July 2021 Quick Notes

 1.  Feeling better finally.  Took a long while, but...feeling better.  Pretty much Link in BOTW at this point, have to hang out in AC land or I start getting super hot really quick, but better than where I was at a couple weeks ago.

2.  I'm sticking with War to End All Wars and doing a readthrough/edit on what I have so far, then going to pump the 69 (nice!) pages into the laptop over the next week.

3.  Really like what I have so far.  Took me a bit to get back into fighting shape but I've got this one's number now.  Plenty more to figure out for the back half, but we're grooving!

Just read through what might be the best KH/Welf interaction ever...just so very tense.  This isn't some childish shallow argument, this is two people who have known each other for years now really digging deep at the other, and me having written the characters for so long now having a great feel for who they are.  Plus, I like to think after a decade of writing in the minor leagues I finally kinda know what I'm doing at this point, maybe, sorta...

4.  So I've had some serious left hand pain for the better part of five years.  Basically since just after I finished FM6.  It isn't the main reason for why things got so fucked up with my output (surgery/health/grandpa/etc), but it didn't help.  Finally bit the bullet and got a steroid shot in the problematic joint at the start of the month.  Good news is now I have much better movement and can type for longer than a couple hours of a day without any pain.  Bad news is I still can't grasp, twist, or hold a gaming controller for an hour without wanting to die.  So even if I HAD a PS5, I couldn't play with it!  I have a feeling we're heading towards X-Rays/Ultrasounds/MRIs to figure out what's going on in there...

Oh, I'm left handed, have I mentioned that before?

Pencil lead edge-chop masters unite!

5.  You know, before these Olympics started, I thought: sure, I'll watch some this time!  Why not?  Covid still has all the good movies backed up until later in the year, I could use some once-every-four-years sports in my life.  Have I actually watched any of it?  NOPE!!!

6.  THAT FUCKING DUNE TRAILER!!! SQUEEEEEEE!!!

7.  Actually finally starting the newest Stormlight book by Sanderson finally.  Probably take me a month to read it since based on what's come before it's likely 5000 pages long.  And I thought PIT OF NO RETURN was a big baby!

8.  Apparently they fucked with He-Man over at Netflix and the Nerd World is ON FIRE.  Again.  Haven't watched it yet, since that was just a little bit before I was born and not really a fan and...maybe when part 2 comes out.  More of a Transformers and GI JOE kid and...I mean, Michael Bay been diddling my childhood for a decade at this point.  Actually Transformers: The Movie scared me for life when I was like 3, so...can't even blame Mr. Explosion Man.

Also had a Power Rangers phase I probably shouldn't talk about or admit to...but Green Ranger was so cool, guys!  A kids show with a 5 part mini-series?  Whaaaa?  And did you see his fucking flute?!?!

But in a post The Last Jedi world, after we saw the fallout from that, I'm kind of shocked anyone thought it was a good idea to attempt the same game plan with He-Man.  So I get why He-Man fans are so upset.  Luke Skywalker guzzling green alien titty milk still gives me nightmares.  And the way the media/critics/bloggers sit on high and just label upset fans as haters and man-children and everything else you can use to belittle a person's opinion, that's still neither fair nor a good look.  Again, the same game plan we saw in The Last Jedi mess!  How are you repeating the same mistakes?  This does not end well for anyone!!!

I do feel bad for Kevin Smith, even if he was the architect of his own demise.  Used to listen to Hollywood Babble-On weekly at one point, and him talking about the Indie movie scene just as I was getting into the Indie book scene helped me not feel quite so crazy for spurning a traditional agent--->publisher route.  For his sake, I hope Part 2 does right the ship and Netflix just made a mistake splitting up the story.

Could not be AS bad as the Anti-SJW crowd is making out.  They're pretty much just as annoying as their foils, if not more so at this point.  So...assholes all around because everyone has one!  Balanced, as all things should be!

Luckily I'm writing my own characters I personally created, so when I kill off a beloved character none of you will complain on YouTube or send me mean emails about how much of an asshole I am, right?!?!

9.  Been watching a ton of movies instead of TV recently, mostly in the John-Wick-Like vein.  The best one was probably WRATH OF MAN, Guy Ritchie's newest.  Great ride beginning to end, check it out.  Liked it even more than NOBODY, which seems to be getting more buzz.  With NOBODY everyone feels protected.  With WRATH OF MAN...anyone can and will die, so it's super tense.  Also has a HEAT like element added to the John Wick revenge story and some timeline manipulation going on.  If you haven't seen THE GENTLEMEN, which was the movie Ritchie released before WRATH, check that out too, it's even better.

Of course I still haven't watched John Wick 3...so...should probably do that soon!

10.  LOKI was much better than the two previous Marvel shows, but the action scenes were REALLY bad.  I mean, action scenes almost always bore me nowadays, but those were pitiful.  I dug that there was a lot of talking and world-building and character moments.  The finale was three people with conflicting desires chatting about how the universe should end instead of two people throwing CGI fireballs at each other, so I liked that.  Final Boss was great and I can't wait to see his Super Saiyan version.

Loki, however...had almost no agency in the entire show.  He was simply along for the ride and watching as everyone else made choices around him.  In episode 3, I kept waiting for him to turn everything around and be like, a ha, tricked you!  But...I'm still waiting.  Could have been a choice the creators made and we'll see him step up in Season 2 and I hope that's what happens, because this isn't some newbie character that deserves to be a sidekick with training wheels.

But I have hope for the MCEU again, so that's great!  Down with the sophomore slump, on to the Multiverse Wars!

11.  Delta variant sucks, get your shots!  Even King Henry believes in science, people!  And he knows blood tentacle monsters rule the world not no wimpy Bill Gates!

12.  I'm thinking of putting together a King Henry Quiz for you guys and gals, up to the challenge?

War to End All Wars Mini Tease #3

Val was delighted by part of this news at least. “You danced with Heinrich?”

Miranda might not blush as often as she used to, but when she did she still blushed like a champion. “No one else would. I was bored…”

“Did he grab your butt?”

“Valentine!”

So That Sucked Serious Blood Tentacle

 *sigh*

My AC died July 5th, obliterated by post July 4th firework residue, firmly etching that holiday as the worst of all holidays, not even close, no not even you New Year's Eve Dodge the Redneck and Gangbanger Bullets Extravaganza, sit the fuck down!  Used to love it--swimming, family, grandpa's burgers, tag football games that only ended when someone dislocated a shoulder...but now?  Hate it.  Loud, noisy, scares the cats, turns the valley into an asthmatic's worst nightmare even more than it usually is, and oh yeah, KILLS MY FUCKING AC.

DURING THE WORST HEATWAVE FRESNO HAS SEEN IN A FUCKING DECADE.

Maybe two.

TWO FUCKING DECADES.

When Britney Spears only sang about being a slave, but wasn't an actual fucking slave, that's how long ago!

 *sigh*

I survived miserably for five nights.  Not well, every moment a struggle, but...I kept going.  Saturday it was 110 degrees out and my body with its tiny bariatric stomach and lovely Scot-Irish What's the Sun? Genes had enough, I developed the first signs of serious OH SHIT heat exhaustion.  I don't know if my neighbors deciding to have a live mariachi band in a residential neighborhood until 3AM contributed or not, but I'm guessing it didn't help. 

Covered in wet rags and cold packs after two hours I finally cooled down and slumped into a restless sleep.

Sunday morning I could barely walk and decided to not fuck around anymore and went to the ER.

They were barely helpful, but...I got eight hours of free cool during the peak of the heatwave (115) they gave me obvious-but-fine-I'll-do-them tips and an IV, as well as warning signs on what to watch out for.  Spent the rest of the day in a Taco Bell, went home for a small miserable sleep in a house that wouldn't cool down past 90, and repeated at my uncle's place the next day.

Despite all this...Tuesday morning at about 2AM it got even worse in a terrifying escalation of symptoms, so...back to the ER.

*sigh*

New doctor.  They were...insultingly unhelpful.  I quote "your organs aren't failing yet, so there's nothing we can really do for you."

OH, I'M FUCKING SORRY ABOUT THAT, MY BAD!

I've only got uncontrollable body shaking and I'm so dizzy I can barely walk and hey, if I wasn't dizzy every muscle below my knee and elbow is cramping and spastic, and I'm so fucking smooth-brained it took me a whole minute to spell out my own name to the nurse, but no biggie!  Also I seem to have forgotten how to sweat, sure that's not important or on that list of shit you told me to watch out for.   How rude of me, I should have waited until my kidneys were giving out!

"Get some sleep and wet some towels to throw over you".

Oh yeah, why didn't I fucking think of that?

*sigh*

So I moved in with the uncle for three days to borrow his couch and luckily I somehow didn't get worse.  Thursday the new AC got put up and I'm finally back home.  I've slept about 12 hours a night since that last ER visit and I'm just to the point where the dizzy and cramping seems to have gone away, still can't go outside for longer than five minutes, even at 90 degrees.

I've also lost ten pounds in the last week...which is VERY not how my surgeons expected this shit to go at this point.

Obviously no writing has been done, this is the first time I've touched a computer ever through all that.  I'll probably need a week more of rest, then we'll see where we go from there.

I was just starting to think that maybe, just maybe I could get one of these books out to you guys before December rolled around, but it would probably take a miracle at this point.  So we're looking at February at the earliest.  If I don't self combust.  Which...is probably 50/50 at this point!

Part of me wants to change things up and switch over to the Vicky novel and put some time into that, readthrough, fix some problems, and reenter into the world of elemental politics, pretty dresses, and art collections.  But I also might just type the 69 (nice!) pages I have into the computer and keep going with THE BEST STUDENT ADVISOR EVER.  None of them have died yet, have they?!?!  Sure, one of them is raising up animals from the dead as pets, but you try to stop her!

Not necessarily boxing myself in to whatever you lot say, but...any desire on which you'd rather read first, Vicky Present Time Line One Month Before FM7 or Last School Story MEGA EDITION?

Anyway...I'm going back to napping...

And maybe I'll have some sugar free popsicles...