rusty_halo

guardian_wishlist was a fantastic success. *twirls everyone who participated and made gifts* *and also everyone who's enjoying the collection* <3 <3 <3

I received four amazing presents, all beautifully tailored to my id, wow! Srsly, I could not be happier!! :D :D :D

Happy, gloriously soft and indulgent M-rated YOHE art with finger-sucking Weilan (based on one of my fics, eeeeeee!) by facethestrange

A little Shen Xi/Zhao Xinci AU, where Shen Xi knooows (eeeeeeee!), and the family resemblance with Zhao Yunlan is outstanding by nnozomi

A sumptuous, indulgent, idyllic Shen San/Wei domestic interlude with perfect voices (Guardian novel fic) *smishes them forever* by Hyde_DualDomination

Gorgeous b&w art of Chu Shuzhi & Zhao Yunlan, which manages to be angsty and hurt/comforty without even showing their faces a;ldskfjasdf by AVAAntares

I have a couple of late gifts in progress, and then I'm looking forward so much to diving into the collection!!

musesfool

Since I'm going to the office on Tuesday and my whole team is supposed to be in, I am finally going to be able to get some feedback on funfetti cupcakes. So today, I baked both the Sally's Baking Addiction recipe (black and white cupcake papers) and the Smitten Kitchen recipe (yellow and red cupcake papers) (pics), and I think the Sally's recipe is the winner. I particularly like that it uses melted butter instead of having to cream the butter and sugar, so it can be done easily by hand. (For Christmas, I will double the recipe, so I'll use the stand mixer anyway, but overall, I do like a recipe that can be made without one.) My plan is to make the SK frosting attached to that recipe (doubled, and potentially tripled if necessary since I have 72 cupcakes to frost (38 Sally's, 34 Smitten Kitchen - overall they made 40 and 36 mini cupcakes, respectively, but I ate 2 of each). Normally, I would go for cream cheese frosting for funfetti, but both my nephews have said they prefer buttercream, and since this is specifically for them (and to replace the vanilla cupcakes I've been making but have been unhappy with), I figured I'd go with their preference. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, I am so sad HGTV cancelled Bargain Block - I still have the last couple of post-New Orleans episodes to watch, but then it will be all over and I will miss Keith and Evan a lot. I heard they also cancelled Married to Real Estate, which I also enjoy but still have a couple of seasons I haven't seen, and that Unsellable Houses is probably also going to get canned, which is a shame because that is my other favorite HGTV show and I have already watched all that is available. On the plus side, it seems like Home Town will be coming back, and I do enjoy that one, plus the new season of Help! I Wrecked My House (now in Park City, UT) has started (though I haven't watched it yet). And of course, my Elementary rewatch continues.

*

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Chargers vs Commanders on tv

oyceter

*dusts off journal* I've been meaning to post updates for a while, but of course never got around to it.

Anyway, CB had a stroke while we were on a family vacation in Paris. He is doing well, all things considered--the damage seems limited to a slight droop in his mouth and double vision--but he's been in the hospital for about a week now. My parents are with me, and we are trying to figure out his care with limited access to his doctors (visiting hours are limited, and they often make the rounds outside visiting hours). We have a translator, though it's our tour guide who obviously doesn't have that much knowledge about medical terminology. We have some print outs of test results in French, but we're having difficulty getting access to actual medical records, since they usually are put together on patient discharge.

Does anyone have experience with internationally transferring patients and/or flying with medical escorts or on a plane with medical equipment? We obviously don't want to move him if it will endanger him in any way, but we would also like for him to begin treatment back at home as soon as it is safe for him to go back.

yourlibrarian

1) From

osteophage, a post about The Good Web Graveyard, "a link compilation on departed websites that had marketed themselves in terms of ethics." I think one doesn't have to be an out and out cynic to assume that it's difficult for a company to do well when it's not on a level playing field with unethical companies. But it's good to consider that good intentions aren't enough in surviving long-term online.

2) My Britbox subscription has run out, and at an inopportune moment. I was speed watching Passengers, by which I was skipping some of, or entire, episodes and relying on their recaps to keep up with developments. Unfortunately I was interrupted near the end of the final episode and by the time I got back to it, the subscription had ended. ( Read more... )

4) Some interesting details of the AOL sale: "AOL's website traffic has grown 20% year-over-year among the users aged 25 and 54, outpacing the growth in the category of users aged 55-plus...The growth was driven by the introduction of multiple new content categories to AOL.com, including Health, Fitness, Animals, Science & Tech, Home & Garden, Lighter Side, True Crime, Local, amongst others"

I wonder if AI searches can account for this? Granted the nature of these new topic pages was designed to attract views, but I've hardly ever seen AOL as a site turn up in any searches I do.

"Bending Spoons... agreed a deal to take private video platform company Vimeo for $1.38 billion, its largest acquisition to date." I was also surprised to find out that AOL owns Last Pass, so that has a new owner now as well.

4) I know everyone's upset at the rising cost of everything. But sometimes it's the little things that make you mad. My main supermarket has recently switched its sales period from Wednesday to Tuesday after 20+ years (maybe always, for all I known) of doing Sunday to Saturday. This is making a mess of their shelf and data system, because the ad says one thing but there's nothing showing on the shelf and they don't ring up on sale. ( Read more... )

5) "Consumer Reports’ fourth annual digital assessment shows a 50 percent increase in texting and messaging scam attempts over the past year. Meanwhile, a 10,500-person poll from Talker Research indicates that Americans field around 100 scam attempts per month compared to an average of 84 in the United Kingdom. Australians, however, experience half the number seen in the US. But while scams continue to frequently target older demographics, one of the most dramatic upticks concerns younger populations."

The main reasons? Group texts which disguise unknown numbers, and quick access to money apps.

Poll #33689 Kudos Footer-543

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
6 (100.0%)

selenak

This is the third novel of R. F. Kuang I've read (after being impressed by the The Poppy Wars, first volume, but also emotionally so exhausted I didn't read the rest of the trilogy, amused and captivated in an emotionally distant way by Yellowface, and turned so much by Babel that I only read the first twenty pages or so and then gave up), and I think my favourite so far. There is academic satire but also genuine emotion throughout, there is great ambition epically realised (i.e. writing a trip to the underworld in the grand tradition of all the obvious suspects, but specifically one that reflects the present), and the horror parts hit home in a way that feels not derivative but specific for this particular version. (The novel is set in a universe where magic is real, but isn't concerned with how this altered history or not, just what it means you can study it at university.) Our main character, Alice Law, is the kind of messy, complicated and morally ambiguous (and not in a "nice" way) woman the author specializes in, though for me personally preferable because I had the sense of the narrative being on board with what it was saying about Alice's strengths and weaknesses through her initially very skewered perspective. Also she had a genuine learning process through that trip through the Underworld, and... but that would be spoilery.

( Spoilers realize the Underworld is modelled on a British University )

Also improving my week: This trailer for Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Frankenstein:

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Bamberg

musesfool

Ugh, I woke up at 3:30 this morning coughing my lungs out and didn't really sleep much after that. It's that itchiness in my throat and chest that make me think allergies, especially given that I haven't really been around people except at the dentist's office yesterday, so I don't think it's covid? But who knows at this point? My quest to get this year's flu/covid shots has been derailed a couple of times but I am off again next Friday, so that is going to be my next attempt.

In more fannish news, I read that Dungeon Crawler Carl has been optioned for tv, and now I want a Carl vid to Mike Ness's version of "Don't Think Twice."

*

Current Mood: itchy
Current Music: Don't Think Twice - Mike Ness

china_shop

"Still Wishlisting. This will be super quick," she said three days ago, and then failed to post it.

Kdramas
Watched more of You and Everything Else and now feel I maligned it unduly based on the first seven minutes. The childhood scenes are excellent! Will definitely be watching more.

More of A Hundred Memories, which I'm loving, and two more episodes of Low Life.

And quite a lot more of Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (Netflix) with Andrew. We're both very much enjoying the cooking (schnitzel!), and surprisingly, both wishing the ship would just go away. (Normally I would be on board with romance storylines, and I can kiiiind of see what she sees in him, but this guy needs a LOT more redemption and power-differential mitigation before I'll like it.)

Other TV and films
More of The Newsreader, more Bluey. And at the cinema:

Prime Minister -- a documentary about our erstwhile leader Jacinda Ardern. This was really good -- very candid, brought up a lot of memories from the last 5 years, made me tear up.

The Ballad of Wallis Island -- an incredibly charming little film that hits all the expected beats but does it so well and with such specificity that it totally worked for me. I loved it! Made me cry. So very glad that I saw it at the movies, because the acting was amazing. Warning for gentle cringe humour. (Trailer.)

Writing/making things
alkjsdfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhaskdljfhadslk BEARS!

Good things
Fish and chips and Low Life tonight. Cat and boy and internet. Writing, especially when it comes together.

Poll #33685 CNTW

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 49

View Respondents

When I see a fic tagged Choose Not to Warn

View Answers

sail on in
17 (34.7%)

approach cautiously
16 (32.7%)

avoid
3 (6.1%)

depends on the author
15 (30.6%)

depends on the fandom
11 (22.4%)

depends on the other tags
26 (53.1%)

other
4 (8.2%)

ticky-box full of delicious, delicious starch
19 (38.8%)

ticky-box full of native birds causing a ruckus
23 (46.9%)

ticky-box full of squid performing cirque du la marée
16 (32.7%)

ticky-box full of hugs
30 (61.2%)

lycomingst

Watch on YouTube

October!

musesfool

Rabbit, rabbit! Gotta start the month out right!

According to the dentist, my teeth are mostly fine but another old filling has started to crack so he wants to take it out and put a crown on it. Since I have money in my FSA because I didn't order new glasses, I said let's do it! So as long as he gets the approval from my insurance, I should be having that done on 10/22. I'll probably still have to pay about $500 out of pocket, but that's better than the whole $1500. As always, he marveled about the Maryland bridge I have, which has been in place since 1994; even when I got it, my dentist at the time said it would probably only last 5 years, so it's quite impressive. "Those dentists back then knew what they were doing!" he told me today, and I wanted to be like, "1994 wasn't that long ago," but it was 31 years ago apparently. That just seems wrong.

Anyway, I could barely stay awake on my way home, so I crawled into bed and ended up sleeping for THREE HOURS, which I was not expecting. I will take it though.

I made pancakes for dinner, but as I was mixing up my wet ingredients, I put what I thought was vanilla in the mixing cup, but as soon as I smelled it, I knew it was the wrong bottle. It turned out to be fior di Sicilia, which is lovely and smells like an Italian bakery, but is not what I wanted in my pancakes. Whoops. The vanilla bottle is the same size, so I have now rearranged that shelf so the vanilla remains in front and the fior di Sicilia is back behind a bunch of stuff. I also redid my wet ingredients - it was only an egg and some milk, so not a huge loss to start over.

Now I'm going to watch the new episode of Slow Horses and then later, the season premiere of Abbott Elementary.

*

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Between Two Lungs - Florence + the Machine

yourlibrarian

1) Some TV stuff: I've been watching the KenJennings Jeopardy run, and enjoying it. It seems to me the questions were easier than some of the ones I've seen most recently, but I guess those were largely the tournament of champions so that makes sense.

I tried out Match Game, Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. ( Read more... )

2) Last week my partner went to Indianapolis for the weekend and on Sunday morning called me to say that the car wouldn't start. Luckily he was in the hotel parking lot and could just take his stuff back inside. All the dealerships were closed on Sunday but as he happened to be at an airport hotel, he took their shuttle there and I was able to get him booked for a week's car rental. ( Read more... )

3) Adding to fan image hosting woes: Imgur blocks UK access after the ICO notified it of a possible fine over its handling of kids' data

4) Thought this stat was interesting: U.S. streamers are increasingly sharing content catalogs across third-party services. In July, 39% of domestic titles appeared on two or more services, compared with 13% in the U.K. and 8% in France over the same period. ( Read more... )

5) I was amazed to see this story about boyfriend cosplay. "I cosplayed as the client’s chosen character and walked around with them, on the street, on a date. To be honest, I must confess that even as an experienced cosplayer, I found it challenging to act nonchalant in public while wearing a full costume and a light-colored wig. This difficulty was compounded by the specific nature of this commission: I was tasked with roleplaying as a romantic partner and caring for my "girlfriend." Though the date was challenging, I was obsessed with the sense of accomplishment I felt when I took care of someone and acted as their beloved character."

It certainly seems to be taking fanwork commissions to a new level...

Poll #33682 Kudos Footer-542

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Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

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Kudos!
7 (100.0%)

killabeez

Sign up here.

If you need an AO3 invite, please contact the mods.

For those with a need to review AO3 processes:
HLH Shortcuts AO3 Signup Guide by @teratornis
HLH Shortcuts AO3 Submission Guide by @teratornis
How to Default

Your mods strongly encourage the use of betareaders, whether affiliated with the exchange or outside the exchange:
Betareaders Wanted/Betareaders Available

In case you need to review the 2025 dates:

Sign Ups: October 1 to October 11, 2025 11:59PM CDT on AO3
Assignments handed out: no later than October 14, 2025
Default deadline: November 20, 2025
Submission deadline: December 15, 2025
First story posted: December 20, 2025

Please share far and wide.

musesfool

Pet-sitting over the weekend was ok, not great. Bleu was a good boy and a sweetheart. Brie was fine when we were inside, but once she got out, it took a couple of hours - repeatedly - to coax her back into the house, because even though she was happy to climb into my lap on the couch, she flinched away whenever I stood in the doorway and called her to come in. Even just sitting in a chair and propping the door open and putting down treats to lead her in took a while. So that was not great. Additionally, because of the cat, I had to take a ridiculous amount of allergy medication just to breathe and my throat and chest were itchy the whole time.

On the plus side, the pizza I ordered was delicious!

I took yesterday off and scheduled a grocery delivery, which never arrived. Apparently none of the drivers would take it? I don't know what that even means, but I took that personally. I cancelled the order, and then today, put in an Aldi order which arrived on time and only cost half as much. *hands*

I'm off again tomorrow for a dental appointment. We are battening down the hatches for a govt shutdown at work, but should be okay if it doesn't last too long. Otherwise, there could be furloughs.

If you, like me, want to escape into fanfic, here's this month's recs update:

unfitforsociety has been updated for September 2025 with 10 recs:

✭ 9 Batfamily and 1 Batfam/Spiderman crossover

***

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: We Belong - Pat Benatar

selenak

Darth Real Life hounds my every step these days, but I did manage to watch the ( Alien: Earth )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Munich

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the Muppets poll, 40.7% of respondents chose Kermit, followed by 37.0% for Animal, and 29.6% for Gonzo. Hugs won the ticky-boxes, followed by paper tigers. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
I'm loving Black Water Sister -- the interactions between adherents of different religions are especially delightful. I'm making my way through it pretty slowly because I haven't had much listening time, but it's great!

Slowed down even more on Inventing the Renaissance. And the entirety of my non-audio reading has been the Guardian subs in Korean (skipping over some bits I don't know, but still looking up way too many words).

Kdramas (so many Kdramas)
( Cut for length. )

Other TV
We've started The Newsreader (Australian, stars Anna Torv) set in a TV newsroom in 1986. It's great so far -- Torv's character has a lot of emotional range, and the other lead is also interestingly complex. (TW: depression, anxiety.)

Also, one episode of Skeleton Crew, which is just as The Goonies-ish as I've heard. We'll give it another episode and see. Prehistoric Planet, which is really good. Just lovely animation and creature work. Bluey -- how is this so consistently excellent?? We're ploughing through season 3, and then there'll be none left. Oh no!

Guardian/Fandom
I am behind on EVERYTHING! Including this post. /o\ Also, I've been going through my browser windows and randomly closing tabs, now and then, so apologies if I left you hanging in a comment exchange. Firefox was just getting too hard to navigate.

Writing/making things
The Wishlist clock is ticking. I keep bumbling around like a bee doing things that are not writing fic, and then after a while saying to myself out loud, "This is not Writing Fic!" My brain gears don't seem to be working properly, and there's this one treat I'm stuck on... gah! Trying to remind myself that deadlines are just games we play with ourselves.

Life/health/mental state things
I have new glasses! They're really great. Except for biking home after picking them up, I've been wearing them non-stop with very few issues. Good for driving, okay for biking, great for TV. The fact that I have a world map and an artwork at the top and bottom of my stairs, respectively, turns out to be very helpful for distracting me from the out-of-focus stairs themselves. My keyboard is wobbly when I look at it, and sometimes the kitchen bench ("counter" for Americans) swims when I turn my head, but that's fine. I have yet to a) get the knack of gracefully attaching my clip-on sunglasses, and b) break my habit of looking under my glasses or taking them off for close work. But I'll get there. Generally I'm super happy, no notes! (My optician was right.)

Next test: we're seeing Avatar: The Way of Water in HFR 3D next week. I'll take my old glasses as backup, just in case.

Korean
Zoom call yesterday, and omg, I fumbled so much. I seriously need to practice speaking before next time. I yearn to rattle things off without having to think about it.

Link dump
Darebee home workouts (via Tumblr) | NHS's Couch to 5k page | AO3 has added Collection Tags | this shot-for-shot remake from Phineas and Ferb of "Genghis Khan" by Miike Snow (via

petra, I know exactly nothing about the canon, I've watched it twice, can't get over how good it is, I think I have... a platypus ship??) | Timothy Olyphant on Conan, taking it all very seriously (TW: toe bruises).

Good things
Jaffa Cakes, tv-watching friend dates, new glasses, writing, betas (♥!), Dreamwidth, a glorious wealth of Kdramas, wikipedia, fandom, Guardian, Guardian, Guardian.

Poll #33664 Fire burn and caldron bubble

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 49

View Respondents

Choose a potion

View Answers

sleep
24 (49.0%)

love
2 (4.1%)

immortality
9 (18.4%)

transformation
19 (38.8%)

grow-a-tail
6 (12.2%)

other
8 (16.3%)

ticky-box full of acoustic toothbrushes
9 (18.4%)

ticky-box of but now I can see all the dust and cobwebs
12 (24.5%)

ticky-box full of moose having a picnic buffet and running out of salad
16 (32.7%)

ticky-box full of a top-up prescription for writing mojo
23 (46.9%)

ticky-box full of hugs
36 (73.5%)

watersword

An excellent teaching experience today; the kids were more engaged and we had fewer tech snafus (and were better prepped to pivot for almost all of them), the one downside being that I did not act fast enough before the kids descended like locusts on the leftover lunchboxes and therefore I gotta get my own lunch.

But at least I had already prepared to buy myself dinner as a "yay you did a teaching!", so I can just get a gyro wrap and fries instead of bánh mì and spring rolls without any kind of emotional agonies.

A friend's yard sale is tomorrow and I have successfully offloaded a surprising number of things for that — two curtain sets! branded mugs! IKEA plates! — and I need to set up folks to care for the gherkin while I am away, and someone to pick up the corms for a public beautification project that is also happening then, and after a followup call, the Parks Department has finally finally admitted to looking at my pollinator garden plans and has feedback, which I gotta respond to. Also laundry needs to happen.

musesfool

Slow Horses: Bad Dates: We are so back, baby! ( spoilers ) Very interested in seeing where this is going.

I am less on the bandwagon and more cautious and disbelieving about the Mets' playoff chances. They control their own destiny for now, but having to play the Marlins to cement their wild card spot is giving me very unhappy flashbacks to past collapses. Also, if Tyrone Taylor is not in CF the rest of the way now that he's back from the IL, then I don't even know what we're doing here.

Lastly, I will be pet-sitting overnight at my brother's tomorrow, so hopefully the new-ish dogs are okay with that. We'll see how it goes!

*

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Maria Maria - Santana

colls

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

killabeez

Get your requests and offers ready, spread the word, and let's do this!

2025 Guidelines and helpful links here.

yourlibrarian

1) Nothing like a Disney bundle price increase right on the heels of the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco. I wonder if they held off on the announcement until 24 hours after saying he'd return?

2) Having just watched the latest Death in Paradise spinoff, it struck me as curious that a successful show like Silent Witness has not done the same (though maybe it has? Anyone know?)

In a way though, it's like the show has had various spinoffs within the same show. ( Read more... )

I also thought about this issue given this article which argues that technology will continue to make the cost of content creation fall to where practically anyone can create marketable content, especially since consumer expectation of what counts as entertainment and information has changed due to cost and access issues as well as demographic changes. As a result, companies that invest heavily in it will expect to get paid in different ways. ( Read more... )

3) It's fun to see how many people over time at Board Game Arena have recognized my Merlin icon. It's a little fannish high five.

4) Sister Boniface's episode of Doctor Who struck me as a sign of changing times. Twenty years ago the fan would have been the geekiest cast member, probably the reporter, but here various cast members are fans and it's mainly the tall, matinee idol detective.

5) Interesting to see how U.S. films are getting less viewing overseas, mainly due to China's restrictions on how many can be shown there. I thought this bit was interesting as well: "The the top French films released were all English-language movies co-produced with the UK among other countries, and did more business in the UK than in the US or China." I didn't realize France even made films in English.

Poll #33655 Kudos Footer-541

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

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Kudos!
8 (100.0%)

lycomingst

I was sitting upright in bed but drowsy, and I started to dream about President Andrew Johnson, but my subconscious said, or do I mean Andrew Jackson. I got irritated and woke up.

I won Guardian Wishlist! We ALL won Guardian Wishlist! :D

the game changed on this play

Help?

Good Intentions Buried

R. F. .Kuang: Katabasis

i could've done better, but i don't mind

Me-and-media update

(no subject)

The breath that passed from you to me

Surprising News

Highlander Shortcuts signups are open!

To the doubts that complicate your mind

Alien: Earth 1.08

Me-and-media update

(no subject)

thinking of ways to make it better

Festivids! <333

One week until HLH Shortcuts opens for signups!

Timing and Distribution

(no subject)

rusty-halo.com

August 2018

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