Reading

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Deity Swag with Cartoonist Style!

Comics we got at MICE! All are great!

BE NOT AFRAID, by LSJM(?) Black, white, and red one-pager that’s like if the angel from Pet was giving you a Trump-era pep talk.
Secret Black Woman, by Ingrid Pierre. Autobio about anti-black racism, anti-Asian racism, passing, and being biracial.
Default, by JCJB. Poetry essay watercolor about fighting empire and suffering. We think Phosphor of hungryghosts would like this!
Prompted: an educator’s response to generative AI in the classroom, by Caroline Hu. Science, chatbots, and college. We think erinptah would like this!
Cannon Fodder, by Eric Alexander Arroyo. Queer mecha pilots in love during wartime. Got it for the sci-fi library; we have now purchased all three printings of this, haha.
Maintenance, by Cryptozoology. “What if a robot liked it when their creator performed upkeep on them (in a sexual way) and they were both girls???” Grabbed for sci-fi library.
Silhouette, by L/V. Navy blue Riso robot porn. May also end up in sci-fi library because the art is so gorgeous.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: wish upon the hawthorn tree ~ old man willow

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musings: media and audiences

media engagement thoughts ~ background engagement

or as people might more likely say , second screen - to keep media on in background , while pay attention to phone or otherwise . but would say also go for crafters to some extent , like crocheters and knitters .

on one hand , definitely understand need for something to fill background , especially if live with other people who make noises and distractions . on other hand , sometimes fail to see why music is not enough for that . do not think music should always be in background either , but at least serve role of filter out in interesting way , without take too much attention to tune back in and enjoy as is .

maybe just have wonky perspective because HOH - even when medium is audio only like podcast , will follow transcript , or if there is none , then will make sure to avoid all other distractions so as to hone in on comprehension . this is not to say that never play other things in background , but honestly ? this is almost always something that already know well enough to not lose track if tune out .

again , there is sort of ... on one hand , to use videos like this can give clear markers of how much time pass . just get through two 20 minute videos while crochet , so know 40 minutes , which means just about time to make lunch . on other hand ... surely all these music platforms can estimate playlist length and let user choose , right ...? but maybe give some of these platforms too much credit >.>

if really interest in something , then would like to watch that thing as is . even if that means , say for example , defunctland's latest nearly 4.5 hour video - which still only halfway finish , watch in bits over this past week . not because of video's failure to keep interest , but need breaks to do other things , to recuperate from listening fatigue , and sometimes to watch shorter things in between .

just feel that beyond personal accessibility needs for captions and transcripts , people use visual mediums when visual components important - otherwise would be audio podcasts , books , or whatever else . therefore , feel like make sense to give best attention possible .

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The Montessori Child: A Parent's Guide to Raising Capable Children...

The Montessori Child

4/5. What it sounds like, focusing mostly on the 6-12 age range, and a bit on the teenage years. A good survey book that passes lightly over a lot of things and gives good recommendations for where to look for deeper info. The sort of book that will say in passing that of course a child’s gender may not be as a parent wants or expects and a parent should follow the child’s lead. Good information delivered in a paragraph whereas the people who need it the most probably need a full book on it. Useful to me largely in that it made me realize that I already know most of this, at least in general. Good to know some things have stuck after all the parent ed Cb’s montessori school does.

Current Mood: busy

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Christmas Bird Count

Join the Christmas Bird Count from December 14-January 5. This is a popular piece of citizen science. To participate, see a map of active circles to find one near you. If you're inside one, you can also count birds at your own feeders.

Are you taking pictures of birds in your locale? Share them on

birdfeeding and see what other folks have in their areas.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy, chilly, and foggy. Much of the snow is melting or subliming with the water vapor just hanging in the air.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I bagged up Pink, Johnathan, and Johnagold apple seeds with damp sand to cold-stratify in the kitchen.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a pair of cardinals.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

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state of the max update

lol I guess I'm also capable of posting things on DW that aren't book reviews, aren't I. I'm sorry for how absent I am around here; for some reason I can never keep it in my brain that my rlist is another social media feed I can/should check in addition to Mastodon and Tumblr. But I hope you're all doing well.

The last month or so for me has been...rough. I fucked my back up again - hilariously, it happened about a month after I caught myself thinking, "wow, I haven't had back pain in ages, am I cured?!" - and it's really limiting my mobility. It is slowly getting better, but the improvement is happening slowly enough that I have to keep reminding myself to think back on how bad it was for the first two weeks after it first happened, because otherwise it feels like there's no movement happening at all. And then because of the limited mobility, a whole bunch of other areas of my life have fallen apart: housekeeping, cooking, Christmas shopping, errands, my social life, etc. My to-do list is very long and my overwhelm is very, very high.

Today I have to write two cover letters for two more practicum placement opportunities. The first two agencies I got matched with sat on my resume for weeks and then rejected me without so much as an interview, and the third is in the sitting-on-my-resume-for-weeks phase now. My grad program has a rule where each student can only have one potential match at a time, but the field placement coordinator emailed the other day with two additional matches on top of the one I'm waiting on, I assume because she too is freaked out by how little time left there is to secure me a placement for January. That whole situation is very stressful. I'm trying not to panic.

I fly across the country to visit family on the 20th. I am...trepidatious. The flight will be hard on my back, and spending a bunch of time with my parents will be hard on the rest of me. Also, catsitting is expensive. Really the only part of that whole situation that I'm looking forward to is getting to see headstone and our friend Mara.

But hey, books are good! I like to read books. I enjoyed the last two novels I read, as my previous posts from this month indicate. And I have only one paper left to write this semester, plus one another assignment to submit (unlike the paper, this one will be very easy), and then the only obligations I'll have until January are related to freelance work.

...Oh, plus I need to read a bunch of dense academic books to get ready for my research project next semester. I forgot about that. Well.

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[book review] Something Human by A.J. Demas

A month or two ago, over on Mastodon, Em serenadestrong posted glowingly about rereading a romance novel called Something Human by A.J. Demas. Em is a true romance novel connoisseur, so naturally, I was intrigued. Now that my semester is over, I've finally had time to read it.

Guys. This book is so fucking good.

I'm stealing Em's plot synopsis/blurb, because I agree that the official one doesn't do it justice:

Adares wakes trapped in wreckage on a battlefield, knowing he'll die there. One of the Luth men who he'd been fighting finds him and instead of a mercy killing, lets him go. But if Adares leaves, the Luth will die of a poisoned arrow wound – and Adares knows where to find the antidote.

They save each other, and in the three days they have apart from anything else in the world, they fall in love. But that's the easy part. Adares needs to get back to the besieged city of Tios he was fighting for. And the Luth will be outlawed by his people if he’s seen in the arms of another man. What if these three days together are all they'll ever have?

The thing is, it's hard for me to capture in words exactly why this novel is so good. I tried to explain to a friend last night why I was loving it so much and I was reduced to just making vague gestures and insisting that she had to read it herself to find out. But I'll try to list a few points here.

The prose is lovely, for one. It's a pleasure to read. It's rare these days that I encounter prose that not only doesn't bother me but actually aesthetically impresses me, and to encounter it in a self-published romance novel? My god, I feel like a miracle has just happened. The setting is richly imagined and feels very real, and the characterization is just...mwah. I love these characters. They feel like people. I love them, and I have no trouble seeing why they fall so quickly in love with each other.

There's a lot going on thematically with duty, desire, societal expectation, and religion, and again, it all works for me pretty seamlessly. The plot never felt contrived to me; the characters' motivations and choices felt natural, because they're firmly grounded in the worldbuilding and in who the characters are as people. To illustrate: At one point I had a little hater moment when one of the leads mentioned a few times that he doesn't like that the cultural denigration of women. I rolled my eyes because I'm jaded after about 15 years of romance novels where authors try to make up for the inherent political problem of, e.g., romanticizing Regency-era England, by shoehorning modern social justice ideas into the mouths of characters those ideas don't belong to. But as I read on, I realized that that isn't what Demas was doing in Something Human at all. The character who dislikes the denigration of women has concrete reasons to have thought about this, despite being a man in a patriarchal society; his social role is one that brings him in closer proximity to women than most other men, that teaches him to revere their skills and artistry and how they exist in the world. This isn't an author shoehorning modern feminism into a setting where it doesn't belong. This is a character who has feelings about gender that are grounded in his social context.

Oh, and the sex scenes are hot too, btw. I should mention that because it's so rare in published fiction. 🥲

If you haven't figured it out by now, I highly recommend this book. It's excellent. I haven't loved a romance novel like this in a long time. Here's Em's review of it as well, if you'd like to read that; I'm glad I did, because it helped convince me to try the book.

Current Mood: naughty

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work

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Rogan: holy shit guys, the color version of Coming In or Staying Out came out GORGEOUS. Just Right Press did an amazing job and I will absolutely be hiring them again! I cannot wait to put it up for sale and show it off!

And it’s been the bestseller at MICE so far! I’ll be working a final shift at table 32 from 11-2 tomorrow on Sunday; be the first on your block to have some pink trans dongs!

Joining the Arts Market!

Posted by Shel Kahn

https://www.portablecity.net/joining-the-arts-market/

https://www.portablecity.net/?p=8794

Entry syndicated from the portable city [feed link]

Toronto folks, this one’s for you!

Long story short, I now have a stall at the Danforth Arts Market, 1856 Danforth Avenue in Toronto. That’s between Woodbine and Coxwell stations if you’re subwaying over.

I’m selling my playmap blankets, comics, game zines, art zines, colouring books, two sizes of art prints, and also small framed originals!

I’ll be over regularly to top up stock and freshen up the display, so if there’s a particular art print, zine or original you’re hoping to get your hands on, especially for the holidays, drop me a line and we can make it happen!

I got approved for the spot for Nov 18th, so I’ve really been scrambling to pull this together the way I wanted, and I took a few process shots, if you’re interested!

It’s so exciting to have a real physical space to go set up, tweak, be fancy and silly with, and more! And I have a hundred ideas for little themed displays, especially because I opened up my convention stock storage and found some lovely treasures that have never been offered publicly before!

Now, if you’re not in Toronto, the Arts Market can’t help you, but I have been working locally with some specialty shops to offer my comics and games more internationally! So, if you are not local but want my comics, definitely click over to the Beguiling! And if you want my games, check out 401 Games for pocket dungeon packs and Wolfspell, and Sword & Board for the zines!

I have also set up an INPRNT shop to sell art internationally! I’ve been building out the catalogue, but if there’s something you want and don’t yet see there, again, let me know and I will sort you out!

And I am getting more and more of my PDFs and digital goods up on my itch.io – I have a full spread of comics, games, art and more there now, and everything also has a few free community copies available!

I am working on my own online shop as well – the Sorcerer’s Catalogue – but with tariffs and VAT and other international shipping shenaniganry at an all-time high, it’s slow going figuring it all out and getting it to a state I feel confident launching publicly – but I swear, as soon as I do have it settled, I’ll make a real big deal out of it!

Till then, thank you again for supporting me and my work! And locals, I’ll see you at the market!

https://www.portablecity.net/joining-the-arts-market/

https://www.portablecity.net/?p=8794

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Malia: Contemplatorum Sable

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

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At Midnight Comes the Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

At Midnight Comes the Cry

3/5. Tenth in this series of mysteries about the episcopal priest and the police chief (they are married with baby at this point).

I’m always happy to spend more time with these characters, but I’m gonna be honest here: I come to this series for small town stuff and mysteries and a light but intense approach to relationships. I do not come for white nationalist terrorism or action movie stuff. And yet, guess what I got here.

This also feels like a final book, with a weirdly pasted on ‘five years later’ epilogue. Which is fine if that’s how it is, but I was disappointed in the treatment that a secondary couple got. She is so good at relationships that shouldn’t work but do. In this case, a divorced woman in her thirties with young kids and a history in the porn industry, and an early twenties rookie on the police force. She does messy but magnetic so well, and she let them develop over many books. So I found the conclusion(?) to their story here, and how little attention was paid to the thorny emotional stuff between them, to be uncharacteristic and disappointing. Same take on the resolution(?) of the addiction plotline.

Content notes: White nationalism of several flavors, violence (domestic and otherwise)

Current Mood: excited

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mood themes

Big News at Mood Theme in a Year

Interested in creating your own custom mood theme, but unable to afford a paid account? Well, do I have some fantastic news for you:

Members of

moodthemeinayear are now being awarded paid time or Dreamwidth points for creating custom mood themes!

You can learn about all the details here; the next full round of the Minimum, Medium, and Maximum Tracks starts January 1st, but if you're looking for the perfect creative project to speed run before then, there's also Mood Theme in a Month calendars and some Bingo cards to work with.

Come check it out and stretch your creative muscles!

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(no subject)

Got this from some friends who Do Tumblr, but xD it's fun to pull these over here!

Fanfic End-of-the-Year Asks [I mean, COMMENTS here, really, but. you know.]

favorite fic you wrote this year
least favorite fic you wrote this year
favorite line/scene you wrote this year
total number of words you wrote this year
most popular fic this year
least popular fic this year
longest completed fic you wrote this year
shortest completed fic you wrote this year
longest wip of the year
shortest wip of the year
fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year
favorite character to write about this year
favorite writing song/artist/album of this year
a fic you didn’t expect to write
something you learned this year
fic(s) you completed this year
fics you’ll continue next year
current number of wips
any new fics to start next year
number of comments you haven’t read
most memorable comment/review
events you participated in this year
fics you wanted to write but didn’t
favorite fic you read this year
a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read
number of favorites/bookmarks you made this year
favorite fanfic author of the year
longest fic you read this year
shortest fic you read this year
favorite fandom to read fic from this year

I ~only~ posted 43 works this year (not counting whatever else gets posted for end of year exchanges, etc), which is at once a lot and not as many as in recent years.

So yeah, have at!

(perhaps I'll post a Real Entry at some point, but for now: hey, I'm around, have a meme.)

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oh deer

We had a deer at the feeder last night. First I saw her nosing the feeder, then she seemed to be hoovering up the seed on the ground.

(no subject)

also to be included in a more polished essay later: old post we made about improving social skills

Well, at the risk of being pedantic, neither I nor anyone else can teach you how to make everyone like you. That's just impossible, and I'd also argue that trying for that just makes it harder to develop real social skills, since an important part of social interaction is accepting that you won't get along with everyone (even if both you and they are decent people! sometimes folks just aren't compatible)

Now that's been said, I've seen these resources recommended for improving your social skills:

https://www.succeedsocially.com/ (have not read this one myself)
https://captainawkward.com/ (read it back in the day, seems fairly sensible)

(no subject)

To be polished into an essay later: old posts we made about hobbies

Hobbies that one or more of us have: writing, oldschool website-making, crochet, origami, fountain pens, digital and traditional art, cello, multiplayer gaming, mechanical keyboards, lucid dreaming, indoor gardening, reading miscellaneous nonfiction.

For starting points for the more accessible of these...

Writing: everyone hypes up writing a novel. You really don't need to write a novel. Write short stories, drabbles, single scenes, sequences of words that got stuck in your head, rants about this or that. Get into the habit of writing and prioritize writing something rather than something polished.

Oldschool website-making: there's a number of hosts around, Neocities being probably the most known, Nekoweb being a newer option that's pretty good. Look up tutorials on HTML and CSS (you don't need to touch JS)

Origami: lots of patterns around the web. Look for beginner ones. You don't need fancy paper, we made stuff out of printer and notebook paper for years. Just familiarize yourself with cutting your own squares (fold edge over until flush with the other edge to make a triangle, cut off the trailing paper, unfold triangle into square, ta-da).

Traditional art: hardest part here will be mindset. You'll compare yourself to other artists and angst about how you're not where you want to be a LOT, and it sucks. Think about it like a video game - any art you draw, no matter how shitty, is EXP, while no art means no EXP. Read the "50% Rule" on Drawabox.com and do your best to keep its principles in mind.

Multiplayer gaming: bunch of free multiplayer games out there. Of the ones we play, Warframe and Sky: Children of the Light probably give you the most access to the game without paying, just be prepared to be sad about not being able to afford many things. Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy XIV are fun, but they only give you free access to parts of the game, and then you gotta pay for expansions.
Tbh, if you have a computer that can run it + mods, I would recommend buying Minecraft if you have money to spare - the huge modding ecosystem means you'll get objectively more game for your money than buying an MMO expansion.

Lucid dreaming: "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge is probably the most comprehensive book I've found on the topic, and you might be able to read it for free on Archive.org. I've personally found that reading about lucid dreaming + keeping a dream journal is usually enough for me to lucid dream without having to dip into the more involved techniques, but your mileage may vary. Be mindful of getting into this if you have chronic nightmares - lucid dreaming can help you manage them, but ime there's a transition period where you remember dreams more vividly but aren't lucid in them yet.

Reading miscellaneous nonfiction: again, Archive.org is your friend! If you have a library card, Libby lets you borrow ebooks from your library.

Regarding web development, I fully believe that you have it in you. CSS is daunting, often arcane. But in our experience, it does not remain that way forever. Some years ago, it took us hours to center a single element; now, we delight in debugging others' CSS and have written all of the styling on our site by hand. Like fronting, there is only one way to improve, and that is practice.

As for resources, I will disclaim that we haven't used all of these. But we have seen them recommended by several others.

Free and Newbie-Friendly Static Site Hosts

Neocities (The best-known host, by far!)
Nekoweb (This is the place that our site is hosted. We began on Neocities; it is more established and populous, but we enjoy Nekoweb more.)

Resources for Learning

HTML for People (We have only taken a cursory look at this. But we liked what we saw!)
Kevin Powell's Youtube channel (We have not used this. But people speak very highly of him.)
freeCodeCamp's course on responsive web design (Once again, we have not used this. But people speak highly of freeCodeCamp.)
CSS Diner (A little game to help you learn and practice CSS selectors. We have not delved deeply into this one.)
Flexbox Froggy (Another CSS game, this time with a focus on flexbox. We have not played this, but people speak highly of it.)

Documentation

MDN Web Docs (The most comprehensive reference for HTML, CSS, and Javascript, maintained by Mozilla, Google, and many volunteers.)
w3schools (I have seen people say to take this one with a grain of salt. But it has been generally helpful to us. We prefer the MDN documentation, but we will often cross-reference the two if we're unsure how something is used.)

Current Mood: working

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shameless advertising

LB’s expanded hours at MICE!

On Saturday December 6, 10:30-2 and 4-6 PM, Sunday December 7, 11-2, we are tabling with the Boston comics Roundtable at table 32 at MICE! Sorry for the double post, but we got an extra shift!

my 2025 advent calendar

https://sweetfish.site/advent/2025

it's five days into december and i made an advent calendar for 88x31 buttons! check back for a new one each day :)

https://sweetfish.site/advent/2025

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and cold.

I fed the birds. I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus two mourning doves.

I put out water for the birds.

Current Mood: sad

R.I.P Shang Tsung

I am very sorry to share that Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa passed away on Thursday, December 4, 2025, at the age of 75.

His family confirmed that he died in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications from a stroke.
He is widely remembered for his iconic role as Shang Tsung in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film.

Besides Mortal Kombat 11, his work as Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat franchise included:

Mortal Kombat: Onslaught **(2023): He lent his voice and likeness to the character in this mobile RPG.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy **(2013): He reprised the role in this web series.
Other roles he played were:

The Last Emperor (1987) as Chang
Licence to Kill (1989) as Kwang (a James Bond film)
Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) as Funekei Yoshida
Rising Sun (1993) as Eddie Sakamura
The Phantom (1996) as The Great Kabai Sengh
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) as Zenhichi Miyamoto
Pearl Harbor (2001) as Commander Minoru Genda
Planet of the Apes (2001) as Krull
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) as The Baron
Tekken (2009) as Heihachi Mishima
47 Ronin (2013) as Shogun Tsunayoshi

I had found out this yesterday, and he will surely be missed. Rest in peace.

Article:

LINK