Last Post for This Version of the Blog

Ugh, this editor. Grossness.

Right, so WordPress doesn’t want free bloggers anymore, and I am sure as heck not paying them, so I’m leaving WordPress. I’ve moved to Blogger. You can find me at https://iphisofscyros.blogspot.com/.

Hopefully, I will get the IWSG account transferred over before Wednesday, but if not, please head over to the new blog where there will be an IWSG post.

Once I am done with the timed projects I am working on now (as will be described in this month’s IWSG post on the new blog) I’m going to repost all the narrative texts I wrote for this version of the blog (esp. the Greek myths) to my AO3 account. Because.

Goodbye?

Okay, so I’ve been using the app on my phone for a while instead of my computer.

Yeah, my bad.

But then I had to get a new computer and I thought “hey, good time to write a post on the computer for once” and I login and go to my bookmark for the Classic Editor…and I get what is basically a blank white screen, because they decided they should completely remove the Classic Editor even though it actually worked and made sense.

This is garbage in every sense of the word.

And oh, sure, they have a plugin that will let you use the classic editor…

…but only if you pay them first.

I am not paying for this crap.

I guess I’ll look into one of the other blog platforms and maybe move over there. Or maybe I’ll just stop. It’s not like I’ve been doing much blogging anyway.

In the meantime, it looks like I probably won’t have an Insecure Writer’s Support Group post for October, because once I figure out where the heck the freaking “post” button is on here, I am not touching this &#*$&$%^&#$&ing website until I cool down again.

Which may take a month or more.

We’ll just have to see what happens then. Maybe I’ll keep going by exclusively using the app on my phone (which obviously I cannot ever update or it might get even worse than it already is, in order to mirror this cluster**** of a thing, but maybe I won’t.

Why would anyone create a new, ugly thing that completely removes all functionality? I guarantee no one came up to them and said “hey, get rid of the Classic Editor!”

Ugh, I’m just getting more and more ticked off.

I’m out of here.

Hopefully only for now, but I make no promises.

This space left intentionally blank.

Well.

I exist.

Even if that’s about all I do.

I spent some time with my template, adding new questions and answering some of them.

Even though it’s completely pointless and a total waste of time.

It’s not like there’s much I can do that isn’t a waste of time.

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Today’s time: 1:13

Time in July to date: 26:12:25.58

Spellchecks take forever!

Seriously, running the spellchecker on a moderately long fanfic (about 70k words) took me nearly an hour!

Admittedly, part of the delay was last-second research into “wait, is that term right?” and “don’t place names maintain their local spellings?” (Specifically, that even in UK English, the place name is still spelled Pearl Harbor, not Harbour.) And, of course, in changing each scene’s language setting so it would match the nationality of the POV character. (Well, one of the leads is English, and the other is American…)

And this time the dialect and conversational idioms were turned up to eleven because there’s a cowboy character with moderately exaggerated dialect. (The big problem with fanfic is that sometimes you want to work with a character whose speech patterns are a problem like that…) And of course the spellchecker had a fit about every single one, and yet I didn’t dare hit “Ignore All” in case there were any places where I had typed those things by accident.

Not, of course, that anything out of the ordinary is necessary for Microsoft Word to make spellchecking a pain in the ass. Witness this gem…

Hmmm.

Looking at it in this new context, I’m really hating that “and then” towards the end there. Sentence needs a restructure.

It does not need Angie to order any heavy metal, though. Most cafes don’t serve music… :p

Another time it wanted to turn “they’re” into “there,” even though that would have left my sentence without a verb!

Huh….how do I put a section break line in using the app?

Ugh.

Well, anyhow, Camp NotNaNo stats are…

Today’s time: 59 minutes

Total time in July to date: 3:46:43.86

Today’s time: 1:49

Total time in July to date: 4:34:13.57

Camp NotNaNo, Day 2

Yeah…not much to say about today. I finished the simple editing (except for the spell checker, which is so tedious that I always put it off for the last minute) and then completely wimped out on starting the research I need to do so badly. 😦

Today’s time: ~0:33:38

July’s time to date: 2:47:56.54

A silly fantasy story for Juneteenth

It’s hard to know how to start this post.  Just a few months ago, when I would read about the Civil Rights Movement and various protests and such in the late ’50s, the ’60s and early ’70s, I used to wonder what I would do if I lived then.  I wanted to think I would get involved, that I would go out there and march with everyone else who wanted to see an end to racism and injustice.

And maybe I would have, if I had been living then.  But this month I’ve learned that I am not going to — that I cannot march now.  If I was twenty years younger (or about a hundred pounds lighter, or at least with more stamina and heat resistance), I am sure I would.  But as I am now, I just can’t.  I’d end up with heat stroke, or something worse.  (COVID doesn’t help there; I would have to march while wearing a mask, and I have trouble breathing through those things.)  All I can do as I am now is sign online petitions and send emails to the expletives utterly failing to represent me in congress and the state capital.  That and donate money to organizations that are fighting the legal battles needed right now.  (And even that I can’t do as much as I would like, as just this week I joined the other 40 million Americans put out of a job by COVID.)

I can’t even do social media posts because I don’t have any social media accounts, and I haven’t put up any blog posts on the subject yet because what can I say that everyone else hasn’t already said better?

So that’s why I’m not downtown right now with the other protesters.  Because my injuring myself will not help the movement.  But I wanted to do something other than just give money.  And I thought of this silly story a few days ago, mostly driven by a particular image late in the story.  It’s not useful or helpful, but it’s the only thing I can do that’s truly me.

And I wanted to do something.  Because I wanted to tell the world that I, too, believe that Black Lives Matter.  No, I don’t just believe it:  I know it.

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That being said, the following story is stupid and skewed and probably not worth reading.  (It has also received almost no editing because I wrote it yesterday, so there hasn’t been time to do more than the most cursory editing job.)  So you’re probably better off not clicking on the “Read More” link.

All Twos!

It’s 2:20 on 02/02/2020!

Um…yeah. That was dumb, I know.

There’ll be a real post on Wednesday.

My life is a work of body horror fiction.

Except it’s not fiction. (As far as I know.)

I’ve been having trouble sitting comfortably in my recliner for some time now. Because my weight is collapsing the seat. But lately it wasn’t the messed up posture that caused which was the problem. It was that the my legs didn’t like the pressure of the hard edge they had to pass over beyond the collapsed part.

But as far as I could tell, it was still just the chair.

Then I went to see a movie today.

Long before it was over, that same part of my legs was objecting to the movie seats the same way they do to the recliner.

It’s not the chair. It’s me.

The condition in my arms is spreading.

And if I thought it was hard to deal with arms that respond to sunlight and body heat like fire, how am I going to deal with legs that won’t let me sit, combined with a lower back that won’t let me stand?

And every doctor I’ve ever seen about this problem has, sooner or later, written me off as crazy.

I’m starting to wonder if that negative diagnosis for MS was wrong. That’s a terrifying thought, considering the type I would have gets so overwhelming that most people who have it kill themselves within ten years. But if this doesn’t get better, if something can’t be done…I mean, I don’t think I really could, but I don’t really know how to go on, either. I’d want to live in a small swimming pool, except I couldn’t use all my electronics.

I don’t…

I can’t stand this.

I can’t write (388 words today), I can’t relax, I just can’t do anything.

Except to hope it will tone itself down overnight, and make an appointment with my acupuncturist and hope she can do something to help.

Reflections on a Strange Journey

It may seem like a weird title for a post, but in a minute you’ll see that it’s actually a really stupid, cheap name for a post.

Because, see, I just finished up my third (and final!) time through Shin Megami Tensei:  Strange Journey Redux.

(See, I told you it was a stupid and cheap name for a post.)

For those who don’t know (which is most people in the world), Shin Megami Tensei:  Strange Journey Redux is the rerelease on the Nintendo 3DS of Shin Megami Tensei:  Strange Journey, which originally came out on the Nintendo DS.  It’s…it’s been out a while.  Like, quite a while.  Only it takes a long time to get through it three times, especially when you play four or five other games in the middle.

(Fair warning for those few who might be interested in playing it and haven’t yet:  there will be spoilers following.)

Some Important Projects

Sorry about the spam; it’s the reverse of the usual, but I’m going to be posting every day this month.  I’m running late today so I don’t have time to write a really detailed post.  (Later on, I will be writing about my writing.  Which sounds nonsensical when I say it.)

Anyway, I wanted to pass on the word about some important Kickstarter projects, two of which are trying to reduce plastic waste in the world.  And I’m so low on time that I don’t even have time to get any pictures.   Because I suck.  (Also because I probably shouldn’t be binge-watching Netflix while I’m trying to blog.  That’s definitely not helping…)

*cough*

So, the first project is GoSun Flatware, a stainless steel spoon and fork that fold up and fit into a case about the size of a credit card, so that everyone can carry them with them, eliminating the need for disposable plastic utensils.

Then there’s a project called The Wally Shop, which is a grocery store that sells everything in bulk in glass bottles, mailed to you in reusable packaging that you use to return the empty bottles so they can be reused.  Evidently, they’ve already got a store in New York and they’re running the Kickstarter in order to expand so they can ship all over the country.

The others are important, but not for ecological reasons.

The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund an exhibit about Slaughterhouse Five, probably his best known (if not outright best) novel, and also one of my favorite books.  I’ve backed their campaigns in the past without ever actually trying to, you know, go there and see the place, but when this exhibit opens, I am finally gonna look up directions on how to drive to Indianapolis.

And last but not least, a campaign is being run to fund a documentary called Still Working 9 to 5, for the 40th anniversary of 9 to 5.  (BTW, guess what show I’ve been binging on Netflix?)  It’s both about the movie and about what has changed over 40 years, and what hasn’t changed…

….and it’s a half hour past midnight.  I suck.

Okay, so…yeah.  November 5th’s totals:  2,528 words, 12,833 total.