mishellbaker

mishellbaker, 4 months ago to random

As a gift for me this birthday weekend:

Tell me in as many words as you can about something you wholeheartedly, unreservedly love and/or enjoy. Paint me a picture. Leave out any apologies, buts, or "in spite of"s. Just love the thing out loud, and let me love it with you.

mishellbaker, 1 year ago to random

I have given up on all pretense of a "daily" question, but I still like to ask questions now and then:

What's the thing that made you happiest this week?

mishellbaker, 11 months ago to random

Looking for more folks on Mastodon who post kindhearted, inspiring, funny, and/or creative stuff and who rarely post to vent anger/fear/despair.

I am trying to minimize those emotions in what's left of my life and focus on action instead of rumination.

Account recommendations encouraged! Especially interested in content related to languages, gardening, science, Buddhism, fantasy fiction, games, archaeology, and self-care/self-help.

mishellbaker, 9 months ago to random

If you feel like you're having a bad day, just be aware that a woman mowing her lawn was recently attacked by a snake that FELL OUT OF THE SKY.

It wrapped around her arm and broke her glasses trying to bite her face.

And then A HAWK swooped down and clawed the living daylights out of the woman with its talons trying to get back the snake it had dropped.

Just in case, you know, she wasn't already a hundred percent certain that she had pissed off the universe.

mishellbaker, 1 year ago to random

Someone asked about my amazing heated gloves at the Nebulas. They are expensive but will last for ages. I highly recommend them to anyone with Reynaud's or any kind of nerve/circulation problems in the hands. Life-changers. I can use my phone with them on and they have three different heat settings.

https://toastytouch.com/

mishellbaker, 1 year ago to random

A question for today: what was the word you most recently discovered you were pronouncing wrong this whole time?

mishellbaker, 11 months ago to random

Matt and I have been watching the old Indiana Jones movies in preparation for seeing the new one tomorrow.

Boy, Temple of Doom just becomes more of a hot mess every year that passes, doesn't it? 🤣

mishellbaker, 10 months ago to random

I still see these weird apologetic prefaces to so many posts about happy, cute, or beautiful things.

Instead of "I know the world is spiraling toward fiery doom and everything is pointless, but I really love my parakeet and here's why", consider just posting, "I really love my parakeet and here's why."

No one is testing you on your Awareness of Every Bad Thing. (And if they are, these are people whose opinions you should not care about.)

mishellbaker, 1 year ago to random

I really like small birds.

mishellbaker, 11 months ago to random

So, I've mentioned that my 10yo is kinda bonkers, right? Well, today after their trip to the Grand Canyon, my mom apparently had a stroke? And the girls had to help out while they got her to the hospital?

And she DMs me like "Hey I saw the Grand Canyon today, and also I bought a pocket knife and also I got a cool sweater"

I can't decide if she thinks I'm fragile or is just... these are her priorities. At least the Grand Canyon got priority over the cool sweater?

mishellbaker, 1 year ago to random

I am faced with an interesting dilemma: go to Anaheim in May to give a Service to SFWA award acceptance speech looking like death warmed over, or record a video of my acceptance speech looking like death warmed over when even at my best, video makes me look like death warmed over?

🤔

mishellbaker, 19 days ago to random

Haha, I have to ask people, because I can't Google it: ARE there any good search engines out there? Ones that still actually search the internet?

mishellbaker, 4 months ago to random

One thing science fiction writers should keep in mind is that your futuristic lingo for new tech should probably be minimal. The human tendency is to not adopt new words unless we need to. What we call a "phone" now does not even remotely resemble what it did in 1970, but we still just call it a "phone." We still "film" things and "rewind" and mac keyboards say "return." It's okay not to make up new words for everything.

mishellbaker, 2 months ago to random

I am so, so excited for those of you who get to see the total #Eclipse today. If any of you want to reply to this with a detailed accounting of your experience and feelings, you will have a new internet friend.

mishellbaker, 5 months ago to random

Hello, let's have a little conversation! What's a small thing you like to do to make yourself a tiny bit happier?

Example: I've gotten obsessed with changing fragrances (my own and my home's) with the seasons - picking out candles and body care stuff etc. that complement each other and set a certain mood. It's almost ritualistic at this point (I've been doing it for a full year), and it gives me great pleasure.

mishellbaker, 5 months ago to random

Question for you:

What are some things you enjoy about winter?

mishellbaker, 9 months ago to random

I've been making things again! Just for-fun things, but it really helps me feel like a human being.

What kind of things do you make? Food? Stories? Crafts? Tell me everything.

mishellbaker, 5 months ago to random

Do you have any holiday decorations up? Can I see? :)

mishellbaker, 3 months ago to random

Recommendations for well-written, multi-season non-anime TV series with healing, uplifting vibes? From any era - just let me know where it can be streamed.

(Animated potentially okay if it doesn't have the 'anime look,' which for whatever reason I'm allergic to. Disney and first season Dragon Prince are good examples of animated things my eyeballs like.)

mishellbaker, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Hello, I need a little jump start.
Please tell me something about your life today that is good, exciting, heartwarming, or funny.

mishellbaker, 7 months ago to random

A plea to Mastodon users:

I know it's tempting to use a popular hashtag to boost your platform for selling whatever it is you need to sell to make a living. Or just to make sure you're heard about whatever's on your mind.

But hashtags represent specific things, and people follow them because they want to see THAT thing. I insta-mute folks who misuse or attempt to monetize my favorite hashtags, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

I'm not sure hijacking a hashtag is going to get you what you want.

mishellbaker, 1 year ago to random

MRI results also came back with nothing unusual to report! Very nice; nothing's grown back yet.

Unlessss...

"Spleen: Unremarkable. No splenomegaly."

My spleen is ... unremarkable? It's supposed to be um...

MISSING.

Did it... did it grow back

mishellbaker, 24 days ago to random

I saw someone here say "LLMs are coming to gmail so we should all get out" - can someone explain to me what this means? I don't really follow "AI" news as it bums me out and there's nothing I can do about it except choose not to use it when possible.

But they're saying it like it's a non-opt-outable security risk, and abandoning gmail at this point would be more stress than I can currently handle, so can someone knowledgeable straighten me out on this supposed security risk? Like I'm four.

mishellbaker, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

Since I'm making all kinds of new friends on here today, let's get to talking!

What are some things you've gotten better at recently, if only a little?

Me:

• Drinking enough water

• Forgiving others (and myself; these two are linked more closely than you might think)

-Reading music

mishellbaker, 8 months ago to random

All too often, "selfish" is what we call people who won't indulge our own selfishness.