Reading

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today I have been dragged kicking and screaming into maybe reading some Descartes

Specifically I have tracked down a copy of Treatise on Man, which is probably the source of the claim I've seen phrased several ways, most eyebrow-raisingly and also most readily to hand by Steve Haines, attributing to Descartes the idea that pain is

something similar to hearing, it is a fixed signal and measurable response

and it turns out I've got access to a whole entire PDF which turns out to be only 71 pages, including quite a lot of fairly large images, so I suppose I'm going to read Descartes now as a break from working my way through the BBC's Higher revision guides on neurobiology, which is itself a detour from reading the introductory text on nerves aimed at undergraduates...

(The things I've actually been reading today consist of two chapters of Hyperbole and a Half, a partial chapter of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, both as Shared Activities with A, and about half of A Handful of Flour, a recipe book I have owned for quite a while now and am rapidly concluding I might no longer wish to dedicate shelf space to...)

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You'd think that Peter Jackson would have seen Jurassic Park...

Colossal Biosciences is planning to bring back the giant moa, a 3m (10 foot) tall flightless bird that went extinct around 600 years ago, shortly after humans arrived in New Zealand. Peter Jackson is one of the major investors. Considering the difficulties the Australians had when dealing with emus, which are only 2/3 the size of the great moa, they really need to consider that there was probably very good reason that the early New Zealanders wiped them out.

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Why I Never Trust Official Nonsense

So remember when I was coming down to the wire on retirement and trying to get my Flexible Spending Account balance sorted out? To recap: I'd had a Flexible Spending Account (pre-tax medical expenses) for some years. The balance had always rolled over to the next year (though the instructions on that were unclear). I hadn't renewed the account for 2025 due to retirement, so to keep things simple I was identifying things to spend the ca. $500 balance on (since I can't schedule root canals for my convenience).

I picked up a second CPAP battery (to enable the possibility of using it for up to 3 nights off-grid) and went to charge it to my FSA. No-go, it said. That was a 2025 expense any my FSA could only reimburse 2024 expenses.

Many phone calls and run-arounds later, it turns out part of the problem is that my employer changed FSA administrators between 2024 and 2025. So my existing account couldn't reimburse 2025 expenses because that was out of scope for them. And the 2025 FSA administrator couldn't reimbuse a 2025 expense because I didn't have a balance in their account.

So what happens to my balance? How do I get my money? The 2024 administrator says, "We send it back to your employer. No idea beyond that." And my employer, after tracking down someone who claims under understand FSAs says, "Oops, sorry, your money is gone. No recourse. Use it or lose it." Eventually, I shrug and chalk it up to experience.

The 2025 benefit adminstrator (who also administers my IRA) at some point sends me an ATM card for my FSA. I check in with them: "Hey you sent me this card, but I don't have a FSA with you so there's no money in it and there won't be any money in it, should I just trash the card?" Yes, they say.

A month or so later, I get a notification: "Hey, you know your FSA balance? We've rolled it over into New!Administrator Account." So now I have to request a replacement ATM card (since it's the only way I have to use the money). With some trepidation that I was still being jerked around, last week I submitted the receipt for my CPAP battery. And--voila!--yesterday the money was deposited to my checking account.

So everyone who carefully explained to me that the FSA balance was use-it-or-lose-it and that they were just going to keep my money, thank you very much, was utterly wrong and didn't even know they were wrong and will continue to be ignorant of their wrongness. But me? I got my battery covered and have another $200 of medical money to spend, after which I will be done with the confusing nonsense that is the Flexible Spending Account.

And I will continue to disbelieve official opinions when they do not align with logic or justice.

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Costume Bracket: Round 4, Post 6

Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.

( Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.

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meme

Meme stolen from @otter

What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

1. Getting my car fixed for inspection yesterday, they found an expensive-to-fix but dangerous thing going wrong with the struts. I will soon be much safer on the road, which is good, even if it is money I wanted to spend doing a dozen other things.
2. My people are functioning and doing mostly okay despite The Horrors. Thank you for taking care of yourselves, and me, and each other. It makes me so relieved and proud and grateful to know you.
3. I am doing well at school.
4. Mom and Step-Dad are doing well as far as their physical health, and Mom’s gigantic bruise on her thigh from falling through the hole in the front porch is mostly healed now.
5. Step-Dad washed my car and it’s all shiny and cute again.
6. I am reading a smidge of BatFamily crack again, now that I have a bit of free time, and it makes me smile, giggle, and sometimes meanly snicker at Batman’s expense.
7. The couch-napping quilt is over 1/3 of the way done!
8. I made good progress on fixing Merlin’s stockings during the summer break. They should be ready to send by the end of July. 🤞
9. I have a call to make today to chatter with

nyyki about the ten thousand things.
10. I get to talk to Merlin tomorrow night, with any luck.

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Interesting Links for 15-07-2025

1. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem: (tags:people comics ai doom communication )
2. How old are you in your head? (Mid 30s for me): (tags:age psychology )
3. Reddit will start verifying the age (but not the identity) of UK redditors: (tags:uk age reddit regulation internet )
4. "Autism" is at least 4 different syndromes, each with distinct biological and genetic pathways.: (tags:autism genetics )

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software,
youtube

Computers, do computer things better!

I love YouTube Music — it's a great streaming system and gives me access to music that I could only have dreamed of when I was younger. But there's one thing about it — a small thing really, but still big enough that it bothers me: When you have a playlist, it should be a trivial thing for the software to add up the running times of all the songs in the playlist and give you a runtime for the playlist, and this works for shorter playlists, but once a playlist reaches 5 hours or more in length, the program gets lazy and anything over 5 hours is either "5+ hours" or "5 hours [XX] minutes," where [XX] isn't the actual number of minutes past 5 hours, instead the point after 5 hours where the software got lazy and decided to stop adding. Not a deal killer, not even that big of a deal, really, but it's annoying.

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crafting hangout

(no subject)

I should be on, but if I'm not, it's because we've lost power or had to evacuate due to lots of rain. It should be fine looking at the radar! ETA: looking good, I'll be on!

Hey all, if you'd like to join the crafting hangout, it is tonight from 6-8pm ET!

Video encouraged but not required!

Topic: Crafting Hangout

Time: Mondays 6:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

Link

Meeting ID: 973 2674 2763

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Ninth Doctor Icons

The Tardis with the ninth doctor leaning against it in the botton corner.

The Ninth Doctor, side view, greyish background.

The Ninth's Doctor's face with a dalek behind him.

Snagging is free. Credit is appreciated. Comments are loved.

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personal

(no subject)

every week I think I'm not going to work as hard because we're caught up and yet. I'm tired. one of our teenage employees that we're training up to do more complicated and involved work called out because he pulled his back (not working), no idea when he'll be working again.

I wasn't so tired until yesterday, when I spent all afternoon and evening until 8:30pm spreading fertilizer with the cultivating tractor. Wanted to get it all spread before it rained so it would dissolve into the soil. ate lunch at 2pm while on the tractor. It's an international 140, extremely cool gas tractor. We got the fertilizer spreader working and I spread 450 lbs of fertilizer over 6.5 acres banded on the pumpkin rows. It took me six hours due to drive time.

and then it rained 1.6 inches in an hour and a half overnight. might as well not have even spread the fertilizer. I'm sure it's all gone now. thank goodness for my dad, who was up late and pulled all the pumps and hoses out of the creek. they would have all been gone if he hadn't. thankfully, we've got enough grassy areas, perennial plantings with grass aisles and small fields that erosion isn't a huge problem with heavy rainfall. it only becomes an issue if the creek goes over the bank, which it hasn't yet. another storm is approaching now though :/

this was at 5:30am this morning. normally the water is 15 feet below the bridge. it has gone down since then

A road bridge with a nasty brown creek within two feet of the bridge.

A road bridge with a nasty brown creek within two feet of the bridge.

left a message for insurance stuff, we'll see. no petting strange dogs right now.

I have ideas for making food but no energy to do it on my day off. current plans: potato and chickpea curry hand pies with rice and pork in curry sauce (I bought a jar even). hazelnut cookies. might take a nap instead. maybe I should try and do some of this a little at a time sitting down. I miss baking so much. I think part of this is that I really enjoy farm work and getting stuff done around the farm. It's extremely satisfying and I'm full of energy. And yet, I am so tired on my days off. I don't really understand it much. I think I also am pretty sore from the tractor, they didn't build things for comfort in the 40s. the backrest broke off yesterday too, so there was only a metal bar to rest against.

nap it is

Current Music: Justice - Generator

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sunshine challenge: 2025

Sunshine Revival/Challenge 2025 #4: Happiness

sunshine_revival posted up their fourth topic, even as the heat continues to hammer the Northern Hemisphere, along with humidity, and many of us hide in our climate controlled buildings against it.

We’re heading towards the middle of July, and I hope the weather is treating you kindly this summer, no matter where you are. Any fun plans so far? I’ve spent this week on the mountain, reconnecting with family and staying in a pretty cool house. And talking about houses…

Challenge #4:

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.

( What makes you happy? )

More laughs and happiness later!

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Saja Boys: Your Idol

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Why KPop Demon Hunters pops

KPop Demon Hunters was an experience for sure. It felt slightly weird to watch because it uses distinctly Korean materials but from an outside perspective. The girls' exaggerated comic acting was very Western animation-y, and the traditional Korean medical clinic scene bore no resemblance to real life, obviously.

Even with Korean dubbing it had the distinct feel of a foreign film, because it was! Korean-speaking actors and dubbing artists speak very differently, and the voice acting was obviously dubbing-style because the original was in English.

I also felt like the story had a lot of potential that it didn't quite reach, and foreshadowed things that didn't actually happen. But that's pretty deep in spoiler territory so maybe I'll go there in a different, spoiler-cut post.

Where the movie truly shone was its stylish, energetic representation of K-pop, including in no small part its earworm soundtrack. Fans have been pointing out all kinds of K-pop tropes like the tiny powerhouse rappers Zoey and Baby, the similarity of the two bands to legends like Blackpink and BTS, and the way the male band debuted with a catchy bop ("Soda Pop") before coming back with a darkly cynical, technique-heavy number ("Your Idol").

It wasn't just the stars who got the spotlight; so did the fandom and community, from the fans who filled stadiums for their faves to online challenges and breathless anticipation for new releases. The movie also went into some, though by no means all, of the darkness behind this adoration, and made a good case for the potential destructiveness of such massive franchises and fandoms.

The love of the genre and the fandom, backed up by extraordinary music and production, was what gave the movie its heart and turned what could have been a gimmicky throwaway into a snapshot of an era. The depiction in KPop Demon Hunters of the love and fragility, the beauty and hollowness at the heart of K-pop was arguably more powerful than its scripted story. That's not a knock on the story so much as a statement on the nature of the narrative: K-pop is an age to be experienced in all its glory and corruption, not a tale to be told from a comfortable distance. It is one's own story to live and not someone else's to watch, and that is arguably the true power of KPop Demon Hunters.

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vital functions

vital functions

Reading. This week I have mostly but not entirely been reading more murdery bot: Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, Rapport, aaaand I've also immediately launched myself into yet another quick reread of All Systems Red because we finished watching the TV series and therefore I want The Murderbot Of My Heart Thank You.

However! I have also continued reading about nerves! I have now read the entire first chapter of Nerve and Muscle, supplemented by a bunch more Wikipedia, and I think I am starting to have a better mental picture of how all of this works? I am going into way more depth than required by The Project, really, I think, but I will be happier if I know what's going on at least to the extent that I understand a little more about what it means, physically, when it is explained that some migraine preventives target Type A nerve fibre and others target Type C (which in turn is why if you get partial relief from something that targets Type C it's worth at least experimenting with adding in something targeting Type A).

And I have also made a tiny bit more progress with The Age of Seeds, but... yeah, mostly Murderbot.

Watching. Murderbot! I will concede that "I need to check the perimeter" did indeed get me Right In The Feels. I still prefer my book-Murderbot but I am beginning to acquire a better understanding of why folk love this Murderbot too.

The fanvid Bohemian Like You, by kuwdora, via sholio, via recessional.

Cooking. Several new things! Aubergine larb with sticky rice and shallot salad, lavender & honey Welsh cakes out of the Welsh cakes tourist tat mini-book, coconut pancakes. Now officially over two thirds of the way through East (with another Several planned for this week coming).

Eating. TODAY WE WENT ON AN ADVENTURE TO SEE ONE OF MY UNIVERSITY FRIENDS. I don't understand how it has been somewhere in the vicinity of ten years since I last got my act together to see this friend in particular given the part where, you know, we live in the same city, BUT we sorted ourselves out to meet up at King's Cross today and in addition to talking solidly for the entire duration we had FOOD including:

Ruby Violet (maxi moo moo with hazelnut crunch & raspberry, rosewater and prosecco on the grass by the canal; hazelnut & hazelnut brittle, salted caramel & almond brittle, hot cross bun, raspberry ripple, and coffee mocha ripple brought home, those last two primarily for A)
for lunch I had a funghi ma po tofu from rice guys, and A had a veg biriyani from somewhere I'm not immediately managing to spot on the Canopy Market trader list
from Bread Ahead we brought home two doughnuts -- pistachio crème brûlée for me, and something involving honeycomb for A; I think this is quite possibly the first custard doughnut I have ever eaten and actually liked (though were I to buy from them again I'd skip the pistachios)

... and upon meeting up with said friend, they reached into their bag with an "oh before I forget--" and pulled out a jar of jam, which conveniently gave me an excuse to reach into my bag and pull out the jar of jam I'd brought to give them, so I have swapped one blood orange + cardamom for one cherry plum + vanilla, and I've not eaten it yet but I am very excited about doing so.

... also raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, jostaberries...

Exploring. We poked around Granary Square a bit to go with Meeting Friends; we came home with lots of stickers (I also got some washi tape from that first one...), a gorgeous bowl (which she was not charging that much for at the market, goodness), and a business card for Creature Crafts by Nat so I could send their details on to Interested Parties.

Growing. ... I spent a whole day at the plot mostly reading Murderbot? (And did also do some weeding, and some harvesting, and some watering, and some general pootling.)

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sunshine revival

Sunshine Revival #4

Challenge #4

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

1. Ellita
2. Feeling hopeful about work (but also nervous)
3. Watching Ted Lasso with E (y’all were SO right! Thank you for encouraging me to stick with it)
4. My plants/garden
5. Sitting in the hammock with Ellita and talking with E
6. Having the time and energy to read
7. HEB Peach Guava sparkling water
8. Postcrossing
9. Changing up my work wardrobe
10. Having my ear piercings reopened so that I can wear earrings again

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The Friday Five on a Sunday

What was the most sick that you've ever been?

I came down with flu when Keiki was about 4 months old. That is the most ill I've been in my adult life. I could hardly get out of bed and my temperature was over 40 C for several days. Runner up would be the ear infection I had when I was 11, which was so bad my teacher found me lying on the concrete floor of the playground because my ear was too hot. It was the middle of winter.
What disease are you afraid of getting?

All of them, but mostly: Dementia.
Are you a big baby when it comes to taking medicine/shots for your illnesses?

No. I am a big fan of medical intervention for illness and pain.
Is going to the doctor really THAT bad?

Not at all, it's just time-consuming, which is why I tend to put it off.
Would you have the flu twice a month if you were paid $1,000 for having it?

Assuming “the flu” really does mean influenza and not a bad cold, absolutely not. Genuine flu is completely debilitating. It took me two weeks to recover from the bout I had in Answer 1. This scenario would mean being continuously sick. No thank you.

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photos,
pixelfed

Photo cross-post

My primate family.

The exhibition at the museum is very quiet and rather good. Recommended!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Church! Choir!

Until this morning I hadn't been to church since getting back from Belgium. I hadn't wanted to go back to St John's for a couple of reasons - firstly the likelihood of taking on responsibilities that I'd rather not have at this stage, and secondly the growing awareness that singing in a choir is an important part of worship for me - but I'd been dithering about where to go instead. My four criteria were catholic, liberal, within 15 minutes bike ride, and has a regular choir, and indecision about which to compromise on combined with a rather erratic sleep cycle meant that each week I'd let inertia take over. This Thursday I had an appointment that was half way to Hornsey Parish Church, which is about 20 minutes away, but meets the other requirements, so I cycled the rest of the way there to make sure I knew the route, which meant this morning required less activation energy.

Regarding the choir the website says "We welcome new members who have a facility with sight reading and a passion for the choral liturgy", but when I spoke to the director of music and said that my sight-singing was shaky but I was happy to note-bash at home if she sent me the dots in advance, and she said that was fine, so I'll be joining them as of next Sunday. They've got a concert on Saturday which I'm going to listen to rather than sing in - if anyone local fancies joining me it'd be good to have company.

Entry tags:

personal

arg

Back in May, I picked out my health insurance provider. I looked over the plans, I looked up some doctors and such in my area, saw both plans had doctors in my area and picked out the health provider that seemed better with coverage.

I just went to book a dentist appointment and now there's no one in the area taking that health insurance??? I'm not sure what happened. Maybe I missed something? I looked it all up on the website and everything, I don't really understand. unless because it was through the state portal that it did something weird to their search website? I don't know.

now I guess I need to see if I can change health insurance providers. what the heck

eta: I think I don't have health insurance right now, fuck. the provider called me a couple times in june and I was so busy. and I looked at the state portal and it says my application was denied. frick. guess I'll call tomorrow.

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political

meanwhile...

Quoted in the Yale alumni magazine: "You know the world is going crazy when Yale alums are making donations to Harvard!"

(This Yale alum donates to the United Negro College Fund, because they need it more than Yale does.)