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xkcd_feed Mar. 16th, 2026 04:00 am)
xkcd_feed Mar. 16th, 2026 04:00 am)
Getting some prep work done for the kitchen and dining room paint job. Hub helped with a sink sprayer issue. I'm starting with prepping and painting doors and trim. I then need to remove a backsplash before I paint the kitchen. I bought a peel and stick option to replace it afterward. I'm going for a cozy core vibe.
The dog's bandages are completely off and fur is growing over her surgical areas.
The dog's bandages are completely off and fur is growing over her surgical areas.
(followmehere_feed Mar. 15th, 2026 12:16 pm)
followmehere_feed Mar. 15th, 2026 12:16 pm)
‘Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States may carry out more strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub “just for fun”, saying that while Tehran appears ready to make a deal to end the conflict, “the terms aren’t good enough yet”.…’ (via Boing Boing)
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dw_maintenance Mar. 14th, 2026 01:04 pm)
mark posting in dw_maintenance Mar. 14th, 2026 01:04 pm)Happy Saturday!
I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!
If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.
(followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 01:43 am)
followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 01:43 am)
‘How to save those wet, damaged books? The question has to be asked. [Here] you can watch a visual primer from the Syracuse University Libraries—people who know some thing about taking care of books. It contains a series of tips, some intuitive, some less so, that will give you a clear action plan the next time water and paper meet.…’ (via Open Culture)
(followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 01:38 am)
followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 01:38 am)
‘The new study described this “almost unprecedented rate of increase” in the length of an average day as a quantifiable consequence of Earth’s rising oceans.…’ (Matthew Phelan via Gizmodo)
(followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 01:32 am)
followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 01:32 am)‘First lady Melania Trump on Thursday delivered some wildly over-the-top praise to an unexpected person: herself.
With husband President Donald Trump looking on at a Women’s History Month event at the White House, the first lady declared herself to be a “visionary” who is “often alone at the top.”
“In solitude, my creative mind dances, filling my imagination with originality,” she said, then listed all of her roles: “mother, humanitarian, philanthropist, and entrepreneur.”
Melania Trump was also pleased with her work on the film about herself, “Melania,” which currently has an 11% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“I shaped its creative direction, served as a producer, managed post-production, and activated the marketing campaign,” she said, adding:
“Curiosity is a core value that keeps me ahead of the curve. Curiosity begets knowledge, opening doors to ideas and industry that I have otherwise overlooked. This unrestricted mindset has led me to build across very different sectors: fashion, digital assets, publishing, accessories, skincare, commercial television, and of course, filmmaking.”…’ (Ed Mazza via HuffPost)
Public figures occasionally praise their own work, but the rhetorical register here resembles personal promotional copy more than the usual language of public office. The grandiosity goes a long way to explaining the sometimes puzzling reason she stays with him.
(followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 01:22 am)
followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 01:22 am)
‘One-time Donald Trump biographer Michael Wolff revealed why the situation with the Iran war “could not be more dire” as the president continues his habit of ignoring intelligence briefings.
A veteran reporter and author, Wolff is best known for his 2018 book, Fire & Fury, which used inside sources to chronicle the chaos of Trump’s first term in the White House. During the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, “Inside Trump’s Head,” he dug into why Trump’s habits make it uniquely dangerous for him to be overseeing the war against Iran.
As Wolff noted, Trump is well-known for his refusal to read daily intelligence briefings, which his various predecessors would read extensively. In the past, reports indicated that staffers have tried to get important information to him by simplifying briefings, getting them down to a page or less and trying to include as many pictures as possible. They have also reportedly tried to construct the information to be about Trump himself, in order to pique his interest.…’ (via Alternet)
(followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 12:48 am)
followmehere_feed Mar. 14th, 2026 12:48 am)
‘Without the mass stellar migration, life may not have been able to form on Earth.…’ (Passant Rabie via Gizmodo)
Sooooo, today I Saw my 1st Wights since Yule! Apparently, they're common enough that Cryptid and Ghost Hunters have recorded them. They're generally cally "Flying Rods" because that's basically what they are. In NW Florida they were prey to these VW beetle sized things that acted like anemones. I've only seen the rods here though. They move like squid on speed;>!
Maybe Spring's FINALLY coming!
Cheers,
Pat
Maybe Spring's FINALLY coming!
Cheers,
Pat
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(urbpan_feed Feb. 27th, 2026 01:46 pm)
urbpan_feed Feb. 27th, 2026 01:46 pm)Link to tiktok video
Crimped Gill Plicatura crispa
I'd been looking for these mushrooms for about a year and I knew they were pretty common and I didn't know why I was having a hard time finding them. Then I went on this walk in the Dedham Town Forest and found thousands of them. The difference was, that was a rainy day, like today is. These little mushrooms--when it's dry out--dry right up, and they don't look like anything. When I brought this stick home, the next day it was dry, and it looked like there were no mushrooms at all, just little bits of white crust. So that's a superpower that this mushroom has: the fungus that produces this mushroom is able to get spores out when other mushrooms are unable to, because of its ability to dry up and rehydrate.
(followmehere_feed Mar. 11th, 2026 09:57 pm)
followmehere_feed Mar. 11th, 2026 09:57 pm)I know, alright? I know, I know, I know.
He’s awful.
A maniac, even. Possibly a sociopath. It’s hard to tell.
Yes, he might destroy the very fabric of this country. Yes, his grasp of foreign policy seems similar to that of a petulant four-year-old. Yes, his key advisor is a guy who started a white nationalist website and who looks like a hobbit crossed with an angry radish.
It is, I’ll admit, entirely possible he’ll start another war, or several wars, or even a world war because Melania finally escaped, or his sons were revealed to be Uday and Qusay Hussein in disguise, or something.
But he’s just one guy. One freaking guy. You have got to stop coming here, day after day, screaming into me about him. Especially using that many curse words.
I think we can both admit at this point that the screaming isn’t working. The screaming isn’t making you feel any better.
So, I’m asking you, as someone who loves you—stop it. Stop the screaming. Be proactive about your life. Go do something about it.
Do anything. Do something small—gaze at your normal-sized hands and feel superior about it. Wear a dead orange badger on your head and make yourself laugh. Start a drinking game where you drink whenever the Constitution gets violated. Okay, that last one’s not a great idea, oh man, I’m already drunk.
— Read on www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-void-would-very-much-like-you-to-stop-screaming-into-it
(followmehere_feed Mar. 11th, 2026 09:51 pm)
followmehere_feed Mar. 11th, 2026 09:51 pm)’Trump’s administration has both used and avoided the word war in ways that seek glory and evade responsibility.…’ (Gal Beckerman via Atlantic)
I have a general frustration of "I want to have done X but i am not doing it." And just writing that down has illustrated something for me. I am not sure i have desires about actually doing, but i have desires i want done. That's.... interesting.
Monday's therapy raised something for me, which is the frame i have for doing things. At a very large scale i think i have values driving things. But when i get closer in, i have more "i'm not doing this because how-Mom-framed-her-activities or how-Dad-framed-her-activities or how-the-dominant-culture-frames-doing" than my own reasons or frames.
Phrasing that i want "to have done" something does help a little, because i think it helps me see that i am not engaging with the doing, really, and the doing is the next step. So if i want to have grafted the scions i bought to the crepe myrtle and fig before they scions die, i need to start thinking about wanting to be outside (yay) with a sharp thing (erm) maybe on a ladder (erm x2) figuring out how to try something i can only try once a year and that the success feedback comes very slowly, sigh, and that i may not succeed because i am still learning. Hmm, maybe i could just graft the current fig onto the current fig to have more practice. And i don't need to get all concerned with "is this really the best place" for the purchased scions, just graft them SOMEWHERE and see if it takes. If they take and i want to move them, that's OK.
Another change in my being is that i am a little more aware of the specific feelings/emotions that i am escaping from (generally to novels). Over my vacation, there was shame/frustration/anger of misplacing tomato seeds. I was aware of wanting to avoid those feelings and thinking about it. Yesterday, Christine was upset about something and also i wasn't ready to really face the outcome of Monday's therapy. So i read.
I am frustrated with the reading because i have a hard time stopping and there are all the things i want to have done that won't happen while i am reading. But i am also frustrated with my constant (it seems) inability to have done things. And that's .. ah, there, that is still a heavy emotion that will be hard to address except in little bits.
Monday i was very very tired after therapy, and i still feel tired today. I am in the muddle of why: am i sick (coughing more - -because pollen? or cold? or?), in a fatigue flare? Or emotionally tired and maybe i would feel better if i actually did something, anything?
I had a virtual visit with a health care provider and have an OK on doubling up on antihistamines. We'll see if that hits this lethargy.
Meanwhile, insane weather. The saucer magnolia is a cloud of pink. Maybe the rain tomorrow will somehow protect it from the frost/freeze on Friday morning.
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I went out for a little walk this morning and found the first willow catkins - Pusekätzchen! They are an important flower for bees at this time of year, not just for honey bees but for solitary bees, bumblebees and solitary wasps.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Last night I officially gave up on linux backup software and modified one of my existing backup-by-rsync scripts to backup my user account on the linux system to its new external drive. I took ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ravan's suggestion of adding the -delete argument to the rsync command; this should reduce the incidental duplication and reduplication of moved files.
As I went to bed, my first backup was still running. Subsequent ones will be much faster.
When I'm happy with the results, I'll remove the -v argument and substitute -q, then arrange to run the script from cron.
I'm a bit concerned that on a system with no local mail service, there will be no effective way to learn about errors from the cron job. I may have to install a rudimentary mail server just to get emails from cron sent somewhere where I'll see them. (Maybe some of the full fledged backup systems handle notifications via the system's notification manager, but I doubt it.)
Overall, I'm very disappointed with the offerings. There were far too many missing features, lots of missing or broken documentation, and one feature I didn't want - extra encryption for the backups, on top of any full disk encryption one might have on the receiving media. I don't object to this being available - you'd probably want it if backing up to a different machine - what I object to is making it mandatory (restic), or broken documentation that should have told me what encryption scheme to use to have no encryption (borg).
Deduplication would have been nice, given the mess I have from prior non-use of -delete in rsync-mediated backups. Also because it would save a lot of backup time when I move big chunks of data to new locations in the file system. But I need to clean up that mess anyway, and with an rsync backup I can do the same 'mv' within the backup files as I'm doing within the source files, thereby avoiding a stupid copy-to-new-location and delete-at-old-location.
ravan's suggestion of adding the -delete argument to the rsync command; this should reduce the incidental duplication and reduplication of moved files. As I went to bed, my first backup was still running. Subsequent ones will be much faster.
When I'm happy with the results, I'll remove the -v argument and substitute -q, then arrange to run the script from cron.
I'm a bit concerned that on a system with no local mail service, there will be no effective way to learn about errors from the cron job. I may have to install a rudimentary mail server just to get emails from cron sent somewhere where I'll see them. (Maybe some of the full fledged backup systems handle notifications via the system's notification manager, but I doubt it.)
Overall, I'm very disappointed with the offerings. There were far too many missing features, lots of missing or broken documentation, and one feature I didn't want - extra encryption for the backups, on top of any full disk encryption one might have on the receiving media. I don't object to this being available - you'd probably want it if backing up to a different machine - what I object to is making it mandatory (restic), or broken documentation that should have told me what encryption scheme to use to have no encryption (borg).
Deduplication would have been nice, given the mess I have from prior non-use of -delete in rsync-mediated backups. Also because it would save a lot of backup time when I move big chunks of data to new locations in the file system. But I need to clean up that mess anyway, and with an rsync backup I can do the same 'mv' within the backup files as I'm doing within the source files, thereby avoiding a stupid copy-to-new-location and delete-at-old-location.
I've been using the AP as my source of US news headlines. I started with its daily email summary, which was actually one of a pair - morning and evening - and they presumed all readers subscribed to both. I didn't want twice-a-day news, but also didn't want to get stories framed as extra details/reaction to some story I'd never seen. Since my main reason for following daily new was to know about unicorn events that I might need to act on, I subscribed to their breaking news alerts, but never got around to unsubscribing from their morning summary.
My main news source is the Guardian. I pay them. The household also has paid subscriptions to local paper(s) that basically don't do national or international news.
This morning I clicked on the "read more" link in one of the AP emails, and got a spam wall - a requirement of a "free account" to continue reading. AP already knows my email, and IIRC they've bombarded me with unwanted extras - mostly ads for other newsletters - every time I've subscribed to one of them. Their "free" account will presumably involve more of the same, plus collecting and selling the details of what I click on - though frankly I'm surprised they aren't already doing that, via extra arguments to the links in their email newsletters.
I haven't decided yet whether I'll respond not by signing up, but by deleting my existing free email subscriptions.
Yes, I get it that they would like to be paid, and this is a step towards getting money from free readers like me. Moreover, they have a perfect right to refuse to provide a free service. But OTOH, their daily summary emails are a very poor imitation of what I'd prefer to be reading. To be suitable, they'd need to include breaking news that turned up between e.g. midnight my time and 6 AM my time, and *not* presume I'd already read their afternoon news email summary. I'm not eager to pay for service this bad, not even in wasted time.
I could, of course, create an account using an email alias, and deactivate that alias once confirmed, to avoid the expected flood of ads for other services. But they'll probably require me to use that email to login, and the gods alone know whether their login screen will play nicely enough with my password safe that I won't need to memorize my login ID.
I'll decide when I'm more awake, since I'm almost always at my grumpiest pre-coffee and pre-breakfast.
Meanwhile, I wonder how long they've had this spam wall, but I didn't notice because I didn't click on any of their stories.
[Edited to add: the Guardian seems to have mostly equivalent email subscriptions available. These may be the best available answer to AP's new feature.]
[Update: it seemed that I could click on AP break news alerts and see the underlying story, but not on links from their morning summary email. So I thought I might keep the alerts, for now, and drop the morning summary. But then I found that it's not that simpler - this evening I can follow links from the morning summary.]
My main news source is the Guardian. I pay them. The household also has paid subscriptions to local paper(s) that basically don't do national or international news.
This morning I clicked on the "read more" link in one of the AP emails, and got a spam wall - a requirement of a "free account" to continue reading. AP already knows my email, and IIRC they've bombarded me with unwanted extras - mostly ads for other newsletters - every time I've subscribed to one of them. Their "free" account will presumably involve more of the same, plus collecting and selling the details of what I click on - though frankly I'm surprised they aren't already doing that, via extra arguments to the links in their email newsletters.
I haven't decided yet whether I'll respond not by signing up, but by deleting my existing free email subscriptions.
Yes, I get it that they would like to be paid, and this is a step towards getting money from free readers like me. Moreover, they have a perfect right to refuse to provide a free service. But OTOH, their daily summary emails are a very poor imitation of what I'd prefer to be reading. To be suitable, they'd need to include breaking news that turned up between e.g. midnight my time and 6 AM my time, and *not* presume I'd already read their afternoon news email summary. I'm not eager to pay for service this bad, not even in wasted time.
I could, of course, create an account using an email alias, and deactivate that alias once confirmed, to avoid the expected flood of ads for other services. But they'll probably require me to use that email to login, and the gods alone know whether their login screen will play nicely enough with my password safe that I won't need to memorize my login ID.
I'll decide when I'm more awake, since I'm almost always at my grumpiest pre-coffee and pre-breakfast.
Meanwhile, I wonder how long they've had this spam wall, but I didn't notice because I didn't click on any of their stories.
[Edited to add: the Guardian seems to have mostly equivalent email subscriptions available. These may be the best available answer to AP's new feature.]
[Update: it seemed that I could click on AP break news alerts and see the underlying story, but not on links from their morning summary email. So I thought I might keep the alerts, for now, and drop the morning summary. But then I found that it's not that simpler - this evening I can follow links from the morning summary.]
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