forestofglory

Happy New Years Everyone! Here's the last several days of DecRecs recs. I have once again recced all the Decs! The last few days I've been really tried and it was bit of challenge to rec stuff but I did it!. I hope you found something to enjoy in all these recs

Day 26
You know how I watched a bunch of crossdressing girl dramas eariler this year? One of them was Sungkyunkwan Scandal - a classic kdrama about a girl who crossdresses to attend an all male school - I liked it a lot!
Anyways after I watched I went to see if there was any fic on ao3. And there was quite a bit most of it centered around a side m/m ship which i hadn't thought much about while watching the show. But after reading the fic I ship it!

This is all a run up to today's #DecRecs which is a fic for that ship!

dark under the lamp by wakeupnew

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28127289/chapters/68916450

I really liked the characterization and how the it added magic elements to the setting in way that felt very natural . Also it's just a lot of fun! (and I think you could read it without knowing the source material)

Day 27
Today for #DecRecs I want to talk about the cool campaign game R and I have been playing: Earthborne Rangers!
It's a solar punk game where you play rangers whose job is to wander around and help people and nature.
Your characters are represented by a deck of cards each. There are some very fun abilities. My character has a pet ferret, and I can summon a friend! R's character can talk beings on walks to bond with them!

Day 28
Today for #DecRecs I want to talk about rotating teapots.
These are really clever gadgets that work pretty much like a gaiwan but with less wrist action which is great for people like me who have hand problems! They also might be good if you find the whole gaiwan thing a bit intimating!
Here's a picture of one so you can see how it works better

( Read more... )

Day 22
Today for #DecRecs I want to talk about Saint Cavish a Chinese food youtube channel run by Christopher St. Cavish
https://www.youtube.com/@saintcavish
I'm always a little careful about media by white dudes about China but I was intrigued by the series of videos where Italian chefs visit "China's Noodle Homeland" -- which turned out to be really good! I've since watched a lot more of the channels videos
The videos are thoughtful, never treating the food as too weird or exotic and do a good job of putting stuff in context both historical and with regard to modern China

Day 23
Today for #DecRecs I want to rec fancy seam finishing for sewing projects! I mentioned in an earlier rec that this year I've been sewing a lot of garments for myself. For all of those I've used either french seams or flat felled seams and they are so nice to look at and so stratifying to make!

Day 24
I had PT this morning and it wore me out so for #DecRecs have a pretty picture

https://www.tumblr.com/hisiheyah/794758124462637056/as-the-leaves-on-the-trees-change-with-the

I guess I can link this to the whole year in review theme of this year's #DecRecs by saying that this year I started a tumblr account -- I still don't understand tumblr culture so I just follow people I know and reblog pretty pictures

Day 25
For today's #DecRecs I want to share some of my favorite songs so far form the Chinese reality show Crush of Music which I'm part way through watching having just finished episode 4

Crush of music is a show where songwriters demo original songs and then through a mildly gameifed process are matched with a singer (or two) who then preforms the song.
It's a really fun low stress show and features some of my favorite singers ! I can't really rec the show though because the subtitles are very very bad -- I'm just watching in anyways even though I can only understand about half of what people are saying
Anyways on to the songs! Here's Liu Yuning having the best time rocking his heart out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwZSs1MTqo

Zhou Shen singing with cute children!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBlR8iSsrTc

I am constantly so impressed with Xue Zhiqian's stage designs (also featuring cute children)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h29GaZroe4g

There's two version of this song and I can't decide which one I like better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkxr0uqhgHs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO9kRZ3JsKw

Here's some more recent DecRecs!

Day 18
Today is one of those days where I really wish I was capable of napping. But since that isn't going to work I'm planning on spending some time curled up on the sofa with an ereader full of fic an hopefully a cat on my lap
So for today's #DecRecs I want to rec one of my favorite fics ever "on a long journey" by twigofwillow
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29819775/chapters/73366473

This is a Lan Sizhui centric post-canon CQL fic and It's really the best!

Things I love about "On a Long Journey":
*It's beautifully written
*The characterization is so perfect!
*The way the story is non-linear and includes. memories, stories and letters (Jiang Cheng's letter is so funny and pitch prefect)
*found family and good feelings while still letting people be complex and messy!

Day 19
For today's #DecRecs I have a really cool boardgame that I first played this year Vantage by Designer Jamey Stegmaier
basically your party crash lands on an alien planet and you are all in different locations, represented by illustrated cards. You can tell the other people about the cards but not show them the cards

It's very fail forward game, so you kinda wander around and interact with the environment and maybe complete some goals. There's lots of cool stuff to do! Once I have taken a child on an adventure, almost gotten eaten by a dragon, and stolen a flying vehicle!

( Read more... )

I intended to wait less time before cross posting these. Oh well, it's here now

Day 11
So I'm not sure how big the overlap of people who know about Mo Willems Pigeon books and Nirvana in Fire is -- but if you are in that group you owe it to yourself to read "Don't Let the Strategist Plan the Party" by

aegtx
200 words of pure delight!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/67708406

Day 12
I'm enjoying how this year #DecRecs has been turning into a mini low stakes year in review project for me as I focus on reccing things I loved this year.
And this year I have watched a lot of chinese reality show so today I want to talk about The Truth season 3!
The Truth is show where participants play and game that's like a very elaborate cross between a murder mystery dinner party and an escape room. There's puzzles and mysteries and tunnels to crawl through
This year they really leaned into my two favorite things about the show -- the costumes and the group dynamics!
The costumes are so much fun! Wildly over the to, colorful and with fun themes! And this season featured even more of them than last season with at least one set per case!
Here's the cast in one of my favorite sets

And the teamwork! In season three they manged to have the same six people in all but one case: Bai Yu, Jin Jing,
Dilraba, Liu Yuning, Zhang Linghe and Zhou Keyu. So several people I like by themselves -- but the whole group together is great! loved watching them tease each other and think through problems together!
Quick content note: many of the offscreen backstories involve upsetting things like child death or queerphobic violence. They also at one point discover a (fake) skeleton of a child in a suitcase.
I had so much fun watching this show! I don't usually watch things as they air but I eagerly awaited each new episode of The Truth Season 3 and watched all the behind the scenes extras!

( Read more... )

Here's the last several days of DecRecs!

Day 6
I am sick to day but I don't want to miss #DecRecs so you are getting an old favorite "Fandom for Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad

It's a delightful short story featuring fandom, friendship and robot pals!

https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/fandom-for-robots/

Day 7
I'm still not feeling great today so another old favorite for #decRecs "The Witches of Athens" by Lara Elena Donnelly is one of my comfort reads. It's everything that I want cozy SFF to be. Featuring sisterhood, coffee shops, and queer romance

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/the-witches-of-athens/

And since I mentioned cozy SFF this seems like a good time to link back to the piece I wrote about cozy SFF earlier this year -- "Domestic Labor and Community Building Rec List"

https://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/2025/05/29/domestic-labor-and-community-building-rec-list.html

Day 8
Doing a little better today so I want to talk about my favorite drama I watched this year for #DecRecs
Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung! It's a historical kdrama about a young woman who becomes a historian -- one of the people charged with writing down everything that happens in court for the historical record. It's so so good!

Things I love about Rookie Historian:
*It's thematically about history and why it matters!
*Young women succeeding at traditionally masculine jobs
*female friendship!
*it depicts but doesn't endorse monarchy
*The ML is a princess coded chaos mupet and I love him

Day 9
Since I just posted and annotated bibliography todays #DecRecs has to be Zotero!
Zotero is a free citation manager! It's great! I'm not an academic and am not writing papers for publication but I love it!
I have a lot of PDFs and they aren't always easy to sort through, but Zotero make it easy for me to find things! I can tag them and search.
I also love that I can drag and drop and Zotero will pick up any meta data!

Zotero is a great tool for fic research. I've used it to create bibliographies for several fics now (including an annotated bibliography for my most recent fic)
I generally create tag for each fic as go along and it makes it easy to find stuff again.

Day 10
Today for #DecRecs I want to rec Intergalactic Mixtape! This a SFF newsletter that my friend Renay started this year! It's got links to interesting articles and reviews, smart thoughts and recs! It's joy to get it in my inbox every week!

https://buttondown.com/intergalacticmixtape

Hi I haven't been here as much as I'd like. We had some damage to the house that caused a major disruption, and even though it's been fixed for a while I'm having trouble getting back to my usual routines and projects.

But that's not what I want to talk about! It's December, and every year for the last several years I've been doing a project called DecRecs in December where I rec on thing everyday for the month and encourage other people to rec stuff too. Recs get posted on Mastodon and this year for the first time BlueSky then every once in a while I round them up and post several days worth here.

So here are the 1st five days of recs!

Day 1
It's the first day of December and that means its time for #decRecs !

This year I want to focus on reccing things I discovered this year, not things I've recced a ton of times before, though I'm sure I'll include some old favorites.

I'm starting out with "This is it" a mulifandom Go /Baduk / Weiqi vid. This so much fun! I've been rewatching this everytime I scroll past it in my ao3 bookmarks and its a delight every time!

I love the variety of source material and the perfect timing!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51767752

2:57 min, only music, subtitles available

Day 2
Today for #DecRecs I want to talk about barley tea! I used to get this all the time at my favorite Korean restaurant but I recently realized that I can make it at home! It's so good, cozy, a bit of nutty flavor, very warming in the cold!

( Read more... )

29)I'm still feeling pretty worn out from yesterday and not up for writing a long rec for #DecRecs

So please enjoy my tol nephew, Liu Yuning singing 努力的人/hardworking people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGMC9j-vTg8

30)It's the penultimate day of #DecRecs and I'm reccing another old favorite "Points of Origin" By Marissa K. Lingen

This story features, found family (literal), a grumpy reluctant grandpa, and daily life on Mars. It's charming and cozy!

https://reactormag.com/points-of-origin-marissa-lingen/

31)For the final day of #DecRecs I want to do something a little different: self recs!

So please tell me about something you made that you are proud of!

(I did a little thread an talked about stuff I wrote in 2024 but I'm not including that because I hope to post a more polished version here in a few days)

25) Tonight's the first night of Hanukah so I thought for #DecRecs today I would rec the lovely Jewish short fantasy story "Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land" by Ruthanna Emrys

about finding magic in unexpected places and building community

https://reactormag.com/seven-commentaries-on-an-imperfect-land-ruthanna-emrys/

26)Yuletide has brought us two new "Fandom for Robots" fics and they are both great!

Processing Time
https://archiveofourown.org/works/61422142

This one leans into some of the darker aspects of the source material so mind the tags. Utterly gorgeous!

Interview with the Robot
https://archiveofourown.org/works/61619161

Featuring a mildly baffled but kind museum director

both lovely and worth your time!

27)I couldn't let a reccing event go by with out yelling about The King’s Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road by Xin Wen so that's today's #DecRecs

I love this book so much! It's about the nitty-gritty of diplomatic travel in Central Asia between 850-1000 CE, and it centers the city of Dunhuang, which was during this period sometimes part of various imperial states in the region but mostly an independent city state. I love that it decenters China!

A significant source of information for this book is the documents found in the library cave at Dunhuang, an important source for this time period in general.

I totally fangirl Xin Wen based on his scholar ship, he's so smart and reads so many langues and has a sharp eye for details! I especially love all the detail about the material culture of travel here

28) It's been a very busy day and I haven't actually had time to sit down at my computer. So here's a drive by #DecRecs

The House of Aunts by Zen Cho!

The trials and tribulations of being a Malaysian teen vampire with six aunts

https://giganotosaurus.org/2011/12/01/the-house-of-aunts/

(I know I didn't include today's rec, but 1. I haven't posted it yet and 2. I want the final post to include more than two recs)

21) It's the winter solstice here in the Northern hemisphere, so for #DecRecs I'm reccing: Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma

I reread this yesterday so I can say with confidence that its extremely good!

It’s a contemporary fantasy novella about two metamores who dislike each other but have to work together to save their mutual boyfriend. The writing is beautiful, the characters are great, and there's so many keenly observed details!

22)Today #DecRecs is also a solstice themed novella: Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis!

I reread this yesterday and it is such a delight! Recency-ish fantasy, with house parties, elves and romance.

Cassandra Harwood is such a super smart disabled chaos muppet, but I love her so much! Her family is great too!

23) Recing a song for #DecRecs today

This is from the first season of Our Song and watching in never fails to cheer me up at least a bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qoZTtE0sRQ&list=PLtRyFdw91Awx0WofApkwlzAfF7fbbcMBC&index=4

24) I think there's fair number of people here who enjoy both DWJ and MDZS/The Untamed but I'm not sure how many of you know about this Lives of Christopher Chat fusion: The Lives of Lan Wangji By azurewaxwing

It's so much fun, it's got a good DWJ-ish voice, but the characters feel very much themselves. Also an excellent terrible cat

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27525991

17)Today I’m reccing one of my favorite cdramas ever: The Long Ballad

It has so many of my favorite things: A super smart chaos muppet who is also an extraordinary young woman succeeding at typically masculine pursuits, an girl who is not like other girls and her best friend who is, badass older women, and also really excellent character arcs

I could go on about this forever but instead I’ll just link you to the primer and rec list I wrote last year https://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/361221.html

18)For #DecRecs today I bring you an academic paper: “‘What Do Barbarians Know of Gratitude?’ - The Stereotype of Barbarian Perfidy and Its Uses in Tang Foreign Policy Rhetoric” by Shao-yun Yang

Now many of you know that I dislike Tang Taizong rather a lot so I appreciate this paper for calling him out on his BS. But It's just really interesting paper especially if you are interested in ethic identity in Chinese history
https://www.academia.edu/5290394/_What_Do_Barbarians_Know_of_Gratitude_The_Stereotype_of_Barbarian_Perfidy_and_Its_Uses_in_Tang_Foreign_Policy_Rhetoric?sm=b

19)Today for #DecRecs I'm reccing Laid Back Camp!

I have recently started rereading the first several volumes of this charming maga (with the intention of then reading the volumes that I haven't read yet) There is also an anime which is great too!

It's a slice of life story about high school girls going camping, with lots of food, friendship, and pretty scenery. Very lovely and warm and also likely to make you hungry!

20) Reccing fic for #DecRecs today!

"Spring Splendor" by ayeshah

This is a fic based on Song of the Long March, the manhua which is the inspiration of The Long Ballad, but basically reads as historical RPF about Princess Yicheng of Sui, who is the loose inspiration for a character in both the manhua and the drama.

She seems really interesting and badass and I'm sad that men didn't write down more about her life
So I really love that this fic digs into what we know about Princess Yicheng and tried to image what her life would be like!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/15235845

(This set accidentally ended up Long Ballad themed)

13)Today I'm reccing and old favorite and a comfort re-read for me: "The Witches of Athens" by Lara Elena Donnelly
cozy fantasy form before cozy fantasy was a thing. Featuring sisterhood, coffee shops and queer romance. 3k words
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-witches-of-athens/

14) For #DecRecs today I'm reccing Cayote Brush Studios, for all your California plants and critter art needs!
I recently got a new laptop and I ordered a bunch of stickers from them. They also do prints, posters, washi tape, and other things!

I love the selection of species, things aren't super well known and not frequently depicted in art but that still feel iconic!

They also have some pride merch!
https://coyotebrushstudios.com/

15)Today's #DecRecs is a series of short documentaries Conserving Vulture Peak by the British Museum

About conserving an embroidered tapestry for Dunghuang. There's cool stuff like dye analysis, too! There's 8 videos each less than 10 minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0LQM0SAx602PTJ1OHYsMnIybgkbNfPpv

16)Today I'm feeling very tired and struggling to come up with something for #DecRecs but past me has my back , because I've written a bunch of rec lists. So today I'm re-sharing “The Joy of Artifact Fanfic: a Rec List”
So enjoy some fic composted of letters, forum posts, twitter threads and other documents
https://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/2023/04/25/the-joy-of-artifact-fanfic-a-rec-list.html

9)Today rec for #DecRecs is Tiny Witch With a Tiny Familiar (by still unrelieved creator). The colors! The use of leaves!(CN: bugs) https://archiveofourown.org/works/60962314 (H/t

donutsweeper)

10) For #DecRecs today I want to rec sticky rice pu'erh! One of of my favorite and frequently drunk teas!
It's pu'erh made with an herb called Nuo Mi Xiang (糯米香) -- which translates to sticky rice stent. It gives the deep earthiness of the pu'erh a bit of brightness and sweetness.
The one I'm drinking right now is this https://yunnansourcing.com/products/rice-scent-and-ripe-pu-erh-tea-mini-bricks? but I've tried several different versions and they've all been great!

11)Today's #DecRecs is The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century by Stephanie Balkwill, a really fascinating book about Empress Dowager Ling of the Northern Wei, women and power during her lifetime and the ways traditional historiography has failed women.

It's open access and you can get an ebook for free here: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-women-who-ruled-china/paper

12)Today is the 12th day of #DecRecs and I'm reccing Twig + Tale sewing patterns!

I just think that their patterns are so cute and comfy! I love their commitment to gender neutral language for their patterns, especially because some crafting spaces are very conservative. And I think all the different animal designs are just so much fun!

I haven't made all of their patterns but the ones I have made have been great, and I've made those repeatedly

https://www.twigandtale.com/

I'm trying out posting shorter and more frequent DecRecs roundups

6)Today's #DecRecs is Walkers Shortbread Scottie Dogs. The dog shapes are so charming and cute! (and yes they do taste better than the less cute version -- appearance matters!) These are a bit difficult to find where I live, which adds to their allure for me. R happened to pick up a box for me a few days ago and I've been eating them slowly

Today is the 7th day of #DecRecs and I want to rec the Qingming River Bot! (https://universeodon.com/@QingmingRiverBot)This bot posts details from the well known painting g “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” / 清明上河圖
I love seeing these little snippets of urban life in Song times on my feed! It's fun to see the boats and cows and horses and to imagine what all the people are up to!

8) It's the 8th day of #DecRecs and I haven't recced any fanfic yet. Let fix that!
on a long journey by twigofwillow is long time favorite of mine. It's post cannon Lan Sizhui story so themes of family living on with complicated pasts. The emotional stuff is very complex and nuanced as it should be.
I also love how its structured in a non-linear way , and features storytelling and and letters!
It's just a very beautiful fic!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29819775/chapters/73366473

For the last several years it's been my tradition to rec a thing every day of December and to encourage other people join me in reccing things using the the hashtag #DecRecs

Here are the first 5 things I've recced this year:

1) I want to start of this years #DecRecs with a recipe. Here in the US it was just Thanksgiving. For the last couple of year's I've been making these Sweet and Sour Brussels Sprouts with Plum Sauce as part of my Thanksgiving and they've been a hit every year

https://omnivorescookbook.com/roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-plum-sauce

2)For #DecRecs day two I bring you Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. A lovely middle grade Chinese inspired fantasy book. Featuring dragons, stories within stories, and colorful illustrations drawn by the author. There's two squeals that are also great!

3) I've been jokingly saying that the Taiping Guangji (太平廣記), a collection of minor stories and unofficial histories, is my main fandom for a bit now.

So today for #DecRecs I'm reccing Tales from Tang Dynasty China: Selections from the Taiping Guangji ed Alexei Ditter, Jessey Choo, and Sarah Allen as good introduction to the Taiping Guangji! It's short, its got a good variety of translated stories, and lots of helpful context

4)I'm having a frustrating day today so for #DecRecs today I want to rec something cute and charming:

"Fandom for Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad

https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/fandom-for-robots/

I adore this story about a robot making friends through fandom!

5) Today for #DecRecs I want to talk about one of my favorite programs Zotero!( Read more... )

Here are the last five days of my DecRecs:

( Read more... )

For the last day of DecRecs I'm taking requests. Reply to this and I will rec you a thing! You can request something if you want or I can do my best to pick something I think you will like!

Here's the latest batch of DecRecs!

( Read more... )

This week I decided to focus on reccing academic-ish things, so there are several books and papers, a lecture and some language learning resources (And then two not academic things too)

( Read more... )

#DecRecs is reccing fest that happens in December. People rec things (where things can be anything) they want to rec and share them with the hashtag #DecRecs. This year like last year I'm reccing a thing every day for the month!

Here's everything I've posted for #DecRecs so far this year:

( Read more... )

Happy New Year everyone! I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by year in review/goals stuff. I'll try to at least post my December goals wrap up latter today or tomorrow. In the meantime here are the last of the recs form my #DecRecs rec a thing everyday in December project.

( Read more... )

This was a fun project that helped me get through a time of year that I find stressful! It's nice to think about things I love and share them with other people. And it was great that many people also decided to take part and rec things in December. I think I'll do it again next December (I've put a reminder in my calendar)

Here's the last week or so of DecRecs form me!
( Read more... )

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Entries tagged with #decrecs

DecRecs 2025 days 22-26-31, The End!

DecRecs 2025 days 22-25

DecRecs 2025 days 18-21

DecRecs 2025 days 11-17

DecRecs 2025 days 6-10

It's DecRecs Time!

DecRecs part 8: The End! (Days 29-31)

DecRecs part 7: Days 25-29

DecRecs part 6: Days 21-24

DecRecs part 5: Days 17-20

DecRecs part 4: Days 13-16

DecRecs part 3: Days 9-12

#DecRecs 2024 part two days 6-8

#DecRecs 2024 part one

DecRecs 25-30

DecRecs 17-24

DecRecs 8-16

The first week of #DecRecs

#DecRecs 28-31

#DecRecs 20-27