Prague hockey camp

Jan. 10th, 2026 09:15 am
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

I had such a good time at the hockey camp with the Women's Blues. 24 skaters and a goalie (plus two Czech goalies joined), and for most of the exercises we were divided by ability into four groups of six. The WBs captains had set the groups and they did a great job, certainly for my group - we were well-matched so the exercises all let us push ourselves without anyone being overwhelmed or left behind. And the coaching team was amazing, again.

We had five ice sessions: an "optional" skate Monday evening, and then two 75-minute training sessions on each of Tuesday and Wednesday. Plus some off-ice and stickhandling, video review, a bonus talk on "hockey IQ" and motivation from one of the coaches, and an optional visit to the nearby swimming pool. The camp posted a great reel from the first day that really captures the feel of it.

Read more... )

mistakes were made

Jan. 10th, 2026 01:05 am
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

In "ice is slippy" news, I have managed to bruise both my hips in hard falls this week: the left one at hockey camp earlier this week, the right at Warbirds tonight.

For preference, I sleep curled up on one side.

Ow.

Yaybahar III Nadiri [music]

Jan. 6th, 2026 07:27 pm
siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
2026 Jan 6: Görkem Şen (Yaybahar on YT): Yaybahar III Nadiri



The description text:
The essence of gold was rare, he conquered with his virtue, offered his gifts and fell behind the sun...

Dedicated to the soul of my dear friend's father, Nadir Oğuz...
I am surmising that "Nadiri" means "Of Nadir". Yaybahar is the instrument, the artist is its inventor:
The name yaybahar (pronounced /jajba'har/) has Turkish origin. It is a composite of two words: yay means a "string" or a "coiled string" and bahar means the season "spring." According to Gorkem Sen, the name is derived from the idea of a new life or a new beginning. [1]
I assume this is the third one of its kind the artist has made.

Artist's website: https://www.gorkemsen.com/
siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
Interesting:

2025 Dec 31: DwarkeshPatel YT fea. Sarah Paine: Human Rights Killed Communism - Sarah Paine:



BTW, that's Sarah C. M. Paine, until very recently the William S. Sims University Professor of History and Grand Strategy and the Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History, both, at the US Naval War College. She's an incredibly interesting speaker. Recommended.

(Dwarkesh Patel is this random dude who mistakenly thinks he's a podcaster and keeps trying to have other guests, but in actuality was put on Earth to bring Paine to the masses. He's got something like 14 hours of her up on his channel.)

25 recs in 18 fandoms

Jan. 2nd, 2026 10:23 am
choirwoman: (Default)
[personal profile] choirwoman posting in [community profile] yuletide
Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Floris (TV), The Court Jester, Piranesi, Miss Marple, Dragonriders of Pern, Lord Peter Wimsey, Columbo, The Princess Bride, The Secret Garden, Chalet School, The Goblin Emperor, Irn Bru Snowman Ads, Dark Is Rising Sequence, Murdle, Tiny Bookshop & Untitled Goose Game, Flower Fairies, Baby Shoes Never Worn. Here, at my blog.

4 Yuletide Recs

Jan. 1st, 2026 03:14 pm
geri_chan: (Default)
[personal profile] geri_chan posting in [community profile] yuletide
 I posted recs for 4 Yuletide (and Madness) fics over on my blog for Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels, Breach Wars) and the Singing Hills Cycle over on my blog. Breach Wars is not yet categorized on AO3 and not showing up in the fandoms list, so please go check out those fics if you're an Ilona Andrews fan!

Start as I mean to go on

Jan. 1st, 2026 11:48 pm
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

I had Kodiaks practice on the evening of 30 December, which meant getting home very late as usual. I did get up and out for the last hot yoga class of my festive pass in the morning of 31 December. From there I did a run into town to pay in a cheque (a cheque!) to N's savings account on the last possible day before it expired. After I got home, I looked at how many tickets remained for the public skate I was booked on, did some subtraction and decided the rink would be too full and I was too tired, so I cancelled the Last Skate Of The Year, and had a nap instead. It was marvellous.

In the evening we had a little family movie night with drinks and snacks:

  • Chicken Run (which everyone but Nico had seen before)
  • Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (which only Nico had seen before) - fun, but omg there were bad parenting choices, and excessive ~suspense~ due to even more bad choices in the final action sequence
  • Wake Up Dead Man (which Nico was uninterested in, but the other three of us enjoyed)

We managed to finish the last film with about fifteen minutes to go before midnight, so I put on BBC One on iPlayer and we watched some Ronan Keating and then the fireworks from London, and then I left Ronan Keating providing background music while sending and replying to HNY messages on my phone until I decided sleep was a better plan.

This morning I got up and used a free gym pass to get to a weights class, and confirm my opinion that I want to return to a regular gym routine. I met friends M, J & K for pub drinks this afternoon, and spent a bunch of time afterwards sorting out logistics for ice hockey games on Saturday (Kodiaks 1 are away in Chelmsford, Kodiaks 2 are "home" in Peterborough).

Tomorrow I will take Nico to a pantomime in the morning, work a half day in the afternoon, and go to Warbirds practice in the evening.

2025 reading summary

Jan. 1st, 2026 10:42 pm
rmc28: (reading)
[personal profile] rmc28

New-to-me books read this year: 128
(Note for this exercise: I count audiobooks separately from paper/ebooks. I like both experiences but they are different experiences and different "books" to me, whereas reading paper or ebook feels interchangeable to me. My default is to read ebook, audiobooks and physical books are tagged as variations from the default.)

Read more... )

Rereads: 19

Read more... )

If you want to know more about a specific book I read in 2025, ask me about it. Or pick a random number between 1 and 147 and ask me to talk about that book.

Books acquired in 2025 and not yet read: 19

Read more... )

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book

To-read pile, 2025, December

Jan. 1st, 2026 09:30 pm
rmc28: (reading)
[personal profile] rmc28

Books on pre-order:

  1. Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May 2026)
  2. Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie (12 May 2026)

Books acquired in December:

  • and read:
    1. Last Victim of the Monsoon Express (Baby Ganesha) by Vaseem Khan
    2. Harmonic Pleasure (Mysterious Arts 6) by Celia Lake
  • and unread:
    1. Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh
    2. Wounded Christmas Wolf by Lauren Esker
    3. Gift of the Magpie (Fated Mountain Lodge) by Lauren Esker
    4. Claiming the Tower (Council Mysteries 1) by Celia Lake
    5. Apt to be Suspicious (Liminal Mysteries 2) by Celia Lake
  • and previously read:
    1. The Green and the Grey by Timothy Zahn
    2. Triplet by Timothy Zahn

Books acquired previously and read in December:

  1. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
  2. The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus 1) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
  3. The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus 2) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
  4. The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus 3) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
  5. The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus 4) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
  6. The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus 5) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]

Borrowed books read in December:

  1. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
  2. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson [3]
  3. Bad Day at the Vulture Club (Baby Ganesha 5) by Vaseem Khan [3]
  4. Inspector Chopra and the Million Dollar Motor Car (Baby Ganesha) by Vaseem Khan [3]
  5. Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
  6. The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan [3]
  7. The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan [3]
  8. The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles 1) by Rick Riordan [3]
  9. The Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles 2) by Rick Riordan [3]

I was right about how much I could read this month when I bought books, I was wrong about how easily I was going to get diverted by reading borrowed books instead. I finished up the Inspector Chopra series and intend to move on to the Malabar House series by Vaseem Khan once I've read and returned more of the Rick Riordan backlist.

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

Yuletide 2025 Wrap-Up

Jan. 2nd, 2026 10:14 am
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
[personal profile] yuletidemods posting in [community profile] yuletide_admin
End of Event
We have revealed creator names at the main 2025 collection and the 2025 Madness collection. (Reveals seems to be working as intended - fingers crossed!) The New Year's Resolutions 2026 collection will shortly open for posting. The structured parts of this year's event are over - but you can keep posting recs at [community profile] yuletide and commenting on works to let their creators know you enjoyed them.

Please comment!

Please check that you have commented on any gifts you received - you can search on your username at the Yuletide 2025 collection, or the Yuletide Madness 2025 collection, or check your own personal AO3 gifts page. We understand not everyone can comment immediately due to late-December commitments or unforeseen events, but please comment when you can to acknowledge the gifts you requested. Comments and kudos on other Yuletide works are also very welcome.

Thank you from mods and team
Thank you to everyone who took part in Yuletide 2025: writers, requesters, betas, pinch hitters, community coordinators, chatters, hippos and the hippo pool.

Thank you from mods to the tagmod team: these are the assistants who research and process tags, proofread announcements, brainstorm author questions, contribute specific fandom knowledge, check stories, and discuss how to solve problems.

We look forward to running Yuletide again in 2026!

And now
There's a reveals post up at the participant community, if you want to chat about your writing process now that you can.

New stories can be posted to the New Year's Resolutions 2026 collection.

Feedback
As always, general feedback is welcome!

This year, we increased the nominations allowance from 4 fandoms to 5 fandoms. Since that worked okay, we anticipate continuing that next year.

We introduced a limited Do-Not-Match system. That was manageable so we're interested in repeating the same process next year - though it's possible it could grow beyond our capacity, so we don't want to guarantee it indefinitely.

We changed the deadline time and the reveals times. Those changes were based on mod availability, and it was really helpful to us to have multiple mods awake at the point of deadline and reveals. We'll need to base future deadline and reveals times on that priority, but since that isn't the only factor making deadlines and reveal times effective, we're interested to hear feedback too.

Next Yuletide, we may review franchise rules to make sure we're being consistent and fair. We may also specifically review rules for music videos.

As requested by a participant, we will also be adding a section to our rules on AO3 listing what you can expect from the mod team’s communications and conduct. We have had an internal Code of Conduct for several years but agree it would be helpful to share a public version.

Again, feedback on these or other topics is also welcome.

Thank you for helping to make Yuletide 2025 a wonderful event.


Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app

Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.

Yuletide 2025 Reveals Posts

Jan. 2nd, 2026 10:11 am
morbane: pohutukawa blossom and leaves (Default)
[personal profile] morbane posting in [community profile] yuletide
Thank you for all the work that went in to the Yuletide 2025 collection and event.

Now that author names have been revealed at the main Yuletide 2025 and Yuletide Madness 2025 collections, it's traditional for people to share thoughts on what they made this year. Maybe you want to write a post on your own social media (Dreamwidth or other) about your thoughts during canon consumption, your false starts, your research rabbit holes - please link it here! Or maybe you'd like to comment directly with much shorter thoughts. There's room for options in between, too.

See past posts at the reveals tag.

Recs for my gifts

Jan. 1st, 2026 07:02 pm
kahvi_kat: (Default)
[personal profile] kahvi_kat posting in [community profile] yuletide

A few recs for my gifts here - Blackwell Series, Jeeves & Wooster, and Fantastic Four: First Steps:

https://www.tumblr.com/norwegianpornfaerie/804561142003499008/yuletide-recs?source=share

Day 31 Summary Post

Jan. 1st, 2026 08:19 am
torino10154: Colored holidays lights (Xmas_Lights)
[personal profile] torino10154 posting in [community profile] adventdrabbles
Here's the summary of entries we got for December 31st. Do check them out and then give the creators some love. ♥

Harry Potter
[personal profile] goddess47 wrote Rewards for a Good Life - Harry/Severus
[personal profile] torino10154 wrote Peppermint Imp [AO3] - Severus/Harry
[personal profile] enchanted_jae wrote It's Almost Midnight - Harry/Draco, other HP characters, ocs

Let us know if there are any omissions or errors. Thanks!

Technically this is the end of this year's adventdrabbles. Please continue to post if you need to finish out a series or have other prompts you wanted to get to.

It's been my pleasure to write (off and on) for this community since 2007 and co-mod since 2009. I'm definitely going to miss it and all the fantastic participants. ♥

Happy New Year!

A handful of recs

Jan. 1st, 2026 11:53 pm
cyphomandra: fluffy snowy mountains (painting) (snowcone)
[personal profile] cyphomandra posting in [community profile] yuletide
Recs for KJ Charles' England series, Utopia Avenue, Soulmate Goose AU, LEGO Botanical Garden and LEGO Natural History Museum, The Long Walk, Oxford Time Travel Universe, Dredge, and Miss Marple, here at my dreamwidth.

A few recs

Jan. 1st, 2026 08:50 am
regshoe: Black silhouette of a raven in flight, wearing a Santa hat (santa hat)
[personal profile] regshoe posting in [community profile] yuletide
Seven Yuletide recs (plus one non-Yuletide rec) at my journal. Fandoms are Blackadder, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV), Flower Fairies - Cicely Mary Barker, LEGO Botanical Garden and LEGO Natural History Museum, Moby Dick - Herman Melville, Piranesi - Susanna Clarke and (unofficially) Raffles - E. W. Hornung.

Yuletide recs (part III)

Dec. 31st, 2025 08:58 pm
snickfic: (Dru)
[personal profile] snickfic posting in [community profile] yuletide
One last batch in before reveals! Nine recs, all on my journal. Fandoms include:

The Long Walk (2025)
Carrie
The Odyssey
Philadelphia Flyers RPF
Crash (1996)
19th Century Poets RPF
True Detective
Jaws
The Blue Castle
enchanted_jae: (Jae Christmas)
[personal profile] enchanted_jae posting in [community profile] adventdrabbles
Title: It's Almost Midnight
Author: [personal profile] enchanted_jae
Character(s): Harry/Draco, other HP characters, ocs
Rating: PG
Warning(s): None
Word count: 405
Summary: Harry and Draco greet the New Year.
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic/drabble was written for fun, not for profit.
Written for:
Jae's Advent Drabbles No. 31
[community profile] dracoharry100 Christmas Challenge 2025 No. 31 - Auld Lang Syne
[community profile] adventdrabbles Prompt No. 31 - Happy New Year
[community profile] slythindor100 Bonus Prompt - New Year’s Eve fireworks

It's Almost Midnight
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Привет and welcome to our new Russian friends from LiveJournal! We are happy to offer you a new home. We will not require identification for you to post or comment. We also do not cooperate with Russian government requests for any information about your account unless they go through a United States court first. (And it hasn't happened in 16 years!)

Importing your journal from ЖЖ may be slow. There are a lot of you, with many posts and comments, and we have to limit how fast we download your information from ЖЖ so they don't block us. Please be patient! We have been watching and fixing errors, and we will go back to doing that after the holiday is over.

I am very sorry that we can't translate the site into Russian or offer support in Russian. We are a much, much smaller company than LiveJournal is, and my high school Russian classes were a very long time ago :) But at least we aren't owned by Sberbank!

С Новым Годом, and welcome home!

EDIT: Большое спасибо всем за помощь друг другу в комментариях! Я ценю каждого, кто предоставляет нашим новым соседям информацию, понятную им без необходимости искать её в Google. :) И спасибо вам за терпение к моему русскому переводу с помощью Google Translate! Прошло уже много-много лет со школьных времен!

Thank you also to everyone who's been giving our new neighbors a warm welcome. I love you all ❤️

Yuletide recs

Dec. 31st, 2025 03:09 pm
harukami: (thinking dirty thoughts)
[personal profile] harukami posting in [community profile] yuletide
10 Yuletide recs in 8 fandoms: Valdemar series, the Coldfire Trilogy, Cthulhu Mythos, Dimension 20: Escape from the Bloodkeep, The Goblin Emperor series, Rivers of London, Type Help, and Yami no Matsuei

https://harukami.dreamwidth.org/816011.html
torino10154: Art by Tripperfunster of Severus and Harry (Snarry)
[personal profile] torino10154 posting in [community profile] adventdrabbles
Title: Peppermint Imp
Author: [personal profile] torino10154
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Severus/Harry
Rating: Gen
Word Count: ~250
Content: Mpreg
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Unbeta'd. Written for [community profile] adventdrabbles Prompt 31: 'Father Time welcomes Baby Time (AKA Happy New Year)' and [community profile] hp_bunintheoven Prompt 2: Candy cane.

DW or AO3
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