arduinna

This is the signup post for the Fannish 50 blogging challenge in 2026. (See the 2025 challenge.)

Fannish 50 began in 2023 with a challenge by

colls in

swannee. Since then, it has spread to other blogs and communities.

The parameters are simple: Make fifty posts about topics related to fandom. You may set any theme(s) you wish, or pick random topics for each post. "Questions and Questionnaires for Three Weeks for Dreamwidth" includes a list of questionnaires on fannish topics if you want to use one of those as a framework. Post something like "I signed up for the Fannish 50 challenge at

goals_on_dw " in your blog, then put a "Fannish 50" tag in your blog to make it easier for other people to find your entries. Adding "Fannish 50" to your Interests will also help identify you as a participant or reader. (It is best to use exactly the phrase "Fannish 50" because DW search tools don't recognize variations as the same topic, and to attach the tag to a post so it sticks.) Another good idea is setting up a masterlist where you can link your posts as you make them, which may or may not be part of your announcement post. Then make a comment below this post with details about your goal. You don't have to sign up to participate, it just helps spread the word and attract more readers.

Primary posting will run January 1 -- December 31, 2026. With 50 posts, it fits neatly into a year with 2 weeks to spare. However, you don't have to do it that way if you don't want to, and there's no hard limit on posting timeframe. You could make them daily posts, or monthly posts, or sporadic posts, whatever works for you and eventually adds up to 50.

Fannish 50 in 2026 challenge banner with book and candle

Fannish 50 in 2026 challenge banner with book and candle

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

fanlore_tumblr_feed

https://fanlore-wiki.tumblr.com/post/803112794017939456

The background is collage of torn scrapbook paper and stickers. On the right is a an image of Merida sitting with her bow, Rapunzel with her frying pan standing next to Hiccup, and Jack Frost above them crouched on top of his staff.. Text reads 'Featured Article, Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons'

Today’s Featured Article is Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons! This fandom crosses over the animated movies Rise of the Guardians, Brave, Tangled, and How to Train Your Dragon.

After its start in late 2012, the fandom may have grown in popularity due to the films’ parallels. The main crossover cast is often called “The Big Four”, while characters from other animated movies—such as Hotel Transylvania, The Lorax, and Frozen—occasionally join them.

The Big Four have no canonical interactions as a group. Still, that hasn’t hindered the manips and other fanworks that bring them together. They are frequently depicted as Guardians of Childhood and seasonal spirits, taking from Jack Frost’s canonical role as a winter spirit and Guardian of Fun in Rise of the Guardians. Prevalent ships include Jack Frost/Rapunzel, Merida/Hiccup, and more recently, Hiccup/Jack Frost. Although the fandom peaked in popularity around the mid-2010s, it continues to host new activity and fanworks.

Have something to say about Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons? Come share it with us on Fanlore!

—–

We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

https://fanlore-wiki.tumblr.com/post/803112794017939456

goodbyebird

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 16

Scott Pilgrim
Afternoon Delights by

wakeupnew (1,033 words). A good Wallace and Scott interaction never fails to cheer me up.
There is a bang.

The door, he realizes fuzzily. Possibly -- hitting something?? Definitely opening really loudly. He really wishes it wasn't doing that. He should probably start locking it while he's sleeping.

"I thought your shit had supposedly been gotten together, guy," says someone, who flings himself down on the sofa that Scott uses for a bed, hard enough that the cushions bounce under both of them. "What are you doing asleep at 3:00 on a sunny Saturday afternoon?"

"Frrrrsleeping," Scott groans indignantly, and then Wallace plucks the pillow off his head and out of his arms. Scott tries to grab it back without opening his eyes, and his hands mostly just flail ineffectually against Wallace's jeans.

"Whoa there, tiger," Wallace drawls. "I have a boyfriend now; let's keep it PG." He drops the pillow on Scott's chest. If it's possible to drop a pillow with force, Wallace does it. "You know, considering that you're the all-time evil-ex-fighting champion and the best fighter in the greater Toronto metropolitan area, it was very easy to pull that away from you."

Current Music: Welcome To Derry 1x08

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6920 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #988.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

fail_feed

Posted by Remy Millisky

https://cheezburger.com/43658501/15-job-candidates-who-had-bizarre-job-interviews-i-stood-up-and-walked-out

Some job interviews stick with you forever — not because you performed poorly, but because the person interviewing you was fascinating.

When you interview somewhere, you're putting yourself in the mindset of an employee there. Do you like how the building looks; is it brightly lit or dim, is it a big maze or an open space? Do the employees look happy at their desks? How was the commute to get there? And, rather importantly, how does the interviewer act when you greet them? If they welcome you warmly, it sets a whole different vibe than if they gruffly bark out your name to call you into the interview room. Not to mention their demeanor during the interview — some hiring managers treat their candidates like suspects and grill them on their credentials, while others actually want to hold a conversation where both parties get to speak. All of these things can give you a hint about what it'd be like to spend 40 hours per week at a company, and you've got to decide if that's how you want to spend your working hours every day.

Check out the wild and fascinating stories these people shared — you just never know what an interviewer might ask!

https://cheezburger.com/43658501/15-job-candidates-who-had-bizarre-job-interviews-i-stood-up-and-walked-out

douqi posting in

baihe_media

Round-up of a bunch of recent baihe mini-dramas (with the usual dose of plausible deniability), all in vertical format.

1. My Bestie is Three Thousand Years Old (我的姐妹三千岁, pinyin: wo de jiemei san qian sui). A kind-hearted but penniless girl stumbles into a suspiciously long-lived ice queen CEO's life, and eventually they learn that their fates have been connected for thousands of years. Lightweight and very tropey, but fairly fun (especially if you don't think too hard about it). It aired originally on the Hongguo (红果) app, and can also be viewed on the Fanqie (番茄) app. It is available here with English subtitles. 89 episodes of two to three minutes each.

2. Met Her Majesty the Emperor While On the Run (逃婚路上遇女帝, pinyin: taohun lushang yu nüdi). A voice actress time-travels to the past, and finds herself in the body of a young woman who has sort-of accidentally murdered her new husband on their wedding night. She goes on the run, in the process of which she encounters and helps (and is helped by) the titular female emperor. The writing is pretty weak, and the production looks very low-budget, and I think you'd have the best chance of enjoying this if you turned your brain mostly off. It aired originally on Douyin (playlist here) and can be viewed here on YouTube with truly woeful MTL English subtitles and muted-out BGM. 59 episodes of two to three minutes each. Content notes: sexual assault and threats thereof, some ableism.

3. Two Empresses Dowager Reborn (两宫太后重生了，更改诏书换皇帝, pinyin: liang gong taihou chongsheng le, genggai zhaoshu huan huangdi). On the day her son takes the throne, Noble Consort Yu Lianruo has her rival Empress Chu Jiuyin put to death — only to be betrayed in her turn. When she wakes up, having been reborn just before that fateful day, she swears vengeance and gains an unlikely ally. For the optimum viewing experience, turn off your brain slightly (though not as much as for the previous show), ignore the whiplash pacing, plot holes and continuity errors, and focus on having a good time shipping the empress and the consort (plus the secret secondary f/f couple). Jiang Wuhan, who plays the empress, also plays the CEO in My Bestie is Three Thousand Years Old. It aired originally on the Hongguo app, and can also be viewed on the Fanqie app. It is available here with bad MTL English subtitles and muted BGM. 80 episodes of two to three minutes each. Content notes: sexual assault (of big bad) played for laughs, implied rape.

4. Be Her Persistence (犟骨, pinyin: jiang gu). Zheng Xingxing time-travels back to the late Qing Dynasty/early Republican Era, where she meets Jiang Jinghua, a young woman from a rich, abusive family. Together the two of them strike a blow against the patriarchy by setting up a school for girls and women. The costumes and props are surprisingly high quality, though I had questions about historical accuracy and especially plot accuracy — surely these girls shouldn't be so nicely dressed when they've barely got two coppers to rub together and are huddling in an abandoned temple for shelter? The same cannot be said for the writing, which goes from marginally serviceable (though rather didactic) at the beginning to an INCREDIBLE number of plot holes and dropped plotlines towards the end, which is a pity given the ambition and importance of the theme. Jiang Jinghua is played by Peng Yaqi, who also plays Song Jiayu in Be Her Resilience (以她之韧, pinyin: yi ta zhi ren), hence my title translation for this show. This aired originally on Xiaohongshu (playlist here). It is available here with bad MTL English subtitles and muted-out BGM. 44 episodes of two to three minutes each. Note: Peng Yaqi also plays Zheng Xingxing's grandmother (I don't know why, perhaps an anti-censorship measure?) but the show makes it very clear that the grandmother and Jiang Jinghua are not the same person.

fail_feed

Posted by Ben Weiss

https://cheezburger.com/43624965/hoa-board-member-has-it-out-for-one-neighbor-and-gets-her-car-towed-neighbor-debates-legal-options

This resident has had it with the HOA board member next door, who seems determined above all else to ruin her living experience.

One has to wonder what possesses the local curmudgeon in every neighborhood to set such an intention. Don't these people have jobs or families or passions that go beyond sabotaging someone else's entire life? Even if you were to argue that this person was in pursuit of improving the neighborhood as a whole, that claim simply does not stand because it's not like she was keeping her eye out for any and all violations in the suburban residential area. Instead, she was simply watching this one resident like a hawk, waiting for her to mess up and immediately stepping in to make her pay.

A decent individual would try to point out a violation in a more subtle way before outright ensuring she gets fined for a mistake. Clearly, however, this board member wanted this resident out of the neighborhood entirely. The straw that finally broke the camel's back happened when the resident's sister parked her car in a perfectly legal spot outside both the resident and the board member's house. Before anyone knew it, this woman had said car towed.

Keep scrolling below to find out how the resident responded to this egregious and unnecessarily harsh act of sabotage.

https://cheezburger.com/43624965/hoa-board-member-has-it-out-for-one-neighbor-and-gets-her-car-towed-neighbor-debates-legal-options

fail_feed

Posted by Remy Millisky

https://cheezburger.com/43660037/update-employee-tells-project-manager-to-get-to-the-point-during-40-person-zoom-meeting

This person had no idea how quickly their work life would get flipped upside down after they accidentally shared a bold statement during an all-hands Zoom call.

Zoom calls are a fairly new workplace phenomenon, and bosses across the globe can't get enough of them. It means that no matter where you are in the world, no matter the time zone or the weather, you can always be involved in a call with your bosses and colleagues.

However, as you probably know if you've ever been in one, sometimes these calls are massive. In an all-hands meeting, there might be like 40 little squares on that screen. Some workplaces demand that everyone keep their cameras on, while others don't really mind if you turn off your camera and lounge on the couch or whatever. Even if you have your camera on, you might find yourself just sitting and staring at a screen for ages with nothing to do except listen to some higher-up drone on ad nauseam. You might find yourself thinking thoughts like, "Come on dude, I have actual work that I need to do!" or "Wrap it up, I have a sandwich in the kitchen that I can't wait to eat, and the only thing standing in my way is the CFO's long-winded speech!"

I mean, we don't say those thoughts out loud, though! That would be impolite, so we keep it to ourselves! Right? We keep those inside thoughts in our heads… right?

Well, this person didn't, and in the multiple updates they provided, their story just keeps twisting and turning. It's an excellent read — check it all out down below.

https://cheezburger.com/43660037/update-employee-tells-project-manager-to-get-to-the-point-during-40-person-zoom-meeting

oursin

I will concede that this piece on sperm donation is not about dodgy docs or freelance 'donors' but it still all sounds fairly spooky: Why are sperm donors having hundreds of children? Because while, okay, some criteria seem reasonable:

Rules vary across the world, but in the UK you also have to be relatively young - aged 18-45; be free of infections like HIV and gonorrhoea, and not be a carrier of mutations that can cause genetic conditions like cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy and sickle cell disease.

Errrr: don't I recollect seeing somewhere that the gene that conveys sickle cell, is actually protective against ?malaria so it was/is actually beneficial in certain environments - and it was like haemophilia that you had to get it from both sides for the dangers to show up?

From this small pool of donors, some men's sperm is just more popular than others.
Donors are not chosen at random. It's a similar process to the savage reality of dating apps, when some men get way more matches than others.... "You know if they're called Sven and they've got blonde hair, and they're 6 ft 4 (1.93m) and they're an athlete, and they play the fiddle and speak seven languages - you know that's far more attractive than a donor that looks like me," says male fertility expert Prof Allan Pacey, pictured, who used to run a sperm bank in Sheffield.

And how much of that is down to environment, hmmmmm? Or at least, non-genetic factors.

I am over here muttering 'Morlock Power!'

On men spreading it about, historically speaking: the challenges of illegitimacy when exploring genealogy and how to find that shadowy figure who is not on the birth certificate/in the baptismal register. (With luck he had a bastard sworn upon him when that was a thing, otherwise it's a lot more work and a lot of surmising.)

Let's blame the woman, let's let's let's, she probably did something wrong: Marked: Birthmarks and Historical Myths of Maternal Responsibility - which just mutatates and mutates, no?

A conversation with historian Dagmar Herzog on Fascism’s Body Politics and disability under fascism in her new book, The New Fascist Body

And I think relating to all these sorts of issues: Reproductive norms: stigma and disruptions in family-building:

Our expectations of conception, reproduction, and family-building are imbued with reproductive norms. In our younger years, we may imagine and expect that we will have a certain number of children at specific ages or points in the life-course, and in particular circumstances. We may think that conception will be straightforward, pregnancy will pass without complications, and our children will be healthy and without disabilities or impairments. We may have hazy, dreamy ideas of what our children will be like and perhaps more defined ideas of what we will be like as parents.

letzan

High-level stats for week of 2025-12-02 - 2025-12-08

Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 10051 (-148 from last week)

Works I classified F/F: 5570 (-183 from last week) (2469 new, 3101 continued)

0.58% of all 966414 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week

A few callouts this week:

Once Upon a Time returns, replacing Murder Drones.
RWBY celebrates 450 consecutive weeks on the chart (the longest current streak of any fandom).

( Full top-20 table and description of methodology after the jump )

ao3_news_feed

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/33846

Randall Morgan Memorial Archive

The Randall Morgan Memorial Archive, a Queer As Folk (US) fanfiction archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

This memorial account was set up with the assistance of Open Doors and Irishcaelan, the maintainer of Randall’s personal website, Randall’s Rambles. Randall also wrote under the pseudonym Brian Hennessey. Randall Morgan was taken from us in 2013, and this site is a permanent place where the fanworks he so loved to create will go on.

Open Doors will be working with Irishcaelan to import Randall Morgan’s works into a separate memorial account on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving his works in their entirety, all graphics currently in his works will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works by Randall Morgan to the AO3 after December. You will find them on the RandallMorgan_memorial account.

We'd also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Randall Morgan and Randall’s Rambles on Fanlore. If you're new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

We're honored to be able to help preserve the works of Randall Morgan, and while we mourn the loss of Randall, we also realize that we are fortunate that he had a friend who was given permission to collect and preserve his works on the AO3 so that they will not be lost. Thinking about the death of a fandom friend may be difficult, but it can also be an opportunity to consider what will happen to your fanworks and accounts and those of your friends after your deaths. The Archive of Our Own has an option to name a Fannish Next of Kin, someone who would be able to gain access to your accounts in the case of your death or incapacitation. By naming someone who can act on your behalf, you can decide ahead of time how you want your AO3 accounts handled going into the future.

- The Open Doors team and Irishcaelan

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/33846

fail_feed

Posted by Ben Weiss

https://cheezburger.com/43623429/entitled-coworker-tries-to-steal-employees-intern-to-sabotage-an-upcoming-work-project-im-not-going

Not every pair of coworkers is meant to get along, but that doesn't mean you have to go out of your way to undermine one another.

This corporate employee recounted the story of how a difficult coworker, "Katy," tried to sabotage her before a large upcoming project was due. In this small workplace environment made up of 15 employees and a few interns, the employee managed to get two interns assigned to her after Katy only expressed interest in having one intern shadowing her.

Over the years, the two coworkers constantly butted heads on various disagreements regarding office politics, power dynamics, and workplace responsibilities. I suppose it was only a matter of time before the interns were roped into this conflict as well.

Katy's intern left the company, and suddenly, she didn't have someone she could boss around, nor did she have someone whose work she could take credit for in team meetings. Now, Katy was setting her sights on a new intern, and instead of convincing human resources to list a job posting online, she wanted to take one of the author's interns instead.

https://cheezburger.com/43623429/entitled-coworker-tries-to-steal-employees-intern-to-sabotage-an-upcoming-work-project-im-not-going

otw_news_feed

Posted by Elintiriel

https://www.transformativeworks.org/the-randall-morgan-memorial-archive-is-moving-to-the-ao3/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=273779

The Randall Morgan Memorial Archive, a Queer As Folk (US) fanfiction archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

Open Doors will be working with Irishcaelan to import Randall Morgan’s works into a separate memorial account on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving his works in their entirety, all graphics currently in his works will be hosted on the OTW’s servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works by Randall Morgan to the AO3 after December. You will find them on the RandallMorgan_memorial account.

We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Randall Morgan and Randall’s Rambles on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

We’re honored to be able to help preserve the works of Randall Morgan, and while we mourn the loss of Randall, we also realize that we are fortunate that he had a friend who was given permission to collect and preserve his works on the AO3 so that they will not be lost. Thinking about the death of a fandom friend may be difficult, but it can also be an opportunity to consider what will happen to your fanworks and accounts and those of your friends after your deaths. The Archive of Our Own has an option to name a Fannish Next of Kin, someone who would be able to gain access to your accounts in the case of your death or incapacitation. By naming someone who can act on your behalf, you can decide ahead of time how you want your AO3 accounts handled going into the future.

– The Open Doors team and Irishcaelan

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/the-randall-morgan-memorial-archive-is-moving-to-the-ao3/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=273779

halfshellvenus

Portfolio
Idol Wheel Of Chaos | Week 17, #1

x-x-x-x-x

We're down to just five writers for Idol: Wheel Of Chaos now. This week, we're writing a portfolio that centers on five key components: our favorite story we've written, our favorite story by another author, a letter to an author from earlier this season, and stories for the prompts 6 7 and Banner year.

Choosing favorites is always hard! For my own stories, I wrote a lot of humor this season, but also some drabbles, two poems, a couple of entries with pathos, and a horror story. I considered choosing the acronym fun-fest (Going BATty), the caustic self-help guide (A New Man), the baking witch (Cursecraft), The Three Trolls from last week (Piplet!), or the souful Little Metal Hearts. But I think my best story was unlike all the others. It was a classic, timeless sort of tale with a tinge of bittersweetness. It was hardly read, because I was poisoned that week and it wasn't included in the poll, but it's the one I'm proudest of.

My favorite of my stories: Here Be Dragons

Weighing other authors' stories was just as hard. There were so many I really liked this season. From week 1, the Quality entries by bleodswean and static_abyss really stood out.

rayaso's week 2 War Of The Words (the evils of ChatGPT) was a riot, as was

flipflop_diva's Week 11 beleagured aliens story.

serpentinejacaranda's Week 6 dreamlike political satire (Affliction In The Form Of A Question) really stuck with me, as did

xeena's Blair Witch Idol Meta and

l0lita's hard-hitting zombie apocalypse story. But the one I finally picked used a difficult prompt and featured a great child's voice and very real drama disguised as fiction. It was both beautifully written and painfully true.

My favorite other-author's story:

inkstainedfingertip's Week 5 Toi, Toi, Toi

Next, we were to write a letter to a former contestant from the Wheel of Chaos season. There were so many to choose from: static_abyss (never here as long as I would like), bleodswean (such talent, and such a great Idol supporter), rayaso (so funny, week after week), alycewilson (talent and soulfulness all in one). I couldn't choose inkstainedfingertips because I'd picked him for my favorite other-author entry, plus he's still in the competition. So, I chose one of my overall favorites from this season AND last season (Idol Mini). She was the author whose season this was to lose, I thought, and apparently so did others because she was taken out by a targeted elimination vote after Week 10:

My letter to xeena

And finally, there were two entries to write for specific prompts:

6 7

Banner year

I hope you've enjoyed my portfolio, and the range of offerings it provided! If so, please vote for it here.

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Care and Feeding,

I’m dreading having to have a talk with my husband, “Winston,” and our 30-year-old son, “Nick.” Nick moved in with us a year ago. The move was necessary to get him out of a dangerous relationship, and Winston agreed beforehand, although he implied he expected it to be a temporary situation. Now my husband has built up resentment against Nick over the last year because he hasn’t taken steps to move out. But I understand why Nick hasn’t moved out: We live in a resort area, where rent is atrociously high and places to rent are scarce.

Nick works about 60 hours a week at a decent-paying job, so he isn’t home much. He contributes to household expenses, brings home food from work, helps take care of pets, and if asked, will generally help out with other things. Could he do more? Of course, he could, but he’s not trashing the house, taking drugs, playing loud music at all hours, or being rude and disrespectful.

Here’s the things Winston resents: He and Nick’s dog hate each other, and the dog barks at Winn when he passes Nick’s room. The dog is old and grouchy, and was abused by Nick’s former roommate. Nick works late and comes home around midnight, which disturbs Winston’s sleep. Nick is forgetful (ADHD) and often needs reminders to complete tasks, but Winston thinks he should only have to say something once.

This all leads to Winston being resentful and snippy, which makes Nick defensive, and then we have a big blow-up where both say hurtful things. These blow-ups have led to Nick trying to leave in the middle of the night after being in an accident (on crutches, no car, and no phone, near freezing outside). I’ve had to physically step between them and tell Winn to back off and shut up to keep it from getting physical.

My husband now deals with all of this by not making any requests directly to Nick (he asks me to tell him), and venting to me, which makes me feel like I’m constantly caught in the middle (suggesting he talk directly to Nick would lead to more blow ups). But, I understand Winston’s frustration. This is not what we planned for retirement! However, there’s no way I could be content knowing my son was living in subpar housing or with dangerous, untrustworthy people like he was before he moved in with us.

I need to get these two to get along. Nick needs to step up a bit more, and Winston needs to be more patient and understanding—before I go crazy or he blows up again and Nick ends up walking out and living in his car. Where do I go from here?

—In the Middle and on Eggshells

( Read more... )

fail_feed

Posted by Etai Eshet

https://cheezburger.com/43604741/neighbor-spends-136-on-groceries-for-a-mother-from-nextdoor-gets-complaints-about-missing-items-then

Good deed goes sideways when a kind neighbor answers a Nextdoor plea for food assistance, spends $136 on groceries for a mother and child, then gets scolded for missing mandarin oranges and bacon that were out of stock. Soon after, another suspicious post appears from someone with a matching last name, supposedly a single dad in the same town, asking for identical help. Gratitude clearly didn't make it into the delivery.

Online kindness was supposed to be the heartwarming antidote to digital cynicism. Instead, it's become a sport where generosity meets amateur con artistry. This mother's complaint reads like a Yelp review of compassion gone wrong. Imagine being fed, for free, and still arguing about fruit cups. Some people see a helping hand and mistake it for customer service. The bizarre twin post from the alleged single dad only adds a layer of Craigslist noir to the whole situation. It's not charity anymore, it's improv theater performed by opportunists with Wi-Fi.

https://cheezburger.com/43604741/neighbor-spends-136-on-groceries-for-a-mother-from-nextdoor-gets-complaints-about-missing-items-then

halfshellvenus

All Anticipation
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 17, #4 | 2227 words
Banner Year

x-x-x-x

"These are the best years of your life," Lanie's mother always said. With her senior year of high school just a few months along, it seemed as if her mother was right.

Lanie was kneeling on the floor of the art room, working on the Homecoming banner for the game this weekend. She was dating the quarterback, and was every bit as invested in Homecoming as he was. Her best friend Chloe was there with her, helping out and keeping her company. Chloe's boyfriend was on the basketball team, so she was more interested in painting neat letters than what the banner represented.

"How do you think you did on the SATs this time?" Chloe said.

"I feel like the math went better?" Lanie said, "And I'm hoping that will be enough."

"I can't believe you took it twice. I mean, your original score was better than mine!"

"I just want to have the best options for where to go to college," Lanie said. "Could you hand me the yellow?"

Chloe passed the can of paint. "Well, there's always Podunk U."

"Don't remind me. My dad went there–it's why my mom keeps reminding me not to settle."

"She chose him, though," Chloe said.

Lanie moved around to the other side of the mural. "Yeah, but we all thought he was a better person than he actually turned out to be…"

( Read more... )

If you enjoyed this story, please vote for my Portfolio here!

duskpeterson

The borderland covers all the land from the black border mountains to the capital, but once you are beyond the region close to the mountains, vineyards will disappear and villages will begin to grow to the size of towns. The countryside here is more peaceful and more settled. At several points, you will cross bridges or take ferries, for Southern Emor's web of rivers crisscrosses the countryside. If you have time, you may wish to hire a riverboat to explore the remainder of Southern Emor, especially its towns and east coast ports.

[Translator's note: The protagonist of Death Mask takes a trip over that countryside during a less happy time.]

watersword

I spent yesterday evening re-reading Helen Dewitt's The English Understand Wool, one of the best books I've read in the past few years, and reading T. Kingfisher's Snake-Eater, which I loved.

A friend is stopping by to keep me company while I make snickerdoodles, and this has prompted me to sweep and run the vacuum cleaner; this evening I will go to needlecrafting and there will be a colleague there.

badly_knitted posting in

drabble_zone

Title: Wintry Weather
Fandom: FAKE
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 480: Amnesty 48, using Challenge 3: Wind.
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: On a snowy, windy day, Ryo and Dee are grateful they don’t need to leave their apartment.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Double drabble.

Wintry Weather

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

selenak

Watched completely on Apple +: Down Cemetery Road, a new series (I would have written miniseries, except I hear there'll be a second season), based on an earlier novel by Slow Horses author Mick Heron. Starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, both cast somewhat against type and having fun with it. Emma Thompson plays Zoe, a cynical private detective right out of the hard boiled age, if that one had female cynical hard drinking PI's, Ruth Wilson plays Sarah, starting out as somewhat naive, idealistic and disorganized. (I have seen Ruth Wilson in roles where she isn't a brilliant sociopath before! I swear I did! But Alice and Marisa Coulter are just so memorable!) Zoe starts out the story married, to another P.I. who is more the benevolent goodshoe type and whom she has feelings for but cheats on and generally argues a lot with, while Sarah is with a guy hiding total jerkness between a placid facade, but before the pilot is over, neither of these relationships are existent anymore. Both women - who live in Oxford, not London, which is a change, but the action doesn't stay there - through different ways find themselves uncovering the central dastardly plot which unsurprising given the author the show is based on involves fuck-ups by awful government agencies and the attempt to cover this up which leads to an ever higher body count. The Zoe and the Sarah storylines after a brief meeting in the pilot stay apart for half the season, and I was about to complain, but then the second half reunites them and gives me these actresses playing superbly against each other. If I have one complaint, it's that there wasn't really a pay-off for the existence of Talia the new defense secretary. But presumably in the second season?

Started to watch and stopped watching: Gunpowder on Amazon Prime. Look, show, two podcasts managed to turn me around on James VI and I and got me interested in Stuarts beyond the Restoration era, I'm in the market for this ! I'm also with you pointing out Catholics got a truly rough deal in the late Elizabethan and in the James era. But Kit Harrington brooding as Robert Catesby isn't going to cut it, and who does Mark Gatiss as Robert Cecil think he's playing, Shakespeare's Richard III?

Started watching, may or may not continue: The Name of the Rose, new tv version on Disney +. I mean, if there is an early 1980s novel begging for the miniseries treatment, it's absolutely that one, the OG Murders at a Monastery story. I would have thought a mniseries could offer the chance to include a lot more from the novel than the movie was able to, but foolish me, the show creators instead thought they needed some adiditional subplots. Adson now starts out as not really a novice, though he wants to be, because his father wants him with the imperial army instead. That's right, he now has Daddy Issues. (This is where you can tell there must be some American money involved.) William of Baskerville, aka the cleverest Holmes avatar in another setting before House, is played by John Turturro, who doesn't look anymore like the (reddish blonde) William of the book than Sean Connery did but does a decent job playing him. Somewhat unsurprisingly, like the movie, the series beefs up the part of Bernard(o) Gui. Who in the book shows up only in the second half and leaves again long before the big showdown, but Jean-Jacques Annoud already decided he didn't want an evil inquistor going to waste, but apparantly so did the creators of this one, so while Gui still doesn't arrive in the monastery before half point, we see him being evil and fanatical en route in every freaking episode. Did I mention there are new subplots? About which Adson, who is our narrator (voiced as an old man by Peter Davison, omg, that was a nice surprise), can't know?

( More spoilery observations for the first part of the series )

Incidentally, the excellent podcast History of the Germans (currently in its "Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg" season where the family with the famous chin and lower lip first seemingly hits rock bottom in three generations before young Maximilian marries Marie of Burgundy) did a great episode last year about the actual political and theological background of the rl events The Name of the Rose touches on, hilariously summarized as "Der Kurverein zu Rhens - starring William of Ockham and the cast of the Name of the Rose". You can listen to it or read the transcript here.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Munich

badly_knitted

Title: Wintry Weather
Fandom: FAKE
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 480: Amnesty 48 at

drabble_zone, using Challenge 3: Wind.
Setting: After Like Like Love.
Summary: On a snowy, windy day, Ryo and Dee are grateful they don’t need to leave their apartment.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Wintry Weather... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

sovay

On this particularly bright and sleepless morning which began with a formal call from the career center, events otherwise known as

radiantfracture and Existential Comics having conspired to bring the Tractactus to the forefront of my mind, I have decided that the most cursed translation of Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen is "I feel that if a person can't communicate, the very least he can do is to shut up."

Current Music: Tom Lehrer, "Alma"

condnsdmlk posting in

vidukon_cardiff

Next year's con is taking place Friday 5 June to Sunday 7 June 2026 in Birmingham. As in previous years, we'll likely schedule some virtual-only pre-con programming on the Thursday evening.

For folks attending in person, the VidUKon 2026 hotel is the Novotel Birmingham Centre, about 1km from Birmingham New Street Station and accessible via tram. We did not receive a special rate for congoers, so we recommend booking directly through their website.

Rooms can accommodate up to three guests (one queen-sized bed and a pull-out sleeper couch). Room rates are subject to change (so the earlier you're able to book, the better), but current approximate rates for two nights B&B on 5 & 6 June are:

Single occupancy – £213 (non-refundable) / £245 (cancel free of charge)
Double occupancy – £245 to £281 (non-refundable) / £277 to £319 (cancel free of charge)
Triple occupancy – £367.05 (non-refundable) / £399 (cancel free of charge)

If you’re interested in staying at the hotel but would like to find someone to share a room with, comment on this post or take a look to see who has already commented!

The Novotel Birmingham Centre is pretty central, close to lots of food options, and the city itself is easy to get to, with a direct train line from London (90 to 130 minutes). The train from Birmingham Airport to New Street Station takes about 40 minutes.

Birmingham is a great city, filled with lots of cultural landmarks. Not only did it give birth to legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Tolkien grew up there too! Check out Visit Birmingham to learn more about the city. Or even better, Video Game Cultures hosted their 2024 conference there and put together a great guide to Birmingham. It really is an excellent resource, so do check it out.

Lastly, if you have ideas for con programming, watch this space! We plan to put a call out for suggestions soon.

badly_knitted

Title: Not That Old
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Clara, Twelfth Doctor.
Rating: G
Written For: Challenge 983: ‘Creek / Creak’ at

dw100.
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: There is nothing wrong with the Doctor!
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, or the characters.

( Not That Old... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

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February 2023

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Signup Post: Fannish 50 in 2026

Featured Article: Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons

Thirteen minutes before midnight, so it still counts!

[ SECRET POST #6920 ]

15+ Job candidates who had bizarre job interviews: 'I stood up and walked out'

Mini-Drama Bonanza

HOA board member has it out for one neighbor and gets her car towed, neighbor debates legal options:

UPDATE: Employee tells Project Manager to "get to the point" during 40-person Zoom meeting

Maybe seeing some connections?

Femslash week in review: 2025-12-02 - 2025-12-08

The Randall Morgan Memorial Archive is Moving to the AO3

Entitled coworker tries to steal employee's intern to sabotage an upcoming work project: 'I’m not go

The Randall Morgan Memorial Archive is Moving to the AO3

LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos: "Portfolio"

(no subject)

Neighbor spends $136 on groceries for a mother from Nextdoor, gets complaints about missing items, t

LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos: "All Anticipation"

FIC: Southern Emor's countryside (Tempestuous Tours)

good things

FAKE: Wintry Weather [Amnesty 48, using Challenge 3: Wind]

This and that and history

FAKE Double Drabble: Wintry Weather

It's time to change partners again

Hotel rooms for VidUKon 2026 | Find a roommate here!

Doctor Who Drabble: Not That Old

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February 2023

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