1 year ago yesterday I got the keys to the new place at Dunwich Abbey. Boy it
has been a heck of a year. Not going to try to recap, too much. So here's
the status, signed a new lease on the place that kicks in Feb 1. I'm
definitely _not_ done with unpacking, or organizing. I can't say I'll be
in better straits this year, though I hope to be. Need more bookshelves. If
I was a smart cultist, I'd spend this long weekend organizing, but instead
I'll be cleaning most of it (was down with a sinus infection most of the
week and things got a little...crazy). But even with the disorganization,
definitely love this place a lot more than I ever did with Château Innsmouth.
I outgrew there years ago, but fear and funds kept me from moving. Here's
to more years of coolness.
Tag Archives: Dunwich Abbey
7 months at Dunwich Abbey: A State of the Fox post
Ugg, I've been productive today, and now I'm having what's becoming a Tsathoggua Tsathurday tradition, slowly building anxiety and an inability to focus on anything"fun". But, at least I've noticed it, so maybe I can get it under control.
Oh, for the curious, I managed to get the books I keep on my desk reorganized, using a "spice rack" shelving unit to add more room, looks a little weird, but it works. I also finally got the printer I bought months ago setup, plugged in, and configured. Lexmark color laser thingie. (People who know me know I dislike working with printers because they are...quirky, especially with linux). Simple config, seems to just work. Oh, and got packages, spicy Latin phrases, pins from a Kickstarter I'd forgotten about, and the bi-yearly journal foo from the Friends of Arthur Machen. (aka amazing levels of book nerdery).
As the subject says, today is 7 months since I moved in, and it's a little past 5 months since I basically went para-hermit. My plans for this place have slowed glacially, but bit by bit things are coming together. The library is just about setup, though nothing is terribly organized. But that will probably take forever, given how easily it is for me to slip into vapor lock right now.
Which will be my segue into the brainmeats. Not much has changed, Same executive dysfunction, distraction, doomscrolling news/social media. But I might be seeing an uptick. I've actually gotten some reading done lately, gotten back into DuoLingo: Latin edition, and even worked on some non work computer geek stuff. I still get the sads at the drop of a hat, and anxiety is everywhere. But I have meds, I'm putting various coping skills to use. One day at a time, one tentacle in front of another.
Other than that...oh yeah, any travel plans I had for this year are gone. The one last thing I wanted to travel for was the HPLFF in Portland. But the folks that run it made the logical/common sense call to make it all online, both festivals. So next weekend is a short fest, to replace the one that would be playing in Providence, and first weekend of October will be the big festival. I'm sad I don't get to be with my fellow Lovecraftians in person, which honestly is the best part of the 'fest. But I'll get my movie fixes, and hopefully we can use technology to get some socializing at a distance done. I'm also taking an little extra PTO for both, so I can be extra chill.
Ok, I got distracted from this post...so I'll go ahead and call it a post. And yeah, I know...two posts in one day. Don't get too excited.
Oh, for the curious, I managed to get the books I keep on my desk reorganized, using a "spice rack" shelving unit to add more room, looks a little weird, but it works. I also finally got the printer I bought months ago setup, plugged in, and configured. Lexmark color laser thingie. (People who know me know I dislike working with printers because they are...quirky, especially with linux). Simple config, seems to just work. Oh, and got packages, spicy Latin phrases, pins from a Kickstarter I'd forgotten about, and the bi-yearly journal foo from the Friends of Arthur Machen. (aka amazing levels of book nerdery).
As the subject says, today is 7 months since I moved in, and it's a little past 5 months since I basically went para-hermit. My plans for this place have slowed glacially, but bit by bit things are coming together. The library is just about setup, though nothing is terribly organized. But that will probably take forever, given how easily it is for me to slip into vapor lock right now.
Which will be my segue into the brainmeats. Not much has changed, Same executive dysfunction, distraction, doomscrolling news/social media. But I might be seeing an uptick. I've actually gotten some reading done lately, gotten back into DuoLingo: Latin edition, and even worked on some non work computer geek stuff. I still get the sads at the drop of a hat, and anxiety is everywhere. But I have meds, I'm putting various coping skills to use. One day at a time, one tentacle in front of another.
Other than that...oh yeah, any travel plans I had for this year are gone. The one last thing I wanted to travel for was the HPLFF in Portland. But the folks that run it made the logical/common sense call to make it all online, both festivals. So next weekend is a short fest, to replace the one that would be playing in Providence, and first weekend of October will be the big festival. I'm sad I don't get to be with my fellow Lovecraftians in person, which honestly is the best part of the 'fest. But I'll get my movie fixes, and hopefully we can use technology to get some socializing at a distance done. I'm also taking an little extra PTO for both, so I can be extra chill.
Ok, I got distracted from this post...so I'll go ahead and call it a post. And yeah, I know...two posts in one day. Don't get too excited.
5 months at Dunwich Abbey: A State of the Fox post
Today marks 5 months living in the new place. And we just clocked over
3 months in "social isolation". I haven't done much with the place. I more
or less vapor locked for a couple of months with making any kind of move
in progress. But the last few weekends I've managed some progress. Most of
the books are on shelves, and organized by subject/genre. Yes, the
Cthulhu Mythos/weird fic takes up the most room still, history is crammed into
1.5 shelves, with about the same for esoterica, and some other random subjects
shelved. Things like generic horror, sci-fi, and historical fiction are all
still boxed up, due to a lack of shelf space, and a lack of minions to
help me assemble replacement and upgrade shelves. Last post I talked about
a reorg, but after some fan rearranging I've got the study back to something
comfortable most of the time. So I'm mostly focusing on getting the library
and home theatre areas done. Yeah, I bought a new large-ish TV to watch
stuff in the living room. The idea, and practice, is that I can watch movies
with less distraction there. Especially foreign flicks that are subbed.
Still have the original TV in the study, along with most of the knickknacks,
some books, and computers. I'm still tempted to combine the two, especially
when I remember one of my dream layouts with a giant library and computers
and stuff. But that's a bunch of effort, and I like the current study layout.
So I guess we'll see what happens once social distancing doesn't need to
be so distant.
Mental health is still all over the place. Really, this is the worst time to be afraid to reach out to folks, but I'm even less social than I was before this. I hate phone calls even more, I ramble, I try to be funny and fill in the silences. Then I over analyze what I say and feel horrible. Going back to whatever constitutes the 'new normal' is anxiety generating as heck, because my various coping skills are now designed around keeping me sane without outside contact. Stress is high enough that I don't read a whole lot, save audiobooks and podcasts and wiki pages. I watch a lot of movies, especially my comfort flicks. Work is...well lets just not go there right now. I saw my pshrink last week, via telemed. I'm doing the right things as best as I can, I'm not utterly strung out (The unspoken why we had a tele call vs a regular call, harder to cover up being majorly fucked up). The one thing he wants me to do is 'go walking' which, given it's the season of Hot, is pretty limited to me pacing in my apartment. Which is bugging me, because I really wish I could go to the Atlantic and soak my feet like last year, or go walking through the woods without dying of heat. But, I can't. I can at least daydream about the outside world. "natural" white noise at night allows me to daydream (before the meds kick in), and a lot of those daydreams involve the ocean, or rock scrambling like I used to do. Maybe when fall hits, I'll be able to do something that feels like that. Assuming Covid19 hasn't gone from bad to worse. Oh...to let you know how serious I'm taking it, It's been over 100 days since I entered a bookstore. I've gotten plenty of books, yay small bookstores with online browsing, plus Amazon. But I have to have some idea what I want. Bookstore I can walk into, and follow where the book calls take me...and then I find the book I didn't know I needed. *sigh* Texas says "It's safe" but the numbers beg to differ. But that being said, I'm probably going to say fuck it one of these days, go the full monty, and then wash myself in salt water and/or hydrogen peroxide when I get home.
So what's good in life, by Crom? Well, I'm having a staycation this week. Taking Thursday and Friday off so I can focus on the online Portland Horror Film Festival, run by my friends who do the HPLFF in October. I'd actually quasi planned coming out to Portland for it last year, see what Portland in June is like. But with Covid19, they have to social distance, so they moved everything online. So I now have horror fun from Wednesday night to Sunday day. And nothing major to do but watch movies and shorts, whatever online snarkery happens, Good to have something to look forward to, because beyond that it's a field of unknown. Let us pray that Tsathoggua and Cthulhu see fit to grant us some kind of break. Or at least the strength to suck it up a while longer, or the bravery to risk the virus for something more important than retail therapy or boredom (and that's as close as I'm getting the politics on my blog)
Mental health is still all over the place. Really, this is the worst time to be afraid to reach out to folks, but I'm even less social than I was before this. I hate phone calls even more, I ramble, I try to be funny and fill in the silences. Then I over analyze what I say and feel horrible. Going back to whatever constitutes the 'new normal' is anxiety generating as heck, because my various coping skills are now designed around keeping me sane without outside contact. Stress is high enough that I don't read a whole lot, save audiobooks and podcasts and wiki pages. I watch a lot of movies, especially my comfort flicks. Work is...well lets just not go there right now. I saw my pshrink last week, via telemed. I'm doing the right things as best as I can, I'm not utterly strung out (The unspoken why we had a tele call vs a regular call, harder to cover up being majorly fucked up). The one thing he wants me to do is 'go walking' which, given it's the season of Hot, is pretty limited to me pacing in my apartment. Which is bugging me, because I really wish I could go to the Atlantic and soak my feet like last year, or go walking through the woods without dying of heat. But, I can't. I can at least daydream about the outside world. "natural" white noise at night allows me to daydream (before the meds kick in), and a lot of those daydreams involve the ocean, or rock scrambling like I used to do. Maybe when fall hits, I'll be able to do something that feels like that. Assuming Covid19 hasn't gone from bad to worse. Oh...to let you know how serious I'm taking it, It's been over 100 days since I entered a bookstore. I've gotten plenty of books, yay small bookstores with online browsing, plus Amazon. But I have to have some idea what I want. Bookstore I can walk into, and follow where the book calls take me...and then I find the book I didn't know I needed. *sigh* Texas says "It's safe" but the numbers beg to differ. But that being said, I'm probably going to say fuck it one of these days, go the full monty, and then wash myself in salt water and/or hydrogen peroxide when I get home.
So what's good in life, by Crom? Well, I'm having a staycation this week. Taking Thursday and Friday off so I can focus on the online Portland Horror Film Festival, run by my friends who do the HPLFF in October. I'd actually quasi planned coming out to Portland for it last year, see what Portland in June is like. But with Covid19, they have to social distance, so they moved everything online. So I now have horror fun from Wednesday night to Sunday day. And nothing major to do but watch movies and shorts, whatever online snarkery happens, Good to have something to look forward to, because beyond that it's a field of unknown. Let us pray that Tsathoggua and Cthulhu see fit to grant us some kind of break. Or at least the strength to suck it up a while longer, or the bravery to risk the virus for something more important than retail therapy or boredom (and that's as close as I'm getting the politics on my blog)
Reorg at Dunwich Abbey
Ok, I have a plan for tomorrow. I've mentioned that my study seems to get unpleasantly warm unless I do some crazy stuff with fans and crank the AC down, while the library is cooler most of the time. So the plan is to move my desk and workstation into the library, as well as the TV and media PC, see how that works out temp wise. If things go as planned, then I'll move the art and knickknacks, and everything else, and turn the study into a storage/second library. Eventually when I get the new bookcases, I'll move the old ones in here, and put up the scifi/fantasy, and some of the other stuff I won't need right at hand, as well as just plain storage. It's going to be a pain to do (basically a mini move), but I think between the temp change and having more books around, and more room on the far wall for art will = a better lair vibe.
The plan is to wake up, eat, and start working while it's still relatively cool outside (and cool inside) and go from there. Assuming I sleep ok tonight, and wake up with some amount of vim and vigor. We'll see.
The plan is to wake up, eat, and start working while it's still relatively cool outside (and cool inside) and go from there. Assuming I sleep ok tonight, and wake up with some amount of vim and vigor. We'll see.
Viruses, Carcosa and stuff
Tomorrow will be my second calendar month here in Dunwich Abbey. It's also
the middle of the Covid-19 virus outbreak. Not, as I've been typing,
'Corvid'. It's not a crow. So far I'm fine, I'm low risk, even with
the diabetes and high blood pressure. I'm not being stupid though. And I have
plenty of toilet paper, I bought a bulk pack when I moved in, and well...
I live alone, so I have plenty.
Carcosa Corp is all kinds of busy, projects and migrations and everyone is twitchy. There's no official word about office closings and whatnot, but I've been mostly working from home anyway. So we'll see what happens.
Personal foo? Been slowly working on getting Dunwich Abbey setup. Not as fast as I'd like, but I've been pretty lacking in tentacles post work, and I spend most of the weekend trying to recover. I've managed to get the study to be pretty comfortable, and the bedroom is coming together. The living room is still a bunch of boxes and stuff. I need to get more bookshelves so I can start organizing books better, but that's going to wait life to settle down again, vs having random folks over here in case of plague. Plus the next weekend or two will be busy with work foo. I'll get around to it sooner or later.
Ok, I'm out of stuff to talk about, and I'm bloody exhausted. Night folks who read this.
Carcosa Corp is all kinds of busy, projects and migrations and everyone is twitchy. There's no official word about office closings and whatnot, but I've been mostly working from home anyway. So we'll see what happens.
Personal foo? Been slowly working on getting Dunwich Abbey setup. Not as fast as I'd like, but I've been pretty lacking in tentacles post work, and I spend most of the weekend trying to recover. I've managed to get the study to be pretty comfortable, and the bedroom is coming together. The living room is still a bunch of boxes and stuff. I need to get more bookshelves so I can start organizing books better, but that's going to wait life to settle down again, vs having random folks over here in case of plague. Plus the next weekend or two will be busy with work foo. I'll get around to it sooner or later.
Ok, I'm out of stuff to talk about, and I'm bloody exhausted. Night folks who read this.
Welcome to Dunwich Abbey
Well, it's been a calendar month since I got the keys here. Still need
to a bunch of organizing and unpacking still. Did come up with a name
for the place, Dunwich Abbey. Why this ? Multiple reasons. The abbey
part is from my binge reading of M.R. James and other Victorian/Edwardian
supernatural authors. There always seems to be a haunted cathedral or
abbey or such. Plus I'm more than a bit of a Britophile, have been since
I was a kid. Dunwich (pronounced as Dun-witch or dun-nitch as the spirit
moves you) is either H.P. Lovecraft's creepy town of Whateleys, or the
village in Suffolk that's slowly disappearing into the sea. I'm not giving
up on Innsmouth and her Dreams, but I felt like a change. Plus, thanks
to Charlie Stross, among others, there's a link between Dunwich and Innsmouth.
So fish people all around. So Lovecraft, M.R. James, odd Brit history...
works for me. Oh yeah, and I managed to snag the dunwich.net domain name.
No idea what I'm going to do with it yet.
So I got everything moved, got the computers setup. Bookshelves are loaded with books, mostly not in any kind of order. My study is the most setup room in the place, some art on the walls, my various Lovecraftian knick- knacks on display. Favorite books, or fancy books are shelved in here. Bedroom is spartan, but that's fine, I basically just sleep in there. Library is basically the dumping zone, slowly whittling down the clutter, hopefully soonish I'll be able to add some more bookcases (3 died in the move) and start sorting and organizing the library. Kitchen is also fairly cluttered, but that's easier to sort. Still, this is going to be long bit of organizing.
Getting used to driving around here. I'm still firing up the GPS more often than not, unless I'm going to work or the store. Internet is as good as the old place. Neighbors are quiet, mostly. I get weird looks, but that's alright. They get some weird looks back. Haven't had any guests over yet, partially it's the chaos, and partially it's my hermit habit. At some point I'll see about inviting people over. Have a shopping list of things I want to get for here, but that will take time. Need to get what I have sorted before I bring too much more stuff in here.
So welcome to Dunwich Abbey.
So I got everything moved, got the computers setup. Bookshelves are loaded with books, mostly not in any kind of order. My study is the most setup room in the place, some art on the walls, my various Lovecraftian knick- knacks on display. Favorite books, or fancy books are shelved in here. Bedroom is spartan, but that's fine, I basically just sleep in there. Library is basically the dumping zone, slowly whittling down the clutter, hopefully soonish I'll be able to add some more bookcases (3 died in the move) and start sorting and organizing the library. Kitchen is also fairly cluttered, but that's easier to sort. Still, this is going to be long bit of organizing.
Getting used to driving around here. I'm still firing up the GPS more often than not, unless I'm going to work or the store. Internet is as good as the old place. Neighbors are quiet, mostly. I get weird looks, but that's alright. They get some weird looks back. Haven't had any guests over yet, partially it's the chaos, and partially it's my hermit habit. At some point I'll see about inviting people over. Have a shopping list of things I want to get for here, but that will take time. Need to get what I have sorted before I bring too much more stuff in here.
So welcome to Dunwich Abbey.