12/28/2025 Richmond Harbor / Meeker Slough
28 Dec 2025 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrkinchThis morning I parked at Shimada Friendship Park and followed the edge of the Bay around Vincent Point, walking back along Richmond Harbor. I enjoyed myself even if I am not "report it" positive I saw the Black Scoter. I watched an a very black duck but he was too far away and never presented so that I could see the yellow knob. I did see two species of Loon and four of Grebe, so that was fun. No Spotted Sandpiper on the Harbor riprap but there was a Black Oystercatcher farther inside the Harbor that I expect. Just one, though; I very often see them two at a time. ( The list: )
After a short rest and a rock-hard Clif bar (how long had it been in there, anyway?) I parked on Bayside Place and walked out to the marsh. I didn't find much, and without any Black Skimmers I'm not submitting an ebird list. However, I did find a Spotted Sandpiper.:)
After a short rest and a rock-hard Clif bar (how long had it been in there, anyway?) I parked on Bayside Place and walked out to the marsh. I didn't find much, and without any Black Skimmers I'm not submitting an ebird list. However, I did find a Spotted Sandpiper.:)
(no subject)
28 Dec 2025 08:22 pmshadaras1.
The darkest part of the year is always the hardest to remember to, like, be a person and not just curl up being grumbly about the long cold dark.
But, well, I do feel more like a person the more I act like a person and interact with people, as much as I might wish to be a lump and zone out while watching streams/tv that ask nothing of me.
2.
Yuletide revealed works!
There was perhaps 30min of AHHHH about 20min after reveals due to an Ao3 bug that revealed creators alongside works. Considering that this happened to Battleship this summer and the mods heard crickets from Support at the time, perhaps now that Yuletide hit the same bug (and solved the immediate problem with advice from the Battleship mods) Ao3 support will have more data and motivation to figure out wtf happened there and make sure it can't happen again.
Anyway, I received two Yuletide gifts:
This is for a fandom that, as the author's note says, I wrote a promo post last year (and then mentioned again during Battleship season when people were asking about good actual play podcasts), and am thus inevitably the reason this person got into the show. <3 Delightful to get a gift for it! I was not expecting one, but also when I saw a gift show up for me and no fandoms I'd requested in the collection list I was like "omg... perhaps..." and it was!
This is a lovely little coda adding into the Oathsworn epilogue, about what people are willing to do for the sake of their community and what secrets they're willing to keep and why. Absolutely delightful.
The other gift is WORLDBUILDING VIA TEXTBOOK EXCERPTS
aka, someone taking me up on my Worldbuilding and Atypical Narrative Stuff things. <3 Absolutely delightful. A+ look into how weird it is to do SCIENCE to the magic of Becoming A Lich and Living Forever As An Undead Being. The change in thought about said magic from the first excerpt to the last is very fun, and it's a good look at a bit of magic that the series itself takes rather for granted.
I have also received absolutely lovely comments on both of the fics I wrote for Yuletide! Further commentary about those after author reveals; I had a great time writing both of them for very different reasons. xD <3
3.
Been thinking about projects for the new year and things I want to do and how, as much as I'm like "ughhhhh I am TIRED all the time" it is annoyingly true that often if I do things anyway I will end up having more energy overall.
So.
Fundamentally I believe in my ability to Write Stuff so long as I, y'know, actually focus and put time into it. xD The part where I need to get myself to actually write instead of zoning out on the internet is the hard part, usually! But I would like to actually write about the blorbos I've been rotating in my head since this summer.
There's this part of me like "that would be easier if you had a TITLE for it" and I'm like "OKAY SO GIVE ME ONE" about it. (tavina most of the time I do not feel your pain about this BUT IN THIS CASE it feels weirdly true, considering that my brain can give me the primary arc of the story and the vibes I want but the idea of WRITING it is somehow ???. if a title helps I will sigh loudly but also be like "yeah okay sure".)
but I would like to be able to actually explain about my blorbos and their not-romance (it is an ADVENTURE STORY and they are absolutely Together but also get mad if one's like "so your BOYFRIEND" about it) (they are a half-triton/half-elf and a half-orc/half-dragon because why be Normal about your multiracial fantasy characters) (the half-dragon gets kidnapped to build an airship and that's what kicks the whole thing off) which means I need to WRITE IT
so really if I have any goal for next year it is probably simply "please actually write full draft of that <3", which, to be clear, is Very Doable based on how many words I am capable of writing xD just gotta make them words about this.
4.
It snowed the day after Christmas (or, well, the evening of Boxing Day into the early morning of the 27th), fluffy dry snow that's perfectly aesthetic and wasn't too much of a pain to clean off. Tonight it's supposed to be FREEZING RAIN, however, which is so much more UGH and is going to make going to work tomorrow Special. (I wish I got more time off for the holidays, but, whatever, it's not like I would do anything in particular except rest and read and write.)
5.
The dojo did get a new heater in. It's the same as the old heater, I'm pretty sure, except newer and thus works properly. xD
6.
A friend made me watch the first four episodes of I Am Nobody, a cdrama that they were like "I think you'll like it!" about because of the traits: Has Women (aka: is not actually a BL) and Is Modern Cultivation (because I'd made a comment about the Legend of Xiao Hei that they should've told me it was modern cultivation and not just "it has a cute cat! look at the cute cat!"). The thing is, it has women by virtue of being Probably Het (I think fandom is mostly like BUT BOYS about it) and the modern cultivation is "secret sects keep magic secret" and not the far more interesting "magical cultivation sects are integrated into everyday modern life" that Xiao Hei included.
So like... it's a show that I'd have fun watching with them, because it's honestly really well done for what it is, but unlike either friend I was watching with (either the one showing this to us or the other one new to it) I am not compelled to watch the rest on my own? It leans too much into comedy and not enough into the sort of worldbuilding or character dynamics that actually get their claws into me. Not a bad thing about it, really! I see why people like it! Just. Not as much my jam as that friend had hoped for.
7.
I watched del Toro's Frankenstein on Christmas Day, and spent the entire time talking with my friend about the use of color in that movie. It definitely understood what Frankenstein (the novel) was about! It portrayed The Themes (consequences of one's actions; accepting responsibility; the relationship between creator and creation) very well. It also did not shy away from gore and blood and the surgical nature of it all! (Also there were wolves that Did Not Act Like Wolves At All but also they're A Metaphor in the end so... whatever..) Very enjoyable, glad to have seen it!
The darkest part of the year is always the hardest to remember to, like, be a person and not just curl up being grumbly about the long cold dark.
But, well, I do feel more like a person the more I act like a person and interact with people, as much as I might wish to be a lump and zone out while watching streams/tv that ask nothing of me.
2.
Yuletide revealed works!
There was perhaps 30min of AHHHH about 20min after reveals due to an Ao3 bug that revealed creators alongside works. Considering that this happened to Battleship this summer and the mods heard crickets from Support at the time, perhaps now that Yuletide hit the same bug (and solved the immediate problem with advice from the Battleship mods) Ao3 support will have more data and motivation to figure out wtf happened there and make sure it can't happen again.
Anyway, I received two Yuletide gifts:
The Promise (1222 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Oathsworn (Actual Play Podcast)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Dorado the Adamant & Nabain Palisade
Characters: Dorado the Adamant, Nabain Palisade
Additional Tags: and the absence of Serikali, Post canon, Missing Scene, Dialogue Heavy, Major Spoilers
Summary:“Did you ever speak to Serikali?” Dorado asked.
“Not as often as I would have liked.” The broken promise settled over his shoulders like a yoke. But even under that weight, he still could carry curiosity. Dorado was direct: if she changed topic, there had to be a reason.
This is for a fandom that, as the author's note says, I wrote a promo post last year (and then mentioned again during Battleship season when people were asking about good actual play podcasts), and am thus inevitably the reason this person got into the show. <3 Delightful to get a gift for it! I was not expecting one, but also when I saw a gift show up for me and no fandoms I'd requested in the collection list I was like "omg... perhaps..." and it was!
This is a lovely little coda adding into the Oathsworn epilogue, about what people are willing to do for the sake of their community and what secrets they're willing to keep and why. Absolutely delightful.
The other gift is WORLDBUILDING VIA TEXTBOOK EXCERPTS
The Dresediel Lex Project And Its Consequences (2385 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Craft Sequence - Max Gladstone
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Maestre Gerhardt
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Epistolary
Summary:Excerpts from documents found in Tara Abernathy's bag before her graduation from the Hidden Schools, sketching out the historical project to understand undeath and some pertinent later findings.
aka, someone taking me up on my Worldbuilding and Atypical Narrative Stuff things. <3 Absolutely delightful. A+ look into how weird it is to do SCIENCE to the magic of Becoming A Lich and Living Forever As An Undead Being. The change in thought about said magic from the first excerpt to the last is very fun, and it's a good look at a bit of magic that the series itself takes rather for granted.
I have also received absolutely lovely comments on both of the fics I wrote for Yuletide! Further commentary about those after author reveals; I had a great time writing both of them for very different reasons. xD <3
3.
Been thinking about projects for the new year and things I want to do and how, as much as I'm like "ughhhhh I am TIRED all the time" it is annoyingly true that often if I do things anyway I will end up having more energy overall.
So.
Fundamentally I believe in my ability to Write Stuff so long as I, y'know, actually focus and put time into it. xD The part where I need to get myself to actually write instead of zoning out on the internet is the hard part, usually! But I would like to actually write about the blorbos I've been rotating in my head since this summer.
There's this part of me like "that would be easier if you had a TITLE for it" and I'm like "OKAY SO GIVE ME ONE" about it. (
tavina most of the time I do not feel your pain about this BUT IN THIS CASE it feels weirdly true, considering that my brain can give me the primary arc of the story and the vibes I want but the idea of WRITING it is somehow ???. if a title helps I will sigh loudly but also be like "yeah okay sure".)but I would like to be able to actually explain about my blorbos and their not-romance (it is an ADVENTURE STORY and they are absolutely Together but also get mad if one's like "so your BOYFRIEND" about it) (they are a half-triton/half-elf and a half-orc/half-dragon because why be Normal about your multiracial fantasy characters) (the half-dragon gets kidnapped to build an airship and that's what kicks the whole thing off) which means I need to WRITE IT
so really if I have any goal for next year it is probably simply "please actually write full draft of that <3", which, to be clear, is Very Doable based on how many words I am capable of writing xD just gotta make them words about this.
4.
It snowed the day after Christmas (or, well, the evening of Boxing Day into the early morning of the 27th), fluffy dry snow that's perfectly aesthetic and wasn't too much of a pain to clean off. Tonight it's supposed to be FREEZING RAIN, however, which is so much more UGH and is going to make going to work tomorrow Special. (I wish I got more time off for the holidays, but, whatever, it's not like I would do anything in particular except rest and read and write.)
5.
The dojo did get a new heater in. It's the same as the old heater, I'm pretty sure, except newer and thus works properly. xD
6.
A friend made me watch the first four episodes of I Am Nobody, a cdrama that they were like "I think you'll like it!" about because of the traits: Has Women (aka: is not actually a BL) and Is Modern Cultivation (because I'd made a comment about the Legend of Xiao Hei that they should've told me it was modern cultivation and not just "it has a cute cat! look at the cute cat!"). The thing is, it has women by virtue of being Probably Het (I think fandom is mostly like BUT BOYS about it) and the modern cultivation is "secret sects keep magic secret" and not the far more interesting "magical cultivation sects are integrated into everyday modern life" that Xiao Hei included.
So like... it's a show that I'd have fun watching with them, because it's honestly really well done for what it is, but unlike either friend I was watching with (either the one showing this to us or the other one new to it) I am not compelled to watch the rest on my own? It leans too much into comedy and not enough into the sort of worldbuilding or character dynamics that actually get their claws into me. Not a bad thing about it, really! I see why people like it! Just. Not as much my jam as that friend had hoped for.
7.
I watched del Toro's Frankenstein on Christmas Day, and spent the entire time talking with my friend about the use of color in that movie. It definitely understood what Frankenstein (the novel) was about! It portrayed The Themes (consequences of one's actions; accepting responsibility; the relationship between creator and creation) very well. It also did not shy away from gore and blood and the surgical nature of it all! (Also there were wolves that Did Not Act Like Wolves At All but also they're A Metaphor in the end so... whatever..) Very enjoyable, glad to have seen it!
Yuletide Fic Rec
28 Dec 2025 07:31 pmlightbirdTitle/Link: Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death
Fandom(s): The Lottery - Shirley Jackson/The New Yorker RPF
Character(s): Isaac Chotiner, Mr. Summers
Words: 1,082
Summary: The picturesque village of Buell, Maine is one of the last in the United States to continue the tradition of the “harvest” or “prosperity” lottery. Its residents insist the lottery makes them stronger, even as condemnation from outsiders grows.
This is a terrific fic in which Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery".
Fandom(s): The Lottery - Shirley Jackson/The New Yorker RPF
Character(s): Isaac Chotiner, Mr. Summers
Words: 1,082
Summary: The picturesque village of Buell, Maine is one of the last in the United States to continue the tradition of the “harvest” or “prosperity” lottery. Its residents insist the lottery makes them stronger, even as condemnation from outsiders grows.
This is a terrific fic in which Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery".
Three for the Memories Coming Back Next Month!
28 Dec 2025 05:30 pmyourlibrarian posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_nature
3 for the Memories' 2025 session will be open for posts on January 3, 2026 and will run for 3 weeks until January 24. Event participation is as follows:
1) Three photos only per person during each annual session. Members are encouraged to discuss the reason for their choices.
2) Photos can be hosted at Dreamwidth or elsewhere, and should not be larger than 800 px width or height.
3) All three photos should be in the same post. Cut tags should be placed after the first photo.
3 for the Memories is not a competition, and entries are not being judged. Rather, participants are encouraged to share photos they took in 2025 that they find meaningful in some way or which represent how they experienced the year.
Questions? Visit the announcement post at
threeforthememoriesSchool : BtVS : icons : SHS
28 Dec 2025 05:49 pmhighlander_ii posting in fan_flashworksTitle: SHS
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: G
Content notes: None apply
Summary: icons of Sunnydale High School
( SHS )
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: G
Content notes: None apply
Summary: icons of Sunnydale High School
( SHS )
Write every day: Day 28
28 Dec 2025 08:43 pmluzulaDay 28: Alibi sentence. Still lots of family time, now at my parents' place, so no farm news. How about you?
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 27:the_siobhan, badly_knitted, goddess47, trobadora, sylvanwitch, sanguinity, china_shop, chestnut_pod
Day 28:luzula, china_shop
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 27:
the_siobhan, badly_knitted, goddess47, trobadora, sylvanwitch, sanguinity, china_shop, chestnut_podDay 28:
luzula, china_shopand mid the shadowy throng.
28 Dec 2025 11:11 pmgoodbyebirdRec-cember Day 28
The Dark Is Rising
Watch for the Greenwitch by
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
sharp_teeth mentioned in the notes)In the light from the bonfire the Greenwitch rose up, tall and ragged against the sky, like something from long ago. Not the fine past of the grail, of long spears and iron, thorny, intricate poetry and patterns. Not even the past, thought Jane, of neat sharp flints laid out on red velvet under museum lights, axes and arrowheads. Something older, like rough rock, the rings of yellow lichen spreading out through the years like ripples from a stone thrown into still water.
Picspam/Quiz: Hands
28 Dec 2025 10:50 pmtrobadora posting in sid_guardianTwo years ago, I did a picspam/quiz about shoes and ever since then I've been meaning to do one for hands as well. There are so many striking close-ups, so many iconic moments - but also many not so easily recognised. And some great visual parallels/motifs. So let's have some fun with this!
The challenge: identify who's being depicted, and which scene it is!
Hard mode: without looking at the comments first. :p
Sometimes it's easy to tell who it is, but not necessarily when; sometimes if you know who, you know what scene it has to be. Please post your guesses in the comments!
Without further ado (as usual, click for full size): ( 44 pics to identify! )
I'll post the solution next weekend. Good luck, everyone! Looking forward to some guesses! Or if you're not playing, enjoy the picspam! :)
The challenge: identify who's being depicted, and which scene it is!
Hard mode: without looking at the comments first. :p
Sometimes it's easy to tell who it is, but not necessarily when; sometimes if you know who, you know what scene it has to be. Please post your guesses in the comments!
Without further ado (as usual, click for full size): ( 44 pics to identify! )
I'll post the solution next weekend. Good luck, everyone! Looking forward to some guesses! Or if you're not playing, enjoy the picspam! :)
Rosie Heydenrych Crafts A Guitar for Martin Simpson
28 Dec 2025 03:25 pmjesse_the_kMore soothing video.
Rosie Heydenrych is a UK luthier who makes Turnstone guitars. Follow along as she makes an instrument for Martin Simpson—in prose and/or via YouTube video playlist, autocraptions). How does it sound? Guitar World reviews another Turnstone instrument with words as well as video (17:11" YouTube Link, more autocraptions). Zip to 13:27 to enjoy Clive Carroll making beautiful music on it.
(crossposted to Metafilter)
seascribbleWe watched Heated Rivalry week by week as it released; Perry was like "I'll sit with you while you watch it," but ended up getting very invested. Especially in the Scott Hunter storyline, what a weirdo (I really liked the Scott episode, which I gather is not a popular opinion, but I'm not here for him and his smoothie twink, and the pacing is a little out of whack). We tend to put things on over and over again with varying degrees of focus, so we've watched all of it a lot. General spoilers for the season.
I had read the books but ages ago and they didn't really stick with me. I'm sure they're fine (I've heard the quality is kind of uneven and goes down with later books; I only ever read the first two and preferred the second one), but the show was phenomenal. Just getting gay hockey softcore on tv in 2025 feels important and hopeful. The fact that it was also really good and even the straight hockey bro podcasts (which...are now videos? But we still call them podcasts? I don't understand) are obsessed with it is just a bonus. Both What Chaos and Empty Netters are getting a lot of attention for their reactions; I haven't watched any of them all the way through but have seen cute clips on tumblr. It's charming to watch them slowly come to realize the vast diversity of experiences in the world. Like seeing kindergartners on a fieldtrip to an interactive museum.
It's also been delightful to watch Connor and Hudson (...mostly Hudson) just go completely off the rails in all the media appearances they've been making since the show took off. Like, just the most unhinged freaks who were completely made for each other and also this show. I adore them. I am pleased to report that the RPF develops apace.
Also Cesare Borgia was there? It's frankly a hate crime to make François Arnaud play an American hockey player, but he does it very well and is very handsome indeed. Samantha was like "he looks like a young Shea Weber." He looks like a Shea Weber who hasn't spent the last 25 years in a meat grinder, is what he looks like, because those men are the same age. I enjoyed his response to the guy (not sure who he is or why his opinion mattered) who was like "this is not what gay sex looks like" by being like "what the fuck does gay sex look like?" and then doubling down when Vulture interviewed him about it like "okay but they don't act gay though" and he was like "why are you watching a show about closeted hockey players if you don't think there's room for that diversity of experience." He and Jacob Tierney have both also been on point in response to any bullshit about whether Connor or Hudson are gay and why won't they come out, etc. They were both waiting tables up until like the week before filming started! Give them some space! Mind your business! Also it's illegal in Canada to ask people that during a job interview (thank u, Jacob).
I enjoy the memes about how this is Canadian government funded hockey yaoi (due to the tax incentives in Ontario and Québec and the Canadian Media fund) as long as they don't go so hard they tip over into "tee hee! what a quaint and charming country with none of the problems experienced by real countries!" which tumblr loves to do. Mostly it's been okay; they got it out of their systems after the pilot I guess.
The show itself, IDK, you should go watch it. It's lit so you can see what happens! There's lots of kissing and face touching and tit grabbing and suggestive angles and artfully raised thighs doing a lot of penis-hiding work. The intimacy is scorching, and in all the interviews they talk about how much that's down to the intimacy coordinator and everything being tightly choreographed, which I think is super cool. There's loadbearing buttsex and some light BDSM. The acting is good, don't listen to what people say about Hudson's acting, he watched Sidney Crosby do media and he made his choices on purpose. The haters simply don't understand the depth of his art.
Like the source material, sometimes it tips over into cringe a little bit ("I kind of prefer being the hole," my man did not say that, he can't even say that he's gay out loud yet) and obviously nothing where they have a Texas boy being a Russian is going to be perfect, but overall, I think it sticks the landing. Apparently the Texas boy loves linguistics and did do a good job learning Russian vowels. At one point he has like a five minute monologue in Russian, which is more than I personally could do in French which I speak like every day, so good for him.
The last episode really pulls out all the stops. Like, you've had this really compelling and (relatively) well paced love story paying out and they find the space to have some really compelling parent-child dynamics and exploration amidst the love story concluding. they do such a good job showing how this relationship has blossomed and what it can look like outside the confines of a hotel room, and how it's new but still comfortable. ALSO! It is beautifully lit! I love being able to see shit! I like that the ending isn't perfect--they aren't coming out, the best they can do is hopefully play for teams that are two hours apart, there's all the agonizing Explaining to the parents who don't know exactly what to say--and that it just ends with them driving down the road. Very apt visual metaphor. Based on what I've heard about subsequent books, I kind of hope JT goes rogue in season two, but we'll see.
I've read a little fic and I've got the kink meme open in a tab, but I'm not super duper compelled by it although I've read one or two good ones. I think a lot of it is probably just life stuff; my focus isn't great, I'm preoccupied by pregnancy stuff, it's liminal spacemas so I'm on screens too much anyway. Go support the kinkmeme because there's fuck all spaces where we can be like "this is a place to be horny however we want, manage your own feelings about it" these days.
Anyway, delighted to see such good CanCon on my screen during an otherwise gloomy media landscape, recommend everybody to watch it.
I had read the books but ages ago and they didn't really stick with me. I'm sure they're fine (I've heard the quality is kind of uneven and goes down with later books; I only ever read the first two and preferred the second one), but the show was phenomenal. Just getting gay hockey softcore on tv in 2025 feels important and hopeful. The fact that it was also really good and even the straight hockey bro podcasts (which...are now videos? But we still call them podcasts? I don't understand) are obsessed with it is just a bonus. Both What Chaos and Empty Netters are getting a lot of attention for their reactions; I haven't watched any of them all the way through but have seen cute clips on tumblr. It's charming to watch them slowly come to realize the vast diversity of experiences in the world. Like seeing kindergartners on a fieldtrip to an interactive museum.
It's also been delightful to watch Connor and Hudson (...mostly Hudson) just go completely off the rails in all the media appearances they've been making since the show took off. Like, just the most unhinged freaks who were completely made for each other and also this show. I adore them. I am pleased to report that the RPF develops apace.
Also Cesare Borgia was there? It's frankly a hate crime to make François Arnaud play an American hockey player, but he does it very well and is very handsome indeed. Samantha was like "he looks like a young Shea Weber." He looks like a Shea Weber who hasn't spent the last 25 years in a meat grinder, is what he looks like, because those men are the same age. I enjoyed his response to the guy (not sure who he is or why his opinion mattered) who was like "this is not what gay sex looks like" by being like "what the fuck does gay sex look like?" and then doubling down when Vulture interviewed him about it like "okay but they don't act gay though" and he was like "why are you watching a show about closeted hockey players if you don't think there's room for that diversity of experience." He and Jacob Tierney have both also been on point in response to any bullshit about whether Connor or Hudson are gay and why won't they come out, etc. They were both waiting tables up until like the week before filming started! Give them some space! Mind your business! Also it's illegal in Canada to ask people that during a job interview (thank u, Jacob).
I enjoy the memes about how this is Canadian government funded hockey yaoi (due to the tax incentives in Ontario and Québec and the Canadian Media fund) as long as they don't go so hard they tip over into "tee hee! what a quaint and charming country with none of the problems experienced by real countries!" which tumblr loves to do. Mostly it's been okay; they got it out of their systems after the pilot I guess.
The show itself, IDK, you should go watch it. It's lit so you can see what happens! There's lots of kissing and face touching and tit grabbing and suggestive angles and artfully raised thighs doing a lot of penis-hiding work. The intimacy is scorching, and in all the interviews they talk about how much that's down to the intimacy coordinator and everything being tightly choreographed, which I think is super cool. There's loadbearing buttsex and some light BDSM. The acting is good, don't listen to what people say about Hudson's acting, he watched Sidney Crosby do media and he made his choices on purpose. The haters simply don't understand the depth of his art.
Like the source material, sometimes it tips over into cringe a little bit ("I kind of prefer being the hole," my man did not say that, he can't even say that he's gay out loud yet) and obviously nothing where they have a Texas boy being a Russian is going to be perfect, but overall, I think it sticks the landing. Apparently the Texas boy loves linguistics and did do a good job learning Russian vowels. At one point he has like a five minute monologue in Russian, which is more than I personally could do in French which I speak like every day, so good for him.
The last episode really pulls out all the stops. Like, you've had this really compelling and (relatively) well paced love story paying out and they find the space to have some really compelling parent-child dynamics and exploration amidst the love story concluding. they do such a good job showing how this relationship has blossomed and what it can look like outside the confines of a hotel room, and how it's new but still comfortable. ALSO! It is beautifully lit! I love being able to see shit! I like that the ending isn't perfect--they aren't coming out, the best they can do is hopefully play for teams that are two hours apart, there's all the agonizing Explaining to the parents who don't know exactly what to say--and that it just ends with them driving down the road. Very apt visual metaphor. Based on what I've heard about subsequent books, I kind of hope JT goes rogue in season two, but we'll see.
I've read a little fic and I've got the kink meme open in a tab, but I'm not super duper compelled by it although I've read one or two good ones. I think a lot of it is probably just life stuff; my focus isn't great, I'm preoccupied by pregnancy stuff, it's liminal spacemas so I'm on screens too much anyway. Go support the kinkmeme because there's fuck all spaces where we can be like "this is a place to be horny however we want, manage your own feelings about it" these days.
Anyway, delighted to see such good CanCon on my screen during an otherwise gloomy media landscape, recommend everybody to watch it.
Birdfeeding
28 Dec 2025 03:01 pmysabetwordsmith posting in birdfeedingToday is cloudy, windy, and cool.
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
It started raining, and the sky is weird colors, so I am done for the night.
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
It started raining, and the sky is weird colors, so I am done for the night.
Conclave
28 Dec 2025 03:47 pmosprey_archerA last-minute entry to movies I watched in 2025! When I popped into the library yesterday, there was Conclave sitting on the New DVDs shelf, so of course I snatched it up and took it right home and watched it.
Conclave is about a fictional modern-day conclave to elect a new pope, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to see it since it came out because… I guess I am just into movies about the Catholic church… I don’t fully understand this about myself. It may just be the aesthetic. Gold! Red! Shiny things! Lots of candles! One can criticize many things about the Catholic Church but by God they’ve got a look.
Anyway, cardinals converge on Rome, all wearing their cardinal gear, and if like me you enjoy things like aerial shots of cardinals carrying white parasols crossing the courtyard of a vast church complex, you will find great visual delight in this movie. And the movie doesn’t bog down in explaining things like the white parasols either. We don’t need to know why they’re part of the cardinal’s vestments.
The plot of the movie centers on the machinations to elect the new pope, featuring a bunch of guys who desperately want to be pope but also desperately need to pretend that they are being forced into pope candidacy against their will, because other people believe they are the best candidate. At one point in my life I would have scoffed at this hypocrisy, but having endured many years of Donald Trump on the public scene, I have come to believe that actually it’s quite politically useful for candidates to have to hang back until other people more or less drag them bodily into candidacy.
At the center of this is Ralph Fiennes, and I regret to inform you that I remember almost none of the character names from this movie, because I really struggle to tell people apart when they are all dressed the same and also all look pretty similar, in this case a bunch of old white guys with a smattering of old guys of other races.
Ralph Fiennes, as I was saying, is playing the guy who is in charge of making sure the election runs smoothly, and also perhaps awkwardly is one of the candidates - against his will, of course. (Perhaps slightly more sincerely against his will than some of the others.) I saw him about a year ago in the National Theater recording of Antony and Cleopatra, where he plays the sottish, running to seed, impulsive and still dangerous Antony, and his character here is just about the opposite in every way, which raised my respect for his acting ability even more.
He is calm, controlled, thoughtful, and deeply compassionate, a quality perhaps most clear in the scene where he points out to another cardinal that his hopes to be pope are toast. On the surface this action seems almost brutal, but that clarity allows the other cardinal to grieve his dreams in private, instead of hoping against hope and watching them get smashed in public.
An absorbing movie. I didn’t love it quite as much as I hoped to love it, but I greatly enjoyed watching it nonetheless.
Conclave is about a fictional modern-day conclave to elect a new pope, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to see it since it came out because… I guess I am just into movies about the Catholic church… I don’t fully understand this about myself. It may just be the aesthetic. Gold! Red! Shiny things! Lots of candles! One can criticize many things about the Catholic Church but by God they’ve got a look.
Anyway, cardinals converge on Rome, all wearing their cardinal gear, and if like me you enjoy things like aerial shots of cardinals carrying white parasols crossing the courtyard of a vast church complex, you will find great visual delight in this movie. And the movie doesn’t bog down in explaining things like the white parasols either. We don’t need to know why they’re part of the cardinal’s vestments.
The plot of the movie centers on the machinations to elect the new pope, featuring a bunch of guys who desperately want to be pope but also desperately need to pretend that they are being forced into pope candidacy against their will, because other people believe they are the best candidate. At one point in my life I would have scoffed at this hypocrisy, but having endured many years of Donald Trump on the public scene, I have come to believe that actually it’s quite politically useful for candidates to have to hang back until other people more or less drag them bodily into candidacy.
At the center of this is Ralph Fiennes, and I regret to inform you that I remember almost none of the character names from this movie, because I really struggle to tell people apart when they are all dressed the same and also all look pretty similar, in this case a bunch of old white guys with a smattering of old guys of other races.
Ralph Fiennes, as I was saying, is playing the guy who is in charge of making sure the election runs smoothly, and also perhaps awkwardly is one of the candidates - against his will, of course. (Perhaps slightly more sincerely against his will than some of the others.) I saw him about a year ago in the National Theater recording of Antony and Cleopatra, where he plays the sottish, running to seed, impulsive and still dangerous Antony, and his character here is just about the opposite in every way, which raised my respect for his acting ability even more.
He is calm, controlled, thoughtful, and deeply compassionate, a quality perhaps most clear in the scene where he points out to another cardinal that his hopes to be pope are toast. On the surface this action seems almost brutal, but that clarity allows the other cardinal to grieve his dreams in private, instead of hoping against hope and watching them get smashed in public.
An absorbing movie. I didn’t love it quite as much as I hoped to love it, but I greatly enjoyed watching it nonetheless.
(no subject)
28 Dec 2025 01:49 pmgreenI really, REALLY need new glasses. I cannot fucking see. Not well, anyway. But we have so many other things going on between Mom and Meg that it's like I barely have a chance to breathe, let alone do things for myself.
Culinary
28 Dec 2025 06:47 pmoursinLast week's bread held out adequately.
On Wednesday I made Angel Biscuit dough (this year I had active dried yeast) which was enough to provide for Christmas, Boxing Day and Saturday morning breakfast. Turned out rather well.
For Christmas dinner we had: starter of steamed asparagus with halved hardboiled quails' eggs and salmon caviar; followed by pheasant pot-roasted with bacon, brandy, and madeira and served with Ruby Gem potatoes roasted in goosefat, garlic-roasted tenderstem broccoli (as noted with previous recent tenderstem broccoli, wish to invoke Trades Description Act re actual tenderness of stem), and red cabbage (bought-in, as not only is it an Almighty Faff, making it from scratch would involve ending up with A Hell of A Lot of Red Cabbage). Then bought-in Christmas puds with brandy butter and clotted cream.
Boxing Day lunch: blinis with smoked salmon, smoked Loch trout, and the remaining salmon caviar, and creme fraiche with horseradish cream, and a salad of lamb's lettuce and grilled piccarello pepper strips, in a walnut oil and damson vinegar dressing. Followed by mince pies.
Yesterday lunch was the leftover blinis and smoked fish. For yesterday evening meal I made the remains of the pheasant into a pilaff, served with a green salad.
Today's lunch: chestnut mushrooms quartered in olive oil, white-braised green beans and cut up piccarello peppers, the Phul-Gobi (braised cauliflower) from Dharamjit Singh's Indian Cookery, and blinis made up from the last of the batter, a bit past its best.
2026 Snowflake Promo Banners and Icons
28 Dec 2025 01:57 pmflorianschild posting in snowflake_challengeHappy Snowflake Season to all! As we prepare to kick off the 2026 challenge, please feel free to promo this event within your own circles. You are welcome to use any of these new banners and icons that I've created to include with your post. You can copy the code from the text box below the banner to use it where you like!
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