toothycat | Network

Так-то ничего интересного; курочу главу, третью с конца; гулять ходил сегодня два раза (чтоб надыбать 10500 шагов как минимум). Со стрессом этим (да ну, понятно, что из-за войны... ну как это всё терпеть... как люди терпят?) решил бороться с помощью йоги и зелёного чая. И прогулок.

Утром ходил гулять, встретил Макса с незнакомой собакой. Макс собачку забрал из приюта, у собачки хозяйка умерла (а где Максов пёсик?). Этот же пёсик пожилой, толстый, мирный. Пока мы с Максом разговаривали, вышла Дженнифер, неподалёку, с двумя своими глупыми шавками, и пошла, от греха подальше, в обратную сторону.

На вторую прогулку пошёл в странные места, через дорогу, и там какая-то лесная грунтовка, идущая до ЛЭПа. Я никак не привыкну, что пространство под ЛЭПом тоже частное. Ну ладно; там я уже раз был, на этой дороге под ЛЭПом. Тут ко мне сзади, типа из лесу, подбегает такое лохматое рыжее чучело, голден ретривер, начинает меня чуть ли не облизывать. Я хотел с ним сфотографироваться, но он убежал. А когда я потом уже вышел на дорогу, и шел по дороге, ко мне подъехал, на гольфовой машинке, мужик, который меня стал расспрашивать, откуда я взялся на его территории и что там делал. Ну чо, говорю, гулял, заблудился, я тут через дорогу живу. Да, тут не Франция.

А больше ничего; буду-ка я сейчас смотреть Freaks - You Are One of Us. Уже видел, и всё там предсказуемо, но идея уж больно хороша. Знакомая ситуация.

И ещё вдруг обнаружил на телефоне аудиокниги, куча их, на французском. А что я всё Наки да Наки. Радио французское слушать невозможно - там десять минут новостей из Африки (ну ладно, сегодня новости из Африки крайне забавны, обе новости), а потом или футбол, или какой-то нелепый музончик.

Была мечта вечером развести костёр и сидеть у него с компом - но когда я с прогулки пришёл, уже было 6 вечера, совсем темно.

mdlbear

Well, here it is, the last week of 2025. One of my goals for the year was to write an infodump post that I could point to, quote from, or email to people who I've been out of touch with. I never got around to it, and it's late, but maybe this will do.

If you're tuning in late, I need to mention that I moved with part of my chosen family to Den Haag, in the Netherlands, in October of 2024. Specifically myself, N, N's husband G, older kid m, and our four cats. N's younger kid, j, was already here, starting university in Leiden.

We're here taking advantage of the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty, which lets Americans emigrate to the Netherlands (or vice versa) and get permanent residency or citizenship provided they start a business here (or bring one with them). We're sort of doing both, with our little indie publishing company HyperSpace Express.

Our plan for the business had been for N to get into sewing and fabric arts, and me to (at long last) record a new CD. The best-laid plans, etc. What's actually happened is that I got very discouraged about my musical ability, and N decided to turn to writing. She's already published her first book, The World As it Ought To Be -- Stories from a Protopian Future. Please buy a copy!

Back in the US, my son R turned FORTY last July. On his birthday I started trying to write a "state of the Bear" post, got nowhere, and abandoned it three days later, a few days before the fourth anniversary of Colleen's death. I have written very little since then. But here I am. The last week has been kind of bleak, and a week from tomorrow will be our fiftieth wedding anniversary. It will be the fifth that I haven't had her with me to celebrate.

Fortunately, Bronx never fails to get a laugh out of me when he jumps up onto the dresser when I'm getting the food bowls ready. And this evening I was mentioning to G how the IBM 1620 has to load its addition and multiplication tables when it boots up, and he said "Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?" I haven't laughed that hard in ... I don't know how long.

Um... not really enough, but I want to post this today (see music), and it's almost bedtime. And I have cats to feed.

Current Mood: distressed
Current Location: Schildhaven Centraal in Den Haag
Current Music: Uncle Ernie's Used Computer Babbage's Birthday Bargain Bash

starwatcher posting in

ebooks

Links to all platforms / booksellers.

https://www.romancebookworms.com/

As always, feel free to share.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3186/

Building Inspectors HATE This One Weird Trick

https://xkcd.com/3186/

calimac

The huge 'wine country gift box' I brought home from the Christmas gift exchange measures 23 x 12 x 10 with the lid closed, which was only possible to do after I removed all the wine bottles and those snacks I wouldn't care to eat (which I gave to B., figuring correctly that she'd like most of them, and the rest she could take to the snack table of her orchestral rehearsals). It was also so heavy that I shouldn't have carried it intact from the car into the house. It proved to contain:

6 bottles of wine (4 reds, 2 whites including a sparkling; 3 from Sonoma County and one each from Napa, Paso Robles, and Oregon)
8 boxes of various cookies
3 of biscuits, one with fruit filling (some of the cookies were also labeled biscuits, apparently in French)
6 of various crackers and hard breads
3 pastries
3 veggie snacks (2 asparagus, 1 olive)
1 each of madeleines, brownies, snack mix, kettle corn, jellies, ginger chews, lemon cakes, dip mix, dipping sauce, olive oil, hummus, and spreadable cheese

Most of the wine is probably destined to be regifted, but when will we manage to eat the rest of this stuff?

calimac

The downpour was severe most of the way up, and all the way back, to/from our niece T's house for Christmas dinner. This and the lighter rain we've been getting for the past week have been the first precipitation in over a month, so we ought to be glad to have it, local flooding nonwithstanding.

Inside, it was warm and cozy, though a bit underpopulated due to various constraints. Still, T's husband and both of their sons were there, including the one who's attending university a couple thousand miles away, and so were my brother and his wife, visiting from their home which is even slightly farther away. Another visitor was C., a supervisee of T's from work who's from Singapore and had no chance to celebrate with relatives, so she invited him over to her house.

T. insisted that we all participate in the all-food white elephant gift exchange, promising B. that she wouldn't get stuck with an assortment of hot sauce as happened one year. Most of the gifts were chocolate and/or wine. C. was mystified by opening presents in the presence of the giver, which is not the custom among his people. I got the last item nobody wanted to take, a huge 'wine country gift box' that T. was given as a reward for some professional service. It appears to have crackers and olive oil, among other things, in addition to wine. But I don't know what else is in it, because it's still out in the trunk of my car. Although it's wrapped in plastic, I didn't want to struggle in with it in the rain. Tomorrow is supposed to be lighter and the rain goes away after that.

For the dinner, I made my broccoli with garlic and cashews that had been such a success at Easter, and it was mostly devoured, despite being a large batch. So that was gratifying.

But now we're glad to have gotten safely home, and so are the cats, who'd been wondering when they were going to be fed.

cosmolinguist

My alarm went off this morning (only at ten, but I needed it) to make sure I was up in time to walk Teddy before his humans were away for their Christmas lunch.

I thought I was the first person to make it downatairs this morning but while I was just getting to the bottom of the stairs I was already greeted by angelofthenorth already in her usual comfy chair saying "Merry Christmas! Do you want some bucks fizz?" (Which is basically a pre-made mimosa. Luckily I'd been reminded of this recently by being offered it after the ceremony at the wedding we were at a few weeks ago; I'd been able to ask D then to remind me what it is.)

It's a lovely Christmas morning: chilly but not cold, usually pretty sunny, and dry.

It had been a week or so since Teddy and I had seen each other so we were both very excited to do so again.

On our walk, we saw a young probably-dad-type person heading to the recycling bin in front of his house with an armful of cardboard, the boxes already broken down. We grinned a greeting at each other.

A few houses down, a woman in pajamas and a big scarf was just trying to nip out to her car in front of the house, but since Teddy wants to say hello to everyone (human or dog) and assumes every human wants to pet him, so I couldn't drag him past her before she gave in and ruffled his ears and said "Merry Christmas" to me.

As we were leaving the park, I noticed we'd just been joined by two kids with the kind of lightsabers that make the noise when you hit them against each other, and a little scotty dog that I know is called Biscuit because they were getting told off/called over when they were ignoring the humans to say hello to Teddy.

I got home, opening the door to the lovely smells of angelofthenorth already well into the process of cooking our amazing Christmas dinner.

juan_gandhi

О каком освоении космоса могут говорить люди, способные "осваивать" землю только сетью кандальных трактов и лагпунктов. За разговорами правящего класса о новом пути, поступательном развитии, прогрессе и эволюции человека скрывается желание тотального контроля. «Эти новые пути заключаются, главным образом, в сочетании бандитизма с наукой и техникой», - проницательно замечает Чуковский в «Растлении американских детей», емко описывая грядущий цифровой ГУЛАГ как «гитлеровское сочетание науки и подлости». «Человек как вид не прогрессирует», - напоминает Ницше

src

mdlbear

Today is Isaac Newton's Birthday, so I'd like to start by wishing you all a very Heavy Newtonmas. I am thankful for...

Friction, and in particular socks with grippy bottoms for wearing around the house.
Gravity, without which those socks wouldn't work. (Neither would a lot of other things, of course. I'm also looking for a little levity, and not finding nearly enough.)
The reason for the season -- axial tilt. Also, having just about the right amount of it. (Uranus has way too much!)
Calculus -- integral, differential, and lambda.
Number systems in which infinitesimals are, um..., well-defined. I guess you can't say "real", can you?
Choice.
Having slightly less mass than I did last year. (Very slightly, but I'll take what I can get.) Good drugs.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: see post

lovelyangel

Daiso A4 storage containers of 8x12 inch photos

Daiso A4 storage containers of 8" x 12" photos

I grew up in the era of film photography, and when rolls of 35mm film were developed we would get a set of 3 1/2" x 5" prints. Eventually, the standard became 4" x 6" prints. I have a lot of 4" x 6" prints.

In the era of digital photography, I didn’t have to get prints for failed photos. I would select the good ones and get 4" x 6" prints. But once I had online photo galleries, I didn’t even have to get prints.

It’s bad, though, to not ever print photos. Digital, online photos will all disappear at some point. I do print photo calendars every year, but that’s only 12 color photos – and I’d like to think I have more than 12 worthwhile photos in a year.

So, for many years, I would have selected images printed as 8" x 12" color photos at my local Costco. Every Costco had a photo center with a huge, industrial photo printer. The printed photos were great, and it was easy for me to swing by the store and pick them up. I have a nice collection of large prints. Recently, I discovered that Daiso A4 (paper) storage containers are ideal for holding 8" x 12" photo prints. Cool!

In 2021, Costco sent a notification that all store photo centers would close on February 21. If we wanted photos printed by Costco, we would have to do so through an centralized Costco online photo center. Prints would then be mailed to us. Ugh. But it still was the cheapest way to go, and that’s what I did. It worked OK.

In 2023, Costco sent a notification that its online photo center would close on January 27. Costco would then outsource online photo services to Shutterfly. We would get a special Costco discount at Shutterfly. I already had a Shutterfly account, as long ago I used them to print calendars for one year and a few photo books. I hadn’t used their services in quite a while, so my account was idle.

Yesterday, I realized I needed some 8" x 12" photo prints. I logged into Shutterfly and uploaded a few photos. Then I went to order prints – and was stopped dead in my tracks. Shutterfly offers 8" x 10" prints and 12" x 12" prints – but no 8" x 12" prints. Showstopper.

I went over to Mpix, who I use for framed photos and business cards. They do 8" x 12" prints, so I placed my order there. Mpix is a lot more expensive than Shutterfly – but they are said to have better quality prints. I’ve never had a problem with them. I should get the prints in a few days.

Afterwards, I did a little research on online photo print services. Mpix is still rated highly. Sources also recommended Printique, and I might give them a try next time.

Also, I need to research local print services, such as Picture Perfect and Pro Photo Supply.

Getting good 8" x 12" prints is getting harder and harder. I don’t need them often; however, in the past I’ve done some printing in advance of calendar preparation. I was pretty spoiled by Costco – but things change. I guess most people nowadays don’t print photos at all, so I’m probably an old Boomer outlier. Oh, well.

sixbeforelunch

What if there’s no ethical way to have unlimited access to every book, film, and record ever created? And moreover, what if that’s not something we should want?

What if we simply decided to consume less media, allowing us to have a deeper appreciation for the art we choose to spend our time with? What if, instead of having an on-demand consumer mindset that requires us to systematically strip art of all its human context, we developed better relationships with creators and built new structures to support them? What if we developed a politics of refusal — the ability to say enough is enough — and recognized that we aren’t powerless to the whims of rich tech CEOs who force this dystopian garbage down our throats while claiming it’s “inevitable?”

Tapes and other physical media aren’t a magic miracle cure for late-stage capitalism. But they can help us slow down and remember what makes us human. Tapes make music-listening into an intentional practice that encourages us to spend time connecting with the art, instead of frantically vibe-surfing for something that suits our mood from moment-to-moment. They reject the idea that the point of discovering and listening to music is finding the optimal collection of stimuli to produce good brain chemicals.

—Why I Quit Streaming And Got Back Into Cassettes by Janus Rose

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3185/

https://xkcd.com/3185/

juan_gandhi

Вчера я закинулся одной таблеткой "от нервов". Сегодня утром сахар был совершенно дикий. Но зато - губу не закусываю, всё так нормальненько. Но я, пожалуй, так не буду. Нафиг мне высокий сахар, от него один вред. Упал он где-то уже после обеда, когда действие таблетки прошло. Да блин.

Постирал; пошкурил и поподмазывал потолок в нарнии. Потому что снаружи тепло, 20 градусов.

В четвёртом часу пошёл гулять, как-то по-особому. Карты гугловские показывают тропы, по ту сторону 49-й, но в реале там всё заросшее, или забор. Ну ничего. Но устал с этого ничего.

Да и всё на сегодня. Сейчас дуолинго надо делать вот.

juan_gandhi

Расстреливать.

cosmolinguist

I wrote and sent (luckily could retrieve in time!!) an email to them from my erik@ address, rather than the Gmail address I've had since 2004 and use for bank stuff and parent stuff and... that's about it now.

I have never even started to do such a thing before, I don't know what happened here! I'm feeling fine today, so for my brain to be so addled is very weird!

Luckily (??), emails sent from the erik@ account from my phone often bring up an error message that means I have to fiddle around a bit to get them sent, and when that happened this time my blood ran cold and I quickly deleted the email altogether. It never got from "outbox" to "sent" so that should be okay!

But sheesh what a near miss!

It was an email about my birthday present too so very obviously from me, I couldn't say it was just spam or something.

oracne

1. Work load at dayjob has been low this week; we got out at noon yesterday, and today I can log off at 12:30 pm. We are then off through January 2 for winter break (yay, academia). I had a couple of small things I was able to resolve this morning, go me!

2. I did not send out Xmas cards this year, but I appreciate every one I received. I hope to be back to it next year.

3. I am thawing out a chuck roast to cook later this week, probably Friday. My tamarind-sauce-flavored vegetable soup from Sunday, which includes silken tofu, grape tomatoes, carrot, potato, and green beans, is very delicious, especially with a couple tablespoons of congee dumped in. Last night, I finished off my bag of post-surgery chicken nuggets and baked sliced golden potatoes at 425 degrees F with olive oil and salt.

4. I have been listening to a ton of Xmas music, so at least I am somewhat in the holiday spirit. I did not have energy to pull out my ornament tree and dress it up, but we have a smaller one downstairs so I moved it from the corner onto the dining room table--the ornaments were still on it from last year! We have some cards propped around the base, and I have more on the little desk in the guest room. I didn't use my usual space in the back room because it would block my DVD screen, which I need for the Blake's 7 watchalong and possibly even some Shakespeare.

5. I have tentative plans for Xmas afternoon with local friends. I want to get started on my fancy wooden turtle puzzle (which I have had for several years), and also to do some mending of clothing. I especially want to try needle-felting a hole in a very old black cashmere cardigan (commercially knitted); I was wearing it when I broke my elbow years ago, so couldn't wash it for weeks, and it got a moth hole under one arm before I was healed up. I am not sure if the hole is too big for felting. We shall see. I have washed it after its long storage!

calimac

45-minute CBS documentary on Rob Reiner. Really thoughtful and insightful views of the man, mostly from actors he directed in his films. A couple of them (both men, by the way) even break down in tears while talking about him. Also plenty of clips from interviews with Reiner, the movies, and All in the Family. Very much worth watching if you're at all interested in Reiner or his movies. It's amazing that the makers were able to put together such a polished and substantial piece of work in such a short time.

Watch on YouTube

darkoshi

I made a fire-roasted tomato stew for Christmas eve tomorrow. There will be vegan Spaetzle (German pasta) and a few other things to go with it.

I also made an upside-down pumpkin pie cake. When I pressed the oven's Start button to start the preheat cycle, the oven proclaimed Beep-beep-beep! It kept beep-beep-beeping rather than turning on, no matter what I tried. The oven can't be turned on except by that Start button.

Well, I could bake the cake at my mom's house tomorrow. But Mistral - Le Chat suggested unplugging the oven for 10 minutes. So I did that and for good (or bad) measure, blew some hot air at the control panel with a hair dryer, and pushed the buttons some more. After plugging it back in, the Start button worked right again. Yay. So cake got baked.

jazzfish

Yesterday I flew home from Minneapolis. My bag got lost, for the first time in ages, so I slept CPAP-less (poorly) last night. When the bag deigned to arrive this morning, it was missing one of the zipper sliders. Same thing happened to an identical bag last year. Time to stop buying and recommending Travelpro suitcases, no matter how nice the wheels are.

I also had a crown break and pop off on Saturday. And my dentist is on holiday until the fifth of January. Argh. At least it's not hurting. I did speak with him briefly and got "yeah, just keep it clean and be gentle with it, and DON'T PUT THE BROKEN CROWN BACK ON."

We lose our use of colour
Just water on the brush

Minneapolis had snow and sun, which were both a nice change from the overly typical wintergrey here. Contrariwise, it remains nice to be back at home with my kitten.

Small changes, small improvements, day by day. Sunreturn.

darkoshi

Walmart has an AI shopping assistant named Sparky. I know this not from interacting with it, but from seeing it on the Walmart page when placing an order recently. Its winking smiley-face icon seemed half-way creepy to me, like a retro 60's up-to-no-good cartoon character.
It looks like the assistant used to have a more plain smiley-face icon. I can see why they may have wanted to give it more pizzazz, but I'm not sure the newer one is an improvement.
It is... disconcerting.
I suppose it sort of fits its name, though.

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toothycat

toothycat.net

December 2025

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Page Summary

juan_gandhi - дыбр
mdlbear - River: End-of-Year Summary, maybe, 2025
starwatcher in ebooks - Dec 26 only -- Free romance books
xkcd_feed - Truly Universal Outlet
calimac - and it contained ...
calimac - I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas
cosmolinguist - Hallmark Christmas movie stuff
juan_gandhi - мудрые мысли
mdlbear - Thankful Thursday (Special Newtonmas edition)
lovelyangel - Who Prints Photos Anymore?
sixbeforelunch - shared without comment
xkcd_feed - Sauropods
juan_gandhi - белый дыбр
juan_gandhi - как в СССР боролись с подростковой преступностью
cosmolinguist - Today in "hilarious ways to come out to my parents"...
oracne - Five Things on Xmas Eve
calimac - on Rob Reiner
darkoshi - a cook a bake a beep
jazzfish - questions here are useless, nothing answers back
darkoshi - Sparky AI shopping assistant

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Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

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Page generated Dec. 27th, 2025 04:02 am

MoonShadow and SunKitten's journal

Network

дыбр

River: End-of-Year Summary, maybe, 2025

Dec 26 only -- Free romance books

Truly Universal Outlet

and it contained ...

I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas

Hallmark Christmas movie stuff

мудрые мысли

Thankful Thursday (Special Newtonmas edition)

Who Prints Photos Anymore?

shared without comment

Sauropods

белый дыбр

как в СССР боролись с подростковой преступностью

Today in "hilarious ways to come out to my parents"...

Five Things on Xmas Eve

on Rob Reiner

a cook a bake a beep

questions here are useless, nothing answers back

Sparky AI shopping assistant

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December 2025

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