Xteink X4 E-Reader
Jul. 16th, 2026 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinealaFor my birthday this year,
lysimache bought me an Xteink e-reader, because she had seen a Wirecutter review and thought it seemed like my sort of thing, which it is. (The Tom's Guide review is very good, also, if you'd like to see another review by someone who is going to take pictures, because I'm sure not.)( Review follows )
Anyway! It's fun! I can hold it in one hand! I've read half a book so far! If this works, I might end up buying an X3 before they decide to phase out all the models with buttons.
Hooray, I finished writing a post.
Fic: Child's Play (Baldur's Gate)
Jul. 16th, 2026 07:10 pmsettiaiChapters: 1/1
Fandom: Baldur's Gate (Video Games)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: The Dark Urge (Baldur's Gate)
Additional Tags: Child Death, Deception, Evil Dark Urge (Baldur's Gate), Gaslighting, Half-Elf Dark Urge (Baldur's Gate), Male Dark Urge (Baldur's Gate), Named Dark Urge (Baldur's Gate), Past Character Death, Questline: Emerald Grove (Baldur's Gate), Rogue Dark Urge (Baldur's Gate), Temporary Character Death
Summary: It had been laughably easy to make everything at the grove fall apart.
[ SECRET POST #7132 ]
Jul. 16th, 2026 06:48 pmcase posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandomsecrets⌈ Secret Post #7132 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
[Genshin Impact]
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 06 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1018.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Praise: Original: Meta: In Praise of the Staff
Jul. 16th, 2026 06:24 pmsmallhobbit posting in fan_flashworksFandom: Original
Rating: G
Length: 331 words
Summary: My praise following my arm operation on Sunday
(no subject)
Jul. 16th, 2026 10:51 amaurumcalendulaThings
Jul. 17th, 2026 12:22 amvassStarted reading Casey Johnston's LIFTOFF!, and think I'd like it better if the ratio of programme and explanations of the programme to trying to convince the reader (who has already bought the book) of the merits of the programme. Also the "Women! Scared lifting weights will make you 'too bulky'? It won't, and here's why..." bit is laid on about as thick as I was worried it would be in A Physical Education. Which is not a criticism of the book (the start of this paragraph was, but this part isn't) because there are always more of today's lucky 10K who need to know that, and the fact that I personally a) am not a woman, and b) already had that information, and c) am running more T than E these days (which is true of some women too) is not the book's fault.
Started listening to the audiobook of S.A. Chakraborty's City of Brass for car reading. It reads far more YA than I was expecting, and also I'm having the problem I sometimes have with audiobooks where my auditory processing is insufficient to the task: I keep missing bits. (With podcasts, and audiobooks I own in mp3 form that I can import into my podcast app, I can just press a button on my steering wheel and jump back 10 seconds. But alas, this is a library book, and the library's app maps that button to "jump back to the start of the chapter", which won't work for "I missed the start of the last sentence." Even while not driving and with the app open in front of me, the shorter "jump back" button on that app is 30 seconds, not 10.
(Even with the ability to jump back ten seconds I have been known to have to jump back five times in a row because I kept getting distracted or forgetting to listen at the same place four times in a row.)
Fashion
For absolutely no reason, spent a day in a research spiral on r/malefashionadvice and updating my measurements, after which I went looking for new pants and couldn't find anything suitable except a pair of jeans the same colour and general style as the one I wear most days.
Links
- Australians: prepare for your phone to do something extremely obnoxious at 2pm AEST on Monday the 27th of July
- If you haven't already seen this article about Arabic fonts: it's really good.
- Remember Softbank? One of my microfandoms got some new canon
- Ageless Linux — Software for Humans of Indeterminate Age
- The Frogs Are Calling You
Food
Realised that I can make a protein shake the night before and leave it, in its shaker, in the fridge.
(no subject)
Jul. 16th, 2026 07:47 amconuly posting in agonyauntI try to help and move stuff around to avoid his fits, but they are inevitable, it seems. I cannot handle the negativity over something so trivial. Our neighbors can hear him, and I'd feel embarrassed, if I were him, to be heard cursing like a child having a tantrum.
How would you advise I handle this situation? I am at my wits' end. I feel as though I will have to live with the yelling and anger forever. -- IN THE LINE OF FIRE
( Read more... )
Poet's Corner: Meditation on a Grapefruit by Craig Arnold
Jul. 16th, 2026 06:55 amstonepicnicking_okapiTo wake when all is possible
before the agitations of the day
have gripped you
To come to the kitchen
and peel a little basketball
for breakfast
To tear the husk
like cotton padding a cloud of oil
misting out of its pinprick pores
clean and sharp as pepper
To ease
each pale pink section out of its case
so carefully without breaking
a single pearly cell
To slide each piece
into a cold blue china bowl
the juice pooling until the whole
fruit is divided from its skin
and only then to eat
so sweet
a discipline
precisely pointless a devout
involvement of the hands and senses
a pause a little emptiness
each year harder to live within
each year harder to live without
Escapade 36.5 We need your votes! And your vids!
Jul. 15th, 2026 10:44 pmescapade_team posting in escapade_conEscapade is shaped by your panel suggestions and your votes. It’s panel voting time! We have some incredible panel suggestions this year! And panel voting ends in just TWO DAYS on July 17th. Get your votes in!
https://escapadecon.net/virtual-con/panel-voting/
Are you a vidder with a great idea that’s been languishing on your hard drive or your storyboard? Still looking for that last bit of source material to make it just perfect? Or is there one of your older works that you’ve thought of freshening up to show to the world again?
Whichever it is, you know we’d love to have it for our vid show, so don’t wait any longer, start working on it now! The vid show submission deadline is August 1st 11:59 PDT
https://escapadecon.net/vid-show/submit-vid/
Dates to remember
Convention August 7th-9th
Panel voting ends July 17th
Vid submissions due August 1st
Panel Voting: https://escapadecon.net/virtual-con/panel-votig/
Registration: https://escapadecon.net/shop/register-for-summer-online-escapade-36-5/
Scholarship: https://escapadecon.net/scholarship/
- Con Com
https://escapadecon.net/escapade-36-5-we-need-your-votes-and-your-vids/
What's Making Me Happy Today: An Unhealthy Obsession by xthatsecret (and TVL in general)
Jul. 15th, 2026 08:13 pmdelphiAn Unhealthy Obsession by xthatsecret
Fandom: The Vampire Lestat (Interview with the Vampire s3)
Relationships: Armand/Daniel Molloy
Medium: Vid
Length: 2:03
Rating: SFW (spoilers up to 3x6)
My Bookmark Tags: dark, romance, humour, ambiguous ending, developing relationship, obsession, courtship, secrets, then and now
Song: An Unhealthy Obsession by The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra
Excerpt:
You've got those eyes that drive me crazy
and I've got eyes to watch you sleep
I brought a packed lunch and some coffee
for my stakeout in your tree
( Some Brief Thoughts About 3x6 and the Upcoming Finale )
(no subject)
Jul. 15th, 2026 10:16 pmskygiantsgenarti has been singing Goodman's praises to me for the past many years and I am glad to say I now wholeheartedly agree! She's very good! The thing that is notable about Ruth Goodman as a historian is her emphasis on physical, material culture: there's a passage where she walks through a Tudor suit of clothes stored at the (I think?) V&A museum going through all the physical evidence of how it was constructed and what we can learn from it, capping with the charming fact that it was put together in such a hurry that a couple of pins were accidentally left in the lining. In addition to doing the research to look at the prints that show us what it was like to iron the ruffs or use the bread-ovens, she has then gone on to iron the ruffs herself, use the bread-ovens, etc., and she tells you about it and what she's learned from it and what it was probably like to live it in a very straightforward and readable way that lets you follow along with the process of drawing reasonable conclusions from the evidence and practice at hand.
Some of the info is stuff I had general previous knowledge of or aligns pretty well with what I would have guessed, some of it I sort of knew but nonetheless hit me with a "man I never thought about that" (the existence of secular theater in England only predated Shakespeare by like 50 years! he almost missed it completely!), some of it was the full HOO BOY the past is a DIFFERENT country, and some of it was the equally powerful HOO BOY the past is the SAME country. Had a great time! My only real complaint about the book is that it contains various prints of some of her source material but the picture quality is GODAWFUL -- clearly meant to be in color, the contrast in the black-and-white version that I have is so low that I couldn't make out a Dang Thing. "This print shows --" well, okay, Ruth Goodman, if you say so, I will believe you! I certainly can't see for myself!
What I'm Doing Wednesday
Jul. 15th, 2026 08:17 pmsagestill reading Babylonia by Constanza Casati...which means I'm actually glued to the news instead of reading fiction. Oops? I mean, I grew up in Houston & I live in a city that's fully two thirds Latino. There's a lot to have concerns about atm.
rl & floods
I was supposed to be traveling for family having surgery this Friday, but Texas is experiencing torrential rains and floods. We had 2 very minor, weak tornadoes in the city in two days, the second one this morning, and people are FREAKING out. Anyway, the surgery has been postponed, so I don't have to figure out how to drive over washed out bridges in middle-of-nowhere, Texas Hill Country. Yay? Yay.
Lestat
Due to scheduling conflicts, I still haven't seen Sunday's ep yet. I have been avoiding Tumblr & am so far unspoiled. :crosses fingers:
yarning
Slept too late for yarn group AGAIN, sooo I didn't go. Again. We'll see how this weekend pans out. Meanwhile, the commissioned cat stitch scarf should have been delivered today; I hope the customer's daughter likes it.
healthcrap
Didn't wake up today until 1:22pm. Got an allergy shot & hit 2 pharmacies yesterday. Fun times...
oppossum
due to the EPIC rains, I haven't actually gone out to check if it's still living in my laundry room. I mean, it's pouring. I'm hoping the possum's gone & the group of black panther stray cats that live in my backyard are hanging out in there instead.
#resist
July 17-19: Teach, Reach, Preach: Good Trouble Lives On Weekend of Action.
I hope you're all doing beautifully and staying safe! <333
Fannishness (or a lack thereof)
Jul. 15th, 2026 09:10 pmsettiaiI have approximately five million fic WIPs, but lately I haven't been working on anything that isn't specifically for an exchange. My plan is to to pick a WIP, open the file, and not allow myself to do anything else until I write at least 500 words. Minimum. I'm really hoping that will kickstart my muse if I'm not allowing myself to do anything else until I hit that goal.
We're also edging closer and closer to Yuletide season, so I really want to start re-reading/re-watching/etc. a few things now both for requesting and offering purposes. Reading is easier, since I can fit that in at work between calls and such, but the re-watching part is harder to fit into my schedule. I'm going to try to set aside time every day (within reason - Wednesdays and Fridays will probably be out since I have work all day and then D&D in the evening) for that purpose if I can manage it.
Not to mention that I still need to get caught up on Critical Role, especially since they're taking a break right now which is the perfect opportunity. I think part of my problem is that I left off when they were split into my least favorite group of the new campaign (The Seekers) so that's why it's been harder to convince my brain to just shut up and catch up.
My plan right now is that I'm going to watch the next episode (maybe tomorrow if my brain isn't mush after work? Saturday if it is) with a summary pulled up. That way I can more easily fast-forward if I get to a point where I've lost interest without losing track of what's going on, which is the biggest reason that I usually force myself to not fast-forward with Critical Role.
I'm not sure if any of those plans will actually work, but I'm going to try. Because lately it feels like all I've been doing is working, sleeping, and blinking only to find out that hours have passed without me accomplishing anything.
and i ain't got no worries 'cause i ain't in no hurry at all
Jul. 15th, 2026 06:59 pmmusesfool( key lime pie recipe )
I just bought a premade graham cracker crust though, so it was even easier than it sounds.
I also started clearing out some clothes I no longer wear or that no longer fit etc., one drawer a day to keep it manageable.
For dinner, I made the King Arthur small batch focaccia, but for some reason it stuck to the pan. It was still delicious, just annoying. I still recommend the recipe, just maybe not on a 95°F day. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mostly, I've been reading fic and scrolling on tumblr - it's been a good, relaxing day.
*
smoke and mirrors or teeth
Jul. 15th, 2026 06:35 pmtwistedchickNew hygienist, who started out by telling me how inadequate my tooth care was according to her views before even looking at my teeth; I called her on it and she stopped, but it wasn't a good start. She's new there, or at least new to me -- and the last of the phalanx of extremely competent blonde employees that office has had for 20 years is gone. No objections about the new people, just something I noticed. She did a competent job at cleaning my teeth, though.
Then the dentist came in, said my teeth looked fine, and then started pressuring me about getting either braces or a retainer for my lower teeth. I said no. I continued to say no, and got a bit louder when she kept pushing. I really hate being bullied. I stuck to my NO.
It's possible that the office is having money trouble; there was no separate office manager there handling the payment. I ended up paying the receptionist, which was a first.
I've been going to that office for 20 years, through 3 different dentists. I may well start looking for a different one, since my NO is not respected. I do have some coverage under Kaiser; it's time to look at their lists.
And then another hour's drive home in the heat, though less smoke.
wednesday reads and things
Jul. 15th, 2026 04:26 pmisisThe first question was about identifying the core beliefs of liberals and of conservatives (and spoiler alert, we all agreed on pretty similar beliefs), and the second was about the relevance of the Constitution today, and if it should be followed strictly, modified, or scrapped. To my surprise both of the conservatives at my second table said they don't trust the current president to lead any revision of the constitution, and when we discussed things as a group it was clear that nobody is a fan of the current administration. Which, I guess should not have been a surprise, because part of the ground rules were, as alluded to, respect for other points of view and no attempting to argue your point, and as a result those who attended were pretty much normie Republicans, unaffiliated leaners, and mainstream Democrats, with no Trumpers (we have those here) or leftie anarchists (we have those, too).
Anyway, it was interesting and enjoyable, and it definitely made the point that "the other side are people too." I'll probably try to attend again - they put these on every few months.
What I've recently finished reading:
Stiletto by Daniel O'Malley, the second Checquy Files book. This one goes a little harder on the body horror than the first (for plot reasons) but it's still leavened with enough humor that it didn't hit my ick button. The humor mostly comes from the extremely silly powers some people have, as well as from the dry observations by Myfanwy and others. As in the first book, there is a very shippable f/f pair (as well as Shantay from book 1 showing up at the end, yay, and not doing anything to shatter my Myfanwy/Shantay inclinations!) though again it's all just subtext.
Also, I'm reading the collection Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie, and so far I have read:
"Lake of Souls" - this is the title story, and I liked it a lot, mostly because I am a sucker for stories with multiple POVs in which each character is a different alien with a different culture and thus each has a very very different perspective. But I also liked the aww-factor of the outcome.
"Footprints" - horror, I guess? I think I missed the point.
"Hesperia and Glory" - this is fun and harks back to Golden Age Sci-Fi. Is Mr. Atkins mad, or a Martian?
"The Endangered Camp" - this made me think of Tom Toner's The Promise of the Child in which, also, the dinosaurs escaped the extinction event in a spaceship. Not bad, not my favorite.
Speaking of short story collections, I DNF'ed The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad, which I learned about from a review of The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann (which I reviewed here) as the reviewer felt that the story "Let's Play Dead" was a better take on a mysteriously alive post-beheading Anne Boleyn. Unfortunately, stylistically it very much did not work for me (literary, dense, weird); I started and abandoned two other stories in the collection and then decided to give up on the collection entirely.
[ SECRET POST #7131 ]
Jul. 15th, 2026 06:06 pmcase posting in fandomsecrets⌈ Secret Post #7131 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 12 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1018.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
it's pizza night
Jul. 15th, 2026 04:12 pmautobotscoutriellaI do have a bunch of blueberries that I unexpectedly need to cook at some point in the next few days (my understanding is that blueberries are probably not the source of the latest Food-Related Unpleasantness Outbreak, but since we don't know, better safe than sorry), so I think this weekend is going to be a fun game of What Can I Make With Blueberries. I'm thinking muffins, or maybe a modified coffee cake recipe; I have one I normally make with blackberries and I think they'd sub in well.
Wednesday Reading Meme
Jul. 15th, 2026 03:29 pmsinealaNothing.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( Avengers Armageddon #2, Captain America #13, Fantastic Four #14 )
What I'm Reading Next
Maybe I will read one of the Hugo nominees. We shall see.
Slice-of-life Manga Rec List
Jul. 15th, 2026 08:25 amforestofglory posting in ladybusinessSlice-of-life manga are stories about everyday life. They often center domestic labor, and feature community building. (These are things that I want in cosy SFF but have had mixed luck finding.) I find slice-of-life manga soothing but also I appreciate that they focus on things that often aren’t considered “story worthy” but are important.
The manga often have a wealth of detail about specific crafts or professions. What kind of tools people use, how things are made, etc. I always find this interesting and fun to learn about!
Slice-of-life manga are generally sweet and cute. They often feature small everyday moments and family and friends bonding. I have a special fondness for the ones that have very detailed descriptions of food, when characters say stuff like “The X and Y in this dish really brings out the Z” even though it makes me hungry sometimes.
Slice-of-life manga can overlap with all kinds of genres. The ones I’ve recced here are all set in contemporary Japan but I’ve also read a couple of post-apocliptic and historical slice-of-life stories, and I know there are other genres out there like fantasy that I haven’t explored yet.
I’m still learning the genre but I wanted to share a few of my favorites so far:
Hirayasumi by Keigo Shinzō— A story about two cousins living together in a small house in Tokyo. The younger cousin is an 18-yearold woman who just moved to Tokyo for art school, and the older cousin is a 29-year-old man who works a kinda dead-end job. He inherited the house from an old woman he befriended who didn't have any relatives. It’s very charming, I find both of the cousins relatable in different ways.
I really enjoy all the environments in this! The characters' rooms feel like a little glimpse into who they are. And the cityscapes are so warm and lived in!
(This is very popular at my library at the moment so this rec is for volumes 1-4)
Laid-Back Camp Vol. 15-17 by Afro— This is about a club of high school girls who go camping both together and separately. There are lots and lots of details about food and camping equipment, but I also enjoy the relationships between the girls and their growing friendships.
This also has wonderful landscapes. There are scenic campsites, of course, featuring lakes, mountains, trees, etc. But there are also good scenes of people traveling on buses, trains, roads through the mountains, etc.
Yotsuba&! #15 by Kiyohiko Azuma— A very cute manga about Yotsuba, a preschool girl, her adoptive dad, and their friends and family. It’s just full of everyday things like going shopping, trying new foods, and looking for rocks. Yotsuba is so lovable and also determined in everything she does, she really makes the whole thing work.
Silver Spoon, vol 14-15 by Hiromu Arakawa—This is a charming story about a city kid who goes to an agricultural high school to get away from everything. I love all the details about food, farming equipment, and rural life. The types of issues that Japanese farming families deal with in this book feel very familiar and true to life, from my limited experience of US rural life. They worry about things like land succession, how much to invest in big machines, etc. The author grew up on a farm and is clearly drawing from that experience.
Content note: death of named animals
Have you read any of these? What did you think? What other slice-of-life manga would you recommend?
Four things make a post
Jul. 15th, 2026 11:19 amaurumcalendulaI'm not thrilled about having to eye fresh produce with suspicion, but at least the blueberry jam I made the other day came out tasty (I threw ~10 oz of blueberries, half a sliced lemon, 1/3 cup of sugar, and 2 tbs of water in a pot over medium heat for half an hour).
I like my fic draft, although now I'm fretting a bit over if it's too sparse w/r/t descriptions (or lack there of).
It makes me really happy that I've been seeing a bunch of hummingbirds at the feeder!
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (1926)
Jul. 15th, 2026 08:04 ambrightknightieskieswideopen revealed that I'd never read The Blue Castle (1926) by L.M. Montgomery. I had thought that I'd long since read all of her fiction, the Anne books as a kid and the rest from my college library, but clearly not quite. So I picked up a copy from my local public library -- a rather nice slightly oversized facsimile edition printed in 2017, actually: photographs of the pages of an original, not a new typesetting -- squeezed in among the YA paperbacks (none of Montgomery's other books are shelved in that section). There are no blurbs on the back or inside to set the stage for a YA reader who may not recognize the author's name; I wonder whether it's finding its readers without those.It's very unlike most of Montgomery's tales in that the protagonist, Valency, begins as a grown-up (29 years old) and that it's set in Ontario and spends a deal of time towns and cities. It's not all unlike Montgomery's stories in the structural course it charts: Valency suffers as an "old maid" in an extended family that has no use, respect, or affection for her, and then something happens such that she takes charge of her life, adventure and delight ensue, experiences a wrenching twist or two, and finally a happy ending. There's a nice romance, but that's not the main point. And of course the book is compellingly well-written, pulling the reader eagerly along.
Montgomery pulls an expert trick expertly here. She drops enough foreshadowing hints to make the reader expect one certain twist, and then, boom, delivers a completely different twist that completely overshadows the expected one (though that one also comes; it just no longer matters), while still plugging into a different set of even milder, vaguer, foreshadowing hints. (One loose string: the book never explicates what the chemical smells coming from Barney's workroom actually are, though it easily could have. Deliberate tease to the reader, accidental omission, or me not being clever enough to pin down some vintage clue? I have decided on my head!canon.)
The eponymous castle is a figment of Valency's imagination, her escape from her dreary, plodding routine under her relatives' thumbs; the castle becomes a symbol of her inner life. The copy I borrowed has a literal blue castle on its cover, a loose line and ink-wash sketch of a fortress on a mountain bluff with tiny human figures suggested in its walled courtyard (and modern-ish chimneys on the roof in the familiar way of surviving UK manor houses; it must be a real building somewhere). This illustration goes uncredited anywhere in or on the volume. I wonder whether it, like its facsimile pages, may actually come from something near the original.
Reading Wednesday
Jul. 15th, 2026 09:36 amsabotabbyIf there's a fantastical element to it, it's the 80s paperback fantasy that our heroine rereads and, in her captivity, escapes into. Which is absolutely something that I do so it was note-perfect and incredibly relatable. Without spoilering the end because I'd just encourage you all to read it, the payoff with it is a joy.
Space Invaders by Nona Fernández. Two of you recommended this last week, and I will be a third. It'll take you like 15 minutes to read, go do it. It's a dreamy, magic realist-inflected story set in the late days of Pinochet's regime, following a group of childhood friends who remember a classmate in often contradictory fragments. I feel like the punchline to the story is something that I remember reading in the news; I know that some of the journal entries in this were real, but I'm not sure if the story itself is. It's haunting and heartbreaking.
Currently reading: When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory. It took me awhile to warm up to this (the first chapter, which introduces a load of characters and doesn't give them any goddamn names, is off-putting in a 450-page novel) but the concept was too cool to resist and now I'm glad I stuck with it because I could not put this down and want to be reading it now.
This is a loose retelling of the Canterbury Tales. A bus carrying a load of tourists travels to various locations across the US, with the twist is that seven years ago, the entire human population was told that it was living in a simulation, and the stops are all places that prove it. All of the characters have fascinating reasons for being on the tour. This could have easily just been straight up sci-fi humour, but it leans into the premise and takes the suffering and existential crises of the characters with the full gravity that they deserve. There's also just impressive worldbuilding here—the Impossibles are all really cool and well constructed, and the various theories and copes that people develop over the seven years following the Announcement feel grounded and realistic.
Anyway hopefully this lands the ending because it's fantastic so far.
2 DAYS!!!
Jul. 15th, 2026 09:11 amslashmommy posting in dcslash
ACK! 2 days to go! Schedule is available in your time zone on the website already. We're almost there.
Word: Prognathous
Jul. 15th, 2026 06:54 amstonepicnicking_okapi...prognathous.
being or having a jaw and typically a lower jaw that projects forward especially to an unusual degree
--
I found it in Midnight at Malabar House:
A short, plump man in his forties, balding, bespectacled and with a prognathous jaw that gave him a permanently disgruntled look.
Like Charles II.
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
otw_news_feedDo you know SQL and Python or other programming languages and want to rescue at-risk fan archives? Would you like to wrangle AO3 tags? Can you read and translate from Chinese to English? Would you like to translate AO3 tags from another language to English? Are you fluent in a language other than English? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
- Open Doors Technical Volunteer – closing 22 July 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer – closing 22 July 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 110 applications
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese) – closing 22 July 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 45 applications
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Specified Languages) – closing 22 July 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 50 applications
- Translation Translator – closing 22 July 2026 at 23:59 UTC
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. We only accept volunteers who are 18 years of age or older. If you don’t see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
Open Doors Technical Volunteer
Do you know SQL and Python or other programming languages and want to rescue at-risk fan archives?
The Open Doors project receives many requests to rescue fan sites which are at risk of disappearing because their owners can no longer maintain them. The sites we import to the Archive Of Our Own range from database-driven archives based on common software packages like eFiction and Automated Archive to hand-coded HTML sites that are over twenty years old!
As a technical volunteer for Open Doors, you will process the contents of legacy sites to do the following:
- analyse the original data to find all the content and metadata needed for the import
- remove spam, legacy navigation and personal information such as email addresses from HTML files
- convert tags to official AO3 tags as specified by the Tag Wrangling team
- ensure no text exceeds AO3’s character limits, splitting summaries, notes or chapters as needed
- detect and fix any garbled text resulting from encoding errors
- detect and fix any invalid author emails and empty chapters
- convert the cleaned data to MySQL tables in a standard format that can be ingested automatically into the Archive
As the person responsible for ensuring that all the content from the original site is correctly imported to the AO3, you will have an excellent eye for detail and an ability to work independently within the rules of Open Doors. You will also liaise regularly in chat with other Open Doors volunteers, keeping them up to date with your progress on your assigned tasks.
To apply for this role, you must be at least 18 years old and legally of age to open explicit fanworks in your local jurisdiction.
Please note that you will be asked to complete a short coding test (to be returned in 1 week) as part of your application. You are not expected to spend more than an hour on this coding test, though you are welcome to do so if you have time. We do not permit the use of AI tools during the selection process for this position.
Applications are due 22 July 2026 or after 30 applications
Apply to be an Open Doors Technical Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role, we’re currently looking for wranglers for specific fandoms only, which fandoms are eligible will change each recruitment round. Please see the application for which fandoms are currently in need.
Wranglers need to be fluent in English but we welcome applicants who are also fluent in other languages, especially Čeština (Czech), isiZulu (Zulu), Français (French), Polski (Polish), Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese), ไทย (Thai), and 日本語 (Japanese), but knowledge of additional languages is always appreciated!
If you are fluent in 中文 (Chinese), we strongly encourage you to apply for our Chinese Tag Wrangling role, which is specifically designed to support our growing Chinese community. We welcome all dialects!
We also have a separate Specified Languages role, intended to provide additional opportunities for applicants fluent in the following languages: Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian), Español (Spanish), Filipino, Italiano (Italian), Português (Portuguese), Türkçe (Turkish), Українська (Ukrainian), Русский (Russian), and 한국어 (Korean). If you speak one of these languages, we encourage you to consider applying for that role, as space in the general role can fill quickly.
Applications are due 22 July 2026 or after 110 applications
Apply to be a Tag Wrangling Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese)
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the Archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role, we’re currently looking for wranglers for specific fandoms only, which fandoms are eligible will change each recruitment round. Please see the application for which fandoms are currently in need.
Additionally, for this role, applicants will also need to be fluent in English and any dialect of Chinese (中文). We welcome applicants fluent in any Chinese dialect! The work of those in this role will involve both regular Tag Wrangling work and, in addition, will also involve translating tags from Chinese into English.
Applications are due 22 July 2026 or after 45 applications
Apply to be a Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese) at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Specified Languages)
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the Archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role, we’re currently looking for wranglers for specific fandoms only, which fandoms are eligible will change each recruitment round. Please see the application for which fandoms are currently in need.
For this role, wranglers need to be fluent in English and any dialect of one of the following languages: Filipino, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), Italian (Italiano), Korean (한국어), Portuguese (Português), Russian (Русский), Spanish (Español), Turkish (Türkçe), or Ukrainian (Українська). This role is designed to help provide additional opportunities in languages in which we see a continuous need while having resources to support the volunteers in those languages.
If you are fluent in 中文 (Chinese), we strongly encourage you to apply for our Chinese Tag Wrangling role, which is specifically designed to support our growing Chinese community. We welcome all dialects!
If you are fluent in languages other than mentioned on the above list, including English, we welcome you to apply for our general wrangling role.
Applications are due 22 July 2026 or after 50 applications
Apply to be a Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Specified Languages) at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Translation Translator
If you enjoy working collaboratively, if you’re fluent in a language other than English, if you’re passionate about the OTW and its projects, and want to help us reach more fans all around the world, working with Translation might be for you!
Translation volunteers help make the OTW and its projects accessible to a wider global audience. We work on translating content by the OTW and its projects from English to other languages, such as site pages, news posts, AO3 FAQs and AO3 Support emails. (However, we do not translate fanworks.)
We really need volunteers who speak Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Galician, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, European Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Welsh—but help with other languages would be much appreciated. If you’re interested in starting a team for a language we don’t have yet, you’re very welcome to!
(Please note that our Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Filipino, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese teams are not accepting new members at this time.)
Applicants will be asked to translate and correct short text samples and will be invited to a chatroom interview as part of the selection process. More information about us can be found on the Translation committee page.
Applications are due 22 July 2026
Apply to be a Translation Translator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Virtual Garage Sale
Jul. 14th, 2026 10:04 pmsettiaiBoard/Card Games
Clue (Mighty Nein edition) (example on Amazon)
Monopoly (Crazy for Cats edition) (example on Walmart)
Queen by Midnight (example on Amazon)
Books/Comics/Graphic Novels
The Lost Art of E.T. Reed: Prehistoric Peeps (example on Amazon)
Dice Tray
Wyrmwood Gaming Purpleheart Dice Tray (example on WyrmwoodGaming.com - purpleheart is third from the last)
Nintendo Switch Games
Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (example on Amazon)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (example on Amazon)
TemTem (example on Amazon)
TTRPGs
Daggerheart Core Set (example on Amazon)
If you're not interested but know someone who might be, please point them my way.
For payment, I have CashApp ($Settiai), PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle (nancy.lynn.foster@gmail.com).
Mass Effect Trilogy: Sedoka: Don't Praise Me
Jul. 14th, 2026 05:50 pminfinitum_noctem posting in fan_flashworksFandom: Mass Effect Trilogy
Characters: Commander Shepard
Rating: G
Summary: The war is won, but Commander Shepard still bears its burden.
( Read more... )
Me-and-media update
Jul. 15th, 2026 10:01 amchina_shopIn the Music listening habits poll, "all the time" and "sometimes/occasionally" tied for first place with 27.7%, followed by "most days" with 25.5% (within the margin of error, so it's really a three-way tie). "Only in specific settings" garnered 19.1%.
For background noise, 57.4% said they like quiet, and 44.7% prefer music. (I think this says something about the kind of people who like Dreamwidth.) And in ticky-boxes, more hugs won with 89.1%, followed by hugs (82.6%) and lemons on the lemon tree (54.3%). Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
A bit more of Borders of Infinity by Bujold, read by Grover Gardner, and some graded reading in Chinese (the one about the stray cat finding a home, and her adopted mother, the penniless student; now I'm onto one about a doctor impersonating a student so she can go back to campus and feed the cats there, only now she's going on a date with a student? I'm hoping he'll turn out to actually be older too). I am slow and occasionally tripped up by new grammar configurations, but enjoying it immensely.
Cdramas/Kdramas
We finished Miraculous Brothers. Kind of a slow ending, but it was great. Now Andrew and I have started a) The Apartment Job, about a retired gangster (possibly autistic-coded?) trying to rip off the maintenance fund of a huge apartment complex; and b) Agent Kim Reactivated, about a retired North Korean super-spy living a quiet, humdrum life in South Korea, who loses his shit when his daughter is kidnapped. The latter is full of groups of people being terrible so we can enjoy seeing them get beaten up, ie, lots of bullying, terrorising the helpless, etc. It's also cartoonishly violent, quirkily enjoyable, and has So Ji-sub.
Pru and I finished Love Scout (♥ ♥ ♥) and are about to start May I Help You (2022), about a woman who works in a funeral parlour and sees ghosts, and an odd-jobs guy who helps her carry out the ghosts' last requests.
And I'm still obsessed with The First Frost, about two wounded, gunshy people who've loved each other since they were at high school but have a hard time getting past their own defences. (CW: sexual assault, workplace sexual harassment.) It's one of those "every tiny bit of progress feels like a triumph" kind of shows. I'm not sure what I'm going to follow it up with once I'm done.
Other TV
Not a lot of other TV. Legends (UK) once a week with a friend; White Collar and Bluey with my sister; finished Fisk. Watched a few movies: Nonnas (very gentle light drama with Vince Vaughan), Smallfoot (animated yeti (雪人) movie with confusing cultural aspects and unnecessary musical numbers), and Toy Story 5 in the cinema (fun enough, but I always forget I'm not really into the franchise). A bit of The Rest is Politics on Youtube (interviews with Jacinda Ardern, Helen Clark, Volodymyr Zelenskyy).
Audio entertainment
Cross Party Lines, a bit of Dreaming Against the Machine, some Coherent Podcast episodes to help me with political submissions, and a metric ton of ChinesePod beginner and elementary lessons. I'm about three weeks behind on Writing Excuses.
Writing/making things
My writing time has mostly been taken up with the Slo-mo Guardian Rewatch on
sid_guardian and political submissions, but I did just edit a flashfic; I might even manage to finish it for this fan_flashworks round. (I wrote it in Chinese first, translated it, and then had to fix the things that I either didn't think of or didn't know how to express in Chinese. ;-p)Life/health/mental state things
One more political submission over the weekend. That should be it for a while, since the government has (hopefully) run out of time to start more terrible things before the election.
My email inbox is neglected and overflowing. We're in the cold, dark part of the year, and it's inevitably taking its toll. But I'm okay. I'm hunkering and studying and otherwise puddling along.
House
I have quotes from the builder and electrician, and I've paid for the oven. Wheels are in motion (hopefully next month! *knock on wood*). I still need to a) paint the baseboards in the kitchen, and b) choose a new toilet.
Language Learning
My Chinese study continues apace. I got three days of free Premium on Duolingo over the weekend and went hard, but mostly my focus has shifted to HelloChinese (grammar, cultural notes, characters, "immersive lessons") and DuChinese (reading, flashcards). And the podcast (sample dialogues, pronunciation).
Good things
Lunches with friends. The Slo-mo Rewatch. A wealth of language learning resources. Writing. Looking forward to trying out new dishes (and also baking) in the new oven.
I pack
light
10 (24.4%)
medium
19 (46.3%)
heavy
6 (14.6%)
the kitchen sink
7 (17.1%)
other
3 (7.3%)
I prefer not to go anywhere
13 (31.7%)
other other
2 (4.9%)
ticky-box full of language-learning apps
11 (26.8%)
ticky-box full of giving your pets morning and/or afternoon tea and/or supper
17 (41.5%)
ticky-box full of pandas doing calligraphy and getting ink everywhere
22 (53.7%)
ticky-box of foxes telling knock-knock jokes
16 (39.0%)
ticky-box full of hugs
35 (85.4%)
[ SECRET POST #7130 ]
Jul. 14th, 2026 05:24 pmcase posting in fandomsecrets⌈ Secret Post #7130 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 18 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1018.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Mo Dao Zu Shi: Rise and Shine, by LesbianlazerOwl for Shadaras.
Jul. 14th, 2026 01:59 pmfull_metal_ox posting in fancakePairings/Characters: Mo Xuanyu, Wei Wuxian (mentioned), Nie Huaisang (implied), Lan Wangji (mentioned; implied); Mo Xuanyu/Himself, Mo Xuanyu & Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian (mentioned; implied), Mo Xuanyu -> Nie Huaisang (one-sided)
Rating: Explicit
Length: 4,927
Content Notes: Body Modification (voluntary), Cannibalism (mentioned as part of the culture), canon-typical ritual bloodletting, Classism, First Person POV, Needles, Scenery Porn
Creator Tags: Masturbation, Voyeurism, mermaid Mo Xuanyu, Non-Human Genitalia, Prehensile dick, Worldbuilding, Abyssal Mermaids, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, In that most of the sects are benthopelagic sea critters, And Wei Wuxian actually gets to talk to Mo Xuanyu, Monsterfucker Mo Xuanyu, POV Mo Xuanyu, Hair Kink (minor), self-bondage (minor), Misunderstandings
Creator Links: (AO3)
lazerowl; (Twitter) Theme: Unreliable Narrator, Cultural Differences, Interspecies Pairings, Languages & Linguistics, Mermaids, Pining, Worldbuilding, Xeno/Alien Biology
Summary: Mo Xuanyu lives alone at the edge of the habitable world, continuing Wei Wuxian's work and strengthening his cultivation. One day soon, he hopes to surpass the Yiling Laozu's power and follow him into the unknown. Complications arise.
Creator Notes: (Cut for length.) ( Continue. )
Reccer's Notes: LesbianlazerOwl’s AU where the Jiang and Jin Sects are deep-sea merfolk is a strange and rapturous gem that turns Lovecraftiana upside-down (from the POV of a character embodying everything Lovecraft abhorred: a queer Asian—here turned sea creature—looking to monsterfuck.)
With all the haughty smarter-than-the-sheeple dudgeon of the alienated Emo Kid, Abyssal Merman! and Seeker of Arcane Knowledge Mo Xuanyu follows his idol the Yiling Laozu’s forbidden explorations of the mysterious and unfathomable surface—where, according to rumor, he found love with an eldritch air fairy! (Should the author ever see fit, I’d love to read a Wangxian prequel.)
LesbianlazerOwl compresses an incredible amount of atmosphere and implicit worldbuilding into just short of 5000 words, in ways that encourage still further speculation (the Sunshot Campaign is referenced; what could justify such a name in this world, and what were the Wen—creatures of the infernal blazing heights of the Epipelagic Zone?)
Fanwork Links: Rise and Shine, by
Collections: Mutual Masturbation Exchange.
- fandom: mo dao zu shi,
- length: 01.000 - 5.000 words,
- theme: au,
- theme: au: complete au,
- theme: au: complete au: mermaids,
- theme: cultural differences,
- theme: interspecies pairings,
- theme: languages & linguistics,
- theme: mythical creatures,
- theme: mythical creatures: mermaids,
- theme: pining,
- theme: unreliable narrator,
- theme: worldbuilding,
- theme: xeno/alien biology