chebe | Network

green_wing posting in

1. Holiday Cards
Generic non-religious cards are fine, but cards with cats, space, dinosaurs, godzilla, cryptids, or anything from the following list would be amazing, bought or homemade, thank you <3
Yule
Jólakötturinn the Yule Cat
Winter Solstice
Summer Solstice (I’m in the Southern Hemisphere)
Catmas
Trekmas
Sithmas
Krampus
Moomas

2. Big Finish Gift Card(s)
https://www.bigfinish.com/pages/v/gift-cards?currency=nzd
Please make sure you set the purchase currency to NZD, otherwise I won’t be able to use it. Thank you.
My account email is louise.mcculloch@gmail.com

3. DriveThruRPG Gift Card(s)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/432/onebookshelf-inc?productType=2810
Any amount, I buy a lot from DriveThruRPG.
My account email is louise.mcculloch@gmail.com

4. Etsy Gift Card(s)
https://www.etsy.com/nz/giftcards?currency=AUD
I’ve preset it to AUD because that’s the closest to NZD for me to be able to shop with.
My Etsy email is carson.beckett@gmail.com

5. Wild Beyond the Witchlight DnD Miniature - Dirlagraun
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335646036441

6. Wild Beyond the Witchlight DnD Miniature - Star
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335914686188

7. Spelljammer DnD Miniature - Living Ship
https://www.ebay.com/itm/364051422236

8. Spelljammer DnD Miniature - Helm
https://www.ebay.com/itm/285029174372

9. Magical Kitties Save the Day
https://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG3110
Surprise me! Anything at all, especially any of the Hometown adventure books, the only thing I don’t need is the Character Sheets, I got those last year.

10. Star Trek Picard Season 3 Uniform Shirt - 3XL / Blue
https://www.ebay.com/itm/385478370153?var=653329108945
I was promoted to Captain a few years ago and I would really like to look the part.

If you have any questions, need additional information or my snail mail address, you can contact me at either of these emails or message me here.
DW/LJ/Fandom Email: carson.beckett@gmail.com
Primary Email: louise.mcculloch@gmail.com

Current Mood: blank

andrewducker

Christmas Eve dog walk
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

1. The seven reasons why reversing Brexit won't happen (at least neither quickly nor easily): (tags:UK Europe doom trade )

rmc28

Turns out one of my uni hockey friends has a long-standing history channel on YouTube, and of course he made a video about ice hockey history. I think I'd have liked it even if I didn't know the creator, enjoy:

Watch on YouTube

rydra_wong

I was too tired to have the focus for Dark Souls-ing in the last few days, so binge-played 1000xResist and now I feel like I'm been punched in the head.

Basically a walking simulator/visual novel, so don't go expecting complex gameplay, but HOLY FUCK.

For all of you looking for fiction with fucked-up complicated women who are somewhere on a spectrum from "morally grey" to "evil but sympathetic" (with the odd dip into "idealistic but destructive") having fucked-up dynamics with other fucked-up complicated women: 1000xResist has SO MANY of them. It has almost no characters who don't fit that archetype, in fact.

(I considered whether it passes the reverse-Bechdel test -- i.e. two male characters have a conversation that's not about a woman -- and I think it may juuust scrape past in a 5-second exchange in one of the flashbacks, but barely. There are very very few men in this story, for plot-related reasons.)

Watch on YouTube

I found out afterwards that the development team were a devised theatre group who decided to start making a game when everything was shut down during the pandemic, and somehow this fully checks out (complimentary).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1675830/1000xRESIST/ (you can even pick it up in a bundle with Slay The Princess for bonus visual novel headfuck)

Do note the content notes from the devs: Photosensitivity Warning: Flashing Lights, Cursing and Crude Language, Generational Trauma, Acts of Violence and Terrorism, Disease Outbreak, Mention of Suicide, Mention of Animal Cruelty/Pet Death, Blood, Body Horror, Emotional Abuse, Bullying, Dead Bodies, Vomit, Drowning, Fire, Gore, Needles, Racism and General Mature Content.

(I would also add a specific note for torture, and for fucked-up mother-daughter and sister-sister relationships, that being one of the core elements of the game, along with the aforementioned generational trauma.)

sonia

In August 2024, I got a heat pump and switched my heat source from gas to electric.

PG&E has an arcane cost structure where not only do they charge more for electricity between certain hours (4-9pm for my rate plan) but they also have a baseline allowance and charge significantly more for usage over baseline. Neither the contractor nor my neighbor with a heat pump advised me that I needed to call PG&E and tell them I had changed heat sources to change my baselines, so I overpaid a lot for electricity last winter.

I was aware that I was paying a lot even though the heat pump wasn't maintaining temperature. I asked the contractor. I asked my neighbor. Neither mentioned the baseline amounts.

PG&E sent me a message earlier this fall saying I might pay less on a different rate plan, and when I called them (Oct 9, for my records), I found out about notifying them I now had electric heat. One agent told me the was refundable as much as 3 years retroactively, but it turns out he was blowing smoke, and it isn't. :-(

The new rate plan is even more complicated and I still had a really high bill this month despite not keeping the place very warm (and I have double pane windows and everything!), so I spent a long time on the phone with an agent today digging into the numbers and figured out the new rate plan is actually slightly more expensive than just having the right baseline amount, so I'm switching back.

*sigh*. I guess some lessons are just expensive. Looks like they instituted this whole baseline thing right around when I moved back in May 2022, which explains why I wasn't aware of it before, and maybe I missed both the existing customer education and the new customer education.

( Last year's missing baseline credits )

I'm continuing to send updates to the contractor who installed the heat pump system, which is under warranty for 3 years. At the end of last winter, he replaced the thermostat, and a control board in the downstairs indoor unit where he cut a jumper that it didn't make sense to cut. Now he says he's going to replace the whole indoor unit, and install one that's more powerful. It's supposed to arrive early-mid January. We'll see if that fixes the problem. He will also have to replace all the coolant, so if he had the wrong amount in there, that will also fix that problem. I suppose if that doesn't help then he replaces the outdoor unit. One step at a time...

jadelennox posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Miss Manners: Several years ago, a divorced woman exactly my age moved in next door. I liked her very much and tried to become friends with her. ( Read more... )

source

pensnest

Well. Almost there. I'm not cooking Christmas dinner this year—Bun and MRBun2B have invited us there—but tomorrow I am producing Afternoon Tea for them, plus BIL, Boy, and MrBun2B's parents. The most concise way I have found of referring to this couple is "Bun's in-laws", though they are not that at present. Beast feels there should be a word for this relationship, but I don't think there is. Am I wrong?

*

Have spent an hour or so arranging holly (we have a tree with berries!), ivy, acuba japonica and white lilies (still in bud) to decorate the dining room. Very casual arrangements, but I like the effect. Also very economical, as all the greenery was culled from the garden and we only needed to buy two bunches of lilies. If any of you is worried about the cat, I can promise there will be *no* difficulty keeping her out of the dining room, when it is filled with People. She can have a nice, peaceful Christmas Day to recover.

*

Final chorus engagement for the year was at the Hamlet Centre last Friday. Now that the chorus is so much younger, a large proportion of members are working during the day )we used to have more pensioners and housewives) so there were only five of us, but we duly turned up. This particular version of the Hamlet Centre is for young adults with various disabilities. In the past we've also sung at the children's version, which is usually delightful because at least one little girl always got up and danced as we sang. I wasn't expecting a dancer this time, but I was wrong! There were a couple of kids there, and the little girl danced!

With only five of us—three Leads and two Baritones—there wasn't a lot we could do in terms of Christmas repertoire, but there was a recording of various Christmas songs which we sang along with, and we did manage to throw in Silent Night, White Christmas and the Carol of the Bells acappella. I harmonised happily as the mood took me.

It's a fairly unique experience. It's always kinda bizarre and quite joyous. I didn't take part last year, for reasons of New Hip, and remembered all over again why it is a good thing to do. I think the three newcomers among us were all hooked!

simplyn2deep posting in

1word1day

Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Reindeer (noun)
rein·deer [reyn-deer]

noun
1. any of several large deer of the genus Rangifer, of northern and arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America, both male and female of which have antlers.

Compare meaning
How does reindeer compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

reindeer vs. deer
caribou vs. reindeer

Origin: First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English raynder(e), from Old Norse hreindȳri, equivalent to hreinn “reindeer” + dȳr “animal” (cognate with deer )

Example Sentences
It's also got a proper tree with decorations, there's a Rudolf reindeer toy and they've put some thought into all the splashes of red.
From BBC

"The trip meant so much to us. Leighton loved Lapland and enjoyed all the activities like visiting Santa's post office, Mrs Claus' house and seeing the reindeer," he added.
From BBC

Animal activists are calling for a ban on live reindeer events this Christmas, claiming their evidence shows serious welfare concerns.
From BBC

Let the reindeer chow cool before serving — or packing.
From Salon

A sign states that “Santa is feeding the reindeer.”
From Los Angeles Times

brainwane

looking forward to the next episode of Pluribus

starting to read the scifi mystery Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

making note of the upcoming Grolier Club exhibition on the mechanization of printing: "The Second Printing Revolution: Invention of Mass Media", starting January 14

thinking about whether I could make some use of the new Rx Inspector tool from Pro Publica

spreading word of the Otherwise Award's year-end fundraising campaign to celebrate scifi/fantasy/genre fiction that expands or explores our notions of gender (I'm on the board)

teaching activists how to use Signal features -- usernames, disappearing messages, nicknames, etc. -- to preserve privacy and improve convenience

listening to episodes of KEXP's Runcast (music) and an Australian guy's One Man, One Hammock (rambling monologues) as I do chores

playing an ad hoc guessing game with my spouse where I look up random records on the Guinness world records website and ask him to guess, e.g., how tall the tallest chocolate fountain is

dithering on whether to write a year-end retrospective for my blog

rebeccmeister

Today has mostly been wrap-up / prep tasks at work: get more cricket paper ready, water the ants, feed the horseshoe crab, et cetera.

At one point while I was in high school, a big exhibit about Leonardo DaVinci's notebooks toured our town. I mostly recall that we had several events at school ahead of going to visit the exhibit, to somehow prepare us for it all. I mean, I guess otherwise we would have just looked at the pages and not really known what to make of them. As it stood, my memory is that I looked at the pages and didn't really know what to make of them. I mean, I understand that they have interesting elements to them, what with the writing everything backwards and the intriguing notions about how things work and about contraptions. But, then what?

Can you imagine being someone whose notebooks became so famous after death?

Anything I've ever written down has been scattered across such a wide range of different notebooks that there's no coherence to any of them, really, nor am I any sort of Renaissance artistic genius, heh. I mean, the most coherent ones are the lab notebooks, because I *do* try and uphold certain standards with those.

But is anyone going to try and read any of those? No, they are not. What's the point?

It's hard to remember sometimes that historically, access to paper and writing implements was quite limited.

Anyway, I should go home early and work on packing. FWIW I'm headed to the Seattle area for about a week, then to Portland for a conference.

andrewducker

I called them back at 7:00. Got through to someone helpful who has given me the location of a pharmacy that we're going to visit first thing tomorrow morning, who have been instructed to help us.

No idea why that didn't happen the first time!

andrewducker

I am an idiot who forgot my blood pressure medicine when I came down to Devon to see my parents.

So this morning I went in to the local pharmacy. Who can't help me because NHS England and NHS Scotland are two different organisations. But they told me to call NHS 111 and ask them for help.

NHS 111 said "We don't have anyone available who can prescribe, call us back after 6:30PM, or talk to a local GP as "Unregistered or Temporary Residents". So we went in to my dad's GP and they said "We don't help in that situation, go talk to NHS 111, they'll help you." - which would seem to leave me in an endless loop.

Just in case, I called my GP surgery in Scotland, who said that they can't prescribe in England.

At which point, as nobody is considering this very important, I think about the only options are to either call back after 6:30 tonight or to just do without for a week. Which, having checked online, doesn't look like a great idea.

Edit: I called them back at 7:00. Got through to someone helpful who has given me the location of a pharmacy that we're going to visit first thing tomorrow morning, who have been instructed to help us.

No idea why that didn't happen the first time!

andrewducker

1. New wave of fake stories about curbs on personal freedoms and bogus taxes rack up millions of views on social media: (tags:AI fraud disinformation socialmedia doom )
2. Scottish bus journey times being 'killed by congestion' in cities: (tags:buses Edinburgh Scotland transport )

sonia

I just went through the annual ritual of renewing my handful of domains at Hover.com. I bought one of them right at the end of December one year, so I start getting reminder emails in late November, and then I just renew all of them at once.

They've gone up to $18.99/year, which makes me wonder if I really should let a couple of them go next time. But they're like polished stones, appealing to hold even if they don't have other uses. The ones for the first two books in particular, I've never publicized, but I'd also hate for someone else to squat on them.

traumahealed.com is the one I've put out there the most over the years. Others are sundownarts.com (original domain, main email address), sundownhealingarts.com (publisher name), wellspringofcompassion.com (book 1 title), presenceaftertrauma.com (book 2 title), curioushealing.com (book blog)

I also have soniaconnolly.com which I turned into a programmer resume site last year, and balkandancing.com, which I mostly use to keep an ever-expanding list of folk dance videos.

james

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

rebeccmeister

All I can say is that I really hope ya'll like your Christmasolstihanukkawanzaa gift! It is going to be given in stages, snail-mail stages first.

Whew.

Anyway.

Today I am also FULL OF RELIEF because I managed to secure excellent cat-sitters for George and Martha! They are two of my animal care student workers, so I already know they know how to take very good care of animals.

Now, time to sleep.

stonepicnicking_okapi posting in

1word1day

ignavia /iɲˈɲa.vja/

noun

1. the sin of sloth or idleness or moral cowardice.

examples

1. Every honest man will admit that a violent effort is necessary to shake off ignavia critica critical laziness, that so widespread form of intellectual cowardice; that this effort must be constantly repeated, and that it is often accompanied by real suffering. ON BELIEVING WHAT WE’RE TOLD. 21 Dec 2004

2. The pity that proves so possible and plentiful without that basis, is mere ignavia and cowardly effeminacy; maudlin laxity of heart, grounded on blinkard dimness of head -- contemptible as a drunkard's tears. Latter-Day Pamphlets. Thomas Carlyle. 1838

origin
Latin

The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, Canto 18: The multitude of the slothful - Illustration by Gustave Dore

sloth

minoanmiss posting in

agonyaunt

( Read more... )

Current Mood: annoyed

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chebe

December 2025

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Curious thoughts

Network

Seasonal Greetings For 2025 🎄

Photo cross-post

Interesting Links for 24-12-2025

Ice hockey history

So, 1000xResist

PSA: California PG&E baseline allowances

Dear Miss Manners:Is my neighbor my new bestie or a frigid hag?

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Tuesday word: Reindeer

some things I'm currently doing

This notebook is just full of scribblins [status]

Update on my medical woes

A sudden withdrawal

Interesting Links for 23-12-2025

Domain renewals

Notes to self

DANG that was a lot of work [vaguebooking, projects]

Monday Word: Ignavia

Ask a Manager, Update: "is this guy harassing me or just annoying?

Interesting Links for 22-12-2025

Profile

December 2025

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