Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

Oh, Indonesia. Gods bless you and your blithe indifference to Western intellectual property. ❤️​

Your odds of still being alive in twelve hours are comparatively high.

Hmmm. Sorry. I'm not good at these.

This is why I love Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington's On Cinema, especially the early episodes before they got into all the soap opera stuff. They set out to make a film podcast that was as vacuous and obvious as the "real" ones, and... well, that's an unachievably high standard, but they *almost* hit it.

I know there are good Youtube commentators who can do more than sputter "LOL! WTF! I DON'T EVEN!" but damned if my old ass knows how to find 'em. Any recommendations?

You know that one episode of MST3K where Joel flips out and dares Frank and Dr. Forrester to riff a movie, and it's TERRIBLE? Everything they say is just kind of vague "Haha! They sure are in a... wacky situation. You could sure say something there!"

Every single review or reaction video I've ever seen on Youtube has sounded like that to me. No insight, no thesis, no analysis, just some 19-year-old kid giving us full real-time access to his hindbrain.

On the other hand, I do get to spend the entire morning arguing with people about the precise administrative status of Berlin.

I'm not even being ironic. Arguing about Berlin, specifically, is one of my favorite job activities. My coworkers have nearly come to (very polite rhetorical) blows over this topic several times. It's like a really, really cordial and pedantic bar brawl.

*grins wide; grabs a poolcue engraved "THEY'RE JUST STATISTICAL ENTITIES DAMMIT"; joins the fray* 😺​

Peggy mentioned Festivus. I think instead of Thanksgiving or "affiliated holidays," I'm gonna celebrate that early this year. I'm already tabulating my list of grievances. ;p

The point of all this is... gosh, this morning's been good at motivating me. :) Our work VPN is failing. Nobody's gotten back to me about the OTHER account I was accidentally locked out of. Some Reddit idiot tried to brush off right-wing responsibility for violence by calling left and right "fictional constructs" and it became necessary to devour him. And I just... MAN, IT'S SUCH A GREAT MORNING. I FEEL SO ALIVE. ALL PROBLEMS CAN, SHOULD, AND WILL BE EATEN. 🐯​🐯​🐯​🐯​🐯​

So Peg woke up feeling a little down and overwhelmed this morning, and we were talking about what gets *me* motivated.

And I admitted that, some mornings, it's really just... anger. Well-channeled anger. I'm getting better and better at that.

But sometimes there's just this point where the pile of kipple heaped onto me is so big, all I can do is Hulk Out and go RAWR and throw it all off me at once, in a flurry of rage-fueled but actually productive activity...

Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys: we accept you, one of us, one of us. (ATTN: @acetone_kitten
https://dogpatch.press/2018/11/12/jello-biafra-dance-party-furries/

(Though a simple "I'm so sorry this all happened this way, Kin" would not be taken badly.)

(Yes, the above is an oblique request not to talk to me about Bandaza. Also, please cw anything pertaining to it. I request as much emotional distance from the entire event as you can provide. I have plenty of feeling surrounding the whole thing, and I suspect discussing them wouldn't make anybody any happier. If you're in town for it and want to hang out separately, feel free to ping me, but I will probably be hiding out somewhere on the actual day.​)

“Thanksgiving’s always been a little bit bewildering to me because it’s not a religious holiday. When your family gets together, there are a few things that you do, but most of the time it’s about food preparation.” -- Joel Hodgson

No plans for Thanksgiving, nor adjacent holidays. I'm basically comfortable with this. I eat enough during the rest of the year. Whatever the rest of you do, have fun, and if it's local... don't feel any particular need to tell me about it.

boycott boycott boycott boycott

https://boingboing.net/2018/11/14/facebook-hired-oppo-firm-to-sm.html

(TL;DR: Facebook hired a right-wing opposition research company to tar Facebook critics as Soros pawns. But there's a lot of other scuzzy behavior described in the article.)

At least the whole confusion with Washington Health reminded me of one of my favorite words:

https://ansible.uk/sfx/sfx161.html

It's busy times, so I don't know if I really *could* do a lot of socializing anyhow. But I admit, I do really miss the big-group stuff.

I've avoided the rituals partly to give K and O a little space, and partly 'cause... honestly, the Celtic ritual calendar has never really spoken to me? But I'm super-glad they're happening.

Anyhow, dunno. Been torn between being bolder & Sparing You The Burden Of My Stripey Boorishness? 🐯​

But let's get sushi sometime, or something?

I guess I just wanted to say that if I've been talking like I'm Just Done With Seattle Folks... I guess it's more of a warding behavior than something I actually *want*. Like, it's a way of preparing myself for something I really fear is true.

I still like and miss all of you Seattle people. Cripes, I still like Orrery and Keet-- that's why I'm staying the fuck AWAY from them, because we obviously need a few years apart, at the very least, to cool things down.

Meanwhile, I've been getting that awful feeling again, that I've pretty much drifted out of the lives of most of the locals, and it's basically my fault.

It is, really. I know I definitely withdrew good and hard after the fight with Keet and Orrery. I walked away from a lot of community spaces, like the Slack and the Eyrie rituals. And I don't really feel like there's a non-awkward way back into them.

This is all normal adult stuff, and really, things are still going pretty good. Peg's still got that awesome job lead, my position at work seems REAL solid, and what I'm earning will probably carry me a lot further in NOLA than it does in Seattle. And my faith that Parallax has Non-Zero Commercial Potential is ever increasing (especially after Peg's last batch of Giant Space Woofer roughs =^____^= <3 <3 <3 ).

It's just... blargh. Cat. Wanna just cat.

So basically, by working an extra ten hours a week, I'm going to be making maybe three hours a week worth more.

It's fine. Boss needs me, love the work, needed to up my stamina. It's fine. I keep reminding myself it's fine, and it actually kinda is.

But... ever have a series of crises, and afterwards, your inner control panel's warning lights are ALL blinking, and you've lost track of which alerts are outdated and which aren't? :worried_wide_eyes:​

Well, that was a little taste of Kafka.

Got a note last night from WA Health that they needed some tax documentation... in two weeks... or my policy was canceled.

Tried logging into my work's payroll site, with what I thought was my most recent password... and got locked out for too many attempts.

Still locked out, but managed to get the insurance worked out... after an hour on the phone... and being bumped to a non-free healthplan for the first time.