Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

timmy hos

Off to Tim Horton’s this morning for coffee and croissants; Jeff was the founder of that little feast.

Our experiment with Sunday Dinner for the kitties is likely drawing to a close – it makes Buster poopy – or so we surmise.

I’ve been editing fanfic all morning. I am obviously quite, quite insane.

the sun came out and my room’s all lit up

It’s quite cheering. We finally dug into that tourtière and while I love it, the Pie Hole will never again tempt us to buy a $38 pie.

Yes, you read that right.

Now the ingredients are choice and all that, but brOJeff was not a fan of the crust or contents, there being something in it that mayhap disagreed with him.

I really liked it, as I think I mentioned, so I get to finish it I imagine.

30854 is the new word count. Plumping up and pruning, plumping up and pruning. Fixing bad verbs and placemarker sentences. Reading it aloud to myself, getting the phrasing right, how would the character say it, how would their upbringing and languages spoken growing up and in university affect their speech. What verbs do the sixers never use, and why is it that they sound so vague all the time? Anyway, not much writing but lots of thinky thoughts.

Pleasant

Spoke to Dave and went for a walk with Paul yesterday, also fed Paul leftover Chinese food. Heard from Mike; he’s back from whatever rural hellhole in Trumpland he was shipped off to last.

Sadly, the Wayward Sisters intro through Supernatural was not that good. Every time they did the staring at somebody while something emergent is happening – and they did it five or six times at least in an hour, which sucks – I wanted to throw something Nerfy at the screen. Oh well. I wore my hoodie anyway.

29357

eyeroll wrong day

The indigenous arts thing is today, not yesterday; Paul and I sang and played for a while here (he wasn’t prepared and was having a hell of time with remembering words but we laughed and sang and played anyway, so there) and then went to his place where we worked on household finances splitting for a while which was interesting (helping him set up a spreadsheet) and then Katie came home and told, rapidfire, a very droll standup routine about her job, and fixing machines at work, and how she’s covered one end to the other in bruises, which you’re gonna be if your brand new to the ‘moving marble’ game. Then I begged her to take me with her to pick Alex up and his smile was almost enough to power me through a week and Katie dropped me off.

Laundry is complete in the sense that the clothes are clean and dry.

Thinking about that tourtière but I have to get through the leftover Chinese food first.

Fringe final season is really about how we’re all doomed without love; I currently feel like I have plenty. I’m not suffering from family strife and dislocation right now, so I’m above the happiness waterline, whatever my stupid brain and weird biochemistry has to say about things.

Just had the most amazing and wonderful convo on line with an old dear friend. She’s got hard times but lots of joy anyway, and I love her. OMG THIS IS WHAT SHE SAID ON FB ABOUT THAT CONVO

 

This morning, I had the longest facebook messenger convo of my life and it was, with little exaggeration and without getting into personal details, a life saver.
Technology really can overcome distance and give you meaningful connections with people far away.
Reach out to your friends, and you will get and give support in ways you can’t imagine.
We all need each other.
I am grateful and thankful for the love and support of my girlfriends.

 

I JUST MISTOOK AO3 FOR AOL in a convo and I’m like the picture of an embarrassed boomer. And there may be one person who reads this blog who understands the reference.

Somebody on facebook said tell us 10 books that stuck with you.  Since I could just yell DOROTHY DUNNETT FUCK YEAH and sit back down again I purposely left her out of the list. Instructions were spend no time on it just pick the 10 books you remember as meaningful and memorable and here they are.

 

The Gift of Fear, Gavin de Becker
The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels
You Just Don’t Understand, Deborah Tannen
Sex Time and Power, Leonard Shlain
Forty Rules of Love, Elif Shafak (This is the book that gave me permission to structure my novels the way that works for my brain, kinda untraditional but still with a clear thruline)
Sandman comics, Neil Gaiman et al
Maus, Art Spiegelman
Conundrum, Jan Morris
A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman
Kingdom of Carbonel, Barbara Sleigh
I’m trying to think of if these books have anything in common beside the fact that I read them, but it may be interesting to see the threads….
The Gift of Fear taught me that even if little girls are supposed to comply, if you’re scared BOOK IT. I avoided gang rape by following this book’s advice. You don’t forget a gift like that.
The Gnostic Gospels, as well as exposing me to the 1400 mystery cults that were apparently coexisting in Palestine and environs in the early years of Christianity, exposed me to Sophia, the presence of wisdom, as female. I’m an atheist but it was a telling moment. Also, the Bible was not dictated by God! and it was hidden and reworked and assembled like the world’s fugliest philology convention had a speed dating/face punching round! Thanks, Elaine!
You just don’t Understand taught me that men are judgemental assholes, real fucking clownbags, morons, hypocrites and straight up manipulating jerks when it comes to communicating with women, and I can turn that to my advantage if I want to completely forget how I was raised. Essentially it analyzed, in broad terms, the communication styles of men and women, mostly from English language research, and I learned that men really suck at communicating but judge women for their style because it isn’t theirs, while we have to learn everything about the way men communicate or they’ll fucking rape and kill us. Unless they’re among the little bubble of men I hang out with, who just aren’t into that. I did learn one very useful trick when talking to men and I must use it every week or so. I’m not going to tell you what it is, and besides you’re still mad at me for calling men clownbags so just hang on to that rage kids.
Sex, Time and Power – Jeff gave it to me for Christmas fourteen years ago and I read it in one sitting. It made a lot of sense to me. My new understandings of the underpinnings of society being buttressed by the crypto nature of women’s reproductive systems (in terms of ovulation) and the non-crypto nature (in terms of menstruation) were absolutely crucial to how I structured sixer sexuality, and how it would impact their ‘society’.
Already let you in on how important Forty Rules of Love was to me. Tammy gave me that.
I’m not going to talk about the Sandman comics; you should read them, if you haven’t.
Maus. It took me THREE REREADS to understand the ending, and then my heart broke, and rebroke ever single time I thought about it for almost a month. An unbelievable work of art, of homage to his difficult, opportunistic, racist (after Auschwitz/Oscwiecem, oy), hoarder, judgemental father, of historical reckoning, of emotional truth.
Conundrum got my foot on the path to wanting to understand the transgender experience. Morris was privileged in ways many transgender people aren’t, and doesn’t really address that too much in this work, which I read in paperback in the early eighties, before Kimberlé came up with intersectionality. Transgender activists are now among my strongest, strangest and funniest teachers as I slide down the rest of my life arc.  I thought about my perceived gender and my felt gender quite a bit over the last ten years, and my feelings are complicated enough that I don’t want to talk about them in public. I will say that I’m happy with the body I was issued and have no complaints or plans for revision on that score, mostly so my parents can sit back down and unbug their eyes.
A Distant Mirror. I find it absolutely hilarious that when myself and a potential new friend are talking books, this one comes up. Almost every intelligent person I know who speaks English has read it. SOMEBODY MAKE A FUCKING MOVIE ABOUT THE SIRE DE COUCY Calice, tabernac.
Kingdom of Carbonel is the middle book of a trilogy of talking cats novels written in the period between the late fifties and the early seventies. Of all the children’s books I ever read this one comes closest to limning how kids feel about ‘summer friends’ the families and children you only see when school’s out. Gone Away Lake is the next best example of that.
Are there any common threads? I read non-fiction and am changed by it more than fiction. The fiction I read must broaden my perspective, open my heart, and challenge my vocabulary. But the non-fiction is what goes under my foot and in my hand; it is my connection the real world of unfolding understanding of how the grand scheme of things and the most trivial of pastimes are all of a piece.

today

Today we’re going to do a mini schlep, and at 3 I’m hoping to go to the Massey Theatre for an indigenous arts fest including dancing and drumming.

So nice to be able to walk to an event. I really like living in Burnaby.

Also, laundry, and writing. Word count’s only gone up by 19, but I have a clear head about what to write so I’m good.

Work thoughts plus a cool video

This is what triggered the following. I watched the metal dust come flying out, and then the wrote following back to the poster (I’ve met him I think once IRL, he’s associated with the Seattle filk fen) pOp check out his youtube channel he’s made some awesome videos of stuff he’s built.

 

…Made me think of a work story. Must be almost fifteen years ago now this happened. Take an RMA for a 1500W inverter. Mo Z the repair & analysis dude cracks it open, mutters to himself, and approaches my desk with a small plastic container of brass dust … Which he then proceeds to pour out onto a piece of paper on my desk. “Mo what the hell?” sez I and he sez, brown eyes snapping, “Under no circumstances is this a warranty failure. These metal shavings came from inside.” I get to talk to the customer, lucky me. Found out during my intense and unpleasant callback to the customer that he’s using the inverter to run a mobile key cutting machine out of his van, no protection, brass dust every-fuckin-where but screechin all heartbroken that it should be covered under warranty. And so it went for the next I dunno how many years, he’d run it until it breached the ass of the laws of physics for how it still worked with that much stray metal in it, and then I’d sell him a refurb for a discount. THE END

Alex

I got an invite to Planet Bachelor. I only really played with Alex for about ten minutes, the rest of the time he was either bugging his mother (exhausted from her two weeks of paid employment) or zipping around the living room like a well groomed Tasmanian Devil cartoon.

I also got to see Keith briefly – it was his first day off in seven.  I’m a lazy bum these days but my kids are both working about as much as they can.

We’ve blasted through Fringe and we’re at the last season already. Rewatch of Warehouse 13 and Burn Notice (season 4 is so good) also proceeding; we slowed down on ER and we’re thinking of a Homicide rewatch, maybe a Wire rewatch.

28113 is the word count currently.

Mall walk

Paul and I walked the Lougheed Mall yesterday since it was bucketing rain and disgusting. He very kindly allowed me to press his car into service (I drove) for various errands, including getting cat litter.

Then he took me to Iwona Pierogies and DANG that borscht on a cold wet day was like baba’s kiss, believe me. Also, their cabbage rolls are yummo.

I edited yesterday. I don’t know why but all the energy I had earlier seems to have evaporated. Maybe I’m running low on Alex.

We watched the Crown episode about young Philip. JFC, if you tried to write a movie script about a young prince and the contortions his life went through NOBODY WOULD BELIEVE IT.  And here’s the woman who saved him.

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY

We’re out of sourdough bread….

No writing yesterday of any kind, I was a complete vegeton and napped, napped I tell you, in the middle of the day, and then slept a good seven hours at night. I suspect it’s me fighting some bug.

Math sez my most popular fic in a particular fandom is in the top 15% for hits, kudos and bookmarks. (READER ENGAGEMENT)

Happily received Pirate Utopia from Dave D yesterday via post.  Look forward to reading it!