wookiemonster | Reading

Whoops, I got this new

genprompt_bingo bingo card a few days ago, and then neglected to post it here.

Of course, I've still only written two things for the previous bingo card, but I'll catch up eventually. Surely. I mean, I did last time, right?

Anyway, here it is:

( New card )

As usual, I'm not at all sure at first glance what to do with that, but I'm kind of eying the bottom row.

Current Mood: tired

dewline

A suggestion to the people currently care-taking for the Star Trek franchise, one that Larry and David Ellison may well try to prevent the heeding of: the writing teams need people who have served in military or NGO contexts, or have survived as refugees and/or dissidents.

Current Mood: busy

sasha_feather

I realized today that a lot of my friends don't know about what I've gone through this year.

Last year in June I moved back to Minnesota to look after my dad. My mom was in the hospital for a month and then moved to a nursing home with sudden-onset dementia (B1 deficiency) secondary to cancer.

I intended to support them temporarily but decided to make it a more permanent move to support them and their many animals. I struggled and kept expecting other family members to step up, but they did not.

I was hospitalized in May 2025 after a seizure. (Two seizures in 3 years means a new diagnosis of epilepsy.) I am missing about a week or 2 of memories from directly after that experience, so I don't know for sure what happened. I was busy looking after my dad and the animals, and then coordinating a move for my parents into assisted living, which I mostly did myself, While recovering from a seizure, with a broken rib.

I don't know why-- again, I don't remember (likely from medication side effects), but no one from the family came to help me directly after the seizure. My dad (who has dementia) and I did it alone. I'm angry about it and need people to know.

I supported my family for a year and half and did not receive any funds, no salary, very little emotional or logistical help from my brother, his wife, or his 4 healthy teenage kids. There is a wider extended family and they didn't show up either. We got some occasional visits but it wasn't enough.

Since moving my parents into assisted living, I have continued to support them in many ways, including looking after their farm and animals, again with no funds.

This week I asked my brother to help me advocate with my dad, to get me some money. He said no. He believes we should sell the farm (where I am now living). He made no mention of any provisions for me.

I'm obviously very upset, but the anger is at least helping me communicate about what is happening. I am reaching out to friends and various family members and trying to raise the alarm to protect myself.

I am safe for the time being but it is not the best idea for me to be living alone. I had intended to find roommates to come live here with me, but there are some barriers, including me not being the property owner, and the house being a bit of a mess. My next step is to directly talk to my parents about this situation. They both have dementia but I think they are capable of understanding my position.

I am currently unsure what the best course of action is moving forward. But I at least want folks to know what is going on. It's been very helpful to talk on the phone with friends who are affirming to me that this is a fucked up way to be treated. It's been a bitter pill to swallow, realizing that my family is exploiting me.

Warm thoughts, mail, messages are all helpful.

rebeccmeister

6 degrees Fahrenheit when I woke up this morning, which is, granted, better than the 2 degrees originally predicted.

It just takes so much energy to breathe during my bike commute, even with a balaclava.

I am thinking it might be nice to upgrade from ski pants to ski bibs for these sorts of temperatures.

And I should probably look into some double-walled ski goggles at some point, too.

rebeccmeister

The cats have been very snuggly lately. After a whole lot of diplomatic negotiations, they have figured out that Martha gets the leg spaces, and George gets the armpit spaces. While I was Zooming with S last night, Martha crawled into the Leg Cave, and George got into his spot. After the Zoom, however, I needed to get up and wash some dishes, so I had to try and extricate myself from the cats, as one does.

Watch on YouTube

Anyway, this is far more entertaining than talking about all the rest of the grading I'm procrastinating from, or how cold it is (again).

dewline

Current Mood: busy

selenak

More than a decade ago, the tv show Spartacus was a guilty pleasure of mine. I started watching because BtVS and AtS alumnus Steven DeKnight was the showrunner (since then, he's also gathered additional geek cred with the first season of the Netflix Daredevil), and kept watching because as gory and pulpy and trashy as it was, it (after a bad pilot) turned into something compulsively watchable, with interesting characters galore, complicated relationships and good acting. You can read my review of the first season and the prequel season here, of the second season here, and of the third and final season here.

Now a spin-off of said show has just started (in my part of the world, you can watch it on Amazon Prime, but this seems to be different in different countries - like the original show, it gets shown on STARZ in the US) with the first two episodes released. I was alerted to this a few months ago when Steven DeKnight entertainingly shot down the whiny "Woke!" complaints by the usual suspects that started as soon as the first pics were released, showing, OMG, a black woman in a central role among the cast. (Given the original show had several prominent female characters, some of which were poc, and also had canon on screen important m/m relationships, and of course had at its central subject a slave revolt, it beats me why anoyne familiar with said original show should have assumed the show creators being inclined towards the Orance Menace type of entertainment and (lack of) ethos beats me, but there we are. Anyway, the premise of the show per se didn't feel like a must watch to me (more about this later), and I might have hesitated given all the Darth Real Life stuff dodging me, but all the indignation of ignorant fanatics definitely worked as great advertisement. What is the premise? Basically a canon AU, with the title of the spin-off: "Spartacus: House of Ashur" being a giveaway. I.e. it shows what would have happened if one of the original show's villains hadn't ( spoiler for the original show ) - what would have to Ashur, personally, that is, since everything else that happened in the third season of the original show still did happen in the canon AU which starts in what sounds like not even a year after the original show ended. While Ashur had been a good and entertaining villain, I hadn't exactly yearned for a "What if?" about him, yet, see above, external circumstances plus the fact the show really HAD been compulsive watching for me made me tune in and check out the first two episodes.

( Gratitude! )

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: Munich

rebeccmeister

I finally finished darning the current wear holes and moth holes in this wool cycling jersey.

Wool jerseys can be pretty expensive, not to mention many of them are one-time special-order items. A long time ago, when a friend organized for an order of wool jerseys for members of the Car Resistance Action Party, S put his jersey in the wash and it shrank in such a way that it became instantly unwearable. My CRAP jersey has fared better, but it's next in the jersey mending pile.

I lost the jersey size lottery with that one for the New England Randonneurs (but of course that meant

threemeninaboat got lucky!!), not to mention, wool jerseys also actually vary quite a lot in how heavy/thick they are, and heavier isn't necessarily better.

Hopefully these repairs keep this particular one in service for a little while longer, maybe even long enough for another trip to France? I'm really not sure about that at this point (going to France again OR survival of the jersey).

rebeccmeister

During dinner with a friend the other week, the friend mentioned a new-ish time management self help book called Four Thousand Weeks, where apparently the premise is about thinking about how much time one might have alive on this planet, to then think differently about one's priorities and what one does across that time.

Would you say it's good timing or poor timing to have a topic like this book come up, in the context of several weeks where first a Physics colleague died suddenly (didn't know him very well, but other colleagues and students have very much been affected), then our school's beloved lacrosse coach fell down stairs at home and died, then a colleague with terminal cancer died, too?

I'm really not sure.

But I don't feel like I have much else to report at the moment.

I did convince my rowing teammates to, once again, participate in a contest where we all rowed 6000m on the rowing machine and then ran a 5k, for a range of definitions of "ran." It took me 34 minutes to jog-trot the 5k part, heh, which made me think of several of you because really, this is the one time of year I ever attempt to run a 5k. Apparently that was 2 minutes slower for the run than the last time I participated in the Holiday Hustle, in 2023. My erg time was also slower.

But the running route was lovely, because of the recent snowfall.

Then I came home and tried to fix the garage door's doorknob, which had lost its set screw and came apart right when I was trying to leave to set things up for the rowing event. It was much easier to deal with during daylight hours, at least.

Then groceries and cooking, and now Martha is curled up in my lap, so I suppose I should just try to finish mending this first cycling jersey.

I mostly just need to organize my thoughts about what to tackle next, projects-wise.

muccamukk

Thirty-six years ago today, a lone gunman murdered fourteen women at Polytechnique Montréal, before taking his own life.

The names of the women were:

Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Maryse Laganière
Maryse Leclair
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Michèle Richard
Annie St-Arneault
Annie Turcotte
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz

CBC: Montreal to honour 14 victims of Polytechnique massacre at ceremony.

Globe & Mail: Progress on combatting intimate-partner violence stalling under new government, advocates fear.

dewline

Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

Current Mood: Empathizing
Current Location: Home-for-now
Current Music: The House on CBC Radio

dewline

I just realized that I have eight or nine different star mapping projects on the go with various members of the Tranquility Press gang.

All this has been building up over the last five years, partly to cope with other stuff and partly for fun and research giggles (which have been plentiful).

More as I think it over.

Current Mood: surprised

rebeccmeister

The thermometer on the back porch said 5 degrees Fahrenheit when I left the house for work this morning. I skipped rowing practice and used the machines on the front porch again because I was up too late grading papers again.

I managed to do fairly well with remembering how to dress for that sort of temperature.

I don't remember what to do about any temperatures lower than that, though. My main recollection is that for temperatures lower than 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature doesn't matter quite as much as the windchill does, in terms of the experience. And I might just not have the right gear for temperatures much further below 0 degrees, anyway.

This has felt like a long week.

muccamukk

Watch on YouTube

selenak

In which I had to google this week's celebrity cameo because his fame had eluded me in my corner of the world for now, but I was amused by the rest, and felt for Carol.

( Spoilers have Zoom-calls twice a week )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Bad Wiessee

anais_pf posting in

thefridayfive

1. If you had to participate in one Olympic event, what would it be and why?

2. What is the one song you always sing along to?

3. Do you wear a seatbelt in the car?

4. Car, SUV or truck and why?

5. Are you a good/bad driver? Explain.

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**

missdiane

I was going to post yesterday with guarded happiness about the improvement in my blood test numbers. Happy because my total cholesterol went from 212 and is now 196, my good HDL cholesterol went up from 46 to 52 and my bad LDL cholesterol went down from 138 to 114. Also, my A1c went down from 6.6 to 6.4 which is back in the safer range. It was guarded because the triglycerides went up from 154 to 173 but they always seem to ping pong all over the place which seems weird. But I figured my GP who convinced me to go on the statin alternative several months ago would be satisfied enough with the results.

Evidently not enough. She had one of her minions call me to ask if I'd be "willing to consider also starting Crestor since my LDL didn't go down as much as the doctor was hoping" of which I interrupted her with the quickness and said NO. Good freaking grief. I am JUST going back to work this week after having major surgery two months ago. Hell, I'm still going to the wound care clinic and still randomly having inflammation.

Woman, cut me some damned slack. The numbers are FINE and once I start to be able to get things more back to normal, they may improve even more.

I shouldn't be surprised. When I was in her office, I mentioned about how Cipro gave me panic attacks but that I'm working with a therapist to get over the worst of things and am stabilizing. Her response "Oh, that's good. If we need, we can start talking about starting (brain meds)" Yeah, again NO. Not everything needs drugs immediately thrown at it, especially if you have someone that you KNOW has adverse effects to many meds.

Way to burst my bubble, lady. Hell, I'm more pissy about this than not getting the upgrade. Zen....ZENNNNNNNNNN

rebeccmeister

I am currently reading Ed Yong's I Contain Multitudes because while teaching General Biology I got to thinking I could stand to learn and think some more specifically about prokaryotes. Sure, I'm a biologist, but I definitely don't know everything there is to know about biology! Far from it.

Somewhat hilariously, some of the earliest parts of the book turned out to be exceptionally ho-hum to me, but I think this is just because I spend a lot of my waking hours thinking and reading about a wide range of topics in biology, and those already often include a lot of the big Microbial Gee-Whiz concepts/discoveries/facts. So I appreciated how Yong can write eloquently and enthusiastically about the topics, but they land a little differently for someone who is going, "Okay, and now what?" I mean, aren't Wolbachia kind of old news?*

But last night I got to the chapter about milk. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but I learned things, and it was really fun to read because I'd just read about how seal milk contains even more complex oligosaccharides than human milk. (okay, small spoiler, Yong pokes at the question of, "Okay, but what are all those oligosaccharides in milk actually doing, because they aren't directly nourishing the baby, turns out!").

Somewhere in the midst of it all, I also only just learned that milk is basically modified sweat. That actually made a whole lot of things make a whole lot more sense to me, finally! Like specifically, how there are animals that can produce milk, except not with mammary glands? I believe there are even some insects that can produce milk. Also, isn't it both hilarious and gross to think about milk as modified sweat?

Fun things to think about over lunch.

We shall see what the next chapters of Yong's book bring. I'm glad I continued reading.

--
*If you're an insect biologist, you need to know about Wolbachia. But yes, Wolbachia are weird and complicated to think about, so I'm definitely not teaching about Wolbachia in an introductory course!

mistee posting in

addme

Name: Mistee

Age: 45

I mostly post about: I don't use it to post anything right now, I forgot I had this journal to be honest lol. I am going to turn it into a fandom/graphics blog though, with some other stuff sprinkled in probably. I don't usually post personal stuff online but have no problem discussing it with people in PM/DM if they're interested learning about me, etc..

My hobbies are: Fandom roleplaying (I only play fandom characters, but will rp with fandom or oc characters), gaming (mostly MMO's), reading manga or fanfics, watching anime or anything that catches my interest, getting back into icon/graphic making cuz I miss it, listening to music, watching movies.

My fandoms are: Teen Wolf (MTV show), Trigun Manga/Anime, and various others I'm trying to keep up with lol but those two are my biggest fixations right now.

I'm looking to meet people who: Have the same interests, being near or the same age is not necessary. I have friends from all different age ranges/walks of life.

My posting schedule tends to be: Whenever I have the energy. I work from home due to medical problems, so my hours are roughly 8am-630pm Central Standard time, Mon-Fri. Though I am mostly around a lot of the time.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Discrimination, ableism, racism, animal cruelty, transphobia, gay-phobia, bigotry, speaking negatively about LGBTQ+, honestly any of the bad shit lol.

Before adding me, you should know: I am chronically online due to medical issues/being disabled so I am around a LOT. Going to be around even more so due to our work's reduction of hours they're putting into place soon so I'm going to have a LOT of free time coming up to work with lol. I also mostly connect through either Discord or Plurk.

A fun fact about me is that I have a Guinness World Record and a star named after me. :)

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wookiemonster

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January 2015

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Page Summary

astrogirl - Yet Again Another New Bingo Card
dewline - About that "National Security Statement"?
dewline - About the Trek Writers' Rooms?
sasha_feather - Update on my life
rebeccmeister - This coldness just feels like a bit much. [status]
rebeccmeister - Let's just have a moment with cats [cats]
dewline - Musical Interlude: "A Song Is a Weapon" by Stars
selenak - Spartacus: House of Ashur 1.01 and 1.02
rebeccmeister - Mending report [projects]
rebeccmeister - 4.54 billion years [status]
muccamukk - Thirty Six Years
dewline - École Polytechnique: We Still Remember
dewline - Yawn...what am I doing?
rebeccmeister - Oy that was cold [bicycling]
muccamukk - Some Bottled Joy for a Friday
selenak - Pluribus 1.06
anais_pf in thefridayfive - The Friday Five for 5 December 2025
missdiane - Telling the drug pusher NO
rebeccmeister - Milk news [books, work]
mistee in addme - (no subject)

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Page generated Dec. 10th, 2025 02:40 am

Friends of the Wookiemonster

Reading

Yet Again Another New Bingo Card

About that "National Security Statement"?

About the Trek Writers' Rooms?

Update on my life

This coldness just feels like a bit much. [status]

Let's just have a moment with cats [cats]

Musical Interlude: "A Song Is a Weapon" by Stars

Spartacus: House of Ashur 1.01 and 1.02

Mending report [projects]

4.54 billion years [status]

Thirty Six Years

École Polytechnique: We Still Remember

Yawn...what am I doing?

Oy that was cold [bicycling]

Some Bottled Joy for a Friday

Pluribus 1.06

The Friday Five for 5 December 2025

Telling the drug pusher NO

Milk news [books, work]

(no subject)

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January 2015

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