[syndicated profile] dduane_feed

That’s so lovely! Thanks for letting me know. 😄 ….Now I have to go tease her (and thank her) for goodmouthing me behind my back. 😏

(BTW, here’s a link to the interview, which is a lot of fun—)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/books/review/t-kingfisher-wolf-worm.html

some good things

(<|>) Mar. 19th, 2026 11:59 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Migraine World Summit is finished for the year and they chose an extremely good closing keynote about which I am cheerful and bouncy. (Messoud Ashina, CGRP, PACAP & beyond, say if you would like me to try to write more about this).
  2. Got to spend time with The Child! Was summoned Upstairs to Rest and Read Books for a bit. Some really really excellent self-management and regulation in there around Lots Of Feelings.
  3. BRONZE AGE LOOM.
  4. Good therapy session.
  5. There is now a box of veg cassoulet (+ suspicious protein chunks) in the freezer to be Future Food, and another two portions on the hob for dinner tomorrow.
  6. I know I keep mentioning the Bedtime Ritual of Lebkuchen and Milk but this is because it is very good and very soothing, okay.
  7. My watch continues a viable approach to biofeedback (so all I need now is to remember to actually do it...)

(no subject)

(<|>) Mar. 19th, 2026 03:19 pm
ysobel: (Default)
[personal profile] ysobel
a) my mom called today -- she's convinced there are People After Me and also that I am being held captive. Nothing I said reassured her. I told her several times that I loved her. Dementia is a bitch and a half.

b) unbandaged my ear today. Felt good to be free, though if I'd been smart I'd've shaved my head Monday in preparation. For now bandaging is optional, because it's sealed in with dermabond. The donor site for the skin looks fine, as far as "was sutured up day before yesterday" goes. The ear ... really doesn't. It's a good reconstruction, they did a good job, but it looks gross and wrong. I will probably keep it bandagd.

a+b=c) I am totally not coping rn. Doesn't help that my sleep has been interrupted because pain. Some of the pain may have been from the adhesive from the bandage (there was gauze over the ear but taped to my head, and it's the head that was hurting most today). idk.

d) spent today without glasses, because blurry astigmatic eyesight is more comfortable than crooked glasses. (Contact lenses are not practical since I can't reach my eyes.) I don't know when the top edge of the ear, where it connects to the head, will be okay with either glasses or hearing aid.

e) I'm tired.
[syndicated profile] dduane_feed

In the 30 second clip, the little bot is kicked, sat on, laughed at, and even humped by a crowd of onlookers as it prattles along to its destination.
After escaping the crowd’s wrath, the robot ambles over past Dillon, who’s able to get a clear shot of graffiti reading “DESTROY ME PLZ” scrawled on its plastic chassis.
“ROB HIM OF HIS COPPER IMMEDIATELY,” another enterprising Philadelphian commented.

(ETA @nudistcat: I can’t resist…. but you came SO CLOSE to spelling that river’s name right. :) Just one letter off…)

[syndicated profile] dduane_feed

So, per @paulgadzikowski ’s good suggestion: for those of you who already have the 9-volume “box set” of the Young Wizards New Millennium Editions, but would like to pick up all the interstitial and other associated Young Wizards-universe stuff presently available, at a truly silly discount: this bundle’s what you’re after.

It contains:

As usual, this bundle comes with the Ebooks Direct lifetime replacement guarantee: lose your files or change platforms and we’ll replace them for you, or swap your file formats for you, free.

And the usual warning to our friends in the UK: with the greatest regret in the world, the expensive bureaucracy resulting from Brexit means that we can’t sell to you directly. Our apologies.

For those of you who can pick this up, though, and are interested: get it here! And thanks in advance for your business. 🙂

performance options

(<|>) Mar. 19th, 2026 10:17 am
kareila: Ariel in human form, regaining her voice (ariel)
[personal profile] kareila
Got the syllabus for the next symphony season today. The only evident choral works are the Mozart Requiem in October, the Messiah in December, and Holst's Planets in May. Nothing that I haven't done before. Also I would much rather be in the audience for the next Planets performance instead of waiting in the wings to sing the difficult high notes for Neptune and missing out on the rest of the piece entirely. So. I am entertaining other options.

The obvious one is to go back to handbells, especially since our church's handbell group hasn't had enough participants to perform for a couple of years now. If I'm not rehearsing with the symphony on Monday nights, I'm free to rejoin the metro handbell group that I've gigged with in the past. They will definitely want me back if I'm available.

There's also another high level choir that is holding open auditions over the next few weeks. I've heard them perform once before and they're very good. So I'm going to see if they're interested in me. But I don't know yet what their rehearsal schedule is if they are.

Meanwhile, Robby has expressed tentative interest in joining the symphony chorus himself, since the last time he did any large scale singing was in college, and it was the Mozart.
[syndicated profile] dduane_feed

Apparently I need to check the settings again. :/

But also: reading this, I feel half inclined to weep.

I mean… honestly. The second balloon is sufficient to strongly suggest that they’re the one who needs a beta.

(wanders off muttering) …I think I need more tea.

(ETA: attn: @next-crisis: Aha, I found it.)

pointy animals

(<|>) Mar. 18th, 2026 10:47 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

I left so many things out of the zoo post on Saturday (that I have still not gone back to add in) but the one I am telling you about today (aside from the dwarf mongeese, which I mention only in passing) is Snake, But What If Unicorn:

Read more... )

This Creature is Gonyosoma boulengeri, the rhinoceros ratsnake. The accompanying distractions included, gloriously,

The function of their majestic nose-points is unknown as we still have a lot to learn about these beautiful animals.

(no subject)

(<|>) Mar. 18th, 2026 01:05 pm
ysobel: (Default)
[personal profile] ysobel
One thing I forgot to mention in my update yesterday is that yesterday's procedure was significantly more involved than I expected.

details )

I can't wear my hearing aid, which is on that side. My glasses sit a bit askew for now. And my ear hurts.

Grace Rocky Save Stars

(<|>) Mar. 17th, 2026 10:42 pm
kareila: (ooooh)
[personal profile] kareila
I haven't had much to say lately, but hey, the Project Hail Mary movie is actually great. I laughed; I cried; I've started crocheting planet Earth beanbags for all my friends. Even the kids loved it, and they hadn't read the book.

(no subject)

(<|>) Mar. 17th, 2026 06:59 pm
ysobel: (Default)
[personal profile] ysobel
Mohs procedure (making sure they remove all the skin cancer) done today. Had to get up hours earlier than normal, before sunrise, in order to get there at 7:45am ... and got back at like 1:50pm. Two hours of that was waiting for pathology.

The procedure was done with local anesthesia but that wore off mid afternoon. Things hurt now. They don't even give good drugs, just suggest alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen, both in otc form.

Am very tired right now.

some good things

(<|>) Mar. 17th, 2026 11:22 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Allotment salad!
  2. Got Things Into The Ground (as well as out of it); I am as ever running massively behind but the weather was lovely and touching soil remains very good.
  3. It was warm enough to have the back door open for a bit.
  4. I am really, really enjoying the self-indulgent Very Expensive Lebkuchen I got from SousChef in the January sale. They make an excellent supper.
  5. Bloods taken today do include a full blood count; alas no ferritin (that's scheduled for... May? April?) but I do get a sneaky extra update on how my estimated haemoglobin is doing.
  6. libgourou continues to Work. I remain very pleased about this.
[syndicated profile] dduane_feed

In 2008 I grabbed this pic of a painting in a pub window in Dublin’s Temple Bar.

This morning I ran into an animated version of it (uncredited, naturally) on Facebook. Want to know what’s even funnier? They’d changed the driver’s side from right to left. 😏

Just a quick note about my Messages box

(<|>) Mar. 17th, 2026 12:24 pm
[syndicated profile] dduane_feed

With great regret, I’ve had to close down access to this feature for people I don’t follow. I’m routinely getting so many scam and timewasting messages in it (usually from completely nonqualified people trying to sell me promotional services) that right now it’s not a source of anything but annoyance. And with life already being, in general, annoying enough… well.

So, sorry about that.

Meanwhile the Inbox is still available (with the understanding that life around here can sometimes get hectic, and there’s no telling when I’ll be able to get back to you. Apologies for that too).

Thanks for your understanding, all.

[syndicated profile] dduane_feed

There's not, really. But that's a problem I could certainly remedy when I have five minutes to rub together. Leave it with me for a bit. :)

ETA: And here it is.

...(The bookstore's over here, for those who might have missed it:)

(BTW, for those who might be curious: I'm in the process of working out how to recover the ebook versions of @petermorwood's novels from the company currently selling them. More news on this as I get it.)

[syndicated profile] dduane_feed

I had a bit of a look around (for such resources come and go), and while there are a number of them that are reliable for screenwriters—like IndieTalk and podcast-based sites like John August—I hadn't really previously looked into what might be available for prose writers.

That said, after glancing around a little, these two might benefit from further investigation:

...If anybody else has recs that would be helpful here, maybe you'd want to drop them into the comments to this post?

Thanks, folks!