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Murderbot reviews/meta, weather, fannish activity, and more
Jun. 9th, 2025 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mificI've been reading reviews of the five Murderbot eps to date, by William Hughes. They gel with what I'd been thinking and give some interesting meta. Worth checking out, if you're into the show.
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-premiere-recap-episodes-1-and-2
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-3-risk-assessment
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-4-escape-velocity-protocol
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-5-rogue-war-tracker-infinite
We've had a cold snap here - temps down to 7C (45F) - which I know is nothing to you tough Northeners but it reminded me how much I prefer summer. I broke out my oodie (a massive hooded sweatshirt of velour fleece lined with fake sheepskin fleece - mine has slices of pepperoni pizza on it) which was amazingly warm and comforting for a while, then when I'd warmed up, rapidly became claustrophpbic. I'm keeping it in reserve for more wintry dips in temperature.
I'm working on a NSFW artwork of John Sheppard and Rodney McKay as "always a girl" lesbians, and managed to turn myself on! Unusual - it can happen when I write sex scenes, but never before with a high-rated pic I've been drawing. I really want the pic to work so will need to run it by at least one art beta when it's a bit more finished - John/Joan's hips are proving elusive. Meredith's looking nicely lush though.
Lots of podfic-related activity lately - the longer one I'm recording is going well, plus the regular Voiceteam festival had an archiving challenge so we've been hit with >600 podfics to archive, some in weird, tiny, Yuletidey fandoms that are a puzzle to categorise.
I had a brief brain melt and panicked that the due South Big Bang deadline was June 16th (it's August 16th), and having come to my senses, relievedly abandoned the punishing podficcing schedule I'd invented. But I do need to get onto my into-a-bar fic asap. Writing - so much harder for me these days, goddamnit.
The Mexican sunflower is still flowering up a storm, even in the cold and rain. It's a keeper! Not a lot of choice about that as with big ones like mine the roots can be several metres deep, and they come away again cheerfully when cut back.
I had a moment in a comment over onminoanmiss's journal, when I realized the phrase "trumped up" charges now has a horrible new meaning. So I've written an imaginary future entry in Etymology.com:
trump (v.2)
"fabricate, devise," 1690s, from earlier trump "deceive, cheat, impose upon" (late 14c.), from Old French tromper "to deceive," a word of uncertain origin.
Trumped up "fabricated out of nothing or deceitfully; forged; false; worthless" is recorded by 1728. Since 2025 the origin has become conflated, especially in the US, with the second Trump presidency (January 2025 to his September 2025 impeachment) in which Trump and his lackeys were notorious for illegal executive orders, false charges, and widespread abuse of power.
Hope you're all keeping warm, or cool, depending!
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-premiere-recap-episodes-1-and-2
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-3-risk-assessment
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-4-escape-velocity-protocol
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-5-rogue-war-tracker-infinite
We've had a cold snap here - temps down to 7C (45F) - which I know is nothing to you tough Northeners but it reminded me how much I prefer summer. I broke out my oodie (a massive hooded sweatshirt of velour fleece lined with fake sheepskin fleece - mine has slices of pepperoni pizza on it) which was amazingly warm and comforting for a while, then when I'd warmed up, rapidly became claustrophpbic. I'm keeping it in reserve for more wintry dips in temperature.
Discussion of an NSFW artwork and TMI
I'm working on a NSFW artwork of John Sheppard and Rodney McKay as "always a girl" lesbians, and managed to turn myself on! Unusual - it can happen when I write sex scenes, but never before with a high-rated pic I've been drawing. I really want the pic to work so will need to run it by at least one art beta when it's a bit more finished - John/Joan's hips are proving elusive. Meredith's looking nicely lush though.
Lots of podfic-related activity lately - the longer one I'm recording is going well, plus the regular Voiceteam festival had an archiving challenge so we've been hit with >600 podfics to archive, some in weird, tiny, Yuletidey fandoms that are a puzzle to categorise.
I had a brief brain melt and panicked that the due South Big Bang deadline was June 16th (it's August 16th), and having come to my senses, relievedly abandoned the punishing podficcing schedule I'd invented. But I do need to get onto my into-a-bar fic asap. Writing - so much harder for me these days, goddamnit.
The Mexican sunflower is still flowering up a storm, even in the cold and rain. It's a keeper! Not a lot of choice about that as with big ones like mine the roots can be several metres deep, and they come away again cheerfully when cut back.
I had a moment in a comment over on
minoanmiss's journal, when I realized the phrase "trumped up" charges now has a horrible new meaning. So I've written an imaginary future entry in Etymology.com:trump (v.2)
"fabricate, devise," 1690s, from earlier trump "deceive, cheat, impose upon" (late 14c.), from Old French tromper "to deceive," a word of uncertain origin.
Trumped up "fabricated out of nothing or deceitfully; forged; false; worthless" is recorded by 1728. Since 2025 the origin has become conflated, especially in the US, with the second Trump presidency (January 2025 to his September 2025 impeachment) in which Trump and his lackeys were notorious for illegal executive orders, false charges, and widespread abuse of power.
Hope you're all keeping warm, or cool, depending!
Summer Podfic Swap - Dear Creator letter
Jun. 6th, 2025 02:12 pmmificSignups on AO3 - still open until 15th June.
Dear Podficcer
First, thanks so much for making me a gift! I'll love whatever you want to make, but here are a few general guidelines about things I prefer and those I'd rather not receive. Things I like: Competence, snark, partners/buddies/teamwork, plot, drama, and adventures, humor, traditional fandom tropes given a new breath of life or subverted/inverted. I love AUs, crossovers, and worldbuilding, be it an alien world, or fantasy, or the past or far future.
( Read more... )
Dear Podficcer
First, thanks so much for making me a gift! I'll love whatever you want to make, but here are a few general guidelines about things I prefer and those I'd rather not receive. Things I like: Competence, snark, partners/buddies/teamwork, plot, drama, and adventures, humor, traditional fandom tropes given a new breath of life or subverted/inverted. I love AUs, crossovers, and worldbuilding, be it an alien world, or fantasy, or the past or far future.
( Read more... )
Podficcing, and stuff
Jun. 6th, 2025 01:47 ammificI'm doing a longer podfic, about 22,000 words, and have happened on a new technique, partly because my new system of using my iPhone necessitates recording and editing at about the same time because recording sessions separated in time can sound quite different. Also, my voice can't cope with marathon recording sessions - about 2000 words at one time is best. So my new system is to record that much, which takes less than an hour. Then that same day I edit that segment, re-recording any flubbed words if needed. It's manageable and gives me a nice sense of achievement to have a definite chunk completed each day. The best way is to divide the chunks at a section break in the fic, which is luckily possible with this story. It covers slight changes in how my voice sounds on consecutive days.
Overall, it's a far better process than my old way when I used to record in long sessions, tiring my voice, and then I'd be faced with days or weeks of editing, which can get tedious.
A minor annoyance in the last few days has been red, itchy eyes, weeping like crazy. I wouldn't have thought there were pollens about now, in early winter, unless it's my Mexican sunflower which continues in full flower, full of buzzing bees. Not an infection, not painful - pretty sure it's some sort of allergy. Luckily it's a lot better now, thanks to camomile teabags. You make tea (pure camomile teabag, no sugar - mine are Nerada organic brand) then remove the bag to a saucer and let it cool. It's soothing as evaporation makes it cooler than room temp, and camomile also treats the eye inflammation. I put one side of the bag on each eye, in sequence, leaving it on a few minutes when the irritation is bad. It's almost cleared up now.
Made my orange almond mini-muffins, and have eaten too many. I'm telling myself all the fibre's good for me!
Overall, it's a far better process than my old way when I used to record in long sessions, tiring my voice, and then I'd be faced with days or weeks of editing, which can get tedious.
A minor annoyance in the last few days has been red, itchy eyes, weeping like crazy. I wouldn't have thought there were pollens about now, in early winter, unless it's my Mexican sunflower which continues in full flower, full of buzzing bees. Not an infection, not painful - pretty sure it's some sort of allergy. Luckily it's a lot better now, thanks to camomile teabags. You make tea (pure camomile teabag, no sugar - mine are Nerada organic brand) then remove the bag to a saucer and let it cool. It's soothing as evaporation makes it cooler than room temp, and camomile also treats the eye inflammation. I put one side of the bag on each eye, in sequence, leaving it on a few minutes when the irritation is bad. It's almost cleared up now.
Made my orange almond mini-muffins, and have eaten too many. I'm telling myself all the fibre's good for me!
Update, and today I learned...
Jun. 1st, 2025 11:35 pmmificIt's double Sunday here in NZ - Monday's a public holiday, King's Birthday. Agh, that sounds so wrong - it's been Queen's Birthday all my life and I can't get used to the change. Elizabeth I is a hero of mine and even though Elizabeth II was nothing like her, at least she had the name. Anyway, another day to do Sunday things before I have to put out the garbage and tidy my flat so Fionna, who helps me beat it into shape once a week, can see the floor to do vacuuming and get at the kitchen sink without it being full of dishes.
Recently I learned how to warn for Major Character Death. AO3 have been doing a series of explanatory posts, and this time it was on ratings and warnings. I thought I knew what MCD meant although it's a trope I hardly ever write or otherwise depict, but I hadn't thought through what "major" means. I'd assumed it meant a protagonist or leading character from canon and fandom - one of the regulars, like Rodney, John, Teyla or Ronon from SGA, Fraser and the Rays from due South. But no, it means the prominence of the character in my transformative work. So if I write a fic focussing on Chuck the Gate Room technician and I kill him off at the end (he is rather in the front line, that close to the Stargate) then I need to warn for MCD because although he didn't even get a last name in canon, in my fic he was the protagonist. If I get you invested in a character, no matter how insignificant they are in canon, I need to warn you (or use CNTW) if I end up killing them. Makes sense; I just never thought it through before. Same goes for any original characters I invent.
Over at Drawesome we've finished the Mermay challenge and the theme for June is Pride! I hope people still mobilise to support each other in the US, while the corporates abandon their empty, performative support (fuck you, google, home depot, and the rest).
Recently I learned how to warn for Major Character Death. AO3 have been doing a series of explanatory posts, and this time it was on ratings and warnings. I thought I knew what MCD meant although it's a trope I hardly ever write or otherwise depict, but I hadn't thought through what "major" means. I'd assumed it meant a protagonist or leading character from canon and fandom - one of the regulars, like Rodney, John, Teyla or Ronon from SGA, Fraser and the Rays from due South. But no, it means the prominence of the character in my transformative work. So if I write a fic focussing on Chuck the Gate Room technician and I kill him off at the end (he is rather in the front line, that close to the Stargate) then I need to warn for MCD because although he didn't even get a last name in canon, in my fic he was the protagonist. If I get you invested in a character, no matter how insignificant they are in canon, I need to warn you (or use CNTW) if I end up killing them. Makes sense; I just never thought it through before. Same goes for any original characters I invent.
Over at Drawesome we've finished the Mermay challenge and the theme for June is Pride! I hope people still mobilise to support each other in the US, while the corporates abandon their empty, performative support (fuck you, google, home depot, and the rest).