bladespark | Reading

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?

No. But 'summer camp' is not a thing here in Australia the way it seems to have been in the USA. There were camps, yes, but they were very directly related to school - a week is the longest that I remember and I was 12. After that, it was school excusions, yes, or band camps, and a couple of times Beach Mission (yes, literally, Christian mission in the middle of summer at a beach).

2. Have you ever made a s'more?

Yes! Back visiting some friends in upstate NY in the early 2000s when their sons were just born. Her family had a holiday house on a lake and we went and stayed there, and they taught me about making s'mores.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?

Possibly, depending on how you take it. I've slept on a wooden porch, huddled up with a bunch of other people. We were doing an "all nighter" purely for the sake of doing it. It wasn't fun.

Actually, wait yes, I have slept under the stars. At a 'B&S' (Bachelors' and Spinsters' ball) out west, in the tray of a utility truck. We'd tossed a bunch of mattresses in, and there were about a half-dozen of us all sprawled out to sleep after the ball. It wasn't terrible. We were young, and that makes a difference!

4. Have you ever had a member of the opposite sex sleep over at your house?

Only after I became an adult. House-sharing in Sydney means you have housemates who have all sorts of people staying over.

5. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?

Twin. I had a queen-size at our last house (and had a queen-size pretty much since I was 24) but when we moved out into this place, there wasn't space for a queen-sized bed, so I downsized to an IKEA twin with an under-bed storage space. And, as it turns out, the queen-mattress fitted sheets fit on the twin-size when you have a super-thick mattress.

cornerofmadness

Thought another writing prompt would fit the bill.

I was gone most of the day. I did work on my

intoabar story, got about 870 words. Had hoped to put it out of its misery but no such luck.

If I've missed you on the tally let me know. Feel free to jump in at any time.

Day five-

cornerofmadness,

badly_knitted,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

goddess47,

cmk418,

carenejeans,

goddess47,

nafs,

china_shop,

brithistorian,

( other days )

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Midsomer Murder

cornerofmadness

The day was broken up into car maintenance, casino time and a webinar for data literacy by the Howard's Hughes Medical Institute. Two were boring but necessary.

The casino however, was better than expected. At first I was losing like there was a hole in my pocket. Finally found the Lucky 8 machine that I liked last time, every 8th spin it gives you all the wilds you hit in the previous 7 wins. I do good on these and made back the 60 I lost and got to 10 over. Mom was 100 over. We decided to go home and while I was waiting on mom who was in the restroom I found the haunted house machine. I love this older machine at my casino. Two spins, hit the bonus, won another 50$. whee. Would have won more but this machine is SO old that the bonus touch screen was dead and I couldn't select half the offerings. Ah well.

I think I recced some of these communities before.

fancake - a thematic multifandom recommendation community.

fan_flashworks - Multimedia, Multifandom Flash Challenges

drabble_zone - A community for people who enjoy writing 100 word drabbles.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: The Librarians

leiacat

One more successful Balticon under my belt.

( details )

alexcat

Fandom 50

Kind of late for a first entry but here is one.

Has fandom changed or have I?

I was never in a fandom until the 2000’s. I did not know what a ‘zine was. I did not know what a con was. I never heard of fanfiction. I was a Star Wars fan from way back.

I got into the LOTR fandom right after the first movie came out. It was quite hostile, to be honest. There were wars between character writers and real person writers, between shippers of different pairings, between hetters and slashers. It was ugly. There was gatekeeping then, too.

I decided early on that I came into this not to fight but to enjoy and I did. I had my own website and ran a Yahoo group that hosted at least 100 stories a week in its heyday. I welcomed all. It wasn’t perfect but it was good.

Is today different?

I think so. I think we have a reflection of our divisive society in fandom. There are things we’re not ‘allowed’ to write now because they might upset someone. There are people who want to police Ao3 to make sure it doesn’t hurt their feelings and that it does reflect their ‘moral’ codes. An example is someone once complained because characters were eating meat and I did not warn for it.

Ao3 was born to combat gatekeeping and censorship in fandom. Other sites caved. Fanfic dot com made their site completely shite when they kicked all the adult stories out. I never bothered with them again. Livejournal was sold once then again to some Russian oligarch who decided to purge all adult anything, because there were rumblings of kiddie porn, and by that, I mean stories with underage fictional characters. Ao3 was born out of frustration over these events and others like them.

So what do you do about these things?

As of today, we do still have freedom of speech here in the US, where Ao3 is based. I say let people write what they will, as long as they are not inciting specific violence. Writers write violence, rape, child abuse out of a need for catharsis many times. Or maybe they are angry and rather than take it out on a real person, they write something violent. Let it be. We write for our own reasons and we don’t owe any explanations of those to anyone.

Oddly enough, the young seem to be the ones who want to gatekeep. Life is hard, kids. If you don’t want to read certain kinds of fiction, then DON’T CLICK ON IT. It’s that simple.

Fandom has changed but not that much. There will always be those who want more rules and to control others. That’s life. We must guard against that and keep fandom and fans free to express themselves.

*Crossposted at

fandom50challenge

rionaleonhart

My gaming partner Tem has been away for a few days, so I've been taking an enforced break from ludicrous child soldier simulator The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy.

I was itching for something else to play in the meantime, so I've picked up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I'm having a really good time with it!

The central concept of Clair Obscur is so interesting. This is the main reason I took an interest in this game; I looked up the central premise and went, 'Huh, that's really unusual and fascinating.' The fact that a lot of people I follow on Dreamwidth are playing and enjoying it definitely helped to recommend it! But just learning the premise was the first thing that tempted me to play this game.

I'll pop the premise behind a short cut, just in case anyone wants to go into this game knowing nothing at all. This cut only contains the basic concept of the game; there's a more spoilery cut further down the post.

( The premise of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. )

I was a little nervous about the battle system, but I'm enjoying it! It's challenging - more than once I've had my party wiped out during a regular enemy encounter - but I'm having fun. I tend not to like games that really expect you to be able to parry with precise timing, but it turns out that's a demand I'm a lot more comfortable with in a turn-based battle system; I only have to focus on parrying during the enemy's turn, rather than having to worry about it all the time.

The scenery is gorgeous. I love how weird and dreamlike the landscapes are. Incredible soundtrack, too.

Major spoilers below the cut! I've just reached the Forgotten Battlefield.

( Spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. )

As a final note: Clair Obscur is perhaps the Frenchest game I've ever played, which is saying something, given that I've played Assassin's Creed: Unity.

cornerofmadness

Another big day of editing. I got a chapter ready for my online writers critique group. I managed to get 750 words into my

intoabar story. It wasn’t easy. I have the exact same prompt as last year which was a lot of fun last time. The Owl House/Hazbin Hotel crossover was surprisingly popular and I was happy to repeat it until I remembered how I struggled last year too. I got Niffty for the Hazbin crew. I am not great at writing her and to be honest, she’s not really a well developed character but also not a blank slate either.

Speaking of blank slates, I’m onto the Arackniss story of my Yahtzee attempt for

getyourwordsout, got 560 words in so all in all a good writing day.

If I've missed you on the tally let me know. Feel free to jump in at any time.

Day four-

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

badly_knitted,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

goddess47,

ysilme,

cmk418,

nafs,

carenejeans,

yasaman,

( other days )

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: The Night House

cornerofmadness

I was thinking about real life experiences that would NOT make believable characters (cause I'm living with it right now)

For example this home HOW much money do you need to get your curtains to be an exact match to your wallpaper? Someone needs this in a story. Surely this is the beginnings of a haunted house

What I Just Finished Reading:

Under This Red Rock - Mindy McGinnis - it didn't end like I thought it would so I was happy. Still this is a heavy book

The Smoke in His Voice - good story lost in the world's worst grammar/sentence structure. the editing is absolutely rubbish.

What I am Currently Reading:

The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan PI mystery and it is very good so far.

West By God - horror

Anima rising - a good reads Frankenstein retelling giveaway win but also real person fanfic of Klimt and others and so far it's not great.

What I Plan to Read Next: Something for the popsugar challenge probably or one of the books I won from Goodreads

Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: Resident Alien

duskpeterson

The royal sactuary is arguably the most important chamber in the palace. It is here that, in former times, a sanctuarian priest held daily rituals designed to uplift the spirits of worshippers and – I am sorry to say – crush the spirits of slaves. The Emorians, rightly appalled by the Koretians' treatment of their slaves, built part of their new palace over the burning ground just outside the courtyard, which lay within easy sight of the sanctuary.

Despite its despicable misdeeds of the past, Koretia's priesthood has survived to the present day. The Jackal, who is also High Priest of Koretia, holds annual services to honor the slaves who served and died in Koretia; these services are often attended by the few slaves who survived their treatment. Some of these slaves remain dead in mind but come willingly to this service, drawn here by the Jackal, who is the god of death and who therefore watches over their spirits in the Land Beyond. To witness these dead-in-mind men and women gather around the Jackal is a deeply moving experience - a living monument to the Koretian belief that the gods can transform evil into good.

The royal sanctuary was desecrated at the time of the Emorian invasion of 961; the sanctuary was used to stable horses in the years that followed. After the Emorians withdrew from Koretia in 976, the chamber remained empty for many years. In 987, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the liberation of Koretia's slaves by the Emorians, the chamber was rededicated under the name of the Royal Sanctuary of the Living Dead. It is now a memorial to the suffering of Koretia's former slaves.

Conveniently for visitors, the royal sanctuary can be visited separately from the rest of the palace. The sanctuary now has its own entrance, unconnected to the royal residence or any other portion of the Koretian palace.

[Translator's note: The Royal Sanctuary plays a dramatic role in Death Mask.]

lovelyangel

MISAMO Japan Dome Tour 2024 “Haute Couture” Blu-ray box set

DHL today delivered the package from CDJapan on the actual release date of the MISAMO Japan Dome Tour 2024 “Haute Couture” Blu-ray box set. The box set came with a 40-page color photo booklet and 12 photo trading cards (3 Mina, 3 Sana, 3 Momo, 3 group). I guess I know what I’ll be watching in bed tonight.

frith

Still trying to get the drawings flowing. I keep stalling. This prompt is for "on the move" and "walking the walk".

cornerofmadness

Never thought of it that way but it's a great way of looking at it.

So how it is going? Day three was all about editing for me. I got my original short in shape enough for the beta reader to look at it.

If I've missed you on the tally let me know.

Day three-

china_shop,

shadaras,

carenejeans,

cornerofmadness,

luzula,

goddess47,

badly_knitted,

sylvanwitch,

cmk418,

nafs,

yasaman,

brithistorian,

trobadora,

ysilme,

( other days )

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Svengoolie

cornerofmadness

I was interviewed by Kandisha Press who features women horror authors. It was fun.

I was left in Costco barely supervised. Dear credit card, we're sorry.

I've been meaning to do this, Pride month recs. Check out

duckprintspress. They have SO much good stuff (including a reading challenge on storygraph.

It was 60 degrees yesterday. 90 today. I am not amused.

And for fannish 50, I'm continuing with the ladies of fandom. Hazbin Hotel has a lot of ladies (maybe even more than the men, actually no I think it is more). However, a lot of them aren't that well developed (yet), Sera, Emily, Lute, Lilith, Rosie, Velvette, Cherri and Carmilla would be the major secondary characters, most only appearing in an episode or two. Rosie is one of my favorites but she is pretty much a blank slate.

That leaves me with the main three, Charlie, Vaggie and Niffty. While Niffty is good comic relief but again there isn't much to her. Vaggie and Charlie are the best developed of the ladies and I am going with Charlie for this.

Charlie is a great character really. She is the eternal optimist but she's also painfully naive and pretty damn clueless. She means well but doesn't have the tools to necessarily do well. She is about the only person who believes that hell is meant to help rehabilitate the sinners and send them to heaven. Finally after being out of touch with her mother for several years, and having zero support from Lucifer, Charlie opens up one of his rundown properties, the Happy hotel, to start trying to redeem sinners.

When she finally gets two sinners to try and redeem, it's obvious Charlie is in over her head. She doesn't understand people. She concocts a lesson plan that villainizes everything that makes Angel Dust Angel, praises Pentious for embracing the role play while totally missing the pain on Angel's face.

But she can learn. She realizes the mistake she made in trying to help Angel with Valentino only we do wish she had corrected that mistake more violently (but then we'd not have Valentino down the road and we couldn't have that). She is forgiving (of her father, of Vaggie) and she is capable of violence when necessary (while apologizing for it). She fights for those she loves and she fights hard and that's what I love best about her (I wish she were easier to write for me)

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Resident Alien

lovelyangel

Coco from Witch Hat Atelier
1/8 scale figurine by Kotobukiya

Yesterday my Coco Figurine from Witch Hat Atelier arrived from CDJapan. I’m glad Kotobukiya issued a re-release of this sculpture as I had missed it the first time around. The sculpture is about 8.5" tall and is nicely detailed. I’m pretty happy to have this in my collection.

tielan

Remember the days in ye aulde fandom when someone would just stop talking to you and you never worked out why?

Ghosting, before it became common.

--

Just put in my expense requests for the start of May.

--

Hockey training has been cancelled because we don't have a coach, and we don't have a game on Sunday (long weekend in Australia: the King's birthday). I'm trying to get people over to the local club for dinner and drinks but...it's always a bit tricksy. Just me and a couple of other women, I think.

cornerofmadness

Thought I'd toss a little writing prompt out there this time

So how it is going? Day two went well for me about 1600 words on my wipbigbang

If I've missed you on the tally let me know.

Day One -

cornerofmadness,

china_shop,

badly_knitted,

sylvanwitch,

goddess47,

trobadora,

shadaras,

cmk418,

nafs,

sanguinity,

yasaman,

ysilme,

carenejeans,

luzula

Day Two

cornerofmadness,

china_shop,

goddess47,

badly_knitted,

sylvanwitch,

cmk418,

trobadora,

ysilme,

carenejeans,

sanguinity,

yasaman,

shadaras

Day three-

china_shop,

shadaras

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: The Haunted Strangler

cornerofmadness

allbingo is having a pride month theme this month

Bisexual / biromantic	Name	Comfort	Polysexual / polyromantic
Demisexual	Friendship	Lesbian	Queer
Pansexual / panromantic	Genderqueer	Hope	Genderfluid
Drag	Love	Nonbinary	Twink

Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Murder She Wrote

the_siobhan

Workmen arrived at 9:00 this morning to install three (3) doors and finish off the framing of one (1) window. Ostensibly less than a day of work for two people.

Lords, ladies, and gentlethems, it is now 9:30 PM and they just left and only one door and the window are finished. Original Contractor did something funky with the framing of the doorways and nothing is squared properly and so they have to buy some more materials and come back later in the week to finish fixing it.

There was shouting. In Polish I think. They are very clearly not impressed with Original Contractor.

Any vindication I might have felt that Original Contractor was in fact just making it up as he went along is somewhat overshadowed that I have to pay tradie's rates for a second day of work.

cornerofmadness

I woke up out of a weird dream today. I was at a spa and having a treatment on my feet. But instead of those little fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet, they were using a huge pool and crayfish to do the gnawing of dead flesh. As I was debating if I wanted to try it, the proprietor promised an even better, more special treatment and proceeded to cut off his foot at the ankle and floated that in the water. I was too dumbstruck to do anything. Then he cut off his other foot and the feet of a few other people. I woke up before they could dump me in the foot pool. Why brain?!?

It's music monday. I'm doing the alphabet again picking songs of the 2020s. I'm up to I. Feel free to share your I songs.

( I have more I's than I thought I would )

Current Mood: grumpy
Current Music: Resident Alien

sylvanwitch

Greetings from the first week of June! I'm not sure where the time has gone, but we've just cross the year's halfway mark.

How does your progress look from here? Can you look back to see how far you've come? Did you expect to be closer to your goal, or are you pleasantly surprised? What unexpected events changed the pace of your progress?

Please know that you're welcome to ignore all of those questions and simply check in for the week. I've just gotten philosophical in my middle age. ;-)

( My Week in Review )

Here's hoping you have the weather that's best for your body wherever you are in the world this week!

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Aidan Rhiannon

S. Park Costuming

February 2025

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Aidan Rhiannon

Reading

Friday Five - oh why not

Write Every Day - Day 6

Winner Winner

Balticon report

#1 - Has fandom changed?

We Continue.

Write Every Day - Day 5

that Wednesday book thing

FIC: The Royal Sanctuary: historical background (Tempestuous Tours)

MISAMO at the Tokyo Dome

NATG XV, Moving It

Write Every Day Day 4

This is very cool

Coco!

stuff

Write Every Day Day 3

June's Bingo

one must imagine Sisyphus happy

Why brain?

Fitness Fellowship 2025: Check-in 22

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February 2025

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