pastelpom | Reading

Title: Spring Planting
Fandom: Torchwood
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 767
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Ianto and Jack are planting things in their garden.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 509: Nap.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.

( Spring Planting... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

The Kotlin Crisis: Earth’s first mass extinction may have been far worse than previously believed

Fossils of the first sea creatures, long assumed to have vanished before a major mass extinction about 550 million years ago called the Kotlin Crisis, have now been found and are providing new details about that time period.

This discovery transforms what once looked like a routine species decline in Earth’s early history into what may be the first catastrophic extinction in animal history.

Second, actually, after the Great Farting Oxygen Event changed the atmosphere from reducing to oxydizing -- almost everything died, except a few archaea that found anoxic refuges and a few organisms that figured out how to use oxygen. But most people forget about that one.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Today is cloudy and frigid, spitting snow and howling wind. :/ It stormed last night.

I fed the birds. I've seen a small mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus several cardinals.

I put out water for the birds.

Current Mood: busy

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: What is a craft that you tried but abandoned?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

I wish, honest to god, that I had a proper source for these pieces of official art. The first of the two been reposted online a billion times, never with a source. Tracing the image to its first posting online from via a link in the Tumblr repost I found it on, it was originally uploaded as part of the image gallery of a fansite that now only exists on Wayback. That source states it's a scan of some official material, but not of exactly what. I keep running into dead ends in terms of where, exactly, official artwork of this show was scanned from. It's really annoying!

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "Colorful Opportunities"
Tool Use
Cyberspace Theory
Birdfeeding
Science
Today's Adventures
Urbana Free Library Seed Exchange
Wildlife
Creative Jam
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Pictures
Communities
Safety
Today's Adventures
Gardening
Birdfeeding
Crafts
Follow Friday 3-13-26: Love
Friday Five
Crafts
Birdfeeding
Ethnic Studies
Community Thursdays
Poem: "To Understand Water"
Cyberspace Theory
Science
Today's Adventures
Safety
Birdfeeding
Science
Prairie Moon Order
Select Seeds Order
Hard Things

Linguistics has 44 comments. Philosophical Questions: Pregnancy has 60 comments. Safety has 54 comments. Wildlife has 48 comments. Food has 67 comments.

There will be a Bonus Fishbowl on Tuesday, March 17 with a theme of "anything goes." Think back over your favorite ideas that haven't fit a prompt call yet; you can suggest whatever you want in this one.

March Meta Matters Challenge banner

marchmetamatterschallenge is running this month. See my tracking post and the first check-in post.

The weather has been erratic here. We've had warm days. Yesterday was cold with howling wind, then pouring rain; today it snowed a bit and is still howling wind. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel. Red-winged blackbirds have been singing overhead. Currently blooming: crocuses, snowdrops, winter aconite, miniature irises, daffodils, squill.

Current Mood: busy

The Snake Prince and Other Stories: Burmese Folk Tales by Edna Ledgard

A varied collection. I think a little overwritten, but the tales are a new slice, fitting a new culture. Fairy tales, including a kind and unkind girls featuring a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and a unique take on burning the skin of the shape-shifted: the Naga prince is not killed but he is rendered mortal to live and grow old and die with his bride.

Also tales of fools and clever men, and animal tales.

Most are recognizable types, but not close to other variants.

Title: Plant of First Beginnings
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Fandom: S.W.A.T.
Relationships: Donovan Rocker/Molly Hicks
Tags: Getting Together, Fluff
Summary: The plant was a mystery.
Word Count: 949

( Plant of First Beginnings )

This is the freebie for the March

crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by the "tape" square in my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.

"Colorful Opportunities"

Tape is a material
that is always full of
colorful opportunities.

It can make borders and
frames on scrapbook pages.

It stripes the handles of
tools for easy identification.

It flags pages for future reading.

It makes cute cutouts for
decorating boxes and books.

Tape holds hobbies together.

Current Mood: busy

There’s a word for this in Japanese: fujoshi, often translated as “rotten girl,” a reclaimed pejorative for women who love men who love men. In Asia, the genre is known as BL (“boys’ love”), an umbrella term sometimes called yaoi that can run from the chaste to the pornographic. In the West, it’s called M/M (“male/male”) romance. BL and M/M romance have separate yet parallel histories; both began as a cooperative female fan culture in which women would make canonical texts gay for one another. BL has since evolved into its own commercial industry in Asia with several boom cycles in manga, anime, and live-action TV shows and movies across the continent — in Japan, Thailand, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and elsewhere. Meanwhile in the West, M/M romance has remained mostly in the basement of pop culture on fan-fiction forums and in e-books. Through Heated Rivalry, what was fringe has finally broken loose. The fujoshi switch has been flipped, and now everyone’s fujoing out.

-Girls Who Love Boys Who Love Boys by E. Alex Jung (February 2026)

Recommended reading:
Do Normies Have a Right to Read Heated Rivalry Fan Fiction? by Katherine Dee (March 2026)
Ethical and privacy considerations for research using online fandom data Brianna Dym & Casey Feisler (2020)
"Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking": Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows Shoshanna Green, Cynthia Jenkins and Henry Jenkins (1993? 1994?)

Current Mood: thoughtful

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Title: Mandrake Potting
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: G
Summary: Drawing of a mandrake half out of a pot, wailing, with earmuffs behind the pot.

( Read more... )

Had a blast curbside collecting yesterday and gathered a bunch of nice leather in a few different colours, and it struck me that amongst the reenactment crowd (and also nice for the Mother's Day stall) might be a few vegan, cruelty-free options made from high quality fake leather that looks and feels like leather.

Not many reenactors have an aversion to using leather in a historical sense, whether new or recycled, but perhaps there is room in my supplies to cater to vegans. I know their purchasing options are far more limited, and perhaps it might be nice.

There are some really awful fake leathers, but also some very, very nice ones, and yesterday I was able to collect some nice real and I-can't-believe-it's-not-real leather from couches and chairs. I'm always careful only to cut up the ones which are really damaged and leave the good quality ones for needy people (students) who are furnishing their homes on a budget.

Today my partner Doug asked me to remove a bunch of staples for him. I first looked for my staple remover but couldn't find it. Instead I grabbed the tiny screwdriver that I got from Power Plus at the Home and Garden Expo. It actually worked better. Because it's swag, the screwdriver tip is very thin and narrow. That made it a lot easier to slide under the ends of the staples to open them, then slide under the wide part of the wire to twist it loose. Staple removers typically have very thick teeth that can be difficult to get under the wire. So this is now my staple remover of choice, and will live in my office drawer. :D

What most people call luck or opportunity is, in my observation, largely situational awareness. I needed a tool; I thought about what would work; I used what I had. And then I noticed that it worked better than a dedicated tool from the past. A small discovery, but it makes my primate brain very happy.

Current Mood: pleased

Spices were definitely not added to food to mask the taste because it was rotten. That's a myth. It constantly amazes me how with all the really good info we have out in the wider world in the last 2 decades that ideas like this still make the "Top 10 things you didn't know about the Middle ages" along with ones about hygiene and other nonsense.

This 13th century foodie advice comes from Bartholemew Anglicus from his treatice, On the Properties of things," and from Medieval Household Hints compiled and photographed by yours truly!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

AO3 BS

AO3 is apparently crashing out again... Le sigh, do NOT get me wrong I do adore that site (for reading... I've yet to use it as a writer) but damn this just keeps happening.

Frequent service outage is one of the later signs of platform degradation heading for collapse. Always stay alert for warning signs, because they help you save your data and shore up contact with friends before it is too late.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Today is cloudy and cool with howling wind. It's up to 18mph. A beautiful day to stay indoors and write!

I fed the birds. Unsurprisingly, I haven't seen any. I expect they're all huddled in whatever shelter they can find.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/15/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a small mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 3/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

A tiny scilla is blooming white in the purple-and-white garden.

It's starting to rain.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

FINISH LINE

YOU MADE IT!

I hope your weekend treated you well, but even if it didn’t, we’re here to celebrate your marathon achievements!

Please reply with your numbers for the weekend–word count, number of pages edited, outlining work–whatever you accomplished. Include what you feel should be included, but please remember that we love numbers almost as much as words.

Thank you for writing with us this weekend!

Profile

pastelpom

June 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Page Summary

Style Credit

Base style: Abstractia by chiming
Theme: Battle Raven II by nornoriel

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Mar. 17th, 2026 02:11 pm

Da news

what's goin on?

Reading

Torchwood: Fanfic: Spring Planting

Multiamory March Fic: The Ability to Love

Fossils

Birdfeeding

Check-In Post - March 16th 2026

(no subject)

Monday Update 3-16-26

The Snake Prince and Other Stories

S.W.A.T.: Fan Fiction: Plant of First Beginnings

Poem: "Colorful Opportunities"

"Girls Who Love Boys Who Love Boys" + related reading

Mel and Her Boobs

Harry Potter: Fanart: Mandrake Potting

Leather pouch options

Tool Use

13th Century Foodie Advice!

Check-In Post - March 15th 2026

Cyberspace Theory