Me-and-media update
May. 30th, 2026 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
china_shopPandemic life
Following the closure of our favourite and the temporary closure of another, our replacement "outdoor" cafe seems to be the one at the garden centre, which is great in terms of menu, but only outdoors on a technicality. There is courtyard seating, but the garden centre is covered with a high hangar-like ceiling that's open at the sides. We're heading into winter; it'll have to do for now.
Previous poll review
In the Siblings poll, 41.2% of respondents are the oldest among their siblings, 23.5% are the youngest, and 13.7% are in the middle (including me: 我有一个妹妹和两个哥哥). Only children make up 21.6% of respondents, and 5.9% said it's complicated. In ticky-boxes, giant pandas on penny-farthings and electric eel electricians tied for second place (37.3%), and hugs won with 76.5%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
I've fallen shamefully out of the reading habit, so just an hour or two of Cetaganda (Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner). I remember staying up all night reading in my twenties. What has happened to me? Clearly I need to get my Chinese to the point where I can read beginner-level graded readers, and then two birds, one stone.
Kdramas
I have two episodes to go in To My Beloved Thief, and I'm super enjoying it. More Miraculous Brothers tonight. I need to excavate my exercise machine so I can watch ep 14 of Absolute Value of Romance.
Other TV
Finished The Burroughs, which was fine. If anyone has thoughts about the ending, I'd be interested.
Watched some Night Train with Wyatt Cenac episodes on Youtube (Brooklyn-based standup sets, very chill). (I believe this was made for a network but not picked up, so they just uploaded it all to YT.)
An episode of White Collar with my sister; some![[youtube.com profile]](https://youtube.com/favicon.ico)
HowTown videos.
Conclave, a pope-election movie with Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, et al. I was lukewarm about watching this but very glad I did. Tense complicated politics, and a satisfying outcome. Would rec.
Audio entertainment
You Can Learn Chinese (1 or 2 eps), a couple dozen Chinese Pod newbie lessons (most multiple times), and a little bit of Sinica Podcast. Also, Writing Excuses, Cross Party Lines, and Dreaming Against the Machine.
Writing/making things
Still plugging away at my flashfic. I have three days to finish it if I want to post it in the current "Late" round at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fan_flashworks. Zero confidence I can knuckle down to make that happen, but never mind, there's always amnesty.
Life/health/mental state things
We borrowed a friend's EV and drove up the coast to see my parents last weekend. Lovely weather, guilt-free driving, pleasant lunch. I had been nervous about my parents moving closer, but it's turning out fine so far.
I bought a new pillow, and it's only been three nights, but my neck is so much better. No more middle-of-the-night owwwws. Such a relief! And that's meant I've been able to take some longish bike rides.
A new bike path, Te Ara Tupua, opened north of the city, and it's lovely. I rode halfway along it and back (didn't allow enough time), and it was teeming with pedestrians and cyclists, with the sea right there, all blue and sparkling. It'll be interesting to see what it's like in bad weather, but in the meantime, magic.
House
My Ikea shelves arrived, my sister helped me construct and install them, and now I feel like maybe I have too much storage? Ha. This is because I'm looking at a lot of my things, going, I could just toss that. Anyway, the stuff that was in my wardrobe where the shelves now are is currently exploded all over the room, so I have to sort it out quickly. I bought some S-hooks for my panniers (I now have one blue pannier and one orange: Bluey and Bingo!! Andrew has their counterparts and said they must be Chilli and Bandit. /in-joke for aficionados of children's TV). I just need more boxes/cubes/whatever to sort things into, and to turn some of the built-in bookcases in my living-room into pseudo-drawers. I may have spent rather too much time this week browsing Ikea and hardware store websites.
Language Learning
( Cut to spare your reading page. )
Link dump
What do other animals think of human music? byHowtown (Youtube, 32:09).
Good things
我的猫很好。Autumn/winter sunshine. Biking. EVs. New pillow, new shelves. 520 Day (omg, I really need to make time to revel in the collection!). Guardian and the rewatch, and getting distracted by familiar characters like "this" and "not", lol. Dreamwidth. Going to an art show in a sec. Hi!! *waves*
Following the closure of our favourite and the temporary closure of another, our replacement "outdoor" cafe seems to be the one at the garden centre, which is great in terms of menu, but only outdoors on a technicality. There is courtyard seating, but the garden centre is covered with a high hangar-like ceiling that's open at the sides. We're heading into winter; it'll have to do for now.
Previous poll review
In the Siblings poll, 41.2% of respondents are the oldest among their siblings, 23.5% are the youngest, and 13.7% are in the middle (including me: 我有一个妹妹和两个哥哥). Only children make up 21.6% of respondents, and 5.9% said it's complicated. In ticky-boxes, giant pandas on penny-farthings and electric eel electricians tied for second place (37.3%), and hugs won with 76.5%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
I've fallen shamefully out of the reading habit, so just an hour or two of Cetaganda (Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner). I remember staying up all night reading in my twenties. What has happened to me? Clearly I need to get my Chinese to the point where I can read beginner-level graded readers, and then two birds, one stone.
Kdramas
I have two episodes to go in To My Beloved Thief, and I'm super enjoying it. More Miraculous Brothers tonight. I need to excavate my exercise machine so I can watch ep 14 of Absolute Value of Romance.
Other TV
Finished The Burroughs, which was fine. If anyone has thoughts about the ending, I'd be interested.
Watched some Night Train with Wyatt Cenac episodes on Youtube (Brooklyn-based standup sets, very chill). (I believe this was made for a network but not picked up, so they just uploaded it all to YT.)
An episode of White Collar with my sister; some
Conclave, a pope-election movie with Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, et al. I was lukewarm about watching this but very glad I did. Tense complicated politics, and a satisfying outcome. Would rec.
Audio entertainment
You Can Learn Chinese (1 or 2 eps), a couple dozen Chinese Pod newbie lessons (most multiple times), and a little bit of Sinica Podcast. Also, Writing Excuses, Cross Party Lines, and Dreaming Against the Machine.
Writing/making things
Still plugging away at my flashfic. I have three days to finish it if I want to post it in the current "Late" round at
fan_flashworks. Zero confidence I can knuckle down to make that happen, but never mind, there's always amnesty. Life/health/mental state things
We borrowed a friend's EV and drove up the coast to see my parents last weekend. Lovely weather, guilt-free driving, pleasant lunch. I had been nervous about my parents moving closer, but it's turning out fine so far.
I bought a new pillow, and it's only been three nights, but my neck is so much better. No more middle-of-the-night owwwws. Such a relief! And that's meant I've been able to take some longish bike rides.
A new bike path, Te Ara Tupua, opened north of the city, and it's lovely. I rode halfway along it and back (didn't allow enough time), and it was teeming with pedestrians and cyclists, with the sea right there, all blue and sparkling. It'll be interesting to see what it's like in bad weather, but in the meantime, magic.
House
My Ikea shelves arrived, my sister helped me construct and install them, and now I feel like maybe I have too much storage? Ha. This is because I'm looking at a lot of my things, going, I could just toss that. Anyway, the stuff that was in my wardrobe where the shelves now are is currently exploded all over the room, so I have to sort it out quickly. I bought some S-hooks for my panniers (I now have one blue pannier and one orange: Bluey and Bingo!! Andrew has their counterparts and said they must be Chilli and Bandit. /in-joke for aficionados of children's TV). I just need more boxes/cubes/whatever to sort things into, and to turn some of the built-in bookcases in my living-room into pseudo-drawers. I may have spent rather too much time this week browsing Ikea and hardware store websites.
Language Learning
( Cut to spare your reading page. )
Link dump
What do other animals think of human music? by
Good things
我的猫很好。Autumn/winter sunshine. Biking. EVs. New pillow, new shelves. 520 Day (omg, I really need to make time to revel in the collection!). Guardian and the rewatch, and getting distracted by familiar characters like "this" and "not", lol. Dreamwidth. Going to an art show in a sec. Hi!! *waves*
Poll #34665 Space
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38
What is your space vibe?
View Answers
you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space
15 (39.5%)
the final frontier
15 (39.5%)
no one can hear you scream
17 (44.7%)
an infinite storm of beauty
16 (42.1%)
other
2 (5.3%)
ticky-box full of marmosets making miniature mandolins
15 (39.5%)
ticky-box full of throwing things away
13 (34.2%)
ticky-box of swimming with elephants and picnicking with gazelles
10 (26.3%)
ticky-box of books that weave ephemeral worlds
23 (60.5%)
ticky-box full of hugs
25 (65.8%)
Testing needed in advance of code push!
May. 28th, 2026 04:10 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceIt's been a while since we've done a full code push rather than just hotfixes for bugs, so we are well overdue! Depending on availability, we're aiming to do one sometime soon; we'll let you know specifics once we've worked out good timing for everyone who needs to be available.
However! The reason it's been so long is we kept trying to get some of the stuff that's pending to "really finished" instead of just "mostly finished", and then we once again looked around and went "oh no, this is a really big code push with a lot of changes". Those make us nervous, because while we do a lot of testing ourselves, y'all are really creative in how you use the site and we inevitably find a bunch of edge cases when we let you loose on new code with your real-world data!
So, if folks have some spare time in the next few days, it would be a huge help if you could spend half an hour or so using the site the same way you normally do but with the "Site-Wide Canary" beta features flag turned on. Canary mode is a sort of "live testing" mode: it's your real data, but running the most up-to-date code.
Canary mode always does have a few glitches -- there may be missing text strings or errors about missing database properties, which is a limitation of how we run it. We don't need to know about those, but anything else weird that you run into, leave a comment with what you were trying to do and the error message you got.
I'll repeat that the "here be dragons" caution that's on the beta features page: some things may be broken, so don't use it for when you're doing something important. But a few more eyeballs on it before the push will help the push go more smoothly for everyone.
For folks who want to concentrate on what's changing, we haven't finished the second code tour of what's going to be in this push, but the ffirst one has a good chunk of what's going to be going live. (We'll get the second half done ASAP!)
However! The reason it's been so long is we kept trying to get some of the stuff that's pending to "really finished" instead of just "mostly finished", and then we once again looked around and went "oh no, this is a really big code push with a lot of changes". Those make us nervous, because while we do a lot of testing ourselves, y'all are really creative in how you use the site and we inevitably find a bunch of edge cases when we let you loose on new code with your real-world data!
So, if folks have some spare time in the next few days, it would be a huge help if you could spend half an hour or so using the site the same way you normally do but with the "Site-Wide Canary" beta features flag turned on. Canary mode is a sort of "live testing" mode: it's your real data, but running the most up-to-date code.
Canary mode always does have a few glitches -- there may be missing text strings or errors about missing database properties, which is a limitation of how we run it. We don't need to know about those, but anything else weird that you run into, leave a comment with what you were trying to do and the error message you got.
I'll repeat that the "here be dragons" caution that's on the beta features page: some things may be broken, so don't use it for when you're doing something important. But a few more eyeballs on it before the push will help the push go more smoothly for everyone.
For folks who want to concentrate on what's changing, we haven't finished the second code tour of what's going to be in this push, but the ffirst one has a good chunk of what's going to be going live. (We'll get the second half done ASAP!)
cat update
May. 28th, 2026 08:28 amomensSunshine is recovering slowly. Her dental surgery was a lot and they only managed half of it. It was pretty bad :(
But yesterday she got her voice back and had a little bath. The day before that I was celebrating her using the litterbox, eating, drinking, and getting in and out of her tree! And she is eating her medicine in her wet food with no complaints (for now). So grateful because it is now her ONLY food option, due to allergies.
The dog is mega jealous of the cat's new wet food 4 life plan. He eats home cooked meals!! Literally his food is just human food with no salt or alliums. But hers is stinkier!!! Unfair!! ;_;
eta: sunny's tractor bandage :P
every little old lady loves a tractor
But yesterday she got her voice back and had a little bath. The day before that I was celebrating her using the litterbox, eating, drinking, and getting in and out of her tree! And she is eating her medicine in her wet food with no complaints (for now). So grateful because it is now her ONLY food option, due to allergies.
The dog is mega jealous of the cat's new wet food 4 life plan. He eats home cooked meals!! Literally his food is just human food with no salt or alliums. But hers is stinkier!!! Unfair!! ;_;
eta: sunny's tractor bandage :P
every little old lady loves a tractor
Croatia part 1: Dubrovnik
May. 27th, 2026 02:23 pmilanaramaIn late April and early May we traveled to Croatia for the "Pearls of Dalmatia" boat/bike tour from Dubrovnik to Split, along with a group of friends from Durango (and some of their friends from elsewhere), as well as a few random strangers (not strangers for long :-) to round out the complement. The Durango contingent were largely the same folks from the Lakes of Lombardy (Italy) cycling tour we did in 2023.
( Lots of photos and blathering! )
( Lots of photos and blathering! )
ooof
May. 26th, 2026 09:31 amomensThe cat is at the dentist today. Her estimate is sitting at 2600$ before any cosmetic wart removal so she is gonna stay in her loveable swamp hag state :P everyone think good thoughts!
In other news, has anyone else's world been rocked by McCain no longer making frozen juice?? It was the cheapest way to buy juice with the least fucking plastic. ;_; and now, we've discovered that the finish dishwasher tabs are only being made in the pod type now, no little block of compressed powder! The pods fucking suck! I only had to pull a blanket out of the dryer with plastic pod shit dried on it once before I was like, no, these suck, actually, give me the powder back. Or the time they all stuck together into a giant jelly mass in the canister because humidity exists.
(We have the juice now (by which I mean liquid laundry soap - I heard it called laundry juice once in a reel and it became our vernacular), which is beside the point, because the washing machine in this house has a reservoir, which is very convenient.)
Anyway, Kelly found a different brand of powder diswasher tabs and was fighting with the wrapping on them, and then we realised that the wrapping is "dissolveable" .................I will use scissors, thanks. This dissolveable plastic is the worst. Compost bags are another one - we switched to the paper ones and haven't had a single problem with them.
This has been Old Lady Rants at Plastic, ig, and Doesn't Think About the Cat.
I'll think about this cat instead:
When you ask your cat for help to escape death but your death is actually very warm and cozy???? (This is Lightfall by Tim Probert and it is DELIGHTFUL.)
In other news, has anyone else's world been rocked by McCain no longer making frozen juice?? It was the cheapest way to buy juice with the least fucking plastic. ;_; and now, we've discovered that the finish dishwasher tabs are only being made in the pod type now, no little block of compressed powder! The pods fucking suck! I only had to pull a blanket out of the dryer with plastic pod shit dried on it once before I was like, no, these suck, actually, give me the powder back. Or the time they all stuck together into a giant jelly mass in the canister because humidity exists.
(We have the juice now (by which I mean liquid laundry soap - I heard it called laundry juice once in a reel and it became our vernacular), which is beside the point, because the washing machine in this house has a reservoir, which is very convenient.)
Anyway, Kelly found a different brand of powder diswasher tabs and was fighting with the wrapping on them, and then we realised that the wrapping is "dissolveable" .................I will use scissors, thanks. This dissolveable plastic is the worst. Compost bags are another one - we switched to the paper ones and haven't had a single problem with them.
This has been Old Lady Rants at Plastic, ig, and Doesn't Think About the Cat.
I'll think about this cat instead:
When you ask your cat for help to escape death but your death is actually very warm and cozy???? (This is Lightfall by Tim Probert and it is DELIGHTFUL.)
DS Story: March
May. 24th, 2026 04:47 pmgrey853 posting in ds_noticeboardTitle: March
Series: 29th in The Due South Alphabet Series
Author: Grey/Grey853
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: Explicit
Tags: Male Slash, Alternate Universe-Canon Divergent, explicit sex and language, emotional hurt/comfort, deaths of secondary characters
Word Count: 46,664
Summary: Ray worries about a possible danger out of Chicago. A major investigation is carried out against a racist Mountie. Ray suffers from a serious personal loss and doesn't handle it well despite Ben's best efforts.
Link:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/85465611
Snippet:
Ben finished his tea and stood up. ″I should shower and get ready for work. Would you like to shower first?″
″No, that’s fine. You do it. I’m going in a little later today. I’ve got some appointments first.″
″What appointments?″
″I need to pick up my new Canadian passport for one.″
″And the other?″
Ray touched the sidepiece on his glasses. ″I’m tired of changing these out for readers a hundred times a day. I called last week about getting some old folks’ glasses.″
″Old folks glasses? Do you by any chance mean bifocals?″
″Yeah, like I said, old folk glasses. He made me up a pair. I go pick them up this morning. I’m officially old old now.″
″Old old?″
″Old bones, old eyes, just plain old.″
Ben smiled and leaned down for a quick kiss. ″You’re younger than I am and I love you in glasses.″
″Or without.″
″That, too, yes.″
Ray grinned, suddenly imagining all the things Ben could do to make him stop worrying so much. ″How about we shower together?″
Ben didn’t answer with words, but with another kiss. He grabbed Ray’s hand and led him off to jump start the day. Who knew getting clean and dirty could happen at the same time?
Series: 29th in The Due South Alphabet Series
Author: Grey/Grey853
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: Explicit
Tags: Male Slash, Alternate Universe-Canon Divergent, explicit sex and language, emotional hurt/comfort, deaths of secondary characters
Word Count: 46,664
Summary: Ray worries about a possible danger out of Chicago. A major investigation is carried out against a racist Mountie. Ray suffers from a serious personal loss and doesn't handle it well despite Ben's best efforts.
Link:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/85465611
Snippet:
Ben finished his tea and stood up. ″I should shower and get ready for work. Would you like to shower first?″
″No, that’s fine. You do it. I’m going in a little later today. I’ve got some appointments first.″
″What appointments?″
″I need to pick up my new Canadian passport for one.″
″And the other?″
Ray touched the sidepiece on his glasses. ″I’m tired of changing these out for readers a hundred times a day. I called last week about getting some old folks’ glasses.″
″Old folks glasses? Do you by any chance mean bifocals?″
″Yeah, like I said, old folk glasses. He made me up a pair. I go pick them up this morning. I’m officially old old now.″
″Old old?″
″Old bones, old eyes, just plain old.″
Ben smiled and leaned down for a quick kiss. ″You’re younger than I am and I love you in glasses.″
″Or without.″
″That, too, yes.″
Ray grinned, suddenly imagining all the things Ben could do to make him stop worrying so much. ″How about we shower together?″
Ben didn’t answer with words, but with another kiss. He grabbed Ray’s hand and led him off to jump start the day. Who knew getting clean and dirty could happen at the same time?
520 Day fics!
May. 24th, 2026 05:59 pmchina_shopFor 520 Day, I received the most wonderful romp from ehyde. Srsly, it made me shout with laughter every second paragraph. :D :D :D
Secret's Safe With Me (1820 words) by EHyde
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Guo Changcheng & Shen Wei, Shen Wei & Shen Wei's Students (Guardian)
Characters: Guo Changcheng, Shen Wei (Guardian), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Bodyswap, Hand-Wavy Dixing Powers (Guardian)
Summary:
I wrote outsider POV forecho_ph0enix -- Zheng Yi's take on the first part of episode 14, including some missing scenes with Shen Wei.
Senza Sordino (没有弱音器) (6858 words) by china_shop
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei & Zheng Yi, Zheng Yi & Tan Xiao, Background Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhèng Yì, Shěn Wēi, Tán Xiào, Special Investigation Division | SID Ensemble (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Episode Related, episode 14, Missing Scene, Canon Compliant, POV Outsider, Fatalism, Trauma, Mentions of deportation, No One Is Actually Deported, Happy Ending, rated for themes
Summary:
ehyde. Srsly, it made me shout with laughter every second paragraph. :D :D :DSecret's Safe With Me (1820 words) by EHyde
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Guo Changcheng & Shen Wei, Shen Wei & Shen Wei's Students (Guardian)
Characters: Guo Changcheng, Shen Wei (Guardian), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Bodyswap, Hand-Wavy Dixing Powers (Guardian)
Summary:
Guo Changcheng gets (very literally) mixed up in one DCU student's misguided attempt to protect her favorite professor from the SID.
I wrote outsider POV for
echo_ph0enix -- Zheng Yi's take on the first part of episode 14, including some missing scenes with Shen Wei.Senza Sordino (没有弱音器) (6858 words) by china_shop
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shen Wei & Zheng Yi, Zheng Yi & Tan Xiao, Background Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhèng Yì, Shěn Wēi, Tán Xiào, Special Investigation Division | SID Ensemble (Guardian), Zhao Yunlan
Additional Tags: Episode Related, episode 14, Missing Scene, Canon Compliant, POV Outsider, Fatalism, Trauma, Mentions of deportation, No One Is Actually Deported, Happy Ending, rated for themes
Summary:
Zheng Yi quavered. On her left were the conscious and unconscious casualties of her desperate search; on her right stood the object of it, Tan Xiao. She’d been too desperate to consider anything or anyone else while she’d been parted from him, but that was no excuse. Something inside her cracked, and guilt poured out.
In this private space shared with only the Envoy, it felt safe to speak. She gulped back tears and opened her mouth. Whatever kind of person the Envoy was, she had to say it. “I’m sorry.”
Me-and-media update
May. 24th, 2026 10:55 amchina_shopPrevious poll review
In the Circus poll, 25% of respondents would like to be the knife-thrower, while 18.2% would prefer to be the acrobat. In ticky-boxes, eight hours' sleep beat hugs, 79.5% to 77.3%! Artistic poetry-reciting tigers came third with 54.5%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
Cetaganda by Bujold (read by Grover Gardner) is fun, but we're not getting through it very quickly for logistical reasons.
I started Ann Leckie's latest Radch book, Radiant Star, read by Adjoa Andoh my beloved, but I'm having trouble focusing. My usual method of audiobook listening is to surf the emotional wave, so to speak, and this is political, worldbuildy omniscient POV. Maybe I should try it in text instead.
I also have some Nghi Vo and the latest Amina al-Sirafi (Shannon Chakraborty) to catch up on, along with the entirety of the 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange collection, which went live this week, yay!
Kdramas
I'm super enjoying To My Beloved Thief, a historical that bears similarities to Knight Flower but manages to be crackier. The prince plays against type, which is great, and I'm hanging out for an enemies-to-lovers OT3 (not my usual flavour of OT3, but they're all so entangled). We shall see. No spoilers, please!
Also still into Absolute Value of Romance, though last week's episodes were a bit weird. I'm increasingly conspiracy-theorising that it's a stealth m/m show. Could it be? Surely they realise who their audience is, given the starting premise?! (I haven't been able to watch this week's eps yet. Please don't tell me anything, not even a hint.)
And last weekend, Andrew and our friend Ed and I semi-randomly started a supernatural mystery/thriller called Miraculous Brothers, which I was mostly interested in for Bae Hyun Sung (Hae Joon from Family by Choice). I have no idea where it's going, which is always fun.
Other TV
Pardon My Icelandic - Ari Eldjárn standup special on Netflix. Great linguistic humour, fun with accents. (Hilariously, it came up when I searched for British stand-up.)
Cunk on Earth - one episode. Did not click.
Scrubs (original flavour) has outstayed its welcome. I'm starting to actively dislike JD, and the male-gaziness is off the charts. (Sorry to people who like it!)
The Burroughs - three episodes of the Duffers' new show. It's a bit slow, mostly an exercise in "who's that actor?" but it's only 8 episodes, so we'll probably finish it. (Honestly, I don't think it needs the monsters.) My favourite part is Geena Davis and her younger love interest.
Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Better Offline, Tech Won't Save Us (episode: "The UK Government's AI Obsession is a Big Risk w/ Will Dunn" /o\), Cross Party Lines, Guilt-Free Pleasures ("Whitesnake's Here I Go Again"), Dreaming Against the Machine, about 20 minutes of Pod Save America, Keep It Steady episode 7 (timeline cleanse), a bunch of ChinesePod beginner lessons ("不好意思, 我先走了"), and half an episode of You Can Learn Chinese.
Online life
The 520 Day Reverse Exchange is live, yay!!! I'll post separately about my Utterly Delightful Gift and the thing I wrote. I haven't been very present on Dreamwidth, but I've been around a lot, modding and writing, which feels Dreamwidth-adjacent (at least to me).
Writing/making things
I spent an hour on Wednesday rewriting a single sentence in my 520 Day fic. That's sort of how it's going. I have 687 words of a flashfic that I started for the lastfan_flashworks round (Avalanche), which I'm now planning to squeeze into this round (Late). Hopefully I'll finish it soon, so I can keep my "one fic a month" average steady. And then I'll get back to my Yuletide fic.
Life/health/mental state things
At some point pre-Covid, I had standing lunch dates every weekday, plus (at one point) multiple weekly language exchange meet-ups and TV-watching dates. These days, almost all of my socialising involves friends coming over here for lunch or dinner/TV. My sole remaining regular lunch-date-in-town friend moved away last year but has been commuting, so we've met up roughly every second week. But she's just taken a job nearer her new place. I still see people a reasonable amount, but soon I won't have regular reasons to leave the house anymore. I may need to do something about that...
Some bad attacks by middle-of-the-night brain weasels lately. Bah!
House
My IKEA shelves arrive next week. I'm trying to plan how to organise things so I don't just stuff them full and close the door. Maybe I should watch some home organisation youtube videos? *loses half an hour* Oops!
Language Learning
I'm still going on Duolingo and Hello Chinese. The former has given me 30 days of free Premium (I can say, 我的爸爸不去中文书店和韩国饭店，你的爸爸呢？-- though, ha, when I came back to it, I didn't recognise the characters for bookstore or restaurant, despite knowing the pinyin.) With Hello Chinese, I'm still on the free option, so I mostly practice the 10 most commonly used characters (这是和不在有一的了人) and 一 to 十) and take the pronunciation quiz. (Typing is still a work in progress, but I'm getting there.) Question: is vocal fry part of 3rd tone? It seems really common, especially when people are enunciating clearly.
NZ politics, argh
( Cut to spare you. )
Good things
520 Day, woohoo! The weather has been conveniently mild. I made lemony fish pie on Friday; it was yum. Imminent new pillow and shelves (both in transit). My car actually started on Friday. A friend is lending us an EV to go up the coast and have lunch with my parents.
In the Circus poll, 25% of respondents would like to be the knife-thrower, while 18.2% would prefer to be the acrobat. In ticky-boxes, eight hours' sleep beat hugs, 79.5% to 77.3%! Artistic poetry-reciting tigers came third with 54.5%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
Cetaganda by Bujold (read by Grover Gardner) is fun, but we're not getting through it very quickly for logistical reasons.
I started Ann Leckie's latest Radch book, Radiant Star, read by Adjoa Andoh my beloved, but I'm having trouble focusing. My usual method of audiobook listening is to surf the emotional wave, so to speak, and this is political, worldbuildy omniscient POV. Maybe I should try it in text instead.
I also have some Nghi Vo and the latest Amina al-Sirafi (Shannon Chakraborty) to catch up on, along with the entirety of the 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange collection, which went live this week, yay!
Kdramas
I'm super enjoying To My Beloved Thief, a historical that bears similarities to Knight Flower but manages to be crackier. The prince plays against type, which is great, and I'm hanging out for an enemies-to-lovers OT3 (not my usual flavour of OT3, but they're all so entangled). We shall see. No spoilers, please!
Also still into Absolute Value of Romance, though last week's episodes were a bit weird. I'm increasingly conspiracy-theorising that it's a stealth m/m show. Could it be? Surely they realise who their audience is, given the starting premise?! (I haven't been able to watch this week's eps yet. Please don't tell me anything, not even a hint.)
And last weekend, Andrew and our friend Ed and I semi-randomly started a supernatural mystery/thriller called Miraculous Brothers, which I was mostly interested in for Bae Hyun Sung (Hae Joon from Family by Choice). I have no idea where it's going, which is always fun.
Other TV
Pardon My Icelandic - Ari Eldjárn standup special on Netflix. Great linguistic humour, fun with accents. (Hilariously, it came up when I searched for British stand-up.)
Cunk on Earth - one episode. Did not click.
Scrubs (original flavour) has outstayed its welcome. I'm starting to actively dislike JD, and the male-gaziness is off the charts. (Sorry to people who like it!)
The Burroughs - three episodes of the Duffers' new show. It's a bit slow, mostly an exercise in "who's that actor?" but it's only 8 episodes, so we'll probably finish it. (Honestly, I don't think it needs the monsters.) My favourite part is Geena Davis and her younger love interest.
Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Better Offline, Tech Won't Save Us (episode: "The UK Government's AI Obsession is a Big Risk w/ Will Dunn" /o\), Cross Party Lines, Guilt-Free Pleasures ("Whitesnake's Here I Go Again"), Dreaming Against the Machine, about 20 minutes of Pod Save America, Keep It Steady episode 7 (timeline cleanse), a bunch of ChinesePod beginner lessons ("不好意思, 我先走了"), and half an episode of You Can Learn Chinese.
Online life
The 520 Day Reverse Exchange is live, yay!!! I'll post separately about my Utterly Delightful Gift and the thing I wrote. I haven't been very present on Dreamwidth, but I've been around a lot, modding and writing, which feels Dreamwidth-adjacent (at least to me).
Writing/making things
I spent an hour on Wednesday rewriting a single sentence in my 520 Day fic. That's sort of how it's going. I have 687 words of a flashfic that I started for the last
fan_flashworks round (Avalanche), which I'm now planning to squeeze into this round (Late). Hopefully I'll finish it soon, so I can keep my "one fic a month" average steady. And then I'll get back to my Yuletide fic.Life/health/mental state things
At some point pre-Covid, I had standing lunch dates every weekday, plus (at one point) multiple weekly language exchange meet-ups and TV-watching dates. These days, almost all of my socialising involves friends coming over here for lunch or dinner/TV. My sole remaining regular lunch-date-in-town friend moved away last year but has been commuting, so we've met up roughly every second week. But she's just taken a job nearer her new place. I still see people a reasonable amount, but soon I won't have regular reasons to leave the house anymore. I may need to do something about that...
Some bad attacks by middle-of-the-night brain weasels lately. Bah!
House
My IKEA shelves arrive next week. I'm trying to plan how to organise things so I don't just stuff them full and close the door. Maybe I should watch some home organisation youtube videos? *loses half an hour* Oops!
Language Learning
I'm still going on Duolingo and Hello Chinese. The former has given me 30 days of free Premium (I can say, 我的爸爸不去中文书店和韩国饭店，你的爸爸呢？-- though, ha, when I came back to it, I didn't recognise the characters for bookstore or restaurant, despite knowing the pinyin.) With Hello Chinese, I'm still on the free option, so I mostly practice the 10 most commonly used characters (这是和不在有一的了人) and 一 to 十) and take the pronunciation quiz. (Typing is still a work in progress, but I'm getting there.) Question: is vocal fry part of 3rd tone? It seems really common, especially when people are enunciating clearly.
NZ politics, argh
( Cut to spare you. )
Good things
520 Day, woohoo! The weather has been conveniently mild. I made lemony fish pie on Friday; it was yum. Imminent new pillow and shelves (both in transit). My car actually started on Friday. A friend is lending us an EV to go up the coast and have lunch with my parents.
Poll #34642 Siblings
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 51
Among my siblings (if any), I'm
View Answers
the oldest
21 (41.2%)
the youngest
12 (23.5%)
in the middle
7 (13.7%)
an only child
11 (21.6%)
a twin/triplet/etc.
1 (2.0%)
it's complicated
3 (5.9%)
other
1 (2.0%)
ticky-box full of giant pandas on streamer-bedecked penny-farthing bicycles
19 (37.3%)
ticky-box full of too many online subscriptions
16 (31.4%)
ticky-box full of electric eel electricians
19 (37.3%)
ticky-box full of taking a boogie break
13 (25.5%)
ticky-box full of hugs
39 (76.5%)
Poll: Rate My Glasses
May. 23rd, 2026 10:23 amjesse_the_kI’ve been wearing glasses for 65 years, and I’ve tried many shapes, styles, and colors. Inside the cut are two pics, with a wrinkled white woman with short hair, crumpled ears, crooked smile, and magnifying lens in metal glasses. I'd appreciate it if you'd answer this anonymous poll to let me know which style you think works best:
( Looking and polling )
( Looking and polling )
LOL
May. 22nd, 2026 10:39 amomensThe dentist's office called today because they'd accidentally made Liam a hygienist apppointment and not a dentist appointment this morning, lol. We ended up getting there before they could get ahold of us. So now he has a new appointment for June 2 (still way better than Sept 28!).. we went and bought snacks anyway, which we'd planned to do afterward because I needed tomatoes, and all he had to do was wake up early :D it worked out very well for him, if not his teeth :P
Kelly is working from home today and is in the front yard fighting a war against dandelions. We both love dandelions but the difference between our yard and the retirees' yards on either side of us is stark. :/
I started de-chaos-ing the office where my computer lives, but it is a big project. Sorting hobby supplies, figuring out storage, etc. Dreaming up a better desk situation, maybe. It's such a weird little dark room. I want it to be great but it has never quite been comfortable. Other than that, I have my daily Kdrama date at 3pm! We're watching Undercover Miss Hong & at 7 eps in, it is EXCELLENT. It takes place in 1997 and is a lot of fun. Wall to wall great characters & many shenanigans.
Her little stick legs under that floof! From after her bloodwork appointment on the 6th. They had to poke both legs! No wonder she went ballistic. She's usually calm as heck but not that time. Or, you know, I guess cause and effect could be reversed lolol. Either way, she walked it off and so did Christina, the technician /o\ sorry, Christina
Kelly is working from home today and is in the front yard fighting a war against dandelions. We both love dandelions but the difference between our yard and the retirees' yards on either side of us is stark. :/
I started de-chaos-ing the office where my computer lives, but it is a big project. Sorting hobby supplies, figuring out storage, etc. Dreaming up a better desk situation, maybe. It's such a weird little dark room. I want it to be great but it has never quite been comfortable. Other than that, I have my daily Kdrama date at 3pm! We're watching Undercover Miss Hong & at 7 eps in, it is EXCELLENT. It takes place in 1997 and is a lot of fun. Wall to wall great characters & many shenanigans.
A funny bonus picture I forgot to share of Sunny
Her little stick legs under that floof! From after her bloodwork appointment on the 6th. They had to poke both legs! No wonder she went ballistic. She's usually calm as heck but not that time. Or, you know, I guess cause and effect could be reversed lolol. Either way, she walked it off and so did Christina, the technician /o\ sorry, Christina
life update!
May. 21st, 2026 11:56 amomensHellooo, it's been hectic, I guess. Or I just haven't felt like writing. I have been stressed, which makes everything kind of go on hold.
The good stuff:
Been planting some herbs and flowers on the deck, but not too many because we have to refinish the deck (ughghghghhh). And I finally plugged in my click and grow (indoor garden) this morning, so that is fun, too. Kelly is growing grass in the front yard and it is FINALLY sprouting. Our yard looks like shit, lol. We haven't started tackling the garden bed.
Got L a dentist appointment for tomorrow morning! He has cavities that need filling but isn't on our health insurance anymore :( so we wanted to sign him up for the canadian dental insurance thing but he needed to have his own taxes filed & not as our dependent on Kelly's, so we did that and it took forever but we finally got them back and then found out the canadian dental insurance applications open in june ...FOR 2027. They had warned me at the dentist's office that it wasn't immediate coverage but they were like "it's a few weeks, I think" ..LOL. So. Gonna do that in June but in the meantime, he needs 1200$ worth of dentistry. 2026 is the year of dental bills, let's say. Cat, dog, Liam. At least mine has been covered (60%, anyway, for the crown).
Anyway it was funny because I was like welp, make the appointment, we need to get it done asap, and they were like "we can book him in for July" and I was like lolol that's his birthday, maybe the next date?? And the next date was Sept 28th. :P But we were pretty confident a cancellation would come up bc summer etc. Did not expect a call the very next day but we will take it! :D
Oh yeah, also the cat's dentistry got pushed back a week and switched to the vet that did Nico's dentistry. He's willing to roll with how her cleaning looks and do whatever's needed on the fly, whereas the other guy wanted to do a cleaning and then decide what to do and make an appointment to do it after. And I was like, yeah, I think we'll only put her under once, thanks. For longer, yeah, but it seems way less stressful. I hope it is the right choice. I don't think I mentioned it here but we got her pre-dental bloodwork back and we had paid for a special test of her heart function bc we had been told in the past that she has a murmur, so anaesthetic was a very scary option. But!!! Her tiny little chicken heart is functioning perfectly! It was such a relief to get that result back because I was worried if we got the opposite result back it would be like, well... what do we do now? I still have to get a pee sample out of her but she is very stubborn and I am very scatterbrained.
Hmm what else is good... I got an intoabar assignment and it is Steph Brown x William Boimler and at first I was like nooooooooooooooo but idk, they maybe have things to talk about. I'll have to rewatch some Lower Decks (not a hardship). All else fails, I want to get back into watercolour so I might just paint it.
The good stuff:
Been planting some herbs and flowers on the deck, but not too many because we have to refinish the deck (ughghghghhh). And I finally plugged in my click and grow (indoor garden) this morning, so that is fun, too. Kelly is growing grass in the front yard and it is FINALLY sprouting. Our yard looks like shit, lol. We haven't started tackling the garden bed.
Got L a dentist appointment for tomorrow morning! He has cavities that need filling but isn't on our health insurance anymore :( so we wanted to sign him up for the canadian dental insurance thing but he needed to have his own taxes filed & not as our dependent on Kelly's, so we did that and it took forever but we finally got them back and then found out the canadian dental insurance applications open in june ...FOR 2027. They had warned me at the dentist's office that it wasn't immediate coverage but they were like "it's a few weeks, I think" ..LOL. So. Gonna do that in June but in the meantime, he needs 1200$ worth of dentistry. 2026 is the year of dental bills, let's say. Cat, dog, Liam. At least mine has been covered (60%, anyway, for the crown).
Anyway it was funny because I was like welp, make the appointment, we need to get it done asap, and they were like "we can book him in for July" and I was like lolol that's his birthday, maybe the next date?? And the next date was Sept 28th. :P But we were pretty confident a cancellation would come up bc summer etc. Did not expect a call the very next day but we will take it! :D
Oh yeah, also the cat's dentistry got pushed back a week and switched to the vet that did Nico's dentistry. He's willing to roll with how her cleaning looks and do whatever's needed on the fly, whereas the other guy wanted to do a cleaning and then decide what to do and make an appointment to do it after. And I was like, yeah, I think we'll only put her under once, thanks. For longer, yeah, but it seems way less stressful. I hope it is the right choice. I don't think I mentioned it here but we got her pre-dental bloodwork back and we had paid for a special test of her heart function bc we had been told in the past that she has a murmur, so anaesthetic was a very scary option. But!!! Her tiny little chicken heart is functioning perfectly! It was such a relief to get that result back because I was worried if we got the opposite result back it would be like, well... what do we do now? I still have to get a pee sample out of her but she is very stubborn and I am very scatterbrained.
Hmm what else is good... I got an intoabar assignment and it is Steph Brown x William Boimler and at first I was like nooooooooooooooo but idk, they maybe have things to talk about. I'll have to rewatch some Lower Decks (not a hardship). All else fails, I want to get back into watercolour so I might just paint it.
hply sjot it's a house
May. 19th, 2026 12:09 pmilanaramaWe had an awesome bike/boat trip in Croatia end of April/early May, and I will post about it, I promise (myself), with lots of photos. But in the meantime, this happened:
We are there (here) now, making arrangements for some work to be done this summer, and setting up other various things we need before we leave it. But if any of you want to come visit the Scottsdale AZ area in the winter (Novemberish to Aprilish?) let me know - we have a guest bedroom and an office with foldout beds!
We are there (here) now, making arrangements for some work to be done this summer, and setting up other various things we need before we leave it. But if any of you want to come visit the Scottsdale AZ area in the winter (Novemberish to Aprilish?) let me know - we have a guest bedroom and an office with foldout beds!
(no subject)
May. 18th, 2026 09:07 pmchina_shopI just spent about 11 hours 9 hours (miscalculated) writing a submission on a Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill, arguing that they should include fanworks as well. Chances of this succeeding: approximately 1% - but hey, it had to be said.
And since I didn't get to include acknowledgements in my submission, I need to give credit here: thanks tomergatrude for beta! ♥ ♥ ♥
*collapses*
And since I didn't get to include acknowledgements in my submission, I need to give credit here: thanks to
mergatrude for beta! ♥ ♥ ♥ *collapses*