During the last wet Winter, 2023, Wildcat Canyon Drive down the east side of the hills from Inspiration Point, washed out near the bottom, and only just reopened about a month ago. This makes birding in Briones easier to get to, and today I went out there for the first time. My excuse was that there are three ponds I wanted to check for wildlife (there wasn't any) so I parked outside the western boundary of Briones Regional Park and walked up the western edge as as far as the second pond. Mud plus cattle plus a couple of weeks of drying out means very choppy ground, and while I've seen worse there, it was slow going for not much reward. When I first walked north there were half a dozen Red-winged Blackbirds singing and displaying in the tall, dead weeds; when I returned half an hour later there were none. I have no idea. But it was beautiful oak woodland, if quiet. ( A list: )

I took a break in the car before crossing Bear Creek Road to the EBMUD Connector Trail to Bear Creek Staging Area. I've always liked that little piece of trial, and I've only once met another person there, a definite advantage. That trail wasn't a great deal birdier but a little different, including a male Purple Finch sitting quietly in the fork of a slender tree. The trail leads under trees before opening onto a grassy hillside similar to the first trail, but no cattle chop. I walked up to check the third pond, nothing, and then went as far as the crest of a steep bit of trail down to the Staging Area before turning back. It was very lovely and a flock of of Lesser Goldfinches and Ruby-crowned Kinglets were bouncing. There was even water in, presumably, Bear Creek, or at least a tributary thereof. ( Another list: )

I love Winter birding, but this trail has been wonderful in the Spring.

Fandom: Star Trek
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/Spock
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 4188 words over 2 stories
Creator Links: almondrose at ao3
Theme: Crack Treated Seriously

Summary: "an AU where the enterprise is a VSA ship filled with vulcans"

Reccer's Notes: This short series (two stories, "logical" and "illogical") is one of my favorite pick-me-ups. Captain Skirk of the VSA's exasperation with his CMO's insistence that Spock is human slays me, as does said CMO's reaction to encountering his alternate-universe human self.

Fanwork Links: vulcanterprise

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Saturday to midnight on Sunday (8pm Eastern Time).





Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

Recently Finished
The Grapples of Wrath
New book in the Grave Expectation series! I had no idea this was coming out until very recently so it was a nice surprise. Still enjoying the series.

A Poison at Castle Gloaming
Second in the Jemima Flowerday mystery series. Enjoying this one as well.

Blackmail, My Love
Stand-alone mystery set in the early '50s with a queer woman investigating the disappearance of her (also queer) brother. I enjoyed this but didn't love it. Kind of slow-paced for a lot of it.

A High Five for Glenn Burke
Sweet middle-grade book about a boy who does a report in class about Glenn Burke, the baseball player who invented the high five, but is afraid that people will find out the other reason he likes Burke so much: that he was gay just like the MC.

Banned Book Club
Graphic novel about college student activists in South Korea in the '80s. This is not a period I had any background knowledge of so it was really interesting. I'm definitely interested in learning more.

The Great British Bump Off:-Kill or Be Quilt
New John Allison comic! I had no idea about this but it suddenly showed up on Hoopla. Although it shares the title with a previous comic from a couple years ago, it's not connected at all except by the main character (who is also a character from his Bad Machinery series). I love pretty much everything by him, and this was no exception. Very silly and cute.

Sakura, Saku vol. 9
I don't think I would have followed this series to the end of it hadn't been on Viz Manga, which I already subscribe to. It's cute enough, but started to feel annoying with the hurdles introduced. This was a decent ending to the series, though.

The latest threesentenceficathon - one of my favorite fandom events - has been live for a week, and will be open to new prompts until February 15.

I've written a few ficlets for The Magnus Archives and Stranger Things, and will post a roundup once the event wraps up.

I've also left prompts for several of my fandoms, including obscure ones like The Hypnotists, because hope springs eternal.

So I had hoped, again, to get more posts out but alas my brain has been too sidetracked which is annoying. (Maybe I’ll have another up before the night’s up but we’ll see, more likely tomorrow)

Monday ended up being annoying cause of mum’s firmed coming, which meant I ended up going to town to put money in the bank. On the plus side it meant I got a Will figure from Morrisons (it was the last one and discounted) but still no stickers or the b and m stuff I was hoping to get. But b and m did have some of the new Lego poly bags and I did get some stuff from Iceland.

Then I came home and of course she wants more stuff which.. Ugh. I hate that she’s like this. Then the next day some of the stuff came and one was a plant that was real (she expected it to be artificial, despite its description clearly saying it was live) and she called wanting to send it back then called again saying she changed her mind which… ughh.

Also speaking of stuff coming neither of the things I won have arrived. I sent one a message asking if it had been sent but haven’t heard a reply yet. I fear it has ended up somewhere else, but as I’ve no idea and I dont like the idea of going around chasing it up with no idea where it could be.

But fast forward through the week (cause it was largely low energy) and we get to yesterday.

I ended up going to town to see Return To Silent Hill. I didn’t do much in town itself, I checked for stickers (nope), got a drink and a Disney book partwork, then the fantastic 4 comic and meal deal from Tesco (cause I had £10 credit to use).

When I got to the cinema the guy at the counter instantly knew I was coming for Silent Hill before I said it which was funny. He’s nice I’ve seen him before and I got to talking how I came then cause it was one of the two day showings they had (Monday is the other) and how I wanted to avoid late night ones, despite planning to come on Friday next week for teo late films. (Please weather don’t be cold like planned.

I had considered going for another film but there wasn’t anything I wanted to see that wasn’t clashing (I considered No Other Choice but doubted I’d have the focus).

Trailers
Obsession: Less a trailer, more a scene of a guy on a phone. It seems like regular customer service until he starts talking about a wish and if it was real love that he’d wished someone to love him. Not sure what to make of it from that alone though
Scream 7: A new trailer for me, but I kinda lost focus on scream after hearing how two of the actresses were treated. It looks like it could be good but I dunno.
Whistle: One I’ve seen before and it looks pretty good I might see it
Cold Storage: my beloved, I really am so hyped for this. Like honestly it’s the film I’m second most excited for (which says a lot considering it’s a Star Wars year)
Send Help: felt like a new version of the trailer, not sure if I’ll see it, we’ll see
Primate: one of those trailers that’s like ‘we put cameras on a crowd to see how they reacted’ trailers. I’m still eh about it though.

Anyway onto Return To Silent Hill.

( Read more... )

Next cinema trip should (hopefully) be Friday for Another World and Iron Lung.

Speaking of films there’s a trailer for Masters Of The Universe and I’m really into it. Like I’ve never seen He Man or anything but it has convinced me to check it out. It has a bit of a guardians vibe to it. And yeah hit guy in a skimpy outfit is always a plus.

When I got home the new SFX was here (a surprise it’s not out till next week) but ah! It feels very relevent to my interests cause there’s several articles one after another that goes: Cold Storage, Ghost Watch, The War Between The Land And The Sea, Stranger Things. So I looking forward to reading those things. (And also the Hawkins Horrors book came cause I ordered it with stuff mum wanted to get an offer. I hope my ability to book read returns from the war.)

Last night was the Traitors finale and ahhh. I’m not gonna say more but I fully expected it to go differently especially after Thursday’s round table. (It’s so funny they didn’t have to use that tie break thing before and this season they used it twice after first using it in the celeb one)

Today I decided to finish off the Doctor Who boxset by watching The Seeds Of Doom.

( Read more... )

Now I’m finishing The Masked singer (the wrong person was unmasked damnit), then will watch the next Seven Dials and the Seeds Of Doom special features (and maybe other stuff).

⌈ Secret Post #6959 ⌋

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


01.



( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 45 secrets from Secret Submission Post #994.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

I watched the new Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery, and then reread the book, as I had only a slight recollection of it. The visual design and costumes charmed me, but I was baffled by adaptation choices. Then I watched The Residence, which was much better, and visually lovely as well, as expected from Shondaland.

I stopped reading the works of Freeman Wills Crofts - I read all I could find, but there are more that I haven't yet. The guy was quite prolific. Then I finally got around to reading John Dickson Carr's The Hollow Man, the last book I hadn't read on the bookclub list in Wake Up Dead Man. It was... okay. It did not revise my previously unfavorable opinion of JDC as a mystery writer. It's a fun enough and okay read, but it's not satisfying and the tone and style are... weird. I suppose if I want to articulate this better I'll have to read more of his work.

Anyway, I've been reading some other random early mystery novels since then - AEW Mason (pretty good but some Of Its Time issues), GDH Cole (the majority of the narration is by silly characters whose cluelessness the reader is presumably meant to see through, a narrative technique which makes me gnash my teeth), JJ Connington (better but loses major points for extended scenes of a dumb detective being dumb and his smarter boss being even smugger and more secretive about everything than Sherlock Holmes).

I also have experienced a change of heart, not about the NHL - it's still evil and its culture is toxic and most NHL hockey players suck - but about posting the unfinished hockey WIP with all the names changed. I didn't want to do that from 2016 until like, this month, but now I think I would be okay with it, provided I did finish it (I like the bit I have anyway). I can't at all explain why this feeling changed, though. But clearly we've all been able to process quite a bit about the nature of fanfiction with the names changed since the release of Heated Rivalry.

I keep thinking I want to write something about one of these things, but shingles is making it uncomfortable to sit up with the laptop and type and I keep going, "Fuck it, I have a moderately horrible ailment anyway right now, so lying down and resting is virtuous", and crawling into the flannel duvet tent against the radiator with Sipuli. It's nice in there. In fact at times it's so toasty that I forget it's chilly out in the rest of the house.

maia asked: Compare and contrast the US right now and Germany in the 1930s.

Welll, that's the 1 billion question, isn't it. (Literary so, given that the Orange Felon wants to have this sum of money from any fellow autocrat so they can join his "board of peace".

Now: being German, I instinctively shy away from invoking Godwin's law, so I'll start at the outset by declaring that no, I don't think the Orange One is Hitler 2.0, or that ICE are the Gestapo. (The SA during the late Weimar Republic might be a better comparison, as in, paramlitary units lustily doing their best to create and exude violence in the cities so that the dear leader can declare only he can restore order.) Also, I wish we'd have had as many demonstrations against our newly authoritarian government in, say, 1933-1935 as there are in the US right now, instead of, well, none. Individual acts of resistance, sure. Also the SPD being the sole party speaking out against the Ermächtigungsgesetz after the Reichstag burning. (Don't remind me that our current bunch of Neonazis wants to inhabit the very room named after the brave SPD guy who spoke against Hitler on that occasion in 1933.) But no equivalent to the "No Kings" demonstrations, or the current ones in the bitter cold of Minnesota, not until it's the 1940s and the women married to some of the last free Jews in Berlin actually demonstrate in front of Gestapo headquarters when their men get rounded up. I respect and admire the hell out of these women, but given the reaction by Goebbels & Co., who really didn't know how to handle this, I can't help but which these kind of demonstrations had happened in 1933 already, when the ostracisation and taking away of civil rights of everyone's neiighbours started.

Anyway: where I do see parallels is the way rich industrialists paved the way and/or quickly fell in line and profit from the autoritarian government that came to power legally and then promptly started to destroy the republic it was supposed to govern from the inside, and the way huge swaths of the media of the day even before complete state control lis established cleave to the new Overlords. And on the other side of the political spectrum, I see a parallel in the tendency of the left and/or liberal parties to attack each other instead of allying against the authoritarians. (This would be the early 1930s pre 1933.) Now this is hardly unique to the 1930s; a friend of mine who is in his late 80s and actually is a member of the SPD, our traditional centre-left party, said you can always rely on the left to attack each other with more vehemence than anyone else to the profit of their opponents.) Seriously, in the late Weimar Republic the Communists might have had their streetfights with the Nazis, but they kept declaring the SPD was the true enemy, and never mind the communists, your avarage progressive journalist was far more likely to attack and complain moderate or left leaning politicians than the Nazis. (Famously, journalistic icon Karl Kraus declared this was because "nothing about the Nazis inspires my imagination" ("Zu den Nazis fällt mir nichts ein"). Thanks, Kraus.) I'm not saying Democrats should be above criticism, absolutely not, but honestly, I have no time at all for the type of purist who declared they couldn't vote for Kamala Harris (or Hilary Clinton before her) because "Republicans and Democrats are the same anyway" or other arguments along that line. They knew what was at stake, just as anyone paying attention back in the Weimar Republic day did.


Of course, the Orange Menace has been far more open about his grifter status and his unending greed than the Nazis back in the day, but that's because of the difference in eras and societies; financial shakedowns and mafia tactics are getting admiration from huge parts of US society, it seems, whereas the Nazs while being no less interested in robbery by state (some were a bit more blatant about it like Goering, but it really was practised on every level, starting, of course, with forcing German Jews to "sell" their property for ricidiculous little sums) felt the need to dress it up far more, not least because part of Hitler's image included priding himself on "asceticism" and "living for the people". But they - and pretty much every populist/authoritarian system not just in the 1930s - use the same basic structure in their rethoric which unfortunately keeps working through the decades (centuries?).

1) You, the audience, are the best, you're perfect, anyone who wants you to change or adjust is an evil tyrant.

2.) But evidently your life isn't perfect. This is the fault of THEM. (Never, ever, is it the slightest bit your responsibility.) THEY are a mixture of external bogeymen and within-the-society scapegoat. THEY have absolutely no redeeming features and so you don't have to consider talking or negotiating or what not - THEY just deserve to be squashed. Punishing THEM will also magically solve whatever problems your society currently has.

3.) Of course, the squashing and punishing of THEM cannot be done with those lame old laws already existing. On the contrary, these have to be gotten rid off. Any attempt to restrain the punishment and squashing of THEM is clearly treason anyway.

4.) The glorious movement you, you wonderful person, are now a part of is led by the best leader ever. If he doesn't deliver all you want from him immediately, well, he's punishing both the weak traitors and the evil brutes for you, and isn't that the best part anyway?


Meanwhile, any half way responsible take on political situation basically has to start with "it's complicated", analyze and use "maybe it's this way, but maybe there are also other factors" type of qualifications, and any policy of a democratic government is by nature of the government a compromise. Meaning you always leave some disappointment in your electorate. And in an age with an ever shorter attention span, where the majority of people are not bothering with reading or listening to longer explanations anymore and just want short and punchy reassurances, this is possibly more dangerous a fertile ground for the transition of a Republic to a totalitarian state than Germany of the early 1930s was.

Not least because Germany, not as the Kaiserreich nor as the Weimar Republic nor even as the Third Reich, was ever the most powerful state of the world, with the largest miilitary and economic might. The fact the US won't be this for much longer anymore if things continue the way they are going isn't a comfort, because then it will be China.) It did a lot of damage when ruled by evil people anyway. But it had at no point the type of power the US has right now. This is not a comforting thought, either.

Lastly: in school, we were taught that a problem the Weimar Republic had was that there weren't enough republicans with a small r in it, that the Empire had conditioned its subjects to a strictly hiearchical society, that as opposed to England Germany hadn't had a centuries long transitonary period between absolutism and parliamentary rule, let a centuries of a Republic with the resulting self-understanding the way the uS has. On the one hand, I am a bit more sceptical on tha last part now. I mean, I always knew that The West Wing wasn't reality tv, but I didn't think The Handmaid's Tale was, either. Especially with the Nixon precedence, where the Republicans did turn against their blatantly caught at wrong doing President instead of removing their spine and denying he could have possibly done something wrong, I did believe the whole checks and balance thing I had learned about in school did work. For enlightened self interest reasons if not for moral reasons, because who would want their career to depend on the whim of a despot with more self control than a toddler? But no. On the other hand, see above. I only wish we would have had so much visible protest and opposition to horrible injustices in the 1930s as I see every day happening in the US. The Weimar Republic ceased to be within three months of Hitler becoming Chancellor, basically. By autumn, the transformation into hardcore dictatorship was complete. Whereas the US is still a Republic. If you can keep it.

The other days

I got great mail yesterday, a parcel from turlough.

Thank you so much for the birthday present, Turlough. I'll keep it safe, and unopened, until my actual birthday, that way I know I'll have a lovely surprise to open. Though, I must admit, I was tempted to open it right now. You're the best ♥

Other than that it was a busy day as we went off and stocked James' unit at the craft shop, and very nice it looks too. He's between a sea glass unit and one that seems to sell a mixture of things, so the wood stands out nicely. I'm still not sure how profitable it's going to be, but the ladies running the shop are lovely and didn't charge for this last week of Jan, which was good of them. If you want to see, I've uploaded a photo here

Then, after stocking the unit we first, took Megan -- Kayleigh's cat -- to the vet and then went to pick Bodhi up from school as Kayleigh and Lucy were having a cinema and meal out day date. Bodhi was just as fun, and four going on fourteenish as usual. She wanted to give me some presents, including, a piece of paper to cut, four toy dragons, one of Kayleigh's bras and a Stitch hat. When I told her that it wouldn't fit my head she told me it had a thing at the back that made the hat bigger and how did I not know that as grown-ups are supposed to know everything. So, consider me told yet again. And also wonder when I'll become this magical grown up that does know everything.

Then later, it was The Traitors final episode which I'd been looking forward to so much. That show though, it had me on the end of my seat a few times thinking something was going to happen that didn't. But I was happy with the ending.

Today was a cinema day and as James had a Wagamama gift voucher, we went there for dinner. I had the silken tofu firecracker curry, and every bite teetered on the edge of being too hot. Which was my fault, as I did see the name. But still, it was tasty despite it making my nose run.

We'd gone to see Mercy which has been getting some bad reviews but despite being ridiculous in places, still kept me in suspense all the way through. I especially liked the concept of the film being the same time length of the trial on-screen, as the countdown was shown often, making it easy to work out when to dash out for a toilet break.

So I posted my Star Trek fic: Maybe He's Born With It (Maybe It's GlaxosEpsilonYor)!!

Going by file dates I started that one in 2020, so compared to all my other wips, it was relatively new. It took a lot of writing to finish because when I started it was really just a couple of paragraphs and then five handwritten pages. I quickly had a first draft, but it needed a lot of editing to connect the themes and refine Jim's voice. It's at the very start of his career as a captain and he's still a hot bro-y mess, and even though I found myself resisting his self-centeredness, I needed his actions to reflect that selfishness, and I think I hit a good balance of bro and personal growth. He can be taught! Spock, of course, is perfect. No notes.

Next up in my endless list of neglected WIPs: It should be my Pinto fic—which, as I recall, is all but done except for the last lines, fuck you, last lines—but instead, it's the G-rated Stargate Atlantis kink_bingo non-sexual knifeplay fic about an extinct Satedan fruit. I gotta be me.

Looks like I last opened this in 2011 and it's basically complete. Let's gooooo.

Time to look back on 2025 with a focus on iconmaking, to draw some conclusions, and get some feedback! \o/

1) ICON PROGRESSION

Tell us what icons you made last year, select the best/the most extraordinary/the most representative, and tell us about them.

Tell us about your progress, your fandoms, your ideas and techniques. What changed over the course of the year?

If you want, you can make resolutions about your iconmaking: what you would like to do this year, techniques you want to try, goals you want to achieve - for resolutions, also see bestof_icons below.

There are quite a few progression posts made by our members in previous years, where you can look for ideas how to go about it:

=> https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/tag/progression+post

( more examples and layout code links )

* You can post your progression/resolution posts as new posts directly to this comm, use the tag "progression post"
* If you post(ed) a progression post to your journal, you can make a new post here and link to your journal
* If you have more than 5 icons in your post, put them under a cut
* Note: you must be a member of this community to be able to post

Deadline: any time you want! These things take time. Post them to the community any time you like!

2) BESTOF_ICONS

bestof_icons is here again, too. Voting is not open yet, but you can make:

Remakes

Resolutions

3) ICON FEEDBACK/CONCRIT

When this comm was new, there was a concrit/feedback thread on every post, but it wasn't used by many people, so I stopped making them. In case you do miss getting feedback on your icons, there's a concrit/feedback thread in this post again!

Plus, there's a relatively new comm where you can request concrit: iconcrit

Have fun, and be nice!

p.s.

If you'd rather participate in a challenge this month, check out our List of current active iconmaking communities. It's a sticky post at the top of this comm, and you can also find a link to it in the comm's sidebar. I update this list about once a month. You're always welcome to let me know if there are new comms I should add to it.

Wow, we got a huge rainbow from 11 makers! \o/

If you want to snag all the boxes, here are the links:

7 rainbow mystery boxes

The randomizer (and people's preferences) were not actually very fairly distributed. *g* The highest numbers (5-7) were for b/w, orange, red, and purple. There was only one person who got a blue box, and not a single yellow one. Now you can enjoy them all!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/pq0zmjruspedxb0/icontalking_box_purple.zip
https://www.mediafire.com/file/f6cjhgec4ikffq7/icontalking_box_red.zip
https://www.mediafire.com/file/gsyv6s42gbm9cva/icontalking_box_orange.zip
https://www.mediafire.com/file/f7rf6nxb64u7veb/icontalking_box_yellow.zip
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ey2y4uue71vdnav/icontalking_box_green.zip
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5c7j5fharj9kg4k/icontalking_box_blue.zip
https://www.mediafire.com/file/t4ed5x90fdsju33/icontalking_box_bw.zip

( and here's our rainbowy result: 62 icons by 11 makers )
Feel free to comment here or on each maker's threads linked next to their name.

Our next activity will be the yearly roundup/review activity, and it'll be coming right up.