owlbeer | Reading

It's been several weeks since I played any D&D at all, and I've missed it a lot.

My Wednesday game has been on break the last two weeks because of people having plans for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, which wasn't particularly unexpected once we realized both of those holidays fell on Wednesdays this year. We're supposed to be back this week, though, so hopefully nothing happens to push it back. 🤞🏻

... although that reminds me that I still haven't recorded the summary video of the last game. Oops. I should get that done during my lunch break so that I can get it uploaded.

My Friday game has been on hiatus since mid-October because A. the DM desperately needed a mental health break and B. a number of people were going to be unavailable in November and/or December. Right now, the plan is that we're going to start back next week. One player may still be unavailable for a while because of work reasons, but we've got a plan for where her character will be for a bit.

And then there's my Sunday game, which went on hiatus at the end of November. It's a bit more up in the air at the moment when it will start back. One of the players is in the middle of planning his wedding and another is currently in Ireland until the end of February, as they're visiting their boyfriend (and presumably soon-to-be-fiancé if things work out well) to see if living together more long-term works out. She also plans on moving to Ireland if things do work out, so making sure it's somewhere they could see themself living long-term is important too.

We took all of December off just because everyone's schedules were super busy, but as far as I'm aware the plan is that we might have some mini sessions here and there in January and February. We're doing a time skip in the game, so there's lots of opportunities for one or two characters to have some side adventures. Plus we can shift times and even days around a bit for those, depending on people's availability.

The plan is that we'll be back to playing regularly in March once the currently-in-Ireland player is back in the United States, but we'll see if that changes at all.

Current Mood: thoughtful

musesfool

Back at work, but thankfully 1. I don't have to commute, and 2. we are having no-meeting week, so I can just cross one major task off my list every day without adding new things like meeting notes or whatever.

I think the thing I've enjoyed most about the ancillary explosion of joy around Heated Rivalry is the two hockey podcasts that engaged fully and open-heartedly with it (well, and the proliferation of "Ilya gets added to the WAG chat" fic). Normally hockey podcast bros are not a species I have time for (aside from not being good at podcasts or audiobooks in general), but the Empty Netters dudes were super adorable in their reviews, and they also interviewed Ksenia Daniela with great excitement and are scheduled to have Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie on soon.

I also enjoyed What Chaos's less in-depth but still positive look at the show, and they have a couple of interviews with Jacob Tierney available that I haven't watched yet. I was also very pleased when, during a discussion about Shane's ginger ale habit, one of the dudes started talking about a restaurant(?) that lets you choose ginger ale or 7Up for your Shirley Temples, and I was like, "gotta go with ginger ale on that" and then the guy was like, "and the ones with ginger ale are great!" Because that is the legit truth, my friends. I'm not saying I won't drink a Shirley Temple with 7UP, but I am saying that the ones with ginger ale are 1. how we made them when I was a kid, and 2. better. I was reminded of how we ordered one every night at the free cocktail hour on that cruise we went on back in 2015, which definitely made an impression on the staff. *g* (Princess Donut also approves.)

So I feel like those were a great extender of joy, if you are in need. It's really lovely to see some cishet hockey dudes becoming fans of m/m romance.

In other fannish news, I just read that Sebastian Stan may be in Matt Reeve's The Batman, Part 2 and I don't want to get my hopes up or get fixated on a specific part for him to play, but like, wouldn't he be a fantastic Harvey Dent/Two-Face??? GIVE IT TO ME.

Scarlett Johansson has also been rumored to be involved somehow, and she'd have to be like, Poison Ivy, right? Though maybe they're going with more of a Mask of the Phantasm type thing and she'll be Andrea Beaumont? But I am not sure I buy Battinson as having a girlfriend before Selina, and also, why would you try to compete with Mask of the Phantasm? It's so good, you're just setting yourself up for not measuring up. (I guess she could be Talia, but I hope not.)

I guess we'll see what materializes! I'm kind of sad that they are not in continuity with James Gunn's Superman, because that would be fun to see.

*

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Hey Jack Kerouac - 10000 Maniacs

settiai

I was able to grab a 12 day cheese advent calendar from Aldi for pretty cheap because I got it in mid-December so it was on sale by that point. They presumably thought it was too late to properly use it, but in my mind a 12 day advent calendar works great for starting it on December 25 vs. a 24/25 day advent calendar which starts at the beginning of the month and goes through Christmas.

So, hey, I ended up getting to have two advent calendars after all! I picked up with this one the day after I finished my Adagio tea one.

( Cheeses under the cut. )

Current Mood: thoughtful

pauamma posting in

dw_dev

It's time for another question thread!

The rules:

- You may ask any dev-related question you have in a comment. (It doesn't even need to be about Dreamwidth, although if it involves a language/library/framework/database Dreamwidth doesn't use, you will probably get answers pointing that out and suggesting a better place to ask.)
- You may also answer any question, using the guidelines given in To Answer, Or Not To Answer and in this comment thread.

shrift

I rang in the New Year by haunting liminal spaces, by which I mean getting stuck overnight at LAX on New Year's Eve after missing multiple connections due to weather and deicing.

For Yuletide 2025, I finally got the opportunity to write The Good Place:

Icarus (1882 words) by shrift
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Good Place (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Chidi Anagonye, Jason Mendoza, Michael (The Good Place)
Additional Tags: Humor
Summary:

Attempt #479 aka Chidi and the series of escalating disappointments.

I also was lucky enough to receive two Yuletide gifts:

For the Greater Good (2552 words) by lapsedpacifist
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Edgin Darvis/Xenk Yendar
Characters: Edgin Darvis, Xenk Yendar
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Banter, Undercover, Some Humor
Summary:

Edgin does a good deed and pretends he's Xenk Yendar's husband to save the man's life.

Too bad Xenk didn't actually need any saving.

an extraordinarily versatile hammer (1365 words) by kormantic
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Murderbot (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dr. Mensah & Pin-Lee (Murderbot Diaries)
Characters: Dr. Mensah (Murderbot Diaries), Pin-Lee (Murderbot Diaries), Amena (Murderbot Diaries)
Additional Tags: Letters, uncomfortable information, Platonic Relationships
Summary:

— excerpt of personal correspondence from the desk of Dr. Ayda Mensah, President, Freehold Polity

china_shop

Swirly multicoloured doodle in colour pencil. Looks a bit like a person with a topknot.

musesfool

I keep thinking I will have more brain to post about stuff but it keeps not happening, even with 2 weeks of vacation (back to work on Monday *sob*), so here are some brief thoughts about a variety of things:

- Miami Mika!!! Hopefully he is also Milano-Cortina Mika because after the bullshit snub of Jason Robertson by Team USA (in favor of JT Miller??? REALLY??? I've watched him play - badly (he's injured) - all season so idk what Bill Guerin is thinking there [I can see a role for Trocheck, who seems like a slightly less egregious choice to me than Miller, but still pretty bad, and I like Trocheck), I am in the bag for Sweden (or Finland) and hope Team USA doesn't even make the medal round.

- Speaking of hockey, I finally watched Heated Rivalry and I enjoyed it. I laughed, I cried a little, I predicted many lines of dialogue because I have written similar fic, and I'm probably one of the few people who wished for more hockey in the gay hockey show. I don't feel feral about it like most of fandom, but I kind of didn't expect to. It was lovely, though, and I'm glad it exists. Also, Connor Storrie needs to play Alexander the Great in something, or, since I texted

devildoll immediately with that thought and she replied, "Achilles," he should definitely play Achilles in something. I am just saying. I would like to see ( minor spoiler )

- The Stranger Things finale. Without spoilers, I liked it. I have quibbles but overall I found it emotionally satisfying. Also, while I appreciate Joe Keery and love Steve Harrington's arc, I have never found him particularly hot, per se, but ( spoilers )

- I'm enjoying season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I love Percy as a character and narrator, and I just enjoy spending time with him and his friends. ( spoilers )

- The Muppet Show returns!!! This is not a drill!!! I AM EXCITE!!!

*

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Bucs vs Panthers on tv