cyphomandra

It's the most wonderful time of the year - Disadvent, a 24-day festival (or 36 counting the twelve bonus days of Disepiphany) of removal and donation! I think for me, the heart of Disadvent is that it's an indulgence festival where the urge to get rid of stuff is not merely allowed but actively encouraged to outweigh the normal obligations of making sure things get used and maximum preparedness is maintained.

I started my Disadvent in the pantry and found things like 5/6th of a six-pack of individual cartons of almond milk (best by 2022) and 3/6 of a box of bars (best by 2020). Not entirely sure how these things had survived the previous two Disadvent seasons but the second-best time to Disadvent something is today. Also a lot of small miscellany like open bags of ancient jellybeans, one piece of Hanukkah gelt, the last two dried apricots, an open thing of honey-roasted peanuts that weren't that old but smelled funny, an open bag of crunchy lentil snacks of uncertain age.

Expired food is an easy place to start for me because I don't have internal conflict over whether we deserve to eat food that is safe and tasty, or magical thinking guilt over, like, can I not get rid of this because there are people in famines. I know sometimes people do and it's harder. (Also of course if I had actually still-good food I was definitely not going to use I'd drop it in a food drive but this is not that.) I do have guilt over food gifts - people like my parents often bring us exotic treats from their travels that, because they are not part of our normal food routines, we then fail to ever use - but at least with food, unlike other gifts, the passage of time does eventually make it clear that the window to use that matcha powder (or whatever) has passed, and our failure has at least now definitively happened rather than being ongoing. And in general I accept that some food waste is the cost of other priorities like trying new foods, trying new food systems (like, what quantity/format is most useful), and preparedness, so, enh, maybe it's sometimes a cost of generosity/food as a social tool too.

If anyone is playing along, good luck in your pantry!

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3175/

Tired of waiting on hold? Use our website to chat with one of our live agents, who are available to produce words at you 24/7!

https://xkcd.com/3175/

ffutures

This is the third offer for Shadowrun 5th Edition, containing 15 adventures and sourcebooks. This was previously offered last year, I think they're repeating it so soon so that it's available to anyone who buys this release of the game in last week's offer.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025SR5Missions

Last time I said "Shadowrun has never been one of my favourite games, I'm not convinced the genres mesh wonderfully, but it's an OK system with a big user base.... ...The source material in the Missions Megabundle looks useful, but like a lot of this stuff it's only useful if you actually use it - I own a ton of stuff for this system in dead tree format and I've barely used it, so I won't be downloading more." I should probably add that the stuff I have in dead tree format is for earlier editions, but I think the principle is the same - I'm just not a big fan of the concept or setting, and updating the rules doesn't really change that. But if you're a fan and don't already own this stuff it's definitely worth a look.

lilly_c posting in

writethisfanfic

How is the writing going today?

Poll #33898

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 0

View Respondents

Today I

View Answers

wrote
0 (0.0%)

edited
0 (0.0%)

posted
0 (0.0%)

sent to beta
0 (0.0%)

researched
0 (0.0%)

planned
0 (0.0%)

had a cheeky break
0 (0.0%)

dealt with life
0 (0.0%)

Discussion: We're in the final month of the year (how?) are you planning to keep the pace you've worked at all year or are you winding down for the year?

flemmings

There was a sprinkling of little sleet bumps on the front steps when I went out this morning for my blood draw. (Whingeing, unwilling, unrested, resisting, but it's snow all the rest of the week.) Nothing on the sidewalks, same as after yesterday's snow that washed away in the rain, and this was because the city had laid a carpet of salt down at some point. So I bumped down the street to a full waiting room, but various couples and families departed in short order. In spite of posted 40 minute wait times, I was in and out after less than a half hour. They had to take blood from my hand because my veins are now in hiding, and she had to press my hand to get the blood to keep pumping which seems odd, given how prominent the hand veins are. But that's done for another three months.

Bumped back home and swept the sleet from my steps and the salt to the side of the pavement. Will no one think of the dogs??!! Occurs to me that maybe there isn't a sudden influx of dog owners in the hood, just that I was always on a bike before and didn't notice them. Though I do still believe there are more dog owners now than before.

Yesterday's +3C feels like -3 was hideously cold because grey and windy. Make that -10C, and wore thick blue coat and gloves and wished I'd double-bagged them in my wool mitts because the fleece weren't cutting it. I bought pricey fleece ski gloves from Canadian Tired which also didn't cut it in cold weather and which of course fell out of the shallow pockets of my green coat so I only have one. Lesson learned: buy gloves from the dollar store only. Today was -3 but with sun and I sweated in the blue coat. But I got vodka from the LCBO yesterday and began a new round of Project Tiddly. Did weigh myself this morning and have neither gained nor lost in the last tennight, meaning not having pastry keeps weight down, so go me. And also stay away from Fiesta and its baked goods.

larryhammer posting in

baihe_media

Just finished this contemporary baihe romance between an outgoing streamer and a sheltered professor. Enjoyable fluff, but a bit thin -- and not just because it's too short. At least two of the main couple have communication issues (the chapter title "It turns out Professor Xie is an idiot" applied to many earlier chapters as well). OTOH, I did enjoy the fantasy of both parties having the approval of the older generation, who set them up on a blind date.

Translation is here, the original here

prisca posting in

sweetandshort

10 out of 20

Under the cut, you will find a list with 20 prompts. Your mission is to grab at least 10 of them and create a little something for it. Keep in mind, even if it is not the meaning of the challenge, no one will punish you when you only grab one or two prompts. Every work is welcome.

To complete the challenge, you can create up to ten single works, or combine one or more prompts in one work.

Allowed are fics up to 500 words, small poems like haiku or tanka, icons (100x100 px), and small graphics up to 500 px width x height. Please stay to the maximum, even if you use more than one prompt in your work.

All fandoms, genres, and ratings are welcome, as are original works and real-person works.

When posting directly to

sweetandshort, please use a header of your choice and put bigger works under a cut. You can also post your work at any other place, but please leave a header and a link here to keep the community running.

When posting your works, please use any appropriate tag. When a tag is missing, use 'tag needed'.

This challenge runs until December 31, midnight in your timezone.

( December Prompt List )

prisca posting in

fffc

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badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: Does anyone have any plans for making Christmas gifts or cards?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

aurumcalendula

ClaireBell by KA9ESAMA (translated by Sweet Bar):

( Read more... )

slacktivist_feed

Posted by Fred Clark

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/12/01/rules-and-notes-for-a-christmas-playlist-revisited/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=72047

This post is an annual tradition here because, as a retail worker, it helps me to exorcise the hours of Christmas music now echoing in my brain.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2025/12/01/rules-and-notes-for-a-christmas-playlist-revisited/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/?p=72047

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

As always, our theme for December is amnesty. This month you can post recs for any past round—from any year—as long as the work hasn't already been recommended for that theme. Refresh your memory with a spreadsheet of previous rounds or search the comm for past recs.

Be sure to tag your recs with theme: amnesty in addition to the relevant theme(s).

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.

( Rules! )

( Posting Template! )

( Promote this round! )

Reblog on Tumblr | Reskeet on Bluesky | Retoot on Mastodon

rfemod posting in

rarefemslashexchange

Nominations are now open! They will be open until December 10th, 10PM PST. [ Countdown to nominations closing ] | [ In your timezone ]

The rules are here, which will have additional information about the exchange.

An AO3 account is required to make nominations. If you need an invitation, please reach out to the mods via email or the comments section of this post. Anon comments are on, but they are not screened.

To qualify for this exchange, a ship needs to be a f/f ship with less than 250 works on AO3, complete, written in English, and filtered using the otp:true filter.

Characters need to be either women (canon or genderbent) or genderqueer characters that you think would fit in a f/f exchange. So someone like LaFontaine from the Carmilla web series, who is canonically against being referred to/seen as a woman, would not be eligible. We're going to trust you to use your judgment on this one.

You can nominate up to 10 fandoms with 10 relationships ("/" only) each. We will not be accepting solo character nominations or relationships using "&".

Please stick to one ship per nomination. Multiple ships within one nomination, whether in the same fandom or crossover, will not be accepted (e.g. Lois Lane/Lana Lang & Chloe Sullivan/Tess Mercer (Smallville))

There's no need to disambiguate they are crossovers or you are nominating multiple versions of a ship in different canons. Outside the above exceptions, please try to use the canonical tag when possible.

Please specify which version of canon you would like rather than nominating under the 'all media' version of the tag, e.g. "Dragon Age (Video Games)" vs "Dragon Age (All Media)". Assassin's Creed and American Girl Dolls are the exceptions to this rule. If you feel your fandom has a case, please reach out.

Crossover Nominations: Please nominate crossovers with "Crossover Fandom" in the "Fandom" section of the nomination form, and both fandom names listed in the ship itself. e.g. "Dinah Lance (DCEU)/Natasha Romanov (MCU)".

Genderbent Ships: Nominate with a 'F' in front of the character(s) you want to genderbend, e.g. Natasha Romanov/F!Sam Wilson. Please remember that the original ship has to has to qualify, not the genderbent version, so Peggy Carter/F!Steve Rogers would not be eligible due to the fact that the fact that Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers is over the limit.

Threesomes/moresomes: Are permitted as long as they are eligible. However, v shaped relationships (e.g. "Maria Hill/Sharon Carter & Sharon Carter/Natasha Romanov") or two unrelated ships nominated together (e.g. "Lana Lang/Chloe Sullivan & Lois Lane/Tess Mercer") will not be accepted.

RPF: RPF is permitted, subject to eligibility as outlined above. Non-famous family members are not eligible. Under-18s are not eligible for modern RPF. Controversial figures will not be accepted either.

Regarding specific fandoms with various umbrella fandoms:

Arrowverse/DCTV: Please nominate under "Arrowverse (TV)". Shows not specifically in the Arrowverse but are part of the DC TV universe (i.e. Smallville, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Titans, Doom Patrol, etc.) should remain with their original tag. Shows such as Arrow and The Flash (2014) belong under "Arrowverse".

MCU: Please nominate under "Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)", e.g. "Maria Hill/Sharon Carter (MCU)". Marvel TV shows (i.e. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, WandaVision, TFATWS, Agent Carter, What If …?, Loki, etc.) need to be labelled with their own individual tag.

Doctor Who/Star Wars/Star Trek/X-Men/Stargate: Please refer to the specific version that you are nominating. For X-Men, please use either "The Original Trilogy" or "ATS" (for "Alternate Timeline Series").

Characters who are in separate subfandoms (e.g. "Jadzia Dax (Star Trek: DS9)/B'Elanna Torres (Star Trek: Voyager)") belong to the "Crossover Fandom" category.

Comics: Please nominate these under their specific category. For DCU, that would be "DCU (Comics)". With Marvel, please specify the version that you are nominating (Noir, 616, etc.), i.e. "Natasha Romanov/Carol Danvers under Marvel 616 rather than Marvel Comics".

DC Extended Universe: Please nominate under the "DC Extended Universe" category.

Original characters in non-original canons: You may nominate Character/Original Character(s), e.g. "Diana (Wonder Woman)/Original Female Character"; "Leia Organa (Star Wars: Original Trilogy)/Original Jedi Character". You can be as specific as you would like. Any original character(s) nominated will be assumed to be female.

Original Works: These must be nominated under "Original Work" in the following format: "Character Type/Character Type", e.g. "Princess/Maid", "Pilot/Soldier/General", etc. All characters will be assumed to be female. If they are not nominated in this way, they will be rejected.

Reader ships will not be accepted in this exchange.

Recursive fandoms are also not eligible for this exchange.

If you have any questions, please comment here or email the mod at rarefemslashexchangemod@gmail.com.

selenak

Not being an Alexander the Great fangirl, I had never read the primary sources (which were written centuries later, because all the contemporary sources on AtG were lost) on everyone's favourite Macedon, but now I got around to reading at least Plutarch. And you know, if there is ONE thing not just the late Ms Renault and her trilogy but the entire internet led me to believe, it's that Hephaistion was Alexander's One True Love And Soulmate; even absolute homophobes concede him as the friend of friends, the Patroclos to Alexander's Achilles, etc. So imagine my suprrise when I stumbled upon these few paragraphs by good old Plutarch:

Moreover, when he saw that among his chiefest friends Hephaestion approved his course and joined him in changing his mode of life, while Craterus clung fast to his native ways, he employed the former in his business with the Barbarians, the latter in that with the Greeks and Macedonians. And in general he showed most affection for Hephaestion, but most esteem for Craterus, thinking, and constantly saying, that Hephaestion was a friend of Alexander, but Craterus a friend of the king.

For this reason, too, the men cherished a secret grudge against one another and often came into open collision. And once, on the Indian expedition, they actually drew their swords and closed with one another, and as the friends of each were coming to his aid, Alexander rode up and abused Hephaestion publicly, calling him a fool and a madman for not knowing that without Alexander's favour he was nothing; and in private he also sharply reproved Craterus.

Then he brought them together and reconciled them, taking an oath by Ammon and the rest of the gods that he loved them most of all men; but that if he heard of their quarrelling again, he would kill them both, or at least the one who began the quarrel. Wherefore after this they neither did nor said anything to harm one another, not even in jest.

Craterus? CRATERUS? And he "abused Hephaistion publicly?" Hephaistion - who in fiction shows up eternally chill and calming emo Alex down - was jealous of some guy who wasn't at least Bagoas? Truly, this is not what I expected.

To be fair: Plutarch also later describes the complete breakdown and momentous grief for Hephaistion when Heph dies. (Oh, and he does mention Bagoas as well, to wit: We are told, too, that he was once viewing some contests in singing and dancing, being well heated with wine, and that his favourite, Bagoas, won the prize for song and dance, and then, all in his festal array, passed through the theatre and took his seat by Alexander's side; at sight of which the Macedonians clapped their hands and loudly bade the king kiss the victor, until at last he threw his arms about him and kissed him tenderly. ) Still. I feel let down by the OTPlers.

Not really surprised, though. This kind of thing happens constantly in Frederician fandom.

To celebrate the latest example of research making everyone more complicated, I'm linking this gem, which includes both Alex and Fritz:

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: silly
Current Location: Bamberg

corvidology

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mrissa

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Like Pueyo's debut, this is an extremely well-done example of something that is very, very much not my thing. This is another monsterfucking book! I am using that term as a genre term of art rather than a pejorative: there are guls, they eat human flesh, the main character ends up romantically/personally entangled with one despite or perhaps because of her complicated history.

There's vivid writing here--which if you are not interested in stories of human flesh being eaten is not necessarily going to appeal to you--and there are cultural touchstones I wish we saw more of in things published in the US. It's great to see a really Brazilian speculative novella--and the politics of contemporary Brazil give this speculative story weight and deep roots. It's done so well. It's just so beautifully written. But also, and crucially for me, it is body horror basically start to finish, so: approach with care, depending on your tastes.

trope_mod posting in

fandomcalendar

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trope_mod posting in

trope_of_the_month

The end of the year approaches!

The theme for December is Fix-Its. If there's something in canon you think needs fixing - whether that's a character dying, a pairing getting/not getting together, or just a really stupid plot point - now's your chance!

Posting guidelines are here, and if you have any recs or prompts you'd like to share, you can leave them in the comments using the templates below:

For recs:

For prompts:

This theme will last until 31st December.

greghousesgf

Just a quick entry today before I have a lot of stuff to do including pay rent, take out garbage and do laundry.

Current Music: Nabiha Yazbeck

antisoppist

When the kids were very little, a friend gave me a whole box of Christmas picture books that hers had outgrown. Instead of reading them all at once, I got 24 cardboard folders, decorated them with pictures cut out of old Christmas cards and drew big numbers on them. I put a book (or sometimes two because there were lots) and lo, we had an Advent book box, and every day we opened a new folder after tea and read a new Christmas book. It carried on long after they had outgrown picture books but they did eventually outgrow it. Last year we were talking about traditions and the daughters said the Christmas picture books were great and it's a pity that doesn't happen for grown-ups. So I said what if we took it in turns to pick a Christmas scene from a book and typed it out and printed it (or photographed it and printed it) every day from 1 December so we did that and every day whichever of us it was put it in the kitchen before they went to bed and the others read it when we got up. The source was only written at the end so you could play "guess what this is from" while you were reading it.

This year we are doing it again. Opinion is divided as to whether we can use the same ones or not but the current plan is to try and find new readings but we can re-use last year's if we can't think of any more. We are torn between the repetitive seasonal familiarity and the fun of hunting them down and thinking what to pick.

But I thought I would share a paragraph here each day for you to identify or ignore.

"I want some crackers
And I want some candy;
I think a box of chocolates
Would come in handy;
I don't mind oranges,
I do like nuts!
And I SHOULD like a pocket-knife
That really cuts.
And, oh, Father Christmas, if you love me at all,
Bring me a big, red india-rubber ball!"

I'll add the source as a comment at some point in case anyone wants to do it as a quiz. I'm not banning spoilers in comments otherwise though and due to time zones it is not a competition!

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cyphomandra

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Network

Happy the First of Disadvent!

Website Task Flowchart

Another Repeat Shadowrun Bundle - SR5 Missions Megabundle

check in day 1

Bumpity bumpity bump down the salty sidewalk

Marry First, Love Later (先婚后爱) by Jiuqian Sheng (九千胜)

December: 10 out of 20

December Challenge 233 - Winter Calendar

Check-In Post - Dec 1st 2025

(no subject)

Rules and notes for a Christmas playlist, revisited

Round 181: Amnesty

Nominations are open!

May Renault, did you lie to me?

조명가게 | Light Shop (2024), 8 episodes.

Cabaret in Flames, by Hache Pueyo

Multifandom: Trope of the Month - Fix-Its

December: Fix-Its