AO3 Releases 0.9.447 – 0.9.452: Change Log
Feb. 26th, 2026 02:05 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
otw_news_feedWe released several batches of bug fixes and code updates in December, focusing on error handling, improvements to the posting and browsing of works, and largely invisible code optimization. Many thanks to our coders, code reviewers, and testers!
Credits
- Coders: anna; Bilka; Brian Austin; Danaël / Rever; Edgar San Martin, Jr.; marcus8448; warlockmel; WelpThatWorked; Zooms; ömer faruk
- Code reviewers: Bilka, Brian Austin, ceithir, lydia-theda, marcus8448, Sarken
- Testers: Brian Austin, calamario, Deniz, Dre, Lute, megidola, slavalamp, Teyris, Bilka, therealmorticia, marcus8448, Yuca, pk2317
Details
0.9.447
On December 3, we made some improvements to how we index information for admin user search.
- [AO3-7216] – Updates to the admin-facing user search feature were getting stuck due to their size, so we’ve reduced the amount of data we index.
- [AO3-7217] – We originally put updates for our admin-facing user search feature in the same queue as updates to user-facing search features (like work search). This meant that slowdowns in updating user search would also slow down updates to work search, so we’ve moved the admin search updates to a separate queue to prevent that.
0.9.449
On December 11, we deployed a batch of miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements. (We skipped version 0.9.448.)
- [AO3-7151] – Some buttons would become unreadable on hover and focus in the Low Vision Default skin, so we made sure all buttons have the correct border and text color to make them readable again.
- [AO3-7186] – In rare cases, trying to create a skin with the same title as an existing skin would throw an error 500 instead of telling you what’s wrong. Now you should always get the proper error message.
- [AO3-6851] – We removed a column from the challenge assignments table that is no longer used after some code changes.
- [AO3-7218] – We updated one of the utilities we use to deploy AO3 to its testing environment.
- [AO3-5871] – Renamed an ambiguously named method in the Works model code.
- [AO3-6738] – We improved the performance of the page that lists pseuds for a creator.
- [AO3-7084] – In several places, we disallow embedded images and will instead turn the
<img>HTML into a plain link. We have now updated our help text to reflect this practice where it applies. - [AO3-7152] – In work downloads (such as epub or HTML files), links would use the
httpprotocol instead ofhttps. We now make sure that all links start withhttps. - [AO3-7209] – We optimized our code to prepare the help text pop-ups for translated versions once language options become available on the Archive.
0.9.450
We deployed another batch of improvements on December 15, including some small fixes to the work form in particular.
- [AO3-6797] – Trying to post a work with invalid comment permissions (which can sometimes happen due to browser translation tools affecting parts of the Archive code) would throw an error 500. Now a proper error message is displayed in that case.
- [AO3-7177] – Trying to add a new first chapter before the part that was already posted, without previewing first, would result in two second chapters. Now, when you add a new chapter and assign the first position to it, the database will actually respect your artistic process.
- [AO3-7228] – Optimized the code used to put together work headers.
- [AO3-7044] – Migrated the tagging table (not to be confused with the tags table) to the BIGINT format, to allow for a BIG integer number of records to be added in the future.
- [AO3-7049] – Restricted the ability to manage users invite requests to Policy and Abuse volunteers (and superadmins).
0.9.451
December 18 saw another release of a few fixes and updates. The Open Challenges page will now show all challenges that currently accept sign-ups, even if they aren’t allowing new works to be added yet.
- [AO3-4666] – The Open Challenges page wasn’t including closed collections, even if the gift exchange or prompt meme in question was open to sign-ups. This has been fixed!
- [AO3-7224] – Some places in the AO3 code relied on an old feature in Ruby, our programming language of choice. They were not made better by doing that, so we stopped in order to make ourselves ready for new Ruby versions.
- [AO3-7203] – The mailer preview for a deleted work notification now allows for a work ID to be specified for the preview.
- [AO3-7232] – Some elements of our Terms of Service were missing the proper CSS list styles. Now everything that should be a lowercase alphabetical list, is.
- [AO3-7230] – Before upgrading Ruby on Rails, the framework that powers AO3, we took a snapshot of the current database structure for historical purposes.
- [AO3-7233], [AO3-7234] – Updated a couple of dependencies.
0.9.452
On December 29, another small batch of fixes went out to ring in the new year!
- [AO3-6944] – There’s no option to sort a list of prompts by prompter if the list includes anonymous prompts. However, if you tried to do it manually by editing the URL, or refreshed a tab you had open from before anonymous prompts were added, it would cause an error 500. Now it just reverts to the default sort order.
- [AO3-7184] – If someone tried to access the related works page of a non-existent user (due to a misspelled link, for example), they would be redirected to the user search. Since the desired page does not exist, we now properly serve an error 404, like others for pages that don’t exist.
- [AO3-7245] – We made the help text explaining the locale preference translatable, matching the code changes included in release 0.9.449.
- [AO3-7225], [AO3-7235] – Updated a couple of dependencies.
It's Not Around the Corner But Humans Be Dumb
Feb. 25th, 2026 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yourlibrarian1) Squidgeworld will be doing video hosting! So if you have videos you need hosting and, like us, hate Youtube, you'll be able to host your videos on Squidge Images.
Various services are currently down for maintenance but there's more info about that at the link.
2) This post was about how people offer gaming opinions via social media but I think the larger lesson applies to everything, and says a lot about how forceful peer pressure (even of unknown peers!) seems to be:
"The feedback they provide is not about the game, it’s about an opinion they believe to be correct based on the crowd."
"When you share an opinion or give feedback, you are telling a story about yourself. People want to share a story that they like, and that makes them feel skilled, or knowledgeable. They do not write the honest objective truth about themselves into these things. They write the version that they wish they were. We know this because we’ve surveyed a lot of players over the years and then compared their answers with their actual behavior data, and the two rarely have anything in common."
"if there’s ever a conflict between what people say and what they do, believe their actions. People say things that aren’t true all the time, but the way they use buttons that say Play Now and Uninstall tell their ultimate truth."
3) Interesting thoughts in this course introduction on Global Cinema by Henry Jenkins. A few of them here: ( Read more... )
4) I found a way to make AI tell you lies – and I'm not the only one. "People have used hacks and loopholes to abuse search engines for decades. Google has sophisticated protections in place, and the company says the accuracy of AI Overviews is on par with other search features it introduced years ago. But experts say AI tools have undone a lot of the tech industry's work to keep people safe. These AI tricks are so basic they're reminiscent of the early 2000s, before Google had even introduced a web spam team, Ray says. "We're in a bit of a Renaissance for spammers."
Not only is AI easier to fool, but experts worry that users are more likely to fall for it...Even when AI tools provide source, people are far less likely to check it out than they were with old-school search results. For example, a recent study found people are 58% less likely to click on a link when an AI Overview shows up at the top of Google Search."
5) This post speculates about the impact AI will have on economies and frames it as a look "back" to our time period. The whole thing is available to read for free, in part because this analyst group sees this potential economic and social catastrophe happening within the next few years.
"It should have been clear all along that a single GPU cluster in North Dakota generating the output previously attributed to 10,000 white-collar workers in midtown Manhattan is more economic pandemic than economic panacea. The velocity of money flatlined. The human-centric consumer economy, 70% of GDP at the time, withered. We probably could have figured this out sooner if we just asked how much money machines spend on discretionary goods. (Hint: it’s zero.)"
The key to a collapse is the disruption in the historical model of companies that have become outmoded (or undercut) by new technology: ( Read more... )
I disagree with the report in two respects. The first is the speed of the timeline. AI does not work well and there is already public disaffection with the experiences they've had. I don't think it will be adopted as widely as predicted as quickly, because its problems will become apparent as early adopters start pulling back. Should improvements develop quickly though, I could see this playing out, but probably not within the next decade.
I also think they fail to address the power demands of all this accelerated computing, and how that will affect individuals (skyrocketing utility bills are already here) and the likelihood that the grid will collapse from the excessive demand. I didn't watch the State of the Union address, but did hear NPR discussion of it this morning. I found it striking that Trump addressed this issue at all. That tells me that there's way bigger pushback on the rapid development of data centers than has been reported.
Our only hope seems to be that AI will be so incompetent in the near term at solving problems within their customers' businesses and operations that it all collapses before it can spread that widely. And that might kneecap the tech industry enough that they slow down and stop breaking things. That leads me to another rather interesting post about how slowly very disruptive tech develops compared to its hype. Though I'd really recommend it as a read, the post is long so I'm only going to pull out one item from it, which you may have heard about in the news: ( Read more... )
Various services are currently down for maintenance but there's more info about that at the link.
2) This post was about how people offer gaming opinions via social media but I think the larger lesson applies to everything, and says a lot about how forceful peer pressure (even of unknown peers!) seems to be:
"The feedback they provide is not about the game, it’s about an opinion they believe to be correct based on the crowd."
"When you share an opinion or give feedback, you are telling a story about yourself. People want to share a story that they like, and that makes them feel skilled, or knowledgeable. They do not write the honest objective truth about themselves into these things. They write the version that they wish they were. We know this because we’ve surveyed a lot of players over the years and then compared their answers with their actual behavior data, and the two rarely have anything in common."
"if there’s ever a conflict between what people say and what they do, believe their actions. People say things that aren’t true all the time, but the way they use buttons that say Play Now and Uninstall tell their ultimate truth."
3) Interesting thoughts in this course introduction on Global Cinema by Henry Jenkins. A few of them here: ( Read more... )
4) I found a way to make AI tell you lies – and I'm not the only one. "People have used hacks and loopholes to abuse search engines for decades. Google has sophisticated protections in place, and the company says the accuracy of AI Overviews is on par with other search features it introduced years ago. But experts say AI tools have undone a lot of the tech industry's work to keep people safe. These AI tricks are so basic they're reminiscent of the early 2000s, before Google had even introduced a web spam team, Ray says. "We're in a bit of a Renaissance for spammers."
Not only is AI easier to fool, but experts worry that users are more likely to fall for it...Even when AI tools provide source, people are far less likely to check it out than they were with old-school search results. For example, a recent study found people are 58% less likely to click on a link when an AI Overview shows up at the top of Google Search."
5) This post speculates about the impact AI will have on economies and frames it as a look "back" to our time period. The whole thing is available to read for free, in part because this analyst group sees this potential economic and social catastrophe happening within the next few years.
"It should have been clear all along that a single GPU cluster in North Dakota generating the output previously attributed to 10,000 white-collar workers in midtown Manhattan is more economic pandemic than economic panacea. The velocity of money flatlined. The human-centric consumer economy, 70% of GDP at the time, withered. We probably could have figured this out sooner if we just asked how much money machines spend on discretionary goods. (Hint: it’s zero.)"
The key to a collapse is the disruption in the historical model of companies that have become outmoded (or undercut) by new technology: ( Read more... )
I disagree with the report in two respects. The first is the speed of the timeline. AI does not work well and there is already public disaffection with the experiences they've had. I don't think it will be adopted as widely as predicted as quickly, because its problems will become apparent as early adopters start pulling back. Should improvements develop quickly though, I could see this playing out, but probably not within the next decade.
I also think they fail to address the power demands of all this accelerated computing, and how that will affect individuals (skyrocketing utility bills are already here) and the likelihood that the grid will collapse from the excessive demand. I didn't watch the State of the Union address, but did hear NPR discussion of it this morning. I found it striking that Trump addressed this issue at all. That tells me that there's way bigger pushback on the rapid development of data centers than has been reported.
Our only hope seems to be that AI will be so incompetent in the near term at solving problems within their customers' businesses and operations that it all collapses before it can spread that widely. And that might kneecap the tech industry enough that they slow down and stop breaking things. That leads me to another rather interesting post about how slowly very disruptive tech develops compared to its hype. Though I'd really recommend it as a read, the post is long so I'm only going to pull out one item from it, which you may have heard about in the news: ( Read more... )
Poll #34291 Kudos Footer-558
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6
Want to leave a Kudos?
Wednesday is limping along and keeps dozing off in the process
Feb. 25th, 2026 04:20 pmshadowkatHeadache from hell seems to be lessening and I slept slightly better last night. Still wary of doing any floor or bed exercises even if I'm feeling less congested today than I did the last several days. (Note Aleve works better than Tynenol for this sort of thing.) So, I'll go back to work tomorrow. And from the emails, it's probably piled up. We'll see how much of it I get through, since my head still to some degree feels full of cotton.
Making tea now. I'd intended on doing laundry on Monday during the storm, but alas, was waylaid by the nauseous headache from hell. Haven't up to doing much of anything - outside of doing an urgent care appointment, getting my meds/groceries, and trying to sleep. Did do a few knee exercises.
The snow appears to be melting - from the view outside my windows. So it's not frozen solid like last time.
End of February Memage
22. What is your favourite writing implement – a fountain pen, ballpoint pen, pencil or something else?
Fountain Pen
23. Do you own many mirrors?
Yes, one - and it's turned to the wall in my bedroom and the back is broken off of it. The mirror itself is fine, it's just the siding and back covering that are coming off. I use it occasionally to see what to wear. Also a small bathroom mirror. I'm not a fan of mirrors - they tend to irritate me. I think it has something to do with how my brain processes information and flips things around, don't know.
24. What are you watching this month that you are enjoying?
I'm enjoying the soap opera (General Hospital) this month, more than most, Angel S5 rewatch, and The Pitt.
25. When was the last time the windows in your home were washed?
I don't have a house, and while I've washed the inside occasionally, I can't access the outside of the windows - so no clue.
***
Angel S5 Why We Fight and Smile Time - are kind of both about the same thing thematically speaking, just that Smile handles it better.
When Smile Time aired - way back in 2004, I was friends with a writer and her puppeteer husband, who were in turn close friends with the puppeteers on Smile Time. ( Read more... )
The episode "Smile Time" is among the best of the series. It basically encapsulates all the themes of the season and series with just a few images. Angel is too busy fighting himself to really get anywhere. And,
when he was starting to get somewhere with Doyle and Cordy, then Wes and Cordy - WRH found a way to manipulate him, Cordy and Wes. The noir theme in a nutshell - the hero always falls into the abyss - and more often than not it is of his own making.
( Read more... )
Why We Fight is rather clunky in comparison. ( Read more... )
Making tea now. I'd intended on doing laundry on Monday during the storm, but alas, was waylaid by the nauseous headache from hell. Haven't up to doing much of anything - outside of doing an urgent care appointment, getting my meds/groceries, and trying to sleep. Did do a few knee exercises.
The snow appears to be melting - from the view outside my windows. So it's not frozen solid like last time.
End of February Memage
22. What is your favourite writing implement – a fountain pen, ballpoint pen, pencil or something else?
Fountain Pen
23. Do you own many mirrors?
Yes, one - and it's turned to the wall in my bedroom and the back is broken off of it. The mirror itself is fine, it's just the siding and back covering that are coming off. I use it occasionally to see what to wear. Also a small bathroom mirror. I'm not a fan of mirrors - they tend to irritate me. I think it has something to do with how my brain processes information and flips things around, don't know.
24. What are you watching this month that you are enjoying?
I'm enjoying the soap opera (General Hospital) this month, more than most, Angel S5 rewatch, and The Pitt.
25. When was the last time the windows in your home were washed?
I don't have a house, and while I've washed the inside occasionally, I can't access the outside of the windows - so no clue.
***
Angel S5 Why We Fight and Smile Time - are kind of both about the same thing thematically speaking, just that Smile handles it better.
When Smile Time aired - way back in 2004, I was friends with a writer and her puppeteer husband, who were in turn close friends with the puppeteers on Smile Time. ( Read more... )
The episode "Smile Time" is among the best of the series. It basically encapsulates all the themes of the season and series with just a few images. Angel is too busy fighting himself to really get anywhere. And,
when he was starting to get somewhere with Doyle and Cordy, then Wes and Cordy - WRH found a way to manipulate him, Cordy and Wes. The noir theme in a nutshell - the hero always falls into the abyss - and more often than not it is of his own making.
( Read more... )
Why We Fight is rather clunky in comparison. ( Read more... )
AI and Dreamwidth
Feb. 25th, 2026 12:11 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
mark posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_devWe've seen some questions lately about AI and how it relates to Dreamwidth, especially around scraping and training. Rather than answer piecemeal, I wanted to talk through how denise and I are thinking about this and try to be explicit about some things.
Dreamwidth is a user-supported service. We don't build the service around monetizing user data, and that informs how we approach AI just like it informs everything else we do.
Your content and AI training
Dreamwidth does not and will not sell, license, or otherwise provide user content for AI training. We have not and will not enter into data-access agreements for AI training purposes.
We will continue taking reasonable technical steps to discourage large-scale automated scraping, including known AI crawlers, where it is practical to do so. No public website can prevent scraping with absolute certainty, but we will keep doing what we reasonably can on our side.
AI features on Dreamwidth
Dreamwidth will not introduce AI features (and we have no current intention of doing so) that use or process user content without a public discussion with the community first.
We're only phrasing it like this because we can't predict the future and who knows what will be possible and available in five or ten years, but right now there's nothing we can see wanting to add.
If that ever changed, the conversation would happen openly before any decisions were made.
Site admin uses of AI
Keeping Dreamwidth usable means dealing with things like spam and abuse, and that sometimes requires automated admin tools to be more efficient or effective.
We are not currently using AI-driven systems for moderation or similar decisions.
If we ever decide that an AI-based tool would help address a site admin problem like spam, we will explain what we are doing and how it works (and ask for feedback!) before putting it into use. Any such tools would exist only to make it easier and more efficient for us to do the work of running the site.
AI and code contributions
Dreamwidth is an open-source project, and contributors use a variety of tools and workflows.
Contributors may choose whether or not to use AI-assisted tools when writing or reviewing code. Dreamwidth will not require contributors to use AI tools, and we will not reject contributions solely because AI-assisted tools were used.
For developers: if you use any AI-assisted development tools for generating a pull request or code contribution, we expect you to thoroughly and carefully review the output of those tools before including them in a pull request. We would ask the community not to submit pull requests from automated agents with no human intervention in the submission process.
I think it's important and I want to be able to review, understand, and maintain any contributions effectively, and that means humans are involved and making sure we're writing code for humans to work with, even if AI was involved.
Important note: this applies to code only. We expect any submitted images or artwork (such as for styles, mood themes, or anything else) to be the work of a human artist.
And to be very explicit, any AI-assisted development does not involve access to Dreamwidth posts or personal content.
In short summary
- Dreamwidth does not and will not provide user content for AI training
- Dreamwidth have not and will not enter data-sharing agreements for AI training and we will do what we can to prevent/discourage automated scraping by AI companies
- Dreamwidth will not introduce AI features without a public discussion first
- Any site admin use of AI tools will be explained openly and part of a public conversation
- Contributors can choose their own development tools for code, but we do not accept images or artwork generated by AI
Oh, and we'll probably mention this (or a subset of this that isn't code related) in an upcoming dw_news post, but will defer to denise on that!
Should the NHL learn from the Olympics and switch to a 3-2-1-0 standings format?
Feb. 25th, 2026 02:14 pmdowngoesbrown_feedWith the Olympics in the rearview mirror, we’re back to… what was it again? That league with all the teams and the six-month season? Right, the NHL, that was it. The NHL is back. Feel the excitement.
But while the Olympic tournament is over and some of us might be eager to move on, now might be a good time to wonder about whether the NHL could learn something from how the tournament was structured.
No, I don’t mean using 3-on-3 overtime to settle championships – fans around the world seem to agree that that part was bad. And I don’t mean the smaller rules that we debated last week in Rules Court. I’m thinking of an element you may have already forgotten about, since it was only in place for the round robin: Should the NHL borrow a page from the Olympics and move to a 3-2-1-0 points system?
That’s where teams receive three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime/shootout win, one point for an overtime/shootout loss, and zero points for a regulation loss. Is that better than what we have now?
>> Read the full post at The Athletic
(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)
I need to know about movie improvements
Feb. 25th, 2026 02:25 pmandrewduckerA critical question came up at lunch today, for which I do not have a satisfactory answer. So, throwing it open to the floor:
Are there *any* movies which would not be improved by the addition of Godzilla?
Are there *any* movies which would not be improved by the addition of Godzilla?
Take my hand, never let go. Even one soft sound can shake the hardest ground.
Feb. 25th, 2026 05:08 ambeansideTuesday was a long day. Busy, but not terrible, but I had forgotten that we had our team meeting last night. As a result, my day spanned from 8am-6:30pm. It was a lot.
I did learn that the head of Outpatient Radiology has a high opinion of me. We had a patient that needed to be called, a VIP who was a close personal friend of our largest donor. And Peg specifically asked our manager, A to have me call them. So of course I did. And I was at my most sweet and courteous and informative. And the pt apparently called them back to tell the administration that I was just so kind and professional, and I made it so easy to make the appt, and answered all her questions and gave her tips on where to park and all. She also mentioned that at first, she thought the machine was calling her, because I have a voice that should be used for that kind of thing. So, Peg sent me a lovely note thanking me for it. It was very much a nothingburger, but slightly stressful with the donor hanging over my head. I'm not sure how I feel about being volunteered for tribute, but whatever.
The meeting was long and painful. Mostly just reminding people to do what they're supposed to be doing. You know, don't go into the status to send an email, sit there for 20 minutes and then send one sentence. They did debut a look at our new phone system, which is a VOIP. Thanks, I hate it. It's clunky and I don't think it's going to do what we need it to. Worse, it incorporates Copilot to transcribe the conversation as you're talking. And, eventually, that'll be how they score all the calls--with AI. This is going to be a clusterfuck. We've got about a month and a half til that all comes down.
I just have to mention how proud I am of my spouse. Jess has been working on a queer sword and sorcery book for about a year. They had stalled, but now they're back to writing furiously (3000+ words yesterday!) and I'm just really proud of how much work they've done. The end is in sight! Another few days, and they should have a rough draft done. We talked about the blocking for the climatic scene, and how to make it cinematic, and I think it's going to be excellent. I sent them Youtub videos of the Highlander the Series sword fights, so that they could see how a longsword battle can look. (What a chore, it made me look at Methos videos...) They were excellent at blocking things to make them look really good. I hope it's helpful when they start writing the final duel today.
Today, thankfully, I do not have any meetings, I can get off at 4:30 and take a nap. I'm trying to decide what to do for dinner. Last night, since I had to work late, Jess cooked pork chops. I've got stir fry strips out for dinner, but I need to decide if I'm doing Korean BBQ or if want to go all out and cook fajitas with homemade tortillas. Either could be good. I just have to make up my mind. I cleaned and oiled the cast iron pan if I go for the fajitas. I kind of need to decide, so I can marinate the beef strips for most of the day. I do love making tortillas, so I may go with that, even though it's a lot of work. But we'll see. I also love Korean BBQ. I'm just trying to decide which I want more. Either way, I'll be chopping up a bit of onions. If I do the tortillas, I'll need to order some guac, cheese and sour cream. I think I have everything for the BBQ.
I think I really want to do the fajitas, so I'll probably go with that.
Still no movement on the job front. I was busy enough that I didn't get a moment to ask Amanda about my pre-offer priorities. I'll try to do that today, if she has a few minutes between meetings.
Oh! They 100% called me out during our meetings. One of the things they mentioned again was using the template for emails to make it easier to just copy and paste. And they showed where the template was, and then reminded everyone that I had unlocked the mystic arts of the email signature, and had me send out the document I had made showing how to do it. Yet again, I felt like Prometheus, bringing fire to the mortals.
I worry sometimes that people are going to think I've got a swelled head, or that they'll resent me. On paper, I'm the same as them, but it's pretty obvious that I do way more than the standard. I get called on to call their patients back, and to fill in cardiacs, and I spend as much time in unavailable status as I do on the phone. I just don't want anyone to feel resentful or feel that I think I'm better than them. (I patently am, but I don't want anyone to not like me because of it--the joy of rejection sensitive ADHD!)
At Jess' suggestion, I have made a new google calendar for my schoolwork, so I can add in my deadlines. It seems like they're pretty limited-we get the assignments for the week on Thursday, and they're due on the next Wednesday night. Each class is 9 weeks, with a final exam at the end. I'm hoping I haven't lost my touch with testing. I used to be very good at taking tests. Since my semester starts in April, it means I am going to have to do some work on the cruise. But I get up early, so I should have time to knock out both my morning post and some studying before we start the day. I can sit on the balcony with my coffee and pastry and do my assigned reading and write my paper while the whales go by. I'm only taking one class, so it shouldn't be that bad. I know I'll have time on Sunday, since that's a sea day. Maybe I'll do some work on the plane on the way there, if the assignments are out when we leave. That'll be a few weeks into the class, so I'll know how best to manage it, and how much time I'll need to devote.
I also registered for the Johns Hopkins Tuition Reimbursement site, so I'll be ready to submit everything when April rolls around.
Okay, time for me to do my thing. Everyone have an amazing Hump Day!
I did learn that the head of Outpatient Radiology has a high opinion of me. We had a patient that needed to be called, a VIP who was a close personal friend of our largest donor. And Peg specifically asked our manager, A to have me call them. So of course I did. And I was at my most sweet and courteous and informative. And the pt apparently called them back to tell the administration that I was just so kind and professional, and I made it so easy to make the appt, and answered all her questions and gave her tips on where to park and all. She also mentioned that at first, she thought the machine was calling her, because I have a voice that should be used for that kind of thing. So, Peg sent me a lovely note thanking me for it. It was very much a nothingburger, but slightly stressful with the donor hanging over my head. I'm not sure how I feel about being volunteered for tribute, but whatever.
The meeting was long and painful. Mostly just reminding people to do what they're supposed to be doing. You know, don't go into the status to send an email, sit there for 20 minutes and then send one sentence. They did debut a look at our new phone system, which is a VOIP. Thanks, I hate it. It's clunky and I don't think it's going to do what we need it to. Worse, it incorporates Copilot to transcribe the conversation as you're talking. And, eventually, that'll be how they score all the calls--with AI. This is going to be a clusterfuck. We've got about a month and a half til that all comes down.
I just have to mention how proud I am of my spouse. Jess has been working on a queer sword and sorcery book for about a year. They had stalled, but now they're back to writing furiously (3000+ words yesterday!) and I'm just really proud of how much work they've done. The end is in sight! Another few days, and they should have a rough draft done. We talked about the blocking for the climatic scene, and how to make it cinematic, and I think it's going to be excellent. I sent them Youtub videos of the Highlander the Series sword fights, so that they could see how a longsword battle can look. (What a chore, it made me look at Methos videos...) They were excellent at blocking things to make them look really good. I hope it's helpful when they start writing the final duel today.
Today, thankfully, I do not have any meetings, I can get off at 4:30 and take a nap. I'm trying to decide what to do for dinner. Last night, since I had to work late, Jess cooked pork chops. I've got stir fry strips out for dinner, but I need to decide if I'm doing Korean BBQ or if want to go all out and cook fajitas with homemade tortillas. Either could be good. I just have to make up my mind. I cleaned and oiled the cast iron pan if I go for the fajitas. I kind of need to decide, so I can marinate the beef strips for most of the day. I do love making tortillas, so I may go with that, even though it's a lot of work. But we'll see. I also love Korean BBQ. I'm just trying to decide which I want more. Either way, I'll be chopping up a bit of onions. If I do the tortillas, I'll need to order some guac, cheese and sour cream. I think I have everything for the BBQ.
I think I really want to do the fajitas, so I'll probably go with that.
Still no movement on the job front. I was busy enough that I didn't get a moment to ask Amanda about my pre-offer priorities. I'll try to do that today, if she has a few minutes between meetings.
Oh! They 100% called me out during our meetings. One of the things they mentioned again was using the template for emails to make it easier to just copy and paste. And they showed where the template was, and then reminded everyone that I had unlocked the mystic arts of the email signature, and had me send out the document I had made showing how to do it. Yet again, I felt like Prometheus, bringing fire to the mortals.
I worry sometimes that people are going to think I've got a swelled head, or that they'll resent me. On paper, I'm the same as them, but it's pretty obvious that I do way more than the standard. I get called on to call their patients back, and to fill in cardiacs, and I spend as much time in unavailable status as I do on the phone. I just don't want anyone to feel resentful or feel that I think I'm better than them. (I patently am, but I don't want anyone to not like me because of it--the joy of rejection sensitive ADHD!)
At Jess' suggestion, I have made a new google calendar for my schoolwork, so I can add in my deadlines. It seems like they're pretty limited-we get the assignments for the week on Thursday, and they're due on the next Wednesday night. Each class is 9 weeks, with a final exam at the end. I'm hoping I haven't lost my touch with testing. I used to be very good at taking tests. Since my semester starts in April, it means I am going to have to do some work on the cruise. But I get up early, so I should have time to knock out both my morning post and some studying before we start the day. I can sit on the balcony with my coffee and pastry and do my assigned reading and write my paper while the whales go by. I'm only taking one class, so it shouldn't be that bad. I know I'll have time on Sunday, since that's a sea day. Maybe I'll do some work on the plane on the way there, if the assignments are out when we leave. That'll be a few weeks into the class, so I'll know how best to manage it, and how much time I'll need to devote.
I also registered for the Johns Hopkins Tuition Reimbursement site, so I'll be ready to submit everything when April rolls around.
Okay, time for me to do my thing. Everyone have an amazing Hump Day!
Code Tour: 2024-12-01 to 2026-02-25
Feb. 25th, 2026 12:22 amsilveradept posting in dw_devOh, hi, everybody! It's been a little bit since we did a code tour, hasn't it? But never fear, we're here to walk you through the changes that have happened since the last time we took a tour through the code changes in Dreamwidth.
Let's dive in, shall we?
( Your code tour, with some attempts at arrangement by topic. )
There we go! Another year's worth of code commits, issues resolved, and attempts to make Dreamwidth a greater and cooler place to be. And to have it continue working into the future.
(We should do these more often, but volunteers and, well…*gestures broadly around*. So it may be a while before someone has the spoons to do this again, but we're always trying to be more consistent about it.)
Here are the totals for this code tour:
104 total issues resolved.
Contributors in this code tour:![[github.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/github.png)
Copilot, alierak, cmho, dependabot, jjbarr, kareila, l1n, momijizukamori, pauamma, sirilyan, zorkian
Let's dive in, shall we?
( Your code tour, with some attempts at arrangement by topic. )
There we go! Another year's worth of code commits, issues resolved, and attempts to make Dreamwidth a greater and cooler place to be. And to have it continue working into the future.
(We should do these more often, but volunteers and, well…*gestures broadly around*. So it may be a while before someone has the spoons to do this again, but we're always trying to be more consistent about it.)
Here are the totals for this code tour:
104 total issues resolved.
Contributors in this code tour:
Copilot, alierak, cmho, dependabot, jjbarr, kareila, l1n, momijizukamori, pauamma, sirilyan, zorkian
Photo cross-post
Feb. 25th, 2026 01:51 amandrewducker
Sophia spent a chunk of Monday evening writing up her half term week
without having to. Her handwriting is already better than mine.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
March Sign Ups
Feb. 25th, 2026 05:49 amsiberian_angel posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thestoryinside
It's officially time to sign up for March! Buddy assignments will be posted on the 1st. You'll have until the 5th to choose books for your partners.
The themes for March will be:
THRILLER // FANTASY // LGBTQ // CONTEMPORARY // FEMALE AUTHOR
You must choose books with one or a combination of these genres and themes for your buddy. If you think your buddy might have a problem picking from your TBR pile, please mention that in your comment.
Please sign up in the comments:
Also:
• Our February Discussion is still open!
Sinus headaches, Angel Rewatch...
Feb. 24th, 2026 05:11 pmshadowkatDid Virtual Urgent Care - who proscribed antibiotics for the sinus infection that I appear to have - congestion that won't go away, made worse by the storm - resulting in the sick sinus headache from hell (which has a sort of vertigo as a symptom). I got a doctor's note for returning to work by Thursday, 2/26/26.
Ventured out around 4pm to pick up antibiotics from the pharmacy - wasn't bad considering the pharmacy is about six short blocks from my apartment.
They've plowed the roads, and cleared for the most part the sidewalks. There's puddles in places, and some areas are narrower than others - depends on whether it was a professional building maintenance person, or a home owner. Home owners suck at shoveling city sidewalks for the most part.
Although they did a better job with this storm than the last one - most likely because the city threatened them with sizable fines if they didn't do it.
I wanted to go back to work today - but I only slept three hours last night, even though I went to bed early. Was up all night with the nauseous headache, which made the room spin and came in waves. I went to lie down - it started. I couldn't even sleep sitting up. Standing I was fine. Or sitting on the edge of the bed. Finally, after a sneezing fit, lots of nose blowing, two more mezcline, and decogestants - it cleared a bit for sleep. But I felt horrible the next morning and gave up. Was going to use vacation time - decided sick time made more sense - I'm sick. And I've got more sick time than vacation time.
***
I finished watching All Creatures Great and Small S6 on PBS Passport, and might start up on Miss Scarlet or Maigret again. It didn't require much focus. I couldn't concentrate on anything until now - due to the headache. Last night, if I thought about anything at all - I got nauseous. It was frustrating and weird. It's a cozy series - All Creatures Great and Small - reminds me a little of Call the Midwife. I think the original might have been slightly better and more realistic, but I don't really remember the original that well? I read the books in the third and fourth grades.
Also working my way through Angel S5 - the Spike and Wes episodes so far are the better ones. ( Read more... )
Damage and Soul Purpose are the better episodes in this grouping. ( Read more... )
Off to get something to eat.
Ventured out around 4pm to pick up antibiotics from the pharmacy - wasn't bad considering the pharmacy is about six short blocks from my apartment.
They've plowed the roads, and cleared for the most part the sidewalks. There's puddles in places, and some areas are narrower than others - depends on whether it was a professional building maintenance person, or a home owner. Home owners suck at shoveling city sidewalks for the most part.
Although they did a better job with this storm than the last one - most likely because the city threatened them with sizable fines if they didn't do it.
I wanted to go back to work today - but I only slept three hours last night, even though I went to bed early. Was up all night with the nauseous headache, which made the room spin and came in waves. I went to lie down - it started. I couldn't even sleep sitting up. Standing I was fine. Or sitting on the edge of the bed. Finally, after a sneezing fit, lots of nose blowing, two more mezcline, and decogestants - it cleared a bit for sleep. But I felt horrible the next morning and gave up. Was going to use vacation time - decided sick time made more sense - I'm sick. And I've got more sick time than vacation time.
***
I finished watching All Creatures Great and Small S6 on PBS Passport, and might start up on Miss Scarlet or Maigret again. It didn't require much focus. I couldn't concentrate on anything until now - due to the headache. Last night, if I thought about anything at all - I got nauseous. It was frustrating and weird. It's a cozy series - All Creatures Great and Small - reminds me a little of Call the Midwife. I think the original might have been slightly better and more realistic, but I don't really remember the original that well? I read the books in the third and fourth grades.
Also working my way through Angel S5 - the Spike and Wes episodes so far are the better ones. ( Read more... )
Damage and Soul Purpose are the better episodes in this grouping. ( Read more... )
Off to get something to eat.
A brief history of the Selanne Trophy, a fake award for best combined NHL/Olympics year
Feb. 24th, 2026 02:28 pmdowngoesbrown_feedIt’s been a while since we added anything to our fake trophy case. That’s where we store the Carson (for best sophomore season), the Bourque (for best final season), the Pollock (for best trade) and the Thornton (for best debut with a new team).
Today, we’re unveiling a new fake trophy, for the best combination NHL and Olympic performance in the same season. Please ooh and awe at the shiny new Teemu Selanne Trophy.
Selanne was a relatively easy choice for the honor of having the award named after him. After all, he’s the all-time leading scorer in Olympic hockey among NHLers, and it’s not all that close. He’d also been tied for the most points in any NHL-attended tournament until Connor McDavid broke the record this year. Oh, and when Selanne wasn’t dominating best-on-best, he found time to score nearly 700 NHL goals. He was good.
So our trophy for the best combination NHL/Olympic year will be the Selanne. We used the combo concept to build some all-time all-star teams a few weeks ago, but now we’re looking for single seasons.
>> Read the full post at The Athletic
(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)
Interesting Links for 24-02-2026
Feb. 24th, 2026 12:02 pmandrewducker- 1. AIs can generate near-verbatim copies of novels from training data
- (tags:copyright ai books )
- 2. We should make it easier for people to vaccinate their children
- (tags:austerity poverty vaccination UK )
- 3. Green light for World Cup opening hours in Edinburgh (until 7am in some cases)
- (tags:football alcohol edinburgh )
- 4. RFK Jr's Nutrition Chatbot Recommends Best Foods to Insert Into Your Rectum
- (tags:food ai OhForFucksSake )
And I can not compete with you, Jolene
Feb. 24th, 2026 05:04 ambeansideWe survived Monday! Whoohoo, go us!
Work was purely chaotic. We had an immense call volume, and I was getting emails every few minutes asking me to do something else. I don't know if they have forgotten that I haven't gotten the new job and new pay yet, but goddamn, I felt like I was going in 10 directions at once. I got it all done, but it was a lot. I need someone to tell me which I should prioritize, because I feel like I'm letting my team down by not helping on the phones as much (Though I took 33 calls), but I've got to get these patients in, too. I just need a little clarification.
Today will probably be psycho too, but we'll see. Usually Monday and Tuesday are the worst, and then it dwindles a little through the week, though it's never light. I may clarify with Amanda what my primary focus should be.
Tomorrow is payday and that'll be nice. I have bills to pay this week. There's rent and phone and various little things that come at the beginning of the month. So I'll take care of that on Wednesday, when I get paid.
I purchased Office 365 in preparation for college yesterday and downloaded it. I like googledocs, and I'll still probably use it for most of my stuff, but I learned on Word, so I have a fondness. My term starts on 4/9, so I've got a little time to prepare. Between now and then, I'm going to start working on my math skills. Youtube is a helpful resource that I didn't have in high school as is Khan University. I think I'll be okay? I don't ever expect to be a math savant. I don't expect to be able to figure out the secret language of numbers, but if I can manipulate them and solve for X that's all that matters. I just need a C in the class.
I'm having a little pie in the sky about finishing my bachelors and maybe considering a master's degree. Not saying I can't. Hopkins would pay for it, and I feel like I'm smart enough to do it. I just don't know that I need it. I guess we'll see how much I like academia.
I need to curate a playlist of instrumental music that I can have on while studying. I've already found a bunch of orchestral covers of Ghost songs, which sound like a strong start. After all, I can trace a line from their concerts to my current list of upcoming things. Getting to go to the concert (Ritual) was really empowering.
It's funny, for a band who's music is supposedly Satanic, their music is very hopeful. There's a song of theirs called The Future is a Foreign Land that is about the future being better. And even songs like He Is which is a song about Satan, is at it's core about community and belonging. And Peacefield is possibly one of the most hopeful songs I know. It's a "yes, right now things suck, but hold out, it'll get better." And right now, we all need that.
When I'm stressed out, I put on my earphones and have some emotional support Ghost and Hazbin Hotel and it relaxes me and makes me feel better, and I can't really ask for more than that.
Tomorrow, it's supposed to be 50 degrees, so I'm hoping that I won't have to clean off my car when I go out again. I'm going to have to request a refill on my clindamycin. It's working, but slowly. Each day, it's a bit better, and the swelling goes down a bit, but it's not quite there yet. The yeast infection is going to be epic (It already is.)
Next week, my sister is going up to NYC for work for the whole week. This means that I'll be sleeping with the dog for the week, which is sad. I love my puppers, but I miss snuggling Jess. On the other hand, that's a bunch of nights where we can watch TV in the evenings and have quality time during the day. It also probably means we're not going to be able to get away on the weekend of the 7th, but we'll figure out another time. Maybe the weekend of the 28th. We don't seem to have any games planned then.
This is apparently going to be a thing that happens now and then, so I might as well get used to it. It's really not a big deal, just means that I'm going to be sleep deprived for a couple of days until I get used to her bed and a dog kicking me.
So I might as well enjoy this week in my own bed. I don't spend enough time there. Maybe we can watch some more of The Pitt in it. I want to watch more of that.
I might as well work on The Pitt and Heated Rivalry, since there's not a whole lot of movies coming out in the near future that I'm wildly interested in. I might do Project Hail Mary and the rerelease of the Mummy, but the first one I'm really excited for is Mortal Kombat on May 8th.
Of course, we'll be in Vancouver when that releases. I'm seriously considering going to an evening showing the night before we board the ship. We'll see how tired I am from the day of sightseeing. Knowing us, we'll do that til about 3, and then go back to the hotel to rest. So we might be good for a movie. Stupid action movies are better with a first weekend crowd.
I had an Advocate magazine add pop up about the least expensive cities with good gay enclaves. One of them was Old Chinatown in Portland, which seemed really cool. Maybe in a few years, when the BIL's mother has passed, we'd consider moving. And the Pacific Northwest has always seemed like a good place to go. They have strong protections for LGBTQ+ people and the weather is nice. I also thought about Seattle, but good lord, it's so expensive.
Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have a stupendous Tuesday!
Work was purely chaotic. We had an immense call volume, and I was getting emails every few minutes asking me to do something else. I don't know if they have forgotten that I haven't gotten the new job and new pay yet, but goddamn, I felt like I was going in 10 directions at once. I got it all done, but it was a lot. I need someone to tell me which I should prioritize, because I feel like I'm letting my team down by not helping on the phones as much (Though I took 33 calls), but I've got to get these patients in, too. I just need a little clarification.
Today will probably be psycho too, but we'll see. Usually Monday and Tuesday are the worst, and then it dwindles a little through the week, though it's never light. I may clarify with Amanda what my primary focus should be.
Tomorrow is payday and that'll be nice. I have bills to pay this week. There's rent and phone and various little things that come at the beginning of the month. So I'll take care of that on Wednesday, when I get paid.
I purchased Office 365 in preparation for college yesterday and downloaded it. I like googledocs, and I'll still probably use it for most of my stuff, but I learned on Word, so I have a fondness. My term starts on 4/9, so I've got a little time to prepare. Between now and then, I'm going to start working on my math skills. Youtube is a helpful resource that I didn't have in high school as is Khan University. I think I'll be okay? I don't ever expect to be a math savant. I don't expect to be able to figure out the secret language of numbers, but if I can manipulate them and solve for X that's all that matters. I just need a C in the class.
I'm having a little pie in the sky about finishing my bachelors and maybe considering a master's degree. Not saying I can't. Hopkins would pay for it, and I feel like I'm smart enough to do it. I just don't know that I need it. I guess we'll see how much I like academia.
I need to curate a playlist of instrumental music that I can have on while studying. I've already found a bunch of orchestral covers of Ghost songs, which sound like a strong start. After all, I can trace a line from their concerts to my current list of upcoming things. Getting to go to the concert (Ritual) was really empowering.
It's funny, for a band who's music is supposedly Satanic, their music is very hopeful. There's a song of theirs called The Future is a Foreign Land that is about the future being better. And even songs like He Is which is a song about Satan, is at it's core about community and belonging. And Peacefield is possibly one of the most hopeful songs I know. It's a "yes, right now things suck, but hold out, it'll get better." And right now, we all need that.
When I'm stressed out, I put on my earphones and have some emotional support Ghost and Hazbin Hotel and it relaxes me and makes me feel better, and I can't really ask for more than that.
Tomorrow, it's supposed to be 50 degrees, so I'm hoping that I won't have to clean off my car when I go out again. I'm going to have to request a refill on my clindamycin. It's working, but slowly. Each day, it's a bit better, and the swelling goes down a bit, but it's not quite there yet. The yeast infection is going to be epic (It already is.)
Next week, my sister is going up to NYC for work for the whole week. This means that I'll be sleeping with the dog for the week, which is sad. I love my puppers, but I miss snuggling Jess. On the other hand, that's a bunch of nights where we can watch TV in the evenings and have quality time during the day. It also probably means we're not going to be able to get away on the weekend of the 7th, but we'll figure out another time. Maybe the weekend of the 28th. We don't seem to have any games planned then.
This is apparently going to be a thing that happens now and then, so I might as well get used to it. It's really not a big deal, just means that I'm going to be sleep deprived for a couple of days until I get used to her bed and a dog kicking me.
So I might as well enjoy this week in my own bed. I don't spend enough time there. Maybe we can watch some more of The Pitt in it. I want to watch more of that.
I might as well work on The Pitt and Heated Rivalry, since there's not a whole lot of movies coming out in the near future that I'm wildly interested in. I might do Project Hail Mary and the rerelease of the Mummy, but the first one I'm really excited for is Mortal Kombat on May 8th.
Of course, we'll be in Vancouver when that releases. I'm seriously considering going to an evening showing the night before we board the ship. We'll see how tired I am from the day of sightseeing. Knowing us, we'll do that til about 3, and then go back to the hotel to rest. So we might be good for a movie. Stupid action movies are better with a first weekend crowd.
I had an Advocate magazine add pop up about the least expensive cities with good gay enclaves. One of them was Old Chinatown in Portland, which seemed really cool. Maybe in a few years, when the BIL's mother has passed, we'd consider moving. And the Pacific Northwest has always seemed like a good place to go. They have strong protections for LGBTQ+ people and the weather is nice. I also thought about Seattle, but good lord, it's so expensive.
Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have a stupendous Tuesday!
(no subject)
Feb. 23rd, 2026 05:43 pmshadowkatGood news? The storm has more or less ended and with it - my vertigo or so it appears. (I'm not tried to lie down flat as of yet, so hopefully it won't flare up when I go to bed.) So I will probably manage to navigate the mounds of snow to make it into work tomorrow. I don't really have an excuse - since I've got snow boots, and I take the subway, and it's located in the Financial District. Now, if I still worked in Jamaica and had to take the Long Island Rail Road into work that would be a different story - at last report, it was still suspended.
I'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.
I'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.
all your flaws are aligned with this mood of mine
Feb. 23rd, 2026 06:26 pmmusesfoolIt snowed until around 3 pm today! Just...so much snow. Friend L sent me a pic from her building in Manhattan and it was like the storm had barely had an impact, yet by me, even though the street had been plowed, it was all snowy again. Anyway, thankfully, my boss is also under about 2 ft of snow out on the island, so we are not going in tomorrow (the person who was supposed to come meet with us had their flight cancelled, so they never even made it to NY, so that will all get rescheduled, too). Whew.
Anyway, have some brief thoughts on recent TV:
- Shrinking: ( spoilers ) This show remains hilarious and endearing.
- Pluribus: I finished it and I don't love it but I am interested in seeing where it goes. ( spoilers )
- The Pitt: ( spoilers )
*
Anyway, have some brief thoughts on recent TV:
- Shrinking: ( spoilers ) This show remains hilarious and endearing.
- Pluribus: I finished it and I don't love it but I am interested in seeing where it goes. ( spoilers )
- The Pitt: ( spoilers )
*
Snow bound - and struggling with vertigo...
Feb. 23rd, 2026 10:04 amshadowkatSo the snowstorm was/is Bomb Cyclone - which I learned ages ago from an allergist -will play havoc on anyone with sinus issues.
A bomb cyclone according to the National Weather Service is : "or the meteorological term "bombogenesis," refers to the central pressure of a low-pressure system dropping at least 24 millibars within 24 hours.
Most bomb cyclones happen off the East Coast, which typically sees about one of these intense storms each year. In the Northeast, they form when there’s a sharp temperature contrast usually between a cold continental air mass meeting the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
This temperature difference, combined with a strong jet-stream disturbance that forces air upward, sets the stage for bombogenesis. Many nor’easters actually fall into this category, as cold air from Canada collides with the warm Gulf Stream, creating a perfect recipe for explosive storm growth."
The reason it plays havoc on sinus issues - is the barometric pressure drops. The fluid in the head shifts - placing pressure on the inner ear, resulting in vertigo.
It gave me non-stop vertigo, which I've been battling with prescription Dramamine to combat dizziness and nausea. It's kind of like seasickness, if you've never experienced it? But on land.
I went to bed, lay down, the room began to spin, frak that, I slept sitting up. As long as I was upright, not moving my head too much, I was fine. I'm hoping it is gone by tonight. It should be - since I think it is storm related.
Oh well, it could be worse - I could be homeless with vertigo, or stuck in an airport or bus depot with it, and no pills to take for it. (They work just not as well as I'd like? Work better when it is mild and well, we aren't in the middle of a bomb cyclone, and I didn't have a cold the previous week. But they did keep the nausea and vomiting at bay.)
The storm is still going by the way. It's been going since roughly 10 pm last night. Although it's no longer a blizzard.
Currently or as of 10 a.m. Monday (it's about 11:42 AM now and yes still snowing):https://www.nbcnewyork.com/weather/weather-stories/how-much-snow-totals-inches-nyc-long-island-nj-accumulation-blizzard/6467598/
It's shut NYC down almost completely. The Mayor was smart though - he cancelled all schools, declared a travel ban, and the Governor informed government agencies to keep all non-essential employees home, for remote work, if possible. They have a Full Snow Day for the first time in years (no remote), public transportation has shut down in places, and the travel ban was extended to about 6pm. It's 31 F, and feels like 6 F.
( Transit Adjustments )
https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2026/02/23/what-s-open-closed-nyc-snow-storm-feb-2026
[ETA: The travel ban in NYC has been lifted, but with the caveat that people should drive slowly and with caution.]
"As of 10 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, more than 11,200 flights in and out of the U.S. were canceled or delayed.
In the New York City area, disruptions were widespread. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, 42% of departing flights were canceled, along with 7% delayed. Incoming flights were hit even harder, with 63% canceled and 2% delayed."
- https://www.lohud.com/story/weather/2026/02/22/nyc-airports-hit-by-massive-cancellations-ahead-of-blizzard-see-live-flight-status/88762935007/
Vertigo hasn't gone, unfortunately, but the medication has helped a bit.
So how's your day going so far?
A bomb cyclone according to the National Weather Service is : "or the meteorological term "bombogenesis," refers to the central pressure of a low-pressure system dropping at least 24 millibars within 24 hours.
Most bomb cyclones happen off the East Coast, which typically sees about one of these intense storms each year. In the Northeast, they form when there’s a sharp temperature contrast usually between a cold continental air mass meeting the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
This temperature difference, combined with a strong jet-stream disturbance that forces air upward, sets the stage for bombogenesis. Many nor’easters actually fall into this category, as cold air from Canada collides with the warm Gulf Stream, creating a perfect recipe for explosive storm growth."
The reason it plays havoc on sinus issues - is the barometric pressure drops. The fluid in the head shifts - placing pressure on the inner ear, resulting in vertigo.
It gave me non-stop vertigo, which I've been battling with prescription Dramamine to combat dizziness and nausea. It's kind of like seasickness, if you've never experienced it? But on land.
I went to bed, lay down, the room began to spin, frak that, I slept sitting up. As long as I was upright, not moving my head too much, I was fine. I'm hoping it is gone by tonight. It should be - since I think it is storm related.
Oh well, it could be worse - I could be homeless with vertigo, or stuck in an airport or bus depot with it, and no pills to take for it. (They work just not as well as I'd like? Work better when it is mild and well, we aren't in the middle of a bomb cyclone, and I didn't have a cold the previous week. But they did keep the nausea and vomiting at bay.)
The storm is still going by the way. It's been going since roughly 10 pm last night. Although it's no longer a blizzard.
Currently or as of 10 a.m. Monday (it's about 11:42 AM now and yes still snowing):https://www.nbcnewyork.com/weather/weather-stories/how-much-snow-totals-inches-nyc-long-island-nj-accumulation-blizzard/6467598/
It's shut NYC down almost completely. The Mayor was smart though - he cancelled all schools, declared a travel ban, and the Governor informed government agencies to keep all non-essential employees home, for remote work, if possible. They have a Full Snow Day for the first time in years (no remote), public transportation has shut down in places, and the travel ban was extended to about 6pm. It's 31 F, and feels like 6 F.
( Transit Adjustments )
https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2026/02/23/what-s-open-closed-nyc-snow-storm-feb-2026
[ETA: The travel ban in NYC has been lifted, but with the caveat that people should drive slowly and with caution.]
"As of 10 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, more than 11,200 flights in and out of the U.S. were canceled or delayed.
In the New York City area, disruptions were widespread. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, 42% of departing flights were canceled, along with 7% delayed. Incoming flights were hit even harder, with 63% canceled and 2% delayed."
- https://www.lohud.com/story/weather/2026/02/22/nyc-airports-hit-by-massive-cancellations-ahead-of-blizzard-see-live-flight-status/88762935007/
Vertigo hasn't gone, unfortunately, but the medication has helped a bit.
So how's your day going so far?
Updates to “No Fandom” Additional Tags, February 2026
Feb. 23rd, 2026 01:02 pmotw_news_feedAO3 Tag Wranglers continue to test processes for wrangling canonical additional tags (tags that appear in the auto-complete) which don’t belong to any particular fandom (also known as “No Fandom” tags). This post overviews some of these upcoming changes.
In this round of updates, we continued to adjust existing canonical “No Fandom” tags to add or remove new subtag and metatag relationships. We also continued to streamline creating new canonical tags, prioritizing more straightforward updates which would have less discussion compared to renaming current canonical tags or creating new canonical tags which touch on more complex topics. This method also reviews new tags on a regular basis, so check back on AO3 News for periodic “No Fandom” tag announcements.
None of these updates change the tags users have added to works. If a user-created tag is considered to have the same meaning as a new canonical, it will be made a synonym of one of these newly created canonical tags, and works with that user-created tag will appear when the canonical tag is selected.
In short, these changes only affect which tags appear in AO3’s auto-complete and filters. You can and should continue to tag your works however you prefer.
New Canonicals
The following concepts have been made new canonical tags:
- Accidental Sibling Acquisition
- Balls & Galas
- Banquets & Feasts
- Charity Balls & Galas
- Royal Balls & Galas
- Balls | Testicles
- Hyper Balls | Testicles
- Large Balls | Testicles
- Bonding Over Trauma
- Characters Being Bad at Feelings
- Everyone is Bad at Feelings
- Characters Whimpering
- Chase and Capture Kink
- Child Trafficking
- Sex Trafficking
- Claws
- Female Characters Orgasming
- Generational Trauma
- Head Pats
- Hiding an Illness
- Hiding Injuries
- Intrusive Thoughts
- Long One Shot
- Past Bullying
- Simp Characters
- Subtitles Available
- Tentacle Bondage
- Thigh Riding
Subtag/Metatag Revisions
Additionally, we continued to adjust existing canonical tags to add or remove new subtag and metatag relationships, which help users find related content and filter in/out content as they browse works on AO3.
- Alternate Universe – Post-Apocalypse is now a subtag of Post-Apocalypse
- Post-Zombie Apocalypse is now a subtag of Post-Apocalypse
- Babies is now a subtag of Children
- Survival Horror is now a subtag of Horror
- Radio has been removed as a subtag from Technology
In Conclusion
While some of these tags may be tags and concepts you’re intimately familiar with, others may be concepts you’ve never heard of before. Fortunately, our fellow OTW volunteers at Fanlore may be able to help! As you may have seen in the comments sections of previous posts, Fanlore is a fantastic resource for learning more about these common fandom concepts, and about the history and lore of fandom in general. For the curious, here’s a quick look at a few articles about concepts related to this month’s new canonical tags:
While we won’t be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future about tags we believe will most affect users. If you’re interested in the changes we’ll be making, you can continue to check AO3 News or follow us on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.
You can also read previous updates on “No Fandom” tags as well as other wrangling updates, linked below:
- Past “No Fandom” Additional Tags Updates and 5 Things Said by Wrangling Volunteers
- Past Fandom-Specific and “No Fandom” Tag Wrangling Change Posts
For more information about AO3’s tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.
In addition to providing technical help, AO3 Support also handles requests related to how tags are sorted and connected. If you have questions about specific tags, which were first used over a month ago and are unrelated to any of the new canonical tags listed above, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.
Please keep in mind that discussions about what tags to canonize and what format they should take are ongoing. As a result, not all related concepts will be canonized at the same time. This does not mean that related or similar concepts will not be canonized in the future or that we have chosen to canonize one specific concept in lieu of another, simply that we likely either haven’t gotten to that related concept yet or that it needs further discussion and will take a bit longer for us to canonize it as a result. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Lastly, we’re still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. If you have questions about specific tags which should be connected to these new canonicals, please refrain from contacting Support about them until at least three months from now to give us adequate time to do so.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
Interesting Links for 23-02-2026
Feb. 23rd, 2026 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. How far back in time can you understand English?
- (tags:language English history )
- 2. I hadn't realised that 7 of the biggest 8 offshore wind farms in the world were British
- (tags:UK windpower )
- 3. Judge forced to slash SF jury pool over hate for Elon Musk
- (tags:ElonMusk law usa )
- 4. Building a Beauty and the Beast rose petal timer using shape metal and an Arduino. Incredibly impressive stuff.
- (tags:cosplay impressive viaSwampers technology )
- 5. What If We've Been Wrong About How ADHD Drugs Work?
- (tags:adhd drugs sleep )
- 6. Europe's first industrial-scale mycelium packaging producer (replacing styrofoam with mushroom-based packaging)
- (tags:materials fungus packaging )
i'm done hiding now i'm shining like i'm born to be
Feb. 23rd, 2026 04:53 ambeansideAnd we're back to Monday. It's snowy out, but thankfully we seemed to miss most of the snowpocalypse. It looks like maybe 3" if I'm being generous. It'll keep the kids out of school, but not much else. I'm really happy that it's not going to fuck up our routine for days, but that tiny part of me that's still a 5 year old is like "That's not real snow." Mostly, I'm happy that the dog won't be upset by it. He won't like the bit that there is, but he'll probably still do his business.
I forgot to mention that on Saturday night, we watched the first episode of The Pitt. I keep getting clips from it on TikTok, so I finally decided to take the plunge. One show, and I'm already hooked. Really excellent. I think that'll be a new thing for us, settling in and watching an episode now and then. I know season 2 just came out, so that'll give us plenty of episodes to watch.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I got up relatively late and then relaxed until gametime. We did get breakfast/brunch sushi, which was very good, or so I'm told. The antibiotics are messing with my tastes, so sometimes things just don't taste right. So really, anything I say about food can be taken with a grain of salt for the moment. It tasted okay, just not quite what I was expecting. We found a place that does not fuck around with the tobiko. When you ask for fish eggs on your California roll they put great heaping spoonfuls. It was glorious. Despite not being quite right, I'll probably have some of the leftover rolls for breakfast.
Then, it was onto game, which was super fun. My character got to showcase her temper a bit, punching a classmate for being a racist twat. It didn't matter that said character had also tried to trip my character. They're long standing rivals, and that's a matter of course. But get racist with her tiefling and firbolg friends, and she's going to forget that she has magic and throw hands.
It lost our team 10 class points, but fortunately, the racist's friend came up and shoved my character, who oversold that shit like Shawn Michaels against Hulk Hogan, so they lost points too.
It probably escalated things with our rivals, but sometimes, you just gotta punch someone.
After that, I piddled around for a while before I realized that the beef I took out for dinner was not anywhere near defrosted, so I ordered pasta. It was very good, and the stuffed shells tasted perfectly correct.
After dinner, as I was perusing the internet, I found an add for an online college. I've been thinking lately that this promotion I'm about to get will probably be my last, because I don't have a college degree, and considering going back to school. The thing that made me hesitate is the money. But we have some money now, and I have tuition reimbursement, so I could 100% do it.
I just don't know if I can. I'm not strong in math--I may need remedial classes to get me ready for algebra, but we'll see.
Anyway, I looked at this college, wondered if it was too good to be true and dug further. Turns out they're fully accredited, and legit. Probably not the most prestigious, but I don't have the time for prestigious, I just need a degree. So, I signed up.
It's called University of the People, and it's a tuitionless college. You pay an application fee, and you pay for your assessments at the end of the classes. The complete BA will cost me $6600. The degree transfers, and should I want to, my last semester, I could go to Edinburgh or Canada to study. (I won't, but it's cool.) So, come Summer, I'll be a part time student. I'm nervous, but excited. It's kinda weird to think that in a few short months, I'll be writing papers and doing tests. I'm probably going to start with one class, just to get my feet wet. and then from there if I feel like I can take more, I will. It might take me til 60 to get my degree, but I was planning to work til I'm at least 65, maybe later. We'll see.
There's one dude online who has a serious hate boner for the college, but PBS and other outlets have covered it and acknowleged that it's a real college with real degrees. I'll be sharing classrooms with people from around the world, including a 10% refugee enrollment, and some women studying at home secretly under the Taliban's restrictions about higher education for women. Most people seem very happy about their schooling, though they agree that it's what you make of it. Online can be tough, so I'm' going to need to be at the top of my game.
Who knows, maybe I'll like it so much that I'll go for my masters. We'll see. I'd probably switch my masters to Health Administration. I don't really want to be in charge of anything clinical, I want to be in charge of people. But the nice thing is that I do have tuition reimbursement if I'm doing something that will benefit my career with Hopkins, so in the end, the only thing that I'll pay is the application fee (and of course if I fail a course, I'm going to be paying for the test I failed.).
I'm a little confused, since my materials say the semester starts in April, but my orientation is in May/June. So we'll see how that works. If classes start in April, I'll be doing some work on the cruise, but that's okay. We have a good internet package, and I get up early anyway. I'll sit with my computer on the balcony and do my reading and writing.
Today, work will be bugfuck, as people will be calling to reschedule appts, even though there's very little snow. We're opening at 8am for the sites, so that's a handful of people we're reschedule (since we start some tests at 6am.) And of course, a ton of "are you open" calls. People, we're Johns Hopkins. We don't close shy of blizzards.
Hopefully, there's some movement on the job application this week. Good lord, they're slow.
Okay, on that note, time for me to go forth and get myself ready for the day. Everyone have a wonderful Monday!
I forgot to mention that on Saturday night, we watched the first episode of The Pitt. I keep getting clips from it on TikTok, so I finally decided to take the plunge. One show, and I'm already hooked. Really excellent. I think that'll be a new thing for us, settling in and watching an episode now and then. I know season 2 just came out, so that'll give us plenty of episodes to watch.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I got up relatively late and then relaxed until gametime. We did get breakfast/brunch sushi, which was very good, or so I'm told. The antibiotics are messing with my tastes, so sometimes things just don't taste right. So really, anything I say about food can be taken with a grain of salt for the moment. It tasted okay, just not quite what I was expecting. We found a place that does not fuck around with the tobiko. When you ask for fish eggs on your California roll they put great heaping spoonfuls. It was glorious. Despite not being quite right, I'll probably have some of the leftover rolls for breakfast.
Then, it was onto game, which was super fun. My character got to showcase her temper a bit, punching a classmate for being a racist twat. It didn't matter that said character had also tried to trip my character. They're long standing rivals, and that's a matter of course. But get racist with her tiefling and firbolg friends, and she's going to forget that she has magic and throw hands.
It lost our team 10 class points, but fortunately, the racist's friend came up and shoved my character, who oversold that shit like Shawn Michaels against Hulk Hogan, so they lost points too.
It probably escalated things with our rivals, but sometimes, you just gotta punch someone.
After that, I piddled around for a while before I realized that the beef I took out for dinner was not anywhere near defrosted, so I ordered pasta. It was very good, and the stuffed shells tasted perfectly correct.
After dinner, as I was perusing the internet, I found an add for an online college. I've been thinking lately that this promotion I'm about to get will probably be my last, because I don't have a college degree, and considering going back to school. The thing that made me hesitate is the money. But we have some money now, and I have tuition reimbursement, so I could 100% do it.
I just don't know if I can. I'm not strong in math--I may need remedial classes to get me ready for algebra, but we'll see.
Anyway, I looked at this college, wondered if it was too good to be true and dug further. Turns out they're fully accredited, and legit. Probably not the most prestigious, but I don't have the time for prestigious, I just need a degree. So, I signed up.
It's called University of the People, and it's a tuitionless college. You pay an application fee, and you pay for your assessments at the end of the classes. The complete BA will cost me $6600. The degree transfers, and should I want to, my last semester, I could go to Edinburgh or Canada to study. (I won't, but it's cool.) So, come Summer, I'll be a part time student. I'm nervous, but excited. It's kinda weird to think that in a few short months, I'll be writing papers and doing tests. I'm probably going to start with one class, just to get my feet wet. and then from there if I feel like I can take more, I will. It might take me til 60 to get my degree, but I was planning to work til I'm at least 65, maybe later. We'll see.
There's one dude online who has a serious hate boner for the college, but PBS and other outlets have covered it and acknowleged that it's a real college with real degrees. I'll be sharing classrooms with people from around the world, including a 10% refugee enrollment, and some women studying at home secretly under the Taliban's restrictions about higher education for women. Most people seem very happy about their schooling, though they agree that it's what you make of it. Online can be tough, so I'm' going to need to be at the top of my game.
Who knows, maybe I'll like it so much that I'll go for my masters. We'll see. I'd probably switch my masters to Health Administration. I don't really want to be in charge of anything clinical, I want to be in charge of people. But the nice thing is that I do have tuition reimbursement if I'm doing something that will benefit my career with Hopkins, so in the end, the only thing that I'll pay is the application fee (and of course if I fail a course, I'm going to be paying for the test I failed.).
I'm a little confused, since my materials say the semester starts in April, but my orientation is in May/June. So we'll see how that works. If classes start in April, I'll be doing some work on the cruise, but that's okay. We have a good internet package, and I get up early anyway. I'll sit with my computer on the balcony and do my reading and writing.
Today, work will be bugfuck, as people will be calling to reschedule appts, even though there's very little snow. We're opening at 8am for the sites, so that's a handful of people we're reschedule (since we start some tests at 6am.) And of course, a ton of "are you open" calls. People, we're Johns Hopkins. We don't close shy of blizzards.
Hopefully, there's some movement on the job application this week. Good lord, they're slow.
Okay, on that note, time for me to go forth and get myself ready for the day. Everyone have a wonderful Monday!
Snow-cane or Snow Armageddon 2026
Feb. 22nd, 2026 06:35 pmshadowkatCrazy Org is prepping for the snow armageddon or snow-hurricane that is set to hit us around midnight tonight. My sinuses and head can feel it coming - I've been struggling with a sick sinus headache all day long, along with vertigo - the only thing keeping it at bay are medications. (antihistimine for vertigo, decongestant (that you can take if you have high blood pressure), and migraine meds.). So far it's kind of working. I did fall asleep while watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS Passport around 2pm. ( I decided to donate to PBS - and got access to the app again, at least for the year. If you donate more than $60, you can use the PBS Passport app.)
The Mayor issued a "travel ban" effective at 9pm today (Sunday) and the Long Island Rail Road suspended service, and Crazy Org (major public transportation agency) has advised its non-essential office workers - that you can tele-work from home if you are set up for it or in the program. (I'm not in the program (union) nor am I certain I have the set up any longer - since they've changed the security protocols again - but I've already chosen to take a personal day or vacation day - since the vertigo is hovering in the background and will be an issue. I have enough left that it won't be an issue.)
( Read more... )
I've been binge-watching All Creatures Great and Small - S6, napping, and fending off a vertigo headache for most of the day. I did go to the grocery store around 1 pm (before the storm really hit - and it was just drizzling) to pick up olive oil, coconut oil, honey, Mrs Dash seasoning, toilet paper, chocolate, and recycling bags and trash bags.
Also spoke to mother. Apparently it's raining in Ohau, Hawaii, and almost spring in Montana (according to my niece) , which has received hardly any snow, the plants are springing to life, and the temperatures are in the fifties and sixties. It's also in the 60s in Hilton Head, SC. Sounds lovely. I want to be there. It's 31 F here and rapidly dropping, and snowing.
Now, have decided to try cubicle mate rec'd "Start-Up". [ETA: tried, gave up (I found the guy tied to the chair with barbed wire a bit much) and the woman wanting to do a crypto start up annoying - plus I am not an Adam Brody fan). Went back to watch Angel S5.]
The Mayor issued a "travel ban" effective at 9pm today (Sunday) and the Long Island Rail Road suspended service, and Crazy Org (major public transportation agency) has advised its non-essential office workers - that you can tele-work from home if you are set up for it or in the program. (I'm not in the program (union) nor am I certain I have the set up any longer - since they've changed the security protocols again - but I've already chosen to take a personal day or vacation day - since the vertigo is hovering in the background and will be an issue. I have enough left that it won't be an issue.)
( Read more... )
I've been binge-watching All Creatures Great and Small - S6, napping, and fending off a vertigo headache for most of the day. I did go to the grocery store around 1 pm (before the storm really hit - and it was just drizzling) to pick up olive oil, coconut oil, honey, Mrs Dash seasoning, toilet paper, chocolate, and recycling bags and trash bags.
Also spoke to mother. Apparently it's raining in Ohau, Hawaii, and almost spring in Montana (according to my niece) , which has received hardly any snow, the plants are springing to life, and the temperatures are in the fifties and sixties. It's also in the 60s in Hilton Head, SC. Sounds lovely. I want to be there. It's 31 F here and rapidly dropping, and snowing.
Now, have decided to try cubicle mate rec'd "Start-Up". [ETA: tried, gave up (I found the guy tied to the chair with barbed wire a bit much) and the woman wanting to do a crypto start up annoying - plus I am not an Adam Brody fan). Went back to watch Angel S5.]
i don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you
Feb. 22nd, 2026 07:30 pmmusesfoolI got up to watch the hockey this morning and despite Team USA pulling it off in OT, I do not accept that Bill Guerin was proved right in his choices. Eighty-five percent of the game was played in their defensive end and they only won because Connor Hellebuyck stood on his head. Maybe a little more scoring power on the team could have given them some breathing room. I am just saying. I'm happy for Hellebuyck and the Hughes brothers, and I got a little teary when they brought out the Gaudreau jersey and his kids, and I'm not gonna lie, watching Jon Cooper and Connor McDavid (along with Sam Bennett, Tom Wilson, and Brad Marchand) lose was pleasing to me on a deep, personal level, but overall, I'd still have preferred the Finns or the Swedes take home the gold.
I then baked some oatmeal for breakfast for the week, and made macaroni salad for a few days of lunch, and then for dinner, I made angel hair as planned, though when I actually read the recipe, it was not anything new to me - it was what I always do for a super quick tomato sauce, except they were adding chile crisp to it, which I guess is the thing nowadays - every recipe I read has chile crisp in it, but I'm not really a chile crisp person. I have the heat tolerance (in terms of spiciness, though I also don't like my food super hot temperature-wise either) of the whitest baby you know.
Anyway! It is a super easy but delicious meal and if you don't mind waiting a few extra minutes, you can do it all in one pot. Boil your pasta - angel hair is best for this, imo - and reserve a cup of pasta water before you drain it. Return the pot to the stove over low heat and add in a nice glug of olive oil (2 tbsp if you need a measurement), and then add a whole can or tube of tomato paste to the oil (so between 4 and 6 oz). Stir it around and season it as you like - I used garlic and onion powder, oregano and red pepper flakes and salt, but if you want to get fancy, you could probably saute a diced shallot and some minced garlic in the oil for a minute or two before adding the tomato paste - for 2-3 minutes, until it's all hot and sizzling. If you are so inclined, add chile crisp to suit your taste. Then add the pasta back, and about half the reserved water and toss it until the pasta is coated. I only used 4 oz of angel hair, so if you have more, you might need more water. Then put it in bowls and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. If you are in an even bigger rush, you can sizzle the tomato paste in a frying pan while the pasta cooks and then combine it all back in the pasta pot. The couple of minutes you save isn't worth having to wash an extra pot to me, but it might be to some people.
*
I then baked some oatmeal for breakfast for the week, and made macaroni salad for a few days of lunch, and then for dinner, I made angel hair as planned, though when I actually read the recipe, it was not anything new to me - it was what I always do for a super quick tomato sauce, except they were adding chile crisp to it, which I guess is the thing nowadays - every recipe I read has chile crisp in it, but I'm not really a chile crisp person. I have the heat tolerance (in terms of spiciness, though I also don't like my food super hot temperature-wise either) of the whitest baby you know.
Anyway! It is a super easy but delicious meal and if you don't mind waiting a few extra minutes, you can do it all in one pot. Boil your pasta - angel hair is best for this, imo - and reserve a cup of pasta water before you drain it. Return the pot to the stove over low heat and add in a nice glug of olive oil (2 tbsp if you need a measurement), and then add a whole can or tube of tomato paste to the oil (so between 4 and 6 oz). Stir it around and season it as you like - I used garlic and onion powder, oregano and red pepper flakes and salt, but if you want to get fancy, you could probably saute a diced shallot and some minced garlic in the oil for a minute or two before adding the tomato paste - for 2-3 minutes, until it's all hot and sizzling. If you are so inclined, add chile crisp to suit your taste. Then add the pasta back, and about half the reserved water and toss it until the pasta is coated. I only used 4 oz of angel hair, so if you have more, you might need more water. Then put it in bowls and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. If you are in an even bigger rush, you can sizzle the tomato paste in a frying pan while the pasta cooks and then combine it all back in the pasta pot. The couple of minutes you save isn't worth having to wash an extra pot to me, but it might be to some people.
*
Another Needlepoint Update
Feb. 22nd, 2026 06:30 pmlightbirdThe throw pillow I needlepointed in the late summer/early fall is now finished!
My Completed Masterpiece:
I also made ornaments which will be gifts for my friends. Pics under the cut.
( more masterpieces! )
My Completed Masterpiece:
I also made ornaments which will be gifts for my friends. Pics under the cut.
( more masterpieces! )
Stranger Things: Roll To Charm Person, by harriet_vane
Feb. 22nd, 2026 09:51 amrunpunkrun posting in fancakeFandom: Stranger Things
Pairings/Characters: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Rating: Explicit
Length: 59,047 words
Content Notes: Bullying and homophobia.
Creator Link:![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
harriet_vane
Theme: Inept in Love, Pretend Couple, Friends to Lovers, Canon LGBTQ+ Characters
Summary: Will needs a date to his mom's wedding. Mike volunteers.
"I have an idea," says Mike.
Ice cubes form in Will's stomach. "How dangerous is it? Like, should I call Dustin to talk you down, or should I call Nancy to be ready to drive us to the hospital?"
"No," says Mike, "you can't tell anyone or it won't work."
"Or what won't work?" Will asks. It's like picking up a rock you know a spider will be under.
Mike gets up and closes Will's door. Hopper doesn't make them keep it open but sometimes Will does anyway, because every now and then lying around alone with Mike on his bed just makes his chest ache too much. If the door is open he can tell himself You can't do anything right now, someone will see.
Mike leans back against the door. His eyes are lit up with that special maniacal gleam that the Wheelers get right before they do something insane, like when Nancy says, "Then we have to go kill Vecna ourselves," or whatever. "Take me to the wedding," says Mike.
"Yeah," says Will slowly, "you'll be at the wedding. Obviously."
"As your date."
Reccer's Notes: They've fixed Hawkins' Upside Down problem (though this predates the final season), and it's the kids' senior year, and Will is worried his mom is worried about him, so Mike hatches a plan to be Will's (fake) date to Joyce and Hopper's wedding because of course he does. That means we've got Will pretending to pretend he's into Mike and Mike playing gay chicken against himself and...losing? winning? both?? Neither of them is doing a great job (or any job) communicating, but their fake relationship thrives and does what all the best fake relationships do, becomes real. A sweet friends-to-lovers romance with just the right amount of agonizing feelings.
Fanwork Link: Roll To Charm Person
Pairings/Characters: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Rating: Explicit
Length: 59,047 words
Content Notes: Bullying and homophobia.
Creator Link:
Theme: Inept in Love, Pretend Couple, Friends to Lovers, Canon LGBTQ+ Characters
Summary: Will needs a date to his mom's wedding. Mike volunteers.
"I have an idea," says Mike.
Ice cubes form in Will's stomach. "How dangerous is it? Like, should I call Dustin to talk you down, or should I call Nancy to be ready to drive us to the hospital?"
"No," says Mike, "you can't tell anyone or it won't work."
"Or what won't work?" Will asks. It's like picking up a rock you know a spider will be under.
Mike gets up and closes Will's door. Hopper doesn't make them keep it open but sometimes Will does anyway, because every now and then lying around alone with Mike on his bed just makes his chest ache too much. If the door is open he can tell himself You can't do anything right now, someone will see.
Mike leans back against the door. His eyes are lit up with that special maniacal gleam that the Wheelers get right before they do something insane, like when Nancy says, "Then we have to go kill Vecna ourselves," or whatever. "Take me to the wedding," says Mike.
"Yeah," says Will slowly, "you'll be at the wedding. Obviously."
"As your date."
Reccer's Notes: They've fixed Hawkins' Upside Down problem (though this predates the final season), and it's the kids' senior year, and Will is worried his mom is worried about him, so Mike hatches a plan to be Will's (fake) date to Joyce and Hopper's wedding because of course he does. That means we've got Will pretending to pretend he's into Mike and Mike playing gay chicken against himself and...losing? winning? both?? Neither of them is doing a great job (or any job) communicating, but their fake relationship thrives and does what all the best fake relationships do, becomes real. A sweet friends-to-lovers romance with just the right amount of agonizing feelings.
Fanwork Link: Roll To Charm Person
(no subject)
Feb. 22nd, 2026 05:07 pmravenThere's a feeling, I hope, a unidentifiable but deeply uncomfortable burn, felt by white women, who don't know, but should know, how many private brown group chats are typing.
And as I don't want to take on a cringe middle-class racist white woman (at this point there's about five of them that I have at various times decided not to take on, all terribly right-on, right-thinking, probably-vegan feminist pro-Palestine queer white women), that is all I have to say about that.
And as I don't want to take on a cringe middle-class racist white woman (at this point there's about five of them that I have at various times decided not to take on, all terribly right-on, right-thinking, probably-vegan feminist pro-Palestine queer white women), that is all I have to say about that.
Photo cross-post
Feb. 22nd, 2026 09:41 amandrewducker
Spent the afternoon at Hugh and Meredith's, where Hugh showed Sophia
how his 3d printer works (and how he makes 3d dungeons out of foam).
Very cool stuff, and they both enjoyed their souvenirs.
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
Called a problem child, 'cause I got too wild But now that's how I'm gettin' paid,
Feb. 22nd, 2026 06:43 ambeansideIt's Sunday! I have a game at noon, and then I'll settle down for Snowpocalypse 2, Electric Boogaloo.
Saturday was good. I slept late, had a good game where my players rollplayed a lot, which is always awesome. I'm currently torturing the paladin, played by Jess with a ton of backstory. This group is very much a "just fuck me up," set of players when it comes to trauma, which is a lot of fun for me. I've got many more reveals to come that I'm looking forward to in this arc. One was twisty enough that I actually askedpoisontaster if it was okay to do to her character, though. (She also was like "Do it!"
Yoda did not do well with the pet sitter. He barked non stop, though he would take treats from her. We're going to try twice more to see if he'll get used to her, and if not, he's going to the doggy boarding, where he'll be off his turf. I don't like that idea, but if we have to, we'll give it a go.
We also discovered that the Crab was bad. It smelled horrible, and we did not eat it. I put in a claim with Instacart/Costco, but now they're asking for a picture. Jess already put them in the dumpster so that's not happening, so we'll see how they reply. In the meantime, I'm going to put in another order for some from Sitka Seafood, since we've gotten twice from them, and they were awesome. So maybe some next weekend.
With crab off the table for dinner, we ordered from Wonder by Jose Andres. It was a mixed bag. The entree's were good, but the sides were not to our liking.
I've been craving sushi, but I saw Jose Andres, and got excited. I was unsatisfied, and still want sushi. I may order some for game, since I don't think we're getting out afterwards. Last I looked the snow is supposed to start around 2, and game won't be done til 3.
Weather.com says 2-4", but they just issued a winter storm warning that says 4-10" with totals locally up to 14". As usual, I'll believe it when the snow is on the ground. It's been a while since we had big snows, so I can't even bitch...much.
With the snow, I'm definitely cooking tonight. I'm going to look at the freezer and see what I want to make. I'm leaning towards the ribs with a dry rub.
My mouth continues to be slightly puffy. It's usually worse in the morning, I guess because when I lay down the bloodflow can pool in the head? I don't know. I just know it's better than it was yesterday, so I'm happy.
Now that we've started dealing with the practicalities, with Yoda, I'm getting more excited about Alaska. It's really happening and that is super cool. We're down to 74 days. In another two weeks, it'll be two months away! I'm both excited and nervous, but mostly excited.
But first, that's 53 work days to get through. Work will probably continue to be busy, and at some point, presumably, they'll move me into the new position. This week, we have our quarterly staff meeting. It's two hours long and it's on camera, so fun fun. That's on Tuesday so that's a bit of OT. Then I work next Saturday, so the check will look good in two weeks. Actually, I'll have two Saturdays, so that'll be a doubly nice check.
Okay, time for me to go forth and consider what I want to do today before game. Everyone have a stupendous Sunday!
Saturday was good. I slept late, had a good game where my players rollplayed a lot, which is always awesome. I'm currently torturing the paladin, played by Jess with a ton of backstory. This group is very much a "just fuck me up," set of players when it comes to trauma, which is a lot of fun for me. I've got many more reveals to come that I'm looking forward to in this arc. One was twisty enough that I actually asked
poisontaster if it was okay to do to her character, though. (She also was like "Do it!" Yoda did not do well with the pet sitter. He barked non stop, though he would take treats from her. We're going to try twice more to see if he'll get used to her, and if not, he's going to the doggy boarding, where he'll be off his turf. I don't like that idea, but if we have to, we'll give it a go.
We also discovered that the Crab was bad. It smelled horrible, and we did not eat it. I put in a claim with Instacart/Costco, but now they're asking for a picture. Jess already put them in the dumpster so that's not happening, so we'll see how they reply. In the meantime, I'm going to put in another order for some from Sitka Seafood, since we've gotten twice from them, and they were awesome. So maybe some next weekend.
With crab off the table for dinner, we ordered from Wonder by Jose Andres. It was a mixed bag. The entree's were good, but the sides were not to our liking.
I've been craving sushi, but I saw Jose Andres, and got excited. I was unsatisfied, and still want sushi. I may order some for game, since I don't think we're getting out afterwards. Last I looked the snow is supposed to start around 2, and game won't be done til 3.
Weather.com says 2-4", but they just issued a winter storm warning that says 4-10" with totals locally up to 14". As usual, I'll believe it when the snow is on the ground. It's been a while since we had big snows, so I can't even bitch...much.
With the snow, I'm definitely cooking tonight. I'm going to look at the freezer and see what I want to make. I'm leaning towards the ribs with a dry rub.
My mouth continues to be slightly puffy. It's usually worse in the morning, I guess because when I lay down the bloodflow can pool in the head? I don't know. I just know it's better than it was yesterday, so I'm happy.
Now that we've started dealing with the practicalities, with Yoda, I'm getting more excited about Alaska. It's really happening and that is super cool. We're down to 74 days. In another two weeks, it'll be two months away! I'm both excited and nervous, but mostly excited.
But first, that's 53 work days to get through. Work will probably continue to be busy, and at some point, presumably, they'll move me into the new position. This week, we have our quarterly staff meeting. It's two hours long and it's on camera, so fun fun. That's on Tuesday so that's a bit of OT. Then I work next Saturday, so the check will look good in two weeks. Actually, I'll have two Saturdays, so that'll be a doubly nice check.
Okay, time for me to go forth and consider what I want to do today before game. Everyone have a stupendous Sunday!
