Laurel's Journal

A year ago around now or a bit earlier or later Kevin was probably telling me he was going to take a nap. I was distracted and hyperfocused on projects all day. I probably should've checked on him sooner when he didn't come upstairs to make supper.

I thought about waking him up to show him a graphic I worked on. God I posted a ton on November 11, 2024 I was posting thread after thread on Bluesky about things. (sigh.)

if i make it through this day i will have made it a year without him and that seems fake and like it should not be a thing.

It's an important weekend to call your members of congress about Medicaid (could call on Monday as well). (My healthcare is all paid for by Medical Assistance here in MN which is Medicaid; each state tends to have their own name for it, which adds to some confusion.)

This post has some good info and scripts.

Thanks to everyone making the calls. <3

. . . that some people first noticed a baseball player lob a summer sausage at another baseball player in celebration. And for some reason I later tried to document this nonsense in a whole series of posts . . .

I need to be reminded that some good has come out of my existence or might again.

I never got up the courage to ask people to post nice memories or comments or whatever about me for my 50th birthday (or Kevin for his 60th) but right now I really need to be reminded I've mattered at all to anyone and that maybe I still have things to offer this world.

Grim way of explaining things, but here we are.

Comment here with memories or nice things or whatever I guess. Say those nice things you might say if I'd died because I feel like I have died. (Or write to me privately if you prefer.)

If you don't have an account on Dreamwidth, you should be able to post anonymously or with OpenID (there should be a "reply" link at the bottom right of this post) though you can sign it in the body of your message unless you really do want to be anonymous.

Reminder there is such a page already for Kevin over here-- hearing people say nice things about him actually probably means more to me right now but I also really need to hear things about me I just hate asking.

It's that time yet again when Amazon has a bunch of dales. (Yes, I know Amazon is problematic AF. But if you do shop there, I very much appreciate it when you use my links as I get a cut of what you spend.)

There are a bunch of "buy 3 for the price of 2" deals and "buy 2" deals that can make these deals even more affordable. And I'm also seeing quite a few coupons (you just have to select the checkbox next to them).

If you want to check if something is a legit deal, I recommend using CamelCamelCamel (which is also great for price watching).

Here's a link to my post about a previous sale since I expect many of the same deals may repeat you may want to check that page for more deals (some won't be deals again, but some. might).

Will probably add more deals every so often.

Mostly focused on movies & TV on 4K Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray, and DVD. With some additional deals as I run across them.

I'm a big fan of physical media for a lot of reasons and with these deals you can sometimes get both physical media and digital/streaming copies for the same price or sometimes even less than purchasing or renting for streaming.

4K Movie & TV Deals

2001 ($12)
( Read more... )

There's another auction that includes stuff from my parents' estate.

Lots that are from their place are:
( Read more... )

Please spread the word and I appreciate any bidding too of course. <3

There's a new zine that does a good job of explaining why wearing a mask is important:
"Why We Mask: It's Not Just a Cold" by Laurel Lynn Leake

And there's a slightly older zine that covers a bit more ground which is also great:
"What's Up With COVID and How To Protect Yourself 2024 Edition" by Hazel Newlevant

Both are well worth your time. Can read online or print them out to read and/or distribute. They cover all sorts of stuff I think of as common knowledge but which I've learned really very much are not. I like that they cover it in easy to read format, but have links to their info sources. Citations, yay!

+ + +

The new updated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for 2024-2025 have been approved and are readily available. Both CVS & Walgreens have appointments available as do other places I'm sure. St. Paul Corner Drug currently has a limited supply of the Moderna vaccine and will update the appointments section as they get the others in I'm sure (I recommend them if you want to get vaccinated outside or in your car or home, though they also have more safety precautions indoors than most).

The main thing you need to know is that you should get the updated vaccine! The sooner the better for most folks. If you want to hear me natter in much more detail, read on, but people need to not let worrying about details keep them from getting the new vaccines. They're very safe, they're all good. The most important thing is to get them. Vaccine finder. Not sure if this Novavax finder is still working, but then Novavax was approved more recently so may not be out there yet; previously Costco was a fairly reliable place to get it.

( More vaccine natter )

( Measles & Whooping Cough outbreaks, what fun )


Back on August 26th, an estimated 1 in 19 Minnesotans were infectious with SARS-CoV-2. Good times. Things are not great! In the U.S. as of September 2nd there was more transmission in the U.S. than during 91.6% of the pandemic. Awesome. (That's per Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative's data models. Can read more on this from Mike Hoerger on Twitter but you have to brave Twitter (bleah). So grateful for their work.

There aren't many reliable ways to get data on the state of things with COVID-19, but wastewater is currently the best way. The Minnesota Wastewater Surveillance Study at the U of M is great. The CDC is (amazingly enough) still providing national wastewater surveillance data.

Data on deaths can be found on the CDC site, but given how little testing is done at hospitals and whatnot, the estimates are low. Even so, I bet you didn't know 100 Minnesotans had died of SARS-CoV-2 in the last three months. These are preventable deaths and I will continue to rage about that too.

( Finally, a good black mask option! )

Homicide: Life on the Street, probably my favorite TV show of all time, is now streaming on Peacock. FINALLY. The show has never been on any streaming service and hasn't even aired on cable or anything like that in ages.
( In which I natter about this a lot )

The Shout Factory complete series DVD set is still available while other older sets are out of print and harder to find. (I'm happy to loan out DVD sets, as I've said many times in the past.)

I started a post about Joe Mauer going into the Baseball Hall of Fame last week, but it got long (shocking) and is not quite ready so instead I'll share a three and a half minute video which I love.

This was put together in time for when the vote results were announced for who would be going into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024. It was Joe's first year of eligibility and while many people thought he had a shot of making it into the HOF on the first try, lots of others thought it might take a couple of years (it's a strange process).

Joe did get in on the first try, which is amazing (I cried a lot over this). They played this video on MLB Network and it's a nice nutshell view of Joe's career & why he was a special player.



I'll write more about Joe Mauer later, I'm sure. Well, mostly I just need to refine what I wrote already.