bismuth209

So I got a postcard today informing me that I made the Dean's List?

Someone explain how proud I should be of this. It's a community college, and I only took two classes this summer, but that's also after having taken no classes for eleven years and with ADHD, so.

Like, I'm on board with being pleasantly chuffed, but is this a "Go out to dinner at a reasonably fancy restaurant to celebrate" kind of situation, a "Brag to all my friends and relatives" situation, or what?

(My parents are very proud, and insisted I put the postcard on the fridge. My mom also confided in me that she never made the Dean's List when she was in school, even once. And she did go to a junior college, but she also went to an actual university, so. Data point not entirely helpful.)

Current Mood: confused

beatrice_otter

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

other things to keep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general. I don't care for explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot). I love it when friendship is held up as important and not secondary to romantic relationships and blood ties.

Please no incest or darkfic. I define "darkfic" as stuff where there's a lot of suffering and no hope even at the end and all the characters are terrible. Angst with a happy ending is fine, I enjoy it, but there's gotta be a payoff. Even an ambiguous ending is fine! But there has to be some note of grace or redemption or hope somewhere, it can't just be "people are awful and the world sucks, the end." I define incest as siblings and/or parents, cousins don't count.

I love outsider perspectives and academic takes on things. In-universe meta (newspaper articles, academic monographs--especially with the sort of snarky feuding common in actual real-world academia, social media feeds in current day or future worlds) is awesome.

Also, I'm picky about European historical clothing details. You don't have to talk about it at all! In fact, if you don't know much about historical clothing, I would prefer if you didn't mention it at all. My pet peeve is corsets: no, they weren't a restrictive tool of the patriarchy, no, they didn't interfere with most women's daily lives, no, most women weren't wearing them so tight they couldn't breathe.

I like religion but I'm picky about it. Basically, Christianity is deeply weird compared to most other religions, and a lot of people whose only experience with religion is living in a culturally-Christian nation assume that what they know about Christianity is some sort of universal principle of What Religion Is Like, and that's just not the case. For example, in Christianity what you believe is more important than what you do. This is not to say we Christians don't teach and practice Christian ethics or have rituals we are very attached to, but rather that if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what rituals you participate in or what ethical things you do, you are not a Christian (although you may be a "cultural Christian"). Every Christian group has at least a minimal core theology that members must affirm, but participation in ritual is far less rigidly a requirement. Most other religions rank what you do (both ethically and ritually) as more important than what you believe, and it is often quite possible to be a member in good standing if you participate in the practices and rituals even if you believe none of the teachings. Anyway, point is, if you are doing worldbuilding for a fantasy or SF or otherwise non-Christian religion ... unless it is explicitly a Christian-analogue, it should be different from Christianity. Question your assumptions and see where that leads you, and I will be fascinated and thrilled.

( Fandom for Robots )

( Peter Wimsey )

( Rivers of London )

( DS9 )

( TOS )

( TNG )

( Oh, My General )

( Thrawn Trilogy )

( Goblin Emperor )

conuly

We are not responsible for your lost or stolen relatives.
We cannot guarantee your safety if you disobey our instructions.
We do not endorse the causes or claims of people begging for handouts.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.

Your ticket does not guarantee that we will honor your reservations.
In order to facilitate our procedures, please limit your carrying on.
Before taking off, please extinguish all smoldering resentments.

If you cannot understand English, you will be moved out of the way.
In the event of a loss, you’d better look out for yourself.
Your insurance was cancelled because we can no longer handle
your frightful claims. Our handlers lost your luggage and we
are unable to find the key to your legal case.

You were detained for interrogation because you fit the profile.
You are not presumed to be innocent if the police
have reason to suspect you are carrying a concealed wallet.
It’s not our fault you were born wearing a gang color.
It is not our obligation to inform you of your rights.

Step aside, please, while our officer inspects your bad attitude.
You have no rights we are bound to respect.
Please remain calm, or we can’t be held responsible
for what happens to you.

***********

Link

conuly

“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”

Not many of us get to die for our beliefs.

soc_puppet

I've finished both my fics for

pokepodproject! The first one (Xatu) is already submitted to the collection, while I want to give the second one (Sneasel) another going-over before I submit it.

I also managed to finish an extra short about Smeargle; I'm waiting to see if Smeargle needs a pinch hit before I submit it anywhere. If Smeargle's covered, the fic will still go up as a Rare Candy.

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted and commented on

bnha_fans.

Commented on

addme.

Commented on

common_nature.

Commented on

anime_manga.

Current Mood: busy

conuly

And they now expect the part in tomorrow, at which point we should be able to make an appointment to repair.

As I reiterated - but briefly, because the person making the call was not responsible for this situation - a delay in shipping is one thing, but lack of communication is something very different.

kitewithfish

What I Read
Space Opera by Catherynne Valente – I think this is a book about hope and about regret and about really excellent coats and having sex with the first alien you meet. It’s so good on a sentence by sentence level that I can’t decide if the I’m disappointed by comparing the writing to the plot. I’d recommend it – I’m only getting a fraction of the musician jokes. I didn’t want to finish it because then it would be over. Like a lot of stories where the stakes are “the end of the world,” it feels like a forgone conclusion that they’ll pull it off eventually, but Valente does a very good job of seeding all the components of the ending steadily throughout the book. If you like her short stories, and I do, it feels like a well-organized collection of those about the same characters, right up until the end.

What I'm Reading
The Revolutionary Temper — Robert Darnton – like 75% paused because the library called the book back. Really interesting and easy to read look at the writing and ideas in the early French Revolution – thanks to Jo Walton for mentioning it at Reactor Magazine in her monthly reading round-up. I will pick this up when the library releases me from audiobook purgatory.

Lent by Jo Walton – A re-read for a book club – 50% in and I have stopped because book club meets soon and I was clear about not reading ahead. It’s a great book to read and a great book to re-read. I cried, as I have before, but in new places, and caught new allusions that Jo Walton was weaving into the text. (“’Will there be poetry in heaven?’, he asked, like a child”!)

I really enjoyed the book’s comfort with ambiguity – our main character is a monk born in the 1450s. His values not our values, his thoughts are not our thoughts - Walton’s fictional history is doing a better job than a lot of straight history narratives of making the past as weird and human as our current day. Savonarola is trying so hard to be a good person and doing it thru a framework that is at times familiar and a times totally alien.

It pairs oddly wells with The Other Olympians, where the past was both familiar and utterly foreign, and the author walks us thru the differences; and with She Who Became the Sun/ He Who Drowned the World, where fantasy allows the reader to believe the same things that a historical figure in China might have believed.

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing Sofi Thanhauser with Rebecca Lowman - just started, suddenly there's a lot of New England clothing history?? Nice!

What I'll Read Next
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin for book club
Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
Monsters and Mainframes?
I feel due for a Pratchett.

soc_puppet

Week one for Social Problems class:
- Read one chapter of your textbook
- Write an essay on a half-hour documentary

Week two for Social Problems class:
- Read one chapter of your textbook
- Write an essay on a half-hour documentary

This week for Social Problems class:
- Read two chapters of your textbook, one for Tuesday and one for Thursday
- Write an essay on a two(-and-a-half?) hour documentary

Next week for Social Problems class:
- Read two chapters of your textbook, also one for Tuesday and one for Thursday
- At least there's no documentary to write an essay on!
- Oh wait, you get to study for an exam taking place on the first day of Week 5 instead
- Welp! Good luck with that!

~~I'll tell you what a social problem is, I'm going to be a social problem if I have to keep this up 🤬~~

Okay. Okay, I can do this. I'm very glad I checked the class schedule today, because that means I can get a solid handle on my energy needs and get started on that reading ASAP. I can manage this. (If I didn't like these teachers I would be so fucked.)

Edit: Just emailed my Intro to Human Services teacher (not this class, but also more homework-heavy than I'd like) to say that I'm borderline struggling and also help please. She's been pretty vocal about wanting to help us if she can, so. Fingers crossed!

Current Mood: bitchy

conuly

I sent them another voicemail and email saying that a delay in shipping or even ordering a part may be acceptable, understandable, or forgivable, but lack of communication is none of those things and if they don't get back to me with an ETA on this repair then they'll have to refund our deposit so we can call somebody else.

Either way, I know how I'm spending the next few hours (laundromat) and how I'm spending tomorrow morning (phone).

soc_puppet

pokepodproject fics:
- Xatu: Posted!
- Sneasel: First draft finished! Up next: Typing

summerofthe69:
- Fest closed for the year
- Amnesty period open

Homework:
- Keeping up with it 👍
- Good grades so far ✌

Socchan in general:
- Uh...
- Uhhhhh...

(I think it's mostly not getting quite enough sleep? ~~Plus, you know, the background fascism.~~ I read ahead in one of my textbooks, and I'm taking this upcoming Sunday off, so that should help some. Also, Sot69 is done for the year, so I don't have to worry about or work on that at all. Once PokéPod is done, I'll have no major fandom obligations that I can't just schedule posts for, so I'm hoping that I'll be doing better in two weeks.)

Current Mood: exhausted

alias_sqbr

I have been SUPER sore lately which means I've had to put pretty much all creative things on hold and I am BORED. So here, have some half assed reviews off the top of my head.

Squeakross, Roots of Pacha, Silksong, Chants of Sennar, Blue Prince, A Little to the Left

KPop Demon Hunters

The Murderbot Diaries

( Read more... )

soc_puppet

Honestly, this helps me psych myself up and keep on top of stuff, so I might make it a weekly thing. Just a heads up.

( Homework report )

( Fandom projects )

Okay, looking good! I'm going to try and finish my written assignments for class tonight, and if I do so with enough time/energy left over, I may "reward" myself by typing up and posting my first completed Poképod Project draft.

Edit: Ah, frick, I forgot I still have to make tea for work tomorrow!

Current Mood: productive

conuly

I had absolutely no idea!

*********************

( Read more... )

soc_puppet

Me, today: Okay, this is it! Today, I'm going to be really good, and do my class readings and work on my homework, so I can take tomorrow off and finish anything else up on Sunday!

Me: *spends free time writing fanfic and not!fic instead*

Me: ...Well, that didn't work.

---

I'm going to try and at least read a chapter or two of my textbook before going to sleep, if nothing else. Damn you, college homework!

soc_puppet

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

vriddy

A friend warmly recommended a book series to me and I just started it, and It Is Fine! However!! The author is fond of peppering ominous "Little did I know this would be the last time I spoke to X" or "If only I had known what would happen next" or "Maybe if I'd done this instead of that, it wouldn't all have gone so wrong" and while I can enjoy one, maybe two well-placed ones per book, at this level I'm finding it massively irritating. I don't even like "vibes" spoilers in general! Nothing pisses me off more than comments like "oooh you guys are gonna suffer" from people who read leaks or advance previews of whatever's popular, especially when I usually make it clear I don't want to know a thing before I start!

Right now it feels like I'm reading next to someone who goes "ooooh I wouldn't get too attached!!" whenever I think "oh I like this character", or "it's not going to go the way you think!!" when I simply thought to myself "hm interesting." Leave me alone!! 😂

Just took a pause after hitting one of those around page 200, about midway in the book. I know these people's plans keep failing! Something always goes wrong!! People die!! I don't need the warnings anymore!!!!!!! XD

Current Mood: grumbly

alias_sqbr

Feeling sore enough today it feels worth taking note of, though I've been feeling sore and tired in general for the last month or two of Continuous Stresses. But today there have been painful spasms! I don't get that very often and am Not A Fan.

Also, relatedly...

( family stuff )

beatrice_otter

... the more often I notice little details that are wrong in movies and books.

Like, most recently, I watched a few minutes of Saving Private Ryan, which included the delivery of the telegram about most of her sons dying to Mrs. Ryan. She is doing dishes in the kitchen when she looks out the window and sees a car driving up. She is wearing an apron. She goes to the door to greet the Official Men who are coming.

Me: ... why isn't she taking off the apron, or replacing it with a clean one, or flipping it around?

I have heard stories from multiple women about their mothers working really hard to always have a perfectly pristine apron whenever unexpected company showed up, the 1930s version of "we can't let anybody know we live here!" So, for example, women who would wear their aprons inside out, so that they could flip it around whenever the doorbell rang, and know the pretty side would be perfectly clean. Or women who would take their aprons off and stuff them in a drawer when they saw a car drive up, and pretend they hadn't been working in the kitchen or scrubbing the floor or whatever. Or run to the kitchen and swap out their everyday apron for the fancy one with the ruffles and embroidery or whatnot. In every case, the idea was for the apron to look like a fashion statement, and not an actual functional garment.

But the thing is, no piece of fiction is ever going to be 100% perfect in its presentation of the past, no matter how much they try for accuracy; if for no other reason than that lots of the past simply gets forgotten about. Nobody can possibly know every detail about what life was like in an era before they were born, even if they've studied it extensively. (And the further back in time you go, the less stuff it is possible to know.) And even if you could be accurate, the accuracy might not fit with the story you're trying to tell; it might distract from an emotional moment, or it might signal something completely different to modern eyes, or it might just not register to modern people unless you took the time to stop and explain what's going on. All of which interfere with telling the story you're trying to tell.

So for me, it's a lot of "they're not wrong to do it that way, that I find it annoying is totally a ME issue and not an objective problem with the story.

conuly

(And who knew there was a whole event for skating in inflatables!?)

Watch on YouTube

*******************************

( Read more... )

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bismuth209

May 2024

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We Are Not Responsible by Harryette Mullen

Let his own words be his epitaph

In more fun news

Community Thursday

Finally got a call back from the repairfolk

Wednesday Reading Meme for Sept 10, 2025

Fuuuuuuuck

Still no repair response

Status report

Half Assed Reviews

Homework report

TIL: the words broccoli and brocade come from the same root

Oops

Not!Fic: Tipping the Scales

inline? in-book? spoilers

Bluuuh

The more time I spend talking to elderly people and reading history ...

Chicken jockey, video from isis

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