Reading

Grr. Argh.

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.

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Writing/making Goals for the rest of the year

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

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Art: Cheng Yi seduces me again

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Current Mood: busy

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turning of the seasons

Mostly food-related things for the first day of fall

It's autumn! Or spring! Happy equinox!

And happy Rosh Hashanah to those celebrating! May the coming year be sweet.

It's not actually in honor of autumn's arrival, but we have a chicken marinating in the fridge for tonight's supper. ( food chat under the cut: very little more about the chicken, a bit about apples, and a bit about breakfast [read: banana bread] prep )

I don't understand

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Weekly proof of life: work, impending work, and at least a bit of clutter tamed

Posted elsenet yesterday: Queen's Quality is the only manga I've worked on with a simulpub release (for the last few years of its run), and now I'm down to odds & ends and small corrections that need doing for its final compiled volume. Feels a bit strange, having properly said goodbye months ago when adapting the epilogue.

That's this weekend's work, which I'd hoped to get done sooner than this (due to the Dayjob crunch starting this week, not because I'm running late), but I don't have the translation for my next assignment yet anyway, so I guess it's worked out fine. I do hope I can get this done today, though. (And I wish I'd gotten that translation and could have started adapting it this weekend, given. >.<)

Queen's Quality is one of those series that switched publishers/titles partway through its run (very early, in this case), and there's always something a bit amusing about being like, "I'm working on vol. 25, which is the final volume. I've worked on this story for 27 of its 28 volumes." (Which is to say, in this case, that Queen's Quality was preceded by three volumes of an initial series called QQ Sweeper, and someone else adapted vol. 1 of that one.)

scruloose and I have been getting some household puttering done, which was desperately needed. We're both prone to letting piles of ~stuff~ slowly accumulate, and getting some of that beaten back before work swallows my life for however long is a relief. (Especially since that type of visual clutter is one of the sensory things that starts to bother me far too easily when I'm stressed. It starts to feel like I'm being loomed over.

scruloose also hung up a piece of wall shelving for displaying things in my office! I have no clear idea yet of what will wind up on it, as most small things that go on such a shelf are just sort of stashed around my office in bins or odd places. I'll have to dig through some drawers and see what surfaces.

(I see the usefulness of the "a place for everything, and everything in its place" concept, but am terribly unclear on how that actually works for most people in practice, given how many sorts of objects [that do in fact see use] don't really lend themselves to "this object resides here in the house". We're very much not minimalists, which doesn't help, but...yeah. Like what do you do with, say, a vacuum cleaner if you don't have some closet space that lends itself to being the vacuum's home?)

(A while ago my mother-in-law forwarded a couple of pics she'd come across of our place not long after we'd moved in, when we were unpacked and a bit settled. It's incredible how alien it looked--the original horrible paint colors, some furniture that's been LONG since replaced--but I think the biggest thing is the complete absence of anything cat-related.)

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Guardian fic: Experiments in Dynamic Translation (CSZ/SW, CSZ/SW/ZYL)

I posted my unexpected-kink fic for the Riddle round of

fan_flashworks, and today I archived it to AO3. It's part of my Breakage and Repair 'verse which is Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives (mostly), Canon Divergence, but all you really need to know is that it's early-relationship Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan.

Title: Experiments in Dynamic Translation (9003 words) [Explicit]
Relationships: Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Chu Shuzhi/Hei Pao Shi
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Relationships with complicated history, Being closeted in some spheres, Domestic, Unplanned/Impromptu Kink, Identity Porn (literal), Dom/sub, soft D/s, Dom!Shen Wei, Envoy!Shen Wei, Sub!Chu Shuzhi, (Zhao Yunlan enjoys the show), Fealty, Orgasm denial/delay, Dark-Energy Sex Toys, Low-key impromptu bondage, Dixing-Powers Powered Sex, Anal Sex, Voyeurism, Frottage, Long Hair
Summary:

It’s been just over ten weeks since his and Da Qing’s return to the land of the living, and in that time, Shen Wei has not yet had occasion to don his robes of office in front of Shuzhi—or indeed, to conduct any Envoy business at all in his presence. He’s visited the SID once or twice on official matters, but only in Haixing clothes, and he’s been sure to keep his manner light and casual in the public areas. Formal liaising is for the privacy of Zhao Yunlan’s office.

Now, faced with the prospect of a Dixing state dinner, Shen Wei discovers he’s slipped into—not so much keeping secrets, as compartmentalising. Again.

As I said in my end notes, it’s hilarious to me that my first E-rated fic in this ‘verse is something I usually DNW (D/s, especially when it leans into existing power dynamics). For some reason, it worked for me in this specific scenario.

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There is a decided lack of whimsy in my life and man, it's a huge bummer. Today feels especially damning, so I'm gonna make a post!

I'm waiting to sign the paperwork but I've got a job at a nationwide pet supply store. I'll start as a part-time bather and after at least six months and 200 baths, I'll be applying for the grooming academy. I never really thought I'd go back into dog grooming but I have experience, enjoy it, plus it's pretty AI proof, so. You know! Also I love interacting with dogs and breaking down my day into assignments will be good, I think! The hiring manager was off yesterday and will be off today and Sunday, so I'll probably have to wait until Monday to move forward with the paperwork (I got a verbal confirmation, we were just waiting on the background check, which came through yesterday). A little frustrating because I'm really eager to get the show in the road, but I will try to remain patient. ;3;

Related, was able to talk to my doctor about my extreme panic and anxiety, and she upped my prescriptions so here's hoping that helps! I would very much like for it to! I need to find an actual therapist but medication working would also be very good! This house needs an income.

Yesterday I went out and used the little wood chipper to chew up a ton of the old, dead blackberry vines we took out earlier this year. It's not hard but it's tedious and they're pretty stabby. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while so I'm glad I finally found the energy and attention to do it!

Today we're going to a farm fest at one of the local community gardens. It should be a nice little community event, I'm looking forward to music and food, lol.

I'm participating in Kinktober this year, is anyone else? I'm working off the official list( Which I'll put under here since it's explicit ) and I'm pretty excited! I've already started working on mine, since I'm very slow, lmao. They'll all be in black and white since I don't want to try to worry about colors (and I mean, it's a play on Inktober, and I know ink comes in all colors, the tradition is black) and I'm having so much fun. I'm also trying more dynamic poses. I'm planning on posting them daily on bsky, although they're updating their ToS to be pretty shitty towards pornography. :\ I'm so frustrated with how the internet is going (and also everything that is terrible that is happening) and I just want to be able to draw and post porn in peace. But that's not how things are going.

AT LEAST DW IS STILL HERE. <3 <3 <3 Once I'm getting a steady income again, I'm going to put a little towards DW like twice a month or something. We've got to try to protect the spaces we have left. I'll still be posting on Bsky for as long as I can, but. It's a bummer!

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Misc

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I know what I did this summer

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Current Mood: drained

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Almost two weeks' worth of reading

The seasonal crunch at Dayjob hasn't even started yet (so soon, though) and I already feel like I'm falling behind. >.< But I've been reading, so here's a fairly bare-bones post about that.

scruloose and I finished listening to Exit Strategy, and reluctantly are not moving forward until after said crunch period. This is a good resting point. We're both really enjoying these, which isn't really a surprise (heaven knows everyone raves about the Murderbot audiobooks!) except that I so thoroughly think of myself as not being someone who takes in much(/any) audio media other than music. It's possible that these are the first audiobooks I've listened to since...maybe since some Robert Asprin book on cassette during a family road trip when I was a teenager (which I only recall even that much of because the reader's delivery of "'Gleep', said the dragon" has stuck with me), and whatever snatches of audiobook I've heard while road tripping with Ginny and Kas.

Saint Death's Daughter (C.S.E. Cooney) was a really good read and rather brutal; I imagine I'll pick up the sequel at some point.

Julie Leong's The Teller of Small Fortunes was a much softer book (it may count as "cozy", but that seems to be a very subjective classification). It didn't leave much of a mark on me, but I enjoyed it.

The most recent novel I finished was When Women Were Dragons (Kelly Barnhill), which was one of those books where I didn't think I had much idea of what it would be like but then found it was nothing like I'd (subconsciously, I guess) expected, based on having read a few sentences about it somewhere. It too was good, and the fact that both the tone and the actual unfolding of the concept threw me is on me, not it.

Now I'm reading The Starving Saints (Caitlin Starling), but I'm only a few chapters in.

Non-fiction: Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World is not a fast read, but then, I didn't suppose it would be. Slow progress is still being made.

I mostly don't mention cookbooks I've read, but a couple days ago I finished reading the ebook of The League of Kitchens Cookbook: Brilliant Tips, Secret Methods & Favorite Family Recipes from Around the World by Lisa Kyung Gross and the Women of the League of Kitchens Cooking School, with Rachel Wharton. And then the second book of collected Murderbot novellas (3-4) popped up on Book Outlet, tempting me to place an order even though I ordered from them pretty recently, and they also had the hard copy of The League of Kitchens Cookbook, so I pounced on it.

I don't remember where I heard about it, but someone somewhere mentioned it and then I snapped it up a while back when the ebook was on sale. I had no real idea what the League of Kitchens was until I was reading, and it turns out to be such a neat thing! From the book copy:

Founded in 2014 by Lisa Kyung Gross, the daughter of a Korean immigrant and a Jewish New Yorker, League of Kitchens is a unique cooking school that empowers immigrant women to share culinary expertise and culture through hands-on cooking workshops, both in their homes and online. The instructors pass on their knowledge, skills, recipes, and most importantly, their secrets for how to cook with love. At its heart, League of Kitchens is a celebration of the invaluable contributions of immigrants to our food culture and society.

IIRC from the intro to the book, they don't/didn't go searching for people from specific backgrounds as instructors; rather, it's about finding people who match what they're looking for, regardless of their country of origin. (Here's their current list of instructors.) Some classes are taught online, which is tempting, although I don't realistically like my odds of ever actually signing up.

(One thing I really like about the book is that the recipe instructions are broken down into incredible detail. I pretty much always want more detail than I'm given when learning something or being asked to do something. When I was still very early in the book, I was excitedly calling out to

scruloose about how the recipe I was reading--which was not for something super-complicated, I don't think--was broken down into seventeen steps. SEVENTEEN. Yes, please!)