Weekly proof of life: we'll stick with media intake today
May. 2nd, 2026 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
umadoshiI finished Gareth Hanrahan's The Gutter Prayer, which has fascinating worldbuilding, and I enjoyed the characters. Neither library to which I have access has the sequel (I think it's a trilogy?) in ebook, so we'll see if/when I cave and buy it. For a second book, there's probably not much future in just leaving it on my wishlist indefinitely and hoping for it to go on sale, although one never knows.
Then I read T. Kingfisher's Wolf Worm via the library (I'm trying this novel approach of using the library more again if they have a book and the ebook cost is too upsetting), which was distressing in very T. Kingfisher ways (another case of interesting worldbuilding + EW EW EW), followed by Common Goal, the fourth Game Changers book. (I did give in and just buy the ebook set of books 4-6.)
In other book not-really-news, I decided to just go ahead and get the new Murderbot in hard copy, given the price of the ebook (esp. since I think it's a novella this time? And hopefully it being just novella-length will increase my odds of still getting it read fairly promptly despite being a hard copy).
Watching: Last night
scruloose and I made it to ep. 8 of Justice in the Dark, AKA the last ep. that was released in China and the last one I'd seen previously. Onward!(I'm mostly coping with the name changes, but apparently I do better at keeping the different names straight in my head when it's different consonants than vowels. I mentally autocorrect the show's "Pei Su" to "Fei Du" and carry on, but when I don't actually have one version in front of me, I keep stumbling a bit over Luo Wenzhou [novel]/Luo Weizhao [drama].)
Listening: This week I listened to not one but two (new!) albums for the first time--Tori Amos' Time of Dragons, as mentioned yesterday, and Metric's Romanticize The Dive. I haven't done a proper lyrics-focused listen to the latter, but I imagine I will at some point. My initial feeling is basically "Yep, that's a Metric album, and I like Metric, so that works." (Fantasies is the only one I'm hugely attached to individually [and I'm not terribly familiar with their catalogue before that], but that's mainly because I used it pretty heavily when writing Newsflesh fic.)
umadoshiOut of curiosity, yesterday I opened my Scrivener file of Guardian fic and did a rough tally of the various WIPs, which have mostly not been touched since the start of the pandemic. (There are three subfiles of scraps written on my phone in, I think, 2022, 2023, and 2024, which collectively add up to not much. There isn't one for last year, which I guess tells a story on its own.) It all adds up to something like 60,000 words, which is...better? worse?...than I expected. "Better" in the sense that if I never get back to any of them--and I'm open to surprise, but it's been so many years--it's not a terrible number of words to let fall away, even if there are things in there that I'm sad to not have finished, especially the pieces that were meant to link up with the incomplete story cycle that five of the six fics I posted belong to. :/
(I'm also a bit curious about what a similar tally of unposted Newsflesh bits and pieces would add up to, but that's scattered among multiple Scrivener files, all of them divided into multiple sections, so it'd be more of a pain.)
Yesterday and today are days off from Dayjob to work on Yona (ohmyheart), and I'm getting back to that as soon as I finish this post...while also having a first listen to Tori's new album, In Times of Dragons. So that's an odd combination, but I want to just...feel the vibe of the album without trying to immerse myself in it, given my track record of her last several. (All of which I relistened to recently for the first time in a long while, and I like the sound in general, but still had no luck bonding lyrically.)
Glancing back and forth to the lyrics is not going to help with work focus, but oh well. I need to know what she's singing. (Toriphoria already has the lyrics up, fortunately.)
Interview quote following the lyrics for "Veins":
You’re actually hearing it as I heard it for the first time. It was recorded as I wrote it, a direct “download” from the muses. I tried to record it again afterward and could never replicate it. I was sitting with arranger John Philip Shenale, the tape was running, and that was the moment. Just like when I recorded the song “Marianne” back in 1996. Some things only happen once.
Prompt: Seasonal Foods
May. 1st, 2026 07:58 amrunpunkrun posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gluten_freeIt's that time of the year again! When it's whatever season wherever you are, and our prompt is seasonal foods.
To fill this prompt, you can:
- Slide into the comments of this post and share a link to a recipe, product, or resource and why you like it.
- Write up a favorite recipe and post it to the comm.
- Post a review of a related product or cookbook to the comm.
- Try someone's recipe and reply to their post (or comment) with any changes you made and how it turned out.
And, a reminder, you can now tag your own posts.
520 Day Reverse Exchange - under two weeks to deadline!
May. 1st, 2026 01:30 pmtrobadora posting in sid_guardianJust a reminder that the 520 Day Reverse Exchange deadline is less than two weeks from now, at 11:59PM UTC on Wednesday 13 May. (What time is that for me?)
When you're ready, please post your completed assignment to the AO3 collection. We're looking forward to everyone's creations!
If you're unsure how to post, see the instructions here, and if you have any questions or, for any reason, you can't make the deadline, please let us know NOW by replying to your assignment email (please don't change the subject line) or commenting here. Comments here are screened.
General info, schedule and minimum requirements
*cheers everyone on*
Welp
Apr. 30th, 2026 10:41 pmyaaurensHowever, I did get hired (pending background check) as an extra help election worker for the primary in June. The interviewers were both really cool - at the end they were like, we need to confer quietly, but you can stay there. I was totally ready to step outside, and they're like, no no, it's okay, just stay! And then leaned over and whispered to each other (not very quietly), I liked their answers, I thought they answered everything well and had great communication skills, so I think we should hire them! So that was nice, getting to hear what they liked and then knowing immediately that they wanted me. The job is super temporary, but they said if I really enjoy it and hit it off with anyone I should absolutely apply again for the proper election cycle. Nicest thing? They're paying $3.50 more per hour than my tax job.
Unfortunately, it means I had to change my hand doc appointment, because it was scheduled for primary day and I didn't want to be like, hey, soooooooo can I show up late to work on The Big Day? I now have to wait ANOTHER MONTH for that to be taken care of, which is so very frustrating. I told them on the phone when I called that my hands are getting worse, and please is there any way to get in sooner, but nope. Sigh.
I do also have a test to take for another job I applied for - one of those online do you know how to use Word and Excel tests. Shouldn't be too much trouble, I just have to actually DO it, and before Wednesday, I believe.
The heart monitor thing was super simple compared to what I expected after going through wikipedia, haha. The technology has come a LONG way - it was one sticky thing with three teeny tiny electrodes and a little socket for the electronics to sit in. The electronics bit is what I had to turn back in, and it was maybe 1x2 inches? Less than a quarter inch thick? I do think I had a minor reaction to the adhesive, because you can still kind of see the outline of where the patch was on my skin, despite plenty of scrubbing. Now we wait to get answers from that one.
Potential new therapist emailed today; we're going to have a consult call next week, most likely Wednesday evening. It would be nice if that goes smoothly; prior therapist seemed to think we would get on well, so that seems like a good sign.
Today was super weird, in that I woke up exhausted, was awake for a little while, went outside to check on the plants, then fell asleep for another like.... two hours? Woke up and felt like I could go right back to sleep, but managed to force my way through. I would very much like to not feel constantly exhausted, thx. I'm not sure how I managed at work, other than inertia, and being at home is not conducive to overcoming the sleep inertia. I thought going outside would help! But it didn't! Curses, foiled again.
I did, however, get a little bit of work done on the travel weighted blanket/t-shirt quilt. I keep staring at the pile going, I have a vague idea of what I'm supposed to do next, but I really really don't know how to get to that point. Right now it should be: put all the cut out bits in the order I want 'em, so that they make a big rectangle of the appropriate size. And yet my brain looks at all the cut out bits and goes, Wait what? Do what? At least I squared up some of my really wonky shaped pieces, which should help with the "make it a rectangle" part of the project.
The goals for tomorrow: 1) don't sleep all day. 2) get into the shed and find the dog tags so I can take a pic and show sprocket. 3) put the stuff that's sitting in the garage into the shed so it's out of the walkway. stretch goal: take a look at how much I need to expand the mithril and if it's doable without messing with the collar so I can make it wearable again for SDCC.
Metropolitan Police Radio Callsigns
Apr. 30th, 2026 08:19 pminferiorwit posting in little_detailsHi, folks!
I'm currently writing crime fiction set in contemporary London, and I'm trying to figure out whether a police officer on the radio would be specifically identifiable to someone listening in.
Does the Met use radio callsigns that are unique to each officer? Or are callsigns assigned to specific beats, instead? Or a secret third thing?
Thanks!
And Even, Even if They Take Away the Stove, by Miron Białoszewski, translated by Czeslaw Milosz
Apr. 30th, 2026 09:30 amrunpunkrunMy Inexhaustible Ode to Joy
I have a stove
similar to a triumphal arch!
They take away my stove
similar to a triumphal arch!!
Give me back my stove
similar to a triumphal arch!!!
They took it away
What remains is
a grey
naked
hole.
And this is enough for me;
grey naked hole
grey naked hole.
greynakedhole.
( HOLE )
Coming Clean
Apr. 29th, 2026 09:59 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
questionable_content_feed
when Momray said "Cubetown messes up sometimes" she specifically meant Mooby
News: 50% off at New Seasons Market
Apr. 29th, 2026 09:45 amrunpunkrun posting in gluten_free
works in progress
Apr. 28th, 2026 09:45 amrunpunkrunIn recent years, I've been on a mission where I pick a worthy WIP out of many volunteers and finish it. So far I've completed:
- A Hundred Hundred Bolts of Satin, SGA | July 2021
- stop. motion., SGA RPF | September 2024
- New Year Market, Star Trek Reboot | September 2024
- Condition Zebra, SGA | May 2025
- Maybe He's Born With It (Maybe It's GlaxosEpsilonYor), Star Trek Reboot | January 2026
- The Feast of St. Olaf, SGA | April 2026
That covers my entire output of the last five years, with only one absolutely new fic posted during that time, the 15 sentence fake fake dating Star Trek fic Strange New Worlds, Etc. that I wrote for OTW's 15 year anniversary in 2022.
All of these WIPs were abandoned in various stages of doneness. I do this. Not on purpose, but I start a fic and get thousands of words into it and then either get anxious about it (writing can be a trigger for me, though it's gotten better through careful practice) or life gets in the way and I have to stop working on it and then get scared (anxious) to pick it back up again. But past!me's problems are a boon for present me who doesn't have to come up with ideas and has a bunch of notes for all these stories that can either be used or discarded. And because they've sat for a while, undisturbed, I'm able to work on them almost as if it's someone else's writing that I'm improving. I can kill the darlings that need killing and get on with it.
A Hundred Hundred Bolts of Satin was probably more like two stories when I opened it after a long period away from it. The opening part and the rest of it. I had to stitch the two together, and the opening section was just murdering me before I finally, after a lot of work, figured out which parts were important.
stop. motion. was done and betaed, but Joe Flanigan had gotten a divorce (sorry, Joe) while it was sitting on my hard drive and I wanted to work that in, which changed the tone—and purpose—of the story significantly.
New Year Market was done and had even been through two betas. I had some sentences that were annoying me, so I fixed them, and I am as shocked as you are that it took me less than a month to do that.
Condition Zebra was a complete draft, but I'd finished it in 2013 and never looked at it again. (I wrote it and then Emily died, and these two things were not related, but also were.) It needed a lot of polishing, and I had made Rodney too emotionally mature. So I made Rodney a little messy and John, in a move that surprised me, responded by becoming more emotionally mature. It seemed he'd grown up, too, in the twelve years since I'd written it.
Maybe He's Born With It (Maybe It's GlaxosEpsilonYor) was not as done as I thought it was. Instead of being nearly complete, it was only a couple of paragraphs in the file and then several pages of handwritten story. I transfered the handwritten part to the screen, editing all the while, and then did a bunch of writing to finish it and then lots and lots of revising to get Jim's voice right. This was him after the first movie, still a selfish frat bro, but with the capacity to learn from his mistakes, and I didn't want to quash his worst instincts, but it was hard for me to just let him be the (almost) worst version of himself. I had to keep removing the guardrails I built around him. And his literal voice needed to be way more casual. I got there in the end, though, and in the process learned that this Jim didn't like hedging language, no "just" or "almost" or "kind of"; everything's flat out with him, no room for doubt. This was the newest of my WIPs, started in July 2020.
The Feast of St. Olaf (my 60th SGA fanwork!!) was basically a complete story when I opened it up in February. It had all the important parts—a title and a last line; there was just some empty space between a joke (which I did not...get? despite having written it??) and the last sentence. So I erased the joke and just started writing from there. I began this fic for the "blades" square on my kink_bingo card in 2011, but as I wrote toward the last sentence I had, using it as a guide, the focus of the story changed. It was no longer just about Ronon being good with knives; it became about loss and memory, a much deeper story. So I reworked the rest of it to match, and in the process the knives were no longer what the Kink Bingo mods refer to as the erotic focus of the story, and I didn't feel like I could add this fic to the Kink Bingo collection. (Sadly, because I adore posting G-rated kinkfic to the chat.)
Many of these WIPs went through similar changes as I finished them. Maybe He's Born With It came from a much lighter idea, less loss, more eye shadow. And stop. motion. lacked an emotional core before I worked Joe's divorce into it. So having these stories sit for a bit between their initial drafting and being completed benefited us both, in many ways. Though I'd honestly prefer if I could finish a story in less than ten years, it also lets me see how much I've grown as a writer, even in the last few years.
Next up is my Star Trek RPF from 2016, an extended version of my little Saturday Morning ficlet. As I recall it's completely finished, though the last scene needs some tweaking as I've never been happy with it. It has a title, but I've never been happy with that, either, and I've got a new one that should work. And of course, anything I haven't seen in ten years is going to need a polish as my writing sensibilities have changed somewhat in those years. I've been putting this one off because it's RPF from 2016, set in 2016, and stuff has changed! And I'm worried about it!! But it's not going to get any younger, and as I keep repeating to myself, it was the canon we had at the time. It's not like I could write it any differently today. Though I guess we'll have a chance to see.
