Check-In Post - Sept 13th 2025

13 Sep 2025 07:03 pm
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Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: Share your favourite crafting tip, if you have one.


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



glitteryv: (Default)
[personal profile] glitteryv
I feel like something within me has been unlocked cuz I've been picking up (and actually reading!) more books now than I did during the earlier part of the year. WHO AM I? XD

Re-reads. HUH

* All About All About Eve: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made! by Sam Staggs (non-fiction) - This is a v. comprehensive (and at times exhaustive book on anything and everything you'd ever want to know abt All About Eve, a 1950s classic movie and one of my top faves of all time.

I got this book as a gift (from an ex) back in 2001, read it, loved it then. However, it got damaged cuz my previous home got termites. My library recommended it to me (I guess cuz I'd been adding classic film books to my library TBR?) and I said "sure, let me enjoy it once again!"

One thing I appreciated was Staggs' writing style: friendly, gossipy, and thorough. His book covers everything from the short story the movie is based on (he even interviewed the author) to the movie itself (from pre-production onwards) including details on EVERYONE down to secondary and background characters and then the movie's position within general Western pop culture. FWIW, I really liked the first two-thirds (as I'd forgotten some of the details and so, at times, it felt like I was almost reading it for the first time.) However, the book dips in yays during its last third with the exception of one specific chapter. I got the sense that Staggs wanted to cover EVERY aspect related to this movie. BUT it did dragged...except for the next-to-last chapter on camp and the LGTBQ+ community's connection to this film.

At this point, I doubt I'll give it another read, but I deffo rec this for fans of this movie and/or classic Hollywood movies. I gave this 4 out of 5.


I DNF'd

* The Wild Girls Club: Tales from Below the Belt by Anka Radakovich (non-fiction) - [NB: this was actually my second re-read of the month, but I think it fits better in this section.] OK, so I'm not going to assume that everyone knows who this woman is so, here's a quick note abt her. An older Gen x-er, she was (all thru the 1990s and into the v. early part of the 2000s) one of THE sex advice columnists in the US. IIRC, her column (in Details, a men's magazine) started around 1992-ish? This led to her appearing on a lot of TV shows from those airing on MTV to less youth-oriented networks. Her candidness and snark made her appear edgier than, say, Dear Abby.

I borrowed this book back in early 1995 from the library and enjoyed it a ton. This is a collection of essays on sex, dating, and romance. Oh, and there's a bonus section where she interviews dudes like Joe Pesci, Norman Mailer, Russ Meyer, and John Waters.

My library happened to still have a copy of the book, so I borrowed it again...and DNF'd pretty early on, hahah.

For starters, this was a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry early '90s book in tone (and I'm saying that in a derrogatory way.) The humor was crass and sexist (on purpose), the references were incredibly dated, and Radakovich gave off a "I'm not like those other (ultra-femme, mainstream, Barbie-fied) girls" vibe that made me legit 😬. Oh, and she loooooved using the R-slur more than enough times for me to go "OK, I'M DONE WITH THIS!" around the second story in Chapter 1. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But not before I skipped ahead to the interviews section and ended up CRINGING ALL OVER AGAIN. This is why I'm NOT a nostalgic person at all, hahah. In any case, with this, I can end my impromptu journey into "books I read in the 1990s-early 2000s" that has happened this year. *Happily waves goodbye to that era*

I gave this book a 1.6 out of 5.


* Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao (F/F Contemporary Romance) - Mira is an Indian-American trans woman who ends up as a temporary roommate of Isabel, a Chinese-American electrician. Both of the women have some stuff to deal with (for Mira is realizing that she's also attracted to women while for Isabel is abt dealing with the loss of a sibling.)

I'd been wanting to read this novel since I first heard abt it back in May of this year (it was first published last fall, IIRC.) I did liked that the MCs were in their 30s (and behaved like actual!adults), they had work responsibilities, and had a neat simpatico going on.

The first of the two issues I had with this book was that it's a character-driven novel and I'm a plot girlie. This meant that the pacing was slower than I liked and reading abt their internal conflicts felt, at times, like watching a dog chase its tail.

Then there's the OTHER thing that ultimately killed my enthusiasm for the book.

Before I go into that, let me state for the record that I am fiercely PRO-UNION. I think they're cool and much needed (especially nowadays.) HOWEVAH, the B-plot was abt Mira (who is a PhD candidate) trying to establish a graduate student union at her university. Which, yays for everyone. Unfortch, this overtook the main plot to the point that if I had to read one more scene of Mira practicing for a speech she'd give at a rally, I would end up throwing my tablet across the room. The romance took a backseat and I was NOT happy abt that. (I did hear--through reading others' reviews--that the plot focuses back on Mira/Isabel (including some v. hot times), but even that wasn't enough to lure me back.)

I'd picked up this book with the hopes to read abt Mira and Isabel falling for each other + smooches. But, in order to get to that part of this romance novel, I'd have to read page after page abt organizing. FWIW, I'm sure other readers ate all of that (and probably wish there had been MORE pages written abt the union stuff), but that's not me. *Hands* I gave this book 2 out of 5.


* Murder in the Dressing Room by Holly Stars (Cozy mystery) - Misty Divine becomes an amateur sleuth after Lady Lady, her drag mother, is murdered.

This had a kickass premise and the bonus that Misty is a nonbinary person in their mid-30s. FTR, I did catch glimpses/moments in the story that made me go "oooh".

Sadly, though, this book committed the ultimate sin: BAD WRITING!

For starters, between telling and showing, the author opted to go with the former. And, listen, I'm not a "telling" hater because I know that it has a purpose. In the case of this book, it was overused to the point that it really dulled what should've been an amazing mystery.

And then, there was the repetition.

[Context: this is a description of what Misty, the protagonist, is wearing at the club. Emphasis mine.]

"Tonight, she was all in red: a red off-the-shoulder minidress with a sweeping neckline and hems so high she was more leg than skirt, red crystal jewelry that dripped from each ear and across her chest, and sequined scarlet heels so tall they were known affectionately in the business as "ankle breakers". Thankfully, Misty's ankles were still intact, despite stiletto-related injuries in the drag business seemingly at an all-time high."

SMH.

I gave this 1 out of 5.


Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there)

So far, I either really like OR hate everything I've started. XD


Good vibes all around

* Hurt Me, Daddy (The Brat and The Beast book 1) by Misha Horne (M/M romance) - In danger of failing chemistry (and losing his football scholarship), high school senior Logan ends up getting tutored by the v. nerdy Caleb, a.k.a Beast (so nicknamed cuz of his height.) If, at some point, their relationship becomes kinky, well... (NB: pardon the bad summary!)

OK, so this is one of those authors whose catalogue I've almost read in its entirety. I approached this first book in a new duology with trepidation. The last book of hers I'd read (Snowed in with Benefits) was quite meh. That said, I'm always interested in whatever she publishes cuz she writes one specific premise and does it WELL: romances abt a bratty sub and the dom (sometimes a Daddy, sometimes not) who uses a combo of spanking and Domestic Discipline (with some mild humiliation for extra sprinkles, I guess) to help the subs better their lives.

It's kinda funny how much this book reminded me of this author's Old School Discipline (the first book by her I ever read and which I loved) because of the set-up and the MCs' ages. There's also the fact that the premise can potentially border on ridiculous, so readers have to make up their minds v. quickly as to whether or not they're game with what happens on the page.

FTR, I read this 272-page novel one in a day.

The entire book is told from Logan's POV (in first person). Though at times suffocating (Logan's life has been a really tough one and he's on the edge of self-sabotaging himself for good), his brashness and humor (sarcastic as it might be) make for a really engaging story. He's hurting and what looks like his only way out of a terrible situation is slipping thru his fingers.

Enter Caleb, a.k.a. Beast, who offers him an alternative that seems almost too good to be true. At first, thru unconventional teaching methods and then, thru becoming his Daddy. It's easy to understand Logan's wariness (since we're in his head all along) after Caleb offers to provide him with anything he'd need. OTOH, it also makes total sense that Caleb's steadiness and single-mindedness (perhaps to an OTT level) are exactly what Logan needs to keep on living.

I liked that the author didn't shy away from their fractured backstory. Also, the angst (though heavy at times) was never so overwhelming as to make me stop reading. OFC, the second half of the book brings in the comfort (especially the last 3-4 chapters.) IF said relief includes a serving of kink, well, there we are. XD

As expected, the intimate scenes are fun, filthy, and weirdly sweet. There are readers who might have an issue with Caleb being the kind of Daddy Dom who knows exactly what his bratty boy needs. Especially because, like Logan, he's only 19 y.o. I understand wanting to know WHERE AND WHEN exactly did Caleb learned abt the kink lifestyle, trained under, etc. NGL, that was NOT me cuz I truly didn't care as this is a fictional story. I was also cheering for these two and their FREAK4FREAK relationship (the latter is meant in how there's literally no one else in the entire world that would understand and accept each other the way Logan/Caleb do.)

One of the main reasons why I enjoyed this novel was that the writing was solid from beginning to end: no typos, no weird turn of phrases/slang, no Pop Culture commentary, and pacing issues.

THAT SAID, there were two things that lowered the ranking for me:

1. The novel ends v. abruptly and in a kind of soft cliffhanger. Things get resolved in chapter 1 of the second novel. My best guess is that the author wrote a massive novel that then she split into two. [NB: this is somewhat confirmed as I'm reading Book 2 right now. It deffo feels like one long book split in half.] I didn't mind this as much as others did cuz I already had gotten the second book and the novella, hahah. I WAS IN IT TO WIN IT!

2. There are only 2 female characters and they're HORRIBLE PPL. What's even stranger abt them is that they're both addicts and behave inappropriately with young male adults. In the case of Logan's mom, she's an abusive and neglectful parent. As for Walker's mom, she's an alcoholic who clings to her cougar status to an embarrassing level. It's interesting that they're both at opposite ends of the socioeconomic strata (Logan's mom is an exotic dancer (and potential escort?) who is poor while Walker's mom has a much more affluent life.)

In any case, like most of this author's books, women tend to be either evil bitches (in this novel's case also terrible mothers) or nonexistent. I wish she's publish a novel with at least one solid female character. Alas.

I gave this book 4 out of 5/


Current fic tally

Have picked up 155 and DNF'd 76.


Up next...

Last time: "I've got a non-fiction, a biography, and a couple more of queer romances on my immediate TBR."

Ended up returning the non-fiction cuz my brain was NOT in the mood. Also returned the biography since there are other things I want to get to first. I'm now halfway thru the second book of the "The Brat and The Beast" duology, a mystery/thriller, a queer femdom (?) M/F set in space, and a historical paranormal that is NOT cozy. So a little bit of everything, heheh. Fingers crossed that the Reading Yays continue.
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Posted by /u/Muhaisin35

Rewatching it, the suspense, sense of discovery, and sheer wonder still feel unmatched, even after all these years. Personally, I think Dr. Grant is the soul of the film, his mix of awe, fear, and responsibility captures the heart of the story for me. But I’m curious, which character do you think truly made the movie unforgettable and left the biggest impact?

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Posted by /u/IDCJ1234

Movies that don't sugar coat or disnify the real world, shows you how much the world is a cruel place and you're a cog in the machine, or people/characters being the most angriest, shittiest human beings imaginable.

Boy that sounded depressing but I'm just a guy looking for some movies to watch in these times.

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Reading Backlog for August

13 Sep 2025 09:51 am
muccamukk: Two road signs pointing opposite ways reading "Safety" and "Death." A shrugging grim reaper stands between them. (Misc: Safety or Death!)
[personal profile] muccamukk
(The first of which I read in May, but it wasn't Hugo homework, so we're putting it here.)

Maybe this is a Story about Water by Jessica Wiebe Schafer
I posted one of these poems. Lovely collection reflecting on God, womanhood, family connections and connections to nature, and how they might all be the same. Local author I stumbled on in the library, which suggests I should randomly grab books from the library's poetry section more often. (Have I since done so? No, I have not!)


Rainbow heart sticker A Default World by Naomi Kanakia
Read this for queer book club, which I've been very bad at actually attending. Contemporary satire, I guess would be the easiest genre description.

A South-Asian trans woman ends up joining a San Francisco share house, which is full of bright young things, tech money, and hedonism. Our heroine is trying to figure out how to get someone to pay for the gender-affirming surgeries she desperately wants, but keeps getting sucked into whatever bullshit her housemates are on, namely planning a big kink party that's somehow for great justice.

Most of the book is about skewering the hypocrisies and double think embedded in the mostly white, mostly straight, mostly upper class twenty-somethings who want to think that their sex parties are going to bring about the liberation, but aren't really that interested in the day to day lives of actual real marginalised people. I would say this discordance is played up for effect, and that the space I've seen aren't quite that bad, but also SF is kind of its own beast, so I'd also believe it's not exaggerating reality. The core points certainly hit, though maybe got a little repetitive.

I had complicated feelings about the heroine, who loathes almost every other character almost as much as she loathes herself. It was admittedly difficult to spend that many pages with someone who's that crushed by dysphoria that much of the time. I did like how the book handled her getting sucked into the social scene, and how the tension kept ratcheting up in regards to whether she would make the moral choice or the self-interested one. I was very much rooting for her by the end, even if everyone in the book was kind of terrible.

Will keep an eye on this author.


The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman
Grabbed this off the library's seven-day read shelf, not realising it was the second book in a series. I would, if possible, read them in order, as this is very much a serial adventure situation, with the action of the second book directly following on the first. However, it did explain the events of the first well enough to follow along with what was happening, and it was fun on its own.

A pair of spinster sisters in Regency London deal with a variety of crises events, including someone trying to kidnap their house guest, a gentleman's society maybe murdering women, one of their would-be lovers being a highwayman while the other's a Bow Street Runner, and various knock on effects of the previous book. It was fun! I wouldn't say there's a lot more to it than hijinks, though it seemed to be trying to take on serious topics, but I enjoyed the hijinks. There's a scene later on in the book where five or six groups with competing interests are chasing each other around the countryside in the dark, which I always love.

It ends on a slight cliffhanger setting up the next book, which I'm not that invested in, but might read on a rainy day.


Red Boar's Baby by Lauren Esker
This stands alone, more or less, but if you enjoyed the lore from the previous books, you'll see it again here! We get the return of the highly-motivated koala, which made me very happy.

This outing, we get a road runner who's a SAR pilot for the National Parks Service fake dating a wild boar who's running the local shifter police department. (If you're new to this genre, they're shape shifters who can turn into animals, but primarily have human forms. This is not Zootopia.) Together, they have to deal with a probably-kidnapped baby, the probable kidnappers, mad science, and there only being one bed. This series pretty much always hits for me, and as usual it balances the action adventure/mystery plot with the romantic tension, and doesn't base either on silly misunderstandings or anyone carrying the idiot ball. I really liked the backstory to how the fake dating started out, and the barriers to the main couple getting together felt real. They were very sweet together, which helped. Also, there's a fantastic action scene towards the end of the book, that really played with most of the characters involved being shape shifters, and we got a bunch of new lore.

Really enjoyed this, looking forward to the next one.

JUSTICE FOR MATEO! (Who was not mentioned in this book, which is why he needs justice.)

Sun's out but it's ok

13 Sep 2025 09:20 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
The sun came out during volleyball but it wasn't too horrible. And it's out now and again, not the glary 'i'm going to kill your eyes' version. As long as it goes back to cloudy before I want to swim again.

My calendar notes that next week, I need to kill the Mariners network streaming service. It has been nice - nicer than I expected although, of course, the software sucks and while it has a web version, the web version really sucks. I'll probably get it again next Summer but again, maybe, wait until mid-Summer. Maybe.

Now I have to worry about post season. I am interested - at least until both my teams are eliminated which means I only need a month of whatever. I can get all the games on Hulu + live (and also get the regular Hulu stuff) or YouTube.TV. In the long run, they are both about the same money and each has special features that the other doesn't have. but, fuck, it's only for a month.

Dinner with Dick and Jan last night was nice. Dick learned yesterday that he his having heart bypass surgery next Friday. So there was a lot of talk about that. They are very nice people.

Elbow coffee is up next then TV and knitting until baseball and then it will be more TV and knitting. My kind of day.

PXL_20250912_214231547
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Posted by /u/FreshmenMan

Question, What are your thoughts on Deliverance?

I just rewatched this film and the more I go back to this film, the more I think it's one of the best of the 1970s. Everything about this film is perfect, the pacing, the casting, and the directing. Everyone was on their A game in this.

The film is about 4 businessmen who ventured into the wilderness to canoe the Cahulawassee River before it is damned. Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox all give great performances and I feel Ned Beatty gave the gutsiest performance and should have been nominated for an Oscar. However, I feel Bill McKinney and Herbert Coward steal the show as The Mountain Men, who, thought in 1 (or in Coward's case, 2 scenes), they really portrayed some sick SOB's who decided to have "fun" when they caught Jon Voight & Ned Beatty's character.

One thing that interested me is that although Burt Reynolds broke out with Deliverance and is a main character, it's really Jon Voight who is the main protagonist and the one who has to saved to group and get them to safety after Burt's character become incapacitated.

Another thing about Deliverance that I like is the feeling of something is wrong and the feeling that the 4 are being watched. I will say, all 4 where really out of their element and that they had no idea what they were getting out. I also like the ambiguity and the uncertainty that is present throughout the film.

Overall, I do love Deliverance and I think it is one of the best films of the 1970s. I also think it is a shame that Burt rarely did a film like Deliverance again until I think the 1990s (Look, I like Burt Reynolds and his films but Deliverance was something else)

So, What are your thoughts on Deliverance?

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27 Years of Whatever

13 Sep 2025 04:11 pm
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Posted by John Scalzi

It’s come ’round again, the anniversary of the first day I sat down and wrote something here intended for daily(ish) updating, twenty-seven years ago, long ago enough that AOL was still a viable and ongoing concern and that blogs weren’t called “blogs,” they were called “online diaries” or “online journals.” Because I was a former journalist and also a bit of an ass, I spurned both those titles (as I would the word “blog” a little later), preferring to say that I wrote an “online column.” Over time, I have become rather less precious about this, especially now that “blog” is a concept that now hearkens back to a cretaceous era of the Internet, before social media and algorithms and the concept of being “terminally online.” If only we knew then what we know now. We might all go running into the night, never to return.

Be that as it may, Whatever continues, and I still post here regularly, along with my daughter Athena, who was a couple months from being born when I started this whole thing. At this point in time, she actually does more here than I do; she posts almost all the Big Ideas, and writes as many of the longer pieces here these days than I manage. This partly because so much more of my professional life happens offline these days — in the last week or so, as an example, I wrote a short story, a script treatment and some of my novel, and then traveled to Portland for a convention, and starting Monday I embark on a two-week book tour — and partly because Athena is writing cool and interesting stuff and I’m really happy about that. The Whatever is better for having her as part of it, and it’s been fun watching this place grow from my personal soapbox into a two-person shop. I like that 27 years on, this site is still evolving.

I am very really happy with what’s going on in my professional writing life at the moment (I have some very cool stuff going on right now I absolutely cannot tell you about yet, but when I can tell you, I think you’ll be excited), and one side effect of that is that at the end of the day I often don’t have it together to post more than something short here. I don’t think this is a tragedy, but I would like to write slightly longer here than I have recently. I have some ideas how to do this, but a lot of that will have to wait after the book promo season I am about to find myself in. In the meantime, there will be views out of a hotel window, posts about cats, and more cool stuff from Athena.

And so, onward — for Whatever and for me and Athena. I like where everything is with Whatever, and I look forward to where we go from here. Another year awaits.

— JS

Babel Ending

13 Sep 2025 03:58 pm
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Posted by /u/Feisty-Theme-732

In the end of the movie, Richard calls his home to talk with kids. Ameila answers and they have the same conversation that they had in the start of the movie. So the wedding and border crossing, everything happened after Susan was rescued? So, after the police caught Amelia, they say "We located the father in Morocco. He was very angry". Why was he in Morocco again after Susan has been rescued? This is bugging me.

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Posted by /u/TheWiganKid_YT

By this I mean any movie in which the killer or antagonist is just a strange thing. It could be a killer couch, chucky or even a snowman. I want to watch as many of these movies as I can but I would love to know if there is any specific term for them so they are easier to find online. If not, then that's fine but I would also love some suggestions for any of these types of movies.

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sigyn_halja: (Default)
[personal profile] sigyn_halja posting in [community profile] iddyiddybangbang
Title: now the night is coming to an end (the sun will rise and we will try again)
Author: Halja
Fandom: Beowulf
Word Count: 22,429
Rating: M
Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Summary: Twelve years. And now, at last...
Or, Beowulf's stay in Heorot, as seen through the eyes of Hrothgar's thyle.
Read on AO3

Rubbish

13 Sep 2025 04:34 pm
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin

Seem to have been seeing a cluster of things about litter, and picking it up, lately, what with this one Lake District: Family shouted at for picking up litter, and the thing I posted recently about the young woman who was snarking on the Canals and Rovers Trust about what she perceived as her singlehanded mission to declutter the local canal bank: "Elena might feel alone in tackling London's litter waste", and then this week's 'You Be The Judge' in the weekend Guardian is on a related theme:

Should my girlfriend stop picking up other people’s litter?

(She is at least throwing it away in a responsible fashion: I worry about the couple whose flat is being cluttered up with culinary appliances where one feels maybe the ones that aren't actually being used anymore could be rehomed via charity shops before they are buried under an avalanche of redundant ricecookers etc).

As far as litter and clutter goes, National Trust tears down Union flag from 180-year-old monument. Actually, carefully removed, and we think there are probably conservation issues involved: quote from NT 'We will assess whether any damage has been caused to the monument'. See also White horse checked for any damage caused by flag. We do not think respect and care for heritage is uppermost in the minds of people who do these jelly-bellied flagflapping gestures.

Catching Up With Saja

13 Sep 2025 03:19 pm
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Posted by John Scalzi

Our newest addition to the Scamperbeast clan continues to be friggin’ adorable, and also his personality is beginning to show more. He is rambunctious, which is to be expected in a kitten, and also a bit of menace, since he discovered that he enjoys both the stairs and being underfoot, which is a dangerous combination with one is trying to navigate the stairs at night and suddenly there is a kitten. There are reasons why, when I turned forty, I trained myself to start reaching for the railing on the stairs, and this kitten is definitely one of those reasons.

In terms of the other cats, Saja continues to be an annoyance to Sugar and Spice, the former of whom still wants nothing to do with him, and the latter of which has come to grudgingly accept that he might be on the bed at the same time she is. Smudge is more congenial to him and the two of them tussle on a regular basis now:

This is lovely for us, as it reminds us of when Smudge was the kitten a Zeus was the one tusslin’ with him. It’s nice to know the tussle reaches over generations. Charlie and Saja also continue to get along famously. It’s as good an integration at this point that one could hope for.

The one real annoying thing Saja will do is try to eat my face, which he does every night between three and five am. He’s probably not actually trying to eat my face, he’s probably trying to nurse, which will not avail him of anything, alas for him. This will continue until I grab him, take him downstairs and then plop him in front of a cat food bowl, at which point he goes, oh, right, that’s where the food is. I’m hoping he grows out of this; I would really prefer to sleep through the night. We’ll see.

— JS

starspray: maglor with a harp, his head tilted down and to the left (maglor)
[personal profile] starspray
Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Sons of Feanor, Elrond, Feanor, Daeron, various others
Warnings: n/a
Summary: After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.
Note: This fic is a direct sequel to High in the Clean Blue Air.

Prologue / Previous Chapter

 

 

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Posted by therealmorticia

Every month the OTW hosts guest posts on our OTW News accounts to provide an outside perspective on the OTW or aspects of fandom. These posts express each individual’s personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy.

Karis Jones, PhD (she/her) is an educator, literacy consultant, public humanities scholar, and community activist, as well as Assistant Professor of Secondary English Language Arts at Baylor University. She has published widely, including in the journal of Transformative Works and Culture, and won several scholarly awards from the American Educational Research Association.

Scott Storm, PhD (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Literacy in the School of Education at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Scott is a former high school teacher with 15 years of experience designing, founding, and sustaining urban public schools; his work has appeared in Journal of Literacy Research, Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, and English Teaching Practice & Critique, among others.

Today, Dr. Karis Jones and Dr. Scott Storm, authors of the book Fandoms in the Classroom: A Social Justice Approach to Transforming Literacy Learning—join us to talk about how bringing fandom into the classroom can turn student passion into real learning.

How did you first find out about fandom and fanworks?

As fans of fantasy and science fiction genres ourselves, we have long been interested in fandoms and fan cultures. Even as teens, we wrote our own creative fanworks inspired by the stories that we loved. Once we became teachers, we noticed that our students had incredible passionate intensities around the fandoms that they loved. Moreover, they were participants in fan cultures, reading memes, analyzing discourse, and writing fanfiction. As English language arts teachers, we noticed that students were not only excited about participating in fandoms, but also that these were spaces of rich literacy learning. For example, students posting their original writing online often revised their stories based on feedback from the community in order to strengthen the writing and deepen connections. Reflecting on how important fandoms had been to us and in seeing how important fandoms were to our students, we knew that we had to think about how to make school a place that could support these passionate student interests for literacy learning.

Your book highlights how bringing fandoms into the classroom can shift the focus toward student experiences and interests. How does this approach support a more student-centered form of pedagogy, and what kinds of transformations have you seen as a result?

Many English teachers create lectures focused on the teacher’s interpretations of often-read canonical literature. This puts the thrust of intellectual work on teachers. However, it is students who need to be doing the learning and who should therefore do much more of the daily intellectual work of the classroom. We use students’ interests in fandoms in order to center student expertise. Students come with much knowledge about how the texts that they love were created and about some of the different ways to interpret those texts. We have students lead inquiry-based discussions with their peers to dig even deeper into these texts. Then they build off these discussions by reading extensively, writing analytic papers, and presenting their work to the local community. As students engage with fandoms they love, we note when they are using literary elements to create deeper interpretations. For example, sometimes a student will trace the metaphors or characterization in a fandom but might not use those exact words to do so. During student-led class discussions, we sit in the circle with students and chime in when they are using an analytic tool and that literary scholars have given a special name like metaphor, hyperbole, archetypes, or tropes. In this way, over a few weeks, we build a large set of analytic tools that students use to make sense of texts. Thus, throughout all the discussion, reading, and writing that students are doing in our classes, students are learning deeply because it is the students who are doing the crux of the intellectual work.

One of the intriguing ideas in your book is the reframing of academic disciplines as fandoms. How might this way of thinking open up new possibilities for teaching across different disciplines?

In Chapter 6 “Imagining Academic Disciplines as Fandoms,” we give examples of ways that teachers can put their academic disciplines in conversation with media fandoms. This helps students navigate across disciplinary practices, which may at first feel distant or strange, by comparing them with media fandom practices, which may feel more familiar. Guiding youth to compare communities and think through ways to improve or remix their practices can be a productive pathway for making sense of the academic disciplines. For example, teachers can take up a participatory fandom lens to help youth understand disciplinary conversations happening on social media (e.g. the controversy around Charlotte the Stingray’s pregnancy in March 2024), or schools can take up fandom formats like conventions to help youth dialogue around current disciplinary topics (e.g. a school academic history conference including symposium panels moderated by historians at local universities).

Integrating fandom into the classroom sounds exciting—but we know it’s not always straightforward. From your perspective, what are some of the challenges educators face when trying to incorporate fandom-based practices in their teaching?

As educators who have been teaching with fandoms for a long time, we absolutely understand the challenges. In Chapter 8 “Tackling Barriers to Fandom-Based Teaching,” we walk readers through a series of questions that educators have asked us about this kind of work. We give strategies for advocating with one’s administration, even in light of standardized curricula. We talk about ways that educators can bring fandom media into classroom spaces even if they are not familiar with those fandoms themselves. We consider how to balance issues of mature content with issues of censorship. We guide readers through issues of student resistance to publishing their work in fandom communities. We talk readers through suggestions of ways to engage youth with local conventions — or ways to create your own!

How did you hear about the OTW and what do you see its role as?

We are obsessed with OTW! This may not be surprising, but we first encountered OTW as fanfiction readers. We love how this platform is built for fans by fans, and have a special appreciation of how it is organized in a bottom-up way that lifts up fan-created genres (e.g. Magnifico & Jones, 2025). Additionally, Karis is a big fan of Naomi Novik’s writing. At a local author talk, she learned more about Novik’s role in the platform’s founding. This led her to explore current academic work on fandoms in the JTWC. Later, Karis went on to publish her own work in the JTWC. We hope that new trajectories of media and fandom studies continue to remain in close conversation with the field of education, engaging in interdisciplinary conversation and research, because we believe this strengthens our understanding of fandoms and their implications across fields.

What fandom things have inspired you the most?

We have been most inspired by fan acts that move the world toward justice. We are excited by fandoms that bring attention to issues of representation and work to make sure that all kinds of people are represented in creative and fanworks. We love fandoms that think about how to make communities more inclusive and are drawn to fan communities that focus on opening doors for everyone to participate instead of being gatekeepers who want to limit fandoms to only the most diehard fans or exclude groups of people from participating. What inspires us most is when fandoms can be spaces that bring people together in order to follow their passions, and perhaps even change the world.


We encourage suggestions from fans for future guest posts, so contact us if you have someone in mind! Or if you’d like, you can check out earlier guest posts.

Love Life

13 Sep 2025 10:42 am
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The state of the world depressed me so much yesterday that I spent the day binging a Netflix series called Love Life.

Love Life starts out with that age-old addage that everybody is looking for their perfect soul mate and proceeds from there into the quaint rituals of Millennial couplings, spread out over 10 half-hour episodes. The show got canceled after two seasons.

There were things about the show I really liked and things about it that irritated the hell out of me. Among the things that irritated me—

The second season focuses on the romantic misadventures of a young Black male protagonist.

When he meets the woman of his dreams, she tells him, "Honestly, I just can't dance in a room full of white people. They make me feel like I'm on display."

And the couple flirts by googling "ugly white babies."

###

Now!

If you showed a white couple flirting by googling "ugly black babies," you'd be portraying ignorant racist creeps. There would be no cute, ironic subtext to it.

But this Black couple, we're given to understand, is hip & adorable.

This kind of double standard is absolutely fucked.

Either nobody should be allowed to make these kinds of racially motivated digs or everybody should be allowed to make these kinds of racially motivated digs.

Sean baker filming in penang

13 Sep 2025 02:32 pm
[syndicated profile] moviessubreddit_feed

Posted by /u/robot1096

I was in the restaurant figuring out what to eat then found crew with cameras. Didn't know who he was until I saw him close. Ofcourse the crew are not allowing to take photos. Is it illegal to film in public space? Can I disclose the exact location will it cause any problem? Also who the actress is? While I was watching the crew asked me to leave all I was doing is watching?

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