Reading

Entry tags:

anime - general blather

Media Roundup, Accidental Advent Animated Edition

Since starting my Accidental Advent project on the 8th, I've made it through an impressive amount of stuff! This is the animated chunk of the pile; the manga/comics/magazines/etc will come later.

Grimms Notes - could not get into at any point despite some fun gimmicks; turns out this was based on a dead Square-Enix mobile game that never reached global. Basically a wander through fairy tales. Also Joan of Arc is a fairy tale now and I am actually kinda curious why Japan likes her so much.

ClassicaLoid (S1) - this was fun? Composers reconstituted into the present with weird abilities? Like, this was fun and dumb but I cannot imagine watching it again or seeking out the second season. Really good music, and I really liked all the composers but... yeah.

Cars 1-3 - iirc this was a gift, and this is actually the first time I've seen Cars 2 since it came out. It's still bad! 1 & 3 are formulaic and charming, but 2 is bafflingly bad! I think the main problem is that it hangs on Mater and he's not a lead character archetype. Wait, no, that's one of the main problems; the other is the entire plot and wtf. Hilariously, these were packaged in the case as 1, 3, and then 2 in the back. I agree.

Earl & Fairy - this is still charming and since the novels are licensed I should really get them. (eBook only afaik, alas) This was a 'I've seen this multiple times but it got licensed and I guess I bought a copy?' watch.

Monster Musume OVAs - idk why this is a loose disc or where it came from because while I read some of the manga, I've never seen the anime. I legit do not know where this came from. Also since it's OVAs, it's boobies bouncing breastily everywhere.

Fractale - I don't know why I bought this. I mean, the entire creative team suggests I should have really liked it but it was downright awful and I almost turned it off after the second episode but I thought it might get better? Overdone 'everyone prefers VR' + main character gets accidentally pegged as a pervert and the accusations follow him for the whole show for no reason. I feel like this could have and should have been good, but it was terrible.

Anyway, two for the shelf, three for the sale box, will ask M if perhaps he misplaced or would like the Monster Musume disc.

Current Mood: busy

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Hobbies: Crochet

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This batch features hobbies.

Crochet is a fibercraft hobby of making things from yarn with a hooked stick, such as afghans, clothes, toys ,and other stuff. If you feel frustrated by planned obsolescence, artificial intelligence, and other current issues then consider knitting as a form of protest. Nothing says "Fuck off, fast fashion!" like crocheting a 100% natural-fiber garment that will last for years and years.

On Dreamwidth, consider communities like

crafty,

crochet,

everykindofcraft,

dwsockclub,

get_knitted,

intertwined,

justcreate, and

knittingpix.

( Read more... )

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what are you playing wednesday

What Are You Playing Wednesday

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

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Daily Happiness

1. Today I had a meeting about one aspect of the upcoming system change that led us to discover something major that IT had totally misunderstood. Me and the other non-IT guy were pretty freaked out about it, especially when the guy leading the meeting kept insisting that this was the way the new system works and there is 100% no way that it could be changed, and also kept insisting that all of us were in the wrong for not having realized this before because of course it works that way, not the way we expected it to work. But in the end it turns out that the system can work the way we need it to work, and also that previous mockups show the fields we need, so I don't know where it went wrong between then, but I'm glad that we discovered this misunderstanding now and can fix it. Very glad that I am working on this project now, too, because there is just too much of a disconnect from the IT side, since none of them understand anything about how a retail operation actually works or what we need the system to do. They just know how the systems work, but not the reason we need them to work a certain way. (And they were supposed to learn more about the workings, but still have not.)

2. We had a nice evening at Disneyland. Especially nice after a stressful afternoon at work!

3. Chloe knows the cutest poses.

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ugh

That feeling when there was something on, you know you could have/should have gone, but you didn't, and now you have regret.

It was a social night for the tour I'm on, but I was super-tired from the walk today (well, everyone was) so I stayed in. But I think nearly everyone else went, so I missed out on 2 hours of socialising. Then again, I'm (once again) oddball out on this tour.

Which, I know the "once again" should mean I'm used to this, but also, it's slightly harder on this one.

Walked about 7 miles yesterday, up hill and down dale, through cowpasture and sheep pasture. Definitely walking off the meals I've been eating the last couple of days.

Entry tags:

disney

2025 Disneyland Trip #63 (9/24/25)

We haven't been to the parks for about a week and a half since Carla wasn't feeling well, but since we usually go so frequently it felt like we hadn't been in ages lol.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: sad
Current Music: "Drunk on a Flight" ~ Eloise

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Book 93, 2025

Booked 4 Murder (Sophie Kimball Mystery, #1)

Booked 4 Murder by J.C. Eaton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Stayed up a tad late last night to finish Booked 4 Murder by JC Eaton. It’s the first in the author’s “Sophie Kimball” cozy mystery series. Main character is Sophie “Phee” Kimball.

Phee works as an accountant for the Mankato, MN police department. She doesn’t have time for her mother’s histrionics, but like a dutiful daughter, she takes time off and travels to AZ to help her mother sort out an allegedly cursed book that her book club is reading. It seems that after the club began reading the little-known novel, four members have died. Phee is certain the deaths can be explained away, and she sets out to prove it. She’s no detective, but one of her MN co-workers is ready with advice when Phee needs it. She soon finds herself tailing suspects, questioning witnesses, and gathering evidence. By the time Phee is ready to reveal what she’s learned, the legend of the cursed book has taken on a life of its own, and her audience may be far larger than she anticipated.

This was a fun story. The plot featured multiple subplots, but the author(s) wove it together nicely. Phee’s mother, Harriet, was demanding and set in her ways, which I could have done without. She didn’t seem at all grateful that Phee literally dropped everything in her life to come and help. The ending was silly enough to flirt with absurdity. Even Phee was wondering why she didn’t just go to the police with what she found.

Favorite lines:
♦ “I swear we’ve all lost the art of conversation with human beings. All everyone does is hook themselves up to devices and gadgets all day long.”
♦ “What did you find out?” // “Sharpie markers work better than the other kind.” // “What?”
♦ My mother blocked the door like a goalie in the NHL.
♦ Accusations were hurled around the table like ripe fruit at a carnival clown.
♦ ...grinning like a toothless baboon who’d just been given a bowl of mashed bananas.

The story was enjoyable, if a little madcap. Four stars.

( Trope Test )

Current Mood: nauseated
Current Music: Guy's Grocery Games

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I need to remember

that I have BIG classes this semester and if I put all the tests on one day, I'll be working for hours to grade it all in one night. That was my entire day.

That and finding out one of my EOBs was a denial for my DexCom monitors and I wrote and asked them WHY they denied a claim from the company they INSISTED I use. I hope that gets straightened out because that's 1000$ to me if they don't.

We needed rain bad. We're now on day 4 and flooding. fantastic. Lost my power third day in a row too. It was raining inside my building again. Also someone turned on the heat. Again. It was 77 when I showed up to work outside so WHY the heat is on....

I did manage to finish a

fandomgiftbasket story but I'm worried that it's toeing the DNW list (Jealousy is one request but so is no other pairings other than listed...)

What I Just Finished Reading:

Nothing Special vol 2 - a fantasy webtoon, it's cute

Jaws - I needed as J and one of my dentists handed me this to read. Someone's thesis on why there is so much malocclusion. Riveting (no, it's not)

What I am Currently Reading:

Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie - a good reminder she was a woman of her time and that Italians were NOT liked well in the 20s and 30s The victim seems to have deserved to die because Dagos are shifty and untrustworthy....it's not in there much but it was there in the beginning and I set this aside for years and now it's back about mid way in...

Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World - imagine Gavin or Lindsey trying to get promoted at Wolfram and Hart and you more or less have it. It's interesting but it's hard to root for Colin since he's actively evil and petty

What I Plan to Read Next: I'm so behind on my challenges. something for that.

Current Mood: busy

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Artificial Intelligence

YouTube secretly used AI to edit people’s videos.

In recent months, YouTube has secretly used artificial intelligence (AI) to tweak people’s videos without letting them know or asking permission. Wrinkles in shirts seem more defined. Skin is sharper in some places and smoother in others. Pay close attention to ears, and you may notice them warp. These changes are small, barely visible without a side-by-side comparison. Yet some disturbed YouTubers say it gives their content a subtle and unwelcome AI-generated feeling.

This causes a variety of damage including but not limited to:

* Tampering with people's intellectual property without their permission.

* Damaging trust between producer and consumer (especially if the producer says that they don't use AI).

* Undermining people's ability to choose whether or not they wish to use or consumer AI.

* Undermining people's ability to find and identify truth.

Yet another in the suddenly growing pile of reasons to hate YouTube, which sucks, because it's the most widespread place to share video content. >_<

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hxx: ninefox comic

Candle Arc #1: watercolor version (web)

Candle Arc #1, color version, at

candlearc just to keep it corralled. Note that it's viewer discretion advised on account of cuss words, violence, and hexarchate-typical awfulness.

UPDATED: Alternately: Candle Arc #1 on its own website at Candle Arc (candlearc.com).

I have the Ka-Blam setup in progress so fingers crossed I can make it available via print-on-demand at Indyplanet in the nebulous future, depending on how orchestration homework is going. /o\

Preview & update notifications at Buttondown. (This is an email newsletter, but it's archived online. You do not need to sign up.)

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Light Black #27 [The Fulcrum]

Name: Dreamstuff
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Light Black #27: Break
Styles and Supplies: None
Word Count: 1289
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Peatäro
Summary: Qhoroali experiments with the "dreamstuff" compound.

( Dreamstuff )

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

#8 Interference (part 4 of 4, complete)

Interference
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 4 of 4, complete
Word count (story only): 1577
[May 5, 2020, midday]

:: The trio’s plans to be invisible are shattered when a deputy in uniform knocks on the door. Chaos ensues. Part of the Edison’s Mirror arc. ::

:: Pay Special Attention: The doctor begins to explain the worry that brought the deputy out to check every single empty home on the island… Remember, while this is a story with earned happy endings, I am challenging some of the limits of gentle fiction by tackling more difficult topics. ::

Back to “Determined Exploration”
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to

No one spoke while Ed’s small movements grew more noticeable. Doctor Spracher stepped back, sitting a few feet away from Vic. “How… did you do that? Knock him out?” he finally whispered. Ed’s head twitched, and he pressed one ear against Aidan’s side.

“Ed, I’m right here,” Aidan murmured. “When you’re fully awake, there are new people to meet. Safe people. I promise you, on my very life, that they mean you no harm.”

The doctor’s eyes widened. Vic’s serious, slow nod made the older man focus more intently on the moments as Ed’s eyes fluttered open. “Aidan? Where’s Vic?”
( Read more... )

Entry tags:

how do your gardens grow

some good things

Today's post brought THREE of my (latest batch of) books from Oxfam, of which two were non-work-related: Index, A History of the (Dennis Duncan), which recessional mentioned when it was first published and which I am only just now managing to get to, and Chihuly at Kew, the exhibition book for the 2019 installation. I am having so many feelings about getting to flip through professional photography of all this art again. I'm so so pleased.
I mentioned these books to simont, who promptly went "hold on, isn't that the one that has a good Wikipedia article?" Turns out it very much is.
To my delight, despite the fact that I'd not been to the plot in something like two and a half weeks (between ten days away and the post-event collapse seguing immediately into A Cold that A brought home for us) all of the peppers various in the greenhouse were looking perfectly happy with themselves. HURRAH for Svaemskog terracotta watering bits + 2l drinks bottles. This is actually the happiest the chillis have been all year, given my... erratic... ability to leave the house; I am looking forward enthusiastically to the fruits of Expanding The System Further next year.
The ancient spinach seed is coming up! In vast quantities! That I was expecting to be dead and thus sowed all of across half a bed! There is going to be SO much spinach and even I will get to turn some of it into seeds for saving purposes, probably, and much of the rest of which I will go "oh right, I have discovered I like adding fresh spinach to the sad emergency noodle pots" about.
Brought home A Pannier Full Of Food, about which I am feeling very good given the Neglect. I am looking forward to turning a suitable array of tomatoes into part of the ongoing cooking project (at which point I will have some leftover puff pastry, so will also do the banana tarte tatin).

(I have not today achieved my Assigned Reading, by which I mean "30 pages of The Challenge of Pain, with notes", because instead I finished reading the last five pages of yesterday's thirty pages and still need to go back and Make My Notes on, like, twenty of those pages. I am learning so much neuroanatomy good grief. But there is bread, and there is yoghurt, and there is drying laundry, and I went to the plot, and I have started digging myself back out from under my pile of PD e-mails, and there was an excellent sunset.)

Perth

We're halfway(ish) home.

Fun fact: I didn't know there was a Perth besides the one in Australia until a few years ago. Possibly when the other two started breaking this journey here.

The trip was uneventful if hard on poor D, who hates driving and is exhausted. I'm glad he got a little nap on the ferry. The weather was beautiful: fluffy clouds, sun glittering in the blue water of the Minch as we crossed it. I didn't doze this time but listened to podcasts about baseball and had lots of feelings (I'm having so many baseball feelings lately!).

We've just been in so many places lately; all I wanted from this one is for there not to be too many weird stairs and there weren't any! Our room is cute and cozy. I also hope the shower isn't too haunted but I'm not awake enough or stinky enough to try that tonight.

Wild to think we'll be home tomorrow night. I am not excited to go back to work but I'm excited to know where everything is and how the shower works.

Current Mood: cheerful

Entry tags:

fandom: dragon age

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

A mutual on Bluesky borrowed one of my Rooks from Dragon Age: The Veilguard for Rookanis fanart purposes! 💕

She had a specific art ref as a brain worm and needed to borrow someone else's Rook to use it on, so I got some lovely art of one of my Crow Rooks, Gianna de Riva.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy, mild, and damp. We got a decent amount of rain last night. :D

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/24/25 -- I planted 8 'Aviv Mixed' ranunculus under the fly-through birdfeeder.

I planted 3 'Persian Blue' alliums in the purple-and-white garden.

I picked 2 chocolate cherry tomatoes and 3 groundcherries.

EDIT 9/24/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/24/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Skylights

Our Airbnb is really nice, but possibly my favorite thing about it is how many skylights there are: each bedroom and the bathroom have one, the bathroom does, and the open-plan kitchen and living room has two or three.

The windows, here in this new-build block of flats, are as small and deep-set as in the blackhouses from hundreds of years ago that we saw in the folk museum. And for the same reason: the wind has been howling since we got here. The skylights allow a lot more natural light without so much wind. My eyes work best in daylight, so this is ideal.

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Stirling crew

"There's a wee step here," D told me as we made our way out of the cemetery where we'd gone looking for the pyramid monument that he'd been alerted to on Pokémon Go.

He's often warning me of little things, potential hazards, like this as we're walking around so that wasn't remarkable at all.

What I remarked upon was the language. "Do we all get to say 'wee' now that we're in Scotland?" I asked. "I noticed V saying it earlier but didn't know if it applied to us too."

D had a ready answer. "Yes." It sounded very authoritative!

Stirling has been great. The trip here took an hour and a half longer than it should've thanks to spending that time at a standstill on the M6, thirteen miles back from something that'd happened near Tebay. So by the time we got here, checked in, and found some food, it was 8:30 and I was thinning about going to bed soon when D asked if I wanted to join him for a walk. We could walk down to the lively studenty area or uphill to the "Old Town," with things like the castle, a bunch of statues of old dudes with extravagantly Scottish names, and other touristy landmarks that were all closed and in the dark. But I've still enjoyed it a lot, I was introduced to the concept of a paneer burrito which I'm sad I can't have again in a hurry, and we did find a pub (a hotel bar actually) near the castle -- so close to it that it's called The Portcullis, because it was in the castle's portcullis.

And now I can use Scottish words for things, apparently! So that's nice.

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call of cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu: Down in the Underground

When last we saw our heroes, they were returning from a side trip to Memphis. In our absence, Teddy, Freddy, Evelyn and Calliope had a side adventure and then went out and got properly smashed at a drag king club, the name of which is escaping me, somewhere in Cairo. This all went as well as you could possibly imagine, and they returned incredibly hung over.

Teddy and Dr Willie Preston met for the first time. It was most excellent. Tragically, they then parted ways, Teddy to nurse a headache and Willie to lead us into very questionable choices at the Great Pyramids.

DM: Okay, you're at the pyramids! What do you want to do?

The party: ...ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............

Alice: I'm going to go look at the dig where Willie's sarcophagus disappeared.

Evelyn: I'm going to go look at those very handsome young men digging things up.

Calliope: ...I feel like someone should keep an eye on Alice, so I guess I'll do that...

DM: Can any of you ride camels?

Alice: I have two in ride!

Evelyn: I've got 6 in ride.

DM, mumbling: of course Evelyn is a horse girl

Evelyn's player: -attempts protest- -falters into inevitable agreement-

Calliope: I grew up in central London, I can't ride at all.

DM: Okay, so Alice goes to the dig where Willie's sarcophagus disappeared, Evelyn goes to look at the men working, and Calliope...goes where the camel wants to go. Fey, what are you doing?

Fey: I want to see if there are any mysterious and cryptic messages at the Sphinx.

Alice finds the dig, which is covered over, and immediately starts looking for something to dig it up again with. "I wonder if I can convince the camel to dig..."

DM: ah yes, those notorious digging animals, camels

Calliope's camel: GRRROOOOOOONK

DM: is anybody trying to do anything formal? Get permission for anything?

Alice: Do you think I could steal a shovel from somebody?

Evelyn: Hellooooo, handsome young men! My, what fine muscles you have as you do your hard work! Isn't Egypt lovely! So full of mysterious mysteries! Perhaps you could tell me about what you're working on!

Young men: -are crude-

Calliope's camel: GRRROOOOOOONK

DM: Fey, you find a mysterious and cryptic message at the Sphinx! In the meantime, is anybody trying to do anything formal? Get permission for anything?

Fey: -returns to Evelyn, triumphant-

Young men: -are very crude-

Evelyn: I can tell you're being crude, you naughty young things, although I don't know what you're saying because I'm American and only speak English! Take that!

Calliope's camel: GRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOONK -and also carries Calliope over to an abandoned well/garbage chute that the DM wants us to notice- GRRROOOOOOONK

The poor beleaguered DM: is anybody trying to do anything formal? Get permission for anything?

Calliope & Evelyn: Oh look, we've found a deep empty hole in the ground! Everybody come look!

(Everybody comes to look.)

DM, desperate now: is anybody trying to do anything formal? Get permission for anything?

Me: We've never done anything like that before in this entire adventure, so I'd say we're constitutionally unlikely to start now.

DM, relieved that somebody has made a decision: Okay, great. It's getting very hot out now and other archaeology parties and tourists are going off to rest in the heat of the day.

Evelyn: is there anything nearby I can steal to help us get into that hole without killing ourselves?

DM: Like this truck full of supplies?

Evelyn: AMAZING. I get rope, pitons, lanterns (a long list of other things I can't remember) and...whiskey?

DM: there is no whiskey

Evelyn: DAMN.

After a brief discussion of our general athletic skills, Fey goes down the hole first, to try to put pitons in to make it easier for everybody else. Instead, he falls. Whoops. At least he manages a good roll on his health save and isn't horribly damaged.

Alice, who is equally athletic, follows and successfully puts pitons in to help the others. We leave Dr Willie Preston above-ground in case we need someone to notify the authorities of an emergency.

My father, later, horrified, as we relate the adventure to him: You left BILL in charge of EMERGENCIES?

Us: we are not the best at making good decisions

Back in the game, we all get fifty feet down into the ground, which is somewhat slimy and stinky because of the garbage archaeologists have been throwing down here.

GM: Okay, who's going first?

Alice: I'm going first. Fey fell down the hole. Also my driving trait is curiosity.

Evelyn & Calliope: be our guest

Fey: hnf

GM: By the way, Alice, you are extremely comfortable down here in these tunnels. Absolutely comfortable.

Alice: Of course I am.

Everybody else: WE'RE NOT!

GM: nor should you be

(ok he didn't actually say that but COME ON)

As it turns out, it's almost as bad an idea to let Alice lead the party through catacombs and tunnels of doom while driven by curiosity and no discomfort at all as it would be to let, say, Teddy take the lead. She barges ahead with an alarming single-mindedness while everybody else is like "Um. Um. Perhaps...well, shit, Alice has the light, better catch up!"

...up until the point when there's a Terrible Stench that only Alice can smell, and it belatedly occurs to her that maybe she should try to sense trouble.

DM: -rolls for my perception check- You in danger, girl

DM: You are suddenly very very afraid and feel strongly you should get out of there.

Alice: LET'S GO THE OTHER DIRECTION, GUYS

Unfortunately, while Alice was barging off That Way down a path of horrible black roses, Calliope got another light working and she and Evelyn took a quick look The Other Way, where they saw terrifying Anubis-headed things standing motionless in the darkness. They scurry back with Evelyn hissing, "Whatever you do, don't tell Alice what we just saw" at Calliope.

Calliope: No shit, Sherlock.

Evelyn & Calliope: NOPE WE WERE WRONG LET'S GO THE WAY YOU CHOSE IN THE FIRST PLACE ALICE

Alice: NOPE I'M WRONG LET'S GO THE WAY YOU JUST CAME FROM ALSO CAN'T YOU HEAR THAT CRYING CHILD WE HAVE TO GET TO THE CRYING CHILD NOW THERE ARE MEN CALLING FOR HELP WE MUST HELP THEM!

Fey: you people are all idiots, aren't you

Calliope, who really does think fast: these tunnels all twist around down here, Alice. The sound is probably coming from somewhere else entirely and if we go down the path of black roses we'll find them.

Alice, somewhat dubious: ...okay...

We do not find any crying children or men calling for help. We DO find tunnels dripping blood (LET'S NOT GO THAT WAY), more Anubis-headed monsters, and finally...

...finally a deep glowing red light begins to draw us toward it, and for the first time we begin to go up instead of down, up, up, up...into a chamber filled with the red light, and a hard (yellow?) light that's difficult to even look at, and a general sacrificial vibe, and...

...what quite frankly appears to be a Hellmouth at the far end of the chamber.

DM, cheerfully: Well! You have two or three sessions left in Egypt, I reckon. (pause) Or one, if you mess up!

And on that note, we close tonight's adventure. O_O

Still around? Yes. Still alive? Maybe. Debatable. Possibly resurrected at this point.

I literally have spent years thinking 'oh I should write something' and then...not. I get so frustrated with myself over it, and I've been thinking and noodling over how I want to use this, and I think some kind of combination of like, sharing photos like I used to (otherwise why am I paying for that SmugMug subscription lol), and reviewing things I'm engaging with, and maybe talking about writing stuff perhaps.

Sometimes I think what Twitter/X and Bluesky and similar platforms (Tumblr) took away was like, a basic functionality of Dreamwidth and LJ before these things existed, of the more light-hearted, less-gravity style of writing, where if I have a simple thought now, or a little rant, it goes elsewhere, instead of here. And then as a result of that, I mentally feel pressured to write long, meaningful entries that have like, deep emotion or whatever, which is just silly really, because that was never how I used this site when I enjoyed it most.

Like yeah I wrote some deep entries, but I had just as much fun - if not more fun - sharing art and photos and cross-stitch etc.

I've seen other folks like 'I'd like to use DW again' but sometimes I wonder if that's just nostalgia. 'I'd like to reminisce on what it used to be like here.' It's not going to be like that again, but there are cool people here, and I'd like to grow my participation here into something new.

In the meantime, I think Glen might be home, so it's time to go let our dog, Tobermory, go greet him lol