yay today's xkcd

http://xkcd.com/1155



So okay: detailed directions from my present metro area to my childhood home are not difficult, but thanks to a little goofiness w/r/t the interstate system they can sort of seem that way. (There's a couple of times where you are required to change from one numbered highway to another by remaining on the road you're on, which is the exact opposite of intuitive, I think. Also there's a time where you are required to remain on the numbered highway you've been on by exiting and navigating some local roads and getting on a different highway, because Breezewood.) So I told the Gentleman Caller that once he was headed out of town, he should stay on the highest even-numbered westbound interstate available to him until a particular exit in Ohio after which I would give detailed directions. (And it is so! 270 ends at 70. You pick up 76 at Breezewood; for a while 70 and 76 run together, and when they separate, you want to stay on 76. At some point 80 joins 76, and when they separate, you want to stay with 80. Is it or is it not a piece of cake?)

He thought this was an amusing feature of the path from here to there. My mother, when I pointed it out to her as I was telling her how to drive home, didn't think it was amusing at all, and made me write down directions in a level of detail sometimes including which lane I thought she should be in. Good thing we're not all alike. :-)

sugarplums

snowflake_challenge Day 2:

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create. Drop a link to your post in the comments. See if you can rec fanworks that are less likely to be praised: tiny fandoms, rare pairings, fanworks other than stories, lesser known kinks or tropes. Find fanworks that have few to no comments, or creators new to a particular fandom and maybe aren't well known or appreciated. Appreciate them.

This is harder! I don't know a lot of things that aren't things everybody knows. I will almost certainly fail.

One is a Star Wars story by laurajv, which I cannot find at the AO3, but I'm pretty sure it was called "Spinning", and was a little vignette about Darth Vader's first few minutes after the end of the first movie.

Another is a page I have bookmarked and always open in a tab on my browser, Heels by number, which enables a knitter to adapt any sock pattern to include whatever kind of heel she pleases. As I have wide calves and high insteps, I often have to tweak sock patterns, and figuring out what to do with the heel on the new number of stitches would stump me flat if someone else hadn't done the math for me.

A third is - aha! - the chart ellen_fremedon had on her office door one morning close to five and a half years ago. Working out what names went where was a good deal of fun for me, and now it can be for you to!