the hands of the many must join as one
Jul. 14th, 2025 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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sunshine_revival Challenge #2Tunnel of Love
Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like
so I mentioned I had done this one but was holding off posting it because it was for D&D. well, it came up in yesterday's session so now I can share it :D
for some context, this is my legend of zelda based campaign.
shadowhive's character, a zora druid named ahno, has had an ongoing clueless academics flirting thing going on for a while with an npc, shad (the twilight princess character but reworked for my purposes), and we're about to have a gala at hyrule castle so I had shad follow some info he got about zora courtship rituals from our other zora pc. one of the things forte mentioned was that zora will write or perform love songs for each other. shad is very much an academic and not a musician, so I had him present ahno with a translation of an ancient love poem he had found. of course I realised that meant I then had to write the love poem, but hey ho. in game I said it was a love poem written by a river zora who fell in love with a sea zora. shad is hylian, so the metaphor for people from two different places coming together held up.
I'm going to post a screenshot because it is specifically formatted and I'm not savvy enough to copy it over correctly on here, but I will transcribe it below.
( estuary )
hockey
Jul. 14th, 2025 10:44 amtielanPlayed two games on Sunday. Think I played 2 games a couple of rounds ago, too.
On the whole, the body is hurting quite a bit more than it was last time. But I've been having a few aches and pains.
Good feeling: I scored a goal - a beautiful pass from the wing straight into the middle of the circle, and I (and a defender whose stick clashed with mine) reangled it into the goal behind the keeper.
Bad feeling: all the twingy, twitchy hip and leg aches for which I am going to see a physio this morning.
Apparently, Team 1 is down to 13 players (there's 11 on the field) and they were going to move some of T2 up (myself and my friend J, who came and played for the club last year because I was here and her team was being relegated to a competition in the southwest; she still plays with them for the masters/veterans competition) but we've got about three injuries ongoing on the team - including one fractured foot and one pregnancy, who is taking it fairly easy.
Yesterday, we were missing one of our 'young runners', and the other had period cramps really bad. Both inners (women about my age, so perimenopausal) were nursing injuries, and our pregnancy is on the wing. Doing well, but...yeah. She probably won't be running much longer...
Our forward line is simply not able to get the ball up there with any kind of strength, so we're losing 3-0, but we're doing a really good job at playing. I know that doesn't sound like we are with 3-0 losses, but truly told, we're playing amazing. Passing, calling, talking, we just can't get it into the circle and into the goal.
Anyway, we're improving and we're having fun. Even the not-so-nice team was okay to play yesterday.
Back to Team 1, they're probably going to try to get myself and J qualified for the team in the finals series. Which...eek. That means at least another 2 weekends with 2 games for me. Which...I can maybe do if I keep my fitness up? Oof.
But I may reach my holidays and be like "here is a pool and a nice hotel in Sinagapore and I AIN'T MOVING A MUSCLE"...
On the whole, the body is hurting quite a bit more than it was last time. But I've been having a few aches and pains.
Good feeling: I scored a goal - a beautiful pass from the wing straight into the middle of the circle, and I (and a defender whose stick clashed with mine) reangled it into the goal behind the keeper.
Bad feeling: all the twingy, twitchy hip and leg aches for which I am going to see a physio this morning.
Apparently, Team 1 is down to 13 players (there's 11 on the field) and they were going to move some of T2 up (myself and my friend J, who came and played for the club last year because I was here and her team was being relegated to a competition in the southwest; she still plays with them for the masters/veterans competition) but we've got about three injuries ongoing on the team - including one fractured foot and one pregnancy, who is taking it fairly easy.
Yesterday, we were missing one of our 'young runners', and the other had period cramps really bad. Both inners (women about my age, so perimenopausal) were nursing injuries, and our pregnancy is on the wing. Doing well, but...yeah. She probably won't be running much longer...
Our forward line is simply not able to get the ball up there with any kind of strength, so we're losing 3-0, but we're doing a really good job at playing. I know that doesn't sound like we are with 3-0 losses, but truly told, we're playing amazing. Passing, calling, talking, we just can't get it into the circle and into the goal.
Anyway, we're improving and we're having fun. Even the not-so-nice team was okay to play yesterday.
Back to Team 1, they're probably going to try to get myself and J qualified for the team in the finals series. Which...eek. That means at least another 2 weekends with 2 games for me. Which...I can maybe do if I keep my fitness up? Oof.
But I may reach my holidays and be like "here is a pool and a nice hotel in Sinagapore and I AIN'T MOVING A MUSCLE"...
travel and family
Jul. 14th, 2025 08:57 amtielanI love my dad but...
( he's a cheapskate )
Otherwise, am making plans for places to stay in London, Bath, Porto, and Rotterdam, and finding things to do in those places, too.
Anyone done day tours in Porto, Portugal?
( he's a cheapskate )
Otherwise, am making plans for places to stay in London, Bath, Porto, and Rotterdam, and finding things to do in those places, too.
Anyone done day tours in Porto, Portugal?
Farmer's Market -- 13 July 2025 (Guineafowl Day, 25th of Harvest, Year 2
Jul. 13th, 2025 01:54 pmneotomaNY strip steak, sweet Italian sausage, soft goat cheese, goat's milk caramel (cajeta), bell peppers, anaheim peppers, 4lb of yellow peaches, apricots, sesame apricot cupcake, fingerling potatoes, yellow plums, dragon's breath cheese, tavern blue cheese, black beans, whipple beans, jacob's cattle beans, and black rice.
I'm going to sear the strip steak and top it with slices of the blue cheese for dinner.
The peaches need a few days to finish ripening and then I will make them into salsa.
I'm going to sear the strip steak and top it with slices of the blue cheese for dinner.
The peaches need a few days to finish ripening and then I will make them into salsa.
Sunshine Revival Challenge #4
Jul. 13th, 2025 12:51 pmkingstoken
Challenge #4
Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.
I thought I would do top ten Fanlore Featured Articles. So, if you don't know, the Fanlore editors are constantly nominating and voting on the Featured Article, if it gets enough "yes" votes then it is featured on the Main Page of Fanlore (similar to Wikipedia). This has been going on since 2017, so there been quite a lot of them. This is very much biased and based on vibes and the ones I like best, but all featured articles are interesting to some degree.
1. Sherlock Holmes
2. Last Outpost Of All That Is
3. goodbye, my brothers...
4. Endverse
5. Tarsus IV
6. Sex Pollen
7. Star Trek: Tik Tok
8. Iolaus
9. Podfic Cover Art
10. Folgers "Home for the Holidays" Commercial
It was harder to choose than I thought! There are so many good articles that have been featured over the years!
I won't be able to do the creative prompt today, my brain just won't let me write lately. My poor Fandom Trumps Hate recipient is still waiting on their fic, although I have told them they probably won't get it till autumn now. I'm like "Brain, please write!" and my brain is like "No! No write, only stress about buying a house and moving!" Sigh.
sunshine_revival Challenge #4
Jul. 13th, 2025 11:41 amlightbirdChallenge #4
Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.
Finding new ways to be creative is definitely making smile these days. In addition to taking up needlepoint last month, which I love doing and talked about on Day 1 (and I have ordered additional canvases to work on!), I've also finally transplanted a terrarium I made last year and plan to create more of these.
I work in a law firm, and every year we have summer associates come in, of course. Law firms want to entice summer associates to come back once they graduate, so they're treated to a lot of nice stuff: dinner events, outings to baseball games, etc. My firm also does events during the workday, and one of last year's events was a "crafting terrariums" session. A woman came in with materials and there were trays set up at all the places for each person to work. You got to pick out a container, any succulents you wanted, and then she taught everyone the steps for planting and how to care for the plants, then we spent the rest of the time decorating the terrariums with moss, etc. It was a lot of fun and I created a nice terrarium of succulents that not only survived under my black thumb, but outgrew the container.
( large pics of terrariums under the cut )
I'm planning to get more succulents and create some more terrariums. Pretty soon I'll have a whole shelf of these.
I've also been trying to make my surroundings, both at home and at work, as beautiful and as comfortable as possible, and that's making me smile too.
Previous Days
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Sunshine Revival Challenge #4
Jul. 13th, 2025 03:32 pmsmallhobbitJournaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
In no particular order. Feel free to ask about any of them, I might even create a post about some of them next month.
1 - The Ferret A creation of my own, based in the Sherlock Holmes (ACD) 'verse. A song and dance mustelid.
2 - Werewolf!Lucas Another of my creations. Based in Spooks (MI5) where Lucas North is now a werewolf, and continues to work for Section D in both human and vulpine forms. This is a party-loving werewolf, who likes to look smart.
3 - Cake I have already posted about cake for Challenge #2
4 - Families at church. We have a lot of engagement with local families, and apart from baptisms, we also have a toddler group and after-school club, a youth group, occasional Saturday activity mornings and in a couple of weeks we're running a Teddy Bear's Zipwire.
5 - Getting engrossed in my cross stitch while listening to something on the radio on my headphones. Perfect for shutting out the rest of the world.
6 - My To Be Read list which is once more threatening to fall off the shelf and onto my head when I'm asleep.
7 - My total inability to resist the urge to 'complete' a list. Recently I found two music programmes on the radio which have a number of series, going back several years. So, of course, I need to listen to them all (or at least the interesting majority) over the next year.
8 - The thought ofno_true_pair main challenge (with 8 characters) sign up coming next month.
9 - The fact that the skirt I bought some years ago and rarely wore still fits and was perfect to wear today in the heat.
10 - The sheer wonder of creation - how the sun is changing its poles between North and South; all the amazing galaxies out there (points vaguely in all directions at once).
In no particular order. Feel free to ask about any of them, I might even create a post about some of them next month.
1 - The Ferret A creation of my own, based in the Sherlock Holmes (ACD) 'verse. A song and dance mustelid.
2 - Werewolf!Lucas Another of my creations. Based in Spooks (MI5) where Lucas North is now a werewolf, and continues to work for Section D in both human and vulpine forms. This is a party-loving werewolf, who likes to look smart.
3 - Cake I have already posted about cake for Challenge #2
4 - Families at church. We have a lot of engagement with local families, and apart from baptisms, we also have a toddler group and after-school club, a youth group, occasional Saturday activity mornings and in a couple of weeks we're running a Teddy Bear's Zipwire.
5 - Getting engrossed in my cross stitch while listening to something on the radio on my headphones. Perfect for shutting out the rest of the world.
6 - My To Be Read list which is once more threatening to fall off the shelf and onto my head when I'm asleep.
7 - My total inability to resist the urge to 'complete' a list. Recently I found two music programmes on the radio which have a number of series, going back several years. So, of course, I need to listen to them all (or at least the interesting majority) over the next year.
8 - The thought of
no_true_pair main challenge (with 8 characters) sign up coming next month.9 - The fact that the skirt I bought some years ago and rarely wore still fits and was perfect to wear today in the heat.
10 - The sheer wonder of creation - how the sun is changing its poles between North and South; all the amazing galaxies out there (points vaguely in all directions at once).
Sunshine Revival Challenge #4
Jul. 13th, 2025 10:25 ampauraquesunshine_revival's next challenge is:Fun HouseBirds always make me smile, so let's do a bird list! To narrow it down a bit, I'll talk about a few of the birds I only got to know after I left San Francisco and moved to New England. The order is going to be arbitrary because of course all birds are equally fantastic, but I'll play along with the top 10 theme.
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.
( Top Ten New England Birds [photo heavy] )
bricks and mortar
Jul. 13th, 2025 02:27 pmleanwellbacksunshine_revival challenge #4Fun House
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.
I decided to write a poem, because that's my go to for creative writing.
Psychometry
These bricks hold so much within
Not just space but time as well
The lives I've housed all leave their marks --
Some like freckles, some like scars
I've witnessed love, I've sutured loss
I've kept out danger and bottled up regret
These emotions coat my rooms like fresh paint,
Or fester beneath the surface like mould
Listen closely and you might hear
Echoes of the moments I've been fed,
From first steps to last breaths --
Every house is haunted in the end.
"If walls could talk", the saying goes;
No words I speak but my stone still knows
and an angel's kiss in spring
Jul. 13th, 2025 01:39 pmleanwellbackI'm skipping ahead in sunshine_revival for now! as mentioned I have completed challenge #2 but I can't post it yet because I'm using it in D&D and don't want my players who follow me to see it before it comes up in session. which could happen today!! but we'll see how it goes lol.
Challenge #3
Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I love food and cooking! when it comes to recipes I'm more of the sorcerer class rather than wizard; I just do what feels right rather than consulting aspellbook recipe book. I will use recipes as a jumping off point though and then just adapt as I see fit or once I've made it a couple of times and feel confident enough to play around. when I think of summer foods my mind goes straight to fruits: strawberries and cherries in particular, but I also love the fresh zesty taste of citrus fruits when it's really hot out. all my favourite summery cocktails are citrusy in nature.
I'm making slow cooker lemon chicken for dinner today and that feels like a good summery meal so I'll share that one. as I said, I'm very improvisational with recipes so this more guidelines; do what you will with it!
( lemon chicken )
sunshine_revival for now! as mentioned I have completed challenge #2 but I can't post it yet because I'm using it in D&D and don't want my players who follow me to see it before it comes up in session. which could happen today!! but we'll see how it goes lol.Challenge #3
Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I love food and cooking! when it comes to recipes I'm more of the sorcerer class rather than wizard; I just do what feels right rather than consulting a
I'm making slow cooker lemon chicken for dinner today and that feels like a good summery meal so I'll share that one. as I said, I'm very improvisational with recipes so this more guidelines; do what you will with it!
( lemon chicken )
"for a few hours, we were free" by doodlesnoff (SFW)
Jul. 13th, 2025 04:45 pmmific posting in fanart_recsFandom: Sinners
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Smoke, Stack, Sammie (Preacherboy), Annie, Mary, Bo Chow, Grace Chow, Delta Slim, Pearline
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: doodlesnoff on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: A great montage of them all dancing at the Juke, before everything goes to hell. I love the warm colours and the joy.
Link: "for a few hours, we were free"
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Smoke, Stack, Sammie (Preacherboy), Annie, Mary, Bo Chow, Grace Chow, Delta Slim, Pearline
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: doodlesnoff on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: A great montage of them all dancing at the Juke, before everything goes to hell. I love the warm colours and the joy.
Link: "for a few hours, we were free"
Hurt/Comfort Exchange reveals
Jul. 12th, 2025 08:45 pmmeteordustThe story I wrote for st_yves was:
Title: The Cage of Dread and Desire
Fandom: The Elric Saga - Michael Moorcock
Relationships: Elric & Alternate Universe Elric
Characters: Elric of Melniboné, Alternate Universe Elric
Rating: Teen
Tags: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Being Tormented By An Evil Alternate Version of Yourself, Held Captive in a Cage, Multiverse
Summary: Elric meets himself. It does not go well.
Thank you again to opalmatrix for your wonderful Chronicles of Morgaine story, Safely Rest, which gave me such beautiful Roh and Vanye conflict and comforting.
Title: The Cage of Dread and Desire
Fandom: The Elric Saga - Michael Moorcock
Relationships: Elric & Alternate Universe Elric
Characters: Elric of Melniboné, Alternate Universe Elric
Rating: Teen
Tags: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Being Tormented By An Evil Alternate Version of Yourself, Held Captive in a Cage, Multiverse
Summary: Elric meets himself. It does not go well.
Thank you again to opalmatrix for your wonderful Chronicles of Morgaine story, Safely Rest, which gave me such beautiful Roh and Vanye conflict and comforting.
(no subject)
Jul. 12th, 2025 08:34 amscifirenegadeFinished reading Gay Berlin yesterday yay!
I'm just gonna say, one does not need to time travel there. Or travel to Berlin point. What happened there in the late 19th century-early 1930s is the same that's happening everywhere today. History is a circle, for better or for worse (mostly worse).
And speaking of circles, I never fully read Conrad Veidt's Wikipedia article because some sources seemed iffy. But good to know that, thanks to unpublished correspondence, some of Connie's belongings (cigarette case and lighter) are at the Margaret Herrick Library, plus the notebooks a fan gave to Lili. Hopefully they won't be burned.
I'm just gonna say, one does not need to time travel there. Or travel to Berlin point. What happened there in the late 19th century-early 1930s is the same that's happening everywhere today. History is a circle, for better or for worse (mostly worse).
And speaking of circles, I never fully read Conrad Veidt's Wikipedia article because some sources seemed iffy. But good to know that, thanks to unpublished correspondence, some of Connie's belongings (cigarette case and lighter) are at the Margaret Herrick Library, plus the notebooks a fan gave to Lili. Hopefully they won't be burned.
1 week delay & 1 current pinch hit
Jul. 11th, 2025 11:11 pmlongficmod posting in fandom5kHi, all--we're so close to the finish line! I'm announcing a 1 week delay at this time to ensure all our pinch hits are covered. The new reveals date is 26 July at 23:59 US Eastern. We have one pinch hit currently available, with upcoming deadlines on the 13th and the 18th.
Anyone who isn't signed up but is only pinch hitting can leave prompts at our treats for pinch hitters post! This is a great place to look if you're interested in creating treats.
This pinch hit is due 25 July at 23:59 US Eastern time, one day before our new reveals date.
If you can claim this pinch hit, please comment with your AO3 name. All comments are screened.
( PDPH 10 - The West Wing, Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns, Severance (TV) )
Anyone who isn't signed up but is only pinch hitting can leave prompts at our treats for pinch hitters post! This is a great place to look if you're interested in creating treats.
This pinch hit is due 25 July at 23:59 US Eastern time, one day before our new reveals date.
If you can claim this pinch hit, please comment with your AO3 name. All comments are screened.
( PDPH 10 - The West Wing, Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns, Severance (TV) )
Fanfic: Give Chase
Jul. 11th, 2025 07:33 pmscifirenegadeTitle: Give Chase
Rating: General
Fandom: The Blue Parrot (1953)
Pairing(s) / Character(s): Bob
Warnings: n/a
Spoilers: not really
Note: Forfic_promptly. Prompt was "Any police fandom, any, getting a flat tyre while chasing a suspect". Also for sweetandshort's This and That challenge, the theme is Rare Fandoms.
On AO3
On Squidge
( Read more... )
Rating: General
Fandom: The Blue Parrot (1953)
Pairing(s) / Character(s): Bob
Warnings: n/a
Spoilers: not really
Note: For
fic_promptly. Prompt was "Any police fandom, any, getting a flat tyre while chasing a suspect". Also for sweetandshort's This and That challenge, the theme is Rare Fandoms.On AO3
On Squidge
( Read more... )
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (2006)
Jul. 11th, 2025 09:36 ampauraqueIn this first book of a hard SF trilogy, nanomaterials expert Wang Miao is recruited to help investigate the suicides of several prominent scientists. His inquiries lead him to a strange VR video game called Three Body, in which the player is challenged to solve the mystery of why the game's simulated world keeps falling victim to unpredictable changes in climate that cause its civilizations to inevitably collapse. Interwoven with the book's near-future narrative is a story of the past, in which an astrophysicist who lost everything in Mao's Cultural Revolution is assigned to a secret military base that she comes to realize is dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. These two seemingly unrelated threads come together to reveal a multilayered conspiracy of world-ending stakes.
I had this on my TBR list for so long that I'd completely forgotten what it was about, and I think that worked out well for my experience of it. I never knew where it was going to go next, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Liu has a flair for creating epic set pieces of jaw-dropping cinematic scope that nonetheless follow naturally from the speculative science. I consumed a lot of popular science media in the 2000s, specifically, so for me the science in this book felt... oddly nostalgic? Not that it's obsolete, necessarily, but the particular preoccupations of that era and what was cutting-edge are strongly represented here. It made me want to go read a Brian Greene book.
The translation by Ken Liu reads nicely and I appreciated the informative but not excessive footnotes helping with some points about Chinese culture and history. I love that they let him write an afterword about the translation process!
The book is definitely more interested in ideas than people, and it's particularly weak on female characters. I was not entirely surprised to hear that the Netflix adaptation makes some of the male characters women, including Wang Miao. (I guess it also changes the nationality of a lot of characters, which makes less sense to me since the Chinese setting seems crucial to the book's themes, but I haven't actually watched the adaptation so it's not for me to say how well it works.)
I do plan to continue with the trilogy, though I have a suspicion that it might turn out to be too pessimistic in its outlook on the future for my taste? But I guess it depends on where the story ends up. My library hold on the second book just came in.
I had this on my TBR list for so long that I'd completely forgotten what it was about, and I think that worked out well for my experience of it. I never knew where it was going to go next, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Liu has a flair for creating epic set pieces of jaw-dropping cinematic scope that nonetheless follow naturally from the speculative science. I consumed a lot of popular science media in the 2000s, specifically, so for me the science in this book felt... oddly nostalgic? Not that it's obsolete, necessarily, but the particular preoccupations of that era and what was cutting-edge are strongly represented here. It made me want to go read a Brian Greene book.
The translation by Ken Liu reads nicely and I appreciated the informative but not excessive footnotes helping with some points about Chinese culture and history. I love that they let him write an afterword about the translation process!
The book is definitely more interested in ideas than people, and it's particularly weak on female characters. I was not entirely surprised to hear that the Netflix adaptation makes some of the male characters women, including Wang Miao. (I guess it also changes the nationality of a lot of characters, which makes less sense to me since the Chinese setting seems crucial to the book's themes, but I haven't actually watched the adaptation so it's not for me to say how well it works.)
I do plan to continue with the trilogy, though I have a suspicion that it might turn out to be too pessimistic in its outlook on the future for my taste? But I guess it depends on where the story ends up. My library hold on the second book just came in.