marta_bee

The big news of the day is I finally settled on a Charlotte apartment. It's probably pretty standard fare for a lot of middle-class apartments outside of huge cities, but it's definitely bigger and has some things I'd count as luxuries, like in-unit washer/dryer, (small) dishwasher, even a balcony. It's actually slightly more expensive than my NY place but very slightly, and definitely a bit less than I'd be paying once my lease re-upped this fall. I might find a cheaper place once I know the area better, but it's a good safe landing place and will definitely be a more comfortable space to spend a lot more time at home.

The big thing is just having found a place has me feeling a lot more settled. Work at my current (soon to be former) job is pretty exhausting just now, and there's a lot to get done in the next few months. So it's really nice to have one big piece settled. If nothing else, having 

AO3 is dealing with a DDOS attack, and a group calling itself Anonymous Sudan. They're framing it in terms of moral outrage (opposition to slash and smut, mainly) but also opposition to any site based in America on general principles. I don't even know if they're really responsible, and the link above says this group is almost certainly a pro-Russia group with no connection to Sudan or religious fundamentalism. But the ease in which I slipt into "they hate us for our freedoms" post-9/11 style thinking is a bit disconcerting. I thought I was a bit better than that. Ah, well.

marta_bee

This weekend's biggest accomplishment was managing to survive the heat. It's now 73 F (just under 23 C) and past midnight on one of the coolest days we've had in a week and change. Most days it gets to 87-88 F / 31 C if not higher. That's not totally unreasonable for July I guess, but there's a reason why areas where it's regularly that high have central AC. The South will probably be worse, I'm sure, but they're built for it.

marta_bee

... and a very happy Tuesday to the rest of us.

Youtube being Youtube, I'm not 100% sure this video will be visible to the non-Americans, but then being a bit US-centric on today of all days feels about par for the course. So for the rest of you, the words are a treat in themself.

A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts anywhere
Or a cataclysmic earthquake I'd accept with some despair.
But no: you sent us Congress.
Good God, Sir, was that fair?

I say this with humility in Philadelphia:
We're Your responsibility in Philadelphia.
If you don't want to see us hanging from some far-off British hill,
If you don't want the voice of independency forever stilled,
Then God, Sir, get thee to it:
For Congress never will.

marta_bee

I had a half-day off and wasn't meeting up with the Kid until later, so I read the first chapter of my legal philosophy textbook this afternoon. It was a mini-essay on natural law along with a series of selections from Aquinas. Which is such an odd place to start in a lot of ways because it's so based in a whole other political system than our current one. I mean, I focused so much on medieval philosophy and know quite a lot about him though more other areas than the social/political philosophy this was pulling from. And it had a nice nostalgia factor for me. Still, it felt like starting your study of astrophysics by reading a treatise by Ptolemy.

marta_bee

I'm ridiculously proud of the fact I "assembled" this all by myself. I am a non-homeowner. I have neither a tape measure, hammer, or screwdriver in my possession. Etc. But when Wayfair said it was easy assembly, they apparently meant it. Just unfold a sort of collapsed box covered in rough fabric, pop in a flat panel to the bottom to give it shape, and fit the top over.

I am now the proud owner of one (1) very casual storage ottoman. At least I have a place to rest my feet.

marta_bee

A friend over at Tumblr was having financial troubles and I donated to their Kofi. As an unexpected gift she drew me a kid Sherlock with a bee plushie. So cute! If you like that kind of thing I hope you'll check it out.

ETA: I have Thoughts with a capital 't' about fanart being commissions and am not all that comfortable with it because it seems like a slippery slope toward monetizing fandom. I don't even like the push toward auctioning fanworks to raise money for a good cause. I do fully recognize other people feel differently, Tumblr is probably more okay with commercializing than LJ, and fanart in general than fanfic. I don't judge people who go that route, but I think there will always be that part of me that says: I'll do this because it's the way this community works, but it's not really ideal for me.

That said, helping out someone I know online? Having the financial ability to just drop a chunk of change and have that make a real difference in their life, and the technical tools to do it from the comfort of my couch? I will say there are some good things of making it to a ripe middle age.

marta_bee

I know current events in the UK are hurting actual real people, but at least from my safe distance, the memes are certainly LOL-worthy.

To wit:

(Source)

marta_bee

This lovely fall weather has me thinking, as I usually do, about a passage from my favorite poem:

("Birches," by Robert Frost)

There's no truth in it just yet, at least for me. It's not cold enough for ice, let alone that kind of ice, here, though it's getting closer. I have all the people I could want for company, and not nearly enough nature for this kind of play. And my irritated back makes the stairs something require thought and effort just now; I'm quite sure birch-swinging, even as a fantasy, is quite beyond me.

Still: "When truth broke in" ; "Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair" ; "Though once they are bowed / So low and for so long, they never right themselves." "Whose only play was what he found himself." There's something about this precise brand of wistfulness that always brings a melancholy smile to my face.