Month: May 2023

drugs achieved

Paul and I ran errands, walked at Fraser Foreshore (the bird song was well nigh deafening, no joke), and Paul got an early lunch at Foreshore restaurant (he had the manhattan style chowder and the schnitzel on a portuguese bun, I just had coffee because I’d had an enormous breakfast). I reupped the amilzide.

It’s now 2 in the afternoon and I am contemplating how best to spend the rest of my day. I was supposed to help Paul with his packing but bowed out. We had a good time; Paul and I were both stiff old crocks but we had a lovely day.

SADLY some MOTHERFUCKER backed into the Echo and now the left rear tail light is cracked and the trunk lid is fucked up (still closes). I have no idea when that happened, but I think it happened when we were parked; it wasn’t busted Monday when I drove Lois to the airport.

120GLP – worst and rudest driver in Burnaby this morning. Hey White Audi driver thanks for completely supporting everything I already thought about Audi drivers. And Fuck You most sincerely.

it’s all good

Drove Lois to the airport. Paul came along. He figured Keith could do it but I hadn’t had a chance to chinwag with her and that was very kind.

His will has been witnessed and his mail redirected to the right person in the family. Lois seemed to be taking herself to task for not getting much in the way of packing done. I am sure Keith and Kate are looking at each other and thinking that Paul signing a lease and getting his paperwork taken care of is a fucking miracle, and that anyone who thinks they could have done more in four days is being, you know, unduly hard on themselves.

Today Paul and I will go for a walk.

 

Church yesterday

It was a service with a LOT of music. It was all standard white people music that wouldn’t have been out of place any time in the last half century, so it matched the congregants quite well.

I was the ONLY PERSON who brought animal flesh to the soup lunch (there are always meatatarians in every crowd) so I’m proud to say that two thirds of the chicken thighs I baked last Thursday got consumed by people like John H. The leftover leftovers went with Keith back to the Junction where I imagine Dax and Katie will consume it.)  I had lentil chickpea soup, which was quite tasty and had the right amount of salt. Keith is so loved at church, everyone wants to talk to him and he’s always helping out.

I was seriously peopled out and came home and consumed media. Jeff took me to White Spot for breakfast and I still have some in the fridge. I’ve already had my coffee and scritched and trained Buster.

Posted this to FB yesterday:

why you want to train your cat to understand you speak, example the entienth.
Buster: I am minding my own catly business snoozing in the music/spare room. (Further note – we leave this door closed as it bleeds too much light into the media room so Buster has to ‘ask’ us to open the door for him when he wants to use the room)
Allegra: Enters room. Holds up guitar. “Noisy, Buster. Noisy. Can you get down please?”
Buster: Teensy-weensy put-upon mew, jumps down from bed, finds another place to hang.
Allegra: Vigorously and noisily practices after closing the door.
Allegra: Opens music room door after 45 minutes. “All done Buster, no more noisy.”
Buster jumps down from the media room sofa and retakes his music room perch.
The most important thing about communication is respect. I know he hates it when I play. It’s kind of a drag after Miss Margot, who loved music (especially the theme for Stargate Universe and U2) but Buster and I seem to have a quid pro quo….
I am extremely happy to say that Paul has signed a lease for an elder facility and he will be living there starting July 1. it is walking distance from here. MY RELIEF MAY BE IMAGINED.

UBI UBI UBI UBI

THIS COUNTRY NEEDS UBI UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME NOW!

(Scanged from tumblr/twitter):

When you hear that an unhoused person ‘refused services’ here’s what it means:

  • refused to give up their pet to get space in a short term hotel room
  • the shelter they were offered a space in isn’t safe for someone of their gender/sexuality/origin
  • couldn’t consolidate their belongings into two bags.

another person added the following:

  • They didn’t want to sit through demeaning and bigoted religious services just for a place to sleep. (Church run food banks do this a lot too btw).
  • They were late and the shelter wouldn’t let them in and voided the rest of their allowed stay bc they didn’t call and tell the shelter they couldn’t make it in before closing. They had no access to a phone or transportation.
  • One of the other people at the shelter got violent/threatened violence, theft, sexual assault – and the shelter refused to do anything about it.
  • One of the SHELTER EMPLOYEES/VOLUNTEERS got violent/threatened violence and the shelter refused to do anything about it.
  • The shelter refuses to disclose if allergens are in the food they’re providing saying, “This is all you’re getting, be glad for this much and thank god!”
  • Shelter refused to believe person is homeless saying, “You are FAR too clean and nicely dressed!”

 

the state of the world

The state of the world is such that I am quite anxious, but I’ve got some food to take to church for a potluck so I suppose I can feed the anxiety beast that way. Keith will come and get me around 10. It’s possible Paul will come but he’s not fond of getting up early so it’s 50 50. Lois is for sure not coming.

Ukraine stats…

16000 dead Ukrainian civilians according to their government closer to 40K according the the US.

60K dead Russian troops 150K wounded according to Russia

280K Russian troops ‘taken out of combat – killed or wounded’ according to Ukraine

120K dead or wounded Ukrainian troops according to Ukraine – US estimates a lot more than that.

Went to twitter this am and some pendejo in the states is saying that Russians are killing Ukrainians 50-1. Armed with the above (rounded up from wikipedia) I told him to stop tweeting nonsense. Ukraine can ill afford to lose any troops but they are holding up. Russia is having a very hard time raising more troops and there are apparently tens of thousands of Russians of conscription age still outside Russia doing whatever it is they do when they don’t want to be drafted.

We are still watching Medium. I have never seen a show which depicted white north american family life as well as this one. Absolutely a fucking standout show. Two limp episodes in two and a bit seasons so far. Love all the actors, INCLUDING the child actors, who are magnificent and well directed.

Polls SAID UCP was going to win in Alberta but as the election inches closer (Monday) an NDP majority is actually looking more likely.

 

 

 

not a peep

Didn’t hear a peep out of anyone at the Junction yesterday. Fine, I was probably not in good enough shape to be useful and they had other plans.

Somebody was busy last night; fewer stories because these are the long ones.

Brain is adequate this morning but nothing better. SO MANY FOOD WORDS on the NY Times Wordle these days, it’s been food words for a week now, bagel and ramen etc. I’m out of some Rx in a few days and as usual don’t have a Doc appt until after I run out. I don’t imagine it will be a problem, pharmacists have been known to save the day.

SCHNITZEL last night, also this morning. I left a tiny little piece as a snack for later. The greek salad was very good too. I’m finding the ‘not eating anything solid after about 5 pm’ diet is working fine.

I think I made very fine coffee this am. I am enjoying it.

lost my mind

obviously someone stayed up ALL NIGHT reading my fics. Well, there are more to come so that’s nice.

 

 

I tried to help Paul with something yesterday and all I managed to do was upset him, Jeff, and myself, and Katie called to ask what the hell happened, and I feel SO USELESS AND CLUELESS but Lois is here and I hope it all gets straightened out. I lost my cheese and someone who’s blameless suffered.  I am assuming it will all get straightened out but I imagine both my kids think I’m an asshole right now. I did apologize most fervently to Paul but it was probably too little too late.

 

I was feeling very sorry for myself and then I found out that some kind whistleblower just dumped 100 Gb of Tesla crash data. My response. Yes it’s supposed to be disturbing.

it’s been an age since I got a comment

This is everything to me. My attention to detail got someone’s attention. I MUST SPEAK TRUTH ABOUT DETROIT IRON OR RECEIVE THE DISAPPROBATION OF MY FATHER.

Ain’t lyin….

 

I loved so much about this story, but the thing I held closest to my heart was: Finally! Someone who realizes you couldn’t get air conditioning or a tape deck stock in a 67 impala.

Lovely walk with Paul yesterday, followed by distributing treats from Cobbs Bread and some sorting of his clothes. He asked me to help with the family photographs and then refused to let me help…. it was weird but okay. Ryker was A FREAKING MESS I am pretty sure he has allergies, he ran like a snottap the entire time I was there, and was seconds from crying the entire time, but I did interact with him when he wasn’t crying and stopped him from hucking his slippers downstairs.

How did I have a lovely walk with Paul? I didn’t talk, except to respond to him kindly and truthfully. And we sat and listened to birdsong for a good half hour, in companionable silence. I didn’t give him much help with sorting but it was some.

Brain is not good this morning. Wordle in 3. Scotoma dragons for an hour.

The Guyanese-descent gent I follow on twitter said something about how if you think brown people can’t be racist you haven’t met his extended family. SO I COMMENTED. Perhaps I should not have.  (mOm remember how I have Richie IMMEDIATELY comment sotto voce as to the ethnicity of a Black man he meets – including how long he’s been in Canada? when I was living in Toronto with my first husband it AMAZED ME how many Black people I met had very distinct and not always pleasant or pleasantly phrased opinions about where other people from the Terrible African Enslavement Diaspora were from and what kinds of personal behaviour, style of dress etc. we could expect from them…. stuff that made my little white middle class mind EXPLOOOOOODE) So my response to my Guyanese twitter ami was that of course brown people can be racist! BUT THEY WON’T BE WITHOUT COLONIALISM. The very distinct layercake of Guyanese life with the Amerindians (their term not mine, it’s racist TWO DIFFERENT WAYS and of course they should be spoken of by Indigenous nationality, language or cultural bonds) at the bottom and the descendants of the Black enslaved persons next up and then the Desi and Desi-blend folks (white people exist as tourists in Guyana, less than .5% are white AND THE CHINESE PEOPLE ARE LUMPED IN DEMOGRAPHICALLY WITH THE WHITE PEOPLE, CHEW ON THAT FOR A WHILE (I mean imagine it in Vancouver LOLOL)) resulted specifically from slavery and importation of guest workers and the distinct modern assignment of racial opprobrium flows from that.

As for Guyanese people, in my observations of the Caribbean hierarchy they: “Think they’re better than everyone else because they cling to decades-rotten colonial forms and ceremonies, drink way too much, fucking suck at cricket, and dress like bums.” Get a Bahamian to comment on Jamaicans some time, it’s like dropping Mentos in a Coke bottle. Believe it or not apart from the drinking too much I’ve heard all of these (re Guyanese) comments in person, and the drinking comment is based on the demonstrable fact that Guyana and Suriname (its neighbour and colonial sibling thanks to the Dutch) have much higher alcoholism and binge drinking rates than any of the closest Caribbean countries, and the alcoholism is supported by the unbelievably cheap and plentiful rum from the sugar cane plantations …. that came with colonialism. So no matter which end of the drunkard’s walk that is my approach to ranting you grab WE ARE GOING TO END UP AT COLONIALISM.

If asked to comment as to why 35 percent of Russian men have a drinking problem – the worst stat on earth for alcohol currently – I think I’m going to splay my hands and smile. Traumatized people self-medicate, amiright. Also, to be entirely fair, Canada’s alcoholism rate is higher – by 3 % – than Guyana’s. Just Saying. Also if you want an example of sexual dimorphism, the difference in the alcoholism rate in Russia between men and women is so huge it looks like a typo. Source worldpopulationreview

pollen so bad

My eyes are not actually dry but they are very gummy. My nasopharyngeal parts are gummy too. I’m not coughing but my chest feels tight. (AQI good pollen counts moderate)

Tried Fatburger yesterday. White Spot is superior in virtually all ways, and not that much more expensive.

I miss my grandsons. Spoke to Keith yesterday. No word on whether Janice has left.

Watched John Wick Chapter 4. The clunkiness of the script poses a bit of a challenge but the fight scenes were exactly the way I like them and Donnie Yen was fucking perfect as always. (I mean how do you get typecast as a blind martial artist??? by being fucking good at it.) IT’S A COMMITMENT it’s like 3 hours long. All action movies should be ninety minutes or so. It is a law. Unobserved, sadly.

I am continuing to practice la la la on the ukulele. My brain appears to work okay today.

I am continuing to wrestle with edits on TB. The last pass was to make sure that every word of every line of dialogue in the first part is a) to the education level b) in character c) germane d) unmagical (ie there is a plausible way the character could know it to say it). I suppose editing dialogue without cementing the plot bunnies in place is useless & pointless (deck chairs, Titanic, Augean stables, etc.) but still I endeavour to persevere in the worst way possible – which was standing up in a hammock last time I checked.

Elon Musk is going to turn Ron DeKrampus loose on twitter in an effort to help him get elected.

I don’t get these people, but I guess I don’t have to.

For the first time, Russian nationals fighting for Ukraine have made incursions and captured enemy weapons and tanks inside the Russian border. What impact that will have to escalate the war is anyone’s guess.

 

 

running

That would be my nose that’s running. Every scotch broom bush in the lower mainland is blooming and the pollen is piling up in minuscule yellow banks everywhere. I sneeze, I run, I blow, I sneeze.

Saw Mike yesterday. He took me to a U2 concert (checks notes, oops he already took me to a U2 concert) a U3 concert, plus the wonderful teachings afterwards. (There was a workshop, and I learned more about strumming in fifteen minutes than in my previous lifetime so that was fun.)

It would have been lovely except that Mike is now convinced that he was subjected to racial profiling while he attended (for being egregiously Chinese with long hair, apparently) and is asking me to think about whether or not this is true.

Since I’ve never been racially profiled that I know of, and do not feel the almost hourly social sting of racism, I would like to plead the following.

I am autistic. I was put in a room of gabbling white people, 4% of whom where wearing masks (NIOSH N95’s WERE GIVEN OUT) in which the noise level was as you can imagine from a very very very live room full of people trying to order cider and admire ukulele setups. Asking me to notice a racial aggression when I am just fucking sitting there trying to autistic mask when I want to flee to the bathroom and stay there until all the people stop gabbling is a legit request but awkward white ha ha, no.

If someone of colour believes they’ve been subjected to that it’s my job as a friend to fucking believe them and centre their experience, not mine. If he says it happened it did. Whether I was off in my own little world at the time…. I mean, I WAS off in my own little world.

Work for Mike right now is absolutely horrific in ways that need not concern this blog except for that. He and I did not enjoy the trek out to the concert venue and back – the traffic was gross given it was a holiday Monday – but we did enjoy the beautiful setting at Labarge Lake.

He got his ticket checked twice after getting ignored by the ticket taker. I watched it happen, and my interpretation was not as negative as his.

I’m going to leave it at that. My ability to ignore things is very high.

xxx

 

damnation

Well I found another ghastly technical problem with the mss and I’m feeling like really not thinking about it right now, so may I recommend the 30 year old Studio Ghibli masterwork “Pom Poko” (literal title translation = Heisei-era Raccoon Dog War Ponpoko) which is an animated fantasy as a way of directing attention away from my creative solecisms.

One of my fave brotherkins on twitter @aPebbleintheSky a Swedish manbear anarchist recommended the film as among his favourites, and I can understand why.

  1. Japanese folklore is the primary aesthetic driver. Specifically folklore about Tanukis. (Raccoon dogs.)
  2. Testicles ARE A PLOT DEVICE. LOTS OF THEM. It is gobsmacking. They can be transformed into other things, like parachutes and smothering weights
  3. It is a primer on running an anarchist revolution, right down to how everyone runs away from the problems after setbacks and how MUSIC ART AND DANCING ARE INTEGRAL TO THE REVOLUTION god this was so amazing to watch
  4. There is a strong element of #LandBack
  5. Almost half of the film is narrated so you at least have a fighting chance of figuring out what’s going on.
  6. The gay fox is one of the most hilarious animated characters I’ve ever seen.

It won’t be to everyone’s taste but I adored it.

No church yesterday. Dishwasher’s running, and when it’s done I’ll run a load of laundry or two.

more rewrites more rewrites

There is no cell service in southern Guyana so I’m going to have to rewrite any reference to cell phones in TB. Goldingit. I think I should prob’ly check some other stuff too.

Was invited to join Keith for church this morning. I may go, haven’t made up my mind. Paul’s unlikely to go because his s/o Janice is in town. Katie’s gone camping with Dax and the boys.

 

 

a little sad but also relieved

I note that our trip to Victoria this weekend is not going to happen, and I’m sad, but the hours of waiting with two bored children have been avoided, and that makes me relieved. Seeing on twitter that early morning vessels are cancelled due to crew shortages just adds to the feeling of horror escaped.

Saw The Artifice Girl yesterday. It has issues (the way auteur movies often do – Franklin Ritch wrote, directed, edited and starred in it) but as a full-court practical, emotional and philosophical examination of AI it works very hard and delivers its message with verve and precision.

Tatum Matthews as the title character, ‘Cherry’, is absolutely pitch-perfect. If you’re looking for an action fest, this is the exact opposite, it’s a very talky movie. SF movies like this are uncommon and should be seen. It’s also a feminist film, in unsettling ways. Combatting child sexual exploitation and trafficking is everyone’s business and the idea of making it an AI’s business and that it represents a moral hazard to the AI (in the film) is brilliant in my view.

Anyway, it accomplishes its goals and I’ll be thinking of a couple of scenes a lot over the next few days.

 

Hey mOm another character has entered the frame on TB. Her name is Lucie and she’s Omar’s step-niece. You’ll meet her in a couple of months I imagine.