heidi | Pajama Club

Mostly to create some space in my head. But holy shit, Minnesotans, you are extraordinary and we see you. Across the fucking ocean, we see you.

( Cut for US politics, violence )

How To Help If You Are Outside Minnesota by Naomi Kritzer

james_davis_nicoll

Su Lin dutifully accepts a social obligation, only to find herself embroiled in another murder and further colonial machinations.

The Angsana Tree Mystery (Crown Colony, volume 8) by Ovidia Yu

settiai

Back before the holidays, I didn't stay up to watch the very last episode of Critical Role for 2025. Despite knowing damn well how hard it is for me to catch up if I don't watch the episode as it airs, I figured that I was going to have almost a month until the next episode and would be off work for a decent chunk of that time. It would be fine. I'd definitely find the time to watch one single episode before the next one aired.

... yeah, that didn't happen. 🙃

The show picked back up last week, and I couldn't watch live because I still hadn't watched the previous episode. And then last night I couldn't watch because I was two episodes behind by that point. So I now have three episodes to watch, which is a whopping 10 hours and 17 minutes (plus an additional 30 minutes from the Cooldown for the two episodes that have one).

This happens every time. I don't know why I'm remotely surprised. There's a reason that I intentionally fuck up my sleep schedule every Thursday, because I know myself well enough to know there's not a chance in hell that I'll actually watch the episode before the next one airs if I don't force myself to stay up and watch it live. And then I end up 2, or 3, or 5, or 7 episodes behind and have to work my butt off to catch up.

On that note, I'm going to do my best to set aside some time this weekend to watch at least two of the three episodes that I'm behind on (and maybe even part of the third if I can manage it). I'm pretty sure that I won't be going into the office next week, so hopefully I'll be able to watch the third episode here and there between phone calls at work if I'm working remotely all week like I expect.

My Everchanging Moods thoughtful

devilc

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princessofgeeks

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My Everchanging Moods tired

summerstorm posting in

journalsandplanners

Hi! I'm new to this community, here from a

sixbeforelunch post. I've been using planners on and off for many years now, the main difference year to year being whether I found a planner I could afford and liked enough, because I'm shallow as hell. Having an actual planner works much better for me than setting up weekly spreads; I still get the Monday ritual of decorating the week's pages, but I don't have to fuck around with a ruler (for the most part).

Last year I found and began using a weekly spread planner from Kokonote, and got really into stickers.

( many pictures under the cut )

This year I swapped to a page-a-day model, and I'm still learning what does and doesn't work for me in terms of decoration. Each page has a checklist on the side and a portion that's dotted. This is what I've done so far:

( many pictures under the cut )

EDIT to say two things: most of my stickers are from TEDi, who have a veritable fucking mess of a corner that I often just crouch and make my way through trying to drop as few things as possible off their hooks; and I am also on Finch, if anyone else uses that? It's been a really nice companion to the planner this year. My friend code is LWQMXDV9J56. I think you get a ghostie micropet if you sign up and tell them I sent you, and I get app currency or something I think.

goodbyebird

The Black Phone is a film that's vaguely been on my list of things to see for a few years now, but I never got around to it. This vid slaps though! Highly recommend watching with the lights dimmed and headphones on. Such good build and atmosphere.

House by

evewithanapple.

Also, while I'm not in Heated Rivalry fandom, I am a fan of excellent vidders. And I know for a fact these vidders are most excellent. *firm nod*

Gimme Sympathy by

tafadhali.
We're so close to something better left unknown

Blow by

bingeling.
You taste like cigarettes.

Go get your boys!

(and I won't do today's Snowflake Challenge, but you're all awesome and enrich my life in a myriad of ways ❤️)

emrinalexander

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spikedluv

I hit Walmart while I was downtown, but only because they were running out of dog treats at the garage. (Pip’s father has taken on the task of providing treats for the dogs at the garage ever since we had our first dog, Shiloh, and Pip started taking him up as a puppy. But his dad was sick with bronchitis and missed a whole week and didn’t bring in anything this week when he came back, hence the need for me to pick something up.)

I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, emptied the dishwasher and ran another load, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter. We had spaghetti for supper. I also mixed up a meatloaf for tomorrow’s supper.

I got some more writing done! ~800 words today. I’m currently at ~8,000 on this fic and will easily make the 10,000 requirement for SFBB. I watched Best Medicine and some House Hunters International.

Temps started out at 34.3(F), which was a huge surprise! (The TWC app said it was going to be 18 for the overnight low and 33 for the high, which we’ve already exceeded.) It dropped a bit to 33.1 before I left. and reached 38.7.

The forecast for the snow storm has changed, but not for the better. Now they’re calling for 5-8" during the day Sunday, 5-8" overnight, and 1-3" on Monday. Really DNW! *cries*

I’ve heard that this storm is supposed to be massive and hit the south pretty hard, as well. I hope everyone in the path of this thing stays safe and warm.

Mom Update:

Mom was doing okay; tired, as usual. The slightest effort tuckers her out, which is really sad to see. We ate our lunch together. A friend of hers showed up while I was there and even stayed after I left. (She had to move her car so I could get out of the driveway, and sometimes she would take that as an excuse to leave, but she didn’t today.)

Sister S called while I was there and told mom she was bringing down supper for her. Meatloaf, which mom loves. She was looking forward to it, but afraid she wouldn’t be able to eat it.

queenslayerbee

Snowflake Challenge: A close up shot of an owl ornament hanging amidst pine boughs..

Challenge #12
Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!

A lot of My Fandom People are disseminated in other sites, most prominently tumblr and discord. Though I do try to get them into dreamwidth, trust me xD. The environment here is one I prefer, frankly: it's slower, and feels calmer, less prone to the kind of drama that plagues those others. In some cases we follow and talk to each other across all platforms, taking advantage of the benefits of each (curse discord as I might in many areas, in terms of direct messages, it's definitely the best one, for example).

I don't think of myself as a gregarious person; I get exhausted quickly by large crowds, especially. In fandom it's much of the same: I feel more comfortable in small fandoms, and whenever I join a larger one, I set to find a small corner of it where I'm in my element.

My preferences often make this easier, because they're rarely in alignment with fandom majorities. Thanks to that I've found My People in numerous corners, from the chill group I gathered while The 100 (a large, wank-prone fandom) was airing, to the buddies I've made in the DC fandom (Even Worse xD), to the ones I met in the tiny environment of writeblr, when I was still around those parts, or that I'm meeting now with Pluribus, for example. My oldest fandom friends, I met in the Shadowhunters fandom, my first active one. A trainwreck, but again, I met a lot of people there that I'm still friends with today :D

In many cases we've followed each other through several fandoms, sometimes meeting, sometimes diverging for a while. Sometimes following each other beyond fandom, taking interests in each other's professional pursuits, in each other's personal lives. Some of the people I've met here know things about me that I wouldn't tell those I personally know off-line, and with their mere presence, support, and engagement, have helped me through Some Shit.

I'll always be glad that I took the leap from lurker to active fandom participant (and creator). I genuinely don't know how I would've stayed sane through my early twenties without the people I met around here. Some of them, I no longer talk with; some just follow me on tumblr and we only sporadically like each other's posts. But others have become lasting friendships that sustain me to this day, And I'm extremely grateful for that!

My Everchanging Moods cheerful
Now That's What I Call... Anouk - Nobody's Wife

rmc28

I don't think I mentioned getting a new phone last month. I very much enjoyed my tiny Jelly Star for a long time: it was very good for making it unsatisfying to scroll while out and about, and instead listen to more music and pay more attention to where I was. But eventually it started to be actually annoying and I did some thinking and looking at different phones, and ended up with a Motorola Razr folding phone. Still small by default! Still easy to prioritise music over scrolling! But much easier to do messaging, emails, etc when I need to.

As a surprise bonus, I have found that having a decent camera and a screen I can clearly see the results on means I'm taking more photos. It also has a neat timer function, and the folding phone is easy to set up to take photos at distances longer than my arm.

Here is a result taken this morning: me wearing another new possession, my CUIHC fleece. It is soft and cozy and I adore it, I've had it since Monday and love it unreasonably. I want to wear it all the time.

conuly

If you're actually writing for children, especially young children, then I guess you don't want to scare them off - but if you're writing for adolescents or adults you can afford to be honest.

So here's the thing. Every book or story in which a character gets glasses for the first time - or the second if their first pair is painfully out of date - emphasizes how clear everything is and how they can see so much detail that they had no idea they were missing. And yes, that's a thing. None of them point out that it's a thing that can be less "wondrous" and more "disorienting and distracting" until you've gotten used to seeing that much detail.

None of them mention that if your prescription is strong enough - especially if there's astigmatism involved - your perception will be wonky and you'll have a hard time judging how close and far things are for a day or two.

Definitely none of them mention that you will absolutely get eye strain every time you get a new prescription, and possibly headaches or nausea to accompany it. It goes away, again, in a day or two, but until it does you'll feel like you're cross-eyed at all times. (And with children, every year is a new prescription. They grow, which means their eyeballs grow, and just like that growth is unlikely to suddenly give them perfect vision if they already were nearsighted, it's also unlikely to keep them exactly where they were before.)

Absolutely none of them point out that if you've never worn glasses before you'll have to spend the aforementioned day or two learning how to not see the frames. This is also true if your old frames were much bigger than the new ones, but that, at least, is less likely to apply to children - their faces grow along with the rest of them, necessitating larger frames, so even if they choose a smaller overall style with the new pair the fact that it fits properly may even out.

Moving past the realm of accurate fiction writing, children really should have their first optometrist appointment, at the latest, in the summer before first grade (so, aged 5 or 6 years old). Ideally, they'll have it before they start school, at age 2 or 3, but you can't convince people on that point. They should have a new appointment every year until the age of 20 or so, or every two years if every year really is unfeasible, even if you don't think you see the signs of poor vision. They won't complain that they can't see, because they'll just assume that their vision is normal. This is true even if they wear glasses - you never notice how bad your eyes have gotten until you get a new prescription, and then it's like "whoa".

The screening done at school or at the doctor's office is imperfect at best. You really want the optometrist.

*******************

( Read more... )

shipperslist

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dine

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sholio

I don't think I posted about Amperslash when it revealed, but I got a lovely gift!

The Ties that Bind Us (Biggles, slightly ambiguous Biggles/EvS)
A very fun, sensual fic in which they are trying to squirm out of ropes tying them together, while also talking about Feelings.

And I got THREE gifts in Holiday Airdrop, the Biggles exchange I run! This time around, all are gen and Algy & EvS-focused.

Soft Landings, a wonderfully well realized, hurt/comforty AU in which Algy is the first person on the team to encounter Erich during Buries a Hatchet.

A Silver-Topped Cane is a lovely little post-Terai bit of comfort and bonding, in which Erich offers advice and maybe a little commiseration while Algy is healing.

Forge is deliciously iddy and visceral h/c in which EvS and Algy are handcuffed together in the desrt.

Between the two exchanges, I wrote five fics, including some pairings I don't normally write! I'm looking forward to getting to 'fess up to them.

ranalore

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My Everchanging Moods accomplished
Cool Places back on my untamed bullshit yo

vass

Books
Nearly finished Evelyn Araluen's 2025 poetry book The Rot. It's very good. I keep thinking of people I know who would appreciate it, and wanting to shove the book at them and say "here, look". (

sovay, you're one of them.) Depression, colonialism, girlhood, death, hauntology, Country, survival.

Listened to Margaret Killjoy's narration of Katherine Mansfield's short story 'A Cup of Tea'. Margaret gave a little context about the story afterwards, including that the main character was thought to be based on Mansfield's cousin, also a writer, whom Margaret herself hadn't heard of. I looked her up afterwards: Elizabeth von Arnim, and went WHUT, Elizabeth and her German Garden? I haven't actually read it, and am not sure how I knew about it, just that it was on my radar. Mansfield's story is simultaneously scalpel-sharp and more merciful than it might have been: the story doesn't attempt to puncture the protagonist's saviour fantasy, or allow it to go as wrong as it could have done, but does make clear in every detail how entirely it is a self-serving saviour fantasy, how entirely she's disregarding the needs, safety, boundaries, and basic consent of the woman she's trying to help. (I thought of the scene in chapter 6 of What Katy Did in which Katy and Clover kidnap an Irish child from her parents and lock her in their attic because they want to "adopt" her.)

Went to the library and borrowed the second Asterix book, having not really given Asterix a chance since I was too young to have any historical context (plus the only one we had in the house was missing several pages, possibly by my own actions at a far younger age.)

Comics
Really feeling for Dina in Dumbing of Age right now. The part about her and Becky is sad and believable, but the part that hit me right where I live was "now even my room is not my own. It's been... ransacked. Strangers have touched... everything." Same fucking autism. I would be out of my fucking mind.

Fandom
Working on my claim for Fanoa'ary, the next Lays server event.

Games
Redactle and Squardle with

kaberett, cryptic crosswords with

shehasathree.

Little puzzle games on my phone: Breakout 71 (breakout with many possible upgrades to unblock, with a lot of flexibility in possible builds) and Tessel, a tile game in which one rotates multicoloured tiles to match the colours, creating enclosed areas of a single colour. I tend to get way too engrossed in this kind of game and spend too long on it, so I like very much that neither of these two are gamified beyond "actually being a game": no ads, no freemium, no nudging to play at a particular time or for a particular length of time. They're very pausible.

Tech
No progress on desktop problems yet: I'm working on paying down some technical debt on my phones before I try more intensive desktop troubleshooting. In the meantime, no Hollow Knight for me.

Crafts
Finished framing/backing a cross-stitched item which I had intended to give

bookgirlwa for her birthday in 2025. Now to wrap it up and send it to her.

No weaving progress yet.

Garden
Two ripe tomatoes (pear-shaped, cherry form factor.)

Cats
Suspicious scab on Ash's nose seems to be healing up okay. *touch wood*

Nature
After a week of more moderate summer weather, we're heading into another heat wave. I hate hot weather, and physically don't deal well with it, but my biggest concern here is fire. Some of the fires from the last heatwave are still burning. The politicians are fighting about the CFA's funding (and yeah, they've been underfunded for a long time and have ageing equipment and an ageing volunteer force, and due to the governments' (plural but including ours) inaction on climate change, the fires they're fighting are getting more numerous and more severe) and there's a distinct scent of manufactured grassroots blame for the Labor state government (and. Like. I don't like Jacinta Allan either! Her authoritarian leanings concern me. But that doesn't mean the opposition would be better, or that a lot of her critics aren't misogynistic or conspiracy-theorists in distinctly Sky News flavours.) Which political digression I find easier to think (grumble) about than the fires themselves. The people and animals harmed already, the likelihood of more and worse in the next week. (And also, personally: the stress of managing my own potential evacuation in a situation where the danger zone is all over the state, my brain's in a constant loop of "but other people have it worse" and it's too hot to think.)

Current Events
It's bad. It's all so bad.

james_davis_nicoll

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – Following his poorly-received and rambling address at the World Economic Forum, U.S. President Donald Trump angrily demanded that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney personally give him the standing ovation he earned for his speech yesterday.

james_davis_nicoll

Canada denied spot on the Bored of Peace.

This is roughly on par with being denied a lifetime supply of dogshit popsicles.

adafrog

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mecurtin posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, January 22, to midnight on Friday, January 23 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34111 Daily check-in poll

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 19

How are you doing?

I am OK
12 (63.2%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
7 (36.8%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
7 (36.8%)

One other person
7 (36.8%)

More than one other person
5 (26.3%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

marginaliana

Why can't I be into the gay hockeys? Why must I be tortured by a tiny fandom that was in its prime 10 years ago? And yet the heart wants what the heart wants.

Iceberg (1075 words) by marginaliana
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sorted (Website) RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James Currie/Ben Ebbrell
Characters: James Currie, Ben Ebbrell
Additional Tags: The Last Bite special, bow ties
Summary:

The Last Bite live weekend special: Saturday night, the Community Case Files segment. Drinks before dinner - Kush has made Bloody Marys and given them a ridiculous name. Ben unfastens his bow tie. James has an emotional revelation.

lannamichaels

Couldn't they possibly have, perhaps and please, cast actors who don't look so goddamn alike for Steve & Bucky, I'm sorry, I mean Scott & Kip?

If they shave or the other one of them gets slightly more facial hair, I've not even the slightest hope here. In the sex scenes, it's like whatever, if you wanted me to know who is who, you'd light it better.

Put a shirt on. Why do you have identical torsos, one of you is a professional athlete and the other one works two jobs.

devilc

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juushika

Still catching up on 2025; here's a trio of what I didn't read.

Title: Withered Hill
Author: David Barnett
Published: Canelo Horror, 2024
Rating: 1 of 5
Page Count: 45 of 360
Total Page Count: 553,155
Text Number: 2074
Read Because: browsing erotic horror from the library and definitely this is horny; ebook borrowed from Multnomah County Library
Review: DNF at 12%. Reads fast enough, dual timelines will do that, and it's certainly goes ham with the folk horror. But nothing about the horny haunted thriller tone is working for me; big breasted boobily energy in the female PoV.

Title: We Live Here Now
Author: Sarah Pinborough
Published: Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar, 2025
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 90 of 290
Total Page Count: 553,245
Text Number: 2075
Read Because: browsing erotic horror from the library and definitely this is horny; ebook borrowed from Multnomah County Library
Review: DNF at 30%. I'm a hard sell on first person, and really need a distinctive voice and preferably textual justification for the perspective; my nightmare is alternating, undifferentiated first person PoVs, and guess what's going on here! Credit given, I did poke around for spoilers before putting this down, but the petty each-partner-has-a-secret mysteries are underwhelming and transparent bids for suspense; the house itself is more interesting, and I enjoy the concept of haunted houses with more robust and speculative logics than simple ghosts. But this is poorly written, manipulative, and boring on its way to that speculative reveal.

Title: Dream Fossil: The Complete Stories of Satoshi Kon
Author: Satoshi Kon
Translator: Yota Okutani
Published: Vertical Comics, 2015
Rating: N/A
Page Count: 50 of 520
Total Page Count: 562,590
Text Number: 2125
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library via Hoopla
Review: DNF two stories in. I tend to bounce off manga short stories, and am here: same-face syndrome conspires with the limited length to make for ungrounded, rushed stories.

Now That's What I Call... Welcome to My World - NO time for PAIN

juushika

Go read Pinky & Pepper Forever! Fondly pressing my UIR tag to its forehead like a produce sticker.

Title: The Confessional
Author: Paige Hender
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2025
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 200
Total Page Count: 562,355
Text Number: 2122
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library via Hoopla
Review: A young vampire struggling to adapt to her new life begins a questionable romance with a vigilante priest. This is solid, polished, and satisfying: consistent art that has a lot of fun with background details and monster design, a distinct historical setting, and a combo of dark, manipulative romance and vampire found family. I like it! And it's effectively a first novel, with the subsequent limitations that I'd expect, particularly in heavy-handed resolutions to the interpersonal elements, that kept me from doing more than liking it.

Title: Pinky & Pepper Forever
Author: Eddy Atoms
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2025 (2018)
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 135
Total Page Count: 562,490
Text Number: 2123
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library via Hoopla
Review: Puppygirl art school girlfriends break up when Pinky commits suicide, and get back together when Pepper follows her to hell. This (furry, cartoony, of a certain age and angst) isn't my style; it grew on me, anyway. The metaphor of inhabiting, owning, & enjoying societal (expectations of) suffering is effective and, better, a lot of fun. Distinctive, vibrant, strongly figured; dynamic character/relationship arcs without ever compromising on codependent lesbian pups.

The comic is 80 pages; the 2025 special edition has a bunch of bonus material. Great bonus material, too; the mixed-media style and development of OCs who began as fashion dolls enriches the reading experience.

Title: Cry Wolf Girl
Author: Ariel Slamet Ries
Published: Silver Sprocket, 2019
Rating: N/A
Page Count: 50
Total Page Count: 562,540
Text Number: 2124
Read Because: reading the publisher, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library via Hoopla
Review: I don't get on with narratives that are just about mental illness. Vibrant, effective art; read it, it works; but I bounced off it like a rubber ball.

Now That's What I Call... Entity - Emily Jane White

rmc28

Heated Rivalry is on this year's Canada Reads longlist.

pushkin666

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My Everchanging Moods accomplished
Cool Places on my Chandler/Joey chair
Now That's What I Call... Watching Evil

delphi

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muccamukk

Canada Reads 2026 short list is out. Thoughts? Feelings? I've only read one book and didn't like it. Very excited that Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is a champion. I could stare at her face until I die.

Cinder House by Freya Marske
This was getting hyped up by someone at my bookclub, and I probably should've known better (not because they don't have great recs, just that I'm more miss than hit on fairytale retellings), but it was a novella, so I thought I'd give it a go. I indeed should've known better.

It's a cute idea: the step mother murders both Cinderella and her father on the first page, and the rest of the story is about Cinderella's ghost haunting the house. I appreciated a lot of the little twists on the story (which seemed pretty closely linked to the Disney version, but I also haven't read a tonne of other versions, so maybe not). There's some neat worldbuilding around how society treats magic, and the author did a good job incorporating the history and politics of the country without info dumping. I liked how the glass slippers worked.

Unfortunately, I had a difficult time connecting with it, and I'm trying to work out how to describe why. The story had a certain smugness to it, maybe? Like it was aware that it was telling the version of the story that would appeal to someone who thought a bisexual ghost polycule was the solution to every love triangle, where of course the other woman was a secret badass, because this is the kind of story that has Awesome Women who Subvert Tropes. Which is something that I ought to enjoy, and have enjoyed in other contexts, but not here. Maybe it was just that it should've been a novel with a few more subplots to hold it up, but either way the emotional beats never felt all that earned to me. What should've been crowning moments of awesome kept feeling like they were happening because this was the kind of story where they had to happen? It's all very clever, but never felt like it had any grounding in real emotion.

I thought this was a first outing, but it looks like Marske has written a bunch, so maybe she's just not my thing.

Leave Our Bones Where They Lay by Aviaq Johnston
Found this in a library display of books advertised as short reads to help you make your year-end goal, which made me laugh.

Short stories set inside a framing device: every season, an Inuit man travels into the wilderness to meet with a monster, and every season he must tell the monster a story. As he grows older, he struggles to find an heir to continue the tradition, but his immediate family is shattered, and won't go, so he ends up leaning on a young granddaughter. The stories are a mix of twists on traditional Inuit legends, and contemporary snippets of life in the high arctic, with or without supernatural elements.

The chapters are also interspersed with line art of traditional Inuit tools, and beautiful full page black and white photographs of lichen. It's physically a really beautiful book.

Both the frame and the stories examine how colonisation has affected Inuit society, and the ways families and individuals figure out how to recover their culture and even thrive. There's a mix of horror, humour, and quiet sadness. Johnson had originally published some of the short stories independently, so there isn't an explicit connection between the stories and the frame. However, they are arranged so that the stories fit with who's telling them, and match the tone of the frame story, so it never felt cludged together.

I loved the conclusion, and finding out who the monster was, and why we were telling it stories, and the tender relationships between all the characters. Really beautiful, hope Johnson keeps publishing.

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Kate Reading
Third time through this (maybe fourth?), and I still get new things out of it every reread.

Our heroine is middle-aged mother who has recently been freed from a curse, and now has to figure out if she's going to take another shot at having a life, or if she's just going to sink back into helplessness (which is a valid choice, considering how the rest of her life has gone!). She goes on pilgrimage, mostly to get out of the house, and then the gods get involved.

It's all about trying to figure out how to make choices, especially when your history with making them has been utterly catastrophic. It's also coming to understand that the narrative of your life has been told by other people, and maybe they didn't have your best interests at heart, even when they said they did. I also love how unrepentantly horny our heroine is. She hasn't gotten laid in a good twenty years, and is starting to think she should do something about that.

There are also a handful of beats about how women navigate in a patriarchal society, for good or ill, that largely avoid the way that a lot of books in these settings shame women for wanting power. Some characters we initial dismiss turn out to be capable of heroism, if someone thinks to ask it of them.

I just really love this duology.

Wounded Christmas Wolf by Lauren Esker
(Know the author disclaimer.)

A new series, with slightly different rules for the shapeshifters, which I enjoyed, and am interested in seeing how it builds out in future books.

I enjoyed how cheerfully over the top the set up was, with a family matriarch who was so into Christmas that the kids all have Christmas-themed names, and there's aggressively Christmas-themed cabins on the property, which is also a Christmas tree farm. And that the natural reaction to the relatively normal-person hero is, "Holy cow, this is all a lot." Which it was, and all the characters admitted it was, but we're just rolling with it now.

We have a classic Esker hero who's not sure where his place is in the world, or if he has one. He's got a whole traumatic backstory to heal from, and just falling in love isn't going to be enough to fix him. (I thought the fire theme could've used a little more set up). And a heroine who's also at loose ends and second guessing herself. The sparking romance built naturally around their foibles and hesitations, and was really sweet. I liked what we met of the rest of the family, especially the heroine's dad, and look forward to them getting their own books.

runpunkrun

Photograph of a tray of eye shadows in a rainbow of colors, text: Maybe He's Born With It (Maybe It's GlaxosEpsilonYor), by Punk.

Author: Punk
Fandom: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series
Pairing: Kirk & Spock friendship
Rating: Teen
Content notes: No standard notes apply.

Size: 1,600 words

Summary: It's maybe the first real conversation they've had where one of them isn't accusing the other of academic misconduct or not loving his mom.

Read it on the AO3 or here »

( Maybe He's Born With It (Maybe It's GlaxosEpsilonYor) )

A/N: Thanks to

garryowen for support and beta. Good to have you back, dog.

Reblog on Tumblr
Email | The Underground | AO3

badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: What are your crafting goals for 2026?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

My Everchanging Moods tired
Cool Places my desk

rachelmanija

A teenage boy, Ambrose, wakes up on a spaceship with no memory of how he got there. OS, the AI programmed with his mother's voice, reminds him that he's on a mission to rescue his sister, who went to Titan two years ago and sent out a distress call. And also, he has a surprise companion on a journey he thought would be solo: Kodiak, a teenage boy from the rival nation, who is ensconced in his own quarters and refuses to come out.

Ambrose, who is a typical teenager in lots of ways apart from being a genius and an astronaut, manages to coax Kodiak out and immediately starts thinking lustful thoughts about him. Kodiak, whose country is much more austere and militarized than Ambrose's, very gradually warms up to him.

And then what I thought was going to be a slow-burn gay YA romance in a science fiction setting takes a huge left turn. To be fair, it does still centrally involve a gay YA romance. But the science fiction aspect isn't just there as a cool background. It's actually a YA science fiction novel that has a romance along with a plot that goes in multiple unexpected directions, and is very moving in a way that's only possible because of the science fiction elements.

If you're a stickler for hard science fiction in which everything is definitely possible/likely, this probably has at least one too many "I don't think that's likely to work that way" moments for you. But if you'd like to read a fun and touching science fiction adventure-romance that will probably surprise you at least once, just read the book without knowing anything more.

( Spoilers! )

osprey_archer

I’ve been enjoying Dorothy Lathrop’s books so much that I checked the university catalog to see if they had any other books by her, and discovered that she illustrated a book of poems by Sara Teasdale! Teasdale has been one of my favorites since we read “There Will Come Soft Rains” in high school, so of course I had to give it a go.

I’m working my way through the book slowly, a poem a night. I ought to save this one till next October, but I haven’t the patience, so here it is.

Late October
By Sara Teasdale

I found ten kinds of wild flower growing
On a steely day that looked like snowing:
Queen Anne’s lace, and blue heal-all,
A buttercup, straggling, grown too tall,
A rusty aster, a chicory flower–
Ten I found in half an hour.
The air was blurred with dry leaves flying,
Gold and scarlet, gaily dying.
A squirrel ran off with a nut in his mouth,
And always, always, flying south,
Twittering, the birds went by,
Flickering sharp against the sky,
Some in great bows, some in wedges,
Some in bands with wavering edges;
Flocks and flocks were flying over
With the north wind for their drover.
“Flowers,” I said, “you’d better go,
Surely it’s coming on for snow,”–
They did not heed me, nor heed the birds,
Twittering thin, far-fallen words–
The others through of to-morrow, but they
Only remembered yesterday.

settiai

I've made this post a number of times without any luck, but I wanted to try again just in case I have better luck this time. Would anyone be interested in any of the following Nintendo Switch games?

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (example on Amazon)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (example on Amazon)
TemTem (example on Amazon)

If you're not interested but know someone who might be, please point them my way. I'm about $70 shy of being where I need to in order to cover bills after that vet trip yesterday, so it would help a lot if I could manage to sell any of these games.

For payment, I have CashApp ($Settiai), PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle (nancy.lynn.foster@gmail.com).

My Everchanging Moods hopeful

lsanderson

ICE

US court allows ICE to arrest and pepper-spray peaceful protesters in Minnesota
In victory for Trump administration, appeals court has temporarily lifted injunction as JD Vance set to visit state
Maya Yang
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/21/ice-arrest-pepper-spray-protesters-minnesota

Minneapolis leaders call the ICE surge a ‘siege’. My reporting from there concurs
Maanvi Singh in Minneapolis
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/21/minneapolis-ice-surge-siege

Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, memo says
Immigrant advocates say the memo is in direct conflict with Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
By Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
https://www.minnpost.com/public-safety/2026/01/immigration-officers-assert-sweeping-power-to-enter-homes-without-a-judges-warrant-memo-says/

“Friday is ‘ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth & Freedom,’ a general strike supported by Minnesota’s unions, progressive faith leaders, Democratic lawmakers and community activists,” the Minnesota Reformer reports. “The ‘ICE Out’ day proponents are encouraging all Minnesotans to stay home from work, school and refrain from shopping — suspensions of normal orders of business to protest the presence of federal immigration agents in Minnesota.”
https://minnesotareformer.com/briefs/fridays-ice-out-of-minnesota-day-is-a-general-strike-heres-what-that-means/ ( Read more... )

nineveh_uk

Although January doesn't usually come with threats to invade Greenland. It's a mad, mad world... I have mostly been spending the new year feeling January-ish; it's wet and grey here and I've had a lingering bug that has not inclined me to do anything much more than look forward to the Winter Olympics* and spring in general, although I've enjoued my art class starting again. I would like some snow and have not seen more than a sprinkling. But I have read a couple of books worth noting:

The Burning Stones, by Antti Tuomainen. Not Nordic noir, but a comic crime story in which a middle-aged sauna stove company employee finds herself having to investigate the murder of a colleague. Thoroughly entertaining, though I had to decide it was set in "no lawyer AU world" as the sensible, competent protagonist would surely have rung a solicitor by the end of the first few chapters if only they existed. Introduced me to the word bumlet for small towels one sits on in saunas, which since it scarcely seems to exist on the internet, I can only assume that the translator picked up from the Anglophone community in Helsinki (or possibly invented independently).

Advent, by Gunnar Gunnarsson. Every year, in the middle of winter, farmhand Benedikt goes on a journey to rescue sheep that are lost in the mountains. Fantastic landscape descriptions, there's a real sense of time and place and the arduous nature of the journey and why he does it, although there is also the reader's inevitable moment of realisation, 'Oh, is this meant to be allegory and the shepherd Jesus?' On reflection after finishing it, I think it's meant to prompt the association, but not intended as allegory, other things are also going on, not least that the book is based on a true story. There is something of an early non-fiction novel about it. The afterward, interesting as it is, does not mention that Gunnar went on a 1940 lecture tour of Germany and met Hitler. Presumably, it was supposed that this would get in the way of the heartwarming Christmas novella marketing.

Over Christmas itself, I re-read Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern for the first time since I was about 15. It had less sex than I remembered (possibly because I first read it at 13, when sex in any book was remarkable), and on adult reflection is more of a tragedy brought about by class prejudice among dragonriders. Although post-COVID, there was some interesting elements of the flu pandemic that rang true in a way I hadn't previously recognised - at the point of writing, McCaffrey had lived through three, if none so deadly as the Spanish flu she was born just six years after.

*No, I have not seen Heated Rivalry. IMO ice hockey is the most boring Olympic sport, beating even curling, which takes some doing since even actual bowls (world championships currently being televised, I am not watching) is more exiting than curling. Still, I am happy for the fandom.

goodbyebird

( Like, this really shouldn't work? But now it's an Armand song? I can't make it not be! )

Also, a fun game some yt channels play is picking a deck for each of the characters in a show they love, and to me Mio Im's Tarot screams Armand. It's got something to do with the sparse nature of it, the limited bone/dust gray palette, obviously all the bones hehe.

james_davis_nicoll

An unhappily married man's quest for the truth leads into a past almost everyone has forgotten.

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W. P. Kinsella

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/22/a-very-mid-attempt-to-incorporate-more-protein-into-my-dinner/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59170

I have never been one to care too much about the amount of protein a meal has, but sometimes I see a recipe on Instagram that boasts low calories and high protein and actually looks good, and I find myself tempted to try them out. I mean, if I can eat something healthy-ish and it tastes good, then it’s a win-win, right?

So, after seeing this Buffalo Chicken Hot Pocket recipe, I decided to give it a shot. It seemed like as good a place as any to start with higher protein meals.

View this post on Instagram

Even though the recipe looks long, it’s all pretty simple ingredients, though I did have to go buy quite a few.

So let’s talk about how “quick and easy” it was to make this, how much I had to buy to make it, the time it took, how many dishes it made, and if it actually tasted good.

Diving right in, the first thing was acquiring the ingredients. I shopped at Kroger.

First up, I had to buy a pack of chicken, which ended up being Simple Truth Natural Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Family Pack for $16.52. I used all this chicken even though it was a big ol’ family pack. Next was Sweet Baby Ray’s Mild Buffalo Wing Sauce for $4.29. I used almost the entire bottle. A block of Philadelphia Reduced Fat Cream Cheese was $3.49. The recipe only needed about a fourth of the block. The recipe calls for a 0% fat Greek yogurt, so I picked Oikos Triple Zero Plain Greek Yogurt, which has zero added sugar, zero artificial sweeteners, and is zero percent fat with eighteen grams of protein (per 6oz serving). I used most of the 32oz container, which was $6.79.

Though I have all-purpose flour, bread flour, and gluten-free flour, I did not have self-rising flour, so I bought King Arthur Unbleached Self-Rising Flour in a five pound bag for $6.29. For the mozzarella, I usually like Sargento’s shredded mozzarella because it’s the only whole milk one I tend to find, but since the recipe specifies a fat free mozzarella, I just went with Kroger Low-Moisture Part Skim shredded mozzarella in the 4-cup size bag for $3.99. I picked Jack’s Special Mild Salsa for my “tomato salsa” which was $4.99 but I have most of the container left over. I also bought Simple Truth Organic Chives for $2.49. And last but not least I bought a Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning 1oz packet for a whopping $2.39.

I had Daisy brand cottage cheese on hand already, both the whole milk version and the low-fat version, but for this recipe I used the whole milk type since it didn’t specify. Oh, and I used actual whole milk for the quarter cup of fat-free milk it calls for. You’ll just have to live with my substitution.

So, in total, I spent $51.24 on stuff for just this one recipe. I always say you can’t cook dinner without spending fifty bucks, and boy oh boy does that remain true. I swear it’s a literal constant in my life.

Moving on from cost, the first thing to do was to add a bunch of stuff into the Crockpot and let it get cooking. That part was really easy, you just throw the chicken in and add all the spices and whatnot on top, give it a mix and let it cook on high for a couple hours. The only dishes I used for this portion were measuring spoons and a measuring cup. Disclaimer: I did not add the white onion, therefore I saved myself from using a knife and cutting board.

While that was cooking, I blended all the ingredients for the sauce together. I only have a very tiny portable blender meant for protein shakes and smoothies on the go (don’t ask why because I don’t even know), so I had to do it in three or four batches, which meant I mixed everything together in a bowl and then put a couple ladles worth into the blender, blended it and dumped the blended mixture into a separate bowl. Due to my unnecessary steps, you probably will not make as many dirty dishes as I did here. Or as much of a mess on your countertop.

After the sauce was completed, I got to work on the dough. This part was definitely the most time consuming, partially because I decided to be precise and weigh out my ten dough balls to make sure they were perfectly equal. The dough took some work to come together, but after enough kneading, it got there. This portion of the recipe really only took a measuring cup and a bowl, plus the rolling pin to roll out the dough. I set my dough discs aside.

Finally, when the chicken was cooked through, I was very surprised by how much liquid there was in the Crockpot. In the video, when he goes to shred the chicken after its time in the Crockpot, it’s completely dry. I was perplexed why there was liquid in mine, especially when I actually used 100g more chicken breast than the recipe called for. I didn’t want to add my creamy sauce to it while there was so much watery liquid, but I also didn’t want to dump the liquid out of the Crockpot and waste all the flavor that was probably in there.

So, I got to work shredding the chicken to see if it would absorb more as I went. Sure enough, the liquid did reduce quite a bit after the shredding, which took forever and gave my arms a workout. I decided to let the chicken and liquid keep cooking with the lid off for a little bit to see if some of the liquid would cook off or evaporate, and when it finally got decently reduced, I went ahead and added the creamy sauce mixture and all the mozzarella cheese.

It ended up shaping up nicely, and looked like the mixture in the video. All in all, it worked out, it just took extra time. To be fair, the video said cook on high for 2-3 hours and I only did two since the chicken was up to temp.

For the dough discs, I definitely overstuffed the first one, and some of the filling spilled out into the skillet while cooking it. After the hot pocket had been thoroughly browned on both sides, I figured it was done, but when I cut into it, the dough hadn’t cooked all the way through. Though the outside was brown and crispy, the inside was pretty much raw dough. If it had been cooked any longer, though, the outside would’ve burned. I wasn’t sure how to get the inside fully cooked without burning the outside, so this was certainly a predicament.

Plus, my hot pockets were much more oddly shaped than the ones in the video. I couldn’t get a consistent shape and kept second guessing how much filling to put in. It also was pretty time consuming trying to form the hot pockets, and I ended up tearing like two of them. I was definitely frustrated by now, it felt like nothing was working out and I was messing everything up.

After taking a breather and finally eating one of the hot pockets that was cooked through mostly well enough, I am sad to report it was pretty mid. It was fine, but definitely not as good as I had hoped, and definitely not worth fifty dollars and a few hours of work. Though if you consider the fact you get ten hot pockets out of this recipe, it’s only five dollars per hot pocket if you spend fifty on ingredients. I guess that’s not too bad, but I think my feelings of disappointment overshadowed the value of being able to freeze the majority for later.

I will say that there was a pretty decent amount of the chicken filling leftover, whether it’s because I filled the hot pockets the wrong amount or not remains to be seen, but I did like putting the leftover chicken mixture in a tortilla instead. Honestly my main issue with this recipe was the dough. Having the chicken mixture by itself or in a different carb vehicle actually improved my eating experience, I think.

So I would say if you make this recipe, don’t make the dough, and just find something else to put the chicken in, or eat it by itself. Though, there will be less protein in the recipe since the dough was made with protein yogurt. I think that’s worth the trade, though.

Overall, I don’t think I’ll be making this recipe again, but it wasn’t terrible or anything.

Do you like Buffalo chicken? Have you tried Oikos protein yogurt in any of their sweeter/fruitier flavors? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/22/a-very-mid-attempt-to-incorporate-more-protein-into-my-dinner/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59170

princessofgeeks

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My Everchanging Moods busy

princessofgeeks

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My Everchanging Moods enthralled

spikedluv

I switched my morning around and left home an hour later than usual. In that hour I put a chuck roast in the crock pot and did some online fandom things. I went with the Cinnamon Orange tea again this morning. Downtown I hit Price Chopper, then went to my chiropractic appointment.

THEN I went to McD’s and got some writing done; ~700 words, which is less than the last couple days, but it’s not nothing, so \o/

I picked the dogs up on my way home (my winter schedule for picking up the dogs has been different than usual because I tend to not want to go back out and get them if it’s cold or snowy), where I put groceries away and walked them (I had on so many layers!).

I prepared lunch for all of us (including Midnight who was howling for more food – he’ll sometimes eat very little on a day, then be starving the next day, and apparently blaming me for it), though I planned to take mine with me.

I hit the post office and filled my gas tank on the way to visit mom (where I ate my lunch). When I got home I took the dogs for another walk (and fed Midnight yet again; apparently today was a day when he wanted all the food *g*).

I also did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes (why does it seem like dirty dishes just sort of keep appearing?), checked on Midnight’s dry food and water dishes (this is where I normally say ‘scooped kitty litter’, but there was nothing to scoop, probably because yesterday was a day he didn’t eat much), and paid a bill online. When Pip got home we went for another walk.

One nice thing was I received a set of tea bag coasters that I’d ordered. With sunflowers on them!! (I tried to link to them, but apparently they are sold out so it won’t even link to the item so I can show you.)

ETA: Forgot to mention that I watched one of my fave HGTV programs, Fixer to Fabulous!

Temps started out at 9.0(F) and dropped exactly 2 degrees to 7.0 before I left the house. The high I saw was 25.5. We had a tiny bit of snow late afternoon, big fat flakes, but not enough to accumulate, thankfully.

The bad news is that I’ve been concentrating on the low temperatures we’ll be having (overnight lows in the negatives and highs in single digits) and Pip informed me that we’re in for a big snow storm Sunday. 3-5" during the day, 3-5" overnight, and an additional 1-3" Monday. DNW!!!

Mom Update:

Mom was doing okay when I saw her. She was tired. And cold. She used a heavy blanket when she’s in her recliner, but I suggested she turn her heat up. (She has it set at 70, but her living room felt cool even to me, and I generally overheat.) She ate lunch while I was there. I got her mail and wrote out a check that I put back in the mailbox, stripped her bed, and brought home her laundry. I also opened one of her protein drinks, because I’m handy that way. *g*

She’s looking forward to company tonight, a woman she knows from the village who just recently found out that mom was sick. She called her yesterday to ask if she could come visit. So that’ll be nice for her.

ETA: I later learned that Sister A and Ian also visited her.

queenslayerbee

Challenge #11
In your own space, grant someone's wish from Challenge #5. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your own post with the wishes you granted if you feel comfortable doing so.

I had already done this once here, and today I went through a few links and also did it in a few others (x, x, x, x, x). These are all recommendations, things I could fulfill quickly, ranging from music to books to TV shows, one recipe... Maybe there's something in one of them you'll enjoy :D

In my own wish list I asked for collaboration with a new community I created, dcfemslashevents, where I promote and organise events focused on femslash of the DC fandom. And I got that, with several people asking to be members! Now, as an extension of that, I would love if people could participate, or at least spread the word, of the first event: a comment fest where we'll encourage people to leave comments on DC f/f creations of all kinds during Femslash February.

Image of a sky during sunset, in orange tones. It includes the text "dcu femslash february comment fest."

In that list I also talked about femslash ships I would like to see more fanfic of, and I ended up requesting some of them for seasonsofdrabbles (and for the three sentence ficathon), where I specifically asked for stuff from the DCU (with some focus on Wonder Woman/Amazons), Pluribus, Foundation, Black Sails, The 100, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente, and Stranger Things. It's a really fun event, and I'd recommend to check up the sign-up and requests summaries to see if there's any fandom/prompt you might want to write a treat for. Mine can be seen here on tumblr :D

My Everchanging Moods contemplative
Now That's What I Call... Aimee Mann - High on Sunday 51

rmc28

It's been a whole adventure watching Heated Rivalry go mainstream (for once I can claim I was a fan before it was cool!). I turned on Radio 2 in a hire car on Tuesday evening and the presenter was talking about it. Half the UK ice hockey clubs are making social media posts riffing off the show, or at minimum using music from it in their updates.

But it's also more complicated. Zach Sullivan, one of the very very few out queer professional male hockey players in the world, made an Instagram post a few days ago, about how conflicted he feels about the show. Well worth a read if you have time. Heated Rivalry is a romantic fantasy, the hockey aspects are often wrong, and I agree with Zach that I'm not at all sure the enthusiasm over the show is making things better for closeted male players right now. (I hope it will in the long term, but I worry about the harm right now.)

Also, I am developing a visceral loathing for the phrase "boy aquarium" for hockey rinks.

it's gross
it's not just boys (men) who play ice hockey
please stop sexualising the spaces where people play and get changed

That last point: I play with two mixed (male-dominated) teams, I get changed in the same room as the men, and because my teams are not gross and the changing room is not a sexualised space, I feel safe doing so. If I changed separately, I would miss out on a whole load of the team connection and conversation, all the stuff that creates a team out of a bunch of people who turn up in the same place each week. So I stay and change with my team, and it's not a big deal, and I don't want people to make it a big deal.

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

Grocery stores that deliver. Flink only delivers -- they don't have physical stores -- and has the best bread.
Cat cuddles. Especially, waking up next to Ticia, and getting nuzzles from Bronx while I'm holding him.
Weird crowdfunded luggage and occasional widgets.
Getting back in touch (though I still don't put as much effort into it as I should).
Getting back into walking (same).

NO thanks for scooter repair places that don't respond to their contact forms or email.

My Everchanging Moods grateful
Cool Places Schildhaven in Den Haag
Now That's What I Call... maybe Eurofilk tonight

elisem

There's someone who is trying to raise funds for memorial services and to bury his brother who died of exposure last weekend. I'll just say what I said on bluesky:

His family wants to do memorial services in Minneapolis and in Wisconsin where he was born and will be buried.

If you've felt grief, if you've comforted people in grief, please help these folks.

(My own mother died this morning.

If you were gonna bring me a hot dish,

please give here instead.)

https://www.gofundme.com/f/honoring-harold-lightfeather-benny-boy

Thank you.
And thank you also for sharing the info elsewhere as well if you can.

sholio

9. More scenes from a Babylon 5 fixit AU.

I ended up doing a number of additional prompt fills from the same universe as this fill (#4 in the previous post, major series spoilers).

( 1000 words or so of fixit snippets from the same post-canon AU )

10. And while I'm keeping the spoiler stuff confined to its own post, another B5 spoiler fixit AU based off "War Without End."

( Under this cut here )

boxofdelights

The Three Ws are:
1. What are you currently reading?

I'm in the middle of The Great Transition, Nick Fuller Googins, for solarpunk book club. The transition is to a sustainable way of living. There's a lot of horror in the immediate past, and a lot of life that is just gone forever. The two viewpoint characters are a teenage girl and her father. Her father, who did heroic work during the crisis, when he was a teenager, wants to focus on how much better things are now, and how we are all working together to make them even better. Her mother, who did different kinds of heroic work, says no, we can't relax: the people who caused and profited from the crisis still have too much money and power, and they are working to turn us back to the exploitive and destructive path. We have to stop them.

I'm enjoying it, except that the teenage girl has an (occasionally too-vividly described) eating disorder.

2. What did you recently finish reading?

The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans, for Tawanda book group. Much better than I was expecting.
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, for classics book group. Last read when I was a teenager, when all that sexism and racism was just normal.
Algorithms of Oppression, by Saffiya Noble, for Slow Book Club. This was a hard read, in both subject matter and writing style, so it was good to have the book club to talk it over with, a few chapters at a time.
A Sorceress Comes to Call, by T. Kingfisher, for SF book group. A delight.

3. What do you think you’ll read next?

The Last Hour Between Worlds, by Melissa Caruso, for SF book group. If I can find it.

dine

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heidi

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Page Summary

rydra_wong - Minnesota linkspam
james_davis_nicoll - The Angsana Tree Mystery (Crown Colony, volume 8) By Ovidia Yu
settiai - Critical Role
devilc - The Empty Netters Come Clean
princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry rec
summerstorm in journalsandplanners - my 2026 planner
goodbyebird - Instant vid rec.
emrinalexander - Jeebus it's freaking cold ❄️🥶
spikedluv - The Day in Spikedluv (Thursday, Jan 22)
queenslayerbee - snowflake 2k26 #12
rmc28 - New possessions
conuly - I was reading a story in which a young character gets a new pair of glasses
shipperslist - How to Get a Date with the Evil Queen by Marie Cardno
dine - so many politicians have me repeatedly asking, 'what is your damage?'
sholio - Exchanges!
ranalore - threesentenceficathon is in town
vass - Things
james_davis_nicoll - Trump demands Carney give him his standing ovation from Davos
james_davis_nicoll - Tragic
adafrog - Snowpocalypse.
mecurtin in fandom_checkin - Daily Check-In
marginaliana - (no subject)
lannamichaels - watching heated rivalry and...
devilc - If the Outsports accusations agains the empty netters are substantiated ....
juushika - DNF'd Books: Withered Hill, Barnett; We Live Here Now, Pinborough; Dream Fossil, Satoshi Kon
juushika - Comics Reviews: The Confessional, Hender; Pinky & Pepper Forever, Atoms; Cry Wolf Girl, Ries
rmc28 - ahaha
pushkin666 - First Lines Meme - Part 6 - November & December
delphi - FIC: Safe Harbour (Our Flag Means Death, Archie/Fang/Frenchie/Izzy/Jim)
muccamukk - Reading Whatever's Day (Holiday Reading Recap, Part II)
runpunkrun - Fic: Maybe He's Born With It (Maybe It's GlaxosEpsilonYor) [ST:AOS, Kirk & Spock, Teen, 1600 words]
badly_knitted in get_knitted - Check-In Post - Jan 22nd 2026
rachelmanija - The Darkness Outside Us, by Eliot Schrefer
osprey_archer - Late October
settiai - For Sale: Nintendo Switch games
lsanderson - 2022.01.22
nineveh_uk - January again???
goodbyebird - Me just screaming NO as Armand claims a song for himself.
james_davis_nicoll - The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W. P. Kinsella
scalziwhatever_feed - A Very Mid Attempt To Incorporate More Protein Into My Dinner
princessofgeeks - also
princessofgeeks - ARGH Heated Rivalry rec
spikedluv - The Day in Spikedluv (Wednesday, Jan 21)
queenslayerbee - snowflake 2k26 #11
rmc28 - It's always more complicated
mdlbear - Thankful Thursday
elisem - Other people trying to do the right thing in grief need some help - please read. Thank you
sholio - 3 Sentence Ficathon, part three (all B5 fixit edition)
boxofdelights - reading Wednesday
dine - you're crazy and I'm out of my mind

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