i’m watching a dateline ep where a couple’s adopted son paid someone to kill them and then it’s revealed that these millionaires used professional legal connections to have him kidnapped and imprisoned in an overseas “boot camp” so i may have more sympathy for the son than the producers intended

heyyyy it’s out!! zan and diane were kind enough to let me entertain myself by talking about georgian windows for a whole episode of their podcast. i read so many papers and had so much fun.

save me joan baez (i’m stuck in a long pharmacy drive thru line but at least there’s diamonds & rust)

heyyyy it’s out!! zan and diane were kind enough to let me entertain myself by talking about georgian windows for a whole episode of their podcast. i read so many papers and had so much fun.

“pick a struggle”? actually i’m sprinting across the parking lot with an armful of struggles because i tried to grab one and couldn’t figure out how to get them unstuck from one another. AND YOU CANT STOP ME

got my covid + flu shots today! walgreens (north alabama) just asked me to verbally confirm my qualifying condition for the covid vax.

i support mending clothes with all my heart but oh my god i hate doing it myself. nightmare.

i had the epiphany this week that a phd lasts forever. like i just get to keep that. it's not gonna expire. that's wild.

further genealogical developments in another branch of the family: my great-something grandfather was a founder of hartford, ct in the 1630s

I cannot express how much I hate the way we punish poverty and disability. Everyone deserves food, shelter, and medical care without question.

ok my individual claim here is more tenuous because i forgot my mother had the gall to be born out of state

today i learned that my siblings and cousins and i are the NINTH generation of one family to be born IN LOUISIANA. michel antoine clermont moved the family from france in 1731 and for almost three hundred years we stuck there.

One good bit of advice I have Learned The Hard Way: When there are Things™️ happening in the world, ask what good is being advanced by your involvement/ commentary. This works both ways and across all happenings. It's worth taking a minute to ask yourself this, for your own mental health/well being.

hey. hey facebook “ai.” i absolutely guarantee you cannot answer these questions you’ve suggested under a post about my sister’s birthday. how do people not realize that chatbots are not human intelligence when they see things like this??

Humanatee, a manatee bitten by a radioactive Florida man, who can turn into a two legged crime fighter with all the powers of both a manatee and a human.

When I see people online, even in jest, suggest that people living in Republican-controlled states should be abandoned because of their politicians, I feel a deep heartache. New York CREATED Donald Trump and none of y’all are ever talk about it the way you disparage Alabama or Mississippi.

LLMs are not a suitable technology for information access. Here is a quick summary of why not: buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch... But to take the SIFT framework, LLMs cannot be a source. They are synthetic text extruding machines, that's all. Text without accountability.

i forgot my leftover macaroni on the stove for 4 hours and had to throw it away. being a slightly responsible adult with basic food safety knowledge is a goddamn tragedy

extra money in my august paycheck means ART and YARN and also a less fun but necessary purchase that i am nevertheless looking forward to

So many people say, “Let the MAHA drink raw milk,” without thinking that they will give raw milk to children who have no volition or ability to give consent to something potentially fatal. The same people who want to let “red” states suffer. Unbridled cruelty and lack of compassion.

oh no they’re moving the stupid space army HERE?! “the command will head to huntsville’s redstone arsenal” LET’S NOT AND SAY WE DID.

vastly improving my skills at reading my knitting because i’m bad at remembering to advance the row counter

weird thing about consuming literally any art other than what is being promoted at this exact moment is people will be like whoa where do you find this stuff? or they react with hostility to the idea that you're watching even like an extremely famous and popular movie from a few decades ago

for the second night in a row, it is approaching 2am while bass thumps somewhere in my neighborhood. i’m actually losing my mind.

i’m always taken aback when friends tell me i’m cool, but do i not hang out with people i also think are cool? why would i assume they have worse taste than me?

absolutely wild coincidences: my mom’s a collage artist in south alabama. she got a bunch of ephemera from someone local and found a 1929 army training yearbook from fort barrancas, florida. my great-grandfather, otherwise lifelong west louisiana resident, is in it.

had to buy a new pair of socks specifically to wear under my ballet slippers because these are the only ones i currently own that work and i simply cannot.

the most impactful part of my podcast editing process is choosing a goofy bit to conclude the episode

i absolutely love when an expert in a niche topic has a special interest in an entirely different topic.

i’ve already done the hem and one cuff of this sweater but i don’t like how the twisted rib looks so i’m ripping it all out. this skeet is a cry for sympathy.

sterilizing stuff on the stove is always funny. “ooh what are you cooking?” tweezers

Saw someone upbraiding someone else for having a hobby while the world is on fire, and, my friends: 1. The world is ever on fire, this is today's conflagration; 2. If you don't find time for rest and joy the fire will consume you; 3. Don't let people shame you for being an entire human.

"The Persistence of Memory," Salvador Dali (1931)

relatedly… we played fibbage recently (the edition where it’s all about the players) and my question was “which movie can heron recite word for word.” 3 answers were variations on pride & prejudice and one was lord of the rings.

had a lord of the rings marathon today with friends and as we paused after two towers one said to me, “every time i look at you you’re so focused on your knitting and also mouthing every single line. but it’s not only the major scenes, it’s ALL of them.”

perhaps the most 2015 thing about my wedding is that we played “shut up and dance” during the reception. and the most sibling thing about my wedding is that i put that song on the list not because i especially loved it, but because my sister hated it.

[“you got a friend in me” plays in the distance]

i made french toast for dinner with yogurt and peach jam on top and now i am rereading a favorite book while quiet music plays :)

i’ve made a shocking discovery. i got a 3-way mirror and it turns out it’s WAY easier to cut my side shave when i can actually see the damn thing.

The 12th annual international Gender Census 2025 is now open until at least 30th August 2025! survey.gendercensus.com It's for anyone whose gender (or lack thereof) isn't described by the M/F binary. It's short and easy, and results are useful in academia, business and self-advocacy.

i’m sure they don’t have the broadest appeal but man i love the episodes of game changer that are just an excuse to tell one specific cast member how much they’re loved and appreciated

i would rather do something bad and slow than do it with ai

two different people have confused heron with herring. might as well have gone with mullet.

had to use oat milk in my iced coffee 😔 life is suffering

i was worried that double gauze might be kind of a pain to sew with, but guess what? it’s even worse than i thought!! every tensioning mechanism on my machine has a very specific grudge against this fabric.

a friend came over last night so i could do some alterations for them on my sewing machine but what really happened is they signed up for 2 straight hours of Heron Infodumps About Textiles (while sewing long straight seams)

intellectual secession

drove by a seafood chain yesterday that had "LIVE LAUGH LOBSTER" on their marquee.

i always use my full hyphenated last name, but there are some great options for a shortened alliterative version. “heron hale” is either author or protagonist of a middle-grade fantasy series. “doctor heron hale” is an eccentric but earnest scientist in a pg-rated action movie.

i’ve made so many nice varied meals this week and now it is time for just pasta.