Pluralistic: Market participation is exhausting (30 Mar 2026)

2026-Mar-30, Monday 05:27 pm
[syndicated profile] doctorow_feed

Posted by Cory Doctorow

https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/30/players-of-games/

https://pluralistic.net/?p=12587


Today's links

  • Market participation is exhausting: No one wants to be the sucker at the table.
  • Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
  • Object permanence: EMI DRM v Brazil; "The Information"; Genome patenter v copyright troll (let them fight); Green investing isn't; Trump loves Big Tech; Kleptones' "24 Hours"; Lasermonks; Ransomware hospital; News co-ops; AI "art" sucks; Swisscom wifi is $838/24h; Millennials don't exist; Why Microsoft's chatbot turned Nazi; NYC's best dumpster-dived food; RIP Diana Wynne Jones; What really happened at the student protests in Trafalgar Square; Church-owned insurer has secret pedo priest files; Names that break databases; Reality-based communities; Hugo for websites; Cop cabs; Fake pediatrician group; Bring Your Own Bigwheeel; "How To Talk About Videogames."
  • Upcoming appearances: Montreal, London, NYC, Berlin, Hay-on-Wye, London.
  • Recent appearances: Where I've been.
  • Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
  • Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
  • Colophon: All the rest.


An early 20th C painting advertising a magic show, it features a mustachioed, tuxedoed conjurer beating the Devil at poker with four aces in his hand, as a giggling demon on his shoulder whispers advice in his ear and the Devil looks chagrined. The image has been altered: the Devil now has Trump hair and orange skin. The demon perched on the magician's shoulder has the face of Adam Smith.

Market participation is exhausting (permalink)

We're a diverse species, cognitively speaking – different ways of thinking come more easily to some of us than others. I'm good at a lot of things, but I have terrible spatial sense. I can't parallel park or catch a ball, and I get lost so easily it's almost comical (it's a running joke in my family).

Luckily, I'm married to a woman with incredible spacial sense. My wife Alice can sit at one end of a basketball court and look at the scoreboard at the other end and say, "It's 1" off-center to the right and 1° off true clockwise." She'll be right. She's also a crack shot and an extremely proficient gamer (she was the first woman to play e-sports internationally, on the English Quake team).

I'm good at stuff she's not good at. I don't mind wading through personal admin and bookkeeping processes, while she finds these excruciating (and interestingly, it's reversed when it comes to work-related admin, which I find torturous and which she excels at). I love listening to audiobooks, which she can't focus on at all. She loves instrumental music, which I broadly find tedious; while I find it much easier to work while listening to music with great lyrics.

This is great. As a couple, we make up for one another's deficits and complement one another's strengths. Obviously, this is also true as a species: we all like doing different stuff in different ways, and that's good, because there is a lot of stuff to do, and it's pretty damned heterogenous. A complex, dynamic world demands a complex, dynamic response.

This is a bedrock of cybernetics, the study of systems control. The "law of requisite complexity" states, "in order to be efficaciously adaptive, the internal complexity of a system must match the external complexity it confronts":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(cybernetics)

Cyberneticians and systems designers understand that their job is partly to design a set of controls that are as complex as the system they modulate, and partly to simplify that system to make it possible to control. Think of how you can make a database search run faster by confining it to one field in records from the past year, or how you can hold down the shift key to constrain a rectangular selection tool so it draws perfect squares.

This happens cognitively, too. Pretty much anyone can track their expenses from a work trip, but the company bookkeeper needs to have a certain "head for figures" that lets them do this all day long, for everyone's expenses, so we limit the kinds of bookkeeping we ask normies to do, and reserve the heavy lifting for specialists.

As a freelancer, I hire a bunch of people who have cognitive strengths that I lack. My accountant isn't just a person who knows more about tax law than I do – he's also someone who can manage the reconciliation of all my bookkeeping spreadsheets better than I ever could, and without the psychic trauma I experience when I try to do this on my own.

Likewise, my publisher employs copyeditors and proofreaders who find the typos that my brain just doesn't see, and when they send me back my marked-up manuscripts for review, I ask my mom to give them a pass, because she finds the typos they miss.

Sitting between me and my publishers are my agents (I have several of these, one for English-language literary deals, another for foreign rights, another for media, and yet another for speaking engagements). I love these folks, partly because the better they are at their jobs, the easier it is for me to pay my mortgage, but especially because they really enjoy doing things I hate doing: a) asking for money, and; b) haggling.

For me, haggling is (at best) embarrassing. At worst, it's humiliating. It's always exhausting. But for my agents, it's invigorating. Many's the time I've gotten on a video call with my agents after they've concluded a successful deal and they're glowing. Call it what you will: cognitive diversity, emotional diversity, neurodiversity…my agents and I have it, and it's good for all of us.

And here's the thing that makes these world-class hagglers great: they can switch it off. They're competitive as hell, they love to bargain hard, but they understand that they're playing an iterated game, and if they crush the publishers' representatives they're up against, then they'll ruin my good name.

More: when the bargaining's done and we're having a nice chat about everyday things, or getting together for dinner, they're not on. They're just normal, not wrestling over every detail. Bargaining is what they do, it's not who they are.

That doesn't just make them bearable as human beings, it also makes them better at their jobs. There's an old pal with whom I've done some creative work, and at one point I needed to pay them for their part in a project. They asked me to route the payment through their manager, and this manager assumed I was just another production hiring my buddy, and let loose with his full power at me over this payment, haggling for paperwork that would make Creative Commons releases impossible, as well as other (normal but not appropriate in this case) conditions. I emailed my pal, who emailed their manager to stand down and treat this as a friendly negotiation, whereupon Mr Hyde became Dr Jekyll and we wrapped things up in about ten minutes.

These haggler types do very well in our society, which is organized around the idea of efficient markets, where everyone is always bargaining to the last breath in order to "maximize their utility."

This ideology isn't just an observation ("society is a market"), it's also a demand ("society should be a market"). People who find aggressive haggling invigorating have taken over the operations of our civilization, and they are determined to convert everything to a marketplace, from waiting on hold for the IRS to looking for a parking place:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/07/markets-in-everything/#no-th-enq

The people running this game are so invigorated by haggling that they can't not haggle. They make putting a price on everything into a virtue. They want to be able to sell their kidneys. More importantly, they want to buy your kidneys.

In Sarah Wynn-Williams's Careless People, there's a memorable incident in which Sheryl Sandberg is shocked to the roots of her hair when she is told that she can't go to Mexico and buy a kidney if her child gets sick. Her child isn't even sick! She's just offended that this hypothetical situation wouldn't be resolved by bargaining:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/23/zuckerstreisand/#zdgaf

For these people, cheating is just bargaining by another means. They embrace bizarre concepts like "revealed preferences," the idea that if you say you're dissatisfied with a bargain, but you accept it anyway, you have a "revealed preference" for the deal. In other words, if someone sells their kidney to Sheryl Sandberg in order to make the rent, they have a "revealed preference" for having only one kidney – and if they sell their privacy to Sheryl Sandberg in order to stay in touch with the people they love, they have a "revealed preference" for having their data extracted and exploited by Facebook:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/24/everything-not-mandatory/#is-prohibited

Trump is the apotheosis of this. The true "art of the deal" is just cheating. That's why he stiffed his workers, stiffed his suppliers, stiffed his backers and stiffed his base. If you can cheat and get away with it, it's not even cheating: "that makes you smart":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth

"Caveat emptor" makes sense at a yard-sale or an estate auction – but it's no way to operate a government or conduct your daily life. It's exhausting:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/29/cheaters-and-liars/#caveat-emptor-brainworms

Running the world on "caveat emptor" isn't just a transfer from workers to the wealthy, it's a transfer from people who are exhausted by bargaining to people who are invigorated by it. It's a way of transforming just one of the many differences in how humans think into the single most important success criterion, the major determinant of your life's chances. It's a way for the invigorated to utterly dominate the exhausted. It's the elevation of "stop hitting yourself" into political ideology.

The antidote to this is something John Ganz calls "The Club Med theory." He argues that while mostly we sneer at inclusive holiday resorts as a way to go on vacation without having to engage with another country's culture and people, that the original value of these resorts (still present today) is the way they let you go on vacation without participating in markets:

https://backofmind.substack.com/p/the-club-med-theory

Club Med was founded by an Olympian named Gérard Blitz whose insight was that "what people seek from a holiday is not luxury or material comfort, but happiness." For Blitz, the value of an inclusive resort wasn't the open bar and the buffet, "it’s the relief from participation in the everyday economy."

As Ganz points out, class differences (between guests, at least) are erased at inclusive resorts. The richest person at the resort eats and drinks the same food, goes on the same excursions, and participates in the same activities as the poorest person at the resort (yes, this is less true of today's inclusive resorts, which are full of "up-charges," representing the triumph of people who are invigorated by bargaining over people who are exhausted by it).

For Ganz, the beauty of an inclusive resort is that it removes the "cognitive demands" of a market economy, which are inherently stressful: "Every transaction is a decision, and decisions cost energy."

Ganz proposes that "this is quite difficult for people to understand if they have an economics degree." Why would the resort restaurants improve their food quality if they're not competing for your business? Why would servers hustle to make you happy if they're not competing for tips?

But this is not what happens. Resort-goers love the bartenders at the swim-up bar, and they are frustrated to the point of fury with the people selling necklaces, sunglasses and massages on the beach. These sellers "live or die by their ability to persuade people to part with money in exchange for goods and services." It's exhausting to be them, and it's exhausting to be approached by them.

Ganz says that the best strategy to get someone to part with their money isn't necessarily to provide good service. As he learned in his stockbroker days, you can also "pester them mercilessly until they pay you to go away." In an unregulated market, you don't get a single vendor who comes around and offers you sunglasses once a day. The equilibrium of that market is to be woken from your nap or interrupted from your book every five minutes by someone who's hustling to make the rent. The economy doesn't "price in the externality" of your plummeting satisfaction with your holiday.

Ganz isn't the first person to observe this. As he points out, in 1963, Galbraith wrote:

Total physical and mental inertia are highly agreeable, much more so than we allow ourselves to imagine. A beach not only permits such inertia but enforces it, thus neatly eliminating all problems of guilt.

I read Ganz's short post last week and it stuck with me. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it – and the more I thought that there was something missing from it: the idea that there are some people who hate a life without bargaining. These people are invigorated by bargaining and exhausted by "total physical and mental inertia." They need to be hustling.

The people who turn up their noses at an inclusive resort aren't just people who want to have the "authentic experience" of a distant land – some of them are people who want to spend all day hustling and being hustled. People who need that energy.

Those people have a place in the world. I don't want those people trying to sell me a timeshare or trying to rope me into their MLM, but I'd love to have them negotiating on behalf of my union:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/05/power-of-positive-thinking/#the-socialism-of-fools

But even then, I'd want them to be like my agents, capable of stepping back from constant bargaining and to cease their remorseless seeking of advantage. I wouldn't want them to be Sandbergian would-be buyers of kidneys, full of self-serving tales of revealed preferences, caveat emptor and "that makes me smart."

As with anything, the dose makes the poison. I know lots of hustlers who are fun as hell to hang around, whom I'd trust with my life or at least my password. A lot of libertarians fit this mold: people who are truly committed to voluntarism and intrinsic generosity.

But libertarianism, like any movement, is a coalition, and within that coalition is a large group of people – people who are invigorated by bargaining – who are committed to dominating others by exhausting them. For them, bargaining isn't a cognitive demand, it's a cognitive invigorator. To the extent that they understand this, they think it's just a sign that they are born to rule. Caveat emptor. Revealed preferences. That makes me smart.

What's more, for people on the losing side of this trade, losing the bargain means being poorer, and being poorer means more cognitive demands – rationing out your pennies and eeling through the impossibly narrow gaps between payday and the day the bills are due. This produces a winner-take-all dynamic in which the losers of the bargaining game have less energy and wherewithal to bargain the next time around.

This is beautifully unpacked in (what else) a science fiction novel, Naomi Kritzer's Liberty's Daughter, a young adult novel about the teen daughter of a libertarian cult leader who is growing up on a seastead:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/21/podkaynes-dad-was-a-dick/#age-of-consent

Kritzer's novel beautifully plays out the "stop hitting yourself" justifications that eventually allow her libertarians to enslave others – after all, in a truly voluntaristic society, why wouldn't you have the freedom to sell yourself into slavery? And if you claim later that you're unhappy with this arrangement, tough shit – you've got a "revealed preference" for being a slave.

Caveat emptor. If you're the kind of person who gets charged up by bargaining, then you were born to rule.

If bargaining means cheating, well, "that makes you smart."

Hey look at this (permalink)


A shelf of leatherbound history books with a gilt-stamped series title, 'The World's Famous Events.'

Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago DIY circumcision revision (CW gross) https://web.archive.org/web/20010618005738/https://www.subgenius.com/subg-digest/v5/0206.html

#25yrsago Gen X guide to Disneyland https://web.archive.org/web/20010302143848/http://www.omnigroup.com/~cirocco/dizney/index.html

#25yrsago Hugo for best website https://web.archive.org/web/20010404222727/http://www.conjose.org/wsfs/wsfs_web.html

#20yrsago America’s worst WiFi hotels https://web.archive.org/web/20060404214142/http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2006/3/27/21911/4235/hotels/Worst_WiFi_Hotels_2006

#20yrsago Help Peter Beagle sue the film-house that made “The Last Unicorn” https://web.archive.org/web/20060116061435/http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp/

#20yrsago EMI releases Brazilian DRM CDs that totally hose their customers https://memex.craphound.com/2006/03/24/emi-releases-brazilian-drm-cds-that-totally-hose-their-customers/

#20yrsago Video reveals Belarus electoral fraud https://web.archive.org/web/20060506233026/http://www.media-ocean.de/2006/03/26/does-youtube-video-proove-election-fraud-in-belarus/

#20yrsago Kleptones new mashup double-CD free to download: “24 Hours” https://web.archive.org/web/20060810172451/http://www.kleptones.com/pages/downloads_24h.html

#20yrsago Steve Jobs, 2002: “You need the right to manage music on all devices” https://web.archive.org/web/20060509144710/http://www.songbirdnest.com/nivi/blog/jobs_france

#20yrsago Monks in Wisconsin refill printer cartridges https://web.archive.org/web/20060324043723/http://lasermonks.com/

#20yrsago DRM is Killing Music https://www.voidstar.com/node.php?id=2686

#20yrsago Swisscom WiFi at London conference centre costs $838.73/24h https://web.archive.org/web/20060329090917/https://benhammersley.com/FCE47259-78BA-4B5E-ABF2-F39B93520C85/Blog/C9043A4D-F791-4B7F-A8A7-3484779B4748.html

#20yrsago Most expensive Google ad keywords listed https://web.archive.org/web/20060325094245/http://www.cwire.org/2006/03/23/updated-highest-paying-adsense-keywords/

#20yrsago LA Times slams Marvel for trying to steal “superhero” https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-mar-26-ed-superhero26-story.html

#15yrsago Microsoft switches off privacy for Hotmail users in war-torn and repressive states https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/03/microsoft-shuts-https-hotmail-over-dozen-countries

#15yrsago Wisconsin GOP uses sunshine laws to harass prof who speculated about links with pressure group https://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/24/open-records-attack-on-academic-freedom/

#15yrsago Koch-pranking Beast editor runs for Congress https://web.archive.org/web/20110326042435/http://www.murphycanhascongress.com/

#15yrsago Did Limewire shutdown really cause P2P music infringement to drop 30%? https://web.archive.org/web/20110428175101/http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2011/03/24/cnet_and_others_get_it_wrong_miss_the_actual_story.php

#15yrsago Man who wants to patent genome gets legal threat for embedding James Joyce quote in artificial lifeform https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2011/03/14/craig-venters-genetic-typo/

#15yrsago James Gleick’s tour-de-force: The Information, a natural history of information theory https://memex.craphound.com/2011/03/24/james-gleicks-tour-de-force-the-information-a-natural-history-of-information-theory/

#15yrsago NYT paywall sub is $100 more expensive than WSJ, Economist and Daily combined https://theunderstatement.com/post/4019228737/digital-subscription-prices-visualized-aka-the

#15yrsago RIP, Diana Wynne Jones https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/27/diana-wynne-jones-obituary

#15yrsago Front-line report from Trafalgar Square paints a radically different picture https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2011/03/trafalgar-square-police-young

#15yrsago Deathless: Cat Valente’s beautiful fantasy of Stalinist Russia and the Siege of Leningrad https://memex.craphound.com/2011/03/28/deathless-cat-valentes-beautiful-fantasy-of-stalinist-russia-and-the-siege-of-leningrad/

#10yrsago Cop Cabs: The NYPD has at least three fake taxis on NYC’s streets https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2016/mar/28/nypd-taxicabs/

#10yrsago Peer-reviewed online expert system will help you if you’ve been poisoned https://www.webpoisoncontrol.org/

#10yrsago The “American College of Pediatricians” is a hate group with fewer than 200 members https://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2016/03/28/speaking-of-bad-science-never-trust-the-american-college-of-pediatricians

#10yrsago Ransomware gets a lot faster by encrypting the master file table instead of the filesystem https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/petya-ransomware-skips-the-files-and-encrypts-your-hard-drive-instead/

#10yrsago Security-conscious darkweb crime marketplaces institute world-leading authentication practices https://web.archive.org/web/20160331091155/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/some-dark-web-markets-have-better-user-security-than-gmail-instagram

#10yrsago Saudi embassy hired mafiosi to smuggle Turkish PM Erdoğan’s son out of Italy ahead of money laundering charges https://web.archive.org/web/20160311095055/https://awdnews.com/top-news/rome’s-police-spokesman-saudi-embassy-helped-erdoğan’s-son-to-escape-the-police-custody-using-a-forged-saudi-passport-and-disguised-as-an-arab-diplomat

#10yrsago Photos from Bring Your Own Bigwheel 16 https://www.jwz.org/photos/2016-03-27-bigwheel/

#10yrsago How to Talk About Videogames: a book that is serious (but never dull) about games https://memex.craphound.com/2016/03/28/how-to-talk-about-videogames-a-book-that-is-serious-but-never-dull-about-games/

#10yrsago Names that break databases https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160325-the-names-that-break-computer-systems

#10yrsago Cops arrest public defender who was representing her client, face no discipline https://www.techdirt.com/2016/03/23/complaint-board-finds-police-officers-violated-policy-arresting-public-defender-who-demanded-they-stop-questioning-her-clients/

#10yrsago Vulnerability in recorders used by 70+ manufacturers’ CCTV systems has been known since 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20160322204109/https://kerneronsec.com/2016/02/remote-code-execution-in-cctv-dvrs-of.html

#10yrsago Ransomware hackers steal a hospital. Again. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/03/hospital-declares-internet-state-of-emergency-after-ransomware-infection/

#10yrsago STUCK: Public transit’s moment arrives just as public spending disappears https://web.archive.org/web/20160327040633/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-immobile-masses-why-traffic-is-awful-and-public-transit-is-worse

#10yrsago East Harlem’s secret museum of gorgeous junk rescued from NYC’s trash https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/fascinating-photos-from-the-secret-trash-collection-in-a-new-york-sanitation-garage

#10yrsago Heatmaps of the human body in varying emotional states https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1321664111

#10yrsago Man exonerated after video shows unprovoked police beating, cops insist all is well https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/video-clears-texas-man-of-assaulting-cop-did-police-commit-perjury/

#10yrsago What you think about Millennials says a lot about you, nothing about them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HFwok9SlQQ

#10yrsago Jerks were able to turn Microsoft’s chatbot into a Nazi because it was a really crappy bot https://web.archive.org/web/20160325221619/http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-to-make-a-not-racist-bot

#10yrsago When the antibiotics run out, maybe we can use GMO maggots to stave off infection https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12896-016-0263-z

#10yrsago King Arthur’s grave was a hoax invented by cash-strapped 12th C monks https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/03/medieval-monks-used-king-arthurs-grave-as-an-attraction-to-raise-money/

#10yrsago Eating from the trash of New York’s finest grocers and restaurants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJmCUSb-ZVo

#10yrsago Catholic Church-owned insurer has secret files on paedophile priests https://www.theage.com.au/national/secret-archive-of-paedophile-crime-kept-by-catholic-churchs-insurers-20160317-gnlc6k.html

#10yrsago Names that break databases https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160325-the-names-that-break-computer-systems

#10yrsago Cops arrest public defender who was representing her client, face no discipline https://www.techdirt.com/2016/03/23/complaint-board-finds-police-officers-violated-policy-arresting-public-defender-who-demanded-they-stop-questioning-her-clients/

#10yrsago Vulnerability in recorders used by 70+ manufacturers’ CCTV systems has been known since 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20160322204109/https://kerneronsec.com/2016/02/remote-code-execution-in-cctv-dvrs-of.html

#5yrsago Dirty NYPD cops can't lose https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/26/overfitness-factor/#heads-you-lose-tails-they-win

#5yrsago Dreaming and overfitting https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/26/overfitness-factor/#dreamtime

#5yrsago Good news about news co-ops https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/25/facebook-has-a-facebook-problem/#good-news

#5yrsago Zuckerpunch https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/25/facebook-has-a-facebook-problem/#played-for-zuckers

#5yrsago Green investing is a fraud https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/24/greenwashing/#bargaining

#

1yrago Trump loves Big Tech https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/24/whats-good-for-big-tech/#is-good-for-america

#1yrago Why I don't like AI art https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/25/communicative-intent/#diluted

#1yrago The AOC-Sanders anti-oligarch tour is all about organizing https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/26/not-me-us/#the-people-no

#1yrago Reality-Based Communities https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/27/use-your-mentality/#face-up-to-reality

#1yrago Big Tech and "captive audience venues" https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/28/street-pricing/#sportball-analogies

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

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A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

Recent appearances (permalink)


A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

Latest books (permalink)


A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

Upcoming books (permalink)

  • "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/)

  • "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

  • "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

  • "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2027

  • "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027


Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing: "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. First draft complete. Second draft underway.

  • "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.

  • "The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

  • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

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ISSN: 3066-764X

https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/30/players-of-games/

https://pluralistic.net/?p=12587

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Bundle of Holding: Magpie Apocalypse MEGA

2026-Mar-30, Monday 02:05 pm
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A new Magpie Games Apocalypse Megabundle presenting a diverse abundance of Powered by the Apocalypse tabletop roleplaying games from Magpie Games.

Bundle of Holding: Magpie Apocalypse MEGA
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Check-In Post - March 30th 2026

2026-Mar-30, Monday 06:49 pm
[personal profile] badly_knitted posting in [community profile] get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: Where do you do most of your crafting?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



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  • Current Location: my desk
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Double Wars prep

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 10:50 pm
[personal profile] kareina
 I had forgotten that today was when clocks change, till I woke to head to the loo, and my phone said it was 04:00, so I wondered if I should just get up and di an early workout, but when I returned to bed the dawn light said 03:00, at it sounded much less appealing, so back to sleep I went, not waking again till the phone said 07:18. Keldor woke then, so we wound up talking for an hour before we got up and played Qwirkle over breakfast (I not only won, but got a record high score, for me, of 79 points).
 
Today was Reengarda’s crafts day in town, but we decided to stay home and work on our project here (this decision prompted in part by a discussion with my sister in Australia about fuel prices just now, and realising that it cost even more here than there).
 
So today was the day we fixed our newest tent. When we were in Lofoten last summer and needed something in the way of a roof over the outdoor smithy to keep rain out of the forge, they discovered that one of the geteld tents hadn’t been dry when it was put away last summer and was so mouldy that it would need to be thrown away. We pointed out that mouldy canvas couldn’t be hurt any more by smoke from the forge, and they agreed, so the back wall was sliced open with a knife, and it became a lovely sunshade: 
 
At the end of our couple of weeks out there, when we took it down for the end of the season we realised that having it out in the sunlight, plus all the smoke from the forge had worked magic, and while discoloured, it no longer smelled of mould. We couldn’t bring ourselves to throw away that much canvas, so we rescued it.
 
Today it was time to fix it, so it will be usable at Double Wars. So we took a strip of canvas from a hammock Keldor found at a second hand store sometime this winter (the hammock looked new and unused) and sewed it (by hand) to the knife-cut tent wall. Keldor did the first pass of sewing, while I cleaned the dust off the under floor layer in the attic loo. (the rest of the hammock is a good size to make a bag for storing/transporting the tent).
 
Then I folded the strip of canvas over the seam and sewed down to seal in the cut edges, while he went upstairs and installed the linoleum floor.
 
Then he did top stitching through all the layers of the seam to strengthen it, while I painted the the first layer of paint on the wood trim that will go between wall and the floor.
 
Then we took the tent out and put a stick of rattan in the top channel of the tent, staled down the walls and lifted up the ridge pole and compared the tent height with pavilion poles from our sunshade. This tells us that we want uprights that are about 2 m, 30 or perhaps 40 cm tall, so he will make some.
 
Then we pack the tent fabric into the car. Tomorrow after work he will use the high pressure wash on it, and hang it to dry in the shop overnight. We don’t expect it to be perfect, but it should be useable for Double Wars. We have quite a few people who need crash space in tents in our camp, and the price for this one was right.
 
Then we curled up on the couch with some popcorn before I went down to paint the next layer of paint on the trim.
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a productive Saturday

2026-Mar-28, Saturday 10:30 pm
[personal profile] kareina
 I went to bed early last night, which meant that I woke early, too. I started my day with a quick pilates session, and finished washing all of Reengarda’s black sheets that we use as tablecloths at events.
 
Once Keldor got up around 07:00, we noticed that one of the center bed legs had fallen down, so we took everything out from under the bed, fixed the leg, vacuumed under there, and put things back in a better order, so nothing will get pushed against that leg and knock it over again.
 
Then we did a quick game of Qwirkle over breakfast (he points out he slaughtered me), and then started working on the house.
 
First up, trying to solve the problem with the cellar floors flaking in a few ares. When we bought the house there were places on both the walls and the floors that had been flaking, due to too much moisture. We solved most of that by just opening all of the ventilation in the cellar, which the previous owner had blocked with newspaper. But the closet we had spackeled and fixed the walls and floor before painting it four years ago is starting to have flaking issues again.
 
So Keldor bought some vents for the various doors, which we installed this morning. By the time that had been accomplished the last load of shire tablecloths we dry and ready to pack, so we could start working on the loo, where we got a far bit accomplished:
 
  • finish putting up the outer wall over the insulation on the laundry room side.
  • then he put up most of the drywall on the bathroom side of the wall, while I spackeled the outer wall.
  • he started working on the ventilation for the room, he installed the collection box, with its sound damping and one of the vents. (There was already a fan at the exit vent that the box now covers, but now it won’t be so noticeable)
  • He drilled the large hole in the wall through which vent tube will run, to carry moist air from the laundry room and out that collection box (there are advantages to living with a partner who installs ventilation for industry buildings for his day job (he want me to add that he is also seriously cute, and talented at Qwirkle))
  • eventually he reached a good breaking point and went upstairs to feed the fish in the aquarium, and I cleaned the bathroom and laundry room, not only getting all the dust from cutting wood and drywall, but even cleaning lint out of the dryer door beyond where the lint trap is.
  • When I finally came upstairs, he was asleep on the couch.
 
I forgot to mention that our housekeeper made it over today as we were working. Can I just tell you how nice it is to have time and energy for doing these renovations because someone else is taking care of the basic “keep the house liveable” cleaning? We appreciated it extra this week, as they had a family medical emergency the week before, and couldn’t come, so we had two weeks worth of cleaning to be done.
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working at the office

2026-Mar-27, Friday 10:00 pm
[personal profile] kareina
 I woke in the middle of the night with discomfort in my hip, on the left side of my tailbone. It has done this a couple of times before, always on days after doing the HIT app, which is weird, as during the training my body feels good, but clearly something is getting out of position doing it. Last time I found videos on line for adjusting one’s hip on one’s own, and it cleared up. But perhaps it is time to talk to a physical therapist about how to keep it from happening again, if I can find a good one.
 
I must not have remembered to plug my computer in properly yesterday evening when we did training, as when I got on the bus this morning, the computer started to turn on, and then abruptly turned off again. Normally I just work on battery power on the bus, and it is fine. I got out the cable and plugged in the computer, but it took a while before it would turn on. Luckily, today was a day I had a messenger conversation with my SCA mother, so I was glad of the excuse to not have a computer on which to work.
 
By the time she said goodnight my computer was functioning again. But by then we were close enough to town that it didn’t seem worth working, so I updated this instead, and looked up physical therapists in Umeå. There is one whose office is reasonably near the uni, so I may call them—they open around the same time I will arrive on campus.
 
I blame the hip discomfort on the part where I forgot to pack my water bottle, so all of I have had to “drink” during my morning bus ride is the apple and orange I brought with me. So, as soon as I arrived I went straight to the lunch room, and found a 2 liter carbonated water bottle someone had left, so I rinsed it out and filled it, and had something to drink from the rest of the day.
 
I did try calling a couple of physical therapists, and sent messages to a couple of others, but didn’t manage to find any with time today, though one I messaged said that they regularly get last minute cancellations, so it is always worth it to check.
 
During full department Work Place Meeting I was having problems hearing the speaker, so I pressed the button my hearing aids, and suddenly I could hear the sound from the microphone piped directly into my hearing aids. This is the first time I have neededthat program, usually a microphone playing in the room iis good enough.
 
While I was in that meeting, they delivered my office soffa. Yay! After the meeting I met with one of the PhD students who had been involved in digitising a lot of old documents associated with an archaeological excavation back in the 1990’s, to find out what they did and get an introduction to the collection. I have volunteered to see if I can make sense out of the information and transform it into an archaeological report to turn into the county in which the excavation happened. Apparently as one of the archaeologists who ran that dig later got a PhD from us, we are responsible to write the report, and if we don’t the county may forbid us to ever be involved in another excavation in their county limits.
 
My motivation, on the other hand, is to get a bit more directly archaeology related experience, and I think it will be fun to look at the artefacts and write the report. It will certainly need an introduction that says something to the effect of “for reasons beyond our control some of the information from this excavation is no longer available, but…”
 
So this afternoon I looked up the name of the person who led the dig and found them on FB! Much to my delight, I have one friend in common with them, so I sent the mutual friend a note and asked for an introduction. This got me permission to send a direct message, so now I have sent a note introducing myself, and asking if it might be ok to do an interview. I hope they say yes!
 
Keldor had planned to stay in town and catch a hocky game, which didn’t sound interesting to me,so it seemed like a good opportunity to do someabout the shire “tablecloths” (they are black cotton bedsheets, but they work fine as tablecloths), which had gotten wax dripped on them.
 
Just after I sent a photo of the project to the shire chat, with the caption “I am not saying I don’t like hockey, but this sounds more fun”, Keldor walked in the door, feeling sorry for himself, as he didn’t get to see the game after all. Poor thing. Apparently they normally play the game at the theater in Folketshus in Skelleftåhamn, and he likes seeing it there, in comfortable seats, with a crowd of fans, but it didn’t happen this time.

ironing
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Sichuan: Land of Abundance

2026-Mar-30, Monday 11:47 am
[personal profile] tcpip
After Guizhou, the next leg of the China journey has involved a return to Sichuan for several days. Nicknamed "the land of abundance" it receives this appelation initially on account of fertile agricultural plains surrounded by mountains. This is still very important to the province, but these days it is also due to the bustling commercial activity in the capital, Chengdu, and the industrial heartland of Dujiangyan. Like other Chinese cities these have a marvellous mix of old and new and because of the way such cities are designed (i.e., no suburban sprawl) they also provide numerous opportunities for nature to flourish. Visited examples, in order, of such a combination include the Wuhou Temple, dedicated to Prime Minister Zhuge Liang and Emperor Liu Bei, political leaders of the Kingdom of Shu in the Three Kingdoms Period some 1800 years ago; Zhuge's story is particularly impressive.

China is famous for pandas, and no province more so than Sichuan, which is almost overwhelming in panda promotion. One particular site is "Panda Valley", a research, breeding, and rewilding centre that is home to dozens of giant pandas and scores of red pandas. The location, as expected, is quite scenic, with its lush, cool environment providing a pleasant home for these impressive and gentle beasts. Nearby is Mount Qingcheng, one of the most sacred sites to religious Taoism, specifically Zhang Daoling's "Way of the Celestial masters". The mountain area is astoundingly beautiful, with many Taoist temples and shrines well integrated into the environment. Our tour guide took some delight in her argument that giant pandas are Taoist because of their yin-yang colouration.

Nearby is a particularly grand example of ancient engineering Dujiangyan Irrigation System, built over 2,200 years ago and still in use today, a credit to the lead engineer, Li Bing, who managed to see this built without explosives. As the oldest and only surviving no-dam irrigation system in the world, it involved the building of an artificial island that redirected waters during the flood season and released them during the drier months. Since it was built, the Chengdu plain has been free from flooding, and the "water dragon" has been tamed. Unsurprisingly, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sichuan is also home to numerous ethnic minorities, including the Qiang people who live in the forested mountains in western Sichuan, and have their own autonomous county, their own language, religion, and practise their culture, including colourful embroidery. After an interesting and lengthy bus trip, our group stayed at Shiyi mountain village, which included quite a greeting ceremony with local chanting, drumming, and firecrackers at our arrival, and in the evening, a bonfire and dance. It must also be noted that the village was reconstructed after the devastating Wenchaun earthquake. Finally, there was a visit to the Sanxingdui Museum, with its impressive collection of Bronze Age artefacts dating back over 3,500 years. It seems that Sichuan has been a "land of abundance" for many centuries.
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  • Current Music: Cocteau Twins, BBC Sessions
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No Kings!

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 05:41 pm
[personal profile] koshka_the_cat
PXL_20260328_230916828~2

And my dress, worn at No Kings. I love that creativity is appreciated there and in protests.
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ごはん待ち！Waiting for meal!

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 11:00 pm
[syndicated profile] maru_feed

Posted by mugumogu

https://sisinmaru.com/2026/03/30/%e3%81%94%e3%81%af%e3%82%93%e5%be%85%e3%81%a1%ef%bc%81waiting-for-meal/

https://sisinmaru.com/?p=33732

はなの頭の上にちょこんとみり。 Miri is sitting on the Hana’s head. 朝ごはん待ちのはなみり。 え、ちょっと待って、みりがご飯場所に集まっている！ Hana&Miri […]

https://sisinmaru.com/2026/03/30/%e3%81%94%e3%81%af%e3%82%93%e5%be%85%e3%81%a1%ef%bc%81waiting-for-meal/

https://sisinmaru.com/?p=33732

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For those still keeping score... [cats, status, food]

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 07:22 pm
[personal profile] rebeccmeister
...we are now up to Cats: 5, Rebeccmeister: 0.

I mean, in this case the catio DID hold for several hours. I haven't gone back out to see if I can find George's latest escape method. And once again, the first thing he did after escaping was go over to the neighbor's juniper tree and rub himself all over it. So it isn't as though he's hard to recapture, at least.

I suspect he went under this time, rather than over.

Meanwhile: things have progressed/regressed to where I can't really tell whether it's just Brandi trying to kill me, or if maybe this is morphing into some form of head cold. I did vacuum the house today, so that could have kicked pollen back into the air. I should know more by tomorrow morning. I moved Brandi further away from the back door but she is still very happily attempting to reproduce out there.

I always have big ambitions for the weekends, then fall short. Today I at least managed the vacuuming, got the grocery shopping done, cooked up a big pot of beans, roasted some tofu and asparagus, made a new batch of muesli and pancakes, and did a whole bunch of dishwashing.

No progress on the oar painting, however. I'm back at the stage where I need to do a bunch of sanding again on the next sets of oars, but I can't bring myself to put on a sanding mask while dealing with a drippy nose.

So it goes.
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Seed

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 02:35 pm
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
First contact as conducted by two groups of field researchers, both of whom want to observe the other without being observed.
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Check-In Post - March 29th 2026

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 07:16 pm
[personal profile] badly_knitted posting in [community profile] get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: Where do you do most of your crafting?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



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Song rec

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 08:04 pm
[personal profile] luzula
Now You Know by Anais Mitchell, which I stumbled on today, is SUCH a middle age song. It sounds like someone in perimenopause. It's not hitting me personally head on (among other things I don't think about children that way) but I found it gripping and beautiful.
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hi hi!

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 10:13 am
[personal profile] churin posting in [community profile] findingfriends
Is there an interesting story behind your username?my username is actually just a JP nickname for my favorite character, Aventurine from honkai star rail! you'll see me mention him a lot hehe


Location and language(s):i live in the USA and speak only english! i am currently learning japanese, though.


Age range (e.g 20s, 30s, etc.):30's


Hot button/deal breaker issues that will likely lead to unfriending:all i ask is that you don't be a jerk or a bigot/etc, that's it really. i'm pretty chill otherwise.


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 DO have a sticky/intro post on my journal that provides a bit more info about me!


Is your profile up-to-date or at all useful?i'd say pretty accurate, yeah!


List a few things you think it's important new friends know about you right away:i love aventurine --


You mostly write about:fandom stuff and personal/irl stuff


You never or very rarely write about:serious/heavy personal stuff. if i do ever write about that, then it will have a proper warning on it.


Is your journal mostly public, locked, or a mix of public and locked?my journal is open to the public!


Do you use filters for certain types of posts (e.g. fandom-related posts, or posts about sex, or mental health issues, etc.)?i do! i make sure to tag my entries appropriately.


Your posting frequency (e.g. daily, every few days, weekly, etc.):i'd say a few times a week


Does your journal frequently include any of the following: memes, linkspams, gifs, photos, videos, etc?the occasional image, but that's not very common.


What do you enjoy most about journaling?opening up, talking about myself more and talking to people!


How often do you read your friends list (e.g. daily, every other day, once a week, etc.)?i try to read at LEAST once a day


You really enjoy reading about:you mean on dreamwidth? just about anything, i'm not picky


You have very little interest in reading about: N/A


Your thoughts on journals that regularly include any of the following: memes, linkspams, gifs, photos, videos, etc?i don't mind them!


When it comes to comments on your posts, what matters more -- quality or quantity?i have no preference. i guess quality?


Do you unfriend people who don't comment much, even if you know they are reading you regularly?
nope! if you can't comment much, then it's all good. i imagine there's a good reason behind it.

What is your approach when it comes to commenting on other journals?i just comment whatever's comes to mind, if that makes any sense. of course it'll be related to the entry's subject matter


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 never really had to do this before, so i really don't know how to answer. i'm not an unfriender i suppose, LOL


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 looove talking about anything hoyoverse (genshin/honkai/zenless) and whatever other online/gacha game i'm playing at the time!


Any final thoughts you'd like to share with potential new friends? hello! i hope we can become friends and get to know each other more ^-^ i'm pretty chill i'd say!
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The Shiny Narrow Grin by Jane Gaskell

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 09:09 am
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Everything about the Boy excited Terry; the Boy's good looks, the Boy's appealingly mod fashion sense, and especially his pointy, pointy teeth.

The Shiny Narrow Grin by Jane Gaskell
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icons

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 05:39 am
[personal profile] yellowrosess posting in [community profile] iconic
Coffee and books
Cats
Taylor Swift
Post Malone
True Blood cast
Lost
Ian Somerhalder and Maggie Grace
Olivia Rodrigo
Demi Lovato


yr200138 yr200126 yr20011

Check out the rest here.
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Neocities

2026-Mar-28, Saturday 09:20 pm
[personal profile] brigid
If you're interested in neocities, or making websites generally, I have a neocities website that has some information on how to create websites and general fun stuff to do online.

Dink! Donk? Dunk. is a fun little project that isn't fully finished - the red square is meant to be replaced by an icon of some sort - but is stable enough for now.

I should probably put a "new" or "updated" page for when I add things, which I do from time to time.
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Sunday Word: Jollification

2026-Mar-29, Sunday 09:33 am
[personal profile] sallymn posting in [community profile] 1word1day

jollification [jol-uh-fi-key-shuhn]

noun:
lovely merrymaking; festivity

Examples:

Even the mascot that day celebrated with a raw passion that belied his novelty dragon costume and the manufactured family-friendly jollification expected from mascots. (Ben James, The seven greatest rugby moments the Principality Stadium has seen, Wales Online, June 2019)

Abstaining, for a moment, from the clamor of compulsive jollification, and instead leaning into the reality of human tragedy and of my own need and brokenness, allows my experience of glory at Christmastime to feel not only more emotionally sustainable but also more vivid, vital and cherished. (Tish Harrison Warren, Want to Get Into the Christmas Spirit? Face the Darkness, New York Times, November 2019)

He told about the midnight dances and how the Nymphs who lived in the wells and the Dryads who lived in the trees came out to dance with the Fauns; about long hunting parties after the milk-white Stag who could give you wishes if you caught him; about feasting and treasure-seeking with the wild Red Dwarfs in deep mines and caverns far beneath the forest floor; and then about summer when the woods were green and old Silenus on his fat donkey would come to visit them, and sometimes Bacchus himself, and then the streams would run with wine instead of water and the whole forest would give itself up to jollification for weeks on end. (C S Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Now that Old Grandmother's birthday had come, the Lesleys had an excuse for their long-deferred jollification. (L M Montgomery, Magic for Marigold)

For a long, long time they have been staying in the caves and hiding away in the tops of the corners and crevices. But last night they had their first real jollification. (Mary Graham Bonner, Daddy's Bedtime Bird Stories)

Thomas Wilson, who spoke in a strain so ambitious and toploftical as to be scarcely intelligible to the magistrates, succeeded after much ado in making their worships comprehend that on the night previous he had had a jollification with a friend in Merrion-street. (Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin), 21 March 1842)

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The apricot tree has now been named... [status, gardening, rowing]

2026-Mar-28, Saturday 05:27 pm
[personal profile] rebeccmeister
...Brandi Glanville.

Now. I did not know who Brandi Glanville is until just today, but yesterday I learned a friend of mine recently obtained a lemon tree bush that she has named Yolanda, and because of that I asked her to help me come up with a similarly fitting name for the apricot tree. Some of you will know the origins of these names and will be rightly amused. If I watched television I might have watched an episode or two of this all, but I don't own a TV or watch much television.

Anyway. Brandi has now been banished to the backyard. I'll put her in the garage overnight, since we're expecting freezing temperatures again.

The banished tree

I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and in spite of closing off the front porch and running air filters, I could hardly breathe due to the pollen allergies. This is the worst I've ever had them. I'd only had the air filters running on low, so I cranked them both up and thereby managed to get a bit more sleep before my alarm went off.

But this situation is clearly not sustainable.

I do like apricots, but I'm apparently too allergic to apricot pollen to keep a tree indoors. Who knew?

Other than that, we held our 5k run/walk event today! It was a big success! The weather was rather cold, but clear, so we didn't send out any rowers but the runners all showed up and had a great time. And I am relieved to be finished with planning for this one for the year.

I didn't take many photos on account of being busy with organizational projects, but we had some fun moments, like with the creation of the next round of motivational posters:

Motivation

And now on account of it all, I am flopping around in a useless heap.
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Check-In Post - March 28th 2026

2026-Mar-28, Saturday 07:47 pm
[personal profile] badly_knitted posting in [community profile] get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: Where do you do most of your crafting?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



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  • Current Location: my desk
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