Chemistring

I just sent out an email with the line "Thank you for your participation," and the urge to add "...in this Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment activity" was almost overwhelming.

Join the ACS-GHS on Nov 12 as we host Judy Giordan, 2023 ACS President and venture founder, for a discussion on how to turn distrust into reflection, growth, and positive change for science. Reserve your spot: In-Person: https://conta.cc/4jAgKgW Virtual: https://conta.cc/4iefL3F

Trans rights are human rights, pass it on 🏳️‍⚧️

The amount of wrong-number political text spam I get as an ineligible voter in the US is infuriating, but the laugh I laughed when this came through... Oh no! Not the FURRIES!?! And OTHER weirdos!!! Voting in MY elections?!? Unlike the "normal people" texting unsolicited butt photos to strangers 🙄

"Trick or Peat!" I yell at the children. "Peat?" they ask, but it's already too late. They belong to the bog now.

Many things could happen; this calendar will be happening to me. I will laugh if other things happen before the calendar arrives.

we've identified another vulnerability leak. now hackers on the dark web have identified your bad knee and that weird thing your shoulder does if you sleep on it wrong. there's no patch available for this, they're now just keenly aware you feel like your career has stalled out

Today's phrase of the day from the Ask A Manager blog: "[...] because I have free will and a dinosaur suit and wasn't making enough use of either." https://www.askamanager.org/2026/10/interview-with-a-life-drawing-model.html

I love how, just when you think everything is under control and maybe you can relax a bit...NOPE! New disaster time! This message brought to you by: poorly documented legacy accounts and Google being random bastards with *impeccable* timing, all of which are somehow now MY problem to solve.

There's "celebrating the little things in life", and then there's "celebrating your credit card's milestone anniversary", and one of these is not really necessary to celebrate, <COMPANY>.

Photo from a friend of mine.

I Am Complete* Caveat Frog

It's Saturday morning, and time for Questionable Yarn Combinations with Chemistring. As much as I love the colors in the ball (color: Birches), high contrast/short repeat variegation is very hard to make work is you want it to look good and not splotchy. As I have found the hard way. :/

Announcing the 2026 ACS-GHS Local Section Award Winners! The awards will be presented at our annual awards banquet on Saturday, October 17, 2026. Join us in celebrating excellence in the Greater Houston chemistry community! https://acsghs.wildapricot.org/event-6700700

The Haus of Blood was *extremely* busy today. The lure of a free Texas Renaissance Fair ticket in exchange for blood is apparently irresistible to many blood-hoarders.

Norway Pine hat in what is actually a midnight blue tweed (don't let the bad lighting convince you it's purple). In related news, my fingertips hurt. Ah, knitted cables...

Passed a Dunkin Donuts offering Tiramisu-flavored drinks, and I have to wonder at how far coffee has strayed that there are now special edition/seasonal coffee-flavored coffees. Feels like ordering an espresso martini latte (which is just a vodka latte with plausible deniability).

@betsytheripper.bsky.social Happy birthday! Hoping you find the time and space to celebrate in the midst of ✨everything✨.

Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.

I'm sure it's a funny article, but as a knitter I was immediately distracted by the sweater (gorgeous color!) and then by wondering if one of the cables was messed up. Just knitting things 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣

Behold! I have created a scrungly tube! At some point this will be blocked into a flat rectangular scarf/stole, because a scrungly tube was not the intended result.

If you've got time to gab, you've got time for crab.

Nerd pet peeve: when people arrange things that have NO INHERANT PERIODICITY into a "periodic table" Vegetables are not periodic! Logical fallacies are not periodic!!! You cannot create a periodic table with them!!! The structure of your table reveals nothing!!! *Muffled scream*

Share a television show that raised you

The heart of science and collaboration in two posts.

I finally know where my appendices are.

Bought a spinning wheel. Spinsters gonna spin, figured I'd make it official. (Ashford Kiwi 3, for those wondering)

Doing A Science (TM): Fun for the whole family!

Currently stranded on what I am calling "scarf isthmus" (the middle bit of a scarf with patterned bits on either end) since "sleeve island" doesn't really apply here. It's not a question of size *eyebrow waggle 😏*, except it actually is...I need 40" on the center section and only have 18" so far.

Today's amusing synchronicity: I'm still in the part of the Behind the Bastards podcast back-catalog where Robert is advocating nuking the Great Lakes (late 2022), at the same time that US MapWars 2026 (Lake Ontario edition) is in active play. Man needs to quit playing with the ball of prophecy. 🫠

I have been "entertaining" myself during my confinement by using up the very very expired COVID tests in my cabinet to monitor my status, and am annoyed to still be testing positive on day 9 from first test/day 11 since start of symptoms. *sigh* (yes, I'm verifying with unexpired tests in between)

And this is why "is it raining in Houston?" is a pointless and silly question.

All the Tall Oil Fatty Acid people are about to be really confused when the health nuts start calling...

Heads up for #ACSFall2026 attendees. Symptomatic as of late Wednesday evening, masking as of Thursday (and self-isolated as of Thurs mid-morning). Poor choice on my part to attend unmasked, kudos to everyone who made a better decision.

Somebody's phone just played the❗noise from Metal Gear and the way my head popped up to look around... I've never even played a Metal Gear game.

I've checked the primary literature and can confirm that Lake Ontario is the official and correct name.

#ACSFall2026

I realize that reading from a teleprompter is a real skill and not everyone has it, but I really thought people who do a lot of public speaking would be better at reading out loud. It's like my high school drama class all over again.

Tonight's auto transcription fail was continually rendering ACS as "AISES" at the ACS 150 keynote lecture.