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!
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.
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.
And since we covered the downs a minute ago, here's what's up in
Château Innsmouth. Work is going good, busy but good. I'm actually
working tonight, prepatch work on our Windows servers before the Corporate
Windows group does the actual updates. Unlike last time, I'm probably not
staying up to 3am just in case. It's just easier for me to get up early
tomorrow and check things. I've also gotten most of my usual chores done.
I'm reading a bunch of good books, 'Bond: Unknown' probably the purest form
of Spies vs Shoggoths. A history of Pyrrhus of Epirus (where we get the
term Pyrrhic victory, among other books. I've been bouncing between
subjects, a small lack of focus. So many books, so little time.
(Time passes...)
Chores are done, well done for today. Need to go to the store tomorrow,
and I need to put up the dishes once they dry out. Went to pick up some
dinner, came home, snagged a quick shower and going for classic Vincent
Price movie, since my other picks today were less than spectacular.
But I can always count on Vincent Price, especially in period horror flicks.
Windows snapshots are being taken. Not sure what I'm going to do when it's
done, and 'Tomb of Ligera' is done. Maybe another classic horror flick, or
hide in one of my books. I don't know. Probably go for the movie. Well
a movie.
Not much in the way of plans for upcoming stuff. Friend's spawning day
party next weekend, but that's about it. Next year I'm hoping to make
some changes. A trip or two, probably moving out of Château Innsmouth 1.0
to a bit bigger (and better laid out) apartment. Been snagging pictures
of ideas, floorplans and study/library shots. Of course, to be honest, I
just need a place for a bed, a closet for clothes, kitchen, bathroom, etc
and a desk for the shoggoth wrangling, the rest will probably be bookshelves.
That's my style, Late Biblomaniac.
And on that note, I'm running out of words. So I'll catch you next time.
*waves a tentacle*
Well this week was a lot more ups and downs. Lets get the downs out of
the way. It's official, I'm not doing the magnetic treatment, seems that
'we figured out the insurance problem' actually meant 'oh what the hell,
lets try again.' How am I doing about that? Resigned. I intentionally
kept my hope to a minimum. Pshrink visit went ok, all things considered
I'm handling things alright, so same meds, come back after the holiday
season, unless stuff changes. Which given the silly season is their
busiest time. I also had a case of unexpected sadness earlier this week.
Got a wild hair to look up where my uncle's name was from, and I found
his obituary from 2011. I knew he'd passed, I thought I'd mourned when it
happened. But seeing his face and hearing about the good he did in his
community, well I started crying. And the next day I wrote something
about it on Facebook, and the tears started up again. Guess between losing
my friend's dad, and seeing my uncle well, opened up the waterworks.
Otherwise it's been anxiety and feeling down a good chunk of the time.
I'm rather down right now. News, worries about people I care about, and
my anxiety spiking up randomly. I was going to try to work on cleaning
up some of the clutter in the the areas that are out of sight...but I
don't have the tentacles for it, so I'll do it another weekend.
Not been a good fortnight and change. We lost a friend of mine's father
last week, and it's been hard. Not just seeing someone I care about hurting,
but I had my own relationship with him. And I really haven't had much
time to sit and process. I also have a feeling the TMS treatment is back
off the table, as all I've heard from my insurance was 'denial, review,
silence' and from the provider 'silence'. I have another pshrink visit
on Wednesday, which means it's been a month since this got put back on the
table. At least I'm not also trying to go off seroquel as well at the
same time. Allergies still suck. Not much to say about that though, Texas
is hell, and we're coming up on cedar fever season.
There are positives in life. Work has been busy, between database issues,
patching, and schedules with my fellow admins. Averaging about 10 hour
days, but that's ok. I've worked harder for people I like less. My boss
is talking about sending me off for database training (probably virtually),
in part due to the issues we had. Which, given my general lack of knowledge
about databases would be good. Books are still my friends, even if my
ability to focus is all over the place. I've started a bunch of books,
but only finished a few, mostly those of favorite authors. On the movie
front, I did go see the latest 'Thor' this last weekend. It's a very
funny movie, the kind I wish more comic book movies would be like.
(that being said, 'Black Panther' doesn't look to have a bunch of comedy,
but boy does it look awesome).
No big plans coming up. Mostly I just want to take care of myself and my
friend, and see what comes up after the New Year. And on that note, I'm
going to call this a post. Catch you all later.
Well it's the weekend again, so it means I should throw some words on virtual
paper. Get the brainmeats out of the way quick, being back on seroquel
means I'm sleeping more/better, but my anxiety is still way out there.
(not expecting immediate fix, I know better). Depression lurks in a ninja
kind of way, I see good things, I feel good things, but it leaps out every
now and again in a nihilistic kind of way that reminds me that I'm still rather
broken. But I've been broken before, and I've put myself together,
repeatedly. I am a New Yorker after all, we're survivors.
So enough strum und drang. What is best in life Vulpine? Well, I'm not
Conan, so lets start with books. Been reading a bunch of old school Mythos
still. Got a pile of other stuff to read, but other than a little history
it's all tentaclular horrors. Listened/ing to a few books by Charlie
Stross to get in the mood for his latest Laundry File book next month.
Not the whole series, just enough to get back in the series. So many books,
so little time.
Went to see 'The Mummy' today. A solid bit of cheese, with a side of ham
from Russell Crowe. Yes it could have been much better, but it still was
fun and Sofia Boutella was a nice mix of creepy, evil, and lovely. Plus,
she was literally covered in hieratic script, so a walking book. Sign me
up for the cult please. *grin* Also, for any Lovecraftians who've seen it, did anyone look at the red jewel McGuffin and think 'Shining Trapezohedron' ? Or was that just me trying to make everything into a Mythos reference
What will I do tomorrow? Probably just chores and stuff. Been meaning to
clean up the bedroom for months now, may just pop an audiobook or podcast
in and spend a while in there trying to get things organized. This is
alongside a store run, laundry and similar stuff, so I may set reasonable
goals instead. Assuming I don't just hide in bed with a book, or within
a movie marathon of cheese and gore. We'll see. For now though, going to
call this a post before it's technically Sunday. Laters cultists.
