lizbee | Reading

mific posting in

Thanks to mekare, who suggested a version of this prompt.

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Challenge #72: What Makes You Happy

We all need some positive vibes these days, so this month the challenge is to draw or paint anything that makes you happy, or that makes your favourite characters happy. It could be a person, a place, a garden, a cup of tea or coffee, a pet, a stack of books - anything at all!

If you're into Star Trek, Spock could be what makes Jim happy, or for Blackbeard, it might be Stede. You can draw something fannish, or something personal, as long as it makes you or your characters happy.

A round-up post for submissions to this challenge will be done at the end of July.

voleuse

( 15 books, 6 movies, 18 episodes of TV. )

Current Mood: full
Current Music: the Exolore podcast

hannah

Things which I don't get to say nearly enough: "Can you break a hundred?"

To make things as simple as possible, I got paid in cash earlier today, and to make things really simple, it was a mix of twenties and hundreds to use as few bills as possible. I'll freely and happily admit it cut down on the volume of currency being exchanged. It also struck me that while $100 is a standard unit of currency, it's an atypical one, which isn't a combination of traits I see much.

My plan was to break them into twenties if the bank was open for customers, or deposit them intact in an ATM kiosk if it wasn't. On the walk to the bank, I decided to buy a luxury imported British film magazine at Barnes & Noble, and in thinking about how to pay for it, I asked the clerk my question.

Then I said it was fine, and handed over $21 to more easily make change for the $15.50 price tag. A much more ordinary type of payment. I took the hundreds to the bank and deposited them at the ATM, as I'd planned.

And for a moment there, just a brief moment, I had a glorious glimpse into another life where I always asked that question.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Betting On Trains - Hem

mific posting in

drawesome

Congrats to those who took part in this challenge!

drawing of a group of smiling, diverse people holding up the pride flag, and smaller asexual and bisexual pennants. Two women are kissing. Text at right says: Pride - Drawesome Challenge 71.

drawing of a group of smiling, diverse people holding up the pride flag, and smaller asexual and bisexual pennants. Two women are kissing. Text at right says: Pride - Drawesome Challenge 71.

Entries submitted for Drawing Challenge #71 - Pride:

Caeneus/Riddy sketch by mekare - Kaos, G
Show Your Colours by mific - Stargate Atlantis, G
Jim by goss - Our Flag Means Death, G
Joan and Meredith by mific - Stargate Atlantis, G
Goodbye Kiss by mekare - Star Trek: Discovery, G

As usual, this challenge as well as all of our previous challenges will remain open, so you can continue to submit entries to the community any time after the Round Up date. Be sure to tag your art post with the challenge name, so that it can be added to the list.

Thanks to all who participated in this challenge! :)

musesfool

The Old Guard 2 aka 2 Old 2 Guard dropped yesterday. I enjoyed it for the most part. ( spoilers )

*

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Mets vs Brewers on tv

forestofglory

It's that time again! More thoughts on media:

The Truth Season 3 case 8 (I think, the numbering is confusing now)— this case featured Chinese style horror, and it was very creepy but in a fun way. I also enjoyed the earthly 20th inspired costumes

I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming— I’m writing about this even though I didn’t finish it because I think some of you might enjoy this. The first bit was really fun! The main character is a wildlife biology PhD student, who when she finds herself on an alien planet is upset that it's full of dinosaurs all from different time periods from each other! (Very relatable really) The book has a very fun voice. Unfortunately it ends up becoming too much sex for me.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh— A Korean inspired fantasy YA novel about a girl who chooses to sacrifice herself in place of the designated Sea God’s Bride and enters a spirit world full of mythical beings and complex politics. (I read this even though the mom is dead, and really there’s no narrative reason for it) This was lovely and very atmospheric, though the ending left me a little dissatisfied. (Content Note: Infant death)

Painted Devils by Margaret Owen— Second book in the Little Thieves trilogy. Very fun and twisty in a similar way to the 1st book.

Kpop Demon Hunters — It's an animated movie about a kpop girl band that are magical girl-sque demon hunters, there's lot of musical numbers.A Koren friend of mine described it as “an American movie set in Korea” and I think that’s spot on. She specifically complained about how the worldbuiling/theology feels too christian. It doesn't fully work through the consequences of all the violence but the flight scenes are very swooshy and fun, and I liked the themes a lot. I also really liked the female friendship aspect.

goddess47 posting in

little_details

I'm writing a story where my main character stops his friend, a dad to a 13-ish year old boy, from purchasing some ~~anime~~ manga books because the main character knows the book series is too adult (sex, violence, both) for a 13 year old. The main character then recommends a different series because the story line is more appropriate for the age of the teen.

The story is the relationship between the main character and the dad, so this is a small piece of the larger story. But I know absolutely nothing about anime (or manga, obviously!) and would appreciate some recommendations of titles that would fit those categories.

Thanks!

ETA: I'm looking for currently available titles and perhaps where they are best purchased (a bookstore, a comic book store, a specialty shop, online?)

ETA2: I'm looking US-centric here.

muccamukk

The whole Diddy thing. It doesn't matter how much proof there is.

Brad Pitt, who is known to have struck his wife and his children then perpetuated lawfare on them for years to the point where several of his kids no longer want contact with him, has the number one movie right now. Best opening weekend of his career. Most of the coverage doesn't even mention the violence.

On the anniversary of Tortoise Media publishing allegations of rape and sexual assault against Neil Gaiman, Netflix is dropping season two of The Sandman. Meanwhile, Gaiman is forcing one of his victims into arbitration. Not because she's libling him, but because she broke an NDA. Everything's gone very quiet, which I assume is what he wanted.

Some thoughts from smarter people:

Rebecca Solnit: Cynicism Is the Enemy of Action.

Tarana Burke: Tarana Burke doesn’t define #MeToo’s success by society’s failure.

Some people want to judge the movement on specific outcomes, so when a case is overturned, Burke said, “people are like, ‘Oh the #MeToo movement has failed.’” Instead, she said, such outcomes are proof of the difficulty of the work.

“It’s not about the failure of the movement; it’s the failure of the systems,” Burke explained. “These systems are not designed to help survivors, they’re not designed to give us justice, they’re not designed to end sexual violence.”

“When we bind ourselves to the outcomes of these cases, we are constantly up and down with our disappointment, our highs and lows,” Burke continued. “What they tell us is just how much work we need to change the laws and the policies but most importantly, to change the culture that creates the people who commit, who perpetrate acts of harm.”

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3110/

Starting a meta-leaderboard for tracking who holds the record for ranking behind the most distinct people on an online leaderboard.

https://xkcd.com/3110/

beatrice_otter

The hardest thing about writing Peter Wimsey fanfic is the quotes. Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane have an encyclopedic knowledge of the literature of their era (and the literature that was considered classic/important in that era), and quote it often.

Today I posted on the Gaud Squad Discord that it would be awesome if we had a searchable database of the literature and poetry that they knew or could reasonably be expected to know, searchable by keyword and theme, so that one could look things up easily. And that I would be willing to do the data entry, but had not the technical skills to set it up.
supertailz responded by setting up a Notion instance and is noodling around with the technical aspects of it, so it looks like this is happening!

The easy part is getting the literature that Peter and Harriet quote added--all I have to do is read through the books (no hardship there!) and source the quotations. Although I know there are some annotated versions floating around, and if anyone has a copy of the annotations, that would be lovely.

The hard part is getting the right mix of things that Peter and Harriet would have known. Because what is considered "classic literature" changes over time. Some things rise in acclaim, some things fall out of favor. What would be really handy is a curriculum for Eton ca. 1900 and for Oxford ca. 1910, but so far I haven't found anything. Does anybody know how to search "what literary works were considered classics in 1920"? Or have a good list of where to start?

hannah

Thinking it'd look more professional, I went with a messenger bag instead of a backpack today. As professional as it may have looked, I'm going to go back to the backpack. So much easier for so many things on so many levels, not the least of which is being able to ride a bike. Yes, I know bike messengers do it all the time. No, I'm not a professional bike messenger, and I'm unwilling to try. Especially if I'm already wearing a nice dress.

There wasn't much time to read at work, mostly because I'd been given an actual task to do: sorting through patient folders and setting aside old records to discard. Not as much fun as it'd have been if I'd had an MP3 player with me, and still satisfying to see the piles start to rise, and space in the drawers start to emerge. Where there's space in a drawer, there's objects to be discovered, and found my second office perk. A stain remover stick's not much, but it's still something I could take home with me. The first thing is a large can of cold brew coffee sitting in my fridge, waiting for a morning I need a jolt beyond all meaning.

Current Mood: exanimate
Current Music: nothing now

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

Lamentation by C.J. Sansom, the 6th Shardlake novel. This is all about the heresy hunts in the last few years before Henry VIII's death - one faction wanted to go back towards Catholicism, one wanted a radical re-imagining of religion and social structures, and if you wanted to stay in the regime's good graces, you walked the narrow path of "the King is the divinely ordained leader of the Church, and whatever he says goes." Warning for historical burning of heretics, plus canon-typical violence; also for weird religion and contentious legal cases. Matthew Shardlake still has a crush on the queen (Katherine Parr).

What I'm reading now:

My hold on Katherine Addison's The Tomb of Dragons came in, so that. Just barely started.

What I recently finished watching:

American Primeval, which, huh, I've never before encountered media in which the Mormons are the bad guys. (This is not a spoiler. It's pretty clear from the get-go, but it gets more pointed and cartoon-villainy toward the end.) Definitely violent and gory, though also it felt very clearly written to Tug The Heart Strings (and then, often, deliberately kill the character it's just tried to make you care about) at which at least for me it failed to do. I liked Abish, Two Moons, and Captain Edwin Dellinger, and James Bridger amused the hell out of me, but - I mostly enjoyed it, but I don't feel it was superlative. I got tired of the filter to wash out colors so it looked almost old-photo sepia.

I did enjoy the historical setting of the Mormon War; as I mentioned last time, I researched it for my Yuletide story, and I think it's just an interesting time, the settlement/colonization of western North America.

What I'm about to start watching:

Murderbot! We always wait until enough episodes are out that we can watch ~every other day and not have to wait.

What I'm playing now:

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, which was recommended to me as a "spooky atmospheric puzzle game", and I'm enjoying it a lot. You play as a mysterious woman who has come to a mysterious hotel full of locked doors in what might be Germany in 1963, at the request of a mysterious man for reasons of ??? I told my brother about it because it's cheap in the summer sale at Steam, and he decided it sounded good so he is playing it now, a bit behind my progress but because of the nonlinearity he's ahead of me in some things. We're trying to give each other elliptical hints when needed.

glinda

June’s album is Last Summer Effect by Last Summer Effect. This album feels a bit like a cheat, but it is an album that came out last month, and I did have it on heavy rotation for the rest of the month because I liked it. The reason it feels like a cheat is that one of our freelancer’s at work is a sound engineer and worked on it, and the reason I even heard this album is that he dropped the Spotify link in our team group chat the day it came out with a plea to share it about/give it a listen. (By his own admittance they were the band he was in at eighteen, so he might even be playing on it too.) So I stuck it on in the background while making brunch after a night in the pub, to do a colleague a solid on the stats front and ended up really liking the vibe.

It’s kinda…It’s kind of an emo album I think. A bit Hundred Reasons I think, all crunchy guitars and soulful emoting singing. It’s not really my taste in music any more, but twenty years ago it would have been absolutely my jam and I’d have loved this album. (This album came out last month, but the only reason it couldn’t have come out twenty years ago is that the band would have barely been in double digits at that point, but my point stands, it should have come out on Chemical Underground some time between 2005 and 2009 - which is not far off given that the band were officially together between 2010 and 2013!) It feels like stumbling across an album released by a tiny band I saw at a gig when I was twenty, that I saw twice, followed on MySpace and bought a hand-burned EP off the band at the back of the gig. If one of those bands had miraculously got hold of some decent production values, the harmonies and production are pretty lush - Steve does know what he’s about. It sounds like sunny hungover mornings in friends flats after gigs, or big nights out. (The smell of stale sweat, flat beer and other people’s dead cigarettes hanging in the air.) I’m really not sure if there’s actually a market for this that isn’t millennial nostalgia, I probably wouldn’t have listened to it if they weren’t friends of friends, but that could go for a great number of bands I listened to from that actual period of time too. I keep putting it on to listen to while I do other things so nostalgia or not, so clearly present day me rather likes it too.

Current Music: Last Summer Effect - Leaves

pauraque

Many years have passed since The Tombs of Atuan, and Ged is now Archmage of Roke, the highest magical authority of Earthsea. One day the young prince of Enlad arrives with ill tidings: outside the safety of Roke's impenetrable enchantments, magic is disappearing from the world. Spells and songs are forgotten and the people are falling into despair. Ged and Prince Arren set out to find the cause, a quest that will lead them to realize their own respective destinies.

Even though I have read this book many times, I still find it almost shockingly good. Sometimes when reading it I have a wild urge to shake it and demand how?! how are you so good?? But that might be a little weird so I try to restrain myself.

It's a short book, but well-paced, and I think it feels longer than it is. It is a book where not that much actually "happens" in terms of plot events, and the main things that do happen are signposted fairly early on, so they're not surprises and they're not meant to be. The characters spend a lot of time traveling over sea and land and having thoughtful conversations about the nature of life, death, power, and what they are doing; the book is content to sit with them and listen. The beauty of the language and the depth of what's discussed make it a wonderful book to sink into and feel that there is space to think.

( cut for vaguely spoilery discussion that assumes you've read the book )

This was supposed to be the final book of the series, and it was 18 years before Le Guin added book four. If I stick to my planned re-read schedule, it's going to be just about a year until I get to Tehanu. It is tempting to skip ahead! But part of why I'm doing this chronologically is that I want to look at Le Guin's development as a writer over time and how she went from being the author who wrote A Wizard of Earthsea to being the author who wrote Tehanu. We've got a ways to go yet.

runpunkrun

One of those thrillers that splits the narrative between two women—both twenty years old, working at the same grubby motel and living in the same apartment, one in 1982 and the other in 2017 trying to solve the mystery of the first one's disappearance—and their stories run so parallel they're basically interchangeable and you start wondering if maybe the author should have only told the story once. It certainly would have cut down on the amount of clunky exposition and awkward dialogue.

The thrills were not thrilling, but the mystery might have been interesting if we weren't getting it from both ends. As it is, not worth the time.

Contains: References to rape, domestic abuse, and child death; descriptions of dead bodies; ghosts.

sabotabby

Just finished: Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Yeah, I think this is my Hugo best novel pick. It was really good, really timely, fucking gross, and gave me nightmares. It's very much a confluence all of Tchaikovsky's quirks—rather darkly funny narrator, alien minds, and the particular type of resolution he goes for. All of those things happen to work for me quite a bit. This one reminded me quite a bit of Jeff Vandermeer but less nihilistic and I liked the characters more.

Currently reading: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This was the only novel on the Hugo list where I'd never heard of the author or the book. I'm loving it so far though. It's a murder mystery set in a city where only engineered seawalls stop the things from Attack on Titan from demolishing the place every wet season. A noble is murdered in a mansion (not his mansion) via a tree growing through his body. The person charged with investigating the murder is an old autistic woman who doesn't leave her house so she gets a young man to be her eyes and ears. The murder mystery structure makes it rather different from not just this batch of nominees but the other award lists in general, which is also intriguing.

sholio

Technically this was yesterday, but I climbed a hill and had an eagle fly past me. (The hill is the Bodenburg Butte in Palmer, AK.)

Photo from a high vantage point, looking down on farms and fields stretching to blue mountains with their tops covered in clouds. Small figure of an eagle is visible against the clouds.

I realize the eagle is more like a dot, but if you've tried to take a quick photo of a bird, this is without zoom (I was just trying to snap a fast shot without completely losing the experience of having an eagle flying in front of me) so it is actually very close! After it flew past, I turned around and two teenage guys were standing above me, having just descended from the top and watched it too. "Sick," one of them said in obvious delight, and we nodded at each other.

I'm down in Southcentral doing Mom Things. Mom has been moved out of the rental where she was living since last August, and she was supposed to go home via helicopter today, but the weather was a problem. But that's why I reserved two extra days at the Airbnb beforehand, just in case. Tomorrow we try again! She was very respectful of my space today - I think she recognized that I was planning on having the evening to myself tonight and it didn't happen - and I wrote both fanfic and original fiction, and took a long walk to sort some plot things out in my head. Thursday I go home, and perhaps drive the Denali Highway on my way, if the wildfire smoke isn't too bad.

musesfool

Last night I watched a cute movie on Netflix called Nonnas about that restaurant on Staten Island that hires grandmas as chefs. Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire, and Susan Sarandon play the nonnas, and Vince Vaughn plays the guy opening the restaurant. It's kind of a nice mellow detox from The Bear in terms of a bunch of Italian-Americans yelling at each other in a restaurant kitchen. *g* Plus a really horrifying rendition of capuzelle, which is a roasted (or baked?) sheep's head, which is one of those dishes I try to forget knowing about. Anyway, the restaurant still exists, and now it has grandmas from all different backgrounds who cook there (a review of the real restaurant).

Today was my Monday, and tomorrow is my Friday at work. I could get used to a 2 day work week!

*

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Sugar We're Going Down - Fall Out Boy

hannah

It was such a slow first day, midway through the afternoon, I was being paid to sit there and read. It won't be like that every day - not even other days this week - and even if it doesn't get repeated, I can savor having had it for a little while.

So far, it's a front desk job like all front desk jobs: phone calls, emails, appointments, office supplies. People called, I called them back. Documents were scanned into the computer and copies were made. The clients were largely punctual and there's no music playing. While I doubt I can get away with headphones or a radio, there's a fan I may use for white noise to make the periods of sitting around, waiting for more nothing to happen, a little easier to get through without having to fall back on monetary compensation. Even if I got through a large chunk of some reading today.

Though I suppose longhand writing notes are always an option. If I remember to bring the right notebooks tomorrow.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison

pauraque

This year

sunshine_revival is picking up where

sunshine_challenge left off. Yay! Anyone is welcome to participate with no sign-ups or obligations. There's also a friending meme!

Challenge #1
Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.
Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.

In terms of journaling, the goals question is an easy one. This year I've been aiming for posting one book review and one game review per week. I already know what July's books will be and three of those reviews are already written. I like to have a backlog so weeks don't sneak up on me and become a scramble. By my standards I'm a little behind on games (only this week's post is ready to go! gasp!) and I'm not sure yet what the other games will be. I want to do some more retro titles since I've been leaning towards modern games lately. So one July goal is to play some old games and/or finish the ones I'm in the middle of. And to figure out what I'm reading/playing for August.

That said, hitting the second half of the year always sets off my fears that I'm not doing or accomplishing "enough," whatever that means, and this year I'm trying to counter that by actively choosing to do a little less this summer and give myself a break. Just because my job is less busy in the summer doesn't mean I need to fill up all the time with more activities! I've temporarily stepped back from a few things, which is really hard for me to do because it messes with the part of my anxiety that takes the form of Must Always Show Up And Never Miss Anything. But of course it is not actually possible to always show up for everything, and never resting leads to burnout. I know that, and I'm trying to be better about acting on it.

And on that note, I'm skipping the creative prompt. Not that the mods have in any way suggested that people should or must do both prompts! I'm just patting myself on the back for not trying to overachieve. :D

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lizbee

squiddishly.net

May 2025

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Page Summary

mific in drawesome - Admin Post: Drawing Challenge #72 - What Makes You Happy
voleuse - Media Consumed: June 2025
hannah - Take my business.
mific in drawesome - Admin Post: Drawing Challenge #71 (Pride!) - Round-Up Post
musesfool - and this guy right here
forestofglory - Meida Round Up: Girls and Demons
goddess47 in little_details - Manga (Anime) series info?
muccamukk - Not a GREAT week when it comes to ending sexual violence.
xkcd_feed - Global Ranking
beatrice_otter - Wimsey Quote Database
hannah - Second day in.
isis - wednesday reads and things
glinda - June Album Choice
pauraque - The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin (1972)
runpunkrun - The Sun Down Motel, by Simone St. James
sabotabby - Reading Wednesday
sholio - Start July as you mean to go on
musesfool - a loaded god complex, cock it and pull it
hannah - July the First.
pauraque - Sunshine Revival Challenge #1

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Style: Early Edition for Five AM by winterfish

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Page generated Jul. 4th, 2025 04:44 am

Suffering from a massive compensation syndrome.

Reading

Admin Post: Drawing Challenge #72 - What Makes You Happy

Media Consumed: June 2025

Take my business.

Admin Post: Drawing Challenge #71 (Pride!) - Round-Up Post

and this guy right here

Meida Round Up: Girls and Demons

Manga (Anime) series info?

Not a GREAT week when it comes to ending sexual violence.

Global Ranking

Wimsey Quote Database

Second day in.

wednesday reads and things

June Album Choice

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin (1972)

The Sun Down Motel, by Simone St. James

Reading Wednesday

Start July as you mean to go on

a loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

July the First.

Sunshine Revival Challenge #1

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May 2025

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