Here are this week's votes tallied, and below the cut are our winners for Challenge #298 – Disappearance!

( This week's finalists are... )

Total Challenge Words Written: 3751

Congratulations to all this week's participants, and thank you to everyone who took the time to cast their votes! autobotscoutriella will be making this week’s banners, so keep an eye out for those.

You may now post your Challenge 298 entries to any additional communities, blogs, archives or sites as you'd like! We also have a FandomWeekly AO3 Collection if you'd like to add your stories there.

Tonight at the local chamber music recital, the production halted between performances because someone's device was making enough noise to be heard by the musicians. That the person's device was in the front row right up against the stage isn't as important as you'd think, because the acoustics in this room are good enough you could hear it from several rows away. At least, I was able to.

An old woman had taken off her hearing aids and put them in her bag, but they kept producing feedback and chirping loud enough that the bag had to be taken out of the room so the performance would continue - and then got taken out again after the intermission when the chirping still hadn't died down.

Chamber music performances are a very different beast than many other live productions, and even so: seeing that kind of thing done soothed me to know that there's at least one place still holding onto decorum.

Here are the entries for this week's challenge:

( List of entries )

In order to vote, please reply to this post using the form provided. All comments are screened, and entries are listed in the order they were submitted. For your vote to qualify, you must fill out your entire voting card (all three spots) in order to be counted. First place votes are worth 3 points, second place votes are worth 2 points, and third place votes are worth 1 point. Meeting the bonus goal on an entry gets an extra point for that submission.

When voting, please copy/paste the ENTRY NUMBER and the FIC TITLE from the list above into the spot you're voting for (this prevents accidentally mis-numbering a vote and casting it for the wrong entry). It should look like this:

First Place: 61. Fic Title Here
Second Place: 88. Another Fic Title
Third Place: 47. Finally a third fic title goes here

Please note that you cannot vote for your own entry, and that votes cannot be made anonymously. You do not have to be a member of the community in order to vote, nor have submitted an entry for this week; everyone is welcome to participate in the voting. IP addresses are logged to prevent duplicate voting.

<b>First Place:</b> <b>Second Place:</b> <b>Third Place:</b>

Voting closes Wednesday, April 29, at 9:00PM EST.

In an effort to declutter, bringing stuff into the apartment isn't the best strategy. But bringing it in to take it back out is acceptable. Case in point: a couple weeks ago, someone moved out and I grabbed a box of vinyl records, which I hauled for ten blocks to be offered either $10 cash or $20 store credit. I took the cash.

I looked through them beforehand, and a couple tempted me, but I only kept Abbey Road as an object to enjoy. The rest that didn't get accepted by the used bookstore were hauled another couple blocks to a local library, where they'll be processed for the next used book sale or disposed of safely by professionals.

For hourly rates, it's not very good; for something that only cost me the effort to haul them over there, I think I turned a reasonable profit. A dollar a block.

So I had two auctions, but also accepted second highest bidder on both, and both took me up on that.

Fic 1 is, as of a couple hours ago, complete and sitting in my unrevealed collection so I can re-read it in a few days.

Fic 2 (which will be multi-fandom short fics) has 1 completed fic, and is in brain-marinating mode for the next bit.

Fic 3 (which will have multiple fics in a single fandom) has a completed fic and the beginning of the 2nd.

Fic 4 will likely be the next one I finish, as it needs maybe 2 scenes to be done and join fic 1 in the unrevealed collection.

My intent is to complete ALL of them first, and then release them over the span of a week or so. Hopefully in May. I have continually reminded myself they are not due until Dec 31 this year, that I can take the time, and taking the time leads to better end results.

i have seen my pcp. i have referrals to a bunch of specialists (endocrinologist, pulmonologist, podiatrist, ophthalmologist, gynecologist, cardiologist), i have had my blood drawn to see how my meds need adjusted (my a1c and cholesterol are probably horrendous since i've been off those meds for most of a year), i have had an ekg for tachycardia because my pulse rate was stuck around 130 (it came back with no obvious abnormalities other than being stupid fast, hence the cardiologist referral), and most importantly i have had my back x-rayed to see if i have any slipped discs or anything similar causing my back pain.

preliminary results on the x-rays say everything looks normal. (i am unsurprised, previous imaging hasn't found anything either.) pcp will decide on wednesday at my telemed followup whether to refer me to physical therapy or an orthopedic specialist. i am hoping for the specialist because i have had pt for my back twice already and none of the exercises or stretches seem to be helping (i did tell my pcp this so hopefully it works out.)

my corset pattern also arrives wednesday or thursday but if i get a referral to an orthopedist i'll probably hold off on any further corsetry expenses until i find out whether i get prescribed something like a medical back brace covered by insurance. (if it is my sacroiliac joints being the problem, one treatment is a special hip-and-back brace that my medicaid apparently covers at 2 per year.) probably still going to cut it out and do a fitting with a paper mockup though because i like to know my options.

now i am being flat on a heating pad for 3-4 business days until i recover from the being vertical for four hours straight. this is so fucking stupid.

goals_on_dw is a community for people who like goals and goal setting. A key focus is New Year's resolutions, that being among the most popular contexts for such activities. Although the most common time is January 1, "new year" can also refer to other calendars or cultures, whatever works for you. Alternatively, just pick a time that works for you and go for it. You can introduce yourself or make new friends here.

We talk about different goal systems, pros and cons of resolutions, arts and crafts for tracking goals, human psychology, and more. You can share your resolutions or other goals. There are weekly check-in posts in January, and monthly ones in the rest of the year, for folks to talk about their accomplishments. December-January is the most active period, and it starts ramping up in November as lots of people begin thinking about their goals for the next year.

2026 Free Printable Calendars, Planners, and More is the guide post for this years goal-setting activities. For more details on relevant topics, see "Things You Can Talk About Here."

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newcomers is a community for people who are just getting started on Dreamwidth, in the tradition of twitter_refugees and reddit_refugees. This community supports former users of other platforms who are moving to Dreamwidth because their previous platform has become untenable or has closed. As such, it will increase activity with each wave of new users, in hopes of helping them get settled in Dreamwidth so they want to stick around. It also serves previous users returning after a long hiatus, people who want to do more with a Dreamwidth blog that was only intermittent, or anyone else who wants help connecting and figuring out how to use this venue.

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