watched: the residence
Jan. 11th, 2026 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tozka🎬 The Residence: Created by Paul William Davies. With Uzo Aduba, Giancarlo Esposito, Molly Griggs, Ken Marino. Inside the White House's staff residence and the lives which workers share with the First Family. 🔗
Binge rewatched The Residence today and I liked it much more this time around (tho I still think it's a bit too long).
In my first watch, I was too anxious to get to the solution and it became frustrating when they went on tangents. Knowing the solution and watching it again was much more fun. I enjoyed the humor more and caught some things about the murder motive that I missed the first time around.
I wish they'd do another season, or even a movie! I love the Cordelia Cupp character.
Binge rewatched The Residence today and I liked it much more this time around (tho I still think it's a bit too long).
In my first watch, I was too anxious to get to the solution and it became frustrating when they went on tangents. Knowing the solution and watching it again was much more fun. I enjoyed the humor more and caught some things about the murder motive that I missed the first time around.
I wish they'd do another season, or even a movie! I love the Cordelia Cupp character.
B5 color theorizing
Jan. 11th, 2026 11:46 amsholioI FOUND IT AGAIN. I read a post on Tumblr a while back on a particularly nicely done instance of color symbolism with Londo on B5, and I finally found it. (More beneath the cut.)
( Spoilers for the whole show )
( Spoilers for the whole show )
characters20in20 - Wanda Maximoff (MCU)
Jan. 11th, 2026 03:35 pmflareonfury posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandom_iconsThe below icons are for characters20in20 Round 20 with Wanda Maximoff of MCU. Images are mostly from WandaVision, Multiverse of Madness, and Civil War.
Preview
"You break the rules and you become a hero. I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn’t seem fair...."
characters20in20 Round 20 with Wanda Maximoff of MCU. Images are mostly from WandaVision, Multiverse of Madness, and Civil War.Preview
"You break the rules and you become a hero. I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn’t seem fair...."
tree trunk library
Jan. 11th, 2026 01:13 pmboxofdelightsWe were walking the dogs yesterday and I took a photo that got 405 favorites and 226 boosts on Mastodon:
( A little free library in a tree trunk, and the book I took from it )
Neighborhoods always feel better with Little Free Libraries.
( A little free library in a tree trunk, and the book I took from it )
Neighborhoods always feel better with Little Free Libraries.
In completely different news
Jan. 11th, 2026 10:41 pmroga...........see I made that previous post and now now I finally feel like I can make a post about normal! life! stuff! and fandom!!! this is exciting.
I will just say that I am, as one would expect, WELL on the Heated Rivalry train. After finishing the show and the main youtube-reaction-podcasts/videos, I needed more so I went ahead and read the books the show was based on, and then immediately read the other books in the series, and my MAIN loves are Ilya and Shane, my close second favorites are EVERY SINGLE OTHER SHIP IN THAT SERIES, I am so far gone my god. I'm now debating whether I need a break from hockey novels (to be clear, a break means moving on to fics), or whether I should continue to Rachel Reid's standalone hockey novels, despite the fact that her books make me, well, very distracted when I should be working, which is not ideal. I think maybe it would be smarter to hold off for the weekend.
For now, I have written zero words of HR fics but have many ideas, so if anyone has any idea of how to get writing without a yuletide deadline forcing me to, please let me know! Also: if there are any HR fic exchanges I am happy to hear about them. I'm not in any HR-dedicated discords and do not think I will stumble upon such an exchange independently.
Other than that, more fandom yays:
-The Pitt season 2 \o/
-Stranger Things final season! That one is less of a \o/ lol, but I still enjoyed watching it, criticisms and all. I love those kids.
-A Thousand Blows is back for the second half of its season! I haven't watched it yet but I loved the first half and can't wait for more.
-New Josh Charles show aka Best Medicine! Okay, it's not great yet, but I'm giving it a chance.
-Avengers Doomsday trailers! I have them but I love them ugh Marvel are truly assholes for doing this to me.
-Over on AO3, spqr has been posting Masters of the Air fics which have been so great they have sucked me right into that fandom.
-(Interspersed, of course, by HR fics, naturally)
And on the local theater front: I went to the new production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle yesterday, at Habima theater. Other than being one of my favorite plays, and absolutely timeless in message, it was such a gorgeous production. Beautiful set design, including a constantly shifting backdrop of sand art that was sculpted live by the actors on stage; beautiful compositions and singing; great acting, and a great translation. It was maybe a little more immersive than Brecht would have liked, but sorry dude, if you don't want me getting emotionally invested in your characters you should have stopped writing emotionally investing stories!)
I couldn't find a trailer for the production, but if you have any interest in what it looked like, there are snippets of the stage and cast here.
I will just say that I am, as one would expect, WELL on the Heated Rivalry train. After finishing the show and the main youtube-reaction-podcasts/videos, I needed more so I went ahead and read the books the show was based on, and then immediately read the other books in the series, and my MAIN loves are Ilya and Shane, my close second favorites are EVERY SINGLE OTHER SHIP IN THAT SERIES, I am so far gone my god. I'm now debating whether I need a break from hockey novels (to be clear, a break means moving on to fics), or whether I should continue to Rachel Reid's standalone hockey novels, despite the fact that her books make me, well, very distracted when I should be working, which is not ideal. I think maybe it would be smarter to hold off for the weekend.
For now, I have written zero words of HR fics but have many ideas, so if anyone has any idea of how to get writing without a yuletide deadline forcing me to, please let me know! Also: if there are any HR fic exchanges I am happy to hear about them. I'm not in any HR-dedicated discords and do not think I will stumble upon such an exchange independently.
Other than that, more fandom yays:
-The Pitt season 2 \o/
-Stranger Things final season! That one is less of a \o/ lol, but I still enjoyed watching it, criticisms and all. I love those kids.
-A Thousand Blows is back for the second half of its season! I haven't watched it yet but I loved the first half and can't wait for more.
-New Josh Charles show aka Best Medicine! Okay, it's not great yet, but I'm giving it a chance.
-Avengers Doomsday trailers! I have them but I love them ugh Marvel are truly assholes for doing this to me.
-Over on AO3, spqr has been posting Masters of the Air fics which have been so great they have sucked me right into that fandom.
-(Interspersed, of course, by HR fics, naturally)
And on the local theater front: I went to the new production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle yesterday, at Habima theater. Other than being one of my favorite plays, and absolutely timeless in message, it was such a gorgeous production. Beautiful set design, including a constantly shifting backdrop of sand art that was sculpted live by the actors on stage; beautiful compositions and singing; great acting, and a great translation. It was maybe a little more immersive than Brecht would have liked, but sorry dude, if you don't want me getting emotionally invested in your characters you should have stopped writing emotionally investing stories!)
I couldn't find a trailer for the production, but if you have any interest in what it looked like, there are snippets of the stage and cast here.
[ SECRET POST #6946 ]
Jan. 11th, 2026 03:05 pmcase posting in fandomsecrets⌈ Secret Post #6946 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 46 secrets from Secret Submission Post #992.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Six o'clock after the war
Jan. 11th, 2026 09:08 pmrogaI wrote this on the week of October 13th – maybe one or two days later – and never finished the post, so never posted the post, and here I am stuck in this limbo of how do you post about anything when I still haven’t addressed That. So I will just was that now and take it from there.
( flashback to October musings )
( flashback to October musings )
Belated Yuletide reveal: Hornblower, plus an extra
Jan. 11th, 2026 11:47 amsanguinityIs it too late to post about Yuletide? Surely not!
For Yuletide 2024, I tried to pick up a Hornblower-TV pinch-hit. Alas, even though I had the first part of the story written, I wasn't quick enough to get assigned the pinch-hit. Which turned out just as well, because the story stalled out and while I told myself I could post it as a treat, I never finished it. I ended up quasi-trunking it that spring as a hopeless job.
But in November I finally figured out what its plot needed to be (sadly, it would require a complete rewrite!), and then one of the Yuletide 2025 requests was even a better match for the overhauled story than the original 2024 pinch-hit would have been. So I rewrote it, and published as a Yuletide treat, hurrah:
This morning I was tidying my WIP folder, archiving the stories I've finished since the last time I cleaned up, and remembered I still had the first version of the story, which is in Bush-pov. I still like it very much, and it's mostly all stuff that doesn't appear in the rewrite, except by implication.
So this morning I published it as a bonus:
One of the things I love about fic is that there doesn't have to be one canonical version; you can post alternate povs and alternate endings, and bits and bobs and scraps of things. And a lot of times people enjoy them! And if they don't enjoy them, they don't have to click. It's great.
So if Bush-pov on the beach scene is the kind of thing you might enjoy: enjoy!
For Yuletide 2024, I tried to pick up a Hornblower-TV pinch-hit. Alas, even though I had the first part of the story written, I wasn't quick enough to get assigned the pinch-hit. Which turned out just as well, because the story stalled out and while I told myself I could post it as a treat, I never finished it. I ended up quasi-trunking it that spring as a hopeless job.
But in November I finally figured out what its plot needed to be (sadly, it would require a complete rewrite!), and then one of the Yuletide 2025 requests was even a better match for the overhauled story than the original 2024 pinch-hit would have been. So I rewrote it, and published as a Yuletide treat, hurrah:
The Worst Part of Waking Up forThe title btw, was only meant to be provisional, but it was as sticky as fuck and time was tight and I never got around to changing it. I do realize it's the perfect title for a Folgers Incest fic (and I had a serious conversation with myself about whether I really wanted to waste such a great title on the wrong fandom), but in the end I don't have any real ambition to write Folgers Incest fic. And anyway, it's funny. So there it stayed, sorry for the earworm.BromeliadDreams
Bush/Hornblower
Hurt/Comfort, Dying Declarations, First Kiss (is also the) Last Kiss (or it should have been damnit), Everybody Lives (as embarrassing as that is for some), When He Made This Bed He Wasn't Expecting to Wake Up In It, Episode: Loyalty
Summary:
At the end of Loyalty, Bush is too late to save Hornblower. With his dying breath, Hornblower requests a kiss from Bush…
…only to wake up a week later and discover he's going to live after all. Damnit.
This morning I was tidying my WIP folder, archiving the stories I've finished since the last time I cleaned up, and remembered I still had the first version of the story, which is in Bush-pov. I still like it very much, and it's mostly all stuff that doesn't appear in the rewrite, except by implication.
So this morning I published it as a bonus:
Too Late, Too Late
Hornblower/Bush
POV William Bush, Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Episode: Loyalty
Summary:
Bush is too late to the beach to stop the firing squad.
Bonus Bush point-of-view on the beach scene.
One of the things I love about fic is that there doesn't have to be one canonical version; you can post alternate povs and alternate endings, and bits and bobs and scraps of things. And a lot of times people enjoy them! And if they don't enjoy them, they don't have to click. It's great.
So if Bush-pov on the beach scene is the kind of thing you might enjoy: enjoy!
final Yuletide canons tally
Jan. 11th, 2026 11:45 amsnickficOne of my favorite aspects of Yuletide has become making a list of stuff from the tagset that I'm interested in checking out and then orienting my fall reading/watching around it. I'm generally bad at reading on a theme, but it turns out "maybe I can write this for Yuletide" is a theme that does work.
I thought this year I'd record for posterity what all I tried:
The hits:
Moby Dick reread
Red Rooms (2023)
The Shadow of the Leviathan
The Secret of Chimneys
Short films My Sister and the Prince, Corvidae, Serpentine, Possibly in Michigan, and The Vampire Gastelbrau
The misses:
Strangers on a Train - did not enjoy this! DNFed with 60 pages to go!
Pern reread - wooof the misogyny
Crooked House (2017) - a deeply mediocre Christie adaptation
Battle Royale (2000) - idk man, it was fine?
The Starving Saints
The Incandescent
Rotherweird
The Ascent of Rum Doodle - this was Too Silly
The... other?
Crash (1996) - I can't tell if I liked it, but I wrote a fic for it, so!
I thought this year I'd record for posterity what all I tried:
The hits:
Moby Dick reread
Red Rooms (2023)
The Shadow of the Leviathan
The Secret of Chimneys
Short films My Sister and the Prince, Corvidae, Serpentine, Possibly in Michigan, and The Vampire Gastelbrau
The misses:
Strangers on a Train - did not enjoy this! DNFed with 60 pages to go!
Pern reread - wooof the misogyny
Crooked House (2017) - a deeply mediocre Christie adaptation
Battle Royale (2000) - idk man, it was fine?
The Starving Saints
The Incandescent
Rotherweird
The Ascent of Rum Doodle - this was Too Silly
The... other?
Crash (1996) - I can't tell if I liked it, but I wrote a fic for it, so!
Snowflake Challenge: #4 Rec
Jan. 11th, 2026 01:36 pmoldtoadwoman
Snowflake Challenge, #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page
YouTube recommended this to me last night and it was the last thing I watched before bed so I think this counts:
I'm a little sad that a protest song from 1966 still feels so relevant. (YouTube recommended this just after I watched a modern protest song about ICE.)
Also, it's always weird to see John Denver without glasses. His glasses were so iconic, I think of them as a part of him.
Snowflake Challenge #3
Jan. 11th, 2026 02:31 pmnyctanthesChallenge #3: Fandom Love Letter
A total cheat. This is not my love letter, but New York Times reporter Taffy Brodesser-Akner's. The entire article (sans photos) is behind the cut. It’s also HERE, hopefully as a gift link.
( Why on Earth Have I Seen the Same Broadway Show 13 Times? An Investigation )
A total cheat. This is not my love letter, but New York Times reporter Taffy Brodesser-Akner's. The entire article (sans photos) is behind the cut. It’s also HERE, hopefully as a gift link.
( Why on Earth Have I Seen the Same Broadway Show 13 Times? An Investigation )
Culinary
Jan. 11th, 2026 07:09 pmoursinLast week's bread held out for most of the week.
Friday night supper: ven pongal (South Indian khichchari).
Saturday breakfast rolls: Tassajarra method, 50:50% wholemeal/strong white flour, maple syprup, dried cranberries, turned out nicely.
Today's lunch: game crumble - the game mix (partridge, pheasant and venison) casseroled in red wine with onion, garlic, bay leaf, juniper berries, coriander seed, 5-pepper blend and salt, before putting the crumble topping (mixture of approx 2:1:1 wholemeal flour/strong white flour/pinhead oatmeal) on for the final half-hour; served with tenderstem broccoli tips which I cooked thusly - sizzled some chopped ginger and cumin seeds in oilve oil, turned the broccoli in this, added some water and steamed for half an hour, turned out rather well although I think the original recipe said fennel seeds....; and stirfried tat soi.
2026 Three Sentence Ficathon
Jan. 11th, 2026 02:14 pmrthstewartit's [almost] heeeeeeeeerrrre
threesentenceficathon begins 17 January.
Schedule is here.
Dust off those prompts!
threesentenceficathon begins 17 January.Schedule is here.
Dust off those prompts!
wychwoodFriday morning we had about 8-10cm of snow and public transport wasn't running, so I worked from home. All the main roads around me were clear pretty much throughout, but side roads etc didn't get clear - and then everything half-melted and refroze so anywhere that still had snow got pretty miserable. The pavements on my way to church yesterday had about 3-4cm of lumpy ice, and it was not a fun time, although it also didn't feel particularly dangerous as long as I walked carefully.
At ten minutes before Mass we had six people in the building including me, the priest, and one other altar server. As we went in we'd hit about twenty, and by the end of the homily we were up to 45, which is a bit under half the usual number (although there were a lot of unfamiliar faces, possibly coming to a closer church than they would usually attend?). I was very surprised by the number of latecomers; I left home half an hour earlier than usual, to be sure of getting there OK, and it's not like anyone didn't know there was ice everywhere. I can understand not coming in those conditions, but just, idk, leaving at the usual time? that seems weird to me!
Anyway, it's warmed up a lot today and has been raining for a couple of hours; remnants of the packed ice will no doubt hang around for a while, but hopefully most of the pavements will be more-or-less clear tomorrow morning when I leave for work.
Dad's off to France again this week, so I'm back over there next Monday for the week. My chances of ever catching up with the laundry are receding into the distance and I'm starting to feel stressed about the weekend after, since I'll be there until Sunday morning, then into a double choir rehearsal, then back in the office on the Monday. Probably it will be fine but I need to do a lot of thinking about food planning etc at some point this week. I was having such a nice relaxing time too!!!
At ten minutes before Mass we had six people in the building including me, the priest, and one other altar server. As we went in we'd hit about twenty, and by the end of the homily we were up to 45, which is a bit under half the usual number (although there were a lot of unfamiliar faces, possibly coming to a closer church than they would usually attend?). I was very surprised by the number of latecomers; I left home half an hour earlier than usual, to be sure of getting there OK, and it's not like anyone didn't know there was ice everywhere. I can understand not coming in those conditions, but just, idk, leaving at the usual time? that seems weird to me!
Anyway, it's warmed up a lot today and has been raining for a couple of hours; remnants of the packed ice will no doubt hang around for a while, but hopefully most of the pavements will be more-or-less clear tomorrow morning when I leave for work.
Dad's off to France again this week, so I'm back over there next Monday for the week. My chances of ever catching up with the laundry are receding into the distance and I'm starting to feel stressed about the weekend after, since I'll be there until Sunday morning, then into a double choir rehearsal, then back in the office on the Monday. Probably it will be fine but I need to do a lot of thinking about food planning etc at some point this week. I was having such a nice relaxing time too!!!
Icons: 5 icons from the Murderbot tv show
Jan. 11th, 2026 01:46 pmmarcicat posting in beagoldfishTitle: Icons from the Murderbot tv show
Fandom: Murderbot (2025 tv)
Summary: Icons from the Murderbot tv show!
Sorry mods! Now with correct formatting to put everything under a cut!
( 5 icons from the Murderbot tv show )
Fandom: Murderbot (2025 tv)
Summary: Icons from the Murderbot tv show!
Sorry mods! Now with correct formatting to put everything under a cut!
( 5 icons from the Murderbot tv show )
Pegasus Bridge, Normandy
Jan. 11th, 2026 01:12 pmrthstewartThe spousal unit and I spent 5 days in Normandy, France last year touring D-Day sites as well as Mont Saint Michel and a bit of Paris. We stayed in Bayeux (Tapestry!) and spent two days touring the British and Canadian becahes and sites, and then the American sites. We were able to go back and spend a full day at Pegasus Bridge and the Merville Gun Battery.
We had lunch at the Ham and Jam creperie right across the street from the sadly closed Gondree Cafe. It's so sad now to think of the US going to war with its French and British allies because Drump psychologically needs to invade Greenland.
NGL it was awesome to see the inspiration for my stories in real life and to realized that yeah, I got pretty damned close. I cried a few times, thinking of how much I wrote, how hard I worked at it, and wondering if I would ever get that again. Wonderful. And so personally devastating too.
A few pics below.
Château de Bénouville
Posters on Av. du Commandant Kieffer, Bénouville, France which crosses the Caen Canal where the original Pegasus Bridge stood and Operation Tonga
Major John Howard Avenue, Pegasus Bridge Sign, and Marker where Horsas crashed
Wally Parr's Number 1 gun "I didn't know it was going to be a quiet war."
Ultra report on Operation Tonga
And last, the gravesite of Lt. Den Brotheridge (maybe not the first casualty of D-Day). As it turns out, there's a very different tradition between American vs Canadian/British fallen. Americans are collected in single, solemn, uniform sites; Canadian and Britsh are interred where they fell. So Normandy is dotted with scores of tiny church graveyards with Canadians and British who died there.
The stained glass windows throughout Normandy churches, including the cathedral in Bayeux, are a mix of traditional Catholic iconography and signs and insignias of the D-Day operations, including parachutes, flying horses, St George and the Dragon, eagles, and service insignia, all in stained glass.
We had lunch at the Ham and Jam creperie right across the street from the sadly closed Gondree Cafe. It's so sad now to think of the US going to war with its French and British allies because Drump psychologically needs to invade Greenland.
NGL it was awesome to see the inspiration for my stories in real life and to realized that yeah, I got pretty damned close. I cried a few times, thinking of how much I wrote, how hard I worked at it, and wondering if I would ever get that again. Wonderful. And so personally devastating too.
A few pics below.
Château de Bénouville
Posters on Av. du Commandant Kieffer, Bénouville, France which crosses the Caen Canal where the original Pegasus Bridge stood and Operation Tonga
Major John Howard Avenue, Pegasus Bridge Sign, and Marker where Horsas crashed
Wally Parr's Number 1 gun "I didn't know it was going to be a quiet war."
Ultra report on Operation Tonga
And last, the gravesite of Lt. Den Brotheridge (maybe not the first casualty of D-Day). As it turns out, there's a very different tradition between American vs Canadian/British fallen. Americans are collected in single, solemn, uniform sites; Canadian and Britsh are interred where they fell. So Normandy is dotted with scores of tiny church graveyards with Canadians and British who died there.
The stained glass windows throughout Normandy churches, including the cathedral in Bayeux, are a mix of traditional Catholic iconography and signs and insignias of the D-Day operations, including parachutes, flying horses, St George and the Dragon, eagles, and service insignia, all in stained glass.
Monopoly 01.26 - Playlist 1
Jan. 11th, 2026 07:36 pmprisca posting in fandom_empireWeek 1
has officially started now. Good luck, everyone!
Under the cut, you find the weekly playlist. To check out what prompts/minimum/points are waiting for you this week, please visit the Board
In case you don't like your prompts, remember your Joker Card. Every Joker card comes with 15 tokens.
Use two tokens to roll the dice again.
Use five tokens to move to any square of your choice (exception: go!, chance, jail)
To re-visit the rules go here.
( Weekly Playlist )
If you want to create more than two works/earn more points, you might want to check out the Team Challenge (sign up until January 15!).
Post all your finished works at
fandom_empire_workplace until Sunday, January 18, 18.00 UTC, but I will allow belated works until I've made the closing post Countdown here.The AO3 Collection for Monopoly 26 can be found here.
Monopoly 01.26 - Team Challenge Omega
Jan. 11th, 2026 07:32 pmprisca posting in fandom_empireTeam Member
Flipflop Diva
Melime
Overmore
Pattrose
Prisca
Sinful Slasher
To participate, post at least one work for the weekly regular challenge.
Participants can post one work each week to earn points for their assigned teams, as well as individual points.
Prompts can be used multiple times by different participants.
Check out the rules, prompts and possible points HERE
Flipflop Diva
Melime
Overmore
Pattrose
Prisca
Sinful Slasher
To participate, post at least one work for the weekly regular challenge.
Participants can post one work each week to earn points for their assigned teams, as well as individual points.
Prompts can be used multiple times by different participants.
Check out the rules, prompts and possible points HERE