Clever Manka is dressed and undressed

As asya_aya said on Twitter, "Harper's Bazzar ships it."

Now that the conference is over, mckitterick has time for tourism before he teaches his writing workshops. He sends me photos to post on FB, which...it's fine. It's fine. It's a good thing I'm not a jealous person. NGL, tho, it does sting that I had to install Chinese spyware WeChat on my phone so we could communicate (he got a burner phone for travel but noooooooooo I had to install this shit on my beloved Galaxy 6). Petty insult to minor injury is having to post the photos to FB so his friends can follow his exploits. But it's fine, it's fine. Whatever. He said he found something for me that he's pretty sure I'll like, but I know Bai Yu is in Germany so it's not that.

Went to the gym yesterday and rolled out for a long time when I got home. Wow my hips are tight and my quads are a mess of knots. I'm weak enough that holding part of my weight off the foam roller serves as upper body workout. I might've pushed too much, tho, because about an hour after my shower I was so tired I couldn't even make it up the stairs to my bedroom and had to take a nap on the couch. No gym today. I have a fitness goal now, which is helping my motivation--perhaps helping too much, judging by yesterday's overdoing it. But! it'll get me off the couch today for some yoga strengthening poses at least.

Finished The Untamed last night. I enjoyed the show but didn't emotionally attach to it like I did Guardian. If mckitterick wants to see it I'll re-watch with him because if he needed help with names and explanations for Guardian, whooo buddy The Untamed is gonna be a zillion times worse. I might become more invested on a second watch, but I don't think I'll be reading fic for it. I will watch the follow-up movies, though, if I can. I was thrilled that my favorite secondary character survived to the end! Not saying who it was because spoilers, but if you're interested, shoot me a message. I fell for him in the first five seconds of his screen time and spent the remaining episodes waiting for him to die and when he didn't, it was a lovely surprise. TBH, I expected a much higher body count of named characters by the time the credits rolled.

They went all in on making the final villain as bad as possible, didn't they? I actually paused it and said aloud the words "is this really happening?" because...jeeeeeezus (for the record, it was just me and the cat at home). IDK if Chinese productions work like western shows, but can you imagine the table read for that reveal? o_O Wow.

This is the last Friday of September and I am not okay with that. I am not ready for winter, or the 2020 U.S. election season. /o\

Spent some time this morning clearing out space under the downstairs bathroom counter for the litterbox that's gotta go there because I agreed to foster my beloved SDCC travel partner Robin's kitty until she finds a permanent home. ughhhhh Only for Robin let me tell you.

First couple's counseling session (on Tuesday) went well. Second appointment is 10/8.

I've made it to the gym every other day for two weeks! Only felt crappy afterward one day, and I'm pretty sure that was because I didn't get enough sleep and shouldn't have gone. So next week I start going every day (unless it's a day I didn't get at least six hours of sleep). Huzzah for my teeny little baby steps of intentional movement.

Listened to this song pretty much on loop yesterday while writing most of ANGST WEEK.

The whole album (Eclipse, by Twin Shadow) has been most of my soundtrack for Ghost Story. Thanks so much to no_detective  for alerting me to his music. I told kazoogrrl that getting through ANGST WEEK (although it only wound up being about three days of story time) was the writing equivalent of watching something through one's fingers. Even I was upset with ZYL for his questionable life choices! And I wrote them! Still chugging along at ~1k/day. I could have this fic written (although not quite ready to post) by mid-November. Which would be gr8 because I'm so incredibly ready to start writing something from Shen Wei's POV again.

I have no idea what's actually supposed to be happening in this fanvid (could be seen as Weilan AU or Zhubai RPF) but I choose to see it as them being serial killers in love and I kind of love it.

My most popular post on Tumblr hit 100,000 notes at some point this week. If I'd known it would take off like that, I would've been funnier.

This morning I went on a walk! finally! and of course! the high school track at the end of my block no longer has public access. I'm not sure if this is a temporary thing (there was some construction equipment nearby) or if they're just tired of old people using it in the mornings. So I walked around the neighborhood. Didn't feel like the exercise I really wanted because the sidewalks around here are bumpy and disjointed from old tree roots but oh well. It was intentional movement! And I probably need to start slow, anyway.

I intended yesterday to be an Art Day but various obstacles presented themselves (the final defeat was a complete absence of newspapers that I use to line my workspace). With luck, the Burgomaster will remember to pick up a newspaper for me while he's running errands this morning. We'll see. I might have to just tear out pages from one of my glue magazines and tape those down instead.

Based on this highly persuasive gifset I watched the first episode of Black Mirror's new season, "Striking Vipers" and got so much more than I bargained for. I don't want to spoil it so I'll just say it's Real Good.

Speaking of convincing gifsets, Deputychairman and I agreed to watch Lucifer. Anyone here watch it?

This evening I'm hanging out with a couple grad students, one of whom graduated and is moving away and right now I'm waiting for the repair person who will, I desperately hope, be able to finally fix the god damned dryer.

On cm.net Wednesdays are (supposedly) more for updates on How We Are Dealing With Our Shit, and Fridays are an Open Thread for Shooting the Shit. Different days, different shit. Since I don't expect people here to follow me there (although I appreciate those who do both!) I'm gonna combine the general info in my comments on those posts here on Fridays. I hope it'll make me more disciplined/inclined to post Actual Content here on a regular basis. ( More under the clicky-click )

Reasons to get down. Reasons to jump around.

I'm on week four of tracking my energy levels. It's been an interesting experiment. I don't know if my increasing energy is actually increasing, or if I'm able to better notice that I have more good days (than I thought?) by recording them, or a combination, or maybe the journaling has forced me to have a better attitude, or or or ...but things have improved.



So that encouraging! I still have low days, but I'm gonna have low days and that's just life. I'm considering decreasing or ceasing my sessions and supplements from Dr. Jonah for a couple months to see how I feel. That would be a lot of money (and time). The few weeks I've taken off from driving to KC every week has, perhaps, helped my energy level increase. The hormonal supplements from Dr. Khosh will remain very much in my daily use, though. I've seen what happens when I go off those and it's not fun.

I leave for Indianapolis tonight to visit the folks for a few days, so I won't be around much until Sunday. Ciao, bellas.

Your brain needs exercise, too.

Saw American Ultra yesterday. I liked it a lot. Seriously considering catching another showing tonight because 1) there were some things early in the film I'd like to see again, knowing about what happens later in the movie and 2) apparently it did poorly and I'd like to give it some more money even though it doesn't actually matter at this point.

Slept for crap last night and am exhausted today. That'll probably be what keeps me from trying to make the 7:45 show tonight.

You Don't Need Fancy Stuff to exercise. Look how graceful this dude is! Also, that just looks fun.

Looking for a good article on cultural appropriation? Look no further.

Today's Tumblr is Tuesday, August 11: Red.

Today's Tumblr is Tuesday, July 7: Gowns.

I know, I know, I know I link to Breaking Muscle all the time but oh my god you guys, I want to do this 90 day program so hard.

Either I misplaced my box of fandom calling cards or I gave them all away. In any case, I wanted to get more for Con*Strict. I ordered them late Friday evening and they're already done this morning. Local folks, I can't recommend Minuteman Press enough. I didn't even have to call them. You can do all your ordering online! So great, and $40 for 250 cards (full color with bleed).

I finished my badge for Con*Strict last night! It was coming together pretty well, so I decided to go ahead and make it double-sided so that when it flips over (as lanyard badges inevitably do), it'll still show the relevant information. One side is Mad Max themed and the other is Sherlock. I'll try to remember to bring it to work to scan tomorrow so I can post a picture of it.

Found on the Toast Link Roundup, here's a great Kids These Days article.

"Screen Addiction is a generational complaint, and generational complaints, taken individually, are rarely what they claim to be. They are fresh expressions of horrible and timeless anxieties. They are a tried and true form of advanced-age self-care. They apply to all children except your kids, who are mere victims of their degraded peers. They apply to the Snapchats and the sexting, but not to those Facetime conversations with your grandniece, who is too young to text and Twitter, or to turn away, and who is therefore perfect.

The grandparent who is persuaded that screens are not destroying human interaction, but are instead new tools for enabling fresh and flawed and modes of human interaction, is left facing a grimmer reality. Your grandchildren don’t look up from their phones because the experiences and friendships they enjoy there seem more interesting than what’s in front of them (you). Those experiences, from the outside, seem insultingly lame: text notifications, Emoji, selfies of other bratty little kids you’ve never met. But they’re urgent and real. What’s different is that they’re also right here, always, even when you thought you had an attentional claim."

And my favorite is the closing bit:

" A new technology can be enriching and exciting for one group of people and create alienation for another; you don’t have to think the world is doomed to recognize that the present can be a little cruel."

I don't understand why it's so difficult for parents to remove the technology when the presence of the technology is inappropriate to the situation. I understood when it was time to put down the book or the crayons or whatever. How is a tablet or phone different? That's not a rhetorical question. I honestly want to know. Is there a difference? How? Why?

I commented on The Toast that grandparents need to make themselves relevant and interesting. That's just courteous. I'm lucky. My dad's parents were fascinating people and I happily listened to their stories about throwing rocks at the National Guard when they came in to guard the scabs during a union strike. Or about how theirs was the first lunch counter in their city to seat Black people. Helping grandma in the kitchen and her telling stories about the people who bought her pies as she taught me how to make a good pie crust. I mean, I guess I didn't have the option of internet friends back then, but even today, if I had the choice to visit with them about their amazing adventures or scroll through my Tumblr dash, I probably wouldn't choose Tumblr. Old people need to get over the notion that they're deserving of time and attention just because they're old.

Tonight is my appointment with Dr. Jonah in KC. Tomorrow night is prep for Indy (making kale chips so we have a travel vegetable to go with the jerky so we don't have to stop somewhere for lunch), and also slicing up the jerky for Con*Strict (so it has four days to marinade before I put it in the dehydrator when I'm back from Indy). I'd like to make a couple more tops to take to Con*Strict. My first attempt at re-fashioning some thrift-store tees into a mini-dress was successful. I'd like to pack those instead of tops and skirts because I am all about minimal packing. Also because I need to leave enough room for my iPod speakers and yoga mat in my suitcase.

Allergies. Sigh. Once in a while I think about trying a low-histamine diet, but then I get depressed and overwhelmed because oh my god cut more things from my food options? UGH. The complete lack of results with 90 days on the auto-immune protocol diet doesn't encourage me to try another elimination diet anytime soon.

Also, this happened yesterday:


PT guy Tim gave me a fix that will alleviate a bit of the pressure on the shoulder in that pose, but it's still gonna be tender for a couple days. Typical.

For later reference: Pre-workout alignment exercises.

This evening I'm gonna break out my new serger knowledge and see if I can't re-fashion some of these thrift-store clothes that've been piling up in the sewing room. So excited! If I like the process and the results, I'm gonna open up an Etsy store for them. I did a lot of searches on Etsy and all the refashioned post-apocalyptic stuff is either costumey and so not really wearable for daily use (although gorgeous--and expensive) or just...shockingly amateur. This, for instance. Fucking brilliant idea. Terrible execution. I do like the D-ring strap shorts she's selling. But again, they don't look finished, somehow.

Speaking of finished, here's my self-insert fanart! It'll post on Tumblr tomorrow, but y'all get a sneak preview today. After looking at it for a while, I see a few places I'd like to add things. Maybe someday? But not now. Also, I need a better way to scan these babies. It's $10 a pop every time at FedEx/Kinko's and I think that's just fucking outrageous. If anyone local has access to something that will flat scan 14"x17" images, let me know.

Last night I made some food for a friend going through a rough time to save her and her husband the hassle of cooking for a few days. Caring for select individuals makes me feel good, and to be honest, cooking is probably the thing I'm best at (besides giving unflinching and often unwanted life advice). Making someone's life a little easier makes me feel necessary and appreciated, so win-win!

I have one more evening of solitude tonight while mckitterick wraps up his CSSF Summer activities. Hurray for getting one more night of puttering around the house with loud music and scented candles but also hurray for (starting tomorrow), getting laid on a regular basis again!

So despite getting not nearly enough sleep last night (ugh, 3am thunderstorms), and having a constant dull ache in my shoulder, I feel pretty good today. How's your day/weekend/life shaping up, friends?

Edited to add: HOLY SHIT MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN THE U.S.A.

Mostly for my own reference, but in case anyone else is interested, here are some combo suggestions for infused water. I've recently discovered adding fancy-ass balsamic vinegar (the good stuff, and just a smidge) to seltzer water, too. Delicious.

A friend is coming over for dinner tonight. I'm making this. Ready to eat it right now, along with some of that flavored seltzer. Summer eating, yo.

In a comment on The Toast, I wrote: "I have to wear a high-compression bra when lifting or I tend to bonk my boobs coming up on a snatch. And that might be the greatest sentence I have ever typed in my life."

I'm feeling good and it's such a nice change. Because I was pretty low all around for the first half of June, I didn't do a lot of the things I hoped while mckitterick was busy with the writing workshops. I feel like I'm ready to get back to more consistency with yoga, now. I'm also going to start incorporating more isometric movements because Coach Andrew tells me this sort of thing can also keep one's metabolism charged for longer. Energy allowing, I'm going to start working on some art projects--including a Furiosa altered portrait.

Speaking of, I might be taking Coach Andrew to Fury Road this weekend if he can get away from responsibilities at his gym for a few hours. Also speaking of, this article is flat amazing. It does bring up the "this isn't feminist" argument a bit, which...whatever, we can agree to disagree on that opinion. But the main point of it is incredibly valuable.

I never doubted being a girl, but I thought I was missing the mark, because I thought there was a mark to miss. But there are so, so many more ways of being a woman than I realized, so many more ways than I saw reflected in the stories that spoke to me. As it turned out, one of them was mine, and I was doing it exactly right.