Category: Writing

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.

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!

 

shoutout

Shoutout to Paul for the walk and the shared meal and the brief and lovely chat with Keith (who surprisingly came home for lunch at Planet Bachelor since he was at his gig around the corner) and the errands. You continue to be my prop and stay and I really appreciate you!

Also Keith for voluntarily calling his grandmother. It’s nice to know I raised a polite young man even if he isn’t always necessarily polite to me, and it remains possible I deserved it.

Big shoutout to Jeff, with an apology for buying those damned treats. I’ll be suffering too…. THEYARESOGOOD

but I do not care.

Shoutout to Sue, who very kindly stayed in touch with me briefly before and after her scheduled hospital maintenance trip which meant I didn’t have to worry about her.

Mike, as always, this is just me putting my hand on my heart.

BIG BIG shoutout to Katie, letting me know she hulksmashed her way through her first week at work – apparently impressing the hell out of her boss.

Fractal shoutout to Liz, who is proving quite amusing on twitter and how fun it is to reconnect with her.

 

I WANT TO KILL EVERY MISDIAGNOSING FUNGAL SPORE PACKET OF A DOCTOR. Complaining for a friend, Doc W is fine, thanks.

Daycard is seven of swords

I hate that little fucker, and of course I get the seven of swords disproportionately often; the sneaky sneaky man; the entitled man; the man who never cites his sources or gives credit where it’s due. I once got the seven of swords as a daysign three times in one week; it’s been twice in the last seven days. Hate’im, as I believe I mentioned. You know who I never get? The Emperor and the Hierophant.

At IHOP this morning, Jeff and I started riffing on the idea of the flat Earth as being a pancake; then Jeff thought about a spatula keeping the earth flat, and then I said “God’s Invisible Spatula” and there was much mirth. Both of us have a very hard time understanding how anybody could believe such nonsense.

26490 is the current word count. Theo and Varisha are strolling up and down a virtual beach in Tyre and Raven has accepted that this strange little sixer is in fact her closest friend. I also wrote about 1000 words of fanfic yesterday.

Good news and good humour only

Eleven Saudi princes have been jailed for refusing to pay their electric bills. I wish I could stick a microphone in the face of a Saudi woman in the street for her opinion on this matter.

I have actually started reading Fire and Fury and it’s like THE FANFIC BOOK OF POLITICAL FUCKERY. It’s just well written enough to be tolerable, and every page has a line or a quote that will echo through global politics as conducted in English for the next twenty years, at minimum.

Daycard is Temperance BWA HA HA That just means I have to balance my work and work on ALL THE PROJECTS today.

Spoke to Katie yesterday, she’s thrilled by her new job and apart from the DNA Donor her life is going mahvellously. Hope to see one or both of the kids today, as well as making a phone call or two to loved ones far away.

I just want everybody to know that since I stopped taking pills for Helicobacter I’ve had a normal bowel movement every day but one. I’ve had constant low grade diarrhea since I was in public school. I keep pulling out the Bristol Stool Chart and thinking OMG I’M A SOLID 4  (literally…) and holy shit, is the state of my digestion the only thing I’ll care about for the rest of my life?

No, because I no longer have to worry about it.  My farts don’t hardly smell at all any more, it’s like I’ve lost part of my personality. Even picturing Jeff’s face as he reads this is enough to make me laugh quite immoderately… the top bunk is vibrating, I’m laughing so hard.

Word count 26401, working on George and Raven right now.

Self-care requirement of the day: I SIMPLY MUST SHOWER my hair is acting like there’s gel in it, but there isn’t.

TTTO: The Colonel Bogie March

Scrotum – it is a piece of skin

Scrotum – it holds your testes in

Scrotum – don’t overload ’em

Or you’ll explode’em

and then you’ll have

none