Ran across a great compilation of Kepler- one of my favourite characters of all time, and who holds a very soft place in my heart. The Whiskey Speech is iconic, of course, but he has so many good lines.
What, you think when I was young I dreamt about this? About being stuck up here? Of course not. I had things I wanted to do, places I wanted to see, people I wanted to be with, and that’s all… that’s all gone.
You knew that when you signed up, and you knew that she’d be an expendable asset. Don’t get sentimental, Alana. It doesn’t become you.
I like this scotch. A lot. I like the taste. I like the smell. I like the feel of it in my hand. Here’s the thing: end of a long day at work? I want to have this bottle of whiskey. It will make my life better. But if it started to get in the way of my work, I could get rid of it and things would be… well, they’d be more or less fine. I’d be sad, but life would go on. You all? You’re whiskey. You’re a nice to have. But nothing more than that.
It’s been twelve hours. There are limits to the human body. What it can withstand. […] You’re pushing too hard. They need a chance to catch their breath, or something’s going to break.
It’s fantastic for the spirit. Maybe not so much the constitution, but that’s what the yummy soup you make from the bones and stock is for. Highly recommend.
At work I have my avatar set to the cover art of Hand Me Down. A colleague is like, “New avatar?”
“Yep, since September last year.”
“What is it?”
“You don’t recognise the 17th top entry in Interactive Fiction Comp 2023?!?!?!”
“Nope. Is it yours? I can’t accept that because that would mean you have finished a project.”
(After I picked myself off the ground after that) “Well actually, I finished another one in February. And one just recently.”
Him: “Noooo, you can’t do that! I’ve got (rattles off a list of unfinished mini projects of his own).”
So a brutal reminder that, yes, I’ve finished some projects, which was my goal not long ago. It’s like the good version of a scar.
I got food poisoning and now I live in the bathroom. I can barely remember a time before I lived in a pile of sweaty blankets on the bathroom floor. The positive thing is that I haven’t died.
My new Raspberry Pi and RFID reader/writers + tags came today!
I’m building my own automated cat feeder because having tried more than enough models from Amazon I can say with certainty - they all suck. Either they only work with one tag, or only run on batteries, or make it too easy for other pets to access, or behave inconsistent to their settings, or require a dodgy app and constant wifi, or will not close if another cat pushes the first away, or…the list goes on and on.
All I want is: Each cat has its own bowl which opens when they approach and closes quickly when they leave. A food storage repository and dispenser is nice but a simple bowl is sufficient for my primary goal. Most of my cats can deal with having food available all the time, but one has no self-control and will eat his way into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade unless prevented. He’s also big, pushy, and overweight.
Felt a wave of relief so intense it was nauseating. After two months of actively battling with inept bureaucrats, (involving rounds of misinformation, information that blatantly contradicted contract documents, documentation from healthcare professionals, financial records, insurance crawling, having things cancelled and absurd processing times to reopen claims and cases, and absolutely no support from several professionals who are equipped to supposedly help people navigate with all of this), I finally have an issue related to my permanent disability as related to academia resolved. Really, this issue started a few years ago, when even attempting to get the status confirmed, but this recent snarl of issues became very pressing in the last few months. Good fucking God. I’ve been exhausted trying to sort this out. It’s over. I don’t have to fuss about it anymore. Thank God.
Tentatively have some very good news, and ran it by some people who know more than I do. Not quite solid enough to be hopeful, but it is a little bright spot of relief in what’s been a really rough day.
I’ve been frazzled, and all over the place, today has been rough- and I’ve been lucky enough to have both friends and acquaintances offer to help- (of which I am appreciative and grateful,) but it’s also crazy how talking to Dan soothed all of those frenzied scrambling little monstrous brainworms.
It’s always good to hear from him. It’s just comforting to speak with him. Even in scenarios where neither of us can necessarily fix whatever issue is knocking down at our doors: just spending time together with someone who you know cares about you and loves you as a sibling is really special and something to be treasured. It’s kind of the first time I’ve really been happy all day, and it’s nice to let that feeling float about for a little bit, and bask, like a chunky little cat curled up in a pool of sunshine.
It’s not a new feeling to me, that sense of security and safety that comes with a relationship you have with someone who painfully understands even what you leave implicitly unsaid, because they know you, just like you know ridiculous little quirks like meatloaf preferences and sense how they’ll react in scenarios ahead and are proven right time and time again- but it’s always a really affirming moment to linger in. To be known is to be loved, and to be loved is such a precious gift.
Grayson and I had fun chitchatting recently about a fun little AU for us to play around in- I don’t normally dabble in cyberpunk, but I actually used to primarily write science fiction, instead of writing gothic romance/horror, believe it or not! So it’s cool to get ‘back to my roots’ in that sense. And I’m super excited to play with them and our box of dolls to puppet about in play by post replies. :3
This morning I came out of the bathroom, where I have been since Sunday night! It’s the most wonderful thing in the world. For 2 1/2 days, Tom has been shoving water and juice and tea in through a crack in the door so I could try to stay hydrated. It felt like a year. The nice thing about living in the bathroom when you have food poisoning is that after a violent bout of barfing and diarrhea, you can sink onto the nice cool tile floor and just lie there without worrying about how you’re getting vomit on it. And then you can heave yourself into the shower and lie on the shower floor while you wash off the yuck.
I might eat a cracker a little later, but I am very afraid of solid food so I’m not sure if that’s wise. But right now it’s great to be more than a blob of ick hidden away in the bathroom.
I am, among many things, rather stubborn, which is why it took me two freaking hours to put on my necklace today. I mean, it most certainly is on now, but good grief that was far more difficult than it needed to be. The sheer blinding rage of realizing I had accidentally flipped it and would then have to take it off and try again shortly into the process was horrible. But it’s on, and I’m satisfied with that. I do need to go ahead and get my hands on a larger ring to connect onto the other end, though- affixing a vintage silver lobster clasp lets me even put it on in the first place, the initial clasp was impossible to use, being one of those tiny springback circle shaped ones, but this was entirely too infuriating. It’s so strange, sometimes I get it done in one clean shot, and other times I spend literal hours grappling with it. But it’s on! And that’s a win.
It’s gotten very cold, so I put on my favourite PJ pants. They’re fluffy, fleecy teal, with grey kittens in pink and blue scarfs all over the fluff, with a dark blue, sparkly waistband drawstring ribbon, and it’s so cute and comfy.