jasmasson

I went in to Kaiser for a PT appointment for my plantar fasciitis (suddenly MUCH worse since May), and discovered it was cancelled. But COVID boosters were available, so I got one. They only had the Pfizer version, and I braced myself for 24 hours of mini-COVID. What a surprise--nothing more than a sore arm! That has never happened before, and it was a huge relief. I didn't even have to beg for the booster (thanks, RFK Jr.), but I was prepared to. I'm not old enough to be in an at-risk class, but COVID goes straight to my lungs and tanks them.

Still trying to get the last of the fire/smoke-damaged replacement goods bought (deadline is today), and then I'll dive back in to trying to get stuff put away. We've held off on putting down the new rugs until we were sure the cat's head wound had stopped bleeding, and I have one more bookcase to assemble. HalfshellHusband just needs to decide where he wants it, because it's big and heavy. We still have a total of about THREE pictures up in the entire house. There's just so much to do that it's overwhelming, and I find it hard to make headway on anything. :(

I worked on my Idol entry last weekend, and it was a fun one. Our group is getting smaller and smaller, so please read the entries and vote if you can! We need the outside help.

Finally, my previously promised TV recs. Most are on Britbox/Acorn:
Shetland - We rewatched the series from the beginning, and it is a delight. Hard to lose one of the main characters (and have an interloper seem to become the lead, if bossiness is any indication), but the characters are really enjoyable throughout. 10 seasons, and 11 is currently being filmed.
The Chelsea Detective - This gentle detective series really grew on me. 3 seasons so far, and I hope more are coming.
Grace - British police procedural in Brighton, well-written and engaging.
Life on Mars - John Simm (from Grace) also stars in this show about a London detective who is in an accident and is transported back to 1973. OMG, the crude idiots in the 1970s version of policing! Funny and touching.
Recipes For Love And Murder - a South African "cozy" mystery with a Scottish main character. Charming throughout.
The Devil's Hour - Peter Capaldi is fantastic in this captivating show about time-looping and crossover realities.
Doc - An abrasive doctor suffers a brain injury and the resulting amnesia leaves her with a time gap of the last traumatic 8 years that caused her to become such an unpleasant person.

I've probably forgotten some, but they'll probably come to me eventually.

annavere

If you're a fan of British folk music, there's a good chance you've heard Danny Thompson's double bass. I was saddened to hear he passed away recently. I would skip the surface-level obituaries and point you straight at a deep dive into his incredibly wide-ranging work, which is well worth the read if you're interested in the 60s music scene, and has lots of embedded music. The Artistry of Danny Thompson, Part 1

I also wanted to make a short highlight reel, as his playing threads some of my most beloved music, from my teenage discovery of Nick Drake and Richard Thompson to David playing Pentangle in the winter evenings:

Watch on YouTube

It was hard to choose a Pentangle performance. They were a stunning live act and thankfully there are a wealth of high quality recordings out there. I went with the multi-part 'Hunting Song,' which I consider one of their most sublime works.

* * *

Watch on YouTube

Danny Thompson was close friends with John Martyn, and it shines through in this rendition of Martyn's signature song 'Solid Air.' Martyn wrote the song about his friend Nick Drake and Thompson had played on a number of Drake's songs and apparently they had gotten along very well - which I think adds to the depth and intensity of this lament.

* * *

Watch on YouTube

Lastly, this was my introduction to Danny Thompson, which came when my Dad sat down and introduced me to Richard Thompson through the Live at Austin, TX DVD. This is my favorite Danny Thompson performance of them all, as he switches seamlessly to the bow for an eerie and incredibly controlled effect in this gorgeous song. Richard Thompson was later (on the Loud and Rich tour with Loudon Wainwright III) the only live concert Dad and I ever got to share, so there's a lot of sweet and sad emotions here for me today.

Rest in peace to an amazing artist.

killabeez

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zimena

So, I'm still here. I just keep forgetting to update this thing.

Snooker is still my life. Well, it's the interesting part of it, anyway. I've been to the UK again - this time to the British Open in Cheltenham. It was incredible on so many different levels, but right now I'm also a little bit annoyed because I've also managed to bring back an unwelcome guest from island country to the west - a cold. I've been spending the day mostly curled up under a blanket, freezing in a room which isn't actually cold.

Also, on a different note, SAS (airline) managed to lose my bag. Apparently they have located it, and it's supposed to turn up here tomorrow, but I don't believe anything like that until I see it. That's a first, though - maybe because it was a small bag, so it might have gotten lost between the bigger luggage somewhere... It has the key to my flat inside (yes, I know, I should've had the presence of mind to move that to my pocket on the morning of leaving the UK, don't remind me - I know that was foolish of me!), so I'd very much like to have it back soon.

It's still so wild to think that this is my 4th trip to the UK alone, and that it worked out quite fine this time as well. I didn't really like Cheltenham as a town, though. Mostly because the important things seemed very spread out, and many streets were very bumpy, had tree roots sticking up through the pavement, had too narrow pavements for me to be on them, or otherwise felt really hard to navigate in a wheelchair. Luckily, there was a bike path and footpath about 75% of the way between the town centre and the snooker arena, so getting there and back every day was okay. In fact, once I'd learned the best way to go, it took me only about 15 minutes to get there by wheelchair. I still took the bus back most evenings, though - well, apart from the final evening, because we left so late that the bus had stopped running for the night.

Also, buses? Yes, they say that they can take wheelchairs within certain measurements, and mine is within those limits. But it only JUST works, and I have to be really precise to go on the bus and get into the wheelchair spot. This is the same with some trains, by the way - but some others are much more spacious, so I guess it depends on the train operator and what kinds of carriages they use.

I was a bit stressed about getting from the hotel to the railway station on the day I was going back, because that was completely in the opposite direction of the area I had been in, and when I tried going there one day, I just decided that it wouldn't work if I had all my bags and stuff on me. So, I ended up going by bus - which also sounded challenging with the bags on, but it worked out fine. Well, not fine enough for me to remember to pick my key out of my bag, though.

Anyway - the snooker? Mark made it to the semifinal, so I got to follow him almost through the whole week. More importantly, I also talked with him several times, including once where he stood around for 10-15 minutes talking of this and that, football and his family and the fact that he was quite tired as this is a rather intense time in the snooker calendar. He even said that he had gone home on his day off (he played on Monday, and then not again until Wednesday) to see his daughter, because she was missing him like mad. I loved being able to have that conversation with him. To be honest, I felt quite shy, and probably didn't talk as much as I should've, but it was still such an incredible moment.

Also, I don't remember now when it was, but he asked me if I was okay after one of his matches. I mean, what? Him, asking me if I'm okay? Shouldn't that be my question for him? I admit that I wear my emotions on my sleeve when he plays, though... and he had a couple of really close matches.

He also had one really magical match against Chang Bingyu, though. He won it 4-0 in only about an hour, and I was probably smiling all through the match because he was playing so great. And I'm quite sure he gave me a very subtle wave afterwards, which was also lovely.

Unfortunately, the joy ended in the semifinal, which was a clear 1-6 loss to the eventual champion, Shaun Murphy. To be fair, Murphy was playing great all week, so I was very aware that it would be hard match as soon as the draw came out. But still - Mark gave me a lot of joy, and many magical moments in a few days.

He was happy to let me have another photo with him, too, look:

As for other players, there are some really lovely things to mention about some of them, too. First of all: Iulian Boiko! I saw him walking with some people a bit ahead of me one of the first days. Then, when he saw me he said hello, and stopped and waved me over. I've only met him in person at the shootout last year (my first tournament), and that was just for a few seconds at a time, but I message him on Instagram sometimes, and I'm in his Telegram group. It was still lovely how he absolutely knew me, though. I gave him a little gift because it was his birthday (I hadn't even expected to be able to see him on the day, as he wasn't playing until the day after), and he came over after his practice later that day to thank me. He was so, so lovely.

I also got a picture with him, though I think there's too much sunshine here for one photo. One (two?) at the front, and then the actual one in the background, making the photo come out as it did:

Maybe I should mention Judd Trump as well. To be honest, Judd is one of those players I hadn't met yet, and I was a bit nervous about him because he's got quite a reputation for being a bit standoffish with fans. Like, some fans said that he wouldn't sign autographs for them, or let them have photos with him. But when I met him, he was an absolute sweetheart. He held his arm around me and we took a photo together. He was very soft-spoken and sweet, actually.

I was really lucky this time around, getting a lot of photos with players. But these three were the most important for me emotionally. Unfortunately, Iulian got drawn against Ali Carter already in the second round, so he went out then. As for Judd, he lost to Murphy during the mid-week or so. I guess we can't really complain about Murphy being the champion in the end, as he had a really tough run to the title, beating Neil Robertson, Judd Trump... and then Mark, of course. The other finalist? Anthony McGill, who apparently hadn't been in a ranking final for 8 years. He played really well this week, though.

annavere

I saw this writer meme via

havocthecat, and (being in likewise need of rebuilding blogging muscles) I have answered it. Very fun questions.

Which of your fics is your pride and joy?

All of them qualify in one way or another. Point at any of my fics and I will rattle off things I'm proud of with each, starting with the fact that they exist. Even a trifle such as Diminutive Disruption, which I had legit forgotten I wrote, I am super proud of. Because I did manage to write something silly, and because it made a few people smile, and because I wrote it in two days while in bed with a fever. It's an accomplishment.

However, there is only one true answer and favorite among my own works, and that is Life in Death. My non-linear, epigraph-laden darling. My case for why Libby and Sims were both more nuanced than a surface read of "betraying bitch" and "sadistic psychopath," and where I attempted to salvage them as people, with motivations and personal codes and coping mechanisms for the horrible stuff they did.

It was a deep dive into the show's least explained lore and into the mental landscape of a man attempting to disassociate from his own existence. It was about the parallels Sims has (like all great villains) with various of the good guys. I also went to bat for my most cherished interpretation of canon and declared that actually, there is zero proof that Sims is dead and a weight of evidence suggesting the opposite.

It's still my favorite of everything.

What are your top three most commonly used tags on AO3?

"Angst" leads the pack with 7/14 fics tagged as such. Second place is "Female Friendship" with 3 uses. There's a bunch vying for third, and if I remove tags that belong to multiple works in a series, it's a tie between "Canon-typical Violence," "AU - Canon Divergence," and "Women Being Awesome."

I like canon. I like what ifs within the canon. I like female characters. And I love exploring dark emotions. Somewhere in the nexus of those elements is where I find most of my plots.

( Remaining questions definitely cut for length. )

halfshellvenus

Tony
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 11 | 2000 words
Tiger Team

x-x-x-x-x

Tony the Tiger was losing his zip. After seventy-three years of being the Frosted Flakes mascot, he was having to fight harder and harder to hang onto his legacy.

He'd always evolved with the times, even when the fads made no sense. In 1960, his eyes changed from green to gray. A decade later, they became yellow, and his nose turned blue like one of those creepy monkeys. In 1984, he finally became three-dimensional, and by the '90s he was on steroids.

Now, he was just struggling to hang onto his job.

First, it was the tooth veneers. That was after he'd already chipped a fang on a cereal bowl decades earlier. In 2015, he'd had plastic surgery to remove the double chin that had plagued him all his life. The next insult was fur and whisker dye, and he'd had to get tooth implants in the early 2000s (because he was not about to get dentures). There was an entire team of specialists devoted to making him look good.

But they couldn't fix his memory.

"Kellogg's Frosted Flakes! They're good!"

"Cut!"

It was a TV commercial, like any one of the dozens he'd made over the years. With all of that experience behind him, why did he keep blanking on the tag line?

"Let's go again," the director said.

"Kellogg's Clotted Snakes! They're grrrreat!"

"Cut!"

What's wrong with me? Tony wondered. He used to be able to pop those lines out in his sleep, and now he couldn't get through them to save his life.

"Again!" the director said.

"Balrog's Busted Rakes! They're grrrreat!"

"Cut!" the directory yelled. "For crying out loud–take ten!"

( Read more... )

If you enjoyed this story, please vote for it along with many other fine entries here.

nomelon

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

killabeez

Get your requests and offers ready, spread the word, and let's do this!

2025 Guidelines and helpful links here.

doreyg

After a little longer spent on Master Detective Archives than intended, I’m back to Pokémon! This time, a playthrough of Pokémon White! Gen 5, possibly my favourite gen.

( Read more... )

So, what next gaming wise? Well… Hades II is coming out tomorrow. >:D I fully meant to be playing something else, but given that I’m on holiday next week I cannot miss the temptation of that. I’m not quite sure how I am going to do a game write up of it yet, maybe just something where I go run by run?, but I am very much looking forward to it!

Oh, and also I am most of the way through watching a LP of FFVII. So expect my thoughts on that at… Some point. <3

Current Mood: busy

halfshellvenus

Somebody, and by that I mean someone furry, started scratching the side of his head two weeks ago, and got a deep sore going before we could get him to the vet to be coned. :(

I bought a cone a couple of years back, but I never took it out of the packaging, and it turned out to basically be labrador-sized. No good for a medium-sized house cat! Our vet was closed the day we wanted to take our cat in, and when they re-opened we discovered they couldn't see him for 4 days. Yikes. I took him to Banfield Pet Hospital (inside PetSmart) to be coned and given antibiotics, because that was the urgent issue. He got the cone off within 5 minutes of being home. HalfshellHusband took him back, and he got the cone off before even leaving the store. So the vet made a soft harness out of some stretchy cloth, and that did the trick.

We took him to our own vet on Monday, for a more thorough examination. They found no underlying cause for his original scratching other than that he gets itchy during the change of seasons, so that was good. But they undid the harness, which means the cat got the cone off again later that night. Holy moly! They gave instructions to burrito him (Hah!) to subdue him, as if they didn't routinely tranq him on office visits (including that very day). By then, a soft cone had come from Amazon that was easier to get on-- this outer-space-themed flower-type thing:

Not our cat

He is able to eat and drink with the soft cone, but also has gotten out of it three times and is sometimes able to still get one of his hind feet into scratching position! I have another, bigger soft cone to try the next time he escapes the current one, but what a headache this all is. He has no idea that he'll be wearing that cone for another 2-4 weeks, which will be fun for all of us. \o?

In Idol news, I was able to come back in (at least for now) due to a lucky spin of the Wheel of Chaos. But

rayaso got poisoned, so he's out. That's disappointing. :( There is also no poll this week, so no one seems to be reading or commenting on the entries. Mine is here, if you'd like to take a look. I went with humor, which has been the case for most of this season. Not last week, though! This entry was a pain to format, too, and the HTML that used to let you change font so easily doesn't seem to work anymore. Nor does CSS. I gave up on shifting the typeface styles, but that was after I'd wasted a good 60+ minutes on it.

I WILL get around to TV recs at some point, but let me quickly say that Amazon's The Devil's Hour is really intriguing, and you should give it a try!

amalthia

Tonight I was re-watching some of my favorite Farscape music vids and wow I felt like this was the golden age of music vids. Like this fandom kept raising the bar in terms of what is possible in a music vid.

The vid "Fix You" had wonderful use of voice overs and overlays/crossfading. The song choice and editing made it was absolutely perfect. I cried the first time watching it. Youtube LINK: Fix You

Then I re-watched "Angel of Moya" to the song "return to innocence" and this vidder did something I never saw done to before, which was they played the clips backwards from the end of the show until the beginning and it worked. Angel of Moya by Avenue Potter.

Then there are these two John/Aeryn gems from Leviathan.

She Drives me Crazy
A life less ordinary

There are so many other good vids in this fandom. If you have any recs please feel free to share in the comments!

jasmasson

It’s

yuletide time again!

I love Yuletide - this year I’ve nominated something that has precisely zero (0) fics on AO3, or, to my knowledge, anywhere on the interweb. How amazing would it be to write the first ever fic for something? I don’t think it will start a movement, as it’s over 35 years old, but who knows, maybe someone else also remembers an obscure movie from 1989?!

Fannish 50: #14

halfshellvenus

A New Man
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 10 | 2440 words
Intrigant (one who intrigues or is involved in intrigue)

x-x-x-x-x

Winslow Johnson was a middle-aged man in a Midwestern city who suffered from being constantly overlooked. Even his name, which should have been interesting, somehow wasn't. People noticed it for half a second, and then slid right off into "Eh…" It was unusual, but somehow also blah, like Winslow himself.

Sometimes, Winslow wondered if he was invisible.

He worked as a shoe salesman at J. C. Penney, a job that was even less exciting than it sounded. Penney's specialized in 'sensible' and 'matronly,' with a large overlap between the two. Winslow had also never cared for feet, which only made the job more unpleasant. He had tried feigning enthusiasm for them before, but found that it only made him seem weirder.

What he needed, Winslow thought, was a personality transplant.

At office parties and in the breakroom at work, he never seemed to have anything to talk about. He had hobbies, and they weren't anything desperate like collecting string. But when he mentioned his tiny herb garden or he invited someone to spend the day watching trains with him, he got nothing but blank stares in return. Why couldn't he be like Dave from Home and Garden, who was a sports nut and knew how to make people laugh? Or like Janet from Housewares, who was always up-to-date on new movies and the popular TV shows?

Winslow had no idea how to solve his problem. There were no classes for that sort of thing, no magic potions that could make a difference. The only thing he could think of was to go to the bookstore and consult the self-help section. The quantity of selections was overwhelming:

"The You You Are," by Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale.

What? Winslow thought.

"You Are Special, Yes You Are!" by Bitsy McLintock.

Winslow cringed, and kept surveying the shelves.

"Why You Suck, And How To Stop," by Chad Barton.

Huh. The title was kind of harsh, but didn't it basically describe his problem? And if anyone would know how to be cool, it would be someone named Chad. Winslow picked the book up and started leafing through it.

Chapter 1
Why You Suck and Nobody Likes You

You're creepy. You're boring. You smell bad. Do any of these sound familiar? The suckee is always the last to know.

Oh, no! Winslow thought. Could one of those be his problem? Or worse, all of them?

( Read more... )

There's no poll this week, as it's a contestant-only vote.

doreyg

This has been such an all over the place year posting wise. One day my brain shall return from the fog, one day!!

( Read more... )

Current Mood: sleepy

roina_arwen

“You’ve made it bleed,” he said.
I shrugged. “That happens, sometimes.”
“Sure, but that much? Seems a bit excessive.”
“Well, what did you want me to do?” I asked. “It’s part of the job.”
He just crossed his arms and glared at me.
After withstanding his withering glare for several long minutes, I sighed. “Fine. Hand it over.”
He passed it back.

I double checked my work, from start to finish. It took the better part of an hour, but it was always best to take one’s time in situations like this.

“Well?”
I shook my head. “I stand by my work.”
“Seriously?”
“Look, if you don’t like it, feel free to do what you want. It’s no skin off my nose.”
“It’s butchery, plain and simple,” he griped.
I shrugged, nonplussed. “It’s a work of art. Did you even read it?”

He stood, grabbed everything up, and walked to the table in the far corner of the room. Turning his back toward me, he sat and perused everything in silence. I ignored him, and worked on my next project.

Forty-five minutes later, I heard a soft sigh. “You were right,” he admitted, tossing the manuscript on the table. “Your version is better. I’m sorry.”
I smiled, pleased with myself.
“I bow to your editorial prowess,” he added with a grin, kissing me soundly.
Being a good wife, I kissed him back.

The blood rites could wait.

annavere

I actually managed to post two different chapters this month, which makes me feel quite accomplished (one each for two WIPs). Since I'm now at the halfway mark with both stories, I thought I could wring a post out of it. ( Read more... )

Current Mood: exhausted

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jasmasson

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Reading

bullet, dodged a

Danny Thompson (1939-2025)

Highlander Shortcuts signups are open!

Still here, still thinking too much about snooker

Writing Meme

LJ Idol: Wheel of Chaos: "Tony"

Fic: Uncharted Waters

One week until HLH Shortcuts opens for signups!

Pokémon White playthrough

Drama/Trauma in the Laundry Room

Farscape music vid recs

Yuletide! \o/

LJ Idol: Wheel of Chaos: "A New Man"

What I'm Watching Weekly 21/09/24

LJ Idol, Wheel of Chaos, Week 10: “Intrigant”

Writing Update

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