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Racing toward the end of the year...

I have a huge number of updates and end of year things to post, but I'm scrambling to get things done and wrap up some deadlines. Here's a brief recap:

Queen of Swords Press has released the new Astreiant omnibus! The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett includes all 6 novels and is available in the various ebook platforms. However. Amazon is absolutely fleecing us on this, taking 65% of cover, so please, please, buy it direct from us or Smashwords/D2D or Kobo or even B&N or GooglePlay instead. I need to see if Weightless is interested too. At any rate, the Astreiant Series is eligible for the Best Series Hugo this year! Please keep it in mind.
I'm trying to wrap up the first third of my Data Analytics certification, with a final this week.
I'm doing Queen of Swords Press's 34th event for 2025 this Saturday - stop by AudreyRose Vintage in Minneapolis on 12/20 12-4PM for fun shopping with multiple vendors of various things!
I'm working on edits for Joyce Chng's fab collection, Sailing the Golden Chersonese, which we're releasing early next year.
I need to complete a new grant proposal in the next two weeks.
I have written several thousand works of new fiction, including working on the next werewolf novel in the last few week, thanks to writing sprints.
I have come to recognize that I will not be landing in an IT gig any time soon, if ever, due to needing remote work, my age and the state of the job market, so I'm enrolling in the State of MN CLIMB Program and have gotten myself a small biz mentor through Hennepin County Elevate and I'm doubling down on publishing.
New editing biz is open! Got a manuscript that wants some love or need some publishing coaching or know someone who does? Send them my way!

Okay, stopping there for the moment. End of year wrap up posts coming soon!

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Mary's Boy Child" ~ Charlotte Church

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Burden 44

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Cleaning Things Up

I think I have finished cleaning things up at work for a while and need to get some fresh things to work on. :)

Current Mood: relieved

Good news!

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Catch up from yesterday Diamine 16th December 2025

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Current Mood: loved
Current Music: Knicks vs Spurs pregame show

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but I really look at the bench of this team

So I packed up my jars of candied pecans and my bag of "prizes" and schlepped into the office today for our big huge holiday party - it was 5 departments' worth of people, so like 90 of us, so instead of everyone sitting in a room and eating together, we mostly stayed in our little departmental groups, but the beer-free beer pong was INCREDIBLY popular, Name That Tune also had a good turnout, and the food was excellent. Assistant J did a bang-up job organizing various game stations for people to play - there was also Jenga and Uno available, and a couple of gaming consoles he brought in so people could play Fortnite. *hands* I commended him and told him everybody loved it. And I did not have to lift a finger (except to bring the bag of prizes, aka, my stash of small gifts I've accumulated across the year but haven't given anyone yet, so there was a couple of packs of playing cards still in their wrapper, a couple of candles, 2 cute notebooks, some mini puzzles, and some holiday soaps. I also had a travel mug and a bigger candle to use as extra gifts for the secret gift exchange in case someone didn't show up, and it turned out my boss had given her secret exchange gift to someone else, so she ended up using the mug, and I gave the candle to a co-worker who tried to sign up for the exchange a week after I'd sent the assignments out. I felt bad about telling her no, but there was no way to make it work, except for me giving her the extra gift in the moment - she seemed really touched by it. And of course, several people asked me why I hadn't gotten a gift and I was like, I know who everyone is giving to, so it doesn't feel right to participate, but they didn't seem to buy that logic. *hands* I stand by it though.

I did get some lovely gifts though - a Calamityware mug from my boss, a couple of candles (one apple-and-cinnamon scented and one Frasier fir scented), a bottle of mango jalapeno hot sauce, and some Korean snacks from the co-worker who recently went to Seoul on vacation. And I got to leave at 3:30, so I was home by 4:45, which is truly a blessing. I also got to see and hug a lot of people I haven't seen in months, so that was also great. I truly do like most of the people that I work with, and I do miss seeing them, but ugh, it is so not worth going into the office more frequently to do so, imo, because so much less work gets done (even on days when there isn't a party). I probably won't go back until March if I can help it. *g*

Oh, and most importantly, my candied pecans were a hit! One of my attorneys basically ate the whole jar while he sat at his desk and the others all seemed genuinely excited about getting into them. So that worked out well.

Two more days and then I am on vacation for the rest of the year! I can't wait!

*

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "The Twelve Days of Christmas" ~ John Denver and the Muppets

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I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

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(no subject)

December! Time for my annual freaking out post.

Music: Two major (church) and two minor (kid) events; one of each is DONE. The major church event was the big stake recital one, with a combined stake choir and orchestra, and went better than I had expected. I actually had to do very little this year (no organization, as other people took that on (which I feel a bit guilty about, but not actually guilty enough to do anything about it), just show up at rehearsals and recital and boss people around when necessary and maybe some support stuff on the edges, which is how I like it) but it still seemed to take more executive function than I felt it should. Probably partially because I was trying hard to get people from my ward to join, with mixed results, and also partially because I was also sorting two children and five musical instruments for the orchestra -- E intensely dislikes playing anything else but viola, but A might have played either violin or viola this year (he ended up on violin), and I also was floating between violin and "viola" (I don't actually play viola or read alto clef, but I borrowed E's old 14" viola and ended up doubling cello an octave up). The other major church event is our ward Christmas program, so rather smaller, but I have to actually learn these piano parts which I have been super slacking on.

Yuletide: please send help, this is getting out of control. But it will all be okay. I am pretty sure. Maybe not quite as ambitiously okay as I want it to be.

Christmas prep: I finally got family presents sorted today, more or less. And D corralled us to go get a tree. More things to do here. We did get the ornaments on the tree and one of the nativity sets is up but the other one is not (yes, it would take about 5 minutes, I just forgot about it until writing this, lol)

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music,
rl_25

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Happy 250th birthday to Jane Austen.

Went out in the dank grey on complaining knees and got my library hold finally. Then stopped by the Pour Boy which, whatever else it may be, is kinda sorta Vietnamese (mural of the Buddha on one wall, statue of same in an alcove) and had a very good chicken sandwich and salad. Bless the owners for not playing 'Christmas' music. (Yes I have been Whammed. Three notes only, but still.) I ate my sandwich to the strains of Steely Dan's Do It Again and Billy Joel's She's Always a Woman, and very nice it was too.

Current Mood: busy

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Signup Post: Fannish 50 in 2026

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Current Mood: busy

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Signup Post: Fannish 50 in 2026

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第四年第三百四十二天

部首
弓 part 2
弟, younger brother; 张, family name Zhang/to open up/counter word; 弥, to fill ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=57

词汇
别, do not/to leave/separate; 个别, individual ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
我跟你都一样只有两只眼睛一张嘴巴的普通人, I'm just like you, an ordinary person with just two eyes and one mouth
别动！ don't move!

Me:
弟弟比哥哥更聪明。
人都有个别特征。

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Blogging in Fits and Starts

I've been blogging in fits and starts recently. After posting to my blog nearly every day for years I've had a lot of skip days recently. I skipped 9 days in October, 4 in November, and so far in December— which is only half over— I've already skipped 5 days. When it rains, though, it pours. On days I have blogged I've often posted 2 or even 3 entries.

Seeing that my tempo of blogging has become irregular is a bit of a disappointment. Years ago I set a goal of posting every day. (That blog is from 2021. I know I set the goal a few years before that, 2017 or maybe earlier, though I can't find anywhere I wrote down the goal back then. But in searching for it I did find an interesting perspective from 10 year ago on Why I Write.) After going strong and meeting my goals for years I now feel I'm running out of steam. Or, more precisely, running out of fucks to give.

My sporadic turn to blogging the past few months is attributable to obvious factors. For one, I've been traveling a lot less as Hawk is recovering from foot surgery. I've always focused my blog on the joys and frustrations of travel. With less to do there's less to write. And I haven't wanted to write too much else. ...Which leads into Two: I'm kind of depressed. With not a lot going on right now I've been feeling down. I care less about writing when I'm down.

But hey, maybe I will write about other stuff soon. Just in thinking how I'll frame this journal entry today I've already thought of several other topics I could write about soon. Plus, it's not like nothing's happening just because we're not traveling. I just have to find the motivation, and the focus, to write.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Sleigh Ride" ~ Pentatonix

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memes: xmas

Holiday memes 16

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Hallucinations Are Very Much A Recurring Theme.

Every so often, I post an analysis of how I chose my recent fic titles! We're nearing the end of the year, which seems an appropriate time for another roundup.

In reverse chronological order, my fic titles since July:

( Rambling about why I chose fic titles. )

What's really striking me here isn't actually anything about my titling habits; it's the fact that my last twelve fics in a row have been shipfics! That's very unusual; about half of my fics tend to be gen. I'll have to come up with some gen ideas!

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Whom Do I Have The Honor Of Speaking To?

I essayed

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weekly update

Me-and-media update

Previous poll review
In the Mind's eye poll, 22.4% of respondents said their mind's eye is as vivid as IMAX (wow!), 20.7% said pretty vivid, 25.9% said they can visualise if they work at it, and 22.4% said it's a bit patchy/vague. Nearly fourteen percent, including me, have no mind's eye. (I do occasionally see things in my dreams, eg, wake up with the memory of an orange cat, so I voted "other" as well.)

In ticky-boxes, spices (56.9%) came second to hugs (67.2%), followed by being able to name characters from Winnie-the-Pooh (39.7). Thank you for your votes!!

Reading
I was trying to write romance for Yuletide, and digressive murder mysteries were not helping my subconscious to deliver the romance beats/pacing, so I stepped away from Murder Must Advertise (Peter Wimsey) for a while and read a Jennifer Crusie instead. Not one of her better ones, but I've read the better ones so many times... I haven't returned to Murder Must Advertise yet, but I will (and I'll have forgotten everything, oh well).

In audio, I'm relistening to The Wedding People by Alison Espach, read by Helen Laser. It's so good! Phoebe's POV is specific and observational. As I said last time I read it, "Give me all the middle-aged women's midlife crises! Warning for suicidal protagonist, but the book is overall life-affirming."

Kdramas
Still loving Knight Flower. It's adorable and dramatic and silly, with many great women. Competent goofballs FTW! And Andrew and I started Jeongnyeon: A Star Is Born, set in the 1950s after the Korean war, about an all-female theatre troupe. It is fabulous, incredibly gay, and I love everything about it. See also "so many great women!" Moon Okgyeong is mesmerising, ahhhh, I totally understand why everyone's smitten with her (or is it him? or them?). We are racing through it (by our standards).

Other TV
We finished Down Cemetery Road, and I want more, especially of Emma Thompson as Zoe. Finished The Lowdown with Ethan Hawke. We're still going on Pluribus, which continues to be fascinating, and Prehistoric Planet. (My Apple+ subscription runs out on Sunday.) We finished the available episodes of Stranger Things, and I have Robin, Will and Max tied for first place as MVP.

I'm having a bit of trouble with season 3 of The Cleaner, but we might watch some more. And then there's Krapopolis, which is mixing things up this season. My sister and I are still watching Fringe and Bluey.

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Letters from an American, Cross Party Lines, some Brandon Sanderson youtube lectures.

Online life
I am seriously not keeping up with Dreamwidth or my inbox. Sorry! I keep opening things in tabs to read/reply to later, but I'm going to have to give myself an amnesty and just close a bunch of them.

I'm enjoying the hockey show squee on my reading page, and though I don't know if the show will be for me, I plan to take a look at some point, just in case.

Writing/making things
I had a good writing run in November, but we got some bad news and now brain is refusing to brain, stories are refusing to story, sentences are refusing, etc. I ended up defaulting on Yuletide, though there is still a chance I'll finish the fic.

I am enjoying doodling, though -- it's freeing not having a clue what I'm doing. I posted one pic to Tumblr and it got notes and everything, and I just posted another to

fan_flashworks. (I bought an ancient second-hand flatbed scanner for $15, but I couldn't convince my computer to recognise it, so I guess I'll continue to photograph my sketches for now, even though it messes with the colour balance. I don't know how long this art phase will last, so investing in a newer scanner seems premature.)

Life/health/mental state things
I've been staying up too late lately (including to write an angry submission on a stupid roading project), and it's taking its toll. Offline things are a bit stressful and distracting (stuck in a waiting phase). Summer keeps coming and going. Christmas is imminent.

I need to get more active here on Dreamwidth again. *clings to you all*

Goals
Maybe I should make some of these for next year? Hm.

Good things
The boy! The cat! The house! Coloured pencils and a sketchbook and an ArtLine pen. TV that centres female characters. Also: Guardian! The slo-mo rewatch. ♥ ♥ ♥ Christmas mince pies. Early Christmas present bone-conduction earphones (after years of using this kind of earpiece, now I have stereo sound!).

Poll #33963 dance dance revolution

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26

View Respondents

Have you danced this week?

View Answers

yes, with other people
2 (7.7%)

yes, with a pet or other animal
0 (0.0%)

yes, on my own
6 (23.1%)

kind of / only briefly
8 (30.8%)

no / not yet
13 (50.0%)

other
1 (3.8%)

ticky-box full of "Fighting!" (화이팅!)
6 (23.1%)

ticky-box full of books borrowed from an acquaintance quite some time ago, which really need to be returned but it's super awkward
5 (19.2%)

ticky-box full of enthusiastically and fervently loving what you love
16 (61.5%)

ticky-box full of giant prehistoric otters roaming the savannas
17 (65.4%)

ticky-box full of hugs, so many hugs
17 (65.4%)

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Mini-Drama Bonanza

Round-up of a bunch of recent baihe mini-dramas (with the usual dose of plausible deniability), all in vertical format.

1. My Bestie is Three Thousand Years Old (我的姐妹三千岁, pinyin: wo de jiemei san qian sui). A kind-hearted but penniless girl stumbles into a suspiciously long-lived ice queen CEO's life, and eventually they learn that their fates have been connected for thousands of years. Lightweight and very tropey, but fairly fun (especially if you don't think too hard about it). It aired originally on the Hongguo (红果) app, and can also be viewed on the Fanqie (番茄) app. It is available here with English subtitles. 89 episodes of two to three minutes each.

2. Met Her Majesty the Emperor While On the Run (逃婚路上遇女帝, pinyin: taohun lushang yu nüdi). A voice actress time-travels to the past, and finds herself in the body of a young woman who has sort-of accidentally murdered her new husband on their wedding night. She goes on the run, in the process of which she encounters and helps (and is helped by) the titular female emperor. The writing is pretty weak, and the production looks very low-budget, and I think you'd have the best chance of enjoying this if you turned your brain mostly off. It aired originally on Douyin (playlist here) and can be viewed here on YouTube with truly woeful MTL English subtitles and muted-out BGM. 59 episodes of two to three minutes each. Content notes: sexual assault and threats thereof, some ableism.

3. Two Empresses Dowager Reborn (两宫太后重生了，更改诏书换皇帝, pinyin: liang gong taihou chongsheng le, genggai zhaoshu huan huangdi). On the day her son takes the throne, Noble Consort Yu Lianruo has her rival Empress Chu Jiuyin put to death — only to be betrayed in her turn. When she wakes up, having been reborn just before that fateful day, she swears vengeance and gains an unlikely ally. For the optimum viewing experience, turn off your brain slightly (though not as much as for the previous show), ignore the whiplash pacing, plot holes and continuity errors, and focus on having a good time shipping the empress and the consort (plus the secret secondary f/f couple). Jiang Wuhan, who plays the empress, also plays the CEO in My Bestie is Three Thousand Years Old. It aired originally on the Hongguo app, and can also be viewed on the Fanqie app. It is available here with bad MTL English subtitles and muted BGM. 80 episodes of two to three minutes each. Content notes: sexual assault (of big bad) played for laughs, implied rape.

4. Be Her Persistence (犟骨, pinyin: jiang gu). Zheng Xingxing time-travels back to the late Qing Dynasty/early Republican Era, where she meets Jiang Jinghua, a young woman from a rich, abusive family. Together the two of them strike a blow against the patriarchy by setting up a school for girls and women. The costumes and props are surprisingly high quality, though I had questions about historical accuracy and especially plot accuracy — surely these girls shouldn't be so nicely dressed when they've barely got two coppers to rub together and are huddling in an abandoned temple for shelter? The same cannot be said for the writing, which goes from marginally serviceable (though rather didactic) at the beginning to an INCREDIBLE number of plot holes and dropped plotlines towards the end, which is a pity given the ambition and importance of the theme. Jiang Jinghua is played by Peng Yaqi, who also plays Song Jiayu in Be Her Resilience (以她之韧, pinyin: yi ta zhi ren), hence my title translation for this show. This aired originally on Xiaohongshu (playlist here). It is available here with bad MTL English subtitles and muted-out BGM. 44 episodes of two to three minutes each. Note: Peng Yaqi also plays Zheng Xingxing's grandmother (I don't know why, perhaps an anti-censorship measure?) but the show makes it very clear that the grandmother and Jiang Jinghua are not the same person.

How to build your own Talk To Jesus ‘A.I.’ at home

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/12/16/how-to-build-your-own-talk-to-jesus-a-i-at-home/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=72251

Our electric bills are soaring thanks to "A.I." data centers, but it's worth it for a tech break-through that is almost, but not quite, as useful as an origami fortune teller.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/12/16/how-to-build-your-own-talk-to-jesus-a-i-at-home/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=72251

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Tuesday updatery

Tali wants everybody to know that I was properly supervised this morning as I wrote:

Tuesday. I have new glasses. Except for a change in color -- the old glasses were blue, these are a silvery pink -- they look pretty much the same. Titanium frames. The prescription pulls the right eye into line, as it continues its descent back into nearsightedness.

Regarding the read-along -- thanks to everyone who chimed in to say that their idea of reading along matched mine, and we will hope that those who were afraid they'd miss something unless recorded due to their work schedules and whatnot are now relieved to know that we're text-based, and they can check in whenever they have time.

So! People of the Read-Along, I ask your input. Do you prefer order or chaos? Which is to say, shall we commit to reading, eh, 50 pages a week, and look for an update on Monday afternoon? Or do you prefer that I just comment as I go along, and you'll catch up with me?

Please state your preference in comments.