sholio | Network

[not the usual 'things' post, but I'm hoping to do one such post once a week this year, and this is close enough.]

I finished reading Rivers Solomon's The Deep, went for a walk, mostly-assembled[*] the flatpack garden bench I bought back in November, did a bunch of weeding and tomato bondage[**], and played a few hours of Hollow Knight[***].

[* Some of the holes for the screws did not seem to have been drilled at quite the right angle, and I wasn't able to screw them in far enough even when I decided to stick a hex bit on my impact driver and use that. Which worked great for the ones on the right side, but the ones on the left side wouldn't go in any further than they already had, and as a bonus I stripped the screw heads. Ugh.]

[** Green tomatoes sighted! Now slightly further off the ground than before I tied them up!]

[Located the map to Fog Canyon, found Queen's Gardens, accidentally had my second altercation with Hornet (I beat her in Greenpath a long time ago), got my carapace handed to me and decided I was not ready for that fight yet, attempted and soundly failed at the Delicate Flower quest, and beat Uumuu and Elder Hu.]

Hope everyone else's new year is good so far.

malinaldarose

It is 11° this morning and snowy. The expected high is 19°. It may snow some more. It may not. It's supposed to snow overnight, too, and the red band snowstorm warning continues until overnight Friday. I thought it was supposed to end tonight. Le sigh. Eh, well. I don't have anywhere to go, anyway.

Yesterday was snowy off and on. The plow went by a couple of times, including in the evening, which surprised me. Usually, after a certain hour, we're on our own, but I guess they were cleaning it up for New Year's Eve revelers.

It was a quiet day yesterday. After my interrupted sleep of the night before, I took a couple of naps, one right after I made my post yesterday morning. I didn't do much of anything. I spent a lot of time at my desk. I noodled around online, but I also caught up my book journal, which I had let languish since the end of June. I read a lot in July, but I was also on vacation and didn't take the book with me. I hurried to catch it up, so really only put in the published books that I read, not all the fic, which I also track. I'll have to run some numbers, then I'll have a more or less accurate count for the year.

Last evening, instead of reading, I watched a movie. I dithered between ID4 (because I was sort of depressed and that's one of the movies that I watch when I'm depressed) or Mission Impossible and went with the latter, since I still haven't seen the last movie. I started with Ghost Protocol which is my favorite of the series. The first one is great for introducing the characters, but I don't like it because I was a fan of the original series and liked Jim Phelps. The second one is...yeah, okay, whatever. The third one...like Benji, I like Julia, but I do not like Philip Seymour Hoffman in it, so I don't watch it. So usually when I do a rewatch, I start with Ghost Protocol. I like all the characters, and really wish they'd kept Brandt...though apparently he left due to scheduling conflicts, which is fine. Oh, and I would like to point out that despite everything everyone knows about team/ensemble movies, it is entirely possible to have more than one woman on a team.

I went to bed more or less on time. Parker was curled up on the bench at the foot of the bed, so he was entirely accessible for kicking out of the bedroom, but I left him, so he came up next to me and settled in for the night. I left the door partly open, so if he decided he wanted to leave, he could, or if Tegan wanted to join us, she could, but neither thing happened. I didn't really sleep -- or I dreamed that I wasn't sleeping, which amounts to the same thing. At midnight, I heard a muffled thud, and was afraid that it was the critters coming back, but I think it was the big church near my office building having a fireworks show. In the middle of a snowstorm. With wind. Presumably because they're idiots.

Also? Fireworks at midnight? That would be one thing if they were out in the country somewhere with no homes for miles around, but they're in the middle of the city, fercryin'outloud -- and not everyone stays up to make sure the door doesn't hit the old year in the ass on the way out. I was not impressed. It didn't last long, at least, though twenty minutes at midnight, is still extremely annoying.

So, yeah, I did see the year tick over, though not at all because I wanted to.

But when I said it was a quiet day, I meant quiet. There were no animal noises all day and none during the night. It was all a relief, but I spent the day (and night) on edge. Maybe that's why I didn't sleep, more than Parker's presence.

I have no plans for today at all. Maybe I'll go upstairs and work in my craft room. Maybe I'll watch movies. Maybe I'll sit here at my desk and watch YouTube clips all day. It's Other Thursday, but I might as well wait to pay bills until tomorrow, since the only reason I usually do it on Thursday evenings is that I'm not available to do it on Friday mornings. I should probably log into my work email at some point and clear out some of the junk emails that will have accumulated. The only thing I absolutely have to do is change the kitty litter and get the garbage out, but that can wait until later.

Hi ho. Happy New Year, I guess.

Current Mood: tired

linaewen posting in

writethisfanfic

Hello on Thursday! What kind of a writing day has it been so far today -- or if today hasn't gotten going yet, how did you fare yesterday?

- I thought about my fic once or twice

- I wrote

- I did some planning and/or outlining

- I did research and/or canon review

- I edited

- I've sent my fic off to my beta

- I posted today!

- I'm taking a break

- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

Thursday Discussion: Today is the first day of the new year!!! Have you made any resolutions/goals/expressed any intentions about your writing? Any plans you hope to implement that will make your writing better or more effective? Any WIPs you plan on finishing this year?

rydra_wong

https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3mbebi2xfxc25 (thread)

belle_meri

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: Home Office
Current Music: Sharp Dressed Man ~ Z Z Top

vriddy

Via

synecdochic, and also what I see happening based on the latest post on

dw_maintenance and comments there.

Please spread this far and wide so as many people see it as possible, because I really don't see English-language LJ continuing in its present form for much longer, and I know some people may still have things they care about there. It doesn't matter how you get it backed up, but it's absolutely crunch time for getting it backed up.

I saw this import FAQ being linked in the

dw_maintenance comments for how to import into Dreamwidth, if that's the option you choose. So I take it this is working again, I remember there were issues a couple of years back, but better act quickly before that's no longer the case.

Link: Get anything you have left on LJ backed up ASAP by

synecdochic
Link: How do I import my journal from another site? (dreamwidth.org)

vriddy

Candy Hearts sign-ups are OPEN!!! You can find the schedule here, and the sign-up info post there, and here's for a direct link to the sign up form, and to the tagset!

You will never guess which fandom is included in my sign-up... and which canon I wrote a canon promo comment for ;D Haha. I'm actually signing up with tiny beloved polyships in 3 fandoms this time (K-9, Wind Breaker, Kaijuu No. 8) and I'm seriously excited about receiving any of them. It's the first time I do a sign-up like this haha, in that normally I try to be serious or close enough, but instead this is just me kind of jumping around about "THEM" whichever THEM it happens to be about XD :D I'm excited. It's also the first time I sign up for an exchange so early I think!! Normally I procrastinate until dangerously late because I worry about forgetting something. I also linked to the K-9 primer in my request... XD

Anyway, I love

candyheartsex (and its predecessor

chocolateboxcomm), it's a chill exchange with a small minimum (300 words fic or podfic, art) that reveals on Valentine's Day (but doesn't have to be valentine-themed, at all). Because of the low word count maybe, there's usually a fantastic treating culture around it, and it's just sweet and delightful fun all around. I'm really glad to be participating this year! I'll have to remember to check in a few days that I can match as well. I see BNHA and Wind Breaker people are starting to sign up so it should be fine :D Maybe see you there??

rekishi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

melagan

wickedgame posting in

iconic

Fandoms: 9-1-1: Lone Star, Black Lightning, Dynasty, Heated Rivalry, Mako Mermaids, Mr. Robot, Namib, Nancy Drew, Narcos, New Girl, Romil & Jugal, Skymed, Stranger Things, Supergirl

rest HERE @

mundodefieras

mekare

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

alobear

Here we have the accumulated stats for all the reviews I wrote in 2024:

Books (133):
Positive – 89 (67%)
Negative – 18 (14%)
DNF - 26 (19%)

Audiobooks (49):
Positive – 43 (88%)
Negative – 1 (2%)
DNF - 5 (10%)

Comic books/series (10):
Positive – 10 (100%)
Negative – 0 (0%)
DNF - 0 (0%)

Film & TV (7):
Positive – 6 (86%)
Negative – 1 (14%)

Live Entertainment (7):
Positive – 6 (86%)
Negative – 1 (14%)

Games (video and board) (25):
Positive – 22 (88%)
Negative – 3 (12%)

Reviews total for 2025 (231):
Positive – 176 (76%)
Negative – 55 (24%)

I'm counting the DNFs as negative for the overall stats.

So, if you include each comic series as just one book, I read over 160 books last year, which is ridiculous! I didn't have much work overall in 2025 and I also started a BookTube channel and discovered reading challenges, so that probably accounts for it.

My positive rating overall has gone down a bit from last year - but I think that's because I've been reading, viewing and playing more diversely and trying to expand my horizons a bit, which is always going to be a risk, but I think is a good thing overall.

I'm going to *try* and be a bit more relaxed about my reading in 2026, but I can't imagine that will actually stop me from putting pressure on myself about it!

dailybunny_feed

Posted by Daily Bunny

https://dailybunny.org/posts/2026/1/1/i-think-we-were-all-hoping-youd-wear-your-party-hats-bunnies

Thanks, Deb, Jac, kc, and bunnies Harlow and Bubbles! Deb writes, “Hello and we have a new year! Bubbles and Harlow did not cooperate. Happy New Year, Daily Bunny Family! Here’s to good health and love”!

https://dailybunny.org/posts/2026/1/1/i-think-we-were-all-hoping-youd-wear-your-party-hats-bunnies

cyphomandra posting in

yuletide

Recs for KJ Charles' England series, Utopia Avenue, Soulmate Goose AU, LEGO Botanical Garden and LEGO Natural History Museum, The Long Walk, Oxford Time Travel Universe, Dredge, and Miss Marple, here at my dreamwidth.

cyphomandra

Yuletide recs! I have actually managed to read quite a lot of Yuletide fic this year, and it's been great wallowing happily in some amazing stories.

My gift is for KJ Charles' Think of England series, and is a cracking adventure/undercover moment on a train (in the snow!), as well as having some great Archie/Daniel moments (and Pat & Fen in a cameo).

Taking Initiative (2299 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: England Series - K. J. Charles
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Archie Curtis/Daniel da Silva
Characters: Archie Curtis, Daniel da Silva (England Series), Patricia Merton, Fenella Carruth
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary:

Archie takes matters into his own hands while Daniel is undercover.

I have also loved:

The Desperados Don't Want to Come to Their Senses (6963 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Jasper de Zoet, Elf Holloway, Peter "Griff" Griffin, Dean Moss
Additional Tags: Social Media, Mixed Media, Post-Canon, POV Outsider, Character: The Entire Internet, can the story still be a comedy if one of its protagonists has been dead since the beginning
Summary:

allie! allieshouldbewriting · December 13
people act like it’s so poignant/whatever that jasper de zoet gave up music after his bandmate died to go into psych but what nobody acknowledges is that man had PATIENTS. tragic gay yearning is not a victimless crime. there’s rpf about my psychologist and i have to live with it
❏ 305 ↹ 201 ♡ 2126 ⤊ 6290

(The social internet dissects Utopia Avenue, November-December of 2025.)

I read Utopia Avenue two years ago and loved it, and I keep meaning to go back and re-read it as well as read all the other related Mitchells I haven't gotten to yet. This is a fantastic story via internet media, about the fans of Utopia Avenue and of those who ship Jasper and Dean in particular (the "Despers/Desperadoes" of the title). It is very funny, extremely on point, and it does all this by being about how you go on after someone you love has died.

#footscraygoose (4249 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Soulmate Goose AU Suggestion - shitty-check-please-aus (Tumblr Post), Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters, Original Soulmate Geese
Additional Tags: Soulmate Goose of Enforcement, Twitter, Emails, Work Skin In Use, Social Media, Australia, biosecurity, Government Regulation, Crack Treated Seriously, Birdwatching, Public Servants Trying Their Best
Summary:

barb's cooked
bowerbirder
everyone is giving jennyjennyaus shit but i can confirm, LESSER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE IN FOOTSCRAY?????????? not pictured: the poor woman the goose started harassing for her sandwich after this lol.

Dr Tom March
fungustom
bowerbirder Have you added it to iNaturalist yet? Absolutely bonkers that there's a vagrant this far south. Climate change maybe?

Another formatting masterpiece (as someone who did two fics requiring workskins for the 2024 Yuletide and STRUGGLED I am in awe of these) only with 100% more Australianisms and a justifiably ticked-off goose, this takes the soulmate goose troop and runs with it (unfortunately without checking in with biosecurity first). Fantastic.

Hit the Bricks! Four Things Not to Miss in Lego City Old Town (2897 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: LEGO Botanical Garden, LEGO Natural History Museum
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Easter Eggs, lego ruritania, diagetic documentation, Illustrations
Summary:

Four moments in Lego-Duplo relations.

I had not thought of Lego and Duplo as uneasy European neighbours with rich historical interactions but reading this fic made that seem like a terrible oversight. This even has build kits to go with the different scenes.

There's No Discharge in the War (12369 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Long Walk - Richard Bachman
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Characters: Stebbins (The Long Walk), Ray Garraty
Additional Tags: Time Loop, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Ambiguous/Open Ending
Summary:

He's been walking for a very long time.

Stebbins on a timeloop. I keep meaning to write up my impressions of the movie of The Long Walk, which I saw earlier this year (tldr: I loved it) and I keep meaning to re-read the book, which is in a box somewhere as part of the Bachman collection. This is horrifyingly effective, tension without relief, and it's also a fantastic sideways look at the source.

in the place of the friends I love (10770 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Kivrin Engle & Father Roche, James Dunworthy & Kivrin Engle
Characters: Kivrin Engle, James Dunworthy, Colin Templer, John Bartholomew, Lupe Montoya
Summary:

She woke in Heaven, as Roche had thought she must.

I love The Doomsday Book despite having issues with Willis' later works, and this is a brilliant, painful take on Kivrin's immediate recovery post-drop, and the (missed) communication theme so common to Willis is heartbreakingly appropriate here. Great characterisation and a very touching story about loss and grief, and what they leave behind.

said the spider to the fly (1484 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dredge (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fisherman & Travelling Merchant (Dredge)
Characters: Fisherman (Dredge), Travelling Merchant (Dredge)
Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Angst, Weirdness, Friendship, Card Games, Canon-typical eldritch horror, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide 2025, she's normal and he..... isn't
Summary:

Trapped in the bay at Gale Cliffs during a storm, the fisherman and the travelling merchant talk, eat supper, and play a couple of games of cards.

I loved playing Dredge (horror fishing game with a disturbingly effective madness mechanic) and this is a surprisingly cozy quiet moment for it, between the most sensible character in the game and the one you play as. It's vivid and affecting.

Snow on Snow (14591 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Marple, Raymond West
Additional Tags: Murder Mystery, Case Fic, Christmas, Queer Character
Summary:

It is December 22nd, 1962, and one the coldest winters in living memory is about to freeze Britain over. On the insistance of her nephew Raymond, Miss Marple spends the night in a remote village rather than risk going all the way to London by train. But when a man is found dead in the snow outside the cozy guest house in which she is staying, it is up to Miss Marple to save Christmas... and finish reading the draft of Raymond's latest book.

Nothing says (northern hemisphere) Christmas like a snowed-in manor house and a murder mystery, with Miss Marple there to solve it while critiquing her nephew's latest manuscript. This is also a more tolerant and accepting Miss Marple than Christie sometimes wrote, as well.

alobear

At our usual New Year gaming get-together yesterday, I played Zen Garden, which is exactly the kind of game I really love. You collect tiles to build a garden on your player mat, matching background surface, path type and feature in various combinations to try and obtain the most points. There's a decision point around where the tiles are in the available gallery (they cost differing amounts of money to obtain, depending on position, but they get cheaper if they are left to the next round) and there are too many scoring variables to be able to achieve everything.

It was really fun - I always love pattern matching to maximise point scoring. I didn't do fantastically well, but I really enjoyed it and would definitely like to play it again.

oursin

Happy birthday,

clarentine,

movingfinger,

slash_reader,

soupdragon, and

vgqn!

littlerhymes

Dune - Frank Herbert
The Housemaid - Freida McFadden
Sister Snake - Amanda Lee Koe
Game Changer - Rachel Reid
Heated Rivalry - Rachel Reid
Tough Guy - Rachel Reid
Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park
Red Hood/Arsenal: Open For Business - Scott Lobdell, Denis Medri
Robins: Being Robin - Tim Seeley, Baldemar Rivas, Romulo Fajardo Jr.

( books )

littlerhymes

Last show of the year. The support act was Pocketwatch, a local trio who looked about 20 years old and played some fun rock and pop rock. They all wore suits and tried on their best swaggy stage talk. "What's our name? Pocketwatch! Who makes you jump? Pocketwatch!" It was endearing. I laughed a lot.

It's been over 10 years since I saw Cobra Starship and my expectations weren't that high. I thought this would be a fun show. And it was - but it was really fun, way more fun than I expected. Gabe still has it, he's such a showman, and Vicky-T's languid charms have not changed at all. Nate was silent through the whole show haha. For their current guitarist and bassist, they had two cool guys with lots of tattoos lol. And yeah, it was just a really enjoyable show as the band powered through all their hits and had the floor dancing. Everyone was having such a fun time.

Gabe told his typical rambly stories with a punchline, like talking about reuniting for the first time in 10 years (he credited Victoria for bringing them back), accidentally firing their new bassist during a gig (he apologised for that), his dad loving Cobra more than Midtown, getting Jay Leno to call his dad, and so on. At one point he and Victoria were collecting all sorts of fangifts - bracelets, a locket, pictures - and one audience member threw him a customised Gabe Labubu. It was one of the big ones too!

For Snakes on a Plane they brought out a surprise vocalist: BEN LEE. Apparently he's friends with Victoria? So random. They also brought an audience member up on stage to do the rap - the girl they chose was SUCH a scene girl from 2009, she had the crimped coloured hair, the make-up, a plastic corset in pastel colours, she was like a time traveller, it was amazing.

I didn't think the crowd looked too old but when I went to the bathroom, the drunk girls were talking about mortgages, rent, their government jobs… Time has certainly passed since our bandom heydays.

demeaninglion6 posting in

findthatbook

I cannot remember the name of the book nor the author and this is basically my last resort, ive been trying to find it on and off since middle school and have been unsuccessful.
a kid is out with his parents (either at a dig site with his dad or at a picnic with him) and stumbles upon an arrowhead leftover from a war. the kid touches it and pricks his finger on it while also absorbing a sliver of the arrowhead and gains the power to absorb powers from other people (I can't remember if he has to kill them or not), he ends up falling in love with a snake demon lady? but she never reciprocates. and her dad was also the one the war was about. at the end of the book the evil guy goes back in time and changes history and that's how the book ends.

Current Mood: anxious

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Sholio

December 2025

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Page Summary

vass - 2026 so far
malinaldarose - Eight Maids A-Milking
linaewen in writethisfanfic - WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 1 -- Thursday
rydra_wong - PSA for anyone who's still got stuff they value on LiveJournal
belle_meri - Well, I lived....
vriddy - Signal boost: If you still have things you care about on LiveJournal, now is a good time to backup
vriddy - Sign-ups for the Candy Hearts Exchange are OPEN!
rekishi - Heated Rivalry: What's in a colour? (featuring NHL trivia and hockey rpf funsies)
melagan - Happy New Year!
wickedgame in iconic - multifandom icons.
mekare - NiF art and gift and Happy New Year!
alobear - Final Review Stats for 2025!
dailybunny_feed - I Think We Were All Hoping You'd Wear Your Party Hats, Bunnies
cyphomandra in yuletide - A handful of recs
cyphomandra - Yuletide
alobear - Last review of 2025
oursin - (no subject)
littlerhymes - December books
littlerhymes - Cobra Starship, Pocketwatch (3 December, Liberty Hall)
demeaninglion6 in findthatbook - Trying to find this book again

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Page generated Jan. 1st, 2026 12:53 pm

Arctic Light

Life in a Northern Town

Network

2026 so far

Eight Maids A-Milking

WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 1 -- Thursday

PSA for anyone who's still got stuff they value on LiveJournal

Well, I lived....

Signal boost: If you still have things you care about on LiveJournal, now is a good time to backup

Sign-ups for the Candy Hearts Exchange are OPEN!

Heated Rivalry: What's in a colour? (featuring NHL trivia and hockey rpf funsies)

Happy New Year!

multifandom icons.

NiF art and gift and Happy New Year!

Final Review Stats for 2025!

I Think We Were All Hoping You'd Wear Your Party Hats, Bunnies

A handful of recs

Yuletide

Last review of 2025

(no subject)

December books

Cobra Starship, Pocketwatch (3 December, Liberty Hall)

Trying to find this book again

Profile

December 2025

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