Reading

it will be nice to be home again

I'm mostly just tired. And the bed is doing my back in. Soft beds do this a lot with me. They need to be just soft enough that I can lie on them, but firm and flat - no dips in the mattress.

I want my cats. And my house. And my bed. And my space. I want to work from my office desk instead of commuting. (Okay, the commuting might be required going forward.)

I have met some excellent people while on this work trip, but also I am tired and I want to be in spaces which are mine.

Current Mood: lazy

Entry tags:

Outer Wilds

I've watched (or "watched") so many Outer Wilds playthroughs I figured I'd try to remember the ones I liked in case I want to find them again. I've already been unable to find some that are not in my watch history for whatever bizarre reason. I'll probably be editing this post as I re-find the players I remember.

Oliver @ About Oliver (main game supercut & echoes supercut)
An astrophysicist plays Outer Wilds! An easygoing player who enjoys and discusses the science and space details of the game, with little anecdotes on what's accurate to real life and what's not. He notices the time differential when warping and talks about macroscopic quantum behaviour before the game mentions both, and gets excited when the game validates his theorising.

Liera (main game supercut and echoes supercut)
Liera is a very pleasant player, easygoing and cheerful, and thoughtful as she talks out her understanding of the lore. Interestingly, she's thorough but not traditionally methodical, which means that she sometimes finds secrets in the wrong order, which is fascinating (eg. she finds the probe tracking module before ever exploring the remains of the orbital probe cannon, and she finds ALL the burned slide reel rooms before finding the guide in the tower). In playing the main game she develops the Nomai timeline correctly through her notetaking.

Adam @ King Adam XVII
Adam is a fun player, he's not particularly focused but comes into the game with appreciation and commentary on the music (trends, influences, etc. plus he points out that the Prisoner's theme at the end uses a suspension). He sometimes pauses the game to play the music on his own instruments, or perform his Outer Wilds-inspired work, and he loves messing around with the mechanics of the game and seeing what he can do with its physics.

Becca @ BeccaBytes (main game supercut and echoes supercut)
Becca is a cheerful player who has nice reactions and figures out the emotional weight of the game, I think she's the one who calls the anglerfish cave the "place of sadness". She's not a very efficient player and misses some elements of the main game that she fills in with the dlc, but she does figure out some things other players don't (like the Stranger's movement), she gets a very good closeup of an owlk when the dam breaks, and she gets so frustrated with the sneaking that she makes a word doc plan that leads her to solving all three dream locations by entering from different points.

Ryan @ lil indigestion (main game supercut)
I've got this on right now, he's a cheerful, meticulous player who takes his time to look at things and pontificate appreciation for the lore, so he sees a lot of detail (he figures out Solanum grew up in the system before he even recognizes her as the Quantum Moon pilgrim) but also wanders a lot and struggles with the time-sensitive and platforming sections.

Allie @ AllieCat (main game supercut and echoes supercut)
Player with good energy and engagement in the Hearthian and Nomaian lore, and she loves Solanum! Her talking through the story is fun to listen to, though she wasn't as engaged with the Echoes DLC.

Mapocolops (main game supercut and echoes supercut)
Good energy dude, I can't remember other details.

Lukael @ Lukael Plays
I can't remember specific details but I do remember that this player was very pleasant to listen to.

Cohh @ CohhCarnage (main game supercut and echoes supercut)
Another one I can't remember details but that he had good energy and I liked listening to him. I just rewatched a bit and he stumbles into the Ash Twin completely by accident and way too early!

Entry tags:

tuesday

Went out to visit a friend at Malvern this evening - a FB friend who I've been chatting with about the last six or seven years. Faith and gardening, mostly, but his family was instrumental in some early missions to a section of Indonesia, and there were a bunch of people from those churches who had come to Melbourne for a visit, and so there was gathering and food and company and sharing of stories and theology.

It was great. I was a little apprehensive - I've never met this friend before in person, he's about 70, I think, maybe 75. Still pretty hale, and unfortunately still working. His daughters are my age and a little bit older (the older one was at the dinner tonight and we got talking about perimenopause), so he must be at least 75. But he's lovely, his wife is lovely, it was delightful to talk to a bunch of people and to watch the exchange of stories and histories.

At the daughter's suggestion, I caught two trams back, and I'm glad she made the suggestions she did. A lot better lighting and not so much walking past areas that are a little bit of a problem...

But now I'm back, it's nearly 11pm and I haven't had a shower yet. Need to get to that and get to bed.

No more social dinners. (I did one last night, too, with a writing friend from, oh, 20 years ago. We talked a little bit about stories and people and politics and so forth, and there was duck laksa and so much of it I ended up having half of it for lunch today!

Oof. Anyway, last two nights will be 'quiet' (ie. not social, that's the plan, let's see if it pans out hahah) and then it's HOMEWARD HO.

I'm like this after two weeks. Imagine me after seven weeks...

Entry tags:

life,
work

life

So, it's been good to meet some of the colleauges I'm working with. Others…well, they're typical 'guys in tech' and, moreover 'South Asian/West Asian guys in tech', which is to say they're very insular socially, and very closed when it comes to including an East Asian female in their outings.

( people gonna peop )

--

Spent a great weekend with friends I haven't seen since their kids were much smaller. I've known B for over 20 years - since before she met her husband C (internet dating back some twenty years) - and although we've moved through very different stages of life, we're still good friends.

I gave her a draft (very drafty draft) of the novel, which I've started to fix/adjust/rewrite. Still trying to work out some of the details about the various characters, the various moving parts of the story, and where everything lands up.

We went out on both Saturday and Sunday, which is a lot for her - she has CFS and struggles with her energy levels. We went for a walk around the area on Saturday morning, and then out for dinner that night. Sunday was markets and then taking me to the station, and by the end of it, I think she was pretty exhausted and sore. At least she gets today off - she doesn't work, is on disability (FWIW). Her husband works, currently the service rep at a local mechanic's place and he's got the knowledge for it, but not the body. They've had a lot going on the last 18 months and are hoping for a stretch of quiet.

--

So the hotel is not as nice as last week's hotel in terms of the room and appointments (tile flooring all the way, no carpets, no rugs, and the layout of the room is kind of peculiar), but the location is considerably better for going out and eating and stuff.

Eh. I'll take it.

--

Tonight, I'm catching up with a friend for dinner, and hopefully another friend on Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday will be scrounge days, although someone has recommended a place in the city

--

Back home, we have a chicken ( possible graphicity )

--

Electorate next door has fallen in favour of the Independent. By 40 votes.

WHEW.

That's "automatic recount" territory, of course, but it's been very carefully scrutinised, and so the counts are unlikely to change.

visiting friends in country town Victoria

3 degrees around here. The heater that I have is barely keeping the cold at bay. I think the space needs a few more curtains to cut down the area that needs warming...

Anyway, I'm just here for another night.

Good to catch up with my friend B, who used to be on LJ and has a DW account but probably hasn't used it in over a decade! I haven't seen her or her husband, C, since 2023 when her FIL died, and haven't seen her sons since...even longer. They were shorter than me when last I saw them, they have since shot up and tower over me at a 6-foot minimum. Haven't visited her family down here since before the pandemic, and she's had a lot going on in so many dimensions.

Got down here last night, ate pizza and had a long chat to catch up on all the things that don't get put on FB. Went for a walk today around town and did more talking about directions and futures and stuff, then back home for lunch, and out for dinner. Tomorrow is markets.

I gave her the rough (exceedingly rough) draft of my novel, and promptly found a bajillion spelling and name mistakes. I'm in the process of cleaning it up, but it's slow. Rewriting the next novel will be even slower, trying to fit everything in. There's a lot of stuff to get through!

For the cold tonight, I've piled a few extra things on the bed to help keep me warm - pillows, clothing, etc. It'll be fine, just a wee smidge colder than I'm used to (and I like things warm and toasty, but can't be helped). Like I said, it's only for one night.

Good to catch up with B though.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

Entry tags:

Challenge 86: Reverse Fandom: New Tricks

This month's challenge is:

Reverse Fandom: New Tricks

Click on the challenge, pick any episode title, or more than one, as inspiration, and start writing!

Reminder of Rules

Entries can be any length you like. You can post as many entries to each challenge as you're inspired to write.
If posting direct to the community, please place the body of your entry behind a cut.
Tag with the appropriate Category, Challenge, Fandom, Type, and Ratings tags. If a tag for your fandom doesn't exist, leave a request on the Tag Request post and I'll create the tags you need. You can request as many fandom tags as you want.
You don't need to use the challenge word or phrase in your fic, though you can if you like. Please include the song or episode title you use in your header.
Suggestions for future challenges are welcome on the Questions & Suggestions post.
There is no deadline for entries.

Have fun!

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Glee cast - PYT

Entry tags:

Book Log: From a Certain Point of View

I got this Star Wars short story collection eight years ago! But delayed reading it I think because I was put off by one of the stories in The Legend of Luke Skywalker that I found weirdly mean-spirited and feared more of the same. But now I'm determined to clear my to-read shelf, and have also just finished watching Andor season 2 followed by a rewatch of Rogue One and Star Wars, so I am having those SW feelings right now. I just double-checked that the collection was published after Rogue One came out but before The Rise of Skywalker, so it has certain elements pretty fresh in the telling.

As a collection of short content from various authors, the majority being short prose fiction, that follows points of view of characters that aren't central to the plot of Star Wars, it is a mixed bag of:
(1) meandering retellings of SW events,
(2) less meandering retellings of SW events yet still do not add much to my understanding or appreciation of the SW universe,
(3) retellings of SW events that imply a greater hand of destiny/the Force in getting certain events to happen the way they do, as if coincidences cannot just be coincidence, and minor characters cannot just be minor characters whose lives happen to intersect with the heroes but instead whose very purpose of existence is to enable destiny to happen, which makes the world smaller and less interesting to me,
(4) stories that think they're gosh darn clever by being meta;
(5) actually interesting stories (to me!) that spin-off from SW events.

I did really like some! The Kloo Horn Cantina Caper by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction is a fun crime caper style evening in the Mos Eisley port, the Mon Mothma story by Alexander Freed especially hit well after watching Andor, and Stories in the Sand (about a curious Jawa) by Griffin McElroy is one of those outsider POV styles I like. There's a couple of others, but these particular stood out to me.

Also, shoutout to Of MSE-6 and Men by Glen Weldon, which I think might be Ground Zero of the Wilhuff-Tarkin-had-a-gay-affair-with-a-stormtrooper bit of canon that I've seen mentioned here and there? I had no idea, and double-taked when it got to that bit!

moar sleep achieved

But not restfulness.

Off to catch up with a friend tomorrow and the weekend, back on Sunday to a hotel in the city.

Interestingly, I and one other guy are at the hotel where most of the others were last week...the others have been moved to a high-end hotel!

Anyway. I'm just glad to not be out here after tonight. Although how I'm going to manage to pack my bag again, I really don't know.

Entry tags:

[Amnesty #026] Kickoff Post

AMNESTY WEEK #026
Challenges # 001-260

Amnesty Weeks are a chance to post any stories you've written that, for whatever reason, weren't submitted during that week's challenge. And if you can't get the entries you want in during this Amnesty, never fear! The next one will include challenges 001-270, so you'll never miss out.

There's no voting for amnesty entries, and there's no limit on how many you can post, so long as each entry meets the usual community requirements (less than 1000 words, not NC-17, etc.) If, however, you manage to end up with 30 of the things you want to post, try to spread them out through the week for the sake of people's reading pages. These entries may also be crossposted and previewed anywhere you like, since there’s no voting to skew.

At the end of this three-week window, a post will be made collecting all the links of the posted entries, which will also signal the end of the posting period, and a new regular challenge will go up.

Entries are titled the same way as normal: [#] Story Title (Fandom)

PAST THEMES: Second Chances, Heartbreak, Devil's Advocate, Victory, Long Shot, Unexpected Company, Travel Plans, Schadenfreude, Missed The Mark, Overindulgence, Interview, Bad Day, Clear Skies, Time of Need, Fever Dream, Fourth Wall, Altered State, Stages of Grief, Stereotype, Hindsight, Blessing in Disguise, Changing Seasons, Inner Child, Starry Night, One-Track Mind, Miracle, Double Trouble, Rival, Ghosts, Moment of Truth, The Road Not Taken, Storms, Family Gatherings, Warning Shot, Mirror Mirror, Caught Red-Handed, Reunion, Betrayal, Premonition, A Walk in the Woods, Resurrection, Winter Nights, Perfection, Day Off, Fall from Grace, Horizons, Rebuilding, Too Much Information, Loyalty, Blaze of Glory, Audition, Voluntold, Silence, Time Travel, Writing on the Wall, High Seas, Martyr, Prehistoric, Camouflage, Careless, Shortcut, Transformation, Priceless, Rainy Day, Long Distance, Gathering Clouds, Shattered, Masks, Ray of Sunshine, Networking, Skeletons in the Closet, Unspoken Things, Burning Bridges, Into the Forest, Hearth and Home, Closed Doors, Confession, Fairy Tales, First Snow, Opposites Attract, Haunted House, Countdown, Below Zero, Dragons, Head in the Clouds, Once in a Lifetime, Leadership, Regrets, Success, Road Trip, Vengeance, Into the Depths, True Love, Secret Lair, Unexpected Weather, Center of Attention, White Lies, Legacy, Roughing It, One Perfect Day, Nobility, Mirror Universe, Into the Jungle, Only One Room, Pirates, Competition, Afterlife, After Midnight, Friends’ Night, To The Library, Pumpkin Patch, Autumn Rain, Bonfire, Unexpected Visitors, Breaking News, First Aid, Happily Ever After, Mistaken Identity, Heartbeat, Technical Difficulties, Brainstorm, Novelty, Snowed In, Best Friends Forever, Come In From the Cold, Illusion, For Science!, Gardening, Candlelight, Moonlight, Nostalgia, Superpowers, Storytelling, Wasteland, Out of Sorts, The North Star, Jumping to Conclusions, Leviathan, Getting Lost, Learning Lessons, Inspiration, Teamwork, Nightmare, Invincible, Temptation, Creation, Trivia, Publicity, Glitch, Paradox, The Dance, Honesty, Insomnia, Atonement, Vampires, Leap of Faith, Quiet Night, Vacation, Memory, Innocence, Homecoming, Hero, Gift, Rescue, Apology, Loneliness, Things In Common, First Kiss, Sick Day, Progress, Confidence, Lost Memories, Escape, Rumor, Late Arrival, Space, Nemesis, Anger Management, Faking It, Eavesdropping, Broken Promise, Investigation, Revolution, Murder, Recklessness, Reputation, Bad Judgment, Partners, Anniversary, Wish, Freedom, Spotlight, Surprise, Falling Leaves, Bad Day, Trust, Good Luck, Harvest Time, Altar, Duct Tape, Pyrrhic Victory, Catastrophe, Celebration, Reminiscence, Procrastination, Siblings, Jealousy, Parallels, Outsider, Chaos, Hesitation, Hope, Protection, Pressure, Normalcy, Meticulous, Recovery, Caught in the Rain, Stress, Overheated, Persistence, At the Beach, Sunrise, Guilt, Alibi, Secret, Spontaneous, Deity, Optimism, Stargazing, Mystery, Coffee Shop, Curse, Comfort, Magic, Cold Snap, Hangover, Apple Picking, Autumn Nights, Future, Stubbornness, Tragedy, Redemption, Picture Perfect, Werewolf, The Common Cold, Lost for Words, Mermaid, Emergency, Quick Exit, Royalty, Midnight Snack, A Light in the Dark, Unexpected Success, Defiance, Man’s Best Friend, Chemistry, Scars, Caves, Mountains

Amnesty posting ends Wednesday, June 4 at 9:00PM EST

• Post your submission as a new entry using the template in the profile
• Tag these entries as: amnesty 026, plus the challenge's theme tag
• For questions about Amnesty Week entries, please ask them here

Entry tags:

[#260 | Mountains] Results Post

Here are this week's votes tallied, and below the cut are our winners for Challenge #260 – Mountains!

( This week's finalists are... )

Total Challenge Words Written: 3214

Congratulations to both of you, and thank you to everyone who took the time to cast their votes!

autobotscoutriella will be making this week’s banners, so keep an eye out for those next weekend.

You may now post your Challenge 260 entries to any additional communities, blogs, archives or sites as you'd like! We also have a FandomWeekly AO3 Collection if you'd like to add your stories there!

I'm going to bed now

inexplicably tired. I even got 8 hours pretty solidly last night. (I think. I don't remember waking up anyway.)

Will try for more sleep. MOAR SLEEP.

Wish me luck.

Entry tags:

auspol

last lingering bits of Aussie politics

The new members (the known ones at any rate) were sworn in today, and the Prime Minister (Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party or ALP) presented his cabinet.

Yes, we do politics just that fast around here. Elected one week, sitting the next.

There are still a handful of counts taking place, some of them are going down to the wire. And I do mean the wire. The final date for ballots to come in (from remote and distant places where Australians have cast their votes) is this Thursday, I believe.

--

The conservative party in Australia, having lost their leader after he lost his seat, have been doing the whole 're-elect a new one'. Now, in Australia, party members choose who the new leader will be, not the voters. So there's a lot of in-party factionalism and back-and-forth.

Our options were: far right faction white guy with history of corruption who refused to resign from his ministerial position, moderate white woman with history of corruption who did resign from her ministerial position after being found out. There were assorted minor possibilities but they were all an outside chance, compared with these two.

Incidentally, white corruption guy came with an indigneous deputy minister in tow - an indigenous deputy minister who is far-right wing, opposed the Indigneous Voice To Parliament, and has just jumped ship from the "country" conservative party to the "urban" conservative party, leaving the "country" conservatives without a leader...

This is a party that has 'a woman problem'. They don't do quotas (unlike Labor) and it shows. They stuff female candidates into marginal seats, or anywhere where they think that a woman might beat another woman.

(Incidentally, one of those electorates where they put a woman they thought might beat another woman? They're up by a mere 56 votes in an electorate where over 100,000 voted! HOLY WOW. It's being recounted. Poor AEC workers, what a job!

I did say some of them were going down to the wire!)

Anyway, they voted on who was going to lead the Aussie conservatives in the coming months (at least until someone stabs her in the back) and it's the white female moderate. Who, if you want an idea of what 'moderate' entails, once gave a speech about how Australia would amount to nothing if not for colonisation.

Yeah.

We can't let the Americans have all the white supremacists, I guess...

There are, of course, those who will herald the election of the first conservative party leader as a master stroke. Every conservative female politician in the country (there aren't many of them) was photographed with a big grin and a positive note about how the conservatives have changed and how they listened to Australia and, and, and...

...think I'm gonna wait and see about how the conservatives have changed. Not that I'll ever vote for them again.

Actually, speaking of 'wait and see'-ing when it comes to leaderships...someone on Threads posted a picture of a whole lettuce...

Entry tags:

[#260 | Mountains] Voting Post

Here are the entries for this challenge:

( List of entries )

Please Note: Because we only have 4 entries this week, there is only a First Place and Runner Up to vote for!

In order to vote, please reply to this post using the form provided. All comments are screened, and entries are listed in the order they were submitted. For your vote to qualify, you must fill out your entire voting card (both spots) in order to be counted. Winner votes are worth 2 points, Runner Up votes are worth 1 point. Meeting the bonus goal on an entry gets an extra point for that submission.

When voting, please copy/paste the ENTRY NUMBER and the FIC TITLE from the list above into the spot you're voting for (this prevents accidentally mis-numbering a vote and casting it for the wrong entry). It should look like this:

First Place: 61. Fic Title Here
Runner Up: 88. Another Fic Title

Please note that you cannot vote for your own entry, and that votes cannot be made anonymously. You do not have to be a member of the community in order to vote, nor have submitted an entry for this week; everyone is welcome to participate in the voting. IP addresses are logged to prevent duplicate voting.

Voting closes Wednesday, May 14, at 9:00PM EST.

Entry tags:

[#260] Steep Climb (Harry Potter X SVSSS)

Theme Prompt: 260 - Mountains
Title: Steep Climb
Fandom: Harry Potter, SVSSS
Bonus: No
Word Count: 312
Summary: Harry has gotten to know Shen Qingqiu. Talking to him is still so difficult.

( Having a conversation shouldn't be a battle )

Entry tags:

[#260] Gravity and Other Forces (MCU Thunderbolts)

Theme Prompt: #260 – Mountains
Title: Gravity and Other Forces
Fandom: Thunderbolts (Movie 2025)
Rating/Warnings: Teen and Up Audiences. Mention of something happening in the movie (but is in the disney+ ads, so minor spoiler?).
Bonus: yes
Word Count: 902
Summary: Yelena ropes the Thunderbolts into a weekend of forced team bonding in the wilderness, leading to campfires, questionable nutrition advice, and a few surprises Bob has up his sleeve.

( Bob looked, horrified, at Alexei’s third attempt… )

Current Mood: delighted

Entry tags:

Born Yesterday (1950)

I was watching Be Kind Rewind's video essay about the Best Actress Oscar Race of 1950, and the clips she put in of Born Yesterday were so compelling I ended up looking for an online stream to watch the whole movie. I found one! And oh my goodness Judy Holliday is SUCH a delight, what an amazing comedic performance and her delivery is SO good. So good!

Watch on YouTube

Paul: "(I can help) answer any questions."
Billie: "I got no questions."
Paul: "Well, I'll give you some."
Billie: "Thanks?"

The movie itself requires the usual disclaimers for its time, since it's about Judy's character, Billie Dawn, being instructed by her gangster-ish boyfriend to get an "education" so she won't embarrass him in front of his political targets in Washington DC, and Billie has her mind opened to learning by the journalist man said boyfriend has hired to teach her. But it's so kind and empathetic towards Billie, and central to the movie is how education empowers people, and that Billie always had that potential despite no one ever seeing it in her or giving her a real chance.

After watching the movie I went back to finish the video essay, which continues into Judy Holliday's struggle to not be typecast as a dumb blonde following the success of the movie. That gave me pause because it's been so long since I've been conscious of the dumb blonde stereotype, which I would guess is still around in RL communities that have many blondes (i.e. not my own) but have since fallen out of favour in the fiction I consume. I hadn't even noticed that trend, though I had noticed recently that a lot of the live-action media I've watched don't have that many blonde women characters, period.

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[#260] UP IN THE AIR (TORCHWOOD)

Theme Prompt: #260 - Mountains
Title: Up in the air
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Owen is less than thrilled to be leading the team on a wild goose chase of an expedition.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Born Yesterday (1950)

Entry tags:

Fic | MCU | Time is Right (for You Tonight)

I was looking at my AO3 works list and there were ZERO explicit fics on the first page, so I figured I'd better do something about it.

Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Pairing/Characters: Steve/Tony
Genre: Iron Man 2-canon divergence, first time, PWP, bottom!Tony, top!Steve, Tony POV
Rating: Explicit
Words: 5000+
Crossposting: AO3
A/N 1: This is a prequel of my front row seats series, of the first time Steve and Tony slept together.
A/N 2: At the risk of overexplaining, the title is a lyric from Breakwater's "Release the Beast", which was sampled in Daft Punk's "Robot Rock", which was used in the party scene of Iron Man 2.

Summary: On the night of his birthday party, Tony makes a move on Steve, expecting that Steve will be scared off and run away. Tony is not at all prepared for Steve to reciprocate.

( Time is Right (for You Tonight) )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

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[#260] The First Emperor (Original)

Theme Prompt: #260 – Mountains
Title: The First Emperor
Fandom: Original
Rating/Warnings: PG / None
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Earth is colonising suitable uninhabited planets, but what happens when one planet turns out to be someone else’s home?

( The First Emperor... )

Entry tags:

various links that I've been saving forever

( let's see how this goes )