Got steroids to the left wrist on Tuesday, and sulked for the rest of the day because it was tender ( Read more... ).

Friday I put together the Cronch Tower, to replace the Cronch Pile. It's a 5 foot construction of wire shelf panels, with two two-foot high baskets and a final open topped container. This is to manage the chip needs of 3+1 people.

After shopping Friday, Belovedest pulled the Holiday Morass in front of me, for me to sort out into Yuletide, Halloween, and ~~It's Fall, Y'All~~ Decorative Gourd Season. Plus None of the Above. And Thorn came up for company while working and sociability. Since they had hung the work privacy shade on the window.

Today before I woke up, Belovedest had herded the Cronch Tower further. And unboxed my printer. And while I took advantage of the 80+F weather to lounge, they ran a test print.

The print came out fine! Belovedest now knows where I keep the spare filament (in The Heir and the Spare, naturally). We are discussing next steps!

tielan

There's no room for in it for my brain, no space in my schedule for watching, no community to drag me along with them.

And also, I've become resigned to the fact that I will never get stories about the characters that I want. That my interests are not anywhere near the interests of the majority of viewers, and because what counts is eyeballs (or reader pages, or whatever) then the characters I love - or the archetypes I want to see - are not going to appeal to most people.

It's a little demoralising, and makes it hard to write.

Not to mention the state of the world is steadily wearing on us all. Not just the AI (fuck AI) but also the world and all it's harms. All the hopeful stories I had for analogues and spin-offs of our world are presently crumbling while watching Ukraine, Gaza, the authority of the current US Administration, the right-wingers, Christian Nationalism - not to mention all the tech issues.

*sigh*

I can't remember if it was John Green or someone else (might have been Hank Green) who said during the 2020 election process that he was hesitating over starting a new book, because a 2nd Trump administration would create a very different world to one in which 45 only managed one administration. He was, as it turns out, exceedingly prescient on that front.

muccamukk

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher, narrated by Avi Roque.
Hugo Awards homework for the novella category.

As with the first one in this series, I enjoyed the characters more than the horror plotline, and I don't think it's just because I'm not always that into horror. ( Read more... )

Woodworking by Emily St. James, narrated by Saoirse Ní Shúilleabháin, L. Morgan Lee & Emily St. James.
Dramady about being a trans woman in middle America during the run up to the 2016 federal election. ( Read more... )

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong, narrated by Phyllis Ho.
I need to stop trying to read cosy fantasy, or possibly cosy anything (except maybe shifter romances). ( Read more... )

The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko, narrated by Adetinpo Thomas.
(Awards homework for the Lodestar.)

So I read this without reading any of the rest of the Raybearer series, and a) it stood alone just fine and I was able to follow everything that wasn't an Easter Egg, and b) if you're interested in the original duology (which I probably have on my e-reader somewhere), I would definitely read that first, as this spoils the majority of the plot for the earlier books. ( Read more... )

muccamukk

IDK if I shared this before, but here it is again.

Watch on YouTube

kaberett

Analogy of the day: car reversing sensors. Warn of impending, potential tissue damage, as distinct from actual tissue damage. Sometimes panic about A Plant, or The Bike Rack. Sometimes totally fail to miss the six-inch tall bollard that makes things go crunch in a way you don't notice until later.

Book purchase of the day: The Painful Truth, Monty Lyman, recced by a friend as popsci/popmed and one I'd nearly wound up buying yesterday anyway (... and a National Trust baking book to go with it).

Book purchase of the tomorrow, probably: Fitzgerald's Clinical Neuroanatomy and Neuroscience 7^th ed (2015), recommended via a NYU med student reading list (Cambridge's all appear to be paywalled and I'm sulking).

Links for further perusal: introductions to the nervous system on Biology LibreTexts and Health LibreTexts.

Reorganisation: possibly I am going to want to rewrite the introduction again (though the words do keep being useful), but crucially while murbling at A I think I have concluded that actually the reason the structure doesn't make sense is that neuroanatomy doesn't want to be the middle section, it wants to be an appendix. But I'll want to, er, know slightly more neuroanatomy before actually settling on that...

white_aster

If you are involved with any Pride events and want a fun give-away, Penzey's Spices is looking for where to send some of these Pride coins. The above link is to the form, but before you request, please read the below-cut text that includes some instructions and explanations, from the owner (orig posted on FB). The cut-text also includes some coupons and special offers, of which Penzeys has many - they give back to the community liek whoa, always having SOMETHING for free or cheap with a small purchase. Right now they're selling their 50$ gift cards for $35, and have a few freebies and significant discounts on gift boxes available.

Here's the Penzeys' owner's explanatory post:
( Read more... )

flamingsword

A crow beats on the updraft over a scragged hawthorn,
rocked but plunging on. A stick of Paras, bristling with nerves,
coughs and boots forward along the sheugh.
Long after the soldiers have gone, the crows will settle home.

Since Newry, choppers have been battling back and forth
across the track. These trains are overheated, sweat
stings in my underslept eyes; I'd rather the crows' lift and pluck
than to be here, rocked to the quick, driving on Derry.

I often wish, my love, that we were birds, the wide domains
of Ireland at our turn and fall, the world's wind
our natural element - rain, ice, hail or sun our gods,
the tall pines our greenwhip lightning rods.

Tonight there's a horned moon and Venus trailing
low over the Waterside. Tonight let me fold you in my wings,
pray nobody's killed in dark of country or town. We'll settle
the long night in another of our beds, watch what the morning brings.

stonepicnicking_okapi

Found this Youtube channel yesterday. Very cute crafting.

Watch on YouTube

ravena_kade

The wind rain on Thursday was so bad that we had a leak in the house. The wind drove the rain through the dryer vent and we had had enough water that I put down 8 bath towels to pick it up.

The rain did stop Friday and the weather was still gray and crappy so I made soup...not some low sodium crap. I made my Grandmother's shin bone soup and it was properly seasoned. I made it in the enameled cast iron dutch oven that I bought at Easter. I fondly call it my purple cauldron. The little golden rings in the soup are magical to me (hence the cauldron). The mundane reason for the gold is that it is the beef fat. The trick is skimming off enough so the soup is not greasy, but still has some fat...Fat is flavor..and that means I am f'ing delicious..ha!

Dad told me that his boss is going to sell the business. The plan is that she will work there for a year full time and then go part time. She does not want to quit because she likes it. The new guy wants to keep Dad on as long as Dad wants to/can do. We shall see. I had to reiterate that at this time I am not ready to give up my apartment. I need the separation. Without a kitchen my place is not rentable. That and I have not done anything wrong so I should not have to live in my cellar. My pay is too low, but it's the only way to do all the medical stuff he needs. I can't pay for all utilities and his meds. He will need a roommate or live in the cellar. He will have to give up his car.

My plan was to work today and Monday in the yard...if it dries out. Found out that I have to take Dad shoe shopping because his shoes for the wedding next week don't fit. I have been telling him for 2 months to try the shoes on. Grrrrr... I am tempted to just let him wear sneakers....

I will be glad when this wedding is OVER. Dad being involved with getting the cousins there has involved me once again the circus. That and I found out that the hotel that was booked is costing me $300. Dad wanted to stay the 2 days with the cousins so that is $600. The place doesn't even have a pool. We don't have that money. Sigh. So between the clothes, the gift, and the hotel this is costing me about $700...for a place I don't even want to be at. If I were going alone I could have bummed a ride with another cousin and then taken the train home that night.

lunabee34

1. Dylan has been diagnosed with lupus and given medication. When we got done with the appointment, I sat in the car and cried. It's been so long with no one helping us that I had started to despair that it would ever happen. I'm scared, of course; I don't want my child to have lupus. But this means they can now take medicine to make them feel better, and they can get accommodations at school if they need to because they have a formal diagnosis.

I am also incandescently angry at the first rheumatologist we saw. Dylan's labs are essentially THE SAME as when we saw that doc; she just didn't think Dylan was SICK ENOUGH to do anything about. They could have been getting help all this time.

In the same vein, I've got a routine appointment with my PCP later this summer; I'm going to have her run the same labs she did on Dylan that led to the referral, and if my labs are at similar levels, I'm going to get a referral to the same rheumatologist. I have always firmly believed that Dylan and I have the same issue, just that they started on the path much earlier and much more severely. I couldn't get that awful rheumatologist to take me seriously, but clearly this one will.

I haven't said anything to my parents yet. I guess I will next time we talk, but I don't want to initiate contact with them. I know mom's going to be hurt and sad that I didn't immediately tell her, but I don't want to talk to them.

2. ( spoilers for all of Dragon Prince )

All in all, deeply enjoyable and highly recommended.

white_aster

The Logistics of Road War in the Wasteland

So what we’ll do is outline the ‘warfare model’ of these Mad Max-style settings, discuss the problems with that warfare model and then lay out a more plausible replacement and in the process think a bit about modern military logistics.

I love it when this blogger starts not just poking at scifi tropes, but OFFERING ADVICE.

The upshot of his advice in this one? Fewer war rigs, more Toyota Hilluxes.

thatyourefuse

( warnings for canon-typical Logan continue )

So it's been a fucking minute, for a long and mostly tedious list of reasons, and I'm not sure how much I have to say, ( BUT. )

kaberett

Pain associated with sensory hypersensitivity, e.g. light and sound: is this primarily nociceptive (i.e. nociceptors are firing at a lower threshold) or a feature of central processing (i.e. brain goes "NOPE DON'T LIKE THAT" about stimuli the peripheral nervous system isn't reporting as Harmful)? Or, slightly more comprehensibly to people who are not currently spending lots of time thinking about this particular niche area, when normal light levels cause me pain, is that the nerves that go "YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE SUN AND IT'S A BAD IDEA STOP THAT RIGHT NOW" that are initiating those signals, or a... central... processing... issue... yeah okay maybe I should go to bed instead of trying to words this. BUT a quick shakedown of the internet revealed it's only in the last decade or so that nociceptive signalling relating to Loud Noise Bad has been demonstrated so that's cool.

stonepicnicking_okapi

So I tried to combine several things and it just didn't work.

I got this fun chocolate bar from the Royal Shakespeare Company. I was going to write a poem inspired by it, but my next prompt is insects and I looked up Shakespeare and insects and found an article on carrion maggots and worms and I don't have any maggot stickers and really this wrapper is just too pretty to put maggots with it even if I did have them, so I did a simple collage (only 5 elements) and I will write my maggot poem separately.

tielan

Going home today!

Seriously, I like travel, but not when work comes on top of it. Although being away from Sydney for the last two weeks has been good - the rain that is flooding northern NSW is also raining down in Sydney, albeit not as hard.

May need to check up in the roof cavity tomorrow to get an idea of how it's going up there. Might need to do a bunnings trip first for some decent lighting.

(ps. It's been raining pretty hard in Sydney the last couple of weeks. We're due for a few days' break shortly, just as I get back, hopefully enough to get the garden sorted out)

--

Last day on client site in Melbourne. Next week we're being included on the meetings (theoretically) and told about the issues that arise. And so begins the battle for (office) supremacy…

(ugh. I ate too much breakfast too fast and now I am having regret. Or indigestion. *burp*)

One of the issues in any translation from development to support is starting to recognise the issues that are arising and which ones are going to be perennial problem. There's also the manner in which we take on those issues.

I am a "we'll take it as it comes" kind of person.

My colleague (who is the team lead in this instance) is a "prepare for everything" kind of person.

So we are doing a lot of work to map everything out, determine what is going on, identify where things are happening, and look at possible solutions for issues that are not yet happening, but which might.

I personally tend to think that's a waste of time, but I am perhaps a little bit like the guy whose roof never leaks when it doesn't rain. Also, a lot of guys on the tech monitoring side tend to want pages and pages of directions. (Pages and pages of directions sends me to sleep.)

I'd rather dig out the issue myself than be fed what someone else thinks it is. Of course, that isn't how most support guys tend to think of it. And the up-tops really hate the "trust the techs, they know how to fix it" - which, granted, they often would find that maybe the techs in question don't know how to fix it as knowledge is lost between one support group to the next.

Next week, the processing of handing over the reins is supposed to begin. Whether it does, how much of it actually is given to us, and how we handle it? That's another question. I kind of miss the days of my last client, where if there was a problem, I would mostly fix it on my own cognisance. Then again, the system of the last client was set up to expect issues like this and things which might fall through. This client is a lot more insistent that every little issue be logged. I'm bad at that...

Oh well, colleague is on top of that at least. I guess I'm going to have to get up to speed on what's required to do this, that, and the other…

svgurl

This is what I wrote for the

unsent_letters_exchange. :)

Title: my heart is with you
Fandom: DCEU
Pairing/Characters: Diana/Steve
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1983
Summary: Diana writes letters for Steve, until she no longer has to.

svgurl

These were the fics I received from the

unsent_letters_exchange. :D

Title: Please Mr Postman
Author:

Ultra
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Pairing/Characters: Lane/Dave
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2855
Summary: When Dave goes off to California for college, he and Lane agree to do the long distance thing, largely through letters... and a lot of pop and rock music references, of course

I was so excited to get Lane/Dave! Loved all the fun music references and the letters were very them. :D

Title: Please Mr Postman - Post Credits Scene
Author:

Ultra
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Pairing/Characters: Rory/Jess
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1097
Summary: Inspired by Dave & Lane's letter writing, Rory writes to Jess.

The Rory/Jess references in the original fic was already nice but it was a lovely delight to get a followup fic with giving them a chance at a happy ending too!

kaberett

Wagamama have once again Done The Thing, by which I mean: the reliable Always Food For Alexes thing they've been doing for the last little while has rotated back off their menu.

The thing I tried instead today was sufficiently food for me to finish the rice but not sufficiently food for me to finish all of the toppings; I am suspicious of pho in "a clear yuzu broth" (which is not the same thing as "I won't try it").

(This is a Thing they have now done Twice, the first time about 15 years ago, and YES I AM HOLDING A GRUDGE.)

stonepicnicking_okapi

Adlestrop by Edward Thomas

Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

sporky_rat

Muscles are annoying. I understand the biological method by which we develop our muscles after using them; they're still annoying when the delayed onset muscle soreness hits. Which it has, and now my hips and quads and hams are in misery.

I am working on pullups as well, and my deltoids hate me. That's fine, I can hate them back just as equally.

On the more cheerful side of working a body and being reasonably good at it, I have had several people ask me to teach them stretching so they don't do anything awkward to themselves during high impact activity.

Current Mood: sore
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October 2023

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Page Summary

azurelunatic - Recent shenanigans: wrist, Cronch, and 3D printer
tielan - I don't have the space for fandom anymore
muccamukk - Reading Recap (March-April)
muccamukk - Music Saturday
kaberett - [pain] notes
white_aster - Rainbow coins for those putting on Pride events
flamingsword - Train to Derry by Theo Dorgan
stonepicnicking_okapi - Crafting: Becorn
ravena_kade - (no subject)
lunabee34 - Finally a diagnosis
white_aster - Link - The Logistics of Road War in the Wasteland
thatyourefuse - I bet you thought I'd given up on the liveblog, right? ADMITTEDLY SO DID I.
kaberett - today in idle reading about pain
stonepicnicking_okapi - Collage Journal: rsc
tielan - home again home again...
svgurl - fic: my heart is with you (diana/steve)
svgurl - unsent_letters gift fics (1 lane/dave, 1 rory/jess)
kaberett - [food] ... :|
stonepicnicking_okapi - Poet's Corner: Adlestrop by Edward Thomas
sporky_rat - Self propulsion is a crock

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Recent shenanigans: wrist, Cronch, and 3D printer

I don't have the space for fandom anymore

Reading Recap (March-April)

Music Saturday

[pain] notes

Rainbow coins for those putting on Pride events

Train to Derry by Theo Dorgan

Crafting: Becorn

(no subject)

Finally a diagnosis

Link - The Logistics of Road War in the Wasteland

The Logistics of Road War in the Wasteland

I bet you thought I'd given up on the liveblog, right? ADMITTEDLY SO DID I.

today in idle reading about pain

Collage Journal: rsc

home again home again...

fic: my heart is with you (diana/steve)

unsent_letters gift fics (1 lane/dave, 1 rory/jess)

[food] ... :|

Poet's Corner: Adlestrop by Edward Thomas

Self propulsion is a crock

October 2023

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