two some good things
Jun. 14th, 2025 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettItem the first: I have no idea what the hell made the ominous donk-slither-donk noise in the portaloo at about midnight last night, but the phone I'd convinced myself it was was in a neat little pile with my laptop, in the tent, in the morning -- after I'd spent some time being sad about inadequate backups of photos of tiny sleepy rhinos -- which was an enormous relief (though I am also very pleased with myself for how well I handled things). (Especially given that my conviction that this was what had happened was in part based on being as aware as I could be of how abruptly my cognitive function had deteriorated with Surprise Unscheduled Migraine Onset.) (Still haven't worked out what on earth the donk-slither-donk was, but it's none of the obvious Truly Upsetting things to have lost, so I'm Currently Fine With This.)
Item the second: it is hot. This field contains lots of chamomile, and also lots of people. I am really enjoying the way it smells.
Item the third: I am really enjoying the dark chocolate + salt + nuts snack bars that crew welfare is providing, which I'd not previously noticed.
Item four: THE HALBARD THAT IS A SHARK.
Hey AI — hands off my em-dash
Jun. 14th, 2025 02:03 amfirecatMy fave is the semicolon; however, I refuse to cede em-dashes or any other punctuation marks to ChatGPT.
These attacks on the em dash — a ChatGPT hyphen? How very dare you! — have in turn blazed across social media spaces populated by the kind of folks who will tell you, unprompted, that they have a favorite punctuation mark and what it is. (It is very likely the em dash.) — https://www.salon.com/2025/06/11/ai-cant-have-my-em-dash/
[fieldposting] day 0 complete
Jun. 12th, 2025 11:53 pmkaberettI am already very very tired.
But.
In a magnificent example of Prosocial Mammals: yesterday, when we were like 3/4 of the way to site, I realised that I no longer had "migraine stabs" on my packing list because I had carefully arranged things so that stabs would be due on a Tuesday so I would never need to faff with stabs in a field again.
... which I completely forgot. Until. 3/4.
... so I put out a Wail addressed to Londoners who would be Heading To The Field, and one of them ACTUALLY WENT on the terrible multi-borough fetch quest to get me my stabs so I HAVE BEEN STABBED and was only one day late, not a week! which is probably going to make the next month much more pleasant! and I just. continue delighted about this.
There you go that's your anecdote of the day.
delight of the evening
Jun. 11th, 2025 11:54 pmkaberettOkay. So.
Admin: the LRP has a variety of in-game resources. One of the more valuable ones is mithril, which gets used for all sorts of things, like armour and weaponry and building works, particularly military ones.
This event we are seeing the launch of The Cow Stock Market. This inevitably was a topic of discussion over this evening's pizza: discussion of the designs of the I Promise To Pay The Bearer On Demand One (1) Cow slips! speculation over Cow Futures! debate over the impact on the gold mithril standard!
It'll be fiiiiiiiiiine, says A. It'll all be TOTALLY fine. You can absolutely build fortifications out of cows!
-- and at this point, for those of you who are abruptly cackling, I need to point out that A has not read Nona the Ninth.
I also need to point out that I am in a specific groupchat, specifically set up following the event where someone managed to get their hands on some copies of Nona a few days before official release and there was consequently significant in-field bartering for who got to be next in the queue to inhale them, that is named after. well. the cows. did you know that cows have best friends.
But A had no idea why I was abruptly losing it, and I decided that rather than attempt to explain I was in fact first of all going to Depart Our Table, find my Nona dealers, and relate unto them the story of The Thing A, All Unawares, Just Said.
The reaction was extremely gratifying.
Mudlarking 17
Jun. 11th, 2025 10:38 amsquirmeliaA busy day of immersive theatre and when I left it was pouring with rain, but when I walked through Blackfriars Station to the other side of the river, it magically stopped raining and I headed down to the foreshore!
It was quiet, as people had been put off by the rain.
Earlier in the day, in an Ambient Lit workshop, I had pretended to be a dog and chased pigeons. “Woof”, I said to the pigeons on the foreshore.
There were patches of metal objects, nails, screws, objects once used.
I picked up pipes, pottery sherds and pieces of glass, and also a tiny heart shaped sticker. Thanks for the love, dear Thames.
It was quiet, as people had been put off by the rain.
Earlier in the day, in an Ambient Lit workshop, I had pretended to be a dog and chased pigeons. “Woof”, I said to the pigeons on the foreshore.
There were patches of metal objects, nails, screws, objects once used.
I picked up pipes, pottery sherds and pieces of glass, and also a tiny heart shaped sticker. Thanks for the love, dear Thames.
sat up very straight at around this time last night and went "... oh"
Jun. 10th, 2025 11:29 pmkaberettTwo things:
I keep (especially post-surgery, cotemporal with relearning how to walk) finding more small ways that how I've been doing my various physio exercises isn't quite right. This is a good thing! Isn't it fascinating to be learning more about embodiment and how my body works and how I can best deploy my various muscles!
Up until the hypermobility clinic, all the physio I was ever prescribed made me worse, not better.
It abruptly dawned on me, all at once, that the subtlety of the changes I'm making with adjusting how I'm shifting my weight around and so on and so forth? Are almost certainly not actually externally visible. Like, yes, people not understanding hypermobility and problems with it was also Definitely A Problem, but -- the part where I'm still, mm, not necessarily fixing things but certainly developing them, finding places where even with What The Hypermobility Clinic Told Me To Do I wasn't getting quite right... well, the hypermobility specialists clearly went "eh, good enough", and in terms of the effects on my ability to Things I think they were clearly demonstrably provable correct, but -- yeah, okay, sudden understanding of some of just how difficult it would have been to correct some of this stuff.
(I'm very sure that all my various epiphanies will turn out to be about things that still aren't quite right, that I can still refine further -- I'm having an extended phase of that with Pilates right now -- but this is a good thing, actually. It's really nice to have such clear evidence that I'm getting to know and understand myself better.)
Mudlarking - 16 & the Mudlark
Jun. 10th, 2025 08:48 pmsquirmeliaIt was just before low tide and the foreshore was busy with people, teenagers on a guided mudlark tour, and others searching.
The foreshore emptied and then there were more geese than humans and the goslings pecked at the wall, green with algae.
That day, I kept finding stripey pottery sherds. As I was going to meet Ingress players afterwards and our team colour is green, I started to concentrate on picking up green sherds. Green triangles!
I found another pipe with an “S” on it, different to the last. The other side looks like it could be a “P” so perhaps it was made by Solomon Price.
Another piece of Staffordshire Slipware, some more pink slag, and a sherd with a letter “E” on it.
It seemed appropriate to go to the Mudlark pub after that to meet friends and show them my bag of finds. On the walls of the pub were pictures of the foreshore and of pipes.
The foreshore emptied and then there were more geese than humans and the goslings pecked at the wall, green with algae.
That day, I kept finding stripey pottery sherds. As I was going to meet Ingress players afterwards and our team colour is green, I started to concentrate on picking up green sherds. Green triangles!
I found another pipe with an “S” on it, different to the last. The other side looks like it could be a “P” so perhaps it was made by Solomon Price.
Another piece of Staffordshire Slipware, some more pink slag, and a sherd with a letter “E” on it.
It seemed appropriate to go to the Mudlark pub after that to meet friends and show them my bag of finds. On the walls of the pub were pictures of the foreshore and of pipes.
Mudlarking 15
Jun. 9th, 2025 07:23 pmsquirmeliaMudlarking - 15A
It was lunchtime and not much beach could be seen. I’d gone down an alleyway that didn’t smell pleasant, and then down steps, and past flies. I walked back and forth on the small patch of shore anyway, while the tide went out and the beach gradually grew.
I found a small piece of glass, a blue and white sherd, and a mysterious brown metal object. It is not the telescope I imagined it was when I picked it up.
A man sat on the steps, but the tiny patch of foreshore was entirely mine that day.
–
Mudlarking 15B
An after work trip to the foreshore, low tide was a few hours before.
A religious looking poster floated in the water, but later appeared on the shore.
An Egyptian goose walked by.
I found a tiny green plastic bottle with a swirl on it and I wondered what it once contained.
I found another square small black tile that looks modern, but I have about 4 now. Maybe I’ll find enough to make a space invader mosaic eventually.
There were a few broken pipe bowls, and what I thought was a piece of green pipe, but now looks like something else.
I found a stone with delightful stripes, or is it a fossil?
It was lunchtime and not much beach could be seen. I’d gone down an alleyway that didn’t smell pleasant, and then down steps, and past flies. I walked back and forth on the small patch of shore anyway, while the tide went out and the beach gradually grew.
I found a small piece of glass, a blue and white sherd, and a mysterious brown metal object. It is not the telescope I imagined it was when I picked it up.
A man sat on the steps, but the tiny patch of foreshore was entirely mine that day.
–
Mudlarking 15B
An after work trip to the foreshore, low tide was a few hours before.
A religious looking poster floated in the water, but later appeared on the shore.
An Egyptian goose walked by.
I found a tiny green plastic bottle with a swirl on it and I wondered what it once contained.
I found another square small black tile that looks modern, but I have about 4 now. Maybe I’ll find enough to make a space invader mosaic eventually.
There were a few broken pipe bowls, and what I thought was a piece of green pipe, but now looks like something else.
I found a stone with delightful stripes, or is it a fossil?
vital functions is struggling with time management and up way past curfew
Jun. 8th, 2025 11:57 pmkaberettReading. FINISHED:
- Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson. I can see why people like her! I have also remembered why I wound up unsubscribing from her blog. Very interesting proof of concept in re audiobooks, though.
- Prophet, Helen MacDonald and Sin Blaché. Very enjoyable reread in which many things landed differently, in service of...
- a word you've never understood, rydra_wong. EXACTLY the post-canon follow-up I wanted but would have absolutely failed to articulate. Have already tried to lure one more person into reading the book so I can then make them go read the fic. Now I just selfishly want Even More Of It.
- Pain is really strange, Steve Haines. Reread for the purpose of making notes, this time. Sparked at least one useful thought. Following up references is a work in progress.
- How to cook... Desserts, Leiths Cookery School. Read all the way through for the purposes of EYB indexing first pass! Go me.
STARTED:
- Adventures in Stationery, James Ward. Borrowed from library on a whim for low-brain non-fiction.
Writing. First pass through indexing a cookbook on EYB!
Some Actual Notes re pain for The Book, including (and I am very proud of myself for this) actually writing down my questions alongside the bare "here's what it contained".
Watching. Murderbot S01E01. I am dubious but expecting to keep watching. If you encourage me I might say more when it is not past curfew.
Cooking. ... apparently I have not managed Much Of Note this week.
Eating. POTATOES at the ALLOTMENT courtesy of ALLOTMENT FRIENDS. Also finished my choi sum and had my first AMAZING broad beans and nibbled kohlrabi speculatively, all on Tuesday.
Today I have nibbled: a cherry; the first few redcurrants; a pod's worth of Kelvedon Wonder peas; half a tiny tomato.
Making & mending. Made some progress on A's left glove. Realised, belatedly, that I'd done the same thing with picking up stitches unevenly along the two sides of the palm. Ripped back most of the way to where I started from and Sulked. BUT HEY I've remembered the pattern and where I'd stowed all the bits for it!
Growing. See Eating for my biggest excitements. Sugar Magnolia (purple sugar-snap pea) now setting pods; my main intention with it this year (given that I planted a whole packet of seeds and have wound up with ...fewer plants than that) is just to get myself sorted with a significantly larger number of seeds for next year, but hey, maybe they'll all be super productive and I'll actually get to eat some too.
Stockings now at the plot to go onto the cherry tomorrow, hopefully.
Tomatoes planted out when tiny not doing so great (i.e. have mostly disappeared). Tomatoes planted out when larger Actually Flowering. Desperately need to stake the lot of them.
Tiny single solitary surviving oca has started to Go.
V grumpy about how poorly the squash I got started A While Ago have coped with getting put outside given that they are in biodegradable fibre pots so I'm not even disturbing their roots. Getting the rest of them in the ground AND THEN SOWING MORE very much also high on tomorrow's priority list. (And the beans, augh.)
Observing. Met a neighbour!
some joys of the day
Jun. 7th, 2025 11:57 pmkaberett- goslings! (Canadian; one still very yellow and fluffy, several more rather larger.)
- SNAILS. so many excellent snails. we went out on a couple of stupid little walks and saw MANY snails.
- ate the last of my birthday cake, with discounted raspberries courtesy of one of said stupid little walks. <3
- the post brought Several more books for me (two pain-related, ...some cookery) and I am very pleased with them. particularly looking forward to warm bread and honey cake, though given that I've still not actually read Salt Fat Acid Heat I don't rate my chances of getting to it any time soon...
- current borrowed-on-a-whim-from-the-library book: Adventures in Stationery, James Ward. First chapter was paperclips; current chapter is a whistlestop tour of The History Of The Pen, including a much more loving biography of the BIC Cristal than I am normally exposed to via fountain pen fandom!
[pain] today's articulation
Jun. 6th, 2025 11:53 pmkaberettA significant part of the problem is that we only start saying "all pain is in the brain" (or "the tissue isn't the issue" or whatever) to people with complex or chronic pain.
And there's a good reason for that! It's the same reason that I need to have a much more detailed idea of the fine detail of what an atom is and how it behaves than the vast majority of the population, for whom the Bohr model is perfectly adequate!
... and we need to explain that, we need to explain why we don't tell people with simple acute pain that All Pain Is In The Brain -- it's not because it's any less true for them, it's just that for most people most of the time they don't need to worry about that level of detail. But if you don't explain that, it sure do sound a lot like "your pain isn't real (unlike those people over there)".
Lies-to-children. That. That thing. That's a thing I need to explain.
various sizes of joy
Jun. 5th, 2025 11:11 pmkaberett- On Tuesday, I picked a kohlrabi. The stem itself got eaten at the plot; the leaves I brought home to cook and eat subsequently rather than compost them. I stuck them in a glass of water to keep them going while I work out what exactly it is I want to do, and -- they are stunning. I am enjoying them so much every time I go past them: dark blue-tinged green leaves, pink-purple stems and veins (the cultivar is Azur; I do not currently have photos but will attempt to get my act together tomorrow.)
- I have four spikes of ginger, one thoroughly unfurled into leaves, and at least one more thinking hard about it. I do not expect to wind up self-sufficient in ginger but I am very much enjoying the experiment.
- a word you've never understood (Prophet, 9k words). I did not read it all in one gulp -- I paused to take notes -- and I'm now on my second read through, which could in theory be more of a gulp but mysteriously I seem to be taking more notes and also remembering that I wanted to shake the internet for more information about the experience termed "aftersensations", for Book Purposes. (Also I think I've lured another person into at least starting the book...)
- Asparagus for lunch! Still in season; still delicious.
- My house once again contains Large Quantities of hazelnuts and pecans. I Monch.
Mudlarking 14 - A sherd with a word
Jun. 5th, 2025 07:30 pmsquirmelia
I found a sherd with a piece of writing on it on the foreshore and found it looks very similar to a cute pearlware Child’s Alphabet Mug, circa 1830 on an antiques website.
I like the verses on it:
"G was a Gardener who works many hours.
H was a Hot-house to hold his choice flowers
A was an ass so stupid & dull.
B was a bee with her honey bag full.”
Full mug and photos here: https://junoantiques.com/childs-pearlware-alphabet-mug-ref-1382/
The rest of my finds included some more Staffordshire Slipware, a very speckled sherd with a bumpy texture, a piece of blue glass, and various other things:
(no subject)
Jun. 5th, 2025 01:25 pmjackHm. I'm still not sure about writing `2.` but if you have to use floats then I think I came around to preferring to write `2.0` over writing `2`.
mugged by a magpie
Jun. 4th, 2025 11:34 pmkaberettPicture me: sat on the sofa, opposite the French doors, vaguely paying attention to what was going on at the bird feeder, mildly amused by the extremely ungainly magpie.
The magpie that inspected the water bowl (that someone had thrown off its stand) and the feeder (that was empty) and the me (on the sofa) and Came To A Decision.
It did a tiny hop-skip-flap over and landed, very deliberately, on the workbench just the other side of the glass. It turned its head from side to side to get a good look at me from both eyes.
And then, having glared at me, it started yelling.
And kept yelling until I was up off the sofa and clearly heading for the door, whereupon it retreated to a safe distance, i.e. the garage rooves, and Continued Observing.
I sorted out the water dish. I got the crates of Misc Birdseed out of their cupboard. I sorted out the feeder. I sorted out the other feeder.
I went back inside.
Some time elapsed.
Eventually I got sufficiently puzzled about why the magpie hadn't come back yet to actually notice that I'd left the crates of seed out, and their cupboard door open.
I heaved myself back off the sofa.
I returned the seeds to their cupboard, and shut the cupboard's door. I returned myself to the sofa, shutting the patio door behind me.
Not terribly long after that, the magpie returned, and drank, and nibbled suspiciously (I had changed which food was in which feeder position), and appeared satisfied at least to the extent of not yelling any further...
... right up until the squirrel showed up to claim a portion of the restock.
I am absolutely delighted to have made this neighbour's acquaintance.