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fandomcalendar 22 January 2026 11:15)
hikyoekizine posting in fandomcalendar 22 January 2026 11:15)Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 * Challenge #8 * Challenge #9 * Challenge #10 *
Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.
( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #111 )
And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.
Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.
( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #111 )
And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.
Tags:
Title: when the mind lets go
Character: Anders
Fandom: Dragon Age (series)
Theme set: Theme Set Alpha
Rating: T
Warnings: N/A
( when the mind lets go )
Character: Anders
Fandom: Dragon Age (series)
Theme set: Theme Set Alpha
Rating: T
Warnings: N/A
Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 * Challenge #8 * Challenge #9
Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.
( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #10 )
And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.
And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.
Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.
( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #10 )
And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.
And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.
Tags:
Okay here it is, just a liiittle later in the month this year (and I'm just counting games this time, not watched/read stuff).
Total
35 Played
Takeaways
◆ Huge number of games played this year, and not many replays this time. Still not the most in recent years, but still pretty impressive! I thank the shorter retro games that don't really take all that long to beat when it comes down to it.
◆ This was a year of playing games I'd started years ago but never finished. Or at least, it felt like it, but that only applies to about 9 of the 35 games there.
◆ Favourites of the year were Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Crystalis, Lunar: Silver Star Story Remastered, Lies of P: Overture, Look Outside, Fantasy Life i, Alisia Dragoon, and El Viento.
◆ Not-so-favourites of the year were Blood Omen 2, Air Zonk, Atomic Robo-Kid Special, and Bikkuriman World. Seriously, aside from Blood Omen 2, why did I play these to finish?
◆ In relation to the previous note, this was also the year of me re-learning to drop games. I tried playing Aedis Eclipse early in the year and quickly found it was not for me. Instead of forcing myself to finish it, I dropped it. Wish I had applied that to some games later in the year, but I think it's finally sunk in that I can just... stop playing a game if I'm not enjoying it.
◆ Wish I'd played more Fantasy Life i in the post-game, but I think I was distracted with the upcoming move by that point. Also wish I'd played it with friends more than I did;elf_wizard and I barely played more than maybe once or twice before I fell off the game completely. :(
◆ Please play Look Outside, if you can handle cartoon-y gore and like survival RPGs. I'm still flabbergasted by how good that game is.
| ◆ Adventures of Mana | PSV |
| ◆ Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain | PS2 |
| ◆ Legacy of Kain: Defiance | PS2 |
| ◆ Lufia & the Fortress of Doom | SNES |
| ◆ Crystalis | NES |
| ◆ Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [Replay] | SNES |
| ◆ Lunar Legend [Replay] | GBA |
| ◆ Monster Hunter Wilds | PS5 |
| ◆ Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX | GBC |
| ◆ Final Fantasy Legend | GB |
| ◆ Split Fiction | PC |
| ◆ Final Fantasy Legend II | GB |
| ◆ Lunar: Silver Star Story Remastered | PS5 |
| ◆ Lies of P: Overture [DLC] | PC |
| ◆ Conquest of the Crystal Palace | NES |
| ◆ Look Outside [ver. 1.4, later 2.0] | PC |
| ◆ Sackboy: A Big Adventure | PS5 |
| ◆ Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time | PC |
| ◆ Air Zonk | PCE |
| ◆ Atomic Robo-Kid Special | PCE |
| ◆ Bikkuriman World | PCE |
| ◆ Alisia Dragoon | GEN |
| ◆ Arcus Odyssey | GEN |
| ◆ Final Fantasy VI: Pixel Remaster | NSW |
| ◆ Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer | GEN |
| ◆ Trouble Shooter | GEN |
| ◆ Battle Mania Daiginjou | GEN |
| ◆ Blades of Vengeance | GEN |
| ◆ Dahna: Megami Tanjou | GEN |
| ◆ Dynamite Headdy | GEN |
| ◆ Earnest Evans | GEN |
| ◆ El Viento | GEN |
| ◆ Elemental Master | GEN |
| ◆ Gaiares | GEN |
| ◆ Gate of Doom | ARC |
35 Played
Takeaways
◆ Huge number of games played this year, and not many replays this time. Still not the most in recent years, but still pretty impressive! I thank the shorter retro games that don't really take all that long to beat when it comes down to it.
◆ This was a year of playing games I'd started years ago but never finished. Or at least, it felt like it, but that only applies to about 9 of the 35 games there.
◆ Favourites of the year were Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Crystalis, Lunar: Silver Star Story Remastered, Lies of P: Overture, Look Outside, Fantasy Life i, Alisia Dragoon, and El Viento.
◆ Not-so-favourites of the year were Blood Omen 2, Air Zonk, Atomic Robo-Kid Special, and Bikkuriman World. Seriously, aside from Blood Omen 2, why did I play these to finish?
◆ In relation to the previous note, this was also the year of me re-learning to drop games. I tried playing Aedis Eclipse early in the year and quickly found it was not for me. Instead of forcing myself to finish it, I dropped it. Wish I had applied that to some games later in the year, but I think it's finally sunk in that I can just... stop playing a game if I'm not enjoying it.
◆ Wish I'd played more Fantasy Life i in the post-game, but I think I was distracted with the upcoming move by that point. Also wish I'd played it with friends more than I did;
elf_wizard and I barely played more than maybe once or twice before I fell off the game completely. :(◆ Please play Look Outside, if you can handle cartoon-y gore and like survival RPGs. I'm still flabbergasted by how good that game is.
Tags:
Tags:
I admit this one's a very selfish choice. I've been meaning to do this challenge again for a long time. I've already picked random icons for myself a few times over the last few years but never managed to actually work on them, so I'm using this round to give myself a kick in the ass. :D
I hope you love the idea of this challenge as much as I do!
This challenge was originally posted tosomein30 in December 2021 here.
Challenge Post byneonspider
( Icon Crossing )
ORIGINAL RULES - for reference only
HOW TO ASK FOR ICON PAIRS
If you want to play, reply to the thread titled "Ask for icon pairs here" with a link to your icon journal/tag. I'll reply asap with twenty randomized
pairs of icons from your posts (this may still take a while, please be patient!). Please note that you should have at least a few public icon posts for me to be able to do this.
If you've had previous icon communities/journals, they won't be included in the randomizing, only the icons in your current community count. I could make an exception if you've moved to a new icon community very recently so that there's only a couple of posts (say, less than 100 icons in total) in your current one; in this case also provide a link to your previous community/tag. Some of you might have a very long iconmaking history, and if you want to limit the randomized icons to your newer work only, specifically request this in your comment and provide a link to the oldest post you want to be included in the randomizing.
If any watermarked Photobucket icons or icons that give me those weird "imgprx" links get randomized, I'll reupload them to Imgur for convenience and clarity.
Asking for pairs isn't considered a signup, don't worry if you can't get the set done!
+ Create 5-20 icons for the challenge.
+ All icons must be new and made specifically for the challenge
+ Please make an effort to look at and to leave comments to other participants' posts
NEW RETRO_ICONTEST RULES - mandatory
Pretty much all the original rules still apply, except for the minimum and maximum number of icons. So please stick to the original rules.
You can either ask me for ten random icon pairs or randomize your icons yourself. You can also do both, especially if you want to make more than ten.
a) If you want me to randomize icons for you, I will only give you ten pairs - for ten icons to make. Just comment on the thread below with a link to your icon journal. The same rules apply as detailed by neonspider above.
and/or
b) Randomize your icons yourself. I trust you not to cheat. Some old icons might look hard at first glance, but that's also what's fun about it. Here's how to do it yourself:
Choose a randomizer, e.g. https://www.random.org/. Count the number of your icon posts in your journal: either you check how often your tag was used (under manage tags or in the tag sidebar if you have one), or if you have a dedicated icon journal, the number of posts is mentioned in the profile. If you don't want to go all the way back, you can leave out the oldest ones.
Set this as the maximum number in the randomizer. Let the randomizer choose a number for you. Put that number into the url bar, e.g. if your icon journal isiconpraise, put this:
https://iconpraise.dreamwidth.org/?skip=23 <-- put the number you get here. In my example with 23, this will make the 24th post appear right at the top. Then you look at how many icons are in that post and randomize another number to get a random icon from that post (or just pick one manually "at random"). You have your first random icon!
Do this 40 times if you want to make 20 icons. Leave the icons in the order you get them, do not rearrange! 1+2 will be the first pair, 3+4 the second, and so on. Of course you can also do it more or less often depending on how many icons you're planning to make for this round.
-> you may enter as many icons as you like. minimum 1 icon. no maximum limit (except if you want me to randomize pairs for you, lol. I will not give you more than ten. If you want to make more, you will have to randomize them yourself).
-> submit your icons as a new entry into the community. if there are more than five, put the rest under a cut or a link to your unlocked journal post. tag your post with round number and your username (or ask me to tag it for you).
-> Arrange them in a way that it's easily visible which are the parent icons and which are the new child icons. You can use the provided table, but you don't have to. Of course you can also look at the somein30 round for examples of how to post.
-> PLEASE submit the URLs along with your icons. I'll only put the first five per person into the roundup post. Either you only list five, or I'll take the first five.
-> make an effort to leave positive feedback on other participants' posts. <3
-> read the full rules here in our userinfo.
This comm generally runs from mid-month to mid-month every month, always ending on Fridays. There is no voting. I will make a roundup post containing up to 5 icons per person after every challenge.
Deadline for round #35: Friday, February 13th 2026 your end-of-day
I hope you love the idea of this challenge as much as I do!
This challenge was originally posted to
somein30 in December 2021 here. Challenge Post by
neonspider( Icon Crossing )
ORIGINAL RULES - for reference only
HOW TO ASK FOR ICON PAIRS
If you want to play, reply to the thread titled "Ask for icon pairs here" with a link to your icon journal/tag. I'll reply asap with twenty randomized
pairs of icons from your posts (this may still take a while, please be patient!). Please note that you should have at least a few public icon posts for me to be able to do this.
If you've had previous icon communities/journals, they won't be included in the randomizing, only the icons in your current community count. I could make an exception if you've moved to a new icon community very recently so that there's only a couple of posts (say, less than 100 icons in total) in your current one; in this case also provide a link to your previous community/tag. Some of you might have a very long iconmaking history, and if you want to limit the randomized icons to your newer work only, specifically request this in your comment and provide a link to the oldest post you want to be included in the randomizing.
If any watermarked Photobucket icons or icons that give me those weird "imgprx" links get randomized, I'll reupload them to Imgur for convenience and clarity.
Asking for pairs isn't considered a signup, don't worry if you can't get the set done!
+ Create 5-20 icons for the challenge.
+ All icons must be new and made specifically for the challenge
+ Please make an effort to look at and to leave comments to other participants' posts
NEW RETRO_ICONTEST RULES - mandatory
Pretty much all the original rules still apply, except for the minimum and maximum number of icons. So please stick to the original rules.
You can either ask me for ten random icon pairs or randomize your icons yourself. You can also do both, especially if you want to make more than ten.
a) If you want me to randomize icons for you, I will only give you ten pairs - for ten icons to make. Just comment on the thread below with a link to your icon journal. The same rules apply as detailed by neonspider above.
and/or
b) Randomize your icons yourself. I trust you not to cheat. Some old icons might look hard at first glance, but that's also what's fun about it. Here's how to do it yourself:
Instructions for randomizing
Choose a randomizer, e.g. https://www.random.org/. Count the number of your icon posts in your journal: either you check how often your tag was used (under manage tags or in the tag sidebar if you have one), or if you have a dedicated icon journal, the number of posts is mentioned in the profile. If you don't want to go all the way back, you can leave out the oldest ones.
Set this as the maximum number in the randomizer. Let the randomizer choose a number for you. Put that number into the url bar, e.g. if your icon journal is
iconpraise, put this:https://iconpraise.dreamwidth.org/?skip=23 <-- put the number you get here. In my example with 23, this will make the 24th post appear right at the top. Then you look at how many icons are in that post and randomize another number to get a random icon from that post (or just pick one manually "at random"). You have your first random icon!
Do this 40 times if you want to make 20 icons. Leave the icons in the order you get them, do not rearrange! 1+2 will be the first pair, 3+4 the second, and so on. Of course you can also do it more or less often depending on how many icons you're planning to make for this round.
-> you may enter as many icons as you like. minimum 1 icon. no maximum limit (except if you want me to randomize pairs for you, lol. I will not give you more than ten. If you want to make more, you will have to randomize them yourself).
-> submit your icons as a new entry into the community. if there are more than five, put the rest under a cut or a link to your unlocked journal post. tag your post with round number and your username (or ask me to tag it for you).
-> Arrange them in a way that it's easily visible which are the parent icons and which are the new child icons. You can use the provided table, but you don't have to. Of course you can also look at the somein30 round for examples of how to post.
-> PLEASE submit the URLs along with your icons. I'll only put the first five per person into the roundup post. Either you only list five, or I'll take the first five.
-> make an effort to leave positive feedback on other participants' posts. <3
-> read the full rules here in our userinfo.
This comm generally runs from mid-month to mid-month every month, always ending on Fridays. There is no voting. I will make a roundup post containing up to 5 icons per person after every challenge.
Deadline for round #35: Friday, February 13th 2026 your end-of-day
Tags:
Waiting on my 3DS to install some games, plus I'm feeling pretty down tonight and need a distraction while I wait, so it's update timeee.
Started doing that art thing with my friend this week, and both times were fun. Second time was more just socializing while I played around with Copics, but the first time had a bit more going on, with them screen sharing to me when I started having a small panic about how the hell to do hair. Their explanation was simple but it was sort of an eye-opener for me? I was frustrated that I could only use my screen tablet in the other room though, so I picked up a spare cable so I can easily take it between computers now. The only downside is that I guess Clip Studio charges you $4/mo to be able to use 4 Pro on more than one device?? I think that is... extremely silly. So my desktop has CSP1 and my laptop has CSP4.
I also cut up a bunch of my different papers into smaller pieces so I can sample things without feeling like I just used the center of the page and then wasted the rest trying to experiment. But I have to remind myseeelf that practice isn't wasting anything, because the only way you get better with something is by practicing.
So now, here's just hoping that I can stop being so easily distracted and actually sit down to do some art practice. I wanna stop hating my art and get out of this 10+ year spiral I've been in. I did it for writing, I can do it for art, too.
I will admit, it was kinda hard staying of Bsky for the first few days, but now it's really been not so bad. I still check my art/writing accounts once or twice a day, but it goes so quickly that I don't spend a literal half hour just catching up.
Strangely, scrolling my writing account's feed has inspired me a bit to get back to my writing projects. Again, the hardest part is dealing with distractions and trying to distance myself from them. But I think that'll improve very soon.
The other hard thing is trying to find a good balance between art time, writing time, and study time. I should really give writing more time than the others, since it's more my focus for now. But sometimes I just feel like there aren't enough hours in the dayyy for everything I wanna dooo.
●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●
I did end up finishing Lunacid not long after my last post. I'm shocked by how much I adored that game. It was just so memorable and knowing that there's DLC coming for it has me so excited. I meant to start playing Emerald Dragon right after, but then I started Black Mesa for a friend, and then I started Legacy of Ys??? So I'm clearly having a time of it sticking to what I say I'll do . Maybe after Ys II (or even I, if I don't feel like II right after), I'll start Emerald Dragon. I'm in the final dungeon now anyway, so it's only a matter of time.
... Didn't I say last time that I'd do my annual game post? I completely forgot to do that, so I should probably start drafting that for real soon.
As for other stuff going on; almost totally off this SSRI. It's not helping me, the side effects are a pain on my life. After a few more weeks, I'll be off it for good.
Still no real news on Lacie. It's frustrating, because now she's starting to have some issues again, so we're keeping an eye on her in case something escalates.
Lifestyle changes are hit and miss right now, in terms of success rate. We're keeping at them, though, because we really want to make these changes for the good of our lives. I know it's hard to keep up changes after the start of a new year, but it's definitely doable.
Started doing that art thing with my friend this week, and both times were fun. Second time was more just socializing while I played around with Copics, but the first time had a bit more going on, with them screen sharing to me when I started having a small panic about how the hell to do hair. Their explanation was simple but it was sort of an eye-opener for me? I was frustrated that I could only use my screen tablet in the other room though, so I picked up a spare cable so I can easily take it between computers now. The only downside is that I guess Clip Studio charges you $4/mo to be able to use 4 Pro on more than one device?? I think that is... extremely silly. So my desktop has CSP1 and my laptop has CSP4.
I also cut up a bunch of my different papers into smaller pieces so I can sample things without feeling like I just used the center of the page and then wasted the rest trying to experiment. But I have to remind myseeelf that practice isn't wasting anything, because the only way you get better with something is by practicing.
So now, here's just hoping that I can stop being so easily distracted and actually sit down to do some art practice. I wanna stop hating my art and get out of this 10+ year spiral I've been in. I did it for writing, I can do it for art, too.
●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●
I will admit, it was kinda hard staying of Bsky for the first few days, but now it's really been not so bad. I still check my art/writing accounts once or twice a day, but it goes so quickly that I don't spend a literal half hour just catching up.
Strangely, scrolling my writing account's feed has inspired me a bit to get back to my writing projects. Again, the hardest part is dealing with distractions and trying to distance myself from them. But I think that'll improve very soon.
The other hard thing is trying to find a good balance between art time, writing time, and study time. I should really give writing more time than the others, since it's more my focus for now. But sometimes I just feel like there aren't enough hours in the dayyy for everything I wanna dooo.
●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●
I did end up finishing Lunacid not long after my last post. I'm shocked by how much I adored that game. It was just so memorable and knowing that there's DLC coming for it has me so excited. I meant to start playing Emerald Dragon right after, but then I started Black Mesa for a friend, and then I started Legacy of Ys??? So I'm clearly having a time of it sticking to what I say I'll do . Maybe after Ys II (or even I, if I don't feel like II right after), I'll start Emerald Dragon. I'm in the final dungeon now anyway, so it's only a matter of time.
... Didn't I say last time that I'd do my annual game post? I completely forgot to do that, so I should probably start drafting that for real soon.
●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●
As for other stuff going on; almost totally off this SSRI. It's not helping me, the side effects are a pain on my life. After a few more weeks, I'll be off it for good.
Still no real news on Lacie. It's frustrating, because now she's starting to have some issues again, so we're keeping an eye on her in case something escalates.
Lifestyle changes are hit and miss right now, in terms of success rate. We're keeping at them, though, because we really want to make these changes for the good of our lives. I know it's hard to keep up changes after the start of a new year, but it's definitely doable.
Tags:
(fennectik posting in anime_manga 17 January 2026 14:56)
fennectik posting in anime_manga 17 January 2026 14:56)Hard to argue with what was posted on this CBR article about Rika from Digimon Tamers, although I know some may question it.
Fans may be split on Digimon Tamers, but Rika Nonaka is the undisputed queen of the franchise. She's captivating to watch during every arc, her character development is absolutely brilliant, and her relationship with her partner, Renamon, is the most fascinating between any human and Digimon team. While not a perfect season, Digimon Tamers features the strongest writing of any Digimon anime, and it never falters when it comes to Rika.
Full article here.
Fans may be split on Digimon Tamers, but Rika Nonaka is the undisputed queen of the franchise. She's captivating to watch during every arc, her character development is absolutely brilliant, and her relationship with her partner, Renamon, is the most fascinating between any human and Digimon team. While not a perfect season, Digimon Tamers features the strongest writing of any Digimon anime, and it never falters when it comes to Rika.
Full article here.
.