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Apparently one of my fics was recced in a comment on Pinterest. Not sure which post specifically, mind you.

I wasn't aware that place even had a comment section.

+ Posted the fic I've been agonizing over for ages, hooray. Writing that was like pulling teeth but it seems to have actually turned out rather well.

+ Today was Race Day. I participated in the 3k; didn't actually run, but speedwalking. It was fun, but I am very exhausted. Might walk the 5k next year; we'll see. Or maybe I'll do 3k again but actually try to jog bost of it.

+ Skipped out on judo all week because of a headcold.

+ I've been trying to make some attempts to talk to people in fandom a little more. It's super hard, though. I feel like there are fewer opportunities for casual interaction than there used to be. Or maybe I'm just disappointed that so many people I used to know have moved on, and also frustrated by the current platforms (I miss when journal format was primary, that worked really well for me). ...Anyway, I'm taking what opportunities do come up, at least, trying to think of conversation topics and so on. And come to think of it, maybe I should use this as motivation to finish and post more fics - people tend to be more talkative when I'm more visible.

+ Received two PMs on tumblr from people looking for someone to roleplay with. I was kind of surprised - one of them was from somebody I've never interacted with, and this kind of cold-calling is a totally different approach from how it was done back when I actually played. Anyway, I actually do miss roleplaying a lot, but the thought of doing it anywhere other than Dreamwidth feels kind of weird. (And now I am reminded of all the old threads that will never be finished because my partners dropped off the face of the internet).

+ The past few weekends have been so busy and I'm honestly pretty cranky that I haven't had time to do any more paintings. I swear next week I will work on the two that I've already started. e_e

+ Vaguely contemplating a trip to Charlottetown next year, probably around September. I've been to PEI before, but not Charlottetown, so it'll be nice to go somewhere completely new. Kind of thinking about combining with a trip to Halifax too - it's been ages since I was last in Nova Scotia. Anyway, we'll see. Meanwhile, I'm starting to really look forward to my trip to Edmonton in November.

Man, I really gotta' make some new internet friends. There are so many people who don't respond to my messages any more and it's a total bummer.

That might need to wait until I clear a few things off my plate. But, yeah. Definitely.

I also wonder if it's partially a problem with Discord. Like, if it's not notifying people that I'm messaging them. That would be the kindest possibility. But. I dunno'.

I watched Kubo and the Two Strings last night. It was pretty good; a super pretty movie, very engaging. Laika's stop motion works are always really damn impressive.

Since I'm a sucker for music + magic, I guess it's no surprise that I enjoyed this one. The visuals of Kubo's magic working are just so cool, the way the paper slips out and folds itself...! And that bit at the end, ah.

The movie's not perfect - I saw one review that said something like, "Much like Kubo, Laika tells a great story, but isn't very good at ending it." Thing kind of got wobbly in the last third, I think. Still good, though, and like - I think the general idea of the ending was cool; it was probably just that the pacing wasn't quite right or something like that.

(And then there's the issue I have with fights going on slightly too long and humour falling slightly flat - but that's a perpetual issue with me and at this point I'm just nitpicking.)

Normally I return films to the library as soon after watching as possible, but I think I'll hang on to this one a bit. I think I saw some making-of extra listed on it; that would be cool. And I kind of want to rewatch the film with the director's commentary. For me, part of the fun of stop motion animation is looking through after and seeing all of the craft that goes into making such an amazing work of art.

This isn't the kind of movie that would get a sequel (especially since it didn't make a big splash when it came out) but I really like Kubo as a character and wish I could spend more time with him. There's a lot of potential for exploration of his world and story; postcanon stuff, immediate or far into the future; things set before his quest; canon-divergent "bad ending" scenarios where he ends up going with the Moon King (willingly or not). I wonder what direction his life would take when he's older. Travelling storyteller, maybe? One thing that I noticed about Kubo's life during canon is that he doesn't really seem to have any friends. Or at least, not any his own age. Which makes sense, since his life (until the story gets going) revolves around taking care of his mom, being the village storyteller (as a job??), and making damn sure he isn't out after dark. ...So that's my postcanon desire for him, broad though that is. Kubo's a sweet kid and should make some friends.

I poked around looking for fandom, and there isn't a whole lot, which doesn't surprise me, but eh. There are a few fics that look like they could be interesting, so I might take a look when I have a moment.

The fandom seems to be really interested in crossing over various other Laika films together. Not my thing at all, but good on them. In terms of non-Laika crossovers, I kind of like the idea of Kat2S x Disney's Coco. Kubo and Miguel hanging out would be fun! String instrument buddies! Shamisen and mariachi guitar jam session! I did see a few fics with them while I was scrolling (will need to investigate later). Plus some shipfic. I guess, since their universes aren't very compatible, people figured they might as well AU it entirely, and while they're at it, write them as adults too. Eh, well, why not.

Anyway. I'm definitely going to need to take a look at those disc extras. I bet it'll be quite a treat.

Sometimes I come across people wanking on the internet about the stupidest shit imaginable. And I sit there and I'm like:

You know what, I actually have it pretty together. I've got some stuff I'm dealing with, and sometimes I'm kind of a basket case, but I have something resembling a life and overall I'm pretty well-adjusted, all things and comparisons considered.

So, thank you, random wankers on the internet, for giving me a bit of clarity.

My flist has reminded me about More Joy Day. The idea is to spread joy in some way through small acts. Could be online, could be offline. Leave a fic comment! Buy a friend a coffee! That kind of thing.

Anyway, it's January 12 - this upcoming Friday. It's such a nice idea. I'll have to think of something.

Came across this blog post about Twitter users moving to Mastodon (and then a lot of them having a difficult experience with Mastodon): Why did the #TwitterMigration fail?

Thought it was interesting. I'm unlikely to use Mastodon for a whole lot of the reasons outlined in the post. I gave it a look for half a second, and thought, "Nah". I can see why some people might like it, but it's not for me.

Right now I'm kind of thinking, though - some of the same stuff might apply to attempts at moving from Tumblr to DW. I see it happen a lot, and it rarely sticks. I wouldn't be surprised if the reasons for that are similar: harder to find things due to the format, smaller amount of stuff going on, more tinkering required, etc. Though there is a major difference - with Twitter and Mastodon, you're going from one microblogging system to another. With Tumblr and Dreamwidth, you're going from an image-based microblogging site to a text-based longform journal site. That's gotta' be quite a change for someone who's not used to it.

It's also why Tumblr fandom is unlikely to jump from there to here. I've seen some stir-ups and attempts recently due to some UI changes Tumblr is experimenting with, but as always, I'm like... "Good luck, and I'll believe it when I see it".

I've been seeing rumblings about people wanting to post on DW more. Kick up a little activity around here. My thoughts on that, as always, are "I'll believe it when I see it". I expect, as usual, that it'll be a bit busy for a few weeks before it fizzles out. (But if my expectations prove incorrect, I'll of course be pleasantly surprised!)

I've also seen people talking about using it as an alternate fic posting platform. As a matter of course, all my stuff goes up over at roesslyng, and I do really like posting here in terms of formatting - I prefer uploading fic here rather than Ao3. The downside is that there's no way to gauge response - over on Ao3, people might not have anything to say, but they're willing to slap the kudos button even if they don't have an account. And of course there are bookmarks and stats and whatnot. There's no equivalent to that over here on DW, and even when Anon is turned on, people don't make use of it for commenting.

This isn't an issue for me per se, because I typically don't care so much, and a lot of the writing that I post on DW is scribbles and bite-sized things that I wrote as exercises, nothing special. But occasionally, I do write something that I want to share more widely, and... what to do in that case? Hell if I know.

In the meantime, I'm just going to continue as usual, I guess.

+ [Family] Went to visit relatives in Calgary. Hung out with cousins, saw the new baby, had a nice time. I haven't seen them since around 2019 - these were relatives who couldn't come to my brother's wedding - so it's been a while. Great trip, but I'm very glad to be home now.

+ [Fashion] Managed to find myself a winter coat while we were down in the Big City. High-quality one too, suitable for our extreme weather, at a fraction of the original price. It's kind of a relief - I was worried about replacing my old one because they're so expensive. (I could have worn the old one if I had to, but it's much too big for me now... I stuck with it last year and I was absolutely swimming in this big heavy thing, augh.)

+ [Books] Started reading Nona the Ninth, finally. I've been trying hard to avoid spoilers, though I suppose it wasn't necessary, because most of the time Locked Tomb spoilers sound nonsensical out of context. Enjoying it thoroughly so far, though I kind of wish I had re-read the previous novels first.

+ [Twitter/Plurk] I've seen lots of people looking for alternatives to Twitter. One of my mates wrote up a tumblr post suggesting Plurk. Plurk is a more obscure social site even though it has been around for a long time - it's based in Taiwan, and on the English-speaking side, I've only seen it used by Dreamwidth roleplayers. It's side-scrolling, chronological, and each conversation is rolled up into its own little box. You can take a look at my pal's Plurk to get a better idea of how it is visually (I'd link my own, but it's locked). Anyway, this one is very good if what you want is the equivalent to a personal Twitter that you use to talk to your friends.

+ Work has been ridiculous lately. There's a stat holiday on Monday, and I think everyone just kind of mentally checked out on Wednesday afternoon, to be Quite Honest. (Not including me, mind you.) So many paperwork mistakes, argh! I try not to be too bothered about it, but this has been getting on my last nerve.

+ Family stuff coming up next week. Everyone running around like headless chickens, including me. Lovely.

+ Trying to edit this fic for IIBB, and hating every minute of it. This thing is so over-written, it's ridiculous. I know the vibe that I was going for, but there's just too much frosting on this cake, to put it figuratively. Also realized that there was part of a scene that I re-used almost exactly in a fic that I drafted later than this one (posted now), and that actually worked much better characterization-wise in the other fic, with a different pairing. So, that's interesting. Anyway, I'm going to have to do so much re-writing.

+ Scored a commission slot from one of my favourite fanartists. Trying to describe what I want them to draw for me made me practically die of embarrassment. ...Even though what I was asking for was very much in line with what they draw on their own time, and it's a pairing that I know they like. I guess I feel very self-conscious about asking for stuff outside of exchange contexts, even if I'm literally paying someone for it. (????)