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Jan. 12th, 2026 06:04 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
apod_feed
This floating ring is the size of a galaxy.
apod_feedmanaging someone who wanted my job, should I tell my boss I’m having menstrual cramps, and more
Jan. 12th, 2026 05:03 amaskamanager_feedIt’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. I’m managing someone who wanted my job, and is acting like it
I have recently taken a management role with a new employer, and I love the work and the place I am working.
I am in a director position and have learned that the assistant director, Jane, also applied for the job, but obviously was not chosen.
How do I handle two things: (1) others in the office asking Jane instead of me when I should make the call (they then catch themselves), and (2) Jane trying to “agree” with what I decide or say, but in a way that suggests her agreement is needed or being solicited? I take pride in being a good manager. I know how to communicate items that are discussion points and those that are informational only, but I think she is trying to assert some authority she does not have.
She also had a “plan” for us to be co-directors, which will not work. My boss doesn’t think she should be in charge of the office due to some past questionable judgment, and I am trying to ease into the division of labor conversation. Overall, how do I navigate this without wanting to scream or not being a good manager for someone I supervise?
Mostly, by continuing to calmly and matter-of-factly assert your authority. You don’t need to sit Jane down for a big “I’m in charge here, not you” conversation — at least not yet. There’s a good chance that you can simply demonstrate that, by calmly continuing to do your job and owning your authority. If she agrees with your decision in a way that implies she’s part of decision-making when she isn’t, that’s fine; cheerfully accept her support. It’s going to be clear soon enough through the way work is actually handled that you’re making those calls. (The same goes for people asking her things instead of you and then catching themselves; you’re new right now and they’ll likely get used to you being there in time. If they don’t, you can matter-of-factly ask them to bring things like XYZ to you rather than to Jane.)
There might come a time when it’s clear you need to address it more explicitly, like if she’s undermining your decisions or actually doing work that should fall to you, but it doesn’t sound like that’s happening at this point.
However, I don’t know how straightforward you’ve been in telling her that her co-directors plan is off the table. If you haven’t clearly told her that, you need to.
2. How to encourage employees to do community service on their own time
My company’s leadership has been soliciting ideas for volunteer activities we can do together as an office, with the goal of being able to have a page on our website listing the wonderful impacts we are making on the community and show it off to our clients. Of course, leadership does not have a budget for this, meaning that they do not intend to pay employees for their time spent volunteering, nor offer extra PTO, nor do they want employees taking time out of the workday to volunteer.
In essence, they want us to give up our precious free time to do company-approved volunteer activities with our coworkers, in order to make the company look good. While I actually enjoy volunteering and have spent many Saturday mornings removing invasive plants with local organizations, this just rubs me the wrong way. There’s got to be a better way to encourage people to give back to their community!
So, I’d like to ask my fellow readers: Are there any workplaces out there that have succeeded in getting employees to engage in community service, without offering any monetary incentives? How did you do it?
I’m happy to throw this out to readers to answer since you’re asking for them to weigh in, but: No. If they don’t want to pay people or offer extra PTO or give them work time to do it … then too bad, sounds like they don’t get to credit themselves for employees’ private volunteer work. This is like saying, “We want you to be a good person in your private life but then let us take credit for it.” Or, fairly literally, “We want you to donate to charity and let us claim the contributions were ours.”
You and your coworkers should tell them that if they want the company to look like it’s active in supporting people in need in the community, they’ll need to provide work time for it to happen in.
3. Should I tell my manager I’m having menstrual cramps?
I’ve been dealing with some health stuff lately. Yesterday, after half a long day of meetings, I messaged my manager to let her know that I wasn’t feeling well and would be taking the rest of the day off. She expressed a good deal of concern and well wishes for rest and recovery.
The thing is, I wasn’t feeling well specifically because of awful cramps. This happens to me to me every so often, thankfully not on a monthly basis. Maybe a few times a year. I’ve even taken a whole sick day before due to cramps. I’m probably overthinking it, but is it ever appropriate to share the reason for these episodes? Should I let my colleagues or manager know that I’m not contagious and it’s not the sort of thing that will necessarily get worse? I work hybrid, and I’m going to show up on Zoom today looking pretty normal. I guess I’m getting in my head thinking that my manager might think I was lying or something. I’ve never given her any reason to believe I’d do that. I’d just love to hear your thoughts!
You can, but you don’t need to — just like you really don’t need to get specific about any medical issue you’re having (and it’s good to normalize not sharing details, for all sorts of reasons). And it doesn’t look suspicious to take a sick day and then show up looking okay on Zoom soon afterwards; that’s super normal!
It’s also perfectly fine to refer to this as “a flare-up of a chronic condition, but nothing to worry about.”
Related:
how much detail do you have to give when you call in sick?
can I keep mentioning my period at work?
4. How soon is too soon to ask for a raise?
I began a new job three months ago and was brought on to support someone in an existing role and to bring more processes in house. To use a made-up example, I have close to a decade in teapot analysis, with three years most recently having full ownership of all systems in place, the transition to a modern data system, and extensive experience in digitizing and streamlining processes. I was brought in as an expert to help them migrate to this modern system and help overhaul their entire workflow. The person I was brought in to support had experience in entry-level teapot analysis but was thrown into the deep end when she started working here. Additionally, very few of the processes I thought were already in-house are. I didn’t know most of this until I started.
I came to this agency enjoying the prospect of a larger scale overhaul and was offered the middle salary range for the position, which I accepted but was somewhat of a pay cut. However, my last agency was in turmoil because of funding cuts so I felt afraid to negotiate and figured this was what they could offer. My mistake there.
As part of my role, I have access to funding information and know that the person I support, who has only been in the role 18 months, makes a staggering 30% more than me. Since I have been here, I have taken on more than half her workload, have introduced new streamlined workflows, and am on schedule to migrate us and pull more than 50% of what a consultant is doing into our office.
I am feeling caught between a rock and a hard place. While seniority surely factors into some of her wage, they brought me on as an expert with significantly more experience to help them and I am having a hard time reconciling the difference. I am fortunate to work somewhere very stable and get on well with my boss (who also has little experience in teapot analysis). I am really struggling now with the pay difference, both mentally and in terms of my budget. But working in an NGO also means everyone is talking about funding and I don’t want to seem out of touch by bringing this up. Would I be off base to ask about a bump in pay to get me closer to what my coworker is making?
It depends completely on what her job is versus yours. If she’s, say, the director of fundraising and manages donor relationships and you’re the person managing the fundraising database, it makes perfect sense that she’s paid a lot more even though you’re far more skilled at managing the database. In that example, there’s a huge and important part of her job that’s separate from (and generally more senior than) the database work you took over. On the other hand, if she’s the database manager and you’re the one managing the database and bringing all the strategic perspective too, then you have much more of a case for a salary bump to bring you closer to hers.
As a general rule, though, three months is way too soon to ask for a raise unless something significant has changed about the job since you were hired. It doesn’t sound like that’s the case here; it sounds like the motivation behind asking for a raise is really about finding out what your coworker is making. Given that, wait until you’ve been there close to a year and make your case then.
5. Is planning a promotion a work-hours activity?
Should “planning your career growth” happen during work hours, or on your own time?
I’m currently working toward a promotion, and my manager has asked me to propose what my scope of role would be if that were to happen. The idea is to give them talking points to make the case to their boss, and also to make sure we are on the same page about what meeting expectations looks like at the next level.
On whose time and dime should this thinking and planning happen? It’s work-related and I wouldn’t be doing it if not for my job, so it seems pretty straightforwardly a “work hours” thing when you put it that way. But it still feels weird to do that instead of getting ahead with my current workload. My job is one where there’s never really a point where the work is done and I have time left over for other things.
It feels like this is complicated by the fact that this is in service of a promotion, too; obviously in addition to convincing my manager the scope is there at next level, I need to be delivering well at my current level. But perhaps that’s omnipresent imposter syndrome clouding my thinking.
It’s squarely a work activity that shouldn’t need to be on your own time. You’re thinking through a role at the company and how it would be structured and what it would be responsible for and what success metrics would look like. Those are work activities regardless of whether you’re the one doing them or your boss is.
The post managing someone who wanted my job, should I tell my boss I’m having menstrual cramps, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.
Poem: "The Five Books of Woodslore"
Jan. 11th, 2026 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It fills the "In the Wilderness" square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. It was sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred.
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fuzzyred.( Read more... )
Writing Goals/Calendar: 2026/January
Jan. 11th, 2026 10:00 pmmistressofmusesI definitely feel like I’m struggling a little bit to figure out what I’m hoping to get out of 2026 in terms of writing.
I’m not very satisfied with what 2025 looked like. I didn’t finish anything, and I didn’t even get much done in terms of planning for future projects. I worked on one WIP for a while, before deciding there was so much I felt needed fixing/reworking that it wasn’t worth continuing as it was. I did have one burst of hyperfocused enthusiasm midway through the year that led to me really wanting to make a plan, and push through, and Do The Thing (and especially to put energy into some original works)… but the burst didn’t last, and I didn’t manage to capitalize on it as fully as I wish I would have. Toward the later part of the year there was at least some progress on planning a different WIP, but it was slow-going, and still isn’t done.
2024 wasn’t much better. I struggled badly until I finally finished an editing project for a friend (which I fear WAS too little too late; she responded with one additional chapter fairly quickly, which I was able to do a much better turnaround on, but then she pretty well ghosted me on the project after, which I still feel terrible about.) After that, I finally managed to finish some lingering fics of my own… but after completing those, I struggled to find anything else that grabbed my attention. I spent months kind of half-heartedly prodding at plot bunnies, but never really settling on anything to focus on, which persisted into 2025.
2022 - 2023 were better writing years for me, but that feels sadder and sadder the farther away from them I get, haha.
I did set myself a goal (via![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
getyourwordsout and inkingitout) of 75000 words again for this year. I surpassed that goal last year, though it was primarily on non-fiction writing. While I still plan to count my non-fiction writing (book reviews, other effort-ful writing), I am hoping that more of my total words will be fiction again.
My other tentative goal, set as part of my 2026 intentions, is to finish something. That doesn’t mean it has to be shareable (I’m still iffy about sharing any original works), but I’d like something to feel finished.
Trying to set some more specific goals… that’s where I’m floundering. In part, I think I’m having a hard time determining what a realistic schedule looks like for me. I am trying to up my reading goals, and want to try and be a bit more participatory in communities and things here. I’ve said all of that before, but all the intentions in the world haven’t overcome the fact that my hours in the day are limited! Deciding that somehow I am going to be social and participatory every day AND write 1000 words every day AND read at least 150+ pages every day… just leads to me struggling to do any of it.
I haven’t written anything yet this year (in terms of fiction). I need to get reoriented in the outlining I was doing, and resume that. Again, time and energy are a struggle. I’m frustrated that it feels SO SLOW… while also knowing that it only is slow because I’m being slow! If I was putting more time into it and making it a priority, then it’d go a lot faster… but if I prioritized that, I’d never keep up on posts here, never get through the comments I want to, and probably would have to slow down how much I’m reading as well. I also don’t want to give up time I spend with Alex in the evenings, even when we’re just watching stuff together or reading or whatnot.
(For a while last year I tried to sort of “schedule” different priorities for different days, like “I will spend time on DW three days a week, and focus just on writing two days a week…” but it didn’t really work as intended. I guess it worked as long as literally nothing else ever came up, haha. Too often, something would derail a particular day, and then I’d feel incapable of catching up, and stressed as I tried to decide between sacrificing the next day to “make it up” or just letting the derailed thing remain undone.)
So… if I’m not going to have writing be a top priority - not that I don’t want to prioritize it at all, just sort of admitting that it’s a middle priority, not a top three - then I need to figure out what a realistic goal looks like.
For now… my goal for the month is to get back into outlining that particular WIP, and perhaps even finishing that outline!
I’m not very satisfied with what 2025 looked like. I didn’t finish anything, and I didn’t even get much done in terms of planning for future projects. I worked on one WIP for a while, before deciding there was so much I felt needed fixing/reworking that it wasn’t worth continuing as it was. I did have one burst of hyperfocused enthusiasm midway through the year that led to me really wanting to make a plan, and push through, and Do The Thing (and especially to put energy into some original works)… but the burst didn’t last, and I didn’t manage to capitalize on it as fully as I wish I would have. Toward the later part of the year there was at least some progress on planning a different WIP, but it was slow-going, and still isn’t done.
2024 wasn’t much better. I struggled badly until I finally finished an editing project for a friend (which I fear WAS too little too late; she responded with one additional chapter fairly quickly, which I was able to do a much better turnaround on, but then she pretty well ghosted me on the project after, which I still feel terrible about.) After that, I finally managed to finish some lingering fics of my own… but after completing those, I struggled to find anything else that grabbed my attention. I spent months kind of half-heartedly prodding at plot bunnies, but never really settling on anything to focus on, which persisted into 2025.
2022 - 2023 were better writing years for me, but that feels sadder and sadder the farther away from them I get, haha.
I did set myself a goal (via
getyourwordsout and inkingitout) of 75000 words again for this year. I surpassed that goal last year, though it was primarily on non-fiction writing. While I still plan to count my non-fiction writing (book reviews, other effort-ful writing), I am hoping that more of my total words will be fiction again.My other tentative goal, set as part of my 2026 intentions, is to finish something. That doesn’t mean it has to be shareable (I’m still iffy about sharing any original works), but I’d like something to feel finished.
Trying to set some more specific goals… that’s where I’m floundering. In part, I think I’m having a hard time determining what a realistic schedule looks like for me. I am trying to up my reading goals, and want to try and be a bit more participatory in communities and things here. I’ve said all of that before, but all the intentions in the world haven’t overcome the fact that my hours in the day are limited! Deciding that somehow I am going to be social and participatory every day AND write 1000 words every day AND read at least 150+ pages every day… just leads to me struggling to do any of it.
I haven’t written anything yet this year (in terms of fiction). I need to get reoriented in the outlining I was doing, and resume that. Again, time and energy are a struggle. I’m frustrated that it feels SO SLOW… while also knowing that it only is slow because I’m being slow! If I was putting more time into it and making it a priority, then it’d go a lot faster… but if I prioritized that, I’d never keep up on posts here, never get through the comments I want to, and probably would have to slow down how much I’m reading as well. I also don’t want to give up time I spend with Alex in the evenings, even when we’re just watching stuff together or reading or whatnot.
(For a while last year I tried to sort of “schedule” different priorities for different days, like “I will spend time on DW three days a week, and focus just on writing two days a week…” but it didn’t really work as intended. I guess it worked as long as literally nothing else ever came up, haha. Too often, something would derail a particular day, and then I’d feel incapable of catching up, and stressed as I tried to decide between sacrificing the next day to “make it up” or just letting the derailed thing remain undone.)
So… if I’m not going to have writing be a top priority - not that I don’t want to prioritize it at all, just sort of admitting that it’s a middle priority, not a top three - then I need to figure out what a realistic goal looks like.
For now… my goal for the month is to get back into outlining that particular WIP, and perhaps even finishing that outline!
Links: Illness and health, questioning assumptions
Jan. 11th, 2026 07:55 pmsonia“A history of post-viral conditions,” an excerpt from Invisible Illness at Sick Times, excerpted from INVISIBLE ILLNESS: A HISTORY, FROM HYSTERIA TO LONG COVID by Emily Mendenhall.
"The Sick Times is an independent news site founded by journalists Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis. We report on the Long COVID crisis, COVID-19, and infection-associated illnesses."
(On a lighter note) 6th grader's science experiment answers, 'Do cat buttholes touch every surface they sit on?' by Jacalyn Wetzel, Upworthy staff.
A Culture of Resilience by Lindsey Foltz, a beautifully written and photographed exploration of home food preserving in Bulgaria.
What the World Got Wrong About Autistic People by Ludmila N. Praslova, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP viaandrewducker.
Medicine has transformed radically since Hippocrates. yet, there remains reticence to embrace the ways in which viral infections fuel long-term neurological and systemic disorders that can radically transform someone’s health. The striking parallels between the Spanish flu and post-viral syndromes that have emerged throughout history emphasize how much information we do have, and how history may be our greatest teacher.
"The Sick Times is an independent news site founded by journalists Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis. We report on the Long COVID crisis, COVID-19, and infection-associated illnesses."
(On a lighter note) 6th grader's science experiment answers, 'Do cat buttholes touch every surface they sit on?' by Jacalyn Wetzel, Upworthy staff.
The results? Turns out that, no, cat buttholes do not touch every surface cats sit on. Now, let's all take a collective sigh of relief while we go over the details.
A Culture of Resilience by Lindsey Foltz, a beautifully written and photographed exploration of home food preserving in Bulgaria.
[I]ndustrial and small-scale agriculture; cultivated and wild foods; formal and informal economies; leisure and work do not function as stark polarities but rather in interconnecting, mutually supportive relationships through which home preservers practice, develop, and share their craft. The entanglement of formal and informal economies, domestic and wild foods, smallholders and industrial farms, local and global influences visible in everyday food practices in Bulgaria specifically and Eastern Europe more broadly condense in household cellars. As the cellar tour I describe below illustrates, these uniquely social practices provide resilience in terms of food security and the ability to pursue something more than mere survival.
What the World Got Wrong About Autistic People by Ludmila N. Praslova, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP via
andrewducker.Prejudice is one reason decades of research got autism so wrong. Researchers measured autistic people against neurotypical expectations and called every difference a deficit. They tested empathy by measuring in-group preference and missed commitment to universal fairness. They measured creativity by counting the number of ideas and missed originality. They saw moral consistency and called it rigidity. They saw deep engagement and called it rigidity. They saw sensory richness and called it disorder.
Most critically, they failed to ask autistic people about their inner experiences. They studied autism without genuinely listening to the autistic perspective. For decades, science examined autistic people through a lens of pathology and deficit, rather than dignity, comparing us to animals while missing our humanity. But autistic people don't lack humanity. Research just lacked the humanity to see it.
[Art rec] Put the light out | Turn the light on
Jan. 11th, 2026 09:19 pmyuuagoOriginal art rec: Put the light out | Turn the light on by thisdisasterauthor @ tumblr
I put this in my tumblr queue almost a year ago and it finally spat out again today. And I still really like it a lot so I'm linking it here too.
Artist's summary:
I put this in my tumblr queue almost a year ago and it finally spat out again today. And I still really like it a lot so I'm linking it here too.
Artist's summary:
Awhile ago I was hit by the similar but opposing natures of fire towers and lighthouses, and I wanted to explore that more. Both lonely, out of the way stations worked in isolation in sometimes extreme conditions, both tasked with protecting large swathes of people they will never meet or probably even see. Yet one is about spotting light in the distance and putting it out, while the other is about turning on the light within and shining it out.
HP fic rec: The Sum Of Their Parts
Jan. 12th, 2026 02:57 pmtielanThe Sum of Their Parts (138205 words) by holdmybeer
Chapters: 11/11
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, George Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Portrait Dorea Black Potter, Andromeda Black Tonks, Dean Thomas, Ernie Macmillan, Anthony Goldstein, Hannah Abbott, Molly Weasley, Teddy Lupin, Fleur Delacour
Additional Tags: trio, Oaths & Vows, Dark Lord Harry Potter
Summary:
--
Welp.
I never read much HP fiction for the most part, even when the fandom was a big thing. But this? I think I saw a post on Pinterest that mentioned a Dark Lord Harry story and I went looking for it.
Hoo boy. Did I find it!
This is a full and satisfying and complete read. It's the kind of thing that I, as someone who's been writing in fandom, would love to have written. It's hugely popular (at least by my standards) and brilliantly done.
Character-perfect, with a believable plot, and excellent extrapolations, it marks the story of how Harry takes on the Ministry of Magic in an attempt to make the Wizarding World better, never mind that it will see him labelled a 'Dark Lord' and enemy of the Ministry. And sweet holy FUCK does it do a spectacular job of telling the story!
There are some really excellent lines in there, but the one that made me laugh out loud, even in the midst of dark shit going down was:
The author doesn't have any other works to their name; this is a one-shot under a psued (nobody drops this quality of writing out of nowhere), and it's bloody good.
It's long - 11 hours reading time, or so AO3 helpfully informs us, so set aside a good couple of days for it in-between your regular programming. Or else be prepared to binge-read it in the oldest traditions of fandom.
Chapters: 11/11
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, George Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Portrait Dorea Black Potter, Andromeda Black Tonks, Dean Thomas, Ernie Macmillan, Anthony Goldstein, Hannah Abbott, Molly Weasley, Teddy Lupin, Fleur Delacour
Additional Tags: trio, Oaths & Vows, Dark Lord Harry Potter
Summary:
For Teddy Lupin, Harry Potter would become a Dark Lord. For Teddy Lupin, Harry Potter would take down the Ministry or die trying. He should have known that Hermione and Ron wouldn't let him do it alone.
--
Welp.
I never read much HP fiction for the most part, even when the fandom was a big thing. But this? I think I saw a post on Pinterest that mentioned a Dark Lord Harry story and I went looking for it.
Hoo boy. Did I find it!
This is a full and satisfying and complete read. It's the kind of thing that I, as someone who's been writing in fandom, would love to have written. It's hugely popular (at least by my standards) and brilliantly done.
Character-perfect, with a believable plot, and excellent extrapolations, it marks the story of how Harry takes on the Ministry of Magic in an attempt to make the Wizarding World better, never mind that it will see him labelled a 'Dark Lord' and enemy of the Ministry. And sweet holy FUCK does it do a spectacular job of telling the story!
There are some really excellent lines in there, but the one that made me laugh out loud, even in the midst of dark shit going down was:
“Bad Dark Lord. Bad! No biscuit,” George said. Then he smiled, a little wry and a little tired. “I won't let you take the fall when I'm the one cheerfully working with a Dark Lord. You can't defend yourself under Veritaserum. Why should I?”
The author doesn't have any other works to their name; this is a one-shot under a psued (nobody drops this quality of writing out of nowhere), and it's bloody good.
It's long - 11 hours reading time, or so AO3 helpfully informs us, so set aside a good couple of days for it in-between your regular programming. Or else be prepared to binge-read it in the oldest traditions of fandom.
not quite a plot bunny, more like a plot "that would be interesting"...
Jan. 11th, 2026 09:57 pmlannamichaelsA Parent Trap AU where the twins (either set) don't end up at the same sleepaway camp, but then do some kind of DNA matching thing to try to find out about their missing parent/if they have siblings, and discover the whole situation, because their parents never came clean to them about it.
I can't figure out a plot, so maybe just a brief drabble or something?
Either set of twins would be interesting for this; with the original set, it would add a lot because they'd possibly be grandparents by that point, so this could be something their kids suggest, as a "oh, now there's this way you might be able to find out more" (of course, for the twin raised by the father, there is definitely the "this is the name on the mother on the birth certificate", although in the remake IIRC she does know her mother's name?), and then discover that there's a sibling, and meeting the sibling and realizing it has to be a twin, and trying to figure out, at this late date, the mystery of what the fuck happened.
Or with the remake twins, the parents are likely still around, and so there could be a lot of either demanding answers, or some kind of "whoops, it's the other twin who comes for Christmas".
snowflake_challenge 2026: Day 6
Jan. 11th, 2026 10:36 pmlightbird
Challenge #6
Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.
Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.
My top 10 film noirs!
(10) The Big Sleep (1946 original)
(9) The Maltese Falcon
(8) Diabolique (original 1955)
(7) M (original 1931)
(6) Key Largo
(5) Laura
(4) Shadow of a Doubt
(3) The Third Man
(2) Sunset Boulevard
(1) Double Indemnity
I was originally writing commentary for each, then I lost the post/it got overwritten and I couldn't piece it back together. So I just did the list, lol.
Previous Days
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
snowflake_challenge 2026: Challenge #6
Jan. 11th, 2026 07:06 pmthatjustwontbreakTop 10 Challenge
I went through a couple different ideas for this one- top ten recipes, top ten podfics, top ten national parks- and then I realized I wanted to go broad. So we're doing top five fandoms in no particular order, because this got long and these are the ones that immediately came to mind.
1. Check Please! - Check Please! is/was an online webcomic about an ice-skater turned hockey player who makes wonderful friendships on his college hockey team and and falls in love with his grumpy captain. This fandom is still damn fun. Everyone on tumblr is hilarious and the author is tumblr-fluent herself so she does a nice job participating (but not getting in too deep) and she maintained a twitter account for her protagonist that was in-character and greatly added to the canon of the comic. Fic in this fandom is phenomenal. Writers consistently handling mental illness and homophobia in really thoughtful ways.
Fic Rec: The Left Hand of Godlessness by tourdefierce
2. Cowboy Bebop - Space bounty hunters anime from the 90s. Found family trope. Pretty violent. I think this was actually how I first got into reading fic. Classic anime, very well-known. I can't speak to the fandom broadly because at the time I wasn't very aware of the culture.
Fic Rec: Freaks Flock Together by bigbigtruck
3. Inception- Science fiction film where criminals make good money stealing things from marks' subconscious/dreams. Fantastic concept, which the fandom really does right by with their fic, but my rec is actually an AU.
Fic Rec: Next Big Thing by earlgreytea86
EGT posted this chapter by chapter and there was tons of participation in the comments, so the fic is full of fandom in-jokes and comment in-jokes and while the fic holds up to re-reads, it was a blast to participate in the comment section at the time.
4. The Social Network- RPF movie about the guys who made facebook. This was how fandom got me into tumblr. Livejournal was still kicking so we had kink memes and stuff like that on LJ but the tumblr community was really going full-throttle for a while.
Fic Rec: Heave Ho, Thieves and Beggars by antistar_e (kaikamahine) Crossover TSN/Firefly fic.
5. Teen Wolf - Frankly I have no idea what happens in canon for this because I never watched the show. But the talent in the fandom is top tier.
Fic Rec: Wolf in the House by JoeLawson OLD SCHOOL WHUMP
If I were to go on, I'd likely include MCU, HP, hockey RPF, Firefly, and the Walking Dead. Another day! :)
I went through a couple different ideas for this one- top ten recipes, top ten podfics, top ten national parks- and then I realized I wanted to go broad. So we're doing top five fandoms in no particular order, because this got long and these are the ones that immediately came to mind.
1. Check Please! - Check Please! is/was an online webcomic about an ice-skater turned hockey player who makes wonderful friendships on his college hockey team and and falls in love with his grumpy captain. This fandom is still damn fun. Everyone on tumblr is hilarious and the author is tumblr-fluent herself so she does a nice job participating (but not getting in too deep) and she maintained a twitter account for her protagonist that was in-character and greatly added to the canon of the comic. Fic in this fandom is phenomenal. Writers consistently handling mental illness and homophobia in really thoughtful ways.
Fic Rec: The Left Hand of Godlessness by tourdefierce
2. Cowboy Bebop - Space bounty hunters anime from the 90s. Found family trope. Pretty violent. I think this was actually how I first got into reading fic. Classic anime, very well-known. I can't speak to the fandom broadly because at the time I wasn't very aware of the culture.
Fic Rec: Freaks Flock Together by bigbigtruck
3. Inception- Science fiction film where criminals make good money stealing things from marks' subconscious/dreams. Fantastic concept, which the fandom really does right by with their fic, but my rec is actually an AU.
Fic Rec: Next Big Thing by earlgreytea86
EGT posted this chapter by chapter and there was tons of participation in the comments, so the fic is full of fandom in-jokes and comment in-jokes and while the fic holds up to re-reads, it was a blast to participate in the comment section at the time.
4. The Social Network- RPF movie about the guys who made facebook. This was how fandom got me into tumblr. Livejournal was still kicking so we had kink memes and stuff like that on LJ but the tumblr community was really going full-throttle for a while.
Fic Rec: Heave Ho, Thieves and Beggars by antistar_e (kaikamahine) Crossover TSN/Firefly fic.
5. Teen Wolf - Frankly I have no idea what happens in canon for this because I never watched the show. But the talent in the fandom is top tier.
Fic Rec: Wolf in the House by JoeLawson OLD SCHOOL WHUMP
If I were to go on, I'd likely include MCU, HP, hockey RPF, Firefly, and the Walking Dead. Another day! :)
Whole book: "Mutual Aid"
Jan. 11th, 2026 07:54 pmsoniaMutual Aid by Dean Spade is a whole book available online. Subtitle: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next).
I've only read a little bit of this, despite having it open in a tab for months. It feels hopeful, experienced, and direct, so I hope to read the rest eventually.
This book provides a concrete guide for building mutual aid groups and networks. Part I explores what mutual aid is, why it is different than charity, and how it relates to other social movement tactics. Part II dives into the nitty-gritty of how to work together in mutual aid groups and how to handle the challenges of group decision-making, conflict, and burnout. It includes charts and lists that can be brought to group meetings to stimulate conversation and build shared analysis and group practices. Ultimately, helps imagine how we can coordinate to collectively take care of ourselves—even in the face of disaster—and mobilize hundreds of millions of people to make deep and lasting change.
I've only read a little bit of this, despite having it open in a tab for months. It feels hopeful, experienced, and direct, so I hope to read the rest eventually.
snowflake challenge 2026 - day 5
Jan. 12th, 2026 02:36 pmtielan
In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.
0. No generative AI works.
1. An epic fanfic about any of my favourite fannish pairings or characters. I'd love new stuff, because I've mostly read through all the old, but I'd also take recs. I love action-adventure, drama, real conflict, internal questioning, and not-a-black-and-white-outlook. Complex questions and thorny problems that are dealt with by emotionally mature and politically savvy adults.
MCU
Maria Hill
Maria Hill & any character
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers
There are other pairings and characters I like in MCU, but those are easy to find. These are stories that I really really want and very few are willing or capable of writing them. So I ask.
I'll take AUs, vignettes, missing scenes, friendships, that really long epic story that nobody but me will ever write... I'm happy with just Maria-centric, but I want it in the context of the Avengers movies, not her taken out into another context. I want it to be her story, with cameos and interactions from the familiar characters - but she's the main character with the chief agency of the story. People can write it for random female (and male) characters throughout the canon, I just would love to read the equivalent for Maria.
Ignore Secret Invasion. It was stupid.
PS. If you're giving recs, if it's at AO3, I've probably already read it..
Pacific Rim
Mako Mori & anyone
Mako Mori/Raleigh Becket
One of the things I enjoy about this is seeing how Mako and Raleigh actually vibe together when they're not having to save the world by going through each others' minds. And really anything about Mako and her relationships with the people in the Shatterdomes. Even Chuck.
Ignore Pacific Rim: Uprising. Whoever wrote that missed the entire point of the original movie.
Stargate Atlantis
Teyla Emmagan
Teyla Emmagan/John Sheppard
Team
Again, one of those 'I can pick a needle in a haystack' options. Not the kind of thing most people will write (or would have written, back in the long ago days of SGA fandom) but still something that I long for and enjoy.
The best I get is the Stargate Atlantis: Legacy series of books, which is a six book "Season 6" for Stargate Atlantis, complete with plot arcs, character development, space battles, and a definitive 'ending' for the Wraith storyline. It does it inventively and cleverly, and doesn't leave any of the characters out. Which is something that one could never count on, even in the canon.
If anyone would like to write the story of the Stargate Project twenty years later - with Teyla as a major character - I would love to read that.
Stargate SG1
Sam Carter/Jack O'Neill
Team (whether with Daniel, Jonas, or Cameron)
One thing I really did enjoy about SG1 fandom was the number of longform fics there used to be for the team and for Sam in particular. Plot arcs, big long epics, and often a bit of Sam/Jack romance, with or without regs.
Ah, it was long ago.
Bridgerton
Kate Sharma
Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sharma
Look, I'm a simple soul. I want a better story of their romance than they got. The series was too busy trying to launch Queen Charlotte, so they had Edwina be the sympathetic character to the Queen and the King at a point when they're just "old people" so that there was some interest in "what's their backstory" and they could get people to watch the other series.
If you have recs for this one, I'll take them. I haven't really trawled through the archive for this - too much risk of dross
Star Wars - Prequel-to-Original
Padme Amidala
Okay, so I've seen a few people ponder how the story might have played out if Padme had survived and been organised in the resistance.
I'd like recs for this. If you want to write your own story, that's fine, but I figure the fandom is wide enough and deep enough and broad enough and talented enough to already have those stories. I'd love to see Luke and Leia growing up knowing who and what they are and whether that makes a difference to who they become as adults.
2. Detailed comments on any of my fanfics. The more detailed the better!
3. A publishing contract. Or even the opportunity to sub to an agent. I have a finished manuscript, first draft, it presently sucks. I hope to have it whipped into basic shape in a month. There are some lovely people who are willing to plough through the early drafts, but in the end, there's nothing like an agent.
Hey, if you're going to aim high, why not shoot for the moon? :D
#56 Breaking Bread and Breaking an Impasse part 2 of 1, complete)
Jan. 11th, 2026 10:26 pmdialecticdreamerBreaking Bread and Breaking an Impasse
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1061
[Monday, May 11, 2020, late afternoon]
:: The Teagues’ preparation for a dinner guest is interrupted. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::
Conversation lagged for several minutes.
Garegin shivered, swallowed, and turned to Aidan. Curiosity slowly brightened the depths of his walnut-brown eyes. “What were you talking about, something with onions, earlier?”
Aidan nodded, accepting the distraction. “There is an enormous supply of onions at the food bank because a shipment was made in error, and they are taking up so much room that other goods cannot be stored. I mentioned making pickled onions, which I can do if I have the large crocks. The vinegar would have to be purchased as I don’t have a month to make it from scratch, which is disappointing.”
The younger man leaned into the idea as if it were a life raft on a stormy sea. “Have you ever used canning jars?”
( Read more... )
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1061
[Monday, May 11, 2020, late afternoon]
:: The Teagues’ preparation for a dinner guest is interrupted. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::
Conversation lagged for several minutes.
Garegin shivered, swallowed, and turned to Aidan. Curiosity slowly brightened the depths of his walnut-brown eyes. “What were you talking about, something with onions, earlier?”
Aidan nodded, accepting the distraction. “There is an enormous supply of onions at the food bank because a shipment was made in error, and they are taking up so much room that other goods cannot be stored. I mentioned making pickled onions, which I can do if I have the large crocks. The vinegar would have to be purchased as I don’t have a month to make it from scratch, which is disappointing.”
The younger man leaned into the idea as if it were a life raft on a stormy sea. “Have you ever used canning jars?”
( Read more... )
books: Sisters of the Vast Black, Knock Knock Open Wide
Jan. 11th, 2026 07:22 pmsnickficStarting the year off strong with two winners! (And several DNFs, but they were left over from the last year, so I say they don't count.)
The Sisters of the Vast Black (2019) by Lina Rather. Several decades after a brutal civil war between Earth and the diaspora, a living spaceship full of nuns minister to the world amidst progressively more challenging circumstances.
This novella has:
- canon f/f
- an atheist nun
- a mother superior with a dark past and the beginning stages of dementia
- a theological dilemma involving a living ship's reproductive cycle
- a rising tide of authoritarianism
- daring heroics and a growing political resistance
The first half of the book is enjoyable enough, but the plot really turns on the jets in the second half and comes to a thrilling conclusion that I was all in on. Atheist rationlist Sister Faustina is my favorite, and I kind of ship her with kindhearted idealist Sister Lucia, especially by the end of the book.
This is Rather's longest work to date. I'm really looking forward to whatever she decides to write next.
--
Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson. In 1979, Etain disappears, is held at a farmhouse in the Irish countryside, and escapes with no memory of what happened.
Boy, this book goes PLACES. It's about Irish mythology and fraught mother/daughter relationships; it's also about a bunch of other things that I would rather let you discover for yourself. It's about Ashling, a drama student at University College Dublin in 1999 whose mother hates her, who might be gay, and who is at any rate dating a woman that she's convinced can't possibly really love her. It's about various factions jockeying just beneath the surface of the world, to the point that sometimes it feels like an espionage novel only masquerading as mythological horror. There's even a spunky journalist turned old-school battleaxe who's never gotten around to losing her Barbie-pink suit.
It's nonlinear as hell, which Sharpson juggles with remarkable dexterity, so that even when we're switching between timelines mid-chapter--and there are a LOT of timelines--I was never in any doubt about where we were. I found the integration of mythology and plot generally worked well, even though I sometimes had trouble keeping track of it all and frankly think there was enough there to support a sequel or two rather than cramming it all into this one. The characters are great and messy and complex and almost all female, which I also really enjoyed. Playing out over such a long timespan, this novel really lets you feel the tragedy the follows the horror. And this novel is VERY Irish, which I especially enjoyed having been to Ireland a couple of times. They keep mentioning the Liffey, and I'm like yes, I know that river! :D And I could hear the accents sometimes in the dialogue!
Overall, a fantastic time and a wild ride. If you've read it or do in the future, I would love to compare notes! I looked it up in some of my usual discussion spots and it seems like it kind of slipped under the radar. I see Sharpson released another horror novel last year, which I'm now anxious to check out.
The Sisters of the Vast Black (2019) by Lina Rather. Several decades after a brutal civil war between Earth and the diaspora, a living spaceship full of nuns minister to the world amidst progressively more challenging circumstances.
This novella has:
- canon f/f
- an atheist nun
- a mother superior with a dark past and the beginning stages of dementia
- a theological dilemma involving a living ship's reproductive cycle
- a rising tide of authoritarianism
- daring heroics and a growing political resistance
The first half of the book is enjoyable enough, but the plot really turns on the jets in the second half and comes to a thrilling conclusion that I was all in on. Atheist rationlist Sister Faustina is my favorite, and I kind of ship her with kindhearted idealist Sister Lucia, especially by the end of the book.
This is Rather's longest work to date. I'm really looking forward to whatever she decides to write next.
--
Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson. In 1979, Etain disappears, is held at a farmhouse in the Irish countryside, and escapes with no memory of what happened.
Boy, this book goes PLACES. It's about Irish mythology and fraught mother/daughter relationships; it's also about a bunch of other things that I would rather let you discover for yourself. It's about Ashling, a drama student at University College Dublin in 1999 whose mother hates her, who might be gay, and who is at any rate dating a woman that she's convinced can't possibly really love her. It's about various factions jockeying just beneath the surface of the world, to the point that sometimes it feels like an espionage novel only masquerading as mythological horror. There's even a spunky journalist turned old-school battleaxe who's never gotten around to losing her Barbie-pink suit.
It's nonlinear as hell, which Sharpson juggles with remarkable dexterity, so that even when we're switching between timelines mid-chapter--and there are a LOT of timelines--I was never in any doubt about where we were. I found the integration of mythology and plot generally worked well, even though I sometimes had trouble keeping track of it all and frankly think there was enough there to support a sequel or two rather than cramming it all into this one. The characters are great and messy and complex and almost all female, which I also really enjoyed. Playing out over such a long timespan, this novel really lets you feel the tragedy the follows the horror. And this novel is VERY Irish, which I especially enjoyed having been to Ireland a couple of times. They keep mentioning the Liffey, and I'm like yes, I know that river! :D And I could hear the accents sometimes in the dialogue!
Overall, a fantastic time and a wild ride. If you've read it or do in the future, I would love to compare notes! I looked it up in some of my usual discussion spots and it seems like it kind of slipped under the radar. I see Sharpson released another horror novel last year, which I'm now anxious to check out.
Scoville.
Jan. 11th, 2026 09:31 pmhannahSome months ago, in an attempt to clear some congestion, I started adding ghost pepper flakes to my morning eggs. A few weeks ago, in an attempt to punch up the spice, I started adding a crushed up chile de árbol or two. Now I'm finding the issue with a meal's heat isn't the spiciness, but the temperature when it's served right from the stove.
I've now realized I don't have much of a context for what constitutes spiciness anymore. I can tell when there's some heat, I can tell when there's a fair amount of heat, and I'm going to have to keep looking for ways to get the kinds of lovely warm, playful sensations from good restaurants into my own kitchen. But not until I work through more of this bottle of ghost pepper flakes, because I've only got so much room in my apartment - which I suppose is all the more reason to try the Calabrian chili oil I bought on impulse a little while ago.
I've now realized I don't have much of a context for what constitutes spiciness anymore. I can tell when there's some heat, I can tell when there's a fair amount of heat, and I'm going to have to keep looking for ways to get the kinds of lovely warm, playful sensations from good restaurants into my own kitchen. But not until I work through more of this bottle of ghost pepper flakes, because I've only got so much room in my apartment - which I suppose is all the more reason to try the Calabrian chili oil I bought on impulse a little while ago.
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Jan. 11th, 2026 09:59 pmtroisoiseauxRead The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin, because I've been trying to catch up on my neglected sci-fi classics; it was a fascinating read. This book is famously interesting for the way it plays with gender, being set in an "ambisexual" world (essentially, everyone can, theoretically, physically both bear and beget children) narrated mostly by a character from Earth(?) who grapples with this societal genderlessness by referring to everyone as a "man" and using he/him pronouns— which I found threw me off more than, say, the universal she/her in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series?— but I was just really struck overall by the way that Le Guin uses language to fling the reader headfirst into this alien world: she uses made-up words for recognizable concepts, and recognizable English words as signifiers for world-specific/made-up concepts, and you've just sort of got to puzzle it out as you go. I was also surprised to discover that the one plot point I'd known about going in - ( ... ) - actually takes up less of the novel, and occurs later in it, than I had expected.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
