Life is a combination of magic and pasta.

Hopefully won't be long

2026-04-22T21:21:32Z

I've been able to apply for an adsense account which according to YouTube can take either a few days or a few weeks for approval. They finally counted at least 3000 watch hours and according to the statistics, it shouldn't be a lot longer before 4000 are counted for full monetization. You also have to have 1000 followers which happened last week and then all of a sudden, KABOOM. In the last week, I've been gaining 100 followers per day. Wow.

I was hoping to film at least a video today but there was WAY too much noise going on outside. I need to get more content filmed and scheduled to keep the momentum going. Roleplays seem to be my bread and butter and I have a few ideas.

At least doing this distracts me from the annoying job. The boss pissed me off yet again today because he sat on a request from Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) for a bunch of data they need by Tuesday. According to the document he showed us, the final version of their request from them was March 23 with previous versions in February so that jackass didn't tell us it existed for at least a month. Nice going, dope.

Oh he also got a response from the feds about the civil rights audit that former Bossbitch screwed up and USDA wants a bunch of answers by this June instead of 2027. HAHAHAHA, good luck with THAT. I have a meeting with him and Elaine tomorrow morning to "discuss" and I'm going to have a sudden case of stupid. No, I don't deal with that sort of thing. Bossbitch kicked me out when I offered so I have noooo idea about how to write up official procedures to appease the federal government. Sorry!

In this morning's weekly team meeting, Good Time Diane was gone and she shall remain so. No more joking around because golly gee, I wouldn't want to OFFEND. All professional, all business. Everyone else can laugh at his lame jokes. There's WORK to do. After the meeting, Elaine complimented my dress and pondered that she hasn't seen me wear black. I told her to get used to it, at least on meeting and important zoom days. No more colorful whimsy unless it's a day I'm solo in my office doing my thing.

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Annual evaluation time

2026-04-21T16:41:11Z

I had assumed that Boss Josh would feed me a line of bs about supposedly still working to get me an upgrade and I was correct. I let him know that I have no confidence or hopes it will happen after a decade of effort and on top of that the recent rejection that was not handled properly by University HR and down the line (which I put in a statement citing policies and procedures that were not appropriately followed since I want it in the file). I also told him that I know he means well but to please not do the whole "Diane is the EXPERT!!" in our outreach to folks because when they see that I don't have a leadership title though I'm toted as leadership, it's embarrassing. I got the "please let me know about these things" and uh...isn't that what I just did? Not that I said that. I just reiterated that I know he means well but please don't say these things in the future.

I also noted that I didn't think any upgrade was going to happen because when Elaine was going for her promotion, she had special meetings with the Executive Dean and with the head of the Business/Budget/HR office about it and I've not once been asked to attend any meetings with them about anything, much less my position. Not that I particularly WANT to be in meetings but if I'm the "expert" then why have I never been asked to attend and give input? Josh seemed to get that but then said something that well, ticked me off though I kept my mouth shut. He said that if I were to attend a meeting that I should watch how I talk. As if I'm suddenly going to be inappropriate? Uh...dude, I have been professional in every one of the meetings with faculty, meetings with staff, outreach zoom meetings, in person events that we've held. Just because I'm more honest in discussions with YOU, that gives you some indication that I will be some sort of sassy loudmouth with people lateral and above you? The hell?

My suspicion is that the assumption of inappropriate behavior comes from the former boss that was awful to me talking smack. Well if in the year and nearly a half that you've been my boss and witnessed my interactions with these sorts of audiences hasn't convinced you otherwise, then I'm done bothering making effort. I didn't tell him this because again, why bother? It'll have zero effect in any positive way.

If either a better job offer comes around or when I reach retirement eligibility, I find a nice lower stress job in the private sector, don't be surprised if I quietly leave without much notice. In the meantime, I'm going to do my work as exactly described, placidly smile and nod and not assert myself, not make promises of anything above my level.

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Going to circle back to touch base about the synergy...UGH

2026-04-15T14:19:40Z

The jargon bullshit at work is getting tedious. As is the boss's obsession with putting every fucking thing through AI filters.

Just in two meetings, yesterday afternoon and this morning, some of the pointless hoo ha phrases spewed:
Ground-truthing
Logic model
Convergence research
Bandwidth
Close the loop
Metrics
Mission critical
Strategic vision and framing

I told Emily that I should do a roleplay for the channel just cram packed full of this stuff. At least then it would seem USEFUL to me to have to suffer through all the babble. Oh, btw we're at 1055 subscribers and 2471 watch hours. Need to keep cranking out decent videos to see if I can get to 4000 watch hours to get monetized.

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Well, I got some nice shoes?

2026-04-11T19:18:56Z

We headed into Brooklyn close to noon on Thursday (Lyft to train station, NJ Transit to NY Penn Station, subway to Brooklyn then walking several blocks to the hotel). We tried to stop for lunch at a chain called Sweetgreen but the pin on their map is in the completely wrong location so we crossed the street and tried to get something at the revamped fancy train hall but the food court had no place for us to sit so we gave up and ended up chilling for a few moments at a Zaro's bakery in old Penn Station before hopping the subway to Brooklyn. I had a small but tasty tuna salad sandwich (noting the food for future reference).

When we got to the hotel, since we were dragging suitcases and hadn't done the ol' city crawl in a long time, we were pretty tired and so we got into each of our rooms and crashed for a while. We tried to get adjoining rooms but that didn't happen. We were at least on the same floor and I did have a walk-in shower in my room. A few hours later we decided to walk several blocks to a modern Mexican restaurant that sounded good. The food was super tasty - I ordered a horchata, a lobster taco that's served cold and is a little spicy with some fresh onion and a bowl of pozole which I've always wanted to try that soup. Emily also ordered some fresh pico and chips to share.

I finished my fancy taco (it wasn't any bigger than any regular taco) but had just a few chips and pico and barely made a dent in the pozole and didn't finish my drink. I chalked it up to the Mounjaro finally making me full quickly. I was bummed that I had to waste the rest of the soup since it wouldn't have traveled well but at least we know that this place, while a little expensive, gives filling servings. It wasn't just the size of the meal...I screwed up, I screwed up BIG. While I do need to contact my doctor to graduate to the next dose up, it's still effective enough at slowing digestion and I had been avoiding things like broccoli, brussels sprouts and...ONION...since starting the drug. The tuna salad had raw onion, the taco had raw onion, the pico had raw onion. Oh hell.

And naturally the Tums I meant to bring didn't make it into my toiletry bag or my purse. I had to spend $4 for two Tums at the front desk and it still barely made a dent into the stomach woes. I didn't sleep much or well that night. The next morning I thought that it was down to a dull roar and had a little of the free breakfast (oatmeal with fixings since they had an awesome oatmeal bar and a side of a little scrambled egg for the protein), but through the day, I just kept getting waves of feeling hellish. We went into the city since I wanted to go to a shoe place I saw online to try on some flats. I liked the fit of them - they even have quarter sizes which I didn't know was even a thing! After doing a little more wandering in Manhattan, we were both tired and took the subway and the several block tromp back to the hotel in early afternoon. Since neither one of us were up for doing a sit down meal that night, we had stopped at a bougie grocery in Brooklyn on the walk back to get some things to eat at the hotel before the concert.

I had to spend another $4 for some more Tums since I was still in a good amount of gastro distress. I managed to keep things down, barely and laid down for a few hours to get things under control. I did eat the very simple sandwich I got at the grocery before we went for our several block walk to the concert venue.

It was a good enough concert, well kind of, but we ended up leaving early because we couldn't take how ungodly LOUD it was. Like rattling your seat loud even when he was doing what were ballads. Emily was getting a headache and that thumping didn't help my stomach any so we were only there and hour and a half.

I stopped at a Walgreens outside of the Barclays center and got extra Tums and water. It helped. Unfortunately someone was having a party at 1am in the breakfast area that Emily's room overhangs so she had to call the front desk to complain about the noise. We were both sore as hell the next morning so instead of dragging ourselves the several blocks, I called for a Lyft to take us to the subway. Thankfully we didn't have the energy to do more exploring in Manhattan since during the time we were hanging out in Penn Station for an hour waiting for the next NJ Transit train, some guy with a machete went on a rampage at Grand Central. Yikes.

It wasn't a terrible time but hopefully the next trip we go on has less misadventures. Hey, I did get over 12K steps in on Friday alone.

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Brain fluffery for the week

2026-04-05T12:49:39Z

Happy Easter if you observe. I had a hard boiled egg this morning if that counts lol

Cute thing if you haven't heard about it. If you go to weather.com and click the "Retro cast now" up in the top left corner, it gives you the weather like the actual old Weather Channel style with the elevator music and everything! IYKYK

Lost another .7 to be down to 195.2. Considering I didn't track calories but just tried to stay aware of things, that's good. Progress is progress when you have insulin resistance and shit metabolism. I also think going to the pool one day and going on the stationary bike for 20 minutes on Friday (couldn't do more since the knee was annoyyyyyed) helped. Not for as much that it burned calories, which obviously it did, but the activity likely did a good job of boosting the metabolism so I need to continue to increase activity as I can. Still going to contact the doctor in a week or so to let her know that it's time to go up to the next dose.

I'll be getting my workout later this week when Emily and I go to Brooklyn on Thursday for a Friday night concert and will come back Saturday. We're taking the train in rather than trying to drive - mainly because of the hotel reviews saying that the parking sucks. So with that and the fact that we're going to spend a chunk of the time wandering around Manhattan, we'll for sure be getting our steps in. I'll be bringing KT Tape to reinforce the ol' knees.

We're up to 955 subscribers and 2100 and change watch hours so getting there! Once I get to 1000, I should have the ability to turn off mid-roll ads which for ASMR channels is key. If you're monetized, you get less (not that I care either way with that) but not having interruption in the middle of the soothing sound will hopefully get people watching more of the video so the watch hours improve.

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I got tea! Ok...coffee, but STILL

2026-03-29T12:05:58Z

First off, I missed doing a check in last week so to catch up, I was 196.4 last week and 195.9 this week. Yes, it's going down but I'm tracking calories and weighing things and it should be at at least a pound or more per week at the deficit that I'm eating. Ah well. I have another month of the 2.5 dose and since the effectiveness is wearing off and the weight is on the verge of completely stalling, I'll let the doc know that it's time to go up a level for the month after that. The side effects are lessening so it's time. I probably could have bumped up already but I'll just exercise willpower for a month.

I am going to experiment with not tracking calories this week and see how it goes. I know mentally I'll be doing the math which is fine and I'll be aware of making good food choices. I'm also going to take off a couple of random days this week since I need to start slowly chewing up vacation days as not to lose any at the end of June and also since Bossdude Josh is off this week taking his daughter to colleges so it's an ideal time. I'll do some filming on those days as well as will get to the Y.

I won't be taking tomorrow off, though it's tempting because I got to see my girl Noor and also be there for the PIPING HOT TEA. That post I made last week about Lindsay? Well, there is NEWS. Girl put in her NOTICE! WOO HOO! Luckily for Elaine and Josh, the head of the business office is going to let them list the position since he knows that having more staff is a dire need in our office. Not that any of the help is going to be for me but I digress.

Anyway, on Friday, Elaine was annoying the SHIT out of me with her woe is me crap and how she's so busyyyyy with no hellllp. Bitch, shut UP. You are finally getting rid of the dead weight to get a new and better person so suck it up.

Now there IS going to be more drama because Lindsay wants to take her I think they said 60 sick days. Uh...unless you're getting a doctor to write you out with some form of dire illness, you can't do that. So it'll be interesting to see how THAT goes.

Also, Emily's right hand gal Alicia will be applying for the job and Noor is going to help me push having her get it since she would be a fantastic and well qualified person. It would suck for Emily to lose her but their center is slowly dying so it's time for people to jump ship. Emily's looking and not getting bites but fortunately as long as she makes it to August without the center going tits up, she'll be at her 25 years and can retire with full benefits and look for non-RU, non-State jobs

So this week should be interesting, eh?

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I wish her concert tickets weren't so expensive

2026-03-20T23:40:54Z

Noticed just now that Raye has a new song. They went all out for the visuals in the video too.

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Field trips and lemon pound cake

2026-03-19T20:27:33Z

Tomorrow I'm going to one of the other campuses at work to attend a half-day meeting with folks from the farms and centers about research going on there (and some Rutgers engineering faculty also registered of which I'm sure at least one of them will ask about the land-grant funding which I'll have to explain why no, they aren't eligible). I'm looking forward to seeing some folks I haven't seen in a while but decidedly NOT looking forward to seeing the former semi-Bosslady that retired I think sometime in 2024. Woman, stay retired. Go away. Ugh. I'll try not to twitch when she calls me "Di" since I loathe that nickname. Hopefully she ignores me and keeps her distance. I'll certainly keep mine.

In a weird and amusing distraction, I just heard about the "Afroman" case today and evidently he won! Afroman prevails in cops' music video defamation suit after a brief but viral trial Feel free to click the link in the article with the Lemon Pound Cake video on YT that has nearly 4M views.

Also, the look he wore to court was pretty epic

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Weekly status update

2026-03-15T15:12:13Z

Morning weigh in is 197.1 which is 2 more pounds from mid-week and 10 pounds overall. I'm expecting the pace to slow which is fine as long as it's gradually going the correct direction. Morning blood sugar was 107 which isn't great but I also didn't sleep well. Yesterday was the worst day for side effects. Tummy aches and acid reflux. I had to take three tums since natural remedies weren't helping. It could be the drug, it honestly could be just a "bad tummy day" since I get those now and then. I'm also fatigued which comes on suddenly sometimes. Although my doctor wanted me right off the bat to up the dose, instead I'm going to ask for a refill for the same dose I'm currently on for another month before deciding to increase.

I went in the pool on Tuesday and then - may or may not be related - had a skin flare up. The flare is now resolved and I'll try to do at least one visit this week in the pool again. I also need to start lifting or other weight bearing exercise since I've been lazy about doing that.

Nothing much else to report. Need to get a multigrain mix in the rice cooker going so I can have lunch in about an hour or so. I'm going to do one cup of white rice and then half quinoa, half barley. That'll up the fiber and protein, two dietary priorities. I got a precooked piece of salmon yesterday I may eat half of it and save the other half for tomorrow. I should've picked up some avocado since it's healthy fat that would go well. Ah well. I may hit up HMart mid week for some fresh sashimi so I can get some then.

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Sunday & Monday

2026-03-10T12:45:40Z

The hockey game on Sunday was fun! Selfie IG picture at the linky here. I wore a sweater since it was a little warmer outside but we underestimated how cool it would be at the rink so we spent a hunk of money on jerseys and hats. Considering how much we enjoyed ourselves, we will probably go again sometime. It was SO nice to see people wearing and holding signs saying things like "In my women's sports era." Oh and the Sirens WON! WEEWOO! We were sitting next to an older couple from Canada who their daughter played for the Sirens. At the end of the game, he told us we were "lucky" and that we needed to come back. lol

In GLP-1 news, the effects do seem to wear off before your next dose. I don't know if that will change if/when I increase doses in a few weeks. I'm less concerned about the hunger shut off wearing off and more concerned that the morning blood sugar levels are slowly creeping back up. This morning it was 107. I won't be surprised if tomorrow morning if it's in the one-teens. I still have to be careful not to overeat, though, since even though there appears to be hunger, if I eat the wrong thing, I'm likely to feel cruddy after. This morning I was surprised to be awakened by a hungry tummy and shouldn't have had a biscotti with coffee right off the bat. The coffee was fine, but I need to keep to less empty carb things and more things like hard boiled egg/grainy toast with thin smears of unsweetened nut butter, etc.

I took yesterday off since I need to start chewing up vacation days and in the morning I filmed two roleplay videos for the channel (keep those ideas coming!) and in the afternoon, I drove to the YMCA and did about 45 minutes with the older farts in the exercise pool with the water weights. Between that and all the walking the day before at the game, I am a sore camper this morning. Gotta keep at it, though. I'm thinking I'll go back either Thursday or Friday afternoon.

Ooop, ok, work symposium about to start. I'm doing virtual but should pay attention.

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First post-shot weigh in

2026-03-08T12:28:36Z

Stepped on the scale this morning and it shows 201.3 so did lose several pounds. Trying to figure out what to eat is confusing but I'll figure it out. Since my body doesn't tell me I'm hungry right now but will give other signals but if I eat too much (and "too much" is far less than usual), I feel ill. So I have to prioritize eating what is good for the body.

I had one of those tiny Yakult light drinks to start things off about an hour ago. It's good for digestive health since it has probiotics. It did help make me feel a little better. While I was setting up the coffee maker for communal coffee, I pondered what to make next that would be balanced. I ended up with breakfast being a small slice of Wegmans six seed bread with a super thin smear of peanut butter (love that stuff from Whole Foods where it comes right from a peanut grinder with nothing added) and a small chicken breast skewer and a cup of coffee with some oat creamer. Note from not having posted this for about 15 minutes is that it may have been a little too much for right now. I should have just had the toast now and eaten the skewer later. Lesson learned.

I resurrected my MyFitnessPal just now. I hate tracking calories since it tends to make me neurotic but for the moment, I need to make sure that I'm doing it right. That breakfast was 394 calories.

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Making adjustments

2026-03-07T20:39:26Z

Cut in case mild medical stuff gives ya the ick. But want to document things since I'm getting old and forgetful

( Mounjaro update )

Tomorrow we're going to the hockey game and Emily would rather drive to Newark rather than take the train. Okey dokey. Hopefully our preferred parking is available.

Since I need to use up vacation days, I'm taking Monday off. In the morning, I'm going to film at least one, maybe more videos to put up on the YT channel. I like to get ahead so I'm not letting too much time go in between them so we don't lose traction. A little after noon, I'm going to finally drive over to the YMCA and trudge around the exercise pool with the other old farts.

Later that afternoon, my work buddy Noor is going to come over so the three of us can go get a snack (it's Ramadan for her but she's on her cycle so she's allowed to break fast). She invited Emily and I to her shower and wedding in May. I haven't been to a wedding in ages and this will be a Muslim wedding which will be a first for me! Evidently a tradition at a Muslim wedding is to hire a coffee cart and Noor is a coffee maniac so of COURSE she's going to keep with tradition there. lol

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Hopefully when I start the new med, this will improve

2026-03-03T15:19:15Z

I got my labcorp results last night and I made a spreadsheet of the last five years of lipid and A1c

Cholesterol isn't too bad so I'm not going to fret about that. When I can get back to regular exercise, the LDL should also improve but it is on the lower side of borderline at least.

However, obviously the A1c is back to being complete crap so starting Monjauro is important. I'm going to aim for late tomorrow afternoon since I take metformin after that with dinner. I would start it today but my vaccination site is still warm, red and a bump. It is starting to look a little less red so hopefully by tomorrow, it'll be one less thing to worry about.

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Solutions for a small space

2026-02-27T12:48:13Z

I was ticked off earlier this week when the bar in my closet fell AGAIN. The problem is that even with a brace, it wouldn't stay up because there wasn't a stud in the back of the closet to fasten it to so an anchor wasn't doing squat. I'd already put one of the drawers in the closet rather than futilely trying to put the bar up again. I'm trying to figure out how I can use about a foot worth of space next to it. As you see, I can't easily reach into it but I'm thinking maybe I can put some hooks on that piece of wood (there's no similar piece wood on the other side, hence why the bar falls) Here's the before with my dresses and tunics dumped over the cat tree.

For the dresses, I ordered a heavy duty garment rack. The rack arrived today and literally snapped together, no tools needed. It's very sturdy. And yes, I know I have toooooo much clothing. It's an eye opener to STOP spending. But at least it looks more organized now

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Going to have to suck it up

2026-02-26T20:58:42Z

I've been feeling off for a few weeks which isn't unexpected with all the stress of the house and the crazy winter weather and work and probably menopause stuff (You know that left behind ovary ain't doing shit). I can't stay asleep, I'm constantly achy, my stomach's a mess, my blood sugar isn't testing that well, just ALL THE YUCK. I mentally told myself even though I turned her down before, since on top of everything, I gained 7 pounds in the last three months, if she asks about taking a GLP-1, I'll say yes this time. I'm paranoid as hell about side effects and things like pancreatitis (since I'm the kween of side effects) but I'm more afraid of my health continuing to decline and my diabetes getting worse so I need the chemical help. Hey spiffikins it'll be monjauro so if you have any advice, let me know all the gory details.

The snow has compacted with the somewhat warmer temperatures but I still need to dig a path to my driver's side car door and push the snow off the top and front. If the script gets filled by then, I'll go pick it up. But I won't start the first dose until after I do my regular blood tests, since I want to know my baseline. I made an appointment for my fasting tests for Tuesday morning so maybe I'll start it then if I have it in hand.

Oh and just for tracking's sake, got the pneumonia jab. Guess that makes me officially old (or in piss poor health).

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Since we need an outing

2026-02-26T16:06:21Z

Guess we're going to a HOCKEY game of all things. But wait, WOMEN'S hockey.

Emily found out that when the New York Sirens score, fans are supposed to go WEE-WOO! Oh we are into THAT. So we wondered where they play (since most NY teams play in NJ but we didn't know if hockey would be in actual north NY state or something). Turns out they play in NEWARK where we've gone for concerts and that we can take a train to.

Even better that they have a game on Sunday March 8 at noon so that I'm not out past my old lady bedtime, so we're going and Emily's getting tickets in the section where we typically book to go see concerts.

WEE WOO WEE WOO

Oh Canadian buddies, they'll be playing the uh...Ottawa Charge so you'll have to let us know if we're bitter rivals or something now.

I hope Columbus Ohio gets a team so that I can be rivals with my sister. lol

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Two feet of the stuff

2026-02-23T18:19:02Z

Though it is somewhat fluffier than the last round, as fluffy as TWO FRIKKIN FEET can be. Emily decided to film me trying to trek out to her Subaru. So hey, content for the channel!

Speaking of the channel, we now have 398 subscribers and our big video has 8000 views. Still ages away from monetization as our watch hours isn't quite 600 and we need 3000 but making steady progress. The first Shady Pines Nursing Home video went out today so I'm hoping YT pushes it so we get some traction.

The University declared tomorrow another WFH day but to be honest, I'm in no particular hurry to get into the office. As long as we can free Emily's Subaru, she can get me to my GP appointment on Thursday afternoon. La ti da.

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Well, it almost melted

2026-02-22T00:23:16Z

Earlier this last week, there was a forecast of 3-5 inches of snow for tomorrow. Then mid-week it went down to an inch and since then, the forecast kept creeping up, possible 5-8, then 6-12 and now the forecast starting tomorrow morning into Monday is a Blizzard Warning with from 16-20 inches of snow.

We were JUST able to finally see some grass under the snowbergs mid week and now it's going to KERFLUMP snow and have high winds. Booooooo

At least this time around, the temperatures aren't forecast to plummet after the snow so I'm hoping things are decent by Thursday so I can get to my GP appointment.

This winter has been wild.

EDIT: It's just rain with a smidge of snow mixed in so far but NOW the forecast is saying 18-25 inches with winds up to 45mph. Ughhhh

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Still a long way to go but seems a little more doable now

2026-02-16T22:55:22Z

Update on the video that got popular - it's still going. Before I posted it, we had about 25 followers which had doubled and the video was up to 500 views. As of right now, we have 268 followers and as of this moment the video has 4,504 views - wow. The roleplay video I posted after that on Saturday of a gossipy coworker has 577 views. Unfortunately it's still going to take a while before we'll get monetized since you need 3000 public watch hours per year for that and we only have a little over a tenth of that.

I have several different videos filmed that are scheduled to come out every other day which I hope at least one or more of them grab the audience to get popular again. The one for the Shady Pines Nursing Home turned out well, though a little on the short side. When the bingo set comes, I'll have to make sure to plan out enough to get at least 15 to 20 minutes played out.

On a no talking one where I'm typing, someone requested a hotel check in video. I can totally do that. It's time consuming but it would be nice to get popular enough to make a little extra. Also, the ASMR community is SO NICE.

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Meh and bleh and woah

2026-02-12T20:43:01Z

Work has been pissing me off but I don't feel like going into great and glorious detail. Suffice it to say, no movement on ever getting me upgraded. Well, we'll see how that goes when I have my 25 years in come October 2027. Maybe they'll find me suddenly gone after that (gotta wait until then to get the good health plan for retirement). If I retired, I'd still find some job, just not at the University. We'll see. Anyhoo, I bring up work since tomorrow I'm involved in some Zoom bullshit as a speaker on my area to new faculty. It annoys me that they've called in the former Boss Bitch to kick things off since she's still managed to retain her Vice Provost for Research at RU. It's also tedious since we're supposed to only talk for 5-15 minutes and I crafted 3 slides with plenty I can vamp in between to hit maybe 10 minutes but Elaine is being a kiss ass again and put in TWENTY slides. Oh good god.

I don't want former Boss Bitch to think she can get to me so I'm going to change into a suit jacket and do my hair and put on jewelry. I'll plant an expression of calm professionalism on my face and give my slides in a soothing ASMR tone. After that, I'll sit with a slight bland smile and not react to ANYTHING said or done. You'll think that I've put up a photo of myself.

Speaking of ASMR, the video I put up of the roleplay has made us get close to double our followers (still ages to go) and it's past 500 views. Wow. I have these ideas for upcoming roleplays and will get props:

Asking your friend that doesn't wear makeup to do yours (I'll have plenty of funny and awkward expressions lol)

Activities Director at the Shady Pines Nursing Home. Going to get a wig and props for this which I'm hoping it'll be a series. One will have coloring books, for another, I ordered a cheap bingo set with the cage that spins.

Your irritating gossipy coworker from the cube next to you (I'll channel Elaine but I can't be TOO Elaine since her kids follow my channel lollll)

Cheesy Victorian-era seance

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If you want to take a break from doomscrolling

2026-02-11T15:50:54Z

Play about any Bad Bunny song on YouTube and go to the comment section. It's so refreshing. People thanking him for the Superbowl performance, wanting to learn Spanish. So awesome. Here's the Superbowl performance if you haven't already seen it.

I saw a TikTok last night going into detail about all the imagery and messaging which was very cool as well. I'd go looking for it but gotta get back to work.

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It's back! Hoping to all that is good in the world that it STAYS back

2026-02-10T20:17:23Z

It was a good thing that Emily got the maintenance plan back on December 23 but BOY we didn't expect that it would have already paid for itself (though the pipe bursting a few weeks ago was still expensive since it could only cover SO much)

Heat is slowly coming back up. The guy admitted that his fix yesterday to make it sound less like Thor was attacking our pipes with Mjolnir was not a good fix which is why everything crapped out sometime between midnight and 4am.

It still seems like the system is McGyvered together with spit and duct tape but hopefully things hold enough for a few more years and if one or the both of us decide to retire (and work outside of the University), then we can move to one of those houses in an old people community.

Ok, I have a work zoom in 15 minutes. I wouldn't normally drink coffee at this time of day but I'm making some to get both of our insides warm and because my headache has tacked on ringing in my ears.

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We're getting so tired of this

2026-02-10T11:52:57Z

So the heating guy got lucky that he could change the valve connected to the radiator upstairs so the leaking would stop and we have a temporary fix for the pipe downstairs so it would stop leaking. I noticed that something wasn't quite right in the evening as Emily had the one side of the house set to 62 and it was registering 70 and my side wasn't kicking on properly because the thermostat had it too warm there.

Then around midnight I got up and went into the living/dining area and it was cold so I turned her heat up to 65 and I heard the furnace come on and I went back to bed, though I thought it was odd that my side wasn't that warm.

Until I got up at 4 and there was NO heat at all. I went downstairs and couldn't see anything amiss. I turned the furnace off and back on and nothing. Lovely. I woke Emily up and she left a message with the emergency line so hopefully we hear soon. For a couple of hours, she sat in my bedroom recliner and I laid on the bed and we had the door shut with my space heater on. It got to about 63 which was comfortable enough.

I'm going to head to work shortly where I'm sure my office will be 75 or more.

In better news, finally made a video that got some hits. I did an ASMR roleplay of pretending you're meeting with your caterer

It's been released about 15 hours and has nearly 180 views and 5.8 hours of watch time. I guess I'll have to try to think about some more roleplay themes that I can bullshit enough. For one, I was thinking about doing a "Regretting asking your friend to help with makeup" one where I tap just below the mic with face care and makeup products but clearly I'm not good at it so I'd have amusing uncomfortable expressions.

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Guess the ages

2026-02-08T16:59:29Z

Thankfully my sister has stopped trying to get me to join her pyramid scheme of beauty products but she's still pushing them HARD on social media. She did a before and after hair thing which my jaw dropped looking at her. Mind, this is a screenshot of the video showing the after. Also, I picked as good of a shot as possible, I seriously didn't try to get one that made her look bad:

Oh, she pushes the face products of the brand too.

For comparison, here's a non-edited, non-filter selfie of me on one of the days we were freezing inside

It's not so much the hair I'm looking at (though I'll have to say I'm not all that wowed by her hair products or her extensions) but what is up with her eyes?

Out of curiosity, how old do you think each one of us are?

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You've GOT to be kidding

2026-02-08T15:23:24Z

Since it was so cold last night, I was going to sleep on the couch in the living room. I'm laying there and after I while I hear and odd sound. I sit up and the one end of the couch is wet? What?!?! I turn on the light and call to Emily that the ceiling is leaking. She went to check the radiator up there and couldn't see anything amiss. We moved the couch and put down a bucket, it was a drip coming from the ceiling. It slowed down and stopped after a while.

I decided I was more uncomfortable about sleeping out there and went back to the bedroom. During the night, the pipes out in the living room started making louder clunks than they usually do during the cold. Oh! Not only that but clearly our neighbors across the street were having an even more fun night. I had seen a fire truck but didn't have a clear line of sight as to what was going on since our old lady neighbor next to us had her house in the way (rude! lol). We were worried that it was a water main but pressure was fine. But then I squinted and noticed the caution tape was on the other side of the sidewalk. That's when I noticed the MASSIVE tree that had fallen on the building. Yikes.

Anyway, since things slowed down, we intended to call the heating people on Monday. But then when I was getting ready to bring the laundry to the basement, water was actively leaking in a steady drip from the pipes in the wall next to the stairway. Lovely. We tried to see if we could turn the pipes right there off and thought it worked but after a while the loud clunking started anew as did the leaking. It comes and goes and isn't pouring water, thankfully but still. This can't be ignored.

So we're on the wait list right now for the heating folks to come hopefully today but at least tomorrow. With as frigid that it is right now, obviously we're not an emergency and hopefully we don't become one.

We have a feeling that Emily's sister and that family was just epically unobservant. Remember, these are the people that waved it off when we told them about the electrical buzzing and sparking when using certain appliances. It's a miracle the house isn't in worse shape.

But more fun. Woo.

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