Well, it's official. I'll be going to Providence for StokerCon this year. Actually decided to spend an entire week up there, (stoker runs from Thurs-Sunday) so I can have a few days to wander Grandpa Theobald's stomping grounds. Not staying at the 'con hotel, but I'm just a couple of blocks away at The Dean, which is where I planned to stay last time. Yay for vacation plans!
I'm also thinking I may consolidate, edit and post my more common Facebook ramblings into a daily post. Then hopefully I can turn my weekly post into
something more interesting, if to no one else...me. It's easier for me to do daily rambles there. We'll see.
Well it's the new year. First week of the new year has been kind of nuts.
New Years Day was friend time and book hunting. Have had a lot of trouble
getting up in the mornings to go to work. But each day was a little easier.
Work itself has been a kind of mixed bag, spent most of Friday troubleshooting
a Linux issue with one of the other groups at Carcosa Corp. Lots of 'why
do you do $x, and $y and...huh that's odd'. Think I figured out the issue
for the client, but waiting on their testing which isn't quick.
WEekend has pretty much just been movies, books and sleep. Got the chores
done too, well most of them. Need to put together stuff for the work week,
have to deal with my car's registration, and I should probably pack up
the work laptop...because given how fuzzy I am on Monday mornings, I probably
would show up sans laptop. Work week will be busy, first patches of the
new year...and boy do I have some big things to deal with. (see computer
news in the last week for details). No plans for next weekend as of yet,
probably will need some more hermit time post patching/general work week.
But I also want to see people, possibly people with cats. I miss cats.
Forgot I'd planned on work foo tonight. Got reminded a while ago when one
of the tester's pinged me about it. The brain needs an upgrade, or I need
a keeper. I'm going to go ahead and finish this post, since I've been
working on it since Saturday.
Don't really have an end of year post, nor a post about the plans for the
future. I don't have the cope to go through all the things of the last
year, and I don't want to put plans down on virtual paper for the future,
if 2017 taught me anything, is no plan survives contact with the Cosmic
Void.
As for this New Years Eve, my original plans for movie, dinner, and a
party/show in Fort Worth. But given that Ithaqua had a flying visit in,
and the roads are being closed due to the lousy weather, the plans were
changed to hiding at home. Given how I deal with social anxiety, this is
probably for the best. Plus I rather ring in the new year with horror
movies, snacks and reading.
So here's to the end of 2017, and to the beginning of 2018. May Cthulhu
rise from his depths, may Yog-Sothoth open the gates, and may Scarlett
Johansson finally get a Black Widow movie. Iä! Iä! and all that jazz!
And all through the Château Innsmouth, the shoggoths were stirring, mostly
because Vulpine is having a day. No, I'm not turning this into a prose
poem. Just feel like talking about the holidays.
They used to be a big thing for me, as a kid/teen. So many memories of
putting up the tree with Mom and Dad, laughing at silly stuff and stories,
just good stuff. As a teen ager, I started renting REALLY bad movies for Xmas eve as the folks went to bed, starting with 'Rabid Grannies'. It wasn't a
Norman Rockwell holiday, but it fit us just fine.
Then Dad died, and the first Christmas after that really
kind of made me wish to never here another jingle bell again. The family
tradition boiled down to taking Mom out for Xmas eve, or her cooking something.
Telling stories, and giving each other presents. Very little 'holiday' in it.
Then I met Amythest, a true Christmas Pixie. When we were together, I
tried to de-scrooge at least on the outside. Things got easier after we split
up, but became friends again. We had our own traditions, including both of
us going to visit my Mom, which Mom always liked.
I tried turning the holiday on it's head a little, created my version of
Cthulhumas. Cthulhumas Ctharols from the HPLHS, weird cards, reading
'The Festival', finding horror movies either about the holidays, or more
enjoyable for me, movies that have weird relations to the holidays. 'Haunting
of Hell House' or 'The Amityville Horror', 0 festiveness, 100% happening
around the holidays. I'd help Amythest and Nymaz put up a tree, and do
outside decorations (something I swore as a kid I'd never do). New
traditions, friends, and that sad core in me got smaller...
Then Mom died. And since then the Cthulhumas game isn't as fun, in fact
I haven't listened to Cthulhumas Carols this year at all. I've narrowed
down my 'holiday' to a few hours with Amythest and Nymaz when they get
back in town. And honestly, I'm just hoping I don't have a complete crash
tonight. Plans for tomorrow is full on hermiting, probably in a book or 3.
Then it's back to work when I have a moderately sized pile of stuff to knock
out. So...wish me luck on surviving tonight and tomorrow. And maybe finding
a smidge of that old Cthulhumas spirit.
Another long week. Jury duty last Monday. Would have been a hell of a case,
in a bad way. Luckily for my sanity, the defendant agreed to a plea bargain
and we all go to home. The rest of the week has been work foo, I'm really
learning to loathe Sybase. Still do like my job, mostly because of the
people I work with. Had the company holiday party on Thursday, was fun
until my social anxiety went to 11. Yesterday (Friday) was pretty lousy
as well. Stressors from work, friend issues, a whole bunch of wishing this
year was done. That's kind of a theme lately.
Today, I woke up and decided that I needed a self spoiling day. Went and
got gas, and went on a tour of Half Price Bookstores in the area. Kind of
over did it, but I got some really cool books for the library. Mythos
stuff, some esoterica and a book about the
Beast of Gévaudan;, which was the inspiration for the movie 'Brotherhood
of the Wolf'. Also a few movies. While driving around I went by King Tut's
again for comfort lamb. Also drove up for critter care while some friends are
on vacation. One kitty hid from me, the other saw the sucker sign and came
up for pets. Came home, finished up season two of 'The Exorcist' and watched
a couple of flicks. Then, as I was starting to ponder book time...work
screams. Fecking databases. Hoping we cleared it up right now...that seems
to be a no. *sigh* Ok, going to wrap up this post because I'm out of
tentacles. Ciao.
Went to see 'The Shape of Water' today with Nymaz. Been looking forward to
seeing this since it was announced. It was an amazing film. Like his
'Crimson Peak', which was a mystery that happened to have ghosts in it,
this was a love story that happened to have a fish person in it. The
only monsters in it were people. The two most emotive characters don't
speak verbally, there's sign language, but as much of the dialog was in
body posture, head tilts, stuff like that. There's even a couple of musical
numbers, one of which was probably my favorite scene in the movie. The bad
guy isn't a cartoon villain, there's a logic to his actions and he's
obviously a product of his career. Everything meshes and it plays out
near perfect. Well, bad things happen to a cat, which I could have passed on.
But it is understandable in context. And yes, there is fishperson sex. And
weird straight people sex, and lonely person sex. Might not be to your
tastes, but I don't think it's that big a deal. Also, keep your eyes
out for little easter eggs and references. Oh yeah, I wouldn't call it
Lovecraftian, definitely weird though. Long story short, if you like del
Toro, and want a movie with a very positive message about like and love and
being 'human', go see it. 5 out of 5 flared gill slits.
This has been the weekend of electronics being a pain in the ass. Come
home Thursday night, and my media PC is acting wonky. Can't reach the
media drive via NFS. Verified the drive is readable, and NFS is running
on Dagon. So I assume something got stuck, NFS is annoying that way, and
reboot. Come up with a failed OS drive. Well, damn. Ok, I'd planned to
swap it out with Shoggoth, my local network server that doesn't do much.
Ok, so I spend my Friday off getting things moved around and hooked up.
To find out sound doesn't work. Googling got me either 'use a USB sound card'
or 'Sound works fine'. So I go and order a USB sound card that supports
Linux with 1 day delivery. Which gets delayed Saturday, so...no media
PC. I've watched a bunch of movies on my multi-region bluray player (which
I had a frustrating time getting to change region til I remembered the
remote control pattern).
I also planned to listen to audiobooks. My normal way to listen is on
The Shining Trapezohedron (my phone), using a bluetooth speaker. So of
course, what starts having issues ? Yep, the speaker is in flake mode.
I verified it wasn't the phone using my bluetooth headset. *grumbles*
Again, I have a work around (Audible's website), but it's bloody annoying.
I like the bluetooth speaker, because I can wander around the apartment with
it while doing chores. Feh.
Also, besides Amazon shipping fail, the post office has delayed two other
packages due in Saturday. *sigh* But at least they managed to deliver a
book of books from a Kickstarter I funded. Yay new book smell.
Otherwise, it's been a pretty lousy weekend. Not dreaming well, stressed
and anxious. The holiday foo is getting to me pretty darn hard. Just
have to get through the next 4 weeks. Hoping to have a better 2018. I
can dream, after all.
Yes, two posts in one week. Don't panic, everything is under control.
It's been a pretty shitty week, and today followed the trend. But rather
than vent about today, I want to talk about various good things I didn't
think to post last time.
I managed to pay off my car a couple of months early. Yay new year and
new budget.
I've gone almost 2 weeks without sugar in Château Innsmouth. No soda,
no candy, no cookies. I'm a horrible snacker, so why keep temptation in
the house? I've had a couple of sugar drinks while out and about, but it's
hard to say no to cherry limeades.
I received a metric oodle of ebooks from a Kickstarter I backed, the
dead tree editions will be here soon. So much Mythos.
Paul Naschy Fest is chugging along, on film 8 of 10. I'm really enjoying
these, high quality transfers, cheesy horror, and lots of fun
2 new Dark Adventure Radio episodes in hand. 'Rats in the Walls' and
'Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar'.
Also have an audiobook edition of my favorite S.M. Stirling novel,
'The Peshawar Lancers'.
I've joined the 21st century, and did my first online grocery order.
Worked out perfectly, but some of the items from Amazon are so/so in
quality. Not sure I'll keep using it or not though. Also going to try
ordering groceries for curb pickup, see how that works.
It's the weekend, 2 days away from the databases from heck
So that's 8 good things. Nice change from complaining about my mood. With
that I'm going to call this a post. Night all.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US. But I can't say the last week and
a half has made me terribly grateful. Carcosa Corp had a reduction in
force. My manager and his manager are gone, and much worse, one of my best
friends (and coworker) also got cut. There's also a major reorg in the works.
But not much in the way of details, other than I still have a spot on the
org chart for next year. To say I'm unhappy is a major understatement.
People got decent severance packages from what I heard, and I don't see
any of the people I know being out of work long. But I've got a case of
survivor's guilt, plus not knowing what I'll be really doing in 2 months,
plus trying to keep up with everything going on, and I'm a bundle of nerves.
Spent most of this week dealing with Sybase database issues that I really
don't know, though I'm learning a bunch on the fly. Working on Black
Friday, where I'll be doing a crash course in database migration.
On top of that, I've been feeling lousy, not so much allergies as I think
my BP meds are starting to have less affect on me. I'm going to the doctor
next week for a med check/blood work. So I'll ask about things. My BP
cuff says I'm about the same as always, but for all I know I'm using it wrong.
Pshrink visit showed my bp as higher than usual. Speaking of physical foo,
I sat wrong on my chair, and it slid out from under me and I hit the floor.
No damage. other than it ratcheted my anxiety up (and gave my elbow a good
whack). Depression is way up there too, I really need to stop looking at
the news.
So, that's all the bad...or at least all the bad I can stomach writing about
right now. So what's good? Well I invested in some blurays, 2 collections
of Paul Naschy flicks (king of Spanish horror films). Most of which I've never seen, so
I'm currently having a binge of his flicks. Definitely better than watching
Sybase databases. Also lots of good books out, including a few signed books
*waves at Pete Rawlik and Sam Gafford*. My friends, as always, are awesome,
and I've gotten a lot of critter time recently. And I'm at least having
less anxiety dreams. Oh yeah, and in joining the 21st century, I had my
first grocery delivery. Not sure if I'll do this on a regular basis, there's
a lack of some of my staples. But compared to going to the store 2 days
before turkey day, it was amazing.
Long weekend plans? Tomorrow is sleeping in, then afternoon meal with
Amythest and clan, staying as long as my cope lasts. Friday is another
day at the office, with the above mentioned database migrations. Friday night
will probably be more Naschy flicks. Saturday is the annual Soup and Movie
fest, also at Amythest's place. Sunday will be chores and recovery and trying
to find the tentacles to deal with the upcoming work week. Since I'm working
on Black Friday, I'm off work the next Friday. Probably will be mostly a
down weekend, vegging and such.
So that's the state of the fox. Feeling a little better getting some stuff
down on virtual paper. Going to watch some more Eurohorror then head to
bed. Night everyone.
Rough week. I haven't slept a solid, or even semi-solid night since the
weekend. Patching prod Tuesday generated 2 overnight calls, and a similar
issue got me called on Wednesday/Thursday night. Last night I didn't get
called, however I woke up anyway at 3am. Tried to go back to sleep and
failed. Got up around 5am, futzed around, then got a little more sleep.
Then I got up, got ready for work, got to work...found out I'd left my badge
at home. Without my badge it's kind of difficult to get around Carcosa Corp,
so after I drove home to get it, I said screw it and worked from home.
Last night was rough. Finishing up the non-customer facing production
servers. And I had more problems with the last 4 servers than the almost
100 other servers. I ended up arguing with Nagios because the new version
added weird example templates, creating phantom hosts that obviously were
offline. Our cacti install just broke utterly, new version will not work
with the old database. And since I didn't want to spend half the night
fixing mysql issues, I rolled back to the snapshot I made before patching.
(I had a bad feeling, and oh I am so glad I listened to it). *shakes
head*
I'm really exhausted right now. I took a nap after I logged out of work,
well mostly I just lay there and listening to the white noise generator (beach
sounds). Got up again, listening to The Black Stone right now, but I'll be going
back to bed soon. This weekend is a social get together tomorrow, and
Sunday is probably going to see 'Murder on the Orient Express'. Plus the
chores and stuff. Oh, in book news, I picked up something special. Many
years ago, my uterine sibling was given a copy of 'The Collected works of
Edgar Allan Poe' by a teacher. It was this epic gothic looking book, printed
in the mid 20's. It really does look like something you'd read aloud from
to summon 'something'. I 'borrowed' it for years, was how I got into Poe,
right before I discovered Lovecraft. I eventually gave it back but I always
remembered how cool it was. A few weeks ago, I decided to go hunting.
All I remembered was the cover, and the approximate time it was published.
After a few google searches I had the publisher, and looking on Amazon I
found a copy for $20. Needless to say, I bought it. It came in today.
And it's in amazing shape for a 90 year old book. Spine is pretty tight,
no loose pages, a little browning, but all in all it's just about perfect.
So it's sitting with some other treasured books of mine on my desk, next
to my epic fancy editions of HPL, and other weirdness.
So that's this week in Vulpineland. Now, I'm going to fiddle around with
some things, and probably make it an early night. Ciao.
