Hi all! Rising from the dead to direct you to my Yuletide Reveals post if you are interested in things I have written!

It's been a big busy year for me - I officially started my Collections Manager position at work, we moved into a house, Jola died.... Ups and downs, I guess. 2020 is looking to be busy and hectic as well, as things never seem to really slow down at work. We are working towards a big revamp of our public spaces (at least) in the next few years and are jumping into planning mode for that, and I have a lot of stuff to do with that. Especially after our exhibit person leaves in April (at the latest). She's delightful and has done so much good for our office culture that I will be very sad to see her go, though her husband is not working in Ottawa, so even if her contract wasn't ending I can't imagine she'd stay here.

I am hoping to keep up better with writing in the new year - I have so many ideas and so little time, as always. I'm hoping to get signed up for Chocolate Box this week though, so I guess stay tuned for that if you're interested? And meanwhile I will see about finishing off a few lingering things from 2019.

I finished a wingspan shawl before the new year, though! other than end weaving and blocking. So... yeah.... now my 'to-be-blocked pile of shawls is about 4 deep :x But we have more space in the new house, so I am hoping I can get that worked out if I get some good mats.

I also joined... one and a half more games? Maybe? One of them (monster of the week) may not be continuing, and the other (Changeling) I can't actually attend the scheduled sessions for so am mostly doing stuff around the edges, but of course I adore both my new characters and my head of full of ideas for them! but also my old characters.... so many stories, so little time :3

Hello internets! I live!

I was going to just pop in to do an update about how Jukebox went (wonderfully), but I realized I probably have other things to day as well.

But I'll start with jukebox. I got THREE GIFTS :D And all were really excellent and well tailored to my likes and interests :3 Two written pieces and one art (by someone who I think must have done art for literally everyone who asked for it, not near enough o_O).

In no particular order (they really are all excellent):
Two Point Five Megabytes Across A Quarter Million Miles (617 words) by AlexSeanchai
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 250000 Miles - Patty Griffin (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Near Future, Science Fiction, Implied/Referenced Homophobia
Summary:

SEEKING ADVENTURE? ROMANCE? THE GREAT UNKNOWN?

The American Tau Ceti Company seeks venturers to Lán Hǎi!

The Kǎilíng sets sail from East Tsukishi Port on 30 June 2047—be aboard!

This has Complicated Family stuff that is both painful and liberating. I really enjoyed the perspectives offered in the two chapters, though my sympathy lies with the second.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (6 words) by AlTheAlchemist
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Culling of the Fold - The Decemberists (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Additional Tags: Blood, Art
I just love this. Best title. Whelp, someone's got to do it :x

His White Hause-Bane (2369 words) by Edonohana
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Twa Corbies (Traditional Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:

I rode to the castle, thinking to ask for directions to put me on my way and hoping for an invitation to dine with the lord and spend the night, for the day was very cold. Perhaps it was my hopeful thoughts of mead and hot meat that distracted me, or perhaps it was something else. But I had dismounted before I realized that there was something strange about the place, and was almost at the doors before I knew what it was.

There was nothing else in sight. No other homes, no fields, no orchards. Nothing but the castle, rising from the mud like a great white tooth.

This is just a really wonderful take on the song, and a nice creepy faery tale to boot.

As for things I wrote, one full length fic for my assignment, and then three drabbles as treats, both of which seem better received. Such is a writer's life!

Traps for Troubadours (3459 words) by Measured_Words
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Music, Musicians, Band Break Up, Partying, Crossroads Deals & Demons
Summary:

We have a chance to make it big.

"What will you do to make it happen?" Kana asks me.

I don't think she's going to like the answer.

Crusade (100 words) by Precisely_Measured_Words
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Blood Under the Bridge - Frightened Rabbit (Song)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Trauma, Crusades, Drabble, Good versus Evil
Summary:

Empathy can be a fleeting thing, and comfort hard to find.

Undermine (100 words) by Precisely_Measured_Words
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Build That Wall (Zia's Theme) - Darren Korb (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Insurrection, Conspiracy, Construction, Drabble
Summary:

There's more than one way around a barrier.

Vows (100 words) by Precisely_Measured_Words
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rusalka Rusalka / Wild Rushes - The Decemberists (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Original Male Character/Rusalka
Characters: Original Male Character(s), Rusalka (Rusalka Rusalka)
Additional Tags: Marriage, Sea Monsters, Regret, Curses, Horror, Drabble, Canonical Character Death
Summary:

To have and to hold...

As for other things to natter about... I finished a couple of pairs of socks a few weeks ago, and now have only one real project on the go. I started some handwarmers at larp but I was doing them on the fly and don't really know if I want to finish them or not. I've been reading on the bus, too, so I haven't really started anything new, just working on the one shawl. I did start a new long-term weaving project, which someday will be a scrap blanket. I wove one strip basically in an afternoon after I got the loom warped, but what will take longer is amassing the scraps! Gotta knit more socks I guess, oh well :V

Speaking of things ending, Diablotin 3, which we started playing in October 2014, ended last Sunday. I'm gonna miss it for sure, though there has been some talk of another game to replace it, and the eventuality of Diablotin 4 in another year or so, or in a few years... we;ll see :3 Meanwhile I still have Fuck Squad and YOAW and Larp! SO basically I ca't really complain even though I haven't really quite accepted that its done ;_; My Character had a pretty good ending - she got married, she works for the emperor, and she got to take down the final boss with a ridiculous amount of damage. She's got a better relationship with her family, who are all themselves doing better, with the exception of her sister who got stuck as the guardian to a semi-sentient extra-dimensional gate. But it's only for a few years, and we can visit :3 It was at least a good and satisfying ending, if it had to end ;_;

I feel like I had other nattering to do but I can't remember what, and I wanted to start working on my fic for the Throk Zine (Scorpius!), so I think I might go grab a snack and do that.

All the adulds dyed their hair tonight!

I refreshed my green streak, Longpig refreshed her usual teal and magenta, and Wererogue was convinced to give it a shot and it looks to have turned out a cool dark pink! He wanted teal originally but it didn't bleach out very light and had a lot of orange tones, and Longpig didn't think it would work all that well. I'm not sure he is super happy with it, but it will grow out and we can get the bleach better and try for teal another time.

I also started my yuletide, finally! So far so good :)

Naughty naughty, I know...

I'm waiting for my anitvirus to tell me that a program is safe to install, even though I know it is :p

A Big Thing is happening at work after literally years of negotiation! It is exciting!

My hair is green! Well, part of it... ( (image below cut) )

Tonight is poutine and kitting!

Someone left me kudos on this story form Jukebox a few years ago and it reminded me how much I love it. I think this might be one of the best stories I've come up with, though probably the actual writing could be improved in some areas:

Embers Just Waiting for Breath (7306 words) by Measured_Words
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Fire in the Head - Sharon Knight (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Bards, Storytelling, Songs, Bechdel Test Pass, Fae & Fairies, Ordeals, Faustian Bargain, Madness, Megaliths, Rituals, Fire, Pilgrimage, Folklore
Summary:

Efa goes to the Giant's Chair
To make a Feyre pact...

Today was a mixed bag. The strawberries I bought were crappy (sour, watery, and/or overripe), but they had cheap brownie bites at loblaws.

I managed to Do Things at work and not just waste time terribly, but I didn't get all the things I wanted to done, and I am still having trouble making myself work.

The weather was shitty - rainy and humid followed by warm and humid.

After dinner was just an awful stress pile and I'm still grumpy despite leaving the house for a bit.

I went to the mall and didn't buy too much ridiculous crap. I did get a birthday present for Nugsy, which was the goal.

I am trying to think of an idea for a pirate and ghost story anthology (submission deadline is July 7), which you might think would be second nature, but I'm getting bogged down in historical acts and I haven't even thought of a good idea yet :p

Probably at least part of my grumpyness is impending bees. also my tiredness. Time for bed I guess.

At least I still had my computer open, I guess.

Not too much of interest - it was a Museum day, and I talked to HK there about the plan for tomorrow, where we are giving a tour and demoing some stuff to one of the director's classes. So I'm going in in the afternoon instead of the morning, and will head straight downtown to find myself dinner somewhere and go to kitting.

Oh, also, my ex-coworker (he still works there, for now) made a VR bowling game :V It was pretty fun, though not what I'd meant to try out!

I did some writing tonight, but I'm getting close to the 'end' of the story, which is all fine, but I'm not sure if It is going to manage to seem like a story and not just a series of events. So we'll see. I need to tie things together more tightly, I guess. Maybe this last pivotal conversation I'm working towards will give me more room for that. And maybe if I aim for that I'll have more inspiration.

I meant to go to bed around one yesterday. I wond up going to bed around two, and I didn't get to sleep for at least another hour after that.

I sort of woke up around 7, because children, but fell back asleep for a bit. I then woke up more around 9, still really tired, but managed to pull myself out of bed half an hour-ish later to go take the dogs out.... only to find they'd already been out. So I started to go back to bed, only to remember that I *did* still need to feed the kitty. By the time I actually got back to bed, it was a little after 10:30.

And then I slept until 1:30.

So that was most of my day! Maze was out and about, so I had some snuggle time with him, did some kitchen tidying, and then worked on some story edits. Then I baked some lime squares, then it was dinner. Wooh!

I realized I never said, but this is the anthology I'm working on a submission for: Ride the Star Wind: Cthulhu, Space Opera, and the Cosmic Weird. I need to do some kind of cover letter as well, and I'm not totally sure how to handle that. "This is a story about Lesbian space cultists. It is inspired by Clark Ashton Smith's "The Door to Saturn". I hope you like it enough to buy it, cheers!" I think my story meets the criteria but I'm a terrible judge. Maybe it isn't weird enough. Maybe it isn't cosmic enough. Maybe being in space isn't space opera enough (I mean it is still in our galaxy, is that spacey enough?). Maybe the world lacks scope or interest. I dooooon't know! And these things never give you much feedback, so hey. But I've written a good story, I think, and the worst they can say is 'no thanks'.

I would say it is original work but.... Mythos stuff is also kind of fanfic. There is more of a market for it these days, true. But it's still basically fanfic. I'm a fan. I'm playing in this world and with these concepts that other authors originated. In this case, others have always been welcome to add their own (and especially so since it all became public domain). I am really enjoying the diversification that's been happening in Mythos work lately though, with the explicit inclusion of more women, queer people, and PoC because lbr the original is *terrible* for that stuff. This story has some of that diversity (space lesbians!), but my writing could certainly use more. I just have to find ways to do so that I am comfortable with. It is easier when dealing with fantasy/speculative contexts. In horror I feel like I need to tread a lot more carefully, because the genre has a lot of baggage. Anyway, I started this paragraph talking about fanfoc, how did that get away from me? It's basically fanfic. I could have written this for my YT assignment last year. Ahh well.

Anyway. Now it is midnight and I'm not particularly tired, which could be a Problem as I need to get up early on Thursday. I guess I'll aim to get out of bed by 10 tomorrow and see how that goes. More of problem is that I'm hungry, but I'm already kind of heart-burny, and if I want to go to bed in the next hour or so, food is not the best plan. maybe I'll have a banana. Excite!

Also - ugh, I remember why I wasn't using Semagic - I managed to do something that hides the tag input and I can't figure out for the life of me how to get it back :p I guess I'll try reinstalling -_- ETA: reinstall fixed, let's not do that again!

Another not-super productive day, though I did manage to wake up early. Tomorrow at the museum should be good - I at least have things to do, which is always better than me trying to find things to work on. I did some more writing and got my sister to look it over and assure me that it is comprehensible and interesting. Woohoo! I've got a better handle on the plot now too, and things are Moving Forward.

Tonight was knit night, which is always nice. It can be a bit like introvert club, depending who is around, where we mostly just sit quietly together and work on our own things we meet at the boardgame café in town, and it can be fun to listen to other people. There were some folks playing a game called... um... battlesomething? Superfight? I forget, shoot, because it looks like a ton of fun. The basic gist from what i could tell is that everyone drawn an adjective and a non card, and then you argue for who would win in a fight, with the person whose 'turn' it is arbitrating. There is some way of modifying things as well. It seemed like it would be awesome with a group who was sufficiently creative and ready to go to bat for their weird ideas (50 moose vs internet trolls, google vs the grim reaper, etc).

In terms of actual knitting, I got most of the heelflap re-done on my sock. I can finish that and probably get the heel turn started on the bus tomorrow if I opt to knit (I probably will). I'm sort of sick of knitting them at this point, though.

Maze was about catting around a lot today. I coaxed him out when the kids were playing video games in the morning, and after he sat with me, he decided to follow me around the house, Sierra was closed in Longpig's room, and kittyface was being sufficiently cute that she left Sierra there after she got up, and he hug out causing minor kitty mischief all morning and part of the afternoon. Apparently he can't tell the difference between mint and catnip. I also managed not to have a major allergy attack while petting/playing with him, though my hand is still red and itchy where he scratched me (my fault, I couldn't resist the belly...)

It's the new year, and I'm trying (again) to journal more regularly. This happens less because of the New Year thing, I think, and more because Yuletide gets me back in a more regular habit of engaging with the journaling world. There's also been buzz from a few corners about people leaving LJ because of the Russian Relocation, so I think more people are paying a bit more attention, which helps. I'll continue to crosspost, I expect, as I have been doing for the past few years.

I'm also stuck in the Holiday Time Limbo, which is worse because I don't have a real job at the moment. But that is bound to change....soon? I have references being checked. I have been told I am the desired candidate for another job if I apply for it. Basically I continue to be in Limbo, but glad to do so in a place physically and socially as well as financially where I can afford it. It is still not my favourite thing. Thursday I will go back to my regular volunteering gig. I could have gone today (I think), but lacked motivation. Anyway. I've been staying up too late and feeling like I'm accomplishing very little.

I'm working on an original story (original Mythos, anyway) for submission to an open call. I'm thinking about signing up for Chocolate Box (or Chocobo, as my sister insists on calling it). I've been doing lazy mindless and practical knitting rather than fixing the slightly more complicated project I messed up (and actually can't find when I did a half-assed search yesterday).

What else.... I got some really awesome mugs for Christmas. Two cheap-but-rad clear skull mugs from my aunt, and a lovingly hand-crafted vagina dentata mug from a friend who had them hand made for a few of us (me, my sister, and Nary, as far as I know). They're things of beauty, I tell you. Mine is red. I will drink from nothing but skulls and vaginas for the rest of my days (well I can dream, right?).

I've been writing things in my notebooks because I have some really pretty journals and I have fountain pens and it seems like a waste not to. Also I have about three on the go and I can probably finish at least one of the off just taking noted for the AU Colonial Call of Cthulhu skype game I'm in. We're trying to stop a serial killer from summoning an ancient god called the Devourer of Millions. I think we at least have figured out who it is now, and just have to do the actual thwarting, hopefully without going any more crazy (hah!) But it is complicated enough that it requires notes, and since it is skype, there are not logs to refer to, so actual note taking is handy. It helps me remember things better, even if I don't look them over. And I've gone all stream of consciousness here. Probably if I journaled more regularly I would be more organized about it (no.)

--

Anyway! I did want to do Pay it Forward again this year. I'm lifting it from karanguni who lifted it from someone else. So!

Let's start 2017 off in a positive way with a Pay It Forward meme. The first 6 people to comment (and more if I can manage it) will receive a surprise from me at some point in 2017 - anything from a book, a ticket, something home-grown or made, a postcard, absolutely any surprise! It will happen when the mood comes over me and I find something that I believe would suit you and make you happy.

(If you don't like surprises and would rather have something off a wishlist and/or some warning, let me know in your comment. The goal is to make you happy.)

If you can, post this in your own journal and pay it forward. Let's do more kind and loving things for each other in 2017, without any reason other than to make each other smile and show that we think of each other.

--

Also, this reminds me - I've seen people doing Fandom Snowflake, and I've seen people doing various journaling and year end memes. I'm not sure I am that committed, but I am open to suggestions. Is there anything you would like to see me talk about? Want to know more about me? My interests? Pet pictures? drop me a comment for that too, if you like!

...and with that posted, probably I should go to bed!

I have such great intentions of regular posting but I can't seem to keep it up ;p I't a shame - I don't know if anyone reads this regularly, but personally I always feel more connected to people when I can read regularly about their lives. I'd like to.... I dunno if it is that i want to offer you that same opportunity, or the more egoistical version where I want people to feel more connected to me as a sense of validation. Anyway :p Hi?

Work goes on. It is a big mess and I have so many mixed feelings.

I managed to write two things for Jukebox, and am quite pleased with both of them! I also received both a gift and a treat, and they were both so so great! I'm super pleased! I wish I'd been able to write more, but I am having a hard time with time, and motivation, and organization, and life balance things.

I went to a LARP game a few weeks ago and it was super great fun! I know I don't have the time and energy or money to get really sucked back in, but man can I feel the pull of it!

I got more tattoo work done! I got a few more spirals on my underarm (ouch!), plus I got some way-overdue touchups and fixes done to the last bits I had done when I was in Texas. I really really like the artist I've found here, much more than I liked the person in Texas. She's looking in to branding for me, because it isn't really a common thing. But I might know some other people I can look through. I want to get at least one more brand as part of this over all piece. Possibly I'm crazy. But I really want it. pics here!

Uh... what else...I have been and am going to be doing a bunch of traveling! in two weeks I'm going with Nary to Massachusetts for her Grandmother's 100th birthday party, wooh! It will be a pretty hit-and-run affair. Then in August I'll be in New Brunswick to see my dad and folks for two weeks, and then at the end of the month I'm taking a road trip down to Texas for Webercon and to see some other Texas friends. I don't think we have officially told tethys123 that we are planning to descend upon her, but we are (hi! :V)

I am about 3/4 through knitting a cool bolero (ember bolero), and I've started some socks. But also I bough some gorgeous gradient yarn (midnight paintbox by Fiber Optic yarns) to knit another shawl. A bigger shawl! The pattern is Cynara, and I'm still debating how I want to do the gradients for it.

I'm sure I'm missing some stuff, but honestly nothing much has changed with me lately. I really should be job hunting but ugh. Just ugh. Also, ugh.
I'm going out bin a bit to Kareoke at the pub up the street, which is a newish thing in my life (see above re: life balance though, ugh). But I have a cold, so we'll see how things go...

Like I said this is a quicky so if you want links to anything poke me and I'll add them later :3