covid and flu tests
Oct. 1st, 2025 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redbirdBona Fide Masks currently has covid tests and combination flu+covid tests on sale at a good price. With a discount code they sent me, BFM15, I just paid $41 for a total of six covid+flu combo tests (three boxes of two), with free shipping. For both kinds of test, they list the expiration dates. The website is https://www.bonafidemasks.com I've bought KN95 masks from them; this is the first time I've ordered tests from them, but the company has been reliable.
This is probably only relevant to people who live in the US.
I still have a few of the free covid tests we got from the city of Boston last fall, but these tests are well past their expiration dates. The city stopped giving them away over the summer, and I don't know if they're going to restart the program.
This is probably only relevant to people who live in the US.
I still have a few of the free covid tests we got from the city of Boston last fall, but these tests are well past their expiration dates. The city stopped giving them away over the summer, and I don't know if they're going to restart the program.
confederates never learn a goddamn thing
Oct. 1st, 2025 07:55 amsolarbirdIf anyone’s wondering whether US farmers exporting to China just need a little “temporary help” to get over Trump’s trade war, read this thread from farmer Sarah Taber on Mastodon. She’s a farmer from North Carolina and deeply involved in farming issues. Read all of the thread.
If you won’t, though – if know your US Civil War history, you might know about how the Confederacy self-embargoed cotton exports, withholding “King Cotton” from the market.
They thought it would grind textiles production in the UK to a halt and force the UK to come in on their side of the war.
What happened instead was Egyptian cotton.
Trump pulled his bullshit thinking China would bow to him over soybeans; what happened instead was Brazil and Argentina. They haven’t bought a single goddamn US soybean since last spring, as South America ramped production right the fuck up.
Soybeans were the US’s largest agricultural export.
Emphasis on were.
And arguably, it gets worse from there.
So seriously, go read the thread. It’s good, knowledgable shit.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey„ volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura
Oct. 1st, 2025 09:55 amjames_davis_nicoll
Akiko's plan to become Japan's foremost manga artist is manifestly reasonable, so why will reality not cooperate?
Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey„ volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura
September 2025 in Review
Sep. 30th, 2025 12:22 pmjames_davis_nicoll
21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%), 1 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).
The chart is breaking formatting. Need to fix or remove it. I do like charts, though.
September 2025 in Review
Elegy for Angels and Dogs /The Graveyard Heart by Williams and Zelazny
Sep. 30th, 2025 08:45 amjames_davis_nicoll
Two stories about beautiful people partying their way through time.
Elegy for Angels and Dogs /The Graveyard Heart (Tor SF Double, volume 24) By Walter Jon Williams & Roger Zelazny
Clarke Award Finalists 2016
Sep. 29th, 2025 12:15 pmjames_davis_nicoll2016: The Chilcot Inquiry illustrates the meticulous process by which the UK went to war in Iraq, Lord Lucan is declared dead, and the UK’s narrow vote to leave the EU is at worst the second stupidest collective decision made by a Western democracy in 2016.
Pretend I caught that the poll autofilled the wrong question and that it reads "which 2016 Clarke Award finalists did you read?"
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2016 Clarke Award finalists did you read??
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Arcadia by Iain Pears
Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson
The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Way Down Dark by James Smythe
Pretend I caught that the poll autofilled the wrong question and that it reads "which 2016 Clarke Award finalists did you read?"
Poll #33672 Clarke Award Finalists 2016
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50
Which of these look interesting?
View Answers
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
22 (44.0%)
Arcadia by Iain Pears
2 (4.0%)
Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson
7 (14.0%)
The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
12 (24.0%)
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
42 (84.0%)
Way Down Dark by James Smythe
0 (0.0%)
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2016 Clarke Award finalists did you read??
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Arcadia by Iain Pears
Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson
The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Way Down Dark by James Smythe
Interesting things - 2025 09 28
Sep. 28th, 2025 10:37 pmgentlyepigrams- Your kitchen is full of microplastics. Here's how to eat less of them. Teal deer: don't eat. (There are some ways to minimize but no way to completely avoid them.)
- If You Don't Know What To Do. A really useful framing that an e-quaintance of mine from Metafilter wrote about how to get social stuff done (including things like: volunteering).
- The Secret Society That Has Driven Baylor Administrators Crazy for Almost a Century. The NoZe Brotherhood sounds like a cool bunch of folks. Also you have to love any group that nailed Paul Pressler so hard.
- A drunk driver hit our car, my three friends died, and I began a fight for my life – and my ballet career. Trying to think about something to say about this that doesn't amount to disability inspiration porn.
- Original drawing of Night Watch dog found. I have a friend who's super into Rembrandt and this is the kind of thing I send him.
- hogmanay. On the meanings and origin of this word, the Scots English word for New Year's Eve.
- $900K settlement reached with California man who was pressured to confess murder that never happened. ACAB.
- With the Serial Numbers Filed Off: The Problem with Trad Pub Fanfic. Apparently there are three Dramione fics-gone-pro coming out this year and two of them are slave fics. Ew.
- The Life and Death of the American Foodie. I read this and of course the author was from Austin. She's not entirely wrong, but she's very Austin (and particularly in the way whiteness permeates both her perspective and the culture she's describing)
- American makes history by winning one of France’s top cheese competitions. And we sent two women!
- Woman hospitalized with pain and vomiting—diet soda cured her. She had a bezoar, which is actually a mass you get in your stomach, usually from fruit and vegetable mass, and diet soda dissolved it. The acid in four cans of Coke was enough to do the trick.
I don't know what to make of this
Sep. 28th, 2025 08:37 pmjames_davis_nicoll
The Cherryh titles I dropped into ngram fell into 3 patterns:
Ones whose titles don't play nicely with ngrams. I dropped those.
Ones where the mentions per year decline fairly steadily year to year.
Cyteen. What's up with Cyteen? Did Jo Walton mention it on tor dot com around 2009?
Chicagoans, post pics and video!
Sep. 28th, 2025 03:03 pmsolarbirdFascist Trump’s allies are out today repeating the “cities are war zones” lie, so anybody in Chicago needs to get out there and starting posting pictures of their “war zone” just like Portland.
“Chicago’s a nightmare, it is literally a war zone” — Rand Paul
People you expect to know better will not, in fact know better. I’ve run into this too damn many times. People who you’d think wouldn’t bite on this bullshit absolutely will bite on this bullshit. So you need to reveal the lie through a massive flood of photographic evidence you vouch for personally, yourself.
Post your reality, Chicago. Everywhere. Starting right now.
(video with relevant quote via Aaron Rupar)
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
Tiger by the Tail and Other Science Fiction Stories by Alan E. Nourse
Sep. 28th, 2025 08:59 amjames_davis_nicoll
Nine science fiction stories by the author of The Universe Between.
Tiger by the Tail and Other Science Fiction Stories by Alan E. Nourse
Books Received, September 20 — September 26
Sep. 27th, 2025 09:10 amjames_davis_nicoll
Six works new to me: four fantasy, one mystery, one non-fiction (from an unexpected source)... unless you count the fantasy-mystery as mystery, in which case it's three fantasy and two mysteries. At least two are series. I don't know why publishers are so averse to labelling series.
Books Received, September 20 — September 26
Poll #33662 Books Received, September 20 — September 26
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43
Which of these look interesting?
View Answers
An Ordinary Sort of Evil by Kelley Armstrong
12 (27.9%)
Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst (July 2026)
12 (27.9%)
Following My Nose by Alexei Panshin (December 2024)
11 (25.6%)
The Fake Divination Offense by Sara Raasch (May 2026)
7 (16.3%)
The Harvey Girl by Dana Stabenow (February 2026)
8 (18.6%)
Scarlet Morning by ND Stevenson (September 2025)
17 (39.5%)
Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.3%)
Cats!
32 (74.4%)
errands and a bit of exercise
Sep. 26th, 2025 06:32 pmredbirdFor reasons, I ran some errands today so Adrian and Cattitude could stay home.
The main goal was to take a bathrobe to the Zipper Hospital, and ask them to replace the damaged zipper. So I did that, and was surprised by the sign saying they took cash and checks. Cash only would have surprised me less; in practice, I doubt they're being given many checks these days. They want payment in advance, but I had enough cash to cover it, so I didn't need to ask them for the location of the nearest ATM.
I then went to LA Burdick's, for a cup of hot chocolate, and a bag of chocolate-covered orange and lemon peel. The hot chocolate was good, but I spilled some on myself when I opened the takeout cup. So, I drank the hot chocolate, carefully; went to Trader Joe's; and then took the trolley home.
The trip wasn't a huge amount of walking, but it's the most I've done in the last couple of weeks. I did a little PT this afternoon as well; I've been keeping up with that pretty well.
The main goal was to take a bathrobe to the Zipper Hospital, and ask them to replace the damaged zipper. So I did that, and was surprised by the sign saying they took cash and checks. Cash only would have surprised me less; in practice, I doubt they're being given many checks these days. They want payment in advance, but I had enough cash to cover it, so I didn't need to ask them for the location of the nearest ATM.
I then went to LA Burdick's, for a cup of hot chocolate, and a bag of chocolate-covered orange and lemon peel. The hot chocolate was good, but I spilled some on myself when I opened the takeout cup. So, I drank the hot chocolate, carefully; went to Trader Joe's; and then took the trolley home.
The trip wasn't a huge amount of walking, but it's the most I've done in the last couple of weeks. I did a little PT this afternoon as well; I've been keeping up with that pretty well.
Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu
Sep. 26th, 2025 09:17 amjames_davis_nicoll
A grieving mother and her best friend break into a ghost museum to conduct illicit but surely harmless Ghost Day celebrations. Revelations await.
Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu
On Writing Romance as Hard Science Fiction
Sep. 25th, 2025 10:07 amjames_davis_nicoll
More stories should dig into the chemistry, biology, and physics of falling in love.
On Writing Romance as Hard Science Fiction
Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack
Sep. 25th, 2025 08:53 amjames_davis_nicoll
Amid economic downturn and political strife, young American teen discovers her hidden potential.
Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack
Amber Rising session notes around Carnivale - 2025 09 01 & 2025 09 24
Sep. 25th, 2025 01:58 amgentlyepigramsBrief notes on the Carnivale session of Amber Rising (2025 09 01 - Labor Day hybrid session)
( Very brief summary mostly to provide context for the follow-up conversation. )
Brief notes on the follow-up session with GM Mel for Rhiannon about the contests. (2025 09 24)
( Mostly about her conversation with Angel. )
Follow up actions (may add more later):
( Very brief summary mostly to provide context for the follow-up conversation. )
Brief notes on the follow-up session with GM Mel for Rhiannon about the contests. (2025 09 24)
( Mostly about her conversation with Angel. )
Follow up actions (may add more later):
- Note to Ordille about the poisoning - sent by the GMs
- Follow up with Abuchi - who is close to him and will be able to provide a Trump?
- Follow up with older siblings who remember the Lorris affair
- Research the Lorris affair with books/NPCs