ratcreature | Network

"The Sick Times is an independent news site founded by journalists Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis. We report on the Long COVID crisis, COVID-19, and infection-associated illnesses." They redacted the excerpt I had linked here because they found the whole book engaged in Covid denial and promotion of harmful treatments for ME/CFS. (Thanks to

silveradept for the heads up.)

Replacement link, by one of the editors at Sick Times: The Soft Butch That Couldn’t (Or: I Got COVID-19 in March 2020 and Never Got Better) by Heather Hogan.

(On a lighter note) 6th grader's science experiment answers, 'Do cat buttholes touch every surface they sit on?' by Jacalyn Wetzel, Upworthy staff.

The results? Turns out that, no, cat buttholes do not touch every surface cats sit on. Now, let's all take a collective sigh of relief while we go over the details.

A Culture of Resilience by Lindsey Foltz, a beautifully written and photographed exploration of home food preserving in Bulgaria.

[I]ndustrial and small-scale agriculture; cultivated and wild foods; formal and informal economies; leisure and work do not function as stark polarities but rather in interconnecting, mutually supportive relationships through which home preservers practice, develop, and share their craft. The entanglement of formal and informal economies, domestic and wild foods, smallholders and industrial farms, local and global influences visible in everyday food practices in Bulgaria specifically and Eastern Europe more broadly condense in household cellars. As the cellar tour I describe below illustrates, these uniquely social practices provide resilience in terms of food security and the ability to pursue something more than mere survival.

What the World Got Wrong About Autistic People by Ludmila N. Praslova, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP via

andrewducker.

Prejudice is one reason decades of research got autism so wrong. Researchers measured autistic people against neurotypical expectations and called every difference a deficit. They tested empathy by measuring in-group preference and missed commitment to universal fairness. They measured creativity by counting the number of ideas and missed originality. They saw moral consistency and called it rigidity. They saw deep engagement and called it rigidity. They saw sensory richness and called it disorder.

Most critically, they failed to ask autistic people about their inner experiences. They studied autism without genuinely listening to the autistic perspective. For decades, science examined autistic people through a lens of pathology and deficit, rather than dignity, comparing us to animals while missing our humanity. But autistic people don't lack humanity. Research just lacked the humanity to see it.

strina

So 2025 was my tenth year tracking my reading (published fiction only) and so I thought a fun goal would be 500. I usually clock 200 - 400 books a year, so reasonably attainable.

I ended the year at 1005 books.

I was going through it.

(Annoyed that I didn't push it to 1010 but Heated Rivalry hit me hard and sent me straight into fic only mode lol)

sonia

Mutual Aid by Dean Spade is a whole book available online. Subtitle: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next).

This book provides a concrete guide for building mutual aid groups and networks. Part I explores what mutual aid is, why it is different than charity, and how it relates to other social movement tactics. Part II dives into the nitty-gritty of how to work together in mutual aid groups and how to handle the challenges of group decision-making, conflict, and burnout. It includes charts and lists that can be brought to group meetings to stimulate conversation and build shared analysis and group practices. Ultimately, helps imagine how we can coordinate to collectively take care of ourselves—even in the face of disaster—and mobilize hundreds of millions of people to make deep and lasting change.

I've only read a little bit of this, despite having it open in a tab for months. It feels hopeful, experienced, and direct, so I hope to read the rest eventually.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: impressed

hamsterwoman

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

Challenge #5: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

-

fandomtrees reveals got pushed to Jan 17 because there are still some trees (16 as of this posting) that don’t have the minimum amount of gifts (at least 2) necessary for reveals. So, any fills for the needy trees listed here (real-time updates at the Google spreadsheet). Most of the fandoms I don’t know anything about (but hopefully some of you do!), but of the ones I do, there’s a request for the Raven Cycle, Discworld, and some Original Work requests, and a niche rec request.

- My tree does have the minimum number of gifts, so is not holding up the fest opening, but does list all kinds of things I want (fandoms: Chronicles of Amber, Discworld, Dragaera, Rivers of London, Taskmaster, Terra Ignota, Vorkosigan Saga, and critter art).

( More specific requests for Dragaera, Taskmaster, Elis&John fandoms and crossovers/fusions )

- I included this in last year’s Snowflake wishlist and it worked really well, so doing it again: I'm planning on Doing the Hugo Awards (and hopefully Worldcon) this year, and have just recently come to the realization that if I'm going to nominate some short fiction, I should actually, like, read some that was published in 2025. So, looking for recs for "Hugo-worthy" SFF short stories and novelettes published in 2025 that are ideally accessible online. Authors who tend to semi-reliably work for me in short form are Sarah Pinsker, Kelly Link, and Naomi Kritzer, to give some sense of what I like. And also happy for any recs for published-in-2025 novellas, Related Works, and dramatic presentation short form things (<90 min) that are standalone (i.e. not episodes of a serial show, but either a short(ish) film or part of an anthology show but standalone), and Astounding-eligible authors to check out.

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.

After some consideration, I’m going to do my Top 10 Dragons :) I’m currently reading a book with dragons (To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, which I’m enjoying a lot), whose dragons are, so far, somewhat different than I’d been expecting, and that’s been making me think about various other fictional dragons I’ve known and loved and the universes they come from, so I figured I’d make a list of my favorites.

They can be dragons that can assume human form, or even spend most of their time in said human form, but they can’t be just humans who are for some reason called Dragons (i.e. no Sarkan from Uprooted or the Dragaeran Dragonlords). Moreover, I tried to keep it to one dragon per canon. So here we go!

( Top 10 dragons )

What about YOUR favorite dragons? Introduce me / sway me over to any I might've missed, or squee with me about my favorites :)

*

I think I was actually low-key avoiding the Taskmaster New Year Treat because I subconsciously resented it for being 2 episodes when I wanted CoC to be 2 episodes, lol. But I have watched it now, and it was fun!

Part 1 – Ooh, I knew one of the contestants (Rose) was deaf, but it was still jarring to see her interpreter sitting there next to Alex. Alex’s banter (OBE/oboe) and the several layers of bad joke was pretty fun. ( More, with spoilers )

My midpoint impressions are that I do enjoy Susie, but in exactly the same way I enjoyed her on Catsdown, so the “revelations” are Sam and Rose, who are both extremely adorable cuties whose cheeks I want to pinch. I’m very meh on the others – Jill’s doing well, but is a bit deadpan for me, and also I’m not a fan of how she brings up football all the time – like, I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything about her outside of her football career (in stark contrast to David James, who mentioned some footballers or travels associated with playing football, but talked about things like painting and just came across as a delightful massive weirdo – IDK, goalkeepers are different, I guess, was the consensus at the time). Apparently even the cat costume, which I did find cute, is a football reference, to her local football team, which someone on Reddit said she said in the studio taping. And Big Zuu is just kind of there… It sounds like he’s a charming person to work with, from all the podcasts, but as a viewer I have not been charmed.

Anyway, I don’t mind spending another episode with these guys!

Part 2 – Greg made me laugh out loud with his Alex intro: ( More, with spoilers )

And of course there was also the Series 21 cast reveal. ( Spoilers? )

I still have some Taskmaster stuff to catch up on – Acaster’s ultimate episode, the next installment of Taskmastermind, and some outtakes. But meanwhile ( WILTY has returned and is being a lot of fun )

snickfic

Starting the year off strong with two winners! (And several DNFs, but they were left over from the last year, so I say they don't count.)

The Sisters of the Vast Black (2019) by Lina Rather. Several decades after a brutal civil war between Earth and the diaspora, a living spaceship full of nuns minister to the world amidst progressively more challenging circumstances.

This novella has:
- canon f/f
- an atheist nun
- a mother superior with a dark past and the beginning stages of dementia
- a theological dilemma involving a living ship's reproductive cycle
- a rising tide of authoritarianism
- daring heroics and a growing political resistance

The first half of the book is enjoyable enough, but the plot really turns on the jets in the second half and comes to a thrilling conclusion that I was all in on. Atheist rationlist Sister Faustina is my favorite, and I kind of ship her with kindhearted idealist Sister Lucia, especially by the end of the book.

This is Rather's longest work to date. I'm really looking forward to whatever she decides to write next.

--

Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson. In 1979, Etain disappears, is held at a farmhouse in the Irish countryside, and escapes with no memory of what happened.

Boy, this book goes PLACES. It's about Irish mythology and fraught mother/daughter relationships; it's also about a bunch of other things that I would rather let you discover for yourself. It's about Ashling, a drama student at University College Dublin in 1999 whose mother hates her, who might be gay, and who is at any rate dating a woman that she's convinced can't possibly really love her. It's about various factions jockeying just beneath the surface of the world, to the point that sometimes it feels like an espionage novel only masquerading as mythological horror. There's even a spunky journalist turned old-school battleaxe who's never gotten around to losing her Barbie-pink suit.

It's nonlinear as hell, which Sharpson juggles with remarkable dexterity, so that even when we're switching between timelines mid-chapter--and there are a LOT of timelines--I was never in any doubt about where we were. I found the integration of mythology and plot generally worked well, even though I sometimes had trouble keeping track of it all and frankly think there was enough there to support a sequel or two rather than cramming it all into this one. The characters are great and messy and complex and almost all female, which I also really enjoyed. Playing out over such a long timespan, this novel really lets you feel the tragedy the follows the horror. And this novel is VERY Irish, which I especially enjoyed having been to Ireland a couple of times. They keep mentioning the Liffey, and I'm like yes, I know that river! :D And I could hear the accents sometimes in the dialogue!

Overall, a fantastic time and a wild ride. If you've read it or do in the future, I would love to compare notes! I looked it up in some of my usual discussion spots and it seems like it kind of slipped under the radar. I see Sharpson released another horror novel last year, which I'm now anxious to check out.

hannah

Some months ago, in an attempt to clear some congestion, I started adding ghost pepper flakes to my morning eggs. A few weeks ago, in an attempt to punch up the spice, I started adding a crushed up chile de árbol or two. Now I'm finding the issue with a meal's heat isn't the spiciness, but the temperature when it's served right from the stove.

I've now realized I don't have much of a context for what constitutes spiciness anymore. I can tell when there's some heat, I can tell when there's a fair amount of heat, and I'm going to have to keep looking for ways to get the kinds of lovely warm, playful sensations from good restaurants into my own kitchen. But not until I work through more of this bottle of ghost pepper flakes, because I've only got so much room in my apartment - which I suppose is all the more reason to try the Calabrian chili oil I bought on impulse a little while ago.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: nothing now

jenab

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tcampbell1000 posting in

scans_daily

Irwin Teasdale’s showcase issue begins with him hidden from the Leaguers and the army, rigging a catapult as evening begins. ( ‘‘The fools will be helpless to stop my zompires once I release the payload of…HOSTESS FRUIT PIES!’’ )

amedia posting in

c_ent

I have received five lovely gift fics of one kind or another over the past few months, and four of them were based on C-dramas or C-novels! One Guardian drama, two Guardian novel, and one Ancient Detective!

help me to carry the fire, it will light our way forever by Acoyotewhowanders (1173 words) is a lovely Guardian (drama) fic that coyote wrote for me as a surprise Christmas present! It is soft and sweet with gentle humor arising naturally from the characters and their interactions, and features ChuGuo moving toward becoming ChuGuoYeHuo. ❤️ 💚 ❤️ 💚 ❤️

The Best Laid Plans of Ye Xiaoxiao by Corvidology (1097 words) is part of corvidology's "12 Days of Christmas" ficlet giftwriting. I requested a rarepair (Ye Xiaoxiao/Hei Wu) from the c-drama Ancient Detective, and then forgot that I had done so ... so it came as a lovely, lovely surprise! It captures distinctive character notes for each of them, and has a beautiful ending. 💙 💜 💗 💜 💙

Zhen Hun Bibliomancy Tanka by Ride_Forever (110 words) is part of Ride's More Joy Day celebration. A fascinating, elliptical, enigmatic poem based on Guardian, Vol. I by Priest, and it's a gift for ME!!! Captures both the darkness and the humorous tone of the novel, IMHO. Includes implied Weilan and a whole verse for Da Qing. ✨ 💖 ✨ 💖 ✨

He who loves the light by Hyde_DualDomination (2,343 words), the latest in the series "The face beneath the mask," in which Lin Jing and Gui Mian from the Guardian novelverse gradually craft a relationship together. I thoroughly enjoyed the first fic in the series, especially the interweaving of Buddhist philosophy with the characters' self-discoveries and relationship progress, and Hyde wrote more for me, yay!!! 💖💖💖

amedia posting in

sid_guardian

I have received five lovely gift fics of one kind or another over the past few months, and three of them were Guardian! One from the drama and two from the novel!

help me to carry the fire, it will light our way forever by Acoyotewhowanders (1173 words) is a lovely Guardian (drama) fic that coyote wrote for me as a surprise Christmas present! It is soft and sweet with gentle humor arising naturally from the characters and their interactions, and features ChuGuo moving toward becoming ChuGuoYeHuo. ❤️ 💚 ❤️ 💚 ❤️

Zhen Hun Bibliomancy Tanka by Ride_Forever (110 words) is part of Ride's More Joy Day celebration. A fascinating, elliptical, enigmatic poem based on Guardian, Vol. I by Priest, and it's a gift for ME!!! Captures both the darkness and the humorous tone of the novel, IMHO. Includes implied Weilan and a whole verse for Da Qing. ✨ 💖 ✨ 💖 ✨

He who loves the light by Hyde_DualDomination (2,343 words), the latest in the series "The face beneath the mask," in which Lin Jing and Gui Mian from the Guardian novelverse gradually craft a relationship together. I thoroughly enjoyed the first fic in the series, especially the interweaving of Buddhist philosophy with the characters' self-discoveries and relationship progress, and Hyde wrote more for me, yay!!! 💖💖💖

flareonfury posting in

fandom_icons

Multiple ships for Round 4 of

ships20in20.

Preview

sooo many ships, so little time....

Fandoms & Ships:
Charmed (Abigael/Mel #6 & AC#2), Heartstopper (Charlie/Nick #7, AC#3 & #4), High Potential (Adam/Morgan catgeory), Grimm (Nick/Adalind #4 & AC#1), MCU (Carol/Yon AC#5), Nancy Drew (Nancy/Ace #1 & #3, Nancy/Ace/Bes #9), Siren (Ben/Ryn #10), Singin' in the Rain (Don/Cosmo/Kathy #2 & #7), X-Men Evolution (Scott/Rogue #4)

author_by_night

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

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.

Let's see.. how about Ten Takes?

1. From what I remember of The Hunger Games, I never understood people saying there was a "love triangle". It seemed clear to me that Katniss was never into Gale, and she only played into the concept of love triangle because of the reality TV show District 13 had them doing.

2. Given everything that was supposed to happen to Inara, I'm actually kind of relieved there was only one season of Firefly. Kind of. There's a good chance the network never would've allowed half of it anyway.

3. I'm kind of surprised there don't seem to be many former Firefly fans in the Our Flag Means Death fandom, from what I can tell. I think they're actually quite similar. (Even the second season of OFMD being darker mirrored Serenity being darker than the original show. Funny how that worked.)

4. Buffy: I wish that Willow's descent had actually focused more on her going to drastic extremes to fight the good fight, as well as her trauma, rather than "magic as a drug metaphor". The fact that Willow originally became a witch to honor Jenny Calendar is huge, and that's what I think they could've worked with.

5. I don't like either Spike or Angel for Buffy. Sorry! I kind of wish she'd ended up with Faith. I saw chemistry between them when I watched S3 for the first time, without any exposure to Fuffy whatsoever. (Which is interesting, because I was spoiled for practically everything except Faith.)

6. I have a headcanon - which I may eventually turn into a fic - that Cordy, Fred and Tara banded together and are kicking ass in an alternate dimension. Maybe a parallel version of Willow is also there.

7. I think Kevin Can Fuck Himself is woefully underrated, and if it had received half the recognition it deserved, it would've sparked a lot of interesting conversation.

8. I think David and Patrick from Schitt's Creek are one of the best couples on television. No pun intended re: "the best". Also, I see a bit of myself in David (I just told a friend I'm David Rose in a Ted Mullens costume), so I appreciate seeing him finding love and friendship, even if he is basically the inside of a roasted marshmallow.

9. But as much as I love David and Patrick, I think Alexis deserves more love in the fandom. She changes so much over the course of the show.

9. I don't want to spoil anyone for Heated Rivalry, so I'll just say I love how the third episode dealt with an extremely complicated situation. Lani Diane Rich once said that a great love story is when a conversation can't fix a problem, and that episode was an example.

10. There are two scenes where Ilya opens up in different ways - again, wording this carefully so as not to spoil. I love both of them.

Also, "Canadian Wolf Bird" will forever live in my head rent free.

kaffy_r

Now and Forever?

I certainly hope not. And yet, when I got up this morning and started to clean the kitchen, I found mouse droppings. Yay. We figure we have to pull out the stove's lower drawer to access the floor and the wall behind it, since we're pretty sure the mice are getting into our place from the outside somewhere in that area.

I'd bet Bob that we'll find no baseboards behind the stove, but it's too obviously a bad bet. We're going to keep an eye on the kitchen counters near the stove for a day or so to see how bold the little buggers are. If it's little to no action, then we'll wait. But if we spot their leavings, then it's time to do the inspection. Which, of course, I'm not looking forward to, especially since we can't really use the foam barrier spray near the stove. Oven heat could end up releasing toxic or potentially toxic fumes, and so we're going to have to buy a whole lot more steel wool. It's going to be a mess.

*wanders away, grumbling*

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: nothing, at the moment

senmut

jenab, thank you for the card. It got here a few days back but I kept forgetting to post.

moon_custafer

Finally posted a new (short) chapter! https://archiveofourown.org/works/55953232/chapters/202134506

merrileemakes

My New Year's resolution is to work softer. This year I want to do less, be less, because I've been learning that when I put in less effort things actually turn out better and I feel better. My psychiatrist has also added a mood stabiliser to my mix of anti-depressants and they make me feel a bit dopey, at least while I'm getting used to them. So I've been doing a whole lot of nothing, and even the stuff I am doing is pretty piecemeal. It's hard to get used to.

So I have nothing crafty to share. But I do have a tadpole update!
( These l'il guys are so entertaining )

Current Mood: pleased

celli

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wintermod posting in

pinchhits

Event:

wintertime_woes_exchange, an exchange for unhappy endings
Requirements: 500 words, or a sketch on unlined paper
Pinch hit link: https://wintertime-woes-exchange.dreamwidth.org/5688.html
Due date:January 17, 11:59PM UTC

~~PH 5 - fic - Thunderbolts (Movie 2025), Moon Knight (TV 2022), Dragon Age (Video Games)~~

PH 6 - fic - Deltarune (Video Game), Team Fortress 2, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison, Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), The Electric State (2025)
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/wintertimewoes2025/user/Kaz3313

To claim, please comment at the pinch hit post linked above, or email wintertime.woes.exchange@gmail.com. Thank you very much!

dhampyresa

I was so disappointed by this book.

Part of this is on me: I had somehow gotten it in my head this was modern day and was looking forward to seeing how "hivemind took over the entire medical profession undetected" aspect of the premise would play out. The setting is not modern day, it's set some indeterminate amount of time (over 500 years) after some sort of apocalypse (fair, and an interesting setting itself) and people are aware to varying degrees aware that there is Something Wrong TM with the Institute.

The main part of the disappointment is that the book keeps bringing up concepts and then... Not Doing Anything with them. Spoilers from here on out. Our PoV character loses access to the hivemind fairly early on. Helen's miscarriages and/or the twins having supernatural powers never goes anywhere. The baron seems aware that he is hosting pseudomycota and even might be working with it? Let's never speak of this again! The idea that "If you’re born in Verdira, you die in Verdira" is brought up and we get told what happens is someone born there tries to leave, but that goes nowhere. /End spoilers

It is so disappointing and frustrating. It all just goes fucking nowhere!

Also I found the written accent annoying.

I did enjoy the hivemind parts, I guess.

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RatCreature

ratcreature.net

December 2022

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Page Summary

sonia - Links: Illness and health, questioning assumptions
strina - Book Tracking
sonia - Whole book: "Mutual Aid"
princessofgeeks - further thoughts on episode 5
hamsterwoman - Snowflake (days 5-6) and Taskmaster NYT
snickfic - books: Sisters of the Vast Black, Knock Knock Open Wide
hannah - Scoville.
jenab - Rambling on
tcampbell1000 in scans_daily - Fifty Feet of Grey: JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #32, …EUROPE #8 (JLI 43)
amedia in c_ent - Four Fic Prezzies received! (three Guardian, one Ancient Detective)
amedia in sid_guardian - Three Fic Prezzies received! (all Guardian)
flareonfury in fandom_icons - ships20in20 > Various Fandoms & Ships
author_by_night - More Snowflake
kaffy_r - Dept. of Mice
senmut - Mail Call
moon_custafer - Gentleman of the Shade
merrileemakes - A whole lotta nothing
celli - 2 new BTS fics and the podfic I made for them
wintermod in pinchhits - Wintertime Woes Post-Deadline Pinch Hits Due Jan 17
dhampyresa - Leech, by Hiron Ennes

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RatCreature's Reading List

Network

Links: Illness and health, questioning assumptions

Book Tracking

Whole book: "Mutual Aid"

further thoughts on episode 5

Snowflake (days 5-6) and Taskmaster NYT

books: Sisters of the Vast Black, Knock Knock Open Wide

Scoville.

Rambling on

Fifty Feet of Grey: JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #32, …EUROPE #8 (JLI 43)

Four Fic Prezzies received! (three Guardian, one Ancient Detective)

Three Fic Prezzies received! (all Guardian)

ships20in20 > Various Fandoms & Ships

More Snowflake

Dept. of Mice

Mail Call

Gentleman of the Shade

A whole lotta nothing

2 new BTS fics and the podfic I made for them

Wintertime Woes Post-Deadline Pinch Hits Due Jan 17

Leech, by Hiron Ennes

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December 2022

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