Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

and was hellbent on buying a social media site…there are some things I might do differently than a certain person is doing.

– Not pay 44B for a company with a net worth of 13B

– Double, hell, triple the Trust & Safety staff and make sure that staff is diverse AF and that marginalized communities who get a lot of harassment are actually represented there.

– Fix the verification process, not this “buy a check” bullshit.

– Ditch the Nazis. Seriously, advertisers actually like it when they don’t have to worry about promoted tweets being right next to white supremacist shit.

– Ignore the haters. Seriously, I am a billionaire, I really don’t give a shit about a reporter being critical of me.

– Let people link to whatever the fuck they want as long as it’s not actual malware or illegal shit. Cause I’m not an idiot and if I’ve made my site good, people aren’t gonna flee, and I understand that people use different social media sites for different purposes.

– Not randomly change the rules because my feelings are hurt and apply them retroactively.

– Don’t run the fucking site via polls.

For being a billionaire, Elon is an idiot.

So, this is gonna be a pinned post for a while, cause I can link to my blog from Twitter which is now banning links to any and all mainstream social media sites, and I’m probably gonna get banned soon at the rate things are going.

CafeChatNoir: My original blog, now trying to put artsy shit there.
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@cdcouture
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafechatnoir/
Discord: https://discordapp.com/users/1434
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/cafechatnoir

Places I’m not as active, but have accounts:

Counter Social: https://counter.social/web/accounts/134931
Post.news: https://post.news/cafechatnoir
Ello: https://ello.co/cafechatnoir

It is Sunday, December 18th and the only reason I need to leave the house again for Christmas stuff is the grocery store & bakery. I can’t remember the last time I had all the errands done this early. Go me!!

So, if you’ve followed any of the Twitter drama, you know that the guy that ran the ElonJet account got booted for “doxxing” – I follow that account over on Mastodon now and I was looking at the website he uses – ADS-B Exchange – what a neato website! Zoom out and it is insane how many airplanes are in the air at any given time, zoom in and you can watch them move around the map. Those two clusters of grey airplanes are our two airports – I can’t help but just envision a pile of aircraft there, LOL. If you zoom way in on the airports, you can see the planes on the taxiways & runways.

Yes, I am easily entertained.

And thanks to that website, we know that Elon is at the World Cup, because of course a rich asshole tech bro is at the World Cup final. Which of course begs the question – if you see him at the World Cup and tweet about it – is it doxxing? (No, it is not. Pointing out a public figure at a public event is not doxxing – potentially rude, but not doxxing.)

And of course, now I’m trying to figure out what is up with the helicopter just south of my neighborhood – did some googling of the tail number and it seems that helicopter has been used in the past to do power line inspections in other places, and where it is circling does have a bunch of high tension lines, so yeah, that would make sense.

The older I get, the more I understand why folks become plane/trainspotters and get into model trains and whatnot.

You have a lovely Sunday while I watch airplane icons, LOL.

It’s 3:15 and all the errands for the day are DONE! All my steps are in for the day.

Amazon returns at Kohls, LilyMonster presents at Felix and Oscar*, quick side trip into market next to F&O to see if I could find the good butter cookies (YES!), Trader Joe’s (in 10 minutes ON A SATURDAY!) break at home to put away TJ stuff and get the flowers in water, and then the first of what will be 3 freakin’ trips to the market this week.

If you’re wondering why I need to hit the market 3 damn times… Well, today was paper towels, toilet paper, and tissues – and that is a whole damn cartful right there. But hey, 1009 days into the fucking plague AND WE HAVE NOT RUN OUT OF PAPER GOODS YET.

Tomorrow will be eggs, cheese, hashbrowns and whatnot for brunch cause I don’t want to wait until the last minute on those. Hashbrowns go especially fast this time of year.

End of the week will be the cheese danish, cause I kinda have to wait until the last minute for that one.

But now – I am gonna sit my happy ass down and do nothing.

* Shout out to whoever said “lets layout the new store almost exactly like the old store” – I so, so appreciated it.

IT’S ME! I AM!! With a fresh haircut and color to boot.

And it was not without 15 rather stressful minutes leading up to 1PM as a Sev 1 support issue came through at 12-freaking-45 – it was something I could do nothing about, but I was cc’d on all the emails and just kept hoping no one would ask me to chime in – thankfully they did not and I escaped on time!

Off to the hairdresser with holiday goodies and I was so glad I put together a little bag for the receptionist – it occurred to me that maybe she gets forgotten and without her, no one knows what they’re doing any given day, so she is important! She seemed so surprised by it – so I’m glad I did it.

And Micha with the magic fingers who washes my hair and crochets things for me, my lord, she outdid herself with this gorgeous wrap. Not sure the photo does it justice – the colors are these lovely muted pastels which gives it an antique look, and the work itself is just so lovely. And it’s cozy soft mohair. (She seemed impressed that I knew the yarn!)

I’m trying to steel myself for going out and about… Trying to figure the “most efficient” paths around town, or at least not the absolute wrong-assed longest approach. And trying to figure out what I can do Monday/Tuesday when I’m not dealing with weekend crowds.

Remembered last night that I have three pieces of art for my brother for Christmas and I’d completely forgotten about frames. Got those measured and ordered this morning. Amazon is awful for many reasons, but they have made framing artwork far more affordable than in the old days.

So over the course of the week, I’ve got Amazon returns, need to go venture north to the indie pet supply store for the LilyMonster, Trader Joe’s for Christmas Eve goodies, market for Christmas brunch and regular stuff, maybe get some cards out, and wrap presents.

I still haven’t decided if I’m gonna bake here or do my part to support the local bakery and their amazing tea cookies this year, but I am leaning heavily towards the bakery, cause, a) tired and b) coconut macaroons.

Just did a freezer clear out for TJ’s and brunch stuff – no one is gonna eat those freezer burned bagels, LOL and now there is space and I don’t have to try to eat ALL THE STOUFFERS in the next two days.

And in looking to see if I remembered right that there is a Kohls for Amazon returns up north closer to TJ’s and the pet shop – I discovered that a) yes there is and b) the pet shop moved – right across from said Kohls! So… looks like it’s gonna be a go up north day today after all since I can get it all done in one loop. And it’s probably gonna be a madhouse everywhere – but it will be good to have all that out of the way right now.

And FML, despite getting up at 8:30, it is somehow noon.

OK, deep cleansing breaths, N95 at the ready, and off we go!!

You have a great Saturday!!

*bounce*bounce*bounce*

And the sun is actually supposed to return today, YAY! And I slept in a bit and get out of work early, YAY!

So, a few months back, I was hearing from management, “oh, raises will be much better this year!” and today is our weekly-ish department meeting, seems the budget isn’t even for 4%. I’m not surprised, but this is such a dumb place to get stingy – since March 2020, the CPI is up 15%… Just dumb.

Have also noticed there has been no weird gifty thing this year from corporate, nor any little merch storefront from the department. Would I prefer a gift card? Yes. But making the gesture does count for something. (I did get a nice Christmas card & gift card from my immediate boss, which I do genuinely appreciate.)

It’s petty to care either way, but it makes me feel a bit “work to the rule” today and as such, my work laptop will not open until 9AM. (She says with Teams open in another tab just in case, LOL.)

Switching focus here like the undiagnosed ADHD gal I am – holy shit, Twitter. My god, Elon Musk is a pathetic manchild. Suspended a bunch of journalists who report on him, then nuked all the Spaces last night where they were appropriately roasting him, ran two polls asking when they should be allowed back, both overwhelmingly “NOW” and is blocking links to Mastodon instances – by Monday he’s gonna shut down the whole site to keep folks from talking about him. Dude needs a LOT of therapy. (Also, he didn’t get doxxed, no matter how many times he says it.)

If I’m on the Board of Directors for SpaceX or Tesla…well, I’m making some phone calls to my colleagues about permanently booting him given this absolutely batshit public behavior.

Once I am finally on PTO, I have a list a mile long of shit to get done this weekend. I’m shooting to have all Christmas stuff finished this weekend, because I want to be able to relax and split the rest of my time just enjoying the week off and getting caught back up on non-holiday things around the house. (Another list that is a mile long…)

Well, time to go put forth 4 hours of effort and THEN START MY VACATION!

You have a great Friday!

Love it when companies say “we can schedule a window of a few days when this item arrives” and things show up a full week before the window. I know shipping is all messed up still, and early is better than late, but honestly, just don’t offer the service for the time being.

And it’s an FML meeting Wednesday, wheeeeee.

And they’re calling for an ice storm tonight – which at least on that front, I don’t have to leave the house tomorrow. But I do need to hit the market at lunch cause we’re low on milk, hopefully it won’t be a madhouse.

CDC is apparently saying it’s time to mask up again. Good luck with that. Those of us that didn’t stop will keep on, and it won’t be enough and I doubt the rest will come back around to it. (And my company has dropped all mitigation worldwide. And folks wonder why I skipped the holiday luncheon and office happy hour.)

I am very low on Christmas cheer this year. Maybe I’m just tired and need my vacation time to get here. (2 1/2 days!)

Just gotta get to the weekend.

And then I can nap. I’m OK right now, but a certain kitty woke me up at 4AM. And again at 5AM. I suspect I’ll be dragging hard by lunchtime.

The weekend, while far too short, was at least long enough that I didn’t think about work at all, and I have zero idea what on earth I’m working on today. So, that’s something, right?

And we get paid and it’s a half day Friday week, so that’s nice, too.

And somehow I’ve been up for an hour and it’s time to go do the thing to make the money to get through this capitalist hellscape!

You have a good day!

We’ve got another shit grey day out there. I’ve got every damn light on in the house, added the vitamin D supplement back into the mix, and I’m reminding myself that I’m not lazy – my brain is just a bit fucked cause I’m very, very solar powered. (I do not know how folks in the far northern spaces manage it.)

I did manage to get my errands run yesterday, but damn if I wasn’t legit just going through the motions. Like, didn’t even stop to pick up tacos going through the motions. (I KNOW.)

I’ve been chasing dopamine with housework today and well, it’s working about as spectacularly as you’d expect given how I feel about housework, LOL. But at least a few things are getting done around the house.

But, we’ve got a half day Friday on tap this week, and then I am off work for something like 10 days, YAY! And I will have tons of time to get things done around the house instead of trying to cram it into a weekend when I’m trying to recover from the week.

So, if nothing else, I should at least be able to approach a state of “caught up” around the house – and maybe if I am super, super lucky – a little bit ahead.

But I have at least gotten the critical stuff done for the day – and now I’m going to allow myself to quietly exist.

It’s the 10th of December – and honestly, despite the tree and lights all being up, I am not feeling Christmas-y AT ALL. I need to run errands this weekend, Christmas and regular – and I am very meh about it all.

Could just be a dental hangover but I am just not feeling it today. Probably not helping that it’s 40º and grey as fuck out there. I do need to hit up the Walgreens and there is a new-ish taco place across the street – maybe I’ll bribe myself with some takeout.

I am just mentally and physically flat today. Like I don’t feel bad, just…flat – it’s the best word I can come up with.

But, I have gotten my shoes on and I am going to shove myself out the door and at a minimum go get the milk we need. Go me?

You have a lovely, restful day.