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Tue, 14 Apr 2026 04:10:54 GMT

A new bookstore opened up here this weekend.

It's an independent bookstore specifically for romance novels.

I took a look while I was downtown. It's nice; a little small, but a decent selection given the space, and they do have room to expand the selection by switching up the layout a bit. Everything is divided up by subgenre (contemporary, sports, dark, etc).

Also, they do carry M/M and F/F romance, so there is that. It's mixed in with everything else, rather than having its own section; you'll have to look in the Sports section for your Heated Rivalry and so on. I kind of enjoy that, but I kind of don't; on the one hand, filing it by subgenre treats it the same as everything else. On the other hand, it makes browsing a little less efficient if I know that I want something gay but don't have any other parameters in mind.

I picked up a F/F regency while I was there; Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti. Not sure if it'll be any good, but the premise sounds fun (the protagonists are rival authors of gothic fiction).

I'm a little unsure whether this place will actually be successful; Fort Mac is small, and I don't know if we have the base to sustain a regular indie bookstore, let alone one with a specific genre focus. But I hope it'll do well.

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Fri, 10 Apr 2026 01:13:00 GMT

Brain is mush, head is empty.

+ Snow is finally melting a little. There is still a lot of it though. I hope that the large amount we got this winter will like, moisturize the ground and ensure it will be a less smokey summer.

+ Boss wants me to think about my time off requests for the summer. Ma'am, I am still recovering from Easter break, give me a minute here. (I don't think I'm going to go anywhere, but I will take some time off. 2 trips so far this year and 1 more planned for autumn is enough.)

+ Did some OT today. I received a really gnarly project that needs to be done by tomorrow afternoon and just, ugh.

+ I'm really enjoying my new pen and keep finding excuses to write with it. A while back someone gave me a journal, and I never bothered with it much because the prompts are really hokey, but now I've been writing in it just for an excuse to use my Jinhao82 and my fancy purple ink.

+ Received a letter from Melusine. Have not had time to read it yet. Maybe tomorrow during lunch.

+ Have been reading many good books lately. A post will hopefully follow when I'm less tired. (...Well, maybe)

+ I'm thinking about getting into Postcrossing. Does anyone have experience with it that they'd like to share?

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Misc +++

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:51:47 GMT

I had a four-day weekend, but it was not restful at all. It was split between doing Chores/Tasks, and Familial Obligations. I made a cake over the course of two days. (It was a very good cake, will post about it later when I have a moment, but. Well. It was a very labour-intensive cake.)

Today I did my taxes and washed the car and got the second round of my hepatitis vaccine and did more chores.

Next weekend the parkade is getting cleaned, so on the Saturday everyone's vehicles have to be out from 8-6. Usually they do this on weekdays, but unfortunately not this time. I signed up for a workshop at the library that ends at 1; beyond that I don't know what I'll be doing. ...Maybe I'll just park my car at the grocery store, walk back to my place, and then go pick it up after the cleaning is done.

The local cinema has been closed for several months due to renovations. They're reopening soon and I will hopefully be able to catch Project Hail Mary, which I've wanted to see ever since I'd heard it was getting an adaptation. [/looks at schedule] ...Uhh. I'll have to squeeze it in somewhere.

I dropped off some novels at one of the Little Libraries. Currently I have a "2 out, 1 in" rule, because previously I was picking up too many things. In my defense, there were lots of good choices. ...Anyway I picked up Station Eleven and will hopefully read it some time in the next few months.

I have something going on every weekend this month, and it's all Fun Stuff That I Want To Do (coffee meetup, dance class, yoga class, etc) but also thinking about all of it kind of makes me feel tired.

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[Fountain pens] State of the collection

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 20:42:04 GMT

The new fountain pen that I'd ordered came in today, and I'm pretty happy with it!

It's a Jinhao 82, medium nib, in light blue (very light blue; it's kind of a "snow blue", almost white). It came in this afternoon, and right away I cleaned it out and inked it up and started working on a fic. It writes very nicely! I was worried the medium nib would be a bit too fat; the lines are slightly thicker than my other pen but not bad. I also tried underwriting a bit, and that looks good too.

Weight is about 20g with cap; 12g without cap/unposted. The only other pens I've tried so far are my Kaweco Sport (12g) and a borrowed Pilot Metropolitan (26g). I found the Metropolitan much too heavy and uncomfortable for me to use it much at all, and the Kaweco is too small for extended writing, but so far the Jinhao is perfect for what I want it to do. The balance is quite nice.

The twist converter is much more to my taste than the squeeze converter on the Metropolitan that I borrowed, as well. As for the Kaweco sport - I've opted not to get a converter for that one, because the capacity is very small. I'm sticking with cartridges on that one for now and will probably refill them eventually.

I've inked it with Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-Shikibu, a lovely purple ink. I picked it up when I was in Edmonton as there isn't anywhere in town that sells ink. It's really nice, good dry time; I haven't had any issues with smudging so far (a concern for me as a left-hander). Might pick up other Iroshizuku ink in the future, though I'll stick with this one for now.

The reason I decided to go with the Jinhao 82 is because they're a very similar style to the Sailor Pro Gear Slim. I really like the look of the PGS, but since there isn't anywhere in town to buy one in person (thus check the feel of it and maybe even try it out), it made sense to get a Jinhao as they're very budget-friendly. I'm really happy with it so far. It's still possible that I might get myself a PGS in the future; there is an Occasion coming up that might be a suitable situation to get myself a Fancy Pen. But I will have to think about it for a bit as the PGS is the very opposite of budget-friendly.

Originally, I'd planned to take the Jinhao to work, but on second thought, I'm going to keep it at home. I've started working on a fic with it, so I might as well keep it where the Fic Things Happen. Maybe the Kaweco will go to work instead - it might be more suitable for that, anyway, as I do lots of writing but only in small amounts at a time.

Current inventory:
+ Jinhao 82 - light blue + silver trim, medium nib, converter
+ Kaweco Sport Classic - green, medium nib, cartridge only
+ 1 Pilot Iroshizuku Ink - murasaki-shikibu/medium purple, 50ml
+ 4 packages Kaweco cartridges: Palm Green, Royal Blue, Caramel Brown, Summer Purple.

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Fri, 27 Mar 2026 01:31:01 GMT

Still in the process of deciding what to do with my computer - the one whose hard drive died earlier in the week. (Well, I'm pretty sure it's dead.)

If I do end up getting something entirely new, I'm not sure what kind of specifications I should look for. Typically I get the most beefed-up laptop that I can afford and then run it until it dies. This previous one lasted seven years, and the one before that lasted ten and a half. So, I guess you could say I had expected to get about three more years out of this thing. (And it was running totally fine until a few days ago!)

...Come to think of it, if I just replace the hard drive, I'll also have to do research on that because it's not like you can just buy any old drive and plop it in and expect it to work, right? It's never that simple. :Va

Right now I'm using the small notebook with Linux Mint installed on it, the one I use for travel. And like... it's fine, I do love it, but definitely not optimal for extended everyday use, since it's pretty tiny.

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Edmonton Short Trip - Crap weather, AGA, and The Goo Goo Dolls @ Rogers Place

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:08:23 GMT

Today was day 2 of Edmonton - or rather the only actual day in the city, since I'm going home in the morning.

The weather was even more miserable than yesterday; tons of snow, very cold. Eew.

I headed out early to a cafe so I could have a coffee and write fic, then headed to the bookstore after that to poke around a little and kill time. Then I hopped the bus to go to the Art Gallery of Alberta.

All of the exhibits have changed since I was last there, so that was neat. The work that made the biggest impression was a series of sculptures made of very delicate materials, like paper and heads of wheat, strung together with wires and fishing line and suspended from the ceiling. Do I understand it? Nah. Was it interesting to look at? Sure bet.

As for this evening, and the reason I'm here in the first place... the concert! That is, The Goo Goo Dolls with Dashboard Confessional.

I'm not very familiar with Dashboard Confessional at all; the only song that I recognized from their set was "Hands Down". But their style in general took me back to a very specific time, and not going to lie, I kind of dig it. Might need to look up more of their work later.

The Goo Goo Dolls were awesome! It's been a while since I've listened to them, so I wasn't familiar with their newer work, but it was all good, and they played a ton of the classics. Loved it when they played "Black Balloon", that's always a good one. The energy was really awesome, and I'm so glad I opted to come.

And of course, the crowd went nuts when they played "Iris". Naturally.

These guys are like... Even though I haven't put one of their albums in my CD player in a while, I still really really like their music. It's partially nostalgia, sure - takes me to a version of myself that I'm still trying to get back to - but also I think a lot of their work is genuinely good. If I had to make a list of bands whose work was important to me, The Goo Goo Dolls would probably be on it, right up there with Our Lady Peace.

I can't really think of anything else to say at the moment, except that I'm really happy that I took the time to come down here for this. So, I'll just copy over the setlist. Maybe when I have some time later, I'll look up the songs that are new to me.
( Setlist )

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Edmonton short trip - arrival + small things

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:49:57 GMT

I spent the day on the bus, and now I'm in Edmonton.

The weather is pretty miserable; very chilly and kind of windy, and also it's snowing. But the ride down was fine. I did some thinking about my FTH fic and I might start working on it after breakfast tomorrow.

I managed to do two things today.

First, I headed over to the Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts. They have an art gallery/craft store that also sells pysanky supplies. I forget to buy dye pretty much every year, so I figured that I might as well pick some up in person. Anyway, I now have enough for this year and the next. (Not sure if I'll do any this year - I haven't blown out any shells - but there's still time.)

Then later this evening, I headed over to a poetry reading/book launch at Audrey's Books. It was for the poetry collection The Red We Silk by Nicole Lachat. It's been ages since I've been to something like this, and it was really nice! The work was pretty good too - some really nice imagery in this poet's stuff. I ended up picking up a copy, since I've been meaning to read more poetry anyway.

Ah, and I did some watercolour sketching when I went back to the hotel, too. I'd wanted to bring my fountain pen, so I put it in its tin, but the tin is also a watercolour set, so I figured I might as well bring some watercolour paper, annnnd yeah. I want to do that kind of thing more often, watercolour sketches of random objects (partially so I can get better at working with the particular colours in this set). So I'm glad I did that today.

Tomorrow will be the Art Gallery of Alberta and maybe a few other things. And the concert that I'm here for, of course.

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Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:21:12 GMT

Whew. So, my main computer keeps throwing up a bluescreen error. As soon as I get past the load screen, it leads me to that. Plus stop code 0x00021a.

A cursory search tells me that this is, uh, Not Great.

I've done some poking around, but I think for now I'll just leave this problem for... later.

I sure wasn't looking for a Project, but I guess I have one now. :Va

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Sat, 21 Mar 2026 03:16:48 GMT

+ Work was nuts today; a really gnarly assignment crossed my desk and I'm like, ew. This one is going to be such a pain. (But I will manage.)

+ Going to Edmonton next week for a concert. Looking forward to it! Feels kind of silly to be away for three days, two of which will be spent on a bus, but I suppose a lot of people drive down to there for just one day in a similar way, so.

+ Received my FTH assignment. This one is going to be challenging, but interesting. I will need to do canon review and probably also some research. Hmm. (It's Hetalia, Liet/Pru.) Maybe I can make some notes while on the bus?

+ I'm going to Winnipeg in October to see Sabaton perform! *_* I was supposed to see them in Edmonton several years ago, but that trip never ended up happening. Anyway, the people I've mentioned the trip to generally react like "Eew, Winnipeg" but honestly, I'm pretty jazzed about it. Looking forward to the museums and art gallery and maybe also the zoo if I have time. Should be fun!

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I GUESS

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 23:55:08 GMT

So I found myself thinking that I should read more poetry. Because my writing is at its best when I'm regularly reading poetry.

The problem is that I don't actually enjoy most poetry. In most cases I can find myself appreciating it from a technical point of view at best, but the vast majority of stuff I pick up leaves me completely cold.

But I should probably read more of it. For, like, skills reasons.

This thought came to me while I was eating some beets. My doctor has informed me that I should eat more beets for health reasons. Like, beets specifically, above all other vegetables. And so, I am dutifully eating more beets in more things, even though I don't actually want to eat them that often.

I feel like there are some parallels here.

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Mon, 09 Mar 2026 04:02:30 GMT

Saw somebody refer to Squidgeworld Archive as "Squidward" and now I will never be able to read it as anything else for the rest of my days.

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Sat, 07 Mar 2026 04:30:17 GMT

Things I did this evening:

- Got a vaccination for tetanus and Hep A/B because I was outdated on both
- Ordered takeout for the first time ever
- Cleaned my fountain pen because it was skipping a bit
- Zoned out for an hour while trying to make my grocery list

I think it'll be an early bedtime tonight.

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FTH offerings - Bidding open

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 13:56:36 GMT

All right! Bidding is open in the FTH charity auction! Hooray. It closes 8PM EST March 07.

My offering page is over here and as a reminder I'm offering up to 5k of Hetalia, Promare, and basically any fandom I've written before.

The list of all fandoms is over here if you want to see what else is on offer.

Very excited! I haven't done much browsing yet; only bid on one thing, and was outbid almost immediately. Will have to take a closer look once I have a moment. :V

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Mon, 02 Mar 2026 05:14:27 GMT

This weekend I was running around like a maniac trying to get stuff done. Yesterday it was -37C when I went to get groceries. And today we had more snow on top of the load of snow we've been getting.

I went to a hot yoga class yesterday; that was nice.

Also worked on a little bit of fic. Typing up a thing I finished in Vic. It's not much of a fic, more like a DVD extra (it's a scene that I wanted to put into a thing but ended up deciding it didn't really fit before I ended up writing it, and then decided that I wanted to write it anyway. Just, um, separately.)

I don't really wanna' go to work tomorrow. But. You know.

Even though I did all the things I needed to do today I only did a fraction of the things I wanted to do today and I feel kind of bummed about it, even though that's business as usual.

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FTH Offers

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 22:43:07 GMT

Whoo! I'm participating in the FTH charity auction once again. Offers are open for browsing.

You can see my offers here. You can also see a list of all fandoms on offer here.

Bidding opens on March 03!

This year I'm offering up to 5k of Hetalia, Promare, or any fandom I've written in the past (such as Ex Machina, Vatican Miracle Examiner, Frozen, etc). I'm offering any characters/pairings.

If you're interested in this but don't really get how it works, I might be able to help - I've participated on both the offering on bidding ends before.

I'm really looking forward to seeing whatever the winner requests; in the past I've had asks for pairings that I normally don't write, and in the end those often turn out to be some of my best fics.

Anyway! Whoo! Let's see how this goes!

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Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:52:38 GMT

I received notice that my offer for this year's Fandom Trumps Hate auction has been accepted and posted. I'm so glad!

A few years ago, I had an offer that I could not actually complete - it was for beta services and the person who won it never got back to me. Since then, they seem to have dropped out of fandom. I haven't participated in FTH since. So, I was kind of worried it wouldn't get accepted, since I technically still have an outstanding assignment.

Mind you, if that person ever shows up again, then sure, I'd be happy to fulfill that assignment! ;V In the meantime, I'm just glad I can participate this year.

There are still a few days before everything officially opens; they have so many to post that it needs to go in batches. I'll make a separate post when that happens.

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Victoria adventures 07

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 07:48:23 GMT

So, today was my last day in Victoria.

I took the bus down to the Oak Bay area. I visited an art gallery, poked around some little shops, and (unsuccessfully) tried some geocaching. I've never been in that area before, so it was a little bit different. "Enrichment", I suppose one could say. Or at least getting myself more used to the bus system.

Then I headed back downtown, poked around some other little art galleries, and then decided to call it a day.

Heading back home tomorrow. Kind of wish I'd booked a bit more time off so I could spend it at home, but that's how it goes. ;V It was nice to get out of Fort Mac and do some stuff, at least. (And also I managed to finish a fic draft! So that's something.)

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Victoria adventures 06

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 18:35:12 GMT

On Wednesday, I went to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Not my first time going up there, but it's the first time bothering to take the bus - I've been very tired lately and I just couldn't be arsed to walk it. ;V

One of the feature exhibits, which happened to be my favourite, was on Asian inkwork (mostly Chinese and Japanese). Very cool, some really beautiful stuff there. Super glad I went. Some of them had poetry incorporated into the inkwork, and there were translations to go along with them - I appreciated that.

They also had a small exhibition of prints by Albrecht Dürer. Fascinating stuff. So detailed! There were magnifying glasses available to take closer looks. Necessary, as some of them were quite small.

Anyway. In the evening there was the thing that I came to Victoria for... the Pacific Opera Victoria performance of Tosca!

I've never seen an in-person opera performance of this level; my previous experiences were all small-scale productions by small companies. So, this was a real treat.

The performance was amazing! The singing, the costuming, the everything. I was already familiar with the story as I've seen a recorded version, but in-person was so much better. I had a great seat, too. (And actually remembered my glasses this time, hooray). 100/10, no notes.

One thing I loved that I didn't remember from the recorded version was that there are some moments that have great comedic timing. Like yeah, sure, it's a tragedy, but in the earlier parts there's the stuff like Mario going in for a smooch and Tosca being like "Not in front of the Madonna", haha.

And now I'm like... turning over the general premise of this opera in my head, trying to shove certain favourite characters into it. You know, "The enemy pressures the protagonist to sleep with him in exchange for the love interest's freedom while the love interest is tortured in a nearby room" dealio. It's a little challenging to make anything a 1:1 fit, but man is it fun.

Anyway, the opera was lovely. I'm glad that I made the decision to come see it in person; very good decision. I could see myself doing so again; we'll have to see what comes up in the future.

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Well then

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 01:53:22 GMT

My mom told me that it's around -30C at home. Plus windchill.

Meanwhile, Victoria's been a balmy +5 or so. I've been going around in my spring jacket and not even wearing a hat.

I kind of wish I didn't have to go home.

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Victoria adventures 05

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 03:29:44 GMT

So, today was kind of cold and drizzly again, but not too bad.

There were some things that I wanted to do, but they didn't open until late in the morning, so I spent the earlier portion writing fic. Or trying to. My vibe is really off, as the kids might say these days. IDK what it is. But at least I had some good coffee while doing it, and left when the place started to get busy.

Went to do some geocaching after that. Didn't succeed in finding anything, but to be fair there were only micros in the area I was looking at. Plus, like, downtown Victoria always has lots of people around even when it's a cold and drizzly morning, and poking around like geocaching involves makes one look hella sketchy. So I wasn't really trying very hard.

I went to the Gage Gallery to take in the most recent exhibit, new as of today. It's a collection of acrylics by Mark Osberg; both landscape and architectural stuff, of locations in both Vancouver Island and Portugal. Really beautiful work. Definitely glad that I checked it out. The formal opening is Thursday evening (time unspecified, probably after the gallery's regular hours) and even though I've already looked at the works I'm kind of thinking about going again. I love a good gallery reception.

Not for the first time I found myself wondering about the process of like, buying a painting and having it shipped home. This is something I've considered a few times over the years when I see something in various galleries, stuff that's for sale and that I like and would theoretically want in my apartment. There is a large space in my living room that looks kind of plain... but I have no idea what it would cost to mail that kind of thing. Maybe I should actually ask about it one of these days.

After that, I headed over to Chinatown. I'd finished one of the books I'd brought for the airplane, so I left it in the Little Library over in Dragon Alley. Then I headed over to Fan Tan Alley to visit the Chinatown museum. This museum is relatively new; glancing at the dates, it looks like it was open the last time I was here, but it wasn't on my radar. So I'm glad I took the opportunity to visit, especially with it being around Lunar New Year and all. I was aware of the general historical overview, but there were a few things that were new to me. The museum is small but definitely worth a visit if you happen to already be in Victoria (and also it's free).

Rest of the afternoon was spent working on fic (or trying to). And also napping. I've been very tired lately - like, super exhausted. I think I needed it. And also I haven't been feeling particularly well, which I am thinking may have something to do with not eating enough vegetables recently, and so I made sure that my supper today involved Lots Of Vegetables. Hooray.

Going to the opera tomorrow! Really looking forward to it!

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Wed, 11 Feb 2026 04:58:52 GMT

I'm going on vacation some time soon! :V I'm very excited about it!

My mood has been kind of in the tank lately, so hopefully this'll be a bit of a reset.

Man, I'd better make a list of stuff I want to do, otherwise I'll be trying to figure it out once I get there. And while that's not so bad, it's still not optimal!

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Mon, 02 Feb 2026 05:23:46 GMT

I feel like I did nothing this weekend, especially today, but when I step back it turns out I actually did a lot of stuff, especially today.

Like, today was:
- Cleaning
- Writing session with a friend
- Pride craft 'n chat
- ...and after that got roped into one of Pride's "Focus group" discussions, where we talk about the current state of things vs what we would like to have for the future. Plus helping them make a zine.
- Came home, stuffed my face, managed to wash the dishes
- Painted my nails
- And then suddenly it was 10PM.

And yet somehow, because I didn't find the time to work out today, and didn't actually finish all the chores/household stuff that I'd intended to do, I feel like I did nothing. ???

Brains are dumb.

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[Cosmetics/Fragrance] Project pan progress

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:48:42 GMT

( Talking about project pan adventures - it got a little long )

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FTH Charity Auction Signups Open

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 01:48:19 GMT

fandomtrumpshate is running again this year, and signups are open! Details here

Signups end on February 08th.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the offers are this year. This is the 10th year it's run, and I have a feeling it'll be a big year.

In case there are any who don't know what it is: FTH is a multifandom charity auction in which people sign up to offer fanwork (art, fic, beta reading, etc). Others bid on them. The money raised is donated directly to charity.

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[Canadian Politics] House of Commons petition E-7005

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 05:18:11 GMT

Petition E-7005 to the House of Commons in Parliament

I recently posted about E07027 and Section 90. E-7005 is a different but related petition: It urges the federal government to rule that access to trans healthcare is a human right. If you already signed E-7027, I recommend signing this one as well, as they tackle the problem from different angles.

It's open until March 20 for residents of Canada (including people who are not citizens or permanent residents, such as international students). Please note that if you sign you have to confirm it via the link that gets emailed to you.

What E-7005 proposes mirrors a situation in the early 2000s. Basically, in year 2000 Alberta passed legislation ruling that marriage is between a man and woman, and invoked the Notwithstanding Clause to prevent it to be challenged. Then in 2005, the federal government passed Bill C-38, which legalized same-sex marriage nationally, overwriting Alberta's year 2000 legislation. I remember working with Acadia Pride on their letter-writing campain in support of C-38, and we were so happy (and kind of surprised) the next year when it passed.

One thing I like about petition E-7005's proposal is that it would affect Canada nationally: all provinces and territories. Making trans healthcare a legal right would help all trans people in Canada, not just those affected by Alberta's legislation. E-7027 and section 90, on the other hand, would be directed specifically at Alberta (and Saskatchewan) and is I think more likely to result in UCP blowback against trans people specifically for that reason. (As I said to an acquaintance, "The UCP would lose their minds if the federal government acted against them in particular.")

Also would like to note that this new petition, E-7005, was initiated by the staffer from Wood Buffalo Pride that I was discussing the issue with recently. :') I feel really happy about that for some reason? Dude is very dedicated and he's been working really hard to combat Alberta's bullshit with what few resources he has.
( Full text of the petition under the cut )

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