squirrelitude | Network

jazzyjj posting in

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6751 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 27 secrets from Secret Submission Post #965.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

oracne

My schedule is finalized! I didn't list participants in case there were changes.

Who will I see at Readercon next month?

The Works of P. Djèlí Clark

Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT

Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story "How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub" is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!

The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT

Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.

Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing [I'm moderating this one]

Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT

It's becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.

Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen

Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

Meet the Pros(e) party

Salon F Friday, July 18, 2025, 10:15 PM EDT

Program participants are assigned to tables with a roughly equal number of conferencegoers and other participants, and then table placements are scrambled at regular intervals so that everyone gets to meet a new set of people in a small-group setting. Think of it as a low-key sort of speed dating where you need never be the sole focus of anyone's attention, and the goal is just to get to know some cool Readerconnish people. Please note that this event will include a bar and is mask-optional, unlike most other programming.

The Works of Cecilia Tan [I'm moderating this one]

Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT

Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov's, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America's other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia's many talents and accomplishments.

Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies [I'm moderating this one]

Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT

In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison's The Goblin Emperor and Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction

Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how "2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides." Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?

james_davis_nicoll

The English-language rulebook and supplements for Broken Tales, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of upside-down fairy tales from Italian game publisher The World Anvil Publishing.

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales

florianschild posting in

sunshine_revival

Use this post to help you navigate your way through the challenge. Consider it your visitor's map of our cheerful sunny carnival.

Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Friending Meme

The Challenges

Coming Soon!

ysabetwordsmith

sunshine_revival has posted a Friending Meme. The calendar of activities is here and the fest will open on July 1. Use the master post to navigate the event.

Current Mood: excited

florianschild posting in

sunshine_revival

Maybe you struck up a conversation while you waited in line for the roller coaster. Maybe you and a questionably large group of friends all tumbled out of a van and walked in together. However it happened, you're now here at the Carnival with your friends. The best experiences are all the richer for having fun and interesting people to share them with. Let's all get to know each other and make some friends to hold our hands during the scary rides or split a basket of fries with.

Feel free to post your answers in the comments or on your own journal and share a link. See you around the fairgrounds!

Basics
Name:
Age:
Location:
Other blogs/socials:

Dreamwidth Stuff
What do you post about?
How often do you post
What communities, if any, are you involved in?
What kind of accounts do you like to follow?

Fandom Stuff
Fandoms:
Favorite Characters:
Ships:
Things you're into but not fannish about:

I Designed This Meme So I Get To Ask Weird Stuff
Explain your username:
Favorite season (it's ok if it's not summer):
What's your vibe?
What is your summeriest fandom? (You can interpret this however you like….):
Opening song on your summer mixtape:

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny, humid, and hot. It drizzled yesterday evening.

I haven't fed the birds yet, but I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches. They've put a good dent in the thistle seed again.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I fed the birds.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I refreshed the mosquito dunks.

I refilled the hopper feeder and thistle feeder.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries. They're coming in nicely. :D

.

Current Mood: busy

umadoshi

With Canada Day rudely falling on a Tuesday,

scruloose and I both booked today off. I haven't managed a whole lot of manga work yet, but hopefully between today (as soon as I finish this post) and tomorrow I'll get a reasonable amount done. While I'm doing at-my-desk things,

scruloose is working on the next step(s) in getting a dedicated hose set up for our individual townhouse.

Last night we finally got around to switching the desk chairs in our offices, ( cut for the uninterested )

It occurred to me very late in the game that I might do better at spending non-work time at my desk (where, y'know, most of my writing used to happen) if I didn't hate my chair; I've been attributing the fact that I spend 95% of my evenings down in the living room these days to the fact that Sinha's such a lapcat, and that's definitely a huge factor, but...being able to sit comfortably in here would sure help.

Another pleasing tech-related development has to do with my phone keyboard. ( again, cut for the uninterested )

Speaking of things that feel so much better now, Saturday also involved Ginny chopping my hair off for me. I've been leaving it alone (other than the undercut) since whenever the last time we buzz cut it was, and maybe a month ago I found that it was long enough to easily ponytail. That was pleasantly novel for about a week, even though the front bits weren't long enough to get into the ponytail and quickly started to need clips or something when it got hot. By last weekend, I was very, very done with the whole thing, and this weekend Ginny was able to deal with it. Such a relief.

My younger nibling and their spouse of eight months or so stopped by a few days ago to pick up a few years' worth of my spare comp copies from Seven Seas. Only one box, since I've technically scaled back my freelance workload (and I think there's also a backlog of comps that I should be getting sooner rather than later), but a hefty box that was bulging a bit at the seams, so it's nice to have that all sent off to a new home. It was lovely to see my nibling and meet their spouse, however briefly. (They politely rolled with the "we're going to stand in our driveway and chat while masked and overheat more than a little" element.)

A final thing before calling this a post and getting to work: last weekend

scruloose and I gave the Sensation lilac a long-overdue aggressive pruning (and it should probably get the same amount cut out of it in a year). The poor thing was all spindly limbs and mostly-high-up blooms, so hopefully this will help it for next year.( But what to do with the mutant hybrid? )

Current Mood: apathetic

zenigotchas posting in

beautifulmechanical

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

hurtcomfortexmod posting in

hurtcomfortex

No need to claim, when a work is in that fits the requirements they will be removed from the pinch hit list.

All rules which are relevant for regular assignments also apply to pinch hits.Including the rule that the freeform must be indicated in some way

PH 18 - 时光代理人 | Link Click (Cartoon), 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 致命游戏 | The Spirealm (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

PH 15 - NCIS: Los Angeles, Twin Peaks (TV 1990), Crossing Jordan, RoboCop (Movies 1987-1993)

emperor

This is the first in a two-part adaptation of the musical of the book (which is in turn a re-interpretation of The Wizard of Oz investigating the Wicked Witch of the West's backstory). It's a very long time since I saw The Wizard of Oz, and I've not read the Wicked book nor seen the musical. ( review, with spoilers )

The songs are reasonable (though none of them have stuck in my head), the leads are very good, and it's very pretty. And I was pleased to recognise Peter Dinklage by his voice :) But I don't think I'd recommend it as a film.

lb_lee

Because we live like we will have to move or go couch-surfing at a moment’s notice, we have gotten pretty ruthless about our physical possessions. Nothing destroys sentimentality like having to lug it on your back over and over! So many of our childhood beloved books have been weeded; we got what we needed from them and thus liberated them unto new adventures.

There is one exception: an omnibus of the first three Callahan’s books, by Spider Robinson.( so here’s to you, Mr. Robinson, loonies love you more than you will know! )

Current Mood: nostalgic

susandennis

Bonny popped in yesterday. She had some spam email she wanted to check but mainly she was bored and she was killing time til 5 pm when she could have her cocktail. Bonny is an odd duck but a nice, odd duck. I had been out in the elbow working on the puzzle and met 'new girl' Jackie's son. He's large but his hands are massive. He reached out to shake mine and I just wanted to hold and study his - never seen anything like it. Also Hazel and John came out to chat. So I got all my neighborness done with very little effort on my part which is how I like it.

Today I have nothing. Next Monday, aqua yoga starts up again. But, today is free. USPS sent me an email of my coming postal mail and there is a letter/bill/something from the company that manages the condo. Maybe it's a refund check - hahahaha. I will need to go down and see when the mail comes.

I quit taking the allergy pills because they quit working but that was a month ago and I am so tired of my nose running so I started up again today. Fingers are crossed but I did add more Kleenex to my subscribe and save order. My ankles are being weird. They are fine right now but this weekend they were very swollen. Not my feet. Not my legs. Just my ankles. They looked like they had a tractor tire around each one. Dr. Google was baffled. Even Dr. AI was scratching his silicone on that one.

I haven't used my feet like I did last week and they are grateful. And they do not hurt. And I am happy about that. I am taking them to the podiatrist tomorrow. Along with all my shoes.

I spent way way way too much money last week. Last month. So July is going to see some cutbacks. I have the money but I don't need any more shit. I really don't and I don't have any place to put it. Even groceries. I'm working hard on eating out of the freezer this week. I'm nearly out of bread and eggs. Maybe a grocery run tomorrow after the podiatrist.

melagan

How do dreams influence your creativity or vice versa?

I've dreamt whole story plots. Conversely, story plots have niggled at my brain as I've tried to fall asleep.

It's never all the detail I need, but it gives me a place to start. (usually they sit in a WIP file for awhile first--sometimes for a long time)

Does this happen to you? With good or bad results?

How are those WIPs coming along?

siliconshaman

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

Current Mood: exhausted

james_davis_nicoll

2003: PM Blair embraces hilariously transparent lies to justify the invasion of Iraq, two million Britons reveal the power of public outrage when they protest the Iraq War to no effect, and the Coalition of the Billing (UK included) faces an occupation of Iraq that will no doubt be entirely without unforeseen challenges or consequences.

Poll #33305 Clarke Award Finalists 2003

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

View Respondents

Which 2003 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

The Separation by Christopher Priest
5 (11.6%)

Kiln People by David Brin
11 (25.6%)

Light by M. John Harrison
9 (20.9%)

The Scar by China Miéville
18 (41.9%)

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
20 (46.5%)

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
23 (53.5%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2003 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Separation by Christopher Priest
Kiln People by David Brin
Light by M. John Harrison
The Scar by China Miéville
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

rydra_wong

* SAVE OFTEN, especially in the early game when you may be very fragile and the game's auto-save is infrequent.

BUT -- don't reload from a save unless you actually die or otherwise hit a "game over."

This game is about failing, and it rewards you for playing forwards through failure. Some of the best moments in the game come from failed checks. There are always alternative routes and ways forwards. If you tried to savescum it, you would miss most of the game and all of the point. Embrace failure.

~~Okay there are those two specific checks where failing is so emotionally devastating I would not judge anyone for savescumming. But apart from those.~~

* You can just pick one of the Archetypes for a starter build, and leave messing around with custom character creation until you've seen the stats in action and understand how the system works. Don't stress about it. Or, if you want, you can throw yourself into custom character creation despite not having a clue how it works, and you will also have a fun time. Your initial build and your later choices about what you put points into will radically change your experience of the game, but you can't do it "wrong"; there are no optimal builds which are "better".

* Press tab to highlight objects you can interact with, or activate "detective mode" in the settings to do it automatically. Yes I know this is the sort of thing that is probably obvious to people who have played video games before.

* If your Health or Morale (displayed on the lower left of the screen) fall to zero, you have about 5 seconds to apply a healing item (if you have one) by clicking the cross above that stat.

This is the one timed element in the game, and also the one mechanic that some of us initially have trouble grasping.

With all the other mechanics in the game, you can not only learn them by flinging yourself in and floundering about, this is IMHO the best and most enjoyable way to learn them. No idea what the Thought Cabinet is or what Internalizing A Thought means? Try it and find out!

* Perhaps the most important tip of all:

If you feel you are flailing around and failing on most of the checks you try and you've just been informed you have acquired a Thought you can internalize in your Thought Cabinet and you have no clue what that means or maybe you just had a heart attack and died before you even got out of your hotel room or you had a nervous breakdown because a child insulted you and you have no idea what you're doing and it's been three days and you still haven't got the body down from the tree --

THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME "BADLY". THIS IS IN FACT THE UNIVERSAL DISCO ELYSIUM EXPERIENCE AND MEANS YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME CORRECTLY. WELL DONE.

james_davis_nicoll

I survived another dance season. Go me.

21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%),1 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

More details at the other end of the link.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3109/

It's important for devices to have internet connectivity so the manufacturer can patch remote exploits.

https://xkcd.com/3109/

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Scamperings

Network

Just one thing: 01 July 2025

[ SECRET POST #6751 ]

Readercon 2025 Schedule

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales

2025 Sunshine Revival Master Post

Sunshine Revival

Friending Meme

Birdfeeding

Extra-long-weekend mishmash post: office furniture, phone keyboards, family, hair, lilacs...

(no subject)

New Pinch hits

Wicked (2024 film)

A Toast to Spider Robinson

Monday

Dreams as inspiration

I'm melting, I'm melting...

Clarke Award Finalists 2003

For anyone I've successfully lured: my top Disco Elysium tips

June 2025 in review

Dehumidifier

Profile

August 2024

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