emotional support fiber

Nov. 30th, 2025 08:53 pm
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
Continuing from the earlier experiment, emotional support weaving with handspun weft:

weaving WIP

Tension management is a mess with this (experimental, non-destructive) setup but I figured I'd at least weave this warp, write this off as a learning experience (I did learn a lot) + disaster-mode "weaving" art therapy, and move on. :)

I also learned that I strongly dislike making very "loose," airy weaves structurally, so that's good to know about myself. I sometimes like them in fabrics made by machines/other people but I don't enjoy weaving them, so I'll avoid in the future!
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
[personal profile] vivdunstan
Squeezing in another of these before my end of year final post.

Got through another 8 books since the last update.

    earlier books )
  1. Katabasis by RF Kuang
  2. Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
  3. Mr Villain's Day Off volume 1 (manga) by Yuu Morikawa
  4. Born With Teeth (play script) by Liz Duffy Adams
  5. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
  6. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
  7. Doctor Who Tales of Terror (short story anthology)
  8. Crossroads of Twilight (Wheel of Time book 10) by Robert Jordan


Of the newly finished books, Katabasis was a lot of fun, with a dark journey into the Underworld, but not as good as RF Kuang's superb Babel or even Yellowface for me. Carmilla was a book club read, and frankly disappointing, and a struggle to read. Though Hammer made a good stab at filming a better version in the early 1970s. Mr Villain's Day Off was a chance find in Angus libraries catalogue, so borrowed that way. Fun manga, but I wasn't inspired to read other volumes. Born With Teeth, the Marlowe/Shakespeare play performed recently on stage by Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel, was a brilliant read, though it would be better to see it performed in person. Yes, I did my usual Roger Zelazny pre-Halloween reread of A Night in the Lonesome October. Still love it. T. Kingfisher's A Wizard's Guide to Contemporary Baking was fun, but a bit unevenly paced, and younger than I'd usually read. It also took too long to get to dangerous fighting gingerbread men. Doctor Who Tales of Terror is a fun spooky anthology collection, with short stories by multiple authors for each of Doctors 1-12. A bit uneven, but overall fun. Wheel of Time book 10 was the slog that I expected, though still fun in many parts. But I needed a very specific approach to reading to get through it successfully. But things should be better again in the remaining books. Book 10 is generally regarded by readers of the whole series as the worst by a long way.

Analytic Idealism In A Nutshell

Nov. 30th, 2025 05:54 pm
selki: (TastyTreat)
[personal profile] selki
Decoding Schopenhauer's Metaphysics was kind of a warmup to Bernardo Kastrup's Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell, which my lovely library system also offers in audiobook form, so I'm again listening as I walk/drive. I'll be updating this entry as I work through the book. One of my co-hosts already says he's found it "more aggravating", LOL. It helps to have a sense of humor when reading philosophy, and to take the whole thing (an argument / writing by a philosopher) as a thought experiment. Even if one sees flaws in the experiment, it may provide a new perspective. It could all be gobbledegook, and some philosophers are definitely worse reads than others; some are even pernicious. 
  • Ch.1 What Is This Book About: Intro, and view that Enlightenment philosophers (e.g., René Descartes, Bishop Berkeley) did what they could to separate material/physical world from Psyche so that the Church wouldn't come down on them like a hammer; we're not messing with soul stuff, just the natural world!
  • Ch.2 What You See Is What You Get: Pilot cockpit analogy: All we see are the representations of the world; we don't directly perceive reality. Subjective experience. Claim that physicalists mistake the map for the territory. 
  • Ch.3 How Physicalism Gets It Wrong: View that Quantum entanglement Nobel winning experiment (Alice's observation of one property of a particle affects another property of a different, far away particle Bob is watching) disproves physicalism; it's different views of the same entangled stuff that cannot be reduced to quantifiable definite objects. Also on to modern cognitive science and then to information theory (Claude Shannon) as counter to physicalism.   Information (Shannon sense; capital I, data?) v. information (Colloquial sense -- has meaning, but little Information in Shannon's sense), claim that physicalists mix these up.  
  • Ch.4 How Does Physicalism Survive:
  • Ch. 5: The Remedy Is Worse Than the Disease: 
  • Ch. 6: Analytic Idealism: will I find out this is in contract to Platonic idealism?  Is that why it's called analytic idealism? Sure I could try looking it up, but I'm patiently waiting. 
  • Ch. 7: Circumambulation:
  • Ch. 8: Time, Space, Identity, and Structure: 
  • Ch. 9: Wrap-Up and Outlook: 

Week 378: Seal

Nov. 30th, 2025 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] alicebartlett_feed

Posted by


  • The space between the last job and the next job.

  • Last week was great.

  • I painted the yellow bits of my skirting boards.

  • In a last ditch attempt to get the curtains in my office to move properly along the pole, not catching because the pole and the rings are somehow not compatible, I lubed it up with a silicone spray. “This will never work” I thought to myself. But it bloody did. I’ve been not drawing the curtains in that room despite the sun shining directly into my eyes during September for four years when the solution was in the garage all along.

  • On Tuesday I walked from Brighton to Newhaven along the seafront or atop the cliffs. In Newhaven there is a great cafe called Mamoosh that serves very fresh pitta, falafel, etc. On the weekends there is also a brewery open. The walk is 13k. I saw a seal. The bus back takes about 40 minutes and the buses are every 15 minutes more or less. I’m telling you all this because this is really the perfect day out and it’s short enough to do in winter without being in the dark.

  • On Wednesday I went to London to return my laptop and pass. I did a bit of minimum viable mudlarking on the thames, picking up four pieces of pipe. I saw George in the lobby and walked him to Leon, before continuing on to meet Tom at Dauns.

  • Behind Tom at Dauns was a man who is either famous or worked in the same office as me at some point in the past. I still can’t work out which.

  • After giving Tom a tiny letterpress card that says “you’re the best” which I’ve had in my house for at least 5 years while I deliberate on who is actually the best, I went on to Loop in Islington.

  • At the bottom of the escalator in Angel I remembered how I once saw my friend Sally coming down some escalators in London as I was going up. And then at the top of the escalators I saw Anne going the other way and yelled “anne! ANNE!” and exchanged some waves.

  • After Loop I went to Ottolenghi and saw a definitely famous-from-instagram person. I bet Ottolenghi in Islington is just rammed with famous people 24/7.

  • On thursday I mended a load of clothing. Patched the knee of wee man’s school trousers. Finally sewed the last button on a coat I made a month ago and have been wearing without the correct number of buttons since then.

  • Saturday was the school Christmas fair. The high point of which was looking at the giant sign in the hall that says “WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO EAT IN A CALM AND PEACEFUL DINING HALL” and trying to work out if the giant professionally shot photos around the sign were of children at the school. Some aspects of the room were similar but there were lots of differences too, including that what was visible through the windows seemed dramatically different. One of E’s friends told her the photos were of children in the primary school up the road. E and I discussed this for at lest 20 minutes before I decided it was time to “take our questions to the very top”. So we went and found the head teacher.

  • Sometimes I pointlessly think about what it would be like to know everything in the world. You’d probably die of shock if you woke up one day and found you knew everything don’t you think? I think it would actually ruin your life. But you would know how the universe began, and if Britney is OK, and, well… every fact in between.

  • [Chaz eating his porridge] “Some magic is real you know mam”, [Me eating my toast] “Is it? like what?” [Chaz with a nonchalant shrug] “Buttercups”.

Forget not

Nov. 30th, 2025 09:56 pm
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

Today my online pal Ri, in the Netherlands, said

My sister is going to the MECFS protest in Den Haag today, on my behalf. She has a piece of cartbord and is asking me what to write on it.
Any ideas?

I suggested "Don't forget the people you don't see."

(I think about this a lot, at every protest I'm at.)

Their sister chose this from the suggestions Ri made. They shared a photo their sister took. Written on the cardboard is:

Vergeet de mensen die je niet ziet niet.
- Ri, ME sinds 2012, bedbound sinds 2021

Ri also gave the English translation:

Don't forget the people you don't see.
- Ri, ME since 2012, bedbound since 2021.

Vergeet and Niet (forgot and not) are bolder and bigger than the other words.

signed up for a 2026 Medicare plan

Nov. 30th, 2025 04:35 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
I signed up for a 2026 Medicare Advantage (part C) plan today. I had it narrowed it down to two plans, and decided yesterday which one I like better. There are minor differences--in particular, the one I chose has a lower copay for physical therapy--but there don't seem to be significant differences. It also has a slightly better rating, according to the Medicare.gov site, by half a star, but that might not be significant (an average 3.7 rounds to 3.5, and 3.8 rounds to 4).

Now, it should just be a matter of telling various doctors and pharmacies that my insurance has changed as of Jan. 1st, and maybe dealing with a new mail-order pharmacy for the Kesimpta.

They gave me a confirmation number, and if I don't hear from the company in the next few days I will call. (Normal open enrollment ends Dec. 7, but I have a "special election period" that runs through February.)

Culinary

Nov. 30th, 2025 07:39 pm
oursin: Frontispiece from C17th household manual (Accomplisht Lady)
[personal profile] oursin

Last week's bread almost held out - lasted pretty well, but not quite to the end of the week.

Friday night supper: penne with bottled sliced artichoke hearts.

Saturday breakfast rolls: Tassajarra method, approx 50:50% Marriage's Light Spelt and Golden Wholegrain, maple syrup, raisins, turned out rather well.

Today's lunch: partridge breasts with a rub of salt, 5-pepper blend, coriander seeds and thyme, panfried in butter and olive oil, deglazed with white wine; served with kasha, buttered spinach and sugar snap peas stirfried with garlic.

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