Grinding of Gears

"A la Peanut Butter Sandwiches!" poof

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 03:31:05 GMT

"How are you feeling, Mel?" says the FB status update bar. Well, Internets, lemme grab a glass of wine and tell ya...

No, this isn't a rant. Just thoughts. My Grandma passed away last night. It wasn't entirely unexpected, due to her age, frailty, and advanced Alzheimer's. But the change from "not great but solidly stable" to "downhill spiral" was rather sudden and I'm still kind of poleaxed. Some of you may remember my status checkin from the hospital on Christmas, that was about 36 hours after things started. The last major change in her state was shortly after my Grandpa passed away several years ago. I've always half wondered how much was really Alzheimer's and how much losing him made her just not want to be in the present any more, which I can understand.

My emotions are waffling all over the place from mostly numb/shocked, to writing these words making me cry for the first time. I've got plane tickets to fly back to Cali on Weds morning, and will be staying with family until Sunday night. We're not having a funeral per se, she's going to be cremated like Grandpa was, so this is more of just a pack huddle of support. We'll have a large, actual memorial sometime in the Spring when her garden is blooming and people can travel out for it.

I spent today "working" from home. I put that in quotes not because I was incapable, but because both my old team I am finishing legacy projects with, and my new "agile pod" are full of such awesome people that when I gave them the news and let them know I'd be out the second half of the week they basically all went "OMG DO WHATEVER YOU NEED, LET US KNOW IF WE CAN HELP. EVERYONE TRYING TO GIVE HER ASSIGNMENTS: FUCK OFF, WE'LL HANDLE THEM." So I've spent the day on the couch under my Ninja Blankie, with cats sitting on me (because they're good about knowing that stuff), kntting another Fox-in-Sock, and trying to sort through my feelings.

What I kept coming back to, annoyingly, was: "I want a peanut butter sandwich."

Most of the day I thought this was my brain trying to distract me or a random reaction to re-starting the low-carb diet. But after a while I realized it wasn't: it was actually the purest emotional reaction I could have.

My parents bought the land plot next to my grandparents' house, built their own and moved us in when I was two and a half. I spent my entire childhood running back and forth to Grandma & Grandpa's house, carrying messages, getting or bringing a cup of whatever for dinner, being babysat, programming the VCR clock for them, or just hanging out. The land in between the two properties was my Mom and Grandma's communal garden, where I grew up playing in the dirt, pulling carrots, stalking gophers, and gaining a lifelong hatred of corn worms. The far side of my grandparents' property was a stand of pine trees where my cousins and I spent years climbing, building forts, playing on tire swings, and hunting imaginary deer with decorated stick "spears".

Anyway. Peanut butter sandwich.

PBJ is a staple food for most kids, as it's one of the vaguely healthy things any kid except the pickest or allergic will eat. My grandmother knew this well (especially with my cousins being vegetarian) so it was a usual lunch at their house. It wasn't just PBJ though, it was SPECIAL PBJ. And not just because Grandma made it, although that helps. It made me realize that a lot of my current lifestyle habits I've embraced or am trying to come from her and I'm helping keep them going.

She always baked her own bread on weekends, and kept it in an ancient tupperware breadbox because they stopped making them about 50 years ago because nobody made their own bread any more. (They may have started re-making them in this new era of bread machines, but that's what I remember.)

The peanut butter, like her cream cheese, cheddar, almonds and various other things, were ordered through a neighborhood co-op that bought from local growers and crafters rather than through a chain grocery store. I've recently, thanks to FB, found a similar one in my area and recently signed up for a year.

Because the peanut butter was naturally made and not full of preservatives and softening oil additives, it was a little harder to spread than the commercial stuff. So she would always put a thin layer of butter on the PB bread first, to let it spread on smoothly instead of tearing the bread up. I grew up with the combo and loving it, and didn't understand until I hit grade school that people thought it was "weird". This led me to realize that there are probably all kinds of flavor combos that people think are "weird" and are actually delicious because they just never tried them. This has made me adventurous both in dining and cooking, and not afraid to try new things.

And the jam... oh the jam. Most people love strawberry jam as the quintessential PBJ component, but I disagree. Grandma always used raspberry jam, which she canned herself every year from her stand of raspberry bushes in the backyard. I grew up helping pick them even though I was terrified of the bees that constantly swarmed over them (they hate me for no good reason, even the normally docile ones, but that's a story for another time). I learned to grow and preserve my own food, and I learned to face down my fears and potential pains in order to accomplish something I really wanted.

What did Grandma bring to my life? She taught me to run around in the sun, play in the mud, appreciate and respect nature, seek sustainable resources, be knowledgeable and self-sufficient for myself and my family, treasure life skills others write off as "old-fashioned", to laugh, to experiment, to respect tradition but not be bound by it, and to fight my inner demons in the name of love and family.

All wrapped up in a peanut butter sandwich.

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Freakout over ALL THE THINGS

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:22:10 GMT

TOO MUCH TO DO HEAD EXPLODING BBL KTHXBYE

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HA!

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 03:09:08 GMT

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Question for my crafty friends

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:34:36 GMT

As some of you know, I've been trying to get my grandmother's spinning wheel repaired for some time now. One of our good friends is working on it, but at best it'll most likely still be a display model.

Randomly, my parents announced that they want to get me a new wheel for my birthday: specifically Kromski Fantasia. But they wanted to run it by me first, in case there was another style or brand in the same price range that was superior.

To which I went: "Buh?"

And then ran to the Internets. Because I know absolutely jack and squat about the quality of spinning wheels made in the last, oh, century or so. So I'm asking all y'all spinners what wheels you recommend or that I should avoid at all costs?

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A random note

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 01:14:54 GMT

I threw several little subtle jokes into the new story, and a couple people have commented on the two most obvious, which gives me glee. But I also dropped a vague reference into the dialogue for this song. So far J was the only one to spot it, which isn't surprising since we've joked that it should have used to be his theme song. We both also bust out with "MILLION DOLLA STRONG!" when we're in a situation that has become skeezy to the point of hilarity (usually at a con).

At any rate, still want to share because it's hilarious, and I think most everyone regardless of gender or orientation has either been the target of, or the misfortune of being around, these kind of guys at a bar or club.

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Well that's one way of dealing

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 05:24:24 GMT

Had a lot of bad personal stuff go down today. Turned to chain-smoking fakey steam-cigs and writing to cope.

Several hours later, the most recent story I was working on is done. Most of my stories top out at about 2,500 words. I tend to write short-shorts, it's just how I roll.

Once I got done, I asked J to read it over for me, and as he was getting ready to do so, I did a word count.

9,200 words.

FRIGGIN BALLSACK WHAT.

After he read through it he had a couple points that needed to be edited but overall I will probably end up plumping out the wordcount slightly. Which means I went from skirting the minimum boundary between flash fiction/short story to pushing the upper region of short story/novella.

O HAI GREY AREA WHAT IS THAT?

But he's my harshest editor and his opinion is apparently "holy balls this is so publishable", so this gives me a gleeface. Gonna snooze on it for a few days then go back with the Red Pen of DOOM.

also, I wrote over half of that wordcount tonight in one fell swoop. woot.

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Because on the Internet, all important things are said with cat macros

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 18:50:11 GMT

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In case anyone is interested for tomarrah:

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:29:25 GMT

http://amzn.com/w/26M9MGLIMGFCB

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WOW.

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 00:22:56 GMT

Now THIS is how you do a flashmob!

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Well that makes sense.

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:35:22 GMT

Apparently? My writing muse is a cicada.

For AGES now:

Me: Hello?
Muse: *SNORE*

Now:

Muse: O HAI I'M AWAKE NOW YOU SHOULD WRITE SHIT! REE REE REE REE REE

Me: Um.

Muse: REE REE REE REE REE REE REE HIYA REE REE REE

Me: I uh, actually have other shit I need to be doing right now, so...

Muse: NOPE I'M AWAKE NAO NOT GONNA SHUT UP REE REE REE REE REE

Me: GODDAMMIT!

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Oh hey Muse, long time no see!

Wed, 30 May 2012 19:36:29 GMT

Inspired by a post by hillbillycavewoman, I'm working on a new horror story finally. It's already got a theme song that I'm listening to on repeat.

Mwa ha ha.

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Different icon for May 25

Fri, 25 May 2012 18:07:21 GMT

And if you don't know why, go read Terry Pratchett's Night Watch.

Today was a rather downer day for zombie running. Woke up at 7:30 and it was already in the mid-80's for both temperature and humidity. My right Achilles tendon was still killing me and now my knee had decided to join in for fun. Also, my guts have been in a coup since early Wednesday evening, so I already knew I wasn't going to be making any great strides (ha) in upping the workout.

Did manage to do two jogging intervals over the length of the mission, but still dragged my speed back down to a 17:19/mile rather than 15:03. Blarg. Interestingly enough, when watching me on the second interval, Fox noticed something odd: when I'm walking, I roll to the outsides of my feet. I've known this for years just by the way my shoes wear down. But when I was jogging, I was rolling to the outside on my left foot and inside on my right. Not sure yet whether this is a consistent thing or just a subconscious compensation for the ankle pain on that side, but it's probably what's making my knee angry. Will see again on Monday what's up. Maybe I just played too much EQ when I was younger and I'm automatically trying to run diagonally for a speed boost. :P

Amusing bit of the day: While the voice-acted parts of Zombies, Run! are fantastically done and clear as a bell, the text-to-speech electronic voice that lets you know when you've picked up supplies is occasionally faily in hilarious ways. Our current favorite is the fact that it apparently can't say "book". Any time one of us picks one up, the voice says "YOU HAVE COLLECTED A BUH." Which of course, reminded me of this:

Personally I think a bomb would be more useful than a book in the immediate aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, but I guess we're planning for the long-term here, in which case my order of preference is definitely reversed. ;)

Fox and I were discussing it the first time it came up in the game.

Me: Well you are trying to carry them all in a backpack while running from zombies. Maybe they figure all the weight is in the K?

Him: We should ask the Librarian. I hear he knows a lot about Ook.

Me: ...You WOULD make that joke when I'm too tired to chase you down and beat you.

Him: *LOL*

And thus, I have come full circle back around to Terry Pratchett. TOTALLY ON PURPOSE! Really!

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woo.

Wed, 23 May 2012 15:44:14 GMT

Just completed a 2.45 mile run playing Zombies, Run!: collected 27 supplies - pace of 15:52/mi. Fox & I both call BS on the auto-calculated distance/pace. Did 3 intervals at my best speed so far & longer distance than before, and because that sped us up we looped down & back on an extra side street on the way back home. Now it's saying that's a shorter distance and slower pace somehow? GPS glitch I guess.

Didn't do quite as well on the not horking bit today, but still overall vastly improved. First interval (and longest) I was fine afterwards, just winded. After the second one I started to retch a little bit but refused to stop moving and managed to "walk it off". After the third interval I tried to walk it off again but it caught up to me and I had to stop for about 30 seconds (nothing in stomach = over quickly, at least).

Logically I know I'm improving. My intervals are getting faster and longer, and even getting out there and doing ANYTHING will improve my tone and endurance. My blood pressure is ideal, and I'm taking care of my Vitamin D deficiency. I just still feel like I'm failing, because I can't run. Logically I know I'm still getting exercise, but emotionally it feels like it didn't count and I'm just wasting people's time. Meh. I dunno. I'm not giving up or anything like that, just not feeling terribly happy or optimistic with myself today.

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Mwahahahaa! I have a goal!

Tue, 22 May 2012 22:20:04 GMT

The question is, can I be ready for this by December?

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Since Monday mornings suck anyway... might as well run!

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:15:57 GMT

Just completed a 2.37 mile run playing Zombies, Run!: collected 22 supplies - pace of 15:39/mi.

Not as good of a pace as last time, but woke up dealing with 2 angry ankles, plus a heat spike in the weather, and then also made sure to not drink any water beforehand to see if it helped my stomach to be empty. Also turned off the Random Attack option this time because I wanted to be in control of my intervals, given the above factors. Did 3 intervals on my own through the mission, making sure to land heel/mid-foot and trying to lengthen my stride (which is harder to fight instinct on than I anticipated). Managed to go about twice as long as usual on the first interval, about same as usual on second and third... although on the third I was ready to keep going, but we hit a cross-street and had to pause to let a car go by, and as soon as forward momentum stopped my body went "UGH NO DONE NOW."

But all three times I stopped only because I was out of breath. NO HORKING! Not even nausea! Apparently we've hit upon the cure! Now I just need to start hyper-hydrating myself the night BEFORE. Which I've been trying to do already, along with cutting way back on drinking, eating my heavier meal earlier in the day, etc., but now I need to up my game specifically in the hydration regard.

Fox also suggested, for a little while until I acclimate better to the climbing heat (since I've been a heat casualty before and am unfortunately prone to it), that I keep the Random Attacks off, and we try to start out with jogging as long as I can, and then intersperse shorter intervals as often as possible while it's still slightly cool and I'm fresh, rather than my trying to space them out evenly and ending up attempting the last one when I'm exhausted and wobbling.

I also put together a thematic playlist so our "radio message" timing would sync up. I was basically going for zombies/flee for your life as a theme in general, but needed to make sure it was a joggable beat (no ballads, no speed metal). The entire list is way long and I'll have to pare it down, but so far I've got:

Stabbing Westward - Save Yourself
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
New Order - Confusion (which most people know as the Bloodbath/Feeding Frenzy song from Blade)
Oingo Boingo - Grey Matter
Rob Zombie - Living Dead Girl
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - After the Flesh
Ludacris - Move, Bitch (Get Out The Way) (I had to XD)
Machines of Loving Grace - Butterfly Wings
Fat Boy Slim - Because We Can Can Can (not really thematic, but gets your butt moving)
Skrillex - Kill Everybody (Bare Noise Remix)

There are actually more than that, but they'll be pared down for when we get up to hour-long missions.

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Mon, 21 May 2012 01:31:39 GMT

Have been rather faily at getting things done lately. Well, not faily, but only succeeding at maintaining the current level of half-chaos rather than making progress. Amusingly, we're going to be having an Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass-themed party soonish, and I immediately called Red Queen (not Queen of Hearts). James and Fox both baffledly asked me why. I quoted: "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." If that doesn't sum up my life in a nutshell, I don't know what does.

But today I:

- Got out of the house and socialized
- Slew nearly all of Mt. St. Cleanclothes, except for the bedsheets
- Watered ALL THE THINGS
- Did some minor home repairs that had been bugging me

So that's something at least. Tomorrow, if work doesn't shanghai me again, hopefully I can knock out bank deposits and comic shop along with the "maintenance" of zombie jogging, gardening, dishes, cooking, laundry, general pick-up-after-J, script-writing, and being 3-5 different full-time job roles at my actual day job. Because unfortunately, those are required, as I said, "[just] to keep in the same place."

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I need brain training for my endurance training

Sat, 19 May 2012 00:03:29 GMT

Oh yeah, just after starting the walk/jog thing, I developed a weird lump on the back of my achilles tendon. At first I thought it was maybe just irritation from crappy shoes, but then I got some better ones and it still kept coming and going, along with residual tendon pain. We eventually figured out that it was an odd-looking form of tendonitis, but not why. Nor could we figure out why I can speed-walk for literally hours, but break me into a jog for more than a minute and I start heaving uncontrollably. Thought at first it might be heat, or humidity, or dehydration, or not being used to core impact, but the difference was so sudden and vast it was just plain weird.

Today we think we figured out the culprit: I've inadvertently trained myself to not be able to endurance run.

Basically, my exercise experience in the past has been martial arts, and sprinting. These both have something in common: when you need to move fast, you have to get up on the balls of your feet. When you need to brace/stop/otherwise make sure you DO NOT MOVE, you drop your heels. This is trained into you until it's complete subconscious instinct.

2 + 2 = D'OH!

So yeah, today Fox noticed that apparently my body's instinctive reaction to my conscious brain saying "OK, jog" is to take the leg/foot position and stride length of sprinting and slow it down to about 1/5 speed. As you can imagine, this is inefficient as hell and drains your energy like whoa, awkward & straining to the muscles and tendons, and treats your internal organs like you're riding a trotting pony on top of a washing machine during spin cycle. No wonder I've been horfing.

But now that we know the problem, Fox and I can both work on making sure that I actually land on my heels and take long running strides instead of angled sprint-bites. Hopefully this will appease both the tendon and my stomach in the near future.

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Finding motivation

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:42:52 GMT

So, what have I been doing recently? (Other than This Week of Oh My Fuck, which I will get into in a later post.) Well, several things really, but for those of you not on Facebook, the most entertaining thing I've been doing is Zombies, Run!

Yes, me. Going outside. And jogging. A sign of the end times, etc.

There are a lot of apps out there that "put zombies in your path" etc, but they force you to keep looking at your GPS while running, and that's pretty much all they do. This app is more of a hybrid between an audiobook and a LARP. You get sent on various missions, and between songs on your phone/ipod/whatever's playlist, the radio guy back at your base (who sounds unnervingly like Wheatley from Portal 2) will come in and tell you what's going on: zombies are surrounding the hospital you're trying to get supplies from, or there's a child stranded nearby in the wasteland you need to rescue, or something else that gives you a reason to keep moving and slowly fills you in on the story of the post-apocalyptic society you're supposedly in.

I recommend watching the video on their website, it explains the overall stuff rather better than I can for the most part. But one of the other things you can do is turn on the option for random zombie attacks interspersed in any given mission. At that point you have to increase your speed by a certain percentage for a certain amount of time (30-90 seconds) to evade them. If you don't, you have to jettison some of your hard-earned supplies to distract them and get away.

I've had the option turned on since the beginning, but today (Episode 4) was the first time it kicked off for me. Fox has run 6 or 7 missions and still never gotten one. Today I got THREE. What the hell, app? One of the things I DON'T like so far is that the percentage increase appears to be based on your base speed on the overall mission, not your actual speed at the time the attack kicks off. This meant that the first attack I evaded at a light jog, the second I held my own (it tells you if they are gaining or not) for about 45 seconds at a good run but then had to stop because I started dry-heaving. The third? Was right before we were about to get home so I was wiped, but I instinctively bolted anyway to somewhere between a jog and a sprint. Managed to keep it up for about 25-30 seconds before realizing A. despite this being the fastest I've gone the whole time and starting from the slowest base speed, the zombies were gaining on me the whole time, and B. whoops, I'm gonna puke again.

I didn't realize until I was in the shower later the exact circumstances & probable consequences of that last one. We were just passing by the high school near our house, so there were a lot of kids being dropped off by their parents right by us. At which point I randomly blurted "OH CRAP!", vaguely glanced behind me out of instinct, and bolted running down the street. Fox, since he knew what was going on, immediately took off with me.

I'm now imagining that crowd of high schoolers reacting like startled cats, trying to figure out what we were running from and whether to follow our lead. I laughed so hard I almost fell over in the shower.

EDIT: Oh good, it's not just me!

So yeah... that's what I'm doing, and while I still feel like a complete schlub and no doubt will do so for quite some time yet, I've already upped my average speed by 2 minutes per mile, and I'm not collapsing and dead at the end like I was at the start. Also, apparently I am getting tan like whoa.

I'll leave you with a video from one of my favorite series, because at 2:35 is where I got the quote in my icon from. But the first convo of the episode are pretty much the two sides of my brain arguing after each of the zombie chase intervals. XD

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To-DOOOOOOOM Goes Bananas!

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:49:25 GMT

Tado Taday:

- ~~Continue training for zombie apocalypse, which is only a slightly more silly reason for exercise than ritually commemorating a military courier from 500 BC.~~

- ~~Water & weed herbs and veggies that are ALIVE! And GROWING! Rub hands together and murmur "Soon... soon..."~~

- Demolish Mt. St. Cleanclothes and all the spawned foothills before I need a sherpa to get to the bed.

- Write at least 2 more scripts for the current story arc, which will be hilarious but haven't quite nailed down how I want to completely implement it yet.

- ~~Continue being 4 of the 8 people on my team at work. Do not flail where anyone can see.~~

- Clear & put away random boxes & bags of stuff next to bed (yarn, wool, books, winter comforter, a bodhran... it's like a Scots grandmother exploded in there)

Tado tamarrah:

- More zombie-based exercise. When passing other people, pretend I am totally enjoying and breezing through it and not about to throw up.

- Buy mulch to attempt fixing random fairy rings of ick on front lawn, as suggested by lawn dude I hired because I thought HE was going to FIX it rather than just give a "consultation". Grr.

- Work on website for my epic hairdresser so I can get my mane all awesome-ified before A-Kon

- Clean off/organize desk of Encroaching Piles(TM).

- Pay bills, once they are freed from the clutches of said Piles.

- Cook healthy-type stuff with enough leftovers for Weds night. Ask Fox to once again sit on me when I am consumed with the unhealthy craving for tacos at midnight.

- Go get my comics pull list before I need to rent a U-Haul to bring it home

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Son, I Am Disappoint

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:39:52 GMT

Some guy actually just tried this on me.

Dude (heavy accent): Hello this is Meekrosüft regarding your computer.

Me: I'm sorry, WHO? (I actually couldn't understand the word.)

Dude: I am from Kwaanzacy*, working for Meekrosüft, I am calling about your computer.

Me: (Thinking it's a wrong number from some kind of collection agency, because I've been getting lots of those for someone else lately) I'm sorry, I don't recognize that company name, and I own my computer.

Dude: Are you running The Windows?

Me: Uh... yes. (Thinking aw hell, I know this scam. Hang up or troll him? Hmmmm...)

Dude (Gleefully): HELLO YES THIS IS WINDOWS CALLING ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER!

And then this pops in my head:

And all possibility of trolling goes out the window (no pun intended) as I lose it laughing. Dude is confused.

Me: Yeah okay, I know this scam but nice try. *click*

Wish I'd been able to keep from laughing. But for the next few weeks I'll probably be answering my phone "HELLO YES THIS IS WINDOWS."

* Upon further research I'm 99% sure he was saying "Quantum PC", but the dude was heavily accented, mumbling, and talking 500MPH

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hooboy

Mon, 07 May 2012 21:35:41 GMT

It's physically impossible to wash a load of laundry on Cold already. This is gonna be one hell of a summer.

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Why yes, this IS what I do for fun.

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 01:45:28 GMT

This last weekend we went camping out on Possum Kingdom Lake. It's a beautiful area about 3 hours West of Fort Worth, with a state park and camping and fishing and hiking and all kinds of getting-the-fuck-away-from-it-all bliss, which I have been needing for about... a year, since all our "vacations" are either working conventions, or visiting family, which is AWESOME but not the same as a real "I do not have to do anything" vacation.

So we got a "primitive" camping spot, which is around a huge bend in the lake and largely away from the people who are "camping" in their air-conditioned RV's and blaring stereos and such. It still has a fire pit and you can get to civilized bathrooms and bottled water etc if you want to walk a mile or so in the dark. Or you can pee behind a tree like REAL CAMPING DAMMIT. OK, so I'm prejudiced.

We had a blast, hiked, fished*, swam in the lake, lounged about pointing out shapes in the clouds and looking at the stars, etc.

While we were attempting to fish around sundown, which is the best time for both Striped Bass and Catfish, we were annoyed by a bunch of late-teens over in the RV area who'd brought a couple jet-skis and a jet-boat and were roaring around the lake way past when they were supposed to stop (for both fishing and safety's sake). Then, after full dark, we busted out some lighted bobbers and worms and were still going for catfish, they jumped back in the boat and very loudly and obviously drunkenly ("WOOO LIQUORVILLE FOREVER" etc.) tore around the lake some more. We were waiting for them to run into one of the many rock or tree snags in the lake, but they made it back to shore miraculously safe.

Shortly after that as we were drifting off to sleep, a pickup pulled into the last slot of the day camping area (right across the lake from us) and I heard giggling. OK, teens/college students sneaking off to do their thing. Been there. I start to snooze.

Five minutes later a bloodcurdling female shriek rings out from that spot and then is suddenly cut off.

An entire encyclopedia of things cram into my brain at once:

1. Bunch of underage kids go camping in the wilderness in order to drink/smoke/fuck/etc.
2. Said kids annoy the rest of the people around by being disrespectful of everyone but themselves.
3. One couple sneaks off to have sex.
4. By the by, this area has a famous rumor about having a serial killer that stalked it years ago**.
5. "HAVE YOU FUCKING IDIOTS NEVER SEEN A HORROR MOVIE IN YOUR LIVES?!"
6. Christ, I'm glad I brought a gun in case of coyotes/bobcats/rattlers/etc.

So I've got my Browning out next to me and am dragging pants on (the day was 98*F and the night was not much cooler, screw pajamas) before I heard a giggle and conversation. So apparently she got a bug in her hair or something. But it made me realize a LOT of things I hadn't known were running through my subconscious about the area.

* The fish were being dicks. We couldn't figure out why until we went hiking, when we found that the warm winter & spring was both hosting a record hatch of biting sand flies and making the butterflies migrate early. So the fish were all being snobs and not biting on anything but Prime Monarch, etc.

** While watching the video as I was making the post, I realized something. At 4:09 I went "OH SHIT I KNOW THAT VIEW! From when I was scouting fishing spots! That's camping spot 7!" So yeah, that video about the serial killer was filmed from about 20 feet from our tent. Good times.

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btw

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:57:13 GMT

Hippo belated birdies to shinga, because during her actual birthday I was out in the middle of no-signal serial killer territory and am now back in civilization and shiz.

Many many more, much love, fistbumps, Golden Gates, ruling the world, and generally kicking ass like we do in the icon, to you in the future. LOOOOOOVE! <3

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Vhat ze hell.

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:54:19 GMT

Meme:
I think everyone is curious about what others think of them. It's a natural curiosity and one that we rarely get to indulge in. So, let's indulge.

Comment on this post with the three words that you think best describe me. They don't have to be complimentary. They don't have to be anything but honest. If you want, post this in your journal and find out what three words others would use to describe you.

ALSO: If you've done this meme recently and I haven't responded yet because life has eaten my brain, let me know in comments and I'll go back for it. LEAVE NO MEME BEHIND!!

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RAWR

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:27:32 GMT

I AM THE GAR QUEEN!

PHEAR MAH SKILLZ!

(nom nom nom)

*Translation: We went fishing today and I caught 2 hugemongous gar back to back, and then almost caught 4 more but they slipped the hook on the way in. I also somehow caught a channel cat on a slab lure, which was more than a little WTF. But given that every other time I have tried fishing since I moved to TX I have gotten skunked (landed some but it was either small Crappie or Bluegill, which isn't worth the extensive deboning time at that size IMHO, or they were too small for the legal limit period), so I'm feeling more than a little mighty right now.

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