Fredelas

@kate_freedomer @ReclaimTheRecs @Alecferretti Their reasoning for not publishing death indexes for 50 years, is simply because that's when the death records themselves become pubic in New York state (outside NYC). But as most courts have repeatedly found, an index is an administrative finding aid, not a personal record.

@kate_freedomer @ReclaimTheRecs @Alecferretti It's true that if you don't already know WHEN someone died, you're more likely to recognize them by name and residence rather than place of death. But without knowing the place of death, you can't confidently order a record from the municipality, and have to order from the state.

You guys...? We did it. 🥰 We won the FULL NEW YORK STATE DEATH INDEX FOR 1880-2017! We beat the largest government agency in the state of New York (@HealthNYGov), in the highest court of the state, through a Freedom of Information Law (#FOIL) suit. 😎 reclaimtherecords.org/records-reques…

@ReclaimTheRecs @DeptVetAffairs @MuckRock I'm not sure what lesson the VA might learn from this. Don't be chronically underfunded and understaffed? Shift millions of dollars they can't afford from actually serving veterans to doing genealogy lookups for their relatives? Learn to grovel for scraps before Congress better?

2017: We make a #FOIA request to @DeptVetAffairs using @MuckRock's FOIA-filing system. We sue the VA, and win. 2024: We launch our own searchable and free-FOIA-filing-by-fax website, enabling THOUSANDS of new FOIA requests to go to the VA in just the first few days. Mwahahaha.

@Zyngor Potatoes: "Serving size 2/3 cup. 4 servings per container." Me: 🍽️ Potatoes: "4 SERVINGS PER CONTAINER." Me: "I'm afraid I've lost that measuring cup, my friend."

Forget puny addictions like drugs and gambling, my vice is cheesy scalloped potatoes.

@MJ_Guthrie I think I mumbled something about him studying engineering, applying at NASA, and escaping the planet.

@BrandywineFred .... And how on earth did you respond to that?

I thought it would be a fun civics lesson to show our foster son how citizens on the space station vote. Foster son: "So they spend HOW much money to make it easy for a couple people in space to vote, and HOW much to make it harder for thousands of people on the ground to vote?"

@ClarystaInSun Yes, and somehow it's never quite the lesson I expected.

@BrandywineFred your foster kids are always so smart

We left a huge bowl of candy unattended on the front porch tonight and it was barely touched. I'm now personally attending to this grave injustice.

@AyahsHope I think we often fail to take that analogy far enough. In a melting pot, everything has to change, not just the last ingredient you added. If you add zinc to copper, the zinc doesn't turn into copper; together they both become brass. It's about transformation, not assimilation.

Loved this story. A success story but realistic about the challenges of assimilation. I was taught in elementary school that we were a “Melting Pot.” When did that change?

@Braxwolf @TallGuyCalif Substitute "you go to work" for "you get killed" and this just feels too much like real life to be fun after a while. I suppose the players involved in the giant battles have thrilling longrunning stories going on in their heads, but I doubt I could ever get that far in the game.

@TallGuyCalif I was content to stick with medium size T2 ships but after a while you just kind of go "so what?" You make money, you get killed, you buy a new ship. Rinse and repeat.

After moving some stuff around in #eveonline I'm reminded of the fun I had mining and exploring in that game. Unfortunately it wasn't $20/month fun (and still isn't)

@LotRLore I was trying to think of other tropey distractions, and an alternative might have been him walking up and fake slapping her for getting herself captured. But I think that would probably provoke equally emotional responses.

@BrandywineFred I think I have just been waiting for the “forced Hollywood romance” to appear between these two that, in the moment, it forced the words “I guess Celeborn must be dead, then” out of me.

I was ready to just rant and rave about *THAT SCENE* in #RingsofPower, but the more I think about it, the more I'm just meh. I really agree with @tolkienprof's take here and it basically reflects my own thinking after the credits rolled. youtu.be/HfUAVvGX7hI?si…

@LotRLore Both claim to be good for you but are secretly evil.

I'm still really upset this joke didn't land.

@keyasaurus Now I want him to tell stories about life in St Olaf!

@rwfrk #GoodGravyThatsGoodGravy

I want to open a food truck called Hot Spuds Near You that sells poutine.

Still giggling at Hot Spuds.

Foster son: "You guys love hobbits so much, I bet you met on a hobbit dating app." Me: "Yup, we met on Tater." G-Man: "I found him in the Hot Spuds category."

@ModeratePeril Here are a bunch more bold elements, only a handful of which are likely to be found in a cannon:

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2. Initial thoughts. Still visually stunning. Plot more structured and less leisurely. Outstanding soundtrack by Bear McCreary. Bold non canonical elements. containsmoderateperil.com/blog/2024/8/29… #blaugust2024 #TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower