HELLO 2018
Jan. 14th, 2018 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_aurafinaI've answered all my comments and I've read my flist and I've done some housework and cooking, so I'm feeling a bit more grounded than I have recently. So now I feel okay to make a post.
Real Life Things
- I got sunburned in the car on a long drive, and had a skin flare up which needed a short prednisolone course. (Not really relevant to anything but I like to keep track of how much pred I've taken, after last year's excitement.)
- I found a new beautician and got my mustache waxed off. My previous and favourite beautician retired, and I briefly saw someone who was TERRIBAD and hair-shamed me. (It's a dead giveaway that they're racist, when you complain that they're too rough with plucking, and they say, "It's not me, it's that your hair is too coarse." I've had plenty of really good beauticians who can pluck painlessly, ffs.) Anyway, the new one was lovely, and considerate, not fussed by my size and willing to show me her rooms when I asked. She said, when I questioned whether the bed would be safe for someone of my size, she said, "It will be fine - it's something that other clients have questioned and they had no problems with the bed." So civilised. So fucking respectful.
- I had a really good, really sympathetic optometrist for my eye exam. This is great relief because the last eye exam was really, really bad. I get dazzled by the retinal photograph - I think this is a processing disorder thing, because it leaves me kinda non-verbal and unable to answer the optometrist when they ask "Which is better, the first or the second?" And then I'm paranoid that my prescription isn't right because I've messed up the exam, and because I'm worried, I get a headache when I wear my glasses, etc etc etc dan has problems.
Last time it occurred to me that I could ask them to leave the retinal photograph till last, and the optometrist was young and funky and said she understood, so the exam was going really well until... (OMG. THIS STILL GIVES ME RAGE BLACKOUT. OMG.) Until the optometrist said at the end, while I was blinking and stupid after the retinal photograph,"Now I'm just a trainee, so my supervisor will have to go through everything to confirm." And we had to do THE WHOLE FUCKING EXAM AGAIN in specifically the circumstances that I had asked not to be exposed to. Uggggh, I was so angry (and blinky and confused.) I said tolilacsigil that it was the last eye exam I was every having. And she said, "Mmm hmm" as she helped me cross the road without jumping in front of a cattle truck, because she's sensible and knows how real life works.
Fast forward two years later, when I've had some serious vision changes and could longer read small text (like, the expiry date on a Medicare card, or the ingredients list on a bottle of vitamins, both kind of important in my work), plus the fact that I'd been on a massive prednisolone dose in January 17 and that's a possible glaucoma risk. None of this sensible stuff was motivating enough, but when, in an effort to reduce eye-strain and screen time, I picked up a paperback to read in bed and could not manage the type, not even with my glasses on, I finally had to make that appointment. I need to read.lilacsigil offered to come in with me but I said that if I felt unhappy I'd just blunder blindly out of the exam room and call for her, so she stayed in the waiting room.
I'm pretty sure the guy was ASD or knew someone well who was, because he listened, told me to say if I was confused or unhappy, took everything step by step, explained things, and constantly told me that I was doing really well. When my tummy didn't fit neatly behind the table that hold the scope for doing the visual exam of my eye, he said, "Oh, this room is terrible, the furniture is older and not good for people of all sizes. Let's change to the exam room next door, it will be more comfortable." (OMG MIND BLOWING SENSITIVITY FROM A MEDICO, TBH) And the other room worked fine. The retinal photograph came second last, because he said that when he takes my pressures (to see if I've developed glaucoma) he said that the drops would make my eyes water and feel strange, but that would be the last thing he had to do and it wouldn't matter that I was blinky and confused. We did the photograph, did the eyedrops for taking my pressures (like, wtf, I have had those pressures done in so many ways: puff of air, doppler shift, and now something that numbs the surface of my eye so he can touch it with a meter?). I think he got to see how confused I get from the photographs (which were normal, yay) because when he put the anaesthetic drops in, I babbled on and on about how pharmacists used to have to make cocaine eyedrops in the olden days, and when I took over the pharmacy here there was a MASSIVE tub of cocaine in the old safe and though I disposed of it safely and correctly, I was tempted to try some and will probably always regret not trying it even though I never would. When we were done, I said copious thank yous for being so patient and understanding. He said it had been a very interesting exam. (I am not sure about this? Maybe it was? I don't think it was sarcasm? IDK.)
I got lost getting from the exam room to the waiting room but he helped me find my way, and then I was inlilacsigil's hands and could fumble my way back to the car. I'll go in this week to choose frames and so on. I've lost some far vision, and I'm now going to need two prescriptions, but I am hopeful I can get some prescription sunglasses so I can play pokemon without being horrible dazzled by the sun (yet still able to tell what I'm catching.)
- On New Year's Eve, Baggins (the snake-bite cat) started throwing up, got dehydrated, and we carted him to the emergency vet. It seemed unlikely that he'd been bitten again (but it was unlikely he was bitten in the first place, being an inside cat) but I think we all (including the emergency vet who was on, who happened to be the vet who treated him for snake bite in 2016) had flashbacks and panicked. He got an injection of Cerenia (which is a medication we don't use in humans, something I always find interesting) and we got a bag of Hartmans to give him sub-q fluids at home, and it completely resolved. It could have been gastritis, or anxiety, or maybe the chicken we'd given him which was a bit older than I would have fed to a human. But he's fine now.
- For New Year, we made a pavlova, and in an act of supreme co-ordination, used the yolks to make crème brûlée. The pavlova was excellent, but the crème brûlée was AMAZING. Last year I bought a butane torch for this purpose but it failed to launch, and our grill is unreliable. Fortunately I remembered someone on facebook saying that they'd used a heatgun to brown a lasagna, so I sprinkled the sugar on the custard andlilacsigil who has pyromaniac tendencies, hit it with the heatgun (which is like a little paintstripper gun.) She giggled a lot. A LOT. But it worked, there was a crackly sugary top on the custard and it was delicious. Amazingly delicious. Added bonus: we didn't waste the egg yolks. (I always feel bad about this.)
Fannish Things
For Yuletide, I wrote Murderbot Diaries, formuccamukk, which was enormous fun both because Mucca is great, and because Murderbot is awesome. (If you haven't read it, but you like stories about cranky AI-types, I highly recommend it: The Murderbot Diaries)
I'll post the fic here soonish but this is it:
Handshake Protocol (8651 words) by st_aurafina
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams, The Middleman (TV), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), C-3PO (Star Wars), R2-D2 (Star Wars), Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ida (The Middleman), Marvin (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Data (Star Trek), Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq
Additional Tags: Crossover, Travel, Time Travel, 5 Things, Grumpy AIs, Elevator Music, This is not a hero's journey okay
Summary:
-sholio is running a Dark Matter exchange, while the love is still strong after cancellation. There's a comm, ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
we_are_the_raza, and a planning post, here. This isn't a fandom of mine, but sholio's exchanges are good (ssrconfidential, for Agent Carter, was heaps of fun) so I'm signal boosting for any Dark Matter fans on my flist. (And I really need to watch this; I've seen the first few eps, but it kind of fell off my radar.)
-lilacsigil watched her first episode of Brooklyn 99 today! She has chronic vertigo, and the single camera style of the show is impossible for her to watch. She bravely told me to watch and enjoy it without her. ("Go on without me!" she said. "I'll only hold you back!") I desperately wanted her to know the wonder that is Captain Raymond Holt, so today we tried watching it on the small screen of my tablet, and she managed it relatively easily. This bodes well for the first season of the Exorcist, which is wobbly but not quite as bad as Brooklyn 99. The second season is a little steadier, so far (we're at 2.03 now) but I don't trust it not to get wobbly as soon as Tomas and Marcus get to the place where this season's case will be. (Their scenes are definitely the wobbliest.)
- Speaking of vertigo, I have been playing Slime Rancher, and whooah, I can't handle first person shooter-style gaming. I have to play it in ten minute bursts or I get travel sick. And it's killing me, because the game is so cute! The slimes are ridiculous! Ugh, brains and perception. So messed up.
Linkspams
Media
Is Wendy From 'Mindhunter' A Real Person? Criminal Profiling Isn't Just For Men
This is an older link, and I'm not sure where I picked it up, but it's really interesting.
History
21-Year Old WWII Soldier’s Sketchbooks Reveal a Visual Diary of His Experiences
Just really beautiful and sparse, and sad. (CN: there's a sketch of a dead body in here, with some blood. It's not realistic, but it is intense, or I found it so.)
Health:
Black Triangle Scheme
Apparently these black triangles are going to be showing up on Australian medications, as part of a scheme to increase recording of adverse reactions. It's a bit ominous, though, right? I mean, that's going to increase anxiety straight up.
Updating medicine ingredient names - list of affected ingredients
Also from the TGA, and annoying as all hell, we're going to be standardising medication names to US terminology. Which is all fine and intuitive if we're talking about frusemide becoming furosemide or cyclosporin to ciclosporin, but amethocaine to tetracaine? That's going to be confusing. And bee venom to honey bee venom is just wrong. We don't call them honey bees over here. People are going to get wires crossed. At least adrenaline is staying, and (presumably) paracetamol.
Craft (Okay, it's mostly crochet)
Crochet Microwave Finger Gloves
lilacsigil, looking over my shoulder: Is that a kink thing?
Me: I'm... not sure.
Avocado collar
This is a paid crochet pattern, but it's AMAZING.
Fibre Burn Chart
For all my pyromaniac friends, not justlilacsigil: it helps you identify an unknown fibre by setting it on fire and observing its behaviour. Odour of celery? Nylon. Open lace-like ash? Weighted silk. (The author of the chart says I keep one in the sewing room and one in my purse with collapsable scissors and a lighter in an old candy tin -- portable burn test kit!)
nb: A portable burn test kit does not make a for good legal defense.
And hello to new people from the Post-Reveals Yuletide Friending Meme!
Real Life Things
- I got sunburned in the car on a long drive, and had a skin flare up which needed a short prednisolone course. (Not really relevant to anything but I like to keep track of how much pred I've taken, after last year's excitement.)
- I found a new beautician and got my mustache waxed off. My previous and favourite beautician retired, and I briefly saw someone who was TERRIBAD and hair-shamed me. (It's a dead giveaway that they're racist, when you complain that they're too rough with plucking, and they say, "It's not me, it's that your hair is too coarse." I've had plenty of really good beauticians who can pluck painlessly, ffs.) Anyway, the new one was lovely, and considerate, not fussed by my size and willing to show me her rooms when I asked. She said, when I questioned whether the bed would be safe for someone of my size, she said, "It will be fine - it's something that other clients have questioned and they had no problems with the bed." So civilised. So fucking respectful.
- I had a really good, really sympathetic optometrist for my eye exam. This is great relief because the last eye exam was really, really bad. I get dazzled by the retinal photograph - I think this is a processing disorder thing, because it leaves me kinda non-verbal and unable to answer the optometrist when they ask "Which is better, the first or the second?" And then I'm paranoid that my prescription isn't right because I've messed up the exam, and because I'm worried, I get a headache when I wear my glasses, etc etc etc dan has problems.
Last time it occurred to me that I could ask them to leave the retinal photograph till last, and the optometrist was young and funky and said she understood, so the exam was going really well until... (OMG. THIS STILL GIVES ME RAGE BLACKOUT. OMG.) Until the optometrist said at the end, while I was blinking and stupid after the retinal photograph,"Now I'm just a trainee, so my supervisor will have to go through everything to confirm." And we had to do THE WHOLE FUCKING EXAM AGAIN in specifically the circumstances that I had asked not to be exposed to. Uggggh, I was so angry (and blinky and confused.) I said to
lilacsigil that it was the last eye exam I was every having. And she said, "Mmm hmm" as she helped me cross the road without jumping in front of a cattle truck, because she's sensible and knows how real life works.Fast forward two years later, when I've had some serious vision changes and could longer read small text (like, the expiry date on a Medicare card, or the ingredients list on a bottle of vitamins, both kind of important in my work), plus the fact that I'd been on a massive prednisolone dose in January 17 and that's a possible glaucoma risk. None of this sensible stuff was motivating enough, but when, in an effort to reduce eye-strain and screen time, I picked up a paperback to read in bed and could not manage the type, not even with my glasses on, I finally had to make that appointment. I need to read.
lilacsigil offered to come in with me but I said that if I felt unhappy I'd just blunder blindly out of the exam room and call for her, so she stayed in the waiting room.I'm pretty sure the guy was ASD or knew someone well who was, because he listened, told me to say if I was confused or unhappy, took everything step by step, explained things, and constantly told me that I was doing really well. When my tummy didn't fit neatly behind the table that hold the scope for doing the visual exam of my eye, he said, "Oh, this room is terrible, the furniture is older and not good for people of all sizes. Let's change to the exam room next door, it will be more comfortable." (OMG MIND BLOWING SENSITIVITY FROM A MEDICO, TBH) And the other room worked fine. The retinal photograph came second last, because he said that when he takes my pressures (to see if I've developed glaucoma) he said that the drops would make my eyes water and feel strange, but that would be the last thing he had to do and it wouldn't matter that I was blinky and confused. We did the photograph, did the eyedrops for taking my pressures (like, wtf, I have had those pressures done in so many ways: puff of air, doppler shift, and now something that numbs the surface of my eye so he can touch it with a meter?). I think he got to see how confused I get from the photographs (which were normal, yay) because when he put the anaesthetic drops in, I babbled on and on about how pharmacists used to have to make cocaine eyedrops in the olden days, and when I took over the pharmacy here there was a MASSIVE tub of cocaine in the old safe and though I disposed of it safely and correctly, I was tempted to try some and will probably always regret not trying it even though I never would. When we were done, I said copious thank yous for being so patient and understanding. He said it had been a very interesting exam. (I am not sure about this? Maybe it was? I don't think it was sarcasm? IDK.)
I got lost getting from the exam room to the waiting room but he helped me find my way, and then I was in
lilacsigil's hands and could fumble my way back to the car. I'll go in this week to choose frames and so on. I've lost some far vision, and I'm now going to need two prescriptions, but I am hopeful I can get some prescription sunglasses so I can play pokemon without being horrible dazzled by the sun (yet still able to tell what I'm catching.)- On New Year's Eve, Baggins (the snake-bite cat) started throwing up, got dehydrated, and we carted him to the emergency vet. It seemed unlikely that he'd been bitten again (but it was unlikely he was bitten in the first place, being an inside cat) but I think we all (including the emergency vet who was on, who happened to be the vet who treated him for snake bite in 2016) had flashbacks and panicked. He got an injection of Cerenia (which is a medication we don't use in humans, something I always find interesting) and we got a bag of Hartmans to give him sub-q fluids at home, and it completely resolved. It could have been gastritis, or anxiety, or maybe the chicken we'd given him which was a bit older than I would have fed to a human. But he's fine now.
- For New Year, we made a pavlova, and in an act of supreme co-ordination, used the yolks to make crème brûlée. The pavlova was excellent, but the crème brûlée was AMAZING. Last year I bought a butane torch for this purpose but it failed to launch, and our grill is unreliable. Fortunately I remembered someone on facebook saying that they'd used a heatgun to brown a lasagna, so I sprinkled the sugar on the custard and
lilacsigil who has pyromaniac tendencies, hit it with the heatgun (which is like a little paintstripper gun.) She giggled a lot. A LOT. But it worked, there was a crackly sugary top on the custard and it was delicious. Amazingly delicious. Added bonus: we didn't waste the egg yolks. (I always feel bad about this.)Fannish Things
For Yuletide, I wrote Murderbot Diaries, for
muccamukk, which was enormous fun both because Mucca is great, and because Murderbot is awesome. (If you haven't read it, but you like stories about cranky AI-types, I highly recommend it: The Murderbot Diaries)I'll post the fic here soonish but this is it:
Handshake Protocol (8651 words) by st_aurafina
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams, The Middleman (TV), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), C-3PO (Star Wars), R2-D2 (Star Wars), Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ida (The Middleman), Marvin (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Data (Star Trek), Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq
Additional Tags: Crossover, Travel, Time Travel, 5 Things, Grumpy AIs, Elevator Music, This is not a hero's journey okay
Summary:
Murderbot doesn't want to be a hero or take part in someone's incredible journey. Why does it keep bumping into people who think it will?
-
sholio is running a Dark Matter exchange, while the love is still strong after cancellation. There's a comm, we_are_the_raza, and a planning post, here. This isn't a fandom of mine, but sholio's exchanges are good (ssrconfidential, for Agent Carter, was heaps of fun) so I'm signal boosting for any Dark Matter fans on my flist. (And I really need to watch this; I've seen the first few eps, but it kind of fell off my radar.) -
lilacsigil watched her first episode of Brooklyn 99 today! She has chronic vertigo, and the single camera style of the show is impossible for her to watch. She bravely told me to watch and enjoy it without her. ("Go on without me!" she said. "I'll only hold you back!") I desperately wanted her to know the wonder that is Captain Raymond Holt, so today we tried watching it on the small screen of my tablet, and she managed it relatively easily. This bodes well for the first season of the Exorcist, which is wobbly but not quite as bad as Brooklyn 99. The second season is a little steadier, so far (we're at 2.03 now) but I don't trust it not to get wobbly as soon as Tomas and Marcus get to the place where this season's case will be. (Their scenes are definitely the wobbliest.) - Speaking of vertigo, I have been playing Slime Rancher, and whooah, I can't handle first person shooter-style gaming. I have to play it in ten minute bursts or I get travel sick. And it's killing me, because the game is so cute! The slimes are ridiculous! Ugh, brains and perception. So messed up.
Linkspams
Media
Is Wendy From 'Mindhunter' A Real Person? Criminal Profiling Isn't Just For Men
This is an older link, and I'm not sure where I picked it up, but it's really interesting.
History
21-Year Old WWII Soldier’s Sketchbooks Reveal a Visual Diary of His Experiences
Just really beautiful and sparse, and sad. (CN: there's a sketch of a dead body in here, with some blood. It's not realistic, but it is intense, or I found it so.)
Health:
Black Triangle Scheme
Apparently these black triangles are going to be showing up on Australian medications, as part of a scheme to increase recording of adverse reactions. It's a bit ominous, though, right? I mean, that's going to increase anxiety straight up.
Updating medicine ingredient names - list of affected ingredients
Also from the TGA, and annoying as all hell, we're going to be standardising medication names to US terminology. Which is all fine and intuitive if we're talking about frusemide becoming furosemide or cyclosporin to ciclosporin, but amethocaine to tetracaine? That's going to be confusing. And bee venom to honey bee venom is just wrong. We don't call them honey bees over here. People are going to get wires crossed. At least adrenaline is staying, and (presumably) paracetamol.
Craft (Okay, it's mostly crochet)
Crochet Microwave Finger Gloves
lilacsigil, looking over my shoulder: Is that a kink thing? Me: I'm... not sure.
Avocado collar
This is a paid crochet pattern, but it's AMAZING.
Fibre Burn Chart
For all my pyromaniac friends, not just
lilacsigil: it helps you identify an unknown fibre by setting it on fire and observing its behaviour. Odour of celery? Nylon. Open lace-like ash? Weighted silk. (The author of the chart says I keep one in the sewing room and one in my purse with collapsable scissors and a lighter in an old candy tin -- portable burn test kit!)nb: A portable burn test kit does not make a for good legal defense.
And hello to new people from the Post-Reveals Yuletide Friending Meme!