orangerful | Reading

Currently my roommate and I are using our weekends to build the kitchen and start packing up the apartment. I've already decluttered my things, but I still have so much stuff. How is it possible to have so much stuff. I'm 4 boxes in and not even done with my books!

Summer is here! I am determined to make it to a public pool at least once or twice in the coming weeks. It's been many years since the last time, which is a travesty because I actually really enjoy swimming. I want to spread my picnic blanket under a tree, get overprized fries with ketchup and mayonnaise, and slather on sunscreen every hour. I love the atmosphere of public pools. There's something so chill and joyful about listening to young kids shriek and laugh as they play in the water.

Running-wise, I haven't been doing much, unfortunately. It gets quite hot as early as 10am, so if I do want to squeeze in a run, I have to be super early about it. Since I've also been struggling a bit with getting out of bed, running just has not been happening for a while. I'm a bit annoyed by this, because I had in fact made really good progress. In late May, I was able to run (slowly) for 25 minutes without stopping! iirc it was Week 7 (of 9) of the Couch to 5K program. Sigh. I hope I'll be able to get back to it soon.

It's just a time where there's A Lot on my plate overall! The move, and my plans for the future, and my quest to lose weight/improve fitness/learn how to cook, and of course, finding time for my hobbies and social circle. How do proper adults do this?! I know, I know--the secret is that we are all just winging it.

The other night I dreamed of Number Five from The Umbrella Academy, and now I want to rewatch S1+2 (and ideally, finally watch S3). I love that character so much. Another grown-ass man stuck in a body too young for him, like Miquella! I was so excited when I made that connection lol, I guess I am just really fond of characters whose insides don't match their outsides because of reasons. I'm also still subscribed to the "Five Needs A Hug" tag on AO3, although I haven't found any post-S2 fic yet that's truly in-character. (That's the beauty of that tag--it'd be so difficult to get Five a hug! That's what's so intriguing about it!)

Happy Pride Month btw! It's almost over, oops. I'm hoping to attend Cologne's CSD parade this year. I've always really wanted to see it, and especially now, with queer rights under attack in my country and many others, I want to show up for my community.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Vampire Money - My Chemical Romance

author_by_night posting in

tv_talk

I see that ^ statement a lot in discussion spaces, mostly in Reddit and Facebook groups. And I wanted to tackle that.

I do think that you have to acknowledge that a work of fiction is a work of fiction. You can't expect storylines to be 100% realistic when they're very much reliant on plot. To quote a song from Crazy-Ex Girlfriend: "If you watched a movie that was like real life, you'd be like, 'what the hell was that movie about?'" The same applies to all works of fiction.

At the same time, the characters do not know they're fictional. There should still be some rationale behind their actions (unless they're meant to be incredibly impulsive and/or irrational people). Storylines can push the boundaries of reality, but should still follow a somewhat logical course, unless they're meant to be absurdist shows where logic doesn't apply. Characters should still act consistently with who we understand there to be, unless, again, they're meant to be inconsistent, or we're seeing a side of them the show has always hinted at but never tapped into. Of course, fans are bound to disagree on what works for them. One person might think a storyline is too contrived, while another person thinks it makes perfect sense. The issue, then, isn't "it's just a show", but whether or not even within the context of fiction, XYZ worked for that person.

I also think that "it's just a show" is often said by VERY casual fans who aren't really up for discussing TV, but have still entered those spaces. There are a lot of people who take a very casual approach - they watch something, they like it or don't, that's it. So it is very easy to say "it's just a show" when your investment is minimal. The problem is, they're not bearing in mind that it's a discussion space, meaning people will want to discuss. Another example might be joining a bird watching group, despite not wanting to bird watch. It's fine if you're good just listening to birds chip and smiling when you spot them in the bushes, but a bird watching group is going to take it to the next level. (Which is why I'd never join one.)

IMHO, anyway. What do you guys think?

yourlibrarian posting in

tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

Regardless of how much we like certain shows, it is sometimes commonly acknowledged that the writing isn’t very good. What constitutes bad writing to you? What makes a show seem well written?

yourlibrarian

1) I've been seeing a lot more posting on

common_nature, very encouraging! Have added the first of my waterfall photos there, of Latourelle Falls.

2) Looks like there is a spammer at work on Squidgeworld. I got 3 comments to different posts within a few hours today, two with outright solicitations for commissions.

3) Saw Dune 2, and thought it was ok. It's almost as if the movie was made to be the direct opposite of David Lynch's version in casting and tone as well as visuals. ( Read more... )

4) Finally saw the Barbie movie as well. I can see why it did well. Given its remit and likely limitations, I thought it did a good job. It had a clear direction, and it did it well and with both humor and heart. I also quite enjoyed its ending. That said, I think the film itself opened the door to a more incisive critique which it didn't follow. ( Read more... )

5) This past month is turning out to be an expensive one. My partner's sister had a roof leak in her spare bedroom, which went on long enough that it damaged the bed underneath it before she noticed. Since this was where my partner stays when he visits his family, a replacement was needed. So we decided to move his current bed there and get a new one. ( Read more... )

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angrboda

I. Yesterday was eventful! Husband started working on putting my new computer together. He ran some tests and then we might sit down and migrate me on Sunday, because I'll need a little help with that. Sick Gamer Rig is coming!

II. Also yesterday, we went and fetched a hedgehog. I have mentioned before that Husband volunteers with this hedgehog organisation, where he is occasionally called upon to drive a hedgehog to a wildlife carer. Well, yesterday it was the other way around! The carer had one that was ready to be released but they had been having trouble finding a suitable place. They like to release them as close as possible to where they were found, so it ideally had to be in the town where we live, but for various reasons the actual finding spot was not suitable. So they asked him if we had an appropriate garden for it, and we do! Mrs. Tiggywinkle was released yesterday afternoon, in so far as we put the box down and opened it and she chose not to come out, so no pictures. They are nocturnal animals, so that was expected. I did see a hedgehog on the wildlife camera quite close by last night, though, which is almost certainly this one. We are to support feed it for about a week.

It was powerful cute and I wanted very much to pet it, but managed somehow to control myself.

III. On Saturday we went and spent the evening with friends which was lovely. We live a little ways apart and we're not good at arranging something very often, so to our surprise, it was determined that it was two years since we saw them last. Maybe we should try to aim for at least once a year in future.

IV. In other news, SIL's adoption process has come to an officially successful end a few weeks ago! I am now for ACTUAL REAL someone's aunt. First reaction to this news was to consider how old he will have to be to get something out of Legoland. The conclusion was at least 2-3 more years.

V. It appears I never actually mentioned it here, but my plan to sew a skirt out of some never used duvet covers? Success! (Picture over at Pillowfort) Has it been suitable weather that I actually wanted to wear it yet? Well... we live in hope. If it's suitable weather on a work day, I'll be cycling and so not wearing a skirt, so I'm a little limited.

VI. I thought I had more news... Oh well. 23 work days left before summer holiday.

narnialover7

I have been meaning to work on these icons for a while now. Since it's SO hot out it's the perfect time to chill and make some icons. :)

I made these icons for Round 71 over @

monthlyinspo

The theme was Cinema Paradiso. We were to make icons of inspired of different films. I thought since it's a movie theme why not make some icons of the Narnia movies. I was inspired by a few of the movies in the inspiration post.

Here are some teasers:

( 10 - Cinema Paradiso )

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

elisi

I give you Lara Fabian and Dimash performing 'Adagio' live at the Wembley arena in London, 03/06/2025:

Watch on YouTube

(This is from Lara's concert, Dimash was a guest. Longer version here including Lara's introduction of Dimash and their interactions after finishing the song. Also - mostly for myself - here is Mansur's video. He's Dimash's younger brother and accompanied him on the trip.)

~

And from The Good Law Project: Pick a side – hate or Pride. "We’re teaming up with Stop Funding Hate to tell these companies to drop GB News. This Pride, let’s make support really mean something."

~

And finally: Click this video to be the reason +700 families in Gaza received water🥹🇵🇸
Many good links in the description.

Current Mood: warm

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Do you have any Apple TV+ recs for me, preferably underrated shows without good word of mouth that are not a mainstay in the Apple TV+ Top 10?

angrboda

Because I am an ambitious mad-woman, I ordered some yarn for a new bedspread I want to make to go with our new bedroom. So three shades of brown and three shades of green for the forest glade vibe. That's around 75 skeins of cotton (which as it turned out was on sale AND pretty cheap to begin with). Which is apparently being sent in SIX packages! With a 'ready for shipment' email for each individual one. I expect there will be as many again for each step of their journey to me. I am drowning in emails from this company. My inbox has not had so many emails in it since I learned to keep it tidy with the archive function.

I'm uncertain about whether this is far too much or not enough. I based the number of skeins on a different project made with the same yarn where that person said they had used 80 and on the picture it looked like it might be a similar sized bed to ours, but bedspread itself a bit smaller than I would like mine to be. I'm planning on a rather looser and more open pattern in mine, though, so that should take up a little less yarn. We'll see how far I get with this.

Can't show you a pattern, it's all in my head. I'm going to do a number of long strips in a mix of the different colours and join them together at the end, and then probably some sort of border around it. So sort of very basic patchwork-y, only in crochet.

(pretty certain I'm going to need more yarn, actually...)

yourlibrarian posting in

tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

In the past, shows used to create “clip episodes” which were made up of segments of other episodes with a brief wraparound story. This was usually done to save money, extend writing time, or cover for the absence of a lead character.

Is this something you miss? Is there one you've particularly liked? Given currently shorter seasons, are these still being used in any shows you’ve seen?

tinny posting in

icontalking

Ask The Maker Header 2025 featuring an icon by breyzyyin

this banner features an icon by breyzyyin

With a little bit of delay because I didn't feel up to it three weeks ago, here's this years Ask The Maker activity!

Ask The Maker is where you can ask your favorite makers about how they do that thing. You can ask for tutorials, guides/"How to", or ask any other questions related to their work. Check out the Maker thread (below) for makers who have signed up and are ready to answer your questions.

You can also ask questions to the community at large, and hope that someone is able to answer them. Do this in the Questions thread (below).

I am looking forward to interesting questions and discussions!

Please promote this activity!

You can use this code here:

The more participants the merrier! I will promote it at an official promo comm.

Here are the rules:

1) Maker-Driven

( rules for makers who want to sign up )

2) Question-Driven - I have a question and anyone can answer

( rules for questions to the community )

What's What

( question categories and examples )

Maker thread

Questions thread

This activity will run to mid-July, maybe the end of July, depending on how many requests there are.

If you want to work on a challenge while Ask the Maker is running, you can find currently open challenges in our sticky post. And our previous activity, Technique Waterfall, is also still open until the end of Ask the Maker.

orangerfulcom_feed

Posted by orangerful

https://orangerful.com/2025/06/17/games-for-traveling/

http://orangerful.com/?p=6553

We took a week long trip to Costa Rica! While we had a lot of adventures planned, downtime is always a part of air travel and hotels stays abroad. Our hotel wasn’t located in a walk-able area, so we were either on a tour or back at the hotel, waiting for and/or recovering from an adventure.

So, of course, I packed GAMES! These are actually the ones that made it out of my luggage. They are all solo games, as my family isn’t really into gaming – it’s more how I unwind and avoid doom scrolling (and, yikes, was there a LOT to doom scroll last week…ugh)

On the plane to Costa Rica, I finally started to play my copy of Murdle: Volume 1. This was perfect for the limited space that a plane allows – tray tables are not what they used to be and you never know if the person in front of you is going to lean back or if the flight attendants will appear with your next snack or beverage. So a book based puzzler was perfect!

If you’re not familiar with Murdle (and I was not until a friend mentioned it last year) it’s a logic puzzle game where you have a list of clues and you try to figure out who-dun-it. I made it through the first 25 games – which are the “easy mode” games – with all correct answers but after that the puzzles get more complex and apparently at 35,000 feet, my brain could not handle it so I only did a few on the flight home.

If you’re curious, free puzzles are still posted daily at Murdle.com so you can try out solving the crimes with Deductive Logico! The web-based version is REALLY nice, but obviously if you’re on the go, the book is the best choice.

Thursday was a “recovery” day after traveling all day Sunday and then non-stop adventure Monday-Wednesday. The only thing we had planned was a dinner in the evening, so taking it slow and chilling as the tone. So, of course, I broke out one of my all-time favorite solo games, a ButtonShy + Scott Almes classic – Food Chain Island!

In this clever little puzzle, you shuffle a deck of animal cards and randomly lay them out in a 4×4 grid. Then, based on the numbers assigned to the animals, you move cards around the board as they eat the other, lower numbered critters. Each predator has a power that activites upon eating, so you can manipulate other animals to line them up for munching. It’s quick and clever and, as usual, I lost more than I won the game but it is so quick, you just shuffle and set up again! I have all the expansions but have yet to add them in since I barely get through the base game.

Next up, I finally cracked open my copy of Sherlock Solitaire. This game is small enough, I was able to sit on the bed and play it in the space in front of me – you just need an area to make a few piles of cards. It is REALLY easy to learn, but a clever puzzle of managing cards and creating sets. I lucked out with my first game and won but after that, I did not do so well LOL – probably thinking too hard! There are 2 “cases” in the box and each case has 3 different modes plus Holmes and Watson have different powers that activate when pairs are put into your “crime scene” pile, which can change how you play. Looking forward to getting this to the table again. It’s so tiny, it’s going to travel with me everywhere.

But, of course, I can’t play games all the time! Sometimes, I need to wind down and unplug and just consume rather than engage. So, I read a book about board games! Tim Clare’s “Across the Board: How Games Make Us Human” had just arrived at the library as I was leaving for vacation so I checked it out and put it in my carry-on. I’m a little over halfway now and it is a delightful book about the history of games, gaming, and definitely makes it clear that To Game is Human. We all did it and do it, around the world, every corner of the land…perhaps the world would be a better place if we all got back to playing for fun.

Whoa, that was getting deep! Clearly, time to wrap up this post! Do you have any go-to travel games? Let me know in the comments or link me to your post! Thanks for reading!

https://orangerful.com/2025/06/17/games-for-traveling/

http://orangerful.com/?p=6553

yourlibrarian

1) Even though I know it's difficult to get any traction with communities, I decided to give a new one a go. Unfortunately Dreamwidth does not give over defunct communities to new mods, which is a shame since quite a few communities don't make it a year and the admin has disappeared.

I know there are many crafters on Dreamwidth but it seems nothing devoted to it has been updated in eons or has no admin or both. So I decided to open

everykindofcraft for what it says in the name. A community where people can share their projects, either in process or completed, as well as ask for assistance with craft-related things. ( Read more... )

If anyone would be interested in co-modding, let me know!

2) Thought it was amusing when I read in this article about Andor filming locations that a building of Calatrava's was a central choice. I've liked his work and had a book on his portfolio (most of which has involved bridges and transportation centers rather than, say, office buildings). But I didn't recognize it, which is probably in part because I was so riveted by what was happening on screen and partly because I hadn't realized they'd done as much location shooting as they had.

3) Posted another set of travel pics over

common_nature, this from the International Rose Test Garden in Portland.

4) Read the latest two books by Ellie Griffiths, and had mixed feelings about them. They are Bleeding Heart Yard and The Last Word which I read in order. I had issues with the mystery in the first and felt like the resolution to the second one was rather pro forma. ( spoilers )

5) Also tried out the first of Helen Fields' DI Callanach series, Perfect Remains ( Read more... )

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silverusagi

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Current Mood: productive

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

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I'm a slayer, ask me how.

librarian. blogger. gamer. geek. girl.

Summer stuff! Also, adulting is hard

"It's just a show."

TV Talk: The Q Word

Anxiety

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10 - Cinema Paradiso

Speak Up Saturday

Happy Solstice

Underrated Apple TV+ show recs?

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TV Tuesday: Deja Vu

Activity #95 - Ask The Maker

Games for Traveling!

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March 2023

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