GenEx

I haven't had a ton of free time lately but have been trying to get started on my yuletide letter. Other than All Souls (which will be my 7th time requesting) all my requests will be new which is exciting! New fandoms! Except that means coming up with the prompts from scratch which is not easy. Usually I am repeating 2 or 3 fandoms so I can reuse and reword things.

Also, I'm kicking myself because I totally forgot to take pictures of my most recent craft project- I had been working on a rug (back to knotted kind, from a set of old blue sheets) and my parents asked for it but they'd need it before they headed out of state (they snowbird every year now) so I rushed to finish it before we headed to their house for break-the-fast after Yom Kippur and finished with a half hour to spare and documenting it totally slipped my mind. Oh well. They loved it which is the important thing.

I don't know if anyone's followed the SciShow vs the knitting community controversy but...

cut for length

For those unaware about a month ago on SciShow Hank Green did a video called "Physicists Don't Understand Why Knitting Works" that was... well, not great (and the info provided didn't match the clickbaity title at all). There was some true science presented in it, including some recent studies that were quite interesting, but it was presented in a way that, well, kind of implied actual crafters didn't know or even think about much about the hows or whys it's done the way it's done and if that's not enough it did so in a kind of pat-on-the-head dismissiveness of women's work kind of way. It also was just riddled with errors (from mistaking nalbinding for knitting, to not seeming to realize the difference between woven garments and knitted ones, to even misspelling the word 'stitch' numerous times, etc etc)

There were some great videos posted in response to it though, Kristine Vike did a great Scientist and Knitter reacts to SciShow's knitting video and JillianEve started a new channel, Evie Unraveling, to do her own I Remade the SciShow Knitting Video (with accurate SCIENCE) (there are numerous other good reaction vids, these were the two by people I followed already).

Previously, SciShow pinned a not very good correction/we hear you had issues with out content comment to the vid in response to backlash but I noticed a few days ago that SciShow actually pulled their vid and put up an apology youtube community comment which was pretty decent. Long story short (too late) I thought the whole controversy was interesting and that some of you might find it so as well. (As a note, I've still unsubscribed, I'd noticed a few errors/bad takes/odd ways they'd presented things in previous videos but hadn't really known enough about most subjects to question their ability to teach me things but I learned long ago that if I'd been following someone to learn from what they present and they do a topic I know something about and notice issues with what they present then it means it's likely there's been plenty of things I hadn't noticed so I can't rely on them anymore.)

And last but not least, here's 2 weeks of recthething recs! (MDZS/Untamed fic and Batman, Clue, Doctor Who, MDZS, Merlin, and Supernatural tumblr art):

The fic:
the cat distribution system by ScarlettStorm (38k)
Summary Snippet: Wei Wuxian gets a cat, and then a boyfriend, both of which are a surprise. (great fic with great art from the 2025 MDZS Reverse Big Bang, also 2 podfics have been done of this fic, linked in the endnotes)

the tumblr art:

Batman/DCU
- Nightwing written in Nightwing (very cool effect)

Clue (the movie)
- “Okay, Chief, take 'em away. I'm gonna go home and sleep with my wife.” (excellent art of the cast)

Doctor Who (Classic)
- Delgado!Master doodle (love this)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Dadji and his pride and joy (Adorable LWJ and a-yuan and bunnies)

Merlin
- Tenderness (perfect title for this terribly tender Merther moment)

Supernatural
- Dean Winchester <333 (excellent rendition)