hils | Reading

Welcome to Topic Tuesday! Right away I want to stress that discussion posts are always welcome to the community, you don't have to wait until a Topic Tuesday rolls around, and then maybe be disappointed by the current topic of discussion. Whenever you want to talk about something, please simply make a separate entry to this comm, no matter the week, the time, or the topic. All right? *g*

Today's topic is Your Highlight(s) of the Year. 2025 is almost over, so let's take a moment to look back. What were your highlights of the year? Which drama/movie/novel was your favourite, or made the year memorable for you? Did you fall in love with a new actor or singer? Or find a new song/piece of music that seems stuck in your head on an endless loop? Go into detail as much or as little as you like, and leave links if you want.

As usual, if you want to talk about spoilers, please use one of these codes to hide them.

or

hannah

Waiting for the traffic light, listening to the noise around me, I looked down and saw a dog - one that was shaped like an actual dog, with short black fur, a proper nose, bright eyes, and a remarkable amount of patience for being so quiet in the face of all the noise. Cars, trucks, horns, traffic all around, a cement mixer driving by that whined and gave off these weird high-pitched noises as the mixer turned, and I thought that if it was loud for me, it must be unbearable for her. She was very well-trained in leash work and boundaries, and as well-trained and well-adjusted as she was, it made me think: New York City isn't good for her.

She was mostly quiet, except for one point where she made something like a whine mixed with a whimper. I told her, "I don't blame you." But I don't think she heard me what with all the noise around us.

At the next corner, I complimented her behavior on who I thought was her owner; she said she was just the walker, and the dog's name was Kato, and she was impressed at her, too. I didn't ask to pet her, just looked at her, watching a little kid ask if she could pet Kato herself instead. I thought about how her owners needed to commission a walker's services, and how it could be a brief thing due to a family emergency or it could be a standing commitment, and knowing Manhattan, it's likely the latter. It still strikes me as strange to keep an animal like a dog as a pet in a big city, and looking at her today, it feels even stranger. I walked across the park and listened to the sounds of the vehicles and thought about how unpleasant I found it, and how the city isn't designed for auditory comfort. It could be, and it isn't, and it saddened me to think how much worse Kato must have things.

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: nothing now

shadaras

okay, some updates while I'm thinking about it at all:

1.
I never did say that I did get my ears repierced, did I xD But I did! It's been like a month! The piercer was like "so, let's just re-open those old holes, I bet they're still fine, just maybe a little finicky", and she was correct. A lot easier to heal from something that's just expanding old scar tissue than making a new hole in the body, obviously, which is good because tbh I wasn't excited about tending to a new wound.

So I can wear ear shinies now! I need to acquire more of them, especially more interesting studs that I can wear during work/aikido. xD Dangly earrings are pretty but inconvenient when doing very physical stuff.

she was ALSO like "you have skinny earlobes!" and I was like "uh?" and she was cheerfully like "this means that even the tiniest studs I have are going to be a little loose on you and the average stud will be noticeably loose" (true, btw) and then "do your ears get cold particularly easily?" (no, actually, they don't?). It was all very "this is not a body part I think about the variance in very often but yeah someone who does body mods/piercings sure would have thoughts about this!". xD

2.
The heater in our dojo, which has been dying for years, has finally given up the ghost. Considering that our dojo barely breaks even most of the time, uh, not good to need to replace that in the middle of winter. We shall see how paying for that ends up working, considering that it only broke like last Friday and we only got someone to look at it today, and they haven't provided a specific estimate yet (just a rough ballpark upon identifying the failed part). Fun times!

3.
It is WINTER and COLD now.

...yeah that's about it.

This does mean my cat will paw at the blanket I keep on my couch and then curl up in expectation that I shall Tuck Her In, which is absolutely adorable of her. <3

4.
I finished my Yuletide draft and made eyes at a friend who also knows the canon to beta-read it, so I don't need to worry about that until they get back to me. I had a lot of fun doing canon review for this one! One of those canons where I didn't have any particular ideas but did think it'd be fun to write for someone who had some prompts/thoughts about it, and: I was right!

5.
Talked to my dad yesterday about family and life and books, and it's very funny how at once I got so much of my taste in books from him and how much more willing he is to read moderately shitty epic fantasy than I am. Admittedly, this may just be a factor of age and that he grew up reading more stuff in that genre (by which I mean: Male Gaze Power Fantasy) than I did, and so has way more tolerance for it than I do. He's perfectly happy to read whatever else I place in front of him! And he enjoys it! He just also reads these. xD

6.
god, idk, did I have other things to say

work is work. it's fine. I would like more sleep. whatever.

7.
I'm still somehow keeping up with Critical Role: Araman? I zone out of combat (normal) but this mostly just means that I'm willing to listen to that while doing other things even moreso than the more story-centric content that I'll listen to while driving or doing dishes etc. I think the part I enjoy most is that they're doing multiple tables and focusing on one table at a time, but the opening scene for each episode is from one of the other groups, a teaser of what they're getting up to/going to be doing when the focus switches to them.

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
广 part 4
店, shop; 庙, temple; 府, seat of government ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=53

语法
2.2 Uses of 都
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-2-grammar

词汇
比分, score; 对比, contrast ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
那天在电子商店，你是不是想送我什么东西啊, was there something you wanted to give me the other day in the electronics store?
姑娘，我们都是从地星来的, Miss, we're all from Dixing
[no 比分 or 对比]

Me:
他们住在那座破寺庙。
比赛后最主要的不是比分。

tinny

Mount TBR 2025 Book(s) #05* Murderbot 1-4

Murderbot novellas by Martha Wells
Murderbot Diaries #1-#4

SecUnit, a human-machine hybrid, is owned by an evil megacorporation, but it has hacked its own system so it can now do what it wants. It's mostly bored by its job and the boring humans it has to protect, so spends most of its time watching tv shows instead. Over time, it grows emotionally, and gets attached to its favorite clients, despite itself.

Murderbot has always been a wonderful first-person narrator. Very unreliable, my favorite, very snarky, also my favorite, and addicted to tv shows, very relatable. :D

I had read the first novella years ago and then never continued because I found them too expensive. But now that there's a tv adaptation, I wanted to reread, and so I borrowed the first four from a friend and read them all in one go.

thoughts - not very spoilery, I think? Y'all have read them all already anyway, right?

* Man how I love murderbot. I already did the first time I read the first novella, and the three other ones have only deepened that impression. Although of course it's not the easiest to live with. Or like Arada (or was it Pin-Lee? I keep confusing those two) says in book 4: "I'd forgotten what an asshole you are." :D

* When I read the first book, I always thought of murderbot as female - for no other reason than that it's a fan of tv shows, like me (and everyone else I know). Androgynous/non-binary would have been better. The tv adaptation now looks very male. I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle.

* Mensah is just such a sweet character (maybe a bit too ideal, but oh well). No wonder murderbot imprinted on her so much. <3

* I liked all the progressions from "I hacked the weapons scans" to "now I have experience in hacking surveillance and scans and I can do several of them at once" and "I couldn't have gotten through this security check a while ago".

* I love how a lot of the characters are women, and sometimes not specifically mentioned. The two security guards in book 3 for example, which I'd originally pegged as male, but it's revealed late in the book that they're both female.

* I loved ART. Awesome smart, nerdy, and arrogant character, which I would love to meet again (and so would murderbot, I think, even if it claims otherwise).

* To me, the physical changes that ART makes to murderbot (to make it blend in and not look so much like a secunit) sounded like it changed its hairstyle to something more female-looking. It's never actually stated outright, but I liked the idea.

* Through all the novellas, murderbot's voice stays funny and snarky, but small changes are noticeable and I love how it grows, not only in technical skill but also emotionally. It still needs to be dragged into saving its people sometimes, but somehow it does it of its own accord, and I love both.

5 stars - Wonderful unreliable narration, great worldbuilding, neuro-atypical characters galore

1 - 5 stars - Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Final Architecture #1 [DW link]
2 - 2 stars - Miss Merkel: Mord auf dem Friedhof by David Safier Miss Merkel #2 [DW link]
3 - 4 stars - Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire Toby Daye #10 [DW link]
4 - 1 star - Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin [DW link]
5 - 5 stars - Murderbot Diaries 1-4 by Martha Wells [DW link]

emrinalexander

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
巾 part 6
常, always; 幅, width; 幕, curtain/screen ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=50
干
干, to do/foster/dry; 平, flat/even; 年, year; 并, and/to merge; 幸, fortunate ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=51
幺/乡
幺, the youngest; 乡, hometown; 幻, fantasy; 幼, young; 幽, remote ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=52
广 parts 1-3
广, wide; 庄, village; 庆, to celebrate; 庇, to protect/to cover; 床, bed; 序, order/sequence; 库, warehouse; 应, should/to answer; 底, bottom/end
( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=53

语法
1.13 Uses of 了
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-1-grammar
1.14 去 + (place) + (action)
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-1-grammar
2.1 Uses of 多
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-2-grammar

词汇
抱 to hold/to hug; 背景, background; 倍, times; 被迫, to be compelled; 本科, undergraduate (course); 笨, stupid
( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

玩玩
Three versions of 逃亡: the original Stefanie Sun, Wu Qingfeng (from 2019, kind of baby) and Jiang Dunhao and friends.

冷死我了，进被窝容易起床难。大家过得怎么样？别感冒了啊。

trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

Zhao Yunlan sprawled on a couch, grinning at his phone. The background shows a purple sky with stars. Text reads, "Slo-Mo Rewatch. Guardian - half an episode per week @ sid_guardian.dreamwidth.org"

Hi, welcome to this week's instalment of the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch! Watch half an episode a week, and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!

Here is last week's half-episode. On to the second half!

Episode 7, from 24:30

Summary: The SID finds Lai Su's house and confronts him. He reveals that someone promised him fame and fortune if he published webnovels, and he kept at it despite knowing about the murders. Lin Jing is disappointed and furious at his idol. Lai Su writes a final chapter to end his webnovel career, and ends up dying his character's death. Zhu Jiu tries to break into the SID and discovers the black energy shield. And Zhao Yunlan visits Shen Wei to talk about the case. Shen Wei is very touched that he sympathises with a Dixingren.

Quote:

Lin Jing: "If you can't take responsibility for every word you write, you don't deserve to be called an author. You don't even deserve to be called a person!"

Detail:

Lin Jing describes the final chapter of the webnovel with the monster's death as follows: "He was engulfed by guilt for his many crimes. In the end, his own reflection in a lake scared him to death."

Since we actually see the text of the chapter on screen, I thought it'd be fun to plug the screencaps into Google Translate - here's the result:

mobile version | desktop version

Questions:

Do you have a favourite line in in this half of the episode? What do you think about Lin Jing's angry words to Lai Su? How great is Lai Su's house? Any parallels between this case and the drama's overall plot? Any parallels with the novel you can think of? Why is Zhu Jiu only now discovering the SID's shield? What's your favourite part of the final scene between Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan?

(These are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in!)

And here is our schedule for the next batch of episodes - please do sign up to host a post if you can!

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
广 part 3
库, warehouse; 应, should/to answer; 底, bottom/end ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=53

词汇
笨, stupid (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
既然我答应过赵云澜要照顾你，我就一定会好好把你带回去, since I promised Zhao Yunlan I'd take care of you, I have to bring you home safe
笨蛋，闭嘴！ shut up, idiot!

Me:
我们应该把仓库收拾一下。
我怎么这么笨，真服了。

tinny

I was pretty diligent about writing down things in November, apparently:

( 21 things I learned in November )

dancing_serpent posting in

c_ent

The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?

Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes:
or

shadaras

Got this from some friends who Do Tumblr, but xD it's fun to pull these over here!

Fanfic End-of-the-Year Asks [I mean, COMMENTS here, really, but. you know.]

favorite fic you wrote this year
least favorite fic you wrote this year
favorite line/scene you wrote this year
total number of words you wrote this year
most popular fic this year
least popular fic this year
longest completed fic you wrote this year
shortest completed fic you wrote this year
longest wip of the year
shortest wip of the year
fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year
favorite character to write about this year
favorite writing song/artist/album of this year
a fic you didn’t expect to write
something you learned this year
fic(s) you completed this year
fics you’ll continue next year
current number of wips
any new fics to start next year
number of comments you haven’t read
most memorable comment/review
events you participated in this year
fics you wanted to write but didn’t
favorite fic you read this year
a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read
number of favorites/bookmarks you made this year
favorite fanfic author of the year
longest fic you read this year
shortest fic you read this year
favorite fandom to read fic from this year

I ~only~ posted 43 works this year (not counting whatever else gets posted for end of year exchanges, etc), which is at once a lot and not as many as in recent years.

So yeah, have at!

(perhaps I'll post a Real Entry at some point, but for now: hey, I'm around, have a meme.)

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
广 part 2
庇, to protect/to cover; 床, bed; 序, order/sequence ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=53

语法
2.1 Uses of 多
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-2-grammar

词汇
本科, undergraduate (course) (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
那你好好在床上躺着, lie down on the bed
只要你多看多听多学，你自然就懂得多了, you just need to watch, listen and learn a lot to understand more naturally
[no 本科]

Me:
你的程序有问题啊，来除错一下。
本科的时候你不会学习这种内容。

nanila

If you had to participate in one Olympic event, what would it be and why?

Curling. It looks delightful. And there's no way I'm running long distances, contorting myself into weird shapes, flinging heavy things, or hurling myself off high platforms.
What is the one song you always sing along to?

Just one? There are loads. I have no shame. The ones I belt out loudest are Evanescence “Bring Me To Life”, Joan Jett's “I Love Rock n Roll”, and Guns n Roses “Paradise City”.
Do you wear a seatbelt in the car?

I'm sorry, what?! Apart from this being the law, I don't want to die or suffer horrific disfigurement from being in an accident, the chances of which wearing a seat belt has been exhaustively demonstrated to reduce.

So yes, I do wear a seat belt in the car. Always.
Car, SUV or truck and why?

I favour a car. Preferably something small and fast. I like being able to accelerate quickly, and the less time I have to spend getting from A to B, the better. Much as I enjoy going fast, I also find long drives really damn boring.
Are you a good/bad driver? Explain.

I think I'm okay. I had to pass the UK driving test, which is legendarily difficult, and it definitely made me a better driver. I'm careful about keeping my distance and I always make sure I'm well rested when I get behind the wheel.

umadoshi

An important task, given that I'm switching away from Spotify to Qobuz at this time of year: sifting through someone else's curated Trans-Siberian Orchestra playlist and pulling only about a third of the tracks from that to my own new holiday playlist. (There is a way to import Spotify playlists, but I haven't actually investigated it yet.)

My playlist is awfully random, really. I'm picky about Christmas music, but not in a way that follows much rhyme or reason. I like some boys' choir stuff. I mostly prefer older Christmas songs to more modern ones. But in practice, a lot of what I listen to is single-artist holiday albums, often by artists I don't really listen to otherwise. (The examples in my playlist so far are Annie Lennox and Sting and Idina Menzel, and maybe Mary Fahl counts, since I haven't heard any of her other solo work, just the old October Project albums where she was the lead vocalist.) If you have recs along those lines, feel free to throw them my way!

(Am I still entertained by the fact that Tori Amos put out a seasonal holiday album, uh...[*checks notes*] seventeen years ago? [WHY did I just date-check that?] Yep. Am I listening to it right now because it turned out that I enjoy most of it? Also yep. Still funny.)

(Would-be-funny-if-not-completely-horrifying: Every once in a while I remember Tom McRae saying that in the earliest days, his label thought his song "You Cut Her Hair" could be released as a Christmas track. "You Cut Her Hair" deals with the Holocaust. Very seasonal. Yes. o_o)

I guess it must've been back on the weekend that we made Smitten Kitchen's Mom’s Apple Cake, which was the first apple cake I was looking at a few weeks ago, but at the time we didn't have a tube pan on hand. (You can use a bundt, which we did have, but...I didn't opt for that.) It's very good. It's also LARGE. (Some went into the freezer.)

We cracked out the Burlap & Barrel Royal Cinnamon for it, and the cake is very cinnamony, but that presumably is at least equally due to the part where the cake calls for a tablespoon.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Tori Amos - What Child, Nowell

maggie33

My Yuletide assignment fic is already posted. I have 1500 words of a treat written, too, so there’s a good chance I will manage to finish it and have it beta-read before works reveal. And in between writing my Yuletide fics I also managed to finish a filthy Big Dragon PWP I started writing a year ago. It’s in beta-reading right now and I hope to post it the next week.

ClaireBell

Episode 5 was, again, very good.

A bit more with minor spoilers here.

I loved Claire and Bell’s honeymoon phase. But it also filled me with dread, because I know what that means – a lot of angst and drama in the next episode for sure. 😊 And I think things will get much worse for Dao, too.

Burnout Syndrome

Episodes 1 and 2 were excellent and it made me very happy. But wow, I’m getting a serious case of second lead syndrome with this drama. Especially since Koh is a very unlikable asshole right now in a very realistic way.

Spoilers here, too.

I really don’t care about a possible redemption of a ruthless and filthy rich pro-AI tech bro. I don’t want him to get together with Jira. Heh, I’m getting flashbacks to Theory of Love and my hatred of Khai here. I wonder if I’ll change my mind about Koh later.

Of course there is definitely some red color under Pheem’s very nice and soft surface, too. He’s gorgeous and super hot, true. But he seems really passive for now. He claims to be very unhappy in his current situation at work, at the same time also saying he can't change anything about it. And it sounds like such a weak excuse.

Also I’m very impressed with Gun’s ability to have chemistry with literally everyone. In this drama I don’t mean just Dew and Off, but Thor, too.

And yay they did let Gun and Dew kiss. It was a short kiss at the end of the 2nd episode, but I’ll take it. And hope for more later. 😊

Heated Rivalry

Well, ok, this show is getting its own tag, too. Because episode 3 exceeded my expectation. I loved it so much. Francois Arnoud is fantastic as Scott, hot and gorgeous and charismatic as hell. Robbie G.K. is great as Kip, too. They have nice chemistry, and their NC scenes are fire.

More here with spoilers.

For me they did a good job with showing in such a short time the whole development of Scott and Kip’s relationship, and that staying in the closet takes a toll on Scott, and why he behaves the way he does. And I loved how the showed the contrast between Kip who has supportive friends and a great, loving relationship with his dad, and Scott who is basically alone all the time, before he gets together with Kip.

And they left out their public kiss and Scott’s coming out for one of the next episodes. This is what Francois Arnaud said in one interview:

"What changes the game for Shane and Ilya happens later in the season, and I would say that the emotional climax of the season involves all of these characters, and the stories are intimately connected," Arnaud says before quickly clarifying: "It's not a foursome!"

Heh, I love that he felt the need to clarify that.

And here is another good interview with him for TV Guide.

corvidology

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
广 part 1 yǎn
广, wide; 庄, village; 庆, to celebrate ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=53

词汇
被迫, to be compelled (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
全部到村广场集合, everyone meet in the village square
不过我得庆幸，如果不是被迫跑腿的话，我永远不可能发现这个秘密, but I was lucky, if I hadn't been made to run errands I could never have discovered this secret

Me:
全村庄知道他。
我不是被迫的，是自己的意志。

tinny

To nobody's surprise, here is another

celebrity20in20 round with Wu Lei. This is round 18. I hope you like 'em.

Teasers:

( 20+2 icons of Wu Lei )

Concrit and comments very welcome! Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. If you want to know whose textures and brushes I use, take a look at my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

mekare posting in

c_ent

So I ended up doing three artworks for the two DMBJ calendars in addition to organising them and here is the first one that got revealed:

watercolour painting of a woman having dinner with ehr daughter in a hair salon

watercolour painting of a woman having dinner with ehr daughter in a hair salon

Ladies Calendar

Gents Calendar

Reveals are currently a chapter per calendar per day until the 12th! There'll be a download link in the last chapter for printing.

(crosspost from my journal)

Profile

hils

Hils's journal

Reading

Topic Tuesday - Your Highlight(s) of the Year

Animal encounter.

(no subject)

第四年第三百三十四天

Book #05* Murderbot Diaries 1-4 by Martha Wells

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

第四年第三百三十三天

Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 7, part 2

第四年第三百三十二天

Things learned in November

Weekly Chat

(no subject)

第四年第三百三十一天

The Friday Five on a Friday

Christmas music | Not-Christmas cake

Fanfic writing and drama watching

Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade

第四年第三百三十天

20 icons of Wu Lei for celebrity20in20

DMBJ Calendar art

Profile

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