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Daily Check In.
How are you doing?
I am okay
13 (61.9%)
I am not okay, but don't need help right now
7 (33.3%)
I could use some help.
1 (4.8%)
How many other humans are you living with?
I am living single
8 (38.1%)
One other person
9 (42.9%)
More than one other person
4 (19.0%)
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
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Sidetracks - July 11, 2025
Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.( Read more... )
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Looking for a festivids fan video from 2010
I seem to remember having accessed it either through YouTube or Vimeo at some point but all of the old links I have found link to a download on the vidder’s personal website, which no longer exists.
I’m hoping for a link or if someone had downloaded it at some point and still has it, I would be forever grateful.
[Sign-Up Post] October Review-a-Thon 2025
This is the sign-up post for the 2025 October Review-a-Thon I’m hosting here in
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Each day claimed equals one distinctive review, so if you’re claiming three days, you’re signing up to post three different reviews. You can claim up to five days. You can claim a day that’s already claimed, but you must claim different days for each review. You do not need to mention what book(s) you intend to review. You can claim more days up to the max at any time, simply make a new comment and claim more. You can unclaim a day at any time. Sign-ups are open until Oct 30.
Good luck!
Claimed Days
( Days to Claim )
Posting Guidelines (click the arrow!)
- We’re not doing any specific rules regarding the reviews for the events. Your post just needs to adhere to any General Posting Guidelines that applies: this means including a clear header with information regarding the book’s title, author, and any applicable content warnings.
- Any spoilers (no matter how old the book is) need to be behind a cut or an accordion (this is an accordion!)
- If your review is not suitable for all ages, adjust the age restriction of the post.
- The subject line should clearly state that it’s a review. Please tag for at least format, age group, and genre.
- The review needs to be posted in its entirety, don’t just go ‘and you can keep reading on…’
- You need to be a member to post to the comm.
Questions and Concerns
I will make a top comment on this post, please leave any questions and concerns about the event as a reply to that comment to easily keep everything in one place. This post will not be sticky, as I think we’re already on max on that, but I will link it in the sidebar under the new ‘Quick Navigation’ heading.
What if I don’t make it to my claimed day?
If you don't post a review on the day you signed up for, nothing will happen :D This is intended to be a low-pressure, fun event, and not meant to put undue pressure on you. Again,
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What if I’m not signed up but I want to post a review in October?
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What kind of books can I review?
Any kind of books! Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, webnovels, short stories, etc. If you think it counts, it counts. Likewise, it doesn't matter how old the book is; a 200-year-old book is just as welcome as one that was just published two weeks ago. Here, it's just all about the books! :D
How does reviews work?
In general, a review should contain an introduction of the book and what you think about it and whether it's something you would recommend to others. Here's a few quick links I found searching (if you've got resources for tips on writing reviews, you're welcome to share them and I can add them to the list):
- https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/book-review-examples
- https://thewritepractice.com/how-to-write-a-book-review/
- https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/book-reviews/
It's time for the Fake Internet Deadlines to shine! :D
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(no subject)
Today I finally finished a puzzle that I started working on about three months ago. It took me ages to really get into it after I'd found most of the edge pieces, but once I got serious about it I was more driven to work on it regularly. Now I'm looking forward to starting my next one.
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Follow Friday 7-11-25
Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".
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Listened to some stuff
1977 by Sarah Wooley
Which is a play about Angela Morley composing the music for Watership Down. Before transitioning, Angela Morley had written and arranged music for the Goon Show and wrote the theme tune to Hancock's Half Hour, and the play begins when Malcolm Williamson, Master of the Queen's Music is overwhelmed with writing music for the Queen's Silver Jubilee and has totally forgotten he is supposed to also be writing the soundtrack to Watership Down. Several times in this play people say something like "Oh God, the rabbits!" Malcolm Williamson is really not in a good place and stops answering the door and then runs away to the Carmargue with his (male) publisher, leaving not very many minutes of not arranged music with the symphony orchestra and the recording studio booked for something like 10 days' time. And people go "oh shit" and "the only person who can do this is Angela Morley" and go and grovel and promise it's not going to be about her, it's all for the sake of the rabbits and persuade her to just watch the film, no strings, and of course she does it and it's brilliant.
Limelight: Pretender Prince
about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
This is part drama and part author (Colin MacDonald) telling us why he has dramatised it the way he has, and part interjections from historians, which worked much better across all the episodes than I thought it would the first time the drama was interrupted by the writer or the historians. Bonnie Prince Charlie doesn't come out of it all very well. The only Stuart history I did at school (in England) was James I to Civil War and death of Charles I (A-level) so all I really know about that bit comes from folk songs. So it was good and I enjoyed it.
As it's a Limelight drama it might be available as a podcast other than on BBC Sounds which now won't let you listen to it outside the UK. I've liked a lot of the Limelight ones, though they tend to be tense thrillers and not about Bonnie Prince Charlie, but I dislike the way BBC Sounds views all of them as a series and is now telling me to continue listening to my "next episode", which is about the CIA and not at all the same thing.
*You listened to a play. Now listen to another play that was on at the same time the next day.
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This is what they mean by mind-muscle connection
I have had some personal-training sessions, and I am now trying to get better acquainted with my lats.
Because the personal trainer guy was all 'engage the lats, pull from the lats' and I was 'whut?'. So between us we've worked that I barely know how to use these muscles, that my shoulders take the strain when I try to do pull-up-related exercises and this is (i) much harder than it should be (ii) bad for my joints. So I'm doing a lot of lat-activation drills, and when I'm sitting on the sofa of an evening I'm (sometimes) flexing my lats, just trying to remind my body, my self, that this is how it works. Weird.
Overhead mobility is the other thing which needs a lot of work, because I cannot do an overhead squat to save my life. I can go down, or I can lift up, but if I'm down my arms are not going to go up and back. Also forty-plus years of desk work means that I round my back, and hunch over like a vulture on road-kill which is not good for the thoracic spine (and I now know about the thoracic spine).
I have tried pilates, I did a weekly class for most of 2023 and I can't say I enjoyed it. It was either boring (because I could do the exercise) or annoying (because I couldn't do the exercise) and the best I can say about it was that it was marginally less aggravating than yoga. I used to come home from the pilates class in a sour grumpy mood, opposite of crossfit where I come home all boing boing boing, and then bore Himself by talking about what exercises I did.
TLDR; I am rather disconnected from my body and trying to do better.
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The Friday Five for 11 July 2025
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1. What was the most sick that you've ever been?
2. What disease are you afraid of getting?
3. Are you a big baby when it comes to taking medicine/shots for your illnesses?
4. Is going to the doctor really THAT bad?
5. Would you have the flu twice a month if you were paid $1,000 for having it?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
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(no subject)
I somehow have spent most of my life under the impression that I had already read The Pushcart War, until the plot was actually described to me, at which point it became clear that I'd either read some other Pushcart or some other War but these actual valiant war heroes were actually brand new to me.
The book is science fiction, of a sort, originally published in 1964 and set in 1976 -- Wikipedia tells me that every reprint has moved the date forward to make sure it stays in the future, which I think is very charming -- and purporting to be a work of history for young readers explaining the conflict between Large Truck Corporations and Pugnacious Pushcart Peddlers over the course of one New York City summer. It's a punchy, defiant little book about corporate interest, collective action, and civil disobedience; there's one chapter in particular in which the leaders of the truck companies meet to discuss their master plan of getting everything but trucks off the streets of New York entirely where the metaphor is Quite Dark and Usefully Unsubtle. Also contains charming illustrations! A good read at any time and I'm glad to have finally experienced it.
Fanfiction Masterlist and Portfolio Templates
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As said on the page showcasing the template too, it was inspired by this portfolio template by Kaylee Rowena. Which would be great for anyone who makes fanart! I might end up using this template myself whenever I get to revamping my art galleries on my own site.
Since I know there's a lot of fannish folks here I thought these would be worth sharing!
Book review: "The Tyrant Baru Cormorant"
Author: Seth Dickinson
Genre: Fantasy
! Spoilers for books 1 & 2 below ! (Book 1 review) (Book 2 review)
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Daily check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 25
How are you doing?
I am OK
17 (70.8%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now
7 (29.2%)
I could use some help
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single
9 (37.5%)
One other person
11 (45.8%)
More than one other person
4 (16.7%)
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.