Only two emotions.
Nov. 26th, 2025 09:54 pmI'm going on a hike with my parents tomorrow, and having dinner alone with them on Friday. I'm presently on the fence about a Saturday get together on the grounds that I really don't know how I'll feel about spending three consecutive days with them. I know if I don't tell them that with those specific words, in more or less that specific way, there won't be any effect on their behavior. I know that and I'm also wondering about staying quiet and observing what they say and how they act in regards to my presence as a litmus test they're not aware of. I'm fairly certain that'd backfire just as much as telling them I want to feel comfortable around them. I might go with the "not saying anything until I have no choice" strategy, or I might go with the "talk about it with someone on Friday to get my feelings out" strategy. I worry I'll have to buy more bourbon and rum in any case.
Holiday Wishes 2025
Nov. 26th, 2025 09:28 pmFirst off, I hope everyone is safe and healthy this year.
1. ANYTHING off my Amazon Wish List. This is the link to my 'Holiday Wishes 2025' list, and then some sub-lists; a list of computer books I want, a list of writing books and a list of general Kindle Books I want.
2. More readers/followers for my books I'm an aspiring author, so I'd like more followers for my blog/readers for my books. My Author blog is at
https://authordaisyloveless.blogspot.com/
And from there you can find the links to my books on the 'My Books' page. All are in Kindle Unlimited, if that is more your thing!
3. More Facebook/Instagram followers Besides writing, I blog as a hobby, doing food reviews. I do share personal pics as well on Instagram, so it’s not all food. I’d love to get some more followers!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missbeckyannsfoodblog/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missbeckyann6879/
4. Gift Cards/E-certificates Subway, Walmart or amazon.com would ROCK my socks. We do most of our Non-food shopping at Amazon. We use Walmart a LOT for groceries, and Subway is the only restaurant near us that delivers.
5. AUTHENTIC Asian Ramen noodles In the past year, I've branched out through gifts, but I want to branch out more. Would prefer savory, but not super spicy. Nongshim Kimchi noodles (or jalapeno peppers) are about the spiciest I can handle. Please check the above wishlist to get a more accurate idea of my spice tolerance.
(Absolutely NO Buldak flavors, please… the spice level leaves me looking like I just had an ‘Ugly Cry’ session)
6. Coffee/coffee creamers I am ADDICTED to these! Flavored is a plus, fave flavors being Cinnamon, Hazlenut, Pumpkin Spice, Peppermint and Irish Creme. Instant coffee is a MAJOR plus. We do have a knockoff Keurig, so K-Cups are cool, too!
7. Lip Balms I’m not good with makeup, but I’m addicted to lip balm. I prefer flavored and/or tinted. I have some on the wishlist above, if you want to get ideas of flavors.
8. Nail stickers/wraps This is the ONLY way I can do my nails. I can’t afford a salon set, and I shake too much for traditional liquid nail polish (plus it bothers Mama Melissa’s asthma). I know the Jamberry company went under, but surely someone still has a stash floating around. If you do and you’re looking to unload some (or all) of your old stock, I will HAPPILY take them! (I’ll also take Lily And Fox or Dashing Diva brands, since they are the same thing, just different brands)
9. Stickers! I’ve developed a thing for stickers, like the kind you’d put on water bottles, skateboards, laptops, etc. Would love to get more to add to my collection!
10. Be Kind to one another There’s so much hate in the world… even a kind word to a stranger could make their day better.
( Address and contact info behind here... )
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Season's greetings
Nov. 26th, 2025 12:07 pmI'm no good at this kind of thing and I'm certainly gonna get anxious after but here we go.
My wishlist:
1. Check my fandoms list at SquidgeWorld and watch/read/play the media from a fandom that caught your eye! That'd be enough for me.
2. Create something, anything and post it wherever you want. It may sound silly but in a world following the road to automated "art" (and everything else) anything made by hand is precious and shouldn't be left forgotten.
3. Join any writing communities here on Dreamwidth!
4. Create one fanwork for
5. Book recommendations for a 12 yo that's into sports and wants to develop a reading habit.
6. Recently, my mother has been taking a lot of stray cats in her care, feeding them and taking care of a couple kittens, so if you so have it in your heart, an Amazon gift card could help her getting food and other items for them. She and the cats would be very grateful! And if that's not possible (since I don't know how that works because differences in countries and stuff):
7. Donate to your local animal shelter! ❤️
8. Here's my Amazon wishlist (MX), MOSTLY wants and just for fun.
9. World peace.
10. Last but not least, give your pets lots of love. ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for reading.
( Email )
Of course I can't stay away from volunteering for long...
Nov. 26th, 2025 11:47 pmAbout 48 hours after stepping down from my previous volunteer position, I've as-formally-as-I'm-going-to taken up a new one.
The queer club I've written about a bunch, where I've made friends and felt part of a community again in a way that was so desperately needed and so good for me after The Other Events of March 2020, had been run by two people out of the goodness of their heart and very little else about two and a half years ago. It was only this summer that they started saying it'd be nice to have a little group of people to help do things like arrive early, set up the room we rent in the community center and stuff like that, and in the last few months a dozen or so of us have done various things (someone procures tea and biscuits, someone knows the code to get in, I am good at setting out tables and chairs and stacking them away again neatly at the end of the evening...)
It's reached the point where our two original organizers want to step back entirely from running things and just be regular attendees of the club, and a handful of us have offered to do that. So tonight those two and four of us had a video meeting for them to share the details of how to book the room, what the password is for the e-mail account, one of us taking over looking after the money, all that kind of stuff. Also when is the Christmas party going to be.
Of course I took notes and of course I tidied them up and circulated them immediately after the meeting.
For all I adore the two founders, I don't begrudge them their break before they can come back and make use of their projects and ideas because they don't have to run up every month and look after all the admin and stuff.
I love the vibe of this, everyone's happy to pitch in. At the Christmas party someone's going to teach us BSL "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and we're going to wear cozy cardigans and have home-baked treats and maybe mulled apple cider [USian meaning of the word, it's a sober space too which is also great]. Onward and upward, queer club!
End of an era
Nov. 25th, 2025 11:23 pmI was so busy talking about other things yesterday that I entirely missed something I wanted to say.
It's been something like three and a half years...yes I just went and checked, March 2022, I know it wasn't long before I got offered the job I now have (which was May of that year) because it was important that I was still so-underemployed-I-basically-unemployed, pretty much working as a favor to the friends I was working for, and really struggling with job hunting and interviews.
That chance meeting with someone who I got along with so well and who was so complimentary to me meant so much.
Things quickly got complicated and then the rest of my life got more complicated -- I remember having phone calls about the CEO recruitment while I was in Bournemouth for the work conference that I basically abandoned halfway through to deal with the ticket office closure campaign, still the biggest thing I've dealt with at work, and I'd been there barely a year at the time.
I did present at the board and staff away day that summer about EDI; amid people who could really do finance and governance and stuff I felt like such a lightweight with my focus on inclusivity and lived experience and all that, but everyone was supportive and flattering about absolutely everything that I did as a member of that board of trustees. I learned a hell of a lot -- including getting my first experience of being on the other side of a job interview, so soon after I was lambasting them, which was really interesting and did end up useful at work where I've been part of a few recruiting processes since.
Around the new year, with the sad loss of Gary and the impending Trump doom and the potential to lose my job or face a much-changed workplace and my grandma in hospice care, I reached a point where something had to give and it turned out to be this. I e-mailed the new CEO and said I thought I'd have to step down. She was very kind and said that if I could hang on until the end of my term, which them understanding my reduced capacity, it'd make various things easier for them. Since this meant probably no more than attending a few online meetings and the occasional e-mail, I said I was happy to give it a try. I did make an attempt to meet them on this summer's away day, as I was in London that day anyway for work, but it didn't end up happening and that was fine.
Monday was the AGM at which I and the long-time treasurer stepped down: our terms had ended, his job was more demanding now, and I was sad to go but feeling sufficiently battered by the year that I know I made the right decision; I already feel bad that I wasn't able to give this more time and attention in 2025. The outgoing treasurer said his little piece and left the Teams meeting, and then I quickly burbled something about how much this has meant to me, how much I appreciated having been brought in (sadly the person who did so has not been able to be part of the organisation for some time themselves, so they were not able to hear me say this) and how much of a difference it had made to my
They also got me a free Audible credit as a leaving present, which is a perfect gift for me in that I like audiobooks, maybe not enough to faff around setting up an Amazon account (I had shared Andrew's, back in the day, so already lost access to years of Audible subscription that way, sigh), but the thought really does count. When I wrote back to the CEO to thank her/everyone for it, she replied not only being gracious about that but also saying "I was touched by what you said about the impact for you of becoming a trustee and wondered if you might be willing to write a paragraph that we might use when we’re recruiting trustees again or for our Trustees report? It would be great to capture as a quote if that’s possible?"
Yeah, I am very happy to write them a paragraph. Least I can do.
Wednesday is annoyed that a seminar, booked as being online, turned out to be in-person only
Nov. 26th, 2025 07:14 pmWhat I read
After Hours at Dooryard Books was really good - set in 1968 in a used bookstore in Greenwich Village - this was so not a Summer of Love - but lots of Unhistoric Acts - also I really liked that what I feared was going to be one of those three-quarter way through Exposure of Dark Thing/Arising of Unexpected Crisis in Relationship actually didn't go angst angst angst wo wo wo.
Slightly Foxed #88: 'Pure Magic': pretty good selection, though rather irked by the guy fanboying over Room at the Top and all he can say about the sexism side of things is that the protag's behaviour to women 'may be less than admirable but he is not a cad'. O RLY. What do you call putting the local rich guy's daughter in the club and then chucking your older woman mistress, who dies horribly in a car accident?
Robert Rodi, Fag Hag (1992) - of its period perhaps. I think there may be works of his I remember more fondly than this one? Don't really recommend.
Dick Francis, Hot Money (1987): this is one in which I was waiting for the narrator to get, as per usual for a DF protag, nastily done over, probably by one of his siblings or in-laws in this convoluted tale of seething envies within the family of a much-married tycoon. He did get blown up but that was not personal and so did his father. No actually woodsheds but there was a glasshouse and various other nooks and crannies to see something nasty in.
On the go
Back to Lanny Budd - O Shepherd, Speak! (#10) (1949) - Lanny as ever finds himself where it's happening in the final stages of WW2 - have got to the aftermath of the war, and thinking about peace. Quite a way to go.
Up next
No idea.
wednesday
Nov. 26th, 2025 01:46 pm
We had a rainy morning but now (1 pm) it's sunny. I spent the morning getting back into mosaic mirror painting and immersed in researching granny square type crochet patterns that would work for a baby blanket for upcoming Rowan. I'd like to weave a thin blanket for summer (cotton yarn) on a pin loom and then also crochet a thicker winter one. I am having a hard time deciding pattern to do and then what kind of yarn to buy. Black Friday sales make me think I should hurry up and buy something but I know how impulsive I can be and think I should be REALLY sure.
Couldn't sleep last night, again. I was up from 1:30 till about 4. I watched most of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (enjoyable) and finished a 300 piece jigsaw puzzle that I started back in October. Went back to bed and slept till 7. Had a few interesting dreams that I wish I remembered.
*****
The sunshine is calling. Next up; take Rainy for a little walk down back and then let the chickens out for the afternoon, collect eggs and pick up poop from last night in the coop. My method now-a-days is to clean the coop everyday. Pick up the poop with tongs. About once a month I add more pine shavings. When it gets really cold I'll put a thicker layer of shavings on the floor. I hate the big job of cleaning the whole coop so I prefer to do a little housekeeping everyday.
Book review: The Once and Future King
Nov. 26th, 2025 10:32 amAuthor: T.H. White
Genre: Fantasy adventure
Last night I finished The Once and Future King by T.H. White, because I felt like it was time I made a real foray into the Arthurian legends. The actual first Arthurian book I read was The Mists of Avalon, but that was years ago and before I had heard the full story about Marion Zimmer Bradley. This book takes a decidedly different tone. I’m sticking to the most common name spellings for all of the characters here, because spellings do vary across all versions of these legends.
The first thing that surprised me about The Once and Future King is that it’s funny, and frequently in an absurd, dorky kind of way. Knights failing tilts because their visors fell over their eyes wrong, Merlin accidentally zapping himself away in the middle of a lesson because he was in a temper, the Questing Beast “falling in love” with two men dressed in a beast costume, that sort of thing. This silliness is largely concentrated in the first quarter of the book, which is about Arthur’s childhood, but it’s never fully lost.
The second surprise was how long the book focuses on Arthur’s childhood, but then again, it is setting the scene for Arthur’s worldview and the lessons he internalized as a child which shape his approach to being king.
( Read more... )Recent Reading: The Once and Future King
Nov. 26th, 2025 10:31 amLast night I finished The Once and Future King by T.H. White, because I felt like it was time I made a real foray into the Arthurian legends. The actual first Arthurian book I read was The Mists of Avalon, but that was years ago and before I had heard the full story about Marion Zimmer Bradley. This book takes a decidedly different tone. I’m sticking to the most common name spellings for all of the characters here, because spellings do vary across all versions of these legends.
The first thing that surprised me about The Once and Future King is that it’s funny, and frequently in an absurd, dorky kind of way. Knights failing tilts because their visors fell over their eyes wrong, Merlin accidentally zapping himself away in the middle of a lesson because he was in a temper, the Questing Beast “falling in love” with two men dressed in a beast costume, that sort of thing. This silliness is largely concentrated in the first quarter of the book, which is about Arthur’s childhood, but it’s never fully lost.
The second surprise was how long the book focuses on Arthur’s childhood, but then again, it is setting the scene for Arthur’s worldview and the lessons he internalized as a child which shape his approach to being king.
( Read more... )I Picked Up This World's Strategy Guide, Vol. 2
Nov. 26th, 2025 11:14 amSpoiler ahead for volume 1.
( Read more... )
I Picked Up This World's Strategy Guide, Vol. 1
Nov. 25th, 2025 11:43 pmA frolic with a somewhat different approach. A girl works in her mother's item shop, and one day while gathering herbs, she finds a book. A strange book.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Nov. 25th, 2025 06:43 pm1. What's your favourite TV network?
The one I watch most is Youtube. And ID or other true crime shows.
2. If you could create your own channel, what would it be?
Cozy British murder mysteries or crime shows with actors I like. And I have a weakness for sitcoms.
3. What TV show did you watch as a child, that you wish they would bring back?
Not as a child but I would like more Firefly.
4. What show have you always hated, and wonder why they ever made such a dumb show?
I don't see the appeal of most reality shows, but to each his own.
5. What TV show's seasons would you buy on DVD?
I have a bookcase full of show dvds; I don't buy streaming. I'd buy The Mandalorian.
Featured Article: Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell
Nov. 25th, 2025 05:00 pm
ALTWelcome one, welcome all to the Fanlore Featured Article; the ship of Sansaery, a femslash pair between the intelligent Sansa Stark of Winterfell, and the cunning Margaery Tyrell of Highgarden. In the canon these two queens are friends, both working towards securing their political ambitions and surviving the fictional book series (and future TV series) “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin published 1996 to current.
The Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell tag started off as a rare pair to enjoy but eventually exploded in popularity with the on-screen interaction between these two powerful women on the TV show Game of Thrones (“And Now His Watch Is Ended” during Season 3, episode 4). Fans attribute the episode to seeing the softer side we see of Margaery and the undertones of flirtation within their dialog, which left viewers seeing some undercurrents of romantic connection. This ship still holds power and place today as one of the most popular ships for the Game of Thrones franchise on AO3 while also holding high in published works for femslash on the site. These two ladies come together in the canon setting or even fun AUs like modern meet cutes.
If you want to see some of the highlighted fic recommendations or beautiful fanart of these two queens together head over to the Fanlore page and read on (and maybe get inspired to write your own).
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Anh Gets Something
Nov. 25th, 2025 08:28 pm
she's a smart* cookie
*not actually smart
