randomdreams | Reading

Still catching up on things I wrote in 2025, although I believe this is the last of them.

Most people who might care have seen it already, but for the sake of completeness: I wrote a Flight of the Heron story for the "Pomegaverse" square of Keep Fandom Weird Bingo.

What is Pomegaverse? According to Fanlore's page on Pomegaverse:

In these works, a human character experiences so much stress that they transform into a Pomeranian dog. They can only revert back to their human form if the stress is relieved via receiving love and affection from other people.

I haven't made a serious effort at the rest of that bingo card, but as soon as I saw that square, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it:

Form'd for Idleness and Ease

Keith & Ewen

Pomegaverse, Animal Transformation, Bad Things Always Happen to Keith, Let's Get That Man Some Affection For a Change, Or At Least a Mini-Vacay as a Beloved Lapdog

Captain Keith Windham's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day just got worse. Ewen, of course, is a perfect gentleman about it all.

Of course, this all demands an answer to the question of how the war proceeds if soldiers keep turning into lapdogs every time they get stressed out. (The Highland Charge continues to be effective -- perhaps even more so! Culloden... either gets that much horrific, or fizzles out for want of soldiers still standing.) I have no immediate plans to actually do this, but I am a little bit tempted to follow this mechanic through all five meetings of the book, just to see what happens.

rebeccmeister

Yesterday was Baby's First Time getting the annual (bi-annual?) vehicle inspection done. (I am the Baby). Thankfully, the mechanic that S identified for us in Albany could fit that in yesterday, along with an oil change. This mechanic is somewhat old-skool, but in all the best possible ways. I especially appreciate him after visiting so many different mechanics in so many different places in 2024 in the midst of all those road-tripping adventures. It's a relief to learn I don't need to go out and find yet another establishment to tackle yet one more car project. He also had a recommendation for place to ask about auto body rust work that I'd rather pay someone to deal with than try to do myself. It's going to take me longer to get to that task, though.

Based on the car logistics, I rode Princess TinyBike yesterday. I need to figure out a maintenance plan for the Princess soon. She's due for at least new brake pads, which are of a particular sort since the Princess is a Brompton. That just means I can't just walk into any bike shop and expect to find components ready and waiting for me. In December I tried to pay a visit to a new bike shop in town, Blue Tulip Bikes, located not that much further from home than the erstwhile Downtube Bicycles. The shop sign and internet both said the shop opened at 10 am on Saturdays, but the shop definitely wasn't open when I arrived a few minutes past 10 on a Saturday, and a street fight that broke out a block away made me think better of lingering around to wait for the shop to open, sigh.

So, I'm not yet sure what my target destination will be for Brompton components and repair. Annoying. My next stop will be a small shop in Troy. We shall see. I'm highly motivated to get the Princess in tip-top shape so

annikusrex can ride her up to Montreal with me in June.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday evening I rode Frodo home (as usual) in a light drizzle, and when I got home, I was amazed to discover just how much sand now coated my feet, panniers, and bike. I got my footwear and panniers rinsed off promptly, but forgot I'd need to do the bike also until I was about to head out to campus this morning. The grime removal itself went fine, but I forgot to factor in that water applied to surfaces will freeze when the air temperature is 17 degrees F. That mostly just affected my shifting. Thankfully, by the time I was ready to leave campus for home, things had had enough time to thaw out and dry such that shifting function was fully restored.

All of which is to say, winter bike maintenance is a PROJECT.

sistawendy

Yeah, there's been a certain quality of life improvement with the lower hormone dose. Plus, I don't go through my stockpile as quickly. 5.2 mg/week of estradiol it is.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: The Cure, "Friday I'm In Love"

darkoshi

Video title: Governor Walz Addresses Ongoing Federal Presence in Minnesota
Posted by: Office of the Governor of Minnesota
Date posted: Jan 14, 2026

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: anxious

conuly

in which two teens independently fall into a toxic mud puddle and develop mind-reading abilities. Spoilers, they're not the only ones!

They're at a family reunion, and one person mentions that there have been a few breakins, how odd, because all the broken-in houses had security systems. And as they mention that, everybody in range automatically thinks their PINs. This, of course, is how the (telepathic!) thief had broken into the houses in the first place.

Ever since then, every time I've had to enter a PIN or a password anywhere, I've carefully also thought some other random letters or numbers. It's a silly habit, which I only developed long after I outgrew poking around closets for Narnia and had nearly outgrown poking around closets for secret passageways, and it wouldn't really deter a mind-reading thief for very long, but I still do it. If there ever is a telepathic malefactor in close proximity to me, at least they'll have to to try a few different codes to use my bank card!

******************

( Read more... )

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: pleased

darkoshi

3 little dandelions, braving January sunlight
as the temperature drops

Spin, spin, spin
says the garden wind spinner

Squeak, screech, squeeeeeaaaaaaaal
replies the neighbor's roof turbine

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: amused

catness

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

Challenge #8 : Talk about your creative process.

This applies to all creative stuff: programming projects, game development, writing, art.

1. Challenge. Sometimes I come up with project ideas myself, but usually I need an external push :( that's why I'm a sucker for courses with homework assignments, challenge communities, workbooks and such.

2. Concept. Just thinking about it, checking various options in my head. Sometimes Tarot help too.

3. Research. Check the source materials, facts I want to include, frameworks I want to use if applicable, art that inspires me, etc.

4. Drafts. Playing around in a quick&dirty way, disregarding all the rules. I can't do outlines / detailed planning and specifications and such... Most of the details are too vague at this stage, and everything is too much in flux anyway and may drastically change from my original vision. Some things are not feasible, some entirely new things come up in the process.

5. Patchwork. Fixing / completing stuff in random order, jumping between different parts, whatever calls for attention.

6. TODO list. When the project is close to completion, a TODO list emerges naturally, and now it's satisfying to cross out completed entries one by one (but still in random order).

7. Debugging. Especially with writing, I go through the piece from start to end in an endless loop, fixing something small every time. For images, fixing pixels here and there. For games, fixing bugs / improving item placements, colours, messages, updating puzzle chains, etc. Sometimes adding new stuff and whole new scenes. Starting to get exhausted...

8. Packaging. Preparing for release, when applicable. Screenshots, descriptions, the prompt headers formatting, etc. Totally annoying and I hate this stage.

9. Complete/release - by this time I thoroughly hate the project, so it's always a relief ;)

Current Mood: contemplative

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: groggy

rebeccmeister

Shortly after I arrived at this institution, back in 2018, I determined that the insect room was going to need its own mop. The insect room came with one of those string mops, but in my experience string mops are best for occasions when a person wants to spread water or disinfectant around on a floor, not for occasions where the main goal is actually picking up excess liquid to encourage the floor to actually dry out and maybe even get clean(er).

I don't have easy means for maintaining any of those microfiber mop pads, and I'm not a fan of any of the 4000 disposable mopping products, either.

The aquarium room came with a roller sponge mop that was disintegrating, with the attachment bolts/nuts corroded in place. I managed to get the bolts off, and put on a replacement mop head, and that mop has been working perfectly well for us ever since. Yay!

I got a butterfly sponge mop for the insect room. It also worked well, up to the point where it, too, started to disintegrate, as sponges are wont to do. Time to shop for replacement sponges!

The question is, in this modern day and age, what is the least of all the evils? Yesterday I ventured over to the Ace Hardware in Troy for an in-person look at their replacement butterfly mop sponge options. That hardware store location is a more pleasant bike ride than the one way out on our Central Avenue. I'm glad I did go to look in person, because there was exactly one replacement in stock, and its attachment mechanism is incompatible with the existing butterfly mop. Ugh.

Ultimately, I instead left with a second roller sponge mop, so that future replacement sponges can be allocated either to the aquarium room mop, or to the insect room mop.

Unfortunately, it looks like I will have to spend money at one of the big evil retailers to get more of those replacement mop heads. I hate this so much.

But I will probably do it, because I have gotten tired of crawling around on my hands and knees at work, with a sponge. I do not love these floors enough to do that. At home, rags are fine. At work, no.

In case you still harbored notions that being a professor is a glamorous job.

sistawendy

All of a sudden over the last week I've been sleeping seven or eight hours a night, all in one stretch with an occasional short break. What changed?

Nothing on purpose, but this accidentally: this past Friday, when it was time to inject my beloved girl 'roids, I was using up the last of a vial*. Wayell, I didn't quite have a full dose left in the vial; I was about 7% short of what I've been using in recent months**. I didn't feel like opening another vial just for that.

Why might a reduction in dosage help me sleep? Estradiol does make you retain water; my longer sleep interruptions did tend to start out as bathroom breaks.

Given that a) my breasts are just about as big as I want them to be, depending on the bra, and b) Dr. Funnyname has warned me about the consequences of long-term hormone use, maybe I'll just back off.

*The FDA at least used to say that you're not supposed to use more than two doses out of a 5 ml vial. That's bullpucky, and in my opinion a possible scam to make more money from a cheap drug. Trans folks have been using up their vials since decades before I started doing it in 2010.
**Which is about 40% more than I was actually prescribed several years ago. Ahem.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: Frank Zappa, "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary"

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: curious

rebeccmeister

Just so I can try and remember this for later:

The Cabot cheese were the most smooth out of the lot. The Land O Lakes had a distinct twang to it. The Tillamook had something of a nutty flavor, somehow simultaneously creamy-crumbly. I tend to get sharp rather than extra sharp when I'm shopping for Tillamook; at this point I'd view the Cabot extra sharp as a fine substitute. It isn't the same thing, but it's fine. These are not gourmet specialty cheeses, they are cheeses to be put on tortilla chips to make nachos and on bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches. And sometimes, mac n cheese.