Jo Flasher

Note, my husband waited for me to get home from grocery shopping to show me said impaled splinter (~30 minutes) rather than just heading out to the ER.

Apparently he hoped I'd be willing to operate and was disappointed when I said no

My husband, who woodworks as a hobby, is off at the ER getting an inch long splinter pulled out of the meaty part of his middle finger.

Normally I'd extract something like this myself and wrap it in animalintex pad but I took one look at it and said "nope, that's beyond my skill".

Anyone got any tricks for not dwelling on existential and constitutional crises that may or may not be forming? Cause I got a lot of work to do and picking up new hobbies to deal is not the solution ....

If you let the executive deport people to a foreign gulag just by pronouncing the word “terrorism,” then expect to be called a “terrorist” soon yourself.

For the sake maintaining survivable anxiety levels, I've had to cut out social media.

How, Jo, are you quieting your brain and fuzzing out, you may ask?

Wool. Wool and spinning and crochet and for the love of god, all I remember how to crochet is granny squares but here we are...

I am trying to find music to do a dressage freestyle to this summer and I've come to the sad conclussion that Apocalypitca is not in the cards for us.

Futte literally spooks every time one of the songs starts.

On the other, I just finished washing and setting my latest attempt at spinning dog yarn (chiengora if you're feeling fancy). I'm feeling pretty darn good about how quickly drop spinning has come back to me.

They are going to find me dead in a pile of Invidia Graphics cards and roving. (3/3)

On one hand, I've spent hours and hours figuring out how to render realistic icicles along a structure edge in blender as a reference for my next painting. I've settled on a truly boggling set of geometry nodes and I've started dreaming quad vertices. (2/3)

I've officially become the weird tech witch of my friends group. (1/3)

The New Year is upon us and I spent most of last night dealing with a quasi-emergency at work. My expectations for 2025 are not high.

Oh yes, she does occasionally spook at something that she knows darn well won't hurt her, then touch it, then look at me expectantly for the cookie.

Which I normally give her because, hey, reinforcing the investigate behavior is the goal....

The other side of the trust coin with her has been, if it IS legitimately scary, then I'm gonna get between her & it and keep her safe.

My go to response to spooking AT something benign is to cheerfully say "it's a Thing!". A Thing is something to touch and get cookies for. This has helped rewire my overly reactive mare from a spin & bolt spook to a flatten in place then go investigate it spook.

It means "love" in dog language

I'm off at the barn and I get a text from Josh...how long ago did I leave?

Turns out, Taksi had snuck out that door and was a soaking wet, terrified mess by the time Josh had gotten home. Needed all the toweling and cuddles and refused to go back outside.

I am a bad dog owner. Yesterday, I sent the puppies out to the backyard, brought them all back in and sequestered Tanis, my instigator, in the bedroom.

Came downstairs, saw the kitchen door was open, closed it and headed out for some pony time. Note, it was POURING and thundering when I left.

"The Midwife" One of my pieces that the lovely Sarah McGinnis modeled for all those years ago at IlluxCon.

screenshot says: In it, he revealed that the final straw for him and "millions" of others was the belief that Musk was tipping the algorithm scales in a way that boosted conservative voices and suppressed others: Twitter transformed into X, a place where racism, misogyny, homophobia and especially transphobia run rampant under the guise of "free speech," but where using the word "cisgender" can get your account restricted because Musk (who has described his very= much-alive transgender daughter as "dead") considers it a slur.

Y'all, I said "racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia" and she heard "conservative voices." 🤔

Education savings accounts used at religious schools violate the Iowa Constitution Opinion: Over a century ago, Iowa's top court said a religious school "could not lawfully be supported or aided by public funds," writes Allan Vestal.

Voucher programs are not "school choice." They are forced tithing for taxpayers.

And in Iowa, if you aren't Christian, you'll find a full 96% of accredited private schools in Iowa are religious schools, given you little to no choice.

Rural students may not have access to any private schools.

A screen shot of the Libs of TikTok Bluesky page, with a prompt to block.

Libs of TikTok has arrived. Chaya Raichik is extremely dangerous and is known for her stochastic terrorism of the queer and trans community. Report her and block her. She has no place on this platform.

Block and Report @thelibsoftiktok

That running straight in and getting in another dog's face is just straight up bad manners in dog society anyways. He might be "friendly" but he's still rude as frick.

My belgians bitches have NO patience with that behavior and WILL flatten any dog that tries it.

Remember folks, submissions for 2025 IX close soon ... www.ixartists.com.

And now someone is trying to take out loans & credit cards in my name. This is not my glorious relaxing Saturday ....

Come into my comments hot and you get blocked. I don't owe anyone time or space in my feed. Go be a jackass in your own spaces.

This message brought to you by "what phase of the moon is it again?" cause folks be crazy yesterday...

I adore the Gideon painting. Everything from her stance to her build to the little smirk. You captured that character perfectly.

A pair of paintings that I never got good photos of before they found homes. Luckily, the buyers are bringing them back to me to clean & varnish at IX next year so I'll get some decent pictures then.

On the left, The Lure. On the right, Those Born With Wings

Don't do any of this #Thanksgiving

Same, grew up dirt poor and looking forward to the big blocks of government cheese. House has a basement that floods a couple times a year so no freezer for me. I treat my anxiety by keeping massive amounts of dry goods tucked away in a pantry.