The Marci Rating System

fic rec Friday

2026-05-22T13:35:59Z

from the middle, this time with a plan, by ShippersList

Wen Xu didn’t feel like throwing a funeral for either his father or his brother but he was aware that at some point, he would have to. In the meantime, he sent out missives to other great sects to inform them about Qishan Wen’s tragic double misfortune and that their new, young sect leader would be busy with his sect for at least a year, maybe two.

That would probably be enough time.

comments

my brain is still mush from the heat

2026-05-21T11:44:19Z

even though it's cooler today, and also I tweaked something in my neck right before I got up (lol perks of being 40+ is that this is common, and the effects now last anywhere from 1-5 days), so this is what I came up with after ten minutes of scrolling tumblr:

I genuinely ove when I'm looking at a picture but can't figure out the scale. 'ooh, that's so pretty! it could be... a person? or a leaf? maybe a duck?'

Maybe it's all those things! All art is interpretive art, right?

comments

workaday Wednesday

2026-05-20T10:48:59Z

Day two of 'it's too hot' is always harder than day 1. Where's my 'it's too hot' image... oh, here it is!

comments

but what was it???

2026-05-19T10:55:24Z

If I'm familiar with a noise, I am pretty much guaranteed to sleep through it, unless it's 1) whispering, 2) cat throwing up, or 3) dripping water. (NO faster way to wake up than the sound of dripping water when you don't think there should be any.)

If it's an UNFAMILIAR noise, I'm going to wake up. Probably. Or not. It's a toss-up, actually, but I thought this post would be more interesting if it wasn't 'sometimes stuff wakes me up and sometimes it doesn't.' I'm often not all the way awake, and my brain will decide a noise is something it probably(?) isn't, leading to bafflement upon waking all the way.

The point is, last night I woke up to A Noise. My brain told me the noise was 'white noise ocean sound,' which was very confusing to me even then, because nothing close enough for me to hear should have been making white noise ocean sounds at that time. Then I told myself it was wind, except that all the windows were open and I couldn't feel any breeze.

I have no idea what it was. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing. WHO KNOWS???

comments

this week's wake-up songs

2026-05-18T11:57:02Z

Monday through Friday 6:30 alarm:

Eternal Flame, by The Bangles

This 1988 power ballad is a POWER BALLAD and has featured extensively in the 'music my brain plays in the background all the time' this month. I would say it's my favorite song from 1988, except that it's also the only song I'm at all confident might be from 1988, and I'm not sure if I'm feeling lucky today.

Tuesday and Wednesday 5:30 alarm:

Summer's Coming, by Clint Black

Ugh, it's going to be Very Hot on Tuesday and Wednesday, and also I'm getting up early to drive to the office for work. So I went with the first summer song that came to mind.

comments

it's time! sort of!

2026-05-17T11:02:14Z

Soooooooo... I've definitely got the itch to rearrange my furniture, but I also have the weekend urge to do as little as possible. I'm thinking I should start by finding my warm-weather clothes and putting away some of the winter stuff. I figure that project will have one of the following results:

1. My urge for things to look different in my space will be temporarily satisfied, and I can do the furniture next weekend as previously planned.

2. It will take long enough / be tiring enough that I'll happily ignore the urge until next weekend.

3. It will be fun / easy enough that it will fill me with (possibly false) confidence that I can DEFINITELY start the furniture moving today, what could go wrong?

comments

caturday plant day

2026-05-16T11:54:02Z

Let's go get some plants!

(Okay, I'm not really a gardener. My role is gardener cheerleader, which I wholeheartedly embrace!)

(But I do find it interesting that so many people say "oh, I can't keep a houseplant alive," because it's such a common thing, and yet so weird when I really think about it. Like, I've had houseplants that died, but it wasn't because of some intrinsic plant-killer field around me. It just turned out that I didn't really want to have houseplants enough at that time to give them the care they needed. Is that not considered an acceptable thing to say? Now I'm wondering if women say that sort of thing more than men, since there's more of a societal expectation in the US that women will just 'naturally' be good at caretaking. ANYYWAY the point is that it's the weekend and a beautiful sunny day and we're going to go out into the world! And maybe get some plants! Which I will not be responsible for!)

comments

fic rec Friday

2026-05-15T11:44:03Z

jump care, by PenAndInkPrincess

In Jaskier’s defense, he would argue that he had very good reasons for not realizing he was haunted. Between gigs and side jobs, his days are far from standard working hours, the house is old so who would be alarmed by a few odd noises now and then, and after a lifetime of ADHD, who is he to say that he didn’t leave every single cabinet door open and rearrange his mugs in the cupboard without realizing it?

comments

paper kingdom

2026-05-14T11:43:23Z

My cat loves brown packing paper. Genuinely her favorite toy. Right now she has a whole bunch of it piled in a heap on the side of the room -- she plays in it like it's a pile of leaves. She jumps on it, hides under it, bites off little pieces of paper which get scattered around the room... It's messy and my brain constantly battles the urge to clean it up, but she LOVES it.

I also love it for the joy it brings her, even though I do occasionally ask myself why it's so close to the place I'm trying to sleep. Last night there was a Very Exciting Adventure in the paper kingdom, which apparently necessitated a lot of leaping about and crinkling paper at various points in the night.

(To be fair, on the list of 'things cats do at night that wake me up,' crinkling paper playtime is pretty great. Way less work than 'I think I'll throw up a couple times' and significantly less nerve-wracking than 'I think I'll pat your eyes with my paws.')

comments

workaday Wednesday

2026-05-13T10:54:47Z

Got unexpectedly scheduled into a meeting tomorrow with four director-level-or-above people and ZERO backup, and also ZERO understanding of why this is happening. I am an HOURLY employee, I'm not supposed to have to meet with anyone higher-level than my manager!

ANYWAY that'll be an adventure! I'm definitely going to spend all day today panicking about it! ::nervous laughter::

comments

feels very 'New Hampshire spring'

2026-05-12T10:41:10Z

Predicted high temp next Tuesday: 88F

Predicted low temp next Thursday: 32F

Me, looking at those numbers: so, I guess it's time to put my winter boots away?

(*"away," lol -- I moved them about six inches to the right, so that instead of being NEXT to the storage cube, they're inside it)

(the REAL question is 'should I put away the long underwear and get out the shorts,' and the answer is probably yes, but that seems like a LOT of work somehow, even though again they are actually IN THE SAME ROOM. I think. Like, 80% sure the summer clothes are here somewhere)

comments

awww

2026-05-11T12:18:43Z

Just spent a lovely few days reading through all of GoldfincBright's Star Wars fics on AO3. Very soft, much love.

Special shoutout to The Adventures of Mace Windu and his Feral Murder Children series for the invention of 'Duckoo,' a name I'm still laughing about even now.

comments

who approved this???

2026-05-10T12:12:09Z

my phone: hey I'm gonna update overnight, you don't need to do anything except plug me in, but I'm going to notify you on an increasingly irritating schedule until this is done

me: fine, fine, you're going to do it anyway

my phone, the next day: I UPDATED

me: yeah, I know, you said, congrats or whatever

my phone: also I changed the volume on your alarm

me: WHAT?!?!?!?!??? WHY????????

(PS: for iphone: Settings, "Sounds & Haptics," then adjust the slider on "Ringtone and Alerts")

comments

caturday celebration

2026-05-09T15:49:05Z

Was talking to some people at the office this week about our cats (NOT as good as working from home WITH my cat, but an acceptable topic of conversation), and we chanced up on the 'my cat likes to wake me up at night' thing.

And I absolutely got to be the ridiculously proud cat parent who was like 'my cat wakes me up at night because she wants to be patted.' I am thrilled by this fact. I had a silly smile on my face as I typed those words. SHE LIKES ME. I am continuously surprised by how much this cat wants to headbutt my pillow and flick her tail in my face at night just to get me to wake up and provide chin scritches.

(More cat chat because I love cats, and will happily share the same stories again and again, and because every cat shows their love and care in different ways. This cat is the only cat I've had who wants to be on top of me while I'm sleeping. She will NOT sit in my lap while I'm sitting up, but will sit next to me, and has a bed on the desk next to my computer where she spends much of the day. My last cat LOVED being in my lap while I was awake, but as soon as I made the slightest move towards reclining or closing my eyes, she would leave. NO sleeping! My first cat loved being brushed, my second cat hated it. My amazing current cat absolutely loves tummy rubs, which has unfortunately trained me right out of remembering that for most cats, the tummy is a trap. Cats are just SO GREAT and I love them.)

comments

fic rec Friday

2026-05-08T11:58:44Z

Reborn in Blood, by Fereael

“Who is this?” Lan Wangji steps toward Sizhui’s side, eyes roving over the man’s bloody robes as he reaches into a sleeve for one of the Lan healing pills he always keeps there. Lan Sizhui winces inwardly but squares his shoulders, knowing that the time has come.

“The body belongs to a man called Mo Xuanyu but the person inside it is… It’s the Yiling Patriarch.”

per the author's note:
OR the Mo manor arc gets fucked up when Mo Xuanyu and the Lan juniors get abducted and it causes Wei Wuxian's return to go VERY differently.

comments

workaday thursday

2026-05-07T11:55:50Z

Yesterday a coworker told me that when they imagined being laid off, their first feeling was relief. (This was part of a much larger conversation. Neither of us actually expect to be laid off imminently, although in today's work environment, who can really say.)

The point is that this made me imagine getting laid off, and my first thought was actually, 'oh no, all my little projects!' (The fact that my first feeling wasn't relief was itself a relief to me!)

Because sure, I love poking fun at the 'LT' (stands for 'leadership team,' the company's newest buzzword for 'people who make decisions everyone else gets to mock.' The mockery is like our consolation prize for not making as much money or being involved in any of the decisions, so it's really very fair.) And I'm 100% confident that the company could eliminate my job at any second and wouldn't spare a moment's concern for me as a person.

But the things I do at work aren't for the LT. Or the company. Or, honestly, pretty much anyone except me. My little projects! My little filing systems! My little checklists! (My job is basically 'get documents, be able to point at documents when asked,' with very few requirements about how that gets done. So I made it fun (for me, personally) and there's A System, and it turns out I enjoy it enough that I'd miss it if I got laid off, and that's kind of all I ask of a job, you know?)

comments

workaday Wednesday

2026-05-06T10:28:50Z

*I officially have no idea what's going on at work, but that's common. It was just less obvious when I didn't have to physically be present at the office two days a week.

*Yesterday I overheard someone on a different team saying that the company's ever-shifting priorities was messing up their annual goals. I managed NOT to reference that 'wait you guys have [x]' meme, mostly because I was not part of the conversation, and unfortunately not at all because I have a sense of self-preservation when it comes to saying things out loud.

*I do not have any workplace-assigned goals. These were supposed to be communicated sometime in February, I think, which was right around the time we were finding out that my boss' boss wasn't planning to come back.

*Then I figured we could just make some up at the first check-in, which was, uh, now. But now my boss is also out, and I'm 100% sure no one's going to check in with us.

*So, yeah. That's a thing. On the plus side, it sounds like other teams tried to set goals, and now they're going to have to re-do them anyway. So just waiting until the end of the year and figuring retroactively deciding them is maybe more efficient?

comments

fic rec Tuesday

2026-05-05T10:42:35Z

A very un-serious Star Wars fic rec to celebrate (belatedly) Star Wars day!

We're Jedi. We've totally got this., by mytimeconsumingsidehobby

“How do a five-year-old and a four-year-old manage to sneak out of the temple in a ship?” Mace muttered to himself.

“With the Force?” the padawan responded, clearly having heard Mace’s rhetorical question.

He sighed.

comments

May The 4th Be With You!

2026-05-04T12:04:16Z

Happy Star Wars day to anyone who needs something to celebrate today! There are currently CUPCAKES in our house, and I predict by the end of this day of celebration there will be FEWER CUPCAKES!

comments

good news!

2026-05-03T13:28:28Z

*It's GROCERY DAY! (Okay, technically I also got some groceries yesterday, because hooray for having a store with food available within easy walking distance, for those days when I am absolutely not going to deal with driving anywhere. But today is the Big Grocery Shop day, which means driving, which means putting more gas in the car, which means I'll probably want to actually change out of my pajamas at some point, and brush my teeth, and get things done.)

*It's CROCHET DAY! (I just read some really cool blog posts about turning a granny hexagon blanket into a rectangle, and now I'm even more excited about this project.)

*It's MAY 3RD! (Not any particular significance, except that May is FURNITURE REARRANGING MONTH, which means I have already been enjoying brainstorming increasingly ridiculous possible arrangements for several weeks now. Probably won't do the actual moving till it's warmer at night -- one of the key features of the Summer Arrangement is putting the bed under the windows, which is 1) drafty, and 2) blocks the heater, so I try not to do it too early.)

comments

sounds about right

2026-05-02T13:01:02Z

me: I really want to get a new shower curtain liner, I should just order one online

ubiquitous online shopping site: do you want free shipping? order more!

me: yeah, I don't know what else I want, I'll come back later

***TWO WEEKS LATER***

me: I can't believe I still don't have that new shower curtain liner! at least there are some other things I want to look for this week, surely I can get to free shipping now

ubiquitous online shopping site: shopping site perfect size for browsing! very easy and fun, do browsing at shopping site. no problems ever at shopping site.

***ONE HOUR LATER***

me: huh, somehow I've ended up with $50 worth of fidget toys I don't actually need (but do want!), were any of these on my actual list?

also me: at least I remembered the shower curtain liner! (hahaha which it turns out is shipping from a different company, and would have had free shipping regardless, lol)

comments

fic rec Friday: May 1st edition

2026-05-01T12:04:23Z

(I didn't actually look for or know of a fic that has anything to do with May 1st. If I was really on top of things, I'd probably have picked a Star Wars fic for today, with the whole 'may the 4th' connection. But I generally just look through whatever I have in bookmarks and AO3 history for the last week, and there's not any Star Wars in there, so.)

broken heroes on a last chance power drive, by LiarsandThieves22

Camilla meets Steve on a Thursday in the middle of April when he walks through the front door of her bar to ask about the help wanted sign she hung in the window last week. She almost turns him down immediately.

comments

April finale poem!

2026-04-30T11:44:11Z

Another one I already posted back in 2023! (Very loyal to the few poems I've emotionally bonded with.)

In the House With No Doors, by Sarah Kay

we have given up on knocking.
Incoming! we say, with our eyes lowered for modesty,
or, Hello! or sometimes, Sorry, sorry!
You have to pass through everyone’s bedroom
to get to the kitchen. We only have two bathrooms.
As a courtesy, nobody will poop while you are showering,
but they might have to do their makeup or shave
if they are in a rush, if we have somewhere to be,
so you can recognize every person by their whistle
through a wet shower curtain, you haven’t seen your own face
on an unfogged mirror in weeks. It doesn’t matter,
self-consciousness has no currency here.
If you were nosy, I suppose the little bathroom trashcans
would spill their secrets to you, but why bother,
privacy is a language we don’t speak.
Someone is always awake before you,
the smell of coffee easing you into a today
they have already entered,
a bridge you will never need to cross first,
and no matter how latenight your owl,
there is always someone still awake
to eat popcorn with, to whisper your daily report to,
to compare notes on what good news you each caught in your nets.
In bed, you say, Goodnight! in one direction
and someone says it back, then turns and passes it,
so you fall asleep to the echo of goodnights down the long hallway
’til it donuts its way back around to your pillow.
Someone is doing a load of laundry,
if anyone wants to add some extra socks?
Someone is clearing the dishes,
someone has started singing Gershwin in the backyard
and you can’t help but harmonize,
and for a moment what you always hoped was true
finally is: loneliness has forgotten your address,
french toast browning on the stovetop,
the sound of everyone you love
clear as the sun giggling through the window,
not even a doorknob between you.

comments

poetry celebration: bird edition

2026-04-29T10:56:09Z

I'm sometimes wary of Robert Frost, because I had a high school poetry class that insisted everything was a metaphor for death, while I was over there like 'seems like this guy just really likes writing stuff about his daily life.'

But crows! Gotta shout out a crow poem. Maybe it's about death, I don't know. Looks like it's about how great birds are to me. Heck yeah, birds! Save that day I rued!

Dust of Snow
by Robert Frost

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

comments

more poetry, more celebration

2026-04-28T10:52:43Z

I linked this back in 2017, attributed to Shiv, with the title 'Sometimes it hurts when people scorn internet culture,' but that link is no longer active and now -- in the way of tumblr posts -- I was able to find the text of the poem but nothing that definitively confirmed that title, and nothing at all with that author name. It mostly seems to be attributed 'via herrsassyfras' now, but that's also a deactivated account.

Let that be a lesson to me about not including the full text of these things!

“Your generation would probably ‘livetweet’ the apocalypse” you say, and you laugh
You mean it as an insult, and I understand,
Or you don’t
because the word lies awkwardly on you tongue, stumbles as it leaves your lips, air quotes visible
You meant it as an insult, so you don’t understand, when I look into your eyes and say “Yes”
Because we would.
It would be our duty, as citizens on this earth
to document it’s end the best way we know
and if that means a second by second update
of the world going up in flames, or down in rain, or crushed under the feet of invading monsters
so be it.
It would mean a second by second update of
“I love you”
“I’m scared”
“Are you all right?”
“Stay close”
“Be brave”
It would mean a second by second update of the humanity’s connection with one another,
Proof of empathy, love, and friendship between people who may have never met in the flesh.
So don’t throw the word ‘Livetweet’ at me like a dagger, meant to tear at my ‘teenage superiority’
Because if the citizens of Pompeii, before they were consumed by fire,
had a chance to tell their friends and family throughout Rome
“I love you”
“I’m scared”
“Don’t forget me”
Don’t you think they’d have taken the chance?

comments