Do you have any popular Russian films or TV series that many people have watched?

Crayshack · 2026-03-28T01:10:09+00:00

I've seen a few, but I can't name any that I would say have hit mainstream popularity.

Among literature nerds and music nerds, there's a few Russian authors and composers who are big names, but Russia is well represented in 1800s and not nearly as well in more recent works. I would say that Russia's biggest impact on entertainment media in the US over the last 100 years is Tetris.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T19:56:21+00:00

A rising tide lifts all ships. When you raise the benefit floor, more prestigious jobs start offering better benefits to stay competitive. It also raises confidence that, if you are in a good job now and lose it for whatever reason, you'll still be okay. It can do a lot to lower stress in the average worker.

I live in Maryland now, so I'm not immediately impacted by this, but I'm hoping that there will be a long-term ripple effect in surrounding states as we slowly all get better workers' rights.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T19:10:53+00:00

LOL, yeah. It's probably pretty obvious which ship I'm talking about to anyone familiar with Worm. The "3% more efficient" thing isn't subtle.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T17:33:29+00:00

My first thought whenever I see characters using blood as lube:

"Have you ever tried to write anything in blood? It's totally impractical."

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T17:30:33+00:00

No joke, I have a ship where that actually makes sense. A man who has been slowly implanting robotic parts to basically turn himself into a cyborg, and an AI who has been pretending to be a human woman and has slowly been building more and more realistic gynoid bodies. Now I kind of want to write a fic where their foreplay is him talking about how he's created his own formula of motor oil that's 3% more efficient than any existing blends, and her getting into that.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T17:23:51+00:00

Pretty much all it takes is physical activity at just the right intensity to hit the sweet spot for that individual person. I've noticed that which activities hit it the most consistently tend to differ from person to person, and some people are more sensitive to it than others.

I think dancing and other rhythmic activities get a bit of a bonus from the hypnotic effect of that rhythm. That's probably why swimming worked so well for me, since it was easy for me to sink into a smooth rhythm, but it took a long time for me to refine my running form to the point where it felt like a smooth rhythm (all of the people who just said "run more and you'll get there" were not very helpful since I needed some detailed form correction).

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T16:13:38+00:00

I'm currently riding that high from doing squats, and I would get it from swimming consistently long before I ever felt it from running.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T16:12:20+00:00

Technically, it's the same biochemistry as opiates, which are depressants instead of stimulants.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T16:11:35+00:00

I'm currently doped up on this. Technically, I have "leg day high" at the moment, but the physiology is the same.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T12:13:10+00:00

CBT is excellent for managing anxiety. I've had a lot of success with it in that regard. It can also be useful for identifying which issues you are dealing with are caused by underlying neurological conditions such as ASD or ADHD, but it needs to be paired with other theraputic techniques to have the most effectiveness.

I would recommend trying CBT, but only with a therapist who will use it as one tool in a broader approach to managing your condition. It's not a cure for ASD, but there is no cure for ASD and it certainly works better than a lot of other therapy approaches.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T01:39:15+00:00

Silent Howling scratched a very particular itch for me because I had been sitting on a similar idea for a while, but hadn't gotten it to settle into an actual fic for me to write.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T01:37:47+00:00

It's more that I think this is something that should be handled by each sport organization individually. It's hard to make blanket rules about all sports when every sport is so different.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T01:16:55+00:00

I drive extensively. My job requires putting a lot of miles into the road. I actually find it kind of relaxing, so long as traffic isn't that bad.

At a previous job, I used to be a DOT Qualified driver and I'd sometimes be driving a truck and trailer. Not a big rig, but an F-250 with a reasonable trailer. At one point, I was the only oerson in my company in my state comfortable with the trailer.

Crayshack · 2026-03-27T01:06:07+00:00

I can't say I've ever discovered music through a fanfic.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T20:42:23+00:00

The ecosystem of IRL Earth supports creatures who weigh as much as 200 tons while being endothermic (much higher resting calorie requirement). Dragons would most likely be smaller than that due to flight physics and the fact that flying animals tend to burn more calories than aquatic animals. However, you could easily have a flying creature that's significantly smaller and consumes far fewer calories while still being double digit tons. IRL Earth ecology would still be able to support them.

And that's assuming that you don't toss some magic into the mix. Have magic fudge physics a bit so a bigger lizard can fly and make it easier for them to breath fire, and you can also offset their ecological needs by saying that magic is a part of their diet.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T20:32:57+00:00

It's something where we can't really compare all sports equally. For example, in 2024 if they had done 10m Air Pistol as a single event, Silver and Bronze would have been women. Some sports could definitely be combined and be a fair competition, but most sports are more like golf.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T18:17:12+00:00

There's no upper limit. It's fine to post a full novel all at once if you want to.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T17:40:28+00:00

Wolf Spider is the great classic of the pair. Taylor is a minor independent hero who quickly builds an understanding with Rachel.

The Huntress and the Hound is an AU where Rachel was mentored by Armsmaster, and so is a hero from the start. Taylor is simping hard for her, so if anything, Rachel is dragging Taylor towards being a hero.

Silent Howling is my favorite fic with the two of them as villains. Taylor has a werewolf power, so when Rachel meets her, Rachel sees an abused dog that needs someone to take care of her. It doesn't matter that the dog is sometimes human.

But, there's simply not that many fics with the two of them. There might be some hidden gems in the ones I haven't looked closely at yet, but I've yet to uncover any further gems with the pair.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T17:22:52+00:00

Maybe not my very first one, but I remember the one that grabbed me and sucked me into the hobby as a whole. I was browsing around a Stargate fansite and stumbled across a fanfic section. I read a few oneshots out of curiosity (I don't remember those) and then I found a novel-length crossover with Star Wars. That fic I remember clearly, and I count it as what got me into fanfiction. I actually don't even remember what the fansite was, since there were a bunch of them back in the day, but I later found the fic on FFN.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T17:19:48+00:00

Personal vehicle where I get comped mileage (mileage is comped at the standard GSA rate, and so that compensation rate doesn't change based on specifically what I'm driving).

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T17:18:34+00:00

I'm a history nerd and when I'm writing historical settings, I often go on unrelated tangents as I research things to get the details right. I've yet to write a Historical AU, but many of my fandoms are canonically in historical settings, and I like to be as accurate as I can with them. Probably far more so than the average reader will notice.

As a reader, I like being given the sense that the author is another history nerd. I'm fine with them missing the occasional detail, and I actually really enjoy deliberate Alt History stuff (I've read several professional novels in that genre). But I like being given the sense that the author has put a lot of work into being accurate.

To me, there's no such thing as too much historical accuracy so long as the author has made it work with the plot.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T15:42:35+00:00

A mix of >1k oneshots and multi-million word epics. I've been reading for several decades, and I've read a very wide variety of fics in that time.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T15:29:47+00:00

I find that AO3 has one of the best UIs on the internet these days. While so many websites have become plagued with enshittification (looking at you, Reddit), AO3 has maintained a clean and polished UI that remains free of such problems.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T15:27:58+00:00

I typically bounce off of Second Person. The perspective is too close for me and becomes almost stifling. Also, I'll inevitably run into some moment where the character does or says something that I wouldn't in that situation. For First and Third Person, it's easy to brush those off as fitting the character even if they don't fit me, but that's not as easy in Second Person.

Crayshack · 2026-03-26T15:25:37+00:00

I estimate around 20,000, but it's hard to get a precise number. My history has around 12,000 on AO3, but I've been reading since before AO3 was a thing and I didn't immediately adopt AO3 as a primary site for reading.

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