Child of a Metal God

Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 11:39 am

You may recall my griping about fall and reduction in daylight hours per day. Well, as I mooted in that entry, I did indeed get a small happy lamp. So far so good, as evidenced by:

I seem to be capable of doing things in the early evening besides sleep.
I can do the yoga tree pose right after lamp exposure, which is my usual time, without having difficulty with my balance. That's right: I have trouble with that pose in the fall and winter because my brain is using my eyeballs (overmuch?) to tell it which way is up.

Caveats: It's been really sunny the last couple of days, and I spent Sunday recovering from Saturday night. The real test will be later this week when the rain returns.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House

Tags:

health,
sleep

What's in my rucksack?

maellenkleth

Monday, October 13th, 2025 08:31 am

... as copied along from nanila : (her posting under the same subject :

1. pink and grey rucksack by the late lamented Mountain Equipment Co-op, purchased in Stary Vancouver 38 years ago as a grad school indulgence. I replaced its buckles with standard Fastex ones..

2. clean knickers and knee-stockings, because one ought. A double set.

3. Allen scales; again a double set (one set SI units, one set American units). These scales are riveted at one end, so that they can fan out to serve as map-scales.

4. photocopies of two weeks past and future, from my Filofax diary-book. The book itself stays at home.

5. waterproof notebook, ruled in squares.

6. ferry-tickets, a duplicate set.

7. binoculars with stadiametric scale, handy for whale-watching from the ferry; Elcan, 10x50.

8. bottle (small) of cherry juice

9. mechanical, self-sharpening draughting pencil, made in Germany by Staedtler, with 2H lead..

and you?

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: in the winter-bedroom
Current Music: ravens at their morning song-spiel

Tags:

cascadia as she is wrote

In Which Siobhan Recovers a Lost Elixir

Thursday, October 9th, 2025 10:19 am

Second post in my new playthrough of Enderal, using the Emissaries of Tux modpack. Main action in this post: a side quest in Riverville, in which I venture into Clearwater Cave to hunt for Tarhutie’s lost elixir.

Read more on Anna Plays Skyrim.

Final thoughts on Elessir’s Skyrim Run

Sunday, October 12th, 2025 05:41 pm

Here’s the final thoughts wrapup post on Elessir’s run, which will let me move him into the archive of old playthroughs!

Read more on Anna Plays Skyrim.

Tags:

final thoughts

In Which Elessir’s Last Several Sessions Are Summarized

Sunday, October 12th, 2025 03:02 pm

I had six remaining posts pertaining to Elessir in my Drafts folder, and a few more directories’ worth of screenshots for which I never took notes. So I’m going to do an overall survey of them here, so I can knock all of that out of the queue.

This post will contain spoilers for the tail end of follower Lucien’s personal quest, and also some spoilers for Beyond Skyrim: Bruma.

Read more on Anna Plays Skyrim.

Nun forgets how to use calendar.

https://necessary-disorder.tumblr.com/post/738333539525853184

Sunday, October 12th, 2025 12:21 pm

Taller Woman had surgery for cancer. Again. Last week. I'd promised to visit her in the hospital. She told me when it was happening, but I didn't put it in my calendar, so I missed the window. I was in New York when she told me, and thoroughly distracted, but I still feel terrible about it.

And last night, I thought I was going to Seacompression, but neau. I found out at almost the last minute that it's next month. At least this had a happy ending: I found out before I got on transit, so I went to the Merc and said hi to the gang.

Current Mood: embarrassed
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: The Cars, "Let's Go"

Tags:

)'(,
technology

Do Something Good For Yourself - Anthony Vincent

darkoshi

Saturday, October 11th, 2025 05:38 pm

Tags:

swirling black white heart motion wave Eye Candy

darkoshi

Saturday, October 11th, 2025 06:13 am

That Tumblr has all kinds of neat images, but I like this one best.

Tags:

Come back, Mighty Orb!

Friday, October 10th, 2025 08:33 am

Mayunn, several times in the last couple of weeks I haven't wanted to do squat after sunset. Not circumflatulation, not reading, not house cleaning. I go to bed early and sleep the sleep of the just: eight hours last night, no less than ten one night last week, and no less than seven per night since Sunday.

How do I explain this? The rain is starting to return — no need to water my outdoor plants for a few months, yay — but most of all, Seattle will be Down The Hole in under a month because it's up above 47°N.

Is it time to get a happy lamp? I dunno. Mornings aren't a problem for me. I just want my evenings back. Drink more tea? Maybe.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: something from the 1982 Windam Hill Sampler

Tags:

post your reality, part two

solarbird

Thursday, October 9th, 2025 09:01 am

I’ve been calling for people to post pictures, video, whatever, of their towns when Herr Fuckface describes them as war zones, as hellholes, as whatever he pukes up this time. Particularly Chicago, and now, extra particularly Portland. But any blue city or state he lies about.

Post the truth.

On Wednesday night, Jimmy Kimmel requested people do that too, using the hashtag #ShowMeYourHellhole. They’ll look for and highlight some of those videos and contact you if they want to use it, so only use it on video you specifically want seen by as many people as possible.

Post your reality; use the hashtag to help other people see it, if you’re okay with the one in a million shot that they ask you to let them use it on Kimmel.

In reality, of course, they’ll mostly be checking YouTube and maybe other corporate social media, not cooperative spaces like the Federation. But he’s famous enough that if he calls for a hashtag, a lot of people will use it, and in this case, that’s no bad thing.

So – Portland. Chicago. Los Angeles. Memphis. DC. You in particular, but not just you…

…mods are asleep. Post your reality.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Tags:

In Which Siobhan Has a Very Bad Ocean Journey

Wednesday, October 8th, 2025 05:46 pm

Welcome to my very first post ever for playing Enderal, the total conversion mod for Skyrim that transforms it into an entirely different game!

If you’ve never played Enderal before, suffice to say, this post will be full of spoilers, like any other playthrough post on my site.

And meet my character Siobhan, half-Nehrimese, half-Kiléan, who finds out right quick that maybe sneaking on board a boat to get to Enderal is maybe not the smartest thing she ever did….

Read more on Anna Plays Skyrim.

I do think there was a point to Bondi’s performance

solarbird

Wednesday, October 8th, 2025 09:04 am

Pamela Bondi went before Senate Oversight on Tuesday determined not to testify to Democrats, and to help Republicans deflect and defend the Trump regime’s fascism. That’s obvious; it happens fairly regularly.

But usually, people doing this routine at least pretend to answer the questions. They don’t provide answers, no, of course not. But they pretend and follow forms.

Bondi wasn’t even pretending. Her responses were unrelated, spurious – and as Senator Schiff put it, “pre-canned” – attacks on and insults of Democratic questioners, over and over again. We couldn’t be entirely sure of it at the moment, but Reuters managed to photograph her notes during her “testimony”, and now we absolutely know for sure they were prewritten.

Later, she started launching these prewritten lie clusters during questions, while Democratic senators were speaking. Here’s an example of her interrupting Senator Schiff over and over again with literal unrelated whatabouts and insults.

Eventually, I guess she ran out of pre-installed lie clusters, because she ran out during a response to a question from Senator Whitehouse and froze up. She literally couldn’t seem to talk.

It’s quite the clip. Watch her, she just shuts down. Here’s the moment she realised she didn’t have anything left so couldn’t come up with another lie cluster attack and just sits there, stalled out:

(I swear to you – I swear to you – I did not add that caption over the video. It was a player issue. But I couldn’t not keep it, now could I?)

But I do think there was a point here, and it wasn’t just not answering questions while giving Republican Senators time to lie and deflect on behalf of the regime. That’s all too normal.

No, I think the intent was to show their utter contempt for the legislature. I think this a stupid version of Caligula’s expression of contempt for the Senate, when he said he was going to appoint his favourite horse as a member.

(He didn’t actually do it, legend aside. The record is reasonably clear on that. He just mocked them with the idea.)

At least Caligula’s version was funny. This, by contrast, is just sad. But sad or not, I do think there was a point, and that point was to display contempt for representative government and to metaphorically blow a horse’s fart in the faces of elected representatives.

And I think that’s something people should understand.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Tags:

volunqueering

Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 06:57 am

Lambert House last night, including database monkeying. It all went pretty well, and maybe too well: the troubled youth that the facilitators have had to make... arrangements for didn't show up this time. My fellow volunteers say that with any luck, it's because he's busy with school. He's a much more ambitious student than he let on to me.

And with all due love & respect to St. Mark's, I can't wait to get back into our own space. Why? Less noise because the groups are on a different floor from the main social areas, and we'll be able to set up the video conferencing and leave it up. And for me, the house takes less time to get to than St. Mark's, which is on the edge of an expensive residential area and therefore not as well served by transit.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: J.S. Bach

Tags:

lambert house

Nun takes the Tickler to Burnerland.

Sunday, October 5th, 2025 08:49 pm

Last night was one of the Petting Zoo parties down in Sodo, to which I took the Tickler. Since this was a Burner-flavored* event, there were thundering herds of scantily-clad sweet things. The Tickler and I had huge fun watching people, or as they put it, being door queens.

Shallow fashion detials: my newish hot pink latex bodycon tank dress with "Slut" in Barbie-like type across the chest. Over that, my leather harness wrapped with two strands of blue electroluminescent wire with the drivers taped to the harness. I brought spare tape and batteries in case I needed them, so of course I didn't. Those batteries had probably been in my Burning Man bins since 2018. It is to laugh.

Was it kind of queer? Yes. Did the kinky folk show up? You know they did, but not quite in the same numbers as last time. Were the DJs good? Yes, notably a young lady called DJ Zucchini, who was mentored by DJ Trinitron. Trinitron had just come from the baseball playoff game and had gotten some attitude from the door people because she was wearing her Seattle Mariners shirt, and they didn't know who she was. Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

Today, Tickler-friendly, i.e. lactose-free, breakfast, then lunch at Made In House.

In summation, much fun.

*The Petting Zoo folks aren't really affiliated with Slutgarden as I'd thought. They just share personnel, including the founders of Petting Zoo.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: Squarepusher, "Welcome To Europe"

Tags:

global shipping from India

darkoshi

Saturday, October 4th, 2025 03:03 pm

The thing* I ordered from India on eBay was simply delivered to my porch yesterday, with no mention of needing to pay any extra fees, hallelujah! The delivery person wore a yellow reflective vest and drove a personal vehicle with no very obvious company markings.

The package does not have a USPS label on it. It has a uniuni label on one side, and a ShipGlobal label on the other side.

Checking the tracking numbers from those labels on the respective websites shows that my item:
2025-09-21: was received at UNI DATA CENTER
2025-09-23: arrived in Delhi, India
2025-09-25: departed Delhi, India
2025-09-27: arrived in the USA; was being inspected by customs
2025-09-30: "Gateway transit in", in New York
and was delivered on from there to me.

So my package made it into the US on 9/27, two days before the De Minimus exemption was removed!
NO, scratch that. (Gosh darn, I keep mixing up August/month 8 with September/month 9!)
I don't know where my package was between the time I ordered it in mid-August and Sept. 21 when uniuni received it. But somehow I got it without having to pay a tariff fee. I suppose the seller ended up paying the extra cost.

Actually... I placed the order on 8/16.
On 8/20 eBay posted an "order update" showing "Tracking number provided" along with an India Post International tracking number. That must have been when the seller ordered a shipping label, before mailing the item.
On 8/22 or 8/25 (per my prior post), IndiaPost stopped accepting shipments for the US. The seller must not have dropped the item off before that cut-off, or if they did, perhaps IndiaPost returned the item to the seller.
The seller must have started looking for another shipping option, and eventually sent it through ShipGlobal.in who must be partnered with uniuni.

I still think it is bad form that the seller never informed me of any of this, and didn't even reply when I messaged them through eBay asking about the status of the shipment. But I'll give them good feedback considering the hassle they must have gone through.

I'm still in the dark about the other item which is showing up in my USPS daily digest emails. It started showing up in the emails back on 2025-08-19 as "Awaiting from sender". Yesterday, I thought that must have been the India package after all. But today I got a new email that the mysterious tracking number item is expected to be delivered by Wednesday.

*an Indian brand of toothpaste

Update:
I bought the toothpaste for $39 (excluding taxes, free shipping). As a point of reference, the eBay seller is now charging $50.70 for the same thing, and that is still the best price I can find. So the tariffs increased the price by $11.70.

The seller posted a reply to a negative review from someone else who didn't receive their order, asking them to kindly wait longer, that the tariffs are causing delays, and that the seller paid the tariff for the order, and that the buyer will not need to pay anything at time of delivery. That seems to confirm my speculation as to what happened with my order.

Errant thought:
Now people can probably use AI agents to determine what items that are available in local stores could be sold online at a profit to people in other locales, taking into account current shipping prices and tariffs and the current online prices being charged by other sellers.

Errant thoughts 2, 3, 4:
Now people can make software to make use of AI agents to determine what items [ditto]...

Then people could buy the software to help them determine what items [ditto]...

Then companies can use said software to direct employees or gig workers in various locales to buy items from local stores, and to mail them ... for making a profit.

Tags:

a mellow munch