donutsweeper

Let's see, what's happened since my last post. Yuletide assignments went out and I'm on take two of mine, hopefully this one will work. My current craft project is a crochet blanket that should use up all of the rest of the yarn I bought via an excellent deal during 2023's Black Friday sale (I'm currently just about half way through so I should finish just in time to buy new yarn assuming there's decent sales for this year's as well, 2024's was meh but I still do have a chunk of yarn from that.)

Had some "excitement" two weeks ago when we had the annual maintenance on our boiler and they discovered an issue and we had to turn it off immediately and then replace it. That was a fun week and $24k unexpected expense.

Last year (nearly exactly, Nov 18th apparently) a small crack developed on the old igloo playmate cooler I bought for lunches when lifeguarding sometime between 1987-1990. Son kept using it but last week he dropped it and the whole handle cracked so he's finally retiring it. I can't quite recall what I paid for it (I want to say $20) but whatever it was, it was money well spent.

I made hobo bread the other day. I love this recipe (which I posted here years ago, so incredible simple, such delicious bread:


Here's two weeks of recthething recs (tumblr art for DMBJ, FMA, IwaV (TV), MCU (DD+Spidey), MDZS and SPN and trickortreatex collection art recs for Addams Family, Guardian and Original Work)

DMBJ/Lost Tomb:
- Pierce (perfect rendition of Xiazi spearing the fish in the Mystery of the Abyss opener)
- Ragged (Xiazi/Xiao Hua covered in slime but lost in each other's eyes. Perfect)

Fullmetal Alchemist
- the house on the hill (love so many things showing Ed and his childhood home here)

Interview with a Vampire (TV)
- Armand drawing (amazing)

Marvel (Daredevil and Spiderman multiverses):
- Do you think other Spideys and DDs in other universes are also good friends? (amazing 30 second animation)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Ah yes me and my rival crush zhiji Wei Ying (wonderful sketch of them immediately post-Xuanwu of Slaughter)
- Mn. Mn! (adorable qin lesson between LWJ and a-yuan)

Supernatural:
- Castiel (Love the bloodied, sleeves rolled up with wings out look here)

trickortreatex collection recs, creators anon until Nov 7th:

The Addams Family:
- It Takes Two... Summary: "Oh, Tish....that's French." (gorgeous art of Gomez and Morticia)

Guardian:
- The Ghost and the Snake Summary: They are tiny and cute and (not very) spooky. (really cute art of Wang Zheng and Zhu Hong)

Original Work:
- Dog in a fog (wonderfully ominous art of British folklore's Black Dog)
- Prima Donna Summary: A little orangutan’s dreams come true (adorable art)
- [Art] If You Dare Summary: Go ahead, knock. (delightfully creepy comic)
- Witch and Company Summary: Witch cat and their mouse familiar (really cool papercraftish art)
- Long Night Detective? Summary: "I do so hate to drop in after hours but there's just one last thing-" (absolutely amazing Fairy Prince/Noir Detective art)
- Joyride (hilarious art with a mouse familiar who really isn't enjoying the ride on their cat witch's broom)

(I know I've said this a few times already this year but sadly I do suspect I'll be breaking my 4+ year steak of weekly reccing soon, it'd been getting harder and harder to find things to rec.)

I haven't had a ton of free time lately but have been trying to get started on my yuletide letter. Other than All Souls (which will be my 7th time requesting) all my requests will be new which is exciting! New fandoms! Except that means coming up with the prompts from scratch which is not easy. Usually I am repeating 2 or 3 fandoms so I can reuse and reword things.

Also, I'm kicking myself because I totally forgot to take pictures of my most recent craft project- I had been working on a rug (back to knotted kind, from a set of old blue sheets) and my parents asked for it but they'd need it before they headed out of state (they snowbird every year now) so I rushed to finish it before we headed to their house for break-the-fast after Yom Kippur and finished with a half hour to spare and documenting it totally slipped my mind. Oh well. They loved it which is the important thing.

I don't know if anyone's followed the SciShow vs the knitting community controversy but...

cut for length

For those unaware about a month ago on SciShow Hank Green did a video called "Physicists Don't Understand Why Knitting Works" that was... well, not great (and the info provided didn't match the clickbaity title at all). There was some true science presented in it, including some recent studies that were quite interesting, but it was presented in a way that, well, kind of implied actual crafters didn't know or even think about much about the hows or whys it's done the way it's done and if that's not enough it did so in a kind of pat-on-the-head dismissiveness of women's work kind of way. It also was just riddled with errors (from mistaking nalbinding for knitting, to not seeming to realize the difference between woven garments and knitted ones, to even misspelling the word 'stitch' numerous times, etc etc)

There were some great videos posted in response to it though, Kristine Vike did a great Scientist and Knitter reacts to SciShow's knitting video and JillianEve started a new channel, Evie Unraveling, to do her own I Remade the SciShow Knitting Video (with accurate SCIENCE) (there are numerous other good reaction vids, these were the two by people I followed already).

Previously, SciShow pinned a not very good correction/we hear you had issues with out content comment to the vid in response to backlash but I noticed a few days ago that SciShow actually pulled their vid and put up an apology youtube community comment which was pretty decent. Long story short (too late) I thought the whole controversy was interesting and that some of you might find it so as well. (As a note, I've still unsubscribed, I'd noticed a few errors/bad takes/odd ways they'd presented things in previous videos but hadn't really known enough about most subjects to question their ability to teach me things but I learned long ago that if I'd been following someone to learn from what they present and they do a topic I know something about and notice issues with what they present then it means it's likely there's been plenty of things I hadn't noticed so I can't rely on them anymore.)

And last but not least, here's 2 weeks of recthething recs! (MDZS/Untamed fic and Batman, Clue, Doctor Who, MDZS, Merlin, and Supernatural tumblr art):

The fic:
the cat distribution system by ScarlettStorm (38k)
Summary Snippet: Wei Wuxian gets a cat, and then a boyfriend, both of which are a surprise. (great fic with great art from the 2025 MDZS Reverse Big Bang, also 2 podfics have been done of this fic, linked in the endnotes)

the tumblr art:

Batman/DCU
- Nightwing written in Nightwing (very cool effect)

Clue (the movie)
- “Okay, Chief, take 'em away. I'm gonna go home and sleep with my wife.” (excellent art of the cast)

Doctor Who (Classic)
- Delgado!Master doodle (love this)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Dadji and his pride and joy (Adorable LWJ and a-yuan and bunnies)

Merlin
- Tenderness (perfect title for this terribly tender Merther moment)

Supernatural
- Dean Winchester <333 (excellent rendition)

I've spent the last three or so weeks going through and updating the resources links posts and I'm not done, it's still an ongoing progress. I had over 150 links to add and I also like to go through and check for dead/changed links every 1-2 years (which I last did spring 2024 and now takes *forever* since 2k+ links). I'll also (probably) be splitting the randomness post into two posts and moving some things from the Hollywood/history post over to one of those posts but that's all still in the planning stages while I still slowly make my way through the other posts.

It always amazes me how many links die every time I do this. Sometimes it's just a web address switch and I'm able to find the new one and I do try to back stuff up at the wayback machine when I add links to my resource posts but they're not always things or sites that can be backed up so finding dead links there is a crapshoot. (It's still a wonderful resource though, more than 160 links *had* been backed up and are now accessible via it). That old adage about 'once something is on the internet it's there forever' is just not true. Some stuff will be there forever, but others? *poof*

As always, if anyone uses the resource posts and finds the layout confusing, has suggestions to make it better, has links (or even general topics) they should be added, etc etc just give me a shout, either here or on the specific post or any of my posts in general honestly. I'd like them to be as useful and informative as they can be.

It's almost Yuletide time! The schedule has been posted and for the first time in a few years there's been some changes (mostly a 12 hour shift backwards with assignment deadline not being 9pm UTC on Wednesday 17 December instead of 9am on the 18th and reveals being 9pm UTC on Wednesday 24 December instead of 9am on the 25th.) They've changed before and will change again, they mods need to do what work best for them and they've given us plenty of time to adjust to the change.

Another interesting change is as an experiment for this year only we'll be given 5 nomination slots instead of 4 (although with still only 4 slots per fandom) and the ability to have up to 8 requests rather than the previous max of 6. I usually only request 3 or 4 so that doesn't really affect me but more nom slots is definitely nice. :)

And, whoops. here's a month or so of recthething recs (tons of tumblr art recs and some MDZS/Untamed fic/podfic recs):

Tumblr art:
Batman/DCU:
- The whole world at her fingertips. (love this take on Barbara as Oracle)
- AU: what if Dick became the vessel for Nightwing of Krypton? (wow, incredible idea and art)

DMBJ/The Lost Tomb:
- Heihua (Xiazi 'helping' Xiao Hua with his opera makeup, excellent)
- the apple trend ft. heihua... (delightfully sensuous)

Doctor Who:
- Sandwich break (Jamie and Two!!! Lovely)

The Losers
- How to Properly Care For Your Domesticated Housecat Cougar (this is just so soft and gorgeous)

MDZS/The Untamed:
- we will always get through the bad times (gorgeous mirror set of paintings)

Merlin
- I just needed to draw them again (gorgeous Merthur wih magic art)
- devotion (this is *incredible*)
- dressing up your boyfriend as a silly lil jester (absolutely nailed their expressions in this one)
- Being rough with Merlin is Arthur’s love language guys trust me (love their expressions!)

The Princess Bride
- This is true love. You think this happens every day? (gorgeous, almost movie poster style look at most of the cast)

Star Trek
- I finished the quilt I’m gifting to my daughter (Absolutely amazing TOS Enterprise in space quilt)

Supernatural:
- as a spn fan i’m legally obliged to draw this (Dean at his snarky, beaten-up best)
- I love old men retired yaoi (a wonderful look of what the future might have been for dean and cas)
- diner (Sam and Dean in a diner, spot on)


MDZS/Untamed fic/podfic:
Target Acquired (A Family) by relenafanel (11.7k, locked to archive)
Summary: Wei Wuxian has been on his own for months. It’s easier to pull off surprise assassinations against the sect that destroyed the Jiangs if most people think he’s dead. He doesn’t expect Lan Wangji to join with his own vendetta against the Wen. And he certainly doesn’t expect to acquire A-Yuan in the middle of a job. (assassin AU that's also sort of fluffy and adorable)

fic and its podfic
the guqin player next door by marquisguyun (1k)
Summary: Lan Qiren meets someone who is far older than he looks. (mortal/reincarnated LQR and immortal LWJ); podfic (by sisi_rambles, length - 6:33)

Whelp, got swallowed by Battleship as usual. The teams have been hilariously/horribly poorly determined/set up this year with one steamrolling away, clearing boards usually 24-48 (or more) ahead of anyone else, two teams pretty much neck and neck and then the last team days behind them. When team placements were announced I assumed the front-running team would lead due to who was on it (the majority were on the team that blitzed through most of the game last year) but had no idea it'd be this bad or uneven. Oh well. By focusing on only my team's chats and trying to write the best/most interesting things I can write I am still mostly enjoying myself.

It's fruit themed this year and my team is Grape and each team has its own emoji of the yellow blob blorbo thing hugging the team's fruit and the grape team got very silly and after a poll named ours glorbo and tons of people were drawing it so I decided to immortalized it in crochet even if I couldn't put it in the collection so behold .... Glorbo the Glorbnificent! (Glorbo + a rough pattern for making it)

Since my last post the h/c exchange authors were revealed. I wrote:

Embers Seeking Flame. Untamed fic, 4,208 words. Summary: Lan Sizhui did not often find himself reminiscing on the past. It was what it was. Or was it? (LSZ&WWX fic, rated G)

Reaching That Inevitable Horizon. The First Shot fic, 1162 words. Summary: No matter how much Zheng Bei wishes it wasn't the case, there is only one way this can, and ever could, end. (JXH/ZB, spoilers for drama's end, T rated, see warnings)

It's interesting, because I usually write in past tense but every so often a fic just *needs* to be in the present tense to get a better feel for the tension and action. Reaching That Inevitable Horizon would have read and felt very differently if it hadn't been in present (as would my long Under the Skin fic, Gently Toward a New Bright Morn). The immediacy and sense of pace required them to be present tense.

Oh! And once h/c revealed I passed the 500 work mark on AO3! (yes, I could have passed that ages ago if I'd actually put all my drabbles up there from pre-ao3 days or if I combined my EAD birthday sock with donutsweeper's stuff but whatever, still, 500!)

Have a bunch of recthething recs! (MDZS/Untamed fic and tumblr art for DMBJ, Great Mouse Detective, Old Guard, SPN, Under the Skin, and WoH)

MDZS/Untamed fic rec:
- A Change of State by Toshokanin (36k, squidgeworld fic, not AO3)
Summary Snippet: senior citizen LQR whose nephews have gone off to college and jobs, leaving him alone in the house where he raised them. (delightful story where LQR wanders into the bookstore where WWX works and discovers BL manga (which happens to be volume 1 of the story of Hanguang-jun and Yiling-laozu) and the friendship that grows between the two while they read/discuss the books)

tumblr art recs:

DMBJ/Lost Tomb
- 🕶️🌸 (Gorgeous Heihua- Hei Xiazi/Xiao Hua- art)

The Great Mouse Detective
- Mouse Detective Again (Some adorable doodles)
- a domestic Toby moment (Very cute Toby, Dawson and Basil moment)

The Old Guard
- Quick ipad sketch while watching old guard2 (spoiler free sketch of Andy)

Supernatural
- my favorite part was doing the book (Dean in 'Faith', gorgeous)

Under the Skin
- Craft time an Under the Skin dangling paper dolls tutorial with template you can DL and print out to make (these are darling!)

Word of Honor
- For your consideration. Princess Bride/Word of Honor AU (perfect and utterly hilarious comic)

I have managed to go through all of the links I'd saved to Pocket. It was honestly interesting to work my way backwards through fannish interests (the big ones like Sherlock, MCU, SPN, Merlin, NCIS, SGA, Mag7, and DW/TW but also random ones I dipped into like Sleepy Hollow, SouthLAnd, Haven and so many more) via fics and anon meme comments saved, different research rabbit holes, and general hobby interests. Out of the 1.5-2k links I've kept a little over 300 or so (many articles/fics were read but didn't need to be kept and probably at least half the links were dead). About half those kept were genealogy links-I used to be massively interested in that but mostly researched backwards as much as possible (quite far for a few ancestors including some of hub's to late 1600s/early 1700s Sweden on his dad's side and his mom's to 1500/1600 France->Quebec; many of mine I can't trace before they arrive in the US 1900ish but there's a few I've traced back to late 1700s/early 1800s in the Pale of Jewish Settlement) - generally I've lost the shine of the whole search process but I kept the links just in case. The other half is pretty random, but includes a good dozen or two things I'll be adding to various of my useful links posts so keep an eye out for that.

The Hurt/Comfort Exchange announced due to unclaimed pinch hits (there were still two unclaimed last time I checked) that there will be a delay in opening so instead of going live tomorrow, it'll be July 4th. Kind of bummed about that.

I've made two more rugs out of prepped strips I'd made a few weeks back:

a big, give or take 37" by 27" rusty batik(ish) one and

a smaller, 27.5" by 17" ish blue/green plaid and grey one, out of the rest of the strips left over from the rug I posted about 2 weeks ago and a pair of old grey flannel sleep pants

I'm pretty much out of places I can put rugs here, but I still have lots of prepped strips and whatnot. Not sure what I'll do about that.

Here's two week's worth of tumblr art recs at recthething (due South, DMBJ, Doctor Who, Guardian, MDZD/Untamed and Merlin):

due South
- Let’s pretend the Rays are in the basement of an all girls school again okay (hilarious would-be reaction of the Rays responding to Fraser, and his action, in the ep he was posing as Ms Fraser)

DMBJ
- The coolest guy ever (absolutely incredible art of Reboot's version of Hei Xiazi)
- Zhang Qiling doodle (amazing take on UN's Xiao Yulang's Xiaoge photoshoot)

Doctor Who
- Two (absolutely darling)

Guardian
- Something dramatic for Weilan (this is incredible and so tender)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Modern mdzs series: 1) Wei Ying, 2) Lan Zhan, 3) Wen Ning, 4) Wen Qing, and 5) Jiang Cheng. (Love the whole series, especially Lan Zhan and Wen Ning's looks)
- sometimes I think about older Mianmian meeting Jin Ling and I just. have to take a moment (a comic/bit of animation with a little meta/thoughts about Mianmian and Jin Ling, hits you in the feels)

Merlin
- Treating myself with some soft Merthur (tender, beautiful kisses)
- my first offering to the merlin fandom, good god i'm so obsessed. look at what i've done to my boy. (amazing use of color and lighting in this)
- (tw suggestive) Lap dance (yes, good, thank you)

As a head's up there's a new round of bots hitting AO3 and posting comments claiming works failed some kind of AI test. The one I got read "Claude showed 69% on analysis. Already posted it to the Discord blacklist. There’s a massive difference between using AI for brainstorming and straight-up uploading what the bot spits out. Readers deserve better." They're usually left by guests so if you get one just hit the 'report spam' button and ignore/delete it. (Hilariously, the comment was left on a work written for an children's lit exchange in 2013 so very very much not able to have been made by AI and it's the only work in its fandom so I've no idea how they even found it to bother with their spam).

In more *ugh* news last year Duolingo fired a lot of its translators to pivot to AI and now Duolingo's CEO has announced Duolingo will be replacing ALL contract workers with AI and elsewhere announced a whole slew of new languages the app will be offering that have all been created (solely or mostly) via AI. None are English->other language so I haven't checked any out but there's been numerous posts/comments/reports of how... not great they are to put it politely. Ever since Duo got rid of the tree I've been collecting tumblr and reddit posts with suggestions for other apps/sites, I'm really busy right now but hope to throw together a post compiling the info within a few weeks.

There was recently a flash exchange focused on lemmings and other small rodents and I went a little nuts crocheting for it. I wound up making 4 creatures- 2 generic animals (mouse and capybara), Shanklin the Stab Possum from Gravity Falls (along with a crocheted knife for it), and The Death of Rats from Discworld (the scythe was so annoying to try to do OMG) and posting 9 works (reusing the mouse and capybara and a previously made guinea pig along with some little items I freehand crocheted for the prompts like a tiny mug of coffee, a shrink ray, a pair of wings, two flower crowns, etc. (Many, many other things were tried but failed. So many.) Everything's on donutsweeper (rather than my EAD birthday bash sock that most of the crochet is on) but here's a few of them:

(I really need to get better at taking pictures of my crochet. So much detail gets lost and sometimes the angle is just weird no matter what I try. SIGH)

And, last but not least, recthething recs! (One MDZS/Untamed Pacific Rim fusion fic and tumblr art for that plus Dracula, Looney Tunes, Merlin, Sherlock Holmes and SPN)

by the grace of the fire and the flames by ShippersList (56k, locked to archive)
Summary: Three years after the Sunshot Campaign (and two years after Wei Ying shut himself and the Wen remnants into the Burial Mounds), something rips open in the bottom of the sea and unimaginable horrors crawl out. The cultivation world unites once more in the face of a common enemy. Lan Wangji knows from the start that without Wei Ying, there is no hope of survival. (neat Pacific Rim AU)

Dracula
- I miss Dracula so heres a silly drawing of it as a muppet movie XD (absolutely delightful)

Looney Tunes
- If the Bugs Bunny show ever gets another revival, I advocate for Yosemite Sam to heckle at the hosts periodically (hilarious comic)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Lan Wangji, do you want revenge? (amazing Yiling Laozu LWJ)
- Ahh... the Burial Mounds (hilarious multi-panel comic)

Merlin
- First date ideas (these are so sweet)

Sherlock Holmes
- Lesson (love the way the pipe smoke blends into the background in this Granada!Holmes sketch)

Supernatural
- Carry On (gorgeous Dean fanart)</details)

Today the friending meme over at snowflake_challenge was posted and it made me realize I hadn't actually done any of the challenges this year. The past two years I'd bounced off of a few and skipped others since they weren't pertinent, but I was kind of surprised to realize the month had come and gone and there hadn't been a single challenge I really was interested in or hadn't done numerous times before. Sigh. Oh well.

I'm nearly halfway through the blanket I'm working on, unfortunately I hadn't noticed that taking a break from it to do the EAD and Threshold amigurumi resulted in me using a much tighter stitch for a bit but oh well, I noticed now and loosened up the stitch. There's a chunk of rows where it's a lot less wide and tighter but it's just a throw that's going to live on the back of the couch and not be a present or sold or anything so meh, oh well.

As an FYI, if you've been thinking maybe you've been getting less kudos lately than usual, it's not your work, it's AO3. Kudos emails for numerous accounts were simply not sent out several times this month (including today and yesterday, seven days in all, particularly if you usually get yours from 6-9am EST). Apparently they're looking into it, but it's not a quick fix.

I listen to/watch a lot of history, linguistic/language and various other learn-about-something type podcasts and youtube channels and I'm finding that more and more often the research they seem to be doing is more of the briefest glace-at-wikipedia-if-that type than any real work at finding any details out themselves. It's frustrating. (Most recently on my instant-drop list was an english language lovers focused one that had an entire episode about Shakespeare and how many words and phrases he invented. Which, no. First recorded use of? Meh, maybe even if most actually aren't (including one he gave that even the OED mentioned was from Old English), but invented? Definitely not. Not only has the idea he did been disproven over and over by now, it's also beyond illogical, his plays had to be understood by the people who watched them. SIGH)

There *are* still a bunch that provide sources and show and explain their research, thankfully, but it's just frustrating how rare it's becoming. Currently, my favorite (actually well researched) language-oriented one is the idioms podcast Bunny Trails (which is on most podcast platforms but also puts their podcasts up on youtube) and the history one is the welsh history youtube channel Cambrian Chronicles which, among other things, has done some really interesting dives into incorrect wikipedia articles, trying to figure out why wikipedia claims what it does.

Have two weeks of recthething recs (one Mdzs/Untamed fic and tumblr art for DMBJ, Guardian, MDZS/Untamed, Merlin, ST:Voy, and Under the Skin):

Junior Detectives! (The Case of Mo Xuanyu) by CheekyBrunette (64k)
Summary Snippet: The one where Wei Wuxian uses the pseudonym "Mo Xuanyu" for reasons yet to be revealed, and the junior detectives solve a case each chapter while investigating their chemistry teacher. (cute YA detective book vibes in this recently finished fic)

Tumblr art recs:
DMBJ/Lost Tomb:
- Happy new year from hei xiazi and his snake friend (wonderful snake, wonderful way to celebrate the Lunar New Year)
Guardian:
- Dark Guardian (dark yet beautiful art of Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei as the Black Robed Envoy and Da Qing)
- who did this? | it’s not mine part one and part two (Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan through the years, wonderfully done)
MDZS/The Untamed:
- would you like a Wen Ning in these trying times? (ridiculously cute wen ning)
Merlin
- Merthur Modern AU (gorgeous)
Star Trek Voyager:
- Star Trek Threshold (adorable art done in Lower Decks Style for this silly holiday)
Under the Skin:
- let the light in (cute Shen Yi, Du Cheng and Xiaoxuan the cat art)

I finished my Yuletide assignment but I don't think any significant amount of treats are happening this year. I had been hoping that my output would turn around and while I didn't expect to be anywhere near my most productive years, I was hoping to match what I managed the last two years but it doesn't look like that will happen. To an extent it's due to my shifting away from watching much western tv - a lot of years there used to be some show (or even two) I'd picked up and watched during the writing period and could then fill some treats that way but I also just haven't been writing much in general lately so who knows. I know there's more to Yuletide than just writing treats, I just have to convince my brain that.

In the least shocking news to people who read my dreamwidth ever, I've been crocheting and baking a bunch. (And tis very annoying I can't just post discord pics of everything here anymore, uploading images to dreamwidth is too annoying to do for everything). Baking over the last month or so has included pumpkin bread with cinnamon streusel, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, oatmeal raisin muffins, carrot bread, peanut butter swirl brownies, cream cheese chocolate chip cookies, chocolate crumble cake, mixed chip cookies (various combos of white chocolate, peanut butter chip and chocolate chips as well as each separately), peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and probably more?

Crochetwise there's that oven mitt I mentioned last post and then I used all the cotton scraps from the various mitts/potholders to make a kitchen scrubby. I also made a worry wyrm/fidget dragon and am 90% done with current blanket. The black friday yarn sales were meh, but decent enough I could get more cotton and the yarn I need for the next blanket I have planned. (Non-crochet crafting-wise I also have enough bread bags I need to at least start another rug to use them up.) Pictures!:

worry wyrm and oven mitt

and

Under the Skin S2 drops on the 10th. I *loved* s1. (Here's the review I wrote up of it.) It was tightly written and well acted and actually inspired me to write something outside of an exchange for it. So far the promos for S2 look good but still, I'm nervous. More than once I gotten new content in a canon that not only did not improve upon the existing material but also dashed my love and interest in it. *Sigh* fingers crossed.

Anyway, moving on. Randomness from around the world I found interesting:
Notorious skyjacker "Dan Cooper" aka D.B. Cooper might have finally been identified (according to this Popular Science article anyway, there has been nothing officially reported that I can find.)

Ethiopian wolves have been observed foraging for nectar and acting as pollinators for red hot poker flowers (scientific paper, Science.org article about it)

Video on how an accessible no-tape wrapping hack for the upcoming (or any) holiday season (mp4 link from tumblr)

And, last but not least ficinabox art recs (creators still anon, somehow I mucked up a few of the links when posting to the comm but I think they're all fixed now - fandoms are DC comics, Doctor Who, Dungeon Meshi, Dream SMP, Firefly, Hamlet, Original Work, SVSS, Star Trek: Lower Decks and X-files)

DC
- Flying (Coloring Page) Summary: KonJay coloring page (great expressions on both Jason and Kon-el in this)
- Cass (stunning)
- Nightwing and Haley Crochet Doll Patterns Summary: Crochet Nightwing and Haley (Bitewing) dolls and patterns to make them. (adorable crochet plus patterns! How cute!)

Doctor Who
- [Art] Hold On (Two and Jamie, adorable)
- [Art] My Best Enemy (Three and Delgado!Master, the look on the Master's face here is priceless)

ダンジョン飯 | Dungeon Meshi | Delicious in Dungeon
- haircare is very important Summary: Falin is excited to volunteer and help Marcille with her hair when Chilchuck is not around. For Marcille, it feels different when Falin does it. (lovely and sweet)

Dream SMP
- Pig Techno and Crowza On An Adventure Summary: Pictures of pig Techno and Crow Philza in crochet form. (Honestly, I don't know this fandom but saw it was crochet so had to click and it's adorable)

Firefly
- [art] From the Sketchbook of Simon Tam (three sketches, I really love the one of River)

Hamlet
- Hamlet Coloring Pages (Ophelia and Horatio coloring pages, very cool)
- Hamlet Costume Designs Summary: Costume designs for characters from Hamlet. (Hamlet and Ophelia, nicely detailed)

Original Work
- better kept in secret (absolutely gorgeous pirate captain/navy captain nemesis art)
- Be Nice To Your Printer! Summary: A poster tacked to the office noteboard regarding printers (hilarious!)
- [Art] Tiny Witch With a Tiny Familiar Summary: An autumn witch clad in autumn leaves. (leaf art (leaves + art?), stunning)

人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
- Shen Yuan and the merman (lovely AU)

Star Trek: Lower Decks
- Boldly Go! Summary: A propaganda poster put together by an overworked Starfleet Comms Officer who didn't check what her model's quote translated to before she pushed the Cetacean's recruitment posters live. (this made me laugh)

X-Files
- From Above Summary: Digital Art based on the episode Revelations (really amazing imagery)

20ish hours left to signup for yuletide! They close at 9pm UTC on the 18th (which is 4pm CDT). There's currently 1070 signups, there's been quite the jump in numbers over the last day or two, I assume it'll be 1200-1300 by the time signups close. (Humourously, it jumped from 1058 signup in the time it took me to write and post this.)

I cleaned out the junk drawer the other day. Here have a sign of how old I am (probably/possibly understandable only by fellow americans but...)



Many of you are probably already aware, but the internet archive was taken down by a ddos attack last week. They've managed to get the wayback machine back up, but it's currently read only. The rest of the archive is currently still down but they've posted they hope to get everything back up soon.

Political news has been quite the shitshow here in the US of late (well, *more* of a shitshow of late) but it made me smile to see that Jimmy Carter's been able to fulfill his dream of voting in the current election (early voting in Georgia began yesterday), two weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday. I met him once, ages ago when he came to my college for an event and he was so kind and down-to-earth, it's nice to see him be able to accomplish what he's said was his final wish.

Last but not least, here's two weeks' worth of recthething recs (all mdzs/untamed fic recs):

grimoire by WithLoweredVoices (95k)
Summary: ‘Alright, fine,’ huffs Wei Ying, blowing out his cheeks. He adjusts his grip on the smooth hilt of the sword, as cold as wet stone beneath his palm. ‘How do I give this back to you?’
‘I must trade with you something of equal worth,’ says the strange man.
‘Uh. Okay.’ Wei Ying rubs his forehead with his free hand. ‘How about your name? Your real name.’ In case he needs to file a police report or stalk this beautiful, scary man on google or something.
The man looks even more angry. He pulls his shoulders back and draws himself to his full height, which is rather impressive and forces Wei Ying to tip his chin up slightly.
‘My name is Lan Zhan,’ the man says. ( fascinating 'dark academia (but not) au')

King’s Shadow by Solmae (13k)
Summary: On the verge of a war with the powerful Wen Kingdom, the Lan Kingdom calls in an old debt and seeks a marriage alliance with the Jiang Kingdom. The Jiang Kingdom sends its prince in answer, but is he truly an olive branch of friendship, or a clever assassin in disguise? To uncover the truth and thwart a potential assassination attempt, Lan Wangji poses as his older brother to court the Jiang prince in Lan Xichen’s stead. However, in more ways than one, there may be more to the situation than meets the eye... (cute mistaken/hidden identity royal!au)

Gardens and Fields by Ashura (16.5k)
Summary: Lan Qiren quells him with his most forbidding glare. ‘This is a matter which requires delicacy, which is why I struggle to believe I am actually requesting Wei Wuxian’s assistance. But,’ he finishes wearily, ‘it also requires someone who can reliably identify the cultivation techniques. And preferably someone not directly connected to Gusu Lan. Which leaves but one viable option, however much I may dislike it.’ (nice post-canon fic that deals with some of the mess that would have been left behind after Su She's downfall)

In a follow up to my last post, I just saw that trobadora has posted the excellent news that the 'Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms' has been reinstated as a metatag and been decoupled from Sherlock (TV). Upon perusal, it looks like now it is the top tier tag and the majority of Holmesian fandoms (importantly, including Sherlock (TV)) are subtags of it. So now clicking on tag and excluding Sherlock (TV) will work to actually exclude the Sherlock fics and shows 17k works. It's not perfect because there seem to be a few Holmesian fandoms missing (for example, only the Sherlock Holmes (US TV 1954) fics that have been tagged with both that and the 'related fandoms' tag are showing up, for some reason that particular fandom doesn't seem to be included in the tag tree) but STILL. So happy they reversed this decision.

Here's the beginning of the official AO3 tumblr's post explains the walkback:

"Tag wrangling is, on the whole, a fluid process. It’s meant to be, because the way language is used and the way tags are used change over time. We’re the first to admit that we don’t always get it right, and that we do sometimes make mistakes despite our best intentions. This is why wrangling decisions are not set in stone and are reevaluated periodically as circumstances change or as new information becomes available.

In light of the impact that removing the Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms metatag has had, we have put that metatag back in place."

I suspect support got inundated with complaints and I feel a little bad for them, but I'm just glad they listened to fandom on a whole about the subject and it looks like they'll be a little more cautious about changes like this from now on.

Anyway, moving on... It's almost yuletide! Nominations open Monday! The evidence post is already up. Time to think about what I'll be nominating! Thanks to some amazing luck, several of my recent repeating fandom requests were actually filled the last year or two so I need to come up with some new things. Decisions, decisions.

For no reason whatsoever I decided to crochet a little bunny

And here's this week's recthething recs (2 MDZS/Untamed fic recs):

Lan Sizhui and the Whispers of the Lost by Vulpeculate (30k)
Summary: One morning, late in the winter of Lan Sizhui’s final year as a junior high student, he woke up alone. - Lan Sizhui faces a mystery close to home when a sudden disappearance puts his life into disarray. The secrets of the past and present will challenge him as he seeks to find what has taken his father. Who is the eccentric, inexperienced librarian who has taken up staff at Gusu Junior High School? What mysterious light glows from the inner walls of the Cloud Recesses? What lurks in the woods beyond town? Will Lan Sizhui and his friends find out the truth before it's too late? (fun YA styled modern-with-cultivation mystery AU)

Sunshot in Charcoal by Serpex (<1k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian remembers his past life. No one else does. He thinks that it will always be like that. But for a moment, hope festers in his heart as a vivid scene is born from Lan Sizhui's canvas. But, he's learned not to rely on foolish hopes even if he wants to. (poignant and slightly sad modern AU)

Hope everyone's having a good September! The hot weather here finally broke, which is nice but now there's all the outside work that I'd been putting off to do which is less nice. Tis the way of things, I guess.