tim | Reading

I should have gone to bed two hours ago;
Instead I stayed up playing "one more day"
Until I learned the time outside the screen
From someone who to bed was on their way.
And still I might have played a little more
If morning wouldn't knock upon my door.
-K Royka, 11/4/2025

redbird

The three of us voted this afternoon, then went to the supermarket, where we had to deal with a pushy person who wanted us to sign dodgy-looking petitions: he said they were for same-day voter registration, but I noticed that the page he wanted us to sign didn't say what we were signing for. There are dozens of possible state ballot questions for next year, so it could be almost anything. (The procedure in Massachusetts, as I understand it, is people or organizations say "I want to put this on the ballot," and then the attorney general vets the proposals, and either OKs them or explains why not. After that, they can collect signatures.)

The only thing on the ballot in Boston today was city council seats, after the incumbent mayor's main opponent formally withdrew after coming in a distant second in the primary. Happily, I had a choice of five or six good candidates for the four at-large city council seats.

Addendum: there are in fact forty-seven "petition initiatives" on the state website, including a few that are labeled as versions A, B, or even C of the same thing. The list is on the state website: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/ballot-initiatives-submitted-for-the-2026-biennial-statewide-election-proposed-laws-and-2028-biennial-statewide-election-proposed-constitutional-amendments

syzygis

I mix up my states
Like Pennsylvania and Virginia
Even though I know they really aren't the same...
And acquaintances or friends,
Even if my life depends
On it I surely will forget what they are named!
And sentences I speak
Any word that is unique
Or important will go missing right on cue,
But the one thing I remember
January through December,
Is how grateful I am that you love me too.
-K Royka, 11/3/2025

syzygis

Yes, my dear, I know;
This computer game is fun.
Now, please -- softer chair?
-K Royka, 11/2/2025

sonia

A friend responded to me with uncharacteristic and intense anger a couple of days ago and I don't know why (yet). While I'm waiting on more information, I've been thinking about other times I've faced intense anger.

I don't remember many. One time, I was exhausted and needed to leave, and a friend said if I left, the friendship was over. I thought we would work it out after getting a chance to rest, but despite several attempts, he stuck to the friendship being over.

Another time, a friend was angry that I couldn't continue in a painful situation. Despite attempts to talk about it, that friendship eventually ended too.

I remember being angry as romantic relationships deteriorated, but I don't remember partners communicating anger and working it through. Or responding well to my attempts to communicate anger and work it through. Which is why I'm not in any of those relationships anymore.

I have a felt sense of quicksand in relationships (of any sort). Like, "oops, this ground has gotten treacherous, time to back up." Looking back, I think that's been when people are angry. But they don't say, "I'm angry at you for X and want things to be different going forward." They emotionally withdraw, and eventually cut things off. Sometimes it's been when I felt safe enough to express a boundary of my own, and found out that wasn't safe after all.

I suppose the most... not positive, exactly, but open experiences of anger were as a bodywork practitioner. If a client got angry, I held space and listened and responded as best I could. But that's a different dynamic than relationships out in the world. I do have the basic tools of active listening and trying to stay grounded.

I'm not feeling super hopeful about the current situation. Do you have stories or resources about successfully working through anger?

ETA: I wrote a short apologetic, puzzled email and got back that it's all good, just an intense and exhausting week. Whew. I mean, I got blasted with *something*, but good to know it wasn't about me and therefore no longer my problem.

redbird

After several days in a row of being able to walk more than is now typical for me, and also doing PT, yesterday my ankle hurt enough that I stayed put as much as possible. I took a naproxen around lunchtime, which made no descernible difference.

I'm doing significantly better today, in terms of ankle and other joint pain. I didn't go for a walk, but did go outside to take out trash and spend a few minutes outdoors during daylight, and then started on what has turned out to be a lot of PT exercises. We're back on standard time as of this morning, meaning the sun set in Boston at 4:35 (we're near the eastern edge of this time zone).

syzygis

Glasses just arrived
How long to adjust to them?
First pair? Wore all day.
-K Royka,11/1/2025

solarbird

HEY IF YOU’RE IN NORTHSHORE AND CAN VOTE – vote FOR Kimberlee Kelly and vote FOR Sandy R. Hayes for school board!

Their opponents are people who were either low-key or openly anti-trans in the primary and they’ve both gone SUPER-high-key anti-trans in the general. This is how it always works and is why we always have to pay attention to “unimportant” races in the primaries:

Results page from the primary election back in August showing 35.83% turnout, a Christian Nationalist coming in third for school board in position 1, a low-key anti-trans candidate coming in second in position 4, and an overtly anti-trans candidate finishing second in position 5. In all races, there were three candidates, ignoring write-in votes.

So anyway, since people don’t pay attention enough in primaries, we have this shit.

Vote FOR Kimberlee Kelly and vote FOR Sandy R. Hayes, because their opponents are haters and shitheels.

(You can also vote for Carson Sanderson. Arun Sharma – who also seemed fine even if I voted Carson – dropped out after ballots were printed, and then endorsed Carson too.)

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

syzygis

The benefit that I have learned
To birthdays on Halloween past childhood stage
Is giving out candy or toys
Makes my costume a Hobbit with mathoms to trade.
-K Royka, 10/31/2025

syzygis

It would be so nice
If for once I wouldn't have
Birthday present: sick.
-K Royka, 10/30/2025

redbird

I had to call the management company about the heat again today. I and I think at least one other neighbor called in a problem Monday, and they sent someone who made a fix that he said might be temporary, but also said he had ordered parts for a longer-term solution. Tuesday was OK, but by the time I got up this morning [Thursday] the heat clearly wasn't working again.

The management company sent someone over fairly quickly. He first knocked to let me know they were here and thank me for reporting the problem, then came back to tell me they had to look at a sensor in Adrian’s room. So she hurriedly put on her bathrobe, the three of us masked, and I invited them in, with a warning about not letting the cats in. They looked at it, and came back a while later to replace it—apparently there was something wrong with the thermostat, and they replaced the sensors in each apartment, because they couldn’t be sure of which one was the problem. The heat came back on within the hour, and we’re OK for now.

Adrian and Cattitude both thanked me for being Speaker to Landlord on this one.

sonia

Whether it's the environmental destruction, the extraction of private information into the public soup of things AI might spit out, or the fake and/or wrong answers, there are a lot of reasons to turn AI off.

Consumer Reports: How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More by Thomas Germain.

Even if you've done this already, it's worth taking a look, because the people pushing AI use trickery to keep turning it on after people wisely opt out.

syzygis

Is this year so dark, they asked?
They wanted to hear "no".
But as I thought of yesteryear
The clearest image that appeared
Was innocence bleeding into fear
A gut-deep body blow
As planes struck, one and two.

And now we're reeling once again
'Most every day, and even worse
Like some dark time delaying curse
These blows come, in the end,
From those who posed as friends.

So yes, I said, this year is dark.
Don't blind yourself to what is there
This year is tinder waiting spark
Hiding will do no favors there.
-K Royka, 10/29/2025

syzygis

Tuesday night I go to bed
But in the morning, in my head,
It's Monday and the week's beginning.
Get to work, my head still spinning,
Waiting for Friday to end
Until a coworker again
Reminds me of our Wednesday meeting --
I guess sometimes time is fleeting!
-K Royka, 10/28/2025

jesse_the_k

Robert Bringhurst's remarkable reference work, The Elements of Typographic Style, provides a full semester of type history in less than 400 pages. It's not just the book's elegant design nor well-chosen exemplars that so thrilled me I read both the 2nd and 3rd edition, dropping more than 50 stickies along the way. The current edition, version 4.3, is out of print and still focuses exclusively on printed material.

Bringhurst is a poet and translator. That last vocation has brought him into regular contact with non-Latin alphabets, and the Elements of Typographic Style provides the best advice I've ever seen in English regarding how to set type with accents, diacritics, and other "analphabetic characters."

( context: why I care )

( Archived links )

I drafted this review a decade ago, and I still believe it, so it’s a proof of life post.

syzygis

Are you
Thrilled at your lunch
Eating all the food there
Or are you ignoring it all
Then complaining you are hungry again?
-K Royka, 10/27/2025

redbird

I went to Somerville this morning for a fasting blood draw, to repeat the blood glucose test from a few weeks ago. She also ordered an A1C test and, apparently, a basic metabolic panel. I don't remember Carneb mentioning the basic metabolic panel, but I asked the receptionist to check whether I'd already had one recently, and he said I hadn't, so sure. I can spare an extra test tube of blood, I just didn't want to have to fight an insurance company about it.

From there, I took the bus to Arlington, hoping to order new glasses, but the optician's office was closed, with no sign explaining why. (It's a one-man shop, so if Ron is sick, there's nobody else to open the office or post a sign explaining when he'll be back.) Before making another trip, I'll call and confirm that he's open; it's an easier trip from Davis Square than from here in Brighton.

The timing worked for me to stop at Lizzy's Ice Cream on the way home; I bought pints of black raspberry, black cherry, and blueberry, which was listed as a seasonal flavor.

I may have overdone things, but when I woke up this morning it seemed like good timing for the fasting blood draw.

sonia

I just learned that the city motto of Oakland is Oakland Love Life, as described on the city's website.

Love Life Acknowledgement (Abridged Version)

We acknowledge that in service to our beloved city of Oakland, and all its citizens, adhering to the city of Oakland's official motto, "Oakland Love Life" we enter into this space committed to embody love as our guiding principle.

We acknowledge Love Life as our motto as we denounce violence in all forms and the conditions that create it.

We acknowledge that when we demonstrate love, we also exhibit respect and kindness towards each other.

We commit to acts of love as an intentional force to generate tangible solutions, in regards to all of our actions.

We recognize as leaders, we must set an example and precedent for those in community who have entrusted us with these duties.

We welcome and appreciate all contributions to this space, and even when expressing disagreement, we request that we lead with love in your heart.

We seek to find common ground, and tangible solutions that demonstrate love for our city, its residents, and all constituents.

We acknowledge that when we lead with love we are able to uplift a thriving city rooted in equity, equality, justice, inclusion, and opportunity for all.

We commit to the action of "Love Life" as our motto and mantra.

Love Life Acknowledgement (long version) PDF.

I'm glad that Oakland is a Sanctuary City, and California is a Sanctuary State. I'm glad that Barbara Lee is Oakland's mayor, with her experience in national politics.

syzygis

Are you here to purr
Or to lunge and bite my hand?
Cat, make up your mind.
-K Royka, 10/26/2025

syzygis

How many ways
Are there
To express
A wish to sleep?
One more, at least.
-K Royka, 10/25/2025

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People who don't wish me any specific harm

Addiction

voted

My Brain Writes Country Songs

Stardew

Working through anger

(no subject)

Sight

Northshore (Seattle) voters, pay attention to school boards!

46

Cold

building heat

Link: How to turn off AI tools

Bleaker

Lost

rave: The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

Lunch

(no subject)

Oakland Love Life

Cat

How

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November 2021

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