fbhjr

I'm easing back into doing things. Technically I'm still barred from doing much of anything until I see the doc on Friday but I can feel that my eye is settled and quickly healing so I'm moving with less care and more confidence. I'm still wearing the eye cover at night so I don't scratch but fortunately my eye does not itch so I'm not too concerned.

Since my right eye has always been my best for long distance vision I don't see much change and doubt I will. But I can see out of it now and things are in focus so I'm back to double eye'd vision which is nice.

The entire process was way more than I'd anticipated. But it is behind me and it appears that all is well.

Tomorrow my two granddaughters, 17 and 15 year old women, arrive for a couple of days. They go back on Thursday. It will be more time by far than I've ever spent with either of them. The visit is the brain child of my son's fairly new wife and is a really considerate thing to do.

Apparently the two of them like museums and bookstores and dinosaurs. We have the Blanton museum in Austin, one of the best book stores in the U.S., Book People and the Whole Foods mother ship complete with an amazing cafe full of every kind of food one might desire, right between the two. So that is the plan on Tuesday.

I'd like to take them to the Waco dinosaur museum. It is a dig that is still in progress albeit very slowly as funds are available. A bunch of mamoths got stuck in a flood and died in a patch of water than turned into mud trapping them and saving them for us to see. It is a facinating place but is nearly an hour and a half north of us. I'm a bit concerned about that much car time. Three hours round trip. I did just check, though, and there is a Buc-ees half way between the two so maybe it would be worthwhile. It may be a time for a vote.

The alternative would be a day in downtown Georgetown which has a lovely mid 19th century square and nice shops. And a trip to the boot store. That might be better.

Fortunately both of them want steak and barbeque and I've been tasked with providing the best Texas has to offer. I think we can find some.

It is weird that it is two days. They leave at 1:45 on Thursday so not much to do that morning. We'll have to leave the house at 10:30 or so. On the one hand that is so short that it is destined to leave us all wanting more. On the other hand that is probably a good strategy.

It is going to be exceedingly weird to be in a house, even for a couple of days, peopled by all females. Well, actually, Beaux, Toby and me vs the three women. Still.

I'll give my my office as a place they can spread out to. Also weird. But manageable for a couple of days.

The weather will be cool and perfect for whatever we want to do.

And two weeks following full of stuff to do that requires thought and action.

Finally starting on the 10th things will be dull, uneventful, and perfect for a few weeks.

andrewducker

I'd been hearing talk about how good Frieren was for a while. It seemed to have come out of nowhere to instant acclaim, and to actually be about things. So a month ago, when I was looking for something to watch during the occasional 20 minutes when I get lunch alone, I thought I'd give the first episode a go. And while it didn't make me cry it came very close, and it had an atmosphere I hadn't encountered anywhere else, so I was completely grabbed from the beginning, and now that I've finished the first season I feel somewhat bereft.

It is, in background, a bunch of totally standard fantasy tropes. But it does something interesting with them, which is to base itself after the point most stories end. This is the story of what happens to Frieren, an immortal* elven mage, after her adventuring party defeat The Demon King. And how she lives in a world where the friends she makes live much shorter lives than her, how she connects with the people around her, and what she does when she realises that this matters to her.

There is plot, and action**, but mostly not that much of it. The point is the people, and watching them orbit each other, learn from each other, or completely fail to. The characters are interesting, and I love feeling that there is much more to most of them than is obvious on the surface. I particularly loved the first few episodes, which set everything up, but even once we get past past these in to the ongoing arc*** I have found myself looking forward to the next episode more than in almost any TV I've seen in the last decade.

I suspect some people will get put off by some of the tropes, both the ones taken straight from fantasy/roleplaying and the ones that are stock anime conventions. But I could happily look past those and enjoy the meat of the show, which was excellent. I eagerly await season 2. The only nervousness I have is that the original manga has been on hiatus since October, and the creators have clearly struggled with the production schedule, so I don't know whether it will ever be completed. But, frankly, it's not (at this point) the kind of show where I need an ending, I'm delighted just to be along for the ride.

* It is not clear how long elves live. But it is clearly at least thousands of years.
** And when it happens it is gorgeously animated
*** I'm not sure it's a plot, as such. Things are happening, but I'm not convinced that it's going somewhere in particular more than it is just following characters around to see what they get up to.

fred_mouse

I've been struggling both with energy and motivation for exercise. At some point, I opened a browser tab to Darabee and it has sat there since (best guess: since last year).

Today, I'm browsing it and thinking about options. It has programmes for people with very low fitness, and my intention is to start there. I've decided to look at the options in 'monthly' programs, and filtered only to the lowest difficulty, which gives me 8 options. Which is too many, can't do decisions.

Fortunately! Only looking closer, the Recovery: Post Cold, flu or covid option is 15 days while everything else is 30 days, and committing to the bare minimum feels about where I'm at. Also, I find the title reassuring. So that was a 'eh, pick the easiest' kind of decision making. It lists the exercises as being 'yoga, breathing, stretching', which sure, that sounds like a place to start.

Will I stick with it? Historically no. But the exercise I do any of is better than the exercise I do none of. I .. might remember to check back in?

rejectomorph

The Saturday nap lasted until after midnight, when I wandered sleep-dazed through my constrained space, not sure of what to do or not do with my constrained mind. On the Idernet I stumbled upon some old songs that evoked the faintest ghost of nostalgia, but that soon succumbed to forgetfulness. Perhaps the monotony of the mild days has brought doldrum. If so, it should end soon enough. Today will be balmy, but Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are to be cool and at least partly rainy. Maybe I will find alertness falling into my mind with the rain and freshened air. Or maybe not. It's nearing dawn and I'm getting sleepy again. I think maybe I don't care about much other than that right now.

( Sunday Verse )

legalmoose

The husband is off with his sister for their annual remembrance of their mother, who died of COVID this weekend in the first wave back in 2020. So I'm on my own, and taking a quiet weekend of it. Catching up on comics - I had a month plus backlog that I'm about halfway through as of this morning. Not helping has been a sore throat that popped up yesterday with a mild fever. Still sore this morning, but no fever. Bodies are such fun.

Did manage to solve a longstanding eyesore of cables and needed accessories by the TV yesterday, relocating and hiding them all inside the entertainment center. This has long been an issue, and was one of the first things you saw when you came around the corner and saw the TV setup. Now, no more loose wires and doodads hanging out, and all the peripherals that needed them are working. Yay!

mellowtigger

As I warned about yesterday, winter is not yet done with Minneapolis.

Here's the view out of the patio door at the front of my house this morning. We have sub-freezing temperatures forecast for tomorrow morning too.

P.S. I wanted to mention somewhere that while I was digging with a shovel in the front yard yesterday, a lady from next door (public housing unit) stopped to thank me. "For what," I asked, genuinely confused. "For the air conditioner and the whistle," she said. I replied while smiling, "Oh, sure!" Not very eloquent, but I'm not exactly the master of human interactions. When I finally ordered a new smaller air conditioner unit last spring that would fit properly in my bedroom window, I offered the older/bigger unit to them for free, so it wouldn't go unused. Plus, they got one of foeclan's 3d-printed whistles when I delivered notes to my neighbors back in January.

andrewducker

1. Uruguay has the only stable, successful South American economy. Why is that?: (tags:history economics SouthAmerica video )
2. Europe doesn't care about the UK - we're deluded: (tags:UK Europe doom )
3. China's Humanoid Robots Are Now as Fast as Usain Bolt: (tags:china robots running )

kalloway

Went on an entire road trip today- Michael's first, which is down near where I used to work but feels like the other end of the universe. I have, for months, kept thinking I should make a chunky list for when I finally got down there, because I need many things... Did I ever make this list? No. Did I get the one thing I really needed? Yes. (smallish ziploc bags, generally sold for beads and whatnot but I use them for gunpla accessories)

Then on to HobbyTown to pick up a belated prize from that contest a month ago. It is a ballcap, and I am not a ballcap-wearer, so it'll just chill on a wig head or something. Also picked up a couple of 30MM kits, RG Wing (all the Wings!), and a couple stands because I am direly low on stands and keep building critters that don't balance well.

After that, back across to a free "anime convention" also near where I used to work. I can't even say I managed to walk around once because it was the biggest shitfire I've ever seen of a convention and I have been to a lot of dire nerd shows. No parking (I parked at a drugstore nearby and hoofed it), no lighting, a rock band playing loudly over a wrestling show, and a bunch of randomly laid-out artist tables and some random woo and a poor guy selling fudge. The layout was so bad that it was impossible to walk down aisles normally, even without cosplayers in large costumes blocking things (possibly the only actual "anime convention" hallmark). Maybe stayed ten minutes.

Doing a lot of cleaning tonight, both in my bedroom and online. First is a quick journal cleanup, removing inactive accounts and a bunch of communities that I'm not doing anything with and probably won't any time soon. As always, it's not anything personal. I should do my fediverse accounts next, and discord servers that I haven't looked at in ages.

(Bedroom cleaning is cataloguing models and became a dedicated shelf clean of a bookcase where I think the old paperbacks and the old clearcoat are interacting badly. But I think I can replace that bookcase easily so *waves hands* I also gave the discolored/spotty book bottoms a quick sand and they look a lot better. Also also these are mass market pocket paperbacks from the ~80's so they are not in great shape to begin with and there's some book repair in my future.)

silver_chipmunk

Got up and had breakfast and coffee, showered and dressed, and went to my Al-anon meeting. I made it on time despite running late all morning. The meeting was very good.

I didn't go to the diner afterward, I went straight to

mashfanficchick's. D rode on the bus and the subway for a good part of the way with me, which was interesting. He's a very strange person.

Anyway I got to

mashfanficchick's and we went into Manhattan, by the F train to the E. Before we took a bus to the museum we looked for someplace to eat, and went to Thisbowl, and Australian chain. I got a bowl with salmon.

Then we took the bus to the Met, and waited for Marja on the steps. It didn't take long, and then we went into the museum.

We went to the American wing and spent most of our time there. Tiffany glass windows and things, so beautiful.

Eventually Marja was tired though so we left and took the bus back to the subway and came back to

mashfanficchick's. I Teamed the FWiB, and we ordered Mexican food for dinner. I had a shrimp quesadilla.

After that we watched the final episode of Heated Rivalry. It's so sweet.

Then I took an Uber home and fed the pets and here I am.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Marja.

3. The Met.

4. Good food.

5. My meetings and the people there.

6. Good TV.

Current Mood: cheerful

rocky41_7 posting in

booknook

Title: The Salt Grows Heavy
Author: Cassandra Khaw
Genre: Fiction, horror, fantasy

Today while waiting for my car’s brake pads to be replaced, I finish The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. This is a short (fewer than 100 pages) fairy tale-inspired horror story about a mermaid and a plague doctor who get wrapped up in the sick games of a village they pass through.

I liked the idea of this story a lot more than the execution. Have you ever had the sense a book really wanted to say something profound about human nature? This book felt like that constantly. It also felt like the author desperately wanted the reader to be impressed with her large and esoteric vocabulary. Things were phrased and rephrased in ways that felt keenly like they were only there so the author could use a specific word. Which, fair, we’ve all done it, but the scaffolding showed so plainly here it felt very clumsy. I’m not usually one to fuss too much about purple prose, but the language here often felt decorative enough that meaning was obscured rather than clarified.

I like the vibes in this book, and the two main characters were engaging (although I felt like the half-mermaid children were a pretty glaring dropped thread) and the plot interesting, and some of the writing was beautiful, but more often it was distracting. I never sank into the book, which was too bad, because there were some cool moments.

Can’t say I’m inclined to look into more of Khaw’s writing, because I think her style is just not for me. I don’t think I wasted my time with this book, but I don’t need to see more from her.

ranunculus

Yesterday Chena went from her usual interactive, happy self to the picture of an unwell dog. She was wobbly on her feet, flinched away from people and really, really didn't want to be touched. She lay down in the living room around 9am and hardly moved until 4pm. Not interested in food or drink. I almost took her to the emergency vet last night, but it looked like she was beginning to be a little more alert, so waited. At 3am she consented to lapping a little water. At 7 am she zoomed out the front door and began barking noisily at Mr Raven who was sitting on the power pole. Happily ate breakfast and slurped up water. Charged up Fairview Hill running happily next to the car. She happily rooted around in the leaf litter where the fallen limbs had been, using her nose like a pig. She was following the scent of a vole. My only guess is that somehow she got into some marijuana and spent the day yesterday extremely stoned. 1 gummy would have done it, but WHERE would she get such a thing? Whatever the case I'm glad she has gotten back to normal.

ranunculus

This morning I met Dave and Ray at Friedman's. We bought lumber, screws, and rebar so I can build a bridge. We hauled the stuff up to the house, cut the lumber into 5' pieces and then hauled it out to Duck Lake. The three of us then switched gears and cleared the fallen tree off the old road above Duck Lake. Lots of twiggy stuff, but unnerving because three trees were involved. The biggest tree had fallen hitting and breaking two smaller trees. All of the bases were hung up (read the trees had snapped partway up and had not fallen all the way down. Instead the heavy trunk of the tree was suspended in the air. When the lower branches are cut back it changes the way the trunk is supported and can cause one or more of the trunks to roll and fall. This was on a steep sideslope, so I kept a sharp eye on everything as I cut, I really didn't want anything rolling down on top of me.
Our third task was to clear two massive limbs at Deer Camp. The two were hung up, and leaning on each other. There was probably 1,000 # waiting to fall on us. Fortunately those two limbs were pretty stable and on flatter ground. Once we cleared all the twiggy "brush" and cut back any branch that was not supporting weight we considered the problem. Geez, hundreds of pounds 10 feet in the air.... We put a tow strap on the smaller limb and pulled it sideways a little. It obligingly fell down with a thump, leaving the larger limb hanging by nothing much. I tried a cut to see if it would roll down, but no luck. So we put the tow strap on it and pulled it the opposite direction of the first limb. It fell with almost no real pressure on the strap. Whew! Very scary work. Lots of thought about how to keep fragile human bodies safe. With the limbs down Dave and Ray left as they had late afternoon appointments.
I returned to the house and feverishly sorted out ribbons. We mark the trail by tying surveyors tape; bright orange or bright pink; to clothespins. The clothespins can then be clipped to branches, fences, wands or pretty much anything else. To keep the ribbons and clothespins tidy and easy to access the pins are clipped to a circle of rope that can be worn over one shoulder. Here is Carrie and Juno last year.

The flags with the blue in them are to mark turns or other places where the trail might be confusing. They mean: STOP, find your next flag before you go any further. It will be in sight! Helps keep people from getting lost. I am desperately trying to make more flags. Somehow an entire, large box of flags, neatly clipped to ropes, has disappeared. Probably at least 200 flags just gone. Hopefully now that I am replacing them the old flags will re-appear.
Tomorrow is a bridge building day with Glenn.

dustbunny105

Ended up spending a lot more of the day than expected with my sister and the kids. We didn't even go to the library! Turned out the kids weren't ready to give up the books they'd checked out, lol. Instead, we had lunch, made sock puppets, went to the store and then had dinner. Unexpected and kiiinda inconvenient but still fun.

jazzyjj posting in

awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

matthew_feed

Posted by Matthew McQuilkin

https://www.fruitcakeenterprises.com/blog/2026/4/18/my-bluesky-posts

Fri, 19:57: I think late-period Steven Soderbergh is my favorite. https://t.co/TclBc964uv

https://www.fruitcakeenterprises.com/blog/2026/4/18/my-bluesky-posts

olivermoss

Sabrina who? I'm more into Firkus Circus

The Kraken's AHL team is the Coachella Valley Firebirds. I intend to make really terrible jokes until one lands. And yes, same place as the music festival currently going on.

(Our AHL team is where we park some of our prospects and rookies, the baby squids) Firebirds are in their playoffs, currently fighting for home ice. And my favorite player has been bounced back to CV for the play offs. I've heard another fave should be there for the Calder Cup run, also they've got the baby goalie who had the iconic debut.

I didn't know Coachella was the name of a place. At the start of the Kraken season, when people kept talking to Coach Lambert about spending time with other coaches in Coachella, I thought that was like the tongue in cheek name for a coach conference or event. In my defense, this sport has a *lot* of slang that is used very causally like everyone understands it. At that point I was still constantly looking up phrases, it's not as silly as assumption as it sounds, I swear. The ONE time I try to pick up meaning from context instead of looking everything up.

Two Kraken franchise teams are in their play offs, just not... uh... The Kraken. So, I am watching the fire type cryptids instead of the water type cryptids.

althea_valara

So in the recent post by

wavesagainstrocks on how you do fandom, I said the following:

I do sometimes feel I am too narrow-minded in my fandoms, because except for yarncrafts and Final Fantasy, I don't really venture out of those areas? I keep saying I'm going to play more single-player games on my own, but it's so EASY to default to FFXI or FFXIV or replay a comforting game. Earlier this year I was playing Epistory (Typing adventures!) which I was enjoying, and I don't think I have much more left so I should probably finish that. I also played about two hours of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and immediately was interested... but the activation energy to do something new to me is hard to find. So easy to just... not do it.

WELL FOLKS! I am away from home watching my sister's dog. My PS5 is back home, so no FFXIV - neither potato computer or mom's laptop can handle it. I could play FFXI on potato computer, but I left its gaming pad at home. Which means either fumbling with keyboard controls (and I am NOT good at them) or seeing if my Switch Pro controller would work.

But that, for once, sounds like too much effort.

So what to do? Well, I brought my Switch along! Now, I could replay FFXII. I was supposed to be doing a random job challenge of it recently, but only played an hour. As much as I like FFXII, I think... I think I don't want to replay a game right now.

Which means I am going to start FINAL FANTASY TACTICS today!

Okay, okay, it's another FF game. But I've never played it. And I have long felt that lack of experience in it as a hole in my gaming knowledge. There's a REASON it's way up there with the Zelda series as a "most wanted to play" game.

I know surprisingly a lot about the game, for not having played it. First, I have an idea of what the gameplay is like, because I've played the shit out of FFT: Advance. Seriously! My game file had like 180 hours put in it.

Second, I know many of the characters already, from them having shown up in first FFBE/WOTV and then when I did the Ivalice raids in FFXIV. This also means I know many of the bigger enemies, too.

I also helped R51 at Caves of Narshe update his FFT section for its recent re-release. This means I know EVERY SINGLE item, weapon, and armor in the game, because I proofread those pages. I know where stuff drops from, or is poached from. I know all the locations, because I checked their map pages for correct links.

My posts will be FULL OF SPOILERS but I ask that you PLEASE not spoil me for anything I haven't talked about yet. Thanks in advance!

( here spoilers start )

olivermoss

I'd like the Avs in longer, but I want to Oilers to have hope and then to have it crushed yet again. Grimdark-maxxing. Also, going for a Habs win and maximum Gritty. Also Fuck Vegas

sanguinity

Intro/FAQ

My check-in: Finished this revision pass of the longfic, woohoo! (She says optimistically, knowing FULL WELL she's likely to rewrite tomorrow what she rewrote today.) Woot woot!

Day 18:

sanguinity

Day 17:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora

Day 16:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

dswdiane,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!

mellowtigger

I'm a big advocate of recognizing climate change.

For instance, back in 1960, this USDA map shows Minneapolis in zone 4a. Sometime later, we changed to 4b, and today we're in zone 5a. We're still fully surrounded by zone 4b, though, so it's only because of the "heat island effect" that we're considered a warmer zone. You can see that island of heat on this map. That's fine, I suppose.

Unwelcome, however, is receiving plant shipments on dates that are still too early for actual cold weather habits in this part of Minnesota. I planted things a few weeks ago, when they shipped much too early, then we had a hard freeze down to -7C/20F. I received more plants on Thursday, only a little too early. I kept them indoors, because I saw the forecast for below-freezing temperatures this morning. That's also fine, I suppose. After work today, I got some asparagus and roses into the ground finally. I had to dress warm, because the wind chill was 3C/37F.

I have a few more delivered plants to put into the ground, but I'm waiting until Monday morning's sub-freezing weather passes. One of these plants is another rose, but it's already blooming! It just seems terribly wrong to try putting it into the ground right before a freeze.

That photo isn't great, but the single open flower at the top is still visible. These last remaining plants will just have to wait for Monday afternoon. I wish all of these plants weren't delivered until late April, like what would happen years ago, when we were still in zone 4.

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Network

More comfortable

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End: A review

Exercise

52/410-411: Reference

Quiet weekend in

yup. snow.

Interesting Links for 19-04-2026

Ah, A Day

Day 2 at the Met

Book review: The Salt Grows Heavy

Chena

Busy

(no subject)

Just one thing: 19 April 2026

My Bluesky posts

In my Coachella Era

Final Fantasy Tactics Liveblog Part 1

My hopes for the playoffs

Write Every Day: Day 18

Minneapolis is not ready for zone 5 yet

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April 2026

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