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Is it me, or does calling myself an "alter kocker," (complete with Yiddish accent) not get the point across, or maybe make it too obvious, because "these kids" have no fucking idea what I am talking about.

I mean it is a "TV Trope," but other than that I feel the phrase has fallen out of common parlance, probably along with tons of other Yiddish-isms. Sometimes when people are complaining about how far they had to walk to get to where I work, I'll say, "It's a schlep, as my people would say," and often get blank stares.

Maybe if I were in NYC?

So how do I quickly and self-deprecatingly get the point across? Do I just use the grosser "old fart," or does no one say that anymore either?

Aging boomer?

Or just telling them I'm still on LiveJournal and can no longer look at Facebook due to its effect on my mental health.

At least when I get fundraising email from every lefty, liberal politician and cause under the sun, I know the spread of my info started based on something or someone I actually wanted to support. However, today brings Gun.com Weekly Deals. Not sure if this is just a glitch or the weird idea that there's now some kind of common cause between the lefty-libs and the gun nuts, so I might just be in the market for a Keltec P50, going at the low, low price of $679.99.

I mean if you're saving up now for my birthday, you could just get me Gavin Newsom's new book, right?

Halle-bloody-lu-jah!

Although the fact that it's just in time for a Labour scandal is not particularly heart-warming.

So here's the thing....or a least a thing.

Remember back in 2009, when this happened?




Well a few years later, I was writing a nice, slightly angsty, but with a hopeful ending fanfic for Yuletide, in the unbelievable fluffy, Mamma Mia fandon...and because I based part of it on the song, "On and On and On," I needed a prominent government official that Harry might meet in a gay club during the Blair Years. You can see where this is going.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/595675

Including the following exchange:

“Don’t you have a country to run?” he said, feeling rather bold.

“It’s Tony’s job to run the country. My job is to run Tony.”

It's not the first time, some of my RPF work has come back to look weirdly prescient or at least contained characters who've become more widely known for their negative qualities with the passage of time. My "Ocean's 11" Yuletide fic of 2007 featured one Donald Trump as the baddie when I was writing my Hugh & Bobby fics, I had the line, "Did Kevin Spacey make a pass at you?" over a decade before I had any reason to think such a thing was plausible, much less the actual allegations that came to light.


Back to MTW....I LOVE that they got Russell back for the first episode and that there are constant references to whether Frankie or Hugh will come back, and how well MTW now fits in with my Taskmaster obsession. (Can't wait to see Ed or Maisie and the return of "The Dip."

My optometrist first told me that they'd done about as much as they could with prescription lenses back in April of 2024, and that I should be examined for possible cataract surgery. I'm having my first surgery on Monday, February 2, 2026. It's taken that long to accept the need for the surgery and then figure out whether I wanted better distance or better up close and then get the surgery openings aligned with my PTO including (ahem) politely asking a newer hire to do a PTO switch so I could get the two non-consecutive weeks I needed.

I'm excited and terrified, but no longer in doubt that this is absolutely necessary.

This could have happened a lot sooner, but I dithered, procrastinated and control freaked my way to this point. At first I just could not make a decision about whether I wanted good distance vs shit up close or vice versa, then I had to wait until the surgery schedule could be co-ordinated with PTO. (I COULD use sick time, but I don't want to deal with the FMLA paperwork AND I don't want to leave my colleagues high and dry for two weeks. My rationale (which may be co-dependent bullshit) is that if I'm on PTO (Paid Time Off) then I'm the only one who's off, and they're more equipped to move people around for coverage. If I'm on sick time, then someone else is also off on their PTO and the team is down two, so if we get slammed, that's super bad.

I have my pre-op check-up scheduled. Hubby is even going to take time off to get me home from the first eye surgery. I'd love to get some anti-anxiety meds by the eye-guy won't come across. I'll run it by my GP, but I'm not hopeful. In true House-fan style, I'd also like to score some good pain meds, but I doubt that's gonna happen either.

Other than that, I feel like my eyesight is deteriorating by the minute, so I just want to hold out until this actually happens and then see what the improvement to the distance vision is and how bad what I'm left with on the close is. I'll still need glasses for the close up, but that seems like a better outcome compared to the Helen Keller situation for everything more than two feet away.

I love that LJ is still asking the Music question.

I'm up to 93 karaoke videos on the YouTube channel. Some need to re-mastered because I've improved (I hope) in the two years since I started. Up to 203 subscribers. Whoooo-hooo!
Still taking requests for "dream songs," the song you ALWAYS wanted to sing, that doesn't seem to exist anywhere in the Karaoke-sphere.
Here's the link!

Like. Subscribe. Comment. Help me feed the algorithm.

I'm doing a lot of Bryan Ferry and Sir Cliff songs. (Of course.)

It was fun, but certainly not the kind of crowds and excitement of pre-Covid.

Here's a link to my Flickr album.

Halloween pix

I just finished one for my beloved Rich. It's under three minutes. It took some fiddling to get the scroll as perfect as I wanted and I did some work with Reaper (music editing program) to create a click track intro for a song that comes in pretty fast and furious. I'm happy with the result and hope Rich will be pleased.

I am now working on sort of the opposite. It's something I would consider a classic rock song that I'm surprised doesn't have any existing "professional" or DIY community Karaoke video that I've been able to track down. It's a 5 minute 47 second long song with a huge number of instrumentals. Those of you who know my karaoke crowd at the Mint may already know exactly who put in the request. I'm determined to make it work, but guys....this is gonna be a bitch.

Just a reminder that I am taking requests. I'll make you a freebie, but if you like a cup of coffee is always welcome. My brief is to make dreams come true with the songs that no one has made or is making and that people might never have heard of.

OK, back to work.

I'm up to 65 home-made karaoke videos on the YouTube Channel.

Please come, like and subscribe, if you are a karaoke person.

https://www.youtube.com/@karaokegalpresents64

I'm taking requests, but only for stuff that does not currently exist either from legacy companies or within the DIY Karaoke community. And I will accept a tip for the price of a cuppa.