It's always something...
Dec. 13th, 2025 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luscious_purpleThis morning after breakfast, I was feeling chilled indoors. My first thought: I must be coming down with something.
My second thought: Check the indoor thermometer. Oh ... it's only 63 degrees inside the Blue and Green Cottage. Furnace thermostat was set at 71 degrees. Hmm.
Fortunately, my landlord was at my door before he got off the phone with me. We checked the thermostat and changed the batteries, which were corroding with age. But that still didn't power up the furnace.
My landlord poked around in the furnace and determined that he needed to call the professionals. (He thinks the problem may be in the gas igniter or in the control board.) In the meantime, he went to Lowe's and got a couple of space heaters, which actually are working quite well. I just hope the pipes don't freeze when the temperatures drop tomorrow.
I am extremely thankful that I live next door to a landlord and landlady who actually care that things work in this apartment. When Prince George's County opened the waiting list for Section 8 housing vouchers (for the first time in TEN YEARS!!!!), someone asked me if I was going to apply. But why? I don't want to sic the housing inspectors on my friends. And I certainly don't want to move to a crummy apartment complex with mice and roaches and unresponsive management, thank you very much.
My second thought: Check the indoor thermometer. Oh ... it's only 63 degrees inside the Blue and Green Cottage. Furnace thermostat was set at 71 degrees. Hmm.
Fortunately, my landlord was at my door before he got off the phone with me. We checked the thermostat and changed the batteries, which were corroding with age. But that still didn't power up the furnace.
My landlord poked around in the furnace and determined that he needed to call the professionals. (He thinks the problem may be in the gas igniter or in the control board.) In the meantime, he went to Lowe's and got a couple of space heaters, which actually are working quite well. I just hope the pipes don't freeze when the temperatures drop tomorrow.
I am extremely thankful that I live next door to a landlord and landlady who actually care that things work in this apartment. When Prince George's County opened the waiting list for Section 8 housing vouchers (for the first time in TEN YEARS!!!!), someone asked me if I was going to apply. But why? I don't want to sic the housing inspectors on my friends. And I certainly don't want to move to a crummy apartment complex with mice and roaches and unresponsive management, thank you very much.
Boost! marina's well-informed meta on Heated Rivalry
Dec. 13th, 2025 04:18 pmjesse_the_kI've observed hockey RPF fandom from an immeasurable distance, and I still got a kick out of this post:
https://marina.dreamwidth.org/1576715.html
marina was in hockey fandom, spent her childhood in Ukraine, knows much about filing serial numbers, and has definite opinions about vodka.
I'm reading reading reading.
Hi!
Twelfth of the Twelfth.
Dec. 12th, 2025 10:12 pmhannahI've been teased with snow before, and I'm hoping I won't get teased again tomorrow. It'll be somewhat inconvenient on Sunday, but I've been inconvenienced in such ways before. I can handle it. I know workarounds.
Earlier today, buying fresh eggs, I told someone I'd be using them for cake. "Tis the season," she said. "Cake's always in season," I told her, and got an earnest laugh.
Earlier today, buying fresh eggs, I told someone I'd be using them for cake. "Tis the season," she said. "Cake's always in season," I told her, and got an earnest laugh.
The Friday Five for 5 December 2025
Dec. 11th, 2025 05:32 pmsulienanais_pf posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thefridayfive1. If you had to participate in one Olympic event, what would it be and why?
If we’re talking about now? I honestly can’t think of one I could manage these days since I’ve developed tremors. Back in the days before my body decided to quit on me, I’d have adored having the opportunity to participate in dressage, pistol and rifle shooting and archery. Not that I would have even made the teams then, but it would have been a blast to actively train for it and then try!
2. What is the one song you always sing along to?
Since my singing voice could be used as an instrument of torture, I very seldom sing unless it’s in the car with the windows rolled down and going highway speeds so I can’t hear myself and there’s no one else to hear, either. That said, I love Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue” and sing along with that every time it comes up in my play list and I’m alone (there are a number of his songs I like that way, actually). Unlike my singing, I can carry a tune whistling and I’ve always loved to whistle along with favorite pieces of music, especially if I’ve got a stairwell or some other good acoustic space to get a bit of reverb going, and Bach’s ‘Little’ Fugue in G Minor is my absolute favorite to whistle along with. https://youtu.be/XuDuEMVcSrM?si=GLE-x0QulROlByWu
3. Do you wear a seatbelt in the car?
ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY!!! My Mom was thrown from cars twice before manufacturers were required to put seatbelts in vehicles and was damn lucky to have survived without serious injury beyond concussions and contusions. Responding to traffic accidents as a military police soldier reinforced that lesson, not that it needed to be reinforced.
4. Car, SUV or truck and why?
It all depends on the situation. I dearly loved driving mountain roads in my standard transmission Saturn SL2 because it handled like a dream and hugged curves (I miss that car, but the left knee just can’t deal with a clutch any more )-: ). For long highway trips, definitely a very comfortable sedan. What I currently own is a Ram 1500 4x4 for many reasons, with being able to get around or over storm debris at the top of the list (I live on the Pacific coast of Washington) and the fact that I may very well wind up having to live in the shell I’ve got on the back of it comes in at a squeaky-close second place.
5. Are you a good/bad driver? Explain.
Again, these days or when I was much more capable? These days, I’m still a good defensive driver but my reflexes just are not what they used to be and I don’t drive that often due to dealing with chronic migraines and vertigo on a frequent basis. I’m okay driving in my small town on good days but I have had to stop in a hotel for the night in the closest larger town (26 miles one way on a windy, rural highway) when I started getting a migraine while doing a supply run. Let’s face it, a night in a hotel/B&B or even paying a tow truck to tow me home is far less expensive than an accident (especially an at fault accident) and dealing with the insurance premium hike afterward!
Back in the good old days when I was fully capable, if it had a steering wheel, a throttle and a brake, I could drive it and drive it well once I got used to the configuration and the way the vehicle handled (though I never did get to try out a tracked vehicle, blast it all). I learned to drive stick in a 1963 VW Karman Ghia from my parents and they both emphasized defensive driving, as well as an entire host of things that you just don’t get taught in most driving courses, at least not in the US. As for driver’s education, what they taught in my school district in the 1970’s was not remotely adequate and they used only automatic transmission sedans. A couple other folks mentioned parallel parking and I have no trouble parallel parking my full size pickup (it does have a backup camera, but it does not have parking assist). The only thing I ever had much trouble parallel parking was the old M151A2 Jeep-type vehicles the Army used in the mid-late 1980’s, which did not have power steering and were one helluva workout to steer while stationary or moving slowly. I have to say, one of the things I loathe the most about the damn migraine related issues is the fact that I can’t just get in a vehicle and drive for as long as I like any time I like (I used to love to drive just to relax and unwind).
Oh, and to toot my own horn (pun intended), I was also tasked with teaching our KATUSAs (Korean Augmentees to the US Army) and young US soldiers who didn’t know how to drive a standard transmission when I was stationed in Korea in the late ‘90’s. Yeah, I was pretty decent behind the wheel. *g*
Gotta happen sometime.
Dec. 11th, 2025 08:08 pmhannahI've been tasked not only to make challah tomorrow, not just one cake for my dad's book group, but two cakes for a small party he's hosting. The request was only for one cake for the party, and there's no way I'm making only one cake when I can manage two. It'll be a long day of baking. I welcome the work. While the work's helped by already having a lot of what I need for the cakes, the time it'll take is what I'll need to look into - dividing it up, assessing how best to parse it out, that kind of thing.
In addition to all the other chores and errands of the day.
I've sent two fics off to beta readers, and I've got that last original project which I need to start tackling to edit. That there's a very nice feeling by itself, too. Just going from one project right to the next. It's not always something I can pull off, and I value it when I can manage.
In addition to all the other chores and errands of the day.
I've sent two fics off to beta readers, and I've got that last original project which I need to start tackling to edit. That there's a very nice feeling by itself, too. Just going from one project right to the next. It's not always something I can pull off, and I value it when I can manage.
SMOF News, volume 5, issue 15
Dec. 10th, 2025 07:05 pmpetrea_mitchellAnother long-running con is hitting the breaking point. There's a boom in Worldcon bids, though.
Make my wish come true - due South drabble, Food Bank Thank-You
Dec. 10th, 2025 09:53 pmpetraride_4ever just let me know about a donation, so I wrote:Make my wish come true (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: due South
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters: Benton Fraser, Ray Kowalski
Additional Tags: Drabble, Christmas Fluff
Summary:
Ray observes a holiday tradition.
*
If you donate 25 USD in cash or in kind to a food bank or food pantry, tell me about it and I'll write for you!
Cards will not arrive in time for the holidays
Dec. 10th, 2025 09:23 pmpetraHappy "It's December Tenth" to all who observe it.
I have not written my Dark Outside pieces yet, far less addressed and sent the mail, so I will send cards When I Get To It.
I am still going to write for people; it'll just be in your email inbox come Solstice, not your physical mailbox come whenever. People who just wanted cards will get cards at some date TBD.
I have not written my Dark Outside pieces yet, far less addressed and sent the mail, so I will send cards When I Get To It.
I am still going to write for people; it'll just be in your email inbox come Solstice, not your physical mailbox come whenever. People who just wanted cards will get cards at some date TBD.
If you're required to deploy AI
Dec. 9th, 2025 10:48 amjesse_the_k...here's an excellent use-case: feed your strong passphrase text as a prompt to an image generator
from the passphrase string "fabulous tattoo Harvey", Reddit user u/waydomatic and ChatGPT made ( this cheerful example )
The LLM thinks Harvey is a muscular white guy wearing a skimpy purple Speedo; arms, shoulder and upper chest covered in rose tattoos. He flexes his right arm and flashes a big white smile under his handlebar mustache. Of course he's wearing a rose crown.
Saving the generated image would certainly be more secure than writing down the password.
Crafting Update, November 2025 + 20 Minute Kitty!
Dec. 9th, 2025 09:53 amalthea_valaraBoy am I late with this...
I did a LOT of knitting in a very short timeframe in November, and TBH it pooped me out and I think I'm still recovering. BUT! I successfully knitted a pair of legwarmers to wear to the A New World concert! Here they are:
[Image Description: A pair of knitted legwarmers. They are Aran colored (think natural undyed yarn) and feature a folded ribbed cuff at top, with lazy cables on the body and an intricate cable at the back. One is larger than the other.]
So yeah, this pattern comes in small and large sizes. Small wouldn't fit me, but large was TOO big. I altered the pattern some for my first one, taking some stitches out to make it smaller. Well, I finished it and tried it on and nope, too big. So for the second I took even MORE stitches out of the pattern. This one felt like it fit well, but as soon as I started walking, it drooped.
I didn't have time to reknit them, so I made do with them as is, and used elastic headbands under the cuff to keep them up. That worked well! Also, I shortened the pattern because in the pattern pic, the lower edge was dragging on the ground and I didn't like that. Unfortunately, I shortened it TOO much. I might unpick the bind off and knit them a bit longer, but for now, they work. And no, I am likely not going to reknit the too big one. TOO MUCH WORK.
I also made progress on a hoodie!
[Image Description: a sleeve in progress for a knitted hoodie. It's mostly gray in color and features deep ribbing at the cuff. A center cable panel runs up the middle, in teal.]
At the beginning of the month, I had one cable cross done. Now I have two. So not much progress, but hey, progress is progress.
I also did some work on the Versailles Scarf, a small true lace knitted scarf. I wanted to finish this for the concert as well, but decided the legwarmers were more important. It'd be nice to get this done for Christmas, but with the lack of crafting I've been doing so far this month, it's not gonna happen.
FOLKS! I had a cat for 20 minutes!
[Image Description: A photo of a calico kitty visited our house for a bit.]
She came up to our patio door before the snow hit, when it was still decent out, and we decided to let her in for a bit, once we closed the bedroom doors. I, of course, was enamored. Mom less so. Being a cat, she did cat things, like scratching at an area rug (mom yelled at her, poor thing, but I can't really fault mom for that) and jumping on the kitchen table to try to get to our Christmas cactus. I kept a close eye on her the entire time she was in the house, so when I saw you going for the plant, I gently picked her up and deposited her back on the floor, because well, I don't know if those plants are safe for cats.
She was inquisitive and explored a lot, and liked to rub against legs. At one point, she was in our living room and started trotting towards the kitchen, so I called out to mom to let her know she was headed mom's way. Unfortunately mom was distracted and didn't hear me, and the cat, being friendly, came up behind her and rubbed her legs and mom almost tripped on her. :(
We considered calling an animal shelter, but due to her friendliness, decided to just let her back outside. Not before she jumped on the table AGAIN, though. I tried to grab her to deposit her back on the floor, but she jumped on the back of one of our chairs, and well, the chair tipped over.
Which means mom has declared NO CATS. :( I had really hoped she'd come around and we could, like, adopt a senior kitty, and my older sister made noise about us doing just that at Thanksgiving, but I don't think mom would be happy with a cat. Alas. But at least I had one for 20 minutes.
I did a LOT of knitting in a very short timeframe in November, and TBH it pooped me out and I think I'm still recovering. BUT! I successfully knitted a pair of legwarmers to wear to the A New World concert! Here they are:
[Image Description: A pair of knitted legwarmers. They are Aran colored (think natural undyed yarn) and feature a folded ribbed cuff at top, with lazy cables on the body and an intricate cable at the back. One is larger than the other.]
So yeah, this pattern comes in small and large sizes. Small wouldn't fit me, but large was TOO big. I altered the pattern some for my first one, taking some stitches out to make it smaller. Well, I finished it and tried it on and nope, too big. So for the second I took even MORE stitches out of the pattern. This one felt like it fit well, but as soon as I started walking, it drooped.
I didn't have time to reknit them, so I made do with them as is, and used elastic headbands under the cuff to keep them up. That worked well! Also, I shortened the pattern because in the pattern pic, the lower edge was dragging on the ground and I didn't like that. Unfortunately, I shortened it TOO much. I might unpick the bind off and knit them a bit longer, but for now, they work. And no, I am likely not going to reknit the too big one. TOO MUCH WORK.
I also made progress on a hoodie!
[Image Description: a sleeve in progress for a knitted hoodie. It's mostly gray in color and features deep ribbing at the cuff. A center cable panel runs up the middle, in teal.]
At the beginning of the month, I had one cable cross done. Now I have two. So not much progress, but hey, progress is progress.
I also did some work on the Versailles Scarf, a small true lace knitted scarf. I wanted to finish this for the concert as well, but decided the legwarmers were more important. It'd be nice to get this done for Christmas, but with the lack of crafting I've been doing so far this month, it's not gonna happen.
FOLKS! I had a cat for 20 minutes!
[Image Description: A photo of a calico kitty visited our house for a bit.]
She came up to our patio door before the snow hit, when it was still decent out, and we decided to let her in for a bit, once we closed the bedroom doors. I, of course, was enamored. Mom less so. Being a cat, she did cat things, like scratching at an area rug (mom yelled at her, poor thing, but I can't really fault mom for that) and jumping on the kitchen table to try to get to our Christmas cactus. I kept a close eye on her the entire time she was in the house, so when I saw you going for the plant, I gently picked her up and deposited her back on the floor, because well, I don't know if those plants are safe for cats.
She was inquisitive and explored a lot, and liked to rub against legs. At one point, she was in our living room and started trotting towards the kitchen, so I called out to mom to let her know she was headed mom's way. Unfortunately mom was distracted and didn't hear me, and the cat, being friendly, came up behind her and rubbed her legs and mom almost tripped on her. :(
We considered calling an animal shelter, but due to her friendliness, decided to just let her back outside. Not before she jumped on the table AGAIN, though. I tried to grab her to deposit her back on the floor, but she jumped on the back of one of our chairs, and well, the chair tipped over.
Which means mom has declared NO CATS. :( I had really hoped she'd come around and we could, like, adopt a senior kitty, and my older sister made noise about us doing just that at Thanksgiving, but I don't think mom would be happy with a cat. Alas. But at least I had one for 20 minutes.
Animal encounter.
Dec. 8th, 2025 09:31 pmhannahWaiting for the traffic light, listening to the noise around me, I looked down and saw a dog - one that was shaped like an actual dog, with short black fur, a proper nose, bright eyes, and a remarkable amount of patience for being so quiet in the face of all the noise. Cars, trucks, horns, traffic all around, a cement mixer driving by that whined and gave off these weird high-pitched noises as the mixer turned, and I thought that if it was loud for me, it must be unbearable for her. She was very well-trained in leash work and boundaries, and as well-trained and well-adjusted as she was, it made me think: New York City isn't good for her.
She was mostly quiet, except for one point where she made something like a whine mixed with a whimper. I told her, "I don't blame you." But I don't think she heard me what with all the noise around us.
At the next corner, I complimented her behavior on who I thought was her owner; she said she was just the walker, and the dog's name was Kato, and she was impressed at her, too. I didn't ask to pet her, just looked at her, watching a little kid ask if she could pet Kato herself instead. I thought about how her owners needed to commission a walker's services, and how it could be a brief thing due to a family emergency or it could be a standing commitment, and knowing Manhattan, it's likely the latter. It still strikes me as strange to keep an animal like a dog as a pet in a big city, and looking at her today, it feels even stranger. I walked across the park and listened to the sounds of the vehicles and thought about how unpleasant I found it, and how the city isn't designed for auditory comfort. It could be, and it isn't, and it saddened me to think how much worse Kato must have things.
She was mostly quiet, except for one point where she made something like a whine mixed with a whimper. I told her, "I don't blame you." But I don't think she heard me what with all the noise around us.
At the next corner, I complimented her behavior on who I thought was her owner; she said she was just the walker, and the dog's name was Kato, and she was impressed at her, too. I didn't ask to pet her, just looked at her, watching a little kid ask if she could pet Kato herself instead. I thought about how her owners needed to commission a walker's services, and how it could be a brief thing due to a family emergency or it could be a standing commitment, and knowing Manhattan, it's likely the latter. It still strikes me as strange to keep an animal like a dog as a pet in a big city, and looking at her today, it feels even stranger. I walked across the park and listened to the sounds of the vehicles and thought about how unpleasant I found it, and how the city isn't designed for auditory comfort. It could be, and it isn't, and it saddened me to think how much worse Kato must have things.
FIC: Emorian borderland (Tempestuous Tours)
Dec. 8th, 2025 11:39 amduskpetersonThe Emorian borderland, like the remainder of the borderland, is famed for the friendliness of its villagers. Despite that, do not be surprised if you are asked to pay for your room and board. Past foreign visitors have often taken advantage of the villagers in order to escape the high price of inns elsewhere in Southern Emor.
In the westernmost villages, you will find a blend of Emorian and Daxion life; though no bards live here, villagers can often be heard singing. As you travel further east, the singing will slowly cease, replaced by talk of blood-lineages and the seven gods and goddesses. You are now in the portion of the Emorian borderland that lies north of Koretia.
The borderland is the only part of Emor where vineyards can be found. Despite the relative coolness of the Emorian borderland, Emor's wines are among the best in the Three Lands. Especially popular is sweetened wild-berry wine (don't try the unsweetened variety unless you enjoy bitter drinks, which you probably do if you're Koretian) and wall-vine wine, made of a mild-tasting grape that grows only in the Emorian borderland.
Farming is also common here. Eastern mainlanders who farm will find much to interest them in these lands that have been plowed since ancient times.
Travelling east, you will eventually reach a crossroads. To travel on to Emor's capital, turn left.
[Translator's note: Hidden Blade shows life in an Emorian borderland village.]