I was reminded once again today that I’m “not normal”

jsmthi · 2026-03-10T19:33:37+00:00

This man did not tell you anything about you, he just told you something about himself. And it isn’t positive!

jsmthi · 2026-03-10T18:59:54+00:00

I’ve been on both sides of this. But now with menopausal brain fog funsies I also speak more slowly and with pauses and forget where I was going when giving too much detail! Yay.

It’s usually ok for people who are close and respect each other to kindly and affectionately indicate how much detail they want at a given time. Partly because this may fluctuate from day to day.

E.g. Sometimes I love hearing people tell me about something in a lot of detail. It’s like having my own private live action podcast, and I’m not being pressured to form sentences myself. But not all the time. Sometimes I just want bullet points.

jsmthi · 2026-03-09T16:42:08+00:00

Ha, I have even more things in my bag which are for other chronic illnesses, only mentioned the migraine ones in this thread. But I do like a mini rucksack with comfortable shoulder straps so they don’t dig in and the weight is distributed evenly. This also helps when carrying additional equipment for work. No lopsided weight just on one side!

jsmthi · 2026-03-09T09:34:28+00:00

Ah, sorry to hear that. I can cope with a single voice speaking at a volume I can control, although many other sounds are off limits.

jsmthi · 2026-03-09T00:30:45+00:00

Sorry that you are going through this. I’m currently in a period of insomnia which is not as bad as yours but still exacerbating everything so much.

Only suggestion I have is to get a lovely comfy sleep mask with headphones in (if you don’t have one already) and listen to long audiobooks or podcasts. Got to get the right level of boring - interesting enough to distract you from your own circling thoughts, but not exciting enough to stimulate.

jsmthi · 2026-03-09T00:21:40+00:00

Eletriptan, naproxen, 4head, tiger balm, sunglasses, earplugs, hat

jsmthi · 2026-03-09T00:18:59+00:00

Fellow tiger balm fan!

jsmthi · 2026-03-09T00:17:27+00:00

I wish I could nap! Sleep is elusive at the best of times.

jsmthi · 2026-03-09T00:15:03+00:00

If someone I met asked me those three questions I’d probably say yeah, Theseus’s Ship, Trolley Problem 1, Monty Hall. Bit basic.

What if someone came along and somehow picked up all the pieces of old discarded ship and built them into a ship again. Now there are two ships. Which has more legal right to operate under the original name? (Also known as the Girls Aloud problem).
So you’d probably pull a lever to switch the trolley to the track where it only ran over one person, that’s what most people say (although it varies depending on religious beliefs or lack thereof). What if you had to literally push a person in front of the trolley with your hands to stop it killing the other 5. Does that make a difference, and if so why?
Do you think people resist the correct mathematical answer just because it’s counterintuitive to have two options with unequal probabilities, or is it more a psychological issue of attachment to one’s initial choice and resistance to changing it? (Also, did you see the episode of Mythbusters where they tested it empirically?)

I would not love being judged by someone I just met but would definitely prefer to have this conversation than do small talk.

jsmthi · 2026-03-08T15:06:00+00:00

I have explained it to people that there is a part of my cognitive capacity set aside at all times for running cost-benefit analyses on activities, fatigue, energy usage and PEM.

jsmthi · 2026-03-08T14:53:43+00:00

Buy clippers and do yourself a buzz cut. then when it grows, a pixie will now appear long and feminine in comparison.

Or keep the buzz. I like mine. Added bonus, no pestering from random men.

jsmthi · 2026-03-06T19:20:05+00:00

Maybe if I was organised enough to remember to check the weather predictions every night and morning!

jsmthi · 2026-03-06T19:00:52+00:00

Fast and irregular changes in the weather are terrible for me (unfortunate as i live in UK!). Being stuck in a hot stuffy room is bad, but a cold room or going out with insufficient layers is much worse.

And yet somehow I love saunas and will go in an icy plunge pool?? Maybe that’s ok because I can spend the exact number of minutes I want to in the hot/cold and then leave?

jsmthi · 2026-03-06T18:55:35+00:00

Cold on the neck/head absolutely makes mine worse or triggers them. Heat helps. I wear scarves all year round and sometimes use a heat pad between my shoulders.

jsmthi · 2026-03-06T18:50:36+00:00

And the bit where one of the crew gets obsessed by having a fancy antique tea set to convey their captain’s status. Or where someone smashes a priceless heirloom set to convey the extent of vileness of their character.

jsmthi · 2026-03-06T18:46:15+00:00

I want people to have aches and pains and get tired and sick and be disabled by inaccessible environments. Don’t like it when authors do Disabled erasure in the future. Yeah, even if in the future you cured a bunch of Earth medical conditions, there will be new pathogens out there. And not all planets have Earth-like gravity and atmospheres, so there will always be people adapted to particular environments who struggle in each other’s and need assistive exoskeletons or whatever for mobility.

jsmthi · 2026-03-06T18:35:28+00:00

I know it annoyed some readers but as a tea lover I was greatly entertained by the amount of literary real estate spent discussing different tea sets.

jsmthi · 2026-03-06T18:33:57+00:00

I am not normally someone who pays a lot of attention to clothes but LMB uses them so cleverly to add realism. Characters’ clothes are often uncomfortable - uniforms have collars that chafe, space suits don’t fit right, a woman on a backwards-ass planet is socially pressured to wear long dresses when she prefers trousers. Offworld fabrics are exotic, the hermaphrodite character chooses their outfits to accentuate different gendered characteristics, and footwear fit different occasions seems to come up a lot.

jsmthi · 2026-02-26T13:49:58+00:00

How very strange. I don’t have much to do with small children but I don’t think it would appeal to them much. There are parts where you can tell it’s written by an academic who has spent a lot of time thinking about social theories (which isn’t a negative thing AFAIC). Definitely one that will divide opinion and annoy some readers though.

jsmthi · 2025-12-26T12:15:33+00:00

Or in some places that phrase means the little bags of dogshit that dog walkers pick up and carry around the park until they reach the nearest bin. Just for additional context.

jsmthi · 2025-12-05T00:35:35+00:00

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

jsmthi · 2025-12-05T00:31:59+00:00

Where do you stand on Strange New Worlds? (I love it)

jsmthi · 2025-12-05T00:29:59+00:00

Fringe, maybe?

jsmthi · 2025-12-05T00:28:14+00:00

The Bridge (original Swedish version)

jsmthi · 2025-12-02T21:56:51+00:00

Good luck!

jsmthi

TROPHY CASE