Passing For Normal

CORDELIA: Except you were kinda turning me on with that whole Boy Slayer look.

~~Dead Man's Party~~

---

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

• 
• Denial of Attraction by myrabeth (Angel, Cordelia, Buffy, Spike, T)

[Chaptered Fiction]

• 
• The English Professor - ch. 5 by the_big_bad (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)
• Band Candy Baby - ch. 40 by Tikiriaaa (Buffy/Spike, R)
• 
• The Gift - ch. 8-9 by Corvidae (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

• 
• Artwork: #fuffy by rubaoz (Buffy/Faith, worksafe)
• Artwork: Spred pls (you saw this coming admit it) by garscrucible (Fred/Spike, worksafe)
• Artwork: [if S4 Willow had... tried to scare Faith] by camellcat (Faith, Willow, worksafe)
• Artwork: A master vampire stands in his crypt by rabbitmotifs (Spike, Homestuck xover, worksafe)
• Moodboard: asexual willow rosenberg by kyrt4t (worksafe)
• Edit: aromantic buffy summers propaganda... by tenderjock (Buffy, Angel, Riley, Spike, worksafe)
• Gifset: Sarah Michelle Gellar on KTLA after the series premiere of 'Buffy' first aired (1997) by whatisyourchildhoodtrauma (Sarah, worksafe)
• Gifset: Eliza celebrates her 45th Birthday! | December 30, 2025 by elizadushkudaily (Eliza, worksafe)
• Gifset: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER // 2.02 "Some Assembly Required" ANGEL THE SERIES // 3.01 "Heartthrob" by daisychase (Angel/Cordelia, worksafe)
• Gifset: buffy the vampire slayer → one outfit per episode by clarkgriffon (ensemble, worksafe)
• Buffy Summers + Outfits (38/∞) by clarkgriffon (Buffy, worksafe)
• BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1997-2003) [Xander compilation] by clarkgriffon (Xander, worksafe)
• Gifset: 5.04 | 6.10 — requested by @userslayer by spikedaily (Buffy/Spike, NSFW)

[Reviews & Recaps]

• 
• New Viewer Diary [s4 ep 13] by purplemonkeyy6 [no spoilers please]
• New Viewer Diary [s4 ep15] by purplemonkeyy6 [no spoilers please]
• New Viewer Diary:Superstar by purplemonkeyy6 [no spoilers please]
• New Viewer Diary. [ATS s1 ep1] by purplemonkeyy6 [no spoilers please]
• 
• Episode 80 - Magic Slayer Handstand (Real Me) by The Sunnydale Diaries - A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast

[Community Announcements]

• 
• fic_promptly: Monday, January 12 - Song Titles Containing the Word "Heart"
• 
• Buffy Trivia is Back! Ridgewood, Queens NYC via redditor veronica_outlaw
• 
• February Fangfest: Spotlight Saturday: Darsilla
• POLL: BtVS Weekly Group Rewatch — If you rewatched, what did you think of S2E12 | Bad Eggs?

[Fandom Discussions]

• 
• POLL: how many female entities can possess your body before you start to wonder things about yourself? [Angel] by xaeyrnofnbe
• "There is definitely something wrong with this Ted." [discussion of poll results] by coraniaid
• I think one of my favorite aspects of Buffy’s forehead kiss to Faith is that it was literally just for her. by fictiongods
• POLL: would jenny calendar and faith lehane like each other? [commentary in the tags] by esquegoth
• I want to think out loud a bit about the nature of Ted the Weirdly Convincingly Human Robot by coraniaid and btvsfemslashenjoyer
• 
• What are your Issues with the Seeing Red Episode of BTVS? by Amber_Flowers_133
• POLL: In which Episode Anthony Stewart Head gave the best performance by Troyaferd
• Money, Money, Money by ConsiderationSea941
• Can vampires go outside when the weather is bad? by Substantial_Monk4430
• You're stranded on a desert island. Which two "BTVS" and "Angel" characters would you want with you and why? by solacesilence
• When do we first see a vampires face translation from human to vampire on screen? by DuckPicMaster
• HULU SEQUEL: Congrats to Chloé Zhao: 'Hamnet' wins Golden Globe for Best Picture (in Drama) by pepperbet1
• 
• QUIZ: Ultimate Buffy the Vampire Slayer Trivia Quiz by NSF News via redditor ezgimantocu

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Join the editor team :)

Posted by Mike Pearl

https://gizmodo.com/trump-claims-he-and-microsoft-have-a-solution-for-ai-related-utility-price-spikes-2000709410

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709410

Is Microsoft… going to subsidize our utility bills?

https://gizmodo.com/trump-claims-he-and-microsoft-have-a-solution-for-ai-related-utility-price-spikes-2000709410

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709410

One character in my Outgunned game gets a laptop as part of his starting gear. Game is set in 1977 so I told the university age player he could have a programmable calculator or a slide rule.

"What's a slide rule?"

I collect false treasures in empty wardrobes.

This quote by Paul Eluard opens book #14 from the "Women in Translation" rec list, which continues to fatten up my TBR list. This is Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. This novella, originally published in the 1960s, is about the ways in which women are subsumed by the men in their lives, or otherwise are buffeted about with less control over their lives than they ought to have.

The forward by Kate Zambreno is a wonderfully complementary piece. She talks about the anger she feels going to a woman's funeral and hearing the dead woman sanctified by men in her life who did nothing but take from her, who can speak of her only to praise what she did for others, and can say nothing about what the woman herself was. 

Sometimes you can read a book and just know the author was angry when she wrote it. This is one of those. The book uses the phrase "discreet rage" about one of its characters, and I think that sentiment succinctly describes the whole book. The protagonist, Dora Rosario, is ten years into widowhood, and she has devoted her entire life to mourning her unremarkable husband as much as she had previous devoted her life to supporting his every opinion regardless of whether or not she agreed with it. Now, a decade on, her mother-in-law reveals something about Dora's late husband that changes her entire perspective.

I would like to believe we are moving away from the world portrayed in Empty Wardrobes (though not with as much success as I'd like), but this is a stark reminder of how even a few generations ago, in the Sixties, a woman's identity was so controlled by her husband's. There are only two men in this book--Duarte, Dora's dead husband, and Ernesto, the longtime partner of a side character--and they both, through social structures, exercise incredible control over the lives of the women around them without any respect or even knowledge of their impact.

The three main women in this book--Dora, her daughter Lisa, and the narrator--each take a different approach to the male romantic partners in their lives, and none of them comes out the better for it (well, perhaps for Lisa, but I personally doubt it will last), because the ultimate problem is societal attitudes about the way men and women are meant to relate to each other. 

It's not a long book, and I can't say much more without spoiling things, but I also think it does some fabulous things with its narration and perspective, and the way it doles out information. Really an excellent framing that allows for a lot of fluidity and filling in gaps with your own visions while remaining clear in the nature of the story it's telling. 

This book was only translated into English in 2021, which is a shame, because I think it would have struck a nerve much earlier, but we have it now! Costa does an excellent job with the work too; the writing is full of punchy phrases like the above, and she captures some realistic dialogue--characters repeating themselves, responding in ways that don't quite match up with what was asked, etc.--while keeping it natural-sounding. 

Posted by Matt Novak

https://gizmodo.com/ai-images-create-confusion-as-real-gang-of-monkeys-roams-st-louis-2000709419

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709419

Police have patrolled the area based on reports of sightings, but the monkeys still haven't been found.

https://gizmodo.com/ai-images-create-confusion-as-real-gang-of-monkeys-roams-st-louis-2000709419

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709419

Posted by Ece Yildirim

https://gizmodo.com/tracking-insider-trading-on-polymarket-is-turning-into-a-business-of-its-own-2000709286

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709286

Insider trading on prediction markets is lucrative. Finding and copying said insider trading, also.

https://gizmodo.com/tracking-insider-trading-on-polymarket-is-turning-into-a-business-of-its-own-2000709286

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709286

Posted by Mike Pearl

https://gizmodo.com/meta-reportedly-cutting-about-1500-vr-and-ar-jobs-amid-renewed-push-to-become-an-ai-juggernaut-2000708826

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000708826

AI infrastructure will provides Meta with a "strategic advantage," Zuckerberg said. He once said almost the exact same thing about the metaverse.

https://gizmodo.com/meta-reportedly-cutting-about-1500-vr-and-ar-jobs-amid-renewed-push-to-become-an-ai-juggernaut-2000708826

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000708826

Posted by Germain Lussier

https://gizmodo.com/im-claiming-stellan-skarsgards-golden-globe-for-andor-2000709390

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709390

The incredible 'Star Wars' show has been largely snubbed this award season, but one of its stars hasn't.

https://gizmodo.com/im-claiming-stellan-skarsgards-golden-globe-for-andor-2000709390

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709390

Posted by Ellyn Lapointe

https://gizmodo.com/nasas-first-iss-medical-evacuation-is-happening-this-week-heres-what-we-know-2000709354

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709354

The Crew-11 mission is coming to an early end so that one of its members can receive medical attention back on Earth.

https://gizmodo.com/nasas-first-iss-medical-evacuation-is-happening-this-week-heres-what-we-know-2000709354

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709354

Posted by AJ Dellinger

https://gizmodo.com/jensen-huang-is-begging-you-to-stop-being-so-negative-about-ai-2000709335

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709335

"[It's] extremely hurtful, frankly, and I think we've done a lot of damage," he said.

https://gizmodo.com/jensen-huang-is-begging-you-to-stop-being-so-negative-about-ai-2000709335

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709335

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/12/a-minor-planet-a-major-thrill/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59102

Our solar system has eight major planets, nine if you believe that Pluto Was Wronged. It also has literally thousands of minor planets, which are also colloquially known as asteroids, many of which reside in the “asteroid belt” between Jupiter and Mars. I learned some time ago that the International Astronomical Union, through its Working Group on Small Bodies Nomenclature, will give some of these minor planets, usually designated by number, an actual name. What kinds of names? Sometimes of geographical locations, sometimes of observatories, sometimes of fictional characters like Spock or Sherlock Holmes, sometimes of scientists (or their family members), and sometimes, just sometimes, they’re named after science fiction authors.

Like minor planet 52692 (1998 FO8), henceforth to be known as “Johnscalzi”:

This little space potato is a Main Belt Asteroid whose orbit is comfortably between Jupiter and Mars, has a diameter of about 10.7 kilometers, and has a “year” of about 5 years, 8 months and 10 days. If I start the clock on a ScalziYear today, it’ll be New ScalziYear’s Day on September 22, 2031. Plan ahead! If you want to look for Johnscalzi, the link above will tell you where it is, more or less, on any given day, but at 10km across and an absolute magnitude of 12.19 (i.e., really really really dim), don’t expect to find it in your binoculars or home telescope. Just know that it there, cruising along in space, doing its little space potato-y thing.

How do I feel about this? My dudes, dudettes and dudeites, I am so unbelievably stoked about this I can’t even tell you. It’s not an exaggeration to say this was something of a life goal, but not a goal that was in my control in any significant way. I suppose it might be possible to buy one’s way into having an asteroid named for you, but I don’t know how to do that, and I wouldn’t even if I did. How much cooler to be tapped on the shoulder by the International Astronomical Union, and to be told, here is a space potato with your name. I can die happier now than I could have a day ago. To be clear, I don’t plan to die anytime soon. But when I do, if they’re shooting remains into space that point, now they will have a place to aim me at.

Also cool: The name of the asteroid that’s in the catalogue next to mine. We geeked out about it on the phone just now. We’re Space Potato Pals!

Anyway, this is how my day is going. It’s pretty great. Highlight of the year so far, for sure.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/12/a-minor-planet-a-major-thrill/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59102

Posted by Bruce Gil

https://gizmodo.com/an-app-called-are-you-dead-is-climbing-the-apple-charts-2000709373

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709373

The simple app is now the top paid app on China’s Apple App Store and has reached the sixth spot in the U.S.

https://gizmodo.com/an-app-called-are-you-dead-is-climbing-the-apple-charts-2000709373

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709373

Posted by Matt Novak

https://gizmodo.com/groks-sexual-deepfakes-will-become-illegal-in-the-uk-this-week-2000709212

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709212

"The content which has circulated on X is vile," the UK technology secretary Liz Kendall said Monday.

https://gizmodo.com/groks-sexual-deepfakes-will-become-illegal-in-the-uk-this-week-2000709212

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709212

Posted by Ed Cara

https://gizmodo.com/youngest-uk-dementia-case-dies-at-24-2000709304

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709304

Less than two dozen cases of extremely early-onset frontotemporal dementia have been documented worldwide.

https://gizmodo.com/youngest-uk-dementia-case-dies-at-24-2000709304

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709304

Posted by Cheryl Eddy

https://gizmodo.com/george-rr-martin-new-dunk-and-egg-game-of-thrones-winds-of-winter-2000709355

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709355

The 'Game of Thrones' author has the highly anticipated fantasy book on his to-do list, but he's understandably excited about 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.'

https://gizmodo.com/george-rr-martin-new-dunk-and-egg-game-of-thrones-winds-of-winter-2000709355

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709355

In yesterday's poll, third person limited was the most popular POV for writing by far - 89% of respondents like it, whereas only 32% like to write in first person and/or third person omniscient. For reading, there's much less of a gap - 79% like to read third person limited, 68% third person omniscient, and 53% first person. In both polls, second person is by far the least popular with only 16%.

Interestingly, most people have the same POV preferences for fanfic and original fic when reading (63%) or writing (53%)!

And 89% of respondents would like a story from a tickybox's POV. :D

For me, I'm not fond of second person in reading - I've come across no more than a handful of stories I actually liked, and I can't put my finger on what made those ones work for me when others didn't. So I've never tried to write it myself.

With first person, I like it much more in original fiction than in fanfic - unless it's epistolary fic or something like that, or the canon is already in first person. IMO it's already difficult to write first person well in general, to get a character's voice that consistently right in such a close way that it really feels like the character's voice telling the story. But in fanfic, to me first person makes it much more obvious when the author's view of the character's interiority differs from mine, so it often doesn't work for me for that reason.

I've written a bunch of first person stories, almost all for Sherlock Holmes and adjacent fandoms (out of 10 works, seven are in first person) - though not BBC Sherlock; as a TV canon, that's firmly in third person territory for me. *g* And I've tried omniscient POV once (The Finality Problem, Study in Emerald), which was a lot of fun. But the vast majority of what I read and write is limited third person. I really should experiment with POV more!

Today's writing

Progress on a fandomtrees treat!

WED Question of the Day



Tally

( Days 1-10 )

Day 11: badly_knitted, brithistorian, china_shop, cornerofmadness, daegaer, goddess47, sanguinity, shadaras, sylvanwitch, trobadora

Day 12: trobadora

Let me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)

Posted by Kyle Barr

https://gizmodo.com/humanoid-robots-are-here-and-embarrassingly-bad-at-being-our-servants-ces-2026-2000709300

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709300

CES 2026 showed us the useless humanoid robots are nowhere close to doing your robot chores.

https://gizmodo.com/humanoid-robots-are-here-and-embarrassingly-bad-at-being-our-servants-ces-2026-2000709300

https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000709300