Today in stress management: baking pumpkin bread; shopping for used ham radios; snuggling cats.

Libraries. Public radio and television. All the things that make sure everyone regardless of income and location can access news, books, all the tools that make us engaged, informed, entertained, and show us people not like us. Gee, I wonder why they’re in trouble.

Boosters successfully obtained (flu and covid)! Hydrated and going to bed early (to Cawti’s great approval) to give my immune system a chance to catch up.

But also:

How I know there’s not currently a dog living in my house: the leftover donut from Friday that I forgot about was still in my lunch bag. Today is so very Monday that a stale donut is a huge improvement!

Your horoscope for today: Be like a log in the forest - rest quietly, take on moss, and slowly decay.

Somehow despite everything, I’ve had nine scientific publications out so far this year, and a book chapter coming in October. That’s a LOT for the level of resources I have (no grad students, one postdoc). I have at least two more submissions planned for 2025, but those will be 2026 papers.

Are you really "not making enough progress" or is it just that your expectations of yourself outpace both what you'd expect of anyone else *and* the laws of physics

Don't forget to register!

By actual request (!!!), I’m going to take a run at resurrecting the morning cat photos. (“The only thing I miss from twitter,” I was told. There is SO MUCH RIDICULOUSNESS to share with the world!

Ebook bundle: pay-what-you-want ($18 or more) for 9 Murderbot books and stories + 5 other Martha Wells works. www.humblebundle.com/books/martha...

It's ok to look after yourself. It's ok to get some rest. It's ok to sew pants for ghosts. It's ok to let moss into your life. It's ok to wear a tiara of goblin bones to your nephew's birthday party.

It’s great to see progress on a yard project that takes years of work.

duolingo recently declared they are now an AI-first company. well, here at The Museum of English Rural Life, we pride ourselves in being EI-first. EI EI O

Amateur Radio General Class License call sign KD3BHE. Now I guess I have to figure out how to actually DO something, not just pass a couple of tests.

I certainly don’t.

OK, this is wild. In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them. It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*. What the HELL? 1/

TWO consecutive nights of sleep. Feels like a 2025 record. But I haven’t actually gotten anything done yet today except meetings. It’s raining, and I just want to stare out the window and drink tea.

Getting enough sleep makes everything better. And I took a three-day weekend, also a plus. Maybe I’ll get some things done today.

I know you all know this, but apparently it needs to be said that basic science is a NECESSARY PRECURSOR to translational science

I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but the orcas now have two F/A-18 Hornets

eight years ago today we all watched the glory of zendaya falling madly in love with tom holland and the internet was never the same

Having yet another in a long series of “love my career, hate my job” kind of days. Why _can’t_ I sit in the comfy chair and write?

🚨 Cool new project alert 🚨 WE- you, me, everyone- need to work together to get important science messages out to people. 4 artists & 3 scientists collab'd on these posters. We hope YOU will put them out in your community. Each poster comes w/info about each topic. Get 'em Squidfacts.bigcartel.com

I want to spend the day in the woods, looking for mushrooms and photographing flowers. At least my office is plant-strewn.

Took me a while to get it written up, but my Instructable for making an inkle loom from a tenner’s worth of IKEA items is live. www.instructables.com/DIY-Inkle-Lo...

Don't fight the urge to wander off into the misty forest. Don't fight the urge to wear a tiara of ancient goblin bones. Don't fight the urge to spread mossy gloom and become a dark legend of the wildlands.

Work is the hottest of hot messes. I’ve been trying hard to do things in my off-time that are NOT scrolling Reddit for the next dire proclamation. So between pulling out ivy and garden planning, I’m preparing for a weaving class I’m teaching next month and joined a local makerspace.

Well, I guess hobby drama is an interesting diversion from political drama?

To be a conservation scientists in 2025 is to exist in a perpetual state of endless fury. Say that.

don't comply in advance, don't despair in advance

Demoralized. Also cold. But probably the best remedy for both is getting my shit together and doing the work.

I am at least wearing shoes today, so there’s that.

In case you need something nice this weekend, or a massive recommendation list of comfort books for whenever: www.loyaltybookstores.com/comfortreads2

Cover reveal! Available for pre-order now! This is the book that restored my self-confidence after a really bad couple of years of depression.

Me, walking from the car to the office entry: It’s sunny out, if very cold. That always helps. Maybe I can manage today. Also me:

Sorcery and Cecilia is great, and normally I’d call out her excellent A College of Magics, but since I reread When the King Comes Home a couple of years ago and had forgotten what a wonderful book it was, let me highlight that one.

#Sciencefiction, #fantasy & #YA #ebooks on #sale! #DRM-free & lifetime free replacement guarantee if lost or you change platforms. Bundles on sale at silly prices (so the author can get her Macbook's keyboard seen to)! Not available in UK (sorry!). Details: ebooks.direct/collections/... #booksky

I have submitted the article that was due December 31. Y’all, I’m exhausted. Just in general.

That’s fun.

I was given a Lego kingfisher model and assembled it on New Year’s. This was particularly fun because firesidefiction.com/issue31/chap...

I am going to take a toast plate back to the kitchen *with crumbs on it*. That hasn’t happened since 2012. Dropped food no longer disappears instantaneously. The house is still very quiet.

The house is very quiet, and I keep looking to see where the dog is sleeping.

Hey! I just finished DIRECT DESCENDANT by @tanyahuff.bsky.social. Cozy, queer, rom-com with eldritch horrors. It is fucking delightful. Go pre-order it. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/773376...

Fourteen years is a good run, and he was in great shape until the last couple of days, but I wasn’t ready, even if Trygvi clearly was.

Singing me the song of his starving people. Because, you see, dinner time is immediately after waking regardless of stupid human clock time.

A gentle reminder that new year resolutions don’t have to be about positive changes. You can commit to be more petty, seek revenge, and disrespect your enemies.

Weaving and listening to Master and Commander while it snows lightly.