mistressofmuses: Image of nebulae in the colors of the bi pride flag: pink, purple, and blue (Default)
For the last couple years, I've shared my favorite pictures taken for the year. Here are my top fifteen for 2025!

As usual, it's pretty clear what my favorite subject matter is, haha.

January 07, at home:


Cy and Bella cuddling.

It was a little rare for them to cuddle together for long, and getting a picture of them doing so seemed to be even harder. I miss him so much, still.


Thirteen more pictures, chronological through the year:

June 03, at the Denver Botanic Gardens:


Rainwater in the center of a poppy.

We'd set up a plan to go to the Botanic Gardens for my mom's birthday, and when the day came, it was chilly and rained. Initially we were a bit disappointed, but it turned out to be absolutely perfect. The clouds made for perfect photo lighting, and it had been such a soft rain, the raindrops clinging to everything were beautiful. (There were a couple pictures of roses covered in beads of rain that I almost picked instead, but I just really liked this one.)

July 06, at Roxborough State Park:


A bumblebee on a bee balm flower.

These bumblebees were ENORMOUS.

July 08, at Hudson Gardens:


A bullfrog.

This bullfrog was huge and so very chill about us taking his picture.

July 14, at Lair o' the Bear Open Space Park:


It's Bella!

This is one of my favorite pictures that I've taken of Bella. She just has such soft eyes, ha.


A pygmy nuthatch.

From that same hike, a surprisingly cooperative little bird!

July 21, at Castlewood Canyon State Park:


A hummingbird nest.

I was so beyond charmed to see this tiny nest! The lichens and seed fluff and spiderwebs making up the construction is just so perfect.

July 29, at Centennial Cone Open Space Park:


A view from pretty way up.

This park is pretty way up in the mountains. We hadn't been before (and of course ended up going on the day that the *one* tiny thunderstorm that spawned over the mountains picked this exact spot, haha.)


A lizard!

I loved this guy's very vibrant markings! On a sunnier day, I'm sure they actually help him blend in extremely well with darker plant shadows.

August 26, Greenbelt:


Bumblebee!

Much, much smaller than the giant bumblebee from before. I do love their little orange belt.

September 02, Castlewood Canyon State Park:


A fawn!

I was delighted that this fawn still had some spots!

September 08, Alexx & Michael's Pond:


Pelicans!

Alex and I went up to this random neighborhood park to catch sight of an avian oddity: a wood stork! (Perfectly common in some places, but not in Colorado!) We did spot the stork, which was very cool, but the pelicans were also stars of the day, haha. There were SO MANY!

October 14, Greenbelt:


Fall colors.

We were graced with an extremely beautiful fall, and the colors were gorgeous! The gold against the intensely blue sky was especially striking.

November 04, Red Rocks:


It's Bella!

Bella loves rock climbing, and I was very pleased with this picture of her so dramatically backlit!


November 11, the north plains:


The Northern Lights!

We had another chance to go see auroras this year (having seen them for the first time last year.) They were spectacular! It was amazing to see them, and while they were not as intense to the naked eye as it was on camera, the color was visible. It was so, so cool to get to go up and see them, and I'm so glad we did.

-

Obviously I take a lot of pictures of flowers and bees and birds and my dog, haha.

(no subject)

Dec. 28th, 2025 08:22 pm[personal profile] shadaras
shadaras: A phoenix with wings fully outspread, holidng a rose and an arrow in its talons. (Default)
1.
The darkest part of the year is always the hardest to remember to, like, be a person and not just curl up being grumbly about the long cold dark.

But, well, I do feel more like a person the more I act like a person and interact with people, as much as I might wish to be a lump and zone out while watching streams/tv that ask nothing of me.


2.
Yuletide revealed works!

There was perhaps 30min of AHHHH about 20min after reveals due to an Ao3 bug that revealed creators alongside works. Considering that this happened to Battleship this summer and the mods heard crickets from Support at the time, perhaps now that Yuletide hit the same bug (and solved the immediate problem with advice from the Battleship mods) Ao3 support will have more data and motivation to figure out wtf happened there and make sure it can't happen again.

Anyway, I received two Yuletide gifts:
The Promise (1222 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Oathsworn (Actual Play Podcast)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Dorado the Adamant & Nabain Palisade
Characters: Dorado the Adamant, Nabain Palisade
Additional Tags: and the absence of Serikali, Post canon, Missing Scene, Dialogue Heavy, Major Spoilers
Summary:

“Did you ever speak to Serikali?” Dorado asked.

“Not as often as I would have liked.” The broken promise settled over his shoulders like a yoke. But even under that weight, he still could carry curiosity. Dorado was direct: if she changed topic, there had to be a reason.


This is for a fandom that, as the author's note says, I wrote a promo post last year (and then mentioned again during Battleship season when people were asking about good actual play podcasts), and am thus inevitably the reason this person got into the show. <3 Delightful to get a gift for it! I was not expecting one, but also when I saw a gift show up for me and no fandoms I'd requested in the collection list I was like "omg... perhaps..." and it was!

This is a lovely little coda adding into the Oathsworn epilogue, about what people are willing to do for the sake of their community and what secrets they're willing to keep and why. Absolutely delightful.


The other gift is WORLDBUILDING VIA TEXTBOOK EXCERPTS
The Dresediel Lex Project And Its Consequences (2385 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Craft Sequence - Max Gladstone
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Maestre Gerhardt
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Epistolary
Summary:

Excerpts from documents found in Tara Abernathy's bag before her graduation from the Hidden Schools, sketching out the historical project to understand undeath and some pertinent later findings.


aka, someone taking me up on my Worldbuilding and Atypical Narrative Stuff things. <3 Absolutely delightful. A+ look into how weird it is to do SCIENCE to the magic of Becoming A Lich and Living Forever As An Undead Being. The change in thought about said magic from the first excerpt to the last is very fun, and it's a good look at a bit of magic that the series itself takes rather for granted.


I have also received absolutely lovely comments on both of the fics I wrote for Yuletide! Further commentary about those after author reveals; I had a great time writing both of them for very different reasons. xD <3


3.
Been thinking about projects for the new year and things I want to do and how, as much as I'm like "ughhhhh I am TIRED all the time" it is annoyingly true that often if I do things anyway I will end up having more energy overall.

So.

Fundamentally I believe in my ability to Write Stuff so long as I, y'know, actually focus and put time into it. xD The part where I need to get myself to actually write instead of zoning out on the internet is the hard part, usually! But I would like to actually write about the blorbos I've been rotating in my head since this summer.

There's this part of me like "that would be easier if you had a TITLE for it" and I'm like "OKAY SO GIVE ME ONE" about it. ([personal profile] tavina most of the time I do not feel your pain about this BUT IN THIS CASE it feels weirdly true, considering that my brain can give me the primary arc of the story and the vibes I want but the idea of WRITING it is somehow ???. if a title helps I will sigh loudly but also be like "yeah okay sure".)

but I would like to be able to actually explain about my blorbos and their not-romance (it is an ADVENTURE STORY and they are absolutely Together but also get mad if one's like "so your BOYFRIEND" about it) (they are a half-triton/half-elf and a half-orc/half-dragon because why be Normal about your multiracial fantasy characters) (the half-dragon gets kidnapped to build an airship and that's what kicks the whole thing off) which means I need to WRITE IT

so really if I have any goal for next year it is probably simply "please actually write full draft of that <3", which, to be clear, is Very Doable based on how many words I am capable of writing xD just gotta make them words about this.


4.
It snowed the day after Christmas (or, well, the evening of Boxing Day into the early morning of the 27th), fluffy dry snow that's perfectly aesthetic and wasn't too much of a pain to clean off. Tonight it's supposed to be FREEZING RAIN, however, which is so much more UGH and is going to make going to work tomorrow Special. (I wish I got more time off for the holidays, but, whatever, it's not like I would do anything in particular except rest and read and write.)


5.
The dojo did get a new heater in. It's the same as the old heater, I'm pretty sure, except newer and thus works properly. xD


6.
A friend made me watch the first four episodes of I Am Nobody, a cdrama that they were like "I think you'll like it!" about because of the traits: Has Women (aka: is not actually a BL) and Is Modern Cultivation (because I'd made a comment about the Legend of Xiao Hei that they should've told me it was modern cultivation and not just "it has a cute cat! look at the cute cat!"). The thing is, it has women by virtue of being Probably Het (I think fandom is mostly like BUT BOYS about it) and the modern cultivation is "secret sects keep magic secret" and not the far more interesting "magical cultivation sects are integrated into everyday modern life" that Xiao Hei included.

So like... it's a show that I'd have fun watching with them, because it's honestly really well done for what it is, but unlike either friend I was watching with (either the one showing this to us or the other one new to it) I am not compelled to watch the rest on my own? It leans too much into comedy and not enough into the sort of worldbuilding or character dynamics that actually get their claws into me. Not a bad thing about it, really! I see why people like it! Just. Not as much my jam as that friend had hoped for.


7.
I watched del Toro's Frankenstein on Christmas Day, and spent the entire time talking with my friend about the use of color in that movie. It definitely understood what Frankenstein (the novel) was about! It portrayed The Themes (consequences of one's actions; accepting responsibility; the relationship between creator and creation) very well. It also did not shy away from gore and blood and the surgical nature of it all! (Also there were wolves that Did Not Act Like Wolves At All but also they're A Metaphor in the end so... whatever..) Very enjoyable, glad to have seen it!
vriddy: K-9 Volume 1 Cover (k-9)
No birb here.


Making choices | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 1.6k words | rated T

Summary: Had Kagari drawn his sword, it wouldn't have been so bad. But Fujimaru was taken down too early to say the word, and so Kagari didn't.

Read it on Dreamwidth on AO3.
greetingsfrommaars: ichihara yuuko from the manga xxxholic (Default)
So, participating in Yuletide this year has really confused my usual fic rec posting interval. (I have some recs I've been holding in reserve because it feels like de-anoning to rec them, which is probably me taking anonymity too seriously, but whatever.) Anyway, a Yuletide rec post will go up after author reveals! This month while I was maximally sleep-deprived and procrastinating on my Yuletide assignment, I somehow ended up getting sucked into reading a bunch of DC comics batfam fic fandom-blind, which amuses me as a person who wrote an entire post about not getting fandom-blind reading less than a year ago. But hey - *slaps the comics multiverse on the back* - you can fit so much angst in these guys!

[ Bleach ]



That which we are by Sky_King

Canon divergence: the Espada find a family in each other behind Aizen's back. Pretty chill for taking place right before and during the Winter War. Found family with casual violence and background power struggles.

and more for literally just the batfam )
zarla: grunkle stan running (grunklestan)
Waa I keep wanting to make posts but I get so busy and all my ideas seem so long! December is such a busy month, haha. It's been raining a lot and it's cold! Mostly been trying to do requests but I did also put some time into making a novelty Hassy mug for myself lol. I'll have to post some pictures when it actually gets here. I've been lazy about replying to comments I'm sorryyyy

I've been considering getting a laser cutting type machine and a nice Ecotank printer to make some of my own stickers at points, but I haven't pulled the trigger on it. Would I really use them enough to justify getting them...? It'd be kind of fun to do little limited run stickers but I dunno! I don't know how in demand stickers are, haha. In my little store they don't move very quickly but maybe the designs I have just aren't grabbing people. :B I know some people don't like stickers because it's such a big decision to decide where to stick them which I can relate to lol. It could also just be fun to make stupid one-shot stickers for my own amusement. I dunno! It's an investment... a new printer would be a good idea though, the one I have right now is a mess. Even when I replace the ink tanks it still prints terribly. :/ Although I don't print things too often anyway... but maybe I would if it worked better.

I ordered a bunch of little things but they haven't come yet - another set of Papyrus shaker keychains, some little Gaster pillow keychains, some pins, a set of the connecting charms... I'm excited to get them but I'm worried about getting swamped when I put them up and they go live! The 15 shaker charms before sold out in like 2 minutes, haha. The next batch will have 50 shaker keychains... can I keep on top of it? Is there a way to streamline shipping a bit more? All questions I've never really had to think about before, haha. Sending people prints and stickers is easy, I can just stick them in an envelope with some forever stamps (in the US), but bigger objects are more complicated. :O I dunno! Just gotta see what happens when they get here.
(Incidentally, I did add some new prints to the store and restocked some sold out ones if you're looking for some, haha)

Anyway that's all boring I assume, what I actually wanted to post about is SOAP!! One of my lesser known hobbies is that I like getting soaps from small indie companies to try out, I like supporting small businesses and trying new scents. |D I have a few little bits of perfume here and there too I like playing with (from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, the classic that's still kicking, and Conjure Oils which sadly seems to have died), but mostly nowadays I like trying out unique soaps. So here are some of my recommendations! I dunno if any of you out there are interested in this kind of thing but maybe it'll be helpful. It's fun to get new soaps! It's nice to smell nice. :B

Generally I like foody or sweet scents more so than florals or incense, so those are the ones I'm usually looking for. But each site usually has a nice variety!

Mystic Water Soap - I LOVE the web 1.0 look of this site, it might seem abandoned at first but I JUST ordered a blackberry vanilla soap like five days ago and it came right away! So they're still out there, haha. I've ordered from them a few times, they're good! They also do manly soaps if you're more into that kind of thing.

Cat and Raven Designs - Really pretty bars and fun silly themeing for their soaps. Has a queer-themed collection that makes for good gifts for the other gays in your life! They have a Fresno Nightcrawler themed soap right now, how can you resist, haha. I've ordered from them a few times and the scents were very nice!

Contact Caffeine - Furry themed soaps, some of which have caffeine added for a pick me up! Well supposedly, I tried one or two of them with it and didn't really notice a difference. I've gotten some cheerful scents from here before, although I've never found a use for the stickers.

Royalty Soaps - Fancy bars, some of them with frosted tops! Which admittedly I find a bit intimidating, I assume the frosting also works as a soap... I've never ordered one, haha. But I have ordered some non-frosted ones and they were nice! They have a club too that lets you know about monthly themed soaps, I think, I'm not a member lol.

Shea Makery - Food themed soaps and candles and such that look super accurate to the foods in question! Like at a glance you'd really think they were cookies or pound cake. Smell just like them too, haha. I've gotten a few things from them that smelled delicious, although I will say I did order a grilled cheese soap at one point that got lost in the shuffle, although when I emailed them about it they sent it right away. These things happen! It was so pretty and smelled good too. :O

Haus of Gloi - Mostly whipped soaps with seasonal themes! I just got one from them (Ghost Puffs, from the Fall collection) that I haven't had a chance to try out yet but it smells delicious. They included a free tubelet of their Turkish Delight fragrance which was nice of them!

Lincoln Street Soap - Plain looking bars, but the one I just ordered (Apple/Oak) has a complex fragrance to it. :O Looking forward to trying it, haha. They included a free lotion bar of the Apple/Oak scent too. :O I like soaps but I've never been into lotion but I might give it a try.

Paintbox Soapworks - Pretty bars and glycerin soap! I just tried one tonight and it was very moisturizing, haha. It was a rose/lemon/vanilla one, although to my nose it smelled more rose than the others, but it could just be me. Still nice though! They also gave me a free whipped soap to go with it which was very kind. :O It was for a scent called Stretched on Your Grave (frozen loam, dessicated flowers, tears) that I'm not really into though sadly lol. I appreciate the generosity though!

Chikyu - Whipped soap with a HUGE scent list to choose from! I put in an order but it's still on its way, excited to see what it's like. I have heard the scents are strong but we'll see!

Witch Baby Soap - Very witchy as you can probably guess, haha. Very pretty bars with interesting scents! I ordered a few but they're also still on their way. Looking forward to it though!

Bath Sabbath - Very metal soaps, absolutely beautiful bars! Sculpted and painted and everything, they look incredible. :O I'd feel guilty using one even, haha. I haven't picked up a bar from here yet but I'm keeping an eye out for a good scent to try.

Ophelia's Soapery - Very pretty bars, although none of the current scents grabbed me. They might grab you though!

Studio Beige - Straight-forward bars, some with charcoal and clay and such if you feel fancy. I'm tempted by the lemongrass one but haven't committed yet, haha.

Itty Bitty Soap Company - Small selection but fun! Also set up on blogspot which is a first lol. I haven't picked one from here but I am thinking about it.

Nat Botanicals - Very minimalist looking soap, looks very clean! None of the scents here grabbed me just yet but I'm keeping an eye out.

Unearth Malee - Soaps with no palm oil! I was very tempted by the Lemon Drop one but refrained since I'd gone on a soap buying frenzy that night lol. I might come back to it later though.

Tree Marie Soapworks - Stunningly beautiful bars, but a very limited choice of scents. They're so pretty though!

The Indigenous Soap Company - A Hawaii based company, most of their soaps are themed around the islands. I'd like to pick one up someday but none of the scents quite grabbed me.

Little and Grim - More so perfume than soaps, although they do have some liquid soaps available! Not a lot of scent options though (for the soap, there's a ton for the fragrances).

-

Cattails Blvd - I'm including this more as a cautionary tale - I ordered a soap rock and never got it. :/ I tried emailing customer service and support several times to no avail. Sometimes that's just how it goes, but I'm not about to try again. Maybe some of you out there are willing to take the risk and see what the soaps are like.


Anyway if there are any other indie places you get soaps let me know, I like trying new ones. |D

lj post
meteordust: (Default)
I saw this musical at the start of December at the Hayes Theatre. I'd never heard of it before. I hadn't even planned on seeing it.

What I had planned on seeing was Merry and Bright, a play about a department store Mrs Claus, who gets sacked from her decades-long job right before Christmas, and decides she won't give up without a fight. Starring the legendary Nancye Hayes, for whom the Hayes Theatre is named. It sounded fun and heartwarming. Unfortunately the run had to be cancelled due to actor unavailability. So this show was the replacement.

The premise is a classic locked room murder mystery. The twist is that there are only two actors: one playing the detective, and the other playing all the suspects.

Unlike other musicals with actors playing multiple characters, there were no costume changes! The actors conveyed the different characters with changes in voice and posture, often switching between characters several times in the same scene.

This was done in a broad comedy way. There were cheesy accents (the wife was played with a Southern accent, and the psychiatrist was played with a German accent) and visual shorthand (like the niece standing with her hands on her hips and her feet planted apart, or the ballerina posed in a plie with a duck face expression). Some of it was a bit panto, but it was effective.

This is very much a theatre production that has to be a theatre production. Pretending other characters we couldn't see were in the same scene, made it feel like a game of make-believe the actors and the audience were playing together, where we're all suspending our disbelief.

It led to surprises like the sudden introduction of a boys' choir that had been in the room all along. Or the fourth wall break where the detective was speaking to one suspect and demanded to speak to another, but the first suspect refused to yield way and let the other suspect appear.

I enjoyed the genderplay of the actors playing characters of different genders. It helped make some of the noir detective tropes feel less cliched.

The mystery had its share of red herrings, everyone with a motive and a secret to hide, and a satisfying resolution.

The songs were reasonably fun and entertaining. But what I was most impressed by was the music. As the promo said of the two actors: "Together, they play every character. They also play the piano." The actors play the piano! Usually taking turns to play the background music while the other person is acting in the foreground, but sometimes playing a duet.

And the Christmas Edition thing? Apparently, it's just the standard version of the musical, but with festive season references shoehorned in, which they lampshade up front.

Birb!

Dec. 28th, 2025 05:08 am[personal profile] vriddy
vriddy: Cat looking out of the window beside a cup of tea and books (window cat)
To PROVE that I am able to make a post without a single mention of K-9 (oh no I already failed), please enjoy pictures of the bird friends I made at the park yesterday :D


Chill bird walking on concrete   Chill bird foraging in a flower bed


I call them magpies because that's what the black and white and beautiful blue-tinted tail colouring makes me think of, but I don't actually know. They are birb. And they are friendly!

One of them came to hang out with us when we took a little break, just sitting there, all puffy and chirping whenever we stopped paying attention to it. Really, surprisingly chill and friendly! I guess people around there are not jerks to them too much.

Puffy bird perching on wall


I know the quality of my pictures is terrible, but that's to encourage everyone to use their Power Of Imagination! I'm actually providing a great public service 😌

Picture of a not a bird friend, at the same park )


Also I'm no longer the only person posting for K-9 out there :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D And they write a PoV I'm less comfortable with (FOR NOW) and that is just AWESOME. Happy times!!! 🥳🥳
tozka: white flora on a light blue background (winter flower on blue bg)
A puffy snowman sticker on a bright red pole. The snowman has a top hat, red scarf and little red mittens. It’s smiling!

📍Phoenix, Arizona - December 2025 / All Photos / Pixelfed

sonofgodzilla: (Acchan Christmas ~ !)
In 2005, I was terribly invested in pop music, it was the thing that was keeping me afloat. I had first encountered Morning Musume few years earlier, and Toei's hero shows followed shortly after, first Gaoranger, then Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger featuring Nagasawa Nao in the role of Nono Nanami. Being so far away from Japan, we had no real understanding of idol culture save for how we approximated what we came to know from magazines and websites. Anyway, long story short, I became an idol fan, and I started following both Nagasawa Nao and Yamamoto Azusa from Hurricanger. By the time 2005 had rolled around, we were five singles into Nagasawa's solo career, two on King Records, the rest on avex trax, whom she signed with in early 2004. I can't recommend her music to you, but at the same time, I have a cabinet full of records, and I was sad when, after 2007, the well dried up and the most we got was a "best of" record the year later, something that led to me feeling somewhat shortchanged by avex. Having said that though, it was also a relief as the material the label was giving her was pretty awful. Despite my resentment, avex were very proactive in the mid '00s, having launched the career of Hamasaki Ayumi and having a clear vision of the kind of idols they believed sold best—Hi-NRG songs and gravure photoshoots were the order of the day, and a lot of avex's acts did really well within the parameters of that milieu, dream were especially popular, if I remember rightly, as were PARADISE GO!! GO!!. To use an analogy that might be a little too niche, avex's idols felt like they were all from Ginza, and I think that was an approach that dominated the idol industry until AKB48's "idols you can meet" really blew the lid off everything.

In amidst all those pounding Eurobeat drums, the scent of excessive baby oil used in every gravure shoot, as you were beginning to feel a little lightheaded from all the hairspray used, there was always one thing that avex was good at doing, however, and that was promotion. If you were on avex, you were on billboards.

Nao-chan

~Yujo ni Ribbon~ )

Yuletide collection opens!

Dec. 27th, 2025 05:00 pm[personal profile] meteordust
meteordust: (Default)
Ahhh, how is it almost the end of December? The last few months have been a blur. Christmas Day and Boxing Day were hectic in a good way with family celebrations, and now there's the chance to settle down with the Yuletide collection! This time I was lucky enough to receive two amazing gifts. Both for the same fandom, but taking different angles.

Title: Adventure! Romantic couple's activities! Rubbery lumps! [archive-locked]
Fandom: Fallen London | Echo Bazaar
Tags: No Archive Warnings Apply, Player (Fallen London)/Your Lover Returned (Fallen London), Player (Fallen London) & Your Lover Returned (Fallen London), Player (Fallen London), Your Lover Returned (Fallen London), Fruits of the Zee Festival (Fallen London), the joy and agony of reconnecting with someone you love but no longer know
Summary: A new ship rests in the marina. A ferry, headed to Mutton Island for their annual festival, you gather by the yells of its zailors. When you make the mistake of catching one's eye, their cries get much louder in your direction. Adventure! Wholesome family activities! Romantic couple's activities! Rubbery lumps!
You and your companion share a glance. A smile tugs at their lips, and they tilt their head invitingly in the ferry's direction. Well, it's not like either of you have something better to do today. You scrounge payment and gallantly help your companion aboard.

A lovely and wistful adventure together. Gorgeous and atmospheric.

Title: To Take Tea With an Ostensible Stranger [archive-locked]
Fandom: Fallen London | Echo Bazaar
Tags: No Archive Warnings Apply, Player/Your Lover Returned (Fallen London), Player (Fallen London), Your Lover Returned (Fallen London), Original Fallen London Character(s), This is tagged f/f because one of the characters is a he/him butch lesbian lmao, Spoilers for Ambition: Nemesis (Fallen London), Third Person POV
Summary: Joaquín didn't remember her. He didn't remember a lot of things. Maybe Petunia could help him sort a few things out.
Contains major spoilers for Ambition: Nemesis. Written for Yuletide 2025.

All the exploration of aftermath I could want. Beautiful angst with a hopeful ending.

Thank you so much, dear authors! You've really made my Yuletide.

Sometimes I wonder, is this nomination too niche? Too obscure? Do I need to make an evidence post? Is anyone else even interested in this weird corner of the canon? To find out that someone else is - it's just so good.

Exchanges can be exhausting or frustrating or unpredictable. But this is the kind of thing that keeps me coming back: the magic of releasing your requests out into the world, and sometimes them returning with a brand new story that would never have existed otherwise.

1538 stories in 1075 fandoms in the Yuletide collection, and 226 stories in 194 fandoms in the Yuletide Madness collection. Happy Yuletide!
michifugu: dejitan kimo kao (Uma Musume - Agnes Digital)

I finally bought Handora thanks to that sweet Steam discount! I’d been wanting to play it for about half a year because it looked interesting and fun, so I decided to get Handora as my Christmas present.

Now I want to share my impressions after 30 hours and 55 days in-game, so here we go!

SPOILER BEWARE!! )




greetingsfrommaars: ichihara yuuko from the manga xxxholic (Default)
this year's holiday break pick to watch with my mom! tbh i just checked what was murdery and available on hoopla (free streaming through my library account). relatively lighthearted, and it was a hit with my mom, so phew. (she was kind of like "why is no one normal", but i get the impression that the eccentricity is an intentional part of the casts of characters. she also objects to how sarcastic dci barnaby gets with sergeant troy.) i was taken aback by how cavalier the main characters are about barging into people's houses without warrants, in a way that i think i wouldn't have been if they were non-police detectives. i did enjoy the variously wacky characters, although the handful of queer side characters went over interestingly with my mom. anyway, we liked the pilot (the killings at badger's drift), faithful unto death, and death in disguise.
tozka: A bit of green landscape against a riotous blue cloud-filled sky (van gogh landscape)

Happy Friday! Here's some links-- deliberately focused on positive things, to give some end-of-year cheer.

Media of Various Types

Food & Crafts & Art

Social Media

RSS Feeds

  • mixed color (RSS) a great blog about embroidery, sewing, dying, etc!
  • Winnie Lim (RSS) writes very enjoyable blog posts about life and the things that happen therein
  • sortition social is a community RSS feed reader! It selects a random feed from their (user-submitted?) database and added to the timeline for 7 days

<- previous linkspam | link library | all link posts ->

Reading: A Year in Review

Dec. 26th, 2025 10:20 am[personal profile] rocky41_7
rocky41_7: (Default)

This year I read 63 books, which will sound like a lot to some people, and not very much to others, but it's a lot for me at this point in my life. I was a huge reader growing up. Like, regularly getting called to the front of the classroom to fork over the book I'd been reading under my desk during the lesson. But in high school I got into internet and fanfiction and then I was moving around so much that books were never a priority item to haul along with me and I just sort of...stopped reading.

But I've gotten back into it--I've had an active library card again since 2023, which I initially got solely to check out Nona the Ninth XD--and it's been such a joy. I've never been an audiobook person, and I still prefer physical books, but having Libby and audiobooks in my car has made my work commute SO much less unpleasant.

I wanted to reflect on what I've read this year, so I compiled this list of titles and ratings. Asterisks by books I did not finish, generally because I disliked them too much (that's another thing--I've been trying to accept giving up on books I'm really not enjoying more), with the exception of Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, which wasn't bad, just for too young an audience for me to enjoy. Unrated books I either found too hard to pin a rating to or just didn't get around to rating.

I feel like I got a great spread of books this year, though I've failed to whittle down my TBR list at all thanks to very compelling recommendations. I'm really looking forward to another year of stories!

The actual written reviews can be found on my Dreamwidth or Storygraph.



vriddy: K-9 Volume 1 Cover (k-9)
Friend told me that Uncategorized Fandoms don't show up on your AO3 dashboard, and now I'm mournfully looking at my K-9-less dashboard, like poking at a scab... but also wondering if I'll have written enough for the fandom to show above the cut when it does eventually get wrangled XD


Show of trust | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 1.6k words | rated T

Summary: Oboro and Fujimaru are down, while Ren and Kagari are left to face off an ever-growing mob of sin users on their own.

Read it on Dreamwidth on AO3.
sonofgodzilla: (Acchan Christmas ~ !)
Title: Dreaming Doll
Universe: Mahou Sensei Negima!
Prompt: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: S02E09 - For Whom the Bell Trolls
Character(s): Konoe Konoka/Karakuri Chachamaru
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Carefully, she stole a glance at the other girl, her round face, her dark hair, the kindness of her eyes, the gentleness of her smile. All of this was so that she might confess her feelings, but what if you could fall in love with more than one person?
Length: 468 words
Author's Notes: WWTHYWC! #23. Merry, merry Boxing Day, friends 🎄🎉🎁💝🍰 Takes place around episode #24 of the live action show. also: external link.

chacha

Dreaming Doll )

Merry Christmas!

Dec. 25th, 2025 07:02 pm[personal profile] mistressofmuses
mistressofmuses: Image of nebulae in the colors of the bi pride flag: pink, purple, and blue (Default)
I hope that everyone who celebrates has had (and is still having) a merry Christmas! (And if you don't celebrate... I hope it was a great Thursday!)

Maybe it's our record-breaking heat (71° today!), but it really hasn't felt terribly Christmas-y. Last year I got hit with the Christmas spirit atypically hard, but not so much this year. Not feeling un-Christmas-y or anything, just... not feeling a ton of hype.

Even so, I had a lovely day. I never sleep well the night before Christmas (or the night before any big event, like vacation, or a big show we're going to, etc.), even though I'm well beyond the "kid at Christmas" excitement phase, haha. I especially can't say I sleep well on my mom's tiny loveseat, though Jaspurr was a pleasant sleeping buddy, and even let us sleep in until there was light in the sky!

Mom and Taylor and I exchanged gifts: I mostly got books, haha. (I also mostly gave books.)

Alex came and joined us a few hours later, and we all hung out for a while. He made some delicious chocolate crinkle cookies and a pan of gingerbread blondies, which are SO GOOD.

Alex and I then came home and exchanged our gifts. Then I fairly quickly fell asleep. Just as I was waking up from my nap, Alex fell asleep, haha.


Highlights of my received gifts. <3

I got lots of books from my mom and Taylor! All are books I'm very excited to read. What Moves the Dead (which I did have an ebook of, but wanted a physical copy), What Feasts at Night and What Stalks the Deep. The Scholomance trilogy. Hell Bent. The Strange Bird. The Ballad of Black Tom.
From Alex, I got Sinners and Late Night With the Devil, which were two of my favorite horror movies from the last couple years, and that I wanted copies of. He also got me a couple nice blank notebooks. (I'll have to psych myself up to use the nicer of the two, haha.) He also got me some candy, the cute spider plush keychain, and the fluffy blanket that everything is sitting on.
Not pictured: A shirt, some hot chocolate, and some bubble bath stuff from Alex. My mom bought us a seat cover for the truck.
And of course, Bella got a million treats, haha.

Our remaining plans for the evening are eating a frozen pizza (er... we will bake it first), since we're both very tired of making food, and then maybe some sort of holiday movie. We meant to try and watch a few before today, but never got around to it. My vote is for The Muppet Christmas Carol, but Christams Twister (sic) is truly our longest movie tradition, and he's more likely to vote for A Christmas Story or It's a Wonderful Life. So we'll see which one we land on!

ETA:

Christams Twister is the winner again! A misspelled title card is truly the best indicator of quality that I can imagine.

It's been an up and down month

Dec. 25th, 2025 04:35 pm[personal profile] allekha
allekha: Victor smiles and waves (Young Victor waving)
Z's nasal surgery was successful; he had the stents removed the day before we left for Lake Placid, and I sat in to watch. Hoo boy I had no idea they were going to be that big. How did they fit??? He still had some stuffiness thereafter, but after a few weeks, he was pretty much recovered. He is able to breathe properly now :)

We had a great time in Lake Placid and Skamerica. It was actually a little weird to go online after and see the negativity, some of it felt like people were looking for a reason to be mad about the location, like when people claimed that nobody in town knew it was happening (you could hear locals talking about it everywhere, and there were tons of signs) or were freaking out about how a town in the Adirondaks was going to get a few inches of snow the day after the competition and how that was going to cause broken legs and stranded skaters. Can't remember ever seeing that before about other competitions. (There was one vaguely sketchy road going out of town; the highways were entirely clear.) I saw people begging for it to go back to Boston, but as someone who wrote a long email to the Boston organizers about the safety issues and baked-in ableism we faced at the event to zero reply, Iiii can't say I'm eager to ever return to that arena. Norwood was okay, but you couldn't walk to the event very easily due to its location.

Anyway, I will try to do a separate writeup about it, but the arena was cozy, very well-lit, and easy to navigate. The security people were nice and made no fuss whatsoever about my camera. I said hi to someone from my skating lessons. None of the seats would have had a bad view. I'm not usually a big skater-spotter, but it was hard not to see anyone in such a small town - I think I saw Alysa grabbing lunch one day. Overall, good experience! Lake Placid being quite expensive was the main downside. We also explored the town a little, and they have a beautiful public library with a reading area set on the lake.

This week, we were planning to see my mom again, along with my dad and friends at home. Unfortunately, Z developed a sudden case of vertigo, and even with medication, he's not up for that long of a car ride, so we're putting it off until he is feeling better. When will that be? We have no idea. He is scheduled to get PT on his vestibular system the first week of January, so we are crossing our fingers that will help.

So we have tried to have a cozy little Christmas here; we put his itty-bitty Christmas tree (it's about six inches tall) on our cat tree and put our presents to each other under that. We bought a log cake from the grocery store that we knew would not be as good as the bakery version, and it turned out to be pretty bad lol, but I baked some other sweets instead so I'll just have those. His parents came by today to say hello and bring us some food. One upside is that since washing dishes makes him dizzy, we finally got to work on the dishwasher the people who renovated the house left half-installed, and now it's working.

We also had the holiday show at my skating club! My coach and I did a variation on the Dutch Waltz with some original choreo thrown in, including a lift. Even made a bit of a costume this time with some net and a leotard. I biffed it on the spiral of all the things, but we ended on a good note, and I had fun :)
tozka: Gandalf from Lord of the Rings (lotr gandalf green bg)

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