sorcyress: Drawing of me as a pirate, standing in front of the Boston Citgo sign (Default)
Katarina Whimsy ([personal profile] sorcyress) wrote2025-08-03 05:26 am

I'm in love with a goddess <3

The last time I saw SJ Tucker perform live, so many things about my life were different.

Last time I saw her live was in 20176, at New York Faerie Fest (an event I'd really love to get back to someday, and I'm kinda bummed the timing just never works out, but end of the school year is _hard_ with burnout). I hadn't realized it was that far back --I did some checking of dates and the like, because sometimes it is very nice to have your entire history stored online1 in an easy-to-access format.

So wow, I can add to the "things that were different last time I saw my favourite artist perform live" that I was technically still employed by the fucking private school. It wasn't just "before the weekend that Everything Changed", it was a whole year earlier than that.

The last time I saw s00j perform live, I was still dating her ex2. :P

And I wasn't dating 60% of my current partners. I was still dating Sparr. I was living not in nBs or DanzaHausa but in ARSES. I did not yet have a therapist, which means Jenn is gonna get a hell of an infodump next week because have I mentioned s00j to her before? not sure!

But anyways, the me who was seeing her tonight was not the same as the me who saw her last, and yet and yet and yet. I didn't cry through the entire show, which is good (there wasn't a space for me to dance, so I couldn't manifest proper my own power to counter hers). I did cry uncontrollably through Little Bird and Wonders, which is good.

She was double-teaming with Ginger Doss, who I'd not heard before, and who has a beautiful voice, the kind that makes fellow enbies perk up and think positive thoughts about what that can mean for them. (The last time I saw s00j perform live, I didn't sing and that's such a fascinating and important shift in my own life).

And the thing that is the same between me then and me now is that she is still my favourite artist. Pretty sure if you'd asked me at any point in these nine years "hey Sor, who's your favourite musical artist" her name would cross my lips. That hasn't stopped or changed. She is still passionately important to me, and her music is still a huge part of who I am.

So it was really fucking good to see her, but honest-to-god, nothing made it as clear how much I have grown-the-fuck-up in the last decade as doing so. Because yeah, I still cried, but after I could hug her and exchange banter and be friendly (she said "hi Kat!" and even if she just got a reminder of my name from the very short guest list, that kicks ass). I'm not ever gonna match a goddess on her own turf, but I've reached a point where I no longer have to be weird about visiting her there.

It's nice to not spend the entire concert sobbing, yanno?

There's another concert tomorrow night (they said, at an hour small enough that tomorrow starts to feel meaningless) and I think it will be nice to go to that too. And it's a good reminder that there've been concerts and livestreams in between and I've been not as good about attending those as I once was, and I should really get back into it.

The me is different, and the her is different (hell, last time I saw her she had not yet made a whole-ass human) but sometimes the mood stays. The good parts stay.

(Persist, resist, and bloom <3)

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Okay, not my *entire* history, but I did see the post I made where I was first squeeing about kissing Austin, and boy, I never have really been subtle about that sort of thing, have I?

2: A thing I'm not sure I've ever connected publicly in this journal, but yeah, if you've been a long time follower and remembered some particular cryptics, that's what it was? Iunno.


SetList:
Roses in the Rocks
Little Bird
[two Ginger songs - She Wolf and Hippie Pocket]
Wonders
Believe in Lullabies
[two Ginger songs - Talisman, Gaia Lives]
La Sirene
Chalk on the Sidewalk
[Ginger/s00j collab - Ma Belle]
Wild Times
[Ginger song - Thankful]

(I originally wrote "as best as I can remember" but hey, when you are crammed up in the very front row, and you notice someone holding a notebook that looks like a setlist and then they foolishly put it down on the ground, you're gonna take a picture. The only memory part was remembering the bits s00j swapped out and what for, but I've got that)
sallymn: (words 6)
Sally M ([personal profile] sallymn) wrote in [community profile] 1word1day2025-08-03 03:17 pm

Sunday Word: Spindrift

spindrift [spin-drift]

noun:
1 spray blown up from the surface of the sea
2 fine wind-borne snow or sand


(click to enlarge)

Examples:

While the rest of the group heads out for a swim, I excuse myself, hop off the walkway to explore the unpaved crevices, and discover a little secluded cove frothed in spindrift. (James Nestor, Life on the Rocks, Scientific American, February 2018)

A foot of new snow had fallen the night before, and spindrift whipped off La Meije, a sea of icy blue glaciers pocked by crevasses and cliffs unfurling down its flanks. (Kelley Mcmillan Manley, On These French Ski Slopes, You're on Your Own, The New York Times, November 2016)

Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge of driftwood along the beach, wanting! (Rumi, 'Where Everything is Music')

But oh! for the South-east weather -
    The sweep of the three-days' gale -
When, far through the flax and heather,
   The spindrift drives like hail. (Henry Lawson, 'The Ports Of The Open Sea')


Origin:

'steady spray of salt water blown along the surf in heavy winds,' c. 1600, according to OED a Scottish formation from verb spene, alteration of spoon 'to sail before the wind' (1570s, a word of uncertain origin) + drift. 'Common in English writers from c 1880, probably at first under the influence of W[illiam] Black's novels' [OED], who did use it in 1878. Before that in mid-19c it was most frequent in English as a name of sailing ships, yachts, and race-horses. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Spindrift first set sail in the mid-18th century under Scottish command. During its first voyage, it was known by the Scottish moniker speendrift. Speen meant 'to drive before a strong wind,' so a 'speendrift' was a drift of spray during such action. In 1823, English speakers recruited the word, but signed it up as spindrift. At that time, its sole duty was to describe the driving sprays at sea. However, English speakers soon realized that spindrift had potential to serve on land as well, and the word was sent ashore to describe driving snow and sand. Today, spindrift still serves us commendably at sea and on land. (Merriam-Webster)

torachan: karkat from homestuck looking bored (karkat bored)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-02 08:34 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. It was so nice to have a day to rest! I did reply to more work messages than I usually do on my days off as there was stuff pertaining to organizing help for the new store, but mostly it was a work-free day and it was just nice not to have to do a lot of driving or be on my feet all day running about doing this and that.

2. We did go to the farmers market this morning, and the stall I usually get watermelon lemonade from was out, so we tried the pomegranate blood orange lemonade and that was really good, too. It was sunny and muggy so we drank the whole thing while we were there, and then Carla went back over to the stall to get another one to take home and the guy had found some more bottles of the watermelon, so she ended up getting a couple of those, too.

3. Ollie was in the other room mewing at me and when I asked him what was up, he came in here with the Grogu toy in his mouth. What a mighty hunter!

torachan: (Default)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-02 07:12 pm
Entry tags:

Weekly Reading

I didn't do a reading post last week due to being swamped with work, so this is two weeks' worth of reading.

Currently Reading
The God of the Woods
71%. In the mid '70s, a teenage girl goes missing at camp, in the same woods where her brother went missing years before and was never found. This is told through multiple POVs, of the people investigating, the camp counselor, a friend, the mother. It's really good so far and a very quick read, despite being almost 500 pages. I'll probably finish it tonight.

A Death at the Dionysus Club
5%. Sequel to Death by Silver. Also listening to this as an audiobook and very disappointed that the narrator is different and not nearly as good as the first book's. If I'd previewed this before buying it, I might have decided to go with the ebook instead, but I just assumed that same series = same narrator!

Drop Dead Sisters
9%. The MC goes camping with her semi-estranged family, only to have to join forces with her sisters when they find a dead body. I'm liking this so far, though I've only just started.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
11%.

Recently Finished
Sister Outsider
This was good. Not really much to say about it.

Kill Her Twice
Just all right.

Nikhil Out Loud
This was so cute!

Just Happy to Be Here
Also just all right.

Trust Me When I Lie
By the author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. The creator of a true crime documentary finds himself tangled up in the case when his documentary gets the suspect a retrial and then his lawyer turns up dead in exactly the same way as the previous victim. I liked this a lot, though not quite as much as his other series.

Malice
A Detective Kaga novel. This is the fourth in the original publication order, but first in the English translated series. I thought maybe it was done first because the chronological order is different from publication order, but that doesn't seem to be the case so idk why they are going out of order. I read this in English and the translation didn't blow me away but was generally well done and not overly stilted. It was a very quick read and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

Death by Silver
First in a historical murder mystery series with a sort of Sherlock Holmes vibe. M/M romance, but the mystery is the primary plot. Magic is a thing, and I liked the worldbuilding for it. However! I did this one as an audiobook and I loved the narrator's voice but he often sounded like he had a lozenge in his mouth while reading, which was very distracting. It was most pronounced in the first chapter and I almost decided to switch to reading instead of listening, it was so bad. But I was in the middle of a long drive, and it got better as it went on (though never fully went away), so I stuck with it. I much prefer this narrator to the one for the second book, who is very overwrought and distracting, though at least not constantly making wet mouth noises on a lozenge.

The Night Librarian
Cute middle grade graphic novel about kids who take their dad's rare edition of Dracula to the library to find out how much it's worth, only to have the characters come alive and escape the book, which is when they find out that the library has a special department for that, and periodically lets characters out of old books to give them a break. The kids and characters try to track down the book and the person behind the rogue escape.

Upstaged
Cute middle grade graphic novel about a nonbinary teen at an arts camp, trying to navigate putting on a play and confessing their feelings to their best friend.

Shiba Tsuki Bukken vol. 1
Cute manga about a girl who rents an apartment haunted by a ghost shiba. In fact all the rooms in the building are haunted by shiba ghosts, because before being turned into apartments, it was an abusive puppy mill. So now the MC and the other residents have to give the ghost shibas the love and affection they didn't get in life. Sad background when you think about it, but it's really cute. I'll probably read more.

Dokudami no Hana Saku Koro vol. 1
Fifth-grader Shimizu has never paid much mind to his classmate Shigaraki, who is awkward and often has meltdowns, but little by little he becomes obsessed with Shigaraki's art, and decides to befriend him. Shigaraki definitely reads as autistic, though no one uses that word, but even though it's his art that Shimizu is drawn to, it's not like he's some artistic savant or anything, just a creative kid. I really like this so far.

Shadow House vol. 20
summersgate: (Default)
summersgate ([personal profile] summersgate) wrote2025-08-02 07:39 pm

saturday

DSC_0271.jpg
I'm tired of starting projects and not finishing them (cleaning up the basement to make a ceramic work area is one of those projects) so I decided to get started on a project that I would have better luck finishing. Originally I was going to make ceramic elements to go in the middle of these wooden frames and then mosaic around them, add cup hooks to the bottom front, something to hang it from on the back and make key racks out of them. Xmas presents. But I got a different idea (better, because it doesn't entail me cleaning the basement first) and ordered a bunch of 3" and 4" round mirrors that I'm going to put in the centers and mosaic around the mirrors instead. Maybe I'll do a bit fancier mosaic than I usually do. I have so many pieces of nice stained glass out in the goat shed. Many that I've never even cut into yet. I could make some fancy shapes with that. This pic is the frames just now after I painted primer inside where the mosaic will eventually go.

IMG_20250802_152344500.jpg
We went to the Clarion Summer Fest today. Craft venders, artists, kettle corn, glass blowing. Chloe was set up to do live street painting. This was the painting she did. I thought it was smart that she had painted the butterflies previously so she could add them after she painted the sky and the girl. She wouldn't have had time to paint all that in the 3 hours that she was allotted.

Last evening I walked down back with Dave and took pictures with the lensbaby macro lens. Some slightly distorted close ups of flowers and Rainy:ExpandRead more... )
flemmings: (Default)
flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2025-08-02 08:07 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

Finally attacked the back yard jungle.  Mulberries and trees of heaven (the ultimate garbage tree) have been sprouting everywhere. Can't get the roots out or even saw through the stems so am thinking of dumping bleach on them instead. Will bag things up eventually but we have another air quality alert on the go, while temps are going back to the humid high 20s/ 70s tomorrow. Thus will doubtless sit on sofa with mysteries until things improve.

Have gone back to my heavy-duty anti-inflams for the knee. Acupuncture and massage work on it, cupping does not. Am also fighting a desire to buy alcohol, either from the store or through delivery. I do not need alcohol even if I really want it.

Slept with the window fan last night and was oddly cold. Probably shouldn't try it tonight, says my sore throat and cough. 
drippedonpaper: (Default)
drippedonpaper ([personal profile] drippedonpaper) wrote2025-08-02 07:12 pm

LJ Idol Week 6: Reimagine another contestant's entry

The entry I am reimagining is here:
https://autumn-wind.dreamwidth.org/5429.html

The grand reception hall was heaving, everyone sipping the complimentary glasses of champagne, munching on tasty nibbles and brimming with anticipation for the night's entertainment, the annual opera event.

Everyone in the reception hall was excited, filled with anticipation. Backstage, there was a whole different mood of uneasiness as singers and techs alike whispered nervously. Winifred knew that the only story that mattered that night was the story of Carmen and Don Jose. As stage manager, Winifred's job was to make sure that the brilliance of the performance was the only thing the audience noticed tonight.

People had travelled from far and wide for this special event at the Balor Arts Centre in Donegal town for the Welsh National Opera's production of Carmen! People had paid for train tickets, for gas, for hotel rooms, not to mention for opera tickets. And it was Winifred's job to make sure that they felt they got the show they had paid for. Not the show that was currently waging back stage.

"Ten minutes. Ten minutes to curtain."

After the disastrous dress rehearsal, Winifred knocked on Natalia's door with trepidation. Usually she just knocked, announced "Ten minutes," and walked on, but she felt she needed to see if Natalia was going to be a professional tonight.

Last night during the dress rehearsal, the Natalia hadn't exactly followed the script.

In the last scene, Natalia as Carmen was supposed to say:
"This ring that you
once gave to me -
here, take it!"

And then she was supposed to throw it.

All was well, she said, "This ring that you once gave to me --- here, take it [but she went on] and shove it on the big toe of that cow you married. I can't believe I once loved you, you Oaf!!!"

Then, rather than dying dramatically, she ran off the stage screaming, "You LiAAAAAAHHHHH R!" Like a true professional, she trilled the word dramatically, 'til the last ahhh hit a G above the C above middle C)

"And uh, Cut?" Powell, the director, who until then had been coasting, paying only half-hearted hung over attention (or lack there of), had rushed on to stage.

"And uh, we all know the ending. That's a wrap. Call time, 5pm. Local time. And I'll figure out what Natalia is tamping No worries!" Somehow, Natalia's dramatics had invigorated Powell. He then rushed off the stage, exiting on the same side where Natalia had run off.

Winifred had panicked last night, but handling disasters, both major and minor, was what stage managing was all about. She left Natalia to Powell and spent the rest of her evening calming down every other singer, tech worker, orchestra member, and volunteer. It wasn't as hard as she expected either. Just a lot of listening and reassuring. Through the years, she'd learned that when calming others, the same phrases could be used over and over. The main thing to remember was to present herself as calm, collected, and unworried. Her projected mood was what really made the difference when a cast was worried or upset.

Finally, as the last tech was turning the lights off. Winifred walked through the stage, now lit by the ghost light, to find Powell.

She searched every corner, but found no sign of him, Luigi, or Natalia. She decided to shoot him a text and head to her apartment. Tomorrow was the performance, so she'd need to be back at the theatre bright and early.

~~~~~~~~~

The weather was bright and sunny when she awoke the next morning. Winifred hadn't heard much from Powell except a short text "It's handled" the night before. She trusted him, but wondered how he'd fixed such a big rift between stars with such big egos. The bigger an opera singers stardom, it usually seemed the bigger the black hole of their egos. In Winifred's experience, great talent rarely seemed to arrive cloaked in deep emotional intelligence. So often, it didn't seem it was the emotionally adjusted or well-rounded people who poured their souls into the finicky world of art.

All these thoughts were going through Winifred's mind as she walked into Natalia's dressing room, "Natalia are you..."

"It's handled, like I said." Powell was fastening a dressing gown around his (oh, gosh Winifred hoped somewhat clothed) waist.

"Bye, my love," Natalia giggled and waved coyly, as Powell strode deliberately for the dressing room door.

"Uh, good?" Winifred said. "I just, was checking to make sure you are happy, Natalia."

"Oh yes, so happy!" Again, that strangely girlish giggle. It might have been cute coming from a 12 year old, but seemed almost demonic from the overly rouged nearly 40 year old Natalia.

"Now, my hair looks fine, yes? I'll be out in just a minute. You run along, Winifred."

"Uh...sure?" Winifred left. The world of opera had a way of feeling like "The Twilight Zone."

She exited Natalia's dressing room and headed down the hallway. Suddenly someone grabbed her arm. She gasped as Powell clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Not a word, OK, Winifred? The show must go on and, let's just say, I did my part."

She shook her head. Powell let her go.

"It's none of my business who anyone loves, Powell. You know that!"

"Love. OMG, that has nothing to do with it. Seriously, Winifred, why would you insult me like that? The show must go on, that's all. And sometimes a diva can't seem to act unless someone (and don't you laugh) polishes her very fading ego. That's why we directors are paid the big bucks! But believe me, they aren't big enough!"

Powell stomped off, shaking his head.

Winifred checked her phone. Five minutes to curtain. Time for another round of door knocking!

Though Luigi's performance was stellar, as usual, the critics and fans raved about Natalia's "passionate performance" that night. When Winifred read the reviews, she wondered if Powell would continue directing operas in the future.

Powell's name might be larger than Winifred's in the program, but she'd never again wish for more acclaim. She unfortunately knew more than she wanted to ever learn about how a director could get a star to give, as the critics said, "the performance of a lifetime."

Natalia wondered yet again if maybe she should have just skipped college and stayed a daycare worker. Daycare involved roughly the same number of tantrums, but she hadn't managed a show yet that couldn't have benefited from a frequently used time out chair.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Notes:
In Welsh, Tamping is a word used to describe your rage at something frustrating.

Also, the first line in the first and third paragraphs are from Autumn_wind's story, to tie them together.
shadowkat: (Default)
shadowkat ([personal profile] shadowkat) wrote2025-08-02 05:02 pm
Entry tags:

Walking about on a mild and lovely summer's day

Well, the mammogram wasn't painful at all, uncomfortable yes - I had to contort my body, also a lot faster than the last one. (I can't decide if opting not to do the enhanced digital imaging helped in that regard or not? Or maybe it was the technician? I liked this technician better than the one I had for the last three times I did it.) It took maybe fifteen minutes. While the last one took a thirty minutes.

Afterwards I tried to go to Duman but alas it wasn't open yet. (I also couldn't remember where it was. I knew it was on Court, but thought it was closer to the grocery store - in reality it was five blocks north of the Union Grocery Store. I did not go to that grocery store, instead I walked a good ten blocks to the Health Food Store across from Carroll Park, and bought a bunch of gluten free items that I've not found elsewhere - ExpandRead more... )

It's a good thing I didn't try to meet Wales for brunch - since I got out of there by 9:25, and was done with my errands by 10:30, and home by 11.

I decided, after a quick snack, to take a walk, sat for a bit in a garden:
Expandgarden )

And then went to Hamilton's for lunch. Since it was a lovely day, in the upper-70s, with a nice breeze, I chose to sit outside under the blue domed canopy on the side street, listening to an audiobook via my ipods (which I'd gotten dirt cheap for $24 on Amazon some time ago). Expandfood good, service was lacking )



After that, I walked off the meal by wandering towards Greenwood Cemetery - I wanted a small water bottle but the eateries only served teas and coffee.
I did however find Uncle Frankie's Pizza, which serves gluten free crust. It's brick over pizza with gluten free crust - and you can get it to go. Definitely going back there. I may drag Wales there at some point.

I almost wished I'd gone there today, but I wanted a burger, fries, and an iced tea, and to sit outside in the shade, listening to an audio book, while I watched people.

Uncle Frankie's as you can see below (well not everyone, but those who can) doesn't quite provide that - all they provide is an uncomfortable picnic table.



Then off I went to GreenWood Cemetery - but didn't take that long a walk, because I ended up getting a blister on my right ankle, from wearing sneakers with no socks. I'd done it before. Hadn't gotten any blisters. Even wore them to work and back, no blisters. I have no idea why I got blisters on that foot today. It hurt for a bit, then didn't. So I managed to make it home. Then it hurt again. I have a band-aid on it now and am nursing it.
ExpandGreenwood Cemetery )

Did however manage to take some photos of flowers on the way to the cemetery, which I'll leave you with while I continue to nurse my blister.
All in all, I clocked over 12,000 steps today and approximately 5.5 miles. ExpandRead more... )

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ambien_noisewall ([personal profile] ambien_noisewall) wrote in [community profile] common_nature2025-08-02 04:11 pm

(no subject)

there's a pond with lots of frogs at my job and on my breaks I walk the perimeter and every couple steps I hear a croak and a sploosh and see one swim away. not this guy though, he wasn't scared of me at all :)


yourlibrarian: (MERL-ArthurLake-kathyh)
yourlibrarian ([personal profile] yourlibrarian) wrote in [community profile] common_nature2025-08-02 01:45 pm
Entry tags:

Agate Beach



Our next travel stop was the Newport area and our hotel at Agate Beach. There was some fog the day we arrived but the next day dawned completely clear, giving us great views of the nearby lighthouse.

ExpandRead more... )
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badly_knitted ([personal profile] badly_knitted) wrote in [community profile] get_knitted2025-08-02 07:38 pm

Check-In Post - Aug 2nd 2025


Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: What do you like to listen to / watch while crafting?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



the cosmolinguist ([personal profile] cosmolinguist) wrote2025-08-02 06:25 pm
Entry tags:

Making trans boring

Trans Pride Manchester today.

I took photos of signs saying:

  • "Pride was a riot started by us" (held by a dark-skinned person
  • "New chair, new arse, same shit!" (with both "EHRC" and "TERF" on it and crossed out)
  • "I bite TERFs" (on a blåhaj)
  • "Corgis for trans rights" (accompanied by two adorable corgis)
  • "Making trans boring since 1983" (held by a trans man)

I didn't manage to get photos of the signs that said:

  • "You made toilets weird, not us"
  • "Tough year, tougher community"
  • "I went to Athens and all I got was this stupid top surgery"

I particularly love the concept of making trans boring -- it can be complicated because trans men/mascs are invisibilized as the flipside of trans women/fems hypervisibility and I don't think it's inherently better to pass as cis or fit in, but also there's a screenshot of a tumblr post that goes around every so often with a photo of a few standard white guys in t-shirts and jeans, completely unremarkable hair and stuff, walking with an "FTM" banner (it might have more words on it too, presumably whatever group they actually were, but this is what I remember of it), and some commentary about how great it is that they just look like Some Guys.

D's sign, tailored to be dual-purpose since we planned to do the trans march and then go counter-protest a UKIP demo in town, ended up giving us cause to illustrate an entirely different way to make trans boring. By the time we got to Piccadilly Gardens, the fash had marched off. So we went for a drink with a friend. But on our way back through there on our way to the bus home, D spotted that a couple of fash had returned. His placard suddenly had a few white guys swarming around us, phones already held up as if videoing, asking him to be "interviewed" for their "citizen journalism."

Their attempts to shock him with language about "men cutting their dicks off" didn't work even after repeated applications, and when asked loaded questions he blandly responded "Well, I don't think that's happening" and then said sensible stuff like "I think kids should learn about all the kinds of humans that there are." His standing-for-political-office skills might be dormant these days but they were undiminished! Another guy -- absolutely stereotypical British racist, down to the bad teeth -- accosted me with "if trans people end up coming out anyway, kids don't need to hear about it in school," an extremely straightforward stance for me to bat away like a fly.

Very quickly they realized that they weren't going to catch D saying anything damning or even interesting for their YouTube channels or whatever, and lost interest, and we strolled away.

This, too, is an advantage of making trans boring.

mallorys_camera: (Default)
Every Day Above Ground ([personal profile] mallorys_camera) wrote2025-08-02 12:54 pm
Entry tags:

Ithaca

Dozed off last night.

And then I was awakened by cramps in my legs. Weirdly specific cramps!

Of course, many old people get leg cramps. They're related to vascular decline and muscle deterioration. I've had those types of cramps. These weren't that. These were in my shins.

Quickly, I reviewed my mental Rolodex of differential diagnoses:

Intermittent claudification: Probably not. I'd been sleeping, not exercising.

Vascular insufficiency: Possibility. I do have varicose veins.

Parkinson's disease: I've been wondering about that one for more than a year now. I do have an intermittent tremor in my hands, particularly pronounced when I'm nervous or insufficiently rested. My mother had it, too, so I always assumed it was some idiopathic condition related to the high anxiety of intergenerational trauma. But hand tremors are a Parkinson's symptom, as are leg cramps.

Electrolyte insufficiency: Another possibility. I probably don't get enough potassium & magnesium in my diet.

Shin splints: This seemed like the most likely explanation. I went for a longish tromp yesterday, and I am out of the habit of longish tromps since to justify my gym membership, I've been going to the gym several times a week. Going to the gym has cut down on my tromping habit.

My feet are pretty flat, and my tromping shoes, old. Bad arch support!

But if this was shin splints, it certainly didn't feel like what I imagined shin splints would feel like. I imagined shin splints would be a steady aching pain. This was more like an arpeggio of pain; pain ripples that would start from nothing, build, peak, and then diminish—only to start up again.

Anyway, I spent an uncomfortable night. Didn't fall asleep till after 2am.

###

Brian was my only real friend in this area. We'd hang out a couple of times a week, and our banter was so lively & fulfilling that it completely satisfied my here-and-now social needs.

In his absence, I have absolutely no one to hang out with in the here & now.

Oh, I'm always texting and chattering on the phone. Which actually does fulfill many of the needs for companionship.

But I begin to feel like a scientist in a remote Antarctic outpost. Or like the protagonist of E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops.

There's organizational clatter. The Shawangunk Dems are always on me to show up at some demonstration or other, or man a table at the Blueberry Festival. But such activities never culminate in a cozy Scrabble game, or an invitation to a dinner party, or a fabulous one-on-one tawk fest.

Either the people here are complete boors or all their friendship slots are filled so there's no room for me. (There's a third possibility, of course, and that is that I am repulsive! 😀 But let's not go there.)

Anyway, so far I am maintaining my equanimity, but this is not Mentally Healthy.

###

I've been looking at Ithaca craigslist postings. Interestingly, housing is significantly less expensive up there—I suppose because by no stretch of the imagination can Ithaca be termed an NYC commuter town.

Also, because I strongly suspect, the Cornell and Ithaca College student populations—which the Ithaca housing market expanded to support—are going to decline significantly. Double whammy of the Trump administration's War on Cornell and the decline in importance of a college education, doncha know.

Even if the collective household doesn't work out, moving to the Ithaca area seems like a smart idea.

I have the basis for a friendship circle in Ithaca: Molly & Derrick are well-connected and would be happy to introduce me to all their friends. And RTT is there, and he is an Energy Center, a true "Connector" in the Malcolm Gladwell sense. When I was up there last, RTT took me to Personal Best, the brewery-cum-bar where he works, which has something of the feeling of the bar in Cheers. Everybody there—including many people my age!—was like, Wow! You're RTT's Mom! Instant celebrity!

So, yeah.

Much better place.
susandennis: (Default)
Susan Dennis ([personal profile] susandennis) wrote2025-08-02 09:20 am

Movies!

My new high couch is fabulous. But, I'm not finished yet. I had this idea a while ago but it was back when I was on my austerity kick.

Here is my sofa. The chaise side is not a side I even use. It just does not work for me now. And it's completely removable IF I have a spare seat cushion. So I dug out my receipt from the guy at Crate and Barrel and sent him an email. Does he even still work there? dunno but gotta start somewhere.

He does! And he replied immediately. He said it was totally doable to order a seat cushion. It will take 4-6 weeks to get and he's going to get back to me with a price. WOOT!

But, what am I going to do with that long cushion and the base? Well. I have a plan. The cushion can live under my bed and the base can live in the storage area that I cleaned out last week. It's a plan!

Scott and Julie sent me their Waymo video. It's a hoot.



When I got back from volleyball this morning, the door was stuck. When I pushed through and got in, I discovered that the 3.5 bag of cat food had been pulled from the back of the storage shelves and deposited in the front hallway. WTV?????? Happily, I caught the cat burglar on video. It's a long 5 minutes and probably works better if you speed it up (settings>playback speed). But it's pretty hilarious.



I've now fixed it so that he will have to remove a 14 pound box of kitty litter to get to it. I'll keep the camera running but with this cat you never know.

Both my teams play games today that start at 1 pm my time. ARUGH. I hate to be that guy with two sports screens but here we are. Both teams are playing fun baseball. So I got no choice.

Time now to get dressed for Elbow coffee.

PXL_20250801_001813103
umadoshi: (books 01)
Ysabet ([personal profile] umadoshi) wrote2025-08-02 10:35 am

Weekly proof of life: mainly media intake

We didn't decide before going to bed last night whether we'd get up and head straight for the market (not helped by going to bed at different times), and before getting up we halfheartedly opted against it so as not to be rushing around. (This was influenced by knowing that [personal profile] scruloose won't be at work next week and will almost certainly have to grab a car and go acquire odds and ends for the household project, which means swinging by local-produce places will be easier than usual.) Naturally, now I'm having regrets. But hopefully sometime this week I'll get my hands on my first peaches of the season.

Reading: [personal profile] scruloose and I are soooo close to done with the audiobook of All Systems Red (which is good, since it's due tomorrow). We listened to chunks of it over supper for the last couple of nights, but their regular Friday-night video chat meant we had a cutoff time last night, so we still have about half an hour left. (Potentially dangerous, this realization that we can maybe listen to audiobooks while eating if the meal isn't "TVable", as I say.) We have Artificial Condition checked out now, too; I remembered to snag it before the month ended (since Hoopla seems to only allow five loans a month? Or does that depend on its deal with specific library systems?).

As for fiction in print, I finished E.K. Johnston's Sky on Fire, which is not set nearly as far after Aetherbound as I initially thought, but also smoothly wove in reminders to key my memory of how that book played out, so all was well. I really enjoyed this. ^_^

Then I read The Butcher of the Forest, which was my first Premee Mohamed work. As with most novellas, it didn't sink its hooks into me, but I liked it and get the feeling I may do well with her novels.

And now I'm reading my first Victoria Goddard book, The Hands of the Emperor, which is a TOME (I think the print edition is 900 pages) but a pretty quick read; I think I'm approaching halfway through? Really enjoying this, too.

On the non-fiction side, I'm leafing through The Afrominimalist's Guide to Living with Less (Christine Platt), which I picked up on a whim at some point. Not very far into it yet, I don't think. (Really what I should do is figure out which decluttering book I read years ago that resonated with me and reread that in hopes of having the same feeling from it and maybe actually taking action this time. It's genuinely awkward that [personal profile] scruloose and I both tend to hang onto things too much but for completely different reasons. ^^;)

Watching: I think we're three episodes into The Summer Hikaru Died now? (I think episode 5 comes out today?) Creepy and weird. I'm not sure I'm bonding, but I'm interested.
puddleshark: (Default)
puddleshark ([personal profile] puddleshark) wrote2025-08-02 01:40 pm
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