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“dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called ‘life’”
Nov. 25th, 2025 07:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerEssential life experience: having a twelve-year-old rant at you for 10 minutes about how the existence of sweet potatoes offends them.
---L.
Subject quote from Let’s Go Crazy, Prince and the Revolution.
---L.
Subject quote from Let’s Go Crazy, Prince and the Revolution.
Photobucket
Nov. 25th, 2025 07:48 pmscaramoucheI never unsubscribed from photobucket's emails, even after I let my account lapse when they hit everyone with the USD400/year price tag lockdown uhhh (checks) eight years ago. So I would periodically get emails begging peeps to come back, and it's been funny to see the tone change.
The emails used to be:
They kept on with all those warnings, sending anywhere from 2 to 6 emails a month with the same text to let you know.
And then! About a year ago the emails changed to:
Again and again, until the emails got another tone change about three months ago in August, to:
Somebody's doing something!🤣 I'm just surprised they're still around, and the price tag is now USD80 a year, or USD8 a month, so I just might sign up for a month and download everything for reorganizing. I did download the most critical stuff way back when, but it might be fun to redo my old pic-heavy posts. Maybe.
The emails used to be:
Warning: Your account is over the free tier limit.
Keep your account active.
Urgent: Keep your account active.
You've become inactive.
Do you want to keep your photos?
Do you want to keep your account?
Action required.
Warning: Your photos may be subject to deletion.
Your account has been deactivated.
We can't keep waiting for a response from you.
This May Be Your Last Chance.
They kept on with all those warnings, sending anywhere from 2 to 6 emails a month with the same text to let you know.
And then! About a year ago the emails changed to:
A private space for your family's most precious moments.
Did you forget about the [xxx] photos in your account?
Do you want to recover your old photos?
We can't keep waiting a response from you.
Again and again, until the emails got another tone change about three months ago in August, to:
Aren't you curious to see your old photos?
Your memories are still here.
We found photos you probably thought were gone.
A little piece of your history.
A message from your past self.
Your old selfies are now fossils.
This one might bring a tear to your eye.
A glimpse into the good old days.
The past is calling (and it has photos).
Somebody's doing something!🤣 I'm just surprised they're still around, and the price tag is now USD80 a year, or USD8 a month, so I just might sign up for a month and download everything for reorganizing. I did download the most critical stuff way back when, but it might be fun to redo my old pic-heavy posts. Maybe.
exhausted
Nov. 25th, 2025 12:09 pmtielanGrowing vaguely anxious about the party on Saturday.
*sigh* My three current mantras are:
I've made a slice, a cake and icing, and will be cooking some chicken wings in soy sauce on Friday. I'm thinking about making a bean salad with a bit of a vinegar zing...
Yesterday, I gave the back door and frame a coat of oil, and it's been a bit whiffy through the house. So the cats didn't sleep in the laundry last night, and around 2am Smokey came by to insist she get to come in and sleep with me. Around 4am, Mal decided to join us. And around 6am, my alarm went off.
I have to get the back porch table cleared this evening, box as much stuff as possible (worry about sorting later).
Tomorrow is going to be hellishly hot, and the hot weather is going to continue on through to Saturday. Argh. It's going to be painfully hot outside, and I was kind of counting on being able to hold it outside...
*sigh* My three current mantras are:
My mother's standards of entertaining do not need to be mine.
My friends will not judge me for having a lived-in house.
People do actually like me and will turn up.
I've made a slice, a cake and icing, and will be cooking some chicken wings in soy sauce on Friday. I'm thinking about making a bean salad with a bit of a vinegar zing...
Yesterday, I gave the back door and frame a coat of oil, and it's been a bit whiffy through the house. So the cats didn't sleep in the laundry last night, and around 2am Smokey came by to insist she get to come in and sleep with me. Around 4am, Mal decided to join us. And around 6am, my alarm went off.
I have to get the back porch table cleared this evening, box as much stuff as possible (worry about sorting later).
Tomorrow is going to be hellishly hot, and the hot weather is going to continue on through to Saturday. Argh. It's going to be painfully hot outside, and I was kind of counting on being able to hold it outside...
QOTD: Jim Henson on life goals
Nov. 24th, 2025 10:03 pmbrithistorianPresented without comment, except that I have always loved Jim Henson and I agree with this quote 100%:
"When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for my having been there." - Jim Henson
emotional support spinning
Nov. 24th, 2025 09:14 pmyhlee
I'm informed this is a 1981 Ashford Traditional. I pounced on the secondhand listing as spinning wheels in working order (especially modern-ish wheels) are very scarce in my region, especially at a low price point. She's in incredibly good condition and spins beautifully! She's my first Saxony wheel, to go with the Ashford Traveller. I'm also told the bobbins ought to be inter-compatible (I have bobbins for both the larger and smaller flyers).
The pink-magenta is IxChel's North Ronaldsay blend (North Ronaldsay Sheep 40%, Blue Faced Leicester 30%, Silver infused Seaweed 10%, Mulberry Silk 10%, Cashmere 10%).
I thought we'd have more time
Nov. 24th, 2025 08:47 pmdragoness_eI thought we'd have more time together. He wasn't supposed to get dementia this young, and he isn't supposed to be dying in hospice now. He'll never get to read the books I'd planned to write, and he wanted to so much. We'll never get to play another TTRPG campaign together, and I had some ideas for one I really wanted to do with him. I'll never get to see Yosemite with him. We were supposed to have another 20 years together, at least. His father is still alive at age 92, and he should have lived at least that long. I won't get to retire and move north with him, and go on hikes in the woods with him.
I've been slowly mourning the possibilities being cut off one by one as the dementia advanced, but there was always a slim hope that it was a form of dementia that could be fixed or controlled with medication. Now there is no hope; he is dying. There are no more possibilities with him, and I grieve.
I've been slowly mourning the possibilities being cut off one by one as the dementia advanced, but there was always a slim hope that it was a form of dementia that could be fixed or controlled with medication. Now there is no hope; he is dying. There are no more possibilities with him, and I grieve.
SOTD: NMIXX, "Blue Valentine" (plus bonus music theory)
Nov. 24th, 2025 08:19 pmbrithistorianAbout a month ago, NMIXX came out with their latest sing, "Blue Valentine."
I loved it — I've listened to it so many times! One part of it really confused me, though: From the start of the prechorus (at 0:40) until the beginning of the chorus (at 0:56), the tempo suddenly drops, then has an accelerando until the chorus begins. But I was really confused, though, because the line "You'll always be my blue valentine" in the chorus took the same amount of the time as when the same line was sung at the beginning of the song, but it felt faster. Fortunately, when React to the K (a YouTube channel that feature classical and jazz music students reacting to K-pop songs) did their video reacting to this song, they had an entire section where Liam (a classical percussionist) explains what's happening rhythmically during the prechorus — it took him almost 2 minutes to explain what happened in that 16 seconds of the song, but to me, it was worth it — I'd listened to that part of the song over and over so many times trying to figure out what was happening there, so it was great to finally understand.
Superman (2025)
Nov. 24th, 2025 08:07 pmlannamichaelsAs superhero movies go, this is a very good superhero movie. As regular movies go, I kept being annoyed about the seriously compressed timeline and some really basic suspension of disbelief, like "is anyone going to say Lex Luthor is lying about translation" because, uh. Also, how does anyone know Kryptonian? So many little things just drove me up the wall.
However! It was a good movie, and the Clark/Lois stuff was very well done, I actually really loved their interview/fight because it worked so well in with characterization, it didn't strike my "I cannot, I cannot, I cannot" that I tend to have about couples arguing.
The main effect of the movie was, after it was revealed that Lex had people going over every inch of every Superman fight so he could get a single strand of Superman's hair so he could clone him -- I went and reread some old favorite Smallville fics. Good times.
The movie also did something I noticed with the Knives Out 2: Glass Onion film, where it made the Cool Evil Rich Villain... not come off very compelling on the slash goggles. I did not walk out of this movie shipping Clark/Lex, even though I ship Clark/Lex. Lex Luthor, played by Why Do I Recognize Him Oh That's The Boy From About A Boy, is very well done and very well performed and is not a magnificent bastard and he has zero chemistry with Clark, but not in a way that detracts from the film. This is not a film where Clark and Lex have ever been on good terms; this is not a film where they even ever knew each other. There was nothing about the movie that was in the same flavor or theme as Smallville, but hey, always fun to go reread some stuff.
But for a movie that did Lois so well, did we have to have Eve The Awful Clingy Obsessive Wannabe Girlfriend with Jimmy who did not want to date her, just wanted info from her? That was so hard to endure. I think worse of the movie for making that decision, it casts a long tail on the movie even a week after I finished it, like "oh yeah so that was a movie that made me go reread some old fics from 20 years ago, and also had this unnecessarily misogynistic sideplotline played for laughs (?)".
Nathan Fillion also appeared to be treating this film as "I will do bad acting on purpose to show that my character is a buffoon" but mostly it just came off annoying.
I also have a nit to pick with this movie that is solely from watching it with the DVD closed captions, which kept noting when the main Superman theme was playing, which is: the soundtrack to this movie is ... well, it's got some perfectly acceptable pop songs peppered in. But the rest of it is just so bland.
But this movie is better than every MCU movie I've seen, with the exception of Captain America 2: A Good Spy Movie With I Guess Absolutely Zero Repercussions For The Worldbuilding Oh Well.
(no subject)
Nov. 24th, 2025 04:45 pmysobelBack in 2018-19, Loki spent about 9 months in a cone, because he wouldn't stop killing his tail. ( cw: mention of medical saga )
And then randomly, he stopped. Since then he does still attack his tail sometimes (occasionally seeming extremely annoyed by it) but without making it bloody. I sort of get the impression he doesn't really understand that his tail is even attached to him, let alone part of him. Sometimes he shoves his tail down, stalks to a different bed, and gets upset that it followed him. Sometimes it feels like, to him, he bites the wiggly thing and then it bites him back.
But regardless, he wasn't doing serious damage.
Until last week.
We noticed a spot on the underside of his tail that he seemed to have licked bare. Then it bled a bit. So Friday was Vet Day. They shaved the area, cleaned it up, and gave him an antibiotic shot because it looked like he had just ... chomped way too hard.
So he's back in a cone. Hopefully it's just for the 10-14 days recommended by the vet. But. It's a different spot, but he does have history with, erm, tail issues.
If he continues with his tail the way he did in 2018... ( cw: mention of potential medical procedures )
Right now the dogs are banished from my bedroom so that Loki can have easier access to food/water and to litterbox. They are confused by this. Loki has been extremely clingy, jumping on my lap pretty much every time I'm in there and sleeping on me probably 80% of the night. I don't actually mind providing extra cuddles! But I think all of us will be happy when things go back to normal...
And then randomly, he stopped. Since then he does still attack his tail sometimes (occasionally seeming extremely annoyed by it) but without making it bloody. I sort of get the impression he doesn't really understand that his tail is even attached to him, let alone part of him. Sometimes he shoves his tail down, stalks to a different bed, and gets upset that it followed him. Sometimes it feels like, to him, he bites the wiggly thing and then it bites him back.
But regardless, he wasn't doing serious damage.
Until last week.
We noticed a spot on the underside of his tail that he seemed to have licked bare. Then it bled a bit. So Friday was Vet Day. They shaved the area, cleaned it up, and gave him an antibiotic shot because it looked like he had just ... chomped way too hard.
So he's back in a cone. Hopefully it's just for the 10-14 days recommended by the vet. But. It's a different spot, but he does have history with, erm, tail issues.
If he continues with his tail the way he did in 2018... ( cw: mention of potential medical procedures )
Right now the dogs are banished from my bedroom so that Loki can have easier access to food/water and to litterbox. They are confused by this. Loki has been extremely clingy, jumping on my lap pretty much every time I'm in there and sleeping on me probably 80% of the night. I don't actually mind providing extra cuddles! But I think all of us will be happy when things go back to normal...
Spider Videos
Nov. 24th, 2025 06:29 pmmoon_custaferFound a whole YouTube channel about spiders, very informative, but I also like that the theme song is just:
(The video maker, his voice doubled with recording technology, singing lackadaisically) THESE are the SPIDERS in your HOUSE
Sometimes he changes it up: THESE are the SPIders in your YAAAARD.
This one also has some nice footage of St. John’s, Newfoundland: THREE DAYS with SPIDER SCIENTISTS
For the video on spider cognition: The MINDS of the SPIDERS in your HOUSE
(The video maker, his voice doubled with recording technology, singing lackadaisically) THESE are the SPIDERS in your HOUSE
Sometimes he changes it up: THESE are the SPIders in your YAAAARD.
This one also has some nice footage of St. John’s, Newfoundland: THREE DAYS with SPIDER SCIENTISTS
For the video on spider cognition: The MINDS of the SPIDERS in your HOUSE
Baking. Hazelnuts. Orange marmalade.
Nov. 24th, 2025 10:58 pmellerIt's that time of the year - I may not celebrate Christmas, but I celebrate everything around Christmas, just because. (Yes, I have an Advent calendar again, too. Okay, three Advent calendars. (In exchanges with artist friends, because store-bought calendars are boring.) You get the idea. I really like all the Christmas-y stuff!) Part of that is, of course, the food. So, here's some very classical Christmas baking! (Hazelnuts! Orange marmalade! YAY!) A bit early, but... I don't care. The supermarkets are starting to play that awful music, so, if I have to live with that, at least I can have the good stuff of the season as well, right?
Boyfriend already made an Advent wreath last weekend! (No candles, just branches and glittery stuff.) He met with some friends and they crafted together. :)
And I baked.
( Just in case you are interested in the (very simple) recipe... It's behind the cut. )
These... Won't survive long... XDD
Boyfriend already made an Advent wreath last weekend! (No candles, just branches and glittery stuff.) He met with some friends and they crafted together. :)
And I baked.
( Just in case you are interested in the (very simple) recipe... It's behind the cut. )
These... Won't survive long... XDD
Discombobulation and dreamstuff
Nov. 24th, 2025 02:58 pmumadoshiI complain sometimes about time and the surreality of the passage thereof and whatnot, but this morning I had several minutes of genuinely wondering if the way the year is barreling toward its end meant the first Sunday of Advent had already passed without my even noticing. I'm not sure if something about the timing of US Thanksgiving threw me off, or if it's as simple as my not having put "Advent begins" on my calendar, which I think I usually note in advance. (In practical terms it'd be fine; as it happens, I'm planning to use a "burn a bit every day of December" Advent candle, which probably means not breaking out the wreath for the four Sundays. But still.)
I often have weird dreams and don't usually remember much about them, but until today I'm not sure I'd ever before woken up from a dream where I was watching a movie? In the case of this dream, I was at the theatre watching what was officially a Newsflesh film adaptation, but in the sense that (from what I know of it, never having seen it) the World War Z movie is based on that book, which is to say, really not at all. ("Lead" characters who were supposed to be Georgia and Shaun, yes, but nothing to do with [*checks notes*] characters-as-people, zombies, viruses, or politics, and possibly not journalism, either. I think there was some sort of lab creating humanoid/animal mixes of some sort, possibly giving them guns.) It went on for quite some time.
My dream-self was appalled, of course, but at least glad to think Seanan had presumably gotten a decent chunk of money for the rights. She's got cats to feed!
I often have weird dreams and don't usually remember much about them, but until today I'm not sure I'd ever before woken up from a dream where I was watching a movie? In the case of this dream, I was at the theatre watching what was officially a Newsflesh film adaptation, but in the sense that (from what I know of it, never having seen it) the World War Z movie is based on that book, which is to say, really not at all. ("Lead" characters who were supposed to be Georgia and Shaun, yes, but nothing to do with [*checks notes*] characters-as-people, zombies, viruses, or politics, and possibly not journalism, either. I think there was some sort of lab creating humanoid/animal mixes of some sort, possibly giving them guns.) It went on for quite some time.
My dream-self was appalled, of course, but at least glad to think Seanan had presumably gotten a decent chunk of money for the rights. She's got cats to feed!
Bird Mother: Life's a Struggle (1984)
Nov. 24th, 2025 01:11 pmpauraqueIn my ongoing journey to play games from as many countries as possible, I ran across this early example of a game from Hungary. It was developed by Pál Balog with music by Zoltán Mericske, and was brought to English-speaking audiences by the British company Andromeda Software, who specialized in producing English localizations of games made in the Eastern Bloc. (They were the ones who introduced Tetris to the West.)
Bird Mother (or Madár mama in Hungarian) is, as you might have guessed, a game where you play as a mother bird who must build a nest, feed her babies, and protect the young while they fledge. (It's also an early example of a game with a female protagonist!) You might also guess from the release date and the English subtitle "Life's a Struggle" that the game is hard, and you'd be correct in that as well. I was actually impressed by how uncomfortably infuriating the game is to play.
( more about the game and a little info on personal computers in Communist Europe )
You can play Bird Mother in your browser if you wish to be reminded that whether you build your nest in the First World or the Second, life truly is a struggle.
Bird Mother (or Madár mama in Hungarian) is, as you might have guessed, a game where you play as a mother bird who must build a nest, feed her babies, and protect the young while they fledge. (It's also an early example of a game with a female protagonist!) You might also guess from the release date and the English subtitle "Life's a Struggle" that the game is hard, and you'd be correct in that as well. I was actually impressed by how uncomfortably infuriating the game is to play.
( more about the game and a little info on personal computers in Communist Europe )
You can play Bird Mother in your browser if you wish to be reminded that whether you build your nest in the First World or the Second, life truly is a struggle.
“in the company of strangers / in the quiet of the railway station / runnin’ scared laying low”
Nov. 24th, 2025 07:46 amlarryhammerFor Poetry Monday:
Stills, R.A. Ammons
I have nowhere
to go and
nowhere to go
when I get
back from there.
---L.
Subject quote from The Boxer, Simon & Garfunkel.
Stills, R.A. Ammons
I have nowhere
to go and
nowhere to go
when I get
back from there.
---L.
Subject quote from The Boxer, Simon & Garfunkel.