Sholio (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sholio) wrote2026-01-04 04:05 pm
sholio) wrote2026-01-04 04:05 pmEntry tags:
Babylon 5 fic + a poll about the script books
New B5 fic, this one's just pure self-indulgence.
A Map on the Skin (Londo/G'Kar, 1700 wds, scars)
I have been thinking about how to handle posting material from the script books. There are 14 of them and scripts for all the episodes, plus alternate versions of some, so it's like. A lot. I figured I'd do a poll about what you want to see most. (Poll is under the cut for mild spoilers.)
( Poll about what you'd like to see from the books )
A Map on the Skin (Londo/G'Kar, 1700 wds, scars)
I have been thinking about how to handle posting material from the script books. There are 14 of them and scripts for all the episodes, plus alternate versions of some, so it's like. A lot. I figured I'd do a poll about what you want to see most. (Poll is under the cut for mild spoilers.)
( Poll about what you'd like to see from the books )
chazzbanner (chazzbanner) wrote2026-01-04 06:41 pm
chazzbanner) wrote2026-01-04 06:41 pmEntry tags:
'past' follow-up
I spent some time this afternoon reading through entries that are tagged 'past.' This means my past, as opposed to 'history.' Sometimes it's about things like games we used to play, or what comics I read. Other times it's about people I knew, or places I visited/lived/worked.
In a couple of entries I tracked down what became of some of my fellow Stanford grad students. In one case it was a couple, no longer together... he was not a student but a musician, and she was a medievalist (now a professor emerita).
I referred to him by his first initial, and puzzled a bit today about what his name was. I figured it out by googling his father via 'profession and politics' as he was a conservative columnist. The son has same unusual first name, but also uses his middle name.
From how simply he lived I had no idea he had money. He was decidedly counterculture, unlike his daddy.
Ah, why make a big deal out of it, here's a link to an article about a gift he made to Vassar. (He met his medievalist ex at Vassar, apparently.)
great big gift
-
In a couple of entries I tracked down what became of some of my fellow Stanford grad students. In one case it was a couple, no longer together... he was not a student but a musician, and she was a medievalist (now a professor emerita).
I referred to him by his first initial, and puzzled a bit today about what his name was. I figured it out by googling his father via 'profession and politics' as he was a conservative columnist. The son has same unusual first name, but also uses his middle name.
From how simply he lived I had no idea he had money. He was decidedly counterculture, unlike his daddy.
Ah, why make a big deal out of it, here's a link to an article about a gift he made to Vassar. (He met his medievalist ex at Vassar, apparently.)
great big gift
-
Redbird (redbird) wrote2026-01-04 07:31 pm
redbird) wrote2026-01-04 07:31 pmEntry tags:
(no subject)
The skin on the tips of my fingers has been splitting again (as it does in winter even if I try to use enough lotion) and I discovered yesterday evening that my left middle finger and thumb both hurt to touch right now, which makes lifting even light-weight things painful or difficult. Fortunately I don't live alone, and Adrian ct up my salmon for me.
Today has been if anything worse. Mousing Ok, a few tasks are OK, I managed several PT exercises but it has been a hard day. Typing, including comments, is particularly bad.
Today has been if anything worse. Mousing Ok, a few tasks are OK, I managed several PT exercises but it has been a hard day. Typing, including comments, is particularly bad.
nnozomi (nnozomi) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
guardian_learning2026-01-05 09:23 am
nnozomi) wrote in guardian_learning2026-01-05 09:23 amEntry tags:
第四年第三百六十一天
部首
心 parts 3-8
志, will; 忘, to forget; 忙, busy; 忠, faithful; 忧, to worry; 快, fast/pleasant; 念, to remember/to miss; 忽, to neglect; 怀, bosom/mind/to conceive; 态, appearance/form; 怎, how; 怒, anger; 怕, to fear; 怖, terror; 怜, to pity; 思, to think; 急, to worry/urgent; 性, nature/property/sex
( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=61
语法
2.11 Emphasis: 真 vs 很
2.12 过 as perfect tense
2.13 别 vs 不要
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-2-grammar
词汇
采访, interview
参考, reference; 参与, to participate
操场, playground; 操作, operation; 体操, gymnastics
测, 测量, to measure; 测试, test; 检测, to examine; 预测, forecast
曾, once, at some time in the past
茶叶, tealeaves
( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/
玩玩
Songs that the vocabulary list etc. brought to mind for me this week: 我怀念的 (Stefanie Sun), 谢谢你来听我唱歌 (Liu Chang), 轻轻 (Jiang Dunhao). Anyone have any good songs from the New Year’s programs to offer? I haven’t listened properly to more than a few things.
新年第一次第七天！大家过得怎么样？冷不冷？热不热？祝大家平平安安健健康康的2026年！
心 parts 3-8
志, will; 忘, to forget; 忙, busy; 忠, faithful; 忧, to worry; 快, fast/pleasant; 念, to remember/to miss; 忽, to neglect; 怀, bosom/mind/to conceive; 态, appearance/form; 怎, how; 怒, anger; 怕, to fear; 怖, terror; 怜, to pity; 思, to think; 急, to worry/urgent; 性, nature/property/sex
( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=61
语法
2.11 Emphasis: 真 vs 很
2.12 过 as perfect tense
2.13 别 vs 不要
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-2-grammar
词汇
采访, interview
参考, reference; 参与, to participate
操场, playground; 操作, operation; 体操, gymnastics
测, 测量, to measure; 测试, test; 检测, to examine; 预测, forecast
曾, once, at some time in the past
茶叶, tealeaves
( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/
玩玩
Songs that the vocabulary list etc. brought to mind for me this week: 我怀念的 (Stefanie Sun), 谢谢你来听我唱歌 (Liu Chang), 轻轻 (Jiang Dunhao). Anyone have any good songs from the New Year’s programs to offer? I haven’t listened properly to more than a few things.
新年第一次第七天！大家过得怎么样？冷不冷？热不热？祝大家平平安安健健康康的2026年！
Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels) wrote2026-01-04 05:40 pm
lannamichaels) wrote2026-01-04 05:40 pmEntry tags:
[Harry Potter] Six sentences because it's sunday and I have laundry I should be sorting right now
Six sentences for sunday!
This is the male!Hermione Granger/Neville Longbottom one, during sixth year.
"Maybe I don't need to pass all my NEWTs," Leontes says in the middle of exam week, their alcove of the common room all too studious around him. "Taking them is good enough, isn't it?"
Neville and Seamus hit him with every forcible mind-clarifying spell they can think of, while Dean grabs one of the Creeveys and urgently demands his camera.
"Maybe it's too much to think I can--"
Dean gets an amazing shot of Neville throwing himself at Leontes while Seamus tries a binding spell that he swears gets rid of most mind-altering curses.
"I don't think he's been confunded," Seamus says.
flemmings (flemmings) wrote2026-01-04 06:33 pm
flemmings) wrote2026-01-04 06:33 pmEntry tags:
(no subject)
The garbage trucks did indeed appear after dark on Friday to get my recycling, and then cruised the neighbourhood all Saturday for, I assume, those who'd left their garbage out and not put the bins back in disappointment when they were passed by on Friday.
Otherwise is grey and cold and snows off and on, and I am grumpily disinclined to do anything but sit on the sofa and read things that don't interest me. Did have another go at the bedroom shelves, still no sign of Little, Big, but at least reunited all my Diana Wynne Jones in one place. Should move them up a shelf for handier reaching, but that would involve reshelving lots and lots of manga, and I can't stand for that long while doing it. With a chair and some sorting boxes, possibly.
Otherwise is grey and cold and snows off and on, and I am grumpily disinclined to do anything but sit on the sofa and read things that don't interest me. Did have another go at the bedroom shelves, still no sign of Little, Big, but at least reunited all my Diana Wynne Jones in one place. Should move them up a shelf for handier reaching, but that would involve reshelving lots and lots of manga, and I can't stand for that long while doing it. With a chair and some sorting boxes, possibly.
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2026-01-04 10:53 pm
kaberett) wrote2026-01-04 10:53 pmEntry tags:
vital functions
Reading. ... I think I genuinely have mostly just been stubbornly catching up with Dreamwidth (at time of writing I am UP TO DATE). No, wait, I did also (via oursin) end up reading several articles about the contents of Oliver Sacks' papers and personal archive, most of which was not hugely surprising given the results of some of my previous digging, but which has resulted in me reaching the firm decision that I shan't be citing any of his examples that can't be extremely independently verified. (Thoughts about case histories for public consumption continue.) And finished one of the Periodicals I'd had sitting around, and gleefully dumped it in the recycling!
I acquired a new book (passingbuzzards flagged up that Craft Wars #2 Dead Hand Rule came out recently; apparently I've been hiding so comprehensively from my e-mail that I presumably have a Max Gladstone Newsletter languishing somewhere in there) but it is not yet on the ereader. (And downloaded a Toby Daye short from Patreon, but that's not going onto the ereader until I have stitched it into the giant whole-series single ebook). I now also have two books sitting around in Libby. So! Next up Vespertine, then Rooftoppers, then maybe I settle down with Index, A History of the and actually finish it? Since I am no longer focussing primarily on pain reading? Because...
Writing. ... the document is over 3000 words long. At the moment most of what I'm writing falls into one of two categories: structure/scaffolding, and Words I Will Definitely Be Deleting because they're currently extremely note-to-self and will require significant expansion. But there are paragraphs! And I've written a little every day so far this year (except today, which I will rectify before I put the laptop down)! (The bar for Tick This Off My List is a single word.)
Playing. As of a little earlier this evening I have All The Inkulinati Steam Achievements, admittedly by Alt+F4ing my way through the Master run (i.e. flouncing most times I was about to lose a fight) ABOUT WHICH I FEEL BAD but probably not bad enough to go back through and do it Properly.
We have also finished Monument Valley 3, we think, in that we have All The Achievements... but we were a bit confused by the way it just sort of... trailed off after completing the Hall of Memories. I am sort of anticipating a further expansion, I think?
Cooking. This evening I decided I was Sad and that we were going to have Pineapple Fried Rice. A had not previously experienced this, and was... perplexed. Also mulled apple juice, starting with apple-and-ginger and eventually adding apple-and-pear to the problem.
Eating. Highlight: Lebkuchen and mulled apple juice from a flask (well, insulated mug) at the obelisk near the square water. Have also been Greatly Indulged with avocados, and enjoying them enormously.
Exploring. Visited the square water! Which was frozen, at least at the surface! There were excellent frost patterns on moss and also shelf fungi! Several of the trees had been decorated! Excellent stonk, v pleased. Earlier in the week we did a shorter stonk (... it now occurs to me that this is probably a family-specific usage...) around some of the back roads and enjoyed Ongoing Illuminations.
Making & mending. I have fixed Adam's glove????????? I have now made approximately nine tenths of a glove for Adam?????????? I need to actually do the thumb, but after giving up on the mitten flap in disgust after winding up ripping it back Multiple Times, this time around I ripped it back even further and then Grimly and Obsessively Counted, and... it worked??? (Promptly had to frog the bind-off as well, though, having forgotten a key instruction; I checked my notebook and was dismayed to find no notes on the obvious solution there, until I triple-checked the pattern and discovered that that would be because the obvious solution is literally a part of said written pattern...) Maybe I'll get the other one done in time for April (and before they've spent a year on the needles). Maybe.
Growing. CAN CONFIRM: MYSTERIOUS YELLOW HABANERO IS TRINIDAD PERFUME. Curry leaf cutting not dead yet. Have utterly failed to get any seeds sown this week despite Best Intentions but I have at least made the propagator more approachable, and ordered minimal Bonus Seeds (and indeed opted out of bonus bonus seeds altogether, good job me).
Observing. Robins, on my bike and at the square water. Corvids misc. Several excellent sunsets! And the almost-full moon framed perfectly in the not-exactly-an-alley the building front door disgorges into the middle of, which I made A go back outside to take a look at when they got home from work on Friday.
ExtraPenguin (extrapenguin) wrote2026-01-04 11:27 pm
extrapenguin) wrote2026-01-04 11:27 pmEntry tags:
2025 Review/2026 Visions
AO3 Stats
| Stat | 2025 | 2024 then | 2024 now | All years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| User Subscriptions: | 295 | 269 | - | - |
| Kudos: | 884 | 410 | 599 | 57624 |
| Comment Threads: | 129 | 99 | 104 | 3547 |
| Bookmarks: | 134 | 59 | 105 | 13732 |
| Subscriptions: | 21 | 1 | 3 | 1503 |
| Word Count: | 45047 | 9238 | 9238 | 957299 |
| Hits: | 15183 | 3550 | 6166 | 598872 |
45k! Much better than last year. Still not close to my 2018-2021 heyday of 100k+/year, but, uh, idk. I guess I need to learn to forgive myself. Or just get into a new fandom. The large numbers came from mostly Guardian fandom (RIP, for all I can remember is the fucking trashfire harassment campaign), bracketed by MDZS at the start (before my flist got anywhere near it, ofc) and Star Wars at the end.
I posted 49 things to AO3 in 2025. Again, mostly for Battleship – some fic, some art, a few vids, one fanmix.
Popularity
( Read more... )
Self-recs
Art/Comics
Hard to pick, this year! I decided against the art listed above, and instead have a mermaid:
Moongazer
(Honorable mention to Die Before You Wake, an OW F/M M-rated comic that is peak cdrama trope)
Fanmix
As is by now tradition, I made an Expanse fanmix! This one's about Laconia, and I uhhh got a bit fancy-ass about the formatting. I long to make a fanmix where the pull lines make a CYOA poem like Obligations 2 (image) by Layli Long Soldier, but, uh, at what point does a fanmix stip being a fanmix and instead become something else? Anyway, this is a regular, linear fanmix, but with the songs plonked into columns based on whether they are about the Leader, the People, or the Planet.
Write the History
Vid
I only published three this year (made a fourth, have one missing like 15 seconds, and then there's my festivids draft). My favorite is actually one of the unpublished ones, I think, but of the published ones I choose this one:
Sister Moon (Side Story of Fox Volant)
Yuan Ziyi is peak and I love the fight scenes and also how she does not compromise her principles for a man.
Fic
Best Title is shared between Breast Foot Forward (OW, F/M, making the most of being forcibly remarried to an Emperor young enough to be your son) and Ka-BOOB (OW, F/F, having your way with the concubine you've been told to breast expand), both of which are lactation kink boob expansion Battleship fics.
"But Pingu, did you write anything other than boob-focused OW porn?" Oh yes I did! This year the theme seems to have been "understated, maybe wistful, potentially hopeful". Have three, with escalating positivity:
Watching the world come undone (MDZS, Wei Wuxian/Jiang Yanli, 1.1k) post-apocalyptic, making the most of a bad situation
Horizons Deep (SWTOR, Acina/Sith Inquisitor, 1k) "What does one want when the wanting is done?" wistful yearning-ish
End of Exile (Expanse, Filip Nagata, 1.3k) post-canon, hopeful ending
(+ OW on the mood: With Eyes Wide Open, F/M steampunk ritual sex)
"But surely you wrote something weird this year????" A bit less weirdery than is typical of me, but I did write something on the unusual end:
reborn (MDZS, Wei Wuxian/OFC, 1.8k)
Wei Wuxian gets resurrected by ... matriarchal necromancers?
I did so much research for this, considering that it's for Battleship, speed writing event extraordinaire. The ruling clans bear the Eight Great Surnames of Chinese Antiquity and then I went on a deep dive of what other Chinese surnames have the woman radical in them. (Spoiler: exclusively the Wei of Wei Wuxian. He was made for this!)
"Pingu, I want something dumber!" OK, have this
The Emperor's New Woes (OW, F/M, 2.1k)
Emperor Zhao Yiqin has, to the consternation of all of his ministers and his eunuch friend Lan He, bought a stack of talismans (which obviously won't work, come on, Your Majesty) from a Daoist (charlatan) in an effort to guarantee conception of a son and heir. Things don't quite go as anyone expected...
Emperor hires Daoist to guarantee that he'll conceive a son with the Empress; ends up being the one carrying the baby. Smut is Emperor/Empress, emotionally the core relationship is Emperor/Head Eunuch (who is plotting to mpregnate the Emperor later).
2025 Resolutions & did I do them
Write 10k
Yes! I wrote over 40k! That's as many as four tens!
Be more present on DW
Uhhhhhh no. Did not really happen. I think I need some level of fannish fixation/new and improved energy.
But on the community front, I did befriend
tavina via battleship! (Like the one (1) good thing that happened relating to the battleship 2025 mod team. Jesus fuck was that a clusterfuck.) And I got the rest of Team Pear! Tower and Volcano just bye'd off, but now I have a new community of peeps in the After Pearty. One quarter of a point?Get a new
vid_bingo card and make at least one vidThis also didn't happen! However, this didn't happen because the new round didn't start, so I'm pleading force majeure.
2026 Resolutions
Go to a Cultural Event at least once a month
The opera. Ballet. Some other dress-up event. I am giving myself permission to skip July, as I will probably be back home, and idk if there's anything in August, but the goal is 12 events.
Community in fandom, part 1
I think I need to get into a new fandom. Does anyone on DW want to suggest a new fandom for me? Science fiction books and historical/scifi cdramas preferred. In addition to my love for worldbuilding and weird stuff, I love significant female characters that don't have romance-related plots. Must have a fandom on DW that is not just me. (No Murderbot, Guardian, MDZS.) I just want the 2018 Guardian fandom energy and idk, I guess the chance to fall in love with something new. I only need like 2-3 other people, I think, if they're willing to fall in and be active about timeline posts and fanmixes and stuff.
Community in fandom, part 2
I am a member of the fanwork exchange community and shall continue with that. I have
space_swap, but also, I am (with some friends) building a replacement for battleship. Please welcome taggle to the world! Everything is still under construction, and none of what we have is on DW, but we're tentatively thinking about an early summer date and should have things up in ... a few months?Real announcements will, of course, wait for us to have something to announce; consider this an executive pre-announcement.
Cat (lilly_c) wrote in fan_flashworks2026-01-04 09:44 pm
lilly_c) wrote in fan_flashworks2026-01-04 09:44 pmEntry tags:
Original: icons: sand
Title: sand
Fandom: none
Rating:
Length: five icons
Content notes: images used are from a public domain search
Artist notes: images used are from a public domain search
Summary:
( castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually )
Fandom: none
Rating:
Length: five icons
Content notes: images used are from a public domain search
Artist notes: images used are from a public domain search
Summary:
( castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually )
the cosmolinguist (cosmolinguist) wrote2026-01-04 09:34 pm
cosmolinguist) wrote2026-01-04 09:34 pmEntry tags:
Seasonal tradition
I do love reading a new Voynich manuscript solved! article every six months or so.
rachelmanija (rachelmanija) wrote2026-01-04 01:04 pm
rachelmanija) wrote2026-01-04 01:04 pmEntry tags:
Sea Horse in the Sky, by Edmund Cooper
I picked up this 1969 novel at a library book sale based on its premise. I had never heard of the author. One of the great pleasures of reading, at least for me, is trying random old books I've never heard of. In addition to the possibility that they might be good, they're also an interesting window into other times. (Often, alas, extremely racist and sexist times.)
Sixteen people, eight women and eight men, who were on a flight to London, wake up in plastic boxes on a short strip of road with a hotel, a grocery store, and two cars without engines. Everything else is a forest. Naturally, most of the women scream, faint, and cry, while most of the men randomly fight each other (!), or run around yelling. Our hero does this:
Russell Grahame, feeling oddly detached from the whole absurd carnival, ran his left hand mechanically and repeatedly through his hair in the characteristic manner that had earned him the sobriquet Brainstroker among his few friends in the House of Commons.
He then goes to the hotel, finds the bar, and has a drink. Everyone else eventually follows him, and he fixes them all drinks. They are a semi-random set of passengers, including two husband and wife couples, plus three young female domestic science students, one Indian, and one West Indian girl improbably named Selene Bergere. I have no idea why that name is improbable, but it's remarked on frequently as unlikely and eventually turns out to not be her real name (but everyone goes on calling her Selene, as she prefers it.) They can all understand each other despite speaking different languages.
Russell takes charge and appoints himself group leader. They find food (and cigarettes) at the market, select hotel rooms, and then the husband-and-wife physics teachers point out that 1) the constellations are not Earth's, 2) gravity is only 2/3rds Earth's and they can all jump six feet in the air! Astonishing that none of the others noticed before. I personally would have immediately run outside and fulfilled my lifelong dream of being able to do weightless leaping. Sadly none of them do this and the low gravity is never mentioned again.
They theorize that possibly they've been kidnapped by aliens, maybe for a zoo or experiment, and the gender balance means they're supposed to breed. Russell approvingly notes that many of the single people pair up immediately, and three of them threesome-up. This is like six hours after they arrived!
On the second night, one of the three female domestic science students kills herself because she feels unable to cope. The next day, a party goes exploring (Russell reluctantly allows women to take part as the Russian woman journalist reminds him that women are different from men but have their own strength) and one of the men falls in a spiked pit and dies. Good going, Russell! Three days and you've already lost one-eighth of your party!
All the supplies they take are replenished, and one of the men spies on the market and sees metal spiders adding more cartons of cigarettes. He freaks out and tries to kill himself.
I feel like a random selection of sixteen people ought to be slightly less suicidal, even under pressure. In fact probably especially under a sort of pressure in which everyone has quite nice food and shelter, and they seem perfectly safe as long as they don't explore the forest.
One of the guys tries to capture a spider robot, but gets tangled up in the wire he used as a trap and dragged to death. Again, this group is really not the best at survival.
We randomly get some diary entries from a gay guy who's sad that no one else is gay. He confesses to Russell that he's gay and Russell, in definitely his best moment, just says, "Wow, that must be really hard for you to not have any sexual partners here." Those are the only diary entries we get, and none of this ever comes up again.
They soon find that there are three other groups. One is a kind of feudal warrior people from a world that isn't earth where they ride and live off deer-horse creatures. Another is Stone Age people, who dug the spiked pits to hunt for food. The third are fairies. The language spell allows them all to communicate, except no one can speak to the fairies as they just appear for an instant then vanish. The non-fairy groups confirm that they were also vanished from where they come from.
Russell and his now-girlfriend Anna the Russian journalist theorize that the fairies are the ones who kidnapped them. They and a Stone Age guy set out to find the fairies...
( And then chickens save the day! )
So, was this a good book? Not really. Did anyone edit it? Doubtful. Did it have some interesting ideas and a good twist? Yes. Did I enjoy the hour and a half I spent reading it? Also yes. Would I ever re-read it? No. Do I recommend it? Only if you happen to also find it at a library book sale.
I am now 2 for 2 in reviewing every full length book I read in 2026! (I have not yet gotten to one manga, Night of the Living Cat # 1, and six single-issue comics, three each of Roots of Madness and They're All Terrible.) I think doing so will be good for my mental health and possibly also yours, considering what I and you could be doing on the internet instead of reading books and writing or reading book reviews.
Can I continue this streak??? Are you enjoying it?
calimac (calimac) wrote2026-01-04 12:58 pm
calimac) wrote2026-01-04 12:58 pmSmith and Tolkien and Dunsany
A while ago I saw a notice that a day's conference on the works of Clark Ashton Smith was being held in January. I've never read much of Smith's fiction, though I've collected several books of it, and since attendance was limited I decided to sign up: I might learn something, if I was able to go. It's next weekend, and it looks as if I can. It's in Auburn, the Sierra foothills town where Smith lived most of his life, about 3 hours drive from here.
The organizers are asking each of their attendees to name their favorite Smith story. I never really thought in terms of having a favorite Smith story, but I decided on the one with a contemporary setting - a rarity for Smith, who usually preferred lost continents or decadent future ones - whose first line reads "I have seldom been able to resist the allurement of a bookstore." I can identify with that.
Concurrently, in the context of a Zoom meeting commemorating Tolkien's birthday, which was yesterday, we were asked for favorite moments from the legendarium, and I chose for a favorite single line one of Treebeard's from The Lord of the Rings: "I am not very, hm, bendable." I can identify with that one too, and I quote it often.
Renewing and extending my acquaintance with Smith, I find that I like him to the extent that he resembles Dunsany, which he occasionally does. (I have similar feelings about Lovecraft.) Smith's language is more ornate than Dunsany's, which is already ornate enough; and he's more caustic than Dunsany, who is already caustic enough. His plots don't quite land with Dunsany's punch. But despite Smith's esoteric vocabulary, I find his storytelling to be gratifyingly clear: I always understand where I am and what's going on, not true of many of today's highly-touted fantasy authors. My biggest problem with Smith is that, after a few impressive repetitions, I get a little wearied of his favorite recurrent plot, which is of greedy or power-mad people getting their due comeuppance in a truly nasty supernatural manner.
Though I can think of one greedy and power-mad person today who really deserves a due comeuppance in a truly nasty supernatural manner. O for a Clark Ashton Smith to chronicle it.
The organizers are asking each of their attendees to name their favorite Smith story. I never really thought in terms of having a favorite Smith story, but I decided on the one with a contemporary setting - a rarity for Smith, who usually preferred lost continents or decadent future ones - whose first line reads "I have seldom been able to resist the allurement of a bookstore." I can identify with that.
Concurrently, in the context of a Zoom meeting commemorating Tolkien's birthday, which was yesterday, we were asked for favorite moments from the legendarium, and I chose for a favorite single line one of Treebeard's from The Lord of the Rings: "I am not very, hm, bendable." I can identify with that one too, and I quote it often.
Renewing and extending my acquaintance with Smith, I find that I like him to the extent that he resembles Dunsany, which he occasionally does. (I have similar feelings about Lovecraft.) Smith's language is more ornate than Dunsany's, which is already ornate enough; and he's more caustic than Dunsany, who is already caustic enough. His plots don't quite land with Dunsany's punch. But despite Smith's esoteric vocabulary, I find his storytelling to be gratifyingly clear: I always understand where I am and what's going on, not true of many of today's highly-touted fantasy authors. My biggest problem with Smith is that, after a few impressive repetitions, I get a little wearied of his favorite recurrent plot, which is of greedy or power-mad people getting their due comeuppance in a truly nasty supernatural manner.
Though I can think of one greedy and power-mad person today who really deserves a due comeuppance in a truly nasty supernatural manner. O for a Clark Ashton Smith to chronicle it.
Mad Scientess (nanila) wrote2026-01-04 06:59 pm
nanila) wrote2026-01-04 06:59 pmEntry tags:
The Friday Five on a Sunday, and the promise of snow
- Do you mostly drink tap, filtered, or bottled water?
Tap water. I drink bottled water if I forget my refillable bottle, which isn’t very often. - Is it safe/recommended to drink tap water where you live? If not, why?
Yes, it is safe to drink the tap water here. It’s pretty soft water as well. - What does the tap water taste/smell like where you live?
Nothing, which is how it should be! - Do you collect rainwater? If so, what do you use it for?
Yes, we have a water butt in the back garden. We use it to water Keiki’s collection of carnivorous plants all year round, and for the indoor plants in summer. - Do you/have you ever had restrictions on water use where you live? What did you have to change about your lifestyle?
We haven’t had water restrictions here, even when a lot of the rest of the country did last summer. I have lived in places with water restrictions previously (southern California). It taught me to have short showers and/or turn off the water when, say, shampooing or conditioning my hair, which I think are generally good habits anyway. Dishwasher appliances also use less water than hand-washing dishes, which took me a while to accept but once I did, that also reduced my water consumption.
In other news, it has got quite cold here, by UK standards. Scraping off the car in the morning and ice on the roads is what defines "quite cold" here. Those, and the eternal promise of "significant" snowfall. Certainly there has been in a number of places, some of which are a handful of miles from my location, but the photo below shows the extent of the snowfall we have experienced to date!
andrewducker (andrewducker) wrote2026-01-04 12:50 pm
andrewducker) wrote2026-01-04 12:50 pmPhoto cross-post
It snowed today, just a little bit. But it was totally worth taking
the children out for a walk round the pond and up the hill to be in
it.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
ranunculus (ranunculus) wrote2026-01-04 10:26 am
ranunculus) wrote2026-01-04 10:26 amRain, Tree Cleanup
It is still raining. Our total here at the house is 15.75 inches. It rained heavily overnight, so the official rainfall total is lacking that information, but it is at 18. 16. That measurement is taken from the valley floor some 400 feet below us. There is often a difference in measurement, which is very distressing in drought years, and much less so in a year like this where we have 137% of normal at the moment. That is just over 1/2 the normal rainfall for the year. January and especially February are the months we usually get the most rain. It looks like it will be a really soggy year.
This summer we cut down several trees along the power lines. No cleanup was done after the trees were on the ground because it was dry enough that running a chainsaw had the potential to start a fire. Not much of a chance, but any chance in these dry summer hills is too much. Yesterday was cleanup day for three smaller trees. All little blue oaks, the biggest of which was perhaps 35 ft tall and about a foot in diameter at the base. All three are now chopped up into firewood and stacked next to the road. I'd like to get the other two, similar sized trees cut up today and a tarp over the wood. The wood had a chance to dry during the summer, if it is protected from more rain it will be good firewood next winter. It is getting critical that I sharpen chainsaw chains...
The current mystery is where the fence tester is that should live at the Red Barn. It has vanished.
This summer we cut down several trees along the power lines. No cleanup was done after the trees were on the ground because it was dry enough that running a chainsaw had the potential to start a fire. Not much of a chance, but any chance in these dry summer hills is too much. Yesterday was cleanup day for three smaller trees. All little blue oaks, the biggest of which was perhaps 35 ft tall and about a foot in diameter at the base. All three are now chopped up into firewood and stacked next to the road. I'd like to get the other two, similar sized trees cut up today and a tarp over the wood. The wood had a chance to dry during the summer, if it is protected from more rain it will be good firewood next winter. It is getting critical that I sharpen chainsaw chains...
The current mystery is where the fence tester is that should live at the Red Barn. It has vanished.
andrewducker (andrewducker) wrote2026-01-04 06:34 pm
andrewducker) wrote2026-01-04 06:34 pmEntry tags:
Life with two kids: No peace for the wicked.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine me sitting on the sofa trying to read a book with Sophia on my left asking for help with Stardew Valley and Gideon on my right asking for help with Lego Star Wars - for ever.
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams (dewline) wrote2026-01-04 01:27 pm
dewline) wrote2026-01-04 01:27 pm
Entry tags:
A Wish for 2026, However Late
May we live - to our shared joy - in interesting times!
Punk (runpunkrun) wrote2026-01-04 09:25 am
runpunkrun) wrote2026-01-04 09:25 amEntry tags:
Fancake's Theme for January: Crack Treated Seriously
fancake's first theme of the year is Crack Treated Seriously! We've already got recs in The Magnus Archives, Disco Elysium/Death Note, Our Flag Means Death, Bungou Stray Dogs, and Star Wars.Over at the comm,
full_metal_ox gave us a delightful glimpse at the character in the banner, writing: The model has the distinct air of a little kid whose obsessions are the War of 1812 and raccoons, settling in to compose her Magnum Opus alternate history: what if the War of 1812 had been fought by raccoons?
(The history and biology will draw upon rigorous research—including thick ponderous tomes from the Grownup Section, interviews with real live zoologists and re-enactors, and get thee behind me, ChatGPT, thou Devil's Easy Button!—with the result that the text will be as footnote-riddled as Discworld. Writing is Serious Business, for which she dons her Official Serious Writing Jacket—and what other color could it be? Yellow is the hue of intellect, as well as yet another of her Special Interests.)
If you have any questions about this theme, or the comm, come talk to me!