we are not lost

Aubrey; also Birdie.
Student and writer. Polyamorous and really gay. Chronically ill.
Local queen of cait sidhe. Powered by caffeine, anxiety, and spite.
May. 29th, 2025 10:38 am

I can hardly believe this is real

dorchadas: (Legend of Zelda Zelda Dark Princess)
[personal profile] dorchadas
Bandai-Namco: "What are your qualifications?"
Trailer Person: "I spent 2001-2010 making a ton of AMVs."
Bandai-Namco: "Say no more."


Watch in 240p for the best experience.

From mid 00s Animemusicvideos.org removing all Evanescence AMVs due to a Cease & Desist order to this. I wonder if someone carried a grudge all this time?
May. 29th, 2025 03:06 pm

Hie thee thither!

[personal profile] cosmolinguist

Sir Ian McKellen to open historic all-trans and nonbinary production of Twelfth Night

What's this, a trans reading of my favorite Shakespeare play, fundraising for my favorite trans charity (the one that brings me that "trans gym" thing I'm always talking about)?

And there's a livestream so I can stay covid-safe? And you can watch from anywhere (for two weeks after the live performance)?

I've already got my ticket!

May. 29th, 2025 09:52 am

Smallweb Chatter Post

kalloway: Strings of Star-shaped lights (Xmas Lights 13 Stars)
[personal profile] kalloway posting in [community profile] smallweb
How's it going, [community profile] smallweb?

This is an open post to talk about what you're working on, what you'd like to show off, cool resources, things that maybe aren't working so well, etc.

Any plans for June?
May. 29th, 2025 02:22 pm

a complicated goblin

[personal profile] cosmolinguist

This morning, a friend shared a screenshot of a social media post that says

i am a simple goblin

all i want is for someone to pet my head

and feed me whatever i want for dinner

without having to figure out what that is

forever ✨

I read this, and thought D's gonna say "oh look it Erik" isn't he (he's convinced I'm a goblin; I don't get it), and before I could even type anything, he said "Oh you found Erik's alt."

I laughed and said "Actually I require many more things than this. I am a needy goblin."

I mean yes those things would be nice -- though lately I've been very particular about what I can eat for dinner, sigh - but I was stuck on "all I want." So I added, "My counselor keeps asking me what it'd take to make things feel less overwhelming/burnouty for me, and I have a big list." Which is true! It's a mental list, but only because I'm scared to write it down.

D asked "Are any of them actionable?"

I laughed differently and much more bitterly at this. The unfeasibility is why I'm scared to write any of it down.

May. 28th, 2025 11:30 pm

Daily Check In

senmut: Purple Autobot symbol on gray field (Transformers: SG Bot Logo)
[personal profile] senmut
*\o/* Word Count Step Count Headache?
Daily 100 9,347 no
Monthly 18,384 270,788 9 days
Tags:
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I had a chiropractic appointment this morning. I mentioned the bruised feeling after last week’s adjustment and he wasn’t sure why it was sore after. If he’d had to try a couple of times to get it to go back in, then it would be obvious, but that wasn’t the case. So I guess we don’t know and we’ll see what happens after this adjustment, while hoping it doesn’t hurt again this week.

This would’ve been a no-shopping day, but I wanted some fruit so I made a quick stop at Price Chopper while I was downtown and got in a short walk (one lap) around the park. (And another shortie later with the puppers.) I also got Chinese for lunch.

I did a load of laundry, as well as the usual amount of hand-washing dishes and scooping of kitty litter, paid some bills online, and placed an online order (and naturally forgot one of the main things I’d wanted to get). I grilled baby back ribs for Pip’s supper. It’s not my thing, so I had the fruit I purchased.

I started the next Murderbot story and watched some HGTV programs. I typed in ~2,500 words on my [community profile] intoabar fic and got it edited and posted!

I think I very nearly allowed myself to be scammed by someone trying to get into my computer. I caught on (eventually) and noped out. I got a bunch of flashing error messages with a message that was super loud and everything was locked up and I couldn’t turn down the volume or close out of anything. It told me to NOT turn off my computer or I’d lose data and TO call the number, which I stupidly did. You know what eventually worked? Turning off my computer. Be careful out there, folks!

Temps started out at 47.8(F) and reached 80.4. There was more sun, which was nice.
May. 28th, 2025 11:25 pm

Wishful Thinking (part 6 of ?)

dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Wishful Thinking
By Sarah Williams
Part 6 of ?
Word count (story only): 1122
[Landing #7, day 2, evening]


:: After a long day, the Ashton family, and Backstep, are sitting down to dinner. Conversation turns to longer term plans. Part of the Sidestep Travelers universe. ::




Backstep began to pace, her sneakers squeaking on the hardwood floor. “If…” She stopped abruptly, staring at Arthur. “Get everybody together in the living room or somewhere comfortable, please. And… I’m going to need about as many calories as there are in a cooked turkey.”

“A turkey dinner?” His brow furrowed.
Read more... )
May. 28th, 2025 10:34 pm

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 5/28 Game

settiai: (Siân -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.
May. 28th, 2025 08:05 pm

Oops?

settiai: (Boromir & Faramir -- megalixer)
[personal profile] settiai
"I'm exhausted from not getting enough sleep, and my spoons are gone after the hell that was work today," I said yesterday evening after getting home from work.

"I have so many things that I need to get done this evening, but I don't have the energy right now," I said. "Plus my head's really starting to hurt."

"You know what?" I asked myself. "A short nap will be the perfect solution."

Spoiler: it was not the perfect solution for accomplishing things yesterday evening. Why not? Because instead of it being a short nap, it turned into a full night's sleep.

Oops?

Seriously, I didn't even turn out the lights. I curled up on top of the comforter on the bed. I wasn't even under the sheets. And I still slept for hours.

Luckily, I woke up for something like twenty minutes a little before midnight. That gave me time to take care of a couple of things that I really had to do, and then I was able to at least turn out the lights and such. But, yeah. That wasn't exactly what my plan was for yesterday. It's certainly what happened, though.
May. 28th, 2025 05:53 pm

fic: "Unsatisfied" (Murderbot TV)

kindkit: A late-Victorian futuristic zeppelin. (Airship)
[personal profile] kindkit
Speaking of the Murderbot TV show, I have written a thing for the first time in quite a while. It's about Gurathin, who is, predictably enough, my favorite.

Unsatisfied (1003 words) by kindkit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Murderbot (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Dr. Gurathin (Murderbot Diaries)
Additional Tags: Backstory, Character Study
Summary: Five things Gurathin has wanted and not been able to have.


The fic is archive-locked on AO3 (all of mine are, due to recent AI scraping incidents). So I'm also pasting it in below.

Story under the cut )
May. 28th, 2025 05:25 pm

Wednesday updates

kindkit: A late-Victorian futuristic zeppelin. (Airship)
[personal profile] kindkit
The state of me in general:

Meh. Nothing in particular to report, just, you know, everything.


Reading:

Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet. I'm a bit more than halfway through with this, but stalled at the point where the main character is about to make another very bad, self-destructive choice. There are other novels by Waters I like more.

T. Kingfisher, A Sorceress Comes to Call. Kingfisher's novels are always worth a read. I found this one quite harrowing on an emotional level--something about the particular brand of abuse the main character goes through really gets to me. But Kingfisher never just drops her characters into hell and leaves them there, which is an assurance I need these days. Bonus points for how she plays with the "lonely girl bonds with a magical horse" trope.

And I'm re-reading the Murderbot books (after having finally finished the series) to see if I get more out of them this time.


Watching:

The Murderbot TV show, which (at the risk of heresy) I'll admit I like more than the books. I've never found it easy to connect emotionally with Martha Wells' writing, so I think the story benefits greatly from being performed. Alexander Skarsgard is very, very good as Murderbot, managing to convey huge amounts of layered characterization using mostly his eyes, his voice, and some body language. And David Dastmalchian, whom I'd never heard of before, almost steals the show as Murderbot's semi-nemesis Gurathin. The two of them play off each other very well, as two similar personalities who, naturally, can't stand each other and are incredibly awkward about it.

Leverage: Redemption, which I like fine but which can't quite hold up to the original show. The (mostly) lack of Hardison changes the emotional dynamic I loved in the original, although at least, mercifully, the show quickly stopped trying to make parenthood its new dynamic. I do like Breanna, and I like that there's now a canonically queer person in the main team, but it's just not the same.

I'm still watching, though. I'm only up to the first episode of S3, so no spoilers past that, please.

Taskmaster S19 is a delight. I love this series' cast and they are very, very funny together. I was nervous about Jason Mantzoukas, because I only knew him as Derek from The Good Place and that character irritated me, but he brings beautiful chaos to Taskmaster.
chestnut_pod: A close-up photograph of my auburn hair in a French braid (Default)
[personal profile] chestnut_pod posting in [community profile] fffriday
Metal From Heaven by August Clarke
I recommend to everyone [personal profile] skygiants' review for a perspective from someone who enjoyed this book more than me. I respected it, but I can't say I liked it. However, it is clear to me that many people would like this very much! A violently purple, ambitious fantasy story about lesbians who hate each other and the workers' revolution (sort of).

I felt like it careened out of its own control around the 2/3 mark (which is also where one can audibly start hearing the Evangelion theme song). However, if you like swirly-marbled psychedelic books with 90s anime antecedents where every character can be described as The [attractiveness adjective] [morality adjective] Lesbian, evil blue tangerines, and other people's trip diaries, this is for you. It's very very different, ambitious, and fresh, which one likes to reward, so I hope it gets lots of attention, even if it wasn't totally for me.


But Not Too Bold, by Hache Pueyo
This was… basically okay. "Lady Mary and Mr. Fox" but lesbian horror-spiders. I appreciated how the Folklore Flavor details were specific in a way that I find sadly uncommon in this species of contemporary "monster" "romance" fantasy. It is stuck halfway between the broad strokes of a fairytale and the demands of a lengthier novella trying to have a mystery plot, and the romance is really just armature.


The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands, by Sarah Brooks
This is a blown egg of a book. There's a shell of cool things, like trans-continental trains, eco-horror gaslamp-style, a quasi-Rusalki in ambiguous love with the orphaned Chinese train-foundling, and alt-history, but the shell is all there is. Bombastic but substanceless.


Hopefully in the next few months I will read some new-to-me F/F which I can wholeheartedly love.
May. 28th, 2025 03:36 pm

Podfic!

senmut: Snapshot of Eliza's stubborn face, captioned with "Just You Wait" (My Fair Lady: Just You Wait)
[personal profile] senmut
[Podfic] Dreams and Thoughts (66 words) by pieces0fstars
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Kushiel's Legacy - Jacqueline Carey
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Phèdre nó Delaunay/Melisande Shahrizai
Additional Tags: POV First Person, Introspection, Podfic, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: Download, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes
Summary:

Podfic reading of Dreams and Thoughts, by merfilly.

Author's summary:
Phedre thinks on her Lady

[personal profile] cosmolinguist

I can never remember which one's "adductor" and which one's "abductor," but now one of those is the machine in the gym that's for practicing to crush a watermelon between your thighs, and I think after I described it thusly to him tonight, that's what [personal profile] diffrentcolours and I are gonna be calling it from now on.

After that I started explaining all the machines in terms of watermelons. "This one's lifting watermelons, this one's punching watermelons..."

May. 29th, 2025 08:07 am

Poll: Flavours of Ye Zun (drama)

china_shop: A close-up of the Envoy's mouth and chin, with just the bottom edge of his mask in frame. (Guardian - Envoy)
[personal profile] china_shop posting in [community profile] sid_guardian

More flavours! )

Poll #33174 Ye Zun
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10


Which flavour of Ye Zun is most frightening?

View Answers

Childhood, white robe and black hair
0 (0.0%)

With the Rebels, pre-powers: white robe, black mask, black hair
0 (0.0%)

Leading the Rebels, with powers: white robe, gold mask, white hair
3 (33.3%)

Glowy pillar
0 (0.0%)

Monologuing hologram in the park
2 (22.2%)

Seething black form with glowy eyes
1 (11.1%)

Disguised as Shen Wei (casual)
0 (0.0%)

Disguised as Shen Wei (Envoy)
2 (22.2%)

White suit, cane, mask and pony-tail
2 (22.2%)

Long white robe in the palace with energy whip
1 (11.1%)

Long white robe in the palace with bleeding forehead
3 (33.3%)

other
1 (11.1%)

Which is your favourite Ye Zun flavour?

View Answers

Childhood, white robe and black hair
0 (0.0%)

With the Rebels, pre-powers: white robe, black mask, black hair
2 (22.2%)

Leading the Rebels, with powers: white robe, gold mask, white hair
0 (0.0%)

Glowy pillar
0 (0.0%)

Monologuing hologram in the park
1 (11.1%)

Seething black form with glowy eyes
0 (0.0%)

Disguised as Shen Wei (casual)
5 (55.6%)

Disguised as Shen Wei (Envoy)
0 (0.0%)

White suit, cane, mask and pony-tail
6 (66.7%)

Long white robe in the palace with energy whip
0 (0.0%)

Long white robe in the palace with bleeding forehead
0 (0.0%)

other
0 (0.0%)

Why does modern-day Ye Zun have a shift/train rather than a billowy cloak like the Envoy’s?

View Answers

His cloak is in the wash
0 (0.0%)

It kept catching on things
0 (0.0%)

Fashions have changed in the last 10k years, and he keeps up with the trends unlike *some* people
8 (80.0%)

He doesn't like how it feels over his hair, especially with the hood up
3 (30.0%)

Ye Zun's charisma *is* his billowy cloak
3 (30.0%)

He used it as a draught-stopper in the pillar and it got crumpled
2 (20.0%)

other
0 (0.0%)

May. 28th, 2025 02:00 pm

Update from last post.

numb3r_5ev3n: Dragon pendant I got at a renfaire. (Default)
[personal profile] numb3r_5ev3n
I was able to take a few days off from work, but it's not nearly enough. I got to the Scarborough Faire renfaire again and some craft stores. But I'm really mourning the loss of Joann Fabric. It, like Toys R Us, is a victim of Vulture Capitalists stripping it for parts.

It was the last "fabric store" out there, since Hancock Fabric closed down in the 2010s. Michaels has fabric and some sewing supplies, but it's not geared towards sewing and the selection is kind of sparse. Same with Wal Mart - but it's Wal Mart. Snobby Lobby is not even worth mentioning, and those bigoted rightwing antiquities thieves can go get bent.

I really don't want to have to order stuff from Etsy every time I want to take on a sewing project that I can't find supplies for locally. This really sucks.

The owner/founder of Texas Renaissance Festival was found dead. That's all I'm saying here without a cut, but here's an article on the subject. Warning for Unpleasant Stuff. I guess we'll see what all of this means for Texas Renaissance Festival this year.

But, changing the subject, one thing that I've noticed that bothers me is that it seems like my ADHD is worse than ever. It's nearly gotten me into a few wrecks that only reflexes saved me from, and it's led me to make a few impulsive decisions that I've regretted later. I know I have to go back to therapy and get back on meds, but I don't want anyone to try and strongarm me into taking SSRIs again. And yes, the loss of Joann's is a blow because crafting is kind of how I blow off steam when I need a mental health break.

I feel like our Capitalist Overlords really want to make a world where all we can afford to do outside of work is Sleep, Stream Media from Streaming Services, Doomscroll Social Media, and Play Video Games. Which is an eventuality that none of us should tolerate.

Trust me, I am not trying to stir up nostalgia for the recent global pandemic, in which a lot of people died or were maimed. But there was this aspect of quarantine life, and I feel like it's the part that the so-called "Captains Of Industry" want us to forget the most:

tweet from @c0wbitch, reading "remember quarantine when everyone was making bread and dancing and making art and taking care of plants and just learning new useful skills and we got a small glimpse into what life is supposed to be like"
[tweet from c0wbitch, reading "remember quarantine when everyone was making bread and dancing and making art and taking care of plants and just learning new useful skills and we got a small glimpse into what life is supposed to be like"]