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Morning, y'all. The Texan I have been dealing with at work is rubbing off on me.

Coffee is Jamaican and hot and ready. Teas are Earl Grey and Red Rose. Iced tea and lemonade are refreshed.

Weather sucks again but is supposed to improve tomorrow.

I think I might need to sideline the sequels and try something else. They just aren't catching fire right now.

I shall join you in the iced tea (but only lemon in mine) and take a beach ball and a sun. Definitely not beach weather here so need the reminder that it is coming.

Sigh. Another one of the greats is gone. Gordon Lightfoot, the pride of Orillia, Ontario and one of the best songwriters of his generation, has died at 84. What a career. I have been listening to a compilation of his first four albums and there's deep cuts that I had forgotten about that are easily as good as the hits. Anyhow, this is one of his best, and best-known, songs.

And from the same concert, a personal favorite

Giving Dark Mode a whirl. Looks good, actually, and haven't seen any issues yet. I am generally not fond of dark modes so will probably switch back eventually, but looking good for a dark mode.

Lust - List

Tough call, but probably a play. I live near Stratford, Ontario and keep swearing that I will start going to their Shakespearean Festival (the biggest in Canada) more. Haven't even looked at this year's playbill yet.

Comedy or tragedy?

Quote by gillianleeza
We had a delicious surf (Dungeness crab) and turf (rib-eye steak) dinner.

Oddly, I've kind of given up on steak. Would rather have my beef cut up in a stir fry or kebab or something. Big slabs of it have lost their appeal. But Dungeness crab sounds yummy. Have not had crab in quite a while. Or lobster for that matter.

Good morning, all.

Coffee is brewing. I picked a nice Nicaraguan medium roast. Teas are Assam and Red Rose with others available in nice wooden tea box I just picked up. Hot water is on standby as always. In the fridge, we have assorted sodas and fresh pitcher of iced tea (unsweet) and lemonade.

Cool and wet here but we'll survive.

Later, alligators.

Interesting piece that collects up rules for writing from a variety of writers. Most are contemporary but there are a few older ones (e.g. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche). Do you have any "rules for writing" that you follow, of your own or learned from somewhere?

» 45 Writers’ “Rules for Writing” (authorspublish.com)

My first rule: Finish the dang thing.

Another month, another list of possible markets. If only I had time to write more. Spice (the kitchen kind), undersea fantasy and horror, climate change (with a hopeful bent), and that's just the first three entries on the list. Plenty to look through and maybe inspire something.

» 45 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for May 2023 (authorspublish.com)

Just had to do some fast worldbuilding for a short piece (5k words max.) on another site. It's amazing how much worldbuilding you can do with just short expositions (sentences rather than paragraphs), dialogue that mentions things, and passing references.

Toughie. Never tried a river cruise, though it is kind of tempting. There's even some in North America on the Mississippi and similar large rivers now. So that. But a train through the mountains, like the old Canadian, would be fun, too.

Write a novel or write a screenplay?

Nothing like hearing two favorite musicians team up. Here we have a track from It's All True, the new album from singer-songwriter-actress Malinda (full name; Malinda Kathleen Reese), that has violinist Mia Asano as a featured guest artist. Mia toured with Malinda last year so no surprise to see her on the new album.

I keep thinking I need to start spending more time here again and then new distractions arise. One of those distractions, a story for a certain other site, is nearing its end. I hope to shift gears back to stories for here after that, though I have no (bleep)ing idea what.

And OMG, we're serving Costco coffee now? 😲My son would be appalled. Though, truthfully, I don't even know what he's drinking now since he lives half a province away and hasn't crashed with us in a couple years. His partner is also from this city and they usually crash with her mom, who lives alone.

Anyhow, I'll pour myself a tea and settle in the corner with my laptop. Remote work does not necessarily have be done from home. Right?

Sorry I wasn't in to open. I was driving to a meeting that ended up not happening. I was about 40 minutes down highway 401 (main highway in Ontario) when the exec who organized the meeting called asking me to turn back. Someone else critical to the meeting has a personal situation to attend to.

So good morning. Just looking at my stories and realizing I've been awfully quiet of late. I am working on a comp entry for another site but nothing else is really on the go. My planned continuation of Spirits of Tan Maldrin (see sig) is kind of stalled. I have two sequels started and I am not even sure what order to put them in or what the final goal of the trilogy will be.

Quote by Molly

I'm on the desktop version and it is working fine for me. Did you do a ticket?

I think I have it sorted for now. Thanks.

Quote by DenimAngel

The teal blue is pretty 😊

Actually, it is similar to the one my employer uses on our literature and website. I would need to get the code for this one to compare but I think it is a few shades lighter than the one work uses. Our graphic artist is very particular about getting that shade right. 😋

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I can't say I like the new colour. Purely my opinion, but for me, it is too harsh, too bright. I liked the blue far better. Way more relaxing. It actually hurts my eyes on a 21" monitor.

Interesting. I actually find the new accent colour more muted than the blue. There's maybe a bit too much white background now (or maybe a brighter white??). Wonder if that's what's making it bright rather than the new accent colour.

Quote by gillianleeza

I am watching Dead Ringers on Amazon. I remember the movie starring Jeremy Irons. It was a creepy movie, and the series has those vibes but a completely different take. The series is an adaptation of the book and not the previous film. They flipped the gender of the main characters, with Rachel Weisz playing the twins in this adaptation. I am a fan, and she is brilliant so far.

It is unsettling and weirdly watchable at the same time.

Fair warning, it is not a show for everyone. It depicts some things in very graphic detail.

I quite like the movie. Irons is brilliant and it is one of the rare Cronenberg movies where it suggests worse things than it actually shows. Still very disturbing, but less visceral than, say, Videodrome or Rabid.

I am intrigued by what I have read about the series. If we ever get back on Prime, I'll probably give it a whirl.

The pollen doesn't seem too bad here yet, but our Spring has turned cool so maybe that's delayed it.

Quote by gillianleeza
My entire house has green dust of it on all the furniture.

Yeah, when I wipe down the patio furniture before working outside in the spring, the cloth comes off a yellow-y brown colour.

I do note that images for categories and curated collections on the home page are still broken, at least on desktop, as I have noted before. They seem fine on mobile. I use Edge and Chrome on Windows for desktop, Chrome on Android for mobile. I will try dumping cache later in case there's old data that's causing a problem.

Quote by NumberOneAngel

The site looks much better and it's easier and faster. Great job.

Yeah, I think I like it, just kind of caught me off guard. I would generally announce a change of that magnitude on a site I run.

Finally got around to 72 Seasons, the new Metallica album. Enjoying it so far. They were actually the first metal band I would say I liked. Not loved (at the time), not even a fan per se, but liked enough of their music to pay attention. Songs like "Enter Sandman", "One", "Nothing Else Matters" definitely slipped on to my soundtrack and likely helped prime me for my later engagement with the metal genre.

The colour scheme has changed. Is that part of a new update or something that is being tried out or what? Or is it just me?

Ape comes in rocking out to the new Metallica

Damn, they are banging hard again. Good album so far.

In other news, there's coffee in the coffee pot. Teas du jour are Assam and Russian Caravan. Iced tea and lemonade are chillin' in the fridge. Sodas are restocked. Oh, and there's hot water for other hot teas.

Later, alligators.

(PS. did the site colours change or is my vision getting worse again? 😒)

Quote by AnnaMayZing
Nightwish has just announced a new album for next year and no more touring.

Yeah, the no more touring part has caused some upset, but with Floor touring more and more in her solo work, maybe that will mollify at least some folks. And they said "indeterminate" which often means "until we feel like doing it again". And there is a short European tour happening in June, mostly close to home, including a concert in Kitee, Finland, hometown of the original band members.

That said, I'm more pissed than ever that I had to pass on seeing them in Toronto last year. First gig of the North American tour was in TO on my b-day. However, I had a medical appointment in town that day that was cancelled too late for me to get a ticket and make the trek.

Quote by verbal

So, I JUST pulled the trigger on buying my first Google Pixel. Older model, and refurbished, so cheap-ish, but I am SO PSYCHED to check out astrophotography mode.

I've heard good things about Pixels, esp. the camera. If I was buying a personal phone for myself, Pixel would be high on my list. I use Samsung mainly because it's what we standardized on for work.

Sorry I've been scarce. Was playing Tim "Tool Man" Taylor yesterday. Got the job done but I'm paying today.

Anna, did you hear the news? Floor is opening for Metallica. Not with Nightwish. Solo.

Someone twigged me to this on another site. Interesting punk spin on the Melanie hit "Brand New Key". The band is a husband and wife team on guitars and bass/vocals respectively plus a drummer.

Good morning. Wet one here. Oh well April showers bring May flowers and all that.

Coffee is on. Teapots have English Breakfast and Cream of Earl Grey. Hot water is there for other teas. Iced tea and lemonade are made and in the fridge.

Bit of a busy Saturday today including an eye checkup. Still, at least it's not work.