Stuff and Moonshine

I don't--

I have to assume it's at least partly the Electoral College system and that more than half of the people in the USA don't want this.

Don't know what else to say at the moment.

Talked to some people in the coffee shop. Well, mostly one guy who kept bringing up SFF authors whose names he couldn’t quite remember, so I’d eventually jump in and say “Edgar Rice Burroughs” or “Philip Pullman,” etc.* Now wondering if that was a good idea, because I go there every weekend and I think they’re also regulars, so the chances are high I’ll see one or more of them again and have to talk to them again. But live social interaction is a Good Normal Healthy Thing that I ought to be doing more of, so…



*For some reason he hadn’t heard of E. Nesbit at all. One of the others had heard of her, but hadn’t read her.

Tina Turner has left the stage. An unexpected side-effect of all the radio stations playing her songs in tribute is that I now have the phrase shrimply the best stuck in my head to the tune of “Simply the Best.”

We also lost no-till farmer, researcher and soil conservationist Dave Brandt this week. I learnt this from a Tumblr meme, which is also the medium through which I’d initially learnt of Dave Brandt in the first place-- he’s the farmer in a popular gif captioned “It ain’t much, but it’s honest work." It really was honest work – he’d been experimenting with and promoting ecologically-sustainable farming methods since the 1970s.

Alternating ear worms: Kraftwerk’s “Pocket Calculator” vs. this parody of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.”

The Serial Diners had an in-person meetup on Friday, and we made it up the three flights of stairs to the rooftop at The Pilot in Yorkdale. Expensive, but a nice patio, and we only had drinks and split a plate of fries so… who am I kidding it was still fairly expensive. Worth it to see everybody after the long gap though. I was reminded that Donald follows my tumblr (and probably this blog— *waves*).

Andrew tripped as we were going back down the stairs and bashed into a wall; I was frightened for a moment that I’d heard something break, but we were fairly near the bottom by that point, and Don helped call a cab, and Andrew doesn’t seem to be concussed, though his head and shoulder are still sore, so on Saturday I felt ok leaving him alone for a couple of hours and did grocery shopping, gave into temptation, and bought several balls of yarn I’d been eyeing at the Dollarama for a while— Lion Brand bamboo rayon, $4 a ball, which is about half what they’d cost at Michael’s. Dollarama must have picked up a few batches at a clearance sale somewhere. They only had bright pink and bright orange; I went for the bright orange. It’s very soft and drapey, and I’ve started a loose-knit batwing sweater.

Sunday I went to a clothing swap, which turned out to have been organized by goths, so my wardrobe is now well-set for Fall with a couple of black sweaters; a purplish casual dress in printed jersey, like a long sleeveless graphic tee; a Diane Von Furstenberg-style wrap dress in a white-on-black floral print; a black cotten-twill kilt; a red paisley wrap/dressing-gown sort of thing; some textured grey tights; and a strip of iridescent black coque tailfeathers (i.e. the stuff Desire is wearing as a collar on the new Sandman show).

Realized last night I’d forgot to make the last property-tax payment of the year on Thursday, and I don’t currently have enough to cover it, so I’ll have to do it next week when I get paid. Hope they don’t penalize us too much.

Not Happy At All about the ongoing attempts by the Ontario and Quebec provincial governments to create public and private tiers of health care, which seem likely, if passed, to just make public health care worse.

ETA just remembered: I got this weird phone call at work last Thursday from someone who identified himself as representing an “organization of ununionized workers” wanting to reach out in opposition to unions? I’m guessing some kind of union-busting astroturf group. Not knowing what else to do, I forwarded him to HR. Afterwards it struck me as a bit rich to be making that kind of call the week before Labour Day weekend.

So, it’s “States’ Rights” all the way if the U.S. state in question is trying to ban abortion, but not if they’re trying to limit walking around in public with guns? Did I get that right, U.S. Supreme Court?

Meanwhile in Canada, conservatives gonna conservative, even if they have a ways to go yet to be as bad as the U.S. ones. 

We were going to try and see the Dyke March, as it’s less commercial than the main Pride parade and we figure it could use some support, but something’s come up for that time on Saturday. Will check if Andrew’s up for watching the Sunday event. Of course, since the Saturday thing that’s taking precedence over the Dyke March is a doctor’s appointment because his neuropathy seems to be worsening, we may not manage either parade this year.

(On the positive side, last week's dental visit was fully covered by my work benefits, yay)

Last week I read The Aosawa Murders. I have Thoughts about it but haven’t yet processed them fully enough to post.

Friday my workplace held their annual customer-appreciation BBQ, which involved the most people I’ve ever seen at that location. I also learnt that the cemetery next door is home to a turkey that chases visitors. My benefits have/are about to kick in, so next week we can go to the dentist, yay.

Yesterday was our (me/Andrew) seventeenth anniversary. Rain kept being forecast so we stayed in, but I got us some chocolate.

A client at the medical centre Saturday morning was insisting they couldn’t tell him to wear a mask because ”the government dropped the mandate,” and threatening to call building security on them if they insisted he wear one. AFAIK Life Labs is technically a private company even if what they do is still covered by OHIP, so they can have mask requirements for their own premises, but I don’t know if they stood on this one.

Later I offered some pumpkin seeds to a pigeon, but she (?) didn’t seem interested. Kept hanging around though, and at one point jumped on my purse but it wasn’t a stable platform. Suspect she was hoping if she held out long enough I’d give her crumbs.

For Pride month, a comic by/about Kevin Conroy and his Batman performance.

A lot of Tumblr users reference old-time radio drama as a genre/aesthetic, so today I posted a link to an episode of the Nero Wolfe series with Sydney Greenstreet (and various Archies, but Harry Bartell is the one I like). I even spent $10 on the new “blaze” function to show it to more users.

It’s blatant corporate branding, but I couldn’t resist buying a No Name™ mug.

My writing continues to consist of short Team Fortress 2 fanfics; I got some comments today. Meanwhile, found this video of some TF2 cosplayers doing a photoshoot back in 2012, and it made me feel so happy to watch it. It reminded me of set-painting for university theatre productions, that kind of people getting together and doing some crazy performing-art projects. I miss that.

I’m positive that when I went to bed last night I had on my grey cardigan over my nightgown, but when I woke up I couldn’t find it. So I must have taken it off in my sleep, but where did I put it?

https://www.wonkette.com/supreme-court-roe-v-wade-abortion

and also while I was outside on my lunch break I saw a large bird of prey, possibly a juvenile golden eagle, hunkered down in a vacant lot, presumably also on a lunch break. I suppose if I were an ancient Roman I’d read this as an omen , but I was just excited to see so much wildlife— there were lots of smaller birds nearby, including perhaps the largest congregation of robins I’ve ever seen. The worms must be running, or however it it one expresses that. I didn’t have my camera with me and the possibly-an-eagle was gone when I came back

I don’t know if it’s the weather, or the evening shift catching up with me, or the past couple of years catching up with me, but I’ve been feeling more tired than usual this week. The so-called Truckers’ Convoy is hitting Toronto again tomorrow, and there’s another counter-demo, and I don’t know if I can face it— plus Andrew’s currently running low on lorazapam and his refill isn’t due for a bit and I probably shouldn’t leave him alone when I can avoid it.

In unrelated, more-entertaining news— I’d long been aware of the video game Team Fortress 2, but recently the fanart piqued my interest enough to finally read the online comics that flesh out the game’s absurdist, dystopian, Venture-Brothers-esque universe. Apparently my weaknesses include mad doctors with wire-rimmed specs and a propensity to shrug and say things like “God knows we don’t have souls” (spoiler— on that point the Medic is lying through his shiny and numerous teeth).

ETA— Looks like the counter-demo has been cancelled, due to the gov’t declaring a state of emergency?

Felt a bit listless most of this week— not sure if it was the weather or if the past year is finally getting to me. I don’t feel too bad emotionally, just physically.

Continuing with the knitting and the fanfic-writing. Also the David Lynch movies— today I finally watched Inland Empire. I’d previously heard this one described as weird and incomprehensible even for Lynch, but until I saw it I could not truly comprehend that this movie is two hours and forty-five minutes long, and at least 60% of the run time is Laura Dern’s face making ‘WTF is going on?!!’ expressions, and actually, I can respect that.