milk_and_orchids | Member Posts

I got a text this morning from Chase, asking me about a suspicious charge. I tried to log in to their website to look at it, but couldn't get them to send me a one-time code, so I went ahead and sent back "NO," telling them to cancel/replace the card in question. Now I'm going to have to update a _lot_ of recurring charges and stored payment methods.

So far I have had enough trouble finding my other credit card that I went ahead and gave Chewy a debit card for the auto ship order they're in the middle of processing. I then looked further back in the same drawer, found the other credit card, and put it in my wallet. I'm going to wait for the new card to arrive, and use it for most of the recurring charges, because I get slightly better points/cash back on purchases. But this is going to be tedious and time-consuming, and I will almost certainly forget at least one recurring charge.

I think I can make a list of the monthly charges by looking at last month's bill, at least.

Current Mood: annoyed

brightknightie

I almost never post about non-fannish things here. I'm making a rare exception for this one. ♥

The third "No Kings" event is tomorrow, Saturday, March 28, everywhere. Go to https://www.nokings.org/, scroll down to "Find an event near you," and enter your zip code or address. You can sign up or just show up. Be peaceful, be joyful, show each other we're not alone.

After, find the next thing you can do, perhaps at https://indivisible.org/get-involved/find-a-group/. Stuffing envelopes, writing letters, making calls, giving rides ... there's something that suits you that will help.

(Thank for your indulgence of this non-fannish post. Back to all fannish here now!)

delphi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

delphi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

brightknightie

I was really looking forward to playing more The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Saturday night, but when I finally had all my immediate obligations taken care of and could settle onto the couch with my Pro Controller and some fizzy water that evening, I ran into another apparent glitch with the port. This one, I could not troubleshoot my own way out of, not with the help of the entire internet. I tried all the settings and configurations that I know. Pro Controller v. Joy Cons. Motion controls v. button controls. Docked v. handheld. I did that section of the story over and over. (I can't go back to a save file before the section, because SkSw only has one manual save file and one auto-save file, unlike more recent games.)

( Read more... )

Update: Yep, the problem was me, not the software or the hardware! :-D

delphi

Continuing the queer short film recs, thanks to

muscle_wizard sharing this one in my last post:

Watch on YouTube

An older woman with a crush on someone in her circle approaches her younger co-worker for advice on how to ask out another woman for the first time. This really got me—charming and moving at the same time.

redbird

It turns out that changing Medicare Advantage plans is not costing me significant money: it looks as though the money I paid for prescriptions at the beginning of the year counts for a calendar-year maximum, even though I switched plans. I ordered another dose of Kesimpta on Wednesday, and they aren't charging me for it. As I said to

cattitude and

adrian_turtle, I'm glad that I could have afforded to pay that twice, but there are plenty of things I'd rather do with the money.

As a side note, this plan will pay for $65 per quarter of over-the-counter medications and some related things. I used part of this quarter's today to order Mucinex, Imodium, and an under-the-tongue digital fever thermometer. I think I can get them to pay for non-emergency transportation to medical appointments, and I should check what dental coverage I have.

delphi

Dandelion is a very sweet short film starring Ava Lalezarzadeh as Margaret, a queer teen in the foster care system in the 1970s, and Vic Michaelis as Joyce, the volunteer trying to find her a new placement after she's kicked out of convent school. The short's a lovely standalone, but I was really happy to hear it's being made into a full-length movie!

Watch on YouTube

donutsweeper

Weather here's been interesting- a storm started Saturday afternoon and pretty much continued until late Sunday/early Monday and the temp plummeted. We'd had a few weeks of 30s and 40s and basically all the snow melted and stuff started to green up and then BAM 12-15" of the stuff followed by Monday being in the negatives. It was so fun shoveling then :( we've had another dusting since but then temps started climbing and it's supposed to be in the 70s on Saturday. Mother Nature is definitely having some fun with my area.

Tumblr has also been all over the place. It pushed through an update on the 16th that was *very* unpopular (radically altering how notifs of reblogs/adding comments work) and they first tried a 'we understand you have strong feeling about this but it is what it is' response about 9 hours later (their reply to their original post) but then early on the 17th they completely walked it back although it sounds like they're still thinking of implementing something?) But as a result it got me to take a dive into the stupidly high number tumblr posts I'd favorited with the intent to read/watch/research later when I had more time. Behold:

The 'Make 45 groups of 45!' sorting game, a great game for anyone who likes lists or sorting or desires to lose numerous hours of their day(s) in a fugue logic puzzle clicking state.

For those of you who use Firefox it recently rolled out an AI kill switch and here's an article about it and how to turn it off (basically, go to settings and look for AI controls in the sidebar, it should already be toggled to off but it's good to check)

Are normal looking links too boring for you? Try Creepy Link, the URL shortener that makes your links look as suspicious as possible.

A bunch of the posts were also things I wanted to check out to add to my resource posts so between what was there and links I was already behind in adding I'm going to probably be adding about 100 new links. Since it's so many, even though it's a little early I am also attempting a full click through for all the links to check to make sure they're still good. As requested, I'll also be adding a 'last updated' date to each post as I get to them.

And, as always, last but not least, 2 weeks of

recthething recs (tumblr art for Addams Family, Leverage, MDZS/Untamed, Merlin, Murderbot, and ST:TOS and a fic for MDZS/Untamed):

The Addams Family
- Addamses (absolutely gorgeous Gomez and Morticia)

Leverage
- the rundown job aka the episode that just kept on giving (gorgeous Parker, Hardison and Eliot)

MDZS/The Untamed
- same grumpy face, no matter how old he gets (baby and teen jin ling, so well done)

Merlin
- Merthur and a unicorn (love this)
- Arthur (gorgeous blue-tones digital art)
- once and future (love the framing of this with them on either side of excalibur and just their looks in general)

Murderbot
- A mini papercraft commission of Murderbot (I love these papercrafts and this Murderbot is great)

ST:TOS
- Best tos episode (Uhura and tribbles, hilarious!)

MDZS/Untamed fic:
Madam Gentian and the Fugitive by azure_enechelon (185k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian befriends a mysterious woman in a hidden corner of the Cloud Recesses. Lan Wangji has a mother to confide in. Madam Lan does her best to make up for a lot of bad parenting. It isn't going to change everything, but maybe it can change just enough. (Recently completed very long, but wonderfully detailed and interesting AU)

redbird

I am back from Montreal. The trip home had some annoying delays while they found us an airplane, or figured out how to tow the one they had, or something, but was otherwise fine.

Rysmiel gave me a back rub last night that did significant good for the tension in my neck and right shoulder. I currently have an unrelated shoulder pain, from spending too much time poking at my phone while spending several hours at the airport, but if I'm somewhat cautious now that I'm home, that should take care of itself in a day or three.

I am catching up on some of the PT exercises I didn't do while traveling because they require elastics, or the foam roller, or weights, but doing all of them tonight would be imprudent.

lycomingst

Today was the first day I went to the store without wearing a jacket. The trees are agog with Spring. The ants have returned from wherever they were wintering.

delphi

Fandom 50 #4

Continuing my list of fifty Canadian songs I love from the past fifty years, how could I kick off the '80s and not go for some pulpy lesbian new wave?

High School Confidential by Rough Trade

Watch on YouTube

brightknightie

On Friday evening, at the grocery store, I found the vestigial books-and-magazines section gone. Not relocated: vanished. Some of the remaining magazines seem to have been squeezed into the impulse racks near each register, but that looks temporary.

On Sunday afternoon, at the department store, I did not find any of the three items I went there for, and decided to swing by their books section before coming home. I was overwhelmed with the new-to-me "vocabulary" of contemporary book covers. This has been coming on slowly for quite a while, but it bowled me over in that moment. I could not tell the genres at a glance. No cover has traditional paintings or photographs. Everything is bright (or shiny/glittery on dark) shapes and single objects, or, if it's people, they are "cut outs," like that certain kind of clip art often used on business trainings. The edges of the pages are all gilded or otherwise painted, which used to be a sign of a very fancy special edition, like Franklin Mint or better, but seems now the norm. I couldn't even tell which were for adults versus young adults at a glance at their exteriors. (And few were not thick. I saw very, very few that physically signaled "quick read" to me.)

On Monday evening, at the drug store, I was relived to find their vestigial books-and-magazines section intact. It's not much, and the magazines are a lower tier than many the grocery store had sold, but it's there. Interestingly, other than a few -- leftovers? -- in the traditional mass-market form factor, most of its books were what I guess must be the new mass-market form factor: they are as tall as trade paperbacks, but not as deep. On your shelf, spine out or pages out (which I gather is a thing now: weird), they will look like trade paperbacks. They use a little more paper, I suspect, than a traditional mass-market book, but perhaps not a lot. However, they definitely won't fit in even a generous pocket.

delphi

The first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy just wrapped up, and man, that was a season of television that did my heart good.

I didn't initially think this show was going to be for me. Hopefully it goes without saying that this wasn't for any of the range of awful reasons people have wanted to hang a grievance or grift on it. Media with protagonists in their teens and twenties just usually aren't my thing, and so while I was glad to see Trek branching out, I went in aware I wasn't the target audience and figured I'd watch an episode or two to see if any of the older characters appealed to me.

Well, they definitely did. Free-spirited, complex, centuries-old school chancellor Nahla Ake might be my favourite character I've met this year. I am in love with her. The Doctor (from Voyager) and Jett Reno (from Discovery) are both back in supporting roles with some really wonderful scenes, and Jett has a hot and hilarious Klingon/Jem'Hadar wife (Lura Thok) who is definitely worth moving across the galaxy for.

But to my surprise, I also really love the kids! Not all the moments landed for me, but I ended up legitimately invested in their coming-of-age stories and journey into becoming a little family. I don't want to spoil some of the things I loved, but I am always here for mentorship, adoptive parent-child relationships, and queer romance, and I wasn't disappointed. Add in some good solid science fiction and a lot of classic Trek optimism and belief in the work of building a better world, and this was exactly what I needed right now. My only real complaint is that it was such a short season.

Watch on YouTube

brightknightie

How disappointed are we about Hulu shelving Chloé Zhao's Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot/sequel series, Buffy: New Sunnydale, in which Gellar was to have returned to star alongside a new young slayer? Just a teeny-tiny bit wistful that maybe it could have been good, downright sad, quietly relieved, righteous that Whedon will get not one royalty penny?

(News article in the Hollywood Reporter.)

delphi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

redbird

My right shoulder and neck started hurting Friday night, along with an ache on my right side. I tried Tylenol, which did nothing, but this morning it occurred to me that while I know naproxen doesn't help the weird neck/shoulder tension, it might help my back. I tried, and yes it helped.

Other than that, I went for a walk in the snow yesterday, after staying in all day Friday, and in the evening rysmiel, Sasha, and I watched the first half of the National Theater at Home production of _The Importance of Being Earnest_. It's very good, and we are going to watch the rest of it tonight.

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The Nero Wolfe fan community

credit card crap

No Kings 3 is Saturday, March 28, wherever you are

Post and Jam: Field Behind the Plow by Stan Rogers (1981)

Six Sentence Sunday

Switching to motion controls didn't work this time

What's Making Me Happy Today: Sew into You (2025)

Medicare advantage, again

What's Making Me Happy Today: Dandelion (2025)

Weather and whatnot

home again

(no subject)

Post and Jam: High School Confidential by Rough Trade [1980]

Physical books today

What's Making Me Happy Today: Starfleet Academy

Buffy: New Sunnydale shelved by Hulu

Six Sentence Sunday

shoulder etc

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