020104isme

What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: Mourn Not Your Dead (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie, Gin and Daggers (A Murder, She Wrote Mystery) by Donald Bain, and Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes and Tea Series) by Rebecca Thorne.

What I am Currently Reading: Dreaming of the Bones (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie (with The Nightmare Before Kissmas (A Royals and Romance Novel) by Sara Raasch on the back burner).

What I Plan to Read Next: I have another book out from the library.

Book 15 of 2025: Mourn Not Your Dead (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) (Deborah Crombie)

I enjoyed this book. The case was interesting. ( spoilers )

I have the next book in the series out from the library already, so I'm going to continue reading it for now; I liked this book enough to give it five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥

Book 16 of 2025: Gin and Daggers (A Murder, She Wrote Mystery) (Donald Bain)

Wow, was this bad. I recall reading a later book in the series for a book bingo square and I didn't remember it being this bad, so hopefully he improves quickly. There were a lot of inconsistencies with the tv series and he really doesn't have a feel for the characters. Yet. (I talked specifics at this week's Monday [Fandom] Madness post, if you're interested in reading more.)

If I weren't reading this series for the sole purpose of seeing what details he adds to Jessica's life, I'd probably quit now. (I read a blog post that mentioned Jessica and Frank living someplace else before they moved to Cabot Cove, which made me curious if it came from the books and what else might be in them.) I'm only giving this book two hearts.

♥♥

Book 17 of 2025: Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes and Tea Series) (Rebecca Thorne)

I really enjoyed this book!( spoilers )

I'm looking forward to reading the next book (when the two libraries that have it take it off the ‘new and popular' list); I'm giving this book five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥

me_ya_ri

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

Current Mood: happy

mecurtin

#Purrcy was both happy and regal, sitting in my seat on the sofa with the sun coming the skylight on it. See how he smiles at me in Cat!
#cats #CatsOfBluesky

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is lightly curled on a brocade cushion, looking at the camera with ears alert, whiskers spread wide and white, eyes light green and pupils just slits. He is clearly very happy, as sunlight shines on the cushion and most of him.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is lightly curled on a brocade cushion, looking at the camera with ears alert, whiskers spread wide and white, eyes light green and pupils just slits. He is clearly very happy, as sunlight shines on the cushion and most of him.

I sat out on the porch to eat breakfast today, and the local hive of feral honeybees was awake, buzzing about looking for nectar. The crabapple flowers are opening, so they seem to have their timing just right. The carpenter bees were also out, inspecting the eaves. It was really good to have that 1/2 hour, even though it was so late in the morning (I had errands to run before my stomach was ready for breakfast) that I didn't see or hear any migrants.

sholio

As is my usual practice, my latest book as Lauren is available for download for my DW circle for the next week or so!

Download from Bookfunnel.

The download will be up until the book goes live on Amazon on May 2.

(Technically this is Shifter Agents #6, but it's a standalone that shouldn't require any context to read.)

spikedluv

I enjoy this show. I'm glad I started watching it last year (when I caught up on seasons 1 & 2) and that my source is still supplying it. I do wish it was more than 4 eps, though. ( spoilers )

spikedluv

Damn! This looks even better. Another movie I expect to tear my heart out.

Watch on YouTube

sholio

I will be going back to answer recent comments, but first, one more stray B5 thought with spoilers through 5x18.

( Tying up a loose end )

jazzy_dave

Niall Ferguson "Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World" (Penguin)

Ferguson writes as a pro-Empire historian, and thus a non-Marxist, but one who is not blind to the awful aspects of the process. I learned much from this book. For example, the Indian "mutiny" of 1857 can be directly linked to the impact of missionary activity, which had been barred by the East India Company, but which had been allowed to intrude in the years leading up to the mutiny. Second, who knew that India sent more troops to WW1 than Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa combined? And third, that Roosevelt and the rest of the American leadership in the lead up to their involvement in WW2 were explicitly anti-Empire - that their support for the UK was conditional on it not being support for the British Empire as it stood. (As it turned out, Britain was broke after the war, so the empire collapsed of its own accord. The fact that the US was the creditor now makes it seem that the cause and consequence may have happily linked in the Americans' minds.) This is a good book, well written.

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the vegetables poll, 90.4% of respondents clicked fresh vegetables (bought), 46.2% clicked frozen vegetables, and 44.2% clicked fresh vegetables (homegrown). I was surprised; I thought more people would go frozen for the convenience. (I wonder what that says, if anything, about Dreamwidth demographics.)

In ticky-boxes, hugs came first with 78.8%, followed by a tie between "hanging in there until things settle down and I can sort my life out" and "sunbeams playing in a tree, daring each other to peek around the shadowed side" with 63.5% each. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
Still going on The Horse and His Boy (I am slow and distractable) and the Guardian novel read-along (it's on a schedule). Nothing in audio.

Kdramas
We started Tale of the Nine Tailed, a sweeping epic about a powerful immortal, the reincarnated love of his life, and his bratty younger brother. (Nothing at all like Guardian the novel, why do you ask?) I'm hoping it has enough plot and worldbuilding to hold Andrew's interest; he gets bored during extended romance scenes.

More of Sell Your Haunted House with Pru. And in solo-watching, I started Heesu in Class 2; it's pretty adorable, but also Heesu is the living embodiment of Idiots In Love, and sometimes I have to watch through my fingers.

Other TV
This week's Doctor Who

was very silly and meta, set against a background of ominous racism. Hm. But I did enjoy the jokes, and Belinda is great.

Episode 1 of Sherlock & Daughter. We were just going to try out the first ten minutes to get a sense of it, but we ended up watching the whole episode. I can forgive Holmes for being a grumpy old man when he has a reason for it.

Our Deadloch rewatch-with-a-friend continues, plus Jentry Chau vs the Underworld, about which I still have no opinion.

My sister and I watched Into the Night (1985 film; Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldblum, and a vast number of film directors as extras, the only one of whom I knew on sight was Jim Henson). The caper was silly, and the romance plotline was very thin, but Goldblum and Pfeiffer are so watchable that it hung together despite the weird pacing when it lingered on random extras we were supposed to recognise. Lovely to see David Bowie in a small (albeit violently psychotic) role.

Guardian/Fandom
I archived my Murderbot flashficlet, and wow, Murderbot fans are generous with their kudosing. *hearts so much* (In my experience, some fandoms are just more kudosy than others.)

Audio entertainment
I listened my way through all of The Setup, a romance audiodrama about Juan, an anxious art museum curator in NYC, and Fernando, the con artist who's trying to steal a painting. It's great! I'm really into it. And then I got to the end of the available episodes and realised it's not finished yet, ahhhhh! I need to check these things before I start!

(Is it just me or are depictions of anxiety becoming more common in romances? I feel like there's some wish fulfilment going on: people longing to meet The One who is hot, super into them, and will also be incredibly kind and patient and give them effective tips for handling their panic attacks. Not that romances aren't all about wish fulfilment, so why not? Add dimensions to your dream partner!)

Writing/making things
My little 4k exchange fic is becoming somewhat tortured by all the writing advice I'm trying to enact on it. Hopefully I'm not engineering the spark out of the thing. Also, hopefully I emerge from this process wiser and more capable. (It could happen!) Note to self: this story still doesn't have an ending, oops.

Other than that, I'm spending a lot of my life rolling around in meta discussions, yay!

Life/health/mental state things
Oh, look, let's not even talk about it. /o\

Note to self: I had a flu jab on Saturday.

Online life
I'm switching ISPs on Friday. Wish me luck! If I disappear off the face of the internet, that will be why.

Food
Today marks my first attempt at baked potatoes in the slow cooker. *fingers crossed* I forgot to prickle them with a fork before I wrapped them in foil, so who knows.

Good things
Fandom. Writing. Lunchtime dumplings on the back deck. Cephalopod plushies. Queer audiodramas. Friends coming over to watch stuff. Guardian. Home-made salsa. Trivia quizzes. Music and kindness and laughter and love.

Poll #33020 face blindness extrapolation

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43

View Respondents

Do you have face-blindness?

View Answers

yes
2 (4.7%)

technically no, but it's not unusual for me to get people confused
23 (53.5%)

especially when they're dressed the same
14 (32.6%)

no
12 (27.9%)

I mix up similar usernames
14 (32.6%)

honestly, they don't have to be that similar
12 (27.9%)

other
1 (2.3%)

ticky-box full of black cats slinking mysteriously in the shadows
28 (65.1%)

ticky-box full of starting a howl
15 (34.9%)

ticky-box of overthinking
21 (48.8%)

ticky-box full of squirrel-dragons with floofy tails, guarding their golden acorns
21 (48.8%)

ticky-box full of hugs
33 (76.7%)

china_shop

( One link behind the cut )

me_ya_ri

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

Current Mood: excited

selenak

Daredevil Reborn: overall, good finale. I'm not shipping anyone on this show (or its predecessor), but I was amused, given that Luke Cage managed to make "coffee" a synonym for sex back in the Netflix day for all the Marvel shows, that Frank expressed the wish for coffee with both Matt and Karen. (Not at the same time.) On a more serious note, the finale evidently went for an Empire Strikes Back vibe in that ( spoilery stuff happens )

Wheel of Time S3 finale: speaking of Empire Strikes Back vibes... Though in this case just in one plot line. Okay, two, technically. (The second one being Team Elayne, Matt, Min and Nyneave not gaining what they wanted to, but what Nynayve did get was so important that I hesitate to equate this with the goings on at the White Tower.) This, too, is based on a book series written many years ago, and was shot way back when yours truly hoped the world would be less insane in 2025 than it actually is, but can't help but feel extremely on point with its ( spoiilery stuff )

Doctor Who ?.02: amusingly weird, technically impressive, everyone looks gorgeous in their costumes. But Fourth Wall Breaking stories are not really my thing, and so I can't say I loved it.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Bamberg

spikedluv

I have rewatched the next couple of MSW episodes and I wanted to share some thoughts with you. The eps in question are: 1.13 Murder to a Jazz Beat, 1.14 My Johnny Lies Over the Ocean, and 1.15 Paint Me a Murder. With bonus comments on the first book in the series.

( all comments back here )

What are your thoughts on these eps? And the bonus book?

china_shop

The Writing Excuses podcast is doing a series on voice (first, third limited, third omniscient), and mostly their discussions have been great. I've enjoyed them a lot. But I found today's episode on second person (2ndPOV) unsatisfying. They got distracted talking about video games, TTRPG, online recipe essays, and Youtube influencers, and when they did discuss fictional prose, they seemed to think the "you" character had to be a reader stand-in. (Or maybe I misunderstood? Quite possible!) Anyway, now I'm itching to ~~procrastinate on my story~~ talk with like-minded souls about the joys of second person.

Note: If you not into 2ndPOV, that's totally cool. Each to their own! But please don't chime in to tell me or explain why; I'm not interested in defending it today.

( Rambling, so much rambling. )

ION, Andrew sent me a link to Secrets of Writing Snappy Dialogue (Banter) (Youtube video). At first I was resistant, but then I watched it and now I'm overhauling my 4k fic AGAIN. This is killing me, lol.

mecurtin

In general Purrcy is *not* allowed on the kitchen counters. But he seemed extremely interested in the back corner here, so I let him jump up and poke around as part of his Rodent Control Officer duties. No results at this time, but Constant Vigilance! is his watchword.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby looks back at the camera over his shoulder from where he stands in the corner between a tile wall and an uneven stone one. Plastic containers can be seen next to him. He looks quite concerned, but his eyes are a beautiful gray-green.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby looks back at the camera over his shoulder from where he stands in the corner between a tile wall and an uneven stone one. Plastic containers can be seen next to him. He looks quite concerned, but his eyes are a beautiful gray-green.

Purrcy jumped up on the kitchen Chair O Love and he was feeling *feisty*! He discovered a gap between the blanket & the chair, explored it, and saw that it was Good.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby crouches on a gray-green blanket-covered chair in a kitchen, looking a little wild.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby crouches on a gray-green blanket-covered chair in a kitchen, looking a little wild.

A gray-green blanket is draped across a chair. The white-furred nose of a tabby cat peaks out the bottom, whiskers spread but eyes invisible.

A close-up of Purrcy the tuxedo tabby's face as he peers out from under a gray-green blanket on a worn brown vinyl chair. Only his eyes, little pink nose, and wide-spread whiskers can be seen.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby peeks out from where he crouches in a nook made by a gray-green blanket draped over a worn brown vinyl chair. His eyes look very large and solemn, his paws very small.

People on Bluesky were discussing a tweet by a TERF called June Slater, who posted:

These trans women. Do they ever do things like women actually do, run a home, cook, put the washer on, get the kids to school, visit relatives in care homes, budget the bills, clean the house, chauffeur kids about? You know the reality of being a woman!

One of the boggling aspects of this "thinking", to me, is the way she doesn't seem to be able to conceive of MEN cooking or taking care of children or living spaces.

Katherine Dickinson said

there’s a weird expectation of childishness in men among these women to the point it’s like these women aren’t attracted to functioning adults and it’s like two steps from Why Don’t You Take A Seat With Chris Hansen territory

And I remember things I'd read about the history of housekeeping and service work that I wrote up here, and wondered:

Compared to the US & the Continent, Brits tended to be resistant to labo(u)r-saving home tech & reliant on servants for the middle-to-upper classes right up to WW2. After the War, *huge* shock of not having servants like before, & I think maybe upper-middle/upper-class men just ...use their wives?

bcuz before the War they were certainly childishly dependent, by US standards. e.g. Gentleman's service flats, in UK, were bachelor apts with cleaning, cooking, and personal valet services provided. No equiv in US AFAIK

I looked at some stats about household work, but there's basically nothing about how the lives of upper-middle-class or richer people live in different countries.

Ach, I shall quit this now and finish my Andor re-watch, so Dirk and I can watch the new eps when they drop on Tuesday.

sholio

Now that I've processed a bit, a few more random comments.

( Mostly about You Know and Who, obviously )

selenak

Even Darth Real Life is not able to keep me from my annual Easter Well sight seeing, or the pic spam based on it. Happy Easter to all who celebrate, and hopefully good holidays to everyone:

( More Easter Wells await beneath the cut )

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: Bamberg

sholio

Watch Babylon 5, she said. It will be fun, she said.

( Babylon 5 episodes 5x17-18 )

alethia

Full-time job writing The Pitt fic, that's me!

Bring Me to Life (6021 words) by Alethia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Abbot/Michael "Robby" Robinavitch
Characters: Jack Abbot (The Pitt), Michael "Robby" Robinavitch
Additional Tags: Season/Series 01, Post-Season/Series 01, Episode Related, Complicated Relationships, Developing Relationship, Feelings, Porn, boys getting pissy with each other, jack talks him through it, In several ways, did i mention the porn
Summary:

"I want to be alone, Jack," Robby said, short and sharp and pissy.

Fucking great. Apparently in the 45 minutes since Jack had last seen him, Robby had gone from devastation to anger. This would be fun.

"It's nice to want things," he drawled, deliberately light. "I wanted to walk out of Iraq on my own two feet, but hey. No plan survives contact with the enemy and all that."

Robby turned then, looking at him over the top of the couch, face drawn, eyes dark in the low lights. "Yeah? You my enemy?"

Current Mood: busy

kaffy_r

Because of Course There's Another Group to Love

They're Ateez, from a relatively small KPop entertainment company, KQ. They have eight members, all of whose names I now know, and who I can now identify (and amongst who I have my biases). They don't have quite as much creative control as Stray Kids, but because they're with a small company, they do have more control than many other groups. They've been around only slightly less time than SKZ, and members of the two groups are friends (they all competed in Legendary Wars, which isn't a thing I need to bother y'all with.)

I love their music, and I love their music videos. They have so much fun, and have, apparently, such fun in making sure their MVs are ridiculous ... and they sing and dance just ... well, I'm not going to fangirl too much. Instead, I'm going to bother you with at least three MVs. "Bouncy," and "Work," which came out in 2023 and 2024 respectively, and "Ice on My Teeth," also out in 2024. They have a metric ton of lore, but I'm not going to bother y'all with that, either.

Just enjoy the crazy, and the dancing, and the acting, and the music, and the knowing humor of it all.

Watch on YouTube

And then there's "Work"

Watch on YouTube

And finally, "Ice on My Teeth"

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: grim
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Ateez, "Work"

Profile

020104isme

March 2022

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Page Summary

spikedluv - Wednesday Reading Meme & Books 15, 16 & 17 of 2025
me_ya_ri - Storybundle! That I'm in! *cheers*
mecurtin - Purrcy, bees
sholio - Red Boar's Baby
spikedluv - The Chelsea Detective 3.02, 3.03 & 3.04
spikedluv - Thunderbolts Final Trailer (May 2)
sholio - Another thought about B5 5x18
jazzy_dave - Book 16 - Niall Ferguson "Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World"
china_shop - Me-and-media update
china_shop - US politics
me_ya_ri - *Glee*
selenak - Catching up on various shows
spikedluv - Monday [Fandom] Madness! The Murder, She Wrote 1.13 & 1.14 & 1.15 Comments Edition (& Bonus Book)
china_shop - Come speak to me of Second Person POV
mecurtin - Two Purrcys; housework
sholio - Yet more thoughts on B5 5x17-18
selenak - Easter Wells 2025
sholio - Babylon 5 5x17-18
alethia - The Pitt Fic: Bring Me to Life (Abbot/Robby, NC-17)
kaffy_r - Dept. of New KPop Obsession

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Style: Over The Hills for Bannering by branchandroot
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Page generated Apr. 23rd, 2025 11:39 am

Reading

Wednesday Reading Meme & Books 15, 16 & 17 of 2025

Storybundle! That I'm in! cheers

Purrcy, bees

Red Boar's Baby

The Chelsea Detective 3.02, 3.03 & 3.04

Thunderbolts Final Trailer (May 2)

Another thought about B5 5x18

Book 16 - Niall Ferguson "Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World"

Me-and-media update

US politics

Glee

Catching up on various shows

Monday [Fandom] Madness! The Murder, She Wrote 1.13 & 1.14 & 1.15 Comments Edition (& Bonus Book)

Come speak to me of Second Person POV

Two Purrcys; housework

Yet more thoughts on B5 5x17-18

Easter Wells 2025

Babylon 5 5x17-18

The Pitt Fic: Bring Me to Life (Abbot/Robby, NC-17)

Dept. of New KPop Obsession

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March 2022

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