Re: 2025 Writing Log, Part 38
Sep. 27th, 2025 07:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI also changed the PFP icon and visual theme of my main Tumblr blog. I call my new theme "touch moss," and it's not perfect, but I'll keep playing with it until I'm happy. For the time being, it's just nice to see something different.
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Idk man. The spirit of Marie Kondo is with me, and she says: It does not spark joy.
( Read more... )
Idk man. The spirit of Marie Kondo is with me, and she says: It does not spark joy.
Cuppa JOE: Jealousy & Obsession Exchange - PHs Due Oct 12
Sep. 26th, 2025 07:48 pmmodball posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
pinchhitsEvent: cuppajoexchange is a multi-fandom, multi-medium freeform exchange dedicated to jealousy, obsession, and all the messy emotions in between.
Event link: Dreamwidth | AO3 Collection
Due date: October 12, 2025 11:59 AM CDT (UTC -5) - Timezone Conversion
Fanwork Minimums: 1,000 words (Fic) or a complete work on unlined paper (Art)
To Claim: reply to the latest PH post on the Cuppa JOE comm or email ao3modball+joe@gmail.com with the pinch hit number and your AO3 username
--
CLAIMED PH 3 - Hellsing, Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), The Lord of the Rings (Jackson Movies), Yīng Xióng | Hero (2002), DC Extended Universe, Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Trylogia | The Trilogy - Henryk Sienkiewicz, Nightwatch (Discworld - Terry Pratchett), 蟲師 | Mushishi (Anime & Manga), Poison - Chris Wooding
CLAIMED PH 5 - Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Atlantis, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, Star Wars Original Trilogy
PH 6 - The Elementalists (Visual Novel), If It Please the Court - D. E. Chaudron, Crossover Fandom
CLAIMED PH 7 - Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, 魔尊也想知道 - 青色羽翼 | Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know - Cyan Wings, 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021), 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
CLAIMED PH 8 - Life Series | 3rd Life SMP Series, Life Series | 3rd Life SMP Series
cuppajoexchange is a multi-fandom, multi-medium freeform exchange dedicated to jealousy, obsession, and all the messy emotions in between. Event link: Dreamwidth | AO3 Collection
Due date: October 12, 2025 11:59 AM CDT (UTC -5) - Timezone Conversion
Fanwork Minimums: 1,000 words (Fic) or a complete work on unlined paper (Art)
To Claim: reply to the latest PH post on the Cuppa JOE comm or email ao3modball+joe@gmail.com with the pinch hit number and your AO3 username
--
PH 6 - The Elementalists (Visual Novel), If It Please the Court - D. E. Chaudron, Crossover Fandom
piano notes (september)
Sep. 25th, 2025 12:29 pmqueenluathe good news: my partner got me a fancy audio interface* for my birthday <3 so i can pull nice recordings off my piano now! and i broke it in by recording myself playing Verso's theme <3 it was very fun <3
the grind:
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the grind:
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Monsters + Flowers
Sep. 23rd, 2025 10:43 amrynlingSilksong
https://hannahlockillustration.tumblr.com/post/794407609977421825/silksong-just-beat-phantom-in-the-game-u-where
I love Hannah Lock's art in general, and I especially love this illustration in particular.
I'm linking to the piece here as a reference to myself. What I hear is that the way to develop your style as an artist is to allow yourself to be as horny as you need to be about one specific thing, and this is exactly the sort of thing I can't get enough of: A little guy in a lushly green environment. This is, for example, why I still love the Zelda games despite also kind of genuinely hating the Zelda games.
While studying my social media metrics over the past two years (which is a totally normal thing to do), I realized that reception is totally random. In addition, nothing I draw is ever going to do numbers in the current social media ecosystem. So why not give up and do whatever I want instead? Specifically, given that I love color and composition but suck at linework, why not loosen up a bit and just fill the page with rough lines and color blocks? And if I draw dozens of pieces just like the illustration I linked to above, so much the better! In the art world I believe they call this a "theme."
I have a handful of pieces I need to wrap up; but after that, it's little guys in green environments time. 🌿
https://hannahlockillustration.tumblr.com/post/794407609977421825/silksong-just-beat-phantom-in-the-game-u-where
I love Hannah Lock's art in general, and I especially love this illustration in particular.
I'm linking to the piece here as a reference to myself. What I hear is that the way to develop your style as an artist is to allow yourself to be as horny as you need to be about one specific thing, and this is exactly the sort of thing I can't get enough of: A little guy in a lushly green environment. This is, for example, why I still love the Zelda games despite also kind of genuinely hating the Zelda games.
While studying my social media metrics over the past two years (which is a totally normal thing to do), I realized that reception is totally random. In addition, nothing I draw is ever going to do numbers in the current social media ecosystem. So why not give up and do whatever I want instead? Specifically, given that I love color and composition but suck at linework, why not loosen up a bit and just fill the page with rough lines and color blocks? And if I draw dozens of pieces just like the illustration I linked to above, so much the better! In the art world I believe they call this a "theme."
I have a handful of pieces I need to wrap up; but after that, it's little guys in green environments time. 🌿
partial notes on Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life by Jean-Michel Nectoux
Sep. 22nd, 2025 01:12 pmqueenluaWhen, in the course of human events, one reads a little bit too much of Marilynne Robinson's incredible prose, and then plays a little bit too much Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and thus gets the two very different types of work all muddled in one's head, and is thus seized with the need to go spit out many thousands of words of Clair-Obscur-fanfiction-in-the-style-of-Marilynne-Robinson, but becomes aware partway through the project that one's understanding of the culture and structure of the Paris Conservatory during the Belle Époque era is incredibly thin, and this lack of understanding is really becoming awkward given that one has gone and invented an entire subplot involving multiple professors at aforementioned conservatory in one's fanfiction based on a passing mention in canon that "oh such-and-such character went to conservatory" and literally nothing else—well, it thus becomes necessary to go read a well-regarded biography of a contemporaneous French composer to amend that lack of knowledge.
Which is how I found myself reading Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life by Jean-Michel Nectoux (translated by Roger Nichols).
("You really have a knack for nerd-sniping yourself," a friend observed dryly when I explained my present pitiable state of affairs. Yeah I sure do, huh.)
As I've been reading this primarily for convoluted fanfiction research purposes, what follows should not be construed as a review or anything even approaching one (I haven't even finished reading the book yet!), but, more of a... thinking-aloud session? Because there's a great deal that's amused me, and also a great deal that's made me very ponderous, and also stuff that just straight-up confused me (recall my aforementioned staggering lack of historical/contextual knowledge)... and yeah the only way I know how to think these days is via blog posts, apparently.
( Read more... )
Oh, also, one last funny bit about the translation: there's a bunch of words that are left with the French spelling, for no particular reason I can discern? The funniest of these is "rôle," which is always spelled the French way, even though there is no semantic difference to be had there. Whatcha trying to prove with that little hat over the O, lol. Though I guess The New Yorker still spells coordinate and cooperate as "coördinate" and "coöperate" so. I guess we all have our little spelling hangups :P
Which is how I found myself reading Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life by Jean-Michel Nectoux (translated by Roger Nichols).
("You really have a knack for nerd-sniping yourself," a friend observed dryly when I explained my present pitiable state of affairs. Yeah I sure do, huh.)
As I've been reading this primarily for convoluted fanfiction research purposes, what follows should not be construed as a review or anything even approaching one (I haven't even finished reading the book yet!), but, more of a... thinking-aloud session? Because there's a great deal that's amused me, and also a great deal that's made me very ponderous, and also stuff that just straight-up confused me (recall my aforementioned staggering lack of historical/contextual knowledge)... and yeah the only way I know how to think these days is via blog posts, apparently.
( Read more... )
Oh, also, one last funny bit about the translation: there's a bunch of words that are left with the French spelling, for no particular reason I can discern? The funniest of these is "rôle," which is always spelled the French way, even though there is no semantic difference to be had there. Whatcha trying to prove with that little hat over the O, lol. Though I guess The New Yorker still spells coordinate and cooperate as "coördinate" and "coöperate" so. I guess we all have our little spelling hangups :P
Git Gud
Sep. 22nd, 2025 08:47 amrynlingHow to Install Silksong mods on the Steam Deck
https://blog.joshnichols.com/post/how-to-install-silksong-mods-on-the-steam-deck/
I spent more than an hour following this guide and troubleshooting possible issues, but I couldn't for the life of me get any of the mods to work. The windows visualization of my Steam Deck system is slightly different from the system of the guy who made this video tutorial, and I suspect that my issue is probably something along the lines of "you put the wrong files in the wrong folder." But who can say.
And this is such a shame, honestly. Silksong is a gorgeous and fascinating game, but its developers seem to have assumed that everyone has spent the past seven years getting a PhD in Hollow Knight. Enemies move twice as fast, hit twice as hard, and have twice as much HP. In contrast, Hornet only gets half as many upgrades, which are only half as effective. Unless you have professional-level reflexes, some of the bosses are impossible.
Given the immense popularity of Hollow Knight, I question the decision of the Silksong developers not to include the sort of simple quality-of-life and accessibility features that are available through mods. I don't mind difficult games, but Silksong is severely unbalanced. I kind of want to put the devs in a Saw trap where they have to sacrifice one of their fingers for each accessibility feature they refuse to include.
https://blog.joshnichols.com/post/how-to-install-silksong-mods-on-the-steam-deck/
I spent more than an hour following this guide and troubleshooting possible issues, but I couldn't for the life of me get any of the mods to work. The windows visualization of my Steam Deck system is slightly different from the system of the guy who made this video tutorial, and I suspect that my issue is probably something along the lines of "you put the wrong files in the wrong folder." But who can say.
And this is such a shame, honestly. Silksong is a gorgeous and fascinating game, but its developers seem to have assumed that everyone has spent the past seven years getting a PhD in Hollow Knight. Enemies move twice as fast, hit twice as hard, and have twice as much HP. In contrast, Hornet only gets half as many upgrades, which are only half as effective. Unless you have professional-level reflexes, some of the bosses are impossible.
Given the immense popularity of Hollow Knight, I question the decision of the Silksong developers not to include the sort of simple quality-of-life and accessibility features that are available through mods. I don't mind difficult games, but Silksong is severely unbalanced. I kind of want to put the devs in a Saw trap where they have to sacrifice one of their fingers for each accessibility feature they refuse to include.
AspecEx Initial Pinch Hits - Due October 7th 10PM PST
Sep. 22nd, 2025 03:09 amflowing_river posting in pinchhitsEvent: AspecEx
Event Link:aspecex
Pinch Hit Link: Current Pinch Hit Post
Due Date: October 7th 10PM PST
aspecex is an Asexuality and Aromanticism themed multifandom exchange. You must create a fanfiction that is a minimum of 300 words. We have 4 initial pinch hits that are due at the assignment deadline.
Assignment Requirements
PH 1 - 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime), 魔尊也想知道 - 青色羽翼 | Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know - Cyan Wings, Dark Souls (Video Games), Bloodborne (Video Game), Elden Ring (Video Game), The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
PH 2 - James Bond (Craig Movies), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, Unfit to Print - K. J. Charles, Lilywhite Boys Series - K. J. Charles
PH 3 - Bridgerton (TV), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), Little Women (2019 Movie - Gerwig), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), This Means War (2012), Wonka (2023)
PH 4 - Leverage (US TV 2008), Tortall - Tamora Pierce, Emelan - Tamora Pierce, Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
For more details/to claim, view the pinch hit post.
Event Link:
aspecexPinch Hit Link: Current Pinch Hit Post
Due Date: October 7th 10PM PST
aspecex is an Asexuality and Aromanticism themed multifandom exchange. You must create a fanfiction that is a minimum of 300 words. We have 4 initial pinch hits that are due at the assignment deadline.Assignment Requirements
For more details/to claim, view the pinch hit post.
I should start a YouTube channel
Sep. 21st, 2025 10:53 amrynlingI'm currently writing an original piece of flash fiction called "In This House We Love Hello Kitty," which is about an aging Millennial who's doing some urban exploration and comes across an old CRT monitor that reminds him of how his grandmother used to defend him against his homophobic parents before she got numerology brainrot from Facebook.
For this story, I had to come up with some original numerology rants, and it was surprisingly easy to do.
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I'm good, right? And I could do this all damn day.I'm sure this has nothing to do with ADHD
For this story, I had to come up with some original numerology rants, and it was surprisingly easy to do.
( Read more... )
I'm good, right? And I could do this all damn day.
2024 Year in Review
Sep. 20th, 2025 07:53 amrynlingBooks Read: 123
Graphic Novels Read: 50
Japanese Manga Read: 48
Video Games Finished: 20
Zines Reviewed on Etsy: 73
Illustrations and Comics Posted: 57
Illustrations and Comics Commissioned: 33
Posts on Gingko Books: 51
Posts on Digital Fantasy Diary: 66
I realized that I never put together this sort of list for 2024, so I went ahead and did it for the purpose of giving myself a bit of encouragement. Like I said in my annual year-end resolution post (here), 2024 was a tough year for me. 2025 hasn’t been much better, to be honest, and it’s important to have a small reminder to keep moving forward while seeking out joy. In 2024 I stopped caring about “finishing” media after it stopped being fun, and this turned out to be a good habit.
Also, in 2024 I was careful about maintaining a regular posting schedule (by which I mean consistently posting at the same time of day on the same days of the week), and what I learned is that this had no effect on the metrics of any of my blogs or social media. Reception really is almost totally random, and you can never say for certain what’s going to get positive feedback. This year, I’ve been much more casual about posting. I haven’t noticed any difference in numbers, but I’ve been far less stressed out.
Graphic Novels Read: 50
Japanese Manga Read: 48
Video Games Finished: 20
Zines Reviewed on Etsy: 73
Illustrations and Comics Posted: 57
Illustrations and Comics Commissioned: 33
Posts on Gingko Books: 51
Posts on Digital Fantasy Diary: 66
I realized that I never put together this sort of list for 2024, so I went ahead and did it for the purpose of giving myself a bit of encouragement. Like I said in my annual year-end resolution post (here), 2024 was a tough year for me. 2025 hasn’t been much better, to be honest, and it’s important to have a small reminder to keep moving forward while seeking out joy. In 2024 I stopped caring about “finishing” media after it stopped being fun, and this turned out to be a good habit.
Also, in 2024 I was careful about maintaining a regular posting schedule (by which I mean consistently posting at the same time of day on the same days of the week), and what I learned is that this had no effect on the metrics of any of my blogs or social media. Reception really is almost totally random, and you can never say for certain what’s going to get positive feedback. This year, I’ve been much more casual about posting. I haven’t noticed any difference in numbers, but I’ve been far less stressed out.
2025 Writing Log, Part 37
Sep. 20th, 2025 08:45 amrynling( Read more... )
I’ve been in a horrible mood all week. This might be nothing more than the change in season, but I have a feeling it has more to do with being expected to bear silent witness to racially-motivated murder at home and an ongoing genocide abroad. I wish this somehow got easier to deal with on a daily basis, but it never does.
Meanwhile, my Pomeranian has noticed that looking at my phone makes me angry, so she’s begun attacking it whenever she sees it in my hand. What a good and smart little creature!
I’ve been in a horrible mood all week. This might be nothing more than the change in season, but I have a feeling it has more to do with being expected to bear silent witness to racially-motivated murder at home and an ongoing genocide abroad. I wish this somehow got easier to deal with on a daily basis, but it never does.
Meanwhile, my Pomeranian has noticed that looking at my phone makes me angry, so she’s begun attacking it whenever she sees it in my hand. What a good and smart little creature!
To enthusiasts, the dead mall is a feeling
Sep. 19th, 2025 07:54 amrynlingGhost in the Mall: The Affective and Hauntological Potential of Dead Mall Ruins
https://capaciousjournal.com/article/ghost-in-the-mall/
In the dead mall the dream of mass consumer culture is disenchanted – the stores are closed, there are no products on the shelf, no running water fountains, no more vibrant exciting consumer interiors. And yet, as the enthusiasts’ reflections demonstrate, the utopian desires of the mall remain a spectral affectual trace haunting the hallways once filled with people and products.
Not gonna lie, I love the concept of "spectral affect." I also admire how the author of this article references The Mushroom at the End of the World (my beloved):
Despite the rubble seeming dead and inert, ruins are lively places – places where unexpected things may emerge. I approach the dead mall like Anna Tsing (2015) does the abandoned industrial forests where matsutake mushrooms grow. The matsutake alerts us to an important question: what grows on the edges of our capitalist worlds, in our capitalist ruins? Inspired by Tsing, I practice an "art of noticing" – looking with a hopeful eye at the ruins of dead malls.
I've been rereading Tsing's matsutake book alongside Fredric Jameson, and both authors are interesting companions on the road to rethinking what it means to live in the ruins of a decaying empire. As a follow-up to In Praise of Moss, it might be cool to make a new zine titled something like "In Praise of Decay: The Mushroom Model of Degrowth."
https://capaciousjournal.com/article/ghost-in-the-mall/
In the dead mall the dream of mass consumer culture is disenchanted – the stores are closed, there are no products on the shelf, no running water fountains, no more vibrant exciting consumer interiors. And yet, as the enthusiasts’ reflections demonstrate, the utopian desires of the mall remain a spectral affectual trace haunting the hallways once filled with people and products.
Not gonna lie, I love the concept of "spectral affect." I also admire how the author of this article references The Mushroom at the End of the World (my beloved):
Despite the rubble seeming dead and inert, ruins are lively places – places where unexpected things may emerge. I approach the dead mall like Anna Tsing (2015) does the abandoned industrial forests where matsutake mushrooms grow. The matsutake alerts us to an important question: what grows on the edges of our capitalist worlds, in our capitalist ruins? Inspired by Tsing, I practice an "art of noticing" – looking with a hopeful eye at the ruins of dead malls.
I've been rereading Tsing's matsutake book alongside Fredric Jameson, and both authors are interesting companions on the road to rethinking what it means to live in the ruins of a decaying empire. As a follow-up to In Praise of Moss, it might be cool to make a new zine titled something like "In Praise of Decay: The Mushroom Model of Degrowth."
We have decaying gothic castles at home
Sep. 18th, 2025 10:43 amrynlingA tour of dead and dying malls around Philadelphia
https://billypenn.com/2022/08/01/philadelphia-malls-tour-moorestown-exton-gallery-neshaminy-oxford/
Now officially called Voorhees Town Center, following a failed 2007 rebrand, the mall is a ghost town. Footsteps echo ominously through empty tile halls that contain just four or five operational storefronts, including a karate dojo and an inexplicably new-looking Bath & Body Works. The handsome corporate modern-style food court, complete with hotel lobby palm trees, is completely vacant. Every restaurant and every concession stand has closed, leaving nothing behind but dozens of tables and a few workers from a nearby behavioral health clinic enjoying their bring-from-home lunch in uncanny silence.
I also appreciate the writer's take on the Lovecraftian architecture of the King of Prussia mall:
The interior takes on the uncanny geometry and baffling architecture of a Las Vegas casino. The packed hallways seem to fold in on themselves, leaving you disoriented among apparently endless sunlit atriums and multiple redundant food courts.
https://billypenn.com/2022/08/01/philadelphia-malls-tour-moorestown-exton-gallery-neshaminy-oxford/
Now officially called Voorhees Town Center, following a failed 2007 rebrand, the mall is a ghost town. Footsteps echo ominously through empty tile halls that contain just four or five operational storefronts, including a karate dojo and an inexplicably new-looking Bath & Body Works. The handsome corporate modern-style food court, complete with hotel lobby palm trees, is completely vacant. Every restaurant and every concession stand has closed, leaving nothing behind but dozens of tables and a few workers from a nearby behavioral health clinic enjoying their bring-from-home lunch in uncanny silence.
I also appreciate the writer's take on the Lovecraftian architecture of the King of Prussia mall:
The interior takes on the uncanny geometry and baffling architecture of a Las Vegas casino. The packed hallways seem to fold in on themselves, leaving you disoriented among apparently endless sunlit atriums and multiple redundant food courts.
Make Lovecraft Not Warcraft
Sep. 18th, 2025 09:46 amrynlingIt’s very cool to have gotten a Lovecraft pastiche accepted for publication (fingers crossed). When it (hopefully) comes out, it will be the third Lovecraft story I’ve published in a fiction magazine.
( Read more... )
I sincerely believe that people should write whatever they want, but a part of me still worries that I’m going to be judged for aligning myself with the work of such a problematic author.
The truth remains, though, that these Lovecraft stories only occupy a small closet in the house I’m trying to build with my writing. What I’d want to say to anyone who judges me is not to be like the small rural library that only had room for Stephen King and HP Lovecraft, but to create space for original work that does more than facilitate a feedback loop of preset responses.
( Read more... )
I sincerely believe that people should write whatever they want, but a part of me still worries that I’m going to be judged for aligning myself with the work of such a problematic author.
The truth remains, though, that these Lovecraft stories only occupy a small closet in the house I’m trying to build with my writing. What I’d want to say to anyone who judges me is not to be like the small rural library that only had room for Stephen King and HP Lovecraft, but to create space for original work that does more than facilitate a feedback loop of preset responses.
DeviantArt is a dead mall
Sep. 17th, 2025 07:34 amrynlingThe Tragic Downfall of the Internet’s Art Gallery
https://slate.com/technology/2024/05/deviantart-what-happened-ai-decline-lawsuit-stability.html
It’s not unlikely, as WyerframeZ surmised, that someone constructed a low-effort bot network that could hold up a self-perpetuating money-embezzlement scheme: Generate a bunch of free images and accounts, have them buy and boost one another in perpetuity, inflate metrics so that the “art” gets boosted by DeviantArt and reaches real humans, then watch the money pile up from DeviantArt revenue-sharing programs. Rinse, repeat.
This is an interesting article from May 2024 that meticulously documents what's been happening to DeviantArt since late 2022. It's really sad... and kind of spooky.
https://slate.com/technology/2024/05/deviantart-what-happened-ai-decline-lawsuit-stability.html
It’s not unlikely, as WyerframeZ surmised, that someone constructed a low-effort bot network that could hold up a self-perpetuating money-embezzlement scheme: Generate a bunch of free images and accounts, have them buy and boost one another in perpetuity, inflate metrics so that the “art” gets boosted by DeviantArt and reaches real humans, then watch the money pile up from DeviantArt revenue-sharing programs. Rinse, repeat.
This is an interesting article from May 2024 that meticulously documents what's been happening to DeviantArt since late 2022. It's really sad... and kind of spooky.
Definitely not haunted even a little
Sep. 16th, 2025 12:04 pmrynlingOld LA Zoo in Griffith Park: An Abandoned Zoo
https://californiathroughmylens.com/old-la-zoo-griffith-park/
The Old LA Zoo is what remains of the original Los Angeles Zoo that was simply left in its place when the zoo changed locations. Also, picnic benches were added to some of the old animal areas, and it was adopted into Griffith Park, which welcomes tons of visitors each day. The zoo is a truly unique location in the urban jungle that is Los Angeles.
Something I appreciate about this abandoned zoo is that they're not even trying to keep people out; they just put up a few signs that say "no smoking" and left it at that. Fair enough.
https://californiathroughmylens.com/old-la-zoo-griffith-park/
The Old LA Zoo is what remains of the original Los Angeles Zoo that was simply left in its place when the zoo changed locations. Also, picnic benches were added to some of the old animal areas, and it was adopted into Griffith Park, which welcomes tons of visitors each day. The zoo is a truly unique location in the urban jungle that is Los Angeles.
Something I appreciate about this abandoned zoo is that they're not even trying to keep people out; they just put up a few signs that say "no smoking" and left it at that. Fair enough.