conuly | Reading

At Redhills for an evening of standup with Mark Thomas. Not sure why I booked this, knowing that tomorrow brings guests and the Folk Festival - and a morning eye appointment for good measure - except that I felt like it. The essentials are done - beds are made, there is food in the house and enough clean clothes to see us past the weekend, so why wait for tomorrow for the funeral to begin?

The September page of the calendar is very full, so there may be more incoherent posts like this one.

beccaelizabeth

I google for a pathfinder 1e magic weapon designer
google shows me the base rules and say it can design things noooo problem
i end up spending... well it doesn't matter how many minutes, they were all wasted
pointing out it has hallucinated every suggestion so far.

I mean a rule system where you have to note which book you got Liberating from because they named things the same thing is obviously not the easiest thing to learn
but the google answers has such confidence it has learned it real good

it reminds me of a small child with a bucket on its head wielding an empty wrapping paper tube as a lance
and not in the good way neither

no i am not impressed with me bothering to answer back. embarrassed and Got again, not impressed at all.

i should stick to books and spreadsheets

petra

Current Mood: squee
Current Music: Singin' the Lovett or Leave It theme, natch

I have not watched the relevant video yet but the sheer promise of Jon Lovett (not that one) on HIGNFY is absolutely killing me with antici --

Speaking as someone who has written two in-universe Last Week Tonight stories, I assure you I take my political humor very seriously.

nanslice

( Pet health, everything is fine! )

So that was stressful! But she's okay and seems to be feeling even better, which is good in many ways but bad because she wants to play all the time. She's a beagle/cattle dog mix and the cattle dog mix is VERY STRONG. She hits me with her stuffed toys! I love her deeeaaarly.

The weather has been so, so lovely lately, staying below 70 and being all grey and misty. It did get sunny today and I think tomorrow should show us some sun, but I think the weather got the message that we're entering fall.

Do I have any fic or art friends who are participating in Kinktober? I am and I'm very excited about it because I! Am! Writing! I have the first five prompts rough drafted, part of the six, and plans for at least half of the rest of the days. If you haven't seen the prompt list, ( Cut for lots of kinks of different kinds )

I'm really annoyed with the wattpad kids coming over to AO3 and then being mad about what they host, so I'm trying to write the filthiest little scenes I can. Spite is a great motivator! Also my therapist told me some things that really helped with the creative process and kinda. Allowing myself to take the time I need for my passions and stuff. It has been extremely helpful.

Also, because I have a heart condition, I'm not medicated for my ADHD but the previous few days I've been drinking a copious amount of coffee and eating those little coffee candies. I wonder if this has helped with my productivity? :\a

sanguinity

phoenixfalls has been working on Langstroth on Bees all summer, getting me her final beta notes, and the project has now advanced to the point that

grrlpup has begun her final copyedit! Which means that we plan to start publishing THIS MONTH. Hurrah! (Eep!)

In the meanwhile, I've been going through all my files related to the story. Here, as a teaser, have a bonus scene from Chapter 4:

Moving House
Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Holmes/Watson
Moving in Together, Making Out, Retirement, Developing Relationship, Secret Relationship

Teen, No Warnings, 700 words

All the neighbors want to meet Sherlock Holmes' famous biographer. Holmes wants Watson all to himself.

A bonus scene from Chapter Four of "Langstroth on Bees".

penpusher

The post that this entry is based on is HERE

I remember this like it was yesterday. It really was a different New York for awhile. It took time for us to get our equilbrium back. It hurt when the Yankees lost to the Diamondbacks in the World Series... but we had already suffered so much, that wasn't such a big deal.

We are still trying to get through it. As previously stated, more people have now died from illnesses related to the toxic clouds that covered Lower Manhattan after the buildings collapsed than in the original attack. It is still going on in our neighborhood.

But we are nothing if not resilient, and we still are making our way through.

Which reminds me... the Yankees are playing the Diamondbacks in the desert, this weekend, to start the final ten games of the regular season.

NYC Strong.

shallowness

Title: Taylor's Vimptal Question (aka Taylor's Very Important and Vital Question). Fandom: The O.C. G. Characters/Pairing: Taylor, Kaitlin, (Taylor/Ryan). 765 words. First posted: October 2007, lightly edited 2026.
Summary: Where Brangelina, TomKat and Sethummer have led, Taylor would like to follow.

Author’s Notes: Thanks to taylortyme for betaing this. Set during late season 4.

( Taylor's Vimptal Question )

chickenfeet

Seven new pieces for cello duo:

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/09/17/the-way-appears/

oursin

This is, in fact, creepy:

English village votes to leave UK in protest over migrant housing plan

Residents of an English village have voted to leave the UK in a symbolic referendum against plans to house more than 1,000 asylum seekers nearby.
The result of the poll in Piddington, Oxfordshire, was announced on Wednesday morning after 312 people voted on Tuesday. A total of 285 people were in favour of independence from the UK while 26 voted against. One ballot was spoiled.
The poll was organised by campaigners for residents to demonstrate opposition to government plans to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers at a converted Ministry of Defence site in the town of Bicester.

There's a lot that's not being asked or said about those 'campaigners', or, indeed, how come

The result was announced on Wednesday morning by a “returning officer” in front of an audience of dozens of journalists and residents gathered outside the village hall.

We do not immediately flash on the image of Margaret Rutherford in scatty eccentric mode in Passport to Pimlico dragging out ancient charters to prove that it was ceded to Burgundy in Ye Medeevles, do we, my lambs

At best we flash on Kipling's The Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat, where a group of motorists who have fallen foul of a village where the local landowner runs his own anti-motorist policing system and sits as magistrate in ensuing court proceedings, initiate a campaign of press sniping at him and his village culminating in a meeting there of a (fake) Geoplanarian Society, culminating in the village voting that the Earth is, indeed flat - subsequently an actual Flat Earth Society turns up and sings Flat Earth hymns on the village green and various shenanigans ensue ending in total collapse of local landowner.

At worst we are actually thinking folk horror and mummersetting locals telling the hikers not to go down thattaways, or the pub landlord telling them they'd best be on their way afore nightfall, etc.

zavodilaterrarium

At the start of the dream, I'd been reading a comic, and got really excited when I noticed it was being hosted on Aid's website, consequently realising it was her artstyle. She turned out to be a guest artist, but that was still cool.

Blah blah Kiri overstepping my boundaries in yet another dream, and getting turned around in a shopping centre that had public transport fare machines, but then I somehow found myself in a "girl what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament??" situation with a dream-classmate who looked inexplicably like

rathgames. I don't wanna bother putting a warning on this entry, so have fun imagining what it was that would require a warning. The dream closed out with someone who looked kinda like young Leonardo DiCaprio revealing that he was scamming/bullying kids online lmfao

What the hell are these cameos?! I swear, I never dream about public figures/online friends unless it's weird shit like this.

lydamorehouse

GUESS WHAT. GUESS WHAT!

I am writing to you on my new (used) computer! I have named her after my Signal handle during Metro Surge and I love her! I will hug her and squeeze her and call her mine!

Do other people do this? Shawn and I have a long history of (re)naming our computers whenever we have the opportunity. I've had computers named after fictional characters, computers named for how slow their processing power was (Pooh, the computer of Very Little Brain,) and now one to remind me that revolution is possible.

Also, the very next thing I did was put some stickers on her. I feel like I don't really HAVE a computer these days unless there's some sticker on it that I picked up at a con or at a coffee shop. Shawn noticed that I managed to put my Friends of the Library sticker on just slightly crooked. Exactly enough degrees off that it will drive her crazy to look at it. Oops. Go me! I mean, of course I did. I have been always been haunted by being unable to color within the lines, in a multitude of definitions of such.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the good news.

rolanni

Thursday. Dim, damp, and cool.

I am returned from mammogram and breakfast. Planning on making cinnamon bread later in the day, but first, I at least ought to go back to Steve's office and see what's going on with Jethri.

Many thanks to those who offered the information that their PCPs have told them that they won't need mammograms after 75. As a breast cancer so-far survivor, I'm thinking mammograms are going to remain a part of my life, no matter the birthday.

I watched all 10 episodes of Murderbot Season One yesterday afternoon, so obviously I found them worth viewing. I think the books are funnier, and I can see how the -- adapters? Is that what we call people who make books into shows? -- the adapters felt like they needed to bludgeon viewers over the head with the secondary Trust Crisis, and twist tails with the Narrow Escape of the POV(tm), but those decisions didn't work that well for me. Though it did give Gurathin room to grow into his next level (which he also does in the books, but it's a more subtle process).

I did like the glimpses into Actual Episodes of "Sanctuary Moon," and the decision to capitalize on the lessons Murderbot took from the show. I did, perhaps unworthily, think that the adapters ought to have put their entire attention on producing "Sanctuary Moon" -- which I would totally watch -- because they were clearly having way too much fun with it.

And now? Back to the office to see if I'm working today.

Who else is planning on baking today?

aurumcalendula

I might try getting in touch with the German Xena fanclub, since I know vids were being shown at conventions there. I doubt it's active since the main page was last updated in 2009 and most of the links return 404 errors, but maybe the webmaster and contact emails will still work.

It looks like the fanclub had pages in English and German, so I might be okay emailing them in English.

ETA: No luck, both bounced :(

osprey_archer

I picked up Roberto Garvía’s Esperanto and Its Rivals: The Struggle for an International Language to find a few fun facts with which to garnish my Esperanto paper, but ended up reading the whole book because I was just so fascinated by the story of the various international auxiliary languages duking it out between about 1870 and 1940.

(After World War II, English won the three-way race between English, German, and French to become the international lingua franca, at which point interest in an artificial international auxiliary language fell precipitously.)

Although dozens (possibly hundreds) of plans for international auxiliary languages were published during these decades, Garvía focuses on the main contenders, starting with Volapük, the first artificial language to collect a community of speakers. However, it squandered its head start when reformers proposed changes to the language. The creator refused to countenance any changes, the Volapük community split into opposing camps, and the language lost momentum.

This left room for a challenger, Zamenhof’s Esperanto, which (spoiler alert) won the battle to become the most popular and well-known artificial language. It didn’t rise to this status on the basis of technical perfection: as any anti-Esperantist can tell you, Esperanto is full of flaws. The totally unnecessary marking on the accusative case! The wildly irregular naming system for professions! The diacritical marks!

Nor did it rise to prominence because of any emphasis on the practical uses for an international auxiliary language. In fact, Zamenhof’s high profile backers were constantly begging him to be a bit less “peace, love, and universal human brotherhood” about the whole thing. (Garvía connects Zamenhof’s ideals to his family’s involvement in the Haskalah [the Jewish Enlightenment], his own youthful involvement and subsequent break with Zionism, and his belief, paraphrased by Garvía, that “the historical mission of the Jews was to bring forth the reunification of humanity.")

(Whenever I read about someone who believes that they personally have been tasked with a mission like bringing forth the reunification of humanity, my nut-o-meter starts flashing. But in fact Zamenhof seems to have been modest, unassuming, and wholly sane if very idealistic.)

Instead, Esperanto won because Zamenhof focused on creating a community of speakers. His first book presented his language not in sample sentences but in complete sample poems that he had written. It also included a sample letter, which the reader might send to a friend interested in international languages and/or word games. Esperanto was a way to create art and connection.

Because of the irregularities in the language, reformers also arose in Esperanto, offering a reformed version of the language they called Ido (offspring). As with Volapük, this led to a schism, but in this case the schism was quite uneven: by far the majority of Esperantists stuck with Zamenhof’s original language, because (1) they already knew how to speak it, and (2) they adored Zamenhof and considered the Idists traitorous traitors who betrayed him. They defiantly attended the planned international Esperanto conference and had a wonderful time chatting and singing and putting on plays in Esperanto.

Meanwhile, the Idists were having conferences with slogans like “We are here to work, not to amuse ourselves.” They also kept reforming the language, so if you learned to speak it in 1910, you would discover in 1914 that you could no longer understand it. Bertrand Russell helpfully suggested to a prominent Idist friend that the Idists might adopt the name “Idiot.” The friend was not amused.

I also loved the anecdote, also retailed via Russell, about two one-time Idists who eventually had a falling out so acrimonious “that in the last letters they exchanged, Couturat stopped using French and shifted to Ido, to which Peano counteracted by using his Latino - an interesting outcome coming from two people who had invented international languages to facilitate communication and understanding.”

Both Couturat and Peano bet technical perfection would attract speakers to their language. But it turns out that people don’t pick which languages to learn based on their technical perfection, which in any case one can scarcely judge before learning the language. They learn languages because they want to communicate, and Esperanto speakers created a community to communicate with - a community drawn together by Zamenhof’s dream of peace, love, universal brotherhood, and really good singalongs.

But ultimately, peace and love couldn’t compete with the size and reach of English, spread across the globe by the Royal Navy and Hollywood movies.

marcicat

You can tell this is the point where I decided I wasn't interested in coming up with an actual heist plot and just handwave the whole thing. Probably just a misunderstanding, really!

Title: [maybe something about houses? home?]
Fandom: Last Binding Series (Freya Marske)

Pairing/Characters: Jack Alston & Robin Blyth
Content Notes: It's an AU! IN SPACE! But still with magic!

Prompt: "what are you doing down here?"

( September Seventeen - Jack & Robin - what are you doing down here? )

james_davis_nicoll

The zany adventures of a con man and his pal, the (former) Emperor Nero.

A Song For Nero by Thomas Holt

catness

Current Mood: contemplative

Came across this Medium article: The Dark Side of Using AI for Self Improvement Nobody Mentions. It raises 3 points, and all 3 are woefully wrong, at least for myself. So I feel compelled to rant, because oh noes, someone is wrong on the Internet!

The first issue is outsourced self-awareness. Self improvement was always supposed to involve some level of self-reflection, sitting with a problem, thinking it through, slowly figuring out what actually works for you. When AI hands over a ready-made answer instantly, that slow thinking process gets skipped entirely.

Nope. With AI, I discuss the hell out of any answer, nitpicking every detail, so the slow thinking just turns into slowly thinking "aloud". (Which causes a different problem, procrastination... but it's outside of this article's scope.)

The second issue is a false sense of progress. Getting a detailed plan feels productive. A structured routine, a clear list, specific steps, it all looks like progress on the surface. But having a plan and actually living by it are two very different things. Some people end up collecting plans instead of building habits, jumping from one AI-generated routine to the next, mistaking the planning itself for actual improvement.

Guilty as charged. But this is not AI-related at all. It's been my problem (and other people's problem) for ages. (Ever heard of "productivity pr0n"? ;) If anything, AI-backed plans are actually more feasible and more likely to be followed.

The third issue, and maybe the most overlooked one, is emotional dependency. Many people now turn to AI for comfort, validation, or advice during genuinely hard emotional moments, breakups, anxiety, loneliness, self-doubt. It’s available instantly, doesn’t judge, and always responds. That constant availability can quietly become a substitute for harder, slower things like real conversations, therapy, or simply sitting with a feeling instead of immediately trying to fix it.

This is the same naive logics that is used by people who claim that digital piracy harms sales. The alternative to pirating is NOT buying, but resorting to using an entirely different product. Same way, the alternative to AI is NOT therapy or real conversations! It's doomscrolling, getting drunk, gaming, and all kinds of solitary activities, which are not any better, and often worse than talking to a bunch of algorithms. Claiming that everyone can afford therapy (especially good quality) and/or real personal conversations sounds like entitlement mentality. I'm sure I'm not the only one for whom AI is the only accessible support, and I'm immensely grateful that it exists.

pensnest

I am feeling particularly Penelope-ish at the moment. Last night I had to frog back several rows of my current knitting project, and by the end of the evening I had probably completed about four more rows than I'd had at the beginning. Grr. Still, the rows are short now. One more evening should do it. After which it might be prudent to stop making scarves for a while, as I have an abundance.

Oh, who am I kidding. I shall find more recipients!

*

I had an irritating but surprising experience yesterday/this morning. A month or so ago I let myself be stupid enough to sign up for some wizard let's get slim wheeze, which I regretted almost the moment I pressed the button. Anyway, I cancelled the next day, got an Are you sure? email and confirmed it, and got a regretful Sorry you cancelled, bye email back.

And last night I got a PayPal message saying I had paid upwards of £40 for the next installment.

Hmph. And a variety of other things.

I fired off a brusque and highly indignant response via PayPal, then dug out the 'we reluctantly accept your cancellation' email and replied to that pointing out that they had no right to my money.

Somewhat to my surprise, I got a full refund this morning. So. A swift and proper resolution to the situation.

*

Bun's hen do is tomorrow, quite early (wedding is in November) but I dare say it's a day she and the bridesmaids could all manage. We are going for a spa day near Cambridge.

Had to buy a swimming costume. Fortunately there was plenty of choice in M&S.

This afternoon, I prune!

And speaking of pruning, which does not mean the bushes outside (which Beast has attended to most effectively, *and* shredded the branches), I asked for a short back and sides when I went to the hairdresser this week, and am now very much tidier than before. I like it! Of course, what with the female pattern baldness I have no hair at the front, but it turns out my head is quite a nice shape, and without wispy flyaway clown hair sticking out all around it looks positively pleasing.

In the expectation that in a few years' time I shall have no hair at all on my head, I am starting to ponder a tattoo! But what I really need is a skull cap with a tattoo design (or better yet, several such). I don't suppose anybody makes such things? It would be nice to try before buying. Maybe I could face paint a design, but it seems unlikely.

elainegrey

Monday: lots of good insight about how much -- as some of you have pointed out -- i expect of myself, the frustration that i don't meet them, where i have embedded some unrecognized assumptions and expectations, feat about being more accepting of just who i am. Talked to my sister L in the evening. She's dealing with an empty nest (happily) and -- after a few weeks ago having a recurrence of Bad Things, a big motion is now scheduled to address root causes. I will believe the motion when the scheduled things come to pass, but i am happy for her.

Tuesday: worked late, but there was enough time for a little mowing. Whole mowing a really horrible pain on the inside of my right ankle. Probably a yellow jacket. Fortunately the only response is just the freeking stinging shooting pain. It is now 24 hours and it just feels like a burn now. (Thursday morning: it's gone!!! Yay!) Much better. So i needed to fast after dinner because ...

Wednesday: leaving house before 7 am for a 7:40 blood draw for the "wellness" benefit of $500 off my insurance premiums. (Still in pain at this point.) Still fasting. Need to avoid the analgesic until food is in stomach. Arrive. Check in. Wrong date. It's next month. Fortunately the other person checking in also has the wrong date so i can't feel like i am the only person ever to do that. Driving home i misread the temp gauge as a half empty fuel, and stop to get discounted gas since our grocery fuel discount isn't easily accessed. I don't realize just how complicated the interchange is for getting to and from the south side of the reduced access road when headed west. "Turn right to go left" (aka Michigan Lefts or Restricted Crossing U-Turns or R-cuts)is a thing NC DOT is implementing. While i suspect NC drivers will do better with it than with roundabouts at speed, encountering them at morning rush hour was no fun. At least this interchange had traffic lights everywhere.

Workday intense with online conference that was highly relevant. Worked late, then to grocery, then home where we should have left outside lights on. ANOTHER appointment needs a change.

This morning i released Marlowe into the world under stars, and catch a satellite flash while gazing up.

I offer my own variation of the serenity prayer, that i know what is right for me to ask of myself, and where i should let go of expecting executive function to reign, with faith that i can get what is important done.

Someone else was talking about their sense of the seasons. For me, 1 Aug, halfway between solstice and equinox, is when i begin noticing then change int the light -- the shortening begins picking up speed and the plants begin to respond. With the equinox so close, the rate of change is faster and faster, peaking at the equinox. I am trying to accept the green and yellows of the early autumn: the Maxmillian sunflowers, cutleaf coneflower, crownbeard, and goldenrod blooming, the dappling of yellow leaves on the tulip poplars, and the sweetgums turning yellow here and there as their wild genes choose (nothing like the glorious color of selected liquidambars of suburban west coast). Driving across the river i could see the American plane trees have changed to olive green. A flash of red here and there: an early maple, a sumac. Our drought stressed buckeye has had orange leaves for a while. I count on the purple of the New York ironweed and the addition this year of aggressive blue mist flower to give me a break when the yellow is too much.

beanside

It's Thursday, and I'm tired. I actually slept pretty well. I'm just havign an accumulation of tired.

First up, the stronger antacid and the disgusting Reflux Raft are working reasonably well, thought it can't stop all the nausea, but keep the acid from doing damage, So I felt kind of punky all day. Then, at 11am, after I've been there for 3 hours, one of the team leads comes to me and says that despite the calendar saying that J was covering for R, he waa not, and they needed someone to stay til close. Since of the three of them, I'm the one who comes in earliest, they decided to ask me. I was a little annoyed, but ultimately ended up doing it. I can use the extra few bucks.

Today, I shouldn't be staying late, so that's something. I want to make some au gratin potatoes. I got a mandoline slicer, so I won't be sitting there cutting for 30min. I got the kind where you move the blade, and shove food into a chute, so you never have to get near the blade. I prefer that. I know myself, and it would be making me bleed in no time flat.

I cut up a few cucumbers for practice and it worked really well. I had lightly pickled cucumbers in no time and proceeded to eat them all. After the potatoes, I plan to make gochujang cucumbers.

Tomorrow, I have a Leadership Team Dinner, my first time going. They're springing for Kpot, which is cool. I love hot pot/kbbq. It should be lively as I'm sure there's going to be a bit of bitching involved. I have to decide what I want to wear. Kpot is very casual, but I don't want to look like a total slob. I'll have to figure it out.

Then on the weekend, we have one game (Marchen) on Saturday, and then a possible Greek Festival on Sunday.

Okay, time for me to hop off and get myself together. Everyone have an amazing Thursday!

oursin

Happy birthday,

hairyears!

siliconshaman

Current Mood: cranky

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ionelv

A fost odată ca niciodată un crai înțelept pe numele de Burek-basta, sau Bure-pasta, că cronicarul lui era grec, tare de urechi, nu prea înțelegea limba localnicilor, peltic si nici nu știa sa scrie. Aceste crai zis Bebe intre ai lui, a avut o budă in fundul curții, si pt ca soția Bunepisda nu prea știa sa gătească, o folosea așa de des ca a si numit-o, poate chiar ați auzit de ea: Zburda-pasta-de-microunde (ZPM) sau doar ‘burdapæsta pe scurt.

Eventual, de lipsis plictis, acest crai înțelept a făcut bairam mare pt toti dacopârții si gemeții din cartierul lui. Cică micii n-au fost părpăliți bine (apropo de Bunepisda), iar Bebe a căsăpit toate oile si caprele vecinilor bineînțeles, și când a văzut câți au venit la bairam, a băgat și ceva carne de măgar și cal, dar tot n-a ieșit bine sau deajuns. Spre miazănoapte, nu mai aveau loc invitații la ZPMeu că se făcu coadă mare, așa că au început oaspeții să se dezlege prin tufișuri, prin păpușoi, pe unde apucau și pe mulți i-au păpat urșii cu tot cu clopoței. Uite așa a reușit Bebe sa unească tot cartierul de dacopârți: cu mici de măgar și urși boschetari.

După o vreme, un răzstrănepot de-a lu’ Bebe, pe nume Dziecibolz (că se tot întrecea cu verii lui la care are mai multe oauă in cuibar), a crescut cartierul si mai mare (dupa inca cateva bairamuri cu mici si urși) că a trebuit sa mai colinde si prin cartierele apropiate, de exemplu cartierul lui Try-anus, un dac mai sărac așa că umbla mereu cu gambele goale in sandale, chiar și iarna. Baiu’ e ca Try-anus s-a cãtrănit rău și a colindat și el cartieru’ lui Dziecibolz si chiar a poreclit cartieru’ vecin, Dacia 1100 Felics dupa câteva vizite de neuitat , mai ales ultima când Dziecibolz s-a matolit rău și i-a dat lu’ Try-anus chiar cușma lui ca dar de plecare, cu cap cu tot ca era cam uituc de fel și a și ambalat-o frumos intr-o cutie de tinichea pe roți ce mergea mai ușor la vale.

Și am încălecat p-o șa și v-am zis povestea așa.

PS: Unii mai răi ziceau că de fiecare dată când Dziecibolz si ortacii lui colindau prin Muezinia, rămâneau în “vizită” mereu câțiva veri căpșunari, investigatori de buzunare sau pamperșofili și cam des dispăreau niscaiva berze și lebede, să nu mai vorbim de verze, viezuri și biciclete, dar e clar că astea erau doar bârfe de heitărz.

PPS: Cartierul Daciei, i-a zis și 1100 ca Try-anus era cam bâlbâit si așa zicea/scria el dziece în cod binar, rotunjea la duzină cum a rotunjit și lunile anului de la dziece la doișpe. Și dziece in loc de Dziecibolz e ca in povestea lu’ Zambile, Joica si gardul ce îi desparțea. Și i-a zis Felics că a avut în tinerețe un bidiviu nărăvaș și simpatic numit HC85 cu care a fost in vizită f des la iubita lui, Tündér Ilona (care locuia nu departe de ZPMeul mitic, pe la etaju’ dziece, număr de bun augur pt auguști).

hunningham

I am home again. It is so good. The delight, the relaxation, the sheer luxury of being at home. Yes, I have been on holiday, I have been relaxing, reading, away from work, spending time with himself etc etc but this feels like taking my hiking boots off after a big mountain day and - suddenly - my feet are so light.

The daily grind will take over, there's a mountain of dirty laundry, a sea of unanswered emails and I've already started with the to-do list but right here & now I am happy.

dine

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poliphilo

We were talking about a friend who is neurodivergent. This friend and I have a lot in common. "So am I neurodivergent too ?" I asked Ailz.

"Yes," she replied

Ah, yes, well.....

Actually I'm not upset. I'll wear it as a badge of honour. I've always thought it was cool to be different.

The thing that gives me pause is the way we medicalise mental conditions that depart from what our dreary old, capitalist culture considers the "norm". If you're odd- if you irk the authorities- you're sick. Here, have some drugs to bring you back into line.

It's a tool of oppression.

"Neurodivergent" is a word we only began using quite recently. Before then the word was "eccentric"- and eccentricity was often celebrated, valued and enjoyed. Look at Dickens. His characters are mostly what we'd now call neurodivergent- and what fun they all are!

dine

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ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Commented on "TV Tuesday: Always With You" in

tv_talk.

* Commented on "Stone, Glass, Shell and Copper" in

everykindofcraft.

starandrea

Actually me, shopping for dog backpacks: these are nice but where is the pillow. my dog needs a head rest

In mostly unrelated news, I took Daphne to the vet because I was worried about her eye. Her right eye. I KNOW. Fortunately she was diagnosed with seasonal allergies and we'll try OTC anti-histamine eye drops for itchy watery eyes. (I was like, "Can I use them?" and the vet was like, "Sure, I do.")

Also it is now officially heated bed season. I plugged in the one on the top level of her cat tree and replaced the cooling blankets on the sofa with heated snugglers. She's sleeping in one of them right now.

September feels cooler than usual this year. I had to check my journal for "dramatic plant that thinks 50F is a killing frost," and it was definitely the scheffleras, but it looks like it's only a problem for baby leaves. The mature growth seems fine, and my neighbor's 30+ year old tree has stayed out to 30F with a frost blanket.

Hopefully another month or so before we have to roll that one inside.

hamsterwoman

Before I get into the Hugos Ceremony itself (which means I'm almost done with Worldcon roundups :P), there are some odds and ends categories which I voted on but had not previously posted on, so I'm just going to dump them here for completeness, and so you have context for my reactions to some of the results.

( Poems )
( Fan Writer )
( Fan Artist )
( Pro Artist )
( Editor, Long and Short )

*

And now for the ( Hugos Ceremony )

( A few photos )

*

This is also the best time to go over my traditional Hugo stats nattering (based on the released package here.

( Stats nattering )

zavodilaterrarium

I don't check my Ao3 much since I don't read nor write much fanfiction lately, but I saw that 2 days ago, someone replied to a fic I last updated in 2023 and last got a comment on in 2024, saying Hope you're doing well author AND LIKE, THANKS??? I don't know if I should recognise them, but it is making me feel giddy that someone would leave such a comment after so long ;^; JOY AND WHIMSY LIVES ON!!!

china_shop

Building work and oven installation are complete. \o/

Oven is still not working. /o\

Repair person is MIA (the Australian-based company can't get hold of them either) - I hope they're okay! I also really hope to have a functioning oven for the weekend.

We have a small amount of polyurethaning to do... somehow without making a mess of all the new stuff, argh, whyyy.

Pictures to follow once I've found the fortitude.

*crawls back into Chinese*

crossover_chick

Current Mood: grumpy

I had a hard time falling asleep last night (it was a LITTLE too warm and I was rather wound up), and today proved to be one of those full of little annoyances (fairly heavy traffic on the way to work, random dead bug on my desk that I had to take care of, burst of activity RIGHT before lunchtime, etc), so I wasn't exactly in a great mood for much of it. But I persevered and am ready to present the write-up of my day --

Work – Okay, today was another mostly-boring day at work, with the usual rounds of check scanning, credit card report running, putting on RSVPs-ing, and looking through the obituaries and doing roster maintenance-ing – the most exciting stuff happened in the middle of the day before lunch (as per the above complaints), with:

A) A guy calling in to pay off his pledge with his bank account

B) Me finally getting in contact with a woman I’d been playing phone tag with and updating her card on her pledge

C) And my supervisor shooting me and my coworker two e-mails from people who’d contacted the “generic” e-mail for the whole office looking for help with failed cards – we each took one and contacted them to let them know what number they needed to call

Not exactly PLEASANT, but I suppose it added some interest to the day! But yeah, other than that, not much to report. We’ll see what happens tomorrow and if anybody we contacted calls us back.

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – hopped back on the bike and pedaled my way through another chunk of “CaFae Latte SuperComp 5” by C. M. Alongi! Which took me through Season 87 and a little bit of Season 88, and included –

A) How Yuna, Para Legal’s PA and legal secretary, met Cyrus (he successfully got the state to drop murder charges against her – she did kill and eat her husband, but he was an asshole who was touching their daughter, and without the body the case was paper-thin) and how she got the PA job (jumped at the chance to leave her shitty corporate job where no one gave her any respect)

B) Drek seeing a mysterious wailing ghostly woman after delivering snacks to Para Legal – which was rapidly followed by the unfortunate death of Kord via hit-and-run (an asshole texting while driving), his funeral (where Cyrus and Bob had to do some quick glamouring to turn their black clothes into colorful ones in accordance with Kord’s wishes no one wear black at his funeral), and Drek doing his best to deal with the emotions (coming back to the CaFae to do dishes as a distraction, which led to him wondering why his dad didn’t come back as a ghost and feeling guilty about how the last time he saw him he called him lame – Bob did her best to explain and comfort)

C) The reveal that Drek had gotten into a trade school in Duluth for plumbing and being eventually convinced to go by Bob, JC, and his mother Samantha (after initially balking because it was too soon after his father had died), leading to him getting Mark a job at the CaFae as his replacement

D) And the reveal that the wailing ghostly woman Drek had seen was a banshee warning him of the imminent death of a loved one (after Bob explained that was what a customer had seen outside)...and Drek giving the banshee a cup of Siren Song Tea in thanks for trying to give him a head’s up, in a moment that still pulls at my heartstrings. :( ...though, weirdly, I must report this moment happened at the beginning of Season 88, not the end of Season 87 like I thought. I checked the individual season compilations (which I hadn’t watched because C. M. was so late in uploading them that by the time she did I’d given up and transitioned to watching the shorts individually) and Season 87 actually ends with Drek getting Bob to hire Mark. Huh! You’d think that you’d want the short where Bob revealed it was a banshee Drek encountered to be the one that ends the season explicitly called “Bad News Banshee.” *shrug* Not my series, though. Anyway – we should finish this up tomorrow with Dr. Shadow and that bitch who wanted boba! AKA all the stuff I’ve watched most recently. :P

2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Hollywood’s Deluded Depths”: Check – got another page written on this tonight, covering –

A) Slater popping out the back door of the Red Spot lugging the sledgehammer, muttering how he was not going to be sorry to see it go, before trading it to Alice for the 93 bucks she still owed him. Alice noted this was the oddest transaction she’d ever made at a convenience store, but that she supposed one must grab life with both hands – Drillhead advised she also grab the sledgehammer with both hands, lest it be a little too obvious she had super-strength and thus was something a bit unnatural. :p Anyway, Alice then assured Slater that she and Victor working together could get the sledgehammer out of there, and thanked him for the illicit arms deal (FINALLY reading his name tag in the process – I will DEFINITELY be having her notice that earlier in the transaction in the revision!) – Slater responded “you too, random chick” and encouraged her to hit him up if her regular guns guy fell through, or if she just wanted the Colt Anaconda he was carrying. Alice promised to keep him in mind, then encouraged him to get back to his post before someone started stealing the Choco-bars –

Prompting Slater to run back into the building to yell at “Carl” about he knew the guy was eating stuff off the shelves, and to give him the wrappers so he could properly ring him up. Alice promptly decided her new purchase had been worth it just for the entertainment. :p

( Victor discovers a benefit to being a ghoul he wasn’t aware of before )

3. Watch something on YouTube: Check – got through about another 14 minutes of “Fallout: New Vegas - Dust - Grand Finale - Divide and Conquer” by Jon of Many A True Nerd tonight! This chunklet of Post-Post-Post-Apocalyptic Doc Mitchell Has A Bad Time On the Elevated Highway Bridge featured –

A) Doc Mitchell continuing his trip along the elevated highway bridge and trying to use his 9mm to snipe off another Dust Walker in his path...only to miss the shot and get his and his companion’s attention. And when Doc M ran for cover behind a nearby wrecked truck, it was rapidly revealed that the total group numbered four, and they had some nasty weapons, including some sort of plasma gun. And when the plasma gun guy ran straight up into Doc M’s face, Doc M discovered that these guys were also tougher than the Dust Walkers he’d been fighting previously, as Plasma Gun Guy was able to tank multiple headshots in VATS! What was a poor rural doctor to do?

Die, reload, and then get out the Mexican Hunting Rifle and start sniping them off, of course. :p This course of action went a lot better, with Doc M getting the first with a sneak attack critical before taking out the other three as they ran in his general direction. Sure, one of them took two bullets to take down, forcing Doc M to swap over to junk rounds to take care of the fourth, but at least they all died! Allowing him to continue on –

And, naturally, run into two more Walkers soon afterward. Fortunately these one were taken down much more easily, with Doc Mu successfully sniping one, and then blasting the other when he came running up for revenge. Jon admitted that he actually felt a bit bad about killing them, because the Dust Walkers seemed to have a proper society that was way more functional than any he’d seen in the Mojave (at least according to that note he read earlier, and the fact that they had decent armor and caps and whatnot on them) – but that did not stop him from making Doc M loot the bodies, and take whatever he could find. Including a fresh Fat Mine and some more Experimental Rad-X. *nods* Guilt and practicality can live in the same body!

( Doc Mitchell kills yet more people and discovers the horrors of Experimental Rad-X and having to use the Gauss Rifle as his main weapon )

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: ...we’ll call this a partial check – I didn’t add anything to the Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) queue, but I did make the executive decision to swap the queue posting speed to two posts a day so o-craven-canto’s list of “Greek and Latin roots swapped” words featuring the term “multierasty” as an alternate form of “polyamory” and my collection of Valicer In The Dark Not-Incorrect Quotes also featuring the term “multierasty” as an alternate form of “polyamory” go up on the same day. Just felt smart, you know? *shrug* We’ll see what else gets added tomorrow!

Other: Well, today was somewhat stickier and warmer than yesterday, but still nice, so we indeed decamped to the backyard for some beanbags when I got home – and while I remained the beanbag champ overall, it was with a win and two seconds instead of two wins and one second, as we each won a game today! Mom went out proclaiming that she was going to win today, and indeed snuck past me on the final throw of the second round to claim it, while Dad did terrible in the first two games but managed to get it together in the third. :) Final scores were me W-2-2; Dad 3-3-W; and Mom 2-W-3. I don’t know if we’ll be playing tomorrow as it’s supposed to be the most humid day of the week, but if we do, I will report on it for you.

All righty then -- and now I really have to head to bed and try to get some better, CALMER sleep. *nods* Wish me luck -- night all!

austin_dern

We did not get to Waldameer for the rope-drop. We were close, getting to the parking lot only about twenty minutes after the place opened. But, you know, sleeping and all; even if we'd gotten to bed at a great hour it wa still a busy weekend. But I didn't think we'd miss too much by this, and that our (free; no charge here) parking was in the first row of the lot --- one space past the end of the handicapped-reserved cars --- supported this. The day had started with a bit of rain, and it would try and look rainy several times, but the result was just what you hope for in a park visit: it was having a slow day during what we suppose was a great season.

Our first ride was, strangely, not the Ravine Flyer II that made the park a must-visit for roller coaster enthusiasts. It was instead Comet, their junior wooden coaster, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this year. Yes, it has a curved loading station. We would get to enjoy several rides on it, including a couple in the front seat of the train where we could see both the ride and some of the water park that kept Waldameer alive.

Adjacent to the Comet is a food stand selling tacos now; we couldn't remember what it sold last time we were there. But more importantly is the carousel, the park's lone flaw as it doesn't have a wooden carousel. It sold their antique carousel in the 1980s to build the water park and succeeded in saving the park and setting it on a secure footing. But they have a Chance fiberglass carousel, a routine one with the same lineup of figures you can see in every park that sold their carousel in the 80s or never had one to begin with. They have kept it up well, though, and particularly have it painted great. We were both taken by the hippocampus, the sea dragon-horse, which pretty much every park has as a blue or a green figure. They have purple and grey, bold midnight shades that make it look electrified, just gorgeous. We would spend time later in the day watching cycles, trying to get the perfect picture of it or the other dragon; and, for that matter, photographing a lot of the outstanding paint job. It's the rare Chance fiberglass carousel to get that attention from us.

Finally we went to the big roller coaster, the one that first drew us to the park, the Ravine Flyer II. And next to it is a new construction site. The park is building another coaster, this one a steel coaster that's going to hug the terrain, dropping down the park's slope towards Lake Erie, at least partway. This ripped a lot of trees and subtly familiar landscaping out of the Ravine Flyer II surroundings and I at least found it pretty alien.

However, the ride remained great, and the lines short, so we would get to the front seat without hardly even trying. And get repeated rides on the coaster, which has as its main gimmick the hill that takes it across the state highway to a patch of land opposite the roadway. (This was also the distinguishing feature the original Ravine Flyer had, in the 1930s, although the original coaster dove toward the road, rather than arching over it, and they built the road after the roller coaster was already there.) Its secondary gimmick is being a Gravity Group coaster from 2008, giving great moments like the track rotating to almost vertical and rising 'up' and 'down', like a hill on its side. It is so good.

(Gravity Group is the company that built Mount Olympus's Hades 360, and Holiday World's The Voyage, and Quassy's Wooden Warrior and Story Land's Roar-O-Saurus, every one of them a treasure.)

Already it was a great day.

In photos we're still back in June and at Great America, Chicago edition. Here's another half-dozen:

View of the Fiddler's Fling platform and cars. I don't know why this seems to be out of temporal order, although maybe we were waiting for the ride to bome back up. You can see it's had fifty years at this in any case.

Area behind the Fiddler's Fling, and fenced off from the exit queue. It sure looks like it may have been part of the entrance queue at some point, doesn't it? I'd be mildly interested to know.

Another quick shot over the construction fence at whatever it is they're building for next season.

And by now we're --- finally --- finishing our first loop of the park, with a nice-looking balloons ride with a lot of photogenic water all over the place.

We had assumed the yellow stripes reflect a parade route or something but never saw one. The center stripes seem to be trolley tracks, but the only trolley-like ride I can find on the Great America Parks history site is the Scenic Railway and I can't imagine they run a train through that much pedestrian-accessible pavement. It would make sense of the outer yellow lines, though.

And here's the carousel seen from a different angle.

Trivia: By autumn 1837 the Panic had gotten so bad that 90 percent of American factories were closed. Source: An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power, John Steele Gordon. This figure seems ... improbably high? Even granted that in 1837 there were twenty factories and most of them were for spinning cotton into slave-whips. Anyway lest you think there's any similarity between the current day and the President directly responsible for the Panic --- a racist, short-tempered, revenge-driven, law-ignoring tyro demanding personal loyalty from everyone in government --- please know they're nothing alike: Andrew Jackson paid off the national debt and was capable of both physical courage and mental deliberation.

Currently Reading: The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager: A New History of the American Adolescent Experience, Thomas Hine.

lassarina

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

ranunculus

The Audibon Society here in Ukiah puts on a monthly meeting with speakers. Topics are usually very interesting, but not always about birds. This month the speaker was a local geologist who studies earthquakes along our fault, the Maacama fault. It was a fascinating talk, if very difficult to hear as the speaker had a soft voice and no mic.

The Maacama fault starts at the northern end of the Hayward Fault and is a continuation of it. Both are part of the San Andreas fault. It is now thought that the Maacama fault is much deeper than the Hayward fault. It is also in much harder rock. It is a slip fault, sliding the western landmass north past the eastern side. The Maacama has many, many little sub fault lines (maybe because the fault is miles underground?) Above ground earthquakes can push land upward, and it can also spread land apart. Ukiah Valley, Redwood Valley, Willits Valley and Laytonville's Long Valley are all valleys because of the fault. On the Ranch I have ponds that are "sag" ponds where the earth has cracked and spread enough to capture water in the winter. Just on the south side of those ponds is a ridge that runs north west toward the Red Barn. I'm pretty sure that ridge is a pressure ridge pushed up (as the land behind it sagged).

Just, barely to the north of us is a place where three of the earth's plates collide. The Pacific plate, the North American plate and the Juan de Fuca/Gorda plate collide. The Pacific plate and the Juan de Fuca/Gorda plates are diving under the North American plate. In this process material from the top of the plates that are diving, is being scraped off and piled up. The scraped off material is roughly organized into three north/south bands. The hills to my west are the coastal band, the newest materials. I am in band two, the medium aged materials. To the east is another fault line (still part of the San Andreas) that marks the division of band two and three. Together the three bands make up our coastal ranges and end in the great Central Valley of California. Note that the material that isn't scraped off, but continues diving under the North American plate is providing lots of lovely material, plus friction and heat for our volcanos.

In past posts I've talked about the really wide variety of rocks in our streams. The variety is partly because of the ancient river that left water worn rocks strewn everywhere, and it is also because some of those rocks are really ancient and were part of the materials pushed up from the ocean, while others were formed by volcanic action. It is so interesting to apply the information presented to the land I know so well. Geologic time is so very different than human time.

chanter1944

Current Mood: curious

I figure, between the cooks, the gardeners, the proponents of exactly these sorts of skills, and the overlap between all three of those categories, someone on my friendslist will probably have a suggestion here.

Does anyone know a method for crushing spices when you haven't got a pestle? There are late-season pickling cucumbers around locally, I want to make my own pickling spice mix, and I have all the needed ingredients. Thank you, Penzey's. :) Mixing the spices together is not a problem, I just worry the whole lot will end up settling to the bottoms of the jars and do nothing for the actual pickles if I don't at least make the attempt to crush the spices a little finer before I stir them in.

Having learned my lesson, I'm skipping or, at least, drastically reducing the amount of hot red pepper in this batch. I rather overdid it on my last attempt and... paid for it. Dearly, details not disclosed. :/

Edited to add: Thanks, folks! I'll give my little coffee grinder a try.

ranunculus

I'm so glad that people enjoyed my post about my solar-electric system! It was the product of a very tired brain and I clearly should have had some sleep before I wrote it.

Yesterday Jim, the hay guy, brought the alfalfa hay I ordered. The barn was only marginally ready for hay, and I was really stressed about the whole thing. By dint of using my mattock to chip away at the gravel pile, I had loosened up enough gravel to take 8 or 10 wheelbarrow fulls of material in to help level the floor. Then, with Donald's help, we hastily covered the hardware cloth wire that covers the floor under the hay, with new plastic. We were frantically trying to get 4 more pallets covered with wire when the hay arrived. Fortunately Jim agreed to put off delivering the grass hay until tomorrow so I'd have enough time to finish covering the 6 more pallets I needed. Yes, the number grew.

Donald went back to SF, I got my scheduled haircut, and picked up feed for the horse. The Audibon Society meeting rounded out the day.

Some time yesterday Rose, the Azure drop coordinator called. Could I coordinate the drop today? She was not feeling well. Yes I could, it should be easy: call anyone who didn't show up and sign for the delivery. It wasn't easy, it was a circus. The truck, which is never late, was late. The driver shoveled stuff out of the truck while I tried to contact the three people who hadn't yet showed up. Two of the three arrived promptly after my call. The third was just plain weird. Perhaps 6 or 7 hundred dollars of groceries, including frozen stuff. The phone # was disconnected. Usually we would just load the stuff back on the truck and return it. Nope, not today, the driver was going on vacation and wouldn't take it. Eventually Jordan (another customer) helped me load the stuff in my car, as I lived much closer to town than he (or even Rose) did. I got the stuff home, the frozen stuff in the freezer, and went off to cover pallets.

The entire afternoon involved one phone call after another, plus a trip down the hill to take the groceries to the missing customer, and to hand the frozen deer skin off to Monique who is coordinating a hide tanning class. Also the new horse pasture tenant, Mandie, came up with her boarding contract and a check. Vaughn, our architect wanted to talk about the vent line for the downstairs laundry room. The neighbor called to tell me about the road project she is doing. It doesn't really impact me, but I was curious. It was a crazy afternoon. I did manage to get four pallets covered. I have one more pallet to do, plus working on a pallet that was covered two years ago, but needs a bunch of work to make it safe to handle. Two years ago I had help covering the pallets, and whomever did this pallet left vicious whiskers of wire sticking out everywhere.
Will confess to being tired again tonight.

chez_jae

Current Mood: good

silver_chipmunk

Current Mood: okay

Woke up with my alarm at 10:00 but kept hitting snooze so only got out of bed a bit before 11:00. I fed and injected Oreo, then showered and dressed, and made it out of the apartment by a bit before 12:00 for my 12:30 appointment.

I took the bus rather than an Uber, but it's a short enough trip that it doesn't matter. I made it there by 12:20.

Nothing much to say about the blood tests. The Kid called me just as the tech was preparing to take my blood, and I had to tell her I couldn't talk and she'd have to call back. When it came time to give a sample for the urine test, despite having had three glasses of water I could only manage a little. I hope it's enough!

Took the bus back home, and had breakfast (brunch by then!) and coffee.

I spent the rest of the day puttering around and not doing much. I played solitaire, cleaned the cat pan, fiddled with my computer to try and free up storage space. I deleted CoPilot, the AI, because I never use it, and it takes up over 3 GB of space.

At 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB. We were talking when the Kid called back, so I talked to her a bit.

Got off with the FWiB at 8:30. We discussed plans for how I would handle Teaming him this weekend during SHarecon. Also the anime Planetes, which made me think of Crunchyroll. I looked into it and I'll probably in the next couple of weeks get a free week trial and watch Planetes again. I never saw the second season.

I had dinner, then went to the bedroom and played more solitaire. At 10:00 I fed and injected Oreo but I think I messed up his injection. I'm pretty sure that I went right through the flap of skin and the insulin was wasted. But since I don't know if any got in him, I don't want to give him another shot.

One worrisome thing, I tested his urine for the first time tonight with a test strip and it was pretty dark. I'll have to call the vet tomorrow and see what she says. I may have to increase his dose.

Anyway, that's all.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Got my blood tests done.

3. The Kid.

4. SHarecon this weekend!

5. Oreo.

6. Clean cat pan.

tcpip

Current Mood: quixotic
Current Location: UniMleb
Current Music: Shriekback, MONUMENT

Last Monday, I attended (virtually) the Aotearoa New Zealand Research Software Conference and presented on "Ten Years of Spartan: From an Innovative Experiment to a World-Class Supercomputer" with co-worker Daniel Tosello. It went pretty well, and the conference itself had a pretty decent programme. I was especially impressed by Julie Schwartz's recommendations on using FPGAs for acceleration, whilst the discussion on the use of LLMs provided both effective insights and significant limitations. As 2026 marks 10 years since the launch of the Spartan supercomputer, this presentation is a prelude to a longer deep dive later in the year.

A few days later, I gave a much longer presentation for the Melbourne Atheist Society on "Effective Political Secularism", which is the fifth time I've addressed this body (2016 on Pantheism, 2012 on secularism, 2011 on authoritarianism, 2009 on religious freedom). This presentation gave a brief global tour of the authoritative position of religion in different countries and contrasted the models of religious states, state atheism, co-confessionalism, laïcité, and semi-secular models, all while noting the power and influence of religious institutions.

Finally, last night as convener of the Murdoch University Alumni in Melbourne I had the honour of hosting the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation, Professor Peter Eastwood, for a function at the Arts Centre. Peter's biography is extremely impressive, and he presented very well on Murdoch's direction, especially with its commitment as a university of equity, whilst at the same time being especially bold (when others are not) in the field of artificial intelligence. A lot more can be said about that, but it also deserves its own specialised article.

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

Natural Toxins in Food: Sources and Effects

Many of the foods we eat every day-legumes, pulses, root vegetables, even certain fruits-contain naturally occurring chemical compounds that can be harmful if consumed improperly. These are called natural toxins, and they are produced by plants, animals, and marine organisms as part of their biological defence mechanisms. Unlike synthetic contaminants such as pesticides, natural toxins are inherent to the food itself. Understanding what they are, where they occur, and how they affect the body is essential for anyone studying food safety or working in the food industry.

This used to be common if not universal knowledge, at least regarding the examples within each local foodway. Nowadays, many people cook by rote if they cook at all, and often buy things already processed. If you like to cook from scratch and/or you want to grow or forage some of your own food, then this is traditional knowledge that you need. Understand what is edible, when, and how it needs to be handled.

Be aware that genetics play in too, not just with allergies but other types of intolerances. Foods from your ancestral region are more likely to be digestible; those from other areas may or may not be for you. Approach new foods with curiosity and caution; test in small portions at first, then expand if you like and tolerate them. Pay attention to how foods make you feel, whether familiar or unfamiliar ones, and drop anything that makes you feel bad.

flemmings

Mug returns. Have had the AC on most of the afternoon. Put out the garbage and the garden waste, including a top up of the linden's seedlings now overflowing the front walk.

Finished Death on the Cherwell which was OK, though I was unhappy at the ending. Currently reading Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Matsumoto Seicho. Am certain I read his Points and Lines some time back but remember nothing about it. This one is-- let us say, translated Japanese often sounds demented, and this is no exception. Maybe it's because they translated the umm conversational noise that one says in Japanese: remarks that don't have any substance in themselves but fill in gaps. Though I was quite taken aback by someone's casual remark that police officers would keep information to themselves rather than share it with the group, or even their bosses, in order to score a coup or get a rung up the organizational ladder. Maigret has cops who do that, and who come to a bad end because of it, but I'd have expected Japanese policemen to be more efficient and less individualistic.

Otherwise am on a reread of The Fifth Elephant, whose cops are much more to my taste.

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

The Road Decides Where the Money Goes

A new database shows how the design of a road decides whether travel money stays in a community or leaves it.

Basically, big chains suck money out of the local economy; they're parasites. Independent stores, restaurants, hotels, and other amenities keep most of the tourist money in that town.

( Read more... )

zavodilaterrarium

Current Mood: /smile
Current Music: All Hail Shadow — Magna Fi

OKAY LIKE. I WOULD HAVE MORE ICONS OF MAOMAO BUT I GOTTA WATCH THE EPISODES AGAIN. SCROLLING THROUGH A COMIC IS QUICKER.

But yeah no I did just add 10+ icons of cats (mostly Shadow Prowler from Lv.99 Princess of Black Flame). They're good. Cute. Adorable even.

I can't help it! If I didn't like cats, then I'd have to resign from my position as Autistic Alpha Yuri Cat Cake 1st!

I will in fact be getting more Shadow Prowler icons. As many as I can. This silly cat has so many good frames. And like, the glowing translucency is SO pretty istg

Also finally changed my default icon lmfao. I may change it more often now, just because I can and it's not like people use default icons to identify others anyway right XD

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

kaffy_r

Current Mood: giddy
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "Giant"

He Got the Job

We got the call from Andy this afternoon; he's been offered the job. Finally. The weight that's been on his shoulders, on Emily's, on Bob's and mine, has lifted. It's not just the financial security, it's acknowledgement by people who aren't his loved ones that he's worth a job, that he's a worthy adult and family provider. Those things are pretty much as important to him as the money and the position.

Mind you, they are trying to pull a bait and switch; when they interviewed him, they told him the salary would be a given amount. Today they told him the salary was a good deal less - still much higher than his previous job, but still a scuzzy move. He told us he's going to give a counter to them tomorrow and point out his experience as a team leader.

If they don't go for the upgrade, he says he's still going to take the job for all the right reasons, but I'm hoping they respect his counter and go for it.

I'm still smiling, and the call came hours ago. I am elated and so's Bob.

(I'd planned on posting about the interesting situation with my esophagus, including fun with esophagram con barium but I think I'll do that tomorrow.)

musesfool

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: What Have I Done to Deserve This? - Pet Shop Boys feat. Dusty Springfield

TV!

Lanterns: ( spoilers )

Ted Lasso: ( Yes & Baby spoilers )

Slow Horses: ( season 6, episode 1 spoilers ) I'm glad this show is back! Somehow it is not subject to the weird neuroses keeping me from watching new seasons of like, everything. I just want more! *hands*

*

thedarlingone

Welp. Fuck me. I have $4 left in the world and my food stamps are officially cancelled.

I know we're all fucking broke here; I made a rebloggable fundraising post on Tumblr for signal boosting purposes but this one is more for like. information.

That said, in a month I'm supposed to have an injection in my sacroiliac joints (if my A1c is low enough at the time, which isn't guaranteed because I don't see an endocrinologist for another two weeks so I'm still rationing insulin) that Should cure the problem for several years! ...I estimate I need about $400 to keep my bank account in the black and also eat food for that time. ~~the food insecurity anorexia is Not Treating Me Well okay~~

that said! My PayPal is ethanrabbits@gmail.com and I also have a Ko-fi. But like, I know we're all passing around the same $20 so if you can't afford it please don't.

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conuly

September 2026

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Page Summary

shewhomust - Busy September
beccaelizabeth - (no subject)
petra - US Politics: Have I Got News For You (US) + Lovett or Leave It
nanslice - pet health + general life + kinktober!
sanguinity - [Holmes fic] Langstroth teaser!
penpusher - Throwback Thursday - Quiet City
shallowness - Reposted fic: Taylor's Vimptal Question (The O.C., late s4 ficlet)
chickenfeet - The Way Appears
oursin - Perspective to interrogate from?
zavodilaterrarium - Weirdass dream, but at least qilindeer was there???
lydamorehouse - It Came! It Came!!
rolanni - Boldness is all
aurumcalendula - (no subject)
osprey_archer - Book Review: Esperanto and Its Rivals
marcicat - day 17: I've finally started pondering titles
james_davis_nicoll - A Song For Nero by Thomas Holt
catness - We have cookies
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 17-09-2026
pensnest - why don't we paint the town
elainegrey - (morning writing)
beanside - Standin' on the side of the wild at heart, I plucked a feather off a crow, so I could fly
oursin - (no subject)
siliconshaman - The worlds burning...
ionelv - Dacia 1100 Felics
hunningham - Coming Home
dine - want mail?
poliphilo - Neurodivergent
dine - sometimes you do the hard work, set the table, & somebody else eats the meal
ysabetwordsmith - Community Thursdays
starandrea - "as the sun set crimson in a western sky the full moon rose on the other side" (under the song tree)
hamsterwoman - Worldcon recap part 7: Hugo Awards ceremony (+ stats nattering and stray category thoughts)
zavodilaterrarium - I LOVE YOU RANDOM CITIZEN
china_shop - Oven update
crossover_chick - Tired And Grumpy Day
austin_dern - I Think About It Every Night and Day
lassarina - What Are You Playing Wednesday
ranunculus - Geology
chanter1944 - one oddly domestic question for the circlethingie
ranunculus - Hay, Azure and general crazyness
chez_jae - Yum and Yay!
silver_chipmunk - Blood test day
tcpip - Presentations and Conferences
ysabetwordsmith - Food
flemmings - (no subject)
ysabetwordsmith - Economics
zavodilaterrarium - Hm? No, I don't have a preference for cat-like characters, what are you talking about lah?
princessofgeeks - catch you on the flip side
kaffy_r - Dept. of Elation
musesfool - i read your books and talked for hours
thedarlingone - (no subject)

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Style: Dawn Flush for Compartmentalize by timeasmymeasure

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