Reading

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December-January Movie PTW List

Using my movies boardgame.

I completed 4/5 movies from my last challenge, the highest rated was booksmart at 4/5 stars. Not the funnest challenge, coulda been better but I'm not in the biggest mood for movies tbh.

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Action (Tremors)
Skill: If you land on a tile you don't like: roll a dice, if even go forward one tile, if odd go back (doesn't work on the trap tile)

Roll #1

Heree we go again, a 7 which is the trap tile so I had to go back. Oh, a 12 now, ok. Prompt: weapon on the cover. I am going to chose based solely on the prompts versus my feelings because nothing will get chosen otherwise. Alright, there's a gun on the cover of Dust Bunny.

Roll #2

A 7, prompt: favorite genre (fantasy). ('24) The Little Mermaid,

Roll #3

A 4, generate from PTW tile. #64, Trunk - Locked In.

Roll #4

A 5, prompt: horror element. Beyond Loch Ness,

Roll #5

Reward: Flight of the Living Dead.

Movie PTW List:

[Thriller/Fantasy/Action] Dust Bunny
[Horror/Fantasy] '24 The Little Mermaid
[Thriller] Trunk - Locked In
[Mystery/Sci-Fi/Horror] Beyond Loch Ness
[Horror] Flight of the Living Dead

Current Mood: weird

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media: movie

🎬December Movie Wrap-Up

For my PTW challenge:

Dangerous Animals ('25): It might seem heavy-handed to some, like the part where she makes a joke that the worst spot on a dick is the man(?), and the part where the shark didn't attack her for some reason but then attacked the bad guy, but IDC, she and her boyfriend survived and that's more than most shark movies. If you didn't guess, the dangerous animals in question turned out to be men, not sharks. I'm not going to rate it because I skimmed some parts (like the part where she did things to her thumb to escape the cuff, ick). Honestly I'm not sure I was in the mood to watch this and that's why I skipped through.

Thirteen Lives ('22): The movie adaptation for the Thai cave rescue. I don't remember feeling so uncomfortable for the water scenes in the mini-series, I actually had to skip through most of them because they were too claustrophobic. It showed the Seal's death in explicit detail, too. The mini-series definitely fleshes out the characters more, especially the Thai ones but this adaptation had a lot of tension and fleshing out of the non-Thai characters. The boys are barely shown in the movie adaptation whereas we follow them a lot in the mini-series. I just found that while this was in production, another movie adaptation of the rescue came out and now I'm curious (it's higher rated, too). That's three adaptations! 2/5

A Perfect Getaway ('09): Multiple red herrings and a mid-movie twist. I skimmed because I'm so frickin' tired I can't handle too much tension, so I'll keep it on my PTW.

booksmart ('19): Some scenes really made me laugh, some made me WTF and others made me think. I'm glad I watched it! 4/5 stars

Lady Bird ('17): So this came out 2 years before booksmart, I didn't realize Beanie Feldstein was a main character in them both. I ended up having to DNF a third of the way through, I just wasn't connecting enough. I do relate to the resentment and even self-harm that resulted from it that Lady Bird was feeling towards her mom.

Current Mood: full

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🔊 Daily music

Watch on YouTube

And the song it was based on:

Watch on YouTube

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Playing the Fool, books 2 and 3 by Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock

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misc. updates

1. Fanlore: I was looking over new pages and saw one for Gerard Way/Patrick Stump. I thought I would add some livejournal links, but couldn't find much: gerard_patrick, which turned out to be a barely-used slash community for a different Gerard and Patrick, and two purged usernames not on the Wayback Machine so I can't verify whether they are Bandom communities (patrickxgerard and gerardpatrick). Were there ever any communities, primers, or reclists for this pairing?

Someone also created a new page for KJ Charles fandom and included a discord invite.

2. 2025 reading progress: 112 books.

Since my last post, I've finished four more novels, including one by a new-to-me author: The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi. It's a fantasy novella set in a desert, brutal, anti-authoritarian, possibly Marxist. I need to get my hands on the sequels. Most recently I finished After Hours at Dooryard Books, Cat Sebastian's latest novel. It is set in New York City 1968, but resonates with the present political moment. Nothing dramatic happens to any of the characters, at least not once they are introduced--they all have tragic backstories. Just 300+ pages of people minding a bookstore and not talking about their feelings while American history happens around them. I was genuinely riveted.

Currently reading: Native Nations and Slippery Creatures.

3. I read a new Starsky & Hutch fanfic: Cal's Lounge, Two Thirty-Six AM by triedunture. Highly recommend. It does feature the characters' very dated understanding of sexuality that I've seen mentioned on Fanlore pages--I don't know how accurate it is for real-life 1970s, but it is probably very in character for Starsky & Hutch.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Golden - Huntr/x

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but now that's how i'm getting paid

Christmas was lovely! On Christmas Eve, it was just me, my sister, and my brother-in-law, so we ordered in and watched a godawful Hallmark Christmas movie with Teri Hatcher in it. Then they went to bed and I did a Die Hard rewatch - I hadn't seen it in some number of years and for all its flaws, it is still a good time.

Christmas morning, my niece and her husband came over so Baby Miss L could unwrap the first set of presents - she still gets bored with it and wants to play with whatever she's opened instead of opening the next gift, so it's a process - and she LOVED the 30 second dance party button, as I knew she would. I am SO HAPPY I saw it somewhere (Wirecutter, maybe?) and ordered it, and that it arrived in time for me to see her play with it. (The adults got a kick out of it too, but it was hilarious watching her run up and press it each time it ended.) She liked the dinosaur cape and the books (especially "The Little Book of Cheese," which is in the same series as "The Little Book of Pasta," which I got for her last year and which she LOVES - apparently she will just bust out with "FARFALLE!" at any given moment), but did not care about the wings at all. Also when Alyssa told her I would be there, she said, "books!" so she knows I am the books and clothes aunt. *g*

The while elephant swap was pretty hilarious too, and my niece Nicki ended up with the cat-shaped measuring cups and spoons that were my contribution. I got a waterproof bluetooth speaker I'm going to have to set up in the bathroom to have tunes in the shower.

The funfetti cupcakes were a big hit. (I made sure to put cream cheese frosting on the ones for my sister; she tried one with the American buttercream and made the same face I made when I tasted it - it's disgustingly sweet.) There's picture of this year's selection here.

As for gifts, I received a handful of gift cards, a KRYPTO squishmallow from Baby Miss L, a pair of earrings made from chips of vintage pyrex, a stand mixer tree ornament, a copy of Dorrie's Anytime Cakes, some candles, and a pair of super warm and fuzzy grippy socks. I also bought myself a new winter coat, a new 9 x 13" pyrex baking dish, a new vibrator, some new bras, and a new pair of black ankle boots, so I'm doing all right in the gift department. *g*

Yesterday, I got home early and vegged out for most of the day. And then it snowed, just like they said it would!

Today, I made a new batch of dough and tomorrow I'll finish baking off the fig cookies for this year. I also want to try those orange cranberry rolls now that I have room in the fridge to let them rise overnight. I still have so many eggs left over, though, so I see at least one frittata in my future, plus at least one batch of Nadiya's egg wraps, which are delicious and I recommend them highly!

Now I should look into having dinner and maybe watching the Rangers game.

*

Current Mood: holly jolly!
Current Music: VERIVERY - Love At First Sight

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It's a Wonderful Christmas!

I've had a wonderful Christmas! It's not quite over yet, as Blue, Green and I still have to have our gift exchange this coming Tuesday, but so far I've been able to spend a lot of time with my loved ones. Last Sunday, I went over to Grey's and we had a gift exchange with his brother and sister-in-law! (I probably need to make them their own blog names at some point.) Grey and I wrote each other letters and I love his. :D And he got me a Microsoft Word 2003 guide book/textbook since he knows that's what I use on my XP laptop! I made him a scarf and he loved it, thank God. :) And I just barely finished it! Which reminds me, the day before I had gone to Red's Christmas potluck and just barely finished the scarf whilst I was there! Blue and I also watched The Muppet Christmas Carol---a Christmas must for me---on Monday!

Besides that, his brother and sister-in-law gave me some tea and cocoa, and some mugs, and even this really cool Gilmore Girls cookbook and matching Luke's apron! I'm definitely going to use those, especially when I stop living in dorms with no kitchen and my parents' house with a kitchen in disrepair.

Then, on Wednesday (Christmas Eve) I had a double Christmas. In the morning, I went to his dad's family and met his dad for the first time! It was really nice to meet everyone and we had some fun watching Christmas movies and checking out his dad's racing rig---a steering wheel, pedals and triple monitors that let him play racing games as if he were actually in a car! His dad and the rest of that side of the family got me some fancy lotions and perfumes and stuff, and even a Kate Spade bag. I thought it was really sweet of them to think of me!

That evening I went to my dad's family's Christmas. There was some good food and I got to catch up with some people, at least, but a lot of people were missing and Mean Aunt was there. Thankfully I got by without saying above five words to her. But it was pretty boring. Grey's mum got into town (she lives a couple hours away) that night and I really wished I could have been celebrating with them instead!

Christmas day my parents and I got up and we had our own little Christmas! My mum got me this really lovely Jane Austen tote bag and I got some travel stuff, too, plus my mum is having a beret made for me by this nice local lady! Then we got in the car and headed to my mum's family. I liked seeing my cousins and chit-chatting with my family, and I even learned to double crochet! But I still wished I could've been with Grey and his family. Oh well. I got some nice Victorian novels from my grandma! Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (one of my favourite authors) and The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope. One of them was wrapped in a massive box for a kick, LOL!

And then yesterday I finally got to meet Grey's mum! We went to this nice little Chinese restaurant for lunch and then back to Grey's apartment, where she gave me my Christmas present! I was really surprised and touched she got me anything in the first place, and a little bummed out I didn't get her anything! She got me a beautiful leather-bound journal to write my study abroad adventures in and some amazing erasable pens in an array of colours to match, and got me and Grey matching game controller Christmas tree ornaments! They have our initials written on the back. :) She also wrote me this really sweet and heartfelt card. :) And then we three played some Puyo Puyo Tetris! I was nowhere near either of their levels, but I found a 3DS version so I'm going to train up before I see her next. And I did beat her once or twice. :) Granted, that was with me playing on the lowest difficulty and her playing on the highest, but... a win is a win!

I'm just glad that meeting Grey's family went well! Everyone seems to like me so far and I like them too! I also met his best friend today at lunch and we had a nice time. :) And all of my friends he's met so far seem to like him! The only one of my best friends he hasn't met yet is Rose! A few of my non-best close friends he also hasn't met, but I really want him to meet Rose. Maybe if everything ever aligns and we're in town at the same time as her and her boyfriend, we could go on a double date! That'd be really fun. I still need to see if Green and his partner are available to do a double date like we were planning over Thanksgiving break! Sadly I was too busy then.

But yeah. It's been a great week! It's only now hitting me, though, that I'm gonna be gone for a few months! I'm really going to miss Grey and all my friends! At least Blue will be there with me, though! And Grey's going to come visit. :) I'm really gonna miss him but I have no doubt we'll make it through and come out on the other side a stronger couple for it!

Well, I'm off to go play some more Tetris. It's addicting!!!

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rewrite-a-fic 2026

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multifandom: rewrite-a-fic 2026

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Current Mood: giddy

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bl,
holidays

Yaoi Christmas

Yunjin<3

New BL:

Burnout Syndrome EP. 5

Dead man and the angel's kiss,
money and status all gone when asleep, when dead,
they could they leave the human world and hierarchies behind and enter a fantasy realm of love where work doesn't exist.
Jira bringing comfort and tenderness to Koh despite all the bickering.
There is sexual tension, Koh could buy sex but doesn't want to.
These small moments between them possible because of art, human creation that transcends mortal boundaries

Heated Rivalry EP. 6 (final)

Beefy dudes being tender with each other... not what i usually watch but surprisingly i've enjoyed it very much. Very warm finale for a steamy series! But i gotta say coming out to your parents/getting caught always makes me anxious.

I'm glad a western MM series got so popular! Heated Rivalry was overall a great romance. Good balance of romance, smut, and realism. It also had the trope of "slow burn with fucking" which i realized i really like but haven't read/watched that much.

10Dance (film)

source

this has similarities with the two other BL's i wached: art and competition, my favorite subjects.
passion, dedication, ruthlessness
challenging each other, being inspired by each other,
being changed by the other
great critique is to be seen, to help you to succeed
artists in love: so dramatic!

i think the acting and chemistry was great
there was a lot of amazing dance scenes i loved watching.
it's been a long time since i've watched something that was full of PASSION!
i could've watched this for longer!
apparently it's based on a manga that hasn't even finished yet so i understand why at times it felt like there could've been more, but i'm not sure if tv series adaptation could have been as dramatic and emotional? idk.

BONUS:
Le sserafim did an incredible performance at Gayo Daejeon!
The intro is so cool! I've never seen anything like it. They also brought drag queens on stage!
I really love how they always show support to the queer community.

Watch on YouTube

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A Guardian Meme

(Feel free to snag and/or adapt for other fandoms! Also, being me, I made rules ("pick one", "favourite") and then immediately broken them. *g*)

1. A fanwork you've read/looked at more than three times
- [Vid] Open Ocean by

sakana17 (Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan - so gorgeous)
- [Vid] Lost It All by

salamandras (Zhao Xinci & Zhao Yunlan - a vexercise! I particularly love the first version)
- [Art] Getting Comfortable [Explicit] by

facethestrange (Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan art, a glorious gift for me, did I mention explicit?)
ETA:
- [Vid] Hallucinogenics by Jill, Kathy, Kay - Zhao Yunlaaaaaan!!

2. A resource you've used lately (or "lately")
- Dramatis Personae (with cast list) by

extrapenguin
- SID Timeline by

rheasilvia
- Guardian timeline by

extrapenguin

3. A rarepair you would read
I'm fairly easy for trying out rarepairs. There are some characters I generally avoid "/" pairings for (in particular, Da Qing, Zhu Jiu, and Ye Zun come to mind), but I did read some delightful Lin Jing/Ye Zun fics over

guardian_wishlist, so clearly even that isn't a hard line. (Da Qing might be, though.)

A rarepair that I'd actively like to read more of is Chu Shuzhi &/ Zhao Xinci.

nnozomi wrote me one delightful fic for them [Mature], and it only whetted my appetite. *g*

( Continued behind the cut. )

Guardian meme 1. A fanwork you've read/looked at more than three times 2. A resource you've used lately (or "lately") 3. A rarepair you would read 4. The rarest pair you've written/created for (gut feel is fine; no need to check numbers) 5. Novel vs drama, if you had to choose 6. The first fic you read in the fandom (if you can't remember, one of the first is fine) 7. Ye Zun ships - yay or nay? 8. The most recent Guardian fanart you looked at 9. Did you participate in any Guardian-specific events in 2025? Which ones? 10. Opening credits vs closing credits death match: which do you choose? 11. Are you into any Guardian-adjacent fandoms? 12. Did you make any Guardian fanworks in 2025? How many? What was your favourite? 13. List three of your favourites of your own Guardian works (or other people's, if you'd prefer). 14. Pick a screencap

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I raked more in the parking lot. I had to make another line. It's exhausting and inefficient and not even making the stumps all that much easier to see.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

I am done for the night.

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NiF Exchange works and treats

Check out the collection here.

Here‘s what you can still do (apart from leaving comments and kudos on the lovely fanworks):

Treats: Dec 10 to 31

Anyone, signed-up or not, can create something (no minimum requirements) based on any of the prompts that inspire them. See past Prompt Lists here.

You may view the Prompt List - Treats version" for those who wish to make treats.

Treats are independent of the main event's deadlines.

In case your treat happens to belong to a prompt set that got abandoned, Mod will contact you and request for permission to bump it up into a gift.

Post treats to the Exchange Collection with the tag "NIFTREAT2025" to differentiate them from the main gifts.

As a rule, you should give credit where it's due, drawing inspiration from prompts included. However, please note that not all prompters want to be tagged directly (aka, Gifted), so please take that into consideration when posting treats. This will be noted in the public Prompts List.

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FRATTWEEK 8 - December 29 to January 4

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birdfeeding

busy birds

The birds are active today. There was a fair sized flock of house finches flying back and forth between a small three and the feeders. Also sparrows, cardinals and a red-bellied woodpecker. Later there were chickadees, goldfinches, juncos and mourning doves. And I just saw a red-breasted nuthatch in the yard for the first time.

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shades of grief (a 100 cql/mdzs ships fic)

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what goes around comes back around again

nothing new under the sun. weird combination of shit in this post but then again do you ever expect anything else from me?

first up: book review. i was tempted by jennifer weiner's the griffin sisters' greatest hits because it's a book about music and also the main characters are from philly - weiner is local and i've read a couple of her books before (a very long time ago!) so i trusted her to not make me miserable in that regard. it's about two sisters who become a smash hit overnight in the early 2000s, the death that they each, separately, blame themselves for, and the one sister's daughter, who is, love and light to her, a stubborn little terror and goes to track down her aunt in alaska when said aunt really doesn't want to be found. it is impossible to read this story and not side with the younger sister, i think. the book compellingly revolves around their bandmate's death and the band's breakup in a way that really keeps you on the hook as to what happened, but then when you finally do find out, ZOE IS UNQUESTIONABLY THE BAD GUY HERE and i very quickly lose any sympathy i had for her. like girl i know what it's like to have a younger sibling way more cool and talented than you but never once have i stooped to that level. the sisters reconcile and eventually start singing together again but idk, if i were cassie, my trust in my sister would be so so broken.

it was christmas this week and that meant hanging out with my extended family. specifically, it meant hanging out with my fourteen year old cousin, who casually dropped that she was bisexual into conversation when i wasn't expecting it and who i taught to use ao3. (she used it to look up f/f arcane fics. i'm delighted.) she's also been getting into kpop so i showed her some "older" groups (twice, red velvet, dreamcatcher... groups that were established but certainly not vintage when i was first listening to kpop in 2017!) and where to find dance tutorials and filled her in on some of the survival show lore. wow wow wow. she's like, a real teenager. i remember the day she was born.

okay, and also - like, if you've been on the internet recently you know that everyone's been losing their mind over heated rivalry. i've watched it, WITH my heterosexual boyfriend, and we've both been liking it, as an extension of my recent fascination with hockey romance that started with the zegras trade back in June and has only grown now that the flyers somehow don't suck. but the only reason i knew about the zegras trade in the first place is because people who i followed for check please, a webcomic series about a gay NCAA player, later got into actual hockey. ngozi ukazu, the author, has been teasing her fans for the past couple of months so we've suspected that some news is coming, but we're getting a fifth volume???? after all this time???? what??????????????????? my childhood. it returns.

Current Location: Bamberg

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Yuletide Recs 1

For 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.

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Speak Up Saturday

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

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Deadbeat Druid by David R. Slayton

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