Another RPG bundle - Age of Ambition
Mar. 9th, 2026 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ffuturesThis is a bundle of material for Age of Ambition, an RPG about a fantasy world trying to modernize and adapt to technology and rapid social and political changes following an alien invasion:
I'm not familiar with the rules system, but it looks reasonably playable and layout is good. If you get the complete bundle you're getting a lot for your money including numerous worldbooks and adventures, and the setting is novel enough that players ought to find it interesting.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Ambition
I'm not familiar with the rules system, but it looks reasonably playable and layout is good. If you get the complete bundle you're getting a lot for your money including numerous worldbooks and adventures, and the setting is novel enough that players ought to find it interesting.
TV Stuff at High Prices
Mar. 9th, 2026 12:46 pmyourlibrarian1) I am starting plans for a fall foliage road trip in October through Michigan. Anyone have any recommendations?
2) Following up on what I wrote about in my last post, I watched several episodes of Paradise S2. I'm not sure why I'm still watching this. ( Spoilers )
3) By contrast, I saw the Muppet Show (special? Apparently a one-off?) and found it a delight. Disney has definitely struggled in finding a way to utilize the Muppets and two shows have now failed. I'm glad they tried to do something different with them, and I rather liked the show where they were trying to make a more realistic "behind the scenes" Muppet show.
But maybe these days a return to the past would be particularly welcome (and surely there's still a lot of appeal for kids). I've got to imagine they've got a potential guest list a mile long. My partner and I kept thinking that some of the puppeteers must have been filled with glee at being able to recreate this show.
It did make me laugh when Sabrina Carpenter said she'd watched the show, her parents had watched the show, and her grandparents had watched the show. We'd be rather young to be her grandparents but, yeah, 50th anniversary after all.
4) I found the first of my top 3 shows of the year last month when we watched How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. I'd quite enjoyed Derry Girls, so was interested in trying this. I found it had a lot of the fun from Derry with an added mystery at the center. ( Read more... )
5) When in his latest charity auction batch Stephen Colbert listed a Lord of the Rings sword that had been on the stage wall, we couldn't believe he'd be selling such a thing at any price. Turns out it's a replica of the actual sword used in the film, which he already has (and he joked he would be buried with). Even so, I figured it would go for a lot, and it's going to be well over $25,000. His neckties are going for over $1000.
2) Following up on what I wrote about in my last post, I watched several episodes of Paradise S2. I'm not sure why I'm still watching this. ( Spoilers )
3) By contrast, I saw the Muppet Show (special? Apparently a one-off?) and found it a delight. Disney has definitely struggled in finding a way to utilize the Muppets and two shows have now failed. I'm glad they tried to do something different with them, and I rather liked the show where they were trying to make a more realistic "behind the scenes" Muppet show.
But maybe these days a return to the past would be particularly welcome (and surely there's still a lot of appeal for kids). I've got to imagine they've got a potential guest list a mile long. My partner and I kept thinking that some of the puppeteers must have been filled with glee at being able to recreate this show.
It did make me laugh when Sabrina Carpenter said she'd watched the show, her parents had watched the show, and her grandparents had watched the show. We'd be rather young to be her grandparents but, yeah, 50th anniversary after all.
4) I found the first of my top 3 shows of the year last month when we watched How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. I'd quite enjoyed Derry Girls, so was interested in trying this. I found it had a lot of the fun from Derry with an added mystery at the center. ( Read more... )
5) When in his latest charity auction batch Stephen Colbert listed a Lord of the Rings sword that had been on the stage wall, we couldn't believe he'd be selling such a thing at any price. Turns out it's a replica of the actual sword used in the film, which he already has (and he joked he would be buried with). Even so, I figured it would go for a lot, and it's going to be well over $25,000. His neckties are going for over $1000.
Poll #34344 Kudos Footer-562
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some movies
Mar. 6th, 2026 09:04 pmsnickficDrowning by Numbers (1988). A woman, her daught, and her niece are all named Cissie, drown their husbands, and depend on the local coroner Madgett (Bernard Hill) to cover up their crimes.
This is a surrealist late-80s comedy meditating on death and also games and numbers of various kinds, which is to say it feels very much of a piece with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, except for having no Shakespeare and being more focused on female characters. It's all nonsense; nobody is really a real person here, and that's fine. It's also pretty horny in various ways, and in fact Madgett proposes to each of the Cissies in turn. You kind of want him to succeed with one or possibly all of them.
If you want a sense of what you're in for with this movie, Madgett's introduction gives you a pretty good one.
--
The Bride! (2026). Maggie Gyllenhaal directs this riff on the Frankenstein mythos, this time a sometime-musical Bonnie and Clyde story about Frankenstein's creature Frank (Christian Bale), still alive in the 1930s, and the bride (Jessie Buckley) that he talks a mad scientist into "reinvigorating" for him. The dead woman thus invigorated was a mobster's call girl, but she doesn't remember any of that anymore. Sometimes Mary Shelley talks to her for some reason.
If you get the sense from this description that this movie has a lot going on, you are correct. I would say this movie is less than the sum of its parts, but I really enjoy several of those parts. Buckley is fantastic, and Annette Bening as Doctor Euphronius is delightful. The big dance number is fun. The movie has a lot of style and is sometimes cheekily anachronistic.
The various pieces don't ever really cohere; there are too many of them. And some of the pieces I enjoyed less, like the Overboard-style plot where our revived gal thinks she's still alive and was already married to Frank before her "accident." The subplot of her being occasionally literally possessed by Mary Shelley was just baffling to me. I get that it was supposed to be thematic, but: why. But, the movie tackles all its various tones and themes with a lot of energy and verve, and overall I found a lot to enjoy.
--
Send Help (2026). A frumpy woman who dreams of competing on Survivor crashlands on an island with her horrible boss.
This is a psychological thriller by Sam Raimi, and it took me a long time to go see it because ~suspense movies about people chasing each other around trying to kill each other aren't usually my thing. (See also: every home invasion movie except You're Next.) But! We don't really get that until the end, and in the meantime, Rachel McAdams is delightful as Linda Little, who's competent and helpful to a fault until she's finally pushed too far. I love how much of a glow-up Linda gets the longer they stay on the island. There were also some late developments that I really liked.
It's not breaking any new ground, but it's fun and well-executed. If you support women's wrongs(tm), I think you'll enjoy this.
This is a surrealist late-80s comedy meditating on death and also games and numbers of various kinds, which is to say it feels very much of a piece with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, except for having no Shakespeare and being more focused on female characters. It's all nonsense; nobody is really a real person here, and that's fine. It's also pretty horny in various ways, and in fact Madgett proposes to each of the Cissies in turn. You kind of want him to succeed with one or possibly all of them.
If you want a sense of what you're in for with this movie, Madgett's introduction gives you a pretty good one.
--
The Bride! (2026). Maggie Gyllenhaal directs this riff on the Frankenstein mythos, this time a sometime-musical Bonnie and Clyde story about Frankenstein's creature Frank (Christian Bale), still alive in the 1930s, and the bride (Jessie Buckley) that he talks a mad scientist into "reinvigorating" for him. The dead woman thus invigorated was a mobster's call girl, but she doesn't remember any of that anymore. Sometimes Mary Shelley talks to her for some reason.
If you get the sense from this description that this movie has a lot going on, you are correct. I would say this movie is less than the sum of its parts, but I really enjoy several of those parts. Buckley is fantastic, and Annette Bening as Doctor Euphronius is delightful. The big dance number is fun. The movie has a lot of style and is sometimes cheekily anachronistic.
The various pieces don't ever really cohere; there are too many of them. And some of the pieces I enjoyed less, like the Overboard-style plot where our revived gal thinks she's still alive and was already married to Frank before her "accident." The subplot of her being occasionally literally possessed by Mary Shelley was just baffling to me. I get that it was supposed to be thematic, but: why. But, the movie tackles all its various tones and themes with a lot of energy and verve, and overall I found a lot to enjoy.
--
Send Help (2026). A frumpy woman who dreams of competing on Survivor crashlands on an island with her horrible boss.
This is a psychological thriller by Sam Raimi, and it took me a long time to go see it because ~suspense movies about people chasing each other around trying to kill each other aren't usually my thing. (See also: every home invasion movie except You're Next.) But! We don't really get that until the end, and in the meantime, Rachel McAdams is delightful as Linda Little, who's competent and helpful to a fault until she's finally pushed too far. I love how much of a glow-up Linda gets the longer they stay on the island. There were also some late developments that I really liked.
It's not breaking any new ground, but it's fun and well-executed. If you support women's wrongs(tm), I think you'll enjoy this.
handy Dreamwidth tricks
Mar. 6th, 2026 07:37 pmsnickficIn one place that's easy for me to find.
- via elasticella: If you'd like to filter by multiple tags, add them via comma with ?mode=all at the end. For example, all my recs posts also tagged with Oasis: https://snickfic.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:+oasis,entry:+recs?mode=all
- If you're a paid user, DW allows you to filter out specific tags by other users (for example, my "topic: politics" tag). It's just not easy to find. First you need to make an access filter and put the person on that filter, and then once they are in the filter, click on their name and all their tags will pop up.
One suggestion would be to make a filter with your entire circle in it, and then just take out the tags you don't want. Then that could be your default view of your circle.
How Did I Get Here?
Mar. 6th, 2026 07:52 pmyourlibrarian1) At the grocery this morning and their clothing displays mirror the seesaw of our weather – puffy coats next to sundresses. It was so warm today than when I came back to drop the groceries off, I had to change into a t-shirt before I went out again, and it was barely 10 AM.
2) Had a nice piece of luck as well. The grocery was running a $10 coupon for $100 or more of purchases. I had to drop my partner off at work this morning because he had an all-day thing, and in the rush forgot to take the grocery list. So as I was putting stuff in the trunk I remembered I'd forgotten his celery. Went back and decided to pick up a few more things since I had the $10 coupon now. Got to the register and realized someone had left that same coupon sitting in the machine when they left! So I got the $10 off and still have my coupon for next week.
It amazes me how people don't bother taking their coupons. It's usually for things they're buying anyway and a free item is not unusual. And this was literally $10 in cash sitting there, when groceries are so expensive! I didn't even know what it was at first, just saw that someone hadn't taken their coupon and figured I'd look to see if it was something I could use.
3) Also on the grocery front, I have recently become addicted to Sumo oranges. Came across them during a sale, and got just one bag because they're pricey. Came back home with 3 the following week.
Oranges have never been my favorite, even though we had incredibly good ones growing in our backyard growing up. These are the closest I've gotten to those. I never end up eating only one.
3) As part of![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
marchmetamatterschallenge, I have been going through my tv_talk comments in case I discussed much about a show (mostly, no). However it was a good reminder about a great many shows I watched which I liked and would recommend, but might not think of if someone asked me.
Some of these were strong throughout, and some long running ones have some weaker seasons but still worth watching. In no particular order, just as they came up on my entries: ( Read more... )
4) One of the things reviewing all these past posts made me aware of is how much more TV I'm watching, but overall with less enjoyment. Every so often I hit a show I would really recommend, but usually they fall into the "ok" category or I just nope out of it a few episodes in.
I think the changes in TV have a lot to do with this. ( Read more... )
2) Had a nice piece of luck as well. The grocery was running a $10 coupon for $100 or more of purchases. I had to drop my partner off at work this morning because he had an all-day thing, and in the rush forgot to take the grocery list. So as I was putting stuff in the trunk I remembered I'd forgotten his celery. Went back and decided to pick up a few more things since I had the $10 coupon now. Got to the register and realized someone had left that same coupon sitting in the machine when they left! So I got the $10 off and still have my coupon for next week.
It amazes me how people don't bother taking their coupons. It's usually for things they're buying anyway and a free item is not unusual. And this was literally $10 in cash sitting there, when groceries are so expensive! I didn't even know what it was at first, just saw that someone hadn't taken their coupon and figured I'd look to see if it was something I could use.
3) Also on the grocery front, I have recently become addicted to Sumo oranges. Came across them during a sale, and got just one bag because they're pricey. Came back home with 3 the following week.
Oranges have never been my favorite, even though we had incredibly good ones growing in our backyard growing up. These are the closest I've gotten to those. I never end up eating only one.
3) As part of
marchmetamatterschallenge, I have been going through my tv_talk comments in case I discussed much about a show (mostly, no). However it was a good reminder about a great many shows I watched which I liked and would recommend, but might not think of if someone asked me.Some of these were strong throughout, and some long running ones have some weaker seasons but still worth watching. In no particular order, just as they came up on my entries: ( Read more... )
4) One of the things reviewing all these past posts made me aware of is how much more TV I'm watching, but overall with less enjoyment. Every so often I hit a show I would really recommend, but usually they fall into the "ok" category or I just nope out of it a few episodes in.
I think the changes in TV have a lot to do with this. ( Read more... )
Poll #34334 Kudos Footer-561
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A London visit with dots and art....
Mar. 5th, 2026 09:25 amkazzy_ceeYesterday I went with a friend to the Courtauld art gallery to see their exhibition Seurat and the Sea.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891) was a French artist best known for developing the technique of painting with small dots of colour to create an image (pointillism) as part of the neo-impressionist art movement. It's easy to forget that at the time, this was considered bold and innovative, and was not accepted by the majority of contemporary art critics. In his short life (he died aged 31) he only sold three of his paintings.
The exhibition brings together 26 of his lesser-known seascape paintings, preparatory sketches and drawings. Under the cut for my favourites.
( Read more... )
Having seen all that, we went into an adjoining room where they have a new temporary exhibition from the Berber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. The exhibit has some highlights from the Berber Collection, which was a nice surprise. Under the cut for more lovelies!
( Read more... )
It's always nice to discover something new in a place I've visited so often before. We really enjoyed the outing, and after a quick lunch, we headed home.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891) was a French artist best known for developing the technique of painting with small dots of colour to create an image (pointillism) as part of the neo-impressionist art movement. It's easy to forget that at the time, this was considered bold and innovative, and was not accepted by the majority of contemporary art critics. In his short life (he died aged 31) he only sold three of his paintings.
The exhibition brings together 26 of his lesser-known seascape paintings, preparatory sketches and drawings. Under the cut for my favourites.
( Read more... )
Having seen all that, we went into an adjoining room where they have a new temporary exhibition from the Berber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. The exhibit has some highlights from the Berber Collection, which was a nice surprise. Under the cut for more lovelies!
( Read more... )
It's always nice to discover something new in a place I've visited so often before. We really enjoyed the outing, and after a quick lunch, we headed home.
It's Been a Weird Day
Mar. 4th, 2026 01:58 pmyourlibrarian1) marchmetamatterschallenge has begun! I'm particularly excited this year since I will finally come current with my meta archiving. I'm already finished with 2024 and should finish 2025 by tomorrow. One thing I hope is to do more writing this year.
2) The February CheckIn ateverykindofcraft has gotten a lot of responses. It's interesting to hear all the different ways that people have learned these skills.
3) In less good news, a bunch of RSS feeds seem to have stopped working. The AO3 vids feed hasn't updated in weeks (so unlikely to be AO3's recent issues), and 4 feeds from Tumblr have stopped as well, though it seems only 2 have been updating lately. It's definitely not the feed service, because at least 3 other feeds I have set up have updated within the last few days. I'm wondering if Tumblr is somehow blocking RSS feeds now?
I also feel like there are people's posts that I have missed though I am less sure about that.
3) I was waiting for a cashier and there were 3 women and 2 small girls ahead of me. The two little girls were racing around everywhere, grabbing things and then having them put back by the women. It was all taking some time, and the squealing was getting on my nerves. But then one grabbed an Easter Bunny and told her mom she wanted it.
The mom asked the cashier if it was solid or hollow, and was told it was hollow (which seemed most likely to me given its size and price!) The little girl then asked what "hollow" was, and her mom struggled to explain it, finally saying "It has a hole inside it." The little girl then said "I'll put it back and get another." We all burst out laughing as her mom then tried to explain that the bunny wasn't defective, it was just the way it was made.
4) So it looks like Paramount will fold HBO into its service. I expect that will put paid to its bundling with Disney services, though it does make it more likely we'll keep Paramount+ around post-The Late Show cancellation. At this point the U.S. looks like it's going to have 3 major streamers, a number of secondary streamers (in which I include Peacock) and a vast number of tiny streamers.
5) Never posted here that I finished the latest season of Strange New Worlds. Thought it somewhat better than earlier seasons, despite the way it started, though I find it a bit jarring to see TOS episodes essentially revised for use here. The finale seemed a cross between Rey at the end of the Skywalker saga and ST:TOS's Lazarus episode. ( Read more... )
marchmetamatterschallenge has begun! I'm particularly excited this year since I will finally come current with my meta archiving. I'm already finished with 2024 and should finish 2025 by tomorrow. One thing I hope is to do more writing this year.2) The February CheckIn at
everykindofcraft has gotten a lot of responses. It's interesting to hear all the different ways that people have learned these skills.3) In less good news, a bunch of RSS feeds seem to have stopped working. The AO3 vids feed hasn't updated in weeks (so unlikely to be AO3's recent issues), and 4 feeds from Tumblr have stopped as well, though it seems only 2 have been updating lately. It's definitely not the feed service, because at least 3 other feeds I have set up have updated within the last few days. I'm wondering if Tumblr is somehow blocking RSS feeds now?
I also feel like there are people's posts that I have missed though I am less sure about that.
3) I was waiting for a cashier and there were 3 women and 2 small girls ahead of me. The two little girls were racing around everywhere, grabbing things and then having them put back by the women. It was all taking some time, and the squealing was getting on my nerves. But then one grabbed an Easter Bunny and told her mom she wanted it.
The mom asked the cashier if it was solid or hollow, and was told it was hollow (which seemed most likely to me given its size and price!) The little girl then asked what "hollow" was, and her mom struggled to explain it, finally saying "It has a hole inside it." The little girl then said "I'll put it back and get another." We all burst out laughing as her mom then tried to explain that the bunny wasn't defective, it was just the way it was made.
4) So it looks like Paramount will fold HBO into its service. I expect that will put paid to its bundling with Disney services, though it does make it more likely we'll keep Paramount+ around post-The Late Show cancellation. At this point the U.S. looks like it's going to have 3 major streamers, a number of secondary streamers (in which I include Peacock) and a vast number of tiny streamers.
5) Never posted here that I finished the latest season of Strange New Worlds. Thought it somewhat better than earlier seasons, despite the way it started, though I find it a bit jarring to see TOS episodes essentially revised for use here. The finale seemed a cross between Rey at the end of the Skywalker saga and ST:TOS's Lazarus episode. ( Read more... )
Poll #34324 Kudos Footer-560
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Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5
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Another RPG Bundle - Ninja Crusade
Mar. 4th, 2026 06:04 pmffuturesStarting in an hour, Ninja Crusade Bundle featuring "the Third Eye Games RPG of ninja, conspiracies, and high-flying martial arts."
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/NinjaCrusade
The premise here looks rather a bit like last week's Mists of Akuna but without the steampunk elements, and as with that this really isn't a setting that interests me much, I'm just not knowledgeable enough about ninja and martial arts generally to be interested in running games where they're a major part of the background. Parts of it were in a 2016 bundle, and I wasn't really very interested then either. Having said that it's cheap and presentation looks OK., and they don't refer to multiple Ninja as Ninjas which is a friend's pet peeve about most games that use them...
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/NinjaCrusade
The premise here looks rather a bit like last week's Mists of Akuna but without the steampunk elements, and as with that this really isn't a setting that interests me much, I'm just not knowledgeable enough about ninja and martial arts generally to be interested in running games where they're a major part of the background. Parts of it were in a 2016 bundle, and I wasn't really very interested then either. Having said that it's cheap and presentation looks OK., and they don't refer to multiple Ninja as Ninjas which is a friend's pet peeve about most games that use them...
POEM: If only we had taller been by Ray Bradbury
Mar. 3rd, 2026 08:43 pmkerk_hiraethThis came up in my memories.
As we spiral ever faster toward extinction it feels even more relevant than during the times it was written.
kerk
If only we had taller been
The fence we walked between the years
Did balance us serene;
It was a place half in the sky where
In the green of leaf and promising of peach
We’d reach our hands to touch and almost thouch that lie,
That blue that was not really blue.
If we could reach and touch, we said,
‘Twould teach us, somehow, never to be dead.
We ached, we almost touched that stuff;
Our reach was never quite enough.
So, Thomas, we are doomed to die.
O, Tom, as I have often said,
How said we’re both so short in bed.
If only we had taller been,
And touched God’s cuff, His hem,
We would not have to sleep away and go with them
Who’ve gone before,
A billion give or take a million boys or more
Who, short as we, stood tall as they could stand
And hoped by stretching thus to keep their land,
Their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul.
But they, like us, were standing in a hole.
O, Thomas, will a Race one day stand really tall
Across the Void, across the Universe and all?
And, measured out with rocket fire,
At last put Adam’s finger forth
As on the Sistine Ceiling,
And God’s great hand come down the other way
To measure Man and find him Good,
And Gift him with Forever’s Day?
I work for that.
Short man, Large dream. I send my rockets forth between my ears,
Hoping an inch of Will is worth a pound of years.
Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal Mall:
We’ve reached Alpha Centauri!
We’re tall, O God, we’re tall!
Ray Bradbury
(no subject)
Mar. 3rd, 2026 07:31 pmthawreckaIn a surprise turn of events, this weekend I started watching the Prince of Tennis anime from the beginning. Honestly, it's charming and well paced! I can see why I was so into it... 20+ years ago. I wouldn't say it's particularly mature; it is definitely a story about a 12 year old beating almost everyone at tennis and everyone talking about how cool he is. The adolescents are very adolescent - Kaido hissing like a snake is classic awkward 13-year-old behaviour.
I mostly remembered the important parts: the tennis and the cat. I had forgotten everything about Echizen's sleazy dad, and I would happily forget that all over again. I also forgot how long they drew out not letting you see how Tezuka plays tennis - I've watched 24 episodes, and I don't think you actually see him play until episode 25. There is a ton of filler, but the filler is all one episode fillers IIRC, so in that matter is vastly superior to, say, the endless Bleach filler arcs.
Overall it's feeling like light nostalgic fun.
I mostly remembered the important parts: the tennis and the cat. I had forgotten everything about Echizen's sleazy dad, and I would happily forget that all over again. I also forgot how long they drew out not letting you see how Tezuka plays tennis - I've watched 24 episodes, and I don't think you actually see him play until episode 25. There is a ton of filler, but the filler is all one episode fillers IIRC, so in that matter is vastly superior to, say, the endless Bleach filler arcs.
Overall it's feeling like light nostalgic fun.
Another RPG bundle - Campaign Starters
Mar. 2nd, 2026 07:37 pmffutures0one Campaign Starters presents interactive .PDF maps and floorplans for ready-made tabletop roleplaying campaigns from 0one Games.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/CampaignStarters
This isn't really something I need - I don't really do fantasy, and I prefer to make my own maps as I need them, and keep them as minimal as possible. But if it's something you need it could be a good deal.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/CampaignStarters
This isn't really something I need - I don't really do fantasy, and I prefer to make my own maps as I need them, and keep them as minimal as possible. But if it's something you need it could be a good deal.
fic recs: Father Jud/Benoit Blanc
Mar. 1st, 2026 11:09 amsnickficI went hunting for fic of these two a while back. Here are my two favorites.
Acts of Faith by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
quietly_obsessed, 4k. "I don't believe in God, but I do believe in you". Jud and Blanc fall in love during the year after Wicks' murder. A bittersweet but lovely fic in which they find some healing in each other.
fair with her firstborn on bethlehem down byhauntinghouses, 9k. Benoit Blanc comes back to Chimney Rock just in time for Christmas. In which Blanc sets out to seduce a priest and/or not have a miserable Christmas, and ends up talking a lot more theology than he wants (but no more than he ought to have reasonably expected). If you're like the religious debates in the movie were great but what if they had them while fucking, this is the fic for you.
Acts of Faith by
fair with her firstborn on bethlehem down by
February in music
Mar. 1st, 2026 09:48 amsnickficThemes of the month
1. Comfort music, by which I mean mostly the Gallaghers. This felt like a rough month, and I listened to my big Noel playlist a lot, as well as my 2025 and “most listened” playlists. About every six months I listen to the latter and discover it has a lot of great songs on it. Who could have guessed!
2. Also in the comfort music vein, a lot of Lord Huron, mostly the new album, which has earned the extremely rare distinction of skipping the seasonal playlist phase and going straight into my year-round rotation.
3. Wuthering Heights by Charli XCX. Neeeew album! Short, and with some filler of the kind you get in an album for a movie, but still a few new songs I was into. I appreciate how she used the melodramatic vibes of the movie as an excuse to go OTT.
4. Lana del Rey. Inspired by her new single, I went back and listened to Norman Fucking Rockwell again, which I haven't listened all the way through since 2020.
My top artists (by # of streams)
1. Oasis
2. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
3. Lord Huron
4. Liam Gallagher
...I told you. 🙈
Favorite songs:
1. White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter by Lana Del Rey. Weird Lana is back!! Some of this is kind of bad tbh and is definitely her operating in the vein of Taylor's "But Daddy I Love Him," ie pissed at her fans for having opinions about her love life, but also: it's so delightfully weird. I'm into it.
2. Dying For You by Charlie XCX, my favorite of the new tracks on her WH album. Again: really took the theme of OTT melodrama to heart. <3
1. Comfort music, by which I mean mostly the Gallaghers. This felt like a rough month, and I listened to my big Noel playlist a lot, as well as my 2025 and “most listened” playlists. About every six months I listen to the latter and discover it has a lot of great songs on it. Who could have guessed!
2. Also in the comfort music vein, a lot of Lord Huron, mostly the new album, which has earned the extremely rare distinction of skipping the seasonal playlist phase and going straight into my year-round rotation.
3. Wuthering Heights by Charli XCX. Neeeew album! Short, and with some filler of the kind you get in an album for a movie, but still a few new songs I was into. I appreciate how she used the melodramatic vibes of the movie as an excuse to go OTT.
4. Lana del Rey. Inspired by her new single, I went back and listened to Norman Fucking Rockwell again, which I haven't listened all the way through since 2020.
My top artists (by # of streams)
1. Oasis
2. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
3. Lord Huron
4. Liam Gallagher
...I told you. 🙈
Favorite songs:
1. White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter by Lana Del Rey. Weird Lana is back!! Some of this is kind of bad tbh and is definitely her operating in the vein of Taylor's "But Daddy I Love Him," ie pissed at her fans for having opinions about her love life, but also: it's so delightfully weird. I'm into it.
2. Dying For You by Charlie XCX, my favorite of the new tracks on her WH album. Again: really took the theme of OTT melodrama to heart. <3
"Stronger Together" (Predator, T, M/F, Dutch/Anna, 99% platonic, 3,771 words)
Mar. 1st, 2026 12:48 amfrogfarmThis one's been in my WIP directory far too long. Very glad to finally have it see the light of day.
Title: Stronger Together
Author: frogfarm
Fandom: Predator
Category: M/F
Pairing: Dutch/Anna
Characters: Dutch, Anna
Rating: T
Words: 3,771
Warnings: None
Tags: Trauma, Trust, Platonic, Friendship, Developing Relationship
They got to the chopper. What happened after.
Post-PREDATOR and post-PREDATOR 2. Anna POV.
(AO3 link)
Title: Stronger Together
Author: frogfarm
Fandom: Predator
Category: M/F
Pairing: Dutch/Anna
Characters: Dutch, Anna
Rating: T
Words: 3,771
Warnings: None
Tags: Trauma, Trust, Platonic, Friendship, Developing Relationship
They got to the chopper. What happened after.
Post-PREDATOR and post-PREDATOR 2. Anna POV.
(AO3 link)
Successes
Feb. 28th, 2026 06:51 pmyourlibrarian1) I happened to catch the Heated Rivalry episode on NPR's 1A, and they mentioned these HBO stats: "The audience on HBO went from 53% women the week of December 22 to roughly two thirds women by January." This apparently refers to viewers and not signups to the service, so it makes me wonder how they know these demographics? Also, I would have thought new signups would be the bigger success rate for a streamer.
2) When we heard this news story on Wait Wait this morning, my partner said, "So it was Llama and Order" : https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/crime-fighting-llamas-catch-thief-by-surrounding-him-in-a-field-until-cops-arrive/
3) Americans now listen to podcasts more often than talk radio, study shows
What's interesting to me about this is that for a long time I had been reading articles about "when is podcasting going to break through". The surge in 2020 is unsurprising -- it's when a lot of people discovered podcasts, but then there's an immediate drop the following year. Meanwhile radio drops in 2020 because so many people listen to it mostly while commuting, which fewer are doing. ( Read more... )
4) Apparently we'd better prepare for a large wave of dementia patients in coming decades due to early wave Covid infections.
5) Had one of my best nights of bowling, at least in terms of outcomes. Normally my goal is just to break 100. I almost did so in game 1, did 114 in game 2, and 141 in game 3. This followed a 20+ minute delay when our lanes (which had been getting balls stuck all evening), stopped altogether and wouldn't lower pins. We were eventually moved to a different set of lanes to finish game 2 and do one of the fastest game 3s I've ever played. Paid off though!
2) When we heard this news story on Wait Wait this morning, my partner said, "So it was Llama and Order" : https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/crime-fighting-llamas-catch-thief-by-surrounding-him-in-a-field-until-cops-arrive/
3) Americans now listen to podcasts more often than talk radio, study shows
What's interesting to me about this is that for a long time I had been reading articles about "when is podcasting going to break through". The surge in 2020 is unsurprising -- it's when a lot of people discovered podcasts, but then there's an immediate drop the following year. Meanwhile radio drops in 2020 because so many people listen to it mostly while commuting, which fewer are doing. ( Read more... )
4) Apparently we'd better prepare for a large wave of dementia patients in coming decades due to early wave Covid infections.
5) Had one of my best nights of bowling, at least in terms of outcomes. Normally my goal is just to break 100. I almost did so in game 1, did 114 in game 2, and 141 in game 3. This followed a 20+ minute delay when our lanes (which had been getting balls stuck all evening), stopped altogether and wouldn't lower pins. We were eventually moved to a different set of lanes to finish game 2 and do one of the fastest game 3s I've ever played. Paid off though!
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yummy soups
Feb. 28th, 2026 12:36 pmsnickficHere are a couple of my favorite winter soup recipes. They're from cookbooks, so no handy online version to link to. So this is for you and also for me, so I can access these away from my cookbooks.
( Pork and hominy soup )
( Sausage, White Bean, and Kale Soup With Besar )
( Pork and hominy soup )
( Sausage, White Bean, and Kale Soup With Besar )