thesarahscope

I'd gotten these keyboard stands (of at least slightly better quality than the really crappy ones I've had...they have double bars anyway) on Monday and was assembling them yesterday. One of them went together just fine, but the second one had two of the same-sized bottom pieces (I mean, the pieces are the same size, but the hole spacing is different, one is wider and one is shorter to accommodate the different legs...but the ones I got were both the same wider spacing) so I can't put it together! I emailed them and sent a picture. Hopefully they get back soon. That's pretty damn annoying. Later we went up to cvs for finally our final round of hepatitis shots. At night I worked a little on getting the sound files for all the parts ready. I stumbled on a smarter idea that takes a little more pre-work but a lot less work on the actual parts. I made templates for each time signature so then now it's easy to just go and cut-and-paste each part into the appropriate template. Next time I'm working on it it hopefully shouldn't take too much longer to finish.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: John Coltrane - Lush Life

smokingboot

There's a thing I do sometimes, when waking approaches and I'm not ready; I know it's on its way because I become aware of my own heart beat. And if, in that state, I just listen, eventually it may slow and fade out in the return to sleep. But in that time of listening images may come too. This works best if they are not forced, not even touched. The best way to describe this is that whatever comes into ones mind should rise more like bubbles from a spring than bubbles in boiling water. The latter can be just as valid but with pressure there is also the chance of forcing a vibe or a narrative. Intent pushes too hard, leave it be. Just go back to sleep.

This time I heard my heart beating and decided to follow the beat that turned into the march of many people through the gates of a temple complex. I say march, it was not rigorous, quite informal, and dissipated quickly. Someone said something about the temple having all the cosmos in it, which seemed a bit extravagant to me. I saw a door opening in stone and beyond it something like a cloister. It was for me so I went through it.

Beyond lay a short cliff top plateau facing the same opposite, though this latter was covered in trees. It had been day in the complex but this was all night-time silhouette, over a vast long gorge below, out of which lifted the vivid pinks and greens of the Northern Lights, as if they could come out of the earth. But this could not be right surely.

It seemed very strange that in the Temple of the Constant Heart (how did I know its name?) there could be this anomaly, an area that looked like a cloister but when you got there was actually a place of potential danger and wildness. There was room enough on the rocky plateau, but the edge seemed abrupt. Not so much that you were in immediate danger of tumbling down the mountain but definitely a place where accidents might beset the unlucky or unwary.

I came back in and was shown a treasure, an ancient beautifully embroidered belt, with a design of two suns. The buckle was designed like their rays interacting in the space between them. There was much gold. I can't recall if the guardian of it let me pick it up but suspect she did. She was an old nun in white. I stared at it with the idea percolating through my head that inconstancy is a failing I punish thoroughly - these were the words that came to me, but the nun didn't say anything - I don't know who said them. The next realisation was an understanding that for all my reaction to those I consider inconstant, I am not entirely devoid of that flaw myself.

But sure, in my own language, stars have a connection with constancy. I left the room of the belt and realised I could hear my own heart no more, sinking back into the quiet of sleep.

Edited to add: Oh wait, it's Shakespeare's birthday, so stars and constancy make perfect sense today.

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Or less well known Sonnet 14

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
And yet methinks I have astronomy—
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find.
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.

So yes, thanks Bill. Happy Birthday!

mousme

I am *wiped*, so you are getting the tl;dr version tonight and I will post a more detailed entry tomorrow.

1- My mother is fine, apart from a fine goose egg on her neck and an impressive blood stain on her bedroom carpet.

2- My father is less fine, but is home from the hospital. He has fucking Covid, because he seems to labour under the misapprehension that wearing your mask firmly under your chin is an effective strategy for avoiding infection. *headdesk* He has a bunch of stuff going on all at once (digestive, some sort of kidney/UTI thing, plus the 'rona) and has been given antibiotics to help fend off the infection, but nothing else of immediate major concern.

3- My mother, who has COPD/emphysema, is freaking out about potentially getting Covid, because she doesn't mask reliably either (the masks make her feel like she can't breathe, because of the aforementioned COPD, which as I understand it is quite common).

4- My father is NOT freaking out enough, and insists he wants to go grocery shopping with me tomorrow with his active case of Covid. *headdesk* He has been exasperated with my refusal to let him go spread infection around the city. *rolls eyes*

Luckily for me I have been masking the whole time around him with my N95 (well, not so much "lucky" as "fucking cautious") and I was vaccinated a few months ago, so the odds of my getting infected are much lower. Not zero, but lower. I've given them pointers on quarantining once I go back home (probably tomorrow), but I have little faith they will stick to the guidelines, so I've also been priming my mother on what to do if she starts feeling symptomatic. She already has a medical action plan from her pulmonologist, so this is just to reinforce that with her. She also did a rapid test at home today, which was negative, so that's something.

I am going to load them up with groceries and easy meals tomorrow morning, and then I have to go back to Ottawa to my very neglected night shifts.

Okay, detailed account tomorrow, I promise. Right now I am going to go pass the fuck out.

Current Mood: exhausted

heron61

I’m looking at the various options for what my partner and I can do and what is likely to happen with the US, and I find this seriously depressing, so I’d love if anyone reading this could provide alternatives or reasons that they think some of the unlikely possible options are actually pretty likely (and why).

Option 1 Fleeing Fascism: My best guess is the US slides into full on fascism, somewhere between Hungary and Nazi Germany, and after my mother dies (likely in the next year or so, she’s 90) my partner and I flee the US, likely not to Canada unless it looks likely that 47 won’t invade, so our options are Portugal (you can buy your way in with money we’ll have from my mom), or New Zealand (same). The problem is I utterly hate the idea of having to leave Portland and our friends, but I’m not too keen on living under fascism either.

Other options (I’m saying how likely I think they are, if you disagree, please let me know, and also why):

Option 2 Social and economic collapse: 47 and Musk are idiots who aren’t remotely careful, so this seems like a real option that seems somewhat likely, but I’m uncertain , I also find this far superior to option 1, in large part because while it will suck, people won’t be disappeared to Central American torture prisons, and it likely won’t last that long. I’d expect the states to pick up the pieces and we might even end up with the US balkanizing.

Option 3 Military coup/civil war: If 47 (as he seems very likely to do) invades Canada or Greenland, or both, some portion of the US military will likely refuse to attack NATO allies. If it’s enough, we get a military coupe, which is terrible, but also a serious improvement, since I’d expect them to push for free elections soon. OTOH, if only some of them refuse we could easily end up in full on civil war. I think the overall option is moderately likely, but have no idea which way things would go, and in the case of a full-on civil war, I would want to be on another continent.

Option 4 Low Violence Popular Uprising: This has happened in numerous nations; enough people take to the streets and the leaders flee. I’d love for this to happen here, but I also firmly believe it won’t. The US lacks that sort of hard-core protest culture. It could easily happen in France, I don’t believe it will happen here.

Option 5 Free elections: I think this is only slightly more likely than a successful popular uprising. It’s been 3 months, 47 will have been in power for almost 22 months for the mid-term elections, and the Republinazis have shown themselves to be absolutely fine with eliminating democracy. Blue states may or may not keep far elections, but red and many purple states won’t.

Option 6 Secession: This is my strong preference – either for the West Coast to join Canada or to become its own nation, and in either case, I’d never need to worry about sharing a nation with the powerful wealthy elites in hard core red states like Alabama, Idaho, or Iowa. The problem is that attempting this either results in an ugly civil war that our side loses, or someone needs to seize nukes and a way to deliver them. I expect that in CA at least there is at least some discussions about this, but I have absolutely no idea how likely I think this is.

I don’t see any other remotely likely options, and I really don’t like the likely ones other than 1-3. What do you think?

the_siobhan

It's a warm today and I am itchy and sweaty. I have spent two days in the shed, pulling out boxes and cleaning up spider webs and mouse poop. SO MUCH MOUSE POOP. And one dead mouse.

I'm taking a break right now. when I go back outside I'll stack the things that I know are staying out there onto the shelves and finish taking the rest of it into the house. Then I'll finish going through the boxes. This is the last place in the house to be cleaned out and I've already found the paining supplies box, so I'll make a list of whatever I'm missing and tomorrow I'll hit the hardware store. I'll also be able to make the final get-things-out-of-the-house push so maybe that will make some room to empty the storage unit. We'll see.

While I'm working I'm also taking pictures of all the stuff the contractor didn't finish. I keep noticing new things, like spotting a new light switch leading me to a light fixture that was never installed. I should also take screenshots of the text messages where I repeatedly asked for receipts I never got.

Everything is taking too long. I keep offering to give money to people for help and they keep not showing up. Which in itself is frustrating. Like if you're not available, fine! But tell me so I can make other plans!

Lord Brock is doing well except for shouting at me whenever I come back from outside because how dare I not be in the room when he decides he wants to sit on me.

I should probably book a massage on the last day of the week. I already feel like somebody beat me up and it's only Tuesday.

Right. Back to the salt mines.

impy

I went relatively light on the Mooncat sale (thus far, it's still ongoing) and to celebrate, I then went ahead and looked at four other polish companies to see if they spoke to me. D'oh. In my defense, two mentioned that due to the mf'in tariffs, their prices and shipping are going to go up after their current (now over?) sales. Oddly enough, I did not wind up purchasing from either of those brands, though I do still love them. I'm not sure I'll be able to justify either in the future though, price wise.

Because future!me will wanna know: Olive Ave didn't have enough colors I wanted (in stock) to hit free shipping and none of the instock colors have been haunting my dreams, so I decided to hold off. I don't love cremes as a general rule, though I am currently wearing *counts* 5 OA polishes and they are actually some of my favorites. Four of them are repeat wears and two of those are like every year since I got them. I seriously debated getting those two in the better bottle/brush formula, but again, couldn't justify that to myself. (If you're wondering: Aster, Cornflower, Lilac, Peony, and Sunshine are my go to Easter colors. Well, Sunshine replaced Lemon Blossom because it's got a better brush.)

The other one was BKL, which tempted me more than OA. However, when I was playing around with my shopping cart, I got cartjacked a few times and decided that I didn't NEED any of the colors I'd found and that my luck with BKL mysteries as actual mysteries has rarely been good. I'm not someone who generally believes pruglies are actually pretty, thank you, and BKL loves a good prugly. The rest I will either roll the dice on being available later or I likely have something close enough already, possibly already from the brand. Especially since I had to stop myself no less than three times from adding a color to my cart that I already own, and another two I'm kinda thinking I own. Like OA, had a couple of shades I truly wanted still been available, I would've likely caved. But they weren't... so I remained good.

Debated seriously on one of the new shades from Bluebird as it is STUNNING (But Did You Dye?)but I didn't really want to buy just one polish and then have the shipping and taxes and whatnot on it. Also also, I'm telling myself I likely have at least two Bluebirds that are very close to that already. This is the one I'm most likely to just circle back for, but I'm trying to be good.

Particularly since I was not good when it came to Pahlish, which wasn't on sale. However, I got notification that Pink Pony Club was back in stock annnnnnnnnd um, I've been lusting over that polish for entirely too long. I don't even love pinks and it's just so damn pretty. ;_; You can't expect me to say no to something that's giving serious metallic vibes even if it's not metallic in any way. I just... I can't say no. I think it's basically the flakie version of WFL's Mind Your Own Biscuits and Life Will Be Gravy, though I'm hoping the orange won't be as strong. We will find out because I caved. In my defense, Biscuits is one of my favorite pinks, so a flakie version isn't that crazy for me. I picked up a few others, including two actual mysteries, so we'll see how that order plays out. I might've held out just a bit more had I not also fallen in love with Ancient Realm. Oddly enough, it reminded me a bit of Mooncat's Flight of the Monarchs, which I had on my list and then took off because it's always on both the "you have to have this!" and "most disappointing!" polish lists for the brand. Always. Every time. It's almost impressive. However, what kept me from buying Monarchs isn't going to be in play for Realm, as I really like Monarch when you can get the purple shift and I'm not expecting that from Realm so... the margin for disappointment error is lower, I think.

Now, let's circle back to MC. I wound up buying (not linking except for one):
Venus Flytrap, This is a Storm Warning, Pandemonium, Imperial Stormtrooper, Star Destroyer, A Galaxy Far, Far Away (for Cass), and Dark Horse. Dark Horse got stuck in my head after someone did a swatch comparison of it and a few other polishes and the listing there doesn't do it much justice, but damn did it look pretty in the swatch video. And that person's swatches are usually pretty reliable so I have hope I didn't just buy a pretty in theory but dud on the nails polish. We shall see! I debated House of Hades because it's literally the first MC polish people recommend every single time, or if you ask "what's a good polish?" you will find 1500 comments all saying HoH! Thing is, it also shows up on the disappointing lists a lot, for formula issues. Sooooo.... eh. I also have a flakie sapphire blue bomb that I love to bits and do I really need another one? I mean, probably not. Did that stop me from buying its red sister? No, it did not. But Pandemonium doesn't tend to show up on the bad lists for anything other than "didn't realize there was orange" even though the pictures show it, the description mentions it... The only Star Wars polish I was tempted by originally (this did change, obviously) was Star Destroyer and I swear, it sold out almost immediately, so this time I took no chances. In the meantime, I'd fallen in love with Stormtrooper, and Cass seemed gaga over Galaxy, so I went ahead and bought it for her. I might ask her if I can swatch-stick it before she runs away with it, but that'll be for science as I have realized I do not really like flakies in my magnetic polishes.

Now we just await the HT sale to see what calls my name. I need to see what, other than the Royalty release coming out Saturday, is not part of the sale so I can plot properly. I'm at the point with HT that short of LE polishes, I'm trying to wait for the sales or LE drops. I guess the upside (?) is that the Royalty sale is both a LE drop AND a sale.

ateolf

I'd just mentioned the weather being past sweatpants time, but then it's been a little waffley so there's been some back-and-forth on that as well as just sitting right on the edge. Anyway, we did our Superlo grocery run in the evening. Then at night we were outside in the front just chillin' and Peanut came up to hang out with us. Then we had another Peanut first. At one point she just straight up jumped up onto my shoulder and hung out there for a little bit. Before she did it, Mary Beth could see her getting that "I'm going to go jump up on this shoulder" look in her eyes and she tried to dissuade her, but Peanut was determined. Fun times.

Current Mood: pretty alright
Current Music: Alan Vega • Alex Chilton • Ben Vaughn - Cubist Blues

darkoshi

Watch on YouTube

Video title: The Daily Tism - news by and for autistic people - EPISODE 2 - EASTER
Posted by: Turtle Canyon Comedy
Date posted: 2025/04/21

mousme

Remind me to stop doing favours for coworkers and taking over their entire night shifts for them. ;) Actually, I don't really mind all that much, but the first night shift always feels rough. I have to leave in a little over an hour in order to get there on time, and at least this week I'm working the early night shift, which means I'll be getting home early enough in the morning to get a fair bit of sleep in before the light and heat of the afternoon kick in. It's less of an issue right now while the weather is still reasonably cool, but it's been getting hotter earlier with every passing year, so I am not super optimistic about the temperatures in May. I can't have air conditioning in my room anymore, which thoroughly sucks, so if the temperature climbs anywhere past 25 Celsius it's not a good time for sleeping. At least there is A/C in the new house, so starting in June I won't have to worry about that.

My mother called me this evening to let me know that after yesterday's little passing out incident, my father woke up completely exhausted this morning. She rightfully insisted that he go to the emergency room, and contacted my godparents for help. My godfather drove them there, and they are keeping my father overnight to run a bunch of tests. It's not an emergency yet, but I am poised to pack a bag and drive to Montreal if I need to this week. It's been nearly three years since his stroke, but he's still at risk for any number of things. I am extremely concerned that his pattern of go-go-go-collapse is going to have some pretty catastrophic consequences. My mother is very dependent on him for most of their everyday functioning, because she doesn't walk well and has really shitty eyesight, and she has a lot of anxiety about going out by herself, even with her cane. So if he becomes incapacitated, they won't be able to live independently.

You know, on a hunch I just called here, and it turns out she fell and split open her head on a chair, and is refusing medical help. FML. I have convinced her to call my aunt (my paternal uncle's wife) who is a retired nurse. At the very least she might be able to talk some sense into her. For fuck's sake.

I am going to cut short this post and see if I can call out of work for family-related emergency. I think I need to drive to Montreal and take care of this.

Current Mood: worried

missdiane

House update

( Cut for pictures )

So that's the construction-y progress so far. The cleaner is going to come next week so once that's done, we're going to start slowly moving things over in bits in our zippered moving bags. I also ordered a full size daybed frame, a lumbar pillow for the daybed so I can lean against it when sleeping and a rug for the bedroom. I shopped sales and looked for discounts. I am obviously having them shipped to the new place and will drag them in when they arrive but won't open the boxes if they arrive before the cleaner.

Tomorrow is my annual review and thankfully Josh is going to do it. Hopefully we don't have to track down old bitch Bosslady to have her sign off on anything. We're going to be talking about upgrading my job. We had a surprise last week when Josh had a conversation with the head of the Business/HR/Budget office who mentioned to him that he was hoping that he could pass off the duties of the idiot business guy I've dealt with for a decade.

Um...wut? I mean while he's a dumbass and needs replaced, I wasn't thinking that *I* would be replacing his job. I'm not a business person and I've not done any of it though I guess I could learn it. Well, I'll be telling Josh that anything that doesn't have to do with the land-grant stuff can be passed to someone else in the business office. Also, one of the other people on my "team" is going to take some of it. We're going to talk about that. They also may have her report to me which woo, minion, I suppose. Though not really, probably more on paper. I don't like that it's also not being proposed to make me the same level as Elaine or as my equivalent in the Extension office. We'll see.

Oh and no, I won't feel one bit bad that idiot business guy will lose his job. He's been a burden and a waste of space for more than a decade. He does the bare minimum and does it badly and he STILL saves the shit from his side gig on our shared drive.

It's a lot, though. Everything's a lot right now and it's quite the Jenga stack with missing bits.

ateolf

In the afternoon, I finished reading Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and it was pretty good. Then at night it was the show at the Lamplighter. Our last MC show before the festival. Got there early while the touring group Slow Slow Loris set up. They were nice, talked to them a some. For the show, Pas moi was first and they put on a good set though short (had some Last Temptation of Christ samples for the whole easter vibe). Then Panic Signals played and Josh was good as always. Slow Slow Loris was incredible. Their last song had some big Diamanda Galás soundings. (Maybe all their stuff, I especially picked it up then.) They were really good and really intense live. I knew they would be and even before they played, I picked up the cds they had for sale: Slow Slow Loris: Hiding from Ghosts (a ten-year-anniversary "best of" comp) and Slow Slow Loris: Of Heroes in Helium. W1ND0W played last. Julia was accompanying on guitar and they had a great set, up there as one of the best I'd seen from 'em. Now I'm awake on a Monday. This might be the first day of the season I'm not feeling like wearing sweatpants, etc. I guess spring might really be coming here.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: David Bowie - Aladdin Sane

gwydion

* As has been the case since January, the sort may be a little rough. News keeps moving fast, so some items may be already out of date.

*

*

* "Back to Russian gas? Trump-wary EU has energy security dilemma:" https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/back-russian-gas-trump-wary-eu-has-energy-security-dilemma-2025-04-14/

* "Saudi Arabia plans to pay off Syria's World Bank debts, sources say:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-plans-pay-off-syrias-world-bank-debts-sources-say-2025-04-14/

* "Memo shows U.S. can send migrants without criminal records to Guantanamo, despite Trump's promise to hold "the worst" there:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/guantanamo-trump-migrants-without-criminal-records/

* "ICE director envisions Amazon-like mass deportation system: ‘Prime, but with human beings’:" https://azmirror.com/2025/04/08/ice-director-envisions-amazon-like-mass-deportation-system-prime-but-with-human-beings/

* "Deporting veterans betrays America’s promise:" https://prismreports.org/2025/04/07/deported-veterans-undocumented-immigrants/

* "Hispanic Churches Groan Under Florida’s Double Immigration Crackdown:" https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/03/florida-hispanic-latino-evangelicals-immigration-persecution/

* "In the battle to keep ICE from raiding houses of worship, the grassroots needs to flex more muscle:" https://religionnews.com/2025/03/21/in-the-battle-to-keep-ice-from-raiding-houses-of-worship-the-grassroots-needs-to-flex-more-muscle/

* "Tufts student ICE grabbed off street says hijab was removed, asthma wasn't treated at Louisiana facility:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tufts-student-grabbed-street-ice-says-hijab-removed-asthma-not-treated-rcna201122

* "Don’t Take the Bait — Kristi Noem and Fascism’s Sadistic Eroticization of Power:" https://religiondispatches.org/dont-take-the-bait-kristi-noem-and-fascisms-sadistic-eroticization-of-power/

* "Immigrants prove they are alive, forcing Social Security to undo death label:" https://archive.ph/oj0SK

* "DOGE is collecting federal data to remove immigrants from housing, jobs:" https://archive.ph/pFB6F

* "Social Insecurity:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/social-insecurity/id1638974657?i=1000703934164

* "Pentagon chief Hegseth shared sensitive Yemen war plans in second Signal chat, source says:" https://archive.ph/x89u0

* "Pete Buttigieg calls Pete Hegseth ‘unfit to lead’ after second bombshell Signal chat leak revelation:" https://www.advocate.com/news/pete-buttigieg-pete-hegseth-unfit

* "The MAGA-fication of the Military:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-maga-fication-of-the-military/id1638974657?i=1000702094669

* "The speech police: Chairman Brendan Carr and the FCC’s news distortion policy:" https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/trumps-fcc-chair-invokes-rarely-enforced-news-distortion-policy-to-punish-media/

* "What exactly does Trump think is in the Smithsonian?:" https://archive.ph/rp6e9

* "'Please don’t tax the rich': Seattle crosswalk buttons hacked to sound like Jeff Bezos:" https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/hacked-crosswalk-buttons-altered-play-fake-messages-south-lake-union-u-district/281-a2fb5c9b-be47-40c1-bdba-8cf36316ecfc

* Our job for the next two years is to survive, to build grassroots resistance, to do all in our power to slow the republican Christo-fascist agenda, and to prepare for 2026 in case there is still Democracy.

We are trying to build a good list of resistance resources.

Please add more below if you have them.

* Trump 2.0 Indivisible Guide. https://indivisible.org/resource/guide

* "Democracy 2025:" https://www.democracy2025.org/?utm_source=df-ad&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=21912407002&utm_content=721373734297&source=df-ad-gs&gad_source=1

* "Resisting Fascism in 2025 and Beyond:" https://www.prideandpagesbookclub.com/resisting-fascism-in-2025-and-beyond

* If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options for contacting your Congress Critters:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

"Congress. gov:" https://www.congress.gov/

White house (Possibly Dangerous): https://www.whitehouse.gov/

ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives

Script to complain about Elon Musk/DOGE. I also suggest contacting your AG about data privacy. "Introducing Red State Scripts, Vol. 1:" https://homewiththearmadillo.blog/2025/02/10/introducing-red-state-scripts-vol-1/

* This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/

* "Vote Smart:" https://justfacts.votesmart.org/

* Useful organizing links and resources: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/771859083592613888/hater-of-terfs-ive-already-reblogged-a-link-to?source=share

* Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/

* How to render emergency aid in a riot: https://riotmedicine.net/static/downloads/riot-medicine_a5.pdf

* "How to Safely and Ethically Film Police Misconduct:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-film-police-safely

* Avoiding Activist Burnout: https://www.tumblr.com/veluigi/771755723969478656/on-twitter-im-seeing-dozens-of-threads-from-black?source=share

* "ICE Raids Toolkit: Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests:" https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/

* Contains a raid tip hotline amoung other things. "Know Your Rights
LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:" https://wearecasa.org/know-your-rights/

* Free Bystander training amoung other useful things. "Right to Be Training:" https://righttobe.org/upcoming-free-trainings/

* "Meet the Iowa Democrat challenging Sen. Joni Ernst: 'I live in the real world':" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/meet-the-iowa-democrat-challenging-sen-joni-ernst-i-live-in-the-real-world-237952581831

* "Former OneRepublic bassist announces bid for Congress:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/former-onerepublic-bassist-announces-bid-for-congress-237953093677

* "Nancy Mace yells 'F**k you!' at man she assumes is gay for asking her a question in an Ulta store:" https://www.advocate.com/news/nancy-mace-confronts-gay-man

* "Two dead, suspect in custody after sheriff’s deputy’s son opens fire at FSU:" https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article304434411.html

* "A Key Fight Over the Most Infamous Police Project in the Country Is Coming to a Head:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/copy-city-fight-future-of-journalism.html

* "A Lawyer’s Crusade Against “Copaganda”:" https://newrepublic.com/article/192070/copaganda-book-alec-karakatsanis-police-crime-statistics

* "Lawsuit alleging Alabama officials illegally harvested inmates’ organs can proceed, judge rules:" https://apnews.com/article/organ-harvesting-university-of-alabama-corrections-department-ddf8f08ccedf4998961f20e2ff0740b1

* "For the American Prison Writing Archive, a ‘Shadow Canon’ Sheds Light:" https://archive.ph/pkS6c

* "Via porn, gore and ultra-violence, extremist groups are sinking hooks online into the very young:" https://apnews.com/article/technology-parenting-terror-islamic-state-police-security-attacks-4888bab2d10502edadf787d419d45b5b

* "Whiteness rooted in place:" https://www.christiancentury.org/article/interview/whiteness-rooted-place

* "Barbarian Virtues:" https://currentpub.com/2025/04/02/barbarian-virtues/

* "Vandalism at NYU Islamic prayer room under investigation as hate crime:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/vandalism-nyu-islamic-prayer-room-hate-crime-rcna199832

* "DEI? You're Fired:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dei-youre-fired-with-heather-mcghee/id1583132133?i=1000703845266

* "Top 5 LGBTQ+ books banned in the U.S. :" https://www.advocate.com/top-5-lgbtq-books-banned-2024#rebelltitem1

* CW: Sexual Assault. "The She Made Him Do It Theory of Everything:" https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/the-she-made-him-do-it-theory-of-everything-2/

* "MAGA's war on empathy exposes misogynist fears:" https://www.salon.com/2025/04/11/magas-on-empathy-exposes-misogynist-fears/

* "This reporter spent a year dating rabid anti-feminists — here’s what she found:" https://www.alternet.org/breaking-social/manosphere-cnn-papisova/

* "In Your Face: The Brutal Aesthetics of MAGA:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/maralago-face-conservative-girl-makeup-brutal-aesthetics-of-maga-trump-gaetz-guilfoyle/

* "Morning-after pill to be offered without charge at pharmacies in England:" https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/30/morning-after-pill-contraception-free-pharmacies-nhs-england

* "Why Elon Musk and JD Vance Are Obsessed With You Having More Babies:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/this-is-a-war-and-natalism-is-our-sword-and-shield-my-weekend-with-the-pronatalists/

* "NY county clerk refuses to file Texas’ fine for doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills:" https://apnews.com/article/abortion-pills-lawsuit-texas-new-york-carpenter-e97d5c38d9429083d03c2a7b385cbbfd

* "From Afghanistan to Malaysia, these are the 61 countries that still criminalize homosexuality:" https://www.advocate.com/news/61-countries-criminalize-homosexuality#rebelltitem65

* "Hungary passes constitutional amendment banning public LGBTQ+ events:" https://www.advocate.com/world/hungary-gray-pride-protest-lgbtq

* "Caribbean activists step up fight to end homophobic laws that ‘breach fundamental rights’:" https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/caribbean-activists-step-up-fight-to-end-homophobic-laws-that-breach-fundamental-rights/ar-AA1CXwL5

* "New German, Swiss, And Austrian Guidelines Recommend Trans Youth Care, Slam Cass Review:" https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/new-german-swiss-and-austria-guidelines

* "Trans Norwegian politician wants to give asylum to transgender people fleeing Trump's policies:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/norwegian-us-trans-asylum

* "Transgender teen can't legally change name until age 21, Mississippi Supreme Court rules:" https://www.advocate.com/law/mississippi-transgender-teen-name-change

* "Chicago Teachers Union ratifies groundbreaking contract cementing LGBTQ+ protections:" https://www.advocate.com/news/chicago-teachers-union-lgbtq-inclusion

* "Hundreds protest Pittsburgh hospital for caving to Trump and denying trans youth gender-affirming care:" https://www.advocate.com/news/hundreds-protest-upmc-trump-transgender-care

* "How doctors became providers of hope and our kids' last line of defense:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/gender-affirming-care-doctors-children

* "Anti-LGBTQ+ attacks on the rise in Los Angeles: report:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/anti-lgbtq-attacks-on-the-rise-in-los-angeles-report

* "'Kiss your kids goodbye:' Indiana mom tells teacher who flew a Pride flag in class, police say:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/indiana-mom-threatens-queer-teacher

* "Florida high school teacher loses job for using student's preferred name:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/florida-teacher-fired-preferred-name

* "Georgia mother of trans and nonbinary children forcibly removed from school board meeting:" https://www.advocate.com/news/georgia-mother-removed-school-board

* "A mom complained about a trans girl using the locker room. Hundreds turned out to support the girl:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/chicago-transgender-girl-locker-room

* "New Hampshire men can't wear anti-trans gear at their kids' school while their lawsuit proceeds:" https://www.advocate.com/news/transphobic-gear-banned-new-hampshire

* "University of Cincinnati removes 'biological' bathroom signs, wasting $16K :" https://www.advocate.com/transgender/university-cincinnati-biological-bathroom-removed

* "Right-wing extremists threaten LGBTQ-affirming religious communities: report:" https://www.advocate.com/news/extremists-target-affirming-religious-institutions

* "‘Just plain old Larry’: A Wisconsin man’s testimony about gender-affirming care went viral. Here’s his story.:" https://www.wpr.org/news/larry-jones-wisconsin-testimony-gender-affirming-care-viral

* "It takes a village to raise a child, but what if the village votes red?:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/trump-connecticut

* "Texas investigating USA Fencing Association after it disqualified cis player for refusing to play trans woman:" https://www.advocate.com/sports/texas-usa-fencing-investigation

* "Tennessee far-right pastor fears 'gay beam' airport scanner will make him queer:" https://www.advocate.com/news/pastor-airport-scanners-gay

* "I was beset by a sudden desire to know what, exactly, JKR said recently:" https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/3617152.html

* "Imperfect sounds:Cochlear implants give deaf kids unprecedented access to sound. But insisting they avoid using sign language may be risky:" https://www.science.org/content/article/implants-can-help-deaf-kids-hear-many-still-struggle-spoken-language

Ya think?

* "“Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline:" https://www.propublica.org/article/whooping-cough-measles-outbreak-vaccine-hesitancy-trump?

* "How stress shapes cancer’s course:" https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/health-disease/2025/how-stress-affects-cancer?

* "U.S. fentanyl deaths have been plunging. Enter Trump:" https://archive.ph/70V6M

* "“Slow Pay, Low Pay or No Pay”:" https://www.propublica.org/article/blue-cross-blue-shield-louisiana-insurance-lawsuit-breast-cancer-doctors

* "Climate Violence Is Coming for Rich Countries, and They’re Not Ready:" https://thewalrus.ca/climate-violence-is-coming-for-rich-countries-and-theyre-not-ready/

* "How South Korea's largest and deadliest wildfire spread:" https://www.reuters.com/graphics/SOUTHKOREA-FIRE/movaydeneva/

* "Why We Have Lawns:" https://blog.nwf.org/2024/04/why-we-have-lawns/

* "This Interactive Map Shows You Where Your Food Comes From:" https://www.mentalfloss.com/interactive-map-shows-where-food-comes-from

* "From Daikin to Samsung, companies fight Modi over e-waste policy:" https://www.reuters.com/world/india/daikin-samsung-companies-fight-modi-over-e-waste-policy-2025-04-11/

* "Bubble Trouble: An AI bubble threatens Silicon Valley, and all of us.:" https://prospect.org/power/2025-03-25-bubble-trouble-ai-threat/

* "That groan you hear is users’ reaction to Recall going back into Windows:" https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/04/microsoft-is-putting-privacy-endangering-recall-back-into-windows-11/

* "T-Mobile Shows Users the Names, Pictures, and Exact Locations of Random Children:" https://www.404media.co/t-mobile-shows-users-the-names-pictures-and-exact-locations-of-random-children/

* "Tesla accused of using sneaky tactic to dodge car repairs:" https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/tesla-accused-of-using-sneaky-tactic-to-dodge-car-repairs

* "Mark Zuckerberg personally lost the Facebook antitrust case:" https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/18/chatty-zucky/

* "Things to post about on Dreamwidth:" https://soc-puppet.dreamwidth.org/933696.html

* "The Animals That Exist Between Life and Death :" https://nautil.us/the-animals-that-exist-between-life-and-death-1202592/

* "Scientists map part of a mouse’s brain that’s so complex it looks like a galaxy:" https://apnews.com/article/brain-map-neurons-alzheimers-autism-1a4e9db0a86c082e10da9c154546c592

* "Amazing ROV Footage of the First Confirmed Live Sighting of the Elusive Colossal Squid:" https://laughingsquid.com/colossal-squid-first-live-sighting/

* "A crow's math skills include geometry:" https://www.npr.org/2025/04/12/nx-s1-5359438/a-crows-math-skills-include-geometry

* "The horses and mules that moved mountains and hearts:" https://www.hcn.org/articles/the-horses-and-mules-that-moved-mountains-and-hearts/

* "This Warrior Was Buried in Ice Under a Bone Shield for 4,000 Years and His Face Was Just Reconstructed:" https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/this-warrior-was-buried-in-ice-under-a-bone-shield-for-4000-years-and-his-face-was-just-reconstructed/

* "50 Viking Sayings That Still Hit Hard Today:" https://www.medievalists.net/2025/04/50-viking-sayings/

* "Sheryl Lee Ralph Learns of Ancestors' Uncommon Love Story | Finding Your Roots:"

( Embed: )

* "Unearth the homoerotic art of Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte :" https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/gustave-caillebottes-impressionist-queer#rebelltitem16

* "Two women have sent each other the same weathered birthday card for 81 years:" https://archive.ph/Uz9HD#selection-234.0-234.1

* "Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff who ministered with a charming, humble style, dies at 88:" https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-francis-dead-01ca7d73c3c48d25fd1504ba076e2e2a

* "King of fruits:" https://worksinprogress.co/issue/king-of-fruits/

* Something has gone dramatically wrong with my bank account. I suspect paypal allowed a secret autowithdraw again at exactly the wrong time, which I will need to track down, as a bill I'd scheduled to pay with more than enough money in the account rather suddenly caused an overdraft. (I checked it wasn't Amazon prime randomly reactivating again, but it's a pain in the ass finding the right tab on paypal. I will do that next.) I had some cash I'd socked away at the beginning of the month in case I needed it for inspection cleaning. I put it back in in time to patch the hole, but when Insuarnce auto-withdraws hit, I am fucked. I think $70.00 would cover those plus fees.

Want to help? https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Gwydion

* I've been behind on Tumblr scheduling since… I think Nov. 3rd 2023. On 4/20/25, I finally caught up. Guess my new system is working. O.o

I think I've finally got the workflow on computer stuff mostly settled. Finally.

I am really struggling with pain right now. Part of it is the new physio I've been working since the last visit to the ostio, part of it is the randomness of the spring weather, part of it? Who knows.

The Cats are definitively into their Spring migration pattern around the house, which means Livia is ascendant on bed pets and Tavy is mostly living in the living room. Mostly.

* ""ER" Sues "The Pitt":"

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* "The Hidden Meanings in Nature Art: Crash Course Art History #9:"

( Embed: )

* "How Communities Make Art: Crash Course Art History #10:"

( Embed: )

* "Bodies in Art: Crash Course Art History #11:"

( Embed: )

* "Senator Shenanigans:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0sPH8N0-4w4

* "Obnoxious Octavian:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kqi8Zl4rySE

* "Goofy Gladiators:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SzaQlQabIsw

* "The Anxious Anarchy:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_cExqCxVi90

* "Crazy Crusaders:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PZuDndcB750

* "Knaverous Knights:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yE9u-SwW50A

* "Music Mayhem:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/17mjE0alOV4

*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* "United States Disappeared Tracker:" https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/danielleharlow/viz/UnitedStatesDisappearedTracker/Map

* "Nationwide Economic Blackout: Boycott Dates for Target, Amazon, Others:" https://www.newsweek.com/nationwide-economic-blackout-boycott-dates-target-amazon-others-2037986

* "Introducing Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network:" https://aflcio.org/2025/4/16/introducing-rise-federal-workers-legal-defense-network

( More Links Underneath: )

zimena

Me, on this DW a few days ago:

Players I want OUT, as soon as possible:
Neil Robertson, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter.
From the tactical point of view, I also want Kyren Wilson and John Higgins out,
but it's not a fierce desire for it to happen as soon as possible.

The first two days of the World Championship gave these results among others:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kyren Wilson 9 - 10 Lei Peifan 🇨🇳
🇦🇺 Neil Robertson 8 - 10 Chris Wakelin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Do I get to make another, more important wish, too? I mean, seeing as these ones worked surprisingly well?

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Mark Selby to lift his 5th World Championship trophy on May 5th. Please.

smokingboot

Long ago in the morning of the world, a wizard fell down the stairs of his high tower and broke his arm. While he was wise in many things, healing was not one of them and so, groaning with pain, he betook himself to the local cunning man.

Now the cunning man could feel that the bone was utterly shattered and no ordinary healing would work. He told the wizard the truth of it, that he knew only one thing that might help, which would be if he could bind muscles and bone and sinews together with tree root fibres. The wizard agreed.

'This for you and what for me?' asked the cunning man.

The wizard thought a while.

'Without the use of my hands, my art is greatly curtailed,' he said, 'but I can bring you the sound and image of things craved if you wish. Each night of my healing for one hour at twilight, I can conjure you a glamour so real you will believe it.'

The cunning man agreed to this very readily, for he noted the gift would be given throughout the treatment which meant it could not be taken back if the healing failed. He set to work and arduous enough it was, cleaning the breaks and seeking out new sinews from kindly trees. He took fibres from the beeches, for books were made from such trees and he thought they and the mage would have affinity. As to the wizard, he was faint with pain but he kept his word. At the end of the first days healing, when the sun had set he asked the cunning man what he would like to see.

'I should like to see my wife,' he said, 'I lost her long ago and have missed her every day of my life.'

Holding his staff in his remaining good hand, the wizard drew a magical circle on the ground, chanting while he did. Sure enough, a woman suddenly stood there and the cunning man rushed to her and held her in his arms. They talked and kissed and danced together until the hour was done, when she disappeared.

So it continued. Each day the cunning man worked on the wizards new arm, and each twilight for an hour his wife would return.

He was very happy, though the wizard warned him not to become too enamoured of the being.

'She is but a dweomer,' he said, 'not the love you knew. Do not lose sight of the real, my friend.'

But this advice came too late for the cunning man, who could think of nothing but keeping her by his side for longer and longer. Alas, his healing was too powerful. The wizard was recovering fast, new fingers moving deftly, muscles stronger than before, and the cunning man dreaded the moment all would be complete for he knew the wizard's payment would end. So he broke the taproot serving as an elbow, and the wizard was incapacitated again.

'An unfortunate accident, this work is so delicate. It will take longer than I thought,' he told the mage, who looked at him keenly and nodded as though he understood.

That twilight the cunning man's wife appeared again. But this time as he reached out to hold her, his hands passed through air, and the beloved apparition shimmered into a dancing blue flame.

'The weaker I am, the weaker my spells,' the wizard explained.

Then a great rage fell on the cunning man for it seemed that one way or another he could not keep his love. He grabbed the mage's staff and smashed him across the face with it. The staff shattered with a thundering sound and took the wizard with it, showering into beech tree seeds that the wind scattered across the land.

Time came when those seeds grew into a forest where scholars meandered in good weather, some bringing their books with them. But they always left before twilight for all knew of the madman who roamed at dusk pursuing the blue marsh flames. It was only when his skull was found amidst the tree roots of the swamp that they realised he had died many years before.

elainegrey

I probably get to go home tomorrow -- sorry if silence was worrisome. Thank you for all your support and care.

The schedule for med delivery had me with interrupted sleep all Friday night as every hour or so bottles had to be changed and vitals checked until 5 am. Saturday the treatment started earlier and was done by 1 am. I have had to be very careful about the IV port in the crook of my elbow -- partly because it was oozing blood because of the low platelets, partly just to keep it working, and it is a little uncomfortable, typing hasn't been easy. But the last infusion finished in the early evening today ,and i just need one more dose of steroid pushed through and then the port will be removed: yippee. Lemme type.

I have also had family visits. My sister and dad stayed with me once i arrived at Chapel Hill until Christine came in the evening. On Saturday I was so glad i was not tied down with tubes when my sister in law visited. They have now announced that B-- may only have weeks to live, and it was good to hug her and hold her hand. My sister and niece gave me a lovely visit today, in happy Easter vibes. My dad has visited every day, and Christine as well. My nephew W-- was apologizing he couldn't visit and i told him i would listen to his winter concert again. It was lovely and i am loved, but my computer didn't get my attention. (And it if it did i was reading my chart and researching drugs.)

--== ∞ ==--

On Saturday morning i got a little more clarity about the initial reading: the number of platelets was under the threshold of 3k platelets per unit -- the limit of the lab equipment's capability to count. Depending on your communication style, apparently, one person said 2k (per some unit, which is under 3k) and the ER doctor at the county hospital was "not detectable." And i've grown more appreciative of the risk of a brain bleed at those numbers, although i think the ER doctor would have had is own anxiety driven aneurysm if he realized how many potholes were in the roads between the Siler City and Chapel Hill. I had a cat scan because i had a slight headache.

It's so weird. I don't feel like a fragile china cup.

"When the count drops below 50,000, bleeding can occur more easily after injuries, and counts below 20,000 can lead to spontaneous bleeding" This morning's read was above 20k, they seem willing to let me go above 30k

--== ∞ ==--

I had a new treatment today, Rituximab, which may help me not have another drop for a longer time. Optimistically, from the doctor, there have been patients who reportedly have gone for five years without a relapse. Stats aren't quite as optimistic, but i am grateful that in the past 15 years it seems this treatment has moved from what they fall back to if the splenectomy fails, to use as soon as the second drop

I probably still have a hard time appreciating the spontaneous bleeding risk.

--== ∞ ==--

It's surely been difficult for Christine to have two absences at home. I have a lifelike stuffed toy cat with me, so nurses and nurses assistants have asked if i have cats and i have finally learned to say "two" and not tear up. But i know i will have more tears to cry. I know i cry about Greycie Loo out of the blue still, because we thought we had so much time to still have with her, and the cancer took her so quickly. Luigi has been so fragile-seeming for the past few years - i suppose i expected him to die in his sleep. To have him loose his legs like Greycie Loo did, to have him so bravely try to drag himself to the bathroom, for him to not be distressed but relatively composed, oh sweet old man cat.

--== ∞ ==--

I understand tomorrow will be hurry up and wait as discharge churns through paperwork. I'll have a last dose of steroids so will have this energy boost to get me home. Then i know i will crash on Tuesday. I am not looking forward to work on Wednesday. I hope i'll have recovered from the steroid crash by then.

mousme

Pixie was much improved this morning. She was excited to get out of her kennel and was even more excited to have some plain rice to eat as a snack. Said rice and water stayed where they were supposed to, and while she's not back up to 100% demon spawn levels of energy, she was pretty bouncy all day and counter-surfed, tried to climb the cat tree, and resumed her vigil by the basement gate in case I decided to let her downstairs to eat the quail. So I think she's pretty much on the mend, although I intend to stick to plain rice for at least another day to be on the safe side.

I was the Greeter for Quaker Meeting today, and it went well. We've had some ruffled feathers in the Meeting of late, because everyone is very much on edge from, well, everything. *gestures broadly* The constitutional crisis in the US, innocent people getting deported to what is essentially a concentration camp in El Salvador (technically it's a prison, but the pictures from there are horrific, with men packed in like sardines, sometimes 80 to a cell, having to sleep standing up, etc.). This is not to say that I believe guilty people should be sent there either. No one, regardless of their status, should be sent to a place like that. Not even the worst, most horrific offenders, because that place is a horror show and even the worst criminals who have committed the most heinous crimes must be treated with a minimum of dignity, because they are human beings.

There's also the Canadian federal election coming up on April 28th. KK and I went to the advance polls today and cast our ballots. There were very few people there today, but CTV news reported that 2 million Canadians went to vote in advance on Friday, which is apparently a record! This is very encouraging indeed. I went over to the Elections Canada website, and of our population of 38,131,104 people, we have 27,642,171 people eligible to vote (i.e. citizens who are 18 years old or older and not the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada). From what I can see we've had a voter turnout that hovers in the 60% range, give or take, for the past 30 years, so I'd love to see more voter engagement this time around. I think I've missed one election in my adult life, although I don't remember which one it was. I have forbears who died for my right to vote, so I'm not about to squander it.

I just had a quick Skype call with my parents, and my mother immediately ratted out my father who apparently passed out today. He tried to blow it off, but I was not having it. I have extricated a promise from him to go see a doctor about it tomorrow. My father had a stroke nearly three years ago, and even though he was very lucky and came out of it with no ill effects, that still puts him at risk for another one. He said he wasn't feeling sick or dizzy, he just lost consciousness for a few seconds. *beats head against the nearest wall* Both my parents are terrible patients, and they tend to be noncompliant with a lot of the treatments they are prescribed as well. To say I am worried about this would be a fucking understatement. I reminded my mother that she had agreed with me that it would be a good idea to get a Life Alert button (or an equivalent, but honestly my research showed that Life Alert is one of the more comprehensive service providers out there), and she once again agreed with me. I don't think I can count on her to get one because I don't think she has the wherewithal to go through the whole process, and my father is pretty resistant to the idea at all. I don't know if I can convince both of them to go through with it, but I am damned well going to try.

Having aging parents is a LOT, y'all.

Okay. I am going to go do a last check on the quail, and then go to bed. I changed out their bedding today (it was *gross*), and they are super happy. They dug and scratched and floofed their feathers and made little nests in the pine shavings and made happy quail noises. It was absolutely adorable. They also laid two more eggs, which is awesome. I think tomorrow I will finally be making a recipe using the quail eggs, now that I have a full dozen (meaning the equivalent of about four chicken eggs).

Catch you on the flip side, friends!

Current Mood: anxious

used_songs

Busy day at my parents' house today. I tried a new recipe on them and it was a hit.I also made them ham, sauteed asparagus and corn. I always try to give them lots of veggies.

I did a lot of little jobs (changing light bulbs, cleaning, packing up things they want to donate, etc.) and then I also cut down 4 biggish trash trees, chopped them up, and put them in the green waste bin.

lil_m_moses

Seems it's been a minute since I've updated here. Let's see...

In February I was without my usual backup for help ensuring Mom was getting regular socialization and at least a few decent meals a week (decent meaning not the PB&J or grilled cheese that are about all she'll make for herself these days, despite me providing lots of other, healthier, easy options for her). My aunt and cousin went out to Hawaii to celebrate aunt's 80th with my other cousin, but while they were there, aunt's boyfriend (also about 80) had to be hospitalized with a ruptured appendix, so they ended up staying longer. He's OK though, which is good.

That upcoming break I was talking about a month ago was a family spring break road trip to Chicago. It was somewhat impromptu (only planned ~3 weeks out), and we kind of thought of it as an early anniversary getaway too (10 years!!!). We ended up in a VRBO a ways out from downtown, which allowed us secure parking and a whole apartment for the same price as a hotel room inside the loop (not including parking) for the week, which was a definite win, and we were still close to transit so didn't have to park downtown except once. We visited the Art Institute, had fancy afternoon tea at The Drake Hotel, visited the Field Museum of Natural History and the Shedd Aquarium, toured two different Frank Lloyd Wright houses, and visited the museum at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago (hadn't been down there before - it's a crazily medieval-looking and gorgeous campus). We also had a bunch of delightful food, including some amazing sushi in downtown Oak Park, the aforementioned tea, a Hawaiian place, an Afghan place, and both a delightful breakfast place and an Italian bakery near our VRBO, plus we did a Trader Joe's run, and an IKEA visit on our way out of town.

Work continues to be busy, and the week right after our trip especially so, which was extra hard 'cause I got sick like I always do when I let down my "I can't afford to get sick right now!" guard, and worked 55+ hours that week while sick. Whee. But I'm catching up. Got a new quick-turnaround project from one of my established customers that week as part of the chaos, but we're cranking through it, so I think the hardware test this week should be fine, even with a different customer launching this week.

Two weekends ago I did a super-bonehead move and left my phone sitting on top of my car when picking up my cousin to go out to Mom's for the weekly medicine top-up, email spam clearing, healthy feeding, and socialization. It hung on for almost 5.5 miles, most of that at 55 mph on curves and big hills, before falling off. My clue was the car suddenly telling me that it had lost its bluetooth link to my phone. I pulled over, checked inside the car while cousin called it, had a nagging feeling I knew what had happened, turned around and started driving back the way we'd come while scanning the roadside for it. We spotted it on the road much further back on our route than expected, and I jumped out and grabbed it. While it had rung when cousin first called it, it had suffered death on the road in the intervening 4-5 minutes. The screen was comprehensively shattered and there were a couple of cracks in the back case. It was a lot more whole than I expected it to be, but still dead. I got online with Mom's computer and learned the Pixel 9a was being released on Thursday, so decided I could wait (the destroyed phone was a Pixel 7a); Luckily I still have the small-storage, slow-ass, no-wifi-calling Motorola I'd bought when my Pixel 4a screen randomly died, so I limped along with that until the new phone came this past Monday. It's a pretty purple color! =)

My weight is back up, so I'm feeling terrible in my own skin. Getting that work-life back in balance will help, but that's still in work. We're still enjoying taking a historical dance class as a family once a week, and I've been taking a (beginning for me) ballet class once a week too. My sprained ankle is mostly better, though I'm still getting some range of motion back. May is currently looking to be less chaotic for work stuff *knock on wood*, so I need to make a concerted effort to get Mom into a care facility. She still doesn't want to go, but it's time. She's started forgetting big things along with her short-term memory decreasing to almost nothing; she forgot Lillian's name for a bit a couple of weeks ago, and last week she thought my dad had died when I was like 9 instead of 39. Yikes.

This country is on fire and I'm not even looking at my 401(k) or HSA investments. I want to get involved in some protest actions, but haven't made time. That's part of the work-life balancing in work. (The sad part of that is that my US Rep's local office is literally like 150 yards from my house, so I have even less excuse for not giving him several pieces of my mind.)

umadoshi

Reading: Still working my way through The Spear Cuts Through Water--somewhere past the halfway point now.

Watching: I finished my Guardian rewatch!

scruloose and I finished season 1 of Kingdom and did indeed opt to hold off on season 2 until after we finish season 2 of The Last of Us. (Is Kingdom complete at two seasons? Anyone know offhand? Fear of spoilers makes me not want to search up the info.) We also saw the season premiere of TLoU and the first episode of The Pitt.

Playing: Because the evil 368chickens game keeps track and springs the number on you when you beat it, I know that when I finally rescued 368 chickens a few days ago it was after 454 tries. And for reasons that are not clear to me, the victory screen (at least in the browser version) also informs you that you can't play anymore and is all that shows if you reload. (There are ways around it, of course--incognito tabs, simply using a different browser, whatever--but it just seems weird to me. I have thus far avoided going back to it, but that just means returning to my default couple of games that I play endlessly when my brain is completely incapable of focus but needs to be doing something. >.<)

Adulting: Mid-week,

scruloose and I took the day off for my birthday and both dropped off our tax documents with our tax guy (bless our tax guy) and voted in the federal election at the Elections Canada office. I'm glad we got the voting taken care of so early--sounds like lineups for advance polls have been unusually lengthy this weekend (and here's hoping that's a good sign for the outcome!).

( under the cut: fruit and meat consumption (separately) )

Current Mood: okay

ateolf

A little after noon, I went up to Goner 'cuz the day before they'd posted about some cds they'd gotten in and there were a few that I thought I wouldn't mind grabbing. So I went and got some used cds: Bauhaus: Press the Eject and Give me the Tape, David Bowie: Aladdin Sane, Alan Vega • Alex Chilton • Ben Vaughn: Cubist Blues, John Coltrane: Lush Life, Flipper: Generic, Magazine: BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert, Sonny Rollins: Tenor Madness, and The Smiths: Meat Is Murder. Then I got ready and went over to Graham's for the first Memphis Concrète Scrap Metal Orchestra rehearsal!! It went pretty well! Definitely the first practice is just everyone getting the hang of this setup and my weird time signatures. We started easy, with just the "pulses" where everyone plays the same thing. After a bit and with some growing pains people were getting used to it. And two of the players didn't know anything about reading musical notation (it's really just the rhythms here for the scrap metal parts). And after a couple of patterns, they were able to start reading it. I'm going to try to make some more materials to help everyone, like the example I gave earlier but a lot of those aren't used anymore and there are newer ones. Four people weren't able to make it yesterday but everyone was pretty excited about it. And it sounds really cool hearing all that metal being banged on at once! Not too much aside from that. Stayed in and Mary Beth read a whole bunch to me. I'm kinda pathetic 'cuz I woke up with a little bit of doms from carrying a little bit of not-even-heavy stuff up and down the stairs a few times. Need to exercise more. I wish there were some stairs out in the world I could just walk up and down on at will.

Current Music: Bauhaus - Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape

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Reading

Can't Stand It

The Temple of the Constant Heart

Parental Unit News: the Short Version

The Political Is Very Personal

sharpening my beak on the cosmic mountain

(no subject)

We Are All Just Cat Furniture

The Daily Tism

Night Shift and Aging Parent Woes

Progress and stuff

Slow Show

4/20/25 - 4/21/25 Catch Up Edition

When my snooker wishes work

The Wizard and the Cunning Man

(health, cats)

Ups and downs

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Catching Up

Weekly proof of life: media, adulting, food

Metall auf Metall

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May 2021

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