It's challenge time!

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

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

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

Go!

Recipe
Asparagus and shrimp casserole
4 cans asparagus, drained (You can use fresh if you'd prefer)
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon butter
4 oz cream cheese OR marscapone
1 cup half n half (may use milk)
1 can cream of shrimp soup
1 lb already cooked shrimp
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper, to desired taste
1 can cheese French fried onions

In a saucepan on low heat, whisk together cream, butter and cream cheese until melted and smooth. Add in half and half and soup and stir well. Add spices and incorporate well then mix in drained asparagus and shrimp. Pour into a casserole dish and sprinkle the onions on top.
Bake in a 350°F oven until bubbly about 40 minutes

Not quite 365 days questions March.

6. Have you ever seen a dinosaur skeleton?

Just at the museum. And it was super cool seeing them. I love dinosaurs.

90 questions for discussion

1. What things are currently keeping you awake at night or causing you stress?
Donald Trump. I can't believe he started a war. And I hear the man who is going to take Noem’s place is ten times worse than her. I'm actually shocked that he fired her. Anyhow, that's why I can't sleep.

How about you?

Topics for talk

Places I Would Like to Visit

We want to go to Hawaii, so we're going to plan the trip for next year soon. We're very excited. Next, we’d like to plan a trip to Key West. Hubby has always wanted to go there. Lots of boat rides. I love them.

This month is the marchmetamatterschallenge, where folks are encouraged to archive their old meta so it doesn't get lost and/or post new meta. In honor of that, today's theme is Meta. So this month, save your meta, make some new meta, and crosspost to meta communities to keep them active. \o/ See my Follow Friday Master Post for more topics.

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I just learned that spikedluv's mother died three weeks after spikedluv died. Gawd, this fucking era.

Recently Charles de Lint shared the story "ICE Out," from his urban fantasy setting Newford. So I decided to write one of my own, from the world of Monster House.

Warning: Here there be monsters.

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Previous poll review
In the spam SPAM spam poll, 52% of respondents only check their spam folder when they're looking for a specific thing, 30% check it maybe once a month, 10% weekly, and 8% daily. (This question was inspired by gmail sending multiple emails in the middle of threads to spam, wtf.)

In ticky-boxes, blanket cocoons and comfort food came second to hugs, 62% to 74%. Judgy koalas came third with 56%. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
I read Courtney Milan's The Earl Who Isn't, which was just as enjoyable at the others in the series. Her kissing and UST are excellent, and I love everyone in Wedgeford.

Bounced off Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield, with prejudice. (That was one of my library books.) The first "chapter" (of three in the entire book) was a blow-by-blow account of working backstage at SNL; the second "chapter" (which I flicked through) was lockdown correspondence. I didn't like either of the characters.

I don't know what I'm reading next. Or listening to on my own. But Andrew and I have about 2.5 hours left in Barrayar.

Kdramas
Oh no, I finished One Spring Night and kind of... went back to the beginning and started it again. With occasional diversions into Something in the Rain (which ha, is by the same writer, as well as having vast numbers of cast members in common, so that explains that). At some point I'll emerge from this Jung Hae In fever dream and start something else.

Pru and I finished Family by Choice (I LOVE IT SO MUCH), and next week we're starting Love Scout (\o/).

Other TV
We're on the final disk of extras for Return of the King, and that'll be it. It's stressful seeing the last-minute absolute chaos behind the scenes, but also kind of magical. Still going on The Pitt, and we've watched a couple of episodes of Dinosaur, a UK sitcom about two sisters, one of whom is autistic. I like it!

Got a few things lined up: new seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer and Dark Winds, more Scavengers Reign, there were probably some other things, idk.

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, some Better Offline, some What Matters Most (chatty general life psychology/advice), Cross Party Lines (local politics), Letters from an American (just a few /o\), Heaving Bosoms (chatty recaps of romance novels, just for something relaxing to put in my ears), Movie Briefs (lawyers talk about law movies, ditto).

Online life
*hugs you all, so much*

...

Writing/making things
My Yuletide treat is at beta at last. \o/ Now I've started in on my Yuletide assignment fic, unfinished at 7k words. I'm imposing a new structure on it to see if that might make it more finishable. No drawing practice.

Life/health/mental state things
Idk, I'm okay. Getting some things done, at least. Getting a fair amount of sleep and exercise. Doing righteous battle with my health insurer. Spending too much time tweaking my new phone to make it behave how I want.

Goals
This week: make a batch of vegetarian dumplings, make a mini quiche in the air fryer. All my goals are food, hi!

Good things
Sunshine. Helpful, supportive people. The 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange is coming soon! Kitty. New phone is mostly behaving itself. We went to a delightfully geeky talk about dragonflies.

Making: I made a chicken, cheesy, biscuit meal for friends today. It was delish.

Watching: Person of Interest on my player.

Reading: A Comedian Walks Into a Funeral Home by Dennis Kelly. I love this book. It's really good.

Listening: to Person of Interest

Eating: a new dessert I made. Lemon cheesecake bites.

Drinking: Dr. Pepper.

Loving: this new meme.

Hating: the dishes I just finished.

Wanting: chocolate, but being good.

Thinking: about what I'm doing tomorrow.

Planning: what I'm going to make for dinner tomorrow. People will think all we do is eat.

Wishing: I didn't have to clean my bathrooms tomorrow. I'd give anything to be Samantha on Bewitched. Then I could keep this house super clean.

Puzzle Books: I don't do them.

Weathering: I'm not sure what this means. If it's about the weather, then the day was wonderful. 79° and sunny.

Wearing: black shorts, green short-sleeve top, and no shoes.

Needing: I don't need much.

Enjoying: this meme.

Wondering: what I would be doing if I wasn't on Dreamwidth every night.

Playing: Person of Interest.

Trying: to watch the show and do this at the same time.

Cooking: not until tomorrow.

Calling: my daughter is calling me at 9:30 on her way home from work.

Texting: not texting right now.

Crafting: I don't craft.

Going: to finish this if it kills me.

Feeling: happy.

Hoping (For): another spring day tomorrow.

Celebrating: my birthday, early.

Smelling: Lemon cheesecake bites.

Thanking: I'm very thankful to my friend Vicki, who made me a gorgeous quilt for my birthday.

Considering: it might be for my spare room. The quilt is the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Finishing: I'm finishing this. Yay.

Starting: I don't know about this one.

Notes: thanks to spirelicious, for giving me something to do.

"ICE Out" by Charles de Lint (free PDF version)

ICE came to Newford. Big mistake.


For:
Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres
Geraldo Lunas Campos
Víctor Manuel Díaz
Parady La
Renee Nicole Good
Luis Beltrán Yáñez–Cruz
Heber Sánchez Domínguez
Alex Pretti
murdered by ICE


I've been an activist for decades. I've done marches and letter campaigns and all the usual stuff. The technique I've found with the highest throughput of people saying, "I did the thing!" is plain old storytelling. Stories are part of what makes us human. Stories bind the past, explain the present, and imagine the future.

For bards, this is our fight. This is how we fight. Pass it on.


EDIT 3/5/26 -- My contribution is "The Express Bus to Crazy-ass Death Land."

AO3 Link | Divining Destiny: Flight for Freedom (1050 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Characters: Vierna Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Drizzt Do'Urden, Ensemble
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Typical Violence, Fratricide, Murder, flashfic, Cross-Posted from Archive Of Our Own (AO3), Time Travel
Summary:

Vierna is Betrayed

Divining Destiny: Flight for Freedom

Vierna came alert from the dream with a chill on her spine. Things had been going so well ever since she had managed to give Drizzt a chance to live elsewhere.

Her Lord was the only reason she dreamed at all, which meant the dream was a portent that she had to divine the meaning of quickly. With a flicker of her will, she sent her current messenger spider, one of the line from her father's gift to her so long ago, to fetch him to her. While she did that, she cleared her mind to take up the spells of hiding that she had lived under, ever since the Masked God chose her as His priestess.

Zaknafein was waiting when she came up from the prayers, sitting calmly opposite her — and a barrier to anything else that would have dared enter the Matron's chambers.

"Something has shifted, and we are now in danger," Vierna signed to him. "Invite your lover to take those of our people he wishes. You and I, any you trust explicitly, will use the gathering paths to leave this city."

"You are certain?"

Vierna's mouth set in a grim line for a long moment. "Only that the hiding spell is known to me from childhood allowed me to take it, I think. She is seeking His influence in the city now."

"Be at the portal by the time for evening meal; I will have all things in motion," Zak told her firmly.

For better or worse, House Do'Urden in Menzoberranzan would be abandoned to the Spider Queen, but personal survival was prized above all else, for most drow, and Vierna was typical in that regard.

---

Dinin sat in the safe house of Bregan D'Aerthe with his head in his hands, still mulling over everything. He was grateful to the Weapon Master for making this opportunity appear, but he was at a loss for what would be expected now that he was without a House.

Jarlaxle, leader of the mercenary company, sat beside him, uncovered eye surveying those few men he had chosen to bring into the band. He wasn't very pleased; Vierna Do'Urden had been opening avenues to the cunning man for years now.

"It is done."

"She — they did make it out, yes?" Dinin asked, looking over.

"That actually matters to you," Jarlaxle said, and he looked pleased with that awareness. "Yes, they did. And to spare the rest, their meal was laced with poison, courtesy of my sense of mercy."

Dinin pondered that. When the Matrons of the ruling council moved to end the heresy, they would have tortured the commoners to learn all they could. The loyalty of the fighters would have pushed them to fight even without knowing where their matron was. The changes that Vierna had brought about in the House had made them all stronger, but…

… it was the kind of strength that was not allowed.

"Send me to one of your outposts, with some of my people and any of yours you trust to keep me under your eye." Dinin drew in all of his own cunning, ambition, and pride. "I live, and serving you is damn sure better than being dead or in the clutches of a different House."

"I have just the place for you," Jarlaxle said, smiling. "And I think you will thrive in our network."

---

Zaknafein inspected the house that had been procured in Rilauven, checking it over for any and all possible traps. When he at last came to Vierna, who was just settling back from prayer, she looked fatigued but content.

"With only ten to support us, it's not the most defensible place, but we can make it work," Zak told her.

"We will have more in time," Vierna promised him. "We still have enough gems to set ourselves on the path of growth."

"Once I am satisfied one of the fighters is able enough to defend in my absence, I will take up the offered contract at their school."

"Mother's manner of salves are unknown here, from all I can learn. That is another avenue of income." Vierna reached for his hands, and he gave them. "Thank you, for having faith in me."

"Nothing else to do when my own daughter proved she was not lost," he said quietly. "Will you be able to scry Drizzt now?"

Vierna sighed, shaking her head. "I had no luck, but then the prayers are still shrouded."

Zak frowned, but if the gods wanted to war on each other, he didn't care; he'd rather they left drow alone. "At least you being so high in favor, even with Him weakened, means you shouldn't be tested too soon."

"So I think, yes."

---

Vhaeraun sighed melodramatically as Eilistraee finally managed to pull the poisoned chelicerae out of His abdomen.

"You should have made it clear You wished aid long before now," Eilistraee scolded, putting the large pincers into the waiting darkflame to destroy them. "What happened?"

He considered how to answer as Her hands moved back to the wound, bringing healing and soothing the unending agony He had been inflicted with since the attack.

"One of the junior clerics My priestess had sent to learn in Her temple betrayed My priestess by thought. I managed to warn her, just before My realm was swarmed by Her abyssal spiders.

"I believe She'd already glimpsed My influence building." He grimaced with distaste for losing the first real foothold He'd made in that city.

"She will be on guard for reprisals," Eilistraee mused. "You must be careful, My Twin."

"When am I not, My dear Sister?" he asked in mocking tones, before lying back to let Her finish the healing He needed. She let Him rest, considering all of this, and how it might backlash upon Her own people.

"My priestess is safe, with her father, in one of the cities I hold more strongly," He said. "I chose well with her, even if this did not work the way I wished."

"Just don't go becoming enamored of her, Brother. My Nephew is enough trouble."

Vhaeraun laughed, bitterly, but nodded at the warning. He did enjoy such pleasures, but this priestess was too important, in His limited foresight, to risk that with.

Prololgue:

Noa is the successor to Cosmos Conglomerate, he's at a museum with his butler Leon when he sees a kamen mask and gets sucked into a portal. Monsters attack but they're saved by Mikami (guy on cover) and taken to Rider Academy, where they meet another guy Iori.

The Riders-in-training have to show they can transform to pass aaand then a huge plot twist happens where it turns out the whole school is being run by the enemy, Chaosim, and they were lying and training the students to be Chaos Riders! The enemy leave after realizing who Noa is and say 'this too is fate' basically. 



Chapter 1 Part 1:

Leon tells Nao he has inherited the Rider Station which has been locked up since their father's death, he was a Rider agent and looked after the Riders.

The top floor of the Rider Station is a front cafe called Camouflage lol aka Kamen Cafe, a concept cafe where you wear a mask. I guess it's supposed to be a way to get info from outsiders while masked?

Chapter 1 Part 2:

LMAO Noa screaming 'monster!' at Leon because he was wearing a mask and Leon screaming back



Noa's mask is very...flashy. It's a purple sparkly cat.

Are the Chaos stones pieces of an alien meteor or something??

Chapter 1 Part 3:

When I first learned about the game, I did not think Mikami's personality would be like this. He's pessimistic. He still has a sense of justice though. Noa saved him, so he wants to use the things he learned to fulfill his duty as a Rider and save them.

Chapter 1 Part 4:

What's wrong with just liking water to drink?

Iori trying to understand Mikami lol 'so when I can't tell what you're thinking, that means you aren't thinking'.

Mikai doesn't remember anything before the academy. 🤔



Chapter 1 Part 5:

...Well this is dark. Chaosism fucked with their memories. Iori had this whole family in this head... They're somewhere they don't even recognize and the police just shrugged them off.

A long-haired blond guy says he believes them and gives them a place to stay. 🤔

Lol at Iori being super positive and Mikami being super negative.

I'm on the edge of my seat wondering where this is going. What happened to the other Riders?

From a discussion of what parts of something on-topic-for-Menachos are essential, we get discussions of what's essential for the Menorah, Sifrei Torah, mezuzas, tefillin, and tzitzis! Four of those are very practical!

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Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter 74 — The Winds Blowing Now Are the Winds That Blew Then Too
Author: elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan
Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars — Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars — Jedi Apprentice Books
Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, The Force as a Sentient Character, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Breha Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned), Savage Opress, Pong Krell, The Traitor, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added
Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived). Bail Prestor Organa/Breha Organa
Word Count: ~ 4000 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None

Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.

But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.

Or,

Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.

He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.

Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.

Chapter Summary:

Quinlan Vos returns to the Temple with the Tython-One and the High Council can confirm that it was a Temple Guard who planted the transmitter, and that the Guard is Fallen and thinks of himself as a Sith.

And so the search for the Traitor begins.

---

From All The Spaces Between Times: Chapter 74 — The Winds Blowing Now Are the Winds That Blew Then Too (On AO3)

---

( Meta — The Winds Blowing Now Are the Winds That Blew Then Too )

I'm just not managing to stay on top of any of the fandom trends.

Still haven't watched K-Pop Demon Hunters, or Heated Rivalry, or even Bridgerton S4...

I'm not bothering with Marvel (they're dead to me, like all the best characters in the franchise) and there's not much else that particularly interests me.

As usual, I mostly lack someone to watch things with. I'll watch movies that I'm only marginally interested in with friends, but I've never been a 'rewatch' kind of person - even in the background. Too many things to do.

--

Actually, I'm just not managing to stay on top of ANYTHING right now.

I'm always the last one to jump on the bandwagon and everybody probably knows this already, but I just found out about Every Noise at Once and my mind is blown. There is SO MUCH STUFF to discover on there! And it's so neatly categorized! There are previews! And lists of bands for each genre! And massive playlists! I think I'm in love ;^;

Since my sudden mania for film shows no signs of slowing, I've created a Letterboxd account. I don't really plan to use it for much besides tracking what I've watched and what I plan to watch, but add me if you're a user and I'll heart your reviews when I see them. :)

Anyway it has been A Week and I've been too tired by the end of each day to do ANYTHING other than vegetate in front of the TV, and specifically to vegetate in front of something scary and tense enough to prevent my otherwise inevitable zoning-out. The upside of which is yay, more horror movies!

Hell House LLC (2015): A documentary crew investigates a haunted house attraction that went gruesomely wrong on its opening night, leading to more than a dozen fatalities under baffling circumstances which the authorities have hushed up. When snickfic recced this movie to me, I said I would not watch it because clowns gross me out. But the haunted house + found footage conceit was calling to me enough that I decided I could probably handle the clowns - and hey, I was right! This is not especially clowny clown horror by my highly arbitrary personal standards that mostly boil down to "there are no gross clown smiles" and "there are no even grosser clown laughs". Maybe this is a gateway for me? Maybe someday I'll be sufficiently desensitised to clowns that I can catch up to the rest of the world and watch It? Whatever the case, I had fun with this movie. I admired the filmmakers' decision to leave so many questions unanswered and I think that uncertainty is scarier than any explicit answers they could have devised. (For that reason, I'm going to go right on ahead and ignore the fact that there are sequels. Not EVERYTHING has to be a franchise, damn. The movie stands alone just fine.)

On a minor note, I REALLY liked the piano-and-violin piece in the soundtrack. Beautifully simple, beautifully discordant.

Carrie (1976): I am once again standing in awe of the incredibly broad palate of flavours that get lumped together under the "horror" label. This movie is not a scare so much as an anguished distillation of the cruelties of high school. Carrie suffers horrific religious abuse at home and extreme bullying at school; after falling victim to a very public and sadistic "prank" during senior prom, she unleashes her budding telekinetic powers on the watching crowd with murderous results. But her rampage is - well, not an afterthought per se, but it happens right at the end of the film in a dizzying blitz; the vast majority of the screentime (and the most visceral source of horror, for me at least) is the long, slow lead-up to the prank, as tension mounts between the glow-up narrative Carrie thinks she's living and the humiliation we know she's about to suffer.

I am not enough of a Film Buff(TM) to comment on the weird split-screen thing they were doing during the climax, or whatever the fuck was happening at the start with that borderline pornographic locker room shower scene. Both of them threw me out a bit but neither was enough of a hiccup to spoil what was otherwise a really gripping story.

The Old Dark House (1932): I watched this because it stars Boris Karloff, and while it may not be one of his most iconic roles, it was the one my library happened to have on offer at the moment I found myself thinking, 'Hey, I should watch some Boris Karloff!' So on those qualifications, I bring you this old-school spooky cult classic about two small groups of travellers who are forced by a violent storm to go begging for shelter at an isolated old house in the Welsh countryside, whose eccentric inhabitants turn out to be harbouring a deadly family secret. Karloff's physical acting is impressive: his character, Morgan the butler, is completely mute but has an immense screen presence (literally as well as metaphorically) despite the lack of dialogue. He's a hulking mass of danger whose sullen subservience turns to violent, lust-addled malice when he drinks, as of course he does on the stormy night in question. There's also a romance between a feckless WWI vet and a chorus girl who is only technically not the sugar baby of one of the other houseguests, which aside from being endearing in its own right was a lot more risqué than I expected of a movie from the 30s. Evidently the "pre-Code" label is more than just a historical technicality!

These questions were suggested by dray.

1. Do you know of any other words for snow? What's your favourite and why?

2. What's your ideal temperature range for winter?

3. Favourite winter activity? What about it makes it your favourite?

4. What are three things you can't do without when winter arrives?

5. Do you have favourite winter holiday activities?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

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