![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Mar. 15th, 2026 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
turpsHappy Mother's Day to all that celebrate today. I got a lovely text from Corey saying he'd phone on his way home from work. Which is thankfully around 8 today and not late shift bar closing hours.
It was the Consett Cats craft fair yesterday. I knew going in we wouldn't make any money due to the location, and that's exactly what happened. But what I did do was get to talk to many other adopters, give some money to the rescue from items that did sell, and come home with a Consett Cat tote bag and a ridiculous amount of baked goods and cake. Even more cake than I planned as I was talking to one of the bakers at the end of the afternoon and she asked if I wanted to take three leftover cupcakes, and really, how could I say no?
There was also an Easter egg drive in the run up to the fair, with the donated eggs being put in brown bags and sealed up for a lucky wheel spin. At first they used the wheel correctly, but they'd had so many eggs donated by the end of the fair anyone spinning the wheel won an egg no matter if it landed on win or lose. At £2 a spin I got the eggs I need for the nieces and nephews, and maybe a spare for myself.
There was another good thing, the lady on the table next to us was a professional shopper for M&S for her day job and she was giving us tips on stall product placement and most interesting, the new trends coming in. Apparently, it's going to be tissue box covers, decorative trays that hold candles etc that can sit on coffee tables, wooden bangles and hare decorations. Now, most of those James can do, maybe not the bangles, but the rest, yeah. So, I think he's going to try for some of those for the next fair, which is this coming Saturday.
I enjoyed the season finale of Star Trek Academy, and am glad that season two has not only already being announced, but shown as wrapped via an Insta video from Karim Diane. It really has been my favourite new show recently, and there's not a character I don't like.
I've also watched the last ep of Call the Midwife, and what a bittersweet episode it was. The show did lose it's way a little at times, and was often the Dr Turner show, but I did enjoy it and will be watching the film and prequel show while waiting for season 16 to eventually be show, which will be a while from what the show creatorshave stated.
It was the Consett Cats craft fair yesterday. I knew going in we wouldn't make any money due to the location, and that's exactly what happened. But what I did do was get to talk to many other adopters, give some money to the rescue from items that did sell, and come home with a Consett Cat tote bag and a ridiculous amount of baked goods and cake. Even more cake than I planned as I was talking to one of the bakers at the end of the afternoon and she asked if I wanted to take three leftover cupcakes, and really, how could I say no?
There was also an Easter egg drive in the run up to the fair, with the donated eggs being put in brown bags and sealed up for a lucky wheel spin. At first they used the wheel correctly, but they'd had so many eggs donated by the end of the fair anyone spinning the wheel won an egg no matter if it landed on win or lose. At £2 a spin I got the eggs I need for the nieces and nephews, and maybe a spare for myself.
There was another good thing, the lady on the table next to us was a professional shopper for M&S for her day job and she was giving us tips on stall product placement and most interesting, the new trends coming in. Apparently, it's going to be tissue box covers, decorative trays that hold candles etc that can sit on coffee tables, wooden bangles and hare decorations. Now, most of those James can do, maybe not the bangles, but the rest, yeah. So, I think he's going to try for some of those for the next fair, which is this coming Saturday.
I enjoyed the season finale of Star Trek Academy, and am glad that season two has not only already being announced, but shown as wrapped via an Insta video from Karim Diane. It really has been my favourite new show recently, and there's not a character I don't like.
I've also watched the last ep of Call the Midwife, and what a bittersweet episode it was. The show did lose it's way a little at times, and was often the Dr Turner show, but I did enjoy it and will be watching the film and prequel show while waiting for season 16 to eventually be show, which will be a while from what the show creatorshave stated.
some Oscar thoughts
Mar. 14th, 2026 09:37 pmsnickficOscar-nominated movies I've watched: Frankenstein, Sinners, Weapons, The Ugly Stepsister(!!!!), The Secret Agent, Marty Supreme.
After the nominations came out, I was like "Wow, I've seen so many of these!" Friends, I literally had only seen the four(!!) horror movies, but between Frankenstein and Sinners they were nominated for so many things that it felt like I knew more movies than I really did.
Snubs: I didn't see it until after the nominees were announced (and neither did anyone else, apparently), but man, Testament of Ann Lee should have been up for Best Score and Best Actress at the very least. Best Picture too tbh.
Who I'm rooting for: I want Sinners to pick up a bunch of hardware, most of all Best Picture, but also Delroy Lindo for Best Supporting Actor, Wunmi Mosaku for Best Supporting Actress, Best Score, and Best Original Screenplay. My second choice in any category where they're going head to head would be Marty Supreme, and Chalamet is probably my pick for Best Actor.
My favorite story of these awards: The Ugly Stepsister, a Norwegian-language horror film, getting nominated for Best Hair and Makeup. There's no way it's going to win, but how did it even get nominated?! I hope the nomination got some more eyes on it, especially since it pairs so well with The Substance, which was nominated last year.
Rotten tomatoes: Frankenstein just wasn't all that. It was long, obvious, and self-important, and I hated the design of the Creature, which was basically just body paint and bad hair. I wouldn't mind it winning for something like Production Design or Costuming, and but that's about it. Props to Elordi for snagging an acting nom, though.
And take this one with a grain of salt, because I haven't watched it, but every Black person whose review I've come across haaaaaaated One Battle After Another. I think FD Signifier has put out three different videos or streams at this point about how much he hated the treatment of Black women in it. I was already primed to skip it because I disliked the trailer; in particular, the father/daughter bickering about pronouns for her nonbinary friend really hit me the wrong way. So I personally am rooting for any movie but that one in every category (esp against Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor, because fuck that dude).
After the nominations came out, I was like "Wow, I've seen so many of these!" Friends, I literally had only seen the four(!!) horror movies, but between Frankenstein and Sinners they were nominated for so many things that it felt like I knew more movies than I really did.
Snubs: I didn't see it until after the nominees were announced (and neither did anyone else, apparently), but man, Testament of Ann Lee should have been up for Best Score and Best Actress at the very least. Best Picture too tbh.
Who I'm rooting for: I want Sinners to pick up a bunch of hardware, most of all Best Picture, but also Delroy Lindo for Best Supporting Actor, Wunmi Mosaku for Best Supporting Actress, Best Score, and Best Original Screenplay. My second choice in any category where they're going head to head would be Marty Supreme, and Chalamet is probably my pick for Best Actor.
My favorite story of these awards: The Ugly Stepsister, a Norwegian-language horror film, getting nominated for Best Hair and Makeup. There's no way it's going to win, but how did it even get nominated?! I hope the nomination got some more eyes on it, especially since it pairs so well with The Substance, which was nominated last year.
Rotten tomatoes: Frankenstein just wasn't all that. It was long, obvious, and self-important, and I hated the design of the Creature, which was basically just body paint and bad hair. I wouldn't mind it winning for something like Production Design or Costuming, and but that's about it. Props to Elordi for snagging an acting nom, though.
And take this one with a grain of salt, because I haven't watched it, but every Black person whose review I've come across haaaaaaated One Battle After Another. I think FD Signifier has put out three different videos or streams at this point about how much he hated the treatment of Black women in it. I was already primed to skip it because I disliked the trailer; in particular, the father/daughter bickering about pronouns for her nonbinary friend really hit me the wrong way. So I personally am rooting for any movie but that one in every category (esp against Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor, because fuck that dude).
Performing some traffic maintenance today
Mar. 14th, 2026 01:04 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
mark posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceHappy Saturday!
I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!
If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.
Marty Supreme
Mar. 14th, 2026 09:53 amsnickficMarty Supreme (2025). A sleezy little punk in the 50s exploits everyone he knows or can finagle a meeting with in order to pursue his dream of becoming the world's best ping pong player.
I reeeeeally went back and forth on whether I wanted to see this, because everyone was like "Did you like Uncut Gems, the two-hour anxiety attack? It's like Uncut Gems." In general, I would not describe entertainment that makes me anxious to be a big draw! (I'm not talking about horror, that's TOTALLY DIFFERENT lol.) This is why I will never watch The Bear or The Pitt! But I finally got myself to go to a pre-Oscar showing of this because I enjoy Timothee Chalamet a lot, and I had a good time.
This movie is a RIDE. I have a pretty severe embarassment squick, but weirdly this rarely hit it. I only had to hide under my blanket in the theater maybe twice. Marty is just the worst but in a trainwreck way, so there's this sense that it doesn't really matter what he does or what happens to him, because it'll be engaging, not least because Chalamet is phenomenal. One of the low-key funniest lines is mid-movie when his uncle who owns a shoe story tells him that he's a fantastic shoe salesman. No shit, of course he is! It also helps that this is more of a black comedy than a ~drama, and while sometimes plot developments are the natural consequences of Marty's actions, other times they're utterly batshit that no reasonable person could have predicted.
CW for an ongoing stressful situation with a dog, but as far as I understand its last appearance, the dog is fine, unlike pretty much everyone else Marty so much as speaks to in this entire movie.
In conclusion, this is very much not a movie for everyone, but I had fun.
I reeeeeally went back and forth on whether I wanted to see this, because everyone was like "Did you like Uncut Gems, the two-hour anxiety attack? It's like Uncut Gems." In general, I would not describe entertainment that makes me anxious to be a big draw! (I'm not talking about horror, that's TOTALLY DIFFERENT lol.) This is why I will never watch The Bear or The Pitt! But I finally got myself to go to a pre-Oscar showing of this because I enjoy Timothee Chalamet a lot, and I had a good time.
This movie is a RIDE. I have a pretty severe embarassment squick, but weirdly this rarely hit it. I only had to hide under my blanket in the theater maybe twice. Marty is just the worst but in a trainwreck way, so there's this sense that it doesn't really matter what he does or what happens to him, because it'll be engaging, not least because Chalamet is phenomenal. One of the low-key funniest lines is mid-movie when his uncle who owns a shoe story tells him that he's a fantastic shoe salesman. No shit, of course he is! It also helps that this is more of a black comedy than a ~drama, and while sometimes plot developments are the natural consequences of Marty's actions, other times they're utterly batshit that no reasonable person could have predicted.
CW for an ongoing stressful situation with a dog, but as far as I understand its last appearance, the dog is fine, unlike pretty much everyone else Marty so much as speaks to in this entire movie.
In conclusion, this is very much not a movie for everyone, but I had fun.
(no subject)
Mar. 10th, 2026 12:43 pmturpsI got mail from romantical, thank you so much! ♥
Good news, Rosie has resurfaced!
She messaged yesterday apologising for not being in touch and for any confusion and frustration that had caused. Then said both classes would be back next week, and asked if I wanted a one to one/weigh in this Thursday or Friday. That would have been fine for me, but James always gets his at the same time and would have been at work, so the appointment was pushed back to next Wednesday after class.
Of course, I told her she has nothing to apologise for. Obviously something has been wrong, and while I do think the organisers of the scheme should have kept people informed better than they did, I don't blame Rosie herself for needing and taking the time off.
So, you can be glad I'll stop posting about her being MIA, and instead will change back to posting about her being evil!Rosie again. Which she will be, I suspect I'll need scooped off the floor after class on Monday after two months off. And yes, I've still been going to the gym, but I know I don't push myself as much on my own, especially so as all the strength machines are done sitting down.
I continue to be amused about the TikTok colab offers that James receives. The latest was for black hair dye, and all I could think was, do they even look at the people they're offering this stuff to?
Look who's finally using the ( the wall furniture )
romantical, thank you so much! ♥Good news, Rosie has resurfaced!
She messaged yesterday apologising for not being in touch and for any confusion and frustration that had caused. Then said both classes would be back next week, and asked if I wanted a one to one/weigh in this Thursday or Friday. That would have been fine for me, but James always gets his at the same time and would have been at work, so the appointment was pushed back to next Wednesday after class.
Of course, I told her she has nothing to apologise for. Obviously something has been wrong, and while I do think the organisers of the scheme should have kept people informed better than they did, I don't blame Rosie herself for needing and taking the time off.
So, you can be glad I'll stop posting about her being MIA, and instead will change back to posting about her being evil!Rosie again. Which she will be, I suspect I'll need scooped off the floor after class on Monday after two months off. And yes, I've still been going to the gym, but I know I don't push myself as much on my own, especially so as all the strength machines are done sitting down.
I continue to be amused about the TikTok colab offers that James receives. The latest was for black hair dye, and all I could think was, do they even look at the people they're offering this stuff to?
Look who's finally using the ( the wall furniture )
(no subject)
Mar. 8th, 2026 04:22 pmturpsIt was the second craft fair of the year yesterday, and it went okay. Quiet with only a few sales, but at least we made our table costs this time, and even had money left over after buying coffee. Not that it started that well, it was held in a church, which is a lovely venue, but to get there you have to park on the other side of a very busy road and go down to the greenman crossing. We did that, James carrying the A Frame we use to hang the hanging stuff, me trundling the festival trolled loaded with two big crates and three bags. Finally got to the other side of the road only for some guys in a passing van to yell we'd dropped a bag, and yep, there it was sitting on the other side of the busy road.
Thankfully, some lovely ladies grabbed it and brought it over to me, but still, not the best start.
We were talking to the organiser at the end of the fair, and I was saying how we hadn't made the table cost at our last fair and she was worried the same had happened that day. I could reassure her that wasn't the case, but even if it was, it's our risk to take. At this time of year we're really just out keeping PyroRex's presence going, hanging on until people have spare money again.
To which end, we're at another fair next Saturday, this one in aid of the cat rescue. Historically, not a good one for sales at any time of the year due to the location which has no passing footfall, but a cause we believe in so we'll be there trying to raise some funds for both us and the cats.
Right now James and my Sil are out watching Chris McCausland's stand up show which started at 4. It's their thing, watching comedy shows together. It's also a show they've been waiting a long time for as James bought the ticket back in 2024 as a Christmas present for my SiL thinking the show was happening in 2025, but in fact, it was actually March 26. So, after all that time I hope they enjoy it.
He sent me a message earlier, and I thought he'd managed to see Chris or something, but nope, he'd spotted one of the new Just Eat robot delivery things that have just arrived in Sunderland and sent me a video of it trundling past. They are cool to see, though, I do wonder how long it'll be before one ends up thrown in the river wear or vandalised.
And now as I have an evening alone I intend to have an early lobster bath and book. I know, shocker, right?
Thankfully, some lovely ladies grabbed it and brought it over to me, but still, not the best start.
We were talking to the organiser at the end of the fair, and I was saying how we hadn't made the table cost at our last fair and she was worried the same had happened that day. I could reassure her that wasn't the case, but even if it was, it's our risk to take. At this time of year we're really just out keeping PyroRex's presence going, hanging on until people have spare money again.
To which end, we're at another fair next Saturday, this one in aid of the cat rescue. Historically, not a good one for sales at any time of the year due to the location which has no passing footfall, but a cause we believe in so we'll be there trying to raise some funds for both us and the cats.
Right now James and my Sil are out watching Chris McCausland's stand up show which started at 4. It's their thing, watching comedy shows together. It's also a show they've been waiting a long time for as James bought the ticket back in 2024 as a Christmas present for my SiL thinking the show was happening in 2025, but in fact, it was actually March 26. So, after all that time I hope they enjoy it.
He sent me a message earlier, and I thought he'd managed to see Chris or something, but nope, he'd spotted one of the new Just Eat robot delivery things that have just arrived in Sunderland and sent me a video of it trundling past. They are cool to see, though, I do wonder how long it'll be before one ends up thrown in the river wear or vandalised.
And now as I have an evening alone I intend to have an early lobster bath and book. I know, shocker, right?
some movies
Mar. 6th, 2026 09:04 pmsnickficDrowning by Numbers (1988). A woman, her daught, and her niece are all named Cissie, drown their husbands, and depend on the local coroner Madgett (Bernard Hill) to cover up their crimes.
This is a surrealist late-80s comedy meditating on death and also games and numbers of various kinds, which is to say it feels very much of a piece with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, except for having no Shakespeare and being more focused on female characters. It's all nonsense; nobody is really a real person here, and that's fine. It's also pretty horny in various ways, and in fact Madgett proposes to each of the Cissies in turn. You kind of want him to succeed with one or possibly all of them.
If you want a sense of what you're in for with this movie, Madgett's introduction gives you a pretty good one.
--
The Bride! (2026). Maggie Gyllenhaal directs this riff on the Frankenstein mythos, this time a sometime-musical Bonnie and Clyde story about Frankenstein's creature Frank (Christian Bale), still alive in the 1930s, and the bride (Jessie Buckley) that he talks a mad scientist into "reinvigorating" for him. The dead woman thus invigorated was a mobster's call girl, but she doesn't remember any of that anymore. Sometimes Mary Shelley talks to her for some reason.
If you get the sense from this description that this movie has a lot going on, you are correct. I would say this movie is less than the sum of its parts, but I really enjoy several of those parts. Buckley is fantastic, and Annette Bening as Doctor Euphronius is delightful. The big dance number is fun. The movie has a lot of style and is sometimes cheekily anachronistic.
The various pieces don't ever really cohere; there are too many of them. And some of the pieces I enjoyed less, like the Overboard-style plot where our revived gal thinks she's still alive and was already married to Frank before her "accident." The subplot of her being occasionally literally possessed by Mary Shelley was just baffling to me. I get that it was supposed to be thematic, but: why. But, the movie tackles all its various tones and themes with a lot of energy and verve, and overall I found a lot to enjoy.
--
Send Help (2026). A frumpy woman who dreams of competing on Survivor crashlands on an island with her horrible boss.
This is a psychological thriller by Sam Raimi, and it took me a long time to go see it because ~suspense movies about people chasing each other around trying to kill each other aren't usually my thing. (See also: every home invasion movie except You're Next.) But! We don't really get that until the end, and in the meantime, Rachel McAdams is delightful as Linda Little, who's competent and helpful to a fault until she's finally pushed too far. I love how much of a glow-up Linda gets the longer they stay on the island. There were also some late developments that I really liked.
It's not breaking any new ground, but it's fun and well-executed. If you support women's wrongs(tm), I think you'll enjoy this.
This is a surrealist late-80s comedy meditating on death and also games and numbers of various kinds, which is to say it feels very much of a piece with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, except for having no Shakespeare and being more focused on female characters. It's all nonsense; nobody is really a real person here, and that's fine. It's also pretty horny in various ways, and in fact Madgett proposes to each of the Cissies in turn. You kind of want him to succeed with one or possibly all of them.
If you want a sense of what you're in for with this movie, Madgett's introduction gives you a pretty good one.
--
The Bride! (2026). Maggie Gyllenhaal directs this riff on the Frankenstein mythos, this time a sometime-musical Bonnie and Clyde story about Frankenstein's creature Frank (Christian Bale), still alive in the 1930s, and the bride (Jessie Buckley) that he talks a mad scientist into "reinvigorating" for him. The dead woman thus invigorated was a mobster's call girl, but she doesn't remember any of that anymore. Sometimes Mary Shelley talks to her for some reason.
If you get the sense from this description that this movie has a lot going on, you are correct. I would say this movie is less than the sum of its parts, but I really enjoy several of those parts. Buckley is fantastic, and Annette Bening as Doctor Euphronius is delightful. The big dance number is fun. The movie has a lot of style and is sometimes cheekily anachronistic.
The various pieces don't ever really cohere; there are too many of them. And some of the pieces I enjoyed less, like the Overboard-style plot where our revived gal thinks she's still alive and was already married to Frank before her "accident." The subplot of her being occasionally literally possessed by Mary Shelley was just baffling to me. I get that it was supposed to be thematic, but: why. But, the movie tackles all its various tones and themes with a lot of energy and verve, and overall I found a lot to enjoy.
--
Send Help (2026). A frumpy woman who dreams of competing on Survivor crashlands on an island with her horrible boss.
This is a psychological thriller by Sam Raimi, and it took me a long time to go see it because ~suspense movies about people chasing each other around trying to kill each other aren't usually my thing. (See also: every home invasion movie except You're Next.) But! We don't really get that until the end, and in the meantime, Rachel McAdams is delightful as Linda Little, who's competent and helpful to a fault until she's finally pushed too far. I love how much of a glow-up Linda gets the longer they stay on the island. There were also some late developments that I really liked.
It's not breaking any new ground, but it's fun and well-executed. If you support women's wrongs(tm), I think you'll enjoy this.
handy Dreamwidth tricks
Mar. 6th, 2026 07:37 pmsnickficIn one place that's easy for me to find.
- via elasticella: If you'd like to filter by multiple tags, add them via comma with ?mode=all at the end. For example, all my recs posts also tagged with Oasis: https://snickfic.dreamwidth.org/tag/fandom:+oasis,entry:+recs?mode=all
- If you're a paid user, DW allows you to filter out specific tags by other users (for example, my "topic: politics" tag). It's just not easy to find. First you need to make an access filter and put the person on that filter, and then once they are in the filter, click on their name and all their tags will pop up.
One suggestion would be to make a filter with your entire circle in it, and then just take out the tags you don't want. Then that could be your default view of your circle.