Karen Bischer

A red remote control car and its controller, with a white security camera on top of the car

The inside of the crawlspace as viewed by the security camera. The hood of the car is visible. As is some nasty insulation and the new carrier beam I spent an ass ton of money on when I bought the house.

Today in "I want to check something in the crawlspace but don't really want to go in there": security camera velcro'd to a remote control car.

*waits paitiently for HGTV to offer me a show*

Clarence, an orange striped cat, lies lazily on the back of a couch while stretching his long legs against a window.

"He's singing about the special times he had with the Beatles, aka the Fab Four. You know them because you like the song about Rocky Raccoon.

PS: BIG STRETCH."

- today in Explaining Old School American Top 40* to My Cat

*When We Was Fab, George Harrison, #25 this week in 1988

#caturday

Truly. I'm sure the Field Level Box folks can afford that but I'm on a Grandstand budget 😭

TFW you discover your local NJ ferry is going to run ferry service to Yankee Stadium this season: 😀

TFW you discover it's $85 round trip: 💀

I was probably way too young to be watching the NYC news as an elementary schooler (knew a lot about murder for a 3rd grader!), but Ernie/Kaity Tong/Roz Abrams basically owned the 5 PM of my childhood and this bums me out.

I saw someone lamenting that Succession (which I also loved. Multitudes: people contain them!) got a fraction of GMFM's audience or whatever. Reminder: CBS comes with the cheapest basic cable plans and is free if you have an antenna. HBO is...not free. Reminder: Many Americans are strapped for cash

Young Sheldon was actually a sweet, decent show. (I don't care for BBT and Georgie and Mandy is fine/harmless. I'm also liberal, keep a little free library in my yard, take mass transit if I can, boycott Target, and Mad Men is my all-time fave show. Do I pass the test or whatevs?)

Writing is thinking. Writing is a way of molding YOUR OWN thoughts. So when you hand over your "writing" to monstrous AI apps made by the most craven motherfuckers imaginable, you hand them the keys to YOUR head. AND you strip the work of writers. GRIND THESE APPS TO DUST.

A Weather Channel app screengrab showing 79 degrees and sunny

Being unemployed sucks, but this weather makes being unemployed suck ~just~ a little less.

Ugh. It's been around here a bit, but I don't remember it impacting bigger birds till now (I saw some dead seagulls last winter).

One of my yellow-crowned night heron frens from 2025, flapping its wings midflight with a twig clutched in its beak.

Ugh, dead geese were found on the beach near my house & it's likely bird flu. I'm really worried for my yellow-crowned night heron pals this spring. (Would like them to have a good year. The two nests in my yard last year fell/got blown down. I've had enough bird-related sadness for one lifetime 😭)

Our first taste test into the world of baseball… ⚾️ P.S. apologies if I completely butchered the Portuguese language at one point in this video. I tried my best! #CamsRecap #CamLovesSports #WorldBase... TikTok video by camsrecaps

Gonna work "how dare you hit our sexy man" into the group chat for HBPs this year.

(Alt text: a link to a TikTok post reading Cam's Recap USA v Brazil World Baseball Classic)

www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8X3VESv/

There's one more joke they make about this not included in this fantastic mini montage, and it gave me the biggest chuckle of the episode. I'm not going to spoil it, but check out The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins and see for yourself.

One friend is worried about not being able to see without her glasses. I sigh about "having to walk home in this" (it started snowing). One friend refers to a crush's (I think mine??) super secret nickname "battery boy". We are at once 53-year-old Sanka drinkers and 12. It's 1989. It's ART.

A black Maxell cassette tape labeled "Radio Music" with my early teen signature doodled around it (My handwriting has fallen off a cliff and it looks nothing like this now, scammers, so don't even try copying it 🤣)

The "radio music" in question is 🤷‍♀️ but the end is from a 7th grade field trip with my friends and I just giggling over *eveything*. I quote the "my husband isn't around anymore but my Seiko is" ad. My friend spies her crush: "He puts his coat on so cuuuute! It's how I put my coat on 😍" ART.

Clarence, an orange striped cat, sits upright in front of a window while looking way too to tired to process this level of drama

"Laura is a beloved General Hospital character. Everyone thought she was dead but in grand soap opera tradition, she'd merely been held captive by aristocrats in Greece."

- today in Explaining Old School American Top 40* to My Cat

*Think of Laura, Christopher Cross #27 this week in 1984

#caturday

(I am digging the throwback "host is narrating on sunny LA neighborhood sidewalks" thing they're doing tonight. If they ever go back to the house hunters who end up NOT buying a home episodes, I'd be super impressed.)

"This couple is just SO opposite in their house wants, what ever will they do???" I do not watch for this. I want to judge ugly kitchens or wonder where the home owners would hide in a tornado (I do wonder!) or drool over intact period details. Scripted marital strife ain't it.

The episodes of House Hunters that lean into super-fake amped-up drama are just sooooo unnecessary. Is anyone watching for anything other than the real estate porn? Come on.

The choo-choo whistle for Judge is weird. I am disoriented.

Yikes. This whole thing reads like the AI-regurgitated local "news" I see on Facebook when I'm looking up car accidents or something. The word choices and phrasing, whew.

(This is legit the first time I've seen it under $10.99 since it came out five years ago 🙀)

My YA novel The Secret Recipe for Moving On in hard cover on a cake plate, surrounded by a stack of copies of the book on side and mixing bowls and measuring spoons on the other

🚨My book THE SECRET RECIPE FOR MOVING ON is on sale in ebook format🚨If you've got $1.99 burning a hole in your pocket and a hankering for found-family YA with a bit of romance, may I lead you to:

Barnes & Noble
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Bookshop
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Amazon
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Brandy, a tan floppy-earred mutt with a black snout, sits patiently in a kitchen while emitting some serious "how, exactly, did I get you for an owner?" vibes.

I'm dramatically acting out Sometimes When We Touch, particularly the part about being a writer still trapped within one's truth, while making dinner. She is unamused. (She's super happy that the puppy killer is out of that job, however. Woof woof.)

I was sexually harassed on 9/11. In Manhattan. After the towers fell.

AI BOOSTER BINGO The squares read: I might get attacked for saying this Imagine what it'll do in 5 years Al critics are just afraid Al is better than you Everyone is doing it "Levels the playing Field" Your time will be spent on work that MATTERS Your time will be spent correcting the Al's errors MORE VOLUME!! Shit outputs? Switch to [alternate LLM] Yes jobs will be cut... Humans aren't perfect either It's FUN!!! No practical advice "Sorry bluesky" Solution to chronic underfunding What if it could cure cancer??? I made something that appears passable No need for pesky underlings Is it accurate? No. But... Framing human work as "bespoke, hand-crafted" Get with it or get left behind!!! Al critics are luddites This was actually written by AI For more free printables please visit www.timvandevall.com, created by Tim van de Vall, copyright 2013 Dutch Renaissance Press LLC

I made a bingo card

Clarence, a scholar, gentleman and just too damn good-lewking for his own good, says "well, fuck you, too."

Grammarly, an app that is probably at least partly responsible for the dearth of copy editor/proofreader jobs these days (never underestimate douchebro CEOs who'd rather cheap out than pay actual people), is pulling shenanigans like this? I AM SO SHOCKED.

Three jobs I'm 100% qualified for and that I've applied to in the past few weeks have been reposted and I think my head is going to explode at this point. (Oh, wait, the shrapnel of my oldness might hit the 30something hiring manager if that happens. Silly me, I'll just grab the nearest ice floe.)

My dad's town FB page had a post from someone concerned that the non-emergency police line is now answered by AI. The post is getting responses from other residents like "so you're against new tech?" And "this is the way of the world, we have to get used to it." JFC 😐