My mother passed away this week at 72, having outlived her doctor's prediction by 4 months.

She died from congestive heart failure, surrounded by her children, having survived from her 51st wedding anniversary through the holidays.

The severity of her CHF was essentially a side effect of her long-term dialysis (10 years worth) while waiting for a kidney transplant. And she was number two on the local waiting list for most of it, as her transplant surgeon... was more concerned with his rep and record of perfect surgeries refusing to operate because of her high BMI, which was... a side-effect of why she needed it. She eventually got her transplant at the Jacksonville Mayo Clinic, and her transplant was still working, it was just her heart couldn't pump the fluids where they needed to go.

Just had to vent.

So, I think it was DW2 that used "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurithmics (and one or two covers for different moods) as the GENOM motif - if not, it still fits well enough that this mashup seems suited to call up a version of one of the buma that Doug arranged to get liberated. How helpful the particular individual is feeling and what they can do may be up to a bit of variation, though...


non-embedded

Though it's not the official title, I like to call it "Sweet Dreams of a Seven Nation Army."

Well, good news, bad news, and bemusing news.

Good News: A new Sakura Taisen game and anime are being released. Yay!

Bad News: Apparently the Tokyo, Paris, and New York teams were wiped out! WTF?!

Bemusing News: One of the new characters' names is Yang Xiaolong.   

I post this on the Fenspace Thread to ask a question. If this "soft reboot" happens in the Fenspace timeline(and should it?), what does Li Kohran think about it?

Check out the details on Wikipedia.

Trump just fucked us all over in the worst way possible.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nat...story.html

Whelp, the Australian military is carrying out the largest evacuation in Australian history to the east of us. Local weather's shifted to a sudden drop in temp again, but that'll last a few days at most, I suspect.

Sunday, October 6, 1995, 7:49 AM.  The Great Hall.

Albus paused in eating his breakfast, a forkful of egg midway
between his plate and mouth, as a set of familiar robes appeared
on the other side of the staff table from his seat.

"Yes, Douglas?" he said mildly.  "Can I help you?"

Douglas leaned down to bring his face closer to Albus'.  It did
not bear its usual cheerful, indeed mischievous, smile, and a
certain foreboding seized the Headmaster's heart.  "Albus," he
said in low and quietly angry tones, "you have the ghost of a
*murdered child* bound for eternity to a moldy, broken bathroom,
and everyone I've spoken to in this castle not only knows about
it but treats her as a minor *inconvenience*!"  He leaned in
closer and snarled, "What is *wrong* with you people?"

Albus closed his eyes and suppressed a sigh.

RIP NBA commissioner emeritus David Stern, on January 1.

Here's hoping 2020 will be a better year that 2019.

(I won't wish for politics to get better, because I know that isn't happening any time soon. But maybe we can get some positive action in other fields of human endeavour.)

To all board members who celebrate Christmas, my best wishes to you this holiday season.

We're almost finished a year that ends in a 9, so it's time for retrospective lists.

I'll start off with The 2010s: The Decade Canadian Artists Stopped Saying Sorry

It's a big list.

(Ten years ago, nobody outside of Canada had heard of Arcade Fire, or Drake, or Justin Bieber... Well, two out of three ain't bad. )