Much-needed 1x row [rowing]

Oct. 6th, 2025 10:56 am
rebeccmeister: (Default)
[personal profile] rebeccmeister
There were 9 rowers signed up for this morning's practice, so I got to be the odd one out and rowed in my 1x. The conditions were perfect. I launched just as the full moon set over Albany (yellow light just to the right of center).

Tuesday morning rowing practice

I was able to make it all the way up to the red can buoy north of the Menands Bridge. I didn't have much stopping time aside from this brief moment near the bridge on my way back downriver. Also, it's tricky to take good photos on these dark mornings.

Tuesday morning rowing practice

There's rain in the forecast for later in the week, so we've got to savor these mornings when we get them.

Tuesday morning rowing practice

It was helpful to be in the 1x this morning. Time to just do my own thing, feel where I need to continue working on improvements to my rowing stroke, not have to put so much effort into leading or coordinating teammates in a team boat.

And now it's time to think about cell division, the topic of the week for General Biology.
rebeccmeister: (Default)
[personal profile] rebeccmeister
Saturday morning we had Yet Another Beautiful Rowing Practice. I did my best Rowing Paparazzi impression.

Saturday morning practice

Saturday morning practice

Saturday morning practice

Saturday morning practice

Immediately after rowing, I met up with some other bicyclists for a Coffee Outside expedition. I was so thrilled to have the company!

International #CoffeeOutside Day

We rode up to Peebles Island, found an empty picnic table, and set about brewing our coffee.

International #CoffeeOutside Day

The other people who biked are all members of Albany Social Cycling, which makes me really want to make it to at least one Social Cycling ride this year. We'll see.

International #CoffeeOutside Day

I brought along a glass vacuum brewer and the teacups in the hard-sided box, but neglected to notice the vacuum brewer didn't have its filter disk. So I was very glad to have also brought along a moka pot. Everyone enjoyed the pumpkin muffins I brought along (shh, made with butternut squash puree!).

Back at home, I continued work on the coxbox charging shelf. On Saturday I mostly determined that I didn't know how to use my pocket hole jig, sigh.

Coxbox charging station

There are definitely NOT supposed to be pointy screw bits sticking out!

Coxbox charging station

But after that failure, I read further instructions, so today I had much greater success.
Coxbox charging station

I am adapting the cover from an old coxbox charging station for this new one:

Coxbox charging station

It will look somewhat silly, but that's fine. What matters the most is that all of the charging wires and other accessories will soon be organized!

I do need to obtain and install some hinges next. But I will be really glad to have this project done and out of the house soon!

I did not make any progress on oar blade repairs, but people are going to come over next Saturday to help and learn. So that will happen next. In the long term I am hoping to work on rowing projects at a slower, consistent pace. This year is still Way Too Much.

Posting again.

Oct. 5th, 2025 02:48 pm
midnight_heavenly_bodies: (Default)
[personal profile] midnight_heavenly_bodies posting in [community profile] addme
Name: C.K. or Chester, if you like.

Age: 36.

I mostly post about: Linkin Park (specifically the 2000-2017 era, before the band became a cult puppet show), wrestling (classic SMW, WWF, the always sexy Jim Cornette, and my own very cursed WWE 2K25 Universe where I resurrect promotions and pair people based on vibes and trauma), Culture Club/Boy George fic, chaos, conspiracies, and timelines that make Doctor Who look basic, my OCs, who are so deeply real to me I've fought people in my head about them, Witchcraft, spirit work, folk healing, moon rituals, grief magic, retro gaming, random emotional overshares that sound like a journal entry from a possessed poet with too many piercings

My hobbies are: Writing fic that's 70% emotional breakdown, 20% worldbuilding, and 10% people getting railed in a meaningful way, hexing cults with sigils and sass, collecting music like it's my religion, drawing OCs, editing cursed screenshots and organizing old files like I'm preserving the Library of Alexandria, going to work like a normal person, coming home, and spiritually becoming a haunted glitter goblin with eyeliner and vengeance

My fandoms are: Linkin Park, wrestling (SMW, WWF, WCW -- but mainly the universes in my head), Culture Club (I write a huge fanfic AU for them), t.A.T.u., Verka Serduchka, obscure Eastern European pop acts with synths and trauma, Star Trek AOS (specifically Into Darkness)

I'm looking to meet people who: are too weird for Reddit, too raw for Instagram, and too smart for Twitter/X, overshare about their OCs like it's their religion, are into long-ass posts, rambling, and crying over character development

My posting schedule tends to be: Erratic. Sometimes I post a lot, sometimes I disappear for three weeks and come back with stuff.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism, or being a dick in general, "Hamasniks", Scientology apologists or people who think Mike Shinoda is evil because they saw an Instagram reel with eerie music behind it (or buy into a certain someone's heavily cherry-picked posts), anyone who says "you still like Linkin Park?" or "isn't wrestling fake?"

Before adding me, you should know: I'm trans. My pronouns are he/him and they/them. I am autistic and ADHD. I write the "controversial" fanfic trope of mpreg a lot. I am very defensive of my faves.  I am a Zionist, and hate how the term has been turned into something it's not. I am pro-AI, and use it a lot to make AI song covers. I find it fun. Also, I smoke weed, lol.

I haven't done this in a while

Oct. 4th, 2025 11:21 pm
wantedonvoyage: Riff off the cover of Gaslight Anthem's "Handwritten" (handwritten)
[personal profile] wantedonvoyage posting in [community profile] addme
I'm trying to be on here more than LJ because I'm paying for a lot of userpics, so I figured I would try again.

Name: Chris

Age: old

I mostly post about:
My life and interactions.

My hobbies are: going to rock concerts, camping, kayaking, stand-up paddle-boarding, drawing badly, reading and writing fiction.

My fandoms are: I don't really know that I'm into any specific franchise enough to count other than bands. I don't watch TV or see many movies. Some peculiar nerddoms: I have long been interested in the history of passenger aviation and shipping although I do very little about it these days.

Who I want to connect with: I am curious about people's lives which are different than mine and I am glad DW gives me a chance to experience them. Thus if our interests don't seem to align don't let that be a show stopper.

When I add people, my show-stoppers are: No drumpfreich apologists. I am also not particularly interested in following "celebrity" bloggers who are only on here looking for an audience. I like for my connections on here to be a two-way street.

Before adding me, you should know:
  1. Currently I have two things consuming a lot of my non-work time, which has meant less time to read and write. I'm doing my best to keep up and do not want to fall out of the habit. Accordingly...
  2. When I am pressed for time, I may make more of an effort to read/comment the people who also more frequently engage with my posts. This doesn't mean we shouldn't be connected if you can't be constantly be lavishing me with attention.
  3. One of the two distractions mentioned above is I am currently in a leadership position in my small, progressive/inclusive mainline protestant church. Although i do post about it, it's more in the vein that people post about their work life. I do not use my blog to proselytize. Also, I am not in the least bit uptight or prudish, or here to judge your life choices, and--as you would learn--I would be on thin ice if I did. It's just another thing that i do. 
My posting schedule tends to be: I was doing a post for every day, sometimes a few days behind, until the aforementioned plus being forced to commute 5x a week again changed things a bit. Right now I am trying to keep up with weekly.

Oi, the lot of ya

Oct. 4th, 2025 05:57 pm
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[personal profile] gs_silva posting in [community profile] addme
Name: GS

Age: old

I mostly post about: Comic book creation, art and writing in general, character development and musings, my personal experiences, my cat, exploring and subverting tropes, maybe politics idk, random shower thoughts

My hobbies are: household management, gardening, native ecology, world travel, language learning

My fandoms are: Whatever you're writing! If you show an interest in my WIP, I'll show an interest in yours. There are a very few genres and themes that I find impossible to engage in. Unfortunately, they tend to be very common: super awesome superlative hero good-and-evil stuff, or gritty dark stuff where everybody's horrible.

But I believe very strongly in reciprocity, and if those themes are your passion, you won't like my book much either. So if you create something that's light and humorous, or raw and honest, or speculative and political, I'll be there for you if you'll be here for me!

But I also enjoy reading and meeting people who aren't into any of that and who just want to be DW friends.

I've lived in Saigon and Shanghai and been to Cambodia and Philippines, and now I'm in the US and not terribly happy about it, so I'd enjoy meeting people with connections to those places. Or Lyon, France! Part of my book takes place in Lyon.


When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Oh, I don't know. Really toxic anger and hateful opinions, I guess. Usually if someone irks me, I'll disappear quietly.

Before adding me, you should know: I'm a naturally chaotic person. I know most of the unspoken rules of society but I don't always care. I've had the usual amount of life traumas but I don't often talk about them. My profile pic is my male MC, Maurice. I'll probably talk about him a lot. I'm not a quiet creator. A lot of what I write is Maurice this, Maurice that, Cathy this. I call my characters by name because I want people to remember them.

Good Intentions Buried

Oct. 4th, 2025 01:00 pm
yourlibrarian: DeadTuesday-smidgy06 (SPN-DeadTuesday-smidgy06)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) From [personal profile] osteophage, a post about The Good Web Graveyard, "a link compilation on departed websites that had marketed themselves in terms of ethics." I think one doesn't have to be an out and out cynic to assume that it's difficult for a company to do well when it's not on a level playing field with unethical companies. But it's good to consider that good intentions aren't enough in surviving long-term online.

2) My Britbox subscription has run out, and at an inopportune moment. I was speed watching Passengers, by which I was skipping some of, or entire, episodes and relying on their recaps to keep up with developments. Unfortunately I was interrupted near the end of the final episode and by the time I got back to it, the subscription had ended. Read more... )

4) Some interesting details of the AOL sale: "AOL's website traffic has grown 20% year-over-year among the users aged 25 and 54, outpacing the growth in the category of users aged 55-plus...The growth was driven by the introduction of multiple new content categories to AOL.com, including Health, Fitness, Animals, Science & Tech, Home & Garden, Lighter Side, True Crime, Local, amongst others"

I wonder if AI searches can account for this? Granted the nature of these new topic pages was designed to attract views, but I've hardly ever seen AOL as a site turn up in any searches I do.

"Bending Spoons... agreed a deal to take private video platform company Vimeo for $1.38 billion, its largest acquisition to date." I was also surprised to find out that AOL owns Last Pass, so that has a new owner now as well.

4) I know everyone's upset at the rising cost of everything. But sometimes it's the little things that make you mad. My main supermarket has recently switched its sales period from Wednesday to Tuesday after 20+ years (maybe always, for all I known) of doing Sunday to Saturday. This is making a mess of their shelf and data system, because the ad says one thing but there's nothing showing on the shelf and they don't ring up on sale. Read more... )

5) "Consumer Reports’ fourth annual digital assessment shows a 50 percent increase in texting and messaging scam attempts over the past year. Meanwhile, a 10,500-person poll from Talker Research indicates that Americans field around 100 scam attempts per month compared to an average of 84 in the United Kingdom. Australians, however, experience half the number seen in the US. But while scams continue to frequently target older demographics, one of the most dramatic upticks concerns younger populations."

The main reasons? Group texts which disguise unknown numbers, and quick access to money apps.


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Searching for a sense of community

Oct. 4th, 2025 04:09 pm
hmmm_tea: (Default)
[personal profile] hmmm_tea posting in [community profile] addme
Name: Owen

Age: 45

I mostly post about: A real mix of things: life, single parenting, interesting stories I've found in my family history, politics (left wing), vegan cooking and whatever else springs to mind

My hobbies are: Cooking, genealogy, gardening/allotment, hiking, former morris dancer

My fandoms are: Not really into fandom, but happy to meet people who are

I'm looking to meet people who: Want to be part of a friendly online community. I used to be active on LJ some time ago (previous posts have all been imported so should give an idea of what I used to share - older now, but not necessarily much wiser) and would love to find the sense of community there used to be there.

My posting schedule tends to be: As and when

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: I'm generally open minded

Before adding me, you should know: I'm not really sure, but you can always unadd me later if you change your mind

R. F. .Kuang: Katabasis

Oct. 4th, 2025 11:00 am
selenak: (Claudius by Pixelbee)
[personal profile] selenak
This is the third novel of R. F. Kuang I've read (after being impressed by the The Poppy Wars, first volume, but also emotionally so exhausted I didn't read the rest of the trilogy, amused and captivated in an emotionally distant way by Yellowface, and turned so much by Babel that I only read the first twenty pages or so and then gave up), and I think my favourite so far. There is academic satire but also genuine emotion throughout, there is great ambition epically realised (i.e. writing a trip to the underworld in the grand tradition of all the obvious suspects, but specifically one that reflects the present), and the horror parts hit home in a way that feels not derivative but specific for this particular version. (The novel is set in a universe where magic is real, but isn't concerned with how this altered history or not, just what it means you can study it at university.) Our main character, Alice Law, is the kind of messy, complicated and morally ambiguous (and not in a "nice" way) woman the author specializes in, though for me personally preferable because I had the sense of the narrative being on board with what it was saying about Alice's strengths and weaknesses through her initially very skewered perspective. Also she had a genuine learning process through that trip through the Underworld, and... but that would be spoilery.

Spoilers realize the Underworld is modelled on a British University )


Also improving my week: This trailer for Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Frankenstein:

Art!

Oct. 3rd, 2025 04:31 pm
astrogirl: (Bill Cipher)
[personal profile] astrogirl
You know I have to post about this sort of thing here when it happens, because it makes me go "Eeeeeeeeeee!" a lot in excited, delighted tones, and I can't not share: someone did a little fanart sketch for my Gravity Falls fic "Congratulations on Your Apotheosis." And it is awesome to see not just a visual representation of something in my fic, but of this particular moment in this particular fic. Eeeeee!

Note: Art is spoilery for a climactic moment in said fic, may seem a bit weird if you're not familiar with the show (or maybe even if you are, depending on your shipping opinions, I suppose), and may not be viewable if you don't have a Tumblr account (which is one of the reasons why I have one, even though I never post there).

Debunked / bunked [rowing, projects]

Oct. 3rd, 2025 12:28 pm
rebeccmeister: (Default)
[personal profile] rebeccmeister
I can't say I know where the week has gone, entirely. I guess maybe very busy Tuesdays and Thursdays because of my teaching and research schedule, plus lots of grading, plus measuring ant heads, plus rowing-related things (so many meetings!).

Anyway. Last weekend when I had an impressive bout of insomnia, I finally managed to assemble an order for bunk boards for one of the rowing safety launch trailers. That whole project turned into quite the journey. I initially bought carpet and supplies to make 2 sets of bunk boards for 2 trailers, then eventually managed to get 1 of the 2 sets made and installed without much trouble. For the second trailer, things got complicated because some of the lag bolts that attach a metal bracket to the boards were stripped.

So I ordered a bunch more lag bolts, plus a set of spare brackets, and while I was at it, another pair of 5-ft bunk boards, pre-made. That way I could detach the brackets and replace them completely.

The rowers who went out for practice helpfully took the safety launch that lives on the trailer needing attention, so I could work on it while they were out on the water. You might think that unscrewing 12 bolts and then screwing on new pieces wouldn't be that complicated, but it clearly is. In addition to the lag bolts being frozen/stripped, one of the bracket bolts was stripped. It took me a good hour to tackle, all told.

Anyway, now that project is DONE. FINALLY. I used the pre-made bunk boards, so now we can see which bunk boards last longer, the ones I laboriously (time-consumedly) made by hand, or the pre-made ones. If it's anywhere close to a wash, I will never attempt to make handmade bunk boards, ever again. I've got too many other things to do with my free time.

I feel like this has been a year where I've learned far more about boat trailers than I might have ever cared to know.

BUT - we launch and retrieve our safety launches every single practice. So having functional launch trailers is super important and helpful.

Pictures later.
defrog: (books)
[personal profile] defrog

Slowing down again, but I’m ahead of schedule, so why not?

The Man Who Knew Too Much (Dover Literature: Crime/Mystery/Thriller Short Stories)The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not to be confused with the Hitchcock films of the same name, which borrowed the title (and nothing else) from this 1922 collection of what are billed as detective stories, but are actually far more than that – they’re really commentaries on corruption and skullduggery among the upper class in the British govt at the time, and how they can literally get away with murder. While the stories are essentially standalone, they also form an interconnected narrative when bookended by the first and last stories.

The title character is Horne Fisher, a respected member of the upper class from a political family who is very well connected with top government officials – including the Prime Minister – and seems to know everybody and everything. That also means that while he is very adept at solving the murder mysteries that occur in these tales, he also believes that reporting his findings to the police will be not only futile, but also potentially damaging to the govt and the stability of the British Empire, or what’s left of it. Fisher’s cynical pessimism (some might say realism) contrasts to his sidekick, political journalist Harold March, whom he befriends in the first story.

Like Chesterton’s Father Brown stories, the mystery-solving bit is almost incidental to the scenarios in which they take place, with the crime usually happening mid-way through the story and Fisher solving the mystery quite quickly. For my money, I think that approach works better here than with the Father Brown mysteries, if only because Fisher comes across as a better defined character. What’s even more interesting is that Fisher is more of an anti-hero because of his complicity. He knows who’s guilty, yet is unwilling to turn them in – a point that March eventually calls him out on.

I will say that Chesterton probably assumed his audience would be informed of the big political issues of the day in early-1920s England – or at least the framework in which his fictional issues occur – so if you’re not up to speed on that, you may feel a bit lost, especially during the final story. Possibly more problematic for contemporary readers is the blatant anti-Semitism in one story, even if you take it as an accurate reflection of political sentiment at the time. (Chesterton himself has been accused of being anti-Semitic, though he always denied this and also denounced Hitler before it became popular.) Anyway, I found it strangely compelling.


Leaves of GrassLeaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I read a few selected Whitman poems in a poetry class in university, and of course I’ve heard quotations of and references to his work in Dead Poets Society and Ray Bradbury stories and whatnot. And I remember learning that Whitman was very controversial for his day, not just for disregarding metre and rhyme, but also for the sexual overtones of some of his poems, not all of which could be said to be exclusively heterosexual, if you see what I’m saying. So sure, I figured I’d dive in his sole collection of poems, which originally started with 12 poems and now contains over 400.

And, well ... I’m probably not the most qualified person to review it, not exactly being a connoisseur of poetry. Let’s just say everyone has their own taste in poetry, and I have mine, and for the most part, Whitman is not it. There are a few gems here, all of which are among his shorter poems. In fact, I got more out of the short ones, as Whitman’s style is so grandiose and (for lack of a better term) emo to the point of pretentiousness that it makes the longer poems a real slog. Put another way, Whitman makes Bill Shakespeare look like Bukowski. Points for going against the grain, ditching conventions and celebrating the natural world and all, and the good ones are certainly worthwhile, but man, I’m glad that’s over.

View all my reviews

Sheer bloody poetry,

This is dF
puppetmaker: (Default)
[personal profile] puppetmaker
 Jane Goodall passed away in her sleep. She was so much more than the chimp lady. The work she did has opened a whole new way of thinking about both animals and people.

 

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you.

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to

make.”

— Jane Goodall 

 

Kindness costs you very little. Kindness should be one’s first go to. A kind word can make someone’s day especially if they are having a bad one. I compliment someone’s hair or outfit or shoes, many times they smile, and their face brightens up. I have recognized them as a fellow person in just the comment. I try to be kind to all. I don’t know what sort of day/week/month/year they had.

 

Polite is a good reflex too. It doesn’t matter who it is, they deserve politeness. I try to be polite even in difficult situation. It’s just good manners. I have gotten a lot further with taking care of problems with being polite. I watch that play out at DragonCon when I went to check in. It was two different people checking in. One was being rather rude. They kept harping on their status with the hotel and how dare his room was not ready right now. The other gentleman took the news rather graciously and gave them his cell number to call when the room was ready. The gentleman was called back in pretty short order and got his room. The other guy came back about the same time I did to get his room. There was a lot of muttering about calling corporate about how long he had to wait. It was about an hour.  I told the clerk whose name was Susanne that if she needed a witness as to what happened here is my phone number since I had been there for both incidents. She thanked me but said it was not necessary due to the camera system they have set up there.

 

Nice is a reflex with me. I always try to be nice. Again, it costs me nothing except breath. Everyone deserves to be treated nicely. When I was at MoMI two weeks ago, I gave information I knew to others who had questions I could answer. I helped some new puppet owners how to operate their puppets. One said they hope they are as cool as me when they get to my age. I said keep practicing.

 

Respect the other person. Not that easy when the topic is a tough one that one will never see eye to eye. I am of the “agree to disagree” group. There are times that one can totally lose respect for the other person. It is about the time the discussion becomes a war of words and ideas. Shouting is not winning an argument in face it is pretty much losing it. Slurs, implied or blatant, are the end of the argument. “I know you are, but what am I” is the kiss of death. We, as a society, need to relearn how to debate.

 

I learned most of this from my parents who live what they say. They were my models on how to act in public. They also taught me some tricks to discussion and debate. Other things I learned from mentors in my life. 

 

I am grateful for the people to raised me.

Of course he is a dude

Oct. 3rd, 2025 08:44 am
missdiane: (Default)
[personal profile] missdiane
I got the option to get sprung a day early, which I took. I couldn’t rest in the hospital. Mostly from the dementia patient down the hall that yelled all night and the roommate that snored. Hopefully don’t have to do a stay anytime in the near future.

Surgery went well, though a lot longer than expected since there was a LOT of stuff going on down there. She let me see a picture of the biggest mass which holy HELL it was giant and the clogged fallopian tube wasn’t that, it was an 8cm cyst sprouting off that ovary so it was a good thing I got the works removed.

Getting up and down from sitting is the biggest challenge and the gas is no joke. Yes, I’ve been doing plenty of laps around the place to try to work it out. I only used two presses of the opioid in the hospital and then we swapped to NSAIDS. I also am not happy with myself that they needed to give me insulin and oxygen. I’m going to improve that. Yes, I know it is partly from the trauma to the body and the anesthesia (which I felt bad for going kaboom and having to have myself and the sheets and everything changed), but still. I need to improve my health and once I’m back to somewhat normal, we will be doing that. That said, I will be improving my eating since I do have control of that.

Anyway, your good vibes helped amazingly. If you could transfer a few to Emily to appears to have a cold or something, that would be appreciated. Lots of love

Oh and the title, almost forgot. JonJon is not very sympathetic to his ailing mommy. Little booger lol
anais_pf: (Default)
[personal profile] anais_pf posting in [community profile] thefridayfive
These questions were originally suggested by [livejournal.com profile] ardnaid.

1. Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren't how other people see them?

2. What kind of sounds are the most annoying?

3. When walking through a store, do you shop with your hands by touching/feeling the texture of things?

4. If you could only smell three scents for the rest of your life, what would they be?

5. What sorts of things do you savor when eating them?

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.**

Checking In - 2 Oct. 2025

Oct. 2nd, 2025 09:15 pm
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
[personal profile] dewline
The knee x-rays are done. I expect to know what's up/down with those by mid-November.

I spent the afternoon filing job applications and watching a joint session of city hall's Finance and Planning+Housing committees. Which kept my brain ticking over well enough, I suppose.

Not much else to mention.

Checking In - 1 Oct. 2025

Oct. 1st, 2025 09:20 pm
dewline: "Thank you kindly" - text only (Thank you kindly)
[personal profile] dewline
The results on the French skills tests came back. I'm not going to get that particular job. Clearly, I need more practice. Fortunately, there are places where I can get that practice without much cost.

The knee x-rays will happen tomorrow morning if I get my way. The lab is relatively convenient to my travel routines as it is, and the last I checked, they still require everyone to mask up. I hope that's still the case.

I am getting more sleep again. Productive sleep.

More job applications are going out this week. This is good.

And this is how October started for me.

New kitty gadgets

Oct. 1st, 2025 02:45 pm
xinas_island: (Default)
[personal profile] xinas_island
Late to the game on things like this, I am pretty sure.

We just got the kitties a water fountain that also has an internal battery that charges via USB C.


Beanie is testing it out right after I put it out. 😄

(I'll leave their regular fountain next to it temporarily, while they get used to the new one)
It is quite the device. It can run even if the power is out. 🤯 Since there have been more power outages in the past few years, it seemed like a good idea.

It can be steady on (plugged in), interval on on for 10 seconds every 15 minutes (plugged in/battery), or it can be set to motion detect to turn on when there is movement near it (plugged in/battery). They are intrigued so far.😄

The other gadget is this auto dry food feederAgain one that can run on power or battery. This one doesn't have a built in battery, but instead takes three D batteries.


🤯
Since the tabby's both are a bit pudgy and need to lose weight (especially since they both have slight heart murmurs), this seemed like a good option to try to help.

Aaron's love language is food, and so they'd sometimes get extra dry food, on top of the extra wet food they'd get... and so they'd end up eating more than they are supposed to every few days. *lol*

Hopefully between the auto feeder doling out small portions several times a day, and cutting the canned food given by half, will help them thin down some. 🤞🏼

They are still getting used to it, but so far so good. Everyone has eaten from the feeder so far with no problems (other than the noise startling Ophelia, as she wasn't expecting it.)

Surprising News

Oct. 1st, 2025 03:47 pm
yourlibrarian: ArthurFrowny-miakun (MERL-ArthurFrowny-miakun)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) Some TV stuff: I've been watching the KenJennings Jeopardy run, and enjoying it. It seems to me the questions were easier than some of the ones I've seen most recently, but I guess those were largely the tournament of champions so that makes sense.

I tried out Match Game, Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Read more... )

2) Last week my partner went to Indianapolis for the weekend and on Sunday morning called me to say that the car wouldn't start. Luckily he was in the hotel parking lot and could just take his stuff back inside. All the dealerships were closed on Sunday but as he happened to be at an airport hotel, he took their shuttle there and I was able to get him booked for a week's car rental. Read more... )

3) Adding to fan image hosting woes: Imgur blocks UK access after the ICO notified it of a possible fine over its handling of kids' data

4) Thought this stat was interesting: U.S. streamers are increasingly sharing content catalogs across third-party services. In July, 39% of domestic titles appeared on two or more services, compared with 13% in the U.K. and 8% in France over the same period. Read more... )

5) I was amazed to see this story about boyfriend cosplay. "I cosplayed as the client’s chosen character and walked around with them, on the street, on a date. To be honest, I must confess that even as an experienced cosplayer, I found it challenging to act nonchalant in public while wearing a full costume and a light-colored wig. This difficulty was compounded by the specific nature of this commission: I was tasked with roleplaying as a romantic partner and caring for my "girlfriend." Though the date was challenging, I was obsessed with the sense of accomplishment I felt when I took care of someone and acted as their beloved character."

It certainly seems to be taking fanwork commissions to a new level...

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