Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

From Kerry Thornley's "Zenarchy":

Did some very productive brooding late last night (not being sarcastic). Started this morning with biscuits and gravy with Peggy followed by several hours of dragon cuddles. The bad brain weather's cleared up a bit, and I'm actually getting work done. Good enough for me.

"Reasonable Clown Posse"

I'm not sure if it's a cover band, or just the ICP after years of conscientious therapy and rehab, but there you go.

Personally, I'm thinking same line-up, but they're a jazz-funk combo, with lyrics about the undesirable health effects of Faygo, proper knife safety, and the legitimacy of conventional theories of electromagnetics.

(cc: @LeDiva for old times sake <3 )

https://www.businessinsider.com/sinister-hunger-stones-dire-warnings-surfaced-europe-2018-8?utm_source=reddit.com

One on hand, this whole story unnerves the shit out of me, and I'm not easy to unnerve with mere history. On the other, somebody cleverer than I could spin one hell of a dark fantasy screenplay out of these "hunger stones."

http://rall.com/2018/05/02/america-is-one-of-the-few-cultures-with-insults-for-smart-people

At first, I thought, "Huh. This article isn't really based on much evidence. 'Geek' is a specialized term; Google Translate is literal-minded and doesn't handle synonyms well. I'll bet if I looked deeper into this, I'd find plenty of foreign slang for nerdy people."

Then I looked at the byline, and saw it was by Ted Rall. And I went, "Oh. That explains it." And I went back about my business, after complaining here, because I have zero respect for Ted Rall. Zero.

I had a normal conversation with some not very normal people (about tacos) and it went fine and I am feeling much less like A Tiger In Exile. Honestly, that was all I really needed. =^___^=

So I think I'm gonna try swallowing my fear that people don't hit me up any more for a REASON, and that reason is more than just Seattle introverts being Seattle introverts. It's time to reach out.

I don't know. It's hard not to interpret every little signal as a covert "fuck off, Eeyore," when I'm in this depressive mode. But it seems to be the most honest, if not necessarily safest, option.

(Twilight Sparkle: if this fails, I blame YOU.)

I honestly don't know how to handle not having the social opportunities come to *me*. I realize I've been absolutely terrible at it, fretting over nobody contacting me, while I go months without contacting anybody.

It's hard. Peg's place is too small for comfortable visits. And I've still got a lot of self-doubt and fear lingering from The Bad Stuff last year. I don't know. I'm trying to get over it and do better. I just don't have a clear path.

I think I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and try to deal with this by injecting a little more positivity into the system.

God, this is fucking with me, though. Can you believe, I'd been living in furry collectives for TWENTY YEARS?

It's been so weird to spend all my time around one person, even if she can deal with my emotional cruft better than anyone else I've ever met. I have to work that much harder to get a balanced emotional diet.

Still having a rager of a depression, but one of my coworkers had a question about the administrative status of Berlin. I started to do the research and I feel better already.

It still scares me that, next to @anthracite, the single most likely thing to cheer me up these days is work. Maybe it *is* time to head back towards an office job.

Our recent morning 2.0 experiment was so successful, we are declaring a pre-night today, beginning in five minutes. What would normally be 9:30 pm Wednesday will instead be 9:30 am on Double Wednesday.

Let's hope Double Wednesday will be less of an agonizing emotional clusterfuck than Regular Wednesday. Good night and see you tomorrow.

I like that this is the top Google Image hit for "nicest cat." Clearly, I picked the right taxonomic family for my personality.

*begs for belly rubs then claws you up a little* 🐯​❤️​

There was only one thing on Earth that could break my sour mood, apparently, and I found it. I had been saving it, like a fine wine, and it's everything I could have possibly dreamed of.

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

(CW: Italians; spiders; men)

morning 2.0 starts at 5 pm

maybe it will go better this time

who's with me

Thank god @anthracite has gotten truly gifted at snapping me out of grumpy moods, through the art of therapeutic annoyance.

Any attempt to motivate myself to work today, or go outside, or get out of bed, will probably have to involve a donut attached to a fishing pole. All non-essential non-donut-related emotions are on hold, apparently.