jazzfish | Others

amedia posting in

I have received five lovely gift fics of one kind or another over the past few months, and four of them were based on C-dramas or C-novels! One Guardian drama, two Guardian novel, and one Ancient Detective!

help me to carry the fire, it will light our way forever by Acoyotewhowanders (1173 words) is a lovely Guardian (drama) fic that coyote wrote for me as a surprise Christmas present! It is soft and sweet with gentle humor arising naturally from the characters and their interactions, and features ChuGuo moving toward becoming ChuGuoYeHuo. ❤️ 💚 ❤️ 💚 ❤️

The Best Laid Plans of Ye Xiaoxiao by Corvidology (1097 words) is part of corvidology's "12 Days of Christmas" ficlet giftwriting. I requested a rarepair (Ye Xiaoxiao/Hei Wu) from the c-drama Ancient Detective, and then forgot that I had done so ... so it came as a lovely, lovely surprise! It captures distinctive character notes for each of them, and has a beautiful ending. 💙 💜 💗 💜 💙

Zhen Hun Bibliomancy Tanka by Ride_Forever (110 words) is part of Ride's More Joy Day celebration. A fascinating, elliptical, enigmatic poem based on Guardian, Vol. I by Priest, and it's a gift for ME!!! Captures both the darkness and the humorous tone of the novel, IMHO. Includes implied Weilan and a whole verse for Da Qing. ✨ 💖 ✨ 💖 ✨

He who loves the light by Hyde_DualDomination (2,343 words), the latest in the series "The face beneath the mask," in which Lin Jing and Gui Mian from the Guardian novelverse gradually craft a relationship together. I thoroughly enjoyed the first fic in the series, especially the interweaving of Buddhist philosophy with the characters' self-discoveries and relationship progress, and Hyde wrote more for me, yay!!! 💖💖💖

grrlpup

More vegetables, more library books, more square dancing — and the weirdly mild weather continues.

pink rhododendron blossoms and their greenery

in January!

The avgolemono turned out delicious. Whole wheat orzo is slightly chewier than regular, but very suitable for the soup. A note for next time: the tempering of the egg and lemon with the hot broth worked fine, but the egg itself needs to be very well beaten first– a few scraps of unmixed egg white became apparent when they cooked. I might try it with leek broth, as we have leek tops more often than chicken bones to make broth with… maybe with a little less lemon because there’s less fat to mellow it out?

Yesterday I attended two, count ’em two, social events. Evening was the Black and White Ball edition of our club’s monthly square dance. I was more like “stagehand” in all black and not-at-all-dressy, but that’s what I got. This is the one month when I make a concerted effort to follow the theme– unlike the several rainbow months, it really stands out if I don’t.

And before that, in the afternoon I caught the bus to a New Year’s party for Oregon Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I joined SCBWI before retiring (in the final burst of spending down my professional development funds) but this was my first in-person event. Kidlit people are so nice, you guys! Everybody was happy to talk and there were library-themed table decorations and name tags and plenty of snacks. I ducked out early to catch the bus home again, but life seemed brighter after going than it had before. Is this how extroverts feel? Now I’m thinking I’ll go to the one-day conference in May, in Hillsboro.

A routine is finally settling in with my own work. I’m more viscerally aware that it’s up to me to decide on and generate that work, and no one else particularly cares. It’s both freeing and unnerving.

Thursday I’m signed up for a bird walk down at the rhododendron gardens by the college. I’m a lackadaisical birder at best, but it’s a nice chance to see the gardens for free– I haven’t been there in years and will be curious to see if anything’s blooming early.

This post originates at everyday though not every day. Comments welcome here or there.

amedia posting in

sid_guardian

I have received five lovely gift fics of one kind or another over the past few months, and three of them were Guardian! One from the drama and two from the novel!

help me to carry the fire, it will light our way forever by Acoyotewhowanders (1173 words) is a lovely Guardian (drama) fic that coyote wrote for me as a surprise Christmas present! It is soft and sweet with gentle humor arising naturally from the characters and their interactions, and features ChuGuo moving toward becoming ChuGuoYeHuo. ❤️ 💚 ❤️ 💚 ❤️

Zhen Hun Bibliomancy Tanka by Ride_Forever (110 words) is part of Ride's More Joy Day celebration. A fascinating, elliptical, enigmatic poem based on Guardian, Vol. I by Priest, and it's a gift for ME!!! Captures both the darkness and the humorous tone of the novel, IMHO. Includes implied Weilan and a whole verse for Da Qing. ✨ 💖 ✨ 💖 ✨

He who loves the light by Hyde_DualDomination (2,343 words), the latest in the series "The face beneath the mask," in which Lin Jing and Gui Mian from the Guardian novelverse gradually craft a relationship together. I thoroughly enjoyed the first fic in the series, especially the interweaving of Buddhist philosophy with the characters' self-discoveries and relationship progress, and Hyde wrote more for me, yay!!! 💖💖💖

ehyde

I didn't keep good track of what I read in 2025, so I might be missing some things here.

23 books, about a 50/50 split between cnovels and non-cnovels
Enjoyed most of them! Looking over my list, there were two that I finished but should have dropped: Evil Weapon's Self-Cultivation (Cyan Wings' so-far only miss for me, it was way too much 'watch this guy be awesome at the expense of everyone else') and Daughter of the Moon Goddess (I think I was not the right audience for this book).
The winners of the cnovel bracket: Guardian and How Dare You, they're completely different but both of them grabbed me and didn't want to let me go.
Winners of the non-cnovels: Spiderlight (Adrian Tchaikovsky) and HMS Surprise (Patrick O'Brian) series. I did not start the Aubrey/Maturin series this year and still don't intend to read them all at once but I'm definitely going to continue, and I'm going to read more by Adrian Tchaikovsky as well.

I don't really feel a need to read any more than I've been reading, but looking ahead to 2026, I do want to keep better track of my reading. I picked out a notebook for this purpose and have jotted down a few reactions to what I'm reading now (Record of the Missing Sect Master).

As for books I bound in 2025, my favorites are the couple of bamboo-strip-spine sets I made: The Imperial Uncle and Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know. The first was done as an experiment and I liked the result enough to do it again!

flareonfury posting in

fandom_icons

Multiple ships for Round 4 of

ships20in20.

Preview

sooo many ships, so little time....

Fandoms & Ships:
Charmed (Abigael/Mel #6 & AC#2), Heartstopper (Charlie/Nick #7, AC#3 & #4), High Potential (Adam/Morgan catgeory), Grimm (Nick/Adalind #4 & AC#1), MCU (Carol/Yon AC#5), Nancy Drew (Nancy/Ace #1 & #3, Nancy/Ace/Bes #9), Siren (Ben/Ryn #10), Singin' in the Rain (Don/Cosmo/Kathy #2 & #7), X-Men Evolution (Scott/Rogue #4)

author_by_night

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

Let's see.. how about Ten Takes?

1. From what I remember of The Hunger Games, I never understood people saying there was a "love triangle". It seemed clear to me that Katniss was never into Gale, and she only played into the concept of love triangle because of the reality TV show District 13 had them doing.

2. Given everything that was supposed to happen to Inara, I'm actually kind of relieved there was only one season of Firefly. Kind of. There's a good chance the network never would've allowed half of it anyway.

3. I'm kind of surprised there don't seem to be many former Firefly fans in the Our Flag Means Death fandom, from what I can tell. I think they're actually quite similar. (Even the second season of OFMD being darker mirrored Serenity being darker than the original show. Funny how that worked.)

4. Buffy: I wish that Willow's descent had actually focused more on her going to drastic extremes to fight the good fight, as well as her trauma, rather than "magic as a drug metaphor". The fact that Willow originally became a witch to honor Jenny Calendar is huge, and that's what I think they could've worked with.

5. I don't like either Spike or Angel for Buffy. Sorry! I kind of wish she'd ended up with Faith. I saw chemistry between them when I watched S3 for the first time, without any exposure to Fuffy whatsoever. (Which is interesting, because I was spoiled for practically everything except Faith.)

6. I have a headcanon - which I may eventually turn into a fic - that Cordy, Fred and Tara banded together and are kicking ass in an alternate dimension. Maybe a parallel version of Willow is also there.

7. I think Kevin Can Fuck Himself is woefully underrated, and if it had received half the recognition it deserved, it would've sparked a lot of interesting conversation.

8. I think David and Patrick from Schitt's Creek are one of the best couples on television. No pun intended re: "the best". Also, I see a bit of myself in David (I just told a friend I'm David Rose in a Ted Mullens costume), so I appreciate seeing him finding love and friendship, even if he is basically the inside of a roasted marshmallow.

9. But as much as I love David and Patrick, I think Alexis deserves more love in the fandom. She changes so much over the course of the show.

9. I don't want to spoil anyone for Heated Rivalry, so I'll just say I love how the third episode dealt with an extremely complicated situation. Lani Diane Rich once said that a great love story is when a conversation can't fix a problem, and that episode was an example.

10. There are two scenes where Ilya opens up in different ways - again, wording this carefully so as not to spoil. I love both of them.

Also, "Canadian Wolf Bird" will forever live in my head rent free.

kaffy_r

Now and Forever?

I certainly hope not. And yet, when I got up this morning and started to clean the kitchen, I found mouse droppings. Yay. We figure we have to pull out the stove's lower drawer to access the floor and the wall behind it, since we're pretty sure the mice are getting into our place from the outside somewhere in that area.

I'd bet Bob that we'll find no baseboards behind the stove, but it's too obviously a bad bet. We're going to keep an eye on the kitchen counters near the stove for a day or so to see how bold the little buggers are. If it's little to no action, then we'll wait. But if we spot their leavings, then it's time to do the inspection. Which, of course, I'm not looking forward to, especially since we can't really use the foam barrier spray near the stove. Oven heat could end up releasing toxic or potentially toxic fumes, and so we're going to have to buy a whole lot more steel wool. It's going to be a mess.

*wanders away, grumbling*

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: nothing, at the moment

senmut

jenab, thank you for the card. It got here a few days back but I kept forgetting to post.

days_unfolding

Members of the Grateful Dead keep passing on. That's a commentary of some sort.

Cool. I’m getting a free chair with a footstool for the library room!

The dogs woke me up a little before 7. Ugh, I want to go back to sleep. Whole lot of munching going on (dogs).

Hmm, I found a used washable rug that would be good for the library room.

I faked Oliver out this morning. I wanted him shut away while I brought the dogs in, so I opened the door to the basement. He took the bait. Now Lily and Zara ate in peace. I’ll let him up now.

Ugh. I dumped cereal (dry, thankfully) all over the floor. Luckily, the canine cleaning crew was on duty.

I had to explain to Gracie that I don’t play dog play and she should play with her sister. Eventually, she did. Then Bella sneezed and startled the both of them.

Showered. I’m really tired, but I need to get out. Got most of the groceries in. Crud, I don’t see the garlic and the onion. Must look again. Not there. It looks like I didn’t order the garlic, but the onion wasn’t there. I’ll have to stop at the local grocery store.

I’m back. I asked the nice guy at the car supply store if he could pop my windshield wiper back on, and in return, I’d buy windshield wiper fluid and a funnel. He did and I did. Then I popped into the grocery store and got an onion and garlic. Then I picked up the free chair with a footstool. The cushions need washing, but still, free. I left the chair in the car because I really needed to use the washroom. I’ll get it later or tomorrow morning.

Crap. The gym nearby has closed. I’ll need to look for another one.

Put a load of pajamas in the wash. Now I’m taking a nap. I’m giving up on my nap. The dogs have been restless. I seem to be getting a full-blown cold. I’m feeling too crappy to get anything done. I’m thinking of staying out sick tomorrow.

I tried a test transfer to my Schwab brokerage account, and it looks like it's working. I'll do $10000 at a time just in case something goes wrong. Once I have some money in my account, I'll transfer some to checking and they'll send me a debit card. I checked my address on the account. So, cool, it looks like I won't have to go over to Schwab to get set up.

I have pajamas in the dryer and a blanket in the washer. Once they're done, I'll go to sleep.

lauradi7dw

Watch on YouTube

Same thing here with transcript.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20260111a.htm

torachan

1. We went to the Indian market today and got lunch there as well, as they also have a small restaurant (cafeteria style). Everything was so tasty!

2. I contacted someone about making an appointment for a tattoo! I figured now that I know what I want, I want to get it done sooner rather than later, so it's fully healed by the time we take our trip in April.

3. Carla got a new suitcase backpack. It's about the size of a backpack, but opens like a suitcase. I think all the cats tried it out yesterday, except maybe Molly.

chazzbanner

I've read all of Dickens' novels. Last year I decided I'd reread them in order - but I've changed my plans. I'll read the ones I want to read!

So I've started Dombey and Son, for the first time since the 20th century. :-). I've read it twice, and through the second reading count it as my second favorite. (My favorite is Bleak House, as readers here might guess.) (Considering I go on about the tv adaptations!)

I have it in mass market paperback, which means I need to use my computer glasses to read it. I'm 200 pages in, with a mere 770 to go! :-)

I see there's a BBC tv version, which I may rent later. I'm not going to look at the Wikipedia character list! The one thing I did was google "Mr. Carker" as it struck me at first seeing the name that this guy is a baddy. (He is.)

As for the plot, well I know who the young ones are who end up together, and I know the general point of things. But, it being Dickens, there is much, much more.

I'm tempted to buy the audiobook, but I think I won't. I did buy the audiobook of Trollope's The Way We Live Now, read by Timothy West. (I suppose I found its size daunting.)

-

enchanted_jae posting in

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celli

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celli

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loganberrybunny

Public

345/365: Holiday chalet lorry
Click for a larger, sharper image
"Sore" mood setting as I've grazed my leg on something; I'm not even sure what. Nothing serious, just irritating. In the late afternoon I had to trudge down into town to get a couple of things. The weather was damp and gloomy, with a few bits of ice left in the darker corners. The only thing of any interest at all was this lorry delivering a chalet (okay, "holiday home") to a place along Dowles Road, which is a couple of miles away to the left of the Forest Dog Rescue charity shop. Always fun when there's some idiot in a souped-up Range Rover coming the other way, but nothing like that happened this time.

Current Mood: sore

kaberett

Celebrating. A's birthday!

Reading. ( Rogerson, Rundell, McGuire, Clarke, Duncan, Scalzi, Hermé )

I also: remain up to date with Dreamwidth; worked through a brief pain management course for Youth, as background reading.

Writing. The Document continues to be expanded a little every day. It is now over 4000 words.

Playing. A bit of The Bridge, "a 2D logic puzzle game that forces the player to reevaluate their preconceptions of physics and perspective", which sounded like it might be about the right speed for me given that we'd just enjoyed playing through the Monument Valley series, and which instead for the most part does not seem to fit into my brain terribly neatly and is also weirdly evocative/reminiscent of Braid (lonely dude in a suit) while also being kinda... gay? possibly? I can't tell yet? Anyway we've played through I think the first four levels and might or might not continue.

We have also engaged in some Spirits -- mostly A playing and me watching, because I am not feeling up to timing problems and having to keep pressing Esc also feels overwhelming, but I have been Providing Commentary and enjoying watching the process of TURNING MUSHROOMS INTO CLOUDS to HELP THE LEAVES GET HOME.

We have also been playing (independently) sudoku, & grousing about each other's incomprehensible approaches to solving things, and then I nerdsniped A with a specific puzzle & they went to look up Theory And Strategy Of Sudoku, and I may yet get around to uh actually looking up the approach named "jellyfish"...

Elsenet vass has introduced me to Squardle.

Cooking. One spice mix, and subsequently one recipe from East featuring a vegetable I think I have not previously consciously eaten (Jerusalem artichokes). Another batch of medlar sticky toffee pudding as A's birthday cake; I think that in fact one cannot tell the difference between medlar that has not been jellied and medlar residue from jellying, at least in this setting. Also, turns out you can successfully add beetroot to the red cabbage and cauliflower udon noodles thing. Oh, and pineapple fried rice, which A had somehow never previously encountered???

Eating. We were both, on Friday, quite tired and sad. The internet brought us Pizza Express. It was good.

Making & mending. I FINISHED A GLOVE. I WOVE IN THE ENDS. Now to cast on glove #2 of that pair...

Growing. Both orchids seem to be putting forth flower stems! And I have sown lemongrass, pineapple physalis, and (not expecting any of these to actually germinate) some lithops I was sent as a gift a while ago...

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: accomplished

shipperslist

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smokingboot

So hot that I can't sleep. I don't think this is a temperature, put my hand on my head though, and it's cooling so maybe a bit. Got up, wandered through the house, the cold is pleasant.

I hate the cold but not tonight.

Worried, haven't heard from Mum, had a very strong image of Dad yesterday or the day before; bright colours, it really looked like him. I can see it in my mind if I try at all. I'm just worried about Mum I guess. She hasn't contacted me in days, hasn't responded when I tried to contact her, but bro said he spoke to her the day before yesterday. So there's nothing wrong, but I am troubled.

Just learned that Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Ashcroft-Nowicki) died a few days back. Dolores was a pleasant and charming lady; I learned a lot from The Shining Paths, but never felt called to join her mystery school, The Servants of The Light because ... I don't know why really. Dolores, without pushing, was always ready to welcome me. We didn't know each other particularly well, but I remember her giving me one particular piece of advice; she told me never to despair, probably because I was one of those sensitive types who falls into a bleak every ten minutes. I got over it when things improved, a hopelessly fair weather despairer.

RIP Dolores/Daisy. May the shining paths be open for you right now.

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Tucker McKinnon

Words are inadequate

Adventures in Mamboland

"Jazz Fish, a saxophone playing wanderer, finds himself in Mamboland at a critical phase in his life." --Howie Green, on his book Jazz Fish Zen

Yeah. That sounds about right.

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Indeed do many things come to pass

Others

Four Fic Prezzies received! (three Guardian, one Ancient Detective)

Now-ish

Three Fic Prezzies received! (all Guardian)

Books in 2025

ships20in20 > Various Fandoms & Ships

More Snowflake

Dept. of Mice

Mail Call

New-To-Me Chair

I guess it's time to make Jay Powell my celebrity boyfriend

Daily Happiness

D and Son

Prompt 47 - adoration (Harry Potter - Charlie/Neville) Nev’s Admirers

2 new BTS fics and the podfic I made for them

BTS podfic: More Hesitation

Wide load

vital functions

Success!

Sirpin ja moukarin alla by Kirsti Huurre

Dolores and Disquiet

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