Grumpy Beastie's Other Lair

ABOUT ME
About Me Fall Edition
About Me: Fall Edition: This or That coming soon
About Me: Crafting Edition coming soon

Transformative Works Policy

2023 Dear Yule Goat & Wishlists Links

For bribery and good feelings: Wishlist

If you find a broken image on one of my posts anywhere, let me know here.

What I am Working on (ficwise):

2024 Wrisolutions

What I Know: Anime and Manga Fandom List

What I am Reading:
Good Reads Link Comming
2017 Reading Challenge
2021 Reading Challenges
Kingstoken's 2024 Book Bingo

What I am Listening to: 1000 Recordings to Listen to Before You Die

Snowflake Challenge 2024 Masterpost
Snowflake Challenge 2023 Masterpost

WIP Bingo Cards:
Online1roomscholhouse's Pride Bingo 2024
allbingo 2024 Pride Fest Bingo
allbingo 2024 Super Hero Bingo
Stargate Anniversary Fest 2024

Stargate 25th Anniversary Watch List

25th Anniversary Table

Bang and Whimper Prompt Table Feel free to use.

Tea Month 2026: Tea 11

Tea Review
Name: High Mountain
Brand: Vahdam
Type: black
Loose tea

Notes:
This was a gift and part of several packets of different black teas of the same brand. This one in particular is darjeeling oolong tea. Based on the smell, I was expecting a smokier, bitter flavor, but was pleasantly surprised how smooth it was. I also like how the packet has a little caffeine rating on it. This one is rated for medium. It's a nice breakfast tea.

Rate
Appearance: 9
Aroma: 8
Flavor: 9

Overall Rating: 4 stars

I had planned to post this on the 15th, but here we are. Halfamoon is over once again, and once again, I could not get my brain in gear to write anything. So I made a list of 14 characters I tried to write fics for during the 2025 & 2026 Halfamoon.

1. Mai (Avatar the Last Airbender)
2. Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan (Farscape)
3. Reoccurring Unnamed Female Peacekeeper (Farscape) - This is a very specific Peacekeeper that was an assistant to Scorpius. She was clearly special compared to other assistants he had and even had speaking lines. She deserved a name. Last year, it was easy to Google her fandom wiki page. This year, I can't even find her.
4. Dr. Julia Ogden (Murdoch Mysteries)
5. Countess Vera Rossakoff (Poirot)
6. Little Nina (The Boys)
7. Rowena (Supernatural)
8. Dr. Janet Fraiser (Stargate SG-1)
9. Tina Belcher (Bob's Burgers)
10. Dr. Gina Kadinsky (Brokenwood Mysteries)
11. Ellen Harvelle/Mingala/Thina/Sarah Raully (Supernatural & Stargate SG-1) - Mingala, Thina, Sarah Raully are all the same character. She and Ellen are both played by Samantha Ferris and I have a cracked fic bunny that the SG-1 character survived and started live anew in hiding on earth as Ellen Harvelle.
12. Stephanie Brown (DC/Batman/Batfam)
13. Rosie/Abigail (Lumberjanes) - Yes, this one is a pairing.
14. Mothra
HM. Magical Girl Venom aka Necroko (Marvel)

Tea Month 2026: Tea 9

Tea Review
Name: Peach
Brand: Stash
Type: black
Tea bag

Notes:
This was a gift. Thank you. It's a really nice blend of black tea. While the peach smell is really strong (and pleasant), the peach flavor is very subtle. I really enjoyed it.

Rate
Appearance: 9
Aroma: 9
Flavor: 9

Overall Rating: 4 stars

In 2024, I overwhelmed myself with the number of reading challenges I was doing, was in 5 book clubs at one point, and was trying to keep up with tracking things on Beanstack and Good Reads. And while I met my reading goals, I could not keep up with tracking things all the places and I didn't claim a lot of challenges I actually finished.

Because of all that, in 2025, I stepped back and only tracked my reading on physical book tracking booksmarks (just title, date finished, & number of stars), was only in one book club, and didn't join any year long challenges. (I did do the summer bookopoly reading challenge for July only, the library card bingo challenge for September only, and the Unwrap A Great Read challenge for December only hosted by my local library.)

I managed to read more than I have in years.

Here is what I read in 2025. A couple books might be missing from the list.


graphic novels
Lumberjanes Vol. 18: Horticultural Horizons by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Kanesha C. Bryant, & Julia Madrigal
The Umbrella Academy Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way & Gabriel Bá (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lumberjanes Vol. 19: A Summer to Remember by Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh
Graceling (graphic novel adaptation) by Kristin Cashore, adapted and illustrated by Gareth Hinds (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green (Pub Grub Book Club)
Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith & Boulet (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lumberjanes Vol. 20: End of Summer by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Gus Allen, Alexa Bosy, & Kanesha C. Bryant
The Dark Matter of Mona Starr by Laura Lee Gulledge (Pub Grub Book Club)
My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 2 by Emil Ferris
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic vol. 16 by Paul Allor, Toni Kuusiste, Heather Breckel, Jeremy Whitley, Ted Anderson, Andy Price, Tom Zahler, & Agnes Garbowska
Paper Girls #1 by Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang (Pub Grub Book Club)
Check Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu
Escape From St. Hell by Lewis Hancox
Heartstopper vol. 4 by Alice Oseman
Mamo by Sas Milledge
Brooms by Jasmine Walls (Pub Grub Book Club)
Suitor Armor volume 1 by Purpan
I am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki & art by Yoshi Yoshitani
Slaughterhouse-Five; or, the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (graphic novel adaptation) by Kurt Vonnegut, adaptation by Ryan North & illustrated by Albert Monteys
Rainbow vol. 1 by Sunny & Gloomy
Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley, art by Cassio Ribeiro, & lettering by Nikki Foxrobot
Pulp by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
Space Boy vol. 1 by Stephen McCranie
We are not Strangers by Josh Tuininga
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath (Pub Grub Book Club)
Delicious in Dungeon vol 1 by Ryoko Kui
Check Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones by Ngozi Ukazu
Backflash by Mat Johnson & art by Steve Lieber (Pub Grub Book Club)
Suitor Armor vol 2 by Purpah
Fall Through by Nate Powell (Pub Grub Book Club)
The Mushroom Knight vol. 1 by Oliver Bly
Heavy Vinyl vol. 1 by Carly Usdin & Vakueva & Flores & Nalty
Monstress Book One by Marjorie Liu (Pub Grub Book Club)
Leap by Simina Popescu
Mall Goth by Kate Leth
Eight Billion Genies (complete collection) by Charles Soule & Ryan Browne (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass by Lilah Sturges
Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship by Lilah Sturges
Garbage Night: The Complete Edition by Benji Lee
Final Cut by Charles Burns
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All vol. 1 by Sumiko Arai
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All vol. 2 by Sumiko Arai

non-fiction
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson (updated edition 2021)
The T in LGBT by Jamie Raines
The Art of Drag by Jake Hall & art by Sofie Birkin, Helen Li, Jasiyot Singh Hans, & more
GuRu by Rupaul

fiction
The Black Girl Survives This One edited by Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra
What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Where Wolves Don't Die by Anton Treuer
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai
The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen (Unwrap A Great Read)
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (Unwrap A Great Read)
Stuck With You by Nathan Burgoine
Bad Dreams in the Night by Adam Ellis
Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy by Faith Erin Hicks

children's
Monstrous: The Lore, Gore, and Science Behind Your Favorite Monsters by Carlyn Beccia
Death & Sparkles Book 1 by Rob Justus
Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating & illustrations by Marta Álvarez Miguéns
Halloween and Day of the Dead Traditions from Around the World by Joan Axelrod-Contrada & illustrated by Elisa Chavarri
The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons
Digestion the Musical by Adam Rex & illustrated by Laura Park
Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes That Dot Our Planet by Geo Rutherford
Shark Week: Everything You Need to Know (Discovery) by Martha Brockenbrough
The Constitution Explained! The Bill of Rights: Guaranteeing Liberty by Janey Levy
You Rule! Create Your Own Country (Lonely Planet Kids) by Scott Forbes & Emma Laura Jones
Cool Sleeping by Alex Kushowski
How to Build Your Own Country by Valerie Wyatt
Moomin The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Volume 1 by Tove Jansson
New Year Traditions Around the World by Ann Malaspina
Moomin The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Volume 2 by Tove Jansson

comics
The Batman Chronicles no. 7 winter 97

Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

My online footprint is not nearly as fun as it used to be. Basically, I visit here on DW, my library website, Subeta, YouTube, Buzzfeed & mental floss for quizzes, and canihazcheeseburger for memes (mostly cats and Tolkien Tuesday). Outside of researching and trying to see if dead crafting sites from the 2010s are still functional, that's it.

Subeta is a 21 year old browser based pet adoption game. Think neopets, but snarkier, you have a human avatar you can dress, and they know their core user base are adults. I am coming up on my 11th (12th?) Anniversary of playing there. I have 12 pets. The game can be as social as you want it to be and enough activities, you could spend hours each day playing outside of events. My favorite things are wizard questing, curating my pets' treasures, creating outfits and scenes for my human avatar, and gentech experiments.

As for events, the site just had it's new year's event from the 1st until the 18th. You earn new years tokens by questing or from random events. There is a shop that while open year round, only takes new years tokens as currency. The Snowtapult is open. This normally happens from December 21st until whenever Survival starts in February. Basically, there are something like 80 different kinds of snowballs you can buy with in game money and fling at other users, each with unique effects that temporarily show up on their human avatar. I have slowly been working for the maximum achievement for this for years. Coming up is one of my favorite events, which is Survival. It's a 2 part event. One part is "kissing" other users to earn candy hearts, which are one of the many in game currencies. The other part is "biting" and being bitten by other users to get infected with zombie virus' to collect the different wearable zombie skins. There are more details, but those are the broad strokes.

Dungleon is a Wordle mechanics dungeon crawl based game. You can play once a day. You have to figure out what creatures occupy the dungeon before you run out of guesses. It's a lot of fun.

YouTube Recs I spend possibly too much time on YouTube, mostly watching reddit reaction videos or long form video essays and podcasts. I also have several unfinished youtuber recs post in progress, so what thought I would do was make a list of YouTube channel recs that I feel should be be recommended, but I don't think I have recced anywhere. (I did include if they were primarily short or long content video creators, but most do both.)

( Read more... )

Tea Month 2026: Tea 6

Tea Review
Name: Cozy Chamomile
Brand: Bigelow
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
My review for this might be a little unfair as it came from the jar of random tea and by the art on the packaging, it might have been a little past it's prime. That being said, it was okay. I thought it might be a blend, given it's nearly non-existent chamomile flavor, but it's not. That could be it's age. My bar for chamomile is low and this particular bag of tea limboed under it.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 3
Flavor: 1

Overall Rating: 2 stars

Tea Month 2026: Tea 4

Tea Review
Name: Anela Hawaiian Flavored
Brand: Lupicia
Type: unknown blend
Tea bag

Notes:
This tea and I went on a journey. To start with, I have no idea where I got this tea originally. It was in my jar of random packaged bags of tea. The packaging just has the brand name and "ANELA Hawaiian Flavored" on the front and the back just has brewing instructions in Japanese & English. I tried googling it. I found out anela means angel, maybe, and I found the USA version of the Lupicia website. The tea is not listed anywhere, even when I tried to search their catalog of over 400 teas, which includes the discontinued ones. It just kept saying it doesn't exist. Also, they seem to exclusively sell loose tea in tins and this is a bag in a packet. It does look like something you might get at a hotel, so maybe it wasn't a regular retail product.

Anyway, I finally found mention of the flavor in two places; a blog post and a reddit comment. In a blog post from 2018, someone had bought the Lupicia Hawaiian tea sampler, which included the Anela tea. At that time, it was described as "a sweet aromatic strawberry lychee black tea." The reddit comment was complaining that their favorite Lupicia tea used to be Anela, which used to be a jasmine lychee green tea, but it had changed to a strawberry lychee black tea.

Neither of these descriptions fit what I drank.

I did enjoy it. It was fun to drink. I couldn't pick out any particular flavors, but it hit my taste buds as "tropical flavor" without any notes of coconut or pineapple. Honestly the first thing I pictured in my head was the tropical trail mix they used to have in the bulk bins at the grocery store. Though it didn't taste like that either. It was dark enough, it was most likely a black tea blend, so probably the strawberry lychee.

I'd drink it again, if I had more. I don't see that happening.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 9
Flavor: 8

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars

Tea Month 2026: Tea 2

Tea Review
Name: Black Tea
Brand: Kroger
Type: black
Tea bag

Notes:
This is your most basic, no frills black tea. I don't have anything negative to say about it. It's a little weaker than some black teas. It smells good. Pleasant to have in the morning when it takes all of your brain function to put the water on to boil. It's also good for making sun tea.

Rate
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 8
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 3 stars

I'm doing the challenges a little out of order because one of my wishes has a deadline.

Challenge #5

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

It always feels a little weird doing a wishlist so soon after the holidays, especially as some exchanges like Fandom Trees usually haven't done their reveals yet, but that relates to my main wish on my wishlist right now.

1) If you have time and inclination, please check out the needy trees at fandomtrees. The goal is for every person who signed up to have at least two gifts under their tree before the reveals on the 17th and it looks we have nine people who still have zero or only one gift. You do not need to have signed up with a tree to leave fills under a tree.

2) Tell me your favorite place to play in fandom or consume fandomy things that isn't DW or AO3.

3) Rec me your favorite thing you read last year; fic, book, article, blog, whatever. Audio, physical, e-format, etc. It all counts, as long as you loved it.

Thank you for reading.