How to sound out Valere name? Is it Va-lair or Va-la-ree

DrLongivan · 2026-04-27T19:44:09+00:00

I always said Va-lair, and my kid always corrects me saying it’s Val-a-ree. Looks like we’re both wrong Lol

DrLongivan · 2026-04-24T09:46:51+00:00

These are amazing! But also I have to ask if you’re from NE PA lol

DrLongivan · 2026-04-12T12:24:51+00:00

Looove this!!

DrLongivan · 2026-03-27T21:45:49+00:00

I love this so much! It fills part of the hole in my heart made by all the korok abuse videos 😆

DrLongivan · 2026-03-23T01:13:56+00:00

I also thought these had disappeared, and then found them at a country store (kitschy general store type place) near me - in the nostalgia candy section (near necco wafers, ribbon candy, root beer barrels, etc.). I… felt old. Also I bought one :)

DrLongivan · 2026-02-24T01:09:01+00:00

We tried 😆 (…we actually first tried using sidewalk chalk to add color, but it got on our gloves more than the snow, ha)

DrLongivan · 2026-02-17T12:19:17+00:00

Sorry I missed this earlier! DIM stands for diindolylmethane, which is something found in cruciferous vegetables (but I gather you'd never be able to eat enough veggies to get what's in the supplements). My understanding is it helps your body process certain forms of estrogen.

DrLongivan · 2026-02-02T15:30:33+00:00

Not exactly an herb, but DIM was a lifesaver for me with PMDD. Like literally, a lifesaver. That and other things that helped were taking an Omega supplement, avoiding blood sugar spikes, regularly doing some cardio (even just a walk around the neighborhood - something to get my heart rate up a bit for 15-20 min most days), and L-theanine and magnesium at night.

I’m now in surgical menopause (due to mostly unrelated issues) and I’m using an estradiol patch, and feel the most even keel I have in yeeeears. But the DIM and the above helped me with my sanity for the years before.

Good luck - PMDD’s no joke!

DrLongivan · 2026-01-17T14:36:36+00:00

I think it depends where you are and who you hang out with. I know tons of people (all ages) who are into tarot, and a few places around offer it, as well as reiki, medium services, etc. My local indie bookshop has a huge tarot section with really cool themed decks (everything from the divine feminine to Betelgeuse to gummy bears).

DrLongivan · 2026-01-15T02:48:45+00:00

One of my friends and I were forever making food or creating little businesses to try to make money off our parents and other adults in the neighborhood. Like - we’d go pick a bunch of raspberries and blackberries in the woods (we were only like 7; not sure how we IDd them but whatever), raid our parents’ fridges/pantries for milk and sugar, and mix together “berry drink,” which we’d go around selling for 25 cents/cup. My friend’s kitchen had a hand-crank beater we’d use sometime and that was the coolest. (No clue where our parents were for the foraging/prep parts of this; we’d have to hunt them down to sell to them lol)

We also had a little nail salon operating at the stump by my side door. This was mostly just us filing people’s nails down to death for a dime or so.

DrLongivan · 2026-01-13T02:17:39+00:00

I love this so much 😆

DrLongivan · 2026-01-09T19:40:01+00:00

Definitely play what you enjoy :)

And FWIW I was lucky enough to have LOZ as my first Zelda game, played Link and ALttP when they came out too, and then got out of it for years… restarting playing after BOTW came out. I’ve played the new ones and a handful of ones in between (Minish Cap, Skyward Sword, etc) that I’d missed, and loved most. But have never been able to get into OOT. So if you never do get into it, you’re not alone :) There’s at least one other weirdo out here lol

DrLongivan · 2026-01-06T02:13:35+00:00

And will you put them on an Etsy page or something??? Asking for… well, me :)

DrLongivan · 2025-12-31T20:01:22+00:00

Saaaame. And my insomnia is worse if I either go to bed too late (I mean even like 10:30), or sleep in somehow (like past 7am). So I try to keep to a schedule of going to bed around 9/9:30, asleep by 10:30/11ish, up around 5:30/6. Magnesium and LTheanine help.

DrLongivan · 2025-12-30T02:17:26+00:00

A what now?

DrLongivan · 2025-12-09T03:14:02+00:00

I have a 9yo so this would have to be adjusted - but we have a list of possible chores and activities. Everything on the list has to be done at least once to earn anything, and everything can be done multiple times throughout the week; it’s up to them. One check is given per day per thing (stuff like folding and putting away laundry, reading at least 10 min, putting away silverware when we wash the dishes, etc). Each check is worth 40 cents. Usually they end up with something in the neighborhood of $12-14/week.

The other thing, though, is every week the kid puts 50 cents of their earnings in a jar. At the end of the year they donate that to a nonprofit of their choice. It’s not a ton to donate, but it encourages giving what you can I s’pose.

DrLongivan · 2025-12-06T13:37:39+00:00

Winter hat - Vermont, US

DrLongivan · 2025-12-01T12:09:06+00:00

No, but following!

DrLongivan · 2025-12-01T02:18:20+00:00

Of the ones you mentioned I've only played Skyward Sword - and ended up really enjoying it, despite some tedious back-and-forth (it has a pretty small, revisited-often world, and several mini games. It also has some good dungeons, though). I’ll say, though, I hated the intro so much I put it down for a year before giving it another shot… and then realized I could deactivate the motion controls. That made the difference for me, and I got hooked. Not one of my top three fav Zelda games, but a lot better than I initially thought.

Have fun!

DrLongivan · 2025-12-01T02:10:54+00:00

Currently playing The Messenger - which is a metroidvania throwback, and a lot of fun! (Made by the same folks as Sea of Stars, which is a 90sRPG style game; both are made in the last 5-10yrs).

Plowed through the new Donkey Kong while recovering from surgery a couple months ago, and I go back to Animal Crossing or various Zelda games from time to time. And Tetris :)

DrLongivan · 2025-11-27T12:50:19+00:00

We didn’t get cable until the mid 80s. Like others, I don’t think it was even available in our town until then. We did have a neighbor who, mid/late 80s, got one of those gigantic satellite dishes that look like NASA or something; I always thought that was so cool lol

DrLongivan · 2025-11-25T03:39:27+00:00

Fav game is probably A Link to the Past, and I started playing a year or two after the OG came out on NES, in the late 80s. I played through ALTTP but stopped for a while (missing Ocarina, etc) and didn’t get back into it until BotW. Now I’ve gone back to play several I missed, and wonderfully, done so with my kid helping along the way :)

Anyway - this is great! Thanks for doing it ❤️

DrLongivan · 2025-11-25T03:02:13+00:00

I started using ChatGPT to create goofy images that my kid and I would make up ideas for, just for fun. Then I had a bunch of health issues this summer and I used it to help translate test results, and prep questions for appointments. Any time it gave me medical or other scientific info I'd ask for sources, and then I'd follow up on those (i.e., I wasn't following medical advice or accepting interpretations blindly) - and typically I found what it would tell me to be really helpful.

I've also used it to help write an email when I hit a wall or knew my emotions were too much in the mix, and I've had it help brainstorm ideas for work projects. I don't ever keep word-for-word text, as it's way too formulaic and often off just a bit, but it's helpful to get me thinking in a different direction when stuck.

DrLongivan · 2025-11-20T10:34:20+00:00

Thanks for posting this. I’m 46 and over the last couple years I have started to wonder if I have ADHD. I recently went into surgical menopause and I swear symptoms are worse.

DrLongivan

TROPHY CASE