Every time I planned to post and got sidelined, something else got added to the list.

1) 3weeks4dreamwidth is underway, and I am again hosting a points donation and gifting event. If you have US $3 (or more) to spare, join in!

Dreamwidth stays afloat by selling paid services, but a lot of users can't buy them for one reason or another. That's a lot of people who would like to support the site but either can't get the payment through or are currently unable to start or maintain services. So if you currently can, leave a comment (all donors and recipient comments are screened) by May 4. At that point, a call will go out for recipients and they'll be matched up by May 15.

2) Finished the Fire of Love documentary about French volcanologists spending their lives studying volcanoes. Some of the footage they got is just spectacular, almost technicolor. But the risks they took are appalling. ( Read more... )

3) We finished watching S1 of the Puzzle Lady last month. It was fine as a series; we would watch more. One thing that stood out to me was the wardrobe and decor which normally is not something that catches my attention. ( Read more... )

4) A recent episode of Jeopardy had the following quotes in a category about words from the Founding Fathers. I don't think their choices were a coincidence:

"Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net." – John Adams

James Madison wrote, "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

5) I'm still watching Daredevil Ep 6 (which I have been looking forward to) but I thought Ep 5 was really well done. The way the stories were balanced out, the flashbacks, and the details were well written. I think that was probably the best Marvel show episode I've seen so far. ( Read more... )

I've got some colorful dreamsheep icons up over at dreamsheep in celebration of 3weeks4dreamwidth! I'm also taking color and color combination requests.

I'm aiming to get a Mood Theme in a Hurry calendar done and posted by this evening, but I've also got Surprise Cramps to deal with, so we'll see what wins 😑

I absolutely love tarot for the rich visuals and just how many different readings/thoughts it can prompt. And many people use tarot for creative work, storytelling, roleplaying... and so here it is, the prompt meme! Featuring The Mystical Dream Tarot & The Citadel: A Fantasy Oracle.


The Mystical Dream Tarot & Citadel Oracle
Prompt Meme
(no pic of Citadel Oracle as I'm reusing thew old banner)

+ Post your creations either in the comments, or your own journal.
+ If you want it added to the masterlist, also link your creation in the Prompt Fills thread.
+ All works should be new for this meme, and not something you’ve already created/posted elsewhere.
+ Any and all works welcome. Poetry, meta, stories, memories, art, whatever comes to mind. Wanna crochet? That's fucking amazing. You do you.
+ Please use NSFW/trigger warnings in the comment title/masterlist comment if they apply.
+ I'll reply with the cards drawn to your comment. Feel free to ask for a new prompt if the first one falls flat (new comment). Do give the prompt a day to linger though, an idea might just jump out at you throughout the day. The cards tend to do that ;)
+ Taking prompt requests until Thursday, May 30th.

Right click + show image in new tab = full size image of your pull

Handy Dandy Request Format
<b>Deck:</b> <b>One/Three Cards:</b> <b>Text:</b> Y/N (trying to intuit from the image itself can be a lot of fun)

Handy Dandy Promo Code
<center><a href="https://goodbyebird.dreamwidth.org/570245.html"><img src="https://goodbyebird.dreamwidth.org/file/1357051.jpg"></a> <big>The Mystical Dream Tarot & Citadel Oracle <a href="https://goodbyebird.dreamwidth.org/570245.html">Prompt Meme</a></big> Open to all fanworks. Come play with us!</center>

Remember, this event is specifically for #ThreeWeeksForDreamwidth, so keeping your creation exclusive to Dreamwidth for the next week is highly appreciated ♥

Hello hello! For 3weeks4dreamwidth, I will be highlighting one song a day. The songs are taken from my backlog, to make a long explanation short.

ANGEL EATER by BONES. Ft. Gekiyaku and Kazehiki

To the angel watching over me: I'm sorry.
Warning: Lyrics discuss abuse, video contains flashing lights and eye strain-y colors.

( Quick Thoughts )
( Lyrics/Vocals )
( MV )
( Intrumentals )

I've been neglecting this space despite the fact that it has huge potential. I'd really like to use it more regularly. So, I think I'm going to use 3weeks4dreamwidth to set a habit of using the space. There are a few different ways I feel like I can work toward that goal other than just posting more regular.

1. Practice HTML and customize my page

It would be extremely helpful for me to reorient myself with how to use HTML via customizing my page layout, learning how to add cuts, insert photos etc. I honestly don't always have something to say especially with the news being so stressful but I would like to consistently use this space as a daily photoblog. Right now, because I'm rusty on HTML the task seems a bit intimidating. I know this stuff isn't hard, I've done it before, I just need practice.

2. Find Some Communities to join or make my own

The only thing that keeps pulling me back to these social apps that I hate is the sheer number of people using them and how that makes each niche community inevitably larger and more easy to find. Since Dreamwidth skews a bit more toward fandom than lifestyle blogs folks who collect houseplants, share photos of walks, or collect physical media are fewer and further between when looking via profiles. However, the community aspect of the site implies there might be hidden Physical media, walk, and collection communities hidden in plain sight. IF THERE AREN"T I think it would be easy enough to make a Physical Media appreciation community (maybe called "Let's Get Physical"), a community focused on sharing photos and entries about walks or hikes, and/or whatever else.

3. Create some personal theme days and events

I've been depressed and it's resulted in some severe anhedonia. I'm trying to push out of it. I've made a lot of lifestyle changes to support me being happier and more productive and I am feeling beeter but I don't have an underlying routine to help me practice doing things that bring me joy. So, since I enjoy painting maybe I could create for myself a month long drawing challenge or a song sharing challenge. Elsewhere I shared the stack of CDs I accumulated from each week's listening prior to putting them away. Something similar to that even is a fun and low maintenance way to share what I've been listening to.

4. Set aside time once a day to look at my reading page and comment.

This one is probably the most important because what I like most about this space is the long form format. I really enjoy reading about people's lives and exploring what other people are doing. You can't do that elsewhere and because I have spent time elsewhere I feel like my mind has equated reading with work. Isn't that sad? So, I need to actively fight against that by changing my normal.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I think these four ideas are likely more than enough to keep me busy and gain a habit of posting here. I'm really looking forward to finally embracing this space. I remember similar spaces being very good for my mental health.

That's all I have for now. <3

Tired: Drag queen story hour.
Wired: Drag queen nature hikes.

One other show I'm watching this anime season: Nippon Sangoku: The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun. It's set in a future Japan which, for various reasons that should not be thought too hard about, has regressed to a feudal-ish society but with early 20th century technology. The first episode leaned hard into feudal-level corruption and cruelty, so despite the excellent production values I did not plan to watch any more of it, but another viewer at my favorite anime Discord server assured me that episode 2 was a lot less like that.

There are probably a lot of references to Japanese history and/or The Romance of the Three Kingdoms that are going over my head, but that's okay for now.

In honor of 3weeks4dreamwidth , I'm bringing back something I used to do way back when and asking for prompts! Basically, if anyone wants to ask me for something, I'll do my best to write it for you. The end runs from April 25-May 15, but I may leave this open for longer, we'll see how it goes.

• One request per comment (multiple comments/requests encouraged!)
• Preferably in the format of: fandom, character/ship, prompt
• Fandoms I know (check the list, my AO3 or try your luck that I'll know it)
• Gen or shipfic (slash, femslash, het, other, multi)
• Prompts can be: a word, a phrase, a line of dialogue, a genre, a troupe, a scenario, an image, an emoji, etc. If you want something from a public promptlist, you can link me to it
• If you want it gifted to you on AO3 after the event is over (after May 15th), leave your username
• I can read prompts in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French, but can only write fills in English or Portuguese (you can request EN or PT-BR, otherwise I'll assume Portuguese for Portuguese and English for everything else)
• No prompts generated by AI (obviously, no fills will be made by AI either), no Harry Potter or related fandoms
• Open to anon requests, but G or T requests only unless we know each other
• I'll do my best to write a fill, but I reserve the right not to fill every request

Examples

Gotham, Oswald, cane
Dragon Age, Dorian Pavus/The Iron Bull, fluff
Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, “I don't even like you”
Black Adam, Carter/Kent, any
Any, any, only one bed
Loki, Loki, travessuras

Fandoms (some of my most used)

Almost Human
Army of the Dead/Army of Thieves
Black Mirror
DC (arrowverse, DCAU, DCEU, Gotham, Harley Quinn (cartoon))
Doctor Who & related (any TV and spin-offs, Shalka, BF, comics)
Dragon Age (games, Absolution)
First Kill
Legend of Zelda (most games)
Leverage
The Librarians
Lucifer (TV)
Marvel (MCU, Netflix Defenders, X-Men TAS & ‘97, Runaways, Avengers Academy mobile game, Venom)
The Orville
Pacific Rim (movies)
Sandman (TV)
sense8
Star Trek (TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, DISC, SNW, LD, Prodigy, AOS)
Stargate (SG-1, SGA)
This Is How You Lose the Time War
Tolkien (LOTR books and movies, Hobbit book and movies, ROP)

Friending Meme! Come make new friends!

OKAY FOLKS it is time for another round of Althea's List of Interesting Dreamwidth Communities! I last posted this during snowflake_challenge this year, so just a few months ago, but I've stealth added some more since then.

Rules:
1. Share freely! This post is public for that reason.
2. If you know of a good comm and want to see it featured, comment and I'll very likely add it.
3. I refuse to add comms that full of bigotry and hate. That seems to not be a Dreamwidth thing, but I am sure they are out there. I'm here for supportive / fun places!

And now, here's the list! They are roughly in reverse chronological order to when they've been added, so newer ones are at the top. EDIT @ 12:22pm: I've redone the list to be broken down roughly alphabetical by category, which should make it easier to manage!

---

Dreamwidth

Non-official communities to help make your time on Dreamwidth more rich.

• 3weeks4dreamwidth is a thing in which people post/interact more on Dreamwidth, to show love for the platform. ♥


• addme_fandom A friend finding community, but with a specific fandom focus! Interested in a particular fandom right now and want more people to talk about it with? Here’s a good place to find fellow fans!


• addme_fandom is a place to find friends who share your fannish obsessions.


• findingfriends : Similar to the addme communities but with a more in-depth approach, including things like posting style and what sort of interactions you’re looking for. Takes more brain power than the addme comms, but I imagine that the connections result in a higher level of compatibility.


• followfriday recommends people/communities to follow each Friday.


• getting_started is a community with resources for those new to Dreamwidth.


• moodthemeinayear is what it says on the tin: the folks there are working on creating custom Dreamwidth mood themes over the course of a year.


• reddit_refugees offers resources for newcomers to Dreamwidth.


• snowflake_challenge runs in January, and is a way to celebrate fandom and meet interesting people on Dreamwidth.


• sunshine_challenge Like snowflake_challenge but runs in the summer months (northern hemisphere, but our Southern Friends experiencing winter are welcome too!)


• twitter_refugees is for folks migrating to Dreamwidth from Twitter.

Bingos

Creative or commenting challenges based on a bingo card.

• allbingo - They do all sorts of bingos, mostly writing-related but I think they've had some crafting ones as well. There's new challenges monthly!


• comment_bingo is a bingo challenge community for commenting on all those fanfics you read.


• genprompt_bingo - for the writers! They generate bingo cards of prompts, with all the prompts being gen. You can, of course, write a shippy fic from the prompt – it’s just the prompts themselves that are gen.


• ladiesbingo is a bingo challenge to make works focused on the relationship between women, whether gen, femslash, or familial. I'm currently having great fun trying to fill my bingo board!


• lyricaltitles is a bingo fest for fanfiction and original fiction centering around using songs for inspiration!


• vid_bingo is a community for vidders to use bingo card prompts to inspire vids

Prompts

Writing or creative challenges that are prompt-based but not bingo cards:

• 100words is a drabble community for fiction of all kinds. They post weekly challenges there.


• 1character is a writing challenge where you choose a character and prompt set, then write one line sentences to fill each prompt.


• 25poemsamonth is a community where a 25 prompt table is posted at the beginning of every month and then, members have until the beginning of the next to fill as many prompts as possible.


• fan_flashworks is a multifandom comm that posts one prompt for the week you use to write a short fanfic.


• ffprompts posts monthly prompts for the Final Fantasy video game franchise. As a big fan of this series, I'd love to see more fills for the prompts happening!


• fic_promptly is created for leaving prompts and answering prompts. All fandoms are allowed, as are original work and real-person work. Fills can be fics or poems. There is no minimum/maximum word count.


• inspiredby posts writing prompts monthly.


• kittens_and_spitefic 's goal is to prompt fan content by acting like a total troll and pretending to bash what you want to see up one side and down the other. Commenters then engage with the supposed "troll" by spamming them with cat (and other animal) macros and/or content that caters to everything the original poster professes to hate.


• sweetandshort is a low-pressure community for creating small fanworks / original works each week.


• threesentenceficathon People leave prompts, other write short fills of 3 sentences or longer.

Writing

Writing-related communities that aren't Bingos or Prompts.

• 10trueloves is a writing challenge where you pair a character with ten others (IIRC, they don't have to be romantic pairings, but I'm not sure – check the comm rules for more info!)


• getyourwordsout is a writing challenge community where you can challenge yourself by wordcount of number of days written per month.


• makezines is for folks doing just that!

Icons

Icon-creating challenges and other icon communities.

• iconthat is another icon challenge community.


• your_favourites is an icon making community that migrated over from LiveJournal. Looks like they have themes for members to create icons for, and then take a vote for best icon. I've joined it in hopes of finding more icons to add to my own journal.

Books

Read-alongs and other book communites:

• booknook posts a weekly Read-in-Progress check-in posts on Wednesdays.


• queerbookclub is a no pressure book club dedicated to fiction books of all genres that are queer in some way! each month we take suggestions on what the next month's book should be and we vote on it. if you're not interested in the book for the month, that's perfectly fine!


• readingtogether - has seen some activity the past few months. It's not like a normal book club where everyone reads the same thing - instead everyone reads their own thing and posts their progress.

Crafts and General Creativity

• everykindofcraft is what it says it is.


• get_knitted posts daily check-ins. The folks there are GREAT about commenting on each other's comments. It's not just for knitting, either - there are people there who do scrapbooking and jigsaw puzzles.


• justcreate - has weekly check in posts where you can update everyone on your creative progress. All kinds of creativity are celebrated there, including fiber arts, drawing, writing, and more.


• nacramamo is National Craft-Making Month, and is gearing up now to kick off in October. The challenge is to work on some kind of craft every day for 31 days.


• communal_creators is a community for creative types! A mini-round for time pledges will be happening this spring. ANY kind of creativity is welcome! We have people writing (both fic and original), knitting, crochet, vidding, storyboarding, baking, making websites... if it's creative, you're welcome here.


• drawesome - has drawing challenges. I haven't taken part yet because I am a very sucky drawer, but I hope to start there in the future.

Culture

Communities focusing on a specific culture.

• c_ent is for Chinese Entertainment, and comes highly recommended by a few people.


• latam is a new community for people to come together to talk about latinamerican music, films, food, culture, fandom, and more! Everyone's welcome, no matter where you're posting from! And you can also post in your language (official languages of the community are Spanish, Portuguese and English!)


• senzenwomen is a community regaling the histories of women in and around Japan, 1868-1945. Thanks to vriddy for signal boosting this fascinating community!

Nature

What it says on the tin.

• birdfeeding covers everything to do with birdfeeding, gardening for wildlife, and related topics.


• common_nature is a photo community to share nature pics from your area, and has been active recently.

Fandom & Gaming

Communities about fandom in general and in specific.

• allkindsofdolls is what it says on the tin. If you love dolls, check it out.


• anime_manga has seen some activity lately!


• bnha_fans is for fans of Boku no Hero Academia


• fandom_on_dw : Pretty much the same as above, honestly, but it’s good that there’s more than one place that hosts this kind of thing!


• fandomcalendar : This is a community dedicated to announcing fandom events, which can include fandom-specific friending memes.


• fictional_fans : A community for all fans and fandoms. If you’ve got a post you want to make about fandom in general, or a specific fandom that doesn’t have its own community, this might be a good place to check out.


• finalfantasy - of course this would be here, if you know me. It's been very slow there lately, but I'd love to see more activity there.


• indie_games sometimes sees activity, and in the past, we did a play-together of A Short Hike.

Social Justice

Because the world is a mess and we just need to fix it.

• fandomtrumpshate raises money for charity by creating fanworks.


• thissterlingcrew is the UK equivalent of the below.


• thisfinecrew is a social justice community focused on the USA. It doesn't get as much action as i once did but there are still informative posts there once in a while.


• womansplace is a community that holds dual purpose: 1) Celebrate characters who identify as women or who are aligned with womanhood in transformative fan works. Events include community recs, a prompt fest, and a vid exchange. 2) Raise funds via a vid auction

Other Communties

These didn't fit in the other categories but I feel are interesting enough to warrant being on this post!

• queerly_beloved : An anti-exclusionist queer space to get together and talk about all things queer, including intersectional matters. Hosts a weekly recommendations thread, but more and other content is very welcome!


• 1word1day posts a vocabulary word a day!


• agonyaunt - critiques letters to advice columnists and the answers the letter writers get. I love this community because it is filled with smart people that I am learning a lot from. I'm a person of a certain age, and I know because of the timeframe I grew up in I have a lot of inherit biases and whatnot. I try to be above those biases, but sometimes I don't recognize them. Reading the other commenters to agonyaunt helps me recognize those biases and better myself.


• awesomeers - they make a post for each day of the week in which they challenge the members to comment with Just One Thing you did today that you're proud of accomplishing. Of course you are free to post more than one thing if you'd like! I love the idea of this community, though I haven't been very active in it lately. I hope to change that, if only to congratulate other people. Also: we celebrate all accomplishments there, so something as simple as "I got out of bed" would be acceptable!


• bujo for bullet journalers.


• crowdfunding connects creators, patrons, and fans of cyberfunded creativity. Watch for the mid-month Creative Jam with a new theme each time.


• do_it - A community for posting to-do lists to make yourself accountable to others.


• holiday_wishes - active in the last two months of the year. People post their holiday wish lists there, and others fill them! I really was blessed one year - I got a bunch of cards, some yarn, some chocolate, and some other sweet treats. &hearts


• journalsandplanners - what it says on the tin: for those who use a journal or planner to organize their lives.


• reference_library is a place to gather helpful links and share them, run by sharpest_asp


• signalboost is for getting the word out to others about people needing help in some way.

This week: Zeztz reveals some important information about Zero; the Girl Rules crew films a music video; and Akane gets a temp restaurant job

Title quote comes from Akane-banashi today.

Spoilers, as always, below (but especially for Zeztz this time)

Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 31)

( Read more... )

Girl Rules (episode 6)

( Read more... )

Akane-banashi (episode 3)

( Read more... )

flash prompt box logo by the lovely luckyzukky

Hello, friends! 3weeks4dreamwidth is officially happening from to-day until 15th May, and, as promised, I thought it would be nice to run a little event mostly for my own amusement in order to celebrate that. As previously established, my entire life revolves around inventing excuses to make things, so I've been sitting on my hands all this week getting excited for this and now here we are and I don't really know to word this post so, ah, let's get straight to the point, shall we?

AKC Courtneyyyyyy Culture Festival
For the next three weeks, pick the members of our weekly Wednesday column! Make sure your oshimen gets the attention she deserves! Pick a member from AKB48, Nogizaka46 or any of their sister groups, or, if you will, any core Hello! Project group, and if I haven't written about your oshi before, I will ensure they get their time to shine! If I have written about them before, I will merrily redirect you. It would be really nice if I made some kind of master list post for this, wouldn't it?

Who's that Pokémon?
Pick your favourite little guy from the pokédex of Red/Blue or Gold/Silver and leave a prompt pertaining to them and I will write a little fic between 100, ~500 words! No promises that I won't keep my favourite trainers out of said fic, be warned!

Kamen Rider (Showa)
Kamen Rider fights Shocker for humanity's freedom! Pick one of the 10 Kamen Riders and/or Black/RX and leave a prompt and I will write something for them! Yes, Mikazuki Nayuta is Hongo Takeshi's adopted daughter. Yes, the first Kamen Riders in antiquity came to us from the Dreamlands. Yes, Kudo Fuga will have met many of these men during his pre-show Ikari Gendo arc.

Kamen Rider (Reiwa)
This exists here purely as an excuse for me to talk about Harima Shiori.

Their choice of matter and their scream of chatter
A young lady and a prompt from a series of your choice, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Strawberry Panic, Hasunosora Girls' High School Idol Club, Gakuen Idolm@ster, or Mayu/Yuki from Wonderful Precure! Short fics about school life, freindships in bloom, rose gardens and falling snow. Only the most elegant of prompters need apply.

Fushigi Comedy
Have you, dear friends, ever wanted to get into Toei's Fushigi Comedy Series but don't know where to start? Ask me! I'll probably just recommend Shushutorian as I definitely haven't watched all of these shows, but Shushutorian is really good! You should probably watch Shushutorian.

How do we know this event will stay exclusive to dreamwidth, Courtney? you may ask. Aha! Have faith in me friends and my absolute inability to hardly ever crosspost. Trying to update the Shiori post alone is a nightmare of jumbled comment thread links, and yet, at the same time, I secretly love making it this frustrating for anyone who might make the mistake of attempting to engage with the nonsense I make. At this point in life, I am almost certain that I will not change.

Other events to visit:
👻 - gen horror prompt fest, hosted by the lovely fiachairecht.
⚡🐁 - Chemy Card Spring Silly!! over at precuretokuprompt.
🤼 -Tokusatsu drabble prompt meme, hosted on toku100challenge by the equally lovely linky.

3weeks4dreamwidth is celebrating Dreamwidth's anniversary!
Come join in for fun, memes, activities, and more ♥

The three weeks event celebrating Dreamwidth is starting today!! \o/ There's already a fresh friending meme posted over the comm thanks to matsushima!

Over at bnha_fans, we're running a Rec Fest again, and I posted the announcement on the first day for the first time in what feels like 70 years ;v; XD Sadly, it seems like the bug in which, if a journal or comm is set to default to nsfw/18+, it won't show up on the Latest Page feed for the event even if the post itself is marked "No Ages Restriction". Sad that the comm contributions won't show up there, but since this post will be, hey! Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia fans out there, we're running a Rec Fest if you're looking for new fanworks or have some you'd like to rec! :D

Looking forward to see the various ways people participate this year! :D If this is your first time (or not, for that matter), you might enjoy the blogging questionnaire ysabetwordsmith shared a few years ago. That was a good time, replying to a question a day and reading people's answers!

This year during Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm writing about reading as a way of becoming an expert in a given subject.


Part 1: Introduction to Becoming an Expert

Previously I posted about "How to Get Good at Anything." That touched on "The 3 Book Rule to Become An Expert." The premise is that, if you have read just three books on a subject, you know more about it than the general level of knowledge. You don't know as much as a professional should, but you know enough to answer about 80% of questions on the matter. This is enough to be useful to most people regarding most issues in that area. The really complicated or difficult stuff can be left to the professional level of experts.




( Read more... )