mtbc | Network

Welp, Star Fleet: Academy is really enjoyable, and by episode 4 really digs its teeth into the Trek of it all. I can at least say that at this moment. Wonder Man, also quite worth a watch. The new Bridgerton, I have some quibbles with (where is Sophie's bag, why is Eloise still like that, elements of how their going with Franchesca who is the lead in my favorite book of the series), but I always like a Cinderella story. Having as it happens written several.

Turn of the Gorram Worm, which is Cinderella in Firefly(ish - its AU and its the verse not the characters) where every character is from a variation on the Cinderella story, including the male lead.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/295668

Also a Sith Cinderella in Star Princesses of Long Ago and Far Away

https://archiveofourown.org/works/591582

In other good news, I'll be retiring early as a result of inheriting enough money from my father to have exceeded my retirement goal. Thank you dad, your planning, and the very excellent County pension that you had for 30+ years. I've told work and will be working for the next month and a half to give them a soft landing. To give me a soft landing. Getting to exit on my own terms and handing over tasks that should never have been in my department to begin with. I just got them because I am a good tech writer.

The world, is, of course, on fire. So I've been protesting. Phone banking. Postcarding. I fear that things will get worse before they get better, but it's good to see the general reaction to the current WTF building. I had been very worried when Trump 2.0 started to see some resistance, but it was…ok the same middle aged/elderly women who've been doing this for the last decade, and that wasn't going to be enough. So, high school kids walking out of school. General strikes. I participated in the work walk out, which I mean…okay. My job right now is about giving work a soft landing. It turns out there's a lot more room in a schedule when you stop picking up new tasks and focus on how to gracefully hand over old tasks.

Anyway, had my first serious conversation with K & P about possible consequences of going to protests, because No Kings is a party. I've been sanguine about the possibilities of being willing to protest and while I didn't expect the form of what's happening, I did expect the level of authoritarianism. Be nice if others had believed in '24, but ok. We're here now.

Yesterday, I helped a friend move boxes of her mom's stuff from her apartment to her renovated (mold begone) house. Which I might add are about three blocks apart. Her mom is dragging her feet, and said friend requested a Tactical Strike / Force of Nature, and I delivered. Three carloads that seemed to barely make a dent, but probably did make some room. Also, my friend can now threaten to get my help again if her mom doesn't keep dragging her feet on every aspect.

Visiting another friend at a local Historical House / garden today. She's been ill since December and itching to go out. Though per usual her lungs are still phlegmy.

Then after that, we'll see. A couple that I was close to in the past, but now are more FB friends have been going through it with one half being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. I've been offering via FB to come provide support and this morning (given the word hospice has come up) emailed him. I'm trying here to be the opposite of Tactical Strike / Force of Nature here and just offer support if he needs it. We'll see if he takes me up on the offer. Both P and I are…happy is the wrong word, but willing to give some context on what the hospice experience is like and what to prepare for. Again, we'll see.

Ok, time to move to the next thing. Keep climbing these hills.

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/02/01/couperins-lecons-des-tenebres/

sodium_amytal

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umadoshi

One link, which hopefully won't be paywalled: "Rachel Reid's wild Heated Rivalry ride" at The Globe and Mail. The whole "local girl makes good" element of the HR show taking over the world is a very nice cherry on top of the whole thing, and I really liked this profile.

Reading: I'm maybe 30% into Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl and wavering about continuing. I've gotten better about DNFing things, and this time I actually have the book out of the library, so the good old financial sunk-cost fallacy isn't in play. But I still don't like DNFing.

I've also read some more of Braiding Sweetgrass and reread vol. 2 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

Watching: Crunchyroll wasn't in the mood to work when we attempted to watch last week's ep. of Frieren, so we're two episodes behind on that. (Annoyingly, Netflix keeps saying it thinks we'd love the show, but only has season 1.) Hopefully we'll get caught up on the most recent ep. of The Pitt tonight.

On top of those currently-running things, we're now one episode into Midnight Mass.

Playing: Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven continues to delight me.

Weathering: There's another storm heading in, due to arrive tonight, but it looks like it's veered enough that our local forecast is now for a somewhat more reasonable amount of snow than I'd been hearing before yesterday evening or so. Apparently it's also bringing fairly high winds, so there's the usual "will the power stay on?" worry. (Our neighborhood has been really lucky on that front this season, and

scruloose and I are pretty well prepared, so it's not a huge worry.)

Working: I turned in the final volume (!) of Pet Shop of Horrors on Friday and immediately tried to switch to the next volume of Now That We Draw, since that's due mid-week, but my brain was Not Having It; I suspect it was the sheer tonal dissonance as much as anything. But then yesterday, what with the storm warning and all, I basically did the last four-fifths of the book in one sitting to make sure I at least had a workable draft, and now my brain is pretty crisped. (It's not a very text-heavy or tricky rewrite, and the translators make it pretty painless, so four-fifths is a lot at once but not the feat it would be with some series.)

So now I have a draft with just a couple tweaks still to be made and a final read-through to be done, and I'm tempting fate a bit by not trying to get that all off my plate today, but I think letting it rest for a day before reviewing it is extra important given that I did the draft so fast. So I'm gambling a bit, but also have something I can submit with caveats if need be, if we do lose power for three days or something.

Sleeping: Sleep has been distinctly Not Great for the last few (?) nights. I've been doing decently at getting to bed in a timely fashion and mostly not taking forever to fall asleep, but I've been having even weirder and more stressful dreams than usual and it's all been very restless.

Current Mood: exhausted

brumeier posting in

small_fandoms

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kingstoken posting in

fancake

Fandom: Good Omens
Pairings/Characters: Aziraphale/Crowley
Rating: T
Length: 5437 words
Creator Links: iamtheenemy (Steph)
Theme: Inept in love

Summary: Crowley gets orders to seduce Aziraphale to the dark side. It goes about as well as you might expect.

Reccer's Notes: Crowley gets orders from Hell to seduce Aziraphale, and Crowley can't really bring himself to try, despite some half-hearted attempts. That's the first half of the fic, the second half is the two of them after the almost apocalypse, and it's very sweet, even if Crowley's brain stops functioning a few times.

Fanwork Links: AO3

full_metal_ox posting in

c_ent

…what form is the Fire Horse (17 February 2026 to 5 February 2027) going to take in the DMBJ fandom bestiary?

profiterole_reads

Bridgerton Season 4A was fun!

I'm not big on the Cinderella vibe, as the other stories weren't fairy tale retellings, but I'm super happy that this season is finally Bi!Benedict's turn.

selenak

Festivids went online. I can't create vids myself, but I love watching them. Here are some which especially caught my eye this year:

Babylon 5 : I loved all three of this year's B5 vids, but Marching On really is a love letter to the entire show, and I adore it.

Conclave : The Devil you know : in which there is scheming, rise and fall, and gorgeous cinematography. Captures the spirit (and performances) of the movie really well.

Elementary: Read my mind: my favourite incarnations of Holmes and Watson get a superb outing in this one.

Foundation: So it goes: captures the grandeur, the insanity, the messed up parent/mentor/child (protegé) relationships really really well. (No material from the third season used as far as I can tell, if anyone hasn't watched it yet and doesn't want to be spoiled.)

Knives Out Movies: Now you know: Sondheim/Knives Out OTP! Witty and moving take on all three leads, their stories and the connecting elements.

Star Trek: Prodigy: Find your people: which is what our young heroes do so very well in this lovely show - and in this vid.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Bamberg

tedwords

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Friday night martini post:

Tonight is all about Krista, and let's just leave it at that.

I mentioned this morning that I have always felt a bond with Krista, right from the start. I meant it.

I remember, years ago, that there was a point very early in my relationship with Josie where we had a terrible fight. I mean, just awful. We were very closing to breaking up, and I was determined to move away to California and work in a shoe factory. What held me back? One major thing was the thought of never seeing Krista again. The thought of not being a part of her life, of not being there to support her, to help parent her, filled me with such sadness that I just could not endure.

And here we are, four decades later, and I can truly say I made the right choice all those years ago, and have been there, a great big old honking part of her life. Her father. What an honor and pleasure it's been. I've seen her grow older, graduate high school, get her MBA, have a child, and still be that sweet inquisitive child I loved from the day I met her.

So tonight, I raise a chocolate cherry martini and toast to my 40 year old daughter, who at heart is probably an older soul than I am. Here's to your 40s, dear girl. I love you to the moon and back.

Postscript now that the weekend is almost complete:

Friday was a lovely night, with all the family there to celebrate Krista's milestone. Perhaps unconsciously, Josie selected the location of our wedding reception for the party. It used to be a wedding venue, but now half of it is a pot facility and the other half is a restaurant. The food was good.

Ashes was there, the first time we have seen each other in person since we started the reconciliation process. It went went fine. I was a bit nervous, I am sure she was, too, but the conversation was free and easy. Light and unencumbered by two years of silence. Probably as it should be. She had texted me earlier that she was a bit nervous to see my parents and Corb's mom, but that went fine. Dad had just returned from a casino where he won $2,000 on an eighty cent bet, and he handed her a hundred dollar bill and asked her to promise to be there for Christmas this year. It was sweet.

Corb's mom was nice, as well. The last time Ashes saw her was at the wake for Josie's father and she deliberately snubbed Ashes, causing her (from what I learned later) to burst into tears and say "my grandfather died, too." I hadn't mentioned that to Diana because I didn't want her to feel bad, but I felt she needed to know, now. Glad I did. She turned on the charm and it seemed to go well.

It was a late night. After the party, a group of us went to Josie's house to play games. Josie thumbed through a scrapbook my mom had given Krista and called up old memories. She saw photos of Prince. She asked if we could get married again. I laughed and said no.

Last night Corb and I went to see his old work friends from APT, for their annual skanky swap. We had great conversations and talked about our hope for the end of a certain someone. Corb's friend Taylor is a passionate advocate for a better world.

LJ's husband Bob retired last year. He seems bored but also recovering from a foot injury that resulted in AFib. I told him my news, He said to make sure you keep busy. I very much plan to.

On that note, ten weeks to go. I still cannot say anything until mid-February. It seems silly not to tell people. I plan to take advantage of the PTO days I will have accrued before April and plan to take the week of Presidents day off so we can go to Vermont. I guess that means I really have nine weeks to go.

Today, Corb is super achy and hasn't felt well in three days. We are hoping it is not kidney stones. We will take it easy until we have to go out to be with his...gulp...family. Greg's birthday. Corb didn't want either Scott or Greg at his birthday.

Another busy week has passed. I feel like I am in a slow/fast world right now. I want the next few weeks to speed up, but I don't want the world to speed up too quickly. I want to take it easier and really enjoy this wonderful place I am in.

lexin

So, we’re through with January. Good.

I’m a bit tired, I don’t know why. My CPAP machine mask seems to leak, but there’s no obvious reason why. It’s a mystery.

Cats

Opal had a big sore on her back where she was biting herself all the time that Smokey was ill. I’ve taken her to the vet and the only suggestions she made was that I put her on a special food for stomach and skin. So, I did. And it seems to be working, albeit slowly. It’s down to one inch across from more like four. As I said, progress.

Little Geraint has gained weight; when he came to me, he was thin as a rake, and his fur was in an appalling condition, all over mats. Since I started to brush him, he’s been pulling the mats off himself, as if he couldn’t be bothered before and now, he has someone looking after him, he’s prepared to meet them halfway. For a couple of weeks my carpet was covered with mats of fur, but he seems to have succeeded and now his fur just needs to grow in again, which I hope will happen in the spring.

Health

I’ve been to the hospital for my tummy troubles and they’re threatening me with a colonoscopy. I’m not looking forward to that at all. Really don’t want to play, I’ve had one before and they suck.

I also saw my psychiatrist, and he suggested we play around with my mood drugs. So I’ve cut one in half and we’ll see if that works as he hopes it will. Fingers crossed.

Gaming

I’m concentrating on Skyrim and I have a character who’s reached level 49. He’s now finding NPC’s dead in ditches, which is distressing when they’re vendors who had been useful. So far, two have been killed by dragons.

Current Location: Home (Bangor)
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/333691.html

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Photograph of two kingfishers perched on a branch. One is surrounded by a cloud of pink love hearts and the other has a single question mark over its head. Text: Inept in Love, at Fancake.

Bring out your failboats! Our theme for February is inept in love.

These fools are unlucky in love—whether it's due to inexperience, obliviousness, social anxiety, or their own terrible choices—or are so in love they can't function properly. This trope is sometimes called "Idiots in Love," but as "idiot" is an ableist term, I ask that you don't use it in your recs, and just as there are all kinds of love, this theme is for all kinds of relationships.

The tag for this round is: theme: inept in love

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.

( Rules! )

( Posting Template! )

( Promote this round! )

Reblog on Tumblr | Reskeet on Bluesky | Retoot on Mastodon

smallhobbit

For

allbingo this month, there's a Valentine's challenge, for which I'm using the romantic prompts.

Dancing	Taking It Slow
Dinner for Two	Love at first sight

runpunkrun posting in

gluten_free

Our prompt for February is paleo-friendly!

A paleo diet is based on foods that could have been obtained by hunting and gathering back in the olden days and typically includes lean meats, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, and typically excludes dairy, grains, and legumes, though there is some variation in how people practice it. For our purposes, tagging something paleo-friendly means it's—at the least—free of dairy and grains. (Though some consider ghee (clarified butter) paleo, so that's why the tag's paleo-friendly; the hope is that it'll be amenable to changes that suit your particular needs.)

To fill this prompt, you can:

Slide into the comments of this post and share a link to a recipe, product, or resource and why you like it.
Write up a favorite recipe and post it to the comm.
Post a review of a related product or cookbook to the comm.
Try someone's recipe and reply to their post (or comment) with any changes you made and how it turned out.

Monthly prompts are only for inspiration and not a requirement. You can post whatever you like to the comm whenever you like as long as it meets the community guidelines.

And, a reminder, you can now tag your own posts!

Here's what's going on in the comments:

Paleo Leap (and their 3-ingredient paleo almond butter cookies) from mergatrude

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: calm

matthew_feed

Posted by Matthew McQuilkin

https://www.fruitcakeenterprises.com/blog/2026/2/1/my-bluesky-posts

Sat, 17:24: Statham delivers again in another B-grade action thriller. https://t.co/34AX2ugk5q
Sun, 22:20: There was a Seahawks drone show at Seattle Center last night. Naturally we had to go down there and gay it up a bit. (Click for my 2-minute video.) https://t.co/Rse29IxQef

https://www.fruitcakeenterprises.com/blog/2026/2/1/my-bluesky-posts