Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

Mood's a lot better. Thank you, everyone who pitched in. I think it really helps to FINALLY be caught up on work—and, for the first time in two weeks, have a head that doesn't smell like a rhinovirus tomb on the inside. -_-

Feeling hopeful about Parallax again, might watch a couple horror movies for inspiration ("YA comic" *evil cackle*) and do a little work on Ch 2 plotting.

@SangriaSnake I've known some people like that in my time. :D

#achewood

@hummingrain I have to do this with @anthracite sometimes. *nod*

#lizardthings

@hummingrain And, I mean, "exotic" covers a lot of territory. I've known people who kept skunks and ferrets who were, like, 5th-generation captive and they seemed pretty darned happy and attached. I'm talking about, say, the kind of people who want to have a serval or a raccoon or a wolfdog or something without, you know, at least making wildlife care their *main hobby*.

And then at the other end of the spectrum you have the woman who runs dailycoyote.net, who just kinda had a coyote dropped in her lap and is one of my personal heroes...

@hummingrain "Vet failed to communicate with my Pomeranian in clear, coherent English. If my pet psychic can do it, how hard could it be for a licensed professional? 1/5."

@hummingrain Yeah, that all sounds like par for the course, especially when you factor in that people are gonna get uptight (and *sigh* look for someone to blame) when nothing can be done for their pet.

Just drawing from my own Yelp experiences—maybe comparing with the low reviews on other vets in the area would help reassure that anxious part of your brain? Betcha anything they've got 'em too.

Pardon me a moment while I grumble about people and their "exotic mammals" that probably shouldn't have ever been in captivity in the first place. No, Karen, nobody knows how to take care of your goddamn binturong. ;p I'm still carrying a grudge 20 years later over my ex-girlfriend's poor sickly, shivering little hedgehogs. >_<

@hummingrain And oops, I missed your last paragraph at first, it's early—you're streets ahead of me on this. <3

@hummingrain Man, I wish there were a filter for angry one-star reviews from soccer mom's named "Karen." ;p Yeah, if my experiences reading restaurant reviews apply to vets, they're probably fine.

First thing I do with any restaurant is filter by worst rating and see how many of the one-stars are stuff like "was closed at 9:56 pm on a Monday, site said was upon until 10:00, how DARE you." I think a lot of people just want a place to vent when they're frustrated, and can't tell the difference between "genuinely badly run place" and "my feelings were briefly hurt by a misunderstanding."

What sort of stuff were people complaining about?

@001zlnv @hystericempress Boston did cod for a while, I believe...

@zx3 (shit, I think I have that WITH me, on my media drive—yeah, I think I've found my entertainment for the evening—tigers do so love it when the gooey blood stuff comes out all over ^_______^ )

@zx3 There will NEVER be a day in which a Cronenberg reference will not bring a smile to my face—thank you, robot friend!

@Xinjinmeng@mastodon.social It's more like "back off the wagon." Many a donut and cruller knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of a tiger in those days, I can tell you.

Ran myself a nice bath and took a couple hours' break from work. I think the experience I had in there could be described as somewhere between a "hypnoseethe," a "power sulk," and an "astral stalk." It's a Martian thing. You small gooshy type people wouldn't understand.

Checked the headlines to see if maybe I finally took McConnell out while I was soaking. Nothin'. I mean, if he got a papercut or a nosebleed or something, that probably wouldn't have made the news, right? Hmm, I'll keep trying. 😼​

@anthracite @001zlnv Rosemary and beer reduction, o my adorable food illiterate. <3

@Phorm Also... heh... if the shit really hits the fan and I lose that bet for 2020/2024... come on down and have some donuts. Lots and lots and lots and lots of donuts.

#wobbiegenie
#wobbletiger
#maybewobbledragon

@Phorm Yeah. Yeah. *hug* There's a certain thrill in being one of the people who might get to be on the front lines of the impending kulturkampf, since I've always enjoyed a good scrap, but even that pyrrhic pleasure ain't for everyone. *pets*

Decided to get an art commission to cheer myself up, since I've put in so many hours the last few weeks, even though hurricanes and plagues. So I got a brainwashed alien cyborg catgirl goin' for me which is nice.

Also, Peg and I brainstormed a bunch of ideas for getting me out more and cheered up. She even found me an LGBT-friendly gaming club with playtest nights, shockingly close to home, so I'm genuinely looking forward to that!

Doing a bit better. Honestly, it just... it got to be too much at once. Especially the moment I realized that my attempts to give Mitch McConnell a massive hernia via telekinesis weren't doing jack shit. These antennae are fuckin' useless. Fuck your planet and its shitty reception. >__<

"Maybe I should just eat more."

@hummingrain Effectively, you just did. <3 Honestly... I think what I really needed was to feel for a couple minutes like I wasn't just staring into the Total Perspective Vortex, and somebody out there was actually listening. *hug*

Four days into my Ohio visit, four left. Morale is really low. Between listening to my stepdad cough his lungs out every 10 minutes and bracing myself to visit my cancer-stricken stepbrother on Monday—for his birthday, forcrissake—the sense of poignance and doom, as my family dwindles away from me, is really getting to me.

Got way delayed on work this day because the wifi is terrible and it's impossible to find a place to sit and focus. Worked three hours already and have another 6-7 hours left before I can quit for the week.

Not sure exactly what I'm returning to. When I went back to Seattle from a long trip, back in the day, it felt like there was something social and uplifting and weird waiting for me. I love Peg a lot, but I feel like all I've got coming besides her is more loneliness and more of our usual domestic routine. It's cozy, but that's not gonna be enough to get me through these years.

Haven't gotten to work on Parallax in the slightest.

Don't even know what I'm fighting for anymore. State of the world, well, any barrier against it I had built up just got washed away somewhere between Barry, the flu, and Ohio.

I just wish there were an honorable way to give up, and stop having to fight more and more for less and less. The "shiny things" that I used to build my life around—or the illusion that they'd come around someday instead of just being empty, promised bait—feel so far away, just gone forever.

If I really, truly had any say in how I would spend the rest of my life... *sigh* I want donuts. I want a sack of 200—300 gourmet donuts and nobody who's gonna be hurt by the consequences of me eating them all in one sitting.

That's about it, really. Everything else I dream about is the sort of self-indulgent quick-fix justice that's morally repugnant to most of you, over in a day along with any chance of a normal life, and would only leave some pundit clicking their tongue about how violence is all Those Evil Leftists have got.