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nrgburstWishing you all a wonderful New Year! 🥳🙌 This will be another many updates at once post because so much has happened but I've been too busy to sit and compose a post!
First! Thank you tospikedluv for more DW points via ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
holiday_wishes ! So much appreciated!!! 🥰
Second cool thing: I've won a few Discord Nitro giveaways ever since I started entering lots of them? Law of averages, so I've been cruising along with Nitro Classic (which is basically just Extra Emoji Powah - it's the discount version of Nitro) and I have a few months of classic credit stored up now. Then a couple days ago I basically won the jackpot: one year of Nitro Boost! 🙌🥳This is the fully souped up version of Nitro that costs $100! So I can boost the little B2 server again, which is awesome! (It means all members on the server can use more of our custom emoji and stickers and our icon can be a GIF one, plus a few more perks.)
Third: I spotted a new gift on AO3 and went rummaging through the tags atfandomtrees and ooooh! Can't wait!
And finally, the person translating my fics into Vietnamese has finished An Exchange of Kings now and the link is here!
In not so cool things: tumblr is basically totally non-functional for creators right now. 😭 It's probably them trying to fix their banned tags issue, but now any tagged post doesn't show. 🤨 So I'm not making any more GIFsets until they figure out WTF they're doing. Really sad that I might have to redo the tags on all the sets I've posted - that is at least a hundred sets.😭 I have two more weeks of work, so maybe after that?
November/December media
TV shows: So much quality content! I have been very happy with the TV offerings lately. I think I'll be trying Wheel of Time next, since the people in the Gendrya server are talking about it. (I read the books ages ago, so I don't think I'll be offended by the "narrative diversions" that husbands everywhere are complaining about!😂)
Squid Game- I totally get all the hype over this series - it was sooo good! I started it one night, just to see why everybody was talking about it and flooding my dash with people in tracksuits. Watched two episodes, and then binged the rest the next day! It is very intense though - I can see why people just can't take the strain of it, and the seemingly cynically violent narrative. This show breaks your heart on purpose? I do like what it says about capitalism and human nature in the end though. I have caps for icons, so I will be working on those sometime!
explained S3- There was a chess ep and one on dogs! Awesome season!
The Mind explained- The last ep on brainwashing was uncomfortably relevant. 😖 Radicalization in small groups: it can happen to you! I want to watch the one on personality again - the different traits are really interesting!
Lost in Space S3- I can't believe it's over! And I liked where the characters ended up, mostly, although I am sad it wasn't a little bit shippier for the pairings I was rooting for. 🥺
Arcane- OMG this show blew me away! I think I actually like the love triangle on this show because it's such a fresh take on the trope and sooo heartbreaking?! Plus what a corruption arc! And the character designs and artwork and music were all just stunning together! Definitely going to re-watch just to be wowed all over again.
Hawkeye- I did not expect this show to make me ugly sob because I'm going to be honest: I went into this not giving a damn about Clint. My fave was Natasha and I have been bitter for literally YEARS. This show had everything though - humourous banter, great character arcs/plot, awesome action sequences and emotional catharsis like whoa. 😭😭😭 So well done, and it totally blew away my expectations. Plus the holiday setting was perfect - my kiddo and I watched it all over Christmas and it felt so sublime!
The Witcher S2- I liked it for the most part although Jaskier should have had more songs! Having Ciri a lot more central at last was great, and I also like the time spent with more of the minor characters like Fringilla, whose choices and struggles I find a lot more relatable than say, Geralt's? Although I don't like what they did with Yennefer since it was so contradictory and also not in the books?! 🤨(Yes, I am the annoyed husband here: what was that?!)
Movies: Only watched a couple. I'm hoping to see No Way Home in theatre soon though! It comes out here on the 7th!
Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings- This was such a fun romp and I kind of ship Katy/Shang-chi now. I loved how they were so solidly each other's person.
Don't Look Up- I found this so depressingly realistic that I had to stop watching in the middle for a day. Like maybe it's satire but it felt terribly plausible.
Books:
Scythe, Thunderhead and The Toll by Neal Shusterman
In an overpopulated world where an ubiquitous, omnipresent AI has solved all mundane human problems like death and disease, there have to be those who must reduce the population instead. This was such a neat dystopian concept and I think the first book in this series was definitely the strongest, although all of them have several gut punch twists. The weakest part of the series was the romance - I just didn't feel it between the two main (young) protagonists. (Maybe I am over YA romance? IDK.) The third book is strangely structured too, because one of the minor characters from the second book gets a leading role for most of the first third of it - it's a jarring change when you're so used to his chapters being the occasional interlude instead of the main focus! I have a bunch of fic bookmarked for this, but for the mentor scythes, who had the most tragically separated for eternity soulmates story ever. It still makes my heart break a bit to reflect on it. 🥺
A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown
Ooooh this was such a good finish to this duology! I feel like anything I say will be spoilers for the first book, but the great worldbuilding continues out into the world around the city in the first, with a wonderfully diverse range of characters, and some realistically motivated characters? Like at first it seems like the author is playing to a romantic trope, but noooope, character was motivated by something deeper! 😅
A great YA fantasy read - I'm reccing this series to my kiddo for sure.
Finally, here's my last fic of the year fornewyearcntdown
Title: Cold Hands (Cold Feet) (Joy and Harmonny for the Season Chp 3)
Fandom: The Queen's Gambit (TV)
Characters/Pairing: Beth Harmon/Benny Watts, Jolene DeWitt & Benny Watts, Benny Watts & D.L. Townes
Word Count/Rating: 2424 words, T
Summary: Counterpart to the previous chapter: Whatever did Benny get Beth for Christmas?
Link to AO3 here
This was expanding on the backstory of the last chapter of Exchange too - I wasn't planning to write that in when I first saw the prompt, but the more I thought about that other meaning of Cold Feet, the more I wanted to add it. I was originally going to write eight stories for this community and only finished three, but I am keeping the option open to post a couple more on AO3 even though the community on DW won't be open for cross-posting!
First! Thank you to
spikedluv for more DW points via holiday_wishes ! So much appreciated!!! 🥰Second cool thing: I've won a few Discord Nitro giveaways ever since I started entering lots of them? Law of averages, so I've been cruising along with Nitro Classic (which is basically just Extra Emoji Powah - it's the discount version of Nitro) and I have a few months of classic credit stored up now. Then a couple days ago I basically won the jackpot: one year of Nitro Boost! 🙌🥳This is the fully souped up version of Nitro that costs $100! So I can boost the little B2 server again, which is awesome! (It means all members on the server can use more of our custom emoji and stickers and our icon can be a GIF one, plus a few more perks.)
Third: I spotted a new gift on AO3 and went rummaging through the tags at
fandomtrees and ooooh! Can't wait!And finally, the person translating my fics into Vietnamese has finished An Exchange of Kings now and the link is here!
In not so cool things: tumblr is basically totally non-functional for creators right now. 😭 It's probably them trying to fix their banned tags issue, but now any tagged post doesn't show. 🤨 So I'm not making any more GIFsets until they figure out WTF they're doing. Really sad that I might have to redo the tags on all the sets I've posted - that is at least a hundred sets.😭 I have two more weeks of work, so maybe after that?
November/December media
TV shows: So much quality content! I have been very happy with the TV offerings lately. I think I'll be trying Wheel of Time next, since the people in the Gendrya server are talking about it. (I read the books ages ago, so I don't think I'll be offended by the "narrative diversions" that husbands everywhere are complaining about!😂)
Squid Game- I totally get all the hype over this series - it was sooo good! I started it one night, just to see why everybody was talking about it and flooding my dash with people in tracksuits. Watched two episodes, and then binged the rest the next day! It is very intense though - I can see why people just can't take the strain of it, and the seemingly cynically violent narrative. This show breaks your heart on purpose? I do like what it says about capitalism and human nature in the end though. I have caps for icons, so I will be working on those sometime!
explained S3- There was a chess ep and one on dogs! Awesome season!
The Mind explained- The last ep on brainwashing was uncomfortably relevant. 😖 Radicalization in small groups: it can happen to you! I want to watch the one on personality again - the different traits are really interesting!
Lost in Space S3- I can't believe it's over! And I liked where the characters ended up, mostly, although I am sad it wasn't a little bit shippier for the pairings I was rooting for. 🥺
Arcane- OMG this show blew me away! I think I actually like the love triangle on this show because it's such a fresh take on the trope and sooo heartbreaking?! Plus what a corruption arc! And the character designs and artwork and music were all just stunning together! Definitely going to re-watch just to be wowed all over again.
Hawkeye- I did not expect this show to make me ugly sob because I'm going to be honest: I went into this not giving a damn about Clint. My fave was Natasha and I have been bitter for literally YEARS. This show had everything though - humourous banter, great character arcs/plot, awesome action sequences and emotional catharsis like whoa. 😭😭😭 So well done, and it totally blew away my expectations. Plus the holiday setting was perfect - my kiddo and I watched it all over Christmas and it felt so sublime!
The Witcher S2- I liked it for the most part although Jaskier should have had more songs! Having Ciri a lot more central at last was great, and I also like the time spent with more of the minor characters like Fringilla, whose choices and struggles I find a lot more relatable than say, Geralt's? Although I don't like what they did with Yennefer since it was so contradictory and also not in the books?! 🤨(Yes, I am the annoyed husband here: what was that?!)
Movies: Only watched a couple. I'm hoping to see No Way Home in theatre soon though! It comes out here on the 7th!
Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings- This was such a fun romp and I kind of ship Katy/Shang-chi now. I loved how they were so solidly each other's person.
Don't Look Up- I found this so depressingly realistic that I had to stop watching in the middle for a day. Like maybe it's satire but it felt terribly plausible.
Books:
Scythe, Thunderhead and The Toll by Neal ShustermanIn an overpopulated world where an ubiquitous, omnipresent AI has solved all mundane human problems like death and disease, there have to be those who must reduce the population instead. This was such a neat dystopian concept and I think the first book in this series was definitely the strongest, although all of them have several gut punch twists. The weakest part of the series was the romance - I just didn't feel it between the two main (young) protagonists. (Maybe I am over YA romance? IDK.) The third book is strangely structured too, because one of the minor characters from the second book gets a leading role for most of the first third of it - it's a jarring change when you're so used to his chapters being the occasional interlude instead of the main focus! I have a bunch of fic bookmarked for this, but for the mentor scythes, who had the most tragically separated for eternity soulmates story ever. It still makes my heart break a bit to reflect on it. 🥺
A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. BrownOoooh this was such a good finish to this duology! I feel like anything I say will be spoilers for the first book, but the great worldbuilding continues out into the world around the city in the first, with a wonderfully diverse range of characters, and some realistically motivated characters? Like at first it seems like the author is playing to a romantic trope, but noooope, character was motivated by something deeper! 😅
A great YA fantasy read - I'm reccing this series to my kiddo for sure.
Finally, here's my last fic of the year for
newyearcntdown Title: Cold Hands (Cold Feet) (Joy and Harmonny for the Season Chp 3)
Fandom: The Queen's Gambit (TV)
Characters/Pairing: Beth Harmon/Benny Watts, Jolene DeWitt & Benny Watts, Benny Watts & D.L. Townes
Word Count/Rating: 2424 words, T
Summary: Counterpart to the previous chapter: Whatever did Benny get Beth for Christmas?
Link to AO3 here
This was expanding on the backstory of the last chapter of Exchange too - I wasn't planning to write that in when I first saw the prompt, but the more I thought about that other meaning of Cold Feet, the more I wanted to add it. I was originally going to write eight stories for this community and only finished three, but I am keeping the option open to post a couple more on AO3 even though the community on DW won't be open for cross-posting!
