illariy

Don't know if I ever mentioned it on here but a local friend dragged me into "Dune Part One" in the cinema when it came out in 2021. Having never gotten into the earlier film adaptation, I was very reluctant but agreed in order to spend some time with her and eat some nachos.

Well, and then I was blown away, saw the film several times in cinema and read "Dune" by Frank Herbert also in late 2021. Since then, I planned to buy the Dune Gateway collection on Kindle, all 6 Dune series books by Frank Herbert himself, but always had too many books on my TBR pile to buy a whole series at once.

Finally last week, the moment came, bought the collection and have started with book 2 as I am hoping to remember enough of book 1 from 2021 and from the first two films. So far, it is going well. I have even been reading in my breaks at work, which rarely used to happen.

My challenge to myself for my lecture-free time till 12 October is to read for at least another 5 hours from now on. Kindle app says I have about 30 hours of reading left on the whole collection but don't know how accurate that is.

Anyway, if you have any spoiler-free thoughts on "Dune Messiah" or any recommendations on good books within the later additions to the series by Brian Herbert & co, I am all ears.

In December, I set a challenge for myself to read 2 books. Here is mid-way update.

Now for the final update: I ended up reading 3 books total, 2 for my career and one for pleasure. I am very pleased about that result, especially that I managed to squeeze in one book for pleasure.

Now onto the current state of my physical TBR pile:

9 unread books that I paid for, including 1 for my career and 1 for uni

about 35 unread books that I got for free from public book shelves or from those boxes in the streets

As you might guess, I bought a couple of books but ended up returning one which the second library I checked had after all.

For January, I am setting no reading goal because my life is way too busy already for my level of comfort.

So the goal was to read 2 books during December.

Up till now, I have read 2, both for my career. I am however participating in

fred_mouse's challenge for this week at

readingtogether and hope to make much progress in a third book which has been languishing for about a week now.

If you're up for a quick reading challenge, I highly recommend the linked post. :-)

I have decided to do my own little reading challenge with myself.

Target is to read two books this December.

So far, I have read one, for my career.

Here is the current state of my physical TBR pile:

9 unread books that I paid for, including 2 for my career and 1 for uni

about 35 unread books that I got for free from public book shelves or from those boxes in the streets

My plan is to post at least one post per month on the state of my reading challenge. Perhaps even a weekly or fortnightly check-in post, we shall see. I want to keep this low effort. ;-)

(Hat tip to

fred_mouse and their reading updates! :D)

So thanks to this comm, I am finally reading semi-regularly again.

The current challenge that helped me start again is finished now but I think there are going to be similar ones in the future so I am recommending the comm here now:

readingtogether

P.S.: Reading their profile, it says you can use the comm to promote your own reading challenge so there is the option to DIY one. I would join ;-)

Maybe you remember the DW comment challenge I set for myself back in April: 3,000 comments by 31 December 2023.

Well, I just hit 3,000 comments. Yay! \o/

My RL has recently sucked quite bit so this achievement comes just in time. I love how the comment challenge makes me come on here more often and makes me feel more connected to you all, which in turn makes me feel more like a whole person and less like someone who just works and has no leisure time. All around a win.

As a pace of 2 comments per day seems to work well for me, here is my newest DW comment challenge:

to reach 3,732 comments posted on here by 31 December 2024!

I'm allowing myself a head start to accomodate the anticipated RL challenges next year. ;-)

Mood: accomplished

A long time ago I set a DW comment challenge for myself: to reach 10,000 comments posted on here.

I didn't set a time limit and I think that was a huge mistake. The other mistake was that the target is way too far away therefore progress feels non existent.

So I am setting a new comment challenge for myself:

to reach 3,000 comments posted on here by 31 December 2023!

As of today, I am sitting at 2,519 comments. I think I can reach the target in time but it is going to require me to spend more time on here, read here more regularly and also comment instead of passively consume. Which are things I have wanted to do anyway so I hope this works out.

On 11 February, I started a challenge for myself here on DW: to reach 2000 comments by the end of this year.

It is now 27 October and I have met my goal. A few seconds ago I made my 2000th comment. Yay!

Earlier than expected but that is good because in the upcoming weeks, my wifi access might be spotty and/or time constrained. We shall see.

Since I love numbers and challenges, obviously I cannot resist setting a new challenge for myself:

10 000 comments here on DW!

This time, I am not putting a time limit on myself, though.

Crossposts: https://illariy.livejournal.com/237145.html

My personal challenge is in this year 2019 to increase my number of comments made on Dreamwidth to 2000. It sits currently at 1639. I am not sure if I can make it but I'll give it my best effort! On Livejournal, my number of comments made is over 10000 and I love that.

Mood: energetic
Crossposts: https://illariy.livejournal.com/236351.html

In the last few months, I have seen:

Black Panther: To say that I enjoyed it would be an understatement. It was more like a revelation.

It (2017): My first horror film in quite a while. I liked it but was not very frightened and not as impressed as by Conjuring 2 by far. Looking forward to the sequel anyway.

Whip It: A re-watch but I only stuck with it for the first half of the film. That's what I remembered enjoying the most anyway. Really enjoyed Ellen Page's performance and the roller skating bits.

The first episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Quite enjoyed it, want to watch the rest of it but haven't gotten around to it yet.

A short scene from The Orville and laughed my arse off. Haha. I want to watch more of it to see if I like it although it being produced by Fox makes me a bit wary. We'll see. I haven't even looked if it is available on the German Netflix yet or if I would have to resort to Other Sources.

I want to write more about the books I have read (have been reading more books recently, yay!) but IDK if I want to do it here or not.
The unfortunate fact is that I want to read more fanfic again but I just don't feel as fannish as I used to. Not even for the aforementioned films. That makes me a bit sad, actually. >:(
Currently, I would have the time.

I've also been thinking of making a fannish tumblr. Mostly so I can follow some tumblr peeps with it and potentially interact easier than always being on-anon or on my non-fannish tumblr, where I wouldn't reblog personal posts or fannish stuff etc. at all. Hm. But I hate the tumblr dashboard so much. I tried to use the tumblr app on my phone but that was an even bigger disaster. Maybe I should look into tumblr saviour and xkit and the like.

Crossposts: https://illariy.livejournal.com/236280.html

IMB Watson Personality Insights, where you can input text of at leat 100 words and it does a personality analysis.

I have not checked on teh science side of this but it sure is fun. :D

http://personality-insights-demo.ng.bluemix.net

Crossposts: https://illariy.livejournal.com/235923.html

staranise has some health trouble and could use a little financial help while she searches for jobs. Also, job leads near Edmonton. More details here, if you're so inclined and able to. :-)

-
P.S.: I am still reading my dwircle and f-list ♥ and hope to post an update, both fannish and RL, soon. ;-)

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/233587.html

Captain America 2: Winter Soldier was actually a really thoughtful movie about (a soldier's) loyalty and the surveillance state. It had more about SHIELD than about the winter soldier, though, it seemed. But I'm glad there'll be a sequel.

The Amazing Spiderman 2: Rise of Electro had a likeable-to-me romance plot for once but suffered IMO from the inclusion of two action plots. The second seemed way cramped in.

Divergent had beautiful costume design. This is one where I actually want to watch the sequel for the costumes rather than for the story. From the trailer, I thought she would join some rebels but that is not so. Enjoyable film though it dragged on too long.

Yves Saint Laurent, along with Cap 2 my favourite of the bunch. It focuses on the relationship with Pierre Berge, his business and romantic partner. I would have liked a little more on his manic-depressive phases but well, that is just personal interest. This is a very beautiful film, I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in biopics but not necessarily fashion. It also features Nicolai Kinski as Karl Lagerfeld. And Pierre Niney who plays YSL has truly fantastic hair.

her is about a man who falls in love with an operating system that is an AI. It is a wonderful story about love and what a relationship really is.

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/231157.html

deepad sent around this book to see how it would read to non-Indian audiences and I am very happy to be a part of this experiment.

What is the book about, now? Zoya Solanki works in advertising and during an ad shoot has breakfast with the players on India's cricket team, who then win a match. This repeats a couple of times. When the younger players learn that she was born at the exact time of India's winning the World Cup in 1983, they start to believe she is their lucky charm. In a controversial move, she is invited to accompany the team to the World Cup in Australia. Trouble is, the very attractive captain, Nikhil Khoda, is not on board with the lucky charm plan but mysteriously keeps wooing her...

The book is an entertaining romance; I really enjoyed both the lucky charm and the Nikhil/Zoya plot aspects. Chauhan's writing is very funny, even though I think I missed about 50% of the jokes. Hindi dialogue is interspersed throughout the book and of course, I am sure I misunderstood a lot of the cultural references. But now I feel marginally informed about the Standing in thee Society and also the practice of putting gobar on someone's hoardings ;-) i. e. putting shit on advertising boards of disrespected politicians or celebrities.

Thanks to

deepad for organizing the book's travel!

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/230489.html

For Gladness of You (51055 words) by

kariye
Summary: In which shit goes down in no particular order: Jim almost starts a war, Spock gets tortured, Jim gets kidnapped, Jim gets tortured, Spock gets not-quite-kidnapped, Jim takes the Enterprise joyriding, and mysterious Vulcans with their even more mysterious leader hop a ride for a few weeks. But that’s not what the story’s about. It’s about this: Jim was always going to fall in love with Spock – boldly, recklessly. He just didn’t expect to stay that way. A story about getting over all that.

a genderful analogy by

kaz
A very interesting analogy as a counter-model to the common binary gender categorisations

when people say mean things about you by

staranise
Good post on how to deal with (online) harassment. Some pretty great coping strategies covered. ♥

we are the 95% by

pervocracy
This blog post dismantles the common lie that rapists tell, "If you were in my place, you could have done the same."

building on a swamp by

screamingfatgirl
Thoughtful thoughts on the, um, inner work of weight loss.

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/225215.html

FAQ & Rules | Schedule
Authors | Artists

Perhaps something for interested writers to consider ;-)

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/223010.html

dingsi started this in September and I'll quote his introduction because I like it:

Let me say two things first:
1. It is okay to want nice things. Post your wishlist! You don't have to be/do something special to "deserve" one! Just accept that sometimes people want to give you nice things! Because it makes them feel good, and/or they think you are rocksauce, or: because!
2. It is okay to not give someone what they want. People can be broke, out of energy, too busy, or simply go "eh, I'm not feeling particularly close to this person" and shrug and scroll past. Doesn't make them bad.

So if you're interested and you have the energy, here you can read my current wishes (updated 20 January 2013)

Intangible but amazing:
♥ Your IM handle! AIM or iChat. If we haven't already exchanged it, that is.
♥ DW people. Know anyone who studies or practices psychology, or anyone who writes personal or theoretical stuff about queer, feminist, anti-racist topics, or any combo thereof? Or anyone who writes about their journey with poly and/or asexual relationships? Please point me to them. :-)
♥ Penpals. PM for address if you don't already have it. And be sure to include in your wish list if you appreciate random missives and cards. ;-)
♥ Music recs for electro swing and for indie bands like Le Tigre, La Roux and The Knife.

Let me know if you need an address, preferably via PM. I'll always thank you privately :* but will also ask you if you're okay with being thanked in public - if you don't answer that message, I'll assume private only. Thank you so much! You're all wonderful people and I love reading your entries at night and the back and forth of comments.

Granted wishes:
♥ Leuchtturm 1917 Wochenplaner Medium (A5) for 2013 and financial support → thank you so much,

dingsi :D

Marina made a wish list masterpost. ♥ Please add your link to it if you make a list, right? I want to go by and see if there's anything I could do for you. If not now, then in a few months. :*

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/222237.html

Writing can be pretty miserable. But never fear, there are people who'll be right with you when you're grumping about your resistant characters, your incoherent thesis or your terrifyingly obscure non-fiction writing.

wrisomifu has the outrageous demand that you write 10 minutes per day in November but in recompense, hosts much grumping and/or cheering in the daily check-in posts. ~~Also, joining is worth it just to read the hilarious mod posts.~~

Sign-ups are open on 30 and 31 October. Come and join us in our misery!

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/221516.html

after a while desire is overcome.
sooner or later desire hides behind the skin.
retracts, retreats. then sleeps and sleeps and
keeps on sleeping.

From a beautiful poem, Judith Revisited by Patti Smith.

Secondly, the film "Parada". It's a Serbian feature film about the first pride parade in Belgrade. It's bitchy, it's at times cliched, it's black humour and it doesn't pull away from showing homophobia at its finest. Trigger warnings for graphic violence, hate, death.

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/219998.html

Your irregularly scheduled link update! This is an obvious effort to participate a little more in fandom, again.

Star Trek: New Life and New Civilizations (Gaila/Spock) by

igrockspock
An AU for Rare Pair Fest, this has Gaila arriving early at the academy and finding support in unexpected places. I like it quite a lot, especially the ending.

I'm also really enjoying

poetry's daily poem posts.

Crossposts: http://illariy.livejournal.com/219310.html

social butterpillar

Recent Entries

reading "Dune Messiah"

final update to reading challenge with self

mid-way update for reading challenge with self

reading challenge with self

finally reading again

DW comment challenge achieved!

new DW comment challenge

DW challenge update

my 2019 DW challenge

State of the fannishness

link

signal boost

films I watched recently

Anuja Chauhan: The Zoya Factor

from the desk #2

the tentacles are coming! to your text editor of choice

permanent wish list

misery loves company

two recs for national coming out day

from the desk #1