Write every day: final tally

Jan. 1st, 2026 11:09 pm
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
[personal profile] luzula
This is the final tally! Let me know if you want to check in late or I missed you somewhere. [personal profile] trobadora is doing January, so head over there now. Good work everyone! \o/ I didn't manage to write on New Year's Eve, though I did successfully make soufflé for the first time--turns out it isn't difficult. But I did write on the 1st, more than an alibi sentence at least.

Now back home, which is a relief. Farm things done:
- Moving part of a pile of gravel from one place to another with a shovel and wheelbarrow (gravel is HEAVY).
- Pruning down the grapevine that was already here when we came. It's a Vitis labrusca 'Zilga', very hardy, but we only got one cluster of grapes on it this year (rather sour ones). But I think that was our fault for not pruning it in the summer, so it was just a mass of leaves.
- Pruning some wild hazel bushes into a vase shape which is supposed to make them yield more nuts.
- Feeding the ducks! And talking with the ducks! Awww, I've missed them.
- Making pickled beetroots.

Tally:
Read more... )
trobadora: (Zhu Yilong - head over heels)
[personal profile] trobadora
Yuletide author reveals have happened! I had one story in the regular collection and one in the Madness collection this year.

For my main fic, I matched on a request that I'd been eyeing for some years - for Zhu Yilong's Thermos Flower Series commercials. (Here is a nearly-complete playlist, lacking only the lily of the valley one, though the first on the list is a bit atypical.)

There's only one regular character in this series of commercials, but there is also a white cat that appears in several. So those were the two characters I decided to write about:
  • Zhu Yilong's character, the man with the magical thermoses, who I decided is a dragon (with some canon support, given the little cartoon dragon on the thermoses :p), and whom I named Ao Xing (after the dragon kings of the four seas, who are all "Ao Something").

  • the white cat - I decided this is a cat spirit, called him Xiao-Bai, and gave him a human form that - no surprise - looks like Bai Yu. (This Bai Yu, to be precise, which I knew my recipient would appreciate. *g*)
I didn't tag this as "Bai Yu/Zhu Yilong Character Combinations", because it isn't that, and I didn't tag it as Guardian RPF, because it isn't that either, but it's still Guardian-adjacent and Weilan-adjacent, after all. *g*

And I had a complete blast with this, worldbuilding and all! Tying things like the magically appearing flower decorations on the thermoses into the worldbuilding, inventing flower worlds of my own, and of course developing the relationship between the two characters - it really was a lot of fun. :D

And I did a fun thing with the narrative voice where the beginning of each chapter starts in a more distant/mythic, omniscient voice and then zooms in on the POV character, which I hope worked well!

I think this one's completely readablewithout canon knowledge, btw. Hardly anyone has read it (it really is niche even for Yuletide), but I hope a few more people will give it a chance. I'm pretty proud of how it came out!

**

Heart-Seed, Heart-Flower (8,465 words)
Fandom: Thermos "Flower Series" Commercials
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Zhu Yilong's Character (Thermos "Flower Series" Commercials), White Cat (Thermos "Flower Series" Commercials)
Content Tags: Magic Flowers, Magic Waters, Dragons, Cats, Shape-Shifters, Multiple Worlds, Lonely Wanderers, Magical Quests, Saving Worlds with a Magic Bottle
A/N: Many thanks to [personal profile] china_shop for beta-reading, and to [personal profile] douqi for double-checking the character naming!

Summary:

The bottle was plain and unadorned, the lotus pattern that would have signalled the success of his quest nowhere in evidence.

He'd failed.

Introduction Post

Jan. 1st, 2026 01:35 pm
oldtoadwoman: Sam Winchester, Supernatural 14x17 (Default)
[personal profile] oldtoadwoman
Snowflake Challenge: A mug of coffee or hot chocolate with a snowflake shaped gingerbread cookie perched on the rim sits nestled amidst a softly bunched blanket. A few dried orange slices sit next to it.

Almost everything I post on Dreamwidth is posted access-locked to my circle, but I am going to try to actually participate in [community profile] snowflake_challenge this year and maybe I can make it a habit to continue posting regularly. I'm making this post public for the duration of the challenge, but I might lock it after January. I'm slightly neurotic about leaving posts public even when they aren't very personal posts. One of the things I like about Dreamwidth is that I'm not that worried about a post going viral here. (I deleted my Tumblr years ago because that platform fed into my neurosis. If I posted something that didn't get much interaction, I'd be sulky about it because it felt like I was being ignored. But then I once posted something political that got a huge number of re-blogs and comments including, of course, from people who disagreed with me, and after that I decided that I preferred being ignored.)


Toad
she/her
In addition to [personal profile] oldtoadwoman , I have an art journal at [personal profile] eye_of_toad , but I haven't posted much this year at all. And I'm [archiveofourown.org profile] oldtoadwoman on Archive of Our Own (but haven't been active there in ages either). Real-life has really worn me down the last few years. I want to squee about fun things, but I'm often lacking the energy or focus to even post about what I've been watching lately.

Watched recently: Wake Up Dead Man (the latest Benoit Blanc mystery), season 1 of Pluribus, and I'm almost caught up on Stranger Things which I'm about to go finish now. And the on-hiatus show that I most want to see concluded is Severance. One annoying thing that stands out, is that I seem to keep getting hooked on things that get dragged out a bit too long with way too long of a gap between seasons. (I like the Benoit Blanc mysteries for being self-contained stories, but all the others try to drag you along for years' worth of cliffhangers.) And I've been going to the movie theater a lot lately. Most recently saw Song Sung Blue which I enjoyed. I've watched all of the variations of Ghosts with the exception of the Greek one, which I haven't found subtitled versions of yet. It started out as a silly sitcom that my sister liked, but for me the most entertaining part is seeing how each country adapts the story to their own culture and history. (My sister and I marathoned the French & Greek series over the holidays.)

I feel like I should be saying more as an introduction, but at the moment my interests are a bit scattered.

Some days I feel too contradictory to even have a personality. I like trying new food (but still go to my old favorites when I can't make a decision). I like going places and having new experiences (yet I often just curl up in my apartment and never see another human being all weekend). I love the idea of reading (but never seem to actually make time to sit down and read). I love to paint and draw (but always put it off until "later" when I'll have more time). I enjoy journaling and writing letters (but keep telling myself I'll catch back up tomorrow). I teach math (but have no guarantee that I'll be offered the same position next school year) and enjoy teaching (except for the 90% of the time when students are just goofing off and not listening at all). I love writing fan fiction (but almost never write anymore because I can't seem to stay focused on one story idea long enough).

I'm also extra prone to sulking in the winter so I'm going to try to use [community profile] snowflake_challenge as motivation to get up and actually type something regularly.

Paging my flist

Jan. 1st, 2026 02:20 pm
mrs_sweetpeach: (Default)
[personal profile] mrs_sweetpeach
Click here )

word of the year

Jan. 1st, 2026 11:29 am
muccamukk: Painting of a very small boat surrounded by big waves, lighthouse in background. (Lights: Little Boat in a Big Sea)
[personal profile] muccamukk
My folks build a found object Santa Rosa labyrinth every New Years Day, I pulled an Angel Card at the centre and it says "Synthesis."

2025 Media in Review

Jan. 1st, 2026 11:06 am
sanguinity: woodcut by M.C. Escher, "Snakes" (Default)
[personal profile] sanguinity
2025 media in review! I'm not gonna try to do a best-of/highlights summary, but please do ask me about anything that interests you. (There's a Mesoamerican books post still coming, plus another general books post.)

2025 Books )

2025 Movies )

2025 TV )

Snowflake Challenge #1

Jan. 1st, 2026 08:24 am
tjs_whatnot: (Default)
[personal profile] tjs_whatnot posting in [community profile] snowflake_challenge
Introduction Post*
Meet the Mods Post *

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #1 ) And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Book reaction: The Georgian Feast

Jan. 1st, 2026 10:01 am
brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

Happy New Year, everyone!

I just finished reading The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia by Darra Goldstein. I started reading it after I saw it mantioned in an article that Z. showed us about the Georgian word "shemomechama," which can't really be translated into English, but basically means "I ate too much, but it wasn't really my fault — it was the food's fault for being so delicious."

This was an interesting book, primarily because it wasn't just a cookbook. The first 60 pages were a series of essays about Georgian foods and food culture, meant to prepare you for the recipes that follow. And yet I don't think that anything — short of actually going to Georgia (which one of my uncles did back when it was still part of the Soviet Union) — could actually prepare me for Georgian cooking, which combines recipe I never would have expected in ways I never would have expected. I encountered more recipes that called for walnuts in this cookbook than I had in the rest of my life. And not just in sweet recipes. For example, on page 100 there's a recipe for Chicken Bazhe ("katmis bazhe" in Georgian), in which a baked chicken is served with a sauce made of walnuts, garlic, water red wine vinegar, salt, marigold, coriander seeds, paprika, and cayenne. It's a combination of tastes that I struggle to imagine.

Another aspect of the Georgian recipes that kind of boggled my mind was the number of dishes intended to be served at room temperature. The part of my brain devoted to food safety would cringe every time I read a recipe and it ended with "Serve at room temperature."

Do any of you have experience with Georgian cuisine? If so, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it.

And to all of you (again), Happy New Year!

January's Bingo

Jan. 1st, 2026 10:50 am
cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
This is the bingo I'm hosting if you want to join us over at [community profile] allbingo for the Public Domain Fest

Love for Sale Three Little Words On the Sunny Side of the Street King of Jazz Vile Bodies
Sing You Sinners Cakes and Ale Livin' in the Sunlight Lovin' in the Moonlight Outside the Law Beyond the Blue Horizon
Madam Satan The End of the World FREE SPACE Years of Grace Body and Soul
The Sound of Love Dancing on the Ceiling Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It) Ash Wednesday Something to Remember You By
You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me The Song of Love I've Got a Crush on You Free and Easy Just a Gigolo
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll



The only impediments between Annae Hofstader and research glory are academia, her dismal supervisors and Annae Hofstader herself.

The Two Doctors Górski by Isaac Fellman

Welcome to Write Every Day 2026!

Jan. 1st, 2026 03:23 pm
trobadora: (mightier)
[personal profile] trobadora
Hi, welcome to Write Every Day!

As has become tradition, I'm hosting the travelling writing circus challenge again for January. :)

What's this about?

Writing. *g* No, really, that's it, it's that simple - writing something, anything every day, even if it's just a sentence. Or a word. That's still writing! And just as importantly it keeps writing on our minds, so we can more easily create or sustain a habit of writing.

How does this work?

Every month, someone here on DW hosts this challenge and makes daily posts where participants can check in, talk about how the writing is going, and offer each other encouragement or commiseration, if they want. The host keeps a running tally of check-ins for the month.

I'm posting early today to get us started, but usually I'm posting in my evening (late hours UTC), after I've done my daily writing. Please comment on the most recent post and say which day(s) you're checking in!

And despite the name, you don't actually have to write every day. *g* There's no pressure or obligation - anyone can dip in and out as they like, write some days but not all, check in every day or in batches, whatever works best. ♥

WED Question of the Day

Do you have writing plans or goals for 2026, or for the next few months?

writing plans )

Happy 2026, everyone! May it be better in every respect than 2025 was, and may we all have a fantastic writing year!

Gravity's Bitch

Dec. 31st, 2025 10:37 pm
cornerofmadness: Husk and Dnace dance (huskerdust umbrella)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
So it snowed a couple inches last night but I HAD to get my meds. Have I mentioned my parents live up a large hill? (My own road is even steeper but if I slip there so what, there's no one on it, here I'll skid out into the main road.)

So off I go, get halfway down, spin and now gravity is sucking me down the hill sideways. Well this is fun. Brakes don't work so well when you're going sideways. I did try to ditch it into the forsythia. Luckily I did get stopped before I was on the main road or in the hedgerow. Also luckily no one was coming. Other than that, the trip was fine and now we have the last do your goddamn job for 2025

1. I got pizza at our favorite place, XXL pepperoni (also not doing their job I did NOT check before leaving) Want to know how much pepperoni there was? NONE (I fixed that in post)

2. I get to CVS. They have my meds NOT my needles. Why not? oh we can't tell you that here we cant see that information in this system (it's a lie. I know they can. Mine has this system and they can but this place is huge so they don't want to waste time). I get in the 'we can tell you why we fucked up' line, takes forever. I said maybe you didn't transfer it. No we did. Then WHY isn't it filled? She shrugs, doesn't answer and says can you wait 15 minutes? yes I can. (I know why, everyone is doing what I'm doing, using the last day before the deductibles reset tomorrow and they're swamped.

I get my damn needles, I go to Home Goods, clean up on the Christmas discards (they're all over valentine's day which isn't too bad. Dollar Tree has all the gardening stuff out. yeah sure.

What I Just Finished Reading:

Poorly Made and Other Things - Horror anthology by one person set in his Edenville series. It was pretty good.

To Die Once - a Maisie Dobbs mystery which I haven't read one of these in a while and this is...slow. It's way more about the effect of war on the English people (who were still recovering from WWI) than it's a mystery

Tell Tale Treat - another paranormal mystery with another protagonist ripe for being bitch slapped, wasn't a bad mystery



What I am Currently Reading:

Keeping the Secret - a short thing about the WAVS in WWII

Murder Made Her Wicked - historical mystery set in Wellsley, really good so far

The Witching Hour - by Heather Graham. Missing children but no one will do a search of the woods because there's no proof other than the FBI things its there (a paranormal FBI team) eye roll. might DNF this arc (but this is the series that did what I tried to do in the early 90s with paranormal mystery and I was laughed at)


What I Plan to Read Next: It's a bunch of new reading challenges time so that

Speaking of that [personal profile] kingstoken is having a reading challenge and you can find it here.

I forgot to mention I finished [personal profile] evil_little_dog's book challenge this year

You can find it under here )


And have December's reads

Wytches, Volume 1 horror graphic novel

Ripped Tide mystery

Haunted Cemeteries of Ohio nonfiction

Death at the Door paranormal mystery

To Die But Once. historical mystery

The Poorly Made and Other Things



Happy New year's my friends

We're spending it playing cards and watching it snow more.

Last Icon Batch of 2025

Dec. 31st, 2025 06:29 pm
impala_chick: (Default)
[personal profile] impala_chick
The last icon batch of 2025 with icons I made for [community profile] seasons_of_fandom, [community profile] screen_icons, and [community profile] retro_icontest.

Fandoms: Winter Solstice stock, Dune, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Smallville (from Lexmas and 5.17 Void), and Babygirl.


20 Icons under here )
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Привет and welcome to our new Russian friends from LiveJournal! We are happy to offer you a new home. We will not require identification for you to post or comment. We also do not cooperate with Russian government requests for any information about your account unless they go through a United States court first. (And it hasn't happened in 16 years!)

Importing your journal from ЖЖ may be slow. There are a lot of you, with many posts and comments, and we have to limit how fast we download your information from ЖЖ so they don't block us. Please be patient! We have been watching and fixing errors, and we will go back to doing that after the holiday is over.

I am very sorry that we can't translate the site into Russian or offer support in Russian. We are a much, much smaller company than LiveJournal is, and my high school Russian classes were a very long time ago :) But at least we aren't owned by Sberbank!

С Новым Годом, and welcome home!

EDIT: Большое спасибо всем за помощь друг другу в комментариях! Я ценю каждого, кто предоставляет нашим новым соседям информацию, понятную им без необходимости искать её в Google. :) И спасибо вам за терпение к моему русскому переводу с помощью Google Translate! Прошло уже много-много лет со школьных времен!

Thank you also to everyone who's been giving our new neighbors a warm welcome. I love you all ❤️

Daily Check-In

Dec. 31st, 2025 06:07 pm
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
[personal profile] starwatcher posting in [community profile] fandom_checkin
 
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday, December 31, to midnight on Thursday, January 01. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34024 Daily Check-in
This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 24

How are you doing?

I am OK.
16 (66.7%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
8 (33.3%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
7 (29.2%)

One other person.
10 (41.7%)

More than one other person.
7 (29.2%)




Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
 

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sylvanwitch

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