Poetry Fishbowl Themes for Early 2026
Jan. 15th, 2026 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithFor this poll, you can vote for as many themes as you find appealing. I recommend that you don't vote for all of them, since that makes it harder to whittle down the list. The themes are arranged in alphabetical order.
Here are your options ...
( Read more... )
Write Every day 2026: January, Day 15
Jan. 15th, 2026 09:43 pmtrobadoraToday's writing
Bit of
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandomtrees work, so far. Still trying to get more writing done.Tally
( Days 1-10 )
Day 11:
badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, daegaer, goddess47, sanguinity, shadaras, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilmeDay 12:
badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, goddess47, luzula, sanguinity, shadaras, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilmeDay 13:
badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, goddess47, luzula, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilmeDay 14:
badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, goddess47, luzula, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, trobadoraDay 15:
china_shop, trobadoraLet me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)
Tomb Raider’s First Look at Sophie Turner as Lara Croft Has Us Confused
Jan. 15th, 2026 08:17 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
the_mary_sue_feed
Tomb Raider just gave us our first look at Sophie Turner as the iconic Lara Croft. When Prime Video announced this project, a lot of folks would wonder what era of the franchise they would adapt. From this image of Sophie Turner, it would seem we’re mixing a little of the old and a little of the new.
The Lara Croft actress appears influenced by the PlayStation original, with a couple modern tweaks to her costume. Fans watching at home were probably just happy to see the glasses make their return. But those early games are notorious for their stories getting a little out there. Crystal Dynamics’ reboot Efforts are decidedly more grounded.
“Guys, I Said No”: Tatiana Maslany Mocks the Made Up Rumors About She-Hulk’s Marvel Return
Jan. 15th, 2026 08:13 pmthe_mary_sue_feed
It’s been a few years since She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the Disney+ series that introduced Jennifer Walters to a whole new audience. The long-running character was brought to life by Emmy-winning actress Tatiana Maslany, and fans have been curious to see when and how she might return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and lately, that question has gone into a wild new territory.
Comments Maslany made during a recent appearance on Comedy Bang! Bang! have caught on like wildfire, with fans interpreting them to mean that the actress turned down the opportunity to return as She-Hulk in Avengers: Doomsday. The “reason” she gives builds upon (and pokes fun at) various false rumors that have been spread online about her since She-Hulk premiered, trying to argue that she was cut from 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, got mad at star Ryan Reynolds, and proceeded to sue Disney over it.
Sohlangana ezulwini (How can I keep from singing?) [in memoriam, hist]
Jan. 15th, 2026 03:34 pmsiderea
Renfrew Christie in 1988.
Renfrew Christie, a South African scholar whose undercover work for the African National Congress was critical in hobbling the apartheid government’s secret nuclear weapons program in the 1980s, died on Dec. 21 at his home in Cape Town. He was 76.
The cause of death was pneumonia, his daughter Camilla Christie said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa paid tribute to Dr. Christie after his death, saying his “relentless and fearless commitment to our freedom demands our appreciation.”
The A.N.C., in a statement, called Dr. Christie’s role “in disrupting and exposing the apartheid state’s clandestine nuclear weapons program” an “act of profound revolutionary significance.”
From the doctoral dissertation he had written at the University of Oxford on the history of electricity in South Africa, Dr. Christie provided the research needed to blow up the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station; the Arnot coal-fired power station; the Sasol oil-from-coal facilities that produced the heavy water critical to producing nuclear weapons; and other critical sites.
The explosions set back South Africa’s nascent nuclear weapons program by years and cost the government more than $1 billion, Dr. Christie later estimated.
By the time the bombs began going off, planted by his colleagues in uMkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the A.N.C., Dr. Christie was already in prison. He was arrested by South African authorities in October 1979 on charges of “terrorism,” three months after completing his studies at Oxford, and spent the next seven years in prison, some of that time on death row and in solitary confinement.
“While I was in prison, everything I had ever researched was blown up,” he said in a speech in 2023.
Terrorism was a capital offense, and Dr. Christie narrowly escaped hanging. But as he later recounted, he was deliberately placed on the death row closest to the gallows at the Pretoria Maximum Security Prison. For two and half years, he was forced to listen to the hangings of more than 300 prisoners.
“The whole prison would sing for two or three days before the hanging, to ease the terror of the victims,” Dr. Christie recalled at a 2013 conference at the University of the Western Cape on laws regarding torture.
Then he recited the lyrics of an anti-apartheid folk song that reverberated in the penitentiary: “‘Senzeni-na? Senzeni-na? What have we done? What have we done?’ It was the most beautiful music on earth, sung in a vile place.”
“At zero dark hundred,” he continued, “the hanging party would come through the corridors to the gallows, slamming the gates behind them on the road to death. Once they were at the gallows there was a long pause. Then — crack! — the trapdoors would open, and the neck or necks of the condemned would snap. A bit later came the hammering, presumably of nails into the coffins.”
In an interview years later with the BBC, he said the “gruesome” experience affected him for the rest of his life.
Dr. Christie acquired his fierce antipathy to apartheid at a young age, growing up in an impoverished family in Johannesburg.
Many of his family members fought with the Allied forces against the Germans in World War II, and “I learned from them very early that what one does with Nazis is kill them,” he said at a 2023 conference on antinuclear activism in Johannesburg. “I am not a pacifist.”
At 17, he was drafted into the South African Army. A stint of guard duty at the Lenz ammunition dump south of Johannesburg confirmed his suspicions that the government was building nuclear weapons. “From the age of 17, I was hunting the South African bomb,” he said at the conference.
After attending the University of the Witwatersrand, he received a scholarship to Oxford, which enabled him to further his quest. For his doctoral dissertation, he chose to study South Africa’s history of electrification, “so I could get into the electricity supply commission’s library and archives, and work out how much electricity they were using to enrich uranium,” he told the BBC.
From there, it was possible to calculate how many nuclear bombs could be produced. Six such bombs had reportedly been made by the end of apartheid in the early 1990s; the United States had initially aided the regime’s nuclear program. Thanks to the system of forced labor, South Africa “made the cheapest electricity in the world,” Dr. Christie said, which aided the process of uranium enrichment and made the country’s nuclear program a magnet for Western support. (South Africa also benefited from its status as a Cold War ally against the Soviet Union.)
Dr. Christie turned his findings over to the A.N.C. Instead of opting for the safety of England — there was the possibility of a lecturer position at Oxford — he returned home and was arrested by South Africa’s Security Police. He had been betrayed by Craig Williamson, a fellow student at Witwatersrand, who had become a spy for the security services and was later granted amnesty by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
After 48 hours of torture, Dr. Christie wrote a forced confession — “the best thing I ever wrote,” he later told the BBC, noting that he had made sure the confession included “all my recommendations to the African National Congress” about the best way to sabotage Koeberg and other facilities.
“And, gloriously, the judge read it out in court,” Dr. Christie added. “So my recommendations went from the judge’s mouth” straight to the A.N.C.
Two years later, in December 1982, Koeberg was bombed by white A.N.C. operatives who had gotten jobs at the facility. They followed Dr. Christie’s instructions to the letter.
“Of all the achievements of the armed struggle, the bombing of Koeberg is there,” Dr. Christie said at the 2023 conference, emphasizing its importance. “Frankly, when I got to hearing of it, it made being in prison much, much easier to tolerate.”
Renfrew Leslie Christie was born in Johannesburg on Sept. 11, 1949, the only child of Frederick Christie, an accountant, and Lindsay (Taylor) Christie, who was soon widowed and raised her son alone while working as a secretary.
He attended King Edward VII School in Johannesburg and was conscripted into the army immediately after graduating. After his discharge, he enrolled at Witwatersrand. He was twice arrested after illegally visiting Black students at the University of the North at Turfloop, and was also arrested during a march on a police station where he said the anti-apartheid activist Winnie Mandela was being tortured.
He didn’t finish the course at Witwatersrand, instead earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Cape Town in the mid-1970s before studying at Oxford. At Cape Town, he was a leader of the National Union of South African Students, an important anti-apartheid organization.
On June 6, 1980, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison under South Africa’s Terrorism Act, with four other sentences of five years each to run concurrently.
“I spent seven months in solitary,” Dr. Christie said in the 2023 speech. “Don’t let anybody kid you: No one comes out of solitary sane. My nightmares are awful.”
After his years in prison, he was granted amnesty in 1986 as the apartheid regime began to crumble. (It officially ended in 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the country’s first Black president.) He later had a long academic career at the University of the Western Cape, retiring in 2014 as dean of research and senior professor.
In addition to his daughter Camilla, he is survived by his wife, Dr. Menán du Plessis, a linguist and novelist he married in 1990; and another daughter, Aurora.
Asked by the BBC whether he was glad he had spied for the A.N.C., Dr. Christie didn’t hesitate.
“I was working for Nelson Mandela and uMkonto we Sizwe,” he said. “I’m very proud of that. We won. We got a democracy.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Our thoughts to them are winging
When friends by shame are undefiled
How can I keep from singing?
– Pete Seeger
Wildlife
Jan. 15th, 2026 02:21 pmysabetwordsmithIt's a "calls vs balls" tradeoff.
It’s a long-held belief that loudmouths overcompensate for something, but in the case of howler monkeys, science has confirmed it’s a biological fact. A landmark study by Dr. Jacob Dunn at Cambridge University, along with 2026 follow-up research, has established that monkeys who scream the loudest effectively “pay” for that volume with significantly smaller testes and lower sperm counts.
You gotta wonder if this applies to humans and some of their absurd behavior.
Neighborhood Poetry
Jan. 15th, 2026 02:06 pmysabetwordsmithsef1029 shared a picture of a tiny bulletin board for neighborhood poetry. This is the kind of thing that anyone could put up, a riff on the Little Free (whatever) concept. It would work just as well for any kind of creative writing that fits on one page, like nature writing or drabbles, as well as things like copies of a journal page with a sketch and description of local flora or fauna. No poem? No problem! Sponsors of my work get nonexclusive reprint rights. I'd be happy to write one-page poems for neighborhood use. See something of mine that you already like? Chip in, you're a cosponsor, you can pass around free copies.
Also keep an eye out for local poets in your area who might like to participate. Watch for bookstores, libraries, coffeehouses, etc. to host an open mike night, poetry reading, author signing, etc. where you can meet poets from your area. These also make good places to put up a poetry post, indoors or outdoors.
Of course, you could also look up classic poems in the public domain and use those.
when should an employer contest unemployment benefits?
Jan. 15th, 2026 06:59 pmaskamanager_feedA reader writes:
When should an employer contest an unemployment charge and when should they let it be? I’m an HR department of one, and the managers have me contest almost everything! It’s hard to explain to them when unemployment is supposed to get awarded (poor performance) and when it isn’t (gross misconduct).
Can you help to determine what it should look like? This past year, we had an unprecedented number of firings and it’s been a doozy.
Most of the time, employers should avoid contesting unemployment benefits unless something egregious happened. They definitely shouldn’t be doing it as a reflexive response to any unemployment filing.
First, the basic rules around unemployment benefits: in most states, if someone is fired for not performing well enough, they’re eligible to receive unemployment. If they’re fired for clear misconduct or significant rules violations (which includes things like chronic lateness or absenteeism, cussing out a customer, drinking at work, lying on a timesheet, etc.), they’re not. In overly simplified terms, the idea is that if someone was trying to do their job but just wasn’t good enough at it, they get benefits. If the firing was easily avoidable and their “fault,” they don’t. (You can argue with whether or not it should work this way, but regardless this is how it’s set up.)
Too often, employers view benefits eligibility through a punitive lens — “she shouldn’t get unemployment because she was a screw-up / didn’t try hard enough / messed up the X project / was a pain to manage.” But it’s generally not in companies’ best interests to approach it that way (even putting questions of basic humanity aside). Any employment lawyer will tell you that challenging unemployment makes it vastly more likely that a fired employee will end up suing the company (whether or not they have real cause). For example, say you’ve got someone who was fired and has wondered if their age/disability/pregnancy/whatever played a role but they’re weren’t planning to pursue it … but then you fight her unemployment, which comes across to most people as “they fired me and now they want me to starve and lose my house.” Now she’s bitter and angry, and she decides to talk to a lawyer after all. Even if you ultimately prevail, you’re going to have to spend time and money dealing with it.
In most states, employers pay into the unemployment system based in part on how many of their former employees end up collecting it, so they figure they have a financial incentive to keep those numbers down. But you can’t make that calculation without factoring in the above.
So at a minimum you should tell your managers that contesting unemployment is only for situations where there was gross misconduct, not just where someone wasn’t good enough at the work.
Also: what’s going on in your organization that’s causing an unprecedented number of firings? Maybe that’s legitimate and unavoidable, but are your managers making bad hires? Managing people badly? I’d dig in there as well.
The post when should an employer contest unemployment benefits? appeared first on Ask a Manager.
Birdfeeding
Jan. 15th, 2026 01:38 pmysabetwordsmithI fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows and a starling.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 1/15/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 1/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 1/15/26 -- I did some work around the yard.
I've seen a downy woodpecker drumming on a branch, and a pair of cardinals flying away.
EDIT 1/15/26 -- I dumped out the cloverleaf pots and stacked them upside-down on the patio. Last year I tried growing wild strawberries in towers. This didn't work great because 1) the berries weren't very good, 2) the towers were difficult to water, and 3) they were prone to falling over. However, I learned some things so it wasn't a wasted effort. I'm not sure what I'll try next. Certainly I could plant better strawberries, either my wild ones or the pink-flowered Toscano that produced excellent berries last summer. Watering should be easier with a hose. Stability, hmm, I might try stakes or just spread them out.
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The Tomb of Ni-Ankh-Khnum and Khnum-Hotep in Badrshein, Egypt
Jan. 15th, 2026 02:00 pmatlas_obscura_places_feed
The decorated tombs that have survived from ancient Egypt share detailed biographical information about the their occupants. From the elaborate wall-paintings and hieroglyphic inscriptions, we can learn a great deal about the deceased—their names and ages, their professions and accomplishments, the size and composition of their families. In the 1960s, archaeologists were flabbergasted to discover a tomb that was not like the others. Instead of a husband and wife, the tomb had been built for two men named Ni-Ankh-Khnum and Khnum-Hotep, who had worked together as manicurists and hairdressers at the royal court during the Fifth Dynasty. More than 4000 years ago, two men had decided to spend eternity together.
Ni-Ankh-Khnum and Khnum-Hotep commissioned an unusual series of wall paintings to decorate their tomb. In addition to scenes from daily life of the time—which are common in the Saqqara necropolis—they included several double portraits in which they were depicted holding hands and embracing. These paintings have survived and can be still seen in the tomb today.
Ever since the tomb’s discovery, it has been the subject of debate between archaeologists. Were Ni-Ankh-Khnum and Khnum-Hotep close friends and colleagues who made the unusual decision to build a joint tomb for their two families? Were they brothers—perhaps identical twins—who posed for a double-portrait in the tomb where they were buried alongside their extended family? Or, as visitors to the tomb often wonder, were Ni-Ankh-Khnum and Khnum-Hotep the first gay couple in recorded history?
Archaeologists continue to study the tomb and its enigmatic wall paintings. But one thing is clear: whether Ni-Ankh-Khnum and Khnum-Hotep were friends or brothers or lovers, the affection that they felt for one another has endured for more than four millennia. These two men continue to open our eyes to the richness and complexity of ancient Egyptian society.
the_mary_sue_feed
Every day, we learn something new. Occasionally, it can be a cost-saving trick that is kept hush-hush. For this woman, the low-key hack she learned from a fellow Dollar Tree shopper is popular among bargain hunters: penny shopping.
What Is The Art Of Penny Shopping?
Across the corners of the internet, you may stumble upon clips of discount shoppers scouring for penny items. In a nutshell, it’s about searching for hidden discontinued or off-season merchandise priced at one cent. However, the penny items are to alert employees to ‘pull and destroy’ them. Of course, workers are human and may miss a few, leaving them available for customers to claim. Typically, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Home Depot are common hotspots for penny shopping.
Video for a postponed post
Jan. 15th, 2026 01:28 pmneonvincent
the_mary_sue_feed
On January 13, 2026, United States Representative Robin Kelly announced that she will be introducing articles of impeachment against the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, for the mishandling of her department, which has led to the “violation” of the Constitution and has terrorised communities who are being affected by her and her department’s malicious activities or fear that they will be.
Addressing the floor on Tuesday, Representative Robin Kelly cited the example of Operation Midway Blitz and highlighted how it had “torn apart” the Chicago land area. Kelly also took aim at President Donald Trump and noted that he “declared war” on Chicago and brought “violence” and “destruction” to the city and its suburbs in the form of “immigrant enforcement.” Talking about the ruthlessness with which officials under Kristi Noem operate, Kelly gave the example of an incident in her district where federal agents descended in helicopters and entered an apartment building, believing that it houses members of a Venezuelan gang. Kelly disclosed that people were dragged from their beds, and when she visited the place, she noticed that doors had been taken down, and items, including kids’ toys, were scattered all around. Kelly mentioned that following the raid, the authorities had failed to identify the Venezuelan gang members.
the_mary_sue_feed
Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania, has always been critical of United States Vice President Donald Trump. He is again taking the opportunity to criticise him publicly over his insensitive remarks about the victim of the recent ICE shooting, Renee Nicole Good.
In a video shared by Meidas Touch on January 10, 2026, on YouTube, which has generated significant traction on social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Governor Josh Shapiro can be seen calling Vice President JD Vance out for his blatant support of Donald Trump, which he believes has made him a “weak” human being. In the context of Minnesota, Shapiro highlighted that he believed that Vance is taking a “wrong” approach to keeping the people of the state safe. His exact words in this context were:
updates: my husband doesn’t want anyone I work with to know we’re married, and more
Jan. 15th, 2026 05:29 pmaskamanager_feedHere are four updates from past letter-writers.
1. My husband doesn’t want anyone I work with to know we’re married
Thank you for publishing my letter — it was quite reassuring to read that this particular request from my husband was giving others pause as well.
There was a lot of speculation in the comments, which was quite amusing to read, and lots of excellent points being made too! I do want to add that my husband has always been very conscious about sharing “private” info, but to be clear — he’s never hidden the fact that he is a married (straight) man, but he won’t go around telling his coworkers my name or my employer. Like you said, this was more of a husband problem than a work problem.
As recommended, I had another sit down with my husband and explained again why the situation made me uncomfortable and how awkward this could be for Jeff, too.
I wish I could tell you that this fixed everything, but it didn’t. The argument actually got a little heated, and we could not get on the same page. This might sound unbelievable, but my man is generally emotionally intelligent (one of the many qualities I adore in him) and yet I could not get him to see things from mine or Jeff’s point of view. I can’t remember there ever being a subject between us where it was so hard to find common ground (and we’ve been a great team through far worse). Disappointing, sure, but it is what is.
I did let him know that I would not be crossing that line of lying — either implicitly (by omission) or explicitly — again with Jeff. He wasn’t happy about it, I wasn’t either, but at least it was clear where we both stood on the matter.
A few weeks after that, Jeff found out anyway (as I always assumed would happen at some point, it’s really hard to keep a mutual connection secret in this day and age!). Jeff asked me about it at a company event, and I kept it very matter-of-fact (“Yup, that’s my husband, he prefers to keep that info private, kinda weird but oh well”) and that was … it? Jeff made no fuss about it, so if he thought it was weird, he kept it to himself. Jeff hasn’t brought it up with my husband either. My husband knows the cat’s out of the bag because I told him, and he got a little huffy at first, then dropped it.
I see Jeff weekly at tennis now, and all is well. I’m a bit more mindful than usual about the things I share but we have plenty of other common interests to talk about so my husband doesn’t really come up as a topic of conversation.
Not the most exciting of updates, sometimes you’re just going to clash with your person.
2. Why does job-searching feel like actual torture?
I wrote in earlier this year about being unhappy in my job but feeling unable to make myself search for a different one. Well, I now have a new job!
I really lucked out because a role opened up at my company in a department I’ve worked with the entire time I have been here. I immediately talked to the decision-makers for that department and accepted the job a few weeks later after the role was reworked specifically for me (!). I’ve been slowly transitioning from the old job to the new one over the past couple months and officially transferred a couple weeks ago. It’s a step down in pay but still a comfortable wage for me, and I’m SO much happier with the work and the team … plus I don’t have to change any of my benefits, learn a new office culture, or kiss my unvested retirement funds goodbye!
This situation made me realize how much anxiety was affecting me and how much extra anxiety my previous job was creating. I knew I had anxiety, but I didn’t realize the full effect until I started feeling like I was on the brink of a panic attack one day at work, which was a new experience. I’ve been on an antidepressant for several years, but after that day, I went to my doctor and added an anti-anxiety medication, which has been incredibly helpful. It’s made a huge difference at work and basically every other part of my life (imagine that)!
My plan now is to stay in my new role for at least three years. I think it’s likely that having this job on my resume will open a lot more doors for me next time I end up job-searching, both because of the skills I’m developing and because it will make sense to employers that I’m applying for jobs that I previously wouldn’t have looked as qualified for. I’m also hopeful that better management of my anxiety will make job-searching feel more doable in the future.
Thank you again for answering my letter!
3. How do I apply for a job internally without my boss knowing?
I did apply to the internal job. I read my employee handbook and it said I need to let my manager know, so I did that and then let the hiring manager know I had applied.
While I tried to play it cool, I pinned a lot of hopes on this new position. Just a couple weeks later, guess what happened? A partner org outside my company contacted me (I do a lot of answering outside partner questions as part of my role) to ask about being put in touch with new hire Samantha. Samantha? Who was that and what role did she get? My dream role, that’s what she got.
I was in shock. I was so upset not only that I didn’t get the job but that this is how I found out. No notice from the hiring manager, who I spoke to on a regular basis, not even a form email from HR. As I sat there in shock, who came around the corner? Samantha herself, being given the tour of the office. It took all my strength to smile and welcome her — it wasn’t her fault, of course.
The most upsetting thing about all this was that the hiring manager, who I thought I had rapport with, never once mentioned this to me. She never again brought up the role or our conversation about it. It was hurtful, not gonna lie.
My own manager had my back and even though I was trying to leave her team, she was furious on my behalf!
While there are good things about working where I do, clearly my workplace has its issues. I’m contemplating what to do from here.
4. How do I give 360 feedback to my clueless coworker?
Thank you for the advice! I did end up consulting Bob’s boss with similar language to what you suggested and additionally noting that the 360 review was adding stress during a busy period. His boss looked at me and said, “He’s leaving for grad school in three months anyway, so don’t worry about it.” So, I didn’t end up saying anything in his review, and I helped hire and onboard his replacement, who is much better.
The post updates: my husband doesn’t want anyone I work with to know we’re married, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.
Constitutional rights - Red Cards
Jan. 15th, 2026 12:16 pmotter posting in thisfinecrewYou have constitutional rights:
• DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR if an immigration agent is
knocking on the door.
• DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS from an
immigration agent if they try to talk to you. You have the
right to remain silent.
• DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING without first speaking to a
lawyer. You have the right to speak with a lawyer.
• If you are outside of your home, ask the agent if you are
free to leave and if they say yes, leave calmly.
• GIVE THIS CARD TO THE AGENT. If you are inside of
your home, show the card through the window or slide it
under the door.
I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions,
or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th
Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.
I do not give you permission to enter my home based
on my 4th Amendment rights under the United States
Constitution unless you have a warrant to enter, signed
by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide
under the door.
I do not give you permission to search any of my
belongings based on my 4th Amendment rights.
I choose to exercise my constitutional rights.
These cards are available to citizens and noncitizens alike
https://www.ilrc.org/redcards#print
Snowflake Challenge 8: Creative Process
Jan. 15th, 2026 11:51 amysabetwordsmithTalk about your creative process.
This challenge looks at what goes on behind the scenes to produce all the wonderful fannish contents that come to be in the world. By ‘create’ we don’t just mean fic or art or videos -- there’s a process behind every blog post, comment or any other kind of fannish engagement. We’re all creators -- and every creator loves to know about other peoples'.
I write fanfic "derive in, extrapolate out." This means I look for something in the canon that could use more explanation, think about how it could have gotten that way, then consider how that could influence further stories.
My biggest fanseries is Love Is For children (The Avengers). Several of these entries dig into the backstory of the characters, starting with a scene in canon that shows something already developed which must have had a way to get started but that part is never mentioned. So I used the character as known, and the context, to build something that would logically fit into that gap.
In the first Iron Man movie, we see Tony Stark build the Mark I suit in a cave, with a box of scraps. Specifically, we see him swinging a hammer, like Hephaestus at his forge. Now blacksmithing is one of those things that cannot be learned entirely from a book. It requires muscles and muscle memory; you actually have to do the work, a lot, over a long time. If you want to learn efficiently and also not set yourself on fire too much, it also requires a master blacksmith to teach you the tools and techniques. But the movie says nothing about how or where or when Tony learned any of that; it shows the end result of a mastersmith building a supergizmo out of junk.
I wrote "What Little Boys Are Made Of" to fill in that part of Tony's backstory. The earliest sections describe, also inspired by canon, examples of Tony's relationship with his father and Howard Stark's A+ parenting. Then it covers college, Tony's boredom because it's too easy, and his continuing efforts to get Howard's attention. The real key comes when Tony revisits Museum Village in Monroe, New York. There he meets a blacksmith and hits on the idea of working as an apprentice for the summer. And the rest is history.
Consider the Six Layers from Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. With fanwriting, a creator necessarily starts at the surface of the canon element, in this case a movie. "Derive in" means picking a point on the surface, then delving underneath into the structure which supports it, and often consulting the idiom. To create something new requires an idea, which is the first or core layer. From there, "extrapolate out" simply works back up to the surface again.
There in a nutshell is the process for most of my fanwriting. It works equally well with all sizes and media. I use some other methods, but I usually pair them with this one.