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Phone woes. Email woes. Texting woes.

So my current plan is to stop off at Best buy tomorrow when I'm kicking around in Baltimore, and say hey, it feels like everything about this phone is wrong. I am getting texts half hour to an hour after they're sent, texts I send aren't necessarily even going through, everything refreshes weirdly, the system UI keeps crashing, it's unconscionably slow, and if I'm listening to audio on sub stack it sounds like it's underwater and YouTube is no longer willing to play in the background even though I pay for it.

The text thing is especially problematic because it's already a miracle if I notice email that comes to me on my main accounts because I have so much other random stuff that I mean granted it's partly because sub-stack adds you to emails all over the place and I need to figure out how to undo that.

This post brought to you by my having happened to notice a reference to something I thought there was a possibility I was invited to and so I went searching through my email and eventually found something at the end of January and then had to look up whether it conflicted with something else I'm committed to and found that date from an email near the end of January...

And also hopefully I haven't pointed poison to myself with overly old tortellini.

Anyway, I'm really hoping that showing up at a Contra dance doesn't count as moderate activity in terms of avoid moderate or strenuous activity the day before this particular study thing because I would really like to get to Contra tonight up in Baltimore.

So very tired.

Anyway, a pretty good rule of thumb is that if you haven't gotten a reply from me for something it's quite likely I have for whatever reason either not gotten that message or not seen that message or maybe saw the message meant to get back to it and didn't. I will never be upset with getting something like a.. or a question mark follow up. Somehow double ?? Follow up gives me a stress response.

Current Mood: bouncy

Entry tags:

heated rivalry

squee

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Best Translated Short Story nomination

list of nominees

My translation of “Bodyhoppers” by Rocío Vega, published at Clarkesworld Magazine, has been nominated in the category of the Best Translated Short Fiction for the British Science Fiction Association Awards. The annual awards are voted on by members of the BSFA and will be presented at this year’s British National Science Fiction Convention, called Eastercon because it takes place over Easter weekend, April 3 to 6.

I’m honored to be listed among such talented translators, and the full BSFA Awards shortlist is a great reading list. Congratulations to all the nominees!

2026.03.11

Wegovy users have five times greater risk of sudden sight loss than Ozempic users, study finds
‘Eye strokes’ that reduce blood flow to optic nerve likely to be side-effect of active ingredient semaglutide, says author
Anna Bawden Health and social affairs correspondent
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/10/wegovy-sudden-sight-loss-ozempic-study-semaglutide

‘My lovely distraction’: live stream of kākāpō – world’s fattest parrot – and her chicks captivates New Zealand
More than 100,000 people have tuned in to watch ‘kākāpō cam’, which captures a rare flightless bird sleeping, tidying her nest and fighting off intruders
Eva Corlett in Wellington
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/kakapo-cam-live-stream-parrot-new-zealand ( Read more... )

Wednesday's page

She did say not to dawdle.

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Burlesque Picture of the Day, 2026-03-10: Aurora Natrix!

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(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260310.html

Are lasers from giant telescopes being used to defend the Earth?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260310.html

Hiding from stellar radiation behind an asteroid

Okay, I thought I knew science, but after several days of researching this, all I've got is indecision and a headache.

Original fiction, unspecified not-too-far-future time.

My character is the pilot of a small cargo ship in the asteroid belt. (No FTL, no artificial gravity.) Said ship has sufficient radiation shielding to be safe under normal conditions. My idea is that there's an unusually strong solar event (solar flare? coronal mass ejection?), and he has to survive by positioning his ship on the shadowed side of an asteroid (rocks are good shielding), and use his excellent piloting skills to stay there until the storm passes.

1. Does this, theoretically, actually work?

2. I'd like the solar event to be a Coronal Mass Ejection, because some CMEs move relatively slowly, and that gives my character time to make a narratively interesting choice. But is it the CME itself that's hazardous to human life, or a sort of "bow wave" of radiation that precedes it? And if the latter, is that radiation moving at the speed of the CME, or the speed of light? (I keep thinking I have a grasp on this, and then the next source I read contradicts it.)

Guidance appreciated, fellow space enthusiasts!

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web images

Alice is preparing for the winds of change.

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Tuesday and the adventures thereto

Tuesday. Sunny, already warm and heading for the 70sF. They say.

Trash and recycling are at the curb. Breakfast has been et.

Slept well last night. The cats all piled on top of me, set purr boxes on HIGH, pushed the personal gravity fields to the top and -- it worked. Eight hours and change, and I feel much more human.

My second cup of tea is brewing. Once I've dealt with that, I'll be doing errands, including getting gas, while there's any left to get, and a Staples run -- very likely my last at our in-city store, which will be closing next month. What else -- ah, the usual: grocery, bank, post office, goodwill, CVS. Home for lunch and possibly catching up the filing before I leave again for the library and needleworking.

What's everybody doing today?

I did try this morning to get a picture of all four of us, but Firefly refused to be photographed until she had gotten her eyes done properly, which means you guys get two pictures of three.

#
LOCAL PEEPS OF THE FLANNEL SHIRT WEARING INCLINATION: I just bought two flannel shirts at Reny's for $5/each, and the Word is that they're being "put away" today. So, if you're wanting to stock up on flannel -- get thee to Reny's, like, now.

Obviously, I'm home again. Not only that, I accomplished almost all of my errands (I did not manage to buy two things, not for lack of trying, but for lack of Stuff Being In Stock).

I bought notebooks, legal pads and folders at Staples. Mind you, I don't need any more notebooks or legal pads, but -- sale. Also -- new notebooks.

Did my Smol grocery shop at the Elm Plaza Hannaford, not wishing to brave the KMD Hannaford, where the freezers and cold keepers were out for most of the weekend.

The oven is heating for my Very! First! CookUnity Experience, which is apparently ... Mediterranean Chicken Shawarma Bowl with Mint-Tahini sauce.

Many thanks to everyone who admired my new haircut. I must, however report, that it was only wet hair dragged back into a ponytail. This is what it looks like, after I've been running around all morning. And, yes, I do need a haircut, but -- not today.

#
Report on my very first Cook Unity meal, Mediterranean Chicken Shawarma Bowl with Mint-Tahini sauce, and a crazy little side salad, made with pickles, cherry tomatoes, and something yellow and dense, in cubes (edited to add: I am informed that these were pickled turnips). I love cultures that treat pickles like a food, rather than an afterthought. Just by the way.

The main course was good, but a little more than I'm accustomed to eating for lunch, which is my big meal of the day. I'll have the rest of it tonight, but this could be an unexpected downside to having a meal service. Or, not, if I routinely get two meals out of one.

Anyhow, no complaints of the food, for Meal One.

Onward.
#
So, I just learned a whole new way to be rude. I forgot to go to the bank when I was out earlier (this is what happens when you don't Write It Down), so I went out after lunch. And as the teller was counting out my twenties for me, I saw one that was taped together, and another, that Ought To Have Been taped together. So, when she was done counting, I pulled those two bills and asked for replacements.

Her: You saw those?

Me: (Not in the OutLoud voice: Obviously.) Yes, I watch when people count money out. Old Habit.

Her: You want different bills?

Me: Yes. I don't want my money to fall apart before I spend it.

Her: Replaces the twenties. Sighs heavily.

Me: Thank you. Leaves. Sighs heavily.

#
Finished my latest project

Entry tags:

politics

compare, contrast, despise

Have I played my part well in the farce of life?
— Augustus Caesar, first Emperor of Rome

as reported by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
in The Life of Augustus
originally published 121 C.E., Roman Empire

Did you love my performance in Venezuela?
My performance in Iran is better, isn’t it?
— Donald Trump, President of the United States

as reported by Jonathan Carl of ABC News
originally reported March 6, 2026 C.E., United States

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

impatient crash

Where the small access street to our development meets the main artery, there's a traffic light, and the exit direction of the small access street splits into two lanes.

Therein lies the rub, because the left lane of those two is a left-turn-only lane, clearly marked with an arrow on the pavement. That leaves the right lane, which has no markings, for both going forward and turning right.

I was in my car at the front of this lane, waiting at a red light, because I was going forward. Behind me was a U-Haul truck whose driver wanted to turn right. He thought I had to turn right too - which I could have done safely, had that been my intent - and got impatient. So - since there was nobody in the left lane - he decided to go around me.

At that moment the light turned green, and - not seeing this truck pulling this dangerous maneuver - I started to move forward. And he came around and clipped me, wrecking my left headlight cover and a bunch of other stuff. So, instead of saving 3 seconds, he wasted half an hour, because that's how long it took to settle things after we pulled over.

"Why didn't you go?" he asked me.

"The light was red," I replied.

"You could have turned right safely," he said.

"I wasn't turning right. I was going forward," I replied.

"Then you should have been in the other lane," he said.

"That's a dedicated left turn lane," I replied.

He then went over and looked at it, and what he thought after seeing the arrow on the pavement - which he could easily have seen when he was behind me - I don't know.

I got very angry with him and he responded by calling the police. The cops were bemused by what was a civil dispute, not a criminal matter, and mediated our exchange of information. One of the cops advised me not to get angry, with an implication that I did so as some kind of negotiating tactic. I said I expressed anger because I was angry. He said it wasn't a big deal, insurance will cover it.

Well, it won't. I have a large deductible, my insurance doesn't cover the cost of a rental car while mine is in the shop, and that doesn't count the nuisance and fuss of dealing with all this. My usual body shop has abruptly gone out of business, to my surprise, so I had to get the insurer to find another one on their approved list. I hope the insurer agrees that I wasn't responsible for this. That the other driver tried this tight going-around maneuver in a large truck is what seemed most to impress my insurance adjuster.

2026.03.10

Can we expect to see more U.S. citizens denaturalized?
Immigrants with citizenship and other legal status worry about losing the protections they rely on to live in Minnesota.
by Nora Hertel
https://www.minnpost.com/greater-minnesota/2026/03/can-we-expect-to-see-more-u-s-citizens-denaturalized/

Ex-Missouri house speaker sentenced 21 months for misusing Covid relief funds
John Diehl admitted using federal pandemic loans for country club dues, cars and other personal expenses
Associated Press
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/10/covid-fraud-missouri-house-speaker-john-diehl ( Read more... )

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

Heated Rivalry rec

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(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Is this a cosmic monster ready to devour an unsuspecting galaxy?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260309.html

What's going on inside the head of this nebula?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260309.html

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Burlesque Picture of the Day, 2026-03-09: Honey Lawless & GiGi d'Flower!

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Entry tags:

carnegie hall is thataway

tenor viola followup

*mindblown.gif*

Okay, so, clefs. If you've seen piano music you know how it's got two staffs, one for the right hand / high notes and one for the left / low notes. The staffs have a squiggle on the left end of them: the high one has a sort of loopy thing and the low one has a sort of 7 or 2 with a couple of dots. These are clefs, specifically treble clef and bass clef. They tell you what pitch the notes on the staff represent.

Technically the symbols are a G clef and an F clef: the spiral at the centre of the treble squiggle is always on a note that's a G, and the two dots on the bass are always on a note that's an F. Technically if you put the symbols on other lines you'd indicate different pitches. In practice, these days nobody does that, and 'G clef' and 'treble clef' are synonymous, as are 'F clef' and 'bass clef.'

Violin music is written in treble clef. Cello music is (mostly) written in bass clef. The range of notes you can easily play on those instruments more or less coincides with what you can easily write in those clefs without egregious use of extra ledger lines for notes above/below the staff.

There's also another clef symbol. The C clef symbol looks like a capital B, and the middle of the two humps is always on a note that's a C. It's used to indicate two uncommon clefs. Alto clef gets used for viola music and nothing else as far as I know, and tenor clef gets used for cello music that's off in the upper registers of the cello. Alto clef is... honestly I don't know what its relation to treble clef is, other than "lower," I think it's a sixth lower? Maybe a seventh? I don't read treble clef very well so I don't really know.

Tenor clef is a fifth higher than bass clef. This makes it really convenient for cello music. The strings on a cello (or violin or viola) are a fifth apart, so if you're used to reading bass clef for cello then tenor is the same thing just one string up.

A viola is a fifth lower than a violin, and an octave higher than a cello. If you put 'octave strings' on a viola, it plays the same notes as a cello. A tenor viola is an octave lower than a violin, and a fifth higher than a cello.

Which means it can natively play music in tenor clef. Hence the names.

Here endeth the classical music neepery for the day.

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Shoulda stood in bed

Firefly and Rook did their best to get me to go back to bed this morning, but I was adamant.

Well. My weather-delayed CookUnity order arrived five minutes ago, and all the meals, of course, are "use by 3/11." So, I'm guessing I'll find out how well a couple of these freeze.

The ice packs were still solid and the meals are cold, so I'm guessing they'll be OK to eat.

Today was not the most productive day ever. I should actually have gone back to bed this morning, but I fixed that by taking a two hour nap. Still not feeling top o'the world, but at least I'm less weepy.

Tomorrow, is Errands, finishing up with needlework.

The ice in the driveway is gone, just in time for the temps to plunge into the high 30sF on Wednesday. Now, I need to figure out what parts of this enormous, but extremely well-insulated, box are recyclable.

On that note -- everybody have a good evening. I'll check in tomorrow.

Entry tags:

Heated Rivalry rec

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