ursula

chocolatefrogs posting in

fandom_icons

Neytiri calls me skxawng. It means "moron."

chocolatefrogs posting in

icons

Neytiri calls me skxawng. It means "moron."

profiterole_reads

Lui by CM Deiana (who used to write for the Yaoi France fanzine) was a lot of fun! During the Covid lockdown, Alexandre, a sociology student, meets Samuel, a delivery man.

I bought this novel through crowdfunding, so I got:
- 3 bonus chapters about various secondary characters
- 1 fanfic written by Auriane Velten (Ainsi soient-illes) and printed like a fanzine: it's an AU where Alex and Sam meet 25 years later, in a fascist France (we're sadly heading there, but I sure hope that it's not going to last that long)
- a few goodies

I love that the book is a little mixed-media, with illustrations of notebook pages between chapters.

There's major m/m, with Alex being demisexual and on the autism spectrum. The secondary characters mostly include gay men, but also two sapphics and an enby. There are a few POC, and Covid-related anti-Asian racism is tackled.

nafs

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

brightknightie

A tip for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, when you choose to play: To get all the cut-scenes, interactions, and story for a certain truly lovely character, approach the snowy Hebra region from the west, not from the east. Indeed, when the time comes, make it easy and just start from where the glowing quest marker is. They put it right there for a reason.

I, unfortunately, continued my "Explore first!" kick into Hebra and so blundered into Condé's story from the wrong side. Not that any option is wrong as such in an RPG or even JRPG, but... I've seen videos of folks playing this charming, intriguing section, so when I blundered into a certain spot and got compressed dialogue skipping that much more personal and exciting introduction to the character, I knew what I'd lost. You won't want to miss it.

That said, exploring Hebra thoroughly brought me fun discoveries that I was unspoiled on, probably because the people who streamed and wrote wiki entries when the game come out last fall had played the main quest at speed, rushing through straight to the end for reasons like not getting spoiled and satisfying their followers, and so missed some interesting tidbits, including about Condé himself. ( Spoilers (and one fanfic idea) about Condé )

Yes, it's a delightful game. Playing as Zelda is fun. Echoes are fun. The plot and lore are fun. If Condé and Dohna are richer characterizations than Link and Zelda, well, that's a peril of a "silent hero," I'm afraid.

longficmod posting in

fandom5k

Our first round of post-deadline pinch hits are all claimed! Thank you to all our pinch hitters. <3 Remember that anyone who isn't signed up but is only pinch hitting can leave prompts at our treats for pinch hitters post! This is a great place to look if you're interested in creating treats.

As later pinch hits come due and as I contact some creators with questions, there may be more pinch hits coming. I have four new ones available!

Ideally, these would be due 18 July at 23:59 US Eastern time, one day before our planned reveals date. However, it's possible I'll have to delay the collection opening to make sure all participants are covered, so if you know you can take one of these pinch hits but will need longer than the 18th, please let me know, and we can discuss.

If you can claim one of these, please comment with your AO3 name and the number of the pinch hit you want. All comments are screened.

( PDPH 9 - NoPixel (Web Series), 鴨乃橋ロンの禁断推理 | Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri | Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective (Manga), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga), Crossover Fandom, 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime) )

( PDPH 10 - The West Wing, Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns, Severance (TV) )

( CLAIMED - PDPH 11 - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Fairyland Series - Catherynne M. Valente, Gilmore Girls (TV 2000), Hadestown - Mitchell, Tam Lin - Anonymous (Song) )

( PDPH 12 - Original Work, Original Work, 悪役令嬢の中の人 | Akuyaku Reijou no Naka no Hito | The One Within the Villainess (Manga), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga) )

mentalfloss_feed

https://www.mentalfloss.com/science/health/is-it-safe-to-swim-in-lakes?utm_source=RSS

Swimming in lakes (or any wild water) has its risks. When in doubt, check local advisories and trust your senses. And if the water looks or smells off, you might have better luck sticking to land.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/science/health/is-it-safe-to-swim-in-lakes?utm_source=RSS

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Lindsey

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/sunday-sweets-goes-to-the-beach-2025

There's 104 days of summer vacation
And school comes along just to end it
So the annual problem for our generation
Is finding a good way to spennnnd it...

By The Uncommon Cakery

And what better place to spend your summer vacation than at the beach? Phineas and Ferb obviously agree, and who can argue with those guys?

So snap open your lounge chairs and get ready to enjoy today's beachy-keen sweets. Starting with this lovely:

By The Cake Zone

Ahhh. I actually feel more relaxed just looking at this. How people can bring themselves to eat these exquisite creations, I'll never undersand.

And you're going to love this collection of underwater friends...

By amateur baker Kristina H.

and anemones.

Let's all wave hello to this next one...

Submitted by Pearl H.and made by *JNFerrigno

'cuz I hear it brings good tidings!

(Ok, ok, I'm sorry about all the beach puns. No matter what I do they just keep rolling in. But seriously, isn't this cake swell?)

Now here's a tasteful take on a beach-themed wedding cake:

By Sheryl Brou

I love that they didn't go overboard.
(Sea what I did there?)

(Ugh, I'm sorry! I'm even annoying myself now. I'll try to reel it in.)

Here's a sweet little seahorse. I think it's totally cute:

By Courtney's Cakes

Water you thinking a boat it?

Sorry! I can't help it. I'll just go with the flow.

By Cakery Creation

Like the tiny pearl bubbles floating along the gentle waves of this cake. Simply buoy-tiful.

And I love the graduating colors of fondant here, and the dusting of "sand:"

By Diane's Sweet Treats

Tangent time: I once had a good friend who enjoyed eating actual sand. Turns out she was deficient in some essential mineral. Which was a relief, since we were about to take her to the lagoony bin.

It's a shore bet she would have loved this sand castle cake though:

By Creative Mom-2-Five

The "sand" is crushed Nilla wafers, should you care to recreate this look for yourself or a loved one who does not enjoy eating actual sand.

There's so much goodness in this next sandy scene, how shell I ever pick a favorite?

I love the pinwheels and the tiny picnic in the corner.

By Cakes by Samantha

Oh, and the embossed pattern on the mini tablecloth! Great little detail.

This final cake is so incredible and realistic you'll swear it's alive. I squid you not.

By Avalon Cakes

Wow, that sucker is beautiful!
(Specifically, the third one from the bottom.)

Whale, I hope you got your fill of beach-themed sweets (and puns) today. I'm sure you're clamoring for more, but that should tide you over for a while!

Happy Sunday!

*****

P.S. If you actually go to the beach, then clearly you need a mesh tote bag that's in such high demand they couldn't even get one for the photoshoot, and had to photoshop it in (badly) later:

Oversized Mesh Beach Bag

Oh yeah, bad Photoshop is how you know it's good. Well, that, and the 2,000+ 5-star ratings. Turns out this thing is actually pretty awesome, and also comes in blue, gray, or white. Grab yours before the manufacturer tries to snatch it up for another photoshoot.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/sunday-sweets-goes-to-the-beach-2025

romanajo123 posting in

tardis_library

Title: Smothered
Creator:

Shivver
Rating: General
Word Count/Length/Size: 576
Creator's Summary: The view from below, looking up
Characters/Pairings: Original Character(s)
Warnings/Notes:
None. But it helps if you know what happens in "The Poison Sky"
Reasons for reccing:
Rec Bingo! For the box "Outsider POV" . This is a very well-done look into one of the ordinary people in the midst of the ATMOS disaster. Thoughtful and detailed.

Link: archiveofourown.org/works/12240069

umadoshi

scruloose and I did make it to the little farmers' market down the road for its opening day of the season, and even managed to get there earlier than later! (I think it's open from 8 to 1, and we probably were there...a bit after 10?)

We made it home with two quarts of strawberries and one of cherries, new potatoes, a dozen eggs, and boneless chicken thighs, plus a bee balm for the garden, which we quickly tucked into a fairly open space in our little garden bed yesterday evening. (What was there before? UNKNOWN. Will I manage to reconstruct it from old posts or something? Also unknown. But hey, a plant!)

Reading: I finished Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 (M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi), which was fantastic. On the fiction front, I followed it up with Tamsyn Muir's novella Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (not really my thing--I continue to rarely bond with novellas, I guess--but interestingly done), Sacha Lamb's When the Angels Left the Old Country (marvelous), and Sofia Samatar's The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain (again, didn't really bond emotionally, but it executed what it was doing beautifully).

Non-fiction: David Chang and Priya Krishna's Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave), which is, like...primarily actually a David Chang book that Priya Krishna did a ton of heavy-lifting assisting on (which may be very normal for co-written cookbooks, but in this case she was interjecting and clarifying in her own voice as well as doing a fair bit of the actual writing in his voice, and it was all very transparent that it was being done that way, but also a little odd to read). I think I bought this as a sale ebook before hearing that Chang (the Momofuku guy) is something of an asshole, but then when I was reading it, it felt really promising as a book that might be genuinely useful for me (and even by cookbook standards, its ebook is terribly formatted), so I was pleasantly surprised to readily find a used half-price hard copy available on line, which is winging its way to me now. I've also made sure that Krishna's own Indian-Ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family is now on the wishlist where I keep an eye out for ebook sales.

And now I'm reading An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler, which is a cookbook mostly in the form of essays on cooking as a thoughtful/mindful practice.

Watching: One more Murderbot episode to go in this season, and oh, I hope we get a second one. I'm going to miss this little show.

We finished watching the second season of Kingdom (the historical zombies k-drama), which I found very satisfying. The ending very much sets up a subsequent season, and there's a movie out that fills in the backstory of the person/people we glimpse at the end of season 2 who would presumably be extremely central in any further season, but I don't think we feel inspired to watch said backstory movie unless a third season of the show is ever announced and it becomes relevant in that way.

wychwood posting in

girlmeetstrouble

( Chapter 19 )

( Chapter 20 )

The end!

Next book:

coughingbear will be leading Death of a Dormouse by Reginald Hill aka Patrick Ruell; let us know your planned start date,

coughingbear!

joshuaorrizonte

I posted in datarecovery, saying

1) I’m trying to recover data myself

2) asking if I should just assume the drive is cooked

I got a single reply, very rudely telling me to take it to a professional.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been friendly and gotten a nasty reply out of the gate, and I’m now convinced that Reddit users are mostly troglodytes who probably were never taught manners and likely have the reading comprehension of third graders. Anyway, I think I can safely discard Reddit as a social networking site I want to use.

I gave up on the recovery program I was using, and I’m trying Test Disk now. It’s moving much faster… and kicking out read errors in every sector. Yeah, the drive is cooked. I’m going to ask Dad to see if he can do anything with it, but I’m going to be organizing to rerip everything. It’s gonna suck, but it is what it is.

Current Music: Ashes of Eden, Breaking Benjamin

rolanni

Electron-lite day here at the Cat Farm.

Feel free to talk among yourselves. Snacks are in the cabinet over the sink; drinks in the fridge.

thornsilver

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$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

It doesn't feel like a very productive week, but I have gotten a few things done. Five (short) walks, four (short) guitar practice sessions, some patio furniture assembled (one Adirondack chair fully assembled, the other partly assembled, table unboxed).

The Adirondak chairs each have a curved, removable leg-rest. It's not exactly an ottoman, so I've decided it needs to be called a nottaman -- hence this post's music.

The weather has gone from unpleasantly hot to pleasantly cool (with a reverse or two) over the course of the week; we are now enjoying a light rain. Or at least I am -- I'm the one who sits closest to the sliding door in the living room. It opens to half the width of the house, and fortunately has a screen behind it. Because cats.

Between ADT and anemia, my body's temperature sensing has become very wonky; I feel like I'm freezing at temperatures that the rest of the household thinks are too hot, but if I put on something warm I quickly become overheated. It is not conducive to sleeping well. I don't so much mind having the cats wake me in the middle of the night, because my bladder is also wonky, but it would be nice to be able to get to (or back to) sleep in a reasonable amount of time. On the flip side, if all goes well I won't have to talk to a urologist until November.

Not much to say about what's going on in the US. But One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism · No Kings looks like something you can do.

And go watch The FIRST images from the RUBIN observatory! - YouTube

( Notes & links, as usual )