Tootfinder

NFL Top 100 countdown begins Monday: Who are contenders for No. 1 spot? https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-top-100-countdown-begins-monday-who-are-contenders-for-no-1-spot

I’m so proud of my little brother.
I just spoke to him in his dorm room at a top 30 college here in the US, he just arrived for freshman orientation.
He got in on a full ride - tuition, housing, food, books, travel, stipend for daily expenses. Won a competitive scholarship to do so.
More than that, he’s had a tougher road than most to get there:
- he had to suddenly move away from Manila, Philippines (where he grew up) in middle school because of COVID restrictions that didn’t let kids go outside (2020)
- then, just as he adjusted to school and a different language in our home country, Ukraine, Russia invaded (2022)
- he stayed in Greece for a month while I was calling our congressional representative here in NY and negotiating with the US embassy to get them a visa ASAP to enter the US and be with me and my husband. There were no paths for Ukrainian refugees yet, we just wanted them with us temporarily for a few months to figure out what options they even had next.
- he had to wait, not going to school, with no clue where they’d move next, until TPS became available to Ukrainians and they got to stay here in the US
- then he had to continue high school in yet another system, yet another country, amidst news of bombings and destruction back home
- my mother wasn’t allowed to work for months while their documents were pending, so we had to raise money with a public GoFundMe campaign and my husband and I maxed out our credit cards to help them get by
- they shared a one-room cottage for the first year, graciously hosted for free by an elderly local couple
- he saw a therapist who also graciously took him in for free while they didn’t have insurance
- he had to graduate high school amidst news of other immigrant students getting arrested, detained, and deported at their own graduations around the country
- he wasn’t sure if he would even make it to college as this administration publicly considered canceling TPS for Ukrainians and cutting off their pathway to maintaining legal status.
We don’t know what tomorrow holds. But he’s there. He’s on campus. He got to go to college.
I love him so much.

My favourite hammock for on our balcony broke and landed me on my ass, last month. Just got around to fixing it with parts of a new lashing strap that's rated for much more weight than me. The hammock itself is still in good shape, so this should last me some more years, now.
(I got the hammock from Kickstarter years ago, in a time when I was still fascinated by that website...

Last year I got a phone mount for my bike handlebars, and it came with 6 of these rubber grip things to attach your phone.
Well, I left it on my bike that's in the shop but I do have 5 extra rubber grippy things!
So I designed a quick & dirty phone holder that works with the bands so I can put a phone holder on many different bikes.
It attaches with two zip ties and I use a piece of cut up tube rubber wrapped around the bar beneath it for grip.

Another tip for #DH2025 / life in general - calendar appointments added in different timezones in Outlook often display incorrectly on iPhones. Keep that in mind when adding conference sessions / meetings to your calendar!
(It's been that way for years, who knows if Outlook or iOS is to blame)

We visited my parents yesterday and I decided to bring along my PS5/VR2 to see if my Dad would be interested in checking it out.
He was, so I hooked it up to their (20 year old and about to quit) TV and got it set up and tested for a minute with No Man's Sky to make sure everything was working as intended.
Dropped the hat on his head and set him up a custom save, all settings tuned to "easy mode", no combat or damage, all slots unlocked etc so he would be able to j…