K-Drama Update #15: June Releases
Jun. 1st, 2025 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feurioo posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tv_talkSquid Game: Season 3 | Release: June 27
A failed rebellion, the death of a friend, and a secret betrayal. Picking up in the aftermath, the final season finds Gi Hun, Player 456, at his lowest point yet. But the Squid Game stops for no one, so Gi Hun will be forced to make some important choices in the face of overwhelming despair as he and the surviving players are thrust into deadlier games that test everyone’s resolve. Will Gi Hun make the right decisions, or will Frontman finally break his spirit?
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Steering the Craft: Chapter 1, the sound of your writing
Jun. 1st, 2025 06:09 pmalias_sqbrA while ago I bought a copy of Steering the Craft by Ursula K Le Guin, "A revised and updated guide to the essentials of a writer’s craft" since people keep reccing it. I read through to the first exercise and then Got Stuck. But I am going to have another go now I've thought some more about what kinds of writing I actually like doing (eg fanfic), and try and keep notes as I go.
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Thoughts about the kinds of fiction I like creating
Jun. 1st, 2025 11:53 amalias_sqbrSomething I've been poking at lately is the fact I genuinely don't seem to enjoy writing original prose fiction, even though I enjoy creating fanfic, original visual novels, visual novel adaptations, and original art (and fanart). I definitely don't think it's lacking as an artform! It just doesn't fit my brain so well to make it. And I guess to some extent I also am less drawn to it as a consumer of fiction? That's harder to untangle and not so much the point of this post but I'm going to ponder it later.
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New FK Fic "Unpacking" (for FKFicFest)
May. 31st, 2025 06:15 pmswitchbladeeyesToday's fkficfest release is my story!
Grief has a way of resurfacing when you're not expecting it.
In the aftermath of "Sons of Belial" and the arrival of a new homicide case, Natalie finds herself confronting long-avoided feelings about what happened to her brother, feelings that have haunted her for years.
Natalie's grief and guilt intertwine with growing worry for and uncertainty about Nick. But she finds that she is not alone, and that for both of them, the only way forward is through.
Check it out on AO3:
Unpacking
And as I am wont to do from time-to-time...
( Some navel-gazing meta about the story. )
fkficfest release is my story!Grief has a way of resurfacing when you're not expecting it.
In the aftermath of "Sons of Belial" and the arrival of a new homicide case, Natalie finds herself confronting long-avoided feelings about what happened to her brother, feelings that have haunted her for years.
Natalie's grief and guilt intertwine with growing worry for and uncertainty about Nick. But she finds that she is not alone, and that for both of them, the only way forward is through.
Check it out on AO3:
And as I am wont to do from time-to-time...
( Some navel-gazing meta about the story. )
Have I mentioned that Beehiiv is kind of obnoxious
May. 31st, 2025 09:27 amalias_sqbrLike, they're not too bad to use but my god the vibe is atrocious. I picked them for my newsletter cos they're free and (unlike Substack) not, to my knowledge, actively in bed with nazis. But goddamn.
Their latest "guide to growing and monetizing creator-first businesses" email started with "I recently listened to a podcast where MrBeast discussed how switching from voice actors to AI-powered software to translate one of his videos for a non-English-speaking audience created an admittedly worse product but improved the audience retention rate", a sentence near-perfectly designed to make me cringe away from my screen.
I guess the naked amoral capitalism is in some ways less gross than the "app for independent voices" thinly veiled amoral capitalism of Substack etc but urrrgh.
(now to decide if I want to crosspost this to the newsletter lol)
Their latest "guide to growing and monetizing creator-first businesses" email started with "I recently listened to a podcast where MrBeast discussed how switching from voice actors to AI-powered software to translate one of his videos for a non-English-speaking audience created an admittedly worse product but improved the audience retention rate", a sentence near-perfectly designed to make me cringe away from my screen.
I guess the naked amoral capitalism is in some ways less gross than the "app for independent voices" thinly veiled amoral capitalism of Substack etc but urrrgh.
(now to decide if I want to crosspost this to the newsletter lol)
Zines and kids
May. 30th, 2025 06:17 pmused_songs posting in makezinesI went to a professional development for teachers on arts integration and the presenter was this fantastic elementary school teacher who has his kids do so many cool projects. In particular, he had a bunch of different zines (and more zines) his kids had made that he showed us. I was really surprised that none of the other participants seemed to have even heard of zines; he kept saying, "It's like magazine" which was really kind of cute. Anyway, the note catcher he gave us for the session was in the form of a similar zine (the one sheet of paper folded to make a 4 page booklet), so maybe there'll be some new zine projects in some of the classrooms!
I'm thinking I will have my students create zines this upcoming school year on a topic of their choice.
I'm thinking I will have my students create zines this upcoming school year on a topic of their choice.
F/F Romance Visual Novel Rec: Love Curse
May. 29th, 2025 10:06 pmalias_sqbrLove Curse is probably my favourite purely f/f romance novel I've played to date. It's not quite on par with my favourite otome (since that's a much larger genre with more to pick from), but still better than the average.
It's a well made Chinese game about a 20 year old lesbian college student who suddenly gets cursed to find her soulmate or die, and ends up falling for one of four different women in her life while she navigates uni, work, relationships, and the supernatural. The love interests and romances are enjoyably varied, and are a fun mix of sweet and a little messed up, with a choice of both fluffy happy endings and darkly romantic bad ends with tragedy/controlling yanderes/implicit hatesex etc.
( Read more... )
It's a well made Chinese game about a 20 year old lesbian college student who suddenly gets cursed to find her soulmate or die, and ends up falling for one of four different women in her life while she navigates uni, work, relationships, and the supernatural. The love interests and romances are enjoyably varied, and are a fun mix of sweet and a little messed up, with a choice of both fluffy happy endings and darkly romantic bad ends with tragedy/controlling yanderes/implicit hatesex etc.
( Read more... )
TV Tuesday: The Bold and the Beautiful
May. 27th, 2025 03:40 pmfeurioo posting in tv_talk
It’s often been the case that the rich and powerful are shown on TV far more often than lower middle class, working class, or poor people, despite their actual percentages in most populations. Does this bother you as a viewer? Does genre play any role in that?
I think I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending
May. 26th, 2025 07:57 pmbadfalconIt’s been a rough couple of weeks, pain-wise. My hip and knee have both been swollen and aching, and despite my usual strategy of “ignore it and hope it stops,” Li finally dragged me to the doctor on Thursday. (She was right. She’s always right. It’s annoying.)
Diagnosis? Bursitis in both my right knee and hip. A delightful throwback to a few years ago when I had trochanteric bursitis and it took six whole months to heal. So yes, I'm a little rattled. Also, because the universe loves to keep things spicy, none of my old scans or X-rays have transferred from my previous GP, so I’ve now got fresh knee and pelvic X-rays booked for next month. Living the dream.
Emotionally, I’ve been processing all of this with a very Taylor Swift-heavy week, and my most-played track was exile.
It’s always been a favourite, but this week it hit especially hard. That Bon Iver verse? Like being gently bludgeoned with a velvet piano. Perfect soundtrack for limping around dramatically and sighing at nothing in particular
Diagnosis? Bursitis in both my right knee and hip. A delightful throwback to a few years ago when I had trochanteric bursitis and it took six whole months to heal. So yes, I'm a little rattled. Also, because the universe loves to keep things spicy, none of my old scans or X-rays have transferred from my previous GP, so I’ve now got fresh knee and pelvic X-rays booked for next month. Living the dream.
Emotionally, I’ve been processing all of this with a very Taylor Swift-heavy week, and my most-played track was exile.
It’s always been a favourite, but this week it hit especially hard. That Bon Iver verse? Like being gently bludgeoned with a velvet piano. Perfect soundtrack for limping around dramatically and sighing at nothing in particular
FKFicFest is Nigh!
May. 24th, 2025 01:30 pmswitchbladeeyesWheeeeeeew! Just gave my fkficfest story a final read through. Going to stop picking at it now.
I thought I might finish two stories this year. And while I wrote a second story, I’m not satisfied with it. As I explained to my Discord writing buddies, the "vibes" are not there. It’s missing something and I’m not sure what. No big deal. I will continue to noodle and work on it until it’s ready. (In 2023, I finished zero stories in time for the fest, but kept working, posting one a couple months later. And I’m still working on another one inspired by a 2023 prompt lol).
We had a great pool of prompts for this year's fest. I had an idea for a third story, but knew no way was that was going to happen. So I added it to "the pile" to work on in the future :-D
I am sooooooo looking forward to reading everyone’s new stories!!
fkficfest story a final read through. Going to stop picking at it now.I thought I might finish two stories this year. And while I wrote a second story, I’m not satisfied with it. As I explained to my Discord writing buddies, the "vibes" are not there. It’s missing something and I’m not sure what. No big deal. I will continue to noodle and work on it until it’s ready. (In 2023, I finished zero stories in time for the fest, but kept working, posting one a couple months later. And I’m still working on another one inspired by a 2023 prompt lol).
We had a great pool of prompts for this year's fest. I had an idea for a third story, but knew no way was that was going to happen. So I added it to "the pile" to work on in the future :-D
I am sooooooo looking forward to reading everyone’s new stories!!
LaCroix is a Mean Girl
May. 23rd, 2025 03:50 pmswitchbladeeyesthefruitbat very kindly beta read for me recently, and told me LaCroix was a "mean girl" in my fic, calling him Regina Georgecroix.I laughed sooooo hard at that!! And now, I CAN'T UNSEE IT! 😆😆😆
Thus, this was born:
p.s. If you're not familiar, Mean Girls is a movie about a toxic high school clique. One of the girls in the clique desperately wanted to coin "fetch" as a new slang term and kept using it, hoping it would catch on. Regina George, the clique's absolute queen bee, finally told her, "Stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen."
Well, rats and scurvy anyway. And a music rec.
May. 22nd, 2025 09:31 pmsulienJust found out that one of my favorite musical artists (the amazing Rhiannon Giddens) will be playing in Seattle on the 23rd of June. Of course I immediately went to buy tickets, then realized I have no one to drive up there with, so essentially no way to get there. Yes, I can and do drive, but I do not drive long distances anymore, mostly because of the damn migraine issues. I can drive fine and dandy when I’m not having migraine related issues such as vertigo and/or light headedness, but the more tired and stressed out I get, the more prominent those issues become. Traffic on the I-5 corridor through the Puget Sound area is most assuredly stressful, even at the best of times. That wouldn’t be as much of an issue if she was performing on a Friday or Saturday night, but her performance in Seattle is on a Monday, meaning that the person I usually pay to help me drive long distances is unavailable due to work. Would I dearly love to see Rhiannon Giddens in person, live? Absolutely!!! Am I willing to risk driving myself and getting stuck in between No and Where on the way there or, worst of all, causing an accident and getting other people injured or killed? Nope. Not a chance in any Hell, thank you very much.
On the positive side of things, I’m consoling myself with the fact that I just discovered PBS has an amazing series called My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, in which she talks with and performs with some of the people who have influenced her music. She also is a participant in several other PBS programs, all of which should be listed here at the PBS website for those who enjoy music of all sorts: https://www.pbs.org/search/?q=rhiannon%20giddens So, if you’re a fan of the artist or have never even heard of her, I highly recommend you check out the programs in which she is a participant on PBS. If you can get to see her in person, go for it! And I would dearly love to hear about your experience if you decide to share it in a post.
On the positive side of things, I’m consoling myself with the fact that I just discovered PBS has an amazing series called My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, in which she talks with and performs with some of the people who have influenced her music. She also is a participant in several other PBS programs, all of which should be listed here at the PBS website for those who enjoy music of all sorts: https://www.pbs.org/search/?q=rhiannon%20giddens So, if you’re a fan of the artist or have never even heard of her, I highly recommend you check out the programs in which she is a participant on PBS. If you can get to see her in person, go for it! And I would dearly love to hear about your experience if you decide to share it in a post.
TV Tuesday: Who'd Have Thunk It?
May. 20th, 2025 11:11 amyourlibrarian posting in tv_talk
There are shows whose twists and turns kept us on our toes so much that we developed our own theories. How have those theories compared to canon reveals or developments? When were we super wrong about something? Or when were we the person who called it first (at the kitchen table or in an internet discussion)?