Last month I did a trip to Boston to visit family, and I have a trip report!
Things ended up being busier than expected- normally I plan for 'first day arrive and get settled in, don't do a lot, last day get ready to leave and recover, don't do a lot,' on trips. Instead, the flight out was really early and the flight back was really late, so I did things all four days. First day! My dad took us to the MIT campus (he's an alum) via the T (local rail service) and we did the new MIT museum- which was interesting and well done, had cool and informative exhibits. Also tried hitting the MIT Coop which my dad talked up some but in it's current location it's more 'giftshop with a book section' than anything impressive, disappointing. Came back, went out to dinner with Dad, Aunt and Uncle and Sister-who-was-also-there (Italian place, kinda expensive, food was alrit, not great, but they loved it so hey).
Second day! Aquarium, as planned! Also in front on the Aquarium they had an area that had a lot of art stalls out- I got woven animals for my aunt and sister (bird and shark respectively), as well as a couple anime pins at a great price, all from a place that gave proceeds to refugees, which was nice, while there was an India (the country in Asian)-American parade\/band going by. Went to the aquarium, ate at their cafe (fine, nothing special), went up and down the whole Aquarium- tons of cool fish, turtles, harbor seals, informative stuff, good times. Also there was a ray petting tank but the edge was all lined with people many of whom weren't even petting so c'mon people! On the way back there were issues with the T (one section was down, there was another train that was supposed to take us back one before we switched over to go on another route but they didn't move and it was hitting like 100f so we left) so we took a lyft to Newbery street which had comic shop (with surprisingly few comics, tons of funkpops) and two anime shops (good selection but overpriced so got nothing) and got on the T from there. Anyway really enjoyed that trip. Came back, Chinese takeout with Aunt and Uncle and Sister, I liked this meal more.
Third day! Science museum (other museums were dad and I, this time sis was there). At the suggestion of my dad we hit all the shows- 4D theater (think 3d theater except every 50-60s theater gimmick- seats shake, poke, spray water, bubbles, and smells. Animal kingdom show), Omnimax (space show), and Planetarium, as well as an electric show at the world's largest van de graaff generator, including playing a song on electricity at the end. As for the exhibits, there were some good ones, some not so good ones (robotics, yay, actually had a Boston Robotics dog running around! AI... boo, felt like an ad for generative stuff. Artic, boo, seemed mostly games for kids who wanted to spend time there. Dinosaurs and minerals, yay, perceptions\/senses, yay, older ones, kinda neutral, just a buncha specimens). Dinner that night was pizza, also included my.... Aunt's nephew I think? He's definitely in the family but I forget the exact relation. Also a good meal. Also my uncle hates having leftovers around so for the next day he kept pressuring me to finish off the remaining slices even though I already finished my flavor the night before! (Did eat one of the remaining three slicing for breakfast, so I did my part)
Fourth day! Harvard Natural History + Peabody museum (which are in the same building). Like with the science museum, you could tell the difference between older style and newer exhibits, but even the older ones have more information posted and more information, and tended to be pretty dense (on the minus, lotta taxidermy and some of it was of iffy quality). Peabody had a Mezoamerican and Native North American section- the latter was full of a lot of separate tribes, tended to be focused on some aspect of them (like how the tribes in this region built boats, the history of pottery trade at that one, and so on), and had a good deal of items removed for review by the tribes in question. Unfortunately it was a half-mile from the T so my dad's legs were giving out near the end (he's old and it was 14 miles in one weekend!) so we walked as far as the nearest pizza place on Harvard square (Otto's- very good slice, I recommend! Small place), while he was sitting and recovering I went around the corner to the Harvard coop (which is by the same people as the MIT one but this one is both way larger and actually has stuff! I got the latest volume of Black Lagoon) except for a Harvard Business School hat my dad wanted (he was MIT but they have a deal where you can cross over? So he did some study there), but they did have it at the other coop around the corner from that. So hat acquired! Took a lyft back, stayed and rested for a bit, took a lyft to the airport, made it two blocks and turned around because my uncle found my dad's jacket which also had the bordering places, turned back around, got a traffic jam, made it, ate at the airport (legal sea food- good clam chowder!), took the flight back (actually left early since everyone was there and onboard 5 min ahead of schedule), made it home!
A couple general observations: Boston driving is bad. We went on one taxi and several lyfts, and the drivers almost universally were more aggressive and changed lanes more than DC, and we saw plenty of other people rushing, blocking the box at intersections, etc.. The drivers themselves were nice! One had water bottles in the back for passengers, two had phone chargers in back, they were all friendly. One took us down alleyways to get where we needed to go. Interesting experience, glad I don't drive there myself.
On the T, we ended up going on like, 5 or 6 different cars? And they have a huge variety of designs, Some were modern and had videos with screens showing the inside. Some had seats in rows, some had more facing each other, must've been made in lots of eras.
Which was a contrast to DC metro, which has like, two styles of cars.
So busy trip, loved visiting the fam, got a lot done!<\/p>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:579537","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/579537.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=579537"}}],"title":"Terminator Dream","published":"2023-11-09T15:16:41Z","updated":"2023-11-09T15:16:41Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream journal"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dreams"}}],"content":"I had a fun dream last night. I was at a club and a Terminator came in (with some doc ock type extra limbs), and the bartender tried to control the situation by trying to rally people together, saying they didn't have enough guns to kill it but working together they could drive it off. One person said \"screw that, it's not after me, I'm outa here and good luck with the terminator!\"
Anyway turned out it was after them and left the club to pursue them after they ran off, leaving everyone else in peace."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:579168","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/579168.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=579168"}}],"title":"Gold Digger reaches 300","published":"2023-06-17T21:33:55Z","updated":"2023-06-17T21:33:55Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"comics"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"fred perry"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"gold digger"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"superhero"}}],"content":"It's been awhile since I've posted comic scans, hasn't it? Well I'm doing so again for a good reason-![](\"https:\/\/abload.de\/img\/gd300coverfulla7f4u.jpg\")
Gold Digger 300! Now the longest-running creator owned book by a single creator (though if we count miniseries and specials it's probably already well in first place)! Oddly not talked about too much despite being such a long-time run by a black creator.
This was the comic that got me into reading comics, and I've followed it ever since!
For the final battles, everyone's showing up, and they've brought the best toys!![](\"https:\/\/abload.de\/img\/gd294spacebattleships19dtf.png\")
Freaky attempts to do the final mission solo-![](\"https:\/\/abload.de\/img\/gd294fakeginatvdx0.png\")
And what would a final battle be without old villains?![](\"https:\/\/abload.de\/img\/gd297dreadwingaaihr.png\")
![](\"https:\/\/abload.de\/img\/gd298facetofaceagainsf4fhf.png\")
Issue 300 wraps up the main plot but I'm not gonna spoil anything from there- these scans are all from 294, 287, and 298.<\/a>
And while I'm here, a reminder that the Gold Digger library<\/a> exists with issues 1-199 available for all. Not miniseries, spinoffs, or specials, but still, that's a lot!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:578847","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/578847.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=578847"}}],"title":"I had the most epic dream I've had in some time....","published":"2022-11-16T18:43:43Z","updated":"2022-11-16T18:43:43Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"iliad"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dreams"}}],"content":"In my dream I was going to a mall for, among other things, an Illiad LARP, in which I would play the role of Helen.
I did some stuff in preparing for the LARP, bought some stuff at a fantasy-oriented store, then went for lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the river next to the mall, and before eating could begin we looked out at the water where there were some boats going around and some planes in an airshow.
Then one of the planes broke and crashed, and then another. And a boat caught fire. There was some kind of attack going on.
So we were in disaster movie mode! We headed back into the mall- which began flooding- and first began trying to get to the cars in the garage. There was a lot of climbing on construction scaffolding and maintenance corridors, with maintenance people occasionally helping. Eventually giving up on cars due to concluding it was underwater and encountering them burned out, as well as running into a burned out trainyard that'd also been hit. We made our way to the foodcourt on the other side of the mall- I was still very hungry and hadn't eaten- and the noncombatants escaped to safety from that exit, but as half the court was flooded and the other was full of lines I still didn't get food.
I left the mall proper and went along the street side. By this point I'd been seen a lot of fictional-looking characters around the street near the mall (Samus in her zero suit, Fate servants, that kind of thing), and made my way back to the LARP center from the outside- where I finally<\/i> got snacks- where people had, logically, largely given up on the game and were largely trying to figure out what to do, and I decided that the attack was a thematic equivalent to the Iliad- besieged place full of heroes- and that it was up to me to solve the problem.
I hooked up to the local net and announced I was Helen and that together we were going to Break the Siege of Troy! Then I got attacked by a cyber-dragon who declared my move a 'mistaken,' got a Bad End screen, and a reset to a few minutes before that happened.
So I decided the idea of organizing everyone to break the situation was still right but the attackers obviously had defenses against just announcing it from the top of the walls so to speak, and started going around recruiting people and around this point I drifted awake (which is probably why I was able to remember so much).
So yea, it was a big, epic, dramatic, heroic dream that I really enjoyed."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:578313","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/578313.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=578313"}}],"title":"Hey, peeps! Everything Everywhere All at Once is...","published":"2022-05-22T05:42:14Z","updated":"2023-06-04T09:26:04Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"everything everywhere all at once"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"rating"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"movie review"}}],"content":"Everything Everywhere All at Once<\/b> is really good!<\/i>
It starts out looking like a multiversal martial arts film akin to Jet Li's The One, and it kinda<\/i> is but it's also so much more. The main focus is exploring different lives and choices and the effects on the main characters and Michelle Yeoh is fantastic and anyway it's great, go see it!
Rating: A"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:578149","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/578149.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=578149"}}],"title":"Trip and Con report!","published":"2021-08-23T11:03:10Z","updated":"2021-08-23T11:03:10Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"wedding trip"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"trip"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"con report"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"vacation report"}}],"content":"I have news!
First off I went to San Diego for a week for my cousin's wedding. This is, obviously, my first trip since, y'know, and also less-obviously, my first time in California! (Outside of very brief layovers)
The wedding itself was fantastic- outside in the park. The groom's family was really fun from the interactions I had (which included the guy officiating it- though as he's the grooms cousin in law that's super-far from me ^^). Reception had good food, got to talk with cousins-in-laws, lotsa great speeches, and my cuz and her new husband really seemed to click, good time all around.
Hit San Diego bookstores and comic stores, including Verbatim books at my cousin's suggestion and it did turn out to be the best used bookstore around.
Hit the Museum of Us (formerly the Museum of Man)- good museum, small enough to do in one day. Big cannibal exhibit, which was kinda surprising (I think a temporary one- you know, have one space for the big 'event' exhibits?). I liked the monsters of the world one the best, and the beer of the world exhibit was fun too. It had that thing a lot of museums have where newer exhibits have a lot of in-depth information while older ones are more barebones 'this was a thing from X which was important Y', but it was mostly transitioned into the newer type, with the Mayan exhibit under construction to make the change, and the Egyptian one more old-type.
Hit the aircraft carrier\/USS Enterprise museum. Which is literally an aircraft carrier. Had some interesting audio-guide things.
Tried to do a scenic train ride at my dad's suggestion but the train had some weird power problem so it stopped and we took a lyft back- the first time he's ever had to abandon train and he's a railroader for life! Not actually too big a hassle, but a story.
Then on the last day my dad and I did the Zoo for six hours. It's a big zoo! We managed to do a pretty solid proportion of it in that time, I must say- aided by the park busses. To my disappointment the arctic section was, one, not near one of the bus lines, and two, only accessible via walking *really steep hills*. My dad said it was too much and I agreed, so we went other ways. Did see elephants, reptiles, birds (we didn't even hit all the aviaries but the 'aviary way' had a ton of cool birds!), Koalas, giraffes.... a ton of stuff, really! Also ate at the lone sit-down restaurant in the park (they reeeally need more air-conditioned places for breaks. Though I gather it was unusually hot when we were there), which was alright but expensive. Anyway, animals everywhere, I approved.<\/a>
Second, I discovered Blerdcon, one of my fav cons, was on this year but I missed it back in July :\\ So then I discovered there was another con, Station Unity a new SF con, nearby the weekend after my return. So THEN I discovered there's a bigger con in DC the same weekend! I debated doing each for a day but trip recovery made me decide to only do Saturday, and went with the big one, AwesomeCon.
AwesomeCon is a big non-specific everything-geek con. There's comics, anime, sf, etc. On the bright side
The convention center let people in from the front which was the opposite side of the metro, which was just... don't make me walk around convention centers to get in! Then from the entrance had to walk half the center to reg, and then went down to the vendor's hall where the entrance to *that* turned out to be on the other side still. I'm glad San Diego had loosened my leg muscles but c'mon!
Walking issues aside, there was a lot there. Vendor's hall was *huge*. Got a couple comics and graphic novels and an art book of egyptian gods in designer outfits. Got a mask- surprisingly few artists selling stylish masks, which is totally a missed opportunity. Not actually a big haul- I think just the two GNs and three comics- but good stuff. It had a fair amount of space to novelists, and a number of SF clubs to specific fandoms with tables. Place was so big there were multiple food places too, but I didn't exactly trust eating near crowds so none for me.
Panels were good- though involved more walking. They had marine biology, some Star Trek panels, a couple random geek ones. I missed the LGBT ones (who were in a different area nearer the main entrance- which was yet more walking from where I was!) since the first one I tried to catch was cancelled and I was too busy in the other haul's for the rest. Small videogame room, I got to play some Smash- which I only just started learning on my 3ds during the San Diego trip, so that was fun!
I think, while they could've used *more* panels, the panels they did have had enough space to work and it's not like Katsucon which underallocates room and sometimes doesn't give alternatives if the one I want is full or not as fun as I thought. So that's a plus. I enjoyed the ones I went to!
<\/a>
All in all as a con, I rate it below focused cons like Blerdcon, Small Press Expo, and Escape Velocity (which I *think* might be dead... no word on if it's coming back post covid, which would be a shame), I had a smaller haul than I do at those, but for one day hitting and for being a year and a half since my last con? Fun times.
Oh, also the airplane *to* San Diego was horrible and uncomfortable (we got routed from our flight-with-stop to a non-stop... and yes we had to take an expensive taxi to DC's other airport), on the way back at least we got 'economy plus' which meant at least non-cramped legs but I remain a non-fan of long plane rides (the train ride that broke was better!), and Lyft makes getting around on a vacation *so* much easier.
Wore masks everywhere- both San Diego and here are big mask areas with high vaccination rates, and I feel lucky to do this stuff before Delta becomes too wide-spread. There's some risk of course especially with, like, the planerides, but a wedding's worth the risk when we're all vaxxed up, y'know?
Anyway, that's my recent doings, and probably my major outings for the year- any further cons will be reliant on both whether they happen and how bad delta gets. I didn't expect to do so much so close together (I literally had a limp from all the SD walking at one point! Got better pretty fast though, I know how to handle that situation), but it worked out that way and I had multiple blasts!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:577828","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/577828.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=577828"}}],"title":"Pacific Rim: The Black","published":"2021-03-07T21:22:22Z","updated":"2021-03-07T21:22:22Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"pacific rim"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"anime"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"review"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"pacific rim the black"}}],"content":"As you know I'm a big kaiju fan, and I'm especially<\/i> a big Pacific Rim fan.
So what did I think of Netflix's new anime, Pacific Rim The Black?
Loved it. Binged the whole thing (7 episodes) in one sitting. The characters are strong and it builds on the worldbuilding of the movies. Solid action. Warning, it gets pretty dark at times! It had not one but a couple twists I did not see coming, which is great.
If you're a pacific rim fan (and maybe if not?) I quite recommend.
Also sidenote, I do hope\/expect it'll also cause people to revise upwards their views of Uprising by viewing it in a wider context than comparing the cinematography to GDT's. I've already seen one fan who'd only seen the first, then the series, then Uprising, love Uprising."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:577754","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/577754.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=577754"}}],"title":"Kaiju Kaiju Kaiju","published":"2021-01-31T15:26:50Z","updated":"2021-01-31T15:26:50Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"kaiju"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"movies"}}],"content":"I watched a really well-made, beautiful short Kaiju film Howl from Beyond the Fog<\/b>. It was done using puppetry and it's this really atmospheric, well-made piece.
As-of this point I've probably seen something like 90% of all kaiju movies, and it's fun to still run into gems"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:577335","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/577335.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=577335"}}],"title":"Mini-updates!","published":"2020-12-29T06:56:48Z","updated":"2020-12-29T06:56:48Z","content":"Wow, I really haven't posted here in awhile? Quick stuff- I had good holidays, been staying covid free. Hope all of you are doing alright!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:577272","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/577272.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=577272"}}],"title":"The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms","published":"2020-03-18T08:47:00Z","updated":"2020-03-18T08:47:00Z","content":"I have watched the beast from 20,000 fathoms! And now I wish to talk about it
I can really see why others built on this to make the kaiju genre, but flipside, I can't recommend it too much aside from the historical value.
The monster, Rhedosaurus, is cool and has great Harryhousen effects.
The plot is very standard monster fair- I doubt it made the formula even, but you know the drill. 'See monster, deal with people doubting it's real, people admit it when evidence mounts up, fight monster.'
They had the poison blood gimmick, but introduced it way too late in, after the rampage and before only the final fight, so it didn't present a problem for very long before they had a solution.
The setpieces, though? Very cool. Great NYC rampage, and 'final inside a burning rollercoaster' was a great visual- With the irony that lighting the rollercoaster on fire wasn't even part of the plan.
Some of the extras, especially the police officers\/soldiers firing at the monster, seem insufficiently worried about the gigantic dinosaur rampaging around. I wonder how much of that was due to lack of knowing what a giant monster was like!- most of the extras were good though.
If you want to see a really good old monster movie, Kong or Godzilla are better. If you want to see the spark that lead to Godzilla, it's worth a look.
As a monster movie I only give it maybe a C-. There's a lot better there and the plot is very formula. It's better than a bad monster movie, it's well made enough, but there's not going to be anything you haven't seen before.
I've also heard people say the Tristar '98 Godzilla resembles a remake of Beast more than a G movie, and that's definitely true. Some differences but in both appearance and story structure (including both somehow losing the monsters inside NYC at one point) there's strong similarities. Rethink G98 as a modern take on Beast and it helps G98 come off better."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:576896","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/576896.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=576896"}}],"title":"Entering Self-Isolation Procedures!","published":"2020-03-14T20:52:08Z","updated":"2020-03-14T20:52:08Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"coronavirus"}},"content":"Due to the virus, I and my family have decided to self-isolate to reduce the chance of becoming vectors.
We're stocked up, prepared, and ready to ride things out.
Also, do you know what we figured out isn't a problem doing? *Going to the park*. Because there's no-one there!
So we're going to continue to do activities, just the most virus-safe ones we can think of!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:576491","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/576491.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=576491"}}],"title":"My Dad wrote a SF story 20 years ago","published":"2020-01-09T14:30:10Z","updated":"2020-01-09T14:30:10Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"short story"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dad"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"trains"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"2020 dispatching"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"writing"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"fiction"}}],"content":"20 years ago, my dad wrote a story on what train dispatching would be like in 20 years.
I found it pretty fun, so I thought I'd share and asked him to send it to me, so here it is!
Intro:
Colleagues,
Attached below is a short story entitled \"2020 Dispatching\", a fictional account written in the year 2000 predicting what train dispatching might have, could have been like twenty years later. It was published as a sidebar in the Federal Railroad Administration's Five-Year Strategic Plan for Railroad Research, Development, and Demonstrations, March 2002. The authors of the short story were, in retrospect, excessively optimistic about how train dispatching would change over two decades. Perhaps the title of the story should be changed to \"2050 Dispatching\".
I hope you find it of interest.
Steve
***********************************************************************************************************************
2020 Dispatching
A Short Story
What will railroad dispatching be like two decades from now? This sketch offers one possible answer, in the words of a Great Western & Pacific dispatcher showing off his workstation to an authorized visitor.
\u201cReady. Hancock. Railhawk. Six-seven-four-one. Dispatch Woodbridge. Date six-ten-thirty. Time zero-seven-zero-three. Cover TS one-seven-one and TS one-seven-five. Request display. Over.\u201d
\u201cCome on in. Sorry for ignoring you. Have a seat there. I was just saying good morning to the system and setting up my territory. Now that I\u2019ve signed on I\u2019ll show you how things work. Watch over here - the wall will light up in a second. There we go. Rather impressive, huh? Dispatching at the GW&P has come a long way from the days of CTC and PTC.
\u201cThe system\u2019s in a display mode right now. When I talked to the machine a minute ago, I told it who I was, where I was, the date and time, and what track segments I need. Then I asked for display mode. That means we can look at the trains on the wall displays, but we can\u2019t talk to them or get live camera closeups or change their speeds or redo the traffic plan. All that comes in the control mode, which I can\u2019t get to right now because Campbell is still on duty. If I had asked for control mode when I signed on, the machine would have scolded me.
\u201cSee the window at the top left? The system\u2019s asking me for an on-duty acknowledgment - an important detail, since that\u2019s how I get paid. I\u2019ll ignore it for now, because I can\u2019t really be a dispatcher and a tour guide at the same time. There\u2019s twenty minutes or so before I need to go on duty - that should be plenty of time to walk you through the basics.
\u201cWhat you see on the wall are all the default displays for my workstation - the ones I\u2019ve selected for my user profile. They\u2019re the displays I\u2019m most likely to need most of the time. Of course I need other displays at times, but they\u2019re easy to get to - I\u2019ll show you how that works in a little bit. The map to the left shows the territory I\u2019m responsible for - at least for right now. They can split things up just about any way they want, so when traffic is lighter - like at night - fewer dispatchers can carry the load by each taking a bigger piece.
\u201cThis is an overview. It shows the whole territory, but not in great detail. You do see all the trains and vehicles, thanks to the data link and the new GPS III satellites. We\u2019re running the trains close together today. We usually do these days, with trucking on the decline and rail traffic way up. It\u2019s kind of scary, when you realize the trains are moving at 140 kilometers an hour and some of them are just two or three kilometers apart. No problem, really. The system always knows what\u2019s safe and what\u2019s not. It has a good pedigree - we haven\u2019t had a collision for years now.
\u201cLook closely and you\u2019ll see the trains moving along the track. What we see here is what\u2019s happening in the field - right now, eight hundred miles away. Look, 7940 east just stopped on the main. The flashing train symbol tells us he\u2019s stopped, and you can see the symbol is staying in one place now. The purple bar shows that he\u2019s at the edge of maintenance-of-way territory. He\u2019s waiting for clearance from the gang foreman there. We\u2019ll see a green bar along the track when he gets his authority to go. If that train weren\u2019t authorized to stop, we\u2019d get a message and an audible alarm. As it is, we\u2019d get the alarm if the train didn\u2019t stop - and so would he. Onboard enforcement would put the brakes on. Train movements are pretty closely controlled these days.
\u201cThe next screen over is a control view of Falls City to Jones Junction. Since the territory is more blown up, the train movements are more obvious on this one. Looks like they\u2019re really moving along. And you can see the switches. Most of the switches are powered now, and the manual ones are at least monitored. This view shows the actual switch alignments in the field. If we watch closely, we might catch a switch in the act of realignment. At just the right time, Central Control gives the word, the switch obeys, and I see it on the display. It\u2019s all very neat. There are no maintained signals left on this stretch, but if there were, we\u2019d see them here too, with their aspects.
\u201cLet me put the headset on, and I\u2019ll show you a couple ways I talk with the system. It\u2019s cordless, you see. The keyboard\u2019s the same way. I\u2019m not tied to one position this way. It\u2019s kind of nice to be able to lean back in my chair with the keyboard on my lap and not worry about coming unplugged. Most of my communication is data link, so the headset is really optional. I can set it to monitor all of the incoming voice channels - phone and radio both - but even then there\u2019s not a big communication load. I\u2019ll average one conversation every ten or fifteen minutes - that\u2019s on a day of heavy traffic. I talk to the machine more often than that. In the old old days, before PTC arrived on the scene, they tell me I\u2019d have been on a voice channel fifty minutes out of every hour. Is that dispatching?
\u201cWhat I like the headset for is its inertia sensors. Here\u2019s how they work. Look at the cursor on the wall display - right now it\u2019s over the on-duty time in the top left window. I activate the sensors with this button, and now my head movements direct the cursor- head to the right, cursor to the right; head downward, cursor downward, and so forth. Same idea as the old PTC trackball, only now the trackball is my head. The cursor jumps freely between displays. Once I get it where I want it on any of the four displays, I press SELECT on the keyboard, and I\u2019ve made my will known to the machine.
\u201cLet\u2019s say I want to look at the control view of a different track segment - some people still say \u2018planning line,\u2019 which is old PTC terminology. I nod the cursor into place over the CONTROL function-there at the bottom of the Falls City-to-Jones Junction map - and press SELECT. There\u2019s our list of track segments to choose from. Suppose we want Glen Springs to Snowden. Position the cursor, press SELECT, and there we have it - a new control area. Not a lot of traffic on this one, you can see.
\u201cI\u2019ll show you another way of doing the same thing. Good for variety. The keyboard has a key for map selection the second function key at the top here. When I press it, I\u2019m telling the machine I want to chose another control area for display. The machine at that point is all ears - it\u2019s just waiting to hear which area I want. I can tell it with my head, by moving the cursor in place over the area I want on the overview map. Or I can tell it with my voice, like this: \u2018TS one-seven-four. Over.\u2019 Saying \u2018Over\u2019 is the same as pressing SELECT. And there we have it Glen Springs to Snowden. Quick, isn\u2019t it?
\u201cLet\u2019s look at the weather map. Watch what happens to the overview map when I press the last function key on the right here. There it is a weather overlay. The blue and black digital readings at stations are temperatures. Mostly blue - it\u2019s a cold morning in Wyoming. Blue is cold, red is hot, black is in between. I forget what the exact distinctions are. But the icons tell the real story. Notice the broken thermometer at Snowden, with 51 degrees in black and 11 degrees in blue. That shows there\u2019s been a 40-degree dip over the last twenty-four hours or less. That kind of swing can spell trouble for rails. You can be sure the track inspector out there has his eyes open.
\u201cFurther west, you can see snow falling at Circle, and some pretty stiff winds at Jones Junction. That icon is oriented to show the wind direction, and the numbers next to it are kilometers per hour \u2011\u2011 the 73 on top is the maximum wind velocity over the last two hours, and the 47 \u2011\u2011 well, 51 now \u2011\u2011 that's the current velocity. It\u2019s all real\u2011time stuff, you see. With this kind of weather reporting, we can almost predict when we\u2019re going to hear from some engineer worried about maintaining his pacing speed. But of course, Central Control is always one step ahead. The pacing speeds reflect what\u2019s happening with the weather.
\u201cI\u2019m going to switch the weather off. Some dispatchers keep the weather overlay up all the time \u2011\u2011 build it into their user profile \u2011\u2011 but for me it makes the map a little too cluttered. I\u2019ll look at it every hour or so. Besides, if the system detects a severe condition \u2011\u2011 heavy snow, high winds, big temperature swing, or whatever \u2011\u2011 I\u2019ll get an advisory. The way things are set up, it\u2019s hard for us to miss anything really important.
\u201cWe haven\u2019t looked at the traffic plan yet. It\u2019s probably the most important thing on the wall there. The maps we\u2019ve been looking at show where everything is, how close together the trains are running, whether they're moving, and so on. But they don\u2019t show how well the traffic is keeping up with the plan. To get that, I need to look at the planning graph. The idea is ancient. PTC had something similar, and back before that dispatchers sometimes played with stringlines on paper charts to try and picture the traffic flow. Quite simple, but the basic idea is sound. Our enhanced version shows all the trains on any given track segment. I tell the system which segment I want and how far into the future I want to look. I\u2019ve set my default value at four hours.
\u201cMoving up the graph, we\u2019re moving ahead in time. Moving from left to right, we\u2019re going west to east. Right now you can see a dozen or so trains running between Glen Springs and Nichols Wye. A run line that\u2019s not vertical shows a train that\u2019s moving. Here\u2019s a vertical one \u2011\u2011 eastbound 7802 is sitting in the siding at Hathaway, waiting for two westbounds to pass. The first one is Amtrak, and the second is a hotshot intermodal. They\u2019re flying. The faster the train, the less the slope on the graph.
\u201cThis solid black line divides the past from the future. Below it, we\u2019re looking at history \u2011\u2011 the run lines show exactly where each train was at any time over the last hour. We can go back further than that, but it\u2019s not real useful information \u2011\u2011 more for the archives. Above the black line, we\u2019re looking at the future \u2011\u2011 the traffic plan currently in effect. Ideally, the history segment of each run line flows right into the future segment at the black line, which represents the present. That means that right now, the train is keeping pace with the plan. That\u2019s the case with all but two of our trains here \u2011\u2011 not a bad batting average for this corridor. We\u2019ve got two eastbounds a little behind schedule. You can see their run lines are yellow instead of green, and the past and future segments don\u2019t quite connect at the present. If they were in serious trouble, their run lines would turn red. I expect they\u2019ll both make up the lost time before they reach Glen Springs \u2011\u2011 we\u2019re only talking about minutes.
\u201cWe don\u2019t see a lot of red lines on the planning graph any more. When we do see one, chances are we\u2019ll need to talk with the crew to find out what\u2019s happening. Half the time, they\u2019ll call us first. Their display tells them when they\u2019re slipping on the schedule, and usually it tells them why. Things can get interesting then. The trick always is to minimize the damage. It may mean pulling the train off the main so everybody else can keep on schedule. Sometimes we may not have the siding to do that. Or if it\u2019s a hot cargo, we may handle it differently. I\u2019ll ask Central Control for a new plan \u2011\u2011 that's what the REPLAN function is for \u2013 and it will sort through the options and propose what it thinks is the best one, all things considered. Usually I\u2019ll agree with what the system comes up with \u2011\u2011 nowadays it knows practically everything. But I still have the final say.
\u201cSpeaking of the final say, I\u2019d better stop talking. I\u2019m just three minutes away from my shift. Time to report on duty. Highlight the current time. SELECT. There, that\u2019s more like it \u2011\u2011 now I\u2019m getting paid for my time. Next thing is to put my workstation on standby to receive active control. To do that, I talk to the machine again.\u201d
\u201cHancock. Railhawk. Request standby control. Over.\u201d
\u201cThere. You can see the machine understood. Now Campbell knows I\u2019m here, ready to go. She was probably beginning to wonder. Working at home like this, there aren\u2019t many excuses left for being late to the job.
\u201cThe instant Campbell signs off, I\u2019m on. You can stay and watch if you like. Before long, I\u2019ll probably be looking at some live camera closeups from lead units and hy\u00adrails. We\u2019ll see with our own eyes how heavy it\u2019s snowing up there. With those weather conditions, we may get some red run lines this morning. That\u2019s when the system really shows its stuff.\u201d
+++++
This story is indebted conceptually to a fictional description of a possible interface between air traffic controllers and the ATC system of the future in \u201cThe Controller\/System Interface,\u201d by H. David, published by the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre, Bretigny\u2011sur\u2011Orge, France, May 1986. John Vanderhorst of the Applied Communications Group assisted in writing this story.<\/a><\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:576013","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/576013.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=576013"}}],"title":"Important Kaiju question","published":"2019-12-17T03:20:39Z","updated":"2019-12-17T03:20:39Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"kaiju"}},"content":"Was wondering if some of you could help me out with an opinion question:
Which Kaiju think they're smarter than humans?"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:575759","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/575759.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=575759"}}],"title":"The most important single page in Legion history!","published":"2019-11-12T01:02:46Z","updated":"2019-11-12T01:02:46Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"legion of superheroes"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"superhero"}}],"content":"Preparing for the new Legion boot (Fiveboot?), I was reading through some Reboot Legion comics, Legionnaires #65 to be specific, and I came across the most important page in Legion of Superheroes history!![](\"https:\/\/abload.de\/img\/sensorhatpageupk78.png\")
She was disguised as a blue guy in a hat, then dropped the illusion and bam, still wearing the hat!
Having illusion powers, she never needs a hat, but having fashion sense, sometimes she needs a hat, y'know?
<\/a><\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:575578","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/575578.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=575578"}}],"title":"Ramen Fire","published":"2019-10-25T05:16:25Z","updated":"2019-10-25T05:16:25Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"stuff"}},"content":"Approximately 12 days ago, a new Ramen restaurant opened at the local shopping center. As in legit 'buncha ingredients, a full meal, with a variety of styles,' ramen, not the instant kind.
Approximately 3 days ago, there was a fire in the shopping center, a number of stores suffered smoke\/water damage, and the powers still out. The ramen store and the laundry next to it are the two most likely starting points.
Ouch!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:575417","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/575417.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=575417"}}],"title":"DIY","published":"2019-10-24T13:13:09Z","updated":"2019-10-24T13:13:09Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"diy"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"stuff"}}],"content":"In the vein of the last post, I did another DIY project, filling up something else.
\"Hm, this one says I shouldn't get it on my skin...\"
Dad: \"We have some rubber gloves.\"
Me: (Knowing they're kitchen, not disposable, gloves) \"I don't want to mess up any good ones...\"
Dad: \"These are on the way out anyway.\"
Me: \"Alright.\"
*Does DIY project*
*Pulls off gloves at finish- two fingers break off*
Me: \"These really were on the way out!\"
I have no idea how they got that way but the rubber just snapped off ^^"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:575116","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/575116.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=575116"}}],"title":"I have successfully sealed my shower!","published":"2019-10-11T02:55:20Z","updated":"2019-10-11T02:55:20Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"stuff"}},"content":"I have successfully sealed the edge of my shower because the old sealant chaulk stuff was getting grody!
... and now I'm thinking of redoing it because I did a really sloppy job ^^;"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:574910","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/574910.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=574910"}}],"title":"My body is a feast- gourge yourself up it and gain eternal life","published":"2019-08-20T10:52:49Z","updated":"2019-08-20T10:52:49Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"mosquitoes"}},"content":"So I was out removing some branches from a tree (we have this really cool reacher thingy one of my mom's old co-workers gave her), and I got a ton of mosquito bites.
It's genetic who attracts mosquitoes apparently, and I without a doubt have the genes ^^"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:574552","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/574552.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=574552"}}],"title":"Back from Vermont!","published":"2019-08-16T04:37:36Z","updated":"2019-08-16T04:37:36Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"vermont"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"trip"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"video game"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"story"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"new hampshire"}}],"content":"I came back from a week-long vacay to Vermont, where I stayed with my Aunt C, who's great. Went up with my dad and sister, though sis only for half the trip. Also for part of it, Aunt B and her husband were there too, which was cool! (Last time I went up to the area was their wedding)
We swung over to New Hampshire and went up Mount Washington on the Cog Railroad- if you ever want to go up a famous mountain without hiking, this is the one to do, and being on a specially-designed railway doesn't diminish the experience (the seats and engine are both tilted!). We love trains, and Mt. Wash is awesome. Got there on one of the first trains so it wasn't too busy when we did. Weather was good when we did- the mountain has famously some of the worst weather on earth (they had a wind gauge there that once clocked 231 mph- which held the record for something like 90 years), but we got a mix of clear and literally being inside some clouds, which was nice.
To my disappointment, Montpelier's best bookstore, Rivendale, closed! It was suuuch a good used\/new bookstore, alas, I was heartbroken. We did hit a number of other places of interest. Up in Burlington their Church street had a lot of good bookstores, restaurants, and various other places, reminds me some of Old Town around here, plus they had some stands out for a market day with artists and such. Word of warning- the comic there has tricky steps coming in *and* going out, so I twisted my foot on the exit ^^ Last day, so it didn't really affect the trip much, only started hurting once we got to the airport. Plus we got to look over the lake- no Champ sightings, alas.
We also hit the Dog Chapel on the way to the mountain. Lotta dog stuff- and they had some event going on so a lot of dogs too!
Went over to the cousin's place (literally next door from my aunt's). Played Ticket to Ride with the whole family, and we had a pretty good time. I got second place ^^ My dad didn't do well because even though he's big into trains he's not great at games, so got too focused on the routes he couldn't make. I played fairly safe and managed to do pretty well.
Shortly before going I got a nintendo 3ds, to give stuff to do on the travel segments of the trip. So far only have mighty gunvolt burst (a really great Mega Man style game), Monster Hunter 4, and Radiant Historia (a time travel fantasy RPG). It took me off guard that portables not only have 3d, but just plumb good graphics and an RPG can have full voice acting, that's better than my last home console (PS2). Anyway, that was fun on the trainride up\/planeride back.
Speaking of the planeride, it was delayed a few hours, but the gate had a 'Skinny Pancake' place that served crepes, and they stayed open longer to help take care of us. So I ate some very good crepes and honestly the delay was a bonus ^^ On the way back we went over some great city lights. Arrived home, all is well!
Oh, and not long after getting back I cleared a buncha books from my shelves and took 'em to a used bookstore and got a few new ones. Yay! And my foot healed.
Good times all around"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:573977","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/573977.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=573977"}}],"title":"Grand Central Arena \/ Shadow of Hyperion","published":"2019-06-14T09:02:45Z","updated":"2019-06-14T09:10:10Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"books"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"grand central arena"}}],"content":"Remember me talking about Grand Central Arena?
There's a kickstarter for a new book in the series<\/a>, Shadows of Hyperion.
Grand Central Arena one of my favs, I absolutely love the Arena as a setting, and the Hyperion backstory with the transhuman characters made to be real versions of fictional heroes. In brief, the first FTL ship takes a crew to a giant construct, where everyone<\/i> shows up- all FTL goes to one place, the 'Arena,' so there's a vast number of aliens and factions, mingling and competing in this fantastic place. And the crew themselves are quite interesting, coming from an advanced solar system where AI companions are ubiquitous and genmods are common- and one of them specifically comes from the results of a project to make real versions of fictional heroes and it's so cool.
Spoor's love of EE Doc Smith's stuff (and a number of other things) really shows.
For those who haven't<\/i> gotten into it, the first book is on the Baen Free Library<\/a>. And if you're curious about the series and have questions, ask, because I am totally<\/i> down for answering them.
If you have read some of the series, I highly recommend chipping in for the new one at kickstarter!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:573824","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/573824.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=573824"}}],"title":"My dad didn't like the new Godzilla, but....","published":"2019-06-04T07:14:02Z","updated":"2019-06-04T07:14:02Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"godzilla"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"review"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"ranking"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"movies"}}],"content":"On opening night I decided to check out Godzilla: King of the Monsters, sight unseen and without much in the way of reviews\/no feedback from friends yet, and invited my dad along with. I basically liked it, but thought it had some issues (I enjoyed half the human cast but they made a 'dad plot' central again, just like the first. The monster part was good, the world setting was interesting, and Mothra was awesome). Flipside, my dad didn't, finding it too dark- visually as much as anything.
Buuut seeing it did get him interested to revisit some of the old Godzilla movies with me! He's almost certainly seen some in the past but when I was super-young so he didn't remember much besides the names of the major monsters.
So over the weekend I watched both Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla with him, curated to pick the ones with good human plots.
Best part? I managed to hide the title with Mechagodzilla, so the twist got him by surprise ^^
Both got thumbs up from him, with Mechagodzilla getting the small nod as his fav of the two.
For my rankings of G:KotM, I find I like the other recent Kaiju movies I've watched more (Pacific Rim Uprising, Rampage), but it is a lot more memorable than the first one. C+, out of kaiju movies. It's better than a number I can think of, but doesn't go in the upper ranks to me. Could go up or down with time- and I am<\/i> looking forward to Godzilla vs Kong, so there's that.
Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla are A and A+ respectively, being two of the best Showa Godzillas ^^"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:573617","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/573617.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=573617"}}],"title":"Endgame","published":"2019-05-06T14:09:07Z","updated":"2019-05-06T14:09:07Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"avengers"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"trains"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"mcu"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"endgame"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"movies"}}],"content":"Like nigh everyone on Earth I went to see Avengers Endgame- and really liked it!
I went to see it at 2:15AM on the opening weekend Friday... and the theater was still<\/i> packed.
Won't spoil anything, but I felt I was definitely an A+ movie. There really hasn't been something like it, built up off so much.
Then yesterday I saw it again, because my dad wanted to see it. Despite not having seen IW and only having vague memories of the MCU movies he saw 7 and 5 years ago (Avengers 1, GotG), he thought it was terrific!
Considering there's almost no feedback on what non-fans think, that was interesting.
Also? Each MCU movie rated by if it has trains:
https:\/\/tilt-shift-blur.tumblr.com\/post\/184613378736\/marvel-movies-ranked-by-if-there-are-trains-in<\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:573339","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/573339.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=573339"}}],"title":"So what's everyone up to?","published":"2019-04-22T09:17:27Z","updated":"2019-04-22T09:17:27Z","content":"I've gotten into Light Novels and Webnovels recently (probably post more on them soon), but on the whole things have been going good, not much to report.
And it occurs to me I haven't checked on some of you recently! So what's up?"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:q99:573012","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/573012.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/q99.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=573012"}}],"title":"Plants!","published":"2019-03-29T06:26:08Z","updated":"2019-03-29T06:26:08Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"plants"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"succulents"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"stuff"}}],"content":"Specifically succulents! I brought a new batch home with me the other day:![](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/D2iPNoSWwAEQiwJ.jpg\")
![](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/D2jD8g1WsAAJ34J.jpg\")
This pot used to have a few more (not counting the new ones), but when we took over water the plants of the house they were forgotten for a bit (it was a really busy time and they're the least-obvious plants in the house), so by the time we realized some were dying and regular watering resumed, it was too late and we were down to the skinny one in the corner. It's been on it's own for some time, alive but lonely.
Fast forward a bit and we had a reason to get a new birdbath bowl (we thought it had cracked and had some exterior damage. Turned out the whole inner and outer layer of the ceramic bowl separated and when we picked it up the exterior of the bottom was off!) and went to this really good garden store which also had a room full of succulents which I beelined for and spent ten minutes picking out the best ones- or at least the selection I thought was best ^^ More than the pot originally had, but I think they look good, right?
Oh yea, and when my sister visited she pointed out this big fern that we got from our old neighbors (who moved about a year ago) was pretty sickly and pointed out it had some white stuff on it. I had kinda noticed those things but didn't really think to check, looked it up- they're a sign of bugs! So also got some plant spray for those to help the fern out.
So yay, plant doctored, and lone survivor has company!"}]}