1) The marchmetamatterschallenge has begun! My own goal this year is to get current with my meta/review backups. Last time I had caught up to 2020, and the MMM challenge launched that same year so I'm assuming there won't be a lot to archive that I've missed. We'll see! So far I've already come across 1 post...

One thing that's changed is that Squidgeworld now has instituted an invite list like AO3's to be able to weed out problem accounts (and presumably spam as well). But apparently the waitlist is still just a day or so.

2) What's interesting is that as I'm starting in 2020, I am going through post after post related to the early days of the pandemic. It still seems so fresh even though it's 5 years ago now. At the same time, so many predictions and reactions from the first months of the pandemic seem completely forgotten. I'm curious if anyone feels there's something they've changed in their approach to life, or habits which were a direct result of the pandemic period (aside from health precautions that is).

3) I never use Party City, but that's going to be another empty store nearby. The NPR segment I heard mentioned that the spaces are being bought mostly by Dollar Store and 5 Below. However we already have both within blocks, so I don't know what's going to go in there.

Went to our Jo-Ann's to get some elastic and see what items were left and my partner got some fabric he used for class labs. I don't know who else in town sells any. No deals yet, it will be some weeks before they get up to the 75% where there might be something worth buying.

4) I watched 2023s Deadshot, which wasn't a bad film though not a cheery one. What stood out to me was that there's a scene with Colin Morgan sitting at a table talking to Felicity Jones where he looks like a plastic doll. By contrast she has lines on her face and looks distinctly older but still looks real. I think it's his second face lift given photos over the past decade, and it's usually those which start messing with the eye and overall appearance.

I do wish more celebs would just let themselves age normally and stop looking like uncanny valley versions of themselves. I imagine a good bit of it has to do with getting parts in a certain age range. Morgan has had a very busy career, taking on everything from stage, audio book readings, film, tv, audio dramas etc. But I've noticed that the type of parts he's had of late are remaining small, and they're still casting him as, say, the parent of young children when he's now 40.

Hollywood tends to cast younger people in older roles, with, say people in their 20s and early 30s as parents of older children, and someone barely 50 as a grandparent. So I can see the difficulty unless one is a major name to get the roles that are being written, which usually range from 20 to 40.

It creates such a lopsided view of reality though. And it's not like many of these actors wouldn't be quite attractive older people.

5) I can't tell you how much I related to this comment from Paula Poundstone when she responded to news that there's a new meme going around of people dropping heavy things on their feet to rate the pain: "This isn't a world I belong in anymore."