bookscorpion

The Friday Five 5/08/26

Fri, 08 May 2026 17:44:24 GMT

1. What do you consider your current main fandom? (This can include hobbies and collecting. Anything you feel fannish about!)

The Witcher, mostly games and books
Shadowrun, especially Shadowrun Hong Kong
Baldur's Gate 3
Mad Max, Fury Road in particular

2. What was your first fandom?
Star Trek - I was six when my best friend show me TOS (her dad had shown it to her) and we both loved it immediately. TNG came out two years later, I still remember sitting in front of the TV to watch Encounter at Farpoint. DS9 is my favourite Trek, but I grew up on TNG and it's still the one that feels most like home to me.

3. Do you have any favorite headcanons or fan theories?
I have one for Mad Max: Undying Max. Max cannot die and the Interceptor cannot be destroyed, not as long as the other is still around. I wrote a short fic about it, too.

4. Have you ever created fanworks?
I write fanfic and have been doing that on and off for most of my life. I have dabbled a bit in fanart, I made and make cover graphics for my own fics and those of other people (the offer in that post still stands), I make gifs mostly of video games and I have done needlefelt fanart and fandom-inspired yarn.

5. Are you still active in any old fandoms?
...I mean, what's old, Mad Max is pretty old and so is The Witcher and Shadowrun actually, but the oldest I am still active in, although not as a writer, is again Star Trek.

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Daily Life April 28th 2026: Fake News and Chill

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:49:19 GMT

2 of 3 fake news courses done for the week and both times it worked really well, I am very pleased and proud of myself. I've been turning this whole course over in my head for such a long time and I was pretty sure I had done a good job, but it is great to see students actually interact with it. I think both groups had fun and learned things - both worked well with me and each other and they were interested in the topic.

One thing I had not expected is that both groups were listening extremely attentively to me taking a little detour to Stalin-era photomanipulation (when we talk about genAI used for fake news). I downloaded the photo of Stalin and Yezhov vs the one without Yezhov on a whim and I don't know, I guess the visual of how brazen manipulation was done even back then hooked them. I'm very pleased about that (during the course, I'm putting fake news in the context of propaganda and how it has changed over time).

Also using Pikachu as our glorious leader and Mr Mime as the despicable dictator of the other country that they all write fake news about has been a success. They have come up with some great headlines, from Mr Mime being caught eating a Pikachu menu at McDonald's to Mr Mime being filmed on Epstein Island.

I get to try out a spinning wheel tomorrow (an actual oldschool one) - an ex-colleague of mine and me want to do a stitch and bitch at the library and she mentioned she has a wheel, so I asked if I can try it. I am contemplating getting an Ashford Traveller castle-style wheel but I do want to have tried a mechanical wheel at least once before to see if I vibe with it.

If I'm lucky, my teapot will be delivered today and I can pick it up tomorrow. I am excite :D

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Daily Life April 23rd 2026: Shadowrun and Fake News

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:11:40 GMT

The Shadowrun ttrpg group managed to meet on Tuesday - it used to be weekly but post-lockdown we had a really hard time getting back to that, compounded by me flirting with a burnout (for various reasons) and several of us getting important at work. But we all still want to play and enjoy it. Tuesday was the end of the run I was the game master for, a heist to steal fertiliser from the chempark area in Leverkusen (since the campaign is set in Wuppertal). The chempark actually exists and I happily used the available maps and informationor this.

Things went well, nobody died despite them annoying a hostile spirit who lives in the area. They set the Rhine on fire by accident which was amazing. There's a line in my notes from when I realised this might happen that just says 'Rhein in Flammen :D :D :D'
Now I get to play again, with Partner in Crime taking over as a GM for the next run.

Next week is the first time I will run the course on fake news and disinformation for 8th graders. I've been lowkey planning this for half a year, and for the last six weeks or so it's been percolating at the back and front of my mind all the time. Today, the last little details on how to do this fell into place, I wrote myself a set of flashcards so i don't forget stuff and now I am looking forward to teaching this.

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Daily Life April 18th 2026

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 18:43:08 GMT

I am back home! Burgers Zoo was awesome, and the whole vacation was really good - we saw and did so much, we walked all over the place (we took the tram only 3 times), we lucked out with the weather - rain at night, warm and sunshine during the day.

The van Gogh museum was so much bigger than I thought, and I really enjoyed it - it was busy but not too crowded. We skipped the Rijksmuseum because even with time slot tickets, the line was around the block, and it would have been our second visit. So we went to Micropia, the microbe zoo, and had a great time with it - I got video of tardigrades!

The fact that we could just check in and out of trains via our debit card was so incredibly convenient. We went to den Haag for a day trip to see the Escher museum - I had never seen any of his work in real life before, it was super cool.

If you ever go to Arnhem and you like burgers, I highly recommend Meem. They have a smallish menu but everything is delicious. I had fried halloumi, peppers and aubergine with pomegranate seeds the first time and an Italian sausage burger with buffalo mozarella and tomato salsa the second time. We went there a couple of years ago and we were stoked it was still around!

I have tomorrow and Monday off and I am savouring the extra days to just be a vegetable. I bought Pragmata and I'm having a blast playing it.

The way back went super smoothly, all trains on time. I unpacked, ran a load of laundry and went to sleep very early. Today, I took a walk to admire all the flowers and trees that are in bloom. The ten days made such a huge difference. The big cherry tree across the street is in full bloom. I also set some ginger beer to ferment - we had excellent spicy non-alcoholic ginger beer on vacation and it put me in the mood.

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Amsterdam 2026

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 18:13:37 GMT

Mr Ook and I are currently on vacation in Amsterdam, and we're having a blast. We're walking a lot all over the city - we took the tram just twice so far. We went to the botanical garden and to the van Gogh museum which both are super worth visiting. On Monday, we'll visit the Rijksmuseum, tomorrow is still undecided. We also took a day trip to den Haag today to see the M.C. Escher museum which was very cool, so neat to see all his work in real life.
On the way home, we're making a stop in Arnhem for two days to go to the Burgers Zoo - we've been a couple of times already and it's such a great zoo to really take your time with.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2026 01:06:10 GMT

I finished the first two diamond paintings I got from Paintgem and I'm really enjoying these - the pixel style is neat, the supplies are generous and clicking those square drills into place especially in the later stages is super satisfying.

they are also extremely sparkly

I have two US national park themes sets and a houseplant one, each containing 12 paintings, so that will keep me busy for a while. They're not that cheap but well worth it imo.

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Tue, 31 Mar 2026 08:59:05 GMT

The fake news course I'm going to teach to 8th graders is happening in three weeks and I have a rough concept for it which I will write into more firm guidelines after I did this with a couple of groups. It's been percolating at the back of my mind for the last six month, as I read and watch stuff about the Third Reich, about cult of personalities, about propaganda out of personal interest anyway. And it has shifted in focus a lot from what I originally wanted to do but I think for the better.

This is where being able to infodump about these topics at the drop of a hat will come in handy because a not small part of these courses are improv on a theme, depending how interested, knowledgeable and/or curious the group is.

I've been collecting propaganda images I can show and it is weirdly hard to find one of Stalin that's not watermarked and not too complicated (I'm working under the assumption that only a handful of people will even know who he was but then that's not even necessary to get the gist of a good propaganda image).

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Daily Life Mach 28th 2026

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:15:29 GMT

I've been back to work for a week, and one more week to go until vacation! The cold is finally gone and after being super tired on the first day, I feel normal again. I taught a research course with 8th graders and it was super fun, they were a great bunch of kids and worked so well with me. They even said thanks and that they had fun, that's always extra nice to hear. I talked about genAI with them a bit and how it works vs how a search engine works which I think went well, especially the point that it's better to do the work themselves so they can form their own opinions.

Vacation will be in Amsterdam, I am so excited for it. We'll be staying at the same apartment we had last time because it was spacious and very nice, and near the botanical garden where we definitely want to go again. We also want to see the Rijksmuseum (also again, it's so big and last time the Night Watch was scaffolded), the van Gogh museum and we're planning a day trip to den Haag for the Escher museum. On the way home, we'll stay in Arnhem for two days to go to the Burgers Zoo which we both love - it's huge and has these big domed habitats where most animals roam free, it's very worth going two days in a row so you can take your time.

I started to work out more with a Pilates app and eat less chocolate and sugar at the beginning of the year and it's starting to pay off, very encouraging. I feel good about it, too, and I feel good about Project More Attention Span and Less Mindless Scrolling. Getting into diamond painting and having the spinning wheel at home and within easy reach did a lot for that...my fibre stash is shrinking. I'll share photos of those projects in a later post.

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The Friday Five 3/27/26

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 15:07:22 GMT

1. What is a common ear worm that you get?

FREUDE SCHÖNER GÖTTERFUNKEN ...Beethoven's Ode to Joy and this post immediately gave it to me

2. How long do they last?

a day or two mostly, although before this post I had Suzan Vega's My Name is Luca for weeks

3. What do you do to get rid of them?

listen to the song, that usually help. so let's listen to Ode to Joy sung by 10000 people in Japan (i once saw a documentary about this, it's done every year and it's so cool)

4. What is the worst ear worm you've ever had?

Heil Dir im Siegerkranz and not just once, I don't even know why

5. Do you get some guilty pleasure in passing the ear worm along?

:D yes

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Night In the Woods Icons

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:48:37 GMT

Some Night In the Woods icons I made, from the Demontower game you can play in the game. Feel free to use them. If you want to credit me, link to bookscorpion - a comment is very appreciated but not required

Icon table generated by Chlor's Icon Table Generator

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The Friday Five 3/20/26

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 08:55:30 GMT

I don't do these usually and it's not remotely Friday any more but anyway: The Friday Five 3/20/26!

1. What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth account?

I honestly don't remember how I even heard about it, but possible from LJ? Looking at my archive, the first posts that aren't Tumblr imports are about my fics, and they start at a time when I had retired my Blogger blogs (RIP, I had a great time with that community). I fell off using DW for a time and I'm finding my way back these days.

2. How many DW communities do you subscribe to?

A bunch, about 40? A lot of them are very quiet though, I should see about posting to them more often, the way I would on Pilllowfort. I mod two comms for The Witcher, witcherverse and the witcherkinkmeme

3. Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?

common nature

4. How did you pick your user name?

Bookscorpions are real animals. Pseudoscorpions is the name for the whole group, for their appearance although they are not scorpions but another arachnid order - one species lives in books, most of the others in leaf litter, bird's nest and even in bee hives (not commercial ones but wild ones) where they catch mites and other small prey. I used to have one as a pet one time, she was such a fierce animal and not afraid of me at all. She escaped and I hope her descendant still live on my shelves.
Anyway, I love invertebrates in general, and what better name for a librarian who likes bugs. Also, weirdly enough the name is VERY rarely taken even on big platforms.

5. If you could change your user name, would you?

Absolutely not.

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Books I Own #3

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 13:38:40 GMT

Books I own, no caption, no comment. Happy to answer questions in the comments.
This one is under the cut because the cover is nsfw despite everyone being fully clothed
( Read more... )

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1917

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 12:27:13 GMT

Shoutout to 1917 for gutpunching me every time with Wayfaring Stranger.

It's a movie that really knows how to do pacing right to get the strongest payoff from an emotional scene, and it never shows that better than with this. I also really appreciate that the soundtrack just lets that single voice carry the song and the scene.

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Daily Life March 19th 2026

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 11:20:16 GMT

I've been sick for the last two weeks, the first week pretty miserably and the second week I had the usual exhaustion after even short walks which is ow getting sick with a severe cold now goes for me after getting Covid.

I did get some stuff done, like taking apart the bird cage that's been taking up space, rearranging the clutter room so I have more room to move around in it and cutting apart a bunch of cardboard boxes. Also, some builders left a palette in the hallway and after it had been there for three days, I took it for my balcony to put the big flowerpots on. Oh and I unearthed a board from the clutter room that now serves as a stand for the other palette I use for more vertical room on the balcony - the strawberries are getting way more light now and the palette is no longer precariously balanced on some bricks.

Bringing my spinning wheel back home from Mr Ook has lead to my stash shrinking at an astonishing rate. Which in turn has meant that I have watched a bunch of The Longest Day in Chang'an while plying - it's subtitled so I can't spin or do anything that requires attention during it, but plying once I got the tension right is an all hands and no eyes task. If you are in the market for a visually stunning historical thriller set in Tang Dynasty China: this is free on YT. The costumes and sets are just gorgeous, and it's such a good story with a huge cast of characters. None of that 'we will explain stuff 3 times over because we assume people are on their phone while watching'.

The weekend will be Lord of the Rings Extended Edition with Partner in Crime, I'm hype. Last time we did a Eatalong where we ate everything the characters ate - highly recommended. Sadly the website we used as inspiration is gone but there are a bunch of others with menu plans. My main takeaway was that it is very hard to eat a tomato the way Denethor does.

Edit: the Wayback Machine has it! It's a genuinely fun read, and it has a shopping list and vegetarian options and everything. I saved it, too, with Singlefile (highly recommended addon for that)

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Books I Own #2

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 09:21:44 GMT

Books I own, no caption, no comment. Happy to answer questions in the comments.
Well, one caption for this because it doesn't have a title: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

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Books I Own

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 17:49:41 GMT

Books I own, no caption, no comment. Happy to answer questions in the comments.

Inspired by SmallHobbit except I won't be limiting this to seven books because I kinda like the project of going through my books over a longer time.

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Library Life

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:17:03 GMT

This week at the library:

a dude who stormed out shouting about how he thought that this is a library and not a brothel after one of our janitors made eye contact with his wife for 1.5 seconds

another dude who asked me whether I want to chat with him on Instagram or email to which I told him in no uncertain terms how rude and inappropriate the question is at my fucking place of work

two dudes who got into a loud argument about our copy machine

also, construction noise

but also someone who sent us candy because we sent her the copies she had forgotten in the machine, and the usual 99% of patrons who are polite and well behaved and just want to do their thing

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Useful links: deGoogle and deAI

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:06:59 GMT

How to Break Up With Google from the Ellipsus team, Ellipsus being a great alternative to Google Docs especially for collaborative writing

General Ludd’s Guide to Draining the Bot Slop From Your Device a short guide with a ton of links, also available here on Dreamwidth, includes instructions on how to set up a Linux if you're thinking about that

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Sun, 01 Mar 2026 09:07:08 GMT

If you understand German, here are some neat things to watch:

SWR Handwerkskunst - how it's made focused on stuff like design, carpentry, leather working, baking ect - German w German subtitles

Sendung mit der Maus Sachgeschichten - how it's made for kids (but very enjoyable for adults as well) German w German subtitles and audio descriptions. There's one about building a plane and one where they visualise the Varusschlacht with PlayMobil

Tiere vor der Kamera - animal documentaries, very chill, two dudes with their Unimog who take you along. I really like them because they let you see how much time and patience goes into filming animals. They started in the 1970s, and they usually focus on one animal - like budgies or Eiderducks, Tasmanian devils, moose, swallows or pikas. This is sadly not available via a public broadcast website so it only is on and has YouTube's subtitles.

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Daily Life February 25th 2026

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:27:50 GMT

Germany is having a lot of strikes right now, including one of the subway and busses on Friday and Saturday. I would have had word on Saturday but a colleague offered to swap, so I get a surprise four day weekend with no plans. I will enjoy that so much - hopefully the weather will be nice enough that I can go to the cemetery, I haven't been for ages. Also, it's NextFest on Steam so I plan to play a bunch of demos.

I finally have a plan for how to structure the Fake News course I'm going to teach in April because it struck me at 3am the other day that I can do a sort of roleplay out of it. I want the students to write their own fake news because I think that will make it much easier to really understand how it works and what to look for.

Scriptorium has a demo out now and I played that for an hour yesterday - it's delightful. Link goes to my Pifo where I talk a bit more about it but if medieval sticker game sounds like your jam, go take a look at it.

We played Shadowrun yesterday and that went super well except that I had to cut it short because I could feel a migraine coming on.But we had fun and the story progressed nicely. Next time: toxic spirit encounter and possible setting the Rhine on fire.

After work, I went swimming - I did a few lapses but the outside pool was pretty crowded so I moved to the spa pool they have and found out that the cold water pool is working again, too. So that was a nice and relaxing hour or so. I'm ending the day with chicory, feta and persimmon salad and some video games.

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Daily Life February 20th 2026

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 19:15:57 GMT

Today I:

took a walk and took photos, including photos of the new yarn I have finished
got groceries
prepared pulled pork for marinating overnight
did the dishes
did pilates
cooked dinner
had a nap
played Witcher 3 and Unbeatable
read Discworld (Snuff)
listened to the Ghost in the Shell soundtrack while diamond painting
watched two episodes of Longest Day in Chang'an while plying yarn

I am impressed by all that energy, especially since I took an edible which normally does not result in a particularly energetic day.

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Daily Life February 12th 2026

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:49:11 GMT

I have taken up diamond painting thanks to a 2am impulse buy of a kit for six coasters. It pleases my autism to sort and pick up all the tiny stones one by one, it's stupidly relaxing while listening to a let's play or audio book I also decided to take my little EEW Nano spinning wheel back home from Mr Ook because I think I will use it more at home, and I want to cut down on the time I spend watching YT on the TV while I putter around Discord and the same three websites.

Today I had several meetings and they all were productive. I can buy more seeds for the seed library, and I'm free to organise a stitch and bitch at the library as well. Our other branch has one and it's very popular. I've been meaning to do that for a while, it's a very low key event as far as needed equipment and personnel goes and very low threshold to participate in.

I finished Tad Williams' War of Flowers and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the last time I read it. Theo isn't the most likeable protagonist but he isn't meant to be. He's shallow and selfish and quite often not that smart, although I will give him that he is stranded in an extremely confusing world. But as always, he did grow on me as he grows as a character. I love the tidbits of world building in that book, the modern faerie, the magic/technology and the glimpse at what keeps Faerie alive at its heart. And the Remover of Inconvenient Obstacles still is such a chilling character all around.

My next novel to read is Snuff by Terry Pratchett - one of three Discworld novels I have only read once (Raising Steam and Shepherd's Crown are the others). I don't remember much of anything about this one, so it's almost like reading it for the first time which is amazing. The book sticks (even) closer to Sam Vimes than any of the other Watch novels, and the inside of his head is an intense place to be. I adore that moment where he sits in the pub and watches everyone come in, catalogueing them and the threat they present. And I have a lot of time for Wilikins who is just the sort of bastard I love.

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Worm Farm Update

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:31:00 GMT

I bought and set up a worm farm a while ago and it's doing pretty well. They are not breeding a lot but there are still plenty of worms of all sizes around - I might buy some more when it's warmer, but on the other hand the problem might solve itself once it's warmer. They are inside but I don't keep the room they are in super warm.

They do eat all the fruit and veggie leftovers I give them - they like mushy banana and grated carrot (yes I totally grate carrots for them). They still love their cocomats and will eat all the packing paper and egg cartons I give them.

Some photos under the cut - the soil is very heavy, it's great worm compost. It smells only of moist earth, and when the lid is closed you don't even notice that smell.
( Read more... )

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Daily Life February 4th 2026

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:44:07 GMT

We are getting more snow again - it's been snowing heavily all morning, very fine snow. It does look beautiful and maaaybe it won't rain as predicted on the weekend so it won't all turn into mush and then ice.

Yesterday, we played Shadowrun and it went really well - it took the whole session but the group finally has a plan to get into the well-guarded area that is not 'let's pretend we are part of a school excursion!' (that was Plan A). I have two weeks now to come up with an ecoterrorist group that will help (?) them infiltrate the chemical industrial park. The day before, Partner in Crime and I finally got around to doing more let's plays for our channel. We're playing Felvidek which is delightfully weird.

I'm going to see Iron Lung tomorrow - I may have regrets about going to see a more than 2 hour movie starting at 8pm on my longest work day but oh well, it's the only showing at the English cinema.

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Daily Life January 28th 2026

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 18:03:56 GMT

We haven't had sunshine for more than a week and it's starting to mess with me, even with the SAD lamp and taking walks anyway. I just want to be a potato on my couch.

I do my best to at least craft a bit and do things around the house. I worked on the landscape tapestry, I sorted through my vinyls, I did pilates every day, I kept up with cleaning a little every day as well. The 'clean something while you are waiting for the tea water to boil' has its limits but on the other hand, it's great for stuff like wiping down the counter or the kitchen cupboard doors or something. It definitely unfucks the habitat, one small item at a time, and that's the goal. Oh I did put up the frames and shelves to display my vinyls and I am super happy with it.

The SteamDeck arrived and I love it. I downloaded some small indie games, and Supergiant's Transistor. I've been playing Little Corners as a sort of ritual to end the day (decorating rooms with stickers, so cute and chill). On the PlayStation, I've been playing Unbeatable and really enjoying it despite not being good at rhythm games. I wrote a bit more about it on my Piillowfort.

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