Arriving suitably late to the Heated Rivalry party.

I did try to get into it last year- my brain was not braining in the right direction to make that feasible. I suspect a lot of that might have been due to the uncertainty of whether a second season would be happening and I didn't want to get invested in something only to have it brutally yanked away. (I'm still furious that My Lady Jane didn't get a S2).

I had a day off on Tuesday, spent the afternoon noodling around online as I figured if I couldn't get into the show I would at least enjoy the unhinged glory of watching soundbites of the cast interviews and reading and bunch of articles. (Yes I'm aware of Ember and Ice, and yes I will be listening to that too).

One thing led to another and I started watching Heated Rivalry at 7pm thinking I'd do an episode a day.

UM.

By 1am Wednesday I'd watched all the eps, bought the books and was whatsapping (ravurian and gingerpig) tragic messages along the lines of "yes I'm 4 months late, talk to me about HR".

I was also patting myself on the back for having the foresight to 'add to memory' a lot of the DW posts that had been on my circle over the last 4 months clarifying the timeline (thank you mific) and making videos and fic recs.

First rewatch completed today and fully expect to complete another by the end of the weekend or I might dive in to the EmptyNetters reactions which I gather are highly recommended.

All of which is a longwinded way of saying I am down for talking about the show, the delightfully unhinged cast interviews (a gift that keeps on giving), the soundtrack, the books (I'll be finishing Game Changers this weekend), and anything related to the upcoming S2 which I am led to believe starts shooting this summer.

I need to talk about it!!

So I feel like in my first watch, I wasn't really getting all the nuance, and that's why it felt so repetitive and slow. For example, the scene in episode 6 where Gi-seok invites himself to drinks with Ji-ho and the oh-so-hapless Choi Hyun-soo. ( Spoilers. )

A couple of weeks ago I bought two potted plants, which have since come into full flower

Welcome to “Freebie Friday”, my new series of (semi) recurring posts where I plan to offer as many graphic freebies as possible.

Here is double version of a fannish March calendar featuring Willow (BtVS) and Riley (BtVS) with quotes.

Click on the previews for the full size and download/save options


Edited from a free Canva template by Caeleste. Texts and Polaroid pic added with GIMP 3.0.
For personal use only. Do NOT sell or redistribute; linking back to this post is always okay.

See you next month with another character!

Title: Complicated
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: JJ, Dee, Ryo, Commissioner Rose.
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Throughout Vols. 1 and 2.
Summary: Jealousy is running rife at the 27th Precinct, even if some of the people involved refuse to accept that’s what they’re feeling.
Word Count: 1545
Written For: Theme Prompt: 207 – Jealousy at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

Title: Wanting To Be Noticed
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Tosh, Owen, Gwen.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 578
Spoilers: Nothing too specific.
Summary: Tosh wishes she could be sexier and more outgoing.
Written For: The prompt ‘Any, any, If only…,’ at threesentenceficathon.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.

It's too early to get excited about spring...but it's warm enough I didn't need more than a raincoat this morning, and there was fog on the river, and it's going to be nice enough this afternoon that I can open up the apartment windows and air things out a little. Maybe I'll actually cook something nice tonight and sit out on the porch with dinner.

(I've seen enough from the kittens that I do NOT trust them on the porch [balcony, fenced off] without me right there to grab them. I think they can come sit out there with me if they want, though.)

I've had a couple of pretty busy days, but I think (I *THINK*) I can chill now. I have some more bureaucratic stuff to take care of, but it's gonna have to wait until next week (pretty sure that the office I need is open like three hours a single day each week lmao). 

Now that the health stuff is on its way to being taken care of and that I finally got my new ID, all I have to do is sit my ass down and study. That's gonna take a massive amount of effort, depressingly, because my brain is fucking fried :°

Anyway, it's almost the weekend, so I can allow myself to listen to some music!

The new ERRA album, "silence outlives the earth", out today! I really enjoyed "gore of being", "further eden", and "echo sonata" when they first came out, and I'd been looking forward to this album a lot! I'm maybe halfway through my first listen and it's definitely not disappointing so far :)
(By the way, I found out ERRA did a cover of "Stockholm Syndrome" by Muse and it actually kinda slaps!)

Also, I was fucking around the list of new releases on r/metalcore and bumped into a band called "The Gloom in the Corner" and their new album "Royal Discordance", and... holy shit. I'm such a sucker for music that blends genres, and these guys mix metalcore with a kind of theatricality that in certain points reminded me of My Chemical Romance (and whoever knows anything about me at all, knows that that's the highest of praises I can give anybody lol). I need to listen to the whole album again, but man, I really, really liked it!

A bunch of random songs that are going straight into my March playlist:

• Pain is a Must - Angel Du$t
• CONSTANT TENSION - Held.
• Reflection - Opal In Sky
• there's no place in heaven for people like us - hush, darling
• The Coldness of Your Absence - Sugar Spine
• Paradox Man - Shoreline
• Liminal - Haste the Day feat Silent Planet
• Locked and Loaded - The Cab
• Free - Beartooth

ALSO!!!
Did y'all hear about the Fall Out Boy demos thing? Apparently some people are being sent CDs in the mail with a bunch of previously unreleased old FOB demos. The person from the reddit post I liked uploaded them on the Internet Archive :O 
What are those dudes even up to, this time??? >_>

I'm gonna listen to some music for a bit, and then either watch the latest JJK episode or start the new documentary miniseries The Dinosaurs, because fuuuuck yeah, it's finally here! \o/

Recipe
Asparagus and shrimp casserole
4 cans asparagus, drained (You can use fresh if you'd prefer)
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon butter
4 oz cream cheese OR marscapone
1 cup half n half (may use milk)
1 can cream of shrimp soup
1 lb already cooked shrimp
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper, to desired taste
1 can cheese French fried onions

In a saucepan on low heat, whisk together cream, butter and cream cheese until melted and smooth. Add in half and half and soup and stir well. Add spices and incorporate well then mix in drained asparagus and shrimp. Pour into a casserole dish and sprinkle the onions on top.
Bake in a 350°F oven until bubbly about 40 minutes

Not quite 365 days questions March.

6. Have you ever seen a dinosaur skeleton?

Just at the museum. And it was super cool seeing them. I love dinosaurs.

90 questions for discussion

1. What things are currently keeping you awake at night or causing you stress?
Donald Trump. I can't believe he started a war. And I hear the man who is going to take Noem’s place is ten times worse than her. I'm actually shocked that he fired her. Anyhow, that's why I can't sleep.

How about you?

Topics for talk

Places I Would Like to Visit

We want to go to Hawaii, so we're going to plan the trip for next year soon. We're very excited. Next, we’d like to plan a trip to Key West. Hubby has always wanted to go there. Lots of boat rides. I love them.

MaM event accomplishment the second: I got Madara and Kohaku to Rank A+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



lookit them go ;w;
I'm not trying to sound ~elitest~ or anything, but I do feel somewhat more accomplished when I rank idols up in JP, probably because of the lack of autoplay. All of that was manual, babeeeyyyyy!!!! And so I even though I have more fans for my faves in ENG & CN, it feels more ""real"" in JP in a sense.

or maybe that's just my wrists crying in pain lmao

OH AND ANOTHER THING!!!! Because I got them both to rank A+, I got a new title to use in my profile~ Since I wasn't playing in JP when the Double Face climax or TRIP album ran, I don't have any other DF titles ;w; but!!!! I'm excited to have the gold one now ♥


the rank A one is silver and it's like fine but gold is clearly superior
And in another year, I'll have gotten them to rank S, trust!!! Just.....55k more fans to go...............but I want the outfits + the rainbow title, so I must push onwards.

uhhhhhh what else? Alex is coming this weekend to play some more P5R, since she's only played vanilla. We're on the 3rd semester and it's just delicious, since she's somehow stayed spoiler-free??? Wild. And since I finished the MaM event so early, I can actually have a social life, lmao.

I just learned that spikedluv's mother died three weeks after spikedluv died. Gawd, this fucking era.

Previous poll review
In the spam SPAM spam poll, 52% of respondents only check their spam folder when they're looking for a specific thing, 30% check it maybe once a month, 10% weekly, and 8% daily. (This question was inspired by gmail sending multiple emails in the middle of threads to spam, wtf.)

In ticky-boxes, blanket cocoons and comfort food came second to hugs, 62% to 74%. Judgy koalas came third with 56%. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
I read Courtney Milan's The Earl Who Isn't, which was just as enjoyable at the others in the series. Her kissing and UST are excellent, and I love everyone in Wedgeford.

Bounced off Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield, with prejudice. (That was one of my library books.) The first "chapter" (of three in the entire book) was a blow-by-blow account of working backstage at SNL; the second "chapter" (which I flicked through) was lockdown correspondence. I didn't like either of the characters.

I don't know what I'm reading next. Or listening to on my own. But Andrew and I have about 2.5 hours left in Barrayar.

Kdramas
Oh no, I finished One Spring Night and kind of... went back to the beginning and started it again. With occasional diversions into Something in the Rain (which ha, is by the same writer, as well as having vast numbers of cast members in common, so that explains that). At some point I'll emerge from this Jung Hae In fever dream and start something else.

Pru and I finished Family by Choice (I LOVE IT SO MUCH), and next week we're starting Love Scout (\o/).

Other TV
We're on the final disk of extras for Return of the King, and that'll be it. It's stressful seeing the last-minute absolute chaos behind the scenes, but also kind of magical. Still going on The Pitt, and we've watched a couple of episodes of Dinosaur, a UK sitcom about two sisters, one of whom is autistic. I like it!

Got a few things lined up: new seasons of The Lincoln Lawyer and Dark Winds, more Scavengers Reign, there were probably some other things, idk.

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, some Better Offline, some What Matters Most (chatty general life psychology/advice), Cross Party Lines (local politics), Letters from an American (just a few /o\), Heaving Bosoms (chatty recaps of romance novels, just for something relaxing to put in my ears), Movie Briefs (lawyers talk about law movies, ditto).

Online life
*hugs you all, so much*

...

Writing/making things
My Yuletide treat is at beta at last. \o/ Now I've started in on my Yuletide assignment fic, unfinished at 7k words. I'm imposing a new structure on it to see if that might make it more finishable. No drawing practice.

Life/health/mental state things
Idk, I'm okay. Getting some things done, at least. Getting a fair amount of sleep and exercise. Doing righteous battle with my health insurer. Spending too much time tweaking my new phone to make it behave how I want.

Goals
This week: make a batch of vegetarian dumplings, make a mini quiche in the air fryer. All my goals are food, hi!

Good things
Sunshine. Helpful, supportive people. The 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange is coming soon! Kitty. New phone is mostly behaving itself. We went to a delightfully geeky talk about dragonflies.

Making: I made a chicken, cheesy, biscuit meal for friends today. It was delish.

Watching: Person of Interest on my player.

Reading: A Comedian Walks Into a Funeral Home by Dennis Kelly. I love this book. It's really good.

Listening: to Person of Interest

Eating: a new dessert I made. Lemon cheesecake bites.

Drinking: Dr. Pepper.

Loving: this new meme.

Hating: the dishes I just finished.

Wanting: chocolate, but being good.

Thinking: about what I'm doing tomorrow.

Planning: what I'm going to make for dinner tomorrow. People will think all we do is eat.

Wishing: I didn't have to clean my bathrooms tomorrow. I'd give anything to be Samantha on Bewitched. Then I could keep this house super clean.

Puzzle Books: I don't do them.

Weathering: I'm not sure what this means. If it's about the weather, then the day was wonderful. 79° and sunny.

Wearing: black shorts, green short-sleeve top, and no shoes.

Needing: I don't need much.

Enjoying: this meme.

Wondering: what I would be doing if I wasn't on Dreamwidth every night.

Playing: Person of Interest.

Trying: to watch the show and do this at the same time.

Cooking: not until tomorrow.

Calling: my daughter is calling me at 9:30 on her way home from work.

Texting: not texting right now.

Crafting: I don't craft.

Going: to finish this if it kills me.

Feeling: happy.

Hoping (For): another spring day tomorrow.

Celebrating: my birthday, early.

Smelling: Lemon cheesecake bites.

Thanking: I'm very thankful to my friend Vicki, who made me a gorgeous quilt for my birthday.

Considering: it might be for my spare room. The quilt is the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Finishing: I'm finishing this. Yay.

Starting: I don't know about this one.

Notes: thanks to spirelicious, for giving me something to do.