conuly

conuly @ 2026-05-01T21:56:00

2026-04-28T02:01:23Z

As you may guess, this was inspired by the folksong of the same name. You can find more information about that song here.

comments

A note to two dads of little girls

2026-04-28T01:55:01Z

To the man on the bus talking to his daughter about what color she was going to paint his nails when they got home: Good job! You get a gold star and a cookie, which you will probably share with your kid! Cookies all around, no sarcasm!

To the man in CVS playing on his phone while his wife corralled their two year old and talked to the pharmacist: Dude, if you're not gonna help, just stay home.

This tangentially connects to one of my favorite poems, which I was recently reminded of.

******************

( Read more... )

comments

Worked a different place today

2026-04-27T14:18:22Z

It's three shifts this week in addition to my usual - I don't actually want to work six shifts, but I urgently need the cash, so we'll see what we see.

I took the bus there, but when I got there I saw the train tracks and decided to take the train back. And since I was hungry, I stopped into the corner store by the train for a snack, and immediately my chest felt tight and the tears welled up. I feel really absurd about this, but I didn't realize until right then that this is the train stop closest to the hospital. I can only have stopped in this particular store half a dozen times, max, but... yeah. (Actually, thinking carefully, I think I stopped in there the day Mommy was intubated, and that was the last time before today, so no wonder I freaked out and sobbed for 15, 20 minutes straight. If I had started sobbing in the store, maybe they would've comped me my drink.)

comments

Dear fic writer:

2026-04-27T05:13:41Z

It is 1992. This kid is twelve. He doesn’t know the word “gaslighting”, he doesn’t know the phrase “trauma response”, and if he knew the latter, he wouldn’t apply it to himself.

Also, there’s no such thing as a landline. It’s just a phone, so called because it transmits sound, phone, a long way, tele. It doesn’t do anything else, not even voicemail, and you need to pay extra for caller ID.

comments

conuly @ 2026-04-28T23:03:00

2026-04-26T03:03:19Z

comments

One of my absolute favorite etymologies is "snoop"

2026-04-26T02:18:23Z

From Dutch snoepen (“to pry, eat in secret, sneak”)

How often were the Dutch eating in secret that they decided they needed a verb for it!?

**********

( Read more... )

comments

God, I hate talking about overnight shifts

2026-04-25T14:53:21Z

Don't get me wrong, I love doing them - five hours of reading, three hours of work, what's not to love? - but talking about them? Don't get me started. Every single time it's a back and forth to confirm the actual day the shift starts.

I got a shift through the staffing agency, and I say "So, to confirm, I go to work at midnight Monday?" and he goes "No, Sunday". "So, I leave my house at 11:30 today...?"

No, he meant midnight Monday to 8am Monday.

Every time I look at the schedule at the usual place I find myself momentarily baffled by the fact that the overnight shift is at the top, as the first shift of the day.

Also, literally as I typed that last sentence a spam text came in with the word "lpuuuu", which seems low effort even for a spam text. I get that their business model depends on weeding out everybody smart enough to say "Seems fake!", but seriously?

comments

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

2026-04-24T03:14:53Z

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

************************************

Link

comments

Protagonist has just met up with his estranged mother, who left him as a baby

2026-04-22T09:21:53Z

and her excuse is "Your father and I both agreed that it was best to raise you away from my wealthy-but-toxic family, whom I was returning to". And having met the protagonist's half-siblings, I can't say that this was wrong - but what, she just loved him so much more than her younger two that she had with her new, richer, more socially acceptable husband? No matter how you look at it, she's not exactly winning the mother of the year award.

**********************************

( Read more... )

comments

The ACLU sent me a text

2026-04-21T00:32:38Z

About their fight against the racist War on Drugs.

It includes what looks like a tea leaf emoji? Whatever sort of leaf this is, it’s not marijuana, even I know that. Maybe no emoji at all would’ve been the better call….

comments

So I saw this nifty video on harp music notation

2026-04-20T22:53:42Z

OMG, but ignore the dipshit in the comments.

*************************

( Read more... )

comments

I saw a red-winged blackbird!

2026-04-19T21:45:40Z

I didn't get a good look, seeing it as I did out a bus window, but did I have to? They're not that hard to identify.

************************

( Read more... )

comments

This person is looking for English-language poems and poetry collection recs

2026-04-19T12:56:19Z

The important thing is they have to be accessible, beginner-level poems for people who don't "get" poetry in English (or, perhaps, in any language).

Though I will say now what I only sort of suggested then, which is that I've never thought the point of reading anything is to understand it all. Sometimes it's enough to enjoy it, even if you miss a thing or ten. (This may be why I know so many Shakespeare quotes - from the age of six onwards I made repeated dives into our big copy of his collected works, and you know for sure I did not understand Elizabethan English at that age!)

comments

A Fairly Sad Tale by Dorothy Parker

2026-04-19T01:26:38Z

I think that I shall never know
Why I am thus, and I am so.
Around me, other girls inspire
In men the rush and roar of fire.
The sweet transparency of glass,
The tenderness of April grass,
The durability of granite;
But me—I don't know how to plan it.
The lads I've met in Cupid's deadlock
Were—shall we say?—born out of wedlock.
They broke my heart, they stilled my song,
And said they had to run along,
Explaining, so to sop my tears,
First came their parents or careers.
But ever does experience
Deny me wisdom, calm, and sense!
Though she's a fool who seeks to capture
The twenty-first fine, careless rapture,
I must go on, till ends my rope,
Who from my birth was cursed with hope.
A heart in half is chaste, archaic;
But mine resembles a mosaic—
The thing's become ridiculous!
Why am I so? Why am I thus?

********

Link

comments

conuly @ 2026-04-18T19:56:00

2026-04-19T00:54:21Z

View Poll: Ideal calendar behavior

***************

( Read more... )

comments

What's really dismaying

2026-04-18T23:22:32Z

is that none of this was made up. Truly, I hate this timeline.

comments

conuly @ 2026-04-16T17:13:00

2026-04-17T03:16:35Z

comments

Jesus

2026-04-15T16:03:29Z

Just went to the store, spent over $90 for half a week's groceries just for me.

This is not sustainable, but it's not going to get better any time soon.

I could eat at work, but let's be clear, I don't much like the housekeeper's cooking, they rarely have in stock what I'd need to make my own food the way I like it (other than eggs), and also I have some weird food issues around... I don't really know. Eating other people's food? But not at a restaurant where it's okay? Maybe it's smelling the food? I honestly do not know, that's what makes these issues weird. (But even if I didn't, she boils the poor vegetables to death.)

comments

At a different residence tonight

2026-04-15T01:51:55Z

One of the staff has the same name as one of the residents, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out.

comments

Late Bird by Angela Narciso Torres

2026-04-14T06:32:59Z

Count me among the noon risers who stumble,
dazed and bad-haired, from the nest midday,
pecking the crazed dirt for half-torn moth,
pear’s white core, severed worm. I’ve never
been one to trill at chink of dawn, to hop,
skip, chirrup before full sun. I’m better
at picking over crumbs, stitching a quilt
from what’s left, remaindered, given up
for gone. Better at betting the careless
will miss the best. Count me among
the nightbirds who sip starlight, a guitar’s
fading strains. Find me where moondust
swirls in streetlamp glow and stray dogs sleep.
What clings to the bone is most sweet.

***********

Link

comments

Welp, it's allergy season

2026-04-13T20:36:31Z

Yay.

********************************

( Read more... )

comments

Given E's predeliction for 1990s - 2000s tv, what is she going to watch next?

2026-04-10T23:57:20Z

Edit: fuck, I forgot to include Smallville! Uh, vote for that as the last option I guess.

1. Results will be non-binding

2. I will not watch anything starring anybody who then went on to perform in the God's Not Dead franchise. This isn't even about their abhorrent beliefs, it's about their apparently low artistic standards. I only am barely including Xena on this list because we can just skip crossover episodes. Please do let me know if I accidentally listed a Big Mistake in that regard

View Poll: Old TV

comments

Well, we looked under every last couch cushion

2026-04-10T15:19:18Z

and despite the fact that this is coming out to more than projected we didn't need to ask them to split it into two bills and I still have enough money for groceries!

comments

We have our water heater replacement first thing tomorrow

2026-04-10T05:19:57Z

And we can barely pay it if we don't pay for a few other things. Maybe they'll let us write two checks.

On the other hand, if the USA decides drop nukes during the installation, probably the company won't trouble themselves too much about payment. We'll be home free! Well, assuming nobody retaliates on NYC specifically....

**********************

( Read more... )

comments

Welp, one of the water heaters just went

2026-04-09T05:04:11Z

And the water doesn't seem to want to turn off for the heater - it *is* lefty loosey, righty tighty, isn't it? - so I may have to get it for the whole house overnight.

comments