Month: February 2022

1000 words today

It was lovely to get unstoppered. Frame is a witness gets cozy with the person who’s been deputized by the US Marshals service to ‘safely conduct him to the nearest Marshals Office for processing’. The witness is traumatized and paranoid and the deputy is …. having second thoughts about being a bisexual cop in a small town in Colorado. I figure I’ll put them through hell for about 20k words and have a lovely shootout for the finale. (I don’t normally play with guns, but why not, it’s kind of a shooting week in world history.)

 

JEEEEEZ

 

There is so much misinformation, disinformation, cheerful lies, tankie mischief and plum bullshit out there about Ukraine and the Russian invasion that walking away from twitter feels like pulling your lips away from the firehose.

The war is costing Russia something on the order of 8 billion dollars a day, and they just had about half their access to the global banking system cut off. More sanctions are coming. People are protesting daily in every major Russian city (there were at least 5K in St. Pete’s alone !!) and through the entirety of the former Soviet Union, where the resistance of the Ukrainians has put steel in spines. Putin has announced that he wants the territories of the former Soviet Union back and guess what, most of the former slave states are not impressed. And from what I’ve seen there have been protests in every large city in soidisant Canada. If the rest of the sanctions come, Russia has funds for about a month more of this before they have to go to the international equivalent of Vinnie the Fish for the rest of the warchest. Germany spat in Putin’s face and sent anti tank/helicopter weapons to Ukraine. So much for Germany staying neutral! They spat twice hard when they blocked the pipeline from Russia, too, and announced plans as to how they’re going to get along fine without their gas and oil. The German public is not united in this but the poll numbers are high enough that the Ukrainians can continue to lean on them.

And Russian boys are dying in hundreds in Kharkiv right now. They ‘took’ the city and the Ukrainians took it right back.

Putin is now so desperate that he’s calling up the nuclear troops and setting them to do ‘exercises’ which is basically him grabbing his dick and saying LOOKEE HERE. Do I believe that he will use nuclear weapons? Maybe. But he’s already the kind of person who can’t wander out incognito because about a quarter of the population of Russia would be blithe on vodka for a week if they could have a chance to shiv him. To be the aggressor in a nuclear war would not cement his popularity. NATO is on alert which means that US branded troops are now free to move in Europa.

Jeff tells me that the space authority in Russia is threatening to drop shit on people they don’t like from orbit and once again, if it’s the Russians wanting to start a war from space they aren’t going to like the results any more than the poor bastards underneath whatever they drop. Biden’s as much of a Killocrat as the next one, but if ever there was a casus belli that would be it.

Of particular interest to me is the Ukrainians and Americans releasing intel that the Russians are planning an explosion somewhere in Russian controlled territory that they can blame on the Ukrainians so they can send more troops and really crush the resistance. Russians commanded by Putin did the same fucking thing for the Chechen war, blowing up apartment buildings across Russia in the runup to the Chechen War in 1999. The wikipedia article says that nobody really knows who did it but I’ve seen enough evidence to convince me, and if you need convincing please check how the timing of it is what catapulted Putin from the prime ministership into the Presidency just a few months later. NOT AN ACCIDENT.

Apart from Switzerland, which is landlocked, there isn’t a single European country currently allowing Russian flyovers.

On to a more pleasant subject. Jeff is a very good brother and roommate. After I lost my cell phone (coming up on 18 months) he loaned me his spare (non activated) cell phone, so I have an alarm and a clock and gaming platform and something to take into the bath when I want to play solitaire and soak. I dropped it numerous times and it quit. Apologetic and abashed I immediately took it to him and within minutes he had restored it to life. I do not deserve. But I am very happy.

50 cm of rain over the next day. BLOOP

 

 

Poem for Russia Today ‘journalists’

As you may or may not be aware Russia Today is a propaganda arm of the Russian state, responsible for (among other things) many of the ‘articles’ which got the honkies in Ottawa and elsewhere so upset. Alexey Kovalyov of Meduza told the workers there to grab everything ‘data’ they can before they quit. (Russia warring on Ukraine caused some of them to rethink their positions, lol.)

The tune is a modification of ‘Take a Nap’

One little thumb drive
Maybe two
Journos, all I ask of you
Before you quit
That den of shit
Load ‘em up
‘Splode ‘em up
Get a grip on it

Because ‘Russia Today’
Is Putin’s propaganda
And it’s no slanda
And it is NOT okay
Screen caps click click click
Before you wander
Over yonder
Download every file that you can grab
And then you blab
To Meduza
And they can tell the world!
(And hopefully keep you out of it.)
PS he’s noodleremover2017 on Telegram

Walked yesterday morning with Jeff to get my prescriptions yesterday and also to pick up Vitamin C and more probiotics (I ran out and I was NOT HAPPY AMIDSHIPS.) All my laundry is put away. I have no idea what I’ll do today but I am not feeling like writing, I can tell you that much. I may make chicken tenders for breakfast, since we have honey mustard sauce.

on feb 16 60 people came to my site

why? What was so different about that day?

Russian government sites are down; twitter has been throttled back in Russia; casualties are mounting and the Russians are having troubles taking Kyiv, since the Ukrainians won’t give a metre without a fight; the Russians are fighting people who didn’t chop down the trees in the public forests in Kyiv while they were dying of exposure during the Great Patriotic War because they knew the war would be over soon enough and their children would want the trees to play under.

The Russians are on the wrong side of a stupid conflict, but the Ukrainians, the good ones and the bad ones, are pretty much united.

The Russians are doing so poorly that they’re threatening nukes. I don’t know how to respond to such atrocities.

 

Zelenskyy says The Fight is here, I need ammo not a ride.
Russia OUT OF UKRAINE.

As an anarchist I’m not supposed to stand with or under any flag but the red and black, but I’m just going to give you the hairy eyeball if you want to decry the flag that is the blue of the sky and the gold of the grain.

Here’s some real anarchism: they’ve changed the street signs for the oncoming invaders so they all say a variant of GO FUCK YOURSELF\

They changed the street signs for the invaders so they all say GO FUCK YOURSELVES

productive day

Wordle 251 5/6 I LITERALLY didn’t get a correct letter until the third guess, didn’t get another until I guessed the entire word. That one was tough.

?????
?????
?????
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A shop in the morning, walked with Paul (at Lougheed – I picked up finishing nails for Suzanne so she can hang pictures over the weekend)  and otherwise ran errands with Paul and fed Paul lunch (more peas chicken and rice THIS TIME WITH GINGER NOM) and looked at one of his boboes and got him to do his blood pressure (worse than mine…. I basically said in a level voice that that was the BP that sent me to the hospital and then he took it again and it was still high but not a crisis), two loads of laundry washed and dried (I get to put them away today lol), finished re-stringing Otto (when the hell WAS GAFilk, seriously, has it been that long and will I ever let it go that long again? the strings were so dead I should have been ashamed to record with them last winter), made some social plans with Suzanne only to learn that things have shifted a little with Katie and she’ll call me when we all get together to swim. Which reminds me the stretch has all perished out of my already super-thin bathing suit. I want to get one like the green and black one I wore when I was swimmin’ in the Dominican Republic, which Tom liked for some obscure reason. So do I want to brave the swimwear store in Metrotown? I can handle Lougheed, but Metrotown is like Tinfoil Central as far as the logie and disturbed of the Lower Mainland is concerned. Okay maybe that other mail further down Kingsway is worse but I never go there.

Keith continues to enjoy his job according to Paul.

This is a lovely although unclear as to the long term outcome story from Argentina.

Protest about the war in front of the VAG on Saturday. Putin’s threatening to use nukes. I’m trying to picture how I’ll be getting myself to write and create if that fucker bombs with poison, and the radiation level’s already up because of the tanks going through Chornobyl and kicking up all the radioactive dust.

Suzanne made things shiny and went home to nap. She’s been so busy with trying to make a living she hasn’t been able to clean her own place since she moved in, and one of her kids plus a girlfriend plus a hound is living there right now so things are lively. (But reasonably peaceful and Suzanne adores dogs and isn’t in a place in her life when she can own one. This poor hound is allergic to grass, can you imagine having to walk on grass in booties cause of allergies. I saw pics; Crooks is as cute as dogs get but beeg.)

One little kudo for an older story this morning.

Off to get my increased meds this morning, think I’ll walk over. The Entidying continues; Suzanne wants to get to the livingroom next since that’s where Master Alex plays and draws.

Peas rice and chicken

2.5 hours of taxi-ing and sitting in waiting rooms yesterday. When I saw my appointment time of 4 pm I was disgusted, since I knew I’d be on my ass waiting for a long time, but almost two hours was not what I guessed.

Anyway, I’m increasing the dose of one of my morning BP meds and I should have a scrip faxed in (I’ll check later today) and renewals for everything else. We’re hoping this will drop my blood pressure enough that the risk factors for cardiovascular damage drop somewhat.

When I came home, I realized I had some chicken thawed and I’d already made a pot of rice, so I dumped what seemed like a lot of safflower oil in a pan and fried up some chicken and rice and peas and added exactly one tablespoon of soy sauce and nothing else (it was the Most Caucastic stir fry ever, I assure you) and it was actually totally delicious and hit the spot and Jeff even had seconds, which meant it was completely consumed and there were no leftovers huzzah.

Still delightfully clear but cold yesterday, it’s supposed to be much warmer today. It was chilly in the basement these last two days.

One little kudo this morning. I wrote a story about two people who meet while already quite drunk from two different parties and one of them can’t stop barfing but they get frisky anyway. That’s the one that caught praise this morning. It has the funniest title out of all of my stories.

Much better night of sleep last night. As suspected I was twisted about the doctor appointment Tuesday night and that impacted my sleep. I could go on at length about how goddamned rude the people waiting with me were and how variable people seem to be in terms of both quality and usage of masks but there’s no point.

Probably getting a cleaning specialist today, and whether or not we do I’ll be talking to Jeff about whether we’re doing a shop this morning.

I got the strings OFF Otto but have not got them ON. Such a hassle to have ball end strings for the mandolin.

People are dead in the opening shelling of Putin’s war.

I don’t think Putin understands that he’s paved the way for a lot of unrest at home. The rouble’s tanked, foreign exchange is locked up, the army itself is poorly equipped and fed and trained and morale is low, and the suffering of the people on Russian territory as fuel and food and anything from the West skyrockets in price will be most terrible. One half of Russians support Putin’s war. One quarter does not. One quarter is not sure. Those numbers WILL change, and Putin’s going to be pissed when they don’t go his way.

Here’s a good overview of possibilities on Youtube. Make sure you turn subtitles on, that guy talks REAL fast.

off colour

I woke up about two dozen times last night, and I kept feeling nauseous, so either I ate something disagreeable yesterday or I’m sickening with something or it’s psychological because I really don’t want to sit in a doctor’s office across the street from one of the busiest emergency departments in the city later today and in all cases having to go to the doctor today is suboptimal but I will go. I’m planning on taking a taxi unless Jeff volunteers to drive me, but it’s close to rush hour for the appointment, so that seems unlikely.

Eggs and coffee for breakfast.

I’ve restrung Smokey and he sounds BETTER THAN AWESOME. I imagine I’ll go downstairs and he’ll be completely out of tune again, but I ran through ‘Gelis and Niccolo’ full chat and it sounds like god giving advice. brrr, lovely. Managed to thank Mike once again in person when he was here ‘tother night for giving me the restringing tool, which is abso wonderful and speeds things up and makes them much less scary.

I am working in the back of my mind on a song, sadly another hymn.

I am not looking forward to restringing Otto, but I have the strings and it brutally needs doing and as far as I can tell I haven’t restrung him since GAFilk. (A brief Really I should find a decent luthier and have the goddamn frets brought down, or maybe I’ll do that myself with a file.

The weird letters on my earlier posts all came back, I have no idea why.

 

Dr. Appt Tomorrow

Today another day of loafing and lazing in lower lalaland.

Ate my leftovers for breakfast, so nommy.

Mike and Jeff and I watched The King’s Man and HOLY JEEZ Rhys Ifans as Rasputin is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. He fights while doing cossack style ballet kicks (obvs not him, some poor body double sod) and the whole ‘he was very hard to kill’  story gets THE FULL TREATMENT like shitbag he was extremely hard to kill. Anyway I think I had to be in the right mood to watch it and I was, because despite it being ahistorical and goofy as anything it was very entertaining and surprisingly well written and didn’t fall down in the fourth act.

Also the montage ‘once there were three cousins who ended up being the leading rulers in Europe’ really makes you think about the Great War in different terms.

There is a lot of fighting and there is a goat. Jeff called the goat’s behaviour well in advance, but that wasn’t too hard. There’s also a sequence that will not leave you feeling great about the safety of elevators that go by hand crank up a massive cliff side (the dialogue of the poor schmo stuck in it is classic).

This is a graphic of the Peacemaker dance. If you don’t know what that is or why it’s important to the ‘me’, relax. It’s just a dance.

Mike is coming bearing food

He’s off to Balkan House to pick up SCHHHHHHHHNITZEL and oh boy oh boy. He was going to stop off and get beer but we’ve got enough for an evening’s worth and Jeff certainly won’t grudge it if Mike’s paying for din din.

Here I am hopping from one foot to the other waitin’ and anticipatin’.

But I should go downstairs and finish stringing Smokey.

Russian’s invaded Ukraine. May Putin fail and fall.

 

More items off the list

I am continuing to feel much more chipper.  It wasn’t a super productive day, but I walked (really walked, not ambled) and got some social contact and the sun was a benison.

There’s a new game, Semantle. IT’S INSANE MAKING. Wordle is fun and brief and lively, but Semantle makes you understand you don’t understand English at all, and given that it is, “My bag, my thing, my evil specialty” it’s … Okay, here’s the link. Just don’t ever play the game, you will die of frustration. (suitably vexed voice, with shaken fists: CURSE YOU VIXY) —LATER LATER MUCH LATER I’m up to 3hundred and freakn 80 guesses on Semantle, I feel like me brains are leaking out my ears.

It’s supposed to be ass freezing cold tonight until Wednesday. I am not worried; I’ll have the warmth of VISITORS tonight yes that’s right Mike was supposed to come over for ‘za last night but he drank too much with sifu (sifu is master in Chinese martial arts)  and couldn’t manage it, so he’s coming over tonight.

Buster heals and complains about the door being locked.

Yesterday I ordered the bamboo charcoal smell-killers that have worked so well for us. (really helps with the damp smell in the downstairs john).  Why? As mentioned Mike got a right hand drive Delica (which I rode in for the first time when we went saunaing and dining with Jarmo and Susanna) and it’s unfortunately a Japanese vehicle which means it’s been smoked in. So I’ll give him three of those bamboo charcoal smell killers and that will keep the noxious effluvium down to a dull roar, hopefully. I ordered it from Rona and with the exchange and free shipping it’s about the same as if I ordered it from the US, so that worked.

Absolutely delightful walk in the park at Fraser Foreshore yesterday with Paul. I fed the chickadees from my hands for about ten minutes with Paul watching, most entertained; with what delicacy and firmness did they grasp my index finger as they rested a flashing moment to grab a sunflower seed. The sun was just blasting down and there was no wind, so we sat in the sun and basked for many long minutes in companionable silence. Everyone on the trail (except for those two fuckwits on mountain bikes who came through with a gopro and attitude and 90 dB of shitty club music at about 25 kph without a bell or shout) was practically giddy with joy at the warmth and sun, and even though it was the Sunday of a long holiday weekend (it’s ‘Family Day’ in BC) the trails weren’t too crowded. I masked, Paul didn’t.

Then we went back to KC Junction and I ate Keith’s leftovers, a superlative yellow lentil stew with heaps of veg and subtle, lightly heated spicing, and then we ate my choc rice pudding for dessert. (Keith enjoyed it with thanks.) Paul was much more interested in the borscht I brought (he really likes my borscht) and I realized why when I saw the sour cream container. But I can’t eat borscht two days running because anything with oxalic acid makes my kidney output scratchy so I ate lentils instead.

Keith’s loving his job… just loving it. He says it’s only a week and you can’t know for sure, and the pay is not great, but it’s work he can stand and he’s visibly in much better shape than even two weeks ago.

Katie was out with Ryker & Alex and some friends so I didn’t get to see her.

The Russians are claiming that the Ukrainians are ‘reacquiring nuclear weapons’ and I’m like wow, we can’t trust a fucking word you say now, can we.

Worst showing ever in terms of ratings for the Olympics. Why NBC keeps this boat anchor tied to its ass I have no idea. What if they held an Olympics and nobody wanted to broadcast it? That would be choice.

Twitter antifa (canuck division) is rooting around in rural Ontario to find the names of the people who are hiding the convoyancers. So far some son of a sea cook in Embrun who’s the best friend of the mayor there is one of them. LOL they can hide but six months from now the knock will come. Remember they’re still knocking on doors from the Jan 6 rebellion in the US, it’s not like the cops work faster in Canuckistan.

I’m an abolitionist; if they could all be referred to restorative justice and be filling planters and picking up garbage in Centretown for the next two years instead of paying fines and going to jail I WOULD BE HAPPY. Especially if they had to wear a PLEASE DON’T FEED THE HONKIES sign around their necks while they were doing it, but that’s not nice, I know it.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but if they reboot Futurama without the voice acting talents of John DiMaggio I won’t watch it, even out of whatever is left of my curiosity.

Side note to mOm. The Metformin did it again this morning, fortunately I know how this goes and I had plans in place and managed to deal with it all promptly. What a life.

 

 

 

 

brekky at Fraser Park Restaurant

I had the two slice french toast and two cups of their excellent coffee. And their weird but yummy homemade swossages.  Website.

It’s rainy and windy, not an elegant day at all. Certainly not as bad as poor Britain yesterday, lashed by 90 mile an hour winds and some of the scariest airport missed approaches I’ve seen in a while, trees over and bins in the next county and people racing sitting on skateboards while holding shopping bags and getting blown down the sidewalk.

FINALLY got Mary’s letter in the mail.

I have a three day list of tasks in front of me, let’s see how much I can get done now that I have something resembling energy and mood.

Doreen Manuel a Secwépemc woman made these beaded kicks and they are amazing. Support your Land Water Protectors today!