a moment of hilarity
Mar. 10th, 2026 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistleingreyMy mother has recently upgraded her phone. When I tried moving the SIM card from the old one to the new one, my fingers couldn't get it seated properly. The old one has a proper tray; her new one has a slim, bottomless frame. Perhaps they've changed the SIM spec and we need to swap the little card, I thought (that's what was wrong the last time I couldn't lodge a SIM in a new phone). My mother and I agreed to meet at the phone carrier's nearest retail shop.
The staffer at the shop was neutrally matter-of-fact as she clicked the SIM into its frame. Thanks, kind staffer.
Just my fingers' insufficiency of sensory feedback, and my long habit of being gentle with tiny bits of hardware, lest they snap. I guess the positive part is that while repeatedly mis-orienting the SIM, I could tell that my fingers were about to snap the little frame, but it feels like an enormous waste of time to have had to go to the shop, after I'd set up everything else on the new phone. (Less than an hour round trip, including my stop for a takeout lunch on the return, but still, a waste.) I apologized to my mother afterwards, and she shrugged and gestured to my cane; for her, those things go together. For me they don't!
OTOH, these are ways that one may learn about current capabilities and limitations, while still taking classes remotely and before attempting to find a paying job likely to be less kind about unexpected physical deficits that almost no one my age who can walk into an office would have. I've applied to a few long-shot jobs over the past year, and that's done.
From another angle: I've had the good fortune to seek employment in each decade of my age so far. IME, folks who sought new jobs mostly in their twenties---and not since---are likely to have the unadjusted false idea that one looks for whatever one can do. In middle age, one checks also for what one cannot reasonably do, to save some time/effort all around: if a hiring manager wouldn't believe in the possibility, there's not much point in trying to convince them. Atop that, I guess, is stuff like abrupt gaps in dexterity for a person with otherwise (even now) above-average dexterity.
(Once, as hiring manager in lieu, I declined to interview a former stay-at-home parent reentering the workforce who posited in a cover letter that homeschooling several kids was equivalent to managing multi-month office projects. No, it's also challenging, complex work, but one mode doesn't confer the skills of the other mode, and the open job req wasn't entry level.)
The staffer at the shop was neutrally matter-of-fact as she clicked the SIM into its frame. Thanks, kind staffer.
Just my fingers' insufficiency of sensory feedback, and my long habit of being gentle with tiny bits of hardware, lest they snap. I guess the positive part is that while repeatedly mis-orienting the SIM, I could tell that my fingers were about to snap the little frame, but it feels like an enormous waste of time to have had to go to the shop, after I'd set up everything else on the new phone. (Less than an hour round trip, including my stop for a takeout lunch on the return, but still, a waste.) I apologized to my mother afterwards, and she shrugged and gestured to my cane; for her, those things go together. For me they don't!
OTOH, these are ways that one may learn about current capabilities and limitations, while still taking classes remotely and before attempting to find a paying job likely to be less kind about unexpected physical deficits that almost no one my age who can walk into an office would have. I've applied to a few long-shot jobs over the past year, and that's done.
From another angle: I've had the good fortune to seek employment in each decade of my age so far. IME, folks who sought new jobs mostly in their twenties---and not since---are likely to have the unadjusted false idea that one looks for whatever one can do. In middle age, one checks also for what one cannot reasonably do, to save some time/effort all around: if a hiring manager wouldn't believe in the possibility, there's not much point in trying to convince them. Atop that, I guess, is stuff like abrupt gaps in dexterity for a person with otherwise (even now) above-average dexterity.
(Once, as hiring manager in lieu, I declined to interview a former stay-at-home parent reentering the workforce who posited in a cover letter that homeschooling several kids was equivalent to managing multi-month office projects. No, it's also challenging, complex work, but one mode doesn't confer the skills of the other mode, and the open job req wasn't entry level.)
Origin Story
Mar. 8th, 2026 12:11 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
post_secret_feedThe post Origin Story appeared first on PostSecret.
Origin Story
Mar. 8th, 2026 12:11 ampost_secret_feedThe post Origin Story appeared first on PostSecret.
Adira’s Story
Mar. 8th, 2026 12:06 ampost_secret_feedDear Frank,
I write to you with incredible news. Last month, I brought home my new service dog, Tango. This was made possible by this Sunday Secret Post.
That post led to nearly $10,000 of donations within 2 weeks! I send all my love to you and to every single person from the PostSecret community and beyond who contributed, as well as those who weren’t able to contribute but still saw the post and hoped on my behalf. You all have made something amazing happen for this 25-year-old woman who is now so excited for the life of independence, freedom, and trust Tango and I are building together.
Thank you for hearing me and helping me that chilly day in Connecticut several years ago, Frank. The secret I shared in that auditorium was one of despair, believing I would never be able to partner with a service dog of my own. I am so grateful to be able to look back on that day and smile because I just didn’t know yet what good fortune was coming my way.
My life changed forever when I bought home my service dog Gusto (nickname Tango). Since then I have:
– had only a fraction of the medical episodes I used to have thanks to my service dog’s early alerting
– moved into my own apartment where I am able to live independently
– returned to school and am currently enrolled in a full course load for the first time in my life
– traveled by train and plane on trips I never could have safely gone on without my service dog
– made new friends
– grown tremendously in security and confidence
– started to figure out a doable career path for myself
I cannot overstate how much Gusto has impacted my heart, my health, and my future. Our togetherness was made possible by the PostSecret community, and I am forever grateful.
If you would like to learn more about the transformative power of service animals, check out the resource below.
Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities
The post Adira’s Story appeared first on PostSecret.
Help fund the Ellarion Tales LARP crowdfunding campaign!
Mar. 6th, 2026 12:04 pmdavidlevineAs you may now if you've been following me for some time, I'm a big fan of European-style Live Action Role Playing (LARP). One LARP I was really excited about back in 2024 was called Odysseus. Inspired by Battlestar Galactica (and other SF TV shows and movies), the game was played in Finland on an incredibly detailed and interactive spaceship set, and had a lot of hype after its successful 2019 run. So much hype, in fact, that the two 2024 runs were massively oversubscribed, and I was very disappointed not to get a ticket in the lottery.
But now Odysseus is back, in an exciting new form. The organizers, realizing that the massive volunteer effort and cost to create and then disassemble the spaceship set were unsustainable, have decided to crowdfund ten more runs of the game in 2026-2027. If the campaign succeeds -- which depends on them selling out all ten runs -- they'll have nearly a million dollars to play with, and will be able to set up a permanent spaceship set and pay the staff to run it. That'll give people choices about when to attend, create the possibility of runs in Finnish and Swedish (and maybe more!), and provide a facility that can be used for corporate events, educational events, and new and different science fiction LARPs. If the 2026-2027 runs demonstrate that this can be run as a sustainable business, it might go even longer than that.
But none of this will happen unless the crowdfunding campaign succeeds. I've backed it, pledging for 3 tickets for myself and my partners plus an additional pledge to increase the campaign's chances of success. I encourage you to check it out, and pledge if you can. I think I can guarantee that if you attend this LARP you will have a fabulous time.
Back the campaign here: https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/ellarion-tales/odysseus-first-light
But now Odysseus is back, in an exciting new form. The organizers, realizing that the massive volunteer effort and cost to create and then disassemble the spaceship set were unsustainable, have decided to crowdfund ten more runs of the game in 2026-2027. If the campaign succeeds -- which depends on them selling out all ten runs -- they'll have nearly a million dollars to play with, and will be able to set up a permanent spaceship set and pay the staff to run it. That'll give people choices about when to attend, create the possibility of runs in Finnish and Swedish (and maybe more!), and provide a facility that can be used for corporate events, educational events, and new and different science fiction LARPs. If the 2026-2027 runs demonstrate that this can be run as a sustainable business, it might go even longer than that.
But none of this will happen unless the crowdfunding campaign succeeds. I've backed it, pledging for 3 tickets for myself and my partners plus an additional pledge to increase the campaign's chances of success. I encourage you to check it out, and pledge if you can. I think I can guarantee that if you attend this LARP you will have a fabulous time.
Back the campaign here: https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/ellarion-tales/odysseus-first-light
current stitching, and
Mar. 5th, 2026 10:43 amthistleingreyI've learned what I can from the heavily modified slipover that I knitted and re-knitted all through the past two months. Because the recent absence of a subcutaneous pain-mesh layer has coincided with thermoregulation's partial return to service, I no longer want a personally sized blanket layer in sport-weight wool/alpaca. I've bound it off, both to keep as a measurement reference and because the yarn wouldn't survive further reuse.
( non-knitting digression )
Thinking through some incidents has been aided considerably by working with yarn bought when my skin first felt oddly cold. I've used it recently as a memory prop, then undone the deliberately false start and restarted the project with different yarn. As part of the process, I've finally recovered the skeins that were reused to become about half of a Little Wave cardigan, then abandoned when I realized that the pattern's proportions and mine would never agree. Instead, I'm meditating upon Capsa.
Thanks, long-ago clearance-discounted yarn, oddly too heavy for past me to crochet, for taking good care of me.
I've tried the first few rows of a swatch for New Terrain in Lavold Hempathy yarn---old, if not as old as the yarn meant first for the blanket I couldn't crochet. Perhaps my 2019 hands could've managed it, but my current hands will need a bit of wool in the yarn blend to keep those slipped stitches even. Hempathy is cotton/hemp/rayon, with no bounce/spring to it.
Yamagara's New Terrain interests me because its shoulder-yoke is constructed similarly to that of the Sundial tee, except that Yamagara is actually competent at designing patterns with carefully considered details---all the finishing touches that Sundial's designer (Wool and Pine) tends to skip. As a fallback, I could make a version of New Terrain without the terrain, plain across the torso, if the slipped stitches and my hands can't agree at all.
( non-knitting digression )
Thinking through some incidents has been aided considerably by working with yarn bought when my skin first felt oddly cold. I've used it recently as a memory prop, then undone the deliberately false start and restarted the project with different yarn. As part of the process, I've finally recovered the skeins that were reused to become about half of a Little Wave cardigan, then abandoned when I realized that the pattern's proportions and mine would never agree. Instead, I'm meditating upon Capsa.
Thanks, long-ago clearance-discounted yarn, oddly too heavy for past me to crochet, for taking good care of me.
I've tried the first few rows of a swatch for New Terrain in Lavold Hempathy yarn---old, if not as old as the yarn meant first for the blanket I couldn't crochet. Perhaps my 2019 hands could've managed it, but my current hands will need a bit of wool in the yarn blend to keep those slipped stitches even. Hempathy is cotton/hemp/rayon, with no bounce/spring to it.
Yamagara's New Terrain interests me because its shoulder-yoke is constructed similarly to that of the Sundial tee, except that Yamagara is actually competent at designing patterns with carefully considered details---all the finishing touches that Sundial's designer (Wool and Pine) tends to skip. As a fallback, I could make a version of New Terrain without the terrain, plain across the torso, if the slipped stitches and my hands can't agree at all.
not stitching
Feb. 28th, 2026 12:53 pmthistleingreyRandom art: Svetlana Gordon's Tiffany slipover, as in the lamps, I think. I have no plans to knit it! but it's pretty.