halos on Mars

isn’t it stunning? This is actually a computer graphic, but apparently that’s what they’d look like. Researchers sought them but haven’t found them yet.

 

I have a month to get ready for Orycon. I have to admit that I’m jealous of all of Shad’s wonderful patches she’s sewn onto her guitar case, so now I’m going to announce my probably useless plan to sew patches on MY guitar case (Smokey’s going to the con, I don’t know if both ukes and the mando are going. I really want to take the dulcimer but then I keep thinking I’ll borrow Jeff C’s but I’m not 100% sure he’s going. Anyway, I have to figure all of that out. ANYWAY while tearing my craft boxes apart for patches I found Granny’s little Hummel girl on mesh, so SHE’S going on my guitar case and then I can carry Granny around with me every time I sing and play. I’m going to try to find some of the crochet work Grandma Zoos made and tack that on too, mebbe make a mesh pocket of it.

I need to select, assemble and print/PDF a filk-büche, practice until my fingies hurt, sew some patches, select and pack clothing,

Brief break for crafty Black woman! I freaking love the hat.

SHAD’S HAT THAT SHE CROCHETED AS PART OF HER CARPAL TUNNEL THERAPY. (SHAD IS CINDY, CINDY IS SHAD.)

is it not of surpassing excellence and tremendous beauty???? SAY IT ALOUD

So I’m ripping stuff apart in the craft area of my room (which I have to compress down into JUST ONE BOX lol AND I FOUND THE PERFECT PURPLE SPARKLY EMBROIDERY FLOSS TO MEND MY PURPLE TIE DYE TSHIRT WITH. SO I guess this morning has been a success so far.

I’m going to the Con!

 

 

Early one morn on a unicorn, well, I launched a rocket ship!
and I wore my silks and tie dyes and gave mundane life the slip
It cost me more than I could afford but I had to take the trip
for I have you all to thank that I’m a filker!
We sing the sweetest music and we laugh the loudest laughs
The robots sell their spares to hear, the wizards pawn their staffs
the circle calls in the function halls for a chorus fine and free
You can keep your wretched autotune –

it’s a filker’s life for me!

funnies with Alex

Alex just showed me a series of some of his fave youtube videos and there were a couple where the two of us just folded up laughing. (About Chinese knockoffs of well known fandoms and toys… the names ARE PURE FIRE.)

Superlative meal from Rice and Noodles last night. Thank you Jeff

Did something heinous this morning, critiqued someone’s spelling on AO3. If you can’t stand the typos, spellcheck in English for the love of Crowley’s quiff.

BUT IT WAS IN THE FIRST LINE OF THE STORY… I’m actually doing them a favour.

or not. Maybe I’ll get roasted. At least I had the fucking sense not to do it under my own name.

Keana Reeves is dating a wonderful age appropriate woman and I just want them to be happy and never inconvenienced by paparazzi.

Anya Taylor-Joy wore a blush princess gown embroidered with a hummingbird, and her husband took her last name. YES. In a Dunnett squeak, *she could play Gelis van Borselen* (or Katelijne Sersanders god help us) and *this is bride Anya standing on a 15th C Balcony in Venice.* Of course there’s only one person reading this blog who cares about any of this and it ain’t my mOm.

but just in case mOm is annoyed with me for the celebri-fluff, here’s a knitted pillbug from a deeper blue on tumblr:

 

I was going to but then

I was going to talk about the death toll in Hawai’i. From the fires. Fanned by a storm. I was going to talk about the death toll of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has been horrific, but I decided not to. I thought about reporting on the death toll of migrants drowned in the Mediterranean, which was considerable this past week, but I thought not.

Instead I’m going to comment on how, when Suzanne’s washed the kitchen rugs, Buster finds a moment and scoots a metre and a half across one, because as far as he’s concerned, we just washed his toilet rag. If mOm had known, crocheting that sucker, that it was going to be kitty toilet paper, she might have frowned, but kept going, cause that’s what we do, is keep going.

I have had coffee, and made tea for iced tea, and in about five hours someone’s going to flatten my breasts into machine readable tortillas and I’m going to feel sorry for myself.

I am rewatching S2 Good Omens with Jeff and trying not to squee at my favourite bits.

Michael Sheen, who plays Aziraphale (he was named by Terry Pratchett so it’s not a real hebrew angel name but it either means raphael’s strength or the helper in alt-hebrew) understands that some of the character’s hand gestures correspond to autistic stimming and actually tweeted “God bless the happy flappers” which given that I’ve stimmed (and been mocked for it) my whole life it was like being pushed into a chair when you’re about to faint.

David Tennant, who plays Crowley (more on that in a minute) has been known to sport non-binary and trans persons supporting merch and has a non-binary child (apparently part of his blended horde (any more than two is a horde, sorry) of offspring with Georgia Tennant.) Angels in the Gaiman-Pratchett-verse don’t ascribe to the sexual binary. So essentially both lead characters are non-binary but present male. Usually. So this global icon has been seen wearing ‘LEAVE TRANS KIDS ALONE YOU ABSOLUTE FREAKS’ Tshirts and the response of the exceptionally trans-hating UK press has been livid. LOL die mad ya salty beeches.

He had to wear dark glasses and contact lenses for the entire shoot and apparently was caught running into walls during takes since he couldn’t see what the hell he was doing. This makes his acting even more next level to me. I enjoyed Michael Sheen but it’s Tennant I can’t take my eyes off.

As in 2019, the fandom’s going insane. It’s also rescued me. There’s a fan theory about season 3 (if it ever happens) that put my feathers back in place, and it has to do with how Crowley…. isn’t who he says he is, or indeed who anyone says or thinks he is. The evidence was all gone through in a tumblr post and I am convinced. Therefore as sad as I am about the final scene in S2 I have decided to psychically crawl from my bed of pain into the toilet of relief, and possibly later visit the fire of collations.

Dr. Jen Gunter’s latest newsletter says that

20% of all Ayurvedic medicine sold in the US and Canada is contaminated with lead.

Jaysus and his lady mother and his poor poppa. Mercury too, apparently. Ha ha, little joke for a friend. But yes, mercury. So

As Dr. Gunter remarked If 20% of all the creamed corn in the US and Canada was contaminated with lead, that would probably lead to public health action of some kind. My take is what is preventing this stuff from being banned is (checks notes) fear of accusations of racism and anti-religious (anti-Hindu) sentiment and a heftic dose of CAPITALISM CURES ALL I guess. However, putting lead OR allowing lead into the manufacturing process of supplements ‘medicine’ SPECIFICALLY sold for the use of pregnant women is a failure on the part of every link in the supply chain.

Herewith my comments on Bluesky, a Social Media platform established by the guy who started twitter. He stole a metric crapstack of twitter’s old employees, but elongated muskrate dood that hisself by firing them all.

bsky creeping up on half a million users!!
 
fun place – trans people welcome; still issues (which no one is trying to hide but the company needs a kick) for PoCs and Indigenous – you can autoblock terfs, antivaxxers and bad political actors with one click and the list keeps growing but you’re already subscribed, isn’t that amazing? autoblock lists on social media are the fucking BOMB
 
I see Russian, Ukrainian (once mistook the two, had to abject the apology fuck me that was bad)  and Turkish in my feed. It’s overwhelmingly an English speaking place.
 
not enough aziracrow content <—- (written or drawn, mostly drawn, so I guess I’m sticking with tumblr for now LOL and I’m there under my real name which REALLY makes me stand out extra LOL although to be fair writers which I am use their real names)
 
Not enough weather and disaster on-the-ground content (twitter’s shining star)
 
YOU WILL GET ‘NOTES’ if you DON’T ALT YA PICS – this is a fantastic norm for a social media site. “Hello, I love you, won’t you please alt your pic!” (Provide a description for people who can’t see).
 
extremely thirsty (current slang for horny), much nood, no gifs yet (DAMNATION PEOPLE GET ON IT), no DMs (direct messages) and you can’t chain ‘skeets’ which I call bleats because it’s not gun related. Also sheep look like clouds in a Bluesky, the name of the app!!!  Adult content asks if you want to see it. Thank you! sometimes I want to see (I am just as prurient as the next chump, thanks) and mostly I don’t care. The last thing I looked at was a man’s back. It was muscular and full of tattoos and while it didn’t make my day it did make me smile.
 
The MAIN GOAL is to curate your experience so asshats can’t get at you by blocking IMMEDIATELY. No discourse, just block. In consequence it’s almost entirely free of interruptions by asshats and when they do get through you just block them once with neither guilt nor backward glance. Lovely. No asshats, all genders, no huhu.
I have put the second letter on Keith’s embroidered apron.
Only wrote 31 words yesterday. I will lie fallow for a few days, try to get back at it on Monday.
chamomilegeode-deactivated20221 on tumblr five days ago said:

did you know that, besides the apple of knowledge and the pomegranate of life, there’s another mystic fruit, one that grants you a sense of purpose?

yeah, it’s the raisin d’être

conversation on tumblr – this kind of shit happens every day on tumblr so I’m sharing it because of how it illustrates and supports the hive mind in a super creative and positive way

person 1

Please retire the “we are made of stardust” phrase I am so tired of it

person 2

Stars are made of flesh

Person 1

I change my mind bring back the original phrase

person 1

If I remember correctly, elements heavier than iron are only created when a star dies.

This is interesting because 1) it places a lower bound on when life can evolve, and when life is most likely to evolve, assuming any of a number of certain chemical compositions are necessary and 2) it means that a significant portion of the matter around us was forged by the death of a star.

Stars, when they die, can create new elements and I think that’s cool as fuck.

Person 1

I looked it up, actually it’s like this:

Helium and Hydrogen were created by the Big Bang.

Elements from Helium up to Iron are created by stars through nuclear fusion during their lifetimes (In a process called Stellar Nucleosynthesis)

And elements heavier than iron cannot be created except by Supernova Nucleosynthesis, by the collapse and death of a star, and elements from silicon through iron still are mainly created by Supernova Nucleosynthesis, since stars big enough to create them by fusion in life are pretty rare

The stardust makes you alive! It’s neat.

Person 4

This! Yes!

Okay, so, this is a thing we actually know a bit about.

While what you’ve brought up is the leading theory, and has been for a good while, there are some inconsistencies — particularly with the far end of the stable elements and the radioactive elements. The amounts produced in Supernova Nucleosynthesis would be far too low to actually account for the amounts seen in the universe.

So, how were they created?

The best theory we have is collisions between neutron stars.

When two neutron stars collide, they produce a supernova with the required energy density to create those ultraheavy elements, which means that not only are you made of stardust, if this theory is correct, you are made of stardust that was released when two of the most violent, extreme objects in the universe collided, possibly billions of years ago, hundreds of millions of lightyears away.

Person 1

You are the wreckage of a violent multi-star pileup

 

 

For you mom

Circular needlework showing Bayeux tapestry style characters and buildings, and in Bayeux style lettering says Behold the field in which I grow my fucks lay thine eyes upon it - and thou shalt see that it is barren

There are many versions of this but one of my filkacqs received this from a loved one and JUST YESTERDAY I was talking to you about that, so funny coincidence.

Ran over to help Keith do Alex coverage, we played games and watched part of a movie and I asked him to name all his family and that was VERY INTERESTING as a window into his mind. Also meltingly sweet.

When I was done, Paul was done with his errands so I picked him up and watched him throw his prescriptions into the trash. I briefly lost my cheese and then one of the gaggle of Desi girls who works at the Tim Hortons he was sitting in front of came out with the key and helped him get it out of the trash.  Honestly her kindness made my day.

Lovely wide-ranging phone call with Dave yesterday. He’s doing okay, it’s been hella hot in the Tdot.

Got both mOm and pOp on the phone yesterday. That was an unexpected happy note in my day.

Working on a new tune on the uke. Plugging away at both current writing projects. Must do laundry today.  Summer service at John H’s tomorrow – Keith’s going early to help Marilyn (they were in Philosopher’s Café together) set up chairs.

Offered Buster many options this morning but what he really wanted was snuggles from yours truly, so that was sweet. Then he went out into the kitchen and catched treats without training. He is a cat.

Love and soft hugs and warm thoughts for all 8 of you, my dear consistent readers. If you have grandchildren, I hope you take a minute to enjoy them. I enjoy mine. And my oldest child is 37 today, and he wants media. I will see about it.

Alex, bless her, provides the illo

She forwarded a bunch of housefilk pics from The Dawn of Time, let us just say the best part of 15 years. That’s her, Tom L, not sure and Peggy on standup bass (probably sometime around 2007 but why let facts intrude.)

Emotionally the effect of seeing Paul every day for a week is difficult. However he was perfectly happy to be left at Peggy’s at 4 pm, which was my “I’ve been doing unpaid family related babysitting for two different generations for eight hours and I haven’t pull a full work shift since 2017 so I’m done” o’clock. Yes it was nice to see Alex yesterday (he showed off more pictures, and I loaned him the Kaossilator and Keith finally got home from his morning of difficult appointments) and I fed him and got fed on Keith’s tortellini stew (nice because Paul plated and warmed it for me) but I was ready to go home at one and I hadn’t even made it to Peggy’s yet. So he either walked home (1.9 k in perfect weather, well within his max cap) or Jeff C, being one of the good ones, gave him a lift.

When I got home Jeff had supper ready for me. I nearly burst into tears I was so relieved. Then we watched Farscape and Elementary and tried to watch Iké (a movie) but Jeff bailed.

It was delightful and sad to hear Jeff C. relate the circumstances around his father’s death and funeral (the sound system went berserk and yelled in God Voice BE NOT AFRAID while Jeff was at the lectern which is just typical Jeff; the world is an anecdote waiting to be recounted and his life is merely one strand of it.) He also talked about family history and it was very interesting. His father was abandoned by his mother to his grandmother when he was tiny. He had continuity of care but you never get over your mother going WELP DINNA CANNA. And he was organized enough to arrange to buy an anniversary card and sign it while he still could, so he was in the ground four months when his widow got the card…. very organized. Also kind of I don’t know what word to use, uncanny mebbe.

Jeri Lynn spun, using her extremely sophisticated modern spinning wheel (many bits to fall off, and they all tried to at some point), and I got to feel her skeins of unspun wool, including some baby alpaca MAN YOU WANT SOFT you will go into a swoon touching it. She was also previously baking, rolling out spice cookies with a complicated rolling pin when we arrived.

Cindy and Jas were there making Christmas cookies (the real point of the weekend) because Peggy causes someone to bring the spare stove upstairs and then they (the American Thanksgiving baking team) cook nonstop for a couple of days. I am subsidizing lunch today and it will be either ARGO or Big Star. I’m thinking Big Star and I’ll pick up a side salad. Jas was wearing a t-shirt that said ASK ME ABOUT MY HOST ORGANISM and I complimented him on it.

Brooke was in a corner doing a 100 pattern blackwork circle sampler (in multiple colours of course) and swapping Pokémons with Jeri Lynn, Greg was there ingesting hot chocolate and computer games (much as Alex would do were he there).

Finally put gas in the Echo Paul loaned me. I’m considering taking it to someplace to get the fluids checked. I won’t do it and I don’t know when Paul last did.

We didn’t bring instruments. It was my judgement that a) there are enough quality guitars in the house LOL and we haven’t seen Jeff and Jeri Lynn in yonks so let’s visit and do the music the next day (they leave today but later).

I’ll be picking Paul up around 11:30 and then we’ll drive over and I’ll order lunch for the folks. I’ll also pick up a bunch of side salads so we get our veggies.

I feel beat and I just woke up. It will be another long day; enjoyable, but it’s hard.

from theconcealedweapon on tumblr:

What an autistic person says: “How long is it going to take?”

What they mean: “I want to know whether to activate my short term waiting mode where I just wait and do nothing else, or activate my long term waiting mode where I occupy my mind with something else. I fully understand that both are possibilities, and I have no problem whatsoever with either one, but I want more information so I can best adapt to the situation.”

What neurotypical people hear: “I am impatient and demand that everything I want happen right now. Please scold me and publicly humiliate me for it.”

I’ll be talking to the fam about how much I can do with Paul and how many hours in one day/week I can manage, because if this keeps up I’ll get sick. These days I spend so much time every day crying I feel like I’m sick already.

pot8um on twitter:

So many things are out of kids’ control— uncomfy clothes, loud noises, icky food, confusing rules… As an adult, I make my own choices. I wear, eat, and do what I like, because if I don’t, I get overloaded. That’s why I don’t remind you of your 8-year-old autistic nephew.