Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

shoes

May. 17th, 2025 12:56 am
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
I went to the New Balance factory store today* and, with the help of two salespeople, found a pair of shoes that I think fits. I bought it, then treated myself to a hot fudge sundae before coming home.

By the time I got home my feet hurt, which is from either trying on shoes that didn't fit, or the amount of walking I did in my old shoes. I will wear these around the house for a few days to break them in and confirm that they fit.

If they fit, I'm going to go back and buy another pair in a different color; if not, I'll return them, regretfully. I also want to see about sandals, and have a few stores in mind, but shoe shopping is so often frustrating that I wasn't going to try a second shoe store today.

*meaning Friday, which is yesterday by the computer clock.

Lake Lewisia #1252

May. 16th, 2025 08:13 pm
scrubjayspeaks: Town sign for (fictional) Lake Lewisia, showing icons of mountains and a lake with the letter L (Lake Lewisia)
[personal profile] scrubjayspeaks
Traveling by flying cauldron was intended to be a one-person affair, and carrying passengers had traditionally meant keelhauling them through the treetops below on a rope, but she liked to think of herself as a more modern sort of witch, even at her advanced age. Part of that modernity included knowing her way around both a welder’s bench and the local scrapyard. The cauldron gradually acquired sidecars of frying pans and rice cookers and waffle irons, and it was quite popular as a commuter bus in the rural areas around her chicken hut.

---

LL#1252

Lake Lewisia #1251

May. 14th, 2025 08:10 pm
scrubjayspeaks: Town sign for (fictional) Lake Lewisia, showing icons of mountains and a lake with the letter L (Lake Lewisia)
[personal profile] scrubjayspeaks
“Listen, you remember in the seventies,” he began coaxingly and, despite her expression of disbelief at even that early stage of the argument, pressed on ever more earnestly, “when they were making unicorns out of goats?” During this circuitous history of surgical mythologizing, the pony paid them entirely no attention, being much more interested in charging the fence separating it from the cows pastured next door, followed by laboriously extracting its collection of sharp horns from where they had embedded in the fence posts. “While I admire your commitment to the principle of ‘more is more,’” she said from a location safely near the gate, “what you’ve made is less mythical creature and more miniature equine murder beast.”

---

LL#1251

MURDERBOT!!!

May. 16th, 2025 10:21 pm
oracne: turtle (Default)
[personal profile] oracne
After a glitch with my Apple account, their very helpful (!) customer service got me fixed up and I managed to sneak in the first episode of Murderbot before dress rehearsal, and the second one when I got home. I just finished it and am ready for more. It's a good adaptation. I never feel like adaptations replace books because there's no way to capture narrative voice in the same way in a visual medium, but there are other advantages books don't have. I love seeing actors interpret characters; it's a sort of fanfiction. The actors are all great.

Maybe I will also finally watch Ted Lasso. Severance sounds too depressing for me right now.

Thursday Recs

May. 15th, 2025 08:49 pm
soc_puppet: Dreamsheep, its wool patterned after the Nonbinary Pride flag, in horizontal stripes of yellow, white, purple, and black; the Dreamwidth logo echoes these colors. (Nonbinary)
[personal profile] soc_puppet posting in [community profile] queerly_beloved
Rolling right into another Thursday, which means it's time for Recs!


Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!

Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
vvalkyri: (Default)
[personal profile] vvalkyri
after calling a Patient Care Advocate to tell her about why I've been explaining for the last 5 months that I never plan to return to that provider.

The Friday Five for 16 May 2025

May. 15th, 2025 02:07 pm
anais_pf: (Default)
[personal profile] anais_pf posting in [community profile] thefridayfive
These questions were suggested by [livejournal.com profile] jacklemon.

1. You're holding a dinner party and can invite three famous people from the past or present; who would they be?

2. You have the opportunity to question someone about something you've always wanted to know and receive a truthful answer; what would your question be?

3. If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?

4. If you could save other people's lives by completing an act that would lead to your own death, would you do it?

5. Would you commit murder if you knew that you could get away with it?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

Wednesday Reading on Thursday

May. 15th, 2025 01:47 pm
oracne: turtle (Default)
[personal profile] oracne
I returned to the AU soulmark series An Ever-Fixed Mark by AMarguerite for the second and third installments, which I enjoyed as much as the first.

That Looks on Tempests explores what might have happened if Colonel Fitzwilliam had survived Waterloo. A Dalliance with the Duke tries a different path, in which widowed Lizzy takes up with the Duke of Wellington instead of her cousin-by-marriage Darcy; this one gets a bit spicy!

For those who are not fanfiction readers, a "soulmark" story generally posits that people are born with, or attain at adolescence, a mark somewhere on their body, usually a name or a line of dialogue, that indicates one's soulmate/true love/most significant person. The best of these stories, I feel, interrogate the concept and its societal and personal implications, which the author does in this series.

(no subject)

May. 15th, 2025 01:44 am
vvalkyri: (Default)
[personal profile] vvalkyri
It's taken me most of a month to still not clear my Gmail of this same handle, which has been full since April 17th.

I should probably just give up and pay Google but then that would mean attaching a payment to this handle.

Ugh.

CT scan looks fine

May. 14th, 2025 01:58 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
I had a CT scan of my lungs this morning, then saw the pulmonologist. The CT scan looks OK, considering: "Again seen is diffuse bronchiectasis with tree-in-bud opacities seen in the right upper lobe, right middle lobe and lingula. The areas in the right upper lobe may have improved in the interval."

The low-tech exam was also reassuring: the doctor used a stethoscope to listen to my chest, and had me cough while listening. She heard no wheezing (or other problems), which is good. So, she told me to keep using the flutter valve twice a day, and come back in six months.

And, some non-medical notes:

I discovered that it's possible to accidentally cancel a Lyft ride by putting your phone in your pocket after the driver has picked you up. The driver suggested I text Lyft to tell them I hadn't meant to cancel, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. After a minute or two of frustration, I asked the driver if he would take cash instead, and he said yes. So I handed him $25, and repeated the destination address so he could enter it in his GPS. I try to carry some cash on general principles, but this isn't something I was expecting to need, or be able, to pay cash for.

Mount Auburn was also having some trouble with their medical information system: the doctor could see the CT scan, but only on the machine in her office, not the one in the exam room. Fortunately, I didn't need to see the images. Given their computer problems, I was particularly pleased to have a list of my current medications on my phone, to show the doctor's assistant. I don't yet have my follow-up appointment, but that's not because of today's computer problems, but that they aren't set up to book follow-up appointments that far in advance.

I took transit home, which is cheap and makes sense to me, from many years of practice. I stopped at Flour to get something to eat, 7-11 to use their no-fee ATM to withdraw some more cash, and CVS to pick up a prescription, and was home in time for lunch. It was effectively two stops rather than three, because the 7-11 and drugstore are both near the bus stop where I was changing from the bus to the trolley.

this is your kid's brain on LLMs

May. 13th, 2025 08:55 pm
m_d_h: (Default)
[personal profile] m_d_h
kids who grow up with LLMs will create their own bespoke languages

but not as a social activity, as an asocial activity
duskpeterson: The lowercased letters D and P, joined together (Default)
[personal profile] duskpeterson

The perspective I offer here is from that of the courtyard. To the left is the north end of the residence; to the right is the south end.

Like the Golden Courtyard, the royal residence is built with golden stone from the main cavern of Capital Mountain. It is the oldest surviving building in the southern peninsula, having retained its ancient walls. Its interior, however, has changed over the centuries.

Originally, the royal residence was a single hall for the King, his warriors, and their families. As time went on, the hall became a residence for the King and his council. These days, only the Jackal, his High Lord, and the High Lord's family live there. The council has grown large enough that it meets elsewhere in the palace.

As recently as half a century ago, however, Koretia's council held its meetings in the royal residence. Many stirring events took place there, including duels and assassinations; Koretia has a sorry history of bloody disputes. The former council chamber is the red-framed window on the upper floor.

To the right of it is the former bedchamber of the King, which has since been divided into separate chambers for the High Lord and his family. None of the ornate bedchamber furniture from earlier periods have survived.

To the left of the former council chamber is the former bedchamber of the King's heir. The last heir to die did so within living memory; his life is still celebrated at the nearby town of Valouse, where he served as baron.

To the left of the heir's bedchamber is the High Lord's receiving chamber. The most memorable event to occur there is the death of the Baron of Blackpass, under sinister circumstances. Visitors who plan to continue their tour in the borderland, where Blackpass is located, may wish to pause in this room, in order to pay their respects to the memory of the baron.

The final room on this side of the upper floor of the royal residence is the former dining chamber of the High Lord, which now serves as the Jackal's bedchamber.

I can tell you this without endangering the ruler because it is a very, very bad idea to enter a god-man's bedchamber unannounced.


[Translator's note: Just how bad an idea it is to enter that bedchamber unannounced can be seen in Bard of Pain.]

Lake Lewisia #1250

May. 12th, 2025 07:08 am
scrubjayspeaks: Town sign for (fictional) Lake Lewisia, showing icons of mountains and a lake with the letter L (Lake Lewisia)
[personal profile] scrubjayspeaks
Is your saxophone feeling soulless, or your mandolin mundane? Consider investing in routine instrument attunement to keep it raising the dead to dance and playing forbidden reels good enough to impress Old Scratch. Even the most repetitive practice by the most novice of musicians becomes compelling when ghosts and beasts might join in harmony, so have your instrument attuned to something new today.

---

LL#1250

Pandemic Garden Club

May. 11th, 2025 05:47 pm
scrubjayspeaks: macro photograph of ladybug climbing a blade of grass (garden)
[personal profile] scrubjayspeaks
Welcome to the May edition of Pandemic Garden Club! Growing good things in strange times!

Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.

As for myself...

Read more... )

Done This Week

May. 11th, 2025 10:56 am
scrubjayspeaks: hand holding pen over notebook (done this week)
[personal profile] scrubjayspeaks
A new project has landed at work that is super urgent, involves collaboration with another site, and has pushed up the timeline for my work on a new piece of equipment. So this week, I’m essentially moonlighting as my old position AND doing my current work. This has been stressful and exhausting, and I am a very tired creature now.

Meanwhile, it is suddenly 100 degrees! Because I live in hell. Every year, I forget just how passionately I hate summer.

Lewisia: 3 new pieces written, May posts queued

Day job: 43.75 hours, and it’s like I’m a setup tech all over again with all its attendant stresses

Cleaning: septic tank repairs completed

Gardening: weeding with my new corn knife ✪ω✪

Listening: Dream Fist by Eve 6 (if you are of my age bracket, you may well remember them as a one-hit wonder for “Inside Out,” turns out they’ve been making music all these years, a solid alt-rock album)

Aftermarket Parts: passed the three-month mark, so I can raise my arms with impunity \o/

Clock Mouse: 1359 words

Other: unloaded hay twice

(no subject)

May. 11th, 2025 12:27 pm
vvalkyri: (Default)
[personal profile] vvalkyri
Yesterday after the bat mitzvah, Becca and Bill and I went to a nearby nature center and then later walked around a tiny Lake and there were some geese that were advancing on us and hissing. And I sent a friend a video. And he sent back, they are known to be assholes, and how are you doing today.

Well my aspiration for the day was that I would go up to the mall and help maydaymovement take their tents down, then get to Acro, then get to the party part of yesterday's bat mitzva, then get to Fusion.


As it is, I've been up for a couple of hours and haven't really wasted it but haven't gotten out and I'm still not moving quickly.

And I'm finding that I wake up and just everything hurts. Not much, but enough that it's like oh was I doing some sort of interesting exercise and the answer is no.

And I'm finding that kind of frightening. It may well just be perimenopause or the fact that I really desperately need a new mattress but I'm really not sure what to make of it.


I'm flying to Missouri on the 29th and I feel bad cuz that means I'm going to miss covert 30 years in government thing, and I'm realizing that I now have appointments this week and next week and the week after which means obviously I'm not driving to Cleveland and I can't go to Cleveland when I get back from Missouri because part of my timing for Missouri being what it is so I have time to do the last minute oh my God on the apartment.

And I'd like to write something about the movie I saw the other day, join or die, which turns out to be a documentary on bowling alone

And I realized I haven't told my building about hey we had a whole SUV worth of stuff we sent to Martha's table

And so now I'm torn between sitting at the computer and trying to write something or trying to get myself out the door to be helpful and then off to Acro and of course I also need to figure out what I'd be wearing for the kids K-pop party that hopefully I can get out of earlier but maybe I won't mind and then the question is do I still get to fusion.

And I'm feeling more and more isolated. And I know it's all my fault. It's a happy thing that Ken is with someone and they will probably marry but that means he's a lot more time in Pennsylvania and will eventually move their entirely, and it's a happy thing that Covert and Kerry more back together but for a lot of years any travel I've done has been tagging along with Covert.

Etc.

But yesterday was a good day and I'll get to see a lot of the same people again today.

I'm probably feeling some after-effects from having to get up a lot earlier than one would want in order to make it to the bot mitzvah on time


There's a ton of additional context I could be adding to just about all of this. Like conversations yesterday with different fed friends, more about what they're trying to do to retirement, a conversation with someone who does Thai massage out in Idaho in some incredibly expensive ski resort where it was impressive just how many names he dropped in a couple of minutes, and he explained that he hasn't read news in years and I think I may have shook him a little bit with my relatively short summary that didn't even include anything about due process.

There's the bit where I guess I was salting the vibes. I was for a little bit the one person wearing a mask (I had it first walked in and figured it was a high ceiling and not all that many people, but of course I was at the very beginning of services and in short order several different people around me started coughing or sniffling so I did put my already chosen to go with the outfit mask on. And when I walked up to do my reading, I very deliberately did not take it off until I was in front of the lectern, and on video. I know some people would argue on that one, but near versus far field is indeed relevant, and for me some of all this is a benefit calculation. I don't see a ton of benefit to not masking while I'm just sitting there for several hours.). My friend Becca ended up adding a mask later on in the service as it turns out. I was highly amused that my realization she was there was first recognizing her voice then thinking she looked familiar and then looking at the program. Which tells you just about everything you need to know about how faceblind I am.


One of the things I really want to get back to about Join or Die, the Putnam biopic ( Which is fun, impressively so, much the way The Big Short takes what could be a very dry topic and intersperses images and vignettes that make it not so) . Is the early part, about italy. Now when I saw the blurb about the movie night at glow house, I later ended up saying to someone I'm about to watch a movie that's kind of like bowling alone but isn't. I had no idea that in fact I was about to match watch a movie about bowling alone, but it's not only about bowling alone and I actually haven't read bowling alone

So I don't know whether bowling alone spends a lot of time on how interpersonal engagement (Social Capital) is predictive of government effectiveness. But that's what they first started seeing when they were watching Italy when Italy suddenly created like 20 identical regional governments, and some of them turned into dumpster fires and some of them people liked and seem to be effective.

Some of that seems to be a matter of trust and just connection, and some of it is also that if you've got a bunch of people who have had to run their choir or their book club or their rotary they are also getting training and how to do something useful for more of a formal government.

. I've got a lot more I'm thinking about around all these, including some stuff I was listening to from some book whose name I have now forgotten unfortunately, where we especially started losing third spaces and nowadays very few people have to ever deal with anybody they disagree with except for family.

And here I am lamenting not having gotten out to be useful for the mayday move, but instead I'm dictating to dream with.

And I owe someone a text, but it was a long text I want to reply to which makes it harder to reply and one of the things that still needs to happen is why does my main computer not really want to talk to the internet and I bought a new tiny keyboard and I still haven't connected it to the phone. And the phone is absolutely full and I downloaded a lot of stuff yesterday so that I could unfull it. And then I took more pictures so I have to do it again.

And I kind of want to nap. Which helps nothing of my day. And I should not need more sleep.

Oh.
And one more thing: I'm realizing that if I was kind of sort of conflating due process and habeas corpus a whole lot more people might be: Michael Cohen had an essay that made me realize my brain had been shorthanding: https://bsky.app/profile/vvalkyri.bsky.social/post/3lovq4ykwl22x


All right. Somehow I need to work out when I'm wearing later tonight and put something on for acro and I guess I can change in an undress, and I guess I can wander over to Union Station first to see whether they need any help.

There's also additional context about why it's kind of frightening to be wondering why I'm stiff, but that's definitely for some other time.

old bug

May. 10th, 2025 04:19 pm
m_d_h: (Default)
[personal profile] m_d_h
I am old enough to know that young men grow into old men one day at a time.

reassurance

May. 10th, 2025 12:11 pm
m_d_h: (Default)
[personal profile] m_d_h
 I know I am not your foundation, but I’m not going anywhere, and I will not let you fall.

likes

May. 10th, 2025 10:38 am
m_d_h: (Default)
[personal profile] m_d_h
 I'm willing to make comments that aren't liked

active listening

May. 10th, 2025 09:00 am
m_d_h: (Default)
[personal profile] m_d_h
 do the planets listen to the comets? and how could we tell

February 2025

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16 171819202122
232425262728 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Page generated May. 18th, 2025 04:46 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios