brooksmoses | Network

I posted a while ago about acquiring a FlossGrip floss holder, but it was awkward to use. Since then I've figured out a few things, so I thought I would share.

I use slippery floss because my teeth are closely spaced, so I need to wrap around the posts 5 times rather than 3. It is also easier if there's a tail on each side, so I use about 9 inches of floss (the length of the FlossGrip plus a couple inches) each time. This is about half of what I used with just my fingers.
It's easier to wrap the floss with dry hands, before I brush my teeth.
The FlossGrip is embossed on one side with "FlossGrip", which makes it easier to keep track of which post I wrapped first, for unwrapping.
The little slots that lock in the floss are compressed by wrapping the floss around the posts, which means there is a just-right tension that lets the floss slide in, and then holds it securely.
It helps to angle the FlossGrip to match the actual angle of each gap between my teeth, not what I imagine the angle to be.
It also helps to minimize the pressure I use to get down into each gap, so I don't irritate my gums.

So that's it, what a geeky person thinks about while flossing her teeth.

oursin

What I read

Finished Imperial Palace, v good, by 1930 Enoch Arnold had got into the groove of being able to maintain dramatic narrative drive without having to throw in millionaires and European royalty and sinister plots, but just the business of running a hotel and the interpersonal things going on.

Then took a break with Agatha Christie, Dumb Witness (Hercule Poirot, #17) (1937) - I slightly mark it down for having dreary old Hastings as narrator, but points for the murderer not being the Greek doctor.

Finished Grand Babylon Hotel, batshit to the last.

Discovered - since they are only on Kindle and although I occasionally get emails telling me about all the things that surely I will like to read available on Kindle, did they tell me about these, any more than the latest David Wishart? did they hell - that there are been two further DB Borton Cat Caliban mysteries and one more which published yesterday. So I can read these on the tablet and so far have read Ten Clues to Murder (2025) involving a suspect hit and run death of a member of a writers' group - the plot ahem ahem thickens.... Was a bit took aback by the gloves in the archives at the local history museum, but for all I know they still pursue this benighted practice.

Have also read, prep for next meeting of the reading group, Dorothy Richardson, Backwater (Pilgrimage, #2) (1916).

On the go

Recently posted on Project Gutenberg, three of Ann Bannon's classic works of lesbian pulp, so I downloaded these, and started I Am a Woman (1957) which is rather slow with a lot of brooding and yearning - our protag Laura has hardly met any women yet on moving to New York except her work colleagues and her room-mate so she is crushing on the latter, who is still bonking her ex-husband. But has now at least acquired a gay BF, even if he is mostly drunk.

Have just started DB Borton, Eleven Hours to Murder (2025).

Have also at least dipped into book for review and intro suggests person is not terribly well-acquainted with the field in general and the existing literature, because ahem ahem I actually have a chapter in big fat book which points out exactly those two contradictory strands - control vs individual liberation.

Up next

Well, I suspect the very recent Borton that arrived this week will be quite high priority!

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is sunny and actually warm, with a light breeze -- it's 69°F outside.

I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of sparrows, and a mourning dove flying around.

I put out water for the birds.

The crocuses are blooming in the rain garden! :D I'm pretty sure this is the earliest I've seen anything bloom here. The snowdrops don't even have their buds up yet. I took a few pictures of the crocuses.

.

Current Mood: excited

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/02/18/rip-scalzi-dsl-line-2004-2026/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59512

As most of you know, I live on a rural road where Internet options are limited. More than 20 years ago, DSL became available where I live, which meant that I could ditch the satellite internet of the early 2000s, which topped out at something like 1.5mbps and rarely achieved that, and which went out entirely if it rained, for a line that had a, for me, blisteringly fast 6mbps speed.

That was the speed it stayed at for most of the next twenty years, until my provider, rather grudgingly, increased the speed to 40mbps — not fast, but certainly faster — and there it stayed. Over time the DSL service stopped being as reliable, rarely actually got up to 40mbps, and, actually started going out when it rained, like the satellite internet of old, but without the excuse of being, you know, in space and blocked by clouds.

A few months back I went ahead and ordered 5G internet service from Verizon, because it was faster and doesn’t have usage caps, which had been a stumbling block for 5G service previously. It’s not top of the line, relative to other services that are available elsewhere — usually 120+mbps, where the church’s service is at 300+mbps, and Athena’s in town Internet is fiber and clocks in at 2gbps — but it’s fast enough for what I use the internet for, and to steam high-definition movies and TV. I held on to the DSL since then to make sure I was happy with the new service, because that seemed a sensible thing to do.

No more. The 5G wireless works flawlessly and has for months, and the time has come. After 20+ years, I have officially cancelled my DSL line. A big day in the technology life of the Scalzi Compound. I thank the DSL for its service, but its watch has now ended. We all most move on, ceaselessly, into the future, where I can download stuff faster.

I’m still keeping my landline, however, to which the DSL was attached. Call me old-fashioned.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/02/18/rip-scalzi-dsl-line-2004-2026/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=59512

muccamukk

I'm putting together a presentation for school on the misogyny slop ecosystem, and how PR companies astroturf a hate campaign to defame and discredit (usually female) people their employer doesn't like. Here's some links I might include in that, some of which I've posted here before. Taken together, they're chilling.

Posted in roughly the order they came across my line of sight, which is largely chronological.

✨: Probably going to include in the project. (A lot of the later links are just recent stuff I haven't included yet, which may be of interest to those following the case.)

( Eight Links with quote decks. Includes references to Epstein, but no details. )

I'm still looking for something short that clearly lays out the way information is fed to influencers. It's a common misconception that whoever's running the smear will pay the influencers, and sometimes that's the case, but it's not usually how shilling works. The influencers take the exclusive information, publish it, potentially get their post boosted by the PR company's bots, and then the payment shows up in the ad revenue. (It's explained in "Who Trolled Amber?", but that's too long.)

stonepicnicking_okapi

( 1-14 )
18. divine love
19. platonic love
20. infatuation
21. maternal love
22. obsession
23. agape
24. love of animals
25. unconditional love
26. forbidden love
27. ecstasy
28. the beloved

--

This song "Anchored in Love Divine" was recommended by Adriene of Yoga with Adriene in one of her yoga videos. This is the Carter family, a Christian gospel group.

Watch on YouTube

starandrea

Apparently I have a white-and-purple fuchsia. Cathy gave me one of her little fuchsias last fall, and honestly it has not been thriving. I just haven't got the knack of fuchsias yet. But it started budding last week (I thought for sure the buds would fall off because the plant wasn't healthy enough to support flowers), and yesterday one opened! And today another one opened!

It's particularly exciting because I've only had pink fuchsias before this, so I just assumed this one was also pink. Nope! So pretty. And it looks nice with the dried orchid blooms on the plant next to it, also purple, so that's extra special. (I don't know if you're supposed to remove orchid blooms once they go by: probably, but these are the blooms on Mimi's orchid and there's zero chance I will interfere with this hardy and symbolic gift. Those flowers are there until they fall off.)

The second of my baby geraniums is flowering, also red, and my rescue geranium from two years ago at the hardware store is budding again. It blooms white and several shades of pink, which is interesting and I don't know how common that is, that a single geranium plant has multiple colors of flowers. It's the only one I have like that out of seven or eight, so that's neat.

Oh! Okay, also, remember the "dormant" passionflower vines? Ha ha, they are not twining around the tree, they are growing straight up, probably looking for the light they aren't supposed to have because it's winter and they should be sleeping. I saw one of them poking up above the tree on Monday and thought, "Oh hi??"

Then I forgot about it, except for pouring a bunch of water in that pot because apparently the vines are awake and will (I assume) want a drink. Today I had designated as minting day, just to keep ahead of potential pests, and when I was gently spraying the tree I realized there are multiple passionflower vines on their way up and one of them has leaned forward for the floor light (instead of back for the wall light, which was installed over the vine pot but I didn't think reached all the way down through the tree canopy).

So I'm not sure what their plan is, but it looks like I may need an indoor trellis for them, unless I want them to go for the ceiling lights. How does Cathy keep hers dormant over the winter? (Apparently other people have cool parts of their house, or warm parts of their garage. I find it a struggle just to keep the canna and dahlia tubers below 60F.)

Anyway, I have today off from work, and my $8 soldering iron has arrived, so it's back to work on the winter sowing. I have a bunch of test containers and test seeds, along with an assortment of soil and a warm-ish day for working outside. At this rate I should finish just in time for the winter sowing workshop.

nineweaving

rushthatspeaks and I took a delighted young Fox to the Stone Zoo for a much-belated Christmas present. (The Antarctic weather we've had would have daunted all but the hardiest animals, let alone us.)

Some of the denizens, of course, revelled in the snow.

The Arctic fox was snug and smug.

The snow leopard was serenely aloof.

Wolves on the horizon! Shades of Willoughby Chase.

The colobus monkeys have a mischievous toddler. Its parents clearly told its older sibling to babysit, and the brat kept teasing and tigging and dive bombing the poor guy from the ceiling.

Fennec fox. Those ears!

The orangest flamingos!

Red panda.

I didn't get pictures of the bats or the bears, and the otters stayed snug in their grotto, over hot chocolate and Monopoly. They must play something.

Nine

tozka

This is one of those niche 90s songs that if you missed it when it first came out you probably haven't heard it since then-- I'd still be in the dark, myself, except it was played on BBC Radio 2 the other day before an interview with Baz Luhrmann and it was so weird I had to look it up on Wikipedia and then listen to it again a few more times.

Crossposted to

onesongaday

lsanderson

ICE

After my ICE arrest, I learned one crucial way to treat trauma. We can all take part
An illustration of numerous gentle, overlapping hands forming the shape of a protective flower enclosing a small, curled up child.
I was detained for writing a op-ed about Gaza as a student at Tufts. My experience has only made me feel more connected to others facing oppression
Rümeysa Öztürk
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/18/rumeysa-ozturk-trauma-children-ice-gaza

Conservative Georgia town pushes back against ICE detention center: ‘We are Americans after all’
Social Circle, a mostly Maga town, builds strange bedfellow coalition against plans to convert warehouse
Timothy Pratt in Social Circle, Georgia
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/18/ice-detention-center-warehouse-georgia

More News

In other session news, a bill backed by more than two dozen GOP lawmakers would make protesting in front of someone’s place of residence a gross misdemeanor. Legal repercussions could also include restraining orders, Fox 9 reports. Via MinnPost
https://www.fox9.com/news/residential-protesting-minnesota-new-gop-proposal-feb-2026

Nevada sues Kalshi to block company’s prediction market operation in state
State regulators seek to block Kalshi from offering events contracts that would allow residents to bet on sports
Reuters
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/18/nevada-kalshi-lawsuit-prediction-market ( Read more... )

davidgillon

My sister and I went out with family friends last week* to catch a band at one of the local pubs, the slightly unusual element being that it was at the local biker bar (Satan's Slaves, County Durham Chapter). I did wonder if the band ('One-oh-One, I think) would be any good, but they opened with All The Small Things, then segued into London Calling, followed by No More Heroes, and I'd basically found my ideal playlist - I did think at one point 'All this needs to be perfect is Swords of a Thousand Men', and it cropped up shortly afterwards.

There's something slightly incongruous about having a bunch of bikers in denim and leathers warning you as you leave to "Be careful on these steps now, they're really slippy. Hope you had a good time, this rainy weather's horrible, isn't it?'

My sister was also out the day before at a Lourdes fundraiser at a church-hall over in Darlington - pie, peas, and 'Bongo-Bingo'. Proper Bongo-Bingo is apparently a raucous franchise version of bingo with lots of party games, silly prizes and dancing on tables, but this was the Catholic version, so they missed out the dancing on tables. The compere/bingo caller, sitting next to a life-sized cut-out of Pope Leo, was moonlighting from his day-job as Head of RE at the local Catholic comprehensive, and pointed out any complaints should go to the Dean (senior priest, sitting on my sister's table).

Sample bingo call: 'Thirty-Three - Nailed to a Tree' (OMG, you can't say that!)

"We have bingo dabbers for sale if you need them - a pound to Catholics, four pounds to Protestants"!

"Hands up if you're a teacher?", followed by disappointed look + <*Teacherly voice /*> "It's your own time you're wasting".

Trying to jolly everyone up "This is about as lively as the Lourdes fund-raiser at St Johns!"**

First prize dished out was a Virgin Mary fancy dress costume, other prizes included the life-sized cut-out of Pope Leo.

* I wrote this the next day, but accidentally lost the complete post just short of posting and didn't have the energy to re-write it, but it restored itself when I accidentally went into message creation just now.

** The next Catholic comprehensive over, the one I went to.

Current Mood: Entertained
Current Music: All the Small Things

geraineon posting in

cnovels

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone who celebrates!

This is your weekly read-in-progress post~

For spoilers:

<details><summary>insert summary</summary>Your spoilers goes here</details>

<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*

lannamichaels

okay so Ernie Of Sesame Street is legalnamed Ernest Monster, without question, but what is Bert short for? Albert? Bertram? Hubert? Herbert? Robert?

I may spin out a quick Sesame Street Regency AU drabble... but I think it's gotta be Bertram.

tozka

It's another rainy/drizzly/grey day here and that means I get to cuddle with the cat under a heated blanket and read books! Yay!

I'm currently 150-ish pages into Sailing Alone by Richard J. King which is a deep dive into the memoirs/adventures of people who sailed across oceans on their own.

It's more about the reasons why someone would do that than a how-to, and each chapter or so focuses on a single sailor but ALSO compares their experiences to other sailors and how they're all intertwined-- including how they've influenced the author's life. It's really well-written; I love travel memoirs/travel histories in general, but this book takes pains to highlight people besides the big names (aka mostly rich white men), so I'm even more interested! And now I have a huge pile of books added to my TBR, too.

I also recently put down George Sand's A Winter in Majorca, which is a travel book about her time spent in Mallorca in the 1800s. Despite a decent first chapter I found it fairly boring (it's one of those ones where the traveler hates nearly everything about the country/people who live there), and the physical book is a pain to read because of the extremely tight binding, so I decided to give up on it for now. Maybe I'll come back to it as an ebook, or maybe I'll just read one of her other books instead.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: curious

princessofgeeks

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aurumcalendula

Unhallowed by Jordan L. Hawk is free on kobo through the 23rd!

senmut posting in

communal_creators

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bookscorpion posting in

common_nature

The sun came out and everyone was enjoying it so much after more than a week of clouds and snowfall. This crow was taking a very energetic bath - look how far the water droplets are flying all around him!

pilottttt posting in

common_nature

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brooksmoses

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January 2026

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Page Summary

sonia - Learning how to use a FlossGrip
oursin - Wednesday has fixed the date for doing the condom talk
ysabetwordsmith in birdfeeding - Birdfeeding
scalziwhatever_feed - RIP Scalzi DSL Line, 2004 – 2026
muccamukk - Links List (Lots of Digital Smear Campaign Stuff)
stonepicnicking_okapi - February LOVE-Fest: Divine Love
starandrea - "it's not hording if it's plants." (reddit)
nineweaving - zoo story
tozka - 🎶 everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)
lsanderson - 2026.02.18
davidgillon - Gigging With Satan's Slaves/Catholic Teacher Humour
geraineon in cnovels - Read-in-Progress Wednesday
lannamichaels - sunny days...
tozka - reading wednesday
princessofgeeks - spoilery question for book fans of Heated Rivalry
princessofgeeks - There you have it
aurumcalendula - (no subject)
senmut in communal_creators - On current events (apologies for the mentions of politics)
bookscorpion in common_nature - Crow Bath
pilottttt in common_nature - And another Istanbul cat.

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Page generated Feb. 18th, 2026 08:35 pm

Brooks Moses

Network

Learning how to use a FlossGrip

Wednesday has fixed the date for doing the condom talk

Birdfeeding

RIP Scalzi DSL Line, 2004 – 2026

Links List (Lots of Digital Smear Campaign Stuff)

February LOVE-Fest: Divine Love

"it's not hording if it's plants." (reddit)

zoo story

🎶 everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)

2026.02.18

Gigging With Satan's Slaves/Catholic Teacher Humour

Read-in-Progress Wednesday

sunny days...

reading wednesday

spoilery question for book fans of Heated Rivalry

There you have it

(no subject)

Admin Post: On current events (apologies for the mentions of politics)

Crow Bath

And another Istanbul cat.

Profile

January 2026

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