A Real Peach
I brought my Princess Peach costume to Mysticon this year. Sadly, Maya didn’t wear her Mario as it needs quite a bit of work. But wow did Peach go over well! People were asking for pictures all day, and I even made the local TV news for about 7 seconds. I wore it for NekoCon and Halloween last year and for the con we attended with my niece Kennedy, but these are some of the best pictures of it yet. I was dubbed “Princess Peachfuzz” by one attendee, which was hilarious.
There is nothing like a stranger telling you how beautiful you look in your dress to put the “pride” in queer pride.
I decided to dress up Sunday as well, even if it meant I’d have to find somewhere at the con to slip back into mundane disguise on the way out. So I’m wearing my Sailor Moon quasi-costume dress while loading the car, and a 65-year-old or so couple get on the elevator with me.
He looks at me and asks, “Is it okay to say something about your outfit?” and I give him a huge sincere smile and say, “As long as it’s a compliment!” He laughs and asks where I got it (Hot Topic Halloween) and for what event (the nearby con) and we chat for a moment. As I’m walking off to the car, I hear his wife say behind me, “He’s got better legs than I do!”
I’m kinda proud of myself. That could have been awkward or even upsetting, but everyone left that elevator happy. That’s one of my missions in life.
Do You Remember Second Edition?
I’ve had the Core Rulebook PDF for Shadowrun Fifth Edition for a while, but now I have the physically massive hardcopy. Thing should have its own Damage Code. I’m not crazy about how the setting has “grown up” in the last couple editions. Part of the fun of Shadowrun is that it’s a bit mad. It’s a solid brand, you don’t have to justify it now by going all SRS BZNS. Any Shadowrun I gamemaster will always have that Discordian wobble.
Also, Technomancers are still complete bullshit.
Mom is doing well in the Durham rehab facility. Driving an hour each way to see her is pretty rough, though.
Maya’s and my perfect Valentine’s date is the LEGO Batman Movie, and it’s up there with “Batman 1966” and “Mask of the Phantasm” as my favorite Batman film. Lots of fun, plus Real Talk about The Dark Knight. Also, it was that or a “Fifty Shades” movie, and we weren’t going any where near that one.
I found an English version of “Do You Remember Love” from the Macross ’84 movie of the same subtitle. I’m impressed, though as always I’d have chosen different rhyme and scansion options in some places. Not like I can sing.
Speaking of YouTube, here’s human beings landing a rocket at a spaceport: not crashing into the ocean, but actually landing. I’ve waited a lot of years to see this happen in real life.
Managlitch City Underground released Episode 27 – Shockwaves on February 22nd. Seven weeks between episodes isn’t terrible but I’d like to do better. I remember when it was every couple of weeks. Life, man.
Lastly, I’m going to invent a document type called the Journalled Information Format just so we can argue about the pronunciation of .jif files.
“Lightspeed Subway”
– another in the Sidequest series: fiction fragments which may be expanded someday –
The “incoming capsules” indicators lit up, and Josmin braced for the thud of air that would come from the subway tunnel. The gust wouldn’t knock you over unless you’d had an especially long day, but loose items would sometimes go flying.
The capsules burst from the tunnel entrance, already slowed to a quarter of their initial speed by the long line of control rings stretching back down the tube. Mana gems embedded in the rings glowed violet as the thaumatronic system absorbed velocity, and the capsules glided to a gentle, precise halt next to the platform. The passengers inside stood eagerly to leave, having never felt more than a gentle surge.
Josmin knew people who wouldn’t board the express capsules. Despite hundreds of years without accident, the idea of traveling through solid matter for most of the trip was one they couldn’t bear. He had to agree that the theory and engineering were far beyond him; an encyclopedia article lost him somewhere around “eight spacetime dimensions” and “phased etheric vibrations”. All he cared about was getting 30 kilometers to the other end of town in mere seconds.
He entered one of the capsules and took a seat, as did the other couple dozen folks. The capsule was full this trip, but not crowded; the afternoon rush hadn’t hit yet. He felt a tiny surge as it moved forward into the next set of control rings; the mana gems dimmed as they fed the speed back into the chain of capsules. The momentum field in his capsule could have prevented even that surge, but it turned out people liked the sensation of gentle movement even as the passing rings turned into a silver smear outside the window.
The rings disappeared. There was an electric blue darkness in the capsule with him. For a fraction of a second, Josmin had an eerie suspicion that he no longer existed –
– and then he heard the gentle thud of air being pushed out of the way by the decelerating capsules, and saw the rings reforming from silver blur outside. He’d just moved from south of the Scar to the Boreal Hills in practically no time. He stood to go, slinging his bag over his shoulder. Perhaps for a moment he truly hadn’t existed: it still beat the Void out of traveling by transbeam.
Glitchers Hospitaller
Let’s see… what was January 2017 like?
Well, we had to move Mom out of another apartment… cleanup was difficult and painful because of all the spilled cigarette ash. In the process, we took her to the hospital again for what was perhaps another stroke, and then again two weeks later because she couldn’t stand up on her own.
I released Episode 26 – Holiday Special of Managlitch City Underground on New Year’s Eve, so I’m counting that.
Maya and I introduced Professor Spines the Hedgehog, teacher of Dance Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, at MarsCon 2017. Later in January, we went to see the “Hidden Figures” movie and loved it; I, of course, recognized some of the Langley locations.
I wrote an analysis of the progressiveness of the various Star Treks. Fair to say, though, that Star Trek fails in its ideals on a regular basis, even as we praise it for at least having some. I experimented with rating the various generations, but sadly things got silly in my brain, so you get this.
- ST-TOS: “We Got Rid of Some Patriarchy But There’s Plenty More”
- ST-TNG: “We Managed to Get Rid of a Litte More But This Is Hard”
- ST-DS9: “Working On It, There’s a War On”
- ST-VOY: “Our Second Most Complex, Rich Character Was Hired For Her Boobs”
- ST-ENT: “Vulcan Boobs This Time”
- ST-JJA: “Hell With It, Toxic Masculinity Is Awesome”
A Curse of Wealth
Since I accepted the job in North Carolina and moved to Raleigh, I’ve often felt as though my life was a roller coaster careening in unknown directions. I simply hung on for dear life, not sure where I was going but having faith the ride was better than it had previously been. Even with that faith, there’s so much of my day-to-day existence on which I wish I had a better grip.
A sample: I still have too much stuff. I understand the philosophers who insist that your possessions possess you, I am confronted with this fact every day. I left much of it behind when I left the home I grew up in. I left more of it behind with every move I’ve made since, and still I have enough to dominate the second bedroom and influence much of the rest of the apartment. I can’t stand being weighed down by it all; but when I attempt to purge, memories overwhelm me and I end up jettisoning far less than I meant to.
We’ll be in this apartment for a few more months at least. I must get rid of more of these things before we leave – and preferably long before, so that I can enjoy this space more than I have been doing. The roller coaster’s exciting; but damn it, I want to feel as though I’ve got more control than this.
Rogue One overview
Apologies for any spoilers; I’ll try to avoid as many as I can. If you’ve seen Episode IV, you have a pretty good idea whether our heroes accomplish their objective.
So how was the movie? Well, Maya – whose first Star Wars in the theater was Episode VII – thought it was wonderful, and possibly her favorite of the franchise. Me, I think it was very well done, but I was rather unprepared for the tone. While the main-storyline movies have an adventuresome matinee serial feel, this movie is frankly grim. Bad things happen to good people in this film.
However, the bad things are not gratuitous. This movie has a point to make, and it makes it well. So I think that I will call it a very good movie, worth watching again, but it’s not an Episode. Notwithstanding the many references and linkages to main-storyline Star Wars, and even nods to novel and comic ideas, Rogue One is its own beast.
And why shouldn’t it be?
The Guru Trap
The Guru Trap is worse than the Dark Side. It is easy, seductive, and life-affirming. One can easily make all sorts of regrettable decisions without ever realizing it.
Let me supply a quote from the “Illuminatus!” trilogy by Shea and Wilson:
“That’s right,” Hagbard agreed. “I wanted to see if you’d trust your own senses or the word of a Natural-Born Leader and Guru like me. You trusted your own senses, and you pass. My put-ons are not just jokes, friend. The hardest thing for a man with dominance genes and piratical heredity like me is to avoid becoming a goddam authority figure. I need all the feedback and information I can get—from men, women, children, gorillas, dolphins, computers, any conscious entity—but nobody contradicts an Authority, you know. Communication is possible only between equals: that’s the first theorem of social cybernetics—and the whole basis of anarchism—and I have to keep knocking down people’s dependence on me or I’ll become a fucking Big Daddy and won’t get accurate communication anymore. If […] all the governments, corporations, universities and armies of the world understood that simple principle, they’d occasionally find out what’s actually going on and stop screwing up every project they start. I am Freeman Hagbard Celine and I am not anybody’s bloody leader. As soon as you fully understand that I’m your equal, and that my shit stinks just like yours, and that I need a lay every few days or I get grouchy and make dumb decisions, and that there is One more trustworthy than all the Buddhas and sages but you have to find him for yourself, then you’ll begin to understand what the [Discordians are] all about.”
These Things In My Life Are Good
Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 31st of Flowerbirth, 716 —
Today, I am pleased that I have made enough progress with the plot of “Discordia’s Glitch” to write an imaginary dust jacket blurb, and pleased to have friends still excited about what they see there. I am pleased to have walked 7,500 steps during Saturday’s tour of Natural Bridge with few ill effects the next day besides weariness, and I am pleased to have reached the “Person of Some Importance” phase of the Fallen London Browser game.
My current goals include finishing another chapter of the novel soon, preparing the first set of “Managlitch City Underground” podcast scripts for Season Two, working toward a step count of at least 4,000 per day, and assembling my podcast episode submission which will hopefully move me from Semi-Finalist to Finalist in the Parsec Awards. I also plan to prepare some preliminary material for the Intervention staff listing, and this weekend I’ll be heading to AwesomeCon to help with the Intervention / ReGeneration Who con table.
Tonight I’ll be visiting my Mom to see how she is doing and feed her cat. We did some heavy cleaning there a month ago, and the apartment is noticeably nicer; we’d like to keep it that way. After that, we have a friend’s birthday party to attend if we have any energy left.
So much going on in my life right now; plenty of it is darn good.
A Conventional Dry Spell
Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 4th of Swiftstorm, 716 —
Two months of no journaling… yeah, can’t say I’m too pleased with that. What happened? Many things, but primarily ReGeneration Who. What I’d planned to be a simple administrative job turned out to be many nights of collating, emailing, updating, correcting, and otherwise maintaining the staff listings for the con. On top of that, there was a fair amount of travel promoting the convention, which sucked my energies away. I managed to get 1.5 Managlitch episodes in there, and the first chapter of a novel, but that was all the creative will I could locate.
Besides that, life has stayed pretty steady. Roxy is working practically full time, which means that much of our money woes have become minor concerns. My job continues to chug along, a little dull sometimes now that I have a routine, but comfortable and positive. I’m on new medication now for my depression, and my body’s still dealing with the chemical changes involved. Oddly, my appetite’s decreased and I think I’m losing a little weight.
I worry terribly about Mom. I’m not at all certain how her situation is going to pan out – her mind and body continue to fade, but so very slowly. I hope she doesn’t start a fire with those damn cigarettes, of for no other reason than I don’t want everyone in her apartment building hurt. As usual, she can’t be bothered to do a damn thing that would improve her situation, and is content to watch cable television every waking hour, pet her cat, and slowly sink into a pile of discarded wrappers.
But in happier news, there are many good things ahead. I’m due to have a short piece of writing about Doctor Who novels appear in a charity anthology, I’ve released the 20th completed episode of Managlitch City Underground, I have that first chapter of a novel done, and Roxy has scheduled us twice-monthly appointments with a massage therapist. Soon, I’ll be able to pay off one of the two remaining large debts of mine from the move to North Carolina, which will free up money for other fun pursuits. And, I wake up every morning next to a wonderful woman who loves me. Going without that for five years wasn’t fun at all.
So here’s hoping it’s not two more months until next entry. I don’t want any more of my life to be empty of definite memories.
Editing Out Your Skull
Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 1st of Chillsnap, 716 —
I have been working very hard lately. Hard enough that despite having important things to do, I took about ninety minutes of ‘me’ time after work to do a small quest chain in “Borderlands, the Pre-Sequel”. Have another sniper bullet to the noggin, you villainous thug, you.
But then we got down to the important stuff for the evening. Roxy has a brand new job, one with a decent working environment and a potential future! We are both extremely excited, so of course, sushi was mandatory. Mandatory for her, anyway; I’m more of a hibachi kind of guy. The point is our meals were yummy, and it was great to have a little personal date night together, even if at one point she had to sit through me geeking out about the clean, utilitarian lines of the original TV series USS Enterprise.
We got home then and I handled some convention email, then once our brains had settled we sat down for an editing session on Managlitch Episode Nineteen. Not an especially long episode, but it has three voice actors and some important plot revelations. I needed the mood to be right, and to reveal just enough to have people guessing while not so much as to hand it all out on a platter. Anyone listening through the whole run will have a pretty good idea who is behind this all, but that’s okay; we didn’t want it hidden too carefully!
Anyway, getting the script exactly where it needed to be took two or three hours of editing. This podcasting lark isn’t one; as I’ve mentioned one or two times before, it’s real work! But we made it happen, and I’ve contacted the voice actors; and I’ll actually be starting to write Twenty soon, so I can take advantage of a meetup with another voice early.
Oh, and I have officially started on Project Discordia. What with everything else we did, officially starting consisted of setting up some folders in Dropbox and roughing out some very general character sketches, but I’m calling it the start. When will it be done? Not for months, I’m certain. But I’ll drop the occasional update here once it’s really rolling: this isn’t a Sekrit Project. Thank goodness, because I hate keeping those quiet.
