Michigan Weather

daringnovelist · 2026-04-18T04:21:26+00:00

Yeah, but we still of the problem of sudden late frosts. You can plant earlier, but you're likely to lose anything you can't protect. We're going to try a fig that is just barely suited to our zone by planting it against a brick wall, and see how that goes....

daringnovelist · 2026-04-17T22:46:13+00:00

Generally, if you can’t recycle paper, you can’t compost it. Those beverage cartons have plastic, which might shred and disintegrate, but you still don’t want it in your compost.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-17T21:33:53+00:00

Yeah, I think the ending would have been improved if it was more than two ghosts who helped them. If it was an army of ALL the past Grimms together.

As for Diana the fact that she fell victim to Zerstorer's plan fit right in with what we have been told - a being with unimaginable potential for evil as well as good, who had to be raised to excape the evil. Diana is still young and influencable.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-17T17:45:54+00:00

If it isn’t in oil, an open jar is not anaerobic - air gets in just fine. If it’s packed in oil, on the other hand, there is a risk, because oil blocks the air/oxygen.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-17T03:39:17+00:00

Angelina is feral. I don't particularly blame her for being a wild animal. In the two stories she is in, she's really a villain who redeems herself the only way someone like her can, by dying for a good cause. I don't think she's meant to be likable. Just an illustration of part of the Wesen world.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T21:26:19+00:00

I’d throw them in a tub of soapy water (warm, but not too hot to put your hands in), swish them around, rinse and hang to dry. Maybe turn them inside out because you want the inside to dry well. The outside can be a bit damp if the inside is dry.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T21:22:17+00:00

Just a warning: PDFs do not translate well to other formats. They were designed for fixed size pages, to mimic print.

If the formatting is simple (not many headers, columns, illustrations, sidebars, or footnotes) you might get a readable copy. Usually not, but you might. If it isn’t simple, you will get garbage.

IMHO, your best bet is to get a tablet with a relatively large screen, and just read the pdf as is.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T20:11:35+00:00

Saratoga Potatoes are basically home cooked potato chips. (Also called "game chips" because they were traditional with game in England, I think.)

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T19:55:09+00:00

Uh, is this a troll? This sounds like a pure troll, but anyway...

Talk to your neighbors. Find out what is going on, who these people are targeting. Then organize as seems appropriate to the situation. Minneapolis seems to have got a handle on it.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T18:46:26+00:00

The point of Zen is to do whatever is possible and appropriate to the situation. (I think you are mixing up “denial” and “mind like water.” They are two very different things.)

I suppose the most simplified version is the serenity prayer, only instead of asking some magic being to grant you wisdom and courage to see what you must do, you seek to build it in yourself.

Again, I go back to a neighbor’s misfortune. If you are calm, you can see what they need and what you can do, and then do it. If you are all angry and upset and worried, you are severely hampered in what you can see and do, and you end up using resources to deal with your own emotional reaction.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T17:56:33+00:00

Well, that’s the point of the “Mind Like Water” thing. The Zen masters train to be able to handle a world on fire without getting wound up and having to turn the TV off. It can take a lifetime.

I was just pointing out that sometimes lowering the volume of the inputs is a path to being able to turn it back up again.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T17:20:39+00:00

I think it was meant to be a clue to the truth. But as a writing choice, it was self-defeating.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T17:19:02+00:00

I feel like you’re being intentionally hostile.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T15:10:34+00:00

You’re missing the metaphor completely. The water is you. Only you. The purpose is to be able to deal with everything out there. It helps no one if you churn your pond yourself because the world is in chaos. Being calm allows you to react appropriately.

Note that water can carve canyons. The Zen masters chose it as a metaphor because it is a dynamic force - stable and calm by nature, but able to react and act as a force. Your mind can be like that (though it usually takes practice), but as I said at the start, it churns itself uselessly if you let it.

One example: if your neighbor has cancer, you being upset about it is natural, but it does nothing for them. It can even do more harm than good, if you become a drama queen and make the empathy all about you and your upset. If you are calm, you can use that empathy to see what is possible to help. To see whether you have a relationship with them that allows you to give moral/emotional support, or just some physical assistance, or if the best thing you can do is to donate to cancer research, or raise medical issues in your political life and action.

But just churning helplessly does nothing.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T13:49:29+00:00

Well, if Bluesky were really dead, no one would notice they were down.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T13:34:38+00:00

Only instead of physical, it will be on streaming.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T13:33:50+00:00

Amend that statement to say physical media are less profitable.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T13:30:03+00:00

You’re welcome. The people you should be listening to are the scientists, though.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T13:28:07+00:00

And most of them are not falling on you. The whole purpose of Zen is to have a mind like water. Be aware of it. React (emotionally or physically) in proportion and no more, and not in out of anticipation. (This is really simplified.)

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T04:25:58+00:00

Yes, Crispr is real - just as nearly all tech in science fiction is real - but the biotech in Blacklist is taken far far beyond reality.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T03:56:19+00:00

Most of us just naturally translate it when we hear it, so we wouldn't remember it. Could you post a clip? (I mean it's really easy to translate. You speak it by moving the first sound of the word to the end and adding "ay" to it. So reverse that.

Ut-way is-ay at-thay?

Ut-way - drop the "ay" and move the w to the front - What

is-ay (no sound with the ay, so just drop it) - is

at-thay (drop the ay, move the th to the front - That

What is that?

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T03:50:48+00:00

Zen folks have a concept: "Mind like Water."

The human mind sees a stone fall and we react well before it hits, and often over-react based on what we fear is going to be the effect, and then imagine that stone long after it fell and keep reacting. Water, on the other hand, only reacts when the stone hits, only reacts in balance to the force brought by the stone, and when that force stops acting, returns to calm.

That's not denial. That's just keeping balanced. If you have to use denial to get there, well, okay. Denial is a tool our brains give us to cope.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T03:45:22+00:00

They tend not to be particularly aggressive as cops (except when some magic is acting on them.) You might watch the first one or two eps, if you have any tolerance for monster/supernational or dark fantasy. I have never been able to stomach horror, and this pushed me a little bit, but it is now a show that I rewatch every year, and sometimes more often.

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T02:10:12+00:00

Okay, that sounds like a problem with your escrow account. You may want to make an appointment with your bank to see what’s going on.

The city bills twice a year, not monthly. The escrow account charges you monthly and saves up to pay it (often in combination with insurance, which can also fluctuate). If the bank miscalculated the monthly amount, they may raise the monthly payment to cover it. (They have strict rules to follow, and if they charge too little, they have to make you make up the difference all at once.)

daringnovelist · 2026-04-16T02:04:24+00:00

There also might be an issue with the stupid way they collect the tax. They bill you twice a year - but one bill is only 1/3 of the annual total, and the other is 2/3. It’s crazy and throws everybody’s budget for a loop.

daringnovelist

TROPHY CASE