unicornduke | Network

December has been busy-busy for me between Yuletide preparation (as a mod) and Yuletide preparation (as a participant who also took on a pinch hit), but now, ahh, everything is done and I can reap the rewards!

My awesome gift (5-minute fandom: British Airways "May We Haveth One's Attention" Safety Video):

A British Original: Discovering Haddersford House and Its Residents (2248 words, gen)
Summary: A magazine article from the world where characters in costume drama occasionally come to life of their own--and stick around after the cameras stop rolling and the crews have gone home.

I really had no idea what to expect from this request (just that I had to have something about this marvelous video!) and I love how it's played with an absolutely straight face. Also, there's a nod to Planet Vancouver, hee!

Speaking of the ridiculous played straight, this is understandable (and hilarious) with only osmosis knowledge of The Godfather:

An Offer You Can’t Refuse (Unless You’re Lactose Intolerant) (1008 words, Godfather movies, gen)
Summary: On the day of his daughter’s guinea pig’s wedding, Don Vito Corleone received a request he could not immediately refuse.

Absolutely the best Godfather fic ever.

The rest of my recs really do require canon knowledge, but I know many of you know these canons:

Memories Are Made of This (4002 words, Northern Exposure, Ed Chigliak-centered ensemble gen)
Summary: “So this is Cicely,” Ed said, gazing wide-eyed up and down Main Street. “Where’s the rest of it?”

This is wonderful - like an episode of the show, warm and funny and a little bit off-kilter.

Hoar and Hound (2236 words, Cadfael Chronicles, Brother Cadfael-centered gen)
Summary: On a frigidly cold December night, Cadfael follows a trail through the abbey grounds.

A lovely, thoughtful portrait of the abbey and of Cadfael. The way he quietly assesses the needs of the people (and creatures) around him is perfectly in tune with canon.

Dis Manibus (1364 words, Frontier Wolf, Alexios/Cunorix, Alexios/Hilarion, G)
Summary: Alexios goes out to make an offering to the shades of the dead, but he does not go alone.

This is lovely and tender and measured, and has something of Sutcliff in the descriptions. For me Alexios/Hilarion only works if it honors the close friendship between Alexios and Cunorix, before things went bad - and this is perfect.

We Greet the Peoples of the Tower (1717 words but heavily illustrated; Chants of Sennaar, gen)
Summary: There are some oddly regular scratch marks on a wall in the Alchemists' level...

Basically this is a fangame (though the game part is optional; the first set of chapters are illustrations with glyphs as in the game, and the second half holds the translations), a whole new level in which the Monster goes seeking the other peoples to assert he is a human and their brother. It's a moving story that fits with the game themes, and it's just very cool!

Actually, if you've played Chants of Sennaar, I recommend all the Yuletide works for the game as the fandom has clearly brought its A-game, they're all great. (The one above is just extraordinarily so!) And there are two Madness works I haven't even looked at yet!

watersword

Yuletide very pleasant; usually I get a comment on an old fic or two in a fandom someone has rediscovered through Yuletide and gone on a deep dive for, but not this year!

About three or four inches of snow (7-10cm) fell overnight and I shoveled my front sidewalk and steps, because the snow removal guys had done next door but not us (?), and then tromped down to my assigned house in the neighborhood, where I shoveled the longest driveway in Rhode Island and enough sidewalk for two houses and what felt like two flights of front steps. Thank goodness it was light and powdery, and almost all of the above was in good repair so I didn't have to fight the asphalt like last year, but I earned every bite of the steak and eggs and homefries (not nearly as good as last time) at the diner.

And then C. and her kid and I went to the ZOO and saw CREATURES. Macaws! Ibis! Elephants! A two-year-old giraffe who is already trying to fuck the other giraffes in the enclosure (this is a good thing, they want genetically-diverse babies from him) but he's not tall enough yet! An anaconda 99.8% percent in the water in its tank, I wanted to boop its snout SO MUCH. Red pandas that were so fluffy they looked fake. The river otters were having so much fun in the snow and splashing in their pool. The docents were super friendly and the French fries were delicious. Would 100% zoo again.

Then a hot bath and a nap. Bliss.

atlas_obscura_places_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bonnie-and-clydes-death-site

This roadside marker in Bienville Parish, Louisiana marks the site where infamous outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed on May 23, 1934, bringing one of America’s most notorious crime sprees to an end.

The quiet stretch of road contrasts sharply with the violent end that unfolded here, when law enforcement officers from Texas and Louisiana opened fire on the couple’s vehicle, killing both almost instantly.

The site lies only a short drive from the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, which offers additional context, artifacts, and exhibits related to the couple’s final days and legacy.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bonnie-and-clydes-death-site

kaberett

I am now noticing that it is in fact Fairly Consistent that I can Do More in terms of Pilates if I'm doing it at a rate of Two Full Sessions A Week rather than three. I am Somewhat Dismayed at now needing to go "okay, this clearly means I'm not fully recovering doing what I'm currently doing at a rate of every other day-ish, which means I will derive more benefit if I do less of the activity"; I am trying to cheer myself up by persuading myself that what it Actually Means that I get to play with a greater variety of Colouring Things In on The Sticker Chart.

I am amused that I am about as Oh No This Is Terrible about Officially Reducing My Mat Time as I am about getting onto the mat. Brains. Brains!

$wychwood: road sign is excited (gen - \o/)$

wychwood

Christmas was good but also SO MUCH. By the end of Boxing Day lunch I was trying to work out how much longer I had to stay in company, but I ended up in my mother's living room where she was silently playing a game on her new tablet and my sister's fiance was silently playing a game on his phone, and I just sat there silently reading on my phone for an hour and felt much better.

Family updates:

my sister is engaged! this came as a surprise to me and the brother who doesn't live near her, although mostly because we thought they were already engaged (there have been casual discussions about weddings going back some years)
my sister's endometriosis op in the autumn revealed that she does not in fact have endometriosis, but she did have a nasty tumour-y thing which was not cancer but apparently also not not cancer and now she is down one ovary and fallopian tube, which is particularly upsetting for her because all of this was part of the fertility investigations they've been working on
my middle nephew is dating a boy! He is definitely the least surprising candidate for this out of my niblings. Apparently he is not presently interested in labels, only in dating the person he likes, which seems perfectly reasonable to me, particularly since he's fourteen

Apparently I made a good decision to leave when I did on Christmas Day since several family members were already pretty drunk, and it sounds like it got significantly worse after I left! Not in a bad way - my family are generally very well-behaved drunks, they just enjoy themselves - but at least one person apparently needed considerable help to get upstairs to bed. Mum said "they were singing all sorts of things to Dad's guitar! Oasis and Simon & Garfunkel and lots of things!"; I said that sounded nice and she said "IT WASN'T" (I gather they were fairly raucous...)

Both my parents stayed home from the Boxing Day walk this year, which meant that for the first time in years I was not solely responsible for the cooking, and was surprisingly stressful (Dad: "Oh yes we can cook all six of those things in the last half hour before lunch!" Me, silently: YOU CAN FIT A MAXIMUM OF TWO THINGS INTO THE OVEN, AND I DON'T BELIEVE YOU HAVE ACCESS TO TIME TRAVEL). However my mildly panicked promptings did cause enough things to happen early that it wasn't a disaster (three or four things were cooked while we were eating and brought up as additional items, but that's fine). They didn't want to cook things early and let them get cold waiting around, which is very reasonable, but also if you are trying to cook:

three trays of sausage rolls (vegetarian spanakopita; sage and onion; cheese; chorizo; black pudding; "Chinese takeaway" (with five-spice, hoisin and soy sauces); homemade by my sister's fiance and apparently all very delicious - obviously I only had the spanakopita ones)
two trays of cheese potatoes
two sticks of garlic bread
a tray of pigs in blankets
three small trays of brie and cranberry parcels
a pack of chicken goujons
a small tray of beef and stuffing Yorkshire puddings(?!?)
a Greek omelette / fritatta thing

you cannot in fact do them all at once even if you have a four-oven Aga. Something is going to be lukewarm and this is simply a fact of reality. Particularly since the temperature starts dropping when you keep opening and closing the door, cooking lots of frozen items in it, etc etc, so the cooking times on the packaging become more and more distant from reality (the 17-minute brie and cranberry parcels had I think 35 minutes in the end and were only barely beginning to brown then).

Mum was pretty down about food things because - well, ok, she has pretty much spent six months during her chemo eating the exact same meals every day at the exact same times, which has been working for her, but means she does not yet have any real idea how to calculate the appropriate medication for meals with different food in them, or how to arrange them around eating at different times, or how to schedule everything so that she can still eat her before-bed weetabix to prevent any overnight hypos. I'm fairly sure this is a one-time problem, because by next year she'll have varied her diet and activity sufficiently to be able to work it out better. But right now she's feeling very confronted by how not-"normal" her life is, and it's been no fun for her.

But everyone had enough to eat and there were left-overs, so it was a success. Then I came home and did nothing and talked to no one and hopefully tomorrow I will have energy to start on my to-do list backlog.

musesfool

Christmas was lovely! On Christmas Eve, it was just me, my sister, and my brother-in-law, so we ordered in and watched a godawful Hallmark Christmas movie with Teri Hatcher in it. Then they went to bed and I did a Die Hard rewatch - I hadn't seen it in some number of years and for all its flaws, it is still a good time.

Christmas morning, my niece and her husband came over so Baby Miss L could unwrap the first set of presents - she still gets bored with it and wants to play with whatever she's opened instead of opening the next gift, so it's a process - and she LOVED the 30 second dance party button, as I knew she would. I am SO HAPPY I saw it somewhere (Wirecutter, maybe?) and ordered it, and that it arrived in time for me to see her play with it. (The adults got a kick out of it too, but it was hilarious watching her run up and press it each time it ended.) She liked the dinosaur cape and the books (especially "The Little Book of Cheese," which is in the same series as "The Little Book of Pasta," which I got for her last year and which she LOVES - apparently she will just bust out with "FARFALLE!" at any given moment), but did not care about the wings at all. Also when Alyssa told her I would be there, she said, "books!" so she knows I am the books and clothes aunt. *g*

The while elephant swap was pretty hilarious too, and my niece Nicki ended up with the cat-shaped measuring cups and spoons that were my contribution. I got a waterproof bluetooth speaker I'm going to have to set up in the bathroom to have tunes in the shower.

The funfetti cupcakes were a big hit. (I made sure to put cream cheese frosting on the ones for my sister; she tried one with the American buttercream and made the same face I made when I tasted it - it's disgustingly sweet.) There's picture of this year's selection here.

As for gifts, I received a handful of gift cards, a KRYPTO squishmallow from Baby Miss L, a pair of earrings made from chips of vintage pyrex, a stand mixer tree ornament, a copy of Dorrie's Anytime Cakes, some candles, and a pair of super warm and fuzzy grippy socks. I also bought myself a new winter coat, a new 9 x 13" pyrex baking dish, a new vibrator, some new bras, and a new pair of black ankle boots, so I'm doing all right in the gift department. *g*

Yesterday, I got home early and vegged out for most of the day. And then it snowed, just like they said it would!

Today, I made a new batch of dough and tomorrow I'll finish baking off the fig cookies for this year. I also want to try those orange cranberry rolls now that I have room in the fridge to let them rise overnight. I still have so many eggs left over, though, so I see at least one frittata in my future, plus at least one batch of Nadiya's egg wraps, which are delicious and I recommend them highly!

Now I should look into having dinner and maybe watching the Rangers game.

*

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Golden - Huntr/x

luzula

Please check in here! It is late and I had a little alcohol, so I am too tired to write a proper post. Did not write. Will edit in the tally later. As for my farm news, we drank my homemade cherry wine, which came out great.

file770_feed

Posted by Mike Glyer

https://file770.com/cherryh-wins-lasfs-forry-award/

https://file770.com/?p=127607

C. J. Cherryh is the winner of the 2025 Forrest J Ackerman Award for Lifetime Achievement given by the members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. The award was announced at Loscon over Thanksgiving Weekend. It is Cherryh’s fourth … Continue reading →

https://file770.com/cherryh-wins-lasfs-forry-award/

https://file770.com/?p=127607

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6931 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 68 secrets from Secret Submission Post #990.
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.

case posting in

fandomsecrets

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #991 ]

The first secret from this batch will be posted on January 3rd.

RULES:
1. One secret link per comment.
2. 750x750 px or smaller.
3. Link directly to the image.

More details on how to send a secret in!

Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is.

Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret.

Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment!

tozka

A puffy snowman sticker on a bright red pole. The snowman has a top hat, red scarf and little red mittens. It’s smiling!

📍Phoenix, Arizona - December 2025 / All Photos / Pixelfed

beccaelizabeth

I noticed how many days I did not post so *waves*
I got all tired out doing xmas even though that was like two movies with a meal in the middle
so the next day I slept like twelve hours

the tired sleepy is mostly winning this week

but it's cool, I already read one of my xmas present books, just in several installments due to the sleeping.

Yuletide isn't grabbing me. Don't know what I would have looked for but it isn't there.

I haven't been doing much fic reading this year until right at the end when I started to read All The Constantine fic and got sidetracked by apparently Justice League Dark canon.

I have thoughts now about how characters can change so much by staying exactly the same that they become unrecogniseable. And how becoming iconic absolutely trashed the fundamentals of the trenchcoat brigade. You shouldn't be able to pick them out of a crowd, that's what the coat is *for*, what do you mean Legends' coat is designer enough you can tell from the collar, the original comics coat might be a demon in itself from being worn to hell and back, and Dark has the coat be inherited??? I mean, utterly changing the meaning of the symbol every time, much? Also! Being a punk when punk was the new thing signifies something entirely different than being a punk when you grew up a generation later. Every generation's music should generate its own trenchcoat Constantine and I feel strongly about that even when I am not enough of a music person to have a clue how to do it. And! There are trends and developments in occultism too! Like seriously, I haven't paid attention since the 90s but there's several waves of 20th century New Hot Thing I vaguely read about. Vertigo!John had a very specific relationship with them when I was reading. If you keep him standing still in some kind of post modern mashup that mostly references previous issues of *itself* now then you smush the meanings into a new kind of Tradition instead of the original Transformation, in music and magic both.

I have opinions and they're not very educated on this one, but still.

I have only the vaguest of ideas what a guy you couldn't pick out from the crowd who is still the explosive New Thing would look like even if he was my age exactly, it would change rapidly. I have no idea what a 21 year old rebel looks like right now.

So. Feelings about Iconic and iconoclasm. I has them but they're all vague and get off my lawn.

Oh, and I'm not complaining about how other people write, that's not the way up I mean. It's just the guy who acts the exact same way at 20 and 60 becomes a very different guy, even if a sliding timeline gets involved, and so do his cultural referents. And it's interesting even when annoying and makes me want to reinvent again.

And there's a character who when I google him the articles rather improbably say he's a way of bringing a multiverse John back into JLDark? Only then they are dating. And then he's evil. Which is a lot, and apparently in very few issues, which I haven't read. But. At this point a trenchcoat using the exact punk magic of the Vertigo sort could have a generation or two of *mentors*, and relationships within a community doing the same things. Not just lateral ones (like you get in BtVS xovers because Ripper and Conjob were interestingly similar). Long term community that existed before you got there. And that is a different guy! And it's fascinating even if they aren't magic married, but if they *are*... well none of the fic is doing the same as the other fic so I can only assume source is really skinny on this one but, concept.

I keep thinking I could do something fiction shaped with several concept, but the characters in my head don't even match the fic, let alone the sources, so I'd have to file serial numbers off or something.

Like I keep coming back to the question of who wants to be John Constantine when they already know about John Constantine, because you kind of need to to explain John, and it's a tricky one. He built the icon and now what?

Now a lot of canon I haven't read that sounds very dark.

And some TV show I have waiting for me to watch any time I want to get up and do that.

Mostly though I am probably going back to sleep.

Just like in general this week.

osprey_archer

I’ve barely posted about movies this year, so I decided to do a quick movie round-up - very quick, as I’ve watched barely any movies this year! Some years are just not movie years, I guess…

The Balloonatic: a remix of a Buster Keaton movie set to the music of… okay I should have taken notes, I can’t remember the band, suffice it to say that it was a recentish band to which you would perhaps not expect Buster Keaton to be set. Smashing Pumpkins maybe? Lots of interesting cutting of the film which I don’t really have the technical vocabulary to describe, but just like - cutting what was clearly once one long shot into multiple shots? Kind of synced to the music?

I dragged the Brunch Bunch along to this showing, and we agreed that we’d see another if another came to town. But as we were just about the only people in the theater it is perhaps unsurprising that the theater has not booked another. Even an arthouse cinema has to have an audience.

Interview with a Vampire: I posted a bit of comparison to the book, but did not take time to note that this movie is an A++ example of complete commitment to an aesthetic, the aesthetic in this case being “decadent opulence spattered in blood.” This is an occasional aesthetic for me rather than one I would like to live in, but I admire the commitment.

The Shape of Water: This was a big disappointment, to be honest. Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is one of my all-time favorites, so I went into this movie with high hopes, but honestly it just draaaaaaagged for me. Also highly doubt the ability of the fish-man from the Amazon to survive in the icy coastal waters of the Atlantic.

Kiki’s Delivery Service. A rewatch! Still one of my favorite movies, probably my top two Studio Ghibli with My Neighbor Totoro (but now I feel bad leaving out Spirited Away...) Love Kiki, love Jiji, love the richly detailed setting (which we dubbed “Francemany,” as it is clearly a mash-up of various European localities), love Miyazaki’s love of flying machines. This is an aesthetic I WOULD like to live in.

Also a couple of documentaries. Take Joy! The Magical World of Tasha Tudor is about Tudor’s life at Corgi Cottage, built and largely run in the style of a 19th century farmhouse, where Tudor lives with her goats, her doves, her corgyn (Tudor’s plural of corgi), her one-eyed cat Minou, and seven looms. (These are not all Tudor’s looms. Sometimes she gives house-space to a friend’s loom, if the friend doesn’t have loom room, a loom being a large contraption.) An inspiring example of building your own little world and living in it.

This theme is further developed in Take Peace: A Corgi Cottage Christmas with Tasha Tudor, an enchanting documentary perfect for anyone who has ever enjoyed Tasha Tudor’s Christmas illustrations, as the illustrations apparently draw extensively on Tasha Tudor’s own Christmas traditions or possibly vice versa, in a virtuous cycle of candlelit charm.

If you can’t find the documentary, the photo book Forever Christmas appears to have been made in conjunction, and includes some material not included in the film. Can’t believe they left out the sleigh ride!

petra

I am going through my traditional "How many fests and challenges can I imagine in a week?"

I don't think I'm doing Psychic Wolves this year.

On the other hand, Té suggested a fest of blorbos touching the Rockstar Lestat and now I want it.

hannah points out that, if we want to know what Tom Cruise's Rockstar Lestat would have looked like, we have but to consult this video of Cruise in a jukebox musical singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

...it's been a really long time since I was sexually attracted to Tom Cruise, but apparently

hannah has the secret sauce.

Also, I now want vampires:

+ the New Burbage Festival (OMG DARREN NICHOLS) (Slings & Arrows)

+ on G-ERTI (they can only fly at night) (Cabin Pressure)

+ working for Oracle (Birds of Prey and a half)

+ visiting Chicago in the era of the Mountie (experimental hair for all who will) (due South)

+ what-ho'ing Bertram Wilberforce Wooster

+ in the world of the Five Gods (hello, is this The Bastard, I have your king shit devoté on hold) (Chalion)

+ dealing with the Light and the Dark, and falling somewhere between (Dark is Rising)

~~+ eating hockey players~~

+ being in the future and baffling Aral Vorkosigan with being a) not soldiers and b) hot AT THE SAME TIME (Vorkosigan Saga)

+ and Muppets (Lestat as lone "human"?)

+ in Narnia (Aslan would shit a lit. brick)

+ becoming Black Ribboners (time for a sing-song around the harmonium! NOT LIKE THAT, LESTAT) (Discworld)

+ in Night Vale (it's Tuesday)

+ mad, in a coma, AND back in time -- the Life on Mars trifecta -- let's see Lestat trying to eat Gene Hunt

+ calling Car Talk

+ hiring Neal Caffrey to do a spot of forgery (White Collar)

+ with war horses who correspond with Copenhagen and Marengo, gaily (Warhorses of Letters)

+ fit as a fiddle and ready for love (would they love or loathe Lockwood and Lamont?) (Singin' in the Rain)

+ come on Darth Vader gold glitter looks Great on you

+ choosing the lesser of two weevils (Aubreyad)

+ ...okay i just died a little over quentin coldwater fanboying the vampire lestat (The Magicians)

+ side-eyeing and being side-eyed by Magneto (X-Men)

+ and I had a good belly laugh at Lestat meeting Felix Harrowgate: battle of the asshole first-person narrators who think they are special

+ Zaphod! Beeblebrox! would so get it on with Lestat! (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

+ How do you reckon vampires get on with thalergy? Let's Find Out (The Locked Tomb)

+ How do you reckon vampires get on with constructs? Send Lestat to Preservation! (Murderbot)

+ okay hear me out Grantaire is weak for opinionated blonds but what if he met The Wrong One (Les Misérables)

+ it's already a doctor who episode innit but let's get some harkness up in this joint

+ Awful Sykes has a crush and so does Torquil (Archer's Goon)

+ RIVERS OF LONDON which body of water can we blame everyone on

+ Last Week Tonight: Our main story concerns The "Vampire" Lestat (of course John does quote fingers)

+ Jacky Faber met our hero at some point in her meanderings. I bet they shared a stage.

+ James Flint. BWAHAHAHA. WOULD HIT THAT. (Black Sails)

+ Falsettos: writes. itself. Louis IS the gay plague.

+ did you ever want to see Lestat fuck a muppet wearing leather? I DO I DO (Farscape)

+ truly Julian Bashir needs his not-boyfriend to run interference or he's gonna get eaten (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

+ and then I hit Battlestar Galactica (reboot) which seems like a Terrible place to be a vampire but they'd have fun eating Gaius

+ Pern! is in the future! it can have Vampires if it wants 'em! Weirdest Harper Ever.

+ What happens with MCU? I couldn't begin to tell you. But there must be a clever answer.

+ Community: the study group goes to a concert and they all crush, each in their own way. Annie gets... scary.

+ I very much want Ray Person singing The Vampire Lestat across Iraq, but given the givens it makes me want to cry right now. (Generation: Kill, RIP James Ransone)

+ Scott & Bailey -- the teenage girls and Aunt Rachel bond over their crushes

+ Pamela Dean's Tam Lin has immortals. I want to see them emoting at Rice's.

+ And our wailing wonder, Lestat de Lioncourt. // Why, thank you, Sandi. (QI, the other guests are Phill Jupitus and Sue Perkins, because it's a Musical Episode)

+ ST: TOS -- Chekov and Sulu both have posters.

+ Does Venom want one? And how!

Current Mood: inspired
Current Music: In the name of love

susandennis

Hazel has come into my apartment 3 times this week to ask me to fix her tablet. Three times I have said that I would all she has to do is bring it to me. No tablet yet. She downloads shit and then gets warnings from malware. I think if I ever see the tablet again, I'll find her solitaire games that she can play offline and then turn off her wifi access.

But, the big news is she said that John (her husband who can't turn on his computer) has ordered her a big cellphone. Probably a large size, off brand smart phone. "he got the big one so I can see the numbers". Hazel cannot work a traditional handset because she forgets how. There is no way in the world she will be able to operate a cellphone. She will be in here every time she tries to turn it on. John does not know how to operate a smart phone. He can barely manage his feature flip phone. This is going to get ugly fast. I think my game plan is to show her to to call our IT guys here at Timber Ridge.

Elbow Coffee was not as bad as it has been and not as good. But, it is over for another week.

I'm just tired of old people.

I did my Safeway run and it is really cold out. I have no reason to test it further. I might puzzle a bit and then settle in with some TV and knitting.

conuly

Before I say anything, A would like you to know how extremely annoying it is that they played those "Arabian Nights" riffs every time the snake (Barry) appeared, and it would be annoying even if the plot ( Read more... )

They wouldn't shut up about it, so there we go. They're not wrong.

( Read more... )

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I raked more in the parking lot. I had to make another line. It's exhausting and inefficient and not even making the stumps all that much easier to see.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

ao3_news_feed

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/33951

International Volunteer Day

On December 5, people all over the world observed International Volunteer Day (IVD) to acknowledge the work of volunteer workers everywhere, and their efforts, dedication, and passion. Since its conception in 1985, IVD has invited us to recognize the ways in which volunteers contribute to communities and are at the forefront of many people-led initiatives.

Here at the Organisation of Transformative Works (OTW) we depend entirely on that drive, as our organization is 100% volunteer-run! Our volunteers handle our strategic planning, administration, infrastructure, development, any day-to-day tasks required in running a non-profit organization, and so on. Volunteers aren't just the backbone of the OTW, they are its whole skeleton!

Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of an OTW volunteer looks like? The answer is: It's hard to say! Depending on where in the OTW they are active, their tasks and responsibilities can look very different from those of the next volunteer. Volunteers also work a very wide range of weekly hours, depending on their position(s) and availability: anything from one hour to over twenty hours a week!

For this IVD, we wanted to give you a chance to get to know those volunteers behind the scenes of the OTW and its projects. That is why we sent out a call across our social media for you to send us your most burning questions.

Here are some of those questions with answers from our volunteers!

Questions for Specific Committees

Question for the Policy & Abuse committee:
How often do you deal with people who want to censor something on AO3? Is it a common complaint?
Committee Answer:
AO3 frequently receives complaints about "offensive content", which includes suggesting that we should remove or censor content that is allowed on AO3. In the past five years, complaints about offensive content have consistently been one of the top three types of Policy & Abuse tickets, albeit not the largest. The Policy & Abuse committee regularly publishes a breakdown of the previous year's tickets, which for 2024 can be found here. Information about 2025's tickets will be available in a newsletter early next year.
Question for the Volunteers & Recruiting committee:
What types of things can be done by volunteers? I say this as someone who'd love to volunteer at some point in the future, but have no idea if I have any skill that would actually be helpful.
Committee answer:
The skill sets required from our volunteers depend a lot on the role: There are roles that require some kind of formal education or in-depth knowledge of a specific topic, such as being a lawyer or a financial analyst. Other roles, however, are teaching all required skills during the training period, so for those roles it mostly depends on being the "type" for the role. For us in VolCom (Volunteers & Recruiting Committee), it's more of the latter than the former; for example, our volunteers need to enjoy documentation work and ticking off tasks from to-do lists while being able to do work autonomously. There are many roles in the OTW that look for a specific type of person more than a person with a specific set of skills, or the skills are very transferable: Skills such as project management, navigating tricky interpersonal situations, dividing big-picture goals into actionable items, etc. If you keep an eye on our socials and the news posts, you will see us recruiting regularly. Each role comes with a position description that explains both what the volunteers in this role do, and what is required of applicants, so just watch out for a role that matches your skills and interests!

General Questions across Committees

How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?
For myself on Systems, it varies. I usually spend at least an hour a day between checking in on alerts, tickets, and responding to any inquiries from other committees internally. It usually ends up being more, as some of those requests are more involved than others. Any time there's an outage or issue, the number of hours usually goes much higher. (FrostTheFox, Systems committee chair)
How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?
What I do each day varies based on what events are coming up for Board and the OTW! We may be working on research projects, preparing for a public Board meeting, replying to questions from the public, or many other things. The variety is a huge part of why I enjoy what I do honestly. I wouldn't enjoy it as much if it was the same every day. Volunteering for the OTW is nice because by and large, you get to pick what ours and schedule you'd like to have. I personally try and block out sections of my time to work on OTW-related tasks and do occasional checking in outside of this time. (therealmorticia, Board Assistants Team committee chair)
What's your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?
Assisting AO3 users, most notably Vietnamese and Chinese users, in my capacity as Support volunteer. Some weeks when the stress from my other OTW roles catches up to me, doing Support work and answering Support tickets remind me of the reason why I started this whole endeavour in the first place: I want to give back to fandom and help AO3 users navigate the Archive a little bit easier. (Anh Pham, Support committee)
What's the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?
Sometimes the things you think will be simplest are the hardest, and vice versa. Personally, I've had to nix features I really wanted myself because they just wouldn't be practical given our volume of users and current resources. (Accessibility, Design, & Technology committee volunteer)
What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?
I volunteer as an Open Doors Administrative Volunteer and as an Open Doors Chair Assistant. Both are project management-oriented roles: I help manage archive imports and the committee itself! I start my volunteering time by checking on the status of my archives, answering questions as they arise, making sure archive import tasks are progressing along - it's always something different! I also work on various projects for committee management, such as documenting workflows and new procedures or running weekly working meetings. (Kayla, Open Doors committee)
What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?
Aside from cats & dogs, my favorite animal is a sloth. They’re mood and they sound really funny (look it up on youtube!). Favorite dog breed is airedale terrier, because my boyfriend has one and she’s hilarious. She lives with his mom now that he’s studying/working in my city, and I’ve only seen her a few times, so I’m convinced she thinks I’m some sort of weird extension of my bf that just randomly appears every 6 months or so. (kati, Translation committee)
Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what's your favorite work on AO3?
I do! Finding a favorite was the hardest thing I've ever done and I had to dig through my bookmarks, anything by author hanville would make the cut, to be honest, but my absolute favorite is mosaic broken hearts with this is me trying as a really, really close second. (Camila Lopez, Tag Wrangling committee)
Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?
I write so many fics. @.@ It's a lot of fun to explore favourite characters in new ways, and to get to expand the worlds in which they live. I'm also cursed to have very few fandoms in which my favourite characters or ships have a lot of content, so I end up having to make it all myself. (Fun fact: I actually found my partner due to a rare pair!) (C, AO3 Documentation committee)
What fandoms are you (currently) in?
Well, Heated Rivalry obviously. I'm also really into Fallout, The Pitt, and Formula 1 RPF. (I'm not even a sports person. I don't know how I ended up in sports RPF, yet here I am.) (Whatsit, Policy & Abuse committee)
Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue? I grew up in German fandom, and I owe some German fandom writers a lot when it comes to my own existence in fandom. I very much stay away from it now lmao. I can't handle anything remotely smutty written in German, and some peculiarities of fanfiction that I can tolerate in English are a dealbreaker in German, as well as grammar and punctuation. I do love that it exists - fanfiction and fandom in general is an amazing space that should not be limited by the language one speaks. (corr, Volunteers & Recruiting committee)

(For more answers from our volunteers, check out this work on AO3, where we'll post additional replies to each question!)

We are exceedingly grateful to all volunteers who have taken time out of their day to compose answers, and for the amazing work they do at the OTW on a daily basis! They are the lifeblood of the OTW, AO3, and our other projects!

If you too want to become part of the OTW and help out as a volunteer, keep an eye on our recruitment posts! And if you're afraid of missing a post, no worries: You can subscribe to our monthly OTW News by Email service for a neat summary of what's currently happening at the OTW!

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/33951

badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: What are your crafting goals for 2026?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

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Current Location: my desk

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isis - a handful of Yuletide recs
watersword - *yawn*
atlas_obscura_places_feed - Bonnie and Clyde Death Site in Gibsland, Louisiana
kaberett - [movement] in which I get to follow mine own teaching
wychwood - i love my family but now i need to hibernate
musesfool - but now that's how i'm getting paid
luzula - Write every day: Day 27
file770_feed - Cherryh Wins LASFS’ Forry Award
case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #6931 ]
case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #991 ]
tozka - photo: spotted on my morning walk
beccaelizabeth - 🖖 Still here, very sleeping
osprey_archer - 2025 Movie Round-Up
petra - Happy liminal spacemas, couches!
susandennis - 2026 whine preview
conuly - Finally saw Zootopia 2!
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
ao3_news_feed - International Volunteer Day
badly_knitted in get_knitted - Check-In Post - Dec 27th 2025
princessofgeeks - A few random thoughts about Heated Rivalry

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It is a mystery

Network

a handful of Yuletide recs

yawn

Bonnie and Clyde Death Site in Gibsland, Louisiana

[movement] in which I get to follow mine own teaching

i love my family but now i need to hibernate

but now that's how i'm getting paid

Write every day: Day 27

Cherryh Wins LASFS’ Forry Award

[ SECRET POST #6931 ]

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #991 ]

photo: spotted on my morning walk

🖖 Still here, very sleeping

2025 Movie Round-Up

Happy liminal spacemas, couches!

2026 whine preview

Finally saw Zootopia 2!

Birdfeeding