Food banks and food pantries - Donate & prompt me to write for you
Nov. 21st, 2025 03:32 pmThis applies to recurring donations too!
Ao3 Meme
Nov. 21st, 2025 08:13 pmFrom your AO3 Works page, look at the tags and find the answers to these questions.
Current number of works on AO3: 711
1. Under what rating do you write most?
Ratings break down like this:
General Audiences (563)
Teen And Up Audiences (147)
Mature (Mature)
(I was curious for a minute as to what the mature one was and then remembered it had to be the EatD one with the German Generalmajor and the English Major General, and that's mainly for the suicide warning, but, er, the whole thing really.)
2. What are your top 3 fandoms?
Doctor Who (1963) (231)
Doctor Who (2005) (98) --> obv as this is all DW, plus also some BFA, and take away any tagged with both, so I got up the meta tag results within works and came up with DW = 293
Sapphire & Steel (88)
Blake's 7 (62)
I like my old time Brit TV SF? XD I need to get back to my B7 rewatch soon. I miss it when it's been so long since I've watched it or written it. Which explains a lot about the tags.
3. Which character do you write about most?
Silver (Sapphire & Steel) (55)
Followed closely by Sapphire (44) & Steel (42). That's what you get when your most prolific fandom has umpty million characters across 60+ years and various spin-offs and different media and my second has 4 main canonical characters, only 3 of whom turn up more than once in canon. (Kenny Phillips still shows up disproportionately at (29), which is because I once claimed him for 30ficlets. Claims are hard. Even if I love a character, after about 10 pieces in a row, I want to write about somebody else!)
4. What are the 3 top pairings you've written?
The top is actually OFC/OMC, which is not fandom-specific, so have the top four.
Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s) (11)
Elizabeth of York Queen of England/Henry VII of England (11)
Ruth Evershed/Harry Pearce (9)
Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart/Liz Shaw (9)
I suppose this could be correct. It doesn't feel correct, but I think that's because I always have a crisis when tagging Sapphire/Silver/Steel, because I know full well my definition of it mostly would count as gen for many people so I panic and wildly select either & or / or both or something. Otherwise I feel like that would beat 11. Although it could just be AO3's counting, which definitely used to be very off in these side-bars.
I didn't know I'd done that much Ruth/Harry, but there have been a few little ficlets over the years and I suppose they added up! I had a very intense Brig/Liz period ages ago, so that's no shocker at any rate. Most of my shipping is very much one or two and move on, with a few exceptions. *points*
5. What are the top 3 additional tags?
Ficlet (214)
Crossover (143)
Humor (126)
Not accurate at all, lol. /o\ I mean, I feel like I've been a lot less funny lately, and written a lot less prompt ficlets and a lot less crossovers, but me writing crossover crack ficlets played straight for prompts from the flist is a lot of my fannish life, it's true. No regrets. Even the Steed/Baldrick one. XD
The rest are:
Alternate Universe (68)
Meme (65)
Drabble (46)
Post-Canon (45)
Community: hc_bingo (42)
Fluff (30)
Flash Fic (30)
Which, yeah. The AU is largely the AU meme - I have done a lot of that one over the years! It's fun, though. Not done drabbles so much lately, though. And
Mm, seasonal affective disorder and assorted political depression are fun
Nov. 21st, 2025 03:26 pmIt is definitely time for a seasonally-appropriate vacation and a hug or twelve.
"Yes, but so many of them were limericks!"
Fuck off into the sun, inner critic. Just because I would've liked to have written novels and haven't does not make the things I have made entirely negligible.
New Worlds: Sex Segregation
Nov. 21st, 2025 06:04 pmSome kinds of sex segregation are situational, being focused on a specific event. Rites of passage in certain types of society are often focused on initiating boys into the company of men and girls into the company of women; it therefore makes sense that the other group shouldn't be present. Childbirth is another event that may be restricted only to women, with men having their own traditions to perform elsewhere. Even a girls' slumber party may be off-limits to boys, any such intruders being driven away with shrieks of outrage and maybe some thrown pillows. But once that event is over, the space opens up again; the living room where the slumber party was held is not forbidden to men forevermore.
Where the separation is more about the space than a specific event, it's most likely to happen in contexts that are both bodily and communal. Locker rooms and bathing facilities, for example, involve individuals stripping down in the company of other people, so we tend to have separate ones for men and women. The communal part is particularly important here: nobody thinks twice about the fact that toilets at home or on airplanes are all-gender by default, because they're also single-occupancy. It's only when the space is shared that hackles rise over a lack of segregation -- though proponents point out that all-gender communal restrooms tend to be built in a way that offers more privacy to everybody, and that's a good thing.
For many of us, it probably makes sense that anything which involves baring intimate parts of the body should be veiled from the opposite sex, outside special circumstances. But the "bodily" part of the above equation also extends in directions that may be less obvious to my average reader . . . like eating. We think nothing of men and women eating together, even in public! But in other places and times, women have taken their meals separately from men, even within the walls of their own homes -- and a restaurant is right out. Regency England considered it barely acceptable for a woman of quality to dine in a private room at a commercial establishment, especially if she was traveling, but out in public? That was scandalous. (The French, ever risqué, thought it was just fine.)
The other broad category in which segregation may rear its head is religious contexts. Mosques very commonly have separate sections for men and women, for the very practical reason than Muslim prayer involves kneeling and bowing one's head to the ground, which leads to a lot of time with the rear end of the person ahead of you being right in front of your face. In mixed contexts, it's easy to see how this can get socially awkward and may distract people from the religious matters that should be their focus. Orthodox and some Conservative Jewish synagogues likewise maintain separate sections for men and women, again for reasons of modesty and improved attention to God.
Depending on the place in question, this division can be accomplished in a number of ways. The different sections can be marked by anything from segregated doors to a rope to a low wall to a curtain, depending on the degree of privacy required. This may run laterally through the space, so that the women are (usually) behind the men, or it may run axially, placing them side-by-side -- the latter carrying a great symbolic connotation of equality, as it allows both sexes to be equally close to the front. Or the separation may be greater, with women in a balcony (echoed by the Women's Gallery that used to allow English ladies to observe the doings of a wholly masculine Parliament), in a different room, or even in another building entirely, one constructed for their sole use.
Of course, when we think of sex segregation, we think above all of purdah -- using that as a generalized term for the seclusion of women from public view, via clothing, architecture, and behavior, in all contexts rather than only specific ones. On the sartorial end, veils can hide a woman's hair, face, or even eyes from view, while long skirts, long sleeves, and perhaps gloves conceal everything else, depending on the degree of concealment required. On the architectural end, pierced wooden screens serve a dual purpose: environmentally, they permit some air circulation while blocking most light, and socially, they prevent outsiders from easily seeing into the house, where the women are.
In English we tend to equate the word "harem" with a man's collection of wives and concubines, but properly speaking, it's the private part of the house, which by the principle of metonymy came to also indicate the women there. Male outsiders and servants may not enter; even male relatives may be restricted, with only the closest or those under the age of puberty allowed across the threshold. Meanwhile, the women themselves often face restrictions on their ability to leave -- which, in extreme cases (like the wives and concubines of a ruler), might extend as far as prohibiting that entirely.
To be clear, although we associate this with the Muslim world, and perhaps with India, that's not its only context. Noble and royal women in East Asian countries, for example, might only converse with men from behind a screen, because it was improper for them to be viewed directly. Early modern Spanish writings are full of the idea that women should stay within their houses and not go out, only grudgingly allowing for things like church attendance -- indeed, Europe more broadly agreed that women should not be out in public any more than strictly necessary. Where there is patriarchy, there will be a desire to control the visibility, movements, and activities of women.
At least for elite women. Because let's be clear: this kind of segregation is ultimately a luxury, and therefore not equally affordable by all classes. Somebody has to go out for food, water, and other necessities, and that work can't all be done by men, because they're busy with their own jobs. The private seclusion of upper-class women relies on the public activities of slaves or paid servants, many of whom will be female. Meanwhile, households living closer to the poverty line can't afford that kind of help; their women might have to work at agricultural or commercial tasks just to make ends meet. They may still be barred from certain contexts, forbidden to attend the theatre or take a meal in a tavern, and they may be required to observe strict forms of modesty while they're out and about, but they can't be hidden away entirely.
Ultimately, then, while limited and context-dependent forms of sex segregation can be very commonplace, the blanket sort indicated by the term purdah is an expression not only of gender ideology but of economics. It can only occur where there is the wealth to support it, along with the will to enforce it.

(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/ZQlmSn)
DVD commentary: 'Fragments of Her Mind'
Nov. 21st, 2025 04:35 pmFor
( DVD commentary... )
So there you go! I do really like this story; I've enjoyed revisiting it, and I was reading through it thinking, perhaps I should do more Howards End stuff... and now the schedule for
[Fic] Sorry We're Closed, "Shared History"
Nov. 21st, 2025 09:43 amSorry We're Closed
Full spoilers for the game, set post-game after the Chamuel route.
Michelle doesn't think it's fair that her new paramour doesn't remember how they got here. Robyn thinks she should leave things lie and explains why--but Michelle will always go her own way where this person's involved.
fanart recs
Nov. 21st, 2025 07:54 amBatman: Rainy Knight by
Wednesday Addams: Lazy Wednesday Afternoon by
Cult of the Lamb: Two Bishops by
Dredge: No one has ever asked by
Dredge: Sunset scene by
Stardew Valley: late night conversation by Anonymous, Krobus, SFW. Very cute pixel art of Krobus, some junimoes, and a fish.
Original work: anglerfish by
Critical Role: Campaign 4, Episode 7
Nov. 21st, 2025 02:25 am( Spoilers under the cut. )
[Alberta] Trans Day of Remembrance + Alberta's Bill 9
Nov. 20th, 2025 10:56 pmOn November 18th, the Alberta government introduced Bill 9. This uses the Notwithstanding Clause to halt legal challenges against the transphobic Bills 26, 27, and 29.
I cannot emphasize enough how much of a big deal this is - not just because of the transphobic bills, but because of the use of the Notwithstanding Clause. By blocking legal challenges to their bills, the government of Alberta is restricting the rights of Albertans. Additionally, this comes less than a month after the government used the Notwithstanding Clause to force an end to the teacher strike.
I'm not very good at explaining the issues with all this, so instead I will link to some statements:
Statement from Egale Canada and Skipping Stone
Statement from Wood Buffalo Pride
Also, I came across a thoughtful statement from the Otipemisiwak Metis Nation that gives a succint explanation about why this affects more than the LGBT2QA community and why people should care about the use of the Notwithstanding Clause. It makes a good point that this kind of measure is not supposed to be a first resort. If people won't care about the wellbeing of trans people, maybe they will at least care about the precedent this sets for the erosion of Charter rights. Maybe.
Anyway, before we started the actual memorial, there was a letter writing session. I wrote to the premier and my MLA. I doubt any of these letters will even get read, and even if they do get read I doubt it will have any result, but at least I felt like I was doing something. (Someone joked that we should write to our member of parliament too, even though this is a province-level issue. "Might as well send Laila Goodridge a letter, since she doesn't like being left out". Haaaa. You gotta laugh.)
The memorial itself was very well-done and thoughtful. Two local writers read some of their original spoken-word work, which was cool. And the dinner was nice too. Of course, the mood was kind of low, but it was still nice to see everybody and have a chat.
I'm glad I went (and also glad that the memorial was indoors this year). But I'm really unhappy with my provincial government right now, and things feel kind of impossible at the moment.
In case anyone's on the fence ...
Nov. 20th, 2025 08:13 pm2025 AO3 Collection | Signup Page | Tagset
I'm excited by the lineup we have so far! So many different ships and characters.
Erin Watches: The Switch + Hazbin Hotel S2
Nov. 20th, 2025 09:37 pmThe Switch is a tiny little 1-season, 6-episode comedy about a trans woman living in Vancouver. It’s part quirky workplace comedy, part quirky roommate comedy, and part “she moves in with her ex who’s secretly an assassin, who spends the whole season trying to dodge the investigation for an executive they recently killed, but, like, in a funny way.”
Half the cast is trans, a ton of the crew is trans, so it’s a big part of the show in a way that feels genuine and natural. Even though the show in general has a fun heightened-reality vibe. (The original Kickstarter campaign mentions a sorceress character. She’s not in the final cut at all, which I kinda suspect was a broader “oops, we’re trying to stuff too much in 6 episodes, we need to cut the magic subplot” decision. But, listen, if they had made a second season where Sabrina the Teenage Witch moved in down the hall, it wouldn’t feel out-of-place.)
I watched the whole thing for free on Tubi! There are some other streaming options on their official website. They also just straight-up tell you “want to be a pirate? here are the torrents” — but give them some ad revenue, if you can.
—
So I guess I’m a Hazbin Hotel fan now, huh?
FFA did a rewatch of season 1 in the leadup to season 2, so I rewatched it along with that. Then ended up watching S2 as it came out (dropping two episodes a week), because now I’m invested enough that I didn’t want spoilers.
(Couldn’t totally avoid them, because…listen, there is a deep vault of Fandom Lore here, which I have never actually looked at. So there were regular comments like “sure, we already basically knows Plot Point X, because of the leaks/interviews/character designs posted on DA in 2012” where I had no idea about X at all. It worked out fine, though, because sometimes the fandom was wrong! And I had no way to predict when.)
All the music is good, and some of it is great. Their animation budget must be incredible, and you can see it paying off — Vox Populi showcases some amazing dynamic tracking shots, and the reprise Vox Dei has them just showing off. It has the same overstuffed pacing as S1, where they’re trying to pack about a thousand different character beats into eight episodes — there are setups that never get payoffs, and payoffs to things that weren’t actually set up — but the central arc of the season does hold together, and all the individual moments are fun to watch.
There’s a recurring theme of “look, this is shameless pandering to the iddiest of fandom desires” that goes so hard, you have to respect it. The saddest woobie with the softest vulnerable heart gets manhandled in all-new ways!

The most Tumblr Sexyman spends multiple episodes tied up and gagged, strapped to a chair, in his jealous rival’s bedroom!

There are moments that honestly feel like “the show won’t bother going too deep into this, because they know they can just toss the idea in front of their audience, and wait for a million fics to fill in the gaps.” And given the size of the fandom, I don’t think they’re wrong, either.
…The size of the fandom means there’s an overwhelming number of Youtube videos. But a lot of the ones I’ve watched are, well. Bad? Like “hidden details you missed” but it just lists basic plot points, or “fixing the character designs” but it’s fixating on things that aren’t problems.
Have a few recs, because these deserve to be watched without viewers having to dig them out of the heap first:
- An Exhausted Defense Of Angel Dust (posted before S2, has some heavy discussion about sexual assault)
- The Character Design of Hazbin Hotel (also posted before S2, the only video about the designs where I haven’t gotten exasperated and stopped watching)
- Collider Ladies Night interview with Vivziepop (released after S2, plenty of spoilers)
Recent music-adjacent news that I've found interesting
Nov. 20th, 2025 05:19 pmMusic adjacent to economics
On BBC Newshour yesterday, I heard a story (which I can't find online at the moment) about Kraftwerk's instruments and equipment going up for auction. Besides the historical value because of their association with Kraftwerk, many of these items were inherently valuable because they're rare examples of early electronic musical instruments. The vocoder used on "The Robots" sold for about $200,000. The expert they talked to said that there were only about 20-30 surviving examples of this model of vocoder. I hope that these instrument went to musicians who will put them to use and not to tech bros who'll put them on a shelf.
Music adjacent to politics
Due to rising tensions between China and Japan (which I am forced to admit that I was unaware of), one of the cultural disputes going on between the countries is a petition in Japan asking Aespa member Ningning (who is Chinese) not to come to Japan. At the same time, Japanese performers who have built a portion of their career in China have been going out of their way to express pro-China feelings. I'm going to have read more about this situation. If any of you have a link to an article that explains what's going on, I'd appreciate it.
Music adjacent to fandom and statistics
In an article related to Blackpink members' performance at the Grammys, Rolling Stone referred to Blackpink as "(without a doubt) the biggest K-pop group in history, and has been for years." So of course ARMY (BTS's fandom) turning out in force, coming for Rolling Stone and bringing sales records, number of awards won, and chart performamce. the biggest K-pop group in history, and has been for years.) Within six hours, Rolling Stone had revised their article to refer to Blackpink as “the biggest K-pop girl group.” (A characterization that ONCE really ought to have something to say about.)
Music adjacent to bad machine translation
Weki Meki's Kim Doyeon won a Blue Dragon award (which seems to be the Korean equivalent of the Oscars), and her appearance on the red carpet caused quite a stir. The headline on one website uniquely expressed it by saying "Kim Do-yeon, Audrey Hepburn Reincarnation... a person who causes a single disease". I knew this was some sort of translation error, and asking the question on Threads led someone to clear it up for me. Apparently what they were trying (and failing) to say is that she is triggering an obsession for short bob haircuts.
Email suggestions? (and recs and things)
Nov. 20th, 2025 03:15 pmAnyone use one of these or have opinions? Are there others I have missed? (GMX used to be suggested but I haven't seen it mentioned recently?) Besides google's well, everything, I am sick and tired of having to turn off its AI "features" every few weeks/months every time they push a new update/product. I loathe all things AI it is just an annoying scourge that is *everywhere*.
I mostly want just reliable email that can be accessed via a browser webpage without having to download anything. If I can also access it on my phone via an app or browser there, great, but that is less important. Free is ideal, although I guess I'll consider a one time purchase if it's not too bad and is for a well established, reliable company. I do like googledocs and plan on moving away from that eventually but for now just starting to establish a new email would be a good step.
Livejournal is down today when I use firefox but if I try in another browser it seems to load (I have Edge on this laptop but only because it came installed and I used it to DL firefox, I haven't signed into anything on it). I even tried turning off uBlockOrigin and it still wouldn't work on firefox. I wonder if firefox tweaked its settings or something, one of the things that kicked off my new email client search was juno being weird on firefox. SIGH. I did check and my firefox is up to date. (The 'is it down right now' sites seem mixed on if LJ is down for everyone or not so I guess there is an actual issue. I barely use LJ anymore but still, twas my fannish home for a bit, I hope it doesn't go down for good)
I managed to find things to post to
Batman
- Yapping on a random rooftop until sunrise. (really great Dick and Tim art)
DMBJ/Lost Tomb:
- "Next time, can we not come to such a cold place?" (gorgeous artist interpretation of the finale scene in Mystery of The Abyss, the Heihua Russia adventure tease)
- Clair-Obscur also on AO3 here Summary: Summary: Xie Yuchen is kidnapped. Hei Xiazi comes to the rescue... As his lift. (wonderful, and wonderfully detailed, B&W wordless Heihua comic)
MDZS/The Untamed
- Happy radish family! (adorable WWX, WN and a-Yuan during the burial mounds settlement days)
Sherlock
- Bleak (sherlock in the rain, love it)
Superman
- Sunshine Boy (this is one of my favorite Clark fanarts I have ever seen)
X-Men
- Halloween at the x mansion but it’s just everyone wearing starfleet uniforms. Charles does Not think it’s funny. (absolutely hilarious but the bonus is just *chef's kiss*)
I've been seeing articles and comments about both a White Collar and Stargate reboot possibly happening. The White Collar one seems like it's mostly rumor and hopeful folks rehashing comments made a few years ago (or, there's nothing specific behind the chatter at least) but Amazon/MGM has actually greenlit a Stargate project with a showrunner who had been involved with SGA so that might be something. (I am not entirely sure stargate can work in today's world/climate considering the military push and 'ancient aliens' conspiracy theories but still, I loved SG1/SGA back in the day so I guess I am cautiously optimistic?)
oops
Nov. 21st, 2025 07:07 amI've been quiet, in part because all the other shiny socials are taking up my time and space, in part because things are kinda busy right now in garden and work and party planning and Christmas.
Also, I'm not sleeping well. I can fall asleep relatively well (except for when I can't and remain awake until 2:30am) and wake with a vague tiredness that is never really improved by actual sleep.
--
The Month Of Writing Dangerously is not happening, per se. It's really more The Month Of Writing Safely And Moderately With Some Occasional Bursts.
I do feel vaguely bad about a few fic WIPs that I have had lingering for years, and yes, I know most people don't post WIPs for precisely this reason. I don't regret posting them, but I do feel a little regretful that I'm not finishing them. There are plans and plots for them, but actually getting those plots into scenes and the scenes into words is another thing. And also: obviously the longer it goes, the harder it is to keep writing and the fewer people are interested in the story anymore.
--
It looks like I will be working the Christmas-New Year stretch. I'm not sure if that's office hours, or just being on call, I think it's office hours, but there's not much happening.
There are now three of us in the area I work in, monitoring two systems, and while I will have to come up to speed on the second system, we can hope that there are no major issues over what is usually a very quiet period.
We can hope.
