redfiona99

Fic Intentions Meme - Day 18

Mon, 04 May 2026 22:28:50 GMT

18. Do you typically post multi-chapters as you write, or finish it all and then start posting? Would you like to change your posting method?

After painful previous experience of my inspiration plain old drying up mid-way through a story, I now only allow myself to post a chapter after the next chapter is written. It's the happy mid-point between security that I will finish the damn thing and my inner "hamster of wanting feedback".

(This will become important as two of the next three fics after the 3 Sentence Fics go on AO3 are multi-chapter fics.)

( The rest of the days )

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The Big Sleep

Sat, 02 May 2026 19:49:54 GMT

Yes - I'm working through Mum's library.

Like "The High Window", the best thing about "The Big Sleep" is the setting and characterisation, not so much the plot. There's a fantastic patina of filth surrounding the crimes and this idea that crime dirties all it touches, with Philip Marlowe desperately trying to be good in a world that makes it difficult.

Definitely worth reading.

( LibraryThing Suggestion )

Of those I've read and bounced off The Maltese Falcon.

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Fic Intentions Meme - Day 17

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:21:56 GMT

17. Do you typically answer all comments/reviews individually? Do you plan to change the way you interact with your readers this year?

Of course I answer them all :) All feedback is a joy.

No plans to change that :)

( The rest of the days )

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Are the scrutineers picking on my driver? - Update after the Japanese Grand Prix

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:17:15 GMT

The Japanese Grand Prix itself:

Further to my theory that not finishing means less testing, once Piastri (car 81) finishes a race, he is the most tested car in that race.

With 20 finishers, the bonus testing of one of the top 10 finishers happened. This time it was Lewis Hamilton, car 44. This is more than 15 so that fits in with my theory from the Chinese Grand Prix post.

Bearman (car 87), one of the two non-finishers, was the least tested car. Stroll, car 18, the other non-finisher, is the second least tested. This supports the theory that non-finishers get tested less.

As with the previous races, none of the differences are statistically significant.

Season to date up until the end of the Japanese Grand Prix

Russell (car 63) was the most tested compared to expected with a standard residual of 0.59.

Alonso (car 14) was the least tested compared to expected, possibly because of how few laps that Aston Martin has finished this season.

One good race has catapulted Piastri from the most under-measured to the middle of the pack. This demonstrates why I think the numbers will tend towards the expected as the season progresses, except for possibly the drivers who are frequently in the top 10 and those whose cars do not finish.

None of the differences are statistically significant, and now 7 drivers are exactly on expected, fitting in with the theory that the numbers will converge as the season progresses.

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Fic Intentions Meme - Day 16

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:11:19 GMT

16. Do you have that one fanfic that you wrote a ton for, ages ago, but never posted? Will this be the year, come hell or high water, that it WILL get finished and posted?

Those who have suffered at least 20 years of the "Red is writing this" will be pleased to know that I have started part 4 of Swings and Roundabouts.

(None of that is a joke or an exaggeration.)

( The rest of the days )

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Fic Intentions Meme - Day 15

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:57:18 GMT

15. Do you foresee any personal or professional obstacles in ~~2018~~ 2026, that would keep you from creating fanworks?

As you can see by the gaps in responses, RL things keep intervening in my everything.

( The rest of the days )

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Fencing

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:12:35 GMT

Since I am now ... many years late with fencing reports while I will write the catch up ones, I am going to write up this year's Birmingham and onwards in a more timeline manner.

There will be 4 fencing posts if you want to avoid them :)

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Are the scrutineers picking on my driver? - Update after the Chinese Grand Prix

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:25:54 GMT

Results from the Chinese Grand Prix

My first observation of the scrutineering at the Chinese Grand Prix is that different things are checked at different Grands Prix.

That makes some sort of sense. F1 engineers are a bunch of overgrown schoolboys and girls looking for a way to get around the rules. If you always checked the same things, they'd make sure those things were legal and that everything else wasn't. But, at the same time, there is no way to check everything on every F1 car every race. So always checking most important things and varying which of the other things you check makes sense.

On the other hand, some of the differences don't make sense.

An example is that, after the Australian Grand Prix, one of the top 10 finishers (car 63 - George Russell) was chosen for "more extensive physical checks". After the Chinese Grand Prix, no car was similarly chosen.

I don't think it was number of finishers, Australia had 16, China had 15. Possibly >15 is the cut off? It's something I'll keep an eye on as the season progresses.

Below is a bar chart of the number of checks compared to expectation (measured using standard residuals).

The most tested driver is Leclerc, while Piastri, Albon and Alonso are the least tested. None of the differences from expected are statistically significant.

Most of the under-tested drivers are those that either did not start or had to retire from the race which supports the theory that under-testing is related to not completing the race.

The season up to the end of the Chinese Grand Prix:

Piastri (car 81) being the most under-tested supports my theory that the under-testing is due to not finishing and is exacerbated by him not even starting those races.

George Russell (car 63) being one of the most over-tested I can explain because of how well he and Mercedes have done. Ocon (car 31) being equally over-tested, I can't explain, because Haas haven't performed as well as Mercedes and Ocon isn't the top-performing Haas driver.

The number of drivers that have been tested exactly the number of expected time, now 4 rather than the 2 after the Australian Grand Prix, also makes sense if, as hypothesised, the number of tests will converge towards expected as the season continues.

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Fic Intentions Meme - Day 14

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 20:42:43 GMT

14. Have you ever lost large chunks of your work in the past, due to not backing up your work? Will you change your methods in ~~2018~~ 2026?

Let us not speak of the time one of my workplaces deleted 3 months of my work with a stray Linux command.

And the time some A-Level biology course work corrupted on a floppy disk and I had to re-write it in two days.

So yeah, I suffer from justified paranoid and have a Cloud backup.

( The rest of the days )

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Fic Intentions Meme - Day 13

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:00:06 GMT

13. Aside from fanfic, are there any other fan works you’d like to try creating? Fanart, or fanvids, gifsets, or podfic?

Inspired by Cleoselene, I am working on a couple of fandom cross-stitches. At the moment, I'm drawing out a John Wick sampler.

( The rest of the days )

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Fic Intentions Meme - Day 12

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:10:06 GMT

12. Will you change anything about the way you edit or rewrite in ~~2018~~ 2026?

Actually writing words would help, right?

(Not really)

( The rest of the days )

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Fic Intentions Meme - Day 11

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 21:32:49 GMT

11. Would you like to try any new fanfic genres or tropes in 2018?

I don't think any of my potentially next fics are anything new in those two veins. The DS9 fic which might be next but 6th in the to-do list is a bit unusual but I wouldn't say it's different in terms of genre or trope.

( The rest of the days )

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Are the scrutineers picking on my driver? - an unexpectedly timely series

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 11:51:37 GMT

Background:

As in many sports, after each Formula 1 race, the equipment is scrutinised.

In the heart of every Formula 1 fan lies a conspiracy theorist, and yes, the universe is out to get your driver or team.

So, do the scrutineers pick on any particular driver?

Methodology:

This entire project would not be possible without the FIA Docs Bot on Mastodon (fiadocsbot@mastodon.social - https://mastodon.social/@fiadocsbot) run by seppewyns@mastodon.social (https://mastodon.social/@seppewyns).

Originally, I started this last year, but things got away from me. FIA produce a lot of documents per race (normally 75-80 of them) so I lost track of the documents and I am not going back to find them. Therefore, I am restarting the project for this year.

Matters are not helped by the tests not being the same each time, which means that putting the results in is a very manual process, but there will be more about that in the post about the Chinese Grand Prix.

Results from the Australian Grand Prix

There were a total of 812 checks. If they were evenly spread, you would expect 36.9 checks per driver. I have rounded this to 37. (I am aware that this rounding will affect the numbers over the season but you can't have .9 of a check.)

Driver 5 (Gabriel Bortoleto) was checked the most, 41 times.
Driver 27 (Nico Hülkenberg) was checked the least, 32 times.

This makes me suspect that drivers that do not start the race get fewer checks.

With 21 degrees of freedom, the χ² = 2.92 value is not statistically significant.

Let's look at the deviations in one chart (thanks to R stats). This chart compares the standardised residuals for each driver. A driver with the exact number of checks performed as expected would have a value of 0.

For the 4 drivers with the largest difference to expected, 2 had slightly more checks than expected (Bortoleto and Hamilton) and 2 had slightly less (Hülkenberg and Piastri).

For Hülkenberg and Piastri this might be because they didn't start the race therefore their cars were not available for some of the pre-race tests as well as the post-race tests.

Conclusion:

At this time, no, the scrutineers are not picking on any driver. (I feel I need to add that's what I expect the end results to show too.)

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Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 10:01:28 GMT

The third event of the my 2020 birthday weekend was Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh. (The first two were Leonardo - Experience a Masterpiece (The Virgin on the Rocks) and The Duchess of Malfi)

Like most people of my generation, I was fascinated by Egyptology from being a small child. I have vivid memories of attending an Egyptology exhibition with Mum at an age of less than 5, and the bug bit me.

Mum actually attended the Tutankhamun exhibition first, and raved about it so much that when I had the opportunity to go, I had to take it.

The exhibition website is here - TUTANKHAMUN: TREASURES OF THE GOLDEN PHARAOH » Saatchi Gallery

It focussed on both the dig that uncovered the tomb and the contents of the tomb. Unless I ever get my act together and actually visit Egypt, this was the last chance I was ever going to have to see several of these items.

Everything was exactly as beautiful as you’d imagine. I think having the objects in front of you makes it easier to imagine the artisans all those years ago making these things, and the talent and skill they had.

I understand why lots of people are squeamish about mummies nowadays, and I understand “leave my bones alone”, but if immortality is having thousands of people pay homage and leave offerings of money at your tomb more than three thousand years after your death, I think Tutankhamun has achieved a kind of immortality very few ever will, and his immortality has pulled those artisans along with him.

(Note, it's very hard to write a blog post about "ancient beautiful objects are expectedly beautiful")

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Fic Intentions Meme - Day 10

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 23:42:12 GMT

10. Will you keep a record of all the fics you write and/or post this year?

Of course :)

An unfortunate tendency towards record keeping comes as standard :)

( The rest of the days )

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Did the sprint points and fastest lap points make a difference in Formula 1 in 2024?

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:32:10 GMT

I'm now two years late with this update on whether fastest lap points made a difference and since then they've removed the fastest lap points. Which I find hilarious because 2025 is one of the rare years where it might have made a difference to an important outcome. But that's for a later post. Let's look at 2024.

( Lots of tables and text )

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2026 Fic Intentions Meme - Day 9

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:34:27 GMT

9. Short term goals… what do you hope to complete this week or in ~~January~~ April?

Finish reading through, feedbacking and adding to the 3 Sentence Ficathon (which given I've got about 5 days where I won't be able to do anything and I'm choosing to pace myself at 5 pages a day does see me pretty much through to the end of April).

Once that's done, post the good 3SF stories to AO3 and post the things I have finished off in the background. I don't expect all of that (or indeed most of that) to be within April.

( The rest of the days )

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2026 Fic Intentions Meme - Day 8

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 23:01:44 GMT

8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is ~~2018~~ 2026 the year?

I've got to say, that's one of the nice things about getting older - I don't worry so much about whether I ought to write a fic, I just do it. I mean, the great giant downfall of AMW fic is still not getting written because I'm still not a good enough writer to do it justice. Chunks of it keeps turning up in the backgrounds of AMW or AMW adjacent fic but writing, nah still not good enough.

( The rest of the days )

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2026 Fic Intentions Meme - Day 7

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 22:08:24 GMT

7. Will you change anything about the way you interact with other writers?

This meme is part of my plan to post more interactive(ish) things more often.

( The rest of the days )

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Formula 1 2026 - Japanese Grand Prix

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:18:29 GMT

Qualifying:

In things that are not important yet, but will be important by the end of the season - Norris already on 3rd and final battery. Even if they can resurrect his second battery, that's too close to maxing out the allowed number of batteries for comfort.

How much of Max Verstappen's sour grapes about this set of regulations, "I am retiring if we don't change" and so on is due to being beaten by the RB Juniors?

Pre-race:
Radio got slightly more hijinks than usual because of the delay due to repairs following one of the support races. Jack Black has noticeably better PR training than Chris Pratt, and sounded like he might have head of F1 before Jennie Gow spoke to him.

Damon Hill talking about Murray Walker commentating over his victory is adorable.

However, I disapprove of them whitewashing why the Japanese Grand Prix had to move out of monsoon season. "So we were in sakura season" indeed.

The race itself:

See McLaren, if you give him a car that works, Piastri goes fast.

I did have a full-blown mini-conniption about Bearman's leg; his limping looked like mine when I broke my leg. So glad that it turned out only to be severe bruising.

I don't think the accident is evidence that the new regulations are too dangerous, just that there is room for improvement. It's not like there aren't crashes with every set of regulations.

Also, how much of that crash was due to tyres that weren't warm?

Alice Powell gave a really good explanation around kneepads, and their painful necessity and why some drivers still don't wear them.

The incident really changed the shape of the rest of the race.

I acknowledge the race became duller after the safety car but there was racing up and down the grid and through most of the race, unlike last year's race, which, as someone described it, "could have been an email". Therefore I am still on team "I like the new regulations".

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2026 Fic Intentions Meme - Day 6

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 20:25:54 GMT

6. Which yet-to-be-started fic is first on your list?

Next thing on the "to be written" list is BBC Sherlock Holmes/Adler fic. Which I live in hope will be quick and fun to write.

( The rest of the days )

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2026 Fic Intentions Meme - Day 5

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 16:25:20 GMT

5. Which WIP is first on your list to complete this year? Will you post a snippet?

The next one to be finished (not counting the two that are finished but are waiting for me to finish catching up with the 3 Sentence Ficathon) will hopefully be the first part of the Blade Runner fic.

"He puts Mitrovic to work on KP duty because peeling potatoes when there's a replicant is your squad is some extra level punishment as far as the squad are concerned. It keeps him busy while Roy interrogates Zhora."

( The rest of the days )

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2026 Fic Intentions Meme - Day 4

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:33:12 GMT

4. Do you think you’ll stop writing for a fandom in ~~2018~~ 2026? Which one?

As my answer to day 3 probably showed, I don't give up on fandoms. My next X-Men fic is ... 4 years after the last. And there's likely to be huge gaps between wrestling fic, since I'm up to 2013, when all I had was TNA which is the source of pain, not fic ideas.

( The rest of the days )

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2026 Fic Intentions Meme - Day 3

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:26:25 GMT

3. Do you anticipate writing for a new fandom in ~~2018~~ 2026? Which one?

There's 3 new fandoms in my 3 sentence fic, and two of the next few fics that will start being posted after that will be new fandoms (advert fic for an old Emirates ad and Blade Runner). Don't worry, the old favourites are still represented, there's a Doctor Who fic and an X-Men fic hopefully as well.

( The rest of the days )

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2026 Fic Intentions Meme - Day 2

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 19:18:51 GMT

2. Will you participate in any fandom exchanges or fic challenges, etc?

I'm working my way through 3 Sentence Ficathon, but that's the only one I really do regularly. Most of the exchanges and challenges I did have stopped.

( The rest of the days )

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