Playing with words

Wishing 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 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 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 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!

Some really awesome stuff has happened all in the past few days and I just want to put up a post going squeeeeeeee 🥳

First: I won a contest for Discord Nitro a couple of days after my gift nitro ran out! So I am back to being able to use fun emoji! Yayyyy

Second: kingstoken  made me this banner for Love is a Wild Thing after seeing my holiday_wishes  list and it's so perfect! I couldn't have chosen a better motif to represent the fic and I am just 😍🥺😭




I have been bookmarking wishlists that I think I can fill an item on but I think I've overbooked myself for the first three weeks of December so any post office trips etc. will be after the 23rd! If you have a list, feel free to drop the link in the comments if you don't mind an elf being a little late! 😁 I tend to send Japanese-y goodies out, although I also R&R fics and make icons if we have shared fandoms!

Third: Check and Mate is now available in Vietnamese! Link to the translation is here and they plan to also do An Exchange of Kings! This is the first time I've had somebody translate my fanwork - they contacted me off ffnet out of the blue. I'd had no idea people were even still reading it! 😅

Now just to get all the stuff I'd promised to get done done! Whew! I can already feel the Holiday rush of post office trips and 忘年会 (lit. Forget The Year Party - sometimes I love Japanese lol) and I love the whirl of good spirits in this season so much! I feel like people here feel hopeful about meeting again too? Our vaccination rate has now surpassed Canada's despite being 6 months late to the game and COVID infections are down to 6-11 people a day even in super populous prefectures. I know Omicron is now looming, but just give us a month to see our friends again, please?

eller your postcard arrived! It looks even more amazing in person! And your choice of stamp! eeeep! <3 Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

It never rains but it pours? We've been moving for the past eight days so I'm pretty worn out since my husband has only been around for 3 days of that. We did all the heavy, big stuff on those days, but it's been me and the kiddos hauling our stuff over to our new place several times a day otherwise. It's in the same neighborhood so the kids can stay at their school, so it was totally doable! But there were definitely days in the middle there where I was regretting having to adult while they were stretched out on the floor with the iPads like slugs and giving me these furtive looks like, Mommy, do we haaave to move today? (Ugh. Yes, yes we do.) So we are super glad it is over and we can just chill out with wi-fi and a working fridge again. :DDDD Plus now we have a backyard! It is teensy but an actual yard with grass and space to grow stuff! (Sadly we are now also minus a dishwasher, but we figure it is worth the $300/month savings to be the dishwasher(s) ourselves.)

On the first day of the move, my tumblr also tripped over 1000 followers, which is pretty neat, even if most of them are probably in-actives and/or bots. I waited a couple of days but the count has continued to climb so I made a celebratory set: The Queen's Gambit, Beth in white/Benny in black 2.0. I think this is probably the most technically demanding set I've ever made and I'm glad I had so many days just to plan it out in my head while stevedoring! 

Also: books! Now that I'm no longer modding the B^2 discord I have time to read again, so:

   Dash & Lily series by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Okay, so I read these because I watched the Netflix Dash & Lily series and found it charming - I just can't resist epistolary and bookworm-type characters. Such a fun premise with the dares and the red moleskin journal passing between them and I loooove Dash's POV especially because he's soooooo articulate but he's still TERRIBLE at communicating in person and grumpy af. XD The books are slightly more realistic than the TV series, and they characterize Lily much less quirkily weird than the show did, too. (But also much less Asian than the show.) Sweet and heartwarming, although the plot in the last really meanders. I especially liked the second one - it actually asks a couple of harder questions that you don't see a lot in YA: how much of your life is it okay to give up when your family member gets sick? (The other question is about love and it being requited, and I loved the way they handled it.)

  Brave Enough and tiny beautiful things by Cheryl Strayed

tiny beautiful things is a re-read, but it always resonates with so much love and truth and I reaaallly needed that this month? These books are like hugs/sternly empathetic pep talks. As an aside, my copy of Brave Enough is a hardcover that I bought used from amazon, and had sat on my bookshelf unread until I finally cracked it open. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was a signed copy! Which !!! :DDD Cheryl Strayed signed her book which I own!

I must have ordered it with a bunch of other stuff but I am face palming HARD. (Yes, my bought-but-not-read pile is embarrassing. I should really resolve to read one per month or something from now on so I can buy more books with less guilt.)

  Concrete Rose and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Maverick's story in Concrete Rose was so good that it made me go back and revisit The Hate U Give again. Like, I didn't expect to love Maverick, who starts out in the book as a drug dealer flunking out of high school and then gets not one, but two girls knocked up before the age of 18. The power of solid POV work and good writing. Lovelovelove and absolutely recommend.

Rule of Wolves is next on my to read and I am DYYYYING to find out what happens but I am also tempted to just spoil myself and flip to the back and find out if Nikolai and Zoya get together already (or, you know, die) before wading through the book. Like do I actually trust Leigh Bardugo not to break my heart. (Not really, nope, nuh uh.) 

Took a trip to the beach today with the kiddos. It's off season, and warm but not warm enough to go swimming (also loads of jellyfish, so it would be painful), but they had such fun at a proper social distance from the few others who were out. Buried lots of beached jellyfish (my kiddos felt sorry for them and felt they needed to have proper graves), played lots in the sand and found these treasures! (Don't worry- we took only pictures and left only footprints.) I thought you guys might like to see the "beach glass" we find here though:
 

No, people don't ditch their crockery like beer bottles. Like, this is Japan and there is a procedure for throwing away anything. My husband thinks this is actually pretty old stuff washing up, which is neato.

They will probably officially declare a country-wide state of emergency tomorrow. Thus far it has been limited to the prefectures with the big cities, but cases are on the rise everywhere in the country now. Unlike in other countries, as a result of losing WWII, there is no actual law that will snap into place- the government can only Strongly Advise us to do things like shelter in place and the local governments can ask businesses to redirect supplies (like PPE).

Anyway, it was a lovely day. It almost felt normal.

But now it makes me anxious. We have started week 4 of self quarantine! Just picked up the kids' report cards from school. Eerie AF with everybody in masks and determinedly bright greetings before hustling off and the school reeking of sanitizer. Check out the shoe boxes:

(FYI this is older kiddo's class which has 39 students.)

Since they basically just shut down the schools with zero warning we had to carry all the stuff they left behind weeks ago. There is talk saying that schools will re-open as normal come April, but the more we learn about COVID-19, the more I think that is a terrible idea. Here is an article talking about why Japan hasn't been overwhelmed despite being in the first wave, but I think we are due for a late surge in numbers if everybody gets complacent and goes ohanami as usual, especially because they are just so tired of being cooped up. There are already more people out and about shopping and eating out too. :/

Anyway, after losing more subscribers, I stopped uploading for March Meta Matters. I think I'll do the rest of my meta in a single batch so they only get one more email, and I'll save it for the end. And fic writing is going well! Apparently I'm not the only one to take this quarantine opportunity to revive an abandoned fic, hahaha. 

They're delaying the release of Black Widow, which darn but yeah, makes sense. We are getting a lot more screen time here watching oldies but goodies. I just need comfort movies right now, so I've rewatched not only the Nolanverse Batman trilogy, but also 10 things I hate about you and PS I Still Love You. I've been capping for icons too, so expect some from PS I Still Love You soon. (It's a ME.TA.PHOR!) Plus reading! I think by tomorrow I'll have finished another 6 books in 2 weeks, and one was an old favorite that I re-read. 

Chin up and virtual hugs to those of you stuck at home now! <3 I know this pandemic is affecting people in very different ways and that financially, we are probably better off than most in that my husband still has his job for now. Honestly, I get annoyed at seeing companies demanding financial support when the healthcare sector is being so hard hit and they are still cutting healthcare jobs during a freaking pandemic in my home province to make way for privitization, like WTF Conservatives HOW ARE YOU FOR REAL. UGHGGGGHH SO FRUSTRATING

I've been meaning to write a reaction post to Grey's Anatomy 14x10 Personal Jesus because it was just SUCH an amazing ep and I hope it gets an Emmy nod because all three major storylines were relevant and wrenching and so well done- Sarah Drew knocked it out of the park! Here is an article on it. My very minor quibble is that the ep should have been named Losing my Religion. LOL I've been playing the song that played over the final voiceover on repeat because it is also FANTASTIC. 


Small personal note: I'm going to be switching with my sister as caregiver for my other sister (and her kiddo) this weekend, but it might mean I actually have more time to write again! I'm getting nervous about finishing my Chocolate Box assignment on time, but I REFUSE to default over 500 words! *determined*

Okay we have 8 days left in Japan and I'm still trying to scan pictures so I can bring memories digitally instead of big stacks of albums and sell stuff. We aren't even started packing our suitcases. And we have so many bucket list people to see one last time and things to do and eat one last time. And now my kids are done school and expect entertainment. This is like The Perfect Storm. I'm sorely tempted to just get on the plane and LEAVE. ALL. THE. CRAP. BEHIND. So what if we lose a couple years of photos, right? siiigghhh 

In fandom news:
Game of Thrones is back and I'm suddenly shipping Missandei/Grey Worm like whoa. Those little glimpses in the trailers have got me so excited! They've had just the sweetest ~longing looks~ relationship where they've both vocalized how much they desire the other and yet have dutifully refused to act on their feelings. JUST DO IT ALREADY DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT SHOW YOU ARE ON. Like, other characters keep going on and on about how he has no equipment, and I'm like... that's not technically true? The way he shut down Daario on that with just a withering look last season was just A+++ XDDD Seriously they can have all the joys of a loving relationship with none of the childbirth/rearing stress! I'm feeling this is a fantastic life choice decision especially now. XD I love how much he *hearteyes* over her, how she's always the one making all the moves because he won't. 
Awesome premiere ep though. It was very much like setting up pieces on a chess board- you can probably see how it's all going down...but you're likely to be completely crushed by your expectations when things go absolutely sideways instead! "The Great Game is terrifying" and absolutely riveting teeveeeeee! :DDD

Here is my fandom giftbox if any of you are interested! I don't know if anybody else has one, but reply with a link yours if you do! I love stuffing, but I will obviously be doing it post-move!

Shadowhunters continues to delight more and more! I think it's Sebastian|Jonathan, but I'm waaay more interested in 2B than 2A or S1? I just wish there was more Izzy and less Clary, but fine, fine plot. (Why do I always glom onto non-main characters to stan in TV shows? There's got to be a psychological reason for this.) 

Sense8 has been cancelled by Netflix on the first day of Pride Month. :(((( Also, to nobody's surprise, Drumpf pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord, because America first 

I'm going to go write. Need to not be in this world for a bit.

ETA: I just donated to All Out. Just my usual monthly lunch money, but a little more proactive than making futile fist shaking posts.

I'm baaaack! Went to Tokyo for a trip last week so we could have one last Disneyland/DisneySea visit (plus stop by to see the grandparents and cousins) and it was so much fun! The girls were more jaded this time though- they realized we didn't actually go to space on Star Tours, although they still think C-3PO is a terrible pilot. XDDD It was our first time to see the parades/shows/fireworks at night because they finally had the stamina to stay up! We'll definitely be back to DisneySea again because we were all exhausted and couldn't enjoy the park as much because of aching feet/grumpiness. Plus husband and I loved the atmosphere of each theme area- they paid a lot of attention to detail, and it was pretty nifty. My favorite was the Steampunk vibe of "Mysterious Island" and the detailed mosaics in the "Mermaid's Lagoon".

One thing: when we were on 20000 Leagues Under the Sea they stopped the ride due to some kind of emergency and we were stuck in the "submarine" for almost an hour until the staff came to get us! We had to climb out via a ladder and then walk on the rafters/rigging to a back entrance, with the ride displays below us, so the kids had all the magic/4th wall illusions taken out of that ride. Oh well. It was kind of cool to see anyway, although I wish they had compensated us a little better for the lost time: we got "priority ride" passes that were good for only unpopular rides, so we didn't use them. :(

Caught up on most of my shows now too! Grey's just got kind of a bzuh? reaction out of me mostly because ( spoilers for Grey's, iZombie and TO )