Getting blood work done, it’s been 20 minutes since my appointment time and I still haven’t been seen, fasting and haven’t eaten in almost 15 hours… Not happy.

My whole family and I are moving to Tom Bombadil’s house. He and Goldberry are such gracious hosts and we will be relaxed there. (Please note: we cannot actually do this.) 📚

Y’all don’t even know how transformed this fireplace is from just a couple months ago. W painted it white & my brother-in-law MM and I hung the mantel. First picture is after & second is before.

A brick fireplace painted white, a wide dark mantel hangs on the fireplace. Cream, red, and green Christmas stockings hang from the mantel. Greenery sits on the mantel with white candles spread through it. Above all this hangs a print of a painting of a red wooden building with a sign reading 'Catsburg' and a silhouette of a cat A brick fireplace, red brick painted over in places with cream paint.

The head teacher at my kid’s school for next year sent an email saying that the only school supplies he will need are a backpack and a lunchbox and I haven’t felt so disappointed in a long time. Guess I just have to buy school supplies for myself…

🔖🎮 Read Playing ‘Tunic’ Reminds Me How to Approach Sickness and Recovery by Martin Cahill (Catapult).

I have done all the things in Stardew Valley 1.4 and it took me ~245 hrs. That’s ~245 hrs when I was playing Stardew Valley and not doomscrolling.

You can log a lot more hours in a game when it’s playable in little bits.

True facts about my time on the early web:

In many chats (like, html + server side scripting with auto-refresh), my handle was Elora Danan and my profile picture was a Labyrinth-era photo of Jennifer Connelly.

I am a very specific sort of nerd.

Wonderful things 🥳:

  1. My kid fell asleep before 9:30 for the first time this week. 😴
  2. I ❤️ Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, & Andy Serkis singing as both of them. 📚
  3. Tomorrow I get to watch Neverafter. 🧙‍♀️
  4. My friend Little Willow rescued a kitty & sent me many pictures. 🐱

Some notes on my Spotify Wrapped:

  1. Joe Hisaishi is the composer for My Neighbor Totoro, which is what I wake M up with on the rare morning he’s not awake by 7:30.
  2. All 5 of my top songs are from the Totoro soundtrack because I play it other times too.
  3. The reason my minutes are so high is that I use Spotify for M’s white noise.
  4. Where this says “New Wave,” you should read “Goth.”.

No Enya this year, but The Lonely Island stands strong.

Friends! Are you on Mastodon? Are you seeing this on Mastodon? I’m about to stop using indieweb.social to syndicate my posts to Mastodon but you can still follow me! Drop @kimberlyhirsh@kimberlyhirsh.com in your Mastodon search & give me a follow.

My son sings “Step by Step” at school sometimes. I always thought it sounded like a union song and, indeed, the lyrics come from a miner’s union. I continue to strike today in solidarity with the Graduate Student Employees & Student Researchers.

Hey Micro.blog friendos, I activated ActivityPub & can follow Mastodon peeps via M.b but how do I tell people to find me at @kimberlyhirsh@kimberlyhirsh.com? I’m not showing up in the Mastodon search on indieweb.social. TIA!

@help @jean @manton

I’m like a toddler over here with big feelings, might cry from relief because my parents got my brother’s special needs trust and ABLE accounts squared away. 💞

🔖 Read ‘Y’all,’ that most Southern of Southernisms, is going mainstream – and it’s about time by David B. Parker (The Conversation), h/t @benwerd.

As my Latin teacher said when teaching us the 2nd person plural, “y’all” is a legitimate contraction.

Today has not been my favorite day, for reasons I may choose to detail more extensively in the future. For now, I’ll just say that the day began with poor sleep, a migraine, and gut issues and it hasn’t gotten better from there. (Thus far it’s been an okay day for family health.)

🎮 If you told me in 2015 that I would be really psyched about getting farming sims by 2022, I would have laughed at you. Yet here we are.

Two video games: Friends of Mineral Town and Pioneers of Olive Town.

🔖 Read 1 in 4 hiring managers say they are less likely to move forward with Jewish applicants (ResumeBuilder), h/t @benwerd.

The convenience sampling used here is a significant limitation but these are still distressing survey results.

🖖🏻 I’ve been falling asleep to the TNG episode “Relics,” and every time Captain Picard says “Ensign Rager” it sounds like he’s saying “Ensign Raygun.”

🔖 Read Taking on the Feminine Labor of Creating Holiday Magic by Sarah Hunter Simanson (Catapult).

This year will be the first Christmas that my mom has leukemia, that she can’t walk. I hope we will have more Christmases with her. I think her household is in for an awakening about this form of labor. In our household, everyone is responsible for a little of the holiday magic - we decorate together and bake together. I’m hoping it builds a connection for our son while it also makes the labor visible and reduces my holiday stress.

🔖 Read PSA: Do Not Use Services That Hate The Internet by Jamie Zawinski. (h/t @manton)

At the moment, if I can’t do it in a browser, I’m not doing it. Which is why my Hive account is almost empty and I haven’t joined Post.

Finished reading: The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo 📚

I love that Leigh Bardugo wrote this and The Language of Thorns to give us the immersion of reading the same stories that the characters in the Grishaverse read.

💬📚 “I don’t remember my own story… I remember only how I fell into books, never to rise from their pages, how I was never truly awake until I began to dream of other worlds.” Leigh Bardugo, The Lives of Saints ❤️ Saint of the Book

A white person with long curly, blonde hair sits in front of a red book, holding a quill pen.

Thanksgiving 1: Plain black leggings, gray sweater.
Thanksgiving 2: Floral dress.
Thanksgiving 3: PlayStation T-shirt, Star Wars leggings

Today: Thanksgiving #3, Booster #2. Tomorrow: Rest, D&D.

Locking myself in the bathroom at my parents’ house to get a break from overstimulation, happy Thanksgiving 1996 everybody.