sushi lunch, sushi lunch!

Unlike last weekend, this weekend I know I'm getting two nights away and I'm going to make the best of this second night :-)

Suchi lunch is on the way!  Then I'll go forage for supplies, then I don't know exactly what I'll do, but I'll have fun :-)

I started reading Garage Band for Dummies ... gotta climb that DAW learning curve again.  But I'm in no rush.  I'm also role playing the next chapter of my Frag & Killa story.  And started re-reading Anna Karenina, which I first read in college.  I'm currently fascinated by how stories begin.  How does the author drag you into this alternate world?  Which words send you upon this journey?  How does she build word upon word upon word, taking flight inside your mind.

Mark from Reddit liked the video, of course.  I'm so finger tied with him right now (unable to text).  If he were here I'd simply kneel down and kiss his feet and make little squeaking noises instead of speech.  Is there an emoji for that feeling?  Wanting him to marry me so he can have my pension after I pass away, LOL.

There's some Bug heart available here, for the right fella(s).

Sushi lunch!

all in a day's genocide

At that moment, the door to the bar opened, ringing a set of mechanical bells hanging from the cobwebbed wooden ceiling; the old-fashioned mechanical sound startled Frag even though she'd heard it before as she'd entered the small bar.

Killa looked over and excitedly greeted one of her regulars, "Grippa!  Good to see you!  How's your little one doing?"

Grippa, a middle-aged woman of average looks and dusty outerwear, took a stool down aways from Frag, and their catching-up conversation seemingly rescued Frag from talking about her line of work.  She continued lapping up her excellent tequila shot, knowing she couldn't afford more top-shelf shots like this one on her subsistence stipend.  Her credit card would open doors for her, but she couldn't afford to walk through many of them.

Then, to her shock, Killa loudly introduced her to Grippa from across the bar, "Grippa, I'd like you to meet a visitor, Frag Clawhammer.  Frag, this is my friend Grippa Keinz."

Frag stood up and gave an informal bow, "Grippa, pleased to meet you."  Grippa started to do the same but Frag pled, "Please, don't get up," and moved closer to offer her paw.

Grippa almost concealed her surprise at greeting a Furry, warmly grasping her paw and agreeing, "Pleased to meet you, Frag, welcome to Nyon.  We don't get many visitors from offworld here."  Killa nodded to a stool next to Grippa and moved Frag's bowl.

WTF, Frag thought.  She'd heard and read about small town hospitality, but had never experienced it for herself.  And as a fully-transitioned Furry on a strange planet, she wondered whether she was being objectified as an "interesting" anomaly.  Soon to be the "talk of the town".  Soon to be "controversial" merely by sitting still on a barstool.  Would the town try to pass an ordinance requiring her to use litter boxes instead of bathrooms?  Sigh.  Try to let people in, make connections, be honest, tell them the truth, it's The Way.  She's chosen a difficult job for an introvert.

Grippa looks at Frag kindly, and asks the absolutely normal question, "So what brings you to Nyon?" To save her life Grippa could not guess why a feline-adapted person would visit her small town on the edge of nowhere.  It's like a drag queen showed up in Cody, Wyoming back on earth.  Grippa expected Frag to break into song.

Frag sighed, "I'm an organizer with Zero Population.  They sent me here to start a chapter on your planet."

Killa looked relieved, after the earlier talk of "genocide".  But, then Grippa exclaimed, "Oh my stars, the terrorist group?"  Killa gave her a frown and shushed her.

"No, it's OK.  I'm with the political wing, we engage in legal, peaceful, democratic advocacy.  I'm not a 'terrorist'.  Sorry, nothing so exciting as that.  I'm to hand out pamphlets, start a listserv, organize meetings, maybe run for office.  That kind of stuff."

Grippa looked intently at her new acquaintance, then laughed, "Well the Mayor isn't going to be happy about that, hah.  But I'm afraid they sent you to the wrong place, we're not political here.  We work the mines, or we serve the people who work the mines.  And then we come to Starhut after work to get drunk with Killa, eh?"

Killa laughed with her, "'Zero Population' -- we're not that far from zero here as it is.  Now I get why you said 'practice' earlier.  Start small."

our 2020 "starter" pandemic

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, and these two reporters were talking about how the world is living through a "starter" pandemic.

It's deadlier than the flu, but kills fewer than 1% of us in the US, EU, Asia/Pacific, so long as our hospitals aren't overwhelmed.  Not like Ebola or even the Spanish Flu of 100 years ago.  The deadlier diseases that stalked us for millenia are generally under control in the rich countries, and we got rid of smallpox, aren't you glad you haven't had smallpox? Or polio, tetanus, hepatitis, rubella, measles, mumps.  PREP and HAART for HIV, vaccinations and antibiotics for so much other crap.

I think the political divide in 2020 was about whether you cared to save the fewer than 1%.  Republicans: nope, "the economy" is more important, profits are more important, the stock market is more important.  Democrats: well, sort of, we're saving some lives, while blaming it all on Trump.  We still aren't doing the Test, Trace, and Isolate stuff in the US like some other countries have done.  We're not doing basic public health stuff here.  It's shutdown vs. normal.

But this is a starter pandemic, killing less than 1% of us.  There have been far worse.  I do not mean to diminish the lives we've lost.  But there have been far worse.  I've learned that we barely escaped SARS spreading around the planet like COVID-19 has.  That would've been 10x worse.  HIV has been awful, but not a respiratory disease, thankfully, and in rich countries we can treat it.

Maybe we'll be good after we beat this with the vaccines next year.  But maybe the next pandemic will be worse.  And what have we learned from this one?  That nearly half of our population doesn't give a shit, and the other half wants to hide until it's over.  We could've done better.

I miss hanging out with other people.  But we can't do Test, Trace, and Isolate, because we're stupid, so my only choices are to act like COVID-19 doesn't exist, or to hide from all of you until the After the Vaccine.  So I've been hiding from all of you.

Sharing pics over Reddit and kik is fun, but it's no substitute for a cuddle pile.  All I want is a cuddle pile.  Maybe in July.

dialogue, bam

"This is like reading an obituary backwards,"

That line from Philippa, 3rd season Star Trek: Discovery, slapped me, I had to stop the TV, and I've been spinning with my thoughts for a couple hours since, even meditated for a while.  Sometimes writers can punch their words, punch, punch, into your head.

When I was creating my own music, it added to my appreciation of the music I listen to.  Now that I'm getting back into creative writing, I'm appreciating other people's writing more deeply.  And that line popped so hard.

I have to watch it again.

Writing, and the role playing it involves, flexes my appreciation of the human condition.

Matt from Reddit (not Mark, so many mmmnames)

"The fact you can get your pecs hard is so hot"