I wish I could draw, @AmandaB , because dream you was dressed up as a depression era hobo, complete with quilted bindle sticking out of the window of a depression era car stacked 50 miles tall ala grapes of wrath. The funny thing is my brain somehow knew I didn’t know what you looked like, so a period hat obscured your features throughout the dream.
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That made me a little weepy. There are a few Amanda songs out there (fate should have made me a gentleman’s wife, but I got hitched to an old punk rocker instead), but this is the first one written for me!
This is kind of how I felt on the road trip here. And people used to tell me all the time that I looked like Marlee Matlin, and that was true. Now I look like an age-melted version of that.
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I’m glad you liked it and my mental imagery has been appropriately updated, lol. I was catching up on positivity posts last night and fell asleep while reading them (woke up with the phone still in my hand). You always write with such vibrant imagery, even in passing, that I’m guessing that’s where my brain got the idea from.
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Hey, @pinkunz your lyrics are great, and they are quite different than McClintock’s! 
For anyone who can’t access the video, here’s the text:
https://genius.com/Harry-mcclintock-big-rock-candy-mountain-lyrics
In the 1928 version I especially liked “where the cops have wooden legs” and “And you sleep out every night”.
[Edit: and “cigarette tree”
Am I the only one imaging now an IF around Grapes of Wrath?]
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We climbed up the mountain in our back yard today. The house is built into the side of the mountain and there’s a trail up, so up we went.
And the trail stopped about 3/4 of a mile up, but we could see the top above us. So we said that thing that some idiot says in every nature-horror movie ever: “It’s OK to leave the trail, because we’re so close to the peak!”
The good news is that it was OK and we went to the top, found the spring that feeds the stream, sat in a lovely mountaintop meadow, and then came back down and found the trail easily and the worst thing that happened was a wild blackberry bush bit me. And my ankles are sore from the steep hiking, but what’s also positive is that we could do it-- about a mile up a steep-ass mountain, and then again back down.
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Note that even this 1928 version is somewhat sanitized; in original form the song is about recruiting kids into the hobo lifestyle with extravagant tales of how great it is (and a strong implication that part of the point of the recruitment is to enable sexual abuse).
I like the song but it’s kinda wild to me how its become this anodyne kid-bop thing when it started out super gritty.
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Woah, that’s creepy! Was the original, nasty version from McClintock, too?
I still envision Grapes of Wrath IF. It would envolve a turtle, of course. And a cameo of Amanda…
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Fun new pants- a butter soft pair of housepants in pale blue, with varying shades of greyish-blue monstera leaves printed all over them.
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That’s the recording used in O Brother Where Art Thou, isn’t it?
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I think so, but I don’t know for certain. They did quite a few re-recordings just for that film, so it may simply sound similar.
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Actually managed to sleep a bit longer this morning. Usually at this time of year I’m waking up stupidly early because of the light.
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I got the meds adjustment, so hopefully things will be on the upswing. ALSO I’d been worried that I’ll have to keep going up for the rest of my life and I’d be screwed if I max out on the dosage (which I have, currently). However, my psych said that this isn’t a med you build a tolerance to in that way, it’s just finding the sweet spot where it works! So if I still feel really good after a while (6 months to a year) we could even try going back down a touch or something. That’s really comforting!
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I calculated the time it would take to get my game done, and I estimated 4-6 years. Which is a real long time. If I get it done in less than that, that’s really good.
Apart from that, I have 8 more days until the end of the year! Then it’s holidays!
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Feeling really good about helping localise someone’s writing from Spanish into English. I’m self-taught, but I requested the original Spanish to translate the original intent better, and I think it helped a lot. For ex: “petarda” was translated to “moron” by the original writer (who speaks English to some fluency). The other localiser read “moron” and turned it into “idiot”. But to my understanding, “petarda” more closely means “boring person” so I changed it to “killjoy”.
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I really enjoyed Grayson’s NYX, an entry into the Neo Twiny jam this year. They did a wonderful job of humanizing the crew through what they loved, and so eloquently in such tight prose- the lullabies really got to me.
I drew them a silly little doodle of getting the daisy crown for best scifi horror and they liked it! :3
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Checking in a year ahead of schedule to say I beat Anchorhead the other day. As I suspected, those last points come quickly. Turns out that the game usually voted one of the very best IFs ever whenever anyone asks is quite good - who knew?
Anyway, time to cool off with a smaller, more manageable game. Just kidding, I’m knee-deep in Moondrop Isle now. Good gracious this one’s big.
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thank you SO much for the drawing!!! i am cherishing it forever (making it a post-it on my computer desktop)… also i’m really glad you enjoyed NYX – i’ve been saving the concept for the game for such a long time and i’m beyond overjoyed that someone resonates with it and enjoys it as much as i do!!!
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In Texas we get an “I Voted” sticker about the size of a dime.
I would go for the sausage… Maybe a pig in a blanket? …
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I really could get on board with voting BBQ though. Might be the secret to getting Americans to the polls. Free choice of spare rib, drumstick, or brisket roll (or veggy kabob) in exchange for your official “I voted” sticker!
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Actually, barbecues were a big part of 19th century electioneering! More so in the run-up to the vote as a way to persuade people to vote for your guy than on Election Day itself, from my understanding, but still, it’s a longstanding association.
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