Day in the Life of an Idiot

 Convergence is this weekend. As most of you know from a previous post, I am not attending this year, alas. Several of my friends are, however, and one of them posted a lovely series of icebreakers on FB that kind of got me all fired up. 

The question I spent some serious time pondering was this one:

• Can vampires come into a hotel room without an invitation as long as it's before the guest checks in?  Do they have to leave as soon as the guest arrives?   

For those of you who might be new to my blog and not know me very well, I should start by explaining that I have written and published over eight books featuring vampires under my pen name of Tate Hallaway. Somehow, in all that time of writing about them, I never really thought about WHY vampires need an invitation. 

What's it about? What is the power that stops a vampire from entering? Is there something magical about property owning (clearly this is not it, otherwise vampires would be stopped at the property line and that is sometimes, in rural areas, far from the door.) Also the modern capitalist society would be as difficult for vampires to negotiate as a fairy allergic to iron in a big city. I can only just imagine the scene, right?

Vampire: *walking only on public sidewalks or in the middle of streets.*
Werewolf friend: "Yo, Vlad, do you want to take an uber to the party with me?"
Vampire: *silently cursing, staring at the phone* "Do you think my downloading the app counts as an invitation? Oh f*ck it, I'll take the g-d damn metro. It's PUBLIC."
Fairy friend: "I just want to throw up on everything.  Look at this, a tin can on the street! Why? Why is metal everywhere???  I can't go in a building.... I'm going to the park."

But, so, clearly it's not just some kind of capitalist magic of OWNING things or literally a vampire could go nowhere. Most times, too, vampires are actually property owners themselves, having that spooky castle and otherwise being a member of "the peerage."  You know Lord So-and-So. 

I went to Google to see what the general consensus is about what's stopping a vampire from entering without an invite. Probably the most convincing thing I found was the people who suggested that it really depends on the metaphorical content of your vampire. If your vampire is fully metaphorical, the reason they need an invite to enter is because YOU are culpable in your own SIN. You have to "open your heart" to darkness or otherwise actively turn away from goodness/God/what-have-you. If this is the case, of course, your invitation doesn't even have to be verbal, you just have to have a moment of weakness and the vampire can enter your life.  (This then also explains why religious symbols/the Christian cross work to turn away vampires, because the symbols are... well, SYMBOLS and therefor are metaphors that represent goodness/God/what-have-you and/or your return to that belief/faith, etc.) 

Another speculation posited that thresholds have an inherent  magic. I mean, this also immediately resonated with me on a number of levels. I think you would be hard pressed to find a human culture that does not believe that doorways are magical. Doors and doorways (speaking of metaphors) are very obvious symbols of transitions like birth and death, etc. And, so the act of opening the door or crossing a threshold carries with it all this WEIGHT.  In fact, I was just watching Mononoke yesterday (a Japanese horror anime) and there's a really fascinating series of images in the first episode where the "camera" stops just as the medicine seller crosses the threshold of each room, as if testing his ability to do this very thing: CROSS A THRESHOLD. 

For me, anyway, the idea that a threshold, ANY DOORWAY, is magical is easy to understand. The vampire is a creature between the world of the living and the dead and so, of course, pausing at this symbol of a hard transition from one state to another gives them pause. The vampire, not being one state or the other, hits this entryway to a state of being in which they do not belong, and must pause/stop to ask for permission. 

Interestingly, another one of the answers I stumbled across suggested that (like with the idea of sin) it's kind of the power of "home" that keeps the vampire at bay/needing an invite. So, the stronger your familial bond, the stronger the threshold barrier. Conversely, of course, this means that if your family is dysfunctional, you're more susceptible to invasion by Dark Forces, such as the vampire. 

Armed with all this speculation, I would say that, yes, once you are occupying a hotel room, you automatically imbue it with your personal magic. The threshold activates with your mere presence, if you will. Under the logic that the stronger the family, the stronger the threshold, then things become more up in the air.  Why are you at the hotel? Are you running from someone? Or are you there to enjoy a favorite convention? If it's the first, you're kind of screwed. I'm not sure a vampire needs much of an invitation if you are already "weakened" by the danger you're already in. You're in an unfamiliar place and, presumably, are already on wobbly ground in terms of an innate ability to claim a temporary space as "home base."  In the second scenario, the vampire can attend the con (presumably a paid membership is tantamount to an "invite,") but not go into your personal hotel room unless invited by you or your roommates/family members. 

Anyway, I was on one of the various Quora types places and there were two funny things I found. One was, of course, some nutter claiming to be a vampire who answered in the first person, and second was the number of people with questions like, "Can a vampire enter my out buildings without permission? Like, could they get into my free standing garage?"

It was also interesting the extent to which people were divided on the whole metaphor issue. People who wanted to think about vampires as real, non-metaphorical creatures where like, "Nope, thresholds won't stop a vampire! Ha!" Which, I mean, a case could be made, right? This is where you'd have to decide your magical system. If vampire are real (and not giant metaphors for sex or sin) AND you want them to have to be stopped at your door, then what is actually stopping the vampire? 

Personally, I kind of like the idea of the magic of home. Partly because it can be cultivated, right? I sort of hate the idea that if your family sucks, you can be more easily invaded because that feels like victim blaming. Not everyone is a willing participant in family dysfunction, in fact, most children can't help but be part of it. So, it's not fair that they'd end up vampire victims in that scenario. But, if "home" is a personal magic, then your made family spaces are safe. Even if it's just "the place I feel at home." So, like you could write the story based on the weak family bond problem and the vampire is taking out the whole family and our hero/ine runs to the library and the vampire is stopped cold because this person feels like the library is gool, safe, HOME. Or the backyard tree house. Or their best friend's house. Or Fandom. I love the idea of a vampire creeping closer and closer and then, "BOOM! You fire up your Discord server and then the vampire is stopped cold, because the people on the screen are your FAMILY and just having them on the screen behind you is more powerful than a thousand suns. S/he/they hisses and turns away, unable to enter fandom space. 

 ... to try to write about mundane things after Inky's death, but life goes on, I suppose.  

Shawn ended up doing a ton of research into "elderly" cats and discovered that Deliah, who is 16, and Ms. Piggy, who is 18, are considered BEYOND elderly and into geriatric. You can kind of see it on Ms. Piggy, she's been cranky and stiff for some time now, but Deliah? She still acts like a kitten!

Shawn sent me a lot of the articles she'd read and it was comforting to read that we're doing everything right by our older cats. It's absolutely correct to be feeding on demand (small amounts, often,) and looking for foods high in protein and fat.  Of course, this is doing NO GOOD for our fatty orange boy, Buttercup. But at this point, I'm very much looking at our cats and saying "WHATEVER YOU WANT, MY PRECIOUS BABIES."

Today is Imbolc, but my family is going to celebrate tomorrow. Normally, in our tradition, we dedicate ourselves to work with a particular deity for a year. No one in this household has had he wherewithal to do the requisite research, so our plan is to make something yummy for breakfast (I'm thinking cinnamon buns) and spend a little time as a family planning out some of the rituals we all want to do together.  That seems 'close enough' to the spirit of the holiday for us right now.

I made some piroshki for dinner tonight at the urging of my family.  



This is a recipe that Shawn got from her "Recipes North Dakota" FB group. Shawn has the best FB groups. She's in "Liberal Preppers," "Recipes of North Dakota," "Simple Vintage and Homemaking," "Stocking our Shelves," and "Weird Thrift Store Finds."  All my FB groups make me vaguely annoyed, and meanwhile, she's showing me pictures of strange things found at Good Will. To be fair, Shawn spends a LOT of time curating her feed. She has a modest number of friends that she follows and she is very fast with the hide, snooze, block, and unfriend buttons. Meanwhile, I friend anyone. Part of that is because: writer.  I never know who is following me because they've read my books and they just want to know what might be coming out next.

Mason had work today at KAYSC. He said they had an open discussion about various projects they're considering undertaking. It sounded very much like baby's first meeting. He came home and bonded with Shawn about various buzzwords, "fostering synergy" and such like. 

He's now playing D&D on Discord with a bunch of people he's in an amateur Overwatch league team with. I'm so glad he found his people. I have no idea who I'd be if the internet had existed when I was his age.

Otherwise, I spent part of my day going through old DW journal entries updating my tag set. It started because Shawn and I had one of those arguments couple have about the timing of various things in our collective memory. Did this thing happen first, or that other thing? Both of us were SO SURE we were right, and I knew I'd blogged about the events in question.  BUT, it took me forever to figure out how to track down the whole story because I'd been really sloppy with my tagging. So, I spent an hour or so reading through the old entries from 2011 and making the tags consistent.  

It was really funny to watch my comments numbers drop precipitously after I became a Bleach fan.

Ah, speaking of finding one's tribe, if only I'd known about Tumblr back then (or whatever other fan communities existed.)  

Otherwise, it was a quiet day. I've been a bit more spotty with my Spell-a-Day, but I did manage yesterday's. Not much to report, however, just a renewal spell/meditation. 

If you're curious what Mason and I sound like first thing in the morning, you can feel free to listen to our third MangaKast, which is up on the WordPress site now: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/a-cookie-for-kenpachi-or-our-third-podcast/



It's a very rambling, sleepy conversation, but, even if no one listens, we're going to keep doing this because WE AMUSE OURSELVES.  :-)  And, who knows, at some point we might have an actual insight or two.

And, if you just can't get enough of my dulcet tones (and you happen to live local to me), you're cordially welcome to stop by Dreamhaven tonight and listen to me read.  I can even promise cookies, because Eric usually brings some.  The details are:

On Wednesday, March 26 from 6:30 to 7:45 pm, I will be the Speculations readers at Dreamhaven Books and Comics. Dreamhaven is located at 2301 E. 38th Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55406. You can get more information about the event by calling 612-823-6161 or visiting: http://dreamhavenbooks.com

I'll probably be reading from one of my two works-in-progress, either the Precinct 13 sequel or the book I'm writing for Rachel, which is a YA about a gender queer person whose dreams invade Real Life (tm).

See you there, perhaps!

Bleach 571 came out today, I know you're all as excited as I am…. and since I know you don't want to be spoiled, I'll be sure to put my comments about it under the cut.

( Read more... )

In other news, my Solstice present from Shawn finally arrived.  Here's me in it:



So what am I wearing?  That's a Scouting Legion hoodie from Shingeki no Kyojin aka "Attack on Titan."  These are the characters who go out beyond the walled city and fight the "baddies" (jury is out, given how sympathetic many of the shifters seem to be.)  If you're not reading this manga or watching this anime already, I'm not sure I can entirely recommend it to you because… at first I was fairly traumatized by the action (though Tumblr fandom had warned me)… it's… uh, there are… well, let's just say the Titans eat people, like graphically.

However, it is the hot new thing all kids are into. And they're into it for a good reason. The story is strong and the characters are deeply compelling.  I find it interesting because it's not like the usual shougen manga because the hero fights with a team and teamwork is critical to winning battles.  Also, war sucks in a really UN-glorified way.  People die. People whose names you've learned, whose stories you know, who you've come to love and sympathize with, die.  And they don't just die HEROICALLY.  Sometimes, like in real war, their deaths are stupid and meaningless and awful.  In fact, one of my favorite characters, Jean is motivated to join the Scouting Legion because his friend (lover?) dies in a back alley and… they're honestly not sure it's him, he's been so disfigured.  No one saw him die.  And Jean becomes determined to go out in blaze of glory, because f*ck that.  I also love Jean because he's a coward and admits he's scared out of his mind every time they go into battle.  There's also a couple of shifter characters who bend my mind they're so awesome.

Also, if you're generally interested in non-binary gender representations in media, it's happening in SnK.  Here's a Tumblr post about this character. http://teacupsandcyanide.tumblr.com/post/60922728975/on-misgendering-hanji-zoe

In Real Life™ news, I got put on another panel at MarCON this weekend.   So, now in addition to the other Sunday (3pm?) panel, I'm also doing: Timing and Pacing, 11:00 a.m. Sunday, Krushenko's

See you there?

Last night my friend Rachel took some friends and I out to a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis' West End called Raku. We had sushi and sake. Our sake had an awesome name: onikoroshi, which the menu translated as 'demon slayer.' It was really tasty. I have to say my sake experience previous to this was very low. I bought a bottle once at a grocery store in ValParasio, Indiana, and it was, in point of fact, nothing to write home about. This sake might not SLAY any demons, but I could certainly see it creating a few... because tasted like floral scented water. I could have had way too much to drink very, very easily.

Luckily (and unluckily), Shawn stayed home last night because Mason was feeling under the weather, so I had to stay sober to drive--and, in case you didn't know this about me, I'm the lightest lightweight ever. Two sips of anything, even something most people don't think of as terribly potent, and I'm under the table muttering about 'dim shablows' and telling people 'I love ya, man.' Plus, as fun as that may sound, I'm actually one of those people for whom alcohol actually works as a depressant. I'm a very sad drunk.

At any rate, what I really want to post about was our sushi. Particularly this:



Naruto sushi! Weirdly, it did not contain ANY RAMEN....


It was a nice night. I handed off what I hope to become a 'seekrit project.' So... fingers crossed.

As you probably have noticed, LJ, I've mostly left you to get swept up by Tumblr. It's been a torrid affair and I'm afraid I've fallen deeply for Tumblr. I do hope, LJ, that you can I can still be friends.

But, now I have to rave a little annoyingly about my new friend, Tumblr.

Do you know what Tumblr introduced me to? Attack on Titan (aka "SNK," which is the abbreviation of its Japanese title, which I have yet to memorize.) I've started watching SNK, while doing the dishes. I think I'm up to episode 16. I just finished watching the "Female Titan" episode, which means I may be ready for some big ass trees. It's interesting to me the extent to which I've been spoiled/not-spoiled by all the various bits of clips and screen shots and fan art about this show. All the fan activity drew me in to try it, while giving me the warning that it's... bloody. War has consequences and the Titans eat us. So, I'm not invested in ANYONE. Actually, at one point I had to check Wikipedia to make sure the MAIN CHARACTER actually lived, because it looked very much like he didn't. I thought that maybe the show was going to break out and be the first shonen hero story where the hero who gave all the rousing speeches died early and the entire show/manga was about avenging him. But, no (and I'm okay with that. I did the Wiki search after realizing that no, I would not go on watching if the good-hearted brave one bought it.)

But, because I know better than to invest, I've been having fewer 'feels' as the kids call it. It fun to watch and addicting in the way of these shows, but it's not going to replace Bleach any time soon.

The other thing Tumblr got me interested in? Welcome to Night Vale. Welcome to Night Vale, of all things, is a podcast. The clever thing about it, is that it's set up to be a story about a guy on the radio, so it has an immediacy to it that I'm enjoying. I'm only up to the "Management Negotiations" episode (the one following the Glow Cloud, number 4, I think,) but it amuses me. The radio station is in a desert town somewhere in the US where weird is somewhat commonplace, you know, like how old woman Josey just happens to have angels changing light bulbs for her and things like that. But, in between bizarre public service announcements, advertisements for strange places, there's a story about the radio DJ and his attraction to a new scientist who comes to town (with PERFECT hair) named Carlos.

It was the cute fan art of these two that got me enchanted. I have a harder time finding time to listen to the podcasts, but I've been making time because the story is that interesting.

That leads me finally to "Sleepy Hollow" which I enjoyed tremendously. Tumblr didn't find this one for me, alas. I also thing that "Sleepy Hollow" is far too clever and cheesy-goodness-y for network TV. I predict it's going to go the way of "Firefly" and be over before it really gets started. For one, the main character is a black female police lieutenant and, you know, female leads? Not a lot of them, really, it's sad to say. I mean, I suppose Ichibod Crane is technically the hero of the show, but she's the one through whom a LOT of the mystery is being solved. Things I liked--the headless horseman is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Ichibod Crane nearly lost his sh*t when he saw the Freemason pyramid symbol on the back of the US dollar. Masonry symbols have been popping anywhere you look for them, but they aren't given a lot of play, yet, which makes me extremely hopeful that beyond the good witch/bad witch stuff they've set up, there may also be a third magical group--the Freemasons, which would crack me up. Between the Biblical stuff and this, I'm so 100% sold, it's not even funny.

Also, there are creepy demons.

"Sleepy Hollow" FTW.

Okay, got to run, but I promise I'll be back, LJ. I'm really sorry I've neglected you for my new lover, Tumblr (s/he is prettier, though. Sorry!)

So, we went to kuk sool finally after many days absence to discover that all the cherry blossoms had bloomed, so OF COURSE we had to take some petals home and have a little shikai battle. You'll have to imagine (a lot), but also that I have Zabimaru.

I kind of like how the blossoms look like magic spikes. (Mason makes a good Byakuya, neh?)


My sad death. Luckily, I'm headed to the Soul Society!


No, I will rise again, like Renji!

One of the things that's significantly expanded my horizons is reading a book called "Japanese Street Slang" by Peter Constantine to Mason. It's a very RUDE book to read to a nine-year old, but only a nine-year old can truly appreciate how hillarious farts are. So, we often skip the entries on sex-related things (though I read those to myself and to him if they're not too graphic), and go on to the hilarity of bodily functions of all sorts.

I never thought our obsession with Japanese street slang would lead to a deeper understanding of weird moments in Manga like this one:



The fan translated sites went with, "I want to pee alone," which probably sounds even stranger to a Western ear--

--Unless you know about the villiage practice* of tsureshoben, "pissing together." Tsureshoben according to our slang book started off referring to when people used to, "take a break in their field work to go off together for a piss." The entry on tsureshoben goes on to explain, "Today people still quote the proverb Inaka no tsureshoben 'pissing together in the country.'... Another proverb worth memorizing: Tsureshoben, tabi no michi. 'Pissing together on the road.' This proverb indicates that urinating together during an outing or a picnic is a sign of friendship. Ideally, close friends should be able to drop formalities and relax to the extent that even when nature calls they can respond in each other's company." (149-150)

Yeah, so even though I love the fic that sprouted up to explain this moment, the above might be closer to the truth.

*A fascinating side note to this moment of oddness from this particular character is that his family is one of the big noble houses. His familiarity with country practices (and his general laissez faire attitude) has made me wonder what kind of nobles his family is... were they a family that made its fortune through hard work? The sort that perhaps brought itself up from a lower class, ala a kind of nouveau riche? I tend to think so. I think maybe we're supposed to guess this about this character from moments like these, though I may be reading more into this than is there.

On Sunday, Shawn, Mason and I went to HalfPrice Books and I happened to see that someone had dumped back issues of SHONEN JUMP for only a dollar a piece. We had another agenda, so I only bought a couple. But, even Shawn, who is not a fan, kept saying to me, "For only a dollar a peice? You should go back and get them all."

So I did (Still life: motherload, with cat).



There are about twenty or more issues there. Not all of them contain actual episodes of BLEACH, but a good number do, and those that don't have NARUTO, ONE PIECE, and (most importantly to me) HIKARU NO GO.

At first I thought, why do this? I mean, all of the issues have the story I've read collected in the Manga, right? Except that, there's THIS:



THE COLOR INSERT of of the Byakuya/Ichigo fight!! OMG! OMG!!



For me, that alone was worth the $20 I paid for all twenty issues. But, there are a tons of other goodies in-between the pages. Old SHONEN JUMP used to run a lot of fan art, which is always fun, a few interviews with Tite Kubo (and others) and amazing insert tidbits like this:



And color insets of some of the 'group portraits' like this one, which is Renji among the Vizards, as far as I can tell (hair color kind of gives it away, but what is he doing with them? Outside of empty_mirrors and my fic, anyway?):



(The larger version):



There's even more awesome, but I think this is probably enough BLEACH for today.

I turned 45 yesterday. It was a lovely day, except for the crushing headache I had all day. The weather was great and my family (actually my parents via a birthday check) treated me to a day at Barnes & Noble where I bought ALL THE MANGA. The thing I wanted the most was Bakuman #17 and I read it right away. I also picked up BLEACH #25, 27, and 40 (Mason wanted to skip ahead to see the name of Ulquiorra's 2nd release translation, turns out? It's called "second release." One of the many times these things seem cooler in Japanese. Can't imagine the American/English voice actor who had to shout, "Second Release!" and try to make it sound nearly as awesome in Spanish/Japanese.) Then my family spent the rest of the money on other books we'd been looking for, including a new drawing pad for me.

Quite the haul!

Mason and I had wanted to have a Bleach marathon, but my headache didn't cooperate. So today we went to the import store to stock up on Japanese candy for a full day tomorrow of Bleach. Our local mall, Rosedale, has a "Tomodochi.us," wherein we bought:



OMG. THEY HAD EVERY BURGER!!! Yes, hamburger flavor candies. Why would you not love something like this???? Also pictured are Ice Cream flavored KitKats (sorry, Karin, no green tea flavor, I checked.) We also picked up Meiji Gummy Choco (muscat flavor) and Konpeito Sugar Candies (various flavors,) and a Litchi flavored carbonated drink whose brand name I can't actually read.

Also, for Bleach fans out there, I did not see ANY Soul Candy. I checked everywhere... perhaps behind the counter? Also, no freeze dried squid covered in chocolate. I got excited when I saw a squid a package of something, but the contents did not seemed to be squid flavored. Perhaps just a mascot...? I also found a lot of flavors of gum, but nothing garunteed to increase my breast size, alas.

My birthday... the gift that keeps giving.