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🎬 January-February Movies Wrap-up

For my PTW challenge:

Greenland ('20): It's weird that I had not heard/seen this before but ah well. There were a couple of extremely tense moments. I feel like there was a lack of urgency in some scenes from background characters. Not the most original movie but I will definitely watch the second one to see what happens to them down the line. 3/5 stars

10.0 Earthquake ('14): Ah, I've seen this. I'm getting tired of family drama disaster movies. And the daughter with a gross love interest/friend. It had a few good points though. 2/5

Night of the Reaper ('25): The twist did manage to surprise me a little, probably because I'm not one to try to figure things out on my own, but it made sense, although the killer reveal should've been a flashback when she said 'I followed you after the funeral'. Would watch again. 4/5?

The Invitation ('15): Guy and his girlfriend along with their old friends are invited to the house he used to live in with his wife and kid until he died in an accident and she cheated on the guy with someone at her grief meetings. Come to find out, the ex-wife and her new boyfriend are in a cult together and acting strange. Turns out they almost poisoned them all to death. Not sure if it was going to be a murder/suicide or if they were just going for the friends. I ended up skimming after a certain point.

Aquamarine ('06): I've seen this movie on lists with stuff like She's the Man etc as ~cultural relics~ so i figured I should watch it lol, Two absolutely boy crazy girls encounter a mermaid who has to prove love exists to her father or be forced into an arranged marriage. They teach her through magazines like Cosmopolitan how to attract one guy in particular. Contains bad acting at times and plenty of cringe situations. 😂 I like the thing with Bonnie and Leonard. It has the whole 'true love can be platonic' thing like Frozen. You know what, I did enjoy this , can't resist 'friendship is love', 'people aren't always what you expect' not to mention 'parents are people too'. => I only sorta knew one song. I feel like I would rewatch it. 4/5 stars

Coherence ('13): I know you're supposed to be confused but I prefer a more clean-cut ending. 2/5 stars

Quest for Camelot ('98) (rewatch) - Man, why wasn't that Ruber cut off the second he started being nasty. The music lyrics for the Camelot song were so straightforward. XD I don't understand what killed Lionel, was it the fall itself? Does the horn sounding only mean 'Excalibur has been stolen'? What do they do if Camelot is being attacked? Turns out I remembered "I Stand Alone" really well!There are plenty of references in this movie including Star Wars. Overall had a great time, I look forward to rewatching more animated movies!

Art: ⭐️⭐️
Sound: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Humor Level: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Humor Landing: ⭐️
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Monday, March 2 - Time travel

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chat corner

Chat corner, dressed up (or down)

Hi everyone,

I'm here with the weekly chat post. Something to share? (I really loved all the pet comments last week, by the way.)

~ ~ ~

Okay, hmm... I haven't done anything Star Wars-y lately. I did seriously consider wearing my SW sweatpants to work today, though! (Laundry organization failure. Again. I am a functional adult.) Do you have any SW-themed clothing? Merch, cosplay, casual cosplay, something else?

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and then it all exploded AGAIN

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Current Mood: blank

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🔊 Daily music

stuck with you

Trapped In A Box Together Meme

You're not sure how, you're not sure why, but suddenly you're in a box. What's worse, is that there's another person with you making quarters less than perfect.

Rules:
①: Comment with your character | series | Preferences if any
②: Reply to others as if you're trapped in an tightly sealed non-open-able box that is rather cramped. Feel free to add more than two people to a box
③: Every now and then, the box will shift and roll to one side furthering awkward times
④: Play nice - Doesn't have to be shippy
⑤: Eventually you'll get out of the box but usually after you stop struggling

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e: ffsb

fresh femslash feast

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Romantic Feeding

ROMANTIC FEEDING shipping meme

The stomach being the way to the heart is not exclusive to men. So now, it's time to share some food with that crush, lover, significant other of yours. Mmm! And more than that, you're going to feed them! Whether it's all in fun, flirting, because they're injured and need assistance, or some other reason, you're determined to see them get a square meal.

In contrast, you could be the one getting fed. Open up and, no matter what, be glad someone cares!

HOW TO PLAY

Comment with your character, preferences, and whether they're being fed or doing the feeding.
Tag others.
RNG that shiz.
Cuteness ensues.

( Prompts )

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irl: dreams

do you remember your dreams?

I used to have very vivid, memorable dreams all through my early 30s-- I'd wake up the next morning and have tons to write about in my dream journal. And then some time in the last 5 years I stopped being able to remember my dreams except MAYBE once a month, and even then it's not as detailed as it used to be.

I'm assuming there's a correlation between starting to travel full-time and having other things to focus on than my own internal life, but maybe also there's some aging thing happening? As my brain changes, so too do my dreams? Not sure.

Sooooo, since I can make polls and I'm nosy AF, here's one for y'all to answer:

( Under here )

Feel free to share this around with friends so they can vote, too. It's anonymous, though you do have to be registered on DW to vote.

And if you have tips for remembering your dreams, please share them in the comments!

Current Location: Road to Elebrion
Current Music: Out of the Frying-Pan

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Summa Elvetica: Chapter Five

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The Utrecht Fish Doorbell is back up for the season!

https://visdeurbel.nl/en/

The Fish Doorbell in Utrecht in the Netherlands is an interactive online Citizen Science tool, explained in this post from last year: https://common-nature.dreamwidth.org/281642.html

Current Mood: thoughtful

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Babylon 5 - S2E01 - Points of Departure

A new year, a new season - and new faces.

( Spoilery reactions )

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Onward to London?!

Hey guess which fuckwit totally spaced on agreeing to a meeting in London this afternoon!

Entirely self-imposed stress. Some combination of agreeing to a thing in March a few weeks ago when that felt very far away, and having last week off.

Starting work this morning after my week off, I settle down to go through my million emails and spot that one of them says"hey Erik I'll be there at 12.54"; "there" is London Bridge and the "today" is unspoken!

Luckily I was, barely, able to get a train there in time (glad it wasn't a morning meeting!), with D kindly getting up early to give me a lift to the station that's most useful: there's trains every 20 minutes to London but now I'm effectively on the 10.15 train when it would have been the 10.55 without his help. Makes a big difference when I would've been getting into Euston about the time I want to be at London Bridge...

I spent the first hour on the train triaging emails (and Teams messages). I'm a little frazzled now so I might give myself the gift of just staring out the window a bit now that we're leaving Rugby (about halfway through my train journey).

Reading Wrap-up 2/26

I actually didn't read all that much in February, but here are the books I *did* finish.

Setterfield, Diane: The Thirteenth Tale. Atria Books. 2006.
I loved "A River's Tale" a few years back, so I assumed this novel would be a safe bet. On the surface it circles around the same topics as "A River's Tale": What is fiction? And what is reality in relation to fiction? Does reality even exist or will everything that filters into our consciousness per default turn into fiction? So, on the surface level interesting, especially since it's a book about books / a book about reading and don't we all love those? But I found the plot to be absolutely outlandish and the whole novel rather heavy-handed. I can't say that I was bored, but I had high hopes for this one and Setterfield didn't quite deliver.

Edelbauer, Raphaela: Die Inkommensurablen. Klett-Cotta. 2023. (German)
This is a novel set in Vienna on the literal eve of WWI. It follows three friends as they spend they night and witness how the war breaks out. The vibes of this book are amazing. The Viennese slang is spot-on. (I wouldn't expect this to be translated into English anytime soon and if it is I can't see how a translation could hope to emulate the sound of this book.) Edelbauer more than delivers on the Austrian vibe and on the topics and ideas that were discussed at that point in time. I didn't connect with her characters all the much and all the esoteric talk about shared dreams went right over my head. But the rest was fantastic.

Kay, Adam: This is going to hurt. Picador. 2017.
Read for research and on that front it delivered. Other than that I think it's very specific to its time and place. If you don't live in GB you will have to live with the fact that this book clearly was not written for you. You'll still find some "funny" medical anecdotes in this. So if that's what you're looking for, go ahead and read this. (I'd advise to stay clear if you're pregnant or ever plan on being pregnant.)

Babb, Sanora: Whose Names Are Unknown. University of Oklahoma Press. 2006.
This novel tackles the same topics Steinbeck talks about in "The Grapes of Wrath" (and maybe you remember that I didn't like that book at all). The plot points are very similar - you have a family in the Oklahoma Panhandle that has to deal with continuous crop failure and that then goes to California and lives in a refugee camp. "Whose Names are Unknown" isn't a stellar novel either, but I like numerous things a lot better than in "The Grapes of Wrath": Babb clearly knows what she tallks about. Her descriptions of farm life and a farmer's relationship with his animals is spot-on and rings very true. Also, in contrast to Steinbeck she tells us things and then allows us to come to our own conclusions. You re actually invited to think for yourself in this one. Steinbeck was constantly trying to drive home his own political views via his storytelling. Even if you don't end up reading this novel, have a look at the publication history. It's highly fascinating!

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Tournament of Champions

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Writerly Ways

I'm beginning to wonder what is wrong with me. I thought my Overlook story was formatted. It wasn't. I thought This Little Piggy story had a good ending (a story I have sent out in the past) and it literally trails off. I thought my test for tuesday was done and I just needed to clean it up. I was wrong. Is this part of worsening ADHD? Is this part of the depression? Me being overworked? I am falling further and further behind and I don't like any part of it.

But let's set that aside for now. I wanted to talk about writing monsters. I want to take my story Sharp Little Teeth and expand it into a novella. I think there is something in i t worth saving. It's a bit long for most open calls and at the end of the day, the ending is rushed just to fit it under 8k. There is enough to it to develop to three times its size. A gay mobster in 1947, his lavender marriage to a lady doctor, their forced exile from Boston to Las Vegas, some monster killing people building the new casino experiment.

I need to do more research into Vegas (collecting books now) but that's not my issue. I have used folklore to create the monster. I didn't find any colonizer monsters that fit what I needed, just some big foot knock offs. there is something in Paiute lore that does work and that's what I went for at the time (with only weeks to do this)

I did have the Native American character come up with how to get rid of them but still it feels like it's toeing the line of white savior and mystic native tokenism. I don't want either of those things obviously. So I was thinking I can use the thing from legend but it's not that. It's not the crybaby water things either. While they're working it out, more die.

But that means I have to make a monster. I know I want to keep the small child-like stature of them and of course the titular sharp little teeth but where do I go from there? I don't know yet but I need to think abou that. Might be time look at desert animals and go from there.

Open Calls

Vacations From Hell
Short horror stories about vacations

Hawthorn & Ash 2026 Window 100 and 500 word fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror stories

Sley House Times March 2026 Window

Untitled Folk Horror Anthology Folk horror of all types, preferring a twist on a known folk or fairy tale, but not required

From Around the World

How to Become a Professional Writer With Joanna Penn

How to Make Your Dark Event Pay Off

Should You Tie Up Loose Ends in Your Story—or Leave Them Open?

What Is Cozy Horror?

From Betty

How to Fix a Boring Sex Scene (honestly I think most sex scenes are boring)

Seven Tricks to Improve Your Minions

Must Romance Always Include a Breakup?

Narrative Distance

Using Contradictions to Create Masterful Microtension – Part 3

10 Editing Mistakes First-Time Authors Make (That Could Cost You Readers)

WITS Team Showcase - Jenny Hansen

How to Write Great Taglines in Seven Steps

Self-Editing Pop Quiz Redux

Why Readers Read

Mistakes Were Made

What Does a Character’s Fear of Change Look Like

8 Tips for Writing an Unreliable Narrator

Why Identity Is the Key to Character Development: How True vs. False Identity Shapes Every Story

The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Writers, Part 4: Final Revisions and Beta Reader Feedback

7 Writing Mistakes That Hurt Your Story (and How to Avoid “Literary Leftovers”)

Who Are You? Part Two

Common Mistakes New Writers Make and How to Fix Them

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Six Sentence Sunday

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Current Mood: contemplative

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Messer: Wuthering Heights

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Current Mood: busy

March Meta Matters

marchmetamatterschallenge is now open. \o/ Visit MARCH META MATTERS CHALLENGE, CHECK-IN NO. 1 to introduce yourself and lay out your goals. This event is basically about archiving your meta -- which you can do by crossposting it to Dreamwidth or using an archive site -- and writing new meta if you wish. Hoard ALL the things!

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Boxes - Travis

March the First.

It might've been the last snow of the season this morning. A light dusting, enough to make me think a coat would've been nice and not too much to make me need more than a sweatshirt. It was nice to feel the last bits of cold, especially since the sun was out a couple of hours later, so nothing much stuck around. Few people were at the market, which made it easier - I haven't been to the Sunday one in a while, and as anemic as this time of year is for produce, it's nice to see some depth of color when it comes to the root vegetables.

In other shopping news, from working in assorted doctor's offices, I found a good quality bandage brand, and online shopping being what it is, I had to resort to eBay for a couple boxes. Most medical supply places call for a minimum order of significantly more than a couple boxes of bandaids, which I understand, and convenience pushes me towards eBay because that's all I need right now. It was that or Amazon, and I'm slightly more trusting of eBay as a general institution.

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Daily Happiness

1. This morning we walked to a new (in our area; I guess they have a couple other locations in LA) cafe that is queer owned and run. They had a really good breakfast burrito, mid donut, and decent matcha latte. It's a little far for a casual walk for Carla, so I'm not sure how often we'd go, but I'm glad to try it out. We also stopped at the Italian deli on the way home and got sandwiches for lunch.

2. Even though our Japan trip will be longer than last time, I want to pack lighter, at least in some regards. I've also been thinking about getting a crossbody bag to use on a daily basis while there instead of my little backpack I use at Disneyland, because the backpack hurts my back between my shoulderblades, and I don't have that issue with a crossbody bag. So first I was thinking about just getting a smallish bag to replace the little backpack, and then was thinking about getting a slightly bigger bag to use on the plane so it could fit my ipad (the largest item I'd want on the plane) because the laptop bag I used last time was such overkill (just used it because it was something we already had at home). But after looking at bags, I found one that I think would be good to use on a daily basis and would be big enough for the flight. It arrived today and I tried it out and my ipad fits, and everything I'd want to have accessible on the plane fits without being overloaded, and it seems comfortable for daily use! I've also decided to use the smaller suitcase backpack that Carla recently got for my main bag, and she'll use one of the bigger bags we both used last time.

3. Finished up a puzzle today. This is the second side of the double sided Disney cats/dogs puzzle that I did a couple months ago.

4. After skipping a few months of flea prevention medication for the cats during the winter, we decided to start them on it again this month and I was able to get all five cats in one day. Usually Gemma is so suspicious that if I don't get her first, it might take a few days before she lowers her guard enough that I can get her.