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1. Most of the stuff is gone from the curb. Hoping someone will decide to take the chair, too.

2. Last night before bed, I took a bunch of stuffing out of my new pillow (filled up a gallon size ziploc bag) and that seemed much more comfortable/similar feel to when I first unboxed it and before it fully expanded. The fully expanded size was definitely too full for me. The filling seems to redistribute very well once some is removed, and doesn't leave it feeling lumpy. If I need to adjust further, I can, but for now this seems about right.

3. Ollie is so big...

1. I feel like I'm making good progress on the tasks I have for work that have to be completed by the end of this week. I completed the ones that were fully within my own power to do and am staying on top of the people who need to do the others and should be able to get them all done in time.

2. Got the two new litter boxes delivered today, though I did not get them set up yet as I got home from work later than expected and just didn't feel like faffing about with it. But hopefully with these in place I will no longer have to worry about cleaning up cat pee.

3. The weather's been so nice these past few days. Looks like next week we'll get a few days in the low 80s but still mostly staying in the 70s. I know there will still be hot spells through this month and into October before it really starts cooling down, but hopefully not too many.

4. My step-sister did come over yesterday and go through her stuff in the shed. I didn't actually check in the shed to see how much is still left, but there was a bunch of stuff set out in the backyard that could be put out on the curb or thrown away. I put most of it out on the curb yesterday when I got home from work and several things have already been picked up. I'll leave it out there for a week or so and then whatever's left just put in the trash little by little. Or there's one chair that if it doesn't get taken we'll have to call the city for pickup, so if we do that, we can just leave the rest of the stuff there to be picked up as well.

Anyway, this weekend I'll take a look at the remainder and see if I can organize it and then maybe move some of my mom and her husband's stuff from the other shed into that one and give us more room in the other one. We don't need to add more stuff of ours to that other shed but it's all packed in fairly tight now so it would be nice to be able to actually get in there and access stuff more easily.

As for the remainder of my step-sister's stuff, she flew here this time so couldn't take anything back with her, but next time she drives out she will go through the rest and take anything back that she wants to keep. Who knows when that will be, but I am glad she at least made some good progress.

5. Cutie Jasper.

We made a spur of the moment decision to do Disney for dinner last night and it was one of the most pleasant trips we've had in a while. We didn't get down there until around eight, so the sun was down and the temps had dropped into the mid 70s (and it actually wasn't that muggy, either). Then when we actually got into the park we found it wasn't very crowded, either. And while there is the parade the work around, weekdays don't have Fantasmic or fireworks (there is a projections + music show in place of the fireworks, but it doesn't have the loud bangs that bother Carla and it doesn't draw nearly the crowd the fireworks do, so it's easier to navigate), so getting around is no issue.

( Read more... )

1. Today marks one full week since I decided to start taking an early morning walk. I have been enjoying it very much and it currently works with my sleep and work schedules, so I'll be keeping it up. We've been in the habit of taking an evening walk every day for years, and a year or so I ago started making it two walks a day on weekends, but I'd never tried to make it a daily thing.

2. Today I actually took a walk at lunch as well, but I'm not sure how often I'll do that, at least in this weather. It was cooler than it has been, but still in the low 80s, and the area around my work doesn't have a lot of shady streets so I was in direct sun most of the time and ended up getting back to work sweatier than I'd prefer, but I did stop at 85C and get a delicious lavender taro latte on my way, so that was nice. I will definitely be taking a lunchtime walk on cooler days, and maybe even some not so cool days, depending on how I feel. It felt good to get up from my desk for more than just a quick run to the restroom or to go downstairs and buy a drink (I do get up for a few minutes every hour, but it's still a lot of sitting).

3. We had a nice dinner at Disneyland. The park was actually not that crowded and the weather was really pleasant (we didn't get down there until around eight, so the sun was down, but it wasn't as muggy as it has been the last few times we've been at night, including Saturday) and even traffic getting down there was pretty light.

4. Woke up to find Gemma in bed with me the other morning. Usually it's Molly!

1. Today was a pretty laidback day. Didn't go anywhere other than out for walks in the neighborhood.

2. My step-sister is supposed to be stopping by tomorrow with my mom to go through some of her stuff in the shed in our backyard. Fingers crossed she can at least just point out which items she definitely does not want anymore and we can get rid of them, even if she needs to keep storing the stuff she does want to keep.

3. I've seen all the cats except Chloe using the new litter box now, so I went ahead and ordered two more to replace the other boxes. I'll still put just one out first until I actually see her using the new one(s), but I figured might as well order them both now as I'm sure she'll come around soon.

4. Such a big yawn!

We had originally been planning to go in the morning, but decided to make it an evening trip instead, and then in the afternoon Carla got a message from a friend that he was in town and at the parks this weekend, so it worked out perfectly to meet up with him for dinner.

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1. It was still overcast this morning when I took my first walk and then the sun came out just when I got home. It was still muggy when I was out, but I'd much rather have overcast and muggy than the sun beating down on me, too.

2. There have been a couple new stalls at the farmers market recently, including a guy who makes some sort of raw granola bars. I got some a couple weeks ago and he was back again this week (I think he said he's only doing every other week right now) so I got some more.

3. We had a nice dinner at Disneyland and met up with a friend of Carla's who's here from out of town.

4. I passed through the living room and just happened to notice Molly on the lower shelf of this end table. So cute!

Currently Reading
Just Another Dead Author
72%. Second in the Berit Gardner mystery series. I hadn't realized this was coming out soon at all, so that was a nice surprise. (When I finished the first book, I hadn't been able to find any info on English translations of the others.)

The Map of the Stars
37%. Third and final book in the York series. Enjoying it so far.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
No progress.

Recently Finished
What Happened to Lucy Vale?
The ending of this was unsatisfying. And the narration, switching between Lucy's mother's POV and a POV titled "we" that is representing a group of Lucy's schoolmates, didn't really do it for me. The "we" sections were the majority and the kids were pretty awful, which made for unpleasant reading. I can't say I'd recommend it.

Suddenly a Murder
This ended up being better than I thought it would, but still only just okay, not great.

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos vol. 1-2
A Tyrian series I wasn't previously aware of. But it seems that this is just an idea of his that someone else is writing, rather than him being the main author, so maybe that's why I'm not liking it as much as his other stuff, or it might just be that it's closer to mainstream superhero comics than his usual and I'm not that into that. But it's queer horror, as usual, and it's not not interesting. Curious to see where it goes after this.

Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction
Graphic novel memoir about a guy raised by his grandparents while his mom was mostly in jail or rehab when he was growing up. I liked it.

Uprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back
Graphic novel memoir about a girl who was raised in Canada but moves back to Hong Kong with her family in middle school. I liked this one, too.

Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun vol. 17

1. I saw both Gemma and Molly using the new cat box tonight! I think someone other than Ollie might have used it once or twice but I never saw confirmation until now. Now if Chloe and Jasper would just come around, I'd feel confident about replacing the other two boxes and no longer having to worry about people peeing outside the box.

2. I have had bad neck issues from sleeping for years and things got somewhat better after I bought a pillow that was specifically for stomach sleepers, but it's several years old now and I've been thinking about replacing it anyway, plus it's also never been perfect and I still do have a lot of neck pain, though thankfully not constantly. I saw a list of best pillows on Wired a week or so ago and have been thinking about the one they recommended for back and stomach sleepers and finally bit the bullet and ordered it the other day. It arrived today and while I haven't slept a full night on it yet, it feels amazing to lie on, both back and stomach, so I have high hopes. It was pricey, but if it helps my neck, it's worth it.

3. Having a three day work week was so nice! It's the weekend again already!

4. If only I could sleep this comfortably!

1. I've been making good progress on the high priority tasks the Japan IT team left for me when they went back to Japan at the end of last week.

2. The other day Carla and I were talking about sandwiches and I remembered this delicious veggie sandwich I used to get back in college. The place isn't around anymore, so I can't look it up to see exactly what was on it, but it was whole wheat bread with cream cheese, sprouts, cucumber, and some other veggies. I have cream cheese and sprouts already so asked Carla to get bread and cucumbers at the store and she found that they sell Cheesecake Factory brown bread in sandwich bread form now at the grocery store (they've been selling the little loaves like in the restaurant for a while) and that goes perfect with this sandwich. She also got some avocados, so I had sprouts, cucumber, and avocado on it and it was so good. Definitely going to make that for lunch again tomorrow.

3. Tuxie is still so wary of me, but he was very cute hiding in the planter the other day.

1. I took another early morning walk today. Unfortunately the weather was not quite as pleasant as yesterday and I was pretty sweaty and muggy when I got home, but I did have plenty of time to cool off before having to get dressed for work, so that was good.

2. I am still cced into all the store-side emails at work, despite my new position, so even though they are not priority, it makes for a lot of emails to go through when I've got a long weekend to catch up from. (I am cced by choice, as I want to still be in the loop.) But since they are not my responsibility anymore, it was faster to go through them and catch up, and I was able to do that at home while cooling off from my walk, so I was ready to actually focus on my main tasks once I got settled at work.

3. First day in the new office (well, it's the same office, but the second floor is a U shape and I'm in the opposite end of the U from where I was, and it's an enclosed (shared) room rather than the open space I was in before, so it feels very different). My desk is larger and I like it better than the kind of crappy one I had before, so that's nice. One thing I was bummed about is that it's further from the restroom that I was using, but actually it's very close to one of the first floor restrooms and close to the stairs, so it's faster or about the same amount of time to go to the bathroom, but I also get stairs in every time I go, which is nice.

4. Jasper likes to just chill on my desk sometimes. Thankfully as long as he's lying down, he's not actually in the way of anything.

1. Carla had a doctor's appointment early this morning (7am) so I had offered to drive her since I figured she might be groggy that early in the morning, which she was. I had been very tired the night before and went to bed before ten, so even though I set my alarm for 5:30, I wasn't feeling bad at all. While she was at her appointment, I took a walk and it was really pleasant out. Even though I was out walking for half an hour, I was only a little sweaty towards the end. I might think about taking a walk in the morning before work, even if just on my own. (The weather is supposed to be better for the rest of the ten day forecast but it's still warmer and muggier than I'd like for taking a walk midday.)

2. Since we didn't have anything else planned after that, I was able to do some errands I'd been meaning to get around to and take some stuff to the post office and drop off some clothes at Goodwill.

3. One nice thing about my new position at work is that I feel less tied to my work phone. Although I've offered to help out with area manager stuff, it's not actually my job anymore at all, so I don't need to be constantly checking to see what's going on at the stores and if anything needs to be urgently addressed. I could get used to this lol.

4. Gemma has such a sweet face.

1. Today was a pretty low key day. Aside from going out for a couple neighborhood walks, I didn't go anywhere, and didn't do much at home other than play Donkey Kong Bananza and read. It was nice to have a day to really just relax. And I still have one more day off!

2. I finished up another puzzle this morning. I bought this at the same time as the other Disney villains one, since it has mostly different villains. Like the other one, having each person separated in their own area (and with different enough colors in each) made it easy to sort and then work on each of those as if it were its own mini puzzle, so it went pretty fast.

3. I do not know how cats find this comfortable, but they all like sleeping this way from time to time, so I guess they do!

1. In the past year, both Ollie and Jasper have started peeing too high in the box once in a while, so that they end up getting all or most of the pee outside, which obviously is not fun to clean up. It doesn't happen frequently, though, so I've just been dealing with it, but then recently facebook started showing me ads for pee screens you can add to the sides of a litter box to help prevent that, and when I clicked on one of the ads, I saw there were also high sided boxes, which seemed like a better solution than the add-ons. I don't want to get a fully enclosed box because it's a pain for scooping, but also all the cats are adults and they've had open boxes all their lives and I don't want to invest in a new type only for them not to like it.

It took a lot of looking at various types to finally settle on which one I wanted to order, but I finally made a decision and went with this one, which arrived today, just a little while before we went out for the evening. No one used it when we were gone, but Ollie just used it a few minutes ago and seemed fine with it. Hopefully it's tall enough that it will prevent any more leakage.

2. All day I kept thinking how nice it was that I still have two more days of my weekend. It's so nice! And tomorrow should be a pretty chill day. No plans to go anywhere.

3. We had a nice dinner at Disneyland tonight, despite the heat and crowds. So muggy, though. Bleh.

4. Look at that sweet Molly face. This is where she sleeps every night, right next to my pillow. :)

We had been planning for our next trip to be Tuesday morning after Carla's doctor's appointment, but we decided to go this evening instead, figuring that although it was pretty hot today (mid 90s in Anaheim), at least the sun would be going down and it would be cooling off, whereas on Tuesday we would be getting the full heat.

( Read more... )

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Per the dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

Carla wanted to see the opening act and we decided to get dinner at the venue, so we got down there fairly early. We had seats on the floor, since I thought that would be easier/more comfortable for Carla. As it turned out, the entrance to the floor area was fairly near where we parked, and we entered on the side where our seats were, so it was pretty convenient.

I'm not sure if they had more options for food upstairs (I've never eaten at the Forum), but the area where we were just had ready to eat food in warmers that you bought from an Amazon Go space that was sectioned off from the rest of the room. We got a pizza, which was pretty tasty for just being out on the warmer, and took it to eat at our seats.

The opening act was Puddles Pity Party, who I was not familiar with, but Carla knew and liked. He was a good fit for Weird Al, since he's also a comedic singer. His original songs were fine, but the highlight of his set (and possibly the whole night) was when he sang the Gilligan's Island theme song while a fanvid of Kevin Costner's Waterworld played onscreen. That was then followed by a Kevin Costner fanvid (with clips from everything he's ever been in) set to My Heart Will Go On. It was pretty great tbh.

The break between the opening act and main act wasn't too long, which was nice. When the main show started, they had Al coming out from backstage on screen, and when he was going through the hallways in the back, it showed not just Puddles, but also Jack Black, who was in attendance (sadly he never came on stage, that would have been cool).

I don't know a whole lot of Weird Al songs, but I do know many of the songs they're parodies of, and in general it was just a really fun show. He had a lot of clips between songs with fake interviews with celebrities and stuff. I was surprised that I knew almost all the songs in his polka medley as it was one with songs from the past few years.

At one point he played a clip from Weird: the Al Yankovic Story, which I had been aware of when it was first announced that Daniel Radcliffe would be playing him, but then had pretty much forgotten about, but the clip was so funny we decided we should watch the movie soon.

We didn't end up staying for any of the encores. I looked at previous nights' set lists to see what they would probably be and Carla was fine with leaving, so we got a little headstart before the parking lot got too jammed.

Definitely a fun act to see, even for someone who's not already a big fan.

( Set list )

denise posting in

A reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.

The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.

In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.

The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.

Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.

Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.

Currently Reading
What Happened to Lucy Vale?
29%.

Suddenly a Murder
57%.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
No progress.

Recently Finished
Our Hideous Progeny
I really loved this. It was hard to listen to in many places because the men in this are so awful, but it was worth it. Great ending.

This Place Kills Me
YA graphic novel. The MC is a pariah at her new school due to rumors that she's a lesbian, and when a popular girl dies and she stumbles across the body, even the teachers are quick to blame her until it's ruled suicide. But the MC doesn't think it was suicide and decides to investigate. I liked this a lot, but I've liked everything I've read by Mariko Tamaki, so that's no surprise.

Sakura, Saku vol. 7

40 Made ni Shitai 10 no Koto vol. 1-2
A lonely salaryman makes a list of ten things he wants to do before his upcoming 40th birthday when staying late at work one night, and is spotted by one of his subordinates, who then says he'll help him complete the list, including going on a date with him for his birthday. This was cute. The setting is realistic present day Japan and both guys are gay and in the closet at work. (So, neither a "everyone is gay" setting nor a "first time with a guy" setting.)

N vol. 1-2
A bunch of creepy things start happening, all linked to a new cult calling themselves N. So far these first two volumes have been a lot of separate stories that are slowly coming together into one, but I'm curious to see where it goes.

1. Four day weekend! I'm very excited about that.

2. I had a chance to get over to the Torrance store to say goodbye to the manager who's leaving. Asked her how things were going with her possible transfer to Hawaii and she said she's had web interviews with a few people and it's basically confirmed, just have to finalize where she'll be, so I'm glad they were able to find a position for her.

3. Tuxie was so cute this morning! He loves those planters, but usually doesn't get right up under the tree like that.

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