nekare

Blurgh I think I am coming down with something - my throat is incredibly scratchy and every third breath I need to cough loudly and horribly. It kept me from sleeping very well last night so tonight i think it's going to be Nyquil or bust. Bah.

I keep intending to share these links and forgetting, but at least I can do it while it's still Mika March:

= Mika Zibanejad and the lasting moments of a 1,000-game NHL journey
= A Forgettable Night, A Memorable Career: Mika Zibanejad’s Top Moments

since he's my favorite player now that Kreider is gone. Well, him and Shesterkin. Even though I gave up on this season fairly early (not earlier than JT Miller though!).

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I know I owe comment replies and I am going to get to them. The intermittent internet situation this week made me very reluctant as it would drop and I'd lose track of what I was planning to say by the time it came back etc. But! My new modem and router arrived yesterday and early this afternoon, I hooked them up. It worked, though at first I was like, what is happening? Because you do all this waiting for the modem to boot up and activate and then the first thing the router instructions say is "reboot your modem" and I'm like "are you for real? I literally just activated it!" but I did it and plugged everything in and it worked briefly! And then the router started blinking and my phone told me I had no internet and I was like WTF? Because it could 100% be an outside the apartment problem, or it could be a cabling problem because I did not swap out the coaxial cables - why would I do that? They are all nice and tight and the splitter is connected and I have had no issues with my cable box. So I unplugged everything and then plugged it back in and went to the Spectrum website to activate everything and it told me I had nothing ot activate, everything was working! And it has been so far! I will keep the old equipment for a couple of days, just in case, and bring it back to the Spectrum store midweek, probably.

After that adventure, I baked these whipped shortbread cookies (pic). I did not separate into lemon vanilla/orange chocolate. Instead, I used 1 tsp of almond extract in place of the citrus zest, and added chocolate sprinkles once they were piped but before they were refrigerated.

I've mentioned this before, but I am trying to replicate a childhood favorite cookie from an old Italian bakery that closed long before I even moved out of Ozone Park. They were not kept with the fancy butter cookies but with the S-cookies and the biscotti and the anginetti, and they had a much crumblier/drier texture than the typical Italian bakery butter cookies (you know the ones, either dipped in chocolate on one end or sandwiched with apricot or raspberry jam etc.). they were piped round and a slightly darker brown than the butter cookies too. And they were my absolute favorites. I've never found them at another bakery either.

I've tried a few Italian butter cookie recipes but none were quite right (though the one from Dolci was pretty close!), and then last week on thee second or third day of the pecan shortbread, I was like, this is the texture! And almost the taste, but the pecans obviously made the flavor different, though they do have almond extract in them (almond extract is the smell of Italian bakeries to me). So I googled to see if there was a chocolate sprinkle shortbread recipe out there, and found the one I linked above, and they also seemed like they'd be close. So after checking to make sure I wouldn't leave myself out of butter if I made them (I had another pound way in the back of the fridge), I got to baking. I think these also need a little longer in the oven, but we'll see how they taste tomorrow - I think that will be the test. but I think I'm getting close!

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I made it through this work week unscathed! I logged off last night at 4:45 and took a 2 hour nap where I slept like a rock, got up, watched The Pitt (more on that below) and went to bed and again slept hard. This weekend could not have come at a better time! ;)

In other news, I am sure you have all see this, but in case you haven't: Himesh Patel joins the Ryan Coogler X-Files Reboot. Danielle Deadwyler was already on board. I am seated and ready! Though it will probably be several years before it premieres (if it doesn't get shitcanned the way the Buffy revival did).

My impression - not based on anything except how it's described in that article - is that this is more of a sequel than a reboot? Like a reopening of the X-Files several years later? But I could be wrong. It could be a straight up reboot. I am curious, though, how it will go, especially after we've had Fringe and, more recently, Evil treading similar ground.

As for The Pitt: ( spoilers )

And now I am just going to hit post while I still have an internet connection. The router has been worse today than ever before. I guess it knows its replacement is sitting five feet away, ready to be installed tomorrow.

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In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

We were all super anxious about today's board meeting, but despite all the agita, it went well. Whew. We will still need to do some tweaking in terms of the order stuff is presented in, but thankfully nobody got all up in arms about the changes.

My router keeps dropping my internet connection in short spurts every few hours, and I finally opened the chat with Spectrum about it. I was like, could it be that I need a new router? It's 6 years old. And the chatbot or whatever was like, it seems to be working right now! And I was like, yes, but it's been dropping the connection repeatedly for the last three days, several times a day, for 5-10 minutes at a time, both on wifi and with the computer that is plugged into the ethernet cable. And it was like, please hold. And then it came back and was like, ah yes, now I see there is some bad signal coming from your router! Perhaps we should replace it. It is 6 years old. And I was like, yes please! How do we do that? And it offered to ship it and a new modem, which is also 6 years old but has not (yet) been troublesome, so I said yes, let's do that. So now they are shipping me a new modem and a new router, which I will install and then return the old equipment to them. So we'll see how that goes.

I also signed and scanned back my tax returns to my accountant and I'm so glad they take payment by Zelle now so I don't have to mail a check. I'm getting money back from both Fed and State, which will have to go right to paying bills. At least I can't rack up more credit card charges atm because my niece has put a moratorium on any new clothes for Baby Miss L until they clear out out some space. It is very hard to restrain myself but I have done so womanfully. There are just so many cute toddler girl clothes out there though, and she enjoys playing with her clothes (she likes to do fashion shows by trying on various items, accessorizing with a hat and a purse, and then walking round the living room), so I enjoy giving them to her. Hopefully they'll get some old stuff that no longer fits put away and I will be given free rein again.

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My mother passed early this morning. Some of you know she’s had a rough year health-wise on top of her dementia. So. Nothing can ever hurt her again.

The Crow Contracts Exchange, a Dragon Age exchange focusing on the Antivan Crows, went live yesterday, and I just now got the change to read my gifts because of the craziness of everything.

I got not one, not two, but a whopping three amazing stories!

First up is Fourth Spaces, focusing on the gen relationships between Lucanis (and Spite) and Bellara, Lace, and Taash in a world state where Rook kept her distance from him. 2334 words.

Next is Gotta Kill Them All, focusing on the relationship between Lucanis and Spite. 520 words.

And last was One by day, one by twilight, a delightful Lucanis/Neve/Spite fic from Spite's POV. 7625 words.

After waiting as they spent a long, slow afternoon in the oven, I just went to town on some baby back ribs. Holy cats, they were good. Super messy, of course, but delicious! And I have leftovers, so I'll be able to repeat the experience this week!

The pecan shortbread (pic) turned out well, too. I'm a little sad there's no blood orange gelato to go with them, but once the chicken tenders are gone, I will definitely be making it!

In more fannish news, there was a post I saw somewhere on tumblr that talked about a crossover (or fusion? it didn't go into great detail) between Batfam and Dungeon Crawler Carl, and said that the Bats would all be outside during the collapse, and feel obligated to go into the dungeon. And I don't necessarily disagree? But I also don't necessarily agree, either!

In DCC, we're told the collapse happened at approximately 2:20 am PT, which means it was 5:20 am ET, and if you (and by "you" I mean me) believe Gotham is in New Jersey, that is probably after they are all home, and hopefully showering/sleeping, so I'm not sure they survive just by nature of being on patrol. Maybe if Tim is out in San Francisco with the Titans, where it would also be 2:20 am PT, he'd survive, but I'm not necessarily convinced he would go into the dungeon, either. Because there's whatever survivors on the surface to take care of also. Maybe they'd split up? Some would go into the dungeon to see what it was about and others would stay up top to manage any survivors, lead any fighting against alien invaders?

Like, could Kon take being underground for so long without access to sunlight? He should probably stay on the surface and help that way. (I also think this is a hard crossover to make happen simply because...there are canonical aliens in the DCU and also the Green Lantern Corps. So you'd have to do some fast talking/handwaving to get to the interesting parts, because how do the Green Lanterns not know about this? Otoh, you could go full AU/fusion and have Krypton be a world that was stripped ages ago and everyone is shocked to see Kryptonians on Earth. Same with Tamaran or Mars I guess.)

And I do wonder how Batman specifically would fare in a dungeon where killing is the preferred (by the System AI and the Syndicate running the thing and a large portion of the audience) way to survive and advance. He and Cass would find other ways, and I'm sure they would amass fans and, eventually, sponsors, but it'd be harder, I think, especially on the earlier floors. I think we have seen him kill aliens though, at least in the animated universes, so maybe he'd be okay at first with killing goblins and ogres and ghouls etc. Idk.

Jason, otoh, would be all, "I'm built for this!" and shoot his way to glory, or at least do the killing when Bruce and Cass couldn't. Steph and Dick might be pragmatic enough to come around to killing mobs, at least, ( spoiler for Dungeon Crawler Carl )

And while I think a fusion might be a better way to go than a regular crossover (I know there is someone writing a Superman and Carl are BFF in the dungeon, or at least creating art for it, but I don't know what they've chosen to use for backstory), I would love to see Damian interact with Princess Donut. Or the System AI deal with Oracle.

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We went and saw Project Hail Mary this afternoon. It was terrific. I loved it.

You can read my (positive and spoilery) reactions to the Project Hail Mary book at this post from 2024.

If spoilers matter to you, I recommend very strongly going in as unspoiled as possible, including not watching the trailer.

( Talking about the movie some more, and movie vs book )

I made this Shanghai scallion flatbread this afternoon and it is really good but if you should endeavor to make it, I have 2 warnings:

1. whatever you think is "medium heat" when you're cooking it is too high. No, lower than that. Or don't go the full 12 minutes recommended, but I think that might be harder to gauge.

2. be careful when flipping it over! Remember that sesame seeds will pop in hot oil and things will spatter, so really and truly, be careful!

Otherwise, it's delicious, A++ will make again. On lower heat next time. The only thing I did differently was use toasted sesame oil on the inside before I put the scallions on. Also, I think it could hold more than 1/2 cup of chopped scallions, but that is just me. Oh, and I used five spice powder instead of ground Sichuan peppercorns because I don't like that much heat and so I do not actually have Sichuan peppercorns in the house. Anyway, I did it all by hand and it was easy enough. I can't recommend a Danish dough whisk enough if you enjoy making bread and don't have a stand mixer.

I had big plans to also make blood orange gelato - blood oranges are in season right now and on sale! but the ones I got are like, bruised to hell, so that is probably why the sale price - but I don't have room in the freezer for it. Bah. Pre-made chicken tenders were also on sale and I bought them to make for lunch this week and they are taking up a lot of space (there are only about 12 in the bag but the bag is enormous. so annoying! I suppose I could rebag them in something less full of air. Hmm...). Anyway, I am contemplating zesting and juicing the oranges and freezing that, but again, space is at a premium in there. One day I will have a full-size fridge. or a chest freezer. Either way. and I will be so happy.

Soon, I will take the rack of babyback ribs I bought this week (not on sale alas) and give them a dry rub before they go back into the fridge overnight to be roasted low and slow tomorrow. And in the morning, before I have to devote 4 hours of oven-time to the ribs, I plan to make pecan shortbread because I still have like 2 lbs of pecans from my Christmas candied pecans project. It's an Ina Garten recipe, so I anticipate it will be good! And I will eat a few of them for breakfast each morning next week.

And after reblogging this post, I have also been contemplating making gyoza for Easter since I'll have a 4-day weekend and could do it in stages, though I have never done it and don't know how to pleat them so I'm going to have to watch some videos - any recs for that? I'll also try to clear out some space in the freezer to freeze some for later. *g* But they look so good! I do love a dumpling.

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I posted some more Babylon 5 fic in the last couple of days: a new Londo/G'Kar fake dating fic plus a new chapter of the B5 catacomb WIP.

It's been a year this month since I started watching the show - my first post under the B5 tag was posted March 3, 2025 after watching the first couple of episodes. Still completely gone on it! I regret nothing!

In other news, NYT gift link to an article about Paul Brainerd, creator of Aldus PageMaker and inventor of the term "desktop publishing." This was a fascinating nostalgia read for me because, while I had no idea of the actual history, this guy (and Adobe and Apple) created the professional world of my young adulthood. My first job out of college in (I think) 1998 was working in the layout department of a newspaper that had just recently (last few years) gone from paste-up to an all-Mac layout room using a program similar to PageMaker from a third-party software maker that no longer exists. PageMaker - which I also learned to use in the college computer lab, and later at work - was the direct predecessor of InDesign, widely used even today. It's interesting to think back on those old newspaper days and how thoroughly they shaped me and continue to shape me. The computer/layout/marketing experience I got as a layout artist in the late 90s and 2000s has been immensely useful for my current self-publishing career.

It continues to be horrendously cold. We've been sitting under a high-pressure ridge and have had gorgeous sunny days that are absolutely freezing. It was -20F when I got up this morning and it's 0F out there right now. My husband's (uni-age) students are over here today because they wanted to help him dig out an ancient non-working snowblower that someone gave us ages ago from a snowbank and try to get it working again. (We do actually have TWO other snowblowers. This is just for fun.)

I took this picture on a walk up our driveway to the highway to get the mail a couple of days ago:



At least at this time of year, the sun warms it up SOMEWHAT during the day - in January it can sit at -40 24/7 for weeks; at this time of year we're still experiencing 20-40 degree increases during the day .... which is still barely enough to push us above 0F. The 10-day forecast shows that it will be glacially (haha) warming up, but still may not have crawled into above-freezing temps by the end of the month. UGH, I'M READY FOR SPRING.

I was shocked and saddened when devildoll just texted me this: Nicholas Brendon, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Star, Dies at 54. I knew he had troubles, but also thought he had time to work them out. He's a year younger than me!

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I have watched some TV!

Shrinking: ( spoilers )

Abbott Elementary: ( spoilers )

The Pitt: ( spoilers )

Here is a cool video interview with Alexandra Metz, who plays Garcia. I don't think there are any spoilers past earlier s2 episodes.

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In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

... resulting from making that vid this past week.

One thing that I was thinking about is the sheer challenge of costuming this show, because most of the costumes are directly patterned after their manga/anime looks. So whereas most of the time in most shows, you can probably source the characters' everyday wear from basic mass-produced clothes or even vintage or secondhand shops, aside from really specific superhero costumes or whatever, this is more like a historical production in that everything has to be made from scratch. (Only, if possible, worse, because unless you're doing an unusual time period, normally you could probably go to the warehouses of Elizabethan or Regency costumes or Roman togas that no doubt exist.)

Here, even the relatively normal clothes are directly echoing something specific, like the patterns on

season 2 character's

Tashigi's

distinctive shirt, or

another season 2 character's

Miss Valentine's lemon-patterned

dress.

Anyway, it's just interesting to think about. Even the simplest costumes are more complicated than they seem, because it's not just an unusual shirt that the costume people found at a vintage shop; they're having to explicitly pattern-match or color-match or style-match items from the manga and anime.

( More specific spoilers about characters' fighting skills )

So this is apparently the latest installment in an accidental series about gardens. This is based off some bits in hauntinghouses's lovely post-canon fixit Out of the Woods (not necessary to read before this one, but you should read if you like Londo & G'Kar stuff; it's lovely, with some neat Narn worldbuilding), which was in turn inspired by one of my older ones. This is not meant to be in direct continuity with either hauntinghouses' fic or the other fic it was inspired by; it's off happily living its best life in its own AU 'verse.

Green Growing Things (Londo & G'Kar, 2800 wds)
It is post-canon, and there are gardens.

( Fic also posted under the cut )

( Bonus extras from Tumblr )

Oscar winner Michael B Jordan! Woohoo! I did not watch the Oscars but I am so happy for MBJ!

Also for Kpop Demon Hunters and "Golden!"

Here are two links I enjoyed this morning:

= Don't Fence Ted McGinley In (NYT gift link) (also, spoilers for aired episodes of Shrinking)

= 'The Pitt,' as Told by Its Patients

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A vid about the Marines. Clips from seasons one and two; spoilers.

(CW: guns, violence, smoking - the usual show stuff. No fast/stuttery cuts.)



Music: Janelle Monae
Length: 2:48
Crossposted: On AO3 | on Tumblr

Download: 212 Mb MP4 (zipped)