...burning baby fish swimming all round your head.

Drusilla ,'Conversations with Dead People'


Natter 78: I might need to watch some Buffy for inspiration

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, butt kicking, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


-t - Sep 03, 2025 8:13:59 am PDT #9118 of 9144
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Fascinating! Is it just their feet, or is that the only part not covered by feathers? When I was a toddler carrots made up a high enough proportion of my diet to make me turn slightly orange.

I am not in the office today so I will have to check the calendar tomorrow, but I don't think it went into that much detail. I am very curious about how that works, though (it's not nearly as intuitively obvious as the flamingo shrimp thing (although I would bet that what I think I know about that is probably wrong, really)) so I might have to do some off-calendar research.

That's pretty impressive you have done it yourself!

Exciting, meara! Bon voyage!

I like Pips very much, Laura! It's soothing to move the virtual dominoes around until they work

That's a lot of exclamation points when I haven't even had any coffee. Better keep an eye on you, self.


Jessica - Sep 03, 2025 8:22:15 am PDT #9119 of 9144
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

So, who is doing the NYT's Pips? I generally consider myself mathy, but I am still at the Easy level.

I've been enjoying Pips more than I expected to! (And completing all difficulty levels, which makes it more satisfying than Sudoku.)


JenP - Sep 03, 2025 8:26:37 am PDT #9120 of 9144

So, who is doing the NYT's Pips? I generally consider myself mathy, but I am still at the Easy level.

I love doing them. And same, Jess, re: all the levels so more satisfying than Sudoku!


-t - Sep 03, 2025 8:31:33 am PDT #9121 of 9144
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

It does feel nicely calibrated - like the Easy gets me ready for the Medium and Hard (she says not having done today's yet)


Jessica - Sep 03, 2025 8:32:43 am PDT #9122 of 9144
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

There is usually one square that unlocks most of the whole puzzle.


dcp - Sep 03, 2025 8:55:29 am PDT #9123 of 9144
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

I'm enjoying Pips. I gave up on Letter Boxed -- I did okay at it, but it always stressed me out.


lisah - Sep 03, 2025 9:28:53 am PDT #9124 of 9144
Punishingly Intricate

It took me longer than it should have to figure out Pips but I enjoy it now.


-t - Sep 03, 2025 10:06:07 am PDT #9125 of 9144
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I haven't gotten far enough in figuring out how to play Letter Boxed for it to be fun. Tried it a few times and gave up


megan walker - Sep 03, 2025 10:36:12 am PDT #9126 of 9144
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

The short answer is no. Never specifically checked (never actually tested, that I know of), nor recently changed. I will see if my oncologist will order the test to be included in my next labs, in six weeks.

With the multivitamin, it seems unlikely, but I think it is good for anyone that's older to get a baseline read at some point. AFAIK, most symptoms of B12 don't emerge until it's quite low. My friend thought her dad's dementia was hitting her early and it turned out to just be a B12 thing. Note: Most doctors just order the serum test (and that's what I've had), but MMA and homocysteine tests are supposedly more accurate.

I think perhaps I over-celebrated the better-than-usual results in that part of July's lab reports, and the contrast with yesterday's worse-than-usual numbers has spooked me. It is hard not to over-react.

It must be very frustrating. So many of these numbers can vary so much depending on what you've done/eaten over the past month. And then others don't seem to budge at all no matter what you do. (I'm looking at you Vit D!) But it seems like there are many things to celebrate in your recent report so you seem to be doing many things right.

So, who is doing the NYT's Pips?

I've basically abandoned Strands for Pips. I start on Hard but a few times when I just can't see it, I go back and do the easier levels first and then when I go back to Hard I'm like, "Why didn't I see this before?"


-t - Sep 03, 2025 10:54:26 am PDT #9127 of 9144
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I am still surprised by how much I like Strands. I never would have thought I was a word search person, and I don't think I am even now for pencil and paper, but really enjoy Strands

My one complaint about Pips is that I can't tell from the home screen whether I've already done today's or not