End of May rambling
May. 27th, 2022 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_ingnoFamily & Personal
My grandparents came over for Mother's Day (May 8th) and Father's Day (May 26th). I love them to bits, even if they can be exhausting with their quirks. They really loved the veggie mix I baked for dinner (we had BBQ for both days), I'm still proud to have pleased both of them since we're all picky eaters here :3
Kinda sad that cousin and cousin-in-law don't join us on these two days, which tbf they don't since Aunt isn't here either so they visit his parents instead. STILL. :( guess I'll have to wait until my brother's birthday in June until we get together again <3
Food & Health
For context: I have MCAS, so a bunch of sensitivities to certain foods & other stuff. My dietary restrictions are for that collection of various foods and generally recommended low-histamine diet. Although my neurodermatitis doesn't make it any easier, giving me several cross-reactions *sighs*
The downside to Mother's Day and Father's Day following so closely after one another is all the Food Exceptions I make for family celebrations. Between the amount of cream/milk products in the cakes, the food (Tzatziki! Potato salad! the cheese on top of the baked veggies!) and the dessert... (ice-cream for Father's Day, crème brulée for Mother's Day, according to each parent's wishes <3) I'm... dealing with an upset stomach, rashes, headaches, a stuffy nose & swollen eyes >.<
I'm already terrbile at self-discipline re: my dietary restrictions (hello sugar addiction, I wish I had more fruits on my Can Eat list and that anything preserved wasn't hitting many of my allergy sensitivies OTL but tbf the most egregious mistake I constantly make is eating chocolate ^^") so being high on histamine really isn't helping. Plus the human body produces it's own burst of histamine in the lead-up to menstruation, so I have a monthly "this sucks" phase anyway, which incidently coincided with the Mother's Day extravaganze. But what can you do *shrugs*
Anyway, this time it was Mom's turn to bake a cake for Father's Day, look at this gorgeous specimen:
Dancing_
Added No Dot by Sua to my practice line-up because I'm obsessed, and I couldn't find a decent mirror of Beauty Full by Dami yet (nor for Honey by Solar, which is this week's obsession, and it BUGS heh me). Hoping Dreamcatcher will release more dance practices for all the solos! They just posted the MV for Jiu's Cherry (Real Miracle) so I'm hopefull *fingers crossed*
Current practice consists, off and on, as follows:
I've mostly been doing No Dot and Lunatic on 75% on loop 3-4 times before moving on, Maison is on 100% and I'm pretty much done with. Trying to add PTT back in (I can do the first half + chorus at 75% decently) but I realized this is the dance that contributed to me dislocating my ilio-sacral joint back in February, so I'm cautious. Gonna put it at the beginning of the exercise so I'm not too tired and fumbly and make the risky move with the precision it needs to avoid injury 👀😅
I'm also considering adding Hwasa's I'm a B back in as my "break" full-speed song to keep me going when I'm flagging, Maison isn't always doing it for me anymore. But tbf I've been on the high end of histamine this month, which is always counterproductive for my exercise regime. Might add Odd Eye, You & I, and Why Not back in, possibly gonna start on the whole Ponzona choreo soon (I've only learned the chorus part so far). I'm very wishy washy on committing to a concrete list lmao, I tend to throw choreos in and out depending on mood -- the goal is to exercise ideally for an hour (including my muscles reps like sit-ups, etc.), that tends to work best if I'm in the right mood for the songs I have playing.
Watching_
I watched and very much enjoyed the 15-episodes long cdrama "Reset" 开端 (Kai Duan) this month. It's a time-loop "we reset when we die" crime thriller/mystery with really adorable main characters and several good side characters. I might make a post about what I liked (and disliked) about it later, but for now, definitely worth the time! I binged it on a work night like the fool I am ^^" Too much suspense to put down, especially after the episode 8 complication/reveal/twist! If you don't want to get caught in the same trap, I suggest taking a break after episode 7 before things literally explode :'D
Fanfic & Fandom
The 520 Days Reverse Exchange was a lot of fun! I'm always torn on whether I want to participate in this sort of events because my To Write list is so long but the feeling of gifting someone their wish is great? Plus a lot of great works came out of it, and I've been enjoying perusing them! :D Anyway I'm 100% looking forward to doing the wishlist again, fingers crossed I'll manage several shorter fics this time x'D
Writing_
Since Camp NaNo worked out really well for me with a 25k monthly goal, I figured I'd do something similarly for May, but with lower stakes - 25k was doable, but since I'm the type who wants to hit par daily, I was definitely struggling keeping up, especially on busy days. I went for 15k instead which gave me a doable daily goal of not quite 500 words, which I had fun reducing to lower and lower daily goals until I ended up with 23 words a day when I finally breached 15k on May 19th. Decided to up it to 20k, which I hit yesterday :D This way almost felt more productive than April, and I wonder if it's because I'm more inspired this month or the lower word count goal actually helped keep my mood up? *thinks* definitely worth keeping an eye on.
I mainly ended up working on my 520 Days giftfic Keep On Going's last 2-3 scenes and the bingo's May bonus prompt "time travel" in the Zhu Hong-centric fic Unacceptable, plus finishing the last chapter of this is how the war is won. Words also went into an eldritch horror!Shen Wei Weilan smut fic (nicknamed Void Creature for lack of a title), a new addition to my kidfic series WIP titled "The Fringe Benefits of Family" in which ZYL braids everyone's hair, my Da Qing's Adventures entry, and into nearly finishing my first fic in a new series, the Already Married AU (in which, aptly, Weilan are already married pre-canon). This one is also Zhu Hong PoV and was really flowing whenever I wanted to work on Unacceptable. The brain just, uh, no? work on this one instead?? ignore deadline??? OTL
My plan for June is to wrap up the first Already Married fic (and figure out a title RIP) and post one (or maybe more?👀) Da Qing codas for the event. I'm assuming June's bonus prompt will be Pride-related, so I've started working on the sequel to my vampire AU, which is gonna deal with this AU's version of the Wang Yike case. I've been stuck on that one for long enough, and I don't have a good square for it on my card, so maybe this way I can motivate myself to finish *strikes pose*
Long-term I also really want to get back into the rhythm of writing the Arranged Marriage AU because it's been long enough, I'm really excited for it! But the stumbling block of re-reading the 15k I've already written + the editing I'm aware it needs... *flops* wish me luck
Reading_
Aside from making my way through the 520 Days collection, I've also managed to read a couple other fics, all of these are highly recommended:
My grandparents came over for Mother's Day (May 8th) and Father's Day (May 26th). I love them to bits, even if they can be exhausting with their quirks. They really loved the veggie mix I baked for dinner (we had BBQ for both days), I'm still proud to have pleased both of them since we're all picky eaters here :3
Kinda sad that cousin and cousin-in-law don't join us on these two days, which tbf they don't since Aunt isn't here either so they visit his parents instead. STILL. :( guess I'll have to wait until my brother's birthday in June until we get together again <3
Food & Health
For context: I have MCAS, so a bunch of sensitivities to certain foods & other stuff. My dietary restrictions are for that collection of various foods and generally recommended low-histamine diet. Although my neurodermatitis doesn't make it any easier, giving me several cross-reactions *sighs*
The downside to Mother's Day and Father's Day following so closely after one another is all the Food Exceptions I make for family celebrations. Between the amount of cream/milk products in the cakes, the food (Tzatziki! Potato salad! the cheese on top of the baked veggies!) and the dessert... (ice-cream for Father's Day, crème brulée for Mother's Day, according to each parent's wishes <3) I'm... dealing with an upset stomach, rashes, headaches, a stuffy nose & swollen eyes >.<
I'm already terrbile at self-discipline re: my dietary restrictions (hello sugar addiction, I wish I had more fruits on my Can Eat list and that anything preserved wasn't hitting many of my allergy sensitivies OTL but tbf the most egregious mistake I constantly make is eating chocolate ^^") so being high on histamine really isn't helping. Plus the human body produces it's own burst of histamine in the lead-up to menstruation, so I have a monthly "this sucks" phase anyway, which incidently coincided with the Mother's Day extravaganze. But what can you do *shrugs*
Anyway, this time it was Mom's turn to bake a cake for Father's Day, look at this gorgeous specimen:
Dancing_
Added No Dot by Sua to my practice line-up because I'm obsessed, and I couldn't find a decent mirror of Beauty Full by Dami yet (nor for Honey by Solar, which is this week's obsession, and it BUGS heh me). Hoping Dreamcatcher will release more dance practices for all the solos! They just posted the MV for Jiu's Cherry (Real Miracle) so I'm hopefull *fingers crossed*
Current practice consists, off and on, as follows:
- No Dot by Sua
- Lunatic by Moonbyul
- Maison by Dreamcatcher
- PTT by Loona
I've mostly been doing No Dot and Lunatic on 75% on loop 3-4 times before moving on, Maison is on 100% and I'm pretty much done with. Trying to add PTT back in (I can do the first half + chorus at 75% decently) but I realized this is the dance that contributed to me dislocating my ilio-sacral joint back in February, so I'm cautious. Gonna put it at the beginning of the exercise so I'm not too tired and fumbly and make the risky move with the precision it needs to avoid injury 👀😅
I'm also considering adding Hwasa's I'm a B back in as my "break" full-speed song to keep me going when I'm flagging, Maison isn't always doing it for me anymore. But tbf I've been on the high end of histamine this month, which is always counterproductive for my exercise regime. Might add Odd Eye, You & I, and Why Not back in, possibly gonna start on the whole Ponzona choreo soon (I've only learned the chorus part so far). I'm very wishy washy on committing to a concrete list lmao, I tend to throw choreos in and out depending on mood -- the goal is to exercise ideally for an hour (including my muscles reps like sit-ups, etc.), that tends to work best if I'm in the right mood for the songs I have playing.
Watching_
I watched and very much enjoyed the 15-episodes long cdrama "Reset" 开端 (Kai Duan) this month. It's a time-loop "we reset when we die" crime thriller/mystery with really adorable main characters and several good side characters. I might make a post about what I liked (and disliked) about it later, but for now, definitely worth the time! I binged it on a work night like the fool I am ^^" Too much suspense to put down, especially after the episode 8 complication/reveal/twist! If you don't want to get caught in the same trap, I suggest taking a break after episode 7 before things literally explode :'D
Fanfic & Fandom
The 520 Days Reverse Exchange was a lot of fun! I'm always torn on whether I want to participate in this sort of events because my To Write list is so long but the feeling of gifting someone their wish is great? Plus a lot of great works came out of it, and I've been enjoying perusing them! :D Anyway I'm 100% looking forward to doing the wishlist again, fingers crossed I'll manage several shorter fics this time x'D
Writing_
Since Camp NaNo worked out really well for me with a 25k monthly goal, I figured I'd do something similarly for May, but with lower stakes - 25k was doable, but since I'm the type who wants to hit par daily, I was definitely struggling keeping up, especially on busy days. I went for 15k instead which gave me a doable daily goal of not quite 500 words, which I had fun reducing to lower and lower daily goals until I ended up with 23 words a day when I finally breached 15k on May 19th. Decided to up it to 20k, which I hit yesterday :D This way almost felt more productive than April, and I wonder if it's because I'm more inspired this month or the lower word count goal actually helped keep my mood up? *thinks* definitely worth keeping an eye on.
I mainly ended up working on my 520 Days giftfic Keep On Going's last 2-3 scenes and the bingo's May bonus prompt "time travel" in the Zhu Hong-centric fic Unacceptable, plus finishing the last chapter of this is how the war is won. Words also went into an eldritch horror!Shen Wei Weilan smut fic (nicknamed Void Creature for lack of a title), a new addition to my kidfic series WIP titled "The Fringe Benefits of Family" in which ZYL braids everyone's hair, my Da Qing's Adventures entry, and into nearly finishing my first fic in a new series, the Already Married AU (in which, aptly, Weilan are already married pre-canon). This one is also Zhu Hong PoV and was really flowing whenever I wanted to work on Unacceptable. The brain just, uh, no? work on this one instead?? ignore deadline??? OTL
My plan for June is to wrap up the first Already Married fic (and figure out a title RIP) and post one (or maybe more?👀) Da Qing codas for the event. I'm assuming June's bonus prompt will be Pride-related, so I've started working on the sequel to my vampire AU, which is gonna deal with this AU's version of the Wang Yike case. I've been stuck on that one for long enough, and I don't have a good square for it on my card, so maybe this way I can motivate myself to finish *strikes pose*
Long-term I also really want to get back into the rhythm of writing the Arranged Marriage AU because it's been long enough, I'm really excited for it! But the stumbling block of re-reading the 15k I've already written + the editing I'm aware it needs... *flops* wish me luck
Reading_
Aside from making my way through the 520 Days collection, I've also managed to read a couple other fics, all of these are highly recommended:
no subject
on 2022-05-27 03:58 pm (UTC)So glad you had fun with the Reverse Exchange! And yay for writing so much!
an eldritch horror!Shen Wei Weilan smut fic
!!!!!! That sounds AMAZING. :D
no subject
on 2022-05-27 04:32 pm (UTC)Thank you for organizing the exchange! <3
:3c it's a bit of set-up but mostly smut tbf x'D
I recently shared the basic premise (cw for tentacles) and some snippets over on my tumblr if you're curious!
I'm still getting used to using dreamwidth, I should remember in the future to crosspost stuff like that possibly. Or actually get around to making a big WIP list post :')
no subject
on 2022-05-27 05:03 pm (UTC)I recently shared the basic premise (cw for tentacles) and some snippets over on my tumblr if you're curious!
Yay! *makes grabby hands* That looks fantastic. I'm all for tentacle porn and eldritch Shen Wei on its own, but all of that AND worldbuilding? ❤😍❤
Crossposting stuff here is great! My reading page can definitely use more of it. *g*
no subject
on 2022-05-27 06:40 pm (UTC)You're welcome! *squish* you can absolutely up the speed for that part when you hit it lmao (I hated it all the way through but they actually paid it off later, which I guess excuses that particular subplot /somewhat/)
Uh, also general content warnings for poverty, homelessness, murder, explosions, asthma, unhealthy/complicated family dynamics, and sexual harassment, off the top of my head. It gets pretty dark, but the overall perspective on humanity is surprisingly positive despite it all.
Yay! *makes grabby hands* That looks fantastic.
🥰 asdlghgjdj now I high-key wanna finish it faster ngl xD I have half the smut done, I just need to get the plot wrapped up, too... <.<
Honestly just gonna be posting a bunch of stuff here in general (like the mega WIP list of Doom lmao) that I don't feel like posting on other social media, but yes, I'll try to keep that in mind for crossposting, too :D
no subject
on 2022-05-27 10:45 pm (UTC)*pompoms*
no subject
on 2022-05-28 05:51 am (UTC)I used to be more focussed in my old fandom -- finish one fic before starting the next WIP, have five at most at once -- but with Guardian I threw all of that over board and just chase the inspiration as the muse pops up xD but surprisingly a lot of it gets finished, so it's working for me?
(at least until I'm back to full-time employed, the tiny amount of writing I got done during November-January killed my soul...)
Thanks for the encouragement <3
no subject
on 2022-05-28 01:23 am (UTC)开端 is the one people keep recommending, including an RL friend or two! Maybe I will even get to it one of these days? I'll look forward to your post about it.
...wow, you have A LOT of writing on the go, that's amazing. I enjoyed your 520 fic so much!
(and thanks for the kind rec <3)
no subject
on 2022-05-28 06:15 am (UTC)开端 is absolutely worth it!! I'll make the post soon, but I would recommend going in as spoiler-free as possible because some of the reveals are just *chefs kiss*
Ahahahah, it's just my current focus, I have more WIPs lying around to varying levels of finished ^^" somewhere between leaving my old fandom and joining Guardian I decided, screw it, just start everything you are inspired to in the moment, and I'm honestly surprised how many of these I'm finishing lol. I need to write up a WIP list at some point <.<
ahhh, thanks! I'm glad you liked Keep On Going :D!
(it's a good fic to rec, I very much enjoyed it <3)
no subject
on 2022-05-31 05:55 pm (UTC)(I'm certainly glad you joined the 520 Exchange ;)
ALso, *hugs* re: food stuff, that sounds awful
no subject
on 2022-05-31 09:12 pm (UTC)(I'm certainly glad you joined the 520 Exchange ;)
*squishes*
*hugs* food stuff is awful but you learn to live with it :') I'm just happy it does have an obvious effect on my health bc before I knew it was... not fun RIP
no subject
on 2022-05-31 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2022-05-31 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2022-05-31 10:46 pm (UTC)I guess the theme is the amusing confusion their already married status sows? If I understood your blurbs correctly :D
no subject
on 2022-05-31 11:00 pm (UTC)(the theme of the first one... hm. well, the *point* is the identity reveal of Shen Wei as ZYL's spouse, as a rewrite of that Zhang Danni case interrogation. but a major subplot since it's Zhu Hong's PoV is also Zhu Hong's jealousy and unrequited crush? *ponders*)
no subject
on 2022-06-02 11:45 am (UTC)and worth all your symptoms ^^;;;All your WIPs are so delicious.... I saw you chatting in the comments re titles, IDK what modern Chinese weddings are like but you could always do something wedding vow related for the individual story titles? Like a cute nod to their marriage :3
no subject
on 2022-06-03 01:29 pm (UTC)Hmmm, that's a neat idea! Not quite sure it works for me, since so far they're all outsider PoV pieces, from various SID members? (the Zhu Hong one is the first, but I already started a Lin Jing and a GCC one, too). Ahhh, I'll figure something out eventually.
no subject
on 2022-06-04 04:15 am (UTC)ahhh yeah I can see how the outsider POV would mean it might not quite fit. Ah, you'll definitely get something! For sure :3
no subject
on 2022-06-04 06:42 pm (UTC)(but hell YES it was delicious xD)