marcicat | Reading

I really, really, really need to get caught up on Critical Role, but it's just so hard to find the time. 🙃

On Monday and Tuesday evenings, by the time I make it home from work, my brain is done for the day so watching something new-to-me is off the table. Then I have D&D on Wednesdays and Fridays, so watching anything longer than an hour or two isn't possible. Which means Thursday is my only real day to watch things after work, but it's also usually my day to run errands so... yeah.

Theoretically, I should have time on the weekends, but I've been using them to catch up on sleep lately.

Luckily, things seem to be calming down at work again as the big rush from May grads is dying down, so I'm hoping that I'll get to the point where I can start watching an episode or two throughout the day when I'm working from home and not on phone calls. I'm not holding my breath it will get to that point this week, but hey. Anything's possible.

Current Mood: hopeful

marcicat

Current audiobook included the word 'dour' (harsh, stern, un-fun), and pronounced it (to my ear) as 'do-er' (like 'fewer'). Down the pronunciation rabbit hole I went!

*okay, I thought this word was pronounced with the 'our' sound like hour or sour. The internet agrees! That's definitely an accepted pronunciation, more common in the United States.

*it's ALSO acceptably pronounced (more common in British English) with the 'our' sound like in pour. Or tour.

*except I don't pronounce pour and tour with the same sound! I pronounced pour and poor the same, but tour and tore not exactly the same. I pronounce 'tour' with more of an ooo sound (lol possibly because of our proximity to Canada, eh?).

*which is how the narrator pronounced dour! (he said it with a non-US accent, which could explain it? idk they're in Germany right now in the book)

*WHAT A JOURNEY! WHY ARE WORD SOUNDS LIKE THIS???!?!??!

*PS I LOVE WORDS

devinwolfi posting in

beagoldfish

That's right, we're gearing up for Round 3 (2026-B) here at Be a Goldfish! This round starts 1 July and will run until 31 August.

We've made several updates to the RuleDoc (which used to be called the FAQ and then we realized it wasn't actually a FAQ at all) so definitely go give that a read if you're thinking about jumping in.

Among those updates, we've included a link to this round's prompts which have been expanded dramatically to include both prompts and mediums as well as links to several resources, some inspiration, and some fannish history. Now is a great time to check those out and start brainstorming!

We're also introducing a one-size-fits-all comment bingo to help guide, inspire, and encourage folks on their commenting journey. Our philosophy is that you don't have to be a creator to participate in a fanwork event. Commenters, as fans of fanwork are what make fandom go round, so if you're not feeling particularly creative right now, no worries, we would still love to see you around! Like the punch cards, we offer full color and black and white versions should you decide to take a more tactile approach. You can find previews of those cards and links to their folders in the RuleDoc.

We look forward to joining you all on this voyage of creativity, passion, and love for media, fandom, and the fans that make it all happen. We're gonna be sharing some more posts this month and later throughout the round, so don't think you've heard the last of us just yet.

If you have any ideas brewing already, feel free to share in the comments on this entry! Similarly, if you have any questions, comments, and/or concerns, leave a comment on this entry or on our Welcome Sticky.

Until next time!

china_shop

Poll #34680 Legacy media

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43

View Respondents

I have

View Answers

a pile/jumble or one or more boxes of audio cassettes
13 (30.2%)

a carefully curated selection of audio cassettes I don't want to part with yet (even if some of them have stretched)
11 (25.6%)

access to a tape deck
17 (39.5%)

a pile/jumble or one or more boxes of VHS tapes
9 (20.9%)

a carefully curated selection of VHS tapes I don't want to part with yet
17 (39.5%)

access to a VCR
19 (44.2%)

a lot of DVDs
34 (79.1%)

access to a DVD or Blu-ray player
36 (83.7%)

Super8, MiniDV, etc. tapes
2 (4.7%)

access to a camera or other way of playing them
0 (0.0%)

vinyl
14 (32.6%)

access to a record player
10 (23.3%)

a ridiculous number of CD-ROMs
23 (53.5%)

other
3 (7.0%)

a storage system I'm satisfied with
6 (14.0%)

at this point, it's just a lot of old stuff, help!
13 (30.2%)

ticky-box
21 (48.8%)

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

Quick note that post-by-email and comment-by-email is (sometimes?) failing silently without actually posting right now! I'm pretty sure this is related to last night's shenanigans and will be fixed once Mark can finish the full fix for it, which he's working on, but if you've posted or replied by email in the last 24 hours, fish it out of your sent folder to check if it posted!

EDIT: This should be fixed as of around 7AM EDT! We *believe* everything that was stuck in the plumbing has been sent along to your journal or the comment thread it was meant for; it's definitely not where it was stuck anymore, at least.

conuly

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

**********************

Link

kingstoken posting in

fancake

Fandom: Star Trek: TOS
Pairings/Characters: McCoy & Spock & Kirk
Rating: T
Length: 152,048 words
Creator Links: PSW
Theme: just like canon

Summary: McCoy's transport is destroyed in what appears to be a containment field explosion, leaving no known survivors. The truth, however, is not so simple as that ...

Reccer's Notes: McCoy is kidnapped by non-Federation aliens that force him to work for them in a medical capacity treating other kidnapped individuals. Meanwhile Kirk and Spock think McCoy has been killed in an explosion. I think this fits the "just like canon" theme because the quality, plot, and the writing of this fic is as good as any Trek tie-in novel, and may in fact be better. There is a quite a bit of hurt!Bones in this as he struggles to survive and try to escape the situation he is in. At the same time Spock and Kirk are trying their best to deal with their grief over the loss of their friend, and not always doing that in the healthiest of ways. All while there is a greater plot about these new aliens and what they are trying to achieve, and some original characters that I really enjoyed.

Fanwork Links: AO3

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stranger Things
Pairings/Characters: Ensemble gen, with a focus on Steve Harrington
Rating: Teen
Length: 180,411 words
Creator Link:

MrsEvadneCake
Theme: Just Like Canon, Gen, Epic Works

Summary:

Doom comes to Hawkins, Indiana. Population est. 30,000.

It's cold, that's all, and the breeze is kicking up. That's why Steve feels the chill go up his spine like someone dropped an ice-cube down his back.

"Why wouldn't I be real, El?"

"The Aboleth got you."

Reccer's Notes: This fic is just like a season of the show, with a new big bad and EVERYBODY (from S2) in it, the voices expertly rendered, and the story well told. Highly recommended.

Fanwork Link: In A Strange Land

facethestrange posting in

sid_guardian

( You're about to view content that the poster has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3253/

While weather control is typically thought of as a superpower, the unconscious ability of astronomers and astrophotographers to summon clouds is more properly classified as a curse.

https://xkcd.com/3253/

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Our theme for June is just like canon!

The tag for this round is: theme: just like canon

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.

( Rules! )

( Posting Template! )

( Promote this round! )

Reblog on Tumblr | Reskeet on Bluesky | Retoot on Mastodon

awanderingcoyote posting in

sid_guardian

This is the fanworks round-up post for May! Please link in the comments to any Guardian (or related fandoms) fanworks you created or enjoyed last month.

all kinds of fanworks are welcome – fic, art, vids, picspams, etc. - including those made for exchanges and events
new chapters of WIPs count
meta or discussion posts, too
whether or not you've already linked these in a post of their own, we still want them here!

If you're linking to fanworks you didn't create yourself, please clearly mark these "REC", so there's no confusion about authorship/creatorship.

(And please still do link your fanworks, meta, etc. separately, in their own post, at any time!)

So ... what Guardian and related fandoms works did you create or enjoy in May?

marcicat

Technically they started last week, but there was a holiday and I didn't bother trying to make it work. Anyway, the theory of 'summer hours' is that 'eligible employees' work extra time Monday through Thursday, and then take Friday afternoons off.

In practice, the summer hours policy is enacted in wildly inconsistent ways across the company. I am apparently the only hourly employee my current boss has at all (this wasn't very notable when my boss was only responsible for three people, but now for a variety of reasons I'm 'temporarily directly reporting' to someone who's responsible for, uh, a lot of people? idk the whole thing is ridiculous and yet I'm guessing would make perfect sense to LITERALLY ANYONE who has worked for a US company in the past ten years).

The POINT is that for quite a few years now, the person responsible for approving my time card has 1) absolutely not wanted to deal with the hassle of an hourly employee; and also 2) has no other hourly employees to compare me to. This has remained true through multiple bosses (temporary and otherwise) and has undeniably benefited me. So I guess yay? Celebrate the wins?

settiai

How is June already? Seriously, how?

(Yes, it's only a little past midnight for me. It still counts.)

On a related note, Season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina starts airing this week, so I did a marathon of the first three seasons while I was working on various things around the apartment this weekend. I made it through the first two seasons on Saturday, and then I picked up with the third season late this afternoon and just finished up a bit before midnight.

It's been ages since I watched the entire series back-to-back like that, and it really made it stand out just how much the characters have grown and evolved over the course of those three seasons. As much as I love Campaign 1 of Critical Role, the animated series really does a better job at telling the story of Vox Machina in a lot of ways. Which makes sense, as the D&D series was essentially the rough draft of the story while the show is the version that's been cleaned up and edited.

Now I just have to wait for Season 4 to get here.

Current Mood: accomplished

china_shop

Haaaai! I am just kind of floating through my day doing random stuff. To-do list? What's that? La la la.

I just spent an hour or more on Duolingo, which was a wrist-centric mistake after two hours' biking yesterday, so I've ordered a stylus in the hopes that'll make all the character-tracing easier. (Also, maybe faster for the timed sprint challenges?)

On Saturday we went to the NZ Art Show, which was uh, mostly crowded. It's hard to appreciate individual pieces in a very busy environment, with everything all crammed in together. The bright/garish pieces stand out, but anything quieter disappears. As always, my favourites were very children's-book-illustration-esque. We went round the whole place at a fair clip and were out in an hour.

And yesterday (Sunday), we biked Te Ara Tupua, the new separated cycleway/pedestrian-way to Pito-one (formerly, there was just the shoulder of the motorway). We continued along the foreshore and up the side of the river into Lower Hutt, had lunch at the Dowse Art Museum and a look around there, and came home again. The whole ride was about 43km. I bought some storage cubes (flat packed) which fit fine in our panniers and some cube packs. Still not really sure how to organise my stuff, but I have options.

Te Ara Tupua, which only opened a couple of weeks ago, was teeming with pedestrians and cyclists -- adults, kids, groups, etc. It felt like the city had been set free. I don't think I've seen so many smiles in my ten years of biking as an adult! It felt like a mix of seasoned cyclists, families with kids, and people who'd decided to take their bikes out of the garage, dust them off and give it a go. Really great. It took half an hour from Wellington railway station to Pito-one, and slightly longer back just because of the busyness of the path. :-)

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

Robby has managed to put in a temporary fix for the site errors and things failing to refresh or not showing up where they should! The permanent fix is going to need Mark's experience, and unfortunately -- seriously, this literally never fails -- Mark has been on an international flight all day, because of course he has. (Never. Fails. He and I are not allowed to both take vacation at once.)

The site will work just fine with the temporary fix in place, things just might be a little slow here and there. We'll keep you updated.

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

(The full title is too verbose for DW’s header limit.)

Fandom: “Subways Of Your Mind”, AKA “The Most Mysterious Song On The Internet” (FEX song); Lostwave
Pairings/Characters: Gen; invitation to the audience.
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 3:16
Content Notes: No AO3 Warnings Apply; the song was identified and claimed in 2024; role-playing unreality galore in the comments.
Creator Links: (YouTube):

hailey-ks7mg

Theme: Journey & Travel, Fanvid, Folklore & Fairytales, Gen, Non-AO3 Works, Research, Social Media

Summary: if you don’t know the song in this video it’s known as “the most mysterious song on the internet”. It’s a new wave/post punk song that was originally played on a german radio station between 1982-1984. no one knows it’s name or who created it, leading to a several year search for it’s origins that inspired me to make this edit.

i recommend watching whang’s videos on the subject if you want to learn more :)
• The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet - Tales From the Internet
• The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet UPDATE

driving ambiance + footage is of the autobahn motorway in germany and is from the channel rarbi.art
https://www.youtube.com/user/rarbiart/

note: this video was made for creative purposes only. all music and images belongs to the original creators. no copyright infringement intended.

Reccer's Notes: Commenter

dj-ov2it’s summary:

People think of this as a meme but keep in mind. One singular day in early 80s northern germany, a couple thousand people were listening to this song and of those, a whole lot might have been driving a car. This exact video - albeit in an abstract sense - has HAPPENED before and those people are mostly still very much alive. Hell, my close relatives might be some of them.

Fanwork Links: the most mysterious song on the internet but it's playing on your car radio in 1980s germany, by hailey.

Current Mood: wanderlustful.
Current Location: under a summer moon.
Current Music: Implicit in the subject.

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

We're aware of site traffic issues and are working to fix them for the people who are having problems! (The tactics the damn bot traffic uses are endlessly shifting, and they're really good at looking like real traffic, sigh.)

starandrea

If you're wondering if it's you or everyone, dreamwidth seems to be experiencing some unexpected glitches in the last couple hours. You can find other users reporting them on

denise's latest post to

dw_maintenance three days ago.

ETA:

denise reports a temporary fix. More updates at dreamwidth on bsky.

china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

Zhao Yunlan sprawled on a couch, grinning at his phone. The background shows a purply sky with stars. Text reads "Slo-Mo Rewatch. Guardian - half an episode per week @ sid-guardian.dreamwidth.org."

Hi, and welcome back to the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch. Watch half an episode a week, at your leisure, and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!

Here are the previous weeks' rewatch posts.

Episode 16, up to 23:53

Summary
Zhao Xinci continues his SID inspection (setting off Lin Jing's black energy detector in the process), immediately identifies Guo Changcheng as an imposter, and introduces himself as Zhao Yunlan's father. He confronts the SID en masse about Zhao Yunlan's absence. A case comes in (the ground torn up at a park; trees toppled), and Zhao Xinci says he'll act as interim chief in Zhao Yunlan's absence. Meanwhile, Zhao Yunlan and the Regent, while walking the Dixing streets, "happen across" an assault which Zhao Yunlan identifies as a set-up. The Regent wanders off leaving Zhao Yunlan alone. In Haixing, the SID team reluctantly investigate using Zhao Xinci's methodology. Da Qing is upset at having forgotten Cat Tongue. In Dixing, a disturbing growly voice calls to Zhao Yunlan, and he, following it, finds the Sky Pillar. The Pillar voice is sinister and portentous, trying to get in his head. Then the three youths from the fake assault show up, annoyed at Zhao Yunlan, and give chase as he runs away through the city.

A glowing pillar in a field of ruins. Zhao Yunlan, dwarfed by all of this, approaches.

A glowing pillar in a field of ruins. Zhao Yunlan, dwarfed by all of this, approaches.

Quote
Pillar voice to Zhao Yunlan: You're using playfulness to hide how uneasy you are. You can't deceive me, and you can't deceive your heart. You live among humans, but have your heart open to no one. You don't understand the point of everything you're doing. You don't even know whether your actions are right or wrong. (VIKI subs.)

Detail
Zhao Xinci checked Shen Wei's class schedule before coming to inspect the SID. (Stalking runs in the family?)

Questions
Given Zhao Xinci's quizzical face and lack of explanation when Lin Jing's dark energy detector goes off, is this the first time Zhao Xinci has been caught out? Any theories about what Dixing's street lanterns run on (dark energy, geothermal energy, mains electricity, flame)? Why does Zhao Xinci disapprove so strongly of Zhao Yunlan's field trip? When Zhao Xinci critiques Zhao Yunlan's investigative methods, do you think he has a point? Do you understand the fake "assault" in Dixing? What is the Regent's role in that? Who are the youths (An Bai and his friends) working for? Chu Shuzhi seems uncomfortable interviewing the victim's family (compared to, say, when he talked to Ji Xiaobai in the Mirror Girl case) -- any thoughts about why? Pillar!Ye Zun speaks as if he can read Zhao Yunlan's heart -- can he, or is it just a cold reading? Do you think his analysis of Zhao Yunlan is accurate? When he starts, "The only thing I can teach you is--" what was he going to say?

Did you see any parallels in these scenes with other parts of the drama? If you're familiar with the novel, any thoughts about how the drama adaptation compares, if at all?

(As usual, these are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in. We'd love to hear your thoughts!)

And here is our schedule -- if you can, please sign up to host a post!

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The Marci Rating System

Reading

Critical Role

it's pronounced HOW?!

Round 3 Coming Soon!

Legacy media

(no subject)

Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Star Trek TOS: Equilibrium by PSW

Stranger Things: In A Strange Land, by MrsEvadneCake

My latest Guardian fanworks

Sunbeam

Round 187: Just Like Canon

May Fanworks Round-Up Post!

SUMMER HOURS at work

The Legend of Vox Machina

I have zero focus (biking and looking at art)

(no subject)

“Subways Of Your Mind”, by FEX (AKA “The Most Mysterious Song On The Internet”): Fanvid, by hailey.

(no subject)

it's probably not you

Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 16, part 1

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June 2026

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