Classic Cards to Know and Love

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Grow Island

I'm getting better. I beat this one in, like, an hour.

And, By the Way...

The podiatrist cleared me for kickboxing.

I can start up again next week!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Things here have been all quiet on the western front, mainly because I've been out and about a whole lot. I knew there had been some sort of odd turn when I realized that I hadn't read my LJ list in several days and didn't particularly miss it. I finally understood that what keeps me spending loads of time on the internet is, often, lonliness.

And I've been desperately lonely for a long time.

David and I bowed out of our year-long distance relationship a couple weeks before I went to Switzerland, and even so, we spent a grand time together there as friends. Though the ending of the relationship wasn't my first choice, I respect and understand his decision. I think you can build a mutually fulfilling relationship over distance, but both people have to want to do that, and have to want to work at it, and the passion for doing that was, alas, one-sided.

So it goes. Nobody you can blame for that.

So you get up. You rebuild.

And in this case, what that means is that I've been out a lot doing this bizarre "dating" thing that, apparently, the majority of people do in this country.

"Dating"... ha ha.

When was the last time I actually fucking "dated"? I mean, really?

You know, I'm so bad at "dating." If somebody makes it past three dates, it's either cause I'm serious or... well, OK, really, it's only cause I'm serious. Or bizarrely attracted to them even though I know we're not good for each other.

I'd like to say that it concerns me that I don't "get to know" more people, but you know, I get to know a lot of people everyday - at work, on line, at cons - I figure those are as much casual dating experiences as actual dating, only without the uncomfortable "interview-like" atmosphere of a first date, which I appreciate (there is nothing, NOTHING worse than one of those first-date "interviews"). I think my preference is always to be friends first. Then there's less pressure, and you're already familiar with some of the more standard quirks by the time you end up making out.

Anyhow, lovely as it's been to get around Dayton and actually eat out and see shows, I've come to realize that DATING IS REALLY EXPENSIVE.

Sure, splitting most expenses while traveling to see your SO is also pretty fucking expensive four times a year, but going out three times a week? Pretty fucking expensive. Expensive: all the time.

But!

But.

Hanging with somebody and laughing ridiculously all the time?

Having somebody around who holds your hand?

Engaging in Shakespearean-like insult wars?

But anyway, dating = good but expensive.

Also, dating = less writing time.

But that's OK, because the dating is distracting me from the cold hard fact that my book's on the examining table in two particular places right now, and it's something I have no interest in dwelling on. Or thinking about. Or, in fact, writing about.

So I'm going to eat some Chipotle, read some books, and go be silly somewhere.

Group Conformity

One of my fav social experiments:

Asch conformity experiments

Demonstrating the power of one person speaking up and making a fuss. Groups need the impulsive individuals to keep them honest. This is why I speak up and talk back.

If you don't, it's very possible that no one else will.

If you do speak, it's very likely somebody else will stand up, too.

Sometimes you have to have courage because others don't.

Stephen Colbert vs Steve Carell

The hits.

Um

Um, I mean... REALLY??? WTF?

One of the toughest things to find when you're going to an SF/F art show looking for art that features tough female heroines is finding tough female heroines who are actually wearing clothes and looking like physcially tough female heroines. You know, the sorts of heroines whose outfits don't make you burst out laughing.

Sigh.

Mixing In

My nephew practices his super ninja camouflage skills.

Yay!

It takes so little to delight me...

September Simmer

The good news about getting a writing job is that 1) it's a writing job! 2) it pays me more than 20K a year!

The bad news is, all that extra moolah needs to start getting funneled back into stuff that I couldn't afford to do back in March.

This month I'll go back to paying two regular student loan payments that I deferred back when I was unemployed, and starting October 1st, I'll be paying a "token" rent payment of $250 to my far more fiscally responsible roommates (this basically just covers my share of expenses and maybe some book money for them).

To be honest, being able to pay *all* of my bills *and* make a token rent payment again pleases me to no end. There's nothing I hate more than feeling like I'm not pulling my share. I want to be the strong, fiscally responsible one - letting other people take care of me when I'm down is one of the most frustrating, aggravating things about being sick and unemployed. Yeah, yeah, I realize people are supposed to take care of each other when they're down, and there's the karma thing, and when I'm successful, I'll take care of others, but it doesn't make accepting kindness any fucking easier.

I'm glad to be in the place I am right now, but fuck did I have to burn through a lot of scary shit to get here.

Have I mentioned how much the last year has SUCKED??

But there's a lot of light out here on the other side.

Visions of Tinkerbell

More here. But, predictably, this is as butch as they get...

Workaday Morning

First impressions and assumptions (from here):

The family picture is on his desk
Ah, a solid, responsible man
The family picture is on her desk
Um, her family will come before her career

His desk is cluttered
He's obviously a hard worker and a busy man
Her desk is cluttered
She's obviously a disorganised scatterbrain

He is talking with his co-workers
He must be discussing the latest deal
She is talking to her co-workers
She must be gossiping

Read the rest here

Still Funny

Oh so funny.

Boy, I'm easy.

The Dresden Files

Why do they cancel good shows?

No, seriously, why? What's the politics of this?

Let's take a show about a perpetually single guy wizard and his ghost-in-the-skull assistant who gets to help out these distressed-but-oh-so-not-weak, usually very kewl, romantically inclined female characters, throw in a tough female police lieutenant who he can work with and have lots of sexual tension with, and then....

Cancel it.

Let's do that, because, you know, too many good characters here, too many roles for Women Who Don't Completely Suck (no, it doesn't bother me that they're often hot on the geeky male lead - that's the genre. If it was a woman wizard [omg the kewlness!] I'd expect the same sort of men [and possibly ladies!] being romantically inclined toward her thing), too much fun and world building.

I mean, for fuck's sake, Buffy got seven seasons.

Granted, OK, I've only see the first disc of shows. But COME ON people.

This is why I don't fucking watch TV, because people keep canceling Firefly, Carnivale, and shows like The Dresden Files.

Fuckers.

The politics of these decisions are just baffling.

Damn

Hot damn.

Today's Song, Stuck on Repeat

Melissa Ferrick - "Every Three Words"

I can only hear
Every three words
So make 'em count
Cause I'm out here
Barely hanging on

There's no else I'd
Wait around this long for
Take this much no for
Makes me wonder what we're in for

So would you give me some hope
Ya give me a reason
To keep on trying
Come on buy me flowers
Smile me that smile
Cause I just need a little something from you
For the rest of my life

And I'm sure that I've got some kind of
Motive here and when I figure it out
I'll fill you in
But every body knows
That I'm a sucker for a hard sell
Ya look at me dancing
All the way into your slaughter house
Look at me dancing for you

So would you give me some hope
Give me a reason
To keep on trying
Come on buy me flowers
Smile me that smile
Cause I just need a little something

All I need is one crack of light
To see where the entrance is
Come on open the door baby
And let's expose the answers
Yes as to why we have been through
All we've been

So would you give me some hope
Ya give me a reason
To keep on trying
Buy me flowers
Smile me that beautiful smile
Cause I just need a little something from you
For the rest of my life
For the rest of my life

Why Do I Find This Shit So Funny?

OMFG

OMFG.

Seriously, people. SERIOUSLY.

Quote of the Day

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."
~ Samuel Beckett

The Family: Here, There and Elsewhere

Back in Washington, my nephew decides to borrow my mom's glasses and do a little light reading....


And my little brother, now in his MIB program at Portland State, teaches my nephew how to look stylish.


Here in Ohio, Ian and Steph acquire another four-footed friend for Casa de Dayton - Kimmy Lou.


Getting the girls ready to go out...


Kimmy Lou takes it easy...