sraun | Network

My laptop is back from the shop. The reason that it was freezing and dying every so often is that it was overheating.

And why was it overheating, you ask?

Because of the enormous clump of cat hair inside it.

several inches of thoroughly packed cat hair.

So, uh, if you have a laptop that you like to use actually on your lap, and you have a cat that likes to sit on your lap or right next to your lap while you have the laptop on it ... it might be worthwhile to crack the case open every so often and see if there is cat hair in there to be cleaned out.

I mean, I'm glad that if it had to have a problem, it was something so easily fixable.

but also.

i wish i had figured this out myself and taken care of it before it was bad enough to need to be in the shop for a week.

lovelyangel

Hinata, My 2018 MacBook Pro

I have no faith that Dymo is going to update their software to run on my Apple silicon Mac – even though their software download page gives me an option to specify Apple silicon for the version of software to download. No matter what, I always get an Intel-only app.

I really like the labels produced by my LabelManager 420P. So to protect operations from failing, I’ve decided to install the Dymo Connect software on Hinata, my retired 13" 2018 MacBook Pro running a 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU. Bringing the old laptop out of retirement was a little tougher than I expected.

( A New Life for Hinata )

shadowkat

Lovely day - even though I spent most of it inside, with my back to a window view of skyscrapers climbing against a bright blue sky. It was in the 70sF, started out in the 50sF and slightly warmer than yesterday, with a nice breeze. So I took a walk up towards the cookie place. The cookie people have grown used to me - and tell that they will see me next week. I even know some of their names. There's a lot of turn over as would be expected - customer service is a tough job. You've a lot of down time, and then have to deal with impatient customers, many that don't speak your language. (It's NYC, one gets used to hearing 500 languages a day after a while.)

I'm wearing the new cat shirt that I bought via Amazon - it's not perfect, the green background dye is slightly off, and there's a little fading on one of the cat designs? But other than that - it's fine, and I only really plan on wearing it at home any how.

And per mother's request - I'm hunting trips to Mackinac Island, Michigan and Chicago that we can go on together. If you've done this or know of any, feel free to drop suggestions/recs in the comments below.
Apparently, Mother's sister suggested it - her younger sister lives in Michigan. She didn't provide additional help or advice on the matter.

Making my way through Rivals - finished the first season on Hulu. It's fun, and reminds me a lot of 1980s prime time soap miniseries and shows, such as The Thorn Birds, I'll Take Manhattan, Dynasty, etc. They were fun too. I think there's a bit more to Rivals - mainly because it's a satire, the 1980s shows weren't satires exactly.

Also, gave up on the satiric romance fantasy Long Live Evil by Caitlin Rozakis, again. ( Read more... )

And still reading This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Illona Andrews - which has an entertaining twist. ( Read more... )

***
Friday Five

1. In an average week, how many nights do you eat home-cooked dinners?

Pretty much every day.

( Read more... )

petrea_mitchell

Last week and into this one, I read Lyorn and Tsalmoth, which catches me up on the main sequence of the Dragaera series.

I started in on it a few years ago, meaning to read the books in internal chronological order. Which I've mostly managed, although there are a couple books which have different sections happening at significantly different times, and Tsalmoth takes place relatively early on but was only published in 2024.

I got interested in Dragaera after coming across references to how the big threat of the series is alien creatures, and the whole setting with gods and demons and magic might actually be science fiction underneath. From that perspective, going in chronological order was not the best choice since most of the early books (in both publishing and internal order) don't touch on that at all. If that's what interests you, I'd say start with Taltos, which is a great entry point in any case, and then you can skip forward to Issola without missing much.

Reading the whole series, though, I've been able to appreciate how Brust has improved as a writer over time. It was about at Orca in particular that I stopped and thought, this is really way better than the first couple books. And so most of the books dealing with the big ongoing potentially sfnal stuff are at the better end of the series, so there's that.

I took detours into a few of the books outside the main sequence. The Paarfi of Roundwood books are definitely not for me; no matter how much Brust has improved, I feel he still isn't quite as funny as he thinks he is. Brokedown Palace, though, might be the best Dragaera book of all. It's about the Old giving way to the New, but with sympathy and understanding for those who support the Old; and there's some action and fighting (including the banishing of a god) but overall it's the story of resolving an argument between close family members.

Of the main sequence, my favorite hands down is Vallista, partly because I like stories about the structure of time and space going wrong, partly for the look at the customs of the different houses in one section, and partly for the moment when one of the chief schemers of the series suddenly realizes that their scheme may have already succeeded some time ago.

There are two more books planned in the series, Chreotha and then The Last Contract. Reportedly Brust finished the first draft of The Last Contract a year ago, so we at least will be able to find out how he intended for the story to end somehow. But I hope he's around long enough to get both of them finished.

ysabetwordsmith

Stunning Mosaics Made by Londoners with PTSD Offer Pieces of Healing in Community Artwork

Tucked away in the parks and alleyways of East London lies one of the city’s most vibrant collections of public art.

What makes it all the more special is the mending of mental health maladies that transforms its volunteer artists.

The sometimes sprawling, Roman-inspired masterpieces are the work of the Hackney Mosaic Project and its founder Tessa Hunkin.

I suspect that the fitting of tiles into a mosaic offers similar benefits as stacking-sorting games like Tetris. Since PTSD is fundamentally a "stuck" problem, processes that focus on organizing things can jostle the brain into sorting memories into the "past" category.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is partly cloudy, humid, and hot.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/29/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/29/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/29/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

petra

This Doctor Who vid by Greensilver to Take On Me is 15 years old and, therefore, quite a few Doctors shy of the present, but it is giving me Nine/Rose/Jack feelings all over again.

I dug it up because

buggery linked me to an animatic Take On Me Doctor Who vid which is very well-done but not my cup of tea, artistically speaking -- the jittery style makes my brain itchy.

You may like them both!

(ETA: The first vid made me ship Nine/Rose/Jack all over again, and I only wrote them once, in Sohcahtoa. I think I did a bang-up job making the Doctor's POV deeply weird.)

Current Mood: doctorin'
Current Music: I'll be gone

ysabetwordsmith

Today's theme is Music.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

musesfool

Made 92 mini cheesecakes, 90 of which are now resting in the fridge before the trip out to the island tomorrow (I accidentally smushed 2 with the oven mitt when taking them out of the oven, so I ate them), along with the girls' birthday presents (cute socks!) and Baby Miss L's various books.

I had a bunch of orange cupcake papers, and just a small handful of blue ones, so I did kind of go for a Knicks theme. We'll see if anyone notices.

*

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Mets vs Marlins on tv

snopes_feed

Posted by Emery Winter

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-pope-leo-cage-fight/

At the time the fictional screenshot was posted, a crew was building a UFC fighting cage on the South Lawn of the White House.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-pope-leo-cage-fight/

lovelyangel

Another big round of layoffs hit my old workplace a month ago – and, again, many really good people were let go. The consultants with their spreadsheets haven’t a clue. My friends are the talented ones, and after multiple years of this, there are more of us on the outside than on the inside.

On Tuesday, 10 of us refugees from the workplace had a get together at The Lucky Labrador Brew Pub in Portland. Many of the people I haven’t seen in years. Everyone shared their layoff or retirement (or both) stories – along with commentary about how bad things had gotten at the workplace. (And it’s been bad for several years, now.) I associate with smart people, so it was easy to share stories of really stupid moves at the workplace.

We did share stories about how much better life is outside of work (well... except for those people who are trying to find a job in this awful environment). A number of people ended up retiring early. I’m thankful I was able to retire on schedule – not early at all.

Our gathering started at 4:30 pm – and was still going when I left at 8:00 pm. I had thought ahead and had brought my Nikon Z6 with the NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S lens. I took the Z6 because it is compact and light and the 24-120mm lens because it was the most versatile. The kit worked well. Early in the evening we took a group photo – which turned out great. I took a few candid photos, but none turned out save one. The two photos are nice mementos. I sent the photos to the two event organizers, and they’ll distribute to the rest of the attendees.

I used to work with really smart, really capable, really amiable people. It’s too bad inept leadership and management forced the talent out. But I’m happy we are able to reassemble once in a while and enjoy each others’ company. I expect we’ll do this again.

senmut

Shelter With Me (1471 words) by cutmyteeth
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men (Comicverse), Birds of Prey (Comics), Marvel, DCU
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dinah Lance/Erik Lehnsherr
Characters: Dinah Lance, Erik Lehnsherr
Additional Tags: Mild Smut, Rare Pairings, Crossover Pairings, Inspired by Fanfiction, Older Man/Younger Woman, Showering Together, Clit Play, Hand Jobs
Summary:

In the quiet moments like this, Dinah allows herself to pretend they can last.

SOMEONE WROTE BLACK CANARY/MAGNETO BASED OFF MY FICLET AND I AM OVERJOYED

chazzbanner

For the past two hours I've kept saying "why am I in a bad mood?" and answering "because I did too much 'ancestry' today." Then I remind myself that I've given the answer before... rinse, repeat (sigh).

I just got bogged down adding Ramsden cousins to one of my virtual Find A Grave cemeteries. Curiosity: one of them was career army (ending up a Brigadier General). His first son was born at Fort Bragg, and another in Phnom Pen, Cambodia -- in 1963.

Later I found a wedding date and place for one of my (very) distant D*P**t cousins from Delaware: Fishers Island. A quote on Wikipedia name-checks that family and others.

"Fishers Island Yacht Club holds races in the summer, and maintains two racing fleets."

-

snopes_feed

Posted by Jack Izzo

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/james-talarico-isnt-vegan/

The insinuation seems to be that not eating meat is un-American.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/james-talarico-isnt-vegan/

the_shoshanna

Going Home, part 2

Our flights were uneventful, although the five-hour layover in Heathrow was, you know, five hours long. I had a window seat on the hop from Jersey to Heathrow, putting Geoff in the middle so that I could have the view, but on the transatlantic flight I took the middle and gave him the aisle, so he could have a little more legroom. Our rowmate in the window seat was the first person on the entire trip to be freaked out by our masking; she was afraid that we were masking because we were sick, and stammered several sentence fragments of inquiry without actually managing to say it. "I mean, it's just that-- Most people don't-- Are you--? Or do you just--?" I took pity on her and told her that we were fine, we just always mask, and added, "Look at it this way: you know we're careful. You have no idea how careful any of these other people are!" which she more or less acknowledged the truth of, but I'm not sure she entirely believed me that we weren't sick. I felt for her, but I also felt like, you know, if you're worried, then there's a fairly simple way you can give yourself significant protection against airborne diseases! Have you considered wearing a mask?

On that flight I watched the 2018 film Boy Erased, based on the memoir of a young gay man whose parents sent him to conversion therapy. It was good, but it also made me think of Jacob Tierney talking about wanting to represent queer joy in Heated Rivalry; this movie is exactly the kind of queerness-as-trauma story he was reacting against.

On arrival in Canada we spent the night in an airport hotel, which was exactly as forgettable as every other two-star airport hotel. Eating those pour-your-own waffles and weird-textured scrambled eggs and sausage always makes me nostalgic for VividCon. Then a train home, which ran almost two hours late, whee, but at least it didn't do that on the outbound leg and risk us being late for our plane! (The train runs late so often that there's a standard protocol for apology credits; we have each been given the equivalent of a $14 travel voucher. Gee, thanks.) And our own bed is soooooo comfortable, and our shower has such good water pressure (not only did all the Channel Islands hotels have feeble showers, even the Canadian airport hotel did), and I went shopping today and have a chicken in the oven for tonight and a fridge full of fresh food for later. I have to figure out what to do with the Guernsey chili crisp with seaweed; I'd love to find a recipe that really shines with it. Not that I've opened a jar to taste it, yet... Maybe I'll slather it on salmon or a firm white fish. Ideas welcome!

Today I crossed sixteen items off my to-do list, but it just keeps growing, as I find more and more things I need to catch up on...

bruce_schneier_feed

Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/05/friday-squid-blogging-another-squid.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=72120

Someone named “Squid” seems to be a “West Country legend.”

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Blog moderation policy.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/05/friday-squid-blogging-another-squid.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=72120

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/29/view-from-a-hotel-window-5-29-26-pittsburgh/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60884

Does the photo have a parking lot? Yes. And as a bonus: a CVS! This one’s a classic of the form.

Reminder that I’m in town for tomorrow’s PGH Book Fest, and my event, with Isabel J. Kim is a 1pm, with a signing to follow. Come see us and/or get books signed by us!

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/29/view-from-a-hotel-window-5-29-26-pittsburgh/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60884

snopes_feed

Posted by Anna Rascouët-Paz

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gates-foundation-ticks-meat-allergy/

The Asian blue tick doesn't spread alpha-gal syndrome; the lone star tick does.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gates-foundation-ticks-meat-allergy/

cellio

A couple months ago, one of the other players in the D&D campaign we play in ordered a custom 3D-printed miniature for his character. The campaign has been going for a while and is a lot of fun (and not super-lethal), and this seemed like a cool idea. So I designed and ordered a mini for my character too.

Hero Forge has tools that support a huge range of character races, equipment, poses, and lots more. My character is a monk and one of their standard poses has a kick, so I started with that. I was tickled to discover that, among the many hand-held objects in their catalogue, they have a staff with a flower on one end -- perfect for my sylvan character who does in fact have a Staff of Flowers. She uses a mix of the staff and unarmed strikes in combat, so I put the staff in one hand so the other hand can punch. I ended up with this:

picture of mini, front view, staff in left hand

The mini came a few weeks ago and looked great. Alas, at the first game, the top of that staff broke off. Another player attempted a repair, which turned out to be hard.

I wrote to Hero Forge. I said I was new to 3D printing and described what happened. I said I wasn't asking for a remake; the figure had arrived intact and this was obviously my design error. My question was: for the future, do they have or would they consider adding tools that help with evaluating a design for weak spots? Had I realized how risky the staff was, I might have omitted it. (One of the players looked at the break and said something like "yeah, given how they had to have printed this, that doesn't surprise me" -- but I've never done anything with 3D printing before so I didn't have those instincts.)

They wrote back and said this was not the experience they wanted their customers to have, they would remake the figure for me, and before they do, would I like to adjust anything? This blew me away -- I wouldn't have been too surprised if they'd offered a remake at a reduced price or charged me shipping or something, but nope -- they offered me a complete do-over at no charge. I adjusted the position of the staff to give it anchor points at both ends:

top of staff with flower now touches head

The lower petal and both curves of the staff now touch the hair, and the bottom is still anchored at the base of the figure. I had to do a lot of experimenting with shoulder, elbow, and wrist angles and bends to get there, but it worked.

(In case you're wondering: I changed the flower color so that, at scale, it would look less like part of the clothing now that it was close to "hat" position.)

The replacement came today and it looks great! I will happily order from them the next time I need a custom mini.

Profile

sraun

January 2026

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Page Summary

beatrice_otter - (no subject)
lovelyangel - Hinata Resurrected
shadowkat - (no subject)
petrea_mitchell - Dragaera
ysabetwordsmith - Art
ysabetwordsmith in birdfeeding - Birdfeeding
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
petra - Recommendation: Doctor Who vid - Take On Me by Greensilver
ysabetwordsmith - Follow Friday 5-29-26: Music
musesfool - one pitch, one out
snopes_feed - Don't be fooled by fake post in which Trump challenges Pope Leo XIV to cage fight
lovelyangel - Refugees from Moria
senmut - Related Work: Dinah/Erik
chazzbanner - far far away on the family tree
snopes_feed - Republicans claim James Talarico, Texas candidate for US Senate, is vegan. He's not
the_shoshanna - and we are home!
bruce_schneier_feed - Friday Squid Blogging: Another Squid
scalziwhatever_feed - View From a Hotel Window, 5/29/26: Pittsburgh
snopes_feed - Gates Foundation backed research on different ticks than ones that cause meat allergy
cellio - outstanding customer service

Style Credit

Style: Sea and Salt for Nouveau Oleanders by branchandroot
Resources: OpenClipart and Oceanside Twilight

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Who I'm Reading Today

Network

(no subject)

Hinata Resurrected

(no subject)

Dragaera

Art

Birdfeeding

Birdfeeding

Recommendation: Doctor Who vid - Take On Me by Greensilver

Follow Friday 5-29-26: Music

one pitch, one out

Don't be fooled by fake post in which Trump challenges Pope Leo XIV to cage fight

Refugees from Moria

Related Work: Dinah/Erik

far far away on the family tree

Republicans claim James Talarico, Texas candidate for US Senate, is vegan. He's not

and we are home!

Friday Squid Blogging: Another Squid

View From a Hotel Window, 5/29/26: Pittsburgh

Gates Foundation backed research on different ticks than ones that cause meat allergy

outstanding customer service

Profile

January 2026

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