Category: Writing

after some mucking about with the shovel and the salt Jeff and I repaired to the grocery store; came back and watched some tv and then Paul and I went out and had lunch, went to a local meeting about food security at which Jagmeet showed up, and Peter Julian, got my replacement bank card and went for a walk at the quay and I GOTS CHOCOLATE

It’s still falling quite heavily, doing a great job of messing up the evening commute I imagine.

Yesterday spent a couple of hours over at Planet Bachelor and painted planets with Master Alex.

The kids fed me Indian food and then I went off home.

Timed out the homily – it’s going to be a whopping 28 minutes, if I don’t speed read the entire thing.

Did a whole bunch of laundry and emptied the dishwasher, practiced some, tried working on a song but nothing was coming. Watched some Umbrella Academy (I like it, and I’m especially blown away by Number 5, an actor of 16 named Aidan Gallagher.)

Literally my oldest friend emailed me the other day and I’m thrilled outta my mind. We’re catching up on line and I now have yet another reason to visit Ottawa.

wrote a pitch letter

got about 200 words in on the fanfic

drank coffee

took my vitamins

and now I’m waiting for Katie to appear to take me to breakfast.

too brief and lovely convo with mother which concluded with

“and I’ll be seeing an old school chum from Uni”

“Oh who mother”

“Mrs. P.”

“Oh yes, how could I forget her, her husband tried to drown daddy.” (Boating accident on the Ottawa River; camera drowned, daddy did not.)

“Yes, and that was the first day we ever heard Bob Dylan, too,”

and I gravely say, “It was an important day for us all.”

 

But gosh, to be able to remember far enough back when Bob Dylan wasn’t everywhere all the time with a warp and weft consistency that we’d have to destroy civilization to entirely remove.

 

I M OLD

Pardon me is this stool taken
is the oldest pick up line among flies
Madam were I to employ it
‘Twould be the prelude to heartbreak and lies
There are a dozen flies abuzz around us
I hope you can hear me over this din
I would not say is this stool taken
I’ve got no plans for takin’ you in

….. Sir you are so kind
Not feeding me that old line
Your approach is so much better
You decided to take it meta
Now if we can but see
compound eyes to compound eyes
We might just get real busy
And make some baby flies!

I love being at Mike’s. He was cooking dinner, cod and bok choi and quinoa, and I was writing the above noted song. It’s a two step, sounds very late 30’s.

The snow continued; Mike put a warming bulb under the syrop for the hummingbirds.

How much I enjoyed this show.  Looking forward to season two.

She looks so much like Sandy.

anywess Jeff her bf irl’s the guy who voices Kevin in Final Space, Fred Armisen

Soundtrack – perfect

Cat usage – perfect

Getting your hair cut by a homeless person – perfect

Groundhog day similarities – not that much, actually

Set dec – OMG

NEW YORK AS A CHARACTER YET AGAIN

Costumes – WANT DO WANT Natashas big shouldered jackets

Work life balance – the only time you see her it work it is TO CORRECT THE FUCKUP THAT ONE OF HER MALE COWORKERS PUT INTO THE SOFTWARE TO FUCK HER UP and she corrects it in seconds

The close relationship with the Deli Guy РI HAVE HAD THIS RELATIONSHIP his name was Hossein but everybody in Etobicoke called him Jos̩ but me.

The time her time loop colleague says ‘You’re really smart’ and her expression as she says “Thanks for noticing”.

 

aaaand Natasha Lyonne is the actor I mention in chapter 45 of the online version of Midnite Moving Co

 

so every once in a while I go poke my head over into whatever is happening in epistemology these days – hey it’s an evolving discipline, like all the talk-talk disciplines. So now some of the philospherical types are slicing it up, like so:

Heron and Reason offer four interrelated ways in which people know:

• Experiential: knowing directly through experience
• Presentational: knowing through artful means
• Propositional: knowing conceptually
• Practical: knowing through skilful doing

-end quote-

You know me, I love lists and I love applying stuff ‘cross disciplines where it ought not go and I’m thinking about the AIs inside sixers and how they would ‘know’ anything, or be able to confirm it, and how sixers themselves experience consciousness as just that, experiential and the AIs riding them experience it as propositional. The whole ‘arguing from different premises’ *while they occupy they same physical shell* concept amuses me greatly.

So I don’t know who Heron and Reason are but they’ve got the list in the wrong order. The list should be in alphabetical order. Not only is it easier to remember that way, you’re climbing up past the amygdala into the frontal lobe as the list goes by. But what do I know, I’m just a stupid general purpose utility writer.

 

Somebody’s in the alley revving their car to either get into or out of their driveway JESUS GET OUT AND SHOVEL WHAT THE HELL DUDE

stopped finally thank Api

there’s about 20 cm out there and I will deal with it before school starts today

 

NO SNOW DAYS this is Burnaby, the toughest little town in the lower mainlaind.

 

For an Ontario driver like Jeff it’s trivial.

I can’t even talk about what’s got me upset right now anywhere on the internet AND I’M SO PISSED OFF fuck you capitalism. You’ll hear about it direct, mOm, and you can say there there and thank Christ you’re too intelligent to involve yourself in social media, visits, telephones and email being plennnnty sociable enough for you.

Today’s plan; binge watch Russian Doll mixed in with rehearsing and trying to finish this stupid fic, which is Pavlova’ing all over the stage as a dying swan.

Yesterday’s plan, a couple of hours with Alex; we sang, he jumped on the bed, played pinball, helped me make chocolate cake, and then eat it (he’s never been asked to help bake HA HA HA HA HA HA EVIL g’ma laugh, so he LOVED THE SIFTER and stirring and bagged at me for not letting him crack the eggs.

I told the story about the landpeer? Or did I? I think I told mOm. Landpeer K. came by and just because he’s mine, cute and biddable, Alex got 20 bucks out of her for CNY.

I LOVE VANCOUVER how could I not.

 

TONS OF SNOW just fell off our roof. I’m minding my business in the kitchen – can’t sleep, have about 5 hours under my belt already- AND RUUUUUUSHHHHH THWUUUUMMMPPP

 

Started research for more books. I am ceasing writing activities on Upsun until all the completed manuscripts are published. Other activities, like finalizing covers, final edits, trying to locate additional resources for wider publication, will continue without being noted.

The research is also an infill activity while I work out if I’m going anywhere or doing anything travel wise until next Conflikt. Conflikt 2020, my god, I had no idea that was in my future as PESTMASTER GENERAL. I was thinking of Ontario in April – such a lovely change of allergies, with bonus flurries – but FilkOntario can get by without me. BESIDES IF I GO AND MY LUTHIER IS THERE oh I can just picture how that conversation would go. MUMMY MUMMY THERE’S A – whatever – cittern. DADDY there’s a TWANGIBOX 442 AND I SIMPLY MUST HAVE IT Nah. I should stay home, if I can’t buy an instrument on Airmiles.

I could make my own Twangibox 442, with steatite inlay. Works to repel intruders if you can’t squeeze a tune out of it. Clarn. Clarn.

Brain weasels are generating tunes faster than I can record them. Or want to:

Brief family break:

Saw Katie for breakfast yesterday. After we went to Walmart (she was talking about having to spend so much time with the crybaby (I will never forgive his performance in family court even though I wasnae there) because someone else totalled his car and yes he’s dinged up but Alex thanks to modern technology was unharmed enough to be mortally offended that the Mack truck driver LAUGHED AT HIM because he was crying and there he is being Alex and taking on toxic masculinity one asshole at a time) and I told her to lower her voice, we’re not Walmart white trash and she lowered her voice to hiss “I just dyed my hair blonde and you’re wearing a kitty hat, we ARE WALMART WHITE TRASH,” at which point I was the one making all the fucking noise.

Okay back to the glamorous life of an independent writer.

The first installment of the new writing, which will not start until the fall, since I’m literally going to take six months to plan every page of this motherfucker, will have no sixers in it at all. Sixers are in the news, are part of daily slang, but they have little to no impact on the human characters. Second will be the lead character bonding with a sixer while working on a project. Third will be about eco-sculpting over decades and will be crawling with sixers. SHIMPLY KHRAWLING I tell you.

I want Jeff to take me out to get a donut but I don’t think he can hear my brainwaves yet.

Ooh, somebody with 70k followers really liked my tweet. It’s an aphorism: Imperialism is about flags, money on the side, globalism is about money, flags on the side.

The first thing that happens is that someone turns up to mansplain it. I splained right back to him, and now I feel like I need a donut.

 

The tarp is in the process of blowing off the roof. The landlord has been informed but as you can imagine with this wind, which is gusting so hard the house shakes — but nothing shows up on local weather information showing more than 18kph, it all seems kind of weird.

I am experiencing lots and lots of boring migraine symptoms. I should put this keyboard away and sleep, hein? But I wrote 2500 words of dreck yesterday and I imagine I’m good for another 600-1000 and maybe finish the homily, I may be good for that, so after my pre-dinner nap. Hey, I was awake at two this morning, I’m allowed to sleep when I’m tired. Or need to close my eyes.

 

Then I binged A Discovery of Witches, slept some more and now I feel fine.

Yesterday I was so messed up I could scarcely talk.

Today it’s like OKAY LET’S GO DO A SHOP BEFORE THIS PUTATIVE SNOWSTORM

Lots to complain about right now..

Going to be cold. First fuckton of snow, then cold.

Paperwork inconvenience.

Missing Alex but not wanting to leave the house.

I’m feeling quite strange; it’s possible this weird mood is a migraine, I had a massive, long lasting scintillating scotoma yesterday and the imprecation exclamation slur of a barometer’s been hopping and popping.