feng_shui_house

adafrog posting in

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Saturday to midnight on Sunday (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34041 Daily poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 20

How are you doing?

I am okay
10 (50.0%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
10 (50.0%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
8 (40.0%)

One other person
7 (35.0%)

More than one other person
5 (25.0%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

mecurtin

Sometimes Purrcy wants to FITE as he would with a sibling. Since he's an only cat & I bleed easily the best alternative I've found is for me to prod at him with the foot of my cane, making hissing/growling noises, until WHAP WHAP WHAP!!
Is there a better toy for this?

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is drawing himself up, lifting one paw ready to whap, as he stares at the rubber foot of a cane. His ears are somewhat flattened, the fur on his spine is a little raised. He's standing on a terra cotta and green tile floor in front of a baseboard.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is drawing himself up, lifting one paw ready to whap, as he stares at the rubber foot of a cane. His ears are somewhat flattened, the fur on his spine is a little raised. He's standing on a terra cotta and green tile floor in front of a baseboard.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is blurred as he WHAPS at the cane, his head thrown back to get power behind his thwapping paw

Our New Years Eve activity was watching Wake Up Dead Man with a few friends, while drinking champagne and having a few nibbles. We then watched the ball drop and toasted each other, and then the olds (most of us) went to bed while B stayed up until West Coast NYE to party with her fiance and friends there.

So. Wake Up Dead Man. That was sure a thing. I've been avoiding all your commentary for the past month & a half, thank you all for your careful use of cut tags. Please link me to your discussions now!
( spoilers and Opinions about Wake Up Dead Man )

astrogirl

All right, only very slightly belated, here's my year-end fic-writing round-up, as promised!

First, the list of what I posted this year (which includes a couple of things written at the end of last year for a challenge thingy that didn't reveal until January):

"Song in the Dark" (Gravity Falls, Ford/OFC Siren, Bill/Ford, 2,317 words, written for the Western Title Challenge)

"Run Away Home" (Gravity Falls, Stan, 100 words, written for the Western Title Challenge)

"Back from Outer Space" (Gravity Falls, Bill/Ford, Stan, 7,354 words)

"Here Lies Stan" (Gravity Falls, Stan, Caryn Pines, 98 words, written for the 3 Sentence Ficathon)

"Meddling in the Affairs of Humans" (Doctor Who, Susan, Barbara/Ian, 3,986 words, written for Candy Hearts Exchange)

"You" (Gravity Falls, Stan & Ford, 1,167 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"A Stimulant in the Morning (The Impossible People Remix)" (Doctor Who, Twelfth Doctor/Missy, Twelfth Doctor & Clara, 1,678 words, written for Doctor Who and Related Fandoms Remix)

"A Series of Notes Attached to a UNIT Equipment Requisition Form" (Doctor Who, Third Doctor & the Brigadier, 1,093 words, written for the Unsent Letters Exchange)

"Congratulations on Your Apotheosis" (Gravity Falls, Bill/Ford, 28,413 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"Meanwhile, Donna" (Doctor Who, Donna & Rose Noble, 100 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"We Don't Talk About That Here" (The Orville/Gravity Falls, Isaac, Sheriff Blubs, mentioned Blubs/Durland and Claire/Isaac, 1,611 words, written for A Ficathon Goes Into a Bar)

"At Least You Don't Have Food Poisoning" (RimWorld, OCs, 100 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"Maybe This Time" (Doctor Who, Twelfth Doctor/Missy, 2,599 words, written for the Just Married Exchange)

"Shooting Stars Break the Mold" (Gravity Falls, Ford & Mabel, 1,521 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"A Reevaluation of Prior Data" (The Orville, Kaylon Primary, 100 words, written as a treat for Seasons of Drabbles)

"Only Mistaken" (Gravity Falls, Ford & various, 600 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

And now, the usual questions and answers. Once again, I've copied the same ones over from last year, because I'm far too lazy to go looking for new ones.

( Q&A )

Current Mood: busy

adafrog posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Friday to midnight on Saturday (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34039 Daily poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 24

How are you doing?

I am okay
15 (65.2%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
8 (34.8%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
7 (29.2%)

One other person
11 (45.8%)

More than one other person
6 (25.0%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

starwatcher

This is the list where you can choose different sellers. Here's the sale link --

https://earlybirdbooks.com/deals/1000-ebook-sale

**

Folks, I often don't open my laptop until noon or later. Since my timezone is GMT+7, that's awfully late for anyone in Europe, and these posts are fairly useless.

BUT! Note that there's a "subscribe" button at the top of the Early Bird Books page. If you subscribe, you'll get a daily email that lists a dozen or so discounted books, as well as early notification of these massive sales. (This one hit my inbox at 5:20 A.M.)

Also check out Bookbub -- https://www.bookbub.com/ If you sign up, you select the genres you like to read and your seller of choice. Then you get a daily email with approximately 15 to 30 discounted books in your selected genres. Bookbub doesn't have the massive sales like Early Bird Books, but often there are 3 or 4 titles "free" in the daily list. (At least, in the Romance genre.)

**

As always, feel free to share this post or info wherever you choose. Happy reading!

thisbluespirit

yuletide is now over for another year! I did, in fact, have the misfortune to turn up at the exact wrong moment to catch the reveals bug on the 24th, so I saw the identity of my gift-writer, although as they were someone that I only had the vaguest idea of having seen the name around AO3 somewhere before, it didn't really spoil anything, thankfully.

I had hoped to do some little treats, as I got on and got my fic done as soon as I could, but I moved instead. However, as I cut out one section from my assignment and posted it separately in Madness, I did technically still post a treat as well!

I wrote The Winslow Boy for

edwardianspinsteraunt, so I was not super anonymous really, for anyone who actually looked that far, but I had a lovely time spending a month or so rewatching the film and coming up with different scenarios from their prompts and my head for a 5 + 1 Times fic. By the end, I decided, though, that the "+1" just increasingly didn't sit right with the rest, so I split it off, hence the Madness treat.

Passing Acquaintances (8985 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Robert Morton (Winslow Boy), Catherine Winslow, Arthur Winslow, Grace Winslow, Desmond Curry
Additional Tags: 5 Times, Post-Canon, 1910s, World War I, Trains, London, Smoking, Politics, Cars, Suffragettes, Yuletide, Edwardian Period
Summary: Five ways Catherine and Sir Robert might have met again, after the trial.

( Some writerly blathering )

I wanted to include the Winslows lose the case AU if I could, as I knew

edwardianspinsteraunt was keen on that idea - and as I thought would it might rather put paid to any Catherine/Robert, at least for quite some time, it fitted well into the format as the "one time they didn't" (meet again) (although never at any point was that categorical). It did work out well and was maybe the most Rattigan section in the end, I thought, so I had to post it even after I cut it. (Although had I realised sooner I was going to set it loose alone, I'd have found a way to make the start a little less in media res, although tbf, it's an unlikely one to appeal to anyone who doesn't know canon).

Anyway, here it is:

and watch the things you gave your life to broken (2799 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Catherine Winslow, Desmond Curry, Arthur Winslow, Violet (Winslow Boy), Dickie Winslow, Robert Morton (Winslow Boy)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, 1910s, Edwardian Period, The Winslows lose the case, Yuletide Treat
Summary: The Winslows lose the case.

With the usual thanks to

persiflage for the beta!! <3<3<3

astrogirl

Happy New Year!

I'm still looking backwards into the old year for the moment, though. I only just recently remembered that I still need to do my usual year-end fic round-up post, and, of course, there's also the book log post for December. The former will probably have to wait until I have a little more time and energy, maybe tomorrow, but here's how my 2025 reading year ended:

( 81. The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian )

( 82. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn )

( 83. Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography by Rob Wilkins )

( 84. Christmas and Other Horrors: A Winter Solstice Anthology edited by Ellen Datlow )

( 85. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick )

( 86. Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic )

( 87. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers )

( 88. The Age of Calamities: Stories by Senaa Ahmad )

( 89. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud )

( 90. Doctor Who - the Scripts: The Power of the Daleks by David Whitaker )

Current Mood: busy

mecurtin posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, January 1, to midnight on Friday, January 2 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34034 Daily check-in poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 28

How are you doing?

I am OK
16 (57.1%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
12 (42.9%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
11 (39.3%)

One other person
11 (39.3%)

More than one other person
6 (21.4%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

rmc28

I had Kodiaks practice on the evening of 30 December, which meant getting home very late as usual. I did get up and out for the last hot yoga class of my festive pass in the morning of 31 December. From there I did a run into town to pay in a cheque (a cheque!) to N's savings account on the last possible day before it expired. After I got home, I looked at how many tickets remained for the public skate I was booked on, did some subtraction and decided the rink would be too full and I was too tired, so I cancelled the Last Skate Of The Year, and had a nap instead. It was marvellous.

In the evening we had a little family movie night with drinks and snacks:

Chicken Run (which everyone but Nico had seen before)
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (which only Nico had seen before) - fun, but omg there were bad parenting choices, and excessive ~suspense~ due to even more bad choices in the final action sequence
Wake Up Dead Man (which Nico was uninterested in, but the other three of us enjoyed)

We managed to finish the last film with about fifteen minutes to go before midnight, so I put on BBC One on iPlayer and we watched some Ronan Keating and then the fireworks from London, and then I left Ronan Keating providing background music while sending and replying to HNY messages on my phone until I decided sleep was a better plan.

This morning I got up and used a free gym pass to get to a weights class, and confirm my opinion that I want to return to a regular gym routine. I met friends M, J & K for pub drinks this afternoon, and spent a bunch of time afterwards sorting out logistics for ice hockey games on Saturday (Kodiaks 1 are away in Chelmsford, Kodiaks 2 are "home" in Peterborough).

Tomorrow I will take Nico to a pantomime in the morning, work a half day in the afternoon, and go to Warbirds practice in the evening.

rmc28

New-to-me books read this year: 128
(Note for this exercise: I count audiobooks separately from paper/ebooks. I like both experiences but they are different experiences and different "books" to me, whereas reading paper or ebook feels interchangeable to me. My default is to read ebook, audiobooks and physical books are tagged as variations from the default.)

( Read more... )

Rereads: 19

( Read more... )

If you want to know more about a specific book I read in 2025, ask me about it. Or pick a random number between 1 and 147 and ask me to talk about that book.

Books acquired in 2025 and not yet read: 19

( Read more... )

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book

rmc28

Books on pre-order:

Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May 2026)
Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie (12 May 2026)

Books acquired in December:

and read:
1. Last Victim of the Monsoon Express (Baby Ganesha) by Vaseem Khan
2. Harmonic Pleasure (Mysterious Arts 6) by Celia Lake
and unread:
1. Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh
2. Wounded Christmas Wolf by Lauren Esker
3. Gift of the Magpie (Fated Mountain Lodge) by Lauren Esker
4. Claiming the Tower (Council Mysteries 1) by Celia Lake
5. Apt to be Suspicious (Liminal Mysteries 2) by Celia Lake
and previously read:
1. The Green and the Grey by Timothy Zahn
2. Triplet by Timothy Zahn

Books acquired previously and read in December:

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus 1) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus 2) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus 3) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus 4) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus 5) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]

Borrowed books read in December:

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson [3]
Bad Day at the Vulture Club (Baby Ganesha 5) by Vaseem Khan [3]
Inspector Chopra and the Million Dollar Motor Car (Baby Ganesha) by Vaseem Khan [3]
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan [3]
The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan [3]
The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles 1) by Rick Riordan [3]
The Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles 2) by Rick Riordan [3]

I was right about how much I could read this month when I bought books, I was wrong about how easily I was going to get diverted by reading borrowed books instead. I finished up the Inspector Chopra series and intend to move on to the Malabar House series by Vaseem Khan once I've read and returned more of the Rick Riordan backlist.

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

marinarusalka

Hello?... Anyone here?

Happy new year to all.

The UC campuses close between Christmas and New Year, so I spent the entire past week being a potato. A knitting potato. I think I only left the house twice the whole time, and my only socializing consisted of a board game night with the ladies from my knitting circle on Tuesday. It was very relaxing.k

Back to work tomorrow, which is just silly if you ask me. Like, would it really have killed them to add one more day and give us the whole week off?

Mom visited over the weekend before Christmas, and we went up to Costa Mesa to see the American Ballet Theater do The Nutcracker. We had originally tried to do it last year, but that fell through due to airline shenanigans. This year, Mom drove in, which went much more smoothly. It was a lovely performance and more than worth the trip.

I feel like I should post about some fannish stuff, like Pluribus or The Mighty Nein, but I'm not done being a potato yet.

Current Mood: potato

feng_shui_house

These I can do.
Don’t do laundry. Don’t sweep floors. Avoid chicken and lobster. Eat something pig based (pigs are lucky because they root forward, chicken and lobster unlucky because they scratch backward). I have SPAM.

These I can’t do.

Nothing should leave the house, including trash (Sorry, but cat litter waits for no one).
Wear something new. Hmm… the only clothing I’ve bought in years are bras and shoes. I put the new bras at the bottom of the dresser drawer.

Have full cupboards (empty kitchen cabinets is considered a sign of impending poverty). I don’t have *food* in my kitchen cabinets, but they’re full of Tupperware, kitchen tools, spices, etc. My food is either in the fridge or the pantry…mmm… and neither of them is exactly full. Ok, poverty impends. *shrug* What else is new? :^)

Let’s cherry pick a few from around the world—Puerto Rico- throwing pails of water out the window drives evil spirits away. Does it count if you throw out the water in yesterday’s cat bowl into the yard? I’mma gonna say yes.

-South American Countries – wear colored underwear to determine your fate. Red will bring you love, gold will bring you wealth and white will bring you peace. (Peeks— white. Ok, peace is good.)

Estonia – you should eat seven times on a New Year’s Day to ensure abundance in the New Year. (Does snacking on peanuts count?)

Panama – burning the effigies of everyone and anyone famous is a popular tradition. (I’m so tempted…)

https://www.thevistapress.com/traditions-and-superstitions-of-new-years-eve-and-new-years-day/

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

Привет and welcome to our new Russian friends from LiveJournal! We are happy to offer you a new home. We will not require identification for you to post or comment. We also do not cooperate with Russian government requests for any information about your account unless they go through a United States court first. (And it hasn't happened in 16 years!)

Importing your journal from ЖЖ may be slow. There are a lot of you, with many posts and comments, and we have to limit how fast we download your information from ЖЖ so they don't block us. Please be patient! We have been watching and fixing errors, and we will go back to doing that after the holiday is over.

I am very sorry that we can't translate the site into Russian or offer support in Russian. We are a much, much smaller company than LiveJournal is, and my high school Russian classes were a very long time ago :) But at least we aren't owned by Sberbank!

С Новым Годом, and welcome home!

EDIT: Большое спасибо всем за помощь друг другу в комментариях! Я ценю каждого, кто предоставляет нашим новым соседям информацию, понятную им без необходимости искать её в Google. :) И спасибо вам за терпение к моему русскому переводу с помощью Google Translate! Прошло уже много-много лет со школьных времен!

Thank you also to everyone who's been giving our new neighbors a warm welcome. I love you all ❤️

starwatcher posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday, December 31, to midnight on Thursday, January 01. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34024 Daily Check-in

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 24

How are you doing?

I am OK.
16 (66.7%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
8 (33.3%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
7 (29.2%)

One other person.
10 (41.7%)

More than one other person.
7 (29.2%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

reapermum

I've only got another 40 minutes to stay awake until I can go to bed.

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Eric Poulin, Here Comes the Pizzer: The Found Poetry of Baseball Broadcasts:

lysimache got me this for Christmas, so I have now finished twelve books this year and I nearly didn't finish this one. Stupid migraines. Anyway, this is baseball broadcast found poetry. The poetry skills on display here are of varying quality -- like, only a couple of people are actually doing anything unusual with the text -- but I still think it's charming.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday! Time to probably destroy the universe. We are instructed to read Ultimate Endgame before Ultimates.

( Sorcerer Supreme #1, Ultimate Endgame #1, Ultimates #19 )

What I'm Reading Next

A new year! I have no idea what to read. Once again, I need fewer migraines.

Current Mood: tired

feng_shui_house

I am trying to slowly sort out stuff. I've had several major purges over the years, throwing out, donating, repurposing, using up, etc.

But much remains.

Today, feeling the need for distraction on the throne, I grabbed a dusty magazine that was lying on top of a bunch of needlework, etc. magazines.

Dusted it off and leafed through it. Printed in 1946, full of photos of actual houses and building plans, the preface cheerfully burbled about the new and clever materials and design methods in architecture and how everyone in the post war days was going out and buying and custom building new homes.

I really doubt everyone was able to afford these. The homes are huge, situated on landscaped lots five times the size of my home, which my parents bought in the post war years after saving up because before that they were living in a trailer with 2 kids and another on the way (not me, I was later than that). I expect mom bought the magazine just to dream on.

I thought it would be nice to share- and I did find it on line at Archive.org.

https://archive.org/details/HouseToChoosePlanAndBuildYourOwnHouse

mecurtin

perclexed has mostly been posting on bluesky these days, but I suggested that she cross-post here. She's in a difficult financial situation and could use some help:

Hi. Been a while, eh?

The past few years you would’ve found me mostly on Twitter, and when that basically went tits up I was one of many who migrated over to Bluesky. Where I still am today, posting away about my current hobby obsessions (still knitting, even if I’ve lost my mojo for a couple of months, and most recently tea). And the state of me.

TL;DR: I have surgery in three weeks and at least $350 in expenses for which I do not have the money. I need to have this surgery. And I could use some help to get everything covered.

Toss something in the hat if you can, pass it on if you can't.

starwatcher posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Tuesday, December 30, to midnight on Wednesday, December 31. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34021 Daily Check-in

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 26

How are you doing?

I am OK.
12 (48.0%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
13 (52.0%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
10 (38.5%)

One other person.
10 (38.5%)

More than one other person.
6 (23.1%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

Profile

feng_shui_house

January 2026

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feng_shui_house

Reading

Daily Check In.

Purrcy; Wake Up Dead Man

The End-of-the-Year Fic Meme

Daily Check In.

Today only -- Jan 2nd -- ebook sale.

Yuletide Reveals 2025

December Book Log

Daily Check-In

Start as I mean to go on

2025 reading summary

To-read pile, 2025, December

Peeks out from pillow fort

Some New Year’s Day superstitions

Привет! LiveJournal imports may be slow

Daily Check-In

Happy New Year everyone.

Wednesday Reading Meme

Hidden Treasures are everywhere

Signal boost: perclexed needs help

Daily Check-In

Profile

January 2026

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

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