labingi | Network

Read The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin, because I've been trying to catch up on my neglected sci-fi classics; it was a fascinating read. This book is famously interesting for the way it plays with gender, being set in an "ambisexual" world (essentially, everyone can, theoretically, physically both bear and beget children) narrated mostly by a character from Earth(?) who grapples with this societal genderlessness by referring to everyone as a "man" and using he/him pronouns— which I found threw me off more than, say, the universal she/her in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series?— but I was just really struck overall by the way that Le Guin uses language to fling the reader headfirst into this alien world: she uses made-up words for recognizable concepts, and recognizable English words as signifiers for world-specific/made-up concepts, and you've just sort of got to puzzle it out as you go. I was also surprised to discover that the one plot point I'd known about going in - ( ... ) - actually takes up less of the novel, and occurs later in it, than I had expected.

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Current Music: Virile - Suzane

tcampbell1000 posting in

scans_daily

Irwin Teasdale’s showcase issue begins with him hidden from the Leaguers and the army, rigging a catapult as evening begins. ( ‘‘The fools will be helpless to stop my zompires once I release the payload of…HOSTESS FRUIT PIES!’’ )

pattrose

Top Ten Fandoms For some reason, this part of my first post didn't post.

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delphi

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pattrose

Heated Rivalry Moodboards

( Rivalry )

ehyde

I didn't keep good track of what I read in 2025, so I might be missing some things here.

23 books, about a 50/50 split between cnovels and non-cnovels
Enjoyed most of them! Looking over my list, there were two that I finished but should have dropped: Evil Weapon's Self-Cultivation (Cyan Wings' so-far only miss for me, it was way too much 'watch this guy be awesome at the expense of everyone else') and Daughter of the Moon Goddess (I think I was not the right audience for this book).
The winners of the cnovel bracket: Guardian and How Dare You, they're completely different but both of them grabbed me and didn't want to let me go.
Winners of the non-cnovels: Spiderlight (Adrian Tchaikovsky) and HMS Surprise (Patrick O'Brian) series. I did not start the Aubrey/Maturin series this year and still don't intend to read them all at once but I'm definitely going to continue, and I'm going to read more by Adrian Tchaikovsky as well.

I don't really feel a need to read any more than I've been reading, but looking ahead to 2026, I do want to keep better track of my reading. I picked out a notebook for this purpose and have jotted down a few reactions to what I'm reading now (Record of the Missing Sect Master).

As for books I bound in 2025, my favorites are the couple of bamboo-strip-spine sets I made: The Imperial Uncle and Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know. The first was done as an experiment and I liked the result enough to do it again!

flareonfury posting in

fandom_icons

Multiple ships for Round 4 of

ships20in20.

Preview

sooo many ships, so little time....

Fandoms & Ships:
Charmed (Abigael/Mel #6 & AC#2), Heartstopper (Charlie/Nick #7, AC#3 & #4), High Potential (Adam/Morgan catgeory), Grimm (Nick/Adalind #4 & AC#1), MCU (Carol/Yon AC#5), Nancy Drew (Nancy/Ace #1 & #3, Nancy/Ace/Bes #9), Siren (Ben/Ryn #10), Singin' in the Rain (Don/Cosmo/Kathy #2 & #7), X-Men Evolution (Scott/Rogue #4)

pattrose

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kaffy_r

Now and Forever?

I certainly hope not. And yet, when I got up this morning and started to clean the kitchen, I found mouse droppings. Yay. We figure we have to pull out the stove's lower drawer to access the floor and the wall behind it, since we're pretty sure the mice are getting into our place from the outside somewhere in that area.

I'd bet Bob that we'll find no baseboards behind the stove, but it's too obviously a bad bet. We're going to keep an eye on the kitchen counters near the stove for a day or so to see how bold the little buggers are. If it's little to no action, then we'll wait. But if we spot their leavings, then it's time to do the inspection. Which, of course, I'm not looking forward to, especially since we can't really use the foam barrier spray near the stove. Oven heat could end up releasing toxic or potentially toxic fumes, and so we're going to have to buy a whole lot more steel wool. It's going to be a mess.

*wanders away, grumbling*

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: nothing, at the moment

senmut

jenab, thank you for the card. It got here a few days back but I kept forgetting to post.

mecurtin posting in

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 Sunday, January 11, to midnight on Monday, January 12 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34071 Daily check-in poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 24

How are you doing?

I am OK
15 (62.5%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
9 (37.5%)

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
11 (45.8%)

More than one other person
6 (25.0%)

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.

lebateleur posting in

100words

Title: End of Season
Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Rating: G
Characters: Scott Hunter, Kip Grady
Notes: Spoilers for episode 5

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ride_4ever

What I did for More Joy Day: wrote a Guardian ficlet Zhen Hun Bibliomancy Tanka for

amedia; made a donation to Fraser.org, an organization that supports mental health, emotional health, and disability care (made as a memorial donation in memory of

andeincascade and I notified Ande's family about it); sent a letter of appreciation to my primary-care doctor of many years who retired last month; sent letters of solidarity to neighbors who have "No Kings in America" signs in their front yard; sent an ILU letter and fannish bookmark to a fan who -- the day before More Joy Day -- posted the comment "tell someone you love them today".

What I received for More Joy Day: a due South x Venom crossover fic The Pause That Reinvigorates by

petra and a penpal-type letter in the postal mail from

oldtoadwoman. (The letter did not say it was FOR More Joy Day, but it arrived ON More Joy Day, so I'm "counting" it.)

Current Mood: joyful
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

celli

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dhampyresa

I was so disappointed by this book.

Part of this is on me: I had somehow gotten it in my head this was modern day and was looking forward to seeing how "hivemind took over the entire medical profession undetected" aspect of the premise would play out. The setting is not modern day, it's set some indeterminate amount of time (over 500 years) after some sort of apocalypse (fair, and an interesting setting itself) and people are aware to varying degrees aware that there is Something Wrong TM with the Institute.

The main part of the disappointment is that the book keeps bringing up concepts and then... Not Doing Anything with them. Spoilers from here on out. Our PoV character loses access to the hivemind fairly early on. Helen's miscarriages and/or the twins having supernatural powers never goes anywhere. The baron seems aware that he is hosting pseudomycota and even might be working with it? Let's never speak of this again! The idea that "If you’re born in Verdira, you die in Verdira" is brought up and we get told what happens is someone born there tries to leave, but that goes nowhere. /End spoilers

It is so disappointing and frustrating. It all just goes fucking nowhere!

Also I found the written accent annoying.

I did enjoy the hivemind parts, I guess.

celli

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tjs_whatnot posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post* Meet the Mods Post Challenge #1 * Challenge #2* Challenge #3* Challenge #4* Challenge #5 *

Sorry for the delay! It's been... a day. But no matter! Hopefully you had some time to catch up, to talk with new friends... or to nap. 😍

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 #6 ) 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.