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.
Adventures Elsewhere collects our reviews, guest posts, articles, and other content we've spread across the Internet recently! See what we've been up in our other projects. :D
The best way I can sum this up is probably Oyasumi, Punpun for chick-lit readers, noting that manga itself is kind of “No Longer Human for manga readers.” So basically I guess what I’m getting at is that if you have any kind of familiarity with the whole genre of “Japanese works about not fitting in to Japanese society,” in any medium, nothing here will be particularly novel or shocking to you.
Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy this (I did), or that it isn’t a worthwhile read (it is), only that it’s a kind of Baby’s First Outsider Literature novel and, well. Everyone starts somewhere.
Sort of nothing. Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault is waiting until I can re-borrow it from Libby, and I'm of course picking through 盗墓笔记 vol. 2 and I'm one day behind (I'm aiming for a page a day and I started on the 1st, but I've only finished 13 pages, mostly because I was too busy this morning and while I read MOST of a page, I didn't finish). I probably won't bother mentioning DMBJ every week considering that at this rate I'll finish in like September or October so... yeah.
2. What have you recently finished reading?
Lout of Count's Family vol. 6 by Yu Ryeo-Han: unsurprisingly I motored through this. I just want Cale to collapse in a pool of his own blood once before all the volumes of the book are over. Is that too much to ask???
Delicious in Dungeon vol. 7 to 14 by Ryoko Kui: finished my "now I own it, Imma reread" read-through. Still love it. Zero regrets on purchasing the box set, especially because once I started reading it, my daughter (who is 7) binge-watched the show, wanted more, and is now reading the manga too lol. I warned her that there's some graphic stuff in the later volumes (like [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS])
Firefly Wedding vol. 1 by Oreco Tachibana: I have absolutely no idea how this m/f historical Japan thing ended up on my TBR? Maybe I thought it was m/m? anyway, once I had it I figured I might as well read it. It was... interesting? I'm gonna give it one more volume but I'm not terribly enthusiastic about it. It is at least more interesting than a lot of shoujo is to me these days.
Yona of the Dawn vol. 21 by Mizuho Kusanagi
A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow vol. 3 by Makoto Hagino: modern gl. This volume was soooooooo slow that I'm not sure I'll keep going if the pacing doesn't pick up at least a little.
Nirvana in Fire manhua vol. 1 and 2 by Hai Yan: I reread vol. 1 before reading vol. 2. The art continues to be lovely. I'm not sure the story would be followable to anyone not already familiar with it, tho.
The Way of the Househusband vol. 12 by Kousuke Oono: I read these out of order cause the order doesn't matter at all; I've now read 1 to 14 and am caught up! with the next volume coming out next Tuesday, lol.
3. What will you read next?
Novels: I'm vending four days this week (Fri - Mon) and will have a fair amount of time at my booth doing nothing, so I'm gonna bring four books: The City We Make and The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin, and Don't You Like Me vol. 1 and 2 by Lv Tian Yi.
Physical graphic novels/manga: nothing from the library right now, and nothing from my own pile that I intend to read this week (next up, whenever I do it, are the four volumes of the Link Click cinemanhua.
Libby loans: I've got two due in the next week, so definitely them - Fragtime: The Complete Manga Collection by Sato and Kase-San and Yamada vol. 3 by Hiromi Takashima.
Starting today, and running through Wednesday, January 28th, we’re raising funds to publish the third and last book of the Twinned trilogy by Tris Lawrence! Whether you backed the campaigns for books 1 and 2, or you’re just hearing about these books for the first time from this post, now is a great time to get one book, get two books, or get the whole trilogy so you can read the full story!
People with Talent—Mages, Dreamwalkers, shapechangers, and others—have always lived among mankind. Their existence was hidden until ten years ago, when the world was abruptly introduced to the existence of these secret magic users after a young gymnast spontaneously teleported during the Olympics. This event heralded the start of the Emergence; whereas, once, Talents were close-kept secrets that ran in family lines, now everyone knew that there were people with incredible abilities in communities all over the world.
The Emergence wrought changes at every level of society.
At Pine Hills University, a small liberal-arts college in Upstate New York, these changes have been pronounced, as the University has taken the lead in studying Talent academically: encouraging Talented students to apply, hiring Talented faculty, and debuting Talent-related curricula, minors, and majors.
This is the milieu against which the events of the Twinned trilogy unfold. Ten years has been just long enough for the young, Talented students of Pine Hills University to think they know where they fit in the world—but there are many changes yet to come…
For this campaign, we’re also making some fun Pine Hills University merchandise—the crest of the fictional university as an enamel pin, a car back-window sticker, and one of our signature dux in a PHU-colored varsity jacket.
Oh and – these books are hella queer! The main character is a gay aro man, the lead of the second is asexual biromantic and has a trans twin brother, and book 3 features an established m/m relationship between the leads. That’s just the tip of the iceberg; lots of the side characters are also LGBTQIA+.
Visit our Kickstarter campaign page and learn all the details, read the book blurbs and excerpts, see the merch, get to know Tris Lawrence, and more!
LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.
1) I’m practical and have no patience for nonsense. 2) I have a large beauty mark right over my heart. I call it the “strategically placed mole”. 3) My homemade lasagna. I consider myself a good home cook in general.
Everyone who knows me is aware that the snail is my totem, my logo. When my students are too tense or anxious, I will enjoin them: "wō/guāniú jīngshén, mànman lái 蝸牛精神,慢慢來" ("[have / adopt a] snail spirit, take your time"). I even had a pet snail, Arnold, for five and a half years.
By Gabe Bullard, The New York Times Magazine (12/30/25)
The author describes his relocation to Switzerland:
I knew moving from the United States, where I had lived my entire life, to the village outside Basel where my wife was born would bring some confusion. But protection for snails? We were two blocks from the border with France, where snails are served in garlicky butter sauce. On the Swiss side, snails seemed about as common as squirrels back home. They were under trees, on fence posts and stuck to the sides of houses. I even saw a few tiny shells in the mailbox, hiding behind my immigration forms.
The snails and their apparent protected status sent me into a spiral of anxiety. I walked with my head down, afraid that one smushed shell would cost me my visa, or result in what I was learning were the two most common Swiss punishments: a lecture (delivered for, say, not cleaning the lint trap) or a fine (for just about anything else). The snails, meanwhile, were indifferent to my presence, much like the locals when I ungrammatically asked for water in restaurants or peanut butter in the grocery store. Even the word for snail — Schnecke — taunted me. I knew it because it’s also the name of the hazelnut-filled pastry spirals I saw in bakeries. Slugs are Nacktschnecken — “naked snails.” Why did snails get their own word (and snack) but not slugs? Lost in the logic of the language, I felt like a Faultier — a sloth, literally a “lazy animal.”
common name for a small gastropod on land or in fresh water, Middle English snail, from Old English snægl, from Proto-Germanic *snagila (source also of Old Saxon snegil, Old Norse snigill, Danish snegl, Swedish snigel, Middle High German snegel, dialectal German Schnegel, Old High German snecko, German Schnecke "snail").
This is reconstructed to be from *snog-, a variant of PIE root *sneg- "to crawl, creep; creeping thing" (see snake (n.)). The word essentially is a diminutive form of Old English snaca "snake," etymologically, "creeping thing."
Snail also formerly was used of slugs. Symbolic of slowness at least since c. 1000; snail's pace "very slow pace" is attested from c. 1400. Related: Snaily; snailish; snailing.
Episode 6: Poor Hinata, everyone's just making his nerves worse. 😭😅
omggg Hinata knocked the referee off his chair!! And then he hit Kageyama in the back of the head!!! I spit my coffee out on my desk. 😭
Yamaguchi's eye catch was cute.
The slow walk up to Hinata, lordy... I should not be drinking at all this is killing meee.
Of course Tanaka's speech would work on Hinata, they're both simple in ways. 😂 Not that Tanaka was wrong about relying on your teammates.
Lmao at Tsukishima and Kageyama fighting over blocking.
Oikawa...that name sounds familiar, probably saw it in fandom.
Episode 7: So it was Oikawa who asked to play against Kageyama, he's the captain of Seijou and Kageyama's old senpai.
Yamaguchi freaking out for Tsukki. :')
Hinata and Kageyama's last move was badass!
Tanaka catching the bar with his teeth. 😂
Haha, how cute. :')
Oh, I recognize that little guy at the end!! From either official art or fanart I'm guessing. He's shorter than Hinata!!! Man, Hinata is still taller than me. I'm the same height as the new char though...
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.
Our volunteers are from all over the world and have lots of different schedules so we can't always guarantee to have it at the same time each time. I know the last one was really late and that has made everyone (me included) nervous, but it is going up today within the next two hours. Thank you for reaching out. ❤️❤️
Telling Danny to sell his comics because they're junk. 😭 My mom still regrets not being able to keep hers.
Danny selling his father's junk for money. *smh*
Oooh Sam's rich, that's why she was going to help Danny (if he'd listened to her even once).
Danny got turned into Spock!
Tucker straight up asking Tracey if she's a prostitute......
I wonder what software this was supposed to be shading?
Danny still doesn't know about Sam's theater/bowling alley. 1x05
Man in a dress joke on top of sexist joke...
Danny learns that getting revenge on your bully isn't the same as confronting them or fighting back.
Weird to think there's a ghost version of the school stuck in time.
What's wrong with 'band nerds' 😭
1x06
It just hit me that this is like Miraculous Ladybug's 'who gets akumatized today' but worse.
What is all that stuff running down the sick people's face supposed to portray?? I'd get it if it was coming out of their nose...
Because anime was mentioned, I looked up what anime came out in the same year as Danny Phantom (2004) and now I feel old.
Wait was it supposed to be a cold sweat?
1x07
I'm kinda surprised no ghost busters have shown up in town with all these ghost sightings.
I felt bad for Vlad until it showed him hitting on Maddie. *rolls eyes*
Jack called his Asian colleague Harriet Chin 'Harry Chin'...... I love Harriet's clapback to Maddie apologizing - "Sweetie, you married him, you should be."
So Vlad sent some of those ghosts to test Jack but Danny always took care of them. Vlad was the first ghost-hybrid Jack caused.
I'm surprised Vlad was willing to debase himself life that in the end even if it was in ghost form.
Danny's parents are so terrible. *smh* At least Danny has the excuse of being young.
TARLAN (tarlanx) (tarlanx) wrote2026-01-1311:12 am
People watching and this grandparent-core Boomer couple walk past, walking their little dog, totally normie except for the fact that dude is wearing a freaking Slipknot t-shirt???
Like I dunno what the story is there but I am sure it is fascinating.
Aww Suika and the boar and doggyyy---wait what is Tsukasa doing 🤣🤣🤣
The American team is revived! Ukyou's cute little face aw.
Yuzuriha and Taiju reunion!!
Chapter 207: Sai trying to get out of going with them, understandable with a brother like Ryuusui though;; I mean, he went to India to get away from him in the first place. X'D
...Sometimes Chelsea's blunt and rude manner is the best method to get information after all. 🤣
Wait were Ryuusui and Sai born from a mistress?? And they're not allowed in family photos. Daamn. Sai was forced to study math and Ryuusui couldn't be controlled. "Ryuusui only thought about how to exploit other people" I get the feeling Ryuusui was just trying to connect with Sai. Poor Ryuusui when he realized Sai ran away... Gen pointing out the truth ahhh. Ryuusui putting his hand over Sai's and saying he'd be lonely on the sea without him. My heart. 😭 I can't wait to see this animated.
Chapter 208: It was pretty interesting learning how they were going to make a computer from the ground up. A LOT goes into it no matter what level you're on. They also made a bank and I love how there was even candy on the teller desk. xD
Chapter 209: 'Basket weave Excalibur' Gennn.
Ukyou stop being cute for one minute challenge failed.
I forgot there are people who haven't seen that Suika's older now!!
They don't have time to make a return vessel, so whoever gets on the rocket is signing up for a suicide mission... OH I see now, the team would petrify themselves on the Moon and wait for rescue, however long it took. 😱
Chapter 210: Love how Senkuu combined Chrome and Gen's speech quirks to make 'crazy baad asty nay'. 😂
Chapter 211:
Cuuute.
Everyone crying over the rice, Senkuu thinking of Byakuya... 🤧
Chapter 212:
Japan group revived again! Lmao at Ruri swinging Kohaku around and everyone's reaction. Guess Ruri's sickness was the only thing holding her back from being a gorilla too.
Chrome said 'we're the same age now' to Ruri, was there an age gap? I know in Japan the slightest age gap can switch dynamics around.
OMG the dog and boar are alive and are still there!! Apparently their names are Chalk and Sagara.
Gen said only humans are affected by the petrification but then why did the birds get petrified? Unless the birds were a test and the beam was adjusted for humans after.
Oh my gosh Chalk and Sagara have a family now...but where did Chalk find another dog, aren't they more rare than boars?
The image of everyone flying into a drooling madness over sushi is so scary ahaha.
Chapter 213: The first TV system was made in Japan apparently.
Aw, Sai made the first game and he looks so happy. :')
The problem with introducing games is that there will be those with certain traits who won't want to stop playing them (speaking from experience). It's a great tool as a stress reliever though considering how much work they have to do in this stone world.
I literally said WTF when You and Gen got blown up. 😱 I can only imagine how magazine readers must've felt waiting for the next chapter.
Chapter 214: Lol Kaseki is always excited to help make something new even if he doesn't know what it is. They're making a satellite to find where Whyman is on the Moon so that when they go there, they won't have to find a needle in a haystack.
Well, now, for all those doubting Thomases who insist that there was no contact between western Eurasia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia in antiquity:
"The Amber Trade along the Southwestern Silk Road from 600 BCE-220 CE." Lü, Jing et al. Palaeoentomology 8, no. 6 (December 29, 2025): 679-682. https://www.mapress.com/pe/article/view/palaeoentomology.8.6.10.
Amber holds significant historical importance in China, symbolizing not only the glory of ancient Chinese art and culture but also reflecting the development of cross-regional trade in antiquity. Evidence shows that Burmese and Baltic amber became widely popular during the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) and could be imported through various routes (Liu et al., 2023a, b; Zhao et al., 2023; Li et al., 2025). During this period, the Euro-Asia Steppe Trade Road was predominantly used for the import of Baltic amber, while the Maritime Silk Route might also facilitate the amber trade (Li et al., 2025). Additionally, the Southwestern Silk Route is regarded as a crucial pathway for amber trade in ancient Southern China. This overland route stretched from Central China through the mountainous regions of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, extending to Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries (Elias, 2024). The ancient Ailao Regional States, serving as a key node along the Southwestern Silk Road, encompassed southwestern Yunnan (China), northern Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and eastern Assam (India) (Sun, 2016). Notably, the territory of Ailao Regional States included the Burmese amber deposits in the northern Myanmar, which was also recorded in the Han historical records as the amber origin (Fan, 1965). In addition, several amber artifacts from the same period have been discovered in the Dian Kingdom, which is primarily located in Yunnan and borders the Ailao Regional States (Zhao, 2016). While there is considerable evidence suggesting that the Southwestern Silk Route played a significant role in the amber trade, there is a lack of empirical evidence detailing its specific functions in the transportation of amber.
The nucleotide sequence "UAG" is named "amber" for the first person to isolate the amber mutation, California Institute of Technology graduate student Harris Bernstein, whose last name ("Bernstein") is the German word for the resin "amber".
The English word amber derives from Arabicʿanbarعنبر from Middle Persian (ʾnbl/ambar/, "ambergris") via Middle Latinambar and Middle Frenchambre. The word referred to what is now known as ambergris (ambre gris or "gray amber"), a solid waxy substance derived from the sperm whale. The word, in its sense of "ambergris", was adopted in Middle English in the 14th century.
In the Romance languages, the sense of the word was extended to Baltic amber (fossil resin) from as early as the late 13th century. At first called white or yellow amber (ambre jaune), this meaning was adopted in English by the early 15th century. As the use of ambergris waned, this became the main sense of the word.
The two substances ("yellow amber" and "gray amber") conceivably became associated or confused because they both were found washed up on beaches. Ambergris is less dense than water and floats, whereas amber is denser and floats only in concentrated saline, or strong salty seawater though less dense than stone.
The classical names for amber, Ancient Greekἤλεκτρον (ēlektron) and one of its Latin names, electrum, are connected to a term ἠλέκτωρ (ēlektōr) meaning "beaming Sun". According to myth, when Phaëton, son of Helios (the Sun), was killed his mourning sisters became poplar trees, and their tears became elektron, amber. The word elektron gave rise to the words electric, electricity, and their relatives because of amber's ability to bear a charge of static electricity.
“The Baghdad Battery: Experimental Verification of a 2,000-Year-Old Device Capable of Driving Visible and Useful Electrochemical Reactions at over 1.4 Volts", by Alexander Bazes, Sino-Platonic Papers, 377 (January, 2026), 1-20.
"The Trans-Eurasian Exchange: The Prehistory of Chinese Relations with the West", by Andrew Sherratt, published posthumously in Victor H. Mair, ed., Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006), pp. 30-61.
Joyce C. White and Elizabeth G. Hamilton, “The transmission of early bronze technology to Thailand: new perspectives”, Journal of World Prehistory22 (2009), 357–97 (Google Scholar)
Hajni Elias, H, "The Southwest Silk Road: artistic exchange and transmission in early China," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 87 (2024), 319–344. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X24000120
Annie Gottlieb reminds me that there was also an Amber Road. I had written about that in various places, and was fascinated by the fact that there is clear evidence for flourishing trade along this route from the Baltic to the Mediterranean already during Neolithic times (although recent scholarship emphasizes the last three thousand years).
— traceable right over the Alps.
That further reminded me of this lecture that was given in my department on July 13, 2017: "Wine Road before the Silk Road: Hypotheses on the Origins of Chinese and Eurasian Drinking Culture". It was delivered by Peter Kupfer, Professor, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
Liu, Q., Zhang, Y.H.., Li, X.P., Qin, X. & Li, Q.H. (2023b) Some amber artifacts excavated from tombs of the Han Dynasty in Hunan Province. Journal of Gems and Gemmology, 25, 146–157. https://doi.org/10.15964/j.cnki.027jgg.2023.04.013
Luo, E.H. (2000) Chinese “Southwestern Silk Road” in the Han and Jin Dynasties. Journal of Sichuan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 1, 84–105. [In Chinese]
Na, X.X. (2020) The research of the gemmological characteristics and colour grading of Burmese amber. Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 34–40. [In Chinese]
Shi, Z.T., Xin, C.X. & Wang, Y.M. (2023) Spectral characteristics of unique species of Burmese amber. Minerals, 13, 151. https://doi.org/10.3390/min13020151
Sun, J. (2016) The spatio-temporal patterns and geographical imagination of ethnic groups in the Southwest of China, among Qin and Han Dynasties. China Social Sciences Press, Beijing, 530 pp. [In Chinese]
The Archaeological Team of Guizhou Provincial Museum (1979) The tombs of the Han Dynasty in Xingyi and Xingren, Guizhou Province. Cult Relics, 5, 20–33. [In Chinese]
Zhao, D. (2016). Exotic beads and pendants in Ancient China: From Western Zhou to Eastern Jin Dynasty. Science Press, Beijing, pp. 103–107. [In Chinese]
Zhao, T., Peng, M.H., Yang, M.X., Lu, R., Wang, Y.M. & Li, Y. (2023) Effects of weathering on FTIR spectra and origin traceability of archaeological amber: The case of the Han Tomb of Haihun Marquis, China. Journal of Archaeological Science, 153, 105753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2023.105753
Victor H. Mair, "Language and Script: Biology, Archaeology, and (Pre)history", International Review of Chinese Linguistics, 1.1 (1996), 31-41 (large format, twin columns) — hard to get hold of, but well worth the effort
plus hundreds of Language Log posts documenting east-west contact in ancient times by Lucas Christopoulos, Brian Pellar, Sara de Rose, and others.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scribblemoose) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
snowflake_challenge2026-01-15 10:09 am
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
