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I bought some shaped hole punchers the other day cause I was curious about using them to do more with the paper scraps I have and

Oh

my God.

this is so fun.

I prefer the slightly bigger one than the minis purely because it feels more comfortable to hold and seems like it wouldn't give me hand cramps as badly (admittedly, I should keep up with hand stretches and taking breaks). Is this where people enjoy getting all the different cardstocks... to be hole punched...

And then, of course, I was curious about how one goes about getting a custom made hole puncher. The commissioning option I saw was, well

I may be rich in spirit but oughroh... Understandable though because it involves carving metal... jotting down metal crafting as a potential hobby...

The other option I saw from some youtube videos was cutting either a blade (genuinely concerning how easily one creator's scissors cut through the razor blade, like amazing, but also ??? should it be that easy???) or a soda can and shaping it that way. Chances are I won't get around to that until maybe the summer or, at the very least, when this semester finishes, but I think it'd be a neat challenge in designing strong silhouettes. I could make a hole puncher of my ships or characters... or at least have their energy there, yes.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: My Dear by L'Arc~en~Ciel

numb3r_5ev3n

Some of my thoughts are echoed by The Liberal Redneck, here.

The whole thing about Jeffrey Epstein having an influence on 4chan and /pol/, here.

TL;DR, this shit goes way past the victimization of children into possible murder and cannibalism, and my capacity to handle those details is very limited. I'm not one of those "true crime" fans who are capable of consuming this kind stuff as "content," or even thinking of it as such. These are details which should have compelled any other society with even a semi-functioning legal apparatus to completely shut down the people committing these kinds of atrocities. The phrase "under the jail" comes to mind. But apparently, we were not even that functional of society back in 2007-2008, when Epstein got off nearly scott-free from the then-ongoing attempts to prosecute his crimes.

We might be living in a very different world today if our legal system had been able to shut him down in 2007-2008, and pull down every single billionaire or hanger-on connected with him. Trump probably wouldn't be president today, for one. And /pol/ would not have been reopened. Our society has arguably been destroyed because we couldn't manage to put one predatory creep away for good eighteen years ago. But if we weren't able to put one predatory creep away, maybe it was doomed to fail, or already failed.

There were so many slippery slope moments in the 2000s that people screamed about, and we were all told to shut up and we were overreacting. This was just one of them. The 2000s just feel like one big slippery slope. And now we've slid into fullblown authoritarian fascism. And it doesn't surprise me at all that it arrived hand-delivered by predator creeps who victimize children.

One sentiment I am seeing a lot in the yotube comments of videos talking about these crimes boils down to, "I don't understand the kind of person who sets out to do these sick, predatory things to people. All I want to do is live my dumb life and work my dumb job and enjoy my dumb little hobbies." And I think that's most of us in the 99%, frankly. Once again, I'm reminded of William Gibson's line about how the extremely wealthy have lost their humanity.

ravensilversea

Once again ringing the attention getter bell! It’s time for another list of fic recs, straight from my Ao3 bookmarks!

I read a variety of ratings and moods, so please check the tags on Ao3. I’ve included Archive Warnings/Chose Not to Warn when applicable

Fandoms Included: Katekyou Hitman Reborn, Doctor Who, My Hero Academia, The West Wing, and Honkai: Star Rail

( Read more... )

Current Mood: cheerful

asuraid

i tried to rhyme with the title but that didn't go well LMAO. this is a different angle altogether but i'm kinda glad to have found systems that work for me that help neurodivergent people in general, or to see posts that i understand, or talk to people who have a mutual understanding of certain struggles

i'm not sure i will ever get around to getting diagnosed to see what IS ticking around in my skull, especially as it's not detrimental to my life in a way that it's horribly tripping me over ... but there is some sense of ... relief i suppose in finding a variety of tools that does help my brain to function. to be fair i think if i didn't find them while i was in college and living on my own (even before i did any research on it/considered it for myself) i'd be a lot messier with my brain and organization and doing anything

i'm still like 95% sure i have some form of inattentive ADHD (3+ people have clocked me with having traits and my best friend of 8+ years thought i was aware i had it/showed traits LMAO) after doing research for well over a year and talking to other people who have ADHD/are AuDHD, but i will never truly be sure about it, and will always have some lingering doubt about using the label (even though as said, i am sure it is That, but it's always the 'do i truly have it or do i think i do and i don't have the same issues actual people with ADHD do?')

but it reminds me of a thing that making things accessible for those who need it, then also makes it accessible to everyone; everyone can benefit from things that help them, physical, mental, or emotionally

Current Mood: blah

headstone

like synapses: my Haman Karn character study via forensic autopsy of what went on between Char and Haman before we’re introduced to their relationship in Zeta Gundam. This post, like the fic, contains spoilers for that show.

edited twitter screenshot containing the phrase "dude I swear I just saw the tears of time"

(post credit)

( I'M A LITTLE GIRL / BOILED INTO A MATURE / LITTLE PIECE OF WORK )

Current Music: I Feel Separated - Cristobal Tapia de Veer

autumninpluto

Past R.E.P.O.R.T posts are in this tag :) CW: image of food inside

( 520 words )

Current Mood: discontent

jazzfish

Westrene mountains cold a' winters:
Seil the wind, embrace the snow,
Cleaven to the trail beneathan,
Minden an the fire glow.

The thing about Aspects -- one of a great many things about Aspects -- is that Mike devised two distinct fictitious (as far as I know) dialects, presented them in text without falling into the usual traps of being incomprehensible or cloying, and -wrote poetry- in at least one.

Soon I shall be sad and angry all over again that all we have is seven chapters, two fragments, and a handful of sonnets. (And Zarf's delightful essay on 'the conlang of Pierre Menard.') For now I can be grateful that there's this much.

It helps to see complicated, damaged people who understand and care deeply for each other.

Forest is forest, and sand is sand,
But hearts shall be always debatable land.

swingandswirl

RL continues to conspire against me, but I am determined to finish this challenge, damn it. So here is #9!

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring an image of a wrapped giftbox with a snowflake on the gift tag. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Challenge #9

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

For this challenge, I'm going to talk about my favourite tropes in fic.

1. Genderswap, specifically M > F in specific canons/contexts.

Genderswap is one of my favourite tropes, especially in canons where it would make a massive difference. I just love seeing what the story would be if it were Rose Potter rather than Harry, Clara Kent rather than Clark, or Stephanie Rogers rather than Steve, not least because I just find women more interesting. And I'm always here for M/F romances that aren't your standard Heterosexual Nonsense, lol. As a bonus, girls are women just aren't allowed to be the same kind of stupid that boys and men are, which usually makes for a much better story.

2. Fix-it fics

Sometimes canon is stupid, so you reject it and insert your own. I love all kinds of fix-its, whether they're canon divergence or time travel. It helps that I grew up in HP fandom and later fell into MCU, both of which canons started well and then spectacularly shat the bed, lolsob. I also enjoy fics that give characters a smoother path to happiness - this is my favourite kind of Pride and Prejudice variant. What can I say, I just want my blorbos to be happy and live easy lives!

(Important note: I do not enjoy the kind of self-proclaimed 'fix-it' endemic to the Harry Potter fandom where it's clear that the author does not understand that Harry Potter started out as a silly kids' series that got so big JKR couldn't cope. No, you're not super smart for going 'ohoho the WW is a dystopia populated by sheep'; you just don't understand how genre conventions work. And that HP shifted mid-series in the most goatfucking stupid way possible.)

3. Competence porn

Keep your hot messes, y'all, I'm enough of one already, I don't want to read about or watch them for entertainment, thanks. One of my favourite parts of fiction is watching smart, skilled people do their jobs well - I blame all the romance novels with bad-ass heroines I read as a child. Also all the HP AUs and fix-its that consumed my adolescence, and falling headfirst into Superbat, because you don't get more competent than those two. There's just something so invigorating as well as reassuring about the quiet confidence that skill brings with it. I don't have to worry - my blorbos have it.

4. Confessions

Look, I'm a romance girlie, okay? Confessions are the best part! Especially if they come after pining, or when the characters have no idea their feelings are reciprocated. Bonus points if the confession happens in a situation of great peril, or is prompted by one or both of the characters nearly dying.

5. Pining

Look, instalove is all well and good, but sometimes you need the happy ending to be EARNED. Especially if it's two clueless idiots who have no bloody clue and insist the other just sees them as a friend. (Never mind their lives are basically 'Friends Don't' by Maddie and Tay.) Look, Superbat is one of my OTPs for a REASON and that reason is that pining is DELICIOUS.

6. Fake dating

The only way to make pining better? Put the blorbos in situations where they have to pretend to be a couple For Reasons. Marriage of convenience, undercover, keeping family/friends/whoever off one's back... so many ways to have them go 'but they would never like me like that' while situation after situation happens that proves the opposite, lol.

7. Better than canon/the real world

Look, I read for escapism. Plain and simple. I don't want tooth-rotting fluffy curtain-fic, but at the same time... if it's darker than canon? NOPE. Get the behind me, Satan. I don't want a HP universe that is a sexist hellscape where Muggleborns are little better than animals, or a dystopia run by sheep that needs to be saved by the oh-so-advanced Muggles. I don't want Bruce and Clark, or Steve and Tony, at each others' throats. I don't want Darcy and Elizabeth to have to go through hell before they can have their happy ending.

8. Geeky girl with non-intellectual-but-smart-jock who loves her brain

Look, I've been a Hermione/Viktor fan since I was fourteen. If that doesn't explain my love for this trope, I don't know what does. Hilariously, I was reminded of how much I love it by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Because there's honestly nothing sexier than a guy who is secure enough in his masculinity to revel in his woman's success. Also? Just because someone isn't an intellectual, or is into sports, doesn't mean they aren't smart and capable and great partners. Much more so than Intellectual Art Boys, in many cases.

9. Being picked over a supposedly 'better' romantic option

This is tied to my love of the previous trope. There is nothing that makes me swoon like someone telling their partner, 'No. I choose YOU, because you are a be choice for me and fuck what society/anyone else thinks.' Because at the end of the day, that's what true love is to me, more than fate or soulmates or whatever - choosing to be with someone.

If anyone has recs with these tropes, I would love to hear them! My reading fandoms are HP (no Snape though please), Numb3rs, Superbat, Stony, Star Trek AOS, LOTR/The Hobbit, The Goblin Emperor, Hawaii 5-0, and Pride and Prejudice.

tarlanx

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adore

Knight in Shining Ardour
by

adore

My rage clawed out of my chest
And stood looking around fiercely for the enemy.

He was a radiant boy,
Never allowed to be anything else.

He blazed so that my eyes were drawn to him, fascinated.
Avidly, I watched him for what he would do next.
He didn't disappoint.

When he destroyed something, I was satisfied.
I had always wanted to be rid of it.
But I'd had too much guilt or too little courage.

When he screamed, I fell in love with his voice.
He was my rockstar.

When he cried, I collected his tears in a shot glass and cheered
Before downing them in one go.
They were a tonic.

What he killed made him more alive.

He was my knight in shining ardour
And I loved him best
When he crawled back in my chest
To recover in the warm dark quiet.

Current Mood: accomplished

tarlanx

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galadhir

Hurray! I've finished the first (content) edit on my narrowboat novel, The Boat of Small Mysteries, which means that it's definitely been moved into the category of 'book that will get published this year. Probably this month, tbh.'

Just got to go through it a couple times more to pick up anything I missed this time, make it some cover-art and remember how to compile it into a proper novel. (This may take me some time as I've had seven years to forget how it's done.)

It's a short novel at 53K, but that's not bad going from something I planned out as a 30K novella. I always write long, but at least I now am never surprised by it.

vriddy

And I passed the 1M words written (not all of them edited!!) (yet!) this morning. It was so strange to add my daily couple of paragraphs to the Leopard/Tree fic knowing this was coming lol. Wow. Glad I had my little crisis about it last year so I can just nod at it today while I step above it (crisis: ✅). I think when I started writing again in 2020 and firmly settled on the "one million bad words before you can get to the good ones" mindset, I expected I'd feel at least competent when I reached the milestone. Alas. Maybe because of the crappy first half of last year, I feel like I lost 2/3 of what I knew and still have to relearn so much about my own process and how to (hopefully) write well -- I've done it once or twice before, surely I can again ;) Anyway, that's done! \o/ Next milestone, one million edited words??? Though I guess I'm not really measuring that in any way that's easy to track, haha. It'll work out ;D This is cool. Maybe I should bake a word count celebratory cake like I used to during the lockdowns. Though I'll have to write the digits on top very small with so many of them now XD (Edit: OR MAKE A BIGGER CAKE I GUESS!!!!)

I miss sitting down with the concept for a novel and having a long first draft to lose myself into ahead of me, but mentally I can't do that while I have two other on-going novels, especially with the Soul Thief still a first draft itself. I think maybe when the structural edits are completed, that may free up the mental slot for "Big First Draft." I started the prep work on that, spending some time thinking about why I wrote it and what I want to leave readers with before actually starting the edits, this time. Like, who is the actual audience, also.

( Rambles on who to share one's writing with... )

Anyway, reaching a big milestone you've been working toward for years is kind of incredible actually. I'm awed. I'm happy. If nothing else, I've proven to myself that I can stick with it. I've learnt a ton. I've made connections with people, both on the reader side and on the writer side. Met all of you here! And I'm so excited to learn even more in the coming 5-to-10 years, which is the time period I'd given myself for that original milestone, haha. ONWARD!! :D

taichara

Title: At The Edge
Fandom: Fire Emblem: Dark Dragon And The Blade Of Light
Characters: Navarre, Caeda
Content Notes: CNTW
Summary: The Soothsires are dead, and now --

( The battle was over )

brutalbunny

<_< >_>
i got my period properly, like... how to say...
when i stopped testosterone, my period "came back" in the sense that it took like 9 months to actually wake up and do anything LOL
and then, even still, it was barely spotting.
but it's my first Proper Heavy period since i stopped..... over a year ago.
so i'm like

O(-(

my periods aren't overly heavy or painful. i'm very very lucky!
but i'm also whiny...! LOL
like, it wont even be as painful tomorrow as it was today,
but i don't wanna go so i'm simply not going to.
... LMAO

i think ive skipped once or twice per pay period.
im gonna be very very happy once i get a paycheck without skipping any days.
i figure when it's not so shitty and cold outside i won't have so many problems.
also, i'm thinking about getting an iud,
because having a period is................

the other day, i learned that getting your tubes tied doesn't affect your period.
HUH?
i always joked about getting them tied but i'm not sexually active so...
i only wanted my period to stop!! 😭
when i was younger i took birth control in such a way that i could skip my period,
but having another prescription to keep track of is a pain. so i'm gonna look into iuds.
apparently, even that doesnt fully 100% stop your period.
it *might*, if it lessens your flow, but it might just go back to spotting.
spotting is also a huge pain...

life is pain 😭😭

i'm listening to my friends have a political discussion about the death of capitalism rn.
it's almost 2 am...
and it's making me think about dhurkedatz. LMAO
i miss dhurkedatz so much......... 😭😭😭

Current Mood: mellow

delphi

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flareonfury

40daysofdrabbles - so I created this community a few months ago in honor of the old request challenge thing I used to do (of various degrees of success). I am tempted to use the community in the style of

adventdrabbles, 'cause it seems wasteful not do more with it. So I'll probably post "prompts" daily there for the period of Lent.

Lent is starting February 18th, and again I'm not really religious (despite my family wishes), but I figured I could try this challenge again and see if I could exercise my writing abilities a bit more. I'm gonna try and get everything written & posted by Easter, or by end of April at the latest. *fingerscrossed*

You do not have to be a "friend" to request a pairing, but if you are unsure of a fandom/pairing I like - my list is located here (while not complete exactly, it's mostly is) or feel free to check out the tag list on

harpiewriting for ships I've already wrote for. I also technically have a list of Crossover pairings but that hasn't really been edited since 2012 so yeah... Also some of these fandoms are old and I have not recently watched them (or at times finished them).

Request as much as you want since there are so many slots open.... I'll try to pick the ones I know for sure I can/will write & add them to the table. Prompts aren't required. (Or preferably use a prompt from one of my tables I need to write for! :P ) Drabbles will at least be 100 words, maybe more depending on the plot bunnies.

I rarely write dark fics, smut, or super angsty stuff, so if you prefer that, I might not be able to do it? If you have any Do Not Wants, let me know otherwise it'll be whatever my brain can think up.

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seaglassgarden

i was drinking sleepytime tea and reading a lil before bed and my dang carbon monoxide alarm went off :/// so i ended up outside in the cold waiting for the fire crew to show up

their monitors showed that there was indeed a little co in my apartment, but not an active source. possibly it was there b/c i cooked a lot today and/or didn't fully turn the knob off. it was cold outside so i didn't ventilate while cooking. that was probably it. im going to be better about doing that even in the winter when the air im letting in is freezing

they said i was safe but im so rattled by the whole thing! im drinking the rest of my tea and trying to calm down

ugh! and i was about to go to bed on time too!!!

Current Mood: stressed

selenicseas

I wrote a post last month where I talked about my shifting genre preferences, both in reading and writing. This month I'd like to write something similar, except with regards to the length of stories I'm reading these days.

I started reading SFF short fiction in 2020, mostly because I was unemployed, no one was hiring, and I had very little better to do with my time. It didn't really ramp up until 2021, where I read almost a thousand short stories. That number has decreased since and has slowed down to maybe 100 per year for the past two years. I suppose that number is still a lot, but I typically read 3-4 of these stories at a time, and that takes maybe an hour per week, so it's not a particularly large time commitment.

Last year I decide to take the time and start reading actual books again, and I've been doing that almost every single day since May. This book-reading time happens before I go to bed, and it lasts until I start getting tired. That could be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.

Ever since I started reading books again, my desire to read short fiction has waned significantly. There are plenty of weekends where I'll straight-up skip reading any short stories – not because I don't have the time, but because I just don't want to.

I've been thinking about unsubscribing to some magazines that don't suit my current preferences in order to make things more manageable, but the problem remains that, for the most part, I just don't want to read short stories. I've barely read any books for the past ten years, and I really want to get caught up on that.

If you've been following my blogging for any amount of time, you'll have noticed the Recommendations posts I put out regularly. I used to do one every month, listing all the short stories I read that month and thought others should read. Now I do one every quarter, and that's entirely related to the lessened amount of short fiction I'm reading these days. Some months, I don't have anything to recommend.

So, if I switch to prioritizing books and only read a few short stories here and there, the Recommendations posts are going to look a little different. I don't know if I'll be doing them quarterly after this year. Maybe ever half a year? Maybe at the end of the year?

Yes, it's February and I'm already thinking about how to do things in future years. I know I'm probably getting ahead of myself.