Daily Happiness
Oct. 22nd, 2025 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torachan1. My meeting today was also shorter than planned, which was nice.
2. It's pretty windy today, and temps are down again, so it's feeling like fall. We were supposed to maybe get some rain last night, but didn't, but as long as the temps stay down, that's good for me.
3. Carla was able to get two cases of the apple tea she really loves at one of the other Japanese markets in the area (sadly, mine does not carry it, or I would have been able to get my employee discount). She's mostly been buying it a few bottles at a time, but last week was able to place an order for a couple cases and picked that up today.
4. Until we adopted Gemma, I'd never heard of cats having a curly tail. I've seen a couple pics here and there in the years since, but it does seem to be pretty rare. I love her little tail knott, though. (And it doesn't seem to cause her any issues.)
2. It's pretty windy today, and temps are down again, so it's feeling like fall. We were supposed to maybe get some rain last night, but didn't, but as long as the temps stay down, that's good for me.
3. Carla was able to get two cases of the apple tea she really loves at one of the other Japanese markets in the area (sadly, mine does not carry it, or I would have been able to get my employee discount). She's mostly been buying it a few bottles at a time, but last week was able to place an order for a couple cases and picked that up today.
4. Until we adopted Gemma, I'd never heard of cats having a curly tail. I've seen a couple pics here and there in the years since, but it does seem to be pretty rare. I love her little tail knott, though. (And it doesn't seem to cause her any issues.)
Daily Happiness
Oct. 21st, 2025 07:50 pmtorachan1. I had meetings that were supposed to go till five today but we got done by around 3:30!
2. Carla bought some baking potatoes the other day and I realized it was the perfect way to use the package of Trader Joe's frozen birria that we've had taking up space for like a year and a half at least, if the expiration date is anything to go by lol. It was a good amount for two servings (half a potato each, piled high with beef and cheese and plenty of broth). Not quite as good as the birria baked potatoes we had at Disneyland, though I feel like some cilantro would have helped on that front (forgot to buy any when we bought the cheese). Still, very tasty and very happy to use up something from the freezer.
3. Molly loves sitting on my lap, but she has not figured out how not to be completely awkward about it.
2. Carla bought some baking potatoes the other day and I realized it was the perfect way to use the package of Trader Joe's frozen birria that we've had taking up space for like a year and a half at least, if the expiration date is anything to go by lol. It was a good amount for two servings (half a potato each, piled high with beef and cheese and plenty of broth). Not quite as good as the birria baked potatoes we had at Disneyland, though I feel like some cilantro would have helped on that front (forgot to buy any when we bought the cheese). Still, very tasty and very happy to use up something from the freezer.
3. Molly loves sitting on my lap, but she has not figured out how not to be completely awkward about it.
Babylon 5 fic: Dedicated
Oct. 22nd, 2025 12:03 amsholioMore B5 fic! This is one that I wrote some time ago, but haven't posted mostly because I was completely stuck for a title, until the right one fell into my lap. (I'm honestly delighted with how the titles for this little series have been working out; they're coming out so nicely multi-layered.)
Dedicated (1600 wds, gen, mostly G'Kar)
This is a follow-up to Devotional, the one I wrote a while back in which Londo reads G'Kar's book, post-canon. When I wrote that, I liked the idea that G'kar at some point gets a chance to read Londo's annotations in his book ... so that's what this is.
Dedicated (1600 wds, gen, mostly G'Kar)
This is a follow-up to Devotional, the one I wrote a while back in which Londo reads G'Kar's book, post-canon. When I wrote that, I liked the idea that G'kar at some point gets a chance to read Londo's annotations in his book ... so that's what this is.
Daily Happiness
Oct. 20th, 2025 05:22 pmtorachan1. Got my hair cut this morning. It doesn't seem like a month since the last time, but that's how I schedule it, so I guess it is! Due to the AWS outages, they were unable to take payment through their system and their backup of Venmo was also down, but I do have a card on file with them, so they were able to offer the option of just charging that card as soon as things were up and working again, which they seem to have been this afternoon, as I did receive an email receipt from them.
2. I'm glad I always download audiobooks to my phone to listen to rather than streaming from the app, as apparently Hoopla was also affected. I happened to finish the book I was listening to right as I arrived at work, and opened the app to return the book, and it the app wasn't working at all (though it had still been playing while I was driving).
3. Tomorrow and Wednesday are likely to be long days at work, but I was able to finish up early today, which was nice. I think I got home around 4:30ish.
4. I love how Tuxie's legs look like a fish tail here.
2. I'm glad I always download audiobooks to my phone to listen to rather than streaming from the app, as apparently Hoopla was also affected. I happened to finish the book I was listening to right as I arrived at work, and opened the app to return the book, and it the app wasn't working at all (though it had still been playing while I was driving).
3. Tomorrow and Wednesday are likely to be long days at work, but I was able to finish up early today, which was nice. I think I got home around 4:30ish.
4. I love how Tuxie's legs look like a fish tail here.
Whumptober Day 20: Fancy Event (Murderbot)
Oct. 20th, 2025 11:39 pmsholioYet another instance of the Whumptober prompts basically being used for creative inspiration, but not really whump as such.
I feel this works equally well for TV-verse (future) or bookverse (probably post-System Collapse, but it could be somewhere between Fugitive Telemetry and Network Effect).
No. 20: "That's New."
Symptomatic | Fancy Event | Resignation
( 450 wds under the cut )
I feel this works equally well for TV-verse (future) or bookverse (probably post-System Collapse, but it could be somewhere between Fugitive Telemetry and Network Effect).
No. 20: "That's New."
Symptomatic | Fancy Event | Resignation
( 450 wds under the cut )
Whumptober Day 13: Forced Retirement (Biggles)
Oct. 20th, 2025 10:31 pmsholioI return to Whumptober! Obviously the days are completely off at this point, but I'm doing a bit of catch-up.
No. 13: “How dull is it to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished.”
Never Enough | Insignia | Forced Retirement
Biggles & EvS, late in canon (600 wds)
Also posted on Tumblr.
( 600 wds under the cut )
No. 13: “How dull is it to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished.”
Never Enough | Insignia | Forced Retirement
Biggles & EvS, late in canon (600 wds)
Also posted on Tumblr.
( 600 wds under the cut )
PSA - DW notifications
Oct. 20th, 2025 09:56 pmtrobadoraThe AWS outage is affecting DW notifications - some are delayed, some may be lost.
I only noticed I wasn't getting emails about my own comments after I'd already posted a bunch, so I hope they'll get delivered eventually! In the meantime it's probably useful to manually check back for new comments/replies.
(None of the websites and services I used today were noticeably affected otherwise, luckily. I hope everything has come back for everyone else.)
I only noticed I wasn't getting emails about my own comments after I'd already posted a bunch, so I hope they'll get delivered eventually! In the meantime it's probably useful to manually check back for new comments/replies.
(None of the websites and services I used today were noticeably affected otherwise, luckily. I hope everything has come back for everyone else.)
AWS outage
Oct. 20th, 2025 10:11 amalierak posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceDW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.
Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.
Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.
Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.
Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.
Daily Happiness
Oct. 19th, 2025 07:50 pmtorachan1. I have been meaning to get out in the sheds and move some of my mom's stuff from the shed with our stuff to the one with my step-sister's stuff, since she cleaned so much out of it last month. I finally got around to that today. Didn't move all of my mom's (and her husband's) stuff in there, but I moved most of it, and I think I can get the last bit in as well. I'm just saving it for another day. Then I can work on organizing the stuff in our shed, which has now become a complete jumble. :( I've ordered some more wire rack shelves from Amazon, so hopefully that will help.
2. A new supermarket opened not far from us on Friday. It's basically a reopening as the store was there for years then closed down a few years ago and was completely razed and they built apartments, but it's now reopened on the ground floor of the apartment complex. It's much larger than it was, and very nice and fancy. They sent out a postcard the other day with some coupons, free items every week, with the first one being a free pack of bacon. So we walked down there this morning to check it out, got our free bacon and a few other things, then stopped at the Italian deli across the street and got sandwiches to take home for lunch. It was a nice outing, though the walk home was already getting way too sunny.
3. Such a sleepy guy.
2. A new supermarket opened not far from us on Friday. It's basically a reopening as the store was there for years then closed down a few years ago and was completely razed and they built apartments, but it's now reopened on the ground floor of the apartment complex. It's much larger than it was, and very nice and fancy. They sent out a postcard the other day with some coupons, free items every week, with the first one being a free pack of bacon. So we walked down there this morning to check it out, got our free bacon and a few other things, then stopped at the Italian deli across the street and got sandwiches to take home for lunch. It was a nice outing, though the walk home was already getting way too sunny.
3. Such a sleepy guy.
Dear Yuletide writer
Oct. 20th, 2025 01:52 amtrobadoraDear Yulewriter,
thank you so much for writing a story for me!
I've requested and received all of these fandoms before - some for many, many years - and I love them all. Two of them are related to my current main fandom (Guardian) through the main actors, so I might mention them more on DW, but please don't think that means I want my other requests any less! Regardless of what we matched on, rest assured that you really can't go wrong here. Just the existence of new fic for any of these fandoms and characters will make me incredibly happy.
My AO3 account is![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
Trobadora, and it's set to welcome treats.
Everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go:
General Preferences
( Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )
Fandoms and characters
Jump directly to:
( L'Oréal 'Time Engraver' Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding )
( Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha )
( Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas )
( Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott )
( 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing )
( 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson )
Ahem. Lengthy as always. But I hope you'll find something inspiring in here, and most of all, that you'll have fun writing! :)
thank you so much for writing a story for me!
I've requested and received all of these fandoms before - some for many, many years - and I love them all. Two of them are related to my current main fandom (Guardian) through the main actors, so I might mention them more on DW, but please don't think that means I want my other requests any less! Regardless of what we matched on, rest assured that you really can't go wrong here. Just the existence of new fic for any of these fandoms and characters will make me incredibly happy.
My AO3 account is
Everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go:
General Preferences
( Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )
Fandoms and characters
Jump directly to:
- 绅探 | Detective L (TV): Luo Fei & Huo Wensi
- L'Oréal "Time Engraver" Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding
- Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha
- Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas
- Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott
- 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing
- 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson
( L'Oréal 'Time Engraver' Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding )
( Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha )
( Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas )
( Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott )
( 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing )
( 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson )
Ahem. Lengthy as always. But I hope you'll find something inspiring in here, and most of all, that you'll have fun writing! :)
Weekly Reading
Oct. 19th, 2025 10:54 amtorachanI've decided that from now on I'm just going to post about books I've finished, rather than splitting my thoughts up between ones I've just started and ones I've finished.
Recently Finished
The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl
I'm bummed that this series was only three volumes, as I would continue to read more of their adventures, but this was a good ending.
The Amnesia Project
I liked the premise but the writing was just so mediocre.
The Manor of Dreams
This ended up being really good. Was not expecting f/f romance both in the present day storyline and the past, but it was a nice surprise.
A Witch Too Late
This was another mystery that was too cozy for me. It think I got it on a free promo. Even from the summary, I can't imagine I would have paid money for it. The MC is a recently divorced woman about to turn fifty. One day she gets a strange package in the mail and suddenly finds herself with magical power. It turns out she's a witch, but witches normally manifest their powers at puberty. There is also a murder mystery, but the murder mystery does not even get started until halfway through the book! Before that it's just like, what if Hogwarts letter but middle aged? And I can see the appeal for some people, but it was definitely too far on the cozy side for me and not enough murder mystery focused. Definitely will not continue the series.
My Home Hero vol. 1-3
I got this ages and ages ago on a free promo from Amazon Japan and I'm trying to go through and read all these freebies before buying more manga. The premise sounded interesting (well, interesting enough for me to download for free, though I'm not sure I would have paid money for it on the premise alone): ( this got long )
Kindaichi Papa no Jikenbo vol. 2
Recently Finished
The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl
I'm bummed that this series was only three volumes, as I would continue to read more of their adventures, but this was a good ending.
The Amnesia Project
I liked the premise but the writing was just so mediocre.
The Manor of Dreams
This ended up being really good. Was not expecting f/f romance both in the present day storyline and the past, but it was a nice surprise.
A Witch Too Late
This was another mystery that was too cozy for me. It think I got it on a free promo. Even from the summary, I can't imagine I would have paid money for it. The MC is a recently divorced woman about to turn fifty. One day she gets a strange package in the mail and suddenly finds herself with magical power. It turns out she's a witch, but witches normally manifest their powers at puberty. There is also a murder mystery, but the murder mystery does not even get started until halfway through the book! Before that it's just like, what if Hogwarts letter but middle aged? And I can see the appeal for some people, but it was definitely too far on the cozy side for me and not enough murder mystery focused. Definitely will not continue the series.
My Home Hero vol. 1-3
I got this ages and ages ago on a free promo from Amazon Japan and I'm trying to go through and read all these freebies before buying more manga. The premise sounded interesting (well, interesting enough for me to download for free, though I'm not sure I would have paid money for it on the premise alone): ( this got long )
Kindaichi Papa no Jikenbo vol. 2
Spooktober Fic 21 - Echoes in Ink: A Lifetime of You - Stray Kids, Chan/Felix
Oct. 19th, 2025 06:46 pm
Daily Happiness
Oct. 18th, 2025 07:47 pmtorachan1. It got sunny and warm later in the day, but this morning when I took my usual neighborhood walk and then later walked to the farmers market was actually very pleasant. I didn't get hot and sweaty at all!
2. We had a nice lunch at Disneyland, though I definitely felt the sun then! Sunblock and a hat did what they could, but the UV... D:
3. Seeing all the photos of the No Kings protests today is so heartening. They're saying an estimated seven million people, which is more than the ones earlier this year!
4. Jasper loves hanging out on this sofa when we watch TV.
2. We had a nice lunch at Disneyland, though I definitely felt the sun then! Sunblock and a hat did what they could, but the UV... D:
3. Seeing all the photos of the No Kings protests today is so heartening. They're saying an estimated seven million people, which is more than the ones earlier this year!
4. Jasper loves hanging out on this sofa when we watch TV.
2025 Disneyland Trip #68 (10/18/25)
Oct. 18th, 2025 04:48 pmtorachanOf course we end up having a bit of a heat spell on the weekend when we decide to go to Disneyland for lunch rather than an early morning or evening trip lol.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Daily Happiness
Oct. 17th, 2025 07:54 pmtorachan1. My library no longer charges overdue fees, but they do send daily reminder emails when something is overdue, and this one had two people waiting, so I felt bad about it as well, but I managed to finish it up last night and dropped it off this morning, only two days late!
2. Tonight we tried out another of the neighborhood pizza places we've been wanting to try. This one has mostly standard pizzas but their specialty seems to be the grandma style, a square pizza with really crispy, cheesy edges. We tried slices of the original grandma (just cheese and sauce), spicy pepperoni (also grandma style), and a BBQ chicken pizza, which was round with a regular crust. All three were delicious.
3. I tried both the peanut butter chocolate cookie and pumpkin cake that we brought home from Disneyland the other day and they're both really good. The cookie has a huge lump of peanut butter filling in the center and the gummy worms are fruity, which gives it sort of a pb&j vibe.
4. Look at these sweetie girls sharing a sunny window.
2. Tonight we tried out another of the neighborhood pizza places we've been wanting to try. This one has mostly standard pizzas but their specialty seems to be the grandma style, a square pizza with really crispy, cheesy edges. We tried slices of the original grandma (just cheese and sauce), spicy pepperoni (also grandma style), and a BBQ chicken pizza, which was round with a regular crust. All three were delicious.
3. I tried both the peanut butter chocolate cookie and pumpkin cake that we brought home from Disneyland the other day and they're both really good. The cookie has a huge lump of peanut butter filling in the center and the gummy worms are fruity, which gives it sort of a pb&j vibe.
4. Look at these sweetie girls sharing a sunny window.
