Overdue for a status update!

So…it’s been a while. Again!

I’ve got a lot that I’ve been up to – I’ve gotten both doses of the Moderna vaccine for Covid-19 and am passed the 2 weeks wait from the final dose, and ever since my whole self has felt energized and driven to do new things! My computer, however, has not. Last night was the final straw, and I had to replace it with a laptop, which is what I’m writing to you all from!

Sadly, I can no longer attempt to stream video games without investing in a pricey setup, and frankly I cannot justify that kind of money on a personal rig, but this laptop should be able to handle playing games on my own, as well as myriad other activities. When my mind’s finally settled down a bit, I’m going to try and get back on the blogging wagon, but for now? I’m just glad to have something that works and I’m not afraid will implode.

Stay safe everybody!

…Uh…

So, in my last blog post I recommended the webcomic Stand Still, Stay Silent.

It is still a good webcomic on its own, but, um. Mm. There’s really no delicate way to put this. It seems that the author might have gotten a bit mixed up in some…really pushy religious stuff? I’ve been warned against reading their most recent minicomic that does not warn for the subject matter and comes off as very…preachy.

Just keep that in mind, I don’t know if that’s going to leak into their main comic (though I hope it doesn’t). Still don’t want y’all to go in blind, though. This is a fairly recent development and I don’t have all the facts.

Where’ve You Been, Elaine?

…Hi, guys. Been a while, huh?

Just So You Know

I’ve decided to make my New Year’s Resolution be this:

Start streaming video games!

So to do that, I’ve begun using my Twitch account to stream gameplay – and I only recently figured out how to get it to keep gameplay videos up for a couple weeks so you can check it out when I’m not gaming. It’d be cool to see folks pop in, so hold onto that link!

Polarizing Christmas Classics

I’ve always been blown away by how much attention my post on The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus gets every year – all year round, to be honest! – and by following in the tradition of making a post about some Christmasy media around this time of year (like with my post on Peace on Earth), this year…

Well, this year in general has been a shitshow for the entire world. It’s hard to find it in me to go full-on Christmas Crazy when there have been so many intense stressors on my mind, and even now I’ve put more into celebrating the holidays in my Animal Crossing New Horizons island than I have in person. I’d prefer things to be subdued, simple, and safe as possible. Currently, the snow that’s blanketed the Northeast US is more than enough to get me in a holiday mood.

And then my Mom went and put White Christmas on, and I recalled how much I can’t stand it. But what is it about this one movie that I can’t tolerate? Let’s pin that down before anyone picks up a pitchfork. Warning for spoilers if you haven’t seen White Christmas, if that’s one you decide you’d like to see for yourself.

Yashahime: New Look, Same Great Taste? We’ll See.

I’ve been thinking a lot about parents lately, mostly because of the difficulties I have in continuing to live with my own. While the specifics are messy and personal, know that I desperately want to claw my way out of the worst of the pandemic and over most if not all of my remaining student loans to find a home of my own. I’m not staying here. I’ll get out. But in the meantime, in between furious quilting and keeping up to date on current events, I’ve found myself intrigued by a new anime: Yashahime: Princess Half Demon.

Relief

Just a short post. But a long-needed one. I’ve been keeping myself busy with crafts and holiday obligations so as to not whittle myself down to less than nothing with worry, but…well. It feels as if we’ve been free-falling in a bottomless pit, and have finally caught onto the walls and stopped.

We’ll be climbing out of that pit for a long time yet. I don’t know when or if we’ll get out of it. But I’d like to believe that in my lifetime, we might yet see the light streaming in from above as more than a mirage. We’re not out of the woods yet, and the path is overrun, but we have found the path.

Keep the hope, and keep fighting.

Author Notes: The Young Practitioner

Things are really grim in the United States right now, for reasons…a lot of people smarter and more informed than me can explain thoroughly. All I aim to do right now is provide a momentary distraction that is a little self indulgent. One that can offer idle thought that isn’t necessarily set in stone, unlike certain other authors expressing themselves right now. I’m going to get into some of the topics I had in mind (or that became apparent to me) while writing my novel, The Young Practitioner.

Infinity

It’s been a while since I’ve written prose, and for good reason: the world’s kind of garbage right now. It can be difficult to find the time, or the words, and it becomes easier to do other things when you can’t scrounge up anything from your own imagination. But, uh…I got a little inspired this morning and managed to bring to life a fleeting thought, and I wanted to share with you guys. Let me know what you think – it’s not anything revolutionary, but it’s nice. I think it’s nice.

~*~

Her hair, long and black as night, holds souls like stars as they slumber, awaiting life. She is gentle with them, delicate hands gathering them up and scattering them on the wind of her breath when they’re ready, when their light shines most brilliantly. They settle into her weaving, her yarns and threads. Like gems, they glitter. They gleam.

He sits at the end of her weaving and unravels every line with care. The thread is wound up, the yarn looped. Souls, extinguished, are gently plucked from their place. Some still buzz with fury, and those he cuts loose. Those, he traps in a glass jar, and they rattle inside their cage against one another to no end. The others he cleans, examines, before bringing to her once more, threading them in her hair where they sleep, where they regain their brilliant light.

He offers her the lengths of materials he’d salvaged from her old work, and she assesses the wear and discards what cannot stay, mingles into the new what should be brought forward. They exchange words of gentle fondness before he leaves, for he cannot leave his post for long, lest those buzzing souls tear her work apart. And work she must, to give those slumbering souls their moments in time.

And so it goes, into infinity.

Quilting Crimes

I’m sure you’re looking at the title of this post and thinking that it’s the most ridiculous combination of words you’ve ever seen. And, well, you’re not wrong! It’s a phrase I coined specifically because it sounds so absurd. Quilting and crimes brings up images of white-haired grannies speeding away in a jalopy as they knit and sew, money from their bank heist cartoonishly flying out of the car as they go. But for me? I’ve just been indulging in an old hobby.