Category: SF/SFF

and so con ends

I have so many thoughts and feelings. My intimates have been made aware of the worst of it (there is a worse, but it’s getting better as they say) and the good is little spangles of art and conversation, the gifts each of us bring to circle (a poem recited about the sailor who has no coin and must trick his way across the Styx, a pan pipe forced to play out doors because of the fucking panini / con rules, Ann Prather singing Practice Practice Practice and a ghastly hilarious song about how sore your balls are after a vasectomy, in-character Bilbo singing a song about what a bunch of dipshits the dwarves are, That’s Not Gneiss, which I think was written by a Geology professor in the 50s and made it into the filkbuche, ably sung by Cecilia Eng, Eric of the Faithful Sidekicks singing a song about various jobs that is a PUN IN EVERY LINE, Miles Vorkosigan singing a song about a naked man running down a street (he’s a defence lawyer, nuff said eh pOp) and yet more besides).

The con candidly apart from the merch room that one open circle and individual convos was a bust but I got a road trip with my best pals so I WON. And we were good roommates, no huhu.

another lovely day along the waterfront

Much more overcast today. Winds were apparently howling in owld Burnaby last night if the weather channel isn’t lying.

Briefly participated in a filk last night and then kind of emotionally imploded (it was a filk memorial) and THEN learned that Frank Hayes is in hospital and since I had just put his concert on my list of things to do I was most upset. I did wish him a speedy and uneventful recovery. It was awesome to hear Dornbeast memorialize Creede Lambard by singing one of his songs, and Cecilia Eng memorialized Zander Nyrond (a long time fannish filk favourite of John’s.) Cindy and I sang Brooke’s Last Page for John and OH GOD I was done already and fled the scene. Peggy and I stayed in the hotel room and Cindy did the singin’ and playin’ the rest of the night. I love con, but it’s emotional and I’m just not used to having to manage all them big feels and the ‘panini’ hasn’t made it easier. (Panini is slang for the pandemic “WORST.SANDWICH.EVER”)

Amazing to have a bath while Peggy’s playing bass along with the blues program on CBC on Friday night, she made the fixtures ring. And of course I felt a lot calmer after washing my hair, although the hot water just …. stopping … was tiresome. I had enough to finish up. The hotel shampoo is quite nice.

This morning I swear I am going to not be a fucking turnip, but the odds are even. I’ve taken my pills AND BRUSHED MY TEETH AND APPLIED DEODORANT don’t all rush to thank me at once and apparently there’s a food truck next to the banquet entrance right this second so many that’s where I’ll get brekky?

Also, apart from the cold, I fucking love this hotel. It’s very accessible. AND THE BANQUETTES TUCKED INTO EVERY CORNER HAVE POWER OUTLETS BUILT INTO THEM so you can sit in a sunny nook, charge your laptop and drink your coffee and keep an eye down the corridor where your friends are.

I didn’t bring all of my laptop charger and Peggy loaned me hers. She had no idea what she was going to do with a laptop she said but she brought it anyway.

Oh, and hospitality’s open too now. I should feed. Where the fuck did I leave my american money? A smile won’t git me breakfast.

Peaceful morning

Buster came out, butted Alex’s shin with his head, and in general greeted him. It was a scattershot day yesterday but in general it worked out okay.

I’d love to do a complete teardown on how I get Alex to and from school BUT OF COURSE this is the internet and I do not want to give total strangers access to how I move an 8 year old around.  He will be 9 in less than two weeks. Isn’t it amazing how fast they grow.

HIS MOTHER SUPPLIED WEEKS WORTH OF SCHNACKEROOS

So many snacks.

Cheese, fruit, yogurt drinks, cookies. A panoply of snackertude.

Now to run the dishwasher so there are plates to serve them on lol.

Writing is on the back burner. I have a con to rehearse for!! I only have 45 more days!! That’s right, November 10-12th I will be at the fully masked con Orycon 43 in Portland! It’s a gencon not a filkcon but there are LOTS of filkers in Portland. So looking forward to it!

In the market for singing masks now.

Other worlds

Off in my own little one this morning, writing mush, just heartfelt mush for Brad and Omar. There are more ways to say I love you than there are stars in the universe. If it were not so we would not keep proving it, we lovers.

There’s no cream, so I’m eventually going to have tea. I’ve already played with Buster and brushed him, gotten some 90 Micron into me, written four hundred new words, had an entirely pain-free morning widdle – which only happens about 30 percent of the time so hey, we must grab these little happinesses as they go by is this not merely a truism but a mechanism by which daily life may in practical terms be a-accomplished?  she stammered… the keyboard barfed up an a so I stuck a hyphen in there and called it done.

I can go from piss to philosophy in seconds, so, do not try me, world! I have the words to roll you back again.

I find myself very blank and unthinking in most ways though. I am pressed on all sides by anxiety, and it is not all my own. So I think this feeling of blankness is an accommodation; if I am not reactive I won’t be making as much trouble. Of course, past a certain point, absence from human affairs starts taking you backward. I’ve spent my whole life, literally my whole life, trying not ‘to have it all’ but ‘to have all that I could reasonably attain without destroying myself as a creative being’, which involves a lot of decisions.

Having children never seemed like a decision. It was ordained. I felt it then, I felt it again as I typed it. The horror of childrearing and bearing that many modern women feel now is alien to me, but not anathema. I was among the last women who didn’t have reproductively impactful amounts of forever chemicals in my body during my pregnancies, so I remove myself from the pool of people who get judgy on modern women not wanting to have babies.  I have always been vocal in my support of the childless by choice. I understand the demographic arguments against the falling birth rate, and I reject them as propertarian and against self-interest (in planetary capacity terms). If I as a science fiction writer can posit three or four different social responses to a globally crashed birth rate (which is inescapable for reasons of deteriorated human health), each with their costs and benefits, how many responses can a whole nest of human civilizations come up with, depending on how resources are deployed? I still have hope, despite the countability of life.

Poems and songs turn over in my belly. something in there is wrathful, and something sad

it’s just gas

my brother said

Expanse rewatch

I really wish I could get mOm and pOp to watch the Expanse. It has so many superior moments in sci-fi -stuff where the physics and inertia of situations are really dealt with in visually amazing and reasonably accurate ways – and politically it’s as astute and observant as any adult TV can expect to be.

I just rewatched season four for the first time. There are so many things about it I didn’t get the first time (and I read the books…) and many of the things that annoyed me about it the first time really spun me up on rewatch. Now I’m seeing the desolation of the Martian Republic after the Ring gate opens  against the collapse of the American Empire, which we are now watching in real time. Can you not see senior American army logistics people selling off American tech to the highest bidder as soon as a civil war breaks out or there’s a disaster which destroys the chain of command, however briefly? I know I can. This is the pointy, gritty, dying end of the collapse. it’s horrifying. And it’s completely normal and predictable. The Russians and the Chinese do not even have to plot it! all they have to do is prepare for it. To have the suitcase of cash ready when the materials become available.

The Marco Inaros terrorist/ belter leader /character is annoying af but people like that always are. The speechifying. The visions ‘of our people’, the psychopathic willingness to sacrifice anything in its path.

450 words on ‘best roommate’.

I’m trying to keep my mood good but it’s literally minute by minute. No shrimp curry last night, they only had beef instead, but damn it was good. Really good.

Solarpunk

I recently discovered Solarpunk, a science-fiction genre that stands in opposition to the dystopian views of cyberpunk.

There’s an unofficial Solarpunk manifesto, from which I quote: “Solarpunk is a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion, and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?””

From the Wikipedia entry: “Solarpunk is an art movement that envisions how the future might look if humanity succeeded in solving major contemporary challenges with an emphasis on sustainability problems such as climate change and pollution.”

I like it.

I’ve started writing down songs again

Finally got Finale running, haw haw, so I’ve started putting Thorfinn’s song (Standard of the Crow) into musical notation. I’ve got about a hundred songs to write down, and I’ll start fitfully posting songs over the rest of the year.

It was like air and water to see Katie yesterday.

I said to Jeff yesterday, “I’m in a good MOOD I just can’t get anything DONE.”

He’s not happy because Nürburgring was called on account of fog so there was virtually no night racing, which is what he *wants* to see.

Hello my SF fans, check out this science news. It’s an article from the Asia Times about how we as a species have figured out how to jam photons together to make matter. You need a dirty great laser….

Hullo all

Allegra’s very good week continues! I got my eyes checked (onset of diabetes, BP etc) and they are VERY GOOD for 62 year old peepers. Little bit cataract in one eye, no biggie, the horrific slide in visual acuity has been completely halted, and I do not have vertical heterophoria, something that often accompanies ADD.

Walked to Planet Bachelor – a very pleasant walk, only a tiny spit of rain on the way home – and Keith cooked a vegan lunch, and they talked and I listened about the move, and they are all so excited and happy it’s just blowing my mind. I thought Paul might need some help but Katie, our matriarch-in-training, is acing it. They’re going to double pay for accommodations so they can take their time. I made some notes.

Suzanne’s ex-husband Bill died in the last few days. The story is not mine to tell. I called Suzanne and while I wasn’t so foolish as to think I could cheer her up after her loss, I did manage to take her mind off her troubles for twenty minutes and that’s not nothing. Two of her four kids are in crisis right now and this family news will not help. Please hit me hard if I complain about my children. Not everything is planning, there’s a lot of fate in there.

The family court date did not provide a resolution, and it’s now going to trial.

Mexican Gothic (by a local sci fi / fantasy / horror writer Silvia Moreno-Garcia) is FINALLY at New West library, I go to pick it up today. Jeff has biz in town so I’m hoping to do a brief tour of the retailers of New West to pick up a couple of essentials as well as the book

People are LOVING my Christmas arts! It’s pleasant to have had some fun with it.

Jan M MADE ME AND JEFF MASKS FOR CHRISTMAS!!! along with a card of a giraffe – her consulting animal – covered in scarves – lol – and the interior MERRY FUCKING XMAS which is absolutely lovely.

 

Destiel round up (pretend this is a Private post)

sane people, pls leave – this is in response to Despair ep 18 of the last season of Supernatural.

Original creator of the show Eric Kripke (at least I think that’s who it is) with a rainbow flag and the word COPE:

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backstory for the above, fans who only like the relationship between the two Winchester brothers are called bibros. Having Cas (canonically his name is CASS but that’s not what we do in fandom, ha ha) an actual life partner – potentially or otherwise – is making them lose their cheese.

 

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Jesus Christ this above noted post made me laugh so fucking hard

the below-noted post IS IMMEDIATELY WHERE MY MIND WENT AFTER THE SHOW WAS OVER

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Yeah NO SHIT, love this callback, although Dean didn’t actually get enough time to say anything

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no, I really haven’t, because that’s the kind of love it is, and always has been represented that way, and fuck the haters

 

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now in the fandom they’re saying destiel is what makes Putin resign, which when you consider HOW MANY RUSSIAN FANS THERE ARE is quite possibly the funniest thing about this tempest in a teacup

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above is shown the catholic reaction….

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LOLOLOL this was the Friday after the show/election

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SPN fandom above is memeified in the Avengers universe. Cas disappears during the scene, but he’s already been resurrected three times, so…

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I think @solarbirdy’s comments on the above noted complete lack of reaction are best, but she’s a filker so I won’t reproduce her speech without permission

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In other words, this represents such an upgrade to the notion of queerbaiting they’ll have to throw out their previous thesis. Also, Tumblr as a social media platform was dying and the extra hits they got as a consequence of Supernatural 15/18 were substantial

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Destiel fans often refer to themselves as clowns.

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the above-noted isn’t exactly what happened either

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nope, not this either and anyone who DOES expect skin should probably give their good ol’ head a shake. I want A HUG FOR THE BOYS that means a little more than the ones they’ve given each other so far.

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EVERY G.D. WORD O’ THIS ABOVENOTED POST

palate cleanser

LOOK UPON THE WOMAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD, now we have to survive the next two months OH PS SHE’S OUT ABOUT BEING A SUPERNATURAL FAN but we do not know how she feels about destiel and I would very much like to think that she STANS.

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WELL I THOUGHT THAT WAS IT, BUT THERE’S ANOTHER CHASER FOR THAT SHOT

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JESUS CHRIST, THIS FANDOM