clevermanka | Reading

I wasn't going to make a vacation post, because the thought of doing a whole writeup was too overwhelming, but

grayswandir's posts inspired me to at least share some pictures from the Hong Kong portion of the adventure. I was lucky enough to meet gray (and unfortunately missed sakana by a few days), and got to hang out with wenella (the wenella), who was the absolutely kindest host and took me to all the nice places.

So, pictures.

( Read more... )

oracne

While the church for my choir's New Year's Eve performance was not absolutely jammed, it was pretty full, including the balconies, and judging from comments from friends as I exited through the sanctuary, it was an excellent and meaningful performance. Jean, who used to sing with us, said she had cried through the entire part three. Whoa. It was also special because for one of our regular soprano soloists, Jess, it was her fiftieth performance as a soloist.

Rebecca and Jess are founders of Variant 6, my favorite local small vocal ensemble. Rebecca is on the left, Jess on the right, in gold:

Watch on YouTube

"Laudamus Te" from last year's NYE Bach B Minor Mass.

Watch on YouTube

After the performance, I was too wiped out for dinner; luckily, a bus came pretty quickly. I got home, ate dinner, removed my eye makeup, and crawled into bed. Surprisingly, after my afternoon coffee, I managed to get to sleep fairly soon. I don't recall hearing many fireworks (apparently, someone saved their illegal firecrackers for the night of New Year's Day...a lot of them).

New Year's Day, I had decided our menu was nachos and another small trifle. The nachos had cheese, pre-cooked chicken seasoned with adobo and mild salsa, and spinach. The trifle was in a glass loaf pan: more cinnamon graham crackers for a base, a layer of spiced peaches (from a jar), a thick layer of whipped cream, pumpkin snaps, blueberries, and a drizzle of the sugar syrup from the peaches. It all turned out great!

January 2, I hung out with

drinkingcocoa and family.

Today is laundry and more Flight Rising. I have to go back to the dayjob on Monday, so I might do some cooking today or tomorrow as well.

sakana17

跨年快乐！🎆🥳🎉 I hope you'll all have a better 2026 than 2025! ♥

I haven't posted since October, somehow. I don't know why I didn't manage any posts in November (although... the latest farmboys mini-show was airing 😅), but I didn't post anything in December because

thevetia and I went to China!

Where: Hong Kong -✈️-> Hangzhou (iykyk) -🚃-> Shanghai
Highlights: meeting

grayswandir, going to museums in each city, going to Shanghai Film Park(!)
Weather: We were very lucky! It only rained during the day once (in Hangzhou), and the temperatures in Hangzhou and Shanghai were not as cold as we'd been bracing ourselves for. The weather in Hong Kong was warm and pleasant.

( Trip, part 1: Hong Kong )

( Hong Kong logistics/recommendations )

ainsley

Just finished watching Heated Rivalry and am having a lot of feelings, as one does. Not entirely sure what some of the feelings are, just yet, but I think I'll spend some time this weekend poking at them to see if they're amenable to identifying themselves. It's so wonderful that this beautiful brilliant show exists and is creating so much joy at a time when it's so needed.

Right before this, we watched The Pitt, which felt like it was starting to rearrange me as a person in a really good way, and this might be a little, as well.

It's been so long since I've had a fannish conversation, so long since I've had a fandom, that I almost don't even know what to say about anything (not sure I ever did! mostly i just showed up and stuck around). Hopefully there will be plenty of conversations about both of them so I can join in sometimes :)

minoanmiss

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trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

For Yuletide, I wrote for Zhu Yilong's Thermos "Flower Series" commercials - if you're not familiar with them, they're worth a watch! Here's a playlist with most of them (though the first video is a bit atypical), and here's one more commercial.

Here's what I wrote (I talk a bit more about it on my journal, in case you're interested):

One story for the "Flower Series" commercials - this features Zhu Yilong's character as a dragon, and a white cat whose human form I imagined as played by Bai Yu::
Heart-Seed, Heart-Flower (8,465 words)
Fandom: Thermos "Flower Series" Commercials
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Zhu Yilong's Character (Thermos "Flower Series" Commercials), White Cat (Thermos "Flower Series" Commercials)
Content Tags: Magic Flowers, Magic Waters, Dragons, Cats, Shape-Shifters, Multiple Worlds, Lonely Wanderers, Magical Quests, Saving Worlds with a Magic Bottle

Summary:

The bottle was plain and unadorned, the lotus pattern that would have signalled the success of his quest nowhere in evidence.

He'd failed.
And one Guardian crossover for the above (a Guardian canon divergence/fix-it for the ending):
Dragon of Flowers, Dragon of the City (2,275 words)
Fandoms: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), Thermos "Flower Series" Commercials
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Da Qing, Zhu Yilong's Thermos Character, Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei, SID team
Content Tags: Canon Divergence (for Guardian), Episode Related, Episode 37, Fix-It, Hallows Shenanigans, The Wick of the Guardian Lantern, Magical Flowers, Cross-dimensional Wanderers, Saving Worlds with a Magic Bottle, Dragon City is named after a dragon

Summary:

Lao-Zhao leaned forward, resting an elbow on a knee. "I thought you got all your memories back."

"Yeah, yeah." Da Qing waved a hand in the air, dismissively. "Not remember like 'I don't know my past', remember like 'where did I put my keys'. Except not my keys."