Network

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Daily Happiness

1. We had a nice dinner at Disneyland today, though it was way more crowded than I was expecting. (Though after thinking about it, I should have known! This week is the last few days the lowest tier of passholders can go before the blackout, and the second tier only has a couple more days than that, so everyone's trying to cram in a last visit.)

2. Gemma was so cutely writhing around with this carrot.

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disney

2025 Disneyland Trip #76 (12/8/25)

We went down to Disneyland for dinner tonight. I very foolishly did not get my Disney backpack out of the other car before we took it in for repairs, so I don't have the sip and savor pass for the Festival of Holidays booths, and decided on Disneyland rather than DCA, but that ended up being a bit of a mistake as we got there right before the parade started and the park was suuuuuper crowded because the lower two levels of passholders only have a few more days before being blocked out for the rest of the year.

( Despite the parade crowds, we still had a good time )

(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251208.html

Many wonders are visible when flying over the Earth at night.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251208.html

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[Challenge #173: Cacophony] Original Fiction: 'Takeout'

Title: 'Takeout'
Fandom: Original Fiction
Author:

but_can_i_be_trusted
Rating: PG
Word Count: 402
Characters/Pairings: Original
Warnings: Very brief disturbing concepts; implied vampiric violence
Notes: Crossposted to

genprompt_bingo
Summary: You turn around, just in time to see your abductor lean back confidently against the now secured door.

( Takeout )

Blorgh?

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Rec-cember Day 8: ER

I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell anyone what this show is about, not least because the name is pretty much self-explanatory, lol.

If you haven't watched it at all, it's probably because medical dramas are not your thing or because you're very young and think that old television is not worth wasting your time over (your loss).

I grew up with ER, John Carter has been my first tv crush, I learnt English to be able to keep up with the show as it aired in the US...so I can't just be objective about it. Season 1 through 3 hold a very special place in my heart.

I honestly wish I had been in fandom back then, but I wasn't, so I'm sure I missed out on a lot of fic. Most of the fic I eventually read was in archives that are no longer online... Fannish life before the Ao3 came along was hard.

Through the Door by C.Midori. I can't believe I'm linking to FF.net! This story is 23 years old, guys. I remember loving it back then, I had it saved as a Word file on my computer, lolol. It's Abby/Carter, a ship I honestly don't remember much about and FF.net makes my eyes bleed so I haven't re-read it before reccing it, sorry. It does seem well-written. It was very angsty, this much I remember. Set around season 8, I think.

Two For The Show by jumpfall. 2.3K words. Gen. Set in the first season, I suppose. This is Carter!whump and H/C at its finest. I love found family stories. And true ensemble pieces like this, with excellent use of the medical setting.

three dates by cicak. 13.6K words.Cater/Benton. Set in season 2 or 3. Carter’s not sure exactly when he first learned about the patented Peter Benton Dating Algorithm, but it must have been early on, because he internalised it like it was any other scrap of information he’d gleaned and hoarded like a crazy person, like his GPA (3.8), his birthday (September 9th) or his blood type (B positive). Now, I personally don't see the Carter/Benton relationship as romantic. At. All. cicak writes so well and still keeps Carter and Benton completely in character that they just made me buy it.

The Pitt

Like Brothers We Meet by Siria. 17.5k words. Gen. After a chance encounter, Robby finds out that he's got a half-brother he never knew about—an emergency physician from Chicago called John Carter. A fair number of stories that try to tie in/blend ER and The Pitt while explaining the uncanny similarity between Carter and Robby have naturally popped up. This is the best of them all. Totally believable, blends the two canon seamlessly. Robby is our viewpoint character here. Fascinating read, highly recommended.

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Good things about my train journey

I had a lot of them today and they were mostly exhausting, but

The train manager on the train to Euston told us what platform we'd come in to (making it clear that there might be a last-minute change!), what side the doors would open on, how to get to the Underground and even buses and taxis. Since it's a station I know well, I could verify that everything he was saying was the right amount and kind of information that would've helped me if I hadn't known that and needed to.
I'm not sure this is what was going on because it might not have been working that way but... I think that there was a new feature over the two accessible toilet doors in Euston: there were big lights over the doors, one was red and one was green, so I assumed this meant one was locked and one is open. Like I said my experience made this kinda confusing but it at least made me think it'd be a really good idea! At the moment I have to look for a teeny circle near the lock/handle of the door and determine whether it's white or red. Which, in dim locations like you get at Euston, can be surprisingly difficult! And I feel like an idiot trying my key in a locked door and I don't like to stress out the occupant -- I at least find it stressful when I'm in there and hear someone trying the door, suddenly unsure that I locked it or that it has stayed locked. If a big red or green light over the door could be relied on and rolled out, that'd be great.

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power

Conflict Within My Power System (a ramble while at lunch)

So I've talked a lot about the power system I've observed (primarily) in webcomics. You'll also find versions of this in a lot of tabletop games (e.g., every force gets a face and a goal, etc). But what do conflicts look like?

So! A conflict is when two or more wants are mutually exclusive. What I want and what you want are incompatible. That puts us at odds. The wants can be internal to a single person, too.

(What about man vs nature, you ask? Fate (ttrpg system) provides a neat solution to this. Consider the natural forces as having wants/goals, too. The tornado wants to rage and destroy. The rain wants to fall. The desert wants to be all the extremes. Etc. In Fate, you can assign skills, aspects, stunts, etc to nonliving, nonthinking things. Before you argue that this anthropomorphizes too much, consider nature from the pov of the human stuck in the situation. To them it feels like the tornado wants to rage and destroy, even if that is impossible for a weather system to actually feel or think).

Power, as I've said before, is currency to enact your will and gain autonomy. In other words, power buys what you want. When people and factions act in a story, they are likely acting to either get what they want or to secure enough power to get what they want. The important thing to remember is that power is not the ultimate want. This edge between what someone wants and what they need to get it is where interesting negotiations, alliances, and betrayals can happen.

But stepping back a moment.

When conflict is crash between wants, what are the possible outcomes?

If A and B are in conflict, here are their options:

Either backs down and the other gets what they want without compromise. Backing down can be giving up, a strategic retreat, or a personal reassessment of what they want.
They negotiate, each compromising on what they want so that they get part of it.
They refuse to back down and then either one side wins and the other loses, or they destroy each other.
They sacrifice what they want to ensure the other doesn't get what they want.

Now lets talk wants a bit more.

A want is anything someone wants to achieve, but there are levels.

A Heart's Desire is the ultimate thing a person or organization wants. It is the end of the five why exercise, what comes after "so that" or "in order to" etc.

To achieve a heart's desire, a person has Goals. If I achieve this Goal, I will get what I Want.

To achieve a goal, a person has a Plan.

Elia wants to become the leader of the Blue Herons because she believes it is the best way to honor her father and allay her guilt for not returning home when he'd asked. To become leader, she needs to win an election. She is working hard to secure votes.

Despite the language used, Elia's Heart's Desire is to "allay her guilt." Her Goal is to "become leader of the Blue Herons." (Honoring her father is another goal more than a desire. She views it as a want, though. It could be an interesting moment when she finally honors her father, only to realize the guilt remains). Her Plan is working to secure votes.

Now, say Elia is going up against someone named Cory.

Cory is from a village suffering from repeated monster attacks. His people are barely hanging on. The only way to help is to get a faction like the Blue Herons to intervene. He's pleaded for aid, but no one will help. He's decided the only way to help his people is to take control of the Blue Herons and force them to help. He's working hard to secure votes.

Cory's Heart's Desire is to "save his people" and his goal is to "become leader of the Blue Herons."

Elia and Cory are in conflict. They cannot both lead the Blue Herons. But, if Elia can convince Cory she'll help his people, he could step down. She gets to honor her father by leading, and he gets to save his people. Alternatively, Cory could convince Elia that saving his village is a better tribute to her father. That would let her step down.

Both are going after Power (leader of the Blue Herons) in order to get what they want. If one finds an alternative route to what they want, they no longer need that power.

...and now my lunch break is over.

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Rec-cember Day 7: Rivers of London

Rivers of London is an urban fantasy series written by Ben Aaronovitch (a Doctor Who writer). So far, it includes 9 books and loads of novellas. Set in almost-present-day London (IIRC the first book is set in 2011, the latest in 2018), I've heard it once described as "Harry Potter meets your standard British police procedural", and as back-cover blurb descriptions go it's not bad. It's just so much more than 'magic coppers', though.

The books are written in first-person and our POV character is Peter Grant, a mixed-race police constable and born-and-bred Londoner, with a touch of ADHD and the best British sense of humour. The books work because Peter is so damn likeable. Mind you, the books are also very British, which might be a selling point, if you're me, or put you off. The first seven books conclude a story arc, Aaronovitch knows how to play the long game, and are damn near perfect IMO.

The Rivers of London fandom used to be small but very active, but in recent years some people drifted away from it because they found it a bit uncomfortable to be fans of a series where the police is considered a force of good, I think. And I understand why. I am Italian, from Genova, I wouldn't be able to suspend my disbelief to read about Italian police being good guys (if you don't know what I'm talking about look up what happened during the 2001 G8 in my town). However, I have no problems romanticising bits of another country's police force, when they are represented by the likes of Peter Grant, Sahra Guleed and Thomas Nightingale. I'm afraid I'm not doing a good job of describing how awesome the series, is so I'll leave you with this introductory post by sixthlight, who was the BNF back then.

It's a new day [vid] by pollyrepeat. This awesome fanvid can totally work as a trailer for the series. I'm always so in awe of fans who can make vids for a canon which has no footage to offer as a starting point.

Longhouse by philomytha. This is such a great example of Peter's narration, and a casefile fic, and also a good example of the predictable main ship: Peter/Nightingale.

This(not) be the verse by leupagus. 3.8 K words. "Be honest, sir," I said, scrabbling for the left flipper, "I look like a moron."

"I’ve seen you look moronic before, Peter," Nightingale said, flicking the wheel right and sending us careening down a side street and me thudding against the left-hand door. "This does not even, as you put it, 'crack the top ten.'"

This is my fave of the most recent fics. It's got spoilers for, let's say, a development in Peter's life in the last two books? If you've read the books, you know what I'm talking about. Perfect Peter's voice and great interaction with Nightingale (totally non shippy). There are two podfic versions available! Haven't listened to either yet, but I plan on doing that asap.

I've Found a New Baby by knight-tracer and thefourthhvine. 13.6k. Peter/Nightingale. It's a sort of self-contained casefile of sorts, it can fit pretty much anywhere in canon before the last two books, I think, it's been a while since I listened to it. It's not particularly spoilery, I think. Peter finds a baby on the doorstep of the Folly. It’s an embarrassing cliché, I know, but there was an actual basket, made of what looked to be actual wicker, actually sitting there. It was oval and large and had spaces for handholds on either end; for a minute, I thought it was full of laundry, and my mind spun an image of a ghost laundress. Then the small hand emerged from the basket, waved around for a minute, and smacked down again. Brilliant Peter's voice and even better Nightingale's characterisation. The podfic is excellent!

Saving the big guns for last...As I said, sixthlight was the BNF in the fandom, for a reason. All her works are amazing. I miss her fic like crazy. Anyway, my all-time favourite is this: Wizardry by Consent. 62K words. It's an AU,a canon divergence one, and it's best enjoyed if you know canon to be able to appreciate the amazing worldbuilding and character work the author does when she takes our beloved characters on a new journey, starting from a simple change to the canon: Peter never became the Nightingale apprentice. Fifteen years after a headless body was discovered in Covent Garden, Thomas Nightingale is still the last wizard in Britain, and Peter Grant, newly appointed Commander for Community Engagement in the Metropolitan Police Service, has just learned the truth about the existence of the Folly. He has one or two questions. The podfic by lazulus is [insert superlative adjective of your choice here].

The Pitt

hard odds to beat when you're on all fours by loveism. Mel/Trinity. Femslash at its finest, perfectly in character and so well-written. I love me some Trinity Santos when people know how to write her well, and damn, Mel deserves all the good sex, so...

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Picture Book Advent, Week One

Picture book Advent is going strong! Since I usually don’t have a whole post worth to share about a single picture book, I’ve decided to do a wrap-up post each Monday with quick notes on each of the preceding week’s picture books.

Christmas, written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney: a retelling of the Nativity story, with excursions into the origins of various Christmas customs: Saturnalia as the source of the Lord of Misrule, Odin walking the world morphing into St. Nicholas giving gifts. (Hadn’t heard that one before!)

The Remarkable Christmas of the Cobbler’s Sons, written by Ruth Sawyer, illustrated by Barbara Cooney: an unexpected gem! Left alone on Christmas Eve, the three sons of a poor cobbler are visited by an incredibly grumpy elf/gnome-type creature who kicks them out of bed and makes them turn cartwheels - only for oranges and Christmas cookies and gold and silver coins to pour from their pockets! Delicious. A new story to me, and I’ve read so many Christmas stories that it’s always impressive to find something new.

I Saw Three Ships, by Elizabeth Goudge. Actually not a picture book, but a novella for children, a quick charming story about young Polly in a seaport who insists to her elderly aunts that they have to leave the doors unlocked on Christmas Eve for baby Jesus. The aunts refuse, but Polly manages to open a window regardless, and of course quasi-magical Christmas happenings follow.

An Angel in the Woods, written and illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop. Another banger in the vein of Lathrop’s The Fairy Circus. A toy angel, left on the windowsill with a candle on Christmas Eve, flies into the woods to bring presents to the animals.

The Animals’ Santa, written and illustrated by Jan Brett. More Christmas presents for the animals! One thing I love about Brett’s illustrations is that you often have the main story in the big illustrations, but also a little B-plot taking place in the borders. In this case, the main story is the animals discussing who might be the animal Santa (a bear? A moose? A wolf?), while the side story features adorable little mice in little red hats and green sweaters making little Christmas presents using forest goodies like acorns.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, illustrated by Jan Brett. The main illustrations are the various presents for the twelve days of Christmas (the seven swans a-singing etc.), while the borders show the tale of the singer and her true love heading into the forest to get a Christmas tree, then decorating it with her family. So charming. Each border has “Merry Christmas” in a different language, and then the illustrations reference that national theme, so for instance on “eleven pipers piping” the language is Scotch Gaelic and the pipers are bagpipers in kilts.

Christmas Folk, by Natalia Belting, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Did you know that Christmas also used to be Halloween? Okay, not exactly, but Christmas used to be the holiday where people got dressed up in costumes, went door to door demanding sweets, and set off fireworks, all customs that Belting describes in this story. (Cooney’s firework illustration includes a little girl with her hands over her ears. What a great detail!)

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cats,
tv

TV, bird tv, fire tv

I intend to watch the three released episodes of Heated Rivalry so I can know what everyone (my wife) is talking about, but I haven't got to it yet. I am obviously spoiled by Tumblr posts but I haven't watched the bits between the gifsets.

I rewatched Derry Girls over the last two weeks while attempting to knit this nephew sweater (made it to first sleeve cuff again, finally!). That show is so good, and it's so frustrating, because there's nothing more that's like it! All the main adult actors are also so good, but none of them have a long back catalogue of other comedy to watch! And of course the writer, Lisa McGee, needs time to write more things.

I have a long list of things I've been intending to watch and rewatch, but it feels like I don't have enough emotional bandwidth, or attention, or something, for starting new long things that are going to be dramatic.

So I've been watching a ton of non fiction instead:

➡️very old Folding Ideas and Hbomberguy videos

➡️Mentour Pilot's back catalog of aviation disaster explainers (previously I was familiar from watching over

waxjism's shoulder)

➡️Defunctland episodes that aren't too Disney-focused (a mention on Tumblr reminded me and I've only seen a few before)

➡️KyleHatesHiking videos about true crime, accidents, and missing persons cases related to hiking and outdoor sports (recommended by my sister last week)

➡️BobbyBroccoli science scandal documentaries (there's a new movie on Nebula, but otherwise I've watched them all before)

Meanwhile Wax is filling our bird feeders (seed and tallow ball) sometimes multiple times a day and the bird traffic is constant. Sipuli will sit by the window watching them like tv. Tristana is happy to sit in a chair facing the woodstove and watch the fire like it's a tv, sometimes for hours.

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172 Avant-garde/173 Cacophony - Miami Vice (tv) - Baby Ducks

Title: Baby Ducks
Fandom: Miami Vice
Author: Cat Moon
Rating: PG
Words: 600
Characters/Pairings: Sonny/Rico, OC
Summary: Sonny and Rico are adjusting to a new life together in a new city. The question is, is the new city prepared for them?
Notes: I have to give a nod to Ianto Jones for a bit of inspiration. If you watched Torchwood, you’ll know why.
The scene Sonny mentions happened in the episode, “Prodigal Son.” I’m obsessed with it. I should have known I’d end up using it in a fic.

( Baby Ducks )

(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251207.html

It is still

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251207.html

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#173 - Cacophony

This week's word is

Cacophony

ca·coph·o·ny

noun
1. Harsh or jarring sound.

2. An incongruous or chaotic mixture; a striking combination: A cacophony of smells.

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Daily Happiness

1. I walked to the donut shop again this morning and this time tried one of their holiday offerings, a gingerbread donut with biscoff cookie topping. It was really good!

2. The Christmas tree is pretty much finished. If we see some sort of topper we like, we might buy one, but otherwise the decorations are done.

3. Ollie is very curious about what Tuxie is doing out there.

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SVSSS: The Scum Villain's Sex and Pleasure Catalogue by benwisehart

Fandom: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Pairings/Characters: Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu
Rating: Explicit
Length: 18,992
Creator Links:

benwisehart
Theme: Amnesty, Book Fandoms, Domestic, Established Relationship, Humor, Trauma & Recovery

Summary: The System gives Shen Qingqiu the ability to exchange B-Points for items, and what better way to earn points than by raising the satisfaction level of Zhongdian's favourite protagonist?

OR: The one where Shen Qingqiu starts seducing the fuck out of Binghe in order to enable his caffeine addiction.

Reccer's Notes: This one seems like it'd be just a fun kinky romp (which it also is!), but it's also very thoughtful about why Shen Qingqiu was reluctant to indulge in some of these things to begin with. Sometimes it's just his self-conscious personality, and sometimes it's because he was too quick to judge, but he's also his own person with his own preferences and traumas and those deserve to be respected, too! Really, the ultimate benefit out of this whole sequence of events might just have been allowing these two a sliver of genuine open communication, even if that's sometimes a hard-won lesson.

Fanwork Links: The Scum Villain's Sex and Pleasure Catalogue

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Rangers vs Vegas on tv

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adventures in cooking

trying to change momentum

This weekend seemed especially short. I woke up this morning with a headache and spent a couple of hours just lying down with my eyes covered, waiting for the Excedrin to kick in. Then I planned to make cranberry orange scones but my heavy cream was frozen, so that was delayed until it was liquid enough to pour. The funny part is that the recipe wants it to be almost frozen when you use it, but not quite as frozen as mine was.

Anyway, after waiting a bit, I made the scones and they turned out well (pic - that is also my new grey "spatter" pattern quarter sheet pan, lined with parchment).

I didn't make the glaze because I'd planned to sprinkle the scones with cranberry orange sugar, but then I forgot to do that. *hands* They still taste good!

I also made that garlic and bread soup again, but I got distracted and burned my croutons. *sadhair* Soup is still delicious, though. I wish I'd remembered to buy some arugula so I could have soup and salad, but alas, I didn't think of it when I was putting my grocery order together.

Speaking of grocery orders, when did Costco stop selling the 3 lb brick of Philadelphia cream cheese? I need it for the frosting for the red velvet cupcakes for Christmas, but I guess I will have to spend a little more and get what I need from Stop and Shop instead. *hands*

*

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"mom's friend a long time ago."

Mom and Dad told me tonight about two friends of my brother's, and one of them's mom who was the school nurse at the time so knows all of us as well as being the mom of his friend, who she's run into lately who told her they always remember Chris at this time of year.

Two of the three apparently said especially that it was twenty years this year, and my mom was surprised that they remembered that specifically. But I have a couple friends about my age who had schoolfriends die when they were in school or soon after, and they certainly remember the person and how long it's been. We are lucky enough to live in an age when child/young person death is rare enough to stand out.

The school nurse mom even told my mom about how her daughter's kids know about him because the daughter has a Christmas ornament with a photo of my brother on it which my parents had made and handed out to people the Christmas after (I got one too, in my terrible flat in West Didsbury, but I never really wanted it and lost it along the way). The kids know about all the ornaments on their tree so they know this one is for "Mom's friend who died a long time ago." I love that.

On a kinda rough day, before two days in London for work that I'm dreading, this was a nice moment.

Their mom and my brother had been friends since kindergarten, when she was one of the girls who called him Kissyfur after a cartoon of that time, and who he used to entertain by doing stuff like pretending not to notice when the girls put snow in his hat and he put it on anyway so they could all laugh.

She sang at his funeral, which is such a gift to be able to offer a peer, when you're only twenty-one.

Entry tags:

vital functions

vital functions

(Last week's also now exists and is no longer a placeholder!)

Reading. Pain, Abdul-Ghaaliq Lalkhen. I want to be very, very clear: unless you are specifically researching attitudes and beliefs in pain clinics in early 2020s England, or similar, do not read this book. There are bad history and no references, appalling opinions on patients (), quite possibly the worst hyphenation choice I have ever seen, stunning omissions and misrepresentations of pain science, and It's Weird That It Happened Twice soup metaphors. Fuller review (or at least annotated bibliography entry) to follow, maybe.

Some further progress on Florencia Clifford's Feeding Orchids to the Slugs ("Tales from a Zen kitchen"), which I acquired from Oxfam in a moment of weakness primarily for EYB purposes at a point when it was extremely discounted. It is primarily a somewhat disjointed memoir for which I am not the target audience, but hey, Books To Go Back In The Charity Shop Pile but that I wouldn't actually hate reading were exactly the goal, so that's a victory. Mostly. I'm a little over halfway through it, sticking book darts on pages that contain recipes for easier reference when I go back through on the actual indexing pass.

I absolutely needed something that was not going to make me furious and furthermore that was not going to be demanding, and there's a new one in the series, so I have now reread several Scalzi: Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades completed, The Lost Colony in progress.

I've also had a very quick flick through the mentions of Descartes in Joanna Bourke's The Story of Pain, which is my next Pain Book. She does better than everyone else I've read, but I still think she's misinterpreting Treatise on Man. (Why do I have strongly-held opinions on Descartes now. CAN I NOT.)

Playing. ( Inkulinati, Monument Valley )

Cooking. SOUP.

smitten kitchen's braised chickpeas with zucchini and pesto, two batches thereof, because I had promised A burrata to go with and then (1) the supermarket was out of it and (2) the opened part-pack of feta wound up doing two days quite comfortably, so the second batch was required For Burrata Purposes.

I have also established that the pistachio croissant strata works very well in one of the loaf tins if you scale it down to 50% quantities because there were only 3 discount croissants at the supermarket (... because you had to wait and watch the person who got there JUST ahead of you taking Most Of Them...), which also conveniently used up the dregs of the cream that I had in the fridge.

Eating. Tagine out the freezer (thank you past Alex). Relatively fresh dried apple. A very plain lunch at Teras in Seydikemer, which was apparently the magic my digestive system needed to settle itself down! And I am very much enjoying my dark chocolate raspberry stars. :)

Turkeys!

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