mtbc | Reading

I assume there's a more thorough recording of Mr. Schwank's testimony before the US Congress available on YouTube?

https://bsky.app/profile/factpostnews.bsky.social/post/3mfknbgfzcd2f

Current Mood: angry

maju

We had a blizzard overnight. I couldn't hear anything down here in the basement, but my son in law said it was very noisy with the wind blowing around the house. It was apparently blowing in all directions, as the windows on all four sides of the house are partly covered with snow. It's still snowing, although it's a bit hard to tell the difference between snow falling and snow being blown off trees etc by the wind. Of course the girls have another snow day, and I suspect they will have a delayed start tomorrow.

My son in law has been working to clear some paths at the side of the house leading out to the cars; he needs to clear enough space so the girls can walk out to the school bus tomorrow, but his work is made very difficult by the mountain of snow thrown up by the snow plough at the top of the driveway.

I feel like I'd only just got my car completely shovelled out after our last big snowstorm and now there's snow banked up all around it to the level of the bottoms of the doors. Luckily just yesterday I moved it forward several inches so I don't have to think about moving it again for about a week.

oursin

And I'm not at all sure it's culture-neutral, hmmmm?

Okay, I had parents who had books in the house and read to me and once I could read took me to the local library to get tickets for the children's department.

No children's museums that I recall but visiting the rather dull local one attached to the public library, and visits to local sites of historical interest.

My primary school was not, I think, particularly distinguished - suspect that the year there were a whole four of us passed the 11+ was Memorable - but there were some good teachers.

I don't know how one calibrates into all this my mother knowing the teacher of Infants 1 and asking her about whether I could go to school once I had turned 5 (having an autumn birthday) and her saying, oh, send her along, on account of my mother thinking I was entirely ready.

And then the Head saying I should do the 11+ technically a year early - (which was not a given, people did get kept back)

Going to a fairly academically-intense girls' grammar school, where I did get the odd spot of class-hassle, I realise in retrospect (including from horrid Mrs B of the really weird ideas about sex), where I was marked out as university material and my parents exhorted to keep me on the sixth form -

Which they were entirely happy to do.

So yes, I was I suppose supported on my academic journey. But some of that was external factors, like the existence of that extinct phoenix, full student grants.

susandennis

I had the best swim this morning. I woke up ready to go and just enjoyed the heck out of it. Funny how some days are don't wanna and some are Move Over Katie!

Steroid shots make my foot feel instantly better for a couple of days and then there are about 3 days of back to ouch before it starts working for good. Then in about a week, it will turn black and blue and stay that way for about a month. We are back to the ouchy part. But I was able to walk to the pool and back so, not horrible.

When I redid all my mp3's, I dumped them into folders - 30 files in each folder. Zero curation. I think Karen Carpenter had a beautiful voice but the current batch I'm listening to is about 25 Karen Carpenter songs and that's really more than anyone needs in a row. So I'm now swapping out for the next folder of 30. This batch has no clues. The files are named 1.mp3 and 2.mp3 so no telling what the fuck is on them. Come Wednesday - the next lap swim day - I'll probably be begging for more Karen Carpenter.

spacefem solved my Hazelnut coffee problem. Syrup! Amazon is bringing me a small assortment of small bottles of sugar free coffee syrup - Hazelnut, Carmel and Vanilla. I put the Hazelnut k-cups out in the elbow with a sign that says FREE. They were gone before I got back from my swim.

I have a plastic shoebox full of batteries. I have a few C's. a few D's. A fuckload of AA's. Some buttons - various sizes. A couple of really weird ones and 1 AAA. What do I need right now? 2 AAA's, of course. Sigh.

Another Paramount+ treat. One of my all time favorite sit coms. No one watched it but me, I think so it only lasted 2 seasons but now both seasons are on Paramount+. Superior Donuts. Good cast - phenomenal writing. Still very fun. I'm treating myself to an episode a day.

I've never put together a Lego set. I've thought about it but resisted knowing that it's likely a rabbit hole for me. Plus now I have bunnies to make 3 a day and I'm on track so far. And then I have to sew pockets onto my swim robes. I have projects. I don't need more. Plus, there are all those hours that

spifikins stole from me when she introduced me to that fucking arrow app.

shadowkat

So the snowstorm was/is Bomb Cyclone - which I learned ages ago from an allergist -will play havoc on anyone with sinus issues.

A bomb cyclone according to the National Weather Service is : "or the meteorological term "bombogenesis," refers to the central pressure of a low-pressure system dropping at least 24 millibars within 24 hours.

Most bomb cyclones happen off the East Coast, which typically sees about one of these intense storms each year. In the Northeast, they form when there’s a sharp temperature contrast usually between a cold continental air mass meeting the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

This temperature difference, combined with a strong jet-stream disturbance that forces air upward, sets the stage for bombogenesis. Many nor’easters actually fall into this category, as cold air from Canada collides with the warm Gulf Stream, creating a perfect recipe for explosive storm growth."

The reason it plays havoc on sinus issues - is the barometric pressure drops. The fluid in the head shifts - placing pressure on the inner ear, resulting in vertigo.

It gave me non-stop vertigo, which I've been battling with prescription Dramamine to combat dizziness and nausea. It's kind of like seasickness, if you've never experienced it? But on land.

I went to bed, lay down, the room began to spin, frak that, I slept sitting up. As long as I was upright, not moving my head too much, I was fine. I'm hoping it is gone by tonight. It should be - since I think it is storm related.

Oh well, it could be worse - I could be homeless with vertigo, or stuck in an airport or bus depot with it, and no pills to take for it. (They work just not as well as I'd like? Work better when it is mild and well, we aren't in the middle of a bomb cyclone, and I didn't have a cold the previous week. But they did keep the nausea and vomiting at bay.)

The storm is still going by the way. It's been going since roughly 10 pm last night. Although it's no longer a blizzard.

Currently or as of 10 a.m. Monday (it's about 11:42 AM now and yes still snowing):https://www.nbcnewyork.com/weather/weather-stories/how-much-snow-totals-inches-nyc-long-island-nj-accumulation-blizzard/6467598/

It's shut NYC down almost completely. The Mayor was smart though - he cancelled all schools, declared a travel ban, and the Governor informed government agencies to keep all non-essential employees home, for remote work, if possible. They have a Full Snow Day for the first time in years (no remote), public transportation has shut down in places, and the travel ban was extended to about 6pm. It's 31 F, and feels like 6 F.

( Transit Adjustments )

https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2026/02/23/what-s-open-closed-nyc-snow-storm-feb-2026

[ETA: The travel ban in NYC has been lifted, but with the caveat that people should drive slowly and with caution.]

"As of 10 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, more than 11,200 flights in and out of the U.S. were canceled or delayed.

In the New York City area, disruptions were widespread. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, 42% of departing flights were canceled, along with 7% delayed. Incoming flights were hit even harder, with 63% canceled and 2% delayed."

- https://www.lohud.com/story/weather/2026/02/22/nyc-airports-hit-by-massive-cancellations-ahead-of-blizzard-see-live-flight-status/88762935007/

Vertigo hasn't gone, unfortunately, but the medication has helped a bit.

So how's your day going so far?

conuly

And I am trapped at work!

I mean, the buses are running, but nobody else is coming in, and it’s not a job you can just shut down for the day.

poliphilo

I dreamed our garden was full of junk- and we were clearing it away and burning it so the children from the school next door could come in and work and play.

Now there's symbolism you don't have to work too hard to understand.

I gather the police are treating Prince Andrew's former home- Royal Lodge- as a crime scene, taking up floorboards and thrusting remote control cameras into areas that are hard of access.

And attention is shifting from Little St James to the Zorro ranch. There are reports of bodies being buried there.

Early trawls through the files concentrated on mentions of the current president. He had had his people redact and redact again but even so he was all over them- and the evidence was damning. Now attention is focused on other names and other oddities. What exactly is this obsession the Epstein class had with food- and cheap food at that? Do "pizza", "grape soda" and "jerky" mean what we are coming to think they mean?

How do you talk about any of this? Words like "horror" are shopworn. I find myself veering aside into euphemism and even humour. Perhaps the best mode is the straightforward reporting of fact.

hudebnik

As of Saturday morning, there was a blizzard warning scheduled from Sunday 6 AM to Monday 6 PM, with 12-18" expected.

By Sunday morning, the blizzard warning had been postponed to 1 PM, total accumulation still 12-18".

By 1 PM, there were a few flakes of snow in the air, but nothing "blizzardy".

Around 5 PM, I went out to clear the walk, and I wasn't sure whether to use a shovel or a push-broom. I chose the push-broom, but by the time I was done with the front and back walks, it was becoming clear that I should have used a shovel.

Around 11 PM, I went out to clear the walk. There were about 7" on the ground, but light and fluffy. I cleared the front steps, the walk to the sidewalk, and the sidewalk in front of our property; didn't get to the back sidewalk or the walk between the houses. This was enough to take the dogs out for their bedtime walk. It's still snowing steadily, so by morning it will probably be impossible to tell where I shoveled.

UPDATE, 8:30 AM: Just shoveled another 8-9" from the front steps, walk, and sidewalk. Haven't gotten to the back sidewalk or the walk between the houses. It's still reasonably light and fluffy, but sticking to the shovel; need to apply some baking spray. And it's still coming down steadily.

flemmings

Woke up at a reasonable hour, took meds, looked out the study window, saw snow, and decided to go bak to bed. Did, and dreamed of being back at Bedford with sibs and Aunt H trying to work out how we could live there and also sell to the Chuas. There was an official sort of man pressing the point, who was some sort of policeman, but who also at one point was dealing with a chubby baby. And Bedford was definitely Bedford except that parts of it were Bedford as renovated by the Chuas. It was the sort of dream that leaves an all-day hangover: not unpleasant, just mildly disconcerting because, well, we sold the place almost forty years ago and my aunt died in 2000, and there I was at Bedford talking to her this morning.

Eventually got up around noon and breakfasted and all. Then by a judicious but generally unadvised combination of muscle relaxants and vodka, shut my back up enough so I could scrape the snow off the steps and path. And feeling almost like old days, lifted the compacted layer of ice and snow from the pavement in front of my house and SND's, who must be away this weekend, and then a stretch of NND's frontage. We were just at freezing today but tomorrow will see a fast plunge and the slush will turn to ice.

There was a video about making lentil pancakes: boil up a carrot, potato, onion, and red lentils, blend in blender, form into patties, cook in oil. I did the veg first and separate, then added the lentils and cooked till soft. Except that red lentils immediately turn into mush so that, when blended, I wind up with lentil soup. Am clearly missing a step. Maybe I should add the breadcrumbs I do not have, or cook some green lentils to add instead. Or just resign myself to lentil soup.

shadowkat

Crazy Org is prepping for the snow armageddon or snow-hurricane that is set to hit us around midnight tonight. My sinuses and head can feel it coming - I've been struggling with a sick sinus headache all day long, along with vertigo - the only thing keeping it at bay are medications. (antihistimine for vertigo, decongestant (that you can take if you have high blood pressure), and migraine meds.). So far it's kind of working. I did fall asleep while watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS Passport around 2pm. ( I decided to donate to PBS - and got access to the app again, at least for the year. If you donate more than $60, you can use the PBS Passport app.)

The Mayor issued a "travel ban" effective at 9pm today (Sunday) and the Long Island Rail Road suspended service, and Crazy Org (major public transportation agency) has advised its non-essential office workers - that you can tele-work from home if you are set up for it or in the program. (I'm not in the program (union) nor am I certain I have the set up any longer - since they've changed the security protocols again - but I've already chosen to take a personal day or vacation day - since the vertigo is hovering in the background and will be an issue. I have enough left that it won't be an issue.)
( Read more... )

I've been binge-watching All Creatures Great and Small - S6, napping, and fending off a vertigo headache for most of the day. I did go to the grocery store around 1 pm (before the storm really hit - and it was just drizzling) to pick up olive oil, coconut oil, honey, Mrs Dash seasoning, toilet paper, chocolate, and recycling bags and trash bags.
Also spoke to mother. Apparently it's raining in Ohau, Hawaii, and almost spring in Montana (according to my niece) , which has received hardly any snow, the plants are springing to life, and the temperatures are in the fifties and sixties. It's also in the 60s in Hilton Head, SC. Sounds lovely. I want to be there. It's 31 F here and rapidly dropping, and snowing.

Now, have decided to try cubicle mate rec'd "Start-Up". [ETA: tried, gave up (I found the guy tied to the chair with barbed wire a bit much) and the woman wanting to do a crypto start up annoying - plus I am not an Adam Brody fan). Went back to watch Angel S5.]

conuly

I didn’t guess that I’d be stuck with the roads closed until at least noon tomorrow.

Well, I’m getting paid every hour I’m here, at least.

maju

Great excitement in the house this morning because my daughter came back from her conference in NYC. She was planning to come back later today but decided she'd better travel before the forecast blizzard strikes.

It started snowing about an hour or so ago. At first the flakes were tiny and almost invisible, but now they're bigger and it's looking more blizzard-like although nothing seems to be sticking on the road yet.

=========

Now, a few hours later, the snow is starting to stick, but we've still only had a very small amount especially considering it started falling about 4 hours ago and considering the NWS is giving us a blizzard warning.

oursin

This week's bread was a Standen loaf, strong brown/buckwheat flour, maple syrup, malt extract - but due to electric scale going weird and giving strange readings, the proportions got very odd and it turned out larger and a lot denser than usual, if still edible.

Friday night supper: Gujerati khichchari, with pinenuts.

Saturday breakfast rolls: adaptable soft roll recipe, 4:1 strong white/buckwheat flour, a touch of maple syrup, dried cranberries, turned out rather well.

Today's lunch: Scottish salmon tail fillets baked in foil with butter and lime slices; served with La Ratte potatoes boiled with salt and dill and tossed in butter, buttered spinach and baked San Marzano tomatoes.

brithistorian

I was reading this morning's edition of Dan Rather's Substack newsletter, where he was writing about the song "Stand By Me". (Apparently he writes about a song or musician every Sunday.)

Anyway, he mentioned that "Stand By Me" was "numbered among the Recording Industry Association of America’s 25 Songs of the Century." This naturally got me curious: A ranked list of things? That's like catnip to me!

So I went to look for it. Turns out that there's no such things as the RIAA "25 Songs of the Century." What there is is the "Song of the Century" list, produced by the RIAA in conjunction with the NEA and Scholastic Inc. It's a list of 365 songs. So where did Rather get this idea of "25 Songs of the Century"? Because "Stand by Me" is #25 on the list, and the Wikipedia entry for "Songs of the Century" only includes the top 25 songs on the list. Apparently Rather (or, more likely, one of his research assistants) looked at the Wikipedia entry, didn't read the text carefully, and based on the table of songs assumed that it was a list of 25 songs.

If you read the text carefully, not only do you get the correct number of songs. You also start to question the RIAA's methodology for creating the list. According to the entry, "[h]undreds of voters, who included elected officials, people from the music industry and from the media, teachers, and students" were asked to select the songs. These voters were selected by the RIAA (and one is forced to ask "how many students does the RIAA know?"), and of the 1300 voters selected, only 200 responded. Seems kind of sloppy and haphazard.

Then, if you read the list, you see that the voters were rather sloppy and haphazard in their definition of a song: #7 on the list is the entire album of West Side Story, which is not "a song." Altogether there are 18 albums on the list: 11 Broadway shows, 6 jazz albums, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Obviously I don't have a copy of the instructions that the RIAA sent to the voters, but I think we can all agree that (with the exception of Thick as a Brick and possibly a few others) an album is not a song.

Also, just as an aside, I think 2001 (when this survey was conducted) was a bit premature to be choosing the most impactful songs of the 20th century.

All that being said, I think any other such list would be just as subject to being haphazard and subjective, and on skimming over the list I do think it would be an enjoyable and/or interesting list to listen to. Plus, unless you were born on February 29, you can figure out what day of the year you were born on and then look at the complete list and see what song your birthday corresponds to. (Mine is "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy.)

poliphilo

Picture Diary 120

1. One small step....

2, Annoying little brother

3. Emergence

4. Missing the point

5. Hide and seek

6. I spy

susandennis

My foot still hurts but it hurts WAY less and is on the mend. It's always surprising to me, the absence after something has hurt for so long. It's like a little gift. Or a big gift, if you are my foot.

I love a little Hazelnut flavor in my coffee now and again. The other day, at Safeway, I picked up a small box of Hazelnut flavored coffee pods. I brewed one yesterday for elbow coffee. I think I knew this but had forgotten. Those Hazelnut pods are HAZELNUT!!!! I wanted a hint and they are like a tsunami. BUT I drink my coffee black so, honestly, only wash my mug once in a great while so this morning's coffee had the perfect hint of Hazelnut. Win?

This morning I got up and put the comforter and pillow cases into the washing machine and changed the sheet with the help of Biggie which made it, of course, way more of a chore but it is done. And the comforter will be done in another hour. My washer has this lovely heavy bedding function. It probably does nothing special but I love having it.

Then I went to the pool and had a wonderful swim.

I have nothing on the calendar this week at all. There are baseball games every afternoon on the radio. Yesterday, they had a 'new' announcer for a few innings. I thought we had all of the worst baseball announcers already but wait, there's more! This guy was, apparently, a Mariner pitcher for a minute just before the pandemic. He talks way too fast and says absolutely nothing interesting. It hurt my ears. He said that he would be on the TV broadcasts for some games this year. Fine by me since I mute those anyway. Geesh.

I have 20 more bunnies to make before Saturday. Shouldn't be a problem. There are 2.95 done already.

I have my good book to read and tons of stuff on TV. There is a new (to me) Dawn French comedy on Paramount+ called "Can You Keep A Secret". I have two more episodes to watch. It's kind of hilarious in a very Dawn French way. She gets me.

When my brother was here, we got rid of a lot of shit and shifted and organized the rest. I could not have done it without him and it's still reaping such rewards. It's just a joy to be able to find stuff, to easily put stuff away and to have it all look so nice. My utility room went from a claustrophobic mess to a joy and the storage room... perfection. Yesterday, I shifted some stuff around so easily. I do love this apartment. But even more so now.

When the closet got redone, I took down the cat cam since I moved their beds but now Biggie has a new spot so I think I need to put it back. EASY to do since it's just on the shelf in the storage unit with the correct cable and wall wart. Soooooooo organized am I.

andrewducker

Spent the afternoon at Hugh and Meredith's, where Hugh showed Sophia how his 3d printer works (and how he makes 3d dungeons out of foam). Very cool stuff, and they both enjoyed their souvenirs.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

conuly

So, you got my opinion on Heated Rivalry, but I gotta say, I will never not read fanfics structured like ongoing internet sagas.

Also, gotta love the one dude, BostonSportsBro69, who posts in both /r/relationship_advice and /r/hockey going around in /r/hockey saying "Uh, no, it's just normal sportsbro rival stuff, you're all reading way too much into this" ~~when~~ because he absolutely knows better. (I don't think he's supposed to be one of Ilya's teammates, just a fan.)

***************

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oursin

Happy birthday,

laura_anne!

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Mark T. B. Carroll

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February 2026

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Mark Carroll's Journal

thoughts and questions

Reading

On Trumpist ICE "Training"

(no subject)

That educational privilege meme thing

Monday

Snow bound - and struggling with vertigo...

Snow shows no sign of stopping

Interesting Links for 23-02-2026

The Horror

weather

(no subject)

Snow-cane or Snow Armageddon 2026

I guessed people would call out, and I was right

(no subject)

Culinary

Pretty much the opposite of a scientific method, I suppose

Picture Diary 120

Clicking into place

Photo cross-post

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February 2026

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