The Ornaments, part I
Dec. 18th, 2025 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraThe first thing about ornaments is that there is no disadvent in ornaments. Ornaments may be created but not destroyed. Man hands on ornaments to man; they deepen like a continental shelf. (Put up as little as you can, and don't buy any ornaments yourself.)
The second first thing is that you can't imagine how many my mom had, as of last year. However many boxes you're picturing it was more than that. Years upon decades of gifts from relatives (sometimes in threes, one to my mom and one to each of my sister and me), Girl Scout craft projects, other craft projects just because my mom likes craft projects. My mom's share of all of *her* mom's ornaments, who collected Santa Claus-themed stuff and sometimes had a whole separate little tree just of Santa Claus ornaments in addition to her main tree.
In theory, I thought it was great that she was ready to downsize. In practice what she meant was that she wanted to see my sister and I divide them up, except for her favorites, perhaps the right amount for a small coffee-table tree.
I had been dodging taking more of my ornaments for years, doing things like dutifully sorting out a box of them and then leaving it behind in the garage. But it was a category of my parents' Stuff that my mom was actually ready to do something about. So... Ornaments.
The second first thing is that you can't imagine how many my mom had, as of last year. However many boxes you're picturing it was more than that. Years upon decades of gifts from relatives (sometimes in threes, one to my mom and one to each of my sister and me), Girl Scout craft projects, other craft projects just because my mom likes craft projects. My mom's share of all of *her* mom's ornaments, who collected Santa Claus-themed stuff and sometimes had a whole separate little tree just of Santa Claus ornaments in addition to her main tree.
In theory, I thought it was great that she was ready to downsize. In practice what she meant was that she wanted to see my sister and I divide them up, except for her favorites, perhaps the right amount for a small coffee-table tree.
I had been dodging taking more of my ornaments for years, doing things like dutifully sorting out a box of them and then leaving it behind in the garage. But it was a category of my parents' Stuff that my mom was actually ready to do something about. So... Ornaments.
The Ornaments, part 0
Dec. 18th, 2025 10:13 pmpsocopteraI have so much to say about ornaments that I made two false starts back in January and then gave up. (They were the third long story of the three long stories, which nobody but me remembers but is still an open to-do list item.) I still want to try to say things, but maybe broken into enough small pieces to not be a tl;dr-sized wall of text.
Tags:
Recent reading
Dec. 18th, 2025 09:03 pmtroisoiseauxRead A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews, a slim, unconventional memoir. Framed as her repeated failure to respond to the prompt why do you write? to the satisfaction of a literary conference in Mexico City (she was eventually uninvited), it reads like a commonplace book: a mix of anecdotes, and copies of letters Toews exchanged with her sister over the years (the answer to why do you write? being, originally, because she asked me to), and musings on how to go about creating a "wind museum", and random quotes and poetry and the names/details of historical figures who died by suicide. It helped to know a bit about Toews' background - mostly that she was raised Mennonite and that both her father and sister died by suicide - because eventually both of those things are clearly stated, but I did get a sense that she presumed someone picking up Toews' personal non-fiction on why she writes has already read at least some of her novels, many of which have drawn-from-life elements.
In other writing about writing, I received This Year: 365 Songs Annotated: A Book of Days by John Darnielle as an early birthday/Christmas gift - an illustrated, annotated collection of the Mountain Goats' lyrics - and, of course, immediately just skimmed it for my favorite songs, which quickly turned into reading random chunks because each "annotation" is a short paragraph, max - sometimes about the context for writing the song, or commentary on the characters/story, or what inspired it, or how people respond to it, or some observation/quote/etc. that is not obviously related to the song in any way - so once you've opened it to a specific page it's easy to just keep going for a while, and anyway, now I have to figure out to actually read this book. Just read it cover to cover? Listen to each song in the order they appear, and read the accompanying passage? (Which is a cool idea, but would take forever. Theoretically, I could do one song per day, devotional-style, but I know my attention span well enough to know that's not happening.)
In other writing about writing, I received This Year: 365 Songs Annotated: A Book of Days by John Darnielle as an early birthday/Christmas gift - an illustrated, annotated collection of the Mountain Goats' lyrics - and, of course, immediately just skimmed it for my favorite songs, which quickly turned into reading random chunks because each "annotation" is a short paragraph, max - sometimes about the context for writing the song, or commentary on the characters/story, or what inspired it, or how people respond to it, or some observation/quote/etc. that is not obviously related to the song in any way - so once you've opened it to a specific page it's easy to just keep going for a while, and anyway, now I have to figure out to actually read this book. Just read it cover to cover? Listen to each song in the order they appear, and read the accompanying passage? (Which is a cool idea, but would take forever. Theoretically, I could do one song per day, devotional-style, but I know my attention span well enough to know that's not happening.)
chocolate
Dec. 18th, 2025 06:20 pmredbirdNo, I did not spend all the money in my wallet on chocolate*, but I treated us to a box of chocolates from Serenade, the chocolatier in Brookline with a wide selection of vegan chocolates.
I took the bus to Brookline Village, walked a little extra because I was wrong about which bus stop to use, walked into the shop, and asked for a one-pound box.
I bought two vegan caramels, which Adrian had asked for; I'd have gotten more, but I wasn't sure what she or Cattitude think of sea salt caramel. Just for myself, I got six dairy truffles, three lemon and three lime. The rest was a few (vegan) chocolate creams, and a lot of chocolate-dipped fruit and nuts, including several of their excellent chocolate covered plums, a candy I haven't seen anywhere else.
I came home via Trader Joe's, where I bought fruit, a bell pepper, hummus, pre-cooked chicken sausages, a carton of chocolate ice cream, and a box of frozen vanilla and chocolate macarons.
Even counting the chocolate part of the groceries, I would have had money left from the $79 that happens to be how much cash is in my wallet right now. That's a pretty arbitrary metric, since I don't always have the same amount of cash (I do make a point of having some, because cash still comes in handy sometimes).
*see yesterday's post
I took the bus to Brookline Village, walked a little extra because I was wrong about which bus stop to use, walked into the shop, and asked for a one-pound box.
I bought two vegan caramels, which Adrian had asked for; I'd have gotten more, but I wasn't sure what she or Cattitude think of sea salt caramel. Just for myself, I got six dairy truffles, three lemon and three lime. The rest was a few (vegan) chocolate creams, and a lot of chocolate-dipped fruit and nuts, including several of their excellent chocolate covered plums, a candy I haven't seen anywhere else.
I came home via Trader Joe's, where I bought fruit, a bell pepper, hummus, pre-cooked chicken sausages, a carton of chocolate ice cream, and a box of frozen vanilla and chocolate macarons.
Even counting the chocolate part of the groceries, I would have had money left from the $79 that happens to be how much cash is in my wallet right now. That's a pretty arbitrary metric, since I don't always have the same amount of cash (I do make a point of having some, because cash still comes in handy sometimes).
*see yesterday's post
Christmas music
Dec. 18th, 2025 04:51 pmbrithistorianLast night I discovered that Kiiras had released a Christmas song, called "Kiirasmas." I don't think I'd objectively say it's a good song, but it's still fun to listen to.
A few years ago, I did a K-pop Christmas song Advent calendar. This morning, as I added "Kiirasmas" to my K-pop Christmas playlist, I realized that if I wanted to post the whole playlist one song a day, I'd have had to start back on October 15! ^^
After having to spend 40 minutes listening to the store playing Christmas music while I waited for the pharmacy to fill a prescription. I'd like to say: No matter how Christmas-adjacent some of its lyrics may be, "My Favorite Things" is not a Christmas song. I'm willing to get seriously injured on this hill. However, if it means that I'll hear "The Christmas Song" less often, I'm willing to act like it's a Christmas song.
Write every day: Day 18
Dec. 18th, 2025 11:13 pmluzulaHad a writing session with garonne, which shook some stuff loose. Wrote 300 words. How about you?
Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 17:china_shop, garonne, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, chestnut_pod, trobadora, goddess47, cornerofmadness, sanguinity,
Bonus farm news: Today I learned the basics of how to use the chain saw from housemate. No more am I dependent on a man when I want to cut down a small tree or sever a piece of wood! \o/
garonne, which shook some stuff loose. Wrote 300 words. How about you? Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 17:
china_shop, garonne, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, chestnut_pod, trobadora, goddess47, cornerofmadness, sanguinity, Bonus farm news: Today I learned the basics of how to use the chain saw from housemate. No more am I dependent on a man when I want to cut down a small tree or sever a piece of wood! \o/
Whoopedy Doo - Out Of Office is On - Let the CLEANING begin
Dec. 18th, 2025 09:08 pmruricHalle-fricking-lujah my out of office is on and I am (technically) on leave until 5 January.
I say technically because I have to nip into the office stupidly early tomorrow to pick up some keys and make some posters, and possibly work a couple of hours one day over the weekend. I will also be very swiftly checking email at least once a day most of next week. Then I plan to have some serious offline time as far as work is concerned between 29 December and 5 January.
They're introducing a new "email over 5 years old gets trashed" rule in January so I have some 20,000 emails to check and delete before then (my predecessors did not believing in archiving important stuff) so I'll be scanning/deleting over the break.
And I have my own epic cleaning, clearing, sorting and decluttering project to deal with over the 17 glorious days that I have to get my shit together. I have a master plan and so many lists with a multiplicity of bullet points! And the icing on the cake the ex is at the cottage from 20 December to 6 January so I can make free use of his washing machine.
My hope is to start the first working week of 2026 from a tidy flat with no more chairdrobes or piles of washing to be done or put away.
I'm sure my plans are overly ambitious but I'm looking forward to seeing what I can actually get done before 5 January rocks around.
I say technically because I have to nip into the office stupidly early tomorrow to pick up some keys and make some posters, and possibly work a couple of hours one day over the weekend. I will also be very swiftly checking email at least once a day most of next week. Then I plan to have some serious offline time as far as work is concerned between 29 December and 5 January.
They're introducing a new "email over 5 years old gets trashed" rule in January so I have some 20,000 emails to check and delete before then (my predecessors did not believing in archiving important stuff) so I'll be scanning/deleting over the break.
And I have my own epic cleaning, clearing, sorting and decluttering project to deal with over the 17 glorious days that I have to get my shit together. I have a master plan and so many lists with a multiplicity of bullet points! And the icing on the cake the ex is at the cottage from 20 December to 6 January so I can make free use of his washing machine.
My hope is to start the first working week of 2026 from a tidy flat with no more chairdrobes or piles of washing to be done or put away.
I'm sure my plans are overly ambitious but I'm looking forward to seeing what I can actually get done before 5 January rocks around.
Liminal time
Dec. 18th, 2025 09:00 pmcosmolinguistThis morning I mused that today is in that liminal space where I cannot yet eat the cheese we bought for Christmas but there are mince pies on the countertop and I could have one for breakfast.
I did have one for breakfast. (With a slice of regular cheese because mince pies are too sweet for me on their own and taste really good with strong cheese.)
D and I are off to family Christmas celebrations tomorrow, so I signed off work this afternoon for the last time until 2026!
In the three previous years I've had a white collar job, I've never taken this long off, I've always worked a little between Christmas and new year. I kinda like it for catching up on stuff when work is quiet and people leave me alone, and long stretches of unstructured time isn't good for my mental health.
But this time, I'm so ready for this. This year has been so long.
(I know myself well enough to expect that I'll be horrified on the 27th of December when I have a whole week ahead of me with nothing to do. But I can worry about that when I get to it.)
I'm a little sad to be missing queer club's Christmas party this evening, but my carefully planned after-work itinerary fell apart almost as soon as I made it, when my friend L texted and asked if I could come over because he and his husband (also my friend) were having a bad mental health time thanks to the DWP (they are both disabled).
I almost literally dropped everything and left the house, because L isn't the kind of person who gets in touch spontaneously, has the energy for social stuff, or can ask for help easily, so for him to do all these things felt like a big deal to me.
It felt kinda weird to leave in what felt like an emergency and arrive only able to offer hugs and silly, distracting conversation. But I'm assured that it did help. And I'm glad I could do it, I like them so much. It was a good use of my social spoons for the evening.
Rec-cember Day 17: Wonderfalls
Dec. 18th, 2025 10:00 pmfalenaWonderfalls was a quirky, short-lived TV series about a twenty-something philosophy grad working a dead-end retail job in a souvenir shop in Niagara falls. Jaye is smart and ironic and damaged and has a meddling family. One day animal-shaped inanimate objects start talking to her, asking her to do things. The show is hilarious.
Here are some fic that do the tricky job of preserving the showw's humour and heart while letting us spend more time with these characters.
Homing Pigeon by ospery_archer. 7K words. Jaye hated losing arguments with inanimate objects. Especially when they got the last word by burning her trailer down, and her car with it.
Hot Duck by Yochan. 1.7K words.Jaye truly started hating life when her vibrator spoke up over the sound of the water rushing in her tiny shower. Now, not only was she well and truly crazy, the devil knew she owned a vibrator shaped like Ernie's rubber duckie.
I Wonder Why The Wonder Falls On Me by Zanne. 9K words. Crossover with Supernatural. Dean and Sam meet Jaye. Lolol.Surrender to Destiny" is a terrible catchphrase.
An now a festive gem: Jolly by Fox1013 1.8K. "I don't do festive," Jaye said. "It's like asking Mickey Mouse to do a striptease. It makes everyone uncomfortable."
The Pitt
Since on Day 16 I recced a threesome, I thought I might do another one: 86 Days, 87 Nights. 24 K. Robby/Abbot/Samira. There's lots of plot. Which makes sense as it's a fic that could be best described as Lost meets The Pitt. Fantastic.
2025.12.18
Dec. 18th, 2025 10:53 amlsandersonBoth St. Paul, Minneapolis have Christmas markets worth visiting
St. Paul’s European Christmas Market is the clear No. 1, but the Minneapolis Christkindl Market in the North Loop is worth a stop, too.
by Bill Lindeke
https://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2025/12/both-st-paul-minneapolis-have-christmas-markets-worth-visiting/
Rainfall creates crimson spectacle at beach on Iran’s Hormuz Island
Streams of soil turn sand and surrounding water red, creating sharp contrast with blue waters of Persian Gulf
Associated Press in Tehran
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/18/rainfall-iran-hormuz-island-red-beach
Man sues Tennessee county after he was jailed over meme related to Charlie Kirk killing
Lawsuit alleges that Larry Bushart’s first amendment rights were violated when he was arrested and jailed for 37 days
Anna Betts
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/18/tennessee-charlie-kirk-meme-arrest-lawsuit
Bavarian pensioner lays trap to catch phone fraudster who was out for his gold
Second ‘exemplary’ success for 85-year-old who had already rumbled bogus police officer demanding €60,000
Deborah Cole in Berlin
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/18/german-pensioner-lays-trap-catch-fraudsters-after-gold
‘It’s an open invasion’: how millions of quagga mussels changed Lake Geneva for ever
The molluscs are decimating food chains in Switzerland, have devastated the Great Lakes in the US, and this week were spotted in Northern Ireland for the first time
By Phoebe Weston
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/18/invasive-quagga-mussels-lake-geneva-aoe
US government admits negligence in helicopter-plane collision that killed 67
Official response to lawsuit filed by victims’ relatives admits FAA and army failures played role in Washington DC crash
Associated Press
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/17/us-government-helicopter-crash-washington-dc
The motorcyclist fighting a deadly disease in the African bush
8 hours ago
Kang-Chun Cheng
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251217-the-motorcyclist-fighting-the-worlds-second-deadliest-parasite-in-the-african-bush
St. Paul’s European Christmas Market is the clear No. 1, but the Minneapolis Christkindl Market in the North Loop is worth a stop, too.
by Bill Lindeke
https://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2025/12/both-st-paul-minneapolis-have-christmas-markets-worth-visiting/
Rainfall creates crimson spectacle at beach on Iran’s Hormuz Island
Streams of soil turn sand and surrounding water red, creating sharp contrast with blue waters of Persian Gulf
Associated Press in Tehran
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/18/rainfall-iran-hormuz-island-red-beach
Man sues Tennessee county after he was jailed over meme related to Charlie Kirk killing
Lawsuit alleges that Larry Bushart’s first amendment rights were violated when he was arrested and jailed for 37 days
Anna Betts
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/18/tennessee-charlie-kirk-meme-arrest-lawsuit
Bavarian pensioner lays trap to catch phone fraudster who was out for his gold
Second ‘exemplary’ success for 85-year-old who had already rumbled bogus police officer demanding €60,000
Deborah Cole in Berlin
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/18/german-pensioner-lays-trap-catch-fraudsters-after-gold
‘It’s an open invasion’: how millions of quagga mussels changed Lake Geneva for ever
The molluscs are decimating food chains in Switzerland, have devastated the Great Lakes in the US, and this week were spotted in Northern Ireland for the first time
By Phoebe Weston
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/18/invasive-quagga-mussels-lake-geneva-aoe
US government admits negligence in helicopter-plane collision that killed 67
Official response to lawsuit filed by victims’ relatives admits FAA and army failures played role in Washington DC crash
Associated Press
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/17/us-government-helicopter-crash-washington-dc
The motorcyclist fighting a deadly disease in the African bush
8 hours ago
Kang-Chun Cheng
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251217-the-motorcyclist-fighting-the-worlds-second-deadliest-parasite-in-the-african-bush
Links Links Links
Dec. 18th, 2025 09:23 ammuccamukkFandom and Art Stuff
elasticella: sapphic stocking stuffers.
Lots of great prompts! Open for fills until 31 December, or they're all full, whichever happens last.
Street Art Utopia: The Giant Kitten.
By Oriol Arumi at Torrefarrera Street Art Festival in Torrefarrera, Cataluna, Spain
Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift’s Last Album Sparked Bizarre Accusations of Nazism. It Was a Coordinated Attack.
I read this, and was like "hmmmmmmm." Because it seemed plausible that there were bots or whatever, but also a lot of people I'd seen critiquing the album were definitely humans that I knew. But also human conversation can be driven by bots without the humans realising it. And also, I don't care enough about TS to look into the whole mess. Then I saw the following.
![[youtube.com profile]](https://youtube.com/favicon.ico)
MedusoneDeluxe: Rolling Stone embarrasses itself to defend Taylor Swift. Again. (Video: 41 Minutes).
I love it when people actually read the research. So probably not a significant number of bots, but also the science is so sloppy it's impossible to tell.
Trans Rights Are Human Rights
The Walrus: Kids Deserve a New Gender Paradigm by Kai Cheng Thom.
Lovely, thoughtful look at how we see gender, and maybe kids have this more figured out than a lot of adults to. Older piece, but I enjoyed reading it again.
The Guardian: The WI and Girlguiding have been pressured to exclude trans women – yet the law is clear as mud by Jess O'Thompson.
The Guardian published something non-terrible about trans people in the U.K.! Do the Dance of Joy!
CTV News: Skate Canada to stop hosting events in Alberta due to sports gender law.
Solidarity! From a national sporting organisation! A MIRACLE!
Canadian Politics Stuff
The Tyee: Human Rights Tribunal on RCMP Methods Delays Decision Nearly a Year.
This is some fucking bullshit. The elders are dying of old age before they're seeing any kind of justice. I am enjoying how Amanda Follett Hosgood is so out of fucks to give on the publication ban that she's basically putting up a bright red arrow pointing to A.B.'s name, even if she can't actually say it. Which is John Furlong, incidentally. And seriously, fuck that guy.
The Globe and Mail: Leilani Muir made history suing Alberta over forced sterilization.
This is an older obit, but I dug it up for a school project, and thought it was worth sharing. Not enough people know about Canada's eugenics policies.
Times Colonist: Residential school survivor says he will protest OneBC at other campuses.
We shouldn't need our elders to be superheroes, but nonetheless many of them are.
Times Colonist: Water-contaminated fuel caused crash of Port Hardy-bound plane: TSB.
This is neither here nor there, really, but I find Transportation Safety Board investigations really interesting. Even if they take a really long time (i.e. I found this while looking for information about a more recent crash, but will probably have to wait a couple years to find out what happened to that guy).
Slightly Dated U.S.A. Politics Stuff
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American: December 6, 2025.
Beautifully ties in the events of Pearl Harbor with the politics of today.
Rebecca Solnit: Solidarity Stitches Us Together: Today, World AIDS Day, Is Also the 70th Anniversary of Rosa Parks's Historic Protest.
elasticella: sapphic stocking stuffers.Lots of great prompts! Open for fills until 31 December, or they're all full, whichever happens last.
Street Art Utopia: The Giant Kitten.
By Oriol Arumi at Torrefarrera Street Art Festival in Torrefarrera, Cataluna, Spain
Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift’s Last Album Sparked Bizarre Accusations of Nazism. It Was a Coordinated Attack.
I read this, and was like "hmmmmmmm." Because it seemed plausible that there were bots or whatever, but also a lot of people I'd seen critiquing the album were definitely humans that I knew. But also human conversation can be driven by bots without the humans realising it. And also, I don't care enough about TS to look into the whole mess. Then I saw the following.
I love it when people actually read the research. So probably not a significant number of bots, but also the science is so sloppy it's impossible to tell.
Trans Rights Are Human Rights
The Walrus: Kids Deserve a New Gender Paradigm by Kai Cheng Thom.
Lovely, thoughtful look at how we see gender, and maybe kids have this more figured out than a lot of adults to. Older piece, but I enjoyed reading it again.
The Guardian: The WI and Girlguiding have been pressured to exclude trans women – yet the law is clear as mud by Jess O'Thompson.
The Guardian published something non-terrible about trans people in the U.K.! Do the Dance of Joy!
CTV News: Skate Canada to stop hosting events in Alberta due to sports gender law.
Solidarity! From a national sporting organisation! A MIRACLE!
Canadian Politics Stuff
The Tyee: Human Rights Tribunal on RCMP Methods Delays Decision Nearly a Year.
This is some fucking bullshit. The elders are dying of old age before they're seeing any kind of justice. I am enjoying how Amanda Follett Hosgood is so out of fucks to give on the publication ban that she's basically putting up a bright red arrow pointing to A.B.'s name, even if she can't actually say it. Which is John Furlong, incidentally. And seriously, fuck that guy.
The Globe and Mail: Leilani Muir made history suing Alberta over forced sterilization.
This is an older obit, but I dug it up for a school project, and thought it was worth sharing. Not enough people know about Canada's eugenics policies.
Times Colonist: Residential school survivor says he will protest OneBC at other campuses.
We shouldn't need our elders to be superheroes, but nonetheless many of them are.
Times Colonist: Water-contaminated fuel caused crash of Port Hardy-bound plane: TSB.
This is neither here nor there, really, but I find Transportation Safety Board investigations really interesting. Even if they take a really long time (i.e. I found this while looking for information about a more recent crash, but will probably have to wait a couple years to find out what happened to that guy).
Slightly Dated U.S.A. Politics Stuff
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American: December 6, 2025.
Beautifully ties in the events of Pearl Harbor with the politics of today.
Rebecca Solnit: Solidarity Stitches Us Together: Today, World AIDS Day, Is Also the 70th Anniversary of Rosa Parks's Historic Protest.
The fabric of this country is forever being torn apart by hate and exclusion; it is forever being stitched into, as the site says, new patterns, new connections, new relationships. Solidarity is always about connection across difference, about the way you stand with someone you have something crucial in common with but who may be different in other ways. It is a quilter's art of bringing the fragments together into a whole. It is e pluribus unum.
The hoped-for silver lining of the Yona manga ending!
Dec. 18th, 2025 12:58 pmumadoshi"Yona of the Dawn Gets Sequel Anime". [Anime News Network]
I'm delighted both that this is happening and that it was announced so promptly on the heels of the manga ending. (;_;) As we learned from the second Fruits Basket anime arriving thirteen years after that manga ended, anything is possible, but it's sure nicer to have this sort of thing happen with a speed that makes more sense.
ANN says "sequel anime", which I'd imagine means it'll pick up where the first one left off, but how OAVs factor into that, I'm not even going to try to guess.
I'm delighted both that this is happening and that it was announced so promptly on the heels of the manga ending. (;_;) As we learned from the second Fruits Basket anime arriving thirteen years after that manga ended, anything is possible, but it's sure nicer to have this sort of thing happen with a speed that makes more sense.
ANN says "sequel anime", which I'd imagine means it'll pick up where the first one left off, but how OAVs factor into that, I'm not even going to try to guess.
Interesting Links for 18-12-2025
Dec. 18th, 2025 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. Why Do Commercial Spaces Sit Vacant?
- (tags:business property finance economics banking )
- 2. What Happens When Netflix Buys Warner Bros. (nothing good)
- (tags:netflix movies history WarnerBrothers video doom )
- 3. UK energy costs likely to halve by 2050, says system operator
- (tags:UK renewables electricity thefuture )
- 4. Teachers to be trained to spot early signs of misogyny in boys
- (tags:misogyny UK children boys )
- 5. One month to go: Edinburgh-Fife rail upgrades begin soon (closing the line for a week)
- (tags:Scotland transport trains )
- 6. Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Is Having a Renaissance
- (tags:hydroelectric electricity storage )
Coding 1992 style
Dec. 18th, 2025 11:54 amvivdunstanThought about reusing some old LPC MUD code - dated 1992! - in a puzzle in my latest interactive fiction game that I'm writing. Then looked at the LPC code and thought "Way too complicated for what I need here!" So I'm going simpler. But it is nice to revisit.
I was a wizard in the St Andrews University MUD back then, as was Martin. I also played through to wizard level on a Glasgow MUD at the same time. Many happy memories.
I was a wizard in the St Andrews University MUD back then, as was Martin. I also played through to wizard level on a Glasgow MUD at the same time. Many happy memories.
Wherein I talk myself into a new xover ship apparently
Dec. 18th, 2025 02:47 ambeccaelizabethI have read a bunch of crossovers in a row now
that were just
intro outro.
Everyone meets, gets introduced, hits a bunch of stuff, goes away again.
And the hitting tends to take like a paragraph?
I feel like the hook to a crossover needs to be a bit more than just
look they all hit things real good
even with a common theme like magic or angels or demons.
The story of two or more people meeting needs to be something like
what need do these people fill for each other?
and 'need to hit things real good' doesn't really cover it when they are in hit things real good shows.
It's just a bit frustrating when I can see how each would offer a perspective that could get the other unjammed at some points in their canon
but they are just
gonna hit a demo about it.
And don't get me wrong, there are many ways to write hitting a demon about it that are *also* about confronting your emotions and getting a character arc unjammed, it's just not always what happen.
Like, say Sara Lance meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Key things to talk about: Did We Come Back Wrong? Bloodlust and the fashionable blonde! The Burden Of Command (that you didn't ask for but look at these guys when you don't do it). Ex Boyfriends with a whole angsty vigilante thing going on, possibly dying to save the world edition. Sapphic crushes and how much the crime parts don't make the crush go away. Or, sapphic crushes, and how much Sara hasn't met Ava yet. Give Buffy a holiday, Sara's good for it.
That's so many themes! You could pick one theme and get so many words out of it!
... I just read a fic that only had them fight and decided Sara would epic lose to Slayer strength, as if she doesn't fight superpowered beings for a living.
At least have them fight and do the thing where they each have a signature move that ends with a knife at Buffy's throat and a stake to Sara's torso, Sara would be into that. Buffy would be into that. Throwing each other around would work for both of them, the story should know this.
Or pick one of the more superpowered eras of Sara Lance and have Buffy mistake her for the source of the threat and they have to clear up the misunderstanding through angsty mutual personal revelations and then have sex about it.
... I did not start typing this with some kind of Sara/Buffy agenda but now I'm talking myself into it.
It's just like you can do a crossover to be all Look at these two great tastes that taste great together
but then like
if it do click there will be so many more things to do with it.
Time travelling demons! Say there's a demon nobody can figure out how to defeat and they have to Bill and Ted it by going back to the demon's Ascension and, like, rescuing the food crowd or smashing the box of pointy food or something, removing a key part of Ascension so when they get back they know the pure demon is actually vulnerable. A reason to go over the mythology of both shows.
But! Legends is the resolving things with a sing along or the power of Beebo show. Like sure in season one they fixed things by blowing stuff up and a spot of murder, but things evolved from there. So how would the Legends react to Buffy's general Slay Them All theme after the seasons where they met a bunch of supernatural beings and it was clearly Hell organising the capture and torture of them?
So many ways to smush the shows together and have new story fall out.
But if you don't need to smush the shows to get that exact same story, I shall end the page kind of vaguely sad, and apparently full of plot bunnies.
that were just
intro outro.
Everyone meets, gets introduced, hits a bunch of stuff, goes away again.
And the hitting tends to take like a paragraph?
I feel like the hook to a crossover needs to be a bit more than just
look they all hit things real good
even with a common theme like magic or angels or demons.
The story of two or more people meeting needs to be something like
what need do these people fill for each other?
and 'need to hit things real good' doesn't really cover it when they are in hit things real good shows.
It's just a bit frustrating when I can see how each would offer a perspective that could get the other unjammed at some points in their canon
but they are just
gonna hit a demo about it.
And don't get me wrong, there are many ways to write hitting a demon about it that are *also* about confronting your emotions and getting a character arc unjammed, it's just not always what happen.
Like, say Sara Lance meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Key things to talk about: Did We Come Back Wrong? Bloodlust and the fashionable blonde! The Burden Of Command (that you didn't ask for but look at these guys when you don't do it). Ex Boyfriends with a whole angsty vigilante thing going on, possibly dying to save the world edition. Sapphic crushes and how much the crime parts don't make the crush go away. Or, sapphic crushes, and how much Sara hasn't met Ava yet. Give Buffy a holiday, Sara's good for it.
That's so many themes! You could pick one theme and get so many words out of it!
... I just read a fic that only had them fight and decided Sara would epic lose to Slayer strength, as if she doesn't fight superpowered beings for a living.
At least have them fight and do the thing where they each have a signature move that ends with a knife at Buffy's throat and a stake to Sara's torso, Sara would be into that. Buffy would be into that. Throwing each other around would work for both of them, the story should know this.
Or pick one of the more superpowered eras of Sara Lance and have Buffy mistake her for the source of the threat and they have to clear up the misunderstanding through angsty mutual personal revelations and then have sex about it.
... I did not start typing this with some kind of Sara/Buffy agenda but now I'm talking myself into it.
It's just like you can do a crossover to be all Look at these two great tastes that taste great together
but then like
if it do click there will be so many more things to do with it.
Time travelling demons! Say there's a demon nobody can figure out how to defeat and they have to Bill and Ted it by going back to the demon's Ascension and, like, rescuing the food crowd or smashing the box of pointy food or something, removing a key part of Ascension so when they get back they know the pure demon is actually vulnerable. A reason to go over the mythology of both shows.
But! Legends is the resolving things with a sing along or the power of Beebo show. Like sure in season one they fixed things by blowing stuff up and a spot of murder, but things evolved from there. So how would the Legends react to Buffy's general Slay Them All theme after the seasons where they met a bunch of supernatural beings and it was clearly Hell organising the capture and torture of them?
So many ways to smush the shows together and have new story fall out.
But if you don't need to smush the shows to get that exact same story, I shall end the page kind of vaguely sad, and apparently full of plot bunnies.