solarbird: (pingsearch)

So I’ve been getting my radio game back together, since in adventurous times – particularly times with the possibility of particularly severe emergencies and communications troubles – it’s very good to have access to and practice with backup comms that will work under almost all circumstances.

I’ve also been brushing up on my Amateur radio skills, tho’ really in both cases this comes down to “buying and/or making antennas,” which has meant a bit of both, but particularly making antennas.

I feel like I’ve got the GMRS kit into decent nick. I need to make a longer-term version of the attic antenna rig; while I can do about as well in the highest front window, that setup is somewhat inconvenient and has to be taken down every day. So if I can just have something just set up full time somewhere out of the way, that’d obviously be much better. I’ve got it all worked out at this point, too; all I really need is cable. And to build a functional duplicate of my latest GMRS antenna.

Looking up towards the peak of a roof from inside the attic, a series of beams rise up to a crossbeam upon which sits an antenna going up to the top of the space. A piece of paper pinned to the crossbeam reads "GMRS" indicating that this is the location for the GMRS antenna.

There’s been a bit of a learning curve but at this point I can reach the West Seattle repeater on 15, the Beacon Hill on 16, the Queen Anne on 18 – hugely important, the busiest repeater, an unknown repeater on 19, the Maple Leaf repeater on 20, and the Snohomish repeater on 22. I can also occasionally reach the Redmond repeater on 17, but that’s kind of a best-conditions ping and I don’t know how useful it’d actually be given how weak my signal must be even when it does get picked up.

Also, I’ve gone ahead and coded up North Bend on 21, just to have it there even though there’s no way in hell I’ll ever reach it from here.

Meanwhile, over on the Amateur bands, the new 70cm/2m antenna – this one, I bought – has made a huge difference and really broken me out of my UHF Hole. I’ve been adding Amateur repeaters as I verify I can reach them, and I even managed to get the local 1.25m relay into parrot mode so I know my voice is audible for sure now.

So far tho’ GMRS is much more active, probably because it’s much easier and because the license doesn’t require a test. You can just buy one for $35 and it’s good for 10 years. And it works with FRS which requires no license at all.

It’s also far more limited – no HF component at all, just UHF, just FM, no arbitrary frequencies, just channels and repeaters – but low barrier to entry is most definitely a good thing here.

I’ve got more posts I want to get caught up on but tonight I just wanted to get something – anything, really – out there to celebrate digging my way out of this RF hole which is where I live. So, uh…

RADYA! Yeah! xD

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

cupcake_goth: (vampfangs)
(Thank you FOB/Pete Wentz for always providing entertaining song lyrics.)

Everything is ugh. My back is having one of its stretches of hurting and feeling fragile, so my life involves lidocaine patches and dipping into the stash of muscle relaxers and heavy-duty pain meds. I've been having an upswing in different types of migraines, and I suspect the main culprits are weather and stress. All I want to do is sleep, and my mood can generally be described by that Charles Darwin quote of "I am very poorly today & very stupid & I hate everybody & everything". With a large side of "meh". I really want a doctor to prescribe the historical treatment of going to the seaside for a week (with the appropriate servants to take care of me and bring me dainty treats while I sit with my feet in the ocean).

Today is particularly ugh, as we lost three writers yesterday and I need to cover their work while we hire new writers for those positions. (Yeah, read between the lines there and you can probably guess what happened.) Thankfully, I talked to my boss and asked how this would work with my current projects, and she told me that my number one priority right now is to focus on the writing/being a writer, and once those positions are backfilled, I'll go back to my Program Manager work. So at least I don't have to worry that I'm being held to two sets of different standards. But still, stressful.

Meh. 

---

One thing that's been entertaining me is going through my Tumblr archives - prompted by a post going around asking people how long they've been on Tumblr oh my god 2010 really?! - and finding a lot of fun content and a lot of pink & black eye candy. But I realized (a bit too late) that I shouldn't read my text posts from 2011, because that was the worst year of my life. Dear Powers That Be, that isn't an invitation to go "hold my beer!" and try to overshoot that. I don't need that.



mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

(no subject)

Mar. 13th, 2026 02:36 pm[personal profile] cupcake_goth
cupcake_goth: (Vampire Governess)
It's snowing. In March. Sure, why not. 

---

In screaming fangirl news, AMC announced the June 7th premier date for The Vampire Lestat, posted the opening credits to YouTube, and released the second single. I DON'T WANT TO WAIT I WANT ALL OF IT NOW. 

---

Speaking of vampires -- you know, one of my default states of being -- I have decided that a way to bring myself more joy is to lean into my pink and black aesthetic, with more of a vampire governess vibe. Because I've needed distraction recently, I made a Pinterest board. I may spend part of this weekend reworking my pink wide brimmed hat that has bat lace appliques on the underside of the brim and making a pink lace jabot. 

---

Even more vampires: I spent last night reading a fantastic AU Hannibal/True Blood fic, only to get to the last chapter that was a note from the author saying they would no longer be updating the story as they have left the Hannibal fandom. DAMMIT.

---

Health stuff: I've been having bouts of stomach bloating and pain (mostly after I eat something) for no real reason I can identify, so I tried an experiment: for the past few days, I didn't have anything with cheese, and lo, everything was fine. Today I added cheese to the exact same thing I had for yesterday's lunch, and guess what? If I have become digestively sensitive to cheese, I want to punch a divine being in the face multiple times. Cheese my beloved, don't hurt me!

At first I was like "is an Ed Sheeran reference going to make this comic seem dated" but then remembered Ed Sheeran's music sucks no matter what year it is

(executive function )

Mar. 11th, 2026 05:56 pm[personal profile] elainegrey
elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)

I have a general frustration of "I want to have done X but i am not doing it." And just writing that down has illustrated something for me. I am not sure i have desires about actually doing, but i have desires i want done. That's.... interesting.

Monday's therapy raised something for me, which is the frame i have for doing things. At a very large scale i think i have values driving things. But when i get closer in, i have more "i'm not doing this because how-Mom-framed-her-activities or how-Dad-framed-her-activities or how-the-dominant-culture-frames-doing" than my own reasons or frames.

Phrasing that i want "to have done" something does help a little, because i think it helps me see that i am not engaging with the doing, really, and the doing is the next step. So if i want to have grafted the scions i bought to the crepe myrtle and fig before they scions die, i need to start thinking about wanting to be outside (yay) with a sharp thing (erm) maybe on a ladder (erm x2) figuring out how to try something i can only try once a year and that the success feedback comes very slowly, sigh, and that i may not succeed because i am still learning. Hmm, maybe i could just graft the current fig onto the current fig to have more practice. And i don't need to get all concerned with "is this really the best place" for the purchased scions, just graft them SOMEWHERE and see if it takes. If they take and i want to move them, that's OK.

Another change in my being is that i am a little more aware of the specific feelings/emotions that i am escaping from (generally to novels). Over my vacation, there was shame/frustration/anger of misplacing tomato seeds. I was aware of wanting to avoid those feelings and thinking about it. Yesterday, Christine was upset about something and also i wasn't ready to really face the outcome of Monday's therapy. So i read.

I am frustrated with the reading because i have a hard time stopping and there are all the things i want to have done that won't happen while i am reading. But i am also frustrated with my constant (it seems) inability to have done things. And that's .. ah, there, that is still a heavy emotion that will be hard to address except in little bits.

Monday i was very very tired after therapy, and i still feel tired today. I am in the muddle of why: am i sick (coughing more - -because pollen? or cold? or?), in a fatigue flare? Or emotionally tired and maybe i would feel better if i actually did something, anything?

I had a virtual visit with a health care provider and have an OK on doubling up on antihistamines. We'll see if that hits this lethargy.

Meanwhile, insane weather. The saucer magnolia is a cloud of pink. Maybe the rain tomorrow will somehow protect it from the frost/freeze on Friday morning.

(no subject)

Mar. 10th, 2026 04:40 pm[personal profile] cupcake_goth
cupcake_goth: (Leeches)
Between yesterday and today, including medication-induced napping, I slept for over 13 hours. I guess that's what happens when I finally let myself rest on day six of a migraine. Yes, feel free to glare at me about being terrible at taking care of myself. I KNOW. 

The ridiculous thing is I'm still tired. Like, if I logged off right now, zapped a buckwheat pillow to put on my face, and flopped on the couch, I'd be out for at least an hour.

---

I'm no longer in the "ugh I hate everything everything is stupid especially me" state that I'd been in over the past few weeks. Well, I still feel like randomly crying, but I don't hate myself, so progress yay?

---

Last night, the latest of Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series hit my Kindle, yaaaay! But I haven't started it yet because the book focuses on one of the characters --Sarah-- I don't care that much about. I prefer her as a supporting character, but also know I'm probably not going to get more books focused on Mary or Antimony for a while. (Also, anything about Sarah has a good chance of involving a giant spider, gaaaaaaah.)

---

Thanks to my Tumblr dash over the past few weeks, I am kicking myself for selling off this mandragora pendant from Moon & Serpent. I technically could afford replacing it, but I'm saving my money for my big tattoo, as in commissioning the art and then getting it inked. 

compare, contrast, despise

Mar. 10th, 2026 02:44 pm[personal profile] solarbird
solarbird: (pointed)

Have I played my part well in the farce of life?

— Augustus Caesar, first Emperor of Rome

as reported by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
in The Life of Augustus
originally published 121 C.E., Roman Empire

Did you love my performance in Venezuela?
My performance in Iran is better, isn’t it?

— Donald Trump, President of the United States

as reported by Jonathan Carl of ABC News
originally reported March 6, 2026 C.E., United States


Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Profile

sistawendy: a head shot of me smiling, taken in front of Canlis for a 2021 KUOW article (Default)
sistawendy

March 2026

S M T W T F S
1 2 34 5 6 7
8 9 1011 1213 14
1516 17 18192021
22232425262728
293031    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Mar. 20th, 2026 01:17 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios