Reading

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A few good things (and one not so good)

My one Yuletide treat is finished, edited and sent for beta-reading. And that’s it when it comes to Yuletide treats from me this year. Because, and this is that one not so good thing, my right elbow started hurting a lot again.

Speaking of Yuletide - my gift appeared a few days ago, and I shook it. And I can’t wait to read it. Just ten days. But I have to say that for me it’s a bit of a pity that they moved works reveal from morning on 25th to evening on 24th. Usually it was around 10 am on 25th here, and at that time I could sit down and read my gift with no interruptions, and write a proper, enthusiastic comment instantly. Now it’s around 10 pm on 24th. I will probably be able to read my gift right away. But commenting, and reading other fics, will have to wait till the next day. I usually go to sleep around 10:30 p.m., and at this time a night I certainly don’t have enough mental power for reading and commenting on fanfic, just enough for watching fluffy dramas. 😊

Another good thing is news that Thai BL drama Mandate is coming to Gagaoolala. It starts airing there on December 19th. I hope it means that more people will watch it, since it will be more easily available than before. It’s such a good drama, I wish it had a bit bigger fandom.

Dramas I chose to watch lately are good, too. Especially The Price of Confession. I’m so enthralled by this drama that I barely watched anything else the last few days. I’m especially in love with Kim Go Eun, who is absolutely amazing and beautiful, and perfect. I still have an episode and a half to watch, which I plan to do tomorrow. I will write a longer post with a lot of gushing after I watch all of it. And if my poor elbow will let me.

Burnout Syndrome episode 3

Ok, I’m fully in a DewGun camp. Sorry, Off. 😊

More with spoilers (and one a bit NSFW pic) here.

Koh still annoys me a lot. And they gave him a sob story about his parents’ bankruptcy. And I don’t care, still don’t like him.

And, like I’ve said, there is a lot of red color on Pheem, too.

“Would you say it’s weird of me if I said I want his life to be even more fucked up, just so he keeps coming back to me?

Wow, Pheem, you’re not just weird, you’re fucked up and you’re an asshole. But I guess that’s why Mr “I find red flags exciting” Jira likes him. Even though for now it looks like that infatuation goes only one way, since yes, Pheem is down bad, as he himself admits. But Jira only goes to Pheem when he can’t get what he wants from Koh, and he wants a distraction.

But ahhh that interrupted make out... That brief kiss, and Pheem’s hand so high on Jira’s thigh...

burnout syndrome gun and dew in episode 3

That was so fricking hot, and I want more. 😍

Wake Up Dead Man

Netflix's Wake Up Dead Man, the third Knives Out movie, wasn't for me.

The first one had an interesting mystery. I guessed a lot about the second one, but it was pretty fun and original. I also guessed a lot about this one and found it quite depressing. Plus, we didn't even see Benoit Blanc's husband again.

Nice cast, though, especially Kerry Washington and Andrew Scott. <3

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get your words out

it's that time again!

GetYourWordsOut: Year Eighteen!
Pledges & Requirements | getyourwordsout.net

Current Mood: stressed

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Saturday mishmash--household stuff, dyed hair [and work stuff], and a few links

Luck was not with us in the first attempt at clementines this year. (The batch we got are far from inedible, at least, but...not very good.) They're such a gamble these years. :/

Our new freezer arrived a week ago, and the plan is to finally get it in place today once

scruloose gets back from a market run. That hasn't happened yet due to a combination of factors and timing, the biggest of which is the fact that it'll require shifting some things out of the garage onto the driveway to make room for us to work with two upright freezers in play. (

scruloose is going to take a stab at moving the old one out of its place without emptying it, via a hand cart, but we have no idea how likely that is to actually work. It'd sure be convenient, though.)

My hair is dyed! It is. Um. Very dark. By which I mean it's not so much dark purple as "functionally black with some purple highlights that are probably some of my silver hair, but there's less of that than there is silver, so it's a little confusing". Oh, well. It looks fine, other than maybe making me look a bit washed out, and I don't much care about that.

(I might care more when I finally get

scruloose to take a headshot of me to send HR at Dayjob so they can update my long-expired work pass. [Part of why I decided to finally just go ahead and dye my hair was in the name of having it done for this photo.] These days, the process involves just filling out a form and emailing that and a photo that meets their technical requirements to the department handling passes and also to my boss, presumably so the boss can look at the photo and confirm "yes, that is the employee in question". But this means we can make potentially-endless attempts at getting a photo I don't hate, and honestly, if I can live with the horror of my provincial ID photo, I can probably live with just about anything.)

A few links:

--

mrissa's annual lussekatter posts are always good for my heart.

--Jenny Hamilton's "Anatomy of a Sex Scene: Heated Rivalry Edition" (covering ep. 1-2).

--"‘Pushing Daisies’ Season 3 In The Works, Says Creator Bryan Fuller".

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The Friday Five on a Saturday

Did you get an allowance as a kid, and if so, how much was it?

Nope. I could earn money for doing chores, but it was never a guaranteed tranche of money. And by chores I mean things like washing and hoovering the car, or heavy yard work, not cleaning my room or doing the laundry or dishes. Those were just expected.
How old were you when you had your first job, and what was it?

I was fifteen. I tutored a classmate in pre-calculus at community college where I took summer classes. She paid me $10 per session and would take us both for coffee afterward in her fabulous beat up orange Corvette. We were both so happy when we got our final grades and she went from getting a D to a B+. I often wonder what happened to her.
Which do you do better: save money or spend money?

Oh, spend it, for sure. If I'd been better at saving, I'd be in a much better financial position. But would I have had as much fun? I think not.
Are people more likely to borrow money from you, or are you more likely to borrow from them?

The former. I don't like borrowing money.
What's the most expensive thing you've ever bought?

A house.

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Book #06 We Have Been Harmonized

Mount TBR 2025 Book #06 Neuerfindung der Diktatur/We Have Been Harmonized

Die Neuerfindung der Diktatur / We Have Been Harmonized by Kai Strittmatter

Full English title (it's too long for a post subject lol) is: We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State – How Biometric Control and Censorship Threaten Global Freedom and Privacy

German China correspondent Kai Strittmatter wrote this book after he retired, knowing he'd never be let back into China afterwards. He describes how China is developing widespread surveillance to help the ruling party stay in power. He describes the evolution of dictatorship in China, where it's heading, and what the consequences for the rest of the world might be.

The only non-fiction book on my list this year.

The book is based on a lot of interviews he conducted in China, with dissidents/artists/intellectuals as well as people involved in the implementation of surveillance. It reads like a very well researched book. It's not all that new - from 2020 - and it should be noted that it was written by a German, and thus does not specifically get into the developments in the US in that same area. I read the book in German.

I don't really have anything detailed to say about this book. Most of the historical developments were not news to me. I already found things terribly repressive when I was in China decades ago, and it has only gotten worse, and the book illustrates this very well. As for the newer developments, there were quite a few things that I didn't know before or not in that much detail. It's a depressing read, but for me it was worth it.

4 stars - Well researched, important book.

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]
6 - 4 stars - Die Neuerfindung der Diktatur/We Have Been Harmonized by Kai Strittmatter [DW link]

Current Mood: blank
Current Music: nothing now

Twelfth of the Twelfth.

I've been teased with snow before, and I'm hoping I won't get teased again tomorrow. It'll be somewhat inconvenient on Sunday, but I've been inconvenienced in such ways before. I can handle it. I know workarounds.

Earlier today, buying fresh eggs, I told someone I'd be using them for cake. "Tis the season," she said. "Cake's always in season," I told her, and got an earnest laugh.

Current Mood: restless
Current Music: Fifteen Minutes - Voxtrot

Gotta happen sometime.

I've been tasked not only to make challah tomorrow, not just one cake for my dad's book group, but two cakes for a small party he's hosting. The request was only for one cake for the party, and there's no way I'm making only one cake when I can manage two. It'll be a long day of baking. I welcome the work. While the work's helped by already having a lot of what I need for the cakes, the time it'll take is what I'll need to look into - dividing it up, assessing how best to parse it out, that kind of thing.

In addition to all the other chores and errands of the day.

I've sent two fics off to beta readers, and I've got that last original project which I need to start tackling to edit. That there's a very nice feeling by itself, too. Just going from one project right to the next. It's not always something I can pull off, and I value it when I can manage.

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multifandom flash freeze set for fandom10in30

The theme of

fandom10in30's current round "Ice Ice Baby" is winter, snow, and ice, so I went with Amidst a Snowstorm of Love, and then when I ran out of properly snowy caps, filled it up with Frozen and North of North. Enjoy!

( 10+4 icons )

I'm happy to receive all kind of comments, including concrit! All icons shareable. Credit for brushes and textures I use can be found here in my resource post.

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art,
outings london

A light filled exhibition

On Tuesday, I went to The Dulwich Picture Gallery to see their exhibition Anna Ancher: Painting Light.

Anna Ancher (1859–1935) was a Danish painter, and although she's well known in Denmark, there has never been an exhibition devoted to her work in the UK, so it felt like a real privilege to go. She was influenced by French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and many of her paintings focus on local people she knew in the coastal town of Skagen, where she was born, which became an artist's community in the 1870s. She had the most amazing skill at capturing light in her work, and I really enjoyed seeing the examples that have been loaned. There were over 40, and I've highlighted my favourites under the cut.

( Read more... )

It was a fascinating exhibition, and it continues until 8th March 2026.

Letifer by TD Cloud

Letifer by TD Cloud was amazing! A human cop and a vampire enforcer secretly team up to investigate serial killings.

If you love Vampire: the Masquerade and Kindred: the Embraced, you're in for a treat! There's a variety of vampire clans, each with their own specificities, and a bit of a noir vibe. The plot also has some interesting layers.

There's major m/m, as well as a lesbian side character.

(no subject)

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ClaireBell, kdramas and fanfic writing

ClaireBell episode 6

Yeah, that was what I expected. It didn’t make it less hard to watch. I even had to fast-forward a little bit, because I just couldn’t look at the screen.

More with spoilers here.

I identified with Claire so much in this episode. I’m an older sister, and what Claire did I would do in a heartbeat, too. I would exchange my life for my sister’s without even a moment of hesitation. I almost cried again because it made me so emotional.

I really need a happy ending for this drama. I hope both Bell and Claire will be released from prison. And it seems that this is what will happen. I think the creepy teacher’s sister will find out what her brother did to Cream. She now has Cream’s phone. And if I’m no mistaken they showed that Cream’s phone was recording when the teacher assaulted her. I can’t check it to be sure, because I’m not watching that scene ever again.

In kdrama news I dropped Moon River. I enjoyed it for the first six episodes, it was amusing and entertaining, but when the bodyswap ended the plot started being really convoluted and ridiculous, and not in a good way. And I lost interest very quickly. It took me three days to watch the 8th episode, and after that I decided that I don’t care at all what happens next.

But two other kdramas made it up to me for that disappointment. One of them is Dynamite Kiss that I only started watching because I read that my beloved Nam Goong Min will have a cameo in one episode. I watched two episodes and I liked them a lot. It’s lovely, funny, and mostly fluffy and I can watch it in the evening.

Because I definitely can’t watch a second kdrama in the evening. I’m talking about The Price of Confession – that dark thriller, which trailer I posted about a month ago. I started it two days ago and I’ve already watched four episodes. It’s very good. Very dark and intense (and a bit too gory for me sometimes, so twice I had to close my eyes for a moment or two), and Kim Go Eun is fantastic. And she looks absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait to watch more tomorrow.

And in fanfic writing news I finished the first draft of my Yuletide treat. Yay, me! 😊 And I posted my new Big Dragon fic.

Sweet surrender (2339 words)
Fandom: มังกรกินใหญ่ | Big Dragon the Series (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mangkorn Akira Chitsanupongkul/Yai Alangkan Singhawatthanachok
Characters: Yai Alangkan Singhawatthanachok, Mangkorn Akira Chitsanupongkul
Additional Tags: Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Dom/sub, Possessive Behavior, Spanking, Begging, Coming Untouched, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex
Summary:

Mangkorn has that look in his eyes. Yai recognizes it so well - this is the look Mangkorn has when he wants Yai’s surrender and Yai’s obedience.

It’s in Mangkorn’s voice, too, when he whispers “Undress” into Yai’s ear.

Yai takes his clothes off with shaking hands, desire lying heavy in his stomach, its flames getting stronger under Mangkorn’s hot and possessive gaze.

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personal: cats

(no subject)

ah yes I should show y'all a picture of my precious darling tucked into the couch blanket <3 (sometimes she is ENTIRELY UNDER this blanket and I send a photo of a round lump to my friends and helpfully label it "catte".)

( cat photo under cut )

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10 multifandom icons for icons10in20

The rounds at

icons10in20 are rare and always fun! This one is round 41, and it took me much longer than I thought, especially the icons that ended up being Kpop Demon Hunter icons. I'd been planning on making a whole Wu Lei set again, but those steadfastly refused. :D I hope you like the set!

Teasers:

( 10 icons, most from Wu Lei, the rest from Kpop Demon Hunters )

Every single comment is treasured. All icons shareable! Concrit welcome. Check out my resource post for makers of textures and brushes I use.

Previous icon posts:

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: nothing now

Animal encounter.

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.

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(no subject)

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.

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

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

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

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rl-thingslearned

Things learned in November

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

( 21 things I learned in November )