Snowflake Challenge #9
Jan. 18th, 2026 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evandar
Challenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
( Read more... )
evandarChallenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
( Read more... )
The Foster Kittens
Jan. 18th, 2026 12:19 ambunnYesterday, the rescue came to collect the foster kittens to be neutered, and later they emailled to say that the ops had gone well, but a home had come up, and would it be OK by us if they went straight to their forever home?
I was a bit sad for their mum, Binx, who was clearly unhappy on her own and calling for them, but so it goes for cats. They don’t get to be families for long ( and often don’t want to be).
But! Then the rescue called to say the new home hadn’t worked out and could we have the kittens back? I was delighted. Binx was even more delighted (even if after 20 minutes of wild kitten shenanigans she looked rather less enthusiastic about them).
Right now they are all snuggled up together and she’s feeding them while they all purr. I’m glad they will have at least another weekend together.
I'll try to get some photos tomorrow.
I was a bit sad for their mum, Binx, who was clearly unhappy on her own and calling for them, but so it goes for cats. They don’t get to be families for long ( and often don’t want to be).
But! Then the rescue called to say the new home hadn’t worked out and could we have the kittens back? I was delighted. Binx was even more delighted (even if after 20 minutes of wild kitten shenanigans she looked rather less enthusiastic about them).
Right now they are all snuggled up together and she’s feeding them while they all purr. I’m glad they will have at least another weekend together.
I'll try to get some photos tomorrow.
Snowflake Challenge #9: Tropes
Jan. 17th, 2026 06:43 pmlebateleurChallenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
I don't know if there's already a trope and/or term for this, but I'm a huge sucker for what I'm going to call ( house voyeurism. )
これで以上です。
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
I don't know if there's already a trope and/or term for this, but I'm a huge sucker for what I'm going to call ( house voyeurism. )
これで以上です。
Snowflake Challenge: #6 & #8 - Creative Process & Top Ten List
Jan. 17th, 2026 05:36 pmlebateleurChallenge #8
Talk about your creative process.
Challenge #6
Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.
Let's do something a little different and talk about my ( favorite recordings of the slip jig Elizabeth Kelly's Delight. )
これで以上です。
Talk about your creative process.
Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn’t work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right before they go on to the next one. When they’re done, they’re done.” — Kurt VonnegutI am a hopeless basher.
Challenge #6
Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.
Let's do something a little different and talk about my ( favorite recordings of the slip jig Elizabeth Kelly's Delight. )
これで以上です。
Proof of life post
Jan. 16th, 2026 10:00 pmswingandswirl RL and my ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fffx fic contrive to eat all my spoons, and next week does not portend to be any better, but here, have this utter delight of an ad:
fffx fic contrive to eat all my spoons, and next week does not portend to be any better, but here, have this utter delight of an ad: Vidding Year in Review
Jan. 16th, 2026 03:00 pmextrapenguinSlightly delayed by the fact that I only published 3 vids last year, even if I did finish a fourth and have a fifth only in need of like 10 seconds of clip. Anyway.
...Actually, let me publish the fourth one real quick. I vidded it last summer so I'll have it count here. So! Here's the 2025 published vids:
SW ST: Is There Anybody Out There?vidukon_cardiff
Fox Volant: My Lossficinabox
Fox Volant: Sister Moonficinabox
SW ST: Wide Awake
(The unpublished fifth, Free Me, one is also SW ST, and part of my vid album project like the other two.)
( 2025 vid review )
...Actually, let me publish the fourth one real quick. I vidded it last summer so I'll have it count here. So! Here's the 2025 published vids:
SW ST: Is There Anybody Out There?
vidukon_cardiffFox Volant: My Loss
ficinaboxFox Volant: Sister Moon
ficinaboxSW ST: Wide Awake
(The unpublished fifth, Free Me, one is also SW ST, and part of my vid album project like the other two.)
( 2025 vid review )
Black Ships (Graham)
Jan. 15th, 2026 07:24 pmcahnThis book, via selenak, was just very relevant to my interests and I adored it so much! It's one of those books that I didn't really want to end. It's a retelling of the Aeneid from the point of view of the Sybil, with nods towards making it Bronze-Age historically plausible.
Gull begins her life as the daughter of a slave in Pylos, and is apprenticed to the Pythia, the oracle of the Lady of the Dead, becoming Pythia herself when the current Pythia dies. After Troy (here called Wilusa) is sacked for the second time, the black ships of the Wilusan prince Aeneas and the remnants of his people land in Pylos to try to capture back some of their people who had been slaves (including Gull's mother, though by that time she has died). When they depart, Gull/Pythia goes with them as their Sybil on their sea adventures as the People search for a home...
I just really loved so many things about this, starting with that retellings of epic poems are always my jam. I loved Gull/Pythia and the way in which centering her and her experiences centers the lived experience of the women of Wilusa. I loved the way that Aeneas and the Wilusans are portrayed as refugees, because that's what they are. I loved that the gods, while they do appear on the edges, are mysterious beings that may be real and may be wholly belief; and that they aren't toddler-level petty and vindictive like in the Aeneid. I loved how Pythia and Xandros had that sort of fealty-love thing going with Aeneas, uh, not that this is a hardcore thing I love or anything.
Of course I was very curious about how Dido would be portrayed, even without knowing (as Graham says in her afterword) that Carthage didn't... actually... exist during this time period, so that Aeneas & Dido would have to at the very least be revamped. ( Mild thematic spoilers. )
One of the things that's really interesting here is the through-line of how the world is getting worse, piracy is getting worse, civilization is crumbling. Gull/Pythia can see that all of this is getting worse during her journeys with the black ships, and has gotten worse since the previous Pythia's days. And yet, as the reader knows, and as Pythia comes to dimly see, the arc of civilization since that time will curve upwards, and Aeneas will be part of that. (And I find this a somewhat comforting thought in some ways...)
I'm rather impressed that this was Graham's first book, which I had no idea about until I finished and went looking for more books by her! Occasionally there may have been a tiny bit of unevenness, but it just manages to weave together so many things in a way that I admired so much, and I thought it was extremely strong, much less as a debut! Sooooo now I'm gonna reread Judith Tarr's Lord of the Two Lands to get myself in a proper Alexander mood, and then I shall go on to read Graham's Stealing Fire :D
selenak, was just very relevant to my interests and I adored it so much! It's one of those books that I didn't really want to end. It's a retelling of the Aeneid from the point of view of the Sybil, with nods towards making it Bronze-Age historically plausible. Gull begins her life as the daughter of a slave in Pylos, and is apprenticed to the Pythia, the oracle of the Lady of the Dead, becoming Pythia herself when the current Pythia dies. After Troy (here called Wilusa) is sacked for the second time, the black ships of the Wilusan prince Aeneas and the remnants of his people land in Pylos to try to capture back some of their people who had been slaves (including Gull's mother, though by that time she has died). When they depart, Gull/Pythia goes with them as their Sybil on their sea adventures as the People search for a home...
I just really loved so many things about this, starting with that retellings of epic poems are always my jam. I loved Gull/Pythia and the way in which centering her and her experiences centers the lived experience of the women of Wilusa. I loved the way that Aeneas and the Wilusans are portrayed as refugees, because that's what they are. I loved that the gods, while they do appear on the edges, are mysterious beings that may be real and may be wholly belief; and that they aren't toddler-level petty and vindictive like in the Aeneid. I loved how Pythia and Xandros had that sort of fealty-love thing going with Aeneas, uh, not that this is a hardcore thing I love or anything.
Of course I was very curious about how Dido would be portrayed, even without knowing (as Graham says in her afterword) that Carthage didn't... actually... exist during this time period, so that Aeneas & Dido would have to at the very least be revamped. ( Mild thematic spoilers. )
One of the things that's really interesting here is the through-line of how the world is getting worse, piracy is getting worse, civilization is crumbling. Gull/Pythia can see that all of this is getting worse during her journeys with the black ships, and has gotten worse since the previous Pythia's days. And yet, as the reader knows, and as Pythia comes to dimly see, the arc of civilization since that time will curve upwards, and Aeneas will be part of that. (And I find this a somewhat comforting thought in some ways...)
I'm rather impressed that this was Graham's first book, which I had no idea about until I finished and went looking for more books by her! Occasionally there may have been a tiny bit of unevenness, but it just manages to weave together so many things in a way that I admired so much, and I thought it was extremely strong, much less as a debut! Sooooo now I'm gonna reread Judith Tarr's Lord of the Two Lands to get myself in a proper Alexander mood, and then I shall go on to read Graham's Stealing Fire :D
Snowflake Challenge #8
Jan. 15th, 2026 10:22 pmevandarChallenge #8
Talk about your creative process.
( Read more... )
So, that's how I write things. I quite enjoyed writing for this challenge: it was nice to thing about how I do things and compare them to how I used to do it. There's been a lot of trial and error over the years.
I used to have to write analyses of my own writing for university (my BA is in English Lit and Creative Writing, and we had to do that for the CW part) and it used to make me want to die inside from how fucking pretentious the whole exercise was. They were never really accurate either, mostly because they talked about symbolism more than "I wrote this for a grade and I hate this teacher, so fuck it." But now I'm now kind of wondering what an analysis piece would look like for one of my fics. Huh. Let me know if you want to see one someday, I guess.
Snowflake Challenge #6 Top 10
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:49 pmnicholas_lucienSixth challenge is Top 10. snowflake_challenge
I'm going to post my top 10 most played songs on iTunes.
1. Jamie N Commons' Glory. Makes sense - its a great song and the song I used in my first posted songfic, so I listened to it alot.
2. David Kushner's Daylight. Also a great song and the song I used in my last songfic for the FKFicFest. Had wanted songfics as a prompt but it never got picked, so I decided to do one anyway.
snowflake_challengeI'm going to post my top 10 most played songs on iTunes.
1. Jamie N Commons' Glory. Makes sense - its a great song and the song I used in my first posted songfic, so I listened to it alot.
2. David Kushner's Daylight. Also a great song and the song I used in my last songfic for the FKFicFest. Had wanted songfics as a prompt but it never got picked, so I decided to do one anyway.
3. Mountain's Mississippi Queen. It's great!
4. Imagine Dragon's Radioactive. First song of their's I had ever heard and immedaitely bought all thier albums. I eventally want to do songfics for all thier songs, so I listen to them often.
5. Ghostland Observatory's Sad Sad City. Great piece.
6. Frankie Lane's Forest Flower. I liked the piece and got interested becase I was getting interested at the time in resonator guitars and had one. I would play maybe 1 piece on it, but I like the sound. I listen to this continuoisly at work for a week once (that's over 8 hours straight each day) so that's why its always in my top 10.
7. Cee Lo Green's Kung Fu Fighting. I like the song but not that much, but I think it played a day before I realized my ipod was not turned off so it made it to the top played list.
8. Imagine Dragon's Demons. Again, love the band and want to write songfics on these.
9. Disturbed's The Vengeful One. Again - songfic.
10. Disturbed's The Sound of Silence. This is the song that first introduced me to the band and I've been trying to get a songfic to form out of this for a while.
So that's my top 10. I figured other songs would have made it, but apparently I haven't listened to them enough!
4. Imagine Dragon's Radioactive. First song of their's I had ever heard and immedaitely bought all thier albums. I eventally want to do songfics for all thier songs, so I listen to them often.
5. Ghostland Observatory's Sad Sad City. Great piece.
6. Frankie Lane's Forest Flower. I liked the piece and got interested becase I was getting interested at the time in resonator guitars and had one. I would play maybe 1 piece on it, but I like the sound. I listen to this continuoisly at work for a week once (that's over 8 hours straight each day) so that's why its always in my top 10.
7. Cee Lo Green's Kung Fu Fighting. I like the song but not that much, but I think it played a day before I realized my ipod was not turned off so it made it to the top played list.
8. Imagine Dragon's Demons. Again, love the band and want to write songfics on these.
9. Disturbed's The Vengeful One. Again - songfic.
10. Disturbed's The Sound of Silence. This is the song that first introduced me to the band and I've been trying to get a songfic to form out of this for a while.
So that's my top 10. I figured other songs would have made it, but apparently I haven't listened to them enough!
Snowflake Challenge #7 - Three Things You Like
Jan. 14th, 2026 04:15 pmlebateleurChallenge #7
LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.
( Here are mine. )
これで以上です。
What Am I Reading Wednesday - January 14
Jan. 14th, 2026 03:32 pmlebateleurWhat I Finished Reading This Week
Nothing. Still working through multiple lengthy titles, at least two of which I should finish later this week.
What I Am Currently Reading
Internet Security Fundamentals - Nick Ioannou
So far, it's doing exactly what it says on the tin.
Mannaz – Malene Sølvsten
Sølvsten introduced some interesting new settings and characters in the chapters I read this week.
After the Forest – Kell Woods
This book continues to be very, very good, although I'm skeptical that Woods can draft a satisfying, unrushed conclusion in the amount of pages left.
The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol. 1 – Xue Shan Fei Hu
Because why not add another 400+ page book to my current stack of in progress titles.
What I’m Reading Next
This week I acquired Mickey Clement's The Irish Princess, Vanessa Vida Kelly's When the Tides Held the Moon, TJ Klune's Wolfsong, Meg Richman's Freya the Deer, and Xue Shan Fei Hu's The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol. 1.
これで以上です。
Nothing. Still working through multiple lengthy titles, at least two of which I should finish later this week.
What I Am Currently Reading
Internet Security Fundamentals - Nick Ioannou
So far, it's doing exactly what it says on the tin.
Mannaz – Malene Sølvsten
Sølvsten introduced some interesting new settings and characters in the chapters I read this week.
After the Forest – Kell Woods
This book continues to be very, very good, although I'm skeptical that Woods can draft a satisfying, unrushed conclusion in the amount of pages left.
The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol. 1 – Xue Shan Fei Hu
Because why not add another 400+ page book to my current stack of in progress titles.
What I’m Reading Next
This week I acquired Mickey Clement's The Irish Princess, Vanessa Vida Kelly's When the Tides Held the Moon, TJ Klune's Wolfsong, Meg Richman's Freya the Deer, and Xue Shan Fei Hu's The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish vol. 1.
これで以上です。
Snowflake Challenge #7
Jan. 14th, 2026 03:58 pmevandarChallenge #7
LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want
1. I like my creativity. I think I'm a fairly solid writer, and I enjoy reading back over my own stuff at times because I'm the audience I write for the most. I've also spent the last year or so learning how to paint with oils, which has been pretty fun to explore.
2. I'm pretty adventurous. I'm up for trying pretty much anything at least once (my hard limit is cave diving), whether it's an activity or something to eat. I was raised to not say I don't like something without trying it first, and that's kind of stuck with me. It's led to me eating ready salted crickets (crunchy, but not much in the way of flavour), but it's stuck regardless. I also enjoy learning how to cook different things, and experimenting with putting new ingredients together.
3. I've developed some good boundaries. I used to be a bit of a people-pleaser, but I've become a lot more sure of myself in recent years. I've also stopped caring so much about what other people think of me, and while I'm still generally a kind and helpful person, I'm a lot more protective of myself.
Snowflake Challenge #6
Jan. 14th, 2026 01:46 pmevandarChallenge #6
Top 10 Challenge.
I decided to write about the top 10 books and short stories that I read this year. I read less this year than I did in 2024. Partially due to availability: English books are possible to buy here, and I'm a big fan of a
Anyway, here's the list! It's not in any particular order; it's just ten things I liked.
( Read more... )
Monday Media: January 12
Jan. 12th, 2026 05:08 pmlebateleurGames: I played a bunch of Hive.
Miscellaneous: No podcasts, one longform article:Why I Wrote Dirty Linen
Music: I didn't go to yesterday's pub session because Newest D&D Homebrew Campaign had a D&D session scheduled, which was cancelled at the last minute. Alas.
Roleplaying: See above. :-/
Television: We watched the first two episodes of Max Headroom S2, which predicted AI-generated avatars of deceased loved ones and parodied certain aspects of religion in ways that ::cough:: would not make it onto TV in 2026.
I also watched the final three episodes of Heated Rivalry. ( Thoughts, in no particular order. )
Video Games: I finished Samorost 2, which is a mechanically simpler game than Botanicula and thus tricky to play after it, as I had to rethink the way I approached the puzzles. It's still a super fun game; I love everything Amanita Design puts out.
I wanted to play Downwell next for a change of pace, but fucking windows insists on rendering it in a tiny 3" x 4" box in the center of the screen, making it all but unplayable. I've thus settled on a Pentiment replay (in which I am once again on a collision course with the church from the get-go) and am also toying with the idea of a Darklands replay as well, given the clear debt the former owes this game...provided windows cooperates.
これで以上です。
Miscellaneous: No podcasts, one longform article:
Music: I didn't go to yesterday's pub session because Newest D&D Homebrew Campaign had a D&D session scheduled, which was cancelled at the last minute. Alas.
Roleplaying: See above. :-/
Television: We watched the first two episodes of Max Headroom S2, which predicted AI-generated avatars of deceased loved ones and parodied certain aspects of religion in ways that ::cough:: would not make it onto TV in 2026.
I also watched the final three episodes of Heated Rivalry. ( Thoughts, in no particular order. )
Video Games: I finished Samorost 2, which is a mechanically simpler game than Botanicula and thus tricky to play after it, as I had to rethink the way I approached the puzzles. It's still a super fun game; I love everything Amanita Design puts out.
I wanted to play Downwell next for a change of pace, but fucking windows insists on rendering it in a tiny 3" x 4" box in the center of the screen, making it all but unplayable. I've thus settled on a Pentiment replay (in which I am once again on a collision course with the church from the get-go) and am also toying with the idea of a Darklands replay as well, given the clear debt the former owes this game...provided windows cooperates.
これで以上です。
Monday Music Meme
Jan. 12th, 2026 11:09 pmextrapenguinThis week's entry is from 2015, rather than my self-imposed 2020 onwards; OTOH, it's the only actual answer to this prompt.
a song that makes you cry
Stratovarius - Shine in the Dark
These guys are not (yet?) on Bandcamp; OTOH, the runner-up (I Wish, by Battle Beast) is up there.
a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
a song title that is in all lowercase
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share
a song that makes you cry
Stratovarius - Shine in the Dark
These guys are not (yet?) on Bandcamp; OTOH, the runner-up (I Wish, by Battle Beast) is up there.
prompts under the cut
a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
a song title that is in all lowercase
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share
Snowflake Challenge Day 4
Jan. 11th, 2026 10:42 amswingandswirl
RL got a little nuts, but I'm determined not to let this fall by the wayside, so have a belated Day 4 post.
Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page
Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!
The instructions for this one confused me, and I don't really do social media, so instead, I thought it would be fun to link some of my favourite fic/art exchanges!
Despite my sometimes Cursed Exchange Luck, I really do love taking part in exchanges. They've gotten me some of my favourite fics ever, and pushed me to write things I never would have otherwise. Here's a list of all the exchanges I'm taking part in this year:
fffx The Five Figure Fanwork Exchange! You get five months to write either 2 5k or 1 10k fic, or equivalent art. (Has the five month period ever stopped me from leaving it until the last minute? Nope. But we live dangerously 'round these parts.)
ficinabox Possibly my favourite exchange ever. You commit to writing 10k, or doing an equivalent creative activity... but it can be split up into a mind-boggling variety of mediums, from AITA posts to CYOA games to literal knitted things. One year I'm going to lose my mind enough, recipient willing, to write 10k entirely in drabbles.
highadrenalineexchange The converse of FFFX - you get two weeks to write 10k. I was somehow insane enough to do Pride and Prejudice fic my first go-around with HAX, and the two-week deadline was the only reason I managed to get out of my own head enough to do it, lol.
worldbuilding_exchange I utterly adore worldbuilding, so it's no surprise that an exchange based on it is my catnip. If the exchange somehow allowed me to nominate JUST the first four Harry Potter books, I'd be in heaven, lol.
rule_63 Genderbends are another of my very favourite things, and the main fandoms I'm in - HP, Avengers, Superbat, Numb3rs, and Star Trek - have amazing potential when it comes to male-to-female genderbends. Plus, honestly, girls are just more interesting, lol.
idproquo I am a firm believer in, and defender of, idfic. I also live in the AU where Marvel made no movies after the Avengers and Harry Potter is an unfinished four-book series with no movies, lol.
This year, I also want to take part in
seasonsofdrabbles , everywoman , if it's running, and halfamoon . We'll see how things go.