Orchid updates! (Let's practice image posting with new site!)
Oct. 21st, 2025 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Obviously there are now more orchids. You knew this was happening. But there are also ones I've had for more than a full year.
( Come and see the orchid pictures! )
Weeks 41 and 42 - bit of a write off
Oct. 21st, 2025 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
#ORJENISE100 didn't get much done the last couple of weeks but I am plugging away at my master email account.
HOME: spiralled a bit back into chaos when I wasn't well - but have more or less clawed the kitchen, bathroom and hallway/stairs back from the brink!
HEALTH: it was a rough 10 days!
LIFE ADMIN: no progress for the last 2 weeks.
DIGITAL DECLUTTER: got my main email account down to 12500 emails before I got sick. Need to get back to that!
GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: nope.
COOKING/EATING: spent the last week living on tins of soup!
READING/LISTENING: nope.
WATCHING: quite enjoying Murder Before Evensong (an 80s version of Grantchester)!
CREATING/LEARNING: I did drag my unwell self to a pumpkin crochet class on Sunday 12 October and have since made 2 small and one medium pumpkins.
CATS: all good.
VOLUNTEERING: not recently.
SOCIALISING: Yes with
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WORK: still busy but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
This week is shaping up to be busy but not awful and the weekend should involve time spent on the allotment in the garden.
MultiLingYule 2025
Oct. 21st, 2025 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Maybe there are very few fanworks in your first, second, etc language, and you'd love to connect with a fellow speaker who's also a fellow fan.
Maybe you're learning a new language and getting a gift in it would be a delightful way to improve your fluency.
Maybe you just want to talk about how much you love conlangs and invite someone to incorporate conlangs into your gift.
The possibilities are multi-ple!
MultiLingYule is an opt-in challenge similar to Crueltide and Interactive Fiction. Comment here to let people know
-if you are interested in receiving gifts in languages other than English
-what languages those are
-what you're prompting (link your letter; if you don't have a letter, you can link your prompts on the app after requests are revealed)
-any other useful notes.
With a Mod Hat On
On the requesting side: if you would be happy if a gift in a different language were your only gift, please also note this in the optional details of your sign-up form. This prevents mod panic when we go to check assignments and need to figure out if someone can actually read their gift!On the creation side: unless someone has clearly indicated that a non-English work would suit as their only gift, gifts of that kind need be posted in Yuletide Madness, regardless of length. Works can only go in the main collection if they fulfil all the same requirements as an assigned gift.
Similarly, someone may be delighted to get a gift in a language you've just started to learn, and connect with you over enthusiasm for that language, but if you're posting a gift in the Main rather than the Madness collection, it should probably either be in a language you're fluent in or in a language you can call on fluent help for.
On the (tangential) beta side, people who can check text snippets, lines of dialogue, etc, in multiple languages are extremely valuable and appreciated, and if you can offer this service, please consider doing so when the beta post goes up.
AWS outage
Oct. 20th, 2025 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.
Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.
Babytide 2025
Oct. 19th, 2025 08:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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To enter, copy/paste and fill out the following form:
AO3 Username:
Letter Link:
Fandoms:
DNWs (if any):
Prompts:
Short-Form Fiction and Poetry 2025
Oct. 18th, 2025 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Ballad of the Mari Lwyd - Vernon Watkins
Benlian - Oliver Onions
Casting the Runes - M. R. James
The Changeling - psychomachia
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came - Robert Browning
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Craobh-Òir agus Craobh-Airgid | Gold Tree and Silver Tree (Fairy Tale)
The Day Before the Revolution - Ursula K. Le Guin
Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen
Fandom For Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad
FAQ: The "Snake Fight" Portion of Your Thesis Defense - Luke Burns
For Sale: Baby Shoes Never Worn - Anonymous
Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti
The Green Hills of Earth - Robert Heinlein (Short Story)
Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers - Alyssa Wong
Jorinde und Joringel | Jorinde and Joringel (Fairy Tale)
La Barbe bleue | Bluebeard - Charles Perrault
Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke (short story collection)
The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges
Little Red Riding Hood (Fairy Tale)
Lucifer's Wife - Eleanor M. Ingram
mulberry down!! - Nicole Kornher-Stace
Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad - M. R. James
Sandkings - George R. R. Martin
Seventy-Two Letters - Ted Chiang
Solitude - Ursula K. Le Guin
Sonata for Harp and Bicycle - Joan Aiken
A Study in Emerald - Neil Gaiman
There is No Antimemetics Division - qntm
Two Loves - Lord Alfred Douglas (Poem)
The Very Pulse of the Machine - Michael Swanwick
Wind Will Rove - Sarah Pinsker
Wulf and Eadwacer (old English, modern English)
Yudah Cohen Series - Rebecca Fraimow (one, two, three)
Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne | East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Fairy Tale)
Wrapping Paper 2025
Oct. 18th, 2025 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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The Wrapping Paper art challenge for Yuletide is an opportunity for those who love art to opt-in to giving and receiving art treats! Comment here to request art, and/or read the comments to find someone to treat.
Please be sure to post your treats to the Madness Collection; art is not permitted in the main collection. Please respect your recipient's wishes as to whether they'd like art as a treat. Tag your treats with "Wrapping Paper" to help them be found!
If you want to receive art, please provide this info in the comments:
Happy treating!
(If you're here from the future in 2026 and want to post Wrapping Paper yourself because it's taken a while to go up: feel free!)
Today I learned...
Oct. 18th, 2025 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
( Do not judge me. Sometimes I just wonder why things are. )
Well that borked my plans
Oct. 18th, 2025 10:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Unfortunately I was incubating something and on the evening of Friday 10th I went to bed very early and woke up sick on Saturday. I made it to a pumpkin crochet class on Sunday and survived the week at work by staying as far away as possible from colleagues and more or less going to bed as soon as I got home and living on tinned soup and pasta.
Still not feeling great but a bit better than last weekend but I have done nothing around sorting the flat out - in fact many things spiralled backwards because I had very few spoons the last 7 days!
I am hoping to reclaim my kitchen and bathroom today.
Apparently Question of the Day is
The definition of an antique is something that is 100 years old – do you own anything that old?
Yes - most of the furniture in the cottage and flat is probably that old, as are some pictures and ornaments, my oil lamp collection and some of my jewellery, plus several books.
Interactive Fiction in the 2025 Tagset
Oct. 18th, 2025 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds
1. Claire (16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds)
2. Lucy (16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds)
Changeling Charade on Choice of Games website or Steam
1. Alistair Farrington
2. Rowan Forester
3. Valentine Dupont
4. Worldbuilding (Changeling Charade)
Freshman Magic: Spellbooks and Tangled Sheets Choice of Games website or Steam
1. Alistair (Freshman Magic)
2. Halim (Freshman Magic)
3. Main Character (Freshman Magic)
4. Worldbuilding (Freshman Magic)
Keeper Series - Brynn Chernosky (tumblr link, but it has links to places to play in the sidebar)
1. Astrid Adtaz (Keeper Series)
2. Cressida Monroe (Keeper Series)
3. Female Main Character (Keeper Series)
Lady Thalia series (interactive fiction)
1. Margaret "Mel" Williams (Lady Thalia series)
2. Matthew "Yorkie" Barker (Lady Thalia series)
3. Oscar Knight (Lady Thalia series)
4. Theodora "Thalia" Knight (Lady Thalia series)
Stay? - E. Jade Lomax
1. Esteban
2. Myka
3. Jo
4. Worldbuilding
Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives - Jeffrey Dean Choice of Games website or Steam
1. Arundel
2. Qui
3. Robert Ward
Podcasts/Audio Series in the 2025 Tagset
Oct. 17th, 2025 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Please comment with anything I've missed!
( Read more... )
Unconventionyule
Oct. 16th, 2025 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 Name:
Letter Link:
Requested Fandoms:
Format(s): (e.g. epistolary, poetry, spreadsheets, social media)
(Optional) Prompts:
Tag your work with Unconventionyule and/or Unconventional Format to help others find your works!
Chromatic Yuletide 2025
Oct. 16th, 2025 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Posting requirements:
Your request centers around at least one character of colour.
(I acknowledge there are some shortcomings with the "person of colour" descriptor. I'm also not going to police who is or isn't a character of colour; please just use your best judgment.)
To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 name:
Letter link:
Fandom:
Characters:
What is it? description of canon or a link to a canon promo (optional)
What kind of thing am I requesting? also optional
If you post a fic for Yuletide with one or more POC characters, tag it with Chromatic Yuletide so people can find it easily!
Webcomic fandoms you can offer/request in Yuletide 2025
Oct. 16th, 2025 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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A roundup all the webcomic fandoms in the 2025 tag set (plus all the characters you can request for each one), including links to where you can read them online. Fandoms are in the order/format AO3 puts the tags in.
I tried to flag everything that was (a) NSFW and/or (b) at least partly paywalled. If I missed any examples of that, please let me know!
( Comics, on the web, (mostly) free to get and easy to read )
TransTide 2025
Oct. 15th, 2025 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Since trans headcanons and the portrayal of trans characters can be personal for many people, writers might be nervous to write trans headcanons without invitation. This mini challenge is for people to signal that they would love to receive trans headcanons, as well as to showcase their requested fandoms with canon trans characters.
Note that this exchange is open to nonbinary characters as well.
To participate, simply copy-paste the following into a comment:
AO3 name:
Letter link:
Likes and DNWs:
Fandom:
Characters:
Details:
If you post a fic for Yuletide with one or more trans characters, tag it with TransTide so people can find it easily
Poems and Ballads in the 2025 tagset
Oct. 15th, 2025 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Allison Gross (Traditional Ballad)
Ballad of the Mari Lwyd - Vernon Watkins
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came - Robert Browning
Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker
The Epic of Gilgamesh [Akkadian]
Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti
Heer Halewijn (Traditional Ballad) [Dutch]
Her strong enchantments failing - A.E. Housman
Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight - Anonymous (Song)
Nibelungenlied [Middle High German]
The Odyssey - Homer [Ancient Greek]
The Romance of Silence [Old French]
Summoned By Bells - John Betjeman
Tam Lin - Anonymous (Song)
Two Loves - Lord Alfred Douglas
The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot
Wulf and Eadwacer [Old English] (original, modern English translations one, two, three, note)
赠答诗 - 金车美人 (弘农) | Poems Composed in Reply - Beautiful Woman in a Golden Carriage (Hong Nong) [Classical Chinese]
Bonus: poets for RPFing in the tagset include:
- Richard I of England (in 12th Century CE RPF)
- Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Shelley, and Herman Melville (in 19th Century CE Literary RPF)
- Enheduanna (in Mesopotamian RPF)
- Christopher Marlowe (in 16th Century CE RPF and in Shakespeare RPF)
- Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare (in Shakespeare RPF)
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Sappho (in Women's Literary RPF).
Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational
Oct. 15th, 2025 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Are you going through the tagset, thinking about your signup, and getting lured down plotbunny holes?
Well, if you are entranced by tiny canons, luscious fandom promos, or letters with prompts that you absolutely adore, and you've got to do something to appease the itty bitty plot bunnies that are nibbling at your ankles, the Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational is back to meet all your "I don't have time or brain enough to do 1000 words, but that idea is still keen" needs.
How does it work?
Write drabbles or drabble series for Yuletide Madness. Proper ones, where the text of each drabble is exactly 100 words, please. Ficlets are fun, but not all ficlets are drabbles in just the same way as not all poems are sonnets. (You can, of course, post a 1000 word tale told in drabbles, where each chapter/bit is exactly 100 words to the main Yuletide collection, if you like. Just be sure that it is eligible to fulfill the main gift rules for that recipient.)
Give them to people.
Add "yumadrin" or "Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational" to the tags.
That's it!
*******
As of the start of Yuletide 2025 we have created 939 drabbles, the oldest ones from 2013 when the Invitational. We are so close to a thousand! These little mini-gifts are a lot of fun to give, and to get, and they're fun to create as well. Check out the tag to see what we mean!
https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Yuletide%20Madness%20Drabble%20Invitational/works