This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...
* Made my 3 nominations for the Rose and Bay Awards: Other Project in crowdfunding. Nominations are still open through January, so if you haven't made yours yet, we could sure use more! Boost your favorite crowdfunded projects and patrons from 2025.
The OTW is Recruiting for Open Doors Digital Collections Intern
ALT
Are you a current or former Digital Humanities or Library and Information Science student? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting! Learn more at: https://otw-news.org/mr2ydaxu
Dear Annie: I'm just heartbroken. My son moved out last year, and he never talked to me about anything before he moved. We were so close, and we always talked. But all of a sudden, he packed up and moved out with no explanation. He had met someone a year prior to that. I met her for a second, and that was it. I do know where he is living but he doesn't know that I know. He has a new baby boy; I don't even know his name, yet he is my grandson. I know that he has two stepdaughters, but I don't know their names either.
I kept trying to call him but get no response. Now his phone is disconnected. I'm so lost and confused as well as upset. I miss him dearly.
He is my only child. He did a great job in school and had his own business after he graduated from high school. I am trying so hard to go on with my life, but it's so hard not knowing how he is, or whether he is safe, healthy and happy. He was a very good kid, and now he's a man. I just hope and pray that he will come around some day. -- Mom Is Lost
In the midst of everything, we still have birthdays, and for spatch's fifty-first I took him to Porter Square Books and on the roundabout way home we collected dinner from Il Casale. It started to snow on the way back, the light salting flakes of an all-day deep-freeze. I have my fingers crossed for an Arctic explosion this weekend.
I have written another fill for threesentenceficathon. WERS played Dave Herlihy's "Good Trouble" (2025) and I had to get home to trace his voice to Boston's own post-punk O Positive. I wish I could call the hundred-year tides against the people who have no right to the streets of my grandparents' city.
I have over 2100 music files in my VLC. Some of them are duplicates, but given that I got through significantly less than 20 in the previous post, we're going to be here a while. This is why I've never gotten all the way through reviewing my music collection.
I think I'm going to call it for the night, looking down the list isn't a ton of stuff I'm excited about for a ways and my earbuds are going to die soon. We're down to about 116 hours left, that's progress of a sort? Jesus. How do I have so much music.
DEAR ABBY: Our 24-year-old daughter is getting married in 10 months. My wife is invited to the wedding, but I am not, and I am furious. The groom's family is paying for the trip, but they say I am not invited "for financial reasons."
I don't have a great relationship with my daughter. But that isn't the point. I told my wife that if the roles were reversed and she was excluded, I would not go. This may be a deal-breaker for me. It's apparent that our marriage doesn't mean as much to my wife as it does to me. What are your thoughts? -- ELIMINATED IN TEXAS
This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It fills "The Milky Way" square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred.
Dear Eric: My fiancé and I are facing an impasse regarding the guest list for our upcoming wedding. I want to exclude his brother's (the best man) wife from the invitation list.
She consistently refuses to engage with me socially, going no further than a brief "hi." There has been no conflict; she simply does not converse with me. Although, if I ask her about herself or what's going on in her life she will answer, but there's no back and forth. I doubt she even knows my name.
For context, my fiancé is Hungarian, and his family is small. Although she speaks English fluently, she is the only family member who never attempts to talk to me or ask me any questions. While they invited me to their wedding a few months ago, I believe it was purely out of obligation.
My fiancé says that excluding her will create drama. He has acknowledged her behavior is "mean-spirited" in the past, yet he excuses it as shyness. Saying she took years to warm up to him. I find this a poor excuse for a complete lack of basic manners, and I am unwilling to have a guest at my wedding who will not speak to me.
I have told my fiancé that he needs to discuss this with his brother, but he has not done so, and invitations are about to be sent out. I am intent on sending a clear message by not including her. And from now and until our wedding there won't be any more chances to interact as we don't live in the same country.
Am I overreacting or is it reasonable to save my money while also slighting her.
moonhare posted a lovely picture of snow, and a very amusing still life of "Snow Predicted." It got me thinking that occasions would make a great theme for still life in general.
(And then VQ recommended I should check out Hozier and Orville Peck as being similar to artists I enjoy, and Leia sent me a bunch of Orville Peck links and I got distracted listening to those, so I'll cut this post here and probably continue later. So far my opinion there is Orville Peck has a very articulate voice that's easy to understand without having to read the lyrics along, which is an important starting point for me.)
Are you a current or former Digital Humanities or Library and Information Science student? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
Open Doors Digital Collections Intern – closing 29 January 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 40 applications
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don’t see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
Open Doors Digital Collections Intern
Open Doors is a committee dedicated to preserving fanworks in their many formats, and we’re looking for a temporary intern to support this goal. The work we do preserves fan history, love, and dedication to fandom: we keep fanworks from offline and at-risk archives from being lost, divert fanzines from the trash, and more.
Open Doors is seeking a current or former Digital Humanities or Library and Information Science student to join us for approximately 8-12 weeks (start date is flexible between 1 April and 1 July 2026). The intern should be able to commit at least 10-15 hours per week for the duration of the position. This internship will provide the intern with a temporary position on Open Doors during which they will complete at least one of several available relevant projects while learning more about the committee’s work. The primary project available is to scope and gather requirements for a digital asset management system for archives/zines. However, time permitting, there may be additional projects available, such as investigating options for automating metadata cleanup.
Applicants should be studying toward (or have completed) a Library and Information Science or related degree (in the US or elsewhere in the world), and they should be fluent in written English. The position will be unpaid and entirely virtual/remote. (We may be able to work with university programs that provide compensation or credit for nonprofit work, but we cannot provide in-person supervision.) We will need your assistance connecting us to any university program that may need documentation to provide credit for you.
The intern might be offered a continuing (unpaid, not for credit) volunteer position upon completion of this internship. However, Open Doors cannot guarantee that completing this internship will result in a continuing volunteer role, and the intern will not be required to accept a continuing role if one is offered.
If you’re interested, please click through to the application form! Please note you will be required to provide an unofficial college/university transcript as well as a resume/CV as part of your application. For your application to be considered, you will be required to complete a short task within 3 days of submitting your application.
Applications are due 29 January 2026 or after 40 applications
Are you a current or former Digital Humanities or Library and Information Science student? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We're excited to announce the opening of applications for:
Open Doors Digital Collections Intern - closing 29 January 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 40 applications
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
Open Doors Digital Collections Intern
Open Doors is a committee dedicated to preserving fanworks in their many formats, and we’re looking for a temporary intern to support this goal. The work we do preserves fan history, love, and dedication to fandom: we keep fanworks from offline and at-risk archives from being lost, divert fanzines from the trash, and more.
Open Doors is seeking a current or former Digital Humanities or Library and Information Science student to join us for approximately 8-12 weeks (start date is flexible between 1 April and 1 July 2026). The intern should be able to commit at least 10-15 hours per week for the duration of the position. This internship will provide the intern with a temporary position on Open Doors during which they will complete at least one of several available relevant projects while learning more about the committee’s work. The primary project available is to scope and gather requirements for a digital asset management system for archives/zines. However, time permitting, there may be additional projects available, such as investigating options for automating metadata cleanup.
Applicants should be studying toward (or have completed) a Library and Information Science or related degree (in the US or elsewhere in the world), and they should be fluent in written English. The position will be unpaid and entirely virtual/remote. (We may be able to work with university programs that provide compensation or credit for nonprofit work, but we cannot provide in-person supervision.) We will need your assistance connecting us to any university program that may need documentation to provide credit for you.
The intern might be offered a continuing (unpaid, not for credit) volunteer position upon completion of this internship. However, Open Doors cannot guarantee that completing this internship will result in a continuing volunteer role, and the intern will not be required to accept a continuing role if one is offered.
If you're interested, please click through to the application form! Please note you will be required to provide an unofficial college/university transcript as well as a resume/CV as part of your application. For your application to be considered, you will be required to complete a short task within 3 days of submitting your application.
Applications are due 29 January 2026 or after 40 applications
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday, January 21, to midnight on Thursday, January 22. (8pm Eastern Time).
It's safe to walk out to the dumpsters now, but the recycling bin is still overflowing. No recycling today (and I have a lot to recycle).
So, it was a dsy to stick around and (more or less) stay put. It snowed a bit, so the sidewalks were slushy-slippery. I walked to the library to return that boring biography, and stopped for coffee on the way back.
I invented a new word today, talking out loud to myself:
"I'd better do that today, it's going to get cold, especially the thingy-cold."
'Thingy-cold' will now be my word for wind chill, sometimes called 'feels like temperature.'
The thingy-cold this weekend may go down to -28F/-33.3C.
guess who finally retrieved all my old music backups off my old laptop after almost two full years without most of it
i now have over 8GB of music on my phone's SD card and need to sort through it
this is a struggle as you might imagine because my auditory processing is very limited (for instance in the animal crossings the only way i can really tell one kk slider song from another is if i have gyroids dancing to it, the visual representation of the beat actually helps me follow the sounds better) and i burn out very fast
so i am thinking. that i might write down my opinion of each song here on my blog. some of these i don't really even remember why i have them. so it's like, *basically* i am going for three categories: songs for phone (I don't do a lot in the way of playlists so this is songs I am generally happy to have come up on shuffle at any time), songs for computer (I like having them available but for instance I am at many times not in the mood for the Ballad of Ira Hayes), songs to delete (I am generally very hesitant to delete anything, especially because I know I may feel very differently about a song when I'm in a different mood, so this is hard and I usually wind up with folders of songs I don't really *want* but have not committed to deleting).
A friend asked about shopping for clothes over 40, with an eye toward age-appropriate and fashionable wear, given an opera subscription. That's different from my typical needs, but I'm familiar enough with wrangling clothes to have plenty of ideas ...
"Social media changed the marketing game forever. Nowadays, brands gain popularity and "street cred" by engaging with folks in comment sections and through relatable posts. It's estimated that when brands reply to comments on Threads, it boosts their engagement by 42%.
However, some posts on social media can turn against big brands, and that's exactly what recently happened to Disney. "Share a Disney quote that sums up how you're feeling right now!" they prompted their fans. But they got a little more than they anticipated: people really let them know how they were feeling, especially about the social and political state of the country. [Americans aren't happy campers, needless to say.]
And, in a moment of poor judgment, they deleted the thread, resulting in a "Streisand effect": instead of going away, the screenshots from the thread went viral."
"As a crafter, I believe in 'craftivism' - a form of activism that uses craft to convey political or social messages. Not only that, but during times of hardship, trauma, and chaos, craft, art, and joy is a form of resistance.
Patterns are created using Floss Cross and manual adjustments - NO AI ART HERE.
The idea is this - FREE cross stitch (alpha) patterns. They can be used for cross stitch, needlepoint, and more. My only ask is that you read about and check out the links I have posted to various Minneapolis/Twin Cities/Minnesota nonprofits and mutual aids and donate if and where you can, whether it be monetarily or by sharing and amplifying these organizations."
[I'm not really a crafter - I am more of a fine artist - so I'm just sharing it with you. Well unless you can poorly knitted scarves, blankets and hats (some unfinished) - crafting, in which case yes.]
Webtoon's hit Greek myth romance is getting animated courtesy of Prime Video and the Jim Henson Company.
[Jim Henson Company? Interesting.]
I'd rather they made the Buffy Comics into an animated series, particularly the Last Slayer (which I adored) about a 50 something Buffy and Spike hooking up, and training Willow/Tara's daughter after both died, in an AU version of the verse. But that's just me.
Back in November I made a ridiculously overengineered parsnip risotto, as a way of dipping a toe into my next cookbook project. I said at the time that it was very tasty, and also I was unlikely to ever make it again.
The microbes living in sourdough starters don’t just appear by chance—they’re shaped by what bakers feed them. New research shows that while the same hardy yeast tends to dominate sourdough starters regardless of flour type, the bacteria tell a more complex story. Different flours—like whole wheat or bread flour—encourage different bacterial communities, which can subtly influence flavor, texture, and fermentation.
Gandalf was a chickenshit with no self-control who could have prevented the massive death toll at Pelennor Fields. Take the ring, kill the baddie, jump into Mount Doom before it has a chance to corrupt you. But nooooo, it's way more fun to have a grey-Maia/fire-Maia punch-up in a bottomless pit in order to emerge in a gleam of backlighting and inspirational music riding a glowing horsey like a tween girl's puberty dreams, than it is to take the ring, zap in, punch the eyeball Maia in his dumb eyeball, and then jump into the lava.
Well, there's flu in my mother's residence and she's recovering from a cold (though says she tested negative for flu and COVID), so the weekend visit with friends is canceled because they can't risk me bringing anything into their space, and the weekdays visit with other friends was already severely cut down because of recent stresses in their lives but now is further reduced to just meeting up for a short walk because they can't risk it either. I do not like this timeline.
(To be clear, I absolutely understand all my friends' reasons and I'm glad they made the calls that are right for them! And we've all planned to see each other when I hope to come down again in April. I'm just sad not to see them 1. at all 2. much now. also I was hoping 1 would want to watch HR with me)
On the other hand, this means I'll be going home before a big storm hits this weekend, which if I'd kept my original schedule might otherwise have ended up delaying me for an extra day, which would then make things tight at home because we're planning to go to Montreal right after I get back. Everything happens for the tolerable in this not yet the shittiest of all possible worlds.
I remain awed by, proud of, and scared shitless for my incredible friends in Minnesota, who are fighting on the front line against literal jackbooted thugs. Even if you don't have a personal connection, I'm sure you're also gripped by the news.
yarning Went to yarn group Sunday despite an earlier migraine and had a pretty good time. Worked on a donation hat. I've been all hats all the time, working down my yarn stash, as I haven't had any kickbunny sales. I did sell 3 catnip-silvervine stuffed hearts. It's supposed to get down into the teens this weekend, with possible snow. I hope things will be clear for yarn group.
healthcrap Friday: allergy shot. Tuesday: medical transportation assessment, which went fairly well. I'll hear whether I qualify in 2-3 weeks. Today: pharmacy & first shingles shot. I need to get labs done, but I should wait until the shingles side effects pass.
After some trouble getting ahold of me, my sister has let me know that our mother died this morning.
(So maybe don't assume I remember anything I'm supposed to remember this week?) My sister and her husband continue to be awesome in these matters. As does Juan.
Author: Audrelite
Title: Soon To Be Rewarded
Fandom: Devilish Hairdresser
Prompt: #478 — Reward
Rating: E (sexual content)
Characters: Angel, Devil
Word Count: 100
Summary: The gleam in that smile, full of so much lust for her and only her, could outshine the sun, the moon, the goddamn heavens above.
Title: Renewal Fandom: The Sentinel Rating: G Content notes: None apply Summary: icons of The Sentinel - which is a show that got a second chance thanks to the persistence of fans needing, at the very least, closure for their show
This all-new Dead Air Bundle presents English-language ebooks for Dead Air: Seasons, the post-apocalyptic tabletop roleplaying game from Italian publisher The World Anvil Publishing about a Blighted world forever changed.
River, Redwood Falls, New Ulm, Cambridge, River Falls, St Paul,
Minneapolis, Menomonie, Shakopee, Red Wing, Durand, Blaine,
Chanhassen, St James, Center City, Litchfield, Monticello, Osceola,
Montevideo, Granite Falls, Albert Lea, Willmar, Hastings, Rice Lake,
Eau Claire, Ladysmith, Le Sueur, and Chaska
And what do we do?
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Dress in layers including a hat, face mask, and gloves if you must go
outside.
Keep pets indoors as much as possible.
Which mostly means "Keep yer ass indoors! You, and your little dog too!" And also means "Look after each other. We keep us safe." OK? OK then. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish the bag for the supply depot and start on one for Pow Wow Grounds.
What's the weather going to be doing where you are? And how are the people in your neighborhood?
AO3 will be down for about 15 hours starting at 08:00 UTC on January 21 (what time is that for me?) while we make some improvements to searching bookmarks and series, including:
adding the ability to search, filter, and sort bookmarks by word count
making sure bookmark search results are correct when you use tags containing letters and numbers
preventing series blurbs from listing tags that were only used on draft works
preventing series blurbs from listing tags used on restricted works for guests
updating series bookmark search so it only searches the tags on works you can access
Last year I participated in halfamoon for the first time. I enjoyed it and have been looking forward to this round. The prompts for this coming round (beginning Feb 1) have been posted HERE.
Per the mod, this year is all about archetypes. So I've listed the seven feminine archetypes on the odd number days and then something that plays against that on the even number days.
I’m including the prompts here because I need to think about them some. Yes, I’m thinking they’ll all be Jessica again, but that’s not set in stone.
What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: Nothing! I’ve watched a lot of tv and did a lot of writing in the last week, which didn’t leave much time for reading.
What I am Currently Reading: Still working on Husband Material (London Calling) by Alexis Hall.
What I Plan to Read Next: Probably the other library book I have out as I've only got one renewal on it.
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Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 from Webb
