solarbird | Reading

An addendum to yesterday's QOTD from Jim Henson: When I was growing up, Jim Henson meant a lot to me. Not only because I enjoyed the shows and movies he created, but also also because I knew that he was also from Mississippi, so seeing what he was able to accomplish gave me hope that I would be able to rise above my geographic origins and do something worthwhile. When seemingly everyone who produces everything you enjoy or admire is from someplace else, you cling that much harder to the one example you have who came from the same place you do.

neonvincent

This didn't mention the Spartans marching in the Macy's Parade, so I didn't include it in WMUR covers the Spartans in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: lazy
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Majority Report Twitch stream

james_davis_nicoll

...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!

Consider Setting Your Space Operas on Saturn

james_davis_nicoll

A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.

Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams

canyonwalker

Thanksgiving triplog #6
Manassas, VA · Mon, 24 Nov 2025. 8am.

A few times already this trip Hawk has grumbled that "It's all about eating." A few times already— and we've only been here two days!

It's true that a lot of our plans this trip are plans around food. But that's a natural byproduct of a trip that's a lot of social calls. It's natural to propose, "Let's get together for lunch/dinner," like we did twice with different friends on Saturday, or when we're visiting relatives for the day, like on Sunday, start by suggesting, "How about we go out for lunch together?"

Then there's the fact we built this trip around Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is all about food. But Thanksgiving is also about togetherness. You don't have to stuff your face just because you're enjoying the company. Though when the company is good and the food is good, sometimes that happens naturally. 😅

rionaleonhart

More of the Silent Hill 2 remake! I'm still working my way through Brookhaven Hospital.

James, you cannot keep jumping down or climbing into or sticking your hand in ~~or fucking~~ every hole you come across! It's such a bad habit!

You also probably shouldn't keep injecting yourself with every syringe you find lying around Silent Hill. I'll be honest: I think these are unlikely to be sterile.

I yelped aloud when Pyramid Head said hello on the roof. I wonder if they changed that particular encounter specifically so it could still startle people who'd played the original game.

Actually, it might be a camera angle thing. In the original Silent Hill 2, hearing the door to the roof open just out of shot and not knowing what's coming is absolutely terrifying, but that's something you can only do with a fixed camera angle. In the remake, with its freely movable camera, you could swing the camera over to the door as soon as you heard it open, which immediately strips away that 'oh, God, I know something's here with me but I can't see what it is' terror.

I hadn't really contemplated it before, but going from the restricted camera of the original to the free camera of the remake is a pretty huge change in a horror game. What you can and can't see makes such a big difference to the atmosphere in horror, and it's a lot harder to limit what the player can see if they have full control of the camera.

I'd be interested to know all the ways the remake team tried to address this issue. It might be the reason some monsters, mannequins in particular, will run away from the player when spotted and hide in a different room. You've seen the monster, you know it's here, but it's removed itself from your sight; all you know is that it's somewhere nearby, waiting to attack. It's a way to create that sense of 'there's something here, but I can't see it' even when the player can quickly scan their immediate surroundings. (Of course, the radio is also good for creating that sense in both the original and the remake.)

The YouTube music algorithm recently served me a song that I might have heard in passing at some point, but had never really listened to before. Listening to the lyrics, I found myself thinking, Wow, this song is absolutely perfect for James and Mary.

Had it been any other song, the logical next step would be to contemplate naming a fic after it. Unfortunately, the song in question was 'My Immortal' by Evanescence.

letzan

High-level stats for week of 2025-11-11 - 2025-11-17

Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 10248 (+111 from last week)

Works I classified F/F: 5671 (+52 from last week) (2442 new, 3229 continued)

0.59% of all 959013 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week

A few callouts this week:

Murder Drones returns, replacing Alien Stage.
League of Legends celebrates 210 consecutive weeks on the chart. Harry Potter reaches 360 consecutive weeks (out of 889 total appearances).
Signups are open through November for a new Femslash Gift Exchange, with works to reveal next Valentine's Day.

( Full top-20 table and description of methodology after the jump )

dialecticdreamer

Deciding Anew
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1312
[Third week of December, 2016]

:: Frank the Crank gets a very surprising visitor to the repair shop, with an even more surprising offer. Part of the City Engines story arc in the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story came about as a result of the comments on “Bad Decisions, Good Decisions.”

The glossy silver car that pulled to a stop in the parking lot was less than two years old, and rode heavy. Frank recognized the weight of high-end safety panels hidden in the lines of the “safest SUV in the world.” He wiped his hands and moved away from the car under the canvas awning.

The woman who stepped out of the back of the vehicle wore pearl drop earrings and a pair of combs inlaid with mother-of-pearl, but also wore a navy blue coverall. A closer look revealed the rectangle of darker fabric where a sticky label had recently been. The coverall had no name tag, and no logo embroidered on it. “Could I help you?” he asked as he approached.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: worried

brithistorian

Presented without comment, except that I have always loved Jim Henson and I agree with this quote 100%:

"When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for my having been there." - Jim Henson

brithistorian

About a month ago, NMIXX came out with their latest sing, "Blue Valentine."

Watch on YouTube

I loved it — I've listened to it so many times! One part of it really confused me, though: From the start of the prechorus (at 0:40) until the beginning of the chorus (at 0:56), the tempo suddenly drops, then has an accelerando until the chorus begins. But I was really confused, though, because the line "You'll always be my blue valentine" in the chorus took the same amount of the time as when the same line was sung at the beginning of the song, but it felt faster. Fortunately, when React to the K (a YouTube channel that feature classical and jazz music students reacting to K-pop songs) did their video reacting to this song, they had an entire section where Liam (a classical percussionist) explains what's happening rhythmically during the prechorus — it took him almost 2 minutes to explain what happened in that 16 seconds of the song, but to me, it was worth it — I'd listened to that part of the song over and over so many times trying to figure out what was happening there, so it was great to finally understand.

cosmolinguist

I had a pretty good day for it being the blackest day on my calendar.

Twenty years ago today my brother died. It was thanksgiving day, that year. He died in a car accident. No other cars involved, he wasn't drunk, the weather was fine, he was on familiar roads...

So there was no reason for it, no lesson to be learned from it or cause to take up because of it.

Normally I will have a wee dram for the occasion, but tonight I went to the gym instead, knowing that the rest of the week is too full to allow it and not wanting to let the good effect of actually making it to trans gym on Saturday wither away already. It was a good choice but means I got home and as usual went upstairs to a shower and bed.

It was a pretty good day. I woke up absurdly early as usual but didn't feel tired. I got up and did my morning chores (opened the curtains, emptied the dishwasher, made a pot of tea), made breakfast and started work an hour early. My manager is off all week and his manager is off today, so while I'm awaiting feedback from them on a report that's perilously close to its deadline now, it's not my problem if they don't get it to me. I didn't have many meetings either (though the two I did have were bad enough), it was much warmer than it had been at the end of last week and the sun was even out sometimes.

Most of all, what made this November good is that I wasn't fretting about my dog dying (like last year), I didn't break my ankle and need an operation (like two years ago), and a dear friend wasn't having a psychotic episode where I was the only person she'd talk to (like three years ago).

November just sucks.

But this one has been okay. Yes it's been full of work and of counterprotesting fascists, but it's also had some fun stuff and there's more happening this week: a birthday party, a wedding, a new Knives Out movie, a thanksgiving dinner that I'm not cooking...

Twenty years.

It doesn't feel long ago.

And yet I've also been so many people since then. I'm sad I didn't have the chance to find out who he would have been.

canyonwalker

Thanksgiving triplog #5
Manassas, VA · Sun, 23 Nov 2025. 11pm.

Today we visited my family in suburban Virginia outside of Washington, DC. Well, we visited part of my family. We visited my youngest sister, C., and my mom, who lives with her. And even there we only saw part of C's family as her husband and two of their kids are out of town at an academic convention and their oldest is at college and not arriving home for Thanksgiving break until late Tuesday night.

Past visits with my family have been... frustrating. C and her kids are a whirlwind of activity, and they've never paused any of that activity to see us when we visit. It's frustrating we visit once a year from 2,500 miles away it feels like they make no time for us. And it's not even like we're asking to be house guests. We have always stayed in a hotel and rented a car and simply tried to plan which days/times we can see them at their house.

Last year I made peace with this and settled on a short visit. I'd see them for just one day and whoever wasn't there, wasn't there.

I did the same again this year. Thus I only saw my mom, my sister C, and half of her family. I would've like to to see my brother-in-law and my other three nephews, too, but instead of feeling disappointed about who was too busy living their lives I focused on enjoying my time with those who were there.

With expectations set appropriately Hawk and I had a great time. We spent the day with my sister and mom. Two of her kids were in and out with fretting about homework and other stuff. For example, one happily joined us in going out for lunch, but the other preferred to stay home to work on his paper for government class (he's a HS senior). But really, what kind of 17yo is like, "I don't want to see my uncle and aunt who visit just once a year and I also don't want pizza for lunch"? When we were able to catch them standing still— and not hiding in their rooms— I was able to engage them in conversation about what they're working on now and what they're looking forward to next. I even got the shy HS senior to talk about which college he's applied to is his #1 choice— his mom interrupted, "That's news to me!"— and what degree he expects to pursue if he goes there.

It wound up being a surprisingly late evening as we stayed until just after 10. I thought things might fizzle out a few hours earlier than that, either because they were all busy or because we'd be tired. But after having such a tiring day yesterday (so tiring that I slept in a car in a parking lot in the middle of the day) I'd gotten good sleep last night to feel 100% today. Plus we were all having such a good time with a rollicking conversation and lots of verbal repartee Alas, I did get up at 6:15am this morning, so by 10pm I was feeling we should leave so I could drive back to the hotel safely. We called it an evening and left on a high note.

james_davis_nicoll

Bundle of Holding's 13th annual feast of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks.

Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025

malurette

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

cosmolinguist

Last Monday morning I was supposed to have a voice therapy appointment but our internet was borked. I had to drag D out of bed just after 9 and make him deal with a confusing and mysterious problem. He bodged a solution really quickly but I was supposed to have a voice therapy appointment at 9:30 and I'd texted the clinician warning her that I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it. We had

Thank you for letting me know. Unfortunately as it is such late notice this will count as a missed appointment. Please let me know if you would like to re-book the session, and if there is anything we can do to support attending going forwards. If you do not reply within 7 days we will assume that you do not wish to continue voice therapy and you will be discharged.

Something about that "if you would like to re-book the session" rubbed me the wrong way -- I waited years for this referral! -- and all of a sudden I didn't want to re-book. I was put off by how the technical problems were handled at the first appointment, and even though they didn't recur and I was confident I wouldn't have them again because once she agreed to use Teams I gave her my work address where Teams works fine every day so I didn't anticipate any recurrence.

I just. Still felt weird about it, like I was doing it wrong by treating this as an investigation about something I'm curious about rather than something where I had clear and specific Transition Goals in mind. Indigo might be a little too patient-led for me, heh; I appreciate the ways it's more flexible and less judgmental than the old Gender Identity Clinic system, but this isn't the first time I've struggled with mismatched expectations: I'm expecting some kind of information that doesn't exist and even when I ask for it I'm told to look at social media websites I don't use; I'm like you're the NHS, don't you have a photocopy-burned brochure for me?

(This feeling I'm having here is like a grain of sand in comparison to the deserts-worth of the same feeling that I'm having when it comes to top surgery... I've written thousands of words about that so far and it's still not ready to share.)

It just felt like too high a hill to climb, so I've let the seven days go by and now I'm discharged from the service. I hope someone else who's chomping at the bit for their voice to sound different in some particular way is making good use of the appointment instead.

james_davis_nicoll

2023: King Charles III is the most unpopular British King in the last 60-odd years, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case’s comic routine is poorly received, and Sunak’s government ushers in a golden age of soaring STD rates.

Poll #33874 Clarke Award Finalists 2023

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

View Respondents

Which 2023 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
4 (21.1%)

Metronome by Tom Watson
0 (0.0%)

Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
2 (10.5%)

The Anomaly (translation of L'anomalie) by Hervé Le Tellier
0 (0.0%)

The Coral Bones by E. J. Swift
0 (0.0%)

The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
15 (78.9%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2023 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
Metronome by Tom Watson
Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
The Anomaly (translation of L'anomalie) by Hervé Le Tellier
The Coral Bones by E. J. Swift
The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard

neonvincent

Instead, it's an ad, so I wrote Vox explains 'The salmon dilemma' instead.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Tinderly Twitch stream

james_davis_nicoll

Just as the Great Fire of Rome was a boon for the building trade, so too will a modern catastrophe be a boon for used book stores.

The Coming Golden Age of Used Books

canyonwalker

Thanksgiving triplog #4
Manassas, VA · Sat, 22 Nov 2025. 9:15pm.

It's been a busy day today. We arrived early this morning on a red-eye flight having gotten maybe one hour of sleep, ate breakfast in a convenience store parking lot, and met friends for lunch and took a nap in a thrift store parking lot. And that was all before 3pm. Since then we've driven 45 minutes to another city, met more friends, had another meal with them, and then driven another 45 minutes around the metro area to where we've checked into our hotel for the next 4 nights.

Our dinner hosts this evening were Joe and Adriane, another pair of Hawk's friends from college. It's great that she has close friends she's kept in touch with. I've lost touch with all of mine. We met them at their house in Silver Spring, Maryland, where we've visited a number of times before. In fact the last time we saw them was pretty much this same day last year. ...Not the same numerical date but precisely "the Saturday before Thanksgiving".

Last year we went out to dinner at a nearby pub with Joe and Adriane, where I imagined my father may literally have drank beer with his college chums in the 1960s. But this year there was no pub-going. For one, Hawk didn't like their food. For another, I was still feeling fazed from a nearly sleepless night and didn't want to risk the sleepiness caused by even one drink of alcohol. So we ordered in Italian food and pizza and I passed even on the beer and liquor they offered me in the house. Me playing it safe turned out to be important because it allowed to spend several hours with them, chatting amiably in their living room, and still drive another 45 minutes on to our hotel for the night.

Now we're at our hotel for the night— tonight and the next 3 nights, too— in Manassas, Virginia, in the suburbs well west of Washington, D.C. What's in Manassas? you might ask unless you're from the area or are a Civil War buff. Well, for us, there's really nothing in Manassas. Like where we stayed on our pre-Thanksgiving trip last year it's a hotel location we picked because it's centrally located between places we planned to visit in the next few days. Though with a bunch of my relatives ghosting our texts and/or saying, "Sorry, something came up" I'm not sure how many of those plans will materialize into actual visits.

Anyway, it's late now, Or, rather, it feels late. It's 9:15pm and I am crashing, hard. The weight of last night's red-eye is really hitting me now. The parking lot nap I took this afternoon recharged me just enough to make it through dinner. But now my battery indicator is blinking "2%". Time to get to bed.

autumninpluto posting in

addme_fandom

Name: Sim / Simmy

Age group: In my late 20s :')

Country: Somewhere in Southeast Asia

Subscription/Access Policy:

I generally subscribe back if we have shared interests and if the vibes are good. I don't really have access-locked posts yet, so I don't have a clear policy on that for now.
I'm queer, sex positive, anti-censorship in media and fiction, and anti-generative AI. If this is a problem, please refrain from subscribing, thank you!
Minors are generally fine; any possible adult content will be age-restricted as needed.

Main Fandoms: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, My Hero Academia

Other Fandoms: Spy x Family, Hetalia, Dangan Ronpa, Hunter x Hunter, Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

Fannish Interests: Writing fanfics, making fanart, participating in community events or challenges, meta, rambling about headcanons or just thoughts about a thing in general

OTPs and Ships: I'm not very particular about top/bottom dynamics; I have preferences, but I'm fine with whichever arrangement. I'm also a huge multi-shipper and if I list everything out, this will get really long, so I'll just list my top ships lol

FE3H

Sylvain Jose Gautier / Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Marianne von Edmund / Hilda Valentine Goneril
Caspar von Bergliez / Linhardt von Hevring
- I'm also into Caspar von Bergliez / Ashe Ubert / Linhardt von Hevring <3

My Hero Academia

Todoroki Shouto / Bakugo Katsuki / Midoriya Izuku (poly ship/OT3, but all variations are okay too, like BakuDeku or TodoBaku, etc.)
- In order of preference, it's BakuDeku, TodoDeku, and TodoBaku
Kaminari Denki / Jiro Kyouka
Togata Mirio / Amajiki Tamaki

Other ships: Killugon, Hisoillu, Okubade, Twiyor, Damianya, USUK, GerIta

Movies: Chicago, Spirited Away, Forrest Gump, Star Wars (1-6; I've also watched 7-9 but I honestly don't remember much)
Other Anime/Manga: Code Geass, 86, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Naruto, Chainsaw Man, The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity, Dungeon Meshi, Sousou no Frieren; I tend to like a lot of shounen/seinen, but I also like slice-of-life, comedy, and romcoms.

Books: I used to read a lot when I was a teenager, but now, not so much. I did like The Hunger Games series, and The Princess Diaries.

Music: BTS, NMIXX, Fall Out Boy, Vaundy, Yorushika, Two Door Cinema Club, etc.

Games: Some other Fire Emblem games (9, 10, 13, 14, 17); Civilization VI; Persona 3; Persona 5; Pokémon
Webcomics/Manhwa: The Remarried Empress, True Beauty

Current Mood: nervous

Profile

solarbird

I'm on Mastodon!

November 2025

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Page Summary

brithistorian - Addendum to yesterday's QOTD
neonvincent - Rejected video for Macy's Parade post
james_davis_nicoll - Consider Setting Your Space Operas (near) Saturn
james_davis_nicoll - Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
canyonwalker - Eating Our Way Through Friends and Family
rionaleonhart - Taking 'Any Hole's A Goal' To Its Logical Conclusion.
letzan - Femslash week in review: 2025-11-11 - 2025-11-17
dialecticdreamer - Deciding Anew (part 1 of 1, complete)
brithistorian - QOTD: Jim Henson on life goals
brithistorian - SOTD: NMIXX, "Blue Valentine" (plus bonus music theory)
cosmolinguist - Twenty years
canyonwalker - A Day with Family. Finding the Pace.
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025
malurette - [film] Crippled Avengers
cosmolinguist - Catching up on other news
james_davis_nicoll - Clarke Award Finalists 2023
neonvincent - If this were a complete episode, I'd have shared it at Crazy Eddie's Motie News
james_davis_nicoll - The Coming Golden Age of Used Books
canyonwalker - Another Meal with Friends. Getting Settled In.
autumninpluto in addme_fandom - I forgot to add a title, so here we are.

収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

cheers, love - the cavalry's queer!

Reading

Addendum to yesterday's QOTD

Rejected video for Macy's Parade post

Consider Setting Your Space Operas (near) Saturn

Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams

Eating Our Way Through Friends and Family

Taking 'Any Hole's A Goal' To Its Logical Conclusion.

Femslash week in review: 2025-11-11 - 2025-11-17

Deciding Anew (part 1 of 1, complete)

QOTD: Jim Henson on life goals

SOTD: NMIXX, "Blue Valentine" (plus bonus music theory)

Twenty years

A Day with Family. Finding the Pace.

Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025

[film] Crippled Avengers

Catching up on other news

Clarke Award Finalists 2023

If this were a complete episode, I'd have shared it at Crazy Eddie's Motie News

The Coming Golden Age of Used Books

Another Meal with Friends. Getting Settled In.

I forgot to add a title, so here we are.

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Links

November 2025

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