⌈ Secret Post #7005 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

[pride and prejudice]
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 10 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1000.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
In the Being an audience poll, 41.3% of respondents have been to the cinema in the last six months, 28.3% to the theatre, and 17.4% to a live music gig. I'm curious about the 10.9% who chose "other".
In ticky-boxes, bakery treats came second to hugs, 60.9% to 73.9%, which is an excellent showing. Snow puppies came third with 47.8%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
Andrew and I finished Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold, so now I know what
Kdramas
Still re-watching One Spring Night, lol. I made a flaily post about it a few days ago, but then realised that my "realisations" were actually explained in the next few scenes, so I don't know if I'm seeing the show differently or just remembering info I learned from the first time around. I've since privated the post, but if you've seen OSN and want to talk to me about it, please do!! I am mildly obsessed.
I also started Undercover Miss Hong on
Other TV
We finished the Return of the King extras (omg, so stressful!). Still watching The Pitt, of course, though I really think it works better all in a bunch, rather than one episode a week. (I won't say "binged", because the most we ever manage is three episodes a night -- that's a lot for us.)
Happened to notice that Cheers is on Neon (NZ streaming service, incl. some HBO), and randomly started watching it -- it's aged surprisingly well! Very white, and the sexism vs feminism tension is front and centre, but Sam is fine, and everyone seems to be having a good time. We'll stick with that for a while and see.
The pilot of R.J. Decker, a new PI show loosely based on a Carl Hiaasen novel. It's very network TV, case-of-the-week and easy-going. Good supporting cast. Seems fine. A few episodes of Ponies, about two CIA widows trying to be spies in cold war Russia. They don't have much trade craft yet, so it's equal parts comedic and tense. Half an episode of SurrealEstate.
My sister and I are still on Fringe season 4, in which the entire multiverse revolves around Peter; I prefer Lincoln. And we watched some Bluey, naturally. Just finished season 1 and started season 2. 🧡💙🧡
Audio entertainment
All the usual suspects. More Movie Briefs, more local politics. And the episode of A Bit Fruity recced by
Online life
The 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange is coming soon!! We've been doing some behind-the-scenes prep for that. And wheeeee, I won a Fandom Trumps Hate auction (my first time bidding) -- so exciting!!
Writing/making things
Still bashing my head against the two things I started for Yuletide. It would be fantastic to get these off my plate before I get my 520 Day assignment and have to redecorate my brain in Guardian. *plugs away* (I feel like my intuition is offline, and I'm having to figure everything out with my inept thinking brain, why?)
In drawing, I did a practice pic of Zhao Yunlan, and wow, expressions are hard; the difference between worried and scared is, like, a millimetre here, a millimetre there...
Life/health/mental state things
The tsunami of ambient stress is making itself felt in my body. When I bought my new phone, I somehow got six months' free premium Fitbit membership again, so I tried wearing my Fitbit to sleep, to build up a data profile. And yep, an "objective" poor rating makes a subjective bad night's sleep feel so much worse. That's why I stopped doing this last time! So I've stopped again. Also, my resting pulse rate was going up and up for a while there. /o\
Had my free breast-squish day.
Goals
I did not do my goal things from last week. Ah well.
Good things
Sunshine. New (second-hand) red bag arrived this week; I don't think it's as waterproof as advertised, but it's a step up from my sponge of a handbag. Showers and kitties and going out to lunch. Biking and bike lanes. The Bingo fanart I received in
Do you use a fitness tracker to monitor your activity?
yes, regularly
5 (17.2%)
yes, sometimes
1 (3.4%)
...and an app
3 (10.3%)
I use the pedometer on my phone
7 (24.1%)
no, but I used to
4 (13.8%)
no, but I'm thinking about starting
1 (3.4%)
other no
13 (44.8%)
other
1 (3.4%)
ticky-box full of "I genuflect to the sanctity of the ticky-box"
13 (44.8%)
ticky-box full of otters building obstacle courses
17 (58.6%)
ticky-box of FANDOM SPARKLES
17 (58.6%)
ticky-box full of bears baking blueberry and salmon muffins
12 (41.4%)
ticky-box full of hugs hugs hugs
18 (62.1%)
The OTW is Recruiting for News Post Moderators, User Response Translation Translators, and Translati
Are you interested in helping keep OTW news post spaces a welcoming and safe space for engagement? Are you fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, or Spanish, and want to help us better reply to users all around the world? Are you a skilled organizer who enjoys working in a team? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
- News Post Moderator – closing 18 March 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 60 applications
- User Response Translation Translator – closing 18 March 2026 at 23:59 UTC
- Translation Volunteer Manager- closing 18 March 2026 at 23:59 UTC
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don’t see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
News Post Moderator
News Post Moderation is a Communications subcommittee that is responsible for moderating comments on AO3 and OTW News Posts as well as liaising with other OTW committees to respond to individual commenters as needed.
News Post Moderators freeze, hide, or disallow comments that do not comply with our News Post Moderation Policy. We approve comments that do comply, respond to user questions and concerns, and communicate with other OTW committees so that users can receive helpful, accurate answers.
You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. We are looking for volunteers who can maintain a consistent level of work, ask for help and collaborate both inside the team and with other committees, and make fair and objective decisions about what comments to moderate.
Applications are due 18 March 2026 or after 60 applications
Apply for News Post Moderator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
User Response Translation Translator
Are you fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, or Spanish, and want to help us better communicate with AO3 users all over the world?
User Response Translation (URT) volunteers help AO3 committees to correspond with users in other languages. URT translators will assist the Policy & Abuse and Support committees by translating correspondence between these committees and AO3 users into specific languages. URT does not translate AO3 or OTW site pages, news posts, or fanworks.
We are looking for volunteers who are at least 18 years old and fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, or Spanish. Applicants will be asked to translate and beta (edit) short text samples as part of the selection process.
Applications are due 18 March 2026
Apply for User Response Translation Translator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Translation Volunteer Manager
Are you a skilled organizer who enjoys working in a team, liaising with people, working with documentation and texts, and making sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes?
The Translation committee is currently recruiting Volunteer Managers. Volunteer Managers coordinate localization efforts across the OTW: the translation of site pages, news posts, AO3 FAQs, AO3 Support and Policy & Abuse tickets, and any inquiries that reach other committees in languages they can’t translate themselves.
While translators do the actual text translation and editing, volunteer managers support them by keeping track of priorities, deadlines, and pending tasks; assigning work; talking to and working with other committees to coordinate the translation of their content; uploading translated documents; documenting volunteer training, procedures, and workflows; checking in and actioning translators’ feedback; and many other tasks involved in managing a wide, diverse and very active volunteer pool.
If you’d like to find out more about the work before applying, feel free to send your questions to translation@transformativeworks.org! Please note that you must be over 18 years of age to apply for this role.
Applications are due 18 March 2026
Apply for Translation Volunteer Manager at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
⌈ Secret Post #7004 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 15 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1000.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
In War and Peace, since separating from his wife, Pierre has had an existential crisis and joined the Freemasons, because sure, why not. I had vaguely remembered his induction into the Masonic rites as a dramatic scene but this time it mostly struck me as unexpectedly funny, what with Pierre being the embodiment of tomorrow I'm going to lock in and turn my entire life around! it will definitely work this time!
Half an hour later, the Rhetor returned to inform the seeker of the seven virtues, corresponding to the seven steps of Solomon's temple, which every Freemason should cultivate in himself. These virtues were: 1. Discretion, the keeping of the secrets of the Order. 2. Obedience to those of higher ranks in the Order. 3. Morality. 4. Love of mankind. 5. Courage. 6. Generosity. 7. The love of death.
. . . But five of the other virtues {besides "love of death"} which Pierre recalled, counting them on his fingers, he felt already in his soul: courage, generosity, morality, love of mankind, and especially obedience—which did not even seem to him a virtue, but a joy. (He now felt so glad to be free from his own lawlessness and to submit his will to those who knew the indubitable truth.) He forgot what the seventh virtue was and could not recall it.
(Also funny, at least to me: the guy explaining the concept of hieroglyphs while Pierre stands there blindfolded thinking yes, I know what hieroglyphs are, and how "{a}s he was being led up to some object he noticed a hesitation and uncertainty among his conductors. He heard those around him disputing in whispers and one of them insisting that he should be led along a certain carpet.")
⌈ Secret Post #7003 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 21 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1000.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
⌈ Secret Post #7002 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 26 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1000.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
I had a celebratory citizenship/birthday party last night, surrounded by the family and community I've joined/built here in Canada and it was so lovely and affirming and energizing in exactly the way I needed right now.
I'm quite sure I know many people in at least some of these places and I'd love to see as many of you as I can make happen!
As I noted to Ian just now, seeing things is great and awesome and absolutely something I want to do, but the highlight of travel for me is seeing people, especially ones I've known for ages but never met in person.
Tentative schedule currently is:
- arrive in Paris the morning of May 26th
- May 26-June 5 - various locations in France including but not necessarily limited to Paris and Limoges.
- plane from somewhere in France to Birmingham the morning of the 5th of June.
- June 5-7 VidUKon in Birmingham
- June 7-??? - various locations in the UK including London and Portsmouth, other options depending on people and travel options.
- ??? - Train from London to Brussels
- 2 days later - sleeper from Brussels to Berlin
- ??? (tbd quite soon) - fly home from Berlin.
I'll be buying my flight home in the next couple days, at which point all the dates between Birmingham and Berlin will firm up at least a bit.
This is going to be my first time in Europe since I lived in Berlin for three months in 2000. I've never been to France. I've never been to Belgium. The last time I was in England was a high school trip in 1997. It's all both incredibly exciting and kind of terrifying.
Also, while I've done some solo travelling in the US and Canada, both my previous trips to Europe I was always travelling with at least one other person. So that adds an extra layer of nerves.
So, where should I go??? Who should I see??? How much can I vibrate out of my skin with nerves and excitement between now and the end of May???
=
Signal-boosting much appreciated!
I suppose you could say it makes my temper [in]flammable.
This post brought to you by learning that someone I know has recently been prescribed Cymbalta without any of the "Quitting this might suck beyond the telling of it" warnings.
A dozen days ago we brought home Shadow from Underdog Pet Rescue (where we found Bella ten years ago).
Shadow’s had a hard life: not only was he abandoned by his family to live in the street, he got heartworm. Underdog has been treating him, and we have to continue to enforce rest for another 5 weeks. We must walk him on leash even for quick potty trips in the back yard.
He's a skinny minnie — around 40 pounds. He's got super-sleek short shiny black fur — unlike our previous dogs, he's single-coated. He's got maybe 47 white hairs at various spots around his body. There’s a clumpy stripe of white on his chest, but he hasn’t felt comfortable enough to show us his belly yet. Between his ears he’s got the wide head of a pitty, but his nose is long and thin.
We're looking forward to buoying Shadow with the love he needs, and grateful that retirement offers the time. For the first few days his muscles were always tense, and when we moved a hand anywhere within ten feet he'd flinch. He's beginning to unclench, and we've even seen his tail wag a couple times. While we're all bored without romping and long walks, it's a good time to shower him with stinky treats for learning his name and beginning to trust us. He walks pretty well on lead and already knows leave it, ignoring a treat sitting in the middle of my flat palm 6 inches from his nose.
His triangular ears have floppy tips — the left one is always down. His back has two shaved bare squares where the vets injected the second and third doses of arsenic to kill the heartworm parasites. His soulful eyes were so tight in the first week we saw nothing but deep brown iris. Today when Shadow and I were hiding from The Evil Vacuum Cleaner in my bedroom, I finally saw some white in his gaze.
( click for pics )
Welcome to the oldest feminist inclusive convention held Memorial Day Weekend, May 21-25, 2026.
https://reg.wiscon.net/
Sign up for the newsletter here, if you haven't already!
https://wiscon.net/news/e-newsletter/
First, I have a few Nintendo Switch games for sale:
Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (example on Amazon)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (example on Amazon)
TemTem (example on Amazon)
And then a few TTRPGs that were Christmas presents so they're still in basically like new shape:
Candela Obscura Core Rulebook (example on Amazon)
Daggerheart Core Set (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).
⌈ Secret Post #7001 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.

( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 32 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1000.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

