Crap, has it been almost a week? Sorry, didn't realize I had been away that long.

Anyhow, there's fresh Kicking Horse Grizzly Claw in the coffee pots. For teas, we've got Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream. Fresh pitchers of iced tea and lemonade are mixed up and the sodas are stocked. Hot chocolate, with or without marshmallows, is an option, too.

Not much happening here, at least of a literary nature. My wife's new desktop PC came so I spent the weekend working on it along with my usual weekly cleaning. Now that's done, I can maybe get back to writing.

Later alligators. Here's yummies.

Beautiful snow makes winter bearable.

Fish, I think.

Laptop or desktop computer for personal use?

At seven, Taylor Momsen played Cindy Lou Who in How The Grinch Stole Christmas opposite Jim Carrey. In that movie, she sang "Where Are You Christmas?". Now 32, Momsen quit acting several years ago to be a singer full time. Today, she fronts the rock band The Pretty Reckless (and is doing a fine, bangup job of it, too). And one of the tracks on their new Christmas EP is, you guessed it, a rocked up version of "Where Are You Christmas?"

Love the opening with Taylor watching her seven-year-old self on Leno with her childhood version of the song playing. And the outro with adult Taylor singing the original arrangement is nice, too. Ties everything together with a nice red Christmas bow.

A influenzas are the worst, I find. H1N1 is an A strain and that was the last really bad flu I had. Went through my son's school before the vaccines were out so we hadn't been vax'd yet. That was a long time ago now, though.

Good morning. Snow is here again. That's now three times shovelling and there's still three weeks to go until the solstice. Ugh. Not looking forward to this winter. At least it was less, and lighter, than the last one.

Coffee for this week shall be Fire Roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Teas are Assam Organic and Yorkshire Red. Fresh pitchers of iced tea and lemonade are mixed up in the fridge. We have hot chocolate available with minimarshmallows (which, sadly, aren't going down as fast as they used to). And there's some fresh goodies out.

It definitely goes in fits and starts but still active. Wish we had more life in the forums but publishing seems to be more active even given how quiet the forums are. However, given the low activity level, I imagine the mods might often have an empty queue so might not hang around very actively.

I hate blood tests, especially when fasting is involved. Got some done earlier today and still not feeling totally right post-fast. Grey weather with snow apparently on its way likely isn't helping, either. How's things with the rest of you?

Quote by pamelavox
im in canada

Another Canadian! I'm in Southern Ontario, born and raised here. And there's a couple others who pop by from time to time.

Watched a terrific concert on YouTube the other day while I was on my exercise bike. It's Dutch singer Charlotte Wessels and her current backup band doing basically a live set of her last album. Charlotte and the band are on fire. She used to be in the Dutch symphonic metal band Delain (the last lineup including her kind of blew apart in 2021 but they have since reformed with a new lead singer) as did her guitarist in this show Timo Somers but I think I am liking her even more as a solo artist.

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! Hope you have a great and joyous day!

Hmm. No pumpkin pie in my pie stock. How's pecan (that's my personal fave anyhow)?

Coffee and tea are refreshed, cold beverages are looking good.

I'm a rightie.

Order takeout or eat at the restaurant?

Quote by pamelavox

hi, 1st timer. can you tell me are we notified when our story is accepted and posted?

You should get a private message from the moderator (it's automated but comes from their address) and an alert on the bell icon. If you have email notifications set for messages, then you will get an email as well.

And welcome. The mods and more experienced writers like me will be more than happy to answer questions.

Ouch. My son and d-i-l were both sick last week, suspected COVID. So, yeah, sick season is upon us. Hope you all get well soon. I got my shots a week and a half ago, both flu and COVID.

Toho Studios, who released the original Gojira (Godzilla's Japanese name) in 1954 and all Japanese Godzilla films since (all the American ones, including the current Legendary series, are made under licensing deals with Toho) have announced Godzilla Minus Zero, a sequel to 2023's Godzilla Minus One. Minus One was a fantastic Godzilla movie so have high hopes for this one.

Another metal artist I follow who is releasing a solo album is Swiss vocalist Melissa Bonny. It's a different situation from Alissa, though, since Melissa's two current bands were both started by her. In fact, Ad Infinitum, her main band, was supposed to be a solo project at one point. So no breakups happening over this one. Here's the latest single, a pop-leaning ballad. In general, Melissa seems to be moving away from metal in this solo project, leaving it for her bands.

And from the "awww, that's sweet" file, the drummer on this as in her band Dark Side Of The Moon is her husband. Not sure how that works out for touring, though, since I know the band he normally plays for is touring early next year.

Fresh coffee is on and teas are refilled. Cold drinks are looking good. Fresh yummies are laid out.

How's things? Wrestling with that story I mentioned. Still haven't got the "something" parts filled in yet and that's kind of got me stalled now. I've introduced the characters and setting but no idea where to go from there.

Kind of grey and yucky here, though there was some blue starting to show a while ago. Driving in was like twilight the cloud cover was so heavy.

Experience comes from doing things.

Footie, I think, though I am not sure which of our sport channels has Premier League. Mostly watch interational matches like the Euro and World Cup.

Fork or chopsticks for Chinese/Asian food?

Quote by gillianleeza
No snow here, it's been pretty nice for November.

We still have the odd patch where there was a snowbank, but it's mostly gone. Rain today so that might finish it off. At least until the weekend when it gets winter-y again.

Started a new fantasy story kind of out of the blue. Not sure of it, yet, but there's potential. Just need to figure out some loose ends in the story. I have two leaders of rival peoples (basically one is human and the other is some kind of ogre or troll but I don't call either species by those names) meeting about ... something. And something happens. I think they discover common ground and work to resolve a crisis of some kind. Maybe it could be a Christmas-y thing? Hard to tell right now. All I've got right now is the human leader meeting and reacting to her counterpart from the other people.

License required for many professions.

Too quiet. I'll get a fresh pot of joe going along with some Earl Grey and English Breakfast teas. Washed up the pitchers and put fresh iced tea and lemonade in the fridge. Hot chocolate and a kettle along with minimarshmallows are on hand since colder days are here.

Just raked my lawn which feels so weird given I've shovelled my driveway twice and there's still a few small patches of snow in the front. Nice day for it, though, sunny and no too cold, just chilly.

How's everyone else?

Goodies:

Alissa White-Gluz is an artist in transition. She and the band she has fronted since 2014 have parted ways, but she dropped the first single from an upcoming solo project. We Arch Enemy fans will miss seeing her with the band but I am excited by what I see here and look forward to the solo album.

(Yoiks.😲 Interesting vermin to have, though. 😋)

I raked a pile of leaves. My back hates me.

Quote by Meagananne1986
the Blue Ridge

Nice country. We drove the parkway on one of our last vacations with our son before he went fully on his own.

I tend to believe in the layering approach. Bundle up but with two or three layers so you can take layers off if you get too warm (For instance, I was out doing yardwork today and wore a hoody under a lined coat. In the end, never did take any layers off. It's cool and there's a chilly breeze.)

Play a friendly game of cards or have some stakes on the line?

Necessary things must be obtained.

Leaf peeking. I'm a terrible skater.

See the colours locally or travel somewhere (around here, that would be Central Ontario c. mid-October)?

Disagreement need not cause fights.

Contemplating ideas for my long gestating longer story. There's a "weird alien" in the story that is not really working for me anymore so I want to replace them with something more ... relatable. The idea I have in my head is an amphibious hominid. Not merfolk with fish tails. I want something that feels more mammalian and, more importantly, is amphibious, i.e. can function both on land and in water. Traditional merfolk can't do that without magical transformations. So maybe more like a pinniped (seals, sea lions, walruses) x human hybrid. Basically human but with adaptations allowing them to stay longer and be faster in the water than normal humans. What might that be? Well, I am still thinking that through but so far I've got.

Either hairless or covered with short, fine hair that lies flat to the skin (let's face it, Ariel's long red hair looks great but has to be hell for her hydrodynamics).

Sleek, fairly muscular body, esp. hips and downwards, for better hydrodynamics and more powerful swimming

Either a greater lung capacity or more efficient distribution system for storing and distributing O2 in their body, enabling them to spend maybe 15-30 minutes submerged*.

Eyes adapted to seeing in both air and water, probably with compromises in both.

Small ears flat to the head. Flat or small nose.

Feet that are flipper-like, making them better in the water than humans but less efficient at running on land

Male genitalia and female breasts minimal, maybe retractable for the men. Again, for hydrodynamics.

Generally naked (it's a tropical environment anyhow) since clothing would be a liability in the water.

Technology somewhat limited due to living partly in water, maybe a very sophisticated neolithic level.

Footnote:

*By comparison, humans have done this but (a) with pre-oxygenation (hyperventilating pure O2) and (b) they were static, i.e. just sitting on the bottom of a pool. Without pre-oxygenation and swimming, the record is something like 11 minutes and most people can do a minute and a half tops. These pinnipeople would do half an hour routinely and be actively swimming while doing it. Static and with preparation, they could probably do an hour or more.

As for the adaptations, there are islanders capable of long submersions who have larger spleens to produce more red blood cells. Aquatic mammals often have more myoglobin, a muscle cousin of haemoglobin, than land mammals, too, which stores more oxygen and is less affected by the acidity that builds up during long immersions.

Blech

The fact that files about a dead pimp (I can't really think of a better, or more polite, description based on what we know about the creep) seem to be determining the future of one of the world's largest nations, and it's largest economy, is scary as f**k. I hope wisdom prevails but that seems to be in short supply everywhere these days.

But glad to hear your daughter is doing better. Apparently my kid and his wife may have everyone's favourite virus beginning with "C". At least their symptoms apparently line up with that better than just a bad cold.

Wrestling with so many things right now and I did not sleep well last night which isn't helping. Woke for a leak at 4am and struggled to get back to sleep which kind of messed me up.