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([personal profile] cahn Mar. 15th, 2026 10:30 pm)
Last week: The Jews are basically in an abusive relationship with Rome and have no good options; they choose the particular bad option of picking a war with Rome that they can't win. The Romans are terrible. Also continuing discussion here about Britannicus, Messalina, and the Praetorians.

This week: Vespasian comes down like a ton of bricks. That whole !!!! part of Josephus happens, where he gets stuck in the cave with a bunch of others and invents and wins the Josephus problem (well, in the text it says they draw lots, so he doesn't actually really cite what developed into the problem) (*) and surrenders to the Romans once he and another guy are the only ones left, and prophesies to Vespasian that he will become emperor. ([personal profile] selenak: Is it Feuchtwanger's invention to add the nomenclature of Messiah in there too? That definitely... upped the ante.)

(I'll comment more on this tomorrow -- I got done with the reading late and obviously barely got this written.)

Next week: first part of book 4? Where to?

(*) E. wanted to know what I was reading, so I told her about the Josephus problem, and she said, "Real-world applications of math!"
The Virtual Memorial for [personal profile] minoanmiss will be April 12, 1PM EDT (GMT -4)

Other info shared by [personal profile] gingicat:

It's now okay to unlock and make public posts regarding [personal profile] minoanmiss.

The funeral took place on the afternoon of March 13th. If any of you want to go visit her grave, it is in Mount Auburn Cemetery near the corner of Sycamore Ave and Gerardia Path.

Her organs were donated:
- heart to research
- liver to a woman in her 30s
- right kidney to a woman in her 40s
- left kidney to a woman in her 70s

Announcement sign-up:
https://groups.google.com/g/nyani-announce

---

I'm so glad to know MM's final resting place is at a peaceful, beautiful location, and that her friends were able to honour her wishes to donate her organs to those in need. ♥
([syndicated profile] merriamwebster_feed Mar. 16th, 2026 01:00 am)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 16, 2026 is:

putative • \PYOO-tuh-tiv\  • adjective

Putative is a formal word used to describe something that is generally believed, supposed, or assumed to be something specified. It is always used before a noun.

// The group's putative leader was conspicuously absent from the meeting.

See the entry >

Examples:

"... the painting is swept up in questions of identity, provenance, authenticity and putative value." — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2025

Did you know?

There's no need to make assumptions about the root behind putative—we know it comes from a form of the Latin verb putare, which means "to consider" or "to think." Putative is a rather formal word that has been part of English since the 15th century. Like apparent, presumed, and ostensible, it leaves room for a smidgen of doubt: a putative ally will very probably be there for you, and a putative successor is very likely to be the next one in charge, but life offers no guarantees in either case.



conuly: (Default)
([personal profile] conuly Mar. 15th, 2026 10:07 pm)
that the Roman calendar was batshit.

Today is the Ides, okay, and yesterday was pridie Ides, so far so good, and the day before that was three days before the Ides, because the Romans a. counted backwards and b. did this weird inclusive counting, so Friday, Saturday, Ides = three days.

(Which is also how Good Friday is three days before the Resurrection, when it blatantly isn't.)

***************************


Read more... )
Hi!

I have a character in a sci-fi universe who ends up "shipwrecked" alone on a completely uninhabited planet for two years. The planet, and the specific environment he lands in, are perfectly habitable by humans (we are in soft scifi territory here, very Star Trek inspired) and he's able to survive with some effort. (The details of how are not really important to the story - I know at least that he's the kind of guy who'd be able to salvage some tech and emergency supplies from his wrecked ship, and I'm comfortable with brushing past the details of what exactly he brought with him - but if anyone's really interested in coming at it from that logistical angle, I won't stop you!)

What is more relevant to the story is how this experience would continue to affect him by the time he's back home safely. I think there are a bunch of possible avenues here and I'd love to see people's takes on how they would approach this or approach researching it. For example, here are some of my cursory thoughts:
  • PTSD is certainly a likely long-term complication
  • It's implied that his shipwrecking was not an accident/was engineered maliciously - I imagine this is something he has dwelt on heavily throughout the two years and will affect his ability to trust people (and to visit other uninhabited planets in the future!). Seems like it would be easy to get caught in delusional spirals in a situation like that.
  • I know that prolonged isolation can cause hallucination/psychosis in some cases, especially in solitary confinement, sensory deprivation contexts, etc. Is that as much of a risk in this case? And if so, do you think he'd still be experiencing psychotic symptoms after the fact?
  • One of his personality traits is that he's fairly attention-seeking - I think it's likely this incident will exacerbate that and make him more desperate for connection
  • It'll probably alter how he approaches social situations in the future in general; that's something I'll definitely be thinking about
  • Perhaps he got into the habit of talking to himself on the planet, and this never went away
Not to worry, I'll return it. We have plenty enough as it is.

************************


Read more... )
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([personal profile] ruric Mar. 16th, 2026 12:34 am)
I had a whole weekend at home - for the first time in 4 weeks! Remind me never to organise/volunteer for things that mean I have to work 3 Saturday's on the trot because that is exhausting. On the plus side I have a chunk of flexi leave to take.

So quick summary:


HOME: deep cleaned kitchen and sorted out a bunch for a recycling and tip run today. Next week it's deep cleaning the bathroom, and chipping away at the chaos and decluttering/#orjenising in the bedroom and living room. I have detailed bullet point lists and daily/weekly targets!

HEALTH still a bit FUBAR'd but improving. Finally took myself off to Toni and Guy's on Friday where a very firm hairdresser chopped off a significant amount of my hair. It had almost reached my waist and had way too many split ends. I got a free treatment (whatever product they used smelled awesome and made my hair super silky) and I now have a really simple cut - still long enough that I can put it up when gardening /at the gym, but short enough to wash and go and no danger of overnight knots. Today I got my piercings back - found a great piercer locally and I was just going to get single studs in each ear but happily we discovered 5 of my old piercings were still open! She popped new studs in those - because I have no idea where my old studs are - only the tons of dangley earrings on the boardd in my bedroom. She redid the middle piercing on my left ear and now I have all the shiny jewellery back. Once the current ones have settled down I'm going back to get my helix piercing redone - might get one each side.

LIFE ADMIN: still planning to move from Gmail once I've decluttered it. Applied for a postal vote as I'll be working local election day (7 May) as a poll clerk in Richmond so won't be around to vote locally. Have to make time to complete training for that and it will be a long day (5am to midnight inckuding travel to/from )polling station.

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: have kept email at mail at 11,000 but not managed to reduce it; staying on top of transferring To Keep items from tablet to dropbox, my phone images storage is a mess.

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: nope - too cold and/or wet and lacked motivation.

COOKING/EATING: reboarded the takeaway train over the last week - there just seemed to be no time at all, long work days!

READING/LISTENING: LOL. Thank you Rachel Reid - read Game Changers, Heated Rivalry, Tough Guy, Common Goal, Role Model and The Long Game and now re-reading Heated Rivalry matching book chapters to rewatch episodes. What do you mean obsessed?

WATCHING: Heated Rivalry - 4th rewatch. Everything else is having to fit around that!

CREATING/LEARNING: several, projects on the go/nearing completion - spring wreath, Halloween blanket, granny square blanket, hexicardi, granny square bags x 2. Might get one or two done by the end of the month.

CATS: all good.

VOLUNTEERING: one new task to complete as of meeting last week.

SOCIALISING: a 3 hour call with [personal profile] gingerpig consisting of two hours of Heated Rivalry squee and one of catching up. A formal "WiLlYoUCoMeToMyCotTageThisEAsTer" invitation extended to [personal profile] ravurian - because, thanks to Show, I'm never going to be able to invite anyone to the cottage unless I adopt concussed-and-ever-so-slightly-high Shane's rhythm of speech.

WORK: much improvement - BRAG quarterly meeting went well, the Seed Swap was a success, the three consecutive Saturday's of work are over until 28 March which is my next weekend day of work. I've started the current round of inspections which is generating a ton of admin (which is this coming week's issue), I need to carve out some time to dealing with financial year end (how is it almost the end of March?!!!) and reprofile the capital budget.

It's going to be a long work week - think I'm going to work from home tomorrow as I should be able to plough through a chunk of admin uninterrupted. Tuesday through Friday lunchtime will be office days and site visits. Then I've got 30 bags of compost to shift from a site wide delivery down to my plot on Friday afternoon - say a prayer for my knees and back! Keeping my fingers crossed for sunshine and blue skies next week.
modzilla: Godzilla with a clipboard (Default)
([personal profile] modzilla posting in [community profile] fffx Mar. 16th, 2026 02:01 pm)
The following pinch hits are due at 11:59pm EDT, Friday 20 March or your best offer. To claim, please reply with your AO3 name, and let me know which recipient/PH number you want. You're also welcome to claim by emailing mod.modzilla@gmail.com.

If you have a current pinch hit, I'm happy to discuss extensions. However, your deadline is not automatically extended. Please contact me if you'd like more time.

Minimum requirements: An art gift must be a completed comic at least 10 pages or 40 panels long; a fic gift must be a story at least 10,000 words long. You can also fulfil a pinch hit by giving two complete half-length works, if your recipient has opted into that for the fandom(s) you are creating in. Any work must be for a fandom your recipient has requested and one character/relationship/worldbuilding tag requested in that fandom, and must avoid their DNWs.

Pinch hits can be claimed in 5k or 20-panel increments if the recipient has opted into receiving half-length works. Please say in your claim if you're claiming a pinch hit for 5k (fic) or 20 panels (comic), and for what fandom.



Pinch hit #32 - fic - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV), Murder She Wrote, Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon), G.I. Joe (Cartoon), Voltron: Lion Force (1984) )

This pinch hit can be part-claimed as one story of 5,000+ words

PARTLY CLAIMED - Pinch hit #62 - art, fic - 少年歌行 | The Blood of Youth (Live Action TV), 莲花楼 | Mysterious Lotus Casebook (TV), 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV), 伪装者 | The Disguiser (TV), 少年白马醉春风 | Dashing Youth (Live Action TV), 杀破狼 | Sha Po Lang - priest, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) x2 )

This pinch hit can be fulfilled with one story of 5,000+ words or one comic of 20+ panels. Please also see newly-added requests!

Pinch hit #56 - art, fic - 9-1-1 (TV), 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga), Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types )

This pinch hit can be part-claimed as one story of 5,000+ words or one comic of 20+ panels.


See below cut for CLAIMED pinch hits!
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ruric: (pic#18359802)
([personal profile] ruric Mar. 16th, 2026 12:33 am)
LOL I am all up in everything HR so much so that it's not even funny. :o)

So the last time I posted I was 5 days in, had watched it once, bought the books and was just about to start a second rewatch - that was last Saturday.

I read all 6 books in 2.5 days, completed a second rewatch, randomly watched eps 3-6 across 4 nights (because why not?) and then decided it would be fun to match reading the relevant chapters of HR and then watch the relevant episodes. I got as far as ep 3 and then got distracted by more cast interviews and HR insta and threads.

Yeserday I disappeared down the YouTube rabbit hole of fan vids - so now I have 193 open tabs across 2 browser windows, there's music playing, I have no idea where it's coming from and I'm in the middle of curating playlists on my YouTube. I need to remember how to DL from YouTube because I want a good chunk of those vids accessible to me at all times and never worry about them being pulled.

I may be curating playlists on Spotify for my gym workouts because HR bvidders use great music for their vids. And...um...I have a bunch of meta posts bookmarked to go back and read properly after the current rewatch.

Still noticing new things - all the subtle little whispered remarks that weren't obvious on first or second viewing. I need to see the whole series on a screen bigger than my tablet.

I'm catching up on the cast interviews which I'm finding delightful and astonishing. I mean the 3 minute social media sound bites, wild humour and meeting fans where they live was an absolute gift - but the long form interviews with their openness, vulnerability and in depth discussions are just blowing my mind.

Still steering clear of fanfic - because there are only 24 hours in a day - and I'm not sure I have time for an "Inception" level fandom event in my life - though I suspect I'm fighting a failed rearguard action there. Inception inhabited my brain for 2.5 years and with S2 of Heated Rivalry not airing until '27 and (please god) a potential further season - it's quite possible I'll be fully consumed by this until 2028.

Around all of that it's been super busy at work and I've been making a bunch of appointments/ running errands which come under the heading of "Get Your Shit Together" but for the first time in months I feel like I'm fully firing on all cylinders.

Not sure how much of that is down to the Little Canadian Hockey Romance That Could or whether it's due to the fact that we've had more than a few days of sunshine, warmth and blue skies (and not the dreary grey, wet and miserable days we've had since before Christmas) - whatever! I'm running with it.
The YouTube algorithm has seen my interest in figure skating and started offering me classical ballet (I think, always difficult to tell how one gets where one ends up).

So I've been watching bits and pieces of that, as well as all of The Royal Ballet's Cinderella. I therefore offer you some fully random observations, from someone who never got into any kind of dance as a kid, and therefore knows baaaaaasically nothing about the topic. (I have been to several ballets in person, The Nutcracker of course, and the Winnipeg Ballet's Svengali..)

  1. I like classical ballet (I'm not really watching modern) because it's quite ridiculous, and unconnected to anything that has ever happened on the face of the Earth.

  2. I have learned that there's dialogue! Classical ballet has a kind of sign language, done through gestures, so that the dancers can explain plot points such as "We make evil men dance until they die!" and "This lake is made of my mother's tears!"

  3. There does not seem to be much point to the male principal dancers. They have thighs like birch trees, which allows them to leap impressively high in the air, but they don't spin around on nothing but their big toe, which makes them less interesting to watch. Their main purposes seems to be to move the plot along, and act as a "Ballerina holder upper."

  4. Maybe it's just because I'm not good enough at reading the mime, but the romantic dances are... not very romantic. They mostly seem to be the ballerina holder upper holding up the ballerina while she spins around on her big toe.

  5. I don't know if there's non-transphobic/misogynistic way to do the comedy roles where male dancers play female characters, but Cinderella sure didn't manage it.

  6. The plot of Giselle is really interesting (boy meets girl, girl dies when she finds out that boy has, girl joins chorus of vengeful ghosts, vengeful ghosts attempt to kill boy, girl saves boy), and I wonder if there have been modern retellings like there have of other old fairytales.

  7. I'm pretty sure the human body is not designed to do any of that.

Which is all I have for now.
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
([personal profile] kaberett Mar. 15th, 2026 10:37 pm)

Reading. I continue to work my way through the She's A Beast archives, to a degree that is not necessarily ... uh ... optimal, in terms of all the other things I want to do...

I slowed down on LIFTOFF, on account of resuming reading from the start with A, and then this evening I tripped and fell and am. More. of the way through it. again.

Finished What Is Queer Food? by John Birdsall. Ultimately the argument is that the queerness is a function of community -- the role that food plays in eating together -- though he also tries at various points for "enjoying food is queer" (among other things), which I do not think I am the target audience for. (Having said which I am now wondering what it would take to convince me of that line of reasoning, and Ideas Are Stirring. Hmm.) Overall a mixture of anecdotes from culinary history and fiction to fill in events that went unrecorded; he does hold space for people to be complex and flawed, and I appreciated the history that was actually history, but -- alas, this did not really work for me.

Writing. Words. Continue. To be. Eked out.

Watching. The 2026 Migraine World Summit is ongoing and eating a lot of my time and brain; thus far nothing has made me actually vibrate with fury and I've had a couple of useful joining-the-dots moments, so mustn't grumble there, really. And I have finally watched the talks from last year's Day 2 that I missed due to time changes, and have started transferring my digital notes from last year into my notebook...

Playing. Inkulinati: we continue Not Dead Yet in the Exploders run on Master difficulty.

The Ridiculous Colours Game.

Sudoku... appears to have let go of my brain for now?

Cooking. This evening I have been attempting to remember how to make Spätzle, and got there eventually (part of the difficulty being that this is the first time I've made them since acquiring a dedicated Spätzlebrett, and I needed to reestablish correct consistency of the dough...)

Eating. This morning we engaged in a Weekend Morning Ritual of going down to the local fancy bakery and getting brunch from them. We also got Treats for Afternoon Tea; I am delighted that they'll supply me with cardamom buns that I don't have to actually make myself.

I have also been Craving Brownies, but not enough to actually make them myself (and also The Oven Is Broken), and consequently have eaten them courtesy of both Wagamama (ritual Thursday night takeaway) and London Zoo (Saturday afternoon tea).

Exploring. London Zoo! Saw creatures! Maybe I will even go back and edit in more details about the creatures! Creatures: good.

Several bimbles around local front gardens (etc) to enjoy Spring Flowers.

Growing. Harvested (and consumed!) more salad. Transplanted some garlic. Wrangled some more weeding. Have yet to sow any more things but really want to have Actual Plants this growing season so, uh, maybe that can be a priority for Breaks From Migraine World Summit, not that that's worked so far...

Observing. THE BAT.

And then for brunch this morning we took our breakfast slightly further than usual to a different park bench, this one surrounded by daffodils, and then additionally wandered a little way down the New River (neither new, nor a river) to see if the coots were doing things yet (which I have also been checking every time I go to the pharmacy to pick up meds). The coots aren't, BUT there were TEN EGYPTIAN GOSLINGS peeping about the place!!! At least one of whom was Extremely keen on coming All the way down the bank and plapping along the edge of the bricks, presumably because they were warm and felt nice on feet? Certainly two very gentle attempts to chase it back towards its parents got them contemplating hissing at me, and only persuaded it to maybe do the thing for about thirty seconds at most, so I gave up on that and just stood back and watched them for a bit, and then was very relieved that the foolhardy baby did upon parents Alarm Calling (as best we can tell about A Passing Dog) go FWEEP FWEEP FWEEP all the way back up and into the bundle of its siblings. An unexpected and very welcome delight.

Title: Mandrake Potting
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: G
Summary: Drawing of a mandrake half out of a pot, wailing, with earmuffs behind the pot.

Read more... )
extrapenguin: Northern lights in blue and purple above black horizon. (Default)
([personal profile] extrapenguin Mar. 15th, 2026 08:59 pm)
Swan Lake is, after the Nutcracker, perhaps the most basic ballet there is. It's considered the peak of classical ballet (note: in ballet, the romantic era comes before the classic, so that while Tchaikovsky is a romantic composer, he is a composer of classic ballets), but I think the part of the reason for its longevity is that it has multiple ending variants, broadly divided into "villain wins" and "lovers prevail".

Short synopsis:

including the prologue!
[Prologue] Princess Odette gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, Rothbart, and cursed to become a swan who can only turn human by night. (He has a collection of women he's done this to.) Her mom turns up and cries so much her tears form the titular Swan Lake. Basically no-one performs this part anymore.

The Curse: a prince must publicly proclaim to love Odette and only Odette; if she is betrayed in love, she and all the other swan maidens are condemned to stay swans forever. Allegedly this will also happen if Rothbart dies before the curse is broken.

[Act 1 Scene 1] The production will probably start here, in a palace courtyard. Lots of partying and jolly dancing. Prince Siegfried gets gifted a crossbow. His mom tells him that tomorrow, at his 18th birthday party, he will have to pick a girl to marry.

[Act 1 Scene 2] Siegfried goes hunting! He sees a beautiful swan, who then turns into a beautiful woman. He is awed and they then fall in love. Corps de ballet is the other swan maidens, with divertissements of the four little swans and three large swans.

[Act 2 Scene 1] The birthday party. Lots of dancing in the form of divertissements. Siegfried turns down all the women his mother has thoughfully assembled, to everyone's shock. But then! The party is gatecrashed by a dude and his swan-y daughter, Odile – the black swan. The dude is none other than Rothbart, and Siegfried enspelled to see Odette when he looks at Odile. (In basically every production over, it's the same ballerina; all that changes is the color of the tutu.) Odette tries to fly in the window but is stopped. Siegfried proclaims his undying love to Odile, at which point Rothbart goes lol and draws back the curtains to reveal Odette behind the window, watching all this. Much drama ensues, Siegfried runs off, his mom faints, etc.

[Act 2 Scene 2] Back at the lake, Siegfried searches out Odette amidst the other swan maidens who have now all been condemned to an eternity as swans due to him. They meet and dance together. Then Rothbart shows up, and this is where things get interesting wrt potential ending variants. In a bunch of them, Rothbart takes Odette and she becomes a swan forever, and Siegfried tragically beseeches the audience etc (unless he's danced by Nureyev, in which case he drowns). In others, Rothbart gets defeated either by Siegfried killing him somehow, or simply by the True Love (TM) being so powerful it outpowers the curse; cue happy ending.


The Paris Ballet Theatre put on the happy ending which I believe is most popular in Russia: Siegfried steals one of Rothbart's wings (he is owl-coded), thus depriving him of his powers and defeating him. As usual, I bought the program, and this time they even had DVDs, so I bought one! Next up, buying an external DVD drive so I can rip it...

Dancing: Their principal danseur is very good at projecting this sort of naïve and innocent vibe, which fits Siegfried well. Their prima ballerina worked great as Odette, though Odile could've had a bit of extra spice. The costuming was amazing, with 109887 sequins on everyone, and I appreciated the slightly softer tutus (vs hardcore platter tutus) of the swans.

Also this is basically the Ballets Russes reborn. They dance Vaganova/Russian style, the dancers got their training in places like Armenia and the Komi Republic (in Russia), were soloists in places like the Bolshoi Theater and the Ural Opera (both in Russia), and the maîtrisse de ballet is Belarusian. Also the live music, The Orchestra of Budapest, is basically an international company formed out of almost exclusively Eastern European musicians, with a Belarusian conductor.

Note to self: rows G-P probably the best for seeing stuff, since it's far enough up that you can see the back of the stage/some of what the corps de ballet is doing formation-wise and aren't upskirting everyone nonstop, but close enough you can see expressions.
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tinny: Eve Baird leaning on gears: "high maintenance" - originally a Harry and Sally quote (__high_maintenance eve)
([personal profile] tinny Mar. 15th, 2026 09:48 pm)
Finally! Here's my progression post for 2025! (click here for: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016)


# of icons: 1230
# of icon posts: 65

Graph instead of words for distribution this time:

Icon Progression 2025 icons by month

Last, year the busiest months where May, October, June, and March - well there is some overlap - and the quietest ones February and December - nope, not even close. :D

Biggest achievements/progress made/observations: I don't think I made any huge leaps. My work was so busy and exhausting that I resorted to mostly minimalist icons without text. The most complex icons were around March, and after June the text use dropped significantly. I'm not bothered by this, because apparently it meant I made more icons, and I can't say I had less fun making them than I would have had making more complex ones. It's all good, then!

New this year: I made a gallery for 2025, just one huge pile without any text/descriptions/explanations, which you can see here: https://tinpix.de/2025/gallery_page_1.html. They go from new (page 1) to old (page 24).

Now for the monthly details:

Every icon post is linked separately, through the example icons for each month. But you can also click on the month names for that month's calendar with links to all my posts. Or you can simply look at my art-icons tag. Every month states the number of icons posted that month, plus the number later posted in drop posts, to get a better idea when I made what.

-> -> ->

My progression over the last 12 months )

Closing Thoughts and Resolutions


Wow, I got way over 1000 icons this year - probably due to the fact that [community profile] monthlyinspo died and I had to deliver lots of 20-icon sets for all the 20in20s in which I participated instead, plus the landcomms. And I was under a lot of stress at work so that carried over into my need to relieve the stress by making a lot of icons. Those were less complex, but didn't end up ugly, just minimalistic and more focused on coloring and lighting. Overall, I'm not complaining. Iconmaking is stress relief for me, and I really needed it.

My resolutions for 2025 were:

- Be a little more adventurous with obscuring the subject, either through crop or using text
- Do experiments with coloring

I feel like I did the second one. I love recoloring icons, and that's why I love iconcolors so much, too. I did a retro_icontest round where a new coloring method was the focus of the challenge, and I found a coloring tutorial that I've been experimenting with. So I guess those both count, and this worked out.

The first one... eh. I kind of did it. At least I remembered that I had it this year, lol, unlike the previous years. :D I made an icontalking challenge with the goal of practicing it (it worked a little, could have been more). So I am keeping that one.

I didn't have a third one in 2025, but since I'm firmly back into cdrama and have made way too many textless icons last year, I'll add the old resolution back. Then I realized how great it was to shake up my process, I'm adding a resolution to that effect, giving me these three:

- Be a little more adventurous with obscuring the subject, either through crop or using text
- Do experiments with changing my process, either by starting from textures or by following guides/tutorials
- Add text also to cdrama icons

Looking back at the year, I'm happy as always that the iconmaker community still exists. Some new (and old!) makers joined us again, and my comms are all a source of joy. I'm also happy to have found seasons_of_fandom, a landcomm that works really well at integrating iconmakers, which no other landcomm I've seen has done as successfully, and I enjoy participating there. It's in fact the first landcomm that I've managed to stay in for more than one round. (Well, okay, I managed a few rounds at fandom_empire, too.)

Many thanks to everyone who mods, participates, or even just comments. You all make my life better. <3

Last but not least: the graph!

Icons made in 2025 Graph - 1230 total, 323 HPI, 33 Zhu Yilong, 132 Wu Lei, 242 Wu Lei Dramas, 104 Other CDrama, 51 Asian BL, 34 Bridgerton, 312 Other
comparison with last year
Icons made in 2024 Graph - 790 total, 175 Zhu Yilong, 24 Other Chinese Actors (12 Tan Jianci, 7 Chen Minghao, 5 Jia Ling), 91 Lost You Forever, 124 Other CDrama (49 Guardian, 34 Dreamlike), 41 Asian BL, 204 Bridgerton, 71 My Lady Jane, 240 Other
Compared to last year, the number of Zhu Yilong icons dropped considerably *again*, from 175 to a measly 33. I feel like my Zhu Yilong addiction has well and truly run its course. My new obsession is Wu Lei, who leads the count with 374 icons, then HPI with 323, neither of which were at all a thing in 2024. All in all, adding cdrama (104) + BL (51) to the Zhu Yilong and Wu Lei numbers, Asian fandoms still come to almost half my total number (560).


Last year, I thought that I would icon more western fandoms, but apart from HPI, that prediction has not come true. It's all Wu Lei's fault of course. :D

So far, 2026 has started out well where iconmaking is concerned, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.
oursin: Frontispiece from C17th household manual (Accomplisht Lady)
([personal profile] oursin Mar. 15th, 2026 05:44 pm)

Last week's bread held out admirably.

Friday night supper: ven pongal (South India khichchari).

Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla, came out a bit more vanilla-y than usual.

Today's lunch: Norwegian halibut fillets panfried for slightly less long than suggested on packet, as I have found this in the past to be a bit of an over-estimate, served with samphire sauce, baby cauliflowers quartered and cooked thus (used lime and lemongrass vinegar for the acidulation) and La Ratte potatoes roasted in goosefat.

.