Debunking Christian Privilege

Not a great week. Started out well, with cat cuddles and walks Sunday and Monday mornings. Then came my GP appointment.

Then yesterday I tried attending Festival of the Living Rooms, the quarterly online filk con that started almost by accident during Covid. But instead of using the Zoom app, which just works, they insisted on going through the web app embedded on their shiny new website. Calling it beta quality is being generous. FotLR may have jumped the shark this time.

Naturally I didn't get much done otherwise, although I did go back and look at the scratch tracks I'd recorded for my next album, Amethyst Rose. Um... They were recorded between 2004 and 2010! WTF? I'll have to see whether anything can be rescued from that debacle.

Enough griping. Links! How about Grooming a Giant Rescue Maine Coon Cat? And Monday's APOD, Flying Over the Earth at Night, a time-lapse from the ISS. Particularly noteworthy for the footage of the Aurora Australis starting at 1:20

If you have lots of free time, take a look at WikiFlix. CONTENT WARNING: very deep rabbit hole full of old movies.

And finally, because of the season and because it's incredibly cool, here's The Ukrainian Origin of “Carol of the Bells” | The Story of Shchedryk (Щедрик). Turns out the tune was taken from an old New Year's Day chant, from back when New Years Day was celebrated on Beltane. Better, here's the Original Ukrainian Version, sung first in a pretty littleral English translation (with Ukranian subtitles!), then in Ukranian. And best of all, here's a Remix by the B&B project for bandura and button accordion.

( Notes & links, as usual )

There were some real lows this week -- possibly having less to do with Leslie Fish's death (see Sunday) than with my realization on Tuesday that I was a month away from Colleen's and my 50th anniversary. Possibly also including communicating with my healthcare providers, which required an email to my GP's clinic (also on Tuesday) and a phone call to my oncologist's office on Friday. I prefer using a website, but both websides and the app are broken in various ways.

And Tuesday evening there was a huge wave of something negative, but I've no idea what or why.

However, I got the things done. And there were also a couple of unexpected highs, notably Thursday afternoon when somebody from the family of previous occupants came over to get a misdirected package. And I was able to hand them a nearly-full grocery bag of stuff that had accumulated over the last year, and which I had failed to find the last couple of times I had a chance. As I noted afterwards, it apparently doesn't take much to lift my spirits for a few moments.

But four walks, and four (admittedly short) guitar sessions. I'll take it. And today is my daughter's 7th anniversary! (I had forgotten, but I'd gotten a DM Friday night to say that they needed money because their car had died. Good timing.)

Linkies! Raccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floor. Dumuzi's Dream - world's first film in ancient Sumerian. (With subtitles, of course.)

( Notes & links, as usual )

Welcome to December, 2025!