Nane: Kim

Age: 45

These questions were written by frieliegh.

1. If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?

2. Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being life partners for many years?

3. Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?

4. If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?

5. Which would you rather hear--the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

Hello, all! I know I'm a little late to really consider this a new year's post, but here I am looking to meet a few new people nevertheless.

About me:
My name is Katie. I'm 47 years old, and this summer will mark my 25th year of journaling on LJ/DW/both.

I'm a writer by profession, primarily of literary fiction with occasional book reviews for variety. I live in Philadelphia with my partner of 27 years (she's a high school physics teacher). We have a pair of eight-month-old kittens named Oscar and Zorro. I'm the oldest of three sisters in a pretty close-knit family. My sisters have five kids between them, and being an aunt is basically my favorite thing.

I love books and am always reading. Favorite authors include E.M. Forster, Marilynne Robinson, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lauren Groff, Andrea Barrett.... The list could go on and on. I also love the outdoors and learning about nature. I've been a birdwatcher for years; more recently I've gotten into things like butterflies and insects, reptiles, wildflowers, and more. In summer, my favorite thing is finding wild orchids. My partner and I like to travel, and when we do, I use it as an opportunity to learn about the amazing variety of nature in other places.

In case you haven't already guessed, I'm a very introverted person. I spend most of my time at home, where I keep myself busy writing, reading, or in the kitchen. I like cooking, baking, and food preservation, and I'm always working on some sort of kitchen project or trying to teach myself a new skill.


About my journal:
My journal began as a place for me to keep track of my reading, and that's still the subject I write about most often. Other frequent topics include the interests mentioned above: writing, nature, cooking and baking. I tend to post more about what I'm thinking than about what I'm doing at any given time, although I do sometimes use my journal to keep track goals or record projects that I'm working on. I often include photos. I would say I post about once a week...but realistically it's probably a bit less than that.

If you're looking for a friend who comments on every single post, I'm probably not the right person for you. I do like to interact and I always read my friends page, but I prefer to comment only when I have something worth saying. Also, I've found over the years that I don't mesh well with extremely prolific posters. Once a day is fine, but if it's more than that I have trouble keeping up.

My journal is friends-locked for privacy, but I will be happy to add anyone who's interested in checking it out. And I won't be offended if it turns out that it's not your style.

Say hello if you think we'd get along!

I collect false treasures in empty wardrobes.

This quote by Paul Eluard opens book #14 from the "Women in Translation" rec list, which continues to fatten up my TBR list. This is Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. This novella, originally published in the 1960s, is about the ways in which women are subsumed by the men in their lives, or otherwise are buffeted about with less control over their lives than they ought to have.

The forward by Kate Zambreno is a wonderfully complementary piece. She talks about the anger she feels going to a woman's funeral and hearing the dead woman sanctified by men in her life who did nothing but take from her, who can speak of her only to praise what she did for others, and can say nothing about what the woman herself was. 

Sometimes you can read a book and just know the author was angry when she wrote it. This is one of those. The book uses the phrase "discreet rage" about one of its characters, and I think that sentiment succinctly describes the whole book. The protagonist, Dora Rosario, is ten years into widowhood, and she has devoted her entire life to mourning her unremarkable husband as much as she had previous devoted her life to supporting his every opinion regardless of whether or not she agreed with it. Now, a decade on, her mother-in-law reveals something about Dora's late husband that changes her entire perspective.

I would like to believe we are moving away from the world portrayed in Empty Wardrobes (though not with as much success as I'd like), but this is a stark reminder of how even a few generations ago, in the Sixties, a woman's identity was so controlled by her husband's. There are only two men in this book--Duarte, Dora's dead husband, and Ernesto, the longtime partner of a side character--and they both, through social structures, exercise incredible control over the lives of the women around them without any respect or even knowledge of their impact.

The three main women in this book--Dora, her daughter Lisa, and the narrator--each take a different approach to the male romantic partners in their lives, and none of them comes out the better for it (well, perhaps for Lisa, but I personally doubt it will last), because the ultimate problem is societal attitudes about the way men and women are meant to relate to each other. 

It's not a long book, and I can't say much more without spoiling things, but I also think it does some fabulous things with its narration and perspective, and the way it doles out information. Really an excellent framing that allows for a lot of fluidity and filling in gaps with your own visions while remaining clear in the nature of the story it's telling. 

This book was only translated into English in 2021, which is a shame, because I think it would have struck a nerve much earlier, but we have it now! Costa does an excellent job with the work too; the writing is full of punchy phrases like the above, and she captures some realistic dialogue--characters repeating themselves, responding in ways that don't quite match up with what was asked, etc.--while keeping it natural-sounding. 

Gonna try to make a tradition of re-promoting myself yearly in January~

Name(s): Azure or Bede. I answer to both, so use whichever floats your boat!
Age: 20-something
Hobbies: Writing (fanfic, essays and fan analysis), drawing, editing (videos, images and gifs), coding, researching (almost exclusively things that don't matter), and gaming!
Fandoms: I mainly participate in video game fandoms! Right now, I'm really into Pokémon (my one true fandom), Cookie Run, Great God Grove, In Stars and Time, Kingdom Hearts, Vocaloid, and Splatoon. I'm at least passively interested in most Nintendo games, though. I'm also a furry (rabbit fursona)!

I mostly post about... My fandoms, non-fannish interests (including disability, queerness, the indie web, writing, art and alterhumanity), and some personal stuff!
I'm looking to meet people who... Have similar interests (whether that be fandom or non-fandom), or who just pass the vibe check and have interesting things to say.
My posting schedule tends to be... A little bit sporadic! I go through small periods of inactivity. When I come back, I always cross-post everything I've posted onto other platforms with the back-dating feature, though! I love commenting on other people's posts, and try to do it as often as possible.
When I add people, my dealbreakers are... Bigots, right-wingers, and AI "artists". Christians who try converting others, or who don't CW for religious discussion. (No offense to the latter, it's a personal thing.) Regarding fandom, I'm squicked out by Harry Potter (I'm trans; I hope you can understand!) and Hazbin Hotel, and have pedophilia/incest/rape as triggers.
Before you add me, you should know... I'm autistic and otherwise mentally disabled, so please be patient with me! I'm from the South of the USA, so I use petnames very casually ("honey, darling, dear," etc). You can also (or alternatively) add my account for my fanfic and fandom meta exclusively, fairyfic.

Name: Ciacconne

Age: Mid 30s

I mostly post about: My life, health, and fandom stuff.

My hobbies are: Writing, reading, gaming, and art.

My fandoms are: Harry Potter, FF16, FF7, Frieren, Slayers, Gintama, Kekkai Sensen, YGO— basically game and anime fandoms.

I'm looking to meet people who: Share my interests and fandoms.

My posting schedule tends to be: daily/weekly/monthly/sporadic/etc — I post daily, or will try to post daily now.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: People who are antis.

Before adding me, you should know: I focus a lot on my health, be it mental or physical.

see more here @ joicon

These questions were written by losseloth.

1. Do you have a favourite cause that you support?

2. If so, how do you support it?

3. Have you been an active member of an organization (attending meetings, volunteering, etc)?

4. Have you ever led any group?

5. If so, how was your experience with it?
OR: 5. If not, why, is it a conscious choice, of lack of opportunity?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

First book of 2026! This was The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente with illustrations by Michael Kaluta. I have no recollection of how this ended up on my TBR and I was a little skeptical checking it out in the library, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it ended up being a lot of fun and I will definitely check out the second volume.

You might be a little confused in the beginning, as In the Night Garden is a series of nested stories within stories and the style takes a minute to get used to, but it's worth it. Valente unfolds a veritable matryoshka of tales into neat blooms whose petals all fit together. Retroactive reveals and recontextualiations are delightful here. 

Valente's vivid prose brings together her fantastical tales with such clarity; she attends frequently to all five senses, so that the reader knows what the characters are not only seeing, but hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling as well. There's obviously a lot of fairy tale inspiration here, but Valente definitely brings her own flavor. Women are almost always the hero of Valente's tales (though they play the villains too!) and there are such a great variety of them. Monsters abound too, but they get their chance to tell a tale too. (There's also some gentle ribbing at the Arthurian legends, with one witch lamenting about "all that questing" princes get up to.)

I was so engrossed in the work I didn't realize until quite late in the book how little romance factors into it. In a fairy tale inspired book like this, I would have expected a great many characters motivated by romance, but I can only think of two here who are primarily motivated by a love interest, and this delights me too. I'm arospec myself and while I enjoy a good tale of romance, I also weary of how frequently and totally it is centered in stories, so I was really enthused by how little that's the case here.

Friendship and family relationships do make frequent appearances though, and the friendship between the orphan teller of tales and the young boy hanging onto her words is the framing story. Love between mother and daughter, between brother and sister, even between strangers is a common thread.

She also avoids a pitfall I see in various modern fantasy stories which are so keen to explain the magic of their world they strip it of all mystery. Valente's world remains largely unexplained and asks the reader to simply take it as it is, which I found fun and appropriately mysterious.

The style of the book allows Valente to pull in a great many diverse characters and voices, which she does it well. Most impressive though is her ability to pull a cohesive tapestry out of all the various threads she's juggling.

A really fun and unusual story which I enjoyed a lot--a great start to a new year of reading!

No Man's Land: Volume 3 by Sarah A. Hoyt

The tale concludes! Spoilers ahead for the earlier two.

( Read more... )

Name: Tom

Age: 58

I mostly post about: Day to day life, random thoughts, whatever I'm watching/reading, etc. It's more or less stream of consciousness, though I try to link certain items that I consider relevant; books, restaurants, significant locations, etc. In the past, I've used Amazon to link them, but as I have grown to really hate Jeff Bezos for what he's done to the Washington Post, I now use Barnes and Noble for book links.

My hobbies are: TTRPs (primarily Dungeons and Dragons), community theater, cooking, hiking, camping, wine collecting, computer programming (also my profession but I like to code for fun as well), writing, reading, building things, tinkering, drawing, and more things I generally have no actual time for.

My fandoms are: Star Trek, Doctor Who, Marvel (Silver Age), A Song of Ice and Fire, Remembrance of Earth's Past aka The Three Body Problem, et al. Some of my favorite authors include Douglas Adams, George R.R. Martin, James S. A. Corey, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorock, Brad Meltzer, John Steinbeck, and William Gibson. There are more, but that's who comes to mind.

I'm looking to meet people who: are basically cool and like to interact. I have a presence on other socials but I don't like using them because they either have become echo chambers, or are trying to push things on me in which I have no interest. I'm not looking to share memes and I have no interest in someone's OnlyFans page. I have nothing against people who have that sort of thing, but it doesn't interest me. I'd rather interact with someone who might want to discuss the Medici family of Renaissance Florence, or discuss the actual mechanics of LLMs rather than rant about how AI is going to destroy the world. Want to talk meaningfully about physics, archeology, musicology, mythology, literature, or the nature of consciousness? You might be someone I'd like to know.

My posting schedule tends to be: It's been kind of sporadic over the last year, but I'm looking to make a fresh start this year. I won't post daily, probably, but weekly at least.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: If you're MAGA, move on. I probably represent everything you hate, and I don't have time to educate people in a cult. I do not tolerate hate speech, homophobia, transphobia, incels, etc.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm an atheist for starters. I don't have a problem with people of faith, provided they don't try to rub my nose in it. I don't generally countenance evangelicals or fundamentalists, or anyone who feels the need to inject some performative demonstration of their supposed piety into literally every situation. I've known many people like this, and I lose patience with them very quickly.

I'm a 2 time cancer survivor. The last bout was diagnosed 4 years ago, and nearly killed me. I've written about some of the experience here, but may expand on it more in the future, now that I feel like I'm in a reasonably good headspace to think about what I went through.

I try to be polite and respectful of everyone with whom I interact. I expect the same from others. Slurs, insults, etc., are not tolerated. The basic rule of interacting with me: Don't be a dick. It's pretty much the closest thing I have to a philosophy of life.

Most of my journal is friends locked, but I'm happy to add people if they're interested. I've met some wonderful people here, and am always happy to meet more.

 <b><p>Name:</b> </p> Regis 

No Man's Land: Volume 2 by Sarah A. Hoyt

The second of three volumes. This is not a trilogy of separate stories, but dictated by the limits of modern-day binding technology. Spoilers ahead for the first volume. Also, do not read this one first because you will be baffled.

( Read more... )

No Man's Land: Volume 1 by Sarah A. Hoyt

The first of three volumes. This is not a trilogy of separate stories, but dictated by the limits of modern-day technology.

( Read more... )