this one but the charm of the book is all in the Young Lady Students bopping around trying to investigate on their own, annoying various of their friends and relations in the process.
Hay has also written a third book that I've not yet read and I'm curious to see if it leans as much as these two into the ensemble and the way that a whole community can become stakeholders in A Murder Problem. In the meantime,raven has encouraged me to pass these along to another good home if anyone else would like them! ETA and they are CLAIMED
(As always when reading Golden Age mysteries one is inevitably going to run into some classic Golden Age racism, and in this case it would be remiss of me not to mention that Death on the Cherwell has some opinions about Eastern Europe ... ah, those excitable Yugoslavians! A Yugoslavian Young Lady Student MIGHT declare blood feud against one of her admins. Who Could Say. We Just Don't Know.)
raven, about a year ago -- there would have been another time recently but, alas!, airline crimes interfered -- I ended up with two books shoved into my hands: Mavis Doriel Hay's Murder Underground and Death on the Cherwell. I was not particularly familiar with Hay's game before this; she falls squarely in the Golden Age but only ever published three novels before focusing all her attention on Rural British Handicrafts.
raven is right however that these books are both very fun and worthy of attention for their structure: neither of them have a kind of traditional primary detective figure, and both of them instead focus on a group of people in the murder victim's broader community who sort of collectively solve the crime by bouncing against each other in various directions until the right information comes to light.In Murder Underground, the unloved landlady of a boarding house is found murdered on the subway, and her Bertie Wooster of a nephew promptly bumbles his way all over the crime scene and makes himself prime suspect number one (Dorothy Sayers, in her review, called this man one of the most feckless, exasperating and lifelike literary men that ever confused a trail and I couldn't put it better! god bless!) We spend a good chunk of the book following the Feckless Nephew and another good chunk just hanging out with the people who live in the boarding house, all of whom have Opinions, Mostly Incorrect.
Death on the Cherwell has some returning characters from Murder Underground but mostly focuses on a group of Young Lady Students who have been having an inaugural meeting for their we-hate-and-curse-our-bursar club when they happen to see said bursar floating down the river in a boat, presumably pre-cursed because she's very obviously dead. The police detective on the case has more to do in this one but the charm of the book is all in the Young Lady Students bopping around trying to investigate on their own, annoying various of their friends and relations in the process.
Hay has also written a third book that I've not yet read and I'm curious to see if it leans as much as these two into the ensemble and the way that a whole community can become stakeholders in A Murder Problem. In the meantime,
raven has encouraged me to pass these along to another good home if anyone else would like them! ETA and they are CLAIMED (As always when reading Golden Age mysteries one is inevitably going to run into some classic Golden Age racism, and in this case it would be remiss of me not to mention that Death on the Cherwell has some opinions about Eastern Europe ... ah, those excitable Yugoslavians! A Yugoslavian Young Lady Student MIGHT declare blood feud against one of her admins. Who Could Say. We Just Don't Know.)
Well, that wasn't in the kids' version
Dec. 20th, 2025 10:04 pmsinealaFor my last book of the year, I do indeed seem to be reading Pegasus: An Easy Ancient Greek Reader. This retells the story of Pegasus in very easy Ancient Greek with basically every word on the page in a facing glossary.
I had a big ol' book of Greek myths when I was a kid -- not one of the standard ones -- and of course my favorite story was the one about Bellerophon bridling Pegasus and then fighting the chimera. Because, you know. Horsie. It had, I think, a full-color plate for every story (this is why I suspect it wasn't one of the standard books because it was not heavily-illustrated). Now that I have looked around, I think it was this -- Myths Every Child Should Know -- which seems, uh, pretty obscure. I found a nicer PDF though.)
I remember being in, like, second grade and having painstakingly made and illustrated my own "book" of Pegasus, retelling the story in my own words, for some kind of school project, which I bound by having my parents help me wrap pieces of cardboard in pegasus-themed wrapping paper and then duct-taping the spine together. I definitely remember using my extremely fancy Prismacolor colored pencils to render the golden bridle. So I am deeply familiar with it... but only this one exact version.
Anyway, the story in Myths Every Child Should Know definitely did NOT mention that Bellerophon was in Lycia fighting the chimera because he'd been exiled from Corinth for killing a rando guy named Belleron -- apparently "Bellerophon" means "murderer of Belleron," and his previous name was Horse Mind (Hipponous) -- and he ended up in Argos as a guest of the king who ritually cleansed him of the miasma of his murder (lysimache says this is a cultural concept that everyone knows but I have never heard of this in my life) but then the queen decided she wanted to fuck Bellerophon and when he turned her down, she went to her husband the king and said Bellerophon had wanted to fuck her and therefore the king should have this guy killed. Of course she did.
So at this point in the story, Bellerophon is being sent to Lycia with a letter telling King Iobates (the wife's father) to have him killed, because the king of Argos can't just kill him because he's a guest he has ritually cleansed and eaten meals with and killing him is just Not Done. However, it's cool to send him to your father-in-law and have him kill him. That's fine. I love hospitality.
Apparently this part was not a Myth Every Child Should Know. Anyway! Looking forward to more unanticipated sex and violence!
I had a big ol' book of Greek myths when I was a kid -- not one of the standard ones -- and of course my favorite story was the one about Bellerophon bridling Pegasus and then fighting the chimera. Because, you know. Horsie. It had, I think, a full-color plate for every story (this is why I suspect it wasn't one of the standard books because it was not heavily-illustrated). Now that I have looked around, I think it was this -- Myths Every Child Should Know -- which seems, uh, pretty obscure. I found a nicer PDF though.)
I remember being in, like, second grade and having painstakingly made and illustrated my own "book" of Pegasus, retelling the story in my own words, for some kind of school project, which I bound by having my parents help me wrap pieces of cardboard in pegasus-themed wrapping paper and then duct-taping the spine together. I definitely remember using my extremely fancy Prismacolor colored pencils to render the golden bridle. So I am deeply familiar with it... but only this one exact version.
Anyway, the story in Myths Every Child Should Know definitely did NOT mention that Bellerophon was in Lycia fighting the chimera because he'd been exiled from Corinth for killing a rando guy named Belleron -- apparently "Bellerophon" means "murderer of Belleron," and his previous name was Horse Mind (Hipponous) -- and he ended up in Argos as a guest of the king who ritually cleansed him of the miasma of his murder (
lysimache says this is a cultural concept that everyone knows but I have never heard of this in my life) but then the queen decided she wanted to fuck Bellerophon and when he turned her down, she went to her husband the king and said Bellerophon had wanted to fuck her and therefore the king should have this guy killed. Of course she did.So at this point in the story, Bellerophon is being sent to Lycia with a letter telling King Iobates (the wife's father) to have him killed, because the king of Argos can't just kill him because he's a guest he has ritually cleansed and eaten meals with and killing him is just Not Done. However, it's cool to send him to your father-in-law and have him kill him. That's fine. I love hospitality.
Apparently this part was not a Myth Every Child Should Know. Anyway! Looking forward to more unanticipated sex and violence!
let's see what approach they take here
Dec. 20th, 2025 06:06 pmmusesfoolSo I may have been a little...over ambitious in purchasing eggs and butter and expecting it all to fit into my tiny apartment-size fridge. I did get all of it in there, but there was literally no room to let orange rolls rise overnight so I knocked that off the list. Maybe I will do them for New Year's morning instead.
I also had an unfortunate start to the fig cookies. I made the filling yesterday and I might have put too much cocoa in as I thought it was the bottom of the container so I just dumped it in and well, there was more than I expected in there. *hands* It's fine. Then when I made the dough earlier, it smelled weird. I think maybe the Crisco had gone off? Idk, but I threw out what I'd made and did it again with the newly opened can of Crisco and it smelled correct, so I didn't really get to make cookies this afternoon as planned, but I might make some after dinner, which is how we did it when I was a kid - every night for the 2 weeks before Christmas we were in the kitchen making fig cookies.
I did marinate the pork country ribs last night and they are now in the oven roasting, so that at least is on track.
I also watched Wake Up Dead Man yesterday, and I liked but didn't love it? I'm not sure why? ( spoilers )
This is a long essay about the movie (spoilers, obvs) that goes much deeper into it: Entirely Too Many Thoughts About Wake Up Dead Man by Leah Schnelbach.
Oh, the timer just went off so I have to take the ribs out of the oven, so I guess I'll just hit post!
***
( 6-day plan, day 2 )
***
I also had an unfortunate start to the fig cookies. I made the filling yesterday and I might have put too much cocoa in as I thought it was the bottom of the container so I just dumped it in and well, there was more than I expected in there. *hands* It's fine. Then when I made the dough earlier, it smelled weird. I think maybe the Crisco had gone off? Idk, but I threw out what I'd made and did it again with the newly opened can of Crisco and it smelled correct, so I didn't really get to make cookies this afternoon as planned, but I might make some after dinner, which is how we did it when I was a kid - every night for the 2 weeks before Christmas we were in the kitchen making fig cookies.
I did marinate the pork country ribs last night and they are now in the oven roasting, so that at least is on track.
I also watched Wake Up Dead Man yesterday, and I liked but didn't love it? I'm not sure why? ( spoilers )
This is a long essay about the movie (spoilers, obvs) that goes much deeper into it: Entirely Too Many Thoughts About Wake Up Dead Man by Leah Schnelbach.
Oh, the timer just went off so I have to take the ribs out of the oven, so I guess I'll just hit post!
***
( 6-day plan, day 2 )
***
Holiday drama
Dec. 20th, 2025 03:59 pmconuly in agonyaunt1. Dear Eric: My daughter-in-law decided a few years back to have a Friendsgiving dinner which she hosts a couple of weekends before Thanksgiving. She invites her family (as her mom has never done Thanksgiving) and then a bunch of her and my son's friends.
In my mind I know this shouldn't bother me, but it does. I waited my "turn" growing up and having a family and to be the one to host Thanksgiving (my parents have both passed as has my husband's mom) and now I have my own grandchildren. We still do the whole Thanksgiving dinner, but I don't feel it is as special as it was because now everyone has already had the traditional Thanksgiving meal that previously we only had that one time a year.
She always says “oh y’all are welcome to come, too,” but I just can't get into it and feel resentment that I waited all the years to be the grandma to host the meal and now it is like feeding everyone leftovers. Can you give me another way to look at this or some advice that will make me not as resentful about it?
– Leftovers Anyone?
( Read more... )
**********
2. Dear Annie: Christmas at my parents' house used to feel magical, but lately it feels like I'm walking into a performance review. My older brother's new hobby is "radical honesty," and apparently the holidays are his favorite time to practice. Last year, as we decorated the tree, he announced that my handmade ornaments looked "like a Pinterest fail" and suggested I "sit out the creative parts" of Christmas.
He says he's only being truthful and that any discomfort is "my issue to examine." My parents beg me not to make waves because he's "working on himself," but his self-work is coming at my expense.
I don't want to blow up Christmas, but I also don't want another holiday spent swallowing my feelings while he unloads his. How do I keep the peace without letting his "honesty" ruin the season? -- Silent Night No More
( Read more... )
In my mind I know this shouldn't bother me, but it does. I waited my "turn" growing up and having a family and to be the one to host Thanksgiving (my parents have both passed as has my husband's mom) and now I have my own grandchildren. We still do the whole Thanksgiving dinner, but I don't feel it is as special as it was because now everyone has already had the traditional Thanksgiving meal that previously we only had that one time a year.
She always says “oh y’all are welcome to come, too,” but I just can't get into it and feel resentment that I waited all the years to be the grandma to host the meal and now it is like feeding everyone leftovers. Can you give me another way to look at this or some advice that will make me not as resentful about it?
– Leftovers Anyone?
( Read more... )
2. Dear Annie: Christmas at my parents' house used to feel magical, but lately it feels like I'm walking into a performance review. My older brother's new hobby is "radical honesty," and apparently the holidays are his favorite time to practice. Last year, as we decorated the tree, he announced that my handmade ornaments looked "like a Pinterest fail" and suggested I "sit out the creative parts" of Christmas.
He says he's only being truthful and that any discomfort is "my issue to examine." My parents beg me not to make waves because he's "working on himself," but his self-work is coming at my expense.
I don't want to blow up Christmas, but I also don't want another holiday spent swallowing my feelings while he unloads his. How do I keep the peace without letting his "honesty" ruin the season? -- Silent Night No More
( Read more... )
2026 Monster Theme Poll
Dec. 20th, 2025 10:43 amrunpunkrun in fancakeArrrre you rrrrready to rrrrrrumble??? It's the MONSTER THEME POLL at Fancake Memorial Coliseum!! In town one week only!! Polls close on the 27th!
Poll #33979 2026 Monster Theme Poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 79
Pick 10 new themes for 2026:
Adoption
13 (16.7%)
Afterlife
11 (14.1%)
Aliens
13 (16.7%)
Angst
12 (15.4%)
Books & Writing
17 (21.8%)
Character Study
19 (24.4%)
Collaborations & Remixes
14 (17.9%)
Coming of Age/Rites of Passage
18 (23.1%)
Community
16 (20.5%)
Crack Treated Seriously
28 (35.9%)
Fandom (characters involved in fandom, works involving fandom, meta about fandom)
11 (14.1%)
Fannish Non-Fiction (meta, tutorials, resources)
20 (25.6%)
Fantasy (elves, unicorns, et al)
18 (23.1%)
Fluff
20 (25.6%)
Games & Competitions
7 (9.0%)
Gothic
17 (21.8%)
Holidays & Celebrations
10 (12.8%)
Horror
12 (15.4%)
In Denial
16 (20.5%)
Inept in Love
18 (23.1%)
Journey/Travel
22 (28.2%)
Just Like Canon
14 (17.9%)
Kink
12 (15.4%)
Kisses
16 (20.5%)
Manners & Etiquette (including mannerpunk)
13 (16.7%)
Matchmaking
11 (14.1%)
Meet the Family
16 (20.5%)
Mentors & Protegees
18 (23.1%)
Music
11 (14.1%)
Neurodivergent Characters
15 (19.2%)
New Releases (I'll let you determine what's "new" for the fandom)
14 (17.9%)
Original Characters
11 (14.1%)
Outstanding Prose
15 (19.2%)
Podfic
8 (10.3%)
Power Dynamics
15 (19.2%)
Protest & Revolt
6 (7.7%)
PWP (Porn Without Plot or Plot? What Plot?)
10 (12.8%)
Role Reversal
9 (11.5%)
Romance
12 (15.4%)
RPF
10 (12.8%)
Short Fiction (under 2000 words)
19 (24.4%)
Siblings
17 (21.8%)
Social Media
6 (7.7%)
Unpopular Characters
19 (24.4%)
Unreliable Narrator
27 (34.6%)
Vampires
13 (16.7%)
Villains
11 (14.1%)
War
9 (11.5%)
Whump
16 (20.5%)
Pick 3 classic themes you'd like to revisit:
Arranged Marriage
35 (44.9%)
Cops & Crime
10 (12.8%)
Epistolary
26 (33.3%)
Forced Proximity
23 (29.5%)
Future Fic
18 (23.1%)
Historical AUs
18 (23.1%)
Pining
20 (25.6%)
Threesome
30 (38.5%)
Worldbuilding
40 (51.3%)
Mistletoe Challenge and fic
Dec. 20th, 2025 05:24 pmphilomythaI have been putting up my Christmas decorations, and amongst them are my amazing wonderful Biggles Christmas decorations, generously made and given to me by debriswoman. I shared a photo of them on discord, and inevitably this led to taking them as a fic prompt, and so now we have the very informal Mistletoe Challenge. The rules are, the fics must be inspired by these decorations, and less than 1000 words because it's a busy time of year. I have made a little AO3 collection for any resulting fics, ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
silversmith has already written a fic, and having accidentally started something, I had to write a ficlet myself!
The Mistletoe Challenge collection, if anyone else wants to write a ficlet.
( a photo of the decorations, and my drabble sequence about them )
debriswoman. I shared a photo of them on discord, and inevitably this led to taking them as a fic prompt, and so now we have the very informal Mistletoe Challenge. The rules are, the fics must be inspired by these decorations, and less than 1000 words because it's a busy time of year. I have made a little AO3 collection for any resulting fics, The Mistletoe Challenge collection, if anyone else wants to write a ficlet.
( a photo of the decorations, and my drabble sequence about them )
iconthat challenge reminder
Dec. 20th, 2025 07:01 amluminousdaze in iconthatChallenge 199: Film Fandom Fest
Due to end Sunday, December 21, 2025 at 11:59pm
Currently, there are four participants.
Entries will be accepted until I make the final closing post.
Due to end Sunday, December 21, 2025 at 11:59pm
Currently, there are four participants.
Entries will be accepted until I make the final closing post.
Weekend fun, and the week to come
Dec. 20th, 2025 10:24 amrmc28Yesterday after work I did a library run (more Rick Riordan!) on the way to pick up a hire car for the weekend. Then drove with Charles over to Northstowe for the Kodiaks Christmas party at the Northstowe Tap and Social. Secret Santa, noodles buffet, attempting to introduce an American to prawn crackers - she didn't like them - and a drag queen bingo.
I left the party a little early to go to the last Warbirds practice of the year and was so glad to be back on the ice again. (Yes, in shock news, 48 hours after having a massive mood crash about having a cold forever, I was well enough to skate hard for 90 minutes. It is a weird signal, but a consistent one.) It was ten days since my last practice, and it's now ten days until my next one (Kodiaks 2 on 30 Dec). I missed it so much. Practice was just the right level of challenging that I'm really pushing myself but not feeling like a hopeless incompetent, it was just what I needed, as was seeing my teammates again.
(Charles made his own way home from Northstowe by bus)
Tonight is the last Kodiaks 1 game of the year, for which I will be herding the volunteers as usual, and rocking my lovely new manager's coat (incredibly warm knee-length hooded puffer coat, personalised with the club logo and my initials). There is apparently a post-game clubbing plan. And tomorrow morning I'm taking Nico climbing. Somewhere in there I'm sleeping, honest.
I have 2.5 more days to work this year, and I am so ready to be done. The giant Ocado order is booked for Tuesday evening. I have a very large pile of borrowed books to read, and the rink public skate schedule in my calendar. The hot yoga place had a special offer, so I also have a 12-day pass to get me through the lack of hockey practices. They are quite strict about turning up sick, and I still have a bit of a cough this morning, so I won't be using it today. But hopefully tomorrow.
Weekend Plans
Dec. 20th, 2025 12:22 amsettiaiOkay, let's figure out my plans for the weekend, shall we?
All of my big bills (hotel, storage unit, phone, PO Box) have already been paid, so unless something very unexpected happens I don't have to worry about any major expenses the rest of the year other than a vet bill on the 29th. So that's definitely something to be happy about, as it means I can focus on other things this weekend.
I think my plan is to get up tomorrow morning and do my usual weekend cleaning. That way, I can get all of those things done first thing. I'll wash clothes, do some vacuuming/dusting/mopping/etc., and then hopefully by mid-afternoon I'll be free to work on other things.
By which I mainly mean writing as many fics for Yuletide as I possibly can, to be fair. That said, I still need to watch this week episode of both The Mighty Nein and Critical Role, so I'd like to get that done tomorrow as well.
That way I can spend pretty much all of Sunday writing. 🤞🏻
All of my big bills (hotel, storage unit, phone, PO Box) have already been paid, so unless something very unexpected happens I don't have to worry about any major expenses the rest of the year other than a vet bill on the 29th. So that's definitely something to be happy about, as it means I can focus on other things this weekend.
I think my plan is to get up tomorrow morning and do my usual weekend cleaning. That way, I can get all of those things done first thing. I'll wash clothes, do some vacuuming/dusting/mopping/etc., and then hopefully by mid-afternoon I'll be free to work on other things.
By which I mainly mean writing as many fics for Yuletide as I possibly can, to be fair. That said, I still need to watch this week episode of both The Mighty Nein and Critical Role, so I'd like to get that done tomorrow as well.
That way I can spend pretty much all of Sunday writing. 🤞🏻
Story Index 2025
Dec. 19th, 2025 09:36 pmpetraLeitmotif of the year:
I can't focus on long things, but by all that's unholy, I can write limericks and drabbles! I wrote other things, too, but golly.
My best story of this year:
Stand back, I'm going to try science!, in which Obi-Wan accidentally gives Anakin a complex about his body, and Anakin 3D prints himself helpful things. This one is deeply silly, and yet affectionate.
My favorite and/or truest story of this year:
The leaves grow bright before they fall wins this one for me, with Anakin and Obi-Wan doing the Hades and Persephone dance, in their own particular, backward, inside-out and upside-down sort of way.
( Read on )
I can't focus on long things, but by all that's unholy, I can write limericks and drabbles! I wrote other things, too, but golly.
My best story of this year:
Stand back, I'm going to try science!, in which Obi-Wan accidentally gives Anakin a complex about his body, and Anakin 3D prints himself helpful things. This one is deeply silly, and yet affectionate.
My favorite and/or truest story of this year:
The leaves grow bright before they fall wins this one for me, with Anakin and Obi-Wan doing the Hades and Persephone dance, in their own particular, backward, inside-out and upside-down sort of way.
( Read on )