withinadream

Hello everyone!

I am writing a oneshot essentially set in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. My character is so surprised and overwhelmed by what he is seeing that I am introducing his senses one by one, but I couldnt quite imagine what it would smell like being in his position.

I know its quite humid, so thats probably the bulk of the experience, but are there any other, more subtle undertones I could include to make the scene feel more alive?
Even if you havent been to the exact location, any experience in a subtropical, humid climate would already be quite helpful.

Thank you!

prixmium

I was tagged to this by a friend on tumblr, so here are four (technically 5) pictures that aren't selfies.

1. Wall hanging at the church I sometimes attend in Tokyo. It's an artistic rendering of the Holy Spirit descending to engage with humanity/people/Jesus in human down. On the other side, there's a similar art style one of communion. Both are representations of God interacting with humanity.

It's kinda cheating but I guess I'll show that one too without counting it as one of the four.

2. A free rabbit/cat dessert I was given last time I went to Haidilao in Ikebukuro. They're nice if you come there semi regularly alone for some reason. It honestly didn't taste like much but the berry stuff was nice.

3. One of the stupidly large Japanese crows. I encounter them not irregularly in this area when I go that way to work. One morning, I saw one trying to kill a different species of bird. Other mornings, they're scavenging the poorly netted off business trash before the garbage collectors pick it up.

4. A view of Bays Mountain from a walk I took when I was home in America in August. For all its faults, I miss being home sometimes.

Current Mood: calm

prixmium

I want book recs if anyone has them. I'm about to start the last John Dies at the End audiobook, and I am finding I think maybe listening to audiobooks as much or more than disconnected reddit stories or true crime docs/YouTube videos might be good for my mental health.

As mentioned, I most recently have been on a Jason Pargin kick. I don't know why. I just respect him and think he's a cool guy. Honestly his prose isn't that beautiful but it's easy as hell to follow.

In the past, I was also really into Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I'm usually genuinely interested in whatever I'm reading or teaching as an English teacher.

I'm not looking for high brow or hard to track stuff right now.

I would be most interested in:

funny novels with a dark or ironic twist

horror that isn't primarily about gore

sci-fi that is funny or clever

I've not been super into reading or listening to fantasy as I've tried it and my long term project there is Wheel of Time but I went off it a bit when the TV show got cancelled after season 3. Just dread or whatever. But I would be interested in like a baby's first romantasy

I prefer character driven / shipping possible novels but only feel mildly so about the JDATE novels so I'm flexible. I'm also looking for stuff that'll make me wanna write

Thank you if you have suggestions 🙏

Current Mood: sleepy

likeadeuce

I swore off exchanges after last year, ESPECIALLY yuletide, but I keep getting obsessed with weird little movies and so i have submitted nominations.

username: Likeadeuce
Did you add this to the spreadsheet already?: Yes
Nomination OR Request?: Nomination
Fandom: A History of Sound (2025)
Character 1: Lionel Worthing
Character 2: David White
Character 3: Belle White Sinclair
Character 4: Vincent (The History of Sound)

Fandom:Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Character 1: Llewyn Davis
Character 2: Jean Berkey
Character 3: Mike Timlin (Inside Llewyn Davis)
Character 4: Al Cody

Fandom: A Complete Unknown (2024)
Character 1: Bob Dylan (A Complete Unknown)
Character 2: Johnny Cash (A Complete Unknown)
Character 3: Joan Baez (A Complete Unknown)
Character 4: Pete Seeger (A Complete Unknown)

Fandom: Babygirl (2024)
Character 1: Romy Mathis
Character 2: Samuel (Babygirl)
Character 3: Esme Smith
Character 4: Jacob Mathis

Fandom: Saltburn (2023)
Character 1: Oliver Quick
Character 2: Felix Catton
Character 3: Venetia Catton
Character 4: Farleigh Start

prixmium

On AO3 | Done for the prompt "shopping mall" for the

fandom_empire Bingo Challenge

I started listening to Jason K. Pargin's TikToks on some other platforms since I myself never made a TikTok account or downloaded the app. I started to vibe with his perspective. He's a generation older than me, but he speaks to a lot of the weird alienation that has accelerated in the past decade or two. He does a lot of good work to try and help men, especially young men, stop being so disaffected. I think he tries to get them to engage with art in a meaningful way, even if it's silly pop art.

As a result of my admiration for his online work, I decided to support him by reading and buying his book I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom. Then, I started to read/listen his other books when I finished that one. I'm nearly finished with This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It and still kind of like it. I don't feel fervently fannish about it, but I feel a bit fannish about it, and I wanted to fight against my making-stuff paralysis while writing words seems clogged up.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: King - Florence and the Machine

prixmium

I got home about an hour earlier today and slightly less disgusting. It got back up in the 90s F today with humidity to spare, but about time work as winding down, some wind blew in what was supposed to be rain but which was a temperature drop of about 10F in an hour, though that still left it in a more comfortable but still quite warm 80s range.

Managed to clean my dishes that had been sitting for two days. Was going to try to cook something but realized the eggplant from the mail had started to go bad, so screw it, I'll wait for the weekend. I have to work this Saturday but only a half day and I get to sleep in.

I'm still just feeling so brain-cooked and frustrated. I want to be creative, but I always just feel like I'm in trouble for not doing enough to entertain the friends I have who care what I do.

I got a little notebook in the mail. Plan to use it for prayer journaling due to the whole brain-is-too-slippery-and-overheated feeling.

I also wrote in my little Japanese study notebook I started before I moved here in 2024 for the first time since. Something about my old boss's approach to "encouraging" me to learn Japanese just made me pissed off for over a year. At least I am doing something, but I want to do things that don't just feel practical without being too tired to function.

Current Mood: blah

full_metal_ox posting in

little_details

The link will take you to a soundscape from a random forest against a scenic woodland wallpaper (chosen from Unsplash and not necessarily from the same forest), with the location and contributor identified in mouseprint at the bottom of the page.

https://www.tree.fm/

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Reading

What would the smell of a subtropical monsoon climate zone be like?

4 Pics That Aren't Selfies

(Audio)book request

Yuletide nominations

Moodboard: John Dies at the End Tribute

Still too tired

Resource: tree.fm, an audio library of global forest sounds.

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August 2025

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