This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...
Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park is a 2025 spy novel about six people forced to examine their loyalties and choices over the course of an eventful 24 hours or so in Oxford. Several of the principal characters have more than one moniker, but at a high level they include a North Korean spy, his mentor, their handler, a Korean-American spy, and the owner and cook at a Korean restaurant that finds itself the site of a post-assassination rendezvous.
The story starts with a bang, with the killing of a veteran spy who falls victim to the foreseen "clean-up" of a regime change, and while it very much keeps its forward momentum throughout, its focus is more on identity than espionage. It plays with the overlap between the tropes of being a spy and the experience of being an immigrant, drilling into what it means to be an individual, a citizen, a member of an ethnicity, or a member of a family.
I found this a highly satisfying and engaging read, and while I can see why it didn't make the Canada Reads shortlist this year (there being no connection to Canada in the book, only through the author), I'm very glad the longlist put this on my radar. This is a great debut, and I hope it's one of many novels for Park if he's so inclined.
The finding, along with the discovery of a 500,000-year-old hammer made of bone, indicates that our human ancestors were making tools even earlier than archaeologists thought.
Title: Eternal Song Author:kat_lair Fandom: Shetland Pairing: Duncan/Jimmy Tags: Drabble, Sleeping Together, Ocean Rating: G Word count: 100
Summary: Waking up in the middle of the night is nothing new. Not waking up alone is. Author notes: For fandomtrees I wrote five drabbles for pushkin666. They were themed around the five senses. This one is hearing.
In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom.
Today I'm advertising one of my favorite lesser-known mangas : Double by Noda Ayako.
It's a manga that, right now, is five volumes in Japan, and advancing very slowly. Which makes me very sad, because it's one of my faves. Another thing that makes me very sad? It's not selling enough, in France like in the US, but I can at least try to remedy this by advertising.
Kamoshima Yuujin and Takarada Takara are both stage actors, in the same company. They are friends, they are not roommates but not far (they're living in near very small flats and are often eating together).
Yuujin was an actor longer, but Takara has more presence on stage, not to mention he's more conventionally attractive. He also has something undiagnosed (I'd bet for ADD but could be anything) that makes him quite unable to follow a planning or appointments without help, that Yuujin provides. He wants to see Takara becoming a celebrity, because he loves him, but also because he would like the credit for noticing him first. They have a fascinating relationship, mixing friendship, admiration, jealousy and codependency.
If you're wondering: yes there's also some romantic aspect to their relationship, but it's far from being the most important factor, or the most positive factor. Still, it being canon while still very much not being a romance is one of the reasons I love it so much.
Another thing I love about this manga: all the conversations about plays, about acting. I really love manga about art, and here I can believe in it? Whether it's about the differences between playing on stage or for TV, or thinking about mistakes they have made, or analyzing the characters they're playing in the plays themselves, the differences of interpretation that two characters can have with exactly the same text... it sounds right to me. Of course I only ever played as an amateur, but still! I love it!
I also love the art style, even if sometimes the expressions agre exaggerated (not in the exmpla I give though)
Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.
What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your hard things a little easier?
New sediment records from the Norwegian Sea offer a rare, close-up look at how quickly nature can unravel when the planet warms. During a past episode of extreme global warming, coastal forests along the Arctic margin collapsed within just a few centuries.
What followed was a cascade of change – widespread wildfires, heavy soil erosion, and a rush of carbon back into the atmosphere. The study shows how land ecosystems can rapidly flip from storing carbon to releasing it, amplifying warming long after the initial trigger.
Hey everyone! I wanted to write something after being busy these past few weeks accompanying my mom through her thyroid surgery.
The past weeks have been stressful as my mom underwent thyroid surgery. Afterward, she needed to spend three exhausting days in the ICU because her condition had worsened. My siblings and I took turns staying with her, which left me pretty tired, but I’m grateful she was able to leave the ICU quickly.
I also felt really bad for the elderly men and women in the waiting room who had had family members in the ICU for more than two weeks. I genuinely wish the best for their loved ones and hope they can be moved out of the ICU soon.
Right now, I’m staying at the hospital to accompany my mom. So far, her condition is okay, although she won’t stop coughing. We’re currently waiting for her doctor's assessment, and I really hope it's good.
Also, the hospital she’s staying at kind of sucks, the nurses are unprofessional despite it being a national cancer hospital, and we didn’t use national health insurance because the waiting list would’ve been way too long, and my mom was already feeling really uncomfortable as her thyroid nodule kept getting worse. On the plus side, one of the best oncologists is based at this hospital, so there’s that, I guess.
Anyway, I’m kind of stuck here just accompanying my mom and playing games on my laptop, lol. Thankfully, I downloaded a number of games for my emulator.
I’ve been playing Pokemon Moon and Bravely Default on the 3DS. I never had the chance to play Moon before, so that’s been nice.
Hopefully, my mom can be discharged tomorrow as her condition is holding steady.
Title: For the Wonder Author:kat_lair Fandom: Star Trek Alternate Original Series (Movies) Pairing: Kirk/Bones Tags: Drabble, Stars, Fluff Rating: G Word count: 100
Summary: “I never tire of seeing this.”
Author notes: For fandomtrees I wrote five drabbles for pushkin666. They were themed around the five senses. This one is sight.
Talk about a community space you like. It doesn't need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it's even one that you've barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.
I feel like I find a way to talk about the indie web every other question when it comes to the Snowflake Challenge, but it really is my favorite way of experiencing fandom these days. Between the fandom webring, the fanfiction webring, and fanlistings, it's easier than ever to find the websites of fannish creators, who are able to present what they create any way they desire on their website. It encourages more long-form communication, such as emails and response posts, which, itself, encourages making interaction more meaningful. Each website being so personalized means that visiting each person's site is an entirely unique experience, as well, rather than feeling like visiting mildly-customizable templates.
Everybody should make their own website and put their fannish stuff on it NOW!!!
In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Trying to convince our friends and loved ones to join our fandom is a frequent activity for many of us. It's great to have someone to talk to and obsess with! This is your chance to try to entice people into your fandom or to gently introduce new fans to your favorite parts of it.
Maybe you'd like to write a manifesto on your favorite ship. Maybe you'd like to write a breakdown of the many characters that appear in a long running franchise. Maybe you'd like to rec the fics you think everyone in your fandom should read. The possibilities are endless!
If you need inspiration (or are confused about terms), check out the Fanlore pages (with definitions, examples, and links!) for Ship Manifesto, Primer, PowerPoint, Rec, Newbieguide , and Crack Van. There are also DW communities like shipmanifestos, recs, recthething, and more.
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