musesfool: these are but wild and whirling words (writing is a form of prayer)
([personal profile] musesfool Oct. 26th, 2025 03:10 pm)
As seen all around these parts, the AO3 alphabet meme:

Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

A - Another Gravity (Firefly, Mal/Zoe)
B - The Boys of Summer (Hot Corner Rag) (SPN, Sam & Dean)
C - Courtship Rituals of the World's Most Awkward Superheroes (Avengers/Amazing Spider-Man, Steve/Peter)
D - the dream of flight persists (Star Wars/Firefly, Anakin/Kaylee)
E - Eight the Hard Way (Ocean's 8, Amita/Daphne)
F - The Forces Ranged Within Us and Against Us (SPN, Sam/Dean)
G - Girl, You're Like a Weird Vacation (Blue Beetle, Brenda/Paco)
H - The Hubbert Peak (Dark Angel, Max/Alec)
I - The Injurious Internet Meme Incursion (The Middleman, Wendy, MM, & Ida)
J - Joy has he whom she embraces (Amelia Peabody, Peabody/Emerson)
K - Katie, Bar the Door (DCU, Jason, ensemble)
L - A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action (Ocean's 11, Danny/Rusty)
M - Mother Is the Name for God (Star Wars, Leia & Padme)
N - No Exit (Star Wars; Darth Vader/Ahsoka)
O - Only where love and need are one (L'Engleverse, Adam/Joshua)
P - Paint a thank-you on my palm (Six of Crows, Inej, ensemble)
Q - Quality (LotR, Faramir)
R - Retail Therapy (DCU, Cass, ensemble)
S - Stuck in the Middle with You (Star Wars, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka)
T - There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On (Star Wars, Anakin, Luke, Leia)
U - Until the Sea Shall Free Them (The Iliad, Achilles/Patroclus)
V - Visiting Hours (DCU, Alfred & Jason)
W - with our way lit only by stars (Earthsea, Ged/Tenar)
X - Xue Bai, Xue Hong (Firefly, Mal/River/Simon)
Y - you and your high top sneakers and your sailor tattoos (Avengers, Steve/Darcy)
Z - The Zombie Love Bug Concatenation (SPN/The Middleman, Dean/Wendy)

26/26, out of 950 stories on AO3. I ignored the ones that start with parentheticals and numbers. I also went mostly on vibes, so it's not a real overview of my stuff, but it is one title for every letter of the alphabet.

*
turps: (cat look at me)
([personal profile] turps Oct. 26th, 2025 05:20 pm)
James did another craft fair yesterday, and it was such a success, one of the best we've done. He sold a nice amount, and the location was lovely. It was inside a church attached to a community centre, so was full of people chatting for all the time we were there.

As stall holders we could have refillable coffees, and they gave us leftover Halloween cupcakes when the cafe closed, so in all, it was just a nice time.

Which was good as we were waiting for news about Murphy, which wasn't nice. He ended up at the vet hospital again on Thursday, and they quickly realised he had another blockage. cut for details )

Now he's got his special dry food, the special wet food is coming and he has a new water fountain which will hopefully encourage him to drink. So, fingers crossed he doesn't have to go in again, because I seem to have spent the last few weeks worrying about him.
selenak: (Royal Reader)
([personal profile] selenak Oct. 26th, 2025 10:19 am)
From [personal profile] astrogirl. Clearly, I must write stories to cover the J and X gaps.


Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for starting a fic title? One fic per line, ‘A’ and 'The’ do not count for 'a’ and ’t’. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.



A - Age of Iron (I Medici, Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici/Francesco de' Pazzi)

B - Bad Reputation (16th Century CE RPF, Barbara Blomberg & Fernando Álverez Toledo III. Duque de Alba)

C - Cover her face ( The King's Touch - Jude Morgan, 17th Century RPF; Henriette Anne Stuart (Henriette d'Angleterre)

D - Discordance (Merlin (TV), Morgana & Gwen)

E - Eve of Destruction (To Walk Invisible (2016), 19th Century RPF, Branwell Bronte/ Joseph Bentley Leyland)

F - Five ways in which Frederick the Great and Maria Theresia did not meet (18th Century CE RPF, Frederick the Great & Maria Theresia)

G - Graham O'Brien's Survival Kit for Companions (Doctor Who, Graham O'Brien & Thirteenth Doctor)

H - Here lie we (Merlin (TV), Gwen & Morgana)

I - Invicta (3rd Century CE RPF, Helena (Mother of Constantine)


J -

K -Kin (Merlin (TV), Arthur & Morgana)

L - Learning Frederick (18th Century CE RPF, Frederick the Great/Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf)

M - Murder in Florence (16th Century RPF, Margaret of Parma, Alessandro "Il Moro" de'Medici/ Lorenzo "Lorenzino" di Pierfrancesco de' Medici)

N - Nusquam (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ziyal & Dukat)

O - Opposites (Beatles RPF, Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono & Paul McCartney)

P - Prussian Doll (18th Century RPF, Frederick the Great & Prince Henry of Prussia, Frederick the Great/Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf)

Q - Queen's Gambit (Don Carlos - Friedrich Schiller, Elisabeth de Valois & Princess Eboli, Elisabeth de Valois & Philipp II of Spain)

R - Repercutio (Babylon 5, Londo Mollari & G'kar)

S - She blinded me with science (18th Century RPF', Émilie du Chatelet/Voltaire)

T - Till our shadows blend (Babylon 5, Delenn & Londo Mollari)

U - Unforgivable (Angel the Series, Holtz & Connor)

V - Vita Guineveris (Merlin (TV), Gwen (Guinevere)

W - We happy few (Beatles RPF, Brian Epstein & The Beatles)

X -

Y - You should see me in a crown (18th Century CE RPF, Catherine the Great & Prince Henry of Prussia)

Z - Zinc Man (The Americans (TV), Elizabeth Jennings/Philip Jennings)


That's 24 letters out of 275 stories. For easiness, I started with the most recent ones, but even so, clearly history is a dominating theme. Also, I would have bet Z to be the most difficult letter to find, but no, The Americans came through for me.
I made this apple cider doughnut holes recipe today and meh. I didn't even like them enough plain to make the glaze. They just tasted so strongly of nutmeg to me and nothing of apple cider or even cinnamon.

I was also going to make char siu today and then pork buns with the leftovers tomorrow, but I forgot the meat has to marinate overnight so now I will make the ribs tomorrow, freeze the leftovers, and try to make the buns next weekend. Or maybe I'll just make pork fried rice. Idk. I used to always order pork buns but I don't see them on menus anymore (lemon chicken, another Chinese restaurant fave, has also seemed to disappear, at least from the places around here), so it would be fantastic if I could make them myself. It doesn't seem too hard. I mean, the hardest part for me will probably be rolling and sealing them. *hands* Eventually we'll see!

In other news, Baby Miss L has settled on being a witch for Halloween and her costume is ADORABLE. But she also has a secondary costume, as she has quite the busy social schedule, which is a cow, which doubles as pajamas, for those nights where she's out past bedtime. SO CUTE. I also got some pictures of her pumpkin picking while wearing a jack o'lantern t-shirt and she remains the cutest and best dressed kid around. 😍😍😍😍😍😍

*
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
([staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance Oct. 25th, 2025 08:42 am)

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

I'm off work today because I had to go get a tooth crowned. They've streamlined the process since early last year, when I had to go one week for the preparation and then back again a week later for the installation - they did it all in one day today, with about a 30 minute break between parts 1 and 2, where I just sat in the exam chair and read my book on my phone. This time I had to stop them a couple of times during the first part because they just spray water everywhere without sufficient suction so I felt like I was drowning a couple of times. The dentist warned me about it ahead of time and was apologetic about it, so I didn't feel like I was too much of a problem patient for stopping so I could, you know, breathe. One of the things I like about this particular dentist (there's a bunch of them at the practice and I've seen most of them over the last 5 years) is that he tells you what he's going to go ahead of time and answers questions, and then he tells you each thing he's going to do during the process right before he does it, and he gives you a heads up as to how far along in the process you are/how much more time it's going to take. Because it's unpleasant, at best. I mean, I was all numbed up for it (so numbed that my right EYE was feeling numb - the tooth being crowned is on the top right way in the back - which is a real fucking weird feeling), but ugh. I'm sure there are probably other crowns in the future - they want to get out all those old, old silver fillings, and he said this tooth did crack while he was removing it, so we caught it before it happened on its own.

I'm glad I didn't get new glasses this year - that left $950 in my FSA, which I had to supplement to pick up the rest of the cost, because I do not know what my insurance will cover as the dentist is out of network. I know I should find someone in network (and preferably near my apartment instead of in Manhattan), but as mentioned above, I like this guy and I think that is an important factor with any medical practitioner if you can get it.

So I came home and took a 3 hour nap because I didn't sleep much last night due to anxiety over all of this. Oh, and I mailed my ballot for Mamdani. I'm very curious to see if his lead in the polls translates to winning the election or if all the people who are scared because he's Muslim will turn out for Cuomo (or Sliwa, I guess, but I cannot take him seriously as a candidate). We have tended to pick terrible mayors recently, so it'll be interesting to see how this all turns out.

And I guess I mentioned reading up there, so yes, I am in the middle of a reread of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, which I am enjoying! ♥BLUE♥ remains my favorite.

*
cimorene: Illustration of a woman shushing and a masked harlequin leaning close to hear (gossip)
([personal profile] cimorene Oct. 22nd, 2025 07:54 pm)
I decided a little while ago to try one new recipe per week as far as I can manage.

Since then we have made:

Ina Garten's Black Bean Soup, which is basically a mirepoix+bell peppers plus a bunch of black beans, Southwestern seasoning, and vegetable broth. It's similar to a couple of our favorite soup recipes and also to just the way I make black beans for burrito filling, but it's good.

RecipeTinEats' Country Harvest Root Vegetable Soup, which is very simple: a huge quantity of root vegetable chunks (she gives weight of each and we followed this pretty closely, but this style of recipe is easy to substitute of course) and some alliums sauteed with thyme and curry powder for seasoning and then cooked in water till soft, with cream added at the end, pureed with an immersion blender. This was delicious and we will definitely be having it regularly.

RecipeTinEats' Ultra Lazy Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake. I love pasta casserole and want to try more recipes where you don't have to pre-cook the pasta. The pasta came out great and this was delicious, but it's a little rich for me. It's a bit like oven-baked mac and cheese with broccoli in it. The vibes are very creamy and fatty and it just feels extremely heavy as a main dish.

Trying a white bean soup recipe this week. (I like to make soup once a week at least in the fall and winter.)
Tags:
I wonder how many people have gotten about three hours of research deep into "How to break up with all your Google products" and given up because it's too hard or too much work. This has DEFINITELY happened to me AT LEAST three times in the last ten years.

I'm not even doing it today, I'm just reminded because there's YET ANOTHER post going around about Firefox updating to integrate AI and the hidden switches in about:config you have to use if you want to turn it off. The same post talks about switching your default search engine. In one of these previous times years ago I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo, but DuckDuckGo has been pushing AI more over time and it's really annoying so I've been meaning to switch and -

- at the bottom of the post it said we should all switch to Qwant or udm=14, and so I looked up both of those. Qwant is a French search engine that is aggressively integrating AI, but they are big on not storing and selling your data at least, which would've been nice if not for the llm. udm=14 is a string you can append in Google search that gives you the "old" (pre-AI) style results. (There are other search engines - I found a link to The Search Engine Map, which shows all the ones which give English results - but I feel this experience is representative.)

I'm weighing whether I want to switch browsers. I'm definitely mad enough to, but I hate switching browsers...
turps: (Sleep)
([personal profile] turps Oct. 21st, 2025 02:27 pm)
Yesterday was the reverse on Friday in that my tumble drier was brought back, fully fixed, and Murphy came home, too :D

It was class first thing, and luckily, the vet phoned just at the end of that. But I quickly found out Murphy's scan was over, he was waking up and was fine. But most importantly, we could pick him up late afternoon.

cut for details )

James is also picking up some wooden crafty stuff on the way home. I can't remember if I said, but Lucy set up Palmers in Pyjamas TikTok which started with her Kayleigh and Bodhi reviewing different food, usually the viral TikTok kind. She's been quite successful and suggested James create his own TikTok to promote his pyrography, so he did, and the video he posted last week really took off. So much so he's got a few people ordering on it, which is kind of amazing.
alierak: (Default)
([personal profile] alierak posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance Oct. 20th, 2025 10:11 am)
DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.
musesfool: Eli Bradley, aka Patriot, of the Young Avengers (he does not lose himself)
([personal profile] musesfool Oct. 19th, 2025 08:30 pm)
I made some chicken thighs in the slow cooker today with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and some tomato paste. The chicken shredded nicely, but mostly what I tasted was salt - it was low sodium soy sauce too, so I'm not sure why. Maybe the balsamic? But that was only 2 tsps. Kind of a disappointment, though now at least I have some room in my freezer for other things. *hands*

Finished my reread of The Dream Thieves and now it's onto Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Still enjoying myself. I guess at some point I'll read something new to me again, but not just yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In other news, man, the Giants looked good for 3 whole quarters before completely unravelling and losing. the fact that they led for so long, and even came back to retake the lead once they fell behind, and still lost just makes it worse. At least the Rangers finally won last night.

*
turps: (cat look at me)
([personal profile] turps Oct. 18th, 2025 04:46 pm)
It was quite a day yesterday.

It started well, I went with James to get our flu jabs, and got those done fast, in and out of the pharmacy before our official appointment times.

Then off to the doctor, who after a few attempts managed to draw enough blood from James to send off for the routine tests he needs. Though, I do wish people would listen when James tells them it's easier to draw from the back of his hand. I get it probably feels wrong for the medical people to start there, but his veins are so buried in the crook of his arms that it's almost impossible to find them.

Left there and came home as the tumble drier repair man was due. That actually went better than I expected, turns out the baring had gone causing the belt to snap. But the guy said it was such a good machine it was worth repairing, though due to the space needed for the repair, he'd have to take it to his workshop to do so. But, it should be fixed and back by Monday afternoon, and for cheaper than I was expecting, which is good.

After he left we did some organising for the craft fair we've done today. Got everything sorted, and then got ready to take Murphy to a vet appointment as it looked like his UTI was back again. But, turns out it was much more serious and he had a bladder blockage.

As I couldn't get him an appointment until 5:30, that meant the vet who could do the op to unblock had gone so we were sent off to the out of hours emergency vet hospital. This is where he ended up a month ago, so I knew they were nice there, but man, I really didn't expect to be heading there again.

cut for vet stuff )

Drove home and because it was so late ended up at the fishshop for a cheese patty, chips and curry sauce tea. Ate that then ended up just waiting for the vet to phone with news, which she did close to ten.

Then to top it all I had the most horrendous night sweats that woke me up. cut for detail )

So that was yesterday, and I did not want to get up at 6am to get ready for the craft fair today. But I did, and the fair itself went okay.

Now we're home, and I intend to have a lobster bath, wait for the nurse to phone about Murphy, or phone them myself if I can't wait, then watch Strictly. Though tbh, I'd say the odds on me staying awake for the whole thing are pretty low right now.
musesfool: (it's good to be the queen)
([personal profile] musesfool Oct. 17th, 2025 05:55 pm)
[personal profile] runpunkrun mentioned that there is now a graphic novel of The Raven Boys, which ignited in me a fierce urge to reread the series, so I've started that, and I still love it (♥BLUE♥! ♥RONAN♥! #the same impossible stuff), but I also kind of wish now that I didn't read the Dreamer trilogy (or that Stiefvater had written it differently), since it kind of recontextualizes (and potentially retcons) some stuff that I don't think really needed it.

*
musesfool: close up of the Chrysler Building (home)
([personal profile] musesfool Oct. 16th, 2025 08:35 pm)
The Rangers haven't scored in almost 8 periods (if this 2nd period in Toronto ends without them scoring in 2 minutes, it will actually be 8 periods) - and it's not even like they've been shut out by top tier goalies! - but Chris Kreider has 5 points in 3 games so far for Anaheim. They definitely sent the wrong Chris away over the summer. Sigh.

[eta] A goal! For the Rangers! Huzzah!

*
Tags:
lizbee: A sketch of myself (Default)
([personal profile] lizbee Oct. 17th, 2025 08:55 am)
When I have disposable income, I spend it on concert tickets.

So back in January I went to see Irish country-pop singer CMAT live. My friends and I were the oldest people in the room and we all got covid, and it was absolutely worth it. In terms of "best gigs I've been to", I'd put it on par with Florence + the Machine as The Actual Best, only at a fraction of the scale and price.

Her new album came out at the end of August, and I have an embarrassing number of feelings about the title track. Embarrassing because I was a fully grown adult and also Australian when the Celtic Tiger collapsed, but growing up in suburbia and feeling like your whole generation has been fucked over by neoliberalism is A Mood.



She's touring early next year, and I have tickets secured and a note in my planner to get a covid booster three weeks before the date.


Tags:
turps: (Aramis and Porthos)
([personal profile] turps Oct. 16th, 2025 05:19 pm)
I've been re-reading Musketeers fic this last week or so. I started due to whumptober, but as that's not as busy as usual in the fandom, I've been re-reading some favourites, too. I haven't got there yet, but suspect a Dragon Riders series re-read will be in my future soon.

I've also read an ER/The Pitt cross I enjoyed, where John Carter and Robby discover they're half brothers after an unexpected meeting. They're not fandoms I usually read it -- I saw the rec on my network -- so suspect this could be a common thing, but I enjoyed this take on it Like Brothers We Meet.

Rosie cancelled class yesterday due to being ill, so I had an unexpected free morning. James was off too, and normally we would have gone to the cinema or for a walk/drive, but he'd scheduled his annual long term condition nurse review for midday. Of course, three different nurses completely failed to get any blood out of him, so he's back tomorrow, so a doctor can try.

That's after we both go to the chemist to get our flu jabs, but not Covid boosters this time, as it seems the vast majority of people in the UK don't qualify for them now. So chemist, doctors, then home as the tumbler drum has stopped turning, so the repair guy is coming out late morning. Hopefully, it's just a snapped belt, and it can be fixed as the machine itself is still heating up, so *fingers crossed*

I also watched Bodhi for an hour late afternoon as her mams went to her first parents evening. She's doing well at school, starting to recognise and write quite a few letters, though her teacher said she's very quiet. Which made me laugh as she literally didn't stop talking once the whole time I was there.

We played superheroes with Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk action figures. They had quite the adventures, especially when they met a herd of dinosaurs. Though, poor Hulk seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the naughty step.
cimorene: The words "AND NOW THIS I GUESS?" in medieval-influenced hand-drawn letters (now this)
([personal profile] cimorene Oct. 14th, 2025 08:58 am)
I believe I mentioned before that months ago I saw an incredibly silly article claiming that wearing skinny jeans was a "Millennial trait".

I don't say this is completely inaccurate, just that it's silly regardless.

Now every time I see a pair of skinny jeans getting worn, my brain goes "A Millennial???" without my permission.

For the record, I have not yet noticed them on any teenagers or very young people, so it's possible. But on the other hand, they are still making and selling them in fast fashion stores, so I'd be astonished if this were so universal (not to mention the average pair of jeans is much shorter-lived now than when I was a teenager in the late 90s, and most adults still had jeans they'd bought ten years before. Stretch denim was unknown as far as I remember up to 2001, when I was 18 and buying new jeans was a substantial preoccupation of mine because it was hard to find ones that fit).

Sigh.

Also, I am a millennial (or 'xillennial'), but I can't begin to tell at a glance if a stranger is. Or maybe it counts as beginning, since I can guess they're, like, almost certainly between 30 and 70. 😂 But I can't continue!
I made a version of this garlic and bread soup (WAPO gift link), substituting oregano and rosemary for the paprikas because 1. that is my preferred flavor profile, and 2. I only had smoked paprika (I would swear I had sweet paprika also, but if so, I couldn't find it). I also used the whole eggs instead of just the whites, and I did it sequentially all in one pot instead of using both a skillet and a stockpot because 1. my stovetop is smaller than a regular stove, and 2. fewer things to wash afterwards. Anyway, I definitely recommend it if you like garlic and soup. The croutons are excellent and the soup is delicious and I have enough for 3 more meals now.

I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner yesterday, so I also have some sauce and meatballs leftover, which is another couple meals. I also baked some oatmeal cookies.

I was off today for Indigenous People's Day, and I took tomorrow as PTO, so I've enjoyed being cozy during all this rain.

Yesterday, as I sat in my west-facing living room, I was like, is this nor'easter even happening? It seemed like it was just raining on and off. And then I went into my east-facing bedroom and oh yeah, there was the wind, howling and whipping around. Anyway, I think it's mostly over now? Though I guess it might rain for the rest of the night.

I haven't really had any side effects from the double vax on Friday except my arm was stupidly sore and itchy, and my left-side lymph nodes are a little swollen, which always happens (I got both shots in my left arm). *hands*

*
turps: (mwlight)
([personal profile] turps Oct. 13th, 2025 09:11 am)
We decided to swimming yesterday morning, and what a mistake that was. It was a family swimming session, so I should have known it would be busier than during the week which is all lane swimming, but it didn't click just how busy it would be. In the end I tapped out when I hit half my usual lap total, because no way was it possible to swim in a straight line. So, I won't be weekend swimming again.

After that we headed off to see Kayleigh as my baby sister was 40 yesterday. We stayed a couple of hours and I got hulk smashed a bit by Bodhi and had some birthday cake before heading home. I'll be picking Bodhi up from school today, my first Bodhisitting for quite a while, so no doubt I'll be getting Hulk smashed again then, too. I also had a very vivid dream about not picking her up from school and her being left there last night. Guess today's pick up had lodged into my head somehow before I went to sleep.

We've been to see two films in the last couple of days. I Swear was amazing, one of the best films I've seen this year. And then on SaturdayTron: Ares which was loud, brash, visually interesting, and had Jared Leto who is always easy on the eye. So while it wasn't amazing, I didn't regret watching.

Thursday I went to a light show at Durham Cathedral. Our slot wasn't until 7pm, so as we got there earlier than that there was a lot of waiting around to get in, but it was very much worth it. The interior lights were beautiful, and I'm so glad we went.

I'll share a few photos here, but if you want to see some short videos, I've posted at my insta here.

photos )
.