The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

zanzjan

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Yay, I missed you people so much! Welcome back!

*fills every available table and bar-top in the cantina with cupcakes, donuts, tea, and assorted other diverse excellent snackage*
 

PamelaC

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Mom goes in Thursday for her surgery (papillary thyroid cancer - having the whole thyroid taken out, because nobody caught it for twenty or thirty years)...
Good luck to your Mom. I was diagnosed with the same thing back in spring 2018 and had my thyroid removed in July of that year. First (and so far the only) major surgery I've ever had and it really wasn't that bad. It'll take some time afterward to get the medication level right, but it really hasn't been too bad. I rarely even think about it anymore, except at 6am when I take my little levothyroxine pill. Otherwise, life is normal. I hope your Mom has a similar experience.
 

Brightdreamer

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Good luck to your Mom. I was diagnosed with the same thing back in spring 2018 and had my thyroid removed in July of that year. First (and so far the only) major surgery I've ever had and it really wasn't that bad. It'll take some time afterward to get the medication level right, but it really hasn't been too bad. I rarely even think about it anymore, except at 6am when I take my little levothyroxine pill. Otherwise, life is normal. I hope your Mom has a similar experience.

Everyone keeps telling her it's "the cancer you want to have"... She has a very bad history with that word (her mother died of complications of cancer treatment - stomach cancer, IIRC - so she has an extra trigger), so she'd rather not have any. And now she's half-convinced she'll lose her voice or feeling in her mouth.

I'm hoping all goes well, though this year has been a real kick in the teeth and fist in the gut and tumble into an open cesspit swarming with mutant alligator-shark-bears with chainsaws for teeth.
 

Richard White

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Glad to see you all too. I was working away on my Sisyphus story and then started discussing some themes in a writer's chat and now I have to start all over again because I have a much better angle on the story. *aarrgh!*

It'll be done by the deadline, I promise. :mob :e2BIC::whip:
 

Brightdreamer

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Glad to see you all too. I was working away on my Sisyphus story and then started discussing some themes in a writer's chat and now I have to start all over again because I have a much better angle on the story. *aarrgh!*

It'll be done by the deadline, I promise. :mob :e2BIC::whip:

Mergh - I still haven't written a single story word of my Sisyphus. Just got what I think will be the idea spark a couple days ago after several false starts.

Yeah, my year so far too. :(

:Hug2:

Many of us seem to be swimming with the alligator-shark-bears this year...
 

frimble3

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Yay, we're back again! I've been doing agent research and kept hitting things in my agent notes like, "See this AW thread: [link]." What do you mean, past-self, see that thread because they're horrible, or awesome, or tips about querying?! MAKE MORE HELPFUL NOTES NEXT TIME, GAH
Or, tiny little additional symbols? (-) for negative, avoid, (+) for good, useful, and of course (?) for query. Or, emoticons! Sometimes all you need a fast impression more than details.
 

frimble3

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We've been gone so long that I forgot how to do 'Reply with Post'. Gods I've missed you all so much!
 

E.F.B.

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*runs into Cantina with arms flung open* IT'S BAAAAAAAACK! AW withdrawal is REAL, people. *hugs everything and everyone*

Oh goodness, what has happened since the site's been down? Well, I'm 9,452 words into my Sisyphus, which is longer than I first envisioned, and it's still not done. BUT I really like the characters and am enjoying the story. I just hope I'm doing it justice.

Other than that, I spent over a week in January setting up a business newsletter for my Etsy. Took me a while to convince myself I needed one, but in all reality, if anything happened to my shop on Etsy or I wanted to start my own site, etc, etc, I need a way to let those customers who are interested know what's going on and not every customer is on social media. So, that took far longer than I necessarily wanted it to, but I at least found a step by step tutorial to help me through or I never would have figured all that out on my own.

Also had my 6 month dental appointment and darn it all there's a cavity between my teeth even though I've been so much better about flossing. At least it seems it's not a bad one and one is better than the many I had last year after we switched dentists and learned that old dentist had been incompetent.

Currently I have a cold and have lost a few days of writing due to lack of energy. Also managed to eat the wrong thing too late at night last night when I already wasn't feeling good and make myself sick that way too. But it's all passing and I hope to get back to wording tomorrow.

Also currently, my aunt on my mom's side, and my cousin and her young daughters are having to take an uber to a hotel because they lost their car in Washington D.C. and haven't found it even after riding with a police officer looking for two hours. *facepalm* This is an instance of small town folks not being prepared for the big city, I'm afraid. They weren't paying enough attention to their surroundings and had no clue after going to multiple museums which parking garage they'd left the car in. Hopefully it's not stolen, and they'll find it when they go looking again tomorrow in the daylight but gaaaaaah they should have been paying more attention!

Also, I was utterly shocked my dad was asking my mom if we needed to go help them. Help them how??? Drive both cars for hours in the middle of the night and then what? Take them to a hotel and drive home? Cuz we certainly don't have room to let them stay here. I appreciate that he had an urge to help instead of immediately assuming they'd want to stay with us and getting defensive over that (which would be a normal reaction coming from him) but I'm just not sure how he thought us driving to DC was going to help.
 

Brightdreamer

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frimble3 - *waves*

EFB - Well, that's a story that needs to find its way into a book one of these days... I don't suppose they were taking pictures with their phones or anything, to retrace their itinerary?
And several of us took refuge over on Discord and are still hanging out there, if you need a non-forum way to talk to people. Helped with withdrawal symptoms.

We just had thunder and hail go overhead, but I'm going to risk staying on the computer until we get power blips or some other warning; seems like a fairly small and localized cell.

Tonight, I need to work on that Sisyphus idea a little and maybe watch something new, because I need new things coming into my head every so often to make new ideas come out. Considering whether to try continuing Lost in Space on Netflix (the pilot was a fun and interesting update on the premise, felt like a throwback to a slightly older style of family movie that actually entertained without being nonstop bodily function jokes, but I hear the first season itself might deteriorate into smart people doing stupid things), give Locke & Key a try, or see if Prime still has Firefly (which I haven't watched yet, because it sounds pretty rough at first, but I am definitely intrigued.) Also started watching Netflix's Medical Police, though I got bored partway through the second episode; it's a straight-faced parody of action/medicine/cop shows, though the stuff I saw felt kinda wobbly. Might finish off the season, though, just to finish it... definitely seen less funny comedies.
 

JJ Litke

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Or, tiny little additional symbols? (-) for negative, avoid, (+) for good, useful, and of course (?) for query. Or, emoticons! Sometimes all you need a fast impression more than details.

Yeah, I just hadn’t thought about AW being down for so long. I also tried googling agents, especially ones I didn’t have notes for, and AW links would show up at the top of search results. Really brought home what a vital resource AW is.

I'm so glad we're back. I really missed this place.

Me, too! *group hug*
 

Brightdreamer

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Seems a bit sluggish, at least on my end, but yep, AW definitely seems to be back.

*waves to people again*

Just swingin' through before bed. Tried finishing off that second episode of Medical Police, and... nah, not my cup of cocoa. Just isn't finding its footing, and then it goes inexplicably crude for no reason except to be stupid. So I think I can scratch that one as "not worth my time" and move on. (I'm not going to pull another Another Life and stick it out in the hopes it'll improve, thereby wasting irreplacable hours of my life... though, TBH, comparatively Another Life at least kept its head above the crotch line, mostly; it may have insulted my intelligence, but it never just plain disgusted me.) So I think I'll wrap up the day by reading instead, since it's a bit late to start anything else on my watch list.
 

zanzjan

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Spell 'recommend' the way you spell 'necessary'? One 'c', double consonant? What part throws you?

Let us remember that not everyone here is a native English speaker, and also that spelling presents legitimate difficulties for some people as we all process/retain information strategies in different ways :)
 

E.F.B.

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EFB - Well, that's a story that needs to find its way into a book one of these days... I don't suppose they were taking pictures with their phones or anything, to retrace their itinerary?
And several of us took refuge over on Discord and are still hanging out there, if you need a non-forum way to talk to people. Helped with withdrawal symptoms.
It does, it really does. Unfortunately it seems they didn't. Mom warned aunt when she said they were going there that they needed to pay attention to their surroundings for safety's sake and also to not get lost but that went through one ear and out the other, apparently. At least they listened to the rest of her warnings and didn't lose their wallets or the girls. Well, at least the girls will have an adventure story to tell when they go back to school.

Re Lost in Space, I adored the first season personally. Only reason I haven't watched the second one is because we have to wait a bit to get Netflix back.


The other drama that happened while AW was down was that I thought my bank account had been hacked. Thankfully it was just an internal error that mixed up my account with another that was one number difference from mine. The charges coming out were legit, they were just intended for someone else. Still stressful, but slightly less than if I'd had to get a new account and card etc. The bank was very helpful and got things straightened out and gave me my money back quickly so it's all good now. Would really appreciate if they could keep that from happening again, though.

Today I will write. I will! No more cold-induced brain fog!
 

lilyWhite

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Hooray, AW is back! The Cantina is back!*

*lurks*

Been pushing along with writing as of late. Started posting one story online at the start of the year, and making decent progress on the second draft of the sequel presently.


*the cantina never left we never left the cantina it is inside of us always forevermore
 

Brightdreamer

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EFB - Will probably give the first season a try; if it goes bad I can always stop and try something else, but I was more impressed than I'd expected by the pilot.

Tuesday, very late morning, and I need to to at least take a swipe at an online course video to say I did something useful with my morning. Then I need to attempt writing.

Mergh... just cannot get my head together this year.
 

Religion0

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Aaaaah! Cantina! It's good to be back!

Sadly, I probably won't be getting the puppy. =( My immediate future is too uncertain, still, and it's closing in on the puppies being sorted out for their new homes, and also I'm a mess. Just a heap of flesh. Really need to figure out how to be a person again. Minty could really use a little sister, though, she's been so much more anxious and she could really use a playmate, and I could maybe have gotten her home for my birthday which would just have been funny.

In better news, the Danish welfare state finally got around to being helpful despite all the damn bureaucracy and I'll hopefully get a flex job. Whoo. I was trying to be optimistic about that, because it's a good thing, but apparently my brain is just set to "depressed" tonight. I'm trying to not let it slide down into "self-deprecating" but that's a losing fight.

Spell 'recommend' the way you spell 'necessary'? One 'c', double consonant? What part throws you?
"necessary" I remember by "a shirt has one collar and two sleeves" that obviously doesn't work for recommend with the two m's. Everything throws me, I've got half a dozen pronunciation rules from around Europe that muddle with spelling rules from two languages with a thousand roots each. And my pupper is a brain sucker.
 

Friendly Frog

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Oh Cantina, I'm so glad to see you all again. Really missed talking to you guys. :Hug2:

Friendly Frog - I wound up heading over to the Discord chat, which wasn't perfect but helped some. (This forum is my main social network, too... I keep looking for ways and places to socialize in person near me, but come up empty, especially since I don't drink and I'm not religious - most everything seems to require at least one of those.)
I thought about it often during the time AW was down, but it has been maybe 15 years since I ever was in a chatroom and I've been lacking spoons to even try and work it out. But I'm glad some people managed to stay in touch during that dark January.

Sorry to hear about your mom's health issues.

And it's been a Year so far.
Amen, sister.

A-*expletive*-men.

In short, we had to close down the family shop, meaning all three of us are out of a job. We're now rushing to clean it all up and move out of the rented space. The corporation four generations of our family have helped grow, has been particularly nasty about it, with back-stabbing and megalomanic yelling letters and every intent to cause us untold financial ruin.

I have to assist my dad in tearing down his own life's work. We have been working non-stop since January. We are all so fed up and pissed off. And dusty. Everything is damage control.

Spring is making me unreasonably angry. All those new beginnings. I feel like my life has stopped in January and yet everybody else is getting on with their life and part of me feels like they have no right to. It's petty. I didn't expect it. But it's here. I am going to have to deal with.

And then I look at my rockgarden irisses which despite everything have come up in colours and numbers unlooked for and I feel a little bit of... joy? Could be relief. And then storm Dennis blows them all down and you can't punch windfields and rain clouds.

Heh.

Finally had that loooong-ago-booked appointment for allergy testing. Turns out I'm allergic to a lot of stuff I wasn't expecting... like cats. Will have the full results of the blood tests next month. Hopefully that will give me something to put the tiny eye volcanoes down permanently, cause itchy eyes all the time may seem like a small thing but it is being insufferable for me.

Yay! We're back! Here's what has happened.
You've been busy! :)

I'm hoping all goes well, though this year has been a real kick in the teeth and fist in the gut and tumble into an open cesspit swarming with mutant alligator-shark-bears with chainsaws for teeth.
... with an extra wallop of missbehaving fungus.

[...]or see if Prime still has Firefly (which I haven't watched yet, because it sounds pretty rough at first, but I am definitely intrigued.)
It's worth your time, I think. It's interesting enough and so much internet memes will suddenly make sense. (At least, that's what happened to me. YMMV.)
 

Brightdreamer

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Friendly Frog - Oh, man... that's terrible! (This is where all the positive-thinking-junkies would leap out of the bushes and insist that doors don't close without windows opening and it's all about Attitude and if you're not completely on fire you shouldn't complain because it attracts more bad luck, implying that everything that's happened is somehow because you willed it or did something wrong. I hereby grant you permission to punch any and every positive-thinking-junkie who tries to downplay your hard time in the face and feed them to the alligator-shark-bears, but don't light them on fire so they have to bite their tongues and not complain. Doors do sometimes close without windows opening, bad crud does indeed sometimes happen for reasons beyond one's control, and sometimes anger and frustration is the appropriate response, at least for a while.) What is it with this year, anyway?
And Firefly is back to pay-per-ep on Prime, near as I can tell. Might look for another free venue - I keep thinking one of the library sites might've had it available. (I'm interested, but not interested enough to sink money into it.)

Monday afternoon, and exercise accomplished. Plus I wrapped the Expanse S1 rewatch (at least the fourth or fifth time through - so sue me, I've missed having A Show, plus it holds up pretty danged well.) Now I have to try writing.

No, brain, writing a post on AW about how you need to try writing doesn't count as writing. Nice try, though; very weaselly.