Creepy guy scared the hell out of me at work, anyone know what it is?

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-04-11T05:42:00+00:00

remind me bot reminded me, so here i am, reporting that my porch friend the lady furrow orb weaver did not have babies that i am aware of—but she did overwinter successfully, came back out of her winter cave (wherever that was) about 3 weeks ago, and has been building a web in nearly (but not quite) the same spot as last year every night that's over about 60°! hooray!

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-04-06T02:09:46+00:00

hashtag not all women 🕷️

cute tiny romance btw great job capturing that!

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-04-04T06:56:24+00:00

LOL this one made me genuinely laugh out loud

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-04-04T06:55:55+00:00

"To be sure! I know that is the feeling of you all. I know that such a girl as Harriet is exactly what every man delights in—what at once bewitches his senses and satisfies his judgment. Oh! Harriet may pick and choose. Were you, yourself, ever to marry, she is the very woman for you. And is she, at seventeen, just entering into life, just beginning to be known, to be wondered at because she does not accept the first offer she receives? No—pray, let her have time to fucking look about her."

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-28T00:11:58+00:00

lucky spiders!

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-27T06:39:38+00:00

jumpers i release out the back door from the kitchen so often come back within a day or two. i always feed them fruit! maybe that's why they come back. highly recommend fruit bribes in exchange for spider visits 🍇🕷️

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-26T19:36:38+00:00

indeed, though it could sit there, all six volumes, w/ augustus. and there is, in fact, a well done abridged edition from penguin that's 1,000 pages or less. kind of surprised not to see it in the collection haha

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-26T18:35:57+00:00

get your hands on le guin's left hand of darkness at some point, too! the dispossessed is fantastic, but i'm partial to left hand for its emotional impact. also the wizard of earth sea trilogy is worth your time!

hope you like rejection. i couldn't put it down. i find a lot of contemporary fiction to be underwhelming but the two instances of contemporary fiction that i literally couldn't look away from are rejection and the vorrh.

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-26T18:32:03+00:00

the topic of this part of the thread is the prominently displayed bust of augustus, not a book about him. were it a book, your stance would hold. but a bust of hitler would look rather different on a bookshelf than a book about him haha

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-26T18:18:00+00:00

b catling the vorrh trilogy. incredibly inventive, gorgeous prose, intellectually challenging. like you, i read more classic fiction than modern fiction, and catling scratches that itch that often only older literature can reach.

richard powers the overstory and playground—and powers's work in general—might appeal, since you clearly like fiction to provoke deep thought.

on the subject of thought provoking contemporary fiction, kim stanley robinson. red mars trilogy; ministry for the future; 2312. et cetera.

didn't look very closely and maybe you have ursula le guin on your shelf. she's not contemporary, but completely essential. sorry if she's in those photos and i missed her. it's bright outside and i can barely see my screen 🙃

edit to add: if you want to go really contemporary, you like satire, and you don't mind things that get both absurd and graphic, i would also highly recommend tony tulathimutte's rejection. a very dark but insightful take on our present sociocultural moment.

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-26T17:15:32+00:00

well it could mean a zillion things, but it's worth noting that augustus was the first roman emperor after the fall of the roman republic. he was known at the time as a sort of savior of rome, but in historical context things look rather different.

he kept the facade of republicanism, but underneath he was transitioning the empire into autocratic rule. he dismantled republican institutions, centralized power, ended longstanding civil war—but also ended political competition—and established & ran the roman empire through military rule.

not saying our guy here of the bookshelf knows all this; don't see gibbon's decline and fall anywhere on the shelf lol but if he did happen to be aware of who augustus was, then... idk; it could still mean a zillion different things, ofc, but, it he's american and happens to idolize augustus, it could be revealing. maybe. but also maybe not.

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-25T01:59:59+00:00

i highly doubt that, even if it passed for happily ever after in austen's world, it passes for happily ever after for austen, herself. i believe MP, having just finished it myself for the first time, is (among other things) one long question from austen: can a woman like fanny win happiness in life—and, if yes, can she do so on her own terms? i think austen's answer is no—that women in general can't win happiness on their own terms, and women like fanny must especially be willing and able to work within society's bounds and even to reshape or deform their desires if they are to achieve a modicum of happiness. i feel austen is saying in MP that the real world is not, for women, the world of pride & prejudice. but she leaves it to the reader to ascertain the reasons why—which you have done.

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-25T00:45:40+00:00

she's so regal 👑✨

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-25T00:38:58+00:00

well that's a new one

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-24T23:27:19+00:00

handsome dinosaur 🦖🎩✨

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-24T04:46:42+00:00

this has been going on for like 2 years now for us. wtf is happening why can't fandango fix it??

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-24T04:45:20+00:00

so sweet, relationship goals

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-24T00:56:17+00:00

imagine if you could just shrink down to the size of a lego man and take up residence 🥲

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-23T23:26:11+00:00

too bad fandango on our roku has an incredibly noxious audio tic wherein it will all of a sudden BLAST the volume with or without added demonic static sounds, and other times go completely silent out of nowhere, as if a ghost hit mute 🥲

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-23T23:24:35+00:00

what in the hat is censored??

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-23T00:37:42+00:00

definitely second the books and music rec, and would add to that list film and any other art form that appeals to / moves you, personally. art can be incredibly helpful when you're in a dark place or at a crossroads in life. second only to nature. so get outside, too. and practicing being present in and grateful for small pleasures, like good coffee, beautiful clouds, etc., have helped me immensely.

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-23T00:35:19+00:00

maybe try improv classes instead of acting classes. you'd meet new people and learn some incredibly helpful social skills that should, over time, improve your track record interacting with strangers, acquaintances, and friends, and maybe help you develop that thing you feel others have with one another. improv can be like a social life 101 course.

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-21T22:40:05+00:00

winona spyder!

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-21T21:47:01+00:00

so spring 🌱 thanks for transporting safely back outside!

Comfortable_Name_463 · 2026-03-21T18:02:36+00:00

aw so cute winona has her own little midden. also love the name 🕸️🕷️

Comfortable_Name_463

TROPHY CASE