Day in the Life of an Idiot

Over the weekend, I went to see "Blade Runner 2049" by myself at 10:15 pm on Saturday night. I hate seeing movies by myself. I actually ended up at the wrong theater--I'd pre-purchased tickets for Inver Grove Heights, but apparently, despite living here for decades, I don't actually know the suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and I ended up in Oakdale. I guess I just thought "Oh, yeah, that nice theatre with the comfy recliners" and I drove to the wrong one on automatic pilot. "Blade Runner 2049" wasn't even showing there, so I had to decide whether to race across town to try to get to the place I'd paid for, or, to head off to somewhere closer in order to not miss any of it. I opted for not missing anything, because some months ago, I agreed to talk to the folks over at Just Enough Trope about the movie. So I ended up at a super late show, in IMAX. I'm not a big fan of the IMAX experience. I'm old, so I often find it too loud and the screen is so big that sometimes I feel like it's impossible to take everything in properly.

But, I saw it and we recorded my part of the podcast on Sunday afternoon.

I'm listening to the podcast right now, for the first time, and I don't sound too stupid. http://justenoughtrope.com/2017/10/09/237-sexbot-boobie-business/  They edited me a little, but not a lot, so you get me in my most rambling, interrupting myself glory. The podcast itself is surprisingly long. I talked to them for about an hour, and almost all of that is there. But, the conversation is interesting (at least I thought so both at the time and listening now.)  We get into some interesting things about cyberpunk and the questions of humanity that it often plays with.  If you get a chance, check it out and see what you think of it. On the Just Enough Trope page, they list the time stamp for when my interview/conversation starts, so you can just jump to that. Though I listened to the front matter, just to hear the context.

Other news is that late last night, Mason announced that he is going to homecoming with A DATE.  He won't tell us who (because he's a little sh*t), but we have some guesses.  We do know that it's a young woman, so take that for what it is. Adorably, he calls her his "lady friend."  We are going to be doing some shopping in preparation.  Mason still has a few nice dress shirts, but he'd like to get some dress pants that aren't high water (damn those growth spurts!) and check out shirts and ties, just because. We're going to re-dye his hair either tonight or tomorrow.  It's kind of exciting.  It made me remember my first high school dance.  I already think Mason will have a better time than I did at the first one, since he's actually going with someone he likes, as opposed to me, who just longed balefully in the direction of Rich Steffans.  (Kind of pathetic in retrospect. No offense to Rich, but I obsessed on him and literally NEVER talked to him, so he must have been so baffled by my odd behavior.)

I did later go to most of the dances with dates--yes, I dated boys, some I quite liked, in fact.  

Anyway, I'm excited for Mason.  

II spent yesterday doing some more fussing-because:POLTICS.  Shawn confessed over the weekend that she's always hated the bins we have for recycling in the pantry and wanted another solution to them. I suggested reducing the number (we had four) and moving one of them to the bottom of the landing, since we have alley pick up of mixed recycling now and that's on my way out to the back.  We left one in the pantry for guests, but moved it into a more out of the way place. I painted both of the ones we decided to keep. Shawn had wanted brown, and I hunted around in the basement, certain that we had a brown--only it turns out what we had was a dark brick red. They turned out really nice, actually, though when they were still wet I was pretty terrified that I'd be saying, "Um, so..... I know you wanted brown, but how do you feel about pink???"  I took the remaining bins out to the garage where they'll function as storage.  Into the spot they used to occupy we pulled down Shawn's grandfather's spool table from the attic.  It's got a bottom shelf, so we're using it as a bookshelf for our overflow cookbooks, which had been piled around Shawn's comfy chair in the living room. (Our personal home decorating aesthetic is built around this New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/style/lets-celebrate-the-art-of-clutter.html.) 

At any rate it looks nice, though it has made it starkly obvious that on my list of home improvements, we're going to have to move "repaint the pantry" further up on the list.  :-)

Maybe I should go listen to the news and see if it makes me anxious enough to tackle another project!  ;-)

Let's see, I guess I have a lot to report.  First, link salad:  Mason and I did a Halloween podcast in which we did our usual reviews but also sang too much and put on bad "vampire" accents:  31st on the 31st.  Then, if you forgot to check out the Thursday installment of the School for Wayward Demons, it's up on the Enter The Unseen web site: "A New Home for How Long?"

Mason and I did our usual pumpkin carving/pumpkin seed roasting last night.  This year, for the first time, Mason did all the carving and scooping of his own pumpkins.  I'm going to get pictures of all of the pumpkins we did tonight when the candles are in them, but here are some "action" shots from last night:



The pumpkin above is going to have a bunch of knives sticking in its head when we're finished with it, which is why he looks a bit like he's wincing.  

Here's a shot of us in progress:




There will be more pictures, particularly once Mason is in full costume tonight.  He's decided to take up the long standing Morehouse tradition of preferring to stay home and hand out the candy.  As part of this, Mason has made a featureless black mask and plans to dress all in flowing shadowy robes in order to 'haunt' anyone who shows up to the door for Trick-or-Treat.  So you could say he's going as the Trick in Trick-or-Treat.

My only hope is that he doesn't make too many little kids cry.  But, you know, he's a good kid. I know that's not his intention.  In fact, it would break his heart if he made some little Elisa cry.  I'm pretty sure who he has in his sights are the neighbor boys and those late straggling teenagers.  

We've also been invited to a neighbor's costume party so I might struggle on my Renji cosplay and head over to try out their appetizers and such.  As a bonus,  I can bring along about six zillion roasted pumpkin seeds, because OMG we had so many this year.  They were big and juicy too, so they're delicious!

I have a few other announcement to pass on.  First and Foremost, I was invited to be the Guest of Honor at MarsCON again for 2015.  MarsCON is going to be held March 6 -8, 2015: MarsCON 2015: Heroes and Wizards & Fae--OHhh MYyy.  

Secondly, I'll be reading at this year's Minnesota Speculative Writers' Showcase.  It's Sunday, November 9th from noon to 3 PM at Acadia Cafe.  The Local Author Showcase has a Facebook Page with more information than you'll ever need!  But, if for some reason, you can't see that, the salient bit of information is that Acadia Cafe is located at 329 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis.  The event is FREE and open to the public. I was told I'd have only a very short period to read, so I think the idea is kind of like the Broad Universe Rapid Fire readings.  You'll get a tiny sample of everyone work.  It should be fun.  Hope to see some of you there.

It's called "We're Late" because Bleach and many of the others came out yesterday afternoon. However, because we waited (I had to work last night) the fan translations of Shingeki no Kyojin (SnK/Attack on Titan) came out so I reviewed those as well. In this podcast, Mason and I discuss Bleach, Toriko, Fairy Tail, and Shingeki no Kyojin. There is silliness with interjections of the occasional thinly-thought (what if Grimmjow is actually under the hood of “C” compulsion, has Eren been eaten before, etc.)

So, you know, if it's your thing... it's there for you.

Dang it.

Sorry that I haven't kept up with my blogging. Here is another MangaKast, though, if you're interested in Mason and my thoughts about the latest Bleach, Toriko, and Fairy Tail: mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/26-mason-and-lydas-inter-directional-adventures/

I think the problem has been work. Something happened at Roseville (someone quit unexpectedly? Got ill?) and they needed a reliable sub for two weeks running. I worked last Monday through Thursday, and this Tuesday through Thursday. PLUS, I had a pre-scheduled gig on Saturday for EIGHT hours at a different library (North Saint Paul.) So, I've been working a lot.

And then, today, John, the big circulation boss, says there's been a lot of mis-shelved books so he wants to quiz me. Would I please do a cart of fiction and non-fiction and set the books on their sides so he can check my work? No problem I say. I get nearly all the fiction right (one policy one I blew because I wasn't sure if all articles were skipped or just "the" so I mis-shelved a book that started "a".) Then came non-fiction... yeah, to be fair, out of fifty some books I only got five wrong, but that's kind of a lot for a library. What can I say? In my defense I normally don't try to shelve nearly as fast as I did today. I was feeling the pressure because I knew another person was covering my time on the desk and I felt responsible to get back as quickly as possible. So, you know... but *sigh* I'm not in any real trouble, but I still feel like a dope. I got a reminder of how things worked and I'm going to have to put little bookmarks in my work for a while so they can make sure I'm not messing up.

On the other hand, I work exactly once at a totally different library (Maplewood) in the entire month of October.

So, you know, not a lot of opportunity to screw up! Bonus!

But, you know, while I have to admit I messed up, I kind of doubt that the mis-shelving was down to me. I didn't actually do a whole lot of shelving the whole two weeks I worked there. Most of my time was on the desk or the phones. The first week I was there I did some new things like interlibrary loans and new book shelving, so...

Thing is, I like this job. I don't want to lose it.

But, so that's one major thing that's been happening: a whole lot of work. I nearly worked 40 hours this week, and I have to tell you, failed quizzes aside, I'm not terribly fond of the whole daily grind thing any more. Nothing I do at the library is terribly hard (with the exception of non-fiction, apparently), but you know, the ever day thing... yeah, I don't know how you people do it. It's... tiring. Also, I really, really need to paint our fence (which I "fixed" the other day), so I'd much rather be doing that. The fixed bit is in quotes because I very much did a "There I Fixed It" kind of solution. I just didn't want to have to go to Menards, so I made do with stuff we had around home. This meant making a "butt joint" with two shorter pieces for the spacer. I guess butt joints are a thing, but mine is... interesting. Still that whole fence is going to need to be replaced at some point so, really, this works for now.

Tonight is Wyrdsmiths, so I'm headed out in a bit. I also had a bunch of evening gigs this week, starting Monday--when I did the "Hobbit: Book v. Movie" panel at Common Good books. That was a small, intimate gathering, as we like to say, but lively none-the-less. I met another author who does a podcast with his kid, only his is a dad/daughter show called Generations Geek.

Then, on Tuesday night I had my first of many Japanese language classes through the Community Education program. It's going to be... interesting.  I'm feeling a bit old to be learning a new language, though I am motivated by... otaku.  I told Shawn that since my teacher said that I need to study for an hour a day that CLEARLY means I need to watch at least an hour of anime daily, right?  I'm pretty sure that's what it means.... 

Anyway, okay, I'm off to my writers' group.  I feel like a  loser writer, though, too, because thanks to work and my Japanese class i managed to miss a week of writing my Tate project.  

*sighs*

Today is a day of *sigh* apparently. 

But the podcast is fun.  Go listen to that.

We actually got the podcast recorded and posted early this morning, but I had to run off to work at the Maplewood Library, so I forgot to do all the social media-ing to let people know it was out and up. If you want to listen to it, you can find ihere: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/you-and-me-23/.

Figuring out the new manga publishing schedule as well as Mason's o'heck o'clock school start time is kind of doing a number on us.  We may end up shifting our 'broadcasting' schedule again... to be timely, we may have to post on Thursday nights.  That might work out all around, since I'll be more caffeinated and we won't have to have Shawn breathing down our necks that it's time to get going.  (Though that added a certain otaku flavor that I really liked.)

At the library today my manga find was volumes 1 &2 of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingyo_Used_Books (known in Japanese as Kingyoya Koshoten).  I've been trying to find an on-line source for it with no luck.  It's a combination of two genres I like in manga--slice-of-life and manga about manga.  The "main character" (there's kind of couple at the center) is the woman pictured on the cover below, who has taken over general management of her grandfather's legendary used manga store.  Stuff happens around them, manga changes people's lives, and a lot of manga are discussed and quoted.



I haven't decided how I feel about it, but it's a lot of fun.  

First, since it's Wedsneday, you should check out Mason and I doing our manga thing:http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/08/06/20-manga-and-gender-and-more/

In this one we actually almost touch on something deep... well, to some extent, given that I'm talking about all this without a lot of coffee and very off the cuff.  I've been on a not-so-very-serious quest to uncover more information about intersexed and transgender representations in manga after the appearance of Giselle in Bleach. I found an interesting manga at the library called Wandering Son (which is alternately translated as Transient Son) about  boy who wants to dress as/be a girl and After School Nightmare about an intersexed character who is forced to chose a gender identity as part of 'graduation' from a very weird (and dreamscape) high school (I did not, for reasons, read much of that one.)  At any rate, I can't say that I've anything terribly insightful to say in the podcast, but I may end up doing a manga review of Wandering Son once I read a bit more of it, because... well, it rather combines all my interests: manga and GLBT issues.

I also apparently forgot to tell you all that I posted a new installment of Unjust Cause on Wattpad called The Stepmonster yesterday, in which Alex calls home after being prompted to do so by Nana Spider and ends up talking to the last person she wants to hear from....

You know, if you've been reading along, please do. If not, well, it'll all be there (better edited) when it's done and I've made it into an e-book.

The other fun thing that's happened in my life is that I got tapped to write a story for GISHWHES, which I'd never heard of before, but which is, apparently, a world-wide scavenger hunt organized by the actor Misha Collins (of Supernatural and, in my universe, Tumblr ships.) The request was not hard. The requirement was "a previously published science fiction author" writes a story LESS THAN 140 words involving Misha Collins (see above), the Queen of England, and the mascot of this year's scavenger hunt: an eliopus (a half-elephant/half-octopus.)  I felt kind of honored to be asked because, well, truthfully, sometimes I don't feel very much like an author of the sort that gets asked to do these kinds of things (when I asked about this on my super-secret pro e-mail list I found out that people of the caliber like Charlie Stross and Garth Nix were getting inundated with requests.)  So, you know, that made me feel like one of big league, which I almost never do.

And anyway, once I read the funny little job interview for "El Eliopus," the story sort of wrote itself.  Plus, the scavenger hunt itself is kind of amusing and cool-sounding if you read about it, so I was happy to help.  It took me ten minutes, if that.  So, you know, and easy job that made me feel part of something.

Otherwise, I've been working like mad on a project that will be launching in September.  I'll have more news about that soon, but Garnet Lacey fans may have something to look forward to....

Yep, Mason and I are still at this... if you're interested in hearing the two of us talk about our favorite manga's current weekly chapters, check us out: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/07/23/you-are-my-sunshine-eighteen/

Also, I drew more Renji fan art: http://junko222.deviantart.com/art/Relaxing-in-the-Human-World-470045243

And now I have to run as I have many birthday presents to wrap for a certain manga podcast co-host who is turning 11 tomorrow.

Mason and I have posted our fourteenth MangaKast. If you're interested in hearing what I sound like wound up on manga and a distinct lack of coffee (actually I had some, but felt like I was in some kind of sitcom this morning because, not finding my good stuff, I simply ran water through yesterdays' grounds. Yeah... that was about as gross as you'd think it might be.)

Anyway, here's the link: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/fourteen-for-the-team/



As you might expect, he and I had much squee. SPOILERS abound, so be sure you read all the manga we talk about first (there are links right there on our main page. Currently, they all go to MangaPanda.com, so if you prefer another place for your translations, by all means, go there.)

I think three people listen to our podcast, but I kind of don't care. It's so much fun to be talking manga with my son and to have a place to showcase my reviews....

I wish I could feel this way about my other projects. Because: fun is fun. And so much less stressful.

And now it is Wednesday, which is the day in which Mason and I record our MangaKast. It's up and available at: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/nine-is-fine/ in which there is a lot of giggling, spoilerage, and squee.

As usual, this is us, in the raw. I had to edit a huge section of "d'urrrr" because neither of us were at our best... (tbf, there was no coffee in the house and I was operating on one cup.)

I can't believe we've been doing this for 9 whole episodes, but it's been a blast.

Mason and I recorded our sixth MangaKast podcast, and it's up for your enjoyment.

http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/podcast-the-sixth/



I kind of wish I could be slightly more articulate about why Ao no Exorcist is so awesome. I'd love to drag more people into that fandom and there are only 56 chapters to-date, so it wouldn't be hard to catch up.

In other news, there is a "wintery mix" falling on the ground right now. That's right: SNOW. I can hardly believe it. It's not right. At least my strawberries are still mostly covered by mulch, so I think they'll survive this. The question is: will Minnesotans? Because I think a lot of people are ready to weep (myself included.)