Questions
Dec. 9th, 2025 08:08 pmMany of my friends are now in the 30-something club and facing many of the same existential questions about life and our place in it.
Am I happy? What skills do I need in this changing world? Do I want kids? Should I even have kids, knowing about climate change? What does a meaningful life look like? Should I move closer to home to be with my parents while they’re still around? Should I quit my job and start a commune?
These are great questions, and in general, asking probing questions about your life is an excellent idea. If you're into that,
( Read more... )
Stranger Things 501-504
Dec. 9th, 2025 05:59 pmBG3: Glad Tidings by partingxshot
Dec. 10th, 2025 12:41 pmPairings/Characters: Wyll/Astarion
Rating: T
Length: 25,638
Creator Links:
Theme: Amnesty, Black Characters, Characters of Colour, Character Development, Established Relationship, Family, Just Plain Fun, Marriage, Outsider POV, Politics, Post-Canon, Unconventional Format & Style, Working Together
Summary: You are ULDER RAVENGARD.
Your son is completely besotted with his fiancé, but you can’t figure out the appeal. He’s spoiled, and petty, and seems chiefly concerned with draining the Ravengard coffers. You are, frankly, at your wits’ fucking end.
Surely the only solution is to declare an INSANE SECRET WAR on him before he can ruin the MIDWINTER'S EVE BALL. This cannot possibly backfire.
[A choose-your-own-adventure Astarion son-in-law simulator. Happy Holidays! Or possibly the opposite of that.]
Reccer's Notes: This is just so much fun 😄 The notion of how Astarion would fit in at Wyll's childhood home is a common topic for Wyllstarions, and this is such a fun take on it!! It's remarkably coherent no matter which paths you take, and there are so many fun running jokes or weird endings to find! (And also, if you enjoy the writing style... Might I have a particular webcomic called Homestuck to recommend? Because it was very clearly an inspiration :D)
Fanwork Links: Glad Tidings
I need a Baldur's Gate fandom tag please, mods!!
DON'T Play with Internet Safety
Dec. 9th, 2025 07:52 pm( Game board under here )
Only one final paper left, and it's not due until early Friday afternoon. I think I'll probably try and get it written tomorrow, when I'm not working on laundry 😂
Blackadder: General Relativity by Nomad
Dec. 10th, 2025 12:14 pmPairings/Characters: Blackadder/Darling
Rating: T
Length: 20,605
Creator Links:
Theme: Amnesty, Casefic, Cuddling Snuggling & Bed-Sharing, Enemies to Lovers, Enemies Working Together, Forced Proximity, Historical Settings, Just Plain Fun, Old Fandoms, Rare Pairings, Pretend Couple, Small Fandoms, Time Travel, Uncommon Settings, Undercover as a Couple
Summary: Darling's remarkable resemblance to French traitor the Duc de Darling - no relation - sees him unwillingly sent to infiltrate a German-occupied château. Blackadder accompanies him even less willingly, especially when he learns exactly what it is they're looking for.
(Baldrick is also there, but no one bothered to find out if it was willingly or otherwise.)
Reccer's Notes: This is just so fucking good. It has been an age since I last watched Blackadder but this fic brought me all the way back immediately: the character voices are just chef's kiss! It really feels like it could've been a special episode, except with added totally in-character shippiness! 10/10, perfect characterisation, perfect dynamics, perfect silliness, no notes ❤️
Fanwork Links: General Relativity
Birdfeeding
Dec. 9th, 2025 07:55 pmI fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a male cardinal.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/9/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 12/9/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/9/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/9/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
Tuesday word: Magi
Dec. 9th, 2025 05:47 pmMagi (noun)
Ma·gi [mey-jahy]
noun plural
1.(sometimes lowercase) the wise men, generally assumed to be three in number, who paid homage to the infant Jesus. Matt. 2:1–12. Compare Balthazar (def 1), Caspar (def 1), Melchior (def 1).
2. (sometimes lowercase) the class of Zoroastrian priests in ancient Media and Persia, reputed to possess supernatural powers.
3. (lowercase) astrologers.
Other Word Forms
Magian adjective
magian adjective
Origin: First recorded in 1175–1225; see Magus
Example Sentences
Nobody can tell you whether any of them knew a Magi from a Musketeer, not to mention that the Roman Empire they worked under was a failed administration.
From Los Angeles Times
The Christian feast day of Epiphany, when observers celebrate the visit to Jesus by the Magi - commonly known as the Three Kings, or Wise Men - is widely celebrated in Spain.
From BBC
“It’s an excessive cost to detain a limited number of migrants”, said Roberto Magi, an MP with the left-wing +Europa party.
From BBC
In some traditions, it celebrates the baptism of Jesus and in others the visit of the Three Magi to the Baby Jesus.
From Seattle Times
The 6 January Christian feast day of Epiphany, when observers celebrate the visit to Jesus by the Magi - commonly known as the Three Kings, or Wise Men - is widely celebrated in Spain.
From BBC
Epistolary recs!
Dec. 9th, 2025 05:02 pm* * * * *
A trio of epistolary recs for
#toobadsosad by
Selfie, Eliza/Henry, 1100 words, no archive warnings apply
This is a hysterical texting fic with sharp, funny character voices! And it makes excellent use of timestamps and emoji to add to the story.
Eliza 9:18pm : Freddy and I broke up again. #toobadsosad
Eliza 9:18pm : It's really for good this time.
(Read by Henry at 9:36pm)
A gentle man and a scholar by
Our Flag Means Death, Ed/Stede, 7500 words, no archive warnings apply
Modern AU consisting of a series of emails about letters. Contains outrageous flirting and even more outrageous obliviousness. Very cute and fun!
Stede Bonnet unearths potential evidence that his 18th century ancestor could be the Gentleman Pirate, and contacts a top pirate historian Edward Teach, an expert on the dreaded pirate Blackbeard, to get to the bottom of it. An email correspondence sparks something more than just academic research.
from the mortal realm by
Dimension 20: A Court of Fey and Flowers, Lady Chirp & Lord Squak, 500 words, no archive warnings apply
Delightfully charming and fun post-canon letter, featuring excellent puns and an excellently frothy Chirp voice.
Lady Chirp Featherfowl's letter to her dearest cousin, Lord Squak Airavis.
[Challenge #472: Sanguine] Original Fiction: 'Sanguine Longings'
Dec. 9th, 2025 05:06 pmFandom: Original Fiction
Rating: PG (Very briefly implied vampiric activity)
Notes: Crossposted to
( Sanguine Longings )
Life lived in dot points
Dec. 10th, 2025 08:15 amWell into 'it's not one thing after another, the damn things overlap' territory here
- nominal deadline for my confirmation of candidature to have been submitted has passed without anything from my reviewers (one of three from our school has theirs)
- Eldest's quilt has been somewhat abandoned, which is annoying me but I haven't had the cope
- Instead I've been working on logistics of Youngest's quilt, which is very heavy in the planning stages (picture quilt, converting it from a photo)
- Took a week at home on light duties last week, this week I'm back in the office. Did surprisingly well yesterday. Surgery site looks to have healed on the surface but the internals are still quite sore, so I'm still sleeping with the post-surgery bra.
- Middlest and their partners have bought a house. They move in January. There was a messy blow up with the fourth housemate, who has since moved out, so they are learning how they fit together as a trio, and it sounds like things are going well. R's parents are providing lots of important support for the process.
- Saw the nurse for follow up on Monday. They didn't like the wound support stuff I'd found in the pharmacy (because it is plasticky) and replaced it with a stiff fabric 'can be washed but blow dry it after' dressing that was so annoying/itchy I took it off last night (and it took off lots of ick; that area has an unsurprising build up of Stuff) and put the second piece of the wound support stuff on. That is so much better -- it is a clear plastic lattice that actually moves with the area, rather than digging in. Also, I'm not reacting to the glue.
- My middle sibling and their partner are moving to Perth for two years. D has a job at UWA, K's job will allow 'remote' work from the Perth office. Amusingly, D described UWA as 'not restructuring' and Youngest laughed when reading that out. My comment was that from my perspective it has never not been restructuring, it is just the level that is changing. Plus, there was a leaked minutes from some meeting that suggested they were going to try and get a merger with Curtin, which I learned about when the Curtin Guild sent a 'not if we can help it' email out to all students. Pointed out to sibling that as they and I share a family name there is a non-zero chance they are going to get spotted as related.
LadiesBingo: Funerals and Wakes
Dec. 9th, 2025 06:31 pmChapters: 1/1
Fandom: Partners in Crime [TV - 1984]
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sydney Kovack & Carole Stanwyck [Partners in Crime]
Characters: Sydney Kovack [Partners in Crime], Carole Stanwyck [Partners in Crime]
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Event - Funeral, Community: ladiesbingo
Summary:
Sydney and Carole are holding a second funeral for their mutual ex, mostly to preserve their business.
Useful Gathering
Sydney carefully adjusted her skirt as she stood up, hand not holding the handkerchief going out to catch Carole's.
"Why did we agree to hold a wake for him?"
Carole gave a reserved smile to one of the businessmen here to pay respects.
"To help us keep the business running," Carole answered after she was certain no one else would be listening. "Besides, were you ever any good at saying 'no' to Jeanine?"
Sydney made an indelicate sound at that, and covered by bringing the handkerchief up to dab at her nose. "Were you?"
Carole had to bite back the unseemly laughter that came with it. "We need his contacts, to get the agency in the black, and start paying off that mortgage."
"Can't just ask some of your old polo pals to lend a hand, oh wait, you just take their pictures now."
That lit Carole's temper, but she gathered it back in check, and squeezed Sydney's hand. "One way or another, Sydney, we can make this work for us. Neither one of us is the woman he married any longer, but I think we can find a place for ourselves anyway."
Sydney took a deep breath, then smiled sadly at another pair of suits walking past them. "You're right, and I'm sorry for the dig. We'll get through the speeches, cut to the meat of promising to help them for standard fees going forward, and make the agency solvent.
"Just, don't leave me alone with any of them? I'll point out the fanny-patters and lewd ones as we mingle."
"And if they're the older ones, I'll tell you how Raymond got his hooks into them," Carole promised in turn, steeling her spine for the possibility of dealing with 'old friends' from the failed marriage.
"We have each other."
life's bits and pieces
Dec. 10th, 2025 07:48 am--
Tressie McMillan Cottom is a joy:
Behold the decade of mid tech!
That is what I want to say every time someone asks me, "WHat about A.I.?" with the breathless anticipation of a boy who thinks this is the summer he finally gets to touch a boob.
--
I'm so so tired right now. Just in a permanent state of exhaustion.
Yesterday afternoon, I explained to my sister about 'climate change adaptation' and the phase that we're going into. She listened, but I don't think she really heard.
--
I'm in a bit of a bodily self-hating stage right now after putting on about 5kg during my trip. Everything works fine, but the abdominal fat is frustrating me. So is the fact that all the Reformer Pilates classes are taught by women who might weigh 2/3 of me if they were dressed in heavy clothes and soaking wet.
"No, I can't do that move, my belly gets in the way."
Unfortunately, I suspect the only way to lose those kg is through food restriction, which I hate. It would involve removing sugary things entirely, probably for a long period. Ugh.
"Diet starts after new year"?
--
A giant tree in my front yard may be dying. It doesn't seem to be re-leafing as smoothly as it usually does, particularly in the crown, and after a heatwave yesterday, it's dropped a whole lot more leaves, many of them green.
More than anything else, this is stressing me right now. I don't know how old the tree is, but it's been there since we moved in, a giant bulwark against the south and the west. Just on top of everything else, it's unnerving seeing the bare upper branches of it.
a confession: today I have bought two more translations of Descartes
Dec. 9th, 2025 09:54 pmItem the first: the 1972 Harvard University Press Treatise of Man, translated by Thomas Steele Hall. This translation is quoted by two of the other books I'm working with, Pain: the science of suffering by Patrick Wall (1999), and The Painful Truth by Monty Lyman (2021). It is also an edition that, as I understand it, contains a facsimile of the first French edition (1664, itself a translation of the Latin published in 1662). My French is not up to reading actual seventeenth-century philosophy, but being able to spot-check a couple of paragraphs will be Useful For My Argument.
Item the second: Descartes: Key Philosophical Writings, translated by Elizabeth S. Haldane and G.R.T. Ross (1997). This doesn't contain Treatise on Man, but it's the translation of Meditations on First Philosophy that's quoted in The Story of Pain by Joanna Bourke (2014).
Meanwhile the Descartes essay, thus far composed primarily but not solely of quotations from other works, has somehow made it north of 4500 words. I think it might even be starting to make an argument.
( Read more... )
I am resisting the urge to try to turn this into a Proper Survey Of Popular Books On Pain, because that sounds like a lot of work that will probably involve reading a bunch of philosophers I find profoundly irritating, and also THIS IS A TOTAL DISTRACTION from the ACTUAL WORK I AM TRYING TO DO. But it's a distraction that is getting me writing, so I'll take it.
Write every day: Day 9
Dec. 9th, 2025 07:20 pmTally:
( Read more... )
Day 8:
Bonus farm news: Geeked out with my tomato spreadsheet, analyzing what categories of tomato we need to complement the ones we grew this year. Such as, we need an early paste bush tomato that tolerates cold conditions, we need more types of winter tomato, etc. No need for recs, really, I have the opposite problem of being spoiled for choice...there are TONS of tomato varieties.
(no subject)
Dec. 9th, 2025 03:57 pm( cat photo under cut )
reading about writing, thinking about art
Dec. 9th, 2025 02:45 pmA long time ago, a sentence came into my possession that has been both comforting and humbling by degrees. It is this: "Style is what you can't help doing."
The comforting part is that if you can't help having style, or doing style, or whatever sort of verbing of style is accurate for you and your work, then you might as well stop any worrying about style and get on with the work. Saves a tremendous amount of time, really.
Thoughts?
Bingo (Valentine's Fest 2023)
Dec. 9th, 2025 08:35 pmFandoms: Doctor Who, Dangerous Corner, Sapphire & Steel, Original Work
Prompts; Borage - Bluntness, Lady of the Storm, Bouquet of Withered Flowers - Rejected Love, Daisy - I'll Never Tell, Any Duchess Will Do
( Links to fills under here )
( 9 stray fills in Time Master, Towers in the Mist, No Wind of Blame, Miss Scarlet, Craddock & Co, Glorious 39, Doctor Who, Pilgrim, Wish Me Luck, Discworld, Enigma )