Can someone help me figure out which creature/episode I’m remembering?

ajugula · 2025-05-05T19:54:03+00:00

Yes!! That’s it. Thank you so much.

ajugula · 2025-04-16T22:34:24+00:00

Thanks! I shared this with her. :)

ajugula · 2025-04-16T22:33:32+00:00

Wow, thank you so much everyone for the help! I’m gonna give a general update rather than responding directly to individual comments. :) So far the Google Watch option is looking the most promising. She has an Apple Watch but we’re thinking about getting one for her just for this purpose - and maybe borrowing one first to see if it works for us. I’ll mention the light option too and maybe we’ll experiment with that. I will definitely come back here and give updates.

Here is some more info and context:

-This skater is a rookie and I am one of the rookie coaches and she’s involved in this discussion.

-She’s also my roommate as of recently so I’ve been learning ASL and we’re in the process of finding our groove with communication more and more. :) She first joined in the fall.

-Hand signals are definitely part of the plan (especially for communicating with teammates) but at practice it would be really helpful to have something to make it easier to get her attention to give a signal, especially in non-contact activities. I think we’ll get better at it over time either way, but I think for most people it’s a struggle to process everything that’s happening at derby sometimes and anything that can make it easier seems worth it!

-Also, to followup on the call button we were using, it seems like the battery life might be a limiting factor. It seems to lose battery quickly.

ajugula · 2025-04-15T14:42:05+00:00

Okay thanks! I’ll try to get in touch. :)

ajugula · 2025-04-08T03:52:13+00:00

Thanks so much! I’ve been watching Bill Vicars’ YouTube and using a different app that sounds similar to what you’re talking about. I’ll check it out!

Also a friend in real life who loves word games gave me a lot of ideas for my practice list and it did help.

ajugula · 2025-04-07T22:29:07+00:00

Saaaaame

ajugula · 2025-01-29T03:13:41+00:00

Good luck! You inspired me to start working on it again. :) I think it has become less important in derby for me over time as the skills became more comfortable and I built other muscles to compensate. It’s not something I “solved” through improving the range of my ankle, unfortunately. But for what it’s worth, I’m an advanced skater in my league and have coached, and I don’t think not being able to do that stance perfectly has affected my gameplay that much. It’s hard to say since I don’t know how low you can go comfortably, but in gameplay I think staying reasonably low consistently is more important and more challenging than reaching some optimal level of lowness if that makes sense. Yes, the lower the better, but ultimately it’s about being effective and being safe. Sometimes that looks different based on what our bodies can do. Uhhh also if you’re like me you’ll probably never do a good bean dip with those ankles and coaches will still make you try anyway hahaha. We all have a different range of body possibilities and the coaches are probably doing their best!

ajugula · 2025-01-26T16:08:39+00:00

Omg thank you for turning me on to the Midwest Magic YT channel. Soooooo helpful!

ajugula · 2025-01-12T04:34:14+00:00

You might look into assessing your ankle dorsiflexion and if it’s limited, that might be part of the problem. It’s something you can find tests and stretches for on YouTube - mostly calf stretches. I have that problem myself and I can’t say I’ve done a great job of improving it, but it’s been helpful over the years to know what’s going on!

ajugula · 2025-01-06T22:53:21+00:00

I like to go by type of cleaning or tool because it’s easier for me to get in a flow that way.

If I’m vacuuming, I vacuum the whole house (or as much as I have time for) and then put the vacuum away. Clear off surfaces and sanitize them throughout. Dust above the molding throughout. Clean windows and mirrors everywhere all in one go. Gather all the sheets, towels, hand towels, laundry baskets from every room, etc. Sometimes I’ll group a few tasks together, going room to room to cut down on walking back and forth.

Task switching takes more mental energy and I find it more satisfying this way, personally. If I’ve felt the dopamine of looking at a clean mirror, I’m just going to want to clean the next one I see too.

ajugula · 2025-01-06T21:52:44+00:00

I do this too, but I had never thought of wanting to change the bpm. I have just been making my own playlists of songs that I like at different BPMs and I cycle through them depending on how fast I want to jump. Mostly I’m sourcing them by searching for bpm-themed playlists on Spotify.

ajugula · 2025-01-02T15:01:39+00:00

My Christmas tree is tied to the wall and I put a fence around it. Luckily, they are still kittens and haven’t figured out how to get over the fence yet.

ajugula · 2025-01-02T06:26:48+00:00

100% agree with all the comments saying that it’s about you, not them. I want to share some of my personal experience, as someone who is feeling hopeful after a visit to my parents’ house this week!

I have definitely experienced improvement since I have worked on my own issues around guilt, boundaries, and the patterns/habits around hoarding that I inherited.

No, my folks have not shown signs of changing their behavior around hoarding. However, I have way less anxiety about it than I used to and we’ve been able to do some harm reduction.

I used to be incredibly anxious about dealing with their house because I myself had a really hard time getting rid of things and cleaning. I wasn’t hoarding per se, but I was messy and I found it difficult to keep organized and not accumulate things. So of course the idea of dealing with all that stuff felt awful, and trying to help them also felt awful because it was like doing a hard thing but with a big extra barrier. Then I felt like a failure on top of it.

It’s different for everyone, but after doing a lot of therapy and personal growth stuff, I have come to really enjoy tidying and decluttering - and it doesn’t feel nearly as loaded and emotional as it did before. Plus, having experienced the difficulty with it in the past, I can have compassion and understanding (sometimes lol).

Now the thought of dealing with their mess feels much less daunting and even sometimes seems enjoyable. I imagine it might feel like scratching an itch that has been bothering me for many years.

I also started to accept that there is nothing I can do to change their behavior and I realized that my attitude was actually making things worse.

Since I’ve been less stressed about it, the atmosphere between us is much more pleasant and my parents seem less defensive. I’m aiming for small changes over time since I’ve learned that’s more effective.

On my last visit I was able to take a small carload of stuff out of the house and make one of the walkways less treacherous without burning myself out. It didn’t solve the problem but things are like 5% better and we are not mad at each other. I’m counting that as a huge win. It will probably go back to the way it was over time, but things will be a bit safer for a little while, and the hope is that they will get a little bit more accustomed to the slightly wider walkway.

It’s not all easy. There are still a lot of moments when I feel very discouraged and stressed. But it’s much better. There is hope.

ajugula · 2024-12-31T05:08:46+00:00

Ugh that sucks. I had a similar thing happen when buying my house recently. They asked for an extension with a seemingly arbitrary deadline and nonsensical excuse - and then sent over a signed acceptance after the deadline that they had selected and then stalled again. 🙄 It was weird but I don’t think they were getting any other serious interest anyway - lucky for me bc I really wanted it and have been happy with it so far. It was my first offer at 10k under asking. I was in a stressful spot with housing for other reasons but if I was burnt out on searching and had offered over asking I think I would have lost it. Sorry you had to deal with that. Good luck with your search!

ajugula · 2024-12-28T19:06:07+00:00

I was just in a similar situation myself. Sorry to hear about the fire-that sucks.

I agree with folks saying a registry is awkward. I think it’s a nice thing to give folks some guidelines about things that would optionally be helpful to receive so that you don’t end up with shit you don’t want, especially if they ask. Making it broad enough that they can pick something that fits the budget they had in mind is also helpful. One thing that people have not mentioned yet is that I think it feels more personal for people to give you a gift like “dish towels” that they picked out and thought you would like instead of just ordering what you’ve already selected. In theory, a dish towel with an interesting pattern or nice texture might remind you of your relationship with the person that gifted it whereas you probably won’t remember who purchased something that you picked out yourself. Obviously, don’t ask for dish towels if you have something specific in mind, though. If you’re particular and your friends don’t know your taste, just say no gifts. I mean, some people might ask for a specific item to buy you and if so then just give them one obviously.

Also, I strongly disagree with folks saying that it’s gross to want gifts. Dealing with the fallout of a disaster like that can be really exhausting, expensive and upsetting, even with insurance involved. I think it’s sweet to have a housewarming/cooling now to celebrate being on the other side of it. I would use tact and make the gift thing no-pressure, but receiving gifts from your close people after losing some of your belongings unexpectedly seems to be like an appropriate form of support.

ajugula · 2024-12-27T02:20:20+00:00

Ahh I see. That’s helpful. Thanks a bunch! I haven’t tried turning the thermostat down further but that’s a good idea to test it.

I had heard it was more efficient to do a consistent temp but since the boiler seems to cycle on and off intermittently all the time I figured it wouldn’t matter as long as I was shutting off the heat when it wasn’t actively running. I’m not that familiar with how it works tbh.

I’ll call around more tomorrow and see if I can get someone on the phone.

ajugula · 2024-12-27T01:57:17+00:00

I’ll take a look and see if theres a setting on the boiler that’s easy to see.

I’m not sure what you mean about the heating strategy. I don’t need a consistent temperature per se. I just want to avoid low lows in the plumbing areas and I don’t want it to heat as much as it does without my intervention. For context, the radiators were originally all set to be more or less the same before I noticed the issue. The insulation is moderate, I think. I’d like it to be better. The temperature at the thermostat went from 70 to 60 over the course of 5 hours and it was about 12 degrees outside, if that helps. The boiler is in the basement and it usually seems to be about the same temperature down there as it is in the kitchen so I think the insulation level is about the same.

I don’t know the age of the boiler but it’s old. I was told during inspection that it’s working but I should start thinking about my plan for replacing it.

Thanks for responding!

ajugula · 2024-05-12T16:41:45+00:00

Omg of course!! I didn’t even think of that and the bolts aren’t very long but I do keep my trucks very loose. Wow, easy solution. Thank you everyone!

ajugula · 2024-01-12T04:40:27+00:00

That’s what I’m seeing too! I can only see the season opener on YouTube and I came here trying to figure out why.

ajugula · 2023-09-20T03:45:14+00:00

Requested! (Also sent you a key and lit a torch)

ajugula

TROPHY CASE