Poem in My Pocket Day - planning for April 30
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 21:21![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petraI have started a repository for PDFs for Poem in My Pocket Day that I will share starting on March 15th. If you have any PDFs of poems formatted to be printed and you would like to share them -- especially if it's your poetry -- then hit me up at petralemaitre at gmail dot com.
vital functions
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 22:57kaberettReading. I confess I have tripped and fallen into a special interest and am therefore currently primarily working my way through the archives of She's A Beast. BUT.
- This was all kicked off by A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting, Casey Johnston, inhaled; more comprehensive notes on this topic currently part way through being typed up.
- I am also about half way through (reading!) LIFTOFF: Couch to Barbell, also Casey Johnston, and am having fun starting to play with moving my body in ways.
- Continuing the theme of Moving Bodies In Ways and What Even Are Muscles, I have also started Science of Pilates (Tracy Ward).
- I also continue to work my way through What Is Queer Food?, John Birdsall, and am nearly done. Probably more thoughts on this at some point in the upcoming week.
Writing. Words continue to, very slowly, go up.
Listening. More Hidden Almanac. Very close to being caught up to the point I've theoretically listened to with A (some of which I wound up being asleep during)...
Playing. Inkulinati Exploders run on Master difficulty continues. We have now broken a quill (DEMONS :|) but we do continue to progress...
Another round (well, most of one) of The Little Orchard, this time with The Child deciding that we SHOULD turn the Bothersome Crows back over and put them back...
Cooking. New recipe! Meera Sodha's leek & chard martabak. Unlikely to make again but not sorry to have made.
Exploring. Adventures this week have included:
- Wood Green Mall, which contains PRIDE STAIRS, and the Community Diagnostic Centre, which contains GIANT WATERFOWL MURAL
- the walk between Wood Green underground station and Wood Green Mall, feat. ACORN BOLLARDS
- went for a bit of a Cross Walk one evening earlier this week (brain said AAAAAAH) and discovered along the way a fantastic white-with-pink-stripes camellia
- generally Going Out To Run Errands is currently accompanied by Many Flowers and that is nice, actually
Observing. flowersss.
Culinary
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 19:22oursinThis week's bread: a loaf of Marriage's Organic Country Fayre Malted Brown Bread Flour: quite nice but turned out a bit crumbly??
Friday night supper: ersatz Thai fried rice with chopped red bell pepper and chorizo.
Saturday breakfast rolls: Tassajarra method, strong brown flour, a spot of Rayner's barley malt extract, cinnamon, raisins, okay (cinnamon a bit past its BBF).
Today's lunch: a pie (bought-in puff pastry) of silken tofu + baby spinach + fresh coriander and flat leaf parsley + garlic - okay, but perhaps a little bland; served with steamed asparagus splashed with melted butter with lime juice and lime zest, and padron peppers.
As Canadian As Possible Under the Circumstances
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 15:07fairestcatPart of trying to use Dreamwidth more is realizing all the things I haven't shared here. Such as: As of December, after 16 years in Canada, I am now a Canadian Citizen!
I had a celebratory citizenship/birthday party last night, surrounded by the family and community I've joined/built here in Canada and it was so lovely and affirming and energizing in exactly the way I needed right now.
I had a celebratory citizenship/birthday party last night, surrounded by the family and community I've joined/built here in Canada and it was so lovely and affirming and energizing in exactly the way I needed right now.
I know. I never write, I never post...
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 14:55fairestcatI'm going to be in France, The UK, Belgium, and Germany in May and June!
I'm quite sure I know many people in at least some of these places and I'd love to see as many of you as I can make happen!
As I noted to Ian just now, seeing things is great and awesome and absolutely something I want to do, but the highlight of travel for me is seeing people, especially ones I've known for ages but never met in person.
Tentative schedule currently is:
- arrive in Paris the morning of May 26th
- May 26-June 5 - various locations in France including but not necessarily limited to Paris and Limoges.
- plane from somewhere in France to Birmingham the morning of the 5th of June.
- June 5-7 VidUKon in Birmingham
- June 7-??? - various locations in the UK including London and Portsmouth, other options depending on people and travel options.
- ??? - Train from London to Brussels
- 2 days later - sleeper from Brussels to Berlin
- ??? (tbd quite soon) - fly home from Berlin.
I'll be buying my flight home in the next couple days, at which point all the dates between Birmingham and Berlin will firm up at least a bit.
This is going to be my first time in Europe since I lived in Berlin for three months in 2000. I've never been to France. I've never been to Belgium. The last time I was in England was a high school trip in 1997. It's all both incredibly exciting and kind of terrifying.
Also, while I've done some solo travelling in the US and Canada, both my previous trips to Europe I was always travelling with at least one other person. So that adds an extra layer of nerves.
So, where should I go??? Who should I see??? How much can I vibrate out of my skin with nerves and excitement between now and the end of May???
I'm quite sure I know many people in at least some of these places and I'd love to see as many of you as I can make happen!
As I noted to Ian just now, seeing things is great and awesome and absolutely something I want to do, but the highlight of travel for me is seeing people, especially ones I've known for ages but never met in person.
Tentative schedule currently is:
- arrive in Paris the morning of May 26th
- May 26-June 5 - various locations in France including but not necessarily limited to Paris and Limoges.
- plane from somewhere in France to Birmingham the morning of the 5th of June.
- June 5-7 VidUKon in Birmingham
- June 7-??? - various locations in the UK including London and Portsmouth, other options depending on people and travel options.
- ??? - Train from London to Brussels
- 2 days later - sleeper from Brussels to Berlin
- ??? (tbd quite soon) - fly home from Berlin.
I'll be buying my flight home in the next couple days, at which point all the dates between Birmingham and Berlin will firm up at least a bit.
This is going to be my first time in Europe since I lived in Berlin for three months in 2000. I've never been to France. I've never been to Belgium. The last time I was in England was a high school trip in 1997. It's all both incredibly exciting and kind of terrifying.
Also, while I've done some solo travelling in the US and Canada, both my previous trips to Europe I was always travelling with at least one other person. So that adds an extra layer of nerves.
So, where should I go??? Who should I see??? How much can I vibrate out of my skin with nerves and excitement between now and the end of May???
week 2 of war / 22 of life-to-be
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 20:03rogaAs usual, one just goes ahead and gets used to things, more or less.
( war and life )
TV: Am all caught up on Shrinking, The Pitt, Grey's (yes, still), most other shows I'm following. Started Young Sherlock, will probably continue. Started Vladimir, will probably not.
Raading: I have finished all of Ari Baran's books, have downloaded samples of basically every sports romance I could find recommended anywhere and am starting to explore them one by one, currently finishing E. L. Massey's Like Real People Do. Am definitely in the market for (a) sports romances you've loved recently, (b) general romances you've loved recently, (c) general novels you've loved recently that will kick me off this sports romance binge, and (d) your absolute heart-clenchingly favorite 20k+ Heated Rivalry fics.
(I read a bunch of HR fic after the show finished airing, and not really since. It's hard to find by kudos simply due to the massive volumes of kudos in this fandom and the bias towards popular fic posted earlier; I enjoyed various WAG-group-chat and epistolary/online media fics that I read early on, but at some point they started feeling a little repetitive and at this point what I'd really like is just: really fucking good long or semi-long fics that make you feel a lot of feels.)
( war and life )
TV: Am all caught up on Shrinking, The Pitt, Grey's (yes, still), most other shows I'm following. Started Young Sherlock, will probably continue. Started Vladimir, will probably not.
Raading: I have finished all of Ari Baran's books, have downloaded samples of basically every sports romance I could find recommended anywhere and am starting to explore them one by one, currently finishing E. L. Massey's Like Real People Do. Am definitely in the market for (a) sports romances you've loved recently, (b) general romances you've loved recently, (c) general novels you've loved recently that will kick me off this sports romance binge, and (d) your absolute heart-clenchingly favorite 20k+ Heated Rivalry fics.
(I read a bunch of HR fic after the show finished airing, and not really since. It's hard to find by kudos simply due to the massive volumes of kudos in this fandom and the bias towards popular fic posted earlier; I enjoyed various WAG-group-chat and epistolary/online media fics that I read early on, but at some point they started feeling a little repetitive and at this point what I'd really like is just: really fucking good long or semi-long fics that make you feel a lot of feels.)
short fiction rec: Morag and Seamus stories
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 13:35jadelennoxI am enjoying this Clarkesworld subscription. Snail mail once a month full of stories! And my favorite part of the subscription has been the recurring Morag and Seamus stories by Fiona Moore (all free online). I believe it's every one of her Clarkesworld stories from "The Spoil Heap" on. The list on the site is reverse chronological, so if you want to read in order, scroll down to "The Spoil Heap" and read up from there.
While very different, they remind me in vibe of Naomi Kritzer's "The Year Without Sunshine". One of my difficulties with some hopepunk is that it can ignore hard truths—which, I admit, is sometimes what I want! But like "The Year Without Sunshine", the Morag and Seamus stories don't pretend mutual aid can create Abundance™️, or outcompete bad and selfish actors, or defeat natural disasters, or solve medical and ability needs, or create entire post-scarcity planets or large societies where goodness reigns. In fact, the Morag and Seamus stories specifically roll their eyes at people who think we can achieve fully automated luxury gay space communism.
They're just about people (and possibly robots) figuring their shit out, in myriad ways. Some are helpers and some aren't; some make family in all kind of ways; nobody's sure what the future holds. Helpers beget helpers, greed begets problems, the world moves on, Morag and Seamus grow potatoes in Wales.
Words I need to learn: Anxiolytic
Saturday, March 7th, 2026 22:15petraAnxiolytic bugs me. Every time I look at it, I have to remember that it means "relieves anxiety" instead of "causes anxiety."
I suppose you could say it makes my temper [in]flammable.
This post brought to you by learning that someone I know has recently been prescribed Cymbalta without any of the "Quitting this might suck beyond the telling of it" warnings.
I suppose you could say it makes my temper [in]flammable.
This post brought to you by learning that someone I know has recently been prescribed Cymbalta without any of the "Quitting this might suck beyond the telling of it" warnings.
ADHD with the knockout 🎉
Saturday, March 7th, 2026 19:14jadelennoxI was writing up a navel-gazing post about grief (tl;dr turned out I think "oh MM would like that!" more often than I would have suspected) and it somehow spiraled into how I could make beautiful and accessible no-Javascript footnotes CSS given the Dreamwidth CSS restrictions. This resulted in me, among other things, reading the DW codebase to see all the CSS restrictions, and then finally after a couple of hours getting my perfect CSS, even though it's completely useless because it will only work when reading in my journal style.
(ETA: That's only because I'm being a perfectionist about placement for the purposes of this exercise, and DW doesn't allow absolute positioning in inline HTML.)
(Also even making this post resulted in me reading the code for Perl's Text::Markdown since I couldn't remember which code block syntax it used.
Hyperfixation FTW!
( CSS, FWIW )
Whiffle whiffle
Saturday, March 7th, 2026 17:16oursinImagine! a good old fashioned scam without embedded link to dodgy site or anything, wow, the nostalgia is nostalgiaful, eh?
My humble greetings,
I feel the need to approach you securing and moving my late father fund. It's just My urgent need for a foreign partner/investor. I have a significant fund to transfer. My Whatsap [---] for more details
Awwwww.
This had a charming naivety lacking in yet another solicitation to become involved with some academic journal, in this case:
Given your expertise and contributions to medical and surgical research, we believe your involvement would greatly strengthen the journal’s academic quality and reputation.
It's bad enough when some predatory publisher cites My Important Work and it's actually a 500-word review, but this is above and beyond WHUT.
Plus they not only want a CV they want a photo. Tempted to send them one of the photobooth efforts I got done for passport purposes, which have 'inmate of criminal lunatic asylum, c. 1880' vibes.
***
In other nostalgic news, apparently the annual eight-day Thomas Hardy fest still occurs.
***
And I was utterly charmed when finally flicking through the pages of the most recent Travel Which to discover Madison WI rated one of the top less-visited North American cities (cannot find this online), bless, with particular mention of the Monoma Terrace.
Though I am honestly boggling a bit at the decision to run an article on North American cities as touristic destinations at the present time, even if a significant proportion of the actual recommendations do turn out to be in Canada.
Tags:
AAM: my coworker won’t stop interfering with my service dog
Saturday, March 7th, 2026 09:25petrea_mitchell posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
agonyauntA reader writes:
I work in a cubicle office and bring a trained, medically necessary service dog named “Betty” to the office with me. I allow her to socialize with coworkers on breaks, and she is very loved in the office for how friendly and adorable she is. She also adores her coworkers and thinks everyone is her best friend.
Unfortunately, a new coworker, “Sarah,” has been repeatedly ignoring service dog boundaries with Betty over the last six months.
These boundary violations include taking Betty out of my cube while I’m on work calls or distracted, removing her leash in public work areas without asking, entering my cube without permission to interact with her, and petting her or interacting with her when I step away from my desk. This has started to impact Betty’s training as she’s now having separation anxiety behaviors when I leave in order to get attention. Sarah would respond to this behavior, which escalated it, despite being asked repeatedly not to.
Things were at their worst today when Sarah not only removed Betty’s leash but also attempted to remove her service dog gear. I asked her to stop but this didn’t work, and I had to physically push her hands away from Betty.
I have had multiple conversations with Sarah about her behavior with little success. When I point out a specific behavior, Sarah will then start doing a new one or find different ways to circumvent the boundary and continue her interactions with Betty. This appears to be a pattern with Sarah, as there are other areas where she struggles to incorporate feedback.
All my conversations with Sarah so far have been verbal and in the moment, as we are equals and I don’t feel it is my place to supervise her behavior. I did message my supervisor about the concerns when they started escalating and we had a one-on-one about it. My supervisor then spoke with Sarah’s supervisor about the issues and a one-on-one was had with Sarah about a month ago. Despite this, the behavior has not gotten better and seems to be getting worse.
I have had a previous negative experience with HR where I was blamed for not handling a verbally aggressive and threatening coworker with clearer boundaries before escalating to them. This time I want to make sure that I’m doing everything I can and should before I escalate things to HR again. I also don’t want to ruin the atmosphere of the office by cutting off all contact to Betty due to one coworker being unable to follow boundaries. What should I do in this instance to handle it professionally and not step on toes or upset HR?
– Trying to keep my working dog working
( Read more... )
( Plus, an update from the comments )
I work in a cubicle office and bring a trained, medically necessary service dog named “Betty” to the office with me. I allow her to socialize with coworkers on breaks, and she is very loved in the office for how friendly and adorable she is. She also adores her coworkers and thinks everyone is her best friend.
Unfortunately, a new coworker, “Sarah,” has been repeatedly ignoring service dog boundaries with Betty over the last six months.
These boundary violations include taking Betty out of my cube while I’m on work calls or distracted, removing her leash in public work areas without asking, entering my cube without permission to interact with her, and petting her or interacting with her when I step away from my desk. This has started to impact Betty’s training as she’s now having separation anxiety behaviors when I leave in order to get attention. Sarah would respond to this behavior, which escalated it, despite being asked repeatedly not to.
Things were at their worst today when Sarah not only removed Betty’s leash but also attempted to remove her service dog gear. I asked her to stop but this didn’t work, and I had to physically push her hands away from Betty.
I have had multiple conversations with Sarah about her behavior with little success. When I point out a specific behavior, Sarah will then start doing a new one or find different ways to circumvent the boundary and continue her interactions with Betty. This appears to be a pattern with Sarah, as there are other areas where she struggles to incorporate feedback.
All my conversations with Sarah so far have been verbal and in the moment, as we are equals and I don’t feel it is my place to supervise her behavior. I did message my supervisor about the concerns when they started escalating and we had a one-on-one about it. My supervisor then spoke with Sarah’s supervisor about the issues and a one-on-one was had with Sarah about a month ago. Despite this, the behavior has not gotten better and seems to be getting worse.
I have had a previous negative experience with HR where I was blamed for not handling a verbally aggressive and threatening coworker with clearer boundaries before escalating to them. This time I want to make sure that I’m doing everything I can and should before I escalate things to HR again. I also don’t want to ruin the atmosphere of the office by cutting off all contact to Betty due to one coworker being unable to follow boundaries. What should I do in this instance to handle it professionally and not step on toes or upset HR?
– Trying to keep my working dog working
( Read more... )
( Plus, an update from the comments )
Miss Manners investigates a crime
Saturday, March 7th, 2026 09:16petrea_mitchell posting in agonyauntMiss Manners: Items vanish post‑party, and list of possible culprits is down to 3. How do I proceed?
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I hosted a dinner party for 20 guests. Since a few of them smoke, I had arranged a separate room to function as a smoking room.
After the party, I discovered that a very small painting and a little sculpture were missing from the smoking room. Neither of them is really valuable, even sentimentally, but it still has left me very distraught.
There is no other way that these items could have disappeared except being taken by someone. Only three guests were ever in that room.
Now, what do I do? I have not mentioned this to anyone, since it undoubtedly would make everyone uncomfortable and lead to speculations about who took the things. I’d rather just forget about the whole thing, but if something similar happens in someone else’s home, I will feel guilty for not having said anything.
( Read more... )
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I hosted a dinner party for 20 guests. Since a few of them smoke, I had arranged a separate room to function as a smoking room.
After the party, I discovered that a very small painting and a little sculpture were missing from the smoking room. Neither of them is really valuable, even sentimentally, but it still has left me very distraught.
There is no other way that these items could have disappeared except being taken by someone. Only three guests were ever in that room.
Now, what do I do? I have not mentioned this to anyone, since it undoubtedly would make everyone uncomfortable and lead to speculations about who took the things. I’d rather just forget about the whole thing, but if something similar happens in someone else’s home, I will feel guilty for not having said anything.
( Read more... )
Periodic priv tidy
Saturday, March 7th, 2026 10:21![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_volunteersNoting here for posterity that I'm doing another of my "whenever I remember to do it" sweeps of all privs that have been granted, to remove privs from people who aren't currently actively volunteering with the thing that needs that priv. If I accidentally yanked something someone is using (the interface is hella janky and I would not be surprised if I do accidentally at least once), just holler and I'll add it back! Likewise, if you're still doing one thing but have privs for another thing you aren't using, you can let me know by replying here so I can remove those too.
We thank everyone for their time and help, and anyone who's had privs removed, you are welcome back any time you'd like! We operate on a "principle of least access" basis for privs for security reasons, but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate everything folks do, even if you're limited by that mythical land called "real life". ❤️
We thank everyone for their time and help, and anyone who's had privs removed, you are welcome back any time you'd like! We operate on a "principle of least access" basis for privs for security reasons, but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate everything folks do, even if you're limited by that mythical land called "real life". ❤️
I beat Dark Souls, AMA
Saturday, March 7th, 2026 12:15rydra_wong
[ID: shot of my character from the back as she looks into the blasted ruins of the Kiln of the First Flame. She is wearing mismatched red and yellow clothes and a silver helmet, and holding a halberd.]
And it only took 8 months, and a number of hours I will not disclose. Though, to be fair, since I unexpectedly got into the multi-player, a lot of the total hours actually represent me reading a book while waiting to be summoned.
Dark Souls is slow, janky, eccentric, flawed, wilfully obscure about some of its mechanics, and one of the best games I've ever played. I am in love. Ask me anything.