lotesse | Reading

Honestly, if you ban somebody it ought to warn you before you comment on their posts so that if you forget or don't realize you don't end up in an awkward situation.

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Posted by morbane

https://yuletide-admin.livejournal.com/299287.html

There's a new post up on the Yuletide Admin comm regarding Oncoming default deadline. Please note that there may have been a delay between that post and this crosspost.

You can go through to DW to check the details:

Dreamwidth Post

If you have follow-up questions, they can be asked in the DW comment section using a DW login, OpenID with another login, or a signed anonymous comment.

https://yuletide-admin.livejournal.com/299287.html

pauraque posting in

booknook

It's Wednesday! What are you reading?

oursin

What I read

Finished O Shepherd, Speak! - as ever, Lanny manages to find himself at major historical events. A particularly fascinating thing considering that news story about Hitler's DNA - he is admitted to the bunker and takes a slice of bloodstained sofa-cover.... In the aftermath of WW2, he has been left money to work for World Peace and he and friends are working for this. One thing I do find a bit curious about Lanny's generally progressive line is that the civil rights question (was it being called that in the 30s/40s?) doesn't seem to feature: maybe because he was brought up in Europe and mostly lived there? His focus on the World Stage???

Val McDermid, The Skeleton Road (Inspector Karen Pirie #3) (2014): not sure this was really doing it for me - there was a point where it just seemed to be going on and on.

Have plunged into a re-read of Barbara Hambly's Silver Screen mysteries (getting myself back up to speed on the series with a new volume forthcoming): so far Scandal in Babylon (2021) and One Extra Corpse (2023). Possibly one reads for the evocation of Hollywood at that era rather than the actual mystery plots, but good, anyway.

On the go

Saving Susy Sweetchild (Silver Screen #3) (2024)

Still dipping into Some Men in London, 1960-1967.

Up next

I am feeling the siren call of The Return of Lanny Budd.

I also realise that I have managed to sign myself up for 3 bookgroups meeting in January, 2 online (Pilgrimage, first meeting, Dance to the Music of Time, concluding volume) and 1 in person (fairly) locally - have managed to fight off suggestion that we read the Mybuggery wot won the Booker, but am now committed to the extremely LOOOOONG new Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

***

Further to yesterday's mysterious email from Academic Publisher, have received a further and more official-looking email today:

You may recently have received a message from us with the subject line "Welcome to [redacted] GCOP".
This email was caused by a system error. You can therefore ignore it and do not need to take any action.
Apologies for any confusion the message may have caused.

***

✨ holiday love meme 2025 ✨
my thread here

twistedchick

What is remembered, lives. What is remembered in the military is used to teach future soldiers, sailors, airmen and Guards. What will be remembered of the officers involved in Hegseth's illegal orders?

rmc28

About ten days ago, my hockey-and-languages buddy Owen enthused about Percy Jackson to me on the journey to/from my game in Lee Valley. (Owen was riding along to provide photography services.)

I was like, I've never read the books but I'm pretty sure I've got Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief somewhere in my to-read pile. So I took a look and sure enough, I had ten Percy Jackson books in my kindle account. My emails tell me I bought them in May 2016, and I have no memory of doing so or why (except that they were all 99p so that might have had something to do with it).

I opened up Lightning Thief to see if it was as good as expected ... and got fairly instantly hooked. I've read the first series of five books, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, then I briefly borrowed and read the short story collection The Demigod Files, before moving on to the next series of five, Heroes of Olympus. I'm currently a few chapters into the second book in that series, Son of Neptune. I'm having a great time: the books are good reads and I'm reviving a lot of memories from my childhood Greek myths phase. The positive ADHD rep doesn't hurt either.

rachelmanija

Thirteen-year-old Ali gets a chance to spend the summer with her aunt Dulcie and five-year-old cousin Emma at the family's long-abandoned lakefront property - over the strong objections of Ali's mother, who hates the lake. Ali is delighted to babysit Emma and get out from under her mom's over-protective thumb. But why do both her mother and Dulcie act so weird about the lake and their past there? Who's the mysterious girl who was ripped out of old family photos? And what's up with Sissy, the strange girl who hangs out at the lake and encourages Emma to behave badly and blame it on Ali?

Sissy's real identity won't come as a surprise to any readers over the age of 10, but there are some genuinely chilling moments and Hahn's trademark realistic family dynamics and exploration of guilty secrets and how parents' childhood trauma gets passed down to their children. I actually got stressed out reading about Ali trying to protect Emma while Dulcie blames Ali for all the weird stuff going on and accuses Ali of refusing to take responsibility for anything. (In fact, Dulcie and Ali's mom are the ones who are failing to take responsibility and projecting it on the kids.)

A good solid middle-grade ghost story with unusually complex family dynamics.

conuly

Watch on YouTube

twistedchick

This is a prayer to Aphrodite. This is a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for love and beauty. This is a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for wine and roses. This is a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for orgasm. This is a prayer for Resistance.

Turning my eyes from ugly times, I cry to the Goddess of Beauty. Beaten down again and again, I cry to She Who Enjoys.

“Aphrodite!” I cry. “You wear sea foam, You stand on a shell, You are surrounded by cherubim. Send, Great Goddess, Your cherubim to bring beauty back to the world.”

My Goddess lifts Her left foot, Her left foot covered in foam. She shakes off the foam and begins to dance.

This is a prayer to Aphrodite. This is a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for mirth and irreverance. This is a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for perfume and starlight. This is a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for artists and lovers. This is a prayer for Resistance.

In a time of cruelty and hatred, I cry to the Goddess of Love. Out of sorrow and deep depression, I cry to She Who Stirs Passion.

“Aphrodite!” I cry. “You take many lovers, You admire Your own beauty, Your shining eyes light up the world. Turn again, Great Goddess, Your eyes upon us that we may remember why we Resist.”

My Goddess looks at Herself in a mirror. My Goddess takes joy in her own beauty. Slowly, She holds the mirror up to us and invites us to see what we can create.

This is a prayer for foot rubs and sex toys. This is prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for dancing and music. This is a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer for the reasons why. This is a prayer for Resistance.
This is a prayer to Aphrodite. This is a prayer for Resistance.

-- by Hecate Demeter

sonia

Mother of GPS, Gladys West, Finally Gets Proper Recognition by Judith Fogel. Did you know GPS was made possible by a Black woman (who is still alive)? I sure didn't!

Gladys West and her husband Ira were both mathematicians at Dahlgren Naval Base, then called Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground. West was hired in 1956. Her extraordinary contributions to the geodetic modeling of the earth became the foundation for the Global Positioning System (GPS). But few knew how much this Black woman changed the way we navigate.

conuly

I have the distinct impression that Adrian Tchaikovsky doesn't like Donald Trump.

( Read more... )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

1. Dear Carolyn: My fiancé and I got engaged on Jan. 1, 2024 — so, almost two years ago — and then my sister and her fiancé got engaged this past summer. For a whole host of reasons, my fiancé and I have not gotten far at all in the wedding planning, but my sister and hers set a date and booked a venue pretty quickly — for the first weekend in July.

Recently, my fiancé sighted a local, family-owned venue and has started saying he wants to get married there in mid-June, around our anniversary and after school lets out because there are kids in our families we want to be there. If we did that, then it would be back-to-back weddings, which I — I cannot stress this enough — do NOT think is a great idea.
My sister and I have very overlapping guest lists, for one thing. Plus, I will be in her wedding (and hopefully she in mine), and I think we would each like to be able to focus on that without worrying about the details of another big event around the same time. Also, we are from a close family, and it just feels like squeezing too much juice out of one summer. Our mom is not super healthy, and I know she wants to be there for both of us.

I would strongly prefer to postpone our wedding until perhaps next spring, and honestly since we (especially my fiancé) have dragged our feet this much so far, there doesn’t feel like much of a hurry anymore. My fiancé is upset by this and says it feels like I’m letting my sister delay our marriage. Am I being obtuse by thinking we should get married a few months later than he wants to? We have been together for almost eight years, if it matters!
— Sister

( Read more... )

********

2. Dear Carolyn: How do you navigate co-parenting a teen who is wicked smart but seemingly without motivation? My 17-year-old junior signed up for four AP classes this year, even after a good conversation about the amount of work they are and his not-great track record of turning in schoolwork. He thought he could handle it.

Here we are at the second quarter, and lo and behold, he’s struggling to keep up. I’m not in I-told-you-so mode, I promise! I am trying to be collaborative, asking how we can handle things here at my house to make it easier for him to focus (should probably mention ADHD). Those conversations always feel productive in terms of treating each other with respect, but … less effective at actually getting work done.

I am solidly of the opinion that, within reason, he should reap both the rewards AND the consequences of his decisions, and if an F is the consequence of not doing the work, well. His dad is much more aggressive at his house, and frequently my son comes back to me after a row with his dad over his lackluster performance.

Dad and I manage decently well at co-parenting except for this one area. I feel like Dad is worried more how all this reflects on HIM and not as interested in who his child really is. I can relate to my kid’s struggles, having had similar problems — and also possibly being neurodivergent, too — but Dad thinks if he just lectures enough, it will finally sink in.

My son can completely articulate what will happen if he fails a class and what will happen to his college and job prospects if his GPA tanks. What’s the point of repeating it ad nauseam? I am also trying to be a safe place, but his dad thinks I’m doing absolutely nothing. I’m fine telling Dad to stuff it about the “nothing” I’m doing, because I’ve been advocating hard for my kid since kindergarten — but any thoughts on navigating this? I use what few levers I have to encourage getting the work done, but he’s 17, and I can’t exactly tie him to a chair.
— Co-Parent of an Unmotivated Teen

( Read more... )

*********

3. Dear Carolyn: I have always found the holidays to be a massive pain in the neck, and I have little interest in participating. This is not a new thing; I’m 30, and I’ve always felt that way. Like Scrooge, I’ve always been happy to let others keep Christmas in their way and for me to not keep it in mine.

Two years ago, I was married. Our engagement happened over a Christmas season, so my wife was well aware before she married me that I’m not the Christmas type.

Well, you guessed it, she is insistent that I help pick out and decorate a tree, put up Christmas decorations, attend holiday events, and buy a bunch of Christmas gifts. I’ve told her point-blank that I will not do it. I’ve told her SHE is welcome to buy and decorate as many trees as she wants, but I’m not helping with it. This has led to a couple of arguments, tears and claims that I’m selfish. She’s not speaking to me after I told her yesterday that I wasn’t planning to be home for the big party she’s planning to throw.

To me, Christmas is like religion: Practice it if you want, but don’t nag other people to practice it with you, and don’t try to change people who are (or were) happy with their lives as they are. So who’s right here?
— Scrooge

( Read more... )

***********

4. Dear Carolyn: Two years ago, my in-laws asked me and my husband if we wanted them to help us buy a house. They had asked before and we said no, but at this point we were ready to start building community roots, so we said yes please. With their help, we bought a house we love(d), a cozy four-bedroom house in a progressive suburb.

On a visit a few months later, my mother-in-law tutted over the two bedrooms we turned into our offices, commenting that “it will be hard to repurpose these for babies when it’s time.” At no point have we ever indicated that we plan to have children, and in fact we do not plan to, which we had to tell her then.

Carolyn, she was so upset that it was shocking. Though my father-in-law helped defuse, she bawled violently at this news and informed us that she felt like she had bought us a house under false pretenses. She eventually collected herself but was subdued for the rest of the planned visit, another day and a half.

It has been about 18 months since then, and our relationship is now chilly. I feel uncomfortable inviting them to our home because now I feel like they think we don’t deserve it. I find it hurtful to know they wanted us to have a nice house not so that we could enjoy our own lives, but to enrich their grandchildren. And at some level, I feel like we stole from them, even though it’s ridiculous.

Every week, I tell my husband I think we should sell the house, give them some of the proceeds and go back to apartment living. He says I’m nuts and to ignore his mom’s dramatics. But did we do something wrong here?
— Hurt

( Read more... )

sholio

A G'Kar vid! This well edited vid does a marvelous job of hitting the grace notes of G'Kar's arc without exactly recapping it. (Does definitely contain spoilers.)

Vid by

sandalwoodbox - I think it was Tumblr where I originally saw this, but it's posted on AO3 here.

Watch on YouTube

torachan

1. I got the Christmas cake order put in today. Also got a delicious ube boba shake while I was there.

2. I had a library book due today that I couldn't renew due to other people having holds, and managed to finish it in time to return after work this evening.

3. The light by the washing machine has been getting dim for a while, but it's a dome lamp on the ceiling and you're supposed to be able to just turn the dome and it comes loose, but it's been completely stuck. We have multiple other lamps like this in other rooms, all of which we've changed bulbs in just fine, but this one hasn't been changed since they installed it a few years ago when we got the wiring done. The area is not a separate room, just a space by the backdoor that is also open to the dining room and kitchen, so even with the light getting dim, there was enough surrounding light that it wasn't urgent to try and get it open, but it did go out for good yesterday, so today I got serious about it and while squirting WD-40 around the rim didn't do anything, my second idea of using a butter knife to try and wiggle it loose worked! Now the lightbulb is changed and the dome is back on loosely enough that this shouldn't be an issue in the future.

4. Gemma!

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the Subscriptions poll, 27.1% of respondents have cancelled a subscription for political reasons lately, and a further 6.2% are thinking about it. That is a large proportion! Also, 35.4% agreed with "grar at everything".

In ticky-boxes, hard copy media came second to hugs, 39.6% to 68.8%. Lemurs got 31.2%. Thank you for your votes!!

Reading
Still reading Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers (an engaging shaggy dog story, so far). Nothing really in audio.

Kdramas
A few episodes into Knight Flower and enjoying it very much. The male lead is whatever, but the female lead is 100% delightful.

We finished Typhoon Family. Unfortunately it felt like it got shaggier and more shambolic as it went along, so that was a little unsatisfying. The least good Junho drama of the four I've seen.

Pru and I are making our way through Family by Choice, ahhh I love this show!!

Other TV
It feels like we're watching a ton of currently airing things, but now we've finished Typhoon Family, it's really just Down Cemetery Road (excellent) and Pluribus, which is a metaphor for half a dozen different things (Covid, grief, AI, et al).

We also still have Prehistoric Planet on the go, and last night we watched the first two episodes of the new season of Stranger Things, though I ended up colouring in and just looking up from time to time. Not super in the mood for watching people in peril. (At some point we'll probably watch the whole show right through, so I can always catch up properly then.)

Audio entertainment
Letters from an American, Cross Party Lines, some 99% Invisible. And a bunch of episodes of Shell Game, in season 1 of which, the podcaster makes some AI agents with his voice and deploys them at various people (including at his partner and friends). I thought this might be interesting because, while I've listened to a bunch of stuff about how AI is personally, politically and existentially terrible for our selves, societies and planet, I hadn't heard much about the experience of using it. I expected Shell Game to document the fact that it's just kind of crap. But although an "AI agent" is just a voice simulator reading ChatGPT outputs full of made-up nonsense, the podcaster seems weirdly invested in seeing them as mini-mes. Ot1h, using it to engage with scammers and spammers? Sure, why not? Otoh, sending his AI agent to AI therapy?? And then real therapy with a human therapist?? Very strange choices. I kind of want to shake him and remind him that there is NOTHING IN THERE!! (Maybe he reaches that conclusion in the final episode? I'm not there yet.) In season 2, he creates a start-up that is staffed entirely by himself and a bunch of AI agents. I'm not sure this is for me.

Guardian/Fandom
( Rambling about Guardian. )

Writing/making things
Working on my Yuletide fic. It's slow going, but I'm enjoying it. Need to think of something for the new

fan_flashworks round (prompt: Boss).

Link dump
ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study (Time Magazine, Jun 24, 2025) | New Zealand chant (Reddit). :D :D :D

Good things
The boy, the cat, the house. The public health system (what's left of it). Online and offline friends. All the media, everywhere, all at once. Fandom, Guardian, Yuletide, squee. Starting and finishing this post all in one day.

Poll #33911 Mind's eye

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 41

View Respondents

How vivid is your mind's eye?

View Answers

IMAX
9 (22.0%)

pretty vivid
8 (19.5%)

I can visualise if I work at it
12 (29.3%)

it's a bit patchy / vague
9 (22.0%)

no mind's eye (isn't that just a metaphor?)
7 (17.1%)

other
2 (4.9%)

ticky-box full of detective fiction
20 (48.8%)

ticky-box full of paper drifts all over my desk
13 (31.7%)

ticky-box of being able to easily name most of the characters from Winnie-the-Pooh
17 (41.5%)

ticky-box full of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves
26 (63.4%)

ticky-box full of hugs
32 (78.0%)

senmut

Housewife / Househusband	Tragedy	Freestyle crossover	Vignette	Women Being Awesome
Five Things	Contemporary AU	A Moment of Understanding / Clarity	A Strange Friend	First person narration
Steampunk AU	Horror	Wild Card	Second person narration	Drama
Crossover: TV shows and movies	There is No Escape	A Test of Worthiness	Reality is Illusion	Taxes
High School / College AU	Humour	Teenagers	A Blessing is Bestowed	Furnishing the Home

rfemod posting in

girlgay

rarefemslashexchange is a multi fandom exchange focused on f/f ships with two or more female characters (canon or genderbent) and/or genderqueer characters that you feel would fit in a f/f exchange, with less than 250 works on AO3- completed, in English, using the otp:true filter. The minimum requirements are either a 500 word fic or a nice sketch.

Nomination guidelines are here.

2025 Links

Tag Set | AO3 Collection | Rules & Guidelines

2025 Schedule

Nominations: December 1-10th (closes at 10PM PST) [ Countdown to nominations closing ] | [ In your timezone ]
Sign-Ups Open: December 13th
Sign-Ups Close: December 27th, 10PM PST
Assignments Out: approximately December 30th
Assignments Due: February 6th, 10PM PST
Assignments Revealed: February 13, 10PM PST
Creators Revealed: February 20th, 10PM PST

china_shop

fandomtree is live! Here it is! I've requested:

Guardian (TV) - many and various pairings and characters
Guardian (novel) - Shen San/Shen Wei & Da Qing, Shen Wan/Shen Wei & a previous incarnation of Guo Changcheng/the wick
김과장 | Good Manager - Kim Sung-ryong/Seo Yul, team (especially Choo Nam-ho and Yoon Ha-kyung)
당신이 잠든 사이에 | While You Were Sleeping - Han Woo Tak/Jung Jae Chan/Nam Hong Joo
내 손끝에 너의 온도가 닿을 때 | The Time of Fever - Go Hotae/Kim Donghee
기름진 멜로 | Wok of Love - Dan Sae-woo/Doo Chil-seong/Seo Poong
왕은 사랑한다 | The King in Love - Eun San/Wang Rin/Wang Won
Desperately Seeking Susan - any combination of Roberta, Susan, Dez, and Jim
Bluey (TV) - Bingo (art only, incl. crossovers with Guardian)

(As may be obvious, my romanisation of Korean names is wildly inconsistent. I have hyphenations, no hyphenations, smooshing, u = oo, or eo = u. Idk! I mostly get names from asianwiki.com and AO3, but where relevant, I tend to change the second part of a hyphenated name to lower case, for aesthetics.)

(As may also be obvious, I got rather carried away. Hi! :D)

(As may also also be obvious, my preferred solution to love triangles where they all care about each other is SMOOSHING. :D)

rachelmanija

A sensitive, well-written novel about a young girl coming of age at the end of the world. 11-year-old Julia lives in California suburbs with her doctor dad and fragile mom when the Earth's rotation begins to slow, and gradually gets slower and slower and slower.

Days and nights stretch out. Birds fall from the sky. Some people become severely ill, apparently from disruption of circadian rhythms. Crops fail. But life goes on, and Julia experiences all the ordinary milestones - a first love, her parents' marriage breaking up, becoming more independent - against a backdrop of larger loss and change. It

This is an apocalypse novel almost entirely without violence, apart from some light persecution of a scapegoated neighbor. There's some death, but it's all from natural or accidental causes. It's science fiction but marketed as literary fiction, and feels a lot more like the latter. The book has that melancholy, nostalgic, sepia vibe of looking back on times when you knew something was wrong but were young enough to be focused mostly on yourself, and knowing you'll never be that innocent ot experience the same time or world again.

umadoshi

The season's first storm is heading our way, although our bit of the province is expecting way more rain than snow. (Now it rains. But I think it mostly hasn't been too cold yet, so hopefully the rain will help the water table etc. recover some more after the summer/fall drought.) Maybe

scruloose can get the hoses indoors (or drained, if that's the plan) when they get home from work, before the weather arrives.

I've finally gotten weary enough of my natural hair color to buy permanent OTC dye, as opposed to the semi-permanent attempts I've made since it became obvious that covid has settled in for the long haul. ( TL;DR: purple permanent dye has been purchased but not yet applied )

C&Ping and expanding on a bit from Bluesky last night: ( an Advent calendar + supplementary chocolate )

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no the circle won't be broken

Reading

Hey, can somebody who knows pauraque ask if they intended to ban me?

Oncoming default deadline

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

Wednesday managed a short walk besides attending symposium online

New Substack post

Wednesday reading: Percy Jackson

Deep and Dark and Dangerous, by Mary Downing Hahn

Merry Early Christmas!

Because there was no Yule prayer for resistance, I am posting this one now.

Link: Gladys West made GPS possible

Just finished Bear Head, the second Dogs of War book

Four letters to Carolyn, with no particular theme

Rec-Cember Day 2: Vid: Not Gonna Stop Me Getting Through (Babylon 5)

Daily Happiness

Me-and-media update

GenPrompt Bingo Card Round 29

Rare Femslash Exchange Nominations are Open!

My fandom tree is live!

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thomas Walker

Impending weather | Impending purple | No-longer-impending Advent chocolate

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