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Dec. 26th, 2025 09:56 am
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
When I opened the watercolour painting kit from my daughter yesterday I commented that I would need a table in the basement, to which she replied that that is a great idea. Later in the day (after we were back from Christmas with her in laws) I told her I was thinking of buying a cheap card table, which would be the perfect size for the space in the basement next to the piano. She told me that I didn't need to buy a table because I could have the small table in the girls' art room that Aria has been using, because there is also a bigger table in there with plenty of room for three, and immediately she brought me down to see if we could move the table then and there. We found that we would need to take the legs off the table (which she had had to do to get it into the room originally), and she went off to find a wrench. Some time passed because I guess she got caught up with doing other things upstairs, but eventually my son in law came down with tools, removed the legs, brought the table out, replaced the legs, and set the table up in the corner.

The best thing about this table is that it's sturdy enough for me to use it as a sewing table as well as a painting and puzzle table. I was worried that a card table wouldn't be strong enough for the sewing machine, so this is great. I won't be able to leave the sewing machine set up permanently, but it's not hard to get it out of its case and set it up on the table as necessary, rather than having to lug it upstairs to the dining table. I've also been able to dig out one of the power strips I brought from home and plug that in and pass the power cord along behind the piano to the table. (It's just long enough.)

Boxing Day walk to Worbarrow

Dec. 26th, 2025 02:45 pm
puddleshark: (Default)
[personal profile] puddleshark
Pondfield Cove 4

A grey Boxing Day, with a bitter north-east wind blowing on the high ground. Not a day to be walking the ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort, so I did the other traditional Boxing Day walk, the more sheltered one, across the Army Ranges to the sea at Worbarrow.

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podcast friday

Dec. 26th, 2025 09:26 am
sabotabby: (doom doom doom)
[personal profile] sabotabby
 This week's podcast is such inside baseball metapodcasting, but it's one where I've literally emailed the podcasters asking for it, and apparently so did many other people. Bad Hasbara has finally, finally covered the fall of Jesse Brown in "A Jesse Brown Christmas ft. Rachel Gilmore." (I've linked to the video here in case you want to see dogs that I assume appear on screen at some point; here is another audio link).

Of all the public figures who got October 7th brain, Jesse was the saddest for me personally. He was someone I respected a lot as a journalist. He broke the Me to We scandal, which I'd been on about for years, he broke the Jian Ghomeshi story, which friends of mine who are in media circles had been whispering about for years without the clout to speak up, and as the show details, he produced "Thunder Bay," which is one of the best journalistic deep dives that this country's media has done in ages. If anyone could be relied on to be sensible and level headed and critical, it was him. Until his brain melted.

I've had personal correspondence with him (to his credit, he does read everything you send to him and responds, in detail) and that just made me sadder, because as they describe here, a younger Jesse would have eviscerated older Jesse for his backwards logic. In fact many of the journalists he helped make prominent do exactly that, including the fantastic Robert Jago, who you hear at the end. He never really struck me as a person who started from a conclusion and worked backwards to find (or fabricate) evidence, so even when he did questionable shit, like interview people who were against safe injection sites or insist that an immediate return to school during a covid spike was a good idea, I at least listened to what he had to say. Unfortunately, his post-Oct. 7 brainworms throw all of his earlier reporting into question.

This podcast, featuring one of his main targets, is over 2.5 hours long and doesn't even get into everything. (The specific incident I wrote to him about isn't mentioned.) It's really good. Mostly it's very cathartic as a story about someone you thought was cool turning out to, in fact, not be very cool at all, and how you cope with that. I seriously hope he's listening and reflecting.
[syndicated profile] capricorn_0mnicorn_feed

capricorn-0mnikorn:

tinierpurplefishes:

Wishing everyone who doesn’t celebrate chrismas a very nice Thursday

“Let’s go and see everybody,” said Pooh. “Because when you’ve been walking in the wind for miles, and you suddenly go into somebody’s house, and he says, ‘Hallo, Pooh, you’re just in time for a little smackerel of something,’ and you are, then it’s what I call a Friendly Day.”

Piglet thought that they ought to have a Reason for going to see everybody, like Looking for Small or Organizing an Expotition, if Pooh could think of something.

Pooh could.

“We’ll go because it’s Thursday,” he said, “and we’ll go to wish everybody a Very Happy Thursday. Come on, Piglet.”

The House at Pooh Corner, by A. A. Milne. Chapter VIII: “In which Piglet does a Very Grand Thing” Project Gutenberg.

The quote above is from Chapter 8; here’s a quote from Chapter 1:

“Why, here is Eeyore,” said Pooh, when he had finished hugging Christopher Robin, and he nudged Piglet, and Piglet nudged him, and they thought to themselves what a lovely surprise they had got ready.

“Hallo, Eeyore.”

“Same to you, Pooh Bear, and twice on Thursdays,” said Eeyore gloomily.

Before Pooh could say: “Why Thursdays?” Christopher Robin began to explain the sad story of Eeyore’s Lost House. And Pooh and Piglet listened, and their eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger.

So clearly, Thursdays are Important to Pooh because they’re Important to Eeyore.

cimorene: painting of two women in Regency gowns drinking tea (austen)
[personal profile] cimorene
I've been drinking Decaf Twinings Earl Grey and some herbal blends. I tried the Finnish specialty teashops that I have ordered loose leaf from in the past, but they didn't have any decaf tea that I wanted, let alone decaf chai and matcha, which was what I was looking for.

Today I finally made an attempt with various search terms and discovered that it's pretty easy to get decaf matcha in the US, but I couldn't find a single shop selling it in Europe, not even in the UK. I did find a shop that sells decaf chai, but it seems to be because it's the EU branch of a Canadian company. Also Wax and I both got rage headaches from the horrible pseudoscience and health food marketing gobbledygook on the websites I kept landing at. Ugh!! Why are they taking over tea😭. It's TEA!

Now, I could get my family to send me some matcha powder, but the cost of shipping from the US is prohibitive, IMO, for a consumable product that you would want periodic refills of.

So maybe it's better to not even bother getting a milk steamer... IDK if it's worth it for primarily coffee lattes and the occasional chai? Maybe it is. I hadn't even had a matcha latte till ten years ago and I did like the other kind back then...

I guess I'm just really annoyed by the lack of availability. This is a global economy in all the bad ways but I can't get decaf matcha or Reese's Pieces!

A holiday miracle

Dec. 26th, 2025 12:20 pm
shadowhive: (Ray Snowflake grin)
[personal profile] shadowhive
I hope everyone has had a nice christmas/holidays.

Xmas Eve my feed was flooded by the Heated Rivalry guys reading thirst tweets. I vaguely knew about it as a concept (a gay hockey show) so was kinda curious and I’m glad now tv are getting it next month so it’s an excuse to keep it once I’ve finished Welcome To Derry. But damn seeing those clips, I’m so enamoured by them. That doesn’t feel like the right word when one of them (Hudson) is saying the most unhinged things (which gets beeped a lot) while the other (Connor) is like ‘where’s the love, where’s the caressing’ and it’s just so funny. (Especially Hudson’s follow up) I need to watch the full thirst tweet vid but those clips alone made me need this show.

(Also it’s based on a book? Which is on kindle unlimited so I’ve got the to read)

After walking the pup we watched Muppet Christmas Carol which will always be a classic. I’m so sad they didn’t do more muppet adaptions of books (other than treasure island which I need to see again cause it’s so fun). But ahh the muppet show is coming back and so is rizzo the rat!

On the afternoon I watched Across The Spiderverse which I’d not seen before, despite getting the blu ray on sale last year. And damn, the animation for it is really so beautiful and the first they made every world a different art style too is so incredible. I’m excite for the next one especially as it’s a more direct follow up.

In the night time I managed to finally finish ficcing something, woo! Hopefully this means I can get back to writing (either tackling the WIPs of doom or the ideas in my head but I do wanna do gift fic then I have concepts)

It did mean I didn’t have the full focus for the ghost story for Christmas which is a bit of a shame so I might have to rewatch, but it was nice (and unexpected) to see Nancy Carroll (Lady Felicia from Father Brown) in it.

Xmas day was spent not doing too much. Gift wise I got the two Lego gift sets, a cute gingerbread train and a badnik crabmeat from sonic, along with Hellfire headphones (and the charm) and two hardcover books from mums friend (Murder On The Orient Express and Evil Under The Sun which, like Halloween Party are shiny). The big thing was the record player so that’s all set up now. I’ve only listened to two things (one side of James Marriott’s Bitter Tongues, to test it, and one side of the first disc of Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia) but it does sound really nice.

However I have been hit by the neurodivergent need to know. Like how does a vinyl work? I know it’s to do with groves but how does that even work? How’s the sound get put on there like that? How does it translate? I’m gonna have to find if there’s a video or documentary about it.

The rest of the day was spent watching stuff, like the excellent Vengeance Most Fowl which is just an incredible film (Feathers McGraw is a generational villain) and then White Christmas before sticking it on bbc1 and tuning out a bit. Alas mum was sick from something (we think the wine cause it was the only thing she had that I didn’t, bar the chicken which the girls had and they were fine) so that sucked for her. Thankfully she seems better now which is good.

Also as an annoyance, my Xbox has decided it wants to throw a fit. Last night it didn’t recognise the expansion card (that has been plugged in since it came and was working fine yesterday) which would be enough to annoy me on its own but I’ve gone through fix attempts before bed and now it won’t even come on properly, ugh. (Edit: at least thay part is sorted)

I had considered watching Stranger Things but I knew Iw as too wiped so now the plan is tomorrow (unless I’m not tired tonight) so we’ll see. I’m also debating seeing Anaconda either tomorrow or next week but again, we’ll see.

Today is gonna be watching the new Puss In Boots, then the festive repair shop, pottery throw down and quiz of the year. And hopefully ficcing a bit or something too.

IoT Hack

Dec. 26th, 2025 12:02 pm

Time keeps escaping from me

Dec. 26th, 2025 06:40 pm
fred_mouse: a small white animal of indeterminate species, the familiar of the Danger Mouse Evil Toad (startled)
[personal profile] fred_mouse

I am a little bemused to discover that it is more than a week since I last posted. I am entirely failing to work out what has been going on. Surgery recovery seems to be going better than the first time, although there might be some contribution from the fact that staying nearly flat on my back is the best way to not irritate the pulled shoulder muscle.

The last two days have been having Weather! with yesterday's temperature (in the city, so 15km north) peaking at 43°C. Today is quite mellow; it is currently 20°C and I'm resenting the breeze for not being warm enough. We have, however, swapped the warm quilt/doona for the very thin one made by Artisanat's mother.

There are fires, with friends currently hosting parents who have been evacuated (D&F, D's parents, I believe). The gold mine at Boddington is listed as on fire. I am choosing to not go down the rabbit hole of working out what that means, although I suspect it is actually bushland on the same site that is on fire.

Youngest finished up their internship on Friday last week, and is beyond bored. Fortunately, they are reasonably good at keeping themself amused (although, if it weren't that all retail and hospitality work is already grabbed for the season and winding down, I suspect they would be out there trying to get another job).

I have been working on two low energy tasks - digital decluttering, and finishing books. Over in the Discord for the Habitica Book Club, I signed up for a bingo card with 16 books that I have abandoned ('paused') over the last however long. The challenge runs December/January, and I've finished three and progressed two. Which isn't really as much as I would like, but is well within the goal of 'make progress'. I probably won't get around to writing those up, and I'm kind of okay about that.

I do have a stack of other notes that might get turned into blog posts at some point, but I'm very much allowing life to just happen, and if the enthusiasm hits, that is a win.

As for uni: I took this week off entirely as recovery / summer break, and I'll go back (work from home) on Monday. I have to have a stack of my ethics application done by mid-January, and before that can be written I need to have a solid theoretical framework for what questions I want to ask. Which means reading about 50 papers next week ('reading').

Craft wise I have abandoned hope on getting Eldest's quilt top done by the end of the year. Not being allowed to do much with the right arm and having upset the shoulder has meant that sewing has been Too Hard. I do have thoughts about just getting the pieces cut though, and maybe I'll do that this evening.

[syndicated profile] capricorn_0mnicorn_feed

capricorn-0mnikorn:

You’ve had 35 🤬 years!!!

Heard on NPR this morning:

Full transcript is up at the link (for some reason, I’m not able to select text to copy/paste; maybe later I can).

Here’s that excerpt I wanted to share the other day:

Representatives of the hotel industry told NPR they value disabled travelers and reach out to wheelchair users to understand how to serve them better.

“Ultimately, our business, we want to get it right for all travelers,” says Chirag Shah of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). “So hearing those experiences from your listeners is something that we’re attentive to.”

Liar, liar. Pants on fire!

If you lot really valued disabled travelers, and actually “want to get it right,” we wouldn’t all be complaining about the same old 💩 for over a third of a Century!

You’re not attentive at all.

This is exactly how the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act radicalized me against capitalism. We, after 27 cumulative years of protests and lobbying, finally succeeded in passing the most comprehensive civil rights law for disabled people in the ‘Western World’.

…Only to find out, in the aftermath, that that law was crafted to let the most powerful capitalists do whatever the hell they want, anyway, with (functionally) no consequences.

friday

Dec. 26th, 2025 03:04 am
summersgate: (Default)
[personal profile] summersgate
DSC_049b.jpg
The little manger scene on the coffee table. At one point Andy wagged his tail and sent everything flying but I set it back up later and took this pic. There was a lot of chaos while people were opening presents and there was wrapping paper all over the place. Andy kept busy ripping it into tinier pieces. Afterwards I thought, why had I been concerned before about getting the house clean and the floors swept? Skye spent the whole day on the couch, getting petted by people. I don't think she'll be here next year at this time so it's good that her last year has a lot of love in it.

DSC_0492.jpg
One, Two, Three.

I had a weird pain in my right wrist yesterday. It started in the morning and got worse as the day went on. In a way it was good because it allowed me to ask for help with preparations. It's better now since I've slept a bit. I was exhausted and went to be early last night - 8 pm. Woke up at 1.

Jules gave me a cool tarot deck that I'd been wanting. The Grim Tales deck. Lots of strange images that will be good fodder for future art.
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the February 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from [personal profile] alchemicink, [personal profile] dialecticdreamer, [personal profile] kellan_the_tabby, and [personal profile] rix_scaedu. It also fills the "Taking It Slow" square in my 2-1-25 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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but_can_i_be_trusted: (Default)
[personal profile] but_can_i_be_trusted posting in [community profile] 100words
Title: 'December's Joy'
Fandom: Original Fiction
Rating: G
Notes: Crossposted to [community profile] drabble_zone. Merry Christmas from [personal profile] but_can_i_be_trusted.

December's Joy )

Follow Friday 12-26-25: Learning

Dec. 26th, 2025 12:17 am
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today's theme is Learning.

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sovay: (Lord Peter Wimsey: passion)
[personal profile] sovay
In the afternoon there was eggnog, in the evening there was roast beef, and after dinner with my parents and my husbands and [personal profile] nineweaving, there was plum pudding with an extremely suitable amount of brandy on fire.



At the end of a battering year, it was a small and a nice Christmas. There was thin frozen snow on the ground. In addition to the traditional and necessary socks and a joint gift with [personal profile] spatch of wooden kitchen utensils to replace our archaically cracked spoons, I seem to have ended up with a considerable stack of books including Robert Macfarlane's Ghostways: Two Journeys in Unquiet Places (2020), Monique Roffey's The Mermaid of Black Conch (2020), and the third edition of Oakes Plimpton's Robbins Farm Park, Arlington, Massachusetts: A Local History from the Revolutionary War to the Present (1995/2007) with addenda as late as 2014 pasted into the endpapers by hand, a partly oral history I'd had no idea anyone had ever conducted of a place I have known for sledding and star-watching and the setting off of model rockets since childhood. The moon was a ice-white crescent at 18 °F. After everything, as we were driving home, I saw the unmistakable flare of a shooting star to the northwest, a stray shot of the Ursids perhaps after all.

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