WWW Wednesday
Feb. 11th, 2026 10:43 am1. What are you currently reading?
- Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault: I made some progress, tho I continue to drag. My current Libby loan of it will get returned today so I'll have to borrow it again. I think I just don't match well with something this slow paced, I keep wanting, ya know, something to happen.
- 盗墓笔记 by 南派三叔: I'd fallen behind on my "aiming for a page a day" pace but I've almost gotten back on track... I'm at 41 pages in 42 days... but I'll probably not keep that catch-up over the next week cause I'm traveling a couple times, sigh.
No progress on the Jemisin.
2. What have you recently finish reading?
- Dandadan vol. 9 by Yukinobu Tatsu
- Cooking with Monsters: The Beginner's Guide to Culinary Combat by Jordan Alsaqa and Vivian Truong: this was fine, but the conflict/rivalry between the main characters felt kinda contrived and drawn out.
- Killer Queens by David M. Booher: pulp sci-fi about a lesbian and a gay guy who are former assassins and working partners. The premise was delightful but the pacing was flawed; I wish it'd been longer to really follow through on the ideas.
- Fox and Puppy by Nayuta Nago: modern BL. I really liked Star and Hedgehog by this author; this one was about the ml from that one's brother. I liked it, if not quite as much.
- My Fluffy Moody Crush by Nayuta Nago: fantasy BL. This was okay but needed more breathing room imo.
- Kase-san and Shortcake and Kase-san and an Apron (Kase-san and... vol. 3 and 4) by Hiromi Takashima: the first of these was probably my favorite of the Kase-san titles so far. The second was more miscommunication and jealousy drag. I wish the author would stop circling back on that.
- Priceless Honey by Shiuko Kano: so tired of this publisher not accurately marking which are single-volume BLs and which are a single volume of multiple BL short stories.
- It Rhymes with Takei by George Takei: excellent autobiographical graphic novel. Hard to read at times, given the subject matter, but.
3. What will you read next?
Novels: theoretically I should read A Drop of Corruption, as it's definitely my next-due book, but idk. I've been slogging through multiple novels that don't interest me tons. I might relinquish my Libby borrow and actually read something I want to read instead. My next danmei/BL is Don't You Like Me by Lv Tian Yi and I might just. read that.
Physical Graphic Novels: next in my pile is West Hollywood Monster Squad by Sina Grace.
Libby graphic novels: SHWD episode 2 by Sono.N, tho I didn't like episode 1 and I'm finding I'm so unenthusiastic about episode 2 that I honestly might just not. Kase-san and Cherry Blossoms by Hiromi Takashima and Planeta by Ana Oncina are also due in under a week.
itch.io Charity bundles roundup
Feb. 11th, 2026 07:20 pmBuy 1,439 items (tabletop games, video games, zines, tools, and essays, etc) for $10 to support Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. ILCM provides free immigration legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees in Minnesota and North Dakota. They also work to educate the community about immigration matters and advocates for public policies which respect the universal human rights of immigrants. Offer ends in 1 month.
Some Highlight:
Baba Is You (an award-winning puzzle video game, $14.99)
Escape from Dino Island (one shot tabletop RPG that ley you play jurassic park style adventure, $10),
Glitter Hearts (magical girl tabletop RPG, $15)
Fief (an extensive guidebook on everyday Medieval life, $19.95) etc
Solo But Not Alone 6
Buy 90 items for $10 to support Take This, a charity working to support mental health in the gaming community and industry by decreasing stigma and making supports available to people who need them. There's a helpful spreadsheet that list the summary and formats of the games. You can play alone, or use them to inspire your creative projects. Lots of games are not included in previous bundles. Offer ends in 1 month, 19 days.
Some Highlight:
O Patron Mine: a prompt based solo game about a mundane person, their encounter with a powerful entity, and the contract they entered into together. $10
Pirouette: a solo horror TTRPG about a ballet dancer performing for an amorphous eldritch horror. $10
Vandal Eyes: singleplayer dungeon crawler TTRPG that "you find yourself in a surreal network of concrete chambers, stalked by a wretch called the Cardinal."
12-day A/B trial, not that I counted
Feb. 11th, 2026 12:07 amIt took me 22 minutes from start to finish.
Pretty sure I won't finish legendary before the B2 release in April (B1 had 499 units), but I'll definitely be terrible at the matching game for a while yet.
"...And you may argue that, well, this is not really a very efficient method of learning a language. You'd be correct. But you can't argue I can't speak Spanish, because I very much can."
--Evan Edinger
Duolingo Isn't 'Free' Anymore — Lily Told Me Why
On Discord
Feb. 10th, 2026 01:20 pmAm I any more inclined to share my personal information? Not even slightly. Am I deeply exhausted by the fact that companies like Discord don't share Dreamwidth's transparency model? So much so. Am I less angry at Discord specifically and more at the states and countries passing these far-reaching and ill-thought-out laws? Very.
Ugh, Discord
Feb. 9th, 2026 09:06 pmDiscord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month
Discord will soon require age verification to access adult content
Just, UGH.
Media Roundup: Yet More Sequential Art
Feb. 9th, 2026 10:38 amIn other media related news I have figured out that I can read comics from Hoopla on a tablet and that’s been nicer on my hands than reading at my normal computer set up. I’ve also gotten a new timer and have been doing better at taking hand breaks so I’ve been watch more Crush of Music
Lumberjanes, Vol. 1-2 by N.D. Stevenson et al.—There’s a Lumberjanes/Gotham academy crossover that I want to check out, but it's been ages since I read any Lumberjanes so I thought I’d re-read them. Another series about girls who are friends with each other! Friendship is so great! This is definitely an advantage of reading a lot of YA and MG things, though it still would like more female friendships in media for adults. Anyway, these comics are very fun! I have requested several more volumes form the library
The Space Cat: A Graphic Novel written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford— I was very excited when I learned that Nnedi Okorafor had written a graphic novel about a cat! It turns out this is based on her real life cat. It is extremely cute and very charming! The art was perfect for the story.
Teen Titans: Raven, Teen Titans: Beast Boy, Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven, Teen Titans: Robin, and Teen Titans: Robin Teen Titans: Starfire written by Kami Garcia, art by Gabriel Picolo—These are like YA graphic novels adaptations of the Teen Titans – that is this own version and not as far as I can tell part of larger continuity, but clearly based on the earlier versions. I’m not super familiar with most of these characters or the earlier version of the Teen Titans but I liked these as their own thing.
I did break my no YA with dead moms rule, as the first book opens with Raven’s mom dying in a car crash. The characters are fun, and I liked seeing their friends and family. The romances do feel really fast and underdeveloped though. But seeing the team form is a lot of fun! The art is good too!
There’s supposed to be one more of these published later this year so I’m going to have to keep an eye out for it so I can read the ending!
Taproot by Keezy Young—A lovely graphic novel about a gardener who can see ghosts. I loved all the lush plants! I would have liked just a little bit more detail about how the magic worked though. The whole book was really sweet.(CW: several of the ghosts are kids)
The Changeling King by Ethan M. Aldridge—Sequel to Estranged, I liked how this dealt with the consequences of the events of the first book. And the art remains excellent!
The Return of the King— Watched with R and the Kid. This one felt the darkest of the three, also the one with the most changes from the book. We took more breaks this time so I felt less over-stimulated by the end, which was good.
commentary: like synapses
Feb. 9th, 2026 10:24 amlike synapses: my Haman Karn character study via forensic autopsy of what went on between Char and Haman before we’re introduced to their relationship in Zeta Gundam. This post, like the fic, contains spoilers for that show.

(post credit)
( I'M A LITTLE GIRL / BOILED INTO A MATURE / LITTLE PIECE OF WORK )
Our Favorite Sports Books with Queer Characters!
Feb. 9th, 2026 10:51 am







Happy day-after-the-Superbowl and first-week-of-the-winter-Olympics! Duck Prints Press has a small but vocal contingent of sports lovers among our number (including yours truly, I’m unforth/Nina Waters), and so we thought it’d be fun to make a list of our favorite sports stories with queer characters! And before anyone asks “but where’s hockey?” the answer is, we got so many recs for hockey stories that we decided to make that a separate rec list. It’ll go up in the next few days.
The contributors to the list are: Nina Waters, Terra P. Waters, Puck, JD Rivers, jumblejen, Tris Lawrence, Shadaras, Dei Walker, Linnea Peterson.
- Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler (american football)
- May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor (american football)
- Commit to the Kick by Tris Lawrence (american football)
- The Goat in the Bedroom by Amy Award (american football & rugby)
- It’s A Hit! by Arin Cole Barth & Marika Barth (baseball)
- Out of Left Field by Jonah Newman (baseball)
- Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee (soccer)
- Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner (soccer)
- Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier & Val Wise (cheerleading)
- King Cheer by Stephanie Kate Strohm & Molly Horton Booth (cheerleading)
- She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen (cheerleading & basketball)
- AWM: PUBG by Man Man He Qi Duo (esports)
- Renegade Rule by Ben Kahn, Rachel Silverstein (esports)
- I Can Do It by Jiang Zi Bei (esports)
- God Level Summoner by Die Zhiling (esports)
- Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu (softball)
- Fence by C.S. Pacat (fencing)
- Salad Days by Jing Shui Bian (boxing)
- 10 Dance by Inouesatoh (competitive dance)
- All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny (knightly tournament)
- The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic (original sport)
Find these and other books on our Goodreads book shelf or buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate page. It’s also a list on pagebound.co!
Join our Book Lover’s Discord server to chat books, fandom, and more.
Duet of Shadows
Feb. 9th, 2026 11:08 am( Read more... )
It's available on iQIYI.
Birds of Bangkok
Feb. 9th, 2026 12:19 pmI'm still very new to travel so this is only my second solo trip ever and the first in a country/city I've never been in before. I feel some measure of regret for not eating, shopping, or exploring more, but I'm also pretty happy with the way I traveled—a way that is only possible when I'm by myself. And although I barely slept since I woke up at 3:30AM on Thursday to make my 7:30AM flight, I felt so light and free and open to organic interactions with strangers. (Well, as light and free as one can be when tethered to their phone and fully dependent on Google Maps and power banks. XD)
Maybe one day I'll post about the whole trip but for now—birds!!!
Pictures
I hope I didn't misidentify any of them:


I'm so pleased to be able to recognize the Asian koel call from Wingspan (the only call I internalized because it's so distinctive and familiar), so every time I heard it I felt like I was in Wingspan hahaha. I didn't see any though, I guess they stayed on the trees. ;___;
Did most of my bird-watching in Benchakitti Park and Lumpini Park where my main goal was to see monitor lizards (I only got to see them in Lumpini Park, but I'm not sure if time of day was a factor), but saw common mynas, pigeons/doves, and sparrows (no picture because they're that common) all over the city. :) I hope to see one of the temples if I get to visit again! I had to trim my itinerary so I wasn't overextending myself to make it to meet-ups, and one of the activities I cut off my list was Wat Pho (reclining Buddha). A reason to go back, I suppose. :) (I should make a list of the places I got recommended during the meet-ups too...)
I love that I didn't mention kicksledding at all
Feb. 8th, 2026 10:47 pm♥ I got my fox diamond painting back out, so that's a project that could proceed but hasn't. I might put it away to work on next winter and start the spring dragon one now instead. Until I actually put diamonds on the canvas I suppose it doesn't matter, except that perhaps my motivation would be affected by the design.
♥ I found a book at the library with a blue cover that I was willing to read (thanks Liu Cixin for having an anthology with a blue cover and a great forward) so that's another library bingo square checked off.
♥ The theme at
♥ I posted my
♥ A Chinese vlogger mentioned leaving hot water in the pot so it was easy to heat and drink throughout the day, and that has transformed my winter water consumption.
♥ An English vlogger mentioned 75fluent.com, which I signed up for and immediately decided not to do, since I'm already doing more than all of the daily goals except "study a textbook," but that inspired me to get out my elementary school Yuwen textbooks and start from the beginning.
This week I would like to:
+write something for
+write something for Fluffbruary
+photograph some Legos for
+record another hour for the HTLAL output challenge (2/50)
+finish Yuwen Grade 1
Weekly-ish Update, now with more ish (2/8/26)
Feb. 8th, 2026 05:19 pmHamlet was impressive. I can't imagine being able to remember all of those lines, and there were a couple of spots where Suzy didn't remember either, but they covered very well. There were a few line changes that I was thrown by - "I know a hawk from a heron" rather than a handsaw? It made no sense to change it, but they did. I was also sad that they cut the line about telling Claudius to seek Polonius in th'other place himself if his messenger can't find Polonius in heaven.
That whole evening was pretty heckin' fun though; three of us carpooled down, so Robin and I got to talk c-dramas the whole way, then we picked up Alex and met Airawyn at Scum and Villainy for dinner before the show. And then I prevented myself from punching Joss Whedon in the face! Which I'm not like. Proud of? I totally wanted to punch him, but obviously not doing so in public and getting arrested was a win.
The one damper on the evening was that Munchkin (Allesy's kitty) was ill and very sadly, that continued after the evening. He was a good kitty, and had a good, long life. I'm very sad about it, but even more sad for Allesy having to make that decision but he was not going to get better.
I also got asked to go into work early on Saturday after the show, which, ugh, I wanted my whole morning to rest up post show. And then I ended up staying an hour and a half LATE too, and all for no work, just sitting around studying. That's not entirely true, I did sit in on a few interviews and caught a deduction for someone that the TA didn't see. I think it's going to be very helpful that I've just taken the ITC and have had more recent training on stuff even though there are so many things that I'm like "oh shit do I actually know this?"
Also had to work Sunday, after wurch, which sucked, and again, there was nothing to do so we closed early, heh.
The week was.... a week? Mom had a meeting with her teachers that left her very upset, and we're all brainstorming what to do about the situation. She really wants to not be running the business anymore (even though she does very little with it), but no one wants to take over and she doesn't really want to just drop everything entirely. Personally, I would like to not have to deal with the business every again, because I am sick and tired of charter school stupidity, so if we could find someone to take it all over, I would be peaceing the fuck out asap.
Got taken off the schedule for Saturday, and then on Thursday boss asked if I could come in after all. Good thing I did, because I ended up getting two clients, bringing my total for returns up to 5! I'm not entirely sure I did everything right for the one though, because it was a military thing, and there is so much weirdness around how to do military taxes. I didn't do anything WRONG I'm pretty sure, but I probably could have done it more Right. Chatted with our tax expert at the Methodists today and am starting to think that maybe that should be where I put my focus with taxes. There are so many different niches you can go into, and around here, or anywhere with a military presence? Having that expertise would make me highly sought after.
Also had a chat with my former piano student today about possibly becoming a piano technician, which, ha. That has been kicking around in the ol' noggin for years too and I've never done anything about it. But it could potentially be a good outside of tax season gig; just do piano tunings over the summer/fall. I dunno. I know nothing. I'm worse than Jon Snow about what I know.
Got a lot of random little things coming up this week that I really wish I could just smoosh into one day and have done with it, but nooooo gotta carve out lots of little pockets of time that eat up my non-work time and make it hard to get anything else done. Hard to believe Escapade is week after next - I haven't done anything for the art show yet, and I have no idea if I'm going to be able to do any prep for the fan fair or anything else. Or if I'll be awake enough to do it (last year I just decided to rest, and that was an excellent decision). Hopefully I will get to actually have Saturday off this week so I can do some stuff for that.
Lunar New Year is next week too; Z1L's new movie is supposed to come out over the holiday, but I haven't been able to find any local info, and since it's mid-week I probably won't get to see it, nooooo. They gave it a really stupid English name too, despite the original name being perfectly good. Honestly, at this point I'm just hoping I won't be asked to close on the 17th so we can go do holiday food.
Media stuffs: finished The Immortal's Ascension, annoyed that it was a season one with no promise of a season two. Now we're watching The Day of Becoming You, which is a het romance body-swap and so very funny. Zhang Xincheng and Liang Jie both do a wonderful job being each other's characters. Last night was "Saturday Night at the Movies" as dad likes to call it, but rather than a movie we watched the new Agatha Christie's Seven Dials mini series, which was actually quite enjoyable. We also binged the first half of Wonder Man on one of the nights I got back from work late (but also early?) and didn't want to subtitle, and that has also been highly enjoyable so far. I keep thinking about Trevor Slattery and the couple of monologues that have just been transcendent. Like, yeah, if THAT was how he did Lear, then yes, his Lear would have been the talk of Croyden. Anyway, still have three eps of that, which maybe we'll do post Superb Owl (but maybe we'll do Olympics).
I am ANNOYED that I will not get to watch any of the curling that I'm interested in because of THINGS HAPPENING at the SAME TIME. Rude.
Goals for the week: finish P&L for MCC, finish P&L for mom, read something not tax-related.
Good things: physio, snuggly blankets, ginger snaps (again, because they are Still Good)
kicksledding on the river at night
Feb. 8th, 2026 08:44 pmI accidentally joined a weekend 5k challenge on the Garmin app. (I mean, I joined it on purpose, but I thought it was walking 5k over the course of the weekend, and it turned out to be running 5k all at once. Or, as Aaron says, "I did a marathon once: one mile every day for a month.")
Also when I posted something about goals last weekend I definitely mentioned kicksledding, although I can't remember if it was a goal or just a random comment, but let me tell you about kicksledding in New England, about which I know almost nothing. I know it's harder than I expected to actually get a kicksled here, because apparently the US isn't snowy enough to readily distribute kicksleds to every corner of the country.
(In the movie "The Day After Tomorrow," what was the line above which they wrote off the population? I thought it was an actual latitude line, but the internet tells me it was just "everything north of Washington DC." Seems like that's enough of the country to have kicksleds, to me.)
Anyway, Canada makes them, but because of tariffs won't ship them to the US. Alaska will ship them but you have to meet the plane at the airport. Minnesota will ship a kit to your door, which is how I ended up building my own kicksled from a kit in our living room.
( taking adventure selfies )
( how equpiment affects the experience )
( survival strategies and books )
( things that can kill you in Colorado )
Anyway, spoiler, I didn't die, and also it was really fun. I should make a goals post so I can note the 100% increase in kicksledding this year.