soricel

(Catchup - 28 December 2025, Revised 30 December to add musical piece)
Hello, Dear Readers, and happy Christmas.

Mostly, this will be an entry about opera. But I will include the latest piece that DB sent me, since it's so short and not worth creating a new entry to post.

( Thoughts on Tchaikovsky: Symphony nº 1 Winter dreams - Mov. IV )

Here is a little treat for you. It's a review of a children's opera that relates directly to Christmas!

( Amahl and the Night Visitors, 1955 )

snickfic

You guys, I love Yuletide. So many things I can read, I got great gifts, people are reading what I wrote... incredible. Here, have some recs.

First, my gifts:
Endless Night, True Detective: Night Country, Danvers/Navarro, 4.6k. My author took my prompt "what if the sun didn't come back" and ran with it. Great apostalyptic vibe here, and my shiiiiip. <3

The Inheritance of Imogen Dearborn, Kyle Murchison Booth Stories, Booth/Ratcliffe, 13!!!!!k. Booth needs Ratcliffe's help with an acquisition at a decaying house in the country, and things get weird, as they so often do around Booth. I freaking love this fandom's dedication to casefic*, and this is a wonderful example of a case that's great on its own merits and all the better because the relationship growing around the edges. <3 <3 <3

(*I'm developing the theory that the KMB stories are basically the perfect canon for producing casefic: the canon is already a series of casefics, already in prose, and they're nearly all pretty short. Put that all together, and writers have the perfect model to work from.)

And now for the other fics I've loved so far:
boot error, Companion (2025), Iris gen, 2.6k. Iris confronts life without an operating system. It was great to see Iris here, trying to figure out exactly what it means to be a person when one's whole personality is made of code.

Written in squid ink, Kraken - China Mieville, Billy/Dane, 3k. Not everyone in the Church of the Kraken was blessed with a tattoo in squid ink, but Dane was one of the lucky few, and at a young age too. I loved seeing an interpretation of soulmate marks specifically for this canon, and I loved all of Dane's weird fantasies and fetishes and imagined acts of religious devotion, and how they all got tangled up together.

Touching the Moon, My Sister and the Prince, Marie gen, 4k. This is how it happened; and what happened, after. The canon is a short film that is incredibly compelling considering it's two actors on one set for a single scene. You should watch it and then read this structurally creative and heartwrenching answer to the question of what came next.

Hunger, Dragonriders of Pern, Kylara/Lessa, 2.7k. Both Lessa and Kylara are Searched for Nemorth's final clutch. This Kylara feels exactly right to me: scheming, focused on her own desires and ambitions, fully aware of her own strengths and at least some of the weaknesses of others, and above all with an eye for opportunity. And the actual events, brief though they, promise a very interesting future for this version of canon. :D

The day the riders came, Dragonriders of Pern, OC gen, 1.8k. What if the dragons of Pern and the Impression bond were anything *but* benevolent? Or, alternately: what if the dragons were Lovecraftian horrors? This gets so dark in the best way, and the last line is a knockout punch.

superfangirl1 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more, )

dandylover1

Hello, Dear Readers. Let's start with a lovely post that I made tonight on Reddit.

Birthday of Tito Schipa

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldOpera/comments/1pxhits/birthday_of_tito_schipa/

( Read More Here )

As for my own life, there isn't really much to say. Christmas was fairly quiet, as usual. A and D have been coming down for breakfast, since they're off until the first week in January. They came and we exchanged gifts. Mostly, we got clothing and money. Mom gave me a few little things later, but that's our tradition, since I love stocking stuffers. Everyone has been doing well, and life is pretty much back to normal, albeit different now. At first, I just joined them out of sympathy and empathy, since M died and I wanted them not to feel alone. As a forty-two year old, I certainly have every right to eat by myself, and also to eat my own food, if I wish. But both the food and the company have been so good that I haven't chosen to do so. I am guaranteed to laugh at leat once with them, and usually several times. My parents are really pulling out all the stops with food. We've had so many interesting things lately that I'm beginning to lose track! Some are from Omaha Steaks, which I very highly recommend for their excellent foods. Tonight, for instance, Mom made Beef Bourguignon (Beef Burgundy). I had never had it before and I loved it. This morning, she made her delicious eggs, which I have always enjoyed, and they were wonderful! Joanie's been making her French toast, spair ribs, rib eye steak, quesadillas, and pepperoni bread. The other night, after ourmeal, we had caramel apple tarts. I thought I wouldn't like them, since I don't like caramel in chocolate, but they were extremely good! I am almost finished with my usual little bottles of wine, so I am going to try the ones in the Advent calendar.

Joanie didn't get as much snow as she wanted after Christmas, but we did get a few inches. Mom doesn't like it at all, since it means ice, and she's afraid to walk on it for good reason, having fallen a few times in her life on it. I'm not crazy about it, but I don't fear it. Alli, on the other hand, decided that snow is the enemy and must be barked into submission!

I finally made the switch back to IOS. I don't hate Android, but honestly, the Galaxy A15 was just too big, and I like the home button and a few other things inIOS, plus the fact that my Orbit Writer keyboard works beautifully with it and is small. The battery in my iPhone SE 2020 is only at eighty percent capacity, so I was planning on getting a newer phone. I found an iPhone SE 2022 with 100% battery for $112 and simply had to get it! Joanie tried to put the sim card into it, butshe couldn't get it to fit, and she didn't want to push it in and break it, so we're taking it to TMobile. I'm with Mint, whichis owned by them, and my parents are with TMobile, so I doubt it will be a problem. I'll still use my A15 for various things, but for phone calls, Seeing AI, and other instances where I need to hold the phone, I am very glad to return to a small form factor. And yes, I did consider the blueFox NX1, which is similarly priced. I might get it in the future. But I don't know much about the company or anything about their updates. The SE 2022 will be updated for several more years.

I have a few filler entries to write for this month, so I will probably do that tomorrow. At least one will be an opera review.

cornerofmadness

I woke up feeling lightheaded, slightly headachy and hella tired (this is not the good augering part) This is when Mom tells me that the couple I don't like are coming up tonight. UGH. As I told

evil_little_dog that I planned to 'go out with friends' when they came up but now I'm sick (and really I am) so mom says just stay upstairs then and don't bother with them.

But they blew my parents off. WOO HOO. Twice now this holiday. My parents might go to my aunt's house (where they're staying as she's actually prejudice woman's real aunt) in the morning. I'm a late riser so I get out of going (in theory) but even if I don't it'll be a short trip because the Steeler game is tomorrow and they want all visitors out (which should tell everyone what they need to know. You rate under football) And they leave monday so I am hoping this is a sign for the coming year where things that upset me are removed from my presence.

I got my official Hazbin merch today, the holiday poster and key chains (all sold out now) and the season 1 DVDs. I am happy to have that (luckily I'm too tired for my why you don't own downloads rant)

It's time for science saturday

One Protein Is a Better Predictor of Heart Disease Than Cholesterol

Powerful Anti-Cancer Drug Discovered Inside Japanese Tree Frog.

Garlic Mouthwash Could Be The New Gold Standard. Here's Why. I need to send this to my research student who is working with mouthwash

New Drug Stalls Alzheimer's Development in Breakthrough Trial

Cats meow more at men to get their attention, study suggests

A huge surprise': 1,500-year-old church found next to Zoroastrianism place of worship in Iraq

Tiny implant 'speaks' to the brain with LED light

See the 100,000th photo of Mars taken by NASA's groundbreaking Red Planet orbiter

( Christmas pictures of the house )

You can click the eggs if you want.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Svengoolie

sallymn posting in

1word1day

contemporaneous [kuhn-tem-puh-rey-nee-uhs]

adjective:
existing, beginning, or occurring in the same period of time

Examples:

Some economic data, such as last month’s unemployment rate and consumer-inflation numbers, can’t be compiled retroactively, the Labor Department has said, because they rely on contemporaneous surveys. (Nick Timiraos and Matt Grossman, Wholesale Price Gains Hint at Muted Rise in Fed’s Preferred Inflation Gauge, The Wall Street Journal, November 2025)

These moments of reckoning - in which something that once felt exciting begins to seem noxious, mephitic, dangerous - are important to heed. (Alex Ross, At Ninety, Arvo Pärt and Terry Riley Still Sound Vital, The New Yorker, November 2025)

In addition to contemporaneous comics, architecture, and music, the film explores the influence of the space race on everyday life of the 1960s. (Ben Sachs, Lewis Klahr’s Sixty Six is a masterful journey through inner space and the American past, Chicago Reader, May 2017)

It gave the explanation, gave sanity to the pranks of this atavistic brain of mine that, modern and normal, harked back to a past so remote as to be contemporaneous with the raw beginnings of mankind. (Jack London, Before Adam)

Origin:
'living or existing at the same time,' 1650s, from Late Latin contemporaneus 'contemporary,' from the same Latin source as contemporary but with an extended form after Late Latin temporaneous 'timely.' An earlier adjective was contemporanean (1550s). (Online Etymology Dictionary)

torachan

1. We had a nice lunch at Knott's today. I'm glad we were able to get over there one more time before the end of the holiday season as they have some really good seasonal offerings on the menu right now.

2. No rain! It's so nice to have a dry day. It was sunny but not hot. Looks like we're supposed to have rain again by the end of next week into the week after, but at least we have a few dry days in between.

3. We went over to Handel's tonight to get some peppermint bark ice cream but they are out. The girl at the counter said they might still get some in, but she wasn't sure. At least it's close enough and on the general path of our neighborhood walks that we can pop in here and there to see if they've got it back. We did get some other flavors to bring home, including gingerbread cookie, which I hope is as good as the peppermint bark.

4. I've had some sweaty nights lately (fun) so decided to wash my whole pillow rather than just the pillowcase, but this new pillow is a pain in the ass to wash. Well, the washing is fine, it's the drying. It's got this fiber fill stuff that just does not want to dry, even after multiple goes in the dryer. Finally I hit on the idea of taking the filling out and spreading it out between these four mesh laundry bags we have and drying it like that, which I think will do the trick. For one thing, the mesh bags will get heat to the filling much easier than the thick pillow exterior, plus dividing it into four bags will help spread the filling out so there's not this inner core that's just not getting dry. Fingers crossed! I do have an old pillow I can use tonight if this doesn't get dry, but I've still got a few hours until bedtime.

5. Chloe's such a sweetie. *_*

silver_chipmunk

Slept late, woke up and played solitaire on my phone until

mashfanficchick woke up. Then ze put in an Instacart order, and I went and took a shower and got dressed. My meeting today was not canceled, but obviously I didn't go.

After the order arrived we had brunch, or lunch. A meal anyway.

And after the meal, we did some cleaning of zer apartment.

After that, we hung out a little while but at a bit after 5:00 I Ubered home.

All was well when I got here. Oreo was happy to see me.

I ordered my 2026 calendars from Calendars.com, my usual ones, the penguin, and the unicorn, and, what Oldest Brother always got for me, the teddy bear one. I miss him so much.

By the time they were ordered and paid for, it was time to Team the FWiB. We talked for a little over an hour and a half.

When we finished, I had a popsicle and some of the peppermint bark the Kid gave me on Christmas. Then I went to the bedroom and puttered on my phone til pet feeding time, when I came out and fed the pets and started here.

The snow is a few inches deep around here, nothing apocalyptic. Looks pretty.

That's about all.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2.

mashfanficchick

3. Quiet day.

4. Pretty snow.

5. Peppermint bark.

6. New Years Eve coming up.

Current Mood: calm

goodbyebird

My favorite thing about birthdays is emotional blackmail, so my birthday wish is you watch the pilot for Interview With The Vampire.

If you already have, my wish is you post about your Christmas tree if you have one. I'd love to hear about your favorite decoration - especially if it's old or you made it as a kid! - see a picture even.

Love y'all ❤️

heartsways posting in

scans_daily

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michelel72 posting in

little_details

I'm hoping these are straightforward questions, but I couldn't find a way to word the first to get any relevant results in web searches, and the second got weird on me.

The context is a civilian with extensive field-medic-style training providing off-the-books, in-home medical/supportive care to a preteen who is ill with a viral* fever-inducing illness. (* Viral seems easier; but bacterial is possible if necessary.) The setting is the modern-day (or at least vaguely post-2010) United States.

1. Is it feasible to administer intravenous (IV) saline without an infusion pump? (I've been assuming it is but want to double-check.)

( cut for IV details )

2. Is there a point at which a childhood (viral) fever is dangerous?

( Read more... )

Many thanks!

torachan

Recently Finished
Either Side of Midnight
Sequel to Trust Me When I Lie. This was good, but I do enjoy the Ernest Cunningham series better.

Murder Under Her Skin
Second in the Pentecost and Parker series. Just okay. I'll read more in this series, but it's not a priority.

Damn Straight
Another second book in a murder mystery series. This one the Lillian Byrd series. Same as above, I liked it well enough that I'll continue the series, but I'm not rushing out to read the next one.

Star Trek: Lower Decks, Vol. 1: Second Contact
There's a new series of Lower Decks comics! In fact, there's enough issues for a second volume, too, though it's not coming out until next year. My issue with these is the same with every comic based on a cartoon, which is that they're never quite as good as the show. They're enjoyable enough, though.

My Home Hero vol. 20-22

acoup_feed

Posted by Bret Devereaux

https://acoup.blog/2025/12/27/gap-week-december-holidays-2025/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gap-week-december-holidays-2025

https://acoup.blog/?p=33064

Hey folks! Apologies for this coming out late – alas the pedant household has been struck by a nasty cold that has made keeping up with work this week quite challenging. No post this week, on account of it being Christmas time. May you all have a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holidays or simply Friendly Season’s Greetings, whichever is your preference!

We’ll be back next week with some Tolkien (I am planning to post up the text of my keynote, “Tolkien and Éowyn Between Two Wars” which I delivered this past week at the 2025 Prancing Pony Podcast Moot) and then we’ll be back to finishing out our discussion of hoplites in the New Year.

In the meantime, this is normally the spot in the calendar where I do a bit of ‘year in review’ so let me indulge in that. 2025 set a new record for traffic on the blog – it looks like we’ll end up around 4.25m page views, at last dethroning 2022 which had held the record.¹ The most popular post this year by far was “Why Archers Didn’t Volley Fire” with more than 140,000 views. The distant-runners-up (but still doing quite well) were “Coinage and the Tyranny of Fantasy ‘Gold,'” and “How Gandalf Proved Mightiest.” Meanwhile I was pleasantly surprised that the series on “Life, Work, Death and the Peasant” also pulled in a decent number of readers despite being a pretty technical-in-the-weeds series without a strong ‘pop-culture’ hook. It ended up the year a bit short of 300,000 page views split over its 10 parts and subparts.

In the New Year, my plan is to get to a lot of lingering Patron requests, including the winners of the ACOUP Senate poll. We’re going to get some discussion of the Late Bronze Age Collapse, some on of how ancient polytheism interacts with ancient states and some of mercenaries and other things. I think 2026 is probably also the year for the nearly inevitable Teaching Paradox: Hearts of Iron IV (in which you can look forward to some praise but perhaps some sharper criticism of the Paradox approach; HoI4 is a remarkable game but it has some remarkable problems too).

https://acoup.blog/2025/12/27/gap-week-december-holidays-2025/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gap-week-december-holidays-2025

https://acoup.blog/?p=33064

lb_lee posting in

pluralstories

beepbird told us about this! Thanks,

beepbird!

"There is a man who loves me, as I am. MYSELF. Whether other people see me as I am or not. I am here."

Blurb: a bigender cartoonist talks about self/s-love.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short and sweet and awesome!

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate-focus (transphobia), closeting, creator speaks from experience

Content Warnings: transphobia, threats of lovelessness

Access Notes: This five-page comic appears in The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics, which is available in paperback and ebook.

Misc Notes: In the "about the author" blurb, he says, "Two souls accidentally got placed into my body. I'm bigender."

torachan

It was a busy day at the park, being a holiday weekend plus the first sunny day in a while. The park opens at nine and we got down there around 9:45 and the line for parking was super backed up, but thankfully the ADA lot still had a ton of spaces left, so once we finally got to it, it was easy to get a spot. The lines for the front gates were probably the longest I've seen, but still moved pretty smoothly.

( Read more... )

I think this will be our last amusement park visit of the year. We're planning on Disneyland on the 1st, but it's supposed to rain again, so we'll see.

This year my totals are 79 at Disneyland (including 4 at Tokyo Disney), 4 at Knott's, and 2 at Universal Studios. That's a lot! O_o

adafrog posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Saturday to midnight on Sunday (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34012 Daily poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 25

How are you doing?

I am okay
15 (62.5%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
9 (37.5%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
8 (32.0%)

One other person
12 (48.0%)

More than one other person
5 (20.0%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

cielsosinfel posting in

onesongaday

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

loganberrybunny

Public

330/365: Hagley Hall, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
It was off to the Severn Valley Railway today for a few hours on the trains. The rain just about held off, although it became very murky and gloomy by mid-afternoon. The trains were pretty busy, and I had to stand for half my first journey. Bridgnorth town centre was also packed, but fortunately the station refreshment room had space for me to have a coffee and a beef and veg pasty. Quite a relaxed day overall, certainly compared to the big gala events I'm more used to attending, but that was part of its appeal. Here's my first train of the day, 4930 Hagley Hall (which turns 97 in May) arriving at Bewdley station.

Current Mood: chipper

aethel

1. Fanlore: I was looking over new pages and saw one for Gerard Way/Patrick Stump. I thought I would add some livejournal links, but couldn't find much: gerard_patrick, which turned out to be a barely-used slash community for a different Gerard and Patrick, and two purged usernames not on the Wayback Machine so I can't verify whether they are Bandom communities (patrickxgerard and gerardpatrick). Were there ever any communities, primers, or reclists for this pairing?

Someone also created a new page for KJ Charles fandom and included a discord invite.

2. 2025 reading progress: 112 books.

Since my last post, I've finished four more novels, including one by a new-to-me author: The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi. It's a fantasy novella set in a desert, brutal, anti-authoritarian, possibly Marxist. I need to get my hands on the sequels. Most recently I finished After Hours at Dooryard Books, Cat Sebastian's latest novel. It is set in New York City 1968, but resonates with the present political moment. Nothing dramatic happens to any of the characters, at least not once they are introduced--they all have tragic backstories. Just 300+ pages of people minding a bookstore and not talking about their feelings while American history happens around them. I was genuinely riveted.

Currently reading: Native Nations and Slippery Creatures.

3. I read a new Starsky & Hutch fanfic: Cal's Lounge, Two Thirty-Six AM by triedunture. Highly recommend. It does feature the characters' very dated understanding of sexuality that I've seen mentioned on Fanlore pages--I don't know how accurate it is for real-life 1970s, but it is probably very in character for Starsky & Hutch.

kalira posting in

smallfandomfest

Title: Rally the Pack
Author:

kalira
Fandom: Princess Mononoke
Ship/Characters: San & wolf brothers
Rating/Category: T/Gen
Prompt: Princess Mononoke, San, pack is everything
Spoilers: N/A
Summary: A curious cub ventures close to human children playing at the forest's edge, and San learns anew where her trust must lie - and where it never may.
Notes/Warnings: pre-canon with indeterminately young San and wolf brothers (for whom I have used the names Shou and Niiya, spinning off San read as three)
Wordcount: 850

Read on AO3

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soricel

December 2025

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Page generated Jan. 1st, 2026 04:52 am

Network

Amahl and the Night Visitors, 1955

Yuletide!!!

Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman #6 : Tearful Crossing Paths Meeting

Birthday of Tito Schipa and an Update

I hope this augers well

Sunday Word: Contemporaneous

Daily Happiness

Snow day

🥳

I Saw Santa #1

IV saline without infusion pump; childhood fevers

Weekly Reading

Gap Week: December Holidays, 2025

Never be loved, by Snailords (autobio comic, 2023)

2025 Knott's Trip #4 (12/27/25)

Daily Check In.

Elisapie - Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time)

Riding the rails again

misc. updates

Fanfic, Princess Mononoke, San & wolf brothers, pack is everything

Profile

December 2025

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