hello! i'm back in the states! we're visiting family for a bit before i move back to university. i'm not used to living with this many people...
we had to buy a new charger for it, but i got my old 3ds to boot! my mom got this modded for me when she first bought it—it's running luma3ds v9.something. so that's good that i don't have to do it myself from scratch! i'm not sure how to update it or configure it to my liking, though... i know i'll have to get the sd card (hopefully it's the right size for my mac's card reader) but i'm not sure how? i think i have to do some screwdrivering. my 3ds has a skin on it, but i'm pretty sure it's on a case, so hopefully i won't have to mess with it to access the card. i'll have to do more research.
in the game cartridge slot, there's this cartridge that says "R4 SDHC". i still don't fully understand what it does, but i'm pretty sure it's for emulating 2ds games? there was this bomberman app that i remember i used to play ds games on my 3ds. when i took the cartridge out, it disappeared, so that's certainly what it's for.
i thought you could just play 2ds games on the 3ds anyway?? maybe i'm mistaken
i remember being really frustrated that the bomberman app wouldn't work if i set the correct date on the 3ds, and i know now that that's because of the time bomb. i know it's not a huge deal, but i'd really prefer if it was set to the correct date... i know there's a way to disable the time bomb, but i don't know if i'd prefer just setting up my own emulator over that. i don't know much about emulating stuff on the 3ds, so i'll have to see if it's easy enough or if working with the R4 would be best.
i'm excited about this... i (hopefully) have the technical skills now to mod my console to my own liking x)
"Many companies are surely trying to build their own; after all, we are reliably informed that AI is going to take over the world and the companies that come out on top of that race will be worth untold amounts of money. [...] Large-scale criminal organizations (to the extent that they are distinct from governments) probably also want to have their own models. These tools are seen as weapons, and there is an arms race underway. The Internet as a whole is caught in the crossfire."
Big news hit the MCR fandom last night! At the San Antonio show, Gerard said, “ we’ve always wanted to make another record [...] you guys kept us alive so long, you guys deserve another record [...] "
POSSIBLY A NEW ALBUM?!?!?!!
Yes, the calmer people in the fandom have pointed out that “wanted to” isn’t the same as “will”, and the statement was part of a longer speech about grief and stagnation, as one of his best friends & creative collaborators had passed away last summer. But this is more hope for new music than the fans have had for a long time, so of course we’re all freaking out.
—-
Left the house yesterday! We went to the farmers market, I checked out a herbalist shop that I kept meaning to go to, and I went to the local Discovery Shop thrift store. I found a fist-sized labradorite sphere that came with a metal stand for $21. Except when I got to the counter, I found out that I had misread the tag and it was actually … $12. And THIS is why I prefer small independent charity shops
Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions. President Donald Trump held his long-awaited midterm convention in Dallas this week, in which the immensely unpopular Republican standard bearer did nothing to help his party’s fortunes in November.
Employees at LanguageLine Solutions report heavier workloads, erratic schedules and burnout since the $1.1 billion company shifted to AI-powered workforce software. By Gabriel Thompson for Capital & Main When Sara Ramirez started as an interpreter for Monterey, California-based LanguageLine Solutions, in October 2020, she saw it as “a regular company.” She worked part-time as a…
Title: Assistance Fandom: Babylon 5 Author: badly_knitted Characters: G’Kar. Rating: PG Spoilers/Setting: Point of No Return. Summary: G’kar has an idea about how to help Sheridan and his people. Written For: Challenge 525: Amnesty 87 at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 342: Protection. Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski. A/N: Double drabble.
Today was supposed to be my autumn half marathon, but because I totally gave up on training sometime in May or June and didn't really pick it up again, I decided I'd better give up on it. So I did do what I've often done on the day before a race, and volunteered at parkrun. It certainly felt autumnal already, a definite chill in the air with the wind and cloud cover. Afterwards, I headed out to Kew Gardens. Some time ago, I realised I could get there with only one change of trains, rather than two or more, if I travelled to Kew Bridge rather than Kew Gardens, so that's what I did. I hadn't realised they had Henry Moore sculptures out there until I was booking a ticket, but it was a nice surprise and helped to give some direction for my wanderings. Where the morning had been a bit cooler than I'd want, out there when the sun was out felt rather too warm. Less so in cloudier and breezier moments though.
Mixed feelings about the sculpture: gorgeous pieces in beautiful surroundings, but the way many of them were placed in the middle of an open area, it felt there was less of a dialogue with what was around them. But that's a small complaint.
Title: Observant Fandom: FAKE Author: badly_knitted Characters: Dee, Ryo. Rating: PG Written For: Challenge 518: Odd at drabble_zone. Setting: After the manga. Summary: It could happen to anyone… Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh. A/N: Double drabble.
Title: Trickster Author: badly_knitted Characters: Adam, Tosh, Owen, Jack, Ianto. Rating: PG Written For: Challenge 934: Coercion at torchwood100. Spoilers: Adam. Summary: Adam has the Torchwood team right where he wants them. Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. A/N: Double drabble.
1) I cancelled HBO Max because there's too much stuff I'm watching and I'm not keeping up with anything on there except Lanterns. Would like to continue with it, as it's leading in all sorts of interesting directions, but I don't want to keep subscribing for another few months just to see its run in real time. I'll have to catch up on all my Max viewing next year.
2) Speaking of other subscriptions I haven't been watching enough, our return to Paramount+ now that Daily Show is back led me to see a promo for Supergirl. I can see why this movie didn't do well. ( Read more... )
3) Speaking also of TV, this exploration of reality shows' impact on TV contained some very interesting bits (even if it's a TV format I very rarely see):
"Survivor 50 would go on to be nominated for Outstanding Reality Competition Program at the 78th annual Primetime Emmy Awards. So did The Traitors, Dancing With the Stars, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Top Chef. The Traitors is the newcomer of the bunch, but the format has already produced approximately 89 seasons across 40 global territories. (It depends what you count.) Ironically, it has become rare for a scripted show to make it beyond three seasons."
4) I was stuck in the car waiting the other day and happened to catch a RadioLab broadcast about population growth and what has become population decline. ( Read more... )
Is there an interesting story behind your username? Not really? "Coco" is derived from the nickname "Coconut," "Smiley" was my mom's childhood nickname, and "Boo" was my childhood nickname from my parents. It's just a username of sentimental value, I guess.
Location and language(s): From Idaho, USA. I speak English.
Age range (e.g 20s, 30s, etc.): I'm in my 30s, my partner is in his 40s... I'm open to adding anyone over 18.
Hot button/deal breaker issues that will likely lead to unfriending: Just don't be a jerk, overall. Extreme views that could be described as "harmful" from either left or right will be met on a case-by-case basis.
Do you have an "About Me" post new friends can read to get a sense of who you are, the people you talk about regularly, etc.? I have a general "About Me" on my "Friends Only" post in my journal.
Is your profile up-to-date or at all useful? Uhm. It says "Under Construction" lol. It does have my name, birthday, location, and interests...?
List a few things you think it's important new friends know about you right away: I live with chronic pain and chronic illness and mental illness. I currently live on disability and am unable to work, though I do not wish this to be my final destination in life. I'm inconsistent, contradictory, and I wear my heart on my sleeve.
You mostly write about: It's more like what don't I write about. I write about whatever comes to mind. Lately, I've been writing a lot about books and what I've been reading.
You never or very rarely write about: Controversial topics, politics, etc.
Is your journal mostly public, locked, or a mix of public and locked? I try to make it a mix of public and locked. If there's a lot of personal details, the post is usually friends only.
Do you use filters for certain types of posts (e.g. fandom-related posts, or posts about sex, or mental health issues, etc.)? Filters? No, no. Tags, yes.
Your posting frequency (e.g. daily, every few days, weekly, etc.): My posting frequency can be described as inconsistent. I can post daily, several times a day, weekly... or I can go a few months without posting.
Does your journal frequently include any of the following: memes, linkspams, gifs, photos, videos, etc? I like memes and post them occasionally, sometimes I post links to thinks I find interesting (such as when I am shopping online), rarely post gifts, sometimes post photos, will occasionally embed a YouTube video.
What do you enjoy most about journaling? Expressing myself and interacting with other people and getting to know them.
How often do you read your friends list (e.g. daily, every other day, once a week, etc.)? It depends. If I'm posting, I'm also reading my friends list for sure, but sometimes I also log in just to catch up.
You really enjoy reading about: When it comes to journals, I'm not picky. It's not my journal, I'm just along for the ride. That being said, I love reading about people's lives, whether it's topic-specific or just day to day stuff.
You have very little interest in reading about: Controversial topics, politics, etc.
Your thoughts on journals that regularly include any of the following: memes, linkspams, gifs, photos, videos, etc? I love those things, generally. Especially memes.
When it comes to comments on your posts, what matters more -- quality or quantity? Quality. I don't expect comments, so don't sit and force discussion if you don't have anything to say. That being said, don't hold back, either.
Do you unfriend people who don't comment much, even if you know they are reading you regularly? I don't usually go through and unfriend people anymore unless given a reason.
What is your approach when it comes to commenting on other journals? I'll comment if I have something relevant to say.
When you friend someone, but things don't really click, do you unfriend them without warning, or do you send them a note first? How do you prefer to be unfriended in similar circumstances? I don't usually unfriend people on here unless they do something I can't forgive... but it's usually done quietly and I'm open to whatever they are comfortable with in similar circumstances.
AND LASTLY
Friending memes often ask people to list their favourite TV shows, movies, books, etc., but more often than not, those aren't things people actually write about in their journal. Do you have any favourite TV shows, movies, books, etc., that you DO often write about -- not necessarily in a fandom sort of way, just in general? I'll mention my favorite things if they come up, or give titles of things I am watching, reading, playing, etc. But my journal is not a fandom journal or a subject-specific blog... it's just a journal. I mention video games and books quite a bit, sometimes TV shows and movies.
Any final thoughts you'd like to share with potential new friends? Overall, I'm a pretty laid back person. I'm difficult to offend, I make fun of everything and everyone (no one is immune), and I'm also a work in progress.
First it was Greenland, then it was Canada and—of course—the Gulf of Mexico. Now President Donald Trump has tried to rename Lake Ontario amid his trade war against our neighbors to the North. Not only is Trump trying to rename the world map in his image, but he’s also targeting his own country, threatening to rename New Mexico “New America. Is anyone else tired? Let’s take a break and…
Feeling a bit anxious. Need to get ready for werk, but wanted to try to hash out what I want to do after.
Need to hit the thrift store again for a piece to help with the dragon costume idea. Even if it never happens. It's the base of the headpiece, that I am imagining connects all the way down the back and blends into the (segmented?) tail. I think a big bouncy swaying tail would be super fun.
I think cute soft little spikies, feathery, maybe, might also be fun. I have some stuff floating around that should help with that.
I might try again to meet up with my brother. I think I'll wrap his gift and fill out his card during my lunch break? See if he wants to meet up at Starbucks later or I can just swing by and drop off I guess.
I think I will try to reschedule with Margaret for later. Just too much I want to do to prep for the festival next weekend.
Was going to try to see Karissa today, we'll see if that works out, it'd be so nice to see her.
But, can't draw things out too long if I want to go to Coffin tonight, they're doing a special event and Derek will be there and I miss him. But, still not entirely out of the woods with the days-long migraine so, will feel it out, tonight. I could just make a brief appearance maybe, we'll see.
Why do I want a paint by numbers kit so bad? Am I crazy? It seems like a fun and relaxing project but is it just a waste of time? The only Halloween art ones I want are definitely ai generated, feh. But they have these cute little "cozy ghost" mini canvases that I could just see in the house and they would make me smile. I dunno. On the fence. Definitely taking on enough project time with these dragon costume and new fairy wing ideas.
I woke up with Avalanche smooshed up next to my head this morning. That rarely happens. It's getting colder, but, I think she was sensing my anxiety with Josh being gone, too.
Avi is frisky this morning, I always take this as a good sign, when she has zoomies and such - all is well.
Every so often, I post an analysis of how I chose my recent fic titles! Titling is something I've always struggled with, and the vast majority of these were chosen in an 'oh, no, I've got to call it something' panic right before posting.
In reverse chronological order, my fic titles since the last roundup:
I originally started doing these analyses in the hope that it would make me better at coming up with titles. I'm not sure it's really helped, but it's interesting to think about, at least!
On many weekends I spend waaay too much time asleep. Saturday was quite the opposite. I slept really solidly on Friday night, got up early, and didn't go to sleep until the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Part of this was just energy and part of it was weird anxiety. I was kind of mopey and low level distressed a lot of the day on Saturday. Toward the end of the day, I got to speak with best friend a bit about some of the stuff I was talking about in my last post. Specifically, we spoke about how I sometimes get really anxious that even my closest friends don't really care about or respect what I have to say and that I'm not sure whether or not they should.
She handled it a lot more kindly than the mean parts of my self image expected.
I felt better after a few tears and reassurances. I still felt pretty wiped.
My dad is really worried about me not going to church much because I don't have much of a life outside work. I thought about going, but it's just SUCH a journey and time commitment that I did not feel like it was a good idea. Watched the livestream. Glad I did.
Took a nap in the afternoon, and I feel pretty good at the moment, but I gotta go back to bed in order to get up for work, and I just don't want it to be Monday ahead of a 6 day work week yet again.
Anyone can join, with a 50-word creative fiction vignette in the comments. Your vignette does not have to include the prompt term. Any (G or PG) definition of the word can be used.
Wisconsin’s 51st state Assembly District is a sprawling rural landscape west of Madison, containing towns you likely have never heard of, such as Mount Horeb, the largest in the district, with a population of 7,754. It is a bit of a political anomaly. In 2024, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris narrowly won the district despite its rural character. However, it has been represented…
This is an examination of the phenomenon of a person being convicted of a crime that didn’t happen within the American criminal justice system. Some examples in the book include being charged with arson over a naturally-occurring fire, with drug possession when there were no drugs present, and, bizarrely, with the murder of a child who never existed.
Often, this happens because an incident is initially mislabeled a crime, and everyone just rolls with that. And if there’s a crime, there must be a perpetrator.
If you’ve already studied the criminal justice system, or the legal system more broadly, there’s not much here that’s going to shock. Police with confirmation biases, overworked public defenders, prosecutors desperate to look “tough on crime,” defendants ready to plead guilty to something they didn’t do just to get out of jail pending trial, and judges who are being forced to wear too many hats all contribute to this tragic situation. I do think Henry lays it all out in neat order though, so that even if you knew about these things before, it might be clarifying to see how she puts it together.
I do think it’s something everyone should have at least passing awareness of. Popular media has hammered home that when something feels off, it is off. Humans put enormous stock in our “hunches” and intuition, which, when it comes to other people, are very often wrong. And if you are someone in a position of power—a prosecutor, say—that wrong hunch you’re committed to can cause real harm.
Henry digs into the ways in which even people trained to detect lies rarely bat above a 60% average in correctly guessing when someone is lying. This allows false accusers to be taken seriously while genuine protestations of innocence are ignored—things that could be resolved elsewhere, but once the people working the case become convinced they know the story, it’s very hard to shake them.
She also takes a swing at forensic science, which is tainted by unrealistic claims of accuracy, practitioners who simply make things up, and the failure of judges and juries to understand the real limitations or pitfalls of the various branches (for instance, “bite mark analysis” has been proven to be almost total bunk, but is frequently still admitted in courts; and juries rarely hear about the fallibility of drug-sniffing dogs).
The book can be slightly repetitive, although I did actually appreciate Henry reminding me who a given defendant we’d talked about earlier was, since there are so many of them we hear about in the book. It’s obviously well-researched and Henry, a former public defender, is passionate about the topic and educating the public. Most people are aware that defendants are sometimes convicted of things they didn’t do, but I think there is much less awareness that people can and do plead guilty to things that never even happened, due to the pressures of the system. A guilty plea is perhaps the most damning piece of evidence you can submit to a jury—but it’s not nearly as definitive as we’d like to think.
Blight by Rachel A. Rosen was a masterpiece! It's the sequel to Cascade, a post-apocalyptic story where climate-change-induced magic has destroyed most of Canada.
The recap at the beginning of this tome was welcome as it's a complex story skilfully mixing antifa resistance, science and magic.
The focus is not on romance, but there's excellent m/m (old-man yaoi! <3), as well as a sapphic in an m/f relationship. Minor characters include a non-binary refugee.
Tomorrow is the halfway point of no_true_pair and the day after that is the start of communal_creators. I have written three sentences for the first and done nothing for the second, so naturally yesterday I spent all afternoon planning a dollhouse Halloween advent calendar. Why? I don't know, why not I guess.
I also have a huge stack of simplified history books and classics to read (should I so choose) so I am resolute in not bringing in any plants this winter. This will be the season of miniatures and reading, not endless plant care. Also writing and holidays? Yes, add them to the list.
Let's see if having the pressure of a second event motivates me to work on the first. I will report back at the end of the day.
That reminds me, I was going to report on my study metrics. But the dog is in my lap and I'm not sure I can reach my notebook from here. I genuinely don't know how I'm doing without it, because although my "tracker" is online, it's actually just a spreadsheet that totals everything; day-to-day tracking is done with colored pens in a kitten day planner.
...Okay, I got it. I scooched to the side with the dog still in my lap and managed to reach far enough to knock the day planner (and pens but oh well) down on the correct side of the couch arm for me to reach. Tallies forthcoming.
(Oh wow, I was doing well there at the beginning of the week. The second half of the week was a lot of home maintenance and being exhausted. And apparently dollhouse Halloween advent calendar planning, which is a series of words that doesn't make much sense in that any order, but it all started with Marci mentioning that this year's Woobles Advent Calendar is available, then I opened the shoebox where I'd stored all my childhood animal figurines, and finally it was Saturday night and I was hunting down a specific sold-out craft-store-brand one-inch ghost holding a black cat on ebay.
Apparently they call this hyperfixation, and look, here is one of the most useful graphics I have ever seen about it, via the Choosing Therapy article by Matthew Edelstein on the same. I like that one of the suggestions for how to manage it is effectively, "find more things to hyperfixate on.")
Last Tuesday I had a dream about a house that reminded me somewhat of the
house in Norwalk, Connecticut where I lived with my parents. And that
suggested a topic for memoir posts, to which I will add the tag "homes". I'll save the Norwalk house for later;
maybe the next post if I decide to continue chronologically. For now, I
will go chronologically, and talk about the first two homes that
I remember.
The first home I lived in was an apartment in Shanks Village, an
old army barracks converted to student housing for veterans with
families attending colleges and universities in the New York City area.
Dad was at Columbia getting his PhD in Chemistry, in the same class as
Isaac Asimov (who I never had the opportunity to meet).
I only have a couple of memories from those days. Playing with
tinker-toys with John R, the son of some family friends. Something about
a sewing machine. When I was three Dad got a job at Perkin-Elmer and we
moved to a flat in an old house in Ridgfield,
Ct. that was owned by a couple of Scottish (IIRC) women who I knew as
"Aunt Jean" and "Aunt Mag". They lived downstairs and we lived upstairs.
I only have one memory from that house -- falling down the stairs and
bumping my head. One of the aunts gave me a bowl of tomato soup; I guess
it was supposed to be comfort food. And maybe it was, but from that day
to this I've hated cream of tomato soup, along with tomatoes in most other
forms. I learned to like raw tomatoes only fairly recently, when Colleen
introduced me to caprese salad.
It must have been shortly after that incident that we moved to the house
in Norwalk where I lived until I went off to college.
[Current reading:] Sunday was the day that was looked to for the general gratification of public curiosity, and the church had not been so well attended for months as it was on that particular day. It was obvious to the whole neighbourhood that the Eskdales wished to avoid observation by coming early to church, for they arrived before the end of the first lesson—a most unusual degree of punctuality; but this sign of timidity did not prevent the whole congregation from fixing their eyes intently on the tall young man who followed Lord Eskdale into church, and who took a seat opposite to Lady Helen in the pew. Never was the congregation so alert in standing up at the proper opportunities. Old Mr. Marlow, a martyr to rheumatic gout, and Mrs. Greenland, who had, for two years, made her stiff knee an excuse for sitting down during the whole of the service, were both on their legs before the psalm was given out. The clerk, who had a passion for his own singing, saw his advantages, and gave out five verses of a hymn, with repetition of the two last lines of each verse. Seven verses and a half! but nobody thought it a note too long. Moreover, Lady Helen dropped her prayer-book, and the tall young man picked it up for her. Such an incident! [...] It was a most satisfactory Sunday; and as most of them were addicted to the immoral practice of Sunday letter-writing, the observations of the morning were reduced to writing in the evening, and sent off to various parts of England on Monday morning.
This is my last full day in Oslo, and I'm keeping it quiet and simple. No long walks (trudges) avoiding races and national observances!
Instead, I went across the Akerselva (The Aker River) to the neighborhood called Grünerløkka. This is quite nearby - one of the bridges is maybe thirty feet away from the hotel.
NB: What looks surprising in 'Grünerløkka'? The umlaut! There are no umlauts in Norwegian. However, this area was named after a family of German origin. And so it goes.
Grünerløkka is the 'trendy, hip, bohemian' part of Oslo - or at least it is for the time being! Lots of vintage shops, and a lively restaurant/cafe scene. The area was originally industrial, something like SoHo in New York City.
Today there was a street market. I don't know if this was specifically a Sunday Market (most likely) or if there was also one yesterday, but the No Entry signs were temporary, and I saw some drivers confused by them.
So, I strolled across the Ankerbrua (aka the Fairytale Bridge) which is up the river from me a bit. Then I weaved around stands and customers until I found a park and a park bench.
This story originally ran Sept. 17, 2023. Over the course of nearly 180 installments of this series, we have traveled to New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans. We’ve heard music recorded live in famed local venues, and gotten to know musicians who contributed to the history and development of Black music. Now it’s the West Coast’s turn.
WARNING: Do NOT submit nominations here. Post for coordination ONLY.
This post is where people declare what they have nominated, or ask other people to nominate for them. So if you do comment and/or add your nominations to the spreadsheet, that's great, because it helps other people decide what to nominate, but it WILL NOT result in your fandoms or characters being in the tagset. The only place to nominate is the Yuletide tagset. Use the comments on this post and the coordination Google spreadsheet to coordinate nominations with others.
For information about nominating fandoms and characters, what is eligible for nomination, and other important links and announcements, refer to yuletide_admin .
Nominations run Sunday 13th to Thursday 24th September. Nominations will be approved after that time.
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You can nominate up to 5 fandoms and up to 4 characters in each fandom.
Please copy and paste the following information to comment on this post. Every item is optional except fandom.
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During the nomination period, the spreadsheet will get re-sorted by username daily at (approx) 9PM GMT, to keep the data tidier.
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Help Wanted
If you have a few minutes and enjoy a bit of data entry, please volunteer to update the spreadsheet with information the comments in this post! If you do, add the data from the comment to the spreadsheet and reply to the original comment with Added to spreadsheet.
(credit and thanks to ashling and serenity_ribbon for prior coordination station post texts and spreadsheets!)
Time is a fickle beast. One day you’re light-heartedly taping bacon to your cat as a way to procrastinate from writing a novel, causing a viral sensation that briefly makes your site one of the most popular destinations on the entire Internet, and the next it’s twenty years later and that moment is nothing more than deep lore from an earlier age of the online world, as far away from you now as Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” was from the day you adhered a pork product to a domestic animal. What a wild, strange turn of events that all happened to be. It couldn’t be predicted. That’s what made it fun.
Twenty years on it really is difficult to explain to anyone who was not there for the moment how silly and popular “Bacon Cat” has, and how, literally for years, when anything bacon-related happened on the Internet, I would get a flood of emails sent to me, most of them beginning “I know this has probably been sent to you a million times, BUT…” It’s no joke that for a while there I was better known for taping bacon to my cat than I was for anything else I did, including writing books. That moment is thankfully over — people do know me more for my books now, although I do also currently have a reputation for questionable burritos — but it was real, and it happened. There are worse things to be known for on the Internet.
For those of you new to this whole “bacon cat” thing, I wish to assure you that it happened only once, no animals (other than the one that provided the bacon) were harmed, and that Ghlaghghee, the cat who was catapulted to Internet fame, was entirely unfazed by it all, even when she was featured in the New York Times, and the paper of record sent a photographer over for a shoot. She lived a long life, happily oblivious to her fame. No worrying about her glory days, just lots of naps. Honestly, a lesson for us all when we achieve our fifteen minutes of fame.
Also, if you were here for the Bacon Cat nonsense back in the day, I’m sorry I just made you feel old. Relatedly, now is a fine time to schedule your colonoscopy if you have not already done so.
Speaking of things that actively denote the passage of time, today is also the 28th anniversary of Whatever, the blog you are reading right now. Whatever is definitively one of the longest-running personal blogs in the world, although one must acknowledge that the “blogosphere” is but a shadow of what it used to be in terms of size and interest… until, that is, one starts to think on all the writers (particularly journalists, a job I myself used to have) who have now posted up to Substack or Ghost or Beehiiv, or who have started an email newsletter or whatever, because mainline journalism is being private equity-ed to death and all the journalists who were laid off still want to be able to eat. Yes, the blogosphere is back, I say, in a new, and perhaps slightly more economically desperate form. Don’t necessarily expect any of the Substackers to agree with me on this, however.
I have railed before, more than once, about the importance of writers and other creative types to have their own space on the Internet, so that when their favorite social media site disappears, or falls into the hands of a nefarious cryptofascist billionaire, or has some other terrible fate befall it, they will still have a place online where people can find them, not beholden to the whims or exigencies of someone else. Whatever has seen the rise and fall of many iterations of social media, and, provided I am not hit by a bus or eaten by a bear, will likely continue to do so. Empires rise and fall, my humble word shop on the side of the virtual road persists.
And yet changes just a little over time, because, of course, now Athena is here as well, posting her own stuff and building her own audience with her own interests and thoughts. I like what Whatever is with her here. She and Whatever came into being in the same year, you know. 1998 was a good year for all sorts of reasons.
Every year I use this anniversary as a check-in for myself to see if I am still interested in writing here, and this year, as with all the years previous, the answer is yes. I think I will keep at it. I like having my own place in the world, where, even now, there is a chance to delight and amuse people, or make them think, or, at least, give them a familiar place to check in on as they wander around the online world. There will never be another Bacon Cat moment (at least, none of my current cats would tolerate being draped in cured meat), but that doesn’t mean there won’t still be surprises, or posts that pop into the wider sphere. There will be.
What will they be? I have no idea. I’ll know when it happens. That’s what makes it fun.
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stel
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