halfcactus | Network

mific posting in

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Jeannie Miller, Teyla Emmagan, John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex
Rating: Gen
Length: 5000-10,000 (best guess) - the individual postcards are mostly text-based, in different fonts, but it's too hard to add it all up. There are 8 or so sets of postcards/images, plus two longer narrative interludes.
Content Notes: Not all of the postcards or notes have text equivalents, so it's not fully accessible. Rodney at one point talks about a relationship he had at uni with an older woman he describes as a "sex addict".
Creator Links: Sholio on AO3, Sholio's own site
Themes: Siblings, Epistolary, Friendship, Family, Team as family, Unconventional format and style

Summary: (more notes than a summary) Contains spoilers for the Season 3 episode "McKay & Mrs. Miller". I might be taking a certain amount of liberty with the timeline; let's assume that a few months went by between "M&MM" and "Return".
This is a very image-intensive story. Illustrations and photos are all by me, aside from one or two photos taken by my husband. A couple of the postcards utilize (heavily Photoshopped) patterns that I got off the Internet to represent fabrics and such, because I didn't have anything suitable.

Reccer's Notes: This is a heartwarming epistolary story in which Teyla and Jeannie (Rodney's sister) write to each other. Eventually the other team members are brought in as well, especially John and Rodney. It's a mix of tales about Jeannie's life, and of the team's, especially Teyla's, adventures, and although the format as a series of postcard/image pages is a little awkward to negotiate, it's very much worth reading. The postcards start off somewhat formally, and quickly become more personal, and one theme is of the correspondence bringing Rodney and Jeannie closer together. It's touching, funny, tinged with the realities and sadnesses of life in the Pegasus galaxy, and an excellent read.

Fanwork Links: Postcards to Jeannie (and the sequel is Pictures for Jeannie)

snickfic

Oscar-nominated movies I've watched: Frankenstein, Sinners, Weapons, The Ugly Stepsister(!!!!), The Secret Agent, Marty Supreme.

After the nominations came out, I was like "Wow, I've seen so many of these!" Friends, I literally had only seen the four(!!) horror movies, but between Frankenstein and Sinners they were nominated for so many things that it felt like I knew more movies than I really did.

Snubs: I didn't see it until after the nominees were announced (and neither did anyone else, apparently), but man, Testament of Ann Lee should have been up for Best Score and Best Actress at the very least. Best Picture too tbh.

Who I'm rooting for: I want Sinners to pick up a bunch of hardware, most of all Best Picture, but also Delroy Lindo for Best Supporting Actor, Wunmi Mosaku for Best Supporting Actress, Best Score, and Best Original Screenplay. My second choice in any category where they're going head to head would be Marty Supreme, and Chalamet is probably my pick for Best Actor.

My favorite story of these awards: The Ugly Stepsister, a Norwegian-language horror film, getting nominated for Best Hair and Makeup. There's no way it's going to win, but how did it even get nominated?! I hope the nomination got some more eyes on it, especially since it pairs so well with The Substance, which was nominated last year.

Rotten tomatoes: Frankenstein just wasn't all that. It was long, obvious, and self-important, and I hated the design of the Creature, which was basically just body paint and bad hair. I wouldn't mind it winning for something like Production Design or Costuming, and but that's about it. Props to Elordi for snagging an acting nom, though.

And take this one with a grain of salt, because I haven't watched it, but every Black person whose review I've come across haaaaaaated One Battle After Another. I think FD Signifier has put out three different videos or streams at this point about how much he hated the treatment of Black women in it. I was already primed to skip it because I disliked the trailer; in particular, the father/daughter bickering about pronouns for her nonbinary friend really hit me the wrong way. So I personally am rooting for any movie but that one in every category (esp against Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor, because fuck that dude).

ysabetwordsmith

Today we went to Middlefork at the Mall in Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana. This is a big flea market, although not quite as big as the last one we caught. We both found some great stuff.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

flareonfury

galorechallenge is a returning Crossover Fic Challenge from LiveJournal where you would find a crossover, grab a prompt & start writing! NO CLAIMING NESSARY! Post your story to the community (or at least link to it) once you're done. Feel free to grab more than one prompt, and more than one crossover! There are no limits on how much you can write per round. Check out the rules for more information.
Also once the round ends, we'll vote on our favorites by fandom & you can get a fancy award. Or if there is only 1 crossover for a particular fandom, it will move on to the next round.
While it is a multi-fandom challenge, and SO MANY fandoms are allowed, there are some restrictions, so check out the fandoms currently allowed.
Round 14 is open until June 30, 2026 @ 11:59 EST.

Rules & FAQ | Prompts | Submit New Prompts/Crossovers |

Finally made some banners/new header/layout for the community & prompt website and used some of my favorite female characters from various fandoms: Mel (Charmed Reboot), Carol Danvers (MCU), Villanelle, Zari Tomaz (Arrowverse), Cara Mason (Legend of the Seeker), Bex Henderson (Hunting Party), Wednesday, and Kate Sharma (Bridgerton). Made mostly in honor of it being Women's Month, but also because I wanted to. Also made the font bigger, 'cause that fit better now that the new header is bigger.

I'm going to try and think of some new crossover prompts for galorechallenge - I feel like there is a lot of gaps, especially with all the new fandoms I've added over the last few months, but that might be slow going depending on inspiration/time, so seriously if anyone have any ideas, please suggest them here.

In other news, I also updated Muse-Insanity.org/Icons with everything I've made this year so far. Hopefully I didn't miss anything.

40daysofdrabbles is still happening! If I happen to have missed a day or two, I will add multiple prompts the same day to "honor" the day(s) I missed.

starandrea

I was thinking about the beach for today's walk but it was very windy and common sense reasserted itself about three minutes into the drive. We went to the farm instead.

Conditions were variable.

( pictures )

flareonfury posting in

dw_community_promo

flareonfury posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

senmut

AO3 Link | Sound of Crashing (300 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC Comics (General)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lian Harper & Dinah Lance
Characters: Dinah Lance, Lian Harper
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Slice of Life, +Modern Age (1986-Present), Post-Crisis
Summary:

Dinah is babysitting...

Sound of Crashing

The moment she heard the crash, Dinah was on her feet and moving, uncaring what had been broken as long as it wasn't that little girl who had stolen her heart. She skidded into the kitchen before Lian had made her escape from the counter, the drawers askew to let Dinah know how the girl had gotten up there on it. She was beside the refrigerator, from which the ceramic cookie jar in the shape of a coyote had tumbled to the floor.

The cookie jar was not salvageable. Lian's face was a picture of contriteness, and Dinah just moved to get her down.

"You sit on right here, Dart," Dinah said, depositing her on the kitchen table which was at least lower than the counter. "Until I get the pieces swept up, the floor is lava and you don't have firefighter boots!"

"Didn't mean to break Mąʼii."

"I know, sweetie. And you did a lot of problem solving to figure out how to get it while I was on the phone. But next time, you should ask, and I can help." Dinah found the broom and a bucket, picking up the larger pieces before sweeping up the rest of the debris. She's need to get a box or a large jug to put the shards in, but for now, she just wanted it off the floor.

"Okay, so I need to find a new cookie jar, and we're going to need new cookies," Dinah said. "Ready to go shopping?"

"Yes!"

Dinah reached for the girl, picking her up and settling her on a hip, even if Lian was a little big for that, especially for her shortness. She hugged Lian tight, glad nothing had been hurt on her.

"You do have to tell your daddy you're sorry."

"Will do!"

anghraine

Incidentally, my best friend J happened across a copy of the famous novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and gave it to me for Christmas last year. We have been doing dramatic readings of the chapters to each other, complete with air quotes and loudly emphasizing the many, many, many unnecessarily quoted or italicized words/phrases/paragraphs. Although it was fun in its own unhinged way, it was also kind of shocking to realize just how terrible Roddenberry's... like, everything was without being able to lean on good writing/editorial staff like Sturgeon and Fontana, figures like Gene L. Coon to temper his worst impulses, the visual brilliance of people like Jerry Finnerman and William Ware Theiss, and the warmth and charisma brought to even much of the weaker writing by superb theatrical actors like Nichols, Shatner, and Nimoy. For all the novelization's extreme sleaziness, it is one of the coldest and most inhuman-feeling published novels I've ever encountered.

The attempts to salvage the footnote are largely nonsense, IMO—like, yes, it does accidentally imply that Kirk is just a bisexual who rather prefers women rather than a totally super manly straight guy, and his description of Spock and their super special eternal psychic bond does sound incredibly gay, but this is clearly because Roddenberry was constitutionally incapable of writing about any relationships in a non-horny way and loathed women. He was definitely going for desperately recuperating Kirk as the hypermasculine hyper-heterosexual seasoned middle-aged commanding captain figure with a weakness for women but also distaste for them that he'd always envisioned for his ideal of "the captain" (it's all over his writing of April and then Pike), and his resentment of what TOS Kirk actually became in the show is extremely visible (his Kirk dismisses TOS Kirk as a twee fictionalized version he actually hates and TOS in general as terrible and fake, unlike the real story in the novelization, etc). Like, it's 100% an attempt at no-homo and gender essentialism, he's just very bad at no-homo and also at writing people.

But the thing is, the footnote (and the other material straining to find a heterosexual explanation for TOS) may be - and is - homophobic, but this is actually the least of the novelization's problems. It is even more misogynistic, racist, incredibly petty, and so incredibly awkward that I was starting to think "justice for the OG Mary Sue writers, they were far better than this and honestly seem to have understood Star Trek itself rather better," given the weird 70s dystopia aspects he's got going.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Location: Washington, USA
Current Music: The Longest Time (Billy Joel)

ysabetwordsmith

Yesterday I discovered the Seed Library Network. I was delighted to find one near me. (See Today's Adventures for our other activities.)

Today we visited the Urbana Free Library Seed Exchange. It's on the second floor. We rode the elevator up, and the display was big enough to be seen from where the elevator lets out. Seeds are stored in drawers, sorted by type. There are sections for flowers, herbs, and vegetables. Some of the really popular ones have their own drawer; others are grouped together. Unopened packets of commercial seed are filed as they are, for folks who want to know exactly what they're getting. Opened packets or homegrown seeds are put in envelopes by library staff. With wildflower and landrace seeds, especially mixes, you may get more surprises.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: excited

ysabetwordsmith

Scared of spiders? Scientists say the real nightmare is losing them

Scientists discovered that nearly 90% of North America’s insects and arachnids have no conservation status—revealing a huge blind spot in protecting the tiny creatures that keep ecosystems running.

Spiders and insects may not be fan favorites, but they are vital to the health of ecosystems—and scientists barely know how they’re doing. Researchers found that nearly 90% of North America’s insect and arachnid species have no conservation status, leaving their fate largely unknown. Even more striking, most states don’t protect a single arachnid species. The study warns that these overlooked creatures are essential to planetary health and urgently need better monitoring and protection.

Let me be blunt here: the insect (arthropod) apocalypse is going to pull the rug out from under the biosphere. Plants are the producers for most of the ecosystem; many essential plants rely on insects for pollination or other services. And the next layer is invertebrates, mostly arthropods -- they break down dead material to a size that fungi can deal with, they pollinate, they move seeds, they feed most of the next level up such as birds, amphibians, etc. Spiders in particular keep the rest of that arthropod mess in check so we're not buried alive in flies, mosquitoes, and so on. They're some of the tiniest predators and they're absolutely vital.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

The March

crowdfunding Creative Jam is now open with a theme of "Opportunity."

What I Have Written

A prompt from

dialecticdreamer inspired the free-verse poem "Hidden Opportunities." Juan Carlos likes visiting Schrodinger's Heroes for the opportunity to step outside his usual role and relax.
70 lines, Buy It Now = $35

"Colorful Opportunities" is the freebie.

From My Prompts

gs_silva took my prompt "Opportunity is using someone else's waste product as your raw material" as inspiration for an adorable picture and description from Alien Romance. :D

Current Mood: busy

settiai

Okay, I've got to admit that this is probably some of the best Pi Day news that I've ever gotten. I just found out that I completely missed the fact that Giordano's is going to be opening a restaurant in DC this spring.

Proper stuffed pizza! In DC! I never thought that I'd see the day.

Current Mood: cheerful

rogueslayer452

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, Buffy: New Sunnydale, has been cancelled. Hulu will not be going forward with the series.

I can't say I'm surprised, but at the same time it is rather shocking considering the amount of buzz this created when the new series was announced. Sarah Michelle Gellar in particular was incredibly excited and even said she wouldn't be onboard with a reboot concept unless she really liked the direction of the story being sold to her, which after talking with Chloe Zhao it clearly did, and she's been hyping everything up about it ever since. Her announcing the series being axed is really heartbreaking, because you can tell she was passionate about at least seeing this project, the first season anyway, get finished and released. I might not have been entirely enthusiastic about this new series, but personal opinions and concerns aside I was curious to see what would've been done with it.

People are making speculations and pointing fingers for why the series fell through, from the script and the final product of the pilot being bad to differences of direction and fight for creative control, but ultimately the truth of the matter is we just don't know. For whatever reason, it just didn't work out.

Current Mood: apathetic

rosa_heartlily

A year ago I was failing to find a database table, feeling better about husband, getting frustrated with the garden gang (who never did come back), cleaning out another drawer, missing novels, thinking about Kirana's back story (most of which I've completely failed to do anything with!), and approaching the end game of GoW:R.

We got dinner from the sandwich shop today. And Daughter's Mother's Day present arrived - two slices of very nice cake. I gave the boys some and then brought the rest upstairs for me to nibble on when I'm feeling peckish.

I finished the main campaign for Granblue Fantasy. There's quite a lot of FF influence - particularly FFXVI, I feel. After the credits, the gang arrived back in one of the towns and decided to take on some jobs with a view to rescuing someone. I tried one of the missions, realised it has VERY unrealistic expectations of what I'm capable of, and turned it off.

Instead I started Season: a letter to the future, which is more interactive novel than game. It is very slow-paced - not necessarily a bad thing, just something to keep in mind. I am intrigued about the world, which is always a good start.

I've just rewatched Dallas Buyers Club. There are some important lessons in there.

Only one day of me week off left. The week has just flown over and I don't feel I've really had a rest. Credit where it's due, though - the boys have pretty much left me to my own devices without fuss or complaint. I still feel like I need to get back to work for a rest, though :D

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Location: bedroom

bluapapilio

Used my manga TBR boardgame.

I finished 15/15 on my last board. I am reading a huge amount of manga still because I'm tired and burned out in ways. It's so hard to sit down and watch/listen to stuff atm. 😴 I don't mind having so much manga on my list each time but I fear it's too much manga posting every day;;

Avatar:

Gon
Skill: choose your own prompt once

Roll #1:

A 6, prompt: manga based on a webnovel. Men of the Harem.

Roll #2:

A 4, prompt: geikomi. Bachi Bachi.

Roll #3:

A 2, prompt: roommates. Ouji-sama Nante Iranai.

Roll #4:

A 1 and generate from CR title...#113 and that's Vampire Library.

Roll #5:

A 2, prompt: costume on cover. Card Captor Sakura Clear Card.

Roll #6:

A 2 and the trap tile. Went back, new roll is 6 which is again the CR title. Le sigh. #104 and it's Wind Breaker!

Roll #7:

A 1, prompt: three/moresome. Well I was looking for group intercourse this time but people label threesomes that too so 30 Made ni Shinitai it is.

Roll #8:

A 2, 4-koma. Been a while since I read Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun.

Roll #9:

A 5 and finally the generate from TBR tile~ #929 which is a BL called Koi no Senryaku Management .

Roll #10:

A 4 and the CR tile yet again. #19 which is Dr. Stone! Maybe this isn't so bad.

Roll #11:

A 6 and choosing own prompt with skill. Game element. It's been a while since I read it so I may not remember exactly what happened last, but The Gamer!

Roll #12:

A 1, prompt: arranged marriage. I need to add a separate 'marriage of convenience' prompt too. A Most Consummate Night.

Roll #13:

A 5 and CR title yET AGAINNN. #21, From Eroica with Love.

Roll #14:

A 2 and finally the end, whew;; The physical BL manga this time is You & Harujion. After that I only have 1 single volume left before I move onto series!

Most looking forward to: From Eroica with Love
Least looking forward to: Wind Breaker

~Manga TBR List~

[Reverse Harem/Fantasy] Men of the Harem ✔️
[Geikomi/Smut] Bachi Bachi ✔️
[GL/School Life] Ouji-sama Nante Iranai ✔️
[Supernatural] Vampire Library ✔️
[Fantasy/Mystery] Card Captor Sakura Clear Card ✔️
[Action/School Life] Wind Breaker ✔️
[BL/Smut] 30 Made ni Shinitai ✔️
[Comedy/School Life] Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun ✔️
[BL/Romance] Koi no Senryaku Management ✔️
[Sci-Fi/Adventure] Dr. Stone ✔️
[Game/Action] The Gamer ✔️
[Josei/Smut] A Most Consummate Night ✔️
[Historical/Mystery] From Eroica with Love ✔️
[BL/Slice of Life] You & Harujion ✔️

x5 shoujosei, x4 shounen, x1 GL, x1 geikomi, x3 BL

Current Mood: drained

bemused_writer

Here are some quick reviews of the RE films, along with a few notes on which timeline I think they belong to, which is part of a larger piece I'm working on discussing why I think we should see the RE universe as two separate timelines in general (based mostly on characterization). Timeline references are from over here.

( Degeneration )

( Damnation )

( Vendetta )

Current Mood: artistic
Current Location: Raccoon City

tinny

The latest round at

icontalking is all about making your icons look like comics. While I was at it, I made a few actual comic icons, from Dr Seuss, Calvin and Hobbes, and Asterix. I don't think these are much more than bases - two are actually just crops with no editing whatsoever - so I'm posting these only here to my journal and not to the actual round. Enjoy!

Teasers:

( 10 Asterix, 8 Wu Lei, 3 Calvin, 3 Dr Seuss, 1 CDrama )

I love comments, and if you have concrit for me, I'm open for that, too. All my icons are free to take and use, credit is appreciated. The list of makers whose textures and brushes I like to use is here in my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

flaskbringer posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

wychwood

Wow, that fortnight went fast. I was busy, and when I wasn't busy, I couldn't face anything more demanding than lying around reading. This week had four choir rehearsals on two projects and a concert, but also I had two days off work. On Thursday I went out for birthday brunch at a very fancy place and then to The Coffin Works, which is one of those weird niche local museums - in this case, a factory that made not coffins, but coffin furniture; handles, plates, linings, etc, and also shrouds. It was as much fun as these tiny museums usually are! Which is to say, a lot.

Newman Brothers itself only sold to undertakers, as one would expect, but they aimed at the richer end of the market, and apparently their handles were the ones used by the Royal Warranted undertakers for about fifty years, including for Churchill, George V, Queen Mary, George VI, the Queen Mother, and Princess Diana. When they shut down in 1999, apparently the current holder bought up the entire stock, and the museum is hopeful that the Queen's coffin had them too! But they can't prove it.

It's also really interesting seeing how significant Birmingham was as a manufacturing centre - according to the Pen Museum, Birmingham produced 50% of the world's pen nibs in the 1850s; when the Newman Brothers factory opened, there were fourteen factories in Birmingham making coffin furniture; apparently there were several hundred different clock and watchmakers... I tend to think of, you know, the big automated factories, and gigantic industries like mining and smelting and so on, but Birmingham was just absolutely full of these small operations, making a terrifying percentage of the world's small metalwork components. It's such an interesting picture.

Profile

halfcactus

Preview

Layout by

myrtillenne

Page Summary

mific in fancake - SGA: Postcards to Jeannie by Sholio
snickfic - some Oscar thoughts
ysabetwordsmith - Today's Adventures
flareonfury - galorechallenge | Round 14 is now open!
starandrea - "when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by"
flareonfury in dw_community_promo - galorechallenge | Round 14 is now open!
flareonfury in fandomcalendar - galorechallenge | Round 14 is now open!
senmut - 10trueloves: accident
anghraine - I was told the TMP novelization was bad, but not just how bad
ysabetwordsmith - Urbana Free Library Seed Exchange
ysabetwordsmith - Wildlife
ysabetwordsmith - Creative Jam
settiai - π
rogueslayer452 - Slayer no more.
rosa_heartlily - Happy Pi Day!
bluapapilio - March Manga TBR 4
bemused_writer - Resident Evil CGI Movie Reviews Part 1
tinny - 25 icons and bases for icontalking
flaskbringer in fandomcalendar - Multifandom: Worldbuilding Exchange Sign-Ups Open
wychwood - they didn't call it the workshop of the world for nothing

Style Credit

Base style: Tabula Rasa
Theme: Muted by zvi

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Mar. 22nd, 2026 01:03 pm