WIP Big Bang/ WIP Reverse Bang 2025 - IMPORTANT CHANGES! PLEASE READ!
Jul. 3rd, 2025 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penaltywaltz posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
wipbigbangSo one of the mods brought up a good point about the posting dates, so there's going to be a slight change this round with when emergency posting will be. Official posting will, from now on, go from September 8th to November 30th since we have so many more posters than previous rounds. Emergency posting will go on for the entire month of December, and you will not have to sign up for it, you'll just post when you finish.
Also, with regards to submitting snippets if you don't think you'll finish your fic/art by November 30th: With December now being reserved for emergency posting, you CAN submit snippets for WIPs even if you can only finish by December. However, we strongly encourage you to be upfront with your artist if you're aiming for a December posting and come to a decision on what specific date to (finish) post(ing) by so you don't leave them hanging.
Also, with regards to submitting snippets if you don't think you'll finish your fic/art by November 30th: With December now being reserved for emergency posting, you CAN submit snippets for WIPs even if you can only finish by December. However, we strongly encourage you to be upfront with your artist if you're aiming for a December posting and come to a decision on what specific date to (finish) post(ing) by so you don't leave them hanging.
What? Wednesday?
Jul. 2nd, 2025 08:59 amlydamorehouse Once again, I have not been keeping up.
Sadly, I am still slogging my way through Cultish. As a dyslexic reader, I get into these weirdly stubborn things. I am SO freaking close to being done with this book that, even though I'm no longer enjoying it, I refuse to give up. Admittedly, this is incredibly stupid. Life it too short for books you aren't enjoying! But, here I am, anyway. To be fair to me, I did take a break to read the first several issues of a 1980s American comic book called American Flagg. I talked my co-host into reading this for our podcast and, I'm going to be honest. I kind of regret that. I had a VERY DIFFERENT memory of these comic books than what is apparently the reality. Oof, they do not stand the test of time! I have literally never seen the n-word (spelled out!) so many times in a mere 12 issues, holy shit.
It should be an interesting podcast, though!
Also, when I was volunteering out at Pride, Jason Tucker who is a comic book affectionado turned to me when I told him what I'd been reading, "Huh. Is American Flagg cyberpunk, though?" Not to spoil the upcoming episode because this is a question we regularly ask of whatever we're reviewing or discussing, but I do think I now know why I thought so having re-read them, at least. I mean, this is hardly a spoiler to the episode or the comics since it is revealed in the literal first panel, but Rueben Flagg did lose his acting job to AI, actually, so I mean, that's kind of prescient, in a way, cyberpunkly-speaking.
But, wow, also a hard read, albeit in a completely different way than Cultish.
Part of my absence here is due, in part, to the fact that we've gotten some really bad news from my brother-in-law, Keven. Keven's test results have come back and the cancer has spread to his bones. The doctors informed him that its incurable and have given him about a year, year and a half to live. I don't even know how to cope with this? I was telling Shawn that you always hear people asking the hypothetical, "What would you do if you found out you only had a year left to live?" But, like that's supposed to be a fun thought-experiment, not Real Life. And, as I have reported previously, Keven is the sibling of Shawn's that my family interacts with the most. He lives within striking distance of our house--just on the other side of the Mississippi in Minneapolis. So, we see him often. Mason has been Keven's odd job man for hire now and most of his in-between college summers. And, like, our relationship with Keven is, like with a lot of family, somewhat fraught? We've had some terrible fights in the past. However, for better or for worse, Keven has been a constant in our lives.
Yesterday, when we found out, Shawn was already at work. She decided that she was just not functional after talking to Keven and so I picked her up and brought her home. We spent much of the day yesterday just trying to wrap our heads arounds this--alternating between crying/staring into the middle distance and doing distracting things like, for her working on her quilt and watching mindless British detective shows, and me randomly coming up with panel ideas for Gaylaxicon (I wrote about ten yesterday! It was kind of soothing in a weird way?)
So, yeah, that's kind of been us.
I hope things are better wherever you are!
Sadly, I am still slogging my way through Cultish. As a dyslexic reader, I get into these weirdly stubborn things. I am SO freaking close to being done with this book that, even though I'm no longer enjoying it, I refuse to give up. Admittedly, this is incredibly stupid. Life it too short for books you aren't enjoying! But, here I am, anyway. To be fair to me, I did take a break to read the first several issues of a 1980s American comic book called American Flagg. I talked my co-host into reading this for our podcast and, I'm going to be honest. I kind of regret that. I had a VERY DIFFERENT memory of these comic books than what is apparently the reality. Oof, they do not stand the test of time! I have literally never seen the n-word (spelled out!) so many times in a mere 12 issues, holy shit.
It should be an interesting podcast, though!
Also, when I was volunteering out at Pride, Jason Tucker who is a comic book affectionado turned to me when I told him what I'd been reading, "Huh. Is American Flagg cyberpunk, though?" Not to spoil the upcoming episode because this is a question we regularly ask of whatever we're reviewing or discussing, but I do think I now know why I thought so having re-read them, at least. I mean, this is hardly a spoiler to the episode or the comics since it is revealed in the literal first panel, but Rueben Flagg did lose his acting job to AI, actually, so I mean, that's kind of prescient, in a way, cyberpunkly-speaking.
But, wow, also a hard read, albeit in a completely different way than Cultish.
Part of my absence here is due, in part, to the fact that we've gotten some really bad news from my brother-in-law, Keven. Keven's test results have come back and the cancer has spread to his bones. The doctors informed him that its incurable and have given him about a year, year and a half to live. I don't even know how to cope with this? I was telling Shawn that you always hear people asking the hypothetical, "What would you do if you found out you only had a year left to live?" But, like that's supposed to be a fun thought-experiment, not Real Life. And, as I have reported previously, Keven is the sibling of Shawn's that my family interacts with the most. He lives within striking distance of our house--just on the other side of the Mississippi in Minneapolis. So, we see him often. Mason has been Keven's odd job man for hire now and most of his in-between college summers. And, like, our relationship with Keven is, like with a lot of family, somewhat fraught? We've had some terrible fights in the past. However, for better or for worse, Keven has been a constant in our lives.
Yesterday, when we found out, Shawn was already at work. She decided that she was just not functional after talking to Keven and so I picked her up and brought her home. We spent much of the day yesterday just trying to wrap our heads arounds this--alternating between crying/staring into the middle distance and doing distracting things like, for her working on her quilt and watching mindless British detective shows, and me randomly coming up with panel ideas for Gaylaxicon (I wrote about ten yesterday! It was kind of soothing in a weird way?)
So, yeah, that's kind of been us.
I hope things are better wherever you are!
WIP Big Bang/ WIP Reverse Bang 2025 - Snippets Submissions Are Live!
Jun. 30th, 2025 08:17 pmpenaltywaltz posting in wipbigbangThis is how snippet submission will work:
Fic snippet submissions and art snippet submissions will be on different forms, and both forms will be listed here in #announcements on the Discord as well as pinned under the pinned Schedule/FAQ post on Tumblr and pinned to the top of the Dreamwidth page as a separate post under the Schedule/FAQ (since a lot of you are on Tumblr I'm also going to have a post with the links I'll reblog every day the submissions forms are open, just in case people can't see the secondary pinned post).
Fic writers are to submit at least one but at max three snippets between 500 to 1500 words (if it goes over or under a bit that's fine). You may also submit them using Google Docsor Ellipsus (with the GDocs/Ellipsus option you can put all three snippets in one document and put the link in the first section and N/A in the other two sections, or you can do separate doc for each section and post each link in an individual snippets section...just make sure your artist can view them without haing to get your permission first!). The Google form collecting snippets does not italicize/bold/underline your text automatically when it's submitted; you can either use HTML coding to indicate where italicized/bolded/underlined text will be or submit it as a Gdoc link.
For those submitting art project snippets, you only have to supply one snippet to an image hosting service/YouTube/sound hosting service and provide a link to it, but you must provide the snippet when you submit the snippet form. If you want to provide more than one snippet you may, but it's not required.
Both snippet submission forms will be asking for general information about your fic/art project. You'll have two sections for content warnings (one for AO3's general warnings as a checkbox option and a section to write in any other warnings or things you want artists/writers to be aware of), a section for a summary of your project, the title, the rating and I think one other section. Please make sure to include all the fandoms your project is working in by FULL FANDOM NAME (not nicknames/abbreviations, as we use a script to put the claims forms together and I've got anywhere from 245 to 675 potential participants this round).
If you need to make any changes the the description info after you've submitted the form email the mods ASAP so I can edit the specific claims info in the spreadsheets we'll be generating before the claims list gets made via script. If you need to edit snippet stuff, email the mods with the subject line information listed in the first section of this post, as fic snippets will not be included in the claims listings (art/fanvid/filk snippets are included in the claims info so as I said before, you must include a snippet in your WIPRB form).
Any other questions you may have feel free to bring up in #mod-questions/asks/comments below. The form will stay open until midnight/early morning July 11th!
Here are the links to the submission forms:
WIPBB Submission Form | WIPRB Submission Form
Fic snippet submissions and art snippet submissions will be on different forms, and both forms will be listed here in #announcements on the Discord as well as pinned under the pinned Schedule/FAQ post on Tumblr and pinned to the top of the Dreamwidth page as a separate post under the Schedule/FAQ (since a lot of you are on Tumblr I'm also going to have a post with the links I'll reblog every day the submissions forms are open, just in case people can't see the secondary pinned post).
Fic writers are to submit at least one but at max three snippets between 500 to 1500 words (if it goes over or under a bit that's fine). You may also submit them using Google Docsor Ellipsus (with the GDocs/Ellipsus option you can put all three snippets in one document and put the link in the first section and N/A in the other two sections, or you can do separate doc for each section and post each link in an individual snippets section...just make sure your artist can view them without haing to get your permission first!). The Google form collecting snippets does not italicize/bold/underline your text automatically when it's submitted; you can either use HTML coding to indicate where italicized/bolded/underlined text will be or submit it as a Gdoc link.
For those submitting art project snippets, you only have to supply one snippet to an image hosting service/YouTube/sound hosting service and provide a link to it, but you must provide the snippet when you submit the snippet form. If you want to provide more than one snippet you may, but it's not required.
Both snippet submission forms will be asking for general information about your fic/art project. You'll have two sections for content warnings (one for AO3's general warnings as a checkbox option and a section to write in any other warnings or things you want artists/writers to be aware of), a section for a summary of your project, the title, the rating and I think one other section. Please make sure to include all the fandoms your project is working in by FULL FANDOM NAME (not nicknames/abbreviations, as we use a script to put the claims forms together and I've got anywhere from 245 to 675 potential participants this round).
If you need to make any changes the the description info after you've submitted the form email the mods ASAP so I can edit the specific claims info in the spreadsheets we'll be generating before the claims list gets made via script. If you need to edit snippet stuff, email the mods with the subject line information listed in the first section of this post, as fic snippets will not be included in the claims listings (art/fanvid/filk snippets are included in the claims info so as I said before, you must include a snippet in your WIPRB form).
Any other questions you may have feel free to bring up in #mod-questions/asks/comments below. The form will stay open until midnight/early morning July 11th!
Here are the links to the submission forms:
Rebuilding journal search again
Jun. 30th, 2025 03:18 pmalierak posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceWe're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.
Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.
Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.
My Life, et. al
Jun. 27th, 2025 09:23 amlydamorehouse I'm currently reading a book called CULTISH: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell. It's a book that Mason brought home from college and had in his discard (as in to go out to the Little Free Library) pile. I picked it up because a friend of mine just shared a story about a friend of hers from college who was in a cult in the 1990s. I'm not normally a person who is super into all this sort of thing, but I mean, I did watch all of the 2015 movie, Going Clear about Scientology. The book is a little frustrating because it was written in 2021 and the author skirts around taking seriously Trump's language as fantaticism (even while mentioning it) and that doesn't play well post Insurrection and current administration. Like, girl. You could have punched up HARDER. You were, in fact, on to something.
Ironically, I've been spending my free time doing something that feels cult adjactent.
I'm on the programming committee for this year's Gaylaxicon which I have mentioned a dozen times in other contexts. But, my current work has involved trying to recruit local professionals to attend. I feel a little bit like I'm standing on a soap box evangalizing, hoping to get some curious people to sign up! (Seriously, have you thought about attending?? It's a fun con! You don't have to be queer to go! Membership is currently the low, low price of $80!!)
It's also been kind of time (and energy) consuming.
Very cultish.
Anyway, I am currently waiting for my brother-in-law to text or call to let me know that he's done with his MRIs. This whole week has been a series of tests for him (and, as it happens, the rest of my family.) So, I've been the Rounds Lyft driver, only without the pay. Ah well. That's what family is for.
Ironically, I've been spending my free time doing something that feels cult adjactent.
I'm on the programming committee for this year's Gaylaxicon which I have mentioned a dozen times in other contexts. But, my current work has involved trying to recruit local professionals to attend. I feel a little bit like I'm standing on a soap box evangalizing, hoping to get some curious people to sign up! (Seriously, have you thought about attending?? It's a fun con! You don't have to be queer to go! Membership is currently the low, low price of $80!!)
It's also been kind of time (and energy) consuming.
Very cultish.
Anyway, I am currently waiting for my brother-in-law to text or call to let me know that he's done with his MRIs. This whole week has been a series of tests for him (and, as it happens, the rest of my family.) So, I've been the Rounds Lyft driver, only without the pay. Ah well. That's what family is for.
Little Free Library Volunteering
Jun. 24th, 2025 05:06 pmlydamorehouse I did a fun thing today.
I found out through VolunteerMatch that Tropes & Trifles was looking for people to restock books in little free library "book deserts." So, this afternoon, I drove out, got my box of books, and set out with the Little Free Library app.
I had never installed the LFL app before. I had lost the "confirm your email" email and so I wasn't able to take notes as I drove around (I have since rectified that) and so I mostly used the app for its ability to give me GPS directions to various LFL. I still have half a box yet to deliver. I'll try to remember to take pictures when I go out driving tomorrow!
I'm now very tired, but what fun!
I found out through VolunteerMatch that Tropes & Trifles was looking for people to restock books in little free library "book deserts." So, this afternoon, I drove out, got my box of books, and set out with the Little Free Library app.
I had never installed the LFL app before. I had lost the "confirm your email" email and so I wasn't able to take notes as I drove around (I have since rectified that) and so I mostly used the app for its ability to give me GPS directions to various LFL. I still have half a box yet to deliver. I'll try to remember to take pictures when I go out driving tomorrow!
I'm now very tired, but what fun!