End of one, start of another.
Dec. 30th, 2025 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_bit_of_wit_2Soon 2026 will arrive and with it, a slew of resolutions of which 99% of people will fail at within the first week. I don’t resolve, but I do have hope, and if it happens, great, and if not, that’s okay too.
This year, for many reasons, sucked. ( Read more... )
This year, for many reasons, sucked. ( Read more... )
Finished Bee Speaker
Dec. 30th, 2025 01:08 pmconulyI believe the theme of this book is "the road to hell" with a side order of "best laid plans". ( To be fair... )
***************************
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Medieval 'Cussing' in the Middle East
Dec. 30th, 2025 05:04 pmstarryeyedknight posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
little_detailsHello! I’ve got a rather niche one particularly for Arabic speakers/historians - my writing is set in the medieval crusading period, where European/Catholic individuals would often use expressions of annoyance/surprise/exasperation that are largely religious-based, such as ‘oh sweet Christ’, 'dear God', ‘Christ’s bones’, ‘Saint Jude’s eyes’ etc etc. (One can then make as crude as you like while focusing a lot around divine/saintly body parts!).
I also have a few Levantine Arab Christian characters with mixed Arab/European heritage and I'm wondering if the above sort of religious-based swearing might have been used also in the Levant (particularly if they've taken some verbal influence from their European father), or if would come across as jarring to use these more western-associated idioms in a Middle Eastern setting?
Also: I've done some research around Arabic idioms already, but it would also be great to hear of any Arabic phrases (either in Arabic or transliterated) of annoyance or surprise similar to 'oh Christ' or 'for God's sake' that might be used? (I know ‘ya Allah’ is one such phrase but I’m trying to diversify) Similarly, any other recommendations of non-religious exclamations (of the ‘damn, bugger, blast’ varieties) would be very helpful!
I also have a few Levantine Arab Christian characters with mixed Arab/European heritage and I'm wondering if the above sort of religious-based swearing might have been used also in the Levant (particularly if they've taken some verbal influence from their European father), or if would come across as jarring to use these more western-associated idioms in a Middle Eastern setting?
Also: I've done some research around Arabic idioms already, but it would also be great to hear of any Arabic phrases (either in Arabic or transliterated) of annoyance or surprise similar to 'oh Christ' or 'for God's sake' that might be used? (I know ‘ya Allah’ is one such phrase but I’m trying to diversify) Similarly, any other recommendations of non-religious exclamations (of the ‘damn, bugger, blast’ varieties) would be very helpful!
Yuletide Recs 2
Dec. 30th, 2025 03:27 pmselenakDarth Real Life is still on my heels, but:
Katabasis - R.F. Kuang
Two different and both clever and sensitive explorations of what the aftermath of the novel might have been like for Alice and Peter:
The Next Step
The Raven's Paradox
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
In that clear unpeopled space: the Unicorn's long way to her forest. Has the poetry, the beauty and the character growth of the book.
Lord of the Flies - Willliam Golding
I Remember (Don't Worry) : in which Ralph encounters Jack years post novel. Disturbing in the way the book is, yet with some glimpse of hope.
Penny Dreadful
mimics the lampllight's struggle with the dawn: After a night of victory, Vanessa and Hecate, separately, search for their footing. Missing scene from the second season's finale, with both women and Malcolm expertly drawn.
The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan
The Calligraphy of Disgrace: in which we get another take on these novels' entertainingly screwed up soulmates relationship, with an AU twist.
Frederician Historical Fiction
Five times Amalie saw Luise, and one time Luisa saw Amalie: in which the "Five Things" format is expertly used to portray the relationship between the Melanie Wilkes of the Hohenzollern court and her sharp-tongued sister-in-law.
Courting the Chamberlain : in which we find out how Frederick the Great's lover got married to the resourceful Caroline Daum.
The Ring of the Nibelung - Wagner
Loyalty only to me: Hagen learns many lessons from his father over the years.
Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
Again two different takes on a novel's aftermath, the first focused on Magnus, the other on Avi, which also doubles a great take on his development across several timelines.
Some Desperate Hope
Salvation from falling into the sea of misguidances
Katabasis - R.F. Kuang
Two different and both clever and sensitive explorations of what the aftermath of the novel might have been like for Alice and Peter:
The Next Step
The Raven's Paradox
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
In that clear unpeopled space: the Unicorn's long way to her forest. Has the poetry, the beauty and the character growth of the book.
Lord of the Flies - Willliam Golding
I Remember (Don't Worry) : in which Ralph encounters Jack years post novel. Disturbing in the way the book is, yet with some glimpse of hope.
Penny Dreadful
mimics the lampllight's struggle with the dawn: After a night of victory, Vanessa and Hecate, separately, search for their footing. Missing scene from the second season's finale, with both women and Malcolm expertly drawn.
The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan
The Calligraphy of Disgrace: in which we get another take on these novels' entertainingly screwed up soulmates relationship, with an AU twist.
Frederician Historical Fiction
Five times Amalie saw Luise, and one time Luisa saw Amalie: in which the "Five Things" format is expertly used to portray the relationship between the Melanie Wilkes of the Hohenzollern court and her sharp-tongued sister-in-law.
Courting the Chamberlain : in which we find out how Frederick the Great's lover got married to the resourceful Caroline Daum.
The Ring of the Nibelung - Wagner
Loyalty only to me: Hagen learns many lessons from his father over the years.
Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
Again two different takes on a novel's aftermath, the first focused on Magnus, the other on Avi, which also doubles a great take on his development across several timelines.
Some Desperate Hope
Salvation from falling into the sea of misguidances
Nothing is ordinary
Dec. 30th, 2025 10:45 amannofowlshire"[Surrealism is] the belief that nothing is ordinary; that everything in life is extraordinary. And being old is no more, no less, extraordinary than being young." - Leonora Carrington (Surreal Spaces)
Post-Christmas mishmash | Recent media
Dec. 29th, 2025 03:47 pmumadoshi(As is so often the case, I'm generally up to date on reading my DW circle, but not doing at all well with commenting.)
I guess at this point we're well into the liminal last bit of the year. (I said toscruloose earlier that I still try to hold "Christmas is twelve days, dammit" in my heart, but it's hard, especially when our observance of the the holiday at all is so low-key.) We had masked visits with both sets of parents (mine on Christmas Eve and scruloose's on Boxing Day), and in between, Christmas Day was just the two of us and the cats and the Netflix fireplaces. My mom sent us home with Christmas stockings and some gifts (also very low-key; we still keep nudging for just not doing presents at all), and the latter included a hard copy of the most recent edition of Garner's Modern English Usage, which was a delightful surprise.
We actually had a white Christmas, which has never been a sure thing and is getting rarer and rarer at terrible speeds, but now ice and rain are arriving, to be followed by a cold snap, so I'm really glad we don't need to leave the house anytime soon. (See also: will we lose power? Very possibly! >.< But we're pretty well-equipped to deal with it.)
I'm feeling like I should be looking ahead or setting small goals or trying to find specific things I want to focus on, but so far I'm not really scrounging the brain for it. Anyone want to tell me about how you're approaching it?
(I do think I'll sign up for a GYWO wordcount goal again, despite having written almost literally zero words this year, but at this point I have the grim suspicion that the words may stay gone until a new full-on fannish obsession hits me, and that's so infrequent for me. ;_; I have so many Guardian WIPs and fragments. [And while I'm enjoying seeing all the fannish glee over Heated Rivalry, I don't currently feel fannish about it myself {which, honestly, I'm okay with}.])
Recent media, mostly books: All Is Bright, Llinos Cathryn Thomas' "read over Advent" novella, which was lovely; The Dark is Rising (book), which I'm glad to have finally read; I don't know if/when I might read the books that follow it; Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher; Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk; KJ Charles' Masters in this Hall (which I should've checked the series info about first, as it's the third Lilywhite Boys book and I haven't read the second. Oops); and Brigid Kemmerer's A Curse So Dark and Lonely.
scruloose and I finished listening to System Collapse, so we're out of Murderbot books. Yesterday (?) we listened to the four-minute audiobook sample of The Thief, which I might be able to work with? But wow, the voice sounds so much older than Gen to me. (Also, Kobo, four minutes is a reasonable sample length, but it literally cuts off mid-word.)
I watched the season finale of Heated Rivalry pretty promptly on Friday morning, for fear of being spoiled, which meantscruloose, who hadn't seen any of the show previously, pretty much watched it too while feeding the cats and having their own breakfast. (I did give them some background info first.) As noted above: not feeling fannish, but I thought that was really well done overall, and the actors seem like an absolute delight.
And we've watched two movies since starting vacation (Wake Up Dead Man and Sinners), which brings me up to a whopping four [4] movies this year.
I guess at this point we're well into the liminal last bit of the year. (I said to
scruloose earlier that I still try to hold "Christmas is twelve days, dammit" in my heart, but it's hard, especially when our observance of the the holiday at all is so low-key.) We had masked visits with both sets of parents (mine on Christmas Eve and scruloose's on Boxing Day), and in between, Christmas Day was just the two of us and the cats and the Netflix fireplaces. My mom sent us home with Christmas stockings and some gifts (also very low-key; we still keep nudging for just not doing presents at all), and the latter included a hard copy of the most recent edition of Garner's Modern English Usage, which was a delightful surprise.We actually had a white Christmas, which has never been a sure thing and is getting rarer and rarer at terrible speeds, but now ice and rain are arriving, to be followed by a cold snap, so I'm really glad we don't need to leave the house anytime soon. (See also: will we lose power? Very possibly! >.< But we're pretty well-equipped to deal with it.)
I'm feeling like I should be looking ahead or setting small goals or trying to find specific things I want to focus on, but so far I'm not really scrounging the brain for it. Anyone want to tell me about how you're approaching it?
(I do think I'll sign up for a GYWO wordcount goal again, despite having written almost literally zero words this year, but at this point I have the grim suspicion that the words may stay gone until a new full-on fannish obsession hits me, and that's so infrequent for me. ;_; I have so many Guardian WIPs and fragments. [And while I'm enjoying seeing all the fannish glee over Heated Rivalry, I don't currently feel fannish about it myself {which, honestly, I'm okay with}.])
Recent media, mostly books: All Is Bright, Llinos Cathryn Thomas' "read over Advent" novella, which was lovely; The Dark is Rising (book), which I'm glad to have finally read; I don't know if/when I might read the books that follow it; Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher; Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk; KJ Charles' Masters in this Hall (which I should've checked the series info about first, as it's the third Lilywhite Boys book and I haven't read the second. Oops); and Brigid Kemmerer's A Curse So Dark and Lonely.
scruloose and I finished listening to System Collapse, so we're out of Murderbot books. Yesterday (?) we listened to the four-minute audiobook sample of The Thief, which I might be able to work with? But wow, the voice sounds so much older than Gen to me. (Also, Kobo, four minutes is a reasonable sample length, but it literally cuts off mid-word.)I watched the season finale of Heated Rivalry pretty promptly on Friday morning, for fear of being spoiled, which meant
scruloose, who hadn't seen any of the show previously, pretty much watched it too while feeding the cats and having their own breakfast. (I did give them some background info first.) As noted above: not feeling fannish, but I thought that was really well done overall, and the actors seem like an absolute delight.And we've watched two movies since starting vacation (Wake Up Dead Man and Sinners), which brings me up to a whopping four [4] movies this year.
Would my dog or cat really eat me if I died alone?
Dec. 29th, 2025 02:07 pmconulyMorbid question, but let's be serious here: If you were trapped in a house with nothing to eat but your recently deceased pet, wouldn't you at least think about it?
People talk about this like it's so shocking, or like it means your pet obviously doesn't really love you, but c'mon. I love my cat, but I'd eat her in a heartbeat if she was already dead and there was nothing else left. She's my cat, she's not my baby. It's not like I've gone full on Donner Party - and let's be clear, if that was all that was left on the table, and they were already dead, I'd do that too. At least, I'd think about doing it. I suppose I might not be able to bring myself to go that far, but I wouldn't find it shocking if another person did!
People talk about this like it's so shocking, or like it means your pet obviously doesn't really love you, but c'mon. I love my cat, but I'd eat her in a heartbeat if she was already dead and there was nothing else left. She's my cat, she's not my baby. It's not like I've gone full on Donner Party - and let's be clear, if that was all that was left on the table, and they were already dead, I'd do that too. At least, I'd think about doing it. I suppose I might not be able to bring myself to go that far, but I wouldn't find it shocking if another person did!
Soooooooooooooooo, people at /r/EnglishLearning will at least once a week
Dec. 28th, 2025 03:47 amconulyask a detailed question about phonology, such as "Do you really pronounce 'tr' as 'chr'?" (Yes, yes we do. We all do. It's almost impossible not to due to the physiology of those phonemes.)
And this will generate a burst of absolutely, frustratingly useless nonsense, because people just do not know how they talk. They don't know how they talk, they can't analyze their phonetics on the fly, and they are staggeringly unaware of these facts.
I keep telling these people to go to /r/linguistics instead, but thus far, nobody has taken my advice. Which is a pity, because I do give excellent advice, especially in this case.
But seriously - nobody knows how they talk. It's like trying to explain the biomechanics of walking. Sure, you've been doing it since you were a toddler (probably?), but that doesn't mean you have any understanding at all of what the hell you're doing as you propel yourself from place to place. I bet you can't even explain how you adjust for your varying center of balance!
And this will generate a burst of absolutely, frustratingly useless nonsense, because people just do not know how they talk. They don't know how they talk, they can't analyze their phonetics on the fly, and they are staggeringly unaware of these facts.
I keep telling these people to go to /r/linguistics instead, but thus far, nobody has taken my advice. Which is a pity, because I do give excellent advice, especially in this case.
But seriously - nobody knows how they talk. It's like trying to explain the biomechanics of walking. Sure, you've been doing it since you were a toddler (probably?), but that doesn't mean you have any understanding at all of what the hell you're doing as you propel yourself from place to place. I bet you can't even explain how you adjust for your varying center of balance!
Links: Fandom, Science, Some Politics
Dec. 28th, 2025 05:12 pmmuccamukkFandom:
snowflake_challenge: Running a multi-fandom prompt every other day for all of January. (Yours truly isn't modding this year around, but will hopefully still participate.)
cultivativity:
beagoldfish:
Archive of Our Own: Update on Our 2020 Commitment from the OTW Board, Chairs & Leads.
I haven't been active in fandom for a couple years now, but I appreciate that they still seem to be working on this.
Writer Beware: Army of Bots: Deeper Into the Vortex of Nigerian Marketing Scams.
LLMs are so fun. I'm glad everyone has access to them. It's def making the Internet better. /s
Science
The Tyee: Charting a Course Through Bears’ Eyes.
Popular Science: First-of-a-kind study shows encouraging data for trans kids who socially transition.
Politics
CBC: Pro-Palestinian protester suspended from Vancouver Island University loses court challenge.
My level of cynicism about higher education continues apace. It would cost VIU nothing to let the woman have her transcripts. They've made their point.
Sojourners: Politically Polarized Family Attempts White Elephant Gift Exchange.
Satire, gave me a laugh.
snowflake_challenge: Running a multi-fandom prompt every other day for all of January. (Yours truly isn't modding this year around, but will hopefully still participate.)cultivativity: This community is organized as a series of modules designed to help build a practice to nurture our creative selves.
beagoldfish: This is an event for small and non-traditional fanworks. We want to remind you to appreciate the little things, be kind, be curious, enjoy generously, and above all, 'be a goldfish.'Runs over January and Feburary 2026.
Archive of Our Own: Update on Our 2020 Commitment from the OTW Board, Chairs & Leads.
I haven't been active in fandom for a couple years now, but I appreciate that they still seem to be working on this.
Writer Beware: Army of Bots: Deeper Into the Vortex of Nigerian Marketing Scams.
LLMs are so fun. I'm glad everyone has access to them. It's def making the Internet better. /s
Science
The Tyee: Charting a Course Through Bears’ Eyes.
Stewards from the Heiltsuk First Nation are using computational models and Indigenous knowledge to protect bears’ access to salmon.
Popular Science: First-of-a-kind study shows encouraging data for trans kids who socially transition.
Politics
CBC: Pro-Palestinian protester suspended from Vancouver Island University loses court challenge.
My level of cynicism about higher education continues apace. It would cost VIU nothing to let the woman have her transcripts. They've made their point.
Sojourners: Politically Polarized Family Attempts White Elephant Gift Exchange.
Satire, gave me a laugh.
(no subject)
Dec. 28th, 2025 09:19 pmthawreckaI feel like I've watched a lot and read a lot this week and achieved nothing. Which is great.
Like everyone else on the planet, apparently, I watched Heated Rivalry, which has great shot composition and editing and sound design and in general is just so well directed I'm in awe of it, but also it's a nice romance. Kind of want to rewatch just because I'm in awe of how well crafted it is! The romance is nice, too.
Watched two episodes of Dare You to Death, a cheesy Thai BL about a cop duo with belligerent sexual tension trying to solve a series of murders targeting a group of university students (one of whom one of the cops is related to). Which is not like especially good, but there's some interesting moments and fun styling.
And the leads of that are also in The Heart Killers, which I watched three episodes of. Which is, I kid you not, a modern Thai BL take on Taming of the Shrew but make it assassins that work in a burger joint. It's... uh... very stylish? I don't know if it's good or not? I'm not sure if I'm compelled when I watch it, and I'm mostly bewildered when I think about it, but also I know it has a lot of fans.
I watched 10Dance (2025), a gay Japanese dancesport romance film on Netflix, which has structural problems and utterly pedestrian direction. It's fine, I guess? There are interesting elements that are only vaguely touched on, and I'm given to understand those are covered more deeply in depth in the manga on which it is based, but I'm not interested enough to read it. Takeuchi Ryoma is very good in this, though.
One and a half episodes of Realm's Night Rain Dreamlike, a homoerotic wuxia mini drama that is clearly ripping off (among other things) Word of Honor, and I'm not mad at it. And as it's a mini drama, it's certainly not bloodless... Filtered to high heaven, though, to the point it almost seems kind of blurry, which is a shame.
...other things I'm not mentioning because I wrote Yuletide fic about them...
I cannot begin to tell you how much YouTube I have watched. I've literally paused a YouTube video to post this right now 🤣 A lot of which is watching and rewatching makeup videos, like 뷰티숨BEAUTYSOOM's videos going around the world and getting makeup done in different places (so many different styles!) as well as getting her makeup done in different styles in South Korea. It's always so fascinating watching the different styles and how they emphasise different parts of the face.
Like everyone else on the planet, apparently, I watched Heated Rivalry, which has great shot composition and editing and sound design and in general is just so well directed I'm in awe of it, but also it's a nice romance. Kind of want to rewatch just because I'm in awe of how well crafted it is! The romance is nice, too.
Watched two episodes of Dare You to Death, a cheesy Thai BL about a cop duo with belligerent sexual tension trying to solve a series of murders targeting a group of university students (one of whom one of the cops is related to). Which is not like especially good, but there's some interesting moments and fun styling.
And the leads of that are also in The Heart Killers, which I watched three episodes of. Which is, I kid you not, a modern Thai BL take on Taming of the Shrew but make it assassins that work in a burger joint. It's... uh... very stylish? I don't know if it's good or not? I'm not sure if I'm compelled when I watch it, and I'm mostly bewildered when I think about it, but also I know it has a lot of fans.
I watched 10Dance (2025), a gay Japanese dancesport romance film on Netflix, which has structural problems and utterly pedestrian direction. It's fine, I guess? There are interesting elements that are only vaguely touched on, and I'm given to understand those are covered more deeply in depth in the manga on which it is based, but I'm not interested enough to read it. Takeuchi Ryoma is very good in this, though.
One and a half episodes of Realm's Night Rain Dreamlike, a homoerotic wuxia mini drama that is clearly ripping off (among other things) Word of Honor, and I'm not mad at it. And as it's a mini drama, it's certainly not bloodless... Filtered to high heaven, though, to the point it almost seems kind of blurry, which is a shame.
...other things I'm not mentioning because I wrote Yuletide fic about them...
I cannot begin to tell you how much YouTube I have watched. I've literally paused a YouTube video to post this right now 🤣 A lot of which is watching and rewatching makeup videos, like 뷰티숨BEAUTYSOOM's videos going around the world and getting makeup done in different places (so many different styles!) as well as getting her makeup done in different styles in South Korea. It's always so fascinating watching the different styles and how they emphasise different parts of the face.
(no subject)
Dec. 28th, 2025 01:41 pmthawreckaI haven't fully finished reading through the collection, but all I have left is longfic so I'm flagging and will probably crash out tonight. I won't say I've read every fic 5k or under in the main and madness collections, but I've read a lot of them. That said, fic recs:
( Anime canons: The Summer Hikaru Died, Karaoke Iko!, The Apothecary Diaries )
( Movie canons: Hustlers, Edge of Tomorrow, Sinners, The Nightmare Before Christmas )
( All other canons: Carmilla, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, When Destiny Brings the Demon, Soulmate Goose AU, Womens Literary RPF, Manchild (Sabrina Carpenter video)/Orpheus and Eurydice, Hamlet, French fetish terms )
( Anime canons: The Summer Hikaru Died, Karaoke Iko!, The Apothecary Diaries )
( Movie canons: Hustlers, Edge of Tomorrow, Sinners, The Nightmare Before Christmas )
( All other canons: Carmilla, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, When Destiny Brings the Demon, Soulmate Goose AU, Womens Literary RPF, Manchild (Sabrina Carpenter video)/Orpheus and Eurydice, Hamlet, French fetish terms )
IV saline without infusion pump; childhood fevers
Dec. 27th, 2025 06:49 pmmichelel72 posting in little_detailsI'm hoping these are straightforward questions, but I couldn't find a way to word the first to get any relevant results in web searches, and the second got weird on me.
The context is a civilian with extensive field-medic-style training providing off-the-books, in-home medical/supportive care to a preteen who is ill with a viral* fever-inducing illness. (* Viral seems easier; but bacterial is possible if necessary.) The setting is the modern-day (or at least vaguely post-2010) United States.
1. Is it feasible to administer intravenous (IV) saline without an infusion pump? (I've been assuming it is but want to double-check.)
( cut for IV details )
2. Is there a point at which a childhood (viral) fever is dangerous?
( Read more... )
Many thanks!
The context is a civilian with extensive field-medic-style training providing off-the-books, in-home medical/supportive care to a preteen who is ill with a viral* fever-inducing illness. (* Viral seems easier; but bacterial is possible if necessary.) The setting is the modern-day (or at least vaguely post-2010) United States.
1. Is it feasible to administer intravenous (IV) saline without an infusion pump? (I've been assuming it is but want to double-check.)
( cut for IV details )
2. Is there a point at which a childhood (viral) fever is dangerous?
( Read more... )
Many thanks!
Finally saw Zootopia 2!
Dec. 27th, 2025 04:00 pmconulyBefore I say anything, A would like you to know how extremely annoying it is that they played those "Arabian Nights" riffs every time the snake (Barry) appeared, and it would be annoying even if the plot ( Read more... )
They wouldn't shut up about it, so there we go. They're not wrong.
( Read more... )
They wouldn't shut up about it, so there we go. They're not wrong.
( Read more... )
Yuletide Recs 1
Dec. 27th, 2025 04:09 pmselenakFor some Darth Real Life reasons, I had less time than usual during the holidays to delve into the Yuletide archive, but I did have some chances, and here are some early results. ;)
Akhenaten - Glass
The lone and level sands stretch far away: or, Egptian historical fiction. Based on the opera, but can be read without having heard it yet knowing who Akhenaten was. Poetic and intense.
Greek Myths:
Mothers of the Brazen Spear: Andromache and three of her sisters-in-law after the Trojan war. Based on Euripides.
Homophrosyne: Penelope through twenty years.
Born with Teeth:
To Bite the World: in which Will and Kit talk and role play Richard III and Anne Neville. Matches the play really well.
Bride of the Rat God - Hambly :
A closer kinship: the crucial moment from the novel's backstory when Christine shows up in England to whisk Norah away. This is one of my favourite Barbara Hambly novels, and the characterisation of both women is perfect.
Copenhagen - Frayn:
Quantum Game Theory: Four alternate timelines where the Copenhagen meeting never happened, and one where it did. Clever, moving and profound.
Farscape:
Look after the Princess: in which Katralla from s2's Princess trilogy wakes up post- Peacekeeper Wars (there are plot reasons) to find herself in a mad adventure with Aeryn Sun. And Aeryn's baby. And the usual Farscape insanity. Really feels like an episode in the best way, and fleshes out Katralla to boot.
Also, there are still free spots if you want me to ramble on something on the January meme.
Akhenaten - Glass
The lone and level sands stretch far away: or, Egptian historical fiction. Based on the opera, but can be read without having heard it yet knowing who Akhenaten was. Poetic and intense.
Greek Myths:
Mothers of the Brazen Spear: Andromache and three of her sisters-in-law after the Trojan war. Based on Euripides.
Homophrosyne: Penelope through twenty years.
Born with Teeth:
To Bite the World: in which Will and Kit talk and role play Richard III and Anne Neville. Matches the play really well.
Bride of the Rat God - Hambly :
A closer kinship: the crucial moment from the novel's backstory when Christine shows up in England to whisk Norah away. This is one of my favourite Barbara Hambly novels, and the characterisation of both women is perfect.
Copenhagen - Frayn:
Quantum Game Theory: Four alternate timelines where the Copenhagen meeting never happened, and one where it did. Clever, moving and profound.
Farscape:
Look after the Princess: in which Katralla from s2's Princess trilogy wakes up post- Peacekeeper Wars (there are plot reasons) to find herself in a mad adventure with Aeryn Sun. And Aeryn's baby. And the usual Farscape insanity. Really feels like an episode in the best way, and fleshes out Katralla to boot.
Also, there are still free spots if you want me to ramble on something on the January meme.
Ancient Music by Ezra Pound
Dec. 25th, 2025 06:09 pmconulyWinter is icummen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damn you, sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,
So 'gainst the winter's balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm.
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.
***
Link
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damn you, sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,
So 'gainst the winter's balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm.
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.
Link
Jenn's chosen playlist yesterday was gay Christmas themed
Dec. 26th, 2025 02:22 pmconulyAnd very heavy on the dudes. I'm not sure if women don't go into this sort of thing, or if they're just too classy when they do it, and thus don't get onto the playlist. Though I guess it would be strange for lesbians to sing an ode to Jingle Bell COCK. (Emphasis all theirs, and totally unnecessary. We know where the song was going.)
Anyway, in honor of this, I'm posting three belated Christmas videos. The last is Boynton and totally SFW.
This one won't let me embed it.
Anyway, in honor of this, I'm posting three belated Christmas videos. The last is Boynton and totally SFW.
This one won't let me embed it.