Thanks For Participating in #IFD2026!
17 Feb 2026 08:26 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
otw_news_feedFor International Fanworks Day (IFD) 2026, we once again came together from all corners of the fandom cosmos, and celebrated an Alternate Universe-themed IFD! First, we ran our annual Feedback Fest, where we asked you all to recommend to each other fanworks around your favorite AUs. Fanlore hosted their annual IFD editing event from February 14-20, and we signal boosted several community events along with our own. Some of these are still on-going, so make sure to check out the post!
We also hosted chatrooms and games on our once-a-year IFD Discord server for 30 hours. Thanks to everyone who came by! You can check out the fruits of our collective labor–several fandom-themed poems, song lyrics, and stories–by visiting our collected IFD works on AO3.
We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our IFD activities and events, and give a huge shoutout to our OTW volunteers who modded chats and games! We hope to see you all again for IFD 2027!
Daily Happiness
16 Feb 2026 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torachan2. When I stopped at the store this morning, they were just putting out the fresh bakery baguettes we like, so I got one of those and some ham to make jambon buerre sandwiches for dinner. The only problem is I still had about half a mile to walk to get home, and the baguette is long and comes in a paper package. But! I had the smart idea of getting a couple plastic bags from the produce area and putting one on each end of the baguette, so it was protected from the rain.
3. I finished up another puzzle today, another 1000 piece one. This one was fun, but I don't think I'll want to do it again, so I'll probably put it out in the Little Free Library for someone else.
4. I cleaned the stove today. It's an old stove (based on the brown color, I assume it and the oven and the old fridge we no longer have were installed in the 60s by the people who owned the house before my parents) and is hard to just wipe clean after using because it has a setup similar to the top picture in the wikipedia page on gas stoves, but somehow even worse? Anyway, if you miss cleaning it after use just a few times, the grease build-up is impossible to take care of quickly and easily and it becomes a huge project of having to take the stovetop apart and scrub all the pieces. Definitely something to be done on a day when I don't have anything else to do, which is rare, so today was a perfect day. I had it on my to-do list but was tempted to put it off to some unknown time in the future, but since I was stuck inside with the rain, I just went ahead and did it, and while the stove will never look actually nice just due to age, it looks presentable and I feel really good about it.
I would like to get a new stove, but because we have a built-in stovetop and separate oven, it's not as simple as just buying a new one, and would require new countertops, and then if you're doing that, might as well replace the awful 45 year old flooring that's peeling up, and the cupboards are pretty dire, too, and it's a whole kitchen remodel, which is not only going to be expensive, but hard on the cats, so... (Someday, but not right now.)
5. Jasper was exploring the dryer the other day.
(no subject)
16 Feb 2026 09:48 pmaethel2. I watched I Am Dragon, a silly Russian fantasy film. It was not as good as it could have been, but there aren't too many films where the love interest is a dragon, so I was entertained.
3. Books: I keep picking up books containing a climate apocalypse, fascism, or both. Least depressing: After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations by Eric Cline. Most depressing: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Parable of the Sower was written in 1993 and set in the "near future" of 2024--the unfolding catastrophe is too close for comfort and doesn't feel very science fictional. (I assume it was at least partly inspired by the 1992 Rodney King riots.) I'm now rereading The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes until I recover enough to continue with They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45.
(no subject)
16 Feb 2026 01:33 pmwaterswordARGH, the box where I stashed a bunch of pharmacy receipts has vanished into thin air and I cannot imagine where it is, nor can I persuade myself I would have thrown it out! This apartment is not large. I cannot remember the last time I saw it, but this doesn't say much.
I have made progress on the jeans I am repairing, except that there is a new spot that has worn out. It feels positively Sisyphean. Jeans of Theseus. Well, it keeps me from doomscrolling.
Steaming potatoes before browning them continues to be one of the great discoveries of my adulthood: it's so fast! and tidy! and produces perfect potatoes! I do need to acquire bamboo steamers for better steaming of fish and various Asian dishes and whatnot, but first I gotta figure out where would I put them? I have a tiny kitchen and a lot of equipment but I swear I use pretty much all of it (I would use the pasta roller more if eggs were affordable, but that really is the only thing I look at and wince, trying to justify the space). Semi-relatedly, the attempt to make the trash situation less horrible seems to be working: a small trash bin forces me to take it out more often, before the contents get gross. I should've gotten a foot-pedal model, but that is really the only flaw in the system, and I do like that the legs elevate it so I can clean under it easily. It's almost embarrassing how easy this dose of shame was to hack, but better late than never, I guess.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Talking about the weather...
16 Feb 2026 02:43 pmcimoreneIt's too cold to knit, or sit writing or using a keyboard for very long, because all those things require my hands being outside the blankets. The only things it's not too cold to do are being inside a cocoon of blankets, or moving around so briskly that it warms me up temporarily. That's tough, though, because I hate the part before you warm up.
Daily Happiness
15 Feb 2026 08:42 pmtorachan2. Sales at the new store continue to be great. Mid week sales were lower this week than last, but yesterday's totals were higher than last Saturday, which was higher than grand opening on the previous Saturday.
3. Multiple times today I had the happy realization that even though it's Sunday I don't have work tomorrow!
4. The cutest snoot.
Weekly Reading
15 Feb 2026 02:36 pmtorachanEnola Holmes and the Clanging Coffin
I was thrilled to have a new Enola Holmes book to read. I'm not sure if this is the last one (the ending kind of felt like it could be), and if so, I will miss them. This has been such a fun series.
The Age of Miracles
I found out about this from
rachelmanija's review and was immediately interested. When the MC is eleven, the earth's rotation suddenly slows and the world changes. But even as these big events are going on, she is focused on the big things in her own life: friendships changing, her parents' marriage falling apart, crushes on boys, starting middle school. I really loved the balance between the two.Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body
Margaret, having defined herself as a tween detective in middle school, now struggles in high school with how to grow up and ends up developing an eating disorder that lands her in a treatment center.
This sounded very relevant to my interests from the blurb but it just didn't work for me. As someone who grew up around the same time (maybe five years earlier or so) and loved mysteries and series like the BSC, and struggled with weight and being queer in a time before the internet and easy access to knowledge of the fact that people like me even existed, I should be the target audience. But I am not that big a fan of the paranormal and magical realism, and while those elements are not mentioned at all in the summary, they feature heavily throughout, and more and more as the story goes on. I wanted something realistic, and this is not that. It's well written and I love the idea of it, but it's just not for me.
Middle of the Night
The MC moves back into his childhood home when his parents move out to a retirement community. Immediately strange things start happening, and he is constantly having nightmares of the night he and his best friend were camping in the yard and his friend went missing and was never found. Now his body has been found nearby, and the MC has to figure out if he's really being haunted or if someone is messing with him, and if they are, are they the murderer? I liked this all right.
The Legend of Auntie Po
Graphic novel about a Chinese American girl in the 1880s who lives in a logging camp with her father, a cook. I liked this a lot.
A Map to the Sun
Graphic novel about a struggling girls' basketball team. I liked it.
A Star Brighter Than the Sun vol. 4
Kindaichi Papa no Jikenbo vol. 3
(no subject)
15 Feb 2026 02:54 pmtwistedchickZoomy is a bit of a sad sack, because he feels left out; Sweetie is getting all the attention, he thinks. I have the door open, and he could come in at any time and curl up next to me, but he is not doing it; he's fussing about Sweetie. She's his big tolerant sister who puts up with him jumping on her until she does a judo move and stand over him and lets him know that's enough. He is a dear loving boy, and getting bigger every day, or longer.
And I have decided, after much upset and a cost-benefit calculation, not to go to Sacred Space, the big interreligious pagan conference that is less than 15 miles from me this time. ( more behind cut )
Well, this certainly is a way to phrase it
14 Feb 2026 06:18 pmconulyA dispute that left millions dead, sure. Not how I'd describe WWI, but okay.
( Read more... )
Daily Happiness
14 Feb 2026 07:49 pmtorachan2. We had a nice time at Knott's Berry Farm this morning. They're having a Peanuts event, so there were lots of limited time menu items. Not sure any of them had any relevance to the Peanuts theme (though there were a handful of peanut butter ones) but the stuff we had today was very good.
3. Tuxie has taken to lounging on our back porch a lot lately, and it's so cute but it means we can't get out the back door lol. This afternoon I actually went out the front door and up the driveway just so I didn't disturb him, but then when I got to the backyard I found he'd relocated anyway.
2026 Knott's Trip #1 (2/14/25)
14 Feb 2026 03:27 pmtorachan( Read more... )
It’s International Fanworks Day 2026!
14 Feb 2026 08:57 pmotw_news_feedFor anyone who’s missed our earlier posts, you can find all of our activities for this year’s International Fanworks Day in our “What We’re Doing For #IFD2026” post.
The OTW’s chatrooms and games session is a 30-hour party that lasts from February 14th, 21:00 UTC until February 16th, 03:00 UTC. The game times listed below are all in UTC, but you can click the links to find out how that converts to your own timezone.
The games will be hosted on our dedicated Discord server and moderated by OTW volunteers throughout the day. Every two hours you will be able to participate in a different fandom-themed game! The timetable and game descriptions are posted below; join us on Discord for the games you’d like to play!
NOTE: The games will be played and moderated in English.
Games Schedule:
February 14th
- 21:00 – 20 Questions (What time is that for me?)
- 23:00 – Storytime (What time is that for me?)
February 15th
- 01:00 – List Builder (What time is that for me?)
- 03:00 – Poetry Round Robin (What time is that for me?)
- 05:00 – 20 Questions (What time is that for me?)
- 07:00 – 5 Things (What time is that for me?)
- 09:00 – 2 Truths and a Lie (What time is that for me?)
- 11:00 – Lyrics Round Robin (What time is that for me?)
- 13:00 – List Builder (What time is that for me?)
- 15:00 – Storytime (What time is that for me?)
- 17:00 – 20 Questions (What time is that for me?)
- 19:00 – 2 Truths and a Lie (What time is that for me?)
- 21:00 – OTW Trivia (What time is that for me?)
- 23:00 – Poetry Round Robin (What time is that for me?)
February 16th
- 01:00 – 5 Things (What time is that for me?)
Game Guidelines
5 Things
How to Play: During this game, the host will name a topic and players in the room will call out examples from their favorite fandoms. This will repeat for at least 5 rounds. Be prepared to explain why your answer counts (maybe you’ll recruit someone new to your fandom!)
20 Questions
How to Play: During this game, the host will think of a person, place, or object. Players have exactly 20 yes-or-no questions they can ask the host to determine what the correct answer is.
Storytime
How to Play: The host will paste a starting sentence into the chat. Players take turns coming up with the next sentence–the host calling out whose turn it is–until everyone has gone once, and the story is complete!
List Builder
How to Play: List Builder is a collaborative game in which players work together to come up with a list of fandom characters or items belonging to a particular genre, starting with consecutive letters of the alphabet. Start at A and work your way through to Z (you can be as flexible as required on the difficult letters!)
Lyrics Round Robin
How to Play: During this game, we’ll collectively write FANDOM lyrics to replace those of a familiar song. The host will choose the song and type out an alternate first two lines. Then those in the room will write the next lines until the song is finished.
Poetry Round Robin
How to Play: During this game, we’ll collectively write FANDOM poetry! The host posts a poem as an example of a specific poetic form (like sonnet, haiku, etc.), as well as a title. The players then write one (or more) original poems of that form together, one line at a time.
OTW Trivia
How to Play: Like most trivia games, the host will ask a question and the first person to answer correctly wins that round. Because we’re online and you’re free to do searches we’re going to add another factor, which is time — you must answer within 2 minutes. But you can call out your answer as soon as you think you know. If you’re the first to have the correct answer, the host will type your name and award you a point. At the end of the game, whoever has gotten the most points will be named the winner!
Two Truths and a Lie
How to Play: The host will paste into the chat 3 statements. Because we’re online and you’re free to do searches we’re going to add another factor, which is time — you must answer within 30 seconds after the third statement!
We also want to hear from you about other celebrations taking place today. Leave us a comment here to tell us about what your fandom communities are doing!