Follow Friday 11-21-25
Nov. 21st, 2025 01:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
followfridayGot any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).
Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".
Critical Role: Campaign 4, Episode 7
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:25 amsettiaiAs with previous posts about the current campaign of Critical Role, this will be a combination of quotes, random thoughts, and some speculation. And it's obviously full of spoilers (albeit vague ones in places).
( Spoilers under the cut. )
( Spoilers under the cut. )
Thirty Days, 30K: Day Twenty
Nov. 20th, 2025 05:15 pmlizvogelStarted the day with writing today and just kept doing it. 2296 words!
The Big Thing was a lot easier & more fun today, and is most of the way done now. Some reactions/follow-up to do, and then I can get on to the Next Thing.
There aren't many more Next Things left. End of the book is in sight, though I can't get complacent about it.
The month is two-thirds done, and I'm more than four-fifths (81%!) toward my word-count goal. It's going to be interesting to see if I hit it before I hit the end of the book. (Still aiming to do both this month.)
24,382 new words and counting.
ETA: Make that 2905 words today. 83%. 24,991 and counting.
The Big Thing was a lot easier & more fun today, and is most of the way done now. Some reactions/follow-up to do, and then I can get on to the Next Thing.
There aren't many more Next Things left. End of the book is in sight, though I can't get complacent about it.
The month is two-thirds done, and I'm more than four-fifths (81%!) toward my word-count goal. It's going to be interesting to see if I hit it before I hit the end of the book. (Still aiming to do both this month.)
24,382 new words and counting.
ETA: Make that 2905 words today. 83%. 24,991 and counting.
Legends of Tomorrow, Destiny
Nov. 20th, 2025 05:34 pmbeccaelizabethToday I rewatched more Legends of Tommorrow.
My blu ray player made funny noises and then glitched out completely over about fifteen seconds of Destiny. I think I shall buy a second box set of Legends before I buy a new player. It seems likely to be cheaper.
The episodes get really good toward the end of the season, and it is having a coherent argument about Destiny and time travel and There Are No Strings On Me
and I get it
and they still should not have killed Snart.
Next they will be having a big long story arc meditating on the atemporality of grief and how we time loop on that one worst moment plus how we remember the best but would have to live with the worst
and it's really good and uses the genre and metaphors well
and also they should have brought back Snart.
It's good writing of a sort that makes you really want them to have written it differently.
( Read more... )
As I recall the last episode of the season does something temporally ridiculous
and also I have been awake a reasonable amount of hours and am yawny now
so I shall watch that one later.
Still very good in many parts and excellent material elsewhere.
My blu ray player made funny noises and then glitched out completely over about fifteen seconds of Destiny. I think I shall buy a second box set of Legends before I buy a new player. It seems likely to be cheaper.
The episodes get really good toward the end of the season, and it is having a coherent argument about Destiny and time travel and There Are No Strings On Me
and I get it
and they still should not have killed Snart.
Next they will be having a big long story arc meditating on the atemporality of grief and how we time loop on that one worst moment plus how we remember the best but would have to live with the worst
and it's really good and uses the genre and metaphors well
and also they should have brought back Snart.
It's good writing of a sort that makes you really want them to have written it differently.
( Read more... )
As I recall the last episode of the season does something temporally ridiculous
and also I have been awake a reasonable amount of hours and am yawny now
so I shall watch that one later.
Still very good in many parts and excellent material elsewhere.
For Leonard, Darko, and Burton Watson
Nov. 20th, 2025 08:04 amjazzfish in poetryFor Leonard, Darko, and Burton Watson
by Ursula K. Le Guin
A black and white cat
on May grass waves his tail, suns his belly
among wallflowers.
I am reading a Chinese poet
called The Old Man Who Does As He Pleases.
The cat is aware of the writing
of swallows
on the white sky.
We are both old and doing what pleases us
in the garden. Now I am writing
and the cat
is sleeping.
Whose poem is this?
by Ursula K. Le Guin
A black and white cat
on May grass waves his tail, suns his belly
among wallflowers.
I am reading a Chinese poet
called The Old Man Who Does As He Pleases.
The cat is aware of the writing
of swallows
on the white sky.
We are both old and doing what pleases us
in the garden. Now I am writing
and the cat
is sleeping.
Whose poem is this?
The Mighty Nein 1x03
Nov. 20th, 2025 01:55 amsettiaiContinuing on my previously posted thoughts about episode 1x02, I just finished watching episode 1x03.
( Spoilers under the cut. )
( Spoilers under the cut. )
Thirty Days, 30K: Day Nineteen
Nov. 19th, 2025 09:07 pmlizvogelHad a kick-ass writing session yesterday (2045 words!), and still finished in time to ice the cookies I'm taking to family turkey-day. That was after a morning where I absolutely could not get started; it helped a lot when I finally realized I'd forgotten my morning Red Bull. *facepalm* That, and throwing myself at the page. (But maybe mostly the Red Bull.)
That was the lead-in to the Big Thing I've been looking forward to writing. So today was the Big Thing, and... four hours to barely drag out 1092 words? C'mon, brain! This is supposed to be the fun part!
Probably didn't help that I'd prewritten a bit that turned out not to fit ( spoiler ), so I had to rework that and try to save as much of my clever wording as possible. And then figure out how to get everybody where I needed them when they wouldn't naturally be there. And it didn't help that I had a bunch of tasks to do this morning that put me in a non-writing headspace. And that LittleGirl really wanted to sit on my lap and purr. (That "help", I'll take.)
Still, it's another thousand words. That ain't crap. Maybe tomorrow I can manage to have fun with the rest of the fun part?
22,086 new words and counting.
That was the lead-in to the Big Thing I've been looking forward to writing. So today was the Big Thing, and... four hours to barely drag out 1092 words? C'mon, brain! This is supposed to be the fun part!
Probably didn't help that I'd prewritten a bit that turned out not to fit ( spoiler ), so I had to rework that and try to save as much of my clever wording as possible. And then figure out how to get everybody where I needed them when they wouldn't naturally be there. And it didn't help that I had a bunch of tasks to do this morning that put me in a non-writing headspace. And that LittleGirl really wanted to sit on my lap and purr. (That "help", I'll take.)
Still, it's another thousand words. That ain't crap. Maybe tomorrow I can manage to have fun with the rest of the fun part?
22,086 new words and counting.
The Mighty Nein 1x02
Nov. 19th, 2025 07:52 pmsettiaiContinuing on my previously posted thoughts about episode 1x01, I just finished watching episode 1x02.
( Spoilers under the cut. )
( Spoilers under the cut. )
Stargate
Nov. 19th, 2025 12:30 pmsettiaiOkay, this is definitely not news that I was expecting to see today. Amazon has apparently greenlit a new Stargate series set in the same continuity as the past ones, so it's not a reboot.
A lot of familiar names from both the original movie and the shows have signed on as producers. Martin Gero, Brad Wright, Joseph Mallozzi, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich...
A lot of familiar names from both the original movie and the shows have signed on as producers. Martin Gero, Brad Wright, Joseph Mallozzi, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich...
(no subject)
Nov. 19th, 2025 03:41 ambeccaelizabethYesterday I sort of Didn't. There were tasks but I didn't. There was TV in the player but I didn't. There was audio adventure I've listened to the first episode of and it even ended on a cliffhanger but I didn't.
Eventually I got enough sleep my watch even thought it was enough, and then I tried using the Wrath of the Righteous wiki to find any equipment I've been missing (not much, mostly path specific), nd to choose an endgame set. It's tempting to just put all the bits from the DLC on at once, but the buffs don't really stack and some of it is going to be better for casters or melee etc. So I picked out a set and an alternate set for a caster and then picked some things to prestidigitate on top to make it even slightly visually acceptable, because you can have So Many Colors So Much if you just pick for the stats. And because a staff made of two snakes intertwined is a bit Much sometimes?
It gets boring once you've done Inevitable Excess because the Flawless versions of equipment are so much better you can't really afford not to use them, but they're also just the most basic stat things. Like sure you need the +8 to all mental stats and immunity to mind effecting, but it's boring. +8 to physical, yes okay, but all the belts are boring. +7 to resistance and then some Flawless on top? Well see also boring. And the Flawless ring you get early on once you've done Inevitable Excess is basically why my character survived Core but it is Still So Boring.
Magic items in Pathfinder have the required ones (natural armour, deflection, resistance, stats) and then the things that seem like actual magic instead of just Number Go Up. I like the Unchained version where Number Go Up *anyway* and you just get less money for magic, because then you can put interesting things in those slots instead.
Also it's a real drag on a roleplay level that there is so often a mathematically *correct* set of things to wear and choices to make. The Challenge Ratings make assumptions about you making those Correct choices and without them the GM can way overshoot. And the higher the difficulty goes, the more likely you are to lose TPK if you haven't done that very narrowly Correct thing everywhere.
Making up stories together is a different game than number go up.
And the way the DLC items are so much better is just pay to win with more hurdles if you think about it too hard. Cool adventure hurdles sometimes, but still.
But there was no specific reason to make that complain right now. I just woke up and did the Tuesday tasks and apparently this complain was in my brain queue.
I shall go and have my Wednesday breakfast instead.
Eventually I got enough sleep my watch even thought it was enough, and then I tried using the Wrath of the Righteous wiki to find any equipment I've been missing (not much, mostly path specific), nd to choose an endgame set. It's tempting to just put all the bits from the DLC on at once, but the buffs don't really stack and some of it is going to be better for casters or melee etc. So I picked out a set and an alternate set for a caster and then picked some things to prestidigitate on top to make it even slightly visually acceptable, because you can have So Many Colors So Much if you just pick for the stats. And because a staff made of two snakes intertwined is a bit Much sometimes?
It gets boring once you've done Inevitable Excess because the Flawless versions of equipment are so much better you can't really afford not to use them, but they're also just the most basic stat things. Like sure you need the +8 to all mental stats and immunity to mind effecting, but it's boring. +8 to physical, yes okay, but all the belts are boring. +7 to resistance and then some Flawless on top? Well see also boring. And the Flawless ring you get early on once you've done Inevitable Excess is basically why my character survived Core but it is Still So Boring.
Magic items in Pathfinder have the required ones (natural armour, deflection, resistance, stats) and then the things that seem like actual magic instead of just Number Go Up. I like the Unchained version where Number Go Up *anyway* and you just get less money for magic, because then you can put interesting things in those slots instead.
Also it's a real drag on a roleplay level that there is so often a mathematically *correct* set of things to wear and choices to make. The Challenge Ratings make assumptions about you making those Correct choices and without them the GM can way overshoot. And the higher the difficulty goes, the more likely you are to lose TPK if you haven't done that very narrowly Correct thing everywhere.
Making up stories together is a different game than number go up.
And the way the DLC items are so much better is just pay to win with more hurdles if you think about it too hard. Cool adventure hurdles sometimes, but still.
But there was no specific reason to make that complain right now. I just woke up and did the Tuesday tasks and apparently this complain was in my brain queue.
I shall go and have my Wednesday breakfast instead.
If zombies then...
Nov. 18th, 2025 03:09 ambeccaelizabethToday's dream was one of those where Everything Is Zombies
only the scary bit is gradually realising
you is zombies.
Only once it did The Reveal it went all, okay but I think I can talk and I can hear these other dead people perfectly well, so what are those guys with the flamethrowers complaining about? We must be speaking Deadish. It'll be because of the slurring and loss of some structures, new sound shapes, using groans and clacks as word forms. Better get some translators in. And we can still type! Time to fill in forms and get reasonable accomodations up in here!
And then we put candidates up for election and because there were so many zombies the zombie representatives won most seats, so we were going to go sort out zombie rights in zombie parliament, as you do.
Of course it being a horror movies kind of night the first wave of elected zombies just got flamethrowered, but we actually anticipated that and had half hanging back to see what would happen.
What happened is I woke up and realised I need way more ribena and actual nutrition than I got yesterday so now there is feeling zombies.
But I kind of like that my asleep brain takes zombie classics and just goes, well how do we get these people's needs met?
only the scary bit is gradually realising
you is zombies.
Only once it did The Reveal it went all, okay but I think I can talk and I can hear these other dead people perfectly well, so what are those guys with the flamethrowers complaining about? We must be speaking Deadish. It'll be because of the slurring and loss of some structures, new sound shapes, using groans and clacks as word forms. Better get some translators in. And we can still type! Time to fill in forms and get reasonable accomodations up in here!
And then we put candidates up for election and because there were so many zombies the zombie representatives won most seats, so we were going to go sort out zombie rights in zombie parliament, as you do.
Of course it being a horror movies kind of night the first wave of elected zombies just got flamethrowered, but we actually anticipated that and had half hanging back to see what would happen.
What happened is I woke up and realised I need way more ribena and actual nutrition than I got yesterday so now there is feeling zombies.
But I kind of like that my asleep brain takes zombie classics and just goes, well how do we get these people's needs met?
Progression Ahoy!
Nov. 17th, 2025 08:23 pmglinda7971 / 10000 (79.71%)
I held off on making this post until today, as it’s my last day of annual leave, so the last day of my dedicated writing time. Writing has been going well, I’ve now written as many words as I had by the end of the year last year so I’m officially caught up. As I started November 6000 words ahead of where I was last year, I’m hoping to maintain that, ideally I’d like to be able to say I wrote 10,000 more words this year than last but we’ll call that a stretch goal! (The return of my fic writing ability/motivation means that I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to spend December writing a bunch of treats and pinch hits, thereby getting a decent word count for the final month.) An interesting thing about this year’s writing is that it hasn’t consumed everything else. For a start, I’ve finished the non-fiction book I was reading this month, and I’ve started another.
My other personal target for this month was that I wanted to finish the little crochet crab that I’m making. It’s the first proper amigurumi that I’ve tackled so getting it successfully finished will tick a bunch of boxes. It goes in fits and starts because I keep having to take it to my knitting group to get help. (Being a very beginner crocheter and working between UK and US instructions can be complicated - I was taught by someone who uses US terms, one of the ladies at knitting uses UK terms and the other is Dutch!) So I have finished the body and a leg, and I’ve made half a claw but now I’m stuck until I can get to knitting and have someone show me what’s meant by ‘turn’ in this context. I have, however, found a good video for doing magic circle so hopefully by the time I finish the legs - there’s eight - I’ll have that down pat. I’m travelling for work this week, so I’m hoping to get the rest of the legs and both eyes done while I’m away. That way I can ask about both the claw and the eyestalks while I’m there and get both sorted out. It’s fun looking at the progress that I’ve made on it, I’m quite pleased with the stitch texture I’m getting now, and I’m pleased to have mastered decreasing but already I can see where I’ve improved and got better. Like, I’m having moments of realising ‘oh that’s why keeping the stitch count right was so hard’ and ‘oh that was silly, of course I should do it this way instead’. (I did, as predicted end up breaking the flismy little plastic hook that came with the kit - my tension is tight! - but actually now that I’ve dug out a metal hook of the correct size I feel that I’m getting on better, I don’t know if it’s just that I was worrying about snapping the old one, or if it’s actually easier with a hook of a different material.) I’ve been zooming through my podcast backlog while I’ve been working on the crab, which has also been quite satisfying.
At the start of last week I kind of felt that I wasn’t making much progress on many things I wanted to have done this week, but looking back on it, I think I’ve done everything I needed to do. There's definitely more things I wanted/intended to do but the time critical stuff - things that needed ordered and bought by deadline, stuff that was expiring both food and digital stuff have been dealt with - has been done, I've added a bunch of lights to places in the unending fight against the lack of light. I got some more cute decorative lights, fairy lights and a snow globe style one. Also while i was tidying out other things, I found some stick on press lights that my dad gave me ages ago and had no idea what I'd do with them, and it dawn on me they'd be ideal for the meter cupboard so now the cupboard with the fuse box and the electric meter and the cupboard where the gas meter lives have little press lights so I don't have to juggle my phone's flashlight when I'm trying to send my meter readings.
I didn’t get my curtains dry cleaned in the end because when I took them in to the dry cleaners, they were like ‘oh no’ because they’re both thermal lined and from Dunelm and apparently they’ve had a run of those where there’s something wrong with the thermal lining, so they stick together in the machine and the lining shreds when you try to separate them again. (Sometimes they’re fine, but they’re not often that they’ve got a special report and letter they give people to get their money back/replacement curtains from Dunelm.) The dry cleaning lady recommended - as mine were dusty rather than actually grubby, I vacuumed them when I took them down - hanging the outside on a nice dry breezy day and giving them a febreeze! I even got my good sewing shears sharpened - now if I could just find my chalk I could get to work on shortening those curtains. Though I do now have...concerns about ironing the new seams...
Thirty Days, 30K: Day Sixteen
Nov. 16th, 2025 11:45 pmlizvogelAnother late evening. I went to writers group today, but writers group is not a conducive atmosphere for writing, for me, so I had to do my words after I got home, after dinner.
And I had to cut about 250 words, because I'd done something that set the wrong mood and my writing-brain screeched to a halt until I fixed it. Which, points for me recognizing that that's what this particular stoppage was due to. (I can't always tell, and my brain is notoriously adamant about not sending memos.) And at least it was only about 250 words, which in the grand scheme of things is not that much.
I ended up with 736 words net. This is the first time this month that I've done less than quota (on a day that I've written at all). I feel a bit bad about that, but (a) I'm about to do an abrupt shift in both mood and action, and I kind of need a mental reset, and (b) I'm tired, and don't want to screw it up. And also, the bit I just finished was emotionally difficult ( because spoiler ), and I should get a reward for that, dammit. A reward other than having to write another 264 words, that is. I've got plenty of margin, I'm still well ahead of par; as long as I don't make a habit of this, I'm fine.
17,827 new words and counting.
And I had to cut about 250 words, because I'd done something that set the wrong mood and my writing-brain screeched to a halt until I fixed it. Which, points for me recognizing that that's what this particular stoppage was due to. (I can't always tell, and my brain is notoriously adamant about not sending memos.) And at least it was only about 250 words, which in the grand scheme of things is not that much.
I ended up with 736 words net. This is the first time this month that I've done less than quota (on a day that I've written at all). I feel a bit bad about that, but (a) I'm about to do an abrupt shift in both mood and action, and I kind of need a mental reset, and (b) I'm tired, and don't want to screw it up. And also, the bit I just finished was emotionally difficult ( because spoiler ), and I should get a reward for that, dammit. A reward other than having to write another 264 words, that is. I've got plenty of margin, I'm still well ahead of par; as long as I don't make a habit of this, I'm fine.
17,827 new words and counting.
