It's especially demoralizing to find there's very little made in the way of women's shoes with buckles these days. Something nice to wear to work and meeting up with friends that helps me feel like I'm a grown-up and costs less than $400 doesn't seem like it should be giving me such a headache, but then, it's shoe shopping. Nothing's at all pleasant about that. These seem promising, and I may risk buying sight unseen to avoid going into a physical shoe store.
It's especially demoralizing to find there's very little made in the way of women's shoes with buckles these days. Something nice to wear to work and meeting up with friends that helps me feel like I'm a grown-up and costs less than $400 doesn't seem like it should be giving me such a headache, but then, it's shoe shopping. Nothing's at all pleasant about that. These seem promising, and I may risk buying sight unseen to avoid going into a physical shoe store.
Can we please fire the people scripting this season of the United States of America? Some of these choices are so asinine I think they're consulting genAI for their scripts, and no one is editing them.
Oh, wait, that's what the politicians are doing to make fucking laws.
I'm going to go read amnesia fic now and think, "I wish that were me."
(The Op-Ed is behind a paywall, but can be found here: https://www.ajc.com/opinion/2025/06/buddy-carter-sens-ossoff-warnock-should-support-trumps-big-beautiful-bill/ )
I wrote an email to Carter explaining why I thought he was wrong, and then adapted the language to send to my senators asking them to stay strong against it.
Because this bill is such a Frankenstein's Monster, I chose to limit my comments to the environmental issues which would have both direct and indirect impacts on Buddy Carter's district. I urge all of you who have Republican Senators to find sections of the bill to read which will have direct negative impacts on your state. If your representative voted for it, send them an email censuring them for those same negative impacts. Then write to both senators using the first email as a template.
My email addressed sections:
80152. Rescission relating to environmental and climate data collection.
80201. Rescission of funds for investing in coastal communities and climate resilience.
80202. Rescission of funds for facilities of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and national marine sanctuaries. [nb: this is especially important for hurricane regions and areas with a fishing industry, though I also pointed out the pods of dolphins off of our local Jeckyll Island State Park would be affected.]
80308. Timber production for the Forest Service.
80309. Timber Production for the Bureau of Land Management.
[The latter two will have adverse effects on air pollution levels, but there are whole sections on coal production and offshore drilling for oil and natural gas which will contribute to air pollution directly.]
80202 will also adversely impact tornado zones.
Let's work to defeat this bill.
Do you have some table items you only bring out when you entertain guests for dinner?
I picked up this question from
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Other than that there are platters, serving spoons and such that only come out when I'm feeding a few.
I am desperately trying not to get stressed out about The Omnishambles, but it's kind of hard.
Be safe, y'all!
Keeping the internet on a computer, where it belongs, fixes a lot of problems before they start.
Also of note today was someone on my floor moving out and I got some fancy imported Korean sea salt they weren't going to bother hauling around with them. I don't know how fancy it is, but it tastes quite nice. I'm thinking I'll use it in soup.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Depa Billaba/Obi-Wan Kenobi/Shaak Ti/Quinlan Vos, Aayla Secura & Anakin Skywalker
Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Aayla Secura, Quinlan Vos, Shaak Ti, Depa Billaba
Additional Tags: A+ Jedi Pedagogy, Polyamory, POV Outsider
Summary:
Anakin has the most boringly perfect master in the entire Jedi Order. Some masters go on interesting missions; Obi-Wan does diplomatic missions where he sits at a table and says, "Hm, well…" a lot till he gets his way. Some masters have showy, dangerous lightsaber styles; Obi-Wan does Soresu, which is as purely defensive as anything anyone has ever devised. Some masters are fully-rounded people who drink and laugh and dance; Obi-Wan stays in with his three best friends and talks about philosophy all night, because he is a perfect Jedi, and so are they.
Adventures Elsewhere collects our reviews, guest posts, articles, and other content we've spread across the Internet recently! See what we've been up in our other projects. :D
( Read more... )
Each month, we look back over the media we loved in the previous month, from books to film to video games and more. This entry in the series was written a while ago, but we haven't posted a favorite media since then, so we're posting it now for maximum completion!
( Read more... )
Waking up to hail this morning was a surprise; getting out of the subway after the day's rains had all passed to leave the air in one of those hauntingly fragile summer afternoons was just as much a surprise, if a far more pleasant one.
Because this is the Time War, and this regeneration of the Doctor specifically is on a self loathing maximum while fighting it, Ollista is initially a good foil because she, who really does only prioritize Gallifrey and initially sees everyone not a Time Lord as expendable, shows that despite what he's telling himself, he is still the Doctor, he still has ethics and lines he won't cross and will fight for and have another way. But Ollista isn't simply an Evil McEvil megalomaniac, either, hence me saying "Gallifrey" and not "her personal power", and so the Doctor in the course of those stories develops a grudging respect for her while she while denying she does so finds herself defending, in the last story arc, precisely the kind of (non-Gallifreyan) people she in the first story arc would have dismissed as necessary casualties of war. Whether they argue or work together, all the Doctor-Ollista scenes are golden, and with both John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce now gone, I am really glad they had the chance to work together near the end of their lives and create two more remarkable characters for us to appreciate.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Short-term/immediate bail and jail assistance for protesters: Jail Support LA
Jail support campaign of a long-running SGV mutual aid network: Operation Healthy Hearts
The secondary accomplishments were taking the stairs to the gym, and making an attempt to reach out when I felt myself going down a spiral.
The latter is because a hard drive stopped working. I got a couple error messages about moving and deleting files - "Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error" - which was soon followed by Error code 43, then "Cannot open drive for direct access". At this point, I'm pretty secure in saying it's not going to get fixed by trying the hard drive on another computer, or that I can fix it myself. As such, I'm going to leave it alone in the hopes it doesn't get worse and look into local data recovery centers to see which one can best help me.
In the former's case, it's because Escapade is scheduled opposite a few movie screenings at the MOMI I'd very much like to see. I can probably juggle them around, pick which movies versus which panels, and it's more than a little annoying to have to choose between two fun things to look forward to. As I said, luxurious disappointments.
Case in point: I performed recently after preparing for 5 months.
My mother said, "It went well! That must feel good."
Me: "..."
It didn't. It never really does, not unless someone else gives me external validation.
Whenever I do something hard, my brain's response is, "Well, I did it, so how hard could it have been?"
This applies to excelling academically (which I have done frequently), excelling at my job (which I have done on occasion), every type of performance I've ever undertaken (and there have been a lot), every form of art/craft I've ever done (writing, knitting, crocheting, etc.), and helping friends.
Mostly I just feel relief that it's over, and my brain isn't going to give me the constant round of "You should work on [thing]!" anymore. Nah, the shoulds will switch to something else, but at least it'll be new at first.
Myy May TBR turned out to be more of a suggestion.
- The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
- Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life you Deserve by Drew Afualo
- What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
- Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
- Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I read What Moves the Dead because I managed to read What Feasts at Night. And although I didn't get to The Brides of High Hill, I did reread The Empress of Salt and Fortune and grab When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain on my way to it. :D
( Read more... )
Anyway, happy long weekend, Australians. At least those Australians who get the king's birthday holiday this week. I'm listening to the Classic 100 countdown to not-celebrate. Can we have a republic now, please?
Over the course of about six hours this week, the weather went from "pleasant warm early-summer" to "holy bananas, it is hot and sticky high summer" and I was not emotionally prepared for it. But I am promised thunderstorms today, and I got cucumbers at the farmer's market, and will finish swapping out the cozy linens for the crisp ones, and all of that will help.
( boring financial things )
*
I've only had 1 day of work at the new place, due to holidays and the fact that I was sick for the past 10 days (boo!!!) and asked to postpone my start date by a few days.
But it definitely feels like a level of fancy tech that I've never personally experienced before, with an actual HR department that made sure I'd have all my equipment ready for me on the first day, and a little welcome sign, and some company merch.
There are things I definitely haven't figured out yet, like how to best get to the office to deal with my disability/health issues, especially considering the fact that the laptop I got is much heavier than anticipated (my previous company replaced some of the laptops shortly after I joined and I managed to get in on the deal and get a really great, light computer).
The office itself is really nice, even though the building is sadly in the middle of a construction zone. My previous work was in an extremely central downtown area where you were close to a bunch of greenery and shops and restaurants. This place is tragically kind of isolated in a sea of dust and hazard signs.
I haven't figured out the dynamics of my team/department/org so much yet, but everyone I've met has been nice, and my boss seems to be a pretty great guy, according to reports. He's also been nothing but kind and respectful towards me.
So, overall first day was pretty overwhelming but nice. Tomorrow will be my first day of work-from-home, and I plan to spend most of it reading a ton of documents. And then Tuesday we're having some kind of all-day workshop for the entire team that means I'll need to get super early to the office, even though the workshop will be virtual. But you know, if it wasn't literally my first week I might find a more sensible way to do it, but since I'm extremely new and this seems to be the expectation, I'll be there with bells on lol.
Now, if you start the film knot knowing what it's about, then the first few minutes might let you assume it's a black comedy about suburbia; Gracie, Joe and their children live in the proverbial idyllic white fenced area somewhere in South Carolina, with Gracie (who runs a small scale bakery) coming across as somewhat high strung but popular among her neighbours - and then Elizabeth arrives, only to find an anonymous package at the couple's front door which contains feces. There are some comedy beats throughout the remaining movie, but actually I would classify it as emotional horror. Gracie is still absolutely incapable of admitting she ever did anything wrong, and we get an early taste of her ability to manipulate and achieve emotional control when she comments on her daughter's choice of prom dress: "You're so brave to show your arms! I wouldn't have dared", with the result that of course the poor girl doesn't buy that dress but the one Gracie likes. Elizabeth isn't the film's heroine, either, though in the first half her investigation provides the audience bit by bit with the backstory from various povs via the characters Elizabeth talks to; the movie goes full throttle about what a disturbing and ruthlessly exploitative process an actor working on a role can be if that role isn't a fictional character but a real person. (BTW, of course Portman and Moore don't look much alike, but that only helps enhancing the sense of disquiet as Elizabeth adopts more and more of Gracie's mannerisms, with the scene where Gracie gives Elizabeth a makeover with her own makeup and lipstick being a showcase in point.)
Meanwhile, Joe starts out on a quiet background note when compared to the two women, and then the story shows more and more how messed up not just the start of his relationship with Gracie was but how messed up their present day relationship still is. More than one review described Joe as a thirteen years old still locked in the body of an adult man, and before watching the film I assumed this meant Joe would be characterized as a manchild, but no, that's not what was meant at all. If anything, he's the most reasonably and responsibly acting adult in this film. But emotionally, it becomes clear he's never had the chance to process what happened, not least because his entire life is still built around keeping Gracie happy. He became a father years and years before growing up, and the scene where due to his teenage son for the first time sharing pot with him his quiet and calm facade finally cracks and some of that repressed emotion breaks through is incredibly good and heartbreaking.
Incidentally: making a movie which deals with an adult grooming a kid without getting voyeuristic with a young actor sounds near impossible - but May-December by showing us the aftermath and the long term effect everything had on Joe decades later proves it can be done. At the same time, we do get a visual reminder of just how young he was when Elizabeth gets sent video clips of teenagers auditioning to play Joe. (The audition clips don't show more than them introducing themselves with their name and age.) Elizabeth looks appalled, and the audience might think it's because it hits her how young thirteen really is.... and then a few scenes later, she's on the phone with her producer and tells him these guys are just wrong because they don't look sexy enough. Which tells you something about Elizabeth.
Despite how good this film is - with script, acting and cinematography all outstanding - , I'm not surprised it wasn't a box office success (while getting deservedly criticial praise.) It's hardly a subject lending itself to relaxation, and despite its three leads all being very attractive people, any sexual activity is basically the opposite of fanservice - like I said, it's an emotional horror show. Not something I'll rewatch any time soon, though I am glad I watched it once, and am full of admiration for what it achieves.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
love is an affliction
There are definitely drag king portrayals of Anakin and Obi-Wan in their heyday, possibly including makeouts with each other and/or drag king clones.
Anyone who has seen The Empire Strips Back knows what drag!Luke Skywalker is wearing, and as for Leia -- well, I could insert any number of pictures of people doing Leia drag, in any number of costumes, and she’s not even royalty in this galaxy. Who even knows how many hotass drag kings lust after Han’s gender, too.
It was pretty good. (Spoilers)
It's based on a novel series and felt like it, not necessarily in a bad way. It had a bit more graphic violence & gore than I wanted to see, and a major part of the mystery they're investigating is highly disturbing, especially if you have claustrophobia.Matthew Goode's character falls into the "brilliant asshole" type of detective, which I'm bored with, but Goode played it well and there were signs that he cares a little beneath his assholish exterior. I liked the rest of the team: Rose, Hardy, but especially Akram. I loved Akram!
Good to see Mark Bonnar again. :D
Mystery-wise? Meh. I think I'm too jaded. I had the whodunnit figured out early and could guess at why they did it, despite some major details kept until the final reveals. I'm always bothered by elaborate revenge schemes that involve sizable infrastructure and investment, and though the show leaned heavily into the disturbing atmosphere of it, I could never shake my feeling of "oh puhlease." At least there was some explanation for how they happened to have such things lying around, but I kept wondering about their electricity bills... But the thing that bugged me the most was that it took 4 years for Merritt to figure it out. Really? When she had literally nothing else to do?
Mehness about the mystery aside... I'd watch another season of it should there be one. Mainly for Akram. But also because I'm curious about the unsolved shooting that is probably going to lead to a major corruption scandal because these things usually do. And it was fun to see Edinburgh.
For something completely different in tone, I started watching the Japanese series Inheritance Detective | 相続探偵 (2025), also on Netflix, because it stars Akaso Eiji, who played Adachi in Cherry Magic. I've only watched one episode so far but I enjoyed it enough to keep watching. It has the adapted-from-a-manga style and feel, but I'm kind of used to that by now.
After a groupwatch of it, I'm rewatching the Korean BL Love Tractor | 트랙터는 사랑을 싣고 (2023). It's short (8 episodes of ~25 minutes each) and sweet, with humor and the right amount of seriousness. Great for escapist distraction.
New promo pics are out for upcoming The Truth 3 Bai Yu costumes. (Don't ask me. But compare it to Liu Yuning's look for the same case.) (IDEK) I feel like this season the show figured out half of the fun for the audience is seeing them dressed up in outlandish costumes and decided to run with it. (I don't think anything will top the pirate look, though.)
What a wasted opportunity.
I'm glad I went, though, for all its wasted opportunities and long-winded metaphor-straining speeches and a prerecorded speech from a chancellor that included a plug to sign up for the alumni association while detailing its many features. My sister in law E. and older brother J. seemed happy about it, and I'll know I was willing to make an effort to show up.
Anyways, in about a month to six weeks, I'll be getting a new roof on the house. Poor Blues will be a wreck, but I don't know where I can really take him so he doesn't have to deal with the noise. I didn't have him when I did the kitchen remodel/addition, and Olive was the chillest cat you could ever have and she was fine with the construction (she literally slept through jackhammering my old concrete back stairs out), but my little sick, decrepit old man Blues will NOT do well in this situation. Home ownership sucks sometimes, so much.
I've been doing small things sporadically here and there--a tiny bit of writing, a bit of reading, lots of watching things. It doesn't feel like I ever accomplish much of anything; some days, the side effects are just awful enough that I don't really have the wherewithal to get much done. I'm trying to do accountability buddies with
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I *have* been watching things on TV, though--I signed up for a couple months of Disney and Max so I could watch a couple shows there, even though I couldn't really afford it. But the most important one to me was Andor, and so I can't regret spending the money.
Andor season 2 was just...wow. Holy crap. SO FUCKING GOOD. I mean, I can always find things to quibble with or critique, but when something is that amazing, it's just easy to handwave the details. What an incredible series, what an incredible season, what an incredible showcase for good writing and real production values instead of plastic manufactured crap filmed in that giant egg thing they call the volume. The costumes, the sets, the acting, it's all astounding and adult in the best way. I want to talk more at length about it, but I'm still digesting it all, and I need to sit down and rewatch it again, really take it in now that I know where it's going.
While I had HBO Max (or just max or whatever the fuck it's called), I figured I'd try The Pitt, even though I swore off hospital/medical shows a long time ago (I think anyone who knows my history, especially with regards to my sister's death, knows why). But I couldn't escape it on tumblr, and so somehow ended up deciding to give it a whirl, and...well, it is definitely as good as most people say. I do hate the medical show thing where everything has to be ramped up to 11, like, regular medicine in an emergency setting isn't dramatic enough, no, we have to have a mass casualty event. Okay.
I liked most of the characters, and while I've never cared about Noah Wyle, I will say that as Dr. Robby, he was much more appealing to me: I simply can't resist the broken, damaged, compassionate, competent guy who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, fuck my life. And also, *of course* I fall for the piping hot mess of a dude that is Langdon--he has a total WWII Bucky thing going on with his looks (tell me he couldn't be Bucky's double in First Avenger), so it just figures. I *had* to go for the guy with Big Problems who's a little bit of an asshole underneath the really good doctor veneer. I absolutely loathe Santos, every minute with her was torture, and I couldn't stand Javadi, either, with her perpetually wide eyes and grimaced mouth. They are both awful. Lest this sound like I just hate women characters, everyone else I loved, especially Mohan and McKay and Collins and OMG Dana. I adore Dana, I am really hoping she's coming back. And Dr. Ellis, I think was her name? at the end there, please tell me she's going to be front and center next season. It's funny, too, that I despised Shawn Hatosy after Southland, like, he was just the *worst* character ever and so obnoxious that it seemed like it had to be because of the actor, so color me shocked that I kinda...love him? on this show as Abbot. Very weird.
After Andor, I went over to Netflix to find something mindless and soft to watch, and checked out Mike Shur's latest show with Ted Danson, A Man on the Inside. It was very cute, but I couldn't get over the fact that this retirement center, which was very much like my dad's luxurious retirement center (in that it had the same apartment-->assisted living/memory care-->nursing facility progression structure), had only 100 residents and all those incredible amenities. Like, there is just no way to run something that incredible (it made my dad's place look like a dump) with so few residents, especially in the middle of downtown San Francisco. It would cost like $10,000 a week. It's a charming show, but I just could not stop thinking about the financial structure the whole time I watched. But if you're looking for something soft and short, it's a good show, especially if you enjoyed The Good Place.
And as so many people are, I'm enjoying the hell out of Murderbot. I really side-eyed the casting of ASkars as SecUnit, but I have to say, his inherent weirdness and goofiness is really turning out to be an asset. Some of the changes to the stories threw me a bit, but when I went back and rewatched the eps knowing what the changes were, it felt a little less jarring, and now the show really feels like it's hitting its stride. I am excited about Friday nights! I love the casting for Dr. Mensah and of course, the glimpses of Sanctuary Moon are just the fucking best. And anytime John Cho is on my TV is a good time.
I plan on going, and it's feeling a bit like it's under protest.
One can nitpick (for example, it's not clear to me what the difference between what Bramble the Dyrad is by the end of the duology and what the fairy servant is, to put it as unspoilery as possible), but nothing that takes away from this thoroughly enjoyable duology of stories. And given the daily news horror, they were very welcome distractions indeed.
Speaking of entertaining distractions: Sirens on Netflix is a five episodes miniseries based on a play, both written by Molly Brown Metzler,), which strikes me as unusual (plays usually ending up as movies), though some googling after watching the series which brought me to reviews of the originial play (titled Elemeno Pea), I found the review descriptions of the play made it clear there were enough differences for the play now to feel like a first draft. The miniseries stars Meghann Fahy, Milly Alcock and Julianne Moore, and a lot of gorgeous costumes. (Also Kevin Bacon as Julianne Moore's husband.) At first I thought it would be another entry in the "eat the rich" genre, but no, not really. The premise: Our heroine and central character is Devon (Fahy), who is overwhelmed with work, an alcoholic father in the early stages of dementia, and her own past alcoholism (she's barely six months sober), and when after an SOS all she gets from younger sister Simone is an basket full of fruits, she impulsviely goes to the island for the superrich where Simone now works as PA for Michaela (Moore) to have it out with her sister. However, once she's there her anger is soon distracted by the fact Michaela/Kiki (as Simone is allowed to call her) comes across like a cult leader to her, and Simone's relationship with her boss has zero boundaries. The general narrative tone of the entire miniseries is black comedy, though as the Michaela and the audience discover both Simone and Devon have horroundous backstory trauma in their childhood and youth, said backstory trauma isn't played for laughs. The three main performances are terrific, with Julianne Moore having a ball coming across as intensely charismatic and creepy without technically doing anything wrong (so you get both why Devon is weirded out and why Simone seems to worship her), while Milly Alcock, whom I had previously only seen as young Rhaenyra in House of Dragon, also excells both as Simone in Devoted Lieutenant mode and with what's underneath showing up more and more. Meghann Fahy I hadn't seen in anything previously but she's wonderful here, no matter whether chewing someone out or trying to hold it together while things around her get ever more bizarre. Of the supporting cast, the most standout is Felix Solis as Jose, the house manager and general factotum. The fact that the staff hates Simone (who hands down Michaela's orders and is therefore loathed as the taskmaster) is a running gag through the series and gets an ironic pay off at the end, though again, this is not another entry in the "eat the rich" genre. Most of all it strikes me as a comedy of manners, and of course the setting - the island which in the play is Martha's Vineyard but in the miniseries has a fictional name - allows for some great landscaping in addition to everyone dressed up gorgeously. All in all, not something that will change your life, but immensely entertaining to watch, and everyone's fates at the end feel narratively earned.
In other news, while my sister in law E. and my brother J. are planning on going to Cancún, I somehow doubt they're at all interested in visiting the Chicxulub crater. Some people just don't know how to have a good time.
( May posts )
Thanks to everyone who posted. Here's a check-in poll to tell us what you've been doing:
In the last month, I
called one of my senators
10 (47.6%)
called my other senator
10 (47.6%)
called my congressmember
6 (28.6%)
called my governor
0 (0.0%)
called my mayor, state rep, or other local official
2 (9.5%)
did get-out-the-vote work, such as postcarding or phone banking
0 (0.0%)
voted
1 (4.8%)
sent a postcard/email/letter/fax to a government official or agency
9 (42.9%)
went to a protest
3 (14.3%)
attended an in-person activist group
2 (9.5%)
went to a town hall
0 (0.0%)
participated in phone or online training
0 (0.0%)
donated money to a cause
13 (61.9%)
worked for a campaign
1 (4.8%)
did textbanking/phonebanking
0 (0.0%)
took care of myself
12 (57.1%)
not a US citizen, but worked in solidarity in my community
1 (4.8%)
did something else (tell us about it in comments)
3 (14.3%)
committed to action in the coming month
5 (23.8%)
As always, everyone is free to make posts about any issues and actions they think the comm should know about. You can also drop some information into a comment to our sticky post if you'd like the mods to do it.
If you're looking for information on anything else, you can use our tags to check for any ongoing actions or resources relevant to the issues you care about. I try to keep the tag list up-to-date. If you need a tag added, you can DM me.
Wheel of Time cancelled: a pity. I was only so so about it in the first season, grew to like it in the second, and was impressed by the third. Where it had felt like starting out on a generic fantasy pattern (heroes called to quest, evil dark overlords and minions wrecking the land), it had truly become its own unique thing. Yes, I could still read the books, but I osmosed that many of the things I liked best about the tv version are in fact different to the books (for example, unless I osmosed wrongly, Rand is the clear main character in the books, while if there is any lead on tv, it's Moraine, Liandrin is a simple Evil McEvil villainess in the book where in the tv version she has backstory and complicated feelings, and "more complicated" is true for other villains as well, Moraine's sister Alvaere (spelling?), wonderfully played by Lindsay Duncan, only exists as a name in the books and her relationship with Moraine not at all, and the books have only same sex subtext where the show has main text, etc.). I wanted to follow this specific version of the tale, and now I won't be able to.
(Also, I'm reminded of how annoying I always found back in the day and sometimes years later when B5 and DS9 were played out against each other; I loved both, and refused to play that game, and interaction with other fans was tricky if you wanted discussions of one only to to come across rants about the other. It's not that I love Rings of Power, but I do like it, and if it was difficult already to come across interesting meta, now there will be additional bile blaming it on a note of "why wasn't this cancelled instead".)
The Mouse channel put up Captain America: Brave New World on its streaming service. I hadn't bothered to see it in the cinema after getting only discouraging noises, and while sometimes I come across media loathed by most which I love or at least like, this wasn't the case here. It had some elements I liked, but simply wasn't very good. I do wonder whether Captain America: The Winter Soldier is for the MCU what Star Trek: Wrath of Khan was for decades for the ST franchise - to wit, the movie most of fandom adores and loves best and which subsequently gets imitated over and over to the detriment of the results because they don't succeed in creating something of equal value and the repeated tropes get less convincing the more they're repeated. In the MCU case, subsequent attempts to combine 70s style political thriller with the superhero formula included the dreadful Secret Invasion which everyone seems to silently agree never to have happened since it's been ignored by the rest of the franchise, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which was decidedly mixed in quality and result (though definitely better than Secret Invasion). Some short observations why despite having good actors and some good ideas, Brave New World just didn't stick the landing (imo, as always) in its attempt to recreate Winter Soldier: ( are spoilery. )
Doctor Who ?.08: Reality War: Which felt at times like RTD throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks, at times like (great) trolling, and at times was surprisingly touching giving everything else. ( Spoilery comments await )
***
Peter David the writer died. Back in the 1990s, I loved reading most of his Star Trek novels, especially but by no means exclusively Imzadi and Q-Squared. (I haven't reread them in decades by now, and have no idea whether they would still hold up, but I remember the reading pleasure they gave me, and how they long before the internet provided me with online fanfic showed how a story can enhance and deepen characterisation as given by a tv show.) On the B5 side of things, he contributed two episodes, including Soul Mates in season 2, which is still one of my all time favourites, and in it he created who is definitely my favourite one episode only on Babylon 5 character, Timov. (His B5 books were more of a mixed affair, but this is not the place to repeat my problems with the Centauri trilogy and its (lack of) worldbuilding.) If a writer is able to gift you with characters that remain with you for the rest of your life, that is more than many of us will ever achieve, so, hail and farewell, Peter David.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Hondo Ohnaka
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Hondo Ohnaka, Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Winter Soldier AU, Inspired by Fanart, Not a Superhero AU
Summary:
Hondo finds Obi-Wan frozen in carbonite and decides that he is worth more than the bounty on his head.
Obi-Wan is discomfited to learn what has been happening in the galaxy since he's been out of commission, but not nearly as discomfited as he is by finding out what his erstwhile padawan has been doing.
Two chapters of a Winter Soldier AU.
I just went back to check to be sure, and somewhere between the washer and the dryer, it got misplaced without leaving the laundry room, because that's where I found it. Someone had tossed it into the garbage bin - not even hanging it over the sink, but tossing it out entirely, which has me irritated on the general principle of throwing out a good hand towel being a bad idea because hey, free towel.
It's also got me relieved because I again know where my towel is. I couldn't well go hitchhiking otherwise.
Fandom: The Blue Caftan (2022)
Music: Your Song by Elton John
Summary: How wonderful life is while you're in the world.
Notes: Premiered at
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Warnings: major character death
AO3 | Tumblr
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Fandom: 双兔 | Soul Sisters (2024)
Music: Can't Help Falling in Love by Kacey Musgraves
Summary: 'some things are meant to be'
Notes: Premiered at
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Warnings: quick cuts and flashing lights
AO3 | bsky | DW | tumblr | YouTube
For this season we've got Lux, The Well, The Story & The Engine and The Interstellar Song Contest so I'd still say I loved it as a whole even though the end wasn't great. But on to the spoilery part!
( I don't even know why I'm cutting when this was all over the newspaper headlines in Britain and here in Australia, but at least I can say I didn't spoil anyone ... )
Anyway, whatever happens next I await it with interest!
Keeping to that tunnel vision of one word at a time, no matter how good the word happens to be or how much I like it, is where I'm at. I'm likely going to opt to stay in New York for most of the vacation my parents planned for upstate and that's only in part because I'm not sure how I feel about always automatically being included. It's a lot of complicated feelings, and what's not complicated is it's easier to keep writing when I'm in my apartment. All my stuff is here. My notes, my research materials. Also the practical momentum of sitting down and getting the words out.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Fandom: 风声 | The Message (2020)
Music: 5 Out Of 6 by Dessa
Summary: 'I ain't afraid of it'
Notes: Premiered at
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Warnings: quick cuts and flashing lights, old film effects (sepia filter and random dark spots and lines) in some footage, violence, major character death
AO3 | bsky | DW | tumblr | YouTube
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Characters: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
TV Series: Teen Wolf
Music: I Don't Even Care About You by MISSIO
Length: 1:57
Streaming/download at: DW | Tumblr
I know I have my own set of strengths and weaknesses, and I know I'd aim for a more practical solution to the problem of how to move around a fully inflated exercise ball. Like keeping it in one location. The pump's a far more modular device.
Also of note is that E. told G. - not in confidence, not in secret - that she wasn't interested in coming to Friday night dinners anymore. She didn't feel up to it. I know she's pregnant right now, but even before she was expecting, she was pulling the exact same excuse of having a long week at work. She's been using that excuse for several years now, and I'd figured not every week could be that long. I'd apparently figured right. At the same time, it's nice to know that if she's not making the effort, I don't have to worry about it. I'd had a small bit of concern my attempt at polite behavior - attentive listening, eye contact, not interrupting, waiting patiently for people to finish their sentences - had sent the wrong message, what with being told that she probably found it intimidating. Maybe she did, and thinking it's just on me is something where I can't afford that level of vanity. This part isn't me thinking, this part is me realizing: no matter what I do, at some point she needs to make the effort. And G. told me she told E. that at some point, she needed to make the effort, and E. didn't seem all that interested.