kjc_fans | Member Posts

I'm "at" WisCon this weekend! It's hosted online this year, so I expect to be glue to my computer screen all weekend, but I'm really looking forward to interacting with a bunch of new folks without having to, like, put on pants.

You can still sign up for tickets if you want to attend! It's pay-what-you-want, too.

sunshine_revival is happening in July! More info here!

the-lemonaut made this cute comic about solarpunk and how it needs to be grounded in reality if it's actually going to become reality, and not just another aesthetic.

If you have a personal fic archive, why not join the fan archives directory? (via

smallweb)

And head's up about a "Deprecated Fandoms" Spam Bot that's showing up in fic comments.

( More links under here )

stonepicnicking_okapi

Adlestrop by Edward Thomas

Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

aurumcalendula

Libby now has volume 2 of Meng Xi Shi's Thousands Autumns, so I'll probably end up checking that out once my hold comes through (and it looks like they've added more danmei series too).

Rosmei has released cover art for The Creator's Grace, which hopefully means preorders aren't too far away. I wish I liked the art more - it feels a bit generic to me (it might just be that I'm comparing it to the cool looking art I've seen for the audio drama).

I seem to be bit and miss with novellas at the moment - I'm kinda sad Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang didn't really work for me (especially since I enjoyed their Tensorate novellas), but I did really like The River Has Roots by Amal El- Mohtar.

celli

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celli

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spikedluv

What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: Brandy & Bullets (A Murder, She Wrote Mystery) by Donald Bain, And Justice There is None (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie, All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells, Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells and The Dragon Tamer by Megan Derr.

What I am Currently Reading: A Fountain Filled with Blood (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries) by Julia Spencer-Fleming.

What I Plan to Read Next: Another library book or more Murderbot.

Book 28 of 2025: Brandy & Bullets (A Murder, She Wrote Mystery) (Donald Bain)

I enjoyed this book more than the others. Perhaps because it took place in Cabot Cove? ( spoilers )

This book is the best of the bunch so far, but I'm not sure if that's because the author is becoming more comfortable writing them or because it took place in Cabot Cove, as I mentioned. I'm giving it four hearts.

♥♥♥♥

Book 29 of 2025: And Justice There is None (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) (Deborah Crombie)

I really enjoyed this book. ( spoilers )

I think this series is getting better and better; I'm giving this book five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥

Book 30 of 2025: All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) (Martha Wells)

I wanted to re-read this prior to starting the tv series. It was so good! ( spoilers )

I look forward to the further adventures of Murderbot! I'm giving this novella five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥

Book 31 of 2025: Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries) (Martha Wells)

I didn't have to read this book to start the tv series, but I couldn't resist seeing what Murderbot would do next. I liked it a lot. ( spoilers )

I look forward to seeing what Murderbot does next. I'm giving this novella five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥

Book 32 of 2025: The Dragon Tamer (Megan Derr)

This was a cute little novella. ( spoilers )

I enjoyed this and recommend it if you’re looking for something to do for about a half hour. (I also checked out some of her other books and they look good.) I’m giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥

stonepicnicking_okapi

1. I got a call from a home health agency called Visting Angels. I submitted my resume to their website and went to a CPR class on Thursday to get up-to-date credentials. We'll see. I haven't applied for any more jobs and neither Wal-Mart nor the grocery store have called me back.

2. The boys' father left for Kenya on Saturday. He will be back on Monday. It looks like he will have work until July and then (maybe) the Gates Foundation might fund them for another two years. We'll see.

3. So I am home alone with the boys. Saturday I spent 4 hours sitting under a tree reading while Minisculus went to his elementary school Spring Fair and Sunday we spent 6 hours at Minor's track meet. Tonight I have Mom Taxi duties to and fro to soccer and track practices.

Not much is going on.

stonepicnicking_okapi

GYWO Yahtzee Prompt Coding

https://getyourwordsout.dreamwidth.org/856782.html?thread=10758350#cmt10758350

spikedluv

Resident Alien is back for season 4! I was afraid that it had been quietly cancelled because I heard nothing about it, but apparently it was merely moved to USA, but then they decided to air it on both SyFy and USA? It's coming Friday, June 6, 11pm EST. (Not sure why 11pm. o_O) Click the link for more info and to check out the trailer.

Resident Alien Season 4: The Mantid Turns Patience Upside Down in New Trailer — Plus, Get Premiere Date (tvline.com)

the_shoshanna

I posted yesterday about coffee recently tasting unpalatably bitter to me, and a number of people noted that yes, that could be a COVID symptom. Which is true. (And thank you all for weighing in!) But I feel fine (which I know doesn't prove anything), nothing else tastes strange to me, and I tested negative yesterday (which I know isn't worth much, but it's something), and today I went out and got myself a coffee from Tim Horton's, which tasted fine. I mean, sweeter and milkier than I normally have it, but without any of the bitter layer that milk and sugar at home was only kind of lying on top of without ameliorating. And Geoff confirms that he opened the bags of coffee we're currently working through a few days ago; I can't remember exactly when the bitterness started, but the timing doesn't not match up. (I have realized that it definitely didn’t start before I left: I was fine with airport coffee through a sip valve in my mask, and with hotel and homemade coffee the whole time I was in Virginia.)

So I'll take another test just for the heck of it, but I'm pretty confident that there's something amiss with this batch of beans, which Geoff, who has a notoriously deficient sense of smell, just isn't picking up on or bothered by in the same way.

I hate that I have to do this calculus. Stupid pandemic.

scintilla10

I ended up defaulting from

unsent_letters_exchange due to RL stuff, but received 2 (two!) gifts that I got to read indulgently over the weekend, and enjoyed both very much (both still anonymous for now!).

Certain Correspondence from Court, Countryside, and College
Original Work | Lonely Court Sorceress/Sensible Hedge Witch (F/F), Hard-Working Introverted Professor of Magic/Outgoing & Successful Academic Rival (M/M)
1039 words | Teen And Up Audiences
Summary: Irina Morningstar was chosen to go to Court - an offer she couldn't refuse. Once there, she began to impress them all, including an introverted professor of magic.

for in fragile words we may find sweet things
Dungeons & Dragons: HAT | Xenk/Edgin
4883 words | Teen And Up Audiences
Summary: When Xenk receives a love letter from a secret admirer, a fragile hope blooms inside his heart. But when his friends take it upon themselves to read that letter, and puzzle out its author, the situation begins to feel very fragile indeed.

spikedluv

I've seen both eps of Murderbot now and I enjoyed them. ( spoilers )

the_shoshanna

For the last week or so, coffee has tasted incredibly bitter to me. I mean, it's bitter from the start, but I drink it with sugar and milk and I've always really liked it; Geoff makes our breakfast coffee every morning and it's a nice little thing for us. (Sometimes when he goes away overnight he grinds coffee for me to have the next morning before he leaves.) But lately I've been finding it unpalatably bitter; even when I add extra milk and sugar, they just layer over the bitterness without easing it. Nothing about our brand, roast, or brewing method has changed, only how I taste it.

(I went away last week: four days in Virginia for a memorial service, which meant my first plane flights since February 2020, which was a bit of a mindfuck, plus a bunch of socializing, and Geoff says he's heard that things changing taste is a possible COVID symptom. I've never heard that, only that losing the sense of taste can be, and I feel completely fine, so I really doubt that's it. Plus iirc it started before I left.)

But this is a bit of a problem, since a) I like coffee, and b) having gotten only three swallows into this morning's cup before I had to stop, it was ten am before I could get my act in gear to start being productive. By which I mean, make a cup of black tea instead. But I don't like tea as much as I (used to) like coffee!

I miss coffee.

ETA: Okay, I have taken a COVID test, and it is negative, for what that's worth... (I think it's six months expired, but they're generally supposed to be good for a year or so after stamped expiration date, last I heard.)

spikedluv

I have rewatched the next few MSW episodes and I wanted to share some thoughts with you. The eps in question are: 2.04 School for Scandal, 2.05 Sing a Song of Murder and 2.06 Reflections of the Mind.

( all comments back here )

What are your thoughts on these eps?

stonepicnicking_okapi

Minisculus really likes this song.

Watch on YouTube

tozka

Trying something new! (Inspired by Tracy Durnell's blog and

soricel who posted theirs here on DW.)

Fixation of the week
I spent several days setting up and adding over 1000 zines to my new Calibre zine library. I haven't finished loading everything in but I wanted to take a break and do something else for a bit (including writing the how-to guide which is my goal for this week).

Media stuff
Did less book reading and focused more on listening to Campaign 3 of Not Another D&D Podcast. I'm currently on episode 36 and am really enjoying this storyline!

I also want to highlight one of the 8 Bit Bookclub episodes they did: Pillars of Pentegarn, where they go through one of those 1980s Choose Your Own Adventure books. It made me laugh SO HARD I had to keep pausing playback to recover.

Listened to: The Lookers' In Clover which is quintessential late 90s upbeat music you'd hear in teen romcoms.

Currently rereading Good Enough (To Be Good To Yourself) by

jackmischief, a Spideypool fanfic (more Spideypool fic recs here).

Food stuff
Got a $10 DoorDash coupon via one of my Chase credit cards, so I ordered grocery delivery. It was shopped, and delivered in less than an hour! When I order directly through the grocery store (which subsidizes deliveries through DoorDash btw) it ALWAYS takes 3+ hours to get the order, and the last time they didn't even do it at all and I had to reschedule for the next day. Sigh.

Currently have 3 weeks left in this housesit so am focusing on using up stuff I have so I don't have to try and cram it into my suitcase. At the moment that's a lot of beans and oatmeal. Made oatmeal no-bake cookies that...sort of came out okay...they're very sweet so the next time I make them I'm going to cut the sugar down a bit.

The price of eggs ($6+ for a dozen) is making me cut way back on them. Normally I'd have two eggs for breakfast, for instance, but now I'm doing one egg and putting more beans on the side (or whatever). It does stretch them out longer!

Website stuff
Added the following pages: Merlin (BBC) fanfic recs, two sticker pages.

Reorganized the zine links page and added a section for anarchist/radical online zine libraries.

Also looked into self-hosting a pseudo-Goodreads thing but I think I'd need a VPS to properly host it for public viewing. Basically I want somewhere to do reading status updates and have it hosted on my website...maybe some kind of microblogging thing would be better?

Looking forward
This week I'd like to write up at least a rough draft of the Calibre beyond fanfic/books guide, as well as catch up on my correspondence here (aka reply to comments) and post a few times to various DW communities.

I'm also JUST starting The Gentleman's Book of Vices which I'm enjoying, but which I definitely got mixed up with the YA novel The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. Same time period, I think, but different vibes-- the YA book is more of a romp/adventure/romance and the adult book is (I think) more of a normal historical romance.

stonepicnicking_okapi

"The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" was published in the Oct-Nov 1893 edition of The Strand.

Here's the summary:

Percy Phelps, a Foreign Office employee, seeks Sherlock Holmes' help after a valuable naval treaty is stolen from him. Holmes deduces it was taken by someone using the back stair. Phelps, still recovering from an illness and being cared for by his fiancée Annie, lays out the case. Holmes investigates, suspecting the involvement of the Tangeys and clerk Gorot. Lord Holdhurst reveals the treaty hasn't reached foreign governments yet. Returning to Briarbrae, Holmes discovers the hired nurse has been dismissed by Phelps. That night, someone tries to break into Phelps' room with a knife, but flees when caught. Holmes secretly orders Annie to stay in the room and has Phelps and Watson leave for London. After uncovering Joseph as the thief, Holmes retrieves the stolen treaty from him after a brawl.

I think this story is most notable for Holmes' Rose Speech:

'There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion,' said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. 'It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.'

What the Annotated says about the moss rose: 1. intensely fragrant, 2. with large blossoms and many petals, 3. petals and sepals appear to be covered in green or reddish moss, 3. mutated from damask and cabbage roses, 4. in the language of flowers a moss rosebud means 'confession of love.' and in Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone Sergeant Cuff has thoughts on the moss rose not being grafted to the dog rose.

I think the subplot in BBC Sherlock's episode "The Great Game" was based on this. That why I kept thinking that it was a Mycroft story when it isn't in canon (in the show, Mycroft brings the case to Sherlock and Sherlock pawns it off on John).

The Annotated also says that the Oxford English dictionary credits this story with the first usage of the word 'snick' to mean a sound:

Then grew louder, and suddenly there came from the window a sharp, metallic snick.

And I think another feature of interest is the melodramatic flair of Holmes to put the recovered top secret documents under a covered breakfast of curried chicken. I mean, really:

spikedluv

The Last of Us: Good ep. ( spoilers )

SWAT: I missed most of the first ep because of the baseball game, but I feel like the second (series finale) ep was the most important anyway so I didn’t bother to try to find it. The finale was good. ( spoilers )

tozka

Most of these are from 2018 and earlier, and they're all Merlin/Arthur fics because that's what I was interested in! ;D If you're into Modern AUs, this is the place for you; Merlin was definitely one of those shows where people just did all sorts of AUs all over the place and had a great time experimenting with settings and stories.

Featuring: some off-AO3 fanfic links! Gasp!

Also posted to my website here.

//

Accept No Substitutes by lamardeuse [7k, E] A visiting damsel tries giving Arthur a love potion.

Accidental Memory in the Case of Death by derryere [74.9k, E] Modern AU, reincarnation fic!

The Accidental Seduction (or, De Nile Ain't Just a River In Egypt, And Arthur's Drowning In It) by ras_elased [9.2k, E] Arthur's prank goes horribly awry!

The Advent of Coffee by mixtapestar [11.5k, T+] Modern coffeeshop AU

all I wanted was a white knight (I got a prince instead) by orphan_account [13.4k, T+] It's cold in the winter and Arthur makes Merlin share his bed. For warmth! (Wink.)

( 70+ more under here )

celli

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Page Summary

tozka - solarpunk, romantasy drama, bad bad ai
stonepicnicking_okapi - Poet's Corner: Adlestrop by Edward Thomas
aurumcalendula - Some reading related stuff
celli - fic recs: Murderbot and BTS
celli - and yet more reading
spikedluv - Wednesday Reading Meme & Books 28-32 of 2025
stonepicnicking_okapi - Views & News
stonepicnicking_okapi - Yahtzee Roll #6
spikedluv - TV News: Resident Alien S4
the_shoshanna - tasteful update
scintilla10 - Gifts from Unsent Letters
spikedluv - TV Talk: Murderbot
the_shoshanna - changing taste
spikedluv - Monday [Fandom] Madness! The Murder, She Wrote 2.04 & 2.05 & 2.06 Comments Edition
stonepicnicking_okapi - Music Monday: The Duck Song
tozka - weeknotes (may 11-17, 2025)
stonepicnicking_okapi - Sherlock Sunday: The Naval Treaty
spikedluv - TV Talk: The Last of Us & SWAT
tozka - Merlin (BBC) Fanfic Recs
celli - mental health leave gratitudes

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