sashajwolf | Network

Suspension of disbelief = I will not start verbally poking holes in the physics of this action movie until we are out of the movie theater

Suspension in disbelief = a frozen state of constant WTF

jenab

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beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Silmarillion
Pairings/Characters: Luthien/Maedhros
Rating: teen
Length: 66k
Creator Links:

SpaceWall
Theme: marriage of convenience, old fandoms, small fandoms, book fandoms, rare pairings, AU (fork in the road), pretend couple

Summary: Centuries after the arrival of the Noldor and the Teleri in Beleriand, a celebration of Morgoth’s defeat brings the Crown Princess of Doriath and the Crown Prince of the Noldor together. To save this newborn peace from their respective fathers, they’ll do whatever it takes. Including... getting married?

Meanwhile, Lord Fingon of Himring faces the monumental task of healing Morgoth’s ills.

--

They regarded each other with quiet understanding, all the vast majesty of their respective lineages rendered unimportant by the connection between them. Music wound through the trees; harp and flute, surely joyous in context, sounded lonely in their solitude.

Reccer's Notes: Fëanor is a very complex character in the Silmarillion, who both has reasons for what he does and also does some terrible things. Fanon tends to sympathize with him, and also make him a good father to compensate for his other issues. SpaceWall takes the opposite track, leaning into his selfishness, his arrogance, and his suspiciousness. And then asks, if he had survived on Beleriand, what would have happened? If Fëanor, brilliant and terrible, were in command of the Noldor? Some things are better, some things are worse, (and Thingol is still Thingol), and so at a crucial juncture Maedhros and Luthien step forward to try and prevent disaster and war between the Noldor and Sindarin. And, in the process, they both learn a great deal.

Fanwork Links: By Other Means

tentaclemod posting in

pinchhits

Event: Rare Male Slash Exchange on Ao3
Event link: On DW
Pinch hit link: https://raremaleslashex.dreamwidth.org/2025/08/08/
Due date: August 16th, 20:00 UTC Deadline Countdown

PH 5 - [Fanfic + Fanart, Podfic] 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018) RPF, 镇魂 | Guardian - priest, Crossover Fandom, 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)

PH 6 - [Fanfic + Fanart] NoPixel (Web Series), 鴨乃橋ロンの禁断推理 | Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri | Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective (Manga), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs, 吸血鬼すぐ死ぬ | Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu | The Vampire Dies in No Time (Anime), Runescape (Video Games)

PH 8 - [All Fanfic] Bandom, Cool Runnings, due South, Good Omens, Zootopia, Real Genius

PH 9 - [All Fanfic] Dishonored (Video Games), BioShock 1 & 2 (Video Games), Revenge (1990)

PH 11 - [All Fanfic] X-Men: The Animated Series (Cartoon 1992), World of Warcraft, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV 2000), Hellboy (Comics)

PH 14 - [Fanfic + Fanart] Bleach (Anime & Manga), Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends, フェルマーの料理 | Fermat no Ryouri (TV)

PH 16 - 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, Elden Ring (Video Game), 魔尊也想知道 - 青色羽翼 | Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know - Cyan Wings, The Magnus Archives (Podcast), The Glory (TV 2022), 苍兰诀 | Love Between Fairy and Devil (TV), 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 내가 키운 S급들 - 근서 | S-Classes that I Raised - Geunseo, 오픈 더 도어 - 임짜달 | Open The Door - Imjjadal, 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021)

PH 17 - Crossover Fandom, Naruto (Anime & Manga), 新世界狂歡｜NU: carnival (Video Game)

PH 18 - Biggles Series - W. E. Johns, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Labyrinth (1986), Sime~Gen - Jacqueline Lichtenberg & Jean Lorrah, Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band (Song), Original Work

PH 19 - Red One (2024), Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013), Spacelords (Video Game), Original Work )

Please claim at the link or via tentaclemod@gmail.com!

redbird

I'm visiting

rysmiel for a few days. The trip up was borin, which is good: anything exciting would probably be bad news, or at least make you late for dinner.

It is going to be hot over the weekend, so we went out for a relatively early brunch today, so we could sit almost-outdoors at Juliette et Chocolat and eat crepes. We then walked around Jean Talon market, where I bought plums, blackberries, and a cucumber.

I have np real plans for the next few days, which is fine.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3126/

You say no human would reply to a forum thread about Tom Bombadil by writing and editing hundreds of words of text, complete with formatting, fancy punctuation, and two separate uses of the word 'delve'. Unfortunately for both of us, you are wrong.

https://xkcd.com/3126/

andrewducker

I remember seeing a game which looked amazing. The whole world was destructible, there were thousands of different combinations of things to find in it, and they'd put a ton of effort in to making it a fun experience.

I played it for a couple of hours, and got bored of it, because it turns out that that isn't enough for me. Because what they'd made was also a Rogue-Like. Which is to say that it completely resets back to the start when you die, and that start randomly creates the world that you play through.

And I don't want to play through a whole different world each time, where everything is different to the last time I played. What I want for a solo game is for someone to lovingly craft a world, and then for me to learn that world inside out as I try to beat the various challenges in it*.

A few months ago

danieldwilliam sent me this link to a Neal Stephenson essay. And while I didn't agree with him about everything, the idea of "microdecisions" has stuck with me. That what makes art art isn't the idea (although good ideas are important) it's all of the ways that that idea was reified into the finished work.

A key quote:
Since the entire point of art is to allow an audience to experience densely packed human-made microdecisions—which is, at root, a way of connecting humans to other humans—the kinds of “art”-making AI systems we are seeing today are confined to the lowest tier of the grid and can never produce anything more interesting than, at best, a slab of marble pulled out of the quarry. You can stare at the patterns in the marble all you want. They are undoubtedly complicated. You might even find them beautiful. But you’ll never see anything human there, unless it’s your own reflection in the machine-polished surface.

And if that works for you - if staring at the swirling polished surfaces is what makes you happy, then I'm delighted for you. I've certainly been very entertained by generated patterns myself in the past. And I can totally be distracted by it for short periods of time. But when I'm looking for something actually *engaging* then right now it doesn't work for me. I need something human** in there.

Another example of this - movies. The more that special effects became good enough that movies could show me *anything* the more I wanted things with *character* in them. Things where you could tell that someone (or some group of someones) had really wanted to get something out of their brains so that other people could see the world the way they see it. I was discussing with

swampers the other day that we really appreciated the movies that A24 are putting out, because even when they're a bit of a mess they're a really interesting mess that someone had obviously cared about. The trailer for Eternity looks like it would absolutely annoy me in parts, but it would do so because I'd be experiencing someone's thoughts about the world, and I might learn something about them, and maybe also about me for engaging with it.

*Multiplayer games are different. When I played a ton of Minecraft with Julie I was happy for her to set the direction of what to make, and then I'd treat that as my challenge. But sandboxes with no set challenge don't interest me. And I have played a chunk of games like Slay The Spire or Balatro or Dead Cells . But even then I'd play for enough to get the hang of it and then stop, usually without actually beating it, because "Go back to the beginning and beat that for the 500th time so that you can spend 10 seconds losing the end before starting again" isn't much fun for me. Even with Hades, which does a great job of giving you a meta-story around each run that grows as you replay, I got all the way to fight Hades, lost near-instantly, and the thought of replaying the entire game for 20 minutes just to lose to him again filled me with exhaustion and I haven't been back since. If Noita had a "save" function and a set of specifically designed levels that were fun and were definitely beatable *and* a random world generator you could use once you'd played those levels then I'd probably have invested a lot of time in it.

**I am not against the idea that eventually AIs will achieve consciousness and attempt to impart something to us through the medium of art. And that would interest me. I just don't think that the generators we're currently investing in are that.

beatrice_otter posting in

fancake

Fandom: Pride and Prejudice
Pairings/Characters: Kitty Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy
Rating: 106k
Length: teen
Creator Links:

Shem
Theme: marriage of conveneince, rare pairings, old fandoms, book fandoms, epic works, novel-length, AU, happy endings,

Summary: The day after the Netherfield Ball, a simple walk through the countryside has wide reaching consequences for Mr Darcy and a certain young lady from Longbourn.

Reccer's Notes: This is such an engaging look at a very different pairing and what might have been. It's long, plotty, with lots of good character work and a great slow burn.

Fanwork Links: To Bear is to Conquer Our Fate

susandennis

The new coffee table won't be here Monday, it will be here a week from Monday. Fine. I did figure out where the other stuff will go. And how to add electricity and charging ports to it. So I'll be ready.

I went to Daiso and to Goodwill. It's so weird to go that far away. But mission totally accomplished. Daiso has far more things than it did last trip which was more than a year ago. And the prices are higher, of course, but it was fine and fun.

My 1st priority at Goodwill was a tissue box holder for the bedroom. Really. It had to be heavy and dark. I had one but in a mad chase one night about a month ago, Julio knocked it off the nightstand and it broke into more pieces than could be put back together. It's a difficult thing to shop on Amazon for because I wanted the cheapest I could find and heavy and, preferably not breakable. I found exactly that at Goodwill. $5. It's dark, it's kind of heavy like stone and feels like stone. And now my tissue box won't go flying every time I try to pull out one to blow my nose!

I also found some good hair colored sweaters to unravel and, best of all, ran out of steam before I could cause much more financial disaster. Home and lunched now.

I did get a text from Steve that the pool may be reopened today so volleyball could be back on tomorrow. I'm ok with that.

selenak

In which Gaal unleashes her inner Hari, and lots of revelations happen in all plotlines.

( Spoilers need to get the plan back on track by any means necessary )

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Munich

oursin

People on bluesky have been sending up the claim that GPT-5 boosts ChatGPT can provide PhD-level expertise.

After all, if you ask me for Mi Xpertise, you are likely to get 'it's complic8ed' and your ear bent with perhaps TMI on the subject, and what the areas of uncertainty are.

Do we not think that it would be more like having an overconfident mansplainer in one's pocket?

This led me to the teasing memory of a quotation, which I have tracked down and found has been researched in considerable depth here: Quote Origin: I Wish I Was As Sure of Any One Thing As He is of Everything.

It's fairly reliably attrib. to Lord Melbourne about the historian Thomas Macaulay (not, we fear, a member of the discipline given to declaring IAMC, sigh). Though it's been ascribed to various about various (funnily enough, all blokes) over the years.

susandennis

Mainly, I'm pretty sad this morning about my brother's wonderful dog. The two are spending their last weekend together and it's just sad. I'm getting used to seeing the old die but it's still mostly sad.

I have a fair number of friends here who are turning 89 this year. 1936 must have been a great year for sex. Several play volleyball. Last night I went down to scoop up some take out dinner from the buffet and ran into Steve (who's only about 85, I think) and Wally (one of the 89 year olds) and his wife, Marilyn. They were getting ready to go into the dining room and asked me to join them so I did. It was lovely. Wally had spent the afternoon watching the very long Mariners game that had just ended - as had I.

After dinner, I picked up my new sofa feet - the 2"ers to replace the 4"ers. Steve offered to come back and help but I said I thought I could do it and I did get them swapped out and, turns out 2" was right. Just enough height to make getting up easy.

Now I'm considering replacing my ottoman and c table with a coffee table that pops up. Actually, I just ordered it. Be here Monday. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the ottoman and c table. Well, the table will fit into storage but the ottoman... It will all work. And look less hodge podge.

Today I'm going to the Goodwill in Bellevue. I have two things I want and I think I can find them there rather than go into Seattle. It's not that much closer but a little easier to deal with maybe. And I might stop at that big Daiso store on my way home.

The shade rehanging was done gratis as it should have been. I swapped notes with the sales guy and thanked him and then revised my previously revised review - back up to 5 stars. All is good.

sasheneskywalker posting in

fancake

Fandom: The Queen's Gambit (TV)
Pairings/Characters: Beth Harmon/Benny Watts
Rating: Explicit
Length: 138,010 words
Creator Links:

paperclipbitch
Theme: marriage of convenience, future fic, slow burn, mutual pining, exes to friends to spouses to lovers, chess

Summary: “Don’t think of it as marriage,” Benny tells her. “Think of it as castling.”

Beth raises an eyebrow. “Am I the king or the rook in this analogy?”

Reccer's Notes: An amazing post-canon fic where Beth, frustrated by the period-typical sexism she keeps facing, marries Benny for convenience and now they’re stuck in a fake relationship full of unresolved tension, mutual pining, and all their messy issues (addiction, gambling, competitiveness). It’s smart, emotional, and so compelling. I loved every moment <3

Fanwork Links: you wait and you wonder who'll take on your odds

sabotabby

Today's post is ICHH's "Dogwhistle Politics and Nazi Code Hunting." Gare and Mia take a deep dive into what is, superficially, a comparatively minor issue—that of conspiratorial thinking on the left. They take as their jumping off point a tweet from the Gestapo featuring John Gast's "American Progress." It's an overtly fascist tweet because the artwork itself celebrates the genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the text reinforces that the poster thinks that this genocide is a good thing, and also because an overtly fascist organization that is currently carrying out a genocide tweeted it. If they'd tweeted a picture of kittens, it would still be a fascist tweet, because it is a fascist organization posting on a platform owned by fascists. Nevertheless, certain segments of the extremely online left and liberals have convinced themselves that there are also secret fascist messages in the tweet.

The basic thesis of the episode is, "no, you fools, they don't need to dogwhistle anymore because they are in power and doing fascism." But there's another, even more important point here, which is that we're all still basically stuck in 2016-7 and we need to be updating both our thinking and our strategies. I feel a certain way about this because for all that I mocked it back in the day, conspiratorial thinking worked very well for the right, and I sort of disagree with Gare and Mia that it won't reach a particular type of low-information voter who likes to feel privy to exciting secret knowledge. But also, it is counterproductive and has people who might otherwise be useful and productive chasing their tails playing numerology on X, the Everything App.

At any rate, it's an interesting psychological insight and as someone who is not immune from Extremely Online Thinking, it's a useful check-in.

andrewducker

1. DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest (about 1 in 7,000): (tags:incest dna )
2. US to rewrite its past national climate reports: (tags:usa globalwarming doom )

ysabetwordsmith posting in

followfriday

Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

Current Mood: busy

oursin

Happy birthday,

chickenfeet!

andrewducker

Last ever nursery drop off for Gideon.

He has Monday and Tuesday in a holiday club and then from Wednesday he's in school!

We've had a child in this nursery since 2019, it's going to be weird to not be there any more.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

$radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)$

radiantfracture

Old Fairview: White Lake Observatory

Mile 12.1 (4.4) – Half a mile further along, the access to White Lake Observatory turns right. (White Lake itself is the alkali pond opposite the Twin Lakes turnoff.)

Because of their electrical systems, which interfere with the operation of the radio-telescope, cars are not allowed on the road to the radio telescope. The big dish itself towers above the other installations, listening eternally to signals from outer space. The maze of poles and overhead wiring back towards Oliver are another form of radio-telescope, which pick up very long radio waves. The observatory is well worth walking the three-tenths mile; what's happening is completely incomprehensible to the layman, but fascinating nonetheless.

(1975/77)

* * * * * *

This observatory still exists, under the rather grander name of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory. It is, so the government website tells me, "an internationally renowned facility for radio astronomy and leading-edge instrumentation." Until just now, I had no idea that it existed.

DRAO is still, naturally, a radio-quiet site, which must be more difficult these days than in 1975.

Dave Stewart, author of Okanagan Backroads, is quite right about its fascination. I am absolutely a lay person, and yet statements like this are weirdly thrilling: "The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is Canada's largest radio telescope. ... CHIME has no moving parts, but the Earth's rotation allows the telescope to map all of Canada's visible sky every day. CHIME was designed to survey atomic hydrogen from the largest volume of the Universe to date." No real idea why that would be important to do (feel free to explain!), but I'm glad it's happening here.

They have a Perseids viewing party next week!

§rf§

Source: https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/nrc-facilities/dominion-radio-astrophysical-observatory-research-facility

silver_chipmunk

Slept til 11:45 again, finally got up and had breakfast and coffee. Was just finishing up when Linda came by and said she was going to Tops and did I want to come. I said yes, but needed to put on clothes cause I was still in my nightgown. She said OK, and I went and got dressed.

She met me at her cottage and we went in, I needed something to drink for the next two days as I finished my Vernor's yesterday. I got a bottle of Brisk iced tea, which I figure should be just about the the right amount. I also got some thing for

mashfanficchick, because it was there and I like to get zer something when I come up here, and I'm not saying what it is because ze reads this.

Anyway, we came back and I went back to the cottage and I forget what I did until I thought that I really should transplant those ferns if I was going to.

So I went back to Linda's and borrowed a trowel and dug up the little ferns that Betsy said I could have. I put them by the trillium where hopefully they'll root and be happy.

Then I sat on the porch and was reading. I finished Into the Water, which is a satisfying read, and I started something totally different, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint.

I was just starting it when who should appear but my cousin Janet. We sat on the porch and had a very nice visit. When she had to leave, it was just about 6:00ish.

I got a phone call from Duane Reade which as usual I didn't answer but now I wish I had. It was a real person, not an automated message saying it was about my prescriptions and I should call them back.

So I tried. But I was on hold for half an hour, and then I gave up. If they call back I'll answer, and I'll try again tomorrow.

Anyway, by then it was time to Team the FWiB, so I did. We had a nice talk. At 8:30 as usual I called Middle Brother. Nothing much to report on his end, all is well.

After that I decided to check out if there was any sort of sunset, and if anyone was watching it, but there wasn't, and no one was. So I decided to return Linda's trowel.

I went down, and they were just watching the end of something. Sue was there so I asked if I could join them and I did. We sat and talked for awhile, then Sue decided to go home to bed, and Linda said she'd walk the dog with her so I went too, and we walked Sue back to her cottage.

Then Linda and I walked back and I said good night, and had dinner. Then I made popcorn and had that, and then I read for awhile.

And now I'm starting here.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Got stuff at Tops.

3. My cousins.

4. Saw Janet.

5. Transplanted the ferns.

6. Middle Brother is doing well.

Current Mood: cheerful

Profile

Sasha

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March 2017

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Page Summary

azurelunatic - Disbelief, suspension thereof / therein
jenab - Summer eating
beatrice_otter in fancake - Silmarillion: By Other Means by SpaceWall
tentaclemod in pinchhits - Rare Male Slash Exchange Pinch Hits Due August 16th
redbird - J'm in Montreal
xkcd_feed - Disclaimer
andrewducker - What I'm looking for in art.
beatrice_otter in fancake - Pride and Prejudice: To Bear is to Conquer Our Fate by Shem
susandennis - ooops lost a week
selenak - Foundation 3.05
oursin - I really, really would lay odds it does not say 'it's all more complicated'
susandennis - Just stuff
sasheneskywalker in fancake - The Queen's Gambit (TV): you wait and you wonder who'll take on your odds
sabotabby - podcast friday
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 08-08-2025
ysabetwordsmith in followfriday - Follow Friday 8-8-25
oursin - (no subject)
andrewducker - Photo cross-post
radiantfracture - More from Okanagan Backroads Volume One
silver_chipmunk - Several things

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other dreams

Network

Disbelief, suspension thereof / therein

Summer eating

Silmarillion: By Other Means by SpaceWall

Rare Male Slash Exchange Pinch Hits Due August 16th

J'm in Montreal

Disclaimer

What I'm looking for in art.

Pride and Prejudice: To Bear is to Conquer Our Fate by Shem

ooops lost a week

Foundation 3.05

I really, really would lay odds it does not say 'it's all more complicated'

Just stuff

The Queen's Gambit (TV): you wait and you wonder who'll take on your odds

podcast friday

Interesting Links for 08-08-2025

Follow Friday 8-8-25

(no subject)

Photo cross-post

More from Okanagan Backroads Volume One

Several things

Profile

March 2017

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