Member Posts

Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: Hudson Line - Mercury Rev

Eleventh of the Eleventh.

One of my clients tasked me to do some computer work for her - it's something I'm doing from my apartment so it's less than the usual rate, and as it's something I'm doing from my apartment, I'm genuinely fine with that. It involves checking to see if her webpage is up to date, going through and seeing if each page that lists certain January events has those events listed on the January masterpost in turn, or if the masterpost for each month is missing certain items.

To keep track of everything as I went, I made a spreadsheet to stay organized. After a couple hours, I sent it her way to make sure I was doing it right from the get-go and wouldn't need to redo more than a couple of hours. She said the work I was doing was fine, and to compile all the missing masterpost items when I was done, but she was confused by the spreadsheet. I explained it to her, and she said that wasn't the issue: she understood what I was doing, it was that she'd never used a spreadsheet.

I understand her professional life began and ended before spreadsheets became a thing, but I hadn't thought she'd never used one. Even as a way to keep track of addresses or manage a list with a lot of moving parts. I'm inclined to believe her that she's been informed they exist and she's simply never had reason to bother.

In some ways, I envy and admire that.

Current Mood: working
Current Music: Shut Up and Kiss Me - Paul McDermott and Fiona Horne

Words poured like wine.

Mid-December 2023, I was chatting with

petra and got an idea for the next novel I could write.

Tonight I sent them the last part of the shitty first draft of said novel, where I simply told myself the story.

Whether it'll be this fast to get through the editing remains to be seen; mostly, I'm tickled that I can pinpoint the date and time, and the exact conversation that helped kick it off.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: nothing now

Kitchen work.

Having now made soufflés, I can't see what the big deal and the fuss is all about with them. They're difficult the way risotto and yeast-based breads are difficult: it's all in the technical details. Once you've mastered those, you're fine. I was fine even whipping the egg whites with only one whisk on the electric mixer because I couldn't find the other one, even when I had to leave them for a few minutes while I got the simmering water ready, even when the oven somehow turned off and I had to leave them sitting in the water bath an extra half-hour while it heated back up. They didn't puff up as much the picture promised, and they were astonishingly fragrant. Cakes on top and custards in the middle as they're supposed to be.

It's not something I'll make all that often - I made them today as recipe testing for one of my clients - and it's something I'm not going to be scared of, if I'm ever called on to do so.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: nothing now

Good time.

Genuine cheering and plate-banging outside my apartment right now is proper celebration on the mayoral race. I'm still a little disappointed I couldn't work the polls today, because it'd have been wonderful to be in the room, but this will do for now.

Other good things of the day really pale in comparison to someone who wants there to be poor people in New York City, because a healthy metropolis is one where people of all stripes thrive. Bring it.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: I Feel It All - Feist

Take a test.

I'm only a little disappointed I'm not working the polls tomorrow. Only a little, because as much as I'd wanted to get out and participate, I know calling off was the right thing to do. I'm coming off a nasty cold - four negative rapid tests since last Wednesday night, including one this afternoon, seem reasonably trustworthy - and while I'm mostly recovered, working the polls for the full duration tomorrow wouldn't do me any good. It's hard enough when I'm completely healthy.

What I'm finding amusing about this is one of my clients reached out and because I'm not working the polls and the physical demands will be significantly less with far fewer hours, I'll be working with her tomorrow afternoon, which means I've basically gone from the public to the private sector.

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: nothing now

November the First.

I called the library beforehand to ask when they took donations for the book sale, and how much I could provide. I followed directions on time, but not so much on volume - they got what they got, which was mostly what I'd bought from them over the past couple years. Nearly all of it was DVDs, CDs, and Blurays where I kept telling myself I didn't want the object, I wanted what was stored on the object. It was lovely to get this movie or that album, and now that I had what I wanted on my computer, I didn't need the object anymore. It was nice to grab all four seasons of Black Sails and the whole series of Fringe, and I don't have the space around my apartment to keep those with what I've already got on the shelves. Especially when I haven't yet gotten around to watching the shows. Soon, in due time. But keeping the objects of the box sets around won't help.

All that, and it's nice to get a few square feet of floor space back. Enough to notice, which is enough to make me want to keep going. Do another book cull, drag those clothes to the donation bin. Say "goodbye and thank you" to the stuff that isn't giving me anything but nostalgia. And maybe see about which extant box sets on my shelves are objects I want for the particular value they have as objects. Is it "the value of the object qualia object"? I'm sure there's a term for it.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Little Gears - Neko Case

Crave some wildness.

Tonight was my and my dad's last Friday night rooftop cider of the season. There's still going to be Friday night ciders - splitting a bottle, catching up, having a good time chatting - and with the nights coming earlier, it's going to happen in the apartment instead of the roof. I don't mind too much, not with how dark it was when we got there or how much darker it was when we went back down. It was honestly quite nice to look around and realize this was the last one. Nothing too special about it, no world-class cider or magnificent thoughts, just a good bottle and a nice time.

Let me amend that: nothing too special about what we did, something quite special about the night in a low-key mundane way, paying attention to the ordinary moments. It was a lovely sunset, fast-moving gray-on-slate tufts and spots of clouds, and by the time we went in, it was dark enough the moon was the brightest thing in the sky. So we stopped to look at it for a while. Just past half-full, the clouds were moving eastward. Almost there, almost there, the wind and the angle taking them just below the moon, enough to light up but not what we were hoping for, waiting more, waiting, a large piece comes by and not quite and maybe this next one - and in front of the moon it went, bright as a star, and we kept oohing and ahhing until it'd passed and the moon was shining by itself again.

As ways to end a season, it's a pretty good one.