I saw this article in my local paper and thought it was a great summation of a worrying situation (although it comes down on the side of social media bans for teens, which I oppose for privacy & practicality reasons):

Our children are growing up in a world controlled by technology, not democracy (Web archive link)

As I’ve previously argued, democracy does not reproduce itself automatically. It depends on citizens with attention, judgement and some command over their impulses. It needs the ideas of virtue and honour. A society that cannot form such citizens will still hold elections, but it will struggle to sustain democratic life.

1. Got in my car on Thursday (to take a friend to lunch), and it wouldn't start. *headdesks forever* So I emailed the mechanics, they came and took it away on Friday, disconnected the stereo (it was shorting out the battery), and brought the car back, all for free. I'm assuming my troubles are now over. *knocks on every wooden surface within reach*

(I feel a bit foolish about all this. I bought a new battery a month ago because of repeated issues, and I have a trickle charger. So ot1h, I kind of did the best I could. But otoh, the stereo was making occasional weird thumping noises to the point where I had "call the mechanic" on my to-do list for weeks. I just never actually did because talking to mechanics is awkward. Doh! Anyway.)

2. Blocco 181 is a beautifully filmed Italian show about drug dealers and gangs, with three central characters who quickly get into an m/m/f relationship. The sex is Sense8 levels of explicit, and the ship is so good -- very little of the angst is about its configuration; it's all divided loyalties and "Two households [...] from ancient grudge break to new mutiny," etc. Loving it. Carefully not checking AO3 for fic, because I don't want to be spoiled for season 2.

3. Our @*%$&#$% government is trying to pass some UK-style "definition of a man and a woman" nonsense, so I went to a trans rights rally today. ( My sign. )

4. Duolingo is still eating me alive, ahhhhhhhh. (It's trying to teach me characters for real now; so satisfying.)

How are you? *waves*

Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter 86 — And Then We Knew That We Were In the World
Author: elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan
Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars — Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars — Jedi Apprentice Books
Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, The Force as a Sentient Character, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Breha Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned), Savage Opress, Pong Krell, The Traitor, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added
Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived). Bail Prestor Organa/Breha Organa
Word Count: ~ 5200 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None.

Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.

But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.

Or,

Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.

He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.

Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.

Chapter Summary: The newly appointed Senator for the Chommell Sector has an unproductive call with her monarch, Queen Jamillia, and then a very productive conversation with representative for the native Gungan population, who are neither subject to the Naboo monarchy nor members of the Galactic Republic.

Back at the Temple, Yan and Obi-Wan are summoned to the High Council. It seems they have a mission. Yan is as excited as a senior padawan going on his first solo mission.

---

From All The Spaces Between Times: Chapter 86 — And Then We Knew That We Were In the World (On AO3)

---

( Meta — And Then We Knew That We Were In the World )

It is finally summer, or at least summer-ish. (Never mind the frost warning two days ago.) I took a drive this evening and took this picture from a boat launch at a nearby river.



I also drew a birthday card for my sister and mailed it today.

( Under the cut )

I was answering a comment over on AO3 on my old Stargate fic Old Soldiers Die Hard, the one with Annie the candystriper viewpoint OC, and got to thinking about the elapsed time since I posted it in 2006. She was probably meant to be in her late teens in the story, something like 17 or 18, which means that if she aged in realtime, she'd be in her late 30s now.

I was thinking about this in particular because it was always one of my most popular fics in that fandom, and people often asked for a sequel to that story about Annie grown up (and still do now and then). I don't mind being asked, although it is definitely not happening because I've long since moved on, but it's a bit wild to consider the passage of time in that particular way.

(Annie is grown up and doing fine, btw.)

I finished that Season 5 AU WIP! Finally!

The Living and the Damned (23K, Londo/G'Kar, mature-rated)
Fixit (of sorts) going AU in 5x18.

Some thoughts on writing WIPs under the cut (not spoilery for this fic in particular, more like general musings).

( Under here )

I don't know - what do you all think? Do you post WIPs? Do you read WIPs? It's been a long time since I've been in a fandom that had a lot of WIPs, prior to getting into Murderbot last year, which is almost like old-school ffn/LJ fandom with its very high number of WIPs. Including a lot of unfinished ones! And that's part of what got me back into posting some of my longer fic in WIP form, because there is a certain excitement and energy to it that I miss. Plus, in non-fandom spaces, I've enjoyed serialized media for a very long time (comics, webcomics, TV shows, etc). But it is obviously not without its down side, and I don't think I was prepared for how much trouble I was going to have finishing things when they're being written WIP-style.

Previous poll reviews
In the Space poll, 44.7% went with Douglas Adams ("that's just peanuts to space"), and the other options were pretty evenly split. Books came second to hugs, 57.4% to 70.2%.

In the Legacy media poll, 82.8% of respondents have a lot of DVDs and access to a DVD or Blu-ray player. Far fewer have cassetts or VHS tapes, and there's only one other person who has Super8/MiniDVD/etc tapes. *high fives* "At this point, it's just a lot of old stuff, help!" garnered 31%. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
A little more Cetaganda (Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner), and that's all. I haven't even started the little Chinese grammar book I bought for 99 cents. *hides* (It's not that I don't want to; my attention span is currently not conducive to sitting down and doing one thing.)

Kdramas/Cdramas
I finished To My Beloved Thief, which had a slightly draggy ending, but was otherwise a delight. Historical magic realism ftw! It made me want to rewatch the old Hong sisters' version of the Hong Gil-dong story, too (unfortunately, not available in streaming).

Also finished Absolute Value of Romance, which

spoiler

navigated between the ending I didn't want (teacher/student romance), and the ending I craved (teacher is gay) to find a slightly unsatisfying middle ground. I don't know if Ga Woo-Su was actually oblivious to Ui-Ju's love confession or just ignoring it to avoid the awkwardness of rejecting her outright, but an unnecessary childhood connection and significant "first snow" moment kind of point to them getting together in the future, when a) that would still be completely inappropriate and jeopardise his teaching career, AND b) Ga Woo-Su has previously shown no sign of interest in her at all (imo). He and Yoon Dong-Ju are obviously boyfriends or pining for each other! Why on earth else would he have reacted so weirdly to being the second lead in Ui-Ju's webnovel? (Which, btw, was wildly inappropriate.) Someone please write me slash for this!! (Note to self: tag this post for Yuletide.)

So now, in solo-watching, I've started episode 1 of Hong Gil Dong on my phone (ie, on my exercise machine), and gone back to The Spirealm (fantasy horror Cdrama) when I'm in front of the TV.

We're still watching Miraculous Brothers (contemporary thriller, time travel) with a friend at a rate of two episodes per week. The central character is a hot mess with no moral compass but somehow likeable enough that I'm engaged, and the mystery built around a cold case is pretty cool. I'd put it in the same category as Glitch and Sisyphus. Hopefully it will delve into the scifi/supernatural aspects more at some point.

Pru came over for some Love Scout, and even with our erratic viewing schedule, it's completely swoony and great. I think once we're done I'm going to zoom through it again by myself.

Andrew and I watched two episodes of The Story of Pearl Girl (Netflix Cdrama), but the acting is too melodramatic for him, and I want some humour in my shows, so I think we're calling it.

Other TV
We're halfway through the first season of Italian drama Blocco 181, which I heard about on polyamships. It contains a trope I find super stressful

to wit:

leading characters steal drugs from drug dealers, argh,

but the three leads are all really charming. Warning for violence and a ton of drug use.

Finished season 1 of Scottish sitcom Dinosaur, about an autistic woman and her newly engaged sister. It's not laugh-out-loud, but I really like it and am looking forward to season 2.

A bit more Night Train with Wyatt Cenac on Youtube. Vaguely looking around for a new show, preferably English-language.

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Cross Party Lines, and approximately a billion newbie lessons of ChinesePod. (I feel like I'm fiddling while Rome burns, but oh well.)

Writing/making things
This fic is never going to end. I don't even know why I'm writing it anymore. Maybe when we get to fan_flashworks' amnesty round I'll get some momentum back? /o\

Life/health/mental state things
Messing around with storage and sorting out stuff. Biking a lot. Battling brain weasels at night. I'm in my mid-fifties, and I don't know what I'm doing with my life. My arms are hanging in there, just.

Language Learning
I've been posting Chinese practice sentences, vocab, and occasional observations to china_shops_kjnl; feel free to follow. * The fact that I can parrot phrases from the podcast into Google Translate and it mostly comes out with the right characters/meaning still feels like magic. * I'm not learning enough characters. (I don't really know how to learn them except through Duolingo? Possibly ChinesePod's character course?) * I have little previous exposure to gamificiation, ergo no immunity, so Duolingo had eaten a big chunk of my life -- and would be gobbling more if my arms were up for it. (Stylus has arrived; shorter than I expected, but a vast improvement over fingers. I might get another, full-size one.) But I think the podcasts are better for listening and pronunciation anyway.

Goals
1. Sort out my stuff. Throw some of it away. (Do I want to start in on my books/DVDs? /o\)
2. Learn enough Chinese characters that I can read a graded reader.
3. Get started on the project of replacing my ancient gas oven with an induction hob/electric one.

Good things
Making sentences in a new language is really satisfying, and I love noticing grammar patterns and looking them up to see how they work. Podcasts generally. TV-watching-with friends. Walk in the bird sanctuary in the not-quite-rain. Good biking weather forecast for this week. Guardian and the Dreamwidth corner of Guardian fandom. *loves*

Just started book 7 (This Inevitable Ruin).

( Random spoilers )

Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter 85 — Beyond the Door From Which There Is No Return
Author: elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan
Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars — Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars — Jedi Apprentice Books
Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, The Force as a Sentient Character, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Breha Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned), Savage Opress, Pong Krell, The Traitor, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added
Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived). Bail Prestor Organa/Breha Organa
Word Count: ~ 5000 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Canon-level violence in the description of lightsaber murders of children, women.

Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.

But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.

Or,

Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.

He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.

Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.

Chapter Summary: Obi-Wan and his grandmaster finish their heart-to-heart, and Obi-Wan delivers some truly unsettling news. Yan is shattered at first, but recovers, and the next blow hits just as hard.

Meanwhile, the High Council has come to an important decision about the Order’s most precious asset, their children, and begins calling on allies for help.

---

From All The Spaces Between Times: Chapter 85 — Beyond the Door From Which There Is No Return (On AO3)

---

( Meta — Beyond the Door From Which There Is No Return )

 JFC I fail at life sometimes. I will be back soon (knocks wood) for Pride things, and life things, and whatnot. But until then:  here have some graphics with vague ratings of the books I've read so far this year. Read any of these? Let's talk!  Want recs? Let's talk! Have recs? LET'S TALK! 


     
        




Oh yeah,  and I updated my TBR list!