Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.
Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?
There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.
This Week's Question: We all probably have multiple WiPs, but which of yours has been hanging around longest, waiting to be finished?
If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.
Trivia, for the record, as I'd wondered about it here before:
As you may know, Tri is the companion character in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: a floating ball of primordial golden energy, a bit bigger than a softball, with some immobile black markings that suggest a face (but may actually be characters in a language, or just stripes, spots, whatever Tri's kind has), and a tail (or ponytail) of triangles that measure out Tri's magic. While the in-dialogue evidence for Tri's gender and/or sex, if any, is scant and conflicting, one of the quest log screens uses "they/their" for Tri (Tri uses "I/my" when speaking). That's canon enough to make a call on which pronouns to use for the character, until/unless other evidence comes.
(Translation is often a lingering and fascinating issue in Zelda games. It's the whole focus of QuestWithAaron.)
I took off work ’til the end of the month. My mom came for a week, my sister for almost a week, and now it’s “vacation” with daily-ish friend visits. I’m hoping my brain will permit playing around with a vid for some of the time. I have ideas for a show and a movie, neither of which I had any plans to vid until compelling songs presented themselves.
I meant to spend about five minutes on plant care and then proceeded to spend about an hour, instead, complete with running myself out of dirt. That's a bit how my weekend has gone, though? I've gotten a lot done.
I took a deep breath and pushed myself past one of my major mental blocks with archiving and it... wasn't bad? Like, I had bumped up against some very old stories that are... Listen, they were never good. And then I asked myself if I really wanted to archive them. Yes, I want them archived. Yes, I've posted them to mailing lists, to Geocities, to my own site, to AO3. I can post them to Neocities and DW. They will continue to be a part of what I've created.
I also reminded myself that I just have to archive them; I don't have to read them. I also wrote a couple of drabbles and then... also archived those! Super-easy, even though one needed a fandom page made. But super-easy! I like this.
Finished up MG Exia, who I totally didn't want to throw out a window multiple times last weekend, nope. He definitely had his moments, but overall I didn't hate the build. (Which is good because I'm going to be doing it a lot.)
I started on HG Sazabi, who will be a much-quicker no-frills build. I'm going to hold off on polls for a bit until I get through my own little to-do list. I still need to build the HG Calrea that got me back into this bullshit.
Caught up with purplehellebore for a birfday lunch and whatnot. Went to the home improvement store and did not buy a 9/16ths wrench. (But I had two people restraining me...) Got some paint from the nerd store. Finished up a prototype for a hollow book.
Shadowverse Worlds Beyond released the other day but the less said about that the better. We're already grousing on mobilegames.
I must prefix this entry with a note of appreciation to Kate R., for looking after "mes animaux de compagnie", Mayhem and Mayday, during my first recent trip to China and Rafe EC for the second. It's good to have such excellent neighbours in my life. My companion ratties are now approaching an entire year of age, which, by a rule-of-thumb, is about 30 years on a human scale. As always, I prefer to let my rodent friends a friend range lifestyle and in this case the study is their home. Poor Mayday, however, is currently in protective custody as his larger brother has power-groomed him a little too much, and his back has too many bite marks. Whilst he disagrees, I assure him it's for his own good, and he seems to be recovering in his relative solitude, spending most evenings snuggled up on my shoulder; it's good to be a rat in my home.
This week, after returning from China, I have, as can be expected, caught up with a lot of work-related business. But I have not neglected my social life either. Kate took me out to the "Ballet of Lights: Sleeping Beauty". It was a very family-friendly affair and, as Kate described it, "P-plates for experiencing ballet". But it was at the Capitol Theatre, a venue I adore, and the costumes with embedded lights were attractive and effective. The following day I caught up with Mel during the day, whom I haven't seen for too long, and then Liza D. for dinner and discussion about her forthcoming performance. The following evening I found myself at Carla BL's Winter Soltice gathering where conversation was vibrant and diverse, but spent most time with Julie A., who joined me today at the Australia-China Friendship Society meeting which was addressed by Dr Fiona Swee-Lin Price on bi-cultural experiences, history, and understanding. Frankly, the presentation was nothing less than glorious, and all attendees thought very highly of the presentation and insights.
It has not been all smooth sailing on this return week, however. I have, unfortunately, experienced a couple of disappointments, one in the form of an otherwise knowledgeable person who stubbornly refused to accept a descriptive error on their own part that was objectively wrong. This occurs more often from political partisanship and typically results in increasingly aggressive responses as the cognitive dissonance kicks in. The other, which I look upon from the benefit of extensive lived experience, is a somewhat sub-optimal life-choice for the person, assuming they care about their future success, but normatively it's their prerogative. In situations like this, one can only offer future support, and then we will remember ("memories in future tense", as "The Church" described it decades ago).
Current Mood:disappointed
Current Location:The Rookery
Current Music:Arcangelo Corelli, Dodici concerti grossi Op.6
I had an excellent weekend last week in Ilkley, watching the Saturday of the Lexus Ilkley Open Tennis Tournament (an early grass season event) with my sisters. They are more into tennis than I am, but live sport is always fun to watch, and we had a lovely day of sunshine that wasn't too blistering, and relaxing entertainment, punctuated with occasional bleating of the nearby sheep.
On the train, I read James Lee Burke's Two for Texas a novella that which has been sitting on my shelves for the better part of two decades. TBR piles never do get shorter. It's an early work by Burke, and lacks the depth of his later books, while showing that promise in his fantastic sense of place and descriptions, and ability to draw the reader straight into scene and character. However its compactness as a narrative was a problem for me because it was drawing on a lot of US cultural history/national mythology that I am simply unfamiliar with. I felt like someone reading a short novel about the trial of Anne Boleyn from the POV of a clerk, written for a British audience, while knowing nothing more about Henry VIII than his name. Sam Houston? Never heard of him, but the city must be named after him so presumably he wins something. Santa Anna? A name with no resonance whatsoever. David Bowie? I know he had a knife... But it was engaging nonetheless, and a reminder that I haven't read Burke for a while. It's time to pick some more recent Dave Robicheaux novels off the TBR pile.
Rook and Tali assisted me in a nap; I take them so seldom that it was felt I needed spotters. I believe I acquitted myself well, though I declined an immediate review.
I'm still working and will be working a while longer. I want to hit a Certain Point this evening, so that I can hit another Certain Point tomorrow.
Tomorrow is, by the way, predicted to be warmer than today, and Monday warmer than that, peaking with really dangerous (for Maine values of dangerous) heat on Tuesday, then easing back to something approaching normal on Thursday.
Coon cat happy hour in about an hour. In the meantime, as I said, still working here -- oh. And I need to water the roses.
Everybody stay safe; I'll see you tomorrow.
Sunday. Glowering and damp. Heading for warm and damp.
Breakfast was hummus, naan, cherries. I'll think of something for lunch.
BEGIN FB-specific Well. I seem to have created a stampede yesterday. You all do realize that if we already share FB friendship that you have already passed through my vetting process, yes? And that the people I was talking to specifically are those who send me a new request for friendship, but have their page locked down so tight, I have nothing to vet.
Which in one way, makes my job very easy, but apparently makes me look churlish and aloof to those I reject.
Yes, yes. First world problems.
END FB-specific
Speaking of which, I see we're at war. I suppose that makes sense: war's good for the economy, after all; and it's a convenient way to get rid of all those excess and annoying non-millionaires -- draft 'em and let 'em get blown up. And there's also that pesky question of elections and the wartime powers of presidents.
Man, I hate this timeline.
deep breath
I'm getting ready to go bury my head in a manuscript.
Always remember that if they had the money to bomb Iran, they had the money for universal healthcare, affordable housing, USAID, even egg subsidies if y'all* were so hell-bent on cheap eggs that you'd elect a fascist.
* Not you, obviously. Or you wouldn't be reading my blog, which has beaten the "don't invade other countries" drum since the early 2000s when I started it.
The plan yesterday was to walk out to Watertown and get some Persian ice cream. I've had my eye on this place since the pandemic. It's a little under 10 miles, and judging by my previous 15-mile walk (the one before I ended up cripped for 2 days), I should have been able to make it there and back.
Well, fitness is one thing, injury is another. I woke up with my knee sending alarm signals--I think it didn't like the new mattress I was trying out. So I had to stop and rest it every 10 minutes or so, and after a couple hours it got better, but only at the expense of non-stop hamstring pain (bad pain, from compensating). So I had to rest more and more frequently.
By Cambridge it was clear I wasn't going to make it to Watertown. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that constantly pulling my phone out to check the map gives me back pain, so I wasn't doing that nearly as often as I should have (considering I was walking through a dense area with many twists and turns on an unfamiliar route), and three separate times I realized I had turned left when I meant right or vice versa, and now I needed to turn around and retrace my steps. That probably cost me close to 3 extra miles.
At that point, I decided to enjoy the Harvard Musem of Natural History. And then I knew I should take public transit back. But my brain was yelling, "I don't wanna!"
So I set off in the general direction of Watertown, knowing I wasn't going to make it 3.5 miles, but figuring I could at least enjoy Mount Auburn Cemetery, only 1.5 miles away.
Turns out the thing I wanted to see most (Nathaniel Bowditch's grave) was .5 miles from the entrance, so that added a full mile. And then I realized there was no making it back to Harvard (1.5 miles), much less to Persian ice cream (2 miles). So rather than take a bus followed by a subway followed by another subway followed by another bus, which would take about 2 hours if everything was on time, I just took a Lyft home. Ugh.
Total walking was about 13 miles, but with absurd amounts of resting and walking slowly. I even got passed by people! Even dog-walking people!
Considering that the only thing I did wrong to fuck up my knees is sleep, and considering their pain levels seem to correlate closely with how I sleep*, I guess my focus needs to be on figuring out the mattress situation.
* They have bizarrely switched from "if I am injured, do not lie on me" to "if I am injured, you must lie on me," which, okay, I'm just trying to keep up here, but you're the boss.
Oh, I'm sure various of my readers are asking, "But, Mildred, why are you not seeing a physical therapist?" and the answer is that during my year of medical leave from work in 2019, when I made getting professional help for my various pains (back, foot, sciatica) a full-time job, none of the many GPs, specialists, PTs, non-traditional practitioners, etc., ever managed to accomplish a single thing for me. Several made it worse. So I have largely given up on the medical establishment + me as a good combination. (When I saw a highly recommended sports medicine doctor about my foot last year, she was all, "It's a mystery!" Yes, I am a mystery. I am a walking mystery.)
The only thing any of my pains have responded to is sleep posture, and occasionally (if I'm lucky) a stretch, so at this point all my energy goes toward sleep posture. I'm still convinced that if I could just sleep with my shoulders aligned, my back pain would get way better, and that's what the latest mattress experiment was all about. I'm still working on that, but I had originally set it up so that I would sleep on my right side, because that's what my more injured left knee wanted--but now my left knee apparently wants me to sleep on my left side (???) so I've got to put in the work to make the mattress so I can sleep on my left side (it's complicated).
Maybe one day I will have a functional body again. I have given up on running for the time being, I think it's just a really bad idea to keep trying. I hope I haven't reached the point where walking is a really bad idea, but I fear I may be there.
- trade friend codes - ask about games - post about in-game events - anything you don't want to make an individual post about - share how the RNG is treating you
2. Finally got Carla's Switch 2 set up on the TV so now we can play Mario Kart World together. It's gonna take me a minute to get used to the split screen view, though.
In case you're wondering what happened with all the stuff from my last RL post :)
- I registered A. for another school (the close-by Catholic school) in case the Head doesn't end up finding them teachers, but it sounds like he probably will, he's got two out of the three teacher slots filled already and is seriously talking to a candidate for the third. Although uh we have some inside info that one of them might not be the best, but we'll see. Anyway I think the most likely outcome is that we will stay at current!school for the next year and seriously think about changing schools (probably either the aforementioned Catholic school or the local homeschool charter that everyone loves) for sixth grade. It sounds like most of his class at current!school is staying for the next year, and it's a nice class -- the thing I was most worried about was all the other kids leaving. Thank goodness school is over now and everyone has better things to do than to perpetuate drama.
- Though one thing: I told AwesomeTeacher (who has no plans to leave) that I expected that DramaParent (the one who has orchestrated the whole school coup) would try to recruit her too, and lo, this happened at the 8th grade graduation. (AT, who is extremely angry about this whole thing, not least because she did not expect to have to worry about whether the school was going to collapse and whether she was therefore going to have a job next year, was like, uh... now I will ignore what you just said and talk to these other nice parents over here!)
- E pulled her grade from a B to a B to a B+/A- to a (low) A on her English paper on her three rewrites (and rightly so: I did agree that her first rewrite was cosmetic, her second rewrite was fundamentally better, and her last rewrite improved it nontrivially as well). I suspect to get a high A or A+ you'd need to think in a rather more sophisticated fashion than E actually does. Anyway, she got an A for the class, so she was very relieved. (In fact due to the wonders of grade inflation she realized she would probably have been able to pull out an A+ for the class if she'd got a better grade on her kid tessellation story, but we both agreed it was not worth it to rewrite that one -- it doesn't actually impact her GPA computation, and also it's useful for her to improve her skills in writing analysis-type papers but not so useful to improve her skills in writing children's books unless she plans to do Yuletide in the future, which she doesn't)
- I am so close to finishing that silly blanket, I have finally put the squares together and I just have one round of the border left and it is like zeno's blanket
For those who like the Greek classics, I'm gratified to announce my little one-act play on the death of Orpheus, "Orpheus Changed" is up at Eternal Haunted Summer. Summary: middle-aged Orpheus meets an old woman on a hill and they have a chat that preserves the three unities of ancient Greek drama.
“Orpheus” attributed to Jean Francois Duqueylard (c. 1800)
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