More dance plans
Apr. 17th, 2026 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadhirWell, all my future belly dance plans got tossed into the air and scattered. Mostly in a way that I'm happy with, but still...
So, as I wittered on about endlessly my plan was to do a new sword-dance solo to Ya Baba and also a heavy metal duet with another lady from Elizabeth's class, to Khepri - Fangs of Apep
To which end I had even bought a studded belt and decorated a black bra for a heavy metal outfit. I found a black skirt and a snakeskin patterned skirt in the charity shop and tweaked them to fit me properly. I was going to wear the black skirt for the heavy metal dance, and then use the same bra and belt with a few red items and the snakeskin patterned skirt to make a villainous Wen Yao outfit that would work for Ya Baba too.
Then of course I was like 'I don't actually like Fangs of Apep' And in browsing on YouTube I found Wolf Totem by The Hu which I fell in love with and suggested to the other lady for our dance instead. She said she loved it, so I thought that was settled.
But the best laid plans etc, because it turns out that the particular version of Ya Baba that I liked so much is not available to buy. This is the second time YouTube has done this to me! And I really don't like the other versions as much. I'm not sure I really want to do a sword dance to any of them. (And why do you even need seven different arrangements of the same tune. Argh!)
Also OL, (my partner in the duo) has a number of other suggestions for tunes which she might prefer to The Hu, so we are not decided. Some of them are not even heavy metal, so the whole outfit is called into question now... LOL! This is what I get for jumping the gun.
OTOH, if we go for one of the other tunes, then Wolf Totem by The Hu is available for me to use for my own purposes, and I will use that for a new sword solo. It's certainly thematically appropriate for a sword dance, though sadly much less Meng Yao related.
Meanwhile Elizabeth has asked me to do a sword dance solo when the group is performing at Aquafest in June. I don't know if I have time to develop and memorize a new choreography for June, so I'll have to crack open baby's first choreography and see if I can improve on my old dance.
In other words, it's all up in the air again and I have a new studded belt and decorated bra for nothing ;)
Ely Aquafest will be an interesting place to perform, that's for sure!
challenge closed ⌛
Apr. 16th, 2026 11:12 pmluminousdaze posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
screen_iconsRound 32 is now closed. I will post the voting by tomorrow and a new challenge in the future.
Follow Friday 4-17-26
Apr. 17th, 2026 12:27 amysabetwordsmith posting in followfridayGot any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).
Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".
Partial Sucess?
Apr. 16th, 2026 09:54 pmolivermossLast game for the Kraken is a National Broadcast, which ironically means I can't see it. Not without some insane sports package just to see a few specific games. If I'd gotten that ESPN package it would have worked out to like a hundred bucks a game for the ones I wanted to see.
So, I went a tried going to Suki II's, despite all I'd heard. I'd been to Suki I, which is very much a dive bar. Suki II was kinda nice, if you kinda appreciate dark bars with poker machines. Most of the screens were for the Sharks, but there was one screen for the Kraken and I was the only one watching. I got to see a bit more Dunn! And Lars! And Ostman's first NHL start!
Then the bar was all 'okay, time to switchover to karaoke for the night'. Except, imagine those words blasted loudly on a speaker next to your head instead of text on a screen.
I went out and at least saw *part* of a hockey game.
At first I was like yeah, I can vibe with this, man I wish I'd started coming sooner... then suddenly NOPE.
So yeah, reports are right. They cannot be relied open to watch Kraken games, even if they are the official affiliate bar in Portland. Why can't they affiliate with a McMenamins? Or one of our dozens of bottle shops and breweries? Seattle has amazing fan bars. I want to try one next season.
But anyway, I tried the thing. No more just going off second or third hand info.
So, I went a tried going to Suki II's, despite all I'd heard. I'd been to Suki I, which is very much a dive bar. Suki II was kinda nice, if you kinda appreciate dark bars with poker machines. Most of the screens were for the Sharks, but there was one screen for the Kraken and I was the only one watching. I got to see a bit more Dunn! And Lars! And Ostman's first NHL start!
Then the bar was all 'okay, time to switchover to karaoke for the night'. Except, imagine those words blasted loudly on a speaker next to your head instead of text on a screen.
I went out and at least saw *part* of a hockey game.
At first I was like yeah, I can vibe with this, man I wish I'd started coming sooner... then suddenly NOPE.
So yeah, reports are right. They cannot be relied open to watch Kraken games, even if they are the official affiliate bar in Portland. Why can't they affiliate with a McMenamins? Or one of our dozens of bottle shops and breweries? Seattle has amazing fan bars. I want to try one next season.
But anyway, I tried the thing. No more just going off second or third hand info.
the rain will never stop falling
Apr. 16th, 2026 10:15 pmmusesfoolAlmost forgot to post!
Shoulders
by Naomi Shihab Nye
A man crosses the street in rain,
stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.
No car must splash him.
No car drive too near to his shadow.
This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.
His ear fills up with breathing.
He hears the hum of a boy's dream
deep inside him.
We're not going to be able
to live in this world
if we're not willing to do what he's doing
with one another.
The road will only be wide.
The rain will never stop falling.
*
Shoulders
by Naomi Shihab Nye
A man crosses the street in rain,
stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.
No car must splash him.
No car drive too near to his shadow.
This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.
His ear fills up with breathing.
He hears the hum of a boy's dream
deep inside him.
We're not going to be able
to live in this world
if we're not willing to do what he's doing
with one another.
The road will only be wide.
The rain will never stop falling.
*
Book Reviews: Minor Feelings, The Best We Could Do, The Cowshed, Red Scarf Girl, Red Memory
Apr. 16th, 2026 01:59 pmjuushika( Wow Juu that's a lot of themed books; any particular reason? )
Reading these as research makes me an ungracious reader, focused on utility over craft. So I'm shoving these together, with apologies. Recording names as they appear on covers, also with apologies.
Title: Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
Author: Cathy Park Hong
Narrator: Cathy Park Hong
Published: Random House Audio, 2020
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 210
Total Page Count: 567,855
Text Number: 2149
Read Because: as above; audiobook through the Multnomah County Library & listened while repainting the new (read: last year's remodeled) trim in the bathroom to match the rest of the trim in the bathroom (the remodel guys cut corners) (did the effort of paint patching and tediously doing the most finicky painting work imaginable to alter the trim by one (1) shade and level of gloss pay off? you bet your ass it did; bathroom looks great now)
Review: This starts broad, which isn't the same thing as generalized, and then moves local, to specific case studies from the author's personal life and otherwise; all circling themes of marginalized experience with specific conditional privileges and social expectations, "minor feelings" as a mirror to racist mircoaggressions. Compelling, selfish, pretentious, righteously ungrateful—I found this useful in its limited capacity; the narrowing perspective is indicative, the limitations and bias borne of one private life even when the intent is intersectional.
Title: The Best We Could Do
Author: Thi Bui
Published: Abrams ComicArts, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 568,185
Text Number: 2150
Read Because: as above, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Starting in the present, then cycling backwards: a generational memoir of a family of Taiwanese refugees. In the introduction, the author discusses turning this into a graphic novel in order to make the narrative more accessible; a good call. I like the faces but don't think this is doing anything especially interesting with the medium, and the panels fall apart in action sequences, particularly the boat journey; but accessible, that it is, human and emotive and less talky than it would be as straight text, effectively nesting narrations, allowing interview and first person account to exist immediately and in conversation, the graphic novel's brevity forcing the syntheses to be short and intense. "This—not any particular part of Vietnamese culture—is my inheritance: the inexplicable need and extraordinary ability to run when shit hits the fan."
(This is where I learned about the Chinese occupation of northern Vietnam, 1945–1946; the author's paternal grandmother immigrated from Vietnam to China when the Chinese withdrew, which is a detail I'm borrowing from the other side.)
Title: The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Niú péng zá yì, Memories of the Cowshed)
Author: Ji Xianlin
Translator: Chenxing Jiang
Published: New York Review Books, 2016 (1998)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 215
Total Page Count: 568,400
Text Number: 2151
Read Because: as above, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Minus the inappropriate comparisons to the Holocaust*, I appreciate Zha Jianying's introduction: a little useful context, but, moreso, contextualizing the tone, which is sardonic and dismissive even when recounting intimate suffering and humiliation, a distinctive coping mechanism that I keep finding in survivor testimony of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Between the introductions and the afterword, this is a slight, repetitive text; I don't mind, as the repetition helps it sink in, a private horror of limited scope set within a cultural travesty so large it all but defies comprehension.
( * )
Title: Red Scarf Girl
Author: Ji-li Jiang
Published: HarperTrophy, 2010 (1997)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 285
Total Page Count: 568,685
Text Number: 2152
Read Because: as above, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This achieves its aims of exploring the malleable, manipulated overlap of being a young girl at the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution; it's what I needed to read to internalize the social forces at play. Propaganda, conformity, and shame are a potent combination, and the resulting persistent anxiety sits alongside the quiet mundanity of daily life. The particularly limited scope and middle grade voice/audience is constraining, but I'm not reading this in isolation so I don't care.
Title: Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution
Author: Tania Branigan
Published: W. W. Norton & Company, 2023
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 305
Total Page Count: 568,990
Text Number: 2153
Read Because: as above, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I came to this with specific questions raised by Chinese Cultural Revolution memoirs and Wikipedia, and one by one found all answered. Doubtless this isn't the only book on the subject that could do so, but I was particularly curious about the Revolution's long shadow, so appreciate that focus here. The balance of human interest to history and cultural trend is off, the history delivered piecemeal and the larger trends promised mostly on the basis of "just trust me." This invites a contrarian impulse to contest the author's personal judgments of each human interest story's authenticity and validity; a counterproductive impulse, when the Revolution was defined by destabilization and complicity, when victim and perpetrator so often shifted and overlapped. But the general thrust is towards that nuance, discomforted by answers which are authentic in their inadequacy:
( Quotes. )
Reading these as research makes me an ungracious reader, focused on utility over craft. So I'm shoving these together, with apologies. Recording names as they appear on covers, also with apologies.
Title: Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
Author: Cathy Park Hong
Narrator: Cathy Park Hong
Published: Random House Audio, 2020
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 210
Total Page Count: 567,855
Text Number: 2149
Read Because: as above; audiobook through the Multnomah County Library & listened while repainting the new (read: last year's remodeled) trim in the bathroom to match the rest of the trim in the bathroom (the remodel guys cut corners) (did the effort of paint patching and tediously doing the most finicky painting work imaginable to alter the trim by one (1) shade and level of gloss pay off? you bet your ass it did; bathroom looks great now)
Review: This starts broad, which isn't the same thing as generalized, and then moves local, to specific case studies from the author's personal life and otherwise; all circling themes of marginalized experience with specific conditional privileges and social expectations, "minor feelings" as a mirror to racist mircoaggressions. Compelling, selfish, pretentious, righteously ungrateful—I found this useful in its limited capacity; the narrowing perspective is indicative, the limitations and bias borne of one private life even when the intent is intersectional.
Title: The Best We Could Do
Author: Thi Bui
Published: Abrams ComicArts, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 568,185
Text Number: 2150
Read Because: as above, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Starting in the present, then cycling backwards: a generational memoir of a family of Taiwanese refugees. In the introduction, the author discusses turning this into a graphic novel in order to make the narrative more accessible; a good call. I like the faces but don't think this is doing anything especially interesting with the medium, and the panels fall apart in action sequences, particularly the boat journey; but accessible, that it is, human and emotive and less talky than it would be as straight text, effectively nesting narrations, allowing interview and first person account to exist immediately and in conversation, the graphic novel's brevity forcing the syntheses to be short and intense. "This—not any particular part of Vietnamese culture—is my inheritance: the inexplicable need and extraordinary ability to run when shit hits the fan."
(This is where I learned about the Chinese occupation of northern Vietnam, 1945–1946; the author's paternal grandmother immigrated from Vietnam to China when the Chinese withdrew, which is a detail I'm borrowing from the other side.)
Title: The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Niú péng zá yì, Memories of the Cowshed)
Author: Ji Xianlin
Translator: Chenxing Jiang
Published: New York Review Books, 2016 (1998)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 215
Total Page Count: 568,400
Text Number: 2151
Read Because: as above, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Minus the inappropriate comparisons to the Holocaust*, I appreciate Zha Jianying's introduction: a little useful context, but, moreso, contextualizing the tone, which is sardonic and dismissive even when recounting intimate suffering and humiliation, a distinctive coping mechanism that I keep finding in survivor testimony of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Between the introductions and the afterword, this is a slight, repetitive text; I don't mind, as the repetition helps it sink in, a private horror of limited scope set within a cultural travesty so large it all but defies comprehension.
( * )
Title: Red Scarf Girl
Author: Ji-li Jiang
Published: HarperTrophy, 2010 (1997)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 285
Total Page Count: 568,685
Text Number: 2152
Read Because: as above, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This achieves its aims of exploring the malleable, manipulated overlap of being a young girl at the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution; it's what I needed to read to internalize the social forces at play. Propaganda, conformity, and shame are a potent combination, and the resulting persistent anxiety sits alongside the quiet mundanity of daily life. The particularly limited scope and middle grade voice/audience is constraining, but I'm not reading this in isolation so I don't care.
Title: Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution
Author: Tania Branigan
Published: W. W. Norton & Company, 2023
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 305
Total Page Count: 568,990
Text Number: 2153
Read Because: as above, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I came to this with specific questions raised by Chinese Cultural Revolution memoirs and Wikipedia, and one by one found all answered. Doubtless this isn't the only book on the subject that could do so, but I was particularly curious about the Revolution's long shadow, so appreciate that focus here. The balance of human interest to history and cultural trend is off, the history delivered piecemeal and the larger trends promised mostly on the basis of "just trust me." This invites a contrarian impulse to contest the author's personal judgments of each human interest story's authenticity and validity; a counterproductive impulse, when the Revolution was defined by destabilization and complicity, when victim and perpetrator so often shifted and overlapped. But the general thrust is towards that nuance, discomforted by answers which are authentic in their inadequacy:
( Quotes. )
Me-and-media update
Apr. 17th, 2026 10:05 amchina_shopPrevious poll review
In the Stoic hurt/comfort poll, 44.2% of respondents prefer the stoic character stoically/reluctantly/awkwardly providing comfort, vs 41.9% who prefer them receiving comfort (pretty sure that's within the margin of error, though); and 27.9% said it depends. Three people (including me) checked "I'm not into hurt/comfort." <3
In ticky-boxes, appreciating being able to breathe through your nose came second to hugs, 62.8% to 79.1%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
I finished The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley, read by Sid Sagar, a m/m clockpunk fantasy novel set in ancient Thebes. I especially enjoyed the Theban POV, and I grew increasingly more engaged as it progressed. Might read it again sometime in text.
Still making my way through Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell. I'm up to the advice for third drafts.
Andrew and I finished Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold, read by Grover Gardner, while polishing off a jigsaw, and have started The Vor Game, in which Miles is instructed to learn to respect authority, and immediately sets out to manipulate everyone around him.
Kdramas
The same four as last week: Phantom Lawyer, You're Beautiful (ahhhh!), Love Scout, and Lovely Runner. The latter involves the female lead time-travelling 15 years into her past self, and she seems weirdly unaware of the age gap between her and the school-age male lead. Maybe this isn't a romance? (Writing this made me consider an alternate version where her contemporary self just sends her diary or something to the past instead, so her teen self would be armed with all the knowledge but still age-appropriate.)
Other TV
Finished Paper Girls (argh, permanent cliffhanger ending!) and Connections (BBC). Still watching The Pitt, Rooster, and Scrubs. Zoomed through all of Big Mistakes, a Netflix romp starring Dan Levy, which ended with a set-up for season 2.
Fringe (which is losing the plot, wow) and Bluey with my sister.
And we saw Hoppers at the cinema, and had a great time with it. Aww! Such an optimistic view of the world.
Audio entertainment
Dreaming Against the Machine (new podcast by Adam Becker, author of More Everything Forever), episode 1: "Futurists, with Reo Eveleth". The podcast is about "envisioning a realistic and hopeful future", and this episode was really great. I found it via the Better Offline episode "More, Everything, Forever with Adam Becker".
(Aside: something about DAtM made me think that podcasts are the blogs of today: thoughtful people making their ideas and conversations public, very voicey and intimate in a way. And presumably just as hard to break into (in the English-language sphere) if you're not a confident user of the English language...)
Writing/making things
Getting back into the swing of writers' hour now it's moved to 8am for the winter -- which is timely, because I have a 520 Day assignment fic to write. (I was aiming for short, but it's already over1500w 2300w, with at least two scenes to go. Which is what happens when you mostly read novels, I guess.)
Life/health/mental state things
We've had a few days of gorgeous weather (and next week is looking dire), which has meant a lot of biking. Plus I have builders working on reputtying some of my windows, which is disruptive and dusty, so I've been out a lot; yesterday I worked on my 520 fic at our newly re-opened central public library. All of which is to say that my arms are pretty mad at me. Bluetooth keyboards are great, but so is my home ergonomic setup. And I can only handle so much biking atm.
The window work is in a race against the weather, and weather forecasting has got less accurate since some @#$#*ing incompetent shitheads @#(*ed up the US Weather Service. So who knows if my house will be weatherproof next week? No one!
I'm not as cranky as this sounds. Just a bit stressed, and my house is covered in a fine layer of dust. Guess I'm looking at a thoroughspring autumn clean once this is all done.
Had a flu jab on Wednesday.
Link dump
Get your Letter to the Editor published. Every. Time. | AO3 admin post about Spambot Comments on AO3 (different types, and what to do about them) | Remarkable survival after hawk trapped in car grille | Mom cat shows her kittens the German shepherd is safe (Youtube, viastarandrea).
Good things
Lovely weather. Mobile technology and ebikes. Writing!! Friendly builders. Andrew and Halle and friends and Dreamwidth.
In the Stoic hurt/comfort poll, 44.2% of respondents prefer the stoic character stoically/reluctantly/awkwardly providing comfort, vs 41.9% who prefer them receiving comfort (pretty sure that's within the margin of error, though); and 27.9% said it depends. Three people (including me) checked "I'm not into hurt/comfort." <3
In ticky-boxes, appreciating being able to breathe through your nose came second to hugs, 62.8% to 79.1%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
I finished The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley, read by Sid Sagar, a m/m clockpunk fantasy novel set in ancient Thebes. I especially enjoyed the Theban POV, and I grew increasingly more engaged as it progressed. Might read it again sometime in text.
Still making my way through Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell. I'm up to the advice for third drafts.
Andrew and I finished Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold, read by Grover Gardner, while polishing off a jigsaw, and have started The Vor Game, in which Miles is instructed to learn to respect authority, and immediately sets out to manipulate everyone around him.
Kdramas
The same four as last week: Phantom Lawyer, You're Beautiful (ahhhh!), Love Scout, and Lovely Runner. The latter involves the female lead time-travelling 15 years into her past self, and she seems weirdly unaware of the age gap between her and the school-age male lead. Maybe this isn't a romance? (Writing this made me consider an alternate version where her contemporary self just sends her diary or something to the past instead, so her teen self would be armed with all the knowledge but still age-appropriate.)
Other TV
Finished Paper Girls (argh, permanent cliffhanger ending!) and Connections (BBC). Still watching The Pitt, Rooster, and Scrubs. Zoomed through all of Big Mistakes, a Netflix romp starring Dan Levy, which ended with a set-up for season 2.
Fringe (which is losing the plot, wow) and Bluey with my sister.
And we saw Hoppers at the cinema, and had a great time with it. Aww! Such an optimistic view of the world.
Audio entertainment
Dreaming Against the Machine (new podcast by Adam Becker, author of More Everything Forever), episode 1: "Futurists, with Reo Eveleth". The podcast is about "envisioning a realistic and hopeful future", and this episode was really great. I found it via the Better Offline episode "More, Everything, Forever with Adam Becker".
(Aside: something about DAtM made me think that podcasts are the blogs of today: thoughtful people making their ideas and conversations public, very voicey and intimate in a way. And presumably just as hard to break into (in the English-language sphere) if you're not a confident user of the English language...)
Writing/making things
Getting back into the swing of writers' hour now it's moved to 8am for the winter -- which is timely, because I have a 520 Day assignment fic to write. (I was aiming for short, but it's already over
Life/health/mental state things
We've had a few days of gorgeous weather (and next week is looking dire), which has meant a lot of biking. Plus I have builders working on reputtying some of my windows, which is disruptive and dusty, so I've been out a lot; yesterday I worked on my 520 fic at our newly re-opened central public library. All of which is to say that my arms are pretty mad at me. Bluetooth keyboards are great, but so is my home ergonomic setup. And I can only handle so much biking atm.
The window work is in a race against the weather, and weather forecasting has got less accurate since some @#$#*ing incompetent shitheads @#(*ed up the US Weather Service. So who knows if my house will be weatherproof next week? No one!
I'm not as cranky as this sounds. Just a bit stressed, and my house is covered in a fine layer of dust. Guess I'm looking at a thorough
Had a flu jab on Wednesday.
Link dump
Get your Letter to the Editor published. Every. Time. | AO3 admin post about Spambot Comments on AO3 (different types, and what to do about them) | Remarkable survival after hawk trapped in car grille | Mom cat shows her kittens the German shepherd is safe (Youtube, via
starandrea).Good things
Lovely weather. Mobile technology and ebikes. Writing!! Friendly builders. Andrew and Halle and friends and Dreamwidth.
Poll #34482 Fanfic vs Profic
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 44
Do you have different prose standards for reading profic vs fanfic?
View Answers
no, I'm pretty relaxed about prose quality if other aspects of the story capture me
9 (20.5%)
yes, I'm more picky about fanfic
0 (0.0%)
yes, I'm more picky about profic...
18 (40.9%)
... with the exception of certain genres
4 (9.1%)
no, I'm picky across the board
17 (38.6%)
other
5 (11.4%)
ticky-box of to read makes our speaking English good
20 (45.5%)
ticky-box full of podcasts
5 (11.4%)
ticky-box of how many rivers must an otter swim down before you can call it an otter
27 (61.4%)
ticky-box full of 42
20 (45.5%)
ticky-box full of hugs
29 (65.9%)
[ SECRET POST #7041 ]
Apr. 16th, 2026 04:13 pmcase posting in fandomsecrets⌈ Secret Post #7041 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 06 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1005.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, April 16
Apr. 16th, 2026 10:56 pmveronyxk84 posting in su_herald
MR. MACLAY: Is this a joke? I'm not gonna be threatened by two little girls.
DAWN: You don't wanna mess with us.
BUFFY: She's a hair-puller.
GILES: And... you're not just dealing with, uh, two little girls.
XANDER: You're dealing with all of us.
SPIKE: 'Cept me.
XANDER: 'Cept Spike.
SPIKE: I don't care what happens.
MR. MACLAY: This is insane. You people have no right to interfere with Tara's affairs. We... are her blood kin! Who the hell are you?
BUFFY: We're family.
DAWN: You don't wanna mess with us.
BUFFY: She's a hair-puller.
GILES: And... you're not just dealing with, uh, two little girls.
XANDER: You're dealing with all of us.
SPIKE: 'Cept me.
XANDER: 'Cept Spike.
SPIKE: I don't care what happens.
MR. MACLAY: This is insane. You people have no right to interfere with Tara's affairs. We... are her blood kin! Who the hell are you?
BUFFY: We're family.
The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.
[Drabbles & Short Fiction]
- i've learned to love the pain (Angel & OMCs, M) by space_ace_elias
- Ultimate Spuffy Fan (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by DeamonQueen
[Chaptered Fiction]
- Monsters Don't Get Miracles, Chapters 1-2/? (Drusilla, Angel/Cordelia, Angel/Drusilla, T) by She_posts_nerdy_stuff
- Potential Friend: Season Two, Chapter 22/22 (Angel/Buffy, multiple ships, T) by srmcd1
- Demons & Dimensions: Wrath from the Beyond, Chapter 1/? (Buffy/Spike, M) by TheThemFatale
- Faith, and How I Fell, Chapter 12/29 (Buffy/Faith, M) by Willowhand
- [Ukrainian] Inside Man//Чоловік, що всередині, Chapter 8/14 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Uraniya
- Put Me Down, Chapter 50/? (Buffy/Faith, E) by Inspectorrr
- i'm losing blood, i'm gonna leave my bones, Chapter 6/? (Angel & Cordelia & Gunn & Wesley, M) by space_ace_elias
- Known, Chapter 11/? (Buffy/Giles, multiple ships, M) by simple_nothings
- Bound by the calling | Fuffy, Chapter 23/? (Buffy/Faith, E) by vampireslayerr (mongoosekiramman)
- Every Crumb, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, G) by cd85, Em_Kayelle
- Rewoven, Chapter 15 (Buffy/Spike, R) by EnchantedWillow
- De Capo al Fine, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, R) by EnchantedWillow
- Teach Me How: ReMastered, Chapter 23 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Grief Counseling
- Rewoven, Chapter 15 (Buffy/Spike, R) by EnchantedWillow
- Girl's Girl, Chapters 13-14 Complete! (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by LadyInQuest
- Revelations, Chapter 67 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Niamh
- Lost and found, Chapter 12 (Buffy/Spike, R) by JSBirsa
[Images, Audio & Video]
- Artwork: A hundred plus years. And there’s only one thing I’ve ever been sure of. You… (Buffy/Spike, worksafe) by petridishbabydesigns
- Artwork: Will you be slaying tonight? (Buffy, worksafe) by daisydandy
- Artwork: Day 10 of drawing Kendra everyday until I get tired of it ft. Buffy (Kendra, Buffy, worksafe) by aa-arttss
- Artwork: I’m figuring out how to draw Darla. I like her :) (worksafe) by lycanpunk666
- Crafts: A somewhat simple (and hard to photograph behind glass) scene from the climax of Buffy’s “What’s My Line? Pt 2” (Spike, Drusilla, Angel, worksafe) by thegothicalice
- Collage: fuffy collage! (worksafe) by slut-jpeg
- Artwork: [Buffy drawing] (worksafe) by misguidedmen
- Moodboard: Dangel moodboard that was requested on Instagram (Angel/Darla, worksafe) by wishverse-angel
- Pixel Art: 1.02 - The Harvest | "The earth is doomed" (Scoobies, worksafe) by dglsmcmffnpnts
- Gifset: Bad Romance Event | Seven: Bad Influence | Buffy Summers & Faith Lehane in Bad Girls (worksafe) by harrykim
[Reviews & Recaps]
- Btvs s5-7 rewatch liveblog!! 5.05 No Place Like Home by boatshoesbreadsticksandbastards
- Btvs s5-7 rewatch liveblog!! 5.06 Family by boatshoesbreadsticksandbastards
[In Search Of]
- Looking for a specific James Marsters interview [details in the post] requested by archivingartemis
[Fandom Discussions]
- have you done spike yet for the character questions? by lycanpunk666
- i really do think that whole speech about love that Spike gives Buffy is the most beautiful thing ever by jareauslover
- one thing that will never sit right with me was how both giles, wesley and the council left faith in that fuckass motel by theslayerfest
- I want to talk about how MAD the character developement of Oz made me by fallenfromthedeadstars
- Out of all the ways to end a show, I think Angel had the best possible finale by idontwannafilloutajobapplication
- Drusilla’s vengeful mutterings as she’s “toying” with Angel are genuinely horrific by prismaticpichu
- Riley, Xander, the Military, and the Unattainable Masculine Ideal by victorfreakenste1n
- it’s still crazy that by the end of season 5 of btvs everyone was still so mad at faith that they decided it was a better idea to have the buffybot take over slaying by deathlesshate
- when did warren make that robot version of himself that he used as a decoy when willow was hunting him down for justified vengeance murder? by deathlesshate
- Faith Lehane! [ask game] by emogirlguts
- [selective morality of both the script and the characters with Anya and Spike not understanding human emotions] by lxvespxffy
- For the ask game, i'm gonna say... Anya actually! by gravitytrips
- Buffy and Xander’s Recurring Team-Ups Are My Favourite Duo Moments by writeitregreddit
- Wouldn't Spike having retained humanity not actually make him worse? by foreseethefuture
- It's a slight cross between fandoms, but which known superhero do you think Buffy can take? by Naomiall29
- How do you guys feel now as the adults you are, when you realize neither the council or the scoobies showed concern for Faith living situation when she was first introduced? by gloomydreamer666
[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]
- Celebrating International Buffy Day! by The Bitch Is Back with Charisma Carpenter
- Interview with the Showrunner – David Greenwalt Part 2 by Re-Vamped with Juliet Landau
- CONVENTION: Charisma Carpenter will be joining James Marsters at PCX Austin Aug 15-16! by dontkillspike
- CONVENTION: ICYMI | James Marsters to Attend Paris Manga 3-4 October 2026 by dontkillspike
- PUBLICATION: INTERVIEW: James Marsters On Why ‘Buffy’ Lives On by Supanova Editorial
20+4 multifandom icons for retro_icontest
Apr. 16th, 2026 10:10 pmtinnyThe current round at retro_icontest is a Random Art Prompts challenge from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
20muses, and it was very unusual. The main prompt was to "icon the first thing that pops into your head when you read these 20 prompts". I also tried to incorporate as many of the provided art works as textures. Omg the resulting set is all over the place. :D
Teasers:
( 20+4 multifandom icons, mostly old, rare, and strange :D )
Concrit and comments very welcome! Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. If you want to know whose textures and brushes I use, take a look at my resource post.
Previous icon posts:
20muses, and it was very unusual. The main prompt was to "icon the first thing that pops into your head when you read these 20 prompts". I also tried to incorporate as many of the provided art works as textures. Omg the resulting set is all over the place. :DTeasers:
( 20+4 multifandom icons, mostly old, rare, and strange :D )
Concrit and comments very welcome! Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. If you want to know whose textures and brushes I use, take a look at my resource post.
Thursday 16th April 2026
Apr. 16th, 2026 06:57 pmusuallyhats posting in doctor_who_sonicDo you have a Doctor Who community or a journal that we are not currently linking to? Leave a note in the comments and we'll add you to the watchlist (doctor_watch).
Editor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Off-Dreamwidth News
Doctor Who convention Whooverville 17 adds Anita Dobson
Blogtor Who's video of the day for yesterday featured the Celestial Toymaker
Nicholas Whyte reviews "Star Flight", by Paul Hayes
Blogtor Who's video of the day for today is a clip from "The Show People" podcast featuring Pearl Mackie
(News via![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
doctorwhonews_feed and blogtorwho_feed among others.)
Discussion and Miscellany
purplecat with the 17 missing episodes they'd most like to see returned
If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.
doctor_watch).Editor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Off-Dreamwidth News
Doctor Who convention Whooverville 17 adds Anita Dobson
Blogtor Who's video of the day for yesterday featured the Celestial Toymaker
Nicholas Whyte reviews "Star Flight", by Paul Hayes
Blogtor Who's video of the day for today is a clip from "The Show People" podcast featuring Pearl Mackie
(News via
doctorwhonews_feed and blogtorwho_feed among others.)Discussion and Miscellany
purplecat with the 17 missing episodes they'd most like to see returnedIf you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.
Nekropolis, by Maureen McHugh
Apr. 16th, 2026 10:38 amrachelmanija
In a future Morocco, a young woman named Hariba with no prospects has herself jessed, a process which renders her loyal to whoever buys her, and sells herself as an indentured servant to a wealthy household. There she meets Akhmim, a harni - a genetically engineered human designed to be a perfect lover or companion. Hariba falls in love with him and runs away with him, but because she's jessed, she becomes extremely sick due to defying her loyalty implant.
Up until this point, the book had a compelling atmosphere a bit reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale in that it explored the daily life of people living with very little agency in the home of someone who owns them. But once Hariba gets sick, she becomes completely sidelined from the story and basically lies in bed suffering for the entire middle part of the book, while the POV switches from Hariba and Akhmim to first her mother, then her friend - neither of whom are very interesting.
( Read more... )
This is a well-written book with interesting issues that sags a lot in the middle portion when Hariba basically drops out of the story, and ends in a note of depression and gloom.
Though I didn't love this book, I'm sorry that McHugh doesn't seem to be writing novels anymore as I did quite like China Mountain Zhang and Mission Child.
Book Review: Hooked
Apr. 16th, 2026 08:13 amosprey_archer“Self,” I told myself, as I circled the bookstore display of Asako Yuzuki’s Hooked, “self, you must de-hype yourself. Yes, this is the new book by the author of your beloved Butter, and yes, Yuzuki has teamed up once again with all time favorite translator Polly Barton, but you must not expect to love it as much as Butter! That is too much weight to place on a book!”
And indeed I did not love Hooked as much as Butter, but it’s still a fascinating book and just as propulsively readable, even as it went off the rails a bit at the end.
Hooked begins with our heroine Eriko arriving at work early. She is a successful employee but otherwise struggling in life. She’s thirty years old, still single, keeps getting dumped by her boyfriends, and doesn’t have a single female friend.
This last fact is the one that torments her. She believes (despite the solid counter-evidence of all those dumpings) that she’s good with men, but she’s terrible at female relationships and she knows it. In fact, sometimes she laments that she’s never had a female friend, although once again - solid counter evidence - she keeps running into her old friend Keiko in the apartment halls. But Eriko destroyed that friendship when she was 15, and hasn’t had a friend since.
However, Eriko has achieved a pleasurable parasocial relationship with her favorite blogger, Hallie B, who bills herself as The World’s Worst Wife. She has neither a job nor children, just stays home all day neither cleaning the house nor cooking, just loafing about and occasionally updating her blog.
Oh, and Hallie B seems to have no female friends either. This makes Eriko feel extremely seen.
Then one day, Eriko catches sight of Hallie B having lunch at a local neighborhood spot. She introduces herself as a big fan of the blog, Hallie B introduces herself by her real name Shoko, and they make plans to have dinner at a nearby Denny’s.
Dinner is a blast! They super hit it off! Eriko rides home on the back of Shoko’s bike, like they’re in a high school anime, amazing. Eriko concludes that her friendship problems are OVER because she has now found a BEST FRIEND FOREVER and they are now going to hang out, like, ALL THE TIME.
Shoko thinks they had a nice evening and hopes they can continue to hang out occasionally.
You can see where this is going. Soon Eriko is sending Shoko lengthy strings of texts promising that she is NOT a stalker, and also stalking the Denny’s where they hung out that one time in case Shoko comes back so Eriko can tell Shoko to her face that she is not! not! NOT! stalking her!
Eriko has some of the same energy as Izzy in The Appeal, except somehow simultaneously more deranged and more self-aware. It seems like these two qualities should be contradictory, and indeed there are times when Yuzuki doesn’t get the balance quite right, and instead of seeming fascinatingly, complexly batshit, Eriko just seems incoherent.
( spoilers )
And indeed I did not love Hooked as much as Butter, but it’s still a fascinating book and just as propulsively readable, even as it went off the rails a bit at the end.
Hooked begins with our heroine Eriko arriving at work early. She is a successful employee but otherwise struggling in life. She’s thirty years old, still single, keeps getting dumped by her boyfriends, and doesn’t have a single female friend.
This last fact is the one that torments her. She believes (despite the solid counter-evidence of all those dumpings) that she’s good with men, but she’s terrible at female relationships and she knows it. In fact, sometimes she laments that she’s never had a female friend, although once again - solid counter evidence - she keeps running into her old friend Keiko in the apartment halls. But Eriko destroyed that friendship when she was 15, and hasn’t had a friend since.
However, Eriko has achieved a pleasurable parasocial relationship with her favorite blogger, Hallie B, who bills herself as The World’s Worst Wife. She has neither a job nor children, just stays home all day neither cleaning the house nor cooking, just loafing about and occasionally updating her blog.
Oh, and Hallie B seems to have no female friends either. This makes Eriko feel extremely seen.
Then one day, Eriko catches sight of Hallie B having lunch at a local neighborhood spot. She introduces herself as a big fan of the blog, Hallie B introduces herself by her real name Shoko, and they make plans to have dinner at a nearby Denny’s.
Dinner is a blast! They super hit it off! Eriko rides home on the back of Shoko’s bike, like they’re in a high school anime, amazing. Eriko concludes that her friendship problems are OVER because she has now found a BEST FRIEND FOREVER and they are now going to hang out, like, ALL THE TIME.
Shoko thinks they had a nice evening and hopes they can continue to hang out occasionally.
You can see where this is going. Soon Eriko is sending Shoko lengthy strings of texts promising that she is NOT a stalker, and also stalking the Denny’s where they hung out that one time in case Shoko comes back so Eriko can tell Shoko to her face that she is not! not! NOT! stalking her!
Eriko has some of the same energy as Izzy in The Appeal, except somehow simultaneously more deranged and more self-aware. It seems like these two qualities should be contradictory, and indeed there are times when Yuzuki doesn’t get the balance quite right, and instead of seeming fascinatingly, complexly batshit, Eriko just seems incoherent.
( spoilers )
Planter and seeds acquired!
Apr. 16th, 2026 09:14 amumadoshiOur planter is here! Getting it wasn't actually a saga, but it felt a bit like one. ( TL;DR: delivery service annoyance )
We also both took yesterday off (and I'm off the rest of the week, but got up at my usual workday time today in hopes of getting a fair amount of manga work done), and ventured out to buy veg seeds for the planter. (We also still need to get soil/fertilizer/etc., but want to read up on it more first. I think I might order a hard copy of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, which I got on sale in ebook recently and like so far.)
Yesterday's important lesson: when noting down which seed varieties we like the looks of, include the source, because our local store, at least, has separate displays for each originating company, and knowing that would make it much easier to check for the various varieties. Anyway, here's what we wound up with (descriptions are in my last post):
Basil: Devotion.
Cabbage: Early Golden Acre (green) and Serpentine F1 (savoy).
Spinach: Bloomsdale and Renegade.
Lettuce: Brighton (Butterhead), Black Seeded Simpson (green leaf), Red Salad Bowl (red leaf), Grand Rapids (green leaf), Freckles (romaine), and Drunken Woman.
We also both took yesterday off (and I'm off the rest of the week, but got up at my usual workday time today in hopes of getting a fair amount of manga work done), and ventured out to buy veg seeds for the planter. (We also still need to get soil/fertilizer/etc., but want to read up on it more first. I think I might order a hard copy of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, which I got on sale in ebook recently and like so far.)
Yesterday's important lesson: when noting down which seed varieties we like the looks of, include the source, because our local store, at least, has separate displays for each originating company, and knowing that would make it much easier to check for the various varieties. Anyway, here's what we wound up with (descriptions are in my last post):
Basil: Devotion.
Cabbage: Early Golden Acre (green) and Serpentine F1 (savoy).
Spinach: Bloomsdale and Renegade.
Lettuce: Brighton (Butterhead), Black Seeded Simpson (green leaf), Red Salad Bowl (red leaf), Grand Rapids (green leaf), Freckles (romaine), and Drunken Woman.