Month: July 2022

Otto is home

  1. The floating bridge was only out a sixteenth of an inch. TIGHT TOLERANCES YO.
  2. very nice folks at PlayMusic and efficient too
  3. Jeff very kindly assisted by driving. There are SO MANY BARBEQUE joints along that chunk of Kingsway! Plus the Captain’s Boil.
  4. I’m going to sketch the position of it in with magic marker, I don’t want to go through this again.
  5. Hard to move grain through a port in UK when the Russians keep bombing it. Starvation will stalk the world this winter.
  6. A crow dropped a plastic bag of monopoly houses on Gaston Park yesterday morning AND THAT’S A LITTLE ON THE NOSE FOR POLITICAL COMMENTARY FROM BOIDS, YO
  7. Ate some peanut butter, started sneezing immediately and I am now so itchy me wan die.
  8. 539 words.
  9. I think mebbe I’ve got ‘lurgy from peanuts?
  10. I made paneer from the milk that was going bad. It’s absolutely lovely and I’m looking forward to making spinach paneer with it.
  11. Woke up just after one this am after going to bed rather early (I was tired).
  12. Got up and made coffee and drank it since now that it’s three am it’s obvious I’m not going back to sleep.
  13. Messaged Keith for his opinion on which Don Bluth animated film is best (there was an article). Land Before Time is one of my fave animated kids movies and parts of it are flat out terrifying. I loathed Rockadoodle and All Dogs Go to Heaven; I think An American Tail is one of the funniest and saddest animated films ever. I’ve never seen Anastasia and Secret of NIMH but I hear they’re amazing.
  14. MPX (Monkeypox) is about to be declared a global public health threat by WHO. Should have happened when the global count got to a thousand, and just watch, the response will be even worse than COVID. THANKS NOW I NEED A NEW TOPIC. Marburg is back too but the Ghanaian health authorities have a good team in place and they aren’t sitting on their hands; I have more faith in them and the foreign assistance than the goddamned American and Canadian public health authorities at this point.
  15. Apparently Alzheimers research has been fabricated FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES
  16. When people talk about hating big pharma, reasons like that would apply.
  17. A junior polar bear with a can stuck to her tongue approached humans for help. Russian vets flew 2000 km to help her. Putin’s still bombing UKRAINE tho
  18. SO ITCHY. so itchy.
  19. Jeff’s about to go on ‘rat patrol’ with Buster in the alley. There were two rats yesterday.

accomplished a few things

Keith has his money. There was a little interest in there. I ran in, gave him the money, wrassled a teensy smile out of Ryker (Alex is in summer camp), and said hi to Katie who was about to toss some food down the baby.

Other errands accomplished. Shaw tried to talk us into getting another DVR box (or something like) and after a chat with the technician we tapped the table.

Fraser Foreshore was absolutely wonderful. In full sun, it was noticeably hot yesterday, but in the shade, by the river, the air was, in Paul’s words, ambrosial. The male of the nesting pair of herons whom we see with almost every trip WOULD NOT SHUT UP. I have heard herons make a range of noises but this one sat on the end of the log boom and HONKED LIKE A GOOSE at the crows. I’m not joking, and I have a witness. Every time the crows moved, he’d honk like a goose in irritation. In ten minutes, that heron made more noise than any heron not in a breeding colony that I’ve ever heard of. We got some Vietnamese food after.

This morning we’re going to do a schlep.

Buster is up and whining at my door. Me: “Wait for Daddy! No door! Daddy will open the door when he gets up!” He refused treats, skritches ALL HE WANTS IS DOOR DOOR NOW DOOR NOW DOOR NAAAAOW

542 words.

Lovely phone call with Dave yesterday but I am a BAD FRIEND because when he started to groan about punctuation in his in-the-process-of-being-edited poetry book I started laughing and unfortunately could not stop. I mean, it’s a lovely problem to have AND I COMPLETELY SUPPORT HIS COMMENTS REGARDING SPACES AROUND ELLIPSES, N-DASHES AND M–DASHES. He is correct. HOWEVER it looks like his publisher has a house recipe. Also, he’s now supposed to do a 3-5 minute VIDEO about his book. This is like asking the Groke to give a three to five minute speech about existentialism while juggling lit blowtorches. I have a number of suggestions, which I made to him, and here are more woven in with them.

MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE. Do everything they ask, but in such a way that it can’t be used.

MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE V. 2 Do everything they ask, but get someone else to do it.

MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE V 3. Do everything they ask while wearing a V for Vendetta mask.

MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE V.4 Do everything they ask but be reading a newspaper while the voice over provides the information.

MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE V.5 Do everything they ask – and let them edit it.

MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE V.6 Do everything they ask – for other books in their catalog

E For Effort v.1 Take videos of his cats and provide a voice over indicating that it would be of societal net benefit if you made a cat video rather than a commercial for your book, which you ‘will just have to take my word is a thoughtfully crafted work of contemporary poetry in English’.

E for Effort v.2. Take Jeff’s videos of the rats scurrying up and down the alley at dawn and intersperse them with a reading from the book (one of the things they wish in the video)

He’s got to the beginning of September.

Image

No errands with Paul yesterday

Didn’t get over to his place so I still owe Keith money. MUST GET THERE TODAY.

Just about blew the Wordle this morning. Only rescued myself going to one of those ‘helper’ sites.

I got a message through reddit this morning. Four months ago I gave medical advice on reddit and this morning somebody messaged me and said THANK YOU FOR THE ADVICE I’M SO GLAD I CHECKED ON REDDIT. So I made one person’s life easier, thank you universe.

Still at 537 words. I intend to BROOD for a while, especially since I got something to do on the ‘romance’ side of things and it will make my mother mad (before the inevitable ‘happy’ ending).

I do like Only Murders in the the Building but yeesh kabobbers when the Martin Short character DOES GO ON he DOES GO ON and I throw my blanket over my head and stick my fingers in my ears.

 

RECORD CORPORATE PROFITS

….. while people on social assistance are being illegally thrown out of their homes.

537 words completed on Part II

The land next to the Parthenon (yeah, *that* Parthenon) is on fire. Greece has money for cops – endless money for cops – but asked for money for 4000 additional firefighters during this climate crisis, the government has said no, and instead shows pictures of cops with watering cans doing ‘everything possible’ as if that will help.

Got some errands done yesterday! Jeff and I had a highly efficient errand run, including banking for both of us and replacement of a broken part. It was nice to get out in the sun. Paul called me when he got back from work but I was already napping (I got up afterward and watched some more TV with Jeff but I was pretty much done for the day.)

Ran the dishes and a load of laundry.

Women in the US are now saying DECLINE TO ANSWER when asked the date of their last menstrual period.

Today I’m hoping to get some more errands done with Paul, plus a walk. It promises to be a lovely day with a high of 25.

 

Kaossilator ip ip ip

  • Brief walk and lovely sit in the sunshine with Paul. He had a good time on the Island and Jim being in better shape really put the heart back into him. Paul’s at his volunteer job today.
  • Dragged him into the music room and made him listen to what the Kaossilator sounds like when the battery is dying
  • HEY pOp RYERSON CHANGED ITS NAME TO Toronto Metropolitan University. Given that he was a colonizer who thought Indigenous people are scum I’m cool with that.
  • MUST go to the bank today, I still haven’t paid Keith back.
  • Otto back tomorrow or the day after, that’s good.
  • President Biden is apparently going to declare a climate emergency. Don’t be too happy; those parts that are useful will be turned into money making opportunities for big Democrat donors and when the next president is a Republican it will all be swept away anyway
  • The gay mayor of a town in Oklahoma has been assaulted and frightened so much that after five years of service as Councilman and Mayor he’s resigning. I spend a lot of time in fanfic talking about states where you can’t be out in public and Kansas and Oklahoma are definitely two places where it’s as much as your life is worth to be openly gay, especially outside of places like Lawrence.
  • The entire world with the exception of New Zealand and parts of China is wandering into the seventh wave like a bunch of fools. ERs are crashing and apart from the people who visit them and work at them nobody cares.
  • Despite a century of doctors and health care professionals wearing masks, the far right and the ignorant are still claiming that wearing a mask makes for ‘too much CO2, you’ll choke.’ Showing them pictures of your pulseox before and after masks is ‘fake news.’ Now I’m not saying people deserve to die, but some will die, with belief systems like that. And it will be the young, the elderly and the disabled who pay most dearly, just like fucking usual.
  • I predict that people between forty and eighty will just ‘start dropping dead’ as the effects of multiple undiagnosed COVID infections spread out through the population. Since these deaths won’t get added to the COVID total (no active COVID infection??? CAN’T be COVID!!), the ignorant will claim that it’s the ‘stress of lockdown when it was unnecessary’, ‘drugs’, ‘chemtrails’, ‘the heat’ and ‘the government’ that’s causing these unusual deaths.
  • If you don’t have a will please make one. I have a will, it’s out of date. After all, I no longer have any assets except my intellectual property, which is LOLOLOL completely worthless except to about 3 people. But I still have to change the will so the intellectual property is specifically called out.
  • Apparently the CME is pretty much missing us but check for nice aurorae tonight in western Canada if skies are clear.
  • Don’t blame me, the wordle of the day is ‘angry’
  • 393 words on Part II

Taiwan’s little EU problem and other things

  1. So the EU ambassador to China, a Spaniard, has announced that the Spanish government’s position on Taiwan (peaceful reunification for 1 China) is actually the EU position. It’s not. Horror across the internet this morning at this blatant contradiction of the majority stakeholder view across the EU.
  2. I’m so itchy I’m having trouble sleeping. My tear ducts seem to be blocked up too, and my eyes are sticking shut.
  3. Started working on Part II – 73 words so far.
  4. Three shootings in Toronto last night, one dead, two gravely injured, shooter or shooters still at large.
  5. Words cannot describe how much I’m hoping – and I’m an abolitionist – that Steve Bannon goes to jail in the same country where someone said that the economy would fall apart if jails didn’t contain almost free labour.
  6. Putin says Russia’s high tech sector is facing ‘colossal’ problems due to sanctions.
  7. They’re emptying the jails and putting the dregs of Russian society at the front, according to sources inside Russia.
  8. 110 degrees F in Fort Worth TX today that’s 43 degrees C. The grid in TX is teetering thanks to Repulsigan policies and chronic underspending by ERCOT on maintenance. Bad things are going to happen, it’s like sunshine and gravity.
  9. Wonderful Nova program about the JWST and the first pictures. I knew it was a hellaciously complex and overbudget project, but just HOW complex and HOW overbudget was kind of heartstopping, so thank science it worked. Ain’t nobody going to fix it if it quits.
  10. CBC is reporting lightheartedly that repeated COVID infections will be the norm and don’t pose a problem and this is directly counter to every reputable clinician and epidemiologist that I follow stating loudly and clearly that every repeat infection raises the spectre of disability from Long Covid. Fuck them for saying that.
  11. With Jeff’s kind assistance, I have taken Otto to the krankenhaus. I will receive word on Thursday.
  12. Keith reports that Jim is doing much better.
  13. I have finally seen “The Trouble With Harry”. Damn but John Forsythe was hotter than August in his prime, and what a freaking voice.
  14. 40 degree C weather in Britain. Monuments and bridges are at risk of cracking, damage and failure. Brits don’t take heat seriously so the betting is it will be super hard on the disabled and elderly. Australians and Americans on twitter are trying to help with inexpensive advice. From today’s twitter: In more “country totally prepared for hot weather” news: Blackpool Victoria Hospital (note, in the UK) has propped its doors open to keep the building cool, but now the hospital is full of seagulls  AND HERE’S ANOTHER ONE “SKY NEWS REPORTER, CITING MILITARY SOURCE: UK ROYAL AIR FORCE HAS HALTED FLIGHTS IN AND OUT OF ITS LARGEST AIR BASE IN THE UK BECAUSE THE “RUNWAY HAS MELTED” IN THE HOT WEATHER and ANOTHER:

    UK airport suspends all flights as heatwave melts runway tarmac

    A spokesperson for Luton Airport said: “Following today’s high temperatures, a surface defect was identified on the runway.”

  15. My dad does not like seagulls. Not in his aircraft engines and definitely not in his hospitals. NO WORD ON HOW HE FEELS ABOUT MELTY TARMAC
  16. The ERs at Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater and South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver are on diversion due to staff shortages.
  17. let’s talk about everything that’s wrong with this article. First off, fuck that family for booking a Disney cruise in Alaska during a pandemic. Second, Air Canada SAID it was going to be cancelling flights left and right at the end of June. Did they not get the memo? What did they think was going to happen. THIRD their daughter HAD COVID BEFORE THEY STARTED TRAVELLING or she wouldn’t have popped symptoms on the fourth day…..they would have ended up on a boat with a sick child anyway. How the fuck is that a vacation? fourth they got treated terribly by Air Canada and had to sleep in airports and it’s like HAVE YOU NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO THE NEWS? EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM CITED IN THIS ARTICLE has been part of the nightly news since the travel season started. There’s NO ROOM in the current Air Canada schedule for aircraft going mechanical.
  18. Maybe Roger Waters of Pink Floyd is a more important figure and musician than the Weeknd and Drake but why the fuck would he say so in public? I’ll tell you why!! HE DIDN’T GET REVIEWED IN THE MAJOR PAPERS! Oh, you poor poor man.  that’s get off my lawn style crankiness and RACISM. PS I hold no brief for either of them and Drake’s a creepy asshole who macks on minors and makes for great memes but HE’S A HOMETOWN CHILD IN TORONTO so of course it was a big deal. Not understanding the local politics doesn’t make you a likeable figure dude.
  19. Time to back up your computers, earth’s about to get smacked hard by a coronal mass ejection.  Radio and GPS disruption expected, low latitudes aurorae, first thing tomorrow. Chances of being an x event is 10% but we’ll get something for sure….
  20. WHO confirms a Marburg outbreak in Ghana.
  21. Zelenskyy remains pissed at Trudeau, line forms on the left pal.
  22. July 2022 heat dome temperature gradient europa
  23. Above is the atmospheric ‘ pot lid’ on Europa.
  24. NASA’s ‘climate spiral’ video.
  25. SO ITCHY

roundup of trivia, opinions and news

  • v21 on twitter made the following remarkable tweet yesterday, forwarded to my attention by Tony Fabris: today I went to a falconry show and the falcon just… fucked off. flew away and didn’t come back again.
  • be free, falcon, vaya con food supply
  • Ukraine’s jailing traitors and taking impressive supplies of drones from the US. The US is inching closer to doing all the things Putin was concerned that NATO would do and since he actually thinks that letting his minions talk on Russian TV about nuclear weapons as a tool in the kit, nuclear war is tiptoeing closer. Let’s hope it doesn’t, I don’t have a thing to wear.
  • Weather was quite hot earlier this week – today’s high will be 19 C (in July?? 5 degrees colder than last year thanks el niña) so a great day for a walk.
  • Trudeau’s haircut, which literally did make him look like Jim Carrey from Dumb and Dumber, made the news globally. Given that the most important thing about him (SIGH SIGH MEGA SIGH) is his, you know, appearance. Also, he’s gone greyer. No surprise.
  • I’d like to kick Jagmeet Singh into the next block over (his constituency office isn’t far from here, and this is A WHINE ON THE INTERNET, NOT A CREDIBLE THREAT) and the reason why is that HE COULD GET THE ODSP rates up so that disabled people could actually pay rent in this foolish Canada where private companies are buying private homes and turning them into airbnbs. He holds the balance of power over the liberals and isn’t doing fucking much with it and is certainly doing squat about mask mandates. I growl in your general direction, sirrah. You have power you could use to help people who could really use a break. Speaking of which, I’m taking a break on donating to people with sad stories for the rest of the summer unless they’re living on MST land. I went a little luge last month. Which reminds me I still owe Keith money for his birthday.
  • Everybody is heaving great big sighs about the photos from the Charlotte’s Webb Telescope – like, everyone – and doing remixes and slow closeups and putting music overtop. BUT REMEMBER even when you look across the room at someone you love, you’re looking at the past, as your brain remembers it, and the stuff UP AND OUT THERE is so long gone that it defies the ordinary thought processes of humans to encompass it
  • Monkeypox infection levels are doubling in less than a week in the US and heaven knows what it’s doing elsewhere. Canada shows 539 cases as of two days ago, mostly in Quebec and Ontario. BC has 32 cases.  The following was lifted wholesale from canada.ca:
  • “The Public Health Agency of Canada is working with provinces, territories and international partners, including the World Health Organization, to actively monitor the situation. Global efforts are focused on containment of the outbreak and the prevention of further spread.Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer of Canada is in close contact with provincial and territorial Chief Medical Officers of Health to ensure that any cases of monkeypox occurring in Canada continue to be rapidly identified and managed in order to protect the health of Canadians.

    Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory is performing diagnostic testing for the virus that causes monkeypox. In addition, the laboratory is also conducting whole genome sequencing, an enhanced fingerprint analysis, on Canadian samples of monkeypox. This sequencing will help our experts understand the chains of transmission occurring in Canada. The laboratory is working in close collaboration with provincial and territorial public health laboratories to provide testing guidance and to increase testing capacity for monkeypox.”

  • Not a sausage about where to get monkeypox vaccine or who’s at risk. THANKS CANADA
  • wordle in four, excellent brain training session this morning, 33822 words (from editing; I was clarifying, dropping plot breadcrumbs in existing conversations, etc.) Suzanne’s read the first chapter. She says she’s enjoying it, but I won’t hold her to it. She’s got a life.
  • Lovely convo with my Swedish twitter pal Pebble regarding how Ireland was not at the end of the world but in the early medieval period was fundamental to the operation of the Catholic church because of how educated the monks were and I wouldn’t know that without Dunnett. As I said to him good fiction makes one seek facts.
  • Spoke to Alex on the phone yesterday and told him his GGMa was very happy to get his phone message.
  • The batteries on the Kaossilator are dying, so once again the ‘voice’ at 75 on the dial is skipping and doing Max Headroom vocal tics and if you get a fantastic beat going (per my post the other day) you can put on top of it this artificial voice yodelling and yelling and going ik ik ik ik or beyaaaaa beyaaaaaa beyaaaaa wup wup wup boodiwoo boodiwoo boodiwoo and it’s CONVULSING. I so wish I could record it but I still haven’t figured out how. I’d love to share it with you.
  • I am very irritated with how Otto is with the bridge sliding around and putting out the intonation so I’m going to take him to a luthier next week and try to get it fixed. I’ll get the goddamned frets carved down too while I’m at it, some of them, like the rent, are too damned high. Cindy recommended someone, hope it’s all good.
  • The screw drilled into Jeff’s skull for his new tooth is causing issues and as we all know tooth pain’s a BEAR. He loathes taking the antibiotics but he’s keenly aware that the alternative is much, much worse.
  • I’ve taken my drugs, poured my coffee, eaten my brekky and think I’ll play waffle for a while. Haven’t come close to beating my previous record yet….

Do you believe it?

  1. Ivana Trump dying alone in her house from a fall down the stairs. When her kids and ex are about to be deposed. Go ahead and believe, I’ll be over here thinking that’s one way of avoiding being deposed.
  2. medieval marginalia of snail attacking man responding with a broad axe
  3. That’s for pOp, in honour of his consulting animal, the snail.
  4. An entire generation of young Democrats in the US is going to watch the Republicans flat out steal the midterms and the next presidential election and decide that since they’re all fucking broke and have no health insurance it’s time to try revolution.
  5. G20 Finance ministers depart from their most recent confab with a ‘strong’ consensus on global food security and not a sausage of agreement about Russia invading Ukraine (twice in this century, but apparently only the most recent invasion counts).
  6.  Simone Ashley’s Monot Dress is capturing the fancy of the world but all I could think when I saw her was God, those shoes don’t really…. okay fine she’s beautiful but I wish she was wearing nicer shoes.
  7. Dr. Jen Gunter, a true phenom OBGYN who speaks fire and truth about reproductive systems and justice, has received her OWN FLUEVOG SHOE DESIGN
  8. So maybe I’m not the best person to have OPINIONS on SHOES.
  9. I should probably leave the house today.
  10. Pork collops and salad and tea for breakfast.
  11. Wow to continue the snail-ish trend Helmet in the shape of a sea conch shell, Japan 1618, Worcester Museum
  12. what more snails? This lil one lives on hydrothermal vents and has steely toesies. Okay so it’s a scaly footed gastropod but it does have steely toesies.

Nudes of the world

    1. Just a reminder that I am a proud nudist (naturist sounds funny to me, sorry) and that if you really piss me off and I don’t have other recourse I WILL REMOVE GARMENTS. Starting with the legal stuff, and moving on. Since there’s apparently hardly anything that disgusts and freaks out bigots than fat old naked women, I’m keeping that one in reserve. Also, Peter Verigin LIVETH. (This last specifically so mOm can read it to her sister lol)
    2. Also, I did not order those copies of “Grandma Was a Nudist” they JUST SHOWED UP HERE.
    3. Jeff gets a hall pass. Poor guy. It is true that one of the first things I do when he goes away is walk around the house naked and yodelling (sometimes it’s kazoo, and it’s all very much sad for Buster, who has a demonstrated preference for me remaining clothed since I make a better lap that way and he loathes my music.) (Except in the laundry room, which has a security camera vs the raccoons and since Jeff reviews the security footage once a month I don’t want him clapping his hands over his eyes and going AUGH NOMAN HAS BLINDED ME.)
    4. Which is why, although I haven’t been over there for what feels like centuries, and so not recently, the first thing I do when I get to Mike’s is AUGH FREEEEEEDOM. (I even have a cubby for my clothes like at JJ Spa – and Mike’s place IS a spa, at least as far as I’m concerned.) Also he keeps his apartment about 28 degrees, summer and winter and he’s got it set up so you can sunbathe on the balcony year ’round. Sometimes I wave at the neighbours over by the Skytrain station. I don’t know if they’re watching, but you never know, and I don’t imagine anyone I know would ever tell me.
    5. Sigh, the salt room at JJ Spa. I MISS IT SO. But with this new COVID wave, nuh-unh.
    6. I should probably call Mike.
    7. I do very very very occasionally still wear a bra and pantyhose but that’s like a church/weddings/funerals/someone’s paying for a classy dinner scenario.
    8. I made Yorkshire Gold Tea for the household (which will end up in the sugar free iced tea, most likely), peppermint tea as a day-opener for Jeff, and coffee for me. Honestly, I don’t know how many more times I’m going to get coffee and sugar and cream all in once place again, so I really try to enjoy it while I can.
    9. I played with my Kaossilator yesterday and came up with an ABSOLUTE banger of a beat, 56 bpm / g20/ c_ key/EGY scale/94&96 percussion and yowza. In my life I’ve never spent that little money for a tech toy that brought me this much joy, and Jeff commented that a small child and an elderly adult can both enjoy it!
    10. Anyone doing waste water research says the balloon has really gone up for the latest variant.
    11. Suzanne’s computer has been scanned and will be returned to her shortly. She got a scare but it’s all good. THANK YOU JEFF.
    12. Tanya Basu reporting from Corpus Christi on Twitter: The harassment has real-world consequences. The Corpus Christi area teacher’s union president’s house got shot at earlier this week. School board members are being heckled online. Educators, mostly women & poc, are quitting their profession in droves. 
    13. There are rumblings of a NEW hemorrhagic fever out of Tanzania; it isn’t Ebola and it isn’t Marburg (so saith local testing with help from WHO) and it’s currently killing about 1 in 3 of the people it infects. Tanzania is one of the countries on earth most lethally affected by mosquitoes. It sure would be good to know what other mammalian reservoirs there are for this bug.
    14. Keith and Paul are on the Island visiting various and sundry folks and by reports a mellow and convivial time is being had and mOm was enjoying FOOD DELIVERY what a concept.
    15. I sent the first half of Totally Boned to mOm about a hunnert times yesterday. Finally I stripped off all the formatting and re-sent it and now I’m mentally hopping from one foot to the other waiting to hear back. Google mail barfing on a 30k word document just seems like bullshit to me.
    16. Forced birth advocates in the US seem to be under the impression that since they repealed Roe v Wade opponents need to shut up and be nice to them and it’s NO ACTUALLY WE’RE GOING TO PROTEST IN FRONT OF YOUR CHURCHES AND THROW RED PAINT ON YOUR VEHICLES AND RUN YOU OUT OF RESTAURANTS AND GIVE YOU AAAAALLLLLL THE CIVILITY YOU RICHLY DESERVE.
    17. Putin has signed a bill banning media outlets that don’t recount the Russian War of Aggression against Peaceful and Democratic Ukraine in a way he personally likes, for starters by mentioning that it is, you know, a war. A quote: The application scope of the law covers the adoption of measures against false information dissemination, smearing the Russian Armed Forces’ performance, or disrespectful manifestations towards the Russian Federation’s society, state, and official symbols.  
    18. LOL
    19. David Osland on Twitter this morning, retweeted by Potsherd Man Paul Blinkhorn of Time Team fame: Consider Britain and Saudi Arabia. One has temperatures that exceed 40 degrees, is ruled by a royal family presiding over a corrupt government that is militarily dependent on the US, and openly represses peaceful protest. But Saudi Arabia has its problems too.
    20. Wordle in four tries this morning, good lumosity brain workout. *here I am, sighing over having to do mental math* *here I am, trying to get my response time down under 1000 ms* *Here I am, measurably 20 percent less smart than I was in 2014 HEY NUMBAS DON LIE*  I find it funny that often, the less I’ve slept the better I do.
    21. What happened to US health care? Ronald Regan was elected
    22. Jeff reports that at 5 in the morning THE ALLEY IS CRAWLING WITH EXTREMELY LIVELY RATS. Small ones medium ones some as big as yer ‘ead! When he takes Buster for an alley walk he sees them. MANY MANY RATS. ZIP ZIP ZIP.
    23. Today I shall read the most recent Capilano Review. It’s a really good literary mag y’all.
    24. Weather most fine; a/c still working well.
    25. Stomped hard on a Facebook friend yesterday. Women contestants are tired of the pure whites of tennis, and he said IT’S A UNIFORM WEAR IT and I said FOOLISH HUMAN HAVE YOU EVER HAD A PERIOD WHILE BOUNCING UP AND DOWN AND FIRING BALLS AT A 105 FUCKING MPH AT AN OPPONENT yeah I didn’t think so. Siddown and shaddap.
    26. 33487 WORDS end of Part I. Part II – Blossom’s return, Steve and Jack get their asses handed to them, Richie shows up just in time to make things a) better b) more dangerous c) more complicated (THANKS RICHIE YOU LITTLE B-) AND MORE SHIT ABOUT EMIGRATING TO CANADA THAN ANYONE WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT.
    27. I love doing research, I end up finding out things that are both hilarious and realllllly unexpected, but I now know that the Fran’s closest to TGH is open 24 hours and then I learned something actually demonstrably useful about how horselaugh bad the March time change is. See below for illustrated figure.
    29. that cliff? that’s the cliff your body falls off when there’s a time change. I had never actually seen it represented and HOOO WEEE THERE IT IS. Now imagine you’ve gone to Iceland or whatever and the cliff is literally 8 times taller.  And do you know why I saw this data set in the first place? Because I wanted to know the angle of the sun coming in to the side of TGH so I could visualize a scene (last scene in part I.)
    30. I learned that plots of land are as low as $40K out by 70 Mile House and it sure would be nice to have a family campground. This is not compatible with my current political leanings so I am irked by my inability to be consistent. If someone else tees it up I’ll help pay for it.

the morning update

  1. 33091 words
  2. Anniversary of the storming of the Bastille today
  3. I have achieved coffee and the kitchen rugs (aka ‘Buster’s toilet paper’) are washed and dried ready to be put back down after Suzanne does her thing
  4. The repulsigans have once again distinguished themselves by announcing that there was ‘no proof’ that a ten year old girl had been raped and needed an abortion but I READ THE TWITTER ACCOUNT OF THE LOCAL REPORTER WHO WAS IN THE COURTROOM WHERE THAT LITTLE GIRL’S RAPIST WAS ARRAIGNED. Her name is Bethany Bruner and she writes for dispatch.com, just in case those MOFOs throw it in the memory hole again.
  5. Reddit esp. the sub trollxchromosomes is FULL of women getting sterilized and sharing information about good doctors. The next generation is going to have the lowest birthrate in American history and every time repulsigans complain it will just drop again. No jobs, no prospects, world on fire, pandemic, emerging illnesses, no abortion access, men have had 40 years to be trained out of how to be a marital partner; under the circumstances, who wants a baby? My mildly out of the common mold daughter I guess.
  6. An abortion yacht will be put into service in the gulf of Mexico, apparently. I’ll believe it when I see it, but apparently Mexico stands ready to be a friendly port of call since Texas has decided to war on those of us who can still get pregnant.
  7. District Court Judge Troy Daniel denied Tirany Savage a restraining order after her soon to be ex bought a gun and threatened her and her friends, so he shot and killed her, her mother and her 13 year old son. Then, in the standard coward’s exit of pissbaby men who commit DV, Bo Savage offed himself. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS murder WITH TRAINING WHEELS. Judge Troy Daniel is now implicated in murder, and so I’m making sure my blog makes his shame and Bo’s known for as long as this site is up.
  8. Have a long Covid source list.
  9. Yes it includes Canadians.
  10. Jeff has words for Microsoft and they aren’t happy birthday.
  11. Russian soldiers are leaving evidence for war crimes behind, as if they’ll never be prosecuted. Justice will come, justice will be done.
  12. MODERNA COVID VACCINE FOR UNDER 5’S HAS FINALLY BEEN APPROVED IN CANADA there is hope
  13. I’M LOOKING AT YOU AUNTIE MARY maybe you’re an alarmist and a crybaby about COVID BUT I THINK YOU ARE THE BEST and ha ha ha you’re also STILL ALIVE and I would very much like you to stay that way, so if you don’t see Paul and Keith when they come visiting I will just smile and nod over here.

tiltawhirl day

  • simply ran out of gumption yesterday. Was supposed to go see Terry but I couldn’t. I did manage to get hold of him at the hotel though and we had a brief chat. I mean he RODE A BICYCLE TO THE THE INN from the airport, good gawd yall
  • Managed to convert the leftover rice into an egg, veg and tofu fried rice so I wasn’t completely useless yesterday
  • damn i need coffee and not just a little
  • learned from Suzanne that she may be the victim of identify theft and so she’ll be bringing her computer to the house tomorrow; Jeff has (no promises) volunteered to inspect it
  • no progress on Totally Boned. My desire to finish it is undiminished
  • John Horgan saying the health care system’s on the brink of collapse should get a boot to the ass! he didn’t mind it when he got cancer and went to the head of the line, the great fool! I mean, given that he has some control over how much workers get paid and how much PPE they have access to, how can he let that air escape his mouth
  • there’s a ‘house’ for sale in Whistler for $37 million. If you see how much glass it involves you will laugh very hard; either the glazing all pops out in an earthquake or the hvac costs are enormous. messaged Katie to find out if her employer but the marble into it (she told stories, you should ask her) and she said yes
  • at first I thought ‘sleepy Joe Biden’ was a slur but honestly this president makes molasses in February look peppy and responsive and his reaction after Roe was incredibly stupid and he’s setting the democrats up for failure by not doing something about student debt.  He might as well be a Russian plant for all the good he’s doing

another list

  • I had the fiendish notion of calling any production company I ever start ‘R Schlock’ productions since it’s a pun for arschloch, which literally and figuratively means asshole in German
  • I’m starting to pool fluid in my ankles, oh joy
  • Jeff did the lawn, I trimmed around front where the grass is growing through the shrubs and got some of the grass that’s blown into the yard storage out of same
  • stinking hot day, the ac ran continuously until well after sunset, more of the same today
  • Breakfast at Foreshore yesterday, we were dining alone for most of it and they had the doors wide open
  • Obviously I should stop eating out and I will but damn that sausage is good
  • Shop this morning, out of milk and various other comestibles. If I go early enough the place is deserted. Need more N95 masks; you should only reuse them five or ten times and not if they get really sweaty. Maybe there will be tests as well although I doubt it
  • Hope to write today, yesterday I thought I didn’t do any but it was enough to send to mOm who was very happy to get it current count 32702
  • I’ll be seeing Terry today over at Planet Bachelor (I’m going to keep calling it that, I know Katie changed the name but I’m a stick in the mud). I’m supposed to remind Paul around noon. Terry’s going to cross the Rockies on a bicycle. I don’t know if he’s turned 70 yet but he’s no ‘landfowl of spring’. So you can think he’s a lunatic but I think it’s very cool and even cooler given that he’s long recovered from a hangman’s fracture acquired from a car-bike collision of some years back. Yup that man might have been a high quad but instead he’s challenging himself with a punishing regime of exercise
  • a woman’s in custody for stabbing a man in Yaletown yesterday
  • You have to wonder if the bad temper everyone is showing is a social or physical manifestation of the pandemic, or both
  • somebody is blasting through my fanfic again, (hullo fren, *alice’s reading list!*) picking only the ‘that Darn Cas’ series to read (which is the only series I wrote)
  • Elon Musk yelling at Donald Trump Sr on social media (for being old and broken) the week a censorious world finds out he has 9 count em 9 CHILDREN – most outside the confines of marriage (who cares but he comports himself like a moralist so fuck’im) – DURING a week when he basically howled about how white people are being erased is A LOOK I’m telling you, and not a good one
  • In some places in the US positivity rates are ten times what the hospitalization rate is, and some of them are NORTH OF 40% so please expect this surge to send hundreds of thousands of workers home and hundreds of thousands of tourists into airports they can’t get out of. DON’T FLY please. I beg ya (source Walgreens https://twitter.com/myrabatchelder/status/1546389769181167617/photo/1) just as an aside the positivity rate in Texas is 45%, same source and we’ve got rellies travelling by air from there. They ain’t frail elderly but they may be when this is done. Saw a picture from YYZ this morning, travellers, half of them baresnouts, jammed together like Chinese New Year at Guangzhou South station
  • I have remembered HA that there was sourdough rye in the downstairs freezer thanks to Katie’s last Costco trip and I brought it upstairs.
  • Putin wants to be called ‘ruler’ instead of ‘president’ because president is an American term and ruler is more Russian. I GUESS Führer WAS TAKEN BOY HOWDY

next two days will be hot

  1. Things are still very bad in Ukraine and a global food crisis is all but assured.
  2. Things are terrible in Sri Lanka – food and fuel costs have soared and that’s why people kicked in the door of the Presidential palace and set it on fire.
  3. There’s ANOTHER BA4/5 variant out of Hong Kong (but, racists beware, it could have been anywhere) and we’re basically creating variants across the planet because our public health people and leaders have decided to just give up.
  4. I’m not travelling anywhere until I have a handle on how bad the new variant is in BC. I’m certainly not going anywhere without a test first.
  5. Katie says she got COVID but tested negative all the way through. Some people do.
  6. Worst cognitive effects of COVID pop up 8 – 10 months after you get it. How the hell do you clear this illness? It freaking lingers! The idea of COVID settling into human beings as a recurrent fever is freaking me out.
  7. Despite everything I had a good visit with Alex and he drew some LOVELY monsters, we recorded belches, he was very happy to have sleep cuddles (I have never seen anyone rip bedclothes off like that kid, a tornado twists less. (I was very tired after the housefilk how on earth am I going to do one day a week of childcare for babby Ryker, I am freaking out about how tired I get doing childcare for Alex and he’s a manageable pet of a child.)
  8. Alex mentioned that he got to meet a cousin he’d never met the other day (from Dax’s side of the family). I think he was most impressed over the fact the meal was at Red Robin.
  9. We tried to watch ‘Sea Beast’ on Netflix and bailed after 10 minutes since it didn’t make a lot of sense and Karl Urban having a Kiwi accent when his character was adopted by a Brit jammed me hard, lemme tell you.
  10. It was lovely to see Katie yesterday even if Ryker was at his dad’s. She got some sleep with both the boys being gone. So glad she slept instead of doing housework. She said I have to get used to Paul being a different person every time I see him. That’s … kinda terrifying. We all have quite a few decisions in the queue.
  11. Alex is playing Among Us non stop. I have to say that he’s already learning what group play is like – full of trolls and people who swear continuously. He mocks them, which is better than being upset by them.
  12. He’s still very happy with me for finding the CBC kids website and he plays those games all the time. Personally I prefer Disk Rush – it’s a twitch game – and Waffle – a word finder game and I double dog dare you to beat my top score of 1703. Good luck with that!
  13. I did my Lumosity workout this morning for my BRANS and got top 5 scores in 4 out of 5 games, so despite feeling a bit sludgy cognitively okay.
  14. No change on word count for Totally Boned. I did lie in bed and cry about the scenes upcoming when the lads are parted by (spins spinner) bad communication, and I finally figured out how to frame it so it was plausible.
  15. Finished the palak paneer and now there’s just one meal left out of the Indian food I ordered last week (daal and aloo gobhi). The rice I think I’ll turn into breakfast fried rice.
  16. I couldn’t finish my Big Star small #27 so Jeff et it. That is one damned tasty sandwich, but I think I’ll skip the hot sauce next time.
  17. Buster is being driven mad by either fleas or allergies.
  18. Mosquitoes are really bad in Vancouver this year.
  19. I really should do the lawn and have ZERO DESIRE.
  20. Katie wants to steal the canoe Paul put in our back yard and give it to inlaw Steven from 70 Mile House (That’s where she was camping with Alex – and they’re still covered in bug bites). Paul says he wants to go but Katie is literally terrified of having to manage him if he wanders during the night. There are bears everywhere up there, no ambulances and maybe 20 cars on the road every day. I do not blame her for being concerned. Paul was having difficulties managing himself on Saturday and put another lovely ding on the face of Smokey, although I am hardened enough about damage to my musical instruments, given that I do it a lot myself, to avoid commenting.
  21. I should really do some laundry and I really don’t want to do that either.
  22. And make my bed up.
  23. At least I’m keeping on top of the dishes.