Happy Discoveries
May. 16th, 2026 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yourlibrarian1) Curious to know, for anyone who has taken part in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
3weeks4dreamwidth activities, what did you enjoy doing?
2) Turns out my expected trip to Michigan later this year won't happen, but I am instead planning a trip that will spend some time in Cleveland and Buffalo. Any recommendations? (The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a big draw).
3) I've begun playing in the tournaments on Board Game Arena, in part because my favorite game has been increasingly hard to find players for during certain hours. I started late during the last tournament round but still did ok, finishing in the top 100. I started early enough in this round that I was in the Top 10 for a little while, but started falling as more people joined in.
But then I started an incredible losing streak that dropped me over 150 spots. There was one common factor, ( Read more... )
4) I'd been hearing that Matlock is not a typical procedural, and I had tried out the first episode a while ago, soon after it launched. I could see why the ongoing series arc might make it a significant change. ( Read more... )
4) What I really enjoyed this past week was getting to see the play "Suffs" on Great Performances. (This is in contrast to my dislike of the PBS app, which is a pain to work with and apparently never added 4 or 5 other Great Performances episodes to my watchlist). It's so great to be able to see theater at home. ( Read more... )
3weeks4dreamwidth activities, what did you enjoy doing?2) Turns out my expected trip to Michigan later this year won't happen, but I am instead planning a trip that will spend some time in Cleveland and Buffalo. Any recommendations? (The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a big draw).
3) I've begun playing in the tournaments on Board Game Arena, in part because my favorite game has been increasingly hard to find players for during certain hours. I started late during the last tournament round but still did ok, finishing in the top 100. I started early enough in this round that I was in the Top 10 for a little while, but started falling as more people joined in.
But then I started an incredible losing streak that dropped me over 150 spots. There was one common factor, ( Read more... )
4) I'd been hearing that Matlock is not a typical procedural, and I had tried out the first episode a while ago, soon after it launched. I could see why the ongoing series arc might make it a significant change. ( Read more... )
4) What I really enjoyed this past week was getting to see the play "Suffs" on Great Performances. (This is in contrast to my dislike of the PBS app, which is a pain to work with and apparently never added 4 or 5 other Great Performances episodes to my watchlist). It's so great to be able to see theater at home. ( Read more... )
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Right of Vengeance
May. 16th, 2026 11:57 ammarycatelli posting in booksRight of Vengeance by Thomas Doscher
Book 7 of The Vixen War Bride Series. Spoilers for the earlier ones ahead.
( Read more... )
Book 7 of The Vixen War Bride Series. Spoilers for the earlier ones ahead.
( Read more... )
wrapping up Friday, our last real day on Jersey
May. 16th, 2026 02:17 pmthe_shoshannaConcluding the story of yesterday, beginning the story of today (NB: some non-graphic discussion of seasickness)
We finished our official hike at Mount Orgueil Castle, which is a huge ruin towering imposingly over the bay and the town of Gorey, which is of course why it was built there. Settlement on that spot goes back to Neolithic times, if I remember the signboard correctly, but this castle was primarily built to defend against the French, after the Channel Islanders had decided to maintain loyalty to King John (of Robin Hood legend fame) instead of the French. The negotiations around that decision are why the islands are still not part of the UK today, but remain "direct dependencies of the British crown." I bought something small with a British ten-pound note early on in our stay, and got change in Jersey pounds, which are different.(Also, castle ruins like that sometimes make me think about how the ability to scan a bay and determine the likely approaches of both friendly and hostile arrivals, and know where and how to build a fortification to control passage, is a skill completely foreign to me.)
We wanted some lunch, and we knew that lots of buses would go through Gorey on their way back to St Helier (there's a reason we did the hike north to south, to end there!), so from the castle we wandered down to a semi-circle of shops and restaurants facing Gorey Pier, and strolled their length comparing menus until we settled on the one at the end, because for some reason I was craving pizza. We split a really good pizza with pepperoni and spicy ham and fior di latte, and another pint of beer. I'm generally not much of a drinker, but somehow traveling with Geoff leads me to regular day drinking! We like trying local brews, and we have few or no responsibilities (except for me keeping track of the logistics, and both of us having to stay on top of a few things at home), so it's one of the pleasures of a trip, for me. Except that I do still have a teensy weensy tolerance level, so I'm careful about amount.
Which can mean that I'm occasionally amazed at how much others can put away! At the table next to us at lunch there sat down a man and woman, probably a bit older than us, whom I initially, reflexively assumed to be a couple. They initially caught my attention because he ordered a beer and she ordered a bottle of wine, and I thought to myself how I could not imagine managing to finish a bottle of wine by myself, at lunch. Then he finished his beer, had some of her wine, and they finished that bottle and started on a second. Before they'd had any food, even. I would die.
At the point where they were just about finishing the first bottle, they asked if we would take a picture of them with his phone, which I willingly did, and we got to talking. They turned out to be an Irish brother and sister who had lived on Jersey for several decades; he was a schoolteacher and she was retired but I think she said she'd done something in the cosmetics line. Anyway, I started to wonder if there was something about us that attracted conversation from tipsy Irish Jerseyites! It was the kind of conversation where they talked much more than we did, but Geoff did manage to wedge some contributions in, and I mostly made interested murmuring noises. They were the first people we'd talked to who, on hearing that we were going from Jersey to spend ten days on Guernsey, cheerfully approved and told us we'd have a wonderful time! Also, iirc, that the produce is better on Guernsey. Also, on hearing that we'd been to Ireland (separately) in the distant past and might go again (together), she told us all about this pamphlet she'd found while she was digging through all her cupboards and shelves trying to find a lost credit card; she had turned up so much forgotten stuff, among which was this pamphlet listing guesthouses and homestays in Ireland. We got on the subject because when we told them we were staying in a guesthouse in St Helier -- I mean, that's in its name, it's the Franklyn Guesthouse -- they were astounded that there were any guesthouses left, they said they'd almost all been replaced by hotels. Anyway, we all agreed that guesthouses and B&Bs and small independent hotels are more fun to stay in than chain hotels, and she told us we had to see this wonderful pamphlet, so Geoff gave her his card with his email address and maybe she'll send us some scans or something. I confess I wonder how old this pamphlet is, given that she uncovered it while doing a big clear-out, but certainly it's not impossible that Geoff and I will want to go to Ireland at some point; a branch of his family came from Ballymoney, in fact.
(We asked them to take a picture of us, too, which Geoff has posted in his blog.)
The brother spent quite a while telling us about the big rugby match that would be played the next day (i.e., today) between Jersey and Guernsey: the Siam Cup (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siam_Cup). He urged us to try to see it, but it's not really our kind of thing so we made polite noises, and I made a mental note that pubs would probably be madhouses that evening.
Having finished our lunch and our half-pint of beer each, we left them to their second bottle of wine and caught a bus back to St Helier. By the time we pulled in, the pepperoni and spicy ham had made me extremely thirsty, so I was delighted to see that a small market of French vendors had been set up in one of the squares we walked through: a cheese dealer that I admired from afar, and sausages, and jams, and someone selling leather goods, and, as I had hoped, someone selling cider! I got a half-pint of a very refreshing "summer cider" for £3.50, I think it was. Since the vendors were all French, there were signs everywhere warning that credit card transactions would be billed in euros, but I was able to avoid that complication by paying with my five-Jersey-pound note.
We detoured a little on our way home to locate the hotel we'll be staying in on our last night; we have to come back from Guernsey to fly out of Jersey, and the Franklyn Guesthouse was full that night, so we have one night in a different place. Having located it, we went back to our current place to rest up and also pack, since we would have to be out the door at 6:45 am to walk to the ferry terminal. The ferry company had sent me several dire warnings that check-in opened an hour before sailing, and if we hadn't checked in by T minus thirty minutes our bookings would be canceled, no arguments no refunds no recourse. The crossing was to take a little over an hour.
I set two alarms juuuuust in case, but we woke up spontaneously eight minutes before they went off, go us. Pulled on clothes and staggered off to the ferry -- where I was very glad that we'd met that brother and sister the day before, because we turned out to be on the ferry with the Jersey rugby teams, going over for the cup match! The terminal isn't big but it has security like an airport; we didn't have to take out our liquids but we had to pull all our electronics out of our bags and empty our pockets, and they confiscated and bagged Geoff's pocketknife and multitool and told him he could get them back when we disembarked in Guernsey. Then we waited for almost an hour in a gate area that was jammed with scores of young men and women in Jersey RFC rugby uniforms, mostly ridiculously fit (I have never seen calf muscles like that in my life), some clearly support staff or friends/family rather than players but every bit as energized, many of them hauling huge bags of gear, a few of them clearly on whatever the rugby equivalent of "injured reserve" is (arm in a sling, leg in a cast, etc.), and all of them talking nonstop at maximum volume and yelling excited greetings at one another.
Eventually we boarded the ferry, and Geoff and I were directed to a seating area in a big cabin at sea level where we dumped our giant hiking backpacks in a luggage rack and, carrying our day packs, managed to snag a left-side window seat and the one next to it in a row of four; then there was a middle row of something like six, and then another row of four on the right side of the cabin, and maybe twenty or thirty of those rows in the cabin in all, like the coach section of a very wide plane. The seats were basically airplane seats, in fact, except that they were fixed at a slight angle of recline.
I was glad to have a window seat because I wanted to watch whatever view there was, but I was EXTREMELY GLAD to have a window seat (and also that given the morning's time crunch we'd skipped breakfast) once we really got going, because I don't know if that was an unusually rough crossing or if that's what they're all like but we were heaving up and crashing into the water, sending up big impact waves that would wash over the windows and completely block the view for a few moments as though we'd briefly submerged. A few of the crest-and-crash movements were forceful enough that people lifted right out of their seats yelling like they were on a roller coaster -- and then people started getting queasy. There was a lot of hasty passing around of extra sick bags, in addition to the ones in the seat pockets. At least one person two rows ahead of us puked. The guy on Geoff's other side started looking very worried and pulled out his bag, whereupon I started ignoring him and everyone else as hard as I could and looking rigidly out the window at the horizon -- when I could see it; it was frequently completely obscured by the waves crashing against us -- because while I've never had a problem on a plane and only very very rarely in a car, I do have problems on boats in rough seas when I can't see a horizon and especially when I have to hear-- you know what, let's just move on. I sang a bunch of Gilbert and Sullivan to myself ("I am the monarch of the sea!") and made a mental note to pick up some Dramamine or Gravol or whatever they call it here before getting on another ferry; as well as going back to Jersey on our way home, we want to take at least one day trip from Guernsey to one of the smaller islands, Herm or Sark or both. Also I will shank someone for a window seat if I have to; if I had been in the middle section I'd have been doomed. Geoff has an iron stomach, lucky man.
Anyway we all survived and staggered off the boat in St Peter Port, the capital of Guernsey. I did hear someone assuring one of the people who'd been sick that the return journey would be smoother, because the boat would be going with the wind instead of against it. The rugby people quickly regained their raucous enthusiasm, including one woman in the crowd two rows ahead of us who started loudly honking a bicycle horn as everyone was slowly shuffling forward in a packed excited mass toward the single exit from the cabin, and, well, there's more than one reason to shank someone on the ferry, is all I'm saying. No wonder they confiscated Geoff's knives. (He did get them back with no difficulty from a staffer at the end of the disembarking gangway.)
We walked about ten minutes through town to the visitor information centre, where I was told that they don't have printed maps of trails or hikes available (except for a fairly pricy book) but there's an app plus some printed maps that should do us fine, and where I saw with great interest that they were selling jars of chili crisp made with Guernsey seaweed -- I am definitely coming home with some of that! I fell in love with chili crisp a couple of years ago when it was the hot new trendy condiment, and it sounded intriguing so I tried out a few varieties. (The one I settled on as my favorite is Hot Crispy Oil https://hotcrispyoil.com/, fyi.)
Then we caught a bus a little ways out of town, to our hotel/B&B. When I was looking for places for us to stay on Guernsey, everywhere that looked good in St Peter Port itself was eyewateringly expensive, so I booked us into what looks like a nice place ten minutes' drive away but on several bus lines. It's right near the airport, and I had a moment of "oh no, maybe I should try to research flight patterns" and then I got a grip and asked myself how busy the Guernsey airport was really going to be? So far we've heard a couple of planes but it's fine.
We arrived at about 11 to find a sign saying that the front desk wouldn't be staffed until 3, but early arrivals were welcome to leave their luggage in the front hall entry while they went off to do whatever. (There were a lot of suitcases already stacked to the side.) Another note gave the wifi info, so Geoff and I prepared to unload some luggage, ensconce ourselves on the big comfy couch, and check email for a bit before heading to the pub down the road, which would open at noon and which gives a 15% discount to guests at this hotel, for our first meal of the day. But staff came through on their various morning errands and asked if they could help. At first they said our room wouldn't be ready until three (unless we wanted twin beds, which we did not), and of course we said no problem, we certainly didn't expect it to be ready this early though it would be a lovely surprise if it were, we're fine waiting. And then half an hour later they said they had a room for us! It's big, with a big window overlooking the courtyard, and we have a mini-fridge and a full bathtub rather than just a shower stall even though the hotel's website says that only "superior" rooms have them. So I guess they upgraded us! Sweet. I mean, I would be cheerfully polite anyway, and I absolutely understand that a booked hotel room probably won't be available until mid-afternoon, but it's awfully nice to be rewarded for cheerful politeness!
Geoff noticed a third note posted at reception saying that there were still a few places available for tonight's tapas dinner: meet in the hotel bar at 5:30 for intro drinks and then [list of delicious dishes I don't remember except that they looked yummy]. And we were up early, and not having to hunt around for a place to have dinner sounded great, so we booked in for that. Then we dumped our stuff in the room and went down the road to the pub for a good lunch and a shared pint of Butcombe ale, which we hadn't tried before except that at some point Geoff had a fish and chips where the batter was made with it, but that hardly counts. The pub was advertising its Sunday roast dinner, and Geoff wants to experience that, so we booked in there for six tomorrow evening. (It was also advertising that Monday is "pie night", with five different kinds of savoury pie on offer, which we also find verrrrry intriguing.)
Many of the restaurant staff we've met, both here and on Jersey (as well as the host of our guesthouse there), have clearly been nonnative English speakers; I imagine a lot of people come here from continental Europe to work in the tourist industry. At the Spanish-Asian fusion restaurant we went to twice, Geoff had a fun conversation about Spanish beers with the Spanish waiter. Today at the pub I ordered a ploughman's lunch, and the waitress didn't know what I meant, so I pointed at it on the menu and she said (more or less), "Oh, the plockman's."
And now we are tucked up in our room, blogging and otherwise farting around on the internet. There are people chatting loudly in the courtyard under our window, but I'm sure they won't be there after dark. There's also a jacuzzi and a barrel sauna in the courtyard; I wonder if they're free for residents, or if there's a charge? We brought our bathing suits for kayaking, after all, and weren't expecting to get any other use out of them...
But now it's time to get ready for dinner.
142 Doctor Who icons from The Day of the Doctor
May. 16th, 2026 11:33 amannabeth_roses posting in fandom_icons142 Doctor Who icons from The Day of the Doctor, featuring mainly Eleven and Ten. Mostly Eleven, cause I can't seem to help myself…
Teasers:
here @ my journal
Teasers:
here @ my journal
2026 Photo #10
May. 16th, 2026 01:30 pmsmallhobbitThis is one of the local playing fields where I'm doing the Birds in Green Spaces count, and where, on a sunny day, there are normally butterflies.
Just One Thing (16 May 2026)
May. 16th, 2026 01:01 pmnanila posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Even Middlemarch is not compulsory
May. 16th, 2026 12:37 pmoursinDr rdrz are by now aware that one way to irk the hedjog is to compile lists of the 100 Greatest Novels that Everybody Should Read.
Especially when a) you go culturally woezing:
Never has such a list been more needed. Dwindling attention spans, screens, Netflix; whatever we blame, reading for pleasure is a dying pursuit. Half of adults in the UK say they never read, and levels among children and young people are at their lowest in 20 years. This year has been declared the National Year of Reading to address this crisis. “Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all,” Henry David Thoreau advised. We are here to help.
We have so been there before with producing Books of the Month Clubs and curated tastefully leatherene bound libraries for your otherwise bare shelves.... There is A History.
And b) in There Is A History, the article actually admits that These Lists Change Over Time!!! and certain 'Big Beasts' who were considered Timelessly Major Urgent Phalluses some decades ago are Out! Out! Out!
Is anything more wearisome than the implicit 'should' that haunts these lists?
I am so there for this apercu:
But where is Nancy Mitford’s glittering 1945 The Pursuit of Love, which deserves a place for its last two lines alone? The comic novel, like science fiction and crime, rarely fares well in bookish horse races.
One notes with a slight groan what are considered (hattip to Stephen Potter) the 'okay' sff/crime titles.
Personally, we would not take reading advice from Mr Thoreau to begin with, and we sit here, hymning the work of those presses that are recovering the neglected and overlooked (perhaps overlooked is better than 'forgotten', I mutter to myself) works from the past that do not make the big bowwow lists like this - Furrowed Middlebrow, Persephone, British Library Women Writers and the mother of them all, Virago.
Back to That
May. 15th, 2026 09:03 pmkallowayThere was an official Gundam Conference earlier today, which was honestly a lot of announcements-for-announcements ahead of the franchise's 50th anniversary coming up in a couple of years. The main announcements-for-announcements were for a remaster of First Gundam, which sounds like a remaster/re-edit sort of thing, and new Gundam Wing, which might be a whole-ass multi-cour show. I have high hopes it'll be Frozen Teardrop, because that'll be a lot of fun, but I suspect it might be closer to a mashup for all of current canon, so Glory+FT.
Trying for a low-key, get some stuff cleaned up and sorted out weekend, physically and virtually and mentally. I had, uh, four different pre-orders come in at once including a huge 'mystery box' from Kotobukiya which ended up being both very interesting and kind of meh at the same time. While the ones I did from P-Bandai earlier in the year could clearly be called fukubukuro, I'm not sure if I can use the term for the Koto box even though that's clearly what it was. The main thing I ended up with was a bunch of Hexa Gear's Governors, which is a fancy name for their pilot-figure model kits. But no actual things for them to pilot. So now I'll eventually need to get them some rides, lol. (I guess that's how they get you.)
But yeah, whoops, pile of stuff to put away. Boxes are all broken down and mostly out, at least, and bubbles popped and recycled, etc. I am theoretically building my Calrea, finally, this weekend but in practice I am also working on painting up an ancient Wing-series kit that I disassembled last year and parts have been balefully floating around my desk since. It's one of the old adoptions and I am ready to stop re-litigating it, but that means clean-up, paint, and reassembly. It does not need to be perfect, just done.
Trying for a low-key, get some stuff cleaned up and sorted out weekend, physically and virtually and mentally. I had, uh, four different pre-orders come in at once including a huge 'mystery box' from Kotobukiya which ended up being both very interesting and kind of meh at the same time. While the ones I did from P-Bandai earlier in the year could clearly be called fukubukuro, I'm not sure if I can use the term for the Koto box even though that's clearly what it was. The main thing I ended up with was a bunch of Hexa Gear's Governors, which is a fancy name for their pilot-figure model kits. But no actual things for them to pilot. So now I'll eventually need to get them some rides, lol. (I guess that's how they get you.)
But yeah, whoops, pile of stuff to put away. Boxes are all broken down and mostly out, at least, and bubbles popped and recycled, etc. I am theoretically building my Calrea, finally, this weekend but in practice I am also working on painting up an ancient Wing-series kit that I disassembled last year and parts have been balefully floating around my desk since. It's one of the old adoptions and I am ready to stop re-litigating it, but that means clean-up, paint, and reassembly. It does not need to be perfect, just done.
Friday Five
May. 16th, 2026 07:41 pmtielan1. How often do you hear live music?
Not very often. I never have been much of one to go see bands or even concerts. A few musicals. The occasional concert by an artist I enjoy. And sometimes bands on a Saturday night down at the pub back in university days.
These days? Very rarely.
2. What was your favorite live musical performance ever?
I don't know if I remember this one with fondness so much as just it's the strongest memory I have. One night after university computer lab, a couple of the people I'm working and doing uni with say they're going to a bar in town to celebrate the 18th birthdays of a couple of the guys we work with. The two of them room together, and their birthdays are back-to-back. It's not my usual scene, but I figure I should really do more socialising with this group, so I agree to go along.
It's a dive bar. On a Wednesday night. In a university town. Kinda quiet, but there's a band on stage that's doing rock covers from the 80s. The floor is an old nylon carpet and we're not going to think about how it's slightly sticky underfoot. The lighting is dim, there's about a half-dozen of us, and after a drink or two, we're singing along with the band who takes it pretty well.
They invite the birthday boys up to sing the Eagle Rock, but somehow end up singing Hotel California. I am served a triple-rum-and-coke having admitted to the others that I don't really drink, and they think that it's hilarious to get me an excessively alcoholic drink for my 'first drink'. The 2xrum&coke is foul, and someone else ends up drinking it. I go for a wine cooler, which is sweeter and easier on my palate. We bawl songs until it's midnight and it's the birthday of the second guy, and then we keep going for another hour.
TBH, the performers weren't standout. But I remember the night the best, simply for the hanging out and the friendships.
3. Do you play an instrument, or sing?
I play piano, I learned flute and tuba, and I sing - happy birthday, at church, in the car, on the karaoke machine.
4. Have you ever performed music onstage?
Does karaoke count? But even without that, yes, I've performed at concerts and eisteddfods when I was younger. Not for three decades now, but then it might even be years since I've touched a piano.
5. Who is your favorite musician?
That's a tricky one. Modern or classical? Artist or musician? Live, recorded, without autotune?
I can't choose. I love them all - Beethoven and his Ninth, Elgar and the Engima variations, Chopin's Impromptus and the haunting notes of Tchaikovsky's opening to Swan Lake. There's Queen's Rhapsody and P!nk singing about falling into trust, there's Billy Joel crooning smooth and sweet and Deborah Harry declaring she wants that man, there's Rihanna singing about being unfaithful and Anna of Cleves rmeinding us that she's the Queen of the Castle... I remember going to see Roxette and Offspring, singing with U2 in the car - raised by wolves | stronger than fear | when I close my eyes | you disappear...
You can't make me choose. I carry it all in my heart.
Not very often. I never have been much of one to go see bands or even concerts. A few musicals. The occasional concert by an artist I enjoy. And sometimes bands on a Saturday night down at the pub back in university days.
These days? Very rarely.
2. What was your favorite live musical performance ever?
I don't know if I remember this one with fondness so much as just it's the strongest memory I have. One night after university computer lab, a couple of the people I'm working and doing uni with say they're going to a bar in town to celebrate the 18th birthdays of a couple of the guys we work with. The two of them room together, and their birthdays are back-to-back. It's not my usual scene, but I figure I should really do more socialising with this group, so I agree to go along.
It's a dive bar. On a Wednesday night. In a university town. Kinda quiet, but there's a band on stage that's doing rock covers from the 80s. The floor is an old nylon carpet and we're not going to think about how it's slightly sticky underfoot. The lighting is dim, there's about a half-dozen of us, and after a drink or two, we're singing along with the band who takes it pretty well.
They invite the birthday boys up to sing the Eagle Rock, but somehow end up singing Hotel California. I am served a triple-rum-and-coke having admitted to the others that I don't really drink, and they think that it's hilarious to get me an excessively alcoholic drink for my 'first drink'. The 2xrum&coke is foul, and someone else ends up drinking it. I go for a wine cooler, which is sweeter and easier on my palate. We bawl songs until it's midnight and it's the birthday of the second guy, and then we keep going for another hour.
TBH, the performers weren't standout. But I remember the night the best, simply for the hanging out and the friendships.
3. Do you play an instrument, or sing?
I play piano, I learned flute and tuba, and I sing - happy birthday, at church, in the car, on the karaoke machine.
4. Have you ever performed music onstage?
Does karaoke count? But even without that, yes, I've performed at concerts and eisteddfods when I was younger. Not for three decades now, but then it might even be years since I've touched a piano.
5. Who is your favorite musician?
That's a tricky one. Modern or classical? Artist or musician? Live, recorded, without autotune?
I can't choose. I love them all - Beethoven and his Ninth, Elgar and the Engima variations, Chopin's Impromptus and the haunting notes of Tchaikovsky's opening to Swan Lake. There's Queen's Rhapsody and P!nk singing about falling into trust, there's Billy Joel crooning smooth and sweet and Deborah Harry declaring she wants that man, there's Rihanna singing about being unfaithful and Anna of Cleves rmeinding us that she's the Queen of the Castle... I remember going to see Roxette and Offspring, singing with U2 in the car - raised by wolves | stronger than fear | when I close my eyes | you disappear...
You can't make me choose. I carry it all in my heart.
Heated Rivalry: Torture Me (With All I’ve Wanted) by toomuchplor
May. 16th, 2026 09:18 pmmific posting in fancakeFandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Hayden Pike, Wyatt Hayes
Rating: Explicit
Length: 7060
Content Notes: Underage, as both Shane and Ilya are seventeen.
Creator Links: toomuchplor on AO3
Themes: Journey and travel, Forced proximity, First time, AU: Fork in the road
Summary: Regina to Edmonton was nine hours by bus if the weather was decent; it took a bit longer if — for example — your bus lost power on Highway 11 just past Dundurn, Saskatchewan.
Team buses, night drives, and one way things might have started differently.
Reccer's Notes:
This is a lovely story about Shane and Ilya as teens, just after the first World Juniors Cup, being forced into proximity on a long nighttime bus ride. The inevitable happens, and it kick-starts their relationship and their friendship at a much earlier stage, allowing them to rewrite the MLH's narrative. Told from Shane's pov, with wonderful characterisation and details.
Fanwork Links: Torture Me (With All I’ve Wanted)
Podfic read by mific
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Hayden Pike, Wyatt Hayes
Rating: Explicit
Length: 7060
Content Notes: Underage, as both Shane and Ilya are seventeen.
Creator Links: toomuchplor on AO3
Themes: Journey and travel, Forced proximity, First time, AU: Fork in the road
Summary: Regina to Edmonton was nine hours by bus if the weather was decent; it took a bit longer if — for example — your bus lost power on Highway 11 just past Dundurn, Saskatchewan.
Team buses, night drives, and one way things might have started differently.
Reccer's Notes:
This is a lovely story about Shane and Ilya as teens, just after the first World Juniors Cup, being forced into proximity on a long nighttime bus ride. The inevitable happens, and it kick-starts their relationship and their friendship at a much earlier stage, allowing them to rewrite the MLH's narrative. Told from Shane's pov, with wonderful characterisation and details.
Fanwork Links: Torture Me (With All I’ve Wanted)
Podfic read by mific
2026 Wrapup
May. 16th, 2026 11:30 amgoodbyebird posting in 3weeks4dreamwidthHello everyone!
It's been a wonderful three weeks with you all here, but now the event has come to a close. Many thanks to everyone who joined in with posts, events, and comments, and I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend ♥
It's been a wonderful three weeks with you all here, but now the event has come to a close. Many thanks to everyone who joined in with posts, events, and comments, and I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend ♥
Those Left Behind (by darsynia) (Gen)
May. 16th, 2026 08:51 pmmific posting in stargateficrecShows: SGA
Rec Category: Genfic
Characters: John Sheppard & Rodney McKay
Categories: Gen
Words: ~1300
Warnings: none apply
Author on DW:darsynia
Author's Website: darsynia on AO3
Link: Those Left Behind on DW
Those Left Behind on AO3
Podfic read by darsynia on the Audiofic Archive
Why This Must Be Read: A brief and lovely flashfic, about Rodney and John in the aftermath of Epiphany, with Rodney figuring out who made the time dilation field, and why they did so.
( snippet of the fic under here )
Rec Category: Genfic
Characters: John Sheppard & Rodney McKay
Categories: Gen
Words: ~1300
Warnings: none apply
Author on DW:
darsyniaAuthor's Website: darsynia on AO3
Link: Those Left Behind on DW
Those Left Behind on AO3
Podfic read by darsynia on the Audiofic Archive
Why This Must Be Read: A brief and lovely flashfic, about Rodney and John in the aftermath of Epiphany, with Rodney figuring out who made the time dilation field, and why they did so.
( snippet of the fic under here )
Casefic Exchange: Post-deadline pinch hits due 5 June.
May. 16th, 2026 05:33 pmcasemod posting in pinchhitsEvent: Casefic Exchange is a fanwork exchange focusing on investigations. These can be solving murders, retrieving stolen items, finding missing people, missions, and mysteries. As long as it has an investigation as its core theme, it fits with the exchange. We are an AO3 exchange; you must have an account and be 18+ to participate.
Minimum requirements: We allow 3 mediums: a minimum of 3,000 words for fanfiction, a minimum of 10 panels for a comic, or a recording of a completed fic of 3,000 words minimum with "casefic" as one of its tags. Works must include a fandom, character/ship and be of a medium that the recipient has requested.
Event link:caseficexchange.
Pinch hit link: Current pinch hits.
Due date: Friday 5 June at 11:59pm EDT.
Available post-deadline pinch hits:
Thank you for considering!
Minimum requirements: We allow 3 mediums: a minimum of 3,000 words for fanfiction, a minimum of 10 panels for a comic, or a recording of a completed fic of 3,000 words minimum with "casefic" as one of its tags. Works must include a fandom, character/ship and be of a medium that the recipient has requested.
Event link:
caseficexchange.Pinch hit link: Current pinch hits.
Due date: Friday 5 June at 11:59pm EDT.
Available post-deadline pinch hits:
Thank you for considering!