The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

Hello, all! First day at the new job. Yay! Of course, my dreams just before I woke up had me sleeping all day from some illness and realizing after 5pm that I'd forgotten to call in... standard anxiety. Could have been worse.

First day of the hour-long commute, too. Luckily, it's summer.

We have a list of 12 homes to possibly buy, but I'm hoping I can find information about some rentals from co-workers. We'll see.

Hopefully one of the rentals will work out for you, Greendragon!

Ugh, it was 118F here in my part of Phoenix yesterday, with thunderstorms teasing us just outside the heat island of this ridiculous 75-mile-wide metro area. I did not go out, but I have to go today. Seems I have to drop off paperwork at my doc's office so she can sign it & fax it to my work medical insurance. I'm out for another two weeks with this damn shoulder ligament injury that's been coming and going since March. I don't have full motion of my left arm. We're hoping physio and cortisone will work, rather than surgery. No one wants to get near a hospital in Arizona right now if they don't have to.

Otherwise I'm typing one-handed, spiffing up art for a new batch of stuff on Etsy, and retooling some older novels for self-pub through Draft2Digital.

118F Yikes:

Filigree said:

118F here

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Whew! I lived in Mexicali, BC for a while. Pretty sure it got up to 110 regularly in the summer. But 118 -- I do not envy you that.

Good luck with your shoulder.

I'm back! I haven't been here due to school and traveling, but I'm back.

Just popping in to say that and give internet hugs Hug2 to all who need it.

GD: Anxiety dreams suck. Even preparation dreams sans much anxiety can be frustrating. I hope everything turns out well for you.


Filigree: Sorry about the shoulder injury. My dad hasn't had full motion in his left shoulder since breaking it in 2018 ,so I've seen how frustrating it can be. I'm not a doctor, and YMMV, but based on my personal experience with an injury, I suggest being as faithful with PT as possible, even though it'll be uncomfortable and even painful sometimes. In 2016/2017 when I was dealing with tennis elbow (from knitting), the doctor who gave me cortisone shots told me that the shots would help for a while, but the pattern was always needing shots more often and then surgery. He seemed to genuinely believe this was inevitable (or wanted me to think so because surgery would put money in his pocket), but I'd seen too many fellow crafters share their recovery stories via getting PT to buy it. Thankfully, my primary physician was more than happy to prescribe me PT upon my request and I have never once regretted that choice. It took muscle strengthening, massage, uncomfortable targeted stretches, as well as me being faithful in keeping up everything I'd learned after PT ended, but three years later I'm pain free and have my elbow's full range of movement back. And the pain shouldn't come back again as long as I keep up the healthy habits. Especially the strengthening and stretches. Finding the right stretch to unlock that joint was the real turning point in my recovery.



Morning, Cantina.

In unfortunate news, I just saw that Grant Imahara of Mythbusters fame died of an aneurysm yesterday and that makes me very sad. He seemed like a really nice guy and was of course incredibly smart and talented.

ION: As the first meeting of my first ever critique group approaches (tonight, online) I'm feeling a little nervous. Not in a bad way, just that I've never done this before and hope all us members get along (we seem to so far) and are able to be helpful to each other. We all share the fantasy genre and the same faith, so there's some common ground. Even so, I'm thinking to suggest that along with actual writing excerpts, we each share who we each see as our target audience for the story in question, beyond just fantasy readers. I'm thinking age range, maybe theme if there's an overarching theme, as that could help a lot in us starting to understand what we're each trying to do with our stories.

In further news, I managed to chop another chapter in my WIP in half yesterday. From 4k-ish to 2k-ish *swings the editing ax* Gotta keep going!

E.F.B. said:

Morning, Cantina.

In unfortunate news, I just saw that Grant Imahara of Mythbusters fame died of an aneurysm yesterday and that makes me very sad. He seemed like a really nice guy and was of course incredibly smart and talented.

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I woke up at two and couldn't sleep. Checked the news and cried. He was too young. I watched every single Mythbusters episode with him and his team in it.

Local police officer killed from a nearby town. They chased a suspect in a car ant it led to a shoot out with two officers shot, one was okay and one died. I've done a lot of work for them. They haven't released the name yet. The suspect was later caught hiding on a roof of a commercial building.

There's a shitload of meth in the area and people who OD on it have psychotic or manic like episodes instead of not breathing. It's just a guess but people addicted to drugs don't want to go to jail in a bad way.

Local news from yesterday:

Meth overdoses have quadrupled in King County. "We have seen a massive increase in methamphetamine overdoses the last five years," said Dr. Caleb Banta-Green of the University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute.

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Crime increases with the drug use.

I hope it wasn't a cop I know.


Moving on to more cheery things [not], tomorrow's tax day and for whatever mental reason, I can't seem to get them done ahead of time so I'll be working on them today and tomorrow. Tomorrow is critique night. Keeping with my annual tradition of scrambling to get the taxes done, I won't be participating in critique.

Good luck with your new critique group E.F.B. Hope it's a group you fit in with. Hooray for satisfying chapter edits.

I'm also sorry to hear about Grant Imahara. I still picture him as a cheery guy on Mythbusters.

Filigree said:

Hopefully one of the rentals will work out for you, Greendragon!

Ugh, it was 118F here in my part of Phoenix yesterday, with thunderstorms teasing us just outside the heat island of this ridiculous 75-mile-wide metro area. I did not go out, but I have to go today. Seems I have to drop off paperwork at my doc's office so she can sign it & fax it to my work medical insurance. I'm out for another two weeks with this damn shoulder ligament injury that's been coming and going since March. I don't have full motion of my left arm. We're hoping physio and cortisone will work, rather than surgery. No one wants to get near a hospital in Arizona right now if they don't have to.

Otherwise I'm typing one-handed, spiffing up art for a new batch of stuff on Etsy, and retooling some older novels for self-pub through Draft2Digital.

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In any normal time, I’d highly recommend airrosti. It’s just another form of physical therapy, but I’ve had really great experiences with it. Going to any kind of appointment could be dicey right now, though. Anyway, for future reference, that’s my top choice for PT.

Filigree said:

Hopefully one of the rentals will work out for you, Greendragon!

Ugh, it was 118F here in my part of Phoenix yesterday, with thunderstorms teasing us just outside the heat island of this ridiculous 75-mile-wide metro area. I did not go out, but I have to go today. Seems I have to drop off paperwork at my doc's office so she can sign it & fax it to my work medical insurance. I'm out for another two weeks with this damn shoulder ligament injury that's been coming and going since March. I don't have full motion of my left arm. We're hoping physio and cortisone will work, rather than surgery. No one wants to get near a hospital in Arizona right now if they don't have to.

Otherwise I'm typing one-handed, spiffing up art for a new batch of stuff on Etsy, and retooling some older novels for self-pub through Draft2Digital.

Click to expand...

In any normal time, I’d highly recommend airrosti. It’s just another form of physical therapy, but I’ve had really great experiences with it. Going to any kind of appointment could be dicey right now, though. Anyway, for future reference, that’s my top choice for PT.

I almost forgot, I had a story published today. It’s really just from a convention contest. At my home con, ArmadilloCon, Space Squid does a flash fiction contest where you have five minutes to write a story from a given prompt. This story is actually from nearly two years ago now, and I’d all but forgotten it. Reading it again now, I’m already making notes to turn it into a longer story. This folksy voice really seems to work for me—which I have strongly mixed feelings about, because it’s not the voice I’d have chosen if I had my druthers.

Also, five minutes is an EXTREMELY short time to write in.

Anyway, it’s about halfway down this page: https://www.spacesquid.com/primo-cat-scifi/

OMG! my print books sales for Barney and Mr. Thomas went from 18 to 58 in only a few (one or three) days. I'm so shocked.

Just the other day I was having a terrible day and telling my mom that I wouldn't sell that many books, but look at me! What a way to turn a miserable day around!

I know I'm not supposed to gloat, but I'm just so happy.

JJ Litke said:

I almost forgot, I had a story published today. It’s really just from a convention contest. At my home con, ArmadilloCon, Space Squid does a flash fiction contest where you have five minutes to write a story from a given prompt. This story is actually from nearly two years ago now, and I’d all but forgotten it. Reading it again now, I’m already making notes to turn it into a longer story. This folksy voice really seems to work for me—which I have strongly mixed feelings about, because it’s not the voice I’d have chosen if I had my druthers.

Also, five minutes is an EXTREMELY short time to write in.

Anyway, it’s about halfway down this page: https://www.spacesquid.com/primo-cat-scifi/

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Congrats!

Also, to write a story in five minutes, you clearly have Super Author Powers (TM) and I am in awe.

The Second Moon said:

OMG! my print books sales for Barney and Mr. Thomas went from 18 to 58 in only a few (one or three) days. I'm so shocked.

Just the other day I was having a terrible day and telling my mom that I wouldn't sell that many books, but look at me! What a way to turn a miserable day around!

I know I'm not supposed to gloat, but I'm just so happy.

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Hey, if you can't celebrate among fellow authors, where can you celebrate? Way to go, TSM! May they be the first sales of many!



Speaking of sales, I've made 3 Etsy sales this month, which may be a personal record for July. 2 of the three were baby blankets, so might be the first evidence of the Covid baby boom? Once I finish getting the Wizard of Oz collection together, I'll have to start restocking.


The first meeting of my online crit group went fine. Seems we all get along and have pretty varied levels of experience in both writing and publishing. I'm both excited and nervous to get the feedback on my excerpt, which will be the first time anyone has laid eyes on even part of this particular story.

Today, Friday, and Saturday, I'm attending an online writer's conference, and I'M SO STINKING EXCITED! The classes I registered for seem like they'll be very informative and interesting. I've wanted to do this for so long but couldn't attend any in-person cons because of dad's health and emotional issues. I'm sorry it took a pandemic to push so many cons online, but at least now I'm getting to benefit from them instead of watching wistfully from the sidelines. Honestly, I hope even once stuff can happen in person again, this will be a lesson to the cons to keep an online option available because there are so many people who just can't attend in person due to things other than finances, but there's no reason they shouldn't be able to benefit from the learning and community in some small way, too.

Anyway, I'd better go figure out how to traverse the "virtual conference center" (a.k.a. a hugenormous Discord server). Byyyyeeee!

*Waves*

Had to leave work early because FIL needed the truck (mine's still in pieces at the moment). Sitting here with a full belly (icecream and lunch) with the cats while the dog whines that she wants to share my food. no luck there pup.

Interesting week so far. Owner might have C19. He hasn't believed any of this, but was sick on the weekend. He had been to the beach 2 weeks ago....
My boss is out for the week as a precaution as his wife is high risk.
So that leaves me alone (wearing my mask) in my office, which... has a broken AC as of last Friday. It was actually nice to leave before that room got too hot! (Was 89 F in there when I got in at 7:30 this morning. Yes I have fans and can cool off in another office but frankly, I'll stay to mine where my boss and I have followed C19 protocol with being sanitary.) Things should be fixed tomorrow? But i've heard that for 2 days now.

Otherwise. Still working. Not sure what exactly we'll do if owner's test comes back positive. He says he's feeling better but will see. (BTW I have little contact with him, I just stay in my office where it's safe LOL)

Hope all else is well with everyone.

JJ, it's so awesome how you keep getting things published! You are amazing and congrats!


Shadow, I hope your truck gets put back together and fixed soon. Does your employer offer any special deals on vehicles? It would totally awesome if they did.

I finally broke down and put my AC in the window, which was a major event for me, because now I realize how much I had been suffering in this heat. Lately it's been nice out but the sun has been baking my apartment because my brick walls are great at acting as heat batteries. So, even though the temps are in the 70's my AC is on because otherwise my apartment is in the 80's.

I shot video today for a dark chocolate-cashew butter sorbetto because a friend asked me to make her some and I thought it was the perfect time to make a video. I'm getting back into the swing of things and this is a huge step for me.

I've been editing and re-writing parts of my novel. I want it ready to submit by the end of July. I'm very angry that it's not ready now and I've been lazy about it. Plus, I'm upset at the lack of submissions I've sent out in the last year. But between the depression, anxiety, and other issues writing has been off the table. But I've been able to get back into it and I feel like I'm on a mission.

Hope all are well. I'll post pictures of food pron when I'm done so you guys can look at frozen balls of very dark sorbetto and wonder how it tastes. But, take my word for it, it tastes amazing!

TedTheewen said:

... I finally broke down and put my AC in the window, which was a major event for me, because now I realize how much I had been suffering in this heat.

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A couple years ago I finally quit taking mine out for the winter. I am so glad I made that decision. So far it has come back to life every summer.

I shot video today for a dark chocolate-cashew butter sorbetto because a friend asked me to make her some and I thought it was the perfect time to make a video. I'm getting back into the swing of things and this is a huge step for me.

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Holy cow that sounds good! I'd watch but I have no hope of making any and it would just make me crave sugar that I'm trying to avoid until I lose back the weight I recently gained.

I will look at the pics, mind you.


My dogs and I are going through a serious adjustment period. They have their cones on for another week. I did figure out to use an old water bowl I had to keep them from constantly knocking their water over with their cones.

But getting into a different food and treats routine has been as much error as trial. Reminds me of when my son was a baby and I didn't realize he was constantly hungry because apparently breast size doesn't correlate with milk production.

Normally my dogs just eat out of their bowl when they are hungry. But now I have to dole it out in the proper serving size because canned dog food doesn't allow one to leave it out all day.

Question for you dog owners: how many of you have dogs that eat once a day?

My dogs were driving me crazy in the evening wanting in and out of the house without settling down into their evening nappy selves. I figured out they have to eat twice a day.

Then there is the issue that one still has teeth and the other essentially doesn't. That means I have to figure out a diet and schedule for each one separately.

Sigh. At least I got my taxes done.



You guys are so awesome, between writing and ice cream delights. And I feel your struggles with this stupid virus.

When the video is uploaded, I'll make sure to post a link. And I'll also spread food pron shots on social media but I really love doing that. I need the feedback. I need the likes and the oohs and aahs. I need people telling me it looks amazing and how they're drooling. It's one of the few things in life that gives me a positive feedback and I need it.

I'm going to get back to my novel. I'm slowly working on darkening the mood of the whole thing.

MaeZe - IIRC, we fed dogs once a day, but when I had cats it was twice a day. (Once in the early morning - the agreement was that if I woke up gawdsawful early to feed them a smallish breakfast they'd let me sleep as late as I wanted - and once in the evening. Only one had soft food, IIRC.) But every animal is different, plus I'd imagine they're adjusting themselves to mouths that feel different and everything's a little wrong and you can't explain to them why.

Friday afternoon, about time to get dinner started (pork chop night, because pork chop was on sale). Later this evening I'll probably be doing another transcription thing. Dunno if I mentioned I actually did my first for-realsies transcription job last Monday and actually got a 5/5 rating (which is the good rating), though I'm still figuring out when and how to work transcribing in around my schedule.

Work is picking up again, and we're already swamped by the number of things to sort. The library system released holds this week, and if we don't roll back they'll be getting more libraries adapted to curbside service. Meanwhile, we're still terribly understaffed, and going to be leaner...

Mom's reviewing what she needs to do for the thyroid cancer follow-up scans. Numbers look good (knock on plywood, keyboard, and anything knockable), but they want to be absolutely sure there's nothing they've missed, because with large tumors like the one she had by the time they diagnosed it, there's apparently about a 30% recurrence rate. It's going to be a rough twoish weeks on a fairly strict diet, plus she'll technically be radioactive for four days and has to limit contact and proximity to other household members. But better safe than sorry... That'll be next month, in theory, so we have time to get stuff together.

Off I wander. Apparently pork chops won't cook themselves. Stupid, non-self-cooking pork chops...

Thanks BD for the doggie information. Now the new food is causing them diarrhea. We go back to the vet next Friday, the cones come off Wed, and the antibiotics are done in three more days. I'm going to hand the vet tech a list of questions/concerns because they take the dogs in without you.

I, for one, and happy the library unfroze my holds. Sorry it means you guys are overworked. Just go slow, I can wait for the sorting and deliveries. My copy of Blood Heir is in transit!!!

I have an extra antidepressant med. This morning I thought I'd skip the daytime doses. These things aren't supposed to work that fast or wear off that fast. It's probably in my head but I found myself getting horribly depressed at the horrible POTUS we have and how things would have been so different if Clinton had won.

Anyway, you can only go forward as far as we know. I took my morning dose of the antidepressant this afternoon and it seems to be helping.

I think the current state of affairs nationwide and globally have a lot of people feeling anxious, depressed, and many other things. So many people I talk to are sensing this impending event, like a meteor crashing down, or alien contact, or something of that magnitude, which isn't helping things.

I wish aliens would come visit us. I mean, officially, so we could all see them.

I took a nap this evening for a bit because I was overwhelmed. I worked up a huge sweat just doing a photo shoot with my ice cream so I had food pron to post on social media. I couldn't believe how soaking wet I was. So, I'm working on the video right now that I was hoping to get done this afternoon.

Also, tomorrow is the wedding. It's going to be a scorcher. Very hot and humid. They've asked me to make it quick and I can see no reason why I should drag it out. I told them my fastest wedding so far is under 60 seconds. I just hope I don't fumble the words and sound like an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing. I mean, I don't know what I'm doing, but they don't have to know that.

I'll post a link of my video once it's uploaded.

I have an image of a minister rampaging through vows like an auctioneer. ��

Endured two sessions of Physio this week. Oof.

Congrats for published stories and book sales!

So, update on new job. When I interviewed for this job, it was all via phone due to COVID. Therefore, I didn't realize it was open office. Like, 40 people in one big room, in large quads, each person facing their corner. All 'walls' are less than waist height, so my corner is facing the corner of the next quad, with a grudging plastic barrier between us measuring about 2 ft by 1 ft. Not happy at all. I'm an introvert. That's one reason I got into accounting. And at a six-figure salary, wtf are they thinking with this crap? I've had an office or at least tall cubicle walls for the last 25 years. Accountants/financial professionals usually have to deal with sensitive data - payroll, financial details, etc.

So, I did OK on Monday, but Tuesday, when there were two loud conversations going on behind my back (I faced one wall so the whole room was at my back) of strangers, I fell into a panic attack and had to run to the bathroom to cry and decompress.

I talked to my boss about my discomfort on Monday, but he sort of blew it off. (He doesn't have an office either. No one but the top guy in the whole building does). Well, Tuesday after my attack, I ran to HR.

I said it was incredibly distracting, both the noise and having strangers moving behind me constantly. One of my co-workers has a very deep, penetrating voice, and when he has a phone call, it kills any concentration I have. I had to read the same paragraph 3-4 times to absorb it.

They suggested noise-cancelling headphones, and I did get some.

They were rather dismissive. "No one else has ever complained" "If you knew you couldn't handle open office, why didn't you ask about it?" "No one has an office, we can't make an exception for you."

When I mentioned that most of the group HAS noise-cancelling headphones, I suggested there may be an issue with noise and concentration in general. Also, introverts don't normally complain, and those that really had a problem had the chance to see the office before accepting the job, and turned it down.

However, after much discussion between HR and my boss, they finally agreed to move me to the corner quad in the room, facing the room so only one person is at my back, since the other two seats are empty.

And yes, this is all crap for COVID precautions. We wear masks all day at our desks.

it's been better in the new spot, but I still spend most of the day hunched down behind my monitors so I feel less like a bug pinned to a board, on display for everyone to see. I am tense when I get home and take a long time to decompress.

I'm still looking for a new job, but I'll have to deal with this until another option comes up.

@greendragon -Awww. I'm so sorry. Here --> You sound like you need one.

Greendragon, I'm so sorry that office is like that. Some people just don't get it. I hope you find a better job soon.

Here's an ice cream video to tantalize.

greendragon said:

So, update on new job. When I interviewed for this job, it was all via phone due to COVID. Therefore, I didn't realize it was open office. Like, 40 people in one big room, in large quads, each person facing their corner. All 'walls' are less than waist height, so my corner is facing the corner of the next quad, with a grudging plastic barrier between us measuring about 2 ft by 1 ft. Not happy at all. I'm an introvert. That's one reason I got into accounting. And at a six-figure salary, wtf are they thinking with this crap? I've had an office or at least tall cubicle walls for the last 25 years. Accountants/financial professionals usually have to deal with sensitive data - payroll, financial details, etc.

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I really don't understand the whole "open office" fad. Our workplace recently renovated the whole building to open things up, so everybody's essentially sitting in one giant room with no walls. The constant buzz of noise is awful, and it's even worse when you have to see and hear everybody eating lunch at their desks. For those of us with direct reports, it makes things very complicated because there's often a need to have private conversations about sensitive topics. Our old configuration, with slightly higher cubicle walls and a few offices, seemed to be working very well.

Sorry to hear about your situation... I hope you can find something better.