mesotablar | Reading

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

Posted 10 Products to Help You Keep Your 2026 New Year’s Resolutions at

goals_on_dw.

Posted "Reading Challenges" on

25book_pwd.

Posted "Reading Challenges" on

50books_poc.

Commented under 01/07/26 on

abc_onceupon.

Commented under Hi There by

dr_zook on

friending_memes.
-- and under the comment thread by

tamena.
-- and under the comment thread by

forestofdreams.
-- and under the comment thread for

autumninpluto.
-- and under the comment thread for

adoptedwriter.

Commented under "Love Note to Quadrants" on

100quadrantedships.

Commented under "Love Note To The Sedoretu" in

40sedoretu.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

anais_pf in

thefridayfive

These questions were written by

losseloth.

1. Do you have a favourite cause that you support?

2. If so, how do you support it?

3. Have you been an active member of an organization (attending meetings, volunteering, etc)?

4. Have you ever led any group?

5. If so, how was your experience with it?
OR: 5. If not, why, is it a conscious choice, of lack of opportunity?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy, chilly, breezy, and wet. It rained earlier, and has been spitting rain occasionally.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen any though.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/8/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/8/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

Now dozens of sparrows are suddenly mobbing the hopper feeder.

EDIT 1/8/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen some sparrows, and a larger dark-colored bird that may have been a starling or a grackle. The light was too low to tell exactly, even though it was on the metal tray feeder.

It's been spitting rain off and on. Heavier rain is forecast for tonight.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

flo_nelja

Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

Recently I was referring to a friend the tabletop RPG "René, le jeu de rôle romantique"
It's a French RPG about playing Romantic poets (and others), you can play it parodic or serious, the rules had made me laugh a lot when I was young. Regularly I'm in fandom where the characters are Overdramatic, and I think: you should be made into a René character.
I thought it was long lost!
But no, it still exists on the Internet! dates from February 2000
René, le Jeu de Rôles Romantique

As it's in French, for people who want to have a laugh, I want to summarize the character creation:
* Your three Attribute are your Rage, your Despair and your Inimical Old Age (your age, basically)
The first two change all the time, if they go too high they decide if you comit an act of madness/commit suicide.

* In addition to attributes, you roll 1d10/2 (round up) to know the number of your Problems, and then you roll into a big Problem table.
Are you a poet? (if so you have a minimum time writing or telling poetry every day). Are you naive? Homosexual? Republican? In love with a family member? Short? Obsessed with the occult? Badly dressed? An ecclesiastic? The list is... not exactly ensless but it's fun.

* All skills or powers are optional and give additional problems

* Last character creation step: choose an element of your character that flutters in the wind (hat, scarf, coat...)

fred_mouse

I stalled out last year on the drawing practice, because I tidied up my sketchbook and pencils, and it was so frustrating not to be able to find them that I abandoned the project. But I was in OfficeWorks the other day, and bought myself a $5 pack of 12 sketching pencils and a $2 tiny shitty sketchbook.

Two days ago, I attempted to draw something from my screen, and was too sore/tired/grumpy, and gave up after about three lines. Today, I realised that the worst part of drawing is working out where to start. So! I have a simplified goal. Attempt to draw my hand at least once a week. Today's effort was about 5 minutes worth, I got the thumb, some of the palm, and two of the fingers before running out of oomph. I've worked out that I'd rather do a stack of detail in one place than try and sketch the whole shape before getting started. And it wasn't fun, but it wasn't awful.

polyamships_mod in

fandomcalendar

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bluerosekatie in

smallfandomfest

Title: A Silent Guardian
Author: bluerosekatie
Fandom: Hoshi no Kaabii (anime)
Pairing/Characters: Kirby & Meta Knight
Rating/Category: Gen
Prompt: Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back At Ya!, Meta Knight & Kirby, Kirby needs a gentler touch than Meta Knight is used to giving
Spoilers: N/A
Summary: Meta Knight trains Kirby, but Kirby needs more than just fighting practice.
Notes/Warnings: Archive-locked to avoid AI scraping.

Read it on Ao3 here!

ysabetwordsmith

beavertech has posted the January batch of sponsored poems. :D

"So Many Words for Wood" on

first_nations_freaks

"The Infinity of Acorns" on

scienceworld

"Birds and Snow" on

the_magick_circle

"A Piecemeal Apocalypse" on

thefreaksclub

Current Mood: accomplished

fred_mouse

share selfish on Instagram or Facebook

suspicion: bit by autocarrot. However! This was an academic journal article; it makes me a little concerned about the editing.

shadaras

The thing about Martha Wells' Queen Demon is that I really adored Witch King and then was mad about the fact that it wasn't a stand-alone book because I didn't feel a need for more in that universe.

Queen Demon is a perfectly serviceable book. I generally like Martha Wells' writing and her casts of characters. However. One of the things that I did not mind in Witch King but do mind in Queen Demon is the dual timelines. I suppose they weren't precisely directly connected in Witch King either, but there it had the effect of explaining who Kai was and providing all the backstory to the world. In Queen Demon, it's like...

I can see echoes but it's not direct. It ended up feeling like I was intercutting between two novellas with a shared world/cast, rather than one book that built its thematic/narrative push along a split timeline.

And yeah that probably wasn't helped by how I read it (in three sittings, more or less, each a couple weeks apart), but...

The main feeling I had about this novel was that every chapter seemed designed to end on a cliffhanger, which is perfectly reasonable design/structure for a novel, but also way more annoying when you know that you're not going to be immediately following up on that bit of time when you begin the next chapter.

This then leads into my biggest "I didn't like this" about the book, which is that it ends in much the same way as any of its chapters end, just on a bigger scale. Which, like, yeah, that's normal for a book in a series, I guess? But it's not how I'm used to Martha Wells books in series ending! She is usually pretty good about wrapping things up instead of ending on "here is a dramatic change in status quo that we are not even providing characters time to have an emotion about before cutting from".

...which then leads to the biggest question I have about bk3, which is:

So if the naming schema so far has been "magic-user + royalty title", does that mean the next book will be named for the Immortal Blessed or the Hierarchs?

( spoiler-tastic specific ??? about the ending )

(yes I will read bk3 when it comes out but I still think that I liked Witch King as a standalone more than Witch King as a series.)

ysabetwordsmith

brickhousewench tipped me to Heading Prints, a company that makes scarves using book art as inspiration. They offer bandanas, skinny scarves, large rectangular scarves, square silky scarves, and also a few rings with designs to match some of their most popular scarf designs. Also, these are much more affordable on average than most fashion scarves I've seen, although they do cost more than the cheap random ones in a discount store.

If you've seen my post "How to Simplify Fashion," then consider these scarves as an option for color-matching. Look for a scarf whose colors you love and want to use. Wear it while clothes shopping to test if new clothes match your colors.

Current Mood: busy

kalira in

smallfandomfest

Title: Under a Different Moon
Author:

kalira
Fandom: Last Quarter
Ship/Characters: Adam/Mizuki
Rating/Category: T/Het
Prompt: Last Quarter (2004), Adam/Mizuki, under a different moon
Spoilers: the movie generally
Summary: As it has all her life, the moon watches over Mizuki through this one, last shift between worlds, this last shift in her.
Notes/Warnings: major character death
Wordcount: 1,525

Read on AO3

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly cloudy and cool.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I gathered the raked leaves from the ritual meadow, enough to fill the trolley twice, which I dumped on the daffodil bed. (That should have been done in fall, but better late than never.) One quarter around the firepit equaled two trolleys and covered the daffodil bed completely. The tulip bed will need at least twice that much.

I startled several cardinals and the great-horned owl in the ritual meadow.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I filled a trolley with sticks from the brushpile beside the driveway, then dumped that in the firepit.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I filled another trolley with sticks, then dumped that in the firepit.

There's not much left of the brushpile now, mostly pieces too big for me to break down.

It's 5:05 PM. The western sky is still twilight, the east considerably darker.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Challenge 4: Rec Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

On many of the fannish websites we use, our history is easily compileable into "pages". When we look back through those pages, sometimes we stumble upon things that we think are rather cool.

Snowflake Challenge: A mug of coffee or hot chocolate with a snowflake shaped gingerbread cookie perched on the rim sits nestled amidst a softly bunched blanket. A few dried orange slices sit next to it.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

stardust_rifle in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post * Meet The Mods Post * Challenge #1

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

On many of the fannish websites we use, our history is easily compileable into "pages". When we look back through those pages, sometimes we stumble upon things that we think are rather cool.

Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

Current Mood: apologizing for my lateness

ysabetwordsmith

And there goes Lilith. \o/

Current Mood: amused

toothpastepancake in

fandomcalendar

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ysabetwordsmith

Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your hard things a little easier?

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Recreating an Ancient Pump (with no moving parts)

This historic pump uses a mixture of flowing water and air bubbles to lift water high above its original level. While not as efficient as some other methods, it has two tremendous advantages: 1) It requires no electricity, fuel, or animal power. 2) With no moving parts, it avoids the problems of wear and clogs that threaten more complex pumps. Given the increasing issue of climate change, there is great value in any useful technology that runs entirely on renewable energy and doesn't need repair or replacement at all often.

Current Mood: busy

soc_puppet

As long as I'm thinking about it, here's some things I want to do in 2026:

Publish at least two more fics

Work on the pigeon mood theme

Properly assume my role as Monarch of Mood Themes on Dreamwidth

Become more/better employed

I feel like those are all things I can accomplish!

Current Mood: working

Profile

Mesotablar

April 2022

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Style: Déjeuner sur l'herbe for Funky Circles by ninetydegrees
Resources: Away

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Page generated Jan. 11th, 2026 10:39 am

I thought it was a good idea at the time...

Personal Journal with Many Aromantic Thoughts

Reading

Community Thursdays

The Friday Five for 9 January 2026

Birdfeeding

Snowflake challenge, day 4

Drawing practice

[MULTIFANDOM] PolyamShippingDay - January 2026

Fanfic, Hoshi no Kaabii (anime), Meta Knight & Kirby, Kirby needs a gentler touch

New Poems

Typo du jour

(no subject)

Shopping

Fanfic, Last Quarter, Adam/Mizuki, under a different moon

Birdfeeding

Snowflake Challenge 4: Rec Your Last Page

Snowflake Challenge #4

Humor

Multifandom: 100femslash

Hard Things

History

Goals for 2026

Profile

April 2022

Page Summary

Style Credit

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