Quote:

"Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind."

"Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library."

~ Henri Frederic Amiel


Turning 1$ Cookies into an Instant Cake! AKA Ice Box Cake! (I dip mine in coffee instead of milk.)

https://youtu.be/xzSz39M3rxY?feature=shared

It was a rough start to a good day. Once again the first DexCom I put on failed (this is the second time in 2 weeks) Lost my cute patch, pulled it off, once again a sensor wire lost in my arm (I sure hope these are NOT magnet reactive when I have my next MRI) SO much blood too when I pulled this off. The second one is fine but dammit that's 2 duds and that's like 600$ lost.


So last year the guy who started a small pop culture con at my university also started a tiny renn faire. Last year it rained but TH and I went. This year it was hot and sunny and I dressed, picked TH up at the university and we went up there. MUDDY because it rained for the last 5 days but it was fun.

They have a juggling show...and that's about the only entertainment other than a Punch and Judy puppet show run by my former work friend L. (but since she's been annoying me and TH we pretended we didn't see her and that'll fly since she was up with all the kid games and we didn't go there)

Other than that it's food trucks and vendors. The GyrOH place (which has a brick and mortar in Gallipolis and gives Rio staff/student 25% off) was my choice, that and the specialty lemonade stand (32 oz of Shark Attack lemonade (strawberry, raspberry and gummy sharks)).

There was A LOT of 3-D printed stuff (that were obviously printed off the same pattern because like 4 shops had the exact thing but the one with the gryphon...I should have bought it). There were jewelers, a couple of witch shops, there was the wheat wench (bread), fudge vendors (didn't do it) but I DID go for the local couple who do interesting jellies and do the Rio farmer's market (never when I've been there) including dandelion, red clover, goldenrod and a whole range of boozy jellies. I picked up the golden rod (out of curiosity) and garlic (which I know I can make glazes from)

Several of the same vendors from MothMan were there, including my former student who we want to teach Yoga for us.

I did find one I have NOT seen before P. House Games I do love games. I almost bought the dream game but I did get the cryptid hunter card game but more important, they were open to me talking to them down the road. I REALLY would love to try to come up with a physiology game for labs (there needs to be ones other than ones geared to the immune system) since gamification is big in teaching now. If nothing else they have artist contacts and know how to put out a board game. That seems useful.

I did pick up dandelion tea from my local tea dealer (she also works at the university) I am a dandelion fan (probably need to worry about the vitamin K) the tea will probably be gross tasting, or at least a li ttle bitter but I'm interested in the other health benefits of dandelion.

Picked up some Christmas gifts too and hey I finished a fandomgiftbasket story that I really like. tried to do some art requests. watched canva tutorials on blending and layering. no help. Hell the things they told me to click on didn't even exist. So sorry art requests. Ain't happening.

Watched the first episode of Law & Order Toronto. It wasn't bad. Will watch more. Mom and I are stumbling our way thru the first season of Hudson & Rex. Well at least the dog is cut (otherwise this is not great)


It's science saturday

Groundbreaking' gene therapy is first treatment for Huntington's disease to slow the condition this is major. Huntington is a horrible disease. I had Huntington patients and honestly they still haunt me.


Recycled glass could help fend off coastal erosion

Tug or fetch? Some dogs sort toys by how they are used

What happens if pregnant women stop taking Tylenol? In other words do not listen to Trump and RFK but we knew that

Swapping old immune cells in the brain with fresh ones could treat disease fascinating

Firstly, here is October's Mouse SAL

Strange Horticulture is my favourite video game I've played in the last few years - and, a month or so ago, I played through it a second time with Dave, letting him make the important decisions and thus getting a very different ending to the first time I played it. It was really fun to work through it together, since I'd forgotten nearly all of the puzzles by that time so it was largely new to me again.

So, I was tremendously excited to hear that a sequel was in the works - Strange Antiquities, which came out earlier this month. We started playing it on the day of release and finished it today, 11 days later. We played until after midnight three nights in a row this week, which goes to show how much fun we had with it.

Like in Strange Horticulture, you play someone running an esoteric shop in a town called Undermere. Where the first game was all about plants, this one is all about artefacts - statues, totems, boxes and pendants. Initially, individual customers come into the shop and ask for specific items or for advice on solving a particular problem. Then, you have to consult your book of descriptions and match one to an artefact on the shelves to provide the right item. A central plot of doom and destruction starts to emerge as the game goes on, and there are seven or so decision points where you can send the story in different directions.

I love the aesthetic of the game, and also the gameplay. There's so much variety in the objects and the puzzles, the latter of which are rarely so difficult as to annoy me.

The makers obviously got feedback on the first game, because there are multiple improvements here. There are several different ways in which to identify objects, so that aspect is more interesting and involving. There is more than one map - and they are much easier to navigate than in the first game. The magnifying glass works better and is easier to use, so there's a lot less peering at tiny things on the screen. There's also a better hint system, with staggered clues to lead you to the more difficult answers, if you want to spend less time scratching your head. And the cat is more involved...

All the things I loved about Strange Horticulture are also present and correct, including a fair few of the characters we grew to know and love the first time around.

I did have a couple of gripes, though. As with the first game, there really aren't enough decision points to make playing through the game multiple times to get more of the nine possible endings feel worthwhile, as 90% of each play through will be exactly the same every time. That said, I am planning on starting a new game as soon as I finish this review, because I do want to see at least one other ending and there are seven chances to go a different route.

And, while most of the puzzles were clever enough to feel satisfying when we figured them out, but not so difficult as to be annoying - that did change over time, with a couple of the bigger puzzles seeming very counter-intuitive, and the clues in the book becoming less and less clear. I also found the mini-game you have to play every time you get too many things wrong in a row a bit tedious.

But, overall, a compelling, exciting, fun, satisfying, beautiful game - I hope the series continues!

[Edit to say: It took me three hours to speed-run straight through the game a second time to get a different ending - first time through Steam says it took Dave and me 14 hours total. Our Strange Horticulture play-throughs took about 9 hours each.]

Everyone's been talking about the new computer game - Tiny Bookshop - and it was a fairly obvious choice for me to try out. I quickly got obsessed with kitting out my little mobile bookshop trailer, and really enjoying stocking the shelves and making recommendations based on customer requests. I also liked all the different characters in the town, as well as figuring out how to complete the various tasks related to their different plots. My favourite aspect was passing all the tests to become part of the business owners' group in the town. I was a bit concerned by the lack of health and safety rules in my tiny bookshop, since I regularly had upwards of 15 people crammed in there at a time!

But, while there's a lot to love about Tiny Bookshop, it's not without its issues. The main one for me was that there just weren't enough unique books to fill the game time. I wouldn't have minded a few repeats here and there, but I was selling the same books over and over again well before the end of my first year of game time - and I think it would be pretty hard to complete every aspect of the plot in less than two years, especially when playing through for the first time.

It doesn't feel as if it would have been that hard to load the game memory and inventory stocks with five times more books - but maybe I'm wrong about that.

It also got a bit frustrating towards the end because the few tasks I still had to complete were season-specific, so I would have had to play through more than one season with no plot (so just many, many days of repetitive bookselling) to be able to get to their start points. And, worst of all, one of the main character plot points had a bug where I couldn't complete it, even after achieving all the requirements for it.

So, part way into my third year of game time, I decided to stop playing. I had, to be fair, finished the main plot and gone through the credits sequence of officially 'finishing' the game - but I still had quite a few location and character tasks left to do and it would have been nice to complete it all.

Mostly, though, a really fun game with an excellent concept and largely great execution. Just needs more books!!

I hit Price Chopper and CVS (prescription for mom) while I was downtown and got in a walk around the park. I dropped a book off at the library on the way to mom's.

I did a load of laundry (washed, dried AND folded!), hand-washed dishes, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, hard-boiled eggs and made egg salad, and scooped kitty litter. I grilled steak for Pip's supper.

I started A Murder in Door County.

Temps started out at 63.9(F) and reached 73.4. In the morning, there was some sun downtown, but the closer I got to back home, the cloudier it got. We weren’t supposed to have rain (15% means no rain in my book), so it was disappointing to not have sun. The sun did eventually come out, sometimes fully, sometimes just partially, and sometimes hidden completely by dark clouds. We did get a tiny bit of rain, just enough to have me running out of mom’s house to close my car windows. By the time I got out there it was over, but I wasn’t taking any chances. *g*


Mom Update:

Mom was doing better today. ( more back here )

I arrived in London on Friday evening, a little after the time the host and I had agreed upon thanks to a late flight departure. It was still earlier than it would have been if I'd caught the multi-stage flight that was on my itinerary.

( london )

Thanks so much, rmc28 for coming out and meeting me on not just one, but two days! It was so great to catch up, talk, see a bit more of the UK, go steam-training, and watch women's football!

And then I went to see Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre - the old-fashioned style theatre that Shakespeare's plays would have been shown in (ever seen 'Shakespeare In Love'? That kind of theatre). Six or seven years ago, there was a Popup Globe that came to Australia, and I saw shows in Sydney and in Melbourne, dragging various friends along, and it was just the best fun. Highly recommended.

On the way home, went and picked up some wagamama munchies - not for dinner, but for lunch the next day while I was on the train. An EastAsian-fusion restaurant, wagamama went out of business in Australia a decade ago and more, but apparently is still doing pretty well here. Not entirely surprising, I guess. We have so much food from Asia - East, South-East, South, not to mention all the other types of food from non-white countries we have in abundance - that something that's 'Asian lite' is not going to get much traffic here.

I got back to the room, and chatted a bit with the host. A nice longer chat, we touched on a bunch of topics, and I was a little disappointed that I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to him earlier.

But the place was excellently positioned, near an underground station with three lines passing through it. My only complaint was that it was a little close to a couple of pubs that were very noisy on a Friday night, although they quietened significantly after 11pm.

And the next day, I caught a train up to Chesterfield to meet the tour group for the Pride and Prejudice pilgrimage...

Quote:

"Don’t depend too much on anyone in this world because even your own shadow leaves you when you are in darkness."

"Everyone experiences bouts of jealousy; but the dignified person conceals it, while the vulgar one acts upon it"

~ Ibn Taymiyyah



The Quiet - Castiel, The Prophet of Nothing | Supernatural A Kind Villain Song (I dunno, had Godstiel than Castiel.)

https://youtu.be/BTEXeEAu9ms?feature=shared

It was a boring work day. Pretty sure I made some students think 'you bitch' guess that's my accomplishment of the day.

So have some fannish reccommendations. Nothing new from me this week.


Cloud Watching Torchwood

Frustration Stargate SG-1

Uncertainty Torchwood

Harassment FAKE

Some Enchanted Evening Stargate SG-1

Meet Me In Purgatory Hawaii Five-0

Manipulation Tactics Torchwood

Walking Away. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Shanked Oz

Preparing for the Full Moon Teen Wolf

i know that you want me (fuck me lovely) Hazbin Hotel

The Care and Keeping of Oversized Lizards (and Other Unfortunate, Related Occurrences) Merlin

Today's thefridayfive 

1. Do you consider yourself to be a good housekeeper? Why or why not?
Not particularly.  I do the minimum essential when I have to.  

2. Are there any household chores that you enjoy doing? If so, what and why?
Um, no.  Although I do find bitesizedcleaning good inspiration for getting chores done.  And I've been following September Stampede, which has a 10 minute chore for each day.  Some days I'll do two days' worth, other days nothing, so that it ties in with other commitments.  Various areas have been tidied, the fridge has been cleaned, the kitchen worktops have been cleaned and not just wiped and all the crumbs have been emptied out of the toaster.

3. Which household chore frustrates/angers you the most?
When I hang the washing (laundry) out to dry and it rains so I have to rush out, getting wet in the process, and rehang everything in the bathroom.

4. When doing household chores, what do you do to make them seem less of a "chore"?
I listen to audiobooks on my headphones.

5. Which chore do you find yourself doing most often, and why?
Washing up (dish washing) because otherwise we'd have nothing to eat our meals off.

I'm so disappointed by this casting news! ( spoiler )

justmarriedexchange fics have revealed, and so I can tell you that I wrote a Trip/T'Pol fic! My recip, lionessvalenti, had several suggestions for canon-divergent AUs, which happen to be one of my favorite types of story to write--pick a canon event, tweak it slightly, and see what happens from there. And also, I love Vulcans, and have Opinions on the way Star Trek: Enterprise handled them, and this fic gave me lots of opportunities to explore all of that. I really enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it!


Title: that I could call my very own
Author: beatrice_otter 
Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Pairing: Trip/T'Pol
Written for: lionessvalenti in Just Married Exchange 2025
Word count: 14k
Summary: 

T'Pol figures out something is wrong with her mother before leaving for Vulcan. She and Trip decide how to face the problem together.

"Maybe we're coming at this from the wrong angle," Trip said. "We're worried about what's happening on Vulcan with your mother, and trying to figure out the best way to handle that. But what if you looked at this long-term? What do you want your life to be like, a decade from now? Two decades from now? Then work backwards and figure out what we should be doing now to work towards that."

AN: This is a very minor worldbuilding note, but in English, there are gendered terms for "people who dedicate themselves to a religious life"—monk for men and nun for women. That is not the case for all languages; in Greek, "monachos" is used for both men and women. I'm going to assume that Vulcan doesn't have different words for different genders, but uses the same word for both.

sixbeforelunch provided a lot of excellent brainstorming and beta help, as is usual for my Star Trek fics.

***

"Ensign Sato, are there any remaining communications difficulties?"

The Human shook her head. "None that I'm aware of—I've got a lot of things coming through from Starfleet and the general Earth communications network, both stuff that's been waiting while we were out of range and congratulations for our triumphant return. Why?"

T'Pol debated. On the one hand, it was possible that neither her mother nor any other family member nor any former colleague had sent her a message while Enterprise was in the Expanse. Ensign Sato was very busy and had a great many tasks to perform before she could be debriefed by Starfleet and begin her well-deserved vacation. T'Pol had no desire to add to those tasks if there was nothing wrong. And it was certainly true that being out of contact had been a welcome reprieve; T'Pol was not in favor with the Vulcan High Command, nor with her family, and it had been a relief not to have to deal with anyone's disapproval.

( But she had always known that would be merely a temporary reprieve, unless she chose to abandon all claim to Vulcan entirely. )




On AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Ad Astra. On tumblr. On Pillowfort.

This was a no-shopping day, but I got in a walk around the park while I was downtown. I filled up my gas tank on the way home. I went through the bank drive-thru and stopped at the library on the way to visit my aunt.

I did a load of laundry (washed, dried AND folded!), hand-washed dishes, went for a walk with Pip and the dogs (just the one because it was raining pretty hard and I’m a baby about it), cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, boiled pasta and stirred up chicken noodle casserole (my take on tuna noodle casserole since Pip doesn’t like tuna) for supper, scooped kitty litter, and showered.

I finished Amelia Peabody.

Temps started out at 63.9(F) and reached 70.2. It got humid in the afternoon. The rain was on and off, but harder between 4–6pm. The total rain for the past three days was about an inch and a half. According to TWC app we no longer have rain scheduled for Friday and Saturday; so happy that the dreary, rainy days are over!


Mom Update:

Mom was feeling kind of meh today. ( more back here )

Quote:

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

"Turn things you've always wanted to do, into things you've done"

~ T. S. Eliot


Sam Winchester | The Scapegoat King | Supernatural Villain Song (This feels like early Sam)

https://youtu.be/vcULoce5wy8?feature=shared

Now I've known this about student loans. When I first moved here I would go into panic attacks just seeing something from them in the mail. and you knew there was going to be zero help from customer service so upon seeing NEITHER of my loans had the income based repayment plan put on them automatically as I was assured would happen I called today after pulling up the email from August 14 at 2:03 in the afternoon.

( If I wrote this up as fiction no one would believe it )

have some community recs how about some love for older fandoms

highlander_chat Connect with Highlander friends to chat, discuss, squee, brainstorm, seek beta-reading, and more.

fkficfest Forever Knight_ Fanfiction Games

I set my goals for the year in April, so it's about time I considered a quick update.

Goal No 1: Do a Themed Monthly Post
That's going well, with a monthly View from the Window

Goal No 2: Accept the Unexpected
I am being more flexible when something happens and I realise it will be impossible to complete all the things I'd wanted to complete on a particular day.  So although I don't have anything specific to point to, I have the sense that my mindset is changing.

Goal No 3: To Embrace My Personal Interests
This has to do with my ridiculous attempts to do three courses, four craft projects, read three books and write two separate ficlets in one day as well as whatever else I'm committed to on that day.  I'm learning to mentally say 'let's see how much I can do' and actually achieving more than I might expect, because I'm enjoying what I'm doing.

25 Things in 2025
Currently I've completed 18 out of 25.  Of those that remain, 3 were July to December and in progress, 1 is running behind as it won't be finished by the end of this month, but will be before the end of the year, 2 will be listed at the beginning of next month and the final 1 is for the complete year.  So I'm very pleased with how this is going and delighted I took on the challenge.

Title: Surprise Party
Rating: G
Type: Fic
Size/length/word count etc.: 567
Prompt: 018: Blush
Fandom/Ship: P1Harmony, Seventeen; Yoon Keeho / Lee Seokmin | DK
Notes/Warnings: N/A
Summary Seokmin has the best roommate.

( It had been a good day at work. )

Find the table with the list of fics here