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Jan. 11th, 2026 12:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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addmeName: Ciacconne
Age: Mid 30s
I mostly post about: My life, health, and fandom stuff.
My hobbies are: Writing, reading, gaming, and art.
My fandoms are: Harry Potter, FF16, FF7, Frieren, Slayers, Gintama, Kekkai Sensen, YGO— basically game and anime fandoms.
I'm looking to meet people who: Share my interests and fandoms.
My posting schedule tends to be: daily/weekly/monthly/sporadic/etc — I post daily, or will try to post daily now.
When I add people, my dealbreakers are: People who are antis.
Before adding me, you should know: I focus a lot on my health, be it mental or physical.
Happy New Year (yeah, I know it's 11 days into the year but it's ok!)
Jan. 11th, 2026 04:19 pmgeraineonHope you all had managed to have a bit of a restful end of the year and beginning of 2026 (despite 2026 starting off with such trashfire awful news).
The start of the year is commonly a time everyone does new year resolutions but somehow, the very act of making something my resolution makes it extra hard for me to achieve ("I do NOT tell me what to do!!!!). However, I have seen a new year bingo thing going around on fedi on things that will give joy in 2026 and thought that it's a fun low-stakes idea! But I didn't have 24 things to put on a 5x5 bingo card so here's a list, in no order, of the things that if I do in 2026, will probably bring me joy:
And things that will be useful to me but might not necessarily bring me joy:
( Some reflections on 2025 )
The start of the year is commonly a time everyone does new year resolutions but somehow, the very act of making something my resolution makes it extra hard for me to achieve ("I do NOT tell me what to do!!!!). However, I have seen a new year bingo thing going around on fedi on things that will give joy in 2026 and thought that it's a fun low-stakes idea! But I didn't have 24 things to put on a 5x5 bingo card so here's a list, in no order, of the things that if I do in 2026, will probably bring me joy:
- Update my DW once a month (stretch goal: once a week)
- Send postcards once a month
- Finish 3 novels (I started many, finished very few last year)
- Consistent exercise regardless of intensity
- Watch a local musical/play/etc
- Start and finish a visual novel game in Japanese (2026 is the year I go back to JP otome games, maybe!)
- Go back to consistently self-learning Chinese (yep, I dropped it again after moving last year)
- Organize a LoGH/other anime watch party
And things that will be useful to me but might not necessarily bring me joy:
- Make a professional site for myself, and building a "professional identity."
- Build a "professional identity", which is basically, where I want to go from here and work towards that path
- Publish from my dissertation
( Some reflections on 2025 )
I am rapidly concluding that the B5 books are CURSED
Jan. 10th, 2026 10:17 pmsholioI don't think I posted about this at the time, but there was an absolute odyssey involved in getting the original batch of B5 script books that I ordered.
The original process was this:
I'd known about the existence of the B5 script books vaguely for a while, but hadn't really thought of buying them before. In October, when I came back from traveling, I googled it and found a massive site called "B5 Books" that had authorized editions of all the B5-related books available, which was a lot of them, not just the script books but tons of other stuff as well.
They had closed yesterday.
But wait! They were staying open through the weekend (like 2 more days) because they'd had technical issues. So I splurged and ordered an absolute ton of books (about 2/3 of the total script books out there, mainly focused on episodes I especially wanted to read about). I would have preferred to order just one to find out a) what the books were like, and b) what their customer service was like, but ... closing in 2 days! So I gave them my credit card info for a quantity of books that I don't want to think too closely about.
A month went by.
I got a shipping notice and a tracking number, and and then a box arrived .... with 2 books in it.
I contacted customer service (a bit nervously, in the hopes they'd still actually answer). To their credit, they were very quick to respond; evidently there was a second tracking email I hadn't received for some reason, for the box with most of the rest of the books in it. (They sent me a free digital book to make up for the emotional distress, too - they were really nice.)
This was back in December, and I was leaving on the 13th, Saturday, so I periodically checked the tracking info for the box. It showed up in Fairbanks over the previous weekend, and showed that it was supposed to deliver on Monday.
Monday came and went. About mid-week, the tracking info showed that it had traveled out of Fairbanks again. (Why??) I had visions of the box going all the way back to the sender for some reason. Meanwhile, I had planned to spend the last couple of days before I left diving into my new books, but as the week ticked down and it continued to tease me ... I guess not. Finally, on Friday, I got an actual "out for delivery" notice, and then a notice that a "pick up at post office" slip had been left. Also, Friday was our last day of actual mail delivery (we'd put a hold on it until after Christmas that started on Saturday and went for 2 weeks, i.e. about the amount of time that the post office will hold a box - you know, this box with $100s of books in it). I was headed to the airport Saturday afternoon, but I figured it should be possible to stop by the post office on the way.
I picked up the mail.
No slip.
I thought, okay, maybe I picked up an early batch (yesterday's? our mailbox is on the highway and both the mail delivery and our collection of it is kind of haphazard) so when Orion got home a few hours later, I asked if there had been a slip in the mailbox.
Nope!
So now my package is on hold at the post office, I GUESS, with no ability to redeliver and our mail delivery not starting until after the approximate return to sender date. We hunted all around the mailbox just in case it had been dropped. No slip.
I ended up printing out the tracking number and taking that to the post office on our way to the airport, and that DID work and they DID have the box and I got it, YAY. (Orion said that the slip spontaneously showed up in the mailbox when he was headed home after dropping me off, so WHO KNOWS what was up with that.)
Anyway, all of that ended up working out in the end, and I enjoyed the books so much that I went on Amazon to see if I could find used copies of the ones I didn't have. I ordered a few more, and I just checked the shipping info and discovered that one of them - from a 3rd party Amazon seller - was sent via Fedex and supposedly delivered on Thursday afternoon, i.e. 2 days ago.
Guess what I don't seem to have!
Orion says that Fedex often leaves deliveries in random places around the yard - he's found them on piles of construction supplies, left at the door of the shop instead of the house, etc. Inauspiciously, it snowed a few inches last night, so everything is covered with fresh snow. Also, it was dark. Still, we took flashlights and went and hunted high and low in all the places that a package might be, ranging from likely (covered with snow beside the door) to unlikely but possible (at the doors of the various outbuildings like the greenhouse, on top of random vehicles in the yard) to the highly unlikely (at our road sign, in our mailbox). Not a single sign of it! I don't know if it was delivered to some other house, mistakenly marked as delivered when it's actually fallen under the delivery truck seat, or if a very soggy B5 book is going to turn up four months later when the snow melts, but seriously, WHAT EVEN. I've never had a book go missing like this in all the time I've been ordering used books off Amazon!
Anyway, further updates from the B5 script books are coming soon, and maybe I'll have this particular book eventually, or maybe not.
The original process was this:
I'd known about the existence of the B5 script books vaguely for a while, but hadn't really thought of buying them before. In October, when I came back from traveling, I googled it and found a massive site called "B5 Books" that had authorized editions of all the B5-related books available, which was a lot of them, not just the script books but tons of other stuff as well.
They had closed yesterday.
But wait! They were staying open through the weekend (like 2 more days) because they'd had technical issues. So I splurged and ordered an absolute ton of books (about 2/3 of the total script books out there, mainly focused on episodes I especially wanted to read about). I would have preferred to order just one to find out a) what the books were like, and b) what their customer service was like, but ... closing in 2 days! So I gave them my credit card info for a quantity of books that I don't want to think too closely about.
A month went by.
I got a shipping notice and a tracking number, and and then a box arrived .... with 2 books in it.
I contacted customer service (a bit nervously, in the hopes they'd still actually answer). To their credit, they were very quick to respond; evidently there was a second tracking email I hadn't received for some reason, for the box with most of the rest of the books in it. (They sent me a free digital book to make up for the emotional distress, too - they were really nice.)
This was back in December, and I was leaving on the 13th, Saturday, so I periodically checked the tracking info for the box. It showed up in Fairbanks over the previous weekend, and showed that it was supposed to deliver on Monday.
Monday came and went. About mid-week, the tracking info showed that it had traveled out of Fairbanks again. (Why??) I had visions of the box going all the way back to the sender for some reason. Meanwhile, I had planned to spend the last couple of days before I left diving into my new books, but as the week ticked down and it continued to tease me ... I guess not. Finally, on Friday, I got an actual "out for delivery" notice, and then a notice that a "pick up at post office" slip had been left. Also, Friday was our last day of actual mail delivery (we'd put a hold on it until after Christmas that started on Saturday and went for 2 weeks, i.e. about the amount of time that the post office will hold a box - you know, this box with $100s of books in it). I was headed to the airport Saturday afternoon, but I figured it should be possible to stop by the post office on the way.
I picked up the mail.
No slip.
I thought, okay, maybe I picked up an early batch (yesterday's? our mailbox is on the highway and both the mail delivery and our collection of it is kind of haphazard) so when Orion got home a few hours later, I asked if there had been a slip in the mailbox.
Nope!
So now my package is on hold at the post office, I GUESS, with no ability to redeliver and our mail delivery not starting until after the approximate return to sender date. We hunted all around the mailbox just in case it had been dropped. No slip.
I ended up printing out the tracking number and taking that to the post office on our way to the airport, and that DID work and they DID have the box and I got it, YAY. (Orion said that the slip spontaneously showed up in the mailbox when he was headed home after dropping me off, so WHO KNOWS what was up with that.)
Anyway, all of that ended up working out in the end, and I enjoyed the books so much that I went on Amazon to see if I could find used copies of the ones I didn't have. I ordered a few more, and I just checked the shipping info and discovered that one of them - from a 3rd party Amazon seller - was sent via Fedex and supposedly delivered on Thursday afternoon, i.e. 2 days ago.
Guess what I don't seem to have!
Orion says that Fedex often leaves deliveries in random places around the yard - he's found them on piles of construction supplies, left at the door of the shop instead of the house, etc. Inauspiciously, it snowed a few inches last night, so everything is covered with fresh snow. Also, it was dark. Still, we took flashlights and went and hunted high and low in all the places that a package might be, ranging from likely (covered with snow beside the door) to unlikely but possible (at the doors of the various outbuildings like the greenhouse, on top of random vehicles in the yard) to the highly unlikely (at our road sign, in our mailbox). Not a single sign of it! I don't know if it was delivered to some other house, mistakenly marked as delivered when it's actually fallen under the delivery truck seat, or if a very soggy B5 book is going to turn up four months later when the snow melts, but seriously, WHAT EVEN. I've never had a book go missing like this in all the time I've been ordering used books off Amazon!
Anyway, further updates from the B5 script books are coming soon, and maybe I'll have this particular book eventually, or maybe not.
youtube recs
Jan. 10th, 2026 10:17 pmsnickficFor movie analysis and behind-the-scenes info. (Boy has Youtube been a pain in the butt for me the last couple of days. I assume they're duking it out with my adblock. Ugh.)
Rian Johnson Breaks Down a Scene From 'Wake Up Dead Man'. I rewatched the movie on Christmas and then really enjoyed watching this. Johnson talks a lot more than just the specific scene.
Nosferatu (2024) Kill Count. This movie has really grown on me, and this is one of my favorite Kill Counts that Dead Meat has done in a while. Eggers goes so hard, which means a ton of juicy behind-the-scenes details I didn't know. Maybe time for a rewatch soon.
Rian Johnson Breaks Down a Scene From 'Wake Up Dead Man'. I rewatched the movie on Christmas and then really enjoyed watching this. Johnson talks a lot more than just the specific scene.
Nosferatu (2024) Kill Count. This movie has really grown on me, and this is one of my favorite Kill Counts that Dead Meat has done in a while. Eggers goes so hard, which means a ton of juicy behind-the-scenes details I didn't know. Maybe time for a rewatch soon.
McDonald’s Brings Back Beloved Snack Rat
Jan. 10th, 2026 11:04 pmproustbotI have several things that absolutely must be finished by Monday, and I dealt with those inflexible looming deadlines by once again downloading Inscryption and beating all twelve levels in Kaycee's Mod.
Such triumph, such victory.
I have once again uninstalled Inscryption.
Such triumph, such victory.
I have once again uninstalled Inscryption.
Weekly Update, 1/10/26
Jan. 10th, 2026 07:40 pmyaaurensWhelp, it has been a week and a half of the new year and hoo boy has it been a doozy so far.
I don't really want to get into the politics of everything, but it surely has been weighing on my mind quite heavily.
I suppose I should mention at least briefly for posterity, because ugh. ( cut for politics )
ANYWAY on to the life updates and stuff.
- I started doing the Hybrid Calisthenics workouts via the app, and oof. I am so out of shape, it's ridiculous. I looked at it and was like, hey, this'll be easy. HA. I did three days and had to take a break because I was so sore. And then the next day was a physio day, and I've decided that's going to be a non-HC-workout day anyway. Annoyingly, because my physio days move around, I can't just set my rest day on the app and be done with it.
- I started ANOTHER part-time job, this time doing bookkeeping/accounting for a business someone I know just started. It's such a mess already, omg. It took me FIVE HOURS to fix the mess she made of her accounting software and get everything to balance and reconcile correctly. She also has zero clue what she's doing, because she sent me a message with a list of vendors that she said we needed to 1099, and I'm like... no? we don't? These are vendors, not contractors? She's just so clueless, and doesn't seem to have done ANY research into how to start a business/corporation, which is so frustrating to me. Like, who starts a huge, costly project like this without doing ANY kind of research to find out what you need?
- The good news is, with that new job, I can afford to go see Suzy Eddie Izzard's one-person Hamlet production, so we're making plans for that in a couple of weeks. Very fortunately, my work schedule is such that on Friday I get off at 1pm, and then don't go back to work until 3pm the next day, so being down in LA for an 8pm show will be doable and getting back late won't be harmful to my sleep either, haha.
- cohort and tax job continue; the other day I was horrified when only one person (me, humblebrag) answered a fairly basic question correctly. Seriously. Which of these four options counts as a capital asset, and NO ONE ELSE GOT IT RIGHT?!? How did these people qualify to be tax preparers? I also made the mistake earlier of telling the teacher that I had been an ATL and CSP prior, and now she expects me to know things. Whoops.
- discovered that the 1099s that the IRS sent us were very weirdly NOT carbon copies like they usually are, despite being formatted like carbon copies. Was I clever and did I discover this BEFORE I did all the typing? No, of course not. In any case, we have some time, so we're trying to get an account with the IRS to file them online rather than doing the typey-typey, because I always fuck up so many times. Our other option is to send in the forms we have, and use the PDF form to send to the contractors, but that requires so much more effort. Ugh. I am, however, doing better at tracking my work hours for mom, and I will Not Let Myself Fail to Invoice this year.
- health stuff! Got my PCP changed on my insurance to my actual PCP for the first time in literal years. I guess that's one nice thing about them switching IPAs; they all have to take new patients again, so I can sneak in officially. I also have an appt with my pcp for next week, so we can get the hand specialist worked out, and discuss all the other Things. I need to make sure I write up my list of things to bring up before then. Physio levelled up, they're giving me more resistant items to squeeze and pull and so forth, so that's nice? Progress is being made! Also had my yearly eye doc appointment, so I'm trying out different contacts since the ones introduced last year kinda sucked. We're also going back to same rx in both eyes because my right eye is right in between the two powers. This new brand of contacts seems better so far - the old ones seemed really flimsy, and would blink out super easily, or fold in my eye and jam up under the eyelid, which was no fun.
- I *almost* got to work as a handler at ALA this weekend, and then couldn't because of the dang schedule. I was trying So HARD to make it work, but then they found someone who could work all four days, and I could only do three. But they said they would put me on their list, so hopefully if they have shows with more advance notice (the discussion happened on Tuesday, the con started Thursday) I'll be able to do some more gigs. (I am also sad because a lot of my friends are work in New Orleans this weekend at a con, but I was not picked for it.) (more therapy fodder, yaaaay)
- Dad and I are watching Blood River as the evening show, but it hasn't really been holding my attention very well and I'm not sure why. Possibly because the story is sort of a prequel, but also sort not, because the writer realized he didn't like what he'd done with the characters originally and decided he wanted to re-work them? So things don't quite fit into what has already been laid out story wise. I joined a group watch tonight of the first six episodes of My Lady General, which is gonna be fun, and hopefully I'll be able to see the rest of the eps. Sunday was the B5 group watch, which is great fun because we're up to Babylon Squared and that set of episodes, which is just SO GOOD.
Next week is going to be busy busy busy. I have my first tax appointment on the schedule; hopefully he shows up and has his paperwork so I can actually do the thing and get those first time jitters over with. Shakes comes back this week too; I asked everyone to please double check their schedules and let me know if they foresee any missed dates so I can go ahead and get casting done now while it's calm and not while I'm stressed with tax work. We'll see if that actually works, ha. I also have So Much Work to do for mom, that I really need to get done this week. Maybe I'll take one of my non-tax work days and go sit at the shop and do work there.
Goals for the upcoming week: Survive the tax appointment. Finish work for mom. Get in the habit of doing regular HC workouts.
Good things: fuzzy blankets (always). surprisingly good headshots for work. my elephant slippers.
I don't really want to get into the politics of everything, but it surely has been weighing on my mind quite heavily.
I suppose I should mention at least briefly for posterity, because ugh. ( cut for politics )
ANYWAY on to the life updates and stuff.
- I started doing the Hybrid Calisthenics workouts via the app, and oof. I am so out of shape, it's ridiculous. I looked at it and was like, hey, this'll be easy. HA. I did three days and had to take a break because I was so sore. And then the next day was a physio day, and I've decided that's going to be a non-HC-workout day anyway. Annoyingly, because my physio days move around, I can't just set my rest day on the app and be done with it.
- I started ANOTHER part-time job, this time doing bookkeeping/accounting for a business someone I know just started. It's such a mess already, omg. It took me FIVE HOURS to fix the mess she made of her accounting software and get everything to balance and reconcile correctly. She also has zero clue what she's doing, because she sent me a message with a list of vendors that she said we needed to 1099, and I'm like... no? we don't? These are vendors, not contractors? She's just so clueless, and doesn't seem to have done ANY research into how to start a business/corporation, which is so frustrating to me. Like, who starts a huge, costly project like this without doing ANY kind of research to find out what you need?
- The good news is, with that new job, I can afford to go see Suzy Eddie Izzard's one-person Hamlet production, so we're making plans for that in a couple of weeks. Very fortunately, my work schedule is such that on Friday I get off at 1pm, and then don't go back to work until 3pm the next day, so being down in LA for an 8pm show will be doable and getting back late won't be harmful to my sleep either, haha.
- cohort and tax job continue; the other day I was horrified when only one person (me, humblebrag) answered a fairly basic question correctly. Seriously. Which of these four options counts as a capital asset, and NO ONE ELSE GOT IT RIGHT?!? How did these people qualify to be tax preparers? I also made the mistake earlier of telling the teacher that I had been an ATL and CSP prior, and now she expects me to know things. Whoops.
- discovered that the 1099s that the IRS sent us were very weirdly NOT carbon copies like they usually are, despite being formatted like carbon copies. Was I clever and did I discover this BEFORE I did all the typing? No, of course not. In any case, we have some time, so we're trying to get an account with the IRS to file them online rather than doing the typey-typey, because I always fuck up so many times. Our other option is to send in the forms we have, and use the PDF form to send to the contractors, but that requires so much more effort. Ugh. I am, however, doing better at tracking my work hours for mom, and I will Not Let Myself Fail to Invoice this year.
- health stuff! Got my PCP changed on my insurance to my actual PCP for the first time in literal years. I guess that's one nice thing about them switching IPAs; they all have to take new patients again, so I can sneak in officially. I also have an appt with my pcp for next week, so we can get the hand specialist worked out, and discuss all the other Things. I need to make sure I write up my list of things to bring up before then. Physio levelled up, they're giving me more resistant items to squeeze and pull and so forth, so that's nice? Progress is being made! Also had my yearly eye doc appointment, so I'm trying out different contacts since the ones introduced last year kinda sucked. We're also going back to same rx in both eyes because my right eye is right in between the two powers. This new brand of contacts seems better so far - the old ones seemed really flimsy, and would blink out super easily, or fold in my eye and jam up under the eyelid, which was no fun.
- I *almost* got to work as a handler at ALA this weekend, and then couldn't because of the dang schedule. I was trying So HARD to make it work, but then they found someone who could work all four days, and I could only do three. But they said they would put me on their list, so hopefully if they have shows with more advance notice (the discussion happened on Tuesday, the con started Thursday) I'll be able to do some more gigs. (I am also sad because a lot of my friends are work in New Orleans this weekend at a con, but I was not picked for it.) (more therapy fodder, yaaaay)
- Dad and I are watching Blood River as the evening show, but it hasn't really been holding my attention very well and I'm not sure why. Possibly because the story is sort of a prequel, but also sort not, because the writer realized he didn't like what he'd done with the characters originally and decided he wanted to re-work them? So things don't quite fit into what has already been laid out story wise. I joined a group watch tonight of the first six episodes of My Lady General, which is gonna be fun, and hopefully I'll be able to see the rest of the eps. Sunday was the B5 group watch, which is great fun because we're up to Babylon Squared and that set of episodes, which is just SO GOOD.
Next week is going to be busy busy busy. I have my first tax appointment on the schedule; hopefully he shows up and has his paperwork so I can actually do the thing and get those first time jitters over with. Shakes comes back this week too; I asked everyone to please double check their schedules and let me know if they foresee any missed dates so I can go ahead and get casting done now while it's calm and not while I'm stressed with tax work. We'll see if that actually works, ha. I also have So Much Work to do for mom, that I really need to get done this week. Maybe I'll take one of my non-tax work days and go sit at the shop and do work there.
Goals for the upcoming week: Survive the tax appointment. Finish work for mom. Get in the habit of doing regular HC workouts.
Good things: fuzzy blankets (always). surprisingly good headshots for work. my elephant slippers.
The weird of the day
Jan. 10th, 2026 10:45 pmcornerofmadnessSo I mentioned the power was out sometime over the holiday and my freezer was full of frost. It must have been out longer than I thought because poking around I saw all the ice cream had melted everywhere but that's not the weird part.
No, apparently it was off so long that whatever blockage between the freezer and fridge melted (in spite of me having the fridge off all day once already) because the fridge is ICE cold (I had it on the highest setting just to get it to be slightly cool) I'm like what? What?!? How did you come back to life? It's still a mess but I'm going to let it limp along for now.
I found a manager special half off tray of devil's eggs (24 of them). I have never seen this before. NO ONE has seen this because all the cashiers and baggers were running over to see it. I wonder if this had been a special order that wasn't picked up. Either of way I'm gonna eat them all up.
I was halfway through making the new homework for the first week of the class but suddenly 50 questions into 90 of them (I pick and choose from the 90s to make the homework) the power fails. No reason. No high winds, no big storm. Just boom no power. Lose everything.
And I had just got the phone system working but then bang, the power goes out and the phone with it. Naturally the cell phone says 'no cellular connections.' ARGH
At least I got writing done but when the power went out at least I had handwritten back up for what hadn't autosaved
As horrible as the last week has been for America and the world in general I find myself in an awkward position of arranging the work conference and planning a vacation in spite of being afraid to literally go anywhere even within my own state let alone elsewhere. I can't be alone in this terrible feeling.
Have some links for Science Saturday
Lupus Linked To Virus That Over 95 Percent Of Us Carry – And Now We Finally Know How I remember in medical school when we were really starting to see EBV and thought it caused 'chronic fatigue syndrome' but weren't sure it did anything at all (and weren't sure chronic fatigue was real), now we know it causes multiple cancers and now this
Leonardo da Vinci's DNA may be embedded in his art — and scientists think they've managed to extract some speaking of weird
Rare 2,000-year-old war trumpet, possibly linked to Celtic queen Boudica, discovered in England lots of assumptions here but the trumpet itself is cool
Study Raises Serious Questions About The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Potential Anti-Cancer Fungal Compound Finally Synthesized After 55 Years
Unique 'Golden Shark' Caught Off Central America Diagnosed With Rare Condition
Silencing Bacterial 'Chatter' in Your Mouth May Help Prevent Tooth Decay Another one for my student
And here's the Fannish 50 Friday (one day late) Fic round up
Paint Me Golden Hazbin Hotel
Flight Time 9-1-1
Banded Dress and Black Coat Wheel of Time
make what you believe 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness Helluva Boss
Alastor's Lament Hazbin Hotel
Settling Into Beacon Hills Teen Wolf
Feeding Time Stargate Atlantis
Caught Flat-Footed Torchwood
Wants and Fears FAKE
Cultural Exchange Stargate Atlantis
The Duel Torchwood
Favorite for a Reason Stargate Atlantis
Shark Dicks NSFW comic Hazbin Hotel
One Drink Lasts Too Long Hazbin Hotel
Fair Food Stargate Atlantis
In Which, We Are Chaos 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Adjacent Hazbin Hotel
Blizzard Conditions Torchwood
The New Wave. Hazbin Hotel
Fat And Thin Hazbin Hotel
Jin's Dad Jokes 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Plotting Revenge The Professionals (TV 1977)
Chip On My Shoulder UglyDolls (2019)
in the nest box Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
No, apparently it was off so long that whatever blockage between the freezer and fridge melted (in spite of me having the fridge off all day once already) because the fridge is ICE cold (I had it on the highest setting just to get it to be slightly cool) I'm like what? What?!? How did you come back to life? It's still a mess but I'm going to let it limp along for now.
I found a manager special half off tray of devil's eggs (24 of them). I have never seen this before. NO ONE has seen this because all the cashiers and baggers were running over to see it. I wonder if this had been a special order that wasn't picked up. Either of way I'm gonna eat them all up.
I was halfway through making the new homework for the first week of the class but suddenly 50 questions into 90 of them (I pick and choose from the 90s to make the homework) the power fails. No reason. No high winds, no big storm. Just boom no power. Lose everything.
And I had just got the phone system working but then bang, the power goes out and the phone with it. Naturally the cell phone says 'no cellular connections.' ARGH
At least I got writing done but when the power went out at least I had handwritten back up for what hadn't autosaved
As horrible as the last week has been for America and the world in general I find myself in an awkward position of arranging the work conference and planning a vacation in spite of being afraid to literally go anywhere even within my own state let alone elsewhere. I can't be alone in this terrible feeling.
Have some links for Science Saturday
Lupus Linked To Virus That Over 95 Percent Of Us Carry – And Now We Finally Know How I remember in medical school when we were really starting to see EBV and thought it caused 'chronic fatigue syndrome' but weren't sure it did anything at all (and weren't sure chronic fatigue was real), now we know it causes multiple cancers and now this
Leonardo da Vinci's DNA may be embedded in his art — and scientists think they've managed to extract some speaking of weird
Rare 2,000-year-old war trumpet, possibly linked to Celtic queen Boudica, discovered in England lots of assumptions here but the trumpet itself is cool
Study Raises Serious Questions About The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Potential Anti-Cancer Fungal Compound Finally Synthesized After 55 Years
Unique 'Golden Shark' Caught Off Central America Diagnosed With Rare Condition
Silencing Bacterial 'Chatter' in Your Mouth May Help Prevent Tooth Decay Another one for my student
And here's the Fannish 50 Friday (one day late) Fic round up
Paint Me Golden Hazbin Hotel
Flight Time 9-1-1
Banded Dress and Black Coat Wheel of Time
make what you believe 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness Helluva Boss
Alastor's Lament Hazbin Hotel
Settling Into Beacon Hills Teen Wolf
Feeding Time Stargate Atlantis
Caught Flat-Footed Torchwood
Wants and Fears FAKE
Cultural Exchange Stargate Atlantis
The Duel Torchwood
Favorite for a Reason Stargate Atlantis
Shark Dicks NSFW comic Hazbin Hotel
One Drink Lasts Too Long Hazbin Hotel
Fair Food Stargate Atlantis
In Which, We Are Chaos 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Adjacent Hazbin Hotel
Blizzard Conditions Torchwood
The New Wave. Hazbin Hotel
Fat And Thin Hazbin Hotel
Jin's Dad Jokes 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Plotting Revenge The Professionals (TV 1977)
Chip On My Shoulder UglyDolls (2019)
in the nest box Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
SkyMed icons
Jan. 10th, 2026 11:21 pmflareonfury posting in fandom_iconsThe below icons are for tvmovie20in20 Round 22 with SkyMed (all three seasons).
Preview:
At 20,000 feet, the stakes can't get any higher.....
tvmovie20in20 Round 22 with SkyMed (all three seasons).Preview:
At 20,000 feet, the stakes can't get any higher.....
I speak machine
Jan. 10th, 2026 10:51 pmthe_siobhanStill not King.
Did birthday dinner with the gf. I realized at some point like... maybe a month ago? That I spent the entire past year telling people I was the age I actually am this year. How am I SO BAD at dates that I get my own age wrong for an entire year? I can't even blame senility, I have always been like this.
***
Finally heard back from the permit wrangler. He spoke to the engineer and the answer is no, he will not sign off on the work. This doesn't shock me. He told me the fucking contractor didn't even follow the blueprints that were used to get the permits, so he has no confidence that the foundations were actually built to spec.
So permit wrangler says he's going to go back to the city and try once again to get in touch with the original contractor. I really appreciate his commitment to trying to find a better solution, but at this point I'm kinda resigned that I'm just have to tear up the floor. I just want to get it over with.
***
So in the meantime I'm still here just cleaning and de-cluttering the rest of the house. Got a wild hair up my ass to pull apart the corner of my office where my weight bench sits and was able to vanquish much dust and dried cat-puke.
I still have too much fucking stuff. This would be simpler if I didn't have such a huge aversion to just tossing stuff into landfill. This is partially the environmentalist side of me, and partially because there was a time in my life when a third-hand hotplate might have actually saved my life. So I have trouble throwing out a perfectly functional hotplate when somebody out there might be in the same position I was in 30+ years ago. But you know, figuring how to get rid of this stuff takes time and so... Things leave, but in much smaller boxes than if I just hired a bloody dumpster.
***
The plus side of not being able to do house construction work is that I have have been spending a lot more time on my b-list, which is 1) plants and 2) family tree. The kitchen island is so huge that I have been able to devote an entire half of it to a bunch of pots that I have seeded with herbs. I installed grow lights in the chandelier[1], so it's going to be an experiment.
[1]Hauled my wobbly ass up a ladder. Did not fall off. Victory achieved.
I had the brilliant idea that if I started tossing birdseed on the deck outside my office, I would give Lord Brock something to look at that would distract him from screaming at me for attention while I'm working. This has backfired spectacularly, because now he climbs onto the window-ledge and screams at me to make the birds happen.
***
On the plus side, digging through my family tree has led me to discovering the other out queer person in my family which is pretty cool. (Statistically I figured it was unlikely I was the only one, especially given just how big Irish Catholic families tend to be.)
A question I hadn't anticipated; I keep coming across generations where there are multiple people with the same name but different birth-dates. I'm trying to figure out if they are cases where one source I'm drawing from has the wrong birth year, or if there were families where they re-used names when babies died. Like there is a French branch were they seem to have named half the boys after the father but with different middle names. Was that real? Was that just Anglos fucking up non-English names? (That happened so often with the Irish names, I don't have any problem believing they also did it to the French.) Or am I finding birth records, but not their death records in families where infant mortality was really high?
Also, I have no explanation for how researching my family name led me to an Irish vampire movie, but now I really want to see this film.
Did birthday dinner with the gf. I realized at some point like... maybe a month ago? That I spent the entire past year telling people I was the age I actually am this year. How am I SO BAD at dates that I get my own age wrong for an entire year? I can't even blame senility, I have always been like this.
***
Finally heard back from the permit wrangler. He spoke to the engineer and the answer is no, he will not sign off on the work. This doesn't shock me. He told me the fucking contractor didn't even follow the blueprints that were used to get the permits, so he has no confidence that the foundations were actually built to spec.
So permit wrangler says he's going to go back to the city and try once again to get in touch with the original contractor. I really appreciate his commitment to trying to find a better solution, but at this point I'm kinda resigned that I'm just have to tear up the floor. I just want to get it over with.
***
So in the meantime I'm still here just cleaning and de-cluttering the rest of the house. Got a wild hair up my ass to pull apart the corner of my office where my weight bench sits and was able to vanquish much dust and dried cat-puke.
I still have too much fucking stuff. This would be simpler if I didn't have such a huge aversion to just tossing stuff into landfill. This is partially the environmentalist side of me, and partially because there was a time in my life when a third-hand hotplate might have actually saved my life. So I have trouble throwing out a perfectly functional hotplate when somebody out there might be in the same position I was in 30+ years ago. But you know, figuring how to get rid of this stuff takes time and so... Things leave, but in much smaller boxes than if I just hired a bloody dumpster.
***
The plus side of not being able to do house construction work is that I have have been spending a lot more time on my b-list, which is 1) plants and 2) family tree. The kitchen island is so huge that I have been able to devote an entire half of it to a bunch of pots that I have seeded with herbs. I installed grow lights in the chandelier[1], so it's going to be an experiment.
[1]Hauled my wobbly ass up a ladder. Did not fall off. Victory achieved.
I had the brilliant idea that if I started tossing birdseed on the deck outside my office, I would give Lord Brock something to look at that would distract him from screaming at me for attention while I'm working. This has backfired spectacularly, because now he climbs onto the window-ledge and screams at me to make the birds happen.
***
On the plus side, digging through my family tree has led me to discovering the other out queer person in my family which is pretty cool. (Statistically I figured it was unlikely I was the only one, especially given just how big Irish Catholic families tend to be.)
A question I hadn't anticipated; I keep coming across generations where there are multiple people with the same name but different birth-dates. I'm trying to figure out if they are cases where one source I'm drawing from has the wrong birth year, or if there were families where they re-used names when babies died. Like there is a French branch were they seem to have named half the boys after the father but with different middle names. Was that real? Was that just Anglos fucking up non-English names? (That happened so often with the Irish names, I don't have any problem believing they also did it to the French.) Or am I finding birth records, but not their death records in families where infant mortality was really high?
Also, I have no explanation for how researching my family name led me to an Irish vampire movie, but now I really want to see this film.
Fic: One Two THREE Force Born?!
Jan. 10th, 2026 09:58 pmsenmutAO3 Link | One Two THREE Force Born?! (1609 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Sheev Palpatine | Emperor Palpatine | Darth Sidious
Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kriffing Sith Plans
Summary:
Padmé Amidala was a woman on a mission. Anakin might be completely in a panic over the pregnancy but she was going to head this off. It was just too convenient that she was now being plagued with dreams of her own death, the very night after an unavoidable dinner with the man she had a growing distaste for.
And, deep where she would never tell her husband, she had a nasty suspicion he was trying to shove Anakin off a cliff of irredeemable violence. The Chancellor might not have commented on her state, but his eyes were not as easily fooled by their shared heritage of concealing fashion.
Today, she was going to go enlist the aid of the Jedi, while Anakin was tied up being the poster boy of the GAR. She had all of her diplomatic shields in place, and had the perfect cover story to do this with.
After all, with Jedi having lost so many, surely the Force would be interested in adding a few more children to the future.
Vokara Che was every bit as imposing in her domain as Anakin had said. However, her status as a long time ally had convinced Master Fisto to bring her down to the Healer's Wing. She had pleaded with him, and the healer, that there could not be a father, not when she was a mature woman who knew how to guard against such!
"You were correct that the pregnancy is heavily Force-influenced," Vokara said after several minutes of making Padmé wonder if the healer was going to break her constructed version of events. "You are carrying two very healthy, very Force-active fetuses."
Two. TWO?!
She was not going to faint like the damsel of a holo-drama. "Thank you, Master Che. Given my precarious positioning within the advocates for peace, and past attempts, I could not, in all honesty, acquire medical aid in the typical fashion. Given how my dreams are affected, and having such strange hunches of late, I turned to your Temple in hope."
"A wise choice." For a long moment, Vokara held her eyes, and Padmé knew that the healer was not actually buying the spontaneous pregnancy. A twitch of the lekku, however, indicated the secret was safe. "These hunches, I believe that Master Windu should possibly help sort them out with you."
Oh. Well, that might be the right way to go as well.
Kit, even before the appointment in medical had ended, had gone to find his age-mate. He did so in one of the botanical rooms. "Master Windu," he began. "And Master Yoda," he added to be polite, despite the ancient peering at one of the plants intently.
"Hmm," came over top of Mace's cautious "Master Fisto", and Kit grinned a little that his creche-mate had already detected the mild mischief Kit was feeling.
They all needed a little bit of amusement.
"Senator Amidala has come, and is being tended to by Master Che," Kit began, and both men looked sharply at him. "I do wonder about that old prophecy that was discussed when Master Jinn found a boy on a desert world with no father… as she is here to see about a Force-induced pregnancy as well."
Yoda's ears went flat, Mace's eyes narrowed, and Kit merely smiled.
Mace looked at the woman who had been a solid ally, and the subject of not a small part of gossip. He did not, for a moment, believe the story of no father, but in her political setting, it was for the best to go along with it.
"Master Che said you have been plagued by hunches of late, ones that play out true."
He set a mild tisane in front of her, and took a second one for himself.
"I think the Force has concerns about the path we are on, despite recent developments. After all, if the Count has been neutralized, and Master Kenobi is on the trail of their general… who will keep the momentum up to line pockets with war money, and build such sizable powers through war-time legislation?" Amidala asked, meeting the man's eyes squarely. "I am all but certain you and your peers have had the same intuitions."
Was she — had she —
Maybe Skywalker had been more circumspect than Mace had believed. For all that Amidala was firmly an adherent of a peaceful resolution, her physical and vocal cues were running in tandem with the Council's own suspicions.
"Perhaps we are looking in that same direction," he said.
"If the other Sith, the one Dooku spoke of on our side, is out there, I am certain he would try to harm those touched so firmly by the Light Side as ones fathered by the Force," Amidala told him. "I shudder to think of what such a being might have done had they had access to your Knight Skywalker for all the years of this phantom menace over us."
That, Mace decided, was both accusation and… an invitation to look more closely at how the cards were laid out.
And he had to admit she had a point.
"Anakin!"
"Chancellor."
"I do hope the scandal hasn't harmed your friendship with the Senator."
"What scandal?"
The exchange, handled in the hearing of several itinerant reporters, brought their elder statesman up short, until someone added the right question.
"That she's pregnant with no father in sight," the reporter with blood money in his pockets called out.
"You really think Senator Amidala would stoop to such petty, low-brow nonsense?" Anakin asked them, in his best 'are you kidding me' voice, and he caught the frown on his old 'friend'. He was so glad Saesse Tiin had been able and willing to explore the past several years in his head. "She's having children as the will of the Force, and we Jedi take that kind of thing very seriously."
He then kept walking, leaving the Chancellor stewing, the reporters trying to digest how to spin this, and a feeling that he could not have handled it that way without the Council all suddenly intent on supporting him. He didn't know what had changed there, but he couldn't wait to tell Obi-Wan all about it.
And the Force Twins, because he had to admit, he really hadn't had a lot of time, and they both used precautions.
Chancellor Sheev Palpatine was in a fury. He had primed the well perfectly, and somehow… somehow every insinuation and control he'd put in place had been cut off in the Chosen One. All because of some insane story concocted by the woman that had long since outlived her usefulness.
Any day now, that wretched Kenobi would be returning, and Sheev would have to find a different way to acquire everything he wanted… unless he acted now? He went to his desk to find the comm unit. He needed to provoke the right circumstance, to make it clear he was saving them from the Jedi, but what would it take?
The comm lit up in his hand.
What?
With the Force, he flipped the hood of his cape up, securing it to conceal his features, and turned it on.
"What do you know, that frequency is picked up, Commander," came the very annoying, should-be-dead voice of the Togruta menace. He hastily turned it off, throwing it into the back of the locked drawers.
The knocking at the door that came next, including a call of 'Coruscant Security' sent chills down his back.
He wondered idly if his own Master had felt this the night Sheev had gleefully murdered him.
Mace pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked over at the newest Master of the Council who was pretending he didn't want to hurry out and see a certain Senator. He then looked at Kenobi, who was waiting to be briefed on how and why the Chancellor had been killed in the midst of being served with detention papers.
"A tip from an ally told us to double check Skywalker for undue influence," Kit said, looking entirely too merry in the telling.
"Padmé," Anakin offered cheerfully. "She's having Force twins."
Mace did not groan. It really did sound like Skywalker believed that.
"Removing that," Saesee said, "let us more clearly see the shape of a possible end game, orchestrated to cast us all as traitors."
"Meanwhile, Skywalker's commander had been working on another angle of the endgame," Agen said.
"Leading him and Tano to turning up a plan to make the man expose himself, using the very tools meant to kill us all," Kit said, "by triggering a comm device he should not have had while we were keeping him very securely under comm surveillance with Naboo's and CorSec's cooperation."
"How did you get CorSec to agree to such?" Kenobi asked.
"Amidala implied that she had noticed a malevolent presence while dining with the man, and could they please keep it under wraps that there could be such a threat near the center of government?" Shaak Ti said, eyes dancing with mirth.
"A very tidy end, I suppose." Kenobi then looked at Mace with a deadpan face. "So, how are those prophecies handling the idea of three Force-fathered children?"
Mace did not, as he wanted to, flip the man's hood over his head with the Force.
Padmé smiled, despite fatigue, as she held her daughter, and Anakin held her son. Eventually, they might admit the farce.
Then again, listening to Anakin telling Luke all about the wonders of what the Force could do…
… maybe it was better to leave it at this. What really mattered was that they were all saved from the Sith.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Sheev Palpatine | Emperor Palpatine | Darth Sidious
Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kriffing Sith Plans
Summary:
It's Padmé with the nightmares, and a plan to head it all off.
One Two THREE Force Born?!
Padmé Amidala was a woman on a mission. Anakin might be completely in a panic over the pregnancy but she was going to head this off. It was just too convenient that she was now being plagued with dreams of her own death, the very night after an unavoidable dinner with the man she had a growing distaste for.
And, deep where she would never tell her husband, she had a nasty suspicion he was trying to shove Anakin off a cliff of irredeemable violence. The Chancellor might not have commented on her state, but his eyes were not as easily fooled by their shared heritage of concealing fashion.
Today, she was going to go enlist the aid of the Jedi, while Anakin was tied up being the poster boy of the GAR. She had all of her diplomatic shields in place, and had the perfect cover story to do this with.
After all, with Jedi having lost so many, surely the Force would be interested in adding a few more children to the future.
Vokara Che was every bit as imposing in her domain as Anakin had said. However, her status as a long time ally had convinced Master Fisto to bring her down to the Healer's Wing. She had pleaded with him, and the healer, that there could not be a father, not when she was a mature woman who knew how to guard against such!
"You were correct that the pregnancy is heavily Force-influenced," Vokara said after several minutes of making Padmé wonder if the healer was going to break her constructed version of events. "You are carrying two very healthy, very Force-active fetuses."
Two. TWO?!
She was not going to faint like the damsel of a holo-drama. "Thank you, Master Che. Given my precarious positioning within the advocates for peace, and past attempts, I could not, in all honesty, acquire medical aid in the typical fashion. Given how my dreams are affected, and having such strange hunches of late, I turned to your Temple in hope."
"A wise choice." For a long moment, Vokara held her eyes, and Padmé knew that the healer was not actually buying the spontaneous pregnancy. A twitch of the lekku, however, indicated the secret was safe. "These hunches, I believe that Master Windu should possibly help sort them out with you."
Oh. Well, that might be the right way to go as well.
Kit, even before the appointment in medical had ended, had gone to find his age-mate. He did so in one of the botanical rooms. "Master Windu," he began. "And Master Yoda," he added to be polite, despite the ancient peering at one of the plants intently.
"Hmm," came over top of Mace's cautious "Master Fisto", and Kit grinned a little that his creche-mate had already detected the mild mischief Kit was feeling.
They all needed a little bit of amusement.
"Senator Amidala has come, and is being tended to by Master Che," Kit began, and both men looked sharply at him. "I do wonder about that old prophecy that was discussed when Master Jinn found a boy on a desert world with no father… as she is here to see about a Force-induced pregnancy as well."
Yoda's ears went flat, Mace's eyes narrowed, and Kit merely smiled.
Mace looked at the woman who had been a solid ally, and the subject of not a small part of gossip. He did not, for a moment, believe the story of no father, but in her political setting, it was for the best to go along with it.
"Master Che said you have been plagued by hunches of late, ones that play out true."
He set a mild tisane in front of her, and took a second one for himself.
"I think the Force has concerns about the path we are on, despite recent developments. After all, if the Count has been neutralized, and Master Kenobi is on the trail of their general… who will keep the momentum up to line pockets with war money, and build such sizable powers through war-time legislation?" Amidala asked, meeting the man's eyes squarely. "I am all but certain you and your peers have had the same intuitions."
Was she — had she —
Maybe Skywalker had been more circumspect than Mace had believed. For all that Amidala was firmly an adherent of a peaceful resolution, her physical and vocal cues were running in tandem with the Council's own suspicions.
"Perhaps we are looking in that same direction," he said.
"If the other Sith, the one Dooku spoke of on our side, is out there, I am certain he would try to harm those touched so firmly by the Light Side as ones fathered by the Force," Amidala told him. "I shudder to think of what such a being might have done had they had access to your Knight Skywalker for all the years of this phantom menace over us."
That, Mace decided, was both accusation and… an invitation to look more closely at how the cards were laid out.
And he had to admit she had a point.
"Anakin!"
"Chancellor."
"I do hope the scandal hasn't harmed your friendship with the Senator."
"What scandal?"
The exchange, handled in the hearing of several itinerant reporters, brought their elder statesman up short, until someone added the right question.
"That she's pregnant with no father in sight," the reporter with blood money in his pockets called out.
"You really think Senator Amidala would stoop to such petty, low-brow nonsense?" Anakin asked them, in his best 'are you kidding me' voice, and he caught the frown on his old 'friend'. He was so glad Saesse Tiin had been able and willing to explore the past several years in his head. "She's having children as the will of the Force, and we Jedi take that kind of thing very seriously."
He then kept walking, leaving the Chancellor stewing, the reporters trying to digest how to spin this, and a feeling that he could not have handled it that way without the Council all suddenly intent on supporting him. He didn't know what had changed there, but he couldn't wait to tell Obi-Wan all about it.
And the Force Twins, because he had to admit, he really hadn't had a lot of time, and they both used precautions.
Chancellor Sheev Palpatine was in a fury. He had primed the well perfectly, and somehow… somehow every insinuation and control he'd put in place had been cut off in the Chosen One. All because of some insane story concocted by the woman that had long since outlived her usefulness.
Any day now, that wretched Kenobi would be returning, and Sheev would have to find a different way to acquire everything he wanted… unless he acted now? He went to his desk to find the comm unit. He needed to provoke the right circumstance, to make it clear he was saving them from the Jedi, but what would it take?
The comm lit up in his hand.
What?
With the Force, he flipped the hood of his cape up, securing it to conceal his features, and turned it on.
"What do you know, that frequency is picked up, Commander," came the very annoying, should-be-dead voice of the Togruta menace. He hastily turned it off, throwing it into the back of the locked drawers.
The knocking at the door that came next, including a call of 'Coruscant Security' sent chills down his back.
He wondered idly if his own Master had felt this the night Sheev had gleefully murdered him.
Mace pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked over at the newest Master of the Council who was pretending he didn't want to hurry out and see a certain Senator. He then looked at Kenobi, who was waiting to be briefed on how and why the Chancellor had been killed in the midst of being served with detention papers.
"A tip from an ally told us to double check Skywalker for undue influence," Kit said, looking entirely too merry in the telling.
"Padmé," Anakin offered cheerfully. "She's having Force twins."
Mace did not groan. It really did sound like Skywalker believed that.
"Removing that," Saesee said, "let us more clearly see the shape of a possible end game, orchestrated to cast us all as traitors."
"Meanwhile, Skywalker's commander had been working on another angle of the endgame," Agen said.
"Leading him and Tano to turning up a plan to make the man expose himself, using the very tools meant to kill us all," Kit said, "by triggering a comm device he should not have had while we were keeping him very securely under comm surveillance with Naboo's and CorSec's cooperation."
"How did you get CorSec to agree to such?" Kenobi asked.
"Amidala implied that she had noticed a malevolent presence while dining with the man, and could they please keep it under wraps that there could be such a threat near the center of government?" Shaak Ti said, eyes dancing with mirth.
"A very tidy end, I suppose." Kenobi then looked at Mace with a deadpan face. "So, how are those prophecies handling the idea of three Force-fathered children?"
Mace did not, as he wanted to, flip the man's hood over his head with the Force.
Padmé smiled, despite fatigue, as she held her daughter, and Anakin held her son. Eventually, they might admit the farce.
Then again, listening to Anakin telling Luke all about the wonders of what the Force could do…
… maybe it was better to leave it at this. What really mattered was that they were all saved from the Sith.
Me-and-media update
Jan. 11th, 2026 04:55 pmchina_shopPrevious poll review
In the Comfort food poll, 55.6% of respondents said their preferred comfort food is chocolate, and 46.7% said savoury carbs. In ticky-boxes, 'juicy intricate poetry words' and 'pushing on through' came second equal (40% each) to hugs (80%). Thank you for your votes! <3
Reading
I listened to half an m/m romance audiobook that I selected for one of its readers (Will Watt), but the overuse of "fucking" as an intensifier (and in particular, the repeated phrase, "he was so fucking hot") kept making me roll my eyes. It might be a faithful reproduction of the inner monologue of a first-year uni student, but I don't read romances for verisimilitude. So I switched to The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary, read by Carrie Hope Fletcher and Kwaku Fortune, seen mentioned on my flist. I'm halfway through and enjoying it immensely. ETA:
A little more Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in hardcopy. Nothing in ebook.
Kdramas
Andrew and I have nearly finished The Guest. I want to ship the OT3, but I don't really care about the priest. (Sorry, priest guy! Alas, you are not my type.) Still, it is a great (gory/horror-y) show, and I've conveniently forgotten some of the developments. We just have one episode to go.
A bit more of While You Were Sleeping, a few episodes of Cashero (I'm not sure I'm in the mood for established relationship, but otoh, Junho! ♥), and a marathon-running BL called Mr. Heart, which was sweet but extremely slight.
Where is the next Love Scout/Family by Choice/whatever??
Other TV
Finished Stranger Things, which got so complex that I lazily stopped following the logic and just watched it as a collection of scenes. But I enjoyed those well enough. So glad they got their victory lap.
Three episodes of Heated Rivalry.
Anyway, my prediction that it's probably not for me has proven correct. Like, I can tell that the show is made of crack (in the addictive sense), but I'm not into super-buff dudes, and I didn't like the 'fucking but feeling kind of miserable about it' vibe I was getting from Hollander. He deserves better.
But I kept going for episode 3, and I'm really glad I did. There was thecoffee smoothie shop not-AU and ♥Kip♥ and his friends and family. And Scott, who fell for Kip in 2.3 seconds like a parched man stumbling into an oasis and, okay, is messed up, but at least self-aware and ~able to communicate~ and ~say nice things~! They were such a breath of fresh air! All the "smoothies" for both of them!
So that (predictably) is me. And I'm actually kind of relieved, because while the show is compelling and well-acted, it's not what I want in a fandom, and anyway, I'm hardly even managing to keep up with my quiet corner of Guardian fandom atm. I may watch the last three episodes at some point, idk. Wishing those of you who're into it all the very best with your new addiction!!
Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Cross Party Lines, Letters from an American, more of Our Opinions Are Correct (Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz's podcast) including the Murderbot episode, Tech Won't Save Us, the starts of a few other things.
Writing/making things
I've been practising drawing, and picking up art supplies in bits and pieces. The moldable eraser is magic.
(Imperfect, but I think it's identifiable, which is not nothing. I darkened the linework a little in Paint.NET.)
For my future reference, this all started because I wanted to draw Bingo from Bluey!, which led me down a Youtube Art Videos For Kids rabbit hole. Then I bought new colour pencils and was noodling around with them, and people said nice things about some of my doodles... :-) Art Youtube For Adults is also really lovely, btw -- full of super-talented people being encouraging and helpful.
I've written a treat forfandomtrees, but I need to make some edits, and I have no attention span. Chances of my finishing it are about 90%, and chances of any further treats are more like 30% at this stage. Maybe one day I'll be able to make art gifts...
Life/health/mental state things
My arms are gradually improving, but I'm anxious about them. Andrew's having an operation this Thursday; I'll need to be able to bike and drive and cook and so on, and I'm still sore half the time. So I've started swimming again. (I stopped partly because I was avoiding public spaces where I couldn't mask, and partly because my long post-lockdown hair stays damp all day. But the outdoor pool is open for the summer, so I'm going for it.)
I just bought a small $2 desk at a junk shop so that I have a workspace to retreat to downstairs while Andrew's recuperating on the couch in the living room. I'll see how that goes.
I have a hand-me-down mini air fryer from my parents which I still haven't taken out for a spin. Quick/easy meal suggestions very welcome, especially if they're things I can throw together late at night, post hospital visits. (NB: I don't do onions or brassicas.)
Good things
Andrew, swimming, drawing, Kdramas, Guardian, Zhao Yunlaaaan, modern medicine. Cat:
In the Comfort food poll, 55.6% of respondents said their preferred comfort food is chocolate, and 46.7% said savoury carbs. In ticky-boxes, 'juicy intricate poetry words' and 'pushing on through' came second equal (40% each) to hugs (80%). Thank you for your votes! <3
Reading
I listened to half an m/m romance audiobook that I selected for one of its readers (Will Watt), but the overuse of "fucking" as an intensifier (and in particular, the repeated phrase, "he was so fucking hot") kept making me roll my eyes. It might be a faithful reproduction of the inner monologue of a first-year uni student, but I don't read romances for verisimilitude. So I switched to The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary, read by Carrie Hope Fletcher and Kwaku Fortune, seen mentioned on my flist. I'm halfway through and enjoying it immensely. ETA:
Warnings.
Contains past emotionally abusive relationship, stalking, and PTSD.A little more Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in hardcopy. Nothing in ebook.
Kdramas
Andrew and I have nearly finished The Guest. I want to ship the OT3, but I don't really care about the priest. (Sorry, priest guy! Alas, you are not my type.) Still, it is a great (gory/horror-y) show, and I've conveniently forgotten some of the developments. We just have one episode to go.
A bit more of While You Were Sleeping, a few episodes of Cashero (I'm not sure I'm in the mood for established relationship, but otoh, Junho! ♥), and a marathon-running BL called Mr. Heart, which was sweet but extremely slight.
Where is the next Love Scout/Family by Choice/whatever??
Other TV
Finished Stranger Things, which got so complex that I lazily stopped following the logic and just watched it as a collection of scenes. But I enjoyed those well enough. So glad they got their victory lap.
Three episodes of Heated Rivalry.
Minor spoilers; tl;dr not my thing.
Wow, I'd heard it was fanficcy, but I wasn't prepared for the total absence of anything resembling an external plot. Like, not even a figleaf. Not even a hockey arc. How??Anyway, my prediction that it's probably not for me has proven correct. Like, I can tell that the show is made of crack (in the addictive sense), but I'm not into super-buff dudes, and I didn't like the 'fucking but feeling kind of miserable about it' vibe I was getting from Hollander. He deserves better.
But I kept going for episode 3, and I'm really glad I did. There was the
So that (predictably) is me. And I'm actually kind of relieved, because while the show is compelling and well-acted, it's not what I want in a fandom, and anyway, I'm hardly even managing to keep up with my quiet corner of Guardian fandom atm.
Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Cross Party Lines, Letters from an American, more of Our Opinions Are Correct (Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz's podcast) including the Murderbot episode, Tech Won't Save Us, the starts of a few other things.
Writing/making things
I've been practising drawing, and picking up art supplies in bits and pieces. The moldable eraser is magic.
Have a couple of sketches.
(Imperfect, but I think it's identifiable, which is not nothing. I darkened the linework a little in Paint.NET.)
For my future reference, this all started because I wanted to draw Bingo from Bluey!, which led me down a Youtube Art Videos For Kids rabbit hole. Then I bought new colour pencils and was noodling around with them, and people said nice things about some of my doodles... :-)
I've written a treat for
fandomtrees, but I need to make some edits, and I have no attention span. Chances of my finishing it are about 90%, and chances of any further treats are more like 30% at this stage. Maybe one day I'll be able to make art gifts...Life/health/mental state things
My arms are gradually improving, but I'm anxious about them. Andrew's having an operation this Thursday; I'll need to be able to bike and drive and cook and so on, and I'm still sore half the time. So I've started swimming again. (I stopped partly because I was avoiding public spaces where I couldn't mask, and partly because my long post-lockdown hair stays damp all day. But the outdoor pool is open for the summer, so I'm going for it.)
I just bought a small $2 desk at a junk shop so that I have a workspace to retreat to downstairs while Andrew's recuperating on the couch in the living room. I'll see how that goes.
I have a hand-me-down mini air fryer from my parents which I still haven't taken out for a spin. Quick/easy meal suggestions very welcome, especially if they're things I can throw together late at night, post hospital visits. (NB: I don't do onions or brassicas.)
Good things
Andrew, swimming, drawing, Kdramas, Guardian, Zhao Yunlaaaan, modern medicine. Cat:
Poll #34068 Om
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50
Do you meditate?
View Answers
yes, regularly
4 (8.0%)
yes, from time to time
11 (22.0%)
I used to
6 (12.0%)
I used to occasionally
4 (8.0%)
what you mean by 'meditate'?
7 (14.0%)
no
21 (42.0%)
other
3 (6.0%)
ticky-box of being squeamish about fingernail clippings
2 (4.0%)
ticky-box full of hockey show squee
6 (12.0%)
ticky-box full of feeling kind of zonky
20 (40.0%)
ticky-box full of skipping across treetops and dancing through the clouds
23 (46.0%)
ticky-box full of hugs
37 (74.0%)
Random Sports Stuff
Jan. 10th, 2026 07:50 pmmuccamukkYes, from me.
IDK if you can see![[youtube.com profile]](https://youtube.com/favicon.ico)
CBCSports in other countries, but they're currently playing my preferred type of figure skating (the recent nationals), which consists of:
Anyway, youtube has figured this out and is giving me random Canadian children gliding around the ice.
(Randomly my only sports icon relates to cricket.)
IDK if you can see
- Individual single short programs (long programs are usually too long for me to want to watch a single dance routine, and I also don't want to watch hours and hours of the stuff).
- Of just the top competators (so I don't have to feel bad when they fall down or do poorly, also see above about attention span).
- With the music directly onto the broadcast (rather than echoey rink music).
- Without commentary, except maybe a few notes before the dance starts (because I neither know nor care what a triple toe loop or whatever is, and equally do not care if the skater did a double instead.)
Anyway, youtube has figured this out and is giving me random Canadian children gliding around the ice.
(Randomly my only sports icon relates to cricket.)
Acquisitions.
Jan. 10th, 2026 09:56 pmhannahOne of my favorite things about the local library's used book sales is that every so often, a "for your consideration" awards screener pops up in the DVD section. It speaks to the neighborhood having someone who gets them to begin with, and it's fun to grab a copy of something like The Queen's Gambit because it's there. So I did, and now I don't have to mess around with any piggybacking on my mom's account or other sites to watch it.
It's too bad FYC discs are something of a thing of the past - it's the only physical release some of these movies and TV shows ever get. I know the idea of owning the media's foreign to the companies because a physical sale is a single purchase and means you can't keep stringing someone along with a long-term lease. It doesn't mean I can't dislike how a company deciding to remove something makes piracy, or morally dubious used DVD sales, the only way to watch it.
It's too bad FYC discs are something of a thing of the past - it's the only physical release some of these movies and TV shows ever get. I know the idea of owning the media's foreign to the companies because a physical sale is a single purchase and means you can't keep stringing someone along with a long-term lease. It doesn't mean I can't dislike how a company deciding to remove something makes piracy, or morally dubious used DVD sales, the only way to watch it.
Where North Korea is headed: Kim Ju Ae
Jan. 11th, 2026 02:37 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
languagelog_feedAndrocentric China will have to live with this potentially formidable woman, just as they're having to deal with Prime Minister Takaichi.
"Is North Korea's 'princess' walking a path toward succession?", Nikkei staff writers, NikkeiAsia (11/25/25)
This is a most impressive article, based on AI analytics of more than 14,000 hours of footage that highlights the elevation of Kim Jong Un's daughter.
She's only 12 years old, but is poised, has good graces, and knows how to behave. She appears to be intelligent, curious, and attentive. Look at her gestures, her glances, her movements….
Just judging from this video-visual montage, Kim Jong Un picked the right "respected child" as his successor.
I think she is receiving excellent training from her auntie, Kim Yo Jung, Kim Jong Un's younger sister — Jung Un is a very impressive person, and so is Kim Yo Jung.
The Workers' Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, features stories about Kim Ju Ae's activities mainly on its front page, referring to her as "loved child," or "respected child." Nikkei picked up references to jajebun, a word used to refer to Kim Ju Ae, from more than 6,500 pages of the newspaper between her public debut and the end of October.
자제분 (jajebun)
is a Korean honorific term meaning "your child" or "someone else's child," used to show respect for another person's son or daughter, similar to how "Mr./Ms." shows respect in English but specifically for a child. It's a polite way to refer to a child when speaking to their parents or elders, combining the respectful noun "분 (bun)" (person) with "자제 (jaje)" (one's own child, but used respectfully for others). (AIO)
Mark Metcalf said that he was also interested in the significance of how Kim Ju Ae's name has been gradually modified over the years and the significance of such changes. Insofar as he recalls, Kim the Current's honorifics changed to indicate the increasing importance of his role.
BTW, did you know that, on 2/13/17, North Korea had Kim Jung Un's own half-brother, Kim Jung Nam, eldest son of Kim Jung Il, and once considered his presumptive heir, chemically assassinated (at the Kuala Lumpur Airport, no less!).?
They take this matter of succession very seriously. Almost bungled it with Kim Jung Il.
Selected readings
- "VX in Chinese" (2/27/17)
- "In North Korea, it's a dire crime to speak like a South Korean, part 2" (7/3/23)
Trip hop: a summary by AI (Fannish Fifty #4); penny pinching
Jan. 10th, 2026 08:36 pmverushka70For once, AI did a decent job: On the Facebook group Trip Hop Lovers, one OP posted this AI summary of the musical genre Trip Hop.
I've loooved trip hop since the 90s, when I first discovered it via very early Internet "radio stations" (which we would now call streaming music channels, but the term "streaming" had not yet been coined, or at least was not yet in common use). Other than rock n roll (and some classical and opera), trip hop is probably my favorite musical genre though I can't say the same for either rap or hip hop, as, for various reasons (like misogyny, glorification of violence, etc) neither is my jam (despite the Grandmaster Flash 12"s and Run DMC records I bought when they first came out, way, way back in the day).
( details and some suggested trip hop )
I highly recommend checking out the post and the trip hop artists I mentioned above. If you're not sure if you'd like it, you can dip your toe into trip hop - or "trip hop lite", anyway - by searching YouTube for "chill hop"/"chillhop" and listen to any of the compilations that come up. On YouTube, Lofi Girl, out of France, has multiple live-streaming channels that are also good trip-hop-esque.
But for the real deal, imo, nothing beats the full instrumental version of Morcheeba's album Charango. Pure trip hop bliss, is what that is.
( some video and audio streaming cheapskate tips and parting remarks )