Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

Oh, and I also watched this surprisingly good fan-trailer that remakes The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a gritty modern family drama...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=211&v=WAfJpyBgcgA

We did absolutely nothing productive or responsible today. :)

Peg made a failed attempt to get a snowball (local confection, basically a Hawaiian ice except not), then hung out in the backyard and fed our hosts' darling (and sociable!) pet bunnies and wrote in her journal for a bit.

I added a few observations to the Arsenal of Peace, did some pondering for Parallax Ch. 2, played a ton of Card Quest, drove up the road for some BBQ, caught up on Documentary Now! and DuckTales, watched a few episodes of The Prisoner, attempted (and failed) to spoil Jordan Peele's Us for myself, booked my first couple of farewell meetups, and made one (unsuccessful) last ditch effort to get the local housecat to let me pet her.

In an alternate universe not too far away, we were frantically scrambling for an apartment all day today, with someone's attempted schemes re: The Thing overshadowing the whole effort, and over there I am currently at the brink of tears.

But today I feel happy, stable, and ready to start a whole new phase of my life-- in a place where I might actually be allowed to grow. I think we've earned a whole day of doing absolutely nothing.

@mawr There are days when I seriously consider offering mass arson of friends' CEO's cars as my parting gift from Seattle. :)

*hugs tight* Fuck a bunch of those guys.

Another vital tool for an, um, "conscious decoupling": a really good playlist. It's nice to have a reminder that the feelings you've going through are not only common, they're so common you can find 40-50 other people who felt them so strongly, they had to write about it.

Bob Dylan comes to mind. >_<

#Positively127thStreet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auaHORc7ZIY

@acetone_kitten Yeah, we're heading home tomorrow afternoon, so that'd be rad!

Um... I'm gonna die.

I looked up our neighborhood on Yelp.

One block to Jamaican food. Ten blocks to legendary local gelato and Italian pastries. SIX Creole cafes within five blocks. Three po' boy restaurants within eight blocks. Two taquerias. One Middle Eastern café. And a pub/arcade.

All four-star or higher. And I had to zoom in TIGHT on our immediate neighborhood... because otherwise the EIGHTY OR SO options here in Mid-City, some of which are world-class dining, overwhelm the closer options.

It was nice knowing y'all. *Martian Nom Corps salute* 🐯​

@LeDiva Um basically soon as we don't have to make you sleep on the floor as far as I'm concerned. 🐯​❤️​

So... now that the other Thing is as resolved I care for it to be, and I've finally started processing it all... I've also started processing that we've GOT A RENTAL HOUSE IN NEW ORLEANS FFS. 😺😺😺😺😺

Three-bedroom shotgun. Huge. No internal doors, but that's what folding screens are for. TONS of room for a bedroom, two healthy-sized studios/private rawring dens​, and some guest space. Our own laundry hookup.

Shorter distance from two cafes and a five-star brunch place. Medium walking distance from City Park, which might be the single most beautiful place I've ever seen... and as soon as I get a smartphone that can tether, it'll be MY OFFICE.

Plus, apparently we're right on the Endymion Krewe's parade route. That's the largest Mardi Gras parade, and evidently having a house on it carries a substantial amount of social capital (if for no other reason than you can provide precious precious water and clean toilets).

And here's the kicker: $950/month. It's a third LESS than Peg was paying for her two-bedroom shithole in the University District with a washer that made everything smell like huitlacoche. Honestly, I love y'all, but Seattle can basically go fuck itself. >___~

Yeah. Honestly, I didn't think Peg and I were capable of this level of adulting either... Now comes the tough parts: getting all our shit down there, getting insurance-car-appliances-furniture-Internet all set up, and starting my new role at my job WHILE all this is happening...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__jh3S9DzYU

#ViolentFemmes
#InsolentCats

Especially in the face of recent personal events, I REALLY like these 10 commandments:

https://twitter.com/jnikolbeckham/status/1093507259378950144

@troodon I could learn so much from Nar... Gimme his e-mail, k? 😽​

@kistaro Do kings play chess on fiber glass stools?

(Bonus mnemonic: How I want a drink, champagne or scotch, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics!)

@Austin_Dern *hug* You too, hun. Community is almost as painful to watch as MLP, anymore...

This is why I've decided the main running theme of Parallax is gonna be "sometimes there's nothing you can do but give up and move on, because good intentions and persistence don't always just magically fix it."

@kelseyhusky I'm gonna feel like such a rube, but I'm terrible with faces anyhow... what media is that shot at the bottom from?

Seriously. Totally emotionally removed from everything else that's going on in the background...

If you ever get into a serious interpersonal drama, START A NOTEPAD ABOUT IT IMMEDIATELY. Preferably a modern-type one like Evernote that you can have everywhere and paste other relevant media into, like conversation screenshots.

This goes double if, like me, you have a temper you can never be 100% sure is going to remain in check, but that you sincerely want to work on. Having a safe place to rant and store up your bad feelings is an incredibly helpful way to keep yourself from launching them at your opponents before they've had time to simmer properly.

And when you're scared, you can take confidence from the sense that you're DOING something about it... but something slow and cautious. You don't NEED to take it to your opponent, because if they ever come for you themselves, you'll be ready.

And if they never come, so much the better. You'll still have a little journal of every little reason you have to trust yourself, have faith you're doing the right thing, and not let the fear of them coming and upsetting your apple-cart drive you to do something rash.

I never wanted to be a warrior anyhow, and I'm so happy to have found a way to fight like a scholar. Never fuck with someone with research skills and a willingness to write EVERYTHING down. :)

@001zlnv Yeah. She was a lot like a Vorlon. :)

@mona@cybre.space That's a frighteningly effective tactic these days, a frighteningly good niche for his kind to breed in, but I keep seeing glimmers of hope we're right on the cusp of that tactic losing its power. It's subtle, maybe I'm just so tired of it myself that I assume everybody else is.

Maybe it's just hope/confidence that the Red Queen's Race will kick in and we'll develop an immunity because we HAVE to-- there's no other way forward, and this give-and-take between predator and prey is natural and eternal in all things that evolve. But I still think we'll see the day that his kind of bullshit, at least on this topic, will no longer work at all...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEGbjR1Y9Qo

#community
#andthelackthereof

As a dear friend who is long gone once said... "we will always have been here."

And I have now assembled my Arsenal of Peace, my huge list of arguments in my defense -- and evidence from their own communications -- for use if this nonsense ever comes up again.

I'm finally confident that I've got more than adequate defenses, if the other side's not content to stand the fuck down, even in the face of mutual friends asking them to, even after today's gambit against me totally failed.

So now, thus girded, I feel like I never have to go on the offense about this matter ever again. (And fuck me if I ever do, because it's my own stupid fault and you should really have no sympathy for me.)

It feels real good. I hope that iron-barred gate is NEVER opened. If it ever is... it ain't me who forced it, and I hope to god none of you have to hear word one about it.

This is my public declaration: I Am Done With The Thing, and the people involved in it. Feel free to ask about it, but I'm probably going to remain coy-- much the way I would remain coy if you asked me where I buried all that unrefined plutonium. >_<

Good. Fucking. Deal.