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I'd been kind of waiting to post about this to see if there was word if he was alright or not, which it sounds like he at least has support, which is good. The whole thing is very upsetting, and people have also been having some very bad takes.

Basically, the rapper Lil Nas X seems to have been having a mental health thing, got the cops called on him, and is now arrested on truly B.S. felony charges. I hate everything about this, especially the person who filmed him at a vulnerable moment and (probably) sold that film to TMZ. Fuck that person. Fuck TMZ, also.

Some takes from Black youtubers about homophobia in the Black community, especially in hip hop (which is not saying that the Black community is uniquely homophobic!)

ForeignFridays: The Gay Double Standard.

OlayandFriends: The Gay Agenda Isn't Real but Homophobia is.

A couple takes from white queer voices on how fucking racist the whole conversation has been, and also the cops dealing with mental health calls is B.S.:

Teen Vogue: Why Lil Nas X's Arrest Is More Proof Police Have No Business Treating the Mentally Ill.

Ophie-Dokie: Lil Nas X Situation Is Disturbing.

Current Mood: angry

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi
Pairings/Characters: Gen; M/M; Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian; Lan Yuan, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, OCs
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 2,442 words
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, anonymous author, autobiographical incident, Chinese diaspora feels, inappropriate choice of rabbit food, racist microaggression, secondhand embarrassment
Creator Tags:
Based on a True Story, yes my mom really couldn't find a basic cake and so we had to go with bread, Fluff, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Baking, Icing, Frosting, AHAHAHAAHAHAHAHH THOSE ARE TAGS, Michael's (the store) makes a big appearance, Father's Day, but idc if it's not father's day yet, I was inspired, Inspired by Real Events
Creator Links: none
Theme: Food & Cooking, Cultural Differences, Family, Fluff, Modern AU, Slice of Life

Summary: In which Sizhui and his Baba ice a loaf of bread for Father's Day (plus some angst, but we don't really have to get into specifics do we?)

Author’s Notes:

something i wrote while having writers block

enjoy

(also stay safe and wash your hands and quit going outside if you are)

this isn't really asian rep it just happened when i was 10 and i typed for two hours also its may and here we are with a fictionalized crackheaded version of what happened

yes there were mean girls

… lan zhan's the one getting the cake because his personality's the closest to my dad's but like my dad cut off the frosting and we ended up using the bread for other stuff

Reccer’s Notes: The Chinese-American author posted this anonymously on 8 May 2020 for U.S. Asian and Pacific Islander Month, apologizing that “this isn’t really asian rep”; given that the canon creator is Asian, her target audience is Asian, the characters are Asian, and the OP is Asian fictionalizing their Asian family’s real-life experience, I personally don’t see how it can avoid being Asian Rep.

The author’s self-consciousness—both at the time of writing and in retrospect—is flying from the ramparts, and arguably an integral part of the story. They never did emerge from anonymity, and they’ve since deleted the story—which is a shame, because this is a valid slice-of-life in the Lynda Barry vein, with the OP’s imaginary friends as proxies. Since there seems to be no identifying information that could be used to trace them, I don’t think posting a Wayback Machine capture will expose them to further embarrassment.

And let’s not be like the Mean Girls at Michael’s, okay?

Fanwork links: a loaf of bread is not a substitute for a blank cake

Current Mood: discontent

pronker posting in

fancake

Fandom: Dark Shadows

Pairings/Characters: Roger Collins, CC Female, Which Would Give Away Too Much If Named

Rating: G

Length: 2,394 words

Creator Links: AO3 Profile

Theme: Food & Cooking

Summary: Roger meets a friend for dinner who shares his discomfort regarding marriages.

Reccer's Notes: Roger remains one of my favorite Dark Shadows characters, acted superbly by Louis Edmonds, a veteran of stage costume dramas. He always wears period clothing with impeccable insouciance despite figure-hugging trousers, wing collars, and Victorian handlebar moustaches. In this fic, we see how much food presents an opportunity for revealing, soul searching reflections with a sympathetic friend, in fact so much that they don't even eat until the last paragraph or so. The universality of sharing food provides a letting down of the hair, so to speak, voluminous in his friend's case and not-so-much in his. There's an absolutely delightful twist at fic's end. Also, the AO3 profile mentions Author's website, WickerManStudios which contains stories along with more personal content.

Fanwork Links: Mysterious Circumstances

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: comatose in bed
Current Music: birdsong

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Gen. Teyla Emmagan & Rodney McKay & John Sheppard & Ronon Dex
Rating: G
Length: 7229
Content Notes: No AO3 warnings apply.
Creator Links: fiercelydreamed on AO3, anatsuno on AO3
Themes: Food and cooking, Team as family, Friendship, Hurt/comfort

Summary: The thing was, John had never been good at patient, and Teyla looked like okay was a couple galaxies over from wherever she was now.

Reccer's Notes: A touching hurt/comfort story set after the team rescues Teyla from Michael. Although Teyla and her baby are back in Atlantis, she's slow to recover and remains low and depleted. Rodney has a plan to cheer her up, though, involving food, and he ropes John in to help. It was I think written in the hiatus before the last season so a few minor details have been jossed, but that doesn't matter. This is the best sort of found family story, with them all rallying around to support Teyla. Lovely.

Fanwork Links: Battle Potato, and there's an excellent podfic read by anatsuno.

siderea

Canonical link: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1882720.html

0.

Hey, Americans! Look sharp, the Trump Administration is trying to play a head game on you about Covid vaccines, and it's apparently working, because I see nobody talking about this in the news or on social media.

There's a lot of complexity and chaos right now about what is available to whom and how to get it. Things are changing fast, especially on the state level. I hope to discuss it in another post, but there's one thing in particular I want to clarify for you.

As you've probably heard, week and a half ago, the FDA changed the authorization for the Covid vaccines, in a way which curtails access. The thing that people are hearing is that for people under 65 years old the Covid vaccines are not authorized with some exceptions.

That's technically correct, but badly misleading. A lot of people hear "not authorized" and stop really listening to the rest of the sentence. They hear "with some exceptions" and assume they're not likely to be one such, and won't qualify to get it, and tune right out.

To be cynical for a moment, you're meant to assume that.

But it turns out you're one of the exceptions. Probably. How can I know that?

The actual language from the FDA authorization just issued ( Read more [2,750 words] )

This post brought to you by the 218 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.

Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!

chibifukurou posting in

fancake

Fandom:The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Pairings/Characters: Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan
Rating: T
Length: 14.5k
Creator Links: CheckersXIV
Theme: Food and cooking, (Five) Things, Complete AU

Summary: Luo Binghe has accepted his life for what it is: a dull repetition of a burned-out passion for a job. Back when he started his "Not Your Mother's" cooking channel on youtube, he had been ready to face the world. Now he just wants the world out of his face. When he hits one more bump in the road, he can't really say it's too surprising considering that the universe seems to just hate him.

And yet, the universe sends him to Shen Yuan.
_
Or 5 times Shen Yuan accidentally distracts Luo Binghe's attention from his videos, and the one time Luo Binghe gets his.

Reccer's Notes: This theme was a good excuse to go back for a reread. I love a fic where the point isn't so much falling in love as growing into the kind of person ready to love and be Loved.

5+1 is always a fun framing device. Particularly when combined with in universe comment section. And I love that this js a broad world with various people who know each other from various settings in it.

Fanwork Links: The Way to a Man's Heart is His Stomach

siderea

I don't know who needs to know about this, but:

I just discovered the Android app "Periodically". It's described as an "event logger". It's for keeping track of when a recurring thing has happened, and figuring out what the average time is between occurrences. You just keep it updated each time the event happens, and it will do the math for you to figure out the frequency, and even give you a notification when it predicts the event is likely to happen again. If you're tracking more than one thing, it will try to suss out correlations for you.

I mention because twenty five years ago or so, I needed exactly this functionality and could not find any application that would do what I needed, so I wrote a thing for myself, and since then a lot of people I've mentioned it to have wondered where they can get one like it. Mine was Mac/Palm Pilot, so not of much use to most people, especially these days.
Lo, somebody seems to have realized the need for this functionality, and brought it to the market. So I thought I'd mention.

Now, in this day and age, a lot of people, especially in the US, are concerned with security. Especially if they're tracking something to do with their health. This app is not specific to health, so nothing about it immediately reveals that it is storing health information on casual inspection; you could use some sort of other term for whatever health condition it is you are actually tracking. So, for instance, If you were tracking how often your migraines happened, you could call that "new box of cereal".

This app defaults to local-only data storage on your Android device, and the developer claims that it only collects "app activity" for analytics, and shares nothing with third parties. It outputs CSV and has an option to back up to Google Drive.

I haven't tried it myself, but it has a rating of 4.6 stars out of five on the Play Store.

Reviewers on the Play Store note that tracker apps that are specific to the kind of event – such as health- specific loggers – often have needless complexity, and often some weird ideas about graphic design. They praise this app for its clean, elegant look and simple, effective functionality.

In addition to its obvious applicability to episodic health conditions, it strikes me as potentially extremely useful in one of the trickier parts of prepping: figuring out one's burn rate of resources. I think I might trial it to help me figure out how often I should expect to have to buy a fresh bale of toilet paper and how long the big bottle of ibuprofen will last me.

22degreehalo posting in

fancake

Fandom: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Pairings/Characters: Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan
Rating: T
Length: 143,334
Creator Links:

mellicindi
Theme: Food & Cooking, (Secret) Hobbies, Asexual & Demisexual Characters, Alternate Universe - Modern, Book Fandoms, Canon LGBTQ+ Characters, Characters of Color, Disability, Families of Choice, Favorite Fanworks, No Canon Required, Novel-Length Fic, Trauma & Recovery.

Summary: Shen Yuan isn't lonely. He's just overseas in a new city, trying to muddle his way through a business degree, and dealing with the side effects of his stupid intestines trying to kill him. So, maybe he sometimes watches ASMR to cope with his too-quiet apartment. Maybe he has a little bit of a parasocial-relationship-thing going on with one particular cooking ASMR channel. It's 2016, who doesn't? The point is, he's content with his quiet life.

And then Shang Qinghua strong-arms him into watching one Hallmark Christmas movie, and it all goes to hell.

Or: Shen Yuan is a Hallmark movie protagonist, Luo Binghe is a Lifetime movie protagonist, and somehow they make it work.

Reccer's Notes: I read this fic over three days right in the middle of Battleship and it instantly became one of my favourite fanfics of all time. I could seriously gush for hours about this fic and its themes: the recurring thread of food as a love language (especially given protagonist Shen Yuan's digestive disability he's too self-conscious to talk openly about), the differing nature of familial, romantic, and friendship bonds and the varying privileges and presumptions behind each, this Luo Binghe's long-term trauma that manifests in the best goddamn depiction of Borderline Personality Disorder I've seen outside Crazy Ex Girlfriend seemingly entirely on accident - and among all of that, it's just a goddamn well-written story, incredibly easy to read and funny and heartfelt and true to its characters while being 100% readable fandom-blind and just - if any of the above appeals to you, I really can't advise anything other than to read it ASAP. <333

Fanwork Links: Life is (not) a Hallmark Movie

rivkat

Sara E. Wolf, Teaching Copyright: Practical Lesson Ideas and Instructional Resources: ( for non-legal educators who teach about (c) )

How Republics Die: Creeping Authoritarianism in Ancient Rome and Beyond, ed. Frederik Juliaan Vervaet et al.: ( democratic decay: how does it work? )

Michelle Carr, Nightmare Obscura: A Dream Engineer’s Guide Through the Sleeping Mind: ( I took a ton of notes )
Noah Feldman, To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People: ( Interesting )
Ko-Lin Chin, Counterfeited in China: The Operations of Illicit Businesses: ( also interesting )

Adam Becker, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity: ( depressingly interesting )

Shoshana Walter, Rehab: An American Scandal: ( oh look more depressing )

rachelmanija

This novel appears to be a well-written and enjoyable but conventional haunted house story; it turns out to have a twist on that theme which I've never encountered before. I very much enjoyed discovering that for myself, so if you think you might too, don't read the spoilers.

A young couple, Emily and Freddie, move from London to Larkin Lodge, an old house in Dartmoor, while Emily's recovering from a serious accident. After she fell off a cliff, her heart stopped and one leg was permanently damaged. Doctors warned her and Freddie that she might suffer from post-sepsis mental complications, so when she starts perceiving weird things involving Larkin Lodge, both she and Freddie think it's probably her, not the house. Emily and Freddie's marriage is not the greatest, but is that something that was previously going on, or is it cracking under stress, or is the house having a bad effect on them?

Emily and Freddie are not the best people, but that really works for the story. I thought it was a lot of fun.

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

Content notes: Not even slightly gory or gross. Mention of a miscarriage (off-page, not described). Some violence, not graphic. No on-page animal harm, but the body of a dead raven is found.

denynothing1 posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairings/Characters: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Rating: Explicit
Length: 22,349 words
Creator Links: lamardeuse on AO3
Theme: Food & Cooking

Summary: Author's Summary: In which Rodney is a famous TV chef and John is a lobster fisherman. I am not even kidding.

Reccer's Notes: This is a complete SGA AU featuring Rodney, John, Ronon, and Teyla as the only SGA characters, surrounded by a community of OCs, most of whom are women. The writer notes, "[This is] Pure AU crack. You have been warned. Based on my forty-second reading of the back cover of a random Harlequin and my internalization of romantic comedy conventions through innumerable films and books for the past thirty-odd years."

And the story is exactly as advertised: a light-hearted, rom-comical, persnickety fish-out-of-water meets laid-back fisherman romance.

Fanwork Links: story on AO3

Current Mood: hungry

muccamukk

I read these back in May, and my memories are not 100%. Here's my best stab at the three noms for best novel, one for novella, and one tangential to the Lodestar.

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, narrated by Eliza Foss & Jennifer Pickens ( Read more... )

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley ( Read more... )

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky ( Read more... )

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed ( Read more... )

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, narrated by Kinsale Drake ( Read more... )

musesfool

Despite getting a late start all weekend and being distracted by a new matching game on my phone (I can lose hours to these stupid games), I got some good cooking done!

Yesterday, I made garlic & mozzarella milk bread (pics), which turned out quite well even though I forgot the salt due to its weird placement in the recipe (in theory I understand why it is where it is, but in practice it makes no sense to do it that way), but I used salted butter, so I don't think I missed it, and the bread rose just fine.

This afternoon, I finally made this strawberry cheesecake since my cream cheese was well past its use-by date and my heavy cream was getting there! It's still chilling, but when I licked the spatula after pouring the filling into the pie plate, all I really tasted was the five-spice powder. Which I like! But it's not what I would expect given the amount of freeze-dried strawberry powder in it. I guess we'll see how it goes when I cut into it tomorrow. (I also have this issue with nutmeg - even when I try to go easy on it in something, it still is frequently the only thing I taste after using it. I don't know why!)

And then I finally got up and made meatballs with oregano and red wine vinegar to have for lunch during the week. This was a method my grandmother used to use, and it is a great way to eat meatballs (or veggies - she also used to make it with zucchini, and I imagine you could do other types of squash or eggplant this way) - you make and cook the meatballs and set them aside. Then you saute onions in some olive oil (or in the beef fat left if you've fried your meatballs - I do mine in the oven, so I just use oil) and lower the heat and let them caramelize a bit, then you put the meatballs back in, sprinkle about 1/8 cup of dried oregano over them, and then pour in 1/3 - 3/4 cup of red wine vinegar. Be careful as billows of deliciously pungent smoke will rise from your frying pan at that point! Then lower the heat and let it all simmer for 10 or 15 minutes. Good both hot and at room temperature! (I haven't made it with zucchini myself, but for that, you slice and fry or bake your zucchini, and then continue on with the onions/oregano/vinegar as described.)

I have taken the garbage out and started the dishwasher, so now I am prepared for the awfulness of Sunday night. Sigh.

*

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Beastie Boys

muccamukk

spook_me posted: Spook Me Multi-Fandom Ficathon 2025

All fandoms are welcome. Stories can be Gen, Het, Slash or Femslash. All ratings are accepted.

We have TWO new Creatures this year: RAVEN and GRAVEYARD

I have royally failed at this the last like five years, but I do want to keep trying. It's really my favourite prompt fest.

fandomgiftbasket posted: Spreadsheet of All Requests

Here is the spreadsheet of all requests!

Link.

There are two sheets on it. The first one is a list of all baskets sorted alphabetically by username, and this is where I'll keep track of the number of gifts. The second is every single fandom request posted individually in alphabetical order, for ease of finding. If you spot anything missing or any mistakes, let me know ASAP.

I don't have a basket this year, but hope to maybe write drabbles or something? Possibly?

ivyfic

I watched the movie The Prestige in theaters back in 2006, but don’t think I’ve seen it since. I picked up the book recently, which is not very similar to the film.

First I want to start with some content warnings (highlight for text).

Warnings for miscarriage, graphic child murder, and—and I can’t believe I have to warn for this in a book largely set in the nineteenth century—graphic descriptions of death from AIDS. Amazingly, many things you’d have to warn for in the movie are not in this book. The book didn’t fridge any women at all!

Short version—this is horror. The film is kind of horror, a bit, but not the way the book is. As someone who is only occasionally into horror, oh man was this my kind of horror. It’s an incredibly good book, highly recommended, just brace yourself.

( The non-spoiler discussion )

And that’s about as much as I’m going to reveal as non-spoiler. If this book sounds interesting, absolutely go read it.

( The spoiler discussion )

This is a much better book than it is a film. And for as much as there is overlap with the film, I wish I’d read the book unspoiled. But I’d never have read the book at all without the film, so.

muccamukk

Holy shit: university library access. It's probably good that I'm not in a historical fandom right now, because guess what I'd be doing instead of homework.

*remembers doing a bunch of Afghan War reading for Sherlock Holmes fandom last time around*

lightreads

Identity

3/5. One of her standalone romantic suspense titles, this one about a woman whose life is wrecked and best friend murdered by an identity thief, so she goes back to her hometown and rebuilds. Classic Roberts – homemaking in the literal sense, rebuilding from the ruins, deep family connections, a romance that does not take top billing. I liked this one. The hero is actually interesting, which is not the case with many of hers, and the set dressing about the trade of bartending and hospitality in general is a welcome departure.

Framed in Death

3/5. A pretty standard procedural about an artist turning to murder to get famous or whatever. I was not feeling this one – too formula, but what do I expect after 60 something books of formula, honestly. But then this was my audiobook during 90+ minutes of extensive and painful dental work, to which I also brought my simmering case of PTSD from that time I woke out of anesthesia in the middle of eye surgery and that is triggered by having people with instruments right there in my face, which makes dental work, you know. Not great. Aaaanyway, this book basically held my hand for 90 minutes, so you know what, long live the formula.

Sidebar: I am utterly boggled by the system of legalized prostitution she has half-imagined here. Not the legalized part, with mandatory STD testing for licensure and all that. No, I’m boggled by a throwaway reference to a “street LC,” who basically bangs people for cash in alleys, getting ready to . . . apply to move up? … Wait. Apply to whom? There is a government licensing body that decides who is eligible for street solicitation versus . . . what exactly? Nora. I have so many questions. You have no answers.

muccamukk

Watch on YouTube

This live show is great, also. Low-key looking at tickets for when they're on the coast next month.

denynothing1 posting in

fancake

Fandom: Hockey RPF
Pairings/Characters: Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin
Rating: Explicit
Length: 10,281 words / 1hr podfic
Creator Links: thehoyden on AO3, exmanhater on AO3
Theme: Food & Cooking

Summary: Unlike Nealsy, Evgeni can cook his own food when he has it. He’s perfectly capable of making breakfast. His kitchen is well-equipped, and he’s got some good basic cooking skills down. In short, he is not going to starve to death if left to his own devices.

None of this seems to matter to Sid.

Reccer's Notes: This is a story about seduction by breakfast. As the title says, there is a clear game plan at work here -- possibly more than one. Much of the charm of the story is in how oblivious the determined seducer is to the effect he is having and how bewildered his target is that it's not clear how willing he is to be seduced.

Bonus: the descriptions of the ever-more-elaborate breakfasts are fantastic.

There's an accompanying podfic by exmanhater that is a delicious listen as well.

Fanwork Links: story on AO3, podfic on AO3

Current Mood: hungry

selenak

In which it's penultimate episode of the season time, which means things get very dark indeed, though not in all storylines.

( The Cleons Strike Back? Revenge of the Cleons? Master and Apprentice? )

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Bamberg

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June 2012

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Lil Nas X

Mo Dao Zu Shi: a loaf of bread is not a substitute for a blank cake, by Anonymous.

Dark Shadows: Mysterious Circumstances by WickerManStudios

SGA: Battle Potato by fiercelydreamed

At Least One Underlying Condition [Covid, US, Patreon]

SVSSS: The Way to a Man's Heart is His Stomach by CheckersXIV

Interesting app for Android [tech]

SVSSS: Life is (not) a Hallmark Movie by Mellicindi

Nonfiction

We Live Here Now, by Sarah Pinborough

Stargate Atlantis: Romance at the Roadkill Grill by lamardeuse

Hugo Homework (from four months ago)

engine running hotter than a boiling kettle

Two Prompt Fests

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

college perks

Nora Roberts/JD Robb

Music Friday

Hockey RPF: Game Plan by thehoyden

Foundation 3.09