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God, I forgot how much I hate wrangling the HTML of LJ cuts.
Dec. 6th, 2025 06:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shamanicshayminThere's a LOT of insane things going on IRL, but the short version is my boyfriend is graduating college at the end of December, so I'll be moving into his house with two of my dogs Neville & Lulubelle. My brother will have to be in charge of my last dog, Daisy Mae, and my two rats Karnak & Cahara, since the house is too small to support three dogs and my boyfriend's mom refuses to take rats. Dad is in early stages of dementia and thus unable to really take care of himself let alone me and my brother, so me moving out is an important step I'm taking for my life. So yeah. (deep breaths to try to keep myself sane)
I have a zillion WIPs under way, so I might as well list and describe them. Maybe it'll help keep my mind off things before I get my antidepressants back.
( LISA: The WIPful )
( Deltarune )
My Nanquest WIPs aren't posted yet, but I might as well list them:
( Nanquest )
This isn't really fanfiction, but it's not really original work either, so I'll list it anyway:
( Cookiequest )
There's a Sonic the Hedgehog fic I want to write about Espio's past, but I haven't started it yet. Only WIPS I actually finished chapters for count. :P
I might make a separate post for original novel/RPG Maker horror game ideas, but we'll see. But my unfinished toy novel still lives rent free in my head begging to be finished. :(
I have a zillion WIPs under way, so I might as well list and describe them. Maybe it'll help keep my mind off things before I get my antidepressants back.
( LISA: The WIPful )
( Deltarune )
My Nanquest WIPs aren't posted yet, but I might as well list them:
( Nanquest )
This isn't really fanfiction, but it's not really original work either, so I'll list it anyway:
( Cookiequest )
There's a Sonic the Hedgehog fic I want to write about Espio's past, but I haven't started it yet. Only WIPS I actually finished chapters for count. :P
I might make a separate post for original novel/RPG Maker horror game ideas, but we'll see. But my unfinished toy novel still lives rent free in my head begging to be finished. :(
FIC: All the Stars We Steal From the Night Sky (Push)
Dec. 7th, 2025 12:51 amanrAll the Stars We Steal From the Night Sky (1385 words) by anr
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Push (2009)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage Sex, Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Nick Gant/Cassie Holmes
Characters: Nick Gant, Cassie Holmes, Kira Hudson
Additional Tags: Sex, Kissing, First Time, Touching, 5 Times, Dubious Consent, Someone Made Them Do It, Loss of Virginity, Older Man/Younger Woman, mental manipulation
Summary: Her first time.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Push (2009)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage Sex, Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Nick Gant/Cassie Holmes
Characters: Nick Gant, Cassie Holmes, Kira Hudson
Additional Tags: Sex, Kissing, First Time, Touching, 5 Times, Dubious Consent, Someone Made Them Do It, Loss of Virginity, Older Man/Younger Woman, mental manipulation
Summary: Her first time.
(aka, Five times Cassie loses her virginity with Nick for the first time.)
Aryana (20.1% completed)
Dec. 6th, 2025 05:11 pmscaramoucheI'm 38 episodes into 189 for Aryana and I'm so mad because the channel I had been watching the show on has been deleted! Not all is lost, because another official youtube channel uploaded the whole series a month ago (it's the same one that had the whole Raya Sirena series), BUT the old channel had (1) stats and comments accumulated over NINE years, so I could see which episodes were popular and read the comments that came with them, and (2) two-sentence episode summaries in English under the video, which had been SO helpful in letting me follow the show without having to audio translate everything, plus they were written well - succinct and not spoilery for any big twists in the episode.
It's just my luck that the rights transferred or whatever happened that the old channel was deleted while I was still making my way through the show. >:(
Storywise Aryana has hit her fourteenth birthday and we have finally reached the first full mermaid transformation. All the relatively mundane soap opera drama is presumably gonna take a bit of a hit as we now deal with Aryana and her family's freaking out, and I actually like that because the mundane stuff was annoying me. I'd last posted that I enjoyed Aryana's dynamic in her fancy school, but then the show upped Megan's bullying of her that even Bebet fell for Megan's propaganda and temporarily ditched Aryana, so we got multiple episodes of Aryana crying and being ostracized.
The third love interest boy still hasn't shown up yet either! I've been wishing he would because the Hubert vs. Marlon stuff has been agonizing, but in a soap opera way that I can't hate on. Hubert has confessed his feelings and got a positive response from Aryana, but that fell apart because Marlon knows that Hubert has another agenda about Aryana. Marlon is being very annoying about it, but he's not wrong! Hubert is suspicious! Is this why they added a third boy? I will be curious to see how that goes.
It's just my luck that the rights transferred or whatever happened that the old channel was deleted while I was still making my way through the show. >:(
Storywise Aryana has hit her fourteenth birthday and we have finally reached the first full mermaid transformation. All the relatively mundane soap opera drama is presumably gonna take a bit of a hit as we now deal with Aryana and her family's freaking out, and I actually like that because the mundane stuff was annoying me. I'd last posted that I enjoyed Aryana's dynamic in her fancy school, but then the show upped Megan's bullying of her that even Bebet fell for Megan's propaganda and temporarily ditched Aryana, so we got multiple episodes of Aryana crying and being ostracized.
The third love interest boy still hasn't shown up yet either! I've been wishing he would because the Hubert vs. Marlon stuff has been agonizing, but in a soap opera way that I can't hate on. Hubert has confessed his feelings and got a positive response from Aryana, but that fell apart because Marlon knows that Hubert has another agenda about Aryana. Marlon is being very annoying about it, but he's not wrong! Hubert is suspicious! Is this why they added a third boy? I will be curious to see how that goes.
Stranger Things 5x01-04
Dec. 5th, 2025 11:37 pmsholioWe finally got around to watching the first Stranger Things new episode drop! Somehow I had remained completely and utterly unspoiled for it, to the extent of having even forgotten that there was a new season until suddenly a post with "stranger things spoilers" arrived on my Tumblr dash and I immediately blocked the tag. So I knew literally nothing.
( Random spoilers in no particular order )
( Random spoilers in no particular order )
10 True Loves Prompts - Dick Grayson, Table 9
Dec. 5th, 2025 11:01 pmfleetsparrow| 01. | Safe. | 02. | Danger. | 03. | Limits. | 04. | Private. | 05 | Denial. |
| 06. | Reality. | 07. | Lies. | 08. | Wound. | 09. | Habits. | 10. | Flaws. |
(no subject)
Dec. 5th, 2025 10:39 pmysobelSo my plan of quitting Duo at 4K days has gone from "vaguely in the future" to, uh, tomorrow.
It feels weird. And me being me, I'm second guessing myself. But then in a matching exercise it gave me patada (kick, as far as I can tell a noun) on the Spanish side and "to give somebody the push" on the English side, and that is a) a British phrase for firing someone, b) that is a verb, c) an unlikely translation, and d) completely novel to me both in general and on Duo and thus unhelpful for learning.
So, tomorrow is my last session and then I'm done.
It feels weird. And me being me, I'm second guessing myself. But then in a matching exercise it gave me patada (kick, as far as I can tell a noun) on the Spanish side and "to give somebody the push" on the English side, and that is a) a British phrase for firing someone, b) that is a verb, c) an unlikely translation, and d) completely novel to me both in general and on Duo and thus unhelpful for learning.
So, tomorrow is my last session and then I'm done.
(no subject)
Dec. 5th, 2025 09:10 pmshadarasGot this from some friends who Do Tumblr, but xD it's fun to pull these over here!
Fanfic End-of-the-Year Asks [I mean, COMMENTS here, really, but. you know.]
I ~only~ posted 43 works this year (not counting whatever else gets posted for end of year exchanges, etc), which is at once a lot and not as many as in recent years.
So yeah, have at!
(perhaps I'll post a Real Entry at some point, but for now: hey, I'm around, have a meme.)
Fanfic End-of-the-Year Asks [I mean, COMMENTS here, really, but. you know.]
- favorite fic you wrote this year
- least favorite fic you wrote this year
- favorite line/scene you wrote this year
- total number of words you wrote this year
- most popular fic this year
- least popular fic this year
- longest completed fic you wrote this year
- shortest completed fic you wrote this year
- longest wip of the year
- shortest wip of the year
- fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year
- favorite character to write about this year
- favorite writing song/artist/album of this year
- a fic you didn’t expect to write
- something you learned this year
- fic(s) you completed this year
- fics you’ll continue next year
- current number of wips
- any new fics to start next year
- number of comments you haven’t read
- most memorable comment/review
- events you participated in this year
- fics you wanted to write but didn’t
- favorite fic you read this year
- a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read
- number of favorites/bookmarks you made this year
- favorite fanfic author of the year
- longest fic you read this year
- shortest fic you read this year
- favorite fandom to read fic from this year
I ~only~ posted 43 works this year (not counting whatever else gets posted for end of year exchanges, etc), which is at once a lot and not as many as in recent years.
So yeah, have at!
(perhaps I'll post a Real Entry at some point, but for now: hey, I'm around, have a meme.)
Georgia Day 3: Jvari Monastery and St Nino
Dec. 6th, 2025 11:08 amtielanI'll get through Georgia by Christmas, I'm sure!
Trying to remember how it all felt nearly two months later isn't easy. I'm going off the photos I took, the impression of memories. All a bit blurred by 'ordinary time'.
The bus trip from Signahi to the Mshketa region was a couple of hours long and we had one of those giant 'caterpillar' buses. Everyone had their own double seat and by the time we took the long trips it was fairly settled who was where. Some women wanted to be able to ride in the front and see where we were going, while others wanted this side or that side.
I had a woman from Alaska in front of me - there were three of them on the tour, and this one was probably the youngest of the three. She wasn't chatty, but we had a few great conversations about politics and society over the course of the next few days.
The (closed up and not used) toilet was behind me, and woman from California across from me, a woman from New York behind her, and another California woman in front of her - the photographer of the trip.
It was a pretty easygoing group of women, as I've said before. We were almost universally older, perhaps a little more jaded in our outlook than the women I met on the Naples tour, and more cosmopolite than the women of the Pride and Prejudice tour.
Out in the villages and towns, away from the cities, the country felt very different to the tourist spots. I don't know if this is typical in countries and areas where primary GDP is from tourism, or if it's just former USSR states.
We drove past spaces that felt very run-down, a lot of places and spaces were overgrown. Houses were abandoned, no glass in their windows. Gates and pergola frames were rusted and overgrown with...well, mostly grapevines, although occasionally there were other flowering vines. And the people working the spaces were all old. Almost all of them were forty and over. I didn't see any really young people until we got to the cities: Kutaisi, Tbilisi.
When we went to the markets, there was a lot of 'selling the same things'. Like, a dozen stalls are all selling the exact same thing, no difference. I feel like this happens less, even in the markets in Australia, like Melbourne's Queen Victoria Markets. Maybe in the tourist shops with the trinkets and whatnot - those are all the same, but I don't go into those. But I had the same feeling in Vietnam and in Naples and even a little in Porto. There's not enough differentiation of product, just everyone selling more or less the same thing. And, somewhat cynically, I suspect most of them come from China...
In the morning, the bus took us towards Mshketa, which is in fact quite close to Tbilisi, where the tour had been on the weekend (while I recovered from COVID). The city is built at a kind of three-way intersection of various legs of the river, and overlooking it is the Jvari Monastery which was built in the 6th Century by the last vestiges of the Roman Empire.
In the 4th Century, the patron saint of Georgia, St Nino, brought Christianity to Georgia, converting the king at the time, and setting up Christianity as the main religion. Cue the churches, temples, and monasteries. Also, as later seen in the Uplistsikhe rock village, the conversion of old "pagan" temples into Christian worship spaces.
Anyway, the Jvari monastery dates back to the 6th Century and is magnificently still standing, all the stones firmly in place:
In comparison, the wall in the last photo - half-torn down, with only segments of it remaining - was built in the 17th Century. But why have the monastery and chapel survived a thousand years while the wall lies in ruins?
The 6th Century structures were built to Roman Standards. The worksmanship was precise and careful and everything was designed and put together just so. The wall? Was pretty much slapped together with some mortar and various stones. It's entirely possible to make really solid walls out of stones, it's just that the 17th Century builders (I think they were Templars, for some reason? Maybe? Don't quote me!) didn't bother with all that.
I would have liked to explore more inside the monastery, but I don't think there was much public access. It's not used as a monastery any more, obviously, but it still looked very solid. Anyway, we moved on after only about 30 minutes. It was a very brief stop, but interesting. I love histories and architectures, the movement of people across continents and lands... well, you know me!
On the way to Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, our guide talked a lot about St Nino, where she came from and what she did. I tried to pay attention, but got lost a few times because her accent was fairly thick.
The Cathedral was really interesting, architecturally. The present version was built in the 11th Century, and the story I was told was that the architect got into trouble for not making the inside symmetrical. Outside, though, it's very imposing and the sky was suitably dramatic for it!
The church's significance is primarily attributable to the legend of the buried mantle of Christ, brought to the region in the 1st Century by a Georgian Jew. It's also allegedly a site of great miracles, and is a major pilgrimage site for the Georgian Orthodox Church. There were a lot of priests and members of religious orders there, as well as a number of pilgrims. They were decidedly distinct from the tourists.
Some beautiful stonework there, and beautiful historical murals.
One of the notable things about the church is that when the Soviets came in, they tried to eliminate all religion. So they plastered and whitewashed over a lot of the murals, which dated back hundreds of years and had some beautiful iconography and design. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as just peeling the plaster off; they've been able to get some of it off, but they had to stop because they were damaging what was underneath.
There was a small market through which we had to pass on our way up to the Cathedral from the carpark. A restaurant had a fig tree in full fruit and while I was tempted to pick and eat, I thought it might not be polite, so I passed. But I did buy a pair of very beautiful cloisonne earrings at the markets there!
Lunch (somewhat late) was at Ateni Vineyards. The property had been in the family for generations, and Nino had pictures of her grandfather and grandmother down in the cellar under the house, where wine had been produced for generations. Unfortunately, her paternal line were perpetrators of domestic violence, and she herself had escaped a domestic violence situation before deciding to return to the family property and renovate it from the ruin it had been.
The women she employed to assist in making the lunch are displaced women from Ossetia. My notes only have 'Ossetia' but some research shows that that Ossetia is considered an ethnolinguistic region (common ancestry and culture, and common language, I believe) and there's 'North Ossetia' and 'South Ossetia' which are more or less divided up by the Caucasus mountains. North Ossetia is under Russian control, or counted part of Russia, while South Ossetia lies within the current borders of Georgia. And takes quite a bite out of the middle of it.
For whatever reason or another, however, these women were 'internally displaced people', and they were working for Nino and assisting in cooking the feast that we ate:
- purslane and ajika brusquets
- cheese and georgian endemic wheat bread
- cucumber tomato salad with walnuts
- cornelian cherry soup
- black-eyed peas
- spinach and beet leaves pie
- squash
- cherry tarts
The cherry tarts were absolutely amazing. But, again, so much food and we simply couldn't do it justice!
We were each given a candle like the one below, and I ended up gifting this toalphaflyer's daughter in Canada, because I'm seriously not a candle person at all.
Nino's philosophy was very 'new agey' to me, not my style. She tended to rhapsodise about 'feminine power' and the uniqueness of women, which...yes, I am for women being people and respected, but not so much for gender essentialism.
The slightly blurry photo is of the winemaking cellar in the house - the sort of thing that every household once had: a buried qvervy (Georgian wine-making vessel) into which the juice from the grape pressings would go. Apparently she'd made a very traditional-style vintage a few years back, including the foot pressing - although we weren't served it! Also, those things are hellish to clean to modern standards...
Some of the women like the wine and the winemaker so much, they bought boxes of wine and got them shipped back to their homes in the USA!
It was a really long afternoon in the end, and by the time we left, we were more than ready to head to our stay at a retreat up in the mountains...with a 10 minute walk to get there!
Leaving Sighnahi
Trying to remember how it all felt nearly two months later isn't easy. I'm going off the photos I took, the impression of memories. All a bit blurred by 'ordinary time'.
The bus trip from Signahi to the Mshketa region was a couple of hours long and we had one of those giant 'caterpillar' buses. Everyone had their own double seat and by the time we took the long trips it was fairly settled who was where. Some women wanted to be able to ride in the front and see where we were going, while others wanted this side or that side.
I had a woman from Alaska in front of me - there were three of them on the tour, and this one was probably the youngest of the three. She wasn't chatty, but we had a few great conversations about politics and society over the course of the next few days.
The (closed up and not used) toilet was behind me, and woman from California across from me, a woman from New York behind her, and another California woman in front of her - the photographer of the trip.
It was a pretty easygoing group of women, as I've said before. We were almost universally older, perhaps a little more jaded in our outlook than the women I met on the Naples tour, and more cosmopolite than the women of the Pride and Prejudice tour.
Out in the villages and towns, away from the cities, the country felt very different to the tourist spots. I don't know if this is typical in countries and areas where primary GDP is from tourism, or if it's just former USSR states.
We drove past spaces that felt very run-down, a lot of places and spaces were overgrown. Houses were abandoned, no glass in their windows. Gates and pergola frames were rusted and overgrown with...well, mostly grapevines, although occasionally there were other flowering vines. And the people working the spaces were all old. Almost all of them were forty and over. I didn't see any really young people until we got to the cities: Kutaisi, Tbilisi.
When we went to the markets, there was a lot of 'selling the same things'. Like, a dozen stalls are all selling the exact same thing, no difference. I feel like this happens less, even in the markets in Australia, like Melbourne's Queen Victoria Markets. Maybe in the tourist shops with the trinkets and whatnot - those are all the same, but I don't go into those. But I had the same feeling in Vietnam and in Naples and even a little in Porto. There's not enough differentiation of product, just everyone selling more or less the same thing. And, somewhat cynically, I suspect most of them come from China...
Mshketa and the history of Christianity in Georgia
In the morning, the bus took us towards Mshketa, which is in fact quite close to Tbilisi, where the tour had been on the weekend (while I recovered from COVID). The city is built at a kind of three-way intersection of various legs of the river, and overlooking it is the Jvari Monastery which was built in the 6th Century by the last vestiges of the Roman Empire.
In the 4th Century, the patron saint of Georgia, St Nino, brought Christianity to Georgia, converting the king at the time, and setting up Christianity as the main religion. Cue the churches, temples, and monasteries. Also, as later seen in the Uplistsikhe rock village, the conversion of old "pagan" temples into Christian worship spaces.
Anyway, the Jvari monastery dates back to the 6th Century and is magnificently still standing, all the stones firmly in place:
In comparison, the wall in the last photo - half-torn down, with only segments of it remaining - was built in the 17th Century. But why have the monastery and chapel survived a thousand years while the wall lies in ruins?
The 6th Century structures were built to Roman Standards. The worksmanship was precise and careful and everything was designed and put together just so. The wall? Was pretty much slapped together with some mortar and various stones. It's entirely possible to make really solid walls out of stones, it's just that the 17th Century builders (I think they were Templars, for some reason? Maybe? Don't quote me!) didn't bother with all that.
I would have liked to explore more inside the monastery, but I don't think there was much public access. It's not used as a monastery any more, obviously, but it still looked very solid. Anyway, we moved on after only about 30 minutes. It was a very brief stop, but interesting. I love histories and architectures, the movement of people across continents and lands... well, you know me!
On the way to Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, our guide talked a lot about St Nino, where she came from and what she did. I tried to pay attention, but got lost a few times because her accent was fairly thick.
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
The Cathedral was really interesting, architecturally. The present version was built in the 11th Century, and the story I was told was that the architect got into trouble for not making the inside symmetrical. Outside, though, it's very imposing and the sky was suitably dramatic for it!
The church's significance is primarily attributable to the legend of the buried mantle of Christ, brought to the region in the 1st Century by a Georgian Jew. It's also allegedly a site of great miracles, and is a major pilgrimage site for the Georgian Orthodox Church. There were a lot of priests and members of religious orders there, as well as a number of pilgrims. They were decidedly distinct from the tourists.
Some beautiful stonework there, and beautiful historical murals.
One of the notable things about the church is that when the Soviets came in, they tried to eliminate all religion. So they plastered and whitewashed over a lot of the murals, which dated back hundreds of years and had some beautiful iconography and design. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as just peeling the plaster off; they've been able to get some of it off, but they had to stop because they were damaging what was underneath.
There was a small market through which we had to pass on our way up to the Cathedral from the carpark. A restaurant had a fig tree in full fruit and while I was tempted to pick and eat, I thought it might not be polite, so I passed. But I did buy a pair of very beautiful cloisonne earrings at the markets there!
Lunch, wineries, winemaking
Lunch (somewhat late) was at Ateni Vineyards. The property had been in the family for generations, and Nino had pictures of her grandfather and grandmother down in the cellar under the house, where wine had been produced for generations. Unfortunately, her paternal line were perpetrators of domestic violence, and she herself had escaped a domestic violence situation before deciding to return to the family property and renovate it from the ruin it had been.
The women she employed to assist in making the lunch are displaced women from Ossetia. My notes only have 'Ossetia' but some research shows that that Ossetia is considered an ethnolinguistic region (common ancestry and culture, and common language, I believe) and there's 'North Ossetia' and 'South Ossetia' which are more or less divided up by the Caucasus mountains. North Ossetia is under Russian control, or counted part of Russia, while South Ossetia lies within the current borders of Georgia. And takes quite a bite out of the middle of it.
For whatever reason or another, however, these women were 'internally displaced people', and they were working for Nino and assisting in cooking the feast that we ate:
- purslane and ajika brusquets
- cheese and georgian endemic wheat bread
- cucumber tomato salad with walnuts
- cornelian cherry soup
- black-eyed peas
- spinach and beet leaves pie
- squash
- cherry tarts
The cherry tarts were absolutely amazing. But, again, so much food and we simply couldn't do it justice!
We were each given a candle like the one below, and I ended up gifting this to
alphaflyer's daughter in Canada, because I'm seriously not a candle person at all.Nino's philosophy was very 'new agey' to me, not my style. She tended to rhapsodise about 'feminine power' and the uniqueness of women, which...yes, I am for women being people and respected, but not so much for gender essentialism.
The slightly blurry photo is of the winemaking cellar in the house - the sort of thing that every household once had: a buried qvervy (Georgian wine-making vessel) into which the juice from the grape pressings would go. Apparently she'd made a very traditional-style vintage a few years back, including the foot pressing - although we weren't served it! Also, those things are hellish to clean to modern standards...
Some of the women like the wine and the winemaker so much, they bought boxes of wine and got them shipped back to their homes in the USA!
It was a really long afternoon in the end, and by the time we left, we were more than ready to head to our stay at a retreat up in the mountains...with a 10 minute walk to get there!
Dream Journal
Dec. 5th, 2025 06:46 pmmoon_custaferDreamt Jeff Bridges was the paterfamilias of a clan of actors/stunt/FX crew, who all had kind of a Western vibe even though hardly anyone makes Westerns anymore. Following a wild chase scene, I had to trackhi. down in a bar and talk him into coming back to help shoot the climactic scene of their latest gig, but he didn’t know me and had no reason to trust me.
After listening to my speech about how he should do it for the sake of his daughter (Fay Masterson), he went to the men’s room while he thought about it. Some bystander started bad-mouthing him, and I told the guy off with the line: “Fuck you. WE’RE working for Tarantino!” while glancing around to see if Tarantino was in the scene, pulling a director’s cameo.
Except in the dream I couldn’t quite remember his name, so I said Victor Tarantino.
Now considering the possibility this was a movie about a movie being directed by Quentin Tarantino’s fictional less-successful brother Victor (played by Quentin, natch).
After listening to my speech about how he should do it for the sake of his daughter (Fay Masterson), he went to the men’s room while he thought about it. Some bystander started bad-mouthing him, and I told the guy off with the line: “Fuck you. WE’RE working for Tarantino!” while glancing around to see if Tarantino was in the scene, pulling a director’s cameo.
Except in the dream I couldn’t quite remember his name, so I said Victor Tarantino.
Now considering the possibility this was a movie about a movie being directed by Quentin Tarantino’s fictional less-successful brother Victor (played by Quentin, natch).
Mar-i-a The-re-sia, M.T.
Dec. 5th, 2025 11:15 pmschneefinkI'm feeling better, but I went to the doctor's office and to the pharmacy and to the store this morning and afterwards I was absolutely wiped.
Too tired to catch up on chores just yet, but I can start catching up on reviews, at least.
Three weeks ago, friends and I went to see Maria Theresia the musical at Ronacher. I rarely go see musicals in Vienna; the last one was the Falco musical in the same place around 1-2 years ago, both of them premiered there. I enjoyed "Rock Me Amadeus" more than expected, so I was very curious about a new one about empress Maria Theresia. A key figure of Austrian history; I only remembered bits and pieces of what I learned about her at school and during museum visits etc, but I briefly looked at her Wikipedia page beforehand just in case.
I had a good time! The beginning was the weakest part imo, but then it picked up the pace and focus. Of course they took plenty of liberties with historical facts but that was inevitable. I liked the music (not especially memorable but I am also not great at remembering music in general tbf) and staging, and especially some of the things they did with the lights. I found Falco too loud in places, but not this one, possibly because we sat further back.
( Spoilers )
Afterwards I was in the mood to read a book about the Habsburgs, and the only one currently available as an ebook from the library was one about "scandalous love affairs of the Habsburgs," by Hanne Egghardt. Fortunately a quick stop to any romanticizing of the Habsburgs through sheer, hm, mundanity. It features several scandalous affairs throughout the centuries, from the wife of the emperor falling in love with and almost certainly having an affair with her sister-in-law, to Napoleon's widow having kids with a general sent to look after her, to several archdukes falling in love with "commoners" - with varying degrees of happy endings that all showcase why such relationships were viewed with much skepticism.
It was often mentioned that these nobles had allowances of specific sums of money that all sounded like a lot, but I have no context how much so-and-so thousand guilders were worth back then so I couldn't say whether they were extremely rich or just moderately wealthy for their station.
Too tired to catch up on chores just yet, but I can start catching up on reviews, at least.
Three weeks ago, friends and I went to see Maria Theresia the musical at Ronacher. I rarely go see musicals in Vienna; the last one was the Falco musical in the same place around 1-2 years ago, both of them premiered there. I enjoyed "Rock Me Amadeus" more than expected, so I was very curious about a new one about empress Maria Theresia. A key figure of Austrian history; I only remembered bits and pieces of what I learned about her at school and during museum visits etc, but I briefly looked at her Wikipedia page beforehand just in case.
I had a good time! The beginning was the weakest part imo, but then it picked up the pace and focus. Of course they took plenty of liberties with historical facts but that was inevitable. I liked the music (not especially memorable but I am also not great at remembering music in general tbf) and staging, and especially some of the things they did with the lights. I found Falco too loud in places, but not this one, possibly because we sat further back.
( Spoilers )
Afterwards I was in the mood to read a book about the Habsburgs, and the only one currently available as an ebook from the library was one about "scandalous love affairs of the Habsburgs," by Hanne Egghardt. Fortunately a quick stop to any romanticizing of the Habsburgs through sheer, hm, mundanity. It features several scandalous affairs throughout the centuries, from the wife of the emperor falling in love with and almost certainly having an affair with her sister-in-law, to Napoleon's widow having kids with a general sent to look after her, to several archdukes falling in love with "commoners" - with varying degrees of happy endings that all showcase why such relationships were viewed with much skepticism.
It was often mentioned that these nobles had allowances of specific sums of money that all sounded like a lot, but I have no context how much so-and-so thousand guilders were worth back then so I couldn't say whether they were extremely rich or just moderately wealthy for their station.
Vids that will never be: A Clone Wars ship I don't ship but I would watch this vid
Dec. 5th, 2025 04:10 pmpetraI don't actually ship Rex/Echo, but that doesn't stop me from wanting a Lord King Bad Vid to For Good for the very simple reason that Rex is going to be with Echo like a handprint on his heart.
I feel like this needs a good bunch of Bad Batch, which I have not seen, in much the same way that I have only seen Wicked on stage once, and haven't seen the movies.
I also can't listen to the song without tearing up because I've sung it at too many funerals.
Clearly I am highly qualified to care about this vid. I must've gotten someone else's inspiration particle.
I feel like this needs a good bunch of Bad Batch, which I have not seen, in much the same way that I have only seen Wicked on stage once, and haven't seen the movies.
I also can't listen to the song without tearing up because I've sung it at too many funerals.
Clearly I am highly qualified to care about this vid. I must've gotten someone else's inspiration particle.
ugh breathing things
Dec. 6th, 2025 07:39 amtielanThere is definitely something in my study that makes my throat sore.
There's been various molding spots on the wall for several years now, but I'm really noticing the issue lately. It's going to be a hot dry summer, so maybe this is the time to tackle it?
There's been various molding spots on the wall for several years now, but I'm really noticing the issue lately. It's going to be a hot dry summer, so maybe this is the time to tackle it?
It's not Rule 34 if it's not porn - Skippy's List, Clone Wars edition
Dec. 5th, 2025 03:12 pmpetraBack in the day, the 213 things Skippy is no longer allowed to do in the U.S. Army made the rounds of the internet.
The one that stuck with me hardest:
87. If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it.
This came to mind because I thought of a great tag that will baffle the good wranglers at the AO3, but which I will apply to the story forthwith, despite its having made me giggle for longer than 15 seconds.
Then I started wondering.
These are the fanworks on AO3 tagged with Skippy's List. Happily, various people have written Clone Wars versions so I don't have to.
The one that stuck with me hardest:
87. If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it.
This came to mind because I thought of a great tag that will baffle the good wranglers at the AO3, but which I will apply to the story forthwith, despite its having made me giggle for longer than 15 seconds.
Then I started wondering.
These are the fanworks on AO3 tagged with Skippy's List. Happily, various people have written Clone Wars versions so I don't have to.