Looks like someone had the same idea I did, but they put it together with an actual image of the Statue of David. It's such a striking resemblance.

This was Adulting day. I feel both accomplished and slightly annoyed.

I used to eat adulting with a spoon, but since I've retired I try to keep it away with a big stick.

On a completely different topic, I am looking forward to seeing the movie Project Hail Mary. I must have read the book three times since it came out, and the trailers look awesome.

This is just one of the pictures of Connor Storrie from Heated Rivalry in VMan Magazine. OMG, he reminds me of David by Michelangelo from the 1500s. Am I wrong?

This is my first year putting up an offering at Fandom Trumps Hate. Guess we'll see how it goes.




Whoops, put the link up too soon. Will post that later.

Title: Lumos.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Series: Part 1 of Leontes Granger
Pairing: Hermione Granger/Neville Longbottom
Rating: G
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Leontes Granger is sorted into Gryffindor.


( The boy!Hermione fic )

I just spent 10 minutes looking for a screw.


It was a tiny thing and the only one I had that fit an electric outlet plate. Yes. That kind of screw.

I had it taped to the plastic outlet plate. Taped to it so I wouldn't lose it.

While rummaging in my toolbox for pliers for...(that's another story), I came across the bare, naked, screwless plate. I did eventually find the screw, and this time plate and screw are in a ziplock bag.

Huh. I wonder if that has anything to do with the explicit- definitely got screwed - fic I just posted? Balance in the universe and all that.


As long as no minor is reading over your shoulder, you can read it here.

I take a lot of pictures of three classes of things:

• Cats: This pictures are good on any camera, including my agéd single-lens SE.
• Birds: These pics are shit on the aforementioned handheld phone.
• Moss and lichens and bugs: These pics are fine on the phone, but could be much better.

My real constraint is my hands and arms. I can't hold my arms above my head, I can't hold a phone still very long, the non-ergonomic controls and shape of a phone are shit, I realistically can't carry a tripod on a hike, and I can't bear weight on my shoulders or the back of my neck for any length of time. (I recognize that this collection of constraints means my pictures will never be great, and that's okay.)

So, questions:

• Are there any cameras that have particularly good ergonomics, are particularly light, or have a good reputation for accessibility?
• I believe I could get a remote shutter trigger & a remote focus, so I could prop the camera somewhere and get a good pic from a less painful angle; do you know how to choose a hand-friendly one? (Not finger-fiddly, easy to attach & detach, easy to click buttons.)
• On a modern camera, is it possible to get lenses good enough for bird pics that are not, you know, heavy? Last time I had an SLR I was taking pictures on film, so that tells you how out of date my knowledge is.
• What's the lightest tripod that works well for people with shit fine motor control and no finger strength? I can sort by weight on hiking sites, but hikers put up with a lot of fiddly controls that I can't handle.

(I'm only looking for advice from your experience or from the experience of people you trust. Please don't GoogleKagiGoPT it for me!)

BEWARE
This post contains spoilers for the movie Rental Family.

Rental Family staring Brendan Fraser is about an American actor living in Japan. He works for a company where citizens hire actors to play parts in their lives. He could be paid to be a groom, a mourner, a biographer or even a father for a fatherless child. Of course any of those roles could become personal if he gets too attached to a client.

This movie is not at all what I expected. I'm not sure why I thought it would be heart-warming or a comedy. What I got was something sad, something that made me think about how grim it is that people have to hire others to be part of their lives. The fact that it's become a common practice made it even more depressing to me.

It was an interesting movie, but not something I really enjoyed. It did, however, make me think about the human condition in modern times.

Over the last few days, I had fangirls come to visit! wyndwalker stayed with me, and goddess47 popped over every day to encourage us to stay out of trouble or possibly to create trouble. I get those two confused.

Much popcorn was eaten and much figure skating was watched (along with other Olympic sports. Double Luge anyone?

We had some great fandom conversations over cake and coffee. These are the kind of conversations my family members couldn't care less about, but are bread and butter to me.

We held each other up over the shock of spikedluv's passing, along with other fandom peeps lost through the years.

We wrote, read fanfic, ate a lot and when asked what quirky thing I'd watched lately...(I'm always watching stuff off the beaten path) I could recommend Jules.

The fest is open until the end of the month. If McShep is your jam be sure to check out the

Romancing McShep 2026 collection

I'm still working on my story. Yes, I thought I'd be done and have it posted by now. The story thought differently *shrug*

I'll just be making another cup of coffee and staring at the bloody thing until the words form into something comprehensible.

Or type something. That's probably a better plan. :)

From Fanlore:

Fanon is any element that is widely accepted among fans, but has little or no basis in canon.

Sometimes it's a small event in canon that gets exaggerated; sometimes it's something in a fanfic story that gets picked up on and repeated by other writers until it's so common that newbies might think it's a canonical fact.

A variation of fanon is "personal canon" or "headcanon," which is a set of "fanon"-like facts that are accepted as canon by an individual fan or a smaller group of fans, sometimes in the making of a shared universe.

I would love to know your favorite piece of Fanon. Or many pieces of Fanon. There's no need to pick just one!

I am surprised to find myself surprised by the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. It reveals that I had subconsciously assumed that obviously he would get away with whatever it was he had been doing.

Here's what happens when fandom and amigurumi collide: Crochet Your Celebrity Crush by Lee Sartori, ISBN 9780760393659.

okay so Ernie Of Sesame Street is legalnamed Ernest Monster, without question, but what is Bert short for? Albert? Bertram? Hubert? Herbert? Robert?

I may spin out a quick Sesame Street Regency AU drabble... but I think it's gotta be Bertram.

The Emorian Palace

Entrance to the palace

Do not be offended if you are denied entrance to the Emorian palace. The fact that you have come far enough to be denied that entrance shows that the Emorians' trust in you is high indeed.

The strong manner in which Emor protects its ruler, the Chara, is not evidence that the Chara is weak and frightened. Rather, it is a simple fact that being Chara is the most dangerous job in the Three Lands. Fully four-fifths of the Charas have died before their time, many from assassination. Few Charas live beyond the age of thirty.

(I should explain to any mainlanders who are puzzled at this point that noble peninsulareans have been known to live as long as one hundred years. Even commoner peninsularans often live till they are fifty. If you meet a thirty-year-old, he is not an elder; by peninsularean standards, thirty years old is barely out of one's youth)

Under these circumstances, it is only natural that the Emorians should seek to protect their Chara, giving him the opportunity to live at least long enough to father an heir. By Emorian law, the Chara may not leave his palace, except in wartime. The number of visitors who are allowed past the outer wall of the palace grounds is small. The number of visitors who are allowed past the inner wall of the palace grounds is even smaller. The number of visitors who are allowed inside the palace is very small indeed. And the number of visitors who are allowed inside the East Wing of the palace, where the Chara lives, can be counted without losing your breath.

In practice, this means that the only people who see the Chara are his council, officials from the palace and army, boys who are training to be palace officials, royal messengers, the palace guards, and honored guests, such as ambassadors.

And the servants. Everyone forgets the servants. If you want to see the Chara, I suggest entering into training for high service.

[Translator's note: The perils of living as a Chara can be seen in Empty Dagger Hand.]