myveryown_nemesis

PWHL season is over, and the Firebird's Calder Cup run just ended.

Both being over on very different notes is rough.

Even a week ago I was like 'watching two games at once? couldn't be me' But I did stream a win and a loss tonight.

Firebirds had a very good run. Tonight's game was close.

No more Melanson content until next season. And also the Kraken are taking a serious scoop out of the Firebirds when they make their next roster. The team will look very different next season.

How am I supposed to process the PWHL season having the most dramatic, romantic outcome possible and also my Firebirds falling on the same night?

olivermoss

Marie-Philip Poulin drinking Molson's out of the Walter Cup as it's won by a Canadian team for the first time. Hang it in the Louvre.

So glad she and her wife won. At 35 her career is not over, but with a 4 team expansion draft about to hit this year was almost certainly her best chance. She finally has a stable league to play in, and the wife line made damn sure she'd hoist that cup, and then get covered in beer.

kiestan

Saw this from bluedreaming's post and it looked fuuun. Did this with my digital shelf of books as I'm abroad and lacking access to my bookshelves at home. I miss them.

Take five books off your bookshelf. I picked the fiction novels that showed up in my most recently opened section.
Book #1 -- first sentence: It was like my dad always said, squinting at the endless, golden fields stretching to the horizon: “You catch them Sandhill cranes singing overhead, following the crick up north, then you know it’s spring.” --Names for the Dawn written by C.L. Beaumont.
Book #2 -- last sentence on page fifty: Griffon’s gay. --Notes from a Regicide written by Isaac Fellman.
Book #3 -- second sentence on page one hundred: He’s big, his muscles tight against his T-shirt, and he looks tired. --Evander Mills 4: Mirage City written by Lev Ac Rosen
Book #4 -- next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty: In fact, he quickly forgot about his dinner. --Under My Skin written by A.E. Dooland
Book #5 -- final sentence of the book: That’s enough. --Some Strange Music Draws Me In written by Griffin Hansbury
Make the five sentences into a paragraph:

That's enough. Griffon’s gay. He’s big, his muscles tight against his T-shirt, and he looks tired. In fact, he quickly forgot about his dinner. It was like my dad always said, squinting at the endless, golden fields stretching to the horizon: “You catch them Sandhill cranes singing overhead, following the crick up north, then you know it’s spring.”

lmfaoooo

Current Mood: existing

hannah

In testing out the different fans at assorted speeds and angles, I'm learning that at least one on a low setting is enough to cut through the worst of the midday heat, especially when the breeze hits me. That and taking cold cans of seltzer from the fridge and pressing them right against my neck, or behind my ears, or to my wrists, is helping to get through the days. I'm unwilling to do more than that, plus pulling the curtains when it gets really sunny. At least until later in the summer.

None of it helps me dry off after a show the way air conditioning does, and I'm going to try to not let that spoil me. My parents' gym has air conditioning and taking longer workouts to stay in it a few more minutes isn't the worst plan in the world.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: nothing now

hrj

I'm getting a little computer work done, but mostly I'm sitting in the recliner with my cast elevated and ice-packed, binging Britbox mysteries and playing one-handed computer games.

That's in between laboriously doing one-handed household things. I've developed procedures for opening catfood cans and cleaning litter boxes. I'm exploring cooking techniques and have done some strategic shopping for easier approaches. (Prepared salad greens. K-cups for coffee. But I also happen to have a significant inventory of prepared meals in the freezer.)

After considering simply putting the podcast on hiatus for the duration, I've decided to do re-runs. (Minimal typing required.) Based on healing time estimates, I should be back in action by the podcast's 10th anniversary show (which will be an interview, so no extensive typing required). The most annoying part of working at my desk is that the strap of the sling tends to cause my shoulder to spasm. I need to work up some way to support the cast without the sling when sitting there.

Very few things that require driving in the next two months. I can manage driving but I'd prefer to minimize it. We'll see how I'm feeling when Baycon gets closer. I'd been planning to commute (gas is still cheaper than the hotel), but now I'm not sure.

But no bicycling, no gym, no tai chi, and no reason to do my coffee shop work sessions. No serious yard work, no crafts requiring two hands. (My knitted socks had just gotten to the bind-off stage and are now stuck there.) I need to see if I can do my article write-ups for the blog by dictation. I could definitely get a lot of reading done once my brain feels up to it.

kaberett

Saw the goldfinch(es) again on my way home from gym + shop.
Birthday cake continues to exist :)
For five glorious minutes I was one of only two people in the gym (and the other one was very quiet, so it's just as well that other people showed up as I was starting to deadlift, really).
Vanity: ( Read more... )
.
There are lots and lots of wildflower verges on my various perambulations and I cannot emphasise enough how much I am enjoying having ready access to both the hedges covered in sea pinks and patches of long grass mingled with poppies and (multiple colours of!) cornflowers and Margeriten.

plottingmyreads posting in

addme

Name: Ana

Age:36

I mostly post about: Book, Manga, Manhwa, and Manhua reviews or anything related to literature

My hobbies are: Reading, Learning Spanish, Chinese, and Korean

My fandoms are: Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Stephen King, Game of Thrones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Anime, Manga, Manhwa, Manhua, Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead, Supernatural, Sherlock, The Lord of the Rings, Disney, Studio Ghibli, Saiyuki, etc.

I'm looking to meet people who: Share some of my interests, so I don't feel like I'm talking into the void when I post, and give me something to read on my page. Ideally, I'd like to meet people around my age.

My posting schedule tends to be: Sometime I post weekly or sporadic depend on my mood.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:Close-mindedness. Rudeness.

Before adding me, you should know: I post a lot about books, manga, or anything literature, which isn't for everyone. Also, I'm socially awkward and take a while to respond to comments or DMs. I try my best to comment, but sometimes I'm not able to think of something to say, so if it's okay with you, I might comment late on posts I've read.

Current Mood: dorky

schneefink

MCSR Ranked season 10 playoffs were very exciting! With triumphs and heartbreak, depending on who you were rooting for. And I was rooting for Infume, so…

But I still don't really want to get into MCSR as a fandom, apart from the sports aspect, and one of the reasons is because currently the overwhelming majority of top runners are men. There are active efforts to include more women, from tournaments to casters etc., and I appreciate that and maybe it'll be different at some point, but that's the situation currently.

[Insert a paragraph here about all sports comes with narratives and there's not really an unambiguous dividing line between that and RPF; maybe some other time.]

I was reminded of that again because I saw glimpses of discussions in another MCYT fandom about male characters getting more fandom attention than female characters. (Flight SMP, and people point it out here in particular because it's a rare case where men are actually the minority on the server, which is fair; though otoh one of the men in question is one of the most famous people on the server by far so he already had more fans and it's a small fandom to begin with.) Some people are making good points and others really aren't, as usual. I get annoyed when people try tell me I need to do fandom a certain way.

My main fandom at the moment is Hermitcraft, which is a server with 26 members, 22 of them men. Of the four, Cleo is one of my favorite Hermits period; I watch probably more videos by Pearl, Gem, and False than I would otherwise because I want to support them. I do like Pearl and Gem and their videos a lot, I just don't feel as actively fannish about them, at least not as much as the rest of my favorite (male) Hermits. (And I like False in general but idk it's just not quite my vibe.)

I had a brief Hades 2 phase recently (I still play sometimes and enjoy it but my enthusiasm has waned) and it was really nice for a change to be in a fandom with so many female characters, where (bonus) those were also the characters I was most interested in: Melinoe, Hecate, Medea… (not the canon f/f romances, sadly. I still haven't finished those storylines because I dislike both options.)

Idk where I was going with this. Now that I think about it maybe I should think about some of those Hades 2 fic ideas a bit more.

fox_in_me posting in

addme

Name: Mr. Fox

Age: 30-something

I mostly post about:
Fragments of life, memory, war, and the strange feeling of trying to remain human while the world changes around you.

I write honest personal entries about life in Ukraine during wartime not as news reports, but as lived emotions. Memories of peaceful years, quiet evenings by the sea, conversations, fears, hope, exhaustion, music on empty streets, radio signals in the night, thoughts about humanity, loneliness, survival, and the fragile beauty that still somehow exists beside all of this.

Before the war, my life was deeply connected with the sea, travel, ships, people from different countries, and long roads between places. Some of those stories still appear here too.

This journal was reborn after a long silence. Every entry is published both in English and in its original language. I also share my own photography : small visual fragments of different periods of my life, usually connected to the mood of a specific post.

If I had to describe this journal simply:
these are probably letters from a person trying not to lose himself completely.

My hobbies are:
Photography (almost professionally), lomography and everyday street photography, music (acoustic, post-rock, instrumental covers, atmospheric music), psychology, radio communication, history, classical literature, travel, long night walks, and collecting strange little moments that most people pass by without noticing.

I love meaningful conversations and people who still know how to feel deeply.

My fandoms are:
Not really fandom-oriented.

But I love thoughtful writing, old internet culture, personal blogs, atmospheric media, documentaries, literature, music, photography, and people with their own inner worlds.

I'm looking to meet people who:
...feel something when they read my words.

Kind people. Thoughtful people. Quiet observers. Those who still value sincerity on the internet.

You absolutely do not have to share my experiences to understand the emotions behind them.

I’m open to meeting people from different countries and backgrounds — as long as empathy still exists in them.

(And yes, one exception remains:
I do not welcome people who support or justify the war.)

My posting schedule tends to be:
Usually several times a week.
Sometimes more often when thoughts become too loud to keep inside.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
Cruelty, dehumanization, propaganda, or people who completely lost the ability to empathize with others.

Otherwise, I prefer discovering people naturally through conversation and writing.

Before adding me, you should know:
I’m Ukrainian.
And I think that inevitably shapes many things I write now.

Still, this journal is not built around politics alone.
It is about trying to preserve memory, humanity, warmth, irony, curiosity, and the ability to notice beauty even during difficult times.

Welcome aboard.
These are still my messages in a bottle.

Watch on YouTube

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/20/the-big-idea-caitlin-rozakis-3/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60768

Excel spreadsheets, water-cooler talk, and demons are all things you’ll find in the corporate setting of author Caitlin Rozakis’s newest novel, Startup Hell. Log on to her Big Idea as she begs the question: who is more of a monster, a demon, or a CEO?

CAITLIN ROZAKIS:

I’m not saying that startups, or tech companies, or tech startups in particular, are evil.

Well, not all of them.

I’ve spent more than fifteen years working in startups and tech, and in that time, I’ve gotten to work with some awesome people and on some cool products. I do believe that technology still has enormous potential to make our lives easier, safer, more fun.

But I know I’m not alone in feeling increasingly cynical about the tech industry these days. The “move fast and break things” approach to infrastructure and people’s lives that should never have been broken. The disruption of industries so we can replace things that used to work well with subscription models of things that don’t quite work as well. The enshittification. I’ve seen companies who have a product that is working great and is depended on by customers be told by investors that their current business model doesn’t have a big enough revenue multiplier.

And then I’ve watched them pivot, and pivot again, trying to appeal to a wider audience while betraying the initial customers who relied on them, all in search of that billion-dollar valuation. It’s not enough to do a thing well and make a steady profit. If the revenue numbers don’t go up by an exponential quarter after quarter forever, it’s a failure. Never mind that Earth and its resources and its population are finite.

There’s plenty to write about there. But none of it’s fun.

One of the things I’ve noticed is how often fantasy terminology comes up around tech. A side effect of the victory of the geeks, I suppose. Every company has a story about how their app is going to change the world. (I should know; as a tech marketer, I’ve had to come up with ways to describe the deep storytelling roots and potential to bring a golden age of knowledge that’s created by, say, targeted TV advertising tech. My apologies. The rent was due.) But it’s more than the savior complex by an app that promises to revolutionize your approach to air freshener plugins. We talk about angel investors. Vampire capitalists. Unicorn startups. And the usual jokes about selling your soul and deals with the Devil.

That, I can work with.

Startup Hell started with an image. A junior employee at a crappy Manhattan tech startup stays late trying to make her quota. She walks into her boss’s office and finds him face-down on his desk, dead. And the demon he summoned to make his own quarterly target is still there, trapped in the circle.

She’s a junior salesperson. He’s a junior salesdemon. They both have impossible KPIs (that’s key performance indicators, for those of you lucky enough to live free of corporate jargon). They both have terrible, ruthless bosses. Are their situations really all that different?

Writing both offices (human and Infernal) was enormous fun. Well, fun for me, not so much fun for Morgan and Lucareoth. Along the way, they end up having to survive company-sponsored goat yoga, a bloodthirsty corporate shuffleboard tournament, a siege warfare lunch-and-learn, an angel-infested tech conference, and a lot of dubious free snacks. (I’ll let you guess which office has which.)

Along the way, the supporting cast filled itself out. Morgan, who is depressingly mundane, acquired a kickass demon-slaying mother whose black leather outfits and back tattoo would be at home on the cover of any paranormal romance. Poor Morgan grew up aware of the hidden magical world, but her magical dyslexia leaves her a major disappointment to her parents and lacking an obvious career path. Lucareoth, on the other hand, has Rix, a not terribly bright hellhound whose drool can eat through flooring. Rix is the very bestest boy, by the way. He has no particular talents, he’s just happy to be participating. Good thing it’s a dog-friendly office.

So now Morgan has an inconveniently cute demon sleeping on her couch and masquerading as the latest sales intern. And she owes the Infernal Plane one human soul (it doesn’t have to be hers). While her demon-hunting mom sniffs around for rumors of startups making Infernal pacts. Morgan and Luke need to make some choices—in today’s capitalist hellscape, do you even have a choice about selling your soul? And who is worse—the literal forces of hell or a tech bro CEO?

(Let’s be honest, we’re all picking the same answer.)

Startup Hell: Amazon|Barnes & Noble

Author social: Website|Instagram|Bluesky

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/20/the-big-idea-caitlin-rozakis-3/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60768

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/20/in-retrospect-i-suppose-this-demise-was-inevitable/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60775

“He died at the hand of the Coca-Cola Company” has a fitting ring to it, doesn’t it.

(Spoiler: I survived. Bearly.)

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/20/in-retrospect-i-suppose-this-demise-was-inevitable/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60775

ffutures

This is a repeat bundle of GameMaster's Apprentice, eight sets of idea-generator cards for RPGs by Nathan Rockwood at Larcenous Designs. This has been updated since the last time it was offered - if you previously bought it you get the update free.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2026Decks

Last time I said: "This isn't really something I have a lot of use for, though I've occasionally used random photos, books etc. as equivalent idea generators, e.g. by flicking to random pages and using the first words of a few paragraphs to describe a character or setting. My main reservation would be the cost of printing it all if you want to use it in card form - you're going to need a LOT of ink or toner. On the other hand it looks reasonably cheap, and it ought to be possible to come up with a way to select a random card and look at it as a PDF or graphics file without the need for printing."

None of that has really changed much.

duckprintspress

This Saturday, May 23rd, backers of our Patreon at the $7/month and higher level can join authors D. A. Hernández, Dei Walker, Alex Bauer, MJ Kiwiana, and Vee Sloane for a conversation about “Ourselves in Our Stories.”

Most people are familiar with the standard “write what you know” writing advice. I suspect most are also familiar with the follow-up complaint (or variations thereof), that this is why we have a bajillion stories about white cis het male professors suffering from existential ennui. However, there is a place for a less literal take on “write what you know,” and that is the space we aim to explore with this panel. How do we, ourselves, appear in our writing? How does what we know, and don’t know, impact the writing choices we make? In what ways do our life experiences shape our characters and the stories we wish to tell? How literally or abstractly do we aim to integrate ourselves into our work? And, conversely, what steps do we take to make sure that certain aspects of ourselves do not end up in our stories? These and related questions will be those we approach in this panel, which is sure to be a very personal and informative one!

Time: Saturday, May 23rd at 9 p.m. (time zone converter)

If you’re already a backer, I hope you’ll join us, and if not, now’s a great time to become one and get access to this panel, recordings of past panels, and much more!

mecurtin

I haven't posted in more than 2 months because my sciatica pain got to be this constant low-level pain that drained my life force. I started doing PT, it got WORSE. Finally last week the ortho gave me a shot that *helped*, I feel MUCH better, I'm going to try to get back to Purrcy posting.

Behold the morning trap! so loving, so fluffy, so dangerous:
Purrcy the tuxedo tabby curls to exhibit his fluffy tummy, his white bunny paws. He gazes lovingly at the photographer, as if this isn't a trap

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby curls to exhibit his fluffy tummy, his white bunny paws. He gazes lovingly at the photographer, as if this isn't a trap

Those of you who do daily home glucose testing, how do you dispose of your sharps? Dirk & Beth now have to do this, I'm setting up testing stations for them.

I have book posting, too, but that's getting so long I'll make it a separate post.

duckprintspress

I feel utterly shit today, because of what I think is a combo of sleeping poorly + seasonal allergies, but I'm truly not sure. Anyway, I had some Libby books due, and I'm making a really concerted effort to get through the books I've got from the library, so I read a fair amount this week.

1. What are you currently reading?

Dawning vol. 3 by Ice: the first extra turned out to be all the early angsty parts of their relationship just told from the ml's pov, so I was kinda slow reading that cause ugh ow why. I finished it last night tho, and I'll keep going slowly through the extras.
盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔: I am so close to 66% done. Like. one or two pages.

I'm also still reading HHGttG to my son. No progress on CMoS, I haven't been feeling well, sigh.

2. What have you recently finished reading?

Global Examination vol. 2 by Mu Su Li: I was going through books I'd recently received and was like, "okay but what if I mainline vol. 2?" and then I did. (I've already read the fantranslation). It stops not long before a lot of parts I really love, wah, I don't want to wait for vol. 3 to reread those parts! (I'm genuinely vaguely considering just grabbing my Chinese print edition and reading that. I almost read QQGK instead of DMBJ vol. 2 when I was picking my next Chinese read anyway...)
Rebis: Born and Reborn by Irene Marchesini and Carlotta Dicataldo: interesting historical piece about a trans girl during the "we burn witches" part of history. The ending felt rushed and easy but other than that I thought it was pretty good.
Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 5 by Tsumuji Yoshimura: I feel like the story is getting somewhere but I still can't figure out where
Dinghai Fushen Records manhua vol. 3 by Fei Tian Ye Xiang: this is a reread for me, but I finally got the official English print one so
Juvenile by Jesus Orellana: no idea how this ended up in my library pile because there's absolutely nothing queer about it, past!me must have just goofed, but it was fine. Pretty standard teenage rebellion dystopia stuff.
Steam by Shaenon K. Garrity: I think the cover oversold the "cute coffeeshop wlw" part of this and undersold how bizarre and funny it is, but all in all I really liked this, it's about a genetically modified super smart science experience who escapes from her lab prison and starts working at a coffee shop, and the people she meets there, and then what happens when she's recaptured.
Abuzz by Amy Chase: Much Ado About Nothing retelling with aroace Don Pedro, demi Beatrice and NB Hero. It was cute, but very expected, and there was so weird choices made about the cheating arc.
Punks Triangle by Yuho Okita: very cute two-person love triangle modern BL about a fashion design student, his inept classmate, and the runway model he's obsessed with (two of these are the same person...)
In the Land of Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky: absolutely bizarre sci-fi post-corporate dystopia not-US about a survivalist commune and the billionaires who want to turn it into a museum and the poor trans man they dupe into doing their leg work. It had t-dick, which is a plus, I see so few works with t-dick. Like please, let these men fuck. Main relationship, in as much as there was one, is t4t.
Kisses That Taste Like Lies vol. 4 by Waka Sagami: idk I continue to really like this series and I don't really get why the reviewers who found vol. 1 too toxic are still reading vol. 4. (it has poor reviews on SG and I don't get why, is what I mean).

3. What will you read next?

Novel: next novel on my pile continues to be After the War, the Play by Stuart Sharp.

Graphic Novels (physical): I've got four more graphic novels from my not-most-recent library visit and I'm gonna try to get through all of them this week because I've had them for way too long and it's embarrassing and they're overdue and it's not fair to other library patrons. They are: This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki, Bone Broth by Alex Taylor, DC Pride: To the Farthest Reaches (which is an anthology), and Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, and Matt Wilson.

Graphic novels (digital on Libby): Kagurabachi vol. 2 by Takeru Hokazono is due in 5 days, and A Song for You and I by K. O'Neill is due in 6, so I gotta read those two.

olivermoss

It's not yet reached the level of fandom drama, but I am laughing at PWHL fans being all 'what the hell is a Willmack?' since the San Jose expansion got announced. A lot of the Sharks fen are flooding tags and PWHL spaces speculating about Willmack interacting with the new team, wearing PWHL jerseys or looking forward to using the new team for fic inspiration.

Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith Hockey are linemates on the San Jose Sharks. They are the subject of a lot of RPF and even tinhatting. Since a large percentage, possibly even a strong majority, of PWHL fans don't come from hockey fandom they actually legit don't know who Celebrini is. A bunch about to find out.

San Jose sports fans, this is indeed your circus and these are your monkeys.

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260519.html

Is this a painting or a photograph?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260519.html

rimrunner

You’ll see this assertion a lot in online tracking communities; it’s even part of the spiel on telling the difference between canine and feline tracks at a sanctuary where I volunteer. Claws mean dog; no claws mean cat.

First of all, that’s not necessarily true. Cats do have claws, after all, and just because they tend to keep them retracted when on the move doesn’t mean that they always do. There are no universal, one hundred percent always true criteria in tracking. Variations in substrate, in behavior, in movement, and many other variables make for tracks and sign that show up differently than you’d expect.

Secondly, stopping at a single criterion or description when IDing a track or sign risks short-circuiting the observational skill that tracking both leverages and trains. Even when I’m sure of an ID, I’ve gotten into the habit of looking for at least three indications that I’m correct. Every so often, doing so causes me to change my mind—or at least consider alternatives to my ID. If I can’t come up with three, I need to study more.

But let’s get back to cats and dogs.

It is true that the claws guideline is often a reliable starting point.

Feline and canine tracks are similar, but there are several ways to distinguish them beyond claws. To begin with, there’s the overall shape: canine tracks are generally more oval, longer front to back than side to side. Feline tracks are generally rounder. They both have four toes, but the dog’s tracks will have the middle two toes leading, while the outer toes are set further back (and, in some species such as the coyote and black-backed jackal, are almost behind the middle toes). Meanwhile, the cat’s toes are more spread out laterally. One of the two middle toes will usually be slightly ahead of all the rest, and that will indicate whether the foot that made it was a left or a right.

Here are some nice, clear canine tracks, a front and hind side by side. The overall tidiness and diminutive size leads me to ID this as coyote.

Here already we’ll run into exceptions. While the above holds true for every wild canine I’ve ever seen, and every wild or domestic feline, domestic dog tracks can vary enormously when it comes to overall shape and how the toes show up in relation to one another in the track. There’s also the question of substrate: something loose and slippery, like deep, dry sand, can cause even a canine foot to spread out laterally. I once misidentified a mountain lion track as a large domestic dog for this very reason. (Also, claws—but we’ll come back to that!)

The above can affect the placement of the toes in relation to the palm or heel; that said, as a general rule, with a canine track you can draw an “X” by making two lines starting between the outer toes on each side, and going straight to the bottom of the track, without ever crossing the heel pad. With a feline track, at least one of those lines will cross the heel pad.

Here’s a nice, clear bobcat track, found on a dirt road in western Washington.

Then there’s the shape of the heel pad. If you’re lucky enough to find a super clear and detailed track, you’ll see a more triangular shape to the heel if the track is canine, while the feline’s is more trapezoidal. The canine track will have two lobes at the rear of the heel pad, while the feline track will have three—though this is one of those details that tends to show up less clearly in messy substrate. The way that I’m giving exceptions to every guideline here hopefully highlights the importance of having more than one support for a given ID.

And that goes for claws, too. Cats use claws for two things: as weapons, and for traction. On slippery ground, such as mud, snow, or soft sand, they might well use their claws to keep from sliding.

Similarly, claws don’t always show in canine tracks. Coyote claws can be so narrow and pointed that they don’t register on harder substrate, and gray foxes actually have semi-retractable claws.

A pair of gray fox tracks. The overall characteristics are distinctly canine, but claws are not showing.

One of the frustrating things about tracking is that there are always exceptions. That’s also one of the wonderful things about it. On an eval I took recently there was so much debate about one of the stations that even the evaluators finally agreed that there was room for an alternative interpretation. I often like to say that the wildlife hasn’t read the field manuals, and even guidebooks written by experts aren’t prescriptive. Asking further questions is an invitation to look for further evidence. Sometimes, those are the claws of a cat.

(Originally posted at Following Curiosity. You can comment here or there.)

Current Mood: nerdy

olivermoss

I will, eventually, prepare better. I did some stairs that lead into Forest Park and some trails. I didn't plan on going on the trails... but I did. I can go up the ridges, but down is spicy. I went a little further than I should have without a stick, but it was fine.

Anyway, look, stairs:

View from my lunch spot:

How I'd never been up those stairs is insane... but honestly they are weirdly hard to get to. The walk there is... there's a sidewalk but also gravel trucks and oil trucks be zooming. Actually I tried to get there once before, but I was with someone had had a full on panic attack due to the trucks making things shake. There's a lot I should have done in this town a long time ago, but I'm going to start knocking it all out.

I need to reshoot that staircase because that on a rainy/misty day would go hard

( Stairs and... more stairs )

hannah

Evidently, Cyndi Lauper lives in my neighborhood. Apparently, her apartment's less than ten blocks from mine. Anecdotally, she isn't easy to spot because she knows how everyone expects her to dress, so if she dresses up as though she's going to work in a law firm, people might think that the woman they pass looks kind of like Cyndi Lauper, but they're not going to look twice to double check if that's really her.

I'm not going to try to keep an eye out for her from here on out. There's no reason to. I don't have anything I'd want to say to her, not specifically and not personally, and the idea of keeping an eye out for a celebrity spotting doesn't sit well with me on general principle. That said, I'll admit there's something compelling about the reminder of how densely settled Manhattan is, and how easy it is for all kinds of people to share the same space.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: nothing now

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Page generated Thursday, 21 May 2026 04:53 am

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Blather & Whatnot

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book meme

Changing seasons.

Broken Arms are Boring

some good things!

Hello There!

Looking for female characters

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The Big Idea: Caitlin Rozakis

In Retrospect I Suppose This Demise Was Inevitable

Another Repeat Bundle - GameMaster's Apprentice

Patreon Panel This Saturday: Ourselves in Our Stories

If you’re already a backer, I hope you’ll join us, and if not, now’s a great time to become one and get access to this panel, recordings of past panels, and much more!

Purrcy posting is back! and a question about glucose testing

WWW Wednesday

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Claws don't always mean canines

One again, why did I not bring my walking stick?

I was told it's the Apthorp.

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May 2026

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