"Goodnight, Moon"
Sep. 27th, 2010 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The insomnia hit me hard last night. I didn't get to sleep until after five a.m., and then only with the help of Ambien, that nasty fucking shit. I had this plan, you see, heading into this long trip and the HPLFF. But...on the subject of plans:
I think a plan is just a list of things that don't happen. (Parker, The Way of the Gun)
What you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar. (Jayne Cobb, Serenity)
So, I'm left wondering if the airline's going to consider these bags under the bags under my eyes as carry-on luggage. Because, as Thom Yorke reminds us, "...gravity always wins." And anyway, when the fuck did airlines start charging for any and all checked bags? At twenty-five bucks a pop. Granted, I haven't flown since 2004, but this is ridiculous.
---
All of yesterday was spent on the layout for Sirenia Digest #58, and in writing it's prolegomenon, which ended up being 737 words long. I think it turned into a sort of rough draft for the keynote speech I'm supposed to give the first night of the HPLFF. How I found Lovecraft abandoned on a school bus in 1981.
---
How is it that so many (note, I did not fucking say all) Xtians are so goddamn opposed to charity? I mean, isn't that like a scientist being opposed to observation and experimentation, or a Mormon being opposed to bicycles? Or a Scientologist being opposed to lousy science fiction movies starring John Travolta? Oh, okay. The teabaggers would say, we're not opposed to charity. We're opposed to enforced charity, compulsory charity. Which means, we're opposed to our tax dollars going to help people of color, and poor people, and people who aren't Xtians, and researchers who've proven that high-fructose corn syrup increases the rate of obesity and diabetes, and also no tax dollars to bums and junkies (liberals call them "homeless people"), or evolutionists, or environmentalists, or people without health insurance (because they're irresponsible), or people what don't think like we do. But...hey, it's totally okay if our money goes to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else America wants to fuck up the rectum with a broken bottle, to getting all those American soldiers killed in the name of Coca-Cola, and getting all those Iraqi and Afghan soldiers killed in the name of Big Oil, and all those Iraqi and Afghan and Pakistani civilians killed in the name of Spongebob Sqaurepants. Yeah, that's okay. Because Jesus, we know he had a hard on for war. And he hated poor people who weren't responsible enough not to be poor. And he also hated brown people, even though he was one.
You fucking people make me sick. No, not you. You.
---
It occurs to me that I should post my itinerary for the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, just in case anyone wants to show up to marvel at the Woman Who Cannot Sleep. But first I have to download it and read it. Hold on.
Well, that took ten minutes, and oh look, it's a spreadsheet. I suppose that's appropriate, spreadsheets being all about forbidden knowledge and wrong geometry and driving people insane. Anyway, it's something like this:
October 1st, Friday 3:30 p.m. Dark Horse reception for Lovecraft Unbound (Hollywood Wine & Espresso; across from where the festival takes place)
Friday night (main screening room): festival opening ceremony, keynote address.
October 2nd: 1:30-2:30 p.m. "Riffing on Lovecraft" (no idea what that means)
2:30-3:30 p.m. "The Cosmic Horror Movement"
4:30-5:30 p.m. "Brief Readings from Lovecraft Unbound"
October 3rd: 1:30-2:30 p.m. My reading.
---
Please have a look at the current eBay auctions, please, so I can buy more sleeping pills, please.
---
Four hours or so of astounding roleplay in Insilico last night. Just Grendel and Molly. Four hours of emotionally grueling rp. In which Grendel's pregnant human body finally gave up the ghost, and Molly removed her AI and put it back into the Xiang Prime shell (returned to them by Fifth a couple of nights ago). And then really bad stuff happened.* I don't know whether or not we've gone as far into the middle of this sf story as we'll be able to go. I'm just glad to have had the bumpy ride this far. This is what roleplay was meant to be. Catharsis. Gut-wrenching, mind-bending, self-searching catharsis. I couldn't care less for ideas of SL community and "rp events" and suchlike. I'm there for these beautiful, horrible little stories, that are only little if you're on the Outside looking in.
Gotta go now.
* This develop was almost immediately redacted, and the scene described above was treated as a dream sequence.
I think a plan is just a list of things that don't happen. (Parker, The Way of the Gun)
What you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar. (Jayne Cobb, Serenity)
So, I'm left wondering if the airline's going to consider these bags under the bags under my eyes as carry-on luggage. Because, as Thom Yorke reminds us, "...gravity always wins." And anyway, when the fuck did airlines start charging for any and all checked bags? At twenty-five bucks a pop. Granted, I haven't flown since 2004, but this is ridiculous.
---
All of yesterday was spent on the layout for Sirenia Digest #58, and in writing it's prolegomenon, which ended up being 737 words long. I think it turned into a sort of rough draft for the keynote speech I'm supposed to give the first night of the HPLFF. How I found Lovecraft abandoned on a school bus in 1981.
---
How is it that so many (note, I did not fucking say all) Xtians are so goddamn opposed to charity? I mean, isn't that like a scientist being opposed to observation and experimentation, or a Mormon being opposed to bicycles? Or a Scientologist being opposed to lousy science fiction movies starring John Travolta? Oh, okay. The teabaggers would say, we're not opposed to charity. We're opposed to enforced charity, compulsory charity. Which means, we're opposed to our tax dollars going to help people of color, and poor people, and people who aren't Xtians, and researchers who've proven that high-fructose corn syrup increases the rate of obesity and diabetes, and also no tax dollars to bums and junkies (liberals call them "homeless people"), or evolutionists, or environmentalists, or people without health insurance (because they're irresponsible), or people what don't think like we do. But...hey, it's totally okay if our money goes to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else America wants to fuck up the rectum with a broken bottle, to getting all those American soldiers killed in the name of Coca-Cola, and getting all those Iraqi and Afghan soldiers killed in the name of Big Oil, and all those Iraqi and Afghan and Pakistani civilians killed in the name of Spongebob Sqaurepants. Yeah, that's okay. Because Jesus, we know he had a hard on for war. And he hated poor people who weren't responsible enough not to be poor. And he also hated brown people, even though he was one.
You fucking people make me sick. No, not you. You.
---
It occurs to me that I should post my itinerary for the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, just in case anyone wants to show up to marvel at the Woman Who Cannot Sleep. But first I have to download it and read it. Hold on.
Well, that took ten minutes, and oh look, it's a spreadsheet. I suppose that's appropriate, spreadsheets being all about forbidden knowledge and wrong geometry and driving people insane. Anyway, it's something like this:
October 1st, Friday 3:30 p.m. Dark Horse reception for Lovecraft Unbound (Hollywood Wine & Espresso; across from where the festival takes place)
Friday night (main screening room): festival opening ceremony, keynote address.
October 2nd: 1:30-2:30 p.m. "Riffing on Lovecraft" (no idea what that means)
2:30-3:30 p.m. "The Cosmic Horror Movement"
4:30-5:30 p.m. "Brief Readings from Lovecraft Unbound"
October 3rd: 1:30-2:30 p.m. My reading.
---
Please have a look at the current eBay auctions, please, so I can buy more sleeping pills, please.
---
Four hours or so of astounding roleplay in Insilico last night. Just Grendel and Molly. Four hours of emotionally grueling rp. In which Grendel's pregnant human body finally gave up the ghost, and Molly removed her AI and put it back into the Xiang Prime shell (returned to them by Fifth a couple of nights ago). And then really bad stuff happened.* I don't know whether or not we've gone as far into the middle of this sf story as we'll be able to go. I'm just glad to have had the bumpy ride this far. This is what roleplay was meant to be. Catharsis. Gut-wrenching, mind-bending, self-searching catharsis. I couldn't care less for ideas of SL community and "rp events" and suchlike. I'm there for these beautiful, horrible little stories, that are only little if you're on the Outside looking in.
Gotta go now.
* This develop was almost immediately redacted, and the scene described above was treated as a dream sequence.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 05:21 pm (UTC)On my side of the looking glass, that's what regular life is meant to be.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 05:25 pm (UTC)On my side of the looking glass, that's what regular life is meant to be.
I tend to agree. But it's more interesting with cybernetics.
gotta love those spreadsheets
Date: 2010-09-27 05:24 pm (UTC)Second, is the opening ceremony for the HPLFF right at 6 p.m.? That dratted sheet on the site makes no sense to me.
Lastly, I hate flying commercial. If I ever become of the weathly persuasion (hahaha), I'm going to get my pilots license so I never ever have to deal with commercial airliners again. I used to love to fly. But since 9/11 it's all bullshit.
Re: gotta love those spreadsheets
Date: 2010-09-27 05:28 pm (UTC)First, thank you so much for the xtian/teabagger monologue.
I think that's what happens when I talk in my sleep.
Now if those on the fence would listen.
I'm trying to imagine such a fence. On one side, assholes. On the other, not assholes. On the fence, people who can't decide if they want to be assholes.
Second, is the opening ceremony for the HPLFF right at 6 p.m.?
Nobody's told me.
But since 9/11 it's all bullshit.
So say we all.
Re: gotta love those spreadsheets
Date: 2010-09-27 06:08 pm (UTC)I laughed and hurt my head, but it was a good laugh.
"Nobody's told me."
/sigh. Well I planned to be there NLT 4 p.m. on Friday, to allow for wiggle room.
"So say we all."
Oh captain, my captain.
Re: gotta love those spreadsheets
Date: 2010-09-27 11:34 pm (UTC)Eh. I'd say "People who choose to be assholes/People who choose not to be assholes/people who are still deciding".
I fully believe being an asshole is a choice, though.
Re: gotta love those spreadsheets
Date: 2010-09-27 11:48 pm (UTC)I fully believe being an asshole is a choice, though.
Maybe. If it were a cultural imperative, I'd have been an asshole. I must have made a choice, at some point.
Or, conversely, I am a sport.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 05:25 pm (UTC)You-- yes, you, Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan-- are quite often my hero.
I hope your day improves.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 05:32 pm (UTC)You-- yes, you, Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan-- are quite often my hero.
But I'm asleep.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 05:59 pm (UTC)Even in in your dreams.
... Wow that sounded way creepier than intended.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 06:13 pm (UTC)Creepy is my oxygen.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 07:09 pm (UTC)Now I'm stuck thinking about a creature that breathes nightmares...
And exhales madness.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 07:42 pm (UTC)That is exactly correct.
Insanity epidemics down through history and across galaxies of civilizations explained by the spawning, migratory, and hunting patterns of this horrific thing...
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 07:48 pm (UTC)Insanity epidemics down through history and across galaxies of civilizations explained by the spawning, migratory, and hunting patterns of this horrific thing...
That's beautiful.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-28 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 07:12 pm (UTC)That's just Excel.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 07:20 pm (UTC)That's just Excel.
I beg to differ.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 08:16 pm (UTC)his coffin has been made into a guitar, with what is left of his shade bound to it, and for a deal at a crossroads, you can become the next Guitar God, because you play that axe like you have tentacles.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 09:59 pm (UTC)his coffin has been made into a guitar, with what is left of his shade bound to it, and for a deal at a crossroads, you can become the next Guitar God, because you play that axe like you have tentacles.
I doubt it will be nearly this cool.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-02 02:36 pm (UTC)(No relevant hits, sadly.)
Riffing on Lovecraft
Date: 2010-09-27 09:02 pm (UTC)If you click on schedule link on the website, here's what it says about
Riffing on Lovecraft:
H.P. Lovecraft has been an inspiration to writers since he created his mythos and his Elder Gods. Generations of writers have used his creations to write their own interpretations of his work--some in pastiches that stayed close to the original texts, others in wholly original works that take Lovecraft's mythos and twists it into very modern and sometimes almost unrecognizable forms. Meet some of the contemporary writers who are playing in Lovecraft's universe but making it their own. Editor Ellen Datlow hosts a round table discussion with writers Caitlin R. Kiernan, Marc Laidlaw, Ed Morris, Robert M. Price, and Michael Shea.
See you soon.
Re: Riffing on Lovecraft
Date: 2010-09-27 09:58 pm (UTC)Thank you!
I looked in the The American Heritage Dictionary, and got:
2. A clever or inventive commentary or remark, and I figured that had to be in the neighborhood, because obviously we weren't going to talk about guitars or Berbers.
See you soon!
Re: Riffing on Lovecraft
Date: 2010-09-28 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 11:36 pm (UTC)My Partner loves you
Date: 2010-09-28 12:25 am (UTC)Ah Fuck, she's already back to muttering. She needs her wine.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-28 03:35 pm (UTC)Good post today. Particularly witty.
Death in the name of Spongebob Squarepants!