conuly

On a less morose note, here's a verbatim quote from /r/whatsthatbook:

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:00:01 GMT

This has to have been an EARLY scifi novel. 80s- to early 00s at the latest.

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Spent the last two nights at the hospital with a resident

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:31:01 GMT

She's fine, no worries - well, not fine fine, she's at the hospital, but it's nothing to worry about.

Taking the bus back from the hospital always gets me thinking about Hurricane Sandy. They named a corner after those two boys. They'd be in high school now, or even entering college. It's easy to judge their mother - and don't get me wrong, I do judge her, because she made every possible mistake from before the storm even hit, starting with not evacuating - but people do dumb stuff all the time and it usually works out just fine. People don't usually die because they did something stupid, they don't usually lose their kids over it.

It's been rainy too. It's really just a maudlin way to start a week.

But I still think, every time I take that bus from the hospital, that those kids should've gotten to grow up, and instead they didn't even get to go trick-or-treating that year.

The moral of this post, inasmuch as there even is one, is that if your area is under an evacuation order, or ought to be, fucking evacuate. Or if you've decided to shelter in place, shelter in place. Don't try to evacuate after the storm is already upon you. That's how it all goes wrong.

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Raining, raining, raining...

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 03:25:32 GMT

but at least it's cooled down!

(I always picture all this rain after a heat wave like somebody reaching up and literally wringing out the damp air.)

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Does anybody know what's been going on lately with Explainxkcd?

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 02:34:39 GMT

It's just not working most of the time?

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I don't know what it'll take to get all my neighbors to embrace the concepts of peace and quiet

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 02:53:13 GMT

but they really need to.

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( All of these links have been sitting around for ages, so they may be a bit old )

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The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 01:14:58 GMT

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

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Happy 4th of July

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It was super hot out, so I spent the day downstairs

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 02:15:01 GMT

and only came up to my (attic) bedroom to get my clothes after the sun had gone down. And to use my computer once the room cooled a bit.

Anybody want to guess how hot it was up here before I turned on the a/c?

( Drumroll please...! )

Please, everybody, stay cool.

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Weather's gonna be crazy this week

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 07:59:42 GMT

But at least it's July, so it won't be unseasonable. It'll be very seasonable, and the seasoning is hot.

Stay cool out there!

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Tue, 30 Jun 2026 02:38:56 GMT

I fell into bed after a double at 9am, knowing I had another overnight tonight.

At 1ish, different manager calls and asks if I can do the afternoon shift. Because I’m not awake, I say yes - and awaken at 3pm wondering what the hell I signed up for and why. But you can’t call out at 3 and say “lol, nope, I wasn’t awake”. I mean, you can, but nobody will be happy about it, so I came in, and promptly stubbed my pinky toe.

The pain was excruciating and not getting better, and I was starting to think I’d have to call out of the second shift on the grounds of incompetence… but then I went to take my sock off so I could look at it and I guess that I had wedged my sock onto my toenail in some way when I stubbed my toe and now it doesn’t hurt anymore.

Also, they finally brought out everybody’s summer clothes, and if this seems late to you, that’s because it is late. I set aside some of the winter stuff to stay out just in case….

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Crafting With Cat Hair

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 02:51:17 GMT

Guys. This is the perfect gift for a friend with cats.

ALL my friends have cats! I need to put this on my gift list and buy, like, a dozen copies right away!

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Between the elections and what I suspect is my coming period

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:54:53 GMT

(And also supremely distracting irritation at certain coworkers who were late and/or had left the kitchen an enormous disaster for me) I managed to forget to clock out of work on Wednesday and forget to clock in Saturday midnight. And then not realize either until it occurred to me Saturday while sleeping at home that I hadn't clocked out....

I put in some requests and I think it's all fixed but omg I feel dumb.

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Meditatio by Ezra Pound

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:02:42 GMT

When I carefully consider the curious habits of dogs
I am compelled to conclude
That man is the superior animal.

When I consider the curious habits of man
I confess, my friend, I am puzzled.

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Link

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Sat, 27 Jun 2026 07:47:53 GMT

Sigh

I had one question when reading the first book, which was “are we gonna have to wait until the third for our boys to get over their issues and make out” and the answer, now that I’ve read the second, is “apparently”.

Also, how exactly do Romeo and Juliet pivot to violent revolution and why wasn’t this play firmly banned? It’s like the grim dark setting is set design, guys.

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All Hail Chaos and just a little bit in

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 21:19:00 GMT

we are told the emperor has a “lambent” gaze.

To be fair, that’s just the word the fictional author would pick, but…. (At least it’s just his gaze and not his orbs.)

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Youtube has been providing me with lots of videos of Europeans in America

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 02:43:27 GMT

Somehow, you can always tell when they're in Texas. It's little things, like the fact that Texans are congenitally incapable of surviving in a space that is not wall-to-ceiling covered in Texas flags and Texas outlines and Lone Stars and - if they're daring - prints of bluebells and/or longhorns.

Just in case they get amnesia and forget where they are or, in the case of expats like my dad, where they're from.

Texas, y'all.

I wonder, sometimes, if Texans who have never been out of state realize just how weird this all is. Like, if I had even a single NYS flag or NYS outline, people would think I was psychotic. It was strange enough to have our subway map shower curtain, and that was actually helpful.

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Mislaid my cat comb

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 16:43:25 GMT

I've had to comb Callie with my own comb. My god, that girl can shed!

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Cedar Waxwings Unmasked by Jane Yolen

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 05:23:24 GMT

Who are these masked birds?
Not Robin Hoods,
for they live in
the open woods.
They only deal
in stolen goods
like berry futures,
cedar cones,
and sweet, sweet, fruit
(but leave the stones).
Insects they catch
on the fly
when swarms of them
go buzzing by.
No need to worry,
moan. or fret.
Your valuables
they will
not
get.

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Link to the poem

The bird itself

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I have no idea what happened first

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:45:23 GMT

but as I was at the corner store somebody poked his head in the store and said "So, I still can't get nothing?" and then, as the cashier picked up the phone "C'mon, you're calling the cops on me again? You already called them on me!"

Well, okay, if he already called them (20 minutes ago, as the phone conversation made clear) then there is no need to ask if you are welcome in the store, because almost anybody could tell you that the answer is no. Whether he was right to call or wrong to call, he's still not going to let you buy anything at this time.

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Why the hell am I getting spammed by the RNC?

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 03:50:09 GMT

Seriously, what have I done to deserve that?

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Peach by D. H. Lawrence

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 02:22:00 GMT

Would you like to throw a stone at me?
Here, take all that’s left of my peach.

Blood-red, deep:
Heaven knows how it came to pass.
Somebody’s pound of flesh rendered up.

Wrinkled with secrets
And hard with the intention to keep them.

Why, from silvery peach-bloom,
From that shallow-silvery wine-glass on a short stem
This rolling, dropping, heavy globule?

I am thinking, of course, of the peach before I ate it.

Why so velvety, why so voluptuous heavy?
Why hanging with such inordinate weight?
Why so indented?

Why the groove?
Why the lovely, bivalve roundnesses?
Why the ripple down the sphere?
Why the suggestion of incision?

Why was not my peach round and finished like a billiard ball?
It would have been if man had made it.
Though I’ve eaten it now.

But it wasn’t round and finished like a billiard ball;
And because I say so, you would like to throw something at me.

Here, you can have my peach stone.

- San Gervasio

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Link

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I’m not entirely sure where this book is going

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 21:32:43 GMT

but I am certain that the lieutenant’s eyes are not lambent.

Somebody needs to remove that word from the word a day calendars, I swear. Replace it with uxoricide or inchoate.

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Judging by the hollering

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 03:46:15 GMT

Either the Knicks won or… I can’t actually imagine an or for this sentence.

Go Knicks!

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I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like To Try Cake

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 02:35:56 GMT

Welp, I'm convinced. Let's get that hard-working horse some cake!

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:(

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 04:24:50 GMT

Jane Yolen, Author of 450 Books Including The Devil's Arithmetic, Dies at 87

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Last week I mentioned the drying racks to my sister

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 17:29:52 GMT

and she said we still have them "because what if the dryer breaks" and I thought to myself "oh, yeah, that's gonna come back to haunt us" but I didn't say anything for fear of making it worse and today - the dryer broke!

*headdesk*

This is Jenn's fault. I will stand by that.

The first repair appointment I could make is next week, but that's okay, we won't have enough money until next week anyway.

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