stonepicnicking_okapi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2025-06-30 04:25 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2025-06-30 04:25 pm
Entry tags:
rydra_wong (rydra_wong) wrote2025-06-30 03:19 pm
rydra_wong) wrote2025-06-30 03:19 pmEntry tags:
For anyone I've successfully lured: my top Disco Elysium tips
* SAVE OFTEN, especially in the early game when you may be very fragile and the game's auto-save is infrequent.
BUT -- don't reload from a save unless you actually die or otherwise hit a "game over."
This game is about failing, and it rewards you for playing forwards through failure. Some of the best moments in the game come from failed checks. There are always alternative routes and ways forwards. If you tried to savescum it, you would miss most of the game and all of the point. Embrace failure.
Okay there are those two specific checks where failing is so emotionally devastating I would not judge anyone for savescumming. But apart from those.
* You can just pick one of the Archetypes for a starter build, and leave messing around with custom character creation until you've seen the stats in action and understand how the system works. Don't stress about it. Or, if you want, you can throw yourself into custom character creation despite not having a clue how it works, and you will also have a fun time. Your initial build and your later choices about what you put points into will radically change your experience of the game, but you can't do it "wrong"; there are no optimal builds which are "better".
* Press tab to highlight objects you can interact with, or activate "detective mode" in the settings to do it automatically. Yes I know this is the sort of thing that is probably obvious to people who have played video games before.
* If your Health or Morale (displayed on the lower left of the screen) fall to zero, you have about 5 seconds to apply a healing item (if you have one) by clicking the cross above that stat.
This is the one timed element in the game, and also the one mechanic that some of us initially have trouble grasping.
With all the other mechanics in the game, you can not only learn them by flinging yourself in and floundering about, this is IMHO the best and most enjoyable way to learn them. No idea what the Thought Cabinet is or what Internalizing A Thought means? Try it and find out!
* Perhaps the most important tip of all:
If you feel you are flailing around and failing on most of the checks you try and you've just been informed you have acquired a Thought you can internalize in your Thought Cabinet and you have no clue what that means or maybe you just had a heart attack and died before you even got out of your hotel room or you had a nervous breakdown because a child insulted you and you have no idea what you're doing and it's been three days and you still haven't got the body down from the tree --
THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME "BADLY". THIS IS IN FACT THE UNIVERSAL DISCO ELYSIUM EXPERIENCE AND MEANS YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME CORRECTLY. WELL DONE.
BUT -- don't reload from a save unless you actually die or otherwise hit a "game over."
This game is about failing, and it rewards you for playing forwards through failure. Some of the best moments in the game come from failed checks. There are always alternative routes and ways forwards. If you tried to savescum it, you would miss most of the game and all of the point. Embrace failure.
* You can just pick one of the Archetypes for a starter build, and leave messing around with custom character creation until you've seen the stats in action and understand how the system works. Don't stress about it. Or, if you want, you can throw yourself into custom character creation despite not having a clue how it works, and you will also have a fun time. Your initial build and your later choices about what you put points into will radically change your experience of the game, but you can't do it "wrong"; there are no optimal builds which are "better".
* Press tab to highlight objects you can interact with, or activate "detective mode" in the settings to do it automatically. Yes I know this is the sort of thing that is probably obvious to people who have played video games before.
* If your Health or Morale (displayed on the lower left of the screen) fall to zero, you have about 5 seconds to apply a healing item (if you have one) by clicking the cross above that stat.
This is the one timed element in the game, and also the one mechanic that some of us initially have trouble grasping.
With all the other mechanics in the game, you can not only learn them by flinging yourself in and floundering about, this is IMHO the best and most enjoyable way to learn them. No idea what the Thought Cabinet is or what Internalizing A Thought means? Try it and find out!
* Perhaps the most important tip of all:
If you feel you are flailing around and failing on most of the checks you try and you've just been informed you have acquired a Thought you can internalize in your Thought Cabinet and you have no clue what that means or maybe you just had a heart attack and died before you even got out of your hotel room or you had a nervous breakdown because a child insulted you and you have no idea what you're doing and it's been three days and you still haven't got the body down from the tree --
THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME "BADLY". THIS IS IN FACT THE UNIVERSAL DISCO ELYSIUM EXPERIENCE AND MEANS YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME CORRECTLY. WELL DONE.
stonepicnicking_okapi (stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2025-06-30 07:32 am
stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2025-06-30 07:32 amEntry tags:
25 in 2025: Mid-year to date
I have ordered some new board games for us to try as a family so that will help. And I'm going to try and overhaul (gradually, one meal at a time) our dinners so that they are healthier. And maybe I'll have a job (*dare I hope*). But I need to be on the lookout for things because I should be at 12 or 13 by now.
1. learn to hem pants
2. go to a new grocery store
3. attend a jhope concert in Brooklyn
4. make an essential oil spray
5. submit an application for a job
6. interview for a job
7. participate in a fic exchange
8. read a manga (Death Note 1)
9. go to Costco
1. learn to hem pants
2. go to a new grocery store
3. attend a jhope concert in Brooklyn
4. make an essential oil spray
5. submit an application for a job
6. interview for a job
7. participate in a fic exchange
8. read a manga (Death Note 1)
9. go to Costco
stonepicnicking_okapi (stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2025-06-29 10:10 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2025-06-29 10:10 pmEntry tags:
The State of the Ficcery: June 2025
Word Count: 33,424
Writing: Many things going on:
1. I completed by GYWO pledge for 2025. So year-to-date, word count: 150,040
2. GYWO Yahtzee is over, and I did all but 1 category, so I was #5 (everyone ahead of me did all the categories)
3. I uploaded my beta-ed case fic today. Whew!
4. Started a new BTS soap opera, a Yoonkook Rear Window AU
5. 4 poems
5. Fills for:![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
emotion100, 100words, drabble_zone, vocab_drabbles
In July:
1. Keep the soap opera going
2. Still behind on the poems. Catch up on poems.
Reading: A very good reading month. 7 books.
In July:
1. At least 3 squares in the bingo.
2. Finish The Mirror Crack'd [it's annoying me at the moment, which is sad because the plot itself is very clever, but it begins with ol' Aggie's old lady carping and that is giving me indigestion]
Crafting:
5 spreads. 1 card.
In July:
I might do some summer postcards.
I have started a jigsaw puzzle, and I am forcing the boys to get off screen and help me with it after lunch. It is called Around the World in 50 Plants. Finish it by the start of school 25 AUG]
Personal:
1. Surviving the leak
2. Interviewing for a job
3. End of school for the boys
In July:
1. Minor and the boys' father are going to Jacksonville, Florida for 5 days for a track meet. So Minisculus and I will be home alone. It should be interesting.
So many mental and physical health areas I am not doing well in, but I don't want to dwell on them here.
On y va to July!
Writing: Many things going on:
1. I completed by GYWO pledge for 2025. So year-to-date, word count: 150,040
2. GYWO Yahtzee is over, and I did all but 1 category, so I was #5 (everyone ahead of me did all the categories)
3. I uploaded my beta-ed case fic today. Whew!
4. Started a new BTS soap opera, a Yoonkook Rear Window AU
5. 4 poems
5. Fills for:
emotion100, 100words, drabble_zone, vocab_drabblesIn July:
1. Keep the soap opera going
2. Still behind on the poems. Catch up on poems.
Reading: A very good reading month. 7 books.
In July:
1. At least 3 squares in the bingo.
2. Finish The Mirror Crack'd [it's annoying me at the moment, which is sad because the plot itself is very clever, but it begins with ol' Aggie's old lady carping and that is giving me indigestion]
Crafting:
5 spreads. 1 card.
In July:
I might do some summer postcards.
I have started a jigsaw puzzle, and I am forcing the boys to get off screen and help me with it after lunch. It is called Around the World in 50 Plants. Finish it by the start of school 25 AUG]
Personal:
1. Surviving the leak
2. Interviewing for a job
3. End of school for the boys
In July:
1. Minor and the boys' father are going to Jacksonville, Florida for 5 days for a track meet. So Minisculus and I will be home alone. It should be interesting.
So many mental and physical health areas I am not doing well in, but I don't want to dwell on them here.
On y va to July!
teaotter (teaotter) wrote2025-06-29 07:05 pm
teaotter) wrote2025-06-29 07:05 pm(no subject)
I got TWO utterly lovely stories for femgiftboxes! Both of them were for my original fiction prompt: Woman who reads in public/the monster who keeps men from interrupting her reading
Shared Time, byanagrrl
She waits, and she keeps herself to herself, tightly contained, as the time draws nearer.
And then she arrives. The Reader.
*flails* This was SO GOOD. A really very alien point of view character and just so much of what I love about books, all wrapped up together.
Ends and Beginnings, bykalloway
There was a wisp of shadow and a pressure around Allie's ankles as she stood at the tiny counter of her tiny kitchen, having just chopped vegetables to go with the rice in the little cooker she'd only just remembered to turn on.
*flails more* This one is cozy and mysterious and warm and still has that utter love of books and reading that draws me right in. SO GOOD.
I'm so glad my prompt resonated and got me such good stories!
femgiftboxes! Both of them were for my original fiction prompt: Woman who reads in public/the monster who keeps men from interrupting her readingShared Time, by
anagrrlShe waits, and she keeps herself to herself, tightly contained, as the time draws nearer.
And then she arrives. The Reader.
*flails* This was SO GOOD. A really very alien point of view character and just so much of what I love about books, all wrapped up together.
Ends and Beginnings, by
kallowayThere was a wisp of shadow and a pressure around Allie's ankles as she stood at the tiny counter of her tiny kitchen, having just chopped vegetables to go with the rice in the little cooker she'd only just remembered to turn on.
*flails more* This one is cozy and mysterious and warm and still has that utter love of books and reading that draws me right in. SO GOOD.
I'm so glad my prompt resonated and got me such good stories!
ravena_kade (ravena_kade) wrote2025-06-29 09:49 pm
ravena_kade) wrote2025-06-29 09:49 pm(no subject)
Yesterday was another wash out. I believe this makes 15 rainy Saturday in a row. Sigh. I went to a nursery look for plants and was disappointed. It was a high end nursery, but things were not stocked as well as the place I go up by Ipswich. Dad and I poked around then I too him out to lunch. Once home I tackled the desk and got rid of a large trash bag full of papers.
Today started out gray, but I did get out in the yard before going to the cousins. I potted up some plants for the patio. Had a stupid garden trick.... while dumping out old soil from a pot from last year I hit it so the front of me was covered in dirt. Well, it wasn't just dirt. The pot was loaded with tiny tiny brown ants. I had a bra full of tiny biting ants.... ow ow ow ow . Glad I am not allergic. Glad I dont live in fire ant territory.
Visited the cousins. I have not seen them in a month. when we got there lead cousin was going to see stroke cousin at the rehab. Stroke cousin's carotid artery surgery went okay, but it has set her back months in her rehab situation and the sisters cannot lift her any longer or move her. Mentally they still can't deal with stroke cousin complaining that the dinner room turned recovery room is too small and that she should have g=her Mother's bedroom and the mother be put in a nursing home. I get it. I would not deal with that either.
It was good to see stroke cousin. She is slower moving. I have a feeling something got botched in the surgery but the docs are saying it's normal. 3 of my Dad's sisters had the surgery and none had issues and were home the next day. Stroke cousin has lost the feeling in how lower lip and possibly control of it. The rehab was told to puree all her food as they didn't want any chewing. They puree'd fish and even a blue berry muffin...how f'ing disgusting is that.
When we came back we ate take out food. They watched base ball and I texted with a friend and listened to a pod cast with one headphone in my ear. No yell so it was a good visit.
Came home and did lawn care. Funny I find clipping the grass close to the white deck material very satisfying while I HATE mowing grass. The hand held clippers make me feel like I am shearing a sheep
Today started out gray, but I did get out in the yard before going to the cousins. I potted up some plants for the patio. Had a stupid garden trick.... while dumping out old soil from a pot from last year I hit it so the front of me was covered in dirt. Well, it wasn't just dirt. The pot was loaded with tiny tiny brown ants. I had a bra full of tiny biting ants.... ow ow ow ow . Glad I am not allergic. Glad I dont live in fire ant territory.
Visited the cousins. I have not seen them in a month. when we got there lead cousin was going to see stroke cousin at the rehab. Stroke cousin's carotid artery surgery went okay, but it has set her back months in her rehab situation and the sisters cannot lift her any longer or move her. Mentally they still can't deal with stroke cousin complaining that the dinner room turned recovery room is too small and that she should have g=her Mother's bedroom and the mother be put in a nursing home. I get it. I would not deal with that either.
It was good to see stroke cousin. She is slower moving. I have a feeling something got botched in the surgery but the docs are saying it's normal. 3 of my Dad's sisters had the surgery and none had issues and were home the next day. Stroke cousin has lost the feeling in how lower lip and possibly control of it. The rehab was told to puree all her food as they didn't want any chewing. They puree'd fish and even a blue berry muffin...how f'ing disgusting is that.
When we came back we ate take out food. They watched base ball and I texted with a friend and listened to a pod cast with one headphone in my ear. No yell so it was a good visit.
Came home and did lawn care. Funny I find clipping the grass close to the white deck material very satisfying while I HATE mowing grass. The hand held clippers make me feel like I am shearing a sheep
tielan (tielan) wrote2025-06-30 09:12 am
tielan) wrote2025-06-30 09:12 amEntry tags:
hockey draw - woot!
I made foccacia. It was good.
We also drew our hockey game on Sunday! 1-1!
(We won for the first time a couple of weeks back and it was Very Good.)
( hockey report )
I've spoken about how this is a tricksy year for hockey in a post earlier this year. But I am enjoying some of the games, even when we're getting beaten. And we are improving.
But it can still be frustrating to see players who aren't ready for this grade (and aren't improving) struggle in the face of it.
We also drew our hockey game on Sunday! 1-1!
(We won for the first time a couple of weeks back and it was Very Good.)
( hockey report )I've spoken about how this is a tricksy year for hockey in a post earlier this year. But I am enjoying some of the games, even when we're getting beaten. And we are improving.
But it can still be frustrating to see players who aren't ready for this grade (and aren't improving) struggle in the face of it.
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-06-29 08:16 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-06-29 08:16 pmEntry tags:
vital functions
Reading. ( Scalzi, Wells, Gordon + Ziv, Burch + Penman, McMillan-Webster )
I have also done a bunch of variably directed online reading about models and theories of pain, and will happily recommend the British Psychological Society's Story of pain should this be relevant to your interests!
Writing. I am several thousand words and 18 (of 52) questions into the consultation on the EHRC Code of Practice consultation. The deadline is in a little under 24 hours. Approximately two thirds of the questions appear to be very simple and straightforward tickboxes. I am not super enjoying the free-text responses, and especially did not enjoy that despite the total lack of any indicator of a word limit there is in fact a word limit and it's 1000 words. I discovered this having written 2511 of the damn things.
More cheerfully I am also, as mentioned, enjoying playing with my pens for the purposes of notes about pain. I am increasingly convinced (cannot remember if I mentioned?) that I have Solved the Problem of one of my fancy pens having an unwelcome tendency to dry up when looked at funny, via the method of "giving the cap a bonus little wiggle once it's on". (It's the Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age which, second hand, was a PhD completion present from A, because -- for those of you who aren't massive fountain pen nerds -- it's made out of a resin that's got crushed Etna basalt mixed in with it; I spent a while going "is it just because red-family inks are typically quite dry???" but nope, the effectiveness of the extra little wiggle suggests quite strongly that the spring for the inner cap isn't quiiite activating when I'd ideally like it to. This isn't necessarily a huge surprise given how sticky it was when I first got the pen, but it still took me... a while... to catch on.
Watching. Up to date with Murderbot. Remain grumbly about Decisions including "how little time the poor thing spends with its helmet up" and "how bad people are at poly" and also, fundamentally, the word "throuple" (I AM TOO OLD AND CRANKY FOR THIS NONSENSE, APPARENTLY), but am also mildly peeved that we've run out of episodes.
Listening. An Indelicates gig, which I almost could not make myself leave the house for but was very very glad I did. Not having yet managed to scrape together the brain to listen to Avenue QAnon significantly increased the proportion of new-to-me songs!
Cooking. Bread? Bread.
Eating. The branch of Tonkotsu a short way from the Indeligig venue turned out to have outside seating! And an updated menu since last time we made it to them, so we both delightedly consumed the chilli tofu ramen and also shared the cauliflower 'wings' and some edamame and the very pleasant yuzu lemonade and also also I tried A's Smoked Hibiscus Margarita and it was great. (I mildly regretted not being in fit state to actually want an entire cocktail of my own.)
Growing. I... harvested and processed 1.7 kg of redcurrants! And ate several handfuls of raspberries! Depending on how badly my neglect since Wednesday has damaged everything given The Heat there's at least as much again to come off the redcurrant bush, and the jostaberry and gooseberry were also both looking extremely promising. AND the second sowing of kohlrabi has started to come up.
rydra_wong (rydra_wong) wrote2025-06-29 01:54 pm
rydra_wong) wrote2025-06-29 01:54 pmEntry tags:
PSA
Disco Elysium is currently 90% off in the Steam summer sale, making it a mere £3.49.
Play Disco Elysium, everybody. Yes, even if you don't play video games.
(It was the first video game I ever played -- apart from having once(?) played Pac Man as a child, many many decades ago -- and it was a perfect choice.)
If you understand the principle of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, have a vague sense that "stats" and "levelling up" are things, and can grasp "click to go to a place/interact with an object," you are sufficiently equipped.
ETA: Okay, I will add inastrogirl's excellent content warning:
Play Disco Elysium, everybody. Yes, even if you don't play video games.
(It was the first video game I ever played -- apart from having once(?) played Pac Man as a child, many many decades ago -- and it was a perfect choice.)
If you understand the principle of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, have a vague sense that "stats" and "levelling up" are things, and can grasp "click to go to a place/interact with an object," you are sufficiently equipped.
ETA: Okay, I will add in
astrogirl's excellent content warning:It's definitely not for everybody. I mean, for one thing, it gets pretty much all the trigger warnings for everything. Alcoholism and substance abuse, suicidal thoughts, discussions of sexual assault, gore (not visual, but some of the descriptions are very vivid), you name it. A number of characters are giant racists. (Towards fictional races/ethnicities, mind you, but it's still ugly.) Evil children will hurl homophobic slurs at you. That sort of thing. And whatever your politics, the game will try very hard to make you feel uncomfortable about them.
yuuago (yuuago) wrote2025-06-28 10:39 pm
yuuago) wrote2025-06-28 10:39 pm(no subject)
+ Went to the Pride festival today. It was nice!
+ Saw some people I knew, had a nice little chat, etc.
+ There were some very good drag performances. Unfortunately I was only able to stay for part 1 of drag, had to leave before part 2, but I'm glad I saw some of it at least.
+ Ended up with a ridiculous sunburn. (Thought I covered everything, but then ya' miss one bit with the sun screen, and y'know.) It's not too bad, but augh.
+ There are two meetups I'm going to in this upcoming week and after that pride month is done. ...And I'm kind of glad, 'cause it was super fun but it was also A Lot.
+ Saw some people I knew, had a nice little chat, etc.
+ There were some very good drag performances. Unfortunately I was only able to stay for part 1 of drag, had to leave before part 2, but I'm glad I saw some of it at least.
+ Ended up with a ridiculous sunburn. (Thought I covered everything, but then ya' miss one bit with the sun screen, and y'know.) It's not too bad, but augh.
+ There are two meetups I'm going to in this upcoming week and after that pride month is done. ...And I'm kind of glad, 'cause it was super fun but it was also A Lot.
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-06-28 11:32 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-06-28 11:32 pmEntry tags:
much yelling
There has been A Great Squawking audible through the open windows for much of the last week. Yesterday A got to witness the source and then this morning so did I.
You see. There is a slightly scruffy, slightly scrawny magpie, which we wouldn't even necessarily have clocked as a juvenile if we'd seen it by itself? But we didn't. What we saw was it being attended by two actually filled-out adult magpies... up to and including it sitting back on its haunches and raising its mouth to the sky and continuing to yell until food was placed in it.
We have also got to watch it hop around in important little circles, intermittently pecking disconsolately at the ground, because apparently this is how the grown-ups make food appear!!! and it has not yet quite managed to work out why It's Not Working for baby, who is a Good Brave Baby who is doing All The Right Things and yet??? no food?????
And now that we have matched the yelling up with the culprit, I am grinning every time I can hear it, not just when it's visible. :)
katarik (katarik) wrote2025-06-28 09:49 am
katarik) wrote2025-06-28 09:49 amEntry tags:
a brief surfacing
Was at the queer youth group I volunteer at last night and the youth came in and were immediately like 'KPOP DEMON HUNTERS!!!' and, you know, the trailer looked cool, I've heard good things, and anyway the youth get to watch what they want to as long as they promise it's appropriately rated. So we put it on.
I have listened to the opening song six times in the subsequent twelve hours. I don't like all the songs in here, but "How It's Done" is absolutely an earworm, and it's an excellent example of how to effectively layer multiple voices. (Alcor Star Systems on Youtube has lyric videos which translate the Korean!)
I want the story where Rumi dodged the entire friend-breakup plotline by just TALKING to her friends like an ADULT, but I don't want to have to write it.
The worldbuilding is pretty shallow; it follows the tropes it's doing closely and there's no twist, which is both a feature and a bug; and the love interest is meh, but it's a very pretty movie with good female friendship and I am entirely here for the core concept of 'Jem and the Holograms but they're also Slayers'.
I have listened to the opening song six times in the subsequent twelve hours. I don't like all the songs in here, but "How It's Done" is absolutely an earworm, and it's an excellent example of how to effectively layer multiple voices. (Alcor Star Systems on Youtube has lyric videos which translate the Korean!)
I want the story where Rumi dodged the entire friend-breakup plotline by just TALKING to her friends like an ADULT, but I don't want to have to write it.
The worldbuilding is pretty shallow; it follows the tropes it's doing closely and there's no twist, which is both a feature and a bug; and the love interest is meh, but it's a very pretty movie with good female friendship and I am entirely here for the core concept of 'Jem and the Holograms but they're also Slayers'.
ravena_kade (ravena_kade) wrote2025-06-28 07:34 am
ravena_kade) wrote2025-06-28 07:34 am(no subject)
The building I work in is also a place where patients are treated. It's the cardiac building where my Dad was for a long time. I see the public every day. Yesterday I went to the ladies room and I was stopped by a an older woman, mid 70s, who absolutely loved my hair color and stopped me to ask about it. I told her it was from a box (literally) and the color comes from Germany. She asked what color my natural hair was to get the red. I am a light Brillo pad (steel wool) color. Her hair was past her shoulders and the ends had 2 inches of red. She had a pretty round face and beautiful happy blue eyes. She said that she was too old for the color. I said no you can do it. You are a real redhead and it would look stunning with your eyes. She laughed and said she wasn't a real redhead, but red for a long time. I said she could always go back. Do what you want and have fun.
yuuago (yuuago) wrote2025-06-27 10:53 pm
yuuago) wrote2025-06-27 10:53 pmEntry tags:
[News] Injunction granted to block Alberta's anti-trans bill
LGBT organizations Egale Canada and Skipping Stone have won an injunction against Bill 26, a law meant to ban gender-affirming care for youth in Alberta. [CBC, Egale Canada]
They initiated litigation against the government of Alberta in March. More info here.
This is a temporary stop, and unfortunately the injunction only covers the trans healthcare issue, not all the other trans-relevant issues the UCP has been trying to push through. However, it buys us some time, and that's very important.
I expect we'll be talking about this at the next local pride meeting, trying to see if there's any clear next steps for what we can do (or what Wood Buffalo Pride can do, rather).
Happy pride month.
( Copy of CBC's article )
( Copy of Egale Canada's press release )
They initiated litigation against the government of Alberta in March. More info here.
This is a temporary stop, and unfortunately the injunction only covers the trans healthcare issue, not all the other trans-relevant issues the UCP has been trying to push through. However, it buys us some time, and that's very important.
I expect we'll be talking about this at the next local pride meeting, trying to see if there's any clear next steps for what we can do (or what Wood Buffalo Pride can do, rather).
Happy pride month.
( Copy of CBC's article )( Copy of Egale Canada's press release )
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-06-27 10:34 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-06-27 10:34 pmEntry tags:
some good things!
- Went on an Adventure to post a lost item back to someone (hopefully in time for the next thing they want it for...), and was rewarded with DUCKLINGS.
- Not too warm to achieve fallback dinner of I Don't Know, Bake A Potato, with the result that we finished the lurking salad leaves and also stuck some of the cook-from-frozen pasteis de nata into the oven once potatoes were done.
- Ridiculous organic greengrocer had an option on sending us rainbow chard this week, which means I might actually manage to cook one whole new recipe this month (!), which was otherwise... not looking likely. (I have been comprehensively failing to sow any, but there we go.)
- Went fossicking in sofa to try to at least rationalise my horrid piles. Found one (1) of the two (2) fancy watch chargers I own, and not the one I was expecting to turn up (because I thought I'd probably mislaid it in a field), which hopefully means that given a leeeetle bit more fossicking I might even find the second.
- Really enjoying playing with pens for the purposes of making notes on the pain reading. (Today has been Mindfulness for Health, with detours to read up more on the gate control and [neuromatrix] theories of pain; I was surprised that Model First Proposed In The 1960s is still apparently more-or-less the best we've got for "how the fuck does psychology and emotional affect and other sensory input actually affect how pain is experienced?")
lunabee34 (lunabee34) wrote2025-06-27 07:25 am
lunabee34) wrote2025-06-27 07:25 amEntry tags:
June Update
1. I had a good birthday. I got flowers (which are still going strong!) and a Star Trek card game from sweettartheart and cards from lyr, decynthus, and princessofgeeks. Thank y'all! I also got lots of stationery stuff (a friend gave me a Yamamoto paper tasting set, Josh gave me a leather notebook cover, and I got various notecards and notebooks). The kids gave me amazing cards. The one they drew together said on the front, "You're Old," and inside it said, ( spoiler for Star Trek Prodigy ) This goes in the save forever pile.
2. I know one of my requests for Yuletide already. Mom and Dad watch westerns on True Grit pretty much 24-7, and this visit featured The Posse from Hell--the gayest cowboy movie that doesn't realize how gay it is of all time. I mean, y'all, the seasoned gunslinger tends lovingly to the greenhorn's butt wounds at one point, and they frequently stare into each other's eyes and kinda pant into each other's mouths, and THEY ARE SO IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER.
3. I also want to request Star Trek Prodigy. We just finished the two-season series when we got back from my folks. I can't say enough good things about this show--from the callbacks to every Trek franchise and the little Easter eggs to all the voice actor/character cameos, this show is just a delight. I love that it is joyful and hopeful and kind; it's firmly a kids' show, but who cares? It's just an excellent watch. I highly recommend it.
4. Mom and Dad's was fine. They didn't turn on that horrific American Family Radio even one time, and there was zero craziness (which proves to me that when they're scared of losing contact with their grandchildren they do possess the ability to keep their mouths shut for a couple of days). They are clearly on the back foot and concerned that we're going to cut them out of their lives. Not gonna lie; it made for a much more pleasant trip.
sweettartheart and cards from lyr, decynthus, and princessofgeeks. Thank y'all! I also got lots of stationery stuff (a friend gave me a Yamamoto paper tasting set, Josh gave me a leather notebook cover, and I got various notecards and notebooks). The kids gave me amazing cards. The one they drew together said on the front, "You're Old," and inside it said, ( spoiler for Star Trek Prodigy ) This goes in the save forever pile.2. I know one of my requests for Yuletide already. Mom and Dad watch westerns on True Grit pretty much 24-7, and this visit featured The Posse from Hell--the gayest cowboy movie that doesn't realize how gay it is of all time. I mean, y'all, the seasoned gunslinger tends lovingly to the greenhorn's butt wounds at one point, and they frequently stare into each other's eyes and kinda pant into each other's mouths, and THEY ARE SO IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER.
3. I also want to request Star Trek Prodigy. We just finished the two-season series when we got back from my folks. I can't say enough good things about this show--from the callbacks to every Trek franchise and the little Easter eggs to all the voice actor/character cameos, this show is just a delight. I love that it is joyful and hopeful and kind; it's firmly a kids' show, but who cares? It's just an excellent watch. I highly recommend it.
4. Mom and Dad's was fine. They didn't turn on that horrific American Family Radio even one time, and there was zero craziness (which proves to me that when they're scared of losing contact with their grandchildren they do possess the ability to keep their mouths shut for a couple of days). They are clearly on the back foot and concerned that we're going to cut them out of their lives. Not gonna lie; it made for a much more pleasant trip.
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-06-26 11:15 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-06-26 11:15 pmEntry tags:
pain-related articulation of the past 24h
If you have had long-term pain, of any kind, for any reason, a component of your pain is neuroplastic. Neurons that fire together wire together: you've had lots of practice at being in pain. This comes down, fundamentally, to how we learn.
Which means that while neuroplastic pain management approaches may very well not solve all of your problems, they'll treat a component of them, and that's worth having -- in exactly the same way that we don't want to e.g. give up painkillers that "take the edge off" but don't solve the whole problem.
(None of this is actually novel except insofar as most education about chronic pain blithely asserts that "most" healing has completed within 3-6 months, so pain persisting beyond that timescale Is Neuroplastic unless you've got cancer we suppose. So in the context of My Project, the framing of "this is an approximately unavoidable complication of your underlying condition that requires active management in its own right" strikes me as important.)