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ficlist

Battle Battle Battleship (and Battlesheep)

I created 20 things, 19 fics and one art. Highlights of my participation in battleship this year are writing the first fic in the archive for Big River and the first english fic for The Embers on AO3, and my first time writing for those as well as for Barnum, the 'His wife has filled his house with chintz...' tumblr meme and See Your Love.

Something new this year was breaking down the 'creator's choice of fandom' into a bunch of subsections which helped me really feel like I was writing for specific request and I had a lot of fun with 'creator's choice of musical' (Barnum and Big River) and there were some people who tailored their various CCOF requests specifically for things like disabled character prompts (which I jumped on to write Covert Affairs and See Your Love). Another nice change for this year was the archive warnings (Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con and Underage Sex) were part of the prompt form so it was easy to see who'd opted into what so I'd know how to tailor things to people's requests better.

Big River - Miller/Hauptman
- Winding Your Way Summary: The river winds its way, unabated. (300 words, rated G, river pov ficlet for my favorite musical)

Barnum - Coleman/Stewart/Bramble
- Pulling the Wool Over the Prince of Humbug. Summary: There might be a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute, but Charity was definitely born the minute in between. (444 words, rated G, I always loved how Charity canonically hoodwinked Barnum.) There's an amazing version of Barnum on youtube here, originally broadcast by the BBC in '86 starring Michael Crawford and has some delightful live recording flubs.

Charmed:
- The Same Stars, the Same Window, a Different World. Summary: Chris dies. And then he lives. (1,971 words, rated T- how many times has Chris' "death" in s6 and what happened next been written? Well, here's one more!)
- watching from the sidelines while being in the game Summary: Sometimes the contradictions were just too hard to bear. (662 words, rated G - Chris (pre his identity being revealed angst)

Covert Affairs:
- Coffee and Camaraderie. Summary: A bit of coffee and a lot of camaraderie makes the day a bit better. (400 words, rated G, just some nice Auggie and Annie banter)

DMBJ:
- A Flower, Not in the Hand nor in the Bush. Summary: As far as kidnappings went, Xie Yuchen rated this one two out of ten stars. (350 words, rated T, Heihua)
- A Touch of Frost in the Air Summary: It was a night like many others and a conversation they'd had before.(600 words, rated T, Heihua post-movie and Xiazi's eye issues)
- Paying for a Moment's Inattention. Summary: Everything had been going so well which was never a good sign. (1511 words, rated T, Heihua and a tomb raid that goes awry)
- An Inconvenience About to be Averted. Summary: It was only a slight hiccup to the evening's plans. (323 words, rated G, Pangzi just wants to make dinner for his boys)
- Oh for Those Lazy Days. Summary: Retirement suited Wang Pangzi. (300 words, rated M, lazy days (in bed) for the Iron Triangle)

余烬之上 | The Embers (TV)
- Toward the Dead, Into the Light. Summary: Whenever Liao Siyuan had needed his brother, Zhibai had always been there for him. Even Zhibai's death didn't stop that. (449 words, canonical character death, weird and trippy like the start of the show)

His wife has filled his house with chintz - jjbang8 (Photograph)
- Midweek Matinee. Summary: It's the tennis instructor this time. An excellent choice, if she does say so herself. (429 words, rated E, a combination of voyeurism and a twist on the just who is keeping it real here)

The Magnificent Seven (TV)
- The Invisible Enemy. Summary:There were some enemies that you couldn't win against. no matter how good a fighter you were. (700 words, rated T for Period-Typical Homophobia, Vin standing up for himself)

MDZS:
- fraught and frightful. Summary: An unexpected ambush, a surprising result. (1,460 words, rated M for violence - ambushing the Yiling Laozu, always a good idea)

Original Work:
- A Flame by Any Other Means Will Smoke as Sweetly. Summary: Just because Schmeckle couldn't make his own flame didn't mean he couldn't create it some other way. (513 words, rated G - a dragon and his bar mitzvah!)
- Baa Baa Battlesheep. Summary: Baa baa battlesheep, have you any battles? (art of the battleship I crocheted)

See Your Love (Taiwanese Drama)
- Music and Messes Summary: Jiang Shaoping, Yang Zixiang, and a moment in the kitchen. (320 words, rated G - just a sweet little Jiang Shaoping/Yang Zixiang moment)

Sherlock Holmes (Downey films)
- The Miscalculation. Summary: As it turned out he hadn't taken everything into consideration. (800 words, rated G, Watson whump)

Stargate Atlantis
- Those Who Stayed. Summary: For some, their time on Atlantis was brief. But for others.... (350 words, rated G, major character death - newcomers to Atlantis and those who never leave)

The Untamed
- To Embrace the New. Summary: Long ago the Burial Mounds had been a verdant place. Now, nothing thrived within its wards. Or, at least, nothing had.... (400 words, rated T, Burial Mounds POV my beloved)

As gifts, I got one ficlet for Red Devil and Heroine Su, to touch softly by treescape. Summary: The Red Devil loves as she fights—merciless and unyielding to any who stand in her way.

and one adorable art (based off some battleship lore that was happening during the game: [art] Donut Teapot - Donut Time by embraideryart (embraidery).

and two podfics made of things I'd written (both <10min):
Charmed - Prue Diligence by buries. Summary: There was someone paging through the Book of Shadows, someone who piqued Prue's interest. (fic, originally written for 2024's Yuletide is here)
The Old Guard - Food of the Ages by wilfriede0815. Summary: If Nicky was going to try to bake baklava for Andy, he was make sure he did it right. (fic, originally written for 2020's Battleship is here)

and one other thing of mine was podficced for someone else (25min):
MCU- [Podfic] The Time With The... by sisi_rambles. Summary: The five times Steve and Bucky lied about what they faced during the War and the one time they told the truth. Aka the five times they trolled the Avengers and one truth that enabled them to get away with it. (Fic, originally an avengers kink meme fill, is on AO3 here)

Podficcers are amazing, all three were done just perfectly, and I loved my other two gifts as well.

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health: physical

(no subject)

Note to self: Do not drink co-amoxiclav ever again unless it's the only antibiotic available/that will work.

Drank the first tablet Saturday night because of a possible ear infection and was out of commission because of side effects until this morning 💀 I'm now on other meds, but omfg. That was horrible.

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Narnia

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

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babble,
recs

How is it August already?

I threw together some Battleship recs for the last two weeks'

recthething community rec posts (mostly art but a little fic) and just remembered I should share it here too (creators will still be anon until Wednesday):

Art recs:
Carmilla
- Art: Your Sleep Demon (delightfully creepy)

DCU
- Art: Just a little more, Superman... A young Jason helps Clark to safety.(gorgeous, particularly the lighting)

Dracula
- Art: Midnight The scene after Dracula leaves Jonathan and Mina's room. (the emotions in this!)

Dredge (Video Game)
- [Art] Sunset Scene Summary: A small atmospheric piece.(absolutely beautiful, no canon knowledge needed digital art piece)

Moby Dick - Herman Melville
- [Art] The Ghost Hunter AU Summary: No-dialogue comic imagining if the events of the book were loosely adapted into a found footage horror piece centered on Ahab's quest to prove the existence of the spirit Moby-Dick. (so many details in this comic and so well done!)

Original Works
- [Art] She was a fairy This art was inspired by samiabenchaou_ on Instagram. She’s a hijabi fashion influencer. (beautiful)
- A Regency grape angel enjoying some tea with her pets (so sweet)
- Art: Madame Poire A woman wearing a pear-themed historical dress. (wonderfully detailed)
- The Fruit Heist Glorbo, Barry, and Pearry stealing fruits. (All of the teams' mascots and friends, so cute!)
- [art] Glorby Be (Manuscript art! Amazing)
- Battleship 2025: Paper Dolls (A series of paper dolls of Glorbo and others that can be cut out with clothing and whatnot to add, so neat!)
- [Art] The Tower Sumary: A mermaid is... happy to see the lighthouse keeper she's been watching. (beautiful, if slightly creepy charcoal/chalk/pastels on paper piece)
- [Art] Monster in 8B Summary: The shadows aren't cruel. (amazingly creepy)

fic recs:
Eureka/Stargate SG1 crossover
- Bugs in the System Summary: SG-1's visit to Eureka has some unexpected results. (Jack Carter and Sam Carter are cousins and amazing in this)

Leverage/DCU crossover
- https://archiveofourown.org/works/68406316" target="_blank">They Meet Again Summary: At a charity gala, Bruce Wayne meets a beautiful woman he's run into many, many times before. (great Bruce voice and so many neat little details)

Star Trek Lower Decks
- Battlesheep Potemkin Summary: First officer's log, stardate, uh, computer, add the stardate in. The Cerritos is responding to a distress call from the USS Potemkin, an Excelsior-class starship that was exploring the Gra'pe-2025 system. Upon arrival, we found Potemkin adrift in orbit of the third planet, which is currently surrounded by an ion storm. There is no sign of the crew. However, the ship is filled with hundreds of strange mammalian life-forms. (hilarious)

The last team, Lemon, cleared their final board today and those works will go live tomorrow. I will be very interested in hearing from their team (and everyone else) when the feedback post is put up. I don't usually comment on those posts but I might this year, depending on what the mods say in the first place about how the game might change for next year (there was already mention in the discord that the tag count will drop back down to 400 from the 574 of this year which is such a relief). Without some mod changes (or at least issue acknowledgements) I'll have to think very hard about signing up again next year, which is a shame since I'm one of the very few who've done it every year but the things I love about it are starting to be outweighed but what I find stressful or outright dislike. Sigh.

Now that battleship's winding down hopefully I'll have time to tackle a few things on my to-watch and to-read lists. I would really like to get through the official Guardian translation before the Guardian-read-along finishes up but I am just not sure I'll manage it. (And then there's my poor MDL to-watch list. So long despite efforts earlier this year to work my way through it. Somehow, I keep adding to it. Too many good shows/movies out there I guess.) I also have to start thinking about Yuletide and what I'll want to nominate for it.

Crafting-wise I've been working on a blanket my daughter 'commissioned' from me (aka she bought the yarn). I'm about 3 skeins into the 7 I think it'll need for the length she wants. It's turning out nice, but will still take a while to finish. After that (or maybe during a break from that) I need to do another bread/bagel bag rug because my stack of bags is starting to get unwieldly. Not sure what I'll do with it/where I'll put it once I make it, but that's a future me problem. I also have a string bag I was designing that I ran out of crochet thread for that I need to get back to now that I've bought more. (Here's hoping my notes still make sense)

Anyway, hope all of you are doing well and August is being nice to you! :)

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(no subject)

The Curious Case of the Pygmy Nuthatch

You see, there’s a scene in [Charlie's Angels] that tormented me, that kept me up at night, and that lately has had me interrogating a wide variety of seemingly devoted, and certainly well-compensated, filmmaking professionals. That’s because the bird in Charlie’s Angels is, I believe, the wrongest bird in the history of cinema—and one of the weirdest and most inexplicable flubs in any movie I can remember. It is elaborately, even ornately wrong. It has haunted not just me but, as I’d later learn, the birding community at large for almost a quarter of a century.

ngl this was a riveting read 😆

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daf yomi

[Daf Yomi] Maseches Avoda Zara, perek 3 Kol HaTzlamim

What images are used as avoda zarah, and can you benefit from things that have previously been used for avodah zarah? If so, what sorts of things and what needs to be done first, and who has to do them. Still a fun time!

( Read more... )

Purchase declined: Wrong virtual card

On the bright side, the advantage of using one-store-only virtual cards lets me know exactly which online restaurant ordering site (orderonlinemenu.com) has the leaky data security, and my credit card automatically denied the fraudulent charge.

Oy.

At least it was just a virtual number stolen, so from the email, it seems like maybe my credit card won't decide to cancel this number and give me a new one if I report the fraud. After the Really Absurd Number Of Times my card number got stolen last year, I had to make a list in a spreadsheet of which card and which virtual numbers on which cards were used on which sites, so I could update them. So even if not, this process is easier than it was. But the email just says to lock the virtual card number so it can't be fraudulently charged. Which it already has been.

This is just so annoying.

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Dovi Diaries: New Kid by Yeshaya Suval (2024)

A Diary Of A Wimpy Kid knockoff published by Artscroll, and is exactly what you'd expect given its bona fides.

Dovi is a 4th grader at a new school and is having problems fitting in, except we have no reason to believe he's not fitting in, because that's told and not shown in any way, so it's not clear why his teacher sends him to the school therapist rabbi to be told to keep a diary. He misses his old school but we are never given any specifics about his old school or his old friends. Specifics? What specifics?

We don't even get a good idea of how many siblings he has and the age spread (his oldest brother -- probably -- went off to yeshiva in Israel, except considering the age spread of the kids, that's likely high school, but why mention any details?)

He does a lot of unspecified learning, including running a chavrusa program. He gains friends. He has no real problems and is not a wimpy kid. The shenanigans are generic and probably very boring to the target audience, who are used to the many books in this genre already, and except certain things from a confessional diary of a 4th grader at a new school who has to see the school therapist because he's not fitting in. Those things are not in this book.

Overall, I found it very bland. And that's probably the biggest problem.

Because the thing is, I don't like Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. It's better than Captain Underpants, but most things are better than Captain Underpants. All these Wimpy Kid books and that entire segment of midgrade -- I don't like them.

I'm not supposed to like them. They are written to appeal to a midgrade audience, not to the parents of the midgrade audience.

Dovi Diaries was written to appeal to adults.

But you know what? I've read worse from Artscroll.