cahn | Network

lightbird posting in

Title/Link: Time Heals
Fandom: Quantum Leap
Character(s): Donna Elesee, Original Female Character
Rating: G
Prompt: The Scholar
Summary: The loneliness and unhappiness she'd felt from his sudden, never-explained leaving had finally dissipated. She only pitied him; he'd missed out on watching his bright daughter grow up to be a brilliant young woman.

downgoesbrown_feed

http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2026/02/nhl-weekend-rankings-blockbuster-trade.html

Let’s get you caught up on all the NHL action you missed over the weekend.

There wasn’t any.

Cool, good column. See you next time.

OK, we won’t wrap it up quite that quickly. But with most teams getting only a couple of games in since this time last week, don’t expect any major changes in the rankings.

Instead, let’s use this week as a bit of a reset and regroup before the rankings take a few weeks off. For example, now would be a good time to look at which teams have been on which lists so far this year.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2026/02/nhl-weekend-rankings-blockbuster-trade.html

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: thoughtful

swingandswirl

RL continues to conspire against me, but I am determined to finish this challenge, damn it. So here is #9!

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring an image of a wrapped giftbox with a snowflake on the gift tag. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

Challenge #9

Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

For this challenge, I'm going to talk about my favourite tropes in fic.

1. Genderswap, specifically M > F in specific canons/contexts.

Genderswap is one of my favourite tropes, especially in canons where it would make a massive difference. I just love seeing what the story would be if it were Rose Potter rather than Harry, Clara Kent rather than Clark, or Stephanie Rogers rather than Steve, not least because I just find women more interesting. And I'm always here for M/F romances that aren't your standard Heterosexual Nonsense, lol. As a bonus, girls are women just aren't allowed to be the same kind of stupid that boys and men are, which usually makes for a much better story.

2. Fix-it fics

Sometimes canon is stupid, so you reject it and insert your own. I love all kinds of fix-its, whether they're canon divergence or time travel. It helps that I grew up in HP fandom and later fell into MCU, both of which canons started well and then spectacularly shat the bed, lolsob. I also enjoy fics that give characters a smoother path to happiness - this is my favourite kind of Pride and Prejudice variant. What can I say, I just want my blorbos to be happy and live easy lives!

(Important note: I do not enjoy the kind of self-proclaimed 'fix-it' endemic to the Harry Potter fandom where it's clear that the author does not understand that Harry Potter started out as a silly kids' series that got so big JKR couldn't cope. No, you're not super smart for going 'ohoho the WW is a dystopia populated by sheep'; you just don't understand how genre conventions work. And that HP shifted mid-series in the most goatfucking stupid way possible.)

3. Competence porn

Keep your hot messes, y'all, I'm enough of one already, I don't want to read about or watch them for entertainment, thanks. One of my favourite parts of fiction is watching smart, skilled people do their jobs well - I blame all the romance novels with bad-ass heroines I read as a child. Also all the HP AUs and fix-its that consumed my adolescence, and falling headfirst into Superbat, because you don't get more competent than those two. There's just something so invigorating as well as reassuring about the quiet confidence that skill brings with it. I don't have to worry - my blorbos have it.

4. Confessions

Look, I'm a romance girlie, okay? Confessions are the best part! Especially if they come after pining, or when the characters have no idea their feelings are reciprocated. Bonus points if the confession happens in a situation of great peril, or is prompted by one or both of the characters nearly dying.

5. Pining

Look, instalove is all well and good, but sometimes you need the happy ending to be EARNED. Especially if it's two clueless idiots who have no bloody clue and insist the other just sees them as a friend. (Never mind their lives are basically 'Friends Don't' by Maddie and Tay.) Look, Superbat is one of my OTPs for a REASON and that reason is that pining is DELICIOUS.

6. Fake dating

The only way to make pining better? Put the blorbos in situations where they have to pretend to be a couple For Reasons. Marriage of convenience, undercover, keeping family/friends/whoever off one's back... so many ways to have them go 'but they would never like me like that' while situation after situation happens that proves the opposite, lol.

7. Better than canon/the real world

Look, I read for escapism. Plain and simple. I don't want tooth-rotting fluffy curtain-fic, but at the same time... if it's darker than canon? NOPE. Get the behind me, Satan. I don't want a HP universe that is a sexist hellscape where Muggleborns are little better than animals, or a dystopia run by sheep that needs to be saved by the oh-so-advanced Muggles. I don't want Bruce and Clark, or Steve and Tony, at each others' throats. I don't want Darcy and Elizabeth to have to go through hell before they can have their happy ending.

8. Geeky girl with non-intellectual-but-smart-jock who loves her brain

Look, I've been a Hermione/Viktor fan since I was fourteen. If that doesn't explain my love for this trope, I don't know what does. Hilariously, I was reminded of how much I love it by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Because there's honestly nothing sexier than a guy who is secure enough in his masculinity to revel in his woman's success. Also? Just because someone isn't an intellectual, or is into sports, doesn't mean they aren't smart and capable and great partners. Much more so than Intellectual Art Boys, in many cases.

9. Being picked over a supposedly 'better' romantic option

This is tied to my love of the previous trope. There is nothing that makes me swoon like someone telling their partner, 'No. I choose YOU, because you are a be choice for me and fuck what society/anyone else thinks.' Because at the end of the day, that's what true love is to me, more than fate or soulmates or whatever - choosing to be with someone.

If anyone has recs with these tropes, I would love to hear them! My reading fandoms are HP (no Snape though please), Numb3rs, Superbat, Stony, Star Trek AOS, LOTR/The Hobbit, The Goblin Emperor, Hawaii 5-0, and Pride and Prejudice.

james_davis_nicoll

What elements do you look for when browsing the shelves?

What Lures Readers Into Picking Up an Unfamiliar Book?

offcntr

A random sampling of pots glazed for the last firing, or, in some cases, the next one. A lot of stuff didn't fit in, including a full set of eight dinner and dessert plates. Also the platters, some of the serving bowls, casseroles, cookie jars; there just wasn't room. I'll wind up minimally stocked for the opening of Saturday Market, but will need a firing in early April--late March would be better--oh, and I just got an email from my gallery in Olympia, they've sold everything, can I get them more?

I just woke up, and I'm tired already.

goodbyebird

+ Butches in Books. Found a bunch I hadn't heard off, looks to be a solid list.

+ 2025 Recommended Reading List by Locus. Really appreciate the addition of a translated novels category.

+ How RPGs Became A Haven For Women In South Korea.

+ What Was Luke's Plan in 'Return of the Jedi'? The ever escalating amount of hostages XD

+ We need to talk about Fournier-Beaudry and Cizeron.
Fournier-Beaudry and Cizeron are both talented skaters from the Ice Academy of Montreal, who teamed up in 2024. They are both very striking, with beautiful skating quality that makes them captivating to new and old fans alike. But there's a darker side to the beginning of their partnership that has escaped the notice of a lot of casual fans.

+ Green's Dictionary of Slang is now available online for free. Allows lookups of word definitions and etymologies for free, and, for a subscription fee, it offers citations and more extensive search options.

+ Trans athletes may not have fitness advantage in women’s sport, landmark study finds.
Trans women in the studies were found to have significantly greater amounts of body fat than cis men, but levels comparable to those of cis women.

However, while trans women appeared to have more muscle mass, there were no observable differences in upper or lower body strength, the study found.

+ Saving this for later: Wonder Man by Abigail Nussbaum (so very likely to be good).

+ Very informative step by step recap of Bad Bunny's Half Time concert.

Current Music: Chappell Roan - Guilty Pleasure

sisterdivinium posting in

halfamoon

Title: Dedication
Fandom: Warrior Nun
Characters: Yasmine Amunet, with Mother Superion and Camila in the background
Rating: G
Notes: Done with felt tip pens, Chinese ink and graphite.
Summary: Yasmine has done perhaps a little too much studying.

Over here, at my journal!

dotytakethisdown posting in

fandomcalendar

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offcntr

One of the many orders I had for last week's firing was a set of dessert plates featuring bee eaters--very brightly colored tropical birds from all over Africa and Asia. There are more than thirty species, so I had a wide range of possibilities to choose from. Here are the ones I picked.

adore

Knight in Shining Ardour
by

adore

My rage clawed out of my chest
And stood looking around fiercely for the enemy.

He was a radiant boy,
Never allowed to be anything else.

He blazed so that my eyes were drawn to him, fascinated.
Avidly, I watched him for what he would do next.
He didn't disappoint.

When he destroyed something, I was satisfied.
I had always wanted to be rid of it.
But I'd had too much guilt or too little courage.

When he screamed, I fell in love with his voice.
He was my rockstar.

When he cried, I collected his tears in a shot glass and cheered
Before downing them in one go.
They were a tonic.

What he killed made him more alive.

He was my knight in shining ardour
And I loved him best
When he crawled back in my chest
To recover in the warm dark quiet.

Current Mood: accomplished

princessofgeeks

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offcntr

Woke up at quarter to five this morning--old guy bladder is a thing--and of course couldn't get back to sleep. Brain was in overdrive, all the thoughts going in circles, no way I was going to get back to sleep. I've long since learned not to try, the best answer is to get up and do something productive, at least get one thing done off of the list of worries.

This is me, being productive.

I fired my first kiln of 2026 on Saturday, about five days later than planned. Jon was glazing in the main kiln room for a small gas kiln firing, which limited the amount of space I had to stage for my pots, and I had so many pots. 120 mugs alone, forty small bowls, thirty three stew mugs. Dinner plates, dessert plates, pie plates, bakers and casseroles and big serving bowls. Cookie jars, pitchers, teapots, all the things I'd sold out of at Christmas, plus a long page of special orders. Since I needed the extra glazing time, and we don't have enough shelves to fire both kilns at once, we decided to let him go first with a four-shelf firing in the big kiln, I'd go in afterwards.

I finished glazing all the things Thursday just after lunch, Jon didn't get unloaded til midday Friday, so we started loading about three hours later than usual. Finished a little after six, so we treated ourselves to supper at the Asian buffet, came back to button up the kiln and start it firing at about quarter to eight. I usually wait until 8:30, but didn't want to make the extra trip down from River Road, and frankly, was tired.

So I had cone 08 down top and bottom when I arrived at 5:15 the next morning, started body reduction immediately. The thermocouple was acting wonky, looked like the lead wires might be stripped and crossing near the plug, so I pulled it out hot and replaced with the one from the small kiln. Replaced the cord once cool, subbed back in, still wasn't working, meanwhile the leads had pulled out of the other one. I was fiddling with them most of the morning when I could have been cleaning the back room or mixing my glazes, so wasted a good bit of the day. I did finally manage all the tasks, and threw 25 lbs. of Empty Bowls as well, but didn't get any of my computer work done. (Hi there!)

But the kiln was surprisingly well-behaved, firing evenly top and bottom from about cone 4 on, and when cone 10 dropped on the top, it was only millimeters from being down on the bottom. Finished off at 5:30 pm, with time to go home, stash the greens I'd bought at Farmers Market, and fry up some bratwurst for supper.

Sunday was catching up on housekeeping--do the laundry, vacuum the floors, trim the bowls. I was finishing off a glass of beet juice from one of Chere's mugs when the handle abruptly gave way, dropping the nearly full cup on the kitchen floor. Red everywhere, looked like a crime scene, splashed on my pants leg and foot, so of course I tracked it through the house. Add mopping the kitchen to the list.

So I didn't get the ducting on the kiln vent installed, my web updated, or photos uploaded here. So I guess the 5 am wake-up is a gift after all.

qian

My entire weekend got swallowed up by pineapple tarts, as I decided to make the tarts on Sunday. I made two batches of pastry, one batch with cheese and one without, following this recipe. I basically ignored the family for much of the day in order to do this, but still had to take various breaks to make lunch for the kids, eat myself, tidy up, intervene in quarrels, etc. So there were various shenanigans by way of: had to stop making tarts so put pastry in the fridge for too long and it had turned into granite by the time I returned to it; someone must have butt-dialled the oven so it wasn't the temperature I set it at and the tarts came out darker than they should be; threw away the egg wash then remembered I had 6 remaining tarts to egg-wash so they only got a milk wash and are not as pretty; etc. etc.

The cheesy batch of pastry in particular was terribly stiff and hard to work with; I couldn't roll it without it cracking all over. I think I might have overworked the dough? In any case, my pastry doesn't seem to come together the way What to Cook Today suggests it will, so I'm going to put a rewritten recipe for pineapple tarts below -- what worked for ME. Fortunately the resulting tarts all taste great. I keep eating them to try to figure out if I like cheese-free or cheesy better, but it's hard to decide!

( Pineapple jam recipe )

( Pineapple tarts recipe )

osprey_archer

I was quite excited about the picture book Only Opal: The Diary of a Young Girl, as I’ve been low-key obsessed with Opal Whiteley for years, and what could be better than a book about Opal illustrated by Barbara Cooney?

For those of you who don’t know, Opal Whiteley came to national attention in 1920 when the Atlantic Monthly published her childhood diary, in which young Opal wrote lyrical descriptions of nature and her animal friends, who have Lars Porsenna (the crow) and Brave Horatius (the dog). Some people were and remain bowled over by the beauty of her nature writing. Other people accused Opal of making up the diary wholesale. Would any kid really name a crow Lars Porsenna? It’s just too too precious.

I believe that the diary was real, though. Opal was an extremely bright child, and extremely bright children sometimes do things that strike people who don’t know them as completely unbelievable. She also suffered from a very unfortunate accident of timing, in that she fit perfectly a cultural archetype that was just coming under attack when she published her diary. A child of Nature, growing up in poverty but learning from the trees and the flowers and a few good, solid books (traditionally the Bible and Shakespeare, but in Opal’s case a book of historical figures).

After World War I this whole “child of nature” idea came to be seen as an offshoot of a sickeningly naive vision of human nature that had been exploded by the war. And then here comes Opal Whiteley, presenting to the world this diary supposedly written when she was five and six, which completely embodies this discredited vision. Well, it’s much easier to say “She’s a fraud!” than to wonder “Is there something in the child of nature idea after all?”

Unfortunately, as I recalled as I began to read the picture book, although I find Opal as a person very interesting, I can’t stand her diary. I think it’s a real diary, truly written by Opal as a child, but even in the immensely abridged form of a picture book, it does strike me as too too precious. “One way the road does go to the house of the girl who has no seeing” - good gravy, Opal, just say she’s blind. You named a mouse Felix Mendelssohn! I know you know the word blind!

But of course Barbara Cooney’s illustrations are lovely as always. I particularly liked the picture of the mouse Felix Mendelssohn asleep on a pincushion under a little square of flannel. Just the right level of precious.

marcicat

I finished up a long-running crochet blanket last night, so today it is definitely time to finish (hopefully???) my Be a Goldfish WEEK 6 project.

WEEK SIX: Girls, Girls, Girls Who run the world? Create a work centering on a female character. We wholeheartedly welcome transgender, intersex, and nonbinary women alongside their cisgender sisters.

WOOHOO! I started working on a PSUMNT student ID for Amena over the weekend, and got bogged down with, well, all of it, but especially with trying to write 'PanSystem University of Mihira and New Tideland' in the Murderbot tv alphabet. It's SO MANY letters.

Finally I changed my goal to 'PSU Mihira New Tideland,' and I'm feeling vaguely more capable of getting that done.

cmk418 posting in

halfamoon

Today's theme is The Scholar.

Here are some ideas to get you started: Also know as The Sage, she has studied and seems to have a wealth of knowledge at her disposal. She enjoys teaching others and gives good advice. What is she an expert in? How was her time at school? How do those around her react to her sharing her knowledge?

Just go wherever the Muse takes you. If this prompt doesn't speak to you, feel free to share something that does. You can post in a separate entry or as a comment to this post.

Want to get a jump start on tomorrow's theme? Check out the prompt list in the pinned post at the top of the page. Please don't post until that day.

aurumcalendula

( possible spoilers for Starfleet Academy )

lucymonster

It feels strangely awkward watching movies about people who talk and behave like me! I know I’m not alone in that; Australian cultural cringe is a well studied phenomenon, and we don't exactly have a local equivalent of Hollywood churning out all-Aussie blockbusters on a regular schedule. When I think of Australian cinema, I think of boring arts grant dramas that no one wants to watch and culturally hyperspecific comedy that we don't want anyone else to watch lest the world know us for the bunch of dags we really are. Fun, tropey genre films are supposed to be about Special Fake Movie People with accents I've never heard in person and manners that are upside down from mine.

And yet, as I'm learning through my local library's streaming service, there's some really good Australian horror out there. I couldn't tell you exactly where to find these overseas, but at least some of them appear to have had international releases, so for all I know, they're on Netflix for you guys. I'd be so thrilled to hear what people without my cultural biases think. :D

The Tunnel (2011): This is a mockumentary about a news crew who fall foul of a mysterious subterranean killer while investigating a lead related to Sydney's network of abandoned train tunnels. The tunnels are real, and I vaguely remember hearing spooky rumours about them during the early 2010s, which I'm now thinking may have been part of a guerrilla marketing campaign for this film, lol. Anyway, this one scared the everloving shit out of me. The vibes are fantastic, the mockumentary gimmick is executed flawlessly, and most of all everything was just so familiar. I used to get everywhere I ever needed to go on those exact Sydney trains. The characters are completely normal, relatable Aussies of the kind you could meet everyday on the street. The actual plot is a bit thin but I was happy to overlook the silly bits because it was just such a damn enjoyable viewing experience. And the monster was SO FUCKING CREEPY. Pick this one if you like mockumentaries and/or wish to know more about ya girl from dreamwidth's old commute.

Relic (2020): A mother and daughter drive out to a small town in rural Victoria to check on grandma, whose neighbours haven't seen her in days. She is missing when they arrive, but reappears in the house days later, unwilling or unable to explain where she's been. Her stately country house is covered in what looks like black mould and there's a terrible black bruise on her chest. This is a heartwrenching film about the grief of losing an elderly parent to dementia, and also a fantastic haunted house story full of dark family secrets, unanswered questions and unexplained paranormal phenomena. The creaky old house and the damp, miserable evergreen forest surrounding it threw me back to the days of visiting my own grandparents. It really does capture the highly specific atmosphere of a certain kind of well-off but precipitously ageing rural town in southeastern Australia; I swear I could almost taste the air. For whatever it's worth, the Russo brothers are credited as executive producers; I don't know much about movie production and have honestly never been sure what kind of role an executive producer plays, but hey, those were two names I recognised. Take or leave the name recognition, though - I loved this movie either way.

Talk To Me (2022): A group of South Australian teens acquire an embalmed hand that lets them summon dead souls to temporarily possess them. But one of their séance parties goes too far, and a malevolent spirit decides it doesn't want to leave. This is a mix of paranormal and psychological horror that's as much about grief (the protagonist lost her mother to a very obvious suicide that her dad won’t admit to her was suicide) as about bloodthirsty ghosts. I am not sure why reviewers chose to bill a movie this thoroughly depressing as "fun" - it was fun at the start, sure, but by the end it had descended to a truly tragic place. I liked it a lot! But it definitely belongs on the downer end of the mood spectrum.

You'll Never Find Me (2023): In an isolated trailer park in the middle of the night, a young woman knocks on an older man's door to beg shelter from a violent thunderstorm. The woman is desperate, drenched, and seems unable to get her story straight about how she got there or where she came from; the man is withdrawn and antisocial and was drinking alone before the woman arrived. They both seem frightened of each other. Something about the situation is unmistakably off, but what it is exactly, the film plays close to its chest for the first exquisitely slow hour. This is a quiet, cagey movie that ratchets up the tension through unnerving not-quite-normal dialogue and uncomfortable just-barely-off-centre close-ups so that when things finally start going overtly wrong at around the hour mark, it feels almost like a relief - pain is easier to bear than the anticipation of it. I don't often enjoy trippy, "what the fuck is happening here" type stories and I REALLY don't often enjoy stories that end in the particular kind of twist this one used, but in this case I was absolutely sold on everything. Brilliant movie. Raised my blood pressure so high I had to flop on the couch and just breathe for like half an hour afterwards. No notes.

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/02/cover-snark-photoshop-is-working-overtime/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=166139

Welcome back to Cover Snark! The Meet Poop by Noelle Salazar. An illustrated cover. A man stands with his dog in a park while a woman besides him checks the bottom of her shoes. They background is supposed to be central park with a stone tunnel and bushes, but everything else is pink, like the ground and sky.

Sarah: Is there a Pepto bismol factory in their town? And did it flood?

Why is everything so pink?

Kiki: That blurb color is so infuriating. Are we supposed to be able to read it?

Amanda: Also straight to jail for the man who didn’t pick up after his dog.

Sarah: Right? Who wants to hook up with a person who hasn’t completed basic potty training?

Def. team “don’t fuck that guy”

Elyse: This reminds me of those bad illustrations you get for discussing OSHA reportables

Sarah: “If your recreational area is flooded with pink slime, please follow these important safety procedures?”

Amanda: It’s the Ghostbusters slime.

Sneezy: Not even a dog can fix this mess.

Mountain Man's Lucky Charm by K.C. Crowe. A tattooed shirtless man cuddles with a baby, but a crocheted leprechaun's hat and matching green underpants have been photoshopped onto the baby.

Sarah: No.

Are the St Patricks crochet photoshopped on?

Tara: Yes! Also those greens do not go together. And her, it’s so bad that I love it.

Sarah: the more I look the more the faux-chet is making me laugh.

Sneezy: This feels like a bad collage.

Legacy for the Alien Warrior by Honey Phillips. A shirtless alien man from the chest down. He is light blue with dark blue stripes and a tail. He has on black dress pants. Close to him is a human toddler, who is practically glowing.

Amanda: Why is he doing the Arthur angry fist?

Elyse: I appreciate that he bothered with a belt but not a shirt.

Sarah: Is he mad that the kid is dissolving?

Did he just miss the window for tickets to see Bluey On Tour?

I’m confused by the degree of Big Mad with the Arthur angry fist.

Sneezy: All of it looks like moldy velcro, it’s giving me an actual headache.

Gift of Snow by C.L. Carhart. A man and woman stand together in front of a castle. The woman has a dark brown bob, glowing eyes, and is levitating a cluster of crystals in her hand. The man has on a cape that is growing vines and he has antlers coming out of his head.