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Fannish Fifty 2025 #24 Escapade 35.5

The online zoom convention of Escapade 35.5 is this weekend! If you feel like mingling with fellow fans and discussing fannish issues, join in! It snuck up on me, so I'm not sure I'll be attending (Friday and Saturday are out but I might join for a couple of panels on Sunday).

Here's the panel schedule, if you'd like to check it out:

https://escapadecon.net/virtual-con/schedule/

The rest of this is snagged from Amedia, thanks Amedia!

Here is the link to register:

https://escapadecon.net/escapade-35-5-registration-online/

Keep that link handy, because you'll have to sign into your account (or create one) on the website before you can register. Once you sign into your account, be sure to come back to that registration link.

BTW, when you reach the registration page through that link, and it says to pay for your registration by clicking on "the link above," they mean the two words at the end of this sentence, in the first paragraph under Step 1: The first step is to purchase your registration. It took me a couple of minutes to figure that out, so I'm passing it along. The direct link for payment is: https://escapadecon.net/shop/register-online-escapade-35-5.

But don't forget, after you pay for your registration, you still need to go back to the first link (yes, that registration link again) to sign up for the convention.

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plot bunny dust off challenge 2025

The Right Match (Stargate Atlantis) teen and up

I finished the first of my dust bunnies. Having a deadline helped. And I didn't do this alone.

cassiope25 was a huge help both in encouragement and beta duties. I also have to give a special nod to

em_kellesvig for solving an editing question.

Even if McShep Regency Sentinel Guide stories aren't your jam you should click on the link just to see the gorgeous artwork she made for it.

Or check it out Here

The Right Match

This is the story I wanted to be able to give an explicit rating. Couldn't get the muse to cooperate, dang it.

Maybe the next one....

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flowers,
update

An update

I turned back on the AI functions for my iPad again so as to write a fic with minimal impediments (I have enough inbuilt impediments these days not to want more). So that's autocapitalisation, autocorrect, and predictive text. And JFC, but it's bossy! Constantly changing words from the way I wanted to write them to some AI bullshit of its own. I had to be super-vigilant with the betaing. Have since turned predictive text off again to see if that's better. I hate the AI aspect but it's such a tiresome slog correcting my own (numerous) typos with it all turned off.

Bum music, a bit of YT whimsy. In Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights panel there's a guy, face down, bum up, with sheet music stacked on his ass. So Amelia Hamrick transcribed it, James Spalink arranged it, and played it using period-type instruments. It's actually not bad.

I managed a short fic for into-a-bar. I've been using the challenge to add to my Losers in Pegasus series but was hoist with my own petard this time by being allocated an SGA character I'd killed off in the last fic! Finally figured out a solution (enter the clones!) but was unable to finish the longer fic (that gets Pooch to Atlantis) by the deadline, so that one will come later.

Still mostly doing art, and podficcing. And the podfics mean cover art so that's always fun. I now tend to beta-listen while working on the cover, although that makes it tricky to note down bits that I've flubbed.

My Mexican sunflower still has some flowers, which the bees will be grateful for. Pretty amazing, now we're past the shortest day of winter, but it's slowly winding up its flowering season. 10/10, will see how many years it can manage encores.

I have a few recs, but will do a separate post for those. Summer sounds a bit brutal up north (for many reasons). Hope you're all OK.

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reading

the reason for living is getting ready to stay dead

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Even more impenetrable stream of consciousness style than Mrs. Dalloway but eventually I started to grasp what was going on and all the narrators and their unreliability. Like, Cora, your impressions are laughably off base. Darl, you committed arson and your POV chapter doesn't even indicate it except mildly in retrospect. Addie, your only POV chapter is literally after you are dead. Put this book on the Weird But Interesting shelf.

In RL, I continue my organization spree. I can see my craft space again so maybe I will re-start one of the projects I've been stalling on.

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book report

Service Model, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I will read anything Adrian Tchaikovsky writes, and I read this, where a robot valet makes a decision his programming can't account for and is then thrust out of the safety and predictability of his manor home and into the chaos of the unknown, but it's a book that can't seem to commit to a perspective or tone. I mean:

Inside his decision-making software there were two subroutines in the shape of wolves, and one insisted that he stay, and the other insisted that he could not stay.

Is this robot valet on Tumblr? Nothing in the text justifies such a distracting choice.

This is not a page turner. At one point, I swear to god, Libby predicted it would take me 23 years to finish reading it. But it's Tchaikovsky, and so finish it I did. Even when dealing almost entirely with robots, his science fiction is humanist, concerned with individual choices, with no one person or group being the big bad. Instead the friction comes where systems overlap without comprehension.

Charles, House said at last. We are only following instructions.

This book is a world-building slow burn that examines the overlap of automation and humanity, and comes to a dire—but logical—conclusion.

There's also a short story set before this book that you can read at Reactor: Human Resources by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Contains: the collapse of human civilization, robot harm and death.

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2025,
me

(no subject)

I fell asleep on the couch for about 20 minutes last night around 8. I was not ready for bed for about an hour after that. I finished watching the episode of the show I was watching and then finished the chapter I was reading. I got in bed around 10 and at one point I when went to roll over, I looked at the clock and saw it was nearly 2 so I got up. And promptly slept through my alarm at 5.

I have less than a week to finish reading Ghost Eye and I'm only about 60% of the way through it. This one is a very painful read. If you are thinking of reading the series please be aware that this book deals with very dark themes (rape and physical abuse mostly). The author does a very good job of giving a content warning and has a list of the chapters that have the most disturbing content. Please keep your mental health in mind if you chose to read.

Voices: Guardian fic

Title: Voices
Words: 33,672 words
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationships: Weilan, Chuguo
Characters: Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Xinci, Shen Xi, Zhang Shi, Da Qing, Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng, Zhu Hong, SID team, Fu You
Additional tags: Fix-It, Follow-on from episode 17, Multiple POVs, Story of the gun, Loss of Shen Xi
Summary: Zhao Yunlan's first visit to Dixing reveals the reason for his mother's death and the origin of his father's magic gun. Fu You had a plan.

today's news....

As it turns out, watching Meet the Press while drinking a glass of rosé enables much unladylike swearing and specific finger gestures. (all justified)

I should probably turn off the tv.

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2025,
me

(no subject)

I went to bed later than I wanted last night. As I walked into my room to get ready for bed, I realized I forgot to wash my bras (I only have three). Luckily the cycle only takes 28 minutes so it wasn't that late, but still.

I really did not want to walk this morning but I have a goal and I am determined to make it. The plan was to walk for an entire episode of House Hunters but my hip started hurting during the first commercial break. I'll try again tomorrow. I want to be able to walk for an entire episode by the time I see to my doctor next month.

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[ICONS] Various Fandoms

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foundation

upcoming stuff i'm excited for - part 2

Continuing to keep track of upcoming stuff I'm excited for.

~ July 2 - The Old Guard 2
~ July 11 - Foundation (season 3)
~ July 17 - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season 3)
~ September 24 - Slow Horses (season 5)

Just gonna drop the Foundation trailer here in my ongoing quest to get more people to watch the show.

Watch on YouTube

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2025,
me

(no subject)

Plans for the weekend:
Clean the kitchen and living room, do the dishes (still a separate chore in my house (if I can only develop the habit of washing them every day)), read more of Ghost Eye, work on my story

What got done:
Laundry (I know it wasn't on the list, I'll explain below), the dishes, read some of Ghost Eye (not as much as I wanted, though)

When I started to clean on Friday, I began to feel a bit light headed so I decided I'd put it off until Saturday. Saturday, I went and got my hair cut and then went to Walmart. That afternoon, I was hurting all over so I decided to do the laundry instead. I mean, it needed to be done, so. Cleaning the kitchen and living room was traded with doing the laundry (I do the laundry the last weekend of the month).

All that's left of the laundry is the clothes I don't dry, I'm waiting for them to finish air drying before I put them away. There are also some dishes that need to be put away.

I didn't walk as long as I wanted because I have been having issues with my right knee and it started to hurt after just a few minutes. But I did it despite not wanting to. I also chose not to get dressed today because I just didn't want to, plus I couldn't decided what I wanted to wear.

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Revival

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Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Coldplay - In My Place

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A Hip & Knee Update

You know how you always hear that healthcare in this country is a postcode lottery? Yeah you don't realise how true that is until you move postcodes

So as y'all know I've been having joint issues since I was a teenager, had surgery for a tracking issue on my right knee, and knew that I had 'asymmetry between the ilia and the orientation of the acetabulum' and that my left leg was shorter than the other. I understood that my pelvis was wonky, basically.

But Devon, despite being the ones who completely fucking missed it all when I was a kid, are making up for it now, and I have a full report with a few different things going on. Some of it I expected, and some of it was new to me.

🦴 The Summary (In Doctor Speak):

Mild degenerative changes in both hips (early osteoarthritis)

Subchondral sclerosis (thickening of bone under worn cartilage)

Narrowing of joint spaces

Bony lipping and overcoverage of the femoral heads (impingement)

Asymmetry between the two sides of my pelvis and hip sockets

A projection (a kind of bony overgrowth) from the top of both hip sockets

Mild degenerative changes in the right knee, with some tendon-related inflammation

🧠 What That Actually Means:

In plain English: my hips are wearing down a bit - not dramatically, but enough to show changes on imaging. There’s less cushioning cartilage, and the bone underneath is reacting by thickening. There are also bony overgrowths, and my hip sockets are shaped in a way that is putting extra stress on the joint.

That asymmetry between the two sides of my pelvis and the “extended projection” from my hips sockets means I’ve had an unusual joint structure for a long time and has grown extra bone to balance it out...

The right knee is joining the party too, with some inflammation where tendons anchor into bone. Delightful.

🧭 So What Now?

I have an invitation to a 'long-term condition care planning' appointment where I find out what happens next. I've been in chronic pain for like 30 years and I didn't even know 'long-term condition care' was a thing until now.

The doctor's report says the arthritis is 'mild' in terms of x-ray severity but as anyone with chronic pain knows, “mild” on paper doesn’t always match what your body feels.

Next steps will probably include:

Physio, to keep everything moving and reduce pain
Maybe pain meds or topical treatments
Watching how things evolve and deciding whether more imaging is needed (like MRI) to get a clearer picture, especially around the hip structure

💬 How I’m Feeling:
Honestly, it's a lot. I'm tired. I'm frustrated and angry. But there's a lot of relief. There's a name for it. There is actually something wrong. It's not been in my head since I was a teenager. Knowing there's a structural reason for what I'm feeling, for the pain I've been in for so long, for how I struggle to move, for my day-to-day experiences for decades.

And I have a Li who can advocate for me when I can't do it myself. I've spent so many years not being listened to, to being brushed aside - but Li is helping me ask for the support I need, speaking up for me, for being incredibly clear to medical professionals that this is not something we're happy for me to have to just live with any more without further investigation. She's the one who insisted on the x-rays when we saw the doctor last month for the pain and stiffness and got the bursitis diagnosis.

So now we have the start of some answers an

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misc: update

Fandom Update

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life or something like it

ouch

note to self: do not purchase children's bandaids. children's bandaids were invented by an unlicensed sadist. sure, they're cute. but there's a reason kids hate having them removed, and that is: they don't come off! not without taking your skin with them.

boycott children's bandaids. even if they have SpongeBob on them.

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Fannish Fifty 2025 #23 Why why why

do so many creators not understand that Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings and No Archive Warnings Apply are inherently contradictory?

If a creator tags No Archive Warnings Apply, they are stating that their fic does not contain
Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, or Underage Sex. Those are the archive warnings, they're all listed right in the same place when a creator is posting a work.

If they tag Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, they are saying that they will not provide spoilers for their fic, so in fact the work MAY contain Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, or Underage Sex. Or it may NOT. It's a tag that says Reader/viewer, indulge at your own risk.

If a Creator is saying that no archive warnings apply, then there's no reason to say they're choosing not to warn! They are indeed CHOOSING TO WARN!

*sigh* IDK, I guess they've not been in any kind of discussion on the meanings of the tags, and so are uncertain and so over compensate? So far whenever I'd read something with both tags, it always seems like No Archive Warnings Apply is the correct one.

This is one of those things that with the sheer volume of creators loading works to AO3, it's always gonna be an issue. It just continues to weird me sometimes when I'm snoozing in bed and looking for something good to read to delay getting up. Why creators why?

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Fortune Wheel Week 6 - Transformation and Dragons Blood #943B41

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reading

here was one room; there another

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Slow paced since it's literally just about a day in the life of a woman planning a party but I liked the writing. It flows through a lot of perspectives and shows how differently everyone sees each other and themselves and their shared past and it's not afraid to be kind of confusingly figurative. Would read more Virginia Woolf.

In other news, I have been on a huge organization spree. On the one hand, I am intellectually aware that my sudden encompassing desire to organize my entire living space is probably due to the fact that things are really unstable and weird at work and I want to control things in a sphere of my life that I can control. On the other hand, I have purged so much old junk, particularly paper--my nemesis--and like motivation is motivation. I might clean the garage next. I might wash the windows for the first time since I moved here. The sky's the limit.

Just for fun

Watch on YouTube

An oldy but goody