allezhop

Image: artsy shot of lilac buds (photo credit: Naomi Kritzer)

A few years ago,

naomikritzer and I were talking about cherry blossom viewing (Hanami) in Japan. We were lamenting that we don't really do anything like that nation-wide in the US, even though there are plenty of places, like Washington, DC, which are intentionally planted with a lot of cherry trees. We decided that the only thing that comes close here in the Midwest is leaf peeping. People will follow maps of when peak leaf color is hitting various parts of the states and make destination trips to see the fall colors.

However, we wanted to do something in spring and decided that lilacs are kind of more like the Midwestern cherry tree. They're planted everywhere, even along the highways, and they come in lots of varieties. So, we've decided to make Lilac Hanami an annual thing. This is our second year.

Besties at a picnic

Two dorks out enjoying the spring blossoms. (Photo credi: Naomi Kritzer)

Last year, we bought sushi at a grocery store and wandered up Summit Avenue to the lilac tunnels. Saint Paul, in its infinite wisdom, decided to chop those hundred year old lilacs down to the ground. I'd actually worried that they'd killed them. However, they do seem to be recovering, but they do not have the energy to produce flowers this year. So, we had to try a new place. Naomi found a park literally called Lilac Park. (https://restorelilacway.com/parks/renewed-lilac-park-formerly-roadside-park-st-louis-park-mn/about/). The drive over there was gorgeous. We went past the Lake of the Isles and all through some really fancy parts of Minneapolis.

The park itself is quite small, but the information about it is fascinating. It was established in 1939 and was once part of "Lilac Way" whixh was a bunch of intentional lilac plantings along Highway 100. It also happens to be right across fro the Nordic Wear factory.

We decided this year to home-make some of our treats. Naomi made both egg sandos and fruit sandos.

Image: fruit sandos

My onigiri were fun to make, but not as photogenic:

Onigiri

Image: home-made rice balls (in the background is visible egg sandos, Pocky. and a Korean fruit drink.)

It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. There was a whole gaggle of fairly tame geese who were happy to eat our leftovers and, as we were leaving a giant tom turkey and hen showed up to strut around. We hung out for an hour or so just chatting about books (the new Murderbot being out), life, and such.

Image: white lilac

maju

Dinner last night was ok. Not great, but not horrible. My daughter and son in law are very big on eating meat, while I am not so keen. My son in law loves steak and hamburgers, and his daughters also seem to like hamburgers although they're not so interested in steak. (But will eat it when it's served.) The hamburger place we went to for dinner had a few things on the menu that weren't steak, including fish and chips, macaroni cheese, and something they called shepherd's pie. I ordered the shepherd's pie, and I don't think they really understood what shepherd's pie should be like. It was very tasty, if slightly too salty, but there was only a minuscule amount of meat in it, and way too much corn. (In my opinion, any corn in a shepherd's pie is too much corn.) I realise I've just said I'm not a bit meat eater, but the premise of a shepherd's pie is that there is a layer of minced/ground meat topped with a layer of mashed potato, and this pie didn't really have a layer of meat, more just a few scattered pieces of meat here and there under the potato. The mashed potato topping was fine except for being far too wet; it didn't really hold its shape or act like a pie topping should.

Also on the menu was what sounded like a delectable chocolate cake covered in chocolate ganache and with a vanilla filling. I was too full to eat it then and there (and nobody else was having dessert) so I ordered one to take away and have just now eaten it as part of lunch. It was very good but also very very filling and I don't feel like I will need much dinner tonight.

I have no idea why, but I woke up this morning around 1:30 am (after only about 4 hours sleep) and couldn't get back to sleep. I lay in bed reading for a while and eventually got up and started my day an hour or so earlier than usual, deciding that I would do the almost unheard of thing for me, that is, take a nap later in the day. So before lunch I lay down to try to sleep and I think I did manage to drift off for 15 or 20 minutes. I definitely hope to have a better night tonight.

This morning I solved the mystery of the unidentified buzzing/beeping object in my room. It turned out to be the old phone my daughter gave me for receiving log in codes for her work bank account. It's not on any phone plan but can receive codes as long as it's connected to the wifi. I keep it in the top drawer of the chest of drawers next to my bed, and when it was buzzing last week it was hidden behind a pile of clothes in the drawer but this morning it was visible so I could see its screen lit up when the buzzing started and was obviously coming from that drawer. I can't log in to the phone (I don't need to because when the bank sends a code it's visible on the screen even when the phone isn't open), but my daughter was able to sign in to the phone and discover that someone from a UK phone company had been trying to call her about some promotion they were offering. She has turned off the vibrate function and changed some other settings, so we hope we don't get more mysterious sounds from the phone. Obviously I don't really care if it makes noises during my waking hours, but I don't want to be woken up at 3 or 4 am by someone calling from the UK five hours ahead.

seawasp

I have to remember to put in cuts so I don't post walls of text.

( Read more... )
(while I've been writing this it's also become clear to me that there would be a major problem with current AIs whether or not they were actually sentient/sapient and I suppose I should write that one soon to make sure I don't forget, because it has a big bearing on all the reported "the AI lied/tried to escape/blackmailed" events and how that kind of thing is bloody inevitable because of the way the things are trained. But that's a different post)

ruric

It's been a while since I did one of these.

HOME: currently in the middle of revamping my "Do ALL The Things" list so I can knuckle down and achieve things over summer and autumn.

HEALTH: still not quite built in regular gym attendance. Am back to taking all the supplements as feeling a bit run down and my knee is a bit crunchy right now.

LIFE ADMIN: completely forgot about green waste for cottage and first council tax payments. Dealing with those today. Sorting pensions on back burner until decluttering done - which should reveal where I stashed all the paperwork!

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: looked away from my email for a month - back to purging my main and secondary email accounts and unsubbing from things. Staying on top of transferring To Keep items from tablet to dropbox, have started reviewing and decanting images from phone because it is FULL.

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: need a full weekend on the allotment and several evenings on the garden.

COOKING/EATING: have actually been cooking and eating properly!

READING/LISTENING: unsurprisingly I'm reading exclusively Heated Rivalry fanfic and there's so much of it - 33,268 fics as of 1pm today. I'm barely scratching the surface and most of what I've read is sooooooo good. I've broken my own rule multiple times and am reading so many WIPs.

WATCHING: still Heated Rivalry - though I have started to catch up on my back log of other shows. But I feel a proper one episode a day HR rewatch coming on.

CREATING/LEARNING: still have crochet projects underway - but classes were suspended for a while as tutor ended up in hospital with pneumonia. She's out and doing staged return now. Hopefully will be a meet up this Friday.

CATS: all good. They're both being super affectionate at the moment. Cuddles all the time.

VOLUNTEERING: allotment plant sale was Saturday - well attended, bought loads of things.

SOCIALISING: had weekend away with

gingerpig as per previous post which was delightful.

WORK: office move done, still under-resourced and under-budgeted - but I just need to hang on
4 more years until 2030 when I can retire.

Today I'm working from home (which means a tip run at 3pm - results of more decluttering) then office days until Friday lunchtime.

d_square

Five Years in the making.

( Read more... )

maju

Yesterday afternoon Violet asked me to find and print some sheet music for her - the Imperial March from Star Wars - because she wanted to practise it on the glockenspiel because, I guess, they're learning it in band at school. I found some that she says is right (for piano), but I'm worried that it won't be in the right key. Regardless, she spent some time writing the names of the notes under the lines of music and then practising it on the piano. Meanwhile, Eden asked me to find the same piece of music for clarinet, so I did that as well, and I heard her practising it on her clarinet briefly.

This morning when I went through the garage just after 6 am to go for a run I discovered my son in law in there just getting started on putting something together for my daughter for mother's day. (A mini greenhouse I think.) When I came back from the run about 75 minutes later he was still working away, but at least the pieces were all joined together by then.

When I came upstairs for breakfast after the run I found Aria and Eden in the kitchen; Aria had made toast for her mother and Eden was making her a cup of hot chocolate. (Violet was in the garage giving her father moral support.)

After breakfast they all went out, first to a nursery where my daughter bought lots of herb and vegetable plants as well as some rhubarb she was very excited to find, and then to a Goodwill. I could have gone with them but I was still in my sweaty running clothes when they were ready to leave so I had a quiet morning at home instead. When they got home my daughter gave me four bars of chocolate and a package of gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Yum.

This evening we're going out for dinner; I'm told we're going to a fancy burger place.

gs_silva

Christine lies on her dorm room bed talking on the phone with a book

"Mom, I'm doing GREAT," Christine says into the phone. "Well, yes, it's hard. it's med school. But-"

Her mother interrupts her.

She continues. "Boys? No. I'm too busy."

"I'm not actively dating Ren right now."

"BECAUSE I'M IN MED SC-"

"I don't CARE what Pastor Dobson says."

"Okay, fine. Happy Mother's Day, Mom."

I portray a variety of mother/child relationships in Alien Romance.
Cathy's mother is an intellectual in the Lyon fine arts community and raised her like a little adult, steeping her in culture, but was stymied by Cathy's behavioral and educational struggles and the general chaos by which Cathy lives her life. They're pretty close but have that difference as a chasm between them, and now, living on two different continents at a time when international communication was quite difficult, rarely speak anymore. Cathy is in an endless cycle of resenting and forgiving her mother when they do talk.

Ren, being the youngest by far of six kids, has a mixed relationship with his mother - she was gentlest with him of all her children, but she's also much older and has been a grandmother for years now. She's profoundly proud of him for pursuing a medical career, but she doesn't have a lot of tangible support to offer, and she's very socially conservative so she pushes him to be a Man's Man even when he's not interested. Sig, her only other son, was a deep disappointment, and she takes her grief out on Ren in many small ways.

Maurice and his Má are very close. He was born right as she was arriving in the US, and she was totally dependent on her new husband and his family of Russian immigrants, and it didn't go well for her at first, so she clung to the baby as her lifeline for the first few years of his life. She influenced the way he acquired language, teaching him Vietnamese so she'd have someone to talk to, and then she let it slide as her English improved, so he remembers hardly any now. Running a grocery store framed their relationship - she's been his boss as well as his mother, and they both serve the big boss, Maurice's father, who is emotionally distant and firmly demanding.

Ella and Jon's mother, Lindsey, was a Sports Mom to the extreme for many years, focusing so intently on Jon's performance that she actively demanded little Ella take a back seat to all his wants and opportunities. She tried to set the siblings against each other as a way to exert control, which backfired - when Jon noticed (when he was about 8 and Ella was 5), he turned the tables on her. It was kids against parents, an all-out war, and he leveraged his sports participation against Mom and Dad so they could never win this war. As a result, Ella and Jon have the kind of sibling bond that usually comes out of abusive households. When Lindsey divorced her husband, she was so exhausted and alienated that she moved across the country and started a cult with her new boyfriend, and they haven't heard from her in a couple of years.

Christine's mother pressured her to be a good little girl and groomed her to be wife material. But Christine was too tall, too loud, and when she discovered her love of science (a subject not popular in the Holmes household), she started planning her escape. Christine's sister Susan broke their mother by living what Mrs. Holmes would consider a sinful lifestyle - she married Linda, a much older woman. (It was only the 80's, but they do have a marriage license, because one of them was AMAB.) In spite of this, Susan turned out to be the 'good' child, staying nearby and cultivating a relationship with their mother while Christine jets off to pursue her goals without their parents' approval.

It's fun to invent familial relationships that aren't the usual tropes you see in fiction. I've actually, just reading self-published or pre-published fiction written by friends, seen a lot of portrayals that loyally followed the tropes. Not sure why. Real life isn't like that. Each and every one of you, dear readers, can describe your real life situations that subvert tired tropes. You are my inspirations. I love you all and hope you have a good day each in your own way.

gs_silva

Ren is in the kitchen with his mom on thanksgiving

"Ren," says Kay Swanson, "These deviled eggs are for everyone!" She's preparing Thanksgiving dinner in a chaotic, cluttered kitchen, with the turkey on the countertop nearby waiting to be carved. A tall, wiry woman in her sixties with glasses and her hair styled in a blown-out bob, Kay is half farmer's wife and half middle-class housewife; the Swansons are among the wealthiest in their tiny rural community, although they've certainly weathered the same ups and downs as their less financially comfortable neighbors (many of whom are cousins).

Ren is in Youngest Child mode here. "Just doing quality control, Ma." He pops another deviled egg in his mouth, not worried about consequences. He's more than half a foot taller than her, and at age 20, he's still her baby.

Kay asks him, "Do you think Cathy will like all this food or should I make something special for her?"

"Special like what?" he wonders.

Kay frowns onto her tray of what's left of the deviled eggs. "After all that fancy food we had in France, I'm scared she won't like my cooking," she confesses.

Ren bends down and gives her a warm side hug. "She's been here a year now. She eats hot dogs and Froot Loops with the best of us."

That's a bit of an exaggeration. Cathy brings some fresh produce and home cooking into the diets of the other Aliens. She's tried Froot Loops at least once, though!

This comic is a mirror of my Patreon page. It's all free to view both here and there, but if you feel like supporting me monetarily for all the work that goes into this (too many hours a day, haha), you can subscribe there or maybe donate to my ko-fi tip jar. It's amusing that ko-fi compares a donation to a cup of coffee, because this comic is powered by actual coffee! And ibuprofen. Caffeine enhances the efficacy of ibuprofen! It really does work! For that matter, a small donation will also pay for a 50-count bottle of ibuprofen.

maju

My trip to the puzzle swap at the library was very quick. I wanted to walk because I was only carrying four puzzles and it's under 20 minutes, but there was rain in the forecast so I drove, and it was just as well because it was raining quite heavily by the time I left. Anyway, there was a huge number of puzzles laid out according to number of pieces on large tables around the edges of the community room at the library, and only a small number of people, maybe ten or twelve at most, browsing. There were far more 1000 piece puzzles than any other number, and although I donated three 500 piece puzzles, I brought home only 1000 piece puzzles because you didn't have to only choose puzzles of the same number of pieces as you donated. (300+, 500+, and 2000+ were the other categories.) I was sorry I could only choose four, but it was strictly on the basis of bring one, take one. Next time I'll have more, because I still had three left here at home that I haven't done yet. I really hope this will be a regular event.

I had a short "attack" of ear pain this morning which started soon after I got up. It was quite mild and bearable for two or three hours until I put in my earbuds to do a Duolingo lesson, and the earbuds instantly made it worse. (Lesson learnt.) I lay down with the painful ear positioned as comfortably as possible on a pillow, and the pain was gone within about half an hour.

ruric

Had a lovely Bank Holiday away at

gingerpig's.

Drove up Sunday early evening and had a very clear run so arrived in Suffolk just before 8pm - dinner of pizza, wine and chat and before we knew it we were into the wee small hours and retired at 1:30am.

On Monday we manage to leave the house briefly for a wander round the barns (antiques and jewellery) and I may have purchased a few small items which were calling my name. Coffee and cake in the cafe followed by a snacky lunch and we - perhaps unsurprisingly- had 6 eps of Heated Rivalry on the background whilst chatting.

After dinner I talked GP into watching the feeds for the Met gala (who are we and why are we watching this)? We had the feeds from the Mark and Carlyle hotels in on You Tube from 9pm to watch the departures, GP had her laptop queued up to the Vogue feed from the Met which was due to start at 11pm
(to make sure we missed nithing), and I was following the Met instagram on my tablet and in the London Loons Whatsapp chat for gossip.

A lot of time was GP and I saying who are these people (apparently we are now olds and not at all tuned in to pop culture) - fortunately the London Loons WhatsApp mostly knew the answers or the Met insta did. We were all hilariously scathing about most of the outfits (disappointing lack of imagination for most I felt) - though we were very impressed when Connor got his arms out on the Met steps and with Hudson leaving the Mark in little more than a bathrobe and stunning eye make up.

There was a sad lack of stills from the event on Tuesday - but some notable commentary on the fact the boys partied until dawn. If you can't do that in New York in your 20s when can you? I commend their ability to remain upright on so little sleep!

However from Wednesday onwards there's been a positive abundance of behind the scenes pixs and videos, from the sweet, to awkward to hilarious (the vids of Hudson trying to squash Connor into the matador jacket probably caused various designers/fashion houses to have a heart attack whilst the rest of us chortled in glee). I've been deriving a significant amount of second hand joy from them particularly in the hell week of local elections.

Speaking of which I pulled a 16 hour day on Thursday working as a poll clerk in Richmond. In some ways quite enjoyable (we were the party polling station with rounds of applause for first time voters and a chatty electorate), we were visited by many lovely dogs (despite the no dogs allowed sign) and lots of parents bringing kids along who we encouraged to pop the ballot in the box. I crashed as soon as I got in at midnight (fortunately didn't work the count) but the team whatsapp went mad at 4:30am the the news of the landslide. Every single one of the 54 councillors elected in Richmond was LibDem. I'd worried Reform might get a foot in the door but the voters came through with a very clear message.

Unsurprisingly my ward in Merton had voted our 3 Labour councillors back in with a strong majority, but more heartening the Greens were clearly in second place and Reform and the Tories were trounced. Forvoverall control of Merton - Labour have 39 councillors, LibDems 19, Conservative 4 and Indie's 2. Considering how many St George's flags turned up in the borough at one point I was very glad to see Reform not get any seats and they only made it to second place in one of the 20 wards.

Unfortunately nationally Reform took 1400 seats and several councils but their councillors have a habit of either stepping down when they realise the work involved or they say shitty thing which get them suspended. Going on the results of last year's local elections they'll fuck up the councils where they have control and cancel many much needed services whilst increasing council tax. Such absolute muppets.

As usual at work there's too much to do and not enough time but I'm feeling less stressed about it than before my weekend away.

Today was out allotment plant sale - I bought things - and tomorrow I'll be spending a lot of time on my plot strimming, prepping and planting. This evening I went back to my piercer, replaced the 3 studs I'd lost overvthe last few weeks and got my helix done again. There'll be a couple more helix piercings this year and then I start planning new tattoo's for 2027!

Tonight I plan to drink wine, eat a decent meals, clean the flat and read fic.

elainegrey

I marvel at how we hurtle around in these big heavy metal boxes and don't have more accidents. Thank you, everyone, for being careful out there.

Two paw paws growing in the yard, squeee.

Roses are lovely in the yard, and the peach colored peony a friend gifted to me in memory of my grandmother's death has bloomed so extravagantly this year. (Christine's family peonies and the ones that were here when we moved here have not done well: i think they were more exposed to late freezes.)

I did my version of the Chelsea chop last weekend on some lemon balm, getting some leaves before the powdery mildew affected everything, and i've dehydrated the leaves--wonderfully oregano like in their scent. And today I took the tender "tips" off the cutleaf coneflower, and now have a huge bag in the fridge and eight trays drying in the dehydrator.

I'm pondering what lacto fermented blueberries are like -- which is documented as done on the internet -- and wondering about mulberries. The little stem of the mulberries is an issue for me when i ponder making things. Cooked down and blended in a filling, dehydrated and ground up, the stem is not a problem. I could steam juice some, i suppose, like i did with the elderberries, but then preservation is an issue, hence jelly. So, lacto fermented berries, pureed into a base for some sauce?

I just ground up the last of last year's mulberries and gave a try of a tea or juice. I added one of the sweet roses petals, a sprig of spearmint, and a couple tablespoons of the ground up mulberry. Definitely OK.

Met my nibling D's sweetheart H: not from some posh family, as i feared.

Off to be with Christine as she takes care of her sister D's pets, while her sister is with a dear friend who has had a stroke. ... and then i joined up with some family and hung out, and i am now weary.

gs_silva

Flashback!

I've been falling behind due to 57 different reasons, but here's an old comic I've never posted here. It's from when Christine is still getting ready to pack up and leave for medical school.

Christine and Maurice sitting on the futon together Christine is tall and lanky with a pixie cut and huge earrings and Maurice is very short with black bangs and his work shirt on sorry it occurred to me I never describe my characters even though their appearances tell a lot about them

Christine and Maurice sitting on the futon together Christine is tall and lanky with a pixie cut and huge earrings and Maurice is very short with black bangs and his work shirt on sorry it occurred to me I never describe my characters even though their appearances tell a lot about them

"How do Ren and Cathy get along?" Christine asks Maurice.

"Ils adorent l'un d'autre," he replies.

Christine has been studying a little French so she could tlak to Cathy, so she catches on. "They adore one another?"

"Yeah," says Maurice. "He wouldn't treat her better if she was a dog."

Christine frowns.

"That's," Maurice explains, "that's a good thing."

"Oh," says Christine.

"He likes dogs," Maurice adds.

"Right," says Christine.

***

How is it still so cold out?!

I'm moving to the tropics permanently as soon as that's feasible. I made up my mind. One thing I really hate about spring in temperate regions is that a lot of establishments have turned on their air conditioning already and I am not into that at all.

seawasp

Elon Musk made a statement recently that was very interesting, and even in concept true:

“There will be universal high income (not merely basic income). Everyone will have the best medical care, food, home, transport and everything else. Sustainable abundance.”

This is called the post-scarcity society. And Musk's basic statement and vision is that this is within reach. If we reach the point that machines can do all the work of production and such, well, MACHINES don't need 5 million Playstation 6's or a luxury apartment building or a dozen new blockbuster films, or even just a few billion tons of food of various types. Only people use those things.

So the LOGICAL thing to do is let the machines do the work and free people to do... whatever they'd like to do, without the constraints of "I can't afford that" or "I would love to, but I have to work three jobs".

He's right. I don't know if that is quite physically possible NOW, but all the pieces exist to make it reasonable to speculate that it COULD happen, and in not too long a time.

The problem is, of course, that just because we CAN do a thing doesn't mean that we WILL do that thing, and people like Musk and his co-super-billionaires are actually one of the roadblocks. The nature of their businesses, investments, and practices is to CONCENTRATE wealth, power, and productivity into the control of fewer and fewer people. For Musk to do HIS part to achieve this golden future, for instance, he'd have to give up the vast majority of HIS wealth so that it could be spread out to society.

Note that "vast majority" does not in any way translate to "pauperize". He could still have a billion or two. He just wouldn't be able to accumulate MORE at a rate greater than the overall productivity of the planet, which currently he's exceeding by, well, a lot.

Marshall Brain wrote about this problem in his short book Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future. While I don't agree with some details of his utopian vision, the basic dichotomy he describes IS our current problem. We are on the edge of near-utopia, or of a vicious dystopia, and the current trends are MUCH more to dystopia, primarily because of the self-perpetuating positive feedback loop of modern investment capitalism without appropriate controls.

To make the GOOD future happen requires an acceptance of human existence as a value unto itself -- as THE value unto itself, by which all others are measured. (for "human" substitute "sapient being" if you want to allow for actually fully intelligent AIs, uplifted dolphins, or alien visitors). Currently the system has "work" as the actual value, with the exact valuation of "work" depending on what KIND of work it is and who's doing it. The value is also broken down purely into monetary units, which means that the value can be taken and accumulated. You can't accumulate human existence -- we only have one, and it's each person's unseparable value.

A HUGE amount of our current problems come from the societal, built-in, often-unstated but absolutely present assumptions that not all human existences have value -- or at the least, certainly not the SAME value. This is why we have gatekeeping laws and rules at so many levels.

It's most obvious in governmental services, which are inevitably FILLED with rules whose purpose, stripped of all the flowery details, is to make sure that people who don't "deserve" the service don't get it. The rules are nearly ALWAYS designed with a preference for denying services rather than providing them.

For the described near-utopia, the reverse must be true. A person who wants medical care should receive it. There should be no questions about why, or how. A person who needs to eat should be able to get food. A person who wants to have a safe and comfortable home should have one. The only real limits should be "is this going to cause harm to someone else?". (excluding the "harm" of someone being annoyed that Those People are getting stuff).

To make this all HAPPEN, unfortunately, requires severe and far-reaching changes in multiple areas -- in corporate law and custom, in taxation, in economic assumptions, in almost every single major facet of our world.

There are some countries that have done some of the groundwork, but without the USA and other major countries leading the charge, the change will take generations to happen, if the dark future version doesn't grind them down first.

The question is whether the Musks and Bezoses and such can even understand that the utopian world starts with them changing the entirety of their business.

maju

Spring has fully sprung here; this morning I went out on a long walk (about 8 km/5 miles) and revelled in the rich greens everywhere interspersed with the burgundy of Japanese maple trees and still some colour from bulbs and other flowering plants. It was cooler than I expected with quite a strong breeze, especially when I was on a hill, but the sun was pleasantly warm in more sheltered parts of my walk. I made one unexpected discovery which made me smile: a small street named Eleven O'Clock Lane not too far from home but in an out-of-the way cul de sac I haven't explored before.

gs_silva

The aliens travel to Maurices family store for thanksgiving and then to Rens families house

Ella is in the yard playing with two dogs and a small child when Ren invites her inside

We finally got to Thanksgiving, which in the US occurs on the 4th Thursday of November. They're having a big feast at Ren's family's house, and Jon and Ella Sievers came along in order to avoid having to navigate the drama of their own family. First stop, A&Z Grocery General, the little general store Maurice's family owns. Everybody grabs a dish or some merchandise to carry over, and Maurice talks strategy with Ella: "We'll leave the Rabbit (Ella's car) in the store parking lot and walk to the Swansons'. It's quicker than driving, and Jon says he wants to try the path."

"Here are my keys in case he changes his mind," Ella says, holding her car keys out.

"I'll stay with him," Maurice says. "Grab a casserole and go have fun."

I think at this point I was going to have Jon and Maurice give up on walking and take the car, but Jon ended up doing all right walking through the small patch of forest on crutches. It's very well-worn. "There's a whole neighborhood back here," Maurice explains to him. It's based on my grandmother's store, also in a rural community. The 'town' was barely a town at all, but it had a paper mill, a main street of sorts, a school on one end and a church on the other, and our grocery general store right in the middle, with my great-grandmother and her daughters living in a small apartment upstairs. And then a hill behind it, with the 'town' built up the hillside. You could drive the long way around or walk straight up the hill.

The town suffered for a while when the paper mill closed, but now it's become a suburb of a nearby town, with more development, an arts community, and I guess everyone commutes elsewhere to work. The days of walking down a narrow flight of stairs to begin your shift are over now.

At the end of the path, the neighborhood comes into view, and the yard of the nearest house is full of cars and car parts, piles of tires and various other items. The house itself is sprawling and run-down. "Whoa, look at that old house," Jon exclaims. "It's a whole junkyard."

"It's the Swanson house," Maurice says. "See, there's Ella."

Ella is standing in a less-cluttered spot in the front yard with a young boy and two dogs. More children run around behind them. Ren approaches her from the house. "Ella, do you want to come in and meet the grown-ups?"

"I will!" she replies. "I'm practicing being the weird aunt!"

lydamorehouse

I truly love fandom.

I've been in Bleach fandom since at least 2012 (a date easily checked because that's when I started my AO3 account.) And, you do not need to immediately comment that you've never read Bleach. I honestly wouldn't recommend it to most people. I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anime or manga fans, either! For whatever reason, Bleach just happened to be the thing for me that hit me in the right place at the right time. I felt 15 years old again, absolutely caught up in something that I felt desperate to share with other people. That feeling is probably familiar to you, my nerdy friends. So, as I talk, just imagine Your Thing anytime I say Bleach.

I've been really lucky that, over the years, I've had other Bleach fans gift me things. People have written stories for me, people have drawn amazing art for me, and

opalsong even podcast one of my fics ("Hey, Opalsong, if you like Free! you should read my Bleach x Free! crossover," I say for the nineteenth time before I remember that YOU PODCASTED it.) There are so many things people have offered me as part of this fandom that I will cherish forever, but until recently no one has ever offered to share a amateur bound book of my work with me.

Behold!

fan bound copy of Academy Blues

Image: a fan bound book with the title "Academy Blues" by TSP Bindery. (https://www.tiktok.com/@tsp.bindery).

This volume actually contains two of my multi-chapter fics. First,"Forever With You Never Sounded So Stupid"and "Academy Blues." Not than most of you care, but both of these fics are part of my emotional process of recovering after the absolutely stupid, rushed ending of the official Bleach manga. I will not get into it (in part because if I start ranting, I will not stop), but suffice to say this is a fix-it that, in my own personal head, is now canon. I literally note which panel to stop reading, because my story perfectly fits canon up to that point. I also actually include a lot of the information gleaned from the official light novels that Shounen Jump commissioned to also try to actually fix the mess Kubo Tite left behind.

Anyway, the cover isn't all that exciting, honestly. But wait until you see the interior....

Renji interior art
Interior chapter start, this one featuring Renji from Bleach....

And a second one,

Image: featuring a bone tree from a part of the Bleach universe known as Hueco Mundo, the Hollow World

Also scatterred throughout are some bits of a manga-style comicbook that aysmiro drew and shared with me, while I was writing this particular set of fics. As I was telling a friend, the pieces of this fan manga are so important to me that I've desperately been saving it on various digital back-ups for years. Now, thanks to this fan project, I have high quality printouts forever.

Image: a fan-drawn manga of a fan work of Bleach.

The crazy thing about this, of course, is that in the past year or so there's been a scammer who has targetted me twice attempting to suggest that they will draw a comic book/manga-style work from my story. (It's usually kind of obvious it's a scam because they'll pick a story where I'm like, "three people have read this. Why?") I always answer this with, "if you found my AO3 profile, you know I've given blanket permission for you to do this. Have at it!" and then they always come back with, "Yes, but for a commission," and I have to say, "Friend, I write fan fic for free. If you want to do fan art for the love of it, go for it. I am not paying you to make fan art of my fan work." Especially since this book I got? I paid nothing. The book artist wouldn't even let me pay for shipping.

Anyway, fandom is the best.

maju

I gave up on phoning Costco or hearing back from them and drove over there this morning to make an appointment in person. The earliest appointment I could get during my preferred time (morning) was 28th May. It's really annoying having to drive so far (20 km round trip) just to make an appointment. I was able to walk to and from my audiologist in Maryland as it was under a half hour walk. Everything here is way more spread out and therefore far more car-dependent than I'm used to and would like, although there is at least a supermarket and a library I can walk to.

While I was over that way I went to WholeFoods to treat myself to some of their breakfast sausages and fried potatoes with peppers and onions, enough for lunch today and lunch tomorrow.

When I went to the dermatologist last November she prescribed a couple of creams for me (which turned out to be quite expensive) - one, which I think was a steroid, for some dry and occasionally painful skin on my buttocks and one for some redness on my nose which she diagnosed as rosacea. The one for the dry skin didn't work and in fact made the skin more painful, so I returned to using Cetaphil, which works much better. After that bad experience I didn't bother using the cream for rosacea at first, but a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd give it a go. Well, I've been applying it religiously twice a day for about 10 or 11 days so far and my nose looks exactly the same as it did before I started. I believe I'm going to look for a new dermatologist.

When I talked to Eden about possible yarns for her octopus she decided she would like a burgundy octopus, but then she said we could use the pale blue head I've already made and just give it burgundy legs, so I'm working on burgundy legs now. However, when I've done the legs I'll offer to make a burgundy head too if she thinks it would look better.

I went for a very satisfying 7 km/4 mile run before breakfast this morning while it was clear and sunny. Now it's cloudy and there is rain forecast for this afternoon, but it should ease off before tomorrow morning.

elainegrey

I'm OK, although i have been extraordinarily distracted. Or very very focused. Or a weird focus-on-distraction. Also, possibly, fatigued.

Definitely in hide under a rock and not engage with people mood.

Anyhow. I am trying to get myself back in some sort of usualish patterns.

gs_silva

Cathy and Maurice discuss children part 2

"Little girls are terrible," Cathy tells Maurice in response to his wish for two daughters. "Lydie and I fought like cats all the time."

"Well, everyone has disputes sometimes," replies Maurice, catching onto Cathy's use of the verb 'disputer' (Because I actually wrote the comic in French; this is the English translation) which Cathy used so she could cover both arguments and full-fledged brawls.

"Maybe our girls will be best friends," Maurice adds.

"Lydie and I WERE best friends!" Cathy says, grinning while holding a cup of coffee. "We are still. But very competitive."

Maurice pours himself a cup too. "Boys are more competitive."

"Non," Cathy insists. "One time, I pushed Lydie into a fountain so I could take her pastry."

Translations are not guaranteed to be word for word or even necessarily correct. I'm still learning French, and I rely on reverso.net and then try to check my grammar and word usage on other language resource sites, but it's a lot of work and sometimes I just want to get it done. If you're better at this than me, I welcome corrections.

***

I've been waffling between digital and paper art again because my devices are experiencing various technical problems, so I'm having to dodge and weave to get anything done at all. My phone can't cross-post between my Patreon and this blog. My laptop's adblock has blocked Facebook (which I use sometimes as a hosting site, although it doesn't work very well) and my Wacom tablet and stylus have intermittent malfunctions.

All this to say...

I'm trying to keep this webcomic alive! It's challenging, but I won't let the challenges defeat me. Thank you all for sticking with me! The scattering of likes and comments keep me going, and on days when I'm hanging by a thread due to low energy and high overwhelm, that makes all the difference.

And some days I can't hold onto that thread, but I try to grab it again when I'm able.

maju

I had planned to go for a run early this morning, but last night I couldn't get to sleep (and I also took a long time to get to sleep the previous night) so this morning I really didn't feel like going out early - so I didn't. And now I'm not going out later either. The sky probably won't fall in if I miss a day.

Yesterday I looked up Costco's phone number for their audiology department and carefully saved it in my phone. This morning I tried to call the number to make an appointment to get my hearing checked and just got this blaring sound which I think means the number is not a real number. So I went back to the website, looked up the number there, and dialled by using the phone keypad, and this time the call went through. The only difference was the in the saved contacts, the number was saved with the +1 at the beginning (and I can't find a way to save it without that), but when I dialled the number myself I left off the +1. Annoying.

However, I still haven't got an appointment because although I called at 10:09 am, I got an answering service which just listed each day's opening hours (which are from 10 am to various times depending on what day it is), and told me to leave a message since they weren't open yet. I left a message and I'm now in suspense waiting for a call back. I could make another call myself, but I don't want to. I really really wanted to make the booking online, but there doesn't appear to be any way to do that.

=========

It's now several hours later and I'm still waiting to hear from Costco.

I'm having problems with Eden's octopus. Not the actual crocheting; that's going fine, but I'm running out of the blue yarn she chose. I think my options are to let her choose more yarn from Amazon, or show her the burgundy yarn left over from the throw I've been working on and see if she likes that. I forgot I had it the other day when she chose the blue because the blue was sitting in my knitting bag and the burgundy is stashed away in a cupboard. Whichever option she chooses will mean waiting an extra few days for her octopus to be finished, but she has to like it.

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