ase

I want to try making this Melt the ICE hat, which of course knits in the round. I haven't done that, so I looked up a couple tutorials on how to knit with double pointed needles. They both said, "these will come in sets of five." The pattern says, "divide evenly on 4 DPNs" (which I assume implies the existence of a fifth needle to work with).

Every single one of the many sets of DPNs I got from Mom comes in a set of four.

Why?

musesfool

Today was super annoying because I had a very weird internet outage. Spectrum acknowledged that there was an outage in my area even! But it was only partial? Or intermittent? Just fucking weird. I could get to my work-related sites fairly frequently (outlook, sharepoint), but literally nothing else would load except for some reason gmail. Like, no news sites. No bank. No shopping sites. Bitwarden timed out trying to log into my password vault. I couldn't get anything at all to load on my personal laptop until I plugged in my phone to use it as a hotspot, which was greyed out and not allowed on my work laptop. Finally, around 4 pm when Spectrum said the outage was over but I still didn't have full service, I chatted with them and somehow their reboot of everything worked (even though I rebooted the modem and router several times on my own without any luck), so I was able to get full access to the internet on both laptops and on my TV. *hands*

In other news, I found that a stint overnight in the fridge greatly improved those cupcakes. I wasn't impressed by them at room temp (texture was super spongy), but they're really good with the extra time in the cold! So if you need vegan cupcakes, the KAB recipe is recommended, especially if you make them ahead of time.

Meanwhile, it looks like we might get a nor'easter this coming weekend? A big storm potentially, though with less snow and more wind. No warming of temperatures anyway. Oy.

*

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: When You Were Mine - Cyndi Lauper

slashmarks posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

settiai

It took forever for me to find the time to properly start catching up since I didn't watch the last episode of 2025 live (save for the cold open which I watched for Yuletide-related purposes), mostly because I knew it was going to be pretty much entirely combat which tends to be something I'm not very big on. I really needed to watch it so that I can then catch up on the two most recent episodes, though, so here we are.

As with previous posts about the current campaign of Critical Role, this will be a combination of quotes, random thoughts, and some speculation. And it's obviously full of spoilers (albeit vague ones in places).

( Spoilers under the cut. )

Current Mood: accomplished

kaffy_r

Yep, I Tested Positive

I thought I was coming down with the same bad cold that Bob was slowly recovering from. I don't get colds all that often, and I'd thought this one would pass me by, but nope, it appeared eager to settle in my head. Well, dang ... I headed for bed, hoping it wouldn't be too bad in the morning.

Around 3 a.m. Saturday I woke up with aches that signaled a potential temperature. And indeed I had one; 100.7, significantly higher than the 97.9 I usually run. I knew that colds don't feature fevers so I tested myself for COVID.

I didn't even have to wait the requisite 15 minutes, both lines were there in bright red within 30 seconds.

Welp.

I've felt like I've been hit by a truck ever since. I keep telling myself it's a smaller truck than it might have been, thanks to the booster shot I got last year (of course, I can't recall exactly when I got it, but I think it was in mid-summer.) but it's still a truck. I ran a lower temp on Sunday, and Monday and Tuesday, today, I haven't had a temperature since then and today I retook a test. At first, the only reaction was the control line. Huzzah! I was certain I'd gotten the first of the two negative tests I'd need to declare myself COVID free. As I said, Huzzah--

--except at the end of the 15 minute wait time, there it was, a faint but definite second line.

Welp. Again.

And it's still like being hit by a small truck.

Ah well, I'm getting some work done on my NTBP* novel, escaping a corner I'd painted myself into. And I'm also making some bread. That always comforts me.

And here, have something I wrote about cold decades ago. Since we're still in single digit temperatures with subzero windchills, it feels the same to me, although this was written after a relatively rare ice storm during a cold snap.

.

Glass City

The city is glass and I am cold.

When cold aches out of bone

into fingertips,

and back again;

into the back of my throat and under the sleeves of my coat

and back again;

why then I can't see the glass.

My own breath blocks my sight. Painfully.

Cold holds my body for ransom.

It slaps my face and makes my toes snap,

it steps on my feet and punches the small of my back.

Traitor body, to let it in.

Did it really start in the bone?

I am so tired of my bones doing that.

All about me, the glass trees rustle.

Splinters of blue light and silver at the top,

in the middle a puzzle and madness of glitter in the bright, faded sky.

Winter sun does that.

It's almost worth

the cold.

March, 1995

* not to be published

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the kitchen
Current Music: Jackson Wang "Blow"

trobadora

We're nearing the end of the month, and I don't believe we have a host for February yet. Who's up for hosting?

Today's writing

Mostly structural work on an exchange fic, trying to wrangle it into a viable shape.

Tally

( Days 1-25 )

Day 26:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 27:

china_shop,

trobadora

Let me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)

paragon_writer posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

otw_news_feed

Posted by Caitlynne

https://www.transformativeworks.org/open-doors-celebrates-the-completion-of-9-and-one-more-archive-imports-in-2025/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=275977

Open Doors is pleased to announce the completion of 9 archive import projects in 2025, plus an additional 5 subcollections, a total of over 34,000 works! We hope that you will find old and new favorites in the collections listed below.

Remembering Tiger Lily Roar

Completed: February 2025

Remembering Tiger Lily Roar is a memorial account for fanfiction written by Tiger Lily Roar, who was active in many fandoms, especially Young Justice. This memorial account was set up with the assistance of Open Doors with permission from Tiger Lily Roar’s family and is maintained by Eva.

Find works at the Remembering Tiger Lily Roar AO3 account.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Remembering Tiger Lily Roar import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Tiger Lily Roar Fanlore page.

due South Seekrit Santa

Completed: March 2025

due South Seekrit Santa (dSSS) is an annual gift exchange challenge for fans of due South. The dSSS archive was originally on http://dsss.crocolanthus.com/. After many attempts to communicate with the server admin/owner went unanswered, the crocolanthus dSSS archive went offline, and the domain name was lost. To preserve the archive, the works from the 2004-2009 exchanges were imported to AO3 by Open Doors and dSSS.

Find works at the due South Seekrit Santa AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the due South Seekrit Santa import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the due South Seekrit Santa Fanlore page.

Snow Lands

Completed: April 2025

Snow Lands was a fanfiction and fan comic archive for The Lion King (1994 animated movie) online until June 2023 and was run by Athari. The website hosted works in English and Russian and preserved some of the fandom’s masterpieces.

Find works at the Snow Lands AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Snow Lands’ import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Snow Lands Fanlore page.

Slash Advent Calendar

Completed: May 2025

The Slash Advent Calendar was a multifandom slash challenge that ran every December from 2002 to 2005. Founded by kira-nerys at Lady Kardasi Productions, it included works from fandoms such as Star Trek, Harry Potter, The Sentinel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The archive went offline in 2010.

Find works at the Slash Advent Calendar AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Slash Advent Calendar import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Slash Advent Calendar Fanlore page.

My Mongoose Ezines

Completed: August 2025

My Mongoose is a Sentinel fanfiction and fanart ezine collection archive. In an effort to consolidate all My Mongoose Ezines, including all stories, art and miscellaneous, the creator and moderators decided to house the works at Archive of our Own.

Find works at the My Mongoose AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the My Mongoose import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the My Mongoose Fanlore page.

Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive

Completed: October 2025

Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive was a Saint Seiya fansite that started in 1998. It was an important early contributor to the Saint Seiya fandom, as one of the first sites on the internet to use English, unifying the uniquely global and diverse fan following. The site went offline in 2019, after which Tracy began contacting individual creators and collecting permission to ensure permanent preservation.

Find works at the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive Fanlore page.

Oz Magi

Completed: November 2025

Oz Magi is an annual gift exchange for the HBO Oz fandom that has been active since 2004 on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth. The moderator created an AO3 collection for Oz Magi in 2012, but wanted to also archive the earlier fanworks. This will be an ongoing import, with each year’s fanworks being transferred across to AO3 on behalf of the creators.

The related imports of HBO Oz archives Unit B and Twisted Sisterhood are still in progress.

Find works at the Oz Magi AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Unit B, Twisted Sisterhood and Oz Magi import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Oz Magi Fanlore page.

InDeath.net Fan Fiction

Completed: November 2025

InDeath.net Fan Fiction is a fanfiction archive for the In Death book series by Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb. It was a sub-section of the InDeath.net forum community, and the forum had sections for discussing fanfiction posted to the InDeath.net Fan Fiction archive.

Find works at the InDeath.net Fan Fiction AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the InDeath.net import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the InDeath.net Fanlore page.

Absolution – The Inugrrrl Memorial

Completed: December 2025

Inugrrrl was a longtime fan and fanfiction writer of InuYasha and the InuYasha/Kagome pairing. In her own words, she was known for “writing characterization-breaking, smut-filled, angst-riddled, alternate universe pulp fiction without a hint of shame, regret, or apology.” She was active in the fanbase from 2005-2024. Inugrrrl tragically passed away in June of 2024 and her daughter wished for her mother’s fanworks to remain online for the fanbase to enjoy.

Find works written by Inugrrrl at the Absolution – The Inugrrrl Memorial AO3 account, and works gifted to Inugrrrl at the Inugrrrl’s Gifted Fics collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Absolution – The Inugrrrl Memorial import announcement post. To learn the history of Inugrrrl or to share some stories of your own, check out the Inugrrrl Fanlore page.

And one more…

In June 2025, Open Doors imported the following subcollections from FictionAlley: AstronomyTower, HPInkPot, Riddikulus, Schnoogle, and TheDarkArts.

Find works at the FictionAlley AO3 collection.

ArtisticAlley is yet to be imported, which means the import of FictionAlley is still ongoing.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the FictionAlley import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the FictionAlley Fanlore page.

We want to give a huge THANK YOU to all of the archivists and volunteers who made these imports possible, as well as all the creators who have transferred or claimed their works! We look forward to importing more archives in 2026.

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding these imports after that date, please contact Open Doors.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/open-doors-celebrates-the-completion-of-9-and-one-more-archive-imports-in-2025/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=275977

silveradept

snowflake_challenge would like us to recommend to others a way in to finding a place in a fandom that we're already part of.

Challenge #14

Create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom.

The two of those things are quite different, I might note. The promo is about trying to get people into a fandom based on the strength of the canonical materials (whether the smart writing, the intricate plot, or the hotness of the actors), and the rec list is about getting people into a fandom (or at least the transformative fandom part) based on the fanworks that are available to someone. Neither of these methods are inherently wrong, but depending on your approach, someone might get into the fandom with radically different ideas of what the source material or the fandom is about. (This is not necessarily a bad thing, but approaching something from the fannish side might make you suspect there's more nuance and depth to the source material than there actually is.)

Anyway, since I am both not very good at collecting new fandoms and not very good at getting and remembering works in the fandoms I have, this would normally leave me in a pickle about what to do, except I have plenty of older fandoms and recommendations for you that will make up for my utter lack of newish fandoms for you to experience.

( Pern, RWBY, Into the Woods, In Other Lands, Long Live Evil )

Current Mood: rejuvenated
Current Music: "Weird" Al - Your Horoscope For Today

rydra_wong

( Cut for US politics, violence )

https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

heleninwales

The problem with doing long-term projects is that I often feel like I'm on a treadmill, working at lots of things but not getting anywhere. There's occasionally a fleeting moment of triumph as something is finally completed -- like I posted about the video yesterday -- then it's back on the treadmill again.

Anyway, today I wrestled with the budget for our local Quaker group. Considering how small the amounts of money are, it shouldn't have taken as long as it did, but all the money is now held centrally so it took some time to ferret out the figures I needed.

Otherwise I'm still managing to do something to progress the WIP each day. Today I read over a scene from the end of Book 1 of the trilogy to refresh my memory about who knew who and when they'd met. I'd forgotten some things, but now I'll be able to write the next scenes with that information in mind.

settiai

Ah. It's officially one month until my birthday, and I've gotten the first "here's a birthday coupon so spend money with us!" from a company whose emails I'm subscribed to. Let the inundation begin.

This one is at least useful, I'll give them that much. It's for Adagio, and I drink enough tea that I can definitely put a coupon to use.

Current Mood: amused

primeideal

( Politics is mostly 2008-era )

reeby10 posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 * Challenge #8 * Challenge #9 * Challenge #10 * Challenge #11 * Challenge #12

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #14 )

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on. You might just find your newest obsession!

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

larryhammer

I’ve had this quote in my scratch file for a few years, waiting for me to find something to say about it. Except, I’ve got nothing that it doesn’t say itself, and better:

“Imaginative fiction trains people to be aware that there are other ways to do things, other ways to be; that there is not just one civilization, and it is good, and it is the way we have to be.” —Ursula K. Le Guin

---L.

Subject quote from Rocket Man, Elton John.

osprey_archer

The Newbery Project is BACK, baby! Yesterday, the American Library Association announced the 2026 Newbery winners, which means I’ve got five hot fresh Newbery books to read.

After winning a Newbery Honor in 2018 for Piecing Me Together, Renee Watson went for gold this year with All the Blues in the Sky. I quite liked Piecing Me Together, so I’m hopeful I’ll enjoy this new one as well.

Daniel Nayeri is also a familiar Newbery name: he got an honor in 2024 for The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams, which I thought was pretty mediocre to be honest. But perhaps I’ll be more impressed by The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story.

Although this is Karina Yan Glaser’s first Newbery, I’m familiar with her Vanderbeekers series, which is a sort of modern-day version of the Melendys. I read the first book and thought it was okay, but not so okay that I wanted to read on… so we’ll see how I feel about The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli.

Finally, two books by new-to-me authors: Aubrey Hartman’s The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest, and María Dolores Águila’s A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez. The title of the first is giving me flashbacks to Scary Stories for Young Foxes, which was perhaps the Newbery’s first foray into horror. Fox horror possibly its own genre now? Will report back as I learn more.

versegm posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: curious

cimorene

The thing about the changes made in the new miniseries of The Seven Dials Mystery is that they seem motivated by a couple of motives that strike me as unwise and illegitimate:

to make a rollicking comedy-adventure-farce way more serious and solemn and sad

to make sure the main heroine is not motivated by spunk, excitement, or sheer desire to solve crimes, but by revenge for the man she loooooooooved

to make the heroine just the MOST speshul, not because of what she achieves or her choices and actions, but because of who she innately is

You see what I'm saying? ( Read more... )

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: awake

Is this a Canadian thing?

now i spend my time following him whenever he's with you

Multifandom: Pinch Hit Bingo

Critical Role: Campaign 4, Episode 10

Dept. of Cold and COVID

Write Every day 2026: January, Day 27

Universe 6 - DBZ Exchange (Dead Dove Friendly!)

Open Doors celebrates the completion of 9 (and one more) archive imports in 2025!

Remembering Tiger Lily Roar

due South Seekrit Santa

Snow Lands

Slash Advent Calendar

My Mongoose Ezines

Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive

Oz Magi

InDeath.net Fan Fiction

Absolution – The Inugrrrl Memorial

And one more…

Snowflake Challenge 0206 #14: Primers and Recommendations

"Minnesota taught us to be brave"

Making progress?

T(ea) minus one month...

The Wake, by Paul Kingsnorth

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #14

“mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids/in fact it’s cold as hell and there’s no one there”

Return of the Newbery Project

Magic Kaito: Kaito/Akako week is coming!

scratching an itch

The thing about the adaptational changes made to The Seven Dials Mystery

for those of you following along at home...

Profile

September 2025

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags