Congrats, flea (yay, raise!), and I hope the commute works out OK -- indeed, nothing like escaping bad management, as noted.

I still am basically only on FB. I have an Instagram. I never got into Twitter. I just made my first TikTok posts, because my dog looks cute with the Grinch filter, but mostly there, I just watch the stuff my friend, Dave, sends to me via text links. It's not my thing.

Here is my thing. Contained social!

Well, this is a long time with no posts. Everything ok?

I have been out training staff the last couple of days, so I haven't been on my computer. It sucks not to have social windows open alongside my work windows. I'm accustomed to doing other things while waiting for processes.

I’m tired and had a migraine overnight

May your head allow you to have an enjoyable weekend.

I'm quite happy that cold weather has arrived in SF.

Here too! Although only for a couple days. But I got to wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt and it was super delightful. The low tonight is going to be 74, so not exactly chilly, but I can open the windows! It was 60 this morning so I had windows open all night. It is noisy on A1A, but it doesn't bother me.

Oh no, ceramics class shouldn't be stressful!

So true!! I hope a resolution can be reached.

I am not not in the holiday spirit, but I don't have the motivation to put the tree up this year.

I am completely not in the holiday spirit. Haven't done balcony lights or put the tree up. It is a combination of being so busy, and why bother when I am not having any holiday gatherings here. I've always done it, but this year we are going to another relative's house. Which is good because I shouldn't have to do it all the time, but bad because I have no incentive to be festive. I did it for decades because I had the kids and it was easier.

My plan had been to leave and go elsewhere for Christmas. A cruise, or some destination, maybe visit my girlfriend in Vegas. Just get away. But work and basketball have conspired against me. So, blah. I also haven't done anything about gifts for anyone because shopping is my least favorite thing. When I see something one of my loved ones is in need of I get it for them, no matter the time of year.

I just sent in a signed offer letter and will be leaving my library for one 45 minutes away but with (I hope) better management AND I managed a big raise out of it.

That's wonderful, flea! I hope that the bureaucracy isn't as burdensome and that your management is sane and competent.

By the time I hit post there may be more to edit, or not.

Is anyone doing some fun stuff this weekend?

eta:

Here is my thing. Contained social!

Same. I go on Facebook for my family stuff and here to socialize. It would spread myself too thin to do Insta or Z or whatever. Only so many hours in the day.

etaa:

While I am blathering, had myself a pity party because this week because Stephen would have been 70, but he only made it to 32. It would have been lovely to have grown old with him as was the plan. I certainly think of him often, but particularly on his birthday.

Here is my thing. Contained social!

This is my speed.

We had a wee-ish but quite jolt-y earthquake a few hours ago. Only a 3.3 magnitude but very local. Hello plate tectonics.

Still have never had the whole earth moving under my feet thing. Except when walking over a shaky subway. Not sure how I would feel about it.

Let Joshua Tree say shaky hellos from afar, Laura. You can keep the scary water things.

I grew up with this, but today was still startling. Sometimes the mild earthquakes can be confused with the local military base training on heavy artillery. Not this one. The boom was deep.

Sorry about the ceramics class, Hec. Is there a nearby ceramics group that would let Matilda rent a kiln?

Yesterday I had a full day of socializing with coworkers. I like them, and the department bought food and drink, but I’m not used to that much people. So I kinda crashed with the cats last night.

I’m on Bluesky, and if there are still people needing invitations I have a few. Hit me up. I’m following some of my favorite writers there. Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher used to do a lot of art for the furry community, so even though I don’t think she is a member, she’s very furry-adjacent, and it shows in her reblogs. I’ve followed a few who post interesting political and legal content. But yeah, I’m mostly there for the authors.

A party I was going to tonight was canceled (yay!) due to the hosts’s health problems (boo), so I have nothing social I have to do until a Doctor Who gathering Sunday evening. I’m hoping to finish up holiday cards and shopping, and then spend the rest of the time reading with a cat on my lap. In between Marske, Wells, and Kingfisher all releasing books within, like, a week of each other, I’m overwhelmed with texty goodness.

In between Marske, Wells, and Kingfisher all releasing books

I stopped reading A Power Unbound last week because I don't want it to be over! But I'll probably finish it this weekend. So good!

I have been pretty promiscuous about socials, but it's kind of my job too. But there are some things that work better on phones than desktops that I can't use as much.

(skimmed a bit. OK, a lot)

Yay, flea! Congrats.

There's still war here, and there's still a corrupt government. It all sucks and I'm worried about so many. Also hoping for a general strike to replace this government, but we never had a general strike during a war so I'm not sure how or if it's gonna go.

I did want to give some context to one thing, though, and I do hope this won't sound like hasbara (do I need to say again how much I'm against this government and pro Palestine as long as everyone here gets to live in peace, in as many states it takes?).

The pictures of Palestinian men stripped down to their underpants are awful to watch for me too (unless they are Hamas people who participated in Oct. 7th events and in that case I fear I'm indifferent to their wardrobe situation). But there is a reason behind that that isn't just humiliation. Since the second Intifada suicide bombers would often put an extra set of explosives on them, especially in cases in which they carried only weapons, or if there was another member in distance that could activate the explosives from afar while police/the army shot the first terrorist and then came to check the body. There was also a third tactic of activation of a second set of explosives that I can't remember at the moment. Anyhow, there were several "double" bombings like that over the years so the policy is to strip them to their underpants if they're alive, or sending someone from combat engineering forces/a robot to check the body for explosives first.

That is also why it took days to clear all of the houses in the kibbutzes and towns that were hit. Israeli forces checked to see if Hamas planted bombs first (and in some cases, yes, they did).

Edited for clarity: Not that it makes the war, the situation in parts of Israel or jn Gaza any less terrible or brutal. But this, in itself, makes sense during an arrest. Filming this? Ugh, I don't know. To me it's disgraceful. But apparently others think we can win by humiliating others. And for me, that logic leads to a lose lose situation. We've been losing since Oct. 7th as is. I'd like keep the loses - in lives and in morals - to minimum.

And with that delightful note, I'm gonna have dinner and do my homework in Arabic. Apparently I still believe in a better tomorrow here despite all evidence. Maybe not tomorrow per se, but a tomorrow. These governments (for us and the Palestinians) can't and won't last forever.

Hi, Shir. I appreciate and support your belief in a better tomorrow, whenever that may be.

Flea, congrats! That sounds like a good move for you.

I also have BlueSky codes available. Many of the historians I had been following on the bird site are there but the traffic is still light enough that a few voices dominate my feed most of the time. I still have hopes for Spoutible, but it's similar there. I do miss the critical mass of politics, art, and culture I had curated for my pre-Musk feed but a few months ago I managed to accidentally wipe all of my bookmarks and passwords and took that as my moment to leave Twitter.