tozka: A bit of green landscape against a riotous blue cloud-filled sky (van gogh landscape)
[personal profile] tozka

Happy Friday! Here's some links-- deliberately focused on positive things, to give some end-of-year cheer.

Media of Various Types

Food & Crafts & Art

Social Media

RSS Feeds

  • mixed color (RSS) a great blog about embroidery, sewing, dying, etc!
  • Winnie Lim (RSS) writes very enjoyable blog posts about life and the things that happen therein
  • sortition social is a community RSS feed reader! It selects a random feed from their (user-submitted?) database and added to the timeline for 7 days

<- previous linkspam | link library | all link posts ->

Reading: A Year in Review

Dec. 26th, 2025 10:20 am
rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7

This year I read 63 books, which will sound like a lot to some people, and not very much to others, but it's a lot for me at this point in my life. I was a huge reader growing up. Like, regularly getting called to the front of the classroom to fork over the book I'd been reading under my desk during the lesson. But in high school I got into internet and fanfiction and then I was moving around so much that books were never a priority item to haul along with me and I just sort of...stopped reading.

But I've gotten back into it--I've had an active library card again since 2023, which I initially got solely to check out Nona the Ninth XD--and it's been such a joy. I've never been an audiobook person, and I still prefer physical books, but having Libby and audiobooks in my car has made my work commute SO much less unpleasant.

I wanted to reflect on what I've read this year, so I compiled this list of titles and ratings. Asterisks by books I did not finish, generally because I disliked them too much (that's another thing--I've been trying to accept giving up on books I'm really not enjoying more), with the exception of Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, which wasn't bad, just for too young an audience for me to enjoy. Unrated books I either found too hard to pin a rating to or just didn't get around to rating.

I feel like I got a great spread of books this year, though I've failed to whittle down my TBR list at all thanks to very compelling recommendations. I'm really looking forward to another year of stories!

The actual written reviews can be found on my Dreamwidth or Storygraph.



queenslayerbee: Lisa simpson dressed in a multicoloured baggy shirt, with a sideways cap and sunglasses, and a disaffected look on her face. (lisa simpson (the simpsons))
[personal profile] queenslayerbee
I got this week's rec list ready early, to my surprise! So here it is

DCU

FANFIC

  • Two Minutes by Aingeal98. 1.9k, T. Cass does something terrible for Steph. Heartbreaking and perfectly in character.
  • mindscape by torigates. 2k, T. This one is set in the Young Justice cartoon, instead of the comics, like the rest. It's immediately set post-Failsafe (thee episode from season 1), and focuses on Supermartian. I read it way back when, as a lurker, and on reread it got me all nostalgic.
  • Aftermathmares by Mist-managed (Greyspaces13). 3k, T. Mia's survivor's guilt after Lian's death in Cry For Justice. I liked seeing a fic that sits with this moment in time for the Arrowfam (mainly Mia and Oliver only, here). It's difficult, and it certainly wasn't well-written in canon, but I do think there could be a lot to explore with it.
  • In Which Jason Goes to a Convention by TeleportingAspen. 3.3k, T. What if Jade Nguyen was Jason's poison trainer? The fic expands across Lost Days and post-UTRH, and it's a satisfying portrayal of his character during the time.
  • Oracle, Re: Birth by KamalasFanfiction. 8.1k, T. This fic mixes preboot and reboot canon in a very interesting way: what if the Batgirl of Burnside was an impostor, and oracle!Barbara had to deal with that? If you're like me and still kind of bitter about the reboot, and especially on what it did to her character, go ahead and read this.
  • Left Behind, Or Forgotten by cleromancy. 30.8k, T. This one is marked incomplete, but it ends at a good, narratively satisfying point so don't let that deter you. Features the bat clan a few years down the line (pre-reboot continuity, of course), with their complex dynamics, The Bruce Problem... it has background Jaytim and Dickroy, too, and a lot of humour mixed with The Horrors. I'd also recommend reading the three vignettes preceding it in the series, but I personally read them after reading the longer, more plot-relevant LBOF, and I think it's preferable that way.

FANART

META

MISCELLANEOUS

FANFIC

FANART

META

I hope you'll enjoy some of these!

I might appear again on the 31st with a surprise...


(no subject)

Dec. 25th, 2025 11:34 pm
skygiants: Nice from Baccano! in post-explosion ecstasy (maybe too excited . . .?)
[personal profile] skygiants
I am not allowing myself to dive into the Yuletide archive this year until after reveals due to a bunch of other reading commitments that have to get done by early January, BUT! I obviously made an exception for my own

THREE

INCREDIBLE

GIFT

FICS:

The Knight Under the Apple Tree

“Our crop is well tended,” Celia protested, despite all evidence that it was not. “It grows copiously out yonder.”

Oliver turned his head to look out the window. “Indeed, the grass outside does grow most mightily.”

“It is a sheepcote, sir; as the name suggests, it is for the keeping of sheep. Thus grass is essential.”

“And yet I do not see the sheep.”


I asked someone to sell me on As You Like It's Celia/Oliver side ship and I have completely received my wish: this fic is SO cute and does such a lovely job filling out the relationship between these characters until it feels like something that fully exists and that I want to root for

A rainbow-stripe in another proper world

“None of it ever happened,” said Uncle Nirupam in his precise way, “and so we have no memories of it, of course. But the instincts remain. I felt the same way when I first visited this world. I thought, is this where they burn people like us?”

The first of two excellent Witch Week fix-it fics -- this one is a short little outsider-POV gem in which Janet Chant and Nan Pilgrim are married, which is not something I would have ever thought of in a million years but which delights me deeply! galaxy brain!

Remember, Remember

“To produce the required crispiness, the mandrake is dipped in wallpaper paste, dredged in sawdust, and then pan-fried until it is completely burnt on all sides,” Nan recited obligingly. “It is served with a side of slugs poached in their own slime. Their chewy texture provides a perfect complement…” Estelle was howling with laughter by this point. Nan, as always in such moments, felt as though she were being carried along by an inexorable flood of words quite independent of herself. A rhyme was pushing insistently at the inside of her head, and she let it out without the least idea where it was going to finish up:

“Crispy mandrake, extra fancy,

Bring me something

Chrestomanci!”


and THIS one is a luxurious and voice-perfect THIRTEEN THOUSAND WORDS spent with my beloved terrible children as their memories are returned by way of an encounter with the TRAGICALLY ABANDONED SENTIENT GARDEN IMPLEMENTS. ABSOLUTE GALAXY BRAIN AGAIN ... I'm so happy ...

and having been Yuletided well beyond my deserts, I now leave the archive for now but I look forward to reading everyone's recs on the other side!

Finished Parasite Eve

Dec. 25th, 2025 10:41 pm
fennectik: Videogames Post (Videogames)
[personal profile] fennectik posting in [community profile] gaming
On this Christmas Day, I finally finished Parasite Eve.

12/25/25

9:51 PM (The time I gave the final shot to the last boss)

I'll start the Ex Game later on.

tozka: Gandalf from Lord of the Rings (lotr gandalf green bg)
[personal profile] tozka

Welcome back to another Community Thursday! Original Community Thursday info here, if you're interested and want to participate, too.

Posted/Commented

New-to-me Comms

Interesting Comm Posts

// More Community Thursday posts

What IS wrong with Gaming Journalism?

Dec. 25th, 2025 10:45 am
retrogrrrl: (Moo Moo)
[personal profile] retrogrrrl
Shit, I can’t be the only doofus to fuckin’ ask this question, right? God knows I’ve asked it many times, but y’see, I’m in a peculiar position. Carryin’ a pair of tits will do that to ya, couple that with an innate rebellious attitude and a love for retro games ‘cause of economic status and y’got yourself a recipe to make most American gamers whinge — even the nerds that permeate some of the retro space may have a problem with me, and we’re supposed to be more or less the same team!

What can I say? I’m too cool to be a nerd but too nerdy to be cool. Such is my long-standing curse, but that isn’t the end of it.

On top of all of it, I’m also a punk. Even though I no longer partake in the community (‘cause I have none) and distance myself from bein’ exclusively in that space, I got the political and social wisdom it imparted on me. Wisdom bein’, everythin’ fucking sucks but y’can always help your community ‘round you to make a change. Also, you can’t put Avril Lavigne in your fuckin’ crust pants, that’s not a crust band to put on yer crust PANT. My sensibilities and ability to call BULLSHIT have made me look deeper beyond the mainstream assumption that Gaming Journalism is just bad.

Sure, I can betcha is flawed like most other fuckin’ things in the world, but why is it BAD exactly? This question won’t be answered in this blog post, I’m postin’ the question for all the curious eyes scopin’ out my site, but I like givin’ extra context to why I’m askin’. Y’see, I can’t help but to notice that everytime someone says this to me it comes from a source I don’t trust. My brother says Gaming Journos are bad? I remember that he loves Asmongold and genuinely believes white racism is a thing. Twitter user Buttnuttgooner1488 tells me Gaming Journos are woke, damaging to the industry and shit? Well the symbolism in his frontpage aren’t exactly friendly, are they?

I realize this may be ‘cause I’m biased…. well D’UH, y’fuckin’ donut. What d’ya think? I’m not takin’ or hearin’ any gospel spoken outta the moufs of dimwits who have “PRINCIPLES” teeterin’ on the edge of danger fascist rhetoric – and you’ve gotta be a moron to take what they say with no pinch of salt. Half the time the criticizing ‘bout gaming journo ends up fallin’ down the anti-woke/sjw pipeline and delusional dreams ‘bout how the gaming community has always been acceptin’ of women and queer gamers (they don’t even touch the topic of racism ‘cause that would be havin’ to pull lotsa fucking weird tricks from under their sleeves).

I’m not askin’ for a “neutral” account and analysis. That’s another fuckin’ problem, the so-called CENTRISTS’ are just gutless gonzos who can never make a decision in their lives (and comin’ from a versatile bisexual? that’s a BURN) or signal their allegiance to anyone ‘cause they’re coward frumpwusses who rely on the inaction to survive. Y’don’t want me to listen to your bullshit either, I’m gonna call it right out.

I’m lookin’ for critiques within my own pond, frankly. That’s why I point it out. Half the time we’ve got biases, I can easily identify ‘em. Some other times — dependin’ on who’s saying shit — I can trust that someone’s bein’ fair on the topic and it’s not some secret agenda to push ya into an alt-right discord to slowly get you brainwashed. I need an actual point.

So, I guess that’s the question to wrap up this unwarranted rant.

What IS wrong with Gaming Journalism? Is it a similar issue with Journalism as a whole? Are people just whinin’ that their super special niche has branched out into the mainstream and how — like many other mediums — has got a few hands stirrin’ the pot now?

⏾ 015

Dec. 24th, 2025 06:19 pm
visualjyushi: (Default)
[personal profile] visualjyushi
Happy holidays to everyone!

I spent part of my day tagging along with my spouse while they got tattoos. Coincidentally, I've been eyeing the work by another artist at the same shop, so I decided to make an appointment with them for early January while we were there. I technically shouldn't be spending that much money, but I think it's okay to treat myself for once. January is also my birthday month, and the tattoo is something I've wanted for a while. It will be Free! (anime) related, because that series is near and dear to my heart.

While I was waiting for my partner, I ended up finishing Volume 5 of the No.6 novel series. I've been slowly working my way through all of them, and every time I get back to it, I feel my love for No.6 (and specifically, Nezushi) being reignited. Reading the novels just offers so much more insight to the characters and their relationships with each other. Being able to see Shion's inner thoughts about Nezumi and vice versa has been making me feel deranged.

Short Vol.5 ramble... )

Anyway, at our house, we won't be doing much in terms of celebration other than eating really, but I hope everyone is able to enjoy their holiday :)

playing: pokemon odyssey

Dec. 24th, 2025 12:14 pm
tozka: (videogames tozka)
[personal profile] tozka
Taking advantage of the fact that I have a hacked 3DS to try out Pokemon fan games! There's a thriving Pokemon romhacking community where they take base Gameboy/Gameboy Advanced games and edit them, sometimes making entirely new storylines and regions.

This one is a blend of Pokémon, Etrian Odyssey and Made in Abyss. The base game is FireRed, which I've never played.

Pokemon Odyssey cover art, which features a dark-skinned woman with deer antlers.Here's the description:
On an island in the middle of the sea stands a massive maze known as the "Yggdrasil Labyrinth", which has been attracting adventurers from all over the world for years.
No one knows how deep it goes, or if there's anything at its end.

Some say there's a treasure of immeasurable value hidden within, while others claim the remnants of a lost civilization lie there.

In the game you'll play as Nyx, a young adventurer who joins the guild of Talrega with the goal of unraveling the Labyrinth's mysteries.

But something goes terribly wrong…

The gameplay is heavy on Pokemon with the world setting and some mechanics (like Etrian's F.O.E. bosses) from the other games. So you collect and battle Pokemon as usual, but the storyline is focused on exploring the labyrinth (and the ocean, which has mysterious islands to find) and doing sidequests. There's no Team Rocket or evil organization to defeat, nor gym leaders or champions. Likewise, there's no map to fill out like in Etrian games.

I'm about 4 hours into it and just about ready to progress to the second Labyrinth level! I'm really enjoying it so far. They've done an amazing job making "Etrian variant" Pokemon (which you can see here) and the game design is really fun.

The only thing I'm a little iffy on is they give you a "team" of two other characters, and then they don't do anything. They don't help with battles, or even explore the labyrinth with you! I'm guessing they're re-skinned rival characters from the base game (I didn't look it up) which makes more sense for how they act in THIS game.

Anyway, a bonus for me: the thing I'm using to play GBA roms on my 3DS apparently sucks up WAY less battery than the regular 3DS software. It's not an emulator, it's using hte 3DS hardware/software to run the ROM directly. Sooooo I'm currently able to play like 6 hours straight without having to charge! Maybe longer-- I'll have to keep testing and see.

(I actually replaced my 3DS battery a couple months ago but it keeps blinking low-battery red after like 4 hours, and idk if it's actually low or if the gage is just borked because of the new battery-- apparently it's a common issue. Anyway...)

If you're interested, I've put some of the more interesting Pokemon romhacks I've found so far in my Link Library here. I'm really interested in ones that use the Pokemon games as a base and create totally new storylines or settings-- if you know of any good ones that I haven't added to my list yet, let me know!

photo: happy holidays!

Dec. 23rd, 2025 09:28 am
tozka: (cosmic leanings)
[personal profile] tozka
A Christmas wreath with a plastic skeleton wearing a Santa hat in the middle. The skeleton is waving.

📍Phoenix, Arizona - December 2025 / All Photos / Pixelfed



Update: There's two more photos in the comments of more skeleton Christmas decorations-- from different houses, btw!

TV Tuesday: Changing Eras

Dec. 23rd, 2025 10:02 am
yourlibrarian: Horario Under Hat look (HORN-HorarioUnderHat-timescout)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk



Are there things you miss about TV technologies gone by? What about things you definitely don’t?

Alternately, how meaningful is the term "TV" these days given the changes in both method and content?

Gifts for me

Dec. 23rd, 2025 09:18 am
queenslayerbee: Lisa simpson dressed in a multicoloured baggy shirt, with a sideways cap and sunglasses, and a disaffected look on her face. (lisa simpson (the simpsons))
[personal profile] queenslayerbee

It's a Supernatural fic where I eventually added a second chapter in reply to a prompt here on tumblr ("rewrite something in a different character's POV"; the first chapter was from Sam's POV, the second from Castiel's) and the people making the podcast did something creative with it, first doing the fic as it is and then combining both chapters into a third one.

That event is still open to leave gifts, as are sapphic stocking stuffers and fandomtrees. Feel free to peruse other people comments (in the first case) and tags (in the second) to see if you want to leave someone a present!


Themes and Continuity

Dec. 22nd, 2025 05:50 pm
rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7

The most frustrating thing about The Tomb of Dragons is not even the romance bait-and-switch but the feeling that core themes of the trilogy were just completely dropped and even reversed in the final half of the third book.

We start book one with Thara still grieving the death of his lover Evru and only recently returned to his calling after that tragedy, starting his life anew in the city of Amalo. Throughout the trilogy, he is aloof, reserved, and unwilling to rely on others or accept companionship or camaraderie from anyone. Despite this, his earnest nature and devotion to using his role as a prelate to help others wins him the affection of many in his new home.

Yet he is, as Anora says in the third book, a hard man to be friends with. Although many around Thara genuinely like him and wish him well, he continues to hold himself at arms' length, in part by nature, in part due to past tragedy, and in part due to complex feelings around being gay in a homophobic society (and perhaps a feeling that he must hold himself apart, to be able to keep that part of himself private). He is repeatedly shocked when others express affection or well-wishes to him beyond simply politesse. Anora has to tell him that Azanharad feels warmly to him, as it simply never occurred to Thara.

In his relationship with Iana, he starts to come around to the idea of romance again, but in his relationships with many more, he starts to come around to the idea of community. In his dinners with Anora, in his training and partnership with Tomasaran, in his working relationship with Prince Orchenis, Thara begins to develop this community, a home in Amalo.

We know that he has no love for his previous city of office, Aveio, where Evru was executed, and that he never felt at home in the imperial court with his cousin Csoru, but in Amalo, he begins to feel comfortable. He feeds the local strays on his porch, he regularly attends the theater, he regularly dines with Anora and later with Tomasaran.

After great loss, both personal and directional, forced to start his life over essentially from scratch, Thara is beginning to resettle.

And The Tomb of Dragons just tosses all that and decides that actually what Thara wants is a life on the road with some guy he met a few months ago and barely knows. All of those relationships he spent nearly three full books painstakingly building are relegated to pen pals and that's meant to be an optimistic ending. Those friendships that were sold as so important turn out to mean less than this rando love interest introduced in the final third of the last book.

Thara is not a character who ever gave off the air of being an adventurer. He is not someone who has been looking for thrills or a life living out of a suitcase; he's always seemed far more domestic and practical. Few characters in the Chronicles of Osreth seem less suited to a life of constant travel and peril. All of the dangers Thara takes on in Amalo are only in pursuit of his calling, and he does not take any pleasure in it beyond being able to assist those who rely on him.

For two and a half books it felt like Thara was building a new home in Amalo, a place where he felt safe, and cared for, and known, and for that to all be chucked at the last minute for the life of a traveling prelate feels like a second tragedy in his life. It doesn't come off like a hopeful new start, it comes off like Thara having another home snatched away from him, like his once more being forced out of a place he had, with great difficulty, made connections.

And it's so disappointing to me.


tozka: title character sitting with a friend (Default)
[personal profile] tozka
1. Removing my data from various Meta sites-- most of them were there for business purposes, but I want to put my business energies elsewhere AND I don't want Meta to have my stuff floating around to use in their horrible AI nonsense. I'm downloading copies of my data and then deleting the posts (which they make you do one by one). I plan to put up a "where to find me" post for people who may come looking, and I'll keep the usernames for business purposes, but I'm going to focus on my (business) blog (and later newsletter/shop) and that's it.

2. Settling into using Obsidian for my personal data stuff. I think I've got a system set up that I like, and now I just need to add in things. For instance, I'm adding my books read for 2025 into the system and I've set up fun views like this:
A collection of book covers organized in rows

Which is built from a Base which is a table built from metadata in individual entries. So I'm adding books one by one, making sure the imported data is actually correct, and then copying over my notes/reviews. It's a little slow-going but it's fun to see everything in one place. And I've decided I don't care about counting how many pages I read in a year or even how many books I read in a month, just a general yearly total of books read is fine, so that'll make things easier going forward.

3. Listening to music from DEMO FEST 2025! Some recommendations: Error 804's ANGUISH, Morora's Kosovo, The Carringtons' Wild.

4. Downloading interesting pattern images from the Smithsonian digital collections to use for icons and (if I can figure out how) website backgrounds.

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