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minoanmiss at 05:07pm on 2025-05-31
minoanmiss at 05:07pm on 2025-05-31
determined
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May 31st, 2025
determinedRecently someone I know was complaining how bad Biden was. "He was so old," they said. "Going down hill. He never should have ran again (in 2024).
Well, maybe Joe was to old and should have handed it directly to Kamala Harris much soon. But I asked them, "Name me a bad policy he endorsed."
That shut them up.
'Nuff said.
Get better Joe.
Well, maybe Joe was to old and should have handed it directly to Kamala Harris much soon. But I asked them, "Name me a bad policy he endorsed."
That shut them up.
'Nuff said.
Get better Joe.
thoughtfulposted by twistedchick at 01:59am on 2025-05-31
twistedchick at 01:59am on 2025-05-31Sometime during lockdown in the last four years, my arches fell. They had never been particularly high, but they felt fine in Birkies and so on. But now I am doing foot exercises to get them to show up at all, and if I don't it is really painful to walk any distance.
This cuts into my abiity to regain stamina and general fitness.
The exercises are starting to help significantly, so now all I need is a day or two without a major rainstorm or enough after a rainstorm that I won't be getting wet just by walking around near trees and bushes.
A friend told me that it takes at least 6 months to get one's energy back after COVID. Well, I was diagnosed Jan. 20 and it went for a couple of weeks actively and a few more overall. It took more time to be rid of the bad taste from the Pax than I expected. So I'm still within six months of it. I keep telling myself this.
The other thing that interferes with my health at the moment is variable tinitis, as in it comes and goes, and when it's there I have to find a soundscape in my CALM app that has that tone in it, so that the app's sounds distract me from the one inside my brain. Usually it works, but last night the inner sound had apparently retuned itself (autotune is the plague) and did not match anything on Calm except a wind in the trees, so I wasn't able to sleep, since the 'wind in pines' just didn't work. There is a downside to having perfect pitch and noticing when the inner-produced noises change.
This cuts into my abiity to regain stamina and general fitness.
The exercises are starting to help significantly, so now all I need is a day or two without a major rainstorm or enough after a rainstorm that I won't be getting wet just by walking around near trees and bushes.
A friend told me that it takes at least 6 months to get one's energy back after COVID. Well, I was diagnosed Jan. 20 and it went for a couple of weeks actively and a few more overall. It took more time to be rid of the bad taste from the Pax than I expected. So I'm still within six months of it. I keep telling myself this.
The other thing that interferes with my health at the moment is variable tinitis, as in it comes and goes, and when it's there I have to find a soundscape in my CALM app that has that tone in it, so that the app's sounds distract me from the one inside my brain. Usually it works, but last night the inner sound had apparently retuned itself (autotune is the plague) and did not match anything on Calm except a wind in the trees, so I wasn't able to sleep, since the 'wind in pines' just didn't work. There is a downside to having perfect pitch and noticing when the inner-produced noises change.
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Back in 2013, I winnowed down the entire listings of Boston Early Music Festival events, official and fringe, to a curated concentrate of just concerts and other events featuring music from before 1600 AD. There were about 35 of them.
The 2025 BEMF is just nine days out and the Fringe Concerts listings updated today has a total of fewer than 30 listings.
The 2025 BEMF is just nine days out and the Fringe Concerts listings updated today has a total of fewer than 30 listings.
When last I reported about my lost camera and Motor City Furry Con we'd had established two important things. First, they had my camera! Second, it was in storage so who knows when they'd find the chance to recover it?
Well. I could manage going to Pinball At The Zoo without a camera and even the handful of things we got to in May without. Mostly local pinball stuff, although this might be the first time I don't have a proper ``what we compete for'' picture of the plaques at pinball night. But we are coming up on things I must have a camera for, and while yes, my iPhone is probably adequate for most purposes I want a camera that's a proper camera.
So I went looking and found a used Panasonic Lumix camera, one very close to the camera I had before my misplaced camera. And I finally have all the pieces I need for it together --- camera, memory card, battery and spare battery, charger, and the data/power cable that connects it to a computer or USB power supply! I even found that my old camera bag, the one used for the previous camera, fits this new one just fine. It lacks a strap --- I'd transferred that to my Samsung camera so that's in the Motor City Furry Con Lost And Found Storage Locker right now --- but the important thing is I can take good pictures and plenty of them. And the zoom on this doesn't --- yet --- get jammed up partway through, putting it ahead of my Samsung.
Now, of course, I just have to explain what I need to take pictures of that made me spend money on this.
We close the month now with something I bet you'd never thought you would see: the end of Kennywood pictures from our trip last year! And what comes up to follow this? Hm. There's so many possibilities ...
Oh yeah, we rented a locker for the second time ever and had to get stuff out of it. Do you see our locker number? Well, it was easy to remember since it was 1054 and I need hardly remind you what an important year that was.
Super Kaleidoscope, the charming circular-shaped building up front with the candy shop inside. It just looks good. You can make out the Old Mill's frontage in the background.
The Goodnight heart, last thing you see before entering the tunnel to leave Kennywood.
They've painted the tunnel with all kinds of Kennywood memorabilia and items, including a replica ticket from nearly a century ago and the reminder to gentlemen after using the washroom.
Looking back at the park from the parking lot.
And here's a panoramic view at the end of the night, to match the one had at the start of the day.
Trivia: The pancreas's name reflects its label as ``pan'' (all) and ``kreas'' (flesh), an organ of all flesh. The name may reflect early lack of knowledge of what it did and was simply there. Source: The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, Siddhartha Mukherjee.
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
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May 30th, 2025
When someone tells you that something is "inevitable" or "here to stay," you shouldn't believe them. You should, in fact, do something between vicious mockery and other, more high-level spells on them. They are lying to you and they want you to suffer.
In the past, massive political and socioeconomic changes were enforced through violence. Before Margaret Thatcher could have people believing that There Is No Alternative, she had to crush the miner's unions. Before neoliberal structural adjustment policies were enforced on the Global South, governments and corporations had to rig elections, murder Indigenous people, and starve their populations.
So why are we accepting this massive change—the enshittification of all things from labour to education to the arts—that no one asked for and no one wants? Because we are a very passive, bovine population that has been conditioned for decades to accept anything that Big Tech tells us that we want. Which is why I get daily emails from companies and my employer giving me best practices for incorporating plagiarism into my pedagogical practice, etc.
The handful of independent tech reporters who still have brains, like Ed Zitron and in this case, Paris Marx, put the lie to that. Tech Won't Save Us has a great episode, "Generative AI is Not Inevitable with Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender" that discusses how obvious it is that gen AI has not lived up to the hype, that it's an industry propped up by wishes and VC capital rather than an actual market, and that we can actually nip this in the bud. It's very empowering and I'm definitely going to check out the book that the two guests wrote.
In the past, massive political and socioeconomic changes were enforced through violence. Before Margaret Thatcher could have people believing that There Is No Alternative, she had to crush the miner's unions. Before neoliberal structural adjustment policies were enforced on the Global South, governments and corporations had to rig elections, murder Indigenous people, and starve their populations.
So why are we accepting this massive change—the enshittification of all things from labour to education to the arts—that no one asked for and no one wants? Because we are a very passive, bovine population that has been conditioned for decades to accept anything that Big Tech tells us that we want. Which is why I get daily emails from companies and my employer giving me best practices for incorporating plagiarism into my pedagogical practice, etc.
The handful of independent tech reporters who still have brains, like Ed Zitron and in this case, Paris Marx, put the lie to that. Tech Won't Save Us has a great episode, "Generative AI is Not Inevitable with Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender" that discusses how obvious it is that gen AI has not lived up to the hype, that it's an industry propped up by wishes and VC capital rather than an actual market, and that we can actually nip this in the bud. It's very empowering and I'm definitely going to check out the book that the two guests wrote.
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This week my humor blog has seen a lot being made out of the fact Wikipedia has a list of notable soups. But there's also other stuff, no less weakly motivated. For example:
- MiSTed: The 72 Hours Saga, Part 41
- The Guy Who Used to Draw _Beetle Bailey_ Saw a Fox
- Statistics Saturday: Your Forecast For The Week To Come
- I Need Hardly Explain Why I Looked at Wikipedia's List of Notable Soups
- But as Long as I Am Looking at Wikipedia's List of Notable Soups
- What's Going On In Gasoline Alley? Why celebrate a 106th anniversary? On the wrong date? March - May 2025
- Not to Say I've Finished Chewing This List of Notable Soups Bone
- MiSTed: The 72 Hours Saga, Part 42
Now something that never needs motivation, the sharing of pictures of Kennywood. Enjoy!
Here's a picture of some of the horses from the inside of the carousel, showing off the less-elaborately-carved sides.
This is the band organ, a Wurlitzer something or other model.
Here's that carousel tiger scaring off some riders.
And someone so delighted she's clapping and leaning back. (Yes, I know, she's taking a picture and not stepping back a little.)
Is that the night already? Vending booths all closed up here.
The traditional picture from the bridge of the Racer and midway games and Jack Rabbit. That tree on the right's obscuring the logo almost completely now.
It is the end of the night! Grand Carousel with all the lights off, and people being quietly but insistently pushed toward the exit.
So here's another quick picture of the lake, looking over towards Steel Curtain so there's none of that pesky nature obscuring the buildings.
The waters were quite still and the reflection of Steel Curtain looked great.
And here's Jack Rabbit where you can see the neon logo and the parts of the legs that still aren't illuminated.
Refreshments continues to be one of bunnyhugger's favorite pieces of neon.
And here's the Kangaroo. The rainbow-lit roo is part of a lights animation, the extra brightness and colors jumping from right to left.
Trivia: During World War II, Japan had 99 motorized farm tractors. Source: The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food, Lizzie Collingham. (Given the typical size and landscaping of rice paddies it's not obvious that more would have helped much, and in any case, fuel and oil were short.)
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
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May 29th, 2025
History Lesson
Read what William Shirer discovered when interviewing everyday Germans after WWII. Every German city lay in ruins and millions had been killed.
"There was so much that was true that did not make sense: the monumental apathy of the German people and their deep regret, not that they had started the war, but merely that they had lost it; their whining complaints at the lack of food and fuel and their total lack of sympathy or even interest in the worse plight of the occupied peoples, for which they bore so much responsibility; their boredom at the very mention of the Nuremberg trial, which they were convinced was only an Allied propaganda stunt; their striking unreadiness for, or interest in, democracy, which we, with typical Anglo-Saxon fervor and blindness, were trying to shove down their throats."
~ William L. Shirer, End of a Berlin Diary
Their deep regret, not that they had started the war, but merely that they had lost it.
"There was so much that was true that did not make sense: the monumental apathy of the German people and their deep regret, not that they had started the war, but merely that they had lost it; their whining complaints at the lack of food and fuel and their total lack of sympathy or even interest in the worse plight of the occupied peoples, for which they bore so much responsibility; their boredom at the very mention of the Nuremberg trial, which they were convinced was only an Allied propaganda stunt; their striking unreadiness for, or interest in, democracy, which we, with typical Anglo-Saxon fervor and blindness, were trying to shove down their throats."
~ William L. Shirer, End of a Berlin Diary
Their deep regret, not that they had started the war, but merely that they had lost it.
So, it's something i watch: is the MAGA cult going to be any different?
I'm not expecting that will happen.
I'm not expecting that will happen.
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It's not Wednesday, which means it's a day of the week eligible for Wednesday Books. (I don't know why I'm so contrary about this, and I know occasionally I've messed up anyways). It's been a while, let's catch up!
Finished Reading Recently
We left off with me just barely having started Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters. I got through it, but am continuing to feel Pretty Weird about the fact that I don't love the Witches stories nearly as much as I love the Guard stories. I did like all the Scottish-play references, because I am a theatre nerd (even if I'm not that kind of theatre nerd).
I then did a very necessary and very burnt-out reread of all seven Murderbot (by Martha Wells) books in rapid succession. They continue to be Real Fucking Good, and I continue to enjoy havingverdantry to samebrain at and send random screencaps or whatever when I need. Three is still my absolute favourite golden retriever puppy of a character, but I had an unexpectedly positive reaction to 2.0 this time around. The seventh book is still the hardest to read, due to [redacted] but I still love the ending so goddamn much and all the hope for the future it seems to provide. Man these books are good for me.
After I finished Murderbot, I returned to the Disc with the next guards book: Jingo! This uh. This is a book about colonialism and racism and war and UH. Like. UHHHH.
Look, all of Pratchett's stuff has this horrible timeless quality to it --I say horrible, because it's less like "applicable to humans everywhere" and more like "goddamnit, we _still_ have to protest this shit?". And reading a book which is very blatantly drawing some parallels between us, the upstanding white British folk with our stiff upper lips and sensible demeanor, and them, the brown-skinned desert-living barbarians with their foreign ways and horrible traditions......yeeeeah, we still have to protest this shit?
It is nice as hell to watch Vimes annoyedly realize he's being racist and have to figure out how to be Less So. It's _amazing_ to watch him wield his privilege like a weapon, as extensively as humanly possible. The only reason to have power is to help those who don't have it, and Vimes gets that.
I was unexpectedly okay with the haha-very-funny joke of Nobby-the-horrible-gremlin being put into a dress and getting in touch with his feminine side. Like. I mean, there were some parts of it that were transphobe-adjacent, but most of the humour was very solidly on "Nobby Nobbs is a horrible gremlin" and not "men wearing dresses is inherently funny". And honestly, even with the first part, it felt pretty okay to watch him be like "no, it was genuinely good for me to explore my gender by doing some of this"
I've done at least one babysitting of The Local Toddler, so we read a small handful of books --not nearly as many as last time, because we spent most of the day outside at the playgrounds instead. But we got through a few:
Hooray, a pinata! by Elisa Kleven felt _ridiculously_ familiar to me as the kind of neurospice who builds connections with toys and plushies and fictional objects. Very sweet little story!
Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall I have maybe read before? Not sure. It's a trans allegory and it doesn't try to be subtle about it. Reading parts of it really hurts because dannnnngg yeah, it is hard when other people see you in a way that just isn't true.
The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins was entirely forgettable. There's counting. There's a nice cast of multi-racial inoffensive children. There are cookies. Great literature, it is not, but it won't hurt anyone.
Bootsie Barker Bites by Barbara Bottner I read after the toddler was in bed, just finding it on the floor and giving it a shot. And it was _delightful_! It includes a child being belived by their parents about something they find uncomfortable! It includes the triumph of brains over brawn! It includes girl children who are horrible little gremlin bullies! (I mean, obviously we don't like bullies, but dang, it's weirdly refreshing to see visions of bullying that look familiar to my childhood and ALSO let girls be rough and physical and scary sometimes!). It was a fun read and I didn't predict the twist and was pleased when I got to it!
Last thing I've finished reading recently was the entire archive of the webcomic Subnormality. If you've been around the internet for a while, it's the one with too many words and the immortal human-eating Sphinx as a regular character. I'd read batches of it before, but not in ages and ages, and it was nice to see how all the threads warp and weft. It's absolutely pretentious as shit, but still made me cry at least a couple times, and wrapped me up in a general hope for humanity --even when it's being cynical as fuck, it never seems to stop hoping. (The lead singer of the Generals is my favourite character, by far).
Oh, and I don't think I ever properly mentioned it, but I had been reading The Pushcart War aloud to Austin, and did finally finish it. And then quite soon after, observed one of my favourite students holding her own very beloved copy and we had a mutual squee.....and then I learned that apparently subsequent editions have changed the dates of the book to place it "in the future" which makes absolutely zero goddamn sense given that _nothing else is changed_. So her copy, published in like 2014 or so, sets the pushcart war as beginning in 2026 but does not otherwise _remotely_ reimagine a world that is different from the one in my much older copy, which sets the tale in the 1980s.
Currently Reading
I have been a mess with library check-outs and holds and stuff. I have two physical books I really need to return to the library, like, months ago because I'm probably not going to read them at this point, and I have two digital books that I need to re-hold because I didn't manage to get to them when they were checked out to me. Arg!
What I am actually currently reading though is A Drop of Corruption, which is Robert Jackson Bennett's sequel to his excellent The Tainted Cup which I read last year. I'm through the first part and definitely having as much joy about the worldbuilding and any moment Ana is on screen. Din is...going through it, and I hope he works himself out okay. I like that I've observed at least one of the Clues that was later confirmed, although I wasn't nearly smart enough to answer the first mystery that was presented. Anyways, I have like five days before that ebook evaporates, but I think I'm on track. Finding excuses to walk places and read as I do seems to be really helpful for how my brain handles books.
A couple weeks ago, I needed something to read as I walked to (actual in-person!) therapy, so I broke out my Gutenberg ebook of Dracula, and read up to the current day. I think my hope is to actually go ahead and read the whole thing _not_ as a daily, since I haven't managed that either of the previous two years I've been subscribed. But I haven't read anything since, so I'm behind either way. I did get far enough to get to the part where Jonathan is looking out the window and being all "that sure is my host climbing around on the outside of the castle like a big lizard". Delightful!
What I'm Reading Next
More Discworld, probably. I'm currently at a slight loss for specific cravings, although Tho read Scholomance on my recommendation, so maybe I grab that again. I could for reals try Fire Logic (third time's the charm?) or try to get and finish How To Be Perfec.
I should have some free time in mid-to-late August and I'd love to spend some of that doing like...a thorough read-through of the stuff on my bookshelves I've never gotten to. I also had something push the "Transmet?" button in the back of my brain and like ugh, we all know Warren Ellis is a creep and the books have some serious problems, but also I think I was rereading the entire series more often than once a year during the first Tr*mp administation and I'm probably due for more of that.
Yaybooks!
~Sor
MOOP!
Finished Reading Recently
We left off with me just barely having started Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters. I got through it, but am continuing to feel Pretty Weird about the fact that I don't love the Witches stories nearly as much as I love the Guard stories. I did like all the Scottish-play references, because I am a theatre nerd (even if I'm not that kind of theatre nerd).
I then did a very necessary and very burnt-out reread of all seven Murderbot (by Martha Wells) books in rapid succession. They continue to be Real Fucking Good, and I continue to enjoy having
verdantry to samebrain at and send random screencaps or whatever when I need. Three is still my absolute favourite golden retriever puppy of a character, but I had an unexpectedly positive reaction to 2.0 this time around. The seventh book is still the hardest to read, due to [redacted] but I still love the ending so goddamn much and all the hope for the future it seems to provide. Man these books are good for me. After I finished Murderbot, I returned to the Disc with the next guards book: Jingo! This uh. This is a book about colonialism and racism and war and UH. Like. UHHHH.
Look, all of Pratchett's stuff has this horrible timeless quality to it --I say horrible, because it's less like "applicable to humans everywhere" and more like "goddamnit, we _still_ have to protest this shit?". And reading a book which is very blatantly drawing some parallels between us, the upstanding white British folk with our stiff upper lips and sensible demeanor, and them, the brown-skinned desert-living barbarians with their foreign ways and horrible traditions......yeeeeah, we still have to protest this shit?
It is nice as hell to watch Vimes annoyedly realize he's being racist and have to figure out how to be Less So. It's _amazing_ to watch him wield his privilege like a weapon, as extensively as humanly possible. The only reason to have power is to help those who don't have it, and Vimes gets that.
I was unexpectedly okay with the haha-very-funny joke of Nobby-the-horrible-gremlin being put into a dress and getting in touch with his feminine side. Like. I mean, there were some parts of it that were transphobe-adjacent, but most of the humour was very solidly on "Nobby Nobbs is a horrible gremlin" and not "men wearing dresses is inherently funny". And honestly, even with the first part, it felt pretty okay to watch him be like "no, it was genuinely good for me to explore my gender by doing some of this"
I've done at least one babysitting of The Local Toddler, so we read a small handful of books --not nearly as many as last time, because we spent most of the day outside at the playgrounds instead. But we got through a few:
Hooray, a pinata! by Elisa Kleven felt _ridiculously_ familiar to me as the kind of neurospice who builds connections with toys and plushies and fictional objects. Very sweet little story!
Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall I have maybe read before? Not sure. It's a trans allegory and it doesn't try to be subtle about it. Reading parts of it really hurts because dannnnngg yeah, it is hard when other people see you in a way that just isn't true.
The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins was entirely forgettable. There's counting. There's a nice cast of multi-racial inoffensive children. There are cookies. Great literature, it is not, but it won't hurt anyone.
Bootsie Barker Bites by Barbara Bottner I read after the toddler was in bed, just finding it on the floor and giving it a shot. And it was _delightful_! It includes a child being belived by their parents about something they find uncomfortable! It includes the triumph of brains over brawn! It includes girl children who are horrible little gremlin bullies! (I mean, obviously we don't like bullies, but dang, it's weirdly refreshing to see visions of bullying that look familiar to my childhood and ALSO let girls be rough and physical and scary sometimes!). It was a fun read and I didn't predict the twist and was pleased when I got to it!
Last thing I've finished reading recently was the entire archive of the webcomic Subnormality. If you've been around the internet for a while, it's the one with too many words and the immortal human-eating Sphinx as a regular character. I'd read batches of it before, but not in ages and ages, and it was nice to see how all the threads warp and weft. It's absolutely pretentious as shit, but still made me cry at least a couple times, and wrapped me up in a general hope for humanity --even when it's being cynical as fuck, it never seems to stop hoping. (The lead singer of the Generals is my favourite character, by far).
Oh, and I don't think I ever properly mentioned it, but I had been reading The Pushcart War aloud to Austin, and did finally finish it. And then quite soon after, observed one of my favourite students holding her own very beloved copy and we had a mutual squee.....and then I learned that apparently subsequent editions have changed the dates of the book to place it "in the future" which makes absolutely zero goddamn sense given that _nothing else is changed_. So her copy, published in like 2014 or so, sets the pushcart war as beginning in 2026 but does not otherwise _remotely_ reimagine a world that is different from the one in my much older copy, which sets the tale in the 1980s.
Currently Reading
I have been a mess with library check-outs and holds and stuff. I have two physical books I really need to return to the library, like, months ago because I'm probably not going to read them at this point, and I have two digital books that I need to re-hold because I didn't manage to get to them when they were checked out to me. Arg!
What I am actually currently reading though is A Drop of Corruption, which is Robert Jackson Bennett's sequel to his excellent The Tainted Cup which I read last year. I'm through the first part and definitely having as much joy about the worldbuilding and any moment Ana is on screen. Din is...going through it, and I hope he works himself out okay. I like that I've observed at least one of the Clues that was later confirmed, although I wasn't nearly smart enough to answer the first mystery that was presented. Anyways, I have like five days before that ebook evaporates, but I think I'm on track. Finding excuses to walk places and read as I do seems to be really helpful for how my brain handles books.
A couple weeks ago, I needed something to read as I walked to (actual in-person!) therapy, so I broke out my Gutenberg ebook of Dracula, and read up to the current day. I think my hope is to actually go ahead and read the whole thing _not_ as a daily, since I haven't managed that either of the previous two years I've been subscribed. But I haven't read anything since, so I'm behind either way. I did get far enough to get to the part where Jonathan is looking out the window and being all "that sure is my host climbing around on the outside of the castle like a big lizard". Delightful!
What I'm Reading Next
More Discworld, probably. I'm currently at a slight loss for specific cravings, although Tho read Scholomance on my recommendation, so maybe I grab that again. I could for reals try Fire Logic (third time's the charm?) or try to get and finish How To Be Perfec.
I should have some free time in mid-to-late August and I'd love to spend some of that doing like...a thorough read-through of the stuff on my bookshelves I've never gotten to. I also had something push the "Transmet?" button in the back of my brain and like ugh, we all know Warren Ellis is a creep and the books have some serious problems, but also I think I was rereading the entire series more often than once a year during the first Tr*mp administation and I'm probably due for more of that.
Yaybooks!
~Sor
MOOP!
There are 6 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
posted by minoanmiss at 11:35am on 2025-05-29
minoanmiss at 11:35am on 2025-05-29
disappointed
There are 5 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
So Elon and company had another fireworks display... I mean, attempted another launch of Starship.
The launch went well but the Starship tumbled out of control and exploded and the Super Heavy blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hardware retrieved: 0. Data retrieved: ??? Estimated cost: 100 million dollars.
Lessons learned? Probably none.
I'm old enough (young enough?) to remember when NASA had disasters of having entire rockets with payload go *BOOM* there were investigations, Senate hearings and people got demoted, fired or disciplined. Elon? Fat chance.
I grew up in the Space Race: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, the Shuttle. I know NASA has its problems. I know that no bucks, no Buck Rogers. Too often NASA has been squeezed between doing Science, government micro management and providing job programs for select congressional districts. Space X has done a great job with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy but Starship? It's a near total failure.
Look, NASA was working on reusable space craft back in the 1970s but the material science wasn't quite there yet. They were doing successful launch pad to landing pad experiments. Nothing big, just a 100 feet or so. Baby steps. All cancelled by budget cuts by congress. Space is hard. Space costs money. Space needs research. But when you blow through a 100 million per launch and gain nothing? Forget it.
The launch went well but the Starship tumbled out of control and exploded and the Super Heavy blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hardware retrieved: 0. Data retrieved: ??? Estimated cost: 100 million dollars.
Lessons learned? Probably none.
I'm old enough (young enough?) to remember when NASA had disasters of having entire rockets with payload go *BOOM* there were investigations, Senate hearings and people got demoted, fired or disciplined. Elon? Fat chance.
I grew up in the Space Race: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, the Shuttle. I know NASA has its problems. I know that no bucks, no Buck Rogers. Too often NASA has been squeezed between doing Science, government micro management and providing job programs for select congressional districts. Space X has done a great job with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy but Starship? It's a near total failure.
Look, NASA was working on reusable space craft back in the 1970s but the material science wasn't quite there yet. They were doing successful launch pad to landing pad experiments. Nothing big, just a 100 feet or so. Baby steps. All cancelled by budget cuts by congress. Space is hard. Space costs money. Space needs research. But when you blow through a 100 million per launch and gain nothing? Forget it.
frustrated
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bunnyhugger, stirred up by my post last night about the tree and the risk it might present, spent too much time worrying about what to do and turned to doing something about it this afternoon. And by remarkable stroke, found something very effective: a couple guys who could come out to the house today to give an estimate, and who're scheduled to come out tomorrow afternoon to cut the fallen branch down and chop it up into useful wood. So now we're set to be even more well-stocked for when we get the fireplace converted into something not dangerously unsafe to operate.
Also we got back the clock. As promised they had it ready Wednesday; I ventured in after work, but before going to the card store to get my father a birthday card. (This spun out into also getting father's day cards, saving me a trip sometime in two weeks.) As bunnyhugger texted to ask if I was stopping for something after work I was on my way to the art glass shop. This was all but the work of a minute. I came in and both the woman and the guy who'd been in the car on Saturday telling me she'd gone back in were there. I started to explain what my deal was when the woman pointed to the counter. I was delighted, and said so, by how lovely the new glass looks. bunnyhugger observed maybe the real difference was just that it was completely new and clean. But it does look great. And now it's on the wall and everything's in good shape in this part of this room of the house! We're making progress.
And now we return to Kennywood and to the flying saucer gift shop!
And here's the 90s t-shirt. Steel Phantom was rebuilt into Phantom's Revenge; Wipeout and Pitt Fall are gone (Wipeout to Lake Compounce). I can't find any information about Fort Kennywood and wonder if it might have been a show or event or something that wouldn't make lists of former attractions.
bunnyhugger admiring the Grand Carousel by night.
The carousel all white-lit and brilliant by night.
The inside has plenty of mirrors so you get to see the insides of the horses in this picture.
Looking out from atop a horse. bunnyhugger grabs a picture of me here.
bunnyhugger goes for a ride on the tiger this time.
Trivia: E-470, the beltway toll highway around Denver, is an incomplete loop, with the northwestern corner never built owing to plutonium-239 contamination of the soil of the former Rocky Flats Plant, which operated from 1952 to 1992. Source: Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World, Simon Winchester. In 1989 the FBI raided the plant, owned by the federal Department of Energy, over Rockwell International's shoddy management.
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
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May 28th, 2025
posted by watersword at 08:38pm on 2025-05-28
watersword at 08:38pm on 2025-05-28I have been staggering through the past few weeks, holding myself together with string and duct tape, and it is finally the Cottagecore Week.
I have finished a sashiko patch on a pair of jeans and I am very proud of myself, as well as the first of the embroidered numbers for my front & back doors, and I have solved the problem of how to print patterns onto stabilizer (use the library makerspace printer from a USB). The mending circle at the local "sustainable fashion collective" (it's a secondhand store with some mending/tailoring services) was fun and I'll go back when the bus schedule allows. Dropout.tv and the 1995 Pride & Prejudice miniseries have been my companions as I sew this week, and they are both great for that purpose. I think I will move on to North & South and perhaps Horrible Histories next. Is Shakespeare & Hathaway fun?
The knotweed in the garden has been beaten back from the path to the shed, and the asparagus is coming up spindly and feathery (I really hope that they will thicken over time, I will eat a thin asparagus spear without complaining but I love asparagus with some heft); no trace of the rhubarb, which I'm kind of upset about, but seeds are always chancy, and I'm waiting to see what happened with the watermelon and sunflowers, now that I've staked the peas. Surely something will come up? The gladiolus in the front garden are looking more promising, although I don't know what happened to everything else. I have proof that someone in the Parks Department exists, and has just been ignoring my emails (a coworker knows the parks director, and emailed her, and the person I have been trying to get in touch with answered when their boss was on the chain, but no luck since, so this is progress but not by much).
I have been wallowing in books, and can enthusiastically join the chorus of those of you who have been shrieking delightedly about Robert Jackson Bennett's latest, A Drop of Corruption, it's so good, please discuss in the comments; and I finally got my hands on Katherine Addison's The Tomb of Dragons, ditto.
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I just made a spreadsheet of all of my cross stitch works in progress that I can think of, and sorted them by "joy quotient" and then by effort remaining. Ta dahh! I have prioritized my backlog.
I gave each WIP two numbers from 1-10: How satisfying would it be to finish this (higher number is good), and how much effort remains (lower number is good). "Joy quotient" is satisfaction divided by effort.
I should probably do something similar with my spreadsheet of planned projects, although "planned" is really too strong a word. Yes, I have separate sheets for kits and charts. No, I have not catalogued every chart I own (we would be here until the heat death of the universe and probably also crash Excel); just the ones I have formed some vague intention of doing and/or have purchased materials for.
Parting thought, any kits I bought before about 1995 should almost certainly get yeeted. (Yotted? Yeeten?)
Edited to add: I did this for my backlog of charts and it came out sorted perfectly by effort (easiest at the top of the list). Hahahahaha.
I made the list of kits from memory and I have a terrible feeling that in reality I have tons more than I think I do. This is already discounting things like the pile of beginner kits I bought to teach my coworkers at game night in 2020 (RIP).
I gave each WIP two numbers from 1-10: How satisfying would it be to finish this (higher number is good), and how much effort remains (lower number is good). "Joy quotient" is satisfaction divided by effort.
I should probably do something similar with my spreadsheet of planned projects, although "planned" is really too strong a word. Yes, I have separate sheets for kits and charts. No, I have not catalogued every chart I own (we would be here until the heat death of the universe and probably also crash Excel); just the ones I have formed some vague intention of doing and/or have purchased materials for.
Parting thought, any kits I bought before about 1995 should almost certainly get yeeted. (Yotted? Yeeten?)
Edited to add: I did this for my backlog of charts and it came out sorted perfectly by effort (easiest at the top of the list). Hahahahaha.
I made the list of kits from memory and I have a terrible feeling that in reality I have tons more than I think I do. This is already discounting things like the pile of beginner kits I bought to teach my coworkers at game night in 2020 (RIP).
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posted by redbird at 06:39pm on 2025-05-28
redbird at 06:39pm on 2025-05-28I'm fine, as far as I know everyone's fine, but my trip to get blood drawn was more exciting than anticipated: the bus driver had to slam on the brakes to avoid either a bicycle or a pedestrian crossing in mid-block. She did that, checked to make sure that everyone on the bus was OK, then drove to the next corner, pulled over, and asked again if everyone was sure they were OK.
A few stops after that, someone asked me where he should get off the bus to get to "the little mall with Trader Joe's and MicroCenter." It took me a moment to figure out what he meant, because the bus we were on doesn't go there. So first I told him I wasn't sure, because this bus didn't go there, and then I started thinking about the problem. He said he wasn't good at directions, so I suggested a route that involved more walking but less chance of getting lost. I wound up signaling for his bus stop, and then telling him I was sorry, I'd forgotten they'd moved the bus stop, so [revised directions]. I should note, he didn't ask me for most of this, just what bus stop to use, and I was in the mood to do the extra bits.
The rest of the trip to Mt. Auburn to get blood drawn went smoothly. Once I got there, I had very little wait, and the phlebotomist did a very good job; I made a point of telling him so. On the way back, I stopped in Harvard Square to put more money on my Charlie card; buy and eat a slice of Otto's mashed potato and bacon pizza; and then went to Lizzy's to get Adrian a pint of non-dairy chocolate ice cream.
I was going to withdraw some cash from the ATM at the 7-11 at Comm Ave and Harvard Ave, but when I got there the screen said "windows 7. Press ctrl-alt-del to log in," which was literally impossible with the numeric keypad, so I just came home.
A few stops after that, someone asked me where he should get off the bus to get to "the little mall with Trader Joe's and MicroCenter." It took me a moment to figure out what he meant, because the bus we were on doesn't go there. So first I told him I wasn't sure, because this bus didn't go there, and then I started thinking about the problem. He said he wasn't good at directions, so I suggested a route that involved more walking but less chance of getting lost. I wound up signaling for his bus stop, and then telling him I was sorry, I'd forgotten they'd moved the bus stop, so [revised directions]. I should note, he didn't ask me for most of this, just what bus stop to use, and I was in the mood to do the extra bits.
The rest of the trip to Mt. Auburn to get blood drawn went smoothly. Once I got there, I had very little wait, and the phlebotomist did a very good job; I made a point of telling him so. On the way back, I stopped in Harvard Square to put more money on my Charlie card; buy and eat a slice of Otto's mashed potato and bacon pizza; and then went to Lizzy's to get Adrian a pint of non-dairy chocolate ice cream.
I was going to withdraw some cash from the ATM at the 7-11 at Comm Ave and Harvard Ave, but when I got there the screen said "windows 7. Press ctrl-alt-del to log in," which was literally impossible with the numeric keypad, so I just came home.
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posted by mrs_sweetpeach at 05:43pm on 2025-05-28 under project 52
mrs_sweetpeach at 05:43pm on 2025-05-28 under project 52
frustratedposted by jayblanc at 02:41pm on 2025-05-28
jayblanc at 02:41pm on 2025-05-28Short explainer for whats currently horrifying Lawyer, Moderation and T&S Bsky: The people who have been advertising 'Verified Gaza Go Fund Me Accounts', have now moved on to asking for people to hand over control of their personal US Bank Accounts so that they can 'receive international donations'
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Just finished: Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. I really enjoyed this one, with the caveat that it was hyped to me as the most disturbing thing, read it before giving it to a student, etc., and it was a very different (if very good) kind of book. Though possibly my calibration for disturbing is way off. I did find it a very strong story about family and community vs. extractive industries and the MMIWG epidemic, and one of the best use of dreams in fiction I've seen since we all decided that kind of thing was gauche.
What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher. I enjoyed this one too. After barely surviving the events of the first book, our lead and ka (?) companions return to their home (fictional) country, where the caretaker of the estate has suddenly died. The villagers won't go near the place and claim that it's haunted by a creature that sits on your chest and sucks out your breath. So, they have to fight it, all while dealing with PTSD from the war. Fun stuff.
Two things I particularly liked about this: 1) it actually was disturbing as shit, especially the scene with the horses. 2) this is kind of the reverse of what I complained about with Someone You Can Build a Nest In in terms of queernormative fantasy settings. The imaginary country is integrated into the Serbo-Bulgarian War, but it is clearly a country with different norms, myths, and traditions. The novella has a nonbinary lead, and this identity is important and plays a role in their backstory, but it also has a different meaning and definition that in would have in our world (it's important to note that this is queernormative and Alex doesn't appear to be discriminated against in their society, but there are still gendered expectations and roles). It contributes to the worldbuilding as well, so there are different pronouns for both God and priests, and that adds interest rather than erases difference. Anyway, it is pretty cool.
Currently reading: The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed. This one was also really hyped up and I can see why. There's a longstanding war between two empires: Varkal (which is kind of industrial-age but uses genetically altered animals as its technology) and Med’ariz (which has floating cities and more technologically based weapons). The causes and parameters of this war are deliberately fuzzy to the POV characters, but Med'ariz seems to be winning. Alefrat, the leader of the pacifist resistance in Varkal, is blown up, kidnapped, and imprisoned by his government, and let out on the condition that he travel to the Med'ariz front line, infiltrate them, and create the same kind of grassroots uprising that he did in Varkal. He's accompanied by Qhudur, a brutal soldier/prison guard.
This is very good so far; it pulls no punches either in its depiction of war or its depiction of disability (Alefrat's leg was blown off before the story begins, and there's a bizarro doctor who had started to regrow it with wasps, and the entire thing is very nasty). It's definitely problematizing pacifism and its role in defanging political movements, though I am not sure where the author/narrative is ultimately going to fall on this. It feels like a slog, and this is intentional; every inch of the characters' journey is painstakingly fought for, and you feel it.
What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher. I enjoyed this one too. After barely surviving the events of the first book, our lead and ka (?) companions return to their home (fictional) country, where the caretaker of the estate has suddenly died. The villagers won't go near the place and claim that it's haunted by a creature that sits on your chest and sucks out your breath. So, they have to fight it, all while dealing with PTSD from the war. Fun stuff.
Two things I particularly liked about this: 1) it actually was disturbing as shit, especially the scene with the horses. 2) this is kind of the reverse of what I complained about with Someone You Can Build a Nest In in terms of queernormative fantasy settings. The imaginary country is integrated into the Serbo-Bulgarian War, but it is clearly a country with different norms, myths, and traditions. The novella has a nonbinary lead, and this identity is important and plays a role in their backstory, but it also has a different meaning and definition that in would have in our world (it's important to note that this is queernormative and Alex doesn't appear to be discriminated against in their society, but there are still gendered expectations and roles). It contributes to the worldbuilding as well, so there are different pronouns for both God and priests, and that adds interest rather than erases difference. Anyway, it is pretty cool.
Currently reading: The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed. This one was also really hyped up and I can see why. There's a longstanding war between two empires: Varkal (which is kind of industrial-age but uses genetically altered animals as its technology) and Med’ariz (which has floating cities and more technologically based weapons). The causes and parameters of this war are deliberately fuzzy to the POV characters, but Med'ariz seems to be winning. Alefrat, the leader of the pacifist resistance in Varkal, is blown up, kidnapped, and imprisoned by his government, and let out on the condition that he travel to the Med'ariz front line, infiltrate them, and create the same kind of grassroots uprising that he did in Varkal. He's accompanied by Qhudur, a brutal soldier/prison guard.
This is very good so far; it pulls no punches either in its depiction of war or its depiction of disability (Alefrat's leg was blown off before the story begins, and there's a bizarro doctor who had started to regrow it with wasps, and the entire thing is very nasty). It's definitely problematizing pacifism and its role in defanging political movements, though I am not sure where the author/narrative is ultimately going to fall on this. It feels like a slog, and this is intentional; every inch of the characters' journey is painstakingly fought for, and you feel it.
real ones by Katherena Vermette. I really liked the other book I read by Vermette; this one is better. It's about two sisters, June and lyn, whose father is Michif and mother is white. Said mother, Renee, is an acclaimed artist winning all the arts grants by pretending to also be Métis. When her identity is exposed, the sisters are not only faced with digging up the trauma of their childhood (this is nowhere near the only shitty thing Renee has done) but having their own identities, careers, and community ties thrown into question.
Pretendians are somewhat of a national obsession here, and I don't weigh into it much because it's not at all my business, and it's a source of pain for Indigenous folks that I don't want to accidentally aggravate. Besides just being a really good story, this is an amazing look into the psychology of someone who fakes Indigenous ancestry and how it affects everyone around her. I haven't seen this tackled in fiction at all and Vermette does it spectacularly. It's also weirdly relatable in the relationship that the sisters have with their mother—growing up with a mostly-absent conman father, I get how they can't bring themselves to cut off Renee entirely even when she wrecks destruction in their lives.
Also the look at the media and arts landscape of Canada is just spot on. Perfect. It's so good.
Pretendians are somewhat of a national obsession here, and I don't weigh into it much because it's not at all my business, and it's a source of pain for Indigenous folks that I don't want to accidentally aggravate. Besides just being a really good story, this is an amazing look into the psychology of someone who fakes Indigenous ancestry and how it affects everyone around her. I haven't seen this tackled in fiction at all and Vermette does it spectacularly. It's also weirdly relatable in the relationship that the sisters have with their mother—growing up with a mostly-absent conman father, I get how they can't bring themselves to cut off Renee entirely even when she wrecks destruction in their lives.
Also the look at the media and arts landscape of Canada is just spot on. Perfect. It's so good.
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This weekend we finally --- after like a week or so --- enjoyed some warm enough weather to clean out the goldfish pond, ahead of putting the fish back in for summer. That went about as usual, me mucking the pond out until I broke the pond vacuum. This time it's a simple fix, as the plastic bolt that holds the handle on the main unit of the vacuum snapped off, and that should be easy enough to replace with a metal bolt.
But while doing this I noticed something funny about the fence, the older one that bunnyhugger and her starter husband put up when the house on that side was the bad neighbor. A piece of it was loose from the other and that seemed weird and new. And then I finally registered that one of the big branches from a huge tree had fallen over and knocked it out of place. Presumably it was knocked over in the big storm that blew through a week and a half ago, and we just failed to register that fact. It would be more ridiculous and embarrassing if it had fallen over back in the Motor City Furry Con storm of late March, so we'll go with the latter date.
So besides everything else going on --- and you'll learn what that is soon enough, don't worry --- we have to figure a way to get someone with a chainsaw and a ladder out here. Also to figure out whether the tree --- which is in the space behind our back fence, but also behind the back fence of the neighbor behind us --- is on our property or theirs and whether to get an insurance company involved. And the real crisis will be if another heavy storm blows through before we can get it dealt with because the branch is something like forty feet long and still partly attached to the tree trunk, so if it fell it could ... not hit any structures, but could destroy fences, our cherry tree, or do untold damage to our goldfish pond, if only by giving local raccoons a great place to sit while fishing. More on this as it comes to pass.
And now, pictures from the end of our day at Kennywood. We're not quite there yet, don't fear.
Tried taking a picture of the fountain by night, I think with the 'Waterfall' mode on my camera so I got this nice sheen in the middle water level there.
Tried the same thing with the water fountains of the main pool and I like how strange it makes the surface of the water look.
Swings ride and the giant rigid pendulum. I believe we've ridden both of these, although not this visit.
One of the gift shops, the flying saucer one in Area 412, had some fun decade T-shirts that ... we didn't want to get, but didn't want to forget either. Of the rides listed here only the Bumper Cars are still around. (Le Cachot was the 1972 Bill Tracy redesign of a Pretzel dark ride.)
Baseball caps showing off ... either rabbit-eared squirrels or squirrel-tailed rabbits.
The Kennywood 2000s shirt lists rides that are mostly still there and ... you know, thing with the Y2K fears is they were done once 2000 started so logically ...
Trivia: Between 1856 and 1864 Cyrus Field crossed the Atlantic at least 31 times working to build the Atlantic Telegraph Company's trans-oceanic telegraph line. Source: How The World Was One: Beyond the Global Village, Arthur C Clarke.
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
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May 27th, 2025
posted by sorcyress at 08:30pm on 2025-05-27
sorcyress at 08:30pm on 2025-05-27Returning to the real world has been rough.
I think part of it is that I didn't sleep well --the whole previous week, I managed to actually get out of bed on the first alarm without hitting snooze multiple times. Today....I did not manage that. Part of the problem is waking up and it being _cold_ and part is just being tired and cranky. But I definitely spent _way_ longer in bed than I should've today.
I did make it to work, and then it took over half an hour to get my 40 copies finished, which like...fucking hell, I wish I worked for a school that had sufficient materials, etc. For all that I'm part of my union's bargaining team, this is really not something that has made it onto the list, because it's just...stupid. It's stupid that we don't have sufficient copiers in my fucking building. At least the one in my wing was even actually working today, just slow as fuck, and being behind literally one other person fucked it all up.
But it was mostly okay, just...braindead. I am burnt out and tired and really want to go back to camp and be at Pinewoods again. I do not want to be in school anymore. The children are tired and I am also tired. I liked the parts where I could do simple mindless physical labour instead of abundant emotional and mental labour.
I'm also just real tired about being _busy_ all the time. I know where my break comes --right after Scottish Sessions-- and there's a _long_ way to go before then. A lot of said way is quite good! But there's a lot of it. Union meetings, dance meetings, eventually preparing my ESCape classes.
Stuff costs energy, especially when the background radiation is _real_ bad right now. I hope I can find the energy I need to do the stuff I want, and I hope you can too.
~Sor
MOOP!
I think part of it is that I didn't sleep well --the whole previous week, I managed to actually get out of bed on the first alarm without hitting snooze multiple times. Today....I did not manage that. Part of the problem is waking up and it being _cold_ and part is just being tired and cranky. But I definitely spent _way_ longer in bed than I should've today.
I did make it to work, and then it took over half an hour to get my 40 copies finished, which like...fucking hell, I wish I worked for a school that had sufficient materials, etc. For all that I'm part of my union's bargaining team, this is really not something that has made it onto the list, because it's just...stupid. It's stupid that we don't have sufficient copiers in my fucking building. At least the one in my wing was even actually working today, just slow as fuck, and being behind literally one other person fucked it all up.
But it was mostly okay, just...braindead. I am burnt out and tired and really want to go back to camp and be at Pinewoods again. I do not want to be in school anymore. The children are tired and I am also tired. I liked the parts where I could do simple mindless physical labour instead of abundant emotional and mental labour.
I'm also just real tired about being _busy_ all the time. I know where my break comes --right after Scottish Sessions-- and there's a _long_ way to go before then. A lot of said way is quite good! But there's a lot of it. Union meetings, dance meetings, eventually preparing my ESCape classes.
Stuff costs energy, especially when the background radiation is _real_ bad right now. I hope I can find the energy I need to do the stuff I want, and I hope you can too.
~Sor
MOOP!
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This year's Wiscon was all-online, and billed as a "gap year," with fewer program items than I'm used to, and no dealers room.
I went to two program items--a "US immigration law and worldwide fandom roundtable" and a panel on "the wild world of modern agtech and why isn't it showing up in current SF."
The roundtable was about as cheerful as you'd expect, with a lot of discussion of both past and feared legal difficulties in traveling to cons, and alternatives like smaller gatherings and online cons. Most of us thought that online wasn't as good as in person, but that it's significantly better than nothing. (There may be some selection bias here: people who didn't think an online con was better than nothing wouldn't bother attending.) And a couple of people noted that their choice has been online or nothing at least since 2020, for reasons like disability or budge that don't have much to do with Trump.
The panel on current and future agriculture was fun. Some of the "what SF is getting wrong" was about TV and movies, showing a garden plot that's much too small for the population it's allegedly feeding, and that the fictional future is even worse/stupider about monoculture than the real world today.
Other than that, I hung out on the Discord server. Most if not all of the program items were recorded, and will be available to convention members for a week after the end of the con, but I may not get around to watching any of them, even less interactive things like readings and the guest of honor speeches.
I went to two program items--a "US immigration law and worldwide fandom roundtable" and a panel on "the wild world of modern agtech and why isn't it showing up in current SF."
The roundtable was about as cheerful as you'd expect, with a lot of discussion of both past and feared legal difficulties in traveling to cons, and alternatives like smaller gatherings and online cons. Most of us thought that online wasn't as good as in person, but that it's significantly better than nothing. (There may be some selection bias here: people who didn't think an online con was better than nothing wouldn't bother attending.) And a couple of people noted that their choice has been online or nothing at least since 2020, for reasons like disability or budge that don't have much to do with Trump.
The panel on current and future agriculture was fun. Some of the "what SF is getting wrong" was about TV and movies, showing a garden plot that's much too small for the population it's allegedly feeding, and that the fictional future is even worse/stupider about monoculture than the real world today.
Other than that, I hung out on the Discord server. Most if not all of the program items were recorded, and will be available to convention members for a week after the end of the con, but I may not get around to watching any of them, even less interactive things like readings and the guest of honor speeches.
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posted by twistedchick at 06:44pm on 2025-05-27
twistedchick at 06:44pm on 2025-05-27
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posted by minoanmiss at 05:05pm on 2025-05-27
minoanmiss at 05:05pm on 2025-05-27
grateful
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posted by vvalkyri at 12:50pm on 2025-05-27
vvalkyri at 12:50pm on 2025-05-27I should start pulling more of my Facebook entries over here. Here's my most recent:
Wanna get started with Freeway Overpass Banners? Found the link for Backbone Campaign's overpass banner making zoom workshop for tonight at 8 EDT (first was 5/22) - scroll down, & forward to those interested.
https://www.backbonecampaign.org/workshop_20250527
Well actually my most recent was responding to the news that HHS just announced c19 updated vaccines no longer recommended for healthy children are pregnant people, and I invited people to go look up the long covid rates including for children and teens and just why it's more dangerous to have covid in pregnancy.
I need to get back on the road. I just drove out to Winchester for a blood draw, my penultimate lyme vaccine trial visit.
Heather Cox Richardson's post for today spends time on West point but also reminds us that there were 23 states attorneys who started preprep for all the legal challenges we've seen back in February of 24, starting with close reading of Project 2025. Many of us are far from impressed with most Senate Democrats, but it's worth realizing that they are not the entirety.
It was a really good weekend, even if I couldn't manage to do all the things I wanted to do and missed things I would have liked to do.
Wanna get started with Freeway Overpass Banners? Found the link for Backbone Campaign's overpass banner making zoom workshop for tonight at 8 EDT (first was 5/22) - scroll down, & forward to those interested.
https://www.backbonecampaign.org/workshop_20250527
Well actually my most recent was responding to the news that HHS just announced c19 updated vaccines no longer recommended for healthy children are pregnant people, and I invited people to go look up the long covid rates including for children and teens and just why it's more dangerous to have covid in pregnancy.
I need to get back on the road. I just drove out to Winchester for a blood draw, my penultimate lyme vaccine trial visit.
Heather Cox Richardson's post for today spends time on West point but also reminds us that there were 23 states attorneys who started preprep for all the legal challenges we've seen back in February of 24, starting with close reading of Project 2025. Many of us are far from impressed with most Senate Democrats, but it's worth realizing that they are not the entirety.
It was a really good weekend, even if I couldn't manage to do all the things I wanted to do and missed things I would have liked to do.
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posted by rmd at 12:04pm on 2025-05-27
rmd at 12:04pm on 2025-05-27Mozilla is shutting down "Pocket", the bookmarking/offline-reading app they bought a while back. End of pocket is July 8th. If you have a pocket account you can get an export before then.
Not sure what 'fakespot' is, but they're closing that down too. I'm annoyed by losing pocket and even more annoyed by the realization that this is probably so they can throw more resources at their favorite Stochastic Parrot.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2793228/mozilla-is-discontinuing-pocket-and-fakespot.html
Not sure what 'fakespot' is, but they're closing that down too. I'm annoyed by losing pocket and even more annoyed by the realization that this is probably so they can throw more resources at their favorite Stochastic Parrot.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2793228/mozilla-is-discontinuing-pocket-and-fakespot.html
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When I got home yesterday from getting some stuff from the pet store and the hardware store I had news for bunny_hugger. She'd wondered when the Joann Fabrics in our local mall would close. The answer: 55 minutes. We dithered a small bit about whether to go; would it be just depressing, or might we get something useful like really cheap Easter egg dye kits or bolts of fleece or stuff?
We got there to learn that they didn't have any fleece left. Or Easter egg kits. Or almost anything, really; they did well at keeping the store open until they ran out of stuff. All the remaining merchandise was on two small shelving units up front, and most of that was decoration letters. If you need a box of Z's, we could set you up, except that Joann's is now closed for good and all. Someone working the tiny remaining stock was urging people to buy boxes of toothpicks with lobster or shrimp cutouts atop them. We're not sure why anyone would get these at all, even if, as she observed, they won't spoil. I had the feeling this had turned into some minor silly retail obsession, waiting to see if anyone would ever take any of this.
We also wandered around the shelving and fixtures, where another employee was doing her best to find some piece of hardware we would take home with us. Apparently some of the thread spools are also a good configuration for storing Hot Wheels cars, in case you have a hundred-plus Hot Wheel cars that need storing. But we don't, nor anything close to that. Some of the pegbord-with-bin shelving seemed like it might be useful in our basement, if it weren't too big to fit in our basement.
And yet as we were leaving I noticed they had boxes full of pegboard racks, like, the metal or plastic rods that stick out and you can hang stuff on. So we got a box of that, for five bucks, and have the promise of organizing more things in our basement and garage if we ever get to that. I also, maybe foolishly, bought a couple boxes of some silicone sheets that are meant to be pressed around mugs or other ceramic things. I don't know what to do with them but have the feeling there's probably something decorative we can do. bunny_hugger sees in them mostly a thing we'll have to get rid of at some point. I suppose either will do fine.
And that was our last Joann's visit.
Now to what I hope was merely the most recent Kennywood visit, drawing as you can see nearer its close.
Almost at The Phantom's Revenge's station and this gives a view of the exit queue. (Also the entrance for people with mobility needs, like the guy in a wheelchair coming up the other way.)
Lanes to get your seat for the ride. Note there isn't that automatic gate that keeps you away until the operator decides you may approach.
That gift shop again, now seen by night. Also showing off the Small Fry's, that place where you can get the same fries as at The Potato Patch but with less of a wait. And yes, per Kennywood: Behind The Screams, it is based on the entrance to Wonderland at Revere Beach, Massachusetts. (Yes, if you looked at that link, you saw an 'Infant Incubators' building inside Wonderland. Early 20th century was weird.)
Sitting at the top of the reflecting pool in Lost Kennywood, looking out over a beautifully clear sky and the Black Widow swing ride.
Over that way's the swing ride. Oops, accidentally got a tiny bit of a view of bunny_hugger in there. Sorry, won't do that again.
And here's how the pool looks by early night.
Trivia: Charles Babbage invented a mechanical time clock in 1844. Source: Time's Pendulum: The Quest to Capture Time --- From Sundials to Atomic Clocks, Jo Ellen Barnett.
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
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May 26th, 2025
posted by sorcyress at 11:11pm on 2025-05-26
sorcyress at 11:11pm on 2025-05-26Sunday of work weekend was fine (and complicated and stressful because Mice) but mostly uneventful and my brain went a little sideways for some parts of it, which was not the best. I think maybe the most satisfying part of Sunday --and a little bit of today-- was developing new skills and practicing at them some, and getting reasonably good at them.
The new skill from yesterday was sewing, and specifically doing a very fine whip stitch with almost hidden stitches to get the edge on for a quilt (basting? Is that what it was?) I was taught by Kimberly-(Lucretia's-Mom) who is entirely lovely and was calm, good at teaching, and a lovely conversationalist. I will probably never love sewing, but it's good to remember that it and I can be friends, and it's very good to have chances to learn skills with it sometimes.
The new skill from today was Ditch Digging! Elliot was in charge of doing some path-shaping to get water to travel the correct directions (off the path) and a little bit of berm shaping and the like. My first ditch was, uh, a little too extreme, but I took his good feedback and by the end of it, I think I had a pretty good sense of how to make the path go the ways I wanted it to.
In the afternoon, I did a little bit of other helpful things, and then suddenly was gifted with the truly wonderful present of a working Hobart. Well okay then, I *will* wash the last few dozen loads of dishes, since I don't have to then drag them through the sanitizer as well! Critically, this meant all the flatware, which was going to be _miserable_ to have to drop in the sanitizer and then retrieve. I also now know exactly how many trays are at camp (both the Good Kind and the shitty kind.) The margin is...a _lot_ closer than I would've expected, honestly.
It was _so pleasant_ to spend the last three hours of my work weekend in the kitchen, by myself, just me and the music cranked and the hobart humming along and round after round of dishes. Isaac even brought me some soap so that I wouldn't have to run to Dingle every time I needed to wash my hands between dirty side and clean side. It is good to learn new skills and get better at them! It is also real fucking good to just do skills that I am already competent at and feel like I have good agency for.
It was also really nice to feel like I could make Actually Useful And Sensible Decisions about how to run things through. My only concession to Amanda being the Head Of Kitchen was to send a text being all "I'm doing the rest of them and you can't stop me", I didn't need to ask her for advice because I could think through all the things that needed to happen and just...do them!
Like, there's this thing I do where I be Extremely Confident which dovetails in interesting ways with that thing I do where I be Extremely Nosy About How Everything Everywhere Works. I worry that people might not be standing up to me enough about their own expertise sometimes --like, it is cute for Seramay to defer to me on cabin opening things, he has _way_ more experience doing so than I do! But also, I do have a fair chunk of experience and I tend to be competent in general, so yeah, it's not unreasonable to be all "okay Kat, go get the clotheslines up in the Bamps and the hill, have fun".
Anyways, it felt nice to be helpful (Amanda sent me a very nice text at the end when I was finished) and it was very nice that I got to do a _lot_ of dishwashing which is my absolute favourite job at camp 5ever. I don't mind opening cabins, and digging/carrying/general grounds nonsense is fine. But this particular work weekend I got to send...gods...Okay so like, there were 16 flats of just trays to go through the Hobart and that wasn't even half of what I did today. I probably pushed well over 200 flats through on Saturday? 300 maybe? I wish I had counted, because it was _wonderful_.
*and* I got to fill four fire bins, which is close to half the ones at camp, and is my other favourite job. I loved _so much_ two years ago when I got to do the camp safety audit and I briefly knew where literally every fire extinguisher was at camp. I also love running through and checking the AEDs, although I noted that they weren't up yet for this year.
So yeah, this was a very satisfying work weekend where I did a lot of things I liked, and made some good connections because of it. (I was working with this summer's dishwasher on Saturday and gave her plenty of random advice; this year's potwasher is totally new to camp and I think I left a good impression. And the head cook for the weekend is charming and I think I have successfully charmed them in return).
I really don't want to go back to the real world. LCFD in a couple weeks, which is good, but man, there is a _lot_ of grading between here and there.
~Sor
MOOP!
The new skill from yesterday was sewing, and specifically doing a very fine whip stitch with almost hidden stitches to get the edge on for a quilt (basting? Is that what it was?) I was taught by Kimberly-(Lucretia's-Mom) who is entirely lovely and was calm, good at teaching, and a lovely conversationalist. I will probably never love sewing, but it's good to remember that it and I can be friends, and it's very good to have chances to learn skills with it sometimes.
The new skill from today was Ditch Digging! Elliot was in charge of doing some path-shaping to get water to travel the correct directions (off the path) and a little bit of berm shaping and the like. My first ditch was, uh, a little too extreme, but I took his good feedback and by the end of it, I think I had a pretty good sense of how to make the path go the ways I wanted it to.
In the afternoon, I did a little bit of other helpful things, and then suddenly was gifted with the truly wonderful present of a working Hobart. Well okay then, I *will* wash the last few dozen loads of dishes, since I don't have to then drag them through the sanitizer as well! Critically, this meant all the flatware, which was going to be _miserable_ to have to drop in the sanitizer and then retrieve. I also now know exactly how many trays are at camp (both the Good Kind and the shitty kind.) The margin is...a _lot_ closer than I would've expected, honestly.
It was _so pleasant_ to spend the last three hours of my work weekend in the kitchen, by myself, just me and the music cranked and the hobart humming along and round after round of dishes. Isaac even brought me some soap so that I wouldn't have to run to Dingle every time I needed to wash my hands between dirty side and clean side. It is good to learn new skills and get better at them! It is also real fucking good to just do skills that I am already competent at and feel like I have good agency for.
It was also really nice to feel like I could make Actually Useful And Sensible Decisions about how to run things through. My only concession to Amanda being the Head Of Kitchen was to send a text being all "I'm doing the rest of them and you can't stop me", I didn't need to ask her for advice because I could think through all the things that needed to happen and just...do them!
Like, there's this thing I do where I be Extremely Confident which dovetails in interesting ways with that thing I do where I be Extremely Nosy About How Everything Everywhere Works. I worry that people might not be standing up to me enough about their own expertise sometimes --like, it is cute for Seramay to defer to me on cabin opening things, he has _way_ more experience doing so than I do! But also, I do have a fair chunk of experience and I tend to be competent in general, so yeah, it's not unreasonable to be all "okay Kat, go get the clotheslines up in the Bamps and the hill, have fun".
Anyways, it felt nice to be helpful (Amanda sent me a very nice text at the end when I was finished) and it was very nice that I got to do a _lot_ of dishwashing which is my absolute favourite job at camp 5ever. I don't mind opening cabins, and digging/carrying/general grounds nonsense is fine. But this particular work weekend I got to send...gods...Okay so like, there were 16 flats of just trays to go through the Hobart and that wasn't even half of what I did today. I probably pushed well over 200 flats through on Saturday? 300 maybe? I wish I had counted, because it was _wonderful_.
*and* I got to fill four fire bins, which is close to half the ones at camp, and is my other favourite job. I loved _so much_ two years ago when I got to do the camp safety audit and I briefly knew where literally every fire extinguisher was at camp. I also love running through and checking the AEDs, although I noted that they weren't up yet for this year.
So yeah, this was a very satisfying work weekend where I did a lot of things I liked, and made some good connections because of it. (I was working with this summer's dishwasher on Saturday and gave her plenty of random advice; this year's potwasher is totally new to camp and I think I left a good impression. And the head cook for the weekend is charming and I think I have successfully charmed them in return).
I really don't want to go back to the real world. LCFD in a couple weeks, which is good, but man, there is a _lot_ of grading between here and there.
~Sor
MOOP!
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posted by vvalkyri at 03:41am on 2025-05-26
vvalkyri at 03:41am on 2025-05-26depression risk after medical DC
Otherwise, balticon husband lovely. This is not actually related. Hey it's over an hour earlier than I went to sleep yesterday and another hour earli6 than Friday ...
Otherwise, balticon husband lovely. This is not actually related. Hey it's over an hour earlier than I went to sleep yesterday and another hour earli6 than Friday ...
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And now I can reveal what my errand of yesterday was. Nothing big, I just didn't feel up to writing it up before deadline is all. It was my blood donation, rescheduled from Monday and from Tuesday.
Actually it was a platelet donation, my first time. I'd always donated whole blood before and for not a whole lot of particular reason tried the alternate approach this time. Platelets here are the parts of blood that allow for blood clotting, and they can't be stored more than a couple days, so there's always a steady need for them. They're collected by taking blood from your arm, filtering the platelets out of it, and putting everything else right back in. Your body, all going well, replaces the platelets in a couple days and the platelets themselves go off to cancer, transplant, and major-surgery patients.
The catch is all this takes much longer than a whole-blood donation where they just let you bleed on purpose for maybe fifteen minutes and then stop it. Long enough that they set you up in this reclined, sculpted seat, legs above your chest, with TV to watch and everything. The nurse offered me the chance to pick what I'd like to watch on Netflix, and I thought well surely she's using 'Netflix' as synecdoche for all the streaming services they have and so I could watch stuff on Disney+ or Hulu as on the other buttons on the remote that didn't work for me at first. But no, I've never had reason to think I wasn't basically neurotypical, why do you ask? Anyway she got the remote working and I got to thinking what do I even want to watch that's about 90-100 minutes? A movie? Okay, quick, think of a movie! Not so easy, is it?
Finally I realized I could just pull up a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, as I've finally started watching the Netflix seasons and I could get to the next one I hadn't seen (Starcrash). Getting on board several years after everyone stopped thinking about it I have to say: unless this season takes a major turn for the worse after this episode I don't see why anyone wasn't thrilled with it. There's stuff I'm not sure I like about it but the movie riffing is so wonderfully playful.
The nurse came back to check a couple times, the first none too soon because my headphones had fallen loose and with needles in both arms I couldn't re-adjust it myself. And near the end I started to feel a pringly, pins-and-needles feeling across my body, a known side effect that would pass once the process was all done. I also got to feeling cold and a little ... nauseous is too strong a term but very weird. A couple juice boxes when I was done healed most of that, and I of course followed direction and stayed in the waiting area having snacks and fluids for a good fifteen minutes before cautiously getting back up and heading out.
As reward for the donation I got a Red Cross Emergency Lantern, a solar-powered lantern that also provides USB charge. bunnyhugger wondered if this were an ironic statement on their own power outage; no, they'd been planning to give these away the back half of May anyway. We've slowly been getting more sources of emergency lighting in the house an the LED lantern should help. You know, in case something improbable like a massive, intense storm front with tornado-level winds rolls across the lower peninsula a third time in three months or something.
That's all fun, but you're wondering, what did it look like back last summer when we visited Kennywood? Please, enjoy what you see here:
The stairs leading up to the operator's booth on Racer, placed as nearly center as I could get my picture.
Everyone wants to get in on the Racer appreciating. I don't know when the landmark plaque dates to.
And here's the ACE Roller Coaster Landmark plaque, put at a time there were three wooden Möbius-strip racing coasters.
The park's Musik Express, included here because it's quite pleasantly colorful and also there's people who want to see pictures of these rides.
Hair scrunchies tossed on top of a blue concrete-block building you pass on the way to Phantom's Revenge. According to a 2001 thread on CoasterBuzz it houses (housed?) an electrical distribution center for this area of the park. And it's where Lightning Loop, which we rode at La Feria Chapultepec and hope someday to ride at Indiana Beach, was located, with the ride on top of the building, which was also a second park entrance(!). The loop started about where the left end of the building, with the upwards hill to the left of this picture. Its service as a second entrance is why there's the huge Kennywood sign painted on something otherwise just tucked within the Lost Kennywood Municipal District.
Lift hill and one of the mid-ride hills of Phantom's Revenge, seen from the hilariously long queue approaching the station.
Trivia: The Ordnance Survey of Ireland begun in 1824 struggled against the heavy fogs that often would not burn off. Thomas Drummond developed several tools making the survey possible, including improvements to the barometer, photometer, aethroscope, and heliostat; but the big solution to the fogs was the ``pea-light'', a pellet of calcium oxide lime which, burned with an oxyhydrogen flame, produced a light so intense it could be seen as much as a hundred miles away. Source: On The Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks, Simon Garfield. And this is the ``limelight'' of fame.
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
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May 25th, 2025
posted by minoanmiss at 10:40pm on 2025-05-25
minoanmiss at 10:40pm on 2025-05-25 cheerful
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posted by jayblanc at 10:27pm on 2025-05-25
jayblanc at 10:27pm on 2025-05-25 'Taxi' had the best sitcom theme tune, prove me wrong.
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I've been sending money to the DNC for some time now but I returned their latest ask with one sheet of paper that simply says (in 96 point font):
Stand
Up
and
Fight!
Maybe I'll contribute later but right now I'm not seeing a lot of action for my investment.
Stand
Up
and
Fight!
Maybe I'll contribute later but right now I'm not seeing a lot of action for my investment.
angry
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Long-memoried readers may recall a couple weeks ago I broke our atomic-clock-based wall clock, the one that uses time signals from WWV to adjust to the current time. The clock itself was and is fine, but the glass plate protecting the clock face from the elements was shattered into so many pieces. More than you're thinking of. More than that.
My father recommended that if there's a place in town that sells stained glass or art glass that they'd likely be able to cut a thin, eight-inch disc of glass. It happens there's a stained-glass/art-glass store so nearby it's even closer than the nearest convenience store. But I kept failing to actually check with them to see if they could do the work.
Today I finally got to doing something about it. But because of another errand, details of which I am not yet ready to make public, I got to the shop just before it closed. They were turning off the lights and everything, and I went back to the car but a guy waiting behind the shop said she'd gone back in, go talk to her.
So, wary that I had interrupted someone's departure-for-the-long-weekend, I entered and explained my need. Without saying a word she turned the clock upside-down, dropping yet another shard of glass out of it. Then took the clock over to a work table and did some measurements, and then back behind a counter. Finally she spoke: they can do that. She gave an estimate of about $20, extremely reasonable, and while it could have been done while I waited if I had gotten there earlier, now, I would have to wait. When could I come pick it up? Tuesday, unfortunately, I'm squeezed between office and pinball league, so we have to wait for Wednesday for the clock's return. (They're closed Monday for the holiday.) But they're going to cut a fresh piece of glass and install it and that seems to be everything we could hope for. Now I just have to stop instinctively looking for the time on the kitchen wall, the one surface in the house where it will definitely not be.
You know where we definitely were, back in July last year? Kennywood. Here's photographic proof.
Jack Rabbit dispatched and making its way to the first drop, which thanks to the terrain-hugging track, is well before the lift hill.
And there's the station. They've got LEDs providing the light of the stars now but at least preserved the shape and color of the neon.
Jack Rabbit's centennial logo, with the nice long ears for the K.
The new National Historic District sign doesn't have that post-facto correction about when the coaster opened on it. For what it's worth the Roller Coaster Database does think Jack Rabbit's double-dip ``camelback loop'' is a unique feature although ... boy, it sure seems like 'two hills in a row' would be an obvious feature for any terrain coaster.
View from just outside Jack Rabbit of the Racer and, above it, the Steel Curtain scenery.
Racer's new National Historic District sign has been modified to reflect the loss of Montaña Rusa at La Feria Chapultepec. And avoids any allusion to Blackwood's Grand National.
Trivia: In France in 1907 Wilbur Wright --- maybe souring from the bad progress of contract talks --- wrote his sister Katherine that the Notre Dame cathedral ``was rather disappointing as most sights are to me. The nave is seemingly not much wider than a store room and the windows of the clerestory are so awfully high up that the building is very dark'', and after visiting the Louvre, judged ``the Mona Lisa is no better than the prints in black and white''. Source: First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane, T A Heppenheimer.
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
May 24th, 2025
posted by twistedchick at 08:17pm on 2025-05-24
twistedchick at 08:17pm on 2025-05-24
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posted by sorcyress at 05:26pm on 2025-05-24
sorcyress at 05:26pm on 2025-05-24I am at Pinewoods!
It feels nice to write that for this, the first time in 2025. I am at Pinewoods and I am sitting somewhere quiet and alone and I am about to take my covid test.
(Where that place is? Somewhere with enough wifi to make my computer go. What are you, a cop? If you wanna find all the places at camp that have wifi, you are welcome to, but I'm not gonna make it easy for you because I am a Jerk, tm.)
Anyways, it's just me, my covid test, and a chance to write my words and this is a pattern I got into in 2022 and have never really wanted to leave: the quiet joy of enforced time _by myself_ where I can write my words in the middle of the day instead of trying to do so very _very_ late at night.
I am at Pinewoods for the first time of the year, and I am quite happy, even though it's a different set of people than I mostly know and even though the weather is very damp and kinda grey. But the place is still good. I have chased some dragonflies to try and paparazzi them, I have had good mealtime conversations with people I know and like.
And I have done work, because this is a work weekend! And because I am very good at what I do1, I got assigned dishes, as in, "wash all of them". Or nearly all of them, we are skipping the camper dishes which don't want to have to be spread out to dry in the same way everything else does because jegus what a pain.
So I did two shifts today with Brenda, who is going to be the Dishwasher for the summer, and it's her Very First Year doing so! She's been a camper dish-helper before (I remember working with her and being pleased) and so it's gonna be a good move up. I think she has a great attitude for it, and got the hang of a lot of things very quickly.
I interspersed actual work things with various ideas and advice as I thought of them, some of which were like "this is technically potwasher advice". And I ran...golly I can't even begin to approximate how many loads through the (only sorta working) Hobart. The Hobart wasn't sanitizing, so part of her clean-side duties2 was to run everything from clean-side over to the potwashing sinks, all three of which had been turned into sanitation sinks, and to constantly drop stuff into the solution, and then run it all around the kitchen and stack it...virtually _everywhere_.
It was a lot of fun and we got _so much_ done. Maybe six total hours work? And I got to listen to my music in the first half and her music in the second and that all felt great too.
Of course, having done such an impressive job today, there's hardly any dishes left for tomorrow, so I'll probably be back to normal work weekend tasks, opening cabins and the like. Which is honestly fine, I quite like doing so! Lots of dusting, and wiping things down, and SWEEPING, and if you're lucky, getting to do a windows run.
I'm not sure what the plan for the rest of the night is. I am feeling a little people'd out, which means I don't necessarily want to be SUPER SOCIAL for the entire evening. Maybe I will read a book in a corner, maybe I will draw more pictures (yesterday I drew a dog, link is to Bluesky)
Maybe I will go for a nice stroll between now and dinnertime (which is over an hour, jegus, so late!) because if there's anywhere in the world I enjoy just prowling around by myself, it's camp. Bring my camera, look for bugs, visit Kitty Alone, see the new bathrooms, check in on El Nino, there's lots and lots of good things to do at camp!
Another day and a half of this, and I'm very happy for it. I hope wherever you are, you are also happy!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I am using this (very common Kat-phrase) as a double meaning right now. Because first I am literally quite good at washing dishes, and second, I am good at working my way into the hearts of The People In Charge in order to get to do the things *I* most want to do. I mean, it helps that the things I want to do are often things that other people don't, but dang, I get away with a lot of special privileges just by being very open about my wants, and wanting weird stuff.
2: Of course I was working dirty side, I nearly always work dirty side, my absolute single favourite job in all of camp is dirty-side at the window as a camper helper. See footnote 1.
It feels nice to write that for this, the first time in 2025. I am at Pinewoods and I am sitting somewhere quiet and alone and I am about to take my covid test.
(Where that place is? Somewhere with enough wifi to make my computer go. What are you, a cop? If you wanna find all the places at camp that have wifi, you are welcome to, but I'm not gonna make it easy for you because I am a Jerk, tm.)
Anyways, it's just me, my covid test, and a chance to write my words and this is a pattern I got into in 2022 and have never really wanted to leave: the quiet joy of enforced time _by myself_ where I can write my words in the middle of the day instead of trying to do so very _very_ late at night.
I am at Pinewoods for the first time of the year, and I am quite happy, even though it's a different set of people than I mostly know and even though the weather is very damp and kinda grey. But the place is still good. I have chased some dragonflies to try and paparazzi them, I have had good mealtime conversations with people I know and like.
And I have done work, because this is a work weekend! And because I am very good at what I do1, I got assigned dishes, as in, "wash all of them". Or nearly all of them, we are skipping the camper dishes which don't want to have to be spread out to dry in the same way everything else does because jegus what a pain.
So I did two shifts today with Brenda, who is going to be the Dishwasher for the summer, and it's her Very First Year doing so! She's been a camper dish-helper before (I remember working with her and being pleased) and so it's gonna be a good move up. I think she has a great attitude for it, and got the hang of a lot of things very quickly.
I interspersed actual work things with various ideas and advice as I thought of them, some of which were like "this is technically potwasher advice". And I ran...golly I can't even begin to approximate how many loads through the (only sorta working) Hobart. The Hobart wasn't sanitizing, so part of her clean-side duties2 was to run everything from clean-side over to the potwashing sinks, all three of which had been turned into sanitation sinks, and to constantly drop stuff into the solution, and then run it all around the kitchen and stack it...virtually _everywhere_.
It was a lot of fun and we got _so much_ done. Maybe six total hours work? And I got to listen to my music in the first half and her music in the second and that all felt great too.
Of course, having done such an impressive job today, there's hardly any dishes left for tomorrow, so I'll probably be back to normal work weekend tasks, opening cabins and the like. Which is honestly fine, I quite like doing so! Lots of dusting, and wiping things down, and SWEEPING, and if you're lucky, getting to do a windows run.
I'm not sure what the plan for the rest of the night is. I am feeling a little people'd out, which means I don't necessarily want to be SUPER SOCIAL for the entire evening. Maybe I will read a book in a corner, maybe I will draw more pictures (yesterday I drew a dog, link is to Bluesky)
Maybe I will go for a nice stroll between now and dinnertime (which is over an hour, jegus, so late!) because if there's anywhere in the world I enjoy just prowling around by myself, it's camp. Bring my camera, look for bugs, visit Kitty Alone, see the new bathrooms, check in on El Nino, there's lots and lots of good things to do at camp!
Another day and a half of this, and I'm very happy for it. I hope wherever you are, you are also happy!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I am using this (very common Kat-phrase) as a double meaning right now. Because first I am literally quite good at washing dishes, and second, I am good at working my way into the hearts of The People In Charge in order to get to do the things *I* most want to do. I mean, it helps that the things I want to do are often things that other people don't, but dang, I get away with a lot of special privileges just by being very open about my wants, and wanting weird stuff.
2: Of course I was working dirty side, I nearly always work dirty side, my absolute single favourite job in all of camp is dirty-side at the window as a camper helper. See footnote 1.
posted by twistedchick at 01:47am on 2025-05-24
twistedchick at 01:47am on 2025-05-24I discovered a few years ago that when I put substances on my skin I can taste them within 30 seconds, with a few exceptions. That led to not wearing foundation, or most makeup (various flavors of odd), sunscreen (nasty burning plastic flavor, and no, I can't explain why burning), and lipstick (fermented plastic flavor). I can wear eyeliner and some concealers, and that's about it. I can use Burt's Bees plain lipbalm, which has mint oil.
Sunscreen is the problem, though. Since I can't use the chemical stuff, I have been trying to find a natural oil that has a decent SPF. Olive oil is about SPF 4-8, which is something but not enough. I heard that avocado oil is higher than SPF 15, so I swiped some from the kitchen and tried it. Unfortunately, it does not behave like olive oil, which eventually sinks in a little and dulls. The avocado stays shiny and oily looking, enough that someone asked me how hot it was outdoors since she thought it was sweat. Um. not good.
Any thoughts on this? I've tried the light powder sunscreen and it's not enough screen for me.
Sunscreen is the problem, though. Since I can't use the chemical stuff, I have been trying to find a natural oil that has a decent SPF. Olive oil is about SPF 4-8, which is something but not enough. I heard that avocado oil is higher than SPF 15, so I swiped some from the kitchen and tried it. Unfortunately, it does not behave like olive oil, which eventually sinks in a little and dulls. The avocado stays shiny and oily looking, enough that someone asked me how hot it was outdoors since she thought it was sweat. Um. not good.
Any thoughts on this? I've tried the light powder sunscreen and it's not enough screen for me.
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posted by austin_dern at 12:10am on 2025-05-24 under kennywood
austin_dern at 12:10am on 2025-05-24 under kennywood So all's fine around here. Little chilly; this is looking to be the coldest Memorial Day weekend in a long while. But that does mean I don't have anything worthy of reporting today. Sorry, dear bunnyhugger. Please instead enjoy Kennywood photos.
Boat going up the Pittsburg Plunge to produce a whole lot of water splashing around!
A gift shop and couple of food places in the Lost Kennywood area. We knew the area generally was themed to the old Luna Park, Pittsburgh, this particular set of buildings was themed to ... some Massachusetts park, I believe it was.
The fountain at the head of the Lost Kennywood reflecting pool. Also people eating from the Potato Patch's auxiliary outlet.
There was a booth selling miscellaneous weird old stuff that looked like someone was cleaning out a surplus room. We didn't get anything but there were things we had to photograph, like this Kennywood picture from the 70s(?) listing a Smithsonian list of top coasters. Note that the Great American Scream Machine there is the one in Atlanta, not the Great Adventure one. The Coaster at Dorney Park is now known as Thunderhawk and we've been on that. I think #5 was what we knew as Montana Rusa at La Feria Chapultepec but can't swear to it.
A leftover or maybe never-used T-shirt design with lots of Kenny Kangaroo.
And here's a leftover or maybe never-used T-shirt with a more beak-snouted Kenny Kangaroo than usual, and a lot of plush.
This must be an un-used t-shirt design for Exterminator, from before they decided to use a crazed rat theme. Or when they thought maybe they could make a licensing deal that didn't pan out.
Steel Phantom was the original incarnation of Phantom's Revenge. I'm not sure this was the Steel PHantom's original design. Looks a little Doctor Doom-y to me.
At some point during the day I broke away from bunnyhugger to ride Aero 360, the elongated rigid-arm swing ride. Wasn't much of a wait!
Here's Steel Curtain, which didn't run that year. It hasn't run since a week or two after our KennyCon 2023 visit.
In the evening light this color and shade really caught my eye.
The queue for JackRabbit, which has been spruced up with some nice paint and some very pixellated renditions of old park photos. Note the old Jack-Rabbit station overhang on the right there.
Trivia: Though he conquered Venice, without the city putting up any defense, Napoleon never set foot in it. Source: The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed the World, Amir D Aczel.
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
May 23rd, 2025
I just had a telemedicine appointment with the gastroenterologist. Her office called at about 9:30 this morning, to ask if I was available for a 10:30 appointment, and I said yes.
The diagnosis is collagenous colitis, which I already knew from MyChart. The good news is that it's both benign and curable. The treatment will be nine weeks of budosenide pills, starting at three/day for the first six weeks, then two/day for the next three weeks, and a final three weeks of one/day. Those are to be taken with food, and in the morning because it's related to steroids and can interfere with sleep. [I mis-remembered, it's a total of 12 weeks of these pills.]
The most common risk factors for this kind of colitis are being a woman over sixty, and regular use of NSAIDs. Therefore, Dr. Morgan wants me to talk to Carmen about whether there's a plausible alternative to me taking naproxen almost every day, but she did say there may not be, since tylenol doesn't work the same way and may not be effective for the hip and knee pain I'm using it for.
I asked about continuing the Imodium and the fiber capsules, and Dr. Morgan said I could stop using them when the budosenide starts to be effective for the diarrhea, which might be within a week. I told her that the combination of Imodium and fiber is working well enough that I may not notice a difference, so the tentative plan is to wait at least a week, then pick a day or two when I won't need to go out, and try stopping the Imodium. (Adrian pointed out that I'm currently taking two pills twice a day, so I could try halving the dose and see how I feel. That sounds plausible, but I'm going to ask Dr Morgan if she thinks that's worth doing.
Also, a significant number of people with collagenous colitis also have celiac, so she wants to test me for that. I asked, and it's a straightforward blood draw, which I can do at my convenience: I don't need to wait until after getting blood drawn to start on the new medication.
She is sending the prescription to CVS, and told me to call her office if there's any problem with the insurance company.
ETA: I looked at the doctor's visit notes on MyChart, which reminded me that I should be checking my blood pressure about once a week while taking the budosenide.
The diagnosis is collagenous colitis, which I already knew from MyChart. The good news is that it's both benign and curable. The treatment will be nine weeks of budosenide pills, starting at three/day for the first six weeks, then two/day for the next three weeks, and a final three weeks of one/day. Those are to be taken with food, and in the morning because it's related to steroids and can interfere with sleep. [I mis-remembered, it's a total of 12 weeks of these pills.]
The most common risk factors for this kind of colitis are being a woman over sixty, and regular use of NSAIDs. Therefore, Dr. Morgan wants me to talk to Carmen about whether there's a plausible alternative to me taking naproxen almost every day, but she did say there may not be, since tylenol doesn't work the same way and may not be effective for the hip and knee pain I'm using it for.
I asked about continuing the Imodium and the fiber capsules, and Dr. Morgan said I could stop using them when the budosenide starts to be effective for the diarrhea, which might be within a week. I told her that the combination of Imodium and fiber is working well enough that I may not notice a difference, so the tentative plan is to wait at least a week, then pick a day or two when I won't need to go out, and try stopping the Imodium. (Adrian pointed out that I'm currently taking two pills twice a day, so I could try halving the dose and see how I feel. That sounds plausible, but I'm going to ask Dr Morgan if she thinks that's worth doing.
Also, a significant number of people with collagenous colitis also have celiac, so she wants to test me for that. I asked, and it's a straightforward blood draw, which I can do at my convenience: I don't need to wait until after getting blood drawn to start on the new medication.
She is sending the prescription to CVS, and told me to call her office if there's any problem with the insurance company.
ETA: I looked at the doctor's visit notes on MyChart, which reminded me that I should be checking my blood pressure about once a week while taking the budosenide.
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You all deserve a break from *gestures vaguely at the rest of the internet* so have a completely wholesome podcast for once. "LARP Camp" on Normal Gossip is about two awkward gay counsellors, a neurodivergent evil genius of a child, and a ghost or two.
It's been a challenging transition from Kelsey McKinney to new host Rachelle Hampton, but Rachelle has finally hit her stride with this episode (and the one after it)—it's very funny and her storytelling here does the thing where you're like, "and then what happened?" It helps that the subject matter is up my alley. Anyway, it is incredibly cute so take a break from doomscrolling and give it a listen.
It's been a challenging transition from Kelsey McKinney to new host Rachelle Hampton, but Rachelle has finally hit her stride with this episode (and the one after it)—it's very funny and her storytelling here does the thing where you're like, "and then what happened?" It helps that the subject matter is up my alley. Anyway, it is incredibly cute so take a break from doomscrolling and give it a listen.
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My humor blog this week started with the silly, turned incomprehensible to people who don't know that I read something about Heroic Comics for a trivia item last week, went back to being So Random, and then took a turn into Peanuts news. So here's what you've been missing:
- MiSTed: The 72 Hours Saga, Part 40
- Now the Weather Is Trying to Get Us in Trouble With the Neighbors
- Statistics Saturday: Stories of Kids Saved From Drowning In _Heroic Comics_ of 1951
- Also You'd Think They Already Do Plenty of Sit-Ups
- Or That People Would Have Generally More Hair
- What's Going On In Prince Valiant? Does Prince Valiant have a sister? February - May 2025
- It Seems Another Musical Is Upon Us, Charlie Brown
- MiSTed: The 72 Hours Saga, Part 41
And now for more Kennywood, as of last July:
For this year they rethemed the Grand Prix bumper-car ride to ... the Potato Patch. I don't know why the cars are now fry baskets but there we go.
The far side of the wall is full of Kennywood materials, including a Lincoln Highway sign (the Lincoln Highway goes along a part of a British military trail used in the French and Indian War) and a jackrabbit crossing sign.
Kennywood and sister park arrows. The weight limit refers to the date of Kennywood's opening.
The Turtle gets a shout-out here, as does Potato Patch mascot Potato Man. I'm not sure the significance of the blobby traffic signal. Probably references some Kennywood thing I'm not hep to, like the Thomas the Tank Engine section (since rethemed).
Slightly better view of the fry-basket cars and somehow a more in-focus picture of the back wall.
And now the Kangaroo, last of the flying-coaster flat rides, with the car behind number five there showing why it's a flying-coaster.
It's not a big hop but it is a heck of one and you don't have other rides like it.
Picture of the car after landing back on the track.
Here's the new Kangaroo facade seen from behind.
Now over to The Whip, a ride nearly(?) a century old now, although not in this location.
The Whip is on the left, and that's the Pittsburg [sic] Plunge shoot-the-chutes to the right and above. And hey, what's the line for Exterminator like? If it's a reasonable wait we might just go in and enjoy ---
Oh, it's a 76-minute wait for the spinning wild mouse coaster. Never mind.
Trivia: 86 percent of French people [ as of about 2005 ] have never flown in an airplane. Source: The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, Graham Robb. The book was published in 2007 so the data is likely accurate to two-to-four years before that.
Currently Reading: The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, Evan Friss.
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May 22nd, 2025
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