Daily Check In.

Jan. 30th, 2026 07:04 pm
adafrog: (Default)
[personal profile] adafrog posting in [community profile] fandom_checkin
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Friday to midnight on Saturday (8pm Eastern Time).


Poll #34149 Daily poll
This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 21

How are you doing?

I am okay
12 (60.0%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
8 (40.0%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
7 (33.3%)

One other person
10 (47.6%)

More than one other person
4 (19.0%)



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.

New Year's Resolutions Check In

Jan. 30th, 2026 05:28 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
We have almost reached the end of January! \o/ By now, most New Year's resolutions that are going to hit roadblocks or fail completely have already done so. About 95% crash and burn before the end of January. If you're still going, you've passed the roughest part. If you're having trouble or you've given up, there are options.

Read more... )

[ SECRET POST #6965 ]

Jan. 30th, 2026 06:09 pm
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6965 ⌋

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


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 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.

Elephant Playground

Jan. 30th, 2026 10:17 pm
judiff: bunny tcon that ruis made (Default)
[personal profile] judiff
Yesterday when we were walking around Leamington Spa with [personal profile] lovingboth we found a surprise Elephant Playground (er like a playground for small humans that is elephant-themed not a playground for elephants). It’s really cool but we forgot to take a picture of the climbing elephant becos we were like too busy interacting with it

It’s quite new and we found this news article about it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1j96pnxde2o

(No, I don’t like know why the climbing holds on the elephants are aeroplane themed - they look like weird aeroplane parasites).

There weren’t any like chronological-children around so we got to play a bit (there wasn’t like an age limited written anywhere). There was a super cool thing of like a mosaic of different ground textures that you could like jump between and some inset-into-the-ground trampolines as well as like balancing logs and usual playground things (and some playground thinks adapted for wheelchairs etc.). And a Widget symbol Communication Board which was cool.

It felt like safe to do the balancing logs with [personal profile] lovingboth around becos he like mostly gets how our dyspraxia works. (We can like handle about the same level of challenge as like primary school children but obviously children’s playgrounds aren’t built for adult bodies and adult playgrounds are usually just “Green Gyms” which as well as being boring* are like often too much sequencing and coordination). And we did swinging on the Wooden Elephant’s tusks (there just like aren’t enough opportunities for supported brachiation in most human-built places). But we didn’t have the breath to use the trampolines for long. We did do some jumping on the different textures. It was very exciting and we got a bit of like the good-flavour of sensory overload where our words start to go but it’s happy.

[personal profile] lovingboth like slightly climbed the Wooden Elephant and bounced on the trampolines (but there wasn’t a spider web swing like the one he a bit used to monopolise at Big Bi Fun Day). He is like a good person to go to a playground with.


* I don’t like know why grown ups aren’t allowed cool stuff like elephants

Something for everyone

Jan. 30th, 2026 09:55 pm
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

A friend of mine in Minneapolis has found a way I can help from here. It meant I did an onboarding call this evening. It's nice to be able to contribute. It was nice to hear familiar accents again! I think even that is enough to calm my lizard brain a little bit.

D's nexus of skills and experience is incredibly relevant right now too, and I'm so proud of him doing what he is good at.

full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
[personal profile] full_metal_ox posting in [community profile] fancake
.Fandom: Chen Qing Ling, Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings: M/M, F/M, F/F, poly…this one earns AO3’s Multi glyph. Cut for length: Continue. )

Characters:: Cut for length:
Continue. )


Rating: Teen And Up Audience
Length: 75,126; 132 chapters
Content Notes: This is a raunchy parody; a lot of kinks are implied, and characters will be slipping off for papapa in combinations you may not agree with. Expressive and strategically placed use of eldritch glitchtext.

Creator Tags: Chatlogs, chatfic, Texting, Comedy, Canon Compliant, Crack, Memes, Humour, the untamed - Freeform, God Idek what to tag, Humor, meng yao is best bitch, i am afraid of when lan xichen finally snaps, xue yang is a highly cursed person, nie huisang is still mvp tbh, more relationships and characters to be added probably, tagging everyone was Hell, chatroom fic, Polyamory, Lots of it, ok maybe, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Just have fun everyone!!!, Additional: please do not eat or drink reading this enough people have choked x-x

Creator Links: (AO3) [archiveofourown.org profile] Hades_the_Blingking; (Tumblr) [tumblr.com profile] swaglexander-the-great

Theme: Crack Treated Seriously, Crack, Epistolary, Fandom Classics, Fix-it Fic

Summary:

The Untamed universe is exactly the same, except everybody has magical crystals that have a suspiciously familiar messaging system. The story is pretty much the same as the show, except everyone lives!! (so minor changes).
or
in which Wei WuXian tries his darndest to date Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng possibly has a aneurysm, Jin ZiXuan is still the most awkward human alive, and Xue Yang makes me write some VERY cursed things. Written in chatfic format! :3

Comments are very much appreciated! ^.^b


Author’s Notes:

Listen, I know the premise of this fic is actually insane, but it somehow works really well.
The 'message crystals' they have work on some form of minor telepathy - they don't 'type' as such. That's all the explanation we are getting :3 Format best viewed on a desktop, but it doesn't matter too much I don't think!

On with the show


Reccer's Notes: Despite the author’s disclaimer, I read this just fine on a $10 3G flip phone.

This freewheeling bawdy Muppet Song turned epic saga got a lot of the fandom through quarantine; I admit to shoehorning it into the “serious” category, but an author (who isn’t writing for pay) doesn’t sustain a story through four years and 132 chapters without putting something resembling thought into it; a skeletal outline of the canon plot (with more survivors and a lot more innuendo) remains faintly visible.

Fanwork Links: Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation, by [archiveofourown.org profile] Hades_the_Blingking.
hamsterwoman: (Livejournal -- HP -- Luna)
[personal profile] hamsterwoman
two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Challenge #15: How Did the Fandom Snowflake Challenge Go?

Pretty good! I’ve been doing Snowflake for about 10 years now, and it’s always a good time, one of the fannish staples I look forward to every year. As always, I enjoyed answering the challenges and the “ritual” of the month of fandom chat/squee. But I did feel less of a sense of community this year (which makes sense, given what else has been going on in the world in January 2026…), which is a little sad, since that’s also an important part of Snowflake for me.

Actually, let me talk about that latter part here, because here’s where it seems to fit best into the flow of this post. Snowflake Challenge 2026 sense of community musings )

I answered all the challenges, like I usually do, and enjoyed the mix of old favorites and new prompts.

Favorite challenges )

Old challenges I was looking forward to seeing again which were not repeated: I missed the Snowflake staples of “create a fanwork”, “try something new”, and “set some goals for yourself”. This is fine, though, because I can just do those anyway, as a challenge to myself – they do not require any creativity to SET as a challenge, and while I enjoy browsing people’s answers for them, the main reason I like them is the action I take in response, so I don’t really require a community for them. I’ve also missed the “rec something” / “rec yourself” type challenges – which I can still do on my own, since they don’t require creativity to set either – but a large part of those is definitely browsing other people’s answers. (I also miss the scavenger hunt, but that one’s not the same sort of staple as the others are, I think. And definitely not something I’m going to do on my own.)

So I’m just going to set myself those challenges anyway. The unasked challenges:

Make a fanwork:

I guess the moodboard and the primer are both fanworks, and I also made a fanwork for [community profile] fandomtrees during this month, so that one is technically fulfilled, but also I use Snowflake as my push to make some icons for new fandoms and/or new images I’ve come across during the previous year. I still plan to do this, but I will wait a little bit because there’s an installment of Taskmaster cartoons coming that I want to potentially include in that icon batch.


Try something new:

I did this naturally, by watching the first 5 episodes of The Goes Wrong Show that [personal profile] rionaleonhart has been writing delightful fic for and posted a primer for. I will post about it in full once I’m done with both series, but it has been a very fun thing to watch and, as I’d hoped and as Riona mentioned, does have a similar vibe to Taskmaster – not that it’s a similar format or anything, but, like, the low-stakes absurdist disaster feeling is similar – which is obviously great!


Rec some fanworks:

I have also done this a little bit in the course of completing the other challenges, like reccing the Taskmaster cartoons when I was talking about r/Taskmaster for community promo and reccing a brand new Elis/John longfic in the E&J fandom primer post. But here are things that did not come up naturally that I was hoping to have a chance to rec: Vorkosigan Saga, Murderbot, original art )

And, you know what, I am going to do some self-recs, too: chemistry anthropomorfic, Machineries of Empire poem, Monday Begins on Saturday )


Set some goals for yourself:

2025 Fannish goals check-in )

2026 Fannish Goals )

FandomTrees Reveal: assorted fic

Jan. 30th, 2026 01:33 pm
sanguinity: Frederick and Anne from Persuasion 1995 against a full moon (Persuasion - Frederick Anne moon)
[personal profile] sanguinity
In my last public update I said I made a bunch of things for [community profile] fandomtrees and I would post later, then never circled back. Here I am, circling back!

First time in Fandomtrees )


Top Gun (1986), All to Pieces
Carole/Goose/Maverick, sexy pre-canon threesome.

A friend fell hard into Top Gun fandom last year, and I read literally everything she writes more or less as she writes it, so I've been reading a lot of Top Gun fic in draft lately. So I figured I could write a sexy little threesome flash fic for the first movie. I was living in a Navy town at the time that the first movie came out, so I enjoyed dropping some hometown detail into the story.


Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, In Case of Dog
Edgin/Xenk, pomegaverse getting-together fluff.

A friend fell hard for Edgin/Xenk when the movie came out, and has been frustrated by how quickly the fandom dried up. I've watched the film twice in the hopes of writing something for her, but the magic never happened. So when I saw this Edgin/Xenk request (from a stranger, not my friend), I decided to give it a go and see if I could make my friend happy, too.

The request asked for "unusual curses", and I had Pomegaverse on the brain, just having finished writing a Pomegaverse story. (That is, a story in which someone turns into a Pomeranian because they got stressed out, and can't turn back again until they get lots of cuddles and affection.) And I thought, That certainly qualifies as an unusual curse! and also Edign would bitch SO MUCH about having to take care of Pomeranian!Xenk. The biggest trick was making it not-furry while I was making it yes-slashy, but it worked out, I think. It was stupid fun to write, and I hope it's stupid fun to read, too.


Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Pillars of Their Community
Roberta/Susan, Roberta/Dez, post-canon drabble sequence.

At this point, it was clear reveals were going to be delayed for unfilled trees, so I started looking for fandoms that I could read/watch quickly and maybe create a drabble for. I'd never seen Desperately Seeking Susan and had the vague idea that it wasn't any good (mostly because I'd never seen a film in which Madonna was any good, sorry), but [personal profile] china_shop was requesting this and I respect their taste, so I gave it a shot.

Happily, this was a very enjoyable film! Madonna basically plays Madonna, and isn't the main character, either, so that all works out. I had 80s-nostalgia all the way through. I worry about all the post-concussion syndrome everyone is going to have after all this. The original ending is MUCH better than the ending that was showed in the theaters. Also, I spent the entire film looking at Dez and thinking God you're pretty and where do I know you from?? and it turns out that he's Aidan Quinn! Captain Gregson from Elementary! Who apparently was a dish when he was young.

Anyway, have a drabble sequence for three of the four main characters, speculating on how they're getting on after the movie. (I wrote a fourth drabble for the fourth character, too, but didn't publish it, because I couldn't quite decide if it was brushing up against the recip's DNWs.)


Dracula's Guest - Bram Stoker, A Kind of Kinship
The Guest/Young Officer, hurt/comfort first-kiss.

Again, looking for quick-to-consume canons in unfilled trees, this is a short story set in the Dracula universe. Many people consider it to be deleted material from the Dracula novel, and it may in fact be (with Jonathan Harker as the unnamed guest), but the requester asked for it to be treated as its own story with its own characters, and I was more than happy to do that. Victorian military slash, easy-peasy, my fic-career-to-date was all but made for this.

Sadly, the story dropped into the "uncategorized fandom" hole; it never appeared on the Fandomtrees fandoms list and it doesn't appear on my dashboard's list of fandoms, either. Which means almost no one is ever going to see it. I'm considering sticking a Dracula-novel fandom tag on it just so the thing is fucking visible somewhere, but I am happy to take advice.


Head On (1998), that secondhand living, it just won't do
Ari & Alex, siblings post-canon

[personal profile] plicate's tree was very late to fill, and this movie was available streaming on Kanopy through my library, so I gave it a go even though I had my doubts about my ability to write 1990s Greek-Australian gay subculture. In fact, I spent most of the movie convinced that I was going to strike out, there was no way I could write for this.

But after sleeping on it, I did see my way into a short, tender, siblings-talking-about-boys story which encapsulates some of my hopes for Ari. Here's hoping that Ari finds a good boyfriend someday. Here's hoping Ari can be a good boyfriend someday. Or, if "boyfriends" is not something Ari is ever gonna be interested in, let's reach for "hookups where everyone has a good time and no one gets beat up." (Get it together, Ari! We're rooting for you!)


In the end, I had fun making things, I read/watched some new cool stuff, and I believe I can say that I was not a net drain on [community profile] fandomtrees. Hooray!

Sunsets and Woodpecker

Jan. 30th, 2026 03:29 pm
yourlibrarian: Crow Silhouette (NAT-Crow Silhouette - yourlibrarian)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] common_nature


This photo wasn't the year's first sunset but rather the first one that was really a "wow". Loved the colors.

Read more... )

Wildlife

Jan. 30th, 2026 02:59 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Gray wolves are hunting sea otters and no one knows how

On a remote Alaskan island, gray wolves are rewriting the rulebook by hunting sea otters — a behavior few scientists ever expected to see. Researchers are now uncovering how these coastal wolves adapted to marine hunting, what it means for land–sea ecosystems, and whether this ancient predator–prey relationship is re-emerging as sea otters recover.


My best guess is that the wolves prey on sea otters during brief times the otters come ashore. Maybe on ice, which can work rather like land, but there is a lot less ice now than there used to be. It's hard to image a less-marine-adapted predator catching more-marine-adapted prey actually in the water. Then again, if that's happening, it would push the otters to move into waters the wolves can't reach -- which is one way that semi-aquatic species become fully-aquatic species.

Rose and Bay Awards

Jan. 30th, 2026 02:55 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (Rose-Bay)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] crowdfunding
The 2026 Rose and Bay Awards are still open for excellence in crowdfunding. Today and tomorrow are the last days to nominate your favorite projects and patrons. If you have not yet done so, please do that now.

The award period for eligible activities spans January 1-December 31, 2025.
The nomination period spans January 1-January 31, 2026.
The voting period spans February 1-February 28, 2026.

These are the handlers for the 2026 award season:
Art: [personal profile] gs_silva Nominate art! Vote for art! (4)
Fiction: [personal profile] fuzzyred Nominate fiction! Vote for fiction! (3)
Poetry: [personal profile] gs_silva Nominate poetry! Vote for poetry! (3)
Webcomic: [personal profile] curiosity Nominate webcomics! Vote for webcomics! (3)
Other Project: [personal profile] curiosity Nominate other projects! Vote for other projects! (3)
Patron: [personal profile] fuzzyred Nominate patrons! Vote for patrons! (3)

Rose and Bay Awards

Jan. 30th, 2026 02:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (Rose-Bay)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The 2026 Rose and Bay Awards are still open for excellence in crowdfunding. Today and tomorrow are the last days to nominate your favorite projects and patrons. If you have not yet done so, please do that now.

The award period for eligible activities spans January 1-December 31, 2025.
The nomination period spans January 1-January 31, 2026.
The voting period spans February 1-February 28, 2026.

These are the handlers for the 2026 award season:
Art: [personal profile] gs_silva Nominate art! Vote for art! (4)
Fiction: [personal profile] fuzzyred Nominate fiction! Vote for fiction! (3)
Poetry: [personal profile] gs_silva Nominate poetry! Vote for poetry! (3)
Webcomic: [personal profile] curiosity Nominate webcomics! Vote for webcomics! (3)
Other Project: [personal profile] curiosity Nominate other projects! Vote for other projects! (3)
Patron: [personal profile] fuzzyred Nominate patrons! Vote for patrons! (3)

current fandom events

Jan. 30th, 2026 12:26 pm
svgurl: (star trek: kirk once and future captain)
[personal profile] svgurl
[tumblr.com profile] februaryficletchallenge is a prompt challenge where two prompts will be posted every day in February and the goal is to write at least 200 words using one of them.

[tumblr.com profile] kinkuary is a daily prompt challenge in Feburary based off various kinks. The prompt list is here.

[tumblr.com profile] febuwhump is a whump themed daily prompt challenge taking place in February.

[tumblr.com profile] noromofest is a creative event taking place on February 8-14th to celebrate aromanticism.

[tumblr.com profile] feveruary is a month long prompt challenge that focuses on sickfic and comfort

[community profile] thestoryinside, a community where you sign up and pick three books for an assigned partner off their TBR based on voted for themes and vice versa, is open for February sign-ups until January 31st.

[community profile] halfamoon, a 14 day fest to celebrate women, is running again during the first two weeks of February. This year's prompt list is here.

[community profile] lul_soulmatesex, a soulmate themed exchange, is open for sign-ups until February 1st, 11:59am CST.

[community profile] caseficexchange, a fanwork exchange focusing on investigations, is open for sign-ups until February 1st, 11:59PM EST.

[community profile] space_swap, an exchange for all fandoms related to space, is accepting nominations until February 3rd, 5PM CET.

[community profile] fandomtrumpshate is open for creator sign-ups until February 8th.

[community profile] dcfemslashevents is running dcu femslash february comment fest.

[community profile] threesentenceficathon has opened its third post for prompting and fills. Post 1 and 2 are still open for fills. There is also a Friending Meme!

Birdfeeding

Jan. 30th, 2026 02:01 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and cold.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a large flock of sparrows and a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/30/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I refilled the hopper feeder.  Lots more sparrows out now.

EDIT 1/30/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I put more seed in the hopper feeder.

EDIT 1/30/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I saw a wren.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
wychwood: John and Rodney making identical hand gestures (have fun!) (SGA - McShep clicky fingers)
[personal profile] wychwood
I was on campus yesterday for an in-person meeting, so worked from home today, and am now entirely discombobulated and have no idea what day it even is. Although the nice thing is that when I check, it turns out to be Friday, which is the best possible option!

Our bin collection day has moved from Wednesday to Thursday so I had to put the bag out on Wednesday night when I got back from choir (I mean, obviously I should have put it out before choir, but I forgot because I'm not used to it yet!). For once I'd actually had to put a bag in my outside bin - having been away at Mum's put me all out of sync, and I had to admit last weekend that I couldn't keep piling things up and needed to start a new bag. So I went out to fetch it to add to the gigantic rubbish pile outside the other block, only to find that it had vanished??!?

I have to assume that one of my neighbours put it out for me, which is obviously very kind of them but also extremely weird, because are they just checking my bin every week or something?? I haven't put anything in there for several months, not since we switched to piling the bags up for collection.

Still, this is much nicer than the disgusting bin neighbours.

This week has been terribly unproductive, although I have listened to an entire audiobook and one and a half radio dramas. Hopefully next week will be better, but I still haven't worked out what to do for my birthday - Mum isn't feeling up to even a short expedition, but I could still go over and/or have lunch with Dad... I'm having dinner with my choir buddy S (also to mark our 22nd anniversary of joining the chorus and making friends!) and then choir, with the second new conductor candidate, so that'll be interesting.

Also have various other social things suggested or partly arranged to follow up on; I need to pull myself together and get them sorted, ideally spaced out so I don't end up with everything happening all at once as usual. I did have lunch with two friends yesterday, so that was good! Socialising with nice people: fun actually, who knew.

Papers, Please (2013)

Jan. 30th, 2026 01:46 pm
pauraque: Guybrush writing in his journal adrift on the sea in a bumper car (monkey island adrift)
[personal profile] pauraque
In this game, billed as a "dystopian document thriller," you play as a customs official at the border of a fictional country. Each in-game day, you have to process as many entrants as possible, cross-checking their documents for any inconsistencies. Attention to detail is critical, as you're paid for correct checks and fined for violations. But as you continue to play, the number of required documents and the arbitrary rules around them multiply, suggesting the tightening grip of totalitarianism, and making it harder and harder to do well enough to provide for your family.

interface showing overlapping immigration documents, a conversation with a person trying to enter, and silhouettes of people standing in line and armed guards beyond

The story unfolds as a series of ethical quandaries. A woman just wants to visit her son, but she doesn't have the right papers—can you afford to take the financial hit if you look the other way? How would you pay for your son's medicine? An underground revolutionary group wants you to let their agent cross the border, but can you trust them, and what if you get caught? What would your family do then?

cut for length )

Papers, Please is on Steam and GOG for $9.99 USD.
runpunkrun: silverware laid out on a cloth napkin (gather yon utensils)
[personal profile] runpunkrun posting in [community profile] gluten_free
The first time I saw Trader Joe's Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies through the little plastic window of their cardboard box, I was unimpressed. They looked lumpy, dry, and tasteless. But I'll try anything GF once, so I bought them anyway. To my surprise, they were delicious. Tender but chewy, not too sweet, with good chocolate and a sprinkle of coarse sea salt on top. They're the best GF chocolate chip cookies I've gotten from a grocery store.

But. These have a "best by" date on the box. Take it seriously. Get the box that has the furthest out date you can, and eat them as soon as you buy them or freeze them, because they will get stale, even in their plastic sleeves, and be as dry and joyless as I first suspected. You get six cookies per box, with three per sleeve. I find one (maybe one and a half) is a perfect serving.
Current Ingredients: oat flour, brown cane sugar, semisweet chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, dextrose, soy lecithin, vanilla extract [water, ethyl alcohol, vanilla bean extractives]), butter (pasteurized cream [milk], natural flavor), margarine (palm oil, palm kernel oil, water, salt, monoglycerides, sunflower lecithin, natural flavor, citric acid (acidulant), vitamin a palmitate, vitamin d2), sugar, sweet rice flour, egg, tapioca starch, brown rice flour, brown rice syrup, egg yolk (sugar), sea salt, baking soda, enzymes, natural flavor, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, cornstarch, monocalcium phosphate), xanthan gum.

Profile

mtbc: photograph of me (Default)
Mark T. B. Carroll

January 2026

S M T W T F S
    123
456789 10
11121314151617
18 192021222324
252627 28 293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 5th, 2026 06:52 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios