Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.
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This Week's Question: What is a craft that you tried but abandoned?
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Title: Illegal Actions Fandom: Babylon 5 Author: badly_knitted Characters: Sheridan. Rating: PG Spoilers/Setting: No Surrender, No Retreat. Summary: Sheridan can’t stand idly by while Earth Alliance destroyers fire on unarmed ships full of refugees. Written For: Challenge 501: Amnesty 83 at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 83: Fight. Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski. A/N: Double drabble.
Title: Last Minute Repair Fandom: FAKE Author: badly_knitted Characters: Ryo, Dee. Rating: PG Written For: Challenge 493: A Stitch In Time at drabble_zone. Setting: After the manga. Summary: Ryo saves Dee from embarrassment. Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh. A/N: Double drabble.
This is from a post made here on Facebook. I'm copying it here, with the permission of the original author, so that people off Facebook can see it.
I had the pleasure of Terry’s company on a week-long Writer’s Retreat twice, in 1990, as part of a company of eight interesting people in Diss, Suffolk.
Terry later came to my wedding and gave me a proof copy of ‘Lords and Ladies’ as a wedding gift! I had never read his books before I met him, so I began with ‘Wyrd Sisters’ - and have carried on reading them ever since.
When he learned I was meeting up with Terry again, my local Librarian shouted ‘Oook!’ and collected up every book by Terry which he had in the Library, and asked him to sign them. This amused Terry - and shocked other participants! "You shouldn't write in Library Books" etc...
Terry and I were both reading Henry Mayhew’s ‘London labour and the London poor’ at the time.
I asked Terry to make a list of other books which he found inspirational. Here they are:
‘The Evolution Man’ by Roy Lewis.
‘The Specialist’ by Charles Sale.
‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Chaucer.
‘Fairy Tales’ by Charles Perrault.
Jacqueline Simpson’s folklore books.
Everything by J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis.
‘The Wind From the Sun’ by Arthur C. Clarke.
‘Cold Comfort Farm’ by Stella Gibbons (my favourite book).
‘Mistress Masham’s Repose’ and the Arthurian Trilogy by T H White.
I also add the new series of novels set in St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor, of whom I am a keen fan, and strongly recommend. Terry told Jodi how much he liked her writings. Start with ‘Just One Da*ned Thing After Another’ and carry on enjoying!
Title: Emotional Author: badly_knitted Characters: Ianto, Jack. Rating: PG Written For: Challenge 908: Sad,at torchwood100. Spoilers: Nada. Summary: Ianto’s emotions are all over the place. Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. A/N: Double drabble.
Reccer's Notes: This is a post-canon fic from the point of view of Maggie, Ben's sister. They didn't grow up together and she appears in exactly one episode of due South before disappearing back up to the Arctic Circle. In this post-canon fic they end up working together and get to know each other better. See also Sixthlight's short AU fic about Benton and Maggie from dS Ladies Fest!
I read something that seems particularly relevant on Long Covid Awareness Day, a day which as an online pal who has LC says says,
We are combatting willful ignorance. People actively do not want to know about Long Covid, and the long-term health consequences of Covid infections. They do not want to see us.
The thing I read is about "AI" as currently understood, and grief. And I'm glad it connects both of these things to covid.
Generative AI emerged during a global pandemic -- a global trauma of mass death (1.2 million people in the US died of COVID, and about 7 million globally -- these are, no doubt, figures that undercount how many actually died of the disease, let alone those like my son who died during that time period of other causes -- overdoses, suicide, murder, and deaths related and unrelated to the pandemic).
Mass trauma, mass death and, as such, mass grieving. But it was, at the time and still to this day, a grief interrupted, a grief buried, a grief denied, a grief unobserved. We were often not able to bury our dead, not able to hold funerals, not able to have wakes, not able to observe the rituals of death, not able to gather, to bring food, to hold and comfort one another.
And when we were told the pandemic was over -- it hasn't really ended; the World Health Organization says there were around 150,000 cases of COVID reported in the last month -- we didn't deal with our trauma. We didn't deal with our grief. We were supposed to bury our feelings; we were supposed to forget. It was back-to-school, back to work, back to "normal."
There was, in fact, a massive demonstration of grief – an outpouring of grieving in public – during COVID; and that was the Black Lives Matter movement, the protests that occurred in cities throughout the country particularly after the murder of George Floyd. This grief was not private or hidden; it was collective. This grief was not just personal, expressed by those impacted directly by racism and police violence; it demanded from protestors and onlookers, empathy, solidarity. This grief was expressive – even as we are always told with protest, as with grief, that that is not the “good way” to say it. The grief of Floyd’s death – and all the deaths – was not sufficient. It was not simply a marker or memorial of death; but it was an act of life, an act of repair. It was a demonstration of love and loss and fury; it was a commitment to the future.
By identifying your current level of arousal and valence, you can start to build awareness of your bodily sensations and the connection between those sensations and your emotions.
It looks like a good next step for me in "what to do next," like it's all well and good understanding that I'm bad at identifying and acknowledging my emotions, but now what can I do to make this less of a problem for me.
In 1873, Jules Verne published Around the World in 80 Days, the story of Phileas Fogg and his attempt to circumnavigate the globe to win a bet. Now, we can accomplish the same feat in just over two days, with another couple of days added in to get through airport security. (Well, I always manage to get behind that guy...) Today, let's slow down a little and retrace Phileas' trip.
The first thing most people think about when they hear Around the World in 80 Days is a hot air balloon. I found this amazing balloon cake with two guys who might be Phileas and his valet, Passepartout.
Isn't this gorgeous? Wouldn't it be great for a little circumnavigating? There's just one problem -- it never happened. There's no hot air balloon travel in the book.
Pay no attention to any perceived anachronisms -- Jules Verne was a visionary who predicted electric submarines and video conferencing. An edible double-decker bus wouldn't have stretched his imagination at all.
This is much too peaceful and zen-like to run past on the way to your next stop. If I hadn't been rooting for Phileas to win, I'd have made him stop for a nice cup of tea.
Sadly, leisurely refreshments weren't in the cards, but a trip to San Francisco was.
It's just wicked that he didn't have time to catch a show, but the schedule was getting VERY tight, and Phileas still had to get back across the Atlantic.
After inciting a mutiny and burning most of the wooden parts of a ship for steam, Phileas and friends made it to Ireland,
Sadly, it appeared they were a day late -- but of course, it wasn't that black and white.
They'd forgotten about the International Date Line! Upon realizing the correct date, Phileas rushed to his club and won the bet! Significantly richer, he married his lady love and settled down to a quiet life.
(Maybe he even bought a hot air balloon...)
Happy Sunday!
*****
P.S. I've been waiting for an excuse to buy these, so thought I'd share in case you have one:
Following yesterday's illness, I was vaguely hoping that he would stay asleep through the night. Alas:
12:05 "I need a wee" Took him to the toilet. "Daddy, my tummy hurts" Gave him some medicine "Do you want to be in pyjamas or just straight back to bed?" "Back to bed" And then he closed his eyes.
12:20 Thundering footsteps "Daddy, I feel sick" Told him to go to the toilet. Kept him company, got him a bucket. He wasn't sick. Persuaded him to take the bucket to bed. Sat on the floor next to his bed until he closed his eyes.
12:35 More thundering steps "Daddy, my arm and leg hurt" By the time I'd found him medicine he was asleep again. But woke up again and let me give him some Calpol.
03:30 "I'm hungry" (not surprising as he didn't eat yesterday) We agreed on cream cheese crackers. He ate ⅘ of the cracker and drank some juice and passed out again.
06:30 "I checked the light coming under the curtain and it's morning time" I told him to go play games on the Switch downstairs. Fifteen minutes later I could still hear him wandering about and I hadn't heard any game noises. Went to check on him and he told him that he'd found various points around the house where the floor isn't flat. Got him settled with the Switch, and then went back to bed and stared vacantly at my phone for an hour, before getting up to face the day.
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis Characters/Pairings: Jeannie Miller, Teyla Emmagan, John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex Rating: Gen Length: 5000-10,000 (best guess) - the individual postcards are mostly text-based, in different fonts, but it's too hard to add it all up. There are 8 or so sets of postcards/images, plus two longer narrative interludes. Content Notes: Not all of the postcards or notes have text equivalents, so it's not fully accessible. Rodney at one point talks about a relationship he had at uni with an older woman he describes as a "sex addict". Creator Links:Sholio on AO3, Sholio's own site Themes: Siblings, Epistolary, Friendship, Family, Team as family, Unconventional format and style
Summary: (more notes than a summary) Contains spoilers for the Season 3 episode "McKay & Mrs. Miller". I might be taking a certain amount of liberty with the timeline; let's assume that a few months went by between "M&MM" and "Return". This is a very image-intensive story. Illustrations and photos are all by me, aside from one or two photos taken by my husband. A couple of the postcards utilize (heavily Photoshopped) patterns that I got off the Internet to represent fabrics and such, because I didn't have anything suitable.
Reccer's Notes: This is a heartwarming epistolary story in which Teyla and Jeannie (Rodney's sister) write to each other. Eventually the other team members are brought in as well, especially John and Rodney. It's a mix of tales about Jeannie's life, and of the team's, especially Teyla's, adventures, and although the format as a series of postcard/image pages is a little awkward to negotiate, it's very much worth reading. The postcards start off somewhat formally, and quickly become more personal, and one theme is of the correspondence bringing Rodney and Jeannie closer together. It's touching, funny, tinged with the realities and sadnesses of life in the Pegasus galaxy, and an excellent read.
Shows: SGA Rec Category: John Sheppard Characters & Pairings: John Sheppard/various "elves", Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Carson Beckett, Evan Lorne Categories: M/F, M/M Words: 11,331 Warnings: no AO3 warnings apply Author on DW: n/a Author's Website:LtLJ on AO3, and the Watergate site Link:on LtLJ's Watergate site, and locked to AO3 Why This Must Be Read: As Victoria Custer, LtLJ wrote higher-rated fics, and I'm especially fond of this one. There's some amnesia trope involved as John loses his memories and is partly transformed into an elf-like alien when he stumbles on a forgotten Ancient device off-world. In his new form he becomes the tribe's leader, with adventures fighting giant creatures in a huge alien forest, hunting, and sex with the lead female and the rest of the tribe. I love how fully John takes to this simpler, more free life. But as with all amnesia fics, he has to return to reality in the end, and his team and colleagues are desperate to retrieve him. A great mix of action/adventure, worldbuilding, uninhibited fun, and the bittersweetness of having to resume his responsibilities again.
AO3 Link | Sound of Crashing (300 words) by Merfilly Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: DC Comics (General) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Lian Harper & Dinah Lance Characters: Dinah Lance, Lian Harper Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Slice of Life, +Modern Age (1986-Present), Post-Crisis Summary:
Dinah is babysitting...
Sound of Crashing
The moment she heard the crash, Dinah was on her feet and moving, uncaring what had been broken as long as it wasn't that little girl who had stolen her heart. She skidded into the kitchen before Lian had made her escape from the counter, the drawers askew to let Dinah know how the girl had gotten up there on it. She was beside the refrigerator, from which the ceramic cookie jar in the shape of a coyote had tumbled to the floor.
The cookie jar was not salvageable. Lian's face was a picture of contriteness, and Dinah just moved to get her down.
"You sit on right here, Dart," Dinah said, depositing her on the kitchen table which was at least lower than the counter. "Until I get the pieces swept up, the floor is lava and you don't have firefighter boots!"
"Didn't mean to break Mąʼii."
"I know, sweetie. And you did a lot of problem solving to figure out how to get it while I was on the phone. But next time, you should ask, and I can help." Dinah found the broom and a bucket, picking up the larger pieces before sweeping up the rest of the debris. She's need to get a box or a large jug to put the shards in, but for now, she just wanted it off the floor.
"Okay, so I need to find a new cookie jar, and we're going to need new cookies," Dinah said. "Ready to go shopping?"
"Yes!"
Dinah reached for the girl, picking her up and settling her on a hip, even if Lian was a little big for that, especially for her shortness. She hugged Lian tight, glad nothing had been hurt on her.
Surprisingly, I slept fine -- well, I was surprised anyway. I don't remember any of my dreams.
I am very amused that two of the smartest people I know (one of whom is a psychotherapist!) told me to play Tetris.
There are studies on this, often in particular groups of people who might acquire PTSD like healthcare workers or combat veterans.
I'm good at games like that and I love them. I have not literal Tetris but a similar simple colorful block-positioning game on my phone, which I play all the time anyway -- usually as something to keep me busy enough to be able to listen to a podcast or sometimes to watch something on TV, or sometimes to tire my eyes out enough to let me go to sleep.
But now I can tell myself it's medicinal!
I had a nice day: walking to and from angelofthenorth's this morning to help unload the van into her flat, enjoying the nice springlike weather for a change, and by the time I was home and showered it was almost time for said psychotherapist and her wife to visit, which is lovely as they are friends I rarely/never get to see, who were just nearby for the afternoon. I made dinner for us -- curry with sauce from a jar and added peppers and leftover chicken the others had last night. We're all pretty floppy, after those two had to take on tasks that were meant to be done yesterday by the two of us who were in Wales so much longer than we planned to be. But in a nice cozy way. No plans at all tomorrow, which I'm very much looking forward to.
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