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+ All I've done since making it home is sleep, download some stuff, watch the entire season of Wayward, and play undemanding video games. Man have I slept. Would like to lie down right now and sleep some more, but I'm headed back to work for the day (we abruptly left Thursday instead of Friday as planned, so I left behind a wee bit more chaos that I'm comfortable with).

Surprisingly smooth ride on the ferry though, given the weather.

+ Dear Vidder letters for Festivids are cropping up, and they're such a pleasure to read through. Aww fandom ❤️

+ Hunting down the digital singles for Birds of Prey, bc waiting for the trade to drop in six months is just not on the table. More Big Barda and Tiny Bat NOW. And they cancelled it, so I ain't giving them extra money, no sir :p

Now to figure out how to read them in an enjoyable manner.

Oh! And posted some scans to

capshare from the second and third trade.

+ Watched the new Fantastic Four. It was cozy! I'm enjoying this new return to more child-friendly superhero movies. Like, I can see letting my nephew watch both this and the new Superman movie with me. I don't need all this dark stuff for grownups; the world is dark enough as is, gimme escapism!

pensnest

Another event over, and that's the last one I'm supposed to be organising for... a while, anyway. Phew. Considering it rained ALL DAY, I did quite well for visitors for my Macmillan Coffee Morning. I'd done flapjacks (vegan, GF), spiced apple cake (GF), tiffin (GF) and Millionaire's Shortbread (all the bad things, with extra sugar), and Colin from up the road brought some dairy free rock cakes and Eccles cakes with frangipane, so we were well set. I did do some cheat cupcakes, a Betty Crocker mix made with Fanta instead of eggs and oil, with a plant-cream-cheese topping, but while they were okay, they weren't up to much. But we have polished them off! We do have cake still available for my mixed chorus next weekend, which is handy as I have done enough baking for a while!

I bit the bullet yesterday and took my hand-painted mugs off to Oxfam. A set of Avengers plus some random florals. I've brought them out for three or four years in a row and not sold any, so it's time to get them out of the house and hope they find their customers with a wider pull.

I did sell two or three suncatchers, a scarf, and an avocado plant, which is good! I really ought to cull my plants...

*

Well. Chorus is now gathering momentum towards Convention at the end of the month. Our rehearsal this week was in the dance studio at the college, which was (I thought) a little bit disappointing as a venue. The mirrored wall was a bit inadequate, and we had to take off our shoes, which we'd not known about in advance. I was, fortunately, wearing nice warm

turlough-made socks, but some people ended up barefoot, and the floor was not warm. Still, it was probably a useful experience, being able to look at ourselves to gauge whether we were doing enough. I am not afraid of looking at myself in the mirror, since I do it four or five times a week at the gym anyway, but a lot of people hated it.

thisbluespirit

I will try and make a post again soon, but am now recovering from parental visit (due to me and the ME/CFS, not any fault of said parents). Yesterday, though, I got lucky at the BNA while searching for a newly-discovered address for an ancestor's siblings and found him accidentally involved in a plot to steal a painting by Petrus van Schendel. (London ancestors are v hard to find, especially when they have common names, but the joy of London is that every so often your relatives are briefly entangled with someone or something famous).

Anyway, the fraud was discovered, I was rewarded by a description of two rooms in a relative's house (29 St Mary-at-hill) and I thought some of you might enjoy the resulting magistrate's hearings:

( A Cunning Plot )

mercurios

so there's a tsn sequel in the works, officially

as someone who holds the social network dear to their heart and should probably be excited about this sequel, i find it hard to muster the same excitement for a couple of reasons:

1. the social network was released FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, so once again i am being slapped in the face with the unrelentless passage of time
2. no andrew garfield :( disappointing. like i understand eduardo saverin has no monkeys in the current facebook circus (or if he does it's a very small amount) but idk, cast him as someone else! give him a different haircut! he has the range!
3. why the hell is sorkin directing. it's not like david fincher is doing anything useful nowadays
4. jeremy strong is a bit old for mark (in 2021)? not that he deserves better, but still

but there's also good things!:
1. mickey madison and jeremy allen white could make this interesting
2. jeremy strong will absolutely give the performance of a lifetime. but at what cost
3. i am IN for any media that portrays how harmful facebook has been for.... everything. existing. life. (i still need to read careless people now that i think about it)
4. maybe trent reznor and atticus ross will score it and it will be amazing

i lied, i am a bit excited. like even if it's trash i will be watching it release day. it's hard to believe it will be able to catch the same momentum and space as the first one did, but i'd be lying if tsn wasn't one of the best parts of my online life fifteen years ago (ew i need to stop typing that)

change the director!

goodbyebird

+ My brain is mush. We dock sometime during tonight, so tomorrow will be another hectic day. Thankfully come Friday I shall have freedoooommmm.

+ I want a Big Barda icon but I'm too zapped to make one *sulk*

Maybe after I've had my shower.

+ Not helping: my mom constantly asking me when I can come see her in Oslo, and for plans this Christmas when she'll be visiting and living at my brother's. I do not have capacity for this. Love her to bits but it's tough to convey that SOCIAL BANK EMPTY, PLAN QUEUE FULL.

+ Booked my flu shot for next Thursday. Apparently they're not doing Covid shots at the doctor anymore, boo. And the only information I can find is that it becomes available week 42. Hopefully I manage to get in there early enough that it will mostly be in full effect by the time I go to Thailand.

+ One Battle After Another will be showing at the small local cinema next week. There's been some very positive buzz. I may try to lure some friends to come with.

+ Decided to try and move away from using GoodReads, and so far StoryGraph seems a good fit. I know there's quite a few options out there, but I only made it through two before settling on StoryGraph. (Fable being the second option, but just way too busy for me. Someone looking for a move involved and social experience might vibe with it!)

One of the fun things is you can make your own book lists or challenges. I started putting together a small Queer Comics one. I could only find two other comic/graphic novel challenges by searching, so that's certainly a void in need of filling ~~that's what she said~~.

Anyways, I'm here, in case anybody else is stretching their wings.

Sad eta: Jane Goodall has passed.

Current Mood: Puddle

sky_queen3

Title: Home is...
Content Type: Fanfic
Creator: sky_queen3
Fandom (if any): Professional Wrestling (WWE's NXT brand)
Characters/Relationship: Luca Crusifino/Tony D'Angelo/Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo/Adriana Rizzo
Rating: G/General Audiences
Length or Size: 237 words
Summary:
"…NXT will always be my home, thank you and goodnight."
After his last house show appearance, Tony D'Angelo and the rest of the former D'Angelo Family say their goodbyes (for now).
Written for the Four or More bingo prompt 'Home'.

Found on AO3

Current Mood: anxious

pensnest

Well, the weekend is over, phew!

Dinner last Friday went off very well. The restaurant/hotel was splendidly organised, and our tables were ready when Beast and I arrived at four thirty to check in to our room and get started. My lovely assistants also arrived early, and between us we had the roundels hung on the side sconces and the table centrepieces sorted *and* the flags alphabetised by six, so we went back to our room to change. At six twenty-eight I realised I had forgotten to pack my pills, so I drove back to fetch them. Was back by... I think five to seven, to find lots of early guests milling about and table places being claimed with flags—the restaurant had splendidly arranged napkins into fans, with an addition paper napkin in gold, very fitting, and an excellent place to set up a flag.

Dinner was tasty, service was better than the usual style we get, which involves waiters trotting about brandishing dishes and asking who wants them: this lot went round and made a list of each course for each table, using the flags.

We had the entertainment session after dessert, as usual. My chorus sang well, and my quartet—one whole week after our first rehearsal—acquitted ourselves nicely. I was the MC (as well as chief decorator and arranger of fun stuff), but it worked out okay, and I also read my Modern Day Matilda poem. It was, in fact, a very pleasant evening, pretty much everything worked as intended, and I think my augmentations of asking them to wear something gold, actual themed decorations, fun little certificates to be given out, including Best Dressed Gent and Lady, and even the meal-choice flags, all added to the atmosphere. Thank goodness!

Even one oblivious chap rolling up five minutes after the set dinner time, without having signed up in advance, picked his menu choices, or paid, didn't matter, because the restaurant staff found him a seat and food without any difficulty. Excellent stuff.

*

On Sunday, we both attended the 50th Anniversary Charity Concert, which was mostly Fine City Chorus (men) but a little bit mixed chorus as well. They guys sang beautifully, and it raised a little over £1,500 for Emmaus, which was an excellent and very satisfactory result.

*

And this week I am running a belated Macmillan Coffee Morning. Wot I could not possibly have coped with last Friday!

goodbyebird

Guess who picked up a super fun comic, tore through three trades, then wanted to find folks talking about it and searched on BluSky... to find it got cancelled the very day she picked it up? AYUP.

Why aren't people buying super fun team comics?? *shakes fist at universe*
(yes it was cancelled due to poor sales)

The comic in question? Birds of Prey, written by Kelly Thompson. It had team! Quips! Competency! Siblings! Big Barda and Tiny Bat!! Muscles and mind-controlled beefcakes!

The last issue comes out in December and I'd prefer to pick up the trade. When I went to check if we'd even get volume 4 - comics! they treat us so well! - there was some good sprinkled in there. Firstly, she's pitching a new book at DC featuring a couple of the characters from BoP. My feral mind is slamming both fists on the table, chanting "Big and tiny! Big and tiny!" Probably not but gimme.

Secondly, Thompson's heading up the new Buffy and Angel run at Dynamite!

In my early days trying to figure out how to be a writer and what stories mattered to me and why — no heroine quite broke through for me like Buffy Summers.

She was somehow everything my young geek heart had always wanted but hadn’t known to ask for. Something about that delicate alchemy of horror, fantasy, and comedy paired with a hero so pure of heart and yet flawed and relatable was… impossible to deny. I fell deeply in love with Buffy, and following that, her whole world. Her ex-boyfriend is now a supernatural detective in Los Angeles you say? Inject it directly into my veins! But unlike a lot of other worlds I loved, the world of Buffy and Angel somehow never fell to the wayside. I could always come back to it and find something new, or something I’d missed, or something I needed. And I hope this new story we’re telling can do the same for old and new fans everywhere.

Thank god BOOM! lost the license because oof. Outside of the pretty covers and first issue, that was rough to say the least.

But I'm excited for this! We could, dare I say it, get a good Buffy comic.

Current Music: Steven Universe - Giant Woman

goodbyebird

Down for maintenance, you say?
A timely drabble-athon!

Where we can all huddle together, prompt silly things, write fills, and spread some fannish joy.

thisbluespirit

I'm sorry, I still haven't really tried catching up properly, and next my parents will be here for a week, although that may actually not stop me posting some things.

Anyway, it's nearly

yuletide again! I'm not at all sure whether I shall be able to do it or not, but it's looking more likely than I thought, so I have had to consider the important issue of nominations.

Other people have nominated Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully and The Winslow Boy, so my 5 (five!!) are looking like this:

* Enigma (Movie 2001)
1. Hester Wallace
2. Tom Jericho
3. Mr Wigram

* Indigo Saga - Louise Cooper
1. Indigo
2. Grimya
3. Nemesis
4. Fenran

* Mimic (1997)
1. Susan Tyler
2. Peter Mann
3. Chuy Gavoila

* Time Police Series - Jodi Taylor
1. Jane Lockland
2. Luke Parrish
3. Celia North
4. Matthew Ellis

* Wish Me Luck (TV)
1. Matty Firman
2. Colin Beale
3. Liz Grainger
4. Faith Ashley

I was VERY tempted to put down The Schoolmistress (BBC Radio 1991) but I decided that I shouldn't make my Jeremy Northam problem quite as bad as all that. Maybe next time! (Also because I'm not sure what I would request beyond "more shenanigans," really). I might swap out Mimic, though, idk. (I think it would be a great one for the Hurt/Comfort exchange or maybe Chocolate Box because I want a v specific thing (not an unreasonable specific thing), but OTOH I do not seem to be managing more than Yuletide, if even that, at the moment. Hmmm.

I don't know what I'll actually request if I do sign up, as there look like being a fair few other shiny things in the tagset already, just from the nomination coordination post. \o/

pensnest

I tasted a russet apple from the tree in the garden, and it was absolutely delicious—not what my previous experience had led me to expect. Will eat again. The little pale green ones are also good, and I have made baked apples for lunch a few times with the cookers, as well as preserving them as apple sauce.

*

Mad busy this week as Beast and I are in charge of the celebration dinner for the barbershop club this Friday evening, and I have tasked myself with making decorations, menu flags and certificates to be awarded during the evening. Nearly done....

*

My Bun is now officially engaged! She and her man—I shall have to figure out a better DW name for him—came round on Sunday and showed off their rings, which are inlaid with a sliver of oak, as his parents planted an oak when he was born. Also, wood is nice.

goodbyebird

Too rusty to even think about touching live action, but if anybody have any comic book covers or panels they'd like to see iconned, pop them in the comments?

Current Mood: Vegetable tbh

goodbyebird

+ Fishery has been so consistently bad there's talk of maybe heading home a little earlier. I wouldn't mind. I've been cope-eating my way through the whole trip lol. Pity I undid all the progress I made last trip, but I gotta keep my spirits up some way, and right now that's via candy and comics.

The weather is also kind of shit, and looking to get shittier. Like, no fishery and go seek shelter by the coast shittier.

+ I sometimes stop by creativenarket.com for their weekly batch of free goods, and this week they've got a 1300 pack of really versatile marker elements up for grabs. Lines, boxes, circles, icons... could do a lot of fun stuff with it!
(I haven't made icons in so long *sob*)

+ My dad had a skin cancer scare last week, but thankfully they caught it in time! (by which I mean, the doctor said it looked ok, he insisted they remove it, and then it turned out to be cancerous. So happy my dad's a stubborn one.) They've taken further tests and found no sign of it having spread, so he should be in the clear.

+ I did send him the link to this study: Daily vitamin B3 dose cuts skin cancer risk by up to 54%. Very large pool of participants, I feel more than sturdy enough to pester him about adding some vitamins. (I'll also have to push when it comes to sunblock *sigh*)
Overall, niacinamide – also known as nicotinamide, a vitamin B3 form found in food and supplements that supports cellular energy, DNA repair and healthy skin – was associated with a 14% lower risk of developing skin cancer. When people began nicotinamide after having earlier received a positive skin cancer diagnosis, the reduction in risk was 54%. What's more, the effect was seen in both basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, with the largest drop in squamous cell cancers.

+ Italian workers’ strike in solidarity with Gaza brings disruptions across the country.

+ House Arab.
I watched in real time as the consensus congealed; by Sunday morning, everyone seemed to agree that the events of the previous day could only be interpreted as senseless barbarism or perhaps an Iranian plot, but absolutely not as a legible expression of rage by a people the world had left to die.

+ With the Serial Numbers Filed Off: The Problem with Trad Pub Fanfic.

+

sholio posted a bunch of Murderbot fic recs, bless. Bookverse short gen and longer iddy plot fics, PLUS a fic of their own: Crime And Punishment, Mensah POV, 2500 words. I'm not allowing myself a break from my current book, but very excited to dig in after.

...I didn't have a Murderbot tag shame on me.
eta also, schneefink.

+ ‘Andor’ Writer Dan Gilroy On Disney Suspending Jimmy Kimmel & Hollywood Facing “Venomous Evil”.
Their goal is to instill fear, to make you feel helpless, hopeless, to break you down. Don’t let them. Educate yourself. Organize. Speak truth to authority. Because the story’s not written — the pen is in your hand.
(they did decide to reinstate Kimmel. And then announced a price hike hours later 🫠)

+ The ‘blue dragon’ is back from the brink and Global Conservation Protection of Calakmul Helps Increase Jaguar Population by 30%. More pretty dragons and pretty cats \o/

+ The US town that pays every pregnant woman $1,500.
The town of Flint made headlines a decade ago when pediatrician Mona Hanna discovered lead levels in local children’s blood had risen dangerously after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River. The coalition that came together to protect children then continued to advocate for children after the water crisis resolved, Hanna said.

Current Music: Mother Mother - It's Alright

thisbluespirit

rainbowfic piece I finally posted a couple of weeks ago:

Name: On the Interpretation of Dreams
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #17 (Honesty)
Supplies and Styles: Nubs
Word Count: 1891
Rating: G
Warnings: None.
Notes: Portcallan, 1313; Viyony Eseray, Osmer Nivyrn.
Summary: Proof that Viyony also takes Leion's advice from time to time.

On the Interpretation of Dreams

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This and that and a very tired me.

yes, i'll keep trying

A Cunning Art Fraud, Complete With A Goose

my prada's at the cleaners, along with my hoddie and my 'fuck you' flipflops

(no subject)

This is how we find out Sky writes?!?!

let's all celebrate and have a good time

Look mom! I killed another one!

Oh hey, AO3 is down…

Yuletide Nominations

congratulations and celebrations

Say, about them icons...

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Starfall Stories 49

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