Things that help calm the nervous system, quickly:

- Box breathing (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4, repeat)
- Immerse your face in cold water (activates mammalian dive reflex)
- Humming (stimulates vagus nerve)
- Exercise (anything helps, outside even better)
- Impeachment and removal

That’s one hell of a cover…..

That halftime show was incredibly timely ❤️

For online NaNoWriMo alternatives, I found these as the simplest options for small circles and custom goals:

- mywriteclub.com: also has public sprints
- writingmonth.org

Many rely on in-browser writing for goal tracking, which is not ideal

Autocrit/PWA versions = no, because they're AI platforms

A screenshot of a Google Sheet with sample word count data and an accompanied embedded bar chart.

A screenshot of sample word count data using lookerstudio.google.com pulling from the same Google Sheet as first screenshot, showing a bar chart and a progress bar scorecard.

Screenshot in a Nextcloud instance showing the Analytics app, which can ingest or create simple datasets. A bar chart and table with sample word count data shown. UI settings are not particularly friendly. Shown ingesting same Google Sheet

Screenshot of a cursed Power BI report showing two gauge visuals tracking daily and monthly word counts, a bar chart of daily word counts, and a table detailing the same data. Can be built in Power BI desktop (free) or PBI online service

Doing November writing for my pen names that pay the bills. In absence of #NaNoWriMo, if you're also a data nerd motivated by Number Go Up metrics, you can spin up word count visuals:

- Google Sheets/Looker Studio
- Nextcloud Analytics
- Power BI, for max pain if you hate yourself

(own demo work)

A tweet from @buccocapital on X which reads, "There’s something that feels deeply uncomfortable about monetizing human conflict as a spectator sport. Sometimes societal norms take time to catch up to technological progress. Or maybe we’ll just be gambling on the longitudinal lines of bloodshed. I hope not". The attached screenshot shows an ongoing wager on Polymarket (the most prominent online prediction gambling market) about which date Russia will capture Pokrovsk train station by. Choices are October 31st, November 30th, and December 31st, with the last in the lead at 87% odds.

I find *all* aspects in the rise of news-based prediction markets just as uncomfortable.

I've heard it argued this makes people invested in the news once more. In actuality, world events are reduced to simple odds and profit. Stripped of empathy, concern, or compassion.

Dissociation via gambling.

i don’t normally endorse block lists (i’m on some, weirdly lumped in with people i myself have blocked) but i don’t see how blocking all these accts with one button is bad.

most importantly, DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THEM. they already own X so they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t trying to start shit.

A solitary gongfu tea session on a small round table in front of a large window overlooking two trees in the afternoon. Today's tea: Love Potion, a sheng/raw puerh tea blend by Crimson Lotus. The little Jianshui teapot is carved with lotus blooms and leaves, with a plain Jianshui cup and fairness cup. A cast iron teapot carved with lotus blooms and golden koi is behind it, on a matching cast iron ceramic stove. The main tea tray is a dark ceramic slab carved with characters from the Heart Sutra. A clay tea pet of three pigs of good fortune is also featured. In the window bookshelf are various books on solitude.

Breathe.

#tea

my favorite genre of social media video is “Warning: May induce madness”

Which YT creator is this?

Just sent! (from my Distracted Hermit email, for verification)

Wow, that's awesome! I'll pick out a shirt and follow up. Glad I caught this ping randomly (RIP to whatever happened to my mobile notifications)

Live your life in such a way that an entire social media platform doesn’t spend hours on a Friday night anxiously awaiting news of your possible demise.

My least favorite statement is "[This] is what radicalized young men to the far right" when it usually boils down to criticism or de-centering themselves in a discussion

Imagine such inability to handle critical discourse

For the rest of us, that's just another Tuesday

Holy shit, yesterday it was DARK in my head. Today there’s some light, and that’s all we need, right? Wishing you a bit of light today. Text a friend. Call your mom. Listen to some good stuff. Make art. Read (I have some recs!). Listen to the birds. Take care of yourself.

I thought this was satire until I realized it was from 404 Media

I figured as much! My wallet was quaking just thinking about it

These are great action shots. We have a fairly lively eastern cottontail population around our property (New England) and I *wish* I could get pictures like these

Gosh

What a shame

uh

Over the last few months, I'm less scared of AI than I am of the sheer number of people who entirely unscrew their brains, set it on the seat beside them, and enjoy the ride from the backseat after handing AI the keys

Then get driven around in AI's special brand of reality

Let me off this ride

Just overheard a conversation where someone compared a translation by a professional translator to an AI translation.

To quality check it, they then asked yet another AI which one was better.

The AI said the AI version was better. Now they're fretting. Zero human feedback.

I'm losing my mind

vocal fry implies the existence of vocal onion ring and vocal tater tot

Every time I consider following this feed I recall that even with okay blood pressure, I'd only last 5 minutes

Hesgeth's face is a bit of a tell. "That's today's angle? Alright. Let's hear it."

It's likely this "100% American participation" could end up supplied by prison labor.

*stares in Thirteenth Amendment*

I want to make this review without making it too long I got this phone on the 7th not going to speak about the whole process of getting this because it was a little stressful but never the last I received this phone brand new good condition and might I say beautiful but ... Please note that there's nothing wrong with my external screen I have a screen protector on it. I'm no newbie to setting up a new phone so I'm going to all the quirks setting it up as well as doing all of my customization to the phone internally wise. I get to the section of personalization in the settings to go and switch and change my clock face to my shock in horror it's not working I go and reset the phone I reset the factory settings I did it all something told me to go on Google to see if I could find this issue so I did and lo and behold I find a lot of post about the clock face spamming two months back on how they could not change their clock face from the four digital analog numbers on the front which is the most ugly is clock that Android 14 came out with lol So me being me I contact Motorola themselves I go through hell for 5 days trying to get a straight answer I'm sent from technician to technician until I got sent to one that was above a technician level two he takes full control over my phone remotely and he sees what I'm seeing He's just as shock as I am but I'm telling him this is coming from the latest Android 14 update which came with the security update from September 1st everyone on Reddit was saying the exact same thing that their clock face stop working when it update was applied from what he was saying and what I was trying to tell him it was nothing that he was could do I just wanted him to get eyes on it so it can be noted and to show that this situation is really going on because from them they kept trying to make it seem like it wasn't happening or they had no knowledge of this happen needless to say given the fact that I can't use or change the clock face for the inte…

As a descriptive linguist, I'm fascinated how the period/full stop is disappearing in casual discourse. Or even how adding one can make a text message or short statement seem more terse.

Still, this entire review is like three sentences and my brain is freaking out (alt text limit exceeded)

As we head to Election Day, for folks who voted early, thank you. I know some folks have not yet made up their minds. I am making an appeal to you.

Please do not rank Cuomo. I have worked with every single one of the candidates for mayor. I will tell you he does not like us.

This was good, in a quietly going insane type of way

From a cursory glance at my timeline, there appear to some Feelings™ about Juneteenth from irrelevant parties.

Letting them slide by and returning to my holiday