It's got to be Monday ... Monday ...
And I don't have to go to work. Vacation is under way, though I don't start my trip for a few more days.
Coffee is a Costa Rican medium roast, hot and ready in the pot. Teas are Sunday Tea and Red Rose. Iced tea and lemonade are refreshed in the fridge.
And my musical discovery of the month is ... Ankor. It's an alt-metal band from Spain that's a couple decades old. The current lineup features a terrific English singer-songwriter named Jessie Williams on vocals (harsh, clean, and occasional rapping) as well as writing a lot of the lyrics. The remainder of the lineup is mostly Spanish, with David Romeu and Fito Martinez on guitar and Julio Lopez on bass, save the amazing drummer Eleni Nota who hails from Athens, Greece. Guitarist David Romeu writes a lot of the music and directs most of their videos.
Everybody's working for the weekend! So said Loverboy back in 1982. Still true forty years later, I think. And here we are, at the weekend.
I've brewed some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe for the coffee set and Scottish Breakfast and Sunday Tea for the teapot crowd. Cold drinks are iced tea, lemonade, and assorted sodas. I see the minimarshmallows have vanished. Sara must have taken them home for baking purposes.
Oo, something's up in the verbal household. Now you've got us all in suspense, amigo.
Gorgeous here today. That's why I moved the office outside.
Eek! A cardinal just buzzed the table where I'm working en route to their nest. Went so fast I couldn't even see if it was the male or the female. Got to watch where I am going, I guess, or I might end up with a beak embedded in me.
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorning!!!!!
Coffee is in the pot. It's a Nicaraguan dark roast. Over in the teapots, there's some Earl Grey and Scottish Breakfast. Iced tea and lemonade are mixed up fresh in the fridge. And for some bizarro reason, a shipment of minimarshmallows showed up. Shit, will these keep until Fall? I told them to put the standing order on hold from May to October.
Anyhow, I am working on my deck with a family of cardinals chirping away above me. Every time Mom and Dad show up, the chicks go nuts. Amazing what loud voices they already have.
Later.
Quote by verbal
I start with character (which is why I'm so bad at plotting)
Yeah, I kind of do, too, at times. Or I start with a plot point that then dictates the character(s). I mean, the whole Chronicles of Tana the Healer started with, "what if a world's Dark Lord had a child and they had to deal with their father's legacy long after his fall". Everything else, including the child being a daughter, her being the one who killed her father, and so on kind of built from there.
Ape is here, ape is here!
One week until my vacation. Will be offline (mostly) for 12 days or so while I tour the icy realm of, well, Iceland. There's even a volcano that might blow before or during my visit in my honour. Okay, not in my honour, but the timing is nice. I like volcanoes as long as they are in someone else's backyard. It has been fairly well argued that they are one of the things that makes our planet habitable.
For now, here's some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee for the coffee crowd, Irish Breakfast and Lemon for the tea junkies, and iced tea and lemonade for those seeking more frigid delights. Later.
Quote by verbal
Gonna trying pantsing a novel - meaning writing by the seat of my pants.
Honestly, I find a computer or pen and paper works better than pants but you do you. 😜🤣
Quote by verbal
I sometimes get the sense that only the right is thought to be patriotic in the US, and wanted to walk the walk.
Here, too. My perception, though, is that the right is really more about unquestioning patriotism (much like they are more likely to lean to an inerrant, infallible Bible in religious life) while the center and left are more prone to see patriotism as including asking and working through tough questions about things like colonialism and slavery.
Quote by Mendalla
ven as I work on my fantasy tales, I am meditating on doing some space s-f.
Starting a story that kind of picks up on this, but focussing more on what is called military s-f or mil s-f for short. Think Heinlein's Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven's so-so movie version counts, too) or James Cameron's Aliens. Basically, soldiers in an s-f setting.
One wrinkle I am toying with is taking Star Wars' notion of a clone army but looking more at how a bioengineered super-soldier might actually be built beyond just cloning some ideal template. Agendered and asexual is one thing I am look at. There's no need for reproductive capability so why have sexual characteristics, sexual desire, or gender identity. They are soldiers, pure and simple. Neither male nor female. The ultimate enby, perhaps. Heightened senses, physical characteristics ideal for survival and combat, probably some embedded systems that interface with their equipment.
So what then happens, when a supersoldier built only for war finds themselves isolated from their army with the war largely lost? Could they have a life that is not about fighting and killing? Could such a being learn to love in any meaningful way, esp. a "normal" being? I mean with sex gone, romance is likely gone, too, but "love" in an agape sense of caring for others more broadly.
Those are the questions I am thinking of exploring.
Interesting. Didn't interact with Dreamcatcher much so no idea. Sad if he is gone. Seems like a nice guy from the interactions we have had.
Good morning! Hot and muggy where I am. For those Americans recovering from yesterday, and anyone else in need of caffeine, there's a full pot of Costa Rican dark roast waiting. Teapots have Earl Grey Cream and English Breakfast. Iced tea and lemonade are in the fridge along with assorted sodas.
Have a nice one and try to stay frosty.
Yep, it's that time again. New batch of themed submissions. Heavy on spec-fic (aka sf-f) but there's some other genres in there, too. We have, among many, redeeming bad horror tropes, cozy fantasy, Taco Bell (wha?), and post-apoc suspense and horror. Got a story idea and need a market? Or want to see what people are looking for in hopes of finding inspiration? Here you go:
» 48 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for July 2023 (authorspublish.com)
Oh say can you see Canada! Yep we are in the neutral zone between national holidays in North America. Ours was Saturday, the Americans is tomorrow. Have a happy and safe July 4 my American friends!
Coffee today is a Nicaraguan dark roast. We have English Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream in the teapots. It remains warm and muggy in my neck of the woods so iced tea and lemonade are ready in the fridge. Soda stock is inventoried and replenished.
Good morning and have good one, holiday or not!
Quote by AnnaMayZing
I am not overly familiar with this band but, as you see from the beginning of the video, their original singer, Nicole Bogner sadly became a member of the '27 Club' in 2012. I find it incredible that so many musicians have passed away at the young age of 27. Coincidence? I suppose so, but even so...
I am mostly familiar with the current lineup which has Clementine Delauney on female vocals and Michele Guatoli as the male vocalist. Terrific band. Their recent album Pirates (and their new live album Pirates Over Wacken) is a fave of mine. But, yeah, Nicole's passing is another one of those "way too young" stories. The band dedicated the album Ethera to her memory.
My new musical discovery right now is Blackbriar. It's a fairly new Dutch band with a marvelously talented singer and songwriter named Zora Cock as its lead. They are now signed to Nuclear Blast, the same label as Nightwish and some other metal greats, and this is from their upcoming first album of that deal.
Our power lines are buried (it's a fairly new subdivision). One more thing for locates to worry about but reduces the risk of localized outages due to wind, ice, etc.
Good, well, afternoon here now. Still, I'll throw on a pot of coffee and some of that Canadian Breakfast tea in case anyone is in need of a boost. It's warm and muggy with showers here so also restocking the pitchers of unsweet iced tea and lemonade.
Neither. Hate the sport with the heat of a thousands exploding suns (well, the heat of a summer day in Southern Ontario, at least). But at least the golfer is doing something besides driving the golf cart, so that I guess.
Maple syrup or table syrup (on waffles, pancakes, etc.)?
