(no subject)
Dec. 7th, 2025 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelWe're on the final boss fight of the campaign. Said boss is hovering over a deep pit -- bad for melee, unless they have some form of flight.
My character rolls the highest initiative.
She is a L20 owlin monk. She has flight. She also has a) 70 feet of movement per turn, and b) magic items (and a feat) that gives extra damage for distance moved in a straight line just before the attack. Oh, and a potion that does bonus
First roll hit a nat 20.
Rolling 20 means damage dice are doubled; if you would normally do 2d6, on a crit you roll 4d6. Between the damage roll (doubled), the extra monk ability I always like to throw in (also doubled, plus poison for a round), and the bonus damage for straight lines (doubled), I did 119 points of damage.
I also have a feat that says if I get a critical hit, all attacks against that creature have advantage until my next turn.
So... a pretty good start.
I love this character.
(...I got a crit the next turn too.)
My character rolls the highest initiative.
She is a L20 owlin monk. She has flight. She also has a) 70 feet of movement per turn, and b) magic items (and a feat) that gives extra damage for distance moved in a straight line just before the attack. Oh, and a potion that does bonus
First roll hit a nat 20.
Rolling 20 means damage dice are doubled; if you would normally do 2d6, on a crit you roll 4d6. Between the damage roll (doubled), the extra monk ability I always like to throw in (also doubled, plus poison for a round), and the bonus damage for straight lines (doubled), I did 119 points of damage.
I also have a feat that says if I get a critical hit, all attacks against that creature have advantage until my next turn.
So... a pretty good start.
I love this character.
(...I got a crit the next turn too.)
(no subject)
Dec. 5th, 2025 10:39 pmysobelSo my plan of quitting Duo at 4K days has gone from "vaguely in the future" to, uh, tomorrow.
It feels weird. And me being me, I'm second guessing myself. But then in a matching exercise it gave me patada (kick, as far as I can tell a noun) on the Spanish side and "to give somebody the push" on the English side, and that is a) a British phrase for firing someone, b) that is a verb, c) an unlikely translation, and d) completely novel to me both in general and on Duo and thus unhelpful for learning.
So, tomorrow is my last session and then I'm done.
It feels weird. And me being me, I'm second guessing myself. But then in a matching exercise it gave me patada (kick, as far as I can tell a noun) on the Spanish side and "to give somebody the push" on the English side, and that is a) a British phrase for firing someone, b) that is a verb, c) an unlikely translation, and d) completely novel to me both in general and on Duo and thus unhelpful for learning.
So, tomorrow is my last session and then I'm done.
The Friday Five for 5 December 2025
Dec. 4th, 2025 07:12 pmanais_pf posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thefridayfive1. If you had to participate in one Olympic event, what would it be and why?
2. What is the one song you always sing along to?
3. Do you wear a seatbelt in the car?
4. Car, SUV or truck and why?
5. Are you a good/bad driver? Explain.
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!
**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**
2. What is the one song you always sing along to?
3. Do you wear a seatbelt in the car?
4. Car, SUV or truck and why?
5. Are you a good/bad driver? Explain.
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!
**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**
November Theater
Dec. 4th, 2025 05:00 pmosprey_archerA couple of recent-ish theater reviews! We went to the Civic Theater production of Young Frankenstein, which surprised me by being a musical, although it probably shouldn’t have as the Mel Brooks movie => musical pipeline is well-established… anyway, this was tons of fun. Catchy songs, great singers, all the actors seemed to be having an amazing time. I think Elizabeth (Frankenstein’s girlfriend who ends up with the Creature) stole the show, but really everyone was fantastic.
Also, we went to see The Snow, which I approached with trepidation, as it was part of the same theatrical season that included Horse Girls.
But I really liked it! In The Snow, a village has been buried in snow, and young Theodore gets a bright idea: why not use a catapult to fly to the other side of the snow to try to find out what’s going on? “But snow doesn’t work that way,” you object. Listen. Snow just works that way for the duration of this show. Don’t worry about it.
This show is very funny, sometimes quite darkly so, as when a doughty band of heroes join Theodore to be catapulted over the snow, only to discover that catapults do still work more or less as expected and if you catapult across the snow without having planned for a soft landing, well… the heroes break Theodore’s fall, is what I’m saying.
There’s also a wonderful bit where one of the three narrators goes rogue. Theodore (who was by the way played by a very short girl) and his one remaining companion (the tallest guy in the play) have gotten trapped in a cellar, and the narrator intones, “The situation was hopeless.”
“What?” objects Theodore. (Theodore’s companion does not speak, but looks aghast.)
“The little one died first.”
“Hold on!” cries one of the other narrators, as the other reassures the audience, gesturing at the rogue narrator, “He’s still in training… only ever narrated tragedies before…”
Then Theodore and companion escape by baking a giant loaf of bread that forces the cellar doors open.
But it’s also a play with a lot of heart, and a completely unsubtle message about how We Can Solve Problems If We Work Together. You might expect the dark humor and the earnestness to work against each other, but somehow the balance is just right so that they work together instead, demonstrating perhaps that we CAN Work Together Despite Differences: the dark humor ensures the earnestness never feels treacly, and the earnestness ensures the dark humor doesn’t feel cynical.
Also, we went to see The Snow, which I approached with trepidation, as it was part of the same theatrical season that included Horse Girls.
But I really liked it! In The Snow, a village has been buried in snow, and young Theodore gets a bright idea: why not use a catapult to fly to the other side of the snow to try to find out what’s going on? “But snow doesn’t work that way,” you object. Listen. Snow just works that way for the duration of this show. Don’t worry about it.
This show is very funny, sometimes quite darkly so, as when a doughty band of heroes join Theodore to be catapulted over the snow, only to discover that catapults do still work more or less as expected and if you catapult across the snow without having planned for a soft landing, well… the heroes break Theodore’s fall, is what I’m saying.
There’s also a wonderful bit where one of the three narrators goes rogue. Theodore (who was by the way played by a very short girl) and his one remaining companion (the tallest guy in the play) have gotten trapped in a cellar, and the narrator intones, “The situation was hopeless.”
“What?” objects Theodore. (Theodore’s companion does not speak, but looks aghast.)
“The little one died first.”
“Hold on!” cries one of the other narrators, as the other reassures the audience, gesturing at the rogue narrator, “He’s still in training… only ever narrated tragedies before…”
Then Theodore and companion escape by baking a giant loaf of bread that forces the cellar doors open.
But it’s also a play with a lot of heart, and a completely unsubtle message about how We Can Solve Problems If We Work Together. You might expect the dark humor and the earnestness to work against each other, but somehow the balance is just right so that they work together instead, demonstrating perhaps that we CAN Work Together Despite Differences: the dark humor ensures the earnestness never feels treacly, and the earnestness ensures the dark humor doesn’t feel cynical.
Resource: Domestic Medicine.
Dec. 3rd, 2025 03:36 pmfull_metal_ox posting in little_detailshttps://domestic-medicine.com/
This website is an unromanticized purview of historical health care, with an emphasis on household and community practices shared and recorded by women, along with the overlaps of medicine and cookery.
Author Stephany Hoffelt’s credentials: ( Continue. )
(Content note: Hoffelt, with her lived experience, research into historical context, and insistence upon practical results, has a whole catacomb apiece to pick with both the patriarchal medical establishment and the proponents of a Magical Pagan Witch Sisterhood who got burned by the millions for providing safe and reliable herbal abortifacients.)
This website is an unromanticized purview of historical health care, with an emphasis on household and community practices shared and recorded by women, along with the overlaps of medicine and cookery.
Author Stephany Hoffelt’s credentials: ( Continue. )
(Content note: Hoffelt, with her lived experience, research into historical context, and insistence upon practical results, has a whole catacomb apiece to pick with both the patriarchal medical establishment and the proponents of a Magical Pagan Witch Sisterhood who got burned by the millions for providing safe and reliable herbal abortifacients.)
Oncoming default deadline
Dec. 3rd, 2025 03:01 pmyuletidemods posting in yuletide_adminDefault deadline
The deadline for a simple default on Yuletide is 9pm UTC on 10 December - just under one week from now. Please check the link - this isn't the same time of day as recent years.The default deadline is the cut-off point for defaulting on your Yuletide assignment without a penalty. This applies if it's your first Yuletide, or if you posted successfully last time you signed up or took a pinch hit. Default before this time, and you're free to sign up again in future. If you're not sure whether the default deadline applies to you, please talk to mods (yuletideadmin@gmail.com).
Sample reasons to default:
- You want to
- You can't reconcile the canon, your writing strengths, and your recipient's DNWs
- Life got in the way
- A new installment of canon ruined your ideas
- You use generative AI such as ChatGPT, and you just saw the rule that that's not allowed in this event
- You can't see how to get the characters to do what you want them to do
- You want to
People default every year for a variety of reasons. We don't need to know why, and we wish you well. When we open sign-ups, we recommend that you don't sign up unless you're confident you can write a story by the deadline. But after you've signed up, things may happen, and it's okay to withdraw, if that's what makes sense for you. See full information about defaulting at the FAQ.
To default, go to your assignment at the collection, and press the default button.
Assignment deadline
All original assignments, and all pinch hits sent out prior to the default deadline, are due at 9pm UTC 17 December (which is a DIFFERENT time of day to last year). CountdownPinch Hits
We have an outstanding pinch hit atyuletide_pinch_hits. Please get in contact if you can help!!!Betas & Beta Help Needed
We warmly welcome beta reader volunteers at the beta post and on Discord. See the FAQ for more information about finding betas if you need one!Note: on the Yuletide Discord, requests for betas, or for brainstorming help that might give away what you're writing, are handled by DM-ing someone who currently holds a Hippo role. Please read the server FAQ before seeking a beta. Give your Hippo the relevant details and make sure you can receive messages back.
Treats and Posting
Click here for instructions on posting your assignment or treats. If you've finished your assignment and are considering treats, check out the app, and don't forget the promo post where people have advertised their canons. You may find something amazing there! Check out the prompts from pinch hitters too.Keep Yuletide Madness in mind. The Madness collection is for stories under 1,000 words and stories which do not exactly fit the fandoms and characters requested. These works must still be gifts for other participants.
AFK post
We will also put up an Away from Keyboard post shortly on theyuletide comm. The purpose of this post is that if people know they won't be able to respond to their gift until late in the anon period, or even until the new year, they can let their author know ahead of time. (Not being able to read and respond until several days after the collection opens is normal, though - many people will have family and other obligations!)Happy December!
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened. And specifically, if you would like to get a treat, we need your AO3 name so we know whom to give it to!
Wednesday Reading Meme
Dec. 3rd, 2025 01:21 pmsinealaWhat I Just Finished Reading
Nothing. It has been a very tiring week.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( Doctor Strange #1, Fantastic Four #6, Ultimate Universe Two Years In #1, Ultimate X-Men #22, Wiccan Witches Road #1 )
What I'm Reading Next
Still working through the tennis soulmate romance.
Nothing. It has been a very tiring week.
What I'm Reading Now
Comics Wednesday!
( Doctor Strange #1, Fantastic Four #6, Ultimate Universe Two Years In #1, Ultimate X-Men #22, Wiccan Witches Road #1 )
What I'm Reading Next
Still working through the tennis soulmate romance.
Wednesday Reading Meme
Dec. 3rd, 2025 01:01 pmosprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Forever Christmas, an account of Christmas at Tasha Tudor’s Corgiville Cottage, with absolutely luscious pictures of Tudor making the yearly Advent wreath (hung from the ceiling with crimson satin ribbons from her parents’ wedding!), decorating gingerbread cookies for the tree (cut fresh from the forest and lit with candles), dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh…
Just gorgeous. Two of my life dreams are to ride in a sleigh and see a Christmas tree actually lit with candles.
And I popped back to the archives for Katherine Milhous’s The First Christmas Crib, which is not (as I expected) an account of Jesus’s birth, but rather a recounting of the first Christmas creche, created by Saint Francis of Assisi. Older Christmas picture books tend to be more religious than the newer ones, which probably shouldn’t surprise me but does slightly, just because overall the older Newbery books were not particularly religious. Christmas books were the last outpost for a rearguard action, perhaps.
What I’m Reading Now
Ruth Sawyer’s holiday story collection The Long Christmas, illustrated by our friend Valenti Angelo of Newbery fame. The book was first published in 1941, and although Sawyer doesn’t directly reference the war in the introduction, she is very conscious of the need for a light in the darkness, a repetition of the message “peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then the first story is about Satan rising in the fields of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’s birth, intent on storming the stable and killing the baby messiah, but his evil plan is thwarted when the archangel Michael descends from heaven and vanquishes him in pitched battle.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve got my eyes on Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.
Forever Christmas, an account of Christmas at Tasha Tudor’s Corgiville Cottage, with absolutely luscious pictures of Tudor making the yearly Advent wreath (hung from the ceiling with crimson satin ribbons from her parents’ wedding!), decorating gingerbread cookies for the tree (cut fresh from the forest and lit with candles), dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh…
Just gorgeous. Two of my life dreams are to ride in a sleigh and see a Christmas tree actually lit with candles.
And I popped back to the archives for Katherine Milhous’s The First Christmas Crib, which is not (as I expected) an account of Jesus’s birth, but rather a recounting of the first Christmas creche, created by Saint Francis of Assisi. Older Christmas picture books tend to be more religious than the newer ones, which probably shouldn’t surprise me but does slightly, just because overall the older Newbery books were not particularly religious. Christmas books were the last outpost for a rearguard action, perhaps.
What I’m Reading Now
Ruth Sawyer’s holiday story collection The Long Christmas, illustrated by our friend Valenti Angelo of Newbery fame. The book was first published in 1941, and although Sawyer doesn’t directly reference the war in the introduction, she is very conscious of the need for a light in the darkness, a repetition of the message “peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then the first story is about Satan rising in the fields of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’s birth, intent on storming the stable and killing the baby messiah, but his evil plan is thwarted when the archangel Michael descends from heaven and vanquishes him in pitched battle.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve got my eyes on Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.
Clues By Sam
Dec. 2nd, 2025 06:26 pmsinealaPosting here in the hopes that typing this out will make me remember the name of the site: if you like logic puzzles, Clues by Sam is a fun little daily logic puzzle.
That is all.
That is all.
Picture Book Advent Calendar LIFTOFF!
Dec. 1st, 2025 12:19 pmosprey_archerAt long last December has arrived, and with it the first day of my picture book advent calendar! Before work I had a cup of tea and a cranberry sauce-almond muffin and Tasha Tudor's Corgiville Christmas, which I realized that I've actually read before, probably around when it came out in 2002, because at the time I was quite disappointed by the sketchy style: the pictures look like rough drafts, not as polished and detailed as in Tudor's other books, like my beloved Corgiville Fair.
I do still find the sketchiness a trifle disappointing, to be honest, but I did enjoy the bucolic image of the Corgiville Christmas: skating parties on the frozen pond, making cornucopias to hang on the tree, painting a new Advent calendar for the year...
The corgis start Advent properly on December 6th, so I have been appropriately chastened for my break with tradition in starting on the first. (But will cheerfully enjoy books 2 through 5 regardless.)
As the Advent books came in at the library, I wrapped them in leftover brown paper so each day's book could be a surprise. Yesterday after I decorated the Christmas tree, it occurred to me that it would look so much more festive with the Advent books heaped underneath - if only the books were wrapped in something a bit more jolly than brown paper. For a brief mad moment I considered re-wrapping them all in proper wrapping paper, but sanity prevailed and I only wrapped my cloth Christmas napkins around the top ten or so, which are after all the ones that show.
The tree DOES look extremely merry with a heap of books wrapped under it, so I'm thinking I may need to make the picture book Advent calendar an annual tradition. Perhaps going forward I will include only a smattering of Christmas books? Mostly they could any book by picture book illustrators I like. A grand way to catch up on all the Barbara Cooney and Patricia Polacco books I've missed.
I do still find the sketchiness a trifle disappointing, to be honest, but I did enjoy the bucolic image of the Corgiville Christmas: skating parties on the frozen pond, making cornucopias to hang on the tree, painting a new Advent calendar for the year...
The corgis start Advent properly on December 6th, so I have been appropriately chastened for my break with tradition in starting on the first. (But will cheerfully enjoy books 2 through 5 regardless.)
As the Advent books came in at the library, I wrapped them in leftover brown paper so each day's book could be a surprise. Yesterday after I decorated the Christmas tree, it occurred to me that it would look so much more festive with the Advent books heaped underneath - if only the books were wrapped in something a bit more jolly than brown paper. For a brief mad moment I considered re-wrapping them all in proper wrapping paper, but sanity prevailed and I only wrapped my cloth Christmas napkins around the top ten or so, which are after all the ones that show.
The tree DOES look extremely merry with a heap of books wrapped under it, so I'm thinking I may need to make the picture book Advent calendar an annual tradition. Perhaps going forward I will include only a smattering of Christmas books? Mostly they could any book by picture book illustrators I like. A grand way to catch up on all the Barbara Cooney and Patricia Polacco books I've missed.
Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!
Nov. 30th, 2025 02:42 am![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_newsHello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.
The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.