It took too long to write this!

[st_aurafina]

State of the land:
This week had the first hot days. Ugh. IT'S TOO HOT OMG. Take your filthy summer back, you Northern Hemispherites. Give me back my pleasant cold rain.

And I have a cold. It's wrong to have snot and coughing and fever when the road is melting. Bleh. This webcomic is representative and also weirdly aspirational in a gross way:
Feeling sick and snotty? Here are some helpful tips from the animal world, by Bird and Moon. (Talks about snotty animals.)

Ugh, I think I have a fever. RHINOVIRUS I HATE YOU.

State of the Brain:
Still up and down? It remains an ongoing improvement project.

State of the Writing:
I scraped through with a win for NaNo, despite a weird month of interferences and family emergencies. I didn't get above the line on the graph until the very last day - I was always catching up. Still, it's done, and I have stuff to edit. Maybe even post one of these days.

Yuletide is a whole other thing though. I am still in canon review, and at the stage where there are so many ideas I'm kinda stuck.

I've been running the Person of Interest Advent Calendar and it's been really interesting. Occasionally hair-pullingly frustrating, as I negotiate tumblr and running an AO3 collection and keeping everything on track. The best part has been photoshopping ugly Christmas sweaters onto all the characters. (No, the real best part has been the general enthusiasm, but you know. Ugly sweaters are so fascinating.)


[Sameen Shaw in a hallway wearing a sweater featuring Santa riding a t-rex]

I freely admit that my photoshopping is a bit garbage, but that sweater makes everything worth it.



State of the kitty:
Baggins turned thirteen, and is a shy teenager! For his birthday, we treated him exactly the same as usual, so he had chicken for dinner (it is the best food) and endless cuddles. He has a pretty great life on the whole.


[silver kitten lounging on a red sofa, tall silver cat standing on a cat tree]

MAH BEAUTIFUL SILVER SON!


State of the latest fandom exodus, or, WTF Tumblr???
Hello to my brave POI discord friends who are giving Dreamwidth a go. (Or in some cases, returning to an lj-style platform.)

I am sad for the distress this is causing people for whom tumblr has been a refuge and a home. It's scary - don't let anyone tell you it isn't (and don't let anyone tell you online community isn't real community.) I don't want to say it will all be okay. I hope it is. I remember when it happened to me - strikethrough and the birth of AO3 and Dreamwidth - it felt like the end of the world. It wasn't, in that case, and Dreamwidth has been a wonderful place for me. Hang onto hope, try to roll with the changes. I hope you get a soft landing somewhere you'll love. Or at least can learn to love.

Good and Informative
- rydra_wong has More Useful Links
- This week in Fandom Vol 99
- Maciej might be onboard (I remember that first collaborative document when fandom moved to Pinboard, so I left this one open for a bit, just for the good feels. Fandom comes together so strongly when we need to.)
- from FFA, a thread on exporting your tumblr
- snickfic's round-up of links so, about Tumblr

Small Kitty Joys:
- I've had this gif open for a while now: as softly as a kitten touching a cherry.
- via bow-weaver, Meet Nurse Raisin

Some DW recs for people to follow. Early Follow Friday, I guess:
umadoshi is queen of the linkspam. She is an awesome curator and is great with warnings. And she has adorable cats.
- iconthat is a weekly icontest, which I want to go in again when I have time. (If I have time!!)
- 100words puts up weekly prompts for 100 word fics. This week's prompt is 'Gaudy'. (100 words exactly! It's an art!)
- fffriday is a reccing comm for f/f works. (Fanfic, profic, other things)
- musyc is posting lots of really simple (and hence overlooked) Dreamwidth tips.
- fandom_on_dw and dw_community_promo are both full of new comms popping up every day, so are worth a follow.

Friending:
- snickfic's ongoing Return of the No-Frills Multifandom Friending Meme.
- addme_fandom, for finding new fandom friends

Events:
- Magical Realism Fest! (It's a comment fest, where you leave prompt, and you write for prompts. These are usually low-key and fun)
- Three Sentence Ficathon - leave a prompt! Squash all your ideas into 3 sentences!
- middleagedships has a middleaged ship comment ficathon
navaan is running Spicy Advent, a multi-fandom porn Advent Calendar.
- Me! Me! I'm running The POI Advent Calendar, please head over and enjoy the Person of Interest goodies!


(Oh, and this is an invite to the Person of Interest discord server I'm on: The Subway. It's a good bunch of people.)


And finally, in other news, geese are fuckers: Badly Behaved Geese Go Viral.

Comments

[used_songs]

I just opened ALL the tabs from this post - thank you! The goose story is hilarious.

Beautiful silver kitty!

[st_aurafina]

He is the most beautiful kitty, my kitty.

My family had a pair of geese and I will never ever forget that trauma!

[lurkingcat]

Aw, happy birthday Baggins! Kheldar agrees that chicken is the best food.

And congrats on the NaNo win. It has been a hard year for writing.

[st_aurafina]

*hugs* Thank you! It has been a hard year for writing!

[spindle_ella]

Ahh, such a pretty kitty!

[st_aurafina]

He is surely the prettiest, in his opinion anyway! <3

[vass]

Happy birthday, Baggins!

Get well soon, Dan!

It was a bit cooler today in my part of town. I hope that coolth reached you too. On the less optimistic hand, I had to shut the windows part of the way home today against the smell of molten road. The struggle is real!

Have you watched any She-Ra: Princesses of Power? If you haven't yet, consider this a rec. It's pretty and sweet and very, very undemanding. Good for watching when sick or tired or stressed.

[st_aurafina]

Yay and thanks!! I have She-Ra on my Netflix list, for as soon as I have time to take in a new show.

[rthstewart]

OMG Shaw... Resting pissed off face in a santa hat and ugly sweater. In fact...

[st_aurafina]

Shaw is so great, and forever angry.

[heartonsnow]

I was on Tumblr for a while but I couldn't figure out how to interact with people. I think you need an add-on or an app?? It's a bit late to ask now but I am curious!!!

[st_aurafina]

To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely clear on this either - I can manage the messaging, and I can manage reblogging, but there's more to it than that, I'm pretty sure.

[thisbluespirit]

I hope the cold gets better soon! *sends hugs*

Yuletide is a whole other thing though. I am still in canon review, and at the stage where there are so many ideas I'm kinda stuck.

Good luck! I've finally managed to wrestle mine into a workable first draft, at least.

Your photoshopped sweaters are great!

And happy birthday to Baggins!

[st_aurafina]

The cold is lingering, a month on. I am very cranky about it!

It was a good Yuletide though - fuss-free as far as I could tell, at least.

*hugs*

[musyc]

WHAT A HANDSOME KITTY, SO PRETTY.

And Shaw looks fantastic in that sweater.

[st_aurafina]

YES PRETTIEST OF KITTIES.

(And Shaw is the grumpiest of kitties.)

[tenlittlebullets]

OMG, Shaw in the ugly Christmas sweater is priceless. She is so incredibly Done.

...I need another Discord server like I need a hole in the head, but I never did manage to connect with POI fandom on Tumblr, and the opportunity to dive in now might well be irresistible. Thanks for posting the invite!

[st_aurafina]

There were so many caps of Shaw that would have suited ugly sweaters - it was amazing. I had so much fun.

You're welcome!! It's a good server.

[author_by_night]

Way to go on NaNo!


I am sad for the distress this is causing people for whom tumblr has been a refuge and a home. It's scary - don't let anyone tell you it isn't (and don't let anyone tell you online community isn't real community.)

Of course online community is real community. I agree, don't listen to people who say that it isn't.

[st_aurafina]

Of course online community is real community. I agree, don't listen to people who say that it isn't.

Right? I'm always surprised by people who think online interaction isn't social. It really is.

[maplemood]

Oh, Tumblr. I'll probably be sticking it out to the bitter end because I have made some wonderful friends on there, but it's hard to work up much enthusiasm for it anymore, what with all the craziness that's happening. On the other hand, it's been really wonderful to have such a surge in activity on DW!

[st_aurafina]

Yeah, tumblr seems to still be there? But there's something eerie about the atmosphere now. I think it gave a lot of people a big fright.

I am loving my expanded flist! There's so much going on.

[corvidology]

You have my sympathies. I'm temporarily in what passes for winter in The South and I'm enjoying every chilly minute of it before we launch back into 9 months of high heat and humidity.

Happy birthday to Baggins!

I'm also trying to get my Yuletide story finished and then there's the little matter of an advent fic to take care of as well. :D

[st_aurafina]

Yeah, I can't wait for cold days again!! Although I am enjoying the veggie garden going wild. It's some compensation for my suffering...

[out_there]

Sorry you're feeling poorly. It doesn't feel right to be sick in summer.

[st_aurafina]

Summer colds are the worst! <3

[dhampyresa]

KITTY! :D

[st_aurafina]

My kitty is the best kitty!!! <3

[yuuago]

Nice to hear from you. <3

Congratulations on the NaNo win! It always amazes me when people can actually complete it. :O

[st_aurafina]

Thank you! It was a close call this November but I made it.

[heartonsnow]

**grabs summer and runs away**

Geese are highly strung so maybe something upset them.

[st_aurafina]

You can have all my summers!!

I think geese are very territorial - I had them growing up, and it was very scary!

[umadoshi]

Happy birthday, lovely Baggins!

(Aw, thank you for the follow-rec. *blushes*)

[st_aurafina]

Thank you, he had a lovely birthday!

And thank you for doing great links.

[adafrog]

lolol OMG, those geese. Although, isn't badly behaved kind of an understood when it comes to geese?

Take your filthy summer back, you Northern Hemispherites. Give me back my pleasant cold rain.
lol

Happy Birthday Baggins.

Hope you get better soon.

[st_aurafina]

Thank you! Baggins had a lovely birthday.

[torachan]

What a great grownup kitten!

[st_aurafina]

He is!! A big boi now. <3

[isabellerecs]

Hi! I'm am feeling sick and snotty as well, I do hope we both get better very soon. :) Happy Birthday, Baggins! Such a pretty boy. I'm a recent refugee from Tumblr, looking to meet folks so thank you for all the helpful links. Congrats on NaNo. Feel better :D.

[st_aurafina]

Hello! I hope you're feeling better - mine has turned into an amazing seal bark, but is otherwise a lot less snotty.

Welcome to DW! I hope it works out for you, too.

[pauraque]

Happy birthday, silver boy!

[st_aurafina]

Thank you! He had a lovely day.

[cog_nomen]

2 things -
1. Your kitty Baggins is extremely handsome and he looks spry and lovely for a teenager!
2. I keep hearing about this POI discord... I don't suppose I could get an invite to it?

[st_aurafina]

1. Baggins is the most handsomest, and he accepts your worship most gracefully.

2. Yes, of course! The Subway. (Let me know if it doesn't work.)

[smallhobbit]

Just to say thank you so much for running the PoI Advent Calendar. It was great fun and produced some wonderful works.

[st_aurafina]

Hi!! And you're welcome - it was lots of fun. Thank you for taking part!