I don't know how long it's been...
Oct. 21st, 2020 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serene...since I did one of these Wednesday things. Hmm, let's see. Disclaimer: I have the attention span of a gnat lately, so anything I'm not super into may just be a function of my brain and not a statement on its quality.
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, by Ursula K. Le Guin. I am enjoying some of the geeking around the language we use for social concepts, and the mechanics of those, but the rest I find a bit sluggish and hard to follow. Example: I have trouble knowing which planet we're currently on, until she describes the landscape.
Daily poems from Rattle and the Paris Review, both of which are really reliable in picking poems I like. A couple recent faves:
“Penda and the Burning Bush Responds to a Nigga Who Says He Don’t Give Head:” by Penda Smith
“To Be Read in the American Mood” by Michael Martella
I took Thursday and Friday off from work last week and went to a four-day writing conference online over the weekend. It was put on by a local writing organization that I've belonged to before, but I never made it to any of their meetings because I'm a total hermit. I wore myself out socially with up to 9 hours a day of writing classes/workshops, but I got some really good writing done, got a huge egoboo when my writing was well received, and jump-started my daily writing practice. Since mom died, I have literally hours of unclaimed time just lying around that I used to spend with her, so this feels like something I can do to fill that time that will matter to me, keep me emotionally grounded, and maybe start me making money with writing again.
On the subject of money, I got $0.04 from Kindle for this year's royalties on my Kindle chapbook, which I find hilarious. Last year it was like $0.53 or something. Too funny.
Projects I'm currently working on include poetry for submission, a YA space adventure that was an old NaNo project, and a murder mystery that mom helped me conceive of. The teacher of the memoir class on Sunday really really wants me to consider a book-length memoir. We'll see.
Finally ran out of steam on Two Dots after years of enjoying playing it. Lately it's Lily's Garden. I did maybe 3,200 levels before a glitch made me have to reinstall the game, and I'm enjoying playing it from the beginning as much as I was enjoying later stages. I don't really care about how far I've progressed; I just like the gentle gameplay and mild puzzle/strategy practice, along with the pretty graphics, which aren't an important thing for me in choosing a game, but which don't hurt.
We had Google Play Music, which has now turned into YouTube Music. It has different ways of delivering my music to me, but I haven't noticed a big change.
Some new-to-me artists I'm enjoying are Jake Isaac, Ashley McBryde, Miranda Lambert, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires.
I'm enjoying Mary Chapin Carpenter's and Joan Baez's YouTube quartantine song projects, and I'm interested in knowing about more artists who are producing YouTube songs for these times.
Have watched a couple episodes of "Fleabag." Not sure if I'll continue. In general, the "lovable asshole" trope pisses me off. I HATED "House," for instance, and barely hung on with "Doc Martin" because it had great side characters. I need someone to root for, though, at least in escapist fiction, so even though I think the writing and acting are very good, I may not make it with this one.
James and I are watching lots of old TV and movies, because that's his comfort zone and I just don't care much what we watch together, since it's more about hanging out with his head on my lap than about whatever we're watching. Lately, Munsters and old horror movies (including our weekly Svengoolie date), Columbo, the Addams Family movies. We also watch tons of cooking competitions, but only if they're not mean-spirited. The ones we have done recently include the weekly new episodes of GBBO and a season of Sugar Rush Christmas.
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, by Ursula K. Le Guin. I am enjoying some of the geeking around the language we use for social concepts, and the mechanics of those, but the rest I find a bit sluggish and hard to follow. Example: I have trouble knowing which planet we're currently on, until she describes the landscape.
Daily poems from Rattle and the Paris Review, both of which are really reliable in picking poems I like. A couple recent faves:
“Penda and the Burning Bush Responds to a Nigga Who Says He Don’t Give Head:” by Penda Smith
“To Be Read in the American Mood” by Michael Martella
I took Thursday and Friday off from work last week and went to a four-day writing conference online over the weekend. It was put on by a local writing organization that I've belonged to before, but I never made it to any of their meetings because I'm a total hermit. I wore myself out socially with up to 9 hours a day of writing classes/workshops, but I got some really good writing done, got a huge egoboo when my writing was well received, and jump-started my daily writing practice. Since mom died, I have literally hours of unclaimed time just lying around that I used to spend with her, so this feels like something I can do to fill that time that will matter to me, keep me emotionally grounded, and maybe start me making money with writing again.
On the subject of money, I got $0.04 from Kindle for this year's royalties on my Kindle chapbook, which I find hilarious. Last year it was like $0.53 or something. Too funny.
Projects I'm currently working on include poetry for submission, a YA space adventure that was an old NaNo project, and a murder mystery that mom helped me conceive of. The teacher of the memoir class on Sunday really really wants me to consider a book-length memoir. We'll see.
Finally ran out of steam on Two Dots after years of enjoying playing it. Lately it's Lily's Garden. I did maybe 3,200 levels before a glitch made me have to reinstall the game, and I'm enjoying playing it from the beginning as much as I was enjoying later stages. I don't really care about how far I've progressed; I just like the gentle gameplay and mild puzzle/strategy practice, along with the pretty graphics, which aren't an important thing for me in choosing a game, but which don't hurt.
We had Google Play Music, which has now turned into YouTube Music. It has different ways of delivering my music to me, but I haven't noticed a big change.
Some new-to-me artists I'm enjoying are Jake Isaac, Ashley McBryde, Miranda Lambert, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires.
I'm enjoying Mary Chapin Carpenter's and Joan Baez's YouTube quartantine song projects, and I'm interested in knowing about more artists who are producing YouTube songs for these times.
Have watched a couple episodes of "Fleabag." Not sure if I'll continue. In general, the "lovable asshole" trope pisses me off. I HATED "House," for instance, and barely hung on with "Doc Martin" because it had great side characters. I need someone to root for, though, at least in escapist fiction, so even though I think the writing and acting are very good, I may not make it with this one.
James and I are watching lots of old TV and movies, because that's his comfort zone and I just don't care much what we watch together, since it's more about hanging out with his head on my lap than about whatever we're watching. Lately, Munsters and old horror movies (including our weekly Svengoolie date), Columbo, the Addams Family movies. We also watch tons of cooking competitions, but only if they're not mean-spirited. The ones we have done recently include the weekly new episodes of GBBO and a season of Sugar Rush Christmas.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-21 09:54 pm (UTC)Do you like "broken asshole working on fixing themselves and solving other people's problems"? I just started "In The Dark", which is a blind woman trying to solve her best friend's murder, dealing with family issues, dealing with ptsd, and there is Stumptown, which is (super hot) vet with ptsd sleeps with everyone (she's bi!) in portland, becomes a pi, is in love with two people so far. So, I mean, I'm not positive I'd invite either to my parties, but I would go out for coffee and listen to either of them talk. (House I'd just sleep with and be deeply deeply embarassed and not tell anyone.)
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Date: 2020-10-22 12:52 am (UTC)James's reaction, word for word: "oh man, it's like someone hired you as a consultant to make a show i wouldn't watch on a bet" :-)
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Date: 2020-10-22 03:40 am (UTC)Colombo .is so comforting.
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Date: 2020-10-22 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-22 06:34 pm (UTC)1) thanks for the poem by Penda Smith, it's unfortunately relatable.
2) I've found several songs on current events:
Here's a clever one WITH FOOTNOTES "they don't want you to vote"
https://labelleizzy.tumblr.com/post/632613588918468608/it-has-a-reference-tile-titled-youre-damned
STFU and put on your mask is, as the kids say nowadays, a bop
https://youtu.be/r-P9lJQspq8
And my favorite melancholy coronavirus lullaby:
https://youtu.be/r-P9lJQspq8
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Date: 2020-10-22 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-22 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-22 07:20 pm (UTC)