flyakate | Reading

Imagine my excitement at reading this interview with Bob Mould this morning: How Bob Mould rediscovered the great, lost live Husker Du record not because of Hüsker Dü, whom I liked but didn't love but because he mentions that Sugar reunited. I LOVED SUGAR!!! If I Can't Change Your Mind is 3 minutes of PURE POP PERFECTION and one of my top 5 songs of ALL TIME. Back in the 90s, I saw Bob live solo at least twice (once pressed right up to the stage beneath him and his guitar at...Irving Plaza? I think?), and saw Sugar in concert at least once (maybe twice?). Copper Blue is full of great songs, as is Bob's first solo album, Workbook. (Black Sheets of Rain was also good but less accessible, imo.)

If Sugar actually tours, I might leave the house to see them!

I have other, less fun, work news, but I should probably save it for a locked post sometime later. Sigh.

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Current Mood: excited
Current Music: standing on the edge of Hoover Dam, I am

musesfool

Alas, despite me getting up early this morning, the cleaning ladies did not come! They did say last time that my regular appointment might need to be moved going forward, but then I got the confirmation email for today and figured maybe that wasn't happening. But they did not show up so I emailed the company and they were very apologetic, and now they are coming on Saturday at 9 am.

on Sunday, I'm going to my sister's to make the apple pies for Thanksgiving, since my brother-in-law, who does all the holiday cooking wants to simplify* what needs doing on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, which has traditionally been the day we make pie.

*"Simplify" should be in quotes, because for Christmas, at least, we keep telling him we're good with an apps and dessert style menu (personally, I keep advocating for pajama!Christmas) to no avail. He gets about 90% of the way there and then is like, but what if someone wants ziti? or ham? so idk. He also won't cut back on the antipasto, which is what everyone ends up filling up on, so then no one wants the big meal that follows.

On Thanksgiving, I personally would prefer a roast chicken to turkey, but truly, as long as my brother brings the stuffing and there's pie, I don't really care about anything else. The fancy cranberry relish is nice, and I won't say no to a dollop of mashed potatoes, but overall, I really do only want the stuffing.

Anyway! I took Monday off since we are off Tuesday for Veterans Day, so my plan is to make char siu again on Saturday and then finally try to make pork buns on Monday. We'll see how that goes.

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Current Mood: full
Current Music: Bastards of Young - the Replacements

musesfool

A few years ago - I feel like it was sometime in mid-2020 - I bought a pillow that was 1. supposed to be "cooling" and 2. supposed to be good for side-sleepers, and reader, I hated it. Also it fucked up my neck a couple of times, but it was not cheap, so I kept using it. Until earlier this year, when I began trying to make my whole sleep experience better. I couldn't find the pillows I'd had prior to purchasing the crimes against my neck pillow, which I'd liked but had worn out, so I ended up getting something similar, on sale from Quince, so I was able to get 2. Which would not have been my first stop, but they were highly rated, down-alternative pillows available in 3 different firmnesses (I went with medium). It turned out to be a good purchase, because I like them so much better than the old side-sleeper pillow, which I now use between my knees.

I also finally ended up buying not a big fluffy white comforter as I was looking for earlier this year, but a white "cooling blanket" from Rest. It was a NYT Wirecutter recommendation, and it was on sale, which made me feel slightly better about spending money on it. And I do like it. I like it enough that I bought a second one in navy blue to switch out while the white one is being washed. The one thing I dislike though, is that to get the full "cooling" effect (I put it in quotes, but the material is some kind of tencel thingy that cools off very quickly, so even when I feel too hot, I can kick it off and pull it back on after a few minutes and it is cool again), is that you can't use it with a top sheet. And I know some people never use a top sheet, but I was not one of those people until I bought this blanket. But the whole point is to have this fancy cool material against your skin. *hands*

It is lighter than a comforter and probably won't work if you need weight on you to sleep, but along with the pillows, and the percale sheets I've been using since the days of frequent hot flashes and night sweats (which have thankfully become much rarer these days), I've found my sleep has definitely improved. It also helps to keep the bedroom as cool as possible. Tbh, being hot is the #1 reason I can't sleep, and even now, after all these improvements, I do still sometimes have a bad night of sleep for whatever reasons, but I feel like it's a lot less often than it used to be.

In other news, I was off today for Election Day, but since I voted by mail, I didn't have to go anywhere. I ended up taking care of some chores around the apartment that needed doing since the cleaning ladies will be coming on Thursday. And now I'm watching the Rangers lose to Carolina. Sigh.

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Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Rangers vs Canes on tv

musesfool

Some Sunday sundries...

- Baby Miss L was sick for Halloween, but I did get a lovely picture of her from the previous weekend where she, her mother, and my sister were all dressed as witches. <333

- I made another pot of garlic and bread soup this evening and it's so good and my apartment smells like garlic and olive oil (in a good way).

- However, for the first time ever, cutting scallions made my eyes tear up like cutting onions - I guess the white part is really oniony.

- Yesterday, I also made the dough for those Levain-style chocolate chip cookies and I had one this morning and they're so good. I will be baking one off each morning for breakfast this week.

- Call me crazy, but every time I see that commercial with Paul Skenes (and Questlove and Francisco Lindor), I think it's Josh Allen at first. They look alike!

- Amazon is actually listing book 8 of Dungeon Crawler Carl (Parade of Horribles) but only on audible or in hardcover. Why is there no kindle listing??? The release date is either May 26, 2026 or June 2, 2026 - I have seen both.

- Despite my difficulties with audiobooks etc. I did try the first DCC audiobook, but the narrator sounds like he's an out of shape 40-year-old, not a jacked 27-year-old, so it didn't work for me on that level as well as the various other levels, though Donut's voice was fantastic.

- Still no word that I can find on a date for Alecto the Ninth.

- I was pulling for you, Toronto! Sorry about that. *hands* Was a great series, though, even with that ending.

- and now no more baseball until March. *sadhair*

- At least the Rangers have won a couple of games? Though I don't have a lot of optimism for their season. And I really dislike Chris Drury and his way of being a GM, and unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon. Sigh.

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Current Mood: full
Current Music: Chiefs vs Bills on tv

siria

( The Myth of Fingerprints )

( Practical Magic )

( Twinless )

musesfool

Happy Halloween! Have a recs update:

unfitforsociety has been updated for October 2025 with 8 recs in 5 fandoms:

* 5 Batfamily
* 1 Avatar: the Last Airbender, 1 Dungeon Crawler Carl
* 1 The Pitt/ER crossover

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So does anyone know why the AO3 icon doesn't show up anymore when I do the "@ username . ao3" thingy here on DW? I've been noticing it for months now, but kept forgetting to ask.

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Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Blue Jays vs Dodgers on tv

siria

Bedding Down
The Pitt | Jack/Robby | ~2000 words | Thanks to

trinityofone for betaing.

(Also on AO3)

( Robby thinks his mattress is perfectly fine. Jack begs to differ. )

musesfool

got some good news at work I can't talk about yet, and then got more good news that we should be able to meet payroll through the end of the year (and hopefully get our SNAP and WIC funding to make us whole when it is finally released), and then got a $200 check from the State of New York for ~reasons~ (inflation refund? idek). all in all, a pretty good day.

I also had a dream last night where maybe I was Tim Drake? And I wanted a Robin-themed birthday party that I never got until I actually became Robin? idk, but it was very sweet.

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Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: The Ghost in You - Counting Crows

musesfool

I really enjoyed this season of Slow Horses, though 6 episodes is too short. I don't need a full 22-episode season, but like 8 or 10 would be better. ( spoilers for all of this season )

I keep thinking about reading the books, but I haven't worked up the energy to do that yet.

There's still so much other TV I need to catch up on, but probably not until the World Series is done. I've been enjoying it a lot, though I went to bed on Monday night in the 12th inning, not really thinking they'd play 6 more! And when I woke up, I was like, as I expected Freddie Fucking Freeman walked it off, because that is what that guy does. Ugh.

Tangentially, I thought this was a really good read: Matt Berninger traded his notebook for a baseball. And the words kept coming. I'm not a huge fan of The National but I do like some of their songs and this was interesting.

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Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Terrible Love - the National

siria

( Arracht )

( Thinking through the Irish presidential election )

musesfool

Holy forking shirtballs, The Good Place isn't on Netflix anymore! And when I tried to cue it up on Prime, it wouldn't play - I got an error. So I ordered the dvds. I can't be having with this bs anymore. I also need to buy Leverage at some point, and The Expanse. Maybe I will for Christmas this year, as long as I'm not furloughed or anything.

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Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Ship to Wreck - Florence + the Machine

siria

( Columbus )

As seen across my friends page: the AO3 alphabet meme!

How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

I tried to randomly sample across a variety of fandoms.

A: Adventures in Community-Based Policing, Wellington Paranormal, O'Leary/OFC, Minogue/OMC
B: baby, when i heard you, Doctor Who, Fifteen/Rogue
C: A Change is as Good as a Rest, Ted Lasso, Roy/Keeley/Jamie
D: The Dark Horse and the Piece of Work, Good Omens, Gen
E: Each Pumpkin History, Teen Wolf, Derek/Stiles
F: Fate, the Moon, and Other Stories, Los Espookys, Gen
G: Gibraltar May Tumble, The Old Guard, Joe/Nicky
H: Handbook for the Recently Deceased, MCU/DCU, Gen
I: The Importance of Being Armand, Interview with the Vampire, Armand/Daniel
J: Judith and her Maidservant, Venom, Gen
K: kahua o Mali'o, Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny
L: Like Brothers We Meet, ER/The Pitt, Jack/Robby
M: The Meaning of Silk, Our Flag Means Death, Ed/Stede
N: Neither Cook Nor Bog Witch Be, The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself, Gabriel/Nathan/Annalise
O: On Making a Legit Human Baby and Other Stories, Buzzfeed Unsolved RPF, Ryan/Shane
P: Period, Full Stop, The Old Guard, Gen
Q: Q&A, Superman (2025), Clark/Lois
R: A Regent's Park Hello, The Old Guard, Joe/Nicky
S: A Schitt's Creek Begorrah, Schitt's Creek, Patrick/David
T: The Thirteenth Step, The Newsreader, Tim/Dale
U: Unboxing, ER, Benton/Carter
V: Vanilla, Interview with the Vampire, Lestat/Louis
W: Waylaid, Stargate Atlantis, Teyla/Rodney
X: —
Y: you in the sea, Hawaii Five-0, Steve/Danny
Z: —

My score is 24/26, out of 637 fics on AO3. I guess I've got to start thinking about X and Z titles to get the full set!

musesfool

As seen all around these parts, the AO3 alphabet meme:

Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

A - Another Gravity (Firefly, Mal/Zoe)
B - The Boys of Summer (Hot Corner Rag) (SPN, Sam & Dean)
C - Courtship Rituals of the World's Most Awkward Superheroes (Avengers/Amazing Spider-Man, Steve/Peter)
D - the dream of flight persists (Star Wars/Firefly, Anakin/Kaylee)
E - Eight the Hard Way (Ocean's 8, Amita/Daphne)
F - The Forces Ranged Within Us and Against Us (SPN, Sam/Dean)
G - Girl, You're Like a Weird Vacation (Blue Beetle, Brenda/Paco)
H - The Hubbert Peak (Dark Angel, Max/Alec)
I - The Injurious Internet Meme Incursion (The Middleman, Wendy, MM, & Ida)
J - Joy has he whom she embraces (Amelia Peabody, Peabody/Emerson)
K - Katie, Bar the Door (DCU, Jason, ensemble)
L - A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action (Ocean's 11, Danny/Rusty)
M - Mother Is the Name for God (Star Wars, Leia & Padme)
N - No Exit (Star Wars; Darth Vader/Ahsoka)
O - Only where love and need are one (L'Engleverse, Adam/Joshua)
P - Paint a thank-you on my palm (Six of Crows, Inej, ensemble)
Q - Quality (LotR, Faramir)
R - Retail Therapy (DCU, Cass, ensemble)
S - Stuck in the Middle with You (Star Wars, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka)
T - There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On (Star Wars, Anakin, Luke, Leia)
U - Until the Sea Shall Free Them (The Iliad, Achilles/Patroclus)
V - Visiting Hours (DCU, Alfred & Jason)
W - with our way lit only by stars (Earthsea, Ged/Tenar)
X - Xue Bai, Xue Hong (Firefly, Mal/River/Simon)
Y - you and your high top sneakers and your sailor tattoos (Avengers, Steve/Darcy)
Z - The Zombie Love Bug Concatenation (SPN/The Middleman, Dean/Wendy)

26/26, out of 950 stories on AO3. I ignored the ones that start with parentheticals and numbers. I also went mostly on vibes, so it's not a real overview of my stuff, but it is one title for every letter of the alphabet.

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Current Mood: caffeinated
Current Music: Giants losing to the Eagles

siria

( Fancy Dance )

( Paternal Leave )

musesfool

I made this apple cider doughnut holes recipe today and meh. I didn't even like them enough plain to make the glaze. They just tasted so strongly of nutmeg to me and nothing of apple cider or even cinnamon.

I was also going to make char siu today and then pork buns with the leftovers tomorrow, but I forgot the meat has to marinate overnight so now I will make the ribs tomorrow, freeze the leftovers, and try to make the buns next weekend. Or maybe I'll just make pork fried rice. Idk. I used to always order pork buns but I don't see them on menus anymore (lemon chicken, another Chinese restaurant fave, has also seemed to disappear, at least from the places around here), so it would be fantastic if I could make them myself. It doesn't seem too hard. I mean, the hardest part for me will probably be rolling and sealing them. *hands* Eventually we'll see!

In other news, Baby Miss L has settled on being a witch for Halloween and her costume is ADORABLE. But she also has a secondary costume, as she has quite the busy social schedule, which is a cow, which doubles as pajamas, for those nights where she's out past bedtime. SO CUTE. I also got some pictures of her pumpkin picking while wearing a jack o'lantern t-shirt and she remains the cutest and best dressed kid around. 😍😍😍😍😍😍

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Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Brass Monkey - Beastie Boys

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

be_themoon

Dearest Yulegiver, I would first like to say thank you in advance!! I know I give pretty vague guidance, but genuinely I'm not hard to please at all, especially when being the gift of something in one of these very small fandoms! My main hope is that you have fun and enjoy writing it in the knowledge I'm going to have fun reading it.

GENERAL LIKES

Character heavy stories, competency porn, codependency, happy or bittersweet endings, queer people as a normal facet of life, banter, worldbuilding, weird magic, women having genuine agency, bravery in the face of defeat, sparring (especially as a source of sexual tension).

GENERAL DISLIKES

No death of children or rape as a central storyline please. I'm okay with it being included (and know it comes with the territory of some of the fandoms I've requested) just prefer it to not be a main focus. I would also prefer a story that isn't truly bleak or grim dark - I do love a tragic story but prefer if the getting there makes the ending earned and their lives still having been worth living rather than just rocks into a void, if that makes sense? Bittersweet endings very welcomed, happy ones too!

THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH

I love the story of this (both book and movie form!) and will never be tired of looking for more of it! I'd love to see something featuring Cottia, whether that's during or before or after the story's events. I love all three of them as a trio together, whether romantically or platonically, and am so curious about the life they'll build together afterwards!

SWORD AT SUNSET

Everything about this was so haunting and desperately driven, but in particular I'd love anything focusing on Guenhumara and everything she went through. I would also absolutely accept anything about the weird, weird magical stuff and other women in the story in a heartbeat, even if it doesn't feature Guenhumara!

HARDY BOYS

I'm just terribly fond of these two nonsense codependent teenage detectives and am absolutely fascinated by what happens to them as they get older! As you may be able to tell from my own writing, I'm happy for it to be platonic or romantic.

IN OTHER LANDS

I have been obsessed with this story since it was coming out in livejournal posts a.... look, a long time ago. I love the main trio so, so much, and I would happily read anything about them or honestly a story from another character's POV entirely where they're getting up to nonsense in the background. I'd particularly be tickled with something set during Serene's time away with her people, it's such a fascinating piece of culture building and would be so fun to see expanded on further. (PS, if you haven't read Tears Waiting to Be Diamonds, a free story set a few years after the book, and you love this book as much as I do, you absolutely have to. Here's Part One.)

PELLINOR

Expounding on anything from the appendices and what happens after the story ends would make me delighted! I'm particularly interested in Maerad and Cadvan and their lives, which seem to have been both entwined and separate, and worldbuilding around the Bards and their schools and the varying kinds of magic! Worldbuilding centric or Maerad centric or a combination thereof is top of my list but I have a great fondness for all the characters and will be happy for anything.

ALEX RIDER

The books left an indelible imprint on me a long time ago and I really, really enjoyed the show and it's adapting of them! I was especially delighted by the addition of Kyra and would love to see some more exploration of her - show canon only, show canon with book canon brought in, however you like. I'd also be delighted for something that focuses on the very real trauma that Alex has been through and how he's handling it, or a fun romp where Alex and Tom and Kyra get to actually just be teenagers together for a bit, or honestly any number of things those are just the three that first spring to mind.

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flyakate

December 2015

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Page generated Nov. 7th, 2025 07:34 pm

charts, facts, figures

(and instructions for dancing)

Reading

if the Mississippi should wash me away

unwillingness to claim us

and he backhands it down ice

now he's going to try to make something happen

2556 / Myth of Fingerprints; Practical Magic; Twinless

getting his shot

2555 / Fic - The Pitt

and all the papers lie tonight

it takes an ocean not to break

2554 / Arracht; Áras '25

The chair is an island, darling, you can't touch the floor

2553 / Columbus; Meme

to get out and find a tight end

2552 / Fancy Dance; Paternal Leave

We're offered Moët, we don't mind Chivas

Database maintenance

Yuletide Letter 2025

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December 2015

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