snowflake challenge 2026 - day 1
8/1/26 15:27![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tielanChallenge #1
The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.
I need to get posting back on here again. It's been a rough year, a lot more intense with work, a lot more emotional energy required to navigate the world than before, and fewer people interacting over here.
So I'm looking to expand my horizons this year. Maybe that involves new people, maybe that involves new fandoms, maybe that involves things I haven't yet conceptualised yet. We'll work it out as it comes.
--
My profile on other social media reads "modern quilter, permaculture gardener, unrepentant foodie, cat servant, Jesus freak". I would add to that "hockey player (field, not fishbowl)".
Mostly, those are the labels I give out to non-fannish people.
Fannishly, I haven't really been fannish in a number of years. it's slowly been draining out of me as I stopped watching shows or franchises, and switched over to writing more original fiction instead of fanfiction.
However, fannishly, I tend to like the "second string" female character - the one that gets the "oh, and I like her, too" response by the kinds of fans who actually like female characters in male-dominated megafandoms. I write fanfic (but these days mostly exchanges), and a lot of it's romance or 'contains romantic themes'. I used to do meta, but I don't really have the energy or space for it anymore.
I think quite a bit about politics, which includes religion, race, sexuality, gender, history, culture, and all the other things that are human and therefore are political by virtue of how we think of them and regulate them.
Right now, I'm editing the first book of a series, and trying to write the second book. I was hoping to write the 2nd book last year, but hoo boy did my creativity drain away in 2025! It took me five years to get the first book done, hopefully it doesn't take another five to write the second! Although at that rate, I'll still probably be going faster than GRRM...
The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.
I need to get posting back on here again. It's been a rough year, a lot more intense with work, a lot more emotional energy required to navigate the world than before, and fewer people interacting over here.
So I'm looking to expand my horizons this year. Maybe that involves new people, maybe that involves new fandoms, maybe that involves things I haven't yet conceptualised yet. We'll work it out as it comes.
--
My profile on other social media reads "modern quilter, permaculture gardener, unrepentant foodie, cat servant, Jesus freak". I would add to that "hockey player (field, not fishbowl)".
Mostly, those are the labels I give out to non-fannish people.
Fannishly, I haven't really been fannish in a number of years. it's slowly been draining out of me as I stopped watching shows or franchises, and switched over to writing more original fiction instead of fanfiction.
However, fannishly, I tend to like the "second string" female character - the one that gets the "oh, and I like her, too" response by the kinds of fans who actually like female characters in male-dominated megafandoms. I write fanfic (but these days mostly exchanges), and a lot of it's romance or 'contains romantic themes'. I used to do meta, but I don't really have the energy or space for it anymore.
I think quite a bit about politics, which includes religion, race, sexuality, gender, history, culture, and all the other things that are human and therefore are political by virtue of how we think of them and regulate them.
Right now, I'm editing the first book of a series, and trying to write the second book. I was hoping to write the 2nd book last year, but hoo boy did my creativity drain away in 2025! It took me five years to get the first book done, hopefully it doesn't take another five to write the second! Although at that rate, I'll still probably be going faster than GRRM...
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Dear Confectioner
7/1/26 13:18sanguinityThank you for making something for me for candyheartsex!
DNW: Change of period or setting; noncon/dubcon; violence against female characters; trashing canonical love interests; romances centering pregnancies, babies, or kids; explicit art.
( Flight of the Heron )
( Mr Rowl )
( The Wounded Name )
( Kidnapped )
( Captains Courageous )
( Hornblower novels )
( Hornblower TV )
( Doctor Odyssey )
( Jill )
( Vorkosigan Saga )
candyheartsex!DNW: Change of period or setting; noncon/dubcon; violence against female characters; trashing canonical love interests; romances centering pregnancies, babies, or kids; explicit art.
( Flight of the Heron )
( Mr Rowl )
( The Wounded Name )
( Kidnapped )
( Captains Courageous )
( Hornblower novels )
( Hornblower TV )
( Doctor Odyssey )
( Jill )
( Vorkosigan Saga )
Tags:
Hum 110: Aztecs and New Spain
7/1/26 11:28sanguinityIn the Humanities 110 alumni bookgroup, we have moved on from the Fertile Crescent and the Mediterranean, to Mesoamerica! Woo-hoo! I have been waiting for this for AGES.
We got off to a slow start: most of our readings were pretty minimal, and many of us (including me) got frustrated and started doing a bunch of extra reading, just to get a better grounding in the time of place. Consequently, I lagged on doing monthly posts: in a lot of cases, I didn't have much to say until I'd finished my supplementary reading. So here, have it all at once!
Assigned plus supplemental readings from September through December, minus one book I'm still working my way through. Pre-Conquest (i.e., pre-1521) through 1649.
Camilla Townsend, Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs (2019)
What it says on the tin! Episodic history of the Mexica from their coming to the Valley of Mexico through the first century after the Spanish conquest, drawing primarily on Nahautl-language sources. Each chapter begins with a fictionalized epigram of a key moment in a historical figure's life, then spends the chapter itself expanding on the historical context. Very much intended to be a Mexica-pov history, Townsend's primary sources are Nahautl annals, the most useful of which are discussed in an appendix. She is careful to point out where the annals are ambiguous or contradictory, or what aspects of a narrative rely on inference, or are found only in Spanish-language sources, or are just plain conjecture, which I appreciate.
I found this a good read, and a satisfying introduction to Mexica culture and history.
Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt (eds.), Codex Mendoza (1541/1992)
On its own, this was relatively dry: neither the original glyphic writing nor the Spanish nor English translations were that compelling. (Although it is cool to see how significant items such as shells, rubber balls, and feathers were as tribute.) But when taken with this next work...
Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs: A Guide to Nahautl Writing (2021)
Not assigned for the course/bookclub, but I very much wish it had been. One of the lectures on the Codex Mendoza invited us to try to interpret its heiroglyphs on our own, without any instruction. When in fact it is more than a rebus writing system! There are many non-literal conventions! Some glyphs are used phonetically, not literally! Some glyphs have multiple meanings! Glyphs have multiple forms and the different forms mean different things! AGH.
( Thorough introduction to Mexican glyphic writing. )
Great book, hugely recommended, sometimes a bit more technical than I could quite grasp, it helps if you already speak some Nahautl (but Whittaker teaches you most of the Nahautl you need to know to follow the text), and lots and lots and lots of glossy full color illustrations and scans or photographs of various codices and carvings.
James Lockhart (ed. and trans.), We People Here: Nahautl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (late 1500s / 1993)
Translation of several Nahautl-language texts about the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The vast majority of the page count is devoted Book Twelve of the Florentine Codex (La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España -- in English, The General History of the Things of New Spain), an encyclopedia compiled by Bernardino de Sahagún during the latter half of the sixteenth century. La Historia General was conceived to fill two primary purposes: to be a primary source for an eventual Nahautl dictionary, and to be an encyclopedia to Mexica culture, to better aid the twin projects of colonization and conversion. In the Florentine Codex, La Historia consists of two parallel texts presented on facing pages, the original Nahautl and a Spanish translation created by Sahagún, plus additional illustrations (which for the most part are European-style illustrations, and not the heiroglyphic texts of earlier Mexica codices). Books 1 through 11 are an encyclopedia of various cultural and natural history topics; Book 12 is a narrative of the Spanish conquest. In We People Here, Lockhart provides side-by-side English translations of both the Nahautl and Sahagún's Spanish translation -- which is fascinating.
( Nahautl and Spanish )
Luis Lasso de la Vega (eds. Lisa Sousa, Stafford Poole and James Lockhart), The story of Guadalupe (1649/1998)
Earliest written account of the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, set to pen nearly a century after the first written reference to the famous artifact. There's a lot of fascinating context about who wrote it (a white Spaniard) and in what language (Nahautl) and for what purposes (to persuade the Mexica to be more Catholic about their worship at a holy site for the Mexica goddess Tonantzin; to convince the Iberian Spanish elite that the New-Spain Spanish elite were as legitimate as the Iberians and/or should be the new center of the Spanish empire).
Almost none of that context is actually in the story (except its being written in Nahautl, which is made much of at the beginning). Instead, this is the story of Juan Diego, lowly and humble, and the visions that appeared to him, and his attempts to make the Bishop listen. There's some interesting symbolism about Spanish birds and flowers appearing miraculously, but the event we liked best is the part where Juan Diego decided he didn't have time to be harassed by Mary and tried to ghost her, and she called him on it. (And then, very graciously, solved his other problems so that he could return to working on hers.)
We got off to a slow start: most of our readings were pretty minimal, and many of us (including me) got frustrated and started doing a bunch of extra reading, just to get a better grounding in the time of place. Consequently, I lagged on doing monthly posts: in a lot of cases, I didn't have much to say until I'd finished my supplementary reading. So here, have it all at once!
Assigned plus supplemental readings from September through December, minus one book I'm still working my way through. Pre-Conquest (i.e., pre-1521) through 1649.
Camilla Townsend, Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs (2019)
What it says on the tin! Episodic history of the Mexica from their coming to the Valley of Mexico through the first century after the Spanish conquest, drawing primarily on Nahautl-language sources. Each chapter begins with a fictionalized epigram of a key moment in a historical figure's life, then spends the chapter itself expanding on the historical context. Very much intended to be a Mexica-pov history, Townsend's primary sources are Nahautl annals, the most useful of which are discussed in an appendix. She is careful to point out where the annals are ambiguous or contradictory, or what aspects of a narrative rely on inference, or are found only in Spanish-language sources, or are just plain conjecture, which I appreciate.
I found this a good read, and a satisfying introduction to Mexica culture and history.
Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt (eds.), Codex Mendoza (1541/1992)
On its own, this was relatively dry: neither the original glyphic writing nor the Spanish nor English translations were that compelling. (Although it is cool to see how significant items such as shells, rubber balls, and feathers were as tribute.) But when taken with this next work...
Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs: A Guide to Nahautl Writing (2021)
Not assigned for the course/bookclub, but I very much wish it had been. One of the lectures on the Codex Mendoza invited us to try to interpret its heiroglyphs on our own, without any instruction. When in fact it is more than a rebus writing system! There are many non-literal conventions! Some glyphs are used phonetically, not literally! Some glyphs have multiple meanings! Glyphs have multiple forms and the different forms mean different things! AGH.
( Thorough introduction to Mexican glyphic writing. )
Great book, hugely recommended, sometimes a bit more technical than I could quite grasp, it helps if you already speak some Nahautl (but Whittaker teaches you most of the Nahautl you need to know to follow the text), and lots and lots and lots of glossy full color illustrations and scans or photographs of various codices and carvings.
James Lockhart (ed. and trans.), We People Here: Nahautl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (late 1500s / 1993)
Translation of several Nahautl-language texts about the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The vast majority of the page count is devoted Book Twelve of the Florentine Codex (La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España -- in English, The General History of the Things of New Spain), an encyclopedia compiled by Bernardino de Sahagún during the latter half of the sixteenth century. La Historia General was conceived to fill two primary purposes: to be a primary source for an eventual Nahautl dictionary, and to be an encyclopedia to Mexica culture, to better aid the twin projects of colonization and conversion. In the Florentine Codex, La Historia consists of two parallel texts presented on facing pages, the original Nahautl and a Spanish translation created by Sahagún, plus additional illustrations (which for the most part are European-style illustrations, and not the heiroglyphic texts of earlier Mexica codices). Books 1 through 11 are an encyclopedia of various cultural and natural history topics; Book 12 is a narrative of the Spanish conquest. In We People Here, Lockhart provides side-by-side English translations of both the Nahautl and Sahagún's Spanish translation -- which is fascinating.
( Nahautl and Spanish )
Luis Lasso de la Vega (eds. Lisa Sousa, Stafford Poole and James Lockhart), The story of Guadalupe (1649/1998)
Earliest written account of the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, set to pen nearly a century after the first written reference to the famous artifact. There's a lot of fascinating context about who wrote it (a white Spaniard) and in what language (Nahautl) and for what purposes (to persuade the Mexica to be more Catholic about their worship at a holy site for the Mexica goddess Tonantzin; to convince the Iberian Spanish elite that the New-Spain Spanish elite were as legitimate as the Iberians and/or should be the new center of the Spanish empire).
Almost none of that context is actually in the story (except its being written in Nahautl, which is made much of at the beginning). Instead, this is the story of Juan Diego, lowly and humble, and the visions that appeared to him, and his attempts to make the Bishop listen. There's some interesting symbolism about Spanish birds and flowers appearing miraculously, but the event we liked best is the part where Juan Diego decided he didn't have time to be harassed by Mary and tried to ghost her, and she called him on it. (And then, very graciously, solved his other problems so that he could return to working on hers.)
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poetry: "One King’s Epiphany" by L'Engle
7/1/26 13:44tielanI shall miss the stars.
Not that I shall stop looking
as they pattern their wild will each night
across an inchoate sky, but I must see them with a different awe.
If I trace their flames’ ascending and descending –
relationships and correspondences –
then I deny what they have just revealed.
The sum of their oppositions, juxtapositions, led me to the end of all sums:
a long journey, cold, dark and uncertain,
toward the ultimate equation.
How can I understand? If I turn back from this,
compelled to seek all answers in the stars,
then this – Who – they have led me to
is not the One they said: they will have lied.
No stars are liars!
My life on their truth!
If they had lied about this
I could never trust their power again.
But I believe they showed the truth,
truth breathing,
truth Whom I have touched with my own hands,
worshipped with my gifts.
If I have bowed, made
obeisance to this final arithmetic,
I cannot ask the future from the stars without betraying
the One whom they have led me to.
It will be hard not ask, just once again,
see by mathematical forecast where he will grow,
where go, what kingdom conquer, what crown wear.
But would it not be going beyond truth
(the obscene reduction ad absurdum)
to lose my faith in truth once, and once for all
revealed in the full dayspring of the sun?
I cannot go back to night.
O Truth, O small and unexpected thing,
You have taken so much from me.
How can I bear wisdom’s pain?
But I have been shown: and I have seen.
— Madeleine L’Engle
Not that I shall stop looking
as they pattern their wild will each night
across an inchoate sky, but I must see them with a different awe.
If I trace their flames’ ascending and descending –
relationships and correspondences –
then I deny what they have just revealed.
The sum of their oppositions, juxtapositions, led me to the end of all sums:
a long journey, cold, dark and uncertain,
toward the ultimate equation.
How can I understand? If I turn back from this,
compelled to seek all answers in the stars,
then this – Who – they have led me to
is not the One they said: they will have lied.
No stars are liars!
My life on their truth!
If they had lied about this
I could never trust their power again.
But I believe they showed the truth,
truth breathing,
truth Whom I have touched with my own hands,
worshipped with my gifts.
If I have bowed, made
obeisance to this final arithmetic,
I cannot ask the future from the stars without betraying
the One whom they have led me to.
It will be hard not ask, just once again,
see by mathematical forecast where he will grow,
where go, what kingdom conquer, what crown wear.
But would it not be going beyond truth
(the obscene reduction ad absurdum)
to lose my faith in truth once, and once for all
revealed in the full dayspring of the sun?
I cannot go back to night.
O Truth, O small and unexpected thing,
You have taken so much from me.
How can I bear wisdom’s pain?
But I have been shown: and I have seen.
— Madeleine L’Engle
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End of Year Writing Meme 2025
5/1/26 20:58thisbluespiritI continue recovering very slowly but at least pretty steadily - and my things are gradually getting out of boxes too. In the meantime, I thought I could probably manage to do the end of year meme, so here it is:
The usual writing meme for the year. (Last year's post is here.)
( Cut for length )
The usual writing meme for the year. (Last year's post is here.)
( Cut for length )
New Year's Book Prediction Meme
4/1/26 19:19sanguinityI always enjoy a little book-based divination!
viatrobadora
There are two books near me! Grabbing the book directly in my field of view...
Huh. Okay, then. Let's try the other book.
...I think I liked the first one better.
via
trobadora- Grab the nearest book.
- Turn to page 126
- The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026.
There are two books near me! Grabbing the book directly in my field of view...
International conferences, first and foremost the "Sign & Symbol" series that takes place annually in Warsaw, are increasingly offering a venue for an exchange of data and ideas on the typology of writing systems, iconography, and notation, where in particular the character of phoneticism in hieroglyphic systems such as the Egyptian, Mayan, and Aztec scripts has become a focal point of interest.
Huh. Okay, then. Let's try the other book.
Wind batters the cabin.
...I think I liked the first one better.
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Fic: A Summer in Devonshire
3/1/26 11:03beatrice_otter![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ficinabox revealed the authors, er, several weeks ago. But I was too caught up with yuletide to remember to post what I wrote! So here it is. I had great fun writing this crossover between Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, where Charlotte gets a better life than canon. As I was pondering how to logically get Brandon and Charlotte to meet even though they live so far apart, it occurred to me that Sir John Middleton and Sir William Lucas are very similar people and would probably get along amazingly well. (The other easy way to do it would be to set it earlier in both canons, when William Lucas (not yet Sir William) is a prosperous tradesman, probably with business connections in London, and Colonel Brandon has just been handed custody of his dead beloved's child and is trying to figure out frantically what to do with her, before he has to go back to his regiment in India or wherever. I can easily see him marrying then to give her a mother, and if he somehow became acquainted with the Lucases while in London, might find Charlotte just the ticket.)( Thoughts on the Lucas finances )
Title: A Summer in Devonshire
Fandom: Sense & Sensibility/Pride & Prejudice
Characters: Colonel Brandon/Charlotte Lucas
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Written for: hiddencait in Fic In A Box 2025
Summary: Sir John Middleton was happy to invite his friend Sir William Lucas and family to stay at Barton for the summer. Charlotte is happy to travel, and to meet new people.
( Author's note: travel distances and clothing details. )
***
Sir William Lucas had never aspired to visit St. James' Court, nor indeed to become a knight; he had been content with his life as a respectable (and prosperous) tradesman. When such an opportunity had been granted him, all unexpectedly, he had been so overcome with all the honor of it that he had not been able to savor the pleasures thereof. Given his humble antecedents and employment, very few in that place took any notice of him, and those who did cared more to practice their superiority than form any connection. It was an experience more pleasurable in the telling, for he spent many congenial hours describing the grandeur of the court and its people to his acquaintances in Meryton, as he and Lady Lucas took their place as one of four-and-twenty families of good breeding in the neighborhood.
It also spurred his desire to trade his business for an estate more suitable to his new dignity, for being Sir William of any estate (however small) would occasion less comment than Sir William, tradesman of a small market town.
( That being accomplished, he settled in quite happily to being a landed gentleman, and would never have stirred from Meryton again if Lady Lucas had not possessed the ambition her husband lacked )
On AO3. On Squidgeworld. On tumblr. On Pillowfort.
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