Network

I started learning Chinese in the Arisia registration line seven years ago this weekend. I gave myself five years to figure out how hard it would be, and another five to be able to use it. By the end of this year, I'll be more than halfway through the second five years.

I'm pretty sure I'll spend the rest of my life learning Chinese. It's more than a language to me; it's a fundamentally different way of looking at the universe. At the end of the day we're all more alike than different, and I care a lot about the stories we tell. Language is a filter and a tool that lets us share each other's perspectives.

Chinese storytelling is different from English storytelling in part because it's based on different assumptions about why we're here, where "here" even is, what happens before and after this life, and who and what we share it with.

Experiencing this is like sneaking a whole second life into my time here on Earth. So efficient. So exciting.

In conclusion,
♥ Today is "one day," and there's no guarantee of another one like it.

♥ Do what you want to get good at: it's the best practice and great motivation. Plus you get to do the thing, why wait?

♥ As Marci says, "five years" is going to pass anyway. Let's make them interesting.

( notes from Arisia 2019: 'writing outside your comfort zone' )

Study explains longstanding mystery of why trees don't grow faster when CO2 levels are high

The authors are clear that their framework is a foundation, not a finish line. It explains a big, stubborn piece of the puzzle – the coupling of CO2 gain to water loss – and does so at the leaf-to-tree scale where decisions are made.

The next challenge is scaling those decisions up into regional and global climate models without smoothing away the very dynamics that matter.

( Read more... )

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I saw orcas! A whole pod! Fingers crossed they're still here tomorrow so I can see them in the daylight. They were still beautiful in the pitch black and so close to the boat *_*

The Pitt: I’ve caught up on the first two eps. Even though I just watched the show recently, it’s nice seeing everyone again. But I was surprised by the 10 month time jump since I did just watch the show! ( spoilers )



Wild Cards: I was surprised that this show was back, but I'm happy because this is a fun feel-good show. ( spoilers )

( Review )

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The threesentenceficathon is live and already has over 40 pages of prompts, bless xD. I wrote a few!

-Pluribus, Carol/The Hivemind, "communion" (any, any F/F, i want to fucking tear you apart). dreamwidth link + ao3 link. 

-DC comics, Diana/Donna, "replica" (Any, Any F/F selfcest, i just touch myself and say / "i'll make my own damn way."), dreamwidth link + ao3 link.

-Stranger Things, Holly & Nancy + Holly & Henry, "her arms, a fortress" (Stranger Things, Holly & Nancy Wheeler, nightmares). dreamwidth link + ao3 link.

-Severance, Helena & Helly & Jame Eagan, "clean hands" (any, any female character, every woman is allowed to commit patricide). dreamwidth link + ao3 link.

-The Locked Tomb, Nona & Camilla, "mimicry" (The Locked Tomb, Nona, Like Humans Do). dreamwidth link + ao3 link.

I also prompted quite a few things:

• Pluribus, Carol Sturka, past trauma.
• Pluribus, Carol/Helen, immune!Helen + Hive!Carol.
• Pluribus, Carol & Manousos, birds of a feather.

• Foundation, Gaal/Salvor, Salvor doesn't know/disclose their relationship when they meet.
• Foundation, Demerzel, backstory.
• Foundation, Gaal/Cleon XXV, gentle manipulation.

• DC comics (pre-reboot), Diana/Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, obsessive rivalry.
• DC comics (pre-reboot), Cass Cain/Kate Kane, at odds.
• DC comics (pre-reboot), Diana/any amazon (minus Hippolyta), unrequited love.

• The Pitt, Javadi/Santos, brat!Javadi.
• The Pitt, Mohan/Santos, exhausted!Mohan.
• The Pitt, García/Santos, trouble in paradise.

• The 100, Octavia/Niylah, masochist!Octavia seeking comfort during the bunker years.
• The 100, Echo/Raven, friends with benefits + pining during the years in the Ark.
• The 100, Clarke/Josephine, cut from the same cloth/recognition through the other.

Edited with one last fill + 3 more prompts, as the first post of the ficathon just closed.

Last week, I cut my finger pretty deeply while making food, and missed two days of work trying to give it time to heal (I bathe dogs for a living; I did not want to be sticking an open wound into dirty dog water). The third day, a dog broke my glasses and I had to leave early (I was able to mend them).

Yesterday, I woke up very sick, probably with the same punishing cold Will has. My job is pretty lenient about calling out, but gosh do I hate doing it this often. ;o; It always makes me nervous. My boss is super understanding but I don't want to take advantage of that. Oh well. ;3;

I'm painfully behind on Snowflake Challenge, to absolutely no one's surprise; I did the first one and stopped. XD; There are some that I want to go back and do, but I doubt I'll actually catch up. But that's okay! I want to do the animals/pet one. Speaking of which, I bought Dale's 4x2x2 (120 gallon) terrarium! It looks like it'll be a pretty easy build, and I have several things to add to it (although there are definitely more things I want to add, like some of the climbing vine, some fun rocks/slate, things like that. I'm hoping to get it built today, if I'm feeling better in the afternoon.

I read the first book of the Uriel Ventris series, Nightbringer, and it was delightful; Ventris is an adorable, pious, little murder machine, and I'm pretty sure literally every man he met wanted to top him. I immediately bought the second volume on thriftbooks (a lot of "older" Black Library books are out of print, so I have to search for them as well as be willing to part with more than a little bit of moola). We already own the third book (Will bought it a little while ago) so that should keep me busy for a while. I'm a very slow reader. XD;

This morning I went out, coffee in hand, to sit on the back step. It was very cold but peaceful. I heard the first birdsong of the day. <3 I'd read about how people with ADHD need to sit in the moment sometimes, no screens, no texts, nothing like that, and just allow themselves to be. It was very nice and I think I should start more days like this.

This post is very disjointed bc it was written between a couple of days. I hope it all makes sense. ♥

Today is cloudy and cold.

I fed the birds.  A few sparrows approached as soon as I put seed in the fly-through feeder.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/18/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/18/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 1/18/26 -- I put out a fresh peanut suet cake.

I've seen a flock of sparrows and two male cardinals.

EDIT 1/18/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.
 

1a. I've bought the Stoorstålka "advanced" and "professional" kits after all, for practicing basic Baltic pickup with zero context.
( recent tries at weaving )

3. Weaving as a diversion has paused. The process of warping a second inkle attempt and weaving it off has shown me that my vast ignorance crosses understanding how something can function and getting one's fingers to do it at a strange angle. In sport-weight cotton yarn, most of my 2" = 5 cm band looks as neat and even as the stuff that Etsy-shop vloggers show themselves making on Instagram or TikTok; I'm a fumbling beginner with peripheral neuropathy only for starting and ending. Sew the ends under, and no one would see---but learning to make tidy starts and finishes is more than my current hands could endure.

I dipped back into weaving specifically to practice being a beginner at something. Having learned a few things since I was a knitting beginner (almost 20 years ago) regarding dexterity, mobility workarounds, how other people do various fibercrafts including forms of weaving, and how plant and animal fibers behave, the on-ramp for my hands-on weaving is quite short. Like, that's it, I'm already into an objectively intermediate stage, and my hands cannot do what would need doing there.


4. Crocheting has always been tougher on my joints than knitting, or rather, my best refinements over time of self-accommodation for each craft succeed better for knitting. Weaving at narrow output (tabletop, backstrap, inkle) demands less of any individual body part than crochet or knit because it's better distributed across many parts---but weaving wants specific actions that need fingers, not fingernail-substitution or the use of an external tool.

I can tie square and surgeon knots with my nails (lacking usual-range fingertip sensation), but the junk comm packets I wrote about a few years ago, whereby since #2020 my brain or central nervous system directs a limb to do something and it fails to report back timely, or CNS forgets momentarily that the limb exists---junk buildup is still a thing. Trying to weave more, doggedly doing more by eye, would mean accumulating more of a junk backlog than I have the capacity to expel (nap/resting self-accommodations). Weaving and laptop typing and food prep occupy the same bucket, just about. So, weaving drops out, at least for now.

(Knitting is still fine in moderation.)

Week 2
is started now. Good luck, everyone!

Under the cut, you find the weekly playlist. To check out what prompts/minimum/points are waiting for you this week, please visit the Board.

In case you have missed a week or you don't like your prompts, remember your Joker Card. Every Joker card comes with 15 tokens.
Use three tokens, and you can create two extra works for two missed prompts.
Use two tokens to roll the dice again.
Use five tokens to move to any square of your choice (exception: go!, chance, jail)

To re-visit the rules go here.

( Weekly Playlist )

If you want to create more than two works/earn more points, you might want to check out the Team Challenge (sign up until January 15!).

Post all your finished works at fandom_empire_workplace until Sunday, January 25, 18.00 UTC, but I will allow belated works until I've made the closing post Countdown here.

my anxiety has been pretty bad as of late. my brain is ALWAYS trying to find something to get anxious over and i'm soooo tired of it >_> breathing techniques kinda work, but mindfulness is near impossible for my adhd brain.

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I started writing this ages ago as a treat for a horror exchange, though I can't now remember for whom or which exchange - if it sounds like something you might have requested, it's probably for you! It grew out of all proportion - it was going to be about 500 words - and picked up all kinds of other things including some of my experience of Berlin, and after a great deal of wrestling with the ending I have finally finished it. I was going to think of a cleverer title for it, this one was because I was listening to 'Bonnie Jean Cameron' a lot while writing it, but I accidentally posted it with this working title (which is slightly better than the other working title of Horror Soulbonding) and decided to let it stick.

Title: aye blythe blink
Content: angst with a happy ending, nightmares, hallucinations, soulbonding as horror, Biggles/EvS, 11k words
Summary: Biggles starts to have strange nightmares. Algy looks for a solution.

( the only thing they could recommend )

Posting for week 1 is closed now. Thank you to everyone participating this week.

Regular Challenge
We have had a total of 23 participants this week.

Maximum points:
peppermint_shamrock - 9 points
Congratulations!

Team Challenge
Team Alpha:
5 participants
5 team points
(individual points will get rewarded after finishing one color line)

Team Alpha:
4 participants
4 team points
(individual points will get rewarded after finishing one color line)


To check out all scores, have a look at the Google Highscore Sheet. If you find an error or have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

The playlist for week two will be online soon!

Wrote around 1000 words of this fandom gift exchange fic in the past two days, so I think I can pat myself on the back for it! It's great to have something motivating me to write consistently.

It's also helped me unpack the many sentiments behind my perfectionism, whenever I write. I've noticed that when I start typing up first drafts, what automatically comes out of me is a pretty stiff, formal style, that I can probably trace to the fact that a lot of the prose I tend to be inspired by comes from early/mid-20th century writers that write in a kind of Victorian register? Or at least, the type of style that shows off an expansive vocabulary, and the creativity to use it to its fullest potential.

Which means that halfway through a first draft, I tend to notice pretty quickly that my prose feels dry, unimaginative, and it does eventually discourage me. Continuing to write always feels like trudging through a molasses of self-doubt, which makes it all too easy to give up. And I do realize that these are ridiculous things to be feeling when, again, you are literally only on your first draft, but knowing this has never helped the fact that I do, unfortunately, always feel like this! It sucks!

Hopefully this experience will teach me how to get over this little by little. I really love writing whenever I can actually manage it, and I want to become the sort of person who does it frequently, and not in-between five month intervals (sobs), so that I have a lot more to actually share.


On another note, I really need to find the discipline to consistently practice the more technical aspects of writing, especially when it comes to vocabulary and to being concise. It continues to frustrate me how I'll often get stuck staring at a page looking for the right word, or how all of my sentences feel unwieldy and tedious to get through, especially once they get long. I'm not all that good at finding clever, appropriate expressions that help demonstrate eloquence and that help make your writing more rhetorically effective, and it's something I really need to practice.

One rainy day Kanade, a high school student, finds a mouse-sized cat in his room. It's a fairy cat or "palm-sized cat!" They are elusive magical creatures which sometimes adopt humans, but mostly behave like ordinary cats. Only extra-tiny!

That's about it for the plot. What this manga is actually about is showing an incredibly adorable tiny cat being an incredibly adorable tiny cat. It's an incredibly adorable manga. Proof:

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The Art of Murder feels like an especially fitting thing to recommend for Fannish 50, as - despite its ominous title - it's all centered on the experience of being a fan and creating fanworks. It's an indie animation pilot (there are some truly amazing indie animation projects on YouTube, it's a rabbit hole I highly, highly suggest hopping down), and the premise is so charming: When young artist Pip goes to sleep, the characters she draws fanart of in her sketchbook always come to life for the night.

These characters really set the tone of The Art of Murder: not only are they all aware they're fanart of fictional characters, with all of them taking pride in the popularity of their source material, but they're all pastiches of existing character archetypes. There's Winn, a young girl who primarily draws from Adventure Time's Finn, but also generally represents that high-energy kid hero type in a lot of similarly quirky cartoons. Albie draws from the library of traditionally-animated Disney Princesses, and is insecure about the rise of 3D animation, (and one of my favorite jokes in the pilot is when her character is used to poke at the way princess media like Disney's make money selling dozens of differently dressed merchandise for the characters). Sousuke the anime ninja draws from, well, Sasuke from Naruto - and speaks entirely in (captioned) Japanese, a fantastic touch - and finally, Giorgio is a detective from an dating sim game, and his hamminess delightfully plays up the tone of many of those games.

The story starts on a night where someone new has been drawn: Not a character from an existing IP, but Pip's own original character. The other characters welcome the aptly-named OC to "The World of Pip's Sketchbook" in a super-catchy musical number As dawn comes, the characters return to the sketchbook... And then the next night, a page of the sketchbook has been torn out - one of the characters has been, effectively, killed.

The pilot mostly sets up the characters and story, but I do believe there's more in progress. While I don't think the mystery is exactly hard to take a guess at solving, I kind of love that, because the direction I see things going just further highlights how this is a show about the experience of being a fan, but also just being a creator! And who knows, maybe I'm entirely wrong!

If you check out The Art of Murder, let me know what you think - it's really got some great self-aware, tongue-in-cheek humor. It feels like a love letter to loving things, and I think that's so fun!