mellicious | Network

Leitmotif of the year:
I can't focus on long things, but by all that's unholy, I can write limericks and drabbles! I wrote other things, too, but golly.

My best story of this year:
Stand back, I'm going to try science!, in which Obi-Wan accidentally gives Anakin a complex about his body, and Anakin 3D prints himself helpful things. This one is deeply silly, and yet affectionate.

My favorite and/or truest story of this year:
The leaves grow bright before they fall wins this one for me, with Anakin and Obi-Wan doing the Hades and Persephone dance, in their own particular, backward, inside-out and upside-down sort of way.

( Read on )

Current Mood: completist
Current Music: And a choir of archangels a-caroling come

celli

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igenlode posting in

little_details

If my characters have made camp in a wood for the night while travelling on horseback, what will the horses be doing?

I was sort of picturing them standing dozing together under a tree somewhere nearby -- possibly tied, possibly hobbled, possibly just being a herd together -- but poking around on the Internet suggests that if not shut up in a stable horses are actually quite active by night. (Which messes with the story, as quite apart from anything else nobody is going to be able to hear anything while keeping watch if the horses are busy foraging around!)

susandennis

So, how in the heck am I going to listen to all 6K of my MP3's? I mean without listening to the same ones over and over. I need a system. Oh, Gemini?!! Since I have the back up on the external drive, I got courageous. Gemini wrote me a script for creating folders and then randomly selecting songs to put in them 30 at a time. It's like having 200 30-song playlists. But I had to run the script a biscillion times because some kind of scripting limit. Finally got it all done and now I had duplicate folder names. Oh, Gemini??!!

Yep, got another script that named the folders 1-203. Now, I just copy the folder over to the player and put a 0 in front of its name so I know I've listened to that one. It's a system!! I generally replace the songs every couple of weeks when I charge the thing so I'm really good now til September of 2033 when I'm 84. I think I'm good music swim wize.

The vet, bless them, had broken packs of food so I didn't have to buy a whole case and was about to get 6 cans which will hold me over until Chewy comes through. So now they are eating again. Whew.

And someone turned on the AC outside. The other day when I went out, it was quite pleasant. No jacket needed. So I didn't even look before I left. Not smart. Plus gusty winds. The guy at the vet said that they had had their door opened by guests of wind already a couple of times this morning.

scintilla10 posting in

recthething

I've posted a few recs for amazing fanworks from the

ficinabox collection on my journal! All creators are still anonymous.

My gifts
Stranger Things (2 fic)
Original Works (1 fic, 2 logic puzzles + fic)

Recs for

womansplace
Andor (fic)
DC Comics Wonder Woman (art)
Original Works (art, board game reskin, plushie pattern)

Art recs
Discworld (pottery)
DC comics (art animation)
Original Work (3 art, 1 pottery, 2 comics [note the final rec is NSFW])

maju

It's miserably grey and rainy today, but the temperature is about 13C/55F. I got my exercise going up and down the two flights of stairs for about 15 or 20 minutes, which was quite taxing. I feel that that's enough exercise when combined with the other times during the day when I use the stairs not for exercise.

I've always had trouble finding warm clothes with long enough sleeves, and mostly end up buying men's long sleeved shirts or jackets for the sleeve length. Especially for jackets, I like the sleeves to be long enough for me to pull them down over my hands for extra warmth. A few years ago I bought a beautiful deep pink women's jacket from LL Bean, even though the sleeves just barely reached my wrists, and I've kind of regretted it ever since. It was really warm and had a gorgeous fluffy lined hood, but the sleeves became a deal breaker so when I moved here I gave it to Violet. It's slightly big on her but she wears it all the time. Meanwhile I've been wearing a parka that was S's which has slightly longer sleeves but still not long enough. It's a nice deep purple colour and I like it a long - except for the sleeves. Plus it's more than twenty years old and is very heavy.

The other day when it was still below freezing I was going outside to empty the food scraps bowl into the compost and I picked up a random coat from the basement/mud room floor to wear. It turned out to belong to my son in law and was very lightweight with sleeves which came down over my hands, and I liked it a lot even though it was black, which is not my preferred colour. When I checked the label I found it was an LL Bean men's parka, size XL. (I'm not huge but I felt like it was a good fit for wearing layers under.) On a whim, I decided to treat myself to a new coat, and ordered the exact same coat from the LL Bean website. (I'm going to have to mark it so that it doesn't get mixed up with son in law's coat.) When I went to pay using PayPal, it turned out that I could use some of my credit card rewards dollars towards the cost of the coat, and all I ended up paying was the tax of just over $12. I've never paid attention to those credit card rewards dollars before, but this year they've also paid for some of my Christmas shopping.

The coat is supposed to arrive today; what a shame it's not cold enough for me to need it today.

susandennis

Biggie is going through a stage. He's now got his hind legs on my thigh and his upper body draped across my arm while I type and is looking at me like I'm not paying him enough attention. He's eaten 2 breakfasts and peed a little and chased his treats around (they are in a little rubber fish that is hard from him to crack but he tries). Now he's just sitting here making this entry more difficult to do than is necessary.

But, why is this any different than any other day since the day he came to live with me. He should be the illustration to define High Maintenance.

Outside of watching him waiting for a sign that something is really wrong, my days, lately have been mostly spent avoiding Timber Ridge Cheer. My maternal grandmother was the sweetest woman who ever roamed the earth. In her final years, she was fairly bed ridden in a nursing home and still so sweet and kind and happy. Except around this time of year. One year, the week before Christmas, she told me "if I have to listen to one more Christmas Carol, I'm going to snap!" I feel ya, Grandma.

Oh and the only other time I heard her snap was when the dining room put broccoli on her dinner plate and it was touching the good food. We all have our limits. Even Grandma.

We did not lose electricity last night. The lights flickered once but that was it. Apparently the phone system went down - we got an email. Lots of people here have what they call 'land lines' and that's their only phone. They are the Xfinity phone service. And it is dicey on a good day. Our building wifi is not Xfinity and it was unaffected. It was the wind last night and today all is calm - it's not even raining right now.

I guess I'll go over to the vets today and buy some of the food that they don't hate. I hope they have some in stock. It doesn't look like the Chewy order will get here before about Tuesday.

I finished up the Clean Up The Google Drive - Particularly The Mp3's Project. I have all of the mp3's backed up to an external hard drive. So whew. I slapped 20 onto my player and that's what I listened to while I was swimming this morning. It was a very random mix but quite nice.

Guess it's time to get dressed and get going.

muccamukk

Archive of Our Own: Protect Your Contact Information From Scammers.

In the last year, AO3 has seen a rise in "art commission" spambot comments. The bots leaving these comments pretend to be artists who want to make comics or illustrations for a fan's fic. After convincing their targets to contact them off AO3, they scam their targets into paying for that art. Fans have reported that after sending payment, they either received AI-generated art or nothing at all.

If you receive a scam comment from a guest, you can press the "Spam" button on the comment. This helps train our automated spam-checker to better detect this type of behavior.

If you encounter a scammer that has a registered account, or if you encounter a guest posting scam comments on someone else's work, please report them to the Policy & Abuse committee. To do so:

Select the "Thread" button on the scammer's comment. This will take you to the specific comment page.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Policy Questions & Abuse Reports.

In the "Brief summary of Terms of Service violation" field, enter "Spambot".

In the "Description of the content you are reporting" field, enter "This is a spambot, their username is USERNAME."

Reporting in this fashion helps us auto-sort your report so that it can be handled as soon as a Policy & Abuse volunteer is available. To help us address reports about these types of bots as fast as possible, please only submit one report per account, and don't include multiple accounts in the same report.

If you encounter a scam commenter on someone else's work, you can let the work creator know the commenter is likely a bot and link them to this news post.

(Thanks to JT for reminding me where the post was.)

Current Mood: pissed off

oursin

I must admit, I was going, 'And today's Mandy Rice Davies' Well, He Would, Wouldn't He, Award, Goes to Him': Thrillers should be on UK school curriculum to boost reading, says Lee Child.

NB I'm not entirely sure Mr Child is up to date with what is currently on school syllabi and in school libraries, in particular on the basis of that Carol Atherton book, Reading Lessons I was reading recently....(on which I commented, 'how the teaching of EngLit has changed since My Day....'

Does he really think schoolkids get plonked down with David Copperfield in their tiny hands at an early age?

(I think I was, what, 13 and in the top stream at a grammar school when we first got it, and that was back in the Upper Neolithic when we had to read it chiselled on granite slabs. I suspect things have moved on since then.)

And my dr rdrz know me and that I am all for reading should be pleasurable and people should read what they like and children's reading should not be gatekept - hat-tip here to Mr Fischer at my primary school who was all 'Comics are not the devil, comics can be a good thing' which was pretty progressive for 1950 something.

But maybe I'm most in particular raising my eyebrows when A Particular Genre is being touted, and moreover, one that is, shall we say, bloke-coded?

I think he's making a lot of assumptions there about what kids will read and want to read, but what do I know, I was hyper-lexical from an early age.

aurumcalendula

I'm partway through the 10Dance movie. I'm enjoying Sugiki and Suzuki's chemistry (and like that they kiss each other onscreen - I really enjoyed the subway car sequence). I also ship their female dance partners together. I haven't read the manga, but I gather it's ongoing.

( Read more... )

I'm looking forward to (and am a bit anxious about) ClaireBell's finale tomorrow. I'm hoping it sticks the landing (and is a happy ending for Bell and Claire).

mallorys_camera

It's raining & very warm for this time of year, in the mid-50°s.

Temps are supposed to drop precipitously by the end of the day, which, since I am utterly neurotic, is making me worry about the drive to Betsy's house tomorrow. She lives in deepest, darkest Westchester County near the Connecticut border: The roads will be rivers of ice, right? Who knows if I'll even make it to the end of my driveway?

Obsessing about slipping and sliding on ice-encrusted roads is a good diistraction from obsessing about how the kiskas & I will be forced to move into a refrigerator box beneath the bridge because the client whom I invoiced yesterday will never pay me.

###

Yesterday was productive. I wrote 1,000+ words on the Work in Progress.

I do wish Brian were still around to bounce tasteless, black humor dialogue about dying of COVID in a hospital off of. It's an essential component of Chapter 4, and it is very difficult to write convincing banter on your own.

In the evening, I watched a few episodes of Pluribus, about a person who is immune to the virus that suddenly converts practically everyone on Planet Earth to blissful one-mind-hood.

It's an interesting premise with one big flaw: I don't much like the protagonist who's supposed to embody rugged individualism. She's just not very sympatique. So, while typically I'd root against the hive mind, in this one, I'm Team Borg all the way.

prettygoodword

mahi-mahi or mahimahi (MA-hee-ma-hee) - n., a large game fish (Coryphaena hippurus) found worldwide in tropical and temperate oceans, also called the common dolphinfish.

Thanks, WikiMedia!

Good eating, and eaten worldwide pretty much. We got the name from Hawaiian mahimahi, but it's also called that in related languages such as Tahitian, emphatic reduplication of mahi, strong.

And even though I've run this before, because I can't resist such a fun word, a bonus fish name: humuhumunukunukuapuaa (hoo-moo-hoo-moo-noo-koo-noo-koo-ah-poo-AH-ah) - n., the reef triggerfish (Rhinecantus rectangulus). This comes up surprisingly often (hat-tip to Octonauts) because it's Hawaii's state fish. In Hawaiian, humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa is a compound of humuhumu, triggerfish +‎ nuku, snout +‎ nuku, blunt +‎ ā, conjunction between two adjectives +‎ puaʻa, pig-like, so "triggerfish with a short, piglike snout." And no, I haven't found what triggerfish has a piglike snout that isn't short, making that an oddly specific name.

And with that, I'm finally done with words English acquired from Native languages of the New World. I'm taking next week off due to holiday chaos, and possibly the week after (we'll see how chaotic things are).

---L.

machinistm

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Current Music: I'll Believe in Anything - Wolf Parade

nanila posting in

awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

cellio

Today while I was using my phone (Pixel) in a perfectly ordinary way, the screen went black and soon after the phone stopped responding at all. I tried all the usual diagnostics and remedies to no avail, then took it to Google's favored repair shop. (The phone's out of warranty so that doesn't matter, but it was also the closest option and they do work on Pixels.) My hopes for a loose connection were dashed when the guy said the motherboard had failed, this is a common problem with the Pixel 5A, it can't be fixed, and I need a new phone. Oh joy...

I bought a Pixel when my previous phone decided that holding a charge is not strictly required. I chose a Pixel in part because I was tired of vendor bloatware and I wanted generic Android. That phone failed two weeks before the end of the warranty, so Google replaced it. I've had this Pixel for less than three years. And here we are again.

I've had other problems with this phone, and some with my previous Android phone too. When I inherited an iPad this summer I took it as a chance to explore iOS. Some things are certainly different, some cryptic, and some hindered by Apple's design philosophy, but it seems a reasonable option. Dani is happy with his iPhone and showed me some of the things I hadn't yet figured out. It appears that most of the apps I use have iOS versions, and I can probably find reasonable alternatives for most of the rest (Tusky I'll miss you), and not having a working phone is a problem. So I decided to change teams.

The problems came from unexpected sources.

I went to the Apple store, worked with a very helpful and clueful person there, and was making good progress when I asked where the tray for the SIM card is. No physical SIM cards; that's all digital. Ok, I said, and we transfer my phone number and stuff how? No worries; they can do that at the Apple store. I just need to open the T-Mobile app on my phone and... oh right, we'll need to do that from a computer. Off we go, I log in (I'd made sure I knew my T-Mobile password), and... 2FA. They want to send a code to my phone. The phone that can't show a code. I asked if we could maybe, just for a minute, move my SIM card to some other phone they might have lying around, but no luck. The web site had a second option, an authenticator app, which is on my phone...

I do have that app also installed on my tablet, because I worry about single points of failure. I hadn't thought to bring my tablet with me (smacks forehead) and there wasn't enough time to fetch it and still get my iPhone today, but the employee suggested that I could also buy the phone at a T-Mobile store and they'd be able to validate my identity and move the SIM card. And I'd be welcome to come back tomorrow for any setup assistance I need. I thanked the person and apologized for not getting the phone from him (he understood), and headed to the T-Mobile store.

T-Mobile's phone service has been mostly very good for us, but customer service is not their strong suit and it's been getting worse recently. (Their new CEO probably wants to close all their stores, forcing people to do everything through their crappy and oft-broken app.) I went to their store and the person said no problem, they can sell me an iPhone and move my service to it, I'll just need to use their app to... Ahem. Oh right, he said, ok we can sell you the phone, but we can't take a credit card; you'll need to pay cash. Oh really? I pointed out that the amount is over the daily limit at local ATMs, and he said I could pay a smaller amount and they'll finance it. Dubiouser and dubiouser. Somewhere in there he mentioned an "upgrade charge", I asked in what way I was upgrading my service, and he admitted that it was a service charge because they can't mark up the phone. Uh huh. At the start of the conversation, after checking my ID, he thanked me for being a customer for more than a decade, but I guess being a long-time customer doesn't actually mean anything.

I said no thanks and left. When I got home Dani said he got a text message from T-Mobile that someone on the account was making service changes, which I very much did not, so now we'll have to make sure they didn't actually do anything.

Tomorrow morning I'll go back to the Apple store with a bag of electronics -- my tablet for the authenticator app, my previous phone and its charger in case we need to move a SIM card to get a 2FA code anyway (I was able to use the phone tonight if it's plugged in), and the inherited iPad just in case that's helpful for anything because why not? I just wish I knew the name of today's helpful person so I could ask for him again. (He never said and I hadn't asked. Oops.)

Gremlins. Why did it have to be gremlins?

cornerofmadness

Because seriously how damn bright do we need to make headlights these days? Coming into Steubenville on 7's tight and narrow lanes (in the rain) with my stretched retinas and astigmatism, my god, I was literally blinded to the point I wasn't sure where on the road I was.

But after a late start, I made it here. The neighbors are watching Rocket. The little shit bit me last night after grooming my arm, broke skin, left bruises. I'm going to really have to keep that clean.

I wish that I could have concentrated on one story as I drove. It was more like 12 hamsters going in different directions. Ah well

At least the rain held off for most of the trip.

Tired now and I want to write a little before bed. Finally getting time to sit down with the Mighty Nein and the season of Vox Machina I haven't seen yet.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Mighty Nein

days_unfolding

Got up a little after 7 AM. Went back to sleep after the dogs came in. Overslept. It's dark and gloomy out. Raining.

I'm quietly writing documentation for our new ticketing system at work. I like writing documentation because I used to do that as a living!

The snow is off of the roof of the garage!

I'm trying to decide whether to wear my Christmas sweatshirt and jeans for the flight out. Or for the Christmas Eve Loop expedition.

I don't know what to do about my snow boots for the trip. The snow will have melted before I leave, but I don't know about when I get back. I might have some ankle boots with a good tread on them.

For some reason, Oliver and Lily are picking at their food. They’re young, so I’m not so worried, but am wondering what’s going on. The dogs ate their food. Bella and Gracie are now fighting over the duck toy :) Hmm, I have new dish detergent, and I'm wondering if that's why Oliver and Lily aren't eating. It doesn't smell right?

I think that I’m going to give up on getting Christmas lights up and save them for next year. Too much is going on.

I'm wondering if I should try BritBox when I get back. On the other hand, I don't watch TV much and haven't made it through all of The Big Bang Theory yet. Maybe I should wait to catch up on my TV watching.

I need to figure out how to get from Michigan Avenue to the Loop in Chicago. I guess take it over the river and then head west? I'm got my Chicago friends on Facebook working on it.

Hmm. The weather forecasters are saying a "wintry mix". I wonder if I should skip the post office tonight. Yeah, it does look like a "wintry mix". Ugh.

Had a good session with my therapist. She thinks that I should contact a lawyer NOW to deal with the trust. I'm going to go through the info tonight and figure out how much money is missing between the last account balance I got and now. Spoiler alert: it's a lot. I'm going to contact some estate planning attorneys to whom I've talk to see if they know someone who would take my case. (She asked me if there was anything else, but I said, "Isn't that enough?" She laughed.)

Scrambled to get the stuff ready to mail. I'm still iffy about the weather, but I'll go out and see how it is.

Oliver must have seen my entry about wanting a lap cat because he's curled up on my lap right now.

I think that I will go to the Post Office on Saturday instead. I’m tired and hungry. And the beasts are hungry too. Fed us all. I think that I was right about the dish soap because I rinsed the cat dishes without soap, and Oliver and Lily chowed down. I need to get different dish soap for them. Preferably without a smell. Or let the dogs “clean” the dishes. They do a good job.

Zara is lying on the heat vent, so I need to get her new heated bed set up. It's getting warmer, but it also has memory foam in it. (I got the top of the line for my girl!)

I’ve got the new travel laptop open. It’s a rose-gold color and pretty. (It was the cheapest color, so I guess that others didn’t like it.) I’m cleaning the kitchen while it’s doing its update. I've got it set up. Did I say that it's a really, really nice laptop?

I was creating a grocery list while I waited for the laptop to finish updating, when I realized in a panic that I didn't get any wrapping paper for the gift exchange at work tomorrow. So I added a gift bag and tissue paper to the Walmart order, and expedited the order. BUT I FORGOT TO GET SODA! I'll have to submit another order.

Anyway, I'm going to post. (I'm still on the new laptop.) I'll go to sleep after the Walmart order gets here.

Added: I was wrong about the amount of money in the trust. It matched the last valuation. Good because I don't want to deal with it right now.

susandennis

Starting last night, Biggie has been so needy and pestering me all day. No naps. Just could not settle down. It was beginning to look like another instance of eating weird shit. Because of his bladder issues, he's been using the litter box often so I've been getting up and checking it every time. My knees are killing me.

I know he and Julio do not like the new food. And like it less with each meal. Finally this afternoon, Biggie just got up there by his plate and sat. And sat. And sat. I put out some more/fresh food and he just looked at it. Then I added some of the old stuff - the prescription stuff he got last year and they both started gobbling. I even mixed some of the hated stuff in and still gobbling. After they had had their fill, Biggie went in and pooped. It was tiny but it was a poop.

And they both went into the bedroom closet and are fast asleep. I sent a note to the vet hospital asking if the Purina was ok instead of the Royal Camin or Hills, she suggested and they replied quick as a wink, that it was fine. So. Whew. I'd still like to see a very big poop, tho. Just to be very sure.

And in other news... The power company reports as of 10 minutes ago that there are 3 active outages with 4,376 customers impacted and this is the map. I added the ME where my apartment is. I'm happy to report we have juice. Also that I am NOT taking it for granted. I have leftovers from last night for dinner and I think I'll nuke them now rather than wait and chance their being no nuke later.

yourlibrarian posting in

everykindofcraft

This month's post will be serving double duty as a community promo. I also run the

threeforthememories event, whose 2025 session will be open for posts on January 3, 2026 and will run for 3 weeks until January 24. Participant posts consist of 3 photos (only) you've taken of anything from 2025 that you find meaningful in some way or which represent how you experienced the year. These could be your crafting activities, or anything else you find relevant.

Questions? Visit the announcement post at

threeforthememories

This month's question involves the holidays. Do you normally do crafting over this period? Is it related to any holidays? Do you do craft gifting? And if so, what do you plan to gift this year?

susandennis

Several months ago, I decided to have Christian (the designer) help me figure out my closet. I could call the closet designer people but Christian can do that, too, and give them better guidance or not call them and do something else. He said he'd be glad to and I told him then that I was in no hurry. Then I heard nothing.

Then I studied the space and what I want to accomplish and figured out a scheme involving the storage area and my brother and some shelves that I bought from Amazon. To be completed in January when said brother comes to visit.

Then, Christian called last night. We had a good laugh about his guilt at waiting so long and that the only reason he got around to it now is that he has a new Timber Ridge client. So he's going to meet with them on January 2 and then swing by here for lunch and a closet consult.

I didn't mention that I had a plan cause I figure this is the perfect way to vet my ideas and if they suck, then we can talk Plan B. Plus lunch with Christian is always a hoot. So no harm and maybe extra good.

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mellicious

December 2025

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Catchy Name Needed

Looking for a name since 2003

Network

Story Index 2025

sleep/vaccines/stuff

Horses at night

Scripting

Fic in a Box recs!

(no subject)

Still no needy

Since I just had to dig this up:

Just a tad narrowing the recommendation there, Lee, dude?

(no subject)

Team Borg

mahi-mahi

So give me your eyes, I need sunshine

Just One Thing (19 December 2025

gremlins

Driving by Instinct

A Dark and Rainy Day

Biggie

December Check-In

Just when I think...

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December 2025

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