sid | Network

The other day I decided to go on YouTube and look at the Knife-Wielding Tentacle video from eight or so years back. And then I looked at the other videos on that channel and concluded that the KWT’s creator, “outtaspaceman,” is a spiritual descendant of Bruce Lacey.

He also seems to be a maker of electronic music, and when I checked out his blog he mentioned having been involved with a band called Neural Circus, so I looked them up, and I’m now pretty sure outtaspaceman is somebody named David Cracknell, but I’m still not sure if he’s former journalist David Cracknell. Probably not. The man playing a toy saxophone in the video doesn’t look much like the man in the Wikipedia article(even if I assume that’s an old photo); although the latter apparently played piano on a track with Paul Weller and Gabrielle in 2007 so maybe? I suppose I could try to work up the nerve to just contact outtaspaceman and ask.

schneefink

( My playthrough, up to around 16 hours in )

( general musings on Silksong/HK, vague gameplay spoilers )

siderea

I don't know who needs to know about this, but:

I just discovered the Android app "Periodically". It's described as an "event logger". It's for keeping track of when a recurring thing has happened, and figuring out what the average time is between occurrences. You just keep it updated each time the event happens, and it will do the math for you to figure out the frequency, and even give you a notification when it predicts the event is likely to happen again. If you're tracking more than one thing, it will try to suss out correlations for you.

I mention because twenty five years ago or so, I needed exactly this functionality and could not find any application that would do what I needed, so I wrote a thing for myself, and since then a lot of people I've mentioned it to have wondered where they can get one like it. Mine was Mac/Palm Pilot, so not of much use to most people, especially these days.
Lo, somebody seems to have realized the need for this functionality, and brought it to the market. So I thought I'd mention.

Now, in this day and age, a lot of people, especially in the US, are concerned with security. Especially if they're tracking something to do with their health. This app is not specific to health, so nothing about it immediately reveals that it is storing health information on casual inspection; you could use some sort of other term for whatever health condition it is you are actually tracking. So, for instance, If you were tracking how often your migraines happened, you could call that "new box of cereal".

This app defaults to local-only data storage on your Android device, and the developer claims that it only collects "app activity" for analytics, and shares nothing with third parties. It outputs CSV and has an option to back up to Google Drive.

I haven't tried it myself, but it has a rating of 4.6 stars out of five on the Play Store.

Reviewers on the Play Store note that tracker apps that are specific to the kind of event – such as health- specific loggers – often have needless complexity, and often some weird ideas about graphic design. They praise this app for its clean, elegant look and simple, effective functionality.

In addition to its obvious applicability to episodic health conditions, it strikes me as potentially extremely useful in one of the trickier parts of prepping: figuring out one's burn rate of resources. I think I might trial it to help me figure out how often I should expect to have to buy a fresh bale of toilet paper and how long the big bottle of ibuprofen will last me.

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Annie: I met my husband three years ago, about eight months after he lost his first wife of 20 years. Their marriage was often toxic, and she was very abusive toward him. After she passed, he was ready to move on.

Right away, I knew something wasn't right with my husband. In his mid-50s, he was having short-term memory issues, falling frequently and struggling with his mental health. After seeing his health care provider and enrolling in the Veterans Affairs health care system, we discovered he had suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries during his time in the Army. That diagnosis led to him becoming a 100% service-connected disabled veteran and allowed him to receive the care he needed for a better quality of life.

His family, however, waged a war against me for helping him, accusing me of manipulating and "brainwashing" him. My husband has distanced himself from them, and we're no longer on speaking terms. My husband has a lot of anger toward them as he suffered for decades without their help or support.

His parents, who live in another state, are elderly and in poor health. I fear that if he doesn't reconcile with them before they pass, he will resent me. I love my husband with all my heart, and this has been a hard road. I just want the very best for him, unconditionally. Any advice? -- Wife on the Defensive

( Read more... )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

DEAR ABBY: My daughter, "Violet," lives about two hours away. She and her mother (my wife) do not get along. Violet was always a rebellious, independent wild child, as well as the source of a lot of family problems. Violet and I also were estranged until we recently reconciled.

Yesterday, she sent me an email inviting me to lunch to celebrate my birthday. When I told my wife about the invitation, she responded, "Do what you want" in a tone and with a facial expression which said: "Go ahead, but if you do, you'll be sorry."

I have tried to reconcile these two women I love without success. My wife tells me she loves Violet but doesn't like her, although she would like to have a better relationship with her. Violet tells me she blames her mother for her PTSD (her unofficial diagnosis) and wants nothing to do with her.

So do I go to lunch with my daughter and incur the wrath of my wife for what she would consider a betrayal, or do I decline the invitation from my daughter and risk alienating her again? -- IN THE MIDDLE IN NEW JERSEY

( Read more... )

donutsweeper

The Yuletide fandom promo post is up. I promoed a cute little animated short I found recently and am planning on nominating and requesting, Vampire Gastelbrau. Here's the promo I did:

Title: Vampire Gastelbrau (2011)

Media: Animated short film
Approx length: 3 minutes
Where to find it: On youtube here or vimeo here
What is it, in summary?: An animated short where Vampire Gastelbrau helps Gerta and Gabi with their chores in order to earn back his vampire fang.
What do you love about it?: It's just such a sweet little story with cute animation and lovely music.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: The further adventures of Gerta, Gabi and Gastelbrau.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: No, but it's less than 3 minutes long.
Content warnings: none, despite it being about a vampire no warnings apply

The Yuletide evidence post has also been posted. If your eligible fandom (this post explains eligibility) is closely related to an ineligible one (i.e. all DMBJ fandoms since the novels are too big, NIF2 or the NIF novel since the drama has gotten too big, etc) you'll want to make a comment in the evidence post (if you've given evidence in previous years you can just link to your previous comment but ideally you should still comment on the current post). I've been doing yuletide a billion (aka 17) years, if you have questions/want help determining eligibility or how to post evidence just give me a shout, I'll be happy to help.

I also finally finished the chevron lace blanket I'd be working on for daughter:

Multicolored Chevron Lacr Crocheted Blanket

It's 42” by 75-78” (valley vs point) and I misjudged the yarn yardage so she overbought and I have 2 skeins left with no idea what I'll do with them. Ooops. Oh well.

Aaaand now I need a new craft project. Maybe a rug. Or another blanket? Or both? (Do I need another rug or blanket? Nope. Do I have a place to put either? Also nope. Will that stop me from making them? Of course not.)

oursin

What I read

Finished Love at All Ages - think I said most of what I felt moved to say last week, but there was also a certain amount of Mrs Morland whingeing and bitching about the Burdens of Being a Popular Writer (when she wasn't being Amazingly Dotty), whoa, Ange, biting the hand or what?

Sarah Brooks, The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands (2024), which I picked up some while ago on promotion and then I think I saw someone writing something about it. I liked the idea but somehow wasn't overwhelmingly enthused?

Read the latest Literary Review.

Since there is a forthcoming online discussion, dug out my 1974 mass market paperback edition of Joanna Russ, The Female Man - I think this was even before excursions to Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed, somehow I had learnt of Fantast, a mailorder operation with duplicated catalogues every few months that purveyed an odd selection of US books. It's quite hard to recall the original impact. Possibly I now prefer her essays?

Carol Atherton, Reading Lessons: The Books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark, and Why They Matter (2024) - EngLit teacher meditates over books that she had taught, her own reading of them, their impact in the classroom, general issues around teaching Lit, etc - this came up in my Recommended for You in Kobo + on promotion. Quite interesting but how the teaching of EngLit has changed since My Day....

Lee Child, The Hard Way (Jack Reacher, #10) (2006) - every so often I read an interview with or something about Lee Child who sounds very much a Good Guy so I thought I might try one of these and this one was currently on promotion. It's less action and more twisty following intricate plot than I anticipated with lots of sudden reversal, and lots and lots of details. I don't think I'm going to go away and devour all the Reacher books but I can think of circumstances where they might be a preferable option given limited reading materials available.

On the go

I literally just finished that so there is nothing on the go, except one or two things I suppose I am technically still reading.

Up next

Dunno.

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Eric: My beloved husband of more than 40 years has become something of an embarrassment. He has always been careful with his appearance (almost in the vain category). About six years ago, he had a serious illness with dangerous surgery but made an excellent recovery.

Afterward, his weight loss became a weight gain and now, instead of the athletic physique he has always maintained, he has a large gut. He will wear T-shirts that are too small and when seated, part of his naked middle is exposed for all to see.

I can tolerate this at home, but not when we are around other people. I have tried gentle reminders that these shirts are too small, mentioning how embarrassed I am, but it makes no difference. He also wears ill-fitting pants in his former waist size which exaggerate the problem.

Otherwise, he keeps up his lengthy morning regime of careful grooming as in the past. His doctors have suggested he lose weight, but nothing has changed. Can you offer any advice so we can socialize without me cringing?

– Loving But Mortified

( Read more... )

lost_words_exchange posting in

fandomcalendar

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Current Mood: excited

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: amused

the_shoshanna

The forecast for our last day of hiking was for thundershowers all day, so we said not today, Satan, and rode along with our luggage to our final stop on this part of our trip: Hay-on-Wye. We arrived a little after 10, walked around a bit (often in light rain), changed some euros we've had kicking around for six years, poked our noses into some of the many bookshops the town is famous for, and have now collapsed in our B&B; Geoff is snoring next to me, and even I, who virtually never nap, can hardly keep my eyes open. Taking the day off was a good call.

sabotabby

Just finished: Nothing.

Currently reading: Notes From a Regicide by Isaac Fellman. I'm getting near the end of this and it's so good. By the way, fantasy authors, this is how you do worldbuilding. Fellman isn't concerned with why things work as they do, the details of how the post-apocalyptic New York functions or why Stephensport is stuck in time; everything is character, narrowed to the focus of Griffon and Etoine. Even Zaffre's rebel activities are in soft focus—we know there are revolutionary trans nuns (hell yeah) but Etoine is so hyperfocused on her, and what she represents, that the scale and scope of their rebellion are outside the scope of his understanding.

And it's just written so well. There's a subtle strangeness to all of the language that is just weird and offputting enough to feel like journal entries of two men across a gap of time and culture, not only from us, but from each other.

22degreehalo posting in

fancake

Fandom: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Pairings/Characters: Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan
Rating: T
Length: 143,334
Creator Links:

mellicindi
Theme: Food & Cooking, (Secret) Hobbies, Asexual & Demisexual Characters, Alternate Universe - Modern, Book Fandoms, Canon LGBTQ+ Characters, Characters of Color, Disability, Families of Choice, Favorite Fanworks, No Canon Required, Novel-Length Fic, Trauma & Recovery.

Summary: Shen Yuan isn't lonely. He's just overseas in a new city, trying to muddle his way through a business degree, and dealing with the side effects of his stupid intestines trying to kill him. So, maybe he sometimes watches ASMR to cope with his too-quiet apartment. Maybe he has a little bit of a parasocial-relationship-thing going on with one particular cooking ASMR channel. It's 2016, who doesn't? The point is, he's content with his quiet life.

And then Shang Qinghua strong-arms him into watching one Hallmark Christmas movie, and it all goes to hell.

Or: Shen Yuan is a Hallmark movie protagonist, Luo Binghe is a Lifetime movie protagonist, and somehow they make it work.

Reccer's Notes: I read this fic over three days right in the middle of Battleship and it instantly became one of my favourite fanfics of all time. I could seriously gush for hours about this fic and its themes: the recurring thread of food as a love language (especially given protagonist Shen Yuan's digestive disability he's too self-conscious to talk openly about), the differing nature of familial, romantic, and friendship bonds and the varying privileges and presumptions behind each, this Luo Binghe's long-term trauma that manifests in the best goddamn depiction of Borderline Personality Disorder I've seen outside Crazy Ex Girlfriend seemingly entirely on accident - and among all of that, it's just a goddamn well-written story, incredibly easy to read and funny and heartfelt and true to its characters while being 100% readable fandom-blind and just - if any of the above appeals to you, I really can't advise anything other than to read it ASAP. <333

Fanwork Links: Life is (not) a Hallmark Movie

oursin

Happy birthday,

major_clanger!

cimorene

I have been a mess for about a week now, partly just in anxiety about learning to drive and my driving lessons.

After the first few lessons I was having lots of trouble with the clutch and I was really worried about it (I still think it's unnecessarily complicated for regular cars, but... I've mostly got it now). And I can't just add extra easy repetitions to build more motor memory and make it automatic because I can't drive outside the driving school until I have my license. I had to add an extra three lessons (to the original 6) because I just didn't have it yet. I have had one of those now, and the teacher and I agreed I will probably be ready to take the driving test after just a little more practice. So we booked the driving test in two weeks, and my last two driving lessons the day of and the day before. Hopefully that will be enough! Failing is to be avoided: it costs 99 euros to take the test, but if you fail it, the second time costs like three hundred.

I had lessons three days in a row this week, and I absolutely should not drive without taking methylphenidate: taking adhd medication significantly reduces driving accidents for adhd sufferers. But while it makes it easier to concentrate, it also speeds up my heart and... kind of makes me hyperfocus and be in a hurry? Generally, it makes anxiety worse. I have real trouble slowing down and relaxing to the appropriate level for driving, but I can't take a tranquilizer for the anxiety so I just have to try to breathe deeply and stuff. Probably walking a couple miles or something first would be better, if I were in shape, and if I would be able to shower and go to the lesson right away (but it takes 50 minutes on the bus to get there).

I also contacted the licensed Bernina repair shop about the sewing machine that won't go, and he said he has a huge backlog right now and to try again in October-November. I delayed contacting him for a year and a half after the problem appeared, so this is comparatively minor and I can't be mad, but of course now I want it urgently because both pairs of my flannel pajama pants are falling beyond the reach of patching and mending.

One of the triplets finally told us what she wanted in a sweater and we ordered the yarn, but the other two are silent and our attempts to get them to give us their measurements have also failed. I suppose we'll have to propose a date when we will show up and ask if they can hand us their favorite sweatshirts to be measured then or not.

sholio

DW catchup continues ... I posted this on AO3 yesterday, and I wrote most of this fic in the car, actually, on the 7-hour drive home from my mom's part of Alaska. I would drive for a while and think of a new section of fic and stop to write a bit on my laptop.

Crime and Punishment (Murderbot books, Mensah POV, 2500 words)
Missing scene/tag for Fugitive Telemetry. Mensah gets a call from station security. (Entirely bookverse.)

Follow-up on

Spoilers for Fugitive Telemetry

the refugee shooting Murderbot in the novella.

Mostly fluff and banter, in spite of the actual topic.

( Fic under the cut )

twistedchick

I'm having a much harder time coming up with nominations than in past years. Part of the problem is that I've mostly been reading nonfiction, and that I catch up with shows years after they first start up. I didn't expect Phineas & Ferb to have more than 4000 stories in AO3, and the number for Elementary (tv) is almost equally high. Forget writing Strange New Worlds.

So that leaves me with one TV series with not that many stories -- Dark Winds -- and one of the old Georgette Heyer novels that I haven't written about yet.

I always try to choose things that are easily available, more or less. *stares at bookshelves that need weeding.*

And none of the nonfiction I read is likely to have enough of a fandom. Or any, actually.

At least I have a few more days to come up with something...

twistedchick

At this link are Charlie Warzel's Atlantic story about Epstein's birthday book, and also links to the birthday book, the non-prosecution agreement, his will, and what appears to be an address register. You can read all of it for yourself if you want. Note that the address register was scanned sideways. All the documents are PDFs.

mecurtin

"What are *you* doing in the kitchen at 2am, Mom?" said Purrcy, who'd been napping on a comfy freezer bag left on the floor. (I'd stayed up too late re-^nth-reading Mansfield Park, is what).

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby sits on a red and black freezer bag from Trader Joes on a kitchen floor. His neck is twisted so his face is looking straight upward, quizzicly.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby sits on a red and black freezer bag from Trader Joes on a kitchen floor. His neck is twisted so his face is looking straight upward, quizzicly.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Go ahead - fascinate me!

“I appear to have invented a knife-wielding tentacle.”

More Silksong

Interesting app for Android [tech]

(no subject)

(no subject)

Blanket! And Yuletide!

Wednesday went for a walk in the rain

Ladies' Bingo 2025-2026 (Round 13)

(no subject)

Lost Words Exchange Returns for 2025

Today in Kilts

No hike today

Reading Wednesday

SVSSS: Life is (not) a Hallmark Movie by Mellicindi

(no subject)

Updates

Murderbot fic: Crime and Punishment

Oh Yuletide

don't say I never gave you anything...

Purrcy in the night kitchen

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