I don't love that Nolan McLean gave up 2 home runs in the same inning in this game, but I do love that Team Italia celebrates with an Armani blazer and an espresso (they literally have an espresso machine in the dugout and if someone hits a homer, he gets a shot) and then the team captain kisses the guy while everyone else does this: 🤌

*

Work is currently bananas. Listen, I have a whole document I wrote on how to change/streamline board stuff to foster discussion and engagement, but we were supposed to do it methodically and not implement it until the June meeting, except now we are doing it NOW, and everything got upended in the stupidest way possible. I maybe kind of couldn't control how irritated I am about it because it is basically making me do double the amount of work and is seems to me like it is just going to achieve the exact opposite of what we want it to, but apparently this is coming directly from the new board chair. I told my boss that if I am right, and that this doesn't do what they think it is going to, I might not say it, but I will be thinking the world's biggest "I told you so." And she was like, that's fair. Sigh.

*

My mother has recently upgraded her phone. When I tried moving the SIM card from the old one to the new one, my fingers couldn't get it seated properly. The old one has a proper tray; her new one has a slim, bottomless frame. Perhaps they've changed the SIM spec and we need to swap the little card, I thought (that's what was wrong the last time I couldn't lodge a SIM in a new phone). My mother and I agreed to meet at the phone carrier's nearest retail shop.

The staffer at the shop was neutrally matter-of-fact as she clicked the SIM into its frame. Thanks, kind staffer.

Just my fingers' insufficiency of sensory feedback, and my long habit of being gentle with tiny bits of hardware, lest they snap. I guess the positive part is that while repeatedly mis-orienting the SIM, I could tell that my fingers were about to snap the little frame, but it feels like an enormous waste of time to have had to go to the shop, after I'd set up everything else on the new phone. (Less than an hour round trip, including my stop for a takeout lunch on the return, but still, a waste.) I apologized to my mother afterwards, and she shrugged and gestured to my cane; for her, those things go together. For me they don't!

OTOH, these are ways that one may learn about current capabilities and limitations, while still taking classes remotely and before attempting to find a paying job likely to be less kind about unexpected physical deficits that almost no one my age who can walk into an office would have. I've applied to a few long-shot jobs over the past year, and that's done.

From another angle: I've had the good fortune to seek employment in each decade of my age so far. IME, folks who sought new jobs mostly in their twenties---and not since---are likely to have the unadjusted false idea that one looks for whatever one can do. In middle age, one checks also for what one cannot reasonably do, to save some time/effort all around: if a hiring manager wouldn't believe in the possibility, there's not much point in trying to convince them. Atop that, I guess, is stuff like abrupt gaps in dexterity for a person with otherwise (even now) above-average dexterity.

(Once, as hiring manager in lieu, I declined to interview a former stay-at-home parent reentering the workforce who posited in a cover letter that homeschooling several kids was equivalent to managing multi-month office projects. No, it's also challenging, complex work, but one mode doesn't confer the skills of the other mode, and the open job req wasn't entry level.)

Ugh, daylight savings, why are we still doing this???

Anyway, I got up at my usual workday time instead of sleeping in so I could get the onions in the slow cooker, and I did both the "soak onions in cold water in the fridge for 15 minutes" and wore the stupid onion goggles, and still by the 4th onion my eyes were extremely unhappy with me. *hands* Thankfully I only had 6 onions total, so it all got done, and for dinner I made French onion pasta as planned, and now I have dinner for 3 more days as well. I do love this pasta dish - and I always use bucatini, which is one of my favorite pasta shapes, so it was pleasing all around. Every time I make it after not having made in a while, I'm like, why don't I make this more often!? and then I remember the onion-slicing and how annoying it is. Anyway, definitely recommended for a delicious and easy dinner (except for the onion-slicing). I also made bacon so I have lunch for the week also.

I meant to mention this yesterday and forgot, but The Mountain Goats collaborated with Mary Chapin Carpenter to cover World Party: Put the Message in the Box (don't worry if you only recognize one or two of those names - the song is good!).

*

I had an extremely busy week, so am very late with my reviewes.

( Paradise 2.04 )


( Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1.09 )

Went to the office yesterday and as much as I enjoyed seeing so many of my co-workers, almost no work got done. it is just not a good use of time if they want us to be productive. Since it's an open office and we are all sitting together with no walls between us, we just chat and jump into each other's conversations and people stop by and also join in, and it's great for socializing but most of my work is stuff that requires concentration and quiet, which is in short supply at the office. But the anniversary celebration is a lot of fun and I probably won't have to attend another one for 4 more years. *g*

Our next in-office day is in late April, and I floated the idea of maybe bringing in baked goods, so I'm already considering what recipe I might choose to make, since I can experiment.

Today, I made these orange shortbread cookies and they're good, though I would zest another orange (I did 2 this time) if I make them again. Also I didn't sift the flour and instead of rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters, I rolled it into a log and just sliced them (after chilling), since they are just for me so there was no need to get fancy.

I also planned to caramelize onions overnight in the slow cooker, but then I ended up engrossed in F.D. Signifier's Tyler Perry video (which is FOUR HOURS long - I have one hour left but I'm taking a break to watch the WBC) and didn't end up doing the slicing I need to do, so I figure I'll do it in the morning, let them slow cook for most of the day, and then make French onion pasta for dinner. Anyway, I have never seen a Tyler Perry movie or show, but F.D. Signifier's videos are always worth watching.

So yeah, I've been sort of paying attention to the WBC and why is the "S" in USA like a strip of curly bacon on the Team USA jersey??? Once I saw it I couldn't unsee it. Also so many of these unis could be cool and yet so many of them are just meh. Design fail, Nike! Come on! Also, I might be rooting for the DR since Juan Soto is on that team; if Lindor were in it, I'd probably be rooting for Puerto Rico. Though of course I was pleased for Clay Holmes just now, and will be interested to see Nolan McLean pitch.

*

[ID: shot of my character from the back as she looks into the blasted ruins of the Kiln of the First Flame. She is wearing mismatched red and yellow clothes and a silver helmet, and holding a halberd.]

And it only took 8 months, and a number of hours I will not disclose. Though, to be fair, since I unexpectedly got into the multi-player, a lot of the total hours actually represent me reading a book while waiting to be summoned.

Dark Souls is slow, janky, eccentric, flawed, wilfully obscure about some of its mechanics, and one of the best games I've ever played. I am in love. Ask me anything.

Work has been intensely busy these past few days, and tomorrow I have to go into the office because Assistant J is getting a pin for being with the organization for 5 years (even though it's more like six and a half at this point, but no one wants to hear my rant about how anniversaries work again), and I never get much done when I'm in, so we'll see what happens. I do have to take all my tax paperwork and scan it for my accountant. This is much later than usual, eep.

*

Shrinking: Dereks Don't Die
( spoiler )

*

Lost Recipes was a really good read "about the legal and logistical barriers arrayed against people trying to archive rap media." to quote the email from Defector that included the link. It made me think about how despite its many, many issues (about which I have heard no news of progress at all, btw), the OTW is doing that work for this section of media fandom, and how important that work is (and how no one else was gonna do it). There's already so much that's gone, and that impacts how our stories get contextualized and passed on (thinking of all the thinkpieces on Heated Rivalry that only reference yaoi and animanga fandom and not Western media fandom, for example) and whatever place in the larger history of media and fandom this corner of it might have. Idk. I do recommend reading that post though, even if you're not a rap fan.

*

I've learned what I can from the heavily modified slipover that I knitted and re-knitted all through the past two months. Because the recent absence of a subcutaneous pain-mesh layer has coincided with thermoregulation's partial return to service, I no longer want a personally sized blanket layer in sport-weight wool/alpaca. I've bound it off, both to keep as a measurement reference and because the yarn wouldn't survive further reuse.

( non-knitting digression )

Thinking through some incidents has been aided considerably by working with yarn bought when my skin first felt oddly cold. I've used it recently as a memory prop, then undone the deliberately false start and restarted the project with different yarn. As part of the process, I've finally recovered the skeins that were reused to become about half of a Little Wave cardigan, then abandoned when I realized that the pattern's proportions and mine would never agree. Instead, I'm meditating upon Capsa.

Thanks, long-ago clearance-discounted yarn, oddly too heavy for past me to crochet, for taking good care of me.

I've tried the first few rows of a swatch for New Terrain in Lavold Hempathy yarn---old, if not as old as the yarn meant first for the blanket I couldn't crochet. Perhaps my 2019 hands could've managed it, but my current hands will need a bit of wool in the yarn blend to keep those slipped stitches even. Hempathy is cotton/hemp/rayon, with no bounce/spring to it.

Yamagara's New Terrain interests me because its shoulder-yoke is constructed similarly to that of the Sundial tee, except that Yamagara is actually competent at designing patterns with carefully considered details---all the finishing touches that Sundial's designer (Wool and Pine) tends to skip. As a fallback, I could make a version of New Terrain without the terrain, plain across the torso, if the slipped stitches and my hands can't agree at all.

That Puzzle has hit Tumblr:

https://www.tumblr.com/vassraptor/810048615228866560

Take the warnings seriously, if you are at all susceptible to the lure of Sorting Things.

From the tags:

#if you’ve ever thought about taking a quick break from keeping yourself alive properly #this will make you forget to drink water

It's not even a "logic puzzle" per se, just an invitation to sort a very large number of things into different groups.

A friend sent it to me in December and I lost a solid day to it. Had a great time, but wow it really was like having my brain hijacked.

You know that odd bit of vampire mythology in some countries/traditions where you can delay a vampire chasing you by throwing down sand or seeds or other tiny objects because they will be compelled to stop and count every grain?

Some of us are like that with Sorting Things. You know who you are. Protect yourself.

(On the other hand, if right now you need to be not thinking about some things, and you don't have urgent tasks that can't wait a day or two, and having your brain consumed sounds good: CAN REC.)

https://www.dn.se/kultur/fan-edits-har-blivit-filmbranschens-nya-maktfaktor/

”Fan edits” har blivit filmbranschens nya maktfaktor

Thanks to naye for posting on bluesky! Translation via google translate.

“Fan edits” have become the film industry’s new power factor

– Fan edits are created out of genuine commitment, rather than a commercial purpose, and then they can certainly be perceived as more credible than traditional trailers, says Lovisa Jönsson from the PR agency Jung.
In July 2025, the anonymous TikTok account Areq posts a video collage of scenes from the boxing movie “Creed.” In the clip, punches are thrown wildly to the beat of the music, while blood and sweat spurt.

The clip has over 215 million views at the time of writing. Less than a week after it was posted on the platform, the number of viewers of the film increased by 29 percent on Amazon Prime, according to data from Luminate.

Areq is an example of a growing group of TikTok creators, often fans, who make so-called video collages, or “fan edits,” of series and films for fun. The phenomenon has its origins in fan fiction, where fans use characters and settings from existing works to write a new story.

Several film studios have recognized the explosive power of fan logic and have now started to hire fans to drive their marketing efforts.

The film studio Lionsgate has recruited a dozen or so fans to make TikTok clips under the film studio’s banner. The company’s TikTok page now has around a hundred clips from films like “Twilight” and “Divergent.” All of them are bursting with references and Generation Z jokes that only a die-hard fan can understand.

In an interview with Variety, Lionsgate's head of international marketing, Briana McElroy, says that fan edits are a "love letter from fans" and that it is free marketing.

- If we are going to have a conversation with fans online, we have to speak their language, she tells Variety.

Streaming giants such as Netflix, Hulu and Paramount+ also publish clips on their Tiktok channels with clear inspiration from fan logic.

Fan-edited video collages from the ice hockey drama "Heated Rivalry" have been streaming on social media since the series was released in late 2025. The clips have reached both existing fans and attracted new viewers.

Some of the fan community's most viewed clips are edited by fan Melanie, 25. In one of the clips, countless sex scenes and hockey matches flicker past in one minute and thirty seconds. That clip has received over four million views.

When DN reaches her, she wants to remain anonymous, she wants to protect her privacy on the internet but is happy to talk about the phenomenon. Since she was 17, she has spent countless hours editing such videos, about everything from One Direction to Harry Potter and Marvel.

– Fan edits are their own art form. It is a way for a fan to tell a story or describe how they themselves interpret a series through their own lens. It is noticeable in the way they edit, in what order they place the clips or which song they use, she says.

Unlike a traditional trailer that is directed and tailored by a film company with the aim of reaching as large an audience as possible and generating revenue, fan edits lack a financial drive and are born out of pure desire and love for a series or film.

– It is created out of genuine commitment, rather than a commercial purpose, and then they can certainly be perceived as more credible than traditional trailers, especially for Generation Z, says Lovisa Jönsson from the PR agency Jung.

She points out that fan-produced content is spread organically on platforms like Tiktok and that it can reach target groups that do not usually watch traditional trailers. This provides a large distribution at a low cost.

– When marketing arouses emotions and is perceived as authentic and genuine, it tends to be more effective. It is a quick way to spread content and can create hype that makes more people feel that they “have to see” a certain film or series, says Lovisa Jönsson.

It is not only within the world of film that fan logic is being valued. For example, the artist Miley Cyrus hired superfan Olivia Rudensky to be responsible for her digital marketing and fan contact. Rudensky was recruited because she ran one of the star’s largest fan accounts, according to Forbes.

In the book “Blank Space”, the American author W David Marx describes how fans have shaped the popular cultural landscape. According to him, they have been crucial in consolidating the position of international artists. He writes that: “At a time when the media landscape has become increasingly fragmented, fans have contributed to strengthening the cultural power around a few top artists.”

Fan-produced video collages set their first milestone in 1975 when Kandy Fong made a slideshow featuring the space officer Spock from the science fiction series “Star Trek”. The slideshow was set to music with the Spock actor’s interpretation of “Both sides now”. At the time, it was shown at various fan conventions, but since then they have been exhibited at museums in both Queens and Vancouver.

When YouTube became established, fans began publishing video collages there. As Instagram and Tiktok consolidated their role, fans have instead moved their creations there and through the spread of algorithms, some of them reach a huge audience.

Sweden is no exception. Here, fans of reality series such as “The Traitors”, “The Game” and “Paradise Hotel” have made their own compilations, where they highlight certain participants, among other things. Among other things, there are several collages about the “Best in Test” program host David Sundin, with carefully selected clips from the competition program, set to music by Arctic Monkeys’ “505”.

During the new film adaptation of “Doktor Glas”, the production launched a Tiktok account. Some of the content is clearly modeled after how fans usually edit their fan clips. Lovisa Jönsson at the PR agency Jung, however, believes that there is a risk when production companies follow the fan logic.

– When companies start to commercialize fan edits and use them in strategic marketing, authenticity can be lost, which is the very basis for the impact. To succeed, they must continue to be created on the fans’ terms, she says.

title. god loves you, but not enough to save you
fandom. iwtv/tvl
character. lestat de lioncourt
song. "sun bleached flies" by ethel cain

what i wouldn't give to be in church this sunday; listening to the choir, so heartfelt, all singing: "god loves you, but not enough to save you." lestat character study vidlet. (spoilers for s3 trailers/promos.)

dw | youtube

Title: Victim
Fandom: Interview with the Vampire
Music: "Caroline's a Victim" by Kate Nash
Pairing/Characters: Louis-centric, Louis/Lestat, Louis/Armand, Louis & Claudia
Summary: Basically she likes killers

AO3 | DW | Tumblr

I really enjoyed this season of Bridgerton despite being mostly indifferent to Benedict as a character. Yerin Ha as Sophie was everything - I really hope this launches her into a long, bright career. ( spoilers )

In other fannish news, I saw some folks on bsky discussing who the best lightsaber duelist is in Star Wars, and since I didn't really know the people being quoted, I took myself to tumblr to post about it. I also texted my eldest nephew, who is the biggest Anakin and Obi-Wan fan I know (which, given some of the fangirls I know, is saying something) and his knee-jerk response was Anakin*. Which is the wrong answer, so we argued back and forth a bit, and he came around to my way of thinking that it has to be Obi-Wan, even though we never see him go up against Palpatine or Mace Windu (who may have beaten Palpatine if not for Anakin).

I did see people saying Ahsoka, because she survives Maul, Vader, and very briefly, Palpatine, but as much as I love her, she survives and escapes. She doesn't win. The list of Obi-Wan's duels is extensive and no one ever even lays a blade on him that I recall (though he doesn't beat Dooku, which was an argument my nephew made, and Anakin eventually does) until he puts up his saber and lets Vader kill him. Like, is Obi-Wan destroyed emotionally and psychologically by dueling with Anakin? One hundred percent! But he still wins until not winning is the best way to win in the long-term.

*I think you can make a case for him when he's Vader, but even then, Obi-Wan beats him on Mustafar and he only wins on the Death Star because Obi-Wan lets him. In the OWK show, he maybe sets Obi-Wan on fire a little but Obi-Wan takes no real damage in any of their fights until the Death Star.

*

title. venus, planet of love
fandom. iwtv/tvl
character. lestat de lioncourt
song. "nobody" by mitski

"venus, planet of love, was destroyed by global warming." s3 lestat vidlet.

dw | youtube

Hi there--it's been a bit! The first day of school (which was also a snowstorm) involved me waking just before 7 to the sound of water pouring through my bathroom ceiling, followed shortly by electrical explosions and a fire that will have me out of my apartment for, apparently, at least a year. No one was hurt! That is very good. The rest, not so much. I've now moved all my clothes, shoes & jewelry to my office (which I might actually keep in place forever if I can manage the jewelry organization--turns out bookcases are also really good shoe racks, and they make pretty good clothes racks for cheap now). Anyway I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off; the apartment is now empty except for the stuff that was destroyed, which sadly includes two century-old curved glass windows. And I've acquired a place to nap in my office. I'm both grateful for the resources I have to get through this and still pretty overwhelmed given all the rest of the terrible stuff in the world.

Greer Stothers, Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die: ( fantasy about a cowardly knight and the wizard he seduces )

Aisling Rawle, The Compound: ( hell is reality tv )

Matt Dinniman, Operation Bounce House: ( the wargamers throw stones at frogs for sport but the frogs die in earnest )

Kimberly Belflower, John Proctor is the Villain:( great even as a script )

Aliya Whiteley, The Misheard World: ( an interrogation in a strange world )
Charles Stross, The Regicide Report: ( good night and good luck )

Alix E. Harrow, The Everlasting: ( fantasy about a knight and the man who loves her )

Constance Fay, ( two sf m/f romances )

Joanna Russ, The Female Man: ( the feminine shriek )
James S.A. Corey, The Faith of Beasts:( alien enslavers )

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Pretenders to the Throne of God: ( started as it meant to go on )

Kai Butler,( 2/3 of a fantasy trilogy about an assassin and his emperor-target-lover )

Kai Butler, The Inconvenient Count: ( space m/m regency )
Joe Hill, King Sorrow: ( playing in the King wheelhouse )

Last night, I logged off work and got into bed for a proper nap, none of this half-assed falling asleep on the couch business, and I thought I'd set an alarm so it didn't go more than an hour or so, but it turns out that all I did was open up the clock/alarm app on my phone without setting it, so I woke up at 8:30 pm all befuddled. I decided at that point that fuck it, we ball sleep, so I brushed my teeth, changed into my jammies, and went back to bed. And slept pretty well! I woke up once or twice but had no real trouble getting back to sleep, and then I woke up for good around 7:45 am, so it was like a FIFTEEN HOUR night. Which is bonkers, but I guess I needed it?

Anyway, I did a very small recs update today for February:

unfitforsociety has been updated for February 2026 with 7 recs in 3 fandoms:

* 5 Heated Rivalry and 1 Heated Rivalry/Sesame Street crossover
* 1 The Pitt

Maybe once I finish my DCC reread, I will get back to reading more fic, idk. It's just very hard to pay attention to anything these days, thanks to *gestures* everything.

*

Random art: Svetlana Gordon's Tiffany slipover, as in the lamps, I think. I have no plans to knit it! but it's pretty.

Dear highadrenalineexchange writer,

thank you so much for writing a story for me! I've requested and received most of these fandoms before - some for many, many years, and often with the same prompts, because when I really enjoy something, I immediately want fifty more takes on the same thing. *g* So if that's what we matched on, don't worry about repeating things! I'll be absolutely thrilled about anything you can create about the relationships I requested.

Everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go.

My AO3 account is Trobadora, and it's set to welcome treats.

General Preferences

( Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )

Fandoms and relationships

In somewhat alphabetical order - note that some sections are expanded compared to the sign-up form:

Jump directly to:

• Christabel/Grimm crossover: Christabel & Geraldine & Grimm Worldbuilding
• 绅探 | Detective L: Huo Wensi/Luo Fei
• Grimm: Nick/Renard/Juliette
• 镇魂 | Guardian (TV): Ya Qing/Zhu Hong, Shen Wei & Ya Qing
• Grimm/镇魂 | Guardian (TV) crossovers: Nick Burkhardt & Sean Renard & Shen Wei & Zhao Yunlan, Sean Renard & Shen Wei & Zhao Yunlan, Juliette Silverton & Shen Wei & Zhao Yunlan, Juliette Silverton & Shen Wei, Sean Renard & Shen Wei, Sean Renard & Ya Qing, Sean Renard/Ya Qing
• Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha
• 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen/Gu Xuanqing

( Christabel/Grimm crossover: Christabel & Geraldine & Grimm Worldbuilding )

( 绅探 | Detective L: Huo Wensi/Luo Fei, )

( Grimm: Nick/Renard/Juliette )

( 镇魂 | Guardian (TV): Ya Qing/Zhu Hong, Shen Wei & Ya Qing )

( Grimm/Guardian crossovers: Nick Burkhardt & Sean Renard & Shen Wei & Zhao Yunlan, Sean Renard & Shen Wei & Zhao Yunlan, Juliette Silverton & Shen Wei & Zhao Yunlan, Juliette Silverton & Shen Wei, Sean Renard & Shen Wei, Sean Renard & Ya Qing, Sean Renard/Ya Qing )

( Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha )

( 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen/Gu Xuanqing )