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Milestone
Oct. 28th, 2025 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azurelunaticI still have:
* bone strengthening (not marrow encouraging) med every 12 weeks, infused
* Scans every 3 months
So that means a trip or two to the cancer center every 3 months, although if they keep it at 3 months for the one and 12 weeks for the other, they may fall out of sync.
I should probably celebrate this?
Duolingo alternatives
Oct. 28th, 2025 02:52 pmysobel* Drops ("Language Learning Games: Drops"). Mostly vocabulary rather than full sentences. Free accounts limited to 5min/day. Paid upgrade available. Company also has apps for specific languages incl Korean, Tagalog, and others
* Busuu. No time limits for free accounts, at least. Paid upgrades available.
* Memrise. Free plan is more vocab than full sentences. Grammar lessons require paid.
* Babbel. Exclusively paid r/th freemium. Mostly just European languages.
* LingoDeer. Has Asian and European languages - there is also a games app for Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Chinese and German. Mostly paid.
[link] EXPASS best practice guidelines published!
Oct. 28th, 2025 09:26 pmkaberettSarah Russell of The Ostomy Studio, the person who made such an enormous difference to my general State Of Being just over a year ago via the medium of a private Pilates lesson pre-surgery, has just announced publication of the new Exercise and Physical Activity after Stoma Surgery best practice guidelines that she's been working on for literal years along with some amazing collaborators!
The principles here are the bedrock for the private lesson I had before surgery, and are also what I used as my foundation for rehab despite not after all needing to work with a stoma; I've not read them in full, but if you know folk they might be of interest to then please do pass the link on <3
rave: The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
Oct. 28th, 2025 03:08 pmjesse_the_kRobert Bringhurst's remarkable reference work, The Elements of Typographic Style, provides a full semester of type history in less than 400 pages. It's not just the book's elegant design nor well-chosen exemplars that so thrilled me I read both the 2nd and 3rd edition, dropping more than 50 stickies along the way. The current edition, version 4.3, is out of print and still focuses exclusively on printed material.
Bringhurst is a poet and translator. That last vocation has brought him into regular contact with non-Latin alphabets, and the Elements of Typographic Style provides the best advice I've ever seen in English regarding how to set type with accents, diacritics, and other "analphabetic characters."
( Archived links )
I drafted this review a decade ago, and I still believe it, so it’s a proof of life post.
beansideWe drank some of the wine last night. I had slid the bottle of Niagra into the fridge, so we pulled it out and cracked it open, and had some of the fintest sweet white wine in the land. I forgot how much I loved Mt Hope Winery, because this was fantastic.
Today, more work, and then I shall go forth to pick up Jess from their tattoo. They're getting a phoenix feather to match the raven feather on their right arm. It's their same tatoo artist, who is amazing, so I know I'm going to love it.
Then I shall come home and see if I am cooking dinner. My back has been a bit too peeved to stand at the stove. Last night we had Chinese. It was very tasty.
My ring and Jess' suit came! The suit definitely needs some altering. They couldn't quite get the pants zipped. but the suit coat looked nice. Pictures of my ring tomorrow--I'm going to try to get a picture in the morning light that shows the sparkle. I love it though, and I would 100% recommend Provence Gems for jewelry. It seems like each piece is made to order, complete with Computer Aided drafting and a real dialogue to make sure you're happy at each step. Now I'm debating on a bracelet or necklace to set off my dress.
It's a very busy weekend of games! I have four (three of which I'm DMing) games between Friday and Sunday, plus one coming up tomorrow (also not GMing). Jess actually has six games, as their game of Strixhaven is Sat night.
We were able to shift our early afternoon game an hour ahead, and will be able to sneak out and watch KPop Demon Hunters in the theater. We're going to try out a new theater (in the same location as the old theater). It's a kind of ritzy theater in a ritzy area of town. I wish I could go to the movies during the week. Tonight is Lost Boys and Thursday is Blade. I freaking love Blade. It was such a formative movie. I have not yet seen KPop Demon Hunters, but a lot of people who I know really love it. Jess swears the music is fun and earwormy. So that should be fun.
I think we need to get out of the house more, honestly. Every time we go out, we're like "this is so nice." and then we don't go out again for a few weeks. There just haven't been any movies I wanted to see or that much fun to go do. I need to look for some festivals and stuff that we could do.
November is not great for games, so we're going to have a couple of free weekends in there. Already got brunch with
poisontaster in mid November, so we'll have to figure stuff out for other fun things. Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have a wonderful Tuesday!
pictures for October
Oct. 27th, 2025 12:15 pmpauraque
( more fall colors [8 photos] )
Last weekend we visited the VINS nature center, where they have a bird rehab program. Birds that can't be released back to the wild are kept for educational purposes and can be admired by the adoring public.
( birds in captivity [14 photos] )
( birds in the wild [2 photos] )
( insect friends [2 photos] )
That glitter wasn't gold as opposed to what they told you
Oct. 27th, 2025 05:52 ambeansideWe had an good day yesterday. We got up early and left at 8am to get gas and get on the road. My back didn't feel horrible, but I took a cane with me to be sure. Googlemaps took us the weirdest way imaginable, down all of these tiny country roads, but we made it there in good time. We got there at about 9:30, and proceeded to the little wine shop, and proceded to shop hard. We ended up with like five bottles of wine, plus a four pack of hard cider. We don't really drink much, so that's a lot of booze.
Jess kindly walked the booze back to our car, and then we walked down to the entrance of the faire. We sat in line with the *cutest* little white poodle wearng blue bat wings. She was so good. Just sweet and happy, and she did the trick where she jumped into her mama's arms. It was very cute. Before too long, we were let in, and we began our day. First, I grabbed a hot cocoa. because the morning was rather chilly. Then, it was onto some perogies.
We strolled some stalls, and bought some nerdy things--a D&D pin for me and a bracelet for Jess. Then, it was onto the serious eating phase of our day. I got a smoked beef sandwich with horseradish cream, which was very good, though messy. Jess grabbed a broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl, which was...okay. We walked a bit more and I got my goddamn turkey leg, which was excellent. We watched some falcons and owls being very pretty and regal. Then, we...well, we were tired. So we went to the Harmless Danger Juggling show. It was a lot of fun! The performer was personable and funny, and we had an excellent time. After that, we headed to the Globe for Fire Whips and Swords, but by the time we got there it was packed, so we walked on. We did some general shopping, got kettle corn and some pet treats, and headed out of the faire. On the way out, we walked past the Distillery shop, and stopped for still more booze. (Some drink mixes and a bottle of rum cream.
By this time, my back was getting pissy. Drove towards home, and decided that we both could eat. A quick stop at Hoss steakhouse handled that, plus I have steak for breakfast today! Then it was home again home again, arriving in plenty of time for game, which was a lot of fun.
When I got into bed, I crashed pretty quickly, and slept through the night.
All in all, a very good day that I thoroughly enjoyed. My back didn't, but I did.
And now, I shall go forth and get myself ready for work...and take some ibuprofen. Everyone have the very best Monday!
Doctor Who nitpick
Oct. 26th, 2025 05:30 pmysobel...and ok. In e1, the TARDIS, with those inside, accidentally shrinks. The Doctor and companions are the size of an inch. They go outside, where they realize that instead of a planet with anaconda-sized earthworms, they're on normal Earth as tiny creatures. Shenanigans ensue.
At the end of the serial, they -- of course -- get back to the TARDIS and get everything back to normal. And as part of this, the (mini) Doctor grabs a (full size) seed of wheat, which he brings inside as a way of measuring progress: as the TARDIS returns to normal, the grain of wheat shrinks from apparently huge to, well, the appropriate size for a grain of wheat.
Except that /doesn't fucking make sense/.
When the TARDIS first shrank, so did everything inside. People, their clothes, everything. Presumably embiggening works the same. So why is the seed excepted? By the logic of the miniaturization, the seed should have remained the same relative size, becoming a huge-ass seed.
*blinks in confusion*
vital functions
Oct. 26th, 2025 09:19 pmkaberettReading. Two things finished, various things picked up and put down again.
Ouch!, Kerr & McRobbie: the subtitle is Why pain hurts, and why it doesn't have to; it's indicative of my current preoccupations that I was actively surprised that it is not, in fact, about chronic pain, except in passing, in that it's mentioned in the introduction in the context of pains the authors have experienced, and then it just sort of... vanishes again. What it actually is is more-or-less a tour of the sociology of acute pain, from a variety of perspectives and contexts, and an invitation to reshape your relationship with pain, optionally via the medium of sports.
It's very much aimed at a general audience (by which I mean both "not people with any particular pre-existing knowledge about pain" and also "not chronic pain patients"), with the infuriating-to-me feature of having not an actual bibliography but instead a "selected references" section, i.e. any claims I wanted to actually check required digging and then guessing (and in one case working out that they were actively wrong about which year the thing was published in, at least for referencing purposes). I did nonetheless get some useful information and vocabulary out of it (I'm especially here for the pointer to the 3P approach to pain management), and it prompted another couple of articulations.
Overall: not a disrecommendation; plausibly a light read if you have, you know, a recreational interest in pain; verify any specifics you want to rely on.
The Old Guard: Opening Fire, Rucka et al. A's conclusion was Well It Was Better Than The Second Film; mine was ( mild spoilers? )
and would be very happy to see that show up in an extended cut of the first film. The library doesn't have the second volume and I think we're unlikely to seek it out.DW catch-up: halfway through September!
Playing. Inkulinati, mostly watching A play and occasionally making Suggestions. Does not work as well as a Shared Activity as I'd hoped (annoyingly I think I'd need to play basically all of it hands-on myself in order to internalise mechanics and strategy, rather than being able to e.g. swap who's driving for every level) but I am enjoying it happening in my vicinity. Today we also read the PDF of the art book together, which I am not counting as Reading because it was mostly looking at the pictures in another context.
And after six months I GOT UNSTUCK ON I Love Hue! The Ascension/Air/1, extremely gratified that searching for it revealed someone who'd managed to complete everything but that, and bolstered by this knowledge I turned brightness all the way up and the phone upside down and FINALLY managed to sort out the yellows, on my nth attempt... in way fewer than the average number of moves. VICTORY.
Cooking. ( Read more... )
But all the powerful magical mysteries never give a single thing back
Oct. 26th, 2025 06:43 ambeansideOn the other hand, during our outing yesterday, I managed to tweak my back, and it's still rather cranky today. I'm still probably going to go, but it may be a short-ish visit.
We went to Yankee Candle around 10:45, and were easily able to find parking at the mall. I'd planned to just grab my package and go, but there were these absolutely adorable halloween smaller candles. One was skull hands clutching a cauldron and one was a lidded cauldron. And the very sweet person behind the counter reminded me that I had a $5 off $10 coupon. And they were already 75% off! So, they came home with me, too.
My house is gonna smell good, dammit!
Then we were debating on food for lunch, but nothing opened til 12, and it was barely 11. So we drove the 20 minutes to Shrewsbury and went to Cracker Barrel. It was here that I annoyed my back, and I did it by...sitting quietly in a chair. My back just sudenly spasmed, and continued to hurt for the rest of the night and into this morning. Aging bodies *suck*. The food was pretty good, though.
Tonight, we shall have game. This is the third arc of a longrunning campaign, fully homebrew. I'm looking forward to it! We just had a little tough combat which is winding down, and now we shall actually get some plot relevant information.
Tomorrow of course, is back to work, having had a lovely weekend to enjoy, despite the back spasms.
Now, it's off to get ready to go get a turkey leg! Everyone have a stupendous Sunday!
Books: "Legends And Lattes" by Travis Baldree
Oct. 25th, 2025 06:19 pmailbheI really enjoyed this - it was recommended to me by Eldest Offspring and it reminded me of Joanne Harris' "Chocolat" a bit; found community building, bit of magic, lots of lovely descriptions of food. It was an actual paper book, so my eyes and wrists got tired, but it was good and amazingly I was able to read something entirely new by a new-to-me author.
It's not meant to be a cryptic crossword!
Oct. 25th, 2025 05:18 pmdavidgillonI've got an Asda order due for delivery later, but a couple of the substitutions in the confirmation email confused me, What the hell are "slice cheoni" or "pizza pepsal"?
Finally worked out it's a cheese and onion slice (euuww, that's going back), and a pepperoni salami pizza. C'mon, Asda, it's not meant to be an intelligence test!
The Shore (2021)
Oct. 25th, 2025 11:58 ampauraque
Full disclosure: I was not able to finish this game because it gave me motion sickness. This does happen to me occasionally with first-person games, but usually only when there's flying or swimming, so I did not expect it in a game where you're just walking around. I played about half of it and watched a Let's Play for the rest.
The game certainly looks great, especially when you get out of the real world and into the eldritch realm. It's like if Cthulhu's interior decorator were H.R. Giger. Unfortunately, I found it was mostly style over substance.
( cut for length )
The Shore is on Steam for $11.99 USD, but GOG currently has it on sale for $3.49 USD. There's a VR edition too but I don't have the gear for that.
You been playing around the magic that is black.
Oct. 25th, 2025 07:37 ambeansideI used to have one in the house, but it got kinda tossed. It's called Witches Brew, and it's a black candle that's kind of spicy and resiny. I like it, so when I saw an ad for the halloween candles, I had to grab one. I'll probably go early before the mall gets too crowded.
Then nothing to do until I start cooking around 3:30pm. I'm going to make steak subs, so I need time to chop up some onions, saute them , saute mushrooms and then cook the frozen steak ums.
In between, plenty of time to read a PDF and work on upcoming games. I've got a lot to do in the next month for Crooked Moon, and a *lot* to do for the Land of Marchen in a few months. Crooked Moon is a premade, so I just need to make sure I'm familiar with the story line, and work in a few things. I also need to send out final backstory questions for my players to fill out. It's no real heavy lifting until the game starts.
Marchen is all heavy lifting. Right now, I'm working out the basics of the land. It's a pocket dimension with various nations. Each is in the grip of one or more fairy tales, and I'm looking forward to fleshing it out. I just figured out the three deities, so that's a start.
Once I flesh out the world, I need to flesh out the plot further. Then, I need to start sourcing all the tokens and maps, and make character sheets. Some are going to be harder than other. Where does one find the stat block for a Yaobikuni, a Japanese person who eats mermaid flesh and turns into a monster. What kind of monster? Guess we'll find out.
I'm starting the characters at 3rd level, so I need to come up with some mid-tier monsters in addition to the tougher ones. At first, they're going to be interacting with the lesser known fairytales or gentler ones. I don't think they want to fight a great black dragon at 3rd level.
We also have a game tonight and tomorrow that I should probably do a bit of prep for.
Tomorrow, off to the Renn Faire! I've been looking forward to this all week. We're going to go early and get our liquor first, put it in the cooler, and then proceed to the fair. This of course, depends on how early we get there, and how close our car is.
Then, we'll walk through the Renn Faire, and have plenty of food, and then go forth and come home for game.
Then bed, and back to work, feeling hopefully satisfied and happy with our weekend.
Jess goes Tuesday for their new tattoo, a phoenix feather to match the raven feather on their other forearm. I can't wait to see it. Their artist, Ronie does amazing work. This'll be Jess' third tattoo with them. Pictures to come!
And on that note, time to do some work. Everyone have an awesome Saturday!