Firefox, my web browser of choice, just updated and dumped a bunch of new "AI features" that are enabled by default.

If you, like me, hate this nonsense, I found this very helpful guide to removing it. It took about one minute, and seems to be working - I no longer see the 'AI link preview' popup window when I hover over a link, for instance.

Please feel free to pass this on!

I started a casual rewatch of Weiß Kreuz back in December, and today I finished the original arc... and began WK Glühen.

Man, I'm reminded of how the usual fan advice to newbies is "Love yourself and don't watch Glühen." Before HP fandom existed to give us EWE (Epilogue? What Epilogue?) - and before fic sites had a tags section to put it in - WK fans were cheerfully ignoring Glühen so hard that 'Glühen didn't happen' was all you needed to say to establish your AU.

The best reason to watch Glühen is so that, in future, you can remember not to watch Glühen.


----

Tongue-in-cheek aside, the original WK is such a nostalgia trip for me! Every time I rewatch it, it strikes me again how it shouldn't have the emotional power it does. It's a vanity project anime made by some voice actors, it has a silly premise and ridiculous plots, and the animation quality is rough, but the characters are compelling; it's like all the work that didn't go into the other stuff was put into them, to the benefit of all the rest. They may be melodramatic prettyboys, but they feel like real people and like a group, not just a handful of OCs tossed together with no connection.

My favourites are Aya & Youji (separately, together, and *ahem* together), but Omi tends to steal my affections when I hit his arc. When the whumphammer comes for Omi, it comes hard! Everybody gets their turn under the mallet, but Omi's suffering is especially harsh, and I love him for it.

There's no particular point to this post, but if you've seen Weiß Kreuz, chime in and tell me your faves!

This past few days I've been listening to The Who in the car, and keep coming back to this line:

Like broken glass, we damage
even in defeat

I think that's going to be my 2025-2029 motto. As we enter a season of dangerous and corrupt authorities in various places, many of them backed by a vocal percentage of the populace, let's do as much damage as we can, as often as we can, to every injustice and every goal they have.

My laptop was in the shop for three days, and it was like being in mourning. :D The good news is that I have it back and am out less money than I might have been; the bad news is that they couldn't repair it (broken touchpad) due to the part being unavailable, so the only thing I got for my money is a slightly cleaner broken laptop. D:< Technology exists to try us!

Before my enforced separation, I was reading two Cnovels - Married Thrice to Salted Fish (new to me), with a reading group, and After I Married the Disabled God of War as my Concubine* (which I'd started some time ago and lost track of). Hopefully I can get back on track with both, but especially the former since I don't want to read the group discussion till I'm caught up.

Without a laptop, I found myself in the mood to read mysteries, so I reread two Sayers (Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night) and two Kings (The Beekeeper's Apprentice and A Monstrous Regiment of Women).

The laptop's absence also put a crimp in my Flight Rising gameplay, so now I'm scrambling for treasure. Lair expansions and expensive Gen1 projects await me!





----------
*Every single time I trot out this title I'm torn between groaning and giggling. It is The Most Cnovel Title Cnovel title I have ever encountered! I can't say it without feeling that it comes out slightly mocking, it's just that absurdly typical.

Since the guide I've been using while leveling up in Arlo's Artifacts is so old that it doesn't include the fourth level, why not make my own? It will be slow going, but it's not as if taking five seconds to jot down the contents of a plot will add any measurable amount of tedium to an already tedious process. :D

( Long list that will take even longer to fill in, beneath the cut: )

More Flight Rising nonsense, sorry everyone! It's eating my brain right now.

I have made some Basic dragons fancier via new genes! For your viewing admiration, I offer:

Speckle/Butterfly Fae: a lucky find in the Auction House - a Gen 1 Fae in colours that complement my female progen Fae, for a low price?! Snatched him up at once and then began brainstorming genes to make his wings a little closer to my lair theme.

Pharoah/Shimmer Mirror, my male progen, whose colors pained me. (Too much brown, especially paired with grey; looked like mud and dust.) I found a gene that would black out a lot of his body colour, then a wing gene that added blues and greens over the grey. He looks so much better that I may actually breed him for keeps, now!

I'm planning to 'gene up' my female progen, too, but since there are soooo many more choices that look good on her, and some of the genes I'm considering can be gathered at fairly low levels in the archeology game, I'm going to acquire those and then make a final decision. She's pretty even in Basic, so it's no hardship to let her linger ungened. :D

Seven days ago I started playing Flight Rising, which I've thought of for years as "the other dragon game." :D Then yesterday DragCave dropped a new breed and a new hybrid. Everything in my life is coming up dragons!

Anyone on the flist a Flight Rising player? Show me all your beautiful and skilled dragons!

It's unfair that nobody warned me playing the Shock Switch minigame is addictive. There goes the time I should have spent cleaning the house! Oops. Collecting dragons is also addictive, but DragonCave taught me that years ago. ;D I've already bought four lair expansions, so now I can have up to 25 total dragons. I haven't tried breeding yet, but someone kindly gave me a Level 7 Veilspun so I finally ventured into the Coliseum.

Familiars are my favourite thing - all right, aside from Shock Switch - and I went on a collecting/buying spree, so now I have more familiars than dragons, and there are still several more I want. If anyone has a Platewing Spinx going spare, I'd give it a good home!

Speaking of familiars, I joined during a site event, and the special familiar you could buy in the event shop was... a krait. :D :D :D :D (Albeit one with an inaccurate tail, but still!)

I've been caught up in gardening, AKA "dirt fandom," lately, though I can't actually do much yet except prepare things. I've dug a hole where the bean plants will go, sprinkled a few seeds of hardier sorts into the wildflower bed (we're not past the frost date here yet, so most of my seeds must wait a while longer), rearranged some pots, added soil to a couple of low spots, and - I confess - made three separate online plant purchases. Oops? :D I ought to make a list of everything I've ordered, so I don't avoid duplicates.

On the Actual Gardens rather than Garden Prep side of things, I have been enjoying my 15 gloriously purple hyacinths, planted last fall, which have been blooming for a week now and make stepping out of the front door a delightful experience for the nose. Of course, I ordered 25; wonder where I planted the rest of them? XD One's a pot out back, but the rest I haven't spotted yet. This is the downside of ordering a heap of bulbs and then scrambling to get them into some kind of dirt - any kind of dirt - before it gets too cold to dig!

It's cold. What better excuse to putter around assembling tea packages for my Cards & Tea respondents? :) It's too cold to take them to be mailed, but I can at least work on assembly to get me up and moving instead of spending all day huddled in a heap of blankets on the sofa under the cats.

The poll is still open to anyone who would like a note and/or a sampler!

If anyone's a fan of yerba mate, chime in.

I wish everyone a happy holiday and a very merry Yuletide! I haven't had a chance to browse any of the fics yet, but it's something I'm looking forward to when I do have a few hours to spare. If you participated, may your fic be delicious and your recipient be quick to comment. :D

I'm running late with just about everything this year, due mostly to external factors beyond my control (foster kittens stayed long, got sick, spent half of today without power) but I had a lovely Christmas and my annual holiday cards & tea post will happen! I'll try to toss up the poll in the next couple days.