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starmaki

July 2019

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Peter Plymley's Letters And Selected Essays by Sydney Smith

Primary source. And polemic. Smith writing on the treatment of Ireland and the laws against Catholics, and reviews of books on Ireland. Sometimes very skillfully:

"When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool."

It is useful as a view of the issues -- one notes he heartily assures everyone he shares their views of the terribleness of the Catholic Church -- and of the era in general. He quotes one author, who discusses how one explanation of Ireland's backwardness was its elective kings, but points out that Poland also suffered horribly from the kingship being elective but wasn't so backward. Ah, the views one wants to research, sometimes.




Challenge #76: Tattoo Style

Something a bit different, this month. Draw or paint something in the style of tattoo art, or transform one of your existing artworks into tattoo style. It can be monochrome or coloured, and any topic - fannish or original work, or calligraphy.

Here are a few references to give you some ideas:

A round-up post for submissions to this challenge will be done at the end of February.

 
Congrats to those who took part in this challenge!

Deep pink banner with clusters of red and pink hearts and challenge text.


Entries submitted for Drawing Challenge #75 - Romance:
As usual, this challenge as well as all of our previous challenges will remain open, so you can continue to submit entries to the community any time after the Round Up date. Be sure to tag your art post with the challenge name, so that it can be added to the list.

Thanks to all who participated in this challenge! :)


Escapade was much fun this year, though as with last year, stupid cancer fatigue put a damper on a lot of things. The best panels were the one for The Pitt and Murderbot, though I would have enjoyed the Murderbot panel more if a) it hadn't been at nine a.m. on Saturday morning and b) hadn't been dominated by one really obnoxious person. The moderator did a yeoman's job trying to rein her in (seriously, I really admired her skills at hardassery), but I had really hoped to talk about Gurathin in the show and the final episode, how SecUnit's memories might have changed him, etc., but that didn't really happen. And when I started talking about him, in typical fannish fashion, someone immediately countered and diminished my comment with how he wasn't what they thought he should be from the books and yadda yadda, so I never really got to make my point. Maybe next year?

But it was good to see people, even if I didn't get all the time I wanted to glom on some folks ([personal profile] par_avion, I'm lookin' at you). Still, there were a few wonderful surprises where some folks I adore and haven't seen in years came to the con, because their fannish brains had been kickstarted by Heated Rivalry. I am so not into that show but the fact that it brought them back out into fandom makes me feel more warmly towards it.

I woke up Sunday morning to news that LAX was in chaos because the Nazis in the government (and I use that term loosely) had decided to shut down TSA precheck and global entry, but after a while that got walked back and by the time I got to the airport, things had settled down a bit and it was fairly quiet. Then the flights started getting canceled by the East Coast blizzard (poor par, she was stuck at the hotel till Wednesday night), and the Mexico flights were stopping because it seemed like half of Mexico was on fire, and it made for a really surreal experience. And now today I woke up to the news about Iran and I just...I really often wish that this fucking cancer would just take me out. This world is just so fucking horrible, and I feel so utterly helpless to do even the tiniest thing about it.

I mean, I have signed up for Fandom Trumps Hate ([personal profile] fth2026offerings) (god i hate that fucker so much that i can't even stand to use a perfectly good verb because it's saying his name), but if I get even a bid over my $10 minimum, I'll be shocked. I've done auctions before, but I don't feel like I make much of a contribution, and I know throwing money at some of these horrors are at least some small way of helping, but I'm just not someone who'll generate that kind of money and I can't make many donations of my own.

Still, I'll hope that maybe a friend will feel sorry for me and buy me ;-D . But I have to admit, the basics of this auction confuse me--listings are on DW here, but a lot takes place on Tumblr, and I'm confused about how to publicize my listing. I was able to reblog the auction roundup listing for The Pitt today, but I don't know how one goes about promoting their own listing. Has anyone done FTH before and would be willing to give me some advice? There's only a couple days for browsing, so I would love to see if I could at least generate some attention if someone wants a fic for Marvel, The Pitt, or Fast Color (hah). I feel like in the past, I've seen people's contributor listings on tumblr, but I just don't know how that goes. Ugh, I'm so out of touch.

I broke my toe on my left foot *again* this morning. My third and fourth toes are so fucked up now. I know there's not much to do about it but tape them and take pain relievers, but jesus your toes really make a difference in walking. And I'm seeing a new sports medicine doc about my fucked-up knee, so now we'll have to see how it might affect my walking even more (I have an MRI this week). So much excitement, but as I said to a friend, at least it's not about the cancer, lol. I'm such a fucking klutz. I think I should probably get some of that bubble wrap with the really big bubbles, and put it around the legs of my bed--it won't solve everything, but those legs have definitely contributed to a few of the breaks. This time, I heard a little snap sound!

Romance Challenge - Overwatch

Feb. 28th, 2026 10:32 am
tally: (overwatch)
[personal profile] tally posting in [community profile] drawesome
Title: A Better Future
Artist: [personal profile] tally
Rating: Everyone
Fandom: Overwatch
Characters/Pairings: Sigma/Widowmaker
Content Notes: Made in Krita.

Image under cut! )

Multifandom: Be The First

Feb. 28th, 2026 06:16 pm
galerian_ash: (Blank Pages)
[personal profile] galerian_ash posting in [community profile] fandomcalendar
Be The First, the annual challenge to write for a fandom that has no fics, is now open for sign-ups!



FAQ
Sign-ups
Fandom Promos
AO3 Collection

All auction emails have been sent!

(But edits are ongoing)

If you signed up to offer an auction in FTH 2026, you should have email from us - be sure to look for both our gmail.com and proton.me addresses, and add the latter to your allow list.

If you do not have either a) an email with a link to your auction or b) an email explaining that there is a problem that needs to be fixed before we can post your auction, please do email us at this point.

If you have submitted edits via the edit form:

We are a bit behind on these and likely will not have them completely done tonight. If your edit has not gone through by the time we post that browsing is open, and at that time it has been at least 8 hours since you submitted the edit, please email us.

Browsing is not open yet!

Browsing will open at 8pm EST tomorrow, February 27.

Before then, the offerings blog is NOT to be considered ready for public consumption. We have plenty of work ahead of us, please do not send bidders to browse the auctions until it's officially open.

Thanks for your patience as we get all the finishing touches put on this year's auction!


Tags:

Hunting the Falcon

Feb. 26th, 2026 11:16 am
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
[personal profile] marycatelli posting in [community profile] book_love
Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the Marriage That Shook Europe by John Guy and Julia Fox

A history/biography.

Read more... )