reference_library | Member Posts

I've been feeling more strongly about trying to get reading done than I have been getting writing done lately, while also staring in dismay at how long that TBR list is growing. (The more books I read, the more I end up hearing about, and the more I end up wanting to read. Somehow.)

One of the things I've been considering as I look back at my reading for this year is... I think I need to be a bit meaner on my rating scale, haha.

And I think "mean" is the wrong word: but it feels "mean" when I give anything under a 4 out of 5. As such, I've given way more 4s than any other rating, even when a handful of those were books that I really did end up feeling fairly neutrally toward, which really should be more of a 3. At least a few of the things that I have given 3s to really should be 2s, because in some cases I have remained salty about how much I didn't like it, haha. Even a few of the 5s should probably more properly be 4s, but because they were better than some of the should-have-been-3s, their ratings got nudged up. Basically, the whole scale is out of whack.

Tumblr user "aromanticduck" shared the following chart to explain how they give ratings:

"Spicy" on the chart indicates that the work inspires some strong feelings, where "bland" indicates that it doesn't leave much of a lasting impression. (I quoted this chart a couple months ago, recalling the spicy vs. bland 3s, but have now actually found the original.)

I really like this chart!

As they explain in their reasoning, this makes 5s and 1s both fairly difficult to achieve, because there's only one way to get there. 3s are easiest to get on the chart, and would theoretically be the most common rating.

Now, I don't think that a 3 necessarily has to be the average rating that I'm giving. I am curating my reading list, and minus a handful of wildcards, I am trying to read things that I expect to enjoy. It would make sense for 4s to be pretty common, if the things I think will appeal to me actually do so! Even so, I know that in some cases I've been giving 4s because I really liked something, and sometimes the 4s mean that it was just... fine.

(Of course, blah blah, I always reserve the right to add in my subjective feelings. Like... Maeve Fly was a 2.5 for me, because I don't like the subgenre. For someone who likes that subgenre better, it could be an easy 5! I thought the writing and character work was great; I just didn't like it. It was subjectively wrong for me, which is not objectively saying "there were too many things wrong with this". Vice versa, there are things that could be an objective 3, but I had such a great time, I'm going to give it higher.)

I think I'm going to go back through my reviews from this year and try to reassess some of them, really trying to keep the chart in mind, because I want to be able to look back at things and see a fairly accurate view of what I liked or didn't.

I really do have to get over feeling like giving a 3 is mean, though. Even when I like the author, even when there were good points to the book, even when it's part of a series I enjoy...

(I think I've been poisoned by the way star ratings work for businesses, where basically anything under a perfect 5 gets some employee yelled at, and a 3 can get you shut down...)

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

senmut

kalloway! Thank you for the card and stickers!

senmut

AO3 Link | Useful Gathering (300 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Partners in Crime [TV - 1984]
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sydney Kovack & Carole Stanwyck [Partners in Crime]
Characters: Sydney Kovack [Partners in Crime], Carole Stanwyck [Partners in Crime]
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Event - Funeral, Community: ladiesbingo
Summary:

Sydney and Carole are holding a second funeral for their mutual ex, mostly to preserve their business.

Useful Gathering

Sydney carefully adjusted her skirt as she stood up, hand not holding the handkerchief going out to catch Carole's.

"Why did we agree to hold a wake for him?"

Carole gave a reserved smile to one of the businessmen here to pay respects.

"To help us keep the business running," Carole answered after she was certain no one else would be listening. "Besides, were you ever any good at saying 'no' to Jeanine?"

Sydney made an indelicate sound at that, and covered by bringing the handkerchief up to dab at her nose. "Were you?"

Carole had to bite back the unseemly laughter that came with it. "We need his contacts, to get the agency in the black, and start paying off that mortgage."

"Can't just ask some of your old polo pals to lend a hand, oh wait, you just take their pictures now."

That lit Carole's temper, but she gathered it back in check, and squeezed Sydney's hand. "One way or another, Sydney, we can make this work for us. Neither one of us is the woman he married any longer, but I think we can find a place for ourselves anyway."

Sydney took a deep breath, then smiled sadly at another pair of suits walking past them. "You're right, and I'm sorry for the dig. We'll get through the speeches, cut to the meat of promising to help them for standard fees going forward, and make the agency solvent.

"Just, don't leave me alone with any of them? I'll point out the fanny-patters and lewd ones as we mingle."

"And if they're the older ones, I'll tell you how Raymond got his hooks into them," Carole promised in turn, steeling her spine for the possibility of dealing with 'old friends' from the failed marriage.

"We have each other."

melagan

This is my current project. I'm working on three pairs of these in different colors. Hoping to finish and get them in the mail in time for Christmas.

I should manage. I've only one and a half pairs to go, and I've made so many of these I could almost do them in my sleep.

yarnandglue

I bought 4 balls of 1980s Jack Frost Designer Fashion Series 9 in "Blueberry Slush" at the thrift store a few weeks ago. It came with a simple sweater pattern on the label. It seems like a few big box store yarns still have free patterns on the label, but it's definitely much less common than it used to be. I learned to knit in 1999 and back in Ye Olden Days I really only saw knitting patterns in library books and on yarn labels. I used to keep the label patterns in binders for safekeeping. These label patterns are often lost to time when people rip them off the ball and throw them away. This pattern wasn't in the Ravelry database (it is now though!) so I thought I'd share it here :) I've typed up the pattern but also have included the actual scans.

( Pattern under the cut! )

andersenmom

Weekly Score: 90.2% (101/112)

Goal 1: Do Physical Therapy Exercises. 96% (77/80)

Review: I ended up taking one day off, because I just hurt so much, and took the time to re-evaluate what I was doing and if I was going too hard on my stretches. It helped, but I think more is necessary. Sadly.

Goal 2: Take Care of Myself. 73% (16/22)

Review: I did TERRIBLE on getting upstairs by 11; in fact, I'm half convinced I didn't get up because I was indulging in some self sabotage. Silly me. Got more walks in, though, and managed all my meals, too. Most of them were pretty healthy, which also helped. I also got some needed things done.

Goal 3: Finish GYWO Build-a-Bingo and 100Ships. I did TERRIBLE on getting upstairs by 11; in fact, I'm half convinced I didn't get up because I was indulging in some self sabotage. Silly me. Got more walks in, though, and managed all my meals, too. Most of them were pretty healthy, which also helped. I also got some needed things done.

Review: The Build-a-Bing challenge ends on 8 December, so I have one more to post and then submit this bingo. I filled 2 full boards (4x4) and finished two bingos on the third (I did crossing diagonals). Considering how hard I've been resisting doing any sort of writing, I'm actually pretty happy with this result. If things go well this week - which I highly doubt because my children are coming home for the winter break - I'll finish at least half of the prompts for 100ships by the end of week 12. This makes me happy.

Intentions for the future: G1 - I'm going to evaluate and see if I need another visit to the doctor and thus a visit to PT again. Also got a recommendation from a friend about something I have access to through my husband's company, so I'll sign up for that, too. G2 - I'm going to keep working on getting to bed on time, and getting everything done I want to. G3 - Post my last fic for the bingo card, and the submit the last four fics by Monday night. Keep writing on 100ships.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Make it New - Just B

althea_valara

Boy am I late with this...

I did a LOT of knitting in a very short timeframe in November, and TBH it pooped me out and I think I'm still recovering. BUT! I successfully knitted a pair of legwarmers to wear to the A New World concert! Here they are:

A pair of cabled legwarmers. Yes, one's bigger than the other.

A pair of cabled legwarmers. Yes, one's bigger than the other.

[Image Description: A pair of knitted legwarmers. They are Aran colored (think natural undyed yarn) and feature a folded ribbed cuff at top, with lazy cables on the body and an intricate cable at the back. One is larger than the other.]

So yeah, this pattern comes in small and large sizes. Small wouldn't fit me, but large was TOO big. I altered the pattern some for my first one, taking some stitches out to make it smaller. Well, I finished it and tried it on and nope, too big. So for the second I took even MORE stitches out of the pattern. This one felt like it fit well, but as soon as I started walking, it drooped.

I didn't have time to reknit them, so I made do with them as is, and used elastic headbands under the cuff to keep them up. That worked well! Also, I shortened the pattern because in the pattern pic, the lower edge was dragging on the ground and I didn't like that. Unfortunately, I shortened it TOO much. I might unpick the bind off and knit them a bit longer, but for now, they work. And no, I am likely not going to reknit the too big one. TOO MUCH WORK.

I also made progress on a hoodie!
Central Park Hoodie November 2025 Progress

Central Park Hoodie November 2025 Progress

[Image Description: a sleeve in progress for a knitted hoodie. It's mostly gray in color and features deep ribbing at the cuff. A center cable panel runs up the middle, in teal.]

At the beginning of the month, I had one cable cross done. Now I have two. So not much progress, but hey, progress is progress.

I also did some work on the Versailles Scarf, a small true lace knitted scarf. I wanted to finish this for the concert as well, but decided the legwarmers were more important. It'd be nice to get this done for Christmas, but with the lack of crafting I've been doing so far this month, it's not gonna happen.

FOLKS! I had a cat for 20 minutes!
A photo of a calico kitty who visited our house for about 20 minutes.

[Image Description: A photo of a calico kitty visited our house for a bit.]

She came up to our patio door before the snow hit, when it was still decent out, and we decided to let her in for a bit, once we closed the bedroom doors. I, of course, was enamored. Mom less so. Being a cat, she did cat things, like scratching at an area rug (mom yelled at her, poor thing, but I can't really fault mom for that) and jumping on the kitchen table to try to get to our Christmas cactus. I kept a close eye on her the entire time she was in the house, so when I saw you going for the plant, I gently picked her up and deposited her back on the floor, because well, I don't know if those plants are safe for cats.

She was inquisitive and explored a lot, and liked to rub against legs. At one point, she was in our living room and started trotting towards the kitchen, so I called out to mom to let her know she was headed mom's way. Unfortunately mom was distracted and didn't hear me, and the cat, being friendly, came up behind her and rubbed her legs and mom almost tripped on her. :(

We considered calling an animal shelter, but due to her friendliness, decided to just let her back outside. Not before she jumped on the table AGAIN, though. I tried to grab her to deposit her back on the floor, but she jumped on the back of one of our chairs, and well, the chair tipped over.

Which means mom has declared NO CATS. :( I had really hoped she'd come around and we could, like, adopt a senior kitty, and my older sister made noise about us doing just that at Thanksgiving, but I don't think mom would be happy with a cat. Alas. But at least I had one for 20 minutes.

Current Mood: cold

a_natural_beauty

I hope all of you have been well. Life has been somewhat busy on my end but I've been doing alright overall. Just still a-lot to process and think about.

A-little over a week ago now I think was when Mike and I adopted Fynn, my fathers dog. He also belonged to my mom and nephew but it was mainly my dad who cared for him and worked with him the most. So that has been an adjustment - not too bad but still a change. He and Wiley get along well, sometimes they do rough it up a bit more than I would care for but other than that it's been nice having him here and helping care for him. We need to get him to do his doggy business outside - that seems to be the biggest issue. Sometimes he does and we give him treats when that happens. He is a cairan terrier. The same breed as toto from the 'wizard of oz' (fun fact I know!).

I finished one grief book and I've been reading another. The first one ("Survival Guide: Navigating the holidays after loss") was somewhat religious. Which isn't bad but it's hard for me to get into and understand. I think most of you know from some past posts - I am agnostic. So I do believe in a higher power but I don't know if it is God. But the book was helpful and had some good ideas on what to do mainly during thanksgiving and christmas. It had lists and things to fill out if I needed to.
The second book I am about 100 pages away from finishing ("It's okay that you're not okay" by Megan Devine). It's been pretty good, too. Very raw and realistic. The author lost her husband due to a drowning accident. At times I've had to put the book down because it was just so sad to read. But I do enjoy it, it covers the emotions and thought process behind loss quite well.

I did find out that my mom picked me as her Power of attorney. It feels like a-lot but I just need to learn my roles and responsibilities so I can better understand this. Do any of you have any experience with this?

I'm pretty much done christmas shopping. I hardly did any this year and that was fine. Each year there is always so much pressure on christmas and gift giving. This year I'm just giving to one of my best friends, her mother and grandmother, Mike and his family is doing a christams gift exchange this year. So with that I got his one brother. Also there is a gift exchange at work where we all trade gifts with each other. It's new, the cost was under $5 for each person. I ended up getting small bottles of lotion and some hard candy and candy canes in these little christams bags.

Yesterday was my 38th birthday. It honestly didn't feel all that different. But I think that will be the norm for the next couple of years. I worked in the morning and when I came home from work Mike and I got dairy queen and watched an old christmas movie that I loved as a kid. It's called 'Annabelle's wish' if any of you have heard of it - let me know! It wasn't as bad as I was worried it might be. Also Mike made brownies and I read the rest of the evening. It was calm and quite which was what I wanted.

So I guess that is it for now... it's just been hard to get back on here and write and read. But I hope you all have been well. I think about this site often. <3

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: productive mix on YouTube

grayestofghosts

I'm still alive. I am behind on my reading, and should still make posts on the last two books I've read and not done anything about (Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland). I guess in the interim I've read fanfic and Frieren, which is fine, I guess, but not the same as reading.

There's just... a lot of bad things going on around me and not all of them are online, and I keep thinking about how things used to be better, but I do not know where those good things are. And honestly I'm a different person than I was then, so now I need different things, just in time for everything to feel so closed off.

Getting into stuff like vaporwave, messing with computers, etc., all feel like distractions and while I get that distractions are necessary to an extent I am not sure what would even be fulfilling. I am tempted to try to get into zine space but I think my confidence is an issue. I have been writing consistently (even if it's only one sentence a day, I've at least been touching the current WIP every day), and I think my new year's resolution will be to have a finished draft. But overall I don't really feel good. And I don't really know what to do.

When I look at the small web stuff it is interesting and there is a big dream there but right now it feels insufficiently social right now. Perhaps I am looking at the wrong places.

Current Music: "目覚め," 猫シ Corp. & t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者

linky

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

Current Mood: tired

saxbrightwell

banner for the Smashwords End of Year 2025 sale

Smashwords runs a huge sale every winter, and it's that time again! This time I'm making all my single-volume novels FREE - but if you have your heart set on the 1-3 omnibus it's also 50% off. (I've noticed when I make the omnibus free it gets far more downloads than anything else, but Number Go Up is the primary joy I get from these giveaways, so.) Go stock up; the sale is site-wide and tons of indie authors participate, discounting their books anywhere from 25% to 100%.

If you enjoy a book you got for free, it would mean the world to me (and pretty much any author for that matter) if you left a rating, a review, a boost on your socials, or even just reached out to let me know you liked it!

Current Mood: happy

mistressofmuses

A baba yaga house this week. I like the cool colors. I bought this sticker from an artist's booth at the Spirits and Spirits event, but I forget the artist name. :(

This was a good week! It felt very strange to be to December already, but mid-week we got our first truly "winter" weather. Glad to have gotten a few things done, like starting that project with my mom. Also very relieved that my dental appointment went better than expected. I felt relatively on top of things, despite struggling a bit with the weather. (Cold, grey days make me very tired.) I kept going on reading, but at a slower pace than hoped.

Goals for the week:

I finished reading The Spite House
I started reading A Conjuring of Light
I went to my dentist appointment
I went to my mom's house to start her declutter project
I continued my WIP outline
I worked on my reading page
I did not work on my pin boards
I did not make my phone call
I posted my reviews of the books I read in November
I posted my writing goals for December
I did my tracking grids for December
We did not start on any holiday decorating
I did my getyourwordsout check-in: 8233 words written in November, bringing year to date to 100981

Tracked habits:

Work - 4/7 - I took Wednesday off for my dentist appointment
Household Maintenance - 3/7
Physical Activity - 2/7
Wrote 500/1000+ Words - 5/7 - one day of over 1000 words, four days of over 500, with one additional day of under 500
Wrote on 2nd+ Draft - 0/7
Meta Work - 5/7
Personal Writing - 6/7
Other Creative Things - 3/7
Reading - 7/7 - I did finish The Spite House and started A Conjuring of Light, plus read bits of my ebook side-read; Taylor and I finished reading Queen Demon; Alex and I finished Dead Silence and started reading The Sundog.
Attention to Media - 6/7 - Sunday we watched a livestream and then some of the Broncos game, plus some reviews in the background; Monday had some storm chasing in the background, and book reviews later; Wednesday we watched some storm chasing (in Colorado, even), and a review later; Thursday we half-watched the mediocre Whisper of the Witch, and then I fell asleep during Fostered, and woke up partway through Rounding. The latter were okayish horror/thriller things; Friday I half-watched Troll 2 (the newer, Norwegian one), and Terminator 2; Saturday we watched a paranormal thing, and later reviews.
Video Games - 0/7
Social Interaction - 6/7

Total words written: 7112 on outlining, book reviews, and my writing plan

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: my apartment

thisbluespirit

I went to town briefly last week, so of course, was ill for days afterwards, but am now back to usual level of general rubbishness anyway.

Here are some random TV/film things:

1. Outrageous, which I enjoyed very much in the summer on Drama, is now on the iPlayer, if you're in the UK and missed it. (Drama series about the Mitfords).

2. They did another minisode for the S21 trailer for Doctor Who - this time Five and Tegan together again, which was great. It's here.

3. I hadn't had any idea someone was doing a whole film of The Faraway Tree series till YT randomly threw this trailer my way the other day. I never expected that, and it looks like fun anyway.

4. Been enjoying watching Cooper & Fry on Ch5, which I watched mainly because it had DW's Mandip Gill in the lead, along with Downton's Rob James-Collier, and who doesn't always need yet more detectives in their lives? Anyway, it's been good so far - a bit more moodier than a cosy but nothing too grim, and I like the local folklore aspect that crops up (even if it's never real). Here's a trailer.

(I have been watching Ch5's The Forsytes, which is largely very pretty and easy and not much more, but I haven't watched the last 2 or 3 eps, because I went out and also I watched Cooper & Fry instead, because it was more interesting, lol).

Probably, as ever, also other things I am forgetting!

andersenmom

Title: Meeting on the Bridge
Rating: T
Type: Fic
Size/length/word count etc.: 801
Prompt: 045: Midnight
Fandom/Ship: Stray Kids, Xdinary Heroes; Seo Changbin, Kwak Jiseok | Gaon
Notes/Warnings: Alluded attempted suicide
Summary Changbin didn’t expect to possibly save someone’s life after work.

( The bridge didn't get much traffic at midnight. )

Find the table with the list of fics here

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Strawberry Cake - Xdinary Heroes

mistressofmuses

I discovered that I have a *ton* of things that I planned to try and do this "weekend," and I'm kind of dreading it!

The biggest one is needing to get some maintenance on the truck. Our lead instructor's neighbor has volunteered to take a look (I hope he volunteered; I asked my coworker if he thought his neighbor would be willing and he told me yes, ha.) There's a pretty major coolant leak somewhere, and the washer fluid does not work at all. I'm *hoping* the coolant leak is something that's easy to figure out and not wildly expensive to fix. The washer fluid shouldn't be too big a deal - either a fuse is burned out, or the motor in the pump died - but having no washer fluid is pretty crap heading into winter. Buuuut, lead instructor also thinks we should take a bigger look for any other major maintenance things that the truck needs, since it's hit over 200k miles, and I know he's right, but I *just so deeply dread* anything car-related. I'd love for it to not be a big deal, but every time, I'm petrified that what I hope is a tiny thing is actually a MAJOR thing.

I hope that's really the only truly major thing on the list. Some of the rest is fun stuff, or at least not *not* fun stuff, like getting holiday cards sent out, hopefully getting stuff in the kitchen neatened up enough to put up our tiny trees... I want to try and get caught up on some reading, since I'm behind where I'd hoped to be... I have other chore type stuff to do. I am a bit worried that if the car stuff is worse than planned, it'll derail me from being able to do anything else, heh.

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: my apartment

senmut

AO3 Link | Cat and Bird (300 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC Comics (General)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Selina Kyle & Dinah Lance
Characters: Selina Kyle, Dinah Lance
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Post-Crisis, +Modern Age (1986-Present)
Summary:

Selina's in the neighborhood

Cat and Bird

"Hey there, little birdie," came a voice from above Dinah, and she looked up to see her friend Selina on the roof. That made Dinah's mood much better, and she hastily made use of the fire-escapes — and walls — to get up there.

"Hey yourself, tabby cat," she said with a grin, barely breathing hard for that exercise. "A bit out of your territory, aren't you?" She plopped herself down on the roof-edge next to the other girl.

"Hmm, came to check on one of the ones that got adopted out, make sure it was on the up and up."

"This neighborhood? It better be, or word will get around. Bunch of nosy people around. And Dad hears all the rumors like that."

"Nice older couple, and the kid was from their faith. How he wound up in a Catholic orphanage is anyone's guess," Selina said, giving Dinah the clues to keep her own ears out for the kid.

"Glad you decided to stick around when you got done," Dinah admitted, leaning over against Selina.

"Knew you'd be out sooner rather than later. Make any money today?"

"No; this tutoring is a trade. I help the blockhead learn, Mom gets her bad cooler fixed for free."

"You seem to be the one giving up time and effort a lot for these trades," Selina said, disapproving.

"Family business, Selina. Have to support mom somehow, and Dad uses it as an excuse to keep her off my back when I go out in the evenings." She slung her arm around Selina's shoulders and squeezed. "I get what I need."

"If you say so." Selina shrugged. "C'mon. I know who's working the door at the Regal. We can catch a movie and be irresponsible teenagers for once."

Dinah considered, then grinned broadly. "Sounds fun!"

vriddy

Dear self, I know you forget every time, so here's reminder #134792. I think there are a few of these reminders as posts on this journal already, too.

1. Your first drafts are pretty bare, and that's okay! Don't sweat it. Conversations and actions in a void, just roll with it. Blank room syndrome, let's go.
2. Of course it seems flat when you reread. The solution isn't to add unnecessary action or vague plot, at least not as a first port of call.
3. Start with ANCHORING the scene! Visualise it! Where are the characters? What are they wearing and doing while speaking or doing the stuff that needs getting done? Can you add any sensory descriptions beyond visual descriptions? What scents surround them? What time is it?
4. As you are rediscovering today for the 358935893th time, this already helps a lot with making scenes more vivid and flow better.

For the cursed witch, during early revisions I literally wrote "ANCHOR!" at the start of every chapter I was annotating so I'd actually remember to do that when making the changes afterwards.

But I forgot again, and was being all sad at the flat fic first draft I pulled out this morning. Now I have ANCHORED and VISUALISED the first scene, and I'm a bit less sad :D And also, having fun. Whee! \o/

bluegreenwhirlywindy

!WARNING! Animal Abuse/Neglect As A Central Story Theme

The Bunny: Just A Tiny Little Baby Barely More Than A Few Weeks – Probably Heavier Than One Might Expect At First Glance – Smooth And Shiny Black Fur, Maybe With A Brown Spot Here Or There. This bunny assaulted me one day, vehemently demanding pets and cuddles, but it soon changed its mind again and decided interaction with humans isn’t its thing after all.

Fandom: Wind Breaker

Characters/Ships: Nirei & Suo & Sakura

Important Themes/Tags: Warning! Animal Abuse and Neglect, Open/Unhappy Ending

Description: Suo is known to his classmates (and also the entirety of Bofurin) as the unflappable guy who never gets hurt in a fight and always has his emotions under control. Even Sakura and Nirei, who consider themselves his best friends, agree with each other that Suo also doesn’t let them see the entirety of himself but rather keeps parts of himself hidden. Little irritations in the perfectly-crafted façade appear here or there over time though, like the time Suo gets blood onto his clothes from a classmate and Sakura catches him washing it out at a laundromat, or Nirei learning that Suo’s home address isn’t even in Makochi, or the time the two of them tried following Suo home and ending up at a dojo, where he also spent the school night without any signs of attempting to return home after his stay. Eventually, when confronted with it all and also their worry, Suo relents and agrees to show Sakura and Nirei his home. It turns out that his home is a dump full of various animals because both his parents and his older brother are animal hoarders. Suo’s father likes dangerous dogs but doesn’t train them properly, Suo’s mother collects cats upon cats upon cats despite not being able to care for them anymore (and not being able to care for herself anymore either; she has trouble walking because a bite she got from one of the cats got infected but she hadn’t seen the necessity to get it treated professionally) and Suo’s older brother crams the basement full of terraria with exotic (and often poisonous) reptiles and amphibians. Sakura and Nirei are shocked to witness them living in their delusional parallel world, truly believing that all the animals (and they themselves) are cared for well when reality is very far from that state. They come to understand why Suo put on and desperately tries to uphold his mask of everything being perfectly fine when important parts of his life (because it becomes clear that Suo still deeply cares for his family and they care about him) are slowly crumbling away beneath him.

A/N: Suo’s so mysterious that it makes it very attractive to come up with backstories or interpretations for his character. Being honest, I tried to find the most horrifying secret he could possibly hide without crossing the line into “conventional woobie backstory” (like “my father was a murderer and I’ve been ostracised for that my entire life” or similar stuff) and this is what I came up with.

senmut

More Joy Day announced

Jane Siberry has a new song free to download - Very Political, called "bailout" and it hit hard

Scarpetta, the Patricia Cornwell series, is getting a TV Show.
Latest Doctor Who BluRay release short film
Sheriden/Delenn gif set with Tolkien words

A "Punny" photo
SarahSeeAndersen cartoon about cats and hot pads
Kermit the Assassin and further commentary

Sissy Spacek Photo set

The Restorer and the Butler - haunted house story
The Kents and the Pediatrician - DC Comics fanfic
Human and Alien - a story of Uncanny Valley
Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus in their later years - Fic and art

Good Wicked! meta
Mood board for the original Thrawn Trilogy

mistressofmuses

Despite it still being pretty cold, Alex took Bella to another FastCAT today! This will probably be the last one of the year; I don't think there are any others scheduled, though it's always possible that something will pop up.

This was a different organization hosting, and Alex didn't share any complaints about the organization today, so I'm guessing it all went more smoothly. He did say that they'd cleared all the snow off the course, though the grass was wet.

And she did so good! :D

Still hasn't quite broken the 10 seconds like I hope she someday will, but that's a great pair of times to close out the year on.

I thought Bella looked quite smug in this picture, but according to Alex, she was actually flailing and whining, because she wanted to go again, haha.

He also said their timing was good, because the wind picked up and it started spitting rain just as they were leaving.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my apartment

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November 2025

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Page Summary

mistressofmuses - Book rating scale...
senmut - Mail Call
senmut - LadiesBingo: Funerals and Wakes
melagan - Socks!
yarnandglue - 1982 "Super Easy All Knit Vest or Sweater" pattern
andersenmom - 12 Week Year WAM Week 11
althea_valara - Crafting Update, November 2025 + 20 Minute Kitty!
a_natural_beauty - Some updates ~
grayestofghosts - Still Looking For The Good Internet
linky - Sukebans
saxbrightwell - Time For The Big Holiday Giveaway!
mistressofmuses - Habit Tracking: Week 49 (November 30 - December 06)
thisbluespirit - Many Trailers
andersenmom - Fic: Meeting on the Bridge
mistressofmuses - Bleh
senmut - LadiesBingo: Teenagers
vriddy - Reminder to self: Anchor! Visualise!
bluegreenwhirlywindy - Plot Bunny: The Reason Behind Suo’s Mask
senmut - Various Links 11/30 - 12/6
mistressofmuses - The final FastCAT of the year! (Probably)

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