cornerofmadness

I usually buy only milk and yogurt. Last week I bought a little carton of coffee cream (18%). This morning I enjoyed cream both in my coffee and on my oatmeal.

It's been a pretty good six months. I probably won't get around to trying to write a summary. I've been intermittently reading you all, although not commenting.

Here at latitude 53 sunset is at 4:15 pm today. I don't enjoy the long nights. Only two more weeks to the solstice!

prettyarbitrary

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

shipperslist

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

sylvanwitch

Greetings, fellow travelers on this rocky fitness road!

Now is the time when every media outlet is publishing their "best of" lists and retrospectives of the year, and it makes me feel like I should be doing something similar with our little community, as well, but honestly, I probably won't. So, I do encourage you, if it's your thing, to look back over where you've been in the context of where you are fitness-wise, and, of course, feel free to apply that to where you're going, as well.

Otherwise, please, as always, share how the week has gone for you and what, if any, plans you have for the week ahead in terms of fitness (or in any other aspect of your life, if you're so inclined to share).

( My Week in Review )

As ever, I am sending you all the good vibes I can spare, friends!

stonepicnicking_okapi

from Duke Ellington's Jazz Nutcracker

Watch on YouTube

sanguinity

An anon on tumblr asked me about my writing habits, and since half of my writing community is over here, I thought I'd cross-post the question and answer, in case it's interesting to anyone else.

would you be willing to elaborate on your writing routine? you seem like a very consistent writer, and as someone who's not, i'm always curious how people approach their writing. do you set aside a particular amount of time/word goal/just go with the flow? do you have a single piece that you'll work on or does it jump around? do you have a way to push through writer's block or do you take a break? feel free to say as much or as little as you want ofc, but i've just been curious after seeing the few things you've said on here about it, and i'm trying to get better about my own writing routine 😅

( General process )

( Specific questions )

(Side note: does anyone know if DW has markdown code for adding a cut? Copying from tumblr to DW would have been a lot easier with it...)

shipperslist

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

bluapapilio

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

Current Mood: drained

kingstoken posting in

fandomtrees

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

badly_knitted

Title: Responsibility
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Varian, Dr Jordan, the travellers.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 479: To The End at

drabble_zone.
Setting: During the series.
Summary: Varian had never expected to find himself leading the group of travellers, but he’ll do the best he can.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
A/N: Triple drabble.

( Responsibility... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

duskpeterson

The Emorian borderland, like the remainder of the borderland, is famed for the friendliness of its villagers. Despite that, do not be surprised if you are asked to pay for your room and board. Past foreign visitors have often taken advantage of the villagers in order to escape the high price of inns elsewhere in Southern Emor.

In the westernmost villages, you will find a blend of Emorian and Daxion life; though no bards live here, villagers can often be heard singing. As you travel further east, the singing will slowly cease, replaced by talk of blood-lineages and the seven gods and goddesses. You are now in the portion of the Emorian borderland that lies north of Koretia.

The borderland is the only part of Emor where vineyards can be found. Despite the relative coolness of the Emorian borderland, Emor's wines are among the best in the Three Lands. Especially popular is sweetened wild-berry wine (don't try the unsweetened variety unless you enjoy bitter drinks, which you probably do if you're Koretian) and wall-vine wine, made of a mild-tasting grape that grows only in the Emorian borderland.

Farming is also common here. Eastern mainlanders who farm will find much to interest them in these lands that have been plowed since ancient times.

Travelling east, you will eventually reach a crossroads. To travel on to Emor's capital, turn left.

[Translator's note: Hidden Blade shows life in an Emorian borderland village.]

badly_knitted

Title: Outrageous!
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1286
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Ianto isn’t at all happy when he finds out what Jack has been reading.
Written For: The prompt ‘Any, Any, your OTP reading fanfiction where one of their characters is involved with someone other than each other (crackfic!)’, at

threesentenceficathon.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.

( Outrageous!... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

spikedluv

I did two loads of laundry, hand-washed dishes, ran a load in the dishwasher, went for a walk with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and changed kitty litter. I also placed a couple of Christmas orders. I made corned beef (one of Pip’s faves) for supper.

I started the next Amelia Peabody book and watched an HGTV program and most of the Bills game. I say most because I missed the entire fourth quarter (Best Part of the Game!!) due to making supper at that time. When I left the bedroom tv, the score was 28–18, Bills losing. The final was 39–34, Bills won! I mean, I’m glad they won, but I wish I’d seen it!

I also got more Christmas cards done! (If you haven't requested one, but would like a Christmas card from me, comment here!)

Temps started out at 30.9(F) and reached 37.9. The top layer of snow melted enough to be slippery, but it didn't feel warm.

Mom Update:

Mom was not feeling well today when I talked to her. ( more back here )

kitarella_imagines

Too Many Of You Fellas Are Bent

Chapter 5 – The Liaisons

A scandalous assignation (or two).

***

The morning after the party, most of the staff turned up at CI5 headquarters feeling worse for wear. Apart from Dave, who had retired now and could sleep in at home. And Cowley. Being Scottish he could drink everyone under the table twice over, so he was bright eyed and bushy tailed as ever. He barked orders at the half asleep Bodie and Doyle, then shooed them out of his office as he was expecting an important phone call from the Minister.

So they went to sit in the break room just to gather their strength before going out on the assignment.

“Looks like our matchmaking with Lucas and McCabe worked, didn’t it?” said Doyle, yawning. “Only took a nudge to start them off.”

“Yeah. It was all us, they did nothing.” Bodie smirked as he made extra strong coffee for them both.

“We might be into covering for them mode now though.”

“We must be careful. Cowley won’t like his agents getting off with each other.”

“Hmm…he won’t, will he. S’pose we’ll have to distract him.”

“With bottles of scotch, aye laddie. Keep him drunk all day.” Bodie’s Scottish accent was not very good.

“Drunk all day. Imagine.” Doyle grinned.

Then Cowley shouted for them, and they hurried off to listen to a lecture about how he suspected someone had spiked the punch last night, did they know anything about it? And at a party with little alcohol, why had the majority of guests fallen asleep during the presentation of Dave’s gifts and cutting the cake? Some had snored so loudly it had interfered with the speeches.

Bodie and Doyle however, looked the picture of innocence, smiling sweetly at their boss.

“Luckily for you two, despite all that, Dave told me what a wonderful time he’d had, he was touched by how deeply people appreciated him. So it turned out alright in the end,” finished Cowley, still staring suspiciously at his agents. “Anyway. Away with you on your assignment today. I'll be keeping a very close eye on you, laddies.”

“Yes, sir,” they chorused, sidling out of the office door together. Luckily the case was just a stakeout as they didn't feel up to much else today.

“He knows what we did, for sure,” said Doyle, rubbing his eyes as he settled into the driver’s seat.

“Think he’ll punish us?”

( Read more... )

Current Mood: giggly

ysabetwordsmith

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Holiday Activities
Today's Cooking
Climate Change
Christmas Bird Count
Birdfeeding
Holiday Activities
Affordable Housing
Read "The Sound of Celebration"
Economics
Science
Today's Adventures
Climate Change
Philosophical Questions: Trends
Today's Cooking
Activism
Economics
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 12-5-25: Active Communities on Dreamwidth Fall 2025 J-Z
Photos: House Yard
Today's Adventures
Activism
Art
Birdfeeding
Wildlife
Poem: "Protect the Inner Core"
Photography
Birdfeeding
Poem: "Never -- Ever -- Quit"
Self-Care Wednesday
Cuddle Party

Trauma has 45 comments. Affordable Housing has 75 comments. Robotics has 101 comments.

The 2025 Holiday Poetry Sale will run Monday, December 15 through Friday 19. This is a good place to spend holiday money or buy a gift for a fellow bookworm. \o/

Winterfaire 2025 is now open! List a Booth for anything you sell that would make good holiday gifts, or comment with what you're shopping for to crowdsource ideas. There are links to two similar shopping events online. if you know others, please pass the word.

"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv. It has 44 new verses and needs $72 to be complete. Shiv and his classmates discuss magical weather, magical geography, natural resources, plants and animals, history, and other aspects of worldbuilding.

The weather has been cold and snowy here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, several mourning doves, one female and two male cardinals, and a dark-eyed junco.

Current Mood: busy

malurette

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

ysabetwordsmith

The Fragile Heart’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays

Because I know I’m not the only one facing the challenges that this time of year makes even harder. Perhaps it’s your first holiday after your divorce and you’ll be away from your kids, or you’ve been laid off in this terrible economy; perhaps anticipatory grief won’t let you forget that this will be your last Hanukkah with a beloved relative. Maybe you’re facing a scary health challenge. There are as many ways to be emotionally rocked this holiday season as there are on needles on a Christmas tree.

This article offers some good advice for treating emotional injuries over the holiday season.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today I'm making Lemon Thumbprint Cookies. :D The first filling is Lemon-Elderflower from Berries & Flour and the second is bettergoods Raspberry, Cardamom & Rosehip Fruit Spread. We've tried the Lemon-Elderflower first and that jam is quite strong. Thumbprint cookies are the perfect use because there's only about 1/4 teaspoon in each. On toast it might be overpowering. Another good use would be thinning it down to glaze for a fruit salad or tart.

Current Mood: accomplished

fauxklore

I didn’t do much in New York. It was cold out, with some drizzle. I did walk around midtown some. I had vaguely intended to go see the balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade being inflated, but decided I just wasn’t up to dealing with the crowds.

I did, however, take advantage of being in NYC to go to the theatre. There were a few possibilities for last minute tickets and I chose Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York. This is a two person musical. Dougal is a young British man who has never met his father, who abandoned his mother before he was born. Dougal’s father is marrying Robin’s sister, and Robin is running errands for the wedding, including meeting Dougal at the airport and picking up the wedding cake in Brooklyn. Dougal is very excited about visiting New York but is, er a bit confused about American geography. For example, he’s looking forward to seeing the Golden Gate Bridge. Anyway, their relationship takes some interesting turns as it turns out neither of them is really supposed to be going to the wedding for various reasons. I found the show very funny, though I didn’t find much of the score especially memorable. The best song, in my opinion, is “Dearly Beloved,” in which Dougal and Robin imagine getting married in a Chinese restaurant. And the performers were both excellent. I should also note that the Longacre Theatre is one of the oldest Broadway theaters and I found my seat rather uncomfortable, largely because it had a weird step in the middle of it. So if you go, you might want to avoid an aisle seat in the last few rows of the orchestra section.

The next day was Thanksgiving. I walked over to try to see a bit of the parade, but the cold air and the crowd made me give up quickly. It turned out that I could hear most of the marching bands from my hotel room. I took an early afternoon train down to D.C. While Amtrak was about a half hour late, the metro behaved well and I had short waits for both the red and orange line trains home. I ate the most pathetic Thanksgiving dinner of my life - a bowl of Count Chocula cereal! I started unpacking but decided most of that could wait until the morning.

Thus ends the travelogue. I’ll move on to writing about other things tomorrow.

rocky41_7 posting in

booknook

Title: Brahma's Dream
Author: Shree Ghatage
Genre: Fiction, historical fiction, family drama

Brahma's Dream by Shree Ghatage was a book I snatched out of a pile of stuff my sister was giving away last year, but she'd never gotten around to reading it herself, so she couldn't give me a preview. Brahma's Dream is set in India just before it gains self-rule, and concerns the family of Mohini, a child whose serious illness dominates her life.

This is one of those middle-of-the-road books that was neither amazingly good nor offensively bad, and therefore I struggle to come up with much to say about it. That makes it sound bad, but it isn't--I enjoyed my time with it. I thought Ghatage did a good job with exploring life on the precipice of great political change, although the history and politics of 1940s India is more backdrop to the family drama than central to the story. I liked Mohini and her family; because the nature of her illness necessitates a lot of rest and down time, Mohini is naturally a thoughtful child, as her thoughts are sometimes all she has to amuse herself. However, she never crosses the line into being precocious, which was a relief.

Neither did I feel like the book leaned too hard on Mohini's illness to elicit sentimentality from the reader. Obviously, an illness like hers is the biggest influence on her life, and on the lives of her immediate family, and there are many moments you sympathize with her because she can't just be a child the way she wants to be, but I didn't feel like Ghatage was plucking heartstrings just for the sake of it.

Reading the relationships between Mohini and her family was heartwarming, especially with her grandfather, who takes great joy in Mohini's intellect and is often there to discuss the import of various societal events with her.

Ghatage's descriptive writing really brings to life the India of the time, with the colors, smells, sounds, and sights that are a part of Mohini's every day.

It reminded me of another book I read about a significant event in Indian history (the separation of India and Pakistan) told through the perspective of a young ill girl, Cracking India.

On the whole, this was a sweet, heartfelt book. It's not heavy on plot, but if you enjoy watching the story of a family unfold and the little dramas that play out, it's enjoyable.

Profile

cornerofmadness

Navigation

December 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Page Summary

cathrowan - A little treat
prettyarbitrary - (no subject)
shipperslist - meme: 30 songs of importance, post #7
sylvanwitch - Fitness Fellowship 2025: Check-in 49
stonepicnicking_okapi - Music Monday: Sugar Rum Cherry by Duke Ellington
sanguinity - It's all Idiosyncracy, All the Way Down
shipperslist - signal boost: voiceinmyear
bluapapilio - 🌈BL Webnovel Check-in: "The Chairman's Mistaken Canary" ch. 1-7
kingstoken in fandomtrees - Mod Post: Masterlist
badly_knitted - The Fantastic Journey Triple Drabble: Responsibility
duskpeterson - FIC: Emorian borderland (Tempestuous Tours)
badly_knitted - Ficlet: Outrageous!
spikedluv - The Day in Spikedluv (Sunday, Dec 7)
kitarella_imagines - Monday Storytime- The Professionals
ysabetwordsmith - Monday Update 12-8-25
malurette - [book] Holes ~Louis Sachar
ysabetwordsmith - Holiday Activities
ysabetwordsmith - Today's Cooking
fauxklore - Westward Circumnavigation - And Home
rocky41_7 in booknook - Book Review: Brahma's Dream

Style Credit

Base style: Heads Up by momijizuakmori
Theme: Reliable by zaluzianskya and skylark_photos

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Dec. 9th, 2025 12:39 am