torachan: (Default)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-10-03 07:34 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. I am definitely over my cold (did not have any stuffiness or sniffles today) and slept a lot better last night. Still woke up a few times, but was able to get back to sleep quickly.

2. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but a house at the end of our street (four doors down) has been semi-abandoned for about thirty years and fully abandoned for at least 10-15. It's a house with attached apartments, and the house has been unoccupied for about thirty, and a few people in the apartments hung on for longer due to the rent being low, even though the landlord was, according to people we knew in one of them who moved out earlier than the stragglers, completely MIA. It's been slowly falling down in that time (a few years ago I noticed some of the stairs outside were missing) and after years of squatters that eventually led to a small fire (thankfully fire department responded quickly and no major damage was done), the windows and doors were boarded up, and a few years after that a chainlink fence was put around it.

Now finally starting last month they are working to remodel it! I assumed at first it would just be completely torn down and something new put up, but after they stripped it down to the bare bones, earlier this week new lumber appeared on the site and they started replacing bad spots and reinforcing things. Apparently it had asbestos inside, as when they first started work on it, it was all hazmatted up and had warning signs around. I'm really curious to see what it will look like when it's all done.

3. This morning I noticed a puzzle piece on the floor under the desk and knew right away it was too large for the puzzle I'm currently working on. Sure enough, it's from the Country Bear Jamboree one we just finished. Which I put out in the little library a couple days ago! D: I always am so careful when putting the puzzles away, especially if it's one I'm going to give away. I'd hate to give away a puzzle with a missing piece. But thankfully when I went out to check, the puzzle had still not been taken, so I was able to add the piece back in. I will be even more careful from now on!

4. Jasper's so handsome.

twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
twistedchick ([personal profile] twistedchick) wrote2025-10-03 04:01 pm

All nominations approved!

There was a delay on some of them; I wasn't sure if the person reviewing had stopped for lunch or if there was a problem.

Dark Winds (tv)

Kate Shugak series (Dana Stabenow) [and yes, Mutt is a character]

The Saint (tv)

The Equalizer (tv, 2021) [this is the one with Queen Latifa]

This Rough Magic (Mary Stewart)


I have some ideas for a couple of them.

I haven't written up my Dear Author letter yet; how could I when I haven't picked out what I want to write? I don't see nominations as being about my writing -- I put in something I'd like to write, yes, but others simply should be in the lists because I know of other people who would like to write them.

And, speaking of writing, I spent the other four afternoons this week in a free 8-hour workshop on publishing from Hay House. It was worth the time, I think, to get a better sense of how that business works and what it does and doesn't do; that has all changed a lot since I wrote my first manuscript decades ago. (You will never see that one; it has been burned, it was that awful.)
full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
full_metal_ox ([personal profile] full_metal_ox) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-10-01 07:29 pm

Nail Polish Blogosphere: Only Once-verse, by Sineala and woodpusher.

Fandom: Nail Polish (Industry) (the AO3 tag, probably worded to disambiguate from at least two bands by that name. I’m calling it Nail Polish Blogosphere, since the characters are using and reviewing rather than manufacturing the nail polish.)
Pairings/Characters: Gen; OCs
Rating: General Audiences
Length: Only Once: 449; Only Once Remix: 1,960
Content Notes: modern in-universe folklore, nail polish connoisseurship, possible unreality, the sad beauty of transience
Creator Links: (AO3)[archiveofourown.org profile] Sineala; (Dreamwidth) [personal profile] sineala; (Tumblr) [tumblr.com profile] sineala; (AO3) [archiveofourown.org profile] woodpusher
Theme: Uncommon Settings, Folklore & Fairytales, Friendship, Magic, Social Media
Summary:

[archiveofourown.org profile] Sineala: The story of the most beautiful nail polish in the world.

[archiveofourown.org profile] woodpusher: Like a good manicurist, this story fills in some plot holes and smooths some rough edges from Only Once.

I was trying to boost my readership so welcome to the newly gifted.

Comments are welcome!


Author’s Notes: Cut_for_length. )

Reccer's Notes: Cut_for_length. )

Fanwork Links:
Only Once, by [archiveofourown.org profile] Sineala for [archiveofourown.org profile] Lysimache; Yuletide Madness 2011
Only Once Remix, by [archiveofourown.org profile] woodpusher for [archiveofourown.org profile] Sineala, [archiveofourown.org profile] Meltha, [archiveofourown.org profile] kuramas30, [archiveofourown.org profile] Viridian5, [archiveofourown.org profile] Qem, and [archiveofourown.org profile] Lysimache.
torachan: (Default)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-10-02 07:49 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. I'm pretty much over my cold. Nose was a little runny this morning, but I'm not stuffed up anymore. Still tired from not getting enough sleep, but maybe tonight will be the night? (Maybe not, though, since I was so tired this morning I bought a coffee when I got to work and then a Coke at lunch. Even though that was early in the day, it still might keep me up...)

2. I'm very glad tomorrow is Friday and it's the weekend. We're going to see Adam Conover live on Sunday, so that will be fun. (It's at the same venue where we've seen Paul F Thompkins a couple times, and Carla was browsing their upcoming acts a couple months ago and spotted it.)

3. Speaking of Sunday activities, the last Sunday of the month is our Oogie Boogie night, so I just remembered to put in a PTO request for that Monday. It only runs until 11pm, not like some of the nighttime events on the Disneyland side (DCA ones always start and end earlier), so it wouldn't be terrible to have to go to work the next day, but it's just a nice excuse to have a day off. And I do need to use up some more of my PTO balance or it will max out again before we go to Japan next year.

4. Tuxie's challenging me.

china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote2025-10-02 06:01 pm

Me-and-media update

"Still Wishlisting. This will be super quick," she said three days ago, and then failed to post it.

Kdramas
Watched more of You and Everything Else and now feel I maligned it unduly based on the first seven minutes. The childhood scenes are excellent! Will definitely be watching more.

More of A Hundred Memories, which I'm loving, and two more episodes of Low Life.

And quite a lot more of Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (Netflix) with Andrew. We're both very much enjoying the cooking (schnitzel!), and surprisingly, both wishing the ship would just go away. (Normally I would be on board with romance storylines, and I can kiiiind of see what she sees in him, but this guy needs a LOT more redemption and power-differential mitigation before I'll like it.)

Other TV and films
More of The Newsreader, more Bluey. And at the cinema:

Prime Minister -- a documentary about our erstwhile leader Jacinda Ardern. This was really good -- very candid, brought up a lot of memories from the last 5 years, made me tear up.

The Ballad of Wallis Island -- an incredibly charming little film that hits all the expected beats but does it so well and with such specificity that it totally worked for me. I loved it! Made me cry. So very glad that I saw it at the movies, because the acting was amazing. Warning for gentle cringe humour. (Trailer.)

Writing/making things
alkjsdfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhaskdljfhadslk BEARS!

Good things
Fish and chips and Low Life tonight. Cat and boy and internet. Writing, especially when it comes together.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 45


When I see a fic tagged Choose Not to Warn

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depends on the author
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torachan: john from homestuck looking shocked (john shocked)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-10-01 05:20 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. The main downside of this cold is that I am fucking exhausted from lack of sleep. I did get more sleep last night, but still tossed and turned a lot. Today I am much less stuffed up, so hopefully it will be easier to sleep tonight. Carla was so miserable when she was sick, though, so I'm very glad I didn't get it as bad as her.

2. Gemma really loves this new box.

kingstoken: (Izzy Hands)
kingstoken ([personal profile] kingstoken) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-10-01 08:01 pm

Blackbeard and the Gentleman Pirate Answer the Web's Most Searched Questions | WIRED by charlielover

Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Pairings/Characters: Stede/Ed and Stede/Ed/izzy
Rating: G
Length: 2252 words
Creator Links: charlieloverboy
Theme: Uncommon settings, unconventional format & style 

Summary: FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
Video title: “Blackbeard and the Gentleman Pirate Answer the Web's Most Searched Questions | WIRED”
From WIRED Entertainment

Reccer's Notes: This fic is written like it's the transcript of a WIRED interview, the ones where the celebrities answer google's most searched for questions about them.   It's a modern AU where Ed and Stede are rock stars and its implied that Izzy is Ed's manager.  I'm not sure how the author did it, but they got the tone and how most celebrities speak in these interviews spot on, while also telling us a narrative about Ed and Stede and heavily implying Ed/Stede/Izzy.

Fanwork Links: AO3
sage: A white man with long blond hair looks hopefully to his left (iwtv: lestat)
sage ([personal profile] sage) wrote2025-10-01 03:58 pm

What I'm Doing Wednesday

books (Dunnett, Aaronovitch et al, Mohamed) )


VAMPIRE SALE!
I've put all my Interview With The Vampire Art Dolls on sale for 20% off for the entire month of October! (I have a post on Tumblr that it would be great if you could reblog! Thanks!)

yarning
I've been crocheting a lot, making and selling more kickbunnies. (Enough that I may even get my Etsy star seller badge back!) I went to yarn group Sunday and had a nice time. I just finished a purple bunny & an under the door toy. Next is a yellow bunny, though I'm running out of boxes and am waiting on Prime Day to order more, oops. OH! AND! Niece LOVED her globe & moon! I'm so relieved. I still don't know what to make her for xmas, but I'm going to do a reversible octopus for her 2yo brother with a happy face on one side and a frowny face on the other. He's learning the basics of FEELINGS & this may help? I hope so. Might do a reversible rose doll for Niece (one side is a doll from waist up with a big skirt. Flip the skirt over her head and it's a rose. Though I wonder if she already has one. Hrm.

healthcrap
I had botox for migraines Friday & the skin clinic Monday. Boo: I've got a badly drooping right eyelid from the botox this time & it's so bad I'm having trouble focusing. Yay: Topical horse dewormer is incredibly effective for rosacea, I'm glad to say. I thought I'd never get rid of the spots on my face, but this works. (Note, it does NOT work for Covid.) Speaking of, I got my Covid & flu jabs today. Fasting labs tmrw, gah, but they have to be done. cut for discussion of weight loss )

#resist
October 18: No Kings Day 2

I hope all of y'all are doing well! <333
full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
full_metal_ox ([personal profile] full_metal_ox) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-10-01 02:57 pm

Hilda the Plus-Size Pinup: Here I Am, by Missy.

Fandom: Hilda the Plus-Size Pinup
Pairings/Characters: Gen; Hilda
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 100
Creator Tags: IN SPACE!, Drabble, wonder, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide Madness, Drabble Invitational
Creator Links: (AO3) [archiveofourown.org profile] Missy; (Dreamwidth) [personal profile] bring_me_sugar

Theme: Uncommon Settings, Drabble, In Space, Old Fandoms, Sense Of Wonder, Small Fandoms

Summary: Hilda makes it to space - the universe is vast, but she's one with it.

Author’s Notes: For [archiveofourown.org profile] Topaz_Eyes.

Reccer's Notes: Hilda takes her exploration of The Great Outdoors to the next level. This is a gift-wrapped illo-op; I’m envisioning her in a brilliant red Latex Space Suit with an emergency backflap—in homage to her winter longjohns.

Fanwork Links: Here I Am, by [archiveofourown.org profile] Missy for [archiveofourown.org profile] Topaz_Eyes, for Yuletide Madness 2020.
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
Punk ([personal profile] runpunkrun) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-10-01 08:40 am

Round 179: Uncommon Settings

Photograph of the full moon encircled with added text: Uncommon Settings, at Fancake.
Our theme for October is uncommon settings!

These are places you don't commonly see represented in fanworks, either in a specific fandom or fandom in general.

The tag for this round is: theme: uncommon settings

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.

Rules! )

Posting Template! )

Promote this round! )

killabeez: (Default)
killabeez ([personal profile] killabeez) wrote2025-10-01 07:59 am

Highlander Shortcuts signups are open!

Sign up here.

If you need an AO3 invite, please contact the mods.

highlander_shortcuts_banner_2025.jpg

For those with a need to review AO3 processes:
HLH Shortcuts AO3 Signup Guide by @teratornis
HLH Shortcuts AO3 Submission Guide by @teratornis
How to Default

Your mods strongly encourage the use of betareaders, whether affiliated with the exchange or outside the exchange:
Betareaders Wanted/Betareaders Available

In case you need to review the 2025 dates:
  • Sign Ups: October 1 to October 11, 2025 11:59PM CDT on AO3
  • Assignments handed out: no later than October 14, 2025
  • Default deadline: November 20, 2025
  • Submission deadline: December 15, 2025
  • First story posted: December 20, 2025

Please share far and wide.
siria: (the pitt - dr robby swag)
this is not in the proper spirit of rumspringa ([personal profile] siria) wrote2025-10-01 08:41 am
Entry tags:
mific: (Fraser and Ray smiling)
mific ([personal profile] mific) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-10-01 06:01 pm

due South: A Balanced Diet by seascribble

Fandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Diefenbaker
Rating: Teen
Length: 1929
Creator Links: seascribble on AO3
Themes: Food and cooking, First time, Friends to lovers, Domestic

Summary: Ray is actually starting to like oatmeal.

Reccer's Notes: Set towards the end of the quest to find the Hand of Franklin and afterwards, once their relationships's established, this story weaves together scenes featuring Ray Kowalski, Fraser, Dief, and food of various types - some delicious, some less so, and all telling the tale of their relationship. Lovely.

Fanwork Links: A Balanced Diet (or, Four Vaguely Interrelated Vignettes about Ray, Fraser, and Food)

mific: (Mcshep yeah)
mific ([personal profile] mific) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-10-01 05:23 pm

SGA: Vanilla by Punk

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Madison Miller, Jeannie Miller
Rating: G
Length: 1552
Creator Links: Punk on AO3
Themes: Food and cooking, First time, Humor

Summary: Rodney doesn't know whether he should go for the ice cream or Sheppard's mouth.

Reccer's Notes: A charming first time story where Rodney's lust for a real-vanilla ice cream cone is transmuted into lust for John, with Jeannie berating and cheering them on from the sidelines. Fun, and an excellent outcome for everyone except the ice cream!

Fanwork Links:
Text on AO3: Vanilla
Podfic read by Punk: Vanilla [podfic]

torachan: (Default)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-09-30 08:33 pm

Daily Happiness

1. Finished another puzzle!



This is from the same new series as the Stitch one, but this one has proper square corners. Carla is actually the one who finished it (and worked on it a lot throughout), though I did do about half of it.

2. I continue to feel very stuffed up but otherwise not sick? I guess I'll take that over being properly sick, but it's not a lot of fun. My lips were so chapped today from breathing through my mouth and I only got about an hour, maybe an hour and a half of sleep last night because I was tossing and turning. Though if I felt properly sick I'd also feel like I could take off work, but since I feel otherwise fine and there's a lot of work to do, I've still been going in (masked).

3. Friday afternoon I was feeling really stressed and anxious about work, which caused me to just keep obsessively running over things in my mind all that night and through Saturday, which is not great when I just want to enjoy the weekend and not think about work, but this week has felt better, like we are making real progress and can meet the deadline and that things will be okay. It just feels like there's a lot on my shoulders at a very late stage in the game, and I don't love that.

4. Chloe's got the right idea.

full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
full_metal_ox ([personal profile] full_metal_ox) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-09-30 11:59 pm

Mo Dao Zu Shi: Grandmaster of Recycled Cornettos, by Anonymous.

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: Gen; Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, Wen Chao, Wen Zhuliu
Rating: Mature
Length: 1,113
Content Notes: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Anonymous Author, Cornetto body horror, Cornetto torture, Cornetto autocannibalism, Cornetto necromancy
Creator Tags: alternative universe, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Cornetto gore

Theme: Food & Cooking, AU: Anthropomorphic, Crack, Humor, Horror

Summary: Jiang Cheng is an oreo cornetto who had his flavor core melted by the Flavor-Melting Cornetto, Wen Zhuliu. To save his brother, Wei Wuxian gave his flavor core to Jiang Cheng. Somewhere out there in a Chinese convenience store cooler is an oreo-topped cornetto with chocolate flavor inside, an example of false advertising.

After being thrown off by the second-rate kornetto, Wen Chao, in a place where other cornetto fears to be dumped in - the public park trash can- Wei Wuxian learns a forbidden cultivation, the power to recycle discarded and melted cornettos.

With an army of broken wafer cones, torn cornetto wrappers and puddles of melted ice cream, Wei Wuxian makes a name for himself as the Founder of Recycled Cornettos.

Watch him as he calls on all the discarded cornettos to exact revenge on the Wens.


Reccer's Notes: The atrocities of the Sunshot Campaign…if everyone were sapient Cornettos. (Presumably inspired by the donghua’s jarring and anachronistic injections of Product Placement into the narrative, which became a running gag among the fandom.)

I’ve tagged this as Humor, because some readers will receive it thus, but there’s a quote by [tumblr.com profile] glorious-spoon on Tumblr that I think summarizes my own reaction:

i don't usually go for crack fic, but there's something really beautiful about fic that takes a cracky premise and plays it utterly straight, to the point of genuine human pathos that's only enhanced by the sheer ridiculousness of what's actually happening

(Source (glorious-spoon’s own Tumblr is locked): https://phoenixcatch7.tumblr.com/post/795027167614550016)

Fanwork Links: Grandmaster of Recycled Cornettos, by Anonymous.
full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
full_metal_ox ([personal profile] full_metal_ox) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-09-30 08:30 pm

Mo Dao Zu Shi: proof by contradiction, by chinxe; podfic by GoLBPodfics (GodOfLaundryBaskets).

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: M/M; Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian; Jiang Cheng vs. Lan Wangji; Jiang Cheng & Lan Wangji; Jiang Cheng & Wei Wuxian; Jiang Cheng, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 2,024; 19:36
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, Jiang Cheng the F-bombardier
Creator Tags: Post-Canon, Humor, brother-in-law-ly bonding, jc is an angry grape who won't admit he and lwj are friends, but (and u didn't hear this from me) they kinda are
Creator Links: (Fic) [archiveofourown.org profile] chinxe; (Podfic): [archiveofourown.org profile] GodOfLaundryBaskets

Theme: Food & Cooking, Fandom Classics, Humor, Podfics, Post-Canon, Working Together

Summary:
Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji cannot stand each other on the best of days, which is why them being forced to work together can only end in disaster and/or attempted murder.

Right?


Author’s Notes: For [archiveofourown.org profile] Bendisa.

This was written as a thank you present for mei ([twitter.com profile] marimoflower on twitter)!

… if you couldn't tell, jc + lwj is one of my favourite dynamics to write...love me a pair of emotionally constipated dumbasses...


Reccer's Notes: Jiang Cheng, sneaking into the Cloud Recesses kitchen to cook for his ailing brother, finds Lan Wangji there with the same intention; in a glorious duel/duet of sniping pettiness, Wei Wuxian’s brother and husband contend, and then cooperate, to commit lotus rib soup.

Fanwork Links:
Fic: proof by contradiction, by [archiveofourown.org profile] chinxe for [archiveofourown.org profile] Bendisa.
Podfic: [Podfic] proof by contradiction by [archiveofourown.org profile] GodOfLaundryBaskets for [archiveofourown.org profile] sisi_rambles.
the_shoshanna: cartoon figure happily reading (reading)
the_shoshanna ([personal profile] the_shoshanna) wrote2025-09-30 06:00 pm

book rec: Emily Skidmore's True Sex

While I was in Wales, when I wasn't hiking, collapsing after hiking, drinking local beer after hiking, or blogging, I read Emily Skidmore's True Sex, and I recommend it highly to those of you who are interested in queer history! She traces the lives of eighteen American trans men in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, which is fascinating in itself, but part of her focus is that, while queer history has tended to focus on cities and the development of queer communities in them, these men pretty much all lived in small cities, towns, or rural areas, and clearly did so by choice in most or all cases. I mean, many of them moved around a lot; they could have moved to Chicago, but they stayed in Nowheresville. And they could sometimes be welcomed and treated as men there even when their communities knew they were AFAB.

Also, of course, a significant number were only publicly revealed as AFAB after years of living as men, sometimes only after their deaths. Skidmore doesn't spend a lot of time on this, but to me that means that there were a lot more stealth trans men who never got found out at all.

I did want her to dig deeper into racial issues, She often ties the ability to live as a man to white privilege, but I think that tie is weak without a discussion of the experiences of, and community acceptance of, black (or other nonwhite) trans men, which she doesn’t really offer.

Her research is impressive, and it's smoothly readable, not jargony. I recommend it highly!