EMERGENCY RAT Because a bunch of y'all need it. #petrats #rats

Today's mood: Nauseously Optimistic.

The NYT Tech Guild is on strike. Cooking and Games are behind the picket line. That includes Wordle, btw. An unbroken streak means you've crossed a picket line. (Which is brilliant, btw.) News is not behind the picket line. (Should it be? Maybe. But the strikers thought long and hard about this.) Help the strikers out here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/nyt-tech-strike-fund And let your Wordle lapse.

Hey folks, Everyone's stressed out. Here's how I'm taking care of me and mine for the next while. Avoiding the news. Murder mysteries are good: they carve order on deliberately created chaos. The house is clean, and I have a bowl of fresh fruit. How are you caring for you and yours until, oh, 15 November?

I need something to carry my through the next few weeks. Time to start my long-threatened #Elementary binge. My favorite video Holmes, but I've never seen the whole thing.

Need industrial and shipping supplies from a company that's not a right wing trash fire? A handy list here.

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Truly, working in IT is a terrible career. Get an entire book of validated feelings.

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Yeah, the Borg are problematic, but Janeway's not perfect either. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-starfleet-gazette-will-not-be-endorsing-a-candidate-for-president-of-the-united-federation-of-planets

A writer friend just passed, and mailing lists and social media are full of folks saying how kind and generous they were. Which they were! I'm old enough that my first thought was: one day those messages will be about me. Do say nice things to people while they're still alive. (Other people, that is, not me.)

Halloumi is three. That's ancient for a pet rat, like 100 for a human. At that age, they're allowed to die of whatever they want. A few weeks ago, he developed a penile tumor. Not a cyst, we've seen those too Legit tumor. We looked at it, said "well, that's gonna do him in, pain meds every day until the poor baby passes." All we could do is ease his path. Rat peen are retractable. The tumor was deep inside. No way it could be operated on. The crazy little bastard... chewed it out. He fucking chewed a tumor off the base of his penis. We were horrified. Cleaned him up but didn't disturb the wound, because omg he fucking chewed a tumor off his peen and it clotted and omg noooo. But... it's healed? Scarred, misshapen, but healed. Halloumi is officially the most badass living creature I have ever known. I suspect he cannot be killed by conventional means. We're good with that.