patupaiarehe | Reading

spain posting in

Name: Sarah
Age: 32

I mostly post about: Day to day, real life stuff. I mostly talk about whatever's going on, which can just be about taking the kids somewhere cool, visiting family, my job, etc. I do tend to keep negative posts private just because I'm using the space to vent and don't necessarily want advice, so I'd say my posts are also typically positive. I also try to include photos in every post and love seeing photos from friends

My hobbies/interests are: Reading, traveling, video games, going to concerts, collecting vinyl, lego, dark academia, tarot, coffee, all things horror

I'm looking to meet people who: have similar interests and values, who I can get along with and become friends with outside of this site. I love being friends on other social media platforms, talking outside of just DW, meeting up with people, etc

My posting schedule tends to be: For someone who is chronically online, I tend to only post about once or twice a month. I do read everyone's posts and comment when I can, but I don't like commenting just for the sake of commenting. I enjoy comments that can start a conversation or come from a place of sincerity and don't just say something like, "looks fun!"

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: I'm not into fandom whatsoever, so if your journal is majorly or exclusively about fandom, we won't work out. Also regardless of political views, I will most likely never talk about it on my journal and don't love reading about politics, so if that's something that's important to you, we might not mesh well

Before adding me, you should know: I've been here for years under a different username and created this account for a fresh start. I've been slowly opening up to meeting new friends, so don't please don't take it personally if I don't connect with you

rachelmanija

I picked up this 1969 novel at a library book sale based on its premise. I had never heard of the author. One of the great pleasures of reading, at least for me, is trying random old books I've never heard of. In addition to the possibility that they might be good, they're also an interesting window into other times. (Often, alas, extremely racist and sexist times.)

Sixteen people, eight women and eight men, who were on a flight to London, wake up in plastic boxes on a short strip of road with a hotel, a grocery store, and two cars without engines. Everything else is a forest. Naturally, most of the women scream, faint, and cry, while most of the men randomly fight each other (!), or run around yelling. Our hero does this:

Russell Grahame, feeling oddly detached from the whole absurd carnival, ran his left hand mechanically and repeatedly through his hair in the characteristic manner that had earned him the sobriquet Brainstroker among his few friends in the House of Commons.

He then goes to the hotel, finds the bar, and has a drink. Everyone else eventually follows him, and he fixes them all drinks. They are a semi-random set of passengers, including two husband and wife couples, plus three young female domestic science students, one Indian, and one West Indian girl improbably named Selene Bergere. I have no idea why that name is improbable, but it's remarked on frequently as unlikely and eventually turns out to not be her real name (but everyone goes on calling her Selene, as she prefers it.) They can all understand each other despite speaking different languages.

Russell takes charge and appoints himself group leader. They find food (and cigarettes) at the market, select hotel rooms, and then the husband-and-wife physics teachers point out that 1) the constellations are not Earth's, 2) gravity is only 2/3rds Earth's and they can all jump six feet in the air! Astonishing that none of the others noticed before. I personally would have immediately run outside and fulfilled my lifelong dream of being able to do weightless leaping. Sadly none of them do this and the low gravity is never mentioned again.

They theorize that possibly they've been kidnapped by aliens, maybe for a zoo or experiment, and the gender balance means they're supposed to breed. Russell approvingly notes that many of the single people pair up immediately, and three of them threesome-up. This is like six hours after they arrived!

On the second night, one of the three female domestic science students kills herself because she feels unable to cope. The next day, a party goes exploring (Russell reluctantly allows women to take part as the Russian woman journalist reminds him that women are different from men but have their own strength) and one of the men falls in a spiked pit and dies. Good going, Russell! Three days and you've already lost one-eighth of your party!

All the supplies they take are replenished, and one of the men spies on the market and sees metal spiders adding more cartons of cigarettes. He freaks out and tries to kill himself.

I feel like a random selection of sixteen people ought to be slightly less suicidal, even under pressure. In fact probably especially under a sort of pressure in which everyone has quite nice food and shelter, and they seem perfectly safe as long as they don't explore the forest.

One of the guys tries to capture a spider robot, but gets tangled up in the wire he used as a trap and dragged to death. Again, this group is really not the best at survival.

We randomly get some diary entries from a gay guy who's sad that no one else is gay. He confesses to Russell that he's gay and Russell, in definitely his best moment, just says, "Wow, that must be really hard for you to not have any sexual partners here." Those are the only diary entries we get, and none of this ever comes up again.

They soon find that there are three other groups. One is a kind of feudal warrior people from a world that isn't earth where they ride and live off deer-horse creatures. Another is Stone Age people, who dug the spiked pits to hunt for food. The third are fairies. The language spell allows them all to communicate, except no one can speak to the fairies as they just appear for an instant then vanish. The non-fairy groups confirm that they were also vanished from where they come from.

Russell and his now-girlfriend Anna the Russian journalist theorize that the fairies are the ones who kidnapped them. They and a Stone Age guy set out to find the fairies...

( And then chickens save the day! )

So, was this a good book? Not really. Did anyone edit it? Doubtful. Did it have some interesting ideas and a good twist? Yes. Did I enjoy the hour and a half I spent reading it? Also yes. Would I ever re-read it? No. Do I recommend it? Only if you happen to also find it at a library book sale.

I am now 2 for 2 in reviewing every full length book I read in 2026! (I have not yet gotten to one manga, Night of the Living Cat # 1, and six single-issue comics, three each of Roots of Madness and They're All Terrible.) I think doing so will be good for my mental health and possibly also yours, considering what I and you could be doing on the internet instead of reading books and writing or reading book reviews.

Can I continue this streak??? Are you enjoying it?

fox_in_me posting in

addme

Name:Mr. Fox

Age: 30-something

I mostly post about:
Stories from my life — my thoughts and feelings, especially during this time of war in Ukraine. I try to capture emotions honestly: memories of a peaceful past, reflections on the present, and tales from my life as a mariner and traveler.
This journal is still in its early days, after a long break from writing. Each entry is posted in both English and the original language. I also share my own photographs — from different times, chosen to reflect my current mood.

My hobbies are:
Photography (almost professional), lomography (daily photos of interesting moments), music (acoustic, alternative, instrumental covers), psychology, and classical literature. I love discovering new things — ideas, places, people.

My fandoms are:
Honestly, I’m not active in any specific fandom. But I enjoy reading and learning, especially to improve my English.

I'm looking to meet people who:
…feel connected to what I write — kindred spirits or simply those who find meaning in my words. I’m open to everyone (with one exception: I don’t welcome those who support or excuse the war). My posts are open and honest. I’d love to find new interesting people to read and connect with.

My posting schedule tends to be:
Currently daily, or a few times a week — depending on my free time.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
No major dealbreakers — most of what matters is already said above.

Before adding me, you should know:
I’m an open person without any particular agenda. I’m Ukrainian — and perhaps that matters now, just to avoid misunderstandings.
Welcome aboard. These are my messages in a bottle.

Watch on YouTube

a_bit_of_wit_2 posting in

rainbow_lounge

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: content

rachelmanija

My New Year's resolution is to attempt to review every full-length published book that I read this year. We'll see how it goes. For my first full-length read of 2026, which is obviously highly symbolic, I have of course carefully selected a beautifully written novel with deep themes and social importance.

Just kidding! I randomly picked up a trashy beach read novel from the 80s, purchased at a thrift shop, while in the bathroom, got surprisingly engrossed in it, and took it out of the bathroom to read on the sofa. Which, to be fair, is probably symbolic of both the year to come and my reading habits in general.

Above an exclusive men's store on Rodeo Drive there is a private club called Butterfly, where women are free to act out their secret erotic fantasies.

I have a thing for "fancy sex club/brothel with highly-paid sex workers who like their jobs and fulfill your erotic fantasies." So I bought this book (50 cents, at a thrift shop) and actually read it even though it's in a genre I almost never read, which is the fat beach read about rich people's sex lives written in the 1980s.

Butterfly follows three women who patronize the club, Butterfly. It's named for the beautiful little butterfly charm bracelets women wear to the store to identify themselves to the staff as patrons of the club, so they can be whisked upstairs to have their sexual fantasies satisfied (just by men, alas), whether that means recreating a cowboy bar complete with sawdust on the floor to a bedroom where a sexy burglar breaks in to a dinner date where you argue about books, yes really. The women are all accomplished and successful, but have something missing or wrong in their lives: the surgeon can't have an orgasm, the pool designer deals with on the job sexism, and the lawyer is married to an emotionally abusive asshole. Their time at Butterfly leads, whether directly or indirectly, to positive changes in their lives.

( Spoilers are almost certainly not what you're expecting. )

This novel, while dealing seriously with some serious topics, is also basically a fun beach read. I read it in winter with a space heater and hot cider, which also works. I'm not sure it converted me to the general genre of 80s beach reads, but I sincerely enjoyed it.

Content notes: Child sexual abuse, child sexual slavery (not at the Butterfly sex club, everyone's a consenting adult there), forced abortion, emotional abuse.

theradicalchild posting in

addme

Name: Remy

Age: 41, turning 42 this month

I mostly post about: My daily life and mental struggles, with some occasional political commentary, and I link to my book, movie, and streaming television reviews, not to mention a fantasy novel I've been trying to type up from my notebooks for ages. I do a lot of AI art and use them in original memes as well.

My hobbies are: Reading (more nonfiction today than before), writing, streaming television, and AI art. I used to be heavily into gaming but haven't played in a while, but I may next year depending upon my mental health.

My fandoms are: Formerly furry--I got off that sinking ship last year--though I still like anthropomorphic art--and I don't do fandoms anymore.

I'm looking to meet people who: Validate me and respect my unique perspective.

My posting schedule tends to be: Daily.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: I'm not a very big fan of Woke and gender ideology, or anti-AI people.

Before adding me, you should know: I am autistic, but have pretty much disowned my own people, really struggling mentally, incredibly PTSD from decades of trauma from my family and 18 years of psychiatric abuse, not to mention pretty much every online community I was ever part of.

Current Mood: busy

rachelmanija

I wrote three stories this Yuletide. The first two won't make much sense if you don't know the canons. With the third, all you really need to know is that mushi are magical creatures and Ginko solves people's mushi-related problems.

28 Years Later

Memento Mori. Dr. Kelson creates his masterpiece.

I really liked the movie, which is extremely different from the first one (also extremely different from the second, which I don't care for) and also extremely different from the brilliant trailer, which introduced me to the astonishing recording from 1915 (!) of actor Taylor Holmes reciting Kipling's poem "Boots." It's a post-apocalypse movie that's partly a coming of age story, partly an action/horror movie, and partly a beautiful and moving drama about life, death, and remembrance. And then there's the last two minutes, which are basically parkour Trainspotting.

I actually matched on The Leftovers, but I liked the 28 Days Later prompt so much that I wrote that instead.

Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey

Hunger. Both Lessa and Kylara are Searched for Nemorth's final clutch.

I just really enjoy writing in this canon. I love the dragons and McCaffrey created a lot of very interesting characters even if she often ended up not knowing quite what to do with them.

Mushishi

A Turn of the Wheel. Ginko encounters an unusual mushi in a village known for pottery.

Mushishi is an incredibly beautiful anime and manga with a dreamy, wistful atmosphere. I saw a prompt for mushi infesting a piece of pottery and could not resist. This story was also inspired by having recently visited Japan in the summer, a time of year I very much do not recommend for a visit if you can possibly avoid it. It's like living in a sauna. Now imagine doing a kiln firing in that sauna.

lesbocannibal posting in

addme

Name: Lots of them. Mainly Saros, Venus, Maggie, Andi, or Sewa. Pick your favorite. Or just call me sewagelag00n.

Age: 20

I mostly post about: My daily life, some stuff about my hexperiences regarding "mental health"/Madness. Occasionally I'll talk about media I've been into.

My hobbies are: Selfshipping! DIY alternative fashion, customizing clothes & making jewelry. Ballet. Writing & art. Doll collecting. Soft toys.

My fandoms are: Some Sword/Some Play (18+)! A very obscure little game that I love so much I've basically adopted one of the characters as my OC. Please I am so abnormal about these lesbians. Longtime Vocaloid fan, I think I'm coming up on 9 years now. I love Hatsune Miku (she's literally me) and recently Teto SynthV has captured my heart. Recently got back into FNaF (my favorite is Mangle!). Very normal about Neon Genesis Evangelion. Huge music nerd: love digital hardcore like Ada Rook, but also into stuff under the goth umbrella, industrial, shoegaze, new wave... I like a little bit of everything.

I'm looking to meet people who: Honestly, just looking for more interaction. People who post regularly and will comment on my posts.

My posting schedule tends to be: Usually every couple of days, but can be more sporadic.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Those who follow Abrahamic religions. I am a staunch antitheist and do not think highly of religious people. Other religious/spiritual people are on thin ice. Transmisogynists, racists, sanists, homophobes, other bigots.

Before adding me, you should know: My blog is very much 18+ and viewer discretion advised because I am into a lot of dark and sexual things. I am Mad and hexperience things like plurality (one of my alters sometimes posts on this account too) and self-harm and intense mood swings. I am very critical of the psychiatric system. I am actually not a lesbian. I really want my URL to be sewagelag00n instead but I don't want to pay $15 for a rename token. I am polyamorous and have 3 real-life partners and a whole host of fictional ones.

Current Music: ACT RIGHT - femtanyl

rachelmanija

2025: A horrible year! Except for reading.

I see that I got increasingly too busy to actually write reviews, and also that the better a book is, the harder and more time-consuming it is to review. I will try to review at least some of these this year, and also to be more diligent about reviewing books soon after I actually read them.

The Tainted Cup & A Drop of Corruption, by Robert Jackson Bennett. Very, very enjoyable fantasy mysteries set in a very, very odd world whose technology and science is biology-based magic and kaiju attack every monsoon. The detectives are a very likable odd couple thinker/doer in the tradition of Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin or Hercule Poirot/Hastings, except that the eccentric thinker is a cantankerous old woman.

The Daughter's War, by Christopher Buehlman. This is a prequel to Blacktongue Thief; I liked that but I loved this. A dark fantasy novel in the form of a war memoir by a woman who enlisted into the experimental WAR CORVID battalion after so many men got killed in the battle against the goblins that they started drafting women. War is hell and the tone is much more somber than the first book as Galva isn't a wisecracker, but her own distinct voice and the WAR CORVIDS carry you through. You can read the books in either order; either way, the ending of each will hit harder emotionally if you've read the other first.

Arboreality, by Rebecca Campbell. I like to sell this in my bookshop as a mystery parcel labeled, in green Sharpie, "A green book. A mossy, woodsy, leafy book. A hopeful post-apocalyptic novel of the forest."

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty. The heroine is a middle-aged, single mom pirate dragged out of retirement for one last adventure, the setting is a fantasy Middle East, and it's just as fun as the description sounds.

The Bog Wife, by Kay Chronister. When the patriarch dies, the oldest son summons a wife from the bog to bear his children. Only the family is now in modern Appalachia rather than ancient Scotland, they're living in miserable conditions, and the last bog wife vanished under mysterious circumstances. Is there even a bog wife, or is this just a very small cult? (Or is there a bog wife and it's a very small cult?) A haunting, ambiguous, atmospheric novel.

The Everlasting, by Alix Harrow. This is probably my favorite book of the year. It's a time travel novel that's also an alternate version of the King Arthur story where most of the main characters are women, and it's also about living under and resisting fascism, and it's also a really fantastic love story with such hot sex scenes that it made me remember that sex scenes are hottest when they're based in character. (If you like loyalty/fealty kink, you will love this book.) It's got a lot going on but it all works together; the prose is sometimes very beautiful; it's got enough interesting gender themes that I'd nominate it for the Otherwise (Tiptree) award if I was a nominator. An excellent, excellent book.

King Sorrow, by Joe Hill. I've had mixed experiences reading Joe Hill but this book was fantastic. It's a big blockbuster dark fantasy novel that reads a bit like Stephen King in his prime, and I'm not saying that just because of Hill's parentage. Five college kids (and a non-college friend) summon an ancient, evil dragon to get rid of some truly terrible blackmailers. King Sorrow obliges, but they then need to give him another name every year. It's an enormous brick of a book and I'd probably only cut a couple chapters if I was the editor; it's long because there's a lot going on. Each section is written in the style of a different genre, so it starts off as a gritty crime thriller, then moves to Tolkien-esque fantasy, then Firestarter-esque psychic thriller, etc. This is just a blast to read.

Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones. Another outstanding horror novel by Jones. This one is mostly historical, borrowing from Interview with the Vampire for part of its frame story, in which a Blackfeet vampire named Good Stab tells his life story to a white priest. It's got a great voice, it's very inventive, it has outstanding set pieces, and it's extremely heartbreaking and enraging due to engaging with colonialist genocide, massacres, and the slaughter of the buffalo.

Hemlock & Silver , by T. Kingfisher. A very enjoyable fantasy with interesting horror and science fiction elements.

What Moves the Dead, What Feasts at Night, What Stalks the Deep, by T. Kingfisher. A set of novellas, the first two horror and the third mostly not, with a main character I really liked who's nonbinary in a very unique, culturally bound way. I particularly liked that this is lived and discussed in a way that does not feel like 2023 Tumblr. They're also just quick, fun, engrossing reads.

Lone Women, by Victor LaValle. An excellent historical fantasy with elements of horror, based on Montana's unique homesteading law which did not specify the race or gender of homesteaders, allowing black women to homestead. So Adelaide flees California for Montana, dragging with her an enormous locked steamer trunk, too heavy for anyone but her to lift, which she never, ever opens...

We Live Here Now, by Sarah Pinborough. What can I say? I really enjoy a good twist, and this has a doozy. Also, a great ending.

Pranksters vs. Autocrats: Why Dilemma Actions Advance Nonviolent Activism, by Srđa Popović. How to fight fascism with targeted mockery and other forms of nonviolent actions designed to put your opposition in an unwinnable situation. This costs five bucks, you can read it in less than two hours, and it was written by the leader of one of the student movements that helped overthrow Slobodan Milošević. This is not a naive book and it is very much worth reading.

Under One Banner, by Graydon Saunders. Commonweal # 4. Don't start here. I liked this a lot, hope to write about it in pieces when I re-read it, and was surprised and pleased to discover that it is largely about the ethics of magical neurosurgery and other forms of magical mental/neurological care/alteration.

Troubled Waters, by Sharon Shinn. A lovely, character-driven, small-scale fantasy. I wish this book had been the model for cozy fantasy, because it actually is one, only it has stakes and stuff happens. Also, one of the most original magic systems I've come across in a while.

Shroud, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. An outstanding first-contact novel with REALLY alien aliens.

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. I guess the premise is spoilery? ( Read more... ) That's not a criticism, I loved the book. Funny, moving, exciting, and a perfect last line. This is probably duking it out with The Everlasting for my favorite of the year.

I also very much enjoyed American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, Dinotopia by James Gurney, Open Throat by Henry Hoke, When the Angels Left the Old Country, by Sacha Lamb, Elatsoe by Darcy Little Badger, The Bewitching & Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Sisters of the Vast Black, by Lina Rather, Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, Liberated: The Radical Art and Life of Claude Cahun, by Kaz Rowe, Into the Raging Sea, by Rachel Slade, The Haar by David Sodergren, The Journey by Joyce Carol Thomas, Strange Pictures/Strange Houses by Uketsu, Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig, and An Immense World, by Ed Yong.

I'm probably forgetting some books. Sorry, forgotten books!

Did you read any of these? What did you think?

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

Привет and welcome to our new Russian friends from LiveJournal! We are happy to offer you a new home. We will not require identification for you to post or comment. We also do not cooperate with Russian government requests for any information about your account unless they go through a United States court first. (And it hasn't happened in 16 years!)

Importing your journal from ЖЖ may be slow. There are a lot of you, with many posts and comments, and we have to limit how fast we download your information from ЖЖ so they don't block us. Please be patient! We have been watching and fixing errors, and we will go back to doing that after the holiday is over.

I am very sorry that we can't translate the site into Russian or offer support in Russian. We are a much, much smaller company than LiveJournal is, and my high school Russian classes were a very long time ago :) But at least we aren't owned by Sberbank!

С Новым Годом, and welcome home!

EDIT: Большое спасибо всем за помощь друг другу в комментариях! Я ценю каждого, кто предоставляет нашим новым соседям информацию, понятную им без необходимости искать её в Google. :) И спасибо вам за терпение к моему русскому переводу с помощью Google Translate! Прошло уже много-много лет со школьных времен!

Thank you also to everyone who's been giving our new neighbors a warm welcome. I love you all ❤️

mahmfic posting in

addme

Name: King / Megan

Age: 37

I mostly post about: Exchange letters. Real life: parenting, health issues (ex chronic migraines, epilepsy, depression, anxiety, hubby has hardcore depression, my kid has ADHD, my mom had cancer, and my dad has dementia), friendship, family, my cat, and general rl happenings. I'll talk about fandom and writing stuff too.

My hobbies are: Writing fanfiction, adult coloring books, listening/reading to audiobooks

My fandoms are: My main ones right now are Star Wars (primarily Clone Wars and Bad Batch right now) and Star Trek (primarily DS9).

I'm looking to meet people who: Overall, besides the deal breakers I'm open to friending anyone. It's cool to see different lives and views (except below).

My posting schedule tends to be: I'm trying to be better with updates. My plan is to post every Tuesday. Sometimes there will be dear creator letters for exchanges.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
• Conservatives. I feel bad saying that. I have conservative friends irl but I don't want to see it online if that makes sense.
• If you're a Christian who constantly talks about Christianity I'm not interested. It's fine if you're Christian, but if every conversation you make it about the Bible and Jesus that's annoying to me.
• If you hate people who like Harry Potter and think all fans are transphobic etc. I'm a Hufflepuff so if that bothers you then nope.
• In regards to fanfiction and creating, a deal breaker is if you think that if someone writes about 'X' then they must support 'X' irl.
Damn there's more deal breakers than I thought.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm nonbinary/genderfluid (he/him pronouns but she/her is fine too) and bisexual. I'm open with health stuff (see above for examples). Been married for almost 15 years (refer to him as hubby) and have a 7 year old (refer to her as Huttlet). I'm a geek/nerd/whatever. I post with bullet points/list for my sanity with each point being a different topic. Posts have a gif at the top. Posts are crossposted/imported from livejournal.

rachelmanija

I read these offline and have not commented on most of them yet on AO3, but I wanted to rec them before reveals because they're great.

Don't need to know canon

"17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future" - Jon Bois. I only know this canon from Yuletide stories, and all I really know is that in the very far future, it's a post-scarcity world where everyone is immortal. It reliably produces lovely stories that feel kind of like the more personal/emotional xckd comics. Here is another one.

What Rock Collecting Will Look Like in the Future. Funny, bittersweet, cool worldbuilding; I was surprised and delighted to learn that fordite is real!

James Hoffman's Coffee Videos (Web Series)/Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft/"A Study in Emerald." All you need to know is that a coffee guy reviews coffee online, and this is him reviewing eldritch coffee.

I'm ranking 5 coffees from beyond this world (literally). "I feel a bit as if the coffee tasted me and not the other way around." Hilarious, dead-on coffee notes, dead-on Lovecraft; makes me want to try some of the coffees despite the risk of growing gills or being possessed by Elder Gods.

Tower Wizard - Hourly updates on the life of a wizard who lives in a tower, like "The little cat plays with a leaf. The wizard carefully checks that it's not a dangerous reagent, then returns it to the little cat." His best friend is an ex-paladin, and they eat a lot of interesting food. That's it, that's all you need to know.

Ruins and Roads. A charming original fantasy story, magical and cozy and bittersweet.

True Detective - season one. All you need to know to read this story is that Rust and Marty used to be cops, and they were both seriously injured when they reunited to investigate a weird case that might or might not have supernatural elements.

burned in kind. An outstanding post-series casefic and get-together with a flawless Rust voice, A+ hurt-comfort, and a creepy maybe-supernatural maybe-not case. If you know the series, this is 100% not to be missed; if you don't, you might still really like it as a standalone spooky mystery with excellent characterization.

World War Z - Max Brooks. You just need to know that there are zombies.

little stone. Zombies in 9th century Latvia! An atmospheric story about grief and loss in a time far from us; the protagonist's emotions are raw and vivid. Note: child death.

Need to know canon

House of Hollow - Krystal Sutherland

You Live in a Hollow House. Creepy, unsettling horror with an excellent use of color and image embeds.

Meeting Halfway. Creepy, unsettling horror with a touch of sweetness.

cimorene

People really watch Benoit Blanc movies without having ever encountered any detective fiction other than Sherlock Holmes and feel fully qualified to comment on the connections that they think they've made.

Remember the terrible articles in the late 90s that repetitively and confidently asserted that Rowling had invented YA fantasy, or low fantasy, because they didn't bother to check a single library or bookstore?

cimorene

When I bought this laptop, it was mostly because I have to spend so much time in the dining room with a cat away from my desktop setup. I didn't intend it to REPLACE my desktop, though. The desktop has a much larger hard drive and a large ssd, even though the motherboard is older. I didn't transfer all my media directories because that computer was still there.

Buuuut then my motherboard finally kicked the bucket and the desktop wouldn't boot at all. Since I was only turning it on every few months, replacing it did not seem urgent and I didn't feel like looking up the specifications I would need to follow in ordering a replacement motherboard (to be compatible with my compact case and be good for installing Linux on... etc).

Except then the LLM "generative AI" (it's not AI) bubble got so big that datacenters started buying up all the computer components as well as sucking up all the drinking water, and now motherboards are very expensive and they just keep getting MORE expensive.

At dinner the other day (we ate with BIL's family the night before last) our teenaged niblings were talking about Nvidia and how their nerd friends are shocked and full of condemnation for Nvidia's actions and how everybody should sell their Nvidia stock and also how their nerd friends are also stuck putting off building new PCs for the foreseeable. I assume some of them are going to have to cave since they are gaming, which is probably a bit harsher on their systems than I am on my little laptop. I didn't quite comprehend the nature of Nvidia's scam, partly because I was the only one there who hasn't read a news article about it apparently, and partly because I probably stopped paying attention mid-sentence a couple of times, but I gathered that everybody hates it.

So now my main computer is my beloved laptop, Nenya, a Lenovo ThinkBook 14 (I used a ThinkPad for work and they really are great, but they cost a lot more and I don't really need to be able to throw my laptop off a cliff..., so I scaled down to one of their slightly less sturdy lines), about 3 years old now. And I don't have all my files on her - my music collection, most notably. I just have the last set of songs that I had transferred to my phone before my desktop died. Nenya still has the Windows install she came with in case of emergency, but she dual boots and I have been using Linux Mint whenever I didn't need to log in with Windows in order to like, buy media files with DRM on them, or whatever.

In the last six months or so, the mouse started being way worse, and I found out that replacing its batteries or using a corded mouse didn't help. The trackpad was also bad, but not as bad as the mouse. It was enough to prevent me from using Nenya to fill my design blog queue, but streaming video doesn't require a lot of mouse movement. However,

waxjism had occasion to borrow her and ask me more specifically about the mouse issue, and we finally reinstalled the OS and upgraded to Linux Mint 22.2 Zara, the latest LTS release from last month. (I have preferred LTS releases for the last decade or so because I am much less willing to go through the hassle of reinstalling than I used to be in my early 30s.) I'm not positive about the mouse issues so far - the trackpad is better by default, but I noticed it getting laggy when I had a ton of tabs in Firefox open. Maybe Firefox is hogging processor or something.

rachelmanija

Here are some Yuletide recs, sorted for your reading pleasure by whether or not you need to know the canon.

Do Not Need to Know Canon

Chalion/World of the Five Gods - Lois McMaster Bujold

a knock at your front door. I think all you need to know to read this story is that there are five Gods - the Mother, the Father, the Son, the Daughter, and the Bastard - who are definitely real but rarely interfere in human affairs. They can, however, make people saints - able to do limited miracles - if they need to. This story deals with the Father, the God least-explored in canon, and is set in modern-day Chalion. It's got a clever look at what modern Chalion might be like, a very likable main character, and some beautiful writing.

FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion of Your Thesis Defense - Luke Burns

If you've never read the canon, I've linked it above. It's extremely short and you will be glad you did. There are other "Snake Fight" stories and they're all fun.

Snake Logistics for Spring Defenses. Some students are just begging for a black mamba.

Need to Know Canon

Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey

find the true. Mirrim and F'lar have a chat at a Gather. I enjoyed this conversation between two characters who I don't think ever exchange words in canon. Good characterization, good atmosphere.

Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin

to be useful, if not free. My gift! A backstory/canon diverge AU for Serret, the enchantress in A Wizard of Earthsea. Beautifully written, beautifully structured.

The Long Walk - Stephen King

There's No Discharge in the War. Stebbins in a time loop. Long, intense, often horrifying, sometimes very moving, and cleverly constructed story about Stebbins and the other Walkers.

"The Lottery" - Shirley Jackson; New Yorker RPF

Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death. Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." If you've never heard of him, he's a journalist who's very good at letting people hang themselves with their own words. The story is dead-on, hilarious, and chilling.

Lyra series/Caught in Crystal - Patricia Wrede

Three Things That Might Have Happened to Kayl Larrinar. My treat! A very satisfyingly bittersweet canon divergence AU for Kayl's Star Cluster, full of camaraderie and atmosphere.

Mushishi

I want to taste the shadows, too. A lovely little casefic/character study about Adashino, the guy who collects mushi-related stuff. It really feels like an episode of the anime, especially the final portion.

Some Like It Hot

Anchors Away. A short and very sweet post-movie coda.

Watership Down - Richard Adams

There is no bargain. Five encounters with The Black Rabbit of Inlé. An exploration of how the Black Rabbit is different things to different rabbits in different circumstances, very well-done, sometimes moving, sometimes chilling. The Black Rabbit is Death, so warning for rabbit death.

What have you enjoyed in the collection?

cimorene

I've been drinking Decaf Twinings Earl Grey and some herbal blends. I tried the Finnish specialty teashops that I have ordered loose leaf from in the past, but they didn't have any decaf tea that I wanted, let alone decaf chai and matcha, which was what I was looking for.

Today I finally made an attempt with various search terms and discovered that it's pretty easy to get decaf matcha in the US, but I couldn't find a single shop selling it in Europe, not even in the UK. I did find a shop that sells decaf chai, but it seems to be because it's the EU branch of a Canadian company. Also Wax and I both got rage headaches from the horrible pseudoscience and health food marketing gobbledygook on the websites I kept landing at. Ugh!! Why are they taking over tea😭. It's TEA!

Now, I could get my family to send me some matcha powder, but the cost of shipping from the US is prohibitive, IMO, for a consumable product that you would want periodic refills of.

So maybe it's better to not even bother getting a milk steamer... IDK if it's worth it for primarily coffee lattes and the occasional chai? Maybe it is. I hadn't even had a matcha latte till ten years ago and I did like the other kind back then...

I guess I'm just really annoyed by the lack of availability. This is a global economy in all the bad ways but I can't get decaf matcha or Reese's Pieces!

Current Mood: Can't believe this
Current Music: I don't have a tea tag??

rachelmanija

The Yuletide collection is live!

Enjoy browsing the collection! Leave kudos and/or comments if you enjoy a story! Comment here to recommend stories, and/or recommend them at the

yuletide comm!

I have three stories in the collection. Can you find them?

I shall now spend the rest of the day cuddling with my cats and reading Yuletide stories.

marycatelli posting in

books

Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 8 by SUOL

The story is approaching the conclusion. Spoilers ahead for the earlier volumes

( Read more... )

cimorene

We got a cold snap last night and a few millimeters of snow. It looks like the grass is coated in powdered sugar. Downstairs is still quite warm - 17° in the kitchen at lunchtime - but after I fed the cats at 7:00 am I went back to bed with a wool sweater on and I never got hot enough to take it off.

It's so nice to see Wax enjoying her fandom so much. She's had two objectively bad TV shows that she was super fannish about since the last time I had a fandom. I do like IWTV enough to get that excited about, but it still wouldn't be like her fandoms (911 and Roswell before that) because I can't get that into reading it (I have read some, but I didn't settle in) and wouldn't be able to write it.

The last fandom I was able to get into reading was Stranger Things 4 Steve/Eddie a couple of years ago, but that was also not quite the full fannish experience, because I wasn't as into the canon. I look over at her and see her chatting with people and reading furiously, and I remember that, and feel happy for her... but sad for myself.

She's even excited about Heated Rivalry - and I am too! But not nearly as much. I guess it feels more like I'm enjoying it as a member of slash fandom, and I'm keeping abreast of what's happening and getting the references, but, as I said once before... I am enjoying the show, which is good and well made, without really liking the characters very much, or the plot.

I was talking to Wax about this, and the absence of uncritical joy that I used to engage with in my 20s, and she diagnosed that I need to "open up my hating heart". I'm hating a lot more than I did when I was younger, it's true. The thing is that I don't know how to do that.

Anyway... I'm working on the second of the three triplet sweaters now, after Wax knitted most of the body of it. I finished the first sweater, after having to knit the first sleeve entirely twice - or rather knitting to the cuff beffore starting over - and now the same thing has happened with the second sweater. It's boring stockinette though, unlike the first sweater, and with very black yarn, so in order to count stitches and decreases I have to have a lamp pointing at it. Sigh.

cimorene

I'm not a stranger to cramps in the arch of my feet! That's part of the reason that I stopped wearing high heels. I wore some knee-high leather boots that came to just below the knee as a young woman, shortly after the year 2000, usually in the fall and winter (purchased in the US, before moving to Finland was on my radar, so they were kind of for warmth but in a climate that wasn't cold enough to necessitate purchasing actual winter boots). They only had like a 2-3" heel, a chunky one, as was fashionable at the turn of the millennium, so they weren't a challenge to balance or particularly uncomfortable for ordinary walking around. But I soon noticed the pattern of cramps in the arch of my foot after days when I wore them, and that made me want to stop.

But I haven't had much of that problem since then. ( Read more... ) However, just in the last few years I've occasionally noticed a twinge or mini-cramp that goes away after a few seconds specifically in the arch of my left foot. It's never lasted beyond a moment or two until like... last week once when I was walking up the stairs and then yesterday in the grocery store, when it suddenly twinged so hard into a cramp that I spent a minute and a half limping and whispering "Ow, ow, ow!" until it subsided.

It doesn't have to be caused by age, of course, but I don't know what else could have caused it, unless it is protesting the fact that I have not been walking enough in the last year. I used to have a tennis-sized hard rubber ball to roll on the arch of my feet, when I was working on my feet a lot in retail. But I can't remember where I put it.

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Clare

October 2010

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Clare

Reading

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Sea Horse in the Sky, by Edmund Cooper

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Hello!!

Butterfly, by Kathryn Harvey

2026 Intro Post

My Yuletide Stories

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Books I Especially Enjoyed in 2025

Привет! LiveJournal imports may be slow

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Yuletide Recs, Part II

Object permanence issues

Computing woes when your main computer is a laptop

Yuletide Recs!

Decaf tea is close to the clean eating abyss

Happy Yuletide!

Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 8

Frosted grass, being a hater, sleeves

Who knew that aging also produces cramps in the arch of the foot?

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October 2010

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