Monday, December 22nd, 2025 12:12 am
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Sunday, December 21st, 2025 08:09 pm
1. It is supposed to rain heavily from Tuesday through Saturday, which of course includes Thursday, the day we were planning to go to Universal Studios. Now, if this were Disneyland we could change our reservation. Or if we already had Universal Studios annual passes, there wouldn't be reservations in the first place and we wouldn't have to do a thing. But for day tickets, if you buy them online (which is encouraged since you get a hefty discount), you can't change the day or get a refund. My ticket is a two-day pass, and I used it on the initial day and then have 90 days to use the second one, so no problem for me. But Carla's is a day ticket purchased for the 25th, and while we could just eat the cost, we've decided to tough it out and go anyway. Hopefully the rain won't be as bad that day, or it will mostly rain overnight or whatever. Anyway, we do not have any sort of rain gear other than umbrellas, so to hopefully get less wet if it does rain heavily, I ordered us rain parkas off Amazon today and they will arrive tomorrow, in plenty of time for our rainy day.
2. Speaking of ordering things online, you may remember when I decided to stock up on shoes because I didn't want to risk these ones being discontinued when I actually needed to replace them. Well, as it turns out, I think I misjudged the size when I ordered them online, and the new ones are painful (the right shoe hurts my arch and gives me shin splints). I had a vague memory that when I purchased the first pair in store that they were a wide. It was a size smaller than I usually wear, but fit well. But when I went to order them online, wide was not an option, so I thought maybe I was misremembering and these just feel wide while being a regular width shoe. Buuuuut, I think they were actually a wide, and as it turns out Adidas does sell that shoe in a wide, but it's a separate entry on the website rather than the main entry allowing you to choose both size and width. I have two pairs unworn in the closet and was able to still submit a return for those, and in fact went to FedEx today and shipped them off. The pair I already wore a fair bit was also ordered too long ago to return anyway, so I'll just donate that to Goodwill. They're almost brand new and will fit someone who is not me very well. A new pair in wide is coming tomorrow, and hopefully those will fit correctly because I don't want to wear my old shoes in the rain because they have no tread left on them and are very slippery.
3. There is a little gyro place up the street from us that has been there forever. We used to go there fairly often when it was under the original management, but in recent years it has changed hands twice and also I try to avoid things with a lot of garlic and onion, so we haven't eaten there in ages. But we decided to try it out today and while they have overly complicated the menu and added burgers and other random stuff, they do still have gyros and they are still delicious.
4. We had a delicious dinner tonight, too. We were planning to have one of the frozen Chicago deep dish pizzas Carla's aunt had ordered for us, but then Carla decided she wanted to make latkes, too, since we didn't do that last Sunday when Alex was over. So we had pizza and latkes, which is not the most traditional combination but both were very tasty.
5. I would estimate Chloe spends a good 80% of her time in the warming bed during the winter lol.
2. Speaking of ordering things online, you may remember when I decided to stock up on shoes because I didn't want to risk these ones being discontinued when I actually needed to replace them. Well, as it turns out, I think I misjudged the size when I ordered them online, and the new ones are painful (the right shoe hurts my arch and gives me shin splints). I had a vague memory that when I purchased the first pair in store that they were a wide. It was a size smaller than I usually wear, but fit well. But when I went to order them online, wide was not an option, so I thought maybe I was misremembering and these just feel wide while being a regular width shoe. Buuuuut, I think they were actually a wide, and as it turns out Adidas does sell that shoe in a wide, but it's a separate entry on the website rather than the main entry allowing you to choose both size and width. I have two pairs unworn in the closet and was able to still submit a return for those, and in fact went to FedEx today and shipped them off. The pair I already wore a fair bit was also ordered too long ago to return anyway, so I'll just donate that to Goodwill. They're almost brand new and will fit someone who is not me very well. A new pair in wide is coming tomorrow, and hopefully those will fit correctly because I don't want to wear my old shoes in the rain because they have no tread left on them and are very slippery.
3. There is a little gyro place up the street from us that has been there forever. We used to go there fairly often when it was under the original management, but in recent years it has changed hands twice and also I try to avoid things with a lot of garlic and onion, so we haven't eaten there in ages. But we decided to try it out today and while they have overly complicated the menu and added burgers and other random stuff, they do still have gyros and they are still delicious.
4. We had a delicious dinner tonight, too. We were planning to have one of the frozen Chicago deep dish pizzas Carla's aunt had ordered for us, but then Carla decided she wanted to make latkes, too, since we didn't do that last Sunday when Alex was over. So we had pizza and latkes, which is not the most traditional combination but both were very tasty.
5. I would estimate Chloe spends a good 80% of her time in the warming bed during the winter lol.
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Sunday, December 21st, 2025 03:40 pm
climbing bros, OW, 4k, m/m, omegaverse. On the side of a mountain, Davis's best friend goes into heat. I wrote for the tag "Male Omega in Heat/His Beta Best Friend Desperate to Help," and I needed something more to really get the (creative) juices flowing, so, uh, I decided to put all that mountaineering reading I did this fall to good use. Also, fun fact: the beta/omega BFFs relationship and backstory was lifted directly from a J2 HS AU I wrote over a decade ago. đ
see to him, Oasis RPF, Liam/Noel, 6200 words. In a BDSM AU, Noel does what needs doing (and has a lot of feelings about it). This is more or less my first posted BDSM AU in ten years and the first EVER in the Oasis tag other than some untagged ficlets in a larger collection from six years ago, which absolutely blows my mind. Liam has the biggest bratty sub energy of all time, how is there not tons of fic about this?!
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adastreia originally prompted something like this for the H/C Exchange back in the spring, and I talked them into doing FIAB so I could finally write it for them. I knew exactly how I wanted the RL conflict from the 1996 MTV Unplugged show (in which Liam famously claimed a sore throat, leaving Noel stuck with lead singer duties, and then heckled him from the wings) to intersect with the BDSM stuff, but I struggled quite a bit with exactly how I wanted Noel positioned in this world of normalized kink, how he had thought about it in the past (especially with respect to Liam), and so on. I had to feel my way along, and I don't feel like I ever quite figured it out. IDK, more to unpack there. I also ended up writing no actual sex, and it occurred to me long after works went live that I should probably downgrade the rating from Explicit to Mature, lol.
I definitely feel like there's more juice to this AU. I would love to write a sequel. Also other people should write several hundred k of gcest BDSM AUs for me to read, please and thank you.
see to him, Oasis RPF, Liam/Noel, 6200 words. In a BDSM AU, Noel does what needs doing (and has a lot of feelings about it). This is more or less my first posted BDSM AU in ten years and the first EVER in the Oasis tag other than some untagged ficlets in a larger collection from six years ago, which absolutely blows my mind. Liam has the biggest bratty sub energy of all time, how is there not tons of fic about this?!
adastreia originally prompted something like this for the H/C Exchange back in the spring, and I talked them into doing FIAB so I could finally write it for them. I knew exactly how I wanted the RL conflict from the 1996 MTV Unplugged show (in which Liam famously claimed a sore throat, leaving Noel stuck with lead singer duties, and then heckled him from the wings) to intersect with the BDSM stuff, but I struggled quite a bit with exactly how I wanted Noel positioned in this world of normalized kink, how he had thought about it in the past (especially with respect to Liam), and so on. I had to feel my way along, and I don't feel like I ever quite figured it out. IDK, more to unpack there. I also ended up writing no actual sex, and it occurred to me long after works went live that I should probably downgrade the rating from Explicit to Mature, lol.I definitely feel like there's more juice to this AU. I would love to write a sequel. Also other people should write several hundred k of gcest BDSM AUs for me to read, please and thank you.
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Sunday, December 21st, 2025 10:33 pm
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ficinabox author reveals have happened! And here is the first of the two stories I wrote.I wanted to write something set in the later episodes, and
gavilan had asked for smut, so I was brainstorming and rewatching things to find a suitable spot to make it happen. And in episode 31, during the Nightmare Master arc, there's this moment when Shen Wei, chained to the Sky Pillar in Dixing, can feel Zhao Yunlan's energies in turmoil even though Zhao Yunlan is far away in Haixing. So I thought, what if ...? I'd always meant to do something with the Nightmare Master's power anyway, because dream manipulation has so much potential! Also gavilan said they like angst, and what is angstier than the whole white energy plan? So I had an opportunity for canon divergence with larger impact ... *g*With many thanks to
china_shop, as usual, for beta-reading. ♥**
To Make a Dream (9270 words)
Fandom: éé | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Mature
Relationship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, brief appearances by Ye Zun and the SID
Content Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Related, Episode 31, Nightmare Master arc, Dream Sharing, Dixing Powers, Black and White Energy, First Kiss, First Time, Pre-Fix-It
Summary:
"You took a while to wake," Shen Wei said gently. "I brought you home." He ran a hand through his hair. "I needed rest, too."
So that was the fantasy: something Zhao Yunlan could almost, almost believe. His heart clenched. Suddenly he understood Zhu Hong's temptation to keep dreaming. But the true Shen Wei was still missing. Zhao Yunlan needed to wake up for real.
Sunday, December 21st, 2025 03:08 pm
Making Memories (1228 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leliana/Female Tabris (Dragon Age)
Characters: Female Tabris (Dragon Age), Leliana (Dragon Age), Original Child Character(s)
Additional Tags: The Joining Exchange, Mortality, Motherhood, One Shot, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC, Slice of Life
Summary: It was nothing but a quiet moment just like any other before or after it. There was nothing particularly special or memorable about it, and yet for a few minutes it was everything.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leliana/Female Tabris (Dragon Age)
Characters: Female Tabris (Dragon Age), Leliana (Dragon Age), Original Child Character(s)
Additional Tags: The Joining Exchange, Mortality, Motherhood, One Shot, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC, Slice of Life
Summary: It was nothing but a quiet moment just like any other before or after it. There was nothing particularly special or memorable about it, and yet for a few minutes it was everything.
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Sunday, December 21st, 2025 12:00 pm
There's something magical about the longest night of the year.
Happy Solstice!
Happy Solstice!
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Sunday, December 21st, 2025 12:05 am
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Sunday, December 21st, 2025 02:50 am
Continuing on my previously posted thoughts about episode 1x05, I just finished watching episode 1x07.
( Spoilers under the cut. )
Yes, I'm well aware what time it is. I couldn't sleep, though, so I figured I might as well accomplish something while I was wide awake at 3am.
( Spoilers under the cut. )
Yes, I'm well aware what time it is. I couldn't sleep, though, so I figured I might as well accomplish something while I was wide awake at 3am.
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Saturday, December 20th, 2025 03:34 pm
1. We decided to skip Disneyland today due to the crowd levels, and instead we walked up to a little restaurant down the street from us that we recently saw on a "best breakfast burritos in LA" video. We'd eaten there before, but not for breakfast, so we'd been meaning to check it out. Carla actually went up there herself a couple times recently for breakfast burritos and confirmed they were very good, but this was my first time. It was indeed very good!
2. While I was walking back from the farmers market this morning, I saw some signs by the college across the street from us saying there was a holiday art fair this weekend. I didn't stop to check it out then, but I wanted to take another walk this afternoon, so I popped in to check it out. They had lots of neat stuff, though most of it was not anything I'd have a use for. I did get a couple hand blown glass ornaments, though.
I got the purple one on the bottom row left, and the multicolored one on the top row next to the yellow/orange one. I went without Carla today, but we might go back together tomorrow so she can look around, too.
3. We recently found this new to us variety of apples called Sugar Bee and they are so good! Really good texture and they have such a good sweet apple taste.
4. Gotta love those Gemma profile shots.
2. While I was walking back from the farmers market this morning, I saw some signs by the college across the street from us saying there was a holiday art fair this weekend. I didn't stop to check it out then, but I wanted to take another walk this afternoon, so I popped in to check it out. They had lots of neat stuff, though most of it was not anything I'd have a use for. I did get a couple hand blown glass ornaments, though.
I got the purple one on the bottom row left, and the multicolored one on the top row next to the yellow/orange one. I went without Carla today, but we might go back together tomorrow so she can look around, too.
3. We recently found this new to us variety of apples called Sugar Bee and they are so good! Really good texture and they have such a good sweet apple taste.
4. Gotta love those Gemma profile shots.
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Saturday, December 20th, 2025 11:49 am
Recently Finished
Strange Pictures
I was going to hold off on reading the novel version of this until the final volume(s) of the manga are released, since I've already read three volumes of the manga, but it came up again as recommended, this time on Hoopla, so I went for it. I do think Uketsu's novels work better as manga. Inserting the illustrations in the novel version feels more repetitive, whereas since the manga is all pictures, having the characters refer back to stuff feels more natural. I'm still going to read the rest of the manga when it's released (Strange Houses was five volumes, but Strange Pictures feels like it could be just four, so the next one might be the final one), just to see if there are any major differences. Anyway, I enjoyed this one but I do like Strange Houses better.
The Bletchley Riddle
Middle grade book about a girl who is trying to investigate her mother's disappearance. When she runs away from the man her grandmother hired to take her to live with her in America, she instead goes to live with her brother, who is working at Bletchley Park as a code breaker. The book is told in alternating POV chapters between brother and sister, and the audiobook had two narrators. I liked it a lot.
Murder on Platform Four
Another Tate and Bell mystery. These are very quick reads.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Speaking of quick reads, this one was super short. I got the audiobook in a sale and figured I'd check it out. It was only about five hours long. I did like the narrator, decent Japanese pronunciation, but the book itself was pretty dull. I think I might enjoy this okay as a manga, where you can just glance at the pictures of food and be on your way, but I don't need to listen to long descriptions. And a lot of what I like about mysteries is the process of the characters finding clues and working things out, but the way this is written is each customer's request is broken into two chapters, one where they come to the restaurant and tell them what kind of food they are looking to recreate. Then the second chapter is the food being presented to them. There is some exposition about how the guy figured out what they were remembering and how to find it, but it wasn't at all satisfying in any sort of mystery way. There are several more books in the series, but I'm not going to bother with them. It's not bad, just not for me.
Maps of the Disney Parks: Charting 60 Years from California to Shanghai
I bought this at Disneyland the other day. Nice coffee table book of maps of all the Disney parks currently in existence, with a small amount of text sprinkled throughout. I noticed several other reviewers on GR mentioned what I was feeling, which is that while this is nice, it's not quite what I was expecting or wanted from the title, which was the actual park maps. This has a few, but the vast majority of the maps are concept drawings and things like that. I would a book that compared park maps over the years.
My Home Hero vol. 18-19
Strange Pictures
I was going to hold off on reading the novel version of this until the final volume(s) of the manga are released, since I've already read three volumes of the manga, but it came up again as recommended, this time on Hoopla, so I went for it. I do think Uketsu's novels work better as manga. Inserting the illustrations in the novel version feels more repetitive, whereas since the manga is all pictures, having the characters refer back to stuff feels more natural. I'm still going to read the rest of the manga when it's released (Strange Houses was five volumes, but Strange Pictures feels like it could be just four, so the next one might be the final one), just to see if there are any major differences. Anyway, I enjoyed this one but I do like Strange Houses better.
The Bletchley Riddle
Middle grade book about a girl who is trying to investigate her mother's disappearance. When she runs away from the man her grandmother hired to take her to live with her in America, she instead goes to live with her brother, who is working at Bletchley Park as a code breaker. The book is told in alternating POV chapters between brother and sister, and the audiobook had two narrators. I liked it a lot.
Murder on Platform Four
Another Tate and Bell mystery. These are very quick reads.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Speaking of quick reads, this one was super short. I got the audiobook in a sale and figured I'd check it out. It was only about five hours long. I did like the narrator, decent Japanese pronunciation, but the book itself was pretty dull. I think I might enjoy this okay as a manga, where you can just glance at the pictures of food and be on your way, but I don't need to listen to long descriptions. And a lot of what I like about mysteries is the process of the characters finding clues and working things out, but the way this is written is each customer's request is broken into two chapters, one where they come to the restaurant and tell them what kind of food they are looking to recreate. Then the second chapter is the food being presented to them. There is some exposition about how the guy figured out what they were remembering and how to find it, but it wasn't at all satisfying in any sort of mystery way. There are several more books in the series, but I'm not going to bother with them. It's not bad, just not for me.
Maps of the Disney Parks: Charting 60 Years from California to Shanghai
I bought this at Disneyland the other day. Nice coffee table book of maps of all the Disney parks currently in existence, with a small amount of text sprinkled throughout. I noticed several other reviewers on GR mentioned what I was feeling, which is that while this is nice, it's not quite what I was expecting or wanted from the title, which was the actual park maps. This has a few, but the vast majority of the maps are concept drawings and things like that. I would a book that compared park maps over the years.
My Home Hero vol. 18-19
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Saturday, December 20th, 2025 09:53 am
This is the year-end category where I'm least likely to want to change my answers in the next week and a half, lol, so here we go.
Favorite new songs/albums of the year
- Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 by Lord Huron. Great vibes, a great progression, only one skip (âDigging Up the Pastâ). Dreamy and sad, suffused with existential horror, just weird enough both lyrically and musically. I wasnât sure what I wanted from the new album, but this was exactly it. âWho Laughs Lastâ is probably my song of the year.
- Mayhem by Lady Gaga. When you're sixteen years into your career and can make a banger album like that this fits right in with your classics!!! The first six or seven songs in particular are an amazing run. âPerfect Celebrityâ is probably my favorite, but itâs hard to choose.
- All the live tracks from the Oasis tour. I think this is the first officially released live version of Bring It On Down ever, and Wonderwall is the best live version since⊠idk, the one from Knebworth 1996 maybe? Or maybe ever? And this live version of Slide Away has finally brought me around on that song. Incredible stuff. (Full live tour album when???)
- "Van Horn" by Saint Motel. One of those songs I didn't really appreciate until I heard it live. Great fun. Also a couple of songs off their new album from the spring (as opposed to their new album for the fall).
- New Candys, which I stumbled across on Bandcamp. I got hooked on their single "Regicide", and the accompanying album The Uncanny Extravaganza is ideal "drowning out external noise" work music.
- All That We Imagine Is the Light, the new Garbage album. Some of the writing is a little dodgy, honestly, but the vibe is great. No Gods No Masters is still my favorite, though.
Disappointments
- I wish I liked Miley's new album more than I do. The tracks I like best are mostly her doing Lady Gaga, and that's not really what I go to Miley for.
- I discovered Dorothy Martin of the band Dorothy has gone full born-again Christian and is now giving interviews about spiritual warfare and the like. Bummer. We'll always have ROCKISDEAD, I guess.
Favorite new-to-me songs/albums
- This year I got really into the Monnow Valley and Sawmills versions of Definitely Maybe, which were released for the 30th anniversary last year. In some ways I like them better than the official album, or at least they've made me appreciate the official album more. Sad Song with young Liam on vocals is incredible, and Iâm sad the official version left out that great electric guitar (bass?) hook.
- At the beginning of the year I had a month or so of listening almost exclusively to Doechii (mostly Alligator Bites Never Heal) and GloRilla (mostly Glorious and Anyways, Life's Great). Good times. TGIF is an all-timer.
Stuff I was really into for a hot minute and/or that I want to explore further
- Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo through their collab album In the Earth Again. I love the contrast of the menacing electric guitars and Pedigo's contemplative, melancholy acoustic.
- Ethel Cain, maybe? Or maybe I just like âTempestâ a lot.
- The singles from Charli XCXâs upcoming Wuthering Heights-themed album. Brat didnât do anything for me, but these are very much my jam. I love when a pop artist goes weird, like she does on âHouse.â My most anticipated release of 2026.
- That new Rosalia album. I think I need to spend more time with it to fully appreciate it. âBerghainâ is a hell of a track, though.
- Jonah Kagen, mostly that single âGod Needs the Devil,â which is exactly the kind of rootsy bitterness I like sometimes. However, his full album later in the year gave me bad politics vibes, always a hazard with Americana and country artists, so I donât know that Iâll explore him further.
Some other favorite tracks from this year
âProblemsâ by Yonaka. That last bit leading into the chorus for the first time!! Gives me shivers.
âThe Fate of Opheliaâ by Taylor Swift. This song is NONSENSE but itâs so catchy.
âLuckyâ by Renee Rapp from the Now You See Me 3 soundtrack. A classic bop. Apparently it didnât even chart, which surprises me, but the charts were wacky this year.
âSong for Henryâ by Loren Kramer from the soundtrack for On Swift Horses. You know, the angsty heartbreaker song playing over Julius and Henryâs first sex scene.
Old Favorites - stuff I already loved and continued to listen to a bunch in 2025.
Kendrick Lamar! His Super Bowl show reignited all my enthusiasm. I watched that thing so many times. This coincided with my Doechii/Glorilla phase at the beginning of th eyear.
Miley Cyrus's older stuff, especially her 2023 album Endless Summer Vacation. Iâd have said Plastic Hearts was the one I really loved, and yet at this point I think Iâve actually listened to ESV more times. I guess maybe itâs the right mood for more situations than Plastic Hearts. It kind of wears down towards the end, and I find the last two songs unlistenable, but until that point itâs a basically flawless execution of the thing itâs choosing to be.
Oasis, lol. They were my top artist of the year yet again. Mostly the Definitely Maybe anniversary release and the live tracks, as mentioned above, but also according to Tidal I listened to the Knebworth 1996 live album a lot. I donât even remember this.
Best lines - New or old, on their own or combined with the music:
- I got a burning feeling deep inside of me / And donât know where to put it (âWho Laughs Lastâ by Lord Huron)
- You said you really donât dream anymore (âLife is Strangeâ by Lord Huron)
âŠI probably just need to do a whole post about this album, huh. Does anyone else here listen to them?
Favorite new songs/albums of the year
- Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 by Lord Huron. Great vibes, a great progression, only one skip (âDigging Up the Pastâ). Dreamy and sad, suffused with existential horror, just weird enough both lyrically and musically. I wasnât sure what I wanted from the new album, but this was exactly it. âWho Laughs Lastâ is probably my song of the year.
- Mayhem by Lady Gaga. When you're sixteen years into your career and can make a banger album like that this fits right in with your classics!!! The first six or seven songs in particular are an amazing run. âPerfect Celebrityâ is probably my favorite, but itâs hard to choose.
- All the live tracks from the Oasis tour. I think this is the first officially released live version of Bring It On Down ever, and Wonderwall is the best live version since⊠idk, the one from Knebworth 1996 maybe? Or maybe ever? And this live version of Slide Away has finally brought me around on that song. Incredible stuff. (Full live tour album when???)
- "Van Horn" by Saint Motel. One of those songs I didn't really appreciate until I heard it live. Great fun. Also a couple of songs off their new album from the spring (as opposed to their new album for the fall).
- New Candys, which I stumbled across on Bandcamp. I got hooked on their single "Regicide", and the accompanying album The Uncanny Extravaganza is ideal "drowning out external noise" work music.
- All That We Imagine Is the Light, the new Garbage album. Some of the writing is a little dodgy, honestly, but the vibe is great. No Gods No Masters is still my favorite, though.
Disappointments
- I wish I liked Miley's new album more than I do. The tracks I like best are mostly her doing Lady Gaga, and that's not really what I go to Miley for.
- I discovered Dorothy Martin of the band Dorothy has gone full born-again Christian and is now giving interviews about spiritual warfare and the like. Bummer. We'll always have ROCKISDEAD, I guess.
Favorite new-to-me songs/albums
- This year I got really into the Monnow Valley and Sawmills versions of Definitely Maybe, which were released for the 30th anniversary last year. In some ways I like them better than the official album, or at least they've made me appreciate the official album more. Sad Song with young Liam on vocals is incredible, and Iâm sad the official version left out that great electric guitar (bass?) hook.
- At the beginning of the year I had a month or so of listening almost exclusively to Doechii (mostly Alligator Bites Never Heal) and GloRilla (mostly Glorious and Anyways, Life's Great). Good times. TGIF is an all-timer.
Stuff I was really into for a hot minute and/or that I want to explore further
- Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo through their collab album In the Earth Again. I love the contrast of the menacing electric guitars and Pedigo's contemplative, melancholy acoustic.
- Ethel Cain, maybe? Or maybe I just like âTempestâ a lot.
- The singles from Charli XCXâs upcoming Wuthering Heights-themed album. Brat didnât do anything for me, but these are very much my jam. I love when a pop artist goes weird, like she does on âHouse.â My most anticipated release of 2026.
- That new Rosalia album. I think I need to spend more time with it to fully appreciate it. âBerghainâ is a hell of a track, though.
- Jonah Kagen, mostly that single âGod Needs the Devil,â which is exactly the kind of rootsy bitterness I like sometimes. However, his full album later in the year gave me bad politics vibes, always a hazard with Americana and country artists, so I donât know that Iâll explore him further.
Some other favorite tracks from this year
âProblemsâ by Yonaka. That last bit leading into the chorus for the first time!! Gives me shivers.
âThe Fate of Opheliaâ by Taylor Swift. This song is NONSENSE but itâs so catchy.
âLuckyâ by Renee Rapp from the Now You See Me 3 soundtrack. A classic bop. Apparently it didnât even chart, which surprises me, but the charts were wacky this year.
âSong for Henryâ by Loren Kramer from the soundtrack for On Swift Horses. You know, the angsty heartbreaker song playing over Julius and Henryâs first sex scene.
Old Favorites - stuff I already loved and continued to listen to a bunch in 2025.
Kendrick Lamar! His Super Bowl show reignited all my enthusiasm. I watched that thing so many times. This coincided with my Doechii/Glorilla phase at the beginning of th eyear.
Miley Cyrus's older stuff, especially her 2023 album Endless Summer Vacation. Iâd have said Plastic Hearts was the one I really loved, and yet at this point I think Iâve actually listened to ESV more times. I guess maybe itâs the right mood for more situations than Plastic Hearts. It kind of wears down towards the end, and I find the last two songs unlistenable, but until that point itâs a basically flawless execution of the thing itâs choosing to be.
Oasis, lol. They were my top artist of the year yet again. Mostly the Definitely Maybe anniversary release and the live tracks, as mentioned above, but also according to Tidal I listened to the Knebworth 1996 live album a lot. I donât even remember this.
Best lines - New or old, on their own or combined with the music:
- I got a burning feeling deep inside of me / And donât know where to put it (âWho Laughs Lastâ by Lord Huron)
- You said you really donât dream anymore (âLife is Strangeâ by Lord Huron)
âŠI probably just need to do a whole post about this album, huh. Does anyone else here listen to them?
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Saturday, December 20th, 2025 05:43 pm
I received three fantastic gifts for ficinabox - what a bounty! Time got away from me; I've been meaning share this this sooner, but here they finally are:
ficinabox - what a bounty! Time got away from me; I've been meaning share this this sooner, but here they finally are:- A wonderful Grimm fic where everyone comes together to shape the future of the Wesen world - I really wish the show had gone in a direction like this, instead of insisting the Wesen world had to keep hidden:
Clock Strikes Midnight (4204 words) [Teen]
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Relationship: Nick Burkhardt/Sean Renard/Juliette Silverton
Characters: Nick Burkhardt, Sean Renard, Juliette Silverton, Rosalee Calvert, Alexander
Content Tags: background Rosalee Calvert/Monroe, Wesen & Grimm & Royals Politics, Plans to make the Wesen world go public, Politics, Worldbuilding, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Voice of Reason Rosalee Calvert
Summary: "Revelation is inevitable. Sooner or later, we will be found out and our secrets dragged out of the shadows and into the light."
At a potluck picnic in the park, Portland's Wesen gather to decide their futureâand that of the world. - A delightful Grimm fic in an unconventional format - this one's from a Wesen textbook! I'm so fascinated with all the bits and pieces of history we got over the course of the show, and I love getting more of that!
A Historical Perspective on the Gesetzbuch Ehrenkodex (6082 words) [Teen]
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Content Tags: Wesen & Grimm & Royals Politics, In-Universe Textbook, Pre-Canon, In-Universe Documents
Summary: Being the introduction to a textbook on the history of a complex time in the wesen world. - And an amazing gift in a Yuletide-rare fandom where two characters I've been wanting more interaction for get to have a great missing scene together that I wish had happened just like this in canon:
A Private Audience (1265 words) [Teen]
Fandom: Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling
Relationships: Kashtiliash/Kathryn Hollard, Raupasha & Kashtiliash, Raupasha/Kenneth Hollard
Characters: Kashtiliash, Raupasha, Kathryn Hollard
Content Tags: Missing Scene, Not Canon Incompliant, Uptimers vs Downtimers, Hollard Family Tropism for Royalty
Summary: Raupasha seeks Kashtiliash's permission this time...
Saturday, December 20th, 2025 02:06 pm
I have no idea where December went! On the one hand, yay, I'm done with work now for this year! On the other, what do you mean, Yuletide reveals are in a few days?! *flails*
So before that happens, a catch-up update!
So before that happens, a catch-up update!
- Time keeps slipping; I ended up putting a santa hat on my default icon a week late, and my Christmas decorations are still very partial. It's one of those years ...
- ficinabox had multiple delays and ate into the Yuletide period more than I'd expected, after rarepairexchange had already had more delays than expected, eating into the ficinabox period. (Because I really am constitutionally incapable of letting a story go until it's gone live, I will keep working on it and often expanding it ...) So I probably should try and stick mostly to exchanges with a fixed reveals date next year - if those have delays, they tend to be small ones.
- I got a whole bounty of gifts for ficinabox - I'll post about that separately - and I wrote two stories myself! I don't think I'm terribly anonymous; it's fairly easy to tell which are mine. But I'll talk about that after author reveals. *g*
- Right now I'm working on Yuletide, being chased by BEARS - I'm editing and (yes) expanding my assignment, and fiddling with a treat. I'm really having fun with my assignment! But fighting a bit with the narrative voice; I may end up making changes there after all.
- Over at sid_guardian, our slo-mo rewatch (half an episode per week) is going strong! We're having fantastic discussions every week, and it's so much fun. And we're only at episode 8 (taxi scene and Zhao Yunlan's disaster flat coming up this weekend!), so we're going to be at this for some time. :D
- Recently I've been making spinach eggdrop soup, which is delicious! It's mainly this recipe, though I've made a few changes. (I boil the broth for 10 minutes with chopped ginger and scallion, which makes it super flavourful, then add the cornstarch, then the eggs. And I don't bother with blanching the spinach - I just dump it straight into the soup after the eggs are in. Also works with frozen!)
- How's everyone else doing? *sprays BEAR repellent all around*
Friday, December 19th, 2025 11:34 pm
Saturday, December 20th, 2025 12:22 am
Okay, let's figure out my plans for the weekend, shall we?
All of my big bills (hotel, storage unit, phone, PO Box) have already been paid, so unless something very unexpected happens I don't have to worry about any major expenses the rest of the year other than a vet bill on the 29th. So that's definitely something to be happy about, as it means I can focus on other things this weekend.
I think my plan is to get up tomorrow morning and do my usual weekend cleaning. That way, I can get all of those things done first thing. I'll wash clothes, do some vacuuming/dusting/mopping/etc., and then hopefully by mid-afternoon I'll be free to work on other things.
By which I mainly mean writing as many fics for Yuletide as I possibly can, to be fair. That said, I still need to watch this week episode of both The Mighty Nein and Critical Role, so I'd like to get that done tomorrow as well.
That way I can spend pretty much all of Sunday writing. đ€đ»
All of my big bills (hotel, storage unit, phone, PO Box) have already been paid, so unless something very unexpected happens I don't have to worry about any major expenses the rest of the year other than a vet bill on the 29th. So that's definitely something to be happy about, as it means I can focus on other things this weekend.
I think my plan is to get up tomorrow morning and do my usual weekend cleaning. That way, I can get all of those things done first thing. I'll wash clothes, do some vacuuming/dusting/mopping/etc., and then hopefully by mid-afternoon I'll be free to work on other things.
By which I mainly mean writing as many fics for Yuletide as I possibly can, to be fair. That said, I still need to watch this week episode of both The Mighty Nein and Critical Role, so I'd like to get that done tomorrow as well.
That way I can spend pretty much all of Sunday writing. đ€đ»
Friday, December 19th, 2025 06:53 pm
1. Finished up another puzzle today. It's Santa Vader lol.
2. We decided to renew our Knott's annual passes after all. I knew it was cheap but had forgotten just how cheap, but then I've been seeing ads saying it's only $118, and that really is so cheap that even if we only go a handful of times it's worth it. And then when I went to actually do the renewal it turns out that the renew price is even cheaper! It was only $99! And the way their parking pass works is it's an add-on rather than being a higher level of pass, so we only have to buy parking for one pass since we always go together.
3. Not only is it the weekend but I'm now looking at two weeks in a row with four day weekends. And I was able to get off early today, too.
4. I found out the amount for my bonus today. It's quite a bit higher than the last couple times because the company performance overall was higher and also my salary is higher and it's based on a percentage of that. Next time's will be lower because this time I was still an area manager during most of the scope period (the December pay out is for April through October) and the percentage for store management is higher than for the rest of HQ.
5. We ordered from Coco Ichibanya tonight and now I am full of delicious curry.
6. Tuxie's looking handsome.
2. We decided to renew our Knott's annual passes after all. I knew it was cheap but had forgotten just how cheap, but then I've been seeing ads saying it's only $118, and that really is so cheap that even if we only go a handful of times it's worth it. And then when I went to actually do the renewal it turns out that the renew price is even cheaper! It was only $99! And the way their parking pass works is it's an add-on rather than being a higher level of pass, so we only have to buy parking for one pass since we always go together.
3. Not only is it the weekend but I'm now looking at two weeks in a row with four day weekends. And I was able to get off early today, too.
4. I found out the amount for my bonus today. It's quite a bit higher than the last couple times because the company performance overall was higher and also my salary is higher and it's based on a percentage of that. Next time's will be lower because this time I was still an area manager during most of the scope period (the December pay out is for April through October) and the percentage for store management is higher than for the rest of HQ.
5. We ordered from Coco Ichibanya tonight and now I am full of delicious curry.
6. Tuxie's looking handsome.
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Friday, December 19th, 2025 05:30 pm
Of the many pre-Christmas stressful things this year, an unexpected one is ficinabox. And I didn't even participate this year! But I usually try to read and comment widely before creator reveals and this year the timing was not great for me.
I did find many fanworks to enjoy and loved many of them, and here are some of my favorites. Several of them can be enjoyed fandom-blind.
This Ao3 Author's Curse Has Got Hands
Dream SMP, 5.6k, Phil & Techno, urban fantasy AU, A/N format
Summary: Fanfic author Technoblade has been pre-writing and is excited to start posting his whumptober longfic, his trusty beta Philza at his side. Unfortunately for his posting schedule, the Ao3 author's curse hits him hard, fast, and with an intensity never before seen. Really it's starting to seem like he's cursed.
Does this mean that he gives up posting his fic?
Nah nah nah nah nah he's got this handled. Don't even worry about it. Chapters will be posted come hell, high water, hospital visit, house invasions, eviction, mob action, emergency road trip, or kidnapping. Technoblade never dies, and he never misses an update.
Why I love it: A story told entirely in author's notes: the format works fantastic, the character voice is impeccable, and most importantly it's hilarious.
Canon knowledge required: Definitely not (tested on my gf.)
( More FIAB fics: 3x Hermitcraft, 1x original, 1x All For The Game, 1.5x Nirvana in Fire, 1x Nirvana in Fire 2 )
ficinabox. And I didn't even participate this year! But I usually try to read and comment widely before creator reveals and this year the timing was not great for me. I did find many fanworks to enjoy and loved many of them, and here are some of my favorites. Several of them can be enjoyed fandom-blind.
This Ao3 Author's Curse Has Got Hands
Dream SMP, 5.6k, Phil & Techno, urban fantasy AU, A/N format
Summary: Fanfic author Technoblade has been pre-writing and is excited to start posting his whumptober longfic, his trusty beta Philza at his side. Unfortunately for his posting schedule, the Ao3 author's curse hits him hard, fast, and with an intensity never before seen. Really it's starting to seem like he's cursed.
Does this mean that he gives up posting his fic?
Nah nah nah nah nah he's got this handled. Don't even worry about it. Chapters will be posted come hell, high water, hospital visit, house invasions, eviction, mob action, emergency road trip, or kidnapping. Technoblade never dies, and he never misses an update.
Why I love it: A story told entirely in author's notes: the format works fantastic, the character voice is impeccable, and most importantly it's hilarious.
Canon knowledge required: Definitely not (tested on my gf.)
( More FIAB fics: 3x Hermitcraft, 1x original, 1x All For The Game, 1.5x Nirvana in Fire, 1x Nirvana in Fire 2 )
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Friday, December 19th, 2025 09:54 pm
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Thursday, December 18th, 2025 10:32 pm
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Thursday, December 18th, 2025 07:27 pm
1. I had a meeting scheduled at 2pm today and then one at 4pm, and was expecting to have to stay at work until after the second meeting was over, but we moved the earlier one up a bit and were done by like 2:15, so I decided to go home and take the second meeting from there. Traffic is a bit better at that time, plus it meant once the meeting was over I was already home and could just get on with my evening, so that was nice.
2. This cutie guy snuggled with me while I had my meeting this afternoon. :)
2. This cutie guy snuggled with me while I had my meeting this afternoon. :)
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