missizzy | Reading

Back on, I think, the correct day. (Look, Thursday was a Sunday, Friday was a Monday, today is a Sunday, tomorrow is supposedly a Sunday)

~ North American Indigenous Santa Dance - video, performer is known as "Powwow Santa"
~ Cat figuring how to get in out of a vase - video
~ Frame-slowed, colorized Victorian snowball fight - video

~ The LGBT bookstore saves a man - text, untranscribed, mention of self harm and suicidal ideation (old post, but I reblog when I see it to remember what FAMILY is)
~ Knitted wedding dress - photos and text

~ Trumpeteer gets an unexpected accompaniment - video, sound needed
~ Stonehenge Solstice Cat art - picture

musesfool

Christmas was lovely! On Christmas Eve, it was just me, my sister, and my brother-in-law, so we ordered in and watched a godawful Hallmark Christmas movie with Teri Hatcher in it. Then they went to bed and I did a Die Hard rewatch - I hadn't seen it in some number of years and for all its flaws, it is still a good time.

Christmas morning, my niece and her husband came over so Baby Miss L could unwrap the first set of presents - she still gets bored with it and wants to play with whatever she's opened instead of opening the next gift, so it's a process - and she LOVED the 30 second dance party button, as I knew she would. I am SO HAPPY I saw it somewhere (Wirecutter, maybe?) and ordered it, and that it arrived in time for me to see her play with it. (The adults got a kick out of it too, but it was hilarious watching her run up and press it each time it ended.) She liked the dinosaur cape and the books (especially "The Little Book of Cheese," which is in the same series as "The Little Book of Pasta," which I got for her last year and which she LOVES - apparently she will just bust out with "FARFALLE!" at any given moment), but did not care about the wings at all. Also when Alyssa told her I would be there, she said, "books!" so she knows I am the books and clothes aunt. *g*

The while elephant swap was pretty hilarious too, and my niece Nicki ended up with the cat-shaped measuring cups and spoons that were my contribution. I got a waterproof bluetooth speaker I'm going to have to set up in the bathroom to have tunes in the shower.

The funfetti cupcakes were a big hit. (I made sure to put cream cheese frosting on the ones for my sister; she tried one with the American buttercream and made the same face I made when I tasted it - it's disgustingly sweet.) There's picture of this year's selection here.

As for gifts, I received a handful of gift cards, a KRYPTO squishmallow from Baby Miss L, a pair of earrings made from chips of vintage pyrex, a stand mixer tree ornament, a copy of Dorrie's Anytime Cakes, some candles, and a pair of super warm and fuzzy grippy socks. I also bought myself a new winter coat, a new 9 x 13" pyrex baking dish, a new vibrator, some new bras, and a new pair of black ankle boots, so I'm doing all right in the gift department. *g*

Yesterday, I got home early and vegged out for most of the day. And then it snowed, just like they said it would!

Today, I made a new batch of dough and tomorrow I'll finish baking off the fig cookies for this year. I also want to try those orange cranberry rolls now that I have room in the fridge to let them rise overnight. I still have so many eggs left over, though, so I see at least one frittata in my future, plus at least one batch of Nadiya's egg wraps, which are delicious and I recommend them highly!

Now I should look into having dinner and maybe watching the Rangers game.

*

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Golden - Huntr/x

overmore posting in

fandomcalendar

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conuly

Before I say anything, A would like you to know how extremely annoying it is that they played those "Arabian Nights" riffs every time the snake (Barry) appeared, and it would be annoying even if the plot ( Read more... )

They wouldn't shut up about it, so there we go. They're not wrong.

( Read more... )

sparowe

A BABY IN A MANGER

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this Child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. … And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luke 2:15-18, 20)

What a contrast between the joyful host of angels the shepherds had seen, and the tired, stressed family they found by Jesus’ manger! I wonder what they thought of Him, dressed in the humble swaddling clothes Mary had packed. He didn’t look much like a Savior!

But the shepherds were wise, and they trusted the angels. And so they spread the good news to everyone they talked to—that God had finally sent our broken, suffering world a Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. And as they went back to their sheep, they praised God, because they knew that God’s promises are never in vain.

It would be years before Jesus grew up and carried out His great saving acts—taking all our sin and guilt to the cross, dying to defeat death, and rising again to become our living Lord and Savior—the Source of real life for everyone who trusts in Him. But in the meantime, those who heard the story had hope to hold onto—because God’s rescue mission was already started.

WE PRAY: Thank You, Lord, for coming to save me and all people. Amen.

Reflection Questions:

What great things are you waiting for in your own life?
Does it help to know what’s coming?
As you look forward to Jesus’ second coming, how do you find patience and joy?

Advent Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Current Mood: thoughtful

xdiorix posting in

amplificathon

(If you'd like to see previous years' master lists, 2011 is here, 2012 is here, 2013 is here, 2014 is here, 2015 is here, 2016 is here, 2017 is here, 2018 is here, 2019 is here, 2020 is here, 2021 is here, 2022 is here, 2023 is here, and 2024 is here.)

Happy 15th annual #ITPE!!!! Thank you for bearing with us despite Tumblr sabotaging us not just once, but twice.

Here’s some stats and highlights from this year’s #ITPE!

We had 73 participants this year, and you made 293 podfics for a total run time of 124 hours, 16 minutes, and 4 seconds–that’s over FIVE DAYS of audio!

We have 4 simulpods this year! Incredible things happened in The Queen’s Thief fandom with

deepestbluesky podding a gift for

likethetrench, who recorded the same story for her recipient

feelingsandtaxes, who in turn podded that story for

lady-sci. Classic #ITPE antics!

flowerparrish and

tinybluebirdcloak gifted each other the same story as a treat, with flowerparrish also receiving a podfic of a story ze gifted to another recipient. Finally,

jeremyknox |

kbirbpods and

opalsong both podded the same story for their recipients.

By far our most prolific gifter this year was flowerparrish, who (on top of modding duties) not only made 4 gifts for zir recipient (including a nearly 11 hour podfic), but also picked up 2 pinch hits and made 57 treats. Not far behind was jeremyknox | kbirbpods who also picked up a pinch hit and made 15 main gifts for faer recipients and 16 treats! Opalsong had a relatively restrained year (for her), but still made 10 gifts (nearly 10 hours of audio) for her recipient!

rhea314 was also a generous gifter this year, making 8 main gifts for her recipient and 10 treats!

pezzax was another of our prolific gifters this year, making 22 treats! We also had generous treaters in

blackestglass,

wanderingjedihistorian,

chaoskiro,

j03-05, and

wilfriede! Honorable mentions to

popcornfairy28 and

reena-jenkins for the 3 and 5.5 hour (respectively) podfics they made for their recipients, and to

betrayedbycinnamon for treating despite not being signed up to the exchange!

Finally, we'd like to extend some thank you’s to:

-Data mod

flowersforgraves for converting all the sign up data to airtable which makes matching so much easier.
-

Asymptotical and

Dragonflies_and_Katydids for creating the coding we used to generate distribution day templates.
-Our pinch hitters

alliaskisthepossibilityoflove,

flowerparrish and

jeremyknox |

kbirbpods
-And as always,

exmanhater for ITPE’s permanent hosting

Now let’s get on to what you’re really here for…..the masterlist!! Here’s the masterlist spreadsheet for this year’s exchange!

Happy listening!!!

cyberghostface posting in

scans_daily

( Scans under the cut... )

calimac

British newspaper article by Anna Bonet, listing "The 14 children's classics every adult should read." Most of them British, of course. Organizing them by my experience with them, they are:

Read in childhood
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
The Hobbit I encountered at 11, and it changed my life. I would not be most of the things I am today if I had not read The Hobbit. The Railway Children I remember enjoying at about the same age, but I haven't seen it since. I know Nesbit mostly through adult introduction to her as a foundational children's fantasist. Alice and The Little Prince were OK, but didn't really grab me. Watership Down wasn't published in the US until I was 17, but that was the perfect age to find it. Not even excepting Earthsea, which has a different feel, it is the only post-Tolkien epic fantasy with the same sweep and power. (Most of them are utter crap.)

Failed to read in childhood
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
One of two classics I was given in childhood that I utterly bounced off of; the other was one of C.S. Forester's Hornblower novels. I did like Tom Sawyer.

First read in adulthood
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Wind in the Willows, which I picked up at about 24, is the one children's classic that I didn't encounter until adulthood that has become as dear to me as my childhood favorites. I read the entire Narnian saga when I joined the Mythopoeic Society at 18, having previously ignored Lewis; I found them thin and not particularly appealing. The other two I don't remember when I read them, but only once each. They were OK, but I find I rather preferred their cinematic adaptations.

Not read
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
I think I may have picked up the Durrell at one point, but I didn't read much if so. I had a different encounter with Streatfeild, as I had another book of hers as a child, The Children on the Top Floor, which I did like very much (and still do, actually). Enid Blyton was completely unknown in the US in my childhood, though she's seeped in a little since then. I'd heard of Anne of Green Gables but never ran across it.

badly_knitted posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Illegal Actions
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Sheridan.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 200
Spoilers/Setting: No Surrender, No Retreat.
Summary: Sheridan can’t stand idly by while Earth Alliance destroyers fire on unarmed ships full of refugees.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 501: Amnesty 83, using Challenge 83: Fight.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Illegal Actions... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

dine

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sholio

Wrapping up this year's prompts! This isn't entirely the last of them, but I think after this one, I'm done with the ones that sparked story ideas, so I'll be declaring prompt amnesty and starting over fresh in the new year.

The prompt, which is somewhat spoilery for the fic

[from an anon] Biggles prompt- on a case they run into/are made to work with someone who was nasty to Biggles in his school-days, who tries to renew such treatment, and EvS, also involved with whatever they're investigating, finds himself possessed of both an unexpected protective urge and in the rare position to offer his own "you're better than the people you're working for" speech

Gen, late in canon, Erich + team with perhaps slight EvS/Biggles undertones, 1800 wds
Originally posted on Tumblr

( 1800 wds under the cut )

skygiants

Every year I'm like "I should really read the Neon Hemlock novellas" and then perhaps I actually manage to get around to reading one of them, but this year I ... thought I had read all of them because I thought there were only four published but it turns out in fact now that I check there were several more than that. Well! I read four of them! They were all very gay and very tropey; under these subheadings, I enjoyed two of them quite a bit, one of them didn't hit for me, and the last one I found incredibly frustrating, for personal reasons.

The two I liked were No Such Thing as Duty, by Lara Elena Donnelly, and The Oblivion Bride, by Caitlin Starling. Both of these have a definite air of fanfiction about them: No Such Thing As Duty is a 'what if my favorite historical guy met a sexy vampire' fic, the favorite historical guy in question is W. Somerset Maughan. I have come to the conclusion that I'm really quite charmed by this sort of thing as long as the favorite historical guy in question is not a pre-existing big seller like Christopher Marlowe or Charlotte Bronte but someone who I actually have to look up:* the author's real victory is in making me Wikipedia their special historical guy and go 'whoa, sure, lot going on here actually'

*I'm aware this is very subjective and there are many people out there who don't have to go to Google to know basic things about W. Somerset Maughan. But they ARE a lot fewer I think than the people who don't have to go to Google to know basic things about i.e. Lord Byron. That said, if you are experiencing boredom at the idea of Yet Another Sexy W. Somserset Maughan fic, I'd love to know about it.

The Oblivion Bride meanwhile is a classic Lesbian Arranged Marriage fic that, per the author's note, appears to have grown out of a Dishonored fic the author wrote several years back. I don't know anything about Dishonored so I can't tell you much about that. What I can tell you is that she's a normalgirl cadet member of an important family who's been thrust into an important political position because all her actual aristocratic relatives have mysteriously died, she's an icy cold Murder Alchemist General and also Magical Detective who's marrying her by order of the prince to solve the mysterious deaths and keep the political assets in the hands of someone loyal to the throne; could they actually fall in love? The answer will shock you! Anyway, I like tropes, and I like lesbians, and I like that Caitlin Starling is never afraid to lean into her id; I was as happy to read this in novella form as I would have been on AO3.

The Dead Withheld by L.D. Lewis is the one that didn't quite hit for me -- it's a supernatural noir about a PI who can talk to the dead investigating the cold case death of her wife, and it is doing exactly what it says on the tin but something about it never quite grabbed me. Too short? Not enough oomph? Anyway, it might grab you!

and The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas drove me up a wall, in large part because the worldbuilding it's doing is extremely playful and interesting and fun -- it's set in an alternate universe where a South Asian empire was the major early colonial power instead of Rome, and their abandoned artifacts and technology power contemporary superheroes. The protagonist is an academic dating a superhero; the text is heavily footnote-studded and 50% of the footnotes are really fun and interesting little explorations of this alternate history. Unfortunately for me, the actual plot laid on top of this rich worldbuilding is all Gay Superhero Relationship Drama and the other 50% of the footnotes are gossipy anecdotes about the protagonist's sex life. This is certainly going to be a feature for some people but was, alas, a bug for me; every time I went through the effort to click through the annoying footnotes format on my digital edition I was really hoping to get a meaty paragraph about what happened after Siddhartha marched into the city of Rime and did not feel rewarded any time I got a smug half-sentence about shibari instead.

conuly

Winter is icummen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damn you, sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,
So 'gainst the winter's balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm.
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.

***

Link

beradan

Well, this is going to be a valuable learning experience for both of us, by which I mean I have never had a non-family roommate before and she doesn't know how to snake a sink.

recap: I have moved in with a friend-of-a-friend, a woman approximately old enough to be my mother, in a small basement apartment due to my old landlord raising the rent by 25%

New roommate is reasonably tidy, as a person, but seems to struggle with cleaning. It's not unspeakably filthy but there are a lot of areas that definitely should have been cleaned more often or with something besides a disinfecting wipe. This is mildly baffling but I can work with that.

Meanwhile I have been here for three nights and have already replaced the missing light bulb over the bathroom mirror, ordered a new toilet seat, and fixed the aforementioned sink with the power of a drain snake and a bottle of toxic chemicals. Fifteen minute job.

She has a dishwasher. She has never once in however long she has lived here used the dishwasher. I, who have spent the past 6.25 years cursing my lack of dishwasher, can't relate. She apparently washes dishes immediately after use and immediately dries them and puts them away. I picked up dishwasher detergent as soon as the stores opened again today. This is mildly baffling but I can work with that.

I am also not convinced she cooks, on the grounds that she does have food but none of it is less complete than say a jar of pasta sauce. She has a variety of cooking equipment, much of which she apparently does not use, as I have been told I can have the space when she has time to clear it out in a couple days. This is mildly baffling but I can work with that.

(she is also one of those people who keeps the boxes for things indefinitely and this may involve negotiation as I believe I am entitled to some of the space where those boxes are living - this is less baffling but I certainly hope I can work around it)

Is there an early Gen X translation for "damn, bitch, you live like this?" Perhaps a slightly gentler version?

cyberghostface posting in

scans_daily

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badly_knitted posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Earthquake
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Fred, Scott, Travellers, Varian.
Rating: PG
Setting: An Act of Love.
Summary: The travellers are trapped in a cave beneath a mountain, and Varian is missing.
Word Count: 300
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 501: Amnesty 83, using Challenge 62: Trapped.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
A/N: Triple drabble.

( Earthquake... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

settiai

I've made this post a number of times without any luck, but I wanted to try again just in case I have better luck this time. Would anyone be interested in any of the following Nintendo Switch games?

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (example on Amazon)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (example on Amazon)
TemTem (example on Amazon)

If you're not interested but know someone who might be, please point them my way.

For payment, I have CashApp ($Settiai), PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle (nancy.lynn.foster@gmail.com).

Current Mood: hopeful

jenab

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sparowe

SUDDENLY

[The angel said:] “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!” (Luke 2:12-14)

I love the way it happens that, as soon as the first angel stops speaking, suddenly a huge number of angels fill the sky and praise God for sending us Jesus, our Savior. It’s as if they could barely wait to start singing their joy over the wonderful good news God sent them to proclaim.

You can hear the joy in their words: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.” They are delighted, they are overjoyed, that God has done such a wonderful thing for us—the sinful, broken human beings who turned against God so long ago and then could never find our way back to Him again. But now God has made a way back—through this tiny baby, who is both God and Man, and who is our promised Savior. Because of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection, the angels knew with absolute certainty that our people would someday rejoin the angels and all creation in loving and enjoying God forever.

And we can share the angels’ joy whenever we get to tell the good news of Jesus to someone who has never heard or believed it—a friend, a family member, a next-door neighbor. Because God is in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, and calling us home to Himself in love.

WE PRAY: Dear Father, thank You for giving us Your Son Jesus! Amen.

Reflection Questions:

When did you bring anyone good news of any sort?
How did you feel about doing that?
How do you think Jesus feels about being our good news, the One who saves us?

Advent Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Current Mood: thoughtful

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missizzy

December 2025

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Page Summary

senmut - Various Links 12/22-12/27
musesfool - but now that's how i'm getting paid
overmore in fandomcalendar - multifandom: rewrite-a-fic 2026
conuly - Finally saw Zootopia 2!
sparowe - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries: 27 December 2025 (Advent Devotional)
titconao3 in fandomcalendar - FRATTWEEK 8 - December 29 to January 4
xdiorix in amplificathon - #ITPE 2025 Masterlist
cyberghostface in scans_daily - Absolute Wonder Woman #15
calimac - children's classics
badly_knitted in fan_flashworks - Fight Challenge: Babylon 5: Illegal Actions
dine - hope everyone enjoyed a Happy Boxing Day!
sholio - Biggles promptfic (finishing up the year)
skygiants - (no subject)
conuly - Ancient Music by Ezra Pound
beradan - roommate diaries, episode #1
cyberghostface in scans_daily - Everything Dead & Dying #3
badly_knitted in fan_flashworks - Trapped Challenge: The Fantastic Journey: Fanfic: Earthquake
settiai - For Sale: Nintendo Switch games
jenab - Boxing Day
sparowe - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries: 26 December 2025 (Advent Devotional)

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