What a difference a year makes. Last year's Thanksgiving Day dinner was somewhat uneasy, when we were just glad to be able to get together at all, given that so many jurisdictions were putting out "do not gather" orders of various degrees of force. I literally wasn't sure that we would be going until the day before, when we actually hit the road ( Read more... )

sartorias has a plea for help on behalf of a friend with elderly and ailing cats, who is delaying paying essential bills in order to make sure they get the veterinary care they need.

The journey to this year's Visioncon has been a rather odd one for me. This time last year was the last time I got to visit with my mother. I'd expected to see her again at Labor Day, but her health deteriorated rapidly in July, and in August we were going to her funeral. Now that I recall that last visit, I'm wondering if she had some premonition ( Read more... )

Today while I was at a local free gaming con, I saw a friend who's been through a terrible betrayal of trust. One thing that really stuck with me was a comment about knowing that they have to keep going, that they can't afford to fall apart and not be able to get to work ( Read more... )

Over at her Livejournal, Elizabeth Moon has some excellent points on the problems of communication going awryI've had my own bitter experiences with miscommunication, of words misheard or misconstrued, both in speech and writing. It's especially annoying when I'm left feeling that the listener has grabbed about half the words I said and put them ( Read more... )

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and whom you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.