wookiemonster | Reading

On Sunday I prepared the ingredients for a lentil and beet salad with feta, hazelnuts, and arugula. I think I prepared enough for around 4 servings altogether, so I had the first serving on Sunday and a second serving last night. Ya'll, this salad is SO GOOD!

Beet-lentil salad with feta, hazelnuts, and arugula

It's a NYTimes recipe, except I made it with beets I roasted myself, the Braised Black Lentils recipe from the Cafe Flora cookbook, and I used feta because that's what was in my refrigerator waiting to be used up. Oh, and I keep forgetting/ignoring the "soft herbs." Those are fairly minor substitutions, really.

astrogirl

Here's a little thing I wrote as a treat for

seasonsofdrabbles, after seeing it show up on a pinch hit list. Possibly I should actually do Seasons of Drabbles properly sometime. I do like me some drabbles.

Title: A Reevaluation of Prior Data
Fandom: The Orville
Characters/Relationships: Kaylon Primary
Rating: General Audiences. Spoilers for season 3.
Summary: Kaylon Primary may have a new perspective on the past.
Tags: Post-"Domino", Drabble
Length: 100 words
Author's Notes: Written for ToothpasteCheesecake. I saw the request on the Seasons of Drabbles pinch-hit list, but by the time I decided that, yes, I could write something for it, it had been claimed, so I posted it as an extra treat.

A Reevaluation of Prior Data

Current Mood: busy

missdiane

The most I've done when it comes to work, since I'm NOT supposed to do anything is go in and mark ones that I know I won't be dealing with when I get back as "read." I saw an email today and chuckled because it's something they were supposed to take care of over a month ago and dropped the ball. USDA even pretty much said if they don't get a response by the 21st of this month that our funding will be sliced down as a result.

It's a request that originally came in on the morning I was getting my type and screen done two days before surgery. I weighed in once, copied many people and since it was something asking for expenditures, passed it off to the business folks.

I saw an answer from one of the business office directors with a number that was ridiculous but hey, I still haven't gotten an upgrade so as far as business dealings go, I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no numbers. There was a couple of emails after that between bossman Josh and business woman and I didn't get copied on it being sent to USDA which I suspected it wasn't sent.

Which it wasn't and I ended up getting a text this afternoon from Waylen (gal that currently has the same title as me since she got an upgrade to it). Neither she, nor Josh supposedly knew aaaanything about it. Well you absolute dipshits, if you'd have searched the keywords "Your Forestry Research Investment" in your emails, you would've found it.

This was my response to Josh claiming "I have not seen this before"
Me: Oh yeah ya have. I'll forward the exchange before I left where Zenash gave some number

And this is what I said with the forwarded email:
TBH, I haven't a clue where they're getting the number $2,636,126 which is five times what we got awarded but it's what Michael put in the non-auditable AD-419 report.

I mean how we would've overmatched that much is baffling to me but ok, they're the numbers people.

Diane

I'm not responding to the email after that imploring me to get some rest since the only response I'll give is "SO, CLEARLY I DESERVE THAT UPGRADE I STILL DON'T HAVE, EH?"

rebeccmeister

Before we talk about specific books, it's probably a good idea to read and think about why some of us love books and try to read lots of them, whereas others aren't reading so many books these days. Here is an article that interviews high school students so they can speak directly about why they think high school-aged people aren't reading nearly as many books now as in the past:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/learning/what-students-are-saying-about-the-decline-in-high-school-reading-skills.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2E8.TDGV.NsMF_iG71ZaA&smid=url-share

In the realm of specific books, I just finished reading The Disappearing Earth, by Julia Phillips. It won't ruin the plot for you if I tell you it's about Kamchatka, which I have to say is a geographic region I hadn't thought about much prior to reading the novel. The author, however, is American, so after reading it I'm now curious about what it would be like to read a novel about Kamchatka, written by someone *from* Kamchatka. I hadn't realized the author was American until after I finished the book, and at that point I was like, "Ah, NOW I understand some of the literary decisions made here." Culturally, it can't be helped! It was still fine as a novel, though.

Finishing a novel puts me back in that realm of, what should I read next?? I do have a handful of short-term answers, although I'm almost always on the lookout for other things to add to my List of Books to Read: I did find that Ed Yong's book about microbes, I Contain Multitudes,, can be purchased on my ereader, so I've got that underway now.

A friend recently told me about a book called Let's Move the Needle, by Shannon Downey, which is about activism and crafting communities. It was _not_ available for purchase on my ereader, but I'm really keen to read it after talking about it, so since I don't live anywhere close to a small, independent bookstore, I ordered a used copy online, along with copies of Remarkably Bright Creatures and Two Serious Ladies.

In case that's not enough books to add to my pile, I'm really excited because a book called Weaving Wild Baskets is finally available for preorder! I don't particularly have intentions of actually getting into basketweaving right now, but I'm interested in the book as a way to learn more about uses for various kinds of wild plants - i.e. a way to learn more about the particular plants that can be found around here. I've been following the book's author on social media for a while now (she teaches classes in wild basketry and I could in theory some day take a class or two from her because she lives an hour or two downriver from here). From her social media presence I have appreciated seeing how one can learn how to harvest things like wild grapevines, then process and use those things to make baskets.

Anyway, books! What sorts of books are you reading or thinking about these days? What do you think we can do to encourage more people to get into this lovely world of book-reading?

dolari

Made Chili con Carne today. Accidentally put double the amount of Cayenne Pepper than I wanted to. You know...it's not painful. But it's really good. Even with a spicier kick than I expected.

rebeccmeister

...the bad news is that Gari the Gerrhosaurus major has squamous cell carcinoma, aka skin cancer. The vet says chemotherapy could be an option, but I'm not sure how realistic that would wind up being.

The other two things:

1. When I woke up this morning, I noticed that the thermostat display was off. Hmm, must need new batteries. I had woken up early to try and get to winter training early to finish up a side quest, so I hurriedly tried to swap in some new batteries. Nothing. Ugh. I gave it up for dead and went off for the day, figuring I'd need to get home early for more troubleshooting and probably a phone call to the landlord.

When I got home tonight, thankfully the house didn't feel *that* cold. Not pleasant for the cats, but not wretchedly bad. Further inspection of the thermostat revealed that the old AA batteries must have started leaking and corroding the connection. With some cleanup, we have heat again, hooray!

2. Rowing practice itself was...interesting. Most of the time, we use what we call "static" ergometers (rowing machines), but they don't fully simulate the rowing stroke. So to get something closer to the real deal, sometimes we'll set up our ergs on sliding tracks. It's possible to get ergs permanently configured for this function, known as "dynamic" ergs, but the slides are what we've got.

Well, when I tried to do the rowing pieces for the morning, which involved trying to maintain low stroke rates between 16-20 spm...I had very little luck. For context, someone new to using slides will find themselves crashing around back and forth because you have to control the momentum of your body weight to use slides properly. I rather quickly figured out that I wasn't actually crashing back and forth, I was crashing forward, despite trying all kinds of different little tricks. Hmm, that could mean that I am try to row on slides on a sloped floor. We did 3 15-minute pieces altogether, with 3 minutes of rest between them, so during the first break I went off in search of a spirit level to test my hypothesis, but came up empty-handed. So, on to the next piece, sigh, with lots more crashing back and forth and very little productive rowing.

During the second piece I got to thinking, if the problem is a sloped floor, what about if I try turning the erg around 180 degrees? So during the second break, I did as much.

Night-and-day difference, I tell you.

My side quest was also successful: several years ago I bought a mirror so we could watch our form and self-coach during erg pieces. However, the wheel brackets for the mirror made the whole mirror too low to the ground. So I added some extender pieces of wood to elevate the mirror. It's much more helpful now for correcting my form!

rebeccmeister

I want to get a 20" x 30" photo collage poster printed out and framed, and I want to make sure it looks GOOD (and of course that the price is right!). (the photo image resolution is high, so that part itself should not be a problem)

Do any of you have experience with a similar sort of project, and know a place that would do a good job with it? I just put in one inquiry to a local printing company, but want to explore options.

I tried asking about this on some other social media site, but got...crickets. I guess the algorithms didn't like my question there.

rebeccmeister

So many little projects and chores. My usual Sunday routine is to get up, start laundry, cook breakfast (often with leftovers for the week), clean litterboxes and toilet, then vacuum.

Last week, I missed the vacuuming because of too many other projects, so there was extra debris and crumbs to deal with this week. Out of the usual chores, the vacuuming is the one that's easiest to punt, skipping out on litterboxes is definitely not a good idea. So, extra vacuuming on Sunday. Then I did a deep clean of the kitchen cupboard doors and a thorough mop of the kitchen floor and a couple other spots that desperately needed it. It is just SO NICE to have a kitchen floor that is clean enough that if I drop something on it, I can pick it up again and consider eating/using it still. There are still some walls in the kitchen that could stand to be cleaned off, and one of these days I swear I will actually clean out and come up with a better organizational system for the grocery pantry.

But yesterday was not that day.

In the early afternoon I managed to get outside when it wasn't too windy or rainy, to dig up the Dark Dahlia, which is now nestled away in the basement for the winter. I turned off the faucet for the outdoor hose, and got the hoses coiled up. I didn't get them put away, but that means the garden is almost completely all the way to bed for the winter.

Then, a cooking bender. I roasted up some beets and cauliflower. The beets went into a lentil-beet salad with arugula, feta cheese, and hazelnuts, yum. The cauliflower went into a curry soup with chickpeas and pumpkin puree and coconut milk. I'm not sure I have that recipe quite where I want it, yet, but it'll be dinner food, at least. I used the rest of the pumpkin puree to make some apple-pumpkin-pecan turnovers, which are super yummy and not too sweet, but in the future I think I'll use the filling in a pie instead, because pie is less fussy to make than turnovers.

I also got more orange oar paint mixed up, for teammates who are helping with that project, and got the third full coat of paint onto the first set of oars. I am still feeling like I'm making more drips than I should be, but also in the near future I am going to mostly focus on oar blade prep and repairs rather than painting. So maybe the finicky aspects of painting will become someone else's problem.

When I woke up this morning, the thermostat looked like it had run out of batteries. None of the batteries I put into it got it to turn back on again, so then I just abandoned the project and left for rowing practice. Hopefully the house doesn't get too cold today. If things get desperate I do have an electric space heater.

And when I got to work, I learned that Gari's tumor is a squamous cell carcinoma, i.e. an aggressive form of skin cancer. I'm not sure we can financially justify chemotherapy for a reptile, but I guess I'll learn more when I bring him back in to have his suture removed.

Anyway, I hope your week has gotten off to a less eventful start than all that!

missdiane

When Emily drives, most times she has it on either NPR or the KPop channel. I noticed there were a lot of songs that I really liked by one particular girl group, Aespa. I usually favor boy groups but every song by Aespa they play, I find myself bopping around to.

Also, I like the girl-positive message, like in their song "Rich Man" (turn on subtitles for all the lyrics)

Watch on YouTube

dewline

Fair warning: I may be somewhat Distracted tonight, given that we have a Grey Cup game day with Saskatchewan vs. Montréal.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the Grey Cup Game tonight.

May the players all remain concussion-free, and may Rider Nation prevail. In that order of priority.

Current Mood: hyper

missdiane

I had my first telehealth appointment with a therapist through the Lyra program through work. She seemed super nice and helpful so hopefully she can get my anxiety under control since chemical means don't cooperate with my body.

I sent sis a message to get her new home address and it sounds like when she get back from her trip to Paris, she'll have to get an endoscopy since she's having reflux and eating issues. That sucks. She wanted me to meet them in NYC when they're heading back but that will probably be the week after Thanksgiving and either I'll tentatively be back to work or still dealing with the wound so I'll have to bow out.

But anyway, the title of this post. I'd seen that she suddenly was promoting a bunch of hair care products on her professional IG so I assumed that some company was sponsoring her. She sent me a message with a "deal" on stuff that would be good for my hair at some promotional price. I clicked on it and was considering it but then I got weirded out at the account creation thing. I mentioned it to Emily who went HELL NO, and knew about the company (Monat) - that it was an MLM. Not only an MLM but a failing MLM. Ughhhhhhhhh. Yeah, not going to buy, not going to promote, not going to participate. Sis, if you need a side gig to your supposedly super successful stylist career, get something less skeevy, ok? Blecch.

selenak

An episode that felt a bit like it was (stylishly) treading water, but in its last ten minutes did make up for it.

( Spoilers somehow have never watched a single episode of Golden Girls… )

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: on the train

elf_wizard posting in

addme

Name: K/zheida

Age: 36

I mostly post about: nothing in particular right now, i'm trying to get back into using this site, i think i'm really over social media in general and i miss LJ stuff haha BUT mostly rp doodles probably, and some artwork now that most sites are making it near unbearable to post drawings that are lgbt romance. Anything n everything

My hobbies are: drawing, writing, rp, world building, music archiving (usually old obscure osts for various anime n rpgs) gaming, watching anime, reading Manga (I need to read more books... 😭) d&d/tabletop, cooking, sewing, crafting idk do a lot of things but I'm not necessarily good at many hahai

My fandoms are: i don't really consider myself "in fandoms" I just sort of like what I like and make merch for it sometimes, I rarely interact in fan content so I'm not rly a big fic reader, I'm much more in the oc crowd than making fan content. BUT here's some stuff I love: record of lodoss war, weathering continent, RG Veda, Saint seiya, magi labyrinth of magic, land of the lustrous, dungeon meshi, Slayers, lunar: sss&eb, mana series, final fantasy, Lufia, -- really lots of old fantasy anime n games from the 60s to late 90s with the rare occasional newer thing

I'm looking to meet people who: are chill and around my age, anyone who's interested in original characters n anything listed above

My posting schedule tends to be: unsure yet but I'd like it to be every day if I can manage it

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: I guess just general hateful content, which I don't see happening often. Other than that I am NOT a fan of anti/proshipper wank I am frankly too old for it. Both sides get on my nerves and I will typically unfollow ppl who start engaging in that arguing.

Before adding me, you should know: as related to above; I am a believer of fiction being fiction and separate from reality. I don't really care what people choose to write or create. (we can point out real life patterns in themes chosen, but that doesn't make any of it real or inherently harmful) However, I like to be critical of media n can sound harsh about it sometimes, but I'm never going to tell anyone not to like something just bc I don't care for it.

defrog

Naptime dream:

I am sitting in a cramped bedroom watching Poison Ivy from The Cramps trying to rewire a fuzzbox pedal to broadcast a vibrato effect that will hypnotise people and give them trashy psychedelic hallucinations.

Lux Interior (who looks like the cover of Good Music for Bad People, only fuzzier and with grey hair) is lying on the shag carpet between the bed and the wall.

She asks him to hold a component in place while she tests the transmitter. He doesn’t answer, and I notice he’s sleeping. I’m afraid to wake him up because he might bite me.

Ivy notices my hesitation and says to me, “Let him sleep – I’ll test it later,” and starts reassembling the pedal.

And then I woke up.

We’ve got a fuzzbox and we know how to use it,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Pak Ngan Heung
Current Music: The The, "Risin' Above The Need"

rebeccmeister

We have several groups of plants in the house that have plant lights on timers. One of the timers is currently set to turn the light on promptly at 4:30 am, which is when I have been waking up to go to rowing practice. I have to say, that light turning on works as well as any auditory alarm clock!

To rewind slightly: this past Wednesday, I overdid it on Romanian deadlifts during a strength training session; parts of my lower back on the right side have been talking to me about that decision ever since. I didn't trigger a full back spasm, but things are tender enough that I ultimately decided against trying to go to rowing practice this morning.

Instead, I got ready for an otherwise busy morning. The main project involved going back to the boathouse to take all of the hardware off of all of the dock sections that have failed and are cracked and had filled with water. There are always a hundred side projects at the boathouse, though, including gathering up even more oars to continue the oar repainting project.

I also wanted to get in a trip to the bank to deposit some reimbursement checks, to the Asian grocery to buy more squid tentacles for the horseshoe crabs (at work), to the hardware store for miscellaneous hardware items, the grocery co-op for groceries, and to the pet store to stock up on cans of cat food.

Given all that, I drove.

Teammates were super helpful with the dock project. In this photo, my teammate L is sitting on top of the furthest back tall stack of dock pieces, unbolting one piece from another:

Some of the failed pieces had hinges attached to them. When the dock pieces were originally acquired, the hinges were attached with massive carriage bolts. That was fine, until the time came to remove the bolts. These are not proper carriage bolts that seat into the material they are securing, they rest flat on top of a washer on top of the material they are securing. Since these things live in a very wet environment, the nuts tend to seize, and there's nothing on the top of the carriage bolt to hold onto to loosen things up.

It was a good thing I brought along my angle grinder again!

We cut off the sides of the top of the bolt head, which then gave us enough surface to hold onto and unbolt the hinge piece.

When we put this hinge back onto a replacement dock section, we'll use hex-headed bolts. We'll put the bolt in through the bottom, with a nut or two on the top. We have to be careful to make sure that the new configuration isn't a trip hazard, but we've done this on a number of other hinges already. Aside from that it is helpful to put the bolt in from the bottom instead of the top because then it's extremely obvious if the nut has loosened to the point of falling off. It isn't cheap to replace the nuts and bolts, but it's better for the dock overall if we catch things when the nuts work loose (and we may use nylock nuts, but also you'd be amazed by how much jostling this dock experiences because power boaters around here are idiots about dock etiquette).

We also got a bunch of miscellaneous reorganizing done. The most satisfying part of that was that we managed to completely empty one of the three storage containers we've been using during boathouse renovations. Here are our sweep oars in their new home in a different shipping container from before:

Emptying out one of the containers means we can return it and stop paying monthly rental fees. Hooray!

Even better, my teammate K helped me to get a fresh wheel onto one of the tow dollies where the wheel bearings had failed.

Those bearing cartridges were press-fitted in there so tightly! So now there's just one remaining tow dolly in need of repair.

I ultimately made it to all my destinations except the pet food store. A headache started brewing during boathouse tasks and I just didn't feel up for that part of the trip. Folks, it is just not pleasant to run errands by car, even if it is faster. I bought a couple cans of food at the grocery co-op, which will tide us over another week or two.

Tomorrow will be an at-home day, which will be nice because it's supposed to be pretty rainy.

yourivy posting in

addme

I have always found nice people through this community, so I thought I would give it another try ;)

Name: Tina
Age: ~~old~~ 37 as of May 10th
I mostly post about: My daily life, thoughts that go through my head, the occasional meme/survey, and I often post pictures. However, I will always put the latter under a cut if there's more than three, so I don't clog up your flists too much.
My hobbies are: Reading, taking walks, hanging out with friends, listening to music/podcasts, doing jigsaw puzzles, taking pictures, cuddling my cat, travelling (when time and money allow), going to concerts (see previous brackets xD), doing logic puzzles & word searches, learning new things. I used to love adult colouring books and would like to get back into them at some point.

My fandoms are: I don't have fandoms as such - I mean, I like things but I don't participate in "fannish activities" like watching/reading fanfiction or the like. I have nothing against the former or anything and even enjoy reading the occasional fic my friends post if I am at all familiar with the fandom, it's just never been something I was particularly interested in doing myself.

I will list some favourites here though, if anyone is interested to see what we have in common.

Musical artists: A Day to Remember, Bring me the Horizon, Florence & the Machine, Taylor Swift, The Warning, The Last Dinner Party, Death by Romy, Tegan & Sara, Ice Nine Kills, Freya Ridings, Wanda, Emilie Autumn, Amy Shark, Great Big Sea, Alan Doyle, Shanneyganock, Derina Harvey Band, Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Kellie Loder, Bodh'aktan &many more. I probably even forgot some! I love music and can be found listening to anything from Pop or Rock to Metal, Goth or Metalcore to Rap, depending on my mood. The only genres I don't like much are Jazz & Classical Music but even there I can enjoy the occasional song.

Books: Lolita (V. Nabokov), Middlesex (J. Eugenides), The Wrong Boy (W. Russell), The Future of Another Timeline (A. Newitz), The Shock Of The Fall (N. Filer), Mio my Son (A. Lindgren), The Little Prince (A. de St. Exupéry), The Kronoberg trilogy (E.A. Sund), The Dept. Q series (J. Adler-Olsen), The Deathless series (N. Forna), The Peculiar Children series (R. Riggs), The Cider House Rules (J. Irving), Mrs. Dalloway (V. Woolf), Orlando (V. Woolf), We'll Prescribe You A Cat (S. Ishida), The Kangaroo Chronicles (M.-U. Kling), Animal Farm (G. Orwell), Migrations (C. McConaghy), Once There Were Wolves (C. McConaghy), The Hunger Games series (S. Collins), To The Bright Edge Of The World (E. Ivey), American Gods (N. Gaiman), A Song Of Ice & Fire series (G.R.R. Martin)...and I am probably forgetting half of them here, as well!

I used to be a huge Potterhead but ever since it came out what kind of person JKR is, I cannot read or watch the series with a good conscience anymore, or spend any money on HP-related things. I don't judge anyone who still likes the series though, it is just not for me anymore.

Movies: Anything with Meryl Streep ♥ , Godzilla movies, trashy horror movies in general (think creature feature/animal horror ^^), Despicable Me & Minions series*, The Secret Life Of Pets, Creep 1 & 2, Kinsey, Forrest Gump, If These Walls Could Talk II, Imagine Me & You, Smile, Life Of Brian, Guardians Of The Galaxy 1 & 2, Inside Out 1 & 2, A Simple Favor, Get Out, Escape Room, The Silence Of The Lambs... I confess that I am not a huge movie watcher, although I have been getting more into them over the past two years or so.

*apparently that makes me a cringy boomer. Oh well.

TV shows: Law & Order:SVU, Stranger Things, Wednesday, Son Of A Critch (though I have yet to see the latest season). I will also watch the occasional episode of Is It Cake? when the mood strikes. In the past I've enjoyed Pushing Daisies, Boston Public, Call the Midwife, Zoo (anyone remember that one?), Starling and Republic Of Doyle. As you see, I am not a huge TV watcher either *blush*.

I always welcome recommendations of any kind! :)

I'm looking to meet people who: are kind, empathetic, funny, open-minded and understanding. While it's cool if we have stuff in common, it's not a necessity to me - a lot of the best friends I've made on here have completely different interests. In fact, I love getting to know what kinds of things other people like and maybe even give that song/band/movie/book/whatever a try myself :) we can inspire each other!

My posting schedule tends to be: I try to post at least twice a week - I do a "What Are You Reading Wednesday" post (guess on which day? LOL) every week, and usually catch up on daily life every Sunday. Random posts may happen too ;)

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Discrimination/intentional bigotry of any kind. I say "intentional" because we all have subconscious prejudices and mess up once in a while and as long as we're open to learn from it, that's okay. Extreme black and white-thinking on any issue - I value critical thinking.

Before adding me, you should know: I have a few mental health issues, so my journal might not be puppies and sunshine all the time. So if you are a person who can't take "too much negativity" on their flist, I might not be the right friend for you. That's not meant to sound rude, it's rather that I want to feel free to let out my feelings in my journal without worrying where the line crosses into "too much" if that makes sense?

The former can also mean that I sometimes don't comment or read as much as I want to, same applies to when life gets busy. I always try to be there as much as I can though, and I always come back and catch up eventually!

Lastly, I am neurodivergent, most likely on the autism spectrum somewhere (just still undiagnosed because it is very difficult to even get an appointment for an assessment where I live :(). I say that because it means I sometimes take things too literally or may misunderstand something, or don't see all the nuances of what you wrote. So if I ever say something that comes across as rude, or put my foot in my mouth, please do give me the benefit of the doubt that it wasn't my intention to be offensive and give me a chance to explain myself. I swear I never mean harm &hearts; and I will do my best to make up for any I do cause.

I am looking forward to meeting new people from all walks of life ♥ please do comment here or on my Friends Only Post before adding me though, thank you.

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: Germany, Cologne
Current Music: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths

muccamukk

Watch on YouTube

Have had this EP on repeat all day.

bubblesbrnaid

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: confused

rebeccmeister

Let's see...by now, I have carried out work on ectothermic invertebrates in six different buildings across five different institutions (excluding 3 buildings at 2 other institutions for research on rodents/homeotherms).

How many of those buildings had superb, top-notch, dialed-in HVAC systems that worked flawlessly so our delicate, temperature- and humidity-sensitive experiments were never upset?

Zero. Exactly zero of them.

So I think this is very much like managing one's expectations around how long one's computer will work - it's not a matter of if it dies, but when it dies.

Anyway.

The science building I currently inhabit is around 20 years old, and apparently the software system that manages heating, cooling, air flow, et cetera, is antiquated and quirky.

And that was all before people decided to add on and tie in an entire additional building to the existing 2-building complex! What could possibly go wrong!

I've only learned a couple of specifics about this building's HVAC system, but one of the things I learned is that certain situations can cause my insect-rearing room's airflow handler to kick into high gear, leading to such a high air exchange rate that the space heater can't keep up to keep the room warm enough for the insects. (this is related to the room formerly housing mammals, who have to be kept with higher air quality standards than people in offices)

Something else that happened last spring is a fan somewhere in the ceiling above my office became really loud. Not in the way that fans get loud when they're failing, more like loud background white noise from a fan running at high speed. I filed a request for someone to look into it, because it has been loud enough to interfere with office conversations, but we have limited campus HVAC personnel, so I don't think anyone ever followed up on it (perhaps a trivial thing compared to other facilities needs here, really. Shrug.).

Two days ago, it quieted down again. So, that gives me a hypothesis, at least: it might be related to seasonal adjustments to HVAC (cooling ramped down, heating ramped up).

Or, you know, something about the antiquated software. Quirks, idiosyncrasies, bugs (not that kind, the software kind), demons, ghosts.

I don't know who our current HVAC people are, but whoever they are, I should probably just preemptively bake them a pan of brownies, because when a science building's HVAC doesn't run, the science doesn't run.

rebeccmeister

Last night I wanted to look up those headbands with bobbly decorations on them, and had one of those moments of, "Are they really called deely-boppers, or is that just something we called them for unknown reasons?"

(for Otter Pops - most places apparently know them as Freeze Pops; Otter Pops were regional to where I grew up)

Anyway, you should take a moment to admire the Wikipedia page about them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deely_bobber

I am so amused.

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wookiemonster

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January 2015

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Page Summary

rebeccmeister - This salad is SO GOOD [food]
astrogirl - Lil' Orville Drabble Thing
missdiane - Don't tempt me to get another extension...
rebeccmeister - Let's talk about books! [books]
dolari - (no subject)
rebeccmeister - The good news is I was able to resolve 2 out of 3 issues today...
rebeccmeister - Kind of a Dear Lazywebs, except not [projects]
rebeccmeister - Sunday, then. And a bit of Monday, too. [status, housekeepery, food]
missdiane - KPop fun
dewline - Grey Cup Day 2025
missdiane - Ugh, seriously, sis?
selenak - Pluribus 1.03
elf_wizard in addme - Hewwo
defrog - I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT (LUX AND IVY EDITION)
rebeccmeister - Trips, chained [projects, status]
yourivy in addme - O hai there :)
muccamukk - Music Saturday
bubblesbrnaid - (no subject)
rebeccmeister - HVAC Exorcist on Speed Dial
rebeccmeister - Flashbacks to discussions about Otter Pops

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Friends of the Wookiemonster

Reading

This salad is SO GOOD [food]

Lil' Orville Drabble Thing

Don't tempt me to get another extension...

Let's talk about books! [books]

(no subject)

The good news is I was able to resolve 2 out of 3 issues today...

Kind of a Dear Lazywebs, except not [projects]

Sunday, then. And a bit of Monday, too. [status, housekeepery, food]

KPop fun

Grey Cup Day 2025

Ugh, seriously, sis?

Pluribus 1.03

Hewwo

I HAD TOO MUCH TO DREAM LAST NIGHT (LUX AND IVY EDITION)

Trips, chained [projects, status]

O hai there :)

Music Saturday

(no subject)

HVAC Exorcist on Speed Dial

Flashbacks to discussions about Otter Pops

Profile

January 2015

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