( books (Ghattas, Raybourn) )

yarning
Made and sent 2 catnip-silvervine hearts (to the same customer who has ordered about nine of them now). Missed yarn group due to cold, torrential rain, and DST. Made and sent 2 multicolored kickbunnies. Finished the turquoise kickbunny for kitten academy's current momcat (her kittens are 2 weeks old and adorable!), but haven't gone to the post office yet. Continued Easter carrots after messaging the customer to confirm the number and cost (so stressful!). Now they just need smiles and hanging loops.

healthcrap
I loathe springing forward. Still can't get up at a decent hour. Daytime vertigo is now coming randomly. In the night, it's mostly connected to lying in bed/rolling over/getting up to go to the bathroom. Fun times. I do feel a bit better overall. I got all my healthcare coverage renewal info uploaded and am impatiently awaiting a telephone appt. Tongue still has a hole in it, but it's shallower than it was and is slowly healing...if I can just keep from biting it. Had to start a new tube of benzocaine.

#resist
+ Check locally for anti-war protests. I'm finding Reddit and Instagram to be fairly good sources if you check often. (Last Saturday was a national protest, but I didn't know about it until just a couple of hours beforehand. Doh!)
+ March 28: #50501 No Kings Protest #3

Thanks for the kind comments on recent posts. I've been terrible at replies. I hope you're all doing well! <333

My mom is currently doing a no-smartphone-challenge with her students, and I decided to do the light version and set myself a goal of 1.5 hours of smartphone time per day (normal phone calls don't count.) I did well the first few days but then failed the last three, and right now I'm realizing the limit means I can't use my phone to listen to streams while doing the dishes. Boo.

Other effects: I read books on my e-book-reader on my commute instead of fics on my phone. And I really wish my radio wasn't broken but it hasn't reached the necessary annoyance level yet to get it fixed.

I'm not behind on my study plan for my next exam yet! (The upcoming exam is mostly VAT so both important and relevant and hard.) We'll see how long it lasts, but I'm in week 3 and that's pretty good especially for my standards. And that's despite me being sick one weekend and having a bad cold the next.

I told myself I'd combine it with finally starting the Hades 2 1.0 playthrough I've been planning for months, and for the first two weeks I actually managed to stick to my "one run per study session" rule but, uh, not anymore. Ahem. Good news, still having a lot of fun playing Hades 2. And thanks to playing over 130 hours in Early Access I'm so much better than when I started my first playthrough.
(I started now because the plan was DD would start the week after and then we can talk about it, but she had a schedule change and still hasn't started so that didn't work out either ^^)

But since I started playing Hades 2 I mostly stopped playing Vampire Survivors - not completely, I have done a few more runs to get some of the very last unlocks/secrets, but mostly. So have the remaining notes for now, directly continuing from last time.

( More Vampire Survivors: more bats, still no vampires. )


I should stop procrastinating and do the dishes.

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 is a craft that you tried but abandoned?


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!

My short review - I liked it.

A bit longer review, with spoilers, is here.

I love Prim, even though I shake my head over her pretending, and badly, that she doesn’t care about her ex. She so cares. She still has feelings for Bambi.

For now Bambi irritates me. She spoiled and immature, and tramples all over Prim’s boundaries, not that those boundaries are very strong, but still. She’s like Ray from Only Friends for me. Only less self-destructive. I think.

I love Sasha. Milk is gorgeous and Sasha is such a cool character. And Love is good as Gorya, and she has great chemistry with both Milk and Namtan. I hope Love and Namtan will kiss at least once. Please, give it to me, show. 😊

View is so beautiful, but her and Mim’s storyline is the least interesting to me. But it’s just the 1st episode, so who knows I might change my mind later.

I was busy enough yesterday that this went out on Bluesky, but not yet here on my own site!

I am teaming up again with Avery Liell-Kok (one of the artists from the pattern deck) to make Lady Trent's Field Journal: A Dragon Coloring Book. Ten images of dragons in the wild, accompanied by excerpts from Lady Trent's scholarly writings -- my way of answering a question I've gotten with surprising frequency, which is "Will you ever publish any of her scientific work?" I have yet to come up with any complete ideas in that regard that would be interesting enough to pass as a short story, but as pairings for her drawings from the field? Sure!

The dragons featured here are a deliberate mix of old favorites you've seen before, dragons which got mentioned but never depicted, and new beasts created entirely for this project. The Kickstarter campaign will offer the writings and images in three formats: a file pack you can print at home or color in digitally, a loose-leaf pack to facilitate sharing around or hanging on the wall, and a paperback book -- that last coming in both a regular and a Scholar's Edition, which will be signed and have an additional quick sketch from Avery. I'm also including add-ons for bookplates and signed paperbacks of the novels in the series!

Right now we're in the pre-launch phase. If you'd like to be notified when it goes live (or you just want to support the project in the eyes of the algorithm gods), just click the "notify me" button here. It won't be long!

(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/ww1BN4)

Fandom: Stranger Things
Pairings/Characters: Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson
Rating: G
Length: 2,489 words
Creator Link: insignificant457
Theme: Siblings, Gen

Summary: "See, the problem is this: in the past few weeks there's been a distressing increase in the thickness and darkness of the peach fuzz on his upper lip, to the point that it's becoming noticeable and also gross. He should be happy about it, really, because it's a sign of manhood, isn't it?"

Sometimes, not having a dad around really, really sucks. But recently acquiring a big brother does have its perks.

Reccer's Notes: As the author says, "They're brothers your honor." I love the way Steve and Dustin adopted each other in the show, and this fic feels like it could be a missing scene. The voices are spot on, and the vibes are good.

Fanwork Link: Problems of a Follicular Nature

Extreme heat limits safe activity for millions of people worldwide

Extreme heat is now stopping people from doing simple daily tasks like walking, cleaning, or working outside.

A new study shows that climate warming has changed how much activity the human body can safely handle in hot weather.

Scientists found that since the 1950s, the number of hours each year when heat becomes dangerous for normal activity has increased sharply.


Yesterday it got up to 79℉, in Illinois, in early March. That is not normal. I rely on cool spring temperatures for yardwork such as planting bare-root trees and shrubs. I had to start my summer heat-coping skills, like avoiding direct sunlight and reducing workload. Plus we had to turn on the damn air conditioner, because recently when it was 76℉ outside, the house got considerably hotter and stayed that way through the wee hours. >_<

Summer, of course, has days when I can only go out for a few minutes at a time or not at all, and I worry about the air conditioner breaking because repairs take months to complete. It's life support for me, but other people don't consider that urgent.

( Read more... )

Today is cloudy, cold, and wet.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.


.
 

A massive asteroid hit the North Sea and triggered a 330-foot tsunami

A long-running debate about the Silverpit Crater beneath the North Sea has finally been resolved. Scientists now confirm it formed when a roughly 160-meter asteroid struck the seabed about 43–46 million years ago. New seismic imaging and rare shocked minerals in rock samples provided the crucial proof. The impact would have sent a massive plume skyward and unleashed a tsunami over 100 meters (330 feet) high.


One thing I love about science is that occasionally it can really prove things.

11. How organised are you with household paperwork (or is everything just in one big pile)?

I'm so unorganized, it's not even funny. Hubby is very organized. One of us had to be. However, he has boxes and boxes of things from his job before retiring. He worked for the same company for 44 years. So, it's 44 years of his job memories. I have to start cleaning out my closet. It's a huge walk-in-closet. I'm going to ask him if we can clean it all out this weekend. I hope he says yes. It's too much to tackle on my own. We’ll see who is organized this weekend.

Hi Pattrose

mxcatmoon sent you a message on Dreamwidth.

The message is: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I hope you have a great birthday tomorrow!

🧡🎈🎁🧁🎂

Cat

I'm having trouble getting to Dreamwidth. . So, I'm answering here. Is anyone else having a hard time with Dreamwidth? Thank you so much, Cat. If you want to read a kick butt story from Katef. It's on AO3. It's the sentinel. It's so good. https://archiveofourown.org/works/80965876

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

Topics for talk

Ways I Can Be a Better Friend

One word and one word alone. Listen. Don’t give your opinion, listen while he or she vents. Sometimes it’s the best thing you can do. It’s hard to do this, but do it anyhow. They will thank you later.

90 questions

1. What is something that makes you unique?

I have no idea. This one stumped me. Hopefully it’ll spark some interest for someone else. I was thinking, I’m friendly, but that doesn’t make you unique.