(no subject)
I’ve got a 14-year-old son and 9-year-old twin daughters. My son lives primarily with his mom, but has always spent plenty of time at my place, and the kids are all quite close. But there is a real problem with how he treats one of his sisters. The two of them share many traits and are quite similar in disposition, and when things are good, they have a very sweet relationship. They’ll go on walks together and chat and laugh the whole time. They also really enjoy play-fighting—e.g., hitting each other with foam swords. But at other times, my son will relentlessly pick at his sister, teasing her for things like not being as good at video games as he is, or questioning her abilities in other ways. It’s unkind, and although she sometimes claps back or does her best to ignore him, more often it sends her into a rage.
I’ve talked to him about it repeatedly (and yelled at him about it), and he has said he has trouble controlling himself. Maybe that sounds like a cop-out, but having observed it so many times, I believe him. It seems like an impulse-control thing, like the comments pop into his head and are out of his mouth before he can stop them. We have a good amount of neurodivergence in our family, and I strongly suspect that, like the sister in question, he’s got ADHD. I’ve wanted to get him assessed, but his mom—with whom I have a good relationship—is resistant, and he hasn’t had any issues in school yet that would offer more reason to push for it. I’ll tell him to knock it off and he’ll be chastened, but then 30 seconds later he’s picking on his sister again. What do you think I should be trying to do here? Yelling obviously isn’t the answer, and I can tell my son is feeling demoralized. I feel like this is about their similar personalities to some extent, because he doesn’t have the same issue with his other sister. But even if that’s the case, I want him to stop cutting his sister down, because she adores him and I’m pretty sure he actually adores her too.
—Bro, Chill
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WorldCon has Loaded (ISH)
ETA: Both 10:30 panels I want to see either not streaming or not with sound.
ETA2: Caught the back half of one 10:30 panel (idk if the other one ever worked), and the sound was back for most of the noon panel, though it dropped out completely ten minutes from the end. Folks attending have been amazing with posting running notes to the discord, linking to works mentioned by the panellists.
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Turnabout is Not Fair Play: Two From Ask a Manager
( CEO being VERY INAPPROPRIATE; bodily fluids )
( Nudity and people should know better )
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(fascism)
Just a note to confirm that I remained horrified by the world, horrified by the Israeli government's treatment of Gazans and Palestinians, horrified by Putin's aggression against the Ukraine and his throwing Russians into the meat grinder of war to make that happen, sick to nausea of the US Federal government's "immigration" policies and enforcement ... and well, all of the policies, from the ones that directly impact me to the ones that slightly less directly impact me. But all of it impacts the nation's collective well being and -- i just can't articulate. Only cry.
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Watch my brother's film!
Hungry Ghost Diner is a supernatural family drama/comedy about a food truck operator, Bonnie, who has a difficult relationship with her dad, and has to balik kampung/go back to small-town Perak, where her dad runs a kopitiam/coffeehouse, when her uncle dies. Her dad is closing down the coffeehouse; it's Hungry Ghost Month and there are lots of ghosts about, and family issues that need resolution ... It's unusual among the c-ent you might have watched before in that it's Malaysian, so features multiple languages -- I think Cantonese gets the most screen-time, but Mandarin, Hakka, Hokkien, English and Malay are also spoken.
I am obviously not remotely objective, but having just finished watching it yesterday, I thought it was good and if anything I felt one might enjoy it even more if one was not related to the director lolol. It got a positive critical reception in Malaysia when it came out a couple of years ago and has won awards at film festivals, and you can see why. It's beautifully shot, quirkily scored, and very Malaysian -- the charm of the accumulated details of (Chinese) small-town Malaysia is impossible to resist if you have any connection to such places, and probably still hard to resist if you don't know Malaysia personally. I thought the cast all delivered strong performances. I was particularly taken with the lead's sweet maternal uncle (played by an actor who sadly died suddenly not too long after the film was released). The lead was impressive, too: she played the main character with directness and sincerity.
And the film's such a heartfelt homage to Malaysian Chinese culture, from the beverages ads in Bonnie's dad's kopitiam to the Potehi glove puppet performances (I found these very interesting, I'd never seen them before). I think it's a film that would interest anyone who follows me on DW, or has read my books, or is generally interested in world cinema!
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(morning writing)
Re-reading i see i was not clear in my comments about Dad's coming heart valve repair. I had gotten in my head that the open heart surgery would be possible for him AND would result in a long lasting repair. Since Dad is otherwise healthy, i imagine him having many more years.
I don't think he imagines himself having many more years that he wants -- and he dreads a lingering existence in which he needs others to care for him.
Realizing how long three months seems at the end of your life compared to how fast things are flying by for me right now.... well, the considerations around how to resolve Dad's heart valve have probably led me to think more about my limited time in this life than about his.
I spent a good bit of Sunday with him, helping him get his boat in the lake. Unfortunately the engine wasn't cooperating.
Also got some yard work done with the pleasant weekend weather.
It's back to sauna, glasses fogging over when stepping outside, windows covered with condensation, fog in the trees in the morning.
Fig season is beginning. I'm done with the mulberries and elderberries: the rest can go to the birds and other critters. The blueberries have tailed off as well. If i can motivate myself, i want to get winter plantings of brassicas and lettuces in. This month is hard to imagine as time to plant but since i didn't do much in the way of summer seedings (one sad marigold sprouted and is not thriving) I've nuked weeds and i can actually imagine preparing the beds.
I got some grass seed in the front right as rains were beginning where i scalped the lawn -- which was pretty much all invasive stilt grass. I have grass seeds for the orchard, too, where i will only focus on "the boulevard" and the square anchored by the corner of garage and house. Moss is taking hold in a good bit of the orchard and, despite Carrie's running tearing out chunks of the moss, it would be nice to have something that needs less mowing.
Worked late yesterday, and maybe late earlier in the week? It's a blur.
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What I'm Doing Wednesday
yarning
I went to yarn group Sunday and learned one of our members is moving away next week. That is sad. I finished sewing together a bunny and started a new one, and my shoulder didn't protest too much, so that was a nice surprise. I finished the eyes and faces of 2 bunnies yesterday and need to take photos and list them. It felt good to be crocheting again.
healthcrap
I'm so worried about my parents and various other things that it's affecting my sleep. I always have trouble getting into Deep sleep, and lately the fitbit is registering single digit minutes in deep, and I've been having stupid insomnia. I need probably to start doing yoga nidra again, but I'm blocked about it for some reason. Like I'm blocked about Yoga and Pilates. Except that is at least partly due to it being so damned hot. There is little I can do about the things I'm stressing over, and yet. It's so frustrating. ( cut for discussion of weight loss )
house
I've done a fair bit of cleaning/chores today to counteract the worry. And hopefully the insomnia.
astrology
Mercury stationed direct in the wee hours of Monday, so communication and travel snafus are diminishing over the course of the week.
#resist
Monday, 9/01: Workers over Billionaires (#5051)
I hope you're all doing well! <333
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WorldCon 404 Not Found
The first half a day just got wiped out.
So glad they committed to expanding the virtual experience due to people not being able to attend for Politics reasons. It's off to a flying start.
ETA: It did start working about half way through the fourth panel slot.
ETA2: Panel slot five has video but not sound.
ETA3: No audible sound on the Martha Wells q&a. Giving up for the day.
More mostly useless advice!
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FF:FS timeline thoughts.
It's been long enough since I read any F4 comics that I read the wiki to remember the origin story (since the movie just summarises it). The following is a vague stab at a timeline?
( No real spoilers )
Thoughts? Corrections? Anyone just want to talk about the movie?
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Appointment Week
* 3 appointments tomorrow, all remote (for later today versions of "tomorrow", because I rarely get to sleep before midnight)
* 2 appointments Wednesday
* Only one appointment Thursday, but it looks like a doozy
* The morning primary care adjacent appointment on Wednesday got scheduled today (Monday) by using the magic combination of phrases "my oncologist said" and "new lump"
* (it's probably a ganglion cyst, since I have a history of those going back to the 1980s)
And then I managed to drive myself to Pained Noises & a complete lack of energy today by:
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Harriette's advice here isn't bad, per se, it's just aggressively useless
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Links: Good to know!
Ratfactor's Illustrated Guide to Folding Fitted Sheets by Dave Gauer. What it says on the tin, with charming illustrations.
What do we know about the Covid-19 virus five years on? by Rachel Hall. A brief summary of basic facts, reassuringly honest.
It’s been five years since the start of the Covid pandemic. Although most of the government mandates, from social distancing to face masks, have been consigned to the past, the virus is still prevalent – and capable of causing real harm.
Although it was initially forecast to become a seasonal illness, the virus is on the rise in the US – making it far from the common-cold-style winter illness that was expected.
Machine Learning—good and bad arguments against by Sandra. From a gut-level hatred of machine learning to an analysis of the arguments against it.
Wingfield Pines in Allegheny County, PA, is a restored wetlands. Good to hear about an environmental success!
It was formerly a site plagued by Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD); we were able to hire environmental engineer Bob Hedin to implement an aesthetically pleasing passive treatment system that visitors can walk through to watch the water transition from murky orange to natural, clean clear water flowing into Chartiers Creek.
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The Devil's Punchbowl

Not far from our hotel was a rock feature that had an interesting look to it. What was especially interesting to me were its walls.
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....!!!
From the little I've absorbed about Hazbin Hotel, the creators might just be the correct kind of disturbed to do justice to Homestuck.