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A bit dreamsick this ayem, dreams of things once precious, but which no longer matter to me, which have not mattered to me now for at least twenty years. Go tell that to my unconscious. I awoke at about 5 ayem, choking. It might have been a seizure that came in my sleep, and it might not have been. My throat's still messed up this morning. There was a brief absence seizure yesterday, and one last Thursday, and another on Wednesday.
Yesterday was supposed to be a day off, after a stretch of especially tedious writing. We'd made plans. But we'd not planned on the weather turning hot. It's been cool, and I thought the summer was winding down. Hell, it's cool again today. But yesterday, it was hot. The sun was a white demon in a wide blue sky. We drove down to Wickford, because there was something I needed, a certain witchy something, which I'd hoped they might have at the Grateful Heart. Yeah, right. It's a great place, if you're looking for crystals, the self-help book of the week, Xtian pop mysticism, or faux Buddhist doodads, but I think Wicca scares them. What little they have is hidden away in a corner at the back of the shop, so as not the spook the New Agers. So, yeah, that was a wasted trip, wasted gas, and all that heat. On the way back to the interstate, we stopped at a Del's Lemonade truck, but I think I "can has" no more Del's until the cracked molar is fixed.
The rest of the afternoon is a sort of blur of heat and sweat and bright. We dropped by White Electric Coffee on Westminster. Very good coffee and a good atmosphere, which helps to make up for the slight sketchiness of the neighborhood. We were going to visit Ada Books, just around the corner, but it was closed due, apparently, to a recent robbery (back to the sketchiness of the neighborhood). We wandered, to and fro in the heat. I carried my black umbrella to try to keep the worst of the sun away. You know that you live in a thoroughly uncivilized age when people give you the hairy eyeball whenever you dare to use an umbrella for shade. Eventually, we crossed the river to College Hill, and walked up and down Wickenden Street a bit. We stopped into Aqua-Life, an aquarium shop. It was wonderfully cool inside, and we admired various fish and invertebrates and newts in bubbling fresh- and saltwater tanks. I actually have photos, but I'm not up to editing them right now.
The post brought the new Weird Tales, though I really have not looked at it yet. I finished reading the second volume of E.C. Segar's Popeye strips from Fantagraphics (December 22, 1930 —— October 2, 1932). I have been enjoying these strips immensely, so much so that there are a couple I may scan and include in the journal. I see that Volume 3 will be released November 15. It's on my Amazon wishlist, if anyone is interested. I also finally got around to the June issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, and read "A new species of Taniwhasaurus [Mosasauridae; Tylosaurinae] from the upper Santonian/lower Campanian [U. Cretaceous] of Hokkaido, Japan." Spooky and I played a game of Unspeakable Words, and I won. She made tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner, as it was far too hot to cook anything.
As for Second Life, the "Denizens of Howards End" rp group now has 17 or 18 members, and hopefully terraforming will begin tonight (the domain of the "Architect's of Howards End" group). I did think of something else that irks me in roleplay that I thought I'd mention. Tense shift. This one is almost epidemic in SL, and I suppose it must be the result of some failure on the part of public education. A player will begin a paragraph in present tense (as they should; all rp should be done in present tense) and then, mysteriously, switch to past tense towards the end of the paragraph, often in mid sentence. For example, something like this:
She opens her eyes, realizing that the sun has set and darkness has come once again. "Did I really sleep that long?" she thinks. She looks about the room at the others, who were all watching her. She decided it was best if she didn't mention her confusion.
I see this constantly, no matter what sim I visit. It's almost as if people think that the function of present tense is to begin a sentence, while past tense is meant to conclude a sentence (which, I suppose, has a certain perverse logic to it). What the fuck, people? In Howards End, this is on the long list of unacceptable rp practices. We will be literate, or we will not be. Anyway, I got in some good V:tM rp in Corvinus last night (thank you Lina and Ania), both as Nareth and (because I always must have more) also as one of my alts, Bellatrix Bracken (likely the av I'll use in Howards End). Here, Bella has been cast as a twenty-something, gothedy trust-fund brat who's being seduced by the city's Toreador Whip. One more night, and she's full on ghoul (sensu V:tM, not sensu HPL/CRK). There's a screencap of Bella below, lounging in the skybox club house in Howards End (no blingtards allowed).
Before I wrap this up, please remember the current eBay auctions, and that A is for Alien can be pre-ordered, as can the mass-market paperback of Daughter of Hounds. If I believed in karma, I'd say buying my books is good for your karma. But, alas, I don't. But it does help keep the rent paid.
( Bella )
Yesterday was supposed to be a day off, after a stretch of especially tedious writing. We'd made plans. But we'd not planned on the weather turning hot. It's been cool, and I thought the summer was winding down. Hell, it's cool again today. But yesterday, it was hot. The sun was a white demon in a wide blue sky. We drove down to Wickford, because there was something I needed, a certain witchy something, which I'd hoped they might have at the Grateful Heart. Yeah, right. It's a great place, if you're looking for crystals, the self-help book of the week, Xtian pop mysticism, or faux Buddhist doodads, but I think Wicca scares them. What little they have is hidden away in a corner at the back of the shop, so as not the spook the New Agers. So, yeah, that was a wasted trip, wasted gas, and all that heat. On the way back to the interstate, we stopped at a Del's Lemonade truck, but I think I "can has" no more Del's until the cracked molar is fixed.
The rest of the afternoon is a sort of blur of heat and sweat and bright. We dropped by White Electric Coffee on Westminster. Very good coffee and a good atmosphere, which helps to make up for the slight sketchiness of the neighborhood. We were going to visit Ada Books, just around the corner, but it was closed due, apparently, to a recent robbery (back to the sketchiness of the neighborhood). We wandered, to and fro in the heat. I carried my black umbrella to try to keep the worst of the sun away. You know that you live in a thoroughly uncivilized age when people give you the hairy eyeball whenever you dare to use an umbrella for shade. Eventually, we crossed the river to College Hill, and walked up and down Wickenden Street a bit. We stopped into Aqua-Life, an aquarium shop. It was wonderfully cool inside, and we admired various fish and invertebrates and newts in bubbling fresh- and saltwater tanks. I actually have photos, but I'm not up to editing them right now.
The post brought the new Weird Tales, though I really have not looked at it yet. I finished reading the second volume of E.C. Segar's Popeye strips from Fantagraphics (December 22, 1930 —— October 2, 1932). I have been enjoying these strips immensely, so much so that there are a couple I may scan and include in the journal. I see that Volume 3 will be released November 15. It's on my Amazon wishlist, if anyone is interested. I also finally got around to the June issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, and read "A new species of Taniwhasaurus [Mosasauridae; Tylosaurinae] from the upper Santonian/lower Campanian [U. Cretaceous] of Hokkaido, Japan." Spooky and I played a game of Unspeakable Words, and I won. She made tuna-salad sandwiches for dinner, as it was far too hot to cook anything.
As for Second Life, the "Denizens of Howards End" rp group now has 17 or 18 members, and hopefully terraforming will begin tonight (the domain of the "Architect's of Howards End" group). I did think of something else that irks me in roleplay that I thought I'd mention. Tense shift. This one is almost epidemic in SL, and I suppose it must be the result of some failure on the part of public education. A player will begin a paragraph in present tense (as they should; all rp should be done in present tense) and then, mysteriously, switch to past tense towards the end of the paragraph, often in mid sentence. For example, something like this:
She opens her eyes, realizing that the sun has set and darkness has come once again. "Did I really sleep that long?" she thinks. She looks about the room at the others, who were all watching her. She decided it was best if she didn't mention her confusion.
I see this constantly, no matter what sim I visit. It's almost as if people think that the function of present tense is to begin a sentence, while past tense is meant to conclude a sentence (which, I suppose, has a certain perverse logic to it). What the fuck, people? In Howards End, this is on the long list of unacceptable rp practices. We will be literate, or we will not be. Anyway, I got in some good V:tM rp in Corvinus last night (thank you Lina and Ania), both as Nareth and (because I always must have more) also as one of my alts, Bellatrix Bracken (likely the av I'll use in Howards End). Here, Bella has been cast as a twenty-something, gothedy trust-fund brat who's being seduced by the city's Toreador Whip. One more night, and she's full on ghoul (sensu V:tM, not sensu HPL/CRK). There's a screencap of Bella below, lounging in the skybox club house in Howards End (no blingtards allowed).
Before I wrap this up, please remember the current eBay auctions, and that A is for Alien can be pre-ordered, as can the mass-market paperback of Daughter of Hounds. If I believed in karma, I'd say buying my books is good for your karma. But, alas, I don't. But it does help keep the rent paid.
