low_delta

At least, I found a whole foods supplier which had - among other things like wheatbran which looked like it would not be like the sawdusty stuff Ocado have lately been purveying under that name - things like Medium Oatmeal! Wheatgerm! and POMEGRANATE VINEGAR!!! which I have been complaining everywhere were No Can Haz. Also kasha (I did have kasha but on recently examining the package found that its BBF was way back last summer).

And conveyed to me with remarkable expedition even if I didn't pony up for the expedite delivery option.

Slight whinge at DPD for just leaving it on the step and not even ringing the bell.

Also, I discovered that my library card for Former Workplace expired several years ago. On emailing about renewal (as I have a need to Go In and Consult Things) got a next day response saying they can renew if I send in scan of appropriate ID and address verification, and pick up card when I go in.

This somewhat makes up for:

a) the two reviews I did last year which still sit in limbo with the relevant editors.

b) the two feelers put out for books to review, ditto, such that I am hesitant to put out another for a different book to a different journal in case I end up yet again with stack of books for review.

c) local history society which I contacted last year apropos 2 volumes of its proceedings which are Relevant to My Interests and which after some initially encouraging response has gone silent.

Am still miffed about either inadvertently deleting or not being sent Zoom link for the last Dance to the Music of Time discussion.

and am baffled by the ongoing situation 'The server is taking too long to respond' of the Mastodon instance I frequent, which has now pertained for nearly 5 days.

Public

Back to the Future (1985)

This is a film I might have guessed would score full marks from me. As you can see, it doesn't, because it's just that little bit too problematic when looked at with mid-2020s eyes. Don't get me wrong, this is still a great movie, expertly constructed and supremely watchable. There aren't any real weak links in the acting, and the atmosphere of 1955 America is wonderfully created. Even having a DeLorean break down about every ten seconds is true to life. For what it is, Back to the Future is pretty much spot on at first viewing, and it's strong enough to hold up to being seen multiple times, as indeed I have. That's not something to sniff at.

But those problems? There's the "Johnny B. Goode" scene, though in reality by November 1955 what you might call modern rock'n'roll already existed: Little Richard had released "Tutti Frutti" the month before, even if it didn't chart until December. The Libyan terrorists are comic-book villains and I can live with that. A bigger deal is how the film treats Lorraine. The "unintentional incestuous attraction" joke is slightly overdone, but the real issue is the plan Marty cooks up, which requires Lorraine to be genuinely emotionally abused to set up George's hero moment. Then an actual assault is played more realistically than you'd expect for a feel-good family comedy, yet the victim is completely fine a few minutes later.

None of this destroys the movie as a whole. Michael J. Fox is excellent as Marty, even if a little gratingly cool at times for these British sensibilities, and Christopher Lloyd is suitably manic as Doc Brown. Lea Thompson must also get a mention for a really fine turn in a tricky role as Lorraine, while Thomas F. Wilson's Biff manages to pull off both "comedy class bully" and "genuinely dangerous predator". The clock tower scene, the other callbacks, most of the humour, and the way it never lets up from start to finish make it a very fine film to this day. Still an easy four-star movie – but looked at through today's eyes, I can't quite see it as the near-perfect picture I'd half-expected. ★★★★

Current Mood: hungry

It was raining in Seattle when I left and is a little drippy here this morning.

The Seattle airport, SeaTac, was weirdly a bit of a mess. The security set up was not nearly as efficient or as well equipped as the one in Austin. To get on the plane we had to go outside on the tarmac where the jets were taking off and landing (far away from them but still on the same ground with jet fuel and noise and fumes) then up a set of ramps to get into the plane. I can only assume they are doing lots of work somewhere and this is the temporary result of that work. But the difference between the Austin airport and the Seattle airport was striking. We'll see how temporary that is in five months when I do it again.

The flight was uneventful. I was wearing my hoodie and put on the Bose sound killing head phones, flipped up the hood, put on four or five episodes of Pluribus, and disappeared from the world for a few hours. I've got a routine. Crawl into my cave and return when the metal tube has deposited me near where I'm going.

All is well here, nothing went amiss while I was gone. Beaux is very happy to have me back and I was thrilled to see him. Similar experience with Dana and Toby but in Beau's case lots of enthusiasm and body wagging.

My weight is unchanged after a week of different eating and everything else and no exercise. So that is encouraging. It will be nice to get back in the groove with measured food and pickleball. Time to get serious about losing that last ten or fifteen pounds. I've already reached my initial goal only to find it is not actually the one I want. But I'm happy with the progress and ready for more.

A week off from exercise is too long. I can feel it. And the immediate snap back to form that I enjoyed when I was younger isn't going to happen now. I'll need to put in a lot more effort and focus to get back to where I was a week ago. It slips away so quickly.

I do miss being able to go down to the Timber Ridge library at 6AM and read the physical WSJ paper with one of the residents. He never even looked up when I arrived but acknowledged me on his way out. Companionable silence, coffee, and someone to have the paper ready.

But I trade it off for quiet house and morning coffee and feeding Beaux.

I've got lunch today with my networking group but that's it. Such a nice schedule. A couple of other things to do with scheduling later in the week and accounts of one kind or another but nothing pressing.

I do kind of like my schedule.

So I wait for a couple of days to be sure I didn't pick up any virus during the travels. Finger's crossed. I didn't notice anyone who looked sick and did spend some quality time washing my hands in the airport.

Time to walk the dogs.

I had completely forgotten about this old workaround until today, and honestly, it's a lifesaver in my loud office workplace. Since my iPhone doesn't allow me to charge and listen simultaneously without a bulky dongle, I finally remembered I can just tether it to my computer via a USB cable. By opening iTunes, I can access my entire library of 2,000+ tracks directly from the phone while it stays at 100% battery.

The real winner in this setup is my Etymotic IEMs. In our noisy workspace, their passive isolation provides an epic level of noise reduction. It's actually more effective than active noise cancellation (ANC) because it blocks out office chatter and high-frequency sounds.

I'm finally back in my high-fidelity bubble.

things melted last week and everything was mud, so I got a couple days break from spreading straw. weirdly, my problem elbow hurt more when I wasn't using it constantly than when I was. Not sure what's up with that. The temperature dropped again, so the ground froze again. Did another load at dawn this morning but discovered a belt had worn weirdly on the shredder, so I need to run to town today and get a new one before we shred more.

The pottery class I was going to take isn't actually available on Wed, their only evening hours are mondays from 5-8 and they only just updated that on facebook and haven't emailed me back. I'm busy that night, so that's out. I could theoretically do day classes but with how short the days are, any daylight is needed for work hours especially if I need extra warmup time between morning and afternoon. ETA: I found another studio with wed classes and easier signup procedures. done.

I did go to spinners guild on sunday and it was a gosh dang delight including one of the longer term guild members coming this time who is queer in so many ways and everyone was lovely to him. It was so so so nice and relaxing. I think for the next meeting I'm going to get either my electric wheel battery up and running or take my smaller wheel and start an alpaca spin on it. My CPW is too big and loud for the space we've been meeting in. I got there right at 1pm and was still one of the later arrivals, so clearly I need to get there even earlier :)

We have started the wood stove indoors back up, so that's nice. I missed it. We ran out of wood that size and it had gotten warm, so there was less point in running it. Dad got on the roof and cleaned the chimney out while it was off, so that was nice and split some of the wood at the rental into wood stove size for both their house and mine.

I did kickstart my parents into doing work on their house! I sanded their office floor and then mom cleaned it and we sealed and finished it together. Definitely one of those times where it would have been faster with just one person, but so be it. My dad has been working on their living room wall drywall which is next in line. They do have renters moving into the rental Feb 1, so there is painting to be done there, plus some other small misc stuff. Parents' house also needs paint so I will be helping with some amount of painting. I didn't do drywall in my upstairs bathroom yet as expected, but I'm planning to later this week when dad is around to help me move the drywall outside to cut and then upstairs to get in place. They do have an extremely firm deadline of house renovations of June when my dad's college buddies are coming to visit, so there's that. We did discover that nice foosball tables are extremely heavy and it would be good to have more than two people to get it in a bilco basement door. I didn't get squished but it was very very heavy. After we got it down there, my dad said, you know, I think it did say something about being over 200lbs. hmm. thanks dad. Although we would have had to get a cousin or something to come help, which my parents are slightly allergic to asking for help, so I dunno if that would have happened anyway. We do have a vague plan to get the floor done which is good and there is progress happening. Given my parents hated the smell of the seal and finish, we are waiting to move them into the house until the living room/dining room/kitchen are all sealed and finished.

Winter is one of those times where I am just sleepy a lot, so I do accept this as a fact of life but also am fully aware that I am relatively isolated from the local area. In NY, I had an established friend groups, I had places I could go when I wanted a little socializing or crafting with folks, all sorts of things. Here I don't have any of that, so I'm trying to find something. Over the summer, I was so busy with the farm that I didn't really notice, but now I really can tell. To be fair, I have three nights a week where I have weekly social opportunities, but they are all digital. I know I need to push myself and get out there but it's hard and farm work is a bit unpredictable with when we need to run for straw and things. So spinners guild was excellent. I'm hoping to go to a meetup this saturday, although I'll be missing gaming with Jade that night for it. I need to do something thur/fri nights. And maybe some saturdays during the day. Hmm.

Public

This spring's Senedd election looks like being an interesting one. Right now if I had to put money on any particular outcome, I'd go for a minority Plaid administration. I don't think they'll get anywhere near the number of seats they'd need to get a majority in the Senedd, which will now have 96 members. Probably a final seat count somewhere in the low-mid 30s. Reform are on their heels but seem to be slipping back a little very recently, so I'd suggest mid-high 20s for them. Quite possibly every other party, including incumbents Labour, in single figures.

Current Mood: thoughtful

William Allen, the Quaker polymath, scientist, financier and all-round do-gooder was an ancestor of mine. His younger brother Samuel was my several times great grandfather. Does that make William my many times great uncle? I'm not sure. Anyway we are related.

I don't think the brothers were close. Leastways Samuel doesn't get a mention in the biography of William I'm currently reading. William was a high-flier, active on the world-stage, whereas Samuel was never anything more than a respected Quaker preacher.

Here's William, wearing a Quaker hat. (I want one)

William_Allen_abolitionist_by_Amélie_Munier-Romilly_(sq_cropped).jpeg

William_Allen_abolitionist_by_Amélie_Munier-Romilly_(sq_cropped).jpeg

And here's Samuel, holding forth (gloomily?) at a Quaker Meeting.

Samuel_Lucas_(1805-1870)_-_Samuel_Allen_at_a_Quaker_Meeting_-_HITHM.5518_-_North_Hertfordshire_Museum.jpeg

Samuel_Lucas_(1805-1870)_-_Samuel_Allen_at_a_Quaker_Meeting_-_HITHM.5518_-_North_Hertfordshire_Museum.jpeg

The difference in status between the two brothers can be gauged by the quality of their portraits. William gets a delicate pencil sketch by Mlle Romilly- the distinguished Swiss painter- while Samuel makes do with a daub by his brother-in-law Samuel Lucas, the brewer.

Oh, these old time Quakers, they're so serious! William is esteemed by the Duke of Wellington and more than esteemed by the saintly Russian tsar Alexander I but wouldn't it be jolly if he'd occasionally meet a poet (there were enough of them around in his era) or attend the theatre or say something funny. He had a wonderful mind for facts but he wasn't creative or playful. He partnered the great Robert Owen in setting up schools for the poor but fell out with him over what should be taught. Owen wanted to teach music and dancing and what we would now call ecology while William wanted nothing but Bible study. Oh, Uncle William, do lighten up!'

You may gather I'm having a hard time actually liking him. A man, however mild and obliging, who wants his nieces to read Pliny to him over breakfast is never going to be my soul-brother.

But he did like the ladies! His third marriage- to a woman pushing 70 and a good decade older than himself- allowed the profane to go, "See, we always said the Quakers are randy old goats under those silly hats." Cartoons were published. Sincere and loving Friends wrote to tell him, "Don't do it!" For the first time in his life he was a cause for merriment....

Ah, unseemliness! Now that's more like it!

Happy birthday,

alexseanchai,

altariel.

chance and

rembrandtswife!

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

Running this many days without sleep, I find it hard to tell whether I had an insight about creativity this weekend or just reinvented a 101-level objection to LLMs and so-called generative AI, but it ocurred to me that such technologies are not capable of allusions. Their algorithms are not freighted with the same three-dimensional architecture of associations which accrete around information stored in the human cold porridge, all the emotional colors and sensory overtones and contextual echoes which attend the classic example of a word like tree when you throw it out across the incommensurable void between one human mind and another to be plugged into their own idiosyncratically plastic linkage of bias and experience whose least incompatibility may be the difference between a bristlecone and a birch and Wittgenstein has to lie down with a headache, but all of these entanglements form as much of the texture of a writer's style—of any human communication—as the word cloud of their vocabulary or their most commonly diagrammed sentences. It has always interested me to be able to detect the half-rhymes or skeletons of familiarity in the work of other writers; I have always assumed I am reciprocally legible if not transparent from space. I've seen arguments against the creativity of LLMs based on intentionality, but the unintended encrustrations seem just as important to me. By way of illustration, this thought was partly sparked by this classic and glorious mashup.

I was delighted to find on checking the news this morning that a new Roman villa just dropped. Given the Iron Age hillforts, the twelfth-century abbey, the Georgian country house, and the CH station, Margam Country Park clearly needed a Roman find to complete the set. I have since been informed of the discovery of a similarly well-preserved and impressive carnyx. Goes shatteringly with a villa, the Iceni tell me.

I joke about this rock I spend most of my time under, but how can I never have heard of Marlow Moss? The Bryher vibes alone. The Constructivism. And a real short king, judging by that jaunty photo c. 1937 with Netty Nijhoff. Pursuing further details, I fell over Anton Prinner and have been demoralized about my comprehension of art history ever since.

Last night I read David Copperfield (1850) for the third time in my life. It has the terrible feel of a teachable moment. In high school I bounced almost completely off it. About ten years later, I enjoyed the dual-layered narration and was otherwise mostly engaged by the language. Now it appears I just like the novel, which I have to consider may be a factor of middle age. Or I had just read the necessary bunch more of Dickens in the interval, speaking of traceable reflections, recurring figures; my favorite character has not changed since eleventh grade, but I can see now the constellation he's part of. It seems improbable that I was always reading the novel while waiting for chorus to start, but I did get through Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) in the down time of a couple of rehearsals that year. I was not taking either of the standard literature classes, but I had friends who left their assigned reading lying around.

I have to be at three different doctors' offices tomorrow. I could be over this viral mishegos any second now.

Current Music: Pavement, "Grave Architecture"

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

Name: Ciacconne

Age: Mid 30s.

I mostly post about: My life, health, and fandom.

My hobbies are: Writing, reading, gaming, and art.

My fandoms are: HP, FF16, FF7, Frieren, Slayers, Gintama, Kekkai Sensen, YGO.

I'm looking to meet people who: wanna talk about life and fandom stuff.

My posting schedule tends to be: Daily.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Antis.

Before adding me, you should know: I post about my health, be it mental or physical,

Posted by Michala Garrison

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-plume-of-bright-blue-in-melissas-wake/

https://science.nasa.gov/?p=1190133

September 20, 2025

October 30, 2025

A satellite image shows a portion of the dark blue Caribbean Sea near Jamaica. A submerged carbonate platform appears as a slightly brighter blue area of water in the center. The mostly green island of Jamaica is in the upper right, and scattered clouds are present throughout.

NASA Earth Observatory

A satellite image shows a portion of the Caribbean Sea near Jamaica. Much of the water in the middle third of the image is bright blue due to suspended sediment. The mostly green island of Jamaica is in the upper right, and scattered clouds are present throughout.

NASA Earth Observatory

September 20, 2025

October 30, 2025

Before and After

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on October 28, 2025, as a category 5 storm, bringing sustained winds of 295 kilometers (185 miles) per hour and leaving a broad path of destruction on the island. The storm displaced tens of thousands of people, damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 structures, inflicted costly damage on farmland, and left the nation’s forests brown and battered.

Prior to landfall, in the waters south of the island, the hurricane created a large-scale natural oceanography experiment. Before encountering land and proceeding north, the monster storm crawled over the Caribbean Sea, churning up the water below. A couple of days later, a break in the clouds revealed what researchers believe could be a once-in-a-century event.

On October 30, 2025, the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image (right) of the waters south of Jamaica. Vast areas are colored bright blue by sediment stirred up from a carbonate platform called Pedro Bank. This plateau, submerged under about 25 meters (80 feet) of water, is slightly larger in area than the state of Delaware. For comparison, the left image was acquired by the same sensor on September 20, before the storm.

Pedro Bank is deep enough that it is only faintly visible in natural color satellite images most of the time. However, with enough disruption from hurricanes or strong cold fronts, its existence becomes more evident to satellites. Suspended calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) mud, consisting primarily of remnants of marine organisms that live on the plateau, turns the water a Maya blue color. The appearance of this type of material contrasts with the greenish-brown color of sediment carried out to sea by swollen rivers on Jamaica’s southern coast.

As an intense storm that lingered in the vicinity of the bank, Hurricane Melissa generated “tremendous stirring power” in the water column, said James Acker, a data support scientist at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center with a particular interest in these events. Hurricane Beryl caused some brightening around Pedro Bank in July 2024, “but nothing like this,” he said. “While we always have to acknowledge the human cost of a disaster, this is an extraordinary geophysical image.”

A bathymetric map of part of the Caribbean Sea shows Jamaica in the upper right and the large, flat-topped Pedro Bank at the center, which sits 20 to 30 meters below the surface and displays steep edges. Several smaller shallow shelves appear in the lower left.

Sediment suspension was visible on Pedro and other nearby shallow banks, indicating that Melissa affected a total area of about 37,500 square kilometers—more than three times the area of Jamaica—on October 30, said sedimentologist Jude Wilber, who tracked the plume’s progression using multiple satellite sensors. Having studied carbonate sediment transport for decades, he believes the Pedro Bank event was the largest observed in the satellite era. “It was extraordinary to see the sediment dispersed over such a large area,” he said.

The sediment acted as a tracer, illuminating currents and eddies near the surface. Some extended into the flow field of the Caribbean Current heading west and north, while other patterns suggested the influence of Ekman transport, Wilber said. The scientists also noted complexities in the south-flowing plume, which divided into three parts after encountering several small reefs. Sinking sediment in the easternmost arm exhibited a cascading stair-step pattern.

Like in other resuspension events, the temporary coloration of the water faded after about seven days as sediment settled. But changes to Pedro Bank itself may be more long-lasting. “I suspect this hurricane was so strong that it produced what I would call a ‘wipe’ of the benthic ecosystem,” Wilber said. Seagrasses, algae, and other organisms living on and around the bank were likely decimated, and it is unknown how repopulation of the area will unfold.

A sediment sample from Pedro Bank includes white globular pieces of calcified algae measuring several inches in diameter and smaller flaky white macroalgae remnants.

Sediments from the top of Pedro Bank contain masses of calcified red algae, flaky sands made of Halimeda macroalgae remnants, and carbonate mud. The wing-like shape of Halimeda sand allows it to be lifted and transported while waters are turbulent, and finer mud remains suspended longer. These samples were acquired during a research expedition in the winter of 1987-1988 and are archived at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Photo by Jude Wilber, January 8, 2026.

Perhaps most consequentially for Earth’s oceans, however, is the effect of the sediment suspension event on the planet’s carbon cycle. Tropical cyclones are an important way for carbon in shallow-water marine sediments to reach deeper waters, where it can remain sequestered for the long term. At depth, carbonate sediments will also dissolve, another important process in the oceanic carbon system.

Near-continuous ocean observations by satellites have enabled greater understanding of these events and their carbon cycling. Acker and Wilber have worked on remote-sensing methods to quantify how much sediment reaches the deep ocean following the turbulence of tropical cyclones, including recently with Hurricane Ian over the West Florida Shelf. Now, hyperspectral observations from NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission, launched in February 2024, are poised to build on that progress, Acker said.

The phenomenon at Pedro Bank following Hurricane Melissa provided a singular opportunity to study this and other complex ocean processes—a large natural experiment that could not be accomplished any other way. Researchers will be further investigating a range of physical, geochemical, and biological aspects illuminated by this occurrence. As Wilber put it: “This event is a whole course in oceanography.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview, and ocean bathymetry data from the British Oceanographic Data Center’s General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO). Photo by Jude Wilber. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

References & Resources

Acker, J.G. and Wilber, R.J. (2025) The first 25 years of satellite carbonate sedimentology: What have we learned? The Depositional Record, 11(3), 975-997. In: Kump, L.R., Ingalls, M., and Hine, A.C. (eds) Carbonate depositional environments: Past and future questions—A Tribute to the career of E.A. Shinn.
Acker, J.G. and Wilber, R.J. (2024) Satellite-Derived Estimates of Suspended CaCO₃ Mud Concentrations from the West Florida Shelf Induced by Hurricane Ian. Environmental Sciences Proceedings, 29(1):69.
EBSCO Research Starters (2024) Carbonate Compensation Depths. Accessed January 9, 2026.
NASA Earth Observatory (2025, November 25) A Direct Hit on Jamaican Forests. Accessed January 9, 2026.
NASA Earth Observatory (2023, April 6) Stirring Up Carbonate in the Coral Sea. Accessed January 9, 2026.

Downloads

A satellite view of part of the Caribbean Sea shows Jamaica in the upper right and light blue waters over a submerged carbonate platform in the center.

September 20, 2025

JPEG (1.75 MB)

A satellite view of part of the Caribbean Sea shows Jamaica in the upper right and brighter, milky blue water in the center over Pedro Bank, indicating suspended sediment.

October 30, 2025

JPEG (1.46 MB)

Bathymetric Map

JPEG (1.18 MB)

You may also be interested in:

Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

3 min read

The major hurricane steered clear of land but delivered tropical storm conditions to coastal areas along its path.

Article

6 min read

Hurricane Melissa left the island nation’s forests brown and battered, but they won’t stay that way for long.

Article

4 min read

The Guiana Shield’s rugged terrain shapes Guyana’s waterways, but mining has altered their clarity.

Article

Keep Exploring

Discover More from NASA Earth Science

Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters

Subscribe to the Earth Observatory and get the Earth in your inbox.

Earth Observatory Image of the Day

NASA's Earth Observatory brings you the Earth, every day, with in-depth stories and stunning imagery.

Explore Earth Science

Earth Science Data

The post A Plume of Bright Blue in Melissa’s Wake appeared first on NASA Science.

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-plume-of-bright-blue-in-melissas-wake/

https://science.nasa.gov/?p=1190133

The last four items are useful for folks who protest.

Signs You Are a Gen-Xer Who’s About to Turn Sixty. McSweeney's. I'm busted. Particularly feeling #4.
MoviePass Is Betting Big on Entertainment Gambling. I have a friend who does movies all the time and was probably partially responsible for running them out of business last time so of course I had to mail her this one. See also: MoviePass gambles on "entertainment speculation" to lure back users.
Rosalía’s Lux is more than epic Catholic pop – it grapples with a world fraught with complexity and crisis. I haven't listened to any of her music in more than passing but clearly I need to check it out.
Why Donald Trump is telling such obvious lies on the ICE Minneapolis killing. Written by the sister of a friend of mine.
Researchers poison stolen data to make AI systems return wrong results. Couldn't happen to a bunch of nicer people.
Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter. The headline is great, but the pictures are even better.
She Tried to Kill a President. He Loved Her Anyway. She was a con artist.
AI summaries are coming to (for?) your Gmail. Enshittification! Thinking about moving my email to Proton for pay, or upgrading my domain mail.
How To Prepare for an ICE Raid in Dallas
How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: Protesters’ Rights. From the ACLU.
How to Temporarily Disable Face ID or Touch ID, and Require a Passcode to Unlock Your iPhone or iPad From 2022, but still works the same.

Current Music: Silence is golden.

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

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Blackhawks vs Oilers

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

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

Was not a fan of the new Shadow Milk costume at first, but it’s slowly growing on me, specifically as a potential alternate universe where Shadow Milk fell into repression.

First, there’s the outfit itself. Shadow Milk, as we know him, is obviously associated with Satan (the snake form referencing Eve and the apple, opposing Jesus/Mary figure Pure Vanilla, the tree of knowledge, etc etc). He abandoned his duties as a religious figure. So, why does his crown have a cross on it? Plus, the fact that he is now a king with a sword, as opposed to an androgynous jester with theatrical associations. He’s so much more traditionally masculine — his hair is even cut short.

Which is kind of horrific, in and of itself, right? We know that his hair is alive; would that not be akin to cutting off a limb? And he looks so tired… Shadow Milk has bags under his eyes in his usual form, of course, but it’s the eyebags in combination with the small smile, upturned eyebrows, and the scar.

We can assume that this version of Shadow Milk is some sort of soft roleswap with Eternal Sugar. Perhaps, in this universe, Shadow Milk feels he is unable to be loved unless he scrubs all of his traditionally-queer forms of self-expression away?

... What does that say about Eternal Sugar, and her relationship to gender expression?

hello my flist! i had such high hopes for the new year and, just, pfft. it's

snowflake_challenge season and i haven't even posted for that. oy.

anyway i hope your 2026 has been decent-to-good so far or at least not worse than 2025.

for new year's i went to my sister's and we went out for dinner (delish) and watched a lot of lotr, pausing only to watch the ball drop in times square. i like a good tradition but she may or may not want to do something different this year. we'll see. and for christmas she came to my house and we drove around to look at people's holiday lights and got chinese takeout and watched wake up, dead man on netflix because we both felt too meh to go out. (i liked it but i think i liked the first one the best.) and like four days before that my cousin's youngest kid got married in dc and i brought a cold with me and lost my voice at the wedding. wtf. that made it very difficult to talk to cousins which did not stop me. but it also meant i was still sick or recovering for the entirety of my time off. whiiine. at least i had two weeks off to cough up a lung and sit on my couch and be tired, rather than having to take sick days or work from home a lot. but still! i had a lot of time off and couldn't even enjoy most of it! and i had plans! which were mostly "watch tv, work on holiday project for writing group, start pumpkin spice cross stitch". sigh.

(while in dc my sister and i did a little sightseeing, which included a farmer's market down the street from the hotel - it was SO WINDY but there were lots of dogs - a walk around the washington monument, a stroll down the reflecting pool, and a little talk by a park ranger in the lincoln memorial.)

we got snow a couple times tho, that was nice. i'm a big fan of waking up to snow on the ground. :D especially new year's day! it was just enough to shovel but if it had been, say, four inches, i would've enjoyed that too.

during my time off i met admin s who works at the libraries for lunch and a week later i met one of the admins m for lunch and both of those things were really nice, partly because i enjoy a lunch out and partly because it was just nice to see people. and i never see admin s because i don't work with her any more. i also had mexican brunch with

tamalinn and friend a and friend a's hubs and that was fun and also delicious. and saturday i got a haircut. :D

before the haircut i went to cousins j&m's for brunch and to say hi and goodbye to their kids before they went back to school, and friday night my sister and i took cousin p on dad's side out for dinner for her birthday. it was yummy (i had black pasta with shrimp and calamari) and they brought cousin p a slice of flourless chocolate cake for her birthday. my sister and i ate most of it.

work re-entry was fine and going to campus was weird because it's been like three weeks since i was there. classes don't start until february so it's very quiet but again, it's nice to see people.

things i did in november and december:

went record album/antique shopping with tamalinn and friend a and bought the go-gos' beauty and the beat, heart's little queen, and a cookbook from the 50s full of buffet recipes
saw wicked pt 1 (again) in preparation for seeing wicked pt 2
went out to dinner with my sister and cousin j (of j&m)
fetched the mothership at the airport for tday
went out for bday dinner with mom, sister, cousins j&r, and the aforementioned lone cousin j
got snowed on in harvard square :DDD
had brunch with cousins from mom's side
bought a dress for the wedding
did not need to buy shoes
had dinner with cousins from dad's side
had mom and sister over for dinner (i made pork chops because i could)
went to j&m's for tday
ate a lot
saw wicked pt 2 (not bad but i liked pt 1 better, also why did the story have to be two movies?)
went to snowport (boston holiday market, down by the seaport) where i bought a print of a pickle sign and saw the lobster nativity
borrowed a bolero jacket from one of the admins m for the wedding because the dress is sleeveless and it was a jewish wedding and i'd have to cover my shoulders
went to the holiday market at the somerville armory and bought a blockprint of a medieval looking fish and a print of my favorite local bridge
one of the vendors had a print with a drawing of a guillotine and the legend "a better world is possible!" heh.
watched red one (so cute, so silly)
went to friend r's to watch the thin man because it's set around christmas and while i don't know how successful it was as a murder mystery i liked nick and nora as a couple and overall enjoyed it
saw the housemaid (had some twists i appreciated and i liked it)
curled lots, made a couple good shots and a lot more acceptable-to-missed shots
finished the lowdown (liked it, recommend it, didn't love the way the murder plot shook out)
watched talasmasca: the secret order (partly because of elizabeth mcgovern going "talamasssca" in the trailers) (mostly liked it altho i didn't really like the protagonist - he thought he was the smartest person in the room and every time he got in over his head, which was pretty much the entire show, women showed up to get him out of trouble)
watched hysteria! (about a high school heavy metal garage band that pretends to be a satanic cult to get fans, and then shit goes off the rails) (it's set in 1987 and got a lot of the satanic panic right but was otherwise only glancingly historical which made me twitch. was fun altho did i mention it went totally off the rails?)
rewatched stranger things s1-s4 with folks on discord in preparation for s5
watched s5 (i have mixed feelings about the season as a whole but i was pretty satisfied with how it ended)

so this news is massachusetts based and one of my friends even works for massdot and DID NOT TELL ME and i had to learn from a snowflake challenge from someone who doesn't even live here and now i share with you the winners of the name-a-snowplow contest. the entries all came from public school classrooms (k-8) and the plows are in service this winter. sleet caroline! clearopathra! you're killing me squalls! read and giggle.

speaking of mass, the boston aquarium built an old folks home for their geriatric penguins. how cute is that?

in the wake of dump and his administration cutting funding to universities mackenzie scott (aka the former mrs jeff bezos) donated $80m to howard university, an hbcu (historically black colleges and universities, for the non-americans in the audience), which is one of the biggest single donations in the school's history. she got billions of dollars when she split from jeff and she's definitely using her powers for good.

i know thanksgiving was last year and these are probably quite sold out but i must share the "no-thanks" jell-o molds. you could get ~~canberry~~ canned cranberry jelly, pecan pie, and brussel sprouts. i don't like brussel sprouts at all but the round little molds are so cute.

joe keery officiated a wedding in his scoops ahoy uniform. for the stranger things fen in the audience. :D

i must share one of the scariest videos i've ever seen - a guy climbing up and then skiing down mt everest with no supplemental oxygen. i'm sorry, but watching him ski down that mountain, especially from the top, is fucking terrifying. i'm not afraid of heights but absolutely not, no way.

sir david attenborough sends a hedgehog on its way. to end with something cute.

dave grohl vs animal drum battle. and something fun. :D

Current Mood: SO BEHIND
Current Music: the kitchen timer is ticking

Back from the 6 month eye dr visit. Yeah, glaucoma still there, come back in July. Dilated eyes,dilated the hell out of my eyes. Very cautious drive home. The visit seems so far away, and then it's here.

Profile

low_delta

January 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

Style Credit

Base style: Abstractia by chiming
Theme: Violet Night by nornoriel

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jan. 14th, 2026 07:04 am

Network

Sometimes things actually work

Film post: Back to the Future (1985)

Brought a little bit of rain back with me

Tunes

muddling through winter

Quick Welsh election thoughts

Ancestor Worship

(no subject)

you've got spunk. I hate spunk!

Am I just a phantom waiting to be ripped around on shady ground?

Days off: Project!

Hi

A Plume of Bright Blue in Melissa’s Wake

References & Resources

Downloads

September 20, 2025

October 30, 2025

Bathymetric Map

You may also be interested in:

Discover More from NASA Earth Science

Subscribe to Earth Observatory Newsletters

Earth Observatory Image of the Day

Interesting things - 2026 01 12

Do In the Clowns

Music Monday

Monday Jan 12.

Shocking No One, Azure Once Again Talks About Gender in Cookie People

it's winter, you get penguins

(no subject)

Profile

January 2026

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags