Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

work cons

Mar. 9th, 2026 08:27 pm
echan: rainbow arch supernova remnant (Default)
[personal profile] echan
I survived another year at SCaLE in Pasadena, and made it home again where its technically tshirt weather despite the snow lining the highway. My Leaf made it there and back again with 29% battery left, so that was a relief, I've never driven anywhere near that far at once before. Also I did not fall asleep and crash! It helped that my rock climbing gym is almost exactly halfway there so I stopped there as a driving break.

I went to so many restaurants in Pasadena! I'm quite proud of my success on that. I think my favorite this year was Mr Mushroom -- fantastic burgers, even with the sweet pickles (whyyy).

I saw some coworkers, current and former, a couple times. It was good, and it was awkward. I'm really not a hallway track, hang around and talk, sort of person, with anyone. (Probably not a coincidence that the best interaction was in a panel room before a talk, and not in a hallway.) But also, I want to do better at preparing in advance things to talk about -- it often feels like my mind puts everything off limits for sharing, unless I do a deliberate mental inventory and flag specific things as safe talking points.

The most common themes, in the talks I went to, were "AI is like an overenthusiastic book-smart intern" and data lake houses (like a data lake and a data warehouse but better). A lot of general industry insecurity -- the job board seemed almost entirely folks looking for work, with very few posts about open positions. (Percona is hiring, but everyone knows DBAs are a strange sort.)

Later this year PyCon the Python con is in Long Beach, and I don't much work with Python these days but a programming con sounds fun, probably. Monitorama is coming back sometime soon, also. Dunno if dates will conflict, or what work will pay for, will need to figure that out.

Monday Music Meme

Mar. 9th, 2026 10:38 pm
extrapenguin: Northern lights in blue and purple above black horizon. (Default)
[personal profile] extrapenguin
Went to the ballet again last weekend; will report on that tomorrow I think. Meanwhile, for the music meme, today's prompt is for an underrated song. This is a somewhat hard choice when working with new songs, as something that is new is discovered or undiscovered; overrated and underrated require a certain maturity. So I chose a song from 2023.

an underrated song
Elysion - Crossing Over



prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month Lady Gaga - Disease
a song that makes you smile Catalyst Symphony - Eden
a song that makes you cry Stratovarius - Shine in the Dark
a song that you know all the lyrics of Deep Sun - Storyteller
a song that proves that you have good taste Synthwailer - Iron Arch
a song title that is in all lowercase newest release FlowerLeaf - The Wake
a song title that is in all uppercase Illumishade – ELEGY
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

TV Stuff at High Prices

Mar. 9th, 2026 12:46 pm
yourlibrarian: DeanDollarBill-j2_babygirl86 (SPN-DeanDollarBill-j2_babygirl86)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) I am starting plans for a fall foliage road trip in October through Michigan. Anyone have any recommendations?

2) Following up on what I wrote about in my last post, I watched several episodes of Paradise S2. I'm not sure why I'm still watching this. Spoilers )

3) By contrast, I saw the Muppet Show (special? Apparently a one-off?) and found it a delight. Disney has definitely struggled in finding a way to utilize the Muppets and two shows have now failed. I'm glad they tried to do something different with them, and I rather liked the show where they were trying to make a more realistic "behind the scenes" Muppet show.

But maybe these days a return to the past would be particularly welcome (and surely there's still a lot of appeal for kids). I've got to imagine they've got a potential guest list a mile long. My partner and I kept thinking that some of the puppeteers must have been filled with glee at being able to recreate this show.

It did make me laugh when Sabrina Carpenter said she'd watched the show, her parents had watched the show, and her grandparents had watched the show. We'd be rather young to be her grandparents but, yeah, 50th anniversary after all.

4) I found the first of my top 3 shows of the year last month when we watched How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. I'd quite enjoyed Derry Girls, so was interested in trying this. I found it had a lot of the fun from Derry with an added mystery at the center. Read more... )

5) When in his latest charity auction batch Stephen Colbert listed a Lord of the Rings sword that had been on the stage wall, we couldn't believe he'd be selling such a thing at any price. Turns out it's a replica of the actual sword used in the film, which he already has (and he joked he would be buried with). Even so, I figured it would go for a lot, and it's going to be well over $25,000. His neckties are going for over $1000.

Poll #34344 Kudos Footer-562
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
7 (100.0%)



(no subject)

Mar. 9th, 2026 01:02 pm
aurumcalendula: gold, blue, orange, and purple shapes on a black background (Default)
[personal profile] aurumcalendula
I'm a bit sad VidUKon no longer doing DVDs/USBs of premieres (I totally get their decision), but it did get me thinking about trying to make DVDs (or possible Blu-Rays) of my vids so I have them on physical media.

Any recs for software for Windows? (something that creates basic menus would be nice)

february fannish post-mortem

Mar. 8th, 2026 09:52 pm
theultimateburrito: (p)
[personal profile] theultimateburrito
howdy, everyone! long time no blog! somehow it's march and here we are-- let's catch up.



in february i had the grim realization that, for the first time in 3 years, i forgot about three sentence ficathon... i betrayed that which i hold most dear. i can forgive myself because january was crazy packed (i got engaged in december, have to make some plans accordingly, did the most insane con crunch of my life, went to an anime con, went to d**neyland for the first time, prepared for my first foray into continuing education, assorted family obligations here and there) so i hope you can see why i didn't really have 3SF on my mind! but i may have to go back and do some fills regardless because it feels dirty not to participate... 3SF my beloved i hope you will forgive me!

i did write fic in february, though! i did a pinch hit for rare femslash exchange because my toxic trait is signing up for pinch hits when my wife is out of town lmao. i wrote a circuitous route that brings us back to the beginning, an anko/fem!orochimaru fic for [personal profile] myhaus_spaeter because how could i say no to such a request? i think about anko's fraught relationship with being an esteemed student to a mysterious and powerful individual only to be cursed and abandoned. she really is one of my favorite characters in a series that, for better or worse, i adore a good chunk of the cast for. the scene in the chunin exam arc where anko is fully willing to get rid of them both is very much at the emotional forefront of this fic. it probably won't be everyone's cup of tea but i had a lot of fun with it! it's honestly kind of healing to write something that you know perhaps 3 people will enjoy and hit "post" anyway. the me of 5 years ago would have had a heart attack if they saw i posted this to my main account lol. but now i am free as a bird!! big thanks to my recipient for the request, it instantly sparked joy and i had to do something about it.

i also attended citrus con, a virtual BL/queer media con, and when i tell you this was the highlight of my month! the closing of fujocon (another virtual BL con) left a big void in my heart so i was ecstatic to be able to attend citrus con this year. special thanks to [personal profile] gg8473 for reminding me to get my 2026 ticket, this was a really special time. i love being able to talk with other fans in this niche; i've always had the best conversations in these spaces. there were so many really engaging talks throughout the weekend, with my favorites being a talk on star trek letterzines and a presentation of rarepair manifestos (my favorite!!). it's hard not to feel invigorated by the power of fanwork, to come away feeling like you absolutely have to make something now or you'll explode! i will do my very best to chase that feeling because it's so cool. we should absolutely be sending each other more mail. SNS is over! it's all about S(tamps)(a)N(d)S(lash) now. anyway, it was a very chill and encouraging space, suffice it to say. talked everyone's ear off about doujinshi and abo and mpreg oh my!

i started a meetup/discussion thread for BL fans of western movies/film, which somehow no one else had done first. i was shocked! don't fujin want to yell about inception or whatever? at fujocon 2021 i had a lengthy and beautiful discussion about poirot yaoi with someone-- is this not what we all yearn for? but i'm glad i did it because i had a lot of fun with the people who stopped by to chat in the thread. TBH, i thought i'd spend the entire time grandstanding about all the presidents men yaoi, but i was very cutesy and respectful with my time and only talked about it A Little Bit. but man, citrus con has me chomping at the bit to watch more movies! i know that movie fandoms can fizzle out quickly by virtue of what they are (an often one time thing with a clear beginning middle and end) but for me it's one of my favorite spaces to explore in a fannish way. it's really fun to work within the constraint of those 90+ minutes and find where you can place those "missing scene" fics. what juicy post-canon awaits? you decide!! the fics that those folks had written are lovingly bookmarked and in wait of a free afternoon during which i can comment (as they deserve).

this is all to say-- i had the best time and i think you should give it a shot, too! tickets for 2027 are available now BTW (it's free!)

almost everyone who followed me post-con followed me over here on dreamwidth, which is really exciting! dreamwidth is so special to me, so it warms my little heart to see that it's a mutual feeling.

so that was february for me! what was your february like? tell me about something fannish that has you pumped up these days. do you have any BL recommendations? please, do tell!

Two unrelated things

Mar. 8th, 2026 08:21 pm
sakana17: zhao yuanzhou carries a wine gourd (fof-zhao-yuanzhou-wine)
[personal profile] sakana17
First thing: new vid!
[vid] 巡游 | Xúnyóu (2 words) by sakana17
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 大梦归离 | Fangs of Fortune (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Zhao Yuanzhou | Zhu Yan/Zhuo Yichen
Characters: Zhao Yuanzhou | Zhu Yan, Zhuo Yichen
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Spoilers, Embedded Video
Summary:
"巡游" (鹭卓), vid created 2025-2026. Language of song: Chinese (Mandarin).

Fate entwines Bingyi and Yinglong, Zhao Yuanzhou and Zhuo Yichen.

Or available via Vimeo link: 巡游 | Xúnyóu
password: BingYiChen26
lyrics: 巡游

Or available via download (251 MB) from Mediafire

Note: I put it on Vimeo because I could embed it on AO3 that way, but I understand there's unpleasantness with Vimeo. I'm welcome to suggestions for another site where I could put up my vids and be able to embed them (but not YouTube -- been there, did that, got burned, dnw).

Second thing: Finished watching Heated Rivalry )

More Xena VHS stuff

Mar. 8th, 2026 09:39 pm
aurumcalendula: Xena and Gabrielle (and Argo) walking away from the viewer (and the adventure continues)
[personal profile] aurumcalendula
I think all of these were created around 2001 (possibly earlier) - the earliest references I can find for some them are around May 1st 2001, August 4th 2001, and November 22nd, 2001.

(based on some of the footage included, I think #10 and #13 were made sometime between May 7th 2001 and August 4th 2001 and #6 and #12 were made somewhere between June 18th 2001 and August 4th 2001)

A digitized version in mkv format with chapters marked for the vids is available here (password = fanvids).

imho the horizontal lines are less noticeable in the digitized version then they were on my TV when I was playing the VHS. There is some flashing (usually pink) between some vids. Also heads up that vid #4 is kinda NSFW because of the fanart included.

list of vids with vidders and possible dates )

Cheerful Tumblr nonsense

Mar. 8th, 2026 11:56 am
sholio: (B5-station)
[personal profile] sholio
Recently I made:

• A gifset of Babylon 5 hugs
• A Londo & G'Kar text/image collage

Obviously these are wildly full of spoilers.

A little nattering about giffing on Tumblr again )

How Are You? (in Haiku)

Mar. 8th, 2026 01:54 pm
jjhunter: Serene person of color with shaved head against abstract background half blue half brown (scientific sage)
[personal profile] jjhunter
Pick a thing or two that sums up how you're doing today, this week, in general, and tell me about it in the 5-7-5 syllables of a haiku.

=

Signal-boosting much appreciated!
selenak: (Vulcan)
[personal profile] selenak
I had an extremely busy week, so am very late with my reviewes.

Paradise 1.04 )


Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1.09 )

More Xena updates!

Mar. 8th, 2026 11:38 am
aurumcalendula: Xena glaring at the viewer with a gold background (Xena)
[personal profile] aurumcalendula
After *mumble* hours on the WaybackMachine last night, I think I've determined the vidders for all except the Parody Intro.

They seems to be by vidders involved with the CreatiVentures, CreatiVideos, and T 4 Productions digital vidding collectives - specifically Theresa (aka T), Todd Allen, Jamester, and Angie.

(Lunacy Reviews lists Matt Savelkoul as one of the vidders for vid number 18, but I'm a bit dubious of that since the website also lists him for certain vids when the vidder's collective websites for those vids do not.)

As far as I can tell from their archived websites:

CreatiVentures = Angie, Jamester, T, and Todd Allen
CreatiVideos = Jamester & Todd Allen
T 4 Productions = Angie, Cat, Elena, and T (and later Dave)
sholio: (Horseman)
[personal profile] sholio
Three more older vids crossposted to AO3 in the last few days:

Waking Up in Vegas (Greatest American Hero) from 2021 - original DW post with a brief show manifesto as well. (I don't think the Youtube links still work, however.)

Landsailor (Star Wars OT) from 2015 - original DW post from when I made this right after the new movie came out.

Odds Are (Lethal Weapon movies) from Festivids 2015 - original DW post and original Festivids post from back when the exchange was anonymously posted on DW by the mods rather than run through AO3.

I've been checking the embeds and download links as I go, but let me know if you notice anything not working.
cupcake_goth: (Default)
[personal profile] cupcake_goth
To be clear, I support people doing whatever they want with their plushies. 100%. But I feel it’s weird to put a muzzle on them, or have a tag with your name, phone number, and address attached to their harness. I get that’s it’s to help get them back if you lose them, but the data privacy part of my brain is backing away chanting NO NO NO.

An interesting discussion that’s happened in the group is about microchipping your support plushie. On the one hand, putting an Apple air tag in Clovis would soothe some of my ever-present mild anxiety when he travels with me. On the other hand, that would involve opening a seam and carefully sewing it closed and in NO WAY do I feel comfortable doing that. 

Inspiration for Wayne Manor

Mar. 7th, 2026 01:38 pm
beatrice_otter: Me in red--face not shown (Default)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter
Someone pointed out that the Crocker-McMillin Mansion in New Jersey might be a good model for Wayne Manor. There aren't many good pictures of it that don't come from real estate listings, but I really like what we see and the mix of "classic Edwardian Mansion Stately Home" and also "modernized for current living". So here it is.
Aerial photograph of a mansion and its grounds

Details: built between 1903 and 1907. Three stories, 75 rooms, 50k square feet, on 12.5 acres. Of those 75 rooms, 21 are bedrooms, and 29 are bathrooms. When it was built, there were a lot of other buildings on the estate: greenhouses, barns, stables, a dairy, gatehouse, garage, workshops, and bathhouses on the river. There were nine single houses and four duplexes for employees, and a two-story house for the head gardener. I think most of those other buildings have either been torn down or sold off--the estate was originally around 1k acres, and now you can tell there are a lot of other buildings around.

Pics of the interior )
settiai: (Celebi -- aniconisfinetoo)
[personal profile] settiai
The extended stay hotel that I've been living in for over a year-and-a-half is being sold, so I've been desperately trying to find somewhere else to move. Through a lot of luck, I think that I've found a basement apartment in the home of an older woman nearby if I can get the money together to cover the deposit and first month's rent sooner rather than later. Which leads to this post. I don't have a lot left to try to sell right now, at least not until I really go digging in my storage unit to see what all is there, but I'm going to try to sell what I can in the hope of raising enough to get this apartment.

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).

Two longish Babylon 5 fic recs

Mar. 6th, 2026 09:39 pm
sholio: (B5-station)
[personal profile] sholio
I still have intentions of doing some proper rec posts of all the excellent fic that I read during my initial reading dive into the AO3 tags last spring/summer, but - since apparently that's not happening yet, I may as well start reccing as I go.

These are a couple of longer fics that I marked for later on my initial sweep through the archive and finally remembered to go back and read. One season one genfic, one late-season explicit fic in which I'm sure the main pairing will surprise no one.

Two recs )

Xena Fanvids VHS Update!

Mar. 6th, 2026 10:42 pm
aurumcalendula: Xena and Gabrielle (and Argo) walking away from the viewer (and the adventure continues)
[personal profile] aurumcalendula
The Xena fanvid VHS arrived safely!

There's 30 fanvids on it (~2 hours of time in total)

Most don't have vidders listed.

I think it might be a mix of VCR and digital vids (there's some with effects and/or fanart included) and I think the tape is from sometime after 2001 (since there's footage of the finale in some vids).

Some (not all) have significant horizontal pink and green lines - I'm wondering if that's from the VHS or the footage in those vids (and/or a result of me initially having the VCR set on LP instead of SP).

I have a DVD-R of it recorded in LP quality and I'm recording one in SP quality.

list of vids )

How Did I Get Here?

Mar. 6th, 2026 07:52 pm
yourlibrarian: Spike and Dru See What's On TV (BUF-SeeWhatsOnTV-stolenglimpse)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) At the grocery this morning and their clothing displays mirror the seesaw of our weather – puffy coats next to sundresses. It was so warm today than when I came back to drop the groceries off, I had to change into a t-shirt before I went out again, and it was barely 10 AM.

2) Had a nice piece of luck as well. The grocery was running a $10 coupon for $100 or more of purchases. I had to drop my partner off at work this morning because he had an all-day thing, and in the rush forgot to take the grocery list. So as I was putting stuff in the trunk I remembered I'd forgotten his celery. Went back and decided to pick up a few more things since I had the $10 coupon now. Got to the register and realized someone had left that same coupon sitting in the machine when they left! So I got the $10 off and still have my coupon for next week.

It amazes me how people don't bother taking their coupons. It's usually for things they're buying anyway and a free item is not unusual. And this was literally $10 in cash sitting there, when groceries are so expensive! I didn't even know what it was at first, just saw that someone hadn't taken their coupon and figured I'd look to see if it was something I could use.

3) Also on the grocery front, I have recently become addicted to Sumo oranges. Came across them during a sale, and got just one bag because they're pricey. Came back home with 3 the following week.

Oranges have never been my favorite, even though we had incredibly good ones growing in our backyard growing up. These are the closest I've gotten to those. I never end up eating only one.

3) As part of [community profile] marchmetamatterschallenge, I have been going through my [community profile] tv_talk comments in case I discussed much about a show (mostly, no). However it was a good reminder about a great many shows I watched which I liked and would recommend, but might not think of if someone asked me.

Some of these were strong throughout, and some long running ones have some weaker seasons but still worth watching. In no particular order, just as they came up on my entries: Read more... )

4) One of the things reviewing all these past posts made me aware of is how much more TV I'm watching, but overall with less enjoyment. Every so often I hit a show I would really recommend, but usually they fall into the "ok" category or I just nope out of it a few episodes in.

I think the changes in TV have a lot to do with this. Read more... )

Poll #34334 Kudos Footer-561
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
5 (100.0%)



Profile

vidding: filmstrip + vidding with hearts over i (Default)
Vidding

March 2026

S M T W T F S
1 2 34567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    

Style Credit

Page generated Mar. 10th, 2026 07:09 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios