Welcome to the place where I have stored all the marbles I've lost over Kingdon! I hope you enjoy them (sometimes they're shiny!) ✨
Microfic Challenge: August 25
August 01st: Pool (499 words)
August 10th: Tank top (497 words)
Microfic Challenge: What should've been you (chronological)
August 06th: Lemonade (499 words)
August 14th: Picture (496 words)
August 25th: Sweat (500 words)
August 27th: Jellyfish (475 words)
August 28th: Festival (841 words)
August 30th: Bottle (500 words)
Bonus thoughts & Director's Cut
Microfic Challenge: November 25
Day 4: Apple (1.4k words)
Day 13: Moon (499 words)
One-Shots
Forever again (to love you the way that I should've back then) (6k, exes to lovers)
Cheating fic: Mel takes care of Frank, even if that includes sleeping with a married man. If things go her way, he won't be married for long anyway.
Current WIPs
Regency au: Just when Melissa King expects a proposal from the handsome Mr. Langdon, he disappears. Months later, she meets him again in London as she searches for a husband...
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as a lifelong nerd and hater nothing has been more devastating than realising that school's weekly gym classes were actually a pretty good idea for my general health and wellbeing.
As someone with food allergies, and for someone who has family members with severe food allergies here is some etiquette in dealing with food allergies.
Although I will be saying food allergies a lot here, assume these same rules apply to all food restrictions such as sensory processing, religious exclusions, personal exclusions, food sensitivity, autoimmune responses, allergies, lactose intolerance, etc.
1. If someone asks for ingredients in certain food, drinks, or anything else they aren’t trying to be difficult they’re trying to gauge if they can eat something or not. Don’t try to ask “Are you allergic to? Are you celiac? Are you on a restricted diet?” A lot of the time that’s a sensitive topic, and if they’re brand new to meeting you they may not want to disclose that they have an allergy, or food restriction. If they ask for the ingredients please disclose it. And if you don’t know it, please ask your manager or check yourself. If you’re not willing to check then you’re more or less saying “I don’t care if you eat or not.” If you’re in the United States then good news the business you’re in is required to be able to offer a list of ingredients for items along with nutritional information on request. If your business doesn’t have it please make sure the manager or owner knows to get some ASAP, it’s good manners and a legal requirement.
2. If you invite someone over and if they don’t eat food offered, please don’t take it personally. Food allergies, restrictions, or even texture aversion can restrict what a person can eat it doesn’t mean that they’re trying to be rude. Feel free to ask if there’s anything you can get them. If they say yes you can accommodate but if you can’t for whatever reason just explain that you can’t. EG: if they ask for diet soda and you only have regular don’t try to serve the regular just explain you only have regular and they can say whether or not they can have it.
3. When inviting people to an intimate gathering (1-10) try to ask everyone what is something they like, or if there’s anything they can’t have. Some people even include a part of the RSVP to include restrictions and desired foods and they make the best of it. Larger events (10-100) may be more difficult, and in cases like this try to have options if possible. Water, coffee, tea, soda (diet and otherwise), fruit juice, are good options for drinks especially if people can get their own cups, or pre-packaged drinks. For food try to offer options like chips, nuts, bread, fruit, snack meats, cheeses, and make sure if they aren’t pre packed that every item has its own serving utensil (fork, spoon, tong) and that they are clearly separated to avoid cross contamination.
4. Use clean utensils, plates, cups when serving guests. Yes it seems obvious but you’ll be surprised. If you don’t have enough plates, cups, utensils try to get disposable. (I’m aware it isn’t the best for the environment but avoiding cross contamination is important) and as weird as it sounds verify that the plates and forks and cups aren’t derived from corn, soy, or other allergens. I actually had an allergic reaction once because the plate was made from corn and had trace amounts of the allergen in the paper.
5. Other common items that may have allergens you weren’t aware of. Birthday candles (especially the sparkler, or relighting kind use corn starch). Scented dish soaps, ice cube trays, (has anyone tried to make popsicles in it and forgot to clean it out?) the counter tops (especially if not clean), rags, (did you wipe wheat flour off with the rag before handling the potato flour), lipstick (if you kiss someone with an allergy to the metal, or possibly the corn starch in a lot of lipstick it will kill the mood), any make up on your face, even your shampoo or conditioner if it uses ingredients like oats, or sorghum. All of these are actual examples from my life. If it comes near someone’s lips, face, or hands be aware of it.
6. Prepackaged foods are a lot of people’s best friends for a reason. The ingredients, nutrition facts, are on the label and the packaging usually protects it from a lot (but not all) contamination. They’re almost always made the same way, and usually people know what their safe foods are.
7. Safe foods: Usually used in the autistic community but can absolutely also apply to people with allergies. These are the foods that are always safe, or even comforting to people. If I are close friends with someone and they’re often visiting or near you, you can keep some safe foods with you. My mother keeps lemonade packets at her house just for me, and I keep coffee at my house even though she doesn’t drink lemonade and I don’t drink coffee. Because they’re safe foods for each other.
8. TL;DR: answer peoples questions about ingredients and sources of food or anything near their mouths. If you get to know them better you can accommodate food restrictions better but let them explain it to you, don’t assume you know, and if you have a question, ask but don’t assume you know better than them. If you get to know them very well and become close friends start keeping some non perishable safe foods that you can share with them.
These tips are excellent!! It's nice to have them in an easily-compiled list.
I'd also like to add one more thing, though, as someone who also has (severe) food allergies: please try to keep your space well-ventilated, especially if you plan on keeping food that someone is allergic to! Although reactions to airborne allergen particles are rare, they do happen, and there's no point in taking all these precautions if someone is still going to have a reaction in the end. I can't tell you how many times I've sat by myself outside in the cold, struggling to breathe at gatherings while everyone else was inside eating and spending time together. It sucks.
Miscellaneous tip: if you're bringing food to a gathering where the host is the one with the allergy, try to bring something that they can eat
This post is sponsored by a friend of mine with a gluten intolerance who almost cried when I told her I made sure to grab gluten-free snacks for the party she was hosting
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“It just means you have to work double as hard as most people!”
Well maybe I don’t WANT to work double as hard as abled people!! Maybe I deserve a BREAK!! Maybe I’ve been working MORE THAN double as hard for MY WHOLE LIFE and it’s led me to immense burnout & caused me to develop several MORE disabilities!! Maybe I should be ACCOMMODATED so I don’t have to KILL MY BODY AND BRAIN over trying to do what abled people can do!! Maybe I DON’T have to work double as hard!! Maybe if there’s the option to let me NOT work double as hard, I should have it, because I’m already working double as hard JUST TO SURVIVE!!
Why do you think disabled people deserve less rest than mentally & physically abled people?
1. The court holds Google responsible for statements made by its AI, considering them Google's statements (search engines have limited liability for results in their engine as they're the words of other sites/companies/people), meaning when their AI lies/hallucinates they're liable for the defamation/harm resulting from those statements.
2. Google's defense that customers are generally aware of the lack of reliability and are responsible for fact checking was dismissed. As the court pointed out, that would "significantly diminish" AI Search's stated purpose and it can't be distinguished from Google's business practices/statements as a search tool.
3. Studies have found about 91% of Google's everyday AI responses are accurate, leaving millions of searches per HOUR with potential liability for falsehoods. 56% of correct responses weren't supported by the sources the AI listed. Both of which mean Google is now liable for a LOT more AI "errors."
4. Google was held liable for 80% of court costs in this case and this precedent is expected to reverberate around the world. This is a massive shift from the 3rd-party search provider role Google has previously played and it comes right as they've tied ALL searches to their AI search.
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about to sound #woke rn but people acting like mel being called er barbie and being perceived as more feminine is somehow a bad thing, and acting like that undermines who Mel is feels a tad misogynistic TO ME because why are we acting like being feminine is a bad thing? And I don't even hc Mel as super feminine, but so what if others do? I don't understand why people are getting so upset over it.
I have discussed Wuthering Heights with my mother’s book club last week and our psychiatrist friend there said that if Heathcliff were a real person and managed to actually marry Cathy, he would eventually cheat on her.
Now, this assertion is nothing short of blasphemy for people who love Wuthering Heights or even for people who love literature in general, but if Heathcliff were real, then I can see that happening. Heathcliff is of course not real or even particularly realistic, he is an exaggerated literary portrait of obsession, but if a real Heathcliff married a real Cathy then cheating could have happened.
(I guess Cathcliff is more similar to Hatibo than I previously realized, as cursed as this thought is.)
Idk, I'm team "Cathcliff were not going to have a normal or healthy relationship no matter what" but I will admit that the claim it would specifically involve Heathcliff cheating on Cathy leaves me... well, really curious as to what your friend is basing that claim on. I think we can agree it's out of character for Heathcliff as we see him in the novel, who doesn't even seem capable of noticing anyone Cathy doesn't point out to him, but as for the "well, if he was a real person in the real world instead of an archetypal figure in a text" element - well, sure, that hypothetical real person might cheat on his hypothetical real wife, but he might also not. "If characters were different they'd behave differently" can't argue with that. "If this character was different he'd behave in THIS different way" also can't technically argue with that, but I... don't really see its relevance.
This didn't cause the outrage you anticipated because it's just so blatantly wrong that it's not worth arguing.
The character of Heathcliff is obsessed with Catherine. If he was a real person, that wouldn't change. I don't care if that friend is a psychiatrist, sounds like they were trying to sound smart and either rage bait or do a dumb "hot take."
Also, it's not like psychiatry makes you a mind reader of a fortune teller. They treat mental illness. Heathcliff doesn't have anything in the DSM5. There are in fact diagnoses in the DSM5 that are associated with cheating, but this is just dumb psychobabble nonsense.
Argue with quotes from the novel, not your BS "expertise"
I think it's also worth it to note that psychiatry involves treating mental illness with medication, not whatever verbal therapy most people probably think of. They are medical doctors with (at least in my European country) different training than a therapist. So what does a psychiatry degree have anything to do with being able to predict someone's behavior?
(Nevermind that my psychology profs all went on and on about how psychology as a field isn't really capable of predicting people's behavior. Like, we can make educated guesses at best, and sometimes we're right, but we can't do it for everyone all the time and definitely not reliably)
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For the second time in 2 years I've been given a gunky old treadle. This one's a Bernina KL 105, which I hadn't heard of, and it's very interesting! It's a rotary machine with backstitch and drop feed, which is much more modern than any treadle I'd ever encountered before.
The model was first introduced in 1932, but this particular one was sold in 1945 to someone named Karl Seebacher, as can be seen in the manual which it still has! It was made in Switzerland and evidently sold there, as all the writing is in German and the markings are Metric. I'm very happy about the Metric markings! Someone must have moved to Canada with it somewhere along the line. I've read that these machines are more common in Europe than they are over here.
There are several different feet, and It came with a fantastic little hoop for darning socks, which I'm quite excited to try.
The machine itself is quite gunky, and has some rust spots, so I'll disassemble and clean as much as I reasonably can. I think it'll be alright. The wheel was turning very stiffly and jerkily when it arrived, and oiling everything didn't help much, but after it sat there for a couple weeks the new oil seems to have soaked in and softened things up and it's spinning quite smoothly now.
It came with two new drive belts that someone appears to have bought fairly recently, and as far as I can tell the only thing that's missing is the pair of set screws that hold the machine head to the hinges. Very odd, I can't imagine them ever falling out by themselves. Hopefully I can find replacements, but for now it's sitting in place well enough without them.
The cabinet needs a lot of work, but once the machine head is cleaned up it should be useable even before doing anything to the cabinet.
This does bring my current machine total up to 7 (5 electric, 2 treadles) but it was free and the poor thing had nowhere else to go so it's not my fault! It needed me! (Thank you @leegoguen for driving it to my place and helping me carry it upstairs!)
The warranty paper actually says that it was sold by the provider (Lieferant) Karl Seebacher in Appenzell, and it was sold to Frau (Mrs. /Ms.) Dr. Hardegger. The word after that I'm not sure about. Could be "Sanat." (Sanatorium, i.e. working in a specialized hospital) but could also be "Saisal" or "Saisont" or whatever, maybe a placename, maybe a first name or other note written in warranty, idk.
The "Fr. Dr." could either mean she was the wife of a doctor or that she was a doctor herself. In fact there is a nonzero chance this was the sewing machine of Dr. Bertha Hardegger, a famous Swiss missionary doctor in Africa. She might have ordered it with other supplies from Africa, since it would definitely have been hard to find a good sewing machine there and there were other missionaries there who later worked in Canada, so this could well be the way this machine took.
i hope that in season three we find out that langdon and mel have both started history reenacting together by accident. they died laughing when they saw each other at the first august meeting because what are the odds? frank can’t believe he’s ok with now exposing himself to all of ptmc as an even bigger nerd or that mel seems to enjoy learning from him, even outside of work. mel can’t believe her favorite coworker is a real life person who actually wants to explore her interests alongside her. so, naturally, they rapidly fall into a dangerous pattern of hanging out nonstop. they carpool from work to museum events a few times but eventually he just starts picking her up every morning since it isn’t too far out of the way. mel buys an extra red bull to keep in her backpack because frank gets cranky and annoying if he forgets. he knows she forgets to eat so he forces her to take a standing protein bar break with him in their own secret corner every day at 4 o’clock. and by the time langdon realizes he’s absolutely fucked and his marriage hasn’t allowed him to feel this valued or loved or needed or interesting maybe ever, asking her on a date feels silly. they’ve already spent months telling each other more than they’ve ever told anyone. but still, the first time they both sit in their feelings together, frank in a button up with the sleeves rolled up and mel in a simple dress with a short hem, they talk over candlelight until the restaurant owner has to beg frank to leave. they laugh so hard they dribble wine onto the tablecloths and he drives her home with a steady hand on her knee, not in a rush because they both know they’ll have plenty of time.
