modball: Icon by Tay (Love you a Latte)
[personal profile] modball posting in [community profile] pinchhits
Event: [community profile] lul_soulmatesex is a multi-fandom, multi-medium freeform exchange dedicated to all types and derivatives of soul connections.

Event links: Dreamwidth | AO3 Collection

Due date: April 16, 2026, 11:59 am CDT (UTC-5) (flexible!)

Fanwork Minimums: 1,000 words (Fic) or a complete work on unlined paper (Art)

To Claim: reply to the latest PH Post on Dreamwidth or email ao3modball@gmail.com with the pinch hit number and your AO3 username. Thanks for your consideration!

PHs Required for Works Reveal:

PH 3 - NoPixel (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF, Runescape (Video Games), 仙王的日常生活 | The Daily Life of the Immortal King (Cartoon)

Additional Available PHs:

PH 1 - 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest

PH 11 - 崩坏:星穹铁道 | Honkai: Star Rail (Video Game)

wednesday reads and things

Apr. 8th, 2026 06:19 pm
isis: starry sky (space)
[personal profile] isis
What I've recently finished reading:

In eyeball, The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. Time-loop novel about a medieval historian and the lady knight he's obsessed with, in an alternate world that is not quite our England; one of you called it "sort of Arthuriana" and I guess it is, though that sort of is important. In a way it reminded me of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August as much of the novel is the characters gradually figuring out that these same things are happening again, and then trying to take advantage of this knowledge to make the next loop better. Unfortunately, in this case the source of the time loop has very clear, firm aims, and does not want to be thwarted by the mere pawns acting out the story that is destined to be enshrined in the country's lore. I liked it a lot, especially as the layers unfolded, though actually I was most interested in the villain of the piece and would like to have had more of that story!

In audio, All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor, the third Bobiverse book. I'm really liking these, although they could use some closer editing to avoid repetition of things we already know. It's an interesting inversion of Adrian Tchaikovsky's "How can we see the other as a person?" in that the viewpoint characters, the Bobs, are cloned brain patterns from a now-dead engineer which run on computers installed in spaceships; though within the narrative they are unquestionably people, other humans don't necessarily see them that way. And yet as they are enabling and directing the expansion of humanity into space, they're the segment of humanity making first contact with the other sentient species of the galaxy, and they're the ones who have to handle the related decisions. The structure of these books, with the multiplicity of Bobs and their storylines, means that all the different cases can be handled: the Stone Age civilization, the early-industrial civilization, the possibly advanced civilization that no longer exists, the advanced civilization that presents a terrifying threat. And as some humans fight against the idea that the Bobs are human, some Bobs work to reclaim as much of their humanity as possible. There are some deep philosophical questions one can tease out of these books - but I don't think that's the author's intent, and they are enjoyable reads just as fun science fiction.

What I've recently finished watching:

We enjoyed the Netflix "nature documentary" miniseries The Dinosaurs; quotes are because I think it's basically all CGI. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, it's a dramatic tour of prehistory, from the first proto-dinos to the asteroid that ended it all. It does a good job of telling individual "stories" of the various dinosaurs looking for mates, protecting their young, and doing their best to eat and not be eaten.

some Arizona and Utah vacationing

Apr. 8th, 2026 03:59 pm
ilanarama: me, The Other Half, Moab UT 2009 (Default)
[personal profile] ilanarama
Winter in Durango was a bust this year; we got in one ski day, which was okay but not great, and although we were able to do much more mountain biking than usual in northern NM, on the trail systems about an hour's drive away - these are, well, an hour's drive away. (The Durango trails tend to get some snow and therefore be muddy in the winter, though by late February we were still able to ride on some that had melted out early.) As a result, we started plotting a van camping trip to Arizona and Utah to get some more riding in. Because of Britt's knee replacement last year and my own back issues, we hadn't done a van camping trip in a while, so we felt we were about due! Sedona, Scottsdale, Kanab )

last camp

April check-in poll

Apr. 7th, 2026 05:23 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird posting in [community profile] thisfinecrew

There were seven posts in the community in the last two months.

On February 3, [personal profile] rydra_wong posted a link to Naomi Kritzer's Bluesky thread about ways to donate and otherwise help people in Minneapolis, Springfield, OH, or wherever else ICE invades

On February 14, [personal profile] petra posted about public comments about gender-affirming care for minors

On February 20, [personal profile] lyr posted about [reporting GoFundMe pages that help the murderers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti]{https://thisfinecrew.dreamwidth.org/324071.html)

On February 28, [profile] chestnutpod posted about logging in Oregon's old growth forests

On March 7, [personal profile] sathari posted about a global women's general strike

On March 9, [personal profile] petra posted about mandatory conversion therapy for trans immates

On March 11, [personal profile] flamingsword posted about protecting LGBTQ kids from a proposed change in HHS policy

Please use this poll, or leave a comment, to let us know what you’ve been up to, or are planning.

Poll #34452 April check-in poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18


In the last couple of months, I...

View Answers

called one or both of my senators
8 (44.4%)

called my member of Congress
6 (33.3%)

called my governor
1 (5.6%)

called my mayor, state representative, or other local official
3 (16.7%)

voted
3 (16.7%)

did get-out-the-vote work, such as postcarding or phone banking
3 (16.7%)

sent a postcard/letter/email/fax to a government official or agency
8 (44.4%)

went to a protest
8 (44.4%)

attended an in-person activist group
4 (22.2%)

went to a town hall
1 (5.6%)

participated in phone or online training
0 (0.0%)

participated in community mutual aid
6 (33.3%)

donated money to a cause
11 (61.1%)

worked for a campaign
2 (11.1%)

did text banking or phone banking
0 (0.0%)

took care of myself
11 (61.1%)

not a US citizen or resident, but worked in solidarity in my community
0 (0.0%)

committed to action in the current month
2 (11.1%)

did something else--tell us in comments
2 (11.1%)

As usual, you can comment on the pinned post or DM me if you want a tag added or other help with the community.

Pillowfort Anniversary Festival

Apr. 6th, 2026 09:21 am
yourlibrarian: Wes is ready to party (BUF-WesleyParty-amethyst_gems)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian


There's a party going on at Pillowfort from April 3-13 to celebrate its 10th anniversary. It's hard for me to believe I've been there for 8 of those years already.

Like Dreamwidth, Pillowfort is a small owner-run site with responsive staff that stays afloat via premium services. It functions like a combination of Tumblr and Dreamwidth. For those using Dreamwidth, two advantages I've found enormously helpful are the easy photo hosting/posts and the fact that improved reblogging exists, thus making it very easy to share content to communities. In practice, I find these two sites complement one another.

The atmosphere there is both welcoming and helpful. In my time I've had the occasional unpleasant encounter, but have found it quite chill. Apparently I'm not the only one, as this recent Tumblr refugee reported.: "Signed up yesterday. Decided this morning that I was gonna hang out on here and see what it was like. And... I've had the best time? (I don't mean to sound surprised; I'm just used to the normal horrible state of the modern internet.)..Where has this corner of the internet been for the last several years??? I'm so happy I've found y'all."

Given the "state of the modern internet", we definitely need more boutique social media site alternatives, not fewer. Pillowforter DoktorHobo has been tracking signups to Pillowfort for several years and noted that it has maintained a steady average of around 50 new people per week. I've never taken much notice of total accounts on a site because the vast majority are always inactive, and many more are sporadically active. But steady growth does tell a story.

For anyone interested in trying Pillowfort out, here are some starting points: Read more... )

If those don't answer your questions, feel free to ask away here about the site or its workings. There is also a community there for Dreamwidth users. It's been very inactive but I know that a number of people on Pillowfort do have DW accounts or have used it before. And if you just want to see what's going on with anniversary stuff there's a community collating it.

Poll #34447 Kudos Footer-570
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
9 (100.0%)



(no subject)

Apr. 6th, 2026 08:39 am
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
[personal profile] seekingferret
Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

The second movie comes out next month... The Devil Wears Prada 2: Maybe This One is Jewish?

I mean, scriptwriter Aline Brosh McKenna said in an interview a decade ago that she had wanted to make the first movie Jewish but in early 2000s Hollywood that was unthinkable. So maybe this time is different? lololol of course not.

Anyway in preparation, I checked out Weisberger's sequel, which is set 10 years after the first one and is even more subliminally Jewish because Andy has made herself even more subliminally Jewish. She has dumped her Jewish boyfriend Alex from the first book and marries Max, a WASP millionaire who went to Duke and Harvard Business school.

Andy is a culinary Jew and one of the quiet coded ways Weisberger suggests marrying Max is a mistake is with very subtle culinary signifiers. When she is hanging with Jewish BFF Lily they eat rugelach, when she is commiserating with her mother they talk about the Federation luncheon in the City. But her first date with Max is eating steamers. And when she is in Max's world there are shrimp and crabs galore. Weisberger never uses the word Jewish in Revenge Wears Prada, but at some deep inchoate level culinary Jews are still Jews. They feel the wrongness of the shrimp in their bones even as they eat them by the pound.

Max does step on a glass at their wedding, but it's buried in the middle of a paragraph that starts "The rest of the ceremony was a blur". It's a signifier that in marrying a non-Jew she is drifting further away from her authentic self.

They have a fight over an insistence that she change her last name from Sachs to Harrison upon marriage. She likes the idea of sharing a name with her husband, but Sachs *means* something to Andy in a way she cannot put words to. The final compromise is that she will change her name but continue to use Sachs professionally. Her body physically rebels against the idea of losing her Jewish name; her mind tells her she's being irrational but her body wins. Of course, Miranda waged the same battle decades earlier and rejected her Jewish name... the whole point of Revenge in the book's title is not quite Revenge, but it is a sort of repetition. Andy will once again get the opportunity to work for Miranda and she will have to decide if she is the same person she was a decade earlier, or if she has become a better, stronger, more moral person.

And in the end, her Jewishness wins. She divorces the WASP after he betrays her ambitions for his own (and she frames it in generational tribal terms: what Max has truly betrayed is Andy's ability to transmit her values to her daughter) and the final chapter is swathed in the signifiers of her return to the fold: all of the food of her grandmother's shiva, to start, as a hint that she is finally ready to return to Alex, her Jewish ex-boyfriend and true love.

Nonfiction

Apr. 4th, 2026 04:02 pm
rivkat: Dean reading (dean reading)
[personal profile] rivkat
Michael Sfard, The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights. yikes )

Daniel A. Bell, The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University:Who goes Party? )

Fashion and Intellectual Property, ed. David Tan, Jeanne C. Fromer, & Dev S. Gangjee: around the world )

Rebecca Solnit, The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change: hope in the ashes )

Nicholas Buccola, One Man’s Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle over an American Ideal: one of them was right )
Blake Scott Ball, Charlie Brown’s America: Peanuts )
John J. Sullivan, Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia’s War Against the West: we lost )

Greg Grandin, America, América: A New History of the New World: recommended )

Srdja Popovic with Sophia A. McClennen, Pranksters vs. Autocrats: Why Dilemma Actions Advance Nonviolent Activism: thinking about resistance )





Goreswap Pinch Hits - Due April 19

Apr. 4th, 2026 03:26 am
slashmarks: (Leo)
[personal profile] slashmarks posting in [community profile] pinchhits
[community profile] goreswap is a multifandom exchange for fic and art, featuring gore. Assignments must be at least 500 words or a sketch on unlined paper, and contain significant gore content.

Rules | AO3 Collection

Current Pinch Hit Post

For details or to claim, see the pinch hit post above. These assignments are due April 19 at 11:59 PM EDT.

Pinch Hit #3: Art, Fic - 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest

Pinch Hit #5: Fic - Night Prince - Jeaniene Frost, グノーシア | Gnosia (Visual Novel), Dracula Rising (Cartoon)

Pinch Hit #9: Fic - Anne Rice's Talamasca: The Secret Order (TV 2025), Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022), Loki (TV 2021), The Night Manager (TV 2016), D.Gray-man (Anime & Manga), Merlin (TV)

Pinch Hit #12: Fic - Elden Ring (Video Game), Bloodborne (Video Game), Dark Souls (Video Game), サイレント・ウィッチ 沈黙の魔女の隠しごと - 依空まつり | Secrets of the Silent Witch - Isora Matsuri, Gachiakuta (Manga), 凸变英雄X | To Be Hero X (Cartoon), Elisabeth - Takarazuka Revue, Redtape Series - Rounderhouse, The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, 괴담에 떨어져도 출근을 해야 하는구나 - 백덕수 | Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story I Still Have to Go to Work - Baek Deoksoo
themanemod: (Default)
[personal profile] themanemod posting in [community profile] pinchhits
Event: The Mane Event 2026
Event Link: https://the-mane-event.dreamwidth.org/
Pinch Hit Link: Current PHs Found Here
Due Date: April 6th by 11:59 PM UTC 
Minimum: 500 words or fanart at the 'nice sketch' stage

The Mane Event is a hair-themed multifandom exchange and at least one requested freeform must be included in the gift. 

PH 1 - ベイブレードバースト | Beyblade Burst (Anime), Metal Fight Beyblade | Beyblade Metal Saga, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

PH 3 - 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018) RPF, 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest

PH 4 - NoPixel (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF, Shirokuma Cafe | Polar Bear's Cafe

PH 5 - 阴阳师 | Yīn Yáng Shī | The Yin-yang Master (Movies - Guo Jingming), 陰陽師 | Onmyouji (Anime 2023), 밤에 피는 꽃 | Knight Flower (TV)

Madness and Obsession

Mar. 31st, 2026 07:05 pm
yourlibrarian: May Parker drinks tea (AVEN-MayParkerDrinkTea-nrgburst)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) I tried out the new season of Mad About You. Although it's become vague over time, I remember watching the series with my partner in the 90s. Although I did find the show entertaining, I think part of the appeal was that we were a new couple then ourselves and just a little older. So it was interesting to see how the relationship was handled in the show. That may also be why the new episodes are just irritating me. Read more... )

2) Not sure what anyone can do about this new ban on non-U.S. made routers since that would seem to block any from being purchased. Perhaps a small concern given all the blazingly huge ones right now, but this is not an administration that thinks ahead about anything.

3) The MCU's Wonder Man did not grab me. I've liked Kingsley's Slattery since his first appearance in the MCU. It seemed so wonderfully against type casting. I was really glad he had reappeared in different ways. So I'm delighted to have him back in a major role. Read more... )

4) The Count of Monte Cristo was a slow climb for me. Read more... )

5) It seems I am clearly not going to become either a knitter or a crocheter. Read more... )

Poll #34436 Kudos Footer-569
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
7 (100.0%)



flowing_river: (Default)
[personal profile] flowing_river posting in [community profile] pinchhits
Event: Traumatic Experiences
Event Link: [community profile] traumaticexperiences
Pinch Hit Link: Current Pinch Hit Post
Due Date: April 6th at 6PM PST

[community profile] traumaticexperiences is a (psychological) trauma themed multifandom exchange. We have one unclaimed emergency pinch hit. You must write a fanfiction that is a minimum of 1000 words and include a requested fandom, relationship or solo character, and freeform in the fill.

Assignment Requirements

EPH 1 - NoPixel (Web Series), 仙王的日常生活 | The Daily Life of the Immortal King (Cartoon), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs, Undertale (Video Game)

For more details/to claim, view the pinch hit post.
highadrenalinemod: Spongebob and Patrick Star run around yelling and waving their arms (Default)
[personal profile] highadrenalinemod posting in [community profile] pinchhits
Due:April 4th, 10pm EDT
Minimum: 10k or 10 page/25 panel comic
To claim, please comment on the pinch hit post: Here


PH 1 - [SAFETY] Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Crossover Fandom, Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold, Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon), Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV)

PH 3 - NoPixel (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF, 仙王的日常生活 | The Daily Life of the Immortal King (Cartoon), [SAFETY] 可愛いだけじゃない式守さん | Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san | Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie, [SAFETY] ALICE - Erin LeCount (Music Video), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs

PH 6 - [SAFETY] Bullet Train (2022), [SAFETY] Kraven the Hunter (2024), The Fall Guy (2024), Gladiator (Movies - Scott)

PH 11 - Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling, Crossover Fandom, Crossover Fandom, [SAFETY] 长公主在上 | Zhǎng Gōng Zhǔ Zài Shàng (Web Series), Grimm (TV), 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 绅探 | Detective L (TV)

PH 16 - Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Manga), [SAFETY] BCV: Battle Construction Vehicles (Video Game)

Blood Drive pinch hits - due March 11

Mar. 29th, 2026 04:40 pm
annapods: happy pea in a pod (Default)
[personal profile] annapods posting in [community profile] pinchhits
Event: Blood Drive
Event links: rules, collection
Pinch hit link: prompts spreadsheet (look at the Pinch hits tab)
Due date: 11/04/2026 23:55 UTC
Minimum: 300 words for fic, no minimum for art

Blood Drive is an event to encourage blood donations and other similar acts. Gifts must fit a prompt. To claim a prompt, use the claiming form.


Pinch hit 1
Prompt 8: fic - Black Butler | Kuroshitsuji
Prompt 70: fic - Terrifier (Movies - Leone)
Prompt 81: fic - Supernatural (TV 2005)
Prompt 87: art - Terrifier (Movies - Leone)
Prompt 88: art - Black Butler | Kuroshitsuji

Pinch hit 4
Prompt 33: fic - Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Prompt 80: art - Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Prompt 83: fic - Severance (TV)
Prompt 84: fic - World of Warcraft
Prompt 85: fic - Death Note (Anime & Manga)

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