The Catch Up

Tansi nitotemwak!

Mercury is in the garburator again! Last week I finished the Catch Up and then somehow deleted it completely. There's no record of it, it's not in the back up location, it's not in a Cloud, it's not in any of the other projects I have started, it's just straight up disappeared. Understandably this is upsetting.

It had links about the Perseids and general musings about how impossibly long this summer has been. While the Perseid's meteor shower isn't as pressing or relevant as it was last week, the impossibly long summer still is. It's only August.
Where I live it's been fire season since March -6 months- and it doesn't end until Halloween (officially). Even though this summer hasn't been as smoky as previous ones, it's been hard between the heat and air quality. Being relegated indoors because I haven't outfitted myself with goggles (because the smoke burns my eyes) is some new dawning existential anger. Before this summer it was dread. Now it's anger, I'm angry that this is the foreseeable future I'm stuck with, I'm angry that this will only get worse as my kids grow up and how they've been robbed. I'm angry that collectively people are being gaslit into there's no need to use AC for heat waves, that it's worse than using heating during the winter, that nothing needs to change, and that bad air quality is just something to deal with.

I think a lot of this anger comes from I've been a shut in for most of my thirties. I've finally wanted to start actually seeing my friends again, being some level of perceived, and now on top of doing risk analysis for being exposed to the 'rona, I have to contend with this. Smoky days mean no hanging out on the patio or outside. Heat waves reduce my ability or desire to leave my slightly cooler home and I'm running with limited because I have a heat intolerance. I'm frustrated because I finally feel brave enough to return to places I've been avoiding for years and now it's something that's actually out of my control preventing me from returning.

Everything is not dire though.

Change takes time. Change takes trust. Resistance is possible, it would be so easy to give in. If there is anything I know to be absolutely true about myself is that I make nothing easy, so why would I start now? Please be well my friends, and maybe when the air is good, we'll be able to have coffee (or your beverage of choice) outdoors again. Please take care and I will attempt to write more regularly.

What I've Been Watching

Romancelandia was yelling about the Tudor Horse Man show a couple of weeks ago and you know, why not? Surprisingly it had a better narrative season than season 3 of The Bear (so many feelings) and it was fun. This an alternative history (kind of like The Great [which is amazing]), the score was full of unexpected little bangers and Mary's actress fucking ate. Dominic Cooper shows up here, and so does another British actor who I know by sight but I can never remember his actual name (Jim Broadbent). My Lady Jane is fun, silly, deeply horrifying at times, and full of backstabbing that it's a neat little hour escape at a time.

Speaking of The Bear, what the fuck was season 3? I haven't been this angry at something narratively in a long time, and not even a beautiful score could save this season. There's a rumour that season 4 was shot at the same time as season 3 (why not just release both as one season) which (if I am feeling generous) explains the narrative arc or how the narrative is moving but still. There are beautifully shot, beautiful written moments however that's not enough (for me). Tina's episode is the one shining moment of how plot, score, character, how everything comes together to make something meaningful.

Frank Turner is coming next month and I'm waffling on if I want to shell out to see him or not. I missed out last time. This is from a decade ago-ish and feels remarkably appropriate for the tone of this week's Catch Up.

What I've Been Reading

“I don’t know if humanity will survive the next year, let alone the next three hundred years. If we do, civilization as we know it might look drastically different. I can already see the shift, as the oil dries up.
I've installed a simple holo projector. I’m not sure how well it will survive the rigors of space, but it’s better than nothing. Then I plan to fill the probe with information—science, engineering, medicine, whatever I can find that seems like it would be useful to people in the future. Also art—music, books, pictures. I’ll leave this journal to explain. If someone ever sees this—whoever you are, I want you to know, we were more than our wars and our destruction".

Alice Towey over at Clarkesworld wrote a lovely short story called "The Time Capsule". I enjoyed how central resistance is in this story and how it interconnects with how can you be a good ancestor when the future is bleak. I hope you like it.

That wasn’t an option anymore. There could be no legal plankton farming without the orcas’ say-so, and the company loaning Punta Norte the equipment had given them a hard deadline to produce proof of agreement. Vega shut her eyes and pushed the heels of her hands against them, blacking out the world and all the problems therein, the biggest of them being the fact that the deadline was now less than forty-eight hours away.

At Reactor, Rich Larson wrote a cool speculative fiction "Breathing Constellations". What if humans did have to negotiate with other species (Orcas in this case but what if deer or bear) to be able to use the land in a way?

With the rebuilt skeleton on the bed, you take the book in one hand and chant the words. You’re actually grateful for the cut in your thumb—the throbbing pain helps keep you awake, keeps you from slurring the unfamiliar sounds.

Finally, a weird little story about cat necromancy. It was weird. It was a little gory. It was very sweet in a Gothic sensibilities way. It's Schrodinger's Bones by Andre Geleynse over at Small Wonders Mag.

Small Mammal Update

There have been several boons for the smaller mammals. One is the promise of more vertical spaces and hidey holes for them to loiter in while I write. The cats are particularly delighted by this, they miss their window seats. Zorya is also getting the one supplement that helped her anxiety- my chonky little shadow has been coming out more for boops and pets.
Potema has also gotten a new bed. I don't think she's quite got the hang of how her new bed works but she is absolutely trying.

What I've Been Working On

This is the last stretch for my final paper.

Wish me luck friends.