Octobears are bears with eight faces, numbered from zero to seven
Please use the comment section to just chat about whatever you want. Susan’s Salon is posted early Monday (Sydney time which is still Sunday in most countries) . It’s fine to be sad, worried, angry or happy (or all of those things at once).
Please feel free to post what you like (either troubling news or pleasant distractions) in the comments for this open thread. [However, no cranky conflicts between each other in the comments.] Links, videos, cat pictures 🐈 etc are fine! Whatever you like and be nice to one another 😇
ALSO! For US Presidential election discussion, gripes, fears and hopes, Wednesday’s “Straw Puppy’s POTUS Polls” is dedicated to election talk.
Camestros Felapton 
23 responses to “Susan’s Salon: 2020 October 18/19”
16 days
*screams*
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On twitter I see that someone thinks that John Scalzi is Chuck Tingle – which is hilarious, and gets more hilarious the more you think about it (all that effort the Puppies put in was to get Scalzi nominated for a Hugo?)
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I’d give it a 10% chance. It’s not wholly impossible but very different senses of humour and where would Scalzi have found the time?
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I’d give it much, much less of a chance than that. But it’s a funny thought.
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The 10% is purely that he has the necessary skills and writing ability.
There was a time when Vox Day was trying to pretend that people seriously thought he might be Chuck Tingle (he even changed his Facebook page to pretend he was) but the chance of that was 0%.
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I don’t think Scalzi would have bothered to make a pseudonym. If he’d somehow gotten the idea to write those stories, he’d have published them as himself.
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Indeed
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Scalzi is not shy about publishing goofy stuff under his own name. And he certainly wouldn’t have time to create and maintain the entire Tingleverse.
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I’m now caught up through April in my short fiction reading. My favorite this week was “The Sycamore and the Sybil” by Alix E. Harrow (Uncanny 33, Mar/Apr 2020). She describes it (on Twitter) as “the myth of apollo & daphne, except witchy and appalachian and vengeful.”
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Oh, shoot! Forgot the closing tag for the link. Would you fix that, Cam?
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[ominous voice:]The tag has closed.
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That was beautiful! And literally hair-raising — I got goosebumps. Such a powerful voice it’s written in.
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Been distracted from being productive this weekend by FiyahCon but I guess I can’t complain. It’s been a blast, and I usually can’t really pay attention to virtual cons due to being borderline ADHD, but I’ve made myself do so and enjoyed it a lot (Putting it on my phone while i run or drive has helped).
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Still working my way through the fun of the popping Australian finger limes. Rationing them so as to get my money’s worth. You can buy trees but it would require too much coddling in this climate and everything in my yard either lives on its own with only occasional water, or dies.
Credentials remain annoying yet adorable.
Still hot here, but most nights I can open up and let some fresh air in — the smoke seems to be going elsewhere except when it isn’t.
I bought myself a giant bag of candy individually wrapped and sized for Halloween. About 1/3 of it is a kind I can’t eat, but the rest is delightful, and portion control is built in. Plus it was 40% off, so I’m breaking even. We don’t get enough trick or treaters in an ordinary year to bother, and I’m sure there won’t be any this year, so the candy is mine all mine, mwahahaha. Probably find somewhere to donate the leftovers to.
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Moved out of villa into hotel, now waiting to move to new villa in two weeks, ugh. Lots of my stuff is in storage but I still have * so much* with me. Planning a little long weekend in the next town over to hang out with a friend and try out some different yoga. I need to check the schedule for a different yoga place too and see if it lines up so I can do some power vinyasa as well. Been reading a little but I’m reading short, simple essays on tengu in Japanese and I’m absolutely kicking myself for not using karasutengu as my username everywhere. (I’m obsessed with crows and love folklore and mythology, so an ominous crow-based spirit ticks all my boxes)
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For the last few days I have been dealing with what I am optimistically assuming is a gum infection (as opposed to a more serious tooth problem that might require serious dental work). I called my dentist on Thursday, but they couldn’t fit me in until tomorrow. I hate going to the dentists at the best of times :-(. I have had a few issues with gum infections lately, and I wonder if my hayfever medication may be contributing. The irony (if that’s the right word) is that if I don’t use this medication I get a lot of ear infections from the hayfever. I wonder if there’s some happy medium.
In geekier news, Baldur’s Gate 3 is looking really great – I won’t be able to play it until it comes out on XBox, but it seems like it ticks a lot of ‘appeals to angharad’ boxes.
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The apple tree has once again appled. Not as many as last year, which is to be expected as it alternates years with heavy crops. Also not as good, also to be expected with a warm winter, a hot summer, and less sunlight due to smoke.
Still! Homegrown apples! Organic and straight from the tree.
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2020 and Florida — a match made in wherever:
https://www.miamiherald.com/miami-com/miami-com-news/article246504510.html
“Phil Collins wants to end ex wife’s ‘armed occupation’ of his mansion”
With a link to the court filings!
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This has absolutely nothing to do with that story but I truly love Marissa Nadler & Stephen Brodsky’s cover of In the Air Tonight – https://marissanadler.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-air-tonight-more-than-words
And this has absolutely nothing to do with that but aside from their album (Droneflower) and those covers Marissa Nadler and Stephen Brodsky were back together again for the TMTLT cover of Spooky this week!
This is my favourite since they did Rain When I Die.
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to add to Music News Corner, there’s a brand new Wagakki Band album, TOKYO SINGING. I’ve just had a listen and it’s pretty good. Favourite track so far is maybe Queen of the Night. Conveniently they released a music video for that track last week in advance of the album.
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So I had plans for NaNoWriMo this year, I was going to write up an idea that’s been knocking around in the back of my mind for some time. I even did a bit of preliminary research….
And then, over the last couple of days, a completely different idea has bubbled up from my subconscious, complete with characters, setting details, a central conflict, even an opening scene.
It’s not easy living in my head. Not in the run-up to NaNoWriMo, at least.
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Obviously the new idea wants to be written.
And it could be worse — you could be living in Mr. No Relation’s head, and that’s terrifying!
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In mostly boring life news —
1. I went and got my flu shot AND a pneumococcal pneumonia shot today. I haven’t had a flu shot in decades, but I ain’t taking any chances this year. And I’m not old enough to really be recommended to have the pneumonia shot, but I talked my doctor into it — paranoia is not always a bad thing! (I did call my insurance, and they are covering the pneumonia shot even though I’m not in the recommended age range. They are not all bad.)
2. After my shot I was parked in the Kroger parking lot eating an early Chinese take-out supper/late lunch and heard what sounded like a fighter jet circling low overhead for several minutes. But I could only see a small prop plane. It turns out (we think — not verified) that some clueless private pilot was coming into the local municipal airport (I live in a small city not far from Nashville) and got everyone upset about “violating restricted air space” because of the prez being in Nashville for the last debate tonight. I wouldn’t want to have been that pilot.
3. I also drove by the County Election Commission building to see about voting, but there was a line down the sidewalk. I’ll try again tomorrow, hopefully earlier in the day — cross your fingers for no line!
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