aidenfire | Reading

alierak posting in

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

china_shop

“The only question you need to be able to answer about your story is: Why today? Why this day out of your character’s life rather than all the other days? And the answer, it’s always Because this is the day that’s breaking the rhythm, the day that’s an aberrance, the day everything can change, if the character can just walk that tightrope to the last page.”
– Stephen Graham Jones

My day 19: Finished a flashfic (added about 800 words, edited the whole thing, posted). Read through another fic on my kindle and made notes of things to fix (still to apply). Worked on my Yuletide letter.

The tally
Day 16:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

china_shop,

cmk418,

cornerofmadness,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 17:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cmk418,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 18:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

china_shop,

cmk418,

cornerofmadness,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 19:

badly_knitted,

callmesandyk,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.

musesfool

I made some chicken thighs in the slow cooker today with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and some tomato paste. The chicken shredded nicely, but mostly what I tasted was salt - it was low sodium soy sauce too, so I'm not sure why. Maybe the balsamic? But that was only 2 tsps. Kind of a disappointment, though now at least I have some room in my freezer for other things. *hands*

Finished my reread of The Dream Thieves and now it's onto Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Still enjoying myself. I guess at some point I'll read something new to me again, but not just yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In other news, man, the Giants looked good for 3 whole quarters before completely unravelling and losing. the fact that they led for so long, and even came back to retake the lead once they fell behind, and still lost just makes it worse. At least the Rangers finally won last night.

*

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: Mariners vs Blue Jays on tv

kass

Dear Yulewriter,

Thank you so much for writing me a story. Write something that makes you happy, and it will make me happy.

In general I am a big fan of chosen family, happy endings, people being good at things, people helping each other be better together than they were apart, theology of all kinds, wit and banter, and kindness. I'm happy with anything (any situation, any rating) that feels right to you given the characters at hand. I'm open to AUs or to going deeper into the worldbuilding of any of these canons.

Please, no betrayal or unquenchable grief or people being awful to each other or despair. There's enough of that in RL (especially these last few years.) On Yuletide morning I want something that makes me smile. Thank you kindly.

Most of this note is my standard Dear Yulewriter letter -- these are the things I've been saying year after year, and I've been doing Yuletide since... 2003 I think? but this year I am really struck by the extent to which I want to see these characters get to experience joy. Maybe because the world has been difficult, in a variety of ways, for the last several years in a row? Anyway: this is just to say, thank you for figuring out how to bring these characters some sweetness.

In closing: yay Yuletide! Yay you! Thank you so much!

There's nothing below the cut that wasn't also in my Yuletide sign-up, but I include my requests here for anyone who's curious or maybe wants to write an extra treat.

Kass

( The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn; the Toby Daye series by Seanan McGuire; Murderbot / tv show. )

china_shop

"Sometimes [when we] talk about creativity, it can have this kind of feel that it's just nice...it's warm or it's something pleasant. It's not. It's vital. It's the way we heal each other.

In singing our song, in telling our story, in inviting you to say, "Hey, listen to me, and I'll listen to you," we're starting a dialogue. And when you do that, this healing happens, and we come out of our corners, and we start to witness each other's common humanity....

If you want to help your community, if you want to help your family, if you want to help your friends, you have to express yourself. And to express yourself, you have to know yourself. It's actually super easy. You just have to follow your love. There is no path. There's no path till you walk it." – Ethan Hawke, TED talk: 'Give yourself permission to be creative'

My day 19: Not much this morning. I started to plan my Yuletide sign-up, and I wrote an alibi sentence. This afternoon we went out for a late lunch (have to grab the opportunity when the sun comes out), took a bit of a walk along a stream, and saw Grace: a prayer for peace, a film about an Aotearoa / New Zealand artist (which is why this post is a bit late). Tomorrow I need to finish my flashfic.

The tally
Day 16:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

china_shop,

cmk418,

cornerofmadness,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 17:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cmk418,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 18:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

china_shop,

cmk418,

cornerofmadness,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.

annathepiper

This is a followup guide to this one that I wrote a while back: HOWTO: Set up a radial menu on a Steam Deck game. Tuxborn players expressed some interest in the details of my decisions on how to set my radials, so I’m going to write those out for this post here.

The primary audience for this post is Tuxborn players on Steam Decks. But a lot of this can apply to any Skyrim players on Steam Decks, especially if you’re running a load order similar to Tuxborn’s, and if that load order happens to include the BFCO-related mods we have.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read more on Anna Plays Skyrim.

devilc

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runpunkrun posting in

fancake

post_secret_feed

Posted by Frank

https://postsecret.com/2025/10/18/sunday-secrects/

https://postsecret.com/?p=50871

The post Sunday Secrets appeared first on PostSecret.

https://postsecret.com/2025/10/18/sunday-secrects/

https://postsecret.com/?p=50871

post_secret_feed

Posted by Frank

https://postsecret.com/2025/10/18/classic-secrets-582/

https://postsecret.com/?p=50792

The post Classic Secrets appeared first on PostSecret.

https://postsecret.com/2025/10/18/classic-secrets-582/

https://postsecret.com/?p=50792

china_shop

"I used to wonder if it wouldn't be better just to haul off and quit hoping. Just protect my own inner brain, my own mind and heart, by drawing it up into a hard knot, and not having any more hopes or dreams at all. Pull in my feelings, and call back all of my sentiments... and, yet … the pleasures, and the displeasures, the good times and the bad, are really all there is to me.

[They] are the yeast that always starts working in your mind again... and then, all at once, no matter what has happened to you, you are building a brand new world again, based and built on the mistakes, the wreck, the hard luck and trouble of the old one."

– Woody Guthrie, in A Race Of Singers by Bryan K Garman

My day 18: My routine falls apart at the weekend (which is fine). I wrote a short meta post for

sid_guardian and left a meta comment on it. That'll do. Having a quiet night tonight, too.

The tally
Day 16:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cmk418,

cornerofmadness,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 17:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cmk418,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

musesfool

runpunkrun mentioned that there is now a graphic novel of The Raven Boys, which ignited in me a fierce urge to reread the series, so I've started that, and I still love it (♥BLUE♥! ♥RONAN♥! #the same impossible stuff), but I also kind of wish now that I didn't read the Dreamer trilogy (or that Stiefvater had written it differently), since it kind of recontextualizes (and potentially retcons) some stuff that I don't think really needed it.

*

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: you should see me in a crown - billie eilish

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Poll #33735 round 180 theme poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 89

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Mystery & Suspense
40 (44.9%)

Protest & Revolt
27 (30.3%)

Whump
22 (24.7%)

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3156/

If you don't know where you are on Earth, the angle of satellite dishes can help constrain your latitude. If some of them are pointing straight up, you're probably near the Equator, right under the ring.

https://xkcd.com/3156/

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Ray Vecchio, Harding Welsh, Renfield Turnbull, Sam Franklin
Rating: Mature
Length: 26,765
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: feroxargentea on AO3
Themes: Uncommon settings, Friendship, First time, Action/adventure, Complete AU, In Space

Summary: Androids are going missing on the giant spaceship Chicago! A Mountie and a space cop team up to investigate why, and to find their friend before it’s too late.

Reccer's Notes:
As I mentioned earlier, there are very few due South fics set in space - and this is an excellent one! The familiar due South characters and settings are translated into space, with their base being on the Spaceship Chicago, and Vecchio in trouble over at spacehub Vegas. There's action, adventure, banter, romance, plot and drama as Fraser and Ray work to solve the case and rescue Vecchio. A cracking read!

Fanwork Links: Build a Rocket, Boys!

mific posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Tolkien: Lord of the Rings
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Osgiliath
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: traditional art (watercolour)
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: Matěj Čadil's own website, Matěj Čadil on DA
Why this piece is awesome: An intricate watercolour with delicate colours and lots of great detail - I love worldbuilding and this recreates Gondor's old capital, which was in ruins by LotR times. I love the contrast between this beautiful, spacious city on the river Anduin, compared to Minas Tirith which was very much a fortress (as it needed to be).
Link: Osgiliath the pic on a Tolkien wiki.

china_shop

"Because in the age of likes and follows, we have confused the reward of creating with the reward of being praised for creating, and why wouldn’t we? Our culture has never celebrated aspiring. Our culture celebrates markers of success. You meet a writer at a party. Oh, have you ever been published? When we could ask: what are the stories that inspire you? What is the story you most want to tell? We have to rewire the way we talk about art, the way we think about artists. The job of the artist is not to skip to the good part. The job of the artist is to make art when no one gives a damn, when no one likes or follows, when we are not being comforted by compliments and praise."

– Leigh Bardugo, via TedX

My day 17: I added 617 words to my flashfic. The story is supposed to be a little missing scene about time travel. Perhaps inevitably, given one of the characters is a deposed king, politics has reared its head, so it's still going. Oops! Not to worry, I still have plenty of time to finish it.

I also slightly tweaked a gift fic. I was thinking about the question of how to portray emotional beats/responses, showing without telling. In tandem with that, I started wondering if my POV characters have been tending too cerebral lately. Do you prefer characters to think through the implications of things or just to gut-reaction? (Does it depend on the character?) How do you express emotional beats? Are your descriptions primarily physiological (pulse, breath, etc) or something else? Do you have a technique for conveying feelings as they arise, or is this just something you do instinctively?

As well as writing, I went with Andrew (partner) to our favourite outdoor cafe (which is being forced to close down in a few months, oh no!) and sat in the blustery northwesterly, then did grocery shopping. This evening our friend is coming over for the last two episodes of Kdrama Low Life, and I'm making enchiladas.

The tally
Day 16:

china_shop,

badly_knitted,

trobadora,

sylvanwitch

When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.

musesfool

The Rangers haven't scored in almost 8 periods (if this 2nd period in Toronto ends without them scoring in 2 minutes, it will actually be 8 periods) - and it's not even like they've been shut out by top tier goalies! - but Chris Kreider has 5 points in 3 games so far for Anaheim. They definitely sent the wrong Chris away over the summer. Sigh.

[eta] A goal! For the Rangers! Huzzah!

*

Current Mood: pessimistic
Current Music: Rangers vs Leafs on tv

devilc

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elrhiarhodan

Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter 59 — Rings In a Tree Trunk Reveal How Old the Tree Is, As Tears Tell the Length of a Life
Author:

elrhiarhodan /

elrhiarhodan
Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars — Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars — Jedi Apprentice Books
Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, The Force as a Sentient Character, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned), Savage Opress, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added
Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived)
Word Count: ~ 5930 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Canon typical violence, non-canon death of a minor canon (TCW) character.

Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.

But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.

Or,

Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.

He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.

Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.

Chapter Summary: Obi-Wan lays out his fears for the survival of the Order to members of the Jedi High Council. They are surprisingly receptive, both about his concerns and about what the Order should do to protect itself.

From All The Spaces Between Times — Chapter 59 — Rings In a Tree Trunk Reveal How Old the Tree Is, As Tears Tell the Length of a Life (On AO3)

( Meta — Rings In a Tree Trunk Reveal How Old the Tree Is, As Tears Tell the Length of a Life )

Profile

aidenfire

May 2012

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Page Summary

alierak in dw_maintenance - AWS outage
china_shop - Write Every Day: Day 20
musesfool - but that's not the case
kass - Dear Yulewriter
china_shop - Write Every Day: Day 19
annathepiper - How I choose radial menu items for Tuxborn on a Steam Deck
devilc - Wait, I'm supposed to believe what?!
runpunkrun in fancake - Theme Reminder: Uncommon Settings
post_secret_feed - Sunday Secrets
post_secret_feed - Classic Secrets
china_shop - Write Every Day: Day 18
musesfool - visions i vandalize
runpunkrun in fancake - Round 180 Theme Poll
xkcd_feed - Planetary Rings
mific in fancake - due South: Build a Rocket, Boys! by feroxargentea
mific in fanart_recs - Osgiliath by Matěj Čadil (SFW)
china_shop - Write Every Day: Day 17
musesfool - here's what took place moments ago
devilc - Dear Yuletide Writer
elrhiarhodan - Star Wars Fic and Meta - From All The Spaces Between Times - Chapter 59

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