Sunday Sale Digest!

Oct. 26th, 2025 06:00 am
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun!

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November Sign Ups

Oct. 26th, 2025 07:21 am
siberian_angel: (TV: SPN - There ain't no me)
[personal profile] siberian_angel posting in [community profile] thestoryinside


It's officially time to sign up for November! Buddy assignments will be posted on the 1st. You'll have until the 5th to choose books for your partners.

The themes for November will be:
THRILLER // FANTASY // MALE AUTHOR
You must choose books with one or a combination of these genres and themes for your buddy. If you think your buddy might have a problem picking from your TBR pile, please mention that in your comment.

Please sign up in the comments:


Also:
• Our October Discussion is still open!
sovay: (Psholtii: in a bad mood)
[personal profile] sovay
I know it is no longer news in the ravenous cycle of horrors that passes for the front page these days, but the fact that the man in the White House took a literal wrecking ball to it feels once again so unnecessarily on the nose, at least if it were satire I could be laughing. I know buildings are not human lives such as this administration ends and ruins with such pleasure of ownership, but the roses of the concrete-choked garden were real things, not just symbols, and so were the bricks and the tiles of the East Wing. I have nothing revelatory to say about this particular destruction in the midst of so much more personal violence except that I didn't want to let it slide into a tacit shrug, as if it were an ordinary exercise of presidential powers, another rock through the Overton window. Or a bulldozer.

Write Every Day: Day 26

Oct. 26th, 2025 05:58 pm
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
[personal profile] china_shop
"Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

My day 26: Alibi sentence. Arms are a mess, so I've been AFK.

Btw, do we have anyone lined up to host November? Any volunteers?

The tally
Tally )

Day 24: [personal profile] alightbuthappypen, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cmk418, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 25: [personal profile] alightbuthappypen, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cmk418, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] 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.
petra: Paul Gross smooching a skull (Geoffrey - Smooching Yorick)
[personal profile] petra
Zounds (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Slings & Arrows
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ellen Fanshaw/Geoffrey Tennant
Characters: Ellen Fanshaw, Geoffrey Tennant
Additional Tags: Drabble, Love Bites, Bruises
Summary:

Ellen leaves marks.


*

Tell Old Man Worry to go climb a tree (600 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leia Organa/Luke Skywalker/Han Solo
Characters: Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo
Additional Tags: Mpreg | Male Pregnancy, Incest, Drabble Sequence
Summary:

The Force moves in mysterious ways in order to get great-grandkids.

(no subject)

Oct. 26th, 2025 02:12 am
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
Today on Wrath of the Righteous I did not get as far as I had hoped. Also I think one Leadership thing is bugged, since it reckoned I had to come back urgently to deal with it and then didn't do anything about it for a month. It's fine, it says I maxed out Leadership anyways, it should work okays.

Chilly Creek and the Sarkorian couple both worked fine, as did the Heart of Mystery eventually, but then I went to do Nenio's questline and realised I had not done one thing from back in Act 3 and I had to go do it over again, which was somehow embarrassing. Look at me, Knight Commander of the 5th crusade, redoing ny homework because I didn't press a button right. Eh, it's fine, they're doing the quest properly now. Also with all the buffs on we seem to be immune to... damage, basically. Getting hit, in general. Anything getting through without a critical fail on the saves. It's interesting but also boring to play. No stakes, just let it run on auto and they'll win in a few seconds. Daeran hasn't had to heal anyone for ages. Plus I leave Nenio to last because I've never seen an explanation for the stupid puzzles that actually makes sense so I just have to make them match the pictures and that isn't puzzle solving. I am not a fan of the stupid things at all at all. So I now appear to be grumpy. Ah well.

Clocks went back and I have updated my home clocks already.

Pretty okay day.

AO3 Alphabet Meme

Oct. 25th, 2025 10:01 pm
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
I recorded the fandom on each of mine because I was curious what the spread was. There are surprisingly few, and surprising, repeats.

A - The A Train - DCU/Supreme Power
B - Back where we began - Hockey RPF
C - C'est la faute à Rousseau - DCU (sorry, Les Misérables fans)
D - The Daddy's Boy Job - Star Wars Prequel Trilogy/Leverage
E - Each result and glory - Doctrine of Labyrinths - Monette
F - Failsafe - Vorkosigan Saga - Bujold
G - Game theory - Life on Mars (UK)
H - Ha -- h'm - Horatio Hornblower - CS Forester
I - I ain't no brilliant writer, Kethe knows - Doctrine of Labyrinths (please don't ask why I wrote a sonnet in Mildmay voice)
J - Janet and Thomas's Halloween - Tam Lin - Dean
K - Keep it down in there - Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
L - L'appel du vide - Life on Mars (UK)/Ashes to Ashes
M - M'don'a's sex advice - Star Wars Prequel Trilogy/Madonna's Sex Advice
N - Naked truth - due South
O - Oak of the clay lived many a day - Promethean Age - Bear
P - A pack that almost became historic - Les Misérables + Psychic Wolves
Q - Q. E. D. - John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, Logic Guards Sketch
R - Rated able seaman - Hornblower (TV)
S - Safe and sane - DCU
T - Take heed of loving me - Hockey RPF
U - Ululation - Harry Potter (written 2002)
V - A Vaderwan limerick for your delectation - Star Wars Original Trilogy
W - Wait till you hear the next one, legate - Marcus Didius Falco - Davis/Good Omens - Pratchett & Gaiman
X - X axis, Y axis, 2 axes - Murderbot/due South fusion
Y - Yas queen - Iskyrne Series - Bear & Monette/@dog_rates
Z - Nothing yet. Zounds - Slings & Arrows, just posted, because I am a completist.

26/26, 1312 works.

Bonus points: I have stories titled beginning with #, numbers, ¡ (inverted exclamation point), à, and ᓄ.

Also, I have no idea what possessed me to write a sonnet in Mildmay voice, but I'm proud of it just the same.

Sunday @ 11:41 am

Oct. 26th, 2025 11:41 am
alisx: A demure little moth person, with charcoal fuzz and teal accents. (Default)
[personal profile] alisx

Doing my Least Favorite Maintenance Task, i.e., updating the relay, and think I’ve finally gotten enough of a process down that it should be easier in future. Maybe.

Did have to buy more disk space for the VPS, though, and I really need rustup not to take over a gigabye of disk space. Like, dude. Wut???

Leave a comment.+

musesfool: a glass of iced coffee with milk (nectar of the gods)
[personal profile] musesfool
I made this apple cider doughnut holes recipe today and meh. I didn't even like them enough plain to make the glaze. They just tasted so strongly of nutmeg to me and nothing of apple cider or even cinnamon.

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

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

*

PostSecret License

Oct. 25th, 2025 11:20 am
[syndicated profile] post_secret_feed

Posted by Frank

To: “frank” <frank@postsecret.com>
Dear Frank-

Twelve years ago I mailed in my license plate with the message “I don’t know where my home is” scrawled on the front. I had just dropped out of college and moved across the country to live with my dad. A lot has changed since then, but some things haven’t.

My life imploded (again) and I found myself back in my dad’s house; I changed careers, graduated college, and went to grad school. But that secret has followed me for a decade, often featured on the website or exhibits.

It popped up a few weeks ago and I thought “nothing has changed, I’m still just that lost kid” and then I realized how wrong I was. I’m not sure that I feel any more at home here now than I did back then, but something has changed. I found home in myself. Finally the skin that I live in feels like enough. Thank you for being a place of growth, love, and acceptance for all these years.

-Erica

Hi Erica, 

Thanks for your secret! I remember receiving that “naked mail” over a decade ago and yes it has been shared many times; on the web, in my PostSecret talks, and in museums from the Smithsonian to the Museum of Us

I know many people have felt a connection to your secret and I believe many will now relate to your story behind it. Courage is contagious and I believe your story will inspire others to tell their truth – and take that first step in their journey. 

Your secret definitely has a home, so glad you found yours. 

Be well,
-Frank


The post PostSecret License appeared first on PostSecret.

sovay: (PJ Harvey: crow)
[personal profile] sovay
In fairness to June Lockhart, the first time I ever saw her she was sharing the same episode of Babylon 5 (1994–98) as Londo's card-sharping tentadicks and the latter seared themselves rather more indelibly into my brain, but with less than five minutes of her own in T-Men (1947) she stole far more of the film for me, so much that even knowing that a century is a graceful point to depart from, I am still sorry the world no longer contains her and all of her time. She moved from film to television so early that I always wondered if she had been blacklisted like Marsha Hunt, but the answer looks like not. I loved finding out about her tastes in rock music and my experience of her most famous and long-running roles was almost nil. It means I remember her, perhaps unfairly, twenty-two years old and looking like the fair-haired avatar of all the white picket fences in the world, coming effortlessly up to speed on their shadows. She should have worked with David Lynch.

Dept. of The Darkest Timeline

Oct. 25th, 2025 04:19 pm
kaffy_r: Fan art of Bleach characters (Bleach Set the World on Fire)
[personal profile] kaffy_r
This is Chicago. This is America

I'll be back with other things to say, happy things, or at least I hope so.

But right now, I give you this, taken as a screen shot from video a neighbor took as the ICE thugs ambushed him, and who shared it on some local news sites. 

It's my city.

It's my adopted country.

He's my neighbor. 

He's my brother.

They don't care. 

The cruelty, the racism and xenophobia, is the point.
 


multifandom icons

Oct. 25th, 2025 03:55 pm
picnicnic: profile of mel from arcane (mel)
[personal profile] picnicnic posting in [community profile] fandom_icons
1x Shakugan no Shana, 1x Bleach, 1x Once Upon a Time, 1x Brave, 1x She-ra and The Princesses of Power, 1x Maleficent, 1x Trollhunters, 1x Sailor Moon, 1x Tangled the Series, 1x Apollo Justice, 1x Netflix's Carmen Sandiego, 2x Netflix's Avatar the Last Airbender, 5x Arcane, 7x Marvel (1 from comics, 1 from X-men '97, 5 from MCU), 11x Kpop Demon Hunters, 24x The Legend of Vox Machina



Icons can be found on my journal here and are all free to use.

(no subject)

Oct. 25th, 2025 02:02 pm
skygiants: the Phantom of the Opera, reaching out (creeper of the opera)
[personal profile] skygiants
Last night [personal profile] genarti and I took advantage of Skirball Theater's remote Halloween production, a virtual Phantom of the Opera broadcast live every night for the next two weeks from a tiny apartment in New York City with a handful of actors, a variety of very small sets and very large cardboard props, and a lot of neat visual/camera tricks.

As a bonus feature, you can see exactly how most of the visual/camera tricks work because there's a second camera set up from the front of the apartment that shows the broader view of the cast and crew rushing around to cram themselves into the tiny sets and lurk in front of walls to cast dramatic shadows and so on. As a viewer, you always have the option to toggle between the main, intended view and the backstage view to see how they're doing whatever they're doing -- tbh this in itself made it worth the price of admission for me, as a person who loves practical effects. See Carlotta's entry evoked by a giant high-heeled foot and then toggle over to the crew member carefully dangling the foot into the frame! Superb!

The production itself evokes the aesthetics of German expressionist film, with an operatic organ soundtrack and most of the dialogue conveyed by classic silent film inter-, sub- or supertitles. It's a shock when the Phantom speaks out loud to Christine, and she speaks back to him. When Raoul says he heard someone in her dressing room, Christine looks understandably baffled by the way this breaks the rules: how could a silent film man hear an angel speak?

Christine can also break the silent film framework to sing, as trained, and, eventually, talk out loud about the Phantom as well as to him, but not about anything else. I love this conceit and I think it's probably the coolest thing the show does thematically. [personal profile] genarti remarked while watching that she'd also never seen a Phantom with this much actual opera in it. The production is definitely interested in Opera qua opera -- trying to say something about Art and the temporality of all artistic media and the fact that opera itself is a dying form, and tbh I'm not sure that it fully landed for me. However this may have been because these Themes were mostly conveyed in a big speech by the Phantom actor at the beginning as he puts on his makeup, and the biggest technical problem with the show (at least on the night that we saw it) was that the Phantom actor's mic was way out of balance with the background music and he was always kind of hard to hear. Which perhaps is thematic in and of itself!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the experience, worth my $20 to sit on my couch with the lights out and toggle between a Spooky Silent Phantom and a tiny apartment full of theater professionals moving tiny sets back and forth to make Spooky Silent Phantom happen, would recommend.

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lokifan

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