Hanukkah 2025
Dec. 14th, 2025 08:55 pm
...And when I saw "we", I mean Hawk. Hawk lit the candle and said the brief blessing in Hebrew. She grew up in a Jewish family. I'm just supporting her because I'm married into a Jewish family.
For more insight on what Hanukkah is (hint: it is NOT "Jewish Christmas" 😅) check out this gentile's guide to Hanukkah I wrote a few years ago.
Exceptional Holiday (part 1 of 1, complete)
Dec. 14th, 2025 08:06 pmBy Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1518
[21 December 2016]
:: A young woman is expecting to have the day off work for a nontraditional holiday. There’s enough of a snag that a stranger steps in to ensure that the problem gets cleared up. Part of the Polychrome Heroics universe, and written for the December of 2025 Giftmas event. Many thanks to the prompter for the wonderful idea. ::
“You called me shouting to get in on time today, after I had asked for today off weeks ago,” Summer Longacre declared, crossing her arms next to the small lectern labeled with a crisp sign which read, “Please wait to be seated.”. The name badge pinned on Summer’s uniform shirt held a strip of beige masking tape with her first name written on it in permanent marker.
Elaine didn’t look up. “Everybody works the entire week before Christmas because the diner is closed that day.”
( Read more... )
Top 25 K-pop songs of 2025!
Dec. 14th, 2025 03:18 pmNME (which seems have a much better of understanding on K-pop than Rolling Stone) has released a list of the [top 25 K-pop songs of 2025]! I scrolled to it, sure that I would have forgotten a lot of songs from earlier in the year, and was pleasantly surprised to see there were some I hadn't heard before, so it was like an early birthday present from NME!
I was also looking to see if NMIXX made the list — I've loved their new songs, and I was hoping that other people appreciated them. I was happy to see NMIXX's "High Horse" ranked #7 — four places higher than Blackpink's "Jump" (which I thought was highly overrated and wouldn't have ranked so high had it been by someone other than Blackpink). I then kept scrolling and was pleased and surprised to see H1-Key's "Summer Was You" ranked #6. Then I kept scrolling and was absolutely gobsmacked to see Huntr/x's "Golden" ranked #2 — I expected it to take the top spot, and was extremely surprised to find it in #2! So what was #1? I had absolutely no idea. I scrolled and was surprised and overjoyed to find NMIXX's "Spinnin' on It" at #1!
A day too big for one day
Dec. 14th, 2025 09:10 pmAlmost nothing has happened today, but that gives me a chance to talk about everything else that happened yesterday, hopefully before I forget.
I woke up and actually managed to get the train and tram to lift club. The last couple times I'd tried to make it there on public transport hadn't worked out, so it was nice to be able to make it. Especially because it's the last one of the year! At the end I gave George a hug that he said was so good it changed his life. "I'm a very enthusiastic hugger!" he said. "People aren't usually able to meet my energy!" But I guess I did. I love George, even if he does put me on a pedestal a little bit sometimes.
I got a lift home, with had the usual good chats with my pal D. I went right to Teddy's house to walk him, because our usual evening-walk had been swapped to morning walk this once. So this was not only the day that his human, Graham, was having his knee operation, he was having it as we were walking! I let Teddy lead me around the neighborhood for as long as I could but I had a big list of things to do so had to drag him home eventually. I had a good catch-up with Sylvia -- her sister was there, who is so effusive about how much of a help my household has been, aww -- but did have to scurry home so I could have a shower and be on to the next thing.
The next thing was D and I going most of the way to Liverpool to help a relative of V's who's cleaning out his mum's house. We've done this a few times and it's nearly done now. He'd saved me some apple-shaped dishes that I'd coveted the first time but left there; when I was looking through photos of the year for something parent-suitable I saw the photo of these dishes that I'd sent V in order to squee about them, and I was really sad that I hadn't taken them after all. I didn't expect them to have been put to one side for me but since they were I figured it was a sign and eagerly brought them home. They were greeted when I got here by
angelofthenorth who recognized them immediately and has a couple herself. It was nice to feel so validated in that decision!
D and I spent a long time at the recycling center, separating stuff out into the appropriate bins. I was stymied by what to do with all the food: all the half-finished bags and jars that a well-stocked home cook had -- the jars all labeled neatly and everything. It was sad to have to get rid of it all. In the process I cut my finger on a bit of broken glass and had to ask the staff for first aid: one employee shouted to another in the scousest accent I've ever heard: "Alex! This man needs to wash his hands! He's got an injury!" They also gave me a little wound-cleaning wet wipe and a band-aid so it was okay.
I got home and needed a nap because we were going out again that evening. To see Karkasaurus and Petrol Bastard, which was such fun even if there was so much dry ice I could taste it and it felt like I was in beginning-of-horror-movie levels of fog. And like I said D got his Loop earplug stuck in his ear, but V got it out today so that's worked out okay. We ran into a number of people that we know there, from different things -- sign of a good gig -- and might have been led astray for a completely extraneous pint afterwards, by this person and her girlfriend and their Welsh friend. Said person continues to be delightfully tactile around me in a way that usually doesn't get to happen absent some romantic or sexual interest, and it's utterly delightful.
And then we left them to their reckless ways and got an uber home just before midnight which is why I didn't have time to talk about all of this in yesterday's blog post!
I did well to be feeling as okay as I am today; I think the fact that I continue to get insomnia when I'm drunk, which at least means I can drink water while I'm awake, keeps the hangovers from being as bad as I've been led to expect in my forties!
Femslash Week In Review side content: high-velocity F/F fandoms as of 2025-12-08
Dec. 14th, 2025 04:18 pmI want to shine an occasional spotlight on fandoms that are in flux. There are two kinds of fandoms here:
- Fandoms that are growing rapidly, which are typically not in the top 20 now, and may never get there, but might be interesting for F/F readers to check out and encourage.
- Fandoms that are losing ground on the top 20, and seem to be "post-peak." They may well peak again in the future, but it's a good moment to look back at the impressive amount of F/F which has been written so far.
I'd love for readers to help me signal-boost some recs for these fandoms. If you've read and enjoyed F/F fic in any of the fandoms listed in this post (either the new ones or the old standards), please send me some works you liked! I'll share all the recs I get in a future Week In Review post. Feel free to send recs on Tumblr as reposts, inbox messages, or DMs, and on Dreamwidth as comments or messages. (Let me know if you don't want to be credited for your rec.)
Fandoms that are growing rapidly
Each of these fandoms has at least twice as many total F/F works now as it did 12 weeks ago.
- Dispatch (Video Game): This is a superhero workplace comedy video game, which was released in the past couple of months. The fandom is primarily M/M, but it's growing by about 20 F/F works per week. The top femslash ship is Blonde Blazer | Mandy/Invisigal | Courtney.
- Pluribus (TV 2025): This is a post-apocalpytic SF TV show which premiered in November. Fic in the small fandom is almost entirely F/F, and the fandom is growing at about 10 F/F works/week. The top ship is Carol/Zosia (an author who is resisting the hive mind and the chaperone tasked to help her join it).
- Pokemon Legends: Z-A (Video Game): This is a new RPG in the Pokemon universe. It's not predominantly F/F, but it's growing about 5 F/F works/week, spread over a couple of ships.
Fandoms that are losing ground
Each of these fandoms dropped on the chart by at least two places, comparing the average in the past twelve weeks to the twelve weeks before that.
- Alien Stage (Web Series): This is a Korean animated web series in which aliens run a singing contest for abducted humans. The web series ran from 2022-2025. The fandom first appeared on the chart in 2024, and charted every week over summer 2025, briefly cracking the top 10. It's falling off the chart now, from an average weekly rank of 14.7 last quarter to 20.0 this quarter, presumably because the series ended. Fic in the fandom is about 1/4 F/F, and the top ship is Mizi/Sua.
- The Owl House (Cartoon): a portal fantasy cartoon series that aired from 2020-2023, and has charted every week since mid-2020, 279 weeks in total. Its average rank fell from 13.4 to 16.8 this quarter, which is still pretty good for a show that ended over two years ago, but that chart streak is likely to end soon. The biggest ship by far is canonical F/F ship Amity/Luz.
- Yellowjackets (TV): this thriller drama series about a group of teenagers stranded in the wilderness by a plane crash, has been a chart regular since 2023. The most recent season ended in April, so it's no surprise that the fandom has fallen out of the top five, from an average rank of 4.7 last quarter, to 7.2 this quarter. However, the current chart streak of 71 consecutive weeks is very likely to continue until the next and final season airs in 2026. Fic in the fandom is overwhelmingly F/F, and the top ships are still Shauna Shipman/Jackie Taylor, Lottie Matthews/Natalie Scatorccio, and Van Palmer/Taissa Turner, all of whom are members of the soccer team.
The sun's going down, so Happy Hanukkah pretty soon?
Dec. 14th, 2025 03:46 pmBut really, how do you spell it in English?
Also, please take a poem
Edit: Also, also, two videos
Replaced image for Game Awards post
Dec. 14th, 2025 02:11 pm
A different fic....
Dec. 17th, 2025 08:39 amOh, sweetie. That's... that's just not how cassette tapes work. Not even overseas. You fast forward or rewind - literally winding the tape again - and hope that your timing is amazing. I mean, with practice I guess you can get pretty good, but still.
( Read more... )
Recent Reading: Martyr!
Dec. 14th, 2025 10:19 amMartyr! is a beautiful book about the very human search for meaning in our lives, but it also is not afraid to shy away from the ugliness of that search. It juxtaposes eloquently-worded paragraphs of generational grief with Cyrus waking up having pissed the bed because he went to sleep so drunk the night before. Neither of these things cancels the other out.
Everyone in Martyr! is flawed, often deeply, but they're all also very real, and they're trying their best; they aren't trying to hurt anyone, but they cause hurt anyway, and then they and those around them just have to deal with that. Martyr! weighs the search for personal meaning against the duty owed to others and doesn't come up with a clean answer. What responsibility did Orkideh have to her family as opposed to herself? What responsibility did Ali have to Cyrus as opposed to himself? What responsibility does Cyrus have to Zee, as opposed to his search for a meaningful death?
Cyrus' story is mainly the post-sobriety story: He's doing what he's supposed to, he's not drinking or doing drugs, he's going to his AA meetings, he's working (after a fashion)...and what's the reward? He still can't sleep at night and he feels directionless and alone and now he doesn't even have the ecstasy of a good high to look forward to. This is the "so what now?" part of the sobriety journey.
It's also in many ways a family story. Cyrus lost his mother when he was young and his father shortly after he left for college, and he spends the book trying to reckon with these things and with the people his parents were. Roya is the mother Cyrus never knew, whose shape he could only vaguely sketch out from his father's grief and his unstable uncle's recollections. Ali is the father who supported Cyrus in all practical ways, and sacrificed mightily to do it, but did not really have the emotional bandwidth to be there for his son. And there are parallels between Cyrus and Roya arising later in the book that tugged quite hard on my heartstrings, but I won't spoil anything here.
Cyrus wants to find meaning, but seems only able to grasp it in the idea of a meaningful death--hence his obsession with martyrs. The idea of a life with meaning seems beyond him. He struggles throughout the book with this and with the people trying to suggest that dying is not the only way to have lived.
I really enjoyed this book and I think it deserves the praise it's gotten. I've tried to sum up here what the book is "about," but it's a story driven by emotion more than plot. It's Cyrus' journey and his steps and stumbles along the way, and I think Akbar did a wonderful job with it.
Nun engages in consumerism, but doesn't feel bad about it.
Dec. 14th, 2025 08:35 amFast forward to last night. T wanted to go to the open house at Equinox Studios, the place down in Georgetown with tons of artists & craftspeople. The open house in December is, of course, extra crowded and bAnAnAs. I ran into multiple goths known to me, including Diminutive** and Cyra Hobson, who's quite a sculptor and has her studio at Equinox. It was inevitable, then that I found the perfect vase from Jeanne Ferraro: opaque, cobalt-blue glass.
Lots of people including Ferraro remembered me because I was wearing The Coat. Some dude said he'd seen me walking around our neighborhood. We live less than two blocks apart, and I'd never met him. Who know a coat could be magic?
I completed my set of herbivorous dinosaur fridge magnets. I mean, Parasaurolophus. How could I not?
Things I covet but couldn't buy for various reasons:
- The Matisse dining set by John Kirschbaum. I've never seen anything like it, and yes, he knows how to make a comfy chair. If you meet the guy, be patient: he talks unusually slowly.
- A photo of one of the Iron Monkeys' pieces. I'd like a print to hide a dent in the wall that I put there while moving furniture.
- Jewelry by, oddly enough, Black Dog Forge. They used to be in Belltown, and that's all I can find about them in a quick search. I've seen at least one amazing bed frame that they made.
Spending the time with T was fun, too. She's almost as good an enabler as the lady who introduced us,
I did not partake of ravey goodness last night because it was after 2300 when I got home, and my dogs were if not barking definitely grumpy. But I'd call the trip a success.
*He's this old South Asian dude who's been walking around selling flowers on Capitol Hill for decades.
**Her name is the diminutive form of mine. She's a full head shorter than I am. I'm never not amused by this.
IHG Hotel Card Stays the Longest
Dec. 14th, 2025 09:01 am
I have kept this card for many years not because it pays any high-flying benefits but because it does the opposite. This lowly card pays a not-generous 5x points/dollar on IHG hotel spend; 2x on restaurant, gas, and grocery spend; and 1x on everything else. At a value of 0.6 cents per IHG point* that's only 3% value on hotels and less than 2% on everything else. I already own two credit cards that pay 2%, cash, on everything... plus my spouse has a card that pays 3% on all travel. So using this card for spending is generally a losing proposition. 😧Most of the benefits I derive from this card are not from charging on it. One big one is that every year I get a free-night award. I've found I can redeem these for about $150 value. The certs don't buy a night at a top tier hotel (anymore), generally just a roadside motel along the way between hither and yon, but $150 is nothing to sneeze at; this one benefit alone is 3x the $49 annual fee.
Another nice benefit I get from this card is a 10% rebate on award points redeemed. How much that's worth depends on how many points I manage to spend in a year. This year I redeemed 71k on a few awards stays, so my rebate was 7,100 points. At the rate of $0.006 that's $42.
As for charging purchases to this card generally being a losing proposition... well, I did spend some on this card. If you don't use cards enough anymore the banks may shut down your account! I waited until there was a promo for "Charge $1,000 of purchases to earn 3,000 bonus points" and then spend just a smidge over $1,000 to earn the bonus. That's all I charged during the year. Those 4,000 total points from spending are worth $24.
Adding these all together, the card delivered $216 of value in exchange for its $49 annual fee. That's a little less than I attributed to the card last year but still enough to make it a keeper— especially because once I cancel this card, it's gone forever. Chase and IHG stopped offering this card several years ago. Apparently it wasn't making them enough money— which is corporate-speak for the benefits were too good for consumers. They've replaced it with a card that charges a higher annual fee. I plan to hold on to this lowly old card for as long as they let me.
200 Significant Science Fiction Books by Women, 1984–2001, by David G. Hartwell
Dec. 14th, 2025 09:05 am( Read more... )
Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge
Dec. 14th, 2025 08:46 am
One very small step for a man, one giant leap for Her Majesty's Government.
Cold War in a Country Garden (Dilke, volume 1) by Lindsay Gutteridge
I love looking out the window at the snowfall
Dec. 16th, 2025 07:48 am( Read more... )
[livre] Le mouton d'Arüth
Dec. 14th, 2025 12:15 pmAuteure : Jade Michelon
Langue : français
Type : album illustré
Genre : fantasy
1ère parution : 2024
Édition : n/a
Format : 35 pages

(acheté au Festival Harajuku en septembre dernier ; apparemment c'est un projet de fin d'études d'illustration ?)
Le petit Arüth reçoit de sa maman une statuette de mouton et s'en fait un ami imaginaire. Jusqu'au jour où le mouton prend corps l'emmène à l'aventure...
Graphiquement c'est très, très joli ! mais la narration ne fonctionne pas très bien, entre une erreur de temps, quelques fautes d'orthographe et un vocabulaire pas exactement adapté... mais comme l'intérêt ici ce sont les illustrations ça fait la job ?
Cute, pretty kiddie book about a young boy and a magical sheep.
Done Since 2025-12-07 with bonus s4s
Dec. 14th, 2025 11:58 am Not a great week. Started out well, with cat cuddles and walks Sunday and
Monday mornings. Then came my GP appointment.
Of course, I was supposed to be fasting, so that was a bust. And I picked
up my re-filled prescriptions (the pharmacy is across the street), but
there was one missing. So I went in again for labs on Thursday, and they
couldn't find a vein. WTF? They advised me to try at the hospital. Labs
at HagaZiekenhuis require an appointment, but fortunately I already
had an appointment, following up on my anemia. So that was
Friday. Skipped breakfast, went in, handed them both lab forms,
one stick and done. And their website works, so I got to see the
results ahead of the appointment next week.
Oh yeah, I also had a psych appointment Thursday afternoon, to discuss
antidepressants, which actually went well. I really don't have any idea
how to make use of therapy, but I like talking about myself, my problems,
and my family. Follow-up in two weeks.
CW: medical, whingeing.
Since April or therabouts,
my "GP" is a clinic with a handful of doctors and a bunch of assistants.
It took me a while (months) to finally figure this out. Anyway, Carmen --
the assistant I saw on Monday -- couldn't find my lab results from 20
November. Fortunately I'd asked for a printout at my previous
appointment, so I scanned that and sent it by email. I got my BP meds
changed somewhat. Then labs on Wednesday.
Then yesterday I tried attending Festival of the Living Rooms, the quarterly online filk con that started almost by accident during Covid. But instead of using the Zoom app, which just works, they insisted on going through the web app embedded on their shiny new website. Calling it beta quality is being generous. FotLR may have jumped the shark this time.
Naturally I didn't get much done otherwise, although I did go back and look at the scratch tracks I'd recorded for my next album, Amethyst Rose. Um... They were recorded between 2004 and 2010! WTF? I'll have to see whether anything can be rescued from that debacle.
Enough griping. Links! How about Grooming a Giant Rescue Maine Coon Cat? And Monday's APOD, Flying Over the Earth at Night, a time-lapse from the ISS. Particularly noteworthy for the footage of the Aurora Australis starting at 1:20
If you have lots of free time, take a look at WikiFlix. CONTENT WARNING: very deep rabbit hole full of old movies.
And finally, because of the season and because it's incredibly cool, here's The Ukrainian Origin of “Carol of the Bells” | The Story of Shchedryk (Щедрик). Turns out the tune was taken from an old New Year's Day chant, from back when New Years Day was celebrated on Beltane. Better, here's the Original Ukrainian Version, sung first in a pretty littleral English translation (with Ukranian subtitles!), then in Ukranian. And best of all, here's a Remix by the B&B project for bandura and button accordion.
