Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: March 2026

  • Mom mystery solved

    Remember I thought my Mom and Dad met when he drove her back from Columbia, MO when her sister died? And I couldn’t understand how Dead Sister Dolores was referenced in their letters? I have now developed a forensic reconstruction of the events of Mom’s life from college in 1954 to her death in 2008.…

  • Well that was terrifying

    About four hours ago I threw out my arm. I’ve thrown out my back plenty of times. You know that your back is out because without warning some muscle springs out of place, sudden pain, and now your legs don’t work. Well, I was typing away, and then suddenly I sprang a muscle, awful pain,…

  • Self-awareness

    I had lunch with a friend today. Me: “Gary complains all the time. ALL the time.” (Followed by an imitation of Gary complaining.) Friend: “I was just thinking about another person who complains all the time.” (Followed by very concerning examples of those complaints.) Me: (Doubles-down on griping about Gary. Gives numerous examples and asides.)…

  • TWIL: Moltbook

    This week I learned about something new; and not only is it new to me, it’s new to everyone. I learned about it from the urologist. The urologist is full of interesting information. I ask him to distract me with captivating stories if he is shoving a needle into my bladder (worth it) and this…

  • Perfectionism

    A friend at work described me as a perfectionist, and it made me think … am I? Still? I can see how co-workers see me as a perfectionist. I volunteer to do quality checks on their work, and my quality checks are brutal beat downs that include unsolicited lessons on colons vs semi-colons. Yet my…

  • New life hack

    At work there is a set of moderately heavy doors outside the parking garage. I routinely have to up my stride because someone is holding the door for me, and thus I have to hustle, because I am weak and lame, and such is the social contract: make the lame run. Recently a woman saw…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 3/5/2026

    So this is the previous… This is the progress … And this is the goal. So close. Birds 1 and 2 have too much contrast and the shadow under 1 is too long. I don’t know how that happened. But if I fix that then it’ll be done. If it were a watercolor I could…

  • Here you can hear the spot where the audience at The Magic Flute rebelled

    It’s at 33:44 – Go to the link below, scroll down to “Listen Again” for Feb 20ths Magic Flute recording, then move the playhead to 33 minutes and 44 seconds in. That’s right before the German translation on the subtitle screen displays “May God shut the mouth of the liar.” https://slso.org/plan-your-visit/explore-the-music/watch-listen

  • News channel makes a jarring design choice

    I fell asleep watching the Willful War Show over the weekend, then woke up after midnight and saw this on-screen. MS NOW (nee MSNBC) is so ashamed of the Iran bombing that they have swapped out the patriotic red / white / blue color palette and replaced it with yellow, universal color of cowardice. That’s…

  • Review: A short review of DTF St. Louis

    They pulled me in with “DTF” and lost me at “cyclone”. An early scene has a news team broadcasting outdoors from a severe weather event. The news crawl says it’s a tornado. News teams don’t broadcast from a tornado. News teams hide under their desks in a tornado. The National Weather Service abandons their posts…