Was reading a fic and laughed out loud at it.

Am delighting myself writing Dollshops & Deathmages. I'm halfway done and happy with how it's shaping up.

Had an excellent peach kombucha to drink.

Have the house to myself for a glorious while, because my relatives are travelling.

Am enjoying a k-drama tremendously. Undercover Miss Hong. It's halfway aired, let's hope the rest of it is just as good. (You know those silly Hollywood action movies where there's a guy doing some kind of secret operation, and women who are in the narrative all have crushes on him, and he's too busy doing Important Stuff to notice? Imagine if it was the heroine doing stuff too Secret and Important to pay much mind to the men growing feelings for her, and you have Undercover Miss Hong. Trust k-drama to make something assuming *I* am watching the way other media industries make things assuming men are watching. And it features strong female friendships!)

Three out of the five things I have put down here are related to stories. 역시, whenever I'm happy, stories are usually at the heart of my happiness.

Politics and life happenings kinda spoiled this year's Candy Hearts season for me--I spent basically no time with the archive this year, which makes me kind of sad, and I scraped together enough time to write a story only by the skin of my teeth. But I did scrape it together, and I ended up with an odd little story about Remains of the Day:

A day remains (1789 words) by Eccentric_Hat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Miss Kenton/Mr Stevens (Remains of the Day)
Additional Tags: Time Loop
Summary:

Mr Stevens attempts to discover what is on Miss Kenton's mind after their unsettling encounter in his pantry.

He tries again.

And again.

This afternoon, I made this lemon cake because 1. I had an open container of ricotta I wanted to use up before it spoiled, and 2. I've been looking for a nut-free alternative to my favorite lemon cake since one of my nieces has a tree nut allergy. It turns out I did not have enough ricotta, but I made it up with sour cream, and the cake seems fine. It did stick to the pan in one small spot so I didn't take a picture of it since it had a gash in it, but it tastes great. The trick of adding turbinado sugar to the glaze to make it crunchy is a good one, too.

I also made dressing for coleslaw, which I've never done before - always just bought the pre-made deli version - and it's ok, not great. Not tangy enough, tbh. I wonder if replacing some of the mayo with buttermilk is the way to go. I ate some with a steak I pan-fried for dinner and that was nice. I don't have steak very often, but sometimes it goes on sale and I get it.

We're supposed to be getting between 12"-18" of snow tomorrow/Monday (wait, I just checked, and the current forecast is 39% likelihood of at least 18" if not more, wow), and I'm supposed to go into the office on Tuesday, so I guess we'll see what actually materializes, whether the streets are cleaned, and how I feel on Tuesday morning. Supposedly we're getting a free lunch, but I don't know when the consultant who is supposed to be buying it for our in person meeting is flying in, idk what is going to happen. There was some back and forth on Teams today about the storm and they are notifying everyone to be remote on Monday, which is the smart choice.

Anyway, my menu is not very cozy - I was planning on making that lemony macaroni salad for lunches, and some baked oatmeal with cherries and chocolate chips for breakfast. I do have bread, milk, and eggs, so there could always be French toast! Though I did make that on Wednesday when I realized it was Ash Wednesday (and that I'd completely forgotten Shrove Tuesday). I'll probably have pasta for dinner tomorrow regardless, since it's Sunday.

Today, I watched Batman Ninja, which features the Batfamily time traveling back to feudal Japan (but so much Joker and I am so tired of Joker), and then its sequel, Batman vs. the Yakuza League, which I enjoyed more because it has Wonder Woman in it and she's fantastic as always. It also features ( I guess this is a spoiler ) It was weird to me though that we got 4 Batboys (Jason's feudal Japan headgear is HILARIOUS), but no Cass or Babs at all, and I didn't love the art for Selina. Someday we'll get an animated version of Wayne Family Adventures and the girls and Duke will get their due!

*

 What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

1.
I'm far enough from the coast that the blizzard spinning up to hit the Northeastern USA tomorrow/monday is ~only~ going to be a major storm, but still, man. Forecast of another foot of snow when not all the snow from the last big storm has been cleared? And this time wet snow and wind? It isn't going to be fun! I don't expect a power outage but it sure is a possibility, and I expect work to be cancelled on Monday because of this. (I wistfully hope for Tuesday as well but it doesn't seem likely in this industry; so long as the roads are clear-ish and the parking lot and site are plowed enough to get in, it'll be open.)


2.
Went to the other local dojo (not mine, but our cousin dojo; they're about the same distance from where I live now, but that was not always the case) this past Thursday out of "I have Energy right now and also god I miss people and the practice." Absolutely delighted all of them by showing up, and when I was like "yeah Thursday evening fits my schedule better right now" they were all "soooo you're gonna keep coming then?"

And, well, yeah. I will! I like those people! Also I'm going to be taking nidan in a few months and I should be taking class once a week at least in the lead-up to that, just to keep the practice in my body even if it isn't practice dedicated to that test. The sensei there will kindly give me some opportunities to practice with an eye towards the test, especially since his own yudansha like training with me, but it isn't something he needs to do. Neither is the yundansha offering to stick around after class to do specific training with me; that's out of the kindness of their hearts and friendship, and it is truly lovely.


3.
Sometimes I think about what "being good at X" means to me and then sigh about how yeah okay I am generally comparing myself to people who I personally perceive as being "good at X", which tends to mean "better than I am", which means that it is going to be a skewed perspective.

This brought to you by thoughts about cooking. xD.

Thought A: going "...wait if you're asking about salt because you normally salt your rice, please eat some before you do because I salt the rice water (a thing I hadn't realised you don't remember to do)" at a friend last night.

Thought B: ...yeah okay the ability to eyeball pancake ingredients and their ratios and make proper pancakes without needing to keep adding more wet/dry ingredients is a learned skill and speaks to Knowing Things About Cooking. (didn't add enough leavening agent but also I do not actually care if I eat flat pancakes xD they don't need to be fluffy so long as they're Good Flavor.)

Thought C: my belief that if I cook something I will like the thing I cooked even if I was going "idk this is probably a good combination of flavors/stuff" rather than following a recipe, and that the main thing keeping me from being better at cooking is "having more kitchen gadgets" and "bothering to look up recipes to follow instructions" and not "an inability to pull that off", is not a mindset that a lot of people have? I think? Which seems odd to me but I do just Like Cooking, even if it isn't a Major Hobby the way it is for some folk I know.


4.
I spent like all of Tuesday dead of migraine and didn't feel human until maaaaybe Wednesday evening but realistically Thursday morning when I woke up and was like "oh wow I was Out Of It". I am dearly hoping that this nor'easter blizzard isn't going to lead to something similar, but, well. It's the sort of thing that likely will anyway.


5.
Relatedly, I have not written much this past week because of brain being melty and also Doing Things With People. Weird.

But people are good, and I like hanging out with them once I get myself to actually Do That. Initiation/activation energy is the harder part than socialising, and I usually remember this consciously but that doesn't make it easier to apply that knowledge consistently.


6.
hafnia started running the short-form airship heist Eberron campaign I've been hyped about for like six months. xD Finally got to play my Warforged Cleric last weekend! And started getting a sense of the Eberron as it's interpreted for this campaign world, which also means starting to have feelings about what I want to do for the long-form campaign that'll happen after. (Half-Elf, wings, Mark of Detection. Normal stuff! Probably a soulknife rogue or a circle of the moon druid, possibly a bard of some sort; depends on LORE and also if I can bear to part from skillmonkey nonsense.)

The Warforged Cleric is a fun character, though, and it's always a joy to start playing a character and see them start turning into a Person rather than a Vague Concept. I hear that some people can plan things more? But nah, I write a sketch of backstory and a few prominent character traits and the rest can develop through play and interaction.

Conduit (it/its) is a Cleric who, like pretty much all Warforged, served in the Last War. Since the war ended, it and its squadmates have been building a Warforged enclave/outpost in the lower reaches of Sharn, and have recently been going "wait fuck there are organics who want to live here too because we've made a safe place" and realising that this requires More Money than they have. So Conduit, as one of the community leaders and someone oriented towards healing/caretaking anyway, is very willing to take a moderately sketchy job stealing an airship when it's offered.

This surely will not have Consequences!

The next session (for my group; this is being run for a few different sets of players) is tomorrow, in a feat of "wow everyone has two weeks in a row free?" that is rarely managed xD The Consequences will begin coming to roost then, I'm sure, and force all of the PCs (who have no particular attachment to each other) to interact more and give a shit about something other than the coin and their personal lives.


7.
In utterly unrelated fannish things, I am excited for the Witch Hat Atelier anime! It has a full trailer and an air-date now! It is making me want to reread the manga, especially since I think I'd have an even better time with it going in with expectations of "slow-burn story about insular mage cults" rather than "cute slice-of-life mentorship story". (It is both of these things. I like both of these things. Only hearing about the latter when the former begins taking a greater share of the plot is a very ??? thing to experience when one binge-reads manga.)

anyway here's the trailer!

Finland takes bronze in men's hockey.

Damn, they came so close to taking out Canada and getting silver. Ah, well. Still, we've got squids taking home bronze and they were key players on their teams. Kaapo Kakko scored again.

(Kakko should be one of the Kraken's top scorers, but he was out most of the season with an injury and seemed to have the yips once he got back, was slow to get his groove back. This sidequest may have helped him a bit.)

I didn't watch the game, because I was at a write-in at Steeplejack.

Just in case you had any doubt that beer is a religion in Portland:


Damn, I need to go there with my real camera.

I considered catching the finals tomorrow, more to see the medal ceremony than the game, but the Fins already have their medals? They didn't wait and do them all at once like with the women's game?

Still sad that Finland didn't manage to take out Canada, despite that early lead. Still, some squids got bronze and overall squids had very good showings on their teams. Anyway, here's hoping Canada deletes USA tomorrow. I'm not really attached to Canada or any of their players, I just want USA's first line humiliated if possible. I can dream!

From this week's thefridayfive:

When did you last...

1. Scrounge for change (couch, ashtray, etc.) to make a purchase?
Hmm, good question, and I'm not sure I could give a definitive answer. I often rely on my card to make purchases, and have a little pocket on the back of my phone case where I keep it and my license, so I don't have to carry other things around. So I rarely ever have cash, much less change, unless I'm making a day of things and take my shoulder bag. The shoulder bag is where loose change and gift cards go to die and then wait for their messiah (and I am not a very good one.)

2. Visit a dentist?
I went to the periodontist just last week for a check-up. And I go again for a cleaning in a few weeks. I actually like the dentist/periodontist because you sit back and let someone else take care of you for a bit.

3. Make a needed change to your life?
I broke a pattern on June 6, 2025, just as I did on June 6, 2006, but there's still work to be done there.

4. Decide on a complete menu well in advance of the evening meal?
We meal plan every week on Sunday, then buy our groceries and hopefully (fingers crossed) do not need to leave the house again for food stuffs until the following week.

5. Spend part of the day (other than daily hygiene) totally/mostly naked?
This feels like it should have a spicier answer, but I can't remember doing this for any part of my adult years. I have always been self-conscious and am also cold-natured, so I'm usually clothed in some way.

I can't go out today. Earlier this morning my bank called me, apparently some asshole tried to buy $200 worth of stuff with MY credit card info at best Buy so I had to tell this lady who works at my bank that I haven't bought anything from those guys in over a year. So I had to get my credit card cancelled and wait a week for a new one to show up in the damn mail. Thank fuck the charge did not go through. I don't have the slightest idea how anybody could even get my credit card info in the first place. AND It's going to be a major hassle trying to get ahold of AT&T and DSL to give them the new credit card info. I remember what a pain it was last time I had to do that when my old credit card expired. Only Netflix was easy.

Week 3 of the Stuff I Love challenge!! 💞

This week's theme is music. I did a similar top 10 music list during the last Snowflake Challenge, so I think this time I should put some sort of restriction... so here we have top 10 covers by Hololive and Holostars members.

For those unfamiliar, Hololive Production is virtual YouTuber (Vtuber) company. Vtubers are basically content creators who use a virtual avatar—typically live 2D or 3D, using face/motion tracking—to present themselves. Hololive Production members (or talents, as they're sometimes called) usually stream video games, make both original and cover music, and sometimes perform as idols, among other activities. They're separated into subgroups, but the main ones are Hololive, which is composed of female talents, and Holostars which houses the male talents.

I don't frequently watch live streams unless it's a concert or karaoke stream—most of the vtuber content I engage with are through clips, but I'm always game for cover songs. A lot of vtubers (especially Japanese ones) actually started out or have some background as an utaite (JP cover artist), which I also loved listening to many years ago. I love them for both their aesthetically pleasing music videos (even if sometimes it's just png recycling lyric videos due to budget constraints) and for whatever spin the cover artists or arrangers can put into the song to make it their own.

CW: Some music videos might trigger those with photosensitivity. Without further ado, here are my 10 picks as well as 4 honorable mentions in no particular order! :"D

---

( 1187 words; lots of Youtube embeds inside )

I've been seeing this doing the rounds for a couple of weeks now, and have found everyone's different responses really interesting. I particularly appreciated people who are parents answering each question twice — once about their own experiences, once about those of their children, and teasing out the commonalities, continuities, and changes.

[This took me three hours to write so I'm not going back in and editing all the typos.]

Before I launch into my answers, I think providing some context is helpful.

( A lot of context )

Now, on to the questions!

( Meme questions )

Wow, that took a really long time to fill in! I had a lot to say! On balance, my entire experience of education as a child was a very positive one, due to various privileges that are presumably obvious from my answers to all those questions. The fact that I had an excellent education at pretty well resourced public (state) schools in a country where the divide between public and private schooling has continued to grow in the intervening years shows that good state education can be done, if it's adequately resourced. It's also left me with a bit of a chippy lifelong belief that (outside of disabilities that public schools are not resourced to support, and a small handful of other cases) private education shouldn't exist, and if it has to exist, it should be very rare.

20 Hong Pichetpong icons for celebrity20in20

Preview:


*Icons are free for use.
*Credit and comments are nice.

( Read more... )

can, to some small degree, be simulated by a blindfolded person trying to push buttons while someone else shouts confused and panicked instructions at them:



(Except that these guys mastered jumping WAY faster than I did.)

It's hilarious and delightful to me to watch people having an experience of Dark Souls which is not wholly unlike mine. In a weird way I feel kind of #represented.

In later vids, they have (like me) discovered the joys of the halberd as adaptive technology for people who are bad at spacing and aiming.

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Rose Landry, numerous Reddit OCs.
Rating: Teen
Length: 20,175
Content Notes: No AO3 warnings apply. Some of the Reddit comments contain terrible advice!
Creator Links: OpalApparition on AO3
Themes: Inept in love, Canon LGBTQ+ characters, Humor, Unusual format & style, Epistolary, Outsider POV, Angst with a happy ending

Summary: I (26M) want to invite man I sleep with (26M) to my house to spend the weekend. Help me not ruin it.

Or: Ilya Rozanov goes to the internet for dating advice

Reccer's Notes: This is a long (9 chapters) social media epistolary fic based on Reddit, where Ilya asks the internet for advice before the tuna melt hookup. It's funny, very cleverly done, and the responses from Reddit users are often hilarious. We start with Ilya's post (he's orangespyder617 - his sports car name & Boston area code), and later, Shane (gingerale_MTL) also separately posts after he's bolted in panic and is dating Rose, and has realized he's really messed things up. There's some fun for the Reddit users in speculating about who these two rich, inept in love guys might be, and also later after Shane posts as Ilya has wiped his former thread by then but some users remember it and join the dots. Rose herself (kidnapped4times) also posts wanting advice about how to tactfully tell her boyfriend he's gay, and finally Ilya posts again. It reads exactly like Reddit, although I suspect with way fewer trolls, and the users often post memes and links to vids which work, and add to the realism. Throughout, Ilya and Shane amply demonstrate their ineptitude in love, starting with POSTING TO REDDIT ABOUT IT AT ALL! I grinned a lot.

Fanwork Links: Tuna Melts and Longitudinal Studies