Anyway, here is a handy guide to getting started with ALT text. It's an important way we can make people with visual impairments or neurological processing issues feel welcome on bluesky. bsky.app/profile/cats...

I don't need completely random people cluttering up my life. If someone I don't know clicks "follow" (or whatever it is) I block them. I'm not here to collect followers. KThxBai.

I guess it's pretty random? Wherever I happened to put things first is how they stay.

I actually have real silver (grandmother's), in a special silverware box. Table knives in slots along the lid, then left to right: Serving Forks, Serving spoons, Table spoons, Pickle forks, forks (2 slots), teaspoons (2 slots). Random along the front (butter knives, a silver tea strainer, etc.)

Wherever they fit best.
Most-left (a big area): weird stuff.
Left: not-special sharp knives that can go in the dishwasher and won't be sharpened anytime soon, plus a few random things.
3rd space: large/soup/tablespoons.
4th: Forks
5th: table knives
That short slot along the front: teaspoons.

Housemate across the table right now, who does a lot of gaming, particularly likes this.

Caption: "Other Kinds of Love"; Images with small captions: BFF love, hobby love, nature love, team love, family love, online friend love, fandom love, fuzzy love, gone but not forgotten love, book love, self-love. You don't need to be in a romantic relationship to live a life filled with love. (c)introvertdoodles

Other kinds of love.
Happy Valentine's Day!

21 armloads of wood this morning. Should last me until Tuesday, or maybe longer (Tues is going to be *warm* - 29F!!) We sure are burning a lot of wood this winter. The cost is much lower than other forms of heat, but there's a bunch of labor involved. My favorite quality of heat, so that's great.

Jan 28th: I have burned half of my firewood (not counting what's outside under roofing tin). So I'm doing fine - rule is half by Jan 21 or 31, I forget 0- despite many days at roughly 0F. But I think I should stock more, so that I can burn wood that has dried for a full year all winter long.

OMG, incredible movie.
My mom made me sit down and watch it with her (I rarely watch movies with my mom or sisters - we don't have similar tastes). Great stuff. Watch it!

So really, students had no probs) one faculty member looked out his window and thought it would be a perfect day to ski to school, instead. He strapped on his cross-country skis and traversed the 7 or so miles without difficulty. School, after all, never closed. He was pretty surprised. Closed.

My tiny college, now closed permanently, never closed for classes. Faculty were all permitted to decide whether their classes were cancelled, however.
Rumor has it that in one huge snowstorm in which most of the roads were not plowed in time for classes (but 95% of the students lived on campus....

It's an interesting (if really stupid and really dangerous) mindset: If I believe something strongly enough, it will be true. You can see it in sociopaths all over the place. Also in stupid prosperity-gospel type newage (rhymes with sewage; thank you Piglet) health nonsense. And probably elsewhere.

Standard sociopath behavior (I dated a sociopath, once; more fool me): Say what you want to be true. Never mind if it isn't; just keep repeating it. Surely everyone will come 'round.

It hasn't gotten down to -25F yet (or even -5, I don't think), but it is definitely winter. Especially with the 2' of snow incoming.

Jeebus. It's going to be in the single digits here for almost a *week*. I was going to wait for a warm (by VT standards) day to do things like get fuel for the snowblower and shop for groceries. Guess I'll have to be Nanook of the North, instead.

You are allowed to say, at any point, I can't support this. Even if you did. Even if you were unsure. You can say "this has gone too far." And while the best time to say that was earlier, the second best time is now. (thanks, Matthew Simon & elsenet.)

Oh! That one had an extra 2 or 3 seconds at the end that I hadn't seen before. Thanks!

Yes'm. Watch it EVERY TIME it shows up.

Dang. I don't live in CA anymore.

Wow! That's going to be spectacular, I can tell already!

727 books (probably) in 11 years. If the last three years hadn't been so lacking, that 75/year would be a solid average.

Read 40 books this year (most or all fiction; 12 new-to-me). This is significantly down from 52 last year, and my rough average of 75 from before that.
Must get to work. Lazy days with books and bonbons are in my future.

My Heathen Seeress series is coming right up! Beginning next Friday, January 9th, I'll be sharing information about historical Heathen seeresses, as well as talkin all about the practices I've developed inspired by their work. Hope you'll join me!

JUST IN: Studebaker to pull all manufacturing out of California

My account here is pretty quiet... because I never post. And yes, I know this is just a meme swiped from That Other Platform. But I liked it.

I went back to school when I was 37. It was *great!* I was there because I really wanted to be, not there because it was just the thing to do. I had so much fun getting my masters that I went on to get a PhD, finishing when I was 46, I think. Such a splendid time.

I don't have a recipe, but my mom makes the BEST gingerbread on the planet. With chunks of apple. Amazing.

Whoah. The three articles I wrote when getting my PhD are on this stolen-for-plagiarism-machines list. (Does the article come through? I'm still not getting the hang of bluesky...). I'll add my name to the class action suit.

Whoah!! Three of my science papers from my PhD are in here! I'm adding my name, not that anyone knows who I am.