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Here are all my icons from July and August. Most of those already fall into me discovering Wu Lei, so that's a large part, including a ton of Dongji Rescue trailer icons. Enjoy!

Teasers:

( 84 icons - mostly Wu Lei dramas + Dongji, some HPI, various BLs )

Comments are love - and concrit, too. <3 Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. Texture and brush makers: here in my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

china_shop

"Still Wishlisting. This will be super quick," she said three days ago, and then failed to post it.

Kdramas
Watched more of You and Everything Else and now feel I maligned it unduly based on the first seven minutes. The childhood scenes are excellent! Will definitely be watching more.

More of A Hundred Memories, which I'm loving, and two more episodes of Low Life.

And quite a lot more of Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (Netflix) with Andrew. We're both very much enjoying the cooking (schnitzel!), and surprisingly, both wishing the ship would just go away. (Normally I would be on board with romance storylines, and I can kiiiind of see what she sees in him, but this guy needs a LOT more redemption and power-differential mitigation before I'll like it.)

Other TV and films
More of The Newsreader, more Bluey. And at the cinema:

Prime Minister -- a documentary about our erstwhile leader Jacinda Ardern. This was really good -- very candid, brought up a lot of memories from the last 5 years, made me tear up.

The Ballad of Wallis Island -- an incredibly charming little film that hits all the expected beats but does it so well and with such specificity that it totally worked for me. I loved it! Made me cry. So very glad that I saw it at the movies, because the acting was amazing. Warning for gentle cringe humour. (Trailer.)

Writing/making things
alkjsdfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhaskdljfhadslk BEARS!

Good things
Fish and chips and Low Life tonight. Cat and boy and internet. Writing, especially when it comes together.

Poll #33685 CNTW

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 29

View Respondents

When I see a fic tagged Choose Not to Warn

View Answers

sail on in
11 (37.9%)

approach cautiously
11 (37.9%)

avoid
1 (3.4%)

depends on the author
9 (31.0%)

depends on the fandom
6 (20.7%)

depends on the other tags
17 (58.6%)

other
2 (6.9%)

ticky-box full of delicious, delicious starch
9 (31.0%)

ticky-box full of native birds causing a ruckus
13 (44.8%)

ticky-box full of squid performing cirque du la marée
7 (24.1%)

ticky-box full of hugs
18 (62.1%)

starandrea

Happy October!

Recently I learned:
1) Tinnitus can sound like music.
2) Enzyme cleaners are great at unclogging pipes.
3) Less authentic mooncakes may be more delicious.
4) Some very dramatic plants think 50F is a killing frost.

Also, you can explain to your dog that you will always provide her with more food, you can show her all the food you have which is more than any three dogs could possibly need, and she will still ask for 100 dreambones so she can hide 50 of them for the hard times, and you will find them in places you never knew she'd been, usually still clean-ish and not gross but NOT ALWAYS.

On the plus side, when you ignore the lose bolt in her dog stroller too long and it falls out, never to be seen again, the internet can actually teach you enough about nuts and bolts that you can order a correctly sized replacement online, without having to interact with a single human being while still benefiting from humanity's collective wisdom and ingenuity.

I was cleaning yesterday: not the light garden, which I cleaned last week because plants were knocking on the door at the end of September this year, but all around the light garden because sometimes I worry that my laissez-faire attitude toward cleaning will result in a dust dragon, which sounds so much cooler than what I imagine I will find when I pick up all the blankets lying on the floor. (Dreambones, mostly.) There were no dragons, and the dreambones have been thrown away.

My point is, why do I worry so much? ("It's people like you who survive disasters," someone once told me. But waiting to survive a disaster doesn't seem like the most fulfilling use of my life on Earth.)

I have a Chinese journal now; it's mostly private because I'm using it for

inkingitout this year, but I'm also using it publicly for all the other challenges I've mentioned, and when I'm not tending the plants for hours I collect pictures from my or other local gardens, along with occasional fic recs or notes on the Untamed.

Welcome to follow or not as you wish: this isn't an advertisement, just a PSA given that some of us are in the same communities and I'm not a big talker, but I get that there's no reason to expect

xinger ("star") and

starandrea are the same person. They are.

In conclusion:
5) Last year's dahlias were yellow; why are they all red now?
6) A single vine can grow so many different kinds of gourds.
7) Glow in the dark bracelets light up night corn mazes.
8) Pledge of the Peony ftw.

askerian

TOTAL: 1 077 words.
jeeeeeeeze this is my worst month in years. not surprised.

Posted: nein.

In progress:
-suburban ot4 (1 019 words.)
-svsss cosplay fic (58... words...)

and i haven't posted any ot4 either cause i'm slowly but surely catching up so i need to slow the heck down. last year when i started posting one chapter a month or thereabouts i was writing chpt 20 and now i'm on... chapter 22. not sustenable.

( teaser... one teaser..... )

ldybastet

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

anehan

Recently read

Yatsuki Wakatsu, The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, Vol. 2: Church Management Support Plan

The first volume managed to be entertaining, mostly because the relationship dynamic between the MC and the ML was hilarious. Turns out that couldn't carry the series past the first volume. The first volume was bad in an addictive way; this one is just bad. Alas.

Cat Sebastian, Hither, Page (Page & Sommers #1)

Some years ago I tried to read Cat Sebastian's It Takes Two to Tumble and bounced off of it hard enough that I never tried to read anything else by her. Until now. Lately, I've been into historical mystery novels, especially queer historical mystery novels, so I've had my eye on this for a while now. It didn't end up being quite as historical as I thought it would be -- for some reason I thought it'd be post-WWI rather than post-WWII -- but I loved it so much that I think I might be a Cat Sebastian fan now.

Cat Sebastian, The Missing Page (Page & Sommers #2)

That title is so clever it makes me mad.

Currently reading

Annick Trent, The Oak and the Ash (The Old Bridge Inn #3)

Haven't read the previous volumes of this series, but it's stand-alone enough to not matter. Historical M/M romance between a surgeon with radical political ideas and a valet with an interest in meteorology. I'm enjoying this one a lot!

trobadora

Just in case someone else missed it too -

rarepairexchange reveals are delayed. Instead of 5 October, they're projected to happen on 19 October.

The reason I missed it: the delay was announced at the top of a pinch-hit post the day after the deadline (which was 21 September). I didn't even think to look at it at the time because I knew I didn't have time for any pinch-hits.

If that's you too, now you know. *g*

(Yesterday I happened to notice the new pinch-hit deadline, which is after the original reveals date, and got very confused. But the sticky post is up to date, which cleared up the current schedule, and then I tracked down the original announcement.)

umadoshi

Silver and Lead, the newest October Daye book (and the first one published by Tor) is out today!

The ebook came to about $25, and I just bought it, but OUCH. Just. Ouch. Since the Toby books started getting initially published as hardcovers, I've been buying the ebooks initially and then getting paperbacks later, but this might keep me from rebuying in hard copy going forward. >.< We'll see.

I expect I'll start reading Toby today (it's a day off), but up to this point, for the last week or so I haven't been trying to get my brain to engage with a new story of any kind, what with the work crunch. I've mostly stuck to watching things with

scruloose when there's been a chance. We're caught up on The Summer Hikaru Died (and I think the most recent episode might've been the season finale? Anyone know offhand?) and made more of a dent into season 1 of Silo.

Other than that, I watched a couple episodes of Leverage on Friday (late season 4, and finally into the chunk of episodes I know I haven't seen; I think from here on the only ep. of the original show I've previously seen is the series finale) and I've been sifting through cookbooks.

C&Ped from elsenet, posted yesterday:

After months of not getting around to it, I just ordered a heap of danmei (and one manga volume) from the Beguiling in Toronto (a fantastic comic store to begin with, and I appreciate them enough now for maintaining a masking policy that I'd rather order from them even though free shipping requires a $300+ order).

I always enjoy seeing (and envy) people's danmei shelves, but nearly all of my danmei is in ebooks a) to save both money and shelf space and b) because I'm much better at actually reading things that way. But the Rosmei danmei doesn't have that option, and they licensed some priest titles, so hard copies it is!

[Yesterday's] order: Coins of Destiny 1, The Defectives 1, Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire 1-2, Global Examination 1, Kaleidoscope of Death 1-2, Silent Reading (Mo Du) 1 special edition (one of my hard copy exceptions from 7S), and Kaze Hikaru 33.

Current Mood: tired

tinny

Work stress continued, so the fluff-binge-watching did, too.

TV new (finished)

I went through all 56 (!) episodes of Love Like The Galaxy, a costume drama starring Wu Lei and Zhao Lusi. I like them both, but the drama is so much not my cup of tea that I was ranting about it to my friends the whole time. If you want to subject yourself to it, it's on viki (and youtube). I really just finished it for Wu Lei's face, which I was able to enjoy even in period costume for a change. The drama itself is about a young noble lady with little education or grace but a knack for physics and construction who falls in love with a young general traumatized by his whole family getting killed and bent on revenge. The characters are all cardboard cutouts and/or comic relief, the conflicts are all people being mean to each other in increasingly devious and despicable ways, and the love story is larger than life and blown this way and that by the superficial plot only meant to evoke maximum emotion from the viewer without much regard for logic. For some reason, none of this kept me from watching it to the very end, all just to see Wu Lei smile. My priorities, I show you them. This left little room for anything else this month.

HPI ended! *sob* The last four episodes all aired in September, and I enjoyed them all, especially 5x07, which was a shipper's delight from start to finish. I also liked the last episode, and it leaves us with a nice ending to a wonderful show. 5 stars no comments.

TV new (ongoing)

Oh, I forgot about Dream Within a Dream! A transmigration parody that immediately endeared itself to me by parodying Love Like The Galaxy in its first episode. :D I posted the comparison here. I have by now seen three eps and find it pretty funny! It parodies all the tropes, which is the best thing you can do with tropes, anyway. :) It's on viki.

TV continued

Phineas and Ferb, season 5. Slowly going through this instead of more meaty things (see work stress), and enjoying it. It's really still just as good as it's always been, it makes me laugh a lot. I also very much enjoy how many *friendly* scenes between Doofenschmirtz and Perry there are. (Yes, I ship them, who doesn't?)

TV (dropped)

Shine. Maybe later. I made it to ep 5 and then couldn't be bothered to continue.

Future

Things I looked at (like 20 minutes each) but did not really pick up (yet) :

Remembrance of Things Past - a short cdrama with Zhou Yutong

My Youth - a kdrama starring Song Joong Ki who I really like and would enjoy seeing in a romance (I hope?)

Dongji Rescue - screeners in terrible quality, I will wait. (But what I saw so far was very good. Better than I expected.)

gourdier

A few months ago... I want to say in July or August, at some point? I finished that The Story So Far bundle that my roommate and I borrowed from the library. Well, that plus Memory of Melody.

At the time of playing, I wrote up a review of KH1, but I wanted to get through all the discs as fast as possible before K had to go on vacation, so I didn't draft up any other review posts. Oops. I'll just... jot down what I remember of my impressions for posterity's sake, I guess. Is it worth noting that I played on Beginner for all of the games? Cuz if so, I'm noting it right here.

( Recollections will be fuzzy and under the cut. )

tinny

This month's theme at

monthlyinspo was very easy: describe what you did this Summer! I've mixed things I watched with non-fannish things I did. Here goes:

Teasers:

( icons - more or less Wu Lei related )

I'm happy to receive all kind of comments, including concrit! All icons shareable. Credit for brushes and textures I use can be found here in my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the Muppets poll, 40.7% of respondents chose Kermit, followed by 37.0% for Animal, and 29.6% for Gonzo. Hugs won the ticky-boxes, followed by paper tigers. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
I'm loving Black Water Sister -- the interactions between adherents of different religions are especially delightful. I'm making my way through it pretty slowly because I haven't had much listening time, but it's great!

Slowed down even more on Inventing the Renaissance. And the entirety of my non-audio reading has been the Guardian subs in Korean (skipping over some bits I don't know, but still looking up way too many words).

Kdramas (so many Kdramas)
( Cut for length. )

Other TV
We've started The Newsreader (Australian, stars Anna Torv) set in a TV newsroom in 1986. It's great so far -- Torv's character has a lot of emotional range, and the other lead is also interestingly complex. (TW: depression, anxiety.)

Also, one episode of Skeleton Crew, which is just as The Goonies-ish as I've heard. We'll give it another episode and see. Prehistoric Planet, which is really good. Just lovely animation and creature work. Bluey -- how is this so consistently excellent?? We're ploughing through season 3, and then there'll be none left. Oh no!

Guardian/Fandom
I am behind on EVERYTHING! Including this post. /o\ Also, I've been going through my browser windows and randomly closing tabs, now and then, so apologies if I left you hanging in a comment exchange. Firefox was just getting too hard to navigate.

Writing/making things
The Wishlist clock is ticking. I keep bumbling around like a bee doing things that are not writing fic, and then after a while saying to myself out loud, "This is not Writing Fic!" My brain gears don't seem to be working properly, and there's this one treat I'm stuck on... gah! Trying to remind myself that deadlines are just games we play with ourselves.

Life/health/mental state things
I have new glasses! They're really great. Except for biking home after picking them up, I've been wearing them non-stop with very few issues. Good for driving, okay for biking, great for TV. The fact that I have a world map and an artwork at the top and bottom of my stairs, respectively, turns out to be very helpful for distracting me from the out-of-focus stairs themselves. My keyboard is wobbly when I look at it, and sometimes the kitchen bench ("counter" for Americans) swims when I turn my head, but that's fine. I have yet to a) get the knack of gracefully attaching my clip-on sunglasses, and b) break my habit of looking under my glasses or taking them off for close work. But I'll get there. Generally I'm super happy, no notes! (My optician was right.)

Next test: we're seeing Avatar: The Way of Water in HFR 3D next week. I'll take my old glasses as backup, just in case.

Korean
Zoom call yesterday, and omg, I fumbled so much. I seriously need to practice speaking before next time. I yearn to rattle things off without having to think about it.

Link dump
Darebee home workouts (via Tumblr) | NHS's Couch to 5k page | AO3 has added Collection Tags | this shot-for-shot remake from Phineas and Ferb of "Genghis Khan" by Miike Snow (via

petra, I know exactly nothing about the canon, I've watched it twice, can't get over how good it is, I think I have... a platypus ship??) | Timothy Olyphant on Conan, taking it all very seriously (TW: toe bruises).

Good things
Jaffa Cakes, tv-watching friend dates, new glasses, writing, betas (♥!), Dreamwidth, a glorious wealth of Kdramas, wikipedia, fandom, Guardian, Guardian, Guardian.

Poll #33664 Fire burn and caldron bubble

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48

View Respondents

Choose a potion

View Answers

sleep
24 (50.0%)

love
2 (4.2%)

immortality
9 (18.8%)

transformation
19 (39.6%)

grow-a-tail
6 (12.5%)

other
8 (16.7%)

ticky-box full of acoustic toothbrushes
9 (18.8%)

ticky-box of but now I can see all the dust and cobwebs
12 (25.0%)

ticky-box full of moose having a picnic buffet and running out of salad
16 (33.3%)

ticky-box full of a top-up prescription for writing mojo
23 (47.9%)

ticky-box full of hugs
35 (72.9%)

jesse_the_k

Just found a great episode on 20,000 Hz, a favorite podcast of mine.

SUBTITLES ON: WHY IS MOVIE DIALOGUE SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?

Answer at access_fandom, a comm I co-mod where we talk about making sure the full fandom experience works for all of us, no matter how our bodyminds work. Like many DW comms, it hosts useful knowledge going back a while, and is always ready to be revived.

umadoshi

Woke up to a very classic autumnal bluster that made me just as glad to not have to venture outside, given the humidity. (One local on Bluesky: "It's a rainy day, and VERY warm. Expect individual ecosystems to form in your rain jacket this morning. Un-zipping the armpit holes for ventilation is a MUST this AM" Another local's response: "This is the sort of weather report I want. Not “plan for this temp or that precipitation”. I want “don’t straighten your hair, and make sure you have good armpit ventilation.”")

And our friendly local meteorologist measured 20.5mm of rain overnight--hardly drought-ending, but still very appreciated.

I don't know how widespread this sale is, but at least on Kobo Canada, the ebook of Margaret Eby's You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself When Cooking Feels Impossible is currently $2.99.

I've bought this book twice, when after reading it in ebook I really wanted a hard copy. Have I actually cooked from it? No. (No one is shocked.) But for a second rec,

runpunkrun reviewed it in a more informative way last month. (In comments there,

jesse_the_k noted that this subset of cookbooks--which includes other excellent books such as The Sad Bastard Cookbook--is called "struggle cooking".)

starandrea

In times like these it feels important to be visible when spoons and safety allow, so I just wanted to say: you are loved, and we're here for you. You're in this world to be exactly who you are.

In the immortal words of a fellow teacher explaining the plan for getting three different field trip groups along multiple walking routes to the same destination at the same time (cartoon maps and faux football play diagrams were involved), when responding to the following question:

"What do we do if it rains?"
"...If it rains, we go out and we fight. We fight and we fight and we win."

Relatedly, in the way that all things are, I'm enjoying

communal_creators right now. I joined, as with

battleshipex, because Marci did. And as with

battleshipex, it has done great things for my creative output and self-expression. (Along with drabble community

chenqing_100, a serene place that inspires me to contemplate the drabble-esque qualities of classical Chinese.)

Autumn arrives as well, and with it, the soft opening of my indoor light garden. Every single one of my high intensity lights from Gardeners' Supply is going strong, but none of my low-intensity lights from Amazon has lasted more than two seasons. On a quest, then, to find new gentle lights for my less sun-hungry plants, I tried the Gardeners' Supply light guide (illustrated) and laughed at the following multiple choice question:

"What kind of gardener are you?"
1) Tabletop: "I just want to keep my African violets happy."
2) Floor Plant Fanatic: "I've got a few monster-sized Monsteras and fiddle-leaf figs to tend to."
3) Plant Parenting Pro: "I'm growing light-loving houseplants of all sizes, including an orchid, several succulents, and a sago palm."

Option 3 may not quite cover it, but that's as high as the scale goes and I embrace it.

anehan

Well, it's been a hot minute since I last did a reading roundup, the reason being that for about a month I read nothing but Red, White and Royal Blue fic. There's a lot more of it now than when I last checked. The movie effect in action, perhaps? Anyway, Henry/Alex ftw, even though I cringe every time Henry is called the Prince of Wales. Or a monarch. Or when he's said to abdicate.

Anyway. Books.

Recently read

Grace Burrowes, A Gentleman Fallen on Hard Times (The Lord Julian Mysteries #1). Historical sleuthing, with an MC who used to be an intelligence officer in Wellington's army, only to fuck up in a spectacular way. So, on top of having PTSD crowned with some more PTSD, he has to deal with being treated as a traitor by almost everyone who knows anything about him.

The novel has a really high rating on Goodreads, and IMO it lives up to it. A low-stakes mystery in the sense that there's no murder, but high-stakes in the sense of the effect on the characters and their lives. Highly recommend.

Siiri Enoranta, Keuhkopuiden uni, which I read for a queer fantasy book club I recently joined. The cover copy describes this as a "mysterious and intelligent novel, decadent fantasy at its best". I beg to differ. It's a disjointed, confused mess that reads like an early draft. Not without interesting bits, but those don't make up for the utter boredom of slogging through it. It relies heavily on its dreamy, lyrical prose, but I think that if you write a book where stylistic choices are so central, you really need to make sure those choices work. (See my comment about it reading like an early draft.)

The baffling thing is that it's got very good reviews from critics. It almost seems like it's one of those novels that you have to like because to not like it means you are too plebeian to understand it.

Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold, Death by Silver (Julian Lynes and Ned Mathey #1). I really liked Scott's Astreiant series, so obviously I wanted to read her mystery novels. And besides, historical queer mystery novels are right up my alley. This is a solid one, though somehow a bit clumsy at times. Still, I'll definitely read the second book in the series.

Currently reading

Uh, too many WIPs. Should probably pick them up again. It's just that I last read them over a month ago, on account of the fall down the FirstPrince rabbit hole.

Up next

No fucking idea. Finished Death by Silver last night, and now I'm at sea.

ysobel

Me: Dear brain, I know my mom is increasingly fucked, but obsessing in circles about what to do about that isn't helpful.

Brain: Okay what if I just dwell on the time in high school when you tried to be captain of the academic decathlon team, and the faculty sponsor gave y'all "practice questions" to work on that, when you got to competition, turned out to have been that year's actual questions, meaning you looked not just like cheaters but incompetent cheaters that didn't even have the intelligence to make it look plausible

Me: In actual fact, that doesn't help...

jennaria

I am not dead, but I currently hate everything. (Personal stuff, which is sufficiently embarrassing that I'm not going into detail. I am just flopped on the floor and screaming into a pillow. Metaphorically.)

I keep meaning to write up a review of the new SUPERMAN movie (which I did not hate), and K-POP DEMON HUNTERS (which I also did not hate), and perhaps plans for NaNo. But it ain't happening today. I am posting to vent, in a small way, and also I realized I hadn't posted since July, and here it is late September. So: not dead, vexed, grr.

china_shop

keep up fan_flashworks streak
finish current wishlist gift (quickly!) and write 3 or 4 more (so many tempting prompts!!)
finish two WIPs that are more than 4 months old, especially the Zhu Hong one)
Yuletide & treats?

Speaking of Yuletide, I think it's okay to post what you've nominated? I've nommed a handful of Kdramas: The Time of Fever, Unintentional Love Story[*], Good Manager, While You Were Sleeping, and Family by Choice (the dads).

[*] I'm never sure if it's okay to nom The Time of Fever and Unintentional Love Story? The pairing is the same for both. Ot1h, the shows have very different vibes, and ULS has different other characters as well. Otoh, you could reasonably write "ToF" fic set during ULS, or "ULS" fic informed by ToF... Mostly I nommed them both because I didn't know what other people in the (tiny, tiny) fandom might offer/request if they signed up, and I didn't want to mismatch if they only offered/requested one show or the other.
tl;dr: Umbrella fandoms solve a lot of problems! ;-p