1980s Movies, 3 Clues

It's Friday, and other than my "fun" flight home from Ohio, not much has been going on. So, it's quiz day... 

Can You Name These 1980s Movies With Just 3 Clues?

I was a teen for the majority of the '80s. I saw most of these films. And I have a good memory for movies. So, my 14 out of 15 was kind of expected. (The one I missed is a movie I have never seen.) 

Let me know how you did in the comments. I only taunt low scores for people like me. (For example, if Alex were to do poorly on this. Which he won't. If he tries it.) Everyone else, you did amazing. 

13 Apple TV Plus Shows

When the show Murderbot began on Apple TV Plus, an account I follow on Bluesky did a list of other shows people should check out when they subscribe. Because they assumed that certain people would just subscribe for that one show. And this got me thinking. 

Are there 13 shows I would recommend from Apple TV Plus? (Because Thursday, this is a Thursday 13.) Do I recall 13 separate shows from the service? Let's see... 

1. Ted Lasso: This is the one about the American football coach who is hired to coach a UK soccer team. This is absolutely my favorite Apple TV Plus show. I may be due for (another) rewatch...

2. Severance: What if you could leave work at work, because you literally have no memory of your work life when you're outside of it? That's the premise of this show executive produced by Ben Stiller (yes, that Ben Stiller). Two seasons thus far, and that corporation has gotten up to some nefarious activities. Creepy, but fascinating. 

3. Silo: In a post-apocalyptic future, 10,000ish people are living in an underground silo, but they have no idea why. I had been avoiding starting this one, but then my father said it looked interesting, so we watched it together. Two seasons, but I heard a third season has been ordered. 

4. Mythic Quest: As of this writing, I am just a couple episodes into season four (the last season, as it's officially been cancelled). This is a workplace comedy with Rob McElhenney as the creator of the video game in the title. 

5. Schmigadoon!: Do you like musicals? How would you like to end up stuck in the middle of one? Yeah, no? Our heroes don't particularly like it, either. They go hiking/camping in the woods when they stumble across a town adhering to musical rules (plot, breaking into song), and they can't get out until they complete the story. Two seasons, also sadly cancelled. 

6. The Morning Show: At the beginning of season three, one of the characters goes up to space in a rocket for a publicity thing. Several months before it happened in real life. This is all about the cast and crew of an early morning TV show. They try to be topical (so seasons one and two will feel behind the times now). It's really well done.

7. The Buccaneers: As of this writing, season two just dropped (and I haven't started it yet, but I will). Based on the unfinished novel by Edith Wharton, it's the story of four rich young American women who travel to England (in the 1870s) and end up hunting for husbands with titles. Things don't go really well. (Culture clashes. The titled are kinda horrible people.) 

8. Lessons in Chemistry: This was a one (season) and done, based on the book of the same name. Midcentury female chemist and her struggles. She ends up hosting a cooking show. 

9. Franklin: Another one (season) and done, with Michael Douglas playing Benjamin Franklin when he went to France to try to secure funding for the Revolutionary War. The political intrigue... These are the stories missing from history in school. 

10. Time Bandits: If you've seen the 1981 movie, you understand the premise. Lisa Kudrow leads a group of time bandits who aren't very good at the bandit part, and aren't all that sure of the historical periods, either. I'm not sure if any more seasons are coming, but this one was fun. And, unlike the movie, I could actually follow the plot. 

11. Amazing Stories: There's five episodes of this show, and I've seen two. But I liked the two, and I intend to watch the rest eventually. I have fond memories of the '80s show (exec produced by Steven Spielberg), and these episodes recapture a bit of that. 

Oops, ran out of shows to recommend. So, for my last two on the list, I'll add two shows I plan to watch next. 

12. Shining Girls: I've heard good things about this one. The official description: Newspaper archivist Kirby Mazrachi's dreams of becoming a journalist are put on hold after she survives a brutal attack that leaves her in a constantly shifting reality.

13. Constellation: And this one also came highly recommended. We'll see. The official description: Jo returns to earth after a disaster in space and discovers that there are missing pieces in her life, so she sets out to expose the truth about the hidden secrets of space travel and recover what she has lost. 

Does anyone else have Apple TV Plus? If you do, do you have any other recommendations?

Following Others' Blogs

How do you keep track of all the blogs you follow? 

When I started blogging, someone wrote a post about how they kept track of the blogs they followed using a feed reader. (At the time it was Google's Reader, but Google killed that off over a decade ago.) 

A feed reader is an app that uses RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication) to collect all the sites that regularly publish material in one location. So, rather than having to go to each website, you can go to the RSS app and see a list of all the articles published since you last checked. 

Some more info: The 3 best free RSS reader apps in 2025. Follow your favorite blogs, sites, and feeds for free.

I use Feedly. On any given day, I open Feedly, and there is a list of all the blogs that have been published since I last checked. I click on a title, and it pulls up the post. I can then click on the title of the post and it'll take me to that website (so I can comment there). Once I've read the post, I close it out, and that post disappears from my reader. Then on to the next. 

There are other readers, and they work similarly. To add a blog, I click on "Follow Sources" in the sidebar, and I add the website to the box that pops open. Then I add it to one of my "Feeds". 

I have several topics under "Feeds". I find it's easier to group them, so certain sites that I don't always read I can delete in one click. It's way easier to get all the feeds at once and delete those I don't want to read rather than having to check back on each blog daily or weekly to keep up. It just wouldn't happen for me that way. 

How do you keep track of the blogs you follow? If you use a feed reader, which one do you use? 

Unfocused

The U.S. now officially has concentration camps. I mean, we kind of unofficially had them before, but now they've officially opened one in the Everglades. And I sincerely wish that everyone that's put even a pinky's worth of effort into getting it going gets tried for Crimes Against Humanity. 

Just remember, it was illegal for Anne Frank to hide and resist arrest. I wonder how long I can continue to write these posts before I get into trouble for them. It'll happen, I'm sure. At least, if nothing else changes. 

So, speaking of the concentration camp:

• Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns
• Is your family member or client at Alligator Alcatraz? We obtained a list

But, that's not the only place people are being imprisoned: 

• Congresswoman tracks down U.S. citizen children detained at Ferndale facility
• About enforced disappearance

As I was thinking about what I was going to post for today, I couldn't settle on anything. I had read that part of the fascism is to throw so many things at us so quickly so we can't focus. Plus, we have our day-to-day lives to deal with. So, instead of finding one topic, I'm going to share a couple more things I ran across that you might find helpful. 

Has your health insurance ever denied a claim? ProPublica has a site that'll help you create a letter to get the notes they used. Just in case you'd want to file an appeal. Or just find out the why. (I'm doing this more so I have the link, just in case.) 

And then there was this discussion on Bluesky as to whether or not air conditioning is overused. Some places have gotten hot lately, I understand. The articles tangential to this that I found interesting were, first, the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions. And then, here's an article on how to figure out what climate change issues might threaten your home, and what you can do to help your home survive them. 

I hope you're having pleasant weather. And I hope you and your loved ones are safe. I open the comments to any ranting you wish to do on the current state of, well, anything. If you have any solutions, please, share. As well as any articles that we might find illuminating. 

The Minecraft Collection

As I mentioned (several times), I went to visit the family in Ohio last week. I brought along the Zombie. 

He joined Enderman...

And Creeper...

With the twins...

Can you believe they're 12 now? Yikes. (Here's the last time their pictures appeared on the blog.) 

And now I have a new project, or rather, projects. Christmas. I asked for requests, and now I have four sweaters to knit. Sigh. (I don't expect to finish them all in time for Christmas, and I told them so.) Of course I'll write about them as they progress. 

I don't know if I collected all the posts for these in one place, so it's about time I did that: 

• Explaining the Project
• New Project Loading...
• A Head in the Game
• And Then There Were Two
• Zombie Time
• Zombie Body
• Crunch Time
• A Finished Zombie

Missed Connection

I went to visit my brother and family in Ohio. (I mentioned this a few times already.) Every other post this week I wrote before I left for my trip. As I write this for today, it is Wednesday the 9th. I got back yesterday (Tuesday). 

I was supposed to arrive home on Monday. 

(This is going to be a long one. So... TL/DR: I got stuck in Denver overnight for reasons.)

The last time I visited was for Thanksgiving. As I was leaving, my sister-in-law mentioned that I should return to see the 4th of July with them. (My brother loves setting off fireworks.) Okay, then...

I was set to return on Monday. Because the Long Beach Airport is small, it does not have direct flights to/from Columbus, Ohio. So, for my return flight, I was going to change planes in Denver, Colorado. I had a little over two and a half hours layover. (I was scheduled to land from Columbus at 3:10 and take off to Long Beach at 5:45.) 

I got to the Columbus Airport early. I got through the TSA line (shoes off). I found my gate. And then, because I had time, I went to find someplace to have lunch. I checked my takeoff time, and we were delayed. By a couple minutes. 

Me at lunch.

It was probably 1 o'clock (EDT). I took my time. Had a nice lunch. And then I went to find my gate again. At this point our takeoff was delayed again. It got pushed back a couple times, so instead of taking off at 2 PM as originally scheduled, we were looking at more like 2:30. 

But I had that 2 1/2 hour layover. I'd be fine... 

The gate next to us was headed for Nashville, Tennessee. And instead of getting ready to board, they got some bad news. Weather delay. And announcement after announcement was about having them reschedule connecting flights. I was sorry for their troubles, thinking they weren't my troubles. Ah... 

It was time to board. They had the first boarding group line up. (I was in the second boarding group.) They waited. And they waited. And they waited. Still, no call to start boarding... 

Finally, the boarding guy told those in line they might as well sit back down. It would be a while. 

Most of the passengers got out of line. We waited. 

"That alarm you heard is for a lightning strike. Because it struck within three miles of the airport, we are on a 20 minute mandatory delay. No flights can take off or land." 

I turned to find that it was now raining outside. Okay, then. 

After a while we got another announcement. We were going to start boarding soon as the plug that had popped out (my memory on the exact phrasing is fuzzy, so I may have incorrect terminology here) had been fixed. 

Hey, what? 

The announcer chuckled. "Oh, you weren't informed of this?" He realized that we hadn't been told why they had halted boarding, so he explained the problem. As they were getting the plane ready for us to board, they found a popped plug (?? or something like that). They called maintenance. Who were on the other side of the airport. Then, of course the lightning delay meant no personnel outside. 

But now it was all fixed. Finally, we were going to board. Hooray!

We took off sometime after 3:15. (My last texts to everyone letting them know I was sitting on the plane were at 3:15. Then I put my phone in airplane mode.) 

We got to Denver in good time. However, we couldn't land. Something-something weather. We circled for a while. Then the pilot explained that we could land pretty soon, but we were going to need to refuel first, so we were being diverted to Montrose. Montrose? What's a Montrose? 

It was twenty minutes away. And, we landed at about 5:10 PM (MDT).

Welcome to Montrose, Colorado. This was out my window on the plane. 

We could not get off the plane. So, everyone got into the aisle to use the restroom (including me). Hey, they said we could stretch our legs a bit. 

Remember my connecting flight? 5:45 MDT. According to my phone, it had been delayed to 6:10. When we took off at about 5:35, the pilot said it would take us about 35 minutes to get back to Denver. 

We landed in Denver at about 6:45. 

I took my phone out of airplane mode to find a text. My connecting flight to Long Beach had been rebooked. 9:15 AM. (Long Beach does not have late flights. My original flight had been the last one of the day.) 

Now, I did have options. It's not like Long Beach is the only airport. But LAX? Maybe John Wayne. I was tired. I'd get back late and then I'd have to figure out how to get a ride from the airport. I decided I might as well get a hotel for the night. 

First, I wanted to get my checked bag. Baggage claim was down an escalator and a train ride away. Did you know the Denver Airport has a train? 

I found a very nice lady in the baggage claim area (for bag issues), and I asked if I could get my bag. She said she could ask. My bag was checked through to Long Beach, and it was currently booked on a flight to Sacramento, and then somehow it would make its way to Long Beach. (It turns out that tag that they tell you to keep is useful for something.) She sent a request. Said to check back in twenty minutes. At twenty minutes she said to check back a little later. 

A little later she found me. Said she found a baggage handler who found my bag and had retrieved it. They just needed to find a vehicle to transport it back to baggage claim. This would take some time, of course. 

I was just so happy to get the bag. I needed to take my contact lenses out, and my stuff plus my glasses were in my suitcase. 

While I was waiting on the bag, I booked a hotel. My brother was kind enough to do some internet research and find me a phone number. I got my bag a little after 9 PM, and then I headed out to get a shuttle to the hotel. 

I didn't get on the shuttle until about 10:30. The shuttles weren't well identified. The one with the correct hotel name had the wrong hotel address. (Same name. One was on Airport Tower Road--where I wanted to go. This shuttle was for Gateway or Garden Park something or other.) When I finally identified the correct shuttle, I realized that it had come by three or four times. 

I got into my room about 11:30. The shuttle back was for 6:30 AM. (That was the only time they had available, but I didn't mind as I wanted to actually make my flight back. Early was way better than late.) 

I got a shower. For dinner they had frozen dinners available (for a very inflated price) in the lobby (microwave in the room). Besides snacks on the plane, my last meal had been at 1 PM EDT. I took out my contacts. And I got a couple hours sleep. 

My hotel room. Just what I needed.

The hotel had breakfast included. And then it was back to the airport. I was dropped off at the wrong airline, but one of the employees directed me towards where I needed to check my bag. I went to print a label for the bag, but that wouldn't work. Sigh. 

There was an available clerk at the bag drop off. I explained the situation. He said I had a bag checked. I pointed to my bag and said this was the checked bag. He understood, and he printed out a new tag. Then I was off to find the TSA line. 

(The workers I encountered at Denver Airport were so very nice and helpful considering the situation. This could have gone so much worse.) 

The line went quickly. I went through screening (shoes on!?!). The TSA agent said we could leave our shoes on. I double checked. Really? Yup. I found out (after I got home) about that rule change. 

Then it was back to the train and back to the C gates. But reversing my path from Monday after having a bit of rest and some food helped me mentally. (I was still fried, but a little less so.) 

I was way early. 

The flight home, day 2.

Better early than late. I texted the family. I ate another breakfast at the airport. 

But one thing just pissed me off. For the flight I missed, I had managed to snag an A group boarding. I was so excited. I'd get on the plane early. But for my rebooked flight, I was downgraded to a C group boarding. That that just... Because, seriously? (Had to be said.)

As we got ready to board (pretty much on time), the guy in front of me and I got to talking. He was on the flight with me from Columbus. (Truck driver. He was picking up his load in Long Beach and he would be driving it to New York.) He also had the same boarding issue. However, he had not been able to retrieve his checked bag. Apparently, it had made it to Long Beach ahead of us. 

I got stuck with a middle seat. Sigh. But the flight into Long Beach was uneventful. 

We landed around 10:30 AM PDT. And home is about 10 minutes away. (I commute farther to work.) 

I got home. Unpacked. And then fell asleep for about three hours. Still, today, Wednesday, I'm feeling a bit wiped. But I'm home. Yay!

Maybe next week I'll talk a little about the trip itself. Although, family, so it wasn't a big touristy thing. 

And now you know why I was a bit late visiting blogs this week. 

The Third Annual Meme Collection 13

As I planned out what I'd write about on the blog this summer, I realized that there are a couple topics I seem to hit annually. One of them is a roundup of some of the various memes I've collected. As I did this in 2024 and 2023 around this time (not quite the exact week, but in July), I figured we were due for another. Of course, this is a Thursday 13. So, in no particular order... 

1. I was explaining to my uncle about the Leopards Eating People's Faces political party (because he hadn't heard of this meme), so I saved this for him. (No special reason why this is relevant...)

2. This goes with #1. 

3. I was explaining this one to a student, and I realized I needed the visual. Link to this comic online.

4. I have several anti-AI art images. I'll only post one for today. 

5. I feel this one so hard.

6. Uh, yeah, this might be me. (Definitely me.)

7. This one spoke to me after having done some laws in another Thursday 13 a while ago...

8. Another anti-AI, but this one is for text, not art. 

9. Hopefully, this one needs no explanation.

10. You can buy this T-shirt here. (We have cobra chickens in my condo complex, and yeah, cobra chickens is a great way to describe them.) 

11. Math joke. 

12. Math limerick. (This one broke my brain.) 

13. Let's end with a nice thought. 

Some Basic HTML

I initially started my blog on MySpace. Remember MySpace? 

It was 2006, and I wanted to blog. I had no idea what I was doing. People were doing all sorts of things to "their space", and I wished I knew how to do any of that. 

At around this time, I was covering some computer class, and on the board the teacher had left a link to a thing called HTML Goodies. Curious, I checked it out. I found the tutorials for beginners, and I worked through those. (I just looked. It still exists! But the links appear to be broken 😢) I think I did a couple a day until I completed the seven. 

That was enough information for me to blunder about. I was able to personalize my MySpace page and my blog. At least, for a little while. 

Alas, the MySpace blog was buggy. I'd write out a whole post, go to publish it online, and *poof* it would vanish. Not saved anywhere. I'd have to start from scratch. 

I'm not sure how many times it did that, but at some point, I was done. And that's when I joined Blogger. 

The point of this story is that I came to Blogger knowing a couple HTML tricks, and they've helped. If something isn't quite looking right, I will go into the HTML part and I can usually adjust something there to make it work. 

where to find the switch to HTML

then highlight "HTML view"

A couple weeks ago, someone on Bluesky created a how-to "book" on creating a website (aimed at artists and creatives). (Here: Let's Make a Website) It looks like the stuff that was on the HTML Goodies tutorials are in chapter 4. Basically, that started with how to add space, make things bold/italic/underlined, and how to add hyperlinks. 

The cool thing about knowing that is that you can actually use those in Blogger comments, too. (In case you didn't know how to do that.) So, if you wanted to add a link back to your blog in your comment, you could. 

To make something bold/italic/underlined, you surround the text with tags. A tag is something surrounded with the carrots (< tag >). You begin what you want adjusted with the tag, then you end with a / (< /tag >). It's really easy to remember what to use for the tags, too. Bold = b, italic = i, underline = u. 

And if you want to add a link, it's only a little more complicated. 

click to enlarge to see

It is critical that you use the carrots and the quotation marks. Otherwise it won't work. 

For those of you who this is new to, I challenge you to use something of this in your comment. Underline something. Or make something bold. And include a link back to your blog. 

Tracked

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

I was on a plane for half the day yesterday. (I'm writing this post before I leave.) If I got behind on visiting while I was away, I'll catch up in the next day or two.

So, because I'm writing this more than a week ahead, current events are off the table... 

What if everyone was required to wear a device that the government could use to track you? (Alas, I wish this was far-fetched...)

A Finished Zombie

I am writing today's post on July 1st, before I leave on my trip. Because I can announce that I finished the Zombie from Minecraft amigurumi last night. Woo-hoo!

If I wasn't on deadline (getting it done before going to Ohio so I could gift it to the twins in person), I probably would have taken a bit more time in assembling it. But all in all, I'm happy with how it turned out. 

My return plane trip is today. My flight doesn't leave until the afternoon, and the time zones will be with me instead of against me, but it's likely I won't be online much if at all today. I'll catch up with everyone tomorrow. 

Previous Zombie posts: 

• Zombie Time
• Zombie Body
• Crunch Time

How Much Do You Know About Independence Day?

Hey, it's the 4th of July. And it's Friday. So, let me see if I can find a quiz on theme. I'm sure I can... 

(This is one of those U.S.-centric things. Sorry, readers outside of the U.S.) 

How Much Do You Know About Independence Day?

Some of the questions are obvious. Some are more of a challenge. I got 13/15. (One of them I did not know. The other I should have known. Probably. But I got a couple correct that were educated guesses, so it balanced out.) 

If you try it, let me know how you did in the comments. Happy 4th. 

Streaming Channels 13

Note: I am out of town this week, but I will have my computer and internet access, so I should be around mostly as normal.

Summer is a challenging time for me on the blog. What do I write about? Luckily, I can fall back to the Thursday 13 blog hop. Before school got out, I had some time one day in a class and I brainstormed some ideas. One that popped into my head was a list of streaming platforms for TV. Because it seems that there are a lot of them that no one seems to know about. 

My intent was to limit this to FAST platforms. That is: Free Ad-Supported TV. In other words, if you have a TV that has streaming capability (or you get one of those dongles that turn your TV into a streaming TV), you can watch movies or TV shows on these platforms, no payment required. (You're stuck watching ads, but you'd watch ads on broadcast, so fair trade.) 

However, as I went about compiling the list, I found some services I knew about had gone defunct and some others were no longer working as this. (They went paid or they were added to paid services.) 

Some of these I'm familiar with. Some of these I only came across to fill out this list. These are all available in the U.S. (Sorry international readers.) There were some other platforms available internationally that I found on Wikipedia, so if you're looking, look here. 

Anyway, here's a list with links. If you have any others you are aware of, please add them in the comments. 

1. Tubi TV: Lots of good stuff here. You'd be surprised at some of the movies and TV shows that you can find. 

2. Amazon Freevee: Freevee used to stand alone, and it had some great '90s TV movies and new series (like Leverage: Redemption). Amazon has put it back with its service, but this is still supposed to be the free tier. Some shows are supposedly still available via this. I think this is the right link. 

3. Pluto TV: This is more like a broadcast channel with lots of sci fi. But streaming. And free. 

4. Plex: It looks like this has kind of turned into a hub of some sort rather than the movies it used to be. Sigh. (There's also JustWatch that's similar.)

5. Roku Channel: If you have a Roku TV, this channel comes standard. But you can access it from the computer as well. It has some streaming channels that you've never heard of, but there are some interesting things there if you look. 

6. Peacock: Initially, this had a free tier. I don't know if it does anymore, now that I'm looking at it for this post. It used to be that you could log in and watch NBC broadcast shows a week after they aired. That might still be possible. (You have to pay to get more content, but today's list is just for the free.) 

7. Xumo: I learned about this when we changed internet providers (for about three weeks), and this was the TV choice. It has the channels you want, but it's likely just through the internet provider. 

8. Filmrise: Movies. It says it's a provider to streaming channels, so it's probably not working for streaming. 

9. 123 Movies: I've seen the kiddos at school use this one... a while ago. Like, more than five years ago. Apparently, it's still around, but I'm rather dubious about them. 

10. beeTV: I did not realize that finding 13 sites was going to be this challenging. (I thought there were more than 13.) I'm not sure what this one has that the others don't, really. 

11. Fawesome TV: While trying to get to 13 sites, I searched and found this one. It's completely new to me, but it looks like it might have some interesting shows. If you're looking for a different service. 

12. Samsung TV Plus: If you have a Samsung TV with streaming capability, you already have access to this. It has the usual streaming channels, which is to say it has many channels that you don't normally see, but there are interesting things there if you look. 

13. Ameba: This one looks to be mostly animation. Aimed at kids. Which is not a bad thing to be, if that's what you're looking for. 

Responding to Comments via Email

Note: Today I will be getting on a plane and flying to Ohio, so I likely won't check in with you all. I should have time to catch up on Thursday. See you then. 

How do you respond to comments on your blog? 

I generally prefer to respond via email. Not everyone is going to go back to the various blogs they visit just to check and see if a response was left. And a longer conversation can happen via the privacy of email (as private as an email can be) rather than being left in a public-facing forum. 

However, not everyone has their email enabled, so responding to all comments via email is not always feasible. And then Blogger decided to make that even harder. 

But, it is still doable. And how to do it is my topic for today. 

If you want to be able to receive emails from your comments on various Blogger blogs, you have to enable them. Under "Settings", find "General" (all the way at the bottom of the page), and click on "Edit Profile". 

click to enlarge

Under "Privacy and Identity", you should have a contact email address. (If not, click on it, and you can add one.) Then make sure "Show my contact email address" is toggled "on". Your email is not actually shown. There's a link shown in your profile that someone can click on and email you. 

click to enlarge

Of course, many people don't want to be contacted from blogs, and that's completely understandable. I have found that I don't get a lot of unwanted email this way. Of course, I also have one email that's dedicated to blogging (mostly), and I have other email addresses for other uses. 

The part that Blogger "broke" a few months back can still be accessed albeit a bit differently than before. (Much thanks to Pradeep Nair of Time and Tide for discovering the solution.) 

If you want to respond to comments via email, you first have to get the comments in email. To do that, in "Settings" find "Email" (it's about halfway down the page). Under "Comment notification subscribers", you should see your email address. (Mine went missing a couple months ago, and it took me two tries to get it to remain.) If it isn't there, you can add it by clicking on "Invite people to comment notifications" and adding your email. You then have to accept this via your email, and then you'll get an email every time someone comments on your blog posts. 

click to enlarge

Once that's set, you can forget about it. 

Now, whenever someone comments on your blog posts, you'll get an email. For me, this becomes a kind of group email, with a bunch of emails under one topic. Each commenter's email appears to be <noreply-comment@blogger.com>. 

Those commenters who don't have email enabled were always "noreply-comment". But those whose emails are enabled can still be replied to. 

Go to the comment you want to email reply to and hit "reply" for just that one email. (If you've ever gotten one of those email chains where someone sent an email to everybody and then someone did "reply all", you understand how to be careful here.) If you can reply to the comment, the "noreply-comment" email will be replaced by the commenter's email. And you can reply. 

It's an extra step, yes. But it's still possible. If you want to do that sort of thing. 

The Bystanders

As I was perusing social media, I stumbled across Cezary Jan Strusiewicz pondering why he was suddenly thinking about the 1917 Russian Revolution. A mystery, that. 

While starting this post, I went looking for a meme I thought I'd posted here before, but I can't find it. Did I post it here before? I don't know for sure...

Yeah, so everything's a mess. And getting worse. I'm not sure where the ugly bill is with regards to becoming law, and I can't watch. I just can't watch. Hearing about how many people have already died due to cuts made in international aid and how many people are going to die when they lose food support and healthcare is just gutting me. And that's only one of the myriad things the regime is forcing through. 

I keep hearing about this "bystander training" that an organization is doing. This one is at 4 PM Eastern time today. Online. If you click around the tabs, you'll find all sorts of other free trainings they do online. I haven't done one (and this week is a no-go for me), but they look worthwhile. And if you're not a training person, they have a book out with similar information. (Sorry it's an Amazon link, but that was the link they offered.)

Next Tuesday I'll be just getting back from my trip, so it's likely I won't have one of these posts. (I'll do a "what if?" I think.) Stay safe. 

Articles: 

• Former DOGE engineer says federal waste and fraud were 'relatively nonexistent'
• Murder Rates Could Hit Record Lows This Year, but Killings by Police Are Rising
• How Blue States Can Fight Back Against Trump’s Immigration Crackdown and Secret Policing
• ICE Is Using a New Facial Recognition App to Identify People
• Critical Hurricane Forecast Tool Abruptly Terminated
• How does President Trump make his money? Real estate, hospitality and his name
• Developed in Central America during the civil wars of the 1980s, accompaniment strategies show how movements can reduce authoritarian attacks and resist state repression.
• DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship

Crunch Time

I get on a plane bound for Ohio on Wednesday, so I'd better get this zombie thing done. 

(I know they say that one shouldn't announce when one is going out of town because of burglaries. And that makes sense. But, I have roommates. And they're not going anywhere. So, as my home won't be vacant while I'm gone, I'm not worried about being open about being out of town.) 

Last week I had the body done. This week I managed to finish off the head and arms...

Those need to be stuffed, sewn up, and attached to the body...

Then there's a spear or shovel or something that goes with him. Will I finish in time? I think so, but likely with no time to spare. 

(Sure, I could perhaps finish it up once I arrive in Ohio. Maybe. We'll see how much I have left to do if it comes to that.) 

Previous Zombie posts: 

• Zombie Time
• Zombie Body

What's Your Age Based On Your Comfort Food Choices?

I found a new quiz site. Quizly. It's way more user friendly than the one I had been using before. I picked the first quiz they had at random... 

What's Your Age Based On Your Comfort Food Choices? 

So, go ahead and try it. I'll wait... 

I'm really not shocked at my result: 

You got: Kid at Heart!

You still have a taste for the simple things in life, and that's not a bad thing! Your comfort foods reflect a youthful spirit and an unpretentious palate.

Yeah, that's the nice way of saying I eat like a kid. And, considering my meal choices sometimes, yeah, I agree. 

13 Video Animations

My uncle has a YouTube channel. He creates animations. (I have mentioned this on the blog before.) For today's Thursday 13. I'm linking to some. (His YouTube channel is here. His blog is here.) Enjoy.

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Adding a Video to Blogger

Like many of you, I've been blogging a long time. Occasionally, I'll run across a post where someone is having a difficulty, and I think that perhaps explaining a fix would make for a good blog post. Or, Blogger changes something, and it takes a while for us all to catch on and catch up. So, I decided to make space on my blog for those kinds of posts. 

I'm definitely not an expert, just a blogger who kind of knows her way around. Feel free to correct me in the comments if I missed a better way to do any of this. 

When I mentioned my plan to write these kinds of posts, I got a request to do a post on how to post a video to Blogger. There are probably a couple ways to do this, but the easiest way (currently) is to use the "Insert Video" icon. 

Step 1: Click "New Post" or open the post where you want to embed the video.

Step 2: Get to the point in the post where you wish to embed the video. 

Step 3: In the bar under the title with all the icons, click on the "Insert Video" icon.

It looks like one of those clapboards from old time movie making.

Step 3 continued: When you click the icon, it gives you two choices: "Upload from computer" or "Youtube". 

"Upload from computer" is for any video that you have on your own computer. The problem most people encounter is there is a limit to how big that file can be. (I can't find a definite answer, but some say it's 10 MB.) Plus, it takes a while to upload, and sometimes that upload fails, so you have to go back and redo. 

It's way easier to choose "Youtube". If you have a video you want to share that's yours, I would highly recommend uploading it to YouTube first. You can always make it so that it's not searchable there. 

Most of the time, we're sharing videos we found on YouTube. So...

Step 4: From "Youtube", copy/paste the video's URL or search for a video in the spyglass bar. Once you've found the video you want, click on it, and then click on "Insert". 

And the video will appear on your blog. It'll look different on your edit screen than it will on the published post, so as long as you selected the right video, it should be just fine. 

But what if the video you want to embed isn't on YouTube?

Unfortunately, there's not an easy way to do that. I imagine there's a way using HTML, but it's not something I'm going to figure out for this blog post. The best thing to do then would be to create a link to the video. It's not as neat, but it'll get the job done. 

Did I miss anything? Is there an easier way to do this? If you have anything to add, please feel free to add it to the comments. 

Also, is there a question you have about Blogger? Something you don't know how to do? Let me know and I may use that for a future blog post.