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Babylon 5 fic for Mismatched Tropes Flash
May. 29th, 2025 02:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sholioThe Mismatched Tropes Flash exchange had author reveals while I was traveling, and I wrote:
Last Minute Save (Vir & Londo, 1600 words)
In which Vir gets drugged and almost kidnapped/intergalactically trafficked, and Londo gets to be a Big Damn Hero.
p.s. Incredibly random Tumblr poll on whether Centauri or Narns have a higher body temperature FOR SCIENCE. (And fic.) If you do not have a Tumblr account, feel free to provide opinions in a comment.
Last Minute Save (Vir & Londo, 1600 words)
In which Vir gets drugged and almost kidnapped/intergalactically trafficked, and Londo gets to be a Big Damn Hero.
p.s. Incredibly random Tumblr poll on whether Centauri or Narns have a higher body temperature FOR SCIENCE. (And fic.) If you do not have a Tumblr account, feel free to provide opinions in a comment.
oh, hi, aten't dead
May. 28th, 2025 08:38 pmwaterswordI have been staggering through the past few weeks, holding myself together with string and duct tape, and it is finally the Cottagecore Week.
I have finished a sashiko patch on a pair of jeans and I am very proud of myself, as well as the first of the embroidered numbers for my front & back doors, and I have solved the problem of how to print patterns onto stabilizer (use the library makerspace printer from a USB). The mending circle at the local "sustainable fashion collective" (it's a secondhand store with some mending/tailoring services) was fun and I'll go back when the bus schedule allows. Dropout.tv and the 1995 Pride & Prejudice miniseries have been my companions as I sew this week, and they are both great for that purpose. I think I will move on to North & South and perhaps Horrible Histories next. Is Shakespeare & Hathaway fun?
The knotweed in the garden has been beaten back from the path to the shed, and the asparagus is coming up spindly and feathery (I really hope that they will thicken over time, I will eat a thin asparagus spear without complaining but I love asparagus with some heft); no trace of the rhubarb, which I'm kind of upset about, but seeds are always chancy, and I'm waiting to see what happened with the watermelon and sunflowers, now that I've staked the peas. Surely something will come up? The gladiolus in the front garden are looking more promising, although I don't know what happened to everything else. I have proof that someone in the Parks Department exists, and has just been ignoring my emails (a coworker knows the parks director, and emailed her, and the person I have been trying to get in touch with answered when their boss was on the chain, but no luck since, so this is progress but not by much).
I have been wallowing in books, and can enthusiastically join the chorus of those of you who have been shrieking delightedly about Robert Jackson Bennett's latest, A Drop of Corruption, it's so good, please discuss in the comments; and I finally got my hands on Katherine Addison's The Tomb of Dragons, ditto.
Only One Bed meme
May. 27th, 2025 05:09 pmsholioStolen / respectfully borrowed from rionaleonhart, a Tumblr meme now removed from its native ecosystem and repotted on DW [ETA: now tweaked a bit]:
Give me any two (or more) characters from a canon I’m familiar with, and I’ll tell you how they would cope in an ‘oh no, there’s only one bed’ scenario!
What you get might be anything from brief headcanons/thoughts to a small fic, depending on how much I have to say about those particular characters.
(Currently traveling, staying overnight on the road, would enjoy some fun distraction.)
Update: Based on how the comments are going, I edited the instructions slightly to hopefully bend the requests a little more towards characters from the same canon. (If you want two characters from different canons, feel free to ask for it - there are no wrong answers, it's very open-ended - but I'm really only going to be able to do headcanons for those, as I can't easily write crossovers, and I'm hoping for some of the other kind of prompts too!)
rionaleonhart, a Tumblr meme now removed from its native ecosystem and repotted on DW [ETA: now tweaked a bit]:Give me any two (or more) characters from a canon I’m familiar with, and I’ll tell you how they would cope in an ‘oh no, there’s only one bed’ scenario!
What you get might be anything from brief headcanons/thoughts to a small fic, depending on how much I have to say about those particular characters.
(Currently traveling, staying overnight on the road, would enjoy some fun distraction.)
Update: Based on how the comments are going, I edited the instructions slightly to hopefully bend the requests a little more towards characters from the same canon. (If you want two characters from different canons, feel free to ask for it - there are no wrong answers, it's very open-ended - but I'm really only going to be able to do headcanons for those, as I can't easily write crossovers, and I'm hoping for some of the other kind of prompts too!)
what a find by O. G.
May. 27th, 2025 08:57 pmmusesfoolI slept through for a full 7 hours last night! right up until my alarm went off, actually, without waking up once!
I also got some fantastic videos of Baby Miss L going nuts about TATOES and BROCCOLI and also some mouse game she plays on my sister's tablet. She is such a character! <333
I haven't started the new season of Poker Face or Andor yet - I am still in HGTV mode. No emotional investment, and it satisfies both my nosiness about other people's houses and my need to be judgy about other people's aesthetic taste without hurting anyone's feelings.
Every time someone says they want to go BOLD with color and their palette is black and white I want to punch them. (I'm not saying black and white can't be a bold choice, just that it's not a bold COLOR choice.) Everyone wants POPS of COLOR but then the color turns out to be greige. I just...find it wearisome sometimes. I get it if you are doing a quick refresh in order to sell, since allegedly neutrals sell better? But these are people supposedly doing their "forever homes" or their "dream homes" so why not pick something interesting? At least a little bit? In the downstairs powder room??? I'm begging you, please!
Ahem.
If you asked me what my preferred home decor aesthetic is, I would say beachy with lots of blues and greens in various shades, and okay, a lot of white, a little gray, and some occasional wood or wicker accents. Definitely would want hardwood floors (or LVP that looked like hardwood). I'd want a large zero-access shower with a built-in bench with some fancy tile, and I wouldn't want to waste space on a tub (or double sinks, since I live alone), but I would like more linen/towel storage.
I would obviously want a large chef's kitchen, with FULL SIZE appliances and a big range - I don't go for that countertop stovetop and wall oven set up, I'd want a bigass stove with six burners - and I certainly wouldn't put it (or the sink) on an island. I'd like a large butcher block work surface and a breakfast nook with an eastern exposure, but don't need a formal dining room or a ginormous island. I do like white upper cabinets, probably with reeded glass doors, and then a color on the lower cabinets - a cobalt blue, maybe, or a deep teal.
The place I might go a little modern/industrial/maybe even avant garde would be in the light fixtures. I have seen some WILD chandeliers and lighting options on these shows and some of them are gorgeous.
Obviously I worked a lot of this out in the time between going into contract on my apartment and finally closing, so I was able to pick stuff out that all kind of went together, because I absolutely understand being a renter for years and not really being able to put your stamp on a place. (all the people who already live in their own houses who have no sense of their own style, though - they kind of baffle me, because didn't they paint/decorate their house? I get maybe not knowing what your architectural style is but these are mainly people in their 30s and older - they should have some sense of what they like, shouldn't they, even if they can't pin it to a specific style?)
Anyway, I don't need people to do their own homes in my preferred style, and some of these homes turn out to be gorgeous, but it would be nice if everyone wasn't doing the same things across several different home renovation shows. I guess HGTV has a bit of a house style? But if you've watched any of it, you can see why Keith and Evan from Bargain Block are my favorites - they actually do a lot of fun different things (or they used to, anyway), where even if it isn't something I'd choose, it still has a strong sense of style.
*
I also got some fantastic videos of Baby Miss L going nuts about TATOES and BROCCOLI and also some mouse game she plays on my sister's tablet. She is such a character! <333
I haven't started the new season of Poker Face or Andor yet - I am still in HGTV mode. No emotional investment, and it satisfies both my nosiness about other people's houses and my need to be judgy about other people's aesthetic taste without hurting anyone's feelings.
Every time someone says they want to go BOLD with color and their palette is black and white I want to punch them. (I'm not saying black and white can't be a bold choice, just that it's not a bold COLOR choice.) Everyone wants POPS of COLOR but then the color turns out to be greige. I just...find it wearisome sometimes. I get it if you are doing a quick refresh in order to sell, since allegedly neutrals sell better? But these are people supposedly doing their "forever homes" or their "dream homes" so why not pick something interesting? At least a little bit? In the downstairs powder room??? I'm begging you, please!
Ahem.
If you asked me what my preferred home decor aesthetic is, I would say beachy with lots of blues and greens in various shades, and okay, a lot of white, a little gray, and some occasional wood or wicker accents. Definitely would want hardwood floors (or LVP that looked like hardwood). I'd want a large zero-access shower with a built-in bench with some fancy tile, and I wouldn't want to waste space on a tub (or double sinks, since I live alone), but I would like more linen/towel storage.
I would obviously want a large chef's kitchen, with FULL SIZE appliances and a big range - I don't go for that countertop stovetop and wall oven set up, I'd want a bigass stove with six burners - and I certainly wouldn't put it (or the sink) on an island. I'd like a large butcher block work surface and a breakfast nook with an eastern exposure, but don't need a formal dining room or a ginormous island. I do like white upper cabinets, probably with reeded glass doors, and then a color on the lower cabinets - a cobalt blue, maybe, or a deep teal.
The place I might go a little modern/industrial/maybe even avant garde would be in the light fixtures. I have seen some WILD chandeliers and lighting options on these shows and some of them are gorgeous.
Obviously I worked a lot of this out in the time between going into contract on my apartment and finally closing, so I was able to pick stuff out that all kind of went together, because I absolutely understand being a renter for years and not really being able to put your stamp on a place. (all the people who already live in their own houses who have no sense of their own style, though - they kind of baffle me, because didn't they paint/decorate their house? I get maybe not knowing what your architectural style is but these are mainly people in their 30s and older - they should have some sense of what they like, shouldn't they, even if they can't pin it to a specific style?)
Anyway, I don't need people to do their own homes in my preferred style, and some of these homes turn out to be gorgeous, but it would be nice if everyone wasn't doing the same things across several different home renovation shows. I guess HGTV has a bit of a house style? But if you've watched any of it, you can see why Keith and Evan from Bargain Block are my favorites - they actually do a lot of fun different things (or they used to, anyway), where even if it isn't something I'd choose, it still has a strong sense of style.
*
Asako Yuzuki in Japanese (25 May, Carriageworks, Sydney Writers Festival)
May. 28th, 2025 12:34 amlittlerhymesOriginally this was to be a conversation between Asako Yuzuki (author of "Butter") and Sayaka Murata, which I think would have been a fascinating conversation as they both have such interesting perspectives on being a woman and an outsider in Japanese society, and they are also friends. Unfortunately Sayaka had to pull out of the festival, and so this became a solo event, with Junko Hirabayashi as the MC.
The event was almost entirely in Japanese, with an automated translation supplied via a screen at the venue and also on our phones. Although good in theory, the translations were riddled with errors ("the translation said you DID breastfeed while drinking," one person told her in the Q&A section, as she laughed and said "no, no!") and very slow. Yuzuki spoke at what seemed like a fairly normal pace but it rapidly became evident the translations were way behind. After the event wrapped up, I kept my phone screen open and read the remaining translations for the next 20 minutes - that's how far behind it was by the end. So far from a perfect solution.
Despite the guesswork and delays involved in reading the translations, I thought it was a really interesting session. Please take these notes with a grain of salt, due to the aforementioned translation issues:
( notes )
The event was almost entirely in Japanese, with an automated translation supplied via a screen at the venue and also on our phones. Although good in theory, the translations were riddled with errors ("the translation said you DID breastfeed while drinking," one person told her in the Q&A section, as she laughed and said "no, no!") and very slow. Yuzuki spoke at what seemed like a fairly normal pace but it rapidly became evident the translations were way behind. After the event wrapped up, I kept my phone screen open and read the remaining translations for the next 20 minutes - that's how far behind it was by the end. So far from a perfect solution.
Despite the guesswork and delays involved in reading the translations, I thought it was a really interesting session. Please take these notes with a grain of salt, due to the aforementioned translation issues:
( notes )
at the knees with a cutter
May. 25th, 2025 08:42 pmmusesfoolThe bbq was fun, even if the weather was chilly and rainy. We saw a huge double rainbow after it rained, and one of them was the most vivid and long-lasting rainbow I ever saw. it was pretty amazing.
Baby Miss L had a grand old time her in personal ball pit, and dancing to both the 90s playlist (it was a 90s-themed party) and later to her own favorite Elmo songs. She was really vibing with Pantera and Alice in Chains - that child is going to be in the mosh pit at the club before you know it.
In other news, Alyssa tried the confetti cookies and really liked them. This morning, she texted me like, "this is exactly what they're supposed to taste like!" Anthony and my sister also liked them, so I guess it's just me, but thy were disgustingly sweet to me. *hands* Trish also liked the brownies, so that worked out too! I will definitely have to make the brownies again, so I can taste them. My sister made ice cream cone cupcakes for the party, which I guess she used to make for the kids to take to school for their birthday's back in the day, so there was a nostalgia factor involved. They were good, though I still like my chocolate cupcake recipe best. *g*
Now I'm watching the Mets, though really, I'm listening to the local radio broadcast because good lord the ESPN broadcast is the worst. Simply terrible in all aspects.
*
Baby Miss L had a grand old time her in personal ball pit, and dancing to both the 90s playlist (it was a 90s-themed party) and later to her own favorite Elmo songs. She was really vibing with Pantera and Alice in Chains - that child is going to be in the mosh pit at the club before you know it.
In other news, Alyssa tried the confetti cookies and really liked them. This morning, she texted me like, "this is exactly what they're supposed to taste like!" Anthony and my sister also liked them, so I guess it's just me, but thy were disgustingly sweet to me. *hands* Trish also liked the brownies, so that worked out too! I will definitely have to make the brownies again, so I can taste them. My sister made ice cream cone cupcakes for the party, which I guess she used to make for the kids to take to school for their birthday's back in the day, so there was a nostalgia factor involved. They were good, though I still like my chocolate cupcake recipe best. *g*
Now I'm watching the Mets, though really, I'm listening to the local radio broadcast because good lord the ESPN broadcast is the worst. Simply terrible in all aspects.
*
Recent Reading
May. 25th, 2025 08:27 amsanguinityJashar Awan, Every Monday Mabel (2025)
Children's picture book about Mabel's weekly ritual of getting ready for the breathlessy-awaited, much-longed-for visit of the garbage truck. Mabel's family is indulgent of but largely indifferent to her fannish interest -- but all across the city, other small children are also devoted fans of the garbage truck...
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
It's always odd to come late to a cornerstone of its genre. There are so many elements that were presumably fresh at the time of first publication, but which now ping as much-worn if well-beloved tropes. (In hindsight, it seems pretty clear to me that Stephen King was, directly or indirectly, influenced by Shirley Jackson.) And yet for all that the horror aspects of the story were defanged by my having first encountered them elsewhere, I enjoyed this story immensely. The characters are richly and deftly portrayed, and Nell is already one of my favorite faulty narrators, as her story unfolds into multiple layers of self-invention, misdirection, and supernatural influence. There's a whole bunch of chewy stuff here about why and how Nell in particular was targeted by the house, and especially the house's offer of home and belonging while simultaneously guaranteeing she would never know the same.
Note togaronne, who asked elsewhere if Theodora is canonically queer in the original English: yes, she is. It's discreet (e.g., the text refers to Dora's "friend" instead of her "girlfriend"), but for anyone who is familiar with the coded language that used to predominate for queer relationships, the implication that she's a lesbian is unambiguous.
Lois McMaster Bujold, Komarr (1998)
Read-aloud withgrrlpup; first-read for her and re-read for me.
I remember being underwhelmed with this one the first time through, and it's true, all the stuff with Tien is just... awful. (It's not bad writing! The character is just numblingly sloggingly awful, exactly as he's meant to be. I appreciate the depiction of the dynamics of getting caught in an awful marriage, but that doesn't make the experience of reading about him any more pleasant.) Sadly, even after he exits the book, he still haunts the narrative. But I do love Ekaterin, and the Vorthyses, and a bunch of minor characters -- the two accountants, while getting only a half-dozen pages each, were great favorites of Grrlpup. And the climax is glorious; Miles is correct to be smitten with Ekaterin.
( politics of occupation )
Children's picture book about Mabel's weekly ritual of getting ready for the breathlessy-awaited, much-longed-for visit of the garbage truck. Mabel's family is indulgent of but largely indifferent to her fannish interest -- but all across the city, other small children are also devoted fans of the garbage truck...
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
It's always odd to come late to a cornerstone of its genre. There are so many elements that were presumably fresh at the time of first publication, but which now ping as much-worn if well-beloved tropes. (In hindsight, it seems pretty clear to me that Stephen King was, directly or indirectly, influenced by Shirley Jackson.) And yet for all that the horror aspects of the story were defanged by my having first encountered them elsewhere, I enjoyed this story immensely. The characters are richly and deftly portrayed, and Nell is already one of my favorite faulty narrators, as her story unfolds into multiple layers of self-invention, misdirection, and supernatural influence. There's a whole bunch of chewy stuff here about why and how Nell in particular was targeted by the house, and especially the house's offer of home and belonging while simultaneously guaranteeing she would never know the same.
Note to
garonne, who asked elsewhere if Theodora is canonically queer in the original English: yes, she is. It's discreet (e.g., the text refers to Dora's "friend" instead of her "girlfriend"), but for anyone who is familiar with the coded language that used to predominate for queer relationships, the implication that she's a lesbian is unambiguous.Lois McMaster Bujold, Komarr (1998)
Read-aloud with
grrlpup; first-read for her and re-read for me.I remember being underwhelmed with this one the first time through, and it's true, all the stuff with Tien is just... awful. (It's not bad writing! The character is just numblingly sloggingly awful, exactly as he's meant to be. I appreciate the depiction of the dynamics of getting caught in an awful marriage, but that doesn't make the experience of reading about him any more pleasant.) Sadly, even after he exits the book, he still haunts the narrative. But I do love Ekaterin, and the Vorthyses, and a bunch of minor characters -- the two accountants, while getting only a half-dozen pages each, were great favorites of Grrlpup. And the climax is glorious; Miles is correct to be smitten with Ekaterin.
( politics of occupation )
Weekly proof of life: the media intake report is long enough to make a post
May. 25th, 2025 11:12 amumadoshiI'm surprisingly annoyed that Mozilla is killing Pocket, given that my personal use case for it is "that's where I throw unread links that I realistically know I'll almost certainly never actually dig up again, thus satisfying the itch of 'but I need to know where it is in case I suddenly have a desperate need to read it'". I've backed up my Pocket data and will presumably never look at it again, but what will I use as bottomless pit now?
Reading: I finished The Incandescent, which was a great read and also a wildly different book from Some Desperate Glory, so hats off to Emily Tesh's range! Now I'm a couple of chapters into Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice.
I'm also still working my way through Jennifer 8 Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.
Watching:scruloose and I are caught up on Murderbot and (until tonight) The Last of Us, and have finished The Pitt, which was, as advertised, fantastic. (Medical shows are so very not my genre that I don't have anything to compare it to; I think the only other one I've seen is Scrubs, manymany years ago.)
I duly read through the trivia section and whatnot on IMDb and saw when season 2 is apparently going to be set, and I think that's more months into the future that the newbie!doctors' ER rotation will last? (Have I successfully absorbed the terms for the various levels of doctors in an ER? No. >.<) That's a bit of an upsetting prospect, since Mel is my favorite (andscruloose's, and probably unsurprising for either of us). But I haven't read much else about the show at this point.
EXCEPT! I did remember that Sarah Kurchak [standard disclaimer: friend] wrote an article about Mel for Time last month, so I've read and can recommend that: "The Pitt’s Dr. Mel King Is a Small but Meaningful Step Forward for Neurodivergence Onscreen".
So now we have one episode left of TLoU, and odds are good we'll shift back to Kingdom for season 2, but Kingdom's seasons are very short, so we'll be back on the "what to watch now?" train relatively soon.
(Wheel of Time fans, I'm so sorry about the show's cancellation. :( On a personal level, I guess it pretty much guarantees that we're not going to go back and resume season 3 from where we drifted off after the first couple of episodes.)
Reading: I finished The Incandescent, which was a great read and also a wildly different book from Some Desperate Glory, so hats off to Emily Tesh's range! Now I'm a couple of chapters into Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice.
I'm also still working my way through Jennifer 8 Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.
Watching:
scruloose and I are caught up on Murderbot and (until tonight) The Last of Us, and have finished The Pitt, which was, as advertised, fantastic. (Medical shows are so very not my genre that I don't have anything to compare it to; I think the only other one I've seen is Scrubs, manymany years ago.)I duly read through the trivia section and whatnot on IMDb and saw when season 2 is apparently going to be set, and I think that's more months into the future that the newbie!doctors' ER rotation will last? (Have I successfully absorbed the terms for the various levels of doctors in an ER? No. >.<) That's a bit of an upsetting prospect, since Mel is my favorite (and
scruloose's, and probably unsurprising for either of us). But I haven't read much else about the show at this point.EXCEPT! I did remember that Sarah Kurchak [standard disclaimer: friend] wrote an article about Mel for Time last month, so I've read and can recommend that: "The Pitt’s Dr. Mel King Is a Small but Meaningful Step Forward for Neurodivergence Onscreen".
So now we have one episode left of TLoU, and odds are good we'll shift back to Kingdom for season 2, but Kingdom's seasons are very short, so we'll be back on the "what to watch now?" train relatively soon.
(Wheel of Time fans, I'm so sorry about the show's cancellation. :( On a personal level, I guess it pretty much guarantees that we're not going to go back and resume season 3 from where we drifted off after the first couple of episodes.)
Babylon 5 fic: Gift
May. 25th, 2025 12:08 amsholioCurrently traveling, but I finished a thing!
I got a prompt on Tumblr earlier this month for a roleswap AU with Londo & G'Kar. I wrote a short ficlet for it a few days ago, then was promptly seized by the urge to write the entire story that goes with it.
Gift on AO3 (2,953 words, Babylon 5, gen)
Mid season four. Narns deliver a gift to G'Kar. He does not appreciate it in the slightest.
(A roleswap AU of sorts, set around the same general time frame as "No Surrender, No Retreat" in canon, in which reconciliation occurs from a completely different and even more fraught direction.)
( 3000-ish words of chains and reluctant h/c )
I got a prompt on Tumblr earlier this month for a roleswap AU with Londo & G'Kar. I wrote a short ficlet for it a few days ago, then was promptly seized by the urge to write the entire story that goes with it.
Gift on AO3 (2,953 words, Babylon 5, gen)
Mid season four. Narns deliver a gift to G'Kar. He does not appreciate it in the slightest.
(A roleswap AU of sorts, set around the same general time frame as "No Surrender, No Retreat" in canon, in which reconciliation occurs from a completely different and even more fraught direction.)
( 3000-ish words of chains and reluctant h/c )
Cooking question/log/notes: meatloaf | black beans
May. 24th, 2025 11:03 amumadoshiFor those who have go-to versions of common things like, say, meatloaf or brownies or curried chickpeas, how many recipes do you try before settling on one? Is there a point when you say "THIS. THIS is my [x]", or do you sometimes try new versions even when you have one you love? (Possibly this is a "once you've actually cooked a lot, you can look at a recipe and have a fairly good idea of what the different seasonings might add up to"?)
(I didn't help enough with any of the meals under the cuts to tag this post with YKYC, alas.)
( meatloaf! (well, meatloaves) )
( belated notes on a batch of black beans a month ago )
(I didn't help enough with any of the meals under the cuts to tag this post with YKYC, alas.)
( meatloaf! (well, meatloaves) )
( belated notes on a batch of black beans a month ago )
makes the one-hand catch
May. 23rd, 2025 10:48 pmmusesfoolI'm so tired of people blowing their deadlines and making it my problem. But at the super last minute, it did finally come together so I was able to log off at 3 pm (it's the first Summer Friday of 2025, and we get to sign off at 2:30 until Labor Day).
My sister is having a birthday bbq tomorrow for my oldest and youngest nieces, who share a birthday, and one requested Smitten Kitchen confetti cookies (even though I told her I found them too sweet) and the other requested brownies (which is why I asked about brownie recipes yesterday - I don't make them often anymore so I don't have a go-to recipe). I couldn't lay hands on dutched cocoa for love or money today, but it turns out that the King Arthur "triple cocoa" or whatever it's called, works in recipes calling for dutched cocoa, and I have that. *hands* But like, nobody even has Hershey's special dark! I was surprised by that. Anyway I ended up making these King Arthur Fudge Brownies and they smell fantastic, though next time I will probably try the microwave to melt the butter instead of doing it on the stove - I did it in a pot on the stove and even on low heat, it got so hot that I had to wait like 30 minutes for it to cool to the temperature required by the recipe (110° - 120°F), so it took a lot longer than I planned for. Other than that, the recipe is really easy. I guess because you beat the cocoa into the eggs, you don't have to worry about the hot butter/sugar mixture scrambling them (you laugh, but that happened to me once with the old mascarpone brownies recipe when I added the melted butter!).
I hope they both enjoy them!
I also bought a banana squishmallow for Baby Miss L, because her response to them has been A++ hilarious every time.
Hopefully the weather tomorrow cooperates. It has rained here so much. Today it rained all morning and then the sun came out late in the afternoon, and then...it poured while the sun was out for a while, and the temperature has lingered in the low 60s. I mean, I'll take the cooler temps for sure, especially at night, but I'm really tired of the rain.
In other news, last night I fell asleep on the couch when I was trying to read, so when I woke up, I decided to just go to bed, and for once, couch sleepy did translate to bed sleepy and I ended up sleeping for almost 10 hours last night! It was glorious! But I don't think I can realistically make myself go to bed at 10:15 every night. *glances at clock* I mean...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
*
My sister is having a birthday bbq tomorrow for my oldest and youngest nieces, who share a birthday, and one requested Smitten Kitchen confetti cookies (even though I told her I found them too sweet) and the other requested brownies (which is why I asked about brownie recipes yesterday - I don't make them often anymore so I don't have a go-to recipe). I couldn't lay hands on dutched cocoa for love or money today, but it turns out that the King Arthur "triple cocoa" or whatever it's called, works in recipes calling for dutched cocoa, and I have that. *hands* But like, nobody even has Hershey's special dark! I was surprised by that. Anyway I ended up making these King Arthur Fudge Brownies and they smell fantastic, though next time I will probably try the microwave to melt the butter instead of doing it on the stove - I did it in a pot on the stove and even on low heat, it got so hot that I had to wait like 30 minutes for it to cool to the temperature required by the recipe (110° - 120°F), so it took a lot longer than I planned for. Other than that, the recipe is really easy. I guess because you beat the cocoa into the eggs, you don't have to worry about the hot butter/sugar mixture scrambling them (you laugh, but that happened to me once with the old mascarpone brownies recipe when I added the melted butter!).
I hope they both enjoy them!
I also bought a banana squishmallow for Baby Miss L, because her response to them has been A++ hilarious every time.
Hopefully the weather tomorrow cooperates. It has rained here so much. Today it rained all morning and then the sun came out late in the afternoon, and then...it poured while the sun was out for a while, and the temperature has lingered in the low 60s. I mean, I'll take the cooler temps for sure, especially at night, but I'm really tired of the rain.
In other news, last night I fell asleep on the couch when I was trying to read, so when I woke up, I decided to just go to bed, and for once, couch sleepy did translate to bed sleepy and I ended up sleeping for almost 10 hours last night! It was glorious! But I don't think I can realistically make myself go to bed at 10:15 every night. *glances at clock* I mean...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Unsent Letters: "Mr Rowl" and Dial "M" for Murder
May. 23rd, 2025 10:49 amsanguinityI wrote two stories for Unsent Letters!
luzula had several great requests, but I knew early on that what I really wanted to do was write my Hervey/Raoul manifesto. Broster has a bit of a trademark in writing just-this-side-of-deniable, surely-that-was-deliberate queer characters and relationships, and Hervey is one of my favorites. The text is unambiguous that he's not straight (he's gay or ace, reader's choice), and as the novel progresses, he is so obviously sweet on Raoul... And not just obvious to us, but to all the characters around him.
( Read more... )
So here we are! If you enjoy bittersweet queer romance with a naval flavor, I invite you to give this a shot -- because of the framing, this story requires absolutely no canon knowledge.
I also picked up a pinch-hit!
I'd never seen the movie, but my library has it streaming on-demand through Kanopy (and it doesn't even count toward your monthly limit!), so we watched it over two nights, and then I downloaded the subtitles file for reference. (A subtitles file is not quite as good as a transcript, because it doesn't usually say who is speaking, let alone give any indication of the action, scene changes, etc. But it can still prove useful nonetheless!)
( Read more... )
I also tried my hand at picking up the other two long-neglected pinch-hits, but hardly any of the requested fandoms were quick-entry. In both cases I was three-quarters of the way through the first novel of six or a 11-hour video game walkthrough, when someone else swooped in and picked up the pinch-hit. I choose to superstitiously believe that in both cases someone swooped in because I was nearly through my canon reading/viewing, and that my attempting to read/watch these canons was my little contribution to the collection opening at last. ;-)
‘Nary a cause for tears’: Queer friendship in the diaries of Admiral Hervey Barrington, R.N. (1772–1833)
"Mr. Rowl" -- D. K. Broster
Raoul des Sablières/Hervey Barrington, Raoul des Sablières/Juliana Forrest
Epistolary, Enemies to Lovers, Bittersweet, Missing Scenes, Canon Compliant, Pining
Teen, No Warnings Apply
9,400 words
If he dies here, that will be his final judgement of me: that I take joy in his suffering.
Were it true, I would be a happier man this night.
luzula had several great requests, but I knew early on that what I really wanted to do was write my Hervey/Raoul manifesto. Broster has a bit of a trademark in writing just-this-side-of-deniable, surely-that-was-deliberate queer characters and relationships, and Hervey is one of my favorites. The text is unambiguous that he's not straight (he's gay or ace, reader's choice), and as the novel progresses, he is so obviously sweet on Raoul... And not just obvious to us, but to all the characters around him.( Read more... )
So here we are! If you enjoy bittersweet queer romance with a naval flavor, I invite you to give this a shot -- because of the framing, this story requires absolutely no canon knowledge.
I also picked up a pinch-hit!
To: 61A Charrington Gardens
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Mark/Margot
Epistolary, Pre-Canon
G, No Archive Warnings Apply
Write M for "Margot, I'm Madly in Love"
I'd never seen the movie, but my library has it streaming on-demand through Kanopy (and it doesn't even count toward your monthly limit!), so we watched it over two nights, and then I downloaded the subtitles file for reference. (A subtitles file is not quite as good as a transcript, because it doesn't usually say who is speaking, let alone give any indication of the action, scene changes, etc. But it can still prove useful nonetheless!)
( Read more... )
I also tried my hand at picking up the other two long-neglected pinch-hits, but hardly any of the requested fandoms were quick-entry. In both cases I was three-quarters of the way through the first novel of six or a 11-hour video game walkthrough, when someone else swooped in and picked up the pinch-hit. I choose to superstitiously believe that in both cases someone swooped in because I was nearly through my canon reading/viewing, and that my attempting to read/watch these canons was my little contribution to the collection opening at last. ;-)