sixthlight | Reading

As we all know, the ancient Greeks and Romans had a 7-day week, where they named the days Moonday, Marsday, Mercuryday, Jupiterday, Venusday, Saturnday, and Sunday. The Romance languages mostly preserve this (except they call Sunday Lordsday, dies Dominica), but turns out that the Germanic languages have the exact same paradigm (except for Saturday): Mániday, Týrsday, Óðinsday, Thorsday, Frīgsday, Washingday, Sonnaday. Máni is the personification of the Moon, Týr a god of combat (like Mars), Odin/Woden a psychopomp (like Mercury), Thor the god of thunder (like Jupiter), Frīg as Venus was known as Frīg's star, and the Sun is, well, the Sun. Though note that English has Saturday in a closer Romance loan, rather than a descendant of laugardagur (launderday?).

Anyway, that's neat, and you probably already knew that. However! I encountered the Japanese 月曜日, and saw the 月 and thought "Huh, Monday is Moonday in Japanese as well? What a coincidence."

Not a coincidence at all, actually! Turns out the Chinese discovered the planet-named 7-day week in the 4th century AD, whence it was transmitted to Japan before 1000 AD and used for astrological purposes before being promoted to the official week naming system as part of Westernization. Thus modern Japanese has 月曜日, 火曜日, 水曜日, 木曜日, 金曜日, 土曜日, 日曜日, where 月 and 日 are the Moon and the Sun, and the days between named for the planets, each of which is associated with a Chinese classical element: Mars with fire 火, Mercury with water 水, Jupiter with wood 木, Venus with gold 金, and Saturn with earth 土. Chinese has replaced them with numbered days, Week 1 Week 2 etc (though Sunday is still 周日), but in Japanese, they remain. So if you're ever going WTF at the Japanese (or Korean!) names of the week, just blame the Ancient Greeks!

marthawells

Behold the cover of Platform Decay:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2025/09/16/murderbot-book-platform-decay-martha-wells/86165029007/

china_shop

Pandemic life
You just can't get fitted for new glasses in a mask.

Previous poll review
In the Spice tolerance poll, 44.9% of respondents can handle mild, 40.8% a vague tingle, 49% a distinct tingle, 34.7% hot, and 12.2% searing. Two people (4.1%) said to call the fire department. Of course, all of these assessments are subjective and contextual: I initially said "hot", but then decided it was probably only "hot for me". Also, 26.5% said it depends on the cuisine.

In ticky-boxes, chocolate came second to hugs, 65.3% to 79.6%. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
We finished the latest Rivers of London in audio, and it was fine. And I finished A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall, which suffered from my genre expectations, I'm afraid. Otherwise, the same as last week.

Kdramas/Cdramas
Nothing But Love -- one episode to go, and there is no way to make it last. (If anyone's interest,

tinny made some gorgeous icons, yay!)

My Youth -- low-key romance with Song Joong-ki, partially set in the entertainment industry. As yet, there's no tension and very little plot, but everyone's pretty. I'll give it a bit longer.

Mystic Pop-Up Bar -- watched two more episodes. Manager Gwi will forever be my fav. I may have to go back to The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop, lol. And probably Family by Choice, too.

Aema -- I'm always delighted to find a kdrama Andrew will watch with me. (He's not really into romances.) This is set in the tawdry film industry of the early 1980s and based on a true story. It's about a celebrated actress who is tired of the exploitative aesthetic (antagonist, but I find her sympathetic) and an unknown ingenue who is desperate to make it, even if it means compromising (also great). It's about censorship, commercialism vs artistic vision, and film-making. Tonally, it reminds me of The Offer, which is a rec. We're three or four eps in.

Low Life -- (Disney+ does Kdramas) Two episodes with our tv-watching-with friend. Another period piece, this one about an array of scam artists and ruffians trying to salvage shipwrecked treasure in the 1970s. A lot of competing interests and macho posturing, and quite a lot of exposition, but I think it's going to be fun.

Other TV
More Chief of War (Apple+; yay indigenous TV; not very fun, but good and with that "prestige TV" vibe). Some Prehistoric Planet (Apple+ nature doco about dinosaurs, narrated by David Attenborough; really charming, quality animation, lots of cute baby 'saurs). More Bluey (we're going to run oooout /o\). Some Secret Genius of Modern Life with Hannah Fry (the episode about microwave ovens, where I learned a) that microwave ovens have Faraday cages to keep the microwaves in, and b) that if you shut an iPhone in my microwave, you can still call it (but not an Android) -- does this mean the little microwaves are escaping? /o\). Connections (BBC, 1978) episode 1, which is scientifically interesting while taking a dim view of human nature.

Guardian/Fandom
Fandom!! Our behind-the-scenes

fan_flashworks project went live yesterday with a Community Report, a Creator Report, and a comprehensive spreadsheet. We're so proud of this! A million thanks to

treonb for working so tirelessly on it!!

Meanwhile,

guardian_wishlist is underway (sign-ups close soon! come join the fun!), the Slo-Mo Rewatch started last week (jump in anytime!), and I'm still doing Guardian polls, apparently. On top of that, things are hopping on

fan_writers (if you're posting meta about the craft or process of writing, please link it there!!). *collapses*

Films
Not seen recently, but Uproar! is on Netflix now (here, at least), and it's so good. My review from May: 2023 New Zealand coming-of-age comedy-drama film about a Māori teen in 1981, at a time when a tour by the South African rugby team was dividing the country, because apartheid. This film blew me away, A++, absolutely recommend. The theme plays out on multiple levels, the performances are great, and the setting feels very genuine and frustrating. It deals with racism in school, the community, the home, and by the police/state. Stars Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Rhys Darby (Our Flag Means Death), Minnie Driver, and James Rolleston (Boy).

Writing/making things
My unexpected-kinkfic is at beta. I haven't managed to start anything else yet, despite the vast wealth of Wishlist prompts. My brain keeps stuttering and deflecting (and to be fair, there's been a lot of mod stuff to do). Whenever I look at my WIPs, they slide right off my duck-back brain. I'm really hoping I can get into gear soon!!

Life/health/mental state things
Another political submission last Monday, and one due on the 25th. (I can't do them all, so I'm just tackling ones I hear about.)

I ordered my first progressive-lens glasses. NO WARNINGS OR HORROR STORIES, PLEASE! I'm already trepidatious.

tl;dr

I've been holding out for a few years now. But these days I'm juggling a) my main pair: 12-yo scuffed-lens cheapos from Zenni Optical (online) which work for most things but I have to take them off for reading, and the scuffs make me feel like I'm getting cataracts; b) single-distance intermediate glasses (computer, crosswords and, increasingly, reading); and c) ancient-prescription sunglasses which, again, work for most things, but I can't read in them, which is a problem at outdoor cafes. My sister had a terrible time adjusting to her progressives last year, and I've seen similar unhappiness on my flist at times, so rather than going to the discount place where I got my intermediates, I went to my opticians. The nice sales guy spent literally hours talking me through everything, showing me various layouts for different lifestyles, and deciding which system would work best for me. He let me take three pairs of frames home for a second opinion. And then spent maybe another hour measuring my eye position and sightlines in different postures. I'm getting clip-on shades to fit the glasses -- fancy! Hopefully this will see me right for a long, long time. (Bodies are so expensive to maintain, ugh.) Again, please don't tell me any progressive-lens horror stories or even ambivalent ones!! Good/encouraging stories are welcome, though.

Korean
So far I'm easily keeping up with reading through the Guardian subs (it helps that I pretty much know episode 1 by heart). I'm not trying to understand every single thing. My brain is enjoying the Hangeul, and the jokes are even funnier when compounded with the triumph of "Oh! I understood that!"

Good things
Saw a seal in the harbour while I was biking home from the opticians. Kdramas! Fandom. Sunshine. Sleep is just really good, yes please. Walking through trees. Partners who let you blather about fandom all the time. ♥ Cat. ♥ Bluey!

Poll #33607 phone

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 57

View Respondents

How do you generally make/take phone calls, posturely speaking?

View Answers

hold phone to ear
35 (61.4%)

put call on speaker
23 (40.4%)

wear an earpiece/headphones
17 (29.8%)

other
0 (0.0%)

I don't make phone calls
5 (8.8%)

ticky-box full of beret-wearing bumblebees performing buzz poetry
22 (38.6%)

ticky-box full of cats with resting blep face
36 (63.2%)

ticky-box full of snacks, yes please
28 (49.1%)

ticky-box full of magic tricks with real magic
25 (43.9%)

ticky-box full of hugs
40 (70.2%)

beatrice_otter

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

other things to keep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general. I don't care for explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot). I love it when friendship is held up as important and not secondary to romantic relationships and blood ties.

Please no incest or darkfic. I define "darkfic" as stuff where there's a lot of suffering and no hope even at the end and all the characters are terrible. Angst with a happy ending is fine, I enjoy it, but there's gotta be a payoff. Even an ambiguous ending is fine! But there has to be some note of grace or redemption or hope somewhere, it can't just be "people are awful and the world sucks, the end." I define incest as siblings and/or parents, cousins don't count.

I love outsider perspectives and academic takes on things. In-universe meta (newspaper articles, academic monographs--especially with the sort of snarky feuding common in actual real-world academia, social media feeds in current day or future worlds) is awesome.

Also, I'm picky about European historical clothing details. You don't have to talk about it at all! In fact, if you don't know much about historical clothing, I would prefer if you didn't mention it at all. My pet peeve is corsets: no, they weren't a restrictive tool of the patriarchy, no, they didn't interfere with most women's daily lives, no, most women weren't wearing them so tight they couldn't breathe.

I like religion but I'm picky about it. Basically, Christianity is deeply weird compared to most other religions, and a lot of people whose only experience with religion is living in a culturally-Christian nation assume that what they know about Christianity is some sort of universal principle of What Religion Is Like, and that's just not the case. For example, in Christianity what you believe is more important than what you do. This is not to say we Christians don't teach and practice Christian ethics or have rituals we are very attached to, but rather that if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what rituals you participate in or what ethical things you do, you are not a Christian (although you may be a "cultural Christian"). Every Christian group has at least a minimal core theology that members must affirm, but participation in ritual is far less rigidly a requirement. Most other religions rank what you do (both ethically and ritually) as more important than what you believe, and it is often quite possible to be a member in good standing if you participate in the practices and rituals even if you believe none of the teachings. Anyway, point is, if you are doing worldbuilding for a fantasy or SF or otherwise non-Christian religion ... unless it is explicitly a Christian-analogue, it should be different from Christianity. Question your assumptions and see where that leads you, and I will be fascinated and thrilled.

( Fandom for Robots )

( Peter Wimsey )

( Rivers of London )

( DS9 )

( TOS )

( TNG )

( Oh, My General )

( Thrawn Trilogy )

( Goblin Emperor )

beatrice_otter

... the more often I notice little details that are wrong in movies and books.

Like, most recently, I watched a few minutes of Saving Private Ryan, which included the delivery of the telegram about most of her sons dying to Mrs. Ryan. She is doing dishes in the kitchen when she looks out the window and sees a car driving up. She is wearing an apron. She goes to the door to greet the Official Men who are coming.

Me: ... why isn't she taking off the apron, or replacing it with a clean one, or flipping it around?

I have heard stories from multiple women about their mothers working really hard to always have a perfectly pristine apron whenever unexpected company showed up, the 1930s version of "we can't let anybody know we live here!" So, for example, women who would wear their aprons inside out, so that they could flip it around whenever the doorbell rang, and know the pretty side would be perfectly clean. Or women who would take their aprons off and stuff them in a drawer when they saw a car drive up, and pretend they hadn't been working in the kitchen or scrubbing the floor or whatever. Or run to the kitchen and swap out their everyday apron for the fancy one with the ruffles and embroidery or whatnot. In every case, the idea was for the apron to look like a fashion statement, and not an actual functional garment.

But the thing is, no piece of fiction is ever going to be 100% perfect in its presentation of the past, no matter how much they try for accuracy; if for no other reason than that lots of the past simply gets forgotten about. Nobody can possibly know every detail about what life was like in an era before they were born, even if they've studied it extensively. (And the further back in time you go, the less stuff it is possible to know.) And even if you could be accurate, the accuracy might not fit with the story you're trying to tell; it might distract from an emotional moment, or it might signal something completely different to modern eyes, or it might just not register to modern people unless you took the time to stop and explain what's going on. All of which interfere with telling the story you're trying to tell.

So for me, it's a lot of "they're not wrong to do it that way, that I find it annoying is totally a ME issue and not an objective problem with the story.

china_shop

Pandemic life
( Nothing to report, really. )

Previous poll review
In the Cluedo poll, by far the most popular weapon was the cassowary (53.3%), followed by extremely elegant clothing (33.3%). In ticky-boxes, musical frogs and the wishing abyss tied for second place with 42.2%, after hugs with 75.6%. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
More of Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, read by Candida Gubbins (I'm enjoying it, but it feels like it will never end), more of the latest Rivers of London (also audio), and more of A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (library book). A browse through Low-FODMAP and Vegan: what to eat when you can't eat anything by Joanne Stepaniak (library book), of which more below.

Kdramas/Cdramas
I'm still going with Nothing But Love, eking it out. Pru and I watched two episodes of Mystic Pop-up Bar, and it's pretty great. I don't know why I bounced off last time. It does help that Choi Won-young, one of the dads from Family by Choice, is main cast and I love him.

Other TV/movies
Wow, almost no TV. Some Vir Das standup (very good), finished The Sympathizer with our tv-watching friend (fascinating, dark, very black comedy), two episodes of Fringe season 2 with my sister. One episode of new Magnum PI (very woohoo the military!). A ton more Bluey.

Bluey observation; ignore if you prefer to watch unquestioningly.

Andrew: Why is the mum always hanging out laundry, when none of them wear clothes?
me: .........

Jaws at the cinema for its 50th anniversary rerelease, so fun!

Guardian/Fandom
Everything is happening everywhere all at once. We're wrapping up the readalong, and the Slo-mo Rewatch starts this weekend on

sid_guardian!

guardian_wishlist is in sign-ups!

fan_flashworks stuff is happening behind the scenes! And I have a ton of

fan_writers comments to reply to! \o/

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses are doing a deep dive on Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the Sky. I haven't read it, but I still enjoy their analysis. The last episode gave me ~writing thoughts~, and I scrawled a bunch of extra stuff for my WIP, which I then immediately took out again because it didn't fit, but I'll use it somewhere else. Letters from an American is really good, and 12ish minutes of US politics a day is about all I can take. I started Alba Salix, Royal Physician but am still not sure.

Online life
After I posted my last

fan_writers post, I got a ton of great comments, and... hit a wall with things to reply to. I'm kind of paralysed by my inbox, now, overwhelmed, and not keeping up with my reading page either. Tabs continue to propagate. Also, my arms are such a mess, argh. I'm going to need them for Wishlist, so I'm trying to slow down, but <speech tone="wail">I don't waaaaant toooooo.</speech> :-( tl;dr Sorry if I haven't replied to you! I still plan to! <333

Writing/making things
After a week and a half of brain static, I tried to write a last-minute drabble for the FFW amnesty round and ended up with 1300 words of "srsly, nobody asked for this." Still working on my DNW-kink fic and having a ball.

Life/health/mental state things
Overwhelm plus sore arms, dohhhhhh. But my mood and energy levels are pretty good, despite that.

Korean
I have a theoretical plan to read the Guardian subs in Korean (진혼 자막 한국어으로) as we go through the rewatch. I'm completely 100% expecting to fall behind, but still, any reading is better than none, right?

Food
New things I've made in the last week:

a carrot, walnut and sultana cake, recipe from the back of the sultana packet; as I added a cup of this and a cup of that, I started going, "I'm going to need a bigger cake tin." Then I got to 1 cup of oil and three eggs, and looked at my mixing bowl. "I'm going to need a bigger bowl!!" Ended up cooking it in two unevenly distributed cake tins and taking one out early, lol.
vegan nutty gravy from the vegan low-FODMAP book; I used so many substitutions (regular miso for light miso, soy sauce for low sodium tamari, etc) that I'm not sure what it was supposed to taste like. It was good but a bit strong.
baked lemon tofu (ibid); Very Tangy. I tried this twice, and the first time I didn't have enough lemon juice, used some lime instead, and thought that was why it was So Tangy. The second time I followed the recipe more closely (just switched out thyme for oregano and added some maple syrup because yum), and it was still a bit overwhelming. Overall, not unsuccessful, but I don't know how to turn this into a meal.

Conclusion: I'm enjoying my experiments. It's fun flailing around, all "Stand Back, I'm Going To Try ~~Science~~ Cooking!" :-) Also, I feel like recipe books are like fan reccers: for best results, you have to find the ones you click with.

Good things
Bluetooth earpieces. Sisters. Reading glasses (but not the needing of them). Libraries. Unexpected story developments. Recipe books. Bluey! Biking.

Poll #33572 Spice tolerance

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

I can handle

View Answers

mild
23 (46.0%)

a vague tingle
21 (42.0%)

a distinct tingle
25 (50.0%)

hot
18 (36.0%)

searing
6 (12.0%)

call the fire department
2 (4.0%)

depends on the cuisine
14 (28.0%)