( BEBE ORCAS!! )
Now, we don't have a coffee maker. We have a french press, and we have a pourover thinger, and no coffee maker. Electric coffee makers are roach magnets, and I will stand by that statement.
But the job has a coffee maker, a nice new model after the pot on the old one broke, and the lid on top opens to the left, which means you have to hold the coffee pot in your right hand if you want to pour the coffee into the machine. Also, all the measurement numbers on the coffee pot are only visible if you're holding the handle in your right hand.
And you may say this is petty, and it is - well, it's petty for me because I have two hands, I might well be more annoyed, and justifiably, if I was missing one! - but somebody made a choice to hinge the lid on the left instead of on the back, and somebody, maybe that same somebody, made a choice to only put numbers on one side of the handle instead of both. And they didn't have to make those choices, they could've made different choices that didn't screw me over personally, me and all the other lefties as well as approximately half of all people who don't have mobility in their right hand or don't have that hand at all*, and they chose poorly. Probably didn't even think it through even a tiny little bit.
* Wait, is this a valid assumption? Or are people more likely to be disabled on this side or that side?
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( Read more... )
But the job has a coffee maker, a nice new model after the pot on the old one broke, and the lid on top opens to the left, which means you have to hold the coffee pot in your right hand if you want to pour the coffee into the machine. Also, all the measurement numbers on the coffee pot are only visible if you're holding the handle in your right hand.
And you may say this is petty, and it is - well, it's petty for me because I have two hands, I might well be more annoyed, and justifiably, if I was missing one! - but somebody made a choice to hinge the lid on the left instead of on the back, and somebody, maybe that same somebody, made a choice to only put numbers on one side of the handle instead of both. And they didn't have to make those choices, they could've made different choices that didn't screw me over personally, me and all the other lefties as well as approximately half of all people who don't have mobility in their right hand or don't have that hand at all*, and they chose poorly. Probably didn't even think it through even a tiny little bit.
* Wait, is this a valid assumption? Or are people more likely to be disabled on this side or that side?
( Read more... )
I am a knotted nebula—
a whirling flame
Shrieking aftire the endless darkness ...
I am the eternal center of gravity
and about me swing the crazy moons—
I am the thunder of rising suns,
the blaze of the zenith—
... the tremble of women’s bodies
in the arms of lovers ...
I sit on top of the Pole
Drunk with starry splendor
Shouting hozzanas at the Pleiades
... booting footballs at the moon—
I shall outlast the sun
and the moon
and the stars.…
*****
Link
a whirling flame
Shrieking aftire the endless darkness ...
I am the eternal center of gravity
and about me swing the crazy moons—
I am the thunder of rising suns,
the blaze of the zenith—
... the tremble of women’s bodies
in the arms of lovers ...
I sit on top of the Pole
Drunk with starry splendor
Shouting hozzanas at the Pleiades
... booting footballs at the moon—
I shall outlast the sun
and the moon
and the stars.…
Link
I saw orcas! A whole pod! Fingers crossed they're still here tomorrow so I can see them in the daylight. They were still beautiful in the pitch black and so close to the boat *_*
Yesterday, Mr Cee and I travelled to Acton Town in West London to visit the London Transport Museum Depot. The main London Transport Museum is located in Covent Garden in Central London, and we have visited it many times. However, like most museums, they can't display all the items they have, and their depot in Acton has 320,000 items ranging from underground train carriages, buses, taxis, signs, signals, an artwork archive, building blueprints and even tiny things such as examples of tickets.
The Acton depot has been open since 1999 and was specifically designed to allow the public to visit and see the results of cataloguing and preserving the history of transportation in London. The public can only view the items during guided tours because the depot's contents are constantly being rearranged (many of the vehicles are taken on tour or to repair facilities outside of the depot), and it is not set up as a museum. However, with the assistance of one of the very knowledgeable volunteer guides, we embarked on a two-hour exploration of the items.
Under the cut for a little bit of history and quite a few photos...
( Read more... )
It was a very interesting outing, and we will consider returning for some of their other tours. We also want to visit the Covent Garden London Transport Museum, as they currently have an exhibition about Art Deco. So that will be a future outing!
The Acton depot has been open since 1999 and was specifically designed to allow the public to visit and see the results of cataloguing and preserving the history of transportation in London. The public can only view the items during guided tours because the depot's contents are constantly being rearranged (many of the vehicles are taken on tour or to repair facilities outside of the depot), and it is not set up as a museum. However, with the assistance of one of the very knowledgeable volunteer guides, we embarked on a two-hour exploration of the items.
Under the cut for a little bit of history and quite a few photos...
( Read more... )
It was a very interesting outing, and we will consider returning for some of their other tours. We also want to visit the Covent Garden London Transport Museum, as they currently have an exhibition about Art Deco. So that will be a future outing!
Tags:
+ Of course the actual post got swallowed before I found internet again. Weather absolute shit, Internet shit, boat very warm, zero fish, zero internet in my cabin with the new setup. I can't be fucking bothered to write it up again.
+ One of the things open in my tabs was the latest friending meme at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
friending_memes, and maybe time without internet was a good thing there. Came to the conclusion that actually, my circle is pretty damn great and I don't feel I get around to commenting as often as I'd like. So skipping the meme, but since I fiddled with the response a bit I'm copying it over here. ( Read more... )
I did appreciate that the meme made me dig back through the year for my happiest memories, and I'm thinking it's a good idea to try and note those days down more. They really do fade into the blur if not.
+ While I may not have the internet to grab the latest Fallout episode - *grumps again* - you can all head on over toretro_icontest to see the results of the icon battle me, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
naushika, and narnialover7 had.
H E R E
+ One of the things open in my tabs was the latest friending meme at
friending_memes, and maybe time without internet was a good thing there. Came to the conclusion that actually, my circle is pretty damn great and I don't feel I get around to commenting as often as I'd like. So skipping the meme, but since I fiddled with the response a bit I'm copying it over here. ( Read more... )I did appreciate that the meme made me dig back through the year for my happiest memories, and I'm thinking it's a good idea to try and note those days down more. They really do fade into the blur if not.
+ While I may not have the internet to grab the latest Fallout episode - *grumps again* - you can all head on over to
retro_icontest to see the results of the icon battle me, naushika, and narnialover7 had. H E R E
Tags:
It’s no longer the 15th of the month as I’m finishing this post…but I ran all the numbers on the 15th, so I’m counting it as a regular scheduled update.
I’ve finished one A-to-Z pass of “handing off and/or punting specific webcomics.” In total, that knocked a couple hundred fandoms off my list. Guess I’ll do another, go harder, and knock out a couple hundred more.
There was a point when I thought about starting a habit of “sweep the Unassigned Fandoms list for tiny underloved Christmas movies,” because sweeping for underloved webcomics was working well. Didn’t end up doing it regularly, though — I just got 12 movie fandoms with 1 fic each, and stopped there. So I dropped all of those in an afternoon. (In the years I was babysitting them, the most active of these fandoms came out with…a whole 2nd fic.)
I also dropped some Random Things that I picked up through the irregular process of “checked out a new canon, enjoyed it, went to see if there was any fic on AO3, found an unwrangled fandom with 1 work.” Stuff like Phoebe in Wonderland (2008), Gary and His Demons (Cartoon), or Her Voice is a Backwards Record – Ozy Brennan. They almost certainly won’t suffer if they stay unwrangled for a while.
(There’s still only one fic for Shadow Man – Melissa Scott…and it’s the one I wrote. Guess it’s depressingly safe to leave “the queer intersex revolution/romance where everyone’s on space drugs” unwrangled, huh.)
With bigger Random Things, when they’re active enough I don’t want to leave them unwrangled, I’ve been making the occasional post about “looking to hand off this fandom, will anybody take it?” Breaks up the monotony of the batches of webtoons, I think. And it’s had maybe a 50-50 success rate — not bad. I’ll keep at it.
…I did actually add 2 new fandoms since the last update. A couple fans wrote about the Toon Makers US Sailor Moon pilot for Yuletide 2025, so that has a fandom tag now, and I picked it up to go with the rest of the Sailor Moon fandom tree.
Then it came up in the “wranglers wanted” channel that Pet Shop of Horrors was unassigned. And how was I supposed to resist picking up PSOH? I love PSOH. That manga reread I just recently started will pair perfectly with a review of the existing PSOH tags.
So my current total number of fandoms is 1183. (The number of “fandoms that actually have any new tags to deal with right now” is 28.)
344 down, 733 more to go…
in which two teens independently fall into a toxic mud puddle and develop mind-reading abilities. Spoilers, they're not the only ones!
They're at a family reunion, and one person mentions that there have been a few breakins, how odd, because all the broken-in houses had security systems. And as they mention that, everybody in range automatically thinks their PINs. This, of course, is how the (telepathic!) thief had broken into the houses in the first place.
Ever since then, every time I've had to enter a PIN or a password anywhere, I've carefully also thought some other random letters or numbers. It's a silly habit, which I only developed long after I outgrew poking around closets for Narnia and had nearly outgrown poking around closets for secret passageways, and it wouldn't really deter a mind-reading thief for very long, but I still do it. If there ever is a telepathic malefactor in close proximity to me, at least they'll have to to try a few different codes to use my bank card!
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( Read more... )
They're at a family reunion, and one person mentions that there have been a few breakins, how odd, because all the broken-in houses had security systems. And as they mention that, everybody in range automatically thinks their PINs. This, of course, is how the (telepathic!) thief had broken into the houses in the first place.
Ever since then, every time I've had to enter a PIN or a password anywhere, I've carefully also thought some other random letters or numbers. It's a silly habit, which I only developed long after I outgrew poking around closets for Narnia and had nearly outgrown poking around closets for secret passageways, and it wouldn't really deter a mind-reading thief for very long, but I still do it. If there ever is a telepathic malefactor in close proximity to me, at least they'll have to to try a few different codes to use my bank card!
( Read more... )
A thing I kept noticing in The Secret Commonwealth: any time someone brought up Dust, as in Rusakov particles, it went by fast. One character would mention it — another one might react — but then the conversation would move right along to something else.
The original HDM trilogy did a really solid job with this concept. Lyra first hears about it as one of many mysterious Scholar Things she spies on without understanding. When she gets a child-friendly explanation, it’s the Church-doctrine propaganda version. Readers follow along with her, and later with other POV characters, building out our knowledge as they hear more perspectives and see more experimental results.
There are good reasons Dust wouldn’t come up much in La Belle Sauvage. It’s a flashback, so even the experts are 10 years’ less knowledgeable, and young Malcolm (unlike Lyra) isn’t interacting with those experts much in the first place. If anything, the Rusakov physics in that book felt kinda shoehorned in. Bonneville is a Rusakov researcher, Malcolm finds his notes…then Mal keeps asking about it (even though it’s not relevant to surviving the flood, and he has no reason to expect it would be), and Bonneville keeps giving accurate answers (even though he has no motive to be honest, and every motive to make up something scary/demoralizing).
But TSC is a flash-forward. They have all the discoveries of HDM, plus another 10 years’ worth of research. A bunch of the main characters are professionally interested. This would be the point in the trilogy where you get to properly reintroduce Dust to the reader!
And instead…well, here are all the times it comes up:
Today started chilly, with frost, but it turned out to be very sunny, so I headed out with Mr Cee to London. He had a meeting with a financial advisor to discuss what to do with his work pension pot, and while he did that, I decided to go to the Wallace Collection to see a couple of their free small exhibitions: Caravaggio's Cupid and the Lucknow Swords.
I also saw a couple of other things, so there are a few photos under the cut.
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By the time I'd seen all that, Mr Cee had finished his meeting and caught up with me at the Wallace Collection, where we had lunch. On the way home, we spotted this interesting statue on the side of a building on Oxford Street. It was inspired by the British ballerina Darcy Bussell and was installed in 1997. It is by Michael Rizzello (1926-2004), a London artist of Italian descent. Behind her are two ceramic plaques with B & H, which show the previous incarnation of the building as the Bourne and Hollingsworth retailer.
It was a fun way to spend some time!
I also saw a couple of other things, so there are a few photos under the cut.
( Read more... )
By the time I'd seen all that, Mr Cee had finished his meeting and caught up with me at the Wallace Collection, where we had lunch. On the way home, we spotted this interesting statue on the side of a building on Oxford Street. It was inspired by the British ballerina Darcy Bussell and was installed in 1997. It is by Michael Rizzello (1926-2004), a London artist of Italian descent. Behind her are two ceramic plaques with B & H, which show the previous incarnation of the building as the Bourne and Hollingsworth retailer.
It was a fun way to spend some time!
Tags:
Below the cut are the questions for February for those following along with the daily meme. I'm working on March!
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Well, I meant to post it then, and I guess I'll belatedly post it now - a New Year's Friend Meme!
Click the banner to join us and make some new friends!
Click the banner to join us and make some new friends!
I got a set of cute little penguin pens. They're very cute. So cute.
I didn't realize that each pen has a little motto on it, or I might've not bought them. You see, one continuing annoyance since childhood is that writing on pens is always upside down if you're left-handed. Oh, you can get pens where the writing is oriented correctly, that is, for lefties, but for some reason all that writing inevitably is left-handed themed! I don't want my right side up pen motto to say something like "Only lefties are in their right mind!", I want it to say something like "Hope you are happy every day", which is the upside down motto on this purple penguin.
It's the same with left-handed rulers, incidentally. I just want the numbers to go in a sensible direction, I don't need my ruler to affirm how wonderful it is that I'm drawing lines with my left hand.
On a related note, I'm seriously considering buying another pair of lefty kitchen shears for work. I don't really have to spend much time in the kitchen, but if I am in the kitchen and using kitchen shears (almost inevitably to cut up the next day's lunch sandwiches but sometimes to cut up breakfast pancakes and sausages) I'd rather use mine than theirs, because cutting with the wrong scissors is painful and messy. But if I bring my sole pair - which is amazing, I love it, best Christmas present ever! - back and forth with me then sometimes I use it at home, forget to put it back in my bag, and then am irritated for three days until I finally remember again. I could ask them to supply shears for me and keep them in the kitchen drawer, it's a legitimate (and small!) expense, but honestly, I know from experience that righties are terrible and when they accidentally use left-handed scissors they get very confused and irritated. Amusing for me, but undoubtedly an exercise in frustration for a workplace. It's really better all around to bring my own.
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I didn't realize that each pen has a little motto on it, or I might've not bought them. You see, one continuing annoyance since childhood is that writing on pens is always upside down if you're left-handed. Oh, you can get pens where the writing is oriented correctly, that is, for lefties, but for some reason all that writing inevitably is left-handed themed! I don't want my right side up pen motto to say something like "Only lefties are in their right mind!", I want it to say something like "Hope you are happy every day", which is the upside down motto on this purple penguin.
It's the same with left-handed rulers, incidentally. I just want the numbers to go in a sensible direction, I don't need my ruler to affirm how wonderful it is that I'm drawing lines with my left hand.
On a related note, I'm seriously considering buying another pair of lefty kitchen shears for work. I don't really have to spend much time in the kitchen, but if I am in the kitchen and using kitchen shears (almost inevitably to cut up the next day's lunch sandwiches but sometimes to cut up breakfast pancakes and sausages) I'd rather use mine than theirs, because cutting with the wrong scissors is painful and messy. But if I bring my sole pair - which is amazing, I love it, best Christmas present ever! - back and forth with me then sometimes I use it at home, forget to put it back in my bag, and then am irritated for three days until I finally remember again. I could ask them to supply shears for me and keep them in the kitchen drawer, it's a legitimate (and small!) expense, but honestly, I know from experience that righties are terrible and when they accidentally use left-handed scissors they get very confused and irritated. Amusing for me, but undoubtedly an exercise in frustration for a workplace. It's really better all around to bring my own.
( Read more... )
How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!
How thin and sharp and ghostly white
Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!
*********
In fact, the moon is kinda orange just now, but I'm sure it'll grow pale once it clears the bridge.
How thin and sharp and ghostly white
Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!
In fact, the moon is kinda orange just now, but I'm sure it'll grow pale once it clears the bridge.
when you finally confess your love to the guy you've been pining after for half your life, and it turns out that you have a perfectly aligned and complementary set of kinks? Nobody has to compromise and agree to sometimes do the thing they're not that into or, conversely, never do the thing they're totally into. Nobody's turned off by the mere thought of any of it, every conversation is an ongoing saga of "yes, and".
I guess that's one more advantage of being fictional!
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I guess that's one more advantage of being fictional!
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New Years Book Meme Via flamingsword:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 126
3. The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026
hah my closest book was Nghi Vo's Mammoths at the Gates, which ends at 120 pages.
"I stared down into it, no lights burning at its heart, no voices raised in song, while Rencki tried to call up the shuttle to Kiskol."
Slow Gods by Claire North.
Well, um. That sounds bleak? 2026 really needs to be nicer to me.
Positive note, I do like the writing.
flamingsword:1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 126
3. The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026
hah my closest book was Nghi Vo's Mammoths at the Gates, which ends at 120 pages.
"I stared down into it, no lights burning at its heart, no voices raised in song, while Rencki tried to call up the shuttle to Kiskol."
Slow Gods by Claire North.
Well, um. That sounds bleak? 2026 really needs to be nicer to me.
Positive note, I do like the writing.
Tags:
+ I'm going back to work tonight, just to sleep on board so I can get cracking nice and early before everybody else arrives. It'll probably be freezing but hopping in bed wearing wool should sort that out. Right now I am of course procrastinating to the max. I have not packed a single item yet. At least my packages have been collected, the laundry and washing up done, and I've bought the necessities. The plan was to finish early so I could have a nice bath? *sighs at self* Man, you'll love that bath. Make that bath happen!
eta ugh my dad gave me anxiety about whether the key would be there, so now I won't be going on the boat until tomorrow and I'm grumbly about it. I wanted stuff to be ready dammit.
+ One thing I did finish is my holiday quest list in Dreamlight Valley, most important of all lolol. Gotta get those holiday decoration items, so I can boot it back up next December and once again not actually get around to decorating all that much. But it does make Kid Me happy still, wandering around with Belle and Wall-E, the most low stakes gameplay there is, collecting pretty holiday items. (they did actually sneak in an extra holiday thing that started after New Years and I'm cranky about it.)
+ I should also do my big yearly tarot spread, but I may not have the brains. Maybe I'll just lay them out and take pictures for later.
+ Letterboxd's In Memoriam tribute this year really hit me in the feels. We lost some lovely creatives.
+ Discord is hosting a survey to see what you think of them adding AI bullshit here. Feel free to stop by and tell them nope.
+ Snowflake Challenge #5
In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your wishlist if you feel comfortable doing so.
1. I'd love to see more people share things that bring them joy in their journals, no matter how small. We gotta grab what we can.
2. If you can't quite think of something shiny to share atm: memes are fun!
3. And if anyone has shared something that has brought you joy, please tell them so <3
(sneaky 4. but please do tell Discord to go fuck themselves with their AI bs.)
eta ugh my dad gave me anxiety about whether the key would be there, so now I won't be going on the boat until tomorrow and I'm grumbly about it. I wanted stuff to be ready dammit.
+ One thing I did finish is my holiday quest list in Dreamlight Valley, most important of all lolol. Gotta get those holiday decoration items, so I can boot it back up next December and once again not actually get around to decorating all that much. But it does make Kid Me happy still, wandering around with Belle and Wall-E, the most low stakes gameplay there is, collecting pretty holiday items. (they did actually sneak in an extra holiday thing that started after New Years and I'm cranky about it.)
+ I should also do my big yearly tarot spread, but I may not have the brains. Maybe I'll just lay them out and take pictures for later.
+ Letterboxd's In Memoriam tribute this year really hit me in the feels. We lost some lovely creatives.
+ Discord is hosting a survey to see what you think of them adding AI bullshit here. Feel free to stop by and tell them nope.
+ Snowflake Challenge #5
In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your wishlist if you feel comfortable doing so.
1. I'd love to see more people share things that bring them joy in their journals, no matter how small. We gotta grab what we can.
2. If you can't quite think of something shiny to share atm: memes are fun!
3. And if anyone has shared something that has brought you joy, please tell them so <3
(sneaky 4. but please do tell Discord to go fuck themselves with their AI bs.)
Tags:
You'll laugh, it was that weird.
I dreamed that I was going to sleep. I had found a bed - not my actual bed, just a bed! - and snuggled down to sleep. And then I woke up a little (really woke up, not dream woke up) in my own bed, snuggled up nice and cozy, and drifted between the two beds, real and dream, for a little bit before falling back asleep for real.
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I dreamed that I was going to sleep. I had found a bed - not my actual bed, just a bed! - and snuggled down to sleep. And then I woke up a little (really woke up, not dream woke up) in my own bed, snuggled up nice and cozy, and drifted between the two beds, real and dream, for a little bit before falling back asleep for real.
( Read more... )
.