Misc Art
London Review of Books: Diary: Before 1776 by Rebecca Solnit.
Beautiful review of an art exhibit inspired by early Pueblo revolutionaries.

Whatever Works (Substack): let's do a 'couch to 5k' for reading by Naomi Alderman.
Fun co-op to do more reading, thanks to snickfic for linking to it.

Bona Books: Honey, We Bought an AI Story.
The ongoing struggle to protect the arts, with some stumbles along the way.


Politics:
Anishinabek Nation 7th Generation Charity.
Supporting the Indigenous communities burned out in Northern Ontario.

Assigned Media: Pete Hegseth is Obsessed With Testosterone. Here’s All the Neat Science the Manosphere’s Not Talking About by Jules Sherred.
Mostly about the science rather than US Politics, but it discusses quite a bit of transphobia.


The Odyssey Discourse:
(I'm not going to see this. I decided a long time ago that if Nolan wasn't going to be interested in women as a category, I wasn't going to be interested in him as a filmmaker, and nothing that's happened since has changed my mind about that.)

The Guardian: Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey used occupied land as a film set. That feels like a betrayal by Mohamed Sleiman Labat.
Morocco weaponises cinema to whitewash its occupation of our land. By courting foreign film crews to shoot in Western Sahara while denying the Sahrawi the right to film and express themselves, Morocco uses cinema to manufacture a romantic, tourist-friendly image designed by a regime deploying every political, economic and cultural tool to keep the occupation’s status quo and deny Sahrawi existence and resistance.
I find this pretty unforgivable, especially given what I understand to be message of the film. WTF!?

Democracy Now: Four Days in Occupied Western Sahara — A Rare Look Inside Africa’s Last Colony as Ceasefire Ends (An hour-long filmed documentary, with transcript).
I didn't know very much about the Sahrawi, and this was quite informative. Things seem really bad there!

sovay: No bones stacked by the hearth, no ghosts on the heath.
About the importance of not placing written history above all else, in context of Nolan's comments regarding The Odyssey.

1. We had a nice evening at Disneyland and got a free Magic Key license plate frame!

2. I was worried we'd come back to a really hot, stuffy house after having been gone a long day, but it really wasn't too bad. The humidity's down a little and it's a bit windier, so that helps.

3. I had significantly less coughing today. Still not zero, but definitely a continued improvement.

4. Jasper is such a handsome boy.

We did an after work trip today and I was worried about the weather being super gross, but it was actually not as bad as it has been! Higher temps than at home, but the humidity was lower and it was overcast so the sun wasn't blazing down on us, which helped a lot (we did get pretty sweaty still, but it seemed easier to cool down).

( Read more... )

30 Arcane:
9 Jayce Talis, 10 Mel Medarda
1 Jinx, 7 Vi, 3 Caitlyn

25 The Boys:
10 Homelander, 7 Starlight
8 Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles)

20 Enola Holmes 1 & 2:
20 Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill)



See the rest here

I've been away for the last week (family wedding followed by some travel around Alaska, mostly without wifi and often without cell service, then had houseguests for a couple of days).

Along the way, I acquired a couple of new-to-me Dick Francises in a used bookstore and read them!

Slayride - Well, this definitely has one of the All Time Titles. A British investigator of horse racing shenanigans (of course) investigates a jockey's mysterious disappearance in Norway, with lots of beautifully described chilly ambiance. I was thinking about 2/3 of the way through that this one might end up ranking in my top-tier Francis, because it had some absolutely lovely twists and character surprises! And then a total flat pancake of a disappointing ending in which

vague spoilers

the hero sensibly gets the authorities involved and all the interesting and exciting stuff happens off page without him. And most of the promising character relationships start to develop and then just kind of go off a cliff partway through the book and never get any resolution. DICK FRANCIS, WHY.

Hot Money - This was solid fun! Ian is the estranged son of a rich serial philanderer with five ex-wives and nine kids. Ian's dad wants Ian to help him figure out which of the many suspects is trying to kill him for his money (while also ostentatiously blowing as much of his money on frivolous things as possible before the greedy family can get their hands on it). It's essentially a country house murder mystery in which the murder victim has so far managed to dodge all the murder attempts, and I had a great time with it. It genuinely did keep me guessing 'til the end, with some fun and interesting twists along the way. Very solid Dick Francis, may end up a favorite.

(I feel as if I may have read this one before; there's something very faintly familiar about it. But if so, I didn't remember a thing.)

Happy to elaborate with spoilers in the comments if anyone wants more details! My brain is still a bit flat from all the travel and visiting.

At my journal! Fandoms include:

Sunless Sea
The Haunting of Hill House
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
The Terror
Original Work

That is always welcome to me.

The good news is two fold. One I sold another story for a holiday episode of a magazine (online) and it pays well so woo hoo.

And I got the cover of the next anthology I'll be in. I'll let you know when the buy links are live.






today was just more work and grocery shopping.

I did manage to finish a second fandomgiftbasket story. I have two more I'd like to write. I'm not sure if this one fits the prompts as well as it should but I don't think it's a bad one. I do hope the masterlist of who needs gifts comes out soon.


And it's music monday. I'm restarting an old favorite, the Alphabet. This time I'm keeping the songs in the last year or so.

First up is A with Harry Styles who has two in the last year.

68 summer, nostalgia, beach, mermaid stock/photography icons







view here @ lovelyhip

I've written a couple of the missing interviews with Zhao Xinci during his loyalty test in episode 16. :-)


Title: Surface Tension (1540 words) by china_shop [General Audiences]
Characters: Zhao Xinci | Zhao Yunlan's Father, Zhang Shi, Chu Shuzhi
Additional Tags: Episode 16, Missing Scene, loyalty test, Secret Identity, Anti-Dixing Bigotry, Zhao Xinci’s A+ Parenting, Summary:

In Zhao Xinci’s day, he’d never have countenanced one of Them on his team. When races mingled, discord and divided loyalties were inevitable. But of course Yunlan thought he knew better, was apparently willing to bet Haixing’s security on the strength of the Dixing Envoy’s judgement and so set in place the perfect conditions for his own downfall. Zhao Xinci’s hand clenched on his tea mug, unthinkingly borrowing some of his stowaway’s strength.

Careful, murmured Zhang Shi, you’ll break it and give us away.

Title: Cold Blood, Hot heart (1238 words) by china_shop [General Audiences]
Characters: Zhu Hong, Zhao Xinci | Zhao Yunlan's Father
Additional Tags: Episode 16, Missing Scene, loyalty test, Zhu Hong’s crush on Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Xinci’s A+ Parenting, Summary:

Zhu Hong was not a shrinking violet. The only way she knew to cope with conflict was to barge into it. So she knocked and entered without waiting for an invitation, all fired up to give Zhao Yunlan’s father a piece of her mind.

The Sphere (Michael Lückgen, 2026)



( A mysterious sphere falls from the sky and is found by a grieving man. )


Murdercide 2017 (Powerhoof, 2017)



( In the dystopian near-future, a PI is called in to investigate a murder in this deliberately ridiculous send-up of every cyberpunk trope in the book. )


Ciao Nonna (Crescendo, 2020)



( A queer girl comes home for the funeral of her grandmother, the only family member who supported her. )

 
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Monday, July 20, to midnight on Tuesday, July 21. (8pm Eastern Time).




Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
 

Our new challenge is:

CLOTH/FABRIC

As always, you can interpret the prompt literally or figuratively, in whatever way works for you.

Each work created for this challenge should be posted as a new entry to the comm. Posting starts now and continues up until the challenge ends at 4pm Pacific Time on Saturday, 1st August. No sign-up required.

Mods will tag your work for fandom. When you've posted entries to three consecutive challenges, you will earn a name tag, and we'll go back and tag all your previous entries with your name, as well.

All kinds of fanworks in all fandoms are welcome. Please have a look at our guidelines before you play. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact a mod. And if you have any suggestions for future challenges, you can leave them in the comments of this post.

You can view stats for fan_flashworks entries and search and filter them via the Community Report and Creator Report. See our FAQ post for more details.

Also, keep an eye out for the next ffw_social post, which will go up in the next couple of days. If you haven't joined the ffw_social comm, it's never too late to come and check it out. (Posts are locked, which means you have to join to see them.)

The Praise challenge is now closed. Here are the entries:

Heated Rivalry: Fan Fiction: Happy vs Comfort by darkjediqueen
The Pitt: Fanfic: the sweetest of all sounds by apinchofcyanide
The Fantastic Journey: Fanfic: Praise Beticus by badly_knitted
Mass Effect Trilogy: Sedoka: Don't Praise Me by infinitum_noctem
Original: Meta: In Praise of the Staff by smallhobbit
Starsky & Hutch: Fanfiction: Another Stolen Life by lucy_roman
Defenders of the Earth : icons : Learn from Mistakes by highlander_ii
Viola come il mare: Fanfic: You Earned It by veronyxk84
Guardian: fic: Cold Blood, Hot Heart by china_shop
Legend of Galactic Heroes: Fanfic: Parenting and Tea by iserlohna
Torchwood: Fanfic: With thanks by m_findlow
Sentenced to Be a Hero: Fic: Craving by jordannamorgan
After the Ordinary Beta and the Paranoid Enigma…: Fanfic: dried feathers (a wet body) by bluedreaming
Castlevania (Cartoon): Fanfic: Morning at an Inn by iserlohna
a-ha: Fanfic: Fingerprints on the Console by midnight_heavenly_bodies
Original: poetry: whither thou goest by teaotter

\o/ \o/ \o/

Thank you to everyone who participated! You're now free to post your entries to your journal or wherever else you'd like. If you're archiving on AO3, you can add your work to our fan_flashworks collection there.

The Community Report and Creator Report will be updated shortly with the entries from this round. See our FAQ for more details.

New challenge coming right up.

For (a slightly delayed by a flat tire in Phoenix) Poetry Monday:

The Problem of Writing Poems in Hot Weather, Brian Bilston

The problem
of writingpoems
inhot weather

isthatthe words
getsweaty
and sticktogether.


Source.

—L.

Subject quote from BIRDS OF A FEATHER, Billie Eilish.

部首
马 part 2
驾, to drive; 骂, to scold; 骄, proud ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrads=187

语法
5.4 不如/没有, not as…
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-5-grammar

词汇
度假, to go on vacation; 摄氏度, degrees Celsius; 速度, speed; 态度, attitude; 温度, temperature ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
要不你骂我吧，你，你揍我也行, go ahead and scold me, or you can, um, smack me too
来的可真够及时的，还真不如不来, look how punctual you are, better than not showing up at all
只要你端正态度, all you need to do is improve your attitude

Me:
没办法，我没驾照嘛。
在度假之前要好好跟同事们解释解释。

Allison Russell & Nora Jones - "Really Real"

Heads up, I'm unfollowing folks who still publicly engage with the wizard books.

I feel gross that I haven't done it already, and the recent JKR shit along with the Amnesty International bullshit was a solid motivator to finally do this. 

Wow, so much to post about. First of all, update on my last post where I mentioned about Livejournal seeming to have been blocked to those trying to access it from the United States, all in all that seemed to have been the case for about two to two and a half weeks or so but then randomly began to start to work again. Not sure what was up with that.

Amazingly, tinypinkmouse podficced four (4!!!!) of my DMBJ fics:
Oh for Those Lazy Days [Podfic]. Summary: Retirement suited Wang Pangzi.
As Evening Slowly Slides Into Night [Podfic]. Summary: An evening, like many others, for the Iron Triangle. (And their shared big bed.)
Unsteady Footsteps Along a Familiar Path [Podfic]. Summary: As Tianzhen's health deteriorated he'd requested this, one last adventure for the Iron Triangle, but why was it so similar to Pangzi's dream?
Travel Down the Road and Back Again (and Again) [Podfic]. Summary: The Iron Triangle's adventures don't always go according to plan.

Please go give them a listen, tinypinkmouse's work is always amazing.

Crafting-wise I've finished a few things things, a rug and a market bag. The market bag is actually pretty exciting since I actually created the pattern for it! Full write up of pattern is in this dreamwidth post (at some point I may add it to ravelry but I don't have the brainpower for it at the moment) but see the bag and the rug under the cut:

Grey rug made from a torn queen-sized fitted sheet - 32” x 22.5”

I also made a slouchy string market bag because a discord friend was having problems with the pattern they were using and it was easier to just make my own and share pics at each step than try to help any other way but that one is less exciting than the rectangular one.

Have two weeks of recthething recs (one MDZS fic and a bunch of taggle art recs):

Unnatural Consequences by Ashura (11k, locked to archive)
Summary: Lan Wangji began to play, and Wei Wuxian poked through the wreckage of fallen trees. The guqin’s soothing song cleared some of the haze of resentment, and Wei Wuxian could feel his muscles relaxing, the dull throbbing ache at the tip of his spine beginning to fade away. He stepped carefully between shattered branches, nudging away the piles of leaves and debris. He was hardly even paying attention when he felt something… respond.

When Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji encounter a creature that even the two of them together can't defeat, it seems a little unbelievable that nobody in the surrounding area has heard of it. In the wilderness north of Gusu, they uncover a secret that has waited years for one particular answer - one it turns out they might be just the people to provide. (interesting post-canon LWJ/WWX casefic)

Some taggle art recs, works anon until July 27th, check out the whole collection here

DCU
- where the hell is my lover! Summary: Art of Pamela Isley with some art nouveau inspiration!

MDZS/The Untamed:
- [Art] Rinsing (The fall of Lotus Pier, very eerie)

Original Work
- [ART] Pegasus in the mist Summary: It does not fear you. Do not come closer. (dark and foreboding)
- Bellerophon's Field Guide to Equines (art and descriptions of a Pegasus, Kelpie, Hippocamp, and Unicorn. Very cool)
- [Art] Oceanside Stroll. Summary: It's a beautiful evening for a sunset stroll on the beach. (wonderful dragon characters)
- [ART] An Avid Reader. Summary: Meet Snort, a guard of the Evil Wizard’s Small Dungeon. (such an adorable goblin!)

The weather here has been stupidly hot and humid all month and the wildfires have made the air terrible. Hope things are better where all of you are :)