jinian | Entries tagged with fic

This infection has been kicking my ass, I'm glad I finally feel a bit better today. I picked up my lumber order and am planning to make a raised bed tomorrow. Carrots (because idk I just always wanted to grow carrots and had clay soil that didn't allow it) and greens (because nutritious and likely to have supply problems this year) are my main targets. I also picked up some pole bean seeds, because I'm all about growing food right now aaaand we have an ongoing problem with too much sun making the upstairs into an oven. Rather than spend more money on awning ideas that we're not really happy with, I decided to try and replicate the huge cone o' bean plants that my university used to grow every year. We'll see how this solution goes.

Here, have a week of reading notes!
( Fiction )

( Politics/COVID-19 )

Feeling crummy due to a nasty eye infection. I've had a 5-minute telehealth visit and an antihistamine prescription that didn't help... and then not been able to get in touch with the medical team beyond a note saying my message was being forwarded to triage nurses and to go to urgent care/emergency if things got worse. Luckily, my eye has gotten better, but it seems like the doctors in my area are not only staying as isolated as possible but also getting very busy.

no direction but its own bright grace by Anonymous
Sarah (with no onscreen Labyrinth pals) finding magic in her own world and doing her best to save it.

An Unexpected Life by enchantedsleeper
Obviously I need to catch up on Questionable Content, as this AI friendship story was totally my jam.

The Unseen Connections by sandalwoodbox
Wonderful and so very Steerswoman.

https://pug-lord01.tumblr.com/post/613323621825429504
https://wildandwhirlingwords.tumblr.com/post/613368783317417984/guys-read-all-of-this-please-please-pl-guys
I'm still convinced this is an adorable piece of performance fic, but it's SO adorable and queer.

https://todaysveterinarynurse.com/articles/me-owwmanaging-chronic-feline-pain/
Comprehensive and well referenced article that finally gave me the maximum gabapentin dosage for cats. Ember is feeling much better now and remains well within dosage limits. :)

cacio e pepe by serephemeral
What if EVERYONE. :D

The Arc Towards the Sun by ViaLethe
Beautiful slow-burn Andromache/Hector.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30566-3/fulltext
Original literature on how long virus is detected in patients after onset of COVID-19. Doesn't say what I wanted to know, which is how long virus is detected after symptoms are gone. Presumably the guidelines to stay isolated 72 hours after a fever came from somewhere, but it doesn't seem to have been here!

Sentimental Reasons by Frostfire
Sam/Rick never occurred to me when watching Casablanca, but I liked this a lot.

Love Stories from the Jungle by Patrick Samphire
Response while reading: disappointment in the lack of specific place or identity
Response after reading: wow, fuck you
(It's a massive downer and feels weirdly condescending.) The language is lovely, but I hated it.
Bounced off two other free stories by the same author.

A Threadbare Carpet by Kate Heartfield
It's a little spare, I seem to want more immersive stories these days, but I liked the magic and the women characters.

Old Souls by Fonda Lee
I liked this a lot better than the Green Bone books; still pretty violent, but more relatable characters. It has a really remarkable search-and-replace error for Kegan/Mark, though, wow. I emailed the site about it, because of course I did.

The Beast and the Hummingbirds by Madison McSweeney
A good creepy little fairy tale.

Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Elvish Lembas by adspexi
:)

Other news:
Substituted a video chat for our monthly brunch with my half-sister. I wish we could have talked about anything but the news, but with everyone housebound, it was hard to find other topics. We had some good laughs, though.

I started making boiled chocolate cookies before checking that we had enough oats, and I was really down about it, but Emily happened to have a whole canister of Spare Oat. What a good girlfriend.

Date night! Went out to burgers and milkshakes with Emily, then for a walk in Wright Park (though it had gotten pretty cold). She ran around looking at all the informational tree plaques, I ran out of phone battery playing Pokemon Go. Told her about the ending of Next in Fashion. Played Animal Crossing together.

A little reading:
Physician, Heal Thyself by WeirdLittleStories
I love the premise, but the story feels like an outline. The author says there was a length limit, and it shows.

AMY DISCOVERS JO’S AO3 HANDLE AND DRAGS HER IN THE MARCH FAMILY GROUPCHAT
From yesterday, but I'd already shared it several places and forgot to put it here. So sweet and funny!

I wound up working most of today and being pretty badass despite being late on one submission, which normally ruins my day. The power of recreational antianxiety medication? Also I do prefer a day of illustration to solid editing; it's very soothing.

Some short reads:
Roman à Clef by ellen_fremedon (Stardew Valley NPC romance, 1000% worth it just for Abigail's chatlogs)

All the Spinach You Can Eat by Franzeska (really funny take on a Jeeves & Wooster BDSM relationship)

What's Real by slightlykylie (I agree, Meg Murry would grieve and be angry about losing Proginoskes)

Getting Down in Pelican Town by WretchedArtifact (another Stardew Valley NPC romance, cute and worth a giggle)

Mostly I've been reading good news articles today:
https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-perfect-virus-two-gene-tweaks-that-turned-covid-19-into-a-killer-20200327-p54elo.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/australia/astrophysicist-australia-magnets-hospital-scli-intl-scn/index.html (hilarious)
https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1243754919623974915 (GOOD DATA, been waiting for these phylogenies)

Stories included:
Let's Do the Same as They by halotolerant (Singin' in the Rain OT3 meets Steve Rogers' OT3)

The Author of the Acacia Seeds by Ursula K. Le Guin (lovely as ever, but i have Some Opinions about the plant section; obviously, plants do communicate, and their literature would be chemical)
An Orchid Keeps Its Secrets by Wasuremono, who agrees with me
The Quiet Rebellion of Tardigrade Sela Writings by Edonohana (I want to read all of them)
Mother Bonesplitter's Children by Fontainebleau (delightful! I love academic fights and new paradigms)

In other news:
Ember cat had her tail amputated due to an injury back in February and is still having phantom limb pain, so she and her meds are taking up a lot of my time and stress allowances. I had a good time hanging out with my girl tonight and playing Animal Crossing, though.

1. astolat's Transformers fic.

2. Lots of useful errands today.

3. Planting things in the big dirt.

I got shoes! Amazing shoes. They're not the "Elle Woods Astronaut shoes" (akycha got those) but they are sorcery. They also ate almost my entire state tax refund. Totally worth it. (Relatedly, I have a blister on my toe that might be infected. Ow.) It's vanishingly unlikely that I'll win Fluevogs for ten years, but what if I did. What if I did.

Squeak would like you all to know that she is a CAT who PURRS and she is RIGHT HERE.

Tomorrow is my pottery studio's show opening! I don't plan to buy anything, but I do want to go show my support. And Friday is chiptune Rocky Horror, about which I am still ridiculously excited.

Hilariously, I felt like I was about ready to stop seeing my therapist for the time being after our next appointment... until she emailed me a couple days ago saying she'd have to reschedule because her father had died. WELP. Maybe I am not feeling so hot after all. Still overall hopeful, productive, and enjoying the springtime, just a higher screaming-inside proportion than I really prefer.

In completely different news, I've been re-reading SailorPtah's lovely His Dark Materials/Welcome to Night Vale novels, and I spent some time thinking about Dust. There's a bit where Cecil is carving wooden replicas of people's daemons, and Carlos thinks, of course it makes Cecil happy to increase the number of Rusakov particles in the world. So I was contemplating intention and art. Dust accrues to artifacts, because consciousness went into making them as they are. But what I usually do with pottery is more of a dialogue or meditation with the material. My goal is usually not to have a piece of a particular size and shape, but rather developing my skill or moving in a direction and seeing what happens.

I undoubtedly come out with an artifact, but it's a different feeling. Then I wondered what Buddhist potters feel is the point of their craft. I feel like my experience is qualitatively different from making specific pottery to order, but maybe the idea of Dust is... less granular than that distinction. :D

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/676283.html

Leaving tomorrow morning at 5:39am, flying through Dulles before the worst of the snow hits (I hope), in Seattle hopefully around 11am.

Anyone have recommendations for good long fanfics I can download for the plane? I'll read most anything as long as it has women in. I've run through most of my known comfort reading due to my own recent illness, so new-but-familiar stuff is next best.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/652130.html

The previous post linked at the beginning of this one isn't bad, but this one's great. On what men think women want from women.

Exciting results from collaborators at work! Going to have to send them a lot more samples.

http://quietbabylon.com/2014/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-making/

Among other wonders, SailorPtah has made "fetch" happen. (Crossover between Night Vale and His Dark Materials.) I couldn't get the smile off my face.

Emma Watson did okay. Yeah, men in general need to step up and be better feminist allies, but it's not actually about them, and I don't think they've failed to realize that their moms are generally women. I think it's hard for men to see how fucked things still are because they don't experience it. That's what we need to fix, but it's a catch-22 in multiple ways.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/636160.html

1. Crying happy tears over breakfast because of Advanced Ambulatory Ichthyology. (The crying moment was about 85% of the way through, if you're curious.)

2. I ordered a smartphone and data service, since I figure that will help with surviving effectively in a new place. Very mixed feelings about this, actually, but I will enjoy it!

3. A racing friend is having a birthday Monday and I am going to send her a package of fun things! I love doing this stuff. Hopefully more people will send things to ME as a result, too.

4. Came home at lunch and had Aleve and laid down with heating pad for two hours... and then was cramp-free. Wow. May it continue so!

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/627290.html

( With pictures )

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/612686.html

1. Got a decent result in one experiment! Reassuring, since I've been putting in a ton of time helping out with this paper but hadn't gotten anything publishable until today...

2. The little Caryopteris that has been so reluctant to grow and bloom for the past two years is looking great this season, deep-blue puffs all over.

3. Good stories.

4. Falling asleep watching Kiki's Delivery Service on the couch with cats.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/592079.html

1. Burrito day + yuri manga = the most relaxing lunchtime.

2. Such dramatic weather!

3. Lab chores with PI.

4. The AO3 has really quite wonderful terms of service. I guess I should look into making fanworks rather than just highly appreciating them?

5. Watched an old murder mystery, The White Cockatoo, with Wim. Ridiculous black and white movie, snuggles, lemon sorbet.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/589357.html

1. I try to walk a different route to school every day, but I thought I was out of completely unique ones. Nope! There was a charity walk this morning, so they had part of a street blocked off, and I got to walk in the road too.

2. I had a Sharpie with me this afternoon, so (rather than just giving them the beady eye like I've been doing) I was able to fix two telephone-pole posters to correctly read in support of Chelsea Manning.

3. It is a day for community-sourced Night Vale episodes! A written one, correctly canon-creepy and also hilarious, and an original podfic that is beautifully scripted, amazingly acted, and kinda hot. (Also, Tamika Flynn liking girls and books in the Summer Reading Program OMG.)

4. Cleaned the kitchen! Successful strategy seems to be (1) don't be dead tired and (2) trade off tasks with video game levels.

5. To wit: Knives Chau beating up the paparazzi and throwing them into the abyss!

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/588394.html

were_duck being AN UTTER BADASS AT ALL TIMES.

2. I went a little out of my way going to school because I wanted to see new things, and found grapes and a tiny ziggurat!

3. Trivial yet brilliant innovation in the lab: instead of trying to put the plastic wrap to the side of where I'm working, which always results in nuisancy crumpling, stick it to the metal part of the bench with the power of little cupcake magnets!

4. Parallels fanworks! My favorite so far is Lovely Exorcist Nanami (Utena).

5. I might get to meet with the person who wrote this scathing rebuttal of John Tierney's article about how women are just worse at science than men. Her piece strikes a very few sour notes with me, but overall? Bad ASS.

6. The smell of rock-rose bushes in the rain.

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/584587.html

1. People two blocks west have some sweet peas still blooming!

2. Things improved by listening to Night Vale at work include: Setup of a new computer. Seed dissection. (I am confident I could have added "seed sowing" to this if I'd brought my laptop into that room with me.)

3. Troy/Abed/Annie fic continues to exist and please me vastly. Though maybe I shouldn't really read this much smut at work.

4. Although making a crown out of the trailside Lathyrus latifolius proved impossible, picking them and smelling the hot blackberry and grass odors was awesome.

5. September travel arrangements are finally all squared away after considerable frustration. Still up in the air whether I get to meet with the person I want to, but at least I'm not up against a deadline any more. Also I feel like I should be submitting an abstract at some point? but if they don't ask for one...

Crossposts: http://jinian.livejournal.com/582493.html

How is there ready-made tuna salad onigiri in this world? Tuna salad onigiri, mind you, that is labeled "shii chikin mayoneezu". CHICKEN OF THE SEA. I mean, it was good. But what?

Wonderful things:
Serious awesome Black Widow fic
Ridiculous cute Avengers and Darcy fic
Adorable affirming Avengers fic
The Problem with the Big Bang Theory -- really glad someone else sees this so articulately, I just knew I felt really sad that my parents like it so much
Human skin tones as Pantone colors -- needs more dark, but really fun to see all the variation so far

There are a few things I pass while walking to the lab that are pretty Japan-specific, like the gutter-covering tiles. I confess, every time I see them I think of rolling them up in my katamari.

When I got home yesterday, there were five Chinese girls eating in the kitchen. That's more than live with us! Two of them were new Master's students, and they pressed me nicely to eat with them all. We had some good conversation -- they were really curious about Halloween, they know about Seattle from watching the American drama Grey's Anatomy, Chinese women have a lot of trouble getting jobs without advanced degrees and we all think sexism sucks. And the food was great. They glossed one thing as kung pao chicken, but it wasn't spicy at all, just delicious: little chicken bits and carrots and a little broccoli, green onions and avoidable tomatoes, with some amazing spice I need to inquire about further. Lulu bought some spaghetti, so I am required to show her how to cook it!