allen | Network

Galavant:

Note the part where this is tagged as Original Music Composition! I GOT A GALAVANT SONG FOR YULETIDE!

There is a bug de-anonymizing the collection, so with any luck, my author will be willing to post more than the sheet music and save me from my current predicament of "I can sorta sight-read but not that well." I love the Madalena voice in this, so perfectly discontent with her amazing lot! and there's MUSIC!

Madalena's Ballad of Vast Success (1264 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Galavant (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Madalena (Galavant), Brief ensemble Galavant cast appearance
Additional Tags: Character Study, Inspired by the song What Am I Feeling (Galavant), Original music composition, Post-Canon
Summary:

Madalena stood on her balcony, in her castle perched high on a cliffside overlooking her vast and endless empire. "This is the best life has ever been. Everything I wanted is now mine... Yet sometimes it seems that there's something out there that eludes me, something I can neither buy nor take. But that's crazy! Who would dare deny me? Deceive or defy me? None at all! Well, almost none!"

Galavant 2:

The share button isn't working on Tad Cooper, a Life, which is an adorable summation of the life and times of Tad Cooper, as one can imagine from the title. I enjoyed the POV the author chose!

Slow Horses + Rivers of London:

My other Yuletide author took me up on my deep and soulful desire for Slow Horses + Rivers of London, and does great things with the interaction of law enforcement and Regent's Park, and the various characters. Spoilers for Diana Taverner's fate if you've only done the first book/show, but nothing that will surprise anyone. I love the way the mundane and magical intersect here:

The Spirit of Regent's Park (2370 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Slow Horses (TV), Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Thomas Nightingale, Diana Taverner, Jackson Lamb (Slow Horses), Emma Flyte, Molly Doran
Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Yuletide Treat, add some magic to your spy show
Summary:

Newly minted First Desk Diana Taverner visits the Folly to find out who this Thomas Nightingale fellow is, and learns a few things about London that are closer to home than she expects.

*

What I wrote:

2 stories!

Spot either and I'll write you a drabble. One of them is so me it hurts and the other is less obviously so but still extremely Petra.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Bear McCreary and sight reading

rachelmanija

The Yuletide collection is live!

Enjoy browsing the collection! Leave kudos and/or comments if you enjoy a story! Comment here to recommend stories, and/or recommend them at the

yuletide comm!

I have three stories in the collection. Can you find them?

I shall now spend the rest of the day cuddling with my cats and reading Yuletide stories.

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/this-kind-of-thinking-needs-to-go-extinct-part-2/393285/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=393285

Read This Kind Of Thinking Needs To Go Extinct, Part 2

Coworker: "Do we have to have it at THAT museum?"
Me: "What are you talking about? Drinking champagne under the dinosaurs will be so cool!"
Coworker: "Yeah, but they should pick a venue that doesn't conflict with some of their employees' beliefs."

Read This Kind Of Thinking Needs To Go Extinct, Part 2

https://notalwaysright.com/this-kind-of-thinking-needs-to-go-extinct-part-2/393285/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=393285

morbane posting in

yuletide

Recs: in general

The main Yuletide collection has just opened, with Yuletide Madness to follow shortly, so it's time to think about recs (recommendations)! It's traditional to kudos or comment on works and tell their anonymous creators that you liked them. It's also traditional to tell other people about the Yuletide stuff you like. There are many different ways to share your recommendations for works.

On AO3 itself
You can bookmark a story and add the bookmark and its notes to the Yuletide Recs collection. (Note: This is not the same as the main Yuletide collection.) Detailed tutorials can be found here and here.

In Discord
At the Yuletide Discord, you can post recs with very brief comments in the #yuletide-recs channel.

Here at Dreamwidth
You are welcome to post recs to this community Please follow the guidelines:

Any individual post to the community must contain recs for at least 3 separate works.

You can put the full text of your recs post in a post to the community, OR you can post your recs on some other platform, then put the link in a post on the community or in a comment to this post.

If your post is long, consider cut text code (DW) or details code to compress your text.

Recs: central/index post

THIS POST can also serve as a hub for recs. You're welcome to reply with your recs (especially useful if you don't have a Dreamwidth account). Or you can ask for recs that follow a theme, or just make a comment linking to a recs post elsewhere. Collect Your Recs Here!

the_shoshanna

My low-key obsession with Heated Rivalry continues, and a local friend and I are planning to marathon the whole show on Boxing Day, whee! She will have already seen the final episode, because she is high-key obsessed and has been watching each one when it drops at midnight; I'm not that gonzo and will probably wait to watch it with her, thus also giving her the fun of watching me watch it. At least, I find that incredibly fun, so I hope she does too -- and I got to show

dorinda the first two episodes a couple of days ago, which was wonderful!

Other than that, we're not doing much for the holidays. Geoff and I lit Hanukkah candles; he makes me actually light them, because it's traditionally the role of the woman of the house, and yeah that's very gendered but I mean so are we. And we both sing the blessing. We went to one sister's family Hanukkah meal, and are not going to the other sister's huge Christmas party; we're just going to have a quiet night in. And I'm roasting a duck, a thing I have done only once before!

(And then the next day I get AAAAAAAALL THE AMAZING TV, of course, and Geoff's on his own. He remains politely a- and be-mused at my hyperfocus.)

🇨🇦 "Canadian Economy Rallies as #1 Export Now Heated Rivalry" 🇨🇦

Oh, and we're having a couple of friends over for a NYE dinner. They have non-overlapping dietary restrictions, so I need to think about the menu! I suspect we're looking at roast squash and a salad of some kind...

In other news, I'm reading a book called How to Winter, which a friend recommended to me. I've never liked cold and generally don't enjoy winter (therefore I moved to Canada, because I'm also very smart), so anything that might make it less unpleasant is worth checking out! It's mostly about cultivating a mindset that focuses on the good in the season, and also about letting it affect you appropriately -- like, if winter dark means you want to sleep more and do different things than you do in summer light and warmth, that's okay, it's natural, don't fight it. It all makes perfect sense and yet I'm still grumpy about winter? On the other hand, I am trying to relax into the season a little more, and I think it's working, but it's also not as cold here as it might be and I rarely have to fight the weather in any way (I don't commute, e.g.), so maybe I'm playing on easier mode now. My SAD light helps with the lack of sunlight, so it's really being cold that I find hard. I've started wearing thermal leggings in the house; we have the heat at a comfortable enough level, but I'm really sensitive to drafts. (My desk faces two windows, and even with the leggings I still sometimes pull a heated throw over my legs.) And I think the leggings have made a huge difference.

I finished the most recent series of Shetland and

have spoilery reactions under the cut.

unfortunately I was extremely unimpressed. The revelation about Ed being involved in drug trafficking came completely out of the blue; no ground had been laid for it at all. I really didn't like the Bad Seed mentality behind everybody going "ooh, there were concerning reports about Stevie while she was in care" -- like, no shit a traumatized child ripped away from every familiar place and face "was manipulative," in other words she tried to regain some control of her environment and didn't trust adults? And just a lot of things that I can more or less accept as required by TV crime drama logistics but are still dumb, like Tosh and Ruth accepting that the AirBnB guy correctly identified Stevie in Edie's garden, when that was like the third version of the story he'd told (why should they suddenly believe him this time?) and he was some distance away, in the dark; at first he said "it was probably a man" and now he confidently declares "it was definitely this woman," and they just go yup, hard proof that she was there? Sorry, no. (I mean, she was there, but there's no way they should take his statement as proof of that, and they do.) Morag behaved like an idiot. And BILLY WOULD NEVER. I haven't looked but would not be at all surprised to find that the actor wanted off the show (is he the only person other than Tosh who's been there since series 1?) and this was the clumsy way they decided to write him out. I finished the series annoyed, and I really hope the next one is better. Preferably with a new writer.

badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: What are your crafting goals for 2026?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/next-sleigh-delivery/399257/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=399257

Read Next Sleigh Delivery

https://notalwaysright.com/next-sleigh-delivery/399257/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=399257

mific posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: linettesmth on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: Aaaand, it's the inevitable Klimt kiss portrait of Ilya and Shane, and very nicely done, too! I like the echoes of their team uniform colours in their robes.
Link: Ilya and Shane

spiralsheep

Current reading quote: "F[redacted] the privatization of the toilet. F[redacted] the privatization of the sky."

To be read 1 Jan 2025: 90
To be read 24 Dec 2025: 67, lol (win, tho)

Books read: 123

DNFs: 8 (nearly 9, I'm looking at you William Heinesen)

Reading challenges completed: 49

These are minimums as some authors prefer their privacy, and some in-work representation was perfunctory or tokenising (imo as reader) so I didn't count it.
BIPOC representation: 41
Disabled representation: 21
LGBT+ representation: 26
Senior representation: 31

Woman author/s: 72
Also, authors as self-identified: 8 not men, at least one transman, and an unknown-to-me (because some authors prefer their privacy).

Authors neither British or USian (because these two anglophone publishing industries dominate my local book market).
Canada: 8 (but 4x1 author, 3x1 author, + 1 expat Canadian in UK).
Born in Palestine / Jerusalem: 6 (including 2x1 author).
Japan: 5
EU, current area: 8 (not all born or residing in actual EU member states).
Also: Afghanistan, Australia, Ghana, Jamaica, Korea, India, Indonesia/Australia/UK, Malaysia/UK, Singapore/UK/US, and schrodinger's New Zealander.

New to me, previously unread authors: 65

( &c. )

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. Working on it.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 1776 #2, Marvel Winter Break Special 2025 #1, Will of Doom #1, X-Vengers #3 )

What I'm Reading Next

I woke up this morning to find that

lysimache had gifted me an ebook entitled Here Comes the Pizzer: The Found Poetry of Baseball Broadcasts, by Eric Poulin, so I guess that's what we'll be doing dramatic readings of aloud for Christmas Eve. While eating pizza.

The title is a reference to this extremely classic Red Sox broadcast moment. Here comes the pizza.

(We usually read the Christmas story in Greek, Latin, or Old English for Christmas Eve but we can probably make some time for this.)

Current Mood: okay

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/desk-the-halls/391215/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=391215

Read Desk The Halls

Boss: "[My Name], since you’ll be in the office this weekend, you can make a good start on decorating the office for the competition."
Me: "I will be in the office, but I’ll be working on those projects. Remember, we need to be in a good place with them before the New Year."
Boss: "Well, no reason you can’t do both. Spend a few hours decorating and the rest working."

Read Desk The Halls

https://notalwaysright.com/desk-the-halls/391215/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=391215

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/the-elves-have-unionized/374925/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=374925

Read The Elves Have Unionized

Customer: "Why don't you have [hot item] in stock!? No one has it anymore!"
Me: "It’s not in stock because a hundred other people had the same gift idea in November."

Read The Elves Have Unionized

https://notalwaysright.com/the-elves-have-unionized/374925/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=374925

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/we-have-no-storage-big-enough-for-that-much-entitlement/368676/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=368676

Read We Have No Storage Big Enough For That Much Entitlement

No joke, she gives me the biggest smile, raises her hands into the air in a dance pose, and says in a sing-song voice:
Customer: "I'm a new customer!"

Read We Have No Storage Big Enough For That Much Entitlement

https://notalwaysright.com/we-have-no-storage-big-enough-for-that-much-entitlement/368676/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=368676

musesfool

Ganache: made!
Cupcakes: frosted!
Bags: packed!
Garbage: taken out!
Dishwasher: running!
Me: showered, dressed, and waiting for my ride!

Whew!

It is all done and packed and only the last anxiety-inducing part - waiting for the car and schlepping everything down to the car - is left.

There were ZERO frosting explosions this year, though I did need to re-whip the strawberry buttercream, so I left it for last. There are still a bunch of stuff in the sink to be washed on Friday, but all the containers that...contained frosting are in the dishwasher, so they won't be all gross upon my return.

I did miscount and make one extra package of cupcakes, so I just addressed it to Baby Miss L - I'm sure her parents will love that. 😉 Also, the last gift I ordered for her - very late - is allegedly going to be delivered today! It's the 30 second dance party button! Which looks so fun and since I know Baby Miss L loves a dance party, it seemed like fate that I should get it for her.

I have only been skimming ye olde flist, but once I'm back home on Friday, all obligations are met and the next week is mine to do with as I will, so I will try to be more present here.

Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating! Happy Yuletide to those of you participating! And happy hump day to everyone else! See you on the flip side!

( 6-day plan, day 6 )

***

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: the dishwasher on "heavy" mode

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/foolish-urge-closing-kiosk-this-holiday-at-twelve/391919/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=391919

Read Foolish Urge: Closing Kiosk This Holiday At Twelve

I work with one other coworker at a small pretzel kiosk in a mall. Over the holidays, the mall is open until midnight. The owner/boss has come to check on me as I am closing up.
Boss: "So, I was thinking of staying open until midnight to go along with the mall's extended opening hours."
Me: "No, thank you. Who wants to buy a pretzel at midnight?"

Read Foolish Urge: Closing Kiosk This Holiday At Twelve

https://notalwaysright.com/foolish-urge-closing-kiosk-this-holiday-at-twelve/391919/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=391919

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: nostalgic

osprey_archer

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Christmas books! So many Christmas books. Look, the problem is that so many Christmas books are short, all right? Like Janice Hallett’s The Christmas Appeal, a slim novella that I definitely should have read last year when The Appeal was still fresh in my mind, as I spent about half of The Christmas Appeal remembering who was who. But it was still a fun fast read and there was a cameo by my girl Issy, who remains just as Issy as ever, bless her little heart.

Continuing this murder kick, I read J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White, a fascinating example of the genre in that the closest thing the book has to a detective is a guy from the society of psychic research who keeps murmuring about how it’s like the crime WANTS to be solved… well, that’s one way to explain why the heroes keep literally stumbling upon the evidence. Enjoyed the snowy atmosphere and the character portraits, especially the chorus girl Jessie, who should have gotten David in the end IMO. Not sure they were really that well-suited, but I was annoyed that a more class-appropriate girl appeared three-quarters of the way through the book.

And also Agatha Christie’s Murder for Christmas, known in the UK has Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, but presumably American publishers were afraid that without the word murder in the title American readers might assume that Poirot is having a holly jolly Christmas eating plum pudding without any murder at all. Quite enjoyed this one. Always nice to see a horrible family dynamic play out in a murder mystery.

Also Ruth Sawyer’s The Long Christmas, a collection of Christmas legends from around the world and a reminder that the Christmas Spirit, for all its current holly jolly picture-perfect Hallmark movie reputation, can in fact be pretty metal. The Christmas spirit is not about giving a bit of spare change to a photogenic waif before retreating to your mansion with the gingerbread on the eves perfectly outlined in Christmas lights. The Christmas Spirit says, “Oh, none of you are going to share your fireside and your last crust of bread with this weary footsore traveler on Christmas Eve? Well, then, I am going to raise the floods and drown your entire selfish town.”

Although Sawyer’s This Way to Christmas did not repeat this particular story, some of the other stories overlap with The Long Christmas. Published in 1915, the story centers on a little boy facing a lonely Christmas on a snowy mountain where none of the neighbors speak to each other, for they are of all different nationalities and races: German-American, American Black, Brazilian Portuguese, and small Ruritanian country that just got invaded by Germany.

However, our hero (inspired by a visit from a fairy wearing a squirrel suit) visits each cottage, hears a Christmas story from each person, and in the end inspires his foster parents to invite them all to Christmas, invitations in the form of signposts saying THIS WAY TO CHRISTMAS, hence the title.

And in the archives, I read Lee Kingman’s The Magic Christmas Tree, illustrated by Bettina. Little Joanna is lonely because she’s the youngest of ten and always in the way, until she finds her own special secret place: clearing in the woods with a pine tree just her size. Little Julie is lonely at home because she’s the only child in a vast mansion, but finds solace when she finds a little pine tree in the woods perfect for a hideaway. And then at Christmastime, Joanna hides a beloved doll by the tree… and Julie, thrilled by this magical appearance, brings the mystery doll a little doll bed and fur coverlet… and when Joanna returns with a baby doll so her doll won’t be lonely, she in turn is astonished…

OMG. So cute. I do wish it were longer so there was more time for the girls’ friendship to develop after they finally meet.

What I’m Reading Now

Unable to face another Christmas book, I broke down and started Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle... which turns out to start on Christmas Eve! The German POWs are having a Christmas tree. One of the other zeks is making a Christmas present. I can’t even. I’ll never escape.

What I Plan to Read Next

Non-Christmas books! Anything but Christmas! In particular, I’ve got Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary and Mai Ishizawa’s The Place of Shells checked out, while Emile Zola’s Therese Raquin and Elizabeth Enright’s Then There Were Five are on hold.

celli

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lassarina

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notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/poor-planning-will-hamper-any-chance-of-a-good-christmas/367370/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=367370

Read Poor Planning Will Hamper Any Chance Of A Good Christmas

Twice now I have worked the holiday season at the big meat and cheese gift shop. The one that ships packages. All over the store are signs, at eye level, stating that "you must order by December 15th for delivery by Christmas Eve." On Christmas Eve, I had this conversation repeatedly:

Read Poor Planning Will Hamper Any Chance Of A Good Christmas

https://notalwaysright.com/poor-planning-will-hamper-any-chance-of-a-good-christmas/367370/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=367370

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/a-holiday-haggle-for-half-the-happiness/372584/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=372584

Read A Holiday Haggle For Half The Happiness

One Christmas Eve evening, as our mom was putting us to bed, I was talking about how it was hard to sleep when I was so excited.
Mom: "Well, you have to try. The sooner you fall asleep, the sooner the morning comes."

Read A Holiday Haggle For Half The Happiness

https://notalwaysright.com/a-holiday-haggle-for-half-the-happiness/372584/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=372584

oracne

1. Work load at dayjob has been low this week; we got out at noon yesterday, and today I can log off at 12:30 pm. We are then off through January 2 for winter break (yay, academia). I had a couple of small things I was able to resolve this morning, go me!

2. I did not send out Xmas cards this year, but I appreciate every one I received. I hope to be back to it next year.

3. I am thawing out a chuck roast to cook later this week, probably Friday. My tamarind-sauce-flavored vegetable soup from Sunday, which includes silken tofu, grape tomatoes, carrot, potato, and green beans, is very delicious, especially with a couple tablespoons of congee dumped in. Last night, I finished off my bag of post-surgery chicken nuggets and baked sliced golden potatoes at 425 degrees F with olive oil and salt.

4. I have been listening to a ton of Xmas music, so at least I am somewhat in the holiday spirit. I did not have energy to pull out my ornament tree and dress it up, but we have a smaller one downstairs so I moved it from the corner onto the dining room table--the ornaments were still on it from last year! We have some cards propped around the base, and I have more on the little desk in the guest room. I didn't use my usual space in the back room because it would block my DVD screen, which I need for the Blake's 7 watchalong and possibly even some Shakespeare.

5. I have tentative plans for Xmas afternoon with local friends. I want to get started on my fancy wooden turtle puzzle (which I have had for several years), and also to do some mending of clothing. I especially want to try needle-felting a hole in a very old black cashmere cardigan (commercially knitted); I was wearing it when I broke my elbow years ago, so couldn't wash it for weeks, and it got a moth hole under one arm before I was healed up. I am not sure if the hole is too big for felting. We shall see. I have washed it after its long storage!

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by The CW Team

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/jingle-bell-shocks-2025

Stockings around the Christmas tree

Look so bad that your jaw drops.

Once he got a good look at them

Santa Claus went into shock.

Who comes up with these Christmas cakes?

Have the bakers lost their minds?

Did they drink too much spiced eggnog?

Or are they legally blind?

You will see a glut of flotsam pieces as you neeear

Cakes that just won't make you jolly

Hey, d'you think that might be holly?

Shocking amounts of frosting, these

Might send you right 'round the bend

Will you hold out for better cakes

Or just buy these in the end?

BONUS CAROL OF THE SILVER BELLS:

[sing it with me, now!]

Diiiing doooong,

Diiing...

Dong.

A choir of thanks to Maryann M., Janet G., Kadmi, Megan K., Katherine D., Jackson L., Ann M., Jenna C., Ashley S., & Grainne, who all want to go Christmas caroling with Sharyn. Me, too, guys. ME, TOO.

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/jingle-bell-shocks-2025

cimorene

We got a cold snap last night and a few millimeters of snow. It looks like the grass is coated in powdered sugar. Downstairs is still quite warm - 17° in the kitchen at lunchtime - but after I fed the cats at 7:00 am I went back to bed with a wool sweater on and I never got hot enough to take it off.

It's so nice to see Wax enjoying her fandom so much. She's had two objectively bad TV shows that she was super fannish about since the last time I had a fandom. I do like IWTV enough to get that excited about, but it still wouldn't be like her fandoms (911 and Roswell before that) because I can't get that into reading it (I have read some, but I didn't settle in) and wouldn't be able to write it.

The last fandom I was able to get into reading was Stranger Things 4 Steve/Eddie a couple of years ago, but that was also not quite the full fannish experience, because I wasn't as into the canon. I look over at her and see her chatting with people and reading furiously, and I remember that, and feel happy for her... but sad for myself.

She's even excited about Heated Rivalry - and I am too! But not nearly as much. I guess it feels more like I'm enjoying it as a member of slash fandom, and I'm keeping abreast of what's happening and getting the references, but, as I said once before... I am enjoying the show, which is good and well made, without really liking the characters very much, or the plot.

I was talking to Wax about this, and the absence of uncritical joy that I used to engage with in my 20s, and she diagnosed that I need to "open up my hating heart". I'm hating a lot more than I did when I was younger, it's true. The thing is that I don't know how to do that.

Anyway... I'm working on the second of the three triplet sweaters now, after Wax knitted most of the body of it. I finished the first sweater, after having to knit the first sleeve entirely twice - or rather knitting to the cuff beffore starting over - and now the same thing has happened with the second sweater. It's boring stockinette though, unlike the first sweater, and with very black yarn, so in order to count stitches and decreases I have to have a lamp pointing at it. Sigh.

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/commander-claus-throws-the-ensign-elves-under-the-bus/366232/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=366232

Read Commander Claus Throws The Ensign Elves Under The Bus

Imagine being the child who is last to be called, sitting there and watching as everyone else gets their turn, the anticipation building, waiting.
And imagine being the child whose name still hasn't been called when Santa reaches the end of the gifts in his bag...

Read Commander Claus Throws The Ensign Elves Under The Bus

https://notalwaysright.com/commander-claus-throws-the-ensign-elves-under-the-bus/366232/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=366232

minoanmiss

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Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/let-the-holiday-baggage-go/364958/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=364958

Read Let The Holiday Baggage Go

Customer: "That's not how I wanted it packed. Start again and I'll direct you."
Me: "It isn't in my job description to pack your bags; I am doing it to be polite."
Customer: "It's in your job description to serve me!"

Read Let The Holiday Baggage Go

https://notalwaysright.com/let-the-holiday-baggage-go/364958/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=364958

notalwaysright_feed

Posted by Not Always Right

https://notalwaysright.com/397458-2/397458/

https://notalwaysright.com/?p=397458

Read

(I’m cutting fabric for an older customer, and one fabric is very floral and fruit-related. I’ve worked here since we opened and I’m in my 30s.) Customer: “That fabric makes you want a glass of wine.” Me: *hums politely* Customer: “You’re probably not old enough to drink yet, huh?” Me: “Oh, I am.” (I resist […]

Read

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(My friend’s big sister is about the worst travel companion I’ve ever had. Quite aside her general disdain for anything cultural, she is about the most disrespectful tourist you can encounter, on top of having a childish sense of humor: her antics before this story include asking the guide at Pompeii whether she was ashamed […]

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So my story takes place back in the 90’s. It is my first day in 7th grade. It is lunch time and I am sitting in the cafeteria with my 3 good friends from elementary school. We are both excited and nervous about being in junior high. I am eating my lunch and not saying […]

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https://notalwaysright.com/?p=363593

Customer: “Present… Wife… Forgot…”
Me: “Oh, dear. Okay, do you have something in mind?”
Customer: “No… I have no idea at all.”

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Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/12/urban-vpn-proxy-surreptitiously-intercepts-ai-chats.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71375

This is pretty scary:

Urban VPN Proxy targets conversations across ten AI platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok (xAI), Meta AI.

For each platform, the extension includes a dedicated “executor” script designed to intercept and capture conversations. The harvesting is enabled by default through hardcoded flags in the extension’s configuration.

There is no user-facing toggle to disable this. The only way to stop the data collection is to uninstall the extension entirely.

[…]

The data collection operates independently of the VPN functionality. Whether the VPN is connected or not, the harvesting runs continuously in the background.

[…]

What gets captured:

Every prompt you send to the AI
Every response you receive
Conversation identifiers and timestamps
Session metadata
The specific AI platform and model used

BoingBoing post.

EDITED TO ADD (12/15): Two news articles.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/12/urban-vpn-proxy-surreptitiously-intercepts-ai-chats.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71375

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I am a real estate photographer. I am finishing up a shoot of a house that is almost vacant (minus one table + mattress on the floor), although there are still some items in the closet. It is a small, very basic home with no special features or anything significant. The homeowner approaches me as […]

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badly_knitted posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: On The Outside
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Garibaldi, Zack Allen
Rating: PG
Word Count: 300
Spoilers/Setting: Moments of Transition.
Summary: These days, Garibaldi can only rely on himself.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 501: Amnesty 83, using Challenge 30: Solitary.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Triple drabble.

( On The Outside... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

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Here in the UK we often have people knocking door-to-door requesting that you sign up to regular donations for whichever animal or children’s charity it might be. They can usually be easily identified as they roam in packs, have matching colour jerseys, and ID badges on lanyards. They are colloquially known as “Chuggers” (ie “Charity […]

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Employee: "Sir, this bird is too small and fragile for the wrapping machine. It needs more precise care for gift wrapping, which I am happy to do—"
Customer: "—Do I need to ask one of the guys here to teach you how to operate machinery?"

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meridian_rose

From

kitarella_imagines, this is a fiction meme, First and Last Line game.

Take your last 5* fanfics and copy their first and last lines. We have to guess what the story is about!
*you can go back as far as you like to find fanfics where it's not obvious what's happened.

( Read more... )

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There is a high-end resort that I often service. When a customer of theirs has a problem, they report it to housekeeping. The report goes through 4 or 5 people before it gets to me. After service, I submit a report that is *supposed* to go back through all those people. A lot of times, […]

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Caller: "What hours are you open today and tomorrow?"
Me: "We close at 6 PM today and we're closed tomorrow."
Caller: "What! That's so early! And closed tomorrow! Did you say closed!?"

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nanila posting in

awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

antisoppist

Will saw there only a gap in the crowd, with beyond it the group of musicians. As he stood there, they struck up once more 'Good King Wenceslas', the carol they had been playing when first he entered the room, through the Doors. Merrily the whole gathering joined in singing, and then the next verse came and Merriman's deep voice was ringing out across the room, and Will realised, blinking, that the verse to come was his.

He drew breath, and raised his head.

Sire he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain ...

And there was no moment of farewell, no moment in which he saw the nineteenth century vanish away, but suddenly with no awareness of change, as he sang he knew that Time had somehow blinked, and another young voice was singing with him, the two of them so nearly simultaneous that anyone who could not see the lips moving would have sworn that it was one boy's voice alone . . .

[...]

On Christmas night, Will always slept with James. Both twin beds were still in James's room from the time before Will had moved up to Stephen's attic. The only difference now was that James kept Will's old bed piled with op art cushions, and referred to it as 'my chaise longue'. There was something about Christmas Eve, they both felt, that demanded company; one needed somebody to whisper to, during the warm beautiful dream-taut moments between hanging the empty stocking at the end of the bed, and dropping into the cosy oblivion that would flower into the marvel of Christmas morning.

And it was the same as it always was, as he lay curled up happily in his snug wrappings, promising himself that he would stay awake, until, until...

... until he woke, in the dim morning room with a glimmer of light creeping round the dark square of the curtained window, and saw and heard nothing for an enchanted expectant space, because all his senses were concentrated on the weighty feel, over and around his blanketed feet, of strange bumps and corners and shapes that had not been there when he fell asleep. And it was Christmas Day.

rydra_wong

I was too tired to have the focus for Dark Souls-ing in the last few days, so binge-played 1000xResist and now I feel like I'm been punched in the head.

Basically a walking simulator/visual novel, so don't go expecting complex gameplay, but HOLY FUCK.

For all of you looking for fiction with fucked-up complicated women who are somewhere on a spectrum from "morally grey" to "evil but sympathetic" (with the odd dip into "idealistic but destructive") having fucked-up dynamics with other fucked-up complicated women: 1000xResist has SO MANY of them. It has almost no characters who don't fit that archetype, in fact.

(I considered whether it passes the reverse-Bechdel test -- i.e. two male characters have a conversation that's not about a woman -- and I think it may juuust scrape past in a 5-second exchange in one of the flashbacks, but barely. There are very very few men in this story, for plot-related reasons.)

Watch on YouTube

I found out afterwards that the development team were a devised theatre group who decided to start making a game when everything was shut down during the pandemic, and somehow this fully checks out (complimentary).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1675830/1000xRESIST/ (you can even pick it up in a bundle with Slay The Princess for bonus visual novel headfuck)

Do note the content notes from the devs: Photosensitivity Warning: Flashing Lights, Cursing and Crude Language, Generational Trauma, Acts of Violence and Terrorism, Disease Outbreak, Mention of Suicide, Mention of Animal Cruelty/Pet Death, Blood, Body Horror, Emotional Abuse, Bullying, Dead Bodies, Vomit, Drowning, Fire, Gore, Needles, Racism and General Mature Content.

(I would also add a specific note for torture, and for fucked-up mother-daughter and sister-sister relationships, that being one of the core elements of the game, along with the aforementioned generational trauma.)

dine

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silveradept

It's December Days time again. This year, I have decided that I'm going to talk about skills and applications thereof, if for no other reason than because I am prone to both the fixed mindset and the downplaying of any skills that I might have obtained as not "real" skills because they do not fit some form of ideal.

( 23: Chaos )

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Disparition - The Ballad of Magnus and Axel

ashkitty

Almost to the end! So the thing with the Arthurian legend is that you can write almost anything, but it still ends badly. This story stops before that happens, but it’s still hovering in the background, casting its shadow. Still, I very much enjoyed writing it (hey, sometimes you’re a PhD student working on Arthurian literature and just happen to draw ‘Arthurian legend’ in Yuletide).

I don’t have a lot of OT3s – my affection for codependent couples doesn’t really lend itself to polyamory – but this one has always been formative. I think I read T. H. White in high school and thought, Aha! So that’s what’s going on! and ended up years later doing queer stuff with medieval knights for an actual job. Anyway it’s not a long read – I want to keep it short because I’m sure the holiday season is really getting busy by now – but I hope you enjoy it.

The Art of Courtly Love (Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere, Arthurian Legend)
Rated M

‘It was Christmas night, so the king and queen held a feast. The hall was trimmed with holly and mistletoe above the doors, and a poet from the North had sung of heroes and lovers. Arthur sat in the centre of the high table with Guinevere and Lancelot on his left and his right. The stewards had brought in the second subtlety, the Blessed Virgin standing atop a map of the world with a gilded model of Camelot in her cupped hands.’

Song: Personent Hodie (Mediæval Bæbes version). Attested in a 16th-century Finnish hymbook, it seems to come from a 14th-century song and who knows prior to that. Not the oldest medieval Christmas hymn I have, but one that catches the feeling of the fic better than some others.

Rec: So Pleasing a Thing by Raja815.(Star Trek TOS, Kirk/Spock)
Rated T

This follows Kirk and Spock after they've sorted themselves out post-Gol and post-V'ger and got married, but both being devoted to their careers as well as each other, they have some rough patches. What I love is how the author shows the difficulties they're facing, without being melodramatic--just the very real tensions of two overworked people who are devoted to their vocations as well as to each other; there are cultural differences and errors of ignorance, but the depth of their love is never actually in question.

Back to Day 10 | On to Day 12

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I trudged over there with my shovel, and I had just started the first row when a random guy in a snowplow turned in and cleared the whole driveway in two minutes, easy.

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myrmidon posting in

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The Odyssey (2026)
[ official trailer ]

[ here @

axisandallies ]

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Other Customer: "God, these millennials are just so lazy and disrespectful. Can't even bother to walk around and are taking carts away from those who need it."

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Staff Member: "These are slightly damaged so we can't sell them. I'm taking them to the dumpster. You can grab as many as you want. The only thing I need to do is empty the cart."

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nuh_s posting in

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