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August will be a Flashback round where we revisit a classic theme from the early years of the comm.

1. Really enjoying the redcurrant cake I finally managed to make the other evening.
2. First of the clothes-for-me from the latest Oxfam order showed up and is in fact more or less Perfect, hurrah. (Cargo shorts. Two pairs of linen cargo trousers due tomorrow...)
3. Mulberries! ewt informed me that they were starting to come ready, so I took a detour via the local tree and did indeed manage to munch a token handful.
4. I made a batch of mostly-white-some-rye caraway-and-poppyseed bread, and it goes spectacularly well with the cherry plum and vanilla jam a friend gave me at the weekend. I have been having some Very Happy Breakfasts.
5. My extremely late-into-the-ground squash are starting to produce female flowers!
6. And I found some more lurking long bamboo to install for the late-sown beans to maybe make their way up.
7. AND I might actually break even on peas-for-sowing-next-year if the second flush on one of the plants does what it's threatening to, which I would be extremely excited about because I had been mildly regretting eating (instead of saving for seed) the handful we did eat, when my original intention had in fact been to Just Save Seed this year... (... but they were very tasty.)
8. We are reading Hyperbole and a Half (the book) together a chapter at a time! They are an excellent short Shared Activity.
9. I have this evening spent a pleasant ten minutes playing around with the dragons game and enjoying getting some very pretty possible dragons out of it. Yes good.
10. Read about three elephants graduating to the Reintegration Unit run by the Sheldrick Trust and cried a lot. (Also at the accompanying video.) (Good crying.)

Late last year, I posted an entry examining the titles of my fics that year, and explaining why I'd chosen those titles. It was an interesting exercise, so I thought I'd repeat it whenever I accumulate a good handful of fics!

In reverse chronological order, my fic titles for this year so far:


( Rambling about why I chose fic titles. )


I'm not sure whether this post-titling analysis is actually making me any better at choosing titles, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless!

Fandom: Star Trek AOS/Reboot
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/Spock
Rating: G
Length: 2,242 words
Creator Links: sad_bi_cowboy
Theme: Working together, outsider POV

Summary:

"Inspection order number 324867: USS Enterprise

Serial number: NCC-1701-A
Ship Class: Constitution
Ship Claim: Starfleet
Ship Membership: United Federation of Planets

Captain James T. Kirk in command.
Commander S'chn T'gai Spock: First/Chief Science Officer
Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy: CMO
Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott: Chief Engineer
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura: Chief Communications Officer
Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu: Pilot
Ensign Pavel Chekov: Navigator

Inspector Assigned: Lieutenant Jessie Bellamy

End of Transmission"

Reccer's Notes: Lt. Jessie Bellamy performs her first inspection of a Starfleet ship, and she gets the Enterprise in all its chaotic, rulebreaking glory. She's just trying to do her job, but the ship and crew are so far outside the rules that she's having trouble even fitting them into the standards for inspection.

When you read a lot of Star Trek fic, you start to normalize all the wild and irresponsible shit that goes on. This fic provides the perspective of someone who is supposed to evaluate how well the crew are following the rules, and it's fantastic. Lt. Bellamy has to stay on the ship for the duration of the inspection, work with the crew, and survive some of the scrapes the Enterprise gets into. It's hilarious and wonderful.

Fanwork Links: Inspection of the USS Enterprise

The last pinch hit was claimed, and we have a new one available!

Anyone who isn't signed up but is only pinch hitting can leave prompts at our treats for pinch hitters post! This is a great place to look if you're interested in creating treats.

This pinch hit is due 25 July at 23:59 US Eastern time, one day before our new reveals date.

If you can claim this pinch hit, please comment with your AO3 name. All comments are screened.

( PDPH 14 - Code Vein (Video Game), 神さまのいない日曜日 | Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi | Sunday Without God (Anime & Manga), Octopath Traveler II (Video Game), 刀使ノ巫女 | Toji no Miko | Katana Maidens (Anime), よるのないくに | Yoru no Nai Kuni | Nights of Azure (Video Games), Xenoblade Chronicles (Video Game) )

I went across town to gather the last of my pay this morning; I'd gotten a text a couple hours earlier telling me that the main receptionist was doing fine and didn't need additional support, so all I had left to do was get paid. I ended up deciding to take that vacation opportunity, with plans to come back fairly early Friday to make the evening showtime.

Worth noting is packing's not nearly the stressor it used to be. Especially not for just a couple of days. Not even music for the trip or what to bring in my backpack. There's no getting around the nervousness that comes from waiting for a train - especially with the downpour earlier this week, which tends to mess with schedules - or trying to fall asleep the night before. But there's a predictability to that, which makes accepting it easier.

Specifically I have tracked down a copy of Treatise on Man, which is probably the source of the claim I've seen phrased several ways, most eyebrow-raisingly and also most readily to hand by Steve Haines, attributing to Descartes the idea that pain is

something similar to hearing, it is a fixed signal and measurable response

and it turns out I've got access to a whole entire PDF which turns out to be only 71 pages, including quite a lot of fairly large images, so I suppose I'm going to read Descartes now as a break from working my way through the BBC's Higher revision guides on neurobiology, which is itself a detour from reading the introductory text on nerves aimed at undergraduates...

(The things I've actually been reading today consist of two chapters of Hyperbole and a Half, a partial chapter of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, both as Shared Activities with A, and about half of A Handful of Flour, a recipe book I have owned for quite a while now and am rapidly concluding I might no longer wish to dedicate shelf space to...)

doreyg reminded me of a detail in the first Danganronpa that means, if you do certain Free Time events, Naegi's probably going to end up blaming himself for the events of the second chapter. This fic grew out of that thought!

I really struggled with which names to use for this fic! Naegi has always been Naegi in my head, but there are other characters heavily involved who I think of by their given names, rather than their family names. I ended up going with the conventions of the official English release, referring to everyone by given name, but I can't tell you how many times I accidentally wrote 'Naegi' instead of 'Makoto'.


Title: a little too late
Fandom: Danganronpa
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 2,200
Summary: It's the second case. Makoto pieces some things together.


( a little too late )

If the new Superman movie had included Súperman es Ilegal (lyrics in English and Spanish in video), even just a little bit, I might've felt all the whiners were justified in saying how woke it is. It's a charming movie with compelling performances, but "woke" is a serious overstatement by people who can't handle characters who aren't white dudes doing things.

This Ma and Pa Kent were my favorite iterations of themselves outside of comics, and I fully believed that this Clark would say, "Dang."

If you like your superheroes a little too clean-cut and a lot too earnest, you, too, may enjoy this flick.

Reading. This week I have mostly but not entirely been reading more murdery bot: Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, Rapport, aaaand I've also immediately launched myself into yet another quick reread of All Systems Red because we finished watching the TV series and therefore I want The Murderbot Of My Heart Thank You.

However! I have also continued reading about nerves! I have now read the entire first chapter of Nerve and Muscle, supplemented by a bunch more Wikipedia, and I think I am starting to have a better mental picture of how all of this works? I am going into way more depth than required by The Project, really, I think, but I will be happier if I know what's going on at least to the extent that I understand a little more about what it means, physically, when it is explained that some migraine preventives target Type A nerve fibre and others target Type C (which in turn is why if you get partial relief from something that targets Type C it's worth at least experimenting with adding in something targeting Type A).

And I have also made a tiny bit more progress with The Age of Seeds, but... yeah, mostly Murderbot.

Watching. Murderbot! I will concede that "I need to check the perimeter" did indeed get me Right In The Feels. I still prefer my book-Murderbot but I am beginning to acquire a better understanding of why folk love this Murderbot too.

The fanvid Bohemian Like You, by kuwdora, via sholio, via recessional.

Cooking. Several new things! Aubergine larb with sticky rice and shallot salad, lavender & honey Welsh cakes out of the Welsh cakes tourist tat mini-book, coconut pancakes. Now officially over two thirds of the way through East (with another Several planned for this week coming).

Eating. TODAY WE WENT ON AN ADVENTURE TO SEE ONE OF MY UNIVERSITY FRIENDS. I don't understand how it has been somewhere in the vicinity of ten years since I last got my act together to see this friend in particular given the part where, you know, we live in the same city, BUT we sorted ourselves out to meet up at King's Cross today and in addition to talking solidly for the entire duration we had FOOD including:

• Ruby Violet (maxi moo moo with hazelnut crunch & raspberry, rosewater and prosecco on the grass by the canal; hazelnut & hazelnut brittle, salted caramel & almond brittle, hot cross bun, raspberry ripple, and coffee mocha ripple brought home, those last two primarily for A)
• for lunch I had a funghi ma po tofu from rice guys, and A had a veg biriyani from somewhere I'm not immediately managing to spot on the Canopy Market trader list
• from Bread Ahead we brought home two doughnuts -- pistachio crème brûlée for me, and something involving honeycomb for A; I think this is quite possibly the first custard doughnut I have ever eaten and actually liked (though were I to buy from them again I'd skip the pistachios)

... and upon meeting up with said friend, they reached into their bag with an "oh before I forget--" and pulled out a jar of jam, which conveniently gave me an excuse to reach into my bag and pull out the jar of jam I'd brought to give them, so I have swapped one blood orange + cardamom for one cherry plum + vanilla, and I've not eaten it yet but I am very excited about doing so.

... also raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, jostaberries...

Exploring. We poked around Granary Square a bit to go with Meeting Friends; we came home with lots of stickers (I also got some washi tape from that first one...), a gorgeous bowl (which she was not charging that much for at the market, goodness), and a business card for Creature Crafts by Nat so I could send their details on to Interested Parties.

Growing. ... I spent a whole day at the plot mostly reading Murderbot? (And did also do some weeding, and some harvesting, and some watering, and some general pootling.)

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG1
Characters/Pairings: Teyla Emmagan, Cam Mitchell, John Sheppard, Jack O'Neill, Ronon Dex, Daniel Jackson, Sam Carter, Miko Kusanagi, Rodney McKay, Teal'c
Rating: Gen
Length: 1505
Creator Links: LtLJ on AO3
Themes: Working together, Teams, Humor, Action/adventure

Summary: Five things that happen on missions where SG-1 and SGA-1 go through the gate together.

Reccer's Notes: A great example of the 5-things format - five dramatic, telling, and sometimes amusing times when members of the premium gate teams of Earth and Atlantis worked together. The last one's an absolute classic!

Fanwork Links: Five Joint Missions, Post-Retrograde on AO3
and I podficced it, here.

I had the opportunity to go to a concert of his recently and enjoyed his part of the show exceedingly. The opening act, Puddles Pity Party, was very much not my thing, alas, but Mr. Yankovic is exuberantly himself, the costume changes are lolarious, and the music is inimitably Weird. If you like his work, you'll almost certainly like his concert. Extra points awarded for the songs (not all of them, alas) that had text videos, effectively functioning as closed captioning with a sense of humor.

Also, the audience was full of people wearing extremely cheerful shirts, and made great viewing.

I have not seen the most recent Murderbot yet, but I did spot David Dastmalchian as John Deacon in a clip of Weird-the-biopic which was played at the concert, so that's almost the same thing, right? I was very proud of my facial recognition software for picking up on that. I would like to belatedly award points to the casting department for finding a way to get another MENA-descended person into Queen, which is a great joke I didn't get at the time.

I loved the new Murderbot short story, which I read aloud to my SO.

Hi, all--we're so close to the finish line! I'm announcing a 1 week delay at this time to ensure all our pinch hits are covered. The new reveals date is 26 July at 23:59 US Eastern. We have one pinch hit currently available, with upcoming deadlines on the 13th and the 18th.

Anyone who isn't signed up but is only pinch hitting can leave prompts at our treats for pinch hitters post! This is a great place to look if you're interested in creating treats.

This pinch hit is due 25 July at 23:59 US Eastern time, one day before our new reveals date.

If you can claim this pinch hit, please comment with your AO3 name. All comments are screened.

( CLAIMED - PDPH 10 - The West Wing, Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns, Severance (TV) )

1. The fan. Got house down to Actually Matching Outside Air Temperature in finite time; set up to experiment with running it in the bedroom overnight. (It has been Too Warm For Cuddles, which is Bad.)
2. Made the nonsense lavender-and-honey Welsh cakes for breakfast. I was sure I had picked way too much lavender but it actually fit in the measuring spoon pretty much perfectly, and wound up being noticeable but not Overwhelming.
3. New Murderbot novelette! I have not launched right into reading it because I am just about a quarter of the way through a System Collapse reread (and fascinated by how little of it I remember, though I concede I've read it many fewer times than All Systems Red...) so I'm going to finish that first. Which I am not expecting to take me very long.
4. Having spent a bunch of time poking around Wikipedia, I've gone back to Nerve and Muscle and, now almost two whole pages in, it is making significantly more sense than my previous attempt. (I have not yet started making myself notes on neuroanatomy but I am definitely considering it.)
5. It is The Time Of Year when strawberries are relatively cheap, so after dinner we wandered down the hill in service of me getting my steps, and us getting some exposure to The Breeze, and acquiring me a giant box of strawberries, and also picking up Ice Lollies to consume on the way back up.
6. Realised I could stick a jug of water in the fridge. This has made hydrating significantly easier. (I do not do well at drinking water that isn't Cold, and the magic ice dispenser on our freezer is currently out of action.)
7. The online Oxfam shop. Shortly to be on their way to me: a pair of cargo shorts; two pairs of linen cargo trousers; a book I previously had out from the library but which I wanted to have a reference copy of at least briefly for writing purposes.

(I am continuing to think a lot about sensory systems; today I have mostly been discovering how many of the things I thought I half-remembered about nerves are wrong.)

Fandom: Star Trek TOS
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/Spock
Rating: G
Length: 1 min 41 sec
Creator Links: indeedcaptain
Theme: Working together, outsider POV

Summary: the flagship may not be all it's cracked up to be

Reccer's Notes: Have you ever wondered what it's like to work with a commanding officer who has zero judgment when it comes to the captain and who does shit like almost kill him while under the influence of Vulcan mating hormones? Or how about working under a captain who has zero judgment when it comes to his first, and is always doing shit like risking his life and the ship to save his first's life? This short song captures what that must be like. It's the little things like trying to get your damn performance review submitted to Starfleet.

I'm not super into filk, but this one is well-written, with fun rhymes and nice progression from beginning to end. It'll put a smile on your face.

Fanwork Links: HR Violations on the USS Enterprise

Thank you to all our pinch hitters. <3 Remember that anyone who isn't signed up but is only pinch hitting can leave prompts at our treats for pinch hitters post! This is a great place to look if you're interested in creating treats.

Ideally, these would be due 18 July at 23:59 US Eastern time, one day before our planned reveals date. However, it's possible I'll have to delay the collection opening to make sure all participants are covered, so if you know you can take one of these pinch hits but will need longer than the 18th, please let me know, and we can discuss.

A delay looks likely at this time, and I'll make an announcement about that tomorrow.

If you can claim one of these, please comment with your AO3 name and the number of the pinch hit you want. All comments are screened.

( PDPH 10 - The West Wing, Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns, Severance (TV) )

( CLAIMED - PDPH 13 - Naruto (Anime & Manga), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005), Original Work, Gundam Wing, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, House of the Dragon (TV) )