Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.

Challenge #15

How Did the Fandom Snowflake Challenge Go? Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

I think it went well!

There are people I "know" on Dreamwidth from seeing them around places, that I don't get a chance to interact with much myself. Therefore, I find

snowflake_challenge delightful because it gives me an excuse to interact with them! And also, find new, interesting people to interact with! It really helps with the sense of community. I mean, even if I end up not interacting with a particular person for whatever reason, it's still fun to see the same names pop up all the time.

I'm a little saddened that things seemed to peter out towards the end of the challenge. I'm not sure if that was the challenge's fault itself, or if we all got tired due to +gestures at the world+. It's probably more of the latter.

I did miss the "make a fanwork" challenge, because in the past I've worked hard on that. In 2023, I made a Crocheted Carbuncle which took a heck of a lot longer than I expected BUT I DID IT, and last year I launched my Neocities site. Not sure what I would have done THIS year, but odds are I would have gone overboard again, lol. I know me.

I've said in the past that I feel mostly on the outskirts of fandom. This year, I feel like I've at least put a foot in the pool? I don't feel so disconnected as I have in the past, and a lot of that has to do with the good people at the Final Fantasy Old Folks' Home, plus being more active in making fanworks myself, and yes, also because of

snowflake_challenge. So I feel I've had a positive experience this year. Thanks, mods!

Current Mood: grateful

roadrunnertwice

Everything's extremely fucked up at the moment, and I'm heartsick and volcanicly angry on behalf of my old home of Minneapolis.

"IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT" IS FAKE

MIGRATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT

DISBAND ICE

HAND OVER THE MURDERERS AND ABDUCTORS TO THE PEOPLE'S JUSTICE

THAT INCLUDES NOEM AND TRUMP

That's about all I've got on that. But, I guess I've also got some babbling about games and stuff stacked up in the queue, so let's post that.

Naomi Novik — A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves (re-reads)

Jan 7, Jan 8, Jan 8

My friend Isaac got around to reading these and was loudly enthusing about them; that reminded me how much I loved em, and then I had to blast through a re-read.

Isaac pointed out a recurring thematic motif I hadn't quite pinpointed on my first read: some idealistic sentiment that began as cynical propaganda, but which ends up becoming real for a later generation that absorbed the sentiment before learning the original motive.

Bonus Level: Several More STGs

Get in loser, we're dodging bullets.

( Cut for extremely niche content )

kareila

Got a pre-listing inspection done on the old house this morning. Haven't received the full report yet, but 3 outlets that are supposed to be GFI (Ground Fault Interrupt) didn't trip when they were tested. Robby is going to do some further troubleshooting on that before deciding if we need to call in an electrician. We'll also have to add smoke detectors in all the bedrooms, since having the nearest one be just outside the bedroom door doesn't meet the current requirements.

Next week I need to call someone about the minor roof leak that has developed near the front door of the new house.

Current Mood: numb

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

Having lived long enough to see some of my younger co-workers retire.
Being able to walk well enough to handle the rather long trips to and from the ferry, leaving Lizzy for N to use.
Being able to get by on under 6 hours of sleep most of the time.
Good meals on the ferry, and breakfast in the convention hotel today.

NO thanks for Sable's crappy battery, which is even worse than I expected.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Contabile, outside Norwich

catness

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

Challenge #15. How Did the Fandom Snowflake Challenge Go?

Pretty well. I've completed all the challenges timely, did a couple of creative things (icons, mood boards), got to ramble about the Locked Tomb, interacted with a few peers (not much, but I was already pushing my socializing limits ;), even made a new friend! Joined a new creative community, got some great recs for games, books etc. (Thanks again to everyone who recommended Stray - I started to play, and it's truly an amazing game! and a prime example of Environmental Storytelling, which had turned up in one of my gamedev courses and apparently it's one of my favourite game design techniques.)

My DW posting definitely got a boost this month. Hopefully not crawling back under my rock in the end. (It's hard for me to do anything creative and even journaling without a structure of challenges... ;)

Big thanks to all the mods, and to all the participants! See you next year, I guess ;) Or maybe in other communities. While snooping around, just discovered a summer counterpart of this challenge,

sunshine_revival, it sounds cool :)

Current Mood: content

silveradept

Last call for this year's

snowflake_challenge, and, it's a bit like all the things asking us to rate and review them with our time.

Challenge #15

How Did the Fandom Snowflake Challenge Go?

I intend to keep going back and checking out entries when I'm not doing something else, and leaving comments, and trying to build that community and see interesting things that people have posted. It probably won't go that quickly, and I may not make it all the way through in a timely manner. But I'll try.

( It was fine, which is not a complaint. )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Infinite Rivals - The 13th Struggle (Luxord)

ink_13

I am tentatively hopeful that after last week's bomb-throwing that the designers will come up with a revised plan that doesn't cost (without exaggeration) seven figures. Originally they claimed they'd have something early this week but unsurprisingly they punted to next week as I basically forced them to start again from concepts, which normally they allot six weeks for. I guess we'll see.

The contractor hit his first milestone, declaring demo to be complete, so I have prepared the first of six very large cheques, the kind that could buy a perfectly respectable automobile in different circumstances. I guess that means they wrestled the bathtubs out. The next phase is asbestos abatement, which became necessary when it was pointed out to me that modifying the kitchen ceiling, taking down the crown molding, installing cabinets to the ceiling, doing anything with blinds and/or drapery, or changing closet doors would all be affected.

As for me... well, if I get bored on the weekend, I may go look at some tableware at West Elm or Stokes. Secretly one of my goals is to wind up with zero silver or white anywhere in the finished result, and West Elm has some flatware in a "champagne satin" that might do, since all black feels a bit odd and brass/gold is too ostentatious. IKEA has some pretty blue stoneware in their current collection, but I suspect I might be able to do even better.

highlander_ii

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kaberett

Or at least I assume that's what the call I missed because [reasons this margin is too small to contain] was about, based on (i) the voicemail that said They'll Call Back Tomorrow, and (ii) the continued absence of the relevant test results in the NHS app.

I... think I am going to suggest that they ask my GP to issue a bloods request form, for me to pick up from the surgery and take up the hill to phlebotomy. Because! this is ridiculous! blood loss remains my job!!!

Other things today has contained include: TOKEN RIDICULOUS PUZZLE; Very Picturesque Bread; the Child assigning us all Pronouns and Genders and Sexualities more-or-less at random (from an LGBTQIA+ sticker book); PAKIDGES many and various Including another book on pain and box sets for the last two seasons of Elementary; lots of ridiculous windows in the general vicinity of Bank. I am very tired.

sparowe

ODB: Standing Strong in Christ

Jan 29, 2026/in Our Daily Bread/by YMI

January 29, 2026

READ: Ephesians 6:10-20

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:11

Recently, my mom gave me a play-by-play of a surprising confrontation she saw on a live webcam feed from a watering hole in Africa. The Gemsbok, a large antelope, has horns that can be more than two feet long, making it a formidable animal that doesn’t seem to scare easily. That is, unless it comes across a group of brave and rowdy ostriches.

The lead ostrich, which was taller than its foes, shook its large feathers, roared, and stomped toward three Gemsbok, causing them to flee.

“I guess they didn’t realize how powerful their horns are,” I said to my mom.

Believers in Jesus can forget the power we have when faced with attacks from our spiritual enemy, Satan. We have the Holy Spirit who lives inside us (Romans 8:11) and the armor of God to help us: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11). Satan wants to challenge our belief in God’s Word, question our identity in Christ, and tempt us to sin.

But we can stand strong because God’s armor includes “the belt of truth, . . . the breastplate of righteousness, . . . the shield of faith, . . . the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (vv. 14-17).

When the enemy attacks us with feelings of fear, condemnation, or despair, let’s remember we’re God’s children and are well equipped to stand strong.

— Nancy Gavilanes

Why do you sometimes forget to use the armor of God? How can you stand firm in your battles?

Dear God, thank You for giving me Your divine protection.

Source: Our Daily Bread

Current Mood: thoughtful

madgastronomer

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Current Mood: krispy kreme

andrewducker

Fairly sure that this used to be a bath.

Before Sophia watched a video on how to make the perfect comfy hideaway.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

juan_gandhi

DW на фесбуке

ICE массово нарушает законы. Так давайте уже вы не на тех, кто требует соблюдения законов, будете наезжать, а на тех, кто действует противозаконно.

Мне это кажется очевидным. А не эта дебильная идея, что раз кого-то выбрали, то перед ним все должны встать на колени и слушаться. Выбрали, чтоб он обеспечивал соблюдение законов.

ПОНЯТНО, БЛЯ?!

andrewducker

Nature is looking particularly fractal this morning.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

madgastronomer

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Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: bed

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was forty years ago today (assuming I get this posted before midnight Seattle time -- it's 8am Thursday here in Den Haag). So I wrote a song: Keep the Dream Alive. It's on the Challenger tape, which is of course long out of print. I also posted it on Mastodon: "So, forty years ago I wrote a song…" - Indieweb.Social.

I think it's one of my better songs -- I should try to sing it more often.

Current Mood: not nostalgic exactly
Current Music: see post

delphi

✓

kingstoken's 2026 Book Bingo: An Author's Debut/First Book

Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park is a 2025 spy novel about six people forced to examine their loyalties and choices over the course of an eventful 24 hours or so in Oxford. Several of the principal characters have more than one moniker, but at a high level they include a North Korean spy, his mentor, their handler, a Korean-American spy, and the owner and cook at a Korean restaurant that finds itself the site of a post-assassination rendezvous.

The story starts with a bang, with the killing of a veteran spy who falls victim to the foreseen "clean-up" of a regime change, and while it very much keeps its forward momentum throughout, its focus is more on identity than espionage. It plays with the overlap between the tropes of being a spy and the experience of being an immigrant, drilling into what it means to be an individual, a citizen, a member of an ethnicity, or a member of a family.

I found this a highly satisfying and engaging read, and while I can see why it didn't make the Canada Reads shortlist this year (there being no connection to Canada in the book, only through the author), I'm very glad the longlist put this on my radar. This is a great debut, and I hope it's one of many novels for Park if he's so inclined.

( An Excerpt )

highlander_ii

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January 2026

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Page Summary

althea_valara - Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Challenge 15: How'd it go?
roadrunnertwice - Want justice, have bookpost
kareila - inching forward
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 30-01-2026
mdlbear - Thankful Friday
catness - Snowflake Challenge #15 - conclusion
silveradept - Snoflake Challenge 2026 #15: Five Stars
ink_13 - Reno progress
highlander_ii - Snowflake Challenge #14
kaberett - [healthwork, diarish] ... they... lost my blood again?
sparowe - YMI -- ODB: 29 January 2026
madgastronomer - Mad Gastronomy en papillote
andrewducker - Photo cross-post
juan_gandhi - напомню любителям исполнения указаний ICE
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 29-01-2026
andrewducker - Photo cross-post
madgastronomer - midnight mad gastronomy
mdlbear - Music: Challenger - forty years ago today
delphi - What I'm Reading: Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park (2025)
highlander_ii - Snowflake Challenge #13

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Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Challenge 15: How'd it go?

Want justice, have bookpost

Naomi Novik — A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves (re-reads)

Bonus Level: Several More STGs

inching forward

Interesting Links for 30-01-2026

Thankful Friday

Snowflake Challenge #15 - conclusion

Snoflake Challenge 2026 #15: Five Stars

Reno progress

Snowflake Challenge #14

[healthwork, diarish] ... they... lost my blood again?

YMI -- ODB: 29 January 2026

ODB: Standing Strong in Christ

Mad Gastronomy en papillote

Photo cross-post

напомню любителям исполнения указаний ICE

Interesting Links for 29-01-2026

Photo cross-post

midnight mad gastronomy

Music: Challenger - forty years ago today

What I'm Reading: Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park (2025)

Snowflake Challenge #13

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January 2026

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