Susan’s Salon is posted early on Monday (Australian Eastern Standard Time, which is still Sunday in most places).
First hints of spring here
Post about anything you like (from troubling news to pleasant distractions) in the comments of this open thread. [However, no cranky conflicts between each other in the comments.] 😇
Links, videos, cat pictures 🐈 etc are fine!It’s fine to be sad, worried, worried about wars, angry or maybe even happy (or all of those things at once).
29 responses to “Susan’s Salon: 14/15 August 2022”
The 2022 Auroras were announced and I can add a sixth loss to my roster. Among the winners, a book by Manitoba’s Leader of the Opposition, which I think might be a first for SF awards in general, not just the Aurora.
Due to my theatre-tech background, I had three devices ready for the ceremony green room, of which two failed me…
My wife and I are working on doing more stuff together. Between the pandemic and her work schedule, we’d gotten out of the habit. Yesterday we had date night at the planetarium and then our favorite restaurant.
Received the manuscript PDF for my Aliens Are Here book on aliens-on-Earth movies. Proofing and (shudder) indexing will take up the rest of this month’s work.
Beautiful early fall weather here in Durham NC this weekend. Bicycling was a joy.
Making samosas for dinner.
Last week of summer break for me — meeting for the fall semester start on August 19th. Getting all my reading in before then! Right now I’m reading When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill and liking it a lot.
Work is less busy at the moment but COVID is keeping everyone on their toes: this week I am filling in for a staff member who is currently home sick. This is what “living with COVID” means for the next while. Even though New Zealand’s daily case numbers are reducing from its winter peak, there is still plenty of COVID to go round.
For example my daily bus route has managed to run its express buses only twice in the last two months as a shortage of drivers has forced a reduction of service. More people are calling in sick, and though everyone tries to accommodate this, it is clear that we are not living in “normal times”.
I think people who say COVID is over are living in a fantasy world.
The venue where I’ve been performing, which has been our company’s regular spot for several years, just announced they’re going to stop checking vaccination cards at all— even though all the groups and individual artists who made contracts with the space did so on the basis of the current arrangement. I’m sure their reasoning boils down to “it’s unpopular, and people keep saying COVID is over so who are we to disagree, and we want to get more people into the bar,” even though I’m sure they will also lose customers and performers who aren’t cool with this. We’ve been discussing our response even though it’s unclear whether we have any leverage at all. (And, in that discussion, one person used the phrase “Personally I’m not driven by fear of COVID”— at which point I suddenly realized I’ve just been super lucky to have avoided being in any face-to-face conversations where people said such things, for a while. Hasn’t gotten any less aggravating.)
Not a bad week, though a busy one. I finished two articles, submitted a flash story, answered a call for submissions I saw on Twitter and promptly had another essay commissioned.
Plus, our pal The Phantom showed up to comment on my Dragon Award finalist article.
Oh, I don’t mind him commenting, I merely thought it was funny, since I hadn’t even thought of Phantom in months now and there he is, popping up in the comments to basically confirm my point.
And Phantom would never diss He-Man, because He-Man is strong and manly. Unless he decides to take issue with the fact that Fisto and Ram-Man are openly gay in my stories.
That said, there is something of a cottage industry on YouTube of ranty fanboys complaining about Masters of the Universe: Revelation, because it has supposedly gone woke. Main complaints are that Teela has a more realistic bodyshape (yup, woman warriors have muscles, who’d have thought?) and that she’s rude and brash (something she’s always been in the cartoons). Another complaint is that two characters, one who appeared in a single cartoon episode twenty years ago and another who appeared in a few comics more than 30 years ago, are black in Revelation and were white in their previous appearance. Apparently, all this means that He-Man has gone woke and that Kevin Smith murdered their childhood.
On Thursday, Esty told me that I had two variegated gingers headed this way. (Hint: they’re expensive. Really expensive.) Now I knew I hadn’t ordered any, so I contacted the seller who I had ordered them off before and she said that the email was a mistake. Well yesterday they arrived from her. Three of them!
I’ve potted them up and they have joined the other ninety plus plants here.
I’ve got two cardomons, a ginger and a number of bromeliads headed this way.
I missed ordering EGG’s Greenies so I had to pick up some cheap junky ones, which of course he LOVES. So much that he won’t even try catching them, he’ll just attack them and woe betide any part of me that gets between him and the junk food treats. In related news, I have a number of new scratches. Luckily the Greenies should arrive before tomorrow night’s bedtime.
Tomorrow and Tuesday are full of annoying going out to fetch crap and being on hold with large institutions. Rah.
I keep thinking I can’t get any tireder, and yet I do.
Still no Greenies. The supply chain is very slow, even for Amazon. Luckily they did get a variety pack of slightly-less junky treats to me, so EGG’s good for a week or two.
STILL no Greenies, and everything’s either 2 days late, hasn’t shipped, or was canceled. I have to go out tomorrow, so looks like I’ll be in the pet supply store to get some noms.
Down on the south coast for my mums birthday where it is hot (for the UK!) & ridiculously dry. Had to bring the Ruffian because he blew his second chance w a friend who offered to dog sit after he managed to escape from her back garden (2nd change because first trial run he disgraced himself by peeing inside – although it was in her bathroom at least!)
Finished the third MH book (title and authors name redacted for fear of attracting the Herronbot) & now reading Shipley’s Shadowlands – The True Story of CS Lewis & Joy Davidman
And I had three short/flash pieces appear in various places this week which was hugely gratifying & as always offers a counter beat to the March of the Rejections!
Congrats on the sales.
I went looking for Shadowlands on the library website and wound up putting a hold on a similarly titled book about lost English cities.
In that case, can you please come to Germany or at least back to Europe? Cause I’m very sick of this hot and dry weather, though we did have a bit of rain yesterday.
I’d take even a bit of rain. I don’t think it’s rained here since March, and that was only sprinkles. Our yard is a bunch of dead weeds, but dead grass would be the same color, and we’re not watering due to the drought. Just mow everything down to the ground, which our neighbor does for us. Jesús saves. 🙂
Yesterday it was 95 and I had to go out. I couldn’t even get the car cool enough to put A/C on, so I narrowly escaped heat exhaustion. And of course the only parking I could find was way away from the building.
EGG has spent much of his time looking like Salvador Dali painted him.
it’s been like that here in Durham for a month and a half. But this past week it dropped back down to fall-ish temperatures. It was glorious.
Our cats fortunately seem to thrive on the heat.
Didn’t anybody else watch “She-Hulk”? Great first episode. And when Jen told Bruce straight up why she’s infinitely better at controlling her Hulk side, I wanted to high-five her.
Camestros Felapton 
29 responses to “Susan’s Salon: 14/15 August 2022”
The 2022 Auroras were announced and I can add a sixth loss to my roster. Among the winners, a book by Manitoba’s Leader of the Opposition, which I think might be a first for SF awards in general, not just the Aurora.
Due to my theatre-tech background, I had three devices ready for the ceremony green room, of which two failed me…
LikeLiked by 4 people
My wife and I are working on doing more stuff together. Between the pandemic and her work schedule, we’d gotten out of the habit. Yesterday we had date night at the planetarium and then our favorite restaurant.
Received the manuscript PDF for my Aliens Are Here book on aliens-on-Earth movies. Proofing and (shudder) indexing will take up the rest of this month’s work.
Beautiful early fall weather here in Durham NC this weekend. Bicycling was a joy.
Making samosas for dinner.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thoughts & prayers on the indexing!
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Thank you. It’s not hard but it’s incredibly tedious.
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Aye – although I remember the Time Before Searchable PDFs … no, no I can’t even face the memory!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Last week of summer break for me — meeting for the fall semester start on August 19th. Getting all my reading in before then! Right now I’m reading When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill and liking it a lot.
LikeLike
Work is less busy at the moment but COVID is keeping everyone on their toes: this week I am filling in for a staff member who is currently home sick. This is what “living with COVID” means for the next while. Even though New Zealand’s daily case numbers are reducing from its winter peak, there is still plenty of COVID to go round.
For example my daily bus route has managed to run its express buses only twice in the last two months as a shortage of drivers has forced a reduction of service. More people are calling in sick, and though everyone tries to accommodate this, it is clear that we are not living in “normal times”.
I think people who say COVID is over are living in a fantasy world.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The venue where I’ve been performing, which has been our company’s regular spot for several years, just announced they’re going to stop checking vaccination cards at all— even though all the groups and individual artists who made contracts with the space did so on the basis of the current arrangement. I’m sure their reasoning boils down to “it’s unpopular, and people keep saying COVID is over so who are we to disagree, and we want to get more people into the bar,” even though I’m sure they will also lose customers and performers who aren’t cool with this. We’ve been discussing our response even though it’s unclear whether we have any leverage at all. (And, in that discussion, one person used the phrase “Personally I’m not driven by fear of COVID”— at which point I suddenly realized I’ve just been super lucky to have avoided being in any face-to-face conversations where people said such things, for a while. Hasn’t gotten any less aggravating.)
LikeLike
Not a bad week, though a busy one. I finished two articles, submitted a flash story, answered a call for submissions I saw on Twitter and promptly had another essay commissioned.
Plus, our pal The Phantom showed up to comment on my Dragon Award finalist article.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Just his usual fact-free whining. Except for all the facts of yours he agreed with.
I’d be more upset if he was dissing the “He-Man” posts.
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Oh, I don’t mind him commenting, I merely thought it was funny, since I hadn’t even thought of Phantom in months now and there he is, popping up in the comments to basically confirm my point.
And Phantom would never diss He-Man, because He-Man is strong and manly. Unless he decides to take issue with the fact that Fisto and Ram-Man are openly gay in my stories.
That said, there is something of a cottage industry on YouTube of ranty fanboys complaining about Masters of the Universe: Revelation, because it has supposedly gone woke. Main complaints are that Teela has a more realistic bodyshape (yup, woman warriors have muscles, who’d have thought?) and that she’s rude and brash (something she’s always been in the cartoons). Another complaint is that two characters, one who appeared in a single cartoon episode twenty years ago and another who appeared in a few comics more than 30 years ago, are black in Revelation and were white in their previous appearance. Apparently, all this means that He-Man has gone woke and that Kevin Smith murdered their childhood.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You can’t tell me that the writers didn’t consider that possibility for Ram-Man, and especially Fisto. Probably did it on purpose for a laugh.
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I got a pleasant gift in the mail.
On Thursday, Esty told me that I had two variegated gingers headed this way. (Hint: they’re expensive. Really expensive.) Now I knew I hadn’t ordered any, so I contacted the seller who I had ordered them off before and she said that the email was a mistake. Well yesterday they arrived from her. Three of them!
I’ve potted them up and they have joined the other ninety plus plants here.
I’ve got two cardomons, a ginger and a number of bromeliads headed this way.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I would love to see pictures of your miniature jungle sometime.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Send me an email at aweegreenman @ gmail.com and I’ll send you a bonnie bunch of photos.
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Same as always here.
I missed ordering EGG’s Greenies so I had to pick up some cheap junky ones, which of course he LOVES. So much that he won’t even try catching them, he’ll just attack them and woe betide any part of me that gets between him and the junk food treats. In related news, I have a number of new scratches. Luckily the Greenies should arrive before tomorrow night’s bedtime.
Tomorrow and Tuesday are full of annoying going out to fetch crap and being on hold with large institutions. Rah.
I keep thinking I can’t get any tireder, and yet I do.
LikeLike
And I acquired more scratches last night.
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Still no Greenies. The supply chain is very slow, even for Amazon. Luckily they did get a variety pack of slightly-less junky treats to me, so EGG’s good for a week or two.
LikeLike
STILL no Greenies, and everything’s either 2 days late, hasn’t shipped, or was canceled. I have to go out tomorrow, so looks like I’ll be in the pet supply store to get some noms.
LikeLike
Down on the south coast for my mums birthday where it is hot (for the UK!) & ridiculously dry. Had to bring the Ruffian because he blew his second chance w a friend who offered to dog sit after he managed to escape from her back garden (2nd change because first trial run he disgraced himself by peeing inside – although it was in her bathroom at least!)
Finished the third MH book (title and authors name redacted for fear of attracting the Herronbot) & now reading Shipley’s Shadowlands – The True Story of CS Lewis & Joy Davidman
And I had three short/flash pieces appear in various places this week which was hugely gratifying & as always offers a counter beat to the March of the Rejections!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congrats on the sales.
I went looking for Shadowlands on the library website and wound up putting a hold on a similarly titled book about lost English cities.
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Thanks! And that sounds like an interesting book actually …
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A friend believes that the rain has finally come to live with me, which is why the UK is now hot and dry and Australia is cold and wet
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70% chance of rain for 8 am … but that’s the thing about probability (no rain. At present)
I did see a rainbow over the Downs first thing, which gave me hope (appropriately)
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In that case, can you please come to Germany or at least back to Europe? Cause I’m very sick of this hot and dry weather, though we did have a bit of rain yesterday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d take even a bit of rain. I don’t think it’s rained here since March, and that was only sprinkles. Our yard is a bunch of dead weeds, but dead grass would be the same color, and we’re not watering due to the drought. Just mow everything down to the ground, which our neighbor does for us. Jesús saves. 🙂
Yesterday it was 95 and I had to go out. I couldn’t even get the car cool enough to put A/C on, so I narrowly escaped heat exhaustion. And of course the only parking I could find was way away from the building.
EGG has spent much of his time looking like Salvador Dali painted him.
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it’s been like that here in Durham for a month and a half. But this past week it dropped back down to fall-ish temperatures. It was glorious.
Our cats fortunately seem to thrive on the heat.
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Today I went to a big box store for a pick up order (including cat noms! and the stuff Amazon has stopped updating me on).
Mask wearing: All employees except the one cashier in a hijab, which is weird because she’s used to having stuff around her face and over her head.
Customers: All East Asians. All South Asians. No Hispanic or Middle Eastern people, and about 1/3 of the Whites.
And it wasn’t even a Wal Mart, because I haven’t been there in decades.
Then we ate dinner, watched Baby Groot and She-Hulk. Also not 95 any more.
Lo, it is bedtime and EGG needs food.
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Didn’t anybody else watch “She-Hulk”? Great first episode. And when Jen told Bruce straight up why she’s infinitely better at controlling her Hulk side, I wanted to high-five her.
LikeLiked by 1 person