halfcactus

bluapapilio

Libro.fm

Goodreads

StoryGraph

Summary: In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life's questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family's fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest for the ultimate answer.

My thoughts: Somehow this did not feel like just 4 hours, it takes you on a whole journey and they really didn't go that far I think. It follows Minli but you also get lots of other stories along the way told by others that are interconnected and I liked every single one. I was so impressed by this work and am excited to read more of this author's stuff. And to reread this someday!

The narration by Janet Song was fantastic too.

Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Rereadable: 🇾

My rating: 5/5

ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly sunny and mild. :D

The stump grinder guy has come and gone. He did an excellent job. The stump in front of the garden shed is gone and the hole mostly filled, though I'll add some top soil to smooth it out more. The east path is nearly smooth, might need a bit of raking. I'm particularly impressed that a ring of daffodils around the plump stump is still there! I had expected to lose those, so the precision is noteworthy. The parking lot is also nearly smooth. He got right up to the edge of the sidewalk and rock wall, although he advised there are some buried rocks and concrete that we didn't know about. I may need to rake some areas, and certainly need to see about removing the last stubs from the sidewalk to recreate that defensive zone. My partner Doug plans to drive over the parking lot to press it down some before ordering a load of fresh gravel to top it. Progress!

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches. Cardinals are singing.

I put out water for the birds.

.

Current Mood: busy

rynling

Moonlit Waters
https://nocmar.bandcamp.com/album/moonlit-waters

This is very chill and ambient dungeon synth that's largely unremarkable save for how relaxing it is. Still, I will always prefer human-made lofi dungeon beats over the madness-inducing AI slop that has infested YouTube.

My favorite track is "7. Ancient Birchwood."

linky

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Current Mood: groggy

marysue_thesparkle

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Current Mood: silly
Current Location: parents' home
Current Music: "My Darling, My Companion" by Jamie Paige

probablynotbees posting in

newcomers

Hello all!

I'm very new to Dreamwidth (showed up with the latest wave of Tumblr ex-pats) but thinking about using it to post some of my media-criticism thoughts that I've been collecting in a private journal for the last year or so.

However, I want to make sure I can tag these appropriately, so I have some questions.

1. What's the etiquette for posting tagging discussion of a piece of media that paints it in a negative light?

On Tumblr, it's often considered rude to bash something in its main tag, so if I wanted to make a post criticizing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I'd tag it something like #mcu hate so that it doesn't show up in the main #mcu tag where people are trying to enjoy their thing.

(I'm primarily asking because I have some quite critical pieces about Harry Potter.)

2. Does Dreamwidth allow users to block tags? Is this something I should anticipate when tagging entries?

On Tumblr I'd tag something like #eating disorder / to hide it from people who are avoiding that topic, including the slash so that the tag isn't searchable (on my own blog or in general). Is that a thing here?

I think that's all I've got for now, but I'll probably think of more later.

glitteryv posting in

recthething

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool other kinds of fanworks/fancrafts/fanart/fics/fanvids/podfics have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.

princessofgeeks

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otw_news_feed

Posted by an

https://www.transformativeworks.org/transformative-works-and-cultures-releases-issue-no-47/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=280595

Transformative Works and Cultures has released Issue No. 47, a special issue on Gaming Fandom guest edited by Hayley McCullough and Ashley P. Jones.

Essays in this issue explore fan creativity in gaming fandoms and discuss a number of fan-made works and productions, including fanfiction, fanart, cosplay, mods, and fan-made games.

Each issue includes articles representing theory, fannish meta, and book reviews, such as:

We accept submissions for our general issues on a rolling basis. We particularly invite fans to submit Symposium articles.

TWC’s issues in progress include:

We accept submissions for our general issues on a rolling basis. The general issue is always released on September 15.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/transformative-works-and-cultures-releases-issue-no-47/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=280595

queenslayerbee

I answered some questions I got on an ask game I posted here.

Cassandra Cain

How I feel about this character. She's one of my favourite DC characters, and one I consider amongst the best yet tragically most underused in the franchise. Her original run was superb (even if it declined in quality overtime, its final arc and her character development remains better and shows more promise than most of what DC's done outside its flagship heroes.
All the people I ship romantically with this character. So many women LMAO. I'm not kidding. Way too many. I have a WIP called "Five women Cassandra Cain slept with after breaking up with the love of her life" and containing myself or even picking just five was a struggle. Kate Kane, Barbara Gordon (in an unrequited love way tbf), Stephanie Brown, Rose Wilson, Diana, Onyx, Brenda Miller… Name me a female character I can see as at least a little bit queer and there's at least a 50/50 chance I can picture them together.
My non-romantic OTP for this character. In canon, Barbara. In my own imagines where I can totally see them becoming best friends, Mia Dearden. Oh, and Tai'Darshan.
My unpopular opinion about this character. Bruce is no better with her than with his other charges, and certainly no "girl dad." And I see Stephcass as doomed and incompatible, in the end.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. In my wildest dreams, her corruption(-then-return) arc would've like. Actually good lmao.

Frodo

How I feel about this character. I've only read LOTR once, a few years ago (in newsletter format, when Dracula Daily and its imitators were all the rage). I can't say I have in-depth thoughts about him (or about much about the saga), but I liked him, more than I expected. I once talked about seeing similarities between him and my first original protagonist, actually.
All the people I ship romantically with this character. I don't strictly ship it myself (to me shipping requires actively seeking out the ship, fanworks, etc.), but it's easy to see why people like Frodo/Sam. Though if I were incline to shipping something with Frodo, I think Frodo/Gollum is where it's at lol. I love a good dark-mirror pairing.
My non-romantic OTP for this character. Golum, for the same reason.
My unpopular opinion about this character. Well, the LOTR fans I've met in person have all gone on about how Frodo isn't All That Great and Samwise is The REAL (Sole) Hero of LOTR, or a much better and character, and I disagree with that. Sam is admirable in many fronts, but I find Frodo very aspirational and, frankly, more interesting.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. I can't think of anything. The one change I always want to do to LOTR is basically "hey what about putting more, and more relevant, women in here?", so I guess that's what I would've done with his companions lol. Or with Frodo himself. Bring in Frodelia.

Willow Rosenberg

How I feel about this character. Willow is a character I sometimes saw myself reflected in a bit too much for my liking, in ways that maybe aren't obvious at first sight, which could be uncomfortable sometimes LOL. That said, with every rewatch I've done since I first watched the show, I've found myself loving her more and more. I'd consider her one of my top favourite characters in the entire 'verse. This could mean I'm winning the self-esteem war xD
All the people I ship romantically with this character. Tara, Faith, Kennedy, Kendra, Buffy, Amy, Anya… I'd probably add more women to the list if I had the show more recent LOL.
My non-romantic OTP for this character. Buffy. And although I'm saying this a bit begrudgingly because I do have my issues with the guy (though not as many/not the same as other people's), Xander LOL. Their scene in the season 6 finale always made me sob.
My unpopular opinion about this character. I don't even know where to begin LOL. I feel Willow, like many others in this 'verse, is a very polarising character, so every opinion seems fair game. I think liking Killow/Wennedy (?) is relatively unpopular, though.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. I have seen people say they wish the show had done more with her Jewish faith. On the one hand, I think it could've been interesting to explore something like that vis a vis paganism, but honestly she never felt all that observant to me and I don't know that I'd believe any ~crisis of faith stuff with her, on that front. But that could've been interesting too, showing her reject cultural and religious practices, etc.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Ghost - Mary On A Cross

rogueslayer452

++ We finally got the teaser trailer for Dune Messiah (yes, it's titled Dune: Part Three, but it's adapting Dune Messiah instead of part of the first book like the first two movies and therefore I will call it as such). First, this music in this trailer is phenomenal, just like with the previous trailers for these films it really demonstrates the grand scale of how epic this story is. Secondly, even just seeing little bits has me very, very stoked, especially the mentioning of Ghanima and Leto II's names. I may have some nitpicks with Denis Villeneuve's creative choices here and there throughout these movies, but it doesn't lessen my excitement to see this one. If he manages to get this right, the reactions to it are going to be very interesting, indeed.

++ Felicia Day will crowdfund for a movie spin-off of her webseries, The Guild.

Again, a pleasantly unexpected surprise announcement that totally caught me off guard! The Guild remains one of my favorite first ever webseries that I watched, and I even have the DVDs that were later made available to purchase because I adored it so much. I know that there was a musical stage reading that was done of The Guild with Felicia recently, so naturally this would be the next step. I hope the crowdfunding will be successful so she can make this happen.

++ Girl From Nowhere is a Thai mystery thriller drama that I've recently gotten into. It's an anthology centering around a mysterious girl named Nanno who transfers to different private schools each episode to expose the lies and misdeeds of the students and faculty. It's utterly fascinating. Nanno, who is quickly revealed to the audience as a mysterious immortal entity, is delightfully unhinged, even more so in the second season, and I like that the acts of revenge are done as a way for characters to experience karma of their wrongdoings. Although the drama premiered in 2018 and has two seasons, Girl From Nowhere: The Reset just recently premiered as a re-imagined reboot of the franchise, theorized to be set in an alternate universe with another girl as Nanno, this time played by Becky Armstrong (known mostly from being paired with Freen Sarocha in various Thai GL dramas). I have only just discovered this drama franchise, so I like both actresses who play Nanno. In general, this drama is dark and twisted, but in a fascinating way that I do so enjoy.

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Music: Fiona Apple - Limp

grimmrow

galadhir

90 discussion questions. 1. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go and why?

There are so many places! If I'm imagining myself being as physically limited as I am now - whereby I find walking difficult for more than about half an hour at best - then a cruise might be best.

I would like to cruise up the Danube and see the painted churches of Romania. But then again I would also like to cruise down the Nile and see Luxor. I could take a few lessons with Egyptian Raqs Sharqi teachers and get a new outfit while I was there.

If, on this imaginary trip, I'm also imagining myself as physically fit again, I'd like to go to Mexico and see what remains of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. Or perhaps to Peru to visit Machu Picchu

Alternatively, my son would like to go to Japan, so perhaps I would use my imaginary trip to take him there.

marysue_thesparkle

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Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: parents' home
Current Music: "INFINITE DEATH" by tiramira

vriddy

For a few months last year, I set up a weekly planning/review system related to my writing habits. I'm not totally sure when I stopped, but I think it might have been because I've internalised a lot of what I was learning. My goal was to teach myself to write more often, so I'd start the week's planning with "write 8 times this week" with the understanding that 15 minutes puttering around a project counts as a writing session (can be brainstorming, writing, editing, organising my notes if my brain struggles with the other things, so the project at least stays familiar in my head). I wish I could sustain like 4h writing marathons, but at this current point in my life, logistics and health stuff means longer sessions are just not happening. That's why I've been exploring whether writing more often can work for me.

As part of the planning, one of the questions I was told to write the answer for is "What are the obstacles?" That's something I always consider now. For example, if I have family visiting, am travelling, or preparing for a stressful presentation, whatever, it's going to affect my focus. So how am I going to mitigate that? Maybe it's fairer to plan for 5 sessions after all. Or maybe I should assume a session's length of 5 minutes is fair for that week, even if that means just spending 5 minutes rereading what I wrote before to keep the story alive in my head. Maybe both, maybe something else. Preparing and writing down the mitigations as part of the planning really helped me because I don't always think straight in the middle of it all.

Anyway, two obstacles I nearly always ended up writing down are:

Can't make myself focus
Can't make myself start

Like, I have a very good system for writing in the morning, it's part of my routine, but later in the day nearly always felt like bodyslamming against a wall. In the end, the solutions that turned out to be effective were the same for both. And after a while, I just printed them out so I have a poster with the list beside my computer! (Not that I always remember to look at it 🥲 but after a couple of days of sighing and doing nothing, my eyes will usually land on it and I'll go, oh!! Who knew!!!!!).

Anyway, here are the tips I landed on to mitigate this in a way that works well with my brain:

Sanctuary mindset
Deep breaths, 3-5 times
Quiet music with no lyrics. If that's not enough, same but with headphones.
Separate computer profile for writing
Wifi off

( Digging a bit more into the details and also why I think this works well for my specific brain and issues )

ysabetwordsmith

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 "Tutorials" on

getting_started.

* Posted "Gaming" on

girlgamers.

* Posted "Ostara" on

goddessfolk.

Current Mood: busy

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted and commented on

bnha_fans.

Commented on

add_a_writer.

Commented on

joicon.

Commented on

getyourwordsout.

Commented on

anime_manga.

Commented on

booknook.

Edit: Also signal-boosting

newcomers /

the_great_tumblr_purge where

soc_puppet has been posting helpful Dreamwidth tutorials, since the latest Tumblr hiccup (that TPTB since temporarily reverted) caused another surge of new people popping by Dreamwidth :)

soc_puppet posting in

newcomers

This is a reproduction of a post I already made on Tumblr, but with that platform's future once again uncertain, I figured it'd be good to copy over here, as well.

Together with figuring out what to even post, one of the things that sucks about moving social media and/or blogging platforms is not knowing if there will be enough activity for you at the new place. Be it from old friends, new friends, or interactive communities, there’s a lot of ways you could find activity at a new place, but finding at least two of those categories can be tricky in itself.

Luckily, Dreamwidth has a few shortcuts for you already!

Adding new people to your reading page and finding new friends:

addme: Straight up a place to find new “mutuals” on Dreamwidth, with no particular focus; a good place to start!

addme_fandom: Same as above, but with a specific fandom focus! Interested in a particular fandom right now and want more people to talk about it with? Here’s a good place to find fellow fans!

findingfriends: Similar to the addme communities but with a more in-depth approach, including things like posting style and what sort of interactions you’re looking for. Takes more brain power than the addme comms, but I imagine that the connections result in a higher level of compatibility.

Newcomers' Introduction and Friending Meme: A very in-depth adding meme, hosted by

newcomers! Includes a spot near the top for other platforms you're on, so it might be useful for finding Tumblr mutuals.

fandomcalendar: This is a community dedicated to announcing fandom events, which can include fandom-specific friending memes. (I’ll be linking this one again later, as well.)

Getting started on Dreamwidth:

newcomers: A community dedicated specifically to helping Dreamwdth newcomers find their way around on a new site! I believe it was launched around the time Cohost was being shut down, so a lot of the people there now are Cohost “refugees”, but it’s still a good place to start.

the_great_tumblr_purge: A community dedicated specifically to Tumblr refugees, started around the time of the new content restrictions in 2018. If you've got questions specific to being former Tumblr user, this might be a good place to ask them, though Newcomers is also happy to help.

dw_news: The official Dreamwidth news community. I highly recommend following this one and the next one, which will help you keep up with what’s going on around Dreamwidth. DW News typically only posts a few times a year, but maybe that’ll change if a bunch of new users come by...

dw_maintenance: Keep up with the mechanical goings-on at Dreamwidth! If there’s a planned site outage or if DW is updating code, you can find out more here; if there’s something funky going on at Dreamwidth but the site is generally still usable, it’s also a good place to check.

dw_advocacy: Want to know more about how Dreamwidth is fighting for our rights? Follow this community to keep tabs on what bad bills Dreamwidth and NetChoice are battling, and if there's anything you can do to help!

Things to do on Dreamwidth:

dw_community_promo: The official Dreamwidth community for promoting Dreamwidth communities! People will promote new communities here, as well as events going on in established communities. A good place to find out about new things in general.

followfriday: A place to share links to check out once a week. Did you find a cool community that you want more people to know about? Link it in the comments here! The host,

ysabetwordsmith, shares a themed post every week with posts, events, and communities related to said theme.

justcreate: A place where you can talk about things you’re working on. There’s a weekly check-in/reporting post, but sometimes people also organize body doubling sessions and other productivity-boosting things.

queerly_beloved: An anti-exclusionist queer space to get together and talk about all things queer, including intersectional matters. Hosts a weekly recommendations thread, but more and other content is very welcome!

allbingo: Do you like filling out bingo cards for just about anything? This community is for all things bingo cards, fandom related and otherwise! Put together a bingo card for making mood themes, post topics, or even bird watching (featuring your local feathered friends), and share your results!

Fandom things to do on Dreamwidth:

fandomcalendar: I linked this above, and I’m linking it again: Want to know about fandom events that are going on at Dreamwidth? This is a good place to do it! It’ll also fill up your reading page in a hurry; you might be surprised at how many events are going on at Dreamwidth, or are at least connected there!

fictional_fans: A community for all fans and fandoms. If you’ve got a post you want to make about fandom in general, or a specific fandom that doesn’t have its own community, this might be a good place to check out.

fandom_on_dw: Pretty much the same as above, honestly, but it’s good that there’s more than one place that hosts this kind of thing!

Anything else?

Search Interests: Individuals and communities can have lists of things they’re “interested in”. If more than one person has that thing listed, it may turn into a hyperlink that you can click to find other accounts with! You can also use the Search Interests function pretty much the same way. Simply type “cats” into the search bar, hit enter, and a bunch of accounts that have “cats” listed as an interest will pop up! Click through the various tabs at the top to separate accounts out into individual users, communities, and more.

The Latest Things Page: Literally the latest things posted publicly anywhere on Dreamwidth. There’s a list of commonly used tags at the top, if you want to narrow things down at all, but in the mean time, it can be pretty neat to see what J. Random Dreamwidth User just posted about! This is about the closest Dreamwidth gets to surfing random tags on Tumblr.

The Explore Tab: Useful links for Dreamwidth in general. In addition to linking to the Latest Things Page, it can take you to a random account, the FAQ page, and more! Worth checking out if you’re feeling lost.

Most Useful Communities list, as curated by

ysabetwordsmith; this has a lot of other options that I either didn't know about, or didn't feel like I had room to include; this post is already longer than I like to go without a cut tag or two 😅

The comments on this post: People in this community are pretty helpful, and that includes sharing their own suggestions in the comments! If you have something specific you're looking for, you might even ask for help here; who knows, we might just have a good lead for you!

And that’s all I can think of at the moment! This should help you get started at least, and help fill out your reading page a bit.

cahn

This last weekend was a lot, church-and-music-wise. All good!

( Organ workshop, youth orchestra, stake conference music, stake leadership change )

cornerofmadness

I was going to but I started to feel very nauseated and cold. Came home sat down to play a game, woke up an hour later. I'm feeling a little better but not great. Not going was the right call.

Got the midterm grades in. Can't wait for the crying tomorrow.

I looked up the Ohioana book festival because I know it's up and coming but there was a library staff change and the festival was canceled. I'm bummed and angry. I didn't make it last year for reasons and now I don't know if it'll ever be back.

What I Just Finished Reading:

The Snow Child - depressing

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. Would have been better without the misogyny and sexual abuse (but would it be Ellison without the misogyny?)

What I am Currently Reading:

Violet Thistlewaite is not a villain any more so far, I really like this one

With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee

What I Plan to Read Next: La Grand Familia, and Luna Park history

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Inspector George Gently

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halfcactus

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Page Summary

bluapapilio - 🎧 Audiobook Check-in: "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon"
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
rynling - Even More Chill Writing Music
linky - Community Thursday
marysue_thesparkle - Attract {fanfic}
probablynotbees in newcomers - Couple questions about tagging etiquette
glitteryv in recthething - Community Recs Post!
princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry rec
otw_news_feed - Transformative Works and Cultures Releases Issue No. 47
queenslayerbee - character asks
rogueslayer452 - "Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it."
grimmrow - My bdsmtest.org results
galadhir - (no subject)
marysue_thesparkle - This Is The Debt I Pay {fanfic}
vriddy - My tips for improving my writing focus and/or helping myself get started
ysabetwordsmith - Community Thursdays
vriddy - Community Thursdayyyy
soc_puppet in newcomers - Finding Friends and Things to Do on Dreamwidth
cahn - (no subject)
cornerofmadness - Did not make yoga

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Network

🎧 Audiobook Check-in: "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon"

Birdfeeding

Even More Chill Writing Music

Community Thursday

Attract {fanfic}

Couple questions about tagging etiquette

Community Recs Post!

Heated Rivalry rec

Transformative Works and Cultures Releases Issue No. 47

character asks

"Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it."

My bdsmtest.org results

(no subject)

This Is The Debt I Pay {fanfic}

My tips for improving my writing focus and/or helping myself get started

Community Thursdays

Community Thursdayyyy

Finding Friends and Things to Do on Dreamwidth

(no subject)

Did not make yoga

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