ratcreature | Network

For Poetry Monday:

Blue Winter, Robert Francis

Winter uses all the blues there are.
One shade of blue for water, one for ice,
Another blue for shadows over snow.
The clear or cloudy sky uses blue twice—
Both different blues. And hills row after row
Are colored blue according to how far.
You know the bluejay’s double-blue device
Shows best when there are no green leaves to show.
And Sirius is a winterbluegreen star.

Francis (1901-1987) was a New Englander who as a young poet had a very Frost-ian voice, though he later developed his own.

---L.

Subject quote from Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads.

spikedluv

I did two loads of laundry, hand-washed dishes, went for a couple walks with Pip and the dogs, hard-boiled more eggs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and changed kitty litter (my favorite Sunday chore!).

I went with the Cinnamon Orange tea again, and this time I didn’t let it steep too long. Much better! I watched the Bills game. It was another close one, but they pulled it out in the end, thankfully. That interception at the end was the icing on the cake.

I finished the Amelia Peabody book and wrote ~500 words on a new fic for Fandom Trees. *fingers crossed*

Temps started out at 32.4(F) and reached 39.9. We had sun in the morning and snow showers in the afternoon, followed by the snow squalls we were warned about. With the wind and the snow, I’m guessing I’ll be leaving late in the morning because the roads won’t be great.

Mom Update:

Mom sounded good when I talked to her. She’d had all the visits today! First my brother, then Niece L with Toddler A, followed by Sister A, followed by Sister S. The three (four) of them were there all at the same time. Mom agreed that having visitors makes the day go by faster.

profiterole_reads

Here's the new Korean practice post! As usual now, it's an open chat.

You can write about whatever you want. If you're uninspired, tell us the story of what you're currently watching/reading/playing...
You can talk to one another.
You can also correct one another. Or just indicate "No corrections, please" in your comment if you prefer.

화이팅! <3

pinboard_pop_fandom_feed

Posted by victoria.p

https://thepracticalkitchen.com/small-batch-mini-baguette-bread/

pinboard_pop_fandom_feed

Posted by dusko

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46564116

pinboard_pop_fandom_feed

Posted by theautomaticlady

https://archiveofourown.org/works/76862281

He walked back to the living room, where Jackie and Hayden were standing, having a whispered conversation, Shane’s jacket folded over Jackie’s arm. They stopped talking and turned to Shane as he entered.

“Hey, bud,” said Hayden slowly, not moving.

“Uh, do you want me to leave?” asked Shane, gesturing to his jacket, panic rising in his throat.

“What? No. No. Absolutely not. We were afraid you’d try and sneak out of here, so I grabbed your coat and keys,” explained Jackie.

“Oh,” said Shane, letting out a shaky laugh as he ran his hand through his hair. “Good call. I can’t say it didn’t cross my mind.”

or

Ilya has a new philosophy in how he picks fights, Shane doesn’t understand the appeal of a moral victory, and Hayden is so fucking glad he married Jackie.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/76862281

pinboard_pop_fandom_feed

Posted by victoria.p

https://archiveofourown.org/works/77323121/

After a mix-up leaves Hayden with the wrong phone for three days, he ends up learning more about Ilya Rozanov and his secret girlfriend, Jane. I literally laughed out loud repeatedly while reading this. <3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/77323121/

pinboard_pop_fandom_feed

Posted by grim_lupine

https://archiveofourown.org/works/77242946

Ilya knows that, between him and Shane, he's the more affectionate of the two. He's not sure if it's because he's from Europe, where everyone greets each other with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, or if it's because he grew up so starved for love and affection that he can't do anything except show Shane how much he loves him at any chance that he has.

So, yes, he knows that he's the one most likely to kiss Shane on the cheek when he skates by him at practice or come up behind Shane when he's cooking dinner just to wrap his arms around him or fall on top of Shane while he's reading on the couch, desperate to have his skin touching Shane's.

But, Shane… Shane loves Ilya differently. It's quieter. More intentional.

---

Or, five times that Shane loved Ilya in his quiet way, and one time that he loved Ilya loudly.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/77242946

pinboard_pop_fandom_feed

Posted by esther_a

https://archiveofourown.org/works/75464836

Mensah’s youngest brings a special guest to school.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/75464836

mific posting in

fan_writers

Hi everyone and welcome to 2026!

I wrote a brief discussion of this important topic on my journal, so feel free to hop over and join in. I was inspired to write it by my current fannish obsession, but it's a multifandom, and indeed, profic, topic.

The post's here.

mific

You'll have picked up that there's a lot of sex in the show (and book) Heated Rivalry. And, unsurprisingly, there's a lot in the fanfic.

And one thing I'm having to deal with is a bunch of otherwise perfectly readable authors referring to "cum". It almost knocks me out of the mood, but not quite.

Having issues about spelling come as cum is doubtless linked with me being older than dirt and having learned English not just in school but from reading a hell of a lot of novels (before sinking without trace into fanfic). And I probably associate cum with porn dialogue, so that's partly an embarrassment thing, and partly me being a snob.

Anyway, I did some research on the interwebs and the most frequent viewpoint is:

cum is the noun
come is the verb

From etymonline.com, cum dates from 1973, initially used as a noun and mostly in porn, now used more widely and as both a noun and verb. Come is obviously a lot older, but as a synonym for ejaculating it seems to date from the 1500-1600s, and as semen, from the 1920s.

Which is all very well, but I just have a visceral dislike of the word cum. I'm going "ew, gross", like Shane when people use the term "lovers". It looks like a spelling mistake to me, and I doubt I'll ever use it in a fic except in a fake porn video title. So that leaves me stubbornly using come, or writing in a way that avoids the word altogether, because I am also not going to use "semen" or (worse) "ejaculate", except in very specific circumstances. Not to mention "reach completion" or "climax". Nope. Slang terms like jizz, spunk and spooge are sometimes okay in dialogue though, or in the pov of characters where it wouldn't be ooc.

What about you: come or cum? Enquiring minds want to know! Don't feel limited to its use in Heated Rivalry - this applies in most fandoms, and in some profic, I bet.

pattrose posting in

gamechangerhr

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

DEAR HARRIETTE: My brother and I were raised in the same household by the same parents, yet as adults we have two very different views of our father. I see my dad as someone who worked hard, showed up in the ways he could and consistently supported us throughout our lives. I'm deeply grateful for him and everything he's done. My brother, on the other hand, seems to carry a lot of resentment. Whenever the subject of our dad comes up, he focuses on his shortcomings and disappointments, often listing ways he feels let down or overlooked. Listening to this has become exhausting and painful for me. It feels like he's erasing the good and ignoring the sacrifices our dad made, and I can't help but hear it as ungratefulness. At the same time, I don't want to dismiss my brother's experience or silence his truth just because it differs from mine. How do I respect his feelings without sitting through what feels like constant criticism of someone I love? -- Oh, Brother

( As always, we grade her on a curve because she's usually so terrible )

sakana17

From Hong Kong,

thevetia and I flew to Hangzhou, China (~2 hours' flight). Hangzhou, a sprawling city of over 11 million, is the capital of Zhejiang Province and is most famous for its West Lake. It was the capital city of the Southern Song dynasty from 1132-1276. It's where Chinese tech giant Alibaba is headquartered, is home to several universities, and has been referred to as a tech capital/Silicon Valley. Zhejiang Province's history includes the Neolithic Liangzhu culture (~3300-2300 BCE), and the region is known for its longjing ("dragonwell") green tea.

( Hangzhou )

( Logistical stuff )

tamaranth

2026/006: The Land in Winter — Andrew Miller

It was, he knew, outrageous to watch her, but how rare the chance to see someone sitting in the maze of herself, all unsuspecting, bare as a branch. Doctors should be trained like this, at windows, at night. [p. 274]

The novel opens in December 1962, in an asylum. A man named Martin Lee wanders the halls at night and discovers the body of another patient, Stephen Storey, who has killed himself. Martin is haunted by memories of the Second World War: The Land in Winter, set in a village near Bristol, plays out in the long shadow of that war, and the 'Big Freeze' of winter 1962-63.

Neither Martin nor Stephen are protagonists, but they have connections to the quartet at the centre of the novel. The focus is on two married couples, near neighbours: Dr Eric Parry and his wife Irene, incomer farmer Bill Simmons and his wife Rita. The women are pregnant: the men work hard. ( Read more... )

Current Mood: cold

fanhackers_feed

Posted by aninfiniteweirdo

https://fanhackers.tumblr.com/post/805521163635834880

In previous posts, I have talked about data fandom and fan labour as something inherently linked to commercialization. In a paper I read, though, I discovered a case where data fandom was used as a tool – both to achieve certain goals on social media directly and to transform the participants’ fannish identity.

When the Dallas police launched the app iWatch Dallas for people to report law-breaking demonstrators, K-pop fans flooded the Dallas police official Twitter account with random K-pop videos—and many of these videos were fan cams. The app was disabled due to “technical issues” within a day, possibly because of such negative reactions on social media (Alexander 2020). Later, many K-pop fans spammed racist, white supremacist Twitter hashtags, such as #WhiteLivesMatter, with fan cams, eventually leading to these tags’ trending under the “K-pop” category on Twitter (Aswad 2020).

Zhang, Muxin. 2024. “Fandom Image Making and the Fan Gaze in Transnational K-pop Fan Cam Culture.” In “Fandom and Platforms,” edited by Maria K. Alberto, Effie Sapuridis, and Lesley Willard, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 42. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2024.2463.

Fans in general are certainly very aware of discourse about them and their activities – that is the entire premise of this blog. It is more of a question of whether a transformative approach is accessible, not if we are aware that alternatives might be needed.

However, Zhang also shows that this use of fancams was not universal among stans. The difference is made between North American fans and South Korean fans and this difference is attributed to the identification with an idol’s success.

This identification might be very well grounded in the way the industry operates.

(…) fan leaders are portrayed as individual opinion leaders or fan clubs (formal or informal) who set the agenda and organize the collective action of daily fan activities, while they also function as intermediaries maintaining a close communication with the idol’s media companies and uniting individual fans.

Wu, Xueyin. 2021. “Fan Leaders’ Control on Xiao Zhan’s Chinese Fan Community.” Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 36. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2021.2053.

Because of this coordination between the media company and fan leaders, the activities of fans can have an impact of the idol’s reputation and thus success. This responsibility is not shared by the North American fans.

In this way, while all the fans described can identify with their bias but it is an identification that is expressed in different ways which leaves them with different ways of expressing their fannish identity. Though, we are only looking at one case here, it already reveals some of the complexities and nuances we can encounter in fandom.

Szabó Dorottya

https://fanhackers.tumblr.com/post/805521163635834880

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Eric: My husband has just one sibling, a brother. For many years, we all invited each other to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other holidays. A few years ago, my brother-in-law and his wife stopped inviting us. (They still invite my husband's parents to everything).

We don't know the reason; there was no fight or misunderstanding or awkward interactions. We in turn no longer invite them to our smaller occasions. Weddings and other big occasions are different; everyone is invited.

However, every time we are celebrating our birthdays or anniversary, my husband starts insisting on inviting his brother. No matter how many times I remind him that they no longer invite us, he says it is still his only sibling and it's important to him that his brother be there.

I refuse to agree to invite them, the only exception I make is for my husband's birthday because that's him we are celebrating so he can invite them if he wants. They attend his birthday but do not reciprocate. It's very weird.

I still cannot figure out why it's important to have people at our table that do not care about seeing us at theirs.

Can you help me formulate a response that would stop my husband from asking me to invite them? Apparently my saying no every time for years and explaining why is not sufficient. I am tired of these arguments, and it does not change anything. I need an ironclad reason that he will agree with.

– Tired of the One-Way Street

( Read more... )

tielan

I had a week off work - I think it was more a "work doesn't want to see full numbers of people back in the office until halfway through January, so if there's anyone who can be taken off the work roster during this time, do it".

Which, I had generally a good week, got some good writing in, managed to rejig the part of Nullifae 1 which had been giving me trouble, and have sorted out the "losing the mentor" part of the story and how we get there. Also, discovered a few things that will be relevant in later books (when we get there). A relief.

On Tuesday, B1 and I went to see the Ashes 5th Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, had a good day of watching Aussies bat, a couple of hundreds gained, one of my sister's favourite cricketers play what could well have been his last innings (but wasn't), and saw Australia get ahead to the tune of about 230 runs - a nice cushion.

On Monday, we lost a chicken.

tw: not a peaceful going

Carambar was supposed to be one of our 'long-lived' girls. We bought two of a newly-developed heritage breed that were supposed to lay many eggs while still keeping going. It might be that their bloodlines may need a bit more breeding to properly settle, because the first one died with possible neurological issues having never laid an egg, and Carambar only laid for about 12 months before developing complications with laying, and needing a chip to keep her from laying.

She was otherwise perfectly healthy and surviving well. Unfortunately, while both B1 and myself were away from home, the neighbour's dog got out, chased her out of the yard and under the house. When we got her out (after the neighbour came and reclaimed her dog), she had been bitten about the head enough that she was bleeding and injured, and when we got her to the vet it turned out her wing was broken. We didn't have the resources and energy to try to get her back to health, so we had to have her put down.

The neighbour paid for the vet bill, but we're still furious about her dogs. She's nearly 70 and has two bouncing, energetic young spaniel-type dogs that she has always struggled to keep on a leash, and which she's been nice white lady oblivious to anything but her joy in gossipy conversation when walking them. They're probably companionship for her - her son is married, and her daughter self-terminated about 7 years ago - but she's not up to controlling them, and they keep getting out of her place. She's always apologetic, but that doesn't stop the fact that one of our chickens died because of her dogs!

Anyway. That was the start of the week.

By Wednesday the temperatures were rising, by Saturday it was nutso. 42C by 6pm...and then our street power went off. Just our street. *sigh*

A friend invited me over for a swim, and I spent a lovely hour in her pool with her youngest daughter, and then about 20 minutes discussing politics with her husband, brother-in-law, and older daughter. And when I went home, the power was back on again.

Today - first day back at work - has been tiring, but nothing dire. I did go to the gym this morning, and ended up walking 1. I have a call to Jury Duty, but I suspect I can't get out of it this time. Although my boss has just messaged me - apparently contracting is considered 'self-employed', so I might have a chance not to lose 3 months worth of income...

luthien

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge.

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

Here's my Top 10 Shows of 2025, in no particular order:

( Top 10 under here )

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

james_davis_nicoll

Had a person wander into the 2nd floor corridor looking for the women's washroom. Alas, our 2nd floor women's washroom stopped being functional this week end so all I had to offer was three gender neutral washrooms... one of which is usually the men's.

Then it occurred to me the corridor she came from is from the "new" part of Hagey, the accounting section. While she was hesitating, looking unhappy at the choices offered, I asked if that was where she was from. She said yes, so I told her that section has a very nice (zero barrier) women's on the main floor. Off she went.

Once she was gone, it struck me as odd that she would wander as far as old Hum looking for a washroom.t.

I mentioned this to my supervisor and yeah, apparently because it's an expansion of Hagey, it didn't have to have all the amenities an independent building of the same size would have to have. Thus the comparative lack of washrooms, and a total lack of elevators.

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RatCreature

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December 2022

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Page Summary

larryhammer - “into the blue again after the money’s gone / once in a lifetime water flowing underground”
spikedluv - The Day in Spikedluv (Sunday, Jan 11)
profiterole_reads - Korean practice
pinboard_pop_fandom_feed - Small Batch Mini Baguette Bread » the practical kitchen
pinboard_pop_fandom_feed - Org Mode Syntax Is One of the Most Reasonable Markup Languages to Use for Text | Hacker News
pinboard_pop_fandom_feed - in defense of a moral victory - A_Different_Type_of_Flower - Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid [Arc
pinboard_pop_fandom_feed - I Like Jane For You by @Icopythefax.ao3
pinboard_pop_fandom_feed - you make it so easy (to fall so hard) - brunettereader - Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid [Archive
pinboard_pop_fandom_feed - show and tell - Aphelocoma_californica - The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells [Archive of Our Own]
mific in fan_writers - Come vs cum: a vocabulary discussion
mific - Come vs Cum: a vocabulary discussion
pattrose in gamechangerhr - Three moodboards from Heated Rivalry.
conuly in agonyaunt - Shockingly good advice from Hariette
sakana17 - Trip, part 2
tamaranth - 2026/006: The Land in Winter — Andrew Miller
fanhackers_feed - In previous posts, I have talked about data fandom and fan labour as something inherently linked to&
conuly in agonyaunt - (no subject)
tielan - the personal stuff
luthien - Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 6
james_davis_nicoll - An unexpected revelation

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“into the blue again after the money’s gone / once in a lifetime water flowing underground”

The Day in Spikedluv (Sunday, Jan 11)

Korean practice

Small Batch Mini Baguette Bread » the practical kitchen

Org Mode Syntax Is One of the Most Reasonable Markup Languages to Use for Text | Hacker News

in defense of a moral victory - A_Different_Type_of_Flower - Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid [Arc

I Like Jane For You by @Icopythefax.ao3

you make it so easy (to fall so hard) - brunettereader - Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid [Archive

show and tell - Aphelocoma_californica - The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells [Archive of Our Own]

Come vs cum: a vocabulary discussion

Come vs Cum: a vocabulary discussion

Three moodboards from Heated Rivalry.

Shockingly good advice from Hariette

Trip, part 2

2026/006: The Land in Winter — Andrew Miller

In previous posts, I have talked about data fandom and fan labour as something inherently linked to&

(no subject)

the personal stuff

Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 6

An unexpected revelation

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December 2022

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