When I first started my "deep dive" into all things Star Wars, "Rebels" was big white space on my radar. At the first glance, none of the main characters was familiar, and while I liked what I had seen from "Clone Wars" at that point, I was quite unsure if another animated series would live up to my (limited at that time) expectations XD Suffice to say that it did, mostly by delivering one of my all-time favorite tropes, "found family", pretty much from the get-go. Over the course of the four seasons, we not only get to know the entire team a lot better, we also see the growing rebellion against the Empire coming to life, and meet familiar faces, such as Mon Mothma, Princess Leia, Bail Organa, or, in one of the best episodes of the entire series, Obi-Wan Kenobi. This set was made for the inaugural Round 1 of free20in20. Enjoy!

( Rebellions are based on hope... )


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I've been doing my little comics but I've also been compelled to draw my City of Heroes characters a bunch, especially two named Silver Cygnet and Bugpunch, who are roommates.

Here are those drawings - see if you can spot my progress as it goes on.

( advice I saw once was if you want to improve your art, get a blorbo and then get mentally sick about them )


Characters featured were: Silver Cygnet/Su Yang, Bugpunch/Ladybird Latreille, Tough Girl, Agent Larimar (not my character) and Blood Widow Spitfire, and Brainfever.

Earlier this month I realised that it was exactly 20 years since my first convention: Highlander Worldwide 7 in Leeds. It was also my first international trip. I found a welcoming community of friends there and many, many fond memories.

This also reminded me of the film crew that came to make a documentary of the event, directed by David Abramowitz. Driven by a desire to rewatch that (where I'm one of the fans interviewed) I looked through my dusty old collection of DVDs. It had been bonus material on something. A lot of detective work followed and I figured out that it had been part of the 2007 Highlander Best of the Best box set. A box set that I had long ago given to someone. Thanks to eBay I now finally found it and uploaded it to Youtube. After posting on Facebook (the only place I connect to some of my old HL friends) I got a thanks from David A. for posting it.

My movie list is now at 210 entries - I'd be adding The Barbarian Brothers tonight but I got exhausted at minute 39 and rainchecked the bff for tomorrow night. Finally some oiled hunk content though. A man has needs.

We were going to watch Shin Godzilla tonight (the Movie Pals, which consist of me, Ann, and Vali) but I discovered a Lovecraft movie by Roger Corman was leaving Prime in a few days so we switched to The Dunwich Horror starring Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee. Sandra Dee's hair kept increasing in size as a dominance thing and Dean Stockwell had an amazing style of line reading. Also he has very pretty eyes. I was pleased/surprised they thanked me for the movie choice after. That was nice! I liked that.

The slump is sort of being overcome, since last post.

I bought 48 cadbury creme eggs because it turns out you can just buy the box they take the singles out of before they open it. Follow me for more life hacks.

I've been roleplaying a lot in City of Heroes lately, something I never did outside of close friends before and it has been a lot of fun. I think my main attractiveness as a roleplayer is I do not think I need to win any encounter, social or fighting.

Today's episode involved my character trying to kidnap another and it going so poorly the hostage gave the kidnapper a pep talk.

Starfleet Academy is cancelled and S2 will be the last one. This is sad because it's a good show. But the interests of the IP holders are not my interests. 

I will cancel Paramount Plus and go back to my plan of buying all of Trek on DVD. 

I saw a rumor somewhere that there's going to be a whole new Trek movie in a whole new timeline with all new people, unrelated to any prior show. But it's very much in preproduction. It may never happen. 

Somehow I never thought I would outlive Star Trek. I guess technically I haven't yet so I guess fingers crossed I do! 

My music situation: 
Many years of subscription to Apple Music but with just a few playlists. I listen mostly via headphones because I struggle to remember to charge my bluetooth speaker, and I think my Apple speakers are outdated. Apple Music has the most complete library of my musical tastes. It's $10/month.

I currently have Amazon Prime and am wondering about ordering one of those Amazon speakers and just using Amazon Music, which apparently comes with Prime. I'm playing it right now on my Fire tablet and it seems fine. Then I could stop subscribing to Apple Music, although that means rebuilding my library. 

I also have a ton of CDs from before my streaming switchover that I had intended to sell or donate but never quite parted with. My car has a CD player so sometimes I do play them. I see that now they sell CD players that will stream to bluetooth speakers - or I could simply buy an old-fashioned boom box. I could give up streaming music and go back to buying CDs. No playlists though. Although I guess I would still have Amazon Music for that. 

Has anyone else wrestled with these issues and found good solutions? I'm interested in other people's experiences with giving up streaming or with switching from Apple Music to other providers. 

Guess who started playing Hades :D

Which is why I haven't been around much this week! I'm having a fantastic time, and I've also been staying up way too late and generally forgetting to do things because I think I have time for just one more run. Greek mythology was arguably my first fandom as a kid - alongside Narnia and The Hobbit - so the whole thing is extremely up my alley, and it's a really, really pretty game.

(All these years later, I'm amused that my otherwise restriction-happy parents handed me unabridged translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad when I was eight and ten, respectively. Return of the Jedi was off-limits because Princess Leia wore a bikini, but The Iliad is probably totally fine!)

Ice by Anna Kavan. Apocalypse via gigantic moving walls of ice while an insane dude chases a girl around the world. This was trippy. None of the characters are named. There are abrupt and seemingly impossible POV shifts. It's very psychological horror to follow this obsessed misogynist and his thought processes. Gives similar psychological/climate horror vibes as J. G. Ballard's The Drowned World and the writing hits.

-

In TV, I finished Starfleet Academy (season 1) and apparently they have already cancelled it, boo. Was it a little clunky, sure, but all the characters were really fun! I LOVE my Klingon med student Jay-Den and sunshine War College student Kyle and admiral's daughter Genesis and they all deserve more screen time. This show let me see a Vulcan use the phrase 'eat glass' and Paramount has the audacity to cancel it??

In good news though, I went to see Project Hail Mary and it was a great, hopeful space movie. Might go see it again <3 Also need to find if anyone has made any Rocky icons. He's my new best friend.

latam is a community for people to come together to talk about Latin American music, films, food, culture, fandom, etc. The official languages of the community are Spanish, Portuguese and English.

vforvictoryexchange, a multi-fandom exchange about V-shaped polyamory ships, is open for nominations until March 27th, 10PM Eastern.

bitesizedfandomsex, an exchange for fandoms whose canons can be read, watched, played, or otherwise experienced in 8 or fewer hours, is accepting nominations until March 28th, 11:59PM Eastern.

narniaexchange, a community/exchange based on the Chronicles of Narnia books/movies is running a adult oriented prompt fest on AO3. Prompting is open and will close on March 30th.

fangfrenzyficexchange, a vampire themed (canon and AUs of non-vampire fandoms) fic exchange, is open for sign-ups until March 31st, 10AM Eastern.

Sunset Archive, a site using AO3's code dedicated to F/F, NB/F and NB/NB fanworks, is running its inaugural prompt meme. Prompting will close on March 31st but fills are open indefinitely.

fandom5k, a multi-fandom gift exchange for fic with a 5,000-word minimum and comics with a 5-page minimum, is accepting nominations until April 1st. It will then close temporarily and reopen when sign-ups do.

seasons_of_fandom, a multifandom community where you join a team and participate in challenges to earn your team points, is starting a new round on April 4th! Find out more info and sign up HERE. (And let them know I sent you if you do!)

seasonalremix, a quarterly, trope-based multifandom event focused on remixing an already existing work, has opened sign-ups for its Spring 2026 Round until April 11th, 11:59PM GMT.

Apparently this week is one with too few hours and too many tasks...I'll be pulling a late night or possibly all nighter to try to catch up!

Annoyingly driving home tonight I was fiddling with my ear piercings and popped both the back and the little cabochon off the smallest one on the left hand side - which is now somewhere in my car, so I'll never find it. Back to the lovely Willow I go on Friday to get a replacement stud and I'll get one or two helix piercings done at the same time.

I postponed the work thing I was due to do on Saturday because I need a full weekend to:

* spend some time on the allotment - 26 bags of compost to spread from last weekend
* sort out what I'm taking to Wales besides all my dirty laundry (which will get done up there)
* chill out a bit- maybe?
* sort out the chaos of 300 open tabs over 3 windows..
* make a start on decluttering the living and bedrooms

Seen on insta today all of which sum up my life right now:

* I don't have a train of thought, I have 7 trains on 4 tracks that narrowly avoid each other when their paths cross and all the conductors are screaming

* My ducks are not in a row. Some are missing, one's on fire and I'm pretty sure one is a pigeon.

* A reminder that Persephone is the goddess of flowers and also the Queen of Hell, so don't ever think that you have to fit into just one box.

I have far too many insta posts saved about tattooists doing fantastic floral and botanical work - which is what I want on my left arm. Currently I'm torn between fineline blackwork or something more colourful. I think I may need a proper vision board to help me decide. The aim is to get new ink before the end of the year. Then I can start planning for the right arm!

Also we're in the middle of fools spring - 19 or 20 degrees, brilliant sunshine and blue skies for the last week lulled us all into a false sense of security. Today the temps plunged and we had 4 seasons in 30 mins including torrential rain, sleet, and sunshine. Likely frost overnight - at least I don't have any tender plants outside yet.

Annnnd our office move - which was supposed to happen on Friday so I would have had 2 days to unpack before going away - has been postponed until 6 April - slapping in the middle of my holiday. What's the betting I come back on 13 April and my stuff will have disappeared into the ether?

Right - time for a giant pot of coffee, a rug to snuggle under and to fire up the work laptop.

 Happy birthday heartonsnow ! Hope your day was great! 

I have such immense sympathy for characters who die in horror movies when they didn't even want to be there in the first place. Partners who got dragged along on a trip, or friends who were talked into doing something they didn't want to.

That said, I also feel that horror movies would be more compelling if the Big Bad were up against smart victims a little more often.

I just got through reading two really long books around 500 pages each. Now I'm on the fence over what to read next - Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky (576 pages) or reread Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary (476 pages). It would be nice to be lured in by a short book for a change.

Immediately in front of you, as you enter the palace, is the most important chamber in the palace: the Chara's court.

As you will have gathered by now, peninsularean royal life is centered upon the rulers' status as High Judges over their people. This can be seen most clearly in the Chara's court, which contains an impressive throne where the Chara sits as he hears his court cases.

The main doors to the court are gilded but plain in design, except for the inscription on them of a balance (scale) holding a bird in one pan and a sword in the other pan. This is the Chara's emblem, which appears on Emorian banners, on covers of the Chara's law books, and in many other places. The doors are two storeys tall and are made deliberately heavy. At the time they were built, occasional outbreaks of fighting still occurred between the Chara and his council. The fortress-heavy doors permitted the Chara to endure a siege by his council.

Today, the doors are guarded during council sessions. Assuming you have already gone through the protocol of entrance into the palace, you may simply give your name to the guards there; they will check the list of palace guests and then permit you into the court.

There is no seating in the court, except for the Chara, but you will see that Emorians stand in orderly rows. There is no special section for visitors; simply stand in one of the rows. The rows surround the Chara's throne on four sides. Which side is the best is hotly debated. I recommend the back side for new visitors. This will allow you to watch the Chara's arrival, but it will shield you from watching the face of the Chara transform into "the look of the Chara," which many visitors find as terrifying as a similar transformation in the face of Koretia's ruler.

Light conversation is permitted before the court session begins. The arrival of the Chara is signalled by trumpets. From that point on, you should remain silent and motionless. Even coughs and sneezes are considered so disruptive that you may end up expelled by the vigilant guards.

An exception to this respectful silence is if you bring a translator. Your translator should introduce himself as such when you enter the court. He may whisper a translation to you during the proceedings. Translators who use gestures to convey their information should take care not to bump into other visitors in the compact rows of listeners.

The court follows the same procedure during every case: The prisoner is brought forward under guard, the charges are read, and previously scribed accounts by witnesses are recited by the Chara's clerk. Witnesses are usually present in the court, so that the Chara may ask them questions if needed. The prisoner's own document of witness will be recited. He will be given an opportunity to declare aloud his innocence or guilt, to provide further witness to his actions, and to call upon any additional witnesses present in the court, who may have decided at the last minute to speak on his behalf. At the end of the case, the Chara will offer his judgment, using a time-honored ritual. The prisoner will then be escorted out of the court, either to be freed or to be punished. See the chapter on the Chara's law for more information.

If you are in the court as a witness, you may be asked to come forward. Stand at the foot of the thirty-step platform holding the throne, directly in the Chara's view. You should bow to the Chara, if your gods permit that. Eastern mainlanders may prostrate themselves, but should do so in the briefest manner possible; lengthy obeisances are not valued in the Three Lands. If your beliefs do not permit you to bow or make obeisance, then you should nod your head briefly, as a courteous acknowledgment of the Chara's status as High Judge. Lack of any gesture will be seen as insulting and may harm your nation's relations with Emor.

Wait until the Chara's clerk – the man at the Chara's right hand, who has been reciting the witness documents – signals you to speak. Thereafter, take your cues from the Chara, answering any questions he asks. Do not volunteer any information you have not been asked. Do not greet the Chara by words. Do not – may your gods protect you – compliment the Chara on his outfit or engage in other light chitchat. Emorians are highly formal people; only the eastern mainlanders take protocol more seriously than Emorians do. Whatever you may think of this strict formality, you should conform to it. Believe me when I say that southern peninsulareans find this nearly as much a strain as northern mainlanders do; nonetheless, if you take the trouble to visit Emor, you need to follow their sometimes onerous customs.

If you're tempted to make a public fuss, keep in mind that the small door at the north side of the court, through which the prisoner enters and exits, leads almost directly into the Chara's dungeon.

[Translator's note: The Chara's court is in session in Blood Vow.]

So, Blood and Tea and Red String (2006), the love child of one person, made over the course of over 10 years, is my new favourite thing. If you want to make a dark fairy tale, embrace the fact it's still a fairy tale, which this movie certainly did.

Basically, the aristocratic Mice ask the Oak Creatures to make them the doll of their desires. They do, but they live the doll so much they offer the Mice's money back to keep it. The Mice steal it.

Reality and fiction mix. I feel like there's something about women being treated as objects (and then there's the spider woman). Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe it's just a surreal piece of art.

(Also, the water is made of, I think, that very transparent film one can use to wrap food or whatever. Lovely!)

Last week was busy, this week will be too - but we have spring weather here in London, blue skies and that combination plus my current obsession is stopping me spiralling into apathy.

HOME: continuing the slow and steady deep clean and declutter - bathroom done. Next up is the bedroom. Didn't quite tick off all my targets last week but happy with progress.

HEALTH new hair cut was a hit at work - unexpected compliments left, right and centre! Opened up piercings not giving me any issues - definitely going back for helix (helices???) in May or June. Titanium jewellery the way to go. Planning new tattoos too. Sleep patterns normalising as I'm trying to put in the effort to get a solid 6-7 hours a night. Arthritic knees feeling OK. Rejoined the gym at the weekend - now just need to figure out how to fit sessions into my days. Need to find my Fitbit.

LIFE ADMIN: pretty much up to date - need to sort out green waste fees for the cottage, review council tax bills for cottage and London and apply for a postal vote. Sorting pensions on back burner until decluttering done - which should reveal where I stashed all the paperwork!

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: email still around 11,000, not managed to reduce it - in fact I looked away from it last week and by the weekend had 2000 unread. Ugh. Staying on top of transferring To Keep items from tablet to dropbox, have started reviewing and decanting images from phone because it is FULL.

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: barrowed 30 bags of compost from delivery site fown to my plot on Friday. Community day at the plots on Saturday, which was lovely, and then Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon I started prepping my plot. I have a plan to tackle it in 1-2 hour blocks to avoid overwhelm.

COOKING/EATING: fewer takeaways last week and stocked up on healthy food at the weekend - so no excuse for bad habits. Getting back into overnight oats for breakfast (great for grab and go mornings) and giant salads for lunch. Reactivated membership of a logging site which let's me track macros and calories - suspect I'm out of whack on my carb/protein balances.

READING/LISTENING: Finished re-reading Heated Rivalry matching book chapters to rewatch episodes. May be diving back into a reread of the other books as I have time off for Easter.

WATCHING: still Heated Rivalry all the way. I think I've fully reheated 5 times but also watched various eps as standalone so ai'm at the point where I've lost count and no longer care. I'm all up in the fanvids too - I'd forgotten how much I enjoy them! Picking up some shorter fan edits too (mostly from tumblr and insta I think). May have to do a short term subscription to YouTube premium over Easter so I can legally download my faves. This fandom is also very generous - people are sharing Google doc fic links which are truly epic and so much other material. Unfortunately reading between the lines the fandom has evolved as fast as the show which means certain of the less great things are surfacing - homophobia, racism and in some places exclusion of queer audiences which WTAF way to miss the point. I want all the nice things do not piss off the show runner, creatives or actors. Luckily my lists are curated so I only tend to see this alluded to and not the actual posts. And it sounds like many of the people involved have stepped back from social media engagement - which, good for them!

CREATING/LEARNING: still have crochet projects underway - we did new things at crochet club on Friday so no progress on existing projects - spring wreath, Halloween blanket, granny square blanket, hexicardi, granny square bags x 2. Might get one or two done by the end of the month.

CATS: all good. They're both being super affectionate at the moment. Cuddles all the time.

VOLUNTEERING: community day at the plots was good with another one planned for 19 April. Our community plot - where we host parties and the plant sale - is looking good.

SOCIALISING: busier than usual last week! Post work drinks with a few colleagues on Thursday - just for an hour - which was both nice and enough. Hung around a bit on Friday afternoon with allotment people during compost distribution. Same on Saturday as we had a pizza lunch after working. And a few calls with ravurian.

WORK: first round of inspections almost done - hope to finish this week. Need to do the ton of admin it generates and deal with end of year close down. Reprofiled my parts of the capital budget. Have mostly packed everything for the office move at the end of the week.

Today I'm working from home - likely in the office Tuesday through Thursday and probably Friday morning, then working Saturday 11 to 2pm. Aiming to try and add in some gym and allotment time to this week too.

I made a bag charm/bag ornament. I've actually made this design twice: once as a Christmas ornament for a friend (which I posted here), and now the bag charm for me. The finishing for the bag charm was challenging and some of the irregular border finishing snagged. So not perfect, but cute and looks good on my bag.

Compare:
Chili Pepper as bag charm


Chili Pepper as Christmas ornament (green cording all the way around)


Not sure what projects I will work on next, but I'll definitely post pictures once they're done.🙂

I seem to be struggling with Anne Tyler at the moment...
I gave A Spool of Blue Thread a try but didn't get very far.
The opening chapter is one quite confusing conversation and then almost 50 pages of summary, skimming over about ten years in the history of a particular family.
I didn't connect with any of the characters and wasn't interested enough in their story to want to carry on.

The Missing One by Lucy Atkins follows Kali and her toddler son on an impulsive trip to Canada after the death of her mother. Kali is trying to find out more about her mother's life around the time she (Kali) was born. I was initially rather put off this book because the lack of contractions in the main narrative made the reading experience feel stilted. But I was interested enough in Kali and her story to keep going for a while. My attention started drifting towards the halfway point, though, as the whole started to feel repetitive and over-wrought, while at the same time not seeming to be going anywhere particularly interesting.