doire | Network

More vegetables, more library books, more square dancing — and the weirdly mild weather continues.

pink rhododendron blossoms and their greenery

in January!

The avgolemono turned out delicious. Whole wheat orzo is slightly chewier than regular, but very suitable for the soup. A note for next time: the tempering of the egg and lemon with the hot broth worked fine, but the egg itself needs to be very well beaten first– a few scraps of unmixed egg white became apparent when they cooked. I might try it with leek broth, as we have leek tops more often than chicken bones to make broth with… maybe with a little less lemon because there’s less fat to mellow it out?

Yesterday I attended two, count ’em two, social events. Evening was the Black and White Ball edition of our club’s monthly square dance. I was more like “stagehand” in all black and not-at-all-dressy, but that’s what I got. This is the one month when I make a concerted effort to follow the theme– unlike the several rainbow months, it really stands out if I don’t.

And before that, in the afternoon I caught the bus to a New Year’s party for Oregon Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I joined SCBWI before retiring (in the final burst of spending down my professional development funds) but this was my first in-person event. Kidlit people are so nice, you guys! Everybody was happy to talk and there were library-themed table decorations and name tags and plenty of snacks. I ducked out early to catch the bus home again, but life seemed brighter after going than it had before. Is this how extroverts feel? Now I’m thinking I’ll go to the one-day conference in May, in Hillsboro.

A routine is finally settling in with my own work. I’m more viscerally aware that it’s up to me to decide on and generate that work, and no one else particularly cares. It’s both freeing and unnerving.

Thursday I’m signed up for a bird walk down at the rhododendron gardens by the college. I’m a lackadaisical birder at best, but it’s a nice chance to see the gardens for free– I haven’t been there in years and will be curious to see if anything’s blooming early.

This post originates at everyday though not every day. Comments welcome here or there.

moon_custafer

Finally posted a new (short) chapter! https://archiveofourown.org/works/55953232/chapters/202134506

wintermod posting in

pinchhits

Event:

wintertime_woes_exchange, an exchange for unhappy endings
Requirements: 500 words, or a sketch on unlined paper
Pinch hit link: https://wintertime-woes-exchange.dreamwidth.org/5688.html
Due date:January 17, 11:59PM UTC

~~PH 5 - fic - Thunderbolts (Movie 2025), Moon Knight (TV 2022), Dragon Age (Video Games)~~

PH 6 - fic - Deltarune (Video Game), Team Fortress 2, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison, Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), The Electric State (2025)
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/wintertimewoes2025/user/Kaz3313

To claim, please comment at the pinch hit post linked above, or email wintertime.woes.exchange@gmail.com. Thank you very much!

kaberett

Celebrating. A's birthday!

Reading. ( Rogerson, Rundell, McGuire, Clarke, Duncan, Scalzi, Hermé )

I also: remain up to date with Dreamwidth; worked through a brief pain management course for Youth, as background reading.

Writing. The Document continues to be expanded a little every day. It is now over 4000 words.

Playing. A bit of The Bridge, "a 2D logic puzzle game that forces the player to reevaluate their preconceptions of physics and perspective", which sounded like it might be about the right speed for me given that we'd just enjoyed playing through the Monument Valley series, and which instead for the most part does not seem to fit into my brain terribly neatly and is also weirdly evocative/reminiscent of Braid (lonely dude in a suit) while also being kinda... gay? possibly? I can't tell yet? Anyway we've played through I think the first four levels and might or might not continue.

We have also engaged in some Spirits -- mostly A playing and me watching, because I am not feeling up to timing problems and having to keep pressing Esc also feels overwhelming, but I have been Providing Commentary and enjoying watching the process of TURNING MUSHROOMS INTO CLOUDS to HELP THE LEAVES GET HOME.

We have also been playing (independently) sudoku, & grousing about each other's incomprehensible approaches to solving things, and then I nerdsniped A with a specific puzzle & they went to look up Theory And Strategy Of Sudoku, and I may yet get around to uh actually looking up the approach named "jellyfish"...

Elsenet vass has introduced me to Squardle.

Cooking. One spice mix, and subsequently one recipe from East featuring a vegetable I think I have not previously consciously eaten (Jerusalem artichokes). Another batch of medlar sticky toffee pudding as A's birthday cake; I think that in fact one cannot tell the difference between medlar that has not been jellied and medlar residue from jellying, at least in this setting. Also, turns out you can successfully add beetroot to the red cabbage and cauliflower udon noodles thing. Oh, and pineapple fried rice, which A had somehow never previously encountered???

Eating. We were both, on Friday, quite tired and sad. The internet brought us Pizza Express. It was good.

Making & mending. I FINISHED A GLOVE. I WOVE IN THE ENDS. Now to cast on glove #2 of that pair...

Growing. Both orchids seem to be putting forth flower stems! And I have sown lemongrass, pineapple physalis, and (not expecting any of these to actually germinate) some lithops I was sent as a gift a while ago...

minoanmiss

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

Current Mood: accomplished

thewayne

"No one wants to go in there when a random f***ing tweet can change the entire foreign policy of the country."
-- oil industry investor, about Venezuela

I was reading a quote from an Exxon exec, talking about how all of Exxon's assets had been nationalized by Venezuela TWICE. Yeah, not a place where oil companies are going to be eager to rush back in to rebuild their infrastructure.

Not going to bother talking about a certain person's habit of changing international policy via social media posts, waste of finger and mental energy.

hunningham

New Year's Resolution - Read for fun!

I want to read for fun, for pleasure, to reread old favourites, to read fan-fiction and not to be waylaid by 'should read..' or 'best of...' I'm planning to visit brick-and-mortar bookshops and take my own sweet time browsing and selecting a book to read. I'm going to pick a book which I want to read right now this minute, not one which looks interesting and will just be added to the TBR pile.

Inspired by this Tom Gauld cartoon which I have printed out and stuck on to the fridge.

trobadora

How is tomorrow Monday again already?! Someone stole my weekend!

According to yesterday's poll, approximately 75% of respondents think about structure in some fashion while writing. POV sections, parallels and repetitions got the most votes.

As for me, I used to always pay attention to structure especially in terms of parallels and mirroring sections and such, even for very short pieces, but I lost that a little bit in recent years. I need to focus more on that again - I always felt it made things better! But for longer pieces, structure is still a basic part of how I conceive of a story.

One of the most obvious structuring elements is with multiple POVs, and I always try to have them alternate in a clear pattern. For example, my Yuletide fic this year has four chapters, structured by location, and the POV pattern was AAB-BBA:

Chapter 1 - POV A
Chapter 2 - POV A, POV B
Chapter 3 - POV B
Chapter 4 - POV B, POV A

The story is mostly written in close limited 3rd person, but I also started each chapter with a more distant/mythic omniscient POV and then zoomed in on the character.

60% of respondents agree that no poll is complete without tickyboxes. My people! *g*

I haven't been keeping up with Star Trek for ages, but I was curious about the upcoming Starfleet Academy show and looked into things a little. And video reviews aren't usually my thing, but I just watched most of this video, and it makes it sound very promising! Here's hoping.

Today's writing

Instead of working to finish anything, I've started something new. Why, brain, why?

WED Question of the Day

Poll #34070

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22

View Respondents

What POV do you like to write in?

View Answers

first person
6 (27.3%)

second person
3 (13.6%)

third person omniscient
7 (31.8%)

third person limited
20 (90.9%)

other (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

What POV do you like to read in?

View Answers

first person
11 (50.0%)

second person
3 (13.6%)

third person omniscient
15 (68.2%)

third person limited
18 (81.8%)

other (see comments)
3 (13.6%)

My writing preferences for fanfic and original fic are ...

View Answers

the same
12 (54.5%)

different (see comments)
6 (27.3%)

I only write one of these
4 (18.2%)

My reading preferences for fanfic and original fic are ...

View Answers

the same
14 (63.6%)

different (see comments)
8 (36.4%)

I only read one of these
0 (0.0%)

I want a story from the POV of a tickybox

View Answers

yes! ticky that box!
18 (85.7%)

????
5 (23.8%)

NO
2 (9.5%)

Tally

( Days 1-5 )

Day 6:

alightbuthappypen,

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

ofmonstrouswords,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 7:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

ofmonstrouswords,

shadaras,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 8:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

ofmonstrouswords,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 9:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 10:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 11:

china_shop,

trobadora

Let me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)

snickfic

Incredible work by Noel's socmed person. The combo of text and image is *chef's kiss*. Original is here on his official insta. (No I am still not over Liam appearing on Noel's socials in case you were wondering!!)

petra

I recommended the first story in this series when I read it in Yuletide, suspecting but not being sure at the time that it was by

sanguinity.

I love William Bush's POV too:

Too Late, Too Late (2008 words) by sanguinity
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hornblower (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: William Bush, Horatio Hornblower
Additional Tags: POV William Bush, Episode: e07 Loyalty (Hornblower), Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss
Series: Part 2 of The Worst Part of Waking Up
Summary:

Bush is too late to the beach to stop the firing squad.

Bonus Bush point-of-view on the beach scene.

Current Mood: topsy-turvy
Current Music: (fanfare) It's the bloody Indy!

thewayne

This is an old article from October '25, I'm clearing out old tabs.

It's quite simple. The basic plan is to ensure that they are properly managing current and projected electrical needs and growth, and that they don't have crypto mining and AI data centers popping up everywhere and draining all of their generation capacity. Keep Canadian power generation for the province's residents and local industry - to which I say, GO CANADA!

There are useful aspects to AI/LLMs, but not in the form of generative AI and chat bots. Investors are seeking quick bucks and are creating a bubble: while there's no telling when it'll burst, we're going to see a lot of sobbing and knocking on government doors for bailouts when it happens. Can't happen too soon, IMO.

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/10/21/british-columbia-to-permanently-ban-new-crypto-mining-projects-from-grid

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/10/21/237254/british-columbia-to-permanently-ban-new-crypto-mining-projects-from-grid

boxofdelights

We were walking the dogs yesterday and I took a photo that got 405 favorites and 226 boosts on Mastodon:
( A little free library in a tree trunk, and the book I took from it )

Neighborhoods always feel better with Little Free Libraries.

kathleen_dailey

"Fly Away" by Kyra

Rating: General Audiences
Fandoms: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek
Character: Vic Fontaine
Additional Tags: Holodecks/Holosuites, Holodeck Character, Space Stations, POV Second Person, Sentience
Words: 618
Author's summary: Sentience hurts.

I first read this very short story almost 25 years ago. It was heartbreaking and chillingly prescient then, and in 2026 it's even more frighteningly plausible. This is a well-written character study (of an entity to whom the words "character study" shouldn't apply, but do).

moon_custafer

I’m trying to get back to my ongoing writing, but I’ve also finally decided to start posting Meadowville in weekly installments on Ao3, as it’s more-or-less complete and I’ve long since given up on the idea of trying to publish professionally. First couple of chapters are up:

Welcome to Meadowville (6791 words) by moon_custafer
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Original Fiction, 1950s, Fantasy, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Amnesia, Domestic Fluff, Period Typical Attitudes, though not always
Summary: Long Island, 1950. The Healys—Walt, Hanna, and their daughter Livia—aren’t quite the stereotypical American nuclear family they might appear to be at first glance, but they’re happy.
Then a mysterious mushroom ring appears around the neighborhood, and Walt begins to question his identity and childhood amnesia.

snickfic

One of my favorite aspects of Yuletide has become making a list of stuff from the tagset that I'm interested in checking out and then orienting my fall reading/watching around it. I'm generally bad at reading on a theme, but it turns out "maybe I can write this for Yuletide" is a theme that does work.

I thought this year I'd record for posterity what all I tried:

The hits:
Moby Dick reread
Red Rooms (2023)
The Shadow of the Leviathan
The Secret of Chimneys
Short films My Sister and the Prince, Corvidae, Serpentine, Possibly in Michigan, and The Vampire Gastelbrau

The misses:
Strangers on a Train - did not enjoy this! DNFed with 60 pages to go!
Pern reread - wooof the misogyny
Crooked House (2017) - a deeply mediocre Christie adaptation
Battle Royale (2000) - idk man, it was fine?
The Starving Saints
The Incandescent
Rotherweird
The Ascent of Rum Doodle - this was Too Silly

The... other?
Crash (1996) - I can't tell if I liked it, but I wrote a fic for it, so!

melagan posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

rachelmanija

Mosscap and Dex's adventures continue from where they left off. They visit human places, including Dex's large and confusing family. Mosscap has a brush with mortality. Dex does not return to being a tea monk, their vocation still up in the air.

I enjoyed this novella for much the same reasons I enjoyed the first one, though I missed the tea service, which was my favorite part of the first book. Mosscap does turn out to be fallible and learns from Dex as much as Dex learns from it, which was nice. My favorite part of this book was the glimpses of the world, which still seems like an extremely nice place to live in.

oursin

Last week's bread held out for most of the week.

Friday night supper: ven pongal (South Indian khichchari).

Saturday breakfast rolls: Tassajarra method, 50:50% wholemeal/strong white flour, maple syprup, dried cranberries, turned out nicely.

Today's lunch: game crumble - the game mix (partridge, pheasant and venison) casseroled in red wine with onion, garlic, bay leaf, juniper berries, coriander seed, 5-pepper blend and salt, before putting the crumble topping (mixture of approx 2:1:1 wholemeal flour/strong white flour/pinhead oatmeal) on for the final half-hour; served with tenderstem broccoli tips which I cooked thusly - sizzled some chopped ginger and cumin seeds in oilve oil, turned the broccoli in this, added some water and steamed for half an hour, turned out rather well although I think the original recipe said fennel seeds....; and stirfried tat soi.

wychwood

Friday morning we had about 8-10cm of snow and public transport wasn't running, so I worked from home. All the main roads around me were clear pretty much throughout, but side roads etc didn't get clear - and then everything half-melted and refroze so anywhere that still had snow got pretty miserable. The pavements on my way to church yesterday had about 3-4cm of lumpy ice, and it was not a fun time, although it also didn't feel particularly dangerous as long as I walked carefully.

At ten minutes before Mass we had six people in the building including me, the priest, and one other altar server. As we went in we'd hit about twenty, and by the end of the homily we were up to 45, which is a bit under half the usual number (although there were a lot of unfamiliar faces, possibly coming to a closer church than they would usually attend?). I was very surprised by the number of latecomers; I left home half an hour earlier than usual, to be sure of getting there OK, and it's not like anyone didn't know there was ice everywhere. I can understand not coming in those conditions, but just, idk, leaving at the usual time? that seems weird to me!

Anyway, it's warmed up a lot today and has been raining for a couple of hours; remnants of the packed ice will no doubt hang around for a while, but hopefully most of the pavements will be more-or-less clear tomorrow morning when I leave for work.

Dad's off to France again this week, so I'm back over there next Monday for the week. My chances of ever catching up with the laundry are receding into the distance and I'm starting to feel stressed about the weekend after, since I'll be there until Sunday morning, then into a double choir rehearsal, then back in the office on the Monday. Probably it will be fine but I need to do a lot of thinking about food planning etc at some point this week. I was having such a nice relaxing time too!!!

Profile

doire

February 2024

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29

Page Summary

grrlpup - Now-ish
moon_custafer - Gentleman of the Shade
wintermod in pinchhits - Wintertime Woes Post-Deadline Pinch Hits Due Jan 17
kaberett - vital functions
minoanmiss - Success!
thewayne - Doonesbury Say What
hunningham - New Year's Resolution
trobadora - Write Every day 2026: January, Day 11
snickfic - (no subject)
petra - Recommendation: Too Late, Too Late - Hornblower amalgam
thewayne - British Columbia to ban all new crypto mining operations!
boxofdelights - tree trunk library
kathleen_dailey - Trek rec
moon_custafer - Meadowville
snickfic - final Yuletide canons tally
melagan in fandomcalendar - Romancing McShep Happy-ending Fest 2026
rachelmanija - A Prayer for the Crown Shy, by Becky Chambers
oursin - Culinary
wychwood - also have not finished reading one (1) actual book this year so far though i have purchased sixteen

Style Credit

Style: Classic for Refried Tablet by zvi and Aaron B. Russell

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jan. 22nd, 2026 06:10 am