carnestoltes
Feb. 15th, 2026 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chefxhIt is amazing to live somewhere with a couple of thousand years' habits to draw on. The local carnaval (Carnestoltes) has everything from dancing giants and stacks of castellers to more fire runs, parades and traditions like burying the sardine.
Doesn't mean we go to any of it, though. Crowds? Fire? Weird Catholic co-optation of pagan ritual? Pass. I will mostly stick to walking the dog around Collblanc and La Torrassa and La Bordeta and Sants. And taking the bus to class.
Doesn't mean we go to any of it, though. Crowds? Fire? Weird Catholic co-optation of pagan ritual? Pass. I will mostly stick to walking the dog around Collblanc and La Torrassa and La Bordeta and Sants. And taking the bus to class.
Well, this certainly is a way to phrase it
Feb. 14th, 2026 06:18 pmconulyThe 1916 (Olympic) games were cancelled due to an international dispute occurring during that year
A dispute that left millions dead, sure. Not how I'd describe WWI, but okay.
***********************
( Read more... )
A dispute that left millions dead, sure. Not how I'd describe WWI, but okay.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Feb. 14th, 2026 03:35 pmaflaminghaloif nothing else, at least i can put a fat coconut out and watch the little birds go at it.
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Feb. 14th, 2026 12:09 amaflaminghalomy sister asked me to go see "wuthering heights" with her, so i used my free tickets. she turns up with a beach bag, and pulls wine, pop, crisps, chocolate, dips out... completely set the drink stand up like a buffet.
I enjoyed it. I never managed to get through the first chapter of the book, so that probably helps. not sure what fennell was trying to say with the race swapping of characters, but she's posh and you can't ever trust them, tbh. i got lovesong by hughes stuck in my head by the end. i also think it nailed the "aptitude for devotion" that was the thesis of pillion, which didn't land it really. (which i saw and also liked, but maybe not as much as the book - too many changes take it away from what it should be). Like Pillion, the end didn't really hit. It could have been worse, it deserved it to be worse.
Margot Robbie seems to like playing women trapped in or escaping from a dollhouse.
Now I just have to wait out the evil little voice suggesting I could try reading the book again.
I enjoyed it. I never managed to get through the first chapter of the book, so that probably helps. not sure what fennell was trying to say with the race swapping of characters, but she's posh and you can't ever trust them, tbh. i got lovesong by hughes stuck in my head by the end. i also think it nailed the "aptitude for devotion" that was the thesis of pillion, which didn't land it really. (which i saw and also liked, but maybe not as much as the book - too many changes take it away from what it should be). Like Pillion, the end didn't really hit. It could have been worse, it deserved it to be worse.
Margot Robbie seems to like playing women trapped in or escaping from a dollhouse.
Now I just have to wait out the evil little voice suggesting I could try reading the book again.
Starfleet Academy
Feb. 13th, 2026 05:05 pmsabotabbyListen, the world is a fuck and sometimes we just need to talk about silly space shows to distract from *gestures vaguely at the dumpster fire outside*. So if you nerds want a place to talk Starfleet Academy or any related Star Trek stuff you can do so here. Spoiler zone obviously. I'll be up to episode 5 by tonight.
ETA: Just realized I have been calling it Star Trek Academy this whole time, whoops.
ETA: Just realized I have been calling it Star Trek Academy this whole time, whoops.
Link Salad, Winter
Feb. 13th, 2026 01:21 pmlovelyangelA throwback to the good old days... remember web rings? Kagi Small Web. (Use the Next Post button at upper left to advance to another blog.) For more information, Kagi explains in their blog post – Kagi Small Web. Wasting time in Small Web is sort of the opposite of doomscrolling.
Freakpages is “a community-curated directory of esoteric articles across the internet, primarily from Wikipedia.” Random, interesting stuff - a new selection every month.
The Good, Neutral and Evil of monitor setups. My setup is Neutral Good. (Thanks to Information is Beautiful.. Also: Most Beautiful News of the Year)
Wes Cook and the McDonald’s Mural – a Cabel Sasser story. (Disclaimer: I’m a fan of Portland’s Panic Inc., of which Cabel Sasser is a co-founder.)
CEO Said a Thing Journalism by Karl Bode. (via kottke.org) I have so many mental filters when I read the news that I hardly am aware of automatic shields I put up – filtering nonsense, lies, propaganda, stupidity, etc.
An oldie: The 10 most important life lessons to master in your 30s.
As a retired individual who is 70, I found this article reassuring: I asked 50 retired people what surprised them most about their 70s—the same 6 answers came up and not one of them was about health or money
After last year’s remodel of my home library, I read There Comes a Time in Every Reader’s Life When You Have to Move the Books, which reminded me of packing 50+ boxes of books in my library. I was happy to see so many old friends (books) during that packing and unpacking.
The Cadbury Chocolate Ad (YouTube) I love dark chocolate!
Freakpages is “a community-curated directory of esoteric articles across the internet, primarily from Wikipedia.” Random, interesting stuff - a new selection every month.
The Good, Neutral and Evil of monitor setups. My setup is Neutral Good. (Thanks to Information is Beautiful.. Also: Most Beautiful News of the Year)
Wes Cook and the McDonald’s Mural – a Cabel Sasser story. (Disclaimer: I’m a fan of Portland’s Panic Inc., of which Cabel Sasser is a co-founder.)
CEO Said a Thing Journalism by Karl Bode. (via kottke.org) I have so many mental filters when I read the news that I hardly am aware of automatic shields I put up – filtering nonsense, lies, propaganda, stupidity, etc.
An oldie: The 10 most important life lessons to master in your 30s.
As a retired individual who is 70, I found this article reassuring: I asked 50 retired people what surprised them most about their 70s—the same 6 answers came up and not one of them was about health or money
After last year’s remodel of my home library, I read There Comes a Time in Every Reader’s Life When You Have to Move the Books, which reminded me of packing 50+ boxes of books in my library. I was happy to see so many old friends (books) during that packing and unpacking.
The Cadbury Chocolate Ad (YouTube) I love dark chocolate!
podcast friday
Feb. 13th, 2026 06:59 amsabotabby I'm still in catch-up mode but I'll recommend a recent episode of Better Offline, "Hater Season: Openclaw with David Gerard," Dunno if he ever checks Dreamwidth anymore but David is probably my favourite tech writer (no offence to Ed Zitron or Paris Marx or even Cathy O'Neil, who are all excellent) mainly as the guy who is right about everything and funny about it. Sometimes you just want to see two haters go at it and this episode is that. It's a little bit of economics, a little bit of debunking Clawdbot/Moltbot a few weeks before the rest of the world caught up. It's basically confirmation of my intuitive reaction to the hype bubble but they explain why my intuitive reaction is correct.
Angel’s Month Indulgence #3
Feb. 12th, 2026 12:32 pmlovelyangel iPhone 13 mini photo |
Leaving Costco, I realized I was not too far from Oyatsupan, so I took the short detour on the way home. Unfortunately, they were sold out of baguettes, but they had choco and vanilla cornets. And I could compensate for the lack of a nice bread loaf with a butter croissant. These are both treats – indulgences – which aren’t generally on my diet.
Oyatsupan is a little bit out of the way when running errands in Beaverton, and I rarely stop there to get goodies. I have two Oyatsupan gift cards, so today’s dietary indulgence didn’t cost me a cent. I guess today is the day of cheap (but yummy) indulgences.
Angel’s Month Indulgence #2
Feb. 12th, 2026 12:21 pmlovelyangel February 12, 2026 iPhone 13 mini photo |
I needed to make a Costco run today to get a supplement I was running low on. Going to Costco for just one item was sort of a waste – but then I decided I could grab a cheap lunch.
It’s been more than 10 years – probably more like 15 – since I’ve eaten anything at the Costco Food Court. Back then, there were no ordering kiosks – and all soft drinks were provided by Pepsico. However, the beef hot dog and soft drink combo is still $1.50 as it was then – a loss leader, for sure. Someday, Costco may have to give up on this crowd pleaser. I thought I should take advantage of the cheap combo while it’s still around.
I had arrived at the Costco before 11:00 am, and it was a shade after 11:00 am when I went up to a kiosk and ordered the combo. The food court wasn’t yet busy, and service was super fast. There were plenty of open tables, and I camped out at one.
The foot-long all-beef hot dog extended past both ends of the good-sized bun. I didn’t think to photograph my lunch, but after lunch I realized it counted as an indulgence, so I regretted the lack of a photo. I took a picture after I’d finished eating.
 iPhone 13 mini photo |
Coca-Cola is my drink of choice – but I cap my intake at a maximum of 16 ounces a day – preferably 8 or 12 ounces. I put ice in the 20 oz cup and didn’t fill the cup to the top, so there was probably less than 16 ounces in the cup. Neither hot dogs nor Coca-Cola are healthy, so lunch was definitely an indulgence. A very, very cheap one. Who knows? It might be another 15 years before I return to the Costco Food Court.
ICE Leaving? Not Exactly.
Feb. 12th, 2026 09:22 amlydamorehouse
Image: the north star shining behind a loon with the words RESIST (by Jack Brinatte)
This morning Border Czar Homan says they are ending Operation Metro Surge. This is good news! I hope some of us here in Minnesota will take a short victory lap or dance in the streets a little.
HOWEVER.
There is no doubt in my mind that ICE operations will continue in Minnesota. They're just ending the surge, not their horrible, extra-legal, and inhumane work. In fact, I find it sort of ominous that they are implying that they've secured the help of local authorities. My hot take is that that just means fewer agents, more cops. Which sucks in a different kind of way because cops do have actual authority to arrest us for "obstructing" them. I still say that there are more of us then there are of them, so let them try. We can still film them. We can still blow our whistles. As far as I am aware, the first amendment still exists in this country. And, as we know from George Floyd, we can film cops just as easily as we can film ICE.
I do think that the bad guys are hoping that we'll stop feeding our neighbors in hiding, force them to come out to grocery shop or go to work, and then kidnap them. Tim Waltz has been very loud about the "economic impact" the Operation Metro Surge has been having on local shops and businesses, which is true--but, and I love you, Tim, I really do, but $$ being spent in Minnesota is not actually the crisis. Businesses struggling is just the consequence of the crisis. I'm sorry Target is feeling the pressure of our constant protests to their weak response to the 4th amendment, but, you know, they CAN DO something about it. It's the people who are being kidnapped and sent to concentration camps that are the core of the crisis. The real crisis is that NONE OF THIS SHOULD BE HAPPENING. There is a due process for immigration and EVERYONE deserves due process and humane treatment, full stop. No one should be (as someone was the other day) arrested while trying to appear in court for their immigration status hearing! That is a literal perversion of justice. And we should not stand for it. Even if we go down with this ship.
The bad guys have fully misjudged this movement if they think that the good people of Minnesota are going to just be like, "Oh, you're leaving? Ope, well, I guess I'll just stop caring about my neighbors, then!"
They have lit a fire in this state that I don't think is going to be easily extinguished. I don't even know that this announcement will change a single day in our lives. I'll be headed off to mutual aid work in a couple of hours, then school patrol after that, and singing at 6:30 pm tonight. I suspect that will be what my tomorrow looks like, too.
batten down the hatches
Feb. 12th, 2026 08:57 amchefxhEvery government thing (including my Catalan class) is closed today because of high wind warnings. Should be interesting!
Angel’s Month Indulgence #1
Feb. 11th, 2026 05:36 pmlovelyangel |
As noted Last Year, some special goodies were available for pre-order in Japan, and those items were delivered to my home a week ago (Wednesday, February 4).
My twin biases in TWICE are Sana and Momo – and those women are also two of the three members of TWICE’s Japanese sub-group, MISAMO. So I do whatever I can to support Misamo, even if their music doesn’t quite match my listening preferences.
So my order included:
Misamo PLAY DVD/CD set
MISAMO visuals are the best, so I always get any DVD or Blu-ray that I can. I’ve been too busy to view the DVD. The videos will be stuck in my backlog for a while.
Warner Japan doesn’t offer much in the way of extras. The oversize box (with cover photo) includes a large (10.75" x 7.5") but thin (32 pp) photobook/lyrics book – along with a matching (same size) poster. A single, small, random photocard was included. A CDJapan-only bonus was a round compact mirror with photo back and clear vinyl case.
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Misamo PLAY CD
The music CD that is included with the MISAMO DVD doesn’t have the three solo songs. How annoying. So I had to buy a separate CD to get all the recorded songs. Warner Japan, always stingy with bonuses, provided just a single, random photocard. The CDJapan-only bonus was another round, compact mirror with photo back and clear vinyl case.
As a lifelong Gunbuster fan, I had to order this special reissue:
Sound Collection of Gunbuster 3-CD set
This CD box set completes my collection of Gunbuster CDs, and I’m eager to listen to the whole thing – even though it’s a superset of my other CDs. I think there are new (to me) sound clips – and I add good ones to the sound library on Belldandy to replace system sounds. Anyway, I’m super happy to have completed my Gunbuster audio collection – a nice compliment to my complete video collection.
Angel Overwhelmed
Feb. 11th, 2026 05:07 pmlovelyangel |
Things are troubled but not quite dire here. I’ve had a catastrophic failure of the external SSD that holds my Lightroom library. Normally I’d take a timeout and begin work on a lengthy rebuild. However, this happened just one day before the start of the Portland Winter Light Festival, and I’m a photographer for the festival – so I had to do an emergency restore of a 9-month-old Lightroom backup so that I could process photos starting last Friday.
PDXWLF runs for nine days (nights, actually), and I have photo commitments for six of those nights (including tonight). PDXWLF is the worst (most difficult, least satisfying) of the photography I do each year – and it’s more of a chore than anything. Even after the event is over after this Saturday, I’ll have a huge amount of photos to process. There are deadlines.
I’ve talked with tech support for my dead drive, and there is almost no hope of recovering the data. (There is a very slim chance, but I’ve studied the tool, and I’m not optimistic at all. I’ll explain on another day.) Basically, there’s nine months of work that is lost and would have to be recreated – in my spare time, of course. This includes all my 2025 Oregon Country Fair, Portland Saturday Market 2025, Portland Farmers Market 2025, Kumoricon 2025, and TWICE concert photos. 😔
In the meantime, my home library cleanup/organization is on hold. And there is a lot remaining to do.
LiveJournal Scrapbook/Photos download hasn’t received attention, either.
Maybe the only good thing is that I finished compiling a big, electronic stack of documents that I’ve sent to my tax accountant. This was right on my ideal schedule – and three weeks ahead of last year.
If I slowed down and stopped to think, I’d know how much of a mess everything is right now – so I’m not going to do that. There’s no time to be depressed. For now, I have to get ready for another photo outing tonight.