Costumer white elephant
Dec. 29th, 2025 07:35 pmI am going to a 12th night tea this weekend with a yankee gift exchange. I was given strick instructions that it is NOT a white elephant and should be good things....My brain rambles so while in the shower tonight and brainstorming what to actually bring I realized the white elephant ideas were SO MUCH BETTER
1. The $25 Joann's gift card I never actually used and my old Joann's apron
2. A Reconstructing history pattern (I'm sure I have one around here SOMEWHERE)
3. Bum roll stuffed with Ellie Fluff
4. Bag of acrylic yarn I inherited from the grandmother
And this is why I was given strict directions...
1. The $25 Joann's gift card I never actually used and my old Joann's apron
2. A Reconstructing history pattern (I'm sure I have one around here SOMEWHERE)
3. Bum roll stuffed with Ellie Fluff
4. Bag of acrylic yarn I inherited from the grandmother
And this is why I was given strict directions...
Be a Goldfish 2026: T-minus Three Days!
Dec. 29th, 2025 05:29 pmThrow on your trunks, blow up your floaties, and stick a fin in the water! We're just a few days away from diving in to Be A Goldfish 2026.
Not in the loop? Check out our Welcome Sticky, give our Tumblr a look, peruse our FAQ, or just keep reading! (All of the above, ideally.)
This is an event for the little works: ficlets, drabbles, meta, zines, fanart, playlists, recipes, web weaves, gifsets, friendship bracelets, pottery, paintings, and anything and everything else you can think of, so long as it's in the micro spirit of things. We hold commenting and creating in equal esteem and welcome both as avenues of participation!
There's no sign-ups, no check-ins, and no pressure. Connect with us here or on Tumblr, and post, comment, share, and celebrate as much or as little as your heart desires from 1 January to 28 February 2026. Just remember to fill out our entry submission form whenever you post a work, and to follow the guidelines located in our FAQ for tagging and posting conventions.
Draw inspiration from our prompt document, if prompts are your jam, or just do your own thing. Don't forget to check out our punch cards and end-of-event awards!
We hope you join us for Be A Goldfish: A Multifandom Multimedia Microbang. Tell your friends! And please, read our FAQ, it's very good. Sometimes it's even funny. Trust.
Not in the loop? Check out our Welcome Sticky, give our Tumblr a look, peruse our FAQ, or just keep reading! (All of the above, ideally.)
This is an event for the little works: ficlets, drabbles, meta, zines, fanart, playlists, recipes, web weaves, gifsets, friendship bracelets, pottery, paintings, and anything and everything else you can think of, so long as it's in the micro spirit of things. We hold commenting and creating in equal esteem and welcome both as avenues of participation!
There's no sign-ups, no check-ins, and no pressure. Connect with us here or on Tumblr, and post, comment, share, and celebrate as much or as little as your heart desires from 1 January to 28 February 2026. Just remember to fill out our entry submission form whenever you post a work, and to follow the guidelines located in our FAQ for tagging and posting conventions.
Draw inspiration from our prompt document, if prompts are your jam, or just do your own thing. Don't forget to check out our punch cards and end-of-event awards!
We hope you join us for Be A Goldfish: A Multifandom Multimedia Microbang. Tell your friends! And please, read our FAQ, it's very good. Sometimes it's even funny. Trust.
Write every day: Day 29
Dec. 29th, 2025 11:38 pmDay 28: Busy with family; alibi sentence. How about you?
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 28:
luzula,
china_shop,
badly_knitted,
trobadora,
brithistorian,
goddess47,
sanguinity,
sylvanwitch,
chestnut_pod,
cornerofmadness,
garonne,
brithistorian,
Day 29:
luzula,
china_shop,
garonne,
brithistorian,
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 28:
Day 29:
Death's End by Liu Cixin (2010)
Dec. 29th, 2025 04:43 pmAfter the events of The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest, this conclusion to the trilogy expands the perspective on the Earth-Trisolaran conflict beyond our two petty solar systems to a galactic, interdimensional, and finally universal scale. (Yes, this is the sort of book where rather than wondering if your favorite character survives, you wonder instead if there will be a habitable universe for them to survive in by the last page.)
This book took me a long time to read, not only because it's 600 pages but also because I kept stopping due to real life distractions. I also don't have the book anymore because it had to go back to the library. So I'm afraid this post is going to be more vibes-based than going into a ton of detail, even though seventy million things happened in the book that would each be worthy of detailed discussion.
My ultimate impression of the book (and of the series as a whole) is that there are a lot of things that the author and I will just never see eye-to-eye on, but I don't mind setting that aside because I like the way he explores his ideas even if I disagree with their fundamental basis.
( cut for length )
This book took me a long time to read, not only because it's 600 pages but also because I kept stopping due to real life distractions. I also don't have the book anymore because it had to go back to the library. So I'm afraid this post is going to be more vibes-based than going into a ton of detail, even though seventy million things happened in the book that would each be worthy of detailed discussion.
My ultimate impression of the book (and of the series as a whole) is that there are a lot of things that the author and I will just never see eye-to-eye on, but I don't mind setting that aside because I like the way he explores his ideas even if I disagree with their fundamental basis.
( cut for length )
New York Post:
Leaked letter: a group of “prominent journalists” at CBS News are preparing a petition urging David Ellison to uphold editorial independence at the network — CBS News journalists are preparing a petition urging Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison to uphold editorial independence …
Bookposting catchup
Dec. 29th, 2025 10:58 pm"Silvereye, are you trying to bookpost your way through most of the year so you can do a yearly book meme when 2026 rolls around?"
Maybe; you can prove nothing; it's basically a holiday tradition for me at this point.
Maybe; you can prove nothing; it's basically a holiday tradition for me at this point.
yuletide rec
Dec. 29th, 2025 03:01 pmA quick Yuletide rec:
Ever Dared to Dream Before - Daisy Jones and the Six, a Billy/Daisy story that reimagines their end-of-canon reunion. I really loved this story. The author let Billy deal with all his issues and Daisy be the settled, real version of herself that kept getting buried under drugs and wild youth. Every bit of this was what I wanted after seeing the series and reading the novel. This was my Yuletide gift and it is perfect!
Ever Dared to Dream Before - Daisy Jones and the Six, a Billy/Daisy story that reimagines their end-of-canon reunion. I really loved this story. The author let Billy deal with all his issues and Daisy be the settled, real version of herself that kept getting buried under drugs and wild youth. Every bit of this was what I wanted after seeing the series and reading the novel. This was my Yuletide gift and it is perfect!
Yuletide Recs (Part 1)
Dec. 29th, 2025 08:17 pmReading
yuletide fic here and there suited my current state, and I've had a lot of fun with it so far, I actually have a whole batch of recs ready to go for once. (I still need to go back and pick up some fandoms, especially in the first half of the alphabet, and I've barely touched Madness).
( 22 recs in As You Like It, British Airways, Cabin Pressure, Cadfael, Dogsbody, Enigma, Flower Fairies, The Good Place, Georgette Heyer, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, Ludwig, The Prisoner, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare & Hathaway, Time Master, Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully & Yes Minister )
( 22 recs in As You Like It, British Airways, Cabin Pressure, Cadfael, Dogsbody, Enigma, Flower Fairies, The Good Place, Georgette Heyer, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, Ludwig, The Prisoner, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare & Hathaway, Time Master, Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully & Yes Minister )
Krad's Art Dump 2.0
Dec. 29th, 2025 03:09 pm"Krad's Art Dump 2.0" is here with all of my art from the past five years minus ~100 pieces of NDA artwork. I started this gift last decade as a way to give back to the old internet that mentored me, and it ended up a very poignant way to archive my work.
Before you download, please be aware there are many NSFW/R18 pieces as well as potentially disturbing artwork. You are welcome to save/delete whatever you want, all I ask is you do not reshare, or use it for AI training*.
Download link (1.1 GB)

Previous 2011-2020 dump: https://www.mediafire.com/file/3hqo6ltoui8mkt1/
*( Read more... )
Before you download, please be aware there are many NSFW/R18 pieces as well as potentially disturbing artwork. You are welcome to save/delete whatever you want, all I ask is you do not reshare, or use it for AI training*.
Download link (1.1 GB)

Previous 2011-2020 dump: https://www.mediafire.com/file/3hqo6ltoui8mkt1/
*( Read more... )
FIC: (the time was neither wrong nor right)
Dec. 29th, 2025 03:00 pm(the time was neither wrong nor right) (962 words) by Laura JV
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock, James T. Kirk & Spock
Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s03e12 Plato's Stepchildren (Star Trek: The Original Series), T'hy'la (Star Trek), Kolinahr (Star Trek)
Summary:
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock, James T. Kirk & Spock
Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek)
Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s03e12 Plato's Stepchildren (Star Trek: The Original Series), T'hy'la (Star Trek), Kolinahr (Star Trek)
Summary:
Four years and two hundred seventy-six days into the five-year mission, Spock initiates a conversation.
Post-Christmas mishmash | Recent media
Dec. 29th, 2025 03:47 pm(As is so often the case, I'm generally up to date on reading my DW circle, but not doing at all well with commenting.)
I guess at this point we're well into the liminal last bit of the year. (I said to
scruloose earlier that I still try to hold "Christmas is twelve days, dammit" in my heart, but it's hard, especially when our observance of the the holiday at all is so low-key.) We had masked visits with both sets of parents (mine on Christmas Eve and
scruloose's on Boxing Day), and in between, Christmas Day was just the two of us and the cats and the Netflix fireplaces. My mom sent us home with Christmas stockings and some gifts (also very low-key; we still keep nudging for just not doing presents at all), and the latter included a hard copy of the most recent edition of Garner's Modern English Usage, which was a delightful surprise.
We actually had a white Christmas, which has never been a sure thing and is getting rarer and rarer at terrible speeds, but now ice and rain are arriving, to be followed by a cold snap, so I'm really glad we don't need to leave the house anytime soon. (See also: will we lose power? Very possibly! >.< But we're pretty well-equipped to deal with it.)
I'm feeling like I should be looking ahead or setting small goals or trying to find specific things I want to focus on, but so far I'm not really scrounging the brain for it. Anyone want to tell me about how you're approaching it?
(I do think I'll sign up for a GYWO wordcount goal again, despite having written almost literally zero words this year, but at this point I have the grim suspicion that the words may stay gone until a new full-on fannish obsession hits me, and that's so infrequent for me. ;_; I have so many Guardian WIPs and fragments. [And while I'm enjoying seeing all the fannish glee over Heated Rivalry, I don't currently feel fannish about it myself {which, honestly, I'm okay with}.])
Recent media, mostly books: All Is Bright, Llinos Cathryn Thomas' "read over Advent" novella, which was lovely; The Dark is Rising (book), which I'm glad to have finally read; I don't know if/when I might read the books that follow it; Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher; Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk; KJ Charles' Masters in this Hall (which I should've checked the series info about first, as it's the third Lilywhite Boys book and I haven't read the second. Oops); and Brigid Kemmerer's A Curse So Dark and Lonely.
scruloose and I finished listening to System Collapse, so we're out of Murderbot books. Yesterday (?) we listened to the four-minute audiobook sample of The Thief, which I might be able to work with? But wow, the voice sounds so much older than Gen to me. (Also, Kobo, four minutes is a reasonable sample length, but it literally cuts off mid-word.)
I watched the season finale of Heated Rivalry pretty promptly on Friday morning, for fear of being spoiled, which meant
scruloose, who hadn't seen any of the show previously, pretty much watched it too while feeding the cats and having their own breakfast. (I did give them some background info first.) As noted above: not feeling fannish, but I thought that was really well done overall, and the actors seem like an absolute delight.
And we've watched two movies since starting vacation (Wake Up Dead Man and Sinners), which brings me up to a whopping four [4] movies this year.
I guess at this point we're well into the liminal last bit of the year. (I said to
We actually had a white Christmas, which has never been a sure thing and is getting rarer and rarer at terrible speeds, but now ice and rain are arriving, to be followed by a cold snap, so I'm really glad we don't need to leave the house anytime soon. (See also: will we lose power? Very possibly! >.< But we're pretty well-equipped to deal with it.)
I'm feeling like I should be looking ahead or setting small goals or trying to find specific things I want to focus on, but so far I'm not really scrounging the brain for it. Anyone want to tell me about how you're approaching it?
(I do think I'll sign up for a GYWO wordcount goal again, despite having written almost literally zero words this year, but at this point I have the grim suspicion that the words may stay gone until a new full-on fannish obsession hits me, and that's so infrequent for me. ;_; I have so many Guardian WIPs and fragments. [And while I'm enjoying seeing all the fannish glee over Heated Rivalry, I don't currently feel fannish about it myself {which, honestly, I'm okay with}.])
Recent media, mostly books: All Is Bright, Llinos Cathryn Thomas' "read over Advent" novella, which was lovely; The Dark is Rising (book), which I'm glad to have finally read; I don't know if/when I might read the books that follow it; Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher; Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk; KJ Charles' Masters in this Hall (which I should've checked the series info about first, as it's the third Lilywhite Boys book and I haven't read the second. Oops); and Brigid Kemmerer's A Curse So Dark and Lonely.
I watched the season finale of Heated Rivalry pretty promptly on Friday morning, for fear of being spoiled, which meant
And we've watched two movies since starting vacation (Wake Up Dead Man and Sinners), which brings me up to a whopping four [4] movies this year.
Max Tani / Semafor:
Ezra Klein, Ben Shapiro, Steve Bannon, Vanity Fair's Mark Guiducci, Puck's Matt Belloni, Verge's Nilay Patel, and others on what media leaders got wrong in 2025 — Semafor asked journalists, content creators, and other media-watchers what they'd gotten wrong at the end of a wild year.

