Corduroy Trout

Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 5th of Colddark, 716

Void, it’s cold outside. All that joking I did about those 75-degree temperatures around Christmas? It was with love! You can come back! Please?

Worked myself crazy today, and I wasn’t the only one. It was an all-day battle to keep the ticket queue acceptable, forget good: and the day finished off nicely with an on-site visit that turned out to be simply a loose cable. Yeah, I asked them to check it over the phone beforehand. Couldn’t have just come loose, either. People are playing with stuff.

Made really good mashed potatoes tonight to go with the slow-cooker turkey Roxy made. Dinner was tasty and filling, at least for a moment. I’ve been eating like a starving man all day; I can only assume my body needs it. Maybe that’s why I felt weak all weekend… but I haven’t exactly been fasting. Still don’t know what’s going on.

Watched some Akibaranger with a friend – I never get tired of that show – and last night’s Steven Universe (we’re getting them on one- or two-night delay because of the way they’re posted to iTunes). Steven Universe continues to be beautiful; the story of Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship made Roxy and me both squee. Homeworld Gems are like Time Lords. They sound really cool at first; but the more you learn about them, the more you realize you really wouldn’t want to spend much time with most of them.

Realized what was holding me back on Episode Eighteen: I know some things I want to say but I really hadn’t decided what it’s going to be about. Gave that some thought today, maybe more in the shower tomorrow. I won’t have writing time tomorrow, but there’s always Thursday. Dang, I’m behind and unhappy about it. I did learn from my head that a popular game fish seen on the tables of Managlitch is called “corduroy trout”. I can only assume that’s descriptive, not literal – without glitching, anyway.

Dinner tomorrow with Roxy and a friend. Looking forward to it; I hope work doesn’t hit too hard.

Blood Sugar Betrayal

Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 4th of Colddark, 716 —–

Today started reasonably well, other than me mistaking which side of the windshield was frozen over. I had to stop a bit down the street to scrape off what I thought had collected on the inside.

First day of work for the New Year. I worked hard, but I wasn’t drained by it; in many ways those are my favorite weekdays. I have quite a work ethic considering how lazy I am. A lot of the work is learning how to work with our new Help Desk; these people are so skilled even for Tier One that we’ll be able to off-load a lot of our tickets to them and become Ticket Managers and Expert Troubleshooters. I am completely in favor of this.

Plans changed abruptly for the evening, and that may be just as well. I had an earlier dinner than I expected and crashed bad at 6:30. Didn’t recover until after 7:30, which would have interfered with with the social activities I was expecting. Roxy very much wants me to talk to my doctor about how tired I’ve been lately. She’s worried it’s thyroid.

Before I go to bed tonight, at least a few hundred words on Episode Eighteen. I’m frustrated by how slow the words have been coming lately, and my evening of relaxation last night to refresh the well didn’t go as planned. But: never give up, never surrender.

The Space of Hyper

Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 3rd of Colddark, 716

Once again, I woke up a bundle of nerves. When Roxy suggested, “Time to get out of bed?” my knee-jerk response was “What’s in it for me?”

Some lunch helped a bit of course, as it always does, and a couple hours of the afternoon wasted away before we realized it was time to run errands. I have to fill my gas tank far less often now thanks to my five-minute commute, but it eventually gets low, and Costco had a great price today. A small grocery stop later, and it was time for dinner. McCormick sloppy joes, which weren’t bad.

But today was going to be an afternoon of relaxing, so I loaded up a alpha test video game I’d been invited into… and they were shut down for the holidays. Okay, fine, I loaded up my second favorite tension-killer game… only to discover I’d found a sudden ramp-up in the campaign difficulty, dying again and again. I finally said to hell with it. Never mind tension relief.

I’m a bundle of nerves these days. If it weren’t for my brain meds, I’d be non-functional; as it is, I’m slowly losing joy in many of the things that made life happier. Usually it’s because they all require massive outlay of resources on my part that I just don’t have at the moment. I don’t have a solution right now, though clearly I’ll have to find one. One trip to a mental hospital was more than enough for me, thanks.

Work tomorrow. I’m almost thankful.

Costumes and Music Past

Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 2st of Colddark, 716

Today I spent half the day in bed feeling cold and drained. Once I finally got moving, I then spent too much of the evening grocery shopping. It needed to be done, but I’m a “surgical-strike” kind of shopper while Roxy is more a methodical “go carefully through every aisle in case anything’s forgotten” type. There’s something to be said for both, but when I’m already on a short fuse, the second version can get on my nerves.

Before the shopping, we had a very decent meal at Applebees thanks to a Christmas gift card from our friends Mako and Missy. I tipped well even though the service wasn’t great because it wasn’t utterly awful and wait staff are paid shit. I an not comfortable with someone having trouble meeting their bills this month just because they accidentally refilled me with Diet Pepsi the one time. (Blech.)

Starting to plan for MarsCon, where I’ll be performing with Luna-C. I hope we get a show script soon, because I’d like to practice a lot more ahead of time than I’ve done in the past. I’m also worried because of all the weight I’ve put on – so few of my costumes fit right now. (My old Next Gen Engineering tunic looked terrible when I tried it on New Year’s Eve – luckily my First Contact uniform looked a lot better.)

I really can’t wait to see Keith Brinegar again. His filk performance as White Plectrum was a huge part of my life for a while: lyric writing, soundboard, webmastering, graphic design – being White Plectrum’s “Spin Doctor” kept me busy and happy! It’s been years and years, and I can’t wait to introduce Roxy to him.

So much to do this month. I hope I can find the energy and motivation to kick jerkbrain’s ass and Get Stuff Done.

Sunbottom’s Day

Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 1st of Colddark, 716

Today I spent time either gloriously wasted or well-spent on the foundations of a series bible for “Captain Shadow”. Maybe it will prove to be too much distraction from the chronicling of Managlitch City, but the urge to write space opera again has been growing in me. I want to do audio dramas, or even (dare I dream) video productions for the web. Space opera is my first love, and while as always it will be tons of work, it could be tons of fun.

I know why the Captain suffers from their morphic events, I know what the Voidknife exterior looks like, and I have a semisolid idea who is chasing zem. I haven’t yet decided on hir pronouns, though Roxy Ozone thinks I should shift them all the time to reflect the confusion surrounding the Captain and the crap that transpeople have to deal in real life.

I do need to get back to Episode Eighteen as soon as possible, but I’m not about to turn down creative ideas for anything when I get them.

The Macross Delta preview was great – new shiny Valkyries PLUS magical girls (though it’s all tech in this story) but it looks like we’re getting the two-dimensional bastards as bad guys we’ve been seeing in Macross for a while. The Victorian Christmas Special for Sherlock was the best thing I’ve seen from that show since Season Two at least, so total yay. The meta-text was wonderful, the repeated point that Watson is far more intelligent than often portrayed was appreciated, and I did not expect a reference to a Holmes novel by Nicholas Meyer. Nicely done.

My Starfleet past has been popping into my life a lot recently. I wore one of my uniforms for the first time in years to a New Year’s costume party, and got compliments from people who were expecting me in a dress. I just edited a new e-book version of the Multiverse Cycle, and I’m wanting to build the replacement Pathfinder model kit again. It’s nice to be getting some enjoyment again from that part of my history.

Physically and emotionally, I’ve been feeling like CRAP for weeks. Roxy wants me to talk to my doctor about checking my thyroid or something. I’ll try anything to kick loose this cloud of bleh.

And that’s Colddark first.

« Previous Page