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December Days 02025 #01: Beginnings

Dec. 1st, 2025 11:17 pm
silveradept: A librarian wearing a futuristic-looking visor with text squiggles on them. (Librarian Techno-Visor)
[personal profile] silveradept
Gods, it's already December, isn't it. Time to talk about myself again, and this year, I have decided that I'm going to talk about skills and applications thereof, if for no other reason than because I am prone to both the fixed mindset and the downplaying of any skills that I might have obtained as not "real" skills because they do not fit some form of ideal.

There will be a lot of talking about computer touching, but also, likely, art outside of computer applications. Shall we begin?

01: Beginnings

I've told this story before. Several times, in fact. It's appeared in 2024, 2023, 2021, and 2019. This is less a worry about dementia and repeating myself (although I have now discovered there's a family history of this), and more because this story is the launch point for a lot of things involving my technology journey. It's not the earliest computer memory I have. That's Ladders and Hunt the Wumpus on the Kaypro. This memory, however, is the earliest one that I have of taking a piece of technology, and trying to figure out how to make it work for me, rather than accepting that the limitations placed in front of me are the sum total of what is possible.

I'd like to believe that I am at least telling the story with different details each time, so that the composite picture you get, layering each version of the story over each other, in the same way that you might layer up a CYMK printing process, means that more and more of the full truth of the story comes into being. Some parts are always going to be mentioned, are always going to be core, but the things that are relevant to the specific context might change. Or some other piece of the picture gets touched and now adds to the details of the story, refining, highlighting, adding shadows and depth.

As a tiny, I was not permitted to have my own machine. As a teenager, I was not permitted my own Internet access. This was in good parenting practice at the time, which was about monitoring and making sure that the children were not spending all their time on brain rot, and then to make sure that the children were not getting into age-restricted material.

This is the time of the Sierra adventure game, and where games could offer a wide palette of possibilities, between CGA, EGA, and the relatively newfangled VGA offerings, with games designed to be understandable with any of those color combinations in mind. It's also the time of Math Blaster, which I remember playing significant amount of, an EGA colored suite of Jeopardy! games, Avoid the Noid, with its chiptune public domain soundtrack played through the computer speaker, the various Carmen Sandiego games and their associated book where you looked up answers in, a fiendishly difficult Monty Python game that look some significant time to figure out a core component of the game, and of various game packages sold together. It's DOS, and if three's Windows, it's 3.0 or 3.1 at the most.

One of the first things I tried to do while playing a Jeopardy! game was to hit that pause button on the keyboard, which seemed to stop the operation, and then I went to the encyclopedias to look up the answer to a question. Once I had that, I hit pause again to resume, only to find that the pause key did not actually stop the operation of the computer and the timer ticking down to zero. Nuts. This is the first time where I find out that I don't fully understand the thing in front of me.

This was also the era where we made me a name tag for entering school with by designing it in Print Shop Pro and printing it off, rather than hand-lettering it, and that was apparently the thing that distinguished my name tag from everyone else's. There were a lot of things created on Paint Shop Pro in that era.

This was also an era where games often tied their execution to how fast the computer was running, because, in those days, a heady 8 MHz of clock speed was available, and in the family computer case, it could be bumped up to 16 MHz through a "turbo" key combination, and then brought back down again, similarly. This made some games a lot easier to run, or that they could be sped up if necessary or for additional challenge.

Engineer that my dad is, he had installed a program so that when the computer booted up, instead of an unfriendly prompt, we had a friendly menu that we could choose options from. He created pages for the kids so that we could access games and the things we were most interested in, without needing to use the command line for such a situation. This worked, for the most part, because this is also the era where people snark about Bill Gates talking about how 640k of RAM is good enough for everyone, and most programs didn't actually grab a lot of RAM. So the Automenu program and the game could coexist side-by-side without there being any issues of memory work. When there were issues, in the VGA era, we'd have to dispense with Automenu and instead work with boot disks to ensure there was enough RAM available to run the games we wanted to, which usually had helpful utilities for creating such things and ensuring that the bare minimum of useful things were loaded into memory, so as to have enough left over for gaming.

At this particular point in time, however, I was interested in a game called Sharkey's 3D Pool, a billiards simulator. It was fun to watch balls fly around and possibly play a couple of games against various opponents. (Sharkey himself, of course, as befitting a pool shark, was a perfect-play opponent.) However, Sharkey's 3D Pool was one of those games that needed more memory than was available to it with Automenu enabled. I didn't know this at the time, but I would discover it soon enough.

So, in DOS, much like in Linux today, (and UNIX before it, I'm sure), you have what's known as a PATH. PATH is a way of telling a computer "When you receive an input from the command line that you don't understand, search these locations to see if it matches something there. If it does, run that program." So you can make programs callable from anywhere in the file structure of the directory including the program is part of your PATH. Games being installed usually added themselves to the PATH so they could be invoked from anywhere, including by small children who just needed to remember to type the command.

Automenu was, essentially, a graphical representation of batch files, which contained commands to be run in sequence. Batch files and shell scripts are essentially the same thing, it just depends on which environment you're in. Anyway. The point was that the creation of menu entries was essentially putting together a batch file, so that when you selected the menu entry, it would run the commands in sequence. Because it was a relatively sophisticated program, it was also possible to edit and create new menu entries from inside the program itself, and this is where me, an enterprising youngling, starts upon their career of computer touching in earnest.

How much of being a computer toucher is running someone else's software because it's correct for the purpose, how much of it is in poking around in things and changing them to suit your purposes, and how much of it is designing and executing your own software is an exercise to the reader. And also a primary source of conflict with me about how much of the title of computer toucher fits me, and whether I should claim any part of it.

Back to the youngling, who wants to add Sharkey's to the list of possibilities available to them, and therefore goes poking about in the menu editor to see if there's any knowledge to be gleaned from studying the structure of menu entries. This memory is hazy, so the exact details have escaped me, but I do remember that I was able to pick up the syntax of how to create a new entry, and how to indicate what commands should be run when that entry is selected. I put together what I thought would work as a command and tested it. And I think it needed to be tweaked a time or two before I had it pointed in the right direction and getting the right command to run. But I did, at least, get it to the place I was looking for.

However, when trying to run it, Sharkey's kicked back a message to me saying that there wasn't enough memory available to it to run in EGA/VGA mode, and it suggested a command-line parameter to use to lower the graphical quality down a step or two and try it again. Which I did, and I think at CGA, it did run, because there was just enough memory available at that graphical level. However, if you've ever worked with the CGA palette before, "eye-searing" is often a useful descriptor of it, and I didn't want to play the game in that limited color array. I tried everything I could think of to get the program to run through Automenu, and nothing I did worked. (Also, I'm a small child in the pre-Internet era, so exhausting all of my available knowledge is much easier at this point.) Having exhausted my reserves, I turned to the knowledgeable expert (Dad) and showed him what I was doing and what error message I was getting, and asked for help in fixing the problem. So there's my first opportunity to get mentorship and learning.

Dad understood what was going on immediately, and explained to me that if I wanted to play pool, I would have to leave the confines of Automenu and run it directly from the command line. I remember being confused about this, too, because all of my Automenu fiddling was copy and modify, without understanding the principles behind what I was doing, or how I was going about what I was getting to. I think I was doing the equivalent of "C:\Sharkey\shark3d.exe" or that I had copied over a sequence that was "cd jeopardy ; jeopardy" and changing it to "sharkey" or something like that. Accomplishing the thing because the directories and executables were sensibly named (as much as could be in the 8.3 era, anyway), but without understanding what I was doing. So, I fumbled about a bit on the command line, trying to replicate what I had done in Automenu and failing pretty solidly and getting frustrated at my own lack of understanding. Dad helped me one more time with a key piece of information - what the "cd" command actually did. At which point, I understood the file, folder, and directory structure better, and that "cd" was short for "change directory". Once I could use the cd command to get where I wanted to (and "dir" to list what was available), I had the entire directory structure at my fingertips to traverse. And mostly used it to play games after leaving Automenu, because Automenu took up memory that I needed to play games.

That was my first experience with interacting with operating systems and understanding one of the core elements to file organization in a DOS system. I didn't go poking around in things that weren't the games section, because I wasn't interested in poking around in those things. You'll find that a lot of my advancement of knowledge regarding computers is directly or indirectly related to being able to play games on them. It's not a bad motivation, but it's certainly not the kinds where people are looking at a system and getting curious about how it works, or seeing what else is available on a system, or other such things. So that's another reason why "computer toucher" doesn't always sit well with me, because I'm not coming at it from the same place as some of the other people are.

That said, that underlying file, folder, and directory structure is exceedingly helpful to me when it comes to my current work, either because machines still use that structure (Windows does, and so do Android phones), or because I'm about to rain imprecations down on the Apple Corporation for making design decision to obscure that underlying paradigm in favor of saving everything to iCloud, or in not exposing folders, but instead making them links to cloud storage, or only making them accessible through apps. I get the idea. Abstracting away the underlying structure and presenting a user only with "locations" to save to, or something like that is supposed to make things easier to find later, and the abstraction still allows for folders to exist, and the like, but I often have to explain to people that the thing that's attached to the e-mail has to be stored somewhere before it can be uploaded to our print servers. I'm a practiced hand at making this work on all kinds of devices, but there are times where I wish Apple would make "save to local device" much less buried, and also, I want to rain a thousand curses upon whichever engineer decided that the "share" button should also serve as the way of accessing how to save a copy to either a cloud storage account or local storage. At that point, I pretty well believe that their abstractions are making things harder, and are designed to get people to pay for extra iCloud storage, rather than to be able to use the devices that they have in their hands. That's a business decision, but it also makes me strongly dislike iProducts and not want to give them my money.

From these, my beginnings, we go forward in time, but also to situations of different complexity, skill, and problem-solving. Mostly in the service of playing games, or in trying to do things that will keep me from being idle and therefore prone to the difficulties that come from being idle or hyperfocused.

2025 Disneyland Trip #75 (12/1/25)

Dec. 1st, 2025 10:07 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
I headed down to Disneyland after work for one last solo trip before Carla gets back on Wednesday.

Read more... )

Daily Happiness

Dec. 1st, 2025 09:32 pm
torachan: scott pilgrim pouting (scott pilgrim - pout)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I stopped in 85C on my after lunch walk and saw that they are taking orders for Christmas cakes. Their classic strawberry shortcake looked really good but they also have an ube cake, so I think we're going to try that this year. I'm going to walk over there again tomorrow and put in an order to pick up on Christmas eve, since I'll be working that day and can pick it up after work so I don't have to make a special trip.

2. Had a nice dinner trip to Disneyland after work. The park didn't feel that crowded, and it was nice to see all the Christmas lights.

3. Carla called the dealership and got an appointment to take the car in on Friday morning, so hopefully they will be able to get the AC fixed quickly. Temps have gone back down again but I definitely miss not having it!

4. The other car is parked all the way up the driveway while Carla is out town so I don't have to move it to get the trash cans out to the front for pickup, and it makes a nice spot for Tuxie to hide under.

The Wheelhouse - Week 16 - 3

Dec. 1st, 2025 11:35 pm
clauderainsrm: (Default)
[personal profile] clauderainsrm posting in [community profile] therealljidol
I just posted the polls -  therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1213323.html    but I wanted to say a few things, and what is a Wheelhouse (or Green Room for that matter) without it being a place where I can just say things... and hopefully you will say things too, and there will be actual comments and conversations!!) 

These polls are going to take us down to the Top 5. Which, if anyone remembers back when we started, which was literally a different life ago, is when the Wheel stops spinning. 

That means that last twist was the final one.  :(  There are SO MANY fun twists still on that board! Ones that would not fit in a regular Idol season.  (Including Gary's Choice.  Where I literally would be a one person Gatekeeper.  Yeah, I wasn't looking forward to that one.  But you can't tell me that it wouldn't have people on edge knowing it was coming!!!  :D) 

 But all things come to an end, and it appears we have reached that point.   I mentioned in the poll post that we were headed to the Finale, and that's what will be coming over the next couple of weeks.  So if you still have any gas in your tank, now is the time to rev those engines, or whatever analogy works in this scenario!

I'm going to use the Wheel to determine the prompt, but that's more likely than not going to be it. Unless of course the Wheel somehow compels me to show up in the Finale itself. Which, I haven't asked it how it feels about that... but that might be a question that needs to be asked.  :) 

I ALMOST asked it if it changed its mind about the Top 5. But that seemed like leading the witness.  :D 

****

How am I?  Depends on the day. But since you are hypothetically asking today, I'm OK.  Feeling stressed with the holidays and totally unprepared for the trip I'm taking this weekend.  (Going to the Holiday Hangout music festival in Little Rock.  This is the last of the big events that I decided to stay living here to make sure I would be able to attend.  The good? I'm attending.  The bad? I'll be broke when I'm there.  :D But at least I'll be there and can figure something out. That's more than I've been able to do any other year when I've wanted to go.  I'll finally be able to cross that off my bucket list (as well as one of my favorite bands is playing, who I've never seen before. So that's TWO items I can cross off my bucket list!) 

I've basically been living life to distract myself and that has to shift in the next few months to moving out mode.  Which I'm not looking forward to, but that's why I've been trying to have fun now, before I can't do anything crazy for quite some time!!

(The plus side of that is that I said that I can't do stuff like this for "quite some time", which implies that I'm thinking of "quite some time" in the future.  Which is a HUGE step forward from where I was even a couple months ago.  So yeah, trying to figure out money to do this stuff, but clearly it's helped a LOT with my mental state.) 

***
Speaking of money - I've been considering making Idol merch available for the 20th anniversary . Maybe another shirt. I don't know how many people remember when I did that years ago.  Note: I didn't actually buy one myself. Because I needed that money!  :D  So if you were one of the people who bought one, you own a piece of Idol history that I don't!!  

Not sure what kinds of things people might be interested in. Or if anyone would be interested in anything at all.  Maybe it's best to not do anything like that... unless you really want an Idol coffee mug.  :D  

That was just feeling like the right time for it - if it's going to happen at all.  Although honestly, I had a passing thought today that maybe someone wanted Wheel of Chaos merch. Somehow I doubt that though.  :D  Unless of course it's your own Wheel to make your life decisions for you!


***

I was asked if people still needed to send in their selection for who will receive antidote now that the Killers are gone. I think the only response I can officially give to that is "If you really want to you can send in votes for antidote for as long as you want to!"  :D 


***
How are YOU doing? 













Vote - Week 16

Dec. 1st, 2025 11:17 pm
clauderainsrm: (Default)
[personal profile] clauderainsrm posting in [community profile] therealljidol
A few words from [personal profile] clauderainsrm:

Two polls. One writer leaving us from each of them. (ladder system of course, whoever is eliminated in Poll 1 is out before Poll 2 is processed… in other words, before anyone asks I’m making sure it’s understood there are definitely two people leaving.)

Two very different prompts that showcase different sides of each writer, which just makes this all that more interesting as we head toward the finale!

So please make sure to read, comment and vote for your favorites!! Then tell your friends to do the same! Spread the word about what is happening here!! You are the only way they are going to advance.

Unfortunately Ro was exposed as the last of the Killers and was eliminated. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be checking out her entries. They’re really good. You’re just hurting yourself by not reading and commenting on them!!

https://roina-arwen.dreamwidth.org/20371.html
https://roina-arwen.dreamwidth.org/20701.html

The polls close Thursday December 4th at 8pm ET.

Good luck to everyone!



Poll #33904 ’WheelofChaos-Week16Kako’
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 3

Vote For Your Favorites!

alycewilson's entry
1 (33.3%)

drippedonpaper's entry
2 (66.7%)

flipflop_diva's entry
1 (33.3%)

hafnia's entry
1 (33.3%)

halfshellvenus's entry
3 (100.0%)

inkstainedfingertips's entry
2 (66.7%)

l0lita's entry
2 (66.7%)




Poll #33905 ’WheelofChaos-Week16Bed’
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 3

Vote For Your Favorites!

alycewilson's entry
1 (33.3%)

drippedonpaper's entry
2 (66.7%)

flipflop_diva's entry
1 (33.3%)

hafnia's entry
1 (33.3%)

halfshellvenus's entry
3 (100.0%)

inkstainedfingertips's entry
2 (66.7%)

l0lita's entry
2 (66.7%)

umadoshi: (Christmas - boughs (carolstime))
[personal profile] umadoshi
I wonder how much of an entry I can write on my phone before it gets too annoying. Still a bit amazed that the best-for-me swipe keyboard I've found is literally still in alpha. (I almost always strongly prefer to use tech/programs that are solidly out of beta, and yet.)

Bucky the Christmas tree has been revived from cold storage! I do still miss some elements of having a real tree, between the traditions and the evergreen scent, but it sure is nice not to have the time constraints of "how long will it look alive?" when deciding to put it up/take it down. And I'm also finding that I like the feeling of This Is Our Tree. Hello, Bucky, old chum. Good to see you again. You look well!

Anyhow, as of yesterday* he's in his place, built-in lights all aglow. No ornaments yet. Plenty of time for that.

*Ginny is not what you'd call a Christmas fan, so I told myself firmly that there was no call to put Bucky up on Saturday right before she and Kas would be coming over.

Today's main excitement was a dental appointment. Everything looks good, apparently. Now to hope once again that this won't be the time I get covid out of it despite the precautions we manage to take.

31 days of gratitude

Dec. 2nd, 2025 01:56 am
ruric: (Default)
[personal profile] ruric
So to combat the general feelings that we're rapidly heading into he'll in a handbasket I'm attempting December's 31 days of gratitude challenge.

Pretty simple rules:

Commit to writing in a gratitude journal daily for 31 days in December. Just 5-10 minutes each day listing what you're thankful for can transform your mindset, improve relationships, and boost happiness. No special skills needed — just a notebook and willingness to appreciate life.

* Write Daily: spend 5-10 minutes writing 3-5 things you're grateful for each day.

* Be Specific: instead of "I'm grateful for my family," write "I'm grateful for my sister's encouraging text today."

* Feel It: don't just list items - truly connect with the feeling of gratitude as you write.

* Mix It Up: include big things and small moments, people, experiences, and personal qualities.

* By hand: write it in a dedicated journal or on a piece of paper by hand. The physical act of writing is important here.

The Accusation - Week 16

Dec. 1st, 2025 08:42 pm
clauderainsrm: (Default)
[personal profile] clauderainsrm posting in [community profile] therealljidol
 I won't lie, we came REALLY close to something funny happening.  :D  But instead, we got the result I kind of figured would be the case... 

*shrug*  You all need a better sense of humor!  ;)  (Seriously though, I get it.  Not everyone is looking for sheer chaos.  But for the record that "funny" result was you collectively almost accused the same person you ended up giving the antidote to. :D)  

So let's find out who that is... who gets the antidote? 

That would be [personal profile] inkstainedfingertips - go ahead and take this vial and drink up!

You notice the difference right away. Sure, it has that familiar lemon aftertaste, but there is also something more to it.  There is HOPE.  You didn't even realize just how sluggish you'd been getting. But now that you have the antidote in your system, your color is coming back!

Congratulations Idolers! You have saved his life!!!


***

Now for the part where it was actually a close vote - the identity of the Killer... 

You've searched high and low through the castle and whittled down suspects one by one... before zeroing in on the accusing the very first person to ever be killed!!  She was resurrected from the ashes and given a new lease on life - and a new purpose. 

You hereby officially accuse [personal profile] roina_arwen of Dark and Foul Deeds!!!

Her screams echo through the castle. She grasps onto her medallion for protection/redemption, but it remains dark having been used to save her once before. 
This time there is no safety and no mercy.  The last of the Killers falls down, and does not get back up again. 

Congratulations Idolers! You have officially vanquished the Killers!!!



Or have you.... *dramatic music* 



wait, yes, yes you have.  ;) 






Pre-brothering

Dec. 1st, 2025 02:35 pm
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
My brother has now been the coach of many a Let's Get Rid Of This Shit sessions. He's a great one for the job. Toss it is his favorite answer to every question. We have another session coming up in Janaury. I just retired some tech. It does not work well and I will never use it again but.... maybe and then I gave a very serious thought to putting it in a bag and putting it with the other stuff for bargaining power.

When he says 'Toss it' to something I want to keep, I could use it to offer up instead! But, the voice of good prevented me from finding an appropriate bag so I tossed it on my own today.

Years and years ago, my parents live in New York City. I was in college and my brother was in New England in boarding school. Mother and Daddy had moved to New York City after we all left home so coming home to the new 'home' was an extra special treat.

One time, I don't remember the occasion, but my brother and I ended up there at the same time. Mom asked us what we wanted for dinner and we both agreed fried okra would be the VERY BEST. Mother's reaction was 'oh you clowns! you can't get okra in New York City!!' 'So, if we can, will you please fry it up?' Knowing she was safe from that duty, she said 'sure'.

AND we set out. I don't remember our even having to go too far. I think it was maybe the third store we tried - a Grestedes - they had two boxes of frozen cut up okra and we GRABBED it! Not that there was competition. It was clear they had not stocked it the day/week maybe month before but we didn't care. As we stood in line there was a woman behind us eyeing our treasure and inquired with a little bit of accusation "what in the world are you going to do with that???" I wanted to say science project. I forget my brother's response but I'm sure it was even better.

Mom was kind of impressed, actually, and we had a delicious dinner.

Today, I ran into the woman in charge of special catering today and asked her about the possibility of my ordering up a giant load of fried okra sometime. "Sure, we can do that, just pop me an email when you are ready and we'll make it happen." WOOOOT!!! Mom would be jealous, I think.

Rec-cember Day 2: Merlin

Dec. 1st, 2025 10:45 pm
falena: Closeup of Noah Wylie as John Carter on ER (carter)
[personal profile] falena

Merlin

This BBC show for children is a prime example of one of those fandoms where, for me, fanon clearly surpassed and trascended canon. I don't think I ever finished watching the show back when it was airing, but man, the Merlin/Arthur fic I have saved I have gone back to hundreds of times in the intervening years, especially as podfic. I don't know why precisely the idea of a relationship between a stuckup but brave prince and its bumbling but loyal manservant was right up my alley but it just was.

The Student Prince by [archiveofourown.org profile] fayjay. This is a modern day AU where Arthur is the heir to the British throne and he meets Merlin at university in Saint Andrews, in circa 2010. This is basically the one of the best YA romances I've ever read, better than most traditionally published stuff and it can totally be read with little to no knowledge of the tv show. I re-listen to the podfic version (read by the author herself, who is actually better than most pro audiobook readers) at least once a year.

[personal profile] fayjay has podficced many of my favourite canon era stories, like In Time of Trial by [archiveofourown.org profile] shinetheway; The Beltane Cycle by [archiveofourown.org profile] astolat/ Naomi Novik (here is the podfic); The Crown of the Summer Court by [archiveofourown.org profile] astolat/ Naomi Novik (here is the podfic).

The Pitt

I've fallen down the rabbit hole of Mel/Frank shipping and I regret nothing, the quality of the writing for this pairing is stellar. I have 80+ bookmarks for it on the Ao3. However, I do have a soft spot for another pairing, and that is Robby/Abbot. The two ER cowboys, chief attending of the day and night shift respectively. Old man yaoi at its finest. My interest in the pairing is completely [archiveofourown.org profile] alethia's fault. I've been a fan of her work since Generation Kill and she is just such a talented author I literally cannot choose which one of the 30+ Robby/Abbot fic she's written so far is my favourite. I love them all. Go on, pick one at random and read it, you will be blown away. [personal profile] alethia gets these two characters in a way the writers of The Pitt can only dream of. If you're a podfic nut like me, you could start by listening to Safe Haven by [archiveofourown.org profile] andrasteemraldpetal .

Strange Pictures, by Uketsu

Dec. 1st, 2025 01:09 pm
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


Another mystery with light horror/urban legend elements and a heavy use of images by the mysterious and pseudonymous Uketsu. If you like creepypasta, you will like this.

An abandoned blog with sketches of a woman's future child may reveal a horrifying secret. A child's drawings of his apartment building worry his teacher. A mountaintop murder has a clue in a sketch by the murder victim. How do the images reveal the solutions? Are these three weird stories related?

I enjoyed this very much. It's exactly as fun and bonkers as the first Uketsu book I read, Strange Houses, but feels more confident and assured. It also reads more like a normal novel, with actual scenes rather than solely relying on interviews and exposition.

I'm excited to read his next two books (forthcoming in English) Strange Buildings (originally published in Japanese as Strange Houses 2, which the translator says is more dark/disturbing than the first two) and Strange Maps, which the translator says is more of a classic mystery.

Content notes: Child abuse, animal in danger, brief but graphic violence.

Spoilers!

Read more... )

(no subject)

Dec. 1st, 2025 02:44 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
It was a beautiful day today (in appearance only - clear and sunny, but there was a very cold breeze) and I finally went out for a run. It was 3°C/37°F when I went out and only a degree or two warmer by the time I got back an hour later. And that's not accounting for wind chill. It was a good run though, and I was glad to be able to do it today because there is snow and/or ice in the forecast for tomorrow and then colder weather for the next few days.

My friend P was telling me about a Smithsonian exhibition about the history of American crafts at state fairs, which I thought sounded very interesting. She suggested I could take Amtrak down to DC and she could meet me so we could go to the exhibition together (she went yesterday, but I'm sure there are bits that she missed). So we're planning on doing this in early spring next year. She suggested a day trip, but since it's a five hour train trip I think it would be better to go down early, spend the afternoon with P and maybe have dinner together, spend the night at a hotel, and come back early the next day. It would be much more relaxed to do it that way.

365 Questions 2025

Dec. 1st, 2025 02:28 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
Catching up on November prompts:

29. What confuses you? Health insurance in the US. It seems like it's deliberately designed to get people confused so they will choose whatever takes the least effort even if it's not in their best interests.

30. In what way are you your own worst enemy? I have ideas for things I'd like to do but I just don't get around to doing them.

Monday

Dec. 1st, 2025 08:27 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Yesterday, I ventured from my apartment one time. I took some trash to the shoots - two doors down. And that was it. It was lovely. Martha came by for Amazon help. She wanted to join Prime for her free month so she could Christmas shop. It was not entirely straightforward but we got it done. And I had the conversation I've had with others around here about banking online.

"Aren't you worried about getting robbed?"
"Nope. I check all of my accounts first think in the morning. If they try to steal from me, they won't get much for long. How often do you check your accounts?"
"Oh, I check them every month when I get the statement."

So, bank account robbers... feel free to hit up all old people the day after the statement comes out. You have a month to enjoy the profits.

Plus, in texts last night, she said she could not find an 8x8 pyrex dish with lid on Amazon. I found about 20 of them. So she called around and will drive to downtown Bellevue today to pick one up from The Container Store. "I hope it's ready before 2, I hate that traffic."

Different strokes for different folks.

After she was here, she was on to drop off a photo for the newsletter this week. She and Richard have a wedding anniversary coming up and they wanted their wedding picture. She showed it to me and, frankly, it's about the most perfect wedding photo I've ever seen. And they look just the same but older. And Richard had a whole lotta hair back then. Next year will be their 60th. (I'll grab a copy Thursday when the newsletter comes out and post it.)

I was so very tempted to copy yesterday today and not leave this apartment. Some non-volleyball mornings, I wake up ready to swim but on the days when I'm not, I'm hesitant to force myself. I don't want to not like swimming. This morning was nice and foggy but it did not look like it was going to last so before I could spend any time in debate, I just slapped on my suit and hit the road. It was a very good swim so I'm glad I did.

I tried Movie Sunday yesterday. I have MADD. Movie Attention Deficit Disorder. I tried watching 4 different movies and did not last 30 mins into any of them. They all had potential but I didn't have the patience. I'm just not a movie person.

Biggie has, apparently, worked through his issues with the egg crate foam topper and has now taken to sleeping with me again. The lights go out, he hops up and snuggles into the bowl my spoon makes. We settle in. And here comes Julio who tries to settle in but cat words are exchanged and they both leap up and leave. I go to sleep. When I wake up to pee, Biggie is there and, usually, Julio and they stay the night although Julio usually gets up first. Then me. Then Biggie.

One side effect from watching TV news is exposure to commercials for every weight loss/diabetes product and there are a million of them. It occurred to me last night that the good news is all those fat dancers who couldn't get work because they were fat are now fully employed because they are fat. Sweet.

Ok, it's after 9 and I really do need to get dressed and make my bed.

20251201_090633-COLLAGE

monday

Dec. 1st, 2025 11:59 am
summersgate: (Default)
[personal profile] summersgate
I took Skye first thing this morning to the vet. Two times yesterday she Yowled really loudly. And she seemed lethargic all day, lying up next to the heater. She did eat okay - at least for her. As she ages she eats less and less and is getting thinner and thinner. She's lost another pound since last spring when she was at the vets. She weighs only 8 pounds now. I had to leave her so they could do bloodwork and who knows, maybe an xray after that. Just playing the waiting game now to see what will be next. If I don't hear anything by 11 I'm supposed to call them. She's only 12. Most of our other cats at least got up to 14 or even 18. Possible problems the vet thought she might have - constipation, kidney problems, a mass. We'll know more after the blood work comes back. She already has thyroid problems and has been a med for that for a couple years. Poor Skye.

Got the call. It's probably something to do with her liver. I'll pick her up at 2 and be giving her antibiotics at home. Hopefully it's an infection and she can get over it. The other option was leave her there for a few days and have a $1,500+ bill. Can't do that. I hate this.

*****
Sometimes I hate this world we live in. The inevitable death and disease. The vet tech had an hourglass tattoo on her wrist. That appealed to me. A reminder to treasure the time we have. Time will run out.

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jeshyr: Blessed are the broken. Harry Potter. (Default)
Ricky Buchanan