![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[sticky entry]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png){kind=small}
Hi there! I'm Soph, and this is my journal. If you want to know more about me and about what you can find here, this is the place!
(last updated: April 2024)
( Read more... )
aphantasia
Jun. 14th, 2025 02:03 pmI'm aphantasic - I do not and cannot create pictures in my mind's eye. My mind does not have an eye. But there have been just a few times very recently where in the first moments upon waking in the morning, there's an image in my mind and I feel like I can SEE it. Like, see it see it! As if I were looking at it with my eyes! It always vanishes within a few moments, but my god, is that a glimpse into what it's like to NOT be aphantasic??
Now, though, I'm wondering which of several things is true:
1. Am I weirdly suddenly able to access a tiny amount of picturing things, out of nowhere?
Or
2. Is the dreamy confusion of waking up making me *feel* like I'm picturing things but not *actually* picturing things? It lasts so briefly that I actually can't be sure!
Or
3. Have I always genuinely able to picture things in my sleep, but not awake, but because I only conscsiously experience dreams through the medium of remembering them, I've never been able to tell that - and a change in recent sleeping habits means I have been holding on to a snatch of a dream just long enough to get the sense of it with my waking mind?
Or something else????
Anyway these brief snatches of mind-pictures have been a baffling thing to experience, as something I've never previously been able to do in my life ever, and all of a sudden I'm a little more of a true believer that other people DO do this thing all the time!
It always seemed so fake to me before. So made up. How could a person PICTURE things?! That's just a metaphor, surely! We're using words about images to describe the experience of thinking about a thing, because the actual experience of thinking is so unlike anything in the physical world that there are no words to describe it! Right? Right????
I guess for lots of people, they literally are creating pictures in their head with their brains, all the time.
WILD.
Now I really wish I had a better way to explain what my experience of thinking is like, tbh. Because all I have is metaphor, to translate it into words! But those metaphors are apparently concrete factual experiences to other people, so I won't be successfully communicating!
This is similar to my experience with words, btw. I *can* think in words, more than I can with pictures, but that's me deliberately creating the words and sentences. I'm translating my thoughts into words with conscious effort.
My thoughts aren't words. My thoughts aren't pictures. My thoughts are thoughts!
How are so many people's thoughts NOT just thoughts!
Now, though, I'm wondering which of several things is true:
1. Am I weirdly suddenly able to access a tiny amount of picturing things, out of nowhere?
Or
2. Is the dreamy confusion of waking up making me *feel* like I'm picturing things but not *actually* picturing things? It lasts so briefly that I actually can't be sure!
Or
3. Have I always genuinely able to picture things in my sleep, but not awake, but because I only conscsiously experience dreams through the medium of remembering them, I've never been able to tell that - and a change in recent sleeping habits means I have been holding on to a snatch of a dream just long enough to get the sense of it with my waking mind?
Or something else????
Anyway these brief snatches of mind-pictures have been a baffling thing to experience, as something I've never previously been able to do in my life ever, and all of a sudden I'm a little more of a true believer that other people DO do this thing all the time!
It always seemed so fake to me before. So made up. How could a person PICTURE things?! That's just a metaphor, surely! We're using words about images to describe the experience of thinking about a thing, because the actual experience of thinking is so unlike anything in the physical world that there are no words to describe it! Right? Right????
I guess for lots of people, they literally are creating pictures in their head with their brains, all the time.
WILD.
Now I really wish I had a better way to explain what my experience of thinking is like, tbh. Because all I have is metaphor, to translate it into words! But those metaphors are apparently concrete factual experiences to other people, so I won't be successfully communicating!
This is similar to my experience with words, btw. I *can* think in words, more than I can with pictures, but that's me deliberately creating the words and sentences. I'm translating my thoughts into words with conscious effort.
My thoughts aren't words. My thoughts aren't pictures. My thoughts are thoughts!
How are so many people's thoughts NOT just thoughts!
one
thinking about how as a kid I found zoos super boring - and I think my problem was that, at least at that time, the expected mode of engagement with zoos was to stare at animals and be amazed at how interesting/cute/different they look?
for me, learning context is what makes an animal compelling! eg: I did a project on temperate rainforests in grade 6, and learned about banana slugs as part of the ecosystem. and subsequently loved them, even though I hadn't cared about slugs previously! if I'd been shown a real live banana slug after having done that project, I would have been fascinated to just watch it, because I would understand what I was seeing, and know what to look for in its behaviour and appearance to connect with the things I knew about it!
if the zoos I visited in my youth had done more to contextualise my understanding of what I was seeing, I think I could have had a good time. but instead I was presented with a few fun facts and the opportunity to see the animals, the end. and so I found them the height of boredom.
fun facts are useless to me! WHY are they fun! what makes this fact relevant! what caused things to be this way!!
(I had a similar problem with most museums. except dinosaur museums, to which I came with my own contextual knowledge, and thus could appreciate and enjoy the things on display, even when the display didn't provide much information itself)
two
oh!!! there's a plugin for joplin that allows android app users to see wordcount! and also to see line numbers, to make it easier to orient yourself within a long note! I love this
three
several podcasts I follow do reviews of older SFF novels (either occasionally or as their whole thing), and it has me thinking again about a type of story I think used to be more common in western genre fiction, and it's one I rather miss.
The type I mean: a narrative which is checking in on a specific place or people-group at different points in its long-term history, where the overarching narrative project is on a scale of eras while telling smaller personal stories within that history.
Sometimes it's done within the context of a single book, like in A Canticle for Leibowitz. Sometimes it's between books over the length of a series, like in the Dragonriders of Pern series¹. Either way, you get to see the cycles of history, the way that things which seem urgent and current at one point become historicised and mythologised, and become the ancient context for the new urgent current events, whether the people involved realise it or not. I love this shit! I love context. I love seeing how things connect. I love how the very notion of history becomes one of the major characters in the narrative!
From what I see, the modern western sff genre has become more interested in more immediate stories. Which have their benefits too, and which are really wonderful in their own way! And there's plenty about these older stories that I do not miss at all.
Maybe there are authors out there writing era-spanning sff today, and I just haven't come across them because there are other aspects of what those authors focus on that are super not to my tastes, or because the book is a small indie publishing situation that doesn't have good word-of-mouth, or something else like that....these are definitely possible! But I do miss getting invested in this kind of story. It's fun!
¹I won't say that all the books I once loved that do this thing were GOOD books
four
the names people choose - for themselves, their kids, their pets - is soooo interesting to me! but especially kids' names, tbh.
modern western culture places so much emphasis on the importance of the choice you make about your baby's name (compared to, say, the late middle ages, when half of all people in england were named one of the same few names) and since there's so much cultural weight on the choice, and it is by its nature a very public choice, you can tell a lot from the decisions people make!
what were their priorities, their influences, their values? what kind of naming community are they in, and how much does it fall in line with the rest of their country? so many factors go into each choice!
every time someone I know has a new kid, I'm always SO eager to find out the name...and then, if possible, get the story behind why they chose it! It's always so interesting!
five
recently I was out birding with some folks who have never been birding before, and one of them commented that they were delighted to discover from me that an important part of birding is complimenting every bird you see
and it's TRUE. it is an important part of birding! telling the birds what a great job they're doing, how cute/handsome/gorgeous they are, etc is something I am ALWAYS doing. instinctively and automatically. and I am so pleased to be modelling this attitude to others! :D
thinking about how as a kid I found zoos super boring - and I think my problem was that, at least at that time, the expected mode of engagement with zoos was to stare at animals and be amazed at how interesting/cute/different they look?
for me, learning context is what makes an animal compelling! eg: I did a project on temperate rainforests in grade 6, and learned about banana slugs as part of the ecosystem. and subsequently loved them, even though I hadn't cared about slugs previously! if I'd been shown a real live banana slug after having done that project, I would have been fascinated to just watch it, because I would understand what I was seeing, and know what to look for in its behaviour and appearance to connect with the things I knew about it!
if the zoos I visited in my youth had done more to contextualise my understanding of what I was seeing, I think I could have had a good time. but instead I was presented with a few fun facts and the opportunity to see the animals, the end. and so I found them the height of boredom.
fun facts are useless to me! WHY are they fun! what makes this fact relevant! what caused things to be this way!!
(I had a similar problem with most museums. except dinosaur museums, to which I came with my own contextual knowledge, and thus could appreciate and enjoy the things on display, even when the display didn't provide much information itself)
two
oh!!! there's a plugin for joplin that allows android app users to see wordcount! and also to see line numbers, to make it easier to orient yourself within a long note! I love this
three
several podcasts I follow do reviews of older SFF novels (either occasionally or as their whole thing), and it has me thinking again about a type of story I think used to be more common in western genre fiction, and it's one I rather miss.
The type I mean: a narrative which is checking in on a specific place or people-group at different points in its long-term history, where the overarching narrative project is on a scale of eras while telling smaller personal stories within that history.
Sometimes it's done within the context of a single book, like in A Canticle for Leibowitz. Sometimes it's between books over the length of a series, like in the Dragonriders of Pern series¹. Either way, you get to see the cycles of history, the way that things which seem urgent and current at one point become historicised and mythologised, and become the ancient context for the new urgent current events, whether the people involved realise it or not. I love this shit! I love context. I love seeing how things connect. I love how the very notion of history becomes one of the major characters in the narrative!
From what I see, the modern western sff genre has become more interested in more immediate stories. Which have their benefits too, and which are really wonderful in their own way! And there's plenty about these older stories that I do not miss at all.
Maybe there are authors out there writing era-spanning sff today, and I just haven't come across them because there are other aspects of what those authors focus on that are super not to my tastes, or because the book is a small indie publishing situation that doesn't have good word-of-mouth, or something else like that....these are definitely possible! But I do miss getting invested in this kind of story. It's fun!
¹I won't say that all the books I once loved that do this thing were GOOD books
four
the names people choose - for themselves, their kids, their pets - is soooo interesting to me! but especially kids' names, tbh.
modern western culture places so much emphasis on the importance of the choice you make about your baby's name (compared to, say, the late middle ages, when half of all people in england were named one of the same few names) and since there's so much cultural weight on the choice, and it is by its nature a very public choice, you can tell a lot from the decisions people make!
what were their priorities, their influences, their values? what kind of naming community are they in, and how much does it fall in line with the rest of their country? so many factors go into each choice!
every time someone I know has a new kid, I'm always SO eager to find out the name...and then, if possible, get the story behind why they chose it! It's always so interesting!
five
recently I was out birding with some folks who have never been birding before, and one of them commented that they were delighted to discover from me that an important part of birding is complimenting every bird you see
and it's TRUE. it is an important part of birding! telling the birds what a great job they're doing, how cute/handsome/gorgeous they are, etc is something I am ALWAYS doing. instinctively and automatically. and I am so pleased to be modelling this attitude to others! :D
triumphant return
Jun. 4th, 2025 12:06 pmSince my last non-fic-related update here, there has been.....a lot. A lot going on!
And between all that, it's been harder for me to keep up with dw, which is something that I find I'm only really able to do well when I'm doing well. And then I was SO behind that I was just like.....how do I even come back??
But! Maybe I just need to give myself amnesty. I haven't been keeping up with my dw reading page since early april and that's just gonna be what it's gonna be, and I will be reinvesting myself as of NOW.
And! I am doing a ridic thing to try to do better at handling my dw reading list, so that it isn't so hard for me to keep on top of! See, I really find it easier to keep up with long-form content if I don't feel like I have to commit to reading all posts no matter the length at the time when they're posted, and with dw if like to see what the latest posts are but want to be able to temporarily skip the longer posts when you're going through your reading page, then it's hard to come back later and find them again in the depths of previous pages. So I wanted to be able to add all the journals I follow to my RSS reader. It is technically possible to add someone's journal directly to an RSS reader, but you only see their public posts that way....so now, for ppl I follow, I have subscribed to get emails every time they post, and then (and this is the ridic work-around bit) I have used the newsblur function for adding e-newsletters to rss, to put those emailed post notifications into my RSS feed!
The emails just tell you the post title and tags and author, and don't contain the full text of the post, but I still really think this is a huge step in the right direction for me! RSS is how I am able to keep up with all the tumblrs I follow, and that has been very successful for me for years, so I think the experience will translate to these dw emails-to-rss. I'm very excited for this revolution in my dw experience.
Fingers crossed!
- Trialling a new medication that sapped my energy for doing much other than being anxious for two months straight
- Started a project on doing a bunch of repainting walls and replacing baseboards which spiralled as projects always do and has been taking over so much of my spare time
- Bird migration season, which means any spare time DOES actually need to go towards looking at birds
- Redacted for reasons of not providing too much personally-identifiable information on the public internet, but some other stuff that's also been really time consuming
And between all that, it's been harder for me to keep up with dw, which is something that I find I'm only really able to do well when I'm doing well. And then I was SO behind that I was just like.....how do I even come back??
But! Maybe I just need to give myself amnesty. I haven't been keeping up with my dw reading page since early april and that's just gonna be what it's gonna be, and I will be reinvesting myself as of NOW.
And! I am doing a ridic thing to try to do better at handling my dw reading list, so that it isn't so hard for me to keep on top of! See, I really find it easier to keep up with long-form content if I don't feel like I have to commit to reading all posts no matter the length at the time when they're posted, and with dw if like to see what the latest posts are but want to be able to temporarily skip the longer posts when you're going through your reading page, then it's hard to come back later and find them again in the depths of previous pages. So I wanted to be able to add all the journals I follow to my RSS reader. It is technically possible to add someone's journal directly to an RSS reader, but you only see their public posts that way....so now, for ppl I follow, I have subscribed to get emails every time they post, and then (and this is the ridic work-around bit) I have used the newsblur function for adding e-newsletters to rss, to put those emailed post notifications into my RSS feed!
The emails just tell you the post title and tags and author, and don't contain the full text of the post, but I still really think this is a huge step in the right direction for me! RSS is how I am able to keep up with all the tumblrs I follow, and that has been very successful for me for years, so I think the experience will translate to these dw emails-to-rss. I'm very excited for this revolution in my dw experience.
Fingers crossed!
I am The Most Behind on dw and on uh several other things. My May has involved several different all-encompassing things taking over my life! but! I have a new fic to share!! freshly posted! get it on ao3 or on my personal website! (I also put some bird pics up on my personal website's bird shrine today, if you're not into mdzs but enjoy looking at cute birds)
on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65895511
on aviansoph: https://aviansoph.com/fic/niche-volition.html
Niche Volition
on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65895511
on aviansoph: https://aviansoph.com/fic/niche-volition.html
Fandom: MDZS
Focus: Lan Jingyi-centric (Lan Jingyi & Lan Xichen, Lan Jingyi & his sect, Lan Jingyi & Jin Ling)
Setting: several years post-canon
Length: 4,873 words
Themes:
community leadership and personal fulfillment
Summary:
Lan Jingyi’s role in the Lan sect has increased in responsibility in the years since canon and he’s being seen as a potential heir to the title of sect leader. When two sets of visitors arrive at Cloud Recesses on the same day, Lan Jingyi has to balance multiple responsibilities.
new fic from me!!! I had so much fun with this one; I hope you enjoy it!
run away with you on my website
run away with you on ao3
fic details:
run away with you on my website
run away with you on ao3
fic details:
Fandom: SVSSS
Focus: bingqiu
Setting: immediately post-canon in a rule 63 au
Length: 2,118 wordsThemes:
remix; canon-typical unreliable narratorSummary:
Running away from the celebration on Cang Qiong, hand in hand with her tearful disciple, had a funny sort of exhilarating feeling to it – like Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe were beginning an adventure together. Even though the story was over! The System had said so! Shen Qingqiu had successfully plugged plotholes, improved the story logic, and changed the genre, though she still wasn’t sure what female readers could find sexy about a story featuring two women.Foreword:
Thank you as always to my cheerleader and beta, verity <3
Remix of hard mode by kitschlet, written for the 2025 MXTX Remix Exchange.
personal style journey
Apr. 28th, 2025 03:53 pmI love....fashion?? I love putting together fun outfits! It's so fulfilling.
( navel gazing about my fashion journey )
( navel gazing about my fashion journey )
one
can't believe that before I was obsessed with birds I didn't know what my favourite season was -- each season has its benefits and drawbacks, after all.
but now it's obvious that spring is the best season! and not just because of the spring bird migration (though obviously the spring migration is great). looking for birds, looking at birds, and spending time in environments that birds like: all of these things have opened my eyes to all the other joys of springtime as well!
and spring begins as early as february now for me, because the signs of spring I know how to recognise can begin that early, whereas I used to feel like it wasn't really spring till the trees started leafing in may!
two
the more you befriend people who go by a noun as a name, either online or in person, the more you get to have fun tripping up on words in sentences, like "hey why's this blog post about architecture mentioning my frien --oh right. words means things!" it's great. genuinely recommend.
three
the curse of the crafter: looking at things and going "ok but I could make that tho"
ok but WILL you. and do you have the time!
it's amazing how many things I confidently believe I could make at this point
four
I really love that Queer as Fact puts significant effort into talking about as many different queer people as possible, from many different racial and cultural backgrounds, even when the subject is challenging to find info on in english or at all. And they do a good job at working to be respectful of people groups they're not a part of, and at being up-front when there's things they don't know.
Every individual episode is interesting of course, but also the impression that builds over time as you listen through the archive is a deeply felt sense of the intellectual truth I already knew, that queer people have always been present no matter where you go. It's nice!
five
did you know: anne carson translations of greek tragedies good actually. anne carson good at words. greek tragedies compelling and delicious. theatre!!!
can't believe that before I was obsessed with birds I didn't know what my favourite season was -- each season has its benefits and drawbacks, after all.
but now it's obvious that spring is the best season! and not just because of the spring bird migration (though obviously the spring migration is great). looking for birds, looking at birds, and spending time in environments that birds like: all of these things have opened my eyes to all the other joys of springtime as well!
and spring begins as early as february now for me, because the signs of spring I know how to recognise can begin that early, whereas I used to feel like it wasn't really spring till the trees started leafing in may!
two
the more you befriend people who go by a noun as a name, either online or in person, the more you get to have fun tripping up on words in sentences, like "hey why's this blog post about architecture mentioning my frien --oh right. words means things!" it's great. genuinely recommend.
three
the curse of the crafter: looking at things and going "ok but I could make that tho"
ok but WILL you. and do you have the time!
it's amazing how many things I confidently believe I could make at this point
four
I really love that Queer as Fact puts significant effort into talking about as many different queer people as possible, from many different racial and cultural backgrounds, even when the subject is challenging to find info on in english or at all. And they do a good job at working to be respectful of people groups they're not a part of, and at being up-front when there's things they don't know.
Every individual episode is interesting of course, but also the impression that builds over time as you listen through the archive is a deeply felt sense of the intellectual truth I already knew, that queer people have always been present no matter where you go. It's nice!
five
did you know: anne carson translations of greek tragedies good actually. anne carson good at words. greek tragedies compelling and delicious. theatre!!!
ficlet posted! bad vibes qijiu <3
I will avenge my ghost with every breath I take
Fandom: SVSSS
Focus: qijiu
Setting: PIDW mid-canon
Length: 248 words
Themes:
orgasm denial, masturbation, sex crying, qijiu being qijiu
Summary:
Shen Qingqiu and Yue Qingyuan are both long familiar with denial.
(also on ao3: archiveofourown.org/works/64737805)
I will avenge my ghost with every breath I take
Fandom: SVSSS
Focus: qijiu
Setting: PIDW mid-canon
Length: 248 words
Themes:
orgasm denial, masturbation, sex crying, qijiu being qijiu
Summary:
Shen Qingqiu and Yue Qingyuan are both long familiar with denial.
(also on ao3: archiveofourown.org/works/64737805)
20 questions for fic writers
Apr. 15th, 2025 04:25 pma meme that's been going around! I have been tagged by various ppl, and please do it too if you want to!
1. How many works do you have on ao3?
If we're just looking at the fanfic, I'm at 50. Dang that is many!
2. What's your total ao3 word count?
Currently at 114,681!
3. What are your top five fics by kudos?
truth can find the strangest home, svsss moshang (923 kudos)
If love is what you're after, inception arthur/eames (685 kudos)
revelations from a layover flight, svsss cumplane (231 kudos)
habitat, behaviour, svsss bingqiu (195 kudos)
as free as my hair, mcu steve & bucky (163 kudos)
4. What fandoms do you write for?
Currently: mxtx's three books are on constant rotation in my head and have been for several years. This is by far the most fic I have ever written for a fandom!
5. Do you respond to comments? why or why not?
I do try to! But sometimes I forget, or get overwhelmed, and then all of a sudden it's been years and it feels a bit late! I'm much better at it in recent years, at least, than I was in the early 2010s.
6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Hmmm I think when I go for non-happy endings they're usually more bittersweet than angsty... like, for example, "I know what that song means now" (mdzs, jyl/jzx), where the viewpoint character is satisfied with her choices and priorities but narrative doom is hanging over her. And I have several other fics too with the impending threat of narrative doom as the main closing emotion.
For a different approach I also have "promises" (cremation of sam mcgee), but that's creepy rather than angsty.
I really don't think I have written any fics with a specifically angsty ending!
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
I think the most uncomplicatedly happy ending would be either "habitat, behaviour" (svsss, bingqiu), or "bodies, talking" (mdzs, jyl/jzx), both of which have endings focused on basking in the ways a good relationship with a partner who understands your needs can be so fulfilling.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
I have gotten occasional complaints but never straight up hate, so far! At least, that I can remember, lol. Sometimes a bad memory is helpful!
9. Do you write smut?
Sometimes! When it suits the needs of the fic I feel moved to write. It can be a really fun aspect of a character or relationship to explore!
10. Do you write crossovers?
I used to be a lot more into crossovers when I was younger. These days there's a much higher bar to clear for me to be into a crossover idea. The last crossover I wrote was in 2014!
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Other than the inevitable LLM bot scraping, not that I'm aware of.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
I vaguely recall having been asked once or twice, but I don't think anything ever came of it.
13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?
I did occasionally, in long ago days, but I haven't cowritten in many years at this point.
14. What's your all time favourite ship?
Too hard to answer! I refuse!!! How am I supposed to choose between so many amazing ships!
15. What's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
The wangxian telepathic bond. Longing sigh....
16. What are your writing strengths?
Vibes, themes, characters.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Plot, fast-paced action or adventure, snappy conversations, that kind of thing.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I think there are contexts where it can be an effective choice to include untranslated dialogue, and I think that I'm not qualified to write the kinds of fic where it would be an effective choice.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
As far as I am aware, the fairy tale Cinderella, when I was about 8 years old.
20. Favourite fic you've ever written?
Look, my fave is usually whatever I've most recently finished! Because it's what's been occupying my mind the most! Soooo it's either my yet-unposted jingyi fic (just needs me to figure out how to implement an improvement suggested by my beta), or my mxtx remix fic (won't be revealed till April 18, and won't be revealed as being by me until April 25)! So you don't get to read either of them yet. But SOON!
1. How many works do you have on ao3?
If we're just looking at the fanfic, I'm at 50. Dang that is many!
2. What's your total ao3 word count?
Currently at 114,681!
3. What are your top five fics by kudos?
truth can find the strangest home, svsss moshang (923 kudos)
If love is what you're after, inception arthur/eames (685 kudos)
revelations from a layover flight, svsss cumplane (231 kudos)
habitat, behaviour, svsss bingqiu (195 kudos)
as free as my hair, mcu steve & bucky (163 kudos)
4. What fandoms do you write for?
Currently: mxtx's three books are on constant rotation in my head and have been for several years. This is by far the most fic I have ever written for a fandom!
5. Do you respond to comments? why or why not?
I do try to! But sometimes I forget, or get overwhelmed, and then all of a sudden it's been years and it feels a bit late! I'm much better at it in recent years, at least, than I was in the early 2010s.
6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Hmmm I think when I go for non-happy endings they're usually more bittersweet than angsty... like, for example, "I know what that song means now" (mdzs, jyl/jzx), where the viewpoint character is satisfied with her choices and priorities but narrative doom is hanging over her. And I have several other fics too with the impending threat of narrative doom as the main closing emotion.
For a different approach I also have "promises" (cremation of sam mcgee), but that's creepy rather than angsty.
I really don't think I have written any fics with a specifically angsty ending!
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
I think the most uncomplicatedly happy ending would be either "habitat, behaviour" (svsss, bingqiu), or "bodies, talking" (mdzs, jyl/jzx), both of which have endings focused on basking in the ways a good relationship with a partner who understands your needs can be so fulfilling.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
I have gotten occasional complaints but never straight up hate, so far! At least, that I can remember, lol. Sometimes a bad memory is helpful!
9. Do you write smut?
Sometimes! When it suits the needs of the fic I feel moved to write. It can be a really fun aspect of a character or relationship to explore!
10. Do you write crossovers?
I used to be a lot more into crossovers when I was younger. These days there's a much higher bar to clear for me to be into a crossover idea. The last crossover I wrote was in 2014!
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Other than the inevitable LLM bot scraping, not that I'm aware of.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
I vaguely recall having been asked once or twice, but I don't think anything ever came of it.
13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?
I did occasionally, in long ago days, but I haven't cowritten in many years at this point.
14. What's your all time favourite ship?
Too hard to answer! I refuse!!! How am I supposed to choose between so many amazing ships!
15. What's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
The wangxian telepathic bond. Longing sigh....
16. What are your writing strengths?
Vibes, themes, characters.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Plot, fast-paced action or adventure, snappy conversations, that kind of thing.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I think there are contexts where it can be an effective choice to include untranslated dialogue, and I think that I'm not qualified to write the kinds of fic where it would be an effective choice.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
As far as I am aware, the fairy tale Cinderella, when I was about 8 years old.
20. Favourite fic you've ever written?
Look, my fave is usually whatever I've most recently finished! Because it's what's been occupying my mind the most! Soooo it's either my yet-unposted jingyi fic (just needs me to figure out how to implement an improvement suggested by my beta), or my mxtx remix fic (won't be revealed till April 18, and won't be revealed as being by me until April 25)! So you don't get to read either of them yet. But SOON!
whoops it has been far too long, once again. sorry dw!!
one
I have realised: in the past few years I've gotten in the habit of leaving comments in tumblr tags to compliment the fanart I reblog, and as a result I have gotten out of the habit of using commas, because they automatically insert a tag break. And this has bled over into all my writing, including fiction writing! But using commas appropriately does improve the clarity of writing, especially when you tend to write a lot of long sentences like I do...I am having to re-learn to be very deliberate about my commas.
This is a very funny problem to be having! Thanks tumblr!
two
Last week I got to be in the presence of a small child asking me "why" questions about birds. Living the dream!
Small child learned from me about turkey vultures and mourning doves and starlings, as the birds that were most visible to her at the time to ask about. Occasionally I was stymied by what exactly she meant by "why?" -- like, what part are you wanting to know more about? Be more specific, please! But eventually I figured I could just treat "why?" as "tell me more, I'm interested," and that seemed to work well enough.
And then! The next day I got an update from small child's parent that she spotted a turkey vulture and was very excited, and talked about how I had taught her about them!! 🥺
three
I have figured out how to use my camera to take close-ups of tiny things! Turns out the key is to use manual focus; the autofocus doesn't work when you're that close. This is very exciting!
Guess what this presages: BUG PHOTO SUMMER. I'm excited.
four
Sally Pointer videos are there to save the day....when things feel hard, watching her enthuse about how much fun it is to make mistakes and try things out and learn is a guaranteed mood improver. Thank u sally pointer <3
five
I have been testing out various apps/programs for keeping personal notes, and think I might be able to use Joplin for a bunch of niches in my digital life, more than I was expecting -- exciting!
On the docket:
The one thing I'm specifically not going to move to Joplin: my fic-writing. The android app for Joplin does not have a functional word-count feature, and it turns out that IS a vital feature for me, unfortunately. So that will stay in Ellipsus for now, I think.
one
I have realised: in the past few years I've gotten in the habit of leaving comments in tumblr tags to compliment the fanart I reblog, and as a result I have gotten out of the habit of using commas, because they automatically insert a tag break. And this has bled over into all my writing, including fiction writing! But using commas appropriately does improve the clarity of writing, especially when you tend to write a lot of long sentences like I do...I am having to re-learn to be very deliberate about my commas.
This is a very funny problem to be having! Thanks tumblr!
two
Last week I got to be in the presence of a small child asking me "why" questions about birds. Living the dream!
Small child learned from me about turkey vultures and mourning doves and starlings, as the birds that were most visible to her at the time to ask about. Occasionally I was stymied by what exactly she meant by "why?" -- like, what part are you wanting to know more about? Be more specific, please! But eventually I figured I could just treat "why?" as "tell me more, I'm interested," and that seemed to work well enough.
And then! The next day I got an update from small child's parent that she spotted a turkey vulture and was very excited, and talked about how I had taught her about them!! 🥺
three
I have figured out how to use my camera to take close-ups of tiny things! Turns out the key is to use manual focus; the autofocus doesn't work when you're that close. This is very exciting!
Guess what this presages: BUG PHOTO SUMMER. I'm excited.
four
Sally Pointer videos are there to save the day....when things feel hard, watching her enthuse about how much fun it is to make mistakes and try things out and learn is a guaranteed mood improver. Thank u sally pointer <3
five
I have been testing out various apps/programs for keeping personal notes, and think I might be able to use Joplin for a bunch of niches in my digital life, more than I was expecting -- exciting!
On the docket:
- replace google keep, to jot down quick notes to myself
- replace google drive, to keep semi-permanent lists I want to be able to edit while out and about (eg: list of things to look for while thrift shopping)
- replace the folder in onedrive where I keep lists of many different things I want to track (eg: kinds of cheese and my opinions on them, all the artists I've seen live in concert, the timeline of all fandoms I've spent time in)
- organize my ever-more-complex TBR list, which is what I was looking for a solution for in the first place
- keep track of important details about friends and acquaintances' lives, since I can't rely on my memory to do that to a socially appropriate level
- and I'm considering moving my personal project kanbans from Trello to Joplin too!
The one thing I'm specifically not going to move to Joplin: my fic-writing. The android app for Joplin does not have a functional word-count feature, and it turns out that IS a vital feature for me, unfortunately. So that will stay in Ellipsus for now, I think.
one
it's amazing how many baskets one person can need, once you commit to the basket lifestyle
tidying and organising one's space is best done by having a "home" for things where they belong, and baskets make it all look deliberate and aesthetic! once you realise how many problems baskets can solve, you never stop wanting more of them!
two
I've begun a draft for my mxtx remix exchange fic and I'm very excited! I think (I hope!) that this is gonna be a good one :DDD
three
note to self: when doing things with paint, an apron is insufficient to actually protect your nice clothes from getting paint on them!
thankfully I caught it early enough that I was able to wash the white paint off my navy blue pants - but that was a heart-stopping few moments
four
we need teleportation, stat. I have cool friends I want to visit, all over the globe! how am I supposed to live like this!
five
I learned recently that some people avoid blocking/muting users on #ao3 because they can't stand the notification bar that is visible at the top of every page if you do
I am here to bring good news: this is fixable, using site skins! Even if site skins intimidate you, it's an easy copy-paste situation. All you need to do is create a site skin, paste 3 lines of text into the css field, save it, and apply it as your standard site skin.
Or if you use a custom skin (eg one of official ao3 skins, or other public skins) you can duplicate the skin, saving it as your own, and then edit it, and add the same 3 lines to the code along with all the other css that's already there. And then the fix will be implemented as part of your usual skin.
Here's what you need, these 3 lines. Including the third line with the closing curly bracket is important! and then you're good and will never see the notification banner about mutes/blocks again when you're logged in :)
six
You may notice that I've updated all my tags that used to begin with "about" to begin with "anent" instead. There's a bug in dw that makes tags beginning with "about" not work right (basically, you can't navigate through more than one page worth of the tag) but it's useful to me to have those tags appear alphabetically near the top of all my tags, so I went for a fairly archaic term as my replacement. As etymonline says:
Yep, that'll do.
it's amazing how many baskets one person can need, once you commit to the basket lifestyle
tidying and organising one's space is best done by having a "home" for things where they belong, and baskets make it all look deliberate and aesthetic! once you realise how many problems baskets can solve, you never stop wanting more of them!
two
I've begun a draft for my mxtx remix exchange fic and I'm very excited! I think (I hope!) that this is gonna be a good one :DDD
three
note to self: when doing things with paint, an apron is insufficient to actually protect your nice clothes from getting paint on them!
thankfully I caught it early enough that I was able to wash the white paint off my navy blue pants - but that was a heart-stopping few moments
four
we need teleportation, stat. I have cool friends I want to visit, all over the globe! how am I supposed to live like this!
five
I learned recently that some people avoid blocking/muting users on #ao3 because they can't stand the notification bar that is visible at the top of every page if you do
I am here to bring good news: this is fixable, using site skins! Even if site skins intimidate you, it's an easy copy-paste situation. All you need to do is create a site skin, paste 3 lines of text into the css field, save it, and apply it as your standard site skin.
Or if you use a custom skin (eg one of official ao3 skins, or other public skins) you can duplicate the skin, saving it as your own, and then edit it, and add the same 3 lines to the code along with all the other css that's already there. And then the fix will be implemented as part of your usual skin.
Here's what you need, these 3 lines. Including the third line with the closing curly bracket is important! and then you're good and will never see the notification banner about mutes/blocks again when you're logged in :)
p.muted.notice {
display: none;
}
six
You may notice that I've updated all my tags that used to begin with "about" to begin with "anent" instead. There's a bug in dw that makes tags beginning with "about" not work right (basically, you can't navigate through more than one page worth of the tag) but it's useful to me to have those tags appear alphabetically near the top of all my tags, so I went for a fairly archaic term as my replacement. As etymonline says:
"concerning, about, in respect or reference to," c. 1200, onont "on level with, beside," also "in the company of, fronting against," a contraction of Old English on efn "near to, close by," literally "on even (ground with);"
Yep, that'll do.
february was a bit of a wash as a month for me, and consequently I do not have the usual sort of recs round-up for this month. Here's what I've got!
1.
This post by Ada Palmer about looking at the Medici family in Renaissance Florence through a disability lens and through a tyranny lens, and how both are relevant, is an excellent read!
"We always worry about bias in history, but one part of bias is: What question were you asking in the first place?"
2.
it occurs to me that if any of you aren't familiar with the award winning graphic novel Digger by Ursula Vernon, which was originally posted as a webcomic, it is my duty to tell you about it, and let you know that the full story is available to read online for free. It is brilliant, highly recommended.
Digger is the story of a wombat who ends up far from her home after a run-in with magic underground, and who ends up on a quest to deal with the problem of a dead god. It's funny, it's heartfelt, it has amazing worldbuilding and characters, and the art is incredible.
Here's the link to the first page!
1.
This post by Ada Palmer about looking at the Medici family in Renaissance Florence through a disability lens and through a tyranny lens, and how both are relevant, is an excellent read!
"We always worry about bias in history, but one part of bias is: What question were you asking in the first place?"
2.
it occurs to me that if any of you aren't familiar with the award winning graphic novel Digger by Ursula Vernon, which was originally posted as a webcomic, it is my duty to tell you about it, and let you know that the full story is available to read online for free. It is brilliant, highly recommended.
Digger is the story of a wombat who ends up far from her home after a run-in with magic underground, and who ends up on a quest to deal with the problem of a dead god. It's funny, it's heartfelt, it has amazing worldbuilding and characters, and the art is incredible.
Here's the link to the first page!
one
Whew that was the worst illness I have had in a lot of years. And my whole household was laid low by it at the same time! I disapprove. I'm so glad to be (mostly) better at this point, and come crawling back with a functional brain again
two
a few weeks ago I decided to stop being so intimidated by bias tape, and tried making my own! Turns out it's much easier than I feared; it's merely tedious. It's very doable!
three
I am up to 27 wpm on thumbkey, the weird mobile keyboard I switched to! There was a while where I felt convinced I would never make it up to a reasonable speed, but it's happening! It just takes a lot of practice. But I persevered.
(The other issue: google has a bug in gchat that means the correct way of coding backspace into a keyboard doesn't function right in gchat. Thumbkey has filed the bug report; there has been no change. Yes, this means I cannot backspace when typing in gchat on my phone; I can only highlight and overwrite if I typo or want to reword something! Infuriating, but of course google is not incentivised to care)
four
I have been back to regularly working on my current fic wip this week and it feels so good to make my small incremental daily progress again. this is how fics get written!! thank you jingyi for waiting for me <3 I'm nearly at 5k now!
five
spent a while recently browsing historic gees bend quilts....I've looked at them before and I'm still blown away by the artistry in the form. I love how within that artistic community, asymmetry, skew, and playfulness with colour and design are such important elements, handled masterfully. SO different from the quilting tradition I come from!
(if you're not familiar, this is a good resource: https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers)
Whew that was the worst illness I have had in a lot of years. And my whole household was laid low by it at the same time! I disapprove. I'm so glad to be (mostly) better at this point, and come crawling back with a functional brain again
two
a few weeks ago I decided to stop being so intimidated by bias tape, and tried making my own! Turns out it's much easier than I feared; it's merely tedious. It's very doable!
three
I am up to 27 wpm on thumbkey, the weird mobile keyboard I switched to! There was a while where I felt convinced I would never make it up to a reasonable speed, but it's happening! It just takes a lot of practice. But I persevered.
(The other issue: google has a bug in gchat that means the correct way of coding backspace into a keyboard doesn't function right in gchat. Thumbkey has filed the bug report; there has been no change. Yes, this means I cannot backspace when typing in gchat on my phone; I can only highlight and overwrite if I typo or want to reword something! Infuriating, but of course google is not incentivised to care)
four
I have been back to regularly working on my current fic wip this week and it feels so good to make my small incremental daily progress again. this is how fics get written!! thank you jingyi for waiting for me <3 I'm nearly at 5k now!
five
spent a while recently browsing historic gees bend quilts....I've looked at them before and I'm still blown away by the artistry in the form. I love how within that artistic community, asymmetry, skew, and playfulness with colour and design are such important elements, handled masterfully. SO different from the quilting tradition I come from!
(if you're not familiar, this is a good resource: https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers)
rec me a reccing comm
Feb. 7th, 2025 12:26 amDoes anyone know of a good general-purpose reccing community on dreamwidth? I like to share my rec posts where I can, because part of the point of recs is to help the visibility of fanworks I think are worth a look, but the various comms I know of aren't ones where my reccing style fits very well. And all of their specific focuses are super valid and understandable, as a way to narrow in on a niche! But.
The ones I know:
And I like to rec just whatever I have been happening to read of late, without focusing in on any particular niche. It's what I find works best for me, and has me able to actually share recs the most consistently. But that doesn't fit with any of the usual sorts of reccing communities!
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a type of community that doesn't exist; most people are looking for a specific type of thing when they're looking for things to read, so a reccing community open to anything would cover too much territory for people to be interested in following it, due to the inevitable poor ratio of things they are interested in to things they don't care about.
But one can hope!
The ones I know:
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
bestthingever -- only wants recs for new works - fancake -- only wants recs for works that fit their theme of the month
- recthething -- only wants recs that are for 100% fannish content with nothing else included (eg no professionally published short stories mentioned in the same post of recs alongside fic)
- gensplosion -- only wants recs for gen works
- and many fandom-specific communities which would only want fanworks for their fandoms, of course
And I like to rec just whatever I have been happening to read of late, without focusing in on any particular niche. It's what I find works best for me, and has me able to actually share recs the most consistently. But that doesn't fit with any of the usual sorts of reccing communities!
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a type of community that doesn't exist; most people are looking for a specific type of thing when they're looking for things to read, so a reccing community open to anything would cover too much territory for people to be interested in following it, due to the inevitable poor ratio of things they are interested in to things they don't care about.
But one can hope!
one
omg hello what if I stamp-printed designs onto fabric to make clothes with fun patterns instead of relying on manufacturers to make patterns I like
eg: https://www.dharmatrading.com/home/the-cameloozy-blouse-a-mad-mim-tutorial.html
I mean yes this would require me to pick up SEVERAL more crafting skills. but. do you see the Vision.
I could make myself so many bird-themed clothes! and dinosaur-themed! and more!!!
two
I haven't ever seen or read or studied Measure For Measure before, and having now done the first three acts with my zoom theatre troupe, I sure do see why it's so rarely performed! One of shakespeare's "problem plays" for sure.
Which isn't to say it's a bad play, because it isn't! It's just very.....oh boy.
Buuuut his choice to engage in sexual coercion is one of the main drivers of the plot of the play, and it sure is a lot!
My zeatre group is people I trust, so engaging with this theme with them is good -- but it is not the sort of play I'd imagine the average person would choose to go see for a fun night out at the theatre, and not the sort of play the average school board would think is a good choice to have teens study in high school, the two main ways people today might experience Shakespeare's works. I think relatively very few people today are familiar with measure for measure. I didn't even know what the play was about until I was reading up about it in prep for zeatre casting.
And it's too bad, really, that I didn't ever have previous exposure to it -- I bet it would be a very fruitful play to study and analyse! And a story that's remarkably relevant to today's politics in some ways too!
three
I enjoy buying things at international grocery stores that I have never cooked with before, to see what I think and expand my food options. This week: really enjoying something that the package calls "beancurd sheets"!
From a little research, this seems an ambiguous term that can mean multiple things, but the thing I have is tofu pressed into thin sheets, not a film lifted off the top of heated soy milk.
I tore some into strips and ate them with noodles for lunch and they are a lovely addition. I will definitely buy this again in the future, and would not be surprised if it becomes something I frequently have on hand!
four
Just started listening to a podcast about dragonriders of pern, a book series I was obsessed with when I was 12 years old, but haven't read any of for at least 15 years at this point. (I loved these books, but I cannot say they are GOOD books.) The podcast: Dragons Made Me Do It.
And in the first few minutes of the first episode of the podcast they already said something that goes a long way to explaining why I loved pern so much as a young person: it's a story very interested in the question of "when is legend legend, why is myth a myth." And in "exploring connections between history, myth, and present reality."
And stories that ask questions about the connections between stories and reality have always been extremely my shit!
(I mean. Also there are dragons who you telepathically bond with. That WAS also a draw for preteen Soph!)
Then the rest of the episode was a delightful discussion and analysis of the first pern book, excellent all the way through.
Even more excited to keep listening to this podcast now!
In case you're interested, btw, it's one of those podcasts you have to add to your podcast app via url, you can't just search within the app. Their website lists the rss subscription url, but to make it even easier for you, here it is: https://dmmdipodcast.neocities.org/rss.xml
omg hello what if I stamp-printed designs onto fabric to make clothes with fun patterns instead of relying on manufacturers to make patterns I like
eg: https://www.dharmatrading.com/home/the-cameloozy-blouse-a-mad-mim-tutorial.html
I mean yes this would require me to pick up SEVERAL more crafting skills. but. do you see the Vision.
I could make myself so many bird-themed clothes! and dinosaur-themed! and more!!!
two
I haven't ever seen or read or studied Measure For Measure before, and having now done the first three acts with my zoom theatre troupe, I sure do see why it's so rarely performed! One of shakespeare's "problem plays" for sure.
Which isn't to say it's a bad play, because it isn't! It's just very.....oh boy.
content note: it's a play about sexual coercion and the use of power
I am playing the role of Angelo. As an actor this is a great role! A character doing a lot of mental self-deception to justify his own actions to himself, which is really meaty and fun to play.Buuuut his choice to engage in sexual coercion is one of the main drivers of the plot of the play, and it sure is a lot!
My zeatre group is people I trust, so engaging with this theme with them is good -- but it is not the sort of play I'd imagine the average person would choose to go see for a fun night out at the theatre, and not the sort of play the average school board would think is a good choice to have teens study in high school, the two main ways people today might experience Shakespeare's works. I think relatively very few people today are familiar with measure for measure. I didn't even know what the play was about until I was reading up about it in prep for zeatre casting.
And it's too bad, really, that I didn't ever have previous exposure to it -- I bet it would be a very fruitful play to study and analyse! And a story that's remarkably relevant to today's politics in some ways too!
three
I enjoy buying things at international grocery stores that I have never cooked with before, to see what I think and expand my food options. This week: really enjoying something that the package calls "beancurd sheets"!
From a little research, this seems an ambiguous term that can mean multiple things, but the thing I have is tofu pressed into thin sheets, not a film lifted off the top of heated soy milk.
I tore some into strips and ate them with noodles for lunch and they are a lovely addition. I will definitely buy this again in the future, and would not be surprised if it becomes something I frequently have on hand!
four
Just started listening to a podcast about dragonriders of pern, a book series I was obsessed with when I was 12 years old, but haven't read any of for at least 15 years at this point. (I loved these books, but I cannot say they are GOOD books.) The podcast: Dragons Made Me Do It.
And in the first few minutes of the first episode of the podcast they already said something that goes a long way to explaining why I loved pern so much as a young person: it's a story very interested in the question of "when is legend legend, why is myth a myth." And in "exploring connections between history, myth, and present reality."
And stories that ask questions about the connections between stories and reality have always been extremely my shit!
(I mean. Also there are dragons who you telepathically bond with. That WAS also a draw for preteen Soph!)
Then the rest of the episode was a delightful discussion and analysis of the first pern book, excellent all the way through.
Even more excited to keep listening to this podcast now!
In case you're interested, btw, it's one of those podcasts you have to add to your podcast app via url, you can't just search within the app. Their website lists the rss subscription url, but to make it even easier for you, here it is: https://dmmdipodcast.neocities.org/rss.xml
I'm here with all my recs from January! I'm still not done yuletide reading whoops, but there's a few more yuletide fics here along with my usual fandoms
a clear lake without tides, by clachnaben
➜ yuletide fic, for The Left Hand of Darkness
➜ Genly and Estraven, post-canon, from Estraven's pov
➜ suffused with this unshakeable sense of the connection between the two of them in a really gorgeous way
➜ what a perfect coda to canon!
➜ 2k words in length
Socially Liberal, Fiscally Draconic: Complicating Narratives of Political Reform in the 19th Century, by BaronetCoins
➜ yuletide fanfic, for Temeraire
➜ in the form of a student's essay written centuries later about Temeraire's political career after the war
➜ absolutely delightful, the things you can see about what the standard narrative about Temeraire must have been, that this student is trying to upend!
➜ and it's so right about Temeraire, too....his temperament is revolutionary but he loves money too much to be in favour of any politics that might lead to him having less of it
➜ also, love the very Student Essay nature of it, with most of the footnoted sources leading back to a single book, lol
➜ 1k words in length
Pack Clouds Away, by yunitsa
➜ yuletide fanfic, for Temeraire
➜ featuring laurence/tharkay on tharkay's estate post-canon; laurence comes to tharkay with a business proposition
➜ and by business proposition he means --
➜ anyway it is SO CUTE I love themmmmm
➜ 2k words in length
as prescribed, i'll date your dad, by nyoomerr
➜ svsss canon divergence au fic
➜ luo binghe, not yet aware he's a heavenly demon specifically, discovers the cure for Without-A-Cure....and is determined to get shen qingqiu the cure. from tianlang-jun.
➜ and goddamn this whole fic is SO much fun?! I adored ittttttt
➜ sqq awkwardly fake-dating a doesn't-trust-cultivators tlj while lbh resentfully but determinedly wingmans......along with the far less conflicted wingmanning of all the other peak lords
➜ teen binghe is so CUTE and sqq is the most sqq and I love them forever
➜ and wow I am genuinely so compelled by this understanding of tlj's character. he's a major character in this novel-length fic but I would happily read so much more about him!
➜ all the character dynamics in this fic are just. SO GOOD.
➜ 67k words in length
Abyss Arc Speedrun (WR IGT NG+ glitch hunter safe strat), by pallas_rose
➜ a genius svsss bingqiu canon divergence au fic
➜ sqq decides to take care of the unavoidable abyss plot-arc by body-swapping with lbh to do the abyss arc for him
➜ meanwhile the bodyswapping didn't work QUITE as intended so although sqq is indeed in lbh's body running the abyss, lbh is in lqg's body and lqg is in sqq's body
➜ cue: time for lbh and lqg to learn how to appreciate each other!
➜ anyway I loved EVERYTHING about this fic. sooooo many good things it's doing
➜ the way sqq has such a great time testing out his abyss speedrun ideas! lbh and lqg's gym bro friendship style! meng mo providing internal colour commentary the whole way through!
➜ and like holy shit, sqq’s weird as fuck identity issues wrt bodies and self and sexuality and stuff! EXQUISITE.
➜ a totally delightful fic, highly recommend
➜ 36k words in length
Downloading Package: Happy Ending, by scholomancefan
➜ svsss bingqiu fic, ft. shen yuan as the system for post-extras bing-ge
➜ so much fun! I love sy's obliviousness as he works hard to help his lbh get the happiness he deserves. always, in every universe ❤️
➜ 2k words in length
Things Imperfect, by Nemainofthewater
➜ Nirvana in Fire fic where MCS bodyswaps with himself from an alternate universe where he's an imperial eunuch
➜ a fascinating little glimpse into this alternate world! I am so curious how this is going to go....for both versions of MCS
➜ 1k words in length
A Heap of Petrified Gods, by Adelehin Ijasan
➜ a short story about a Nigerian immigrating overseas, and what must be given up to do so
➜ a very unsubtle story, but effective
➜ 1.5k words in length
Pygmalion, by Jo Walton
➜ a fun little poem about the classic myth of pygmalion, and if your statue-come-alive would want you in return
1 Left Hand of Darkness fic rec
a clear lake without tides, by clachnaben
➜ yuletide fic, for The Left Hand of Darkness
➜ Genly and Estraven, post-canon, from Estraven's pov
➜ suffused with this unshakeable sense of the connection between the two of them in a really gorgeous way
➜ what a perfect coda to canon!
➜ 2k words in length
2 Temeraire fic recs
Socially Liberal, Fiscally Draconic: Complicating Narratives of Political Reform in the 19th Century, by BaronetCoins
➜ yuletide fanfic, for Temeraire
➜ in the form of a student's essay written centuries later about Temeraire's political career after the war
➜ absolutely delightful, the things you can see about what the standard narrative about Temeraire must have been, that this student is trying to upend!
➜ and it's so right about Temeraire, too....his temperament is revolutionary but he loves money too much to be in favour of any politics that might lead to him having less of it
➜ also, love the very Student Essay nature of it, with most of the footnoted sources leading back to a single book, lol
➜ 1k words in length
Pack Clouds Away, by yunitsa
➜ yuletide fanfic, for Temeraire
➜ featuring laurence/tharkay on tharkay's estate post-canon; laurence comes to tharkay with a business proposition
➜ and by business proposition he means --
➜ anyway it is SO CUTE I love themmmmm
➜ 2k words in length
3 SVSSS fic recs
as prescribed, i'll date your dad, by nyoomerr
➜ svsss canon divergence au fic
➜ luo binghe, not yet aware he's a heavenly demon specifically, discovers the cure for Without-A-Cure....and is determined to get shen qingqiu the cure. from tianlang-jun.
➜ and goddamn this whole fic is SO much fun?! I adored ittttttt
➜ sqq awkwardly fake-dating a doesn't-trust-cultivators tlj while lbh resentfully but determinedly wingmans......along with the far less conflicted wingmanning of all the other peak lords
➜ teen binghe is so CUTE and sqq is the most sqq and I love them forever
➜ and wow I am genuinely so compelled by this understanding of tlj's character. he's a major character in this novel-length fic but I would happily read so much more about him!
➜ all the character dynamics in this fic are just. SO GOOD.
➜ 67k words in length
Abyss Arc Speedrun (WR IGT NG+ glitch hunter safe strat), by pallas_rose
➜ a genius svsss bingqiu canon divergence au fic
➜ sqq decides to take care of the unavoidable abyss plot-arc by body-swapping with lbh to do the abyss arc for him
➜ meanwhile the bodyswapping didn't work QUITE as intended so although sqq is indeed in lbh's body running the abyss, lbh is in lqg's body and lqg is in sqq's body
➜ cue: time for lbh and lqg to learn how to appreciate each other!
➜ anyway I loved EVERYTHING about this fic. sooooo many good things it's doing
➜ the way sqq has such a great time testing out his abyss speedrun ideas! lbh and lqg's gym bro friendship style! meng mo providing internal colour commentary the whole way through!
➜ and like holy shit, sqq’s weird as fuck identity issues wrt bodies and self and sexuality and stuff! EXQUISITE.
➜ a totally delightful fic, highly recommend
➜ 36k words in length
Downloading Package: Happy Ending, by scholomancefan
➜ svsss bingqiu fic, ft. shen yuan as the system for post-extras bing-ge
➜ so much fun! I love sy's obliviousness as he works hard to help his lbh get the happiness he deserves. always, in every universe ❤️
➜ 2k words in length
1 Nirvana in Fire fic rec
Things Imperfect, by Nemainofthewater
➜ Nirvana in Fire fic where MCS bodyswaps with himself from an alternate universe where he's an imperial eunuch
➜ a fascinating little glimpse into this alternate world! I am so curious how this is going to go....for both versions of MCS
➜ 1k words in length
1 sff short story and 1 sff poem rec
A Heap of Petrified Gods, by Adelehin Ijasan
➜ a short story about a Nigerian immigrating overseas, and what must be given up to do so
➜ a very unsubtle story, but effective
➜ 1.5k words in length
Pygmalion, by Jo Walton
➜ a fun little poem about the classic myth of pygmalion, and if your statue-come-alive would want you in return
one
sorting through my photos from the last two years with the intention of putting together a photobook to print for myself, and wow there are really some major transitions within 2023 and 2024 for me! some more visible within the photos than others, tbh. But the biggest change for this purpose is that I take SO many more photos than I used to…..genuinely not sure how I'm going to pare these down to a reasonable number, lol!
two
Some bird photos are good because they are beautifully detailed shots that show you all the features of the bird. Some bird photos are good because they're fun.
This is absolutely the best photo of a dark-eyed junco I have ever taken.
( bird pic! )
three
I am trying out yet another weird mobile keyboard app, since the parent company of Typewise, the keyboard app I've been using for the last while, has become far too focused on ai for my comfort. The open source app store f-droid, though, has some interesting options on offer, and I am very compelled by Thumb-Key.
So far thumb-key is rather slow to learn, but I think its design will make it very fast to use in the long run. But the adjustment is hard in the meantime! I keep having to switch back to typewise in contexts where I need to be able to convey my thoughts efficiently, and then needing to remember to return to thumb-key when speed isn't as important so that I can continue practicing.
( screenshot of the keyboard )
On my first day of use, my thumb-key typing speed got to ~15 wpm, compared with 35-40 on typewise, and over 100 on a physical computer keyboard. Today, after a couple days of use, I am at ~20 wpm. So I am feeling very slow!
But when I used to use the standard gboard mobile keyboard, I was both slower and less accurate than typewise enables me to be, and already I can see how thumb-key will be even better than typewise once my muscle memory learns where the letters are.
I just hope I reach that day soon!
four
tfw the automatic association you have with a particular concept is a terry pratchett quote. I'm an edwardian era gentleman casually tossing off a quote from one of the classic works that I know all gentlemen of my status are familiar with because we all studied the same texts in school, except instead of latin or something, it's Going Postal.
"that greatest of all treasures which is Hope"!!!
five
Rereading old entries from previous years in my line a day diary and wow it is amazing how long it's been consistent that I regularly fail to go to bed at a reasonable time, become exhausted and miserable, and regret my choices. And then do it again.
I really wish bedtimes were easier for me!
Real nice though to see the way the overall tone of my entries perks up after I went on the right anti-anxiety med for me, midway through 2022.
sorting through my photos from the last two years with the intention of putting together a photobook to print for myself, and wow there are really some major transitions within 2023 and 2024 for me! some more visible within the photos than others, tbh. But the biggest change for this purpose is that I take SO many more photos than I used to…..genuinely not sure how I'm going to pare these down to a reasonable number, lol!
two
Some bird photos are good because they are beautifully detailed shots that show you all the features of the bird. Some bird photos are good because they're fun.
This is absolutely the best photo of a dark-eyed junco I have ever taken.
( bird pic! )
three
I am trying out yet another weird mobile keyboard app, since the parent company of Typewise, the keyboard app I've been using for the last while, has become far too focused on ai for my comfort. The open source app store f-droid, though, has some interesting options on offer, and I am very compelled by Thumb-Key.
So far thumb-key is rather slow to learn, but I think its design will make it very fast to use in the long run. But the adjustment is hard in the meantime! I keep having to switch back to typewise in contexts where I need to be able to convey my thoughts efficiently, and then needing to remember to return to thumb-key when speed isn't as important so that I can continue practicing.
( screenshot of the keyboard )
On my first day of use, my thumb-key typing speed got to ~15 wpm, compared with 35-40 on typewise, and over 100 on a physical computer keyboard. Today, after a couple days of use, I am at ~20 wpm. So I am feeling very slow!
But when I used to use the standard gboard mobile keyboard, I was both slower and less accurate than typewise enables me to be, and already I can see how thumb-key will be even better than typewise once my muscle memory learns where the letters are.
I just hope I reach that day soon!
four
tfw the automatic association you have with a particular concept is a terry pratchett quote. I'm an edwardian era gentleman casually tossing off a quote from one of the classic works that I know all gentlemen of my status are familiar with because we all studied the same texts in school, except instead of latin or something, it's Going Postal.
"that greatest of all treasures which is Hope"!!!
five
Rereading old entries from previous years in my line a day diary and wow it is amazing how long it's been consistent that I regularly fail to go to bed at a reasonable time, become exhausted and miserable, and regret my choices. And then do it again.
I really wish bedtimes were easier for me!
Real nice though to see the way the overall tone of my entries perks up after I went on the right anti-anxiety med for me, midway through 2022.
one
It's been five years since I started reading cql/mdzs fanfic, four years since I started watching cql, nearly two years since I started reading mdzs the first time, one year since I started my in-depth mdzs reread book club with a friend, and this week I will finish that reread! Amazing how I continue to love this story and these characters, even as my relationship with them and understanding of them evolve over time. What a joy and delight it is! ❤️
two
staring thoughtfully at free-motion feet for sewing machines, as I think about the the things I could do if I had one
three
I cannot believe that not very many years ago I used to live a life where I habitually wore outfits that had zero pockets. These days, my daily pocket contents are:
- handkerchief
- charging case with bluetooth earbuds
- a rock
- carabiner which holds: various keys, a mini pocketknife, a mini retractable measuring tape, and a case with Loops earplugs
- wallet
- phone
I use all four pockets a standard pair of pants has on offer!
(yes the rock is a vital item. that's my fave stim toy.)
four
ahhhh how are there so many fun danmei and baihe novels out there that I have not read yet! I want to shove them all into my brain at once
It's been five years since I started reading cql/mdzs fanfic, four years since I started watching cql, nearly two years since I started reading mdzs the first time, one year since I started my in-depth mdzs reread book club with a friend, and this week I will finish that reread! Amazing how I continue to love this story and these characters, even as my relationship with them and understanding of them evolve over time. What a joy and delight it is! ❤️
two
staring thoughtfully at free-motion feet for sewing machines, as I think about the the things I could do if I had one
three
I cannot believe that not very many years ago I used to live a life where I habitually wore outfits that had zero pockets. These days, my daily pocket contents are:
- handkerchief
- charging case with bluetooth earbuds
- a rock
- carabiner which holds: various keys, a mini pocketknife, a mini retractable measuring tape, and a case with Loops earplugs
- wallet
- phone
I use all four pockets a standard pair of pants has on offer!
(yes the rock is a vital item. that's my fave stim toy.)
four
ahhhh how are there so many fun danmei and baihe novels out there that I have not read yet! I want to shove them all into my brain at once
Today I listened to the audiobook of The Empress of Salt and Fortune, rereading the book for the first time since I read it four years ago. It continues to be a very good book, and it's one that's very well suited to listening to as an audiobook, given the nature of the story it is telling.
But. This is not a review that's intended to convince other people to read the book. (Though you should! it's great!) Rather, I have a burning need to talk about spoilers, with people who have already read the book too and have opinions on some stuff.
Ok one other note on the book, while I'm here and talking about it, actually.
But really I want answers to the questions in my first spoiler cut!!
But. This is not a review that's intended to convince other people to read the book. (Though you should! it's great!) Rather, I have a burning need to talk about spoilers, with people who have already read the book too and have opinions on some stuff.
Click here for the spoilers
Ok so. There's clearly SOMETHING going on with the identity of Rabbit vs In-yo, right. But I'm not clear on what???? Are Rabbit and In-yo one and the same person? Did Rabbit and In-yo swap places and swap identities, and if so, at what point in their lives? If there are hints that I'm missing here I would LOVE to hear more!Ok one other note on the book, while I'm here and talking about it, actually.
right I suppose this is spoilers also
I really appreciate that it's a story about monarchy/royalty/empire that makes the ruler compelling in a way that gets you on her side while also being unflinchingly real about the death and destruction that inevitably comes from such a ruler and such a person. Impressive! I love it.But really I want answers to the questions in my first spoiler cut!!
You may or may not remember the news story of the birder in central park who was confronted by a white woman and threatened with police because he was black, in May 2020. This book is that black birder's memoir.
Overall, a good book, and one I'm glad I read. Christian Cooper is much more than "just" a black man and a birder. He's gay, he's a nerd, he's an activist, he's pagan, he loves travelling, et cetera, et cetera. All of these things are a part of his life and shape who he is and how he reacted in that viral moment.
I really appreciated how he put that central park story near the end of the narrative, contextualising it in the rest of his life -- and then following it with a story about a similar confrontation in the same place just one year later contextualizes it even further. And also, that's not the end of his story. And I love how it ends! Tn the delight of always being able to see something new and learn something more about birds, no matter how long you've been a birder, and always being ready to throw yourself into the moment for it!
I do think the momentum in the book dragged a bit in the middle, plus I found it awkward how he made multiple references earlier in the book to the central park incident that made him famous; it makes the book feel too much of-the-moment, when a lot of what he's saying in this book is that that moment wasn't actually a bizarre outlier in his life as a whole.
But Cooper has led an interesting life, and I enjoyed hearing about it, and learnint about his time working for Marvel comics especially. He was part of the team working on Alpha Flight when the superhero Northstar came out as gay!
I listened to to this book as an audiobook, and Cooper narrates it himself. I like how his enthusiasm comes through in his reading, though whenever he tries put on a voice when doing dialogue for other people, it often comes out sounding loudly exasperated when he's aiming for high energy or high emotion, which is irritating.
One fun thing that the audiobook format allows is that at the beginning of each section of the book, there's an audio clip of birdsong, for a bird species that will be featured in that section of text! I really enjoyed trying to ID the bird from the song and then listening for when it would come up in one of his stories.
Overall, though it's not a perfect book, I am glad I read it and I think it's worth reading.
Overall, a good book, and one I'm glad I read. Christian Cooper is much more than "just" a black man and a birder. He's gay, he's a nerd, he's an activist, he's pagan, he loves travelling, et cetera, et cetera. All of these things are a part of his life and shape who he is and how he reacted in that viral moment.
I really appreciated how he put that central park story near the end of the narrative, contextualising it in the rest of his life -- and then following it with a story about a similar confrontation in the same place just one year later contextualizes it even further. And also, that's not the end of his story. And I love how it ends! Tn the delight of always being able to see something new and learn something more about birds, no matter how long you've been a birder, and always being ready to throw yourself into the moment for it!
I do think the momentum in the book dragged a bit in the middle, plus I found it awkward how he made multiple references earlier in the book to the central park incident that made him famous; it makes the book feel too much of-the-moment, when a lot of what he's saying in this book is that that moment wasn't actually a bizarre outlier in his life as a whole.
But Cooper has led an interesting life, and I enjoyed hearing about it, and learnint about his time working for Marvel comics especially. He was part of the team working on Alpha Flight when the superhero Northstar came out as gay!
I listened to to this book as an audiobook, and Cooper narrates it himself. I like how his enthusiasm comes through in his reading, though whenever he tries put on a voice when doing dialogue for other people, it often comes out sounding loudly exasperated when he's aiming for high energy or high emotion, which is irritating.
One fun thing that the audiobook format allows is that at the beginning of each section of the book, there's an audio clip of birdsong, for a bird species that will be featured in that section of text! I really enjoyed trying to ID the bird from the song and then listening for when it would come up in one of his stories.
Overall, though it's not a perfect book, I am glad I read it and I think it's worth reading.
