sylleblahsome

A few months (?) ago, Discord updated on my computer and promptly stopped working. [It would technically launch, but the program window was just a blank rectangle.) Subsequent updates (which happen pretty much every time I relaunch my browser) installed cheerfully enough and made no difference. I grumpily chalked it up to not having updated my OS in ages (I'm very resistant, but usually enough things eventually get creaky or stop working that I give in and get

scruloose to update the system), and since Discord was still working on my phone, I figured that was that for the foreseeable future.

Then a couple of days ago, I let Discord install its newest update...and suddenly everything worked again. o_o I certainly wasn't going to complain, but it surprised me enough that I mentioned it to Kas on the weekend, and having just dealt with some Discord shenaniganry himself, he had an answer: Discord has decided it doesn't play nicely with some VPN locations, and I had happened to change my location setting to one it liked.

I mostly lurk on Discord, but there are a couple where I make tentative attempts at being social, and my dislike of typing more than a sentence or two at a time on my phone meant I was even quieter than usual for a while there, so this is a good development. But also, WTF, Discord.

Did I forget to mention the new-to-me Christmas ice cream here? It looks like I did.

A local ice creamery (Dee Dee's) does Advent calendars, which I had largely forgotten about until I saw mention of it on Bluesky, at which point I was safe from ordering one (too late!), but it got me to look at their seasonal flavors. Next thing I knew, I was asking

scruloose to stop at a local-groceries shop that carries their ice creams, because I had to know what the chicken bones* flavor was like.( more about that, plus a cheese stash )

Current Mood: blank
Current Music: Blackmore's Night - Christmas Eve

extrapenguin

Or, perhaps, Vid in a Box on the creation part. I took on 12k of assignment and 2k of pinch hit, and ended up with a touch of overkill. Only a bit over 1k of wordcount, but 15k of wordcount + equivelent.

I made two vids, both for Side Story of Fox Volant:
My Loss – Nan Lan/Miao Renfeng, but it's Nan Lan choosing divorce
Sister Moon – Yuan Ziyi has principles and she will not abandon them for anyone, Hu Fei included

I wrote one fic for SWTOR, this time T-rated (??? I know, I know, what is this, my lesbians are neither fucking nor covered in gore, what has the world come to, etc):
Horizons Deep – Darth Nox/Empress Acina pre-femslash, idk Nox is having a Sithly midlife crisis I guess

and I made one fanmix for The Expanse:
Write the History – Laconia. Shall gather into an actual YouTube playlist in January when I'm on desktop again.

In exchange, I received two things! One incredibly fun romp for SWTOR, where the Inquisitor and Talos Drellik crash somewhere and, well, Talos gets one hell of a story to tell:
Temporarily Stranded, by

Gammarad

and a long and very canon-typical adventure for The Apothecary Diaries, where Empress Gyokuyou summons Maomao to solve a puzzle posed to her by a foreign envoy:
treasures from the blue north, by

discokonomi

umadoshi

Blessed Yule and solstice, friends. May this next turn of the year be better to all of us than the one that's just ended.

Impressively and unexpectedly, we didn't lose power on the weekend (so many people did!); not really coincidentally, Bucky remains undecorated. We also haven't put up any lights or the wreath outside (probably just as well, given the winds), and I didn't even think of that until maybe yesterday. Oh, well.

(I no longer have any real hope of finishing a draft of this rewrite before Christmas, since I'm getting such a late start on work today and we have plans for much of Christmas Eve once

scruloose's half-day of work ends. It's fine. I've been doing other things. *shrugs*)

A few nights ago I guess I ~slept wrong~, as I woke up Saturday with a very unhappy neck. Yesterday was better, and today is better again, and I'm lucky to not have this kind of thing happen more often (*knocks wood*), but it's so annoying as well as painful. Body, if you're taking damage while sleeping, why don't you move to a better position?! Does the conscious brain need to handle everything around here? (Thankfully no.)

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: Tori Amos - Star of Wonder

starandrea

Happy Solstice!

This sure has been a year. I adopted two new gardens, finished

inkingitout and novel-writing month, and bought both a car and a dog sled.

The dog sled is a kit that's supposed to double as a kicksled; it should arrive in a couple of weeks. (Daphne will not be pulling it. If I'm lucky she'll ride for a bit.) I just learned about kicksledding ::checks:: yesterday, so. As per usual.

Relatedly, I heard the following fun bilingualism today:

“我已经try very hard to 给我自己花钱。” ("I already try very hard to spend money on myself.")

Currently in legos I'm building a waterfall, which the box tells me will light up and move when I'm done. Despite my decades of STEM employment, my engineering experience is largely limited to assembling furniture and garden equipment. I suppose success or failure will determine whether this part of the jianghu becomes Cloud Recesses or Lotus Pier.

I found the velociraptors, by the way. And the dolphins! The dolphins are now frolicking at the foot of Baoshan Sanren's mountain. (I've already forgotten what I did with the velociraptors. They might be in the garden.) (ETA: They are in the chicken coop.)

The sky was very beautiful today.

( pictures of solstice sunup and sundown )

trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

To Make a Dream (9270 words)
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Mature
Relationship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, brief appearances by Ye Zun and the SID
Content Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Related, Episode 31, Nightmare Master arc, Dream Sharing, Dixing Powers, Black and White Energy, First Kiss, First Time, Pre-Fix-It

Summary:

"You took a while to wake," Shen Wei said gently. "I brought you home." He ran a hand through his hair. "I needed rest, too."

So that was the fantasy: something Zhao Yunlan could almost, almost believe. His heart clenched. Suddenly he understood Zhu Hong's temptation to keep dreaming. But the true Shen Wei was still missing. Zhao Yunlan needed to wake up for real.

trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

Zhao Yunlan sprawled on a couch, grinning at his phone. The background shows a purple sky with stars. Text reads, "Slo-Mo Rewatch. Guardian - half an episode per week @ sid_guardian.dreamwidth.org"

Hi, welcome to this week's instalment of the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch! Watch half an episode a week, and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!

Here is last week's half-episode. On to the second half!

Episode 8, from 22:19:

Summary: In Dixing, the Regent sends a smoke message. In Haixing, Shen Wei pours his drunk mentor into car and then finds Zhao Yunlan ill on the kerb. He takes him home in a taxi (where he serves as a pillow), then discovers Zhao Yunlan's disaster apartment (featuring: wine bottles, dirty dishes, THE FRIDGE). During the night, Zhu Jiu finds the pillar with the Mountain-River Awl, but can't approach it. Meanwhile Shen Wei discovers that Zhao Yunlan asked Dixing about him and the Regent is ratting him out. He alters the message. In the morning, Zhao Yunlan wakes up to a tidy flat and Shen Wei sitting next to his bed. He tries to recruit Shen Wei for the SID again, but fails again. Wang Zheng sees a newspaper report about an earthquake in the Hanga mountains, passes out and regains her memory. Da Qing comes to tell Zhao Yunlan and finds Shen Wei there in the early morning. The Sundial begins to glow and resonate with the Awl; Lin Jing traces the source to the mountains.

Quote:

Shen Wei: "I suggest you eat regular meals. I don't want to find you on the road again."

Zhao Yunlan: "If you want to know whether I eat regular meals, why don't you just join ourSID, and you'll know?"

Shen Wei: "So your SID doesn't need a consultant, it needs a nanny?"

Detail:

I always notice that when Shen Wei takes off Zhao Yunlan's boots, he accidentally slips one of Zhao Yunlan's socks off his heel and doesn't pull it back up, argh! :p

Questions:

What's going through Shen Wei's head in the taxi? How is Zhao Yunlan feeling about Shen Wei taking him home? What's your favourite detail in Zhao Yunlan's flat? What's Shen Wei's favourite detail? Why do you think Zhao Yunlan keeps trying to recruit Shen Wei after Shen Wei has refused more than once? Do you think Shen Wei is seriously hoping to warn Zhao Yunlan away from leaving Dragon City? Why is Da Qing surprised to find Shen Wei with Zhao Yunlan in the morning? Why does Wang Zheng try to leave the SID? Any thoughts about how any of this compares to the novel? Or about parallels with other parts of the drama?

(These are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in!)

For the next two weekends, we're taking a break for the holidays - time to catch up on the rewatch, if you've been meaning to! Regular posts will resume on 9 January.

Here is our schedule for the current batch of episodes - please do sign up to host a post if you can!

umadoshi

Since I'm vaguely tracking things we've been making: a few days ago we made Smitten Kitchen's gingerbread apple upside-down cake. It's tasty, although I didn't like it nearly as much as the SK Mom's Apple Cake that we made not that long ago. (

scruloose likes it more than I do, for the record.) Now I mostly just want to make an actual gingerbread. ^^;

(My brain keeps starting to compose a post or posts about my currently-annoyingly-complication feelings about holiday baked goods etc., between our intensely-covid-cautious life and my still-newish need to stay aware of my blood glucose, but will I actually manage to write about it? Who knows. It's exhausting.)

I started my first day of vacation waking ahead of my alarm from a weird, teeth-clenchingly stressful dream, possibly one of a sequence, and it takes me a while to shake off dreams like that. >.< I've gotten a couple of household things done/underway, though, and am sitting down to do some manga work once I've posted this.

We still haven't decorated Bucky; he comes with lights, which are the most important part of a Christmas tree, especially without the smell of a real tree, and at least one year we bought our tree and put lights on it and never did anything more, and that was fine. I guess it's possible this'll be another such year. (Although we're due for strong winds and heavy rain tonight and into tomorrow, and if we lose power, I guess that's something we could do tomorrow afternoon.)

But we got most of our other fragments of decor up last night, and this morning I put out my Nativity set for the first time in a few years. It's wooden, but a couple of the pieces have taken damage over the years nonetheless (before my time, or when I was young enough that I don't remember what happened), and having it out around the cats has made me nervous since my mother gave it to me* several years ago. But a few months ago I bought a piece of display wall shelving for my office (and my office mostly stays shut when I'm not in it for long), and the set fits in it fairly well, so now it's there and I've got my fingers crossed.

(Also, this year I bought an old-fashioned ceramic tree from a local artist, and it's on a speaker under the wall display, so realistically, if a cat gets up on my desk where they shouldn't be, I'll know about it from the tree going down. [Which I really hope it doesn't, because it's breakable and the lights aren't actually attached, so that's all kinds of cat hazard in a package. And thus, it's in my office; if the cats were actually prone to getting on my desk and messing with things, I wouldn't have bought the tree at all, but even Sinha is really pretty good about it.])

*I think I mentioned at the time that this is the Nativity set of my childhood, carved of olive wood. My mother's parents once--in the '50s, I think? When she was a kid--were in Jerusalem over Christmastime, and brought it home. Mum deciding to pass it on to me is genuinely one of the best gifts she's ever given me.

Current Mood: restless
Current Music: Annie Lennox - The First Noel

extrapenguin posting in

sid_guardian

fandommixtapeex is an 18+ multi-fandom exchange using songs as work prompts. It has a bunch of post-deadline pinch hits, one of which is 100% Guardian! (镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018) RPF, 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest). The due date is December 28th, 2025 at 10pm EDT. To claim, go to the linked post, and comment with
* The number and/or username of the pinch hit you would like to pick up
* Your ao3 username
* An email where the mod can reach you

Fanfiction should be at least 1000 words, and wholly created for the event. Fanart should be a complete artwork on unlined paper. Podfic should be of an existing work that is at least 1000 words, or a new recording of a work written by the creator that is at least 500 words.

umadoshi

"Yona of the Dawn Gets Sequel Anime". [Anime News Network]

I'm delighted both that this is happening and that it was announced so promptly on the heels of the manga ending. (;_;) As we learned from the second Fruits Basket anime arriving thirteen years after that manga ended, anything is possible, but it's sure nicer to have this sort of thing happen with a speed that makes more sense.

ANN says "sequel anime", which I'd imagine means it'll pick up where the first one left off, but how OAVs factor into that, I'm not even going to try to guess.

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Sting - A Winter's Night Live From Durham Cathedral2009

umadoshi

What I Just Finished Reading: Legendborn (Tracy Deonn) and Season of Love (Helena Greer), both of which fall into the category of "I enjoyed this but I don't feel any urge to pick up the sequel".

And not that recent, but I did finish Anne Lamott's Almost Everything: Notes on Hope not terribly long ago.

What I am Currently Reading: Llinos Cathryn Thomas' Advent novella All is Bright, one chapter per day. And

scruloose and I are a few chapters into the audiobook of System Collapse.

What I Plan to Read Next: Very possibly The Dark is Rising, with solstice nipping at our heels.

Bonus TV note:

scruloose and I have finished season 2 of Silo!

When we finish System Collapse, that'll be the end of Murderbot listening until sometime after the new book comes out. Listening to the audiobooks together has cut way into our shared TV watching, but does have the advantage of being easier to drop in and out of if we don't have a lot of time in an evening, so I've been trying to see what our iteration of Hoopla has that

scruloose might be into. It does have Gideon the Ninth, which they might get a kick out of, but that's a significantly longer book, and we already had to check Network Effect out twice to get through it.

Last night it occurred to me that the Queen's Thief books are on the shorter side, and lo, Hoopla has them all! Have any of you listened to them? Any comments on how their reader is? It remains possible that finding out that I really like the Murderbot audiobooks isn't a sign of anything other than that I like that narrator in particular. ^^;

Current Mood: drained

extrapenguin

In an effort to actually get some wear out of my formalwear, I have decided to take up going to the ballet. Here are the first two.

Carmina Burana (Paris Ballet Theater, Choir & Orchestra of Budapest)
I caught a matinee (16:00) at the Palais de Congrès and was basically the only person who was dressed up at all :'D Ah well. (Achivement unlocked: overdressed at the ~~opera~~ ballet in Paris.)

I reserved the tickets knowing absolutely nothing about what I was getting into, beyond "high culture", so I the fact that it was a ballet was a, uh, surprise.

Anyway. I loved it! There were basically two prima ballerina roles, and the music was great. More ballet should have a choir on stage. The, idk, multimediality? of having a soloist singer sing an aria while the dancers danced a pas de deux or variation was cool. All the drama was on point. I think this is a good production, and they're touring in the rest of France + neighboring regions, so if you can, I rec going!

I also bought the programme and basically everyone named, from production to roles, is from East of the Iron Curtain. (The one exception, The Temptress, is from Italy.) It's noticeable in how the style of dance is much more Vaganova/Russian school, with open shoulders and an engaged back. The same corps is putting on a Swan Lake in March/April that I will catch.

Notre Dame de Paris (Paris Opera Ballet)
This one was at the Opéra Bastille, and people did dress up! (Not all tho; I spotted several people in jeans and t-shirts, puffer coats, or sweatpants. Also a random old lady told me I was truly magnificent.) Sartorial observations below.

This ballet didn't end up working for me. Some of it was synchronization issues (several in the corps de ballet, but also one in a pas de deux between Esmeralda and Quasimodo), some of it was the costuming (all the women were in microskirts and the styling made them look at most 15), but mostly it was I think the fact that it's a French production.

You see, the French style of ballet is all about clean lines, exact positions, control, #chic, #cleangirl. It is fundamentally incapable of adapting Notre Dame because it is fundamentally incapable of depicting horniness. Phoebus and Esmeralda both lost their shirts during a pas de deux and it was not horny, Frollo was just an evil sorcerer who had a stick up his ass in an unhorny way, the prostitutes were unhorny and so was Phoebus dancing with them. I have seen hornier Swan Lakes. Everyone needed to go on a vision quest to find their inner Odile. The Quasimodo & Esmeralda worked, because that's based on innocent sentiment, but the Phoebus/Esmeralda and Frollo -> Esmeralda didn't come across properly at all. Also Frollo came across as sympathetic (99% sure unintentionally) because there's something just that pathetic about having a dude solo dance one half of a pas de deux while two people are dancing the actual pas de deux.

Esmeralda, in a microskirt, being not at all seductive.

However, this does choreographically give the entire corps de ballet (in fact, everyone but Phoebus) some movement stuff to do that's usually reserved for jesters, so this is the production to put on when your corps de ballet has jester envy.

Not super impressed with the company, but I guess I'll catch at least Romeo and Juliet in Apr/May before giving up. Also kinda want to see La Bayadère in Jun/Jul because I've never seen that before.

anthropological observations on clothing
The average Frenchwoman is rail thin, but more of a pear/spoon type – not much beneath, but even less up top, if you will. As such, the "dressy" clothing seems to be elevated pant + elevated shirt + nice scarf. Any dresses are cut incredibly straight in the skirt, at max a very drapey A-line. The goal is to look ~effortlessly put together~, i.e. spend an hour of effort to look like you simply pulled out the first two items from your elegant, curated closet and put them on without thought.

(The person sitting next to me was wearing an actual nice dress with a pleated skirt. Then her similarly dressed friend turned up and turns out they're Russian.)

(By French standards, I am tallish with a broad ribcage. I also objectively have broad shoulders, and an amazingly athletic butt and thighs. There is no way I am able to give the same vibes as the locals lol. Anything I wear will look more playful, intentional, and/or dramatic.)

china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

All Guardian drama, no archive warnings apply. :-)

Title: The Mouse and the Dragon (1559 words) [General Audiences]
Characters: Guo Changcheng, Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei
Additional Tags: Background pre-relationship Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Missing Scene, Episode 4, Guo Changcheng interrogates Shen Wei, zhao yunlan pov, Community: fan_flashworks, Prompt: Fish
Series: Part 1 of The rest of the SID team interrogate Shen Wei (episode 4)
Summary:

Zhao Yunlan watched Shen Wei closely. Could his unflappable demeanour survive Xiao-Guo’s naïve bluntness?

Title: Analysis and Verification (838 words) [General Audiences]
Characters: Lin Jing, Shen Wei, Wang Zheng
Additional Tags: Background pre-relationship Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Missing Scene, Episode 4, Lin Jing "interrogates" Shen Wei, Wang Zheng too
Series: Part 3 of The rest of the SID team interrogate Shen Wei (episode 4)
Summary:

Lin Jing stuffed his dark-energy detector into his pocket and arranged his sweatshirt to cover it as he headed next door. When he passed the boss in the hallway, they exchanged nods, and then Lin Jing was leaning into the interview room. “Professor Shen, I’ll see you out.”

Title: not close enough (300 words) [General Audiences]
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Flirting, Timeloop feels, Episode Related, Episode 6, Yearning, Triple Drabble
Summary:

Zhao Yunlan is across from him, slouching forward with sleeves pushed up, making inroads into Shen Wei’s space.

Title: Sartorial Evidence (550 words) [General Audiences]
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei, Shen Wei's clothes
Additional Tags: Episode Related, Episode 4, Dixing Powers, Clothing, Shen Wei POV, UST, Zhao Yunlan touches Shen Wei A LOT, Community: fan_flashworks, Prompt: First Aid
Summary:

The morning after he’s found at a crime scene and taken to the SID to be interviewed, Shen Wei opens his armoire and—stops.

Title: Crudité (4183 words) [Mature]
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Episode 22, Post-Blindness Arc, Missing Scene, Porn Without Plot, First Time, vegetable sex, Oral Fixation, Non-Penetrative Sex, Unorthodox Seduction Techniques
Summary:

As the clatter of food preparation starts up in the kitchen, Zhao Yunlan folds his arms behind his head. Just how unambiguous does he need to be to override Shen Wei’s reservations? What will it take to get them what he knows they both want? If he’s as weird and over-the-top as his apartment, will that turn Shen Wei on or turn him off?

Title: Hard at work [General Audiences]
Relationships: Da Qing & Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Beginner Art, This is how Zhao Yunlan runs the SID, Ably assisted by his deputy, Episode 2, Fanart, Community: fan_flashworks, Prompt: Boss
Summary: Coloured pencil & ink sketch of Zhao Yunlan lying on the SID couch with cat Da Qing on the table next to him.

Title: The Gondolier of Dixing [General Audiences]
Characters: Chu Shuzhi
Notes: Beginner art (colour pencil, ink, a little digital messing about).
Summary: What if Dixing were flooded and became a city of canals?

tinny

Every 20 rounds (about once a year), there's an amnesty round at

iconcolors where you can make as many icons for as many of the previous palettes as you like. I made 21 icons for seven palettes this time. Enjoy!

( 21 multifandom icons, most from Heated Rivalry, then The Lost Ballad, then everything else )

I love comments, and if you have concrit for me, I'm open for that, too. All my icons are free to take and use, credit is appreciated. The list of makers whose textures and brushes I like to use is here in my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

Zhao Yunlan sprawled on a couch, grinning at his phone. The background shows a purply sky with stars. Text reads "Slo-Mo Rewatch. Guardian - half an episode per week @ sid-guardian.dreamwidth.org."

Hi, and welcome back to the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch. Watch half an episode a week, at your leisure, and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!

Here are the previous weeks' rewatch posts.

Episode 8, up to 22:19

Summary
The SID enthusiastically welcomes Guo Changcheng as an official employee, and Lin Jing gives him the fear baton. ♥ Zhao Yunlan arranges to buy some old books and then calls Shen Wei to offer them as a gift, while Zhu Hong and Da Qing gossip about his black-heartedness and obsession with Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan and Da Qing meet a student in the street to buy the books, then sit around and talk about recruiting Shen Wei to the SID. Zhao Yunlan is openly smitten. ♥ But presenting the gift to Shen Wei does not go as planned: Zhao Yunlan gives a fake provenance for the books, Shen Wei leaves, and Zhao Yunlan slinks off to ~~recover his dignity in private~~ drink tea and talk about new SID premises. A mysterious letter gives Wang Zheng flashbacks. Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi run into Ding Dun in the street juuuust before receiving an APB about him. The Envoy comes to the SID to request help tracking him down, but Da Qing is hesitant to proceed without their fearless leader. Chu Shuzhi sets to work anyway and takes Changcheng with him. Meanwhile, Zhu Jiu murders Ding Dun, whose body the others find and take back to the SID? (Or pass on to the Envoy?) On the university campus that night, Shen Wei confides in Ying Chun while wearing an ascot. Zhu Jiu shows up, and fisticuffs ensue (Ying Chun helps Shen Wei), but Zhu Jiu escapes. Ying Chun points out the dangers in Shen Wei's plan to go after a missing item, but Shen Wei is resolved.

The S.I.D. happily welcome Guo Changcheng as a permanent employee.

The S.I.D. happily welcome Guo Changcheng as a permanent employee.

Quote
Lin Jing: This is my newest invention. It can transform fear into electricity. The more fear, the more electricity. In other words, I made it especially as the perfect, most powerful weapon you could have.
Guo Changcheng: E...electricity? I'm also afraid of electricity.

Detail
When Zhao Yunlan calls Shen Wei about the old books, the original subs say, "What a coincidence! I have a lot of old books," and the VIKI subs say, "You are so lucky as I have some in my home!" while Solo's subs have "As it happens, regarding this, the two of us were brought together by fate." The last is closest to the Chinese subs: 巧了咱俩在这个事上太有缘了 ("What a coincidence! We're so destined to meet on this matter." according to Google Translate).

Poll #33955 Subtitles

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

View Respondents

Which subtitles are you using? (Tick all that apply.)

View Answers

original fansubs
3 (33.3%)

Solo's subs
8 (88.9%)

VIKI subs
2 (22.2%)

Chinese hard subs
3 (33.3%)

other
2 (22.2%)

Questions
Do you have a stand-out favourite scene or quote from the first half of episode 8? Is everyone genuinely glad to have Guo Changcheng onboard? Does Shen Wei as the Envoy already have a red stamp, and if so, when/how did he get it? On a scale of 1 to 10, how smitten is Zhao Yunlan with Shen Wei? On a scale of 1 to 10, how sympathetic is Da Qing to this smittenness? Who sends the APB on Ding Dun? (Presumably not the Envoy!) How do you feel about ascots? How great is the fight with Zhu Jiu?

Did you see any parallels in these scenes with other parts of the drama? If you're familiar with the novel, any thoughts about how the drama adaptation compares, if at all?

(As usual, these are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in. We'd love to hear your thoughts!)

And here is our schedule -- if you can, please sign up to host a post!

umadoshi

Luck was not with us in the first attempt at clementines this year. (The batch we got are far from inedible, at least, but...not very good.) They're such a gamble these years. :/

Our new freezer arrived a week ago, and the plan is to finally get it in place today once

scruloose gets back from a market run. That hasn't happened yet due to a combination of factors and timing, the biggest of which is the fact that it'll require shifting some things out of the garage onto the driveway to make room for us to work with two upright freezers in play. (

scruloose is going to take a stab at moving the old one out of its place without emptying it, via a hand cart, but we have no idea how likely that is to actually work. It'd sure be convenient, though.)

My hair is dyed! It is. Um. Very dark. By which I mean it's not so much dark purple as "functionally black with some purple highlights that are probably some of my silver hair, but there's less of that than there is silver, so it's a little confusing". Oh, well. It looks fine, other than maybe making me look a bit washed out, and I don't much care about that.

(I might care more when I finally get

scruloose to take a headshot of me to send HR at Dayjob so they can update my long-expired work pass. [Part of why I decided to finally just go ahead and dye my hair was in the name of having it done for this photo.] These days, the process involves just filling out a form and emailing that and a photo that meets their technical requirements to the department handling passes and also to my boss, presumably so the boss can look at the photo and confirm "yes, that is the employee in question". But this means we can make potentially-endless attempts at getting a photo I don't hate, and honestly, if I can live with the horror of my provincial ID photo, I can probably live with just about anything.)

A few links:

--

mrissa's annual lussekatter posts are always good for my heart.

--Jenny Hamilton's "Anatomy of a Sex Scene: Heated Rivalry Edition" (covering ep. 1-2).

--"‘Pushing Daisies’ Season 3 In The Works, Says Creator Bryan Fuller".

Current Mood: stressed

tinny

Mount TBR 2025 Book #06 Neuerfindung der Diktatur/We Have Been Harmonized

Die Neuerfindung der Diktatur / We Have Been Harmonized by Kai Strittmatter

Full English title (it's too long for a post subject lol) is: We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State – How Biometric Control and Censorship Threaten Global Freedom and Privacy

German China correspondent Kai Strittmatter wrote this book after he retired, knowing he'd never be let back into China afterwards. He describes how China is developing widespread surveillance to help the ruling party stay in power. He describes the evolution of dictatorship in China, where it's heading, and what the consequences for the rest of the world might be.

The only non-fiction book on my list this year.

The book is based on a lot of interviews he conducted in China, with dissidents/artists/intellectuals as well as people involved in the implementation of surveillance. It reads like a very well researched book. It's not all that new - from 2020 - and it should be noted that it was written by a German, and thus does not specifically get into the developments in the US in that same area. I read the book in German.

I don't really have anything detailed to say about this book. Most of the historical developments were not news to me. I already found things terribly repressive when I was in China decades ago, and it has only gotten worse, and the book illustrates this very well. As for the newer developments, there were quite a few things that I didn't know before or not in that much detail. It's a depressing read, but for me it was worth it.

4 stars - Well researched, important book.

1 - 5 stars - Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Final Architecture #1 [DW link]
2 - 2 stars - Miss Merkel: Mord auf dem Friedhof by David Safier Miss Merkel #2 [DW link]
3 - 4 stars - Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire Toby Daye #10 [DW link]
4 - 1 star - Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin [DW link]
5 - 5 stars - Murderbot Diaries 1-4 by Martha Wells [DW link]
6 - 4 stars - Die Neuerfindung der Diktatur/We Have Been Harmonized by Kai Strittmatter [DW link]

tinny

The theme of

fandom10in30's current round "Ice Ice Baby" is winter, snow, and ice, so I went with Amidst a Snowstorm of Love, and then when I ran out of properly snowy caps, filled it up with Frozen and North of North. Enjoy!

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I'm happy to receive all kind of comments, including concrit! All icons shareable. Credit for brushes and textures I use can be found here in my resource post.

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extrapenguin

Lanna mentioned being out of the loop wrt new music, so I've decided that, when it fits the prompt, I'll pick some 2020s music. After all, we're halfway through the decade, now! (More than, if 2020 counts and 2030 doesn't!) So have some symphonic metal released in 2025 for...

a song that makes you smile
Catalyst Symphony - Eden

Watch on YouTube

The Light Inside EP on Bandcamp

prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
a song title that is in all lowercase
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

Profile

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February 2020

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Page Summary

umadoshi - Discord weirdness | Holiday dairy foods
extrapenguin - Fic in a Box
umadoshi - Slightly belated Yule/solstice wishes + a very low-key update
starandrea - "they opened up their eyes and saw the sun coming out" (antje duvekot)
trobadora in sid_guardian - FIC: To Make a Dream (Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan) [M]
trobadora in sid_guardian - Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 8, part 2
umadoshi - Belated cake note | First morning of vacation
extrapenguin in sid_guardian - Guardian Pinch Hit for Fandom Mixtape!
umadoshi - The hoped-for silver lining of the Yona manga ending!
umadoshi - Reading Wednesday 12/17/25 | Has anyone listened to the Queen's Thief audiobooks?
extrapenguin - Ballet Experiences
china_shop in sid_guardian - Some recent Guardian fanworks
tinny - 21 multifandom icons for the iconcolors amnesty round
china_shop in sid_guardian - Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 8, part 1
umadoshi - Saturday mishmash--household stuff, dyed hair [and work stuff], and a few links
tinny - Book #06 We Have Been Harmonized
tinny - multifandom flash freeze set for fandom10in30
extrapenguin - More music memery!

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Style: Starry Sky for Planet Caravan by momijizukamori

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Discord weirdness | Holiday dairy foods

Fic in a Box

Slightly belated Yule/solstice wishes + a very low-key update

"they opened up their eyes and saw the sun coming out" (antje duvekot)

FIC: To Make a Dream (Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan) [M]

Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 8, part 2

Belated cake note | First morning of vacation

Guardian Pinch Hit for Fandom Mixtape!

The hoped-for silver lining of the Yona manga ending!

Reading Wednesday 12/17/25 | Has anyone listened to the Queen's Thief audiobooks?

Ballet Experiences

Some recent Guardian fanworks

21 multifandom icons for the iconcolors amnesty round

Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 8, part 1

Saturday mishmash--household stuff, dyed hair [and work stuff], and a few links

Book #06 We Have Been Harmonized

multifandom flash freeze set for fandom10in30

More music memery!

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February 2020

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