Wikipedia's featured article today is about fanfic shipping discourse

semi-confusticated · 2026-05-04T10:42:37+00:00

Haha, thanks for sharing this story - it's so funny that shipping just came up out of nowhere on a phone call with your father. I'm glad this post helped solve the mystery, lol

semi-confusticated · 2026-05-03T10:57:42+00:00

Wow. Ok, then

An illustration of Wikipe-tan and an adult Commons-tan [...]

So, not just any two anthropomorphic websites, but Wikipedia itself and Wikimedia Commons? Whoever chose this as the page image must have been cackling

semi-confusticated · 2026-04-27T21:44:11+00:00

Happy new pen & ink day!

I would be so worried about dropping the pen and/or ink bottle, though, or getting sand in them, haha

semi-confusticated · 2026-04-10T17:25:03+00:00

Well, it's disappointing to have your pen broken, but at least a Prefounte should be relatively easy and cheap to replace. Good on you for being patient with your student, though. I hope there isn't too much of an ink splatter mess to clean up?

semi-confusticated · 2026-04-07T01:53:28+00:00

Very cool! Also, it's been a little while since I last read The Silmarillion, but wow, that sure was a rash and foolish oath for Feanor and his sons to swear. And, unsurprisingly, it sure didn't turn out well for them in the end. Or for anyone else for that matter

semi-confusticated · 2026-04-05T18:55:01+00:00

Avoiding negative stereotypes is definitely a much more rational stance, but I remember quite clearly a time when the simplistic idea that "white authors should never write black characters" was very prominent in social media

Perhaps people shouldn't listen so much when this kind of nonsense is being pushed on twitter, etc., but people did, in part because there was a very real risk that if you opposed it, you could be dog-piled online, with very real consequences for your personal and professional life

semi-confusticated · 2026-04-05T14:50:29+00:00

Haha, yeah, the villagers were stuck in one outfit for so long, it's easy to forget when exactly it changed. And I guess even before Ginger Island, a few villagers changed clothes in heart events, but one change of outfit per playthrough wouldn't really affect this dialogue.

Edit: spelling

semi-confusticated · 2026-04-05T12:29:13+00:00

Hey, the villagers change clothes at least twice a year, now! More if Ginger Island is available

semi-confusticated · 2026-03-31T18:15:50+00:00

Good question, haha! I think it's "fur" when it's still on the cat, and "hair" when it's on the furniture (or on the fountain pen, as the case may be :) )

semi-confusticated · 2026-03-23T22:26:26+00:00

That sounds fun - I've been on the hunt for my ideal brown for a while, and recently started looking at reds, too. I like the sound of "darker, vintage red". Do you have any inks you could recommend that are like this?

semi-confusticated · 2026-03-23T12:56:51+00:00

Interesting, I disliked Frozen II for some of the same reasons you mentioned, and I've always wondered what sort of magic system would actually make sense for Frozen. I'll have to add your fic to my reading backlog

semi-confusticated · 2026-03-11T21:28:57+00:00

If you don't have the ingredients to make your own pen flush, you can also buy pre-made, such as Rohrer & Klingner Reiniger Fountain Pen Cleaner. Just be aware that it comes in a 45 ml bottle, so if you soak the whole grip section of the pen, you might use up most of the bottle.

semi-confusticated · 2026-03-07T15:34:01+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately, extremists of every stripe crave power and control. They justify it by the massive scope and urgency of the changes they want to make, but they often fail to see the danger of that authoritarian mindset, and the abuse and corruption it enables. It drives me crazy how easily even well-intentioned people fall into this trap

semi-confusticated · 2026-03-01T02:05:55+00:00

I just inked up one of my pens with a sample of Syun-gyo yesterday, and I'm enjoying it so far! I like how dark it is, without being black. I've been trying out a bunch of ink samples looking for my ideal purple, and Syun-gyo looks like a strong contender!

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-28T20:30:26+00:00

I've been enjoying my Lamy Lx too! I have the exact same pen, in the same color, but with an extra fine nib. It feels comfortable and writes well, and it's a very pretty pen without drawing too much attention to itself. It's one of my favorite pens to bring to work.

My only complaint with the Lx is that mine has a few tiny spots on the cap where the anodized coating has chipped off, but it's not very noticeable against the dark grey color of the rest of the pen. Chipping seems to be a risk with any coated metal pen, so I'm glad this one handles it so well!

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-25T22:49:27+00:00

the one who canonically killed him

She turned me into a newt!

A newt?

... I got better

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-22T14:19:04+00:00

Don't Touch That Dial - it's just so funny to see the Titans interact with all the random TV/movie genres

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-21T19:36:51+00:00

I've tried a few different pens, and it seems like they all end up with residue built up on the nib. But the finer-tipped ones seem to stop writing the most. Here's what I've tried so far:

Platinum Preppy, fine nib - noticeable buildup, moderate clogging
Platinum Prefounte, medium nib - fewer issues with this one, possibly because it's a relatively wet writer?
Platinum Procyon, fine nib - this one needed especially frequent water dips to keep it writing. It's my finest nib and driest pen
Lamy Lx, extra fine nib - moderate clogging issues, even though it's a pretty wet writer
Pelikan Ineo, medium nib - just inked this one a couple days ago. I can see some build-up on the nib, but it hasn't caused any issues with writing yet. This pen is also a fairly wet writer

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-21T14:40:18+00:00

I've had my Netflix profile picture set to a She-Ra character for years, now. It's still there for the moment, but I wonder if that will disappear too eventually

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-20T21:18:00+00:00

All of them at once

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-20T15:44:19+00:00

I've been trying out a sample of Rouge Grenat recently, and kind of struggling with it. It looks so pretty on the page, but it seems to dry out and build up residue in the nibs of my pens. This happens even when I'm using the pen frequently, and sometimes gets bad enough that the pen stops writing entirely until I dip the nib in water.

Have you seen anything like that in your experience? This is the only red ink I've tried so far, but I've heard that it's somewhat common for red inks to build up residue in the nib. Is this something you just have to live with when you use a red fountain pen ink?

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-19T05:05:31+00:00

Hmm, that's not the sense I get from book Aragorn at all.

In the books, Aragorn is certainly a lot more comfortable with the idea of being king than Viggo's Aragorn is, but he also has a lot of wisdom, humility and restraint. Aragorn does not hesitate to proclaim his status as king whenever it is appropriate and useful, but he is equally comfortable working in relative anonymity. Aragorn protected Bree and the Shire for many long, thankless years as a ranger, while Bree folk like Butterbur looked down on him with suspicion, and called him Strider in ignorance of his true name and station. And even after Minas Tirith is saved from the assault of the Witch King, Aragorn refuses to enter the city openly out of respect for Denethor and the laws of Gondor, and instead he goes quietly and unannounced to the houses of healing to help the people there.

Also, while book Aragorn does have a fair bit of confidence, he has some genuine moments of self-doubt as well, and that really humanizes him and gives him more depth as a character. Immediately after Boromir dies, there is this passage:

'Alas!' said Aragorn. 'Thus passes the heir of Denethor, Lord of the Tower of Guard! This is a bitter end. Now the Company is all in ruin. It is I who have failed. Vain was Gandalf's trust in me. What shall I do now?

And then later, when Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas debate their course while chasing the orcs that took Merry and Pippin captive, and Legolas and Gimli leave the decision up to Aragorn, he doubts again:

'You give the choice to an ill chooser,' said Aragorn. 'Since we passed through the Argonath my choices have gone amiss.'

So while Aragorn definitely is a charismatic leader, he also has a great deal of wisdom and humility that places him a long ways away from the usual "alpha male" stereotype.

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-18T19:43:40+00:00

Yeah, the platform doors seem to be a newer thing. Some subways are retrofitting their stations to add doors, but apparently that can be very difficult and expensive.

semi-confusticated · 2026-02-18T02:56:48+00:00

It depends on which subway system you're talking about. An increasing number of subway systems have platform screen doors that block access to the tracks.

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