Quote and More…
Feb. 24th, 2026 12:04 am"Strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities."
"Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime."
~ W. E. B. Du Bois
Randomness from me, to you... Because it's my birth month!
1 A Scandal in Bohemia from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) Audiobook (I grew up watching the films with my Granny and reading the books at home. The narrator is clear and the books from Sherlock Holmes Stories Magpie Audio is perfect to listen to as you go about your day.)
Music Meme Poll
Feb. 24th, 2026 01:26 pmI was tagged by
Which do you like best?
Promises: Mama Kin Spender
1 (25.0%)
Run: Flight Facilities
0 (0.0%)
The Bomb! [These Sounds Fall Into My Mind]: The Bucketheads
0 (0.0%)
Weather With You: Crowded House
2 (50.0%)
City of Angels: The Distillers
1 (25.0%)
Crossposted to tumblr, which means it has to be radio buttons. NO NUANCE as they say on tumblr.
Affordable Housing
Feb. 23rd, 2026 11:00 pmIn more and more places, the rules technically allow incremental housing. Backyard cottages, accessory dwelling units, and small infill homes are legal on paper; beautiful, glossy images of these homes are shared on city websites and included in planning documents. Yet these homes rarely get built—not because of public opposition or failed rezonings, but because routine procedures treat small homes like major developments.
What we have is not a failure of vision, but one of process.
( Read more... )
Review: "The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine Cookbook"
Feb. 23rd, 2026 10:14 pmPaperback – January 1, 2000
by george-foreman-connie-merydith (Author)
( Read more... )
Today's Adventures
Feb. 23rd, 2026 08:05 pm( Read more... )
Sex Kitten progress update
Feb. 23rd, 2026 06:34 pmStill in the middle of section one, which is just the first weekend of Kuro being at Ren's house.
It's going to take me a while to chew through this all, but it's coming along.
I got one scene planned out today and then conked out asleep for hours.
It's frustrating when I want to get work done but just don't have the energy.
But if the body needs rest, the body will get rest, one way or another.
I've also updated the SK Information Post, with my current progress. I also changed the links section to drop the direct links to plot posts (they can still be found in my SK tag), and to sort the art by newest first, with listed dates of posting so people can see what's new more quickly.
Tomorrow I play games with friends for a couple hours, so I don't know if I'll have the energy to do much work as well, but if I do, I'll keep going.
February LOVE-Fest
Feb. 23rd, 2026 09:19 pm22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved
--
Day 23: Obsession
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Rating: Gen
Summary: Sherlock gives Mrs. Hudson a gift after a case.
( Read more... )
Day 24: Agape
And for Music Monday, here is a very pretty instrument song "Agape" from the film If Beale Street Could Talk
[Agape (/ɑːˈɡɑːpeɪ, ˈɑːɡəˌpeɪ, ˈæɡə-/;[1] from Ancient Greek ἀγάπη (agápē)) is "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for [human beings] and of [human beings] for God".[2] This is in contrast to philia, brotherly love, or philautia, self-love, as it embraces a profound sacrificial love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance.]
But where is my dopamine hit??
Feb. 23rd, 2026 06:35 pmI've been putting off a minor maintenance thing since *November.*
I needed to call and reschedule a doctor's appointment (because I forgot to ask for the day off).
I needed to call the hospital, because every time I try to pay my bill online the payment declines.
I was going to do all of that three weeks ago. Then I was going to do it two weeks ago. Then I was going to *definitely* do it on my weekend last week. Then when I didn't do it last weekend I was going to force myself to get up early and do it before work. Then when that wasn't going to happen, I was going to make myself sacrifice a lunch break to do it. Then when that still didn't happen, I told myself I really *had* to do it this weekend. I even tried to hype myself up about while at work on Sunday, like "yeah, if you make those calls on Monday, you don't have to worry about them after! You'll be done! You can do whatever you want for the rest of the weekend, guilt-free! It's going to feel like such a relief for it to be off your to-do list!" This morning, I did not want to make those calls, and tried several times to convince myself that tomorrow would be better to make them anyway for some reason (which would of course inevitably lead to putting it off again.)
BUT I MADE THE CALLS.
I called the hospital, and the payment was also declined over the phone, though it at least told the lady on the phone why: it exceeded my bank's daily spending limit.
So I called my bank. They gave me a temporary increase to the spending cap, but told me the charge would probably decline again, but that I should get an immediate call or text from them asking if it was a legit charge, and then I could try again.
So I tried the charge again. Declined. No call or text from the bank.
Fuck it. I just charged a partial amount, and will keep going in and paying it in chunks over the next few days.
I called my doctor's office, and that was at least easy. Pushed my physical out a couple weeks, which will hopefully be good. (Maybe I'll have shaken the cold by then.)
Called for the maintenance thing. They'll come by tomorrow.
...and I felt absolutely no sense of satisfaction or accomplishment, which was really frustrating. :/ Usually when I finally Do The Thing, I at least feel really relieved once it's done! Often a little embarrassed at the same time, because it's typically such a small amount of effort compared to how much I stressed over it, but at least there's some relief! This time... nothing.
Perhaps it's because today I did find out that my insurance is denying coverage of my visit to my PCP (saying I owe an additional $350) because in order to visit my PCP... they say I needed a referral from my PCP.
I am frustrated because that will require additional, probably even WORSE phone calls.
I still feel like I should be glad to have gotten those other calls done with, but if anything it made me feel worse. We went and ran errands, and then I just spent the day sitting like a lump of misery, because I'm still sick and coughing up infection-flavored gunk, and I felt worse instead of better after doing the thing I'd put off, which made it really difficult to try and do anything else.
Boooooo.
2/23/2026 NYT games scores
Feb. 23rd, 2026 09:10 pmPuzzle #988
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
Strands #722
“Strike a chord”
🟡💡🔵🔵
🔵🔵🔵🔵
🔵
Pips #190 Easy 🟢
0:20 🍪
(The other two Pips difficulties were just not fun and I will not be attempting them.)
Nori's story
Feb. 23rd, 2026 08:09 pmLet's talk about my sugar glider, Nori.
Content warning for non-graphic descriptions of animal abuse and injury below the cut.
I was given a few options to think about once I'd been approved for adoption. I had just lost Kili, and I'm probably going to lose Ori within a year or two, so I told them I wanted a pair under 5 years old, so I wouldn't have to go through this grief again so soon. I'd also told them I had experience with chronic illness, amputations, and behavioral issues in sugar gliders. I had multiple options, but one of the matches was a boy/girl pair, about 3 and 1/2 years old.
As soon as I saw the picture of the boy, it was over for me. The moment I saw him, I knew I had to have him.
221 Mt Auburn St
Feb. 23rd, 2026 07:12 pm( backstory )
Demo photos by week available at:
https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/capitalbuildingprojects/projectsinitiatives/221mtauburnstreet
Enter Malish
Feb. 24th, 2026 12:07 amI started off on this 'episode' of "Smok and Malish" (half an hour or so of watching; we are still in the first episode of the series) with the studious intention of doing all the 'work' over short segments; watching the scene straight as intended, then rewatching with Cyrillic subtitles, then rewatching with Cyrillic subtitles and pausing with a dictionary, then finally rewatching with the auto-translated English subtitles to see if that picked up any colloquialisms or other material that I'd missed. And for the first couple of scenes I did do just that( but got carried away ) while YouTube persisted in inserting advertisements in the worst --or most effective-- places imaginable.
It absolutely cannot have been random. Every time something lethally dangerous happened, there was another cliff-hanger ad break at that exact moment, with multiple ads clustered close together in the most action-filled section :-P
I mean, objectively I knew that both characters had absolute plot armour at this point in the story, because neither the titular Smok nor Malish (even if we don't yet know how Kit becomes 'Smoke') couldn't possibly die in their first scene together. I even consciously *told* myself that during one of the enforced pauses for advertisements. But by that point the film had grabbed me to such an extent that I had my nails dug into my palms and my jaw clenched tight, and couldn't look away( cliffhanging action )... and I breathed a long sigh of relief and was finally able to stop watching ;-)
So by this point I'm clearly *very* much emotionally engaged in Kit's story, whether because it's an excellent lead performance or a compelling production overall (based on promising source material)!
Created a new tag, because we're obviously going to need it :-D
Blizzard!
Feb. 23rd, 2026 06:48 pmThe wind today was impressive, snow whipping around so strongly that walls were coated in white, not just roofs. It’s slowed now to just snow, having already dropped what I think is over a foot of snow (the drifts make it difficult to be certain; a recently posted news article lists amounts ranging from under half a foot out on the Cape, to almost three feet in Dartmouth). It looks beautiful from the comfort of home; I’m very glad not to be out, though.
My porch is filled with snow; I haven’t been able to open the doors to the porch since MLK weekend.
eta, 7:50p: The city isn’t lifting the snow parking ban until 5p tomorrow, and my functional boss has said that tomorrow’s work sessions will be online tomorrow, just like today, so I can work from home again tomorrow if I wan/if Outside looks less navigable than I’d like.
(no subject)
Feb. 23rd, 2026 05:43 pmI'll probably make it in and not have a lot to do - because half my work place will be snowbound out on Long Island, including my boss. Although per Outlook - I think they all worked remotely. I couldn't. Vertigo was too bad. It's better now. I'm hoping it continues to improve. God, I hate vertigo.
Below is a "privileged education meme" that vaguely reminds me of a game I once played at church. If you were given certain opportunities - you advanced, if not you took two steps backwards. Myself and my friend at the time MD (who is a Black woman) were both ahead, as were a few young Black women and young men, while the old white British guy, his white Jewish wife, and the old white guys born in the 1940s were at the back. It seemed to divide itself more along class and generational lines then race?
( Privileged Education Meme )
Off to find something for dinner.
Snow's over, but not the blizzard warning!
Feb. 23rd, 2026 06:48 pm( the snowfall my friend / is blowing in the wind )
It's hard to tell exactly how much snow I got from this, because there's been an awful lot of drifting already, but it's at least a foot (because that's the lowest amount I measured) and probably closer to two feet (because some obvious drifts are higher). Still, this isn't anywhere near as bad as southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island; Warwick RI reportedly had over three feet of snow!
Still have power, though, and thus warmth. First things first.