Settler words&music in S'ólh Téméxw, (leanpub.com/upsun) living where privilege meets precarity in MST country. she/her/they———– Novels: Midnite Moving Co., Upsun; Sweep Off Those Waves coming soon, Hair Sinister after that. —Restore All Indigenous Lands!
First, someone has a great eye and an even better sense of humour:
second, the story is now 3400 words long and I know how I’m going to end it
third I have a very reasonable roommate and while I can’t supply any specifics (but mOm already knows the details) (it involves a rug, and extra laundry) I must insist that really Jeff is a very reasonable fellow and I’m fortunate.
I’m doing lots of research for the story. I like learning new things.
Paul and I went for a longer and faster walk than usual yesterday. The chickadees (probably just one bold chickadee) ate sunflower seeds out of my hand. (they also rocket overhead to get your attention, and the chipping sparrows and the towhees and flickers and crows all get interested. Still as a tomb – the Fraser was like grey glass. We managed to get out during a break between episodes of rain.
mOm got the Among Us art from Alex that I mailed to her.
Pollen count is insanely high.
I don’t know whether it’s the allergens but I’m so itchy and dull-witted it’s annoying to me and everyone around me.
After, I picked up croissants and went to the bank and Paul got Cape Seed bread for Keith, and then we came back here for me to snip THE WORST toenails I’ve ever seen offa Paul. Yes I still perform acts of personal service for Paul, why not, it’s solidarity.
Watched Black Crab (MAN WHAT A BLEAK MOVIE and about a quarter of it is scenes that look amazingly like escaping from Mariupol so that’s kinda disturbing. Noomi Rapace was, as always, fantastic. BUT BLEAK MOVIE don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Today – return book to library, take Jeff to breakfast, wash two-three loads of laundry, empty the dishwasher and try to write at least a thousand more words on the story.
No kudos today, but that’s the difference between Sunday and Monday in a world organized around 5 day weeks.
2876 words. Very frustrating, had to delete about four hundred words because I was backing myself into a corner. However I’m in good shape now.
Rained nonstop for a day now, but not too heavily.
Three kudos overnight, two for the most recent and one for the one about crashing a glider in a cornfield.
It’s 5 am… think I’ll take a break (I’ve been writing, playing games and cruising Twitter) and consume some terrible media (Taboo.)
Called Mike last night, no answer.
Russia has demanded Ukraine turn over Mariupol this morning, which is a smoking shell of a modern city. Blowing something up and then demanding it, so adult. They’re preventing people from leaving, but at the same time word comes that they’re kidnapping UA citizens and transporting them to captivity in Russia. The spectre of nuclear war or a nuclear exchange flows over us.
from the Kyiv Independent (a more or less accurate news source) on twitter just now:
Greek diplomat after returning from Mariupol: ‘What I saw, I hope no one will ever see.’ Manolis Androulakis left the besieged city on March 15. He said it was joining the ranks of places known for having been destroyed in wars such as “Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny.”
Ryker was with his pop. It was just a lovely time. Suzanne came late but she was having A DAY so no problem.
Total 2721 words… sent the first lot off to mOm who I think is quite pleased that I’m writing mystery romance without leaning on the TV characters quite so hard. Omar is a nice guy with a terrible step family and ‘Brad’ or whatever the hell his name is, is kind of a piece of work. I have to story logic my way through the first porny bit (now kisssss lol) and that’s going to take at least another 1000, mebbe 1500 words. We’ll see if I’m this productive tomorrow.
Now to finish off my Big Star Sammy.
Slept most of the day yesterday. I think my eyes are so itchy from the incredibly high pollen counts that I slept in self defense. Once again missed the chance for a walk. Sleeping during the day is not a good sign when you’re my age – dementia is calling! However I do run cognitive tests on myself every day and I seem to be about the same.
1368 words so far, rum has entered the chat. Two kudos this morning.
Russians have started deporting Ukrainians to Russia. Just in case this wasn’t clear, deporting civilians during wartime RILLY looks a lot like GENOCIDE.
Clean sheets really are a beautiful thing. I also washed the cover for the bolster. I am so happy I figured out how to keep both ends of the bolster closed without having to do any sewing. I tie a knot in both ends, it’s that simple. If I don’t, the pillows the bolster is stuffed with come barfing out, usually in the middle of the night. waaa what dat noise… oh.
I am adding words to Bih-Bah, my conlang made out of basketball hoop noises. I always add words during March Madness, when it’s nonstop games for days at a time.
I should go downstairs and let Buster out. He asked to have the door locked last night but he prob’ly wants to pee.
A Katie halloween costume from days of yore
My what big green eyes you have
Should have gone walking with Paul but I was writing and didn’t feel like driving.
2 kudos overnight, one for one of my faves and the other for the most recent story.
895 words total on the story. I have a grip on the characters and the location and now I am wondering how much rum they should consume. Weed’s illegal there so I can’t rush sociability with that. LOL.
I washed and replaced my bedding, compensated my roommate for the money he’s loaned me over the last two months (in the normal course of household events because all the utilities are in his name) and we did a shop.
later in the morning: Spring is truly here, the crows are pruning the dogwood for nesting materials.
The combination of words made me laugh
778 words so far on the new story. It’s about a mining engineer kidnapped by illegal gold miners in Guyana and the poor schlub detailed by the company to babysit him in-country until the person to accompany him back to Canada arrives. One kudo on the most recent story overnight.
This is what the haircut looks like first thing in the morning. I didn’t brush it or nothing, it came out my head that way.
I think you all probably know but I super detest Vladimir Putin.
I had french toast an’ swossage and coffee and Jeff had the regular breakfast with bacom and coffee and it was very tasty and lorge. Leftovers in the fridge for pecking on throughout the day.
Horrifying Frontline about Putin’s war. It’s available on line but jesus I’m not recommending it because it put both me and Jeff in a foul and bleak place.
mOm got the story in the email finally. To make reading easier, I am thinking of having a password locked area of the site for people to read stories if they log in but I will leave off thinking of the mechanics for when Jeff is not buried in improvements for paying customers.
Happy St. Patricks for those who drink…
555 words into the new story.
Chickadees buzzing us I think I was supposed to have sunflower seeds.
After, quick poke of nose into Cobb’s for MORE TREATS it’s just treats all the way down.
Fixing an email problem, got version 3 of the meet on the beach story to mOm.
Mailed some of Alex’s “Among Us” art to the grands just now.
Now I’m going to eat a croissant, see if I don’t.
Jeff said he was off to get Timmy Ho’s and I thought “I bet as a personal challenge I can go downstairs and haul up my three loads of clean laundry in that ol’ Ikea bag and put them away before Jeff gets home,” and I managed to almost change into my day clothes too, before he got home, but not quite. That putting away included the towels, the rags, the kitchen linens and the washcloths so I was running around like a fool there stuffing cloth into cubbies.
I have a whole wheat burrito egg wrap in the fridge for a midmorning snack, and the prospect of Paul coming and taking me for a mall walk. I’ll drive. I should muck out the fridge so I have room for better (ie edible) veg – but the many ways I have been putting off this task now add up to a stench most Plutonic which wafts I tell you wafts in a bad, bad way whenever the fridge door swings open. So the more I have to do it the less I want to and that graph is looking like the infection rate in Hong Kong right now, which didn’t vaccinate a high enough percentage of its old people plus Sinovax sucks a mop and now there are hundreds of thousands of people infected with COVID at once and old people in care are dying in droves. Source something @crof posted on twitter
Meanwhile the COVID numbers are almost flat here, although they won’t be in two weeks. Up and fucking down. Let’s save capitalism.
Buster was so halfhearted at training this morning I was most perturbed, but then he finally did a pawclap like he’s doing me the BIGGEST GAWDAM FAVOUR. Hrmph.
Anyway, have a gif from Reptilicus. I don’t even want to explain how I ended up finding this gif, it was a drunkard’s walk in 180 seconds across the internet and then suddenly, DIRCH.
six kudos last night, on three different stories.
Like a fool, like a positive fool, I’ve started writing a romance with original characters.
Mariupol is under siege, 300K people are trapped, 1500 civilians have been killed there. Zelenskyy addressed Canadian Parliament yesterday and Candice Bergen sat on her hands. What a (slur/slur) that woman is.
She got her passport back today. It’s incredible, I wept for joy, reading that. She’s going home to her daughter and husband, who has starved himself and thrown himself at the UK diplomatic apparatus since 2016 when she landed in her predicament. Nobody with a brain or any pull believes that she’s guilty of the spying charges. I haven’t mentioned her on the blog before but I’ve been following her incarceration for at least five years.
We dined on takeout from Big Star sandwiches and it was FANTASTIC. They have a turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing sandwich (small, which is still large) which I customized with crispy onions and Jeff had something large and equally tasty. Which reminds me, I owe Jeff for that.
My kudo hit ratio is back over 10% so I’m not as mad any more.
I have not gotten the laundry up the stairs. I’ve done my going to bed routine so it’ll have to wait until morning.
Jesus Christ, check out the world’s angriest lobster. So glad it’s not around to pinch my toes.
I give thanks to the people, the land and water, the sky and creatures, the weather and the seasons, of this place. I will keep working to restore the stewardship of the Salish peoples and uphold their immemorial relationship to the beautiful lands and waters. It is not mine although they share it with me. #LandBack
Three loads of laundry yesterday. I haven’t dragged it back up the stairs to put it away but, apart from my lilac hoodie which I neglected to include and must be laundered right away because it’s foul with spilled food (sigh), my clothes be clean.
Schrödingers dishwasher – did I run the damned thing or not.
Cleaned out Buster’s gammy ear this morning. Normally he bats at me and protests, but he was purring and gave me a little thank you chirp when I was done, so I think he was mebbe a little itchy.
Paul straightened things out with his housemates, and acknowledged to me by phone that his behaviour was boned. But Katie’s mellowed and I have not talked to Keith. Still thinking about the driving issue.
Curls fell out of my do but it’s still really cute and I love it. A bad haircut can ruin you but not for long and a good haircut just makes everything better. Interestingly I thought my hair was all the same colour but the ends were both darker and more washed out, if that’s possible, and now all the hair colour seems quite even to me, and the silver shine is (according to my stylist) something people pay thousands of dollars to obtain and maintain. God (for some reason) thinks I’m cool to extrude this stuff, and it’s great, because I can be harassing someone on reddit or going to the bathroom and I can still grow hair with undiminished vigour.
I told the stylist that one liner from James C., one of my all time favourite coworkers at the big X. About 15 years ago, at work, I read something like, “Hair is a sexual signalling device” so I wrote all the coworkers that I liked a little email, asking what their hair says about them, and he said, “My hair stands straight up,” and it was the best joke ever because he didn’t swear or even say anything particularly rude but it SURE got the point across and it makes me helpless with giggles every time I recollect it. And that email would get me fired these days and I’m okay with that.
I want that turkey sandwich from Big Star with cranberry sauce for lunch, calice. If it’s as good as the number 27 I’ll be happy. If you charge twelve fifty for a sammich it had better be good, and that was superlative.
Fourteen kudos this morning including one from my third fave fanfic writer. So that was pleasant. I’m thinking of sending mOm a variant of the drunk on the beach story (I ended up writing THREE VERSIONS OF A SINGLE STORY – I wrote one version in word (I never do that) and LOST IT LIKE WHOOSH INTO THE ETHER WHAT IN THE ENTIRE FUCK and then rewrote it, and then rewrote it again to be even more sappy. BABY GOATS BRINGING THE RINGS TO THE GROOMS AT A WEDDING NOOOOO. Actually not but the idea of a baby goat gambolling down the aisle at an outdoor wedding and then running off with the rings made me laugh so hard I put it in to troll one of the characters.
STOP WAR AND EAT POUTINE says the pic from a recent antiwar demo in Paris. Apparently Vladimir Poutine is what some convoyancers call Justin Trudeau.
Pierre Poilevre has a fortune of 9 million dollars – which he got pandering to oil companies – and it’s more than Trudeau has – and he’s speechifying about Trudeau being a rich elitist etc. Get bent Pierre and while so posed please do ram a caltrop through your scrotum, you’ll never be PM. Some people want Trump to run Canada But I Sure As Fuck Do Not.
scanged from WorkingClassHistory on Insta:
Women Anarchists have become the terror of world’s police – Their Daring Crimes are said to have outstripped the deeds of brothers of the red
Search for the woman is becoming a safe rule in crimes proceeding from anarchistic violence – the guardians of the world nearly always find a woman implicated when a ruler is stricken down – EMOTIONAL WOMEN LOSE SENSE OF FEAR.
yeah baby
B-Bombshell took good care of me. The gal who sheared me was an absolutely lovely person and we cracked each other up, it was a jolly time. (I went to Big Star for lunch first, got the number 27 small, shoved half in my bag to take home for Jeff, I do believe Jeff enjoyed the crispy onions. Nearly died when JJ Cale’s ‘Travelling Light’ came on the sound system, I haven’t heard that song in 30 years if it’s a day (bugeyes))
They have a reading area that is NOTHING BUT CONTEMPORARY LARGE FORMAT COMICS and I read an entire Groot special while I was waiting because I was early. B-Bombshell specialize in loud hair but I am only going to get my hair dyed if I’m nommed for an SF award. I’m sitting in bed under a fluorescent light and I still manage to look okay, so I’m happy.
Still laughing to myself about how the precut looked like several dead tribbles on the floor….