lmao that the first comic to pop up when I hit the random button on my site was Faye saying "why's there always gotta be new people"
Looking back at this year, I feel like Anh basically took over the comic? It's wild how it's always the unexpected ones who have the most juice. No offense to Ayo, who is also plenty juicy and I also love writing. But Anh's a couple orders of magnitude more of a mess. But THIS comic is about AYO! Who is a delightful little idiot and I can't wait to do more with. OKAY THANKS I LOVE YOU ALL BYE
We're on the final boss fight of the campaign. Said boss is hovering over a deep pit -- bad for melee, unless they have some form of flight.
My character rolls the highest initiative.
She is a L20 owlin monk. She has flight. She also has a) 70 feet of movement per turn, and b) magic items (and a feat) that gives extra damage for distance moved in a straight line just before the attack. Oh, and a potion that does bonus
First roll hit a nat 20.
Rolling 20 means damage dice are doubled; if you would normally do 2d6, on a crit you roll 4d6. Between the damage roll (doubled), the extra monk ability I always like to throw in (also doubled, plus poison for a round), and the bonus damage for straight lines (doubled), I did 119 points of damage.
I also have a feat that says if I get a critical hit, all attacks against that creature have advantage until my next turn.
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, December 7, to midnight on Monday, December 8 (8pm Eastern Time).
Fandom: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System Pairings/Characters: Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu Rating: Explicit Length: 18,992 Creator Links:benwisehart Theme: Amnesty, Book Fandoms, Domestic, Established Relationship, Humor, Trauma & Recovery
Summary: The System gives Shen Qingqiu the ability to exchange B-Points for items, and what better way to earn points than by raising the satisfaction level of Zhongdian's favourite protagonist?
OR: The one where Shen Qingqiu starts seducing the fuck out of Binghe in order to enable his caffeine addiction.
Reccer's Notes: This one seems like it'd be just a fun kinky romp (which it also is!), but it's also very thoughtful about why Shen Qingqiu was reluctant to indulge in some of these things to begin with. Sometimes it's just his self-conscious personality, and sometimes it's because he was too quick to judge, but he's also his own person with his own preferences and traumas and those deserve to be respected, too! Really, the ultimate benefit out of this whole sequence of events might just have been allowing these two a sliver of genuine open communication, even if that's sometimes a hard-won lesson.
Title: Brahma's Dream Author: Shree Ghatage Genre: Fiction, historical fiction, family drama
Brahma's Dreamby Shree Ghatage was a book I snatched out of a pile of stuff my sister was giving away last year, but she'd never gotten around to reading it herself, so she couldn't give me a preview. Brahma's Dream is set in India just before it gains self-rule, and concerns the family of Mohini, a child whose serious illness dominates her life.
This is one of those middle-of-the-road books that was neither amazingly good nor offensively bad, and therefore I struggle to come up with much to say about it. That makes it sound bad, but it isn't--I enjoyed my time with it. I thought Ghatage did a good job with exploring life on the precipice of great political change, although the history and politics of 1940s India is more backdrop to the family drama than central to the story. I liked Mohini and her family; because the nature of her illness necessitates a lot of rest and down time, Mohini is naturally a thoughtful child, as her thoughts are sometimes all she has to amuse herself. However, she never crosses the line into being precocious, which was a relief.
Neither did I feel like the book leaned too hard on Mohini's illness to elicit sentimentality from the reader. Obviously, an illness like hers is the biggest influence on her life, and on the lives of her immediate family, and there are many moments you sympathize with her because she can't just be a child the way she wants to be, but I didn't feel like Ghatage was plucking heartstrings just for the sake of it.
Reading the relationships between Mohini and her family was heartwarming, especially with her grandfather, who takes great joy in Mohini's intellect and is often there to discuss the import of various societal events with her.
Ghatage's descriptive writing really brings to life the India of the time, with the colors, smells, sounds, and sights that are a part of Mohini's every day.
It reminded me of another book I read about a significant event in Indian history (the separation of India and Pakistan) told through the perspective of a young ill girl, Cracking India.
On the whole, this was a sweet, heartfelt book. It's not heavy on plot, but if you enjoy watching the story of a family unfold and the little dramas that play out, it's enjoyable.
Mom and Dad told me tonight about two friends of my brother's, and one of them's mom who was the school nurse at the time so knows all of us as well as being the mom of his friend, who she's run into lately who told her they always remember Chris at this time of year.
Two of the three apparently said especially that it was twenty years this year, and my mom was surprised that they remembered that specifically. But I have a couple friends about my age who had schoolfriends die when they were in school or soon after, and they certainly remember the person and how long it's been. We are lucky enough to live in an age when child/young person death is rare enough to stand out.
The school nurse mom even told my mom about how her daughter's kids know about him because the daughter has a Christmas ornament with a photo of my brother on it which my parents had made and handed out to people the Christmas after (I got one too, in my terrible flat in West Didsbury, but I never really wanted it and lost it along the way). The kids know about all the ornaments on their tree so they know this one is for "Mom's friend who died a long time ago." I love that.
On a kinda rough day, before two days in London for work that I'm dreading, this was a nice moment.
Their mom and my brother had been friends since kindergarten, when she was one of the girls who called him Kissyfur after a cartoon of that time, and who he used to entertain by doing stuff like pretending not to notice when the girls put snow in his hat and he put it on anyway so they could all laugh.
She sang at his funeral, which is such a gift to be able to offer a peer, when you're only twenty-one.
Some further progress on Florencia Clifford's Feeding Orchids to the Slugs ("Tales from a Zen kitchen"), which I acquired from Oxfam in a moment of weakness primarily for EYB purposes at a point when it was extremely discounted. It is primarily a somewhat disjointed memoir for which I am not the target audience, but hey, Books To Go Back In The Charity Shop Pile but that I wouldn't actually hate reading were exactly the goal, so that's a victory. Mostly. I'm a little over halfway through it, sticking book darts on pages that contain recipes for easier reference when I go back through on the actual indexing pass.
I absolutely needed something that was not going to make me furious and furthermore that was not going to be demanding, and there's a new one in the series, so I have now reread several Scalzi: Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades completed, The Lost Colony in progress.
I've also had a very quick flick through the mentions of Descartes in Joanna Bourke's The Story of Pain, which is my next Pain Book. She does better than everyone else I've read, but I still think she's misinterpreting Treatise on Man. (Why do I have strongly-held opinions on Descartes now. CAN I NOT.)
smitten kitchen's braised chickpeas with zucchini and pesto, two batches thereof, because I had promised A burrata to go with and then (1) the supermarket was out of it and (2) the opened part-pack of feta wound up doing two days quite comfortably, so the second batch was required For Burrata Purposes.
I have also established that the pistachio croissant strata works very well in one of the loaf tins if you scale it down to 50% quantities because there were only 3 discount croissants at the supermarket (... because you had to wait and watch the person who got there JUST ahead of you taking Most Of Them...), which also conveniently used up the dregs of the cream that I had in the fridge.
Eating. Tagine out the freezer (thank you past Alex). Relatively fresh dried apple. A very plain lunch at Teras in Seydikemer, which was apparently the magic my digestive system needed to settle itself down! And I am very much enjoying my dark chocolate raspberry stars. :)
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #987. Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ]. Current Secret Submissions Post:here. Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Fandom: Lord of the Rings; How the Grinch Stole Christmas Pairings/Characters: Gen; Sauron, the Mouth of Sauron, Pippin, Sam Gamgee, the Hobbit community Rating: General Audiences Length: (Fic) 957 words; (Comic) 30 panels Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply Creator Tags: Erisif | Valarhalla: #i could have done something useful today #instead i wrote this #i hate myself english-history-trip: #lotr #nonsense #well that was my day how was yours #why is sauron in a cave and then a tower #go to hell that's why #why is frodo bartholomew cubbins instead of a who #the answer won't surprise you
Summary:Every being in Eä liked peacetime a lot… But Sauron, who was also in Eä, did NOT.
Reccer's Notes: Elisif’s retelling of The War of the Ring in Seussian rhyming verse, firmly informed by The Lore, maps the Shire onto Whoville without introducing an anachronistic Christmas (that’s for Narnia.)
And then, in proper cumulative Tumbloric fashion, english-history-trip proceeds to remix Seussian illustrations to match. (Spoiler: Sauron does not experience redemptive cardiac enlargement; another character gets to preside over the grand climactic celebration.)
This week's bread: Country Oatmeal aka Monastery Loaf from Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno's Bread (2:1:1 wholemeal/strong white/pinhead oatmeal), a bit dense and rough-textured - the recipe says medium oatmeal, which has seemed hard to come by for months now (I actually physically popped into a Holland and Barrett when I was out and about the other day and boy, they are all about the Supplements these days and a lot less about the nice organic grains and pulses, sigh, no oatmeal, no cornmeal, etc etc wo wo deth of siv etc). Bread tasty though.
Friday night supper: groceries arrived sufficiently early in the pm for me to have time to make up the dough and put the filling to simmer for sardegnera with pepperoni.
Today's lunch: savoury clafoutis with Exotic Mushroom Mix (shiitake + 3 sorts of oyster mushroom) and garlic, served with baby (adolescent) rainbow carrots roasted in sunflower and sesame oil, tossed with a little sugar and mirin at the end, and sweetstem cauliflower (some of which was PURPLE) roasted in pumpkin seed oil with cumin seeds.
AO3 Link | Cat and Bird (300 words) by Merfilly Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: DC Comics (General) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Selina Kyle & Dinah Lance Characters: Selina Kyle, Dinah Lance Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Post-Crisis, +Modern Age (1986-Present) Summary:
Selina's in the neighborhood
Cat and Bird
"Hey there, little birdie," came a voice from above Dinah, and she looked up to see her friend Selina on the roof. That made Dinah's mood much better, and she hastily made use of the fire-escapes — and walls — to get up there.
"Hey yourself, tabby cat," she said with a grin, barely breathing hard for that exercise. "A bit out of your territory, aren't you?" She plopped herself down on the roof-edge next to the other girl.
"Hmm, came to check on one of the ones that got adopted out, make sure it was on the up and up."
"This neighborhood? It better be, or word will get around. Bunch of nosy people around. And Dad hears all the rumors like that."
"Nice older couple, and the kid was from their faith. How he wound up in a Catholic orphanage is anyone's guess," Selina said, giving Dinah the clues to keep her own ears out for the kid.
"Glad you decided to stick around when you got done," Dinah admitted, leaning over against Selina.
"Knew you'd be out sooner rather than later. Make any money today?"
"No; this tutoring is a trade. I help the blockhead learn, Mom gets her bad cooler fixed for free."
"You seem to be the one giving up time and effort a lot for these trades," Selina said, disapproving.
"Family business, Selina. Have to support mom somehow, and Dad uses it as an excuse to keep her off my back when I go out in the evenings." She slung her arm around Selina's shoulders and squeezed. "I get what I need."
"If you say so." Selina shrugged. "C'mon. I know who's working the door at the Regal. We can catch a movie and be irresponsible teenagers for once."
Dinah considered, then grinned broadly. "Sounds fun!"
There were some real lows this week -- possibly having less to do with
Leslie Fish's death (see Sunday) than with my realization on Tuesday that
I was a month away from Colleen's and my 50th anniversary. Possibly also
including communicating with my healthcare providers, which required an
email to my GP's clinic (also on Tuesday) and a phone call to my
oncologist's office on Friday. I prefer using a website, but both
websides and the app are broken in various ways.
And Tuesday evening there was a huge wave of something negative, but I've
no idea what or why.
However, I got the things done. And there were also a couple of
unexpected highs, notably Thursday afternoon when somebody from the
family of previous occupants came over to get a misdirected package. And
I was able to hand them a nearly-full grocery bag of stuff that had
accumulated over the last year, and which I had failed to find the last
couple of times I had a chance. As I noted afterwards, it apparently
doesn't take much to lift my spirits for a few moments.
But four walks, and four (admittedly short) guitar sessions. I'll take
it. And today is my daughter's 7th anniversary! (I had forgotten, but
I'd gotten a DM Friday night to say that they needed money because their
car had died. Good timing.)
I grew up on old-school Doctor Who, back when it aired on PBS Friday nights. My first convention ever was a Doctor Who event - where John Pertwee patted my head - and just a few years ago I received a side-hug from my favorite Doctor, Peter Davison. [Still squeeing over that, btw.] So yeah, you could say the good Doctor and I go back a ways.
So today I thought we'd celebrate all things timey-wimey with the ultimate Best-Of cake mix sure to make your knees wibbly-wobbly. Ready? Allons-y!
Much as I adore Tigger, I'm kinda bummed I can't make a "Doctor POOH" joke here. But that's ok; Piglet in a homemade Dalek costume MORE than makes up for it.
Sometimes you see a fan-built K-9 rolling around at conventions, and I so want one.
Even though I grew up on the show, I'm ashamed to admit I have a LOT of catching up to do with the new episodes. (Too many were making me cry!) I will catch up, though - I WILL.
Anyway, if you're in the same boat - or if you've never seen ANY episodes and just want to know what all the fuss is about, then at least watch the episode "Blink." It's quite possibly the best episode of any sci-fi show EVER, and stands alone just fine.
Plus, after you watch that, you'll know why everyone else is about to flinch away from their screens in terror:
DEAR HARRIETTE: I have twin sons who are in college at different schools. They are good kids but a bit young for their age. I don't think either of them has ever dated. I have always taught them that they should have enough money to take a woman out on a date, and right now they aren't working. I offered to give them some cash to help them in case they do want to take someone on a date, but so far neither has taken me up on it. Have I done something wrong as a mother? Why are they so delayed? -- Arrested Development
My sister openly doesn’t like me (and has said so publicly and directly), though we manage well enough for family events. I get along with my brother and his wife, but they are horrible at communication and interact with my sister more frequently. My dad gets along with all of us and is good at communication, but lives in denial of all weird family dynamics.
Around every holiday season or major family function, I get left out of crucial information regarding plans, transportation, emergency changes, etc. One consistent hurdle: Brother or Dad tells Sister something and assumes she will pass it on to me, and she doesn’t. I have explicitly told them both to stop doing this, and they just forget, leaving me scrambling when they ask why I haven’t RSVP’d/contributed to a group gift/etc. On the flip side, neither of my siblings is particularly good about getting back to me when I reach out to them, so asking directly doesn’t help either. (Brother and his wife are notoriously bad at responses with everyone, so it’s not personal, just frustrating.) One workaround I’ve discovered is to ask Dad to reach out on my behalf, because that guarantees an actual response, but it’s irritating that I have to resort to that to get basic information like, “What time do you expect me to arrive at your house?” Is there anything I can do to make this easier?
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!
Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
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