memewidth

Somebody, and by that I mean someone furry, started scratching the side of his head two weeks ago, and got a deep sore going before we could get him to the vet to be coned. :(

I bought a cone a couple of years back, but I never took it out of the packaging, and it turned out to basically be labrador-sized. No good for a medium-sized house cat! Our vet was closed the day we wanted to take our cat in, and when they re-opened we discovered they couldn't see him for 4 days. Yikes. I took him to Banfield Pet Hospital (inside PetSmart) to be coned and given antibiotics, because that was the urgent issue. He got the cone off within 5 minutes of being home. HalfshellHusband took him back, and he got the cone off before even leaving the store. So the vet made a soft harness out of some stretchy cloth, and that did the trick.

We took him to our own vet on Monday, for a more thorough examination. They found no underlying cause for his original scratching other than that he gets itchy during the change of seasons, so that was good. But they undid the harness, which means the cat got the cone off again later that night. Holy moly! They gave instructions to burrito him (Hah!) to subdue him, as if they didn't routinely tranq him on office visits (including that very day). By then, a soft cone had come from Amazon that was easier to get on-- this outer-space-themed flower-type thing:

Not our cat

He is able to eat and drink with the soft cone, but also has gotten out of it three times and is sometimes able to still get one of his hind feet into scratching position! I have another, bigger soft cone to try the next time he escapes the current one, but what a headache this all is. He has no idea that he'll be wearing that cone for another 2-4 weeks, which will be fun for all of us. \o?

In Idol news, I was able to come back in (at least for now) due to a lucky spin of the Wheel of Chaos. But

rayaso got poisoned, so he's out. That's disappointing. :( There is also no poll this week, so no one seems to be reading or commenting on the entries. Mine is here, if you'd like to take a look. I went with humor, which has been the case for most of this season. Not last week, though! This entry was a pain to format, too, and the HTML that used to let you change font so easily doesn't seem to work anymore. Nor does CSS. I gave up on shifting the typeface styles, but that was after I'd wasted a good 60+ minutes on it.

I WILL get around to TV recs at some point, but let me quickly say that Amazon's The Devil's Hour is really intriguing, and you should give it a try!

queenlua

When, in the course of human events, one reads a little bit too much of Marilynne Robinson's incredible prose, and then plays a little bit too much Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and thus gets the two very different types of work all muddled in one's head, and is thus seized with the need to go spit out many thousands of words of Clair-Obscur-fanfiction-in-the-style-of-Marilynne-Robinson, but becomes aware partway through the project that one's understanding of the culture and structure of the Paris Conservatory during the Belle Époque era is incredibly thin, and this lack of understanding is really becoming awkward given that one has gone and invented an entire subplot involving multiple professors at aforementioned conservatory in one's fanfiction based on a passing mention in canon that "oh such-and-such character went to conservatory" and literally nothing else—well, it thus becomes necessary to go read a well-regarded biography of a contemporaneous French composer to amend that lack of knowledge.

Which is how I found myself reading Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life by Jean-Michel Nectoux (translated by Roger Nichols).

("You really have a knack for nerd-sniping yourself," a friend observed dryly when I explained my present pitiable state of affairs. Yeah I sure do, huh.)

As I've been reading this primarily for convoluted fanfiction research purposes, what follows should not be construed as a review or anything even approaching one (I haven't even finished reading the book yet!), but, more of a... thinking-aloud session? Because there's a great deal that's amused me, and also a great deal that's made me very ponderous, and also stuff that just straight-up confused me (recall my aforementioned staggering lack of historical/contextual knowledge)... and yeah the only way I know how to think these days is via blog posts, apparently.

( Read more... )

Oh, also, one last funny bit about the translation: there's a bunch of words that are left with the French spelling, for no particular reason I can discern? The funniest of these is "rôle," which is always spelled the French way, even though there is no semantic difference to be had there. Whatcha trying to prove with that little hat over the O, lol. Though I guess The New Yorker still spells coordinate and cooperate as "coördinate" and "coöperate" so. I guess we all have our little spelling hangups :P

azurelunatic

The worst part of colonoscopy prep turned out to be the sheer number of trips to the bathroom, which knotted up my legs something fierce. The second worst part was the taste of the solution, even with added flavorings. It was salty! (I got the huge jug rather than the Miralax version. Miralax at least isn't salty.) Next time, probably either green unsweetened Kool-Aid or lemonade Crystal Lite or whatever.

( Off topic for FFA )

I did make the planned gallon of orange jello, but since it was a little late for me to actually eat it, I put mandarin orange slices in it. Since that's often part of Belovedest's lunch. Today I packed it into smaller boxes to help with that effort and to decrease the crowding in the fridge.

I got a slight nap after everything was about finished. The split prep schedule meant that I started the second half around 12:30 am. Appointment check in time 6 am.

The distance in the facility wasn't super bad, although we brought my chair just in case. (Speaking of the chair, I have decked it out with retroreflective tape and electroluminescent wire. It looks much safer. The cup holder went on Friday.)

( The procedure wasn't bad. )

I got dressed again. I had picked a cute nightgown for the outing, black with flowers and butterflies. Instead of a coat (it's getting chilly at night) I wore my dramatic black velvet robe, the one with lace trim and bell sleeves. I received a compliment. And as soon as I proved I could stand up without excessive wobbling, we were off.

Belovedest gathered breakfast for me on our way home, and I took a much needed nap (interrupted a few times to confirm that I could be made conscious and accept hydration).

And that was that.

We did our usual Friday shopping on Saturday. I was still sore. Today my legs are thankfully feeling normal.

Current Music: Tom Cardy - "H.Y.C.Y.B.H"

kayre

New piece for hammered dulcimer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s887Mw7nVcU

halfshellvenus

A New Man
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 10 | 2440 words
Intrigant (one who intrigues or is involved in intrigue)

x-x-x-x-x

Winslow Johnson was a middle-aged man in a Midwestern city who suffered from being constantly overlooked. Even his name, which should have been interesting, somehow wasn't. People noticed it for half a second, and then slid right off into "Eh…" It was unusual, but somehow also blah, like Winslow himself.

Sometimes, Winslow wondered if he was invisible.

He worked as a shoe salesman at J. C. Penney, a job that was even less exciting than it sounded. Penney's specialized in 'sensible' and 'matronly,' with a large overlap between the two. Winslow had also never cared for feet, which only made the job more unpleasant. He had tried feigning enthusiasm for them before, but found that it only made him seem weirder.

What he needed, Winslow thought, was a personality transplant.

At office parties and in the breakroom at work, he never seemed to have anything to talk about. He had hobbies, and they weren't anything desperate like collecting string. But when he mentioned his tiny herb garden or he invited someone to spend the day watching trains with him, he got nothing but blank stares in return. Why couldn't he be like Dave from Home and Garden, who was a sports nut and knew how to make people laugh? Or like Janet from Housewares, who was always up-to-date on new movies and the popular TV shows?

Winslow had no idea how to solve his problem. There were no classes for that sort of thing, no magic potions that could make a difference. The only thing he could think of was to go to the bookstore and consult the self-help section. The quantity of selections was overwhelming:

"The You You Are," by Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale.

What? Winslow thought.

"You Are Special, Yes You Are!" by Bitsy McLintock.

Winslow cringed, and kept surveying the shelves.

"Why You Suck, And How To Stop," by Chad Barton.

Huh. The title was kind of harsh, but didn't it basically describe his problem? And if anyone would know how to be cool, it would be someone named Chad. Winslow picked the book up and started leafing through it.

Chapter 1
Why You Suck and Nobody Likes You

You're creepy. You're boring. You smell bad. Do any of these sound familiar? The suckee is always the last to know.

Oh, no! Winslow thought. Could one of those be his problem? Or worse, all of them?

( Read more... )

There's no poll this week, as it's a contestant-only vote.

turps

It was a day yesterday.

To start with there had been really heavy, non-stop rain from the early hours. It was also our first craft fair in our town, one we'd been trying to get a spot at for ages. Then Murphy started showing signs of having cystitis again, and not being able to pee, which of course would be an emergency if he had a blockage.

With it being Saturday, our own vet was closed, so we had to get him an appointment at the out of hours vet, which would mean an expensive bill. He's got excellent insurance, but what happens at the out of hours is we'd have to pay, and the insurance would eventually reimburse, as opposed to our vet where they bill the insurance company directly. ( cut for length tldr, Murphy is on the mend )

Friday was nearly a day, too. We've said we'll take my MiL out at least once a fortnight, so picked her up on Friday and had a drive to Barnard Castle to get eggs from the honesty stall at the farm and get delicious bread from a bakery we like. All was going well until we stopped for a coffee, and my SiL phoned saying her electric had gone off so my MiL would have to stay at our house that night.

Obviously, she would have been welcome, but none of the furniture had been moved, she had none of her meds or oxygen generator, and it just seemed to make more sense to wait for a bit to see if things could be fixed before taking her to our house.

To cut a long and frustrating story short, they managed to get the meter sorted and the electricity was back on within an hour, but not before a lot of stress from everyone.

Thursday we'd gone to see Caught Stealing. It's a bit more violent than my usual tastes, but I can say, Austin Butler is a very beautiful man.

One good thing about yesterday, Strictly was back, let the Nikita admiring begin for another year.

tsuki_no_bara

oh my flist the ugly building where i work is SO COLD. SO SO COLD. holyshit. i am not a bag of frozen peas! i mean seriously. what the hell.

anyway. hi. it's been *counts* weeks. classes have started at the u and students are back and suddenly it's busy. surprise. on tuesday i walked into work the same time as admin d, and when she got on the elevator i said i'd wait because she was going down and i was going up. she works on the third floor, i work on the fifth, she pointed out we were both on the first floor. so that's how my week's been. >.<

other shit i did:

discovered a very large box of plastic spoons in the kitchenette at work
finished unpacking the kitchen and the living room
did not finish the dining room or my bedroom but made some progress anyway
went to work writing group three times
went to og writing group twice
went to the yearly greek festival by myself because

tamalinn and friend a both had weather headaches :( and stuffed my face with sausage and rice pudding and kataifi
had dim sum with

tamalinn and friend a's hubs (aka friend d)
had disappointing chinese food and saw my mother's wedding with my sister (it drops you in the middle of the story and never really catches you up but at least the actors had good family chemistry and it's very pretty, very cozy british cottage countryside)
had much better mexican food and saw the roses with my sister (apparently i will watch olivia colman in anything. i didn't like the ending or the main characters' friends but i laughed in some very odd places and there's a gorgeous house with absolutely stunning views)
had chinese takeout and watched mission: impossibles at my sister's house (twice! the chinese place has really good eggplant and the fluffiest egg foo yung)
watched all of girls5eva (fun, silly, spoofy, occasionally really touching, and i liked the songs)
watched the end of resident alien ("such a ridiculous show" + "ow, right in the feels" all the way through)
finished s2 of poker face (didn't love the ending, think i liked s1 better, enjoyed the guest stars)
watched s2 of twisted metal (deeply weird and hysterically violent but anthony mackie and stephanie beatriz have nice chemisty and overall i liked it)
watched all of black swans (in which keira knightley is a spy investigating the murder of her sidepiece and ben whishaw is her sad gay assassin colleague and now i'm interested in british spy shows)
probably other things i don't remember right now

also i went to iceland and greenland and canada. :D where i saw puffins (from a distance) and an active volcano (also at a distance) and lava fields and cute little icelandic horses and nosy icelandic chickens and mineral baths (twice) and geysers and so many waterfalls and soothing moss and lakes and icebergs and cute little houses and cute little churches and cute little greenlandic children (mom and i waved at them and one waved back) and the world's largest fiddle and a house museum and the occasional other ship and the occasional dog and some old buildings and lots and lots of open water. i walked a lot and got rained on and sat in the aforementioned mineral baths (twice) and spent like two minutes in a sauna because it seemed appropriate and got a salt scrub on the boat and walked around the outer decks through some terrifying wind and discovered the simple joy of a bailey's irish cream on the rocks and listened to karaoke and played hangman (badly) and assorted games of trivia and went to some lectures about explorers and saw really good shows and ate delicious brazilian barbecue and bought a lot of chocolate and also stamps. also apparently we crossed the arctic circle. we got certificates. :D

i'm still not a cruise person and i still wish we'd done the original itinerary but i had a good time and got to see really cool places and kind of want to go back to iceland because we didn't really get to see reykjavik and only got to eat local once. (one of the stops on the golden circle tour, which we did the day before we set sail. i had a lamb sandwich. yum. but other than that pretty much all the local food we had was snacks, mostly black licorice for everyone who isn't me and did i mention the chocolate?)

i have one more episode of andor s2 and i'm totally expecting someone to die altho i don't know who. tell me nothing.

today was CORN FEST at work and while i didn't think i ate that much i definitely was not hungry for dinner. i brought home leftovers which include an ear of corn (it was SO GOOD OMG) and a giant piece of cake with extra frosting. and it started at noon which means no one had had lunch yet and there were consequently not a lot of leftovers.

nakagin capsule tower, my beloved.

do you want to watch a short documentary about my local comic shop? of course you do. :D

if you drive into boston from the south you pass a giant gas storage tank with a rainbow painted on it. i was always told the original artist was vietnamese and hid ho chi minh's profile in one of the stripes. the artist was actually a white nun named corita kent and she sounds like a really neat person. she also did not hide anyone's profile in this particular art.

have some photos of ordinary folks in new orleans before hurricane katrina.

watch a swedish church move 5km down the street.

so you know how the nazis stole a lot of art that was never returned to its original owners because a non trivial amount of it hasn't been found? a missing painting was discovered in argentina hanging over a couch in a real estate listing. surprise!

manchester united fan takes up the challenge to not to cut his hair until the team wins five in a row. they're not doing well this year and now the guy has an impressive mop.

the new century standard letter-writer - published in 1900 and full of templates for a very wide range of correspondence needs.

who wants to go to france and take a cheese tour with me?

what's on the other side of the earth from you? for me, it's ocean.

this is definitely old news but if you haven't see it you might be amused to know that noah wyle's emmys tux was made by a company that normally makes scrubs. but they made him a (very nice!) tux to honor all the medical professionals out there.

Current Mood: i am so tired
Current Music: bones

isis

What I've recently finished watching:

Wednesday season 2, and I enjoyed it a lot! Okay, there were parts I did not enjoy nearly as much as others; I could have done without the zombie gore and Pugsley in general, and Enid's new boyfriend drama as well. On the other hand! (Which I guess is Thing, no pun intended!) Here are some things I particularly loved, ( behind a cut because they are very mildly spoilery for S2, more spoilery for S1: )

isis

What I recently finished reading:

A reread of Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe - here's my original review from 2020:

Space opera that reminds me a bit of Imperial Radch smushed with the Expanse, though it doesn't feel like it's actually inspired by either. There's a sentient spaceship and a culture which dominates the universe and controls the gates which allow passage between worlds (which were invented using a mysterious technology that may have come from another civilization), and generally modern SF style views of gender and sexuality (the main characters, siblings, have two fathers, and there's a character who uses 'they' pronouns, presumably nonbinary). The story mostly follows Sanda, a 'gunnery sergeant' [this seemed odd to me for various reasons - she seems to be an actual officer, not a noncom, but I guess military ranks in this far future world are different?] who wakes up after a battle alone, on board a deserted enemy warship, which tells her that it's 230 years after the battle and that both sides' planets have been destroyed. Other POVs are Sanda's brother, Biran, who has been recently elevated to the political elite of their society, and Jules, a young gangster girl on a planet far away, whose narrative seems to have little to do with the main story until the very end when things are connected in order to set up the next book. I liked it a lot, though I felt that after the first few big reveals (which were great!) things dragged for a while before rushing to a climax that quickly went on to a cliffhanger.

Rereading my review, I guess I still agree with it! I'm sadly appalled that I forgot so many of the spoilery details in the intervening 5 years.

But I'm on to the next book in the series, Chaos Vector...

steepholm

Judging from interviews, every famous person seems to have been told by a careers teacher at some point that they would "Never amount to anything", "Just didn't have what it takes to make it as a professional" etc., but then went on to prove them gloriously wrong.

This never happened to me - in fact, I don't think I ever spoke to a careers teacher at all. Perhaps we didn't have one at my school? The traditional options were get married or work in the brewery/on the farm, so it would have been a rather dispiriting assignment, I imagine.

But are careers teachers universally this negative in their attitudes? Doesn't it seem like it would be the first thing you learn at careers-teacher school, "Don't tell children that they'll never amount to anything"? Is it some kind of reverse-psychology motivational tool, sparingly but deliberately deployed? Or are the celebs bending the truth a smidge? I don't know, but I'd be interested to hear whether anyone here has been subjected to this kind of treatment.

svgurl

1character is a challenge where writers chose a character to write 50 sentences of fanfiction about based on different themes in a set

trickortreatex, a multifandom exchanged inspired by Halloween (though works don't need to contain Halloween themes/you don't have to celebrate), is still open for sign-ups until September 18th, 11:59PM UTC.

aspecex, an Asexuality and Aromanticism themed multifandom exchange, is open for sign-ups until September 20th, 10PM PST. Nominations are also still open until September 17th, 10PM PST.

10itemsorless, a fic/art exchange for for any ship with 10 works or less on ao3, is open for sign-ups until September 21st, 9AM Eastern. More info, including a link to the collection, can be found HERE.

swrarepairs, a Star Wars rare ship (less than 250 works that complete, in English, and over 1000 words) exchange, is accepting nominations until September 21st, 11:59PM Eastern.

fandommixtapeex, an 18+ multi-fandom exchange using songs as work prompts, is open for sign-ups until September 21st, 11:59PM Eastern. Rules/links/schedule is HERE.

eatdrinkmakemerry, a multifandom exchange celebrating food and drink, is accepting nominations until September 23rd.

yuletide_admin, an exchange for rare and obscure fandoms, has opened Yuletide nominations until September 26th, 9AM UTC.

ladiesbingo, a challenge for fanworks about relationships between women, is open for Round 13 sign-ups.

j00j

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

halfshellvenus

I got booted out of Idol: Wheel of Chaos last week, by the "poisoning" twist that's part of the game (and the chaos) this season. Very sad about that. :( I'd rather get voted out than be murdered sideways, and I know the other Poisonees must feel the same. :( I wrote a good story for a hard prompt, too, so I would have expected to survive another week based on it! ETA: Wait. Back IN the game again, thanks to another spin of the Chaos wheel! WUT.

That was also the same day my Hawaii sunburn started to peel, but I've still got some of those vacation feelings going. What a wonderful, relaxing time. We stayed at the Waikoloa Village Hilton, with a room overlooking the bay, the lagoon, and the (surprise!) dolphin area. Just sitting out there and watching everything was fun, and it also helped me get a sense of what was happening with the tides (which sometimes made the chairs and umbrellas by the lagoon inaccessible). I snorkled in the lagoon quite a few times, and saw lots of Moorish idols and parrot fish and yellow tangs, and even a spotted ray and a trumpet fish! Mostly, I read and people-watched and listened to the waterfall across the way. Lovely. I spent a LOT of time by the lagoon overall, and that's how I got sunburned three different times. I'm pretty sure I've managed to avoid sunburn in Hawaii entirely as an adult, up until now. Because it's always burning, never tanning...

My sister recommended that resort (she and her husband stay there often), and it was truly gorgeous. Possibly too big for HalfshellHusband, though? He struggles to walk long distances (foot pain and an arthritic back), so that was way more walking than he would have liked. If you started from our hotel, and walked the long way across the bay to the other side of the resort, I think it would be a distance of about 6-8 blocks. At least the Kona airport was small, compared to the ginormous one in Hololulu that he struggled to get through last year. It's not just the distance or the pain, either—the combination of heat and humidity in Hawaii make it hard for him to breathe. Still, he soldiered on as he always does.

With all of that reading, I have some books to recommend:
Blob (A Love Story), by Maggie Su - A feckless young women encounters a gelatinous blob in an alleyway behind a bar, and takes it home. Soon, she is attempting to mold it into the perfect boyfriend.
The Shamshine Blind, by Paz Pardo - Only the second sci-fi novel I've ever read that has the physical effects of color as its main theme (the other is Jasper Fforde's "Shades of Grey"). This book has a noir feel to it, with the main character hunting down fake pigment distributors and illegal uses of color in a dystopian world under Argentinian dominion. (!)
Secret Dead Men, by Duane Swierczynski - Del Farmer, a reporter-turned PI, tries to solve the mystery of his own murder with the help of the souls of the dead he has collected (and now houses in the Brain Hotel inside his head).
Gone, Baby, Gone and Prayers For Rain, by Dennis Lehane - This entire detective series is good, but these two books are both extremely well-written. It would be hard to say which is better, though I'll give the nod to the second one.

Soon to come: TV recs. But in the meantime, how have you all been?

azurelunatic

I'm not looking forward to this.

On the other hand, I wasn't thinking with some of the usual parts of my sense of humor when I was picking out my non-red jello for Liquid Diet Day (24 oz food service pack) and rolled the wrong citrus out of three: orange.

I could have had lemon jelly.
https://youtu.be/ioudby-xooc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_Jelly

Current Music: Nice Weather for Ducks

kayre

Thursday night at choir I was trying to fix a spot where the choir's tone was harsh. Sopranos and altos were in unison, quite low (dipping below middle C). I repeatedly asked the sopranos to take it easy and let the altos carry it, but one kept booming out... and I repeated myself, making clear I meant her. I absolutely shouldn't have (actually I should have just asked the sopranos not to sing that line), and apologized within minutes, and again by email.

The singer wrote back that she accepted my apology, but there were some other things she'd like to discuss, maybe next week. This was all so much like the beginning of my hellish last year at my previous job that I was exploding with PTSD. I emailed my pastor to tell him what had happened, and was at least sure that if things got ugly he wouldn't be as spineless as my previous pastor.

As it turns out, the singer came to church early on Sunday to make peace-- a considerable effort, as she's my chronically late person. The other thing she brought up was easily resolved. What a relief!

Unfortunately, she also asked to sing a solo next week, a song I would much rather bury forever, but I can't really say no just now. I did tell her I'd consult pastor, and have tossed it to him, but I suspect I'll have to hold my nose and do it.

turps

Rosie is getting married tomorrow, so today was the last class for a fortnight. She was going on annual leave after our class finished, and was such a happy mood. So, while she was still evil!Rosie, she was being so while full of joy which was lovely to see. The class got her a signed card, which she seemed touched about, then she was off, checking out of work to do some last minute wedding prep.

I was also at the doctors this morning ( cut for medical stuff )

We did a craft fair on Saturday gone. Sadly, it wasn't the best attended, and we only made a profit of £35 after paying for the table. But, that was £35 more pounds than we'd had that morning, and stock was sold, which was great. Even better, the organiser offered us a regular spot at the makers market in our town. Funnily enough, that happens in the same hall we use for weight management class, on the third Saturday of each month. So, that's this Saturday coming, where hopefully, more people turn up and more stock will be sold. And if it's quiet, I've told James I'll sneak away and leave him to it and have an hour in the gym *g*

We also went to see the new Downton Abby film on Friday. The clientele amused me as the screen was full of ladies carrying in their glasses of wine, but they were all so excited, it made for a lovely atmosphere, especially as nearly every seat was full. ( cut for spoilers )

pensnest

We had our fairly epic concert on Saturday night. The Octagon (a Unitarian church) is a handsome space lined with dark wood, with bright green pillars(!). We looked amazing in our orange and pink outfits!

It all went really well. Having sold literally half the available tickets online, we ended up with a pretty full house, so I think our charity will have a good contribution from it. The chorus sang 16 songs, with four solo or small groups in between, and we sang *well*. Which is nice. I was quite surprised my voice held out, particularly since I sing Tenor for at least part of three different songs, in one of which I am the only person singing that line as the other two who know it were not there! But I managed, and even had a voice on Sunday.

My poor Beast, whom I had volunteered for catering duty, missed quite a lot of the second half washing up with his co-caterer, but my daughter and her man and a couple of friends were there, which was particularly nice as I'd thought Bun was away for the weekend!

Anyway. Spent much of Sunday not doing much, though I processed a bunch of apples from the garden which, having cooked them, I have decided are mostly cookers. They fluffed nicely. And are, indeed, quite large. We have been having baked apples for lunch, too. The russets and the small, light green ones remain unpicked, but I shall have to get to it, I don't want to waste them. Meanwhile the other crops are coming to an end. There are a couple of small courgettes which I am letting burgeon for a day or so, but the beans are pretty much over. Still kale, and the spinach is replenishing itself in a satisfactory way. There are, somewhat to my surprise, two corn cobs, very small but there, and I'm holding off as long as I can before taking one in.

azurelunatic

Goodbye to bad rubbish BJ, who could make simple things like Madonna being active in the music industry longer than most people of our generation being aware of, plus she didn't look in her early 40s at the time, into some kind of sinister conspiracy theory situation.

You were an absolute jackass, and I honestly don't care if you're alive or not except that I might need to avoid you.

Thanks to Votania and Darkside, who helped me realize what a bad friend BJ was, never mind as a prospective life partner and spouse. Bleck.

This random thought brought to me by the death of Charles Entertainment Kirk, which would probably have been making BJ's circles flail in panic, and hearing a Madonna song on the Doof. (A back episode, we didn't have a SunDoof that I'm aware of.)

ruric

Look at me doing a timely update.

I know lots of people aren't doing great right now and it feels pointless to crack on with the mundane aspects of living when the world seems to be on fire on all fronts. Not sure how everyone else is coping but I'm trying to channel my anger, rage and frustration on other slightly more visible platforms and pointing it at people who might be able to do something. So I'm aiming to keep my DW as a bit of a refuge.

#ORJENISE100 run by the lass on Insta is happening again this month. I'm 3 days behind but have already shifted 114 items. Not sure I'll beat my January total of using, donating or chucking 401 items but I'm well on the way.

HOME: chaos still reigns in my bedroom and living room but my kitchen, hall/stairs and bathroom have been cleaned and tidied. Still need to fix the new airvent in the bathroom but that will be done when I've finished sanding and varnishing the external side of the bathroom - which is why I hope the forecast for a sunny Friday will hold! Also on the docket for external fixes are sanding and painting the front door and front gate before the weather gets too bad. I've also still got winter pots and window boxes to finish planting.

HEALTH: overall pretty good though my arthritic knees are not happy. I took a tumble on site last Monday and despite landing on my padded posterior I apparently wrenched my knees and hit a pipe on the way down which has left a gigantic bruise on my shin. Ouch! For the first time in my life I filled out a proper accident form at work just in case my knees get even worse.

LIFE ADMIN: slowly picking away at long outstanding tasks like a grown ass adult.

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: I spent a chunk of last Saturday and Sunday afternoon down on the plot (not this weekend which has been too wet) and harvested courgettes and started the great pre-winter clear up. Still need to pick up windfall apples and harvest the rest when ready. Hoping to get the shed,tidied and sorted if we have a sunny weekend in October!

COOKING/EATING: doing a bit of a pantry/freezer challenge this month and using up items. My storage boxes are staring to look a bit depleted but I really DO NOT need to buy ground coffee or honey for a good few months. The coffee will go down quickly especially if I replace my morning cafe coffee with home made. The honey situation is out of control. I haven't counted how many jars but I estimate around 30. Apparently when I go away or visit a farmers market I buy honey, lots and lots of honey,

READING/LISTENING: Not reading/ listening at the moment - have run out of processing power! Have bought some good books from Bookbub and Bookdrop though and am going to try to get back to reading for 30 mins every evening to wind down.

WATCHING: all my usual weekly shows. Summer feels like it's been a bit quieter for new TV. Having said that I am loving Chief of War and S3 of Foundation and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Very sad that we only have 16 eps of ST: SNW before the show ends.

CREATING/LEARNING: summer has been nuts at work so hardly any time for crochet club or other creative endeavours.

CATS: all good.

VOLUNTEERING: all few committee meetings but no work days and we had to postpone the end of seasons BBQ because of the weather.

SOCIALISING: it's been a busy summer at work so social activities have beens bit limited. At work the allotment group did a show allotment at Hampton Court which was a 5 day build, exhibiting for 7 days and then a 1.5 day take down. They won best allotment and I am very proud of them. I was there for most of the build and take down and helped out on one show day. Tremendous fun. I helped out

gingerpig with Steve Carlson's summer gig, again fun and a chance to catch up with friends, and I went to see Born with Teeth the Marlow & Shakespeare play with Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel. Which I have many thoughts about but can be summarised as I thought the writing was weak in places but Ncuti and Edward were obviously having heaps of fun with it. I may see if I can pop back at the end of the run.

WORK: Summer has been very stressful and - for the first time - I seriously wondered about quitting or taking retirement. I like the job most of the time, love the people in the Parks team and and the volunteers on the sites but I've taken on triple the amount of work my predecessors did and we're chronically under resourced. All of which led to a bit of a meltdown over the last 10 days. I'm getting too tired to work ridiculous numbers of hours in excess of my contracted hours and I want a life back!

Next week is a busy week too with a potentially challenging meeting on Thursday night but I plan to take Friday off because - as usual - I'll be about a day in hand by then!

halfshellvenus

Here Be Dragons
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 9 | 1129 words
Edgelord

x-x-x-x-x

Sverre Ormgard lived on the island of Verheim, a lonely outpost on the bitter edge of the Western sea.

There, he kept watch over the horizon, searching for ships that sailed toward the waters beyond his island boundary. Those ships were often lost, as maps for his region of the world were clearly marked with the cautionary words, Here be dragons.

Sverre fed his signal fire day and night, that sailors might find his island even in the gloom and dark. Some of the ships would sail into his lagoon and send a landing party ashore, where Sverre waited to greet them. Those were the times he enjoyed the most.

Sverre would invite the sailors to his cabin and give them fresh spring water to drink. He might also offer a few apples from the island's leeward side, in exchange for a story. Sverre dearly loved stories.

Tales of kings and warriors or dragons and princesses delighted him. Even fables were welcome, if they were all his guests knew. Sverre had visitors from many lands, and some were richer in lore than others. In turn, he would recite a story he had learned from another vessel. Sometimes he would be offered stories he had previously shared, and this amused him, for the phrasing and the details always seemed to have changed.

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Crunching that data

Drama/Trauma in the Laundry Room

partial notes on Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life by Jean-Michel Nectoux

They checked it

(no subject)

LJ Idol: Wheel of Chaos: "A New Man"

(no subject)

yes ok it's been a while

wednesday thursday

wednesday reads

"Get off your Mustang, Sally"

more fandom comms/events

Regional commercials?

Disappointed

Colonoscopy week.

Church PTSD

(no subject)

why we stand as one in harmony

🍾🥂 About 24⅔ years of good fucking riddance

Week 38/52 - day 48 of Project 65 days

LJ Idol: Wheel of Chaos: "Here Be Dragons"

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April 2011

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