Test #2! Alchemy!!!!

Boy oh boy I am not enjoying getting used to the way a new mic sounds - I stg I spent three weeks driving myself insane when I switched computers and stuff just...... sounded different. I'm very bad with, like, understanding what I'm hearing, so I have no vocabulary or understanding of what's different!

I think last time I just stopped trying to listen to them up against each other and maybe I should do that again, but......

Anyway, if anyone can tell me how to get the first clip to sound less.... fuzzy (????) as compared to the second, please let me know!

I always say it's like a fun puzzle but at the end there's a PRIZE of FURNITURE!!!

rip to you guys but i love assembling ikea furniture its so fun its like legos

Introducing KeriArentikai Podfic Radio!

I now have a collection on archive.org! This means that I have an RSS feed for it. If you'd like to add the feed to your podcatcher, the RSS feed is: http://archive.org/services/collection-rss.php?collection=keri-arentikai-podfic-radio

I'll be using this only for my podfic radio podfics - that is, the daily/almost daily fanfic reads I do with a little bit of introduction and conclusion, and some possibility of inline comments. So I won't be dumping a 6 hour read all at once into your podcatcher!

All my podfics will be posted and updated on ao3 exactly as before, so if you want to ignore this entirely, please feel free! In fact, I have absolutely no way (as far as I'm aware?) to see if anyone subscribes so I will absolutely never know if you do or don't! Do what you want!! Be happy!!!

Podfic radio won, by the way!

That's what I'm calling my stuff from now on, but I would like to reiterate that I am not telling anyone else what they should be calling their stuff! I just needed a tag to distinguish this from the other kinds of podfic I produce (and I like having lists of discrete categories that I understand, so sue me.)

For some practical reasons, but mostly because I am a cataloguer at heart and it feels like such a distinct experience (as a reader and as a listener), I really want a discrete name for regularly-updated cold reads with chatter.

It has podcast vibes in the sense of having regularly recorded and immediately released programming available to listeners, but I couldn't come up with a good portmanteau that felt fun.

This morning's brainstorm came up with "serial podfic" (or "serialized podfic"?) but I would love to hear if anyone has other ideas!

it is legit so funny when fictional characters think they’re straight. i know better

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

For some practical reasons, but mostly because I am a cataloguer at heart and it feels like such a distinct experience (as a reader and as a listener), I really want a discrete name for regularly-updated cold reads with chatter.

It has podcast vibes in the sense of having regularly recorded and immediately released programming available to listeners, but I couldn't come up with a good portmanteau that felt fun.

This morning's brainstorm came up with "serial podfic" (or "serialized podfic"?) but I would love to hear if anyone has other ideas!

Thank you! I ended up deciding the difference in audio quality would be too much. I just need to, uh, figure out how to jury-rig a new setup?

Well my new headset arrived and I can't tell if the difference in audio quality is so noticeable that I shouldn't use it, or if it's FINE and I need to stop worrying. I know there IS a difference, but.... Maybe if they weren't actually side by side? Thoughts, anyone?

Well my new headset arrived and I can't tell if the difference in audio quality is so noticeable that I shouldn't use it, or if it's FINE and I need to stop worrying. I know there IS a difference, but.... Maybe if they weren't actually side by side? Thoughts, anyone?

That one time WZC accidentally looked STRAIGHT into the camera

I spend a truly large amount of my time thinking about this question so thank you for this answer which acknowledges all my bafflement.

Me: There's a Tumblr holiday coming up soon.

My mom: Oh?

Me: The Ides of March.

Mom: ...???

Me: ...Do you know what that is?

Mom: Yeah... I just don't get why it's being celebrated?

Me: It's like a cat sitting inside a box -- we don't know why we do it, something inside us just tells us we should.

I love that you're doing a Nei sect!WWX story now. Have you read "The Third Young Master of the Qishan Wen" by KouriArashi where WWX is adopted by the Wen sect? It's over 100k and would make a great podfic.

I have not, but it is very much already on my maybe list, especially for a possible ice cold read! I'll put another vote for it in my doc.

Thank you!

This always kills me

Like, you think people living in multi-floor apartment buildings, all shoved in together, in a time when fires just fucking destroyed cities all the time, EACH HAD THEIR OWN OVEN? AN OVEN WITH FIRE?????

No, they picked up from the corner popina, like god intended

For those who have overactive guilt complexes like me…

Chapter 1 of my cold read of "shades of grey spill from my veins (bleeding ink all over the page)" by Reverie (cl410) (@i-like-plan-m) is posted!

It's 40 short chapters that should take me through the next 5-6 weeks.

WWX is adopted by the Nie and carefully plotted chaos ensues!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54199903

KP deleted scene