hkellick | Network

So, I, uh, got my RSI/ergonomics debugged!* I then promptly lost two days to bad sleep due to another new mechanical failure of the balky meat mecha and also a medical appointment in re two previous malfunctions. But I seem back in business now. The new keyboard is great.

Patrons, I've got three Siderea Posts out so far this month and it's only the 12th. I have two more Posts I am hoping to get out in the next three days. Also about health insurance. We'll see if it actually happens, but it's not impossible. I have written a lot of words. (I really like my new keyboard.)

Anyways, if you weren't planning on sponsoring five posts (or – who knows? – even more) this month, adjust your pledge limits accordingly.

* It was my bra strap. It was doing something funky to how my shoulder blade moved or something. It is both surprising to me that so little pressure made so much ergonomic difference, and not surprising because previously an even lighter pressure on my kneecap from wearing long underwear made my knee malfunction spectacularly. Apparently this is how my body mechanics just are.

siderea

Canonical link: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1890494.html

0.

Hey Americans (and other people stuck in the American healthcare system)! Shopping for a health plan on your state marketplace? Boy, do I have some information for you that you should have and probably don't. There's been an important legal change affecting your choices that has gotten almost no press.

Effective with plan year 2026 all bronze level and catastrophic plans are statutorily now HDHPs and thus HSA compatible. You may get and self-fund an HSA if you have any bronze or catastrophic plan, as well as any plan of any level designated a HDHP.

2025 Dec 9: IRS.gov: "Treasury, IRS provide guidance on new tax benefits for health savings account participants under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill"

Bronze and Catastrophic Plans Treated as HDHPs: As of Jan. 1, 2026, bronze and catastrophic plans available through an Exchange are considered HSA-compatible, regardless of whether the plans satisfy the general definition of an HDHP. This expands the ability of people enrolled in these plans to contribute to HSAs, which they generally have not been able to do in the past. Notice 2026-05 clarifies that bronze and catastrophic plans do not have to be purchased through an Exchange to qualify for the new relief.

If you are shopping plans right now (or thought you were done), you should probably be aware of this. Especially if you are planning on getting a bronze plan, a catastrophic plan, or any plan with the acronym "HSA" in the name or otherwise designated "HSA compatible".

The Trump administration doing this is tacit admission that all bronze plans have become such bad deals that they're the economic equivalent of what used to be considered a HDHP back when that concept was invented, and so should come with legal permission to protect yourself from them with an HSA.

Effective immediately, you should consider a bronze plan half an insurance plan.

( Read more [3,340 words] )

This post brought to you by the 221 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.

Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2025/12/12/i-m-hatin-it

New Comic: I'm Hatin' It!

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2025/12/12/i-m-hatin-it

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5721

Aw, I kinda like the art in this one! It took literally over a decade for me to get to the point where looking at my own drawings didn't make me want to gag, so it's super wild to see these older comics and think "actually my art had some good points back then too." I used to tell people "if you don't like the comic's art, give it a couple weeks and it'll look different." That isn't really the case anymore- my style has solidified pretty well the last several years. There are still changes, but they're more subtle most of the time and I suspect 90% of my readers don't even notice them. Every now and then I still get a wild hair and go "agh I hate how I draw my comic!!!" and change things up, and while it usually doesn't produce permanent, radical change, it often forces me to learn how to do something different, or better than I used to. I'll never be a Great Artist but I at least enjoy drawing now, and as long as it's fun and conveying the actions I'm trying to convey, that's really all I could ask for.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5721

torino10154

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lassarina

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xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3179/

'That's definitely above the catch-and-release size minimum for planetesimals.' 'I'm going to throw it back anyway.'

https://xkcd.com/3179/

torino10154

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questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5720

It's hard to believe the first Cubetown visit was like 800 friggin' comics ago, holy crap. Time does weird things when you draw a comic every day for 20-odd years. As I recall, at this point I was still trying to figure out if QC would switch solely to focus on Marten and Claire's Cubetown adventures, or if I'd split the focus between Cubetown and Northampton. I ended up doing the latter, which I think was the right choice. Too many fun characters to just leave behind like that! And of course then I immediately added like four new ones, and then Anh basically took over the comic for a year. Is Sam still going through her goth phase? IS it just a phase? ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT (I will do whatever seems funniest at the time)

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5720

flareonfury posting in

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comicsfanfiction

Community Description:

comicsfanfiction is for any comic book fanfiction including comic strips, webcomics, and graphic novels. Any rating is accepted. Feel free to post your old or new works!

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: sad

mickeym

Can someone please explain to me how it is ANY of Donnie's business if I apply for/take out a loan (or do anything at all, for that matter)? Matthew made the mistake of mentioning something he and I are looking into, thinking Donnie was asking about that, and now she's all concerned that we're going to buy out of our lease and thus leave her homeless.

If she was truly worried about being homeless, maybe she shouldn't 1) walk out of a job without having another one lined up; 2) look for full-time employment, rather than the part-time job she finally started (yesterday; she fucking QUIT her job back in, I don't know, October?).

Then she looks at me and says, "Kim, have you ever taken out a loan?"

I know she sees me as this old, washed up woman who doesn't ever have enough money to pay what always seems to need to be paid. But once upon a time, I owned my own home! Or, well, was paying on a mortgage that my name was on. I've had car loans. I've had personal loans. And then apparently, after saying that she felt she was spoken to badly (she was, and I apologized, because I did get snippy, but Jesus), when Matthew went back to drop one of their cats back into their room, she told him that I shouldn't put the loan in his name, because he doesn't have a good track record with paying things.

It is absolutely none of her business. Any of it. Any of my life. Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

She works tomorrow. I'm looking forward to not having her here in the house for four hours.

xposted to Dreamwidth and Livejournal; read/comment wherever works best for you :)

Current Mood: aggravated

kuwdora

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pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2025/12/10/how-i-make-comics

I had a few people come up to me at PAX Unplugged last month and ask for more behind the scenes videos of the comic making process. I know I personally enjoy this sort of content from other artists but I rarely think about doing it myself. Well I remembered yesterday or at least I remembered after doing the rough sketch. You can watch the full video below!

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2025/12/10/how-i-make-comics

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2025/12/10/the-keighlioth

God dammit! We only wrote the strip yesterday, and now wicked men have revealed all. Look what Wario64 has posted!

Mp1st report: New Divinity Trademark Uncovered as New Icon Matches Statue https://t.co/z6D8dFtjuH pic.twitter.com/KQltlluXvs
— Wario64 (@Wario64) December 9, 2025

I wish I could muster authentic surprise, but it is Wario we're talking about: an individual whose inverted virtues (and occasional forays into ill-fated entrepreneurial schemes) place him against mankind and perhaps history itself as a base and prolific villain.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2025/12/10/the-keighlioth

rachelmanija

An Icelandic horror novella translated by Mary Robinette Kowal! I had no idea she's fluent in Icelandic.

Iðunn experiences unexplained fatigue and injuries when she wakes up, but is gaslit by doctors and offered idiotic remedies by co-workers. (Very relatable!) Meanwhile, she's being semi-stalked by her ex-boyfriend/co-worker, her parents refuse to accept that she's a vegetarian and keep serving her chicken, and the only living beings she actually likes are the neighborhood cats that she's allergic to.

After what feels like an extremely long time, it finally occurs to her that she might be sleepwalking, and some time after that, it finally occurs to her to video herself as she sleeps. At that point some genuinely scary/creepy/unsettling things happen, and I was very gripped by the story and its central mystery.

Is Iðunn going out at night and committing all the acts she's normally too beaten down or scared to do while sleepwalking or dissociating? Is she having a psychotic break? Is she a vampire? Is she possessed? Does it have something to do with a traumatic past event that's revealed about a third of the way in?

Other than the last question, I have no idea! The ending was so confusing that I have no idea what it was meant to convey, and it did not provide any answers to basically anything. I'm also not sure what all the thematic/political elements about the oppression of women had to do with anything, because they didn't clearly relate to anything that actually happened.

Spoilers!

( Read more... )

This was a miss for me. But I was impressed by the very fluent and natural-sounding translation.

Content note: A very large number of cats are murdered. Can horror writers please knock it off with the dead cats? At this point it would count as a shocking twist if the cat doesn't die.

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2025/12/10/the-keighlioth

New Comic: The Keighlioth

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2025/12/10/the-keighlioth

questionable_content_feed

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5719

A Bembo comic! Man I love these. IIRC, the whole idea for Bembo started off on twitter when I went on a bit of a "dumb barbarian but not in the way you'd expect" style of shitposting spree. Then later that year I needed some filler comics for the week between xmas and new year's so I decided to turn some of those posts into actual comics. And then it became a semi-regular thing! They're very fun and I hope to do more in the future. Bembo is obviously heavily indebted to Oglaf, a comic I adore. Go read Oglaf, unless you don't like cartoons with tits and wieners in them I guess.

Every time I see one of these old comics I think "man, remember when QC was about indie rock lol." Also remember when I used to make jokes about the size of Faye's ass but didn't really know how to draw thicker ladies yet so she pretty much looked like every other character, lol.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5719

torino10154

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elisem

So, just a few minutes ago in one place or another, I was reading what someone had to say about style. In the course of exploring a particular writer's habits and style, they said that they themselves weren't sure they knew what style was.

A long time ago, a sentence came into my possession that has been both comforting and humbling by degrees. It is this: "Style is what you can't help doing."

The comforting part is that if you can't help having style, or doing style, or whatever sort of verbing of style is accurate for you and your work, then you might as well stop any worrying about style and get on with the work. Saves a tremendous amount of time, really.

Thoughts?

The color of infinity inside an empty glass

The random insanity of your not-entirely-typical geek

Update [me, health, Patreon]

Choosing Health Insurance: HSAs: FYI re bronze, catastrophic plans [healthcare, US, Patreon]

I'm Hatin' It!

QC Rerun Time 2025 #5

FIC: A Puppy For Christmas, Gen, Victoire, Bill, Fleur, Harry

What Are You Playing Wednesday

Fishing

FIC: Astray, Explicit, Ron/Pansy

QC Rerun Time 2025 #44

New community > comicsfanfiction

things make a post

I've gone beyond confused

How about a sneak peek of the Regis vid because he has the Hansa feeling alright.

How I Make Comics

The Keighlioth

The Night Guest, by Hildur Knútsdóttir

The Keighlioth

QC Rerun Time 2025 #3

Drabble: Naughty, Teen, Fred, George

reading about writing, thinking about art

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November 2025

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