I’ve got Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I worry about everything. I worry about possible bad outcomes almost reflexively. I’m trying to be better about it, but it’s a process, and it’s hard.

I worry that the friends I had who live nearby have forgotten me. I worry that I won’t find friends like that again.

I worry about my job. I worry about my finances.

I worry that I’m just slowly becoming invisible.

It’s silly. They’re ridiculous thoughts. But they won’t leave my head. And the more they loop around, the louder they get.

I worry no one wants to hang out with me because I’m depressing or something like that. That’s a big one lately.

I should stop worrying. And if I could just turn it off just like that, I would. But I’ve tried and I can’t. Even with meds, it’s always there. Just at the back of my mind, ready to pounce the second I feel a moment of insecurity or weakness.

I know I should just accept it, and I’ve been trying to do that. I don’t want to be shy or skittish or afraid to try things. So I push myself to be more adventurous, outgoing, social. At least where I can.

News collected for Tuesday, November 12th:

• FURRJOI has officially joined Bluesky after a previous debacle where a bad actor impersonated the company on the service.¹
• LG Display has announced an even stretchier bendable display than previously offered.
• Apple Intelligence on iOS 18 has a habit of creating accidentally humorous summaries of notifications received.
• Mattel accidentally linked a porn site on their Wicked doll boxes.
• Metro Mutt (aka Clarke Macbeth) ran as the first openly furry political candidate (since the Reform Party candidates in Arizona in the 1990s) in this year’s Maple Grove, MN, city council election, receiving 3.02% of the vote in the final contest. (In this district, that equates to 1,794 votes) Users on Bluesky are now joking that Maple Grove is the “30th largest furry convention” as a result of these findings.²

Seeing several people reporting this morning that Webfishing has a vulnerability that’s being exploited by a bad actor known as “the Grincher”.

Based on reports I’ve seen so far, this person has allegedly figured out how to enter lobbies even if made private. The person then sends a block of spam in-game mail to the players in the lobby that contains an alleged HTML payload that executes when opened. This allows the “Grincher” to acquire client IP addresses and (potentially, based on reports) bruteforce login attempts to the user’s Steam account to lock it out.

Most users who are reporting issues are either streamers/v-tubers or adjacent to streamers/v-tubers who have been streaming the game recently on Twitch and related platforms.

The developer, @westthewerst, has stated (as of 8:30 AM EST today) that they are well aware of the letter/mail crashing issue and the issue of others joining code-protected (private) lobbies. They announced an upcoming patch that pledges to resolve the issues at hand. West is also seeking any proof of IP stealing/spoofing that has resulted from the exploits, as no concrete proof has been offered as of this writing.

tl;dr - Webfishing has a few bugs that need to be patched before the game is truly “safe” to play online with others, but those fixes appear to be in the works.

Shakespeare Tavern is a lovely dinner theater venue in downtown Atlanta with an incredibly welcoming staff and a lot of great drinks. Through the large wooden arched doors at the street, it’s just a short trip downstairs to the box office. There’s even a chairlift installed for those who may need it. (There are no elevators in the building.) Immediately off the Box Office are the lobby bar and gift shop, each open from the moment the upstairs doors are opened.

Tickets are relatively affordable, though that just gets you in the door. Everything else to accompany your play experience - dinner, drinks, dessert, more drinks… - is extra. The especially refined can even reserve exclusive luxe packages that ensure an up-close-and-personal experience with the night’s show.

The bar offers the standard range of beer and wine, along with crafted cocktails themed to match the evening’s show. Prices are typical of other bars nearby. Everyone hanging around when we got there was friendly and eager to chat about the place and the show. Nearer the theater entrance, there’s a comfy lounge-style area set up for hanging out while waiting to be seated.

Parties are called back to be seated by order of arrival, and are given either a red or black poker chip when arriving to indicate their group and place in line. Those with the more expensive packages are seated first.

The kitchen is open from the beginning of seating, which is usually a good 75 minutes before the show starts. We had plenty of time to get food and seats and have our fill before the play. I had the shepherd’s pie, which was more than I was expecting, and very filling.

We ordered tickets too late to get floor seats, so wound up sitting in the theater’s balcony, which is first-come-first-serve with no assigned seating. This caused a slight bit of chaos as our tipped-up seats were evidently not enough to indicate they were claimed, and someone else was sitting in our spot when we returned from getting food. One short relocation to the opposite end of the balcony had us seated (somewhat) comfortably.

On my visit, the show was Dracula: The Failings of Men - an adapatation of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. The numerous warnings and advisories before the show started warned us of the heavy usage of strobe lights, fog and haze, prop weapons (gunfire), and blood (and quite a bit of that). The program notes also mention elements of aerial dance, which did have one big feature in each of the play’s two acts.

Runtime-wise, the entire experience runs just shy of 4 hours, with pre-show drinks, dinner, and a 15-minute intermission between acts included.

In all, the show was good. Lots and lots of blood, as promised. Quite a few unexpectedly humorous moments that I loved. Renfield and Lucy were definitely favorites from the night. I kind of wonder where Mina was, though? I get that Lucy’s writing letters to her at the beginning of the play, but that’s all we get? Van Helsing, fine - slaying vampires and the patriarchy simultaneously is definitely commendable. It just felt kind of like…half a story? Still a great evening out, and an adventure I hadn’t had before. I’d go again to see an actual Shakespeare play.

guhh. another day of work ended

It’s day 10 and I’m still employed.

In which I set the scene for the days to come.

i always wanted to live in one of those “smart homes” like you saw in the overambitious Disney movies. the robot butler who irons your clothes and makes breakfast while you focus on that first important meeting. the temperature and weather and house status all shown on a convenient display somewhere centrally located… by and large a more cohesive setup than anything i have ever dealt with that claims to be “smart”.

having to write multiple if-then statements in multiple different apps and even deploy some persistent servers on the local environment wasn’t exactly my idea of the home of tomorrow (TM) or whatever.

those of you who dabble… what platform do you prefer? because SmartThings has me pulling my hair out. (we won’t even talk about Wink)

y’know… we spent money on this SmartThings enabled ADT system. real money. and they just decided that this handy remote is now completely obsolete. still functions just fine, just doesn’t do anything at all. and there is no longer any way to connect it. we were forced to purchase a new hub if we wanted all the devices we’d already invested in to keep working.

i absolutely hate the fact that Samsung can just…do this whenever they want. but the alternatives just don’t seem to have the same reliability.

and i’ll be damned if we go back to Vivint.

💡