totchipanda: (Default)
totchipanda ([personal profile] totchipanda) wrote2025-09-29 07:41 am

(no subject)

On Friday I did finish up the knitting swatch, and blocked it on Saturday. I put it in a closet to protect it from the kittens, and have not yet looked at it again.

Saturday I said I am NOT going to spend the whole weekend rotting in bed watching Drag Race! I'm NOT!!! I have my fall wardrobe fabrics picked out and by golly I'm gonna make them before it's too cold!! Luckily they will work as winter clothes too lol. But that still doesn't help if they aren't made into anything and just sit on my table as yardage.

So I put on the Hadestown soundtrack and cut out the first article, another Scout dress. I had this hideous orange and blue plaid in my stash forever. I wanted to make a Victorian-esque dress out of it, inspired by a couple of costumers who made similar ones out of a tablecloth or 1.5m of fabric, but I could not figure out how to make it work on the little yardage I had. I didn't measure it this time, though I had in the past. I did measure the width, and lookit that, its 35" wide, so it was another of my aunt's deep stash that I've had for 20+ years. This fabric is certainly older than me. I knew there was NO WAY I was getting the pleated skirt onto it, absolutely not, and that was never the plan. I was struggling with placement for a hot minute, the 3/4 sleeve I wanted was too wide to fit on the half-width, but I also didn't want to open up the fabric bc that left a lot of waste and a skirt that wasn't as full as I would like (it was already a struggle on 35" fabric!). And the plaid was directional! In the end, I scooted the sleeve onto the width I had and got two even panels that even started on the same bar of plaid for the skirt. There is literally scraps left, not even enough for a shirt pocket, never mind a skirt pocket.

Then I made the critical error of sitting down on my bed and letting the kittens lay on me. Out like a light for two full hours.

Sunday morning I started sewing, knowing that M wouldn't want to leave the house too early. At 10 am I took a break to go to the pet store for cat food and pop into the gas station to fill up my dang tire, which was completely flat gdi. I ended up parking right in front of my place and at a spot where i can see the rear tires very clearly from my window and I think it's still holding air, or was as of approx. 4pm yesterday. The bodice is already mostly constructed, sleeves are next. Very quick make, this one. We went to the museum, where it was busy (because it was free admission) but not too bad, wandered the special exhibit (orcas, which both awed us in their size, and saddened us in how cruelly they are treated) and then decided to leave. We power walked the galleries last time because we only had an hour, and for about 30 seconds we were like "well we're here..." and then just, no, no thank you. Too peopley. This museum is here, it's not going anywhere. We can visit it again.

Took a wander through the gift shop, where we bought rocks (mine has an ammonite fossil in it!) and then decided to walk 1.4 km/most of a mile to an ice cream shop. Enjoyed our ice cream, chatted, said hello to a doggo, and then walked all the way back and went home. I immediately made dinner and washed some dishes because the minute I sat down, that was going to be IT. The rest of the night was watching Drag Race and playing on my phone.

Tomorrow is a solemn day that I get to spend at home (I hate calling it a holiday, its not, its the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, aka Orange Shirt Day, aka a day to reflect on the horrors of residential schools and other atrocities committed against indigenous peoples), so I should be able to finish the dress no problem. M should be off in enough time for us to watch DWTS at a reasonable hour, but I can pick her up too, and that will make the evening a little smoother.

I pulled out my prepared pattern pieces for a jumper dress, so that's next on my list. I need to add a couple of undergarment pieces too, nothing wild or complicated.

Getting back to sewing felt really nice :3
koshka_the_cat: Beach! (Default)
Katherine's Journal ([personal profile] koshka_the_cat) wrote2025-09-28 07:24 pm
Entry tags:

Oops!

Still no knitting! I did get it out and it sat next to me for a bit. Maybe after dinner?
koshka_the_cat: Beach! (Default)
Katherine's Journal ([personal profile] koshka_the_cat) wrote2025-09-27 08:18 pm
Entry tags:

Tomorrow

I haven't knit yet. I still might. Tomorrow my knitting goal!
atherleisure: (Default)
atherleisure ([personal profile] atherleisure) wrote2025-09-27 12:16 pm
Entry tags:

Weekend Goal

The goal for the weekend is to finish the toe of the Christmas stocking I'm working on.
koshka_the_cat: Beach! (Default)
Katherine's Journal ([personal profile] koshka_the_cat) wrote2025-09-26 08:23 pm
Entry tags:

And now...

That weekend I've wanted all week. I'm going to knit! Really!
m_of_disguise: (Default)
m_of_disguise ([personal profile] m_of_disguise) wrote2025-09-26 09:55 am

(no subject)

When I got home, M told me that Katie had been running him ragged, full of energy and tantrums, and he went to bed for another four-hour nap. I don't know what had been happening during the day, but she was almost completely perfect all evening. We did some language cards together, danced to some Ms. Rachel songs, and she wanted to brush her teeth like 3,000 times, but I only had one tantrum for when I wouldn't give her another cookie, which she abandoned as soon as another Ms. Rachel song came on. 

Leftover wienerwurst and noodles for the both of us, which she devoured. M had said that she hadn't been eating during the day and had just been hiding her orange slices all around the house rather than eating them, so I think she may be sick of fruit right now. She ate an entire sausage, a good portion of noodles, and two babybel cheeses for dinner and seemed very satisfied. 

M woke up just before it was time to put Katie down for bed, and she went down easily, with only one wakeup to tell me she'd chucked her diaper and pants out of the bed (thankfully not dirty.) Once she was re-dressed, she went to sleep immediately, and I had a good portion of the night to myself. M is completely immersed in the new Silent Hill game and barely came out of the office at all. I had a hankering to watch Labyrinth, which I haven't seen in a good few years, and I got to enjoy it with only one interruption, which was really nice!

I've slept like the dead the past couple of days, and am feeling pretty good right now. Let's hope it lasts through the weekend, because I would really like to sleep in tomorrow. I have half a can of pumpkin puree sitting in the fridge that needs using, so the only real plan for this weekend is to make another batch of pumpkin bread. The weather is supposed to be very nice, with highs only in the 80s, so maybe we'll get a chance to go out to the park or something.
koshka_the_cat: Beach! (Default)
Katherine's Journal ([personal profile] koshka_the_cat) wrote2025-09-25 08:52 pm
Entry tags:

Almost!

I guess it's a good thing that all I have to post about is the nearing weekend. The world is crazy, but things are pretty usual here. Not bad, really!
brickhousewench: (TV)
brickhousewench ([personal profile] brickhousewench) wrote2025-09-25 07:08 pm
Entry tags:

Jimmy Kimmel

I stayed up late Tuesday night to watch the return of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Context for non USA residents )

I don’t usually stay up past my bedtime to watch late night comedy. In fact, ever since I discovered that the New York Times does a daily Late Night Roundup (Welcome to Late Night Roundup, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy.) I haven’t watched anything live. I either watch the clips in The New York Times, or in Facebook reels. And I follow The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Facebook.

But Tuesday night I stayed up way past my bedtime to watch Jimmy Kimmel’s return to late night TV. I watched the entire hour, because I was going to be counted in the ratings. According to the New York Times, Tuesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” averaged 6.2 million viewers, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen. That is nearly four times as much as his usual audience, even though more than 20 percent of ABC affiliates boycotted the show. So he beat his usual ratings, with 20% of his usual stations not carrying his show. Dayam boy! AND, when I posted this, the video of his return currently has almost 21 million views. He has 20.4 million subscribers, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t the only reason for his number of views. He was getting almost a million views an hour for the 24 hours after his return episode aired on ABC.

I was VERY impressed. He knew he was going to have a huge audience, and he took full advantage of that. I don’t know who wrote his opening monologue, but it was excellent.

He really did thread the needle very carefully. He didn't apologize, but made it clear that his comments in his last episode were misunderstood. He called out Brendan Carr and FFOTUS for their flip from supporting the first amendment to government censorship, and brought receipts. He showed video of each of them defending freedom of speech from back when they claimed that Liberals were censoring Conservative voices.He made it clear that he empathizes with Kirk's widow because he too has received death threats against himself and his family, so he knows how that feels. He stood up not only for himself, but for other targeted comedians and especially for journalists. He made a point that if so many people can agree on free speech, what else can we agree on? And let’s try to build on what we agree on.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth your time to watch. I plan to watch it again this weekend, when I have more free time (this week has been a busy one at work).

Related links

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/business/media/jimmy-kimmel-ratings.html

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/disney-shareholders-demand-reasons-kimmel-suspension-semafor-reports-2025-09-24/
m_of_disguise: (Default)
m_of_disguise ([personal profile] m_of_disguise) wrote2025-09-25 01:52 pm

(no subject)

Yesterday was an unexpected day in multiple ways. Tuesday night, M asked if I could call in and stay home because his managers are insisting that everyone come into the office for an in-person day. He had been trying to find a way to skip out on it, but thought that they'd probably do his exit interviews then and so he probably had to be there no matter what. Since it was last minute, I just called in sick, and M was out of the house by 8:30 in the morning. 

The morning was fine, and Kate went down for her nap around 11, and I attempted to eat lunch. But she kept fussing and making noise, and I tried to ignore it hoping that she's soothe herself and go to sleep, but after 45 minutes she was still fussing.

Well, I should have checked on her much earlier, because when I went in there I was greeted by a poo tsunami. At some point she had taken off her pants and clean diaper, thrown them out of the crib, and then taken a poo all over her blankets and clothes and bed and the walls and GOOD LORD KID. -_- So, Kate immediately got a bath, then the bed got a scrub down, and the walls and floors, then all her bedding got washed, and all that ended up taking around 2 hours. 

Kate refused to nap for the rest of the day because she didn't have her favorite blankets (even though we have many, many backup blankets, she can't sleep without her favorites), so by the time dinner rolled around she was incredibly cranky and upset. M had come home around 3:30, but was zero help because he went to bed to rest and ended up falling asleep for four damned hours.

Made a quick dinner of wienerwurst and cheesy noodles, which Kate devoured. Her full belly put her in a better mood, and once M was awake again she was back to being in a good mood, even though she was completely exhausted. I finally ended up finding an old sleep sack of hers that has the same texture as her favorite blankets, and that helped her finally get to sleep. When I went to bed myself, I checked on her and found that she had thrown the mattress and all of the bedding out of the bed, and was just sleeping on the bare base of the pen with her arms through the sleep sack so it draped over her like a snuggie. Whatever works!

It was an incredibly long day, so even though I got to bed at a decent hour, I am still very tired and sore today. I have a date with the massage chair at work later this afternoon.
totchipanda: (Default)
totchipanda ([personal profile] totchipanda) wrote2025-09-25 08:58 am

(no subject)

Monday I was exhausted so the evening was spent laying in bed.

Tuesday was Dancing with the Stars, so I was at M's place for most of it.

Yesterday I was fired up! My first evening home in 4 days when I wasn't completely wiped! I was gonna do THIS! I was gonna do THAT! I might even do THING!

Reader, I collected the garbages, and took a nap. I even went back to sleep at a reasonable time (just after midnight) and stayed asleep all night.

Hanging out at the other building today, so at least my day is going to be quiet and free of noisy coworkers talking my ear off. I can't watch videos over here, but that is OK. So peaceful! Perhaps tonight the this and that and thing will get done. I definitely need a change, this is stressful on me in ways that are so subtle.

I have been successfully advertised to, after nearly a year of instagram ads, with creative journaling stickers. I've been waffling on them, would I actually use them, probably not, waffle waffle... Then I was looking at their videos on YouTube and decided to just go for it. I haven't got a clue how to start, but for now I can just copy their spreads until I figure out what works for me. I was thinking how it would be useful for me to have a monthly list of all of my pre-approved and recurring payments, and this will suit me very well. Pages of stickers and a small space for each day already tickles my brain. I feel like I could just write down something each day, that doesn't have to be world-shattering or even "productive", and review the books whenever I like. A nice analog of my life right now to look back on some day.

So I was watching those videos on Tuesday and I was just FIRED UP to get home and pull out my plethora of stickers and a blank journal I have kicking around. While at M's place, I made a month for October and filled in bits and pieces. I did use ultra cutesy stickers because that's what I had and it does not fit the vibe of October at all lol. When I got home, I added a bunch of Halloween stickers and that's much better. But I do not like the notebook I used, the paper is SO THIN that a regular gel pen is heckin visible through the page. "I can do this," I said. "it's fine for now."

"For now" lasted about 12 hours and I subscribed to the stickers. On the 24th, completely missing the fact that the next sub would be out on the 25th and would charge again. Whoops. Welp. I could have skipped it but chose not to. They did say anyone who auto-renews would get a coupon, and I 100% intend to take advantage of that...

Anyway, I guess I'm in my sticker journal era. Yay me?

Ok self, let's get fired up for a few nights of being a fantastic human who takes care of themselves and does fun hobbies. Plans for the next few nights/weekend:

-free!! museum friend-date with M
-dishes (ugh)
-cleaning in general, the floor esp needs a tidy and vacuum
-start the sewing!
-are you ever gonna finish that knitting swatch?
-prepare yarns for next KAL project
-make bread
koshka_the_cat: Beach! (Default)
Katherine's Journal ([personal profile] koshka_the_cat) wrote2025-09-24 07:43 pm
Entry tags:

Wednesday

It really is Wednesday today. That's a good thing!
atherleisure: (Default)
atherleisure ([personal profile] atherleisure) wrote2025-09-24 06:30 pm
Entry tags:

Week 4

Here's where I left off last week:
“Candy Cane Stocking” progress - 9-14/25

And here's where I left off this week:
“Candy Cane Santa Stocking” progress - 9/22/25

It's actually where I left off Monday night instead of Sunday because I forgot to take the picture before I started working on it Monday night.

The heel is all filled out, and I'm working my way to the toe.
brickhousewench: (WTFBBQ)
brickhousewench ([personal profile] brickhousewench) wrote2025-09-24 07:08 pm
Entry tags:

WTF Wednesday Twofer

YouTube secretly used AI to edit people's videos. The results could bend reality
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.

There's a larger trend at play. A growing share of reality is pre-processed by AI before it reaches us. Eventually, the question won't be whether you can tell the difference, but whether it's eroding our ties to the world around us.

"You can make decisions about what you want your phone to do, and whether to turn on certain features. What we have here is a company manipulating content from leading users that is then being distributed to a public audience without the consent of the people who produce the videos."


I think that one of the things that creators hold dear is creative control. Once your distribution system starts editing your creation, you’re no longer the sole creator of your creation, be it a text, video, blog, music, book, piece of art, whatever.

Startup behind $700-a-month bed 'pods' wants to put 10,000 more in San Francisco

Brownstone has rented beds to a rotating cast of tech startup founders, immigrants and other new-to-the-city characters willing to stay in barely private, 4-foot-tall boxes for $700 a month. And now, CEO James Stallworth is ramping up Brownstone’s ambitions.

Stallworth also wants to shift to a franchise model, where San Francisco’s landlords would tap into his pool of applicants by converting their offices into space for pod housing.

“We’re not doing this just, you know, for self-gratification,” Stallworth said. “Our goal is to create as much housing as people need.”

“Stallworth said he doubts most landlords would charge as little as $700 a month for the pod”


As little as $700 a month? AS LITTLE? What are you smoking bro?!?! I know it's been thirty years, but we rented an entire 3 bedroom house for $600 when I was in college. And this guy thinks that $700 for a 4 feet high, 3½ feet wide pod is low?!?!

WTF, I don’t think anyone defines “housing” as merely having a roof over your head. I think most people think of housing as having some space where you can have comfortable furniture and safely keep your possessions. Not a tiny box with a curtain for privacy. I already hear enough noise from my neighbors, and I have walls and doors between us.
koshka_the_cat: Beach! (Default)
Katherine's Journal ([personal profile] koshka_the_cat) wrote2025-09-23 07:52 pm
Entry tags:

Hmm

I was positive it was Wednesday. It's not. I'm so confused!

It's partially because of the class I split with my friend. She was supposed to have them for a period then I would finish the class. But we asked if we could have them have one of us one day, the other the next, and we'd take double prep on the day we didn't have them. It's working great, but it's also breaking my mind!
brickhousewench: (attack frog)
brickhousewench ([personal profile] brickhousewench) wrote2025-09-23 08:50 pm
Entry tags:

I love Ask a Manager

I love the fake jobs that Alison over at Ask a Manager invents when she answers letters.

“Change in plans! I’m happy to announce that I’ll be working as a senior frog historian for the Amphibian Coalition, beginning next week.”

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/09/my-boss-told-a-coworker-im-full-of-myself-employees-wearing-shirts-with-political-messages-and-more.html
brickhousewench: (LeMiserable)
brickhousewench ([personal profile] brickhousewench) wrote2025-09-23 02:04 pm
Entry tags:

Noise again (Le sigh)

I live in the basement/ground floor of my condo building (when you come in the front door, there is a half flight of stairs up and a half flight of stairs down, so I’m half submerged). Because we're in the basement, we have the hot water heater and the electrical panel in a closet on our floor. And every time something goes wrong with the electrical panel, the damned thing makes the most annoying alert signal, right outside the wall from my work desk.

It’s annoying AF. And even more annoying since they ripped out the carpeting on our floor and installed tile. It just echos. But some days I assume I’m the only person who can hear it, because nobody else seems to bother to call it into the condo management company for repairs. A year or two back I made the electrician show me the switch to cut off the alarm, because the damned thing only seems to go off on the weekends. And it especially loves to go off on long weekends. Because of course it does.

Welp, it went off again a week or so ago, and I called it in, but the guy they sent out couldn’t figure out what the problem was. So when it went off again yesterday (Monday), I just didn’t want to deal with it. I put my Loop earplugs in and just ignored the damned thing. Those things are worth every penny I spent on them, they muffle noises just enough so that I can only hear the alarm if I'm really listening for it.

This morning when I got up around 8:30 am, there was someone banging around in the hallway. I was hoping it was an electrician, and it must have been, because every time the alarm went off, they silenced it immediately. I don’t know exactly what they were doing out there, but they were at it for at least three hours. They didn’t leave until lunchtime.

Hopefully that means the damned thing is fixed. The sound is ear piercing and gives me a splitting headache every time.
brickhousewench: (headdesk)
brickhousewench ([personal profile] brickhousewench) wrote2025-09-23 11:55 am

My CEO

I know I've whined about my CEO here before.

* He doesn't believe in capital letters. Not even for acronyms. His emails look like they were written by ee cummings.
* I have never seen him in a collared shirt. Not even a polo shirt. I swear, this guy only wears t-shirts. His official photo on the website is him in a hoodie.
* When his nose runs, he wipes it on his arm/sleeve. SO GROSS.
* Every time he shows up on a Zoom call he looks like he just rolled out of bed.

Exhibit A - His hair this morning looks like he just got out of the shower.

(click to embiggen)
m_of_disguise: (Default)
m_of_disguise ([personal profile] m_of_disguise) wrote2025-09-23 09:00 am

(no subject)

Had a good evening, but a rough night. Baby was in a fine mood and went to bed early, I got to eat German things for dinner, and I got to bed at a reasonable hour. 

Then in the middle of the night I woke up suddenly because it felt like I had inhaled some sort of angry particle. It felt just like when you inhale a piece of spicy food, and it started a coughing fit which, somehow, did not wake the baby. I stumbled to the bathroom, coughing so hard it made me eventually throw up a few times. -_- So that was fun. It eventually passed, and I still have no idea what it was.

The rest of the night I was either too hot or too cold, so I slept fitfully and woke up exhausted. Blah.

No big plans for today, or for the rest of the week really. We're sort of coasting right now, which is kind of nice. 
koshka_the_cat: Beach! (Default)
Katherine's Journal ([personal profile] koshka_the_cat) wrote2025-09-22 08:51 pm
Entry tags:

Tom again!

Tom has had run of the house for a while now, but he's finally fully cleared! The vet liked how he walked in his videos and he doesn't need to go back for a traumatic visit to the vet.

He's typical crazy cat. Hooray!