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Now what I see, is what I get
Nov. 1st, 2025 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
viridian5So life may have further blessed me for not having an uninsured dental X-Ray done for $150 in July (because Medicaid demanded more X-Rays for crowns to get approved but refused to cover the X-Rays and I said, Not today, Satan, I don't need that crown.) I told my dental office that unless I could get a guarantee that Medicaid would approve the crowns if I got the July X-Ray done, I wasn't paying to get an X-ray done. Of course they couldn't guarantee, so.
My dental office called today to say that Medicaid covers a panoramic X-Ray every three years, and I haven't had one done in three years. My dental office swears Medicaid is covering it, and I'm getting it done Monday, with them hoping this will get an affirmative on doing the crown.
See, if I did that X-ray in July (and probably still didn't get permission for the crowns because Medicaid sucks) and then found out today I could get a panoramic done now, I would be pissed. If the panoramic isn't enough to get approval on the crown, at least I didn't have to pay for the frickin' X-ray.
Hopefully the government won't continue to be shutdown for much longer and I won't lose my health coverage too.
+++
Overgrowth at the Mager site in (Lutheran) All Faiths Cemetery. So glad the ground crew took that tree out and knocked down and damaged Irving only for this to be allowed to occur. [/sarcasm] You can see Irving on the ground on the left. Shot 10/27/25.
Irving is still lying on his side on the ground seven months later, so I don't know how much more damage might have been done to him besides what's visible. They removed the broken-off pieces of his wing from the ground though. They're mowing the grass around him.
As a reminder, this is what Irving looked like in better days.
+++
I went to Stop & Shop Thursday specifically for their muffins. Fate said, Nah.
Shot 10/30/25.
The rainstorm had resulted in several massive leaks in the store. I had to walk carefully in some parts of the store because the floor was wet and slippery. The rainstorm also flooded one side of Union Turnpike that I didn't see in the dark until I was right on top of it and had to drive through.
My dental office called today to say that Medicaid covers a panoramic X-Ray every three years, and I haven't had one done in three years. My dental office swears Medicaid is covering it, and I'm getting it done Monday, with them hoping this will get an affirmative on doing the crown.
See, if I did that X-ray in July (and probably still didn't get permission for the crowns because Medicaid sucks) and then found out today I could get a panoramic done now, I would be pissed. If the panoramic isn't enough to get approval on the crown, at least I didn't have to pay for the frickin' X-ray.
Hopefully the government won't continue to be shutdown for much longer and I won't lose my health coverage too.
+++
Overgrowth at the Mager site in (Lutheran) All Faiths Cemetery. So glad the ground crew took that tree out and knocked down and damaged Irving only for this to be allowed to occur. [/sarcasm] You can see Irving on the ground on the left. Shot 10/27/25.
Irving is still lying on his side on the ground seven months later, so I don't know how much more damage might have been done to him besides what's visible. They removed the broken-off pieces of his wing from the ground though. They're mowing the grass around him.
As a reminder, this is what Irving looked like in better days.
+++
I went to Stop & Shop Thursday specifically for their muffins. Fate said, Nah.
Shot 10/30/25.
The rainstorm had resulted in several massive leaks in the store. I had to walk carefully in some parts of the store because the floor was wet and slippery. The rainstorm also flooded one side of Union Turnpike that I didn't see in the dark until I was right on top of it and had to drive through.
140 in 1400 List
Nov. 1st, 2025 11:51 amzhelanaProgress This Month
Exercise every day in 2025
Weight lift every day of 2025
Brush teeth 360 times in 2025
Shower weekly 2025
Art Every Day 2025
Write in Spanish every day of 2025
Finish my memoirs
Write weekly 2025
Work through a book of writing exercises
Read 2 pages of Spanish every day 2025
Clean 2 minutes per weekday 2025
Clean 10 minutes per week 2025
Cook 12 times 2025
Watch a video in Spanish every week 2025
Watch a video in Russian every week 2025
Read 3 science textbooks
Read 3 social science textbooks
Read 3 history textbooks
Work through 3 math textbooks
Go to temple 12 times in 2025
Exercise every day in 2025
Weight lift every day of 2025
Brush teeth 360 times in 2025
Shower weekly 2025
Art Every Day 2025
Write in Spanish every day of 2025
Finish my memoirs
Write weekly 2025
Work through a book of writing exercises
Read 2 pages of Spanish every day 2025
Clean 2 minutes per weekday 2025
Clean 10 minutes per week 2025
Cook 12 times 2025
Watch a video in Spanish every week 2025
Watch a video in Russian every week 2025
Read 3 science textbooks
Read 3 social science textbooks
Read 3 history textbooks
Work through 3 math textbooks
Go to temple 12 times in 2025
❎🎉
Oct. 30th, 2025 02:45 pmbluedreamingInstead of doing what I should be doing, I’m doing prep-prep-prep work for the fanworks alphabet meme and mentally screaming because I found my x!!!!! Digging through the vault was not in vain!!!!
(I’m also finding some truly bizarre titling choices; truly my brain in 2015 was sleep-derived and stress-wired and assuming connections and references would be clear…and they are not.)
(I’m also finding some truly bizarre titling choices; truly my brain in 2015 was sleep-derived and stress-wired and assuming connections and references would be clear…and they are not.)
Unlike in fanfiction, journal titles are fun to write and read.
Oct. 29th, 2025 08:46 pmfalknerThere's a fic title meme going around the f-list, and all I can think about is, "Uh, I literally never read titles." Perfunctory apologies to all the writers who put actual effort into titling their fic.
As for mine, if I'm not just posting them as Untitled #, I hit the random button on Wiktionary until I find a word that is relevant enough to use instead.
Fun fact: out of 16 million works on AO3, I am the only person to have ever use the word necrocracy in a title.
As for mine, if I'm not just posting them as Untitled #, I hit the random button on Wiktionary until I find a word that is relevant enough to use instead.
Fun fact: out of 16 million works on AO3, I am the only person to have ever use the word necrocracy in a title.
(no subject)
Oct. 28th, 2025 06:40 pmechanI have spent the last week reading up on in-car technologies. I thought I had been paying attention the past 15 some odd years, but apparently I managed to miss the majority of the details. So here's a somewhat opinionated summary of what I've learned.
CarPlay (iPhone) and Android Auto (Android) let you use your smartphone on the car's infotainment screen. In the stone age you'd use a RAM mount on the dash to look at your actual smartphone screen. Now that cars have cameras and massive infotainment screens built-in, I guess it seems like a waste to not use that screen for your phone.
Android Automotive is a version of Android that IS a car's infotainment software. Considering how much people want to replace the car's native infotainment software, I guess it's not surprise that some car makers go for this option. Its got the usual android app permissions model. There's even an app store; only specific apps are supported, but that support extends pretty far, and includes "I swear I'll only use this in a parking lot" games like Candy Crush.
Android Automotive has multiuser support, via profiles. There's also a guest user profile, which seems like just another profile, but settings changes made to the guest user don't seem to persist, and get reset when the car is turned off. The active user profile can be changed at (mostly?) anytime; there's some lockscreen-style security options for auth when switching profiles that I haven't tried out yet.
It seems like profiles should be able to manage a whole bunch of settings. But actually... I have no f'ing idea what they manage because all I seem to find is exceptions. Ex: my car has an audio app, that combines AM/FM radio with SiriusXM and playing from USB. Every time I get in the car it forgets what I was listening to, and one time even forgot I had turned it off. Additionally, most (but not all!) of the settings that directly affect how the car drives are not even accessible from the infotainment screen's settings menu, they're only available from the speedometer screen's settings menu, and (AFAICT...) don't care about user profiles at all. So far the only setting I'm positive the user profile manages is the choice of animated background wallpaper for the speedometer screen. (WTH to every part of that sentence.)
I fully expect to spend at least another two months figuring out how to work everything in this car.
CarPlay (iPhone) and Android Auto (Android) let you use your smartphone on the car's infotainment screen. In the stone age you'd use a RAM mount on the dash to look at your actual smartphone screen. Now that cars have cameras and massive infotainment screens built-in, I guess it seems like a waste to not use that screen for your phone.
Android Automotive is a version of Android that IS a car's infotainment software. Considering how much people want to replace the car's native infotainment software, I guess it's not surprise that some car makers go for this option. Its got the usual android app permissions model. There's even an app store; only specific apps are supported, but that support extends pretty far, and includes "I swear I'll only use this in a parking lot" games like Candy Crush.
Android Automotive has multiuser support, via profiles. There's also a guest user profile, which seems like just another profile, but settings changes made to the guest user don't seem to persist, and get reset when the car is turned off. The active user profile can be changed at (mostly?) anytime; there's some lockscreen-style security options for auth when switching profiles that I haven't tried out yet.
It seems like profiles should be able to manage a whole bunch of settings. But actually... I have no f'ing idea what they manage because all I seem to find is exceptions. Ex: my car has an audio app, that combines AM/FM radio with SiriusXM and playing from USB. Every time I get in the car it forgets what I was listening to, and one time even forgot I had turned it off. Additionally, most (but not all!) of the settings that directly affect how the car drives are not even accessible from the infotainment screen's settings menu, they're only available from the speedometer screen's settings menu, and (AFAICT...) don't care about user profiles at all. So far the only setting I'm positive the user profile manages is the choice of animated background wallpaper for the speedometer screen. (WTH to every part of that sentence.)
I fully expect to spend at least another two months figuring out how to work everything in this car.
planning for the fanworks alphabet meme/game
Oct. 28th, 2025 04:09 pmbluedreamingI’m borrowing this, slightly tweaked, from noxelementalist—thanks!
I actually can’t do this right at the moment but I want to! Also, I’m not sure about multivoice podfics: exclude if I’m not the organizer, or leave in?
Oct 30 update: …I keep thinking about this and realizing I need to create a whole list with all my fanworks because I have them on too many platforms…
noxelementalist—thanks!Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for starting a fanwork title? One fanwork per line, ‘A’ and 'The’ do not count for 'a’ and ’t’. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fanwork count.
I actually can’t do this right at the moment but I want to! Also, I’m not sure about multivoice podfics: exclude if I’m not the organizer, or leave in?
Oct 30 update: …I keep thinking about this and realizing I need to create a whole list with all my fanworks because I have them on too many platforms…
larryhammerBook meme via naraht and others: The Seven Deadly Sins of Reading —
Lust, books I want to read for their cover:
- The Moonlight Mistress, Victoria Janssen
- The Beauty’s Blade, Feng Ren Zuo Shu
- Heavenly Tyrant, Xiran Jay Zhao
Pride, challenging books I’ve finished:
- Gödel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter
- Gravitation and Cosmology, Steven Weinberg
- 古今和歌集 (in the original)
Gluttony, books I’ve read more than once:
- Persuasion, Jane Austen (and the rest of Austen, but that the most)
- The Unknown Ajax, Georgette Heyer (and several other Heyer, but that the most)
- Protector of the Small, Tamora Pierce (and Circle of Magic, but that the most)
- Always Coming Home, Ursula K. Le Guin (and several other Le Guin, but that the most)
(and many many more …)
Sloth, books on my to-read list the longest:
- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Titus Alone, Mervyn Peake
Greed, books I own multiple editions of:
(not counting multiple translations of the same work)
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
- The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
Wrath, books I despised:
- The Jade Mountain, tr. Witter Bynner
- A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, tr. William Porter
- Outlaws of the Marsh / Water Margin
Envy, books I want to live in:
- Always Coming Home, Ursula K. Le Guin
- Annals of the Former World, John McPhee
- Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Hokusai
Actually, just replace the other two with Always Coming Home a few more times.
---L.
Subject quote from I Want You, Savage Garden.
naraht and others: The Seven Deadly Sins of Reading —Lust, books I want to read for their cover:
- The Moonlight Mistress, Victoria Janssen
- The Beauty’s Blade, Feng Ren Zuo Shu
- Heavenly Tyrant, Xiran Jay Zhao
Pride, challenging books I’ve finished:
- Gödel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter
- Gravitation and Cosmology, Steven Weinberg
- 古今和歌集 (in the original)
Gluttony, books I’ve read more than once:
- Persuasion, Jane Austen (and the rest of Austen, but that the most)
- The Unknown Ajax, Georgette Heyer (and several other Heyer, but that the most)
- Protector of the Small, Tamora Pierce (and Circle of Magic, but that the most)
- Always Coming Home, Ursula K. Le Guin (and several other Le Guin, but that the most)
(and many many more …)
Sloth, books on my to-read list the longest:
- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Titus Alone, Mervyn Peake
Greed, books I own multiple editions of:
(not counting multiple translations of the same work)
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
- The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
Wrath, books I despised:
- The Jade Mountain, tr. Witter Bynner
- A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, tr. William Porter
- Outlaws of the Marsh / Water Margin
Envy, books I want to live in:
- Always Coming Home, Ursula K. Le Guin
- Annals of the Former World, John McPhee
- Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Hokusai
Actually, just replace the other two with Always Coming Home a few more times.
---L.
Subject quote from I Want You, Savage Garden.
Ongoing
Oct. 27th, 2025 10:48 pmviridian5Recently the one-year anniversary of owning my Kia Forte and the 19-year anniversary of my brain surgery passed.
During last week's pain management appointment, my doctor brought two trainees/interns in and asked me if they could sit in on our consultation. When I said yes, I didn't realize I'd have to explain some things to them about Chiari I malformation, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, my brain surgery, and other ideas/procedures floated to treat me. It didn't help that I forgot the word "vertebrae" during the surgery talk and had to tell them that some of the small pieces that jut out of my spine were shaved down to make more room for my brain. When my doctor asked if they had questions, the woman asked if any other things were suggested to treat me, at which point I told her traction made things so much worse and I absolutely refused to get my neck fused as a result. (She also thought people realized they had Chiari just in childhood, and I had to say that if it doesn't become obvious in the victim's childhood, it often does in your 30s, which it did for me.)
Then an office worker came by to say there was food in the kitchen area and the two immediately disappeared for it, mid-consultation, while I and my doctor exchanged a "looking into the camera on The Office" look.
I told him that I sometimes get numbness, pain, or a burning agony on the front of my left thigh, which he said came from the spine, like the L3 area, and suggested I do certain stretches for it. The office had me take a cognition test, due to possible side effects of some of the medications I'm on, and I scored average in most areas and above average in one. I discovered during it that I can memorize five numbers at a time but not six.
+++
The "check brake light" dashboard alert is once again randomly coming on and turning itself off in my Kia Forte. Having replaced a wire, which worked for seven months, and replaced the brake light bulb and cleaned its housing, which worked for three months, my mechanics have no other idea what to do, and I don't trust Huntington Volvo, where I bought the car, after they gave me this car with four rotting tires on it and refused to get back to me on anything. Thus, I'm living with the alert when it's there. The way it activates with a loud, distracting ~ding~ every time sucks.
+++
Since the government is still shut down, I'm not getting my November food money.
During last week's pain management appointment, my doctor brought two trainees/interns in and asked me if they could sit in on our consultation. When I said yes, I didn't realize I'd have to explain some things to them about Chiari I malformation, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, my brain surgery, and other ideas/procedures floated to treat me. It didn't help that I forgot the word "vertebrae" during the surgery talk and had to tell them that some of the small pieces that jut out of my spine were shaved down to make more room for my brain. When my doctor asked if they had questions, the woman asked if any other things were suggested to treat me, at which point I told her traction made things so much worse and I absolutely refused to get my neck fused as a result. (She also thought people realized they had Chiari just in childhood, and I had to say that if it doesn't become obvious in the victim's childhood, it often does in your 30s, which it did for me.)
Then an office worker came by to say there was food in the kitchen area and the two immediately disappeared for it, mid-consultation, while I and my doctor exchanged a "looking into the camera on The Office" look.
I told him that I sometimes get numbness, pain, or a burning agony on the front of my left thigh, which he said came from the spine, like the L3 area, and suggested I do certain stretches for it. The office had me take a cognition test, due to possible side effects of some of the medications I'm on, and I scored average in most areas and above average in one. I discovered during it that I can memorize five numbers at a time but not six.
+++
The "check brake light" dashboard alert is once again randomly coming on and turning itself off in my Kia Forte. Having replaced a wire, which worked for seven months, and replaced the brake light bulb and cleaned its housing, which worked for three months, my mechanics have no other idea what to do, and I don't trust Huntington Volvo, where I bought the car, after they gave me this car with four rotting tires on it and refused to get back to me on anything. Thus, I'm living with the alert when it's there. The way it activates with a loud, distracting ~ding~ every time sucks.
+++
Since the government is still shut down, I'm not getting my November food money.
“they say that time heals a broken heart / but time has stood still since we’ve been apart”
Oct. 27th, 2025 08:02 amlarryhammerFor Poetry Monday:
“This is the first thing,” Philip Larkin
This is the first thing
I have understood:
Time is the echo of an axe
Within a wood.
I assume he means both senses of wood.
---L.
Subject quote from I Can’t Stop Loving You, Ray Charles.
“This is the first thing,” Philip Larkin
This is the first thing
I have understood:
Time is the echo of an axe
Within a wood.
I assume he means both senses of wood.
---L.
Subject quote from I Can’t Stop Loving You, Ray Charles.
It's (Almost) the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Oct. 26th, 2025 11:21 pmviridian5
I did a night run into Manhattan to see window displays and found that I couldn't get close to Saks Fifth Avenue's windows because there was a cordon around the building as workers mounted giant "gems" on the structure, which is probably for the coming Christmas/holiday spectacle. I'm happy about this because last year, after about 15 years of building light shows and amazing things, Saks gave us nothing. Their window displays were sad and basic too. I did one pass of them, I only needed one pass. Bergdorf and Bloomingdale's I visited a few times.As a reminder for why I was so pissed at Saks last year, this is what they had on the building for the Christmas/holidays in 2023. The zodiac clock for Carousel of Dreams. It would periodically do a whole light show with music. I was so sad when they disassembled it and took it down, the pieces going to parts unknown.
Dior has its whole building shrouded, so I'm wondering if they'll be doing something big. Last Christmas, Dior did this. (This was a temporary location, so they have a different building to work with this year.)
I did the run now because soon there will only be shrouds on window displays for weeks before the grand unveilings, with grand unveilings being anywhere from the teens to the twenties of November.
I've posted 25 photos of my current run--featuring some Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Goodman, and Saks Fifth Avenue windows--on my Flickr. The Loro Piana displays at Bergdorf Goodman had a placard at the bottom of each explaining things about the House's history or their cashmere. I love the little goats on the scales in this window, Capra hircus goats representing the source of their cashmere. The thistles in one display represent the dried thistles traditionally used for teaseling their cashmere.
And use this chance to be heard
Oct. 26th, 2025 10:52 pmviridian5From musesfool, the AO3 alphabet meme:
Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.
A - About-face (Doctor Who, Fifth Doctor/Vislor Turlough, Tegan Jovanka/Nyssa)
B - Babes in Toyland (Buffy the Vampire Slayer [movie], Pike/Benny)
C - Canadian Shack #24 (The X-Files, Fox Mulder/Alex Krycek)
D - Daily Free Spin (Weiß Kreuz, Schuldig & Brad Crawford)
E - Early in the Mourning (Andromeda)
F - Fallout (My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU [anime], Hayama Hayato/Hikigaya Hachiman)
G - Games People Play (Andromeda)
H - Halber Mensch (Weiss Kreuz, The Sandman, Schuldig/Fujimiya Aya (Ran), Brad Crawford/Schuldig)
I - I Lost My Limbs But Not My Lover (Twitch City, Newbie/Curtis)
J - Journey Plus Destination: Strangers on a Train (due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski)
K - Keeping Score (The X-Files)
L - Left in the Dark (Once a Thief [TV], Victor Mansfield/Nathan Muckle)
M - Mad Love (Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, Michael Bergen (Berg)/Pete Dunville, Michael Bergen (Berg)/Irene)
N - Naming and Being (Saiyuki)
O - Oblique (The X-Files, Fox Mulder/Alex Krycek)
P - Paradox (The X-Files, Fox Mulder/Alex Krycek)
Q - Quagmire (X-Men [comicverse], Marvel [Comics])
R - Rant (Saiyuki)
S - The Safest Place (A Quiet Place: Day One, Eric & Samira "Sam")
T - Table Scraps (due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Diefenbaker & Ray Kowalski)
U - Ugly Side (Doctor Who)
V - The Very Secret Thoughts of Clark Kent (Smallville, Clark Kent/Lex Luthor)
W - Waiting (due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski)
X -
Y - You Can Bend, or You Can Break (Saiyuki, Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo)
Z - Zero Hours (Andromeda, Seamus Harper/Dylan Hunt)
25/26, out of 590 stories on AO3. I picked the very first entry for each letter and ignored the fics that start with numbers.
musesfool, the AO3 alphabet meme:Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.
A - About-face (Doctor Who, Fifth Doctor/Vislor Turlough, Tegan Jovanka/Nyssa)
B - Babes in Toyland (Buffy the Vampire Slayer [movie], Pike/Benny)
C - Canadian Shack #24 (The X-Files, Fox Mulder/Alex Krycek)
D - Daily Free Spin (Weiß Kreuz, Schuldig & Brad Crawford)
E - Early in the Mourning (Andromeda)
F - Fallout (My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU [anime], Hayama Hayato/Hikigaya Hachiman)
G - Games People Play (Andromeda)
H - Halber Mensch (Weiss Kreuz, The Sandman, Schuldig/Fujimiya Aya (Ran), Brad Crawford/Schuldig)
I - I Lost My Limbs But Not My Lover (Twitch City, Newbie/Curtis)
J - Journey Plus Destination: Strangers on a Train (due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski)
K - Keeping Score (The X-Files)
L - Left in the Dark (Once a Thief [TV], Victor Mansfield/Nathan Muckle)
M - Mad Love (Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, Michael Bergen (Berg)/Pete Dunville, Michael Bergen (Berg)/Irene)
N - Naming and Being (Saiyuki)
O - Oblique (The X-Files, Fox Mulder/Alex Krycek)
P - Paradox (The X-Files, Fox Mulder/Alex Krycek)
Q - Quagmire (X-Men [comicverse], Marvel [Comics])
R - Rant (Saiyuki)
S - The Safest Place (A Quiet Place: Day One, Eric & Samira "Sam")
T - Table Scraps (due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Diefenbaker & Ray Kowalski)
U - Ugly Side (Doctor Who)
V - The Very Secret Thoughts of Clark Kent (Smallville, Clark Kent/Lex Luthor)
W - Waiting (due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski)
X -
Y - You Can Bend, or You Can Break (Saiyuki, Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo)
Z - Zero Hours (Andromeda, Seamus Harper/Dylan Hunt)
25/26, out of 590 stories on AO3. I picked the very first entry for each letter and ignored the fics that start with numbers.
