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 ;^;

I spent a delightful day working from home with the sunlight streaming in through all available (open!) windows, watching birds frolic around our new bird feeder. This latest batch of links has a similarly spring-like feeling — not all are cheerful and light-hearted, but there is a common theme of emerging into light and life.

The first three are all Ukrainian, sparked by the complicated emotions around the four anniversary of Russia's fullscale invasion, on 24th February:

The Kyiv Independent team — journalists, videographers, adminstrative staff and more — took readers behind the scenes to show the ingenuity and determination it took to survive this winter's Russian-inflicted energy crisis and carry on bringing their reporting to the world.

From Ukrainian Institute London, a panel discussion on 'culture as security'

And from chef and campaigner Olia Hercules, a video conversation with Dima Deinega, founder of an (excellent) UK-based Ukrainian vodka company, which ended up being one of the most life-affirming discussions I've experienced.

On other topics:

An interview in the Guardian about being a professional chef in Antarctica

Via tozka, the Persephone Letter, which, to quote tozka, They're subtle marketing, more about vibes, focused on sharing things similar to Persephone Books/the people who enjoy them then about blasting sales info or whatever. If I must be marketed to, I'd rather receive it in this manner: rambly, meandering newsletters or blog posts sprinkled with links to interesting things that give a fuller picture of the person or organisation behind it, rather than just a list of things to buy now.

(Incidentally, the Antarctica link came from a similar newsletter, this one from the Vanderlyle restaurant, which takes a similar approach.)

I think that's it for now.

Fandom: The Protomen
Pairings/Characters: Protoman & Megaman, Protoman & Dr. Thomas Light, Protoman & Dr. Albert Wily
Rating: Unrated, estimated to be Teen and Up
Length: 3,178
Creator Links: ricefu on Ao3
Theme:
Siblings, Science Fiction, Apocalypse/Dystopia, Robots, Androids and AI, Trauma & Recovery, (Not Really) Character Death, Old Fandoms
Summary:
You have heard me tell this story many times before you sleep... This time listen carefully.
Reccer's Notes:
A beautiful and sad character study of Protoman, the older sibling of two tragic brothers in the Protomen universe. It connects his backstory and dives into psyche throughout the canon storyline, including his relationship with his younger brother, his father, and the main antagonist. Although I'm tagging the Not Really Character Death theme for a reason, this is a tragedy, so tread carefully.

Fanwork Links:
The Inevitable Fall of the Firstborn on Ao3

5. How many local birds can you name?

• Robin
• Blue tit
• Great tit
• Crows
• Rooks
• Jackdaws
• Magpies
• Pigeon
• Wood dove
• Collared dove
• Blackbird
• Starling
• Wren
• Red kite (a kind of hawk)
• Buzzard

A tiny little wren lives in our garden and scurries around our fences. He is my favourite. But the family of blackbirds, and the robin who comes down to greet me when I go out are also my favourites. The rest of them are passing through, but the wren, robin and blackbirds live here with me.

fffx is a multifandom gift exchange where the standard minimum of a gift is a fanfic of 10,000+ words or fanart in panelled comic style of 40+ panels.

We've passed the deadline and have 5 remaining pinch hits, mostly requiring a half-length gift of 5,000+ words (fic) or 20+ panels (comic art).

Please take a look if you think you might be able to post a gift of this kind by 11:59pm EDT, Thursday 19 March.

My participants and I are very grateful for your interest!

Pinch hit #32 - fic - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV), Murder She Wrote, Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon), G.I. Joe (Cartoon), Voltron: Lion Force (1984)

Pinch hit #39 - fic - Stargate Atlantis, Kolja | Kolya (1996), Cesta do pravěku | Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955), Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies)

Pinch hit #62 - art, fic - 少年歌行 | The Blood of Youth (Live Action TV), 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV), 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV), 伪装者 | The Disguiser (TV), 少年白马醉春风 | Dashing Youth (Live Action TV), 杀破狼 | Sha Po Lang - priest )

Pinch hit #65 - fic - Columbo, Criminal Minds (US TV), Grey's Anatomy, Miss Marple - Agatha Christie, NCIS: Los Angeles, SEAL Team (TV), Sherlock (TV) The Professionals (TV 1977)

PH #67 - art, fic [varies by request] - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game), Original Work, Crossover Fandom [Brooklyn 99 & The Labyrinth], Hades (Supergiant Games Video Games)

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

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Over the last week...

Posted and commented on bnha_fans.

Commented on booknook.

Commented on dw_dev.

Commented on getyourwordsout.

It's Christmas, folks!

Miami Vice is now streaming on Tubi -- on demand. It's been on Pluto all the while, but only live with the daily marathon, here you can pick and choose which episodes to watch and when.

So, if you've ever thought about checking it out and watching some episodes, now is your chance. Run, because from past experience, these things don't last long. I expect some people's suspicions are right though, and they are doing this because of the reboot movie coming out next year. It'll backfire on them, of course, because once you see the OG, you're not likely to go for a pale imitation. 😉

Watch Miami Vice Streaming Online | Tubi Free TV

Tubi is the best! First Donald Strachey, then Broadchurch, and now MV. I have the whole series on DVD myself, but I'm still thrilled that it's readily available for others to watch.

( Recs beneath the cut )

1) marchmetamatterschallenge has begun! I'm particularly excited this year since I will finally come current with my meta archiving. I'm already finished with 2024 and should finish 2025 by tomorrow. One thing I hope is to do more writing this year.

2) The February CheckIn at everykindofcraft has gotten a lot of responses. It's interesting to hear all the different ways that people have learned these skills.

3) In less good news, a bunch of RSS feeds seem to have stopped working. The AO3 vids feed hasn't updated in weeks (so unlikely to be AO3's recent issues), and 4 feeds from Tumblr have stopped as well, though it seems only 2 have been updating lately. It's definitely not the feed service, because at least 3 other feeds I have set up have updated within the last few days. I'm wondering if Tumblr is somehow blocking RSS feeds now?

I also feel like there are people's posts that I have missed though I am less sure about that.

3) I was waiting for a cashier and there were 3 women and 2 small girls ahead of me. The two little girls were racing around everywhere, grabbing things and then having them put back by the women. It was all taking some time, and the squealing was getting on my nerves. But then one grabbed an Easter Bunny and told her mom she wanted it.

The mom asked the cashier if it was solid or hollow, and was told it was hollow (which seemed most likely to me given its size and price!) The little girl then asked what "hollow" was, and her mom struggled to explain it, finally saying "It has a hole inside it." The little girl then said "I'll put it back and get another." We all burst out laughing as her mom then tried to explain that the bunny wasn't defective, it was just the way it was made.

4) So it looks like Paramount will fold HBO into its service. I expect that will put paid to its bundling with Disney services, though it does make it more likely we'll keep Paramount+ around post-The Late Show cancellation. At this point the U.S. looks like it's going to have 3 major streamers, a number of secondary streamers (in which I include Peacock) and a vast number of tiny streamers.

5) Never posted here that I finished the latest season of Strange New Worlds. Thought it somewhat better than earlier seasons, despite the way it started, though I find it a bit jarring to see TOS episodes essentially revised for use here. The finale seemed a cross between Rey at the end of the Skywalker saga and ST:TOS's Lazarus episode. ( Read more... )

Used my anime TBR boardgame.

I finished 4/5 for my last challenge, dropped one. Had a mostly great time!

Avatar:

Dr Stone 
Skill: Beat the trap time once!

Roll #1:

A 2, prompt: costume on cover. Me pondering what exactly counts as a costume. I guessss I'll watch another ep. of Magic Kaito.

Roll #2:

A 9, prompt: watch a donghua! More Legend of Exorcism.

Roll #3:

A 4, prompt: fire on the cover - Cardfight!! Vanguard!

Roll #4:

A 7, prompt: flowers on the cover - Akagami no Shirayuki-hime.

Roll #5:

An 11 and the generate from PTW tile... Okay finally done moving/deleting things, #75 is Chou Kaguya-hime!. I heard bad things about the manga adaptation so the anime is what I'm watching. And I just realized this is a movie! Rare for me to watch and enjoy anime movies outside of Ghibli.

Roll #6:

A 7 and the end, reward, well I can't resist more Bikkurimen.

Changelog: Turned on 'avoid repetitions' for the prompts so that two in a row doesn't happen.

The skill wasn't needed what a waste.

Most looking forward to: Bikkurimen
Least looking forward to: Magic Kaito

Diameter of mental blast crater not diminished. Outside is absurdly springlike following the double-tap of winter that required me to shovel my mother's car out twice, once for the unexpected four inches of snow and then for the glacial swamp the succeeding sleet turned the driveway into. In the process I seem to have inherited the Bat, the stupidest motorcycle jacket I have met in my life. It doesn't have sleeves so much as it has patagia. It is covered with snaps that open into flaps and none of them into pockets. The total design suggests that it may be so heavily constructed because otherwise in a sufficiently stiff gust of wind its owner could achieve accidental unpowered flight. It looks like an opera cape with ambitions of fetish night. My mother insisted on it because I had run out to shovel the first time in my flannel shirtsleeves and the second time my corduroy coat was obviously not adequate to the slush-fall, but it was a present to my father from my grandparents about forty years ago and it looks functionally mint because he has spent most of that time avoiding ever wearing it. In its defense, it is extremely warm and also I look like a tire. There will be no photographs.

Thanks for the prayers, folks! Elizabeth is back in the UK safe and sound :)

Le Guin wrote a dozen or so picture books in her career, and several of them are out of print, including this one about a spider who spins artistic webs. I was able to determine that a library about an hour away from me has a copy, so I took a field trip. I couldn't check the book out because I'm not a resident, but since it's a picture book, I just read it, covertly took some photos, and then left.



The story is plainly an allegory for the life of an artist and her struggle to balance creative fulfillment, the desire for recognition, and the inconvenient reality that she also has to, like, eat. ( cut for spoilers, if spoilers for a picture book are a concern )

This book is certainly suggestive of Le Guin's early experiences as a writer and how she may have been feeling about where she was in her career at this time. I'm glad I went out of my way to track it down.

It's that time of year again! The fabulous, well-organized fundraiser Fandom Trumps Hate is running its 2026 round, and bidding is currently open for the next 3 days, closing on March 7th. It's a tight window, so get in there and find what your heart wants!

As I did last year, I'm offering a podfic of a 15-20k work (I'm flexible within a few thousand words in any direction) up to an explicit rating. I will record for literally ANY fandom that isn't Harry Potter, and I'm super excited because I had such a wonderful experience in 2025.

If you're also offering something, I highly recommend you post about it! Every year I hear people make sad noises about how short the bidding window is, so the more we can raise awareness the better.

Feeling accountably tired today - I'm not sure of the precise cause, but there's enough of them it's probably something I can point to. The weather, the loss of community members, peeking into the job market, pick something. The effect is the same of having me struggling to focus on editing, so in the end it doesn't much matter where it's coming from.

I did manage to peek into the job market and send something out. I did manage a decent workout. I did manage to cook some congee to use up some rice and stretch out some braised chicken a couple more days. Productive in ways most people would think of, but with little writing getting done, it doesn't feel quite that way to me. The solution is to try for bed and try again tomorrow.