imaginarycircus

Tried to set an alarm for this morning but messed up and slept in again. So I'm late in the evening with still bad sleep hygiene. My own fault for wanting to watch the Lestat finale. I know they've been releasing the rock tracks, but I really need this season's score to go with the previous seasons.

A little work on lines, a little work on computers. Not enough time in the weekend. I keep promising I'm going to take off a day to just catch up a bit more, as I suspect my PTO usage has been low this year.

Slept in late after a week of shorting myself of sleep, then took a while to get going. Caught up on chores around the house, then went shopping for a while. Had dinner at Bear & Wren in SLO, which was great: A relaxed vibe and excellent food. We both felt it was a place we'd like to take friends in the future.

No lines memorized.

Sat down to write an entry, got nerdsniped by some personal technical issues. Still unresolved, but I gotta finish up. Read plays. Had rehearsal.

First Impressions
The Pitt | Jack/Robby | ~1200 words | For sheafrotherdon

(Also on AO3)

( Robby would be the first to admit his scepticism at Jack's therapist's suggestion that he replace his work with the TEMS team with joining a book club. )

The air quality here is so bad right now thanks to the Canadian wildfires. Obviously being near to the fires themselves would be a lot worse, but my poor lungs aren't happy being outside without a mask on, and the orange quality to the light is so unnerving.

( Familiar Strangers )

( Southland, S3-5 )

( Trouble in Paradise )

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman



Blurb:

When Walt Whitman self-published Leaves of Grass in 1855, he rocked the literary world and forever changed the course of poetry. In subsequent editions, Whitman continued to revise and expand his poems--but none matched the raw power and immediacy of the first edition.

This beautifully-designed volume presents the original edition Leaves of Grass in its entirety, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous letter to Whitman.

This book has been in my physical stash for years, probably getting close to 10 years at this point. Thanks to this challenge, I finally got around to reading it. However, not going to lie - I struggled with it. The author's forward was thirty pages long and seemed to be one long stream of consciousness about how wonderful poets are. The first poem was 60 pages long.

However, the language was amazing, so evocative. Being published in 1855, I had a hard time deciding if he was an abolitionist or not. Some lines seemed a little bit romanticizing slavery, but others were definitely against it. I'm glad I read it though, and now it can stop accusing me of neglect.

With this book, I have a blackout! Yay!!

Slept badly and woke up early. Busy workday continuing to fix the problem. Today was mostly building unit tests where there was zero coverage to confirm the problem and solution. Building test can be soothing for me, and I didn't realize how late I worked. I'd expected to start crashing early but it never happened.

Not called for rehearsal, so stayed at home and made spaghetti and meat sauce. That's cooking dinner twice in a row with no stress, which is good news for me.

Busy day at work. The fix from Friday didn't take, and I've been a bit async with getting it updated. Hoping to wake up to resolution after dropping some late-night info. Frustrating, but feels good to have ownership of a thing.

Bought some terrible shirts at Ross for the show. Need to remember to bring them in for review for rehearsal. Still kind of behind on memorization.

Made fried rice using the extra serving of rice from the sushi restaurant last night.

Tumultuous brunch with wjukknibs, goodbyes to parents, then to the Elysian to see a recording of Dead Pilots Society. Two pilots: Fangirl by Claudia Lonow and Weekly World News by Michael Colton & John Aboud. It came onto our radar because of the Dropout connection with several D20 folks reading Fangirl. Really enjoyed Weekly World News a lot more than I expected. It was fun to see a Bat Boy C-plot while some of my friends were auditioning for Bat Boy. Ordered the livestream to see if I can snag some clips to send to the group chat tomorrow.

Drove back home to see more beautiful sky. Stopped in Carpinteria to have some dumplings (inspired by Bat Boy) and had too much sushi. Returned home to cuddle with pets and watch The Vampire Lestat. Episodes keep getting denser.

(Backdated: Written 7/12)

Drove down to L.A. to visit with family. Sister's family was already gathering at my parents' house and we joined. The pool was a perfect temperature, so we were swimming from the time we arrived till the food arrived (really excellent pizza). Sister chopped the salad herself, concerned about The Parasite.

While in the pool, I looked up to see a rainbow high in the sky directly above us, formed seemingly only in the humidity of the air and the strange currents of the clouds high in the atmosphere. Within five minutes the sun or the clouds had passed and it was gone.

Watched Argentina vs. Switzerland while we ate the pizza and the olallieberry pie Psyche had picked up at Avila Barn. Only game I've sat down to watch all the way through so far, and probably will for the rest of the Cup. Easier to get invested when others are watching.

At the end of the night, I talked my dad into watching The French Dispatch. Loved it all over again. Rewatching tanked a few theories I had, but it was fun to watch with a closer eye. I really loved the Concrete Masterpiece this time. I'd originally sold it by saying it was divided into parts, so it would be easy for him to stop if he got tired, but it got its hooks in, and he watched the whole thing.

(Backdated: Written 7/12)

I was hoping to leave a little early, but problems arose at work right at the end of the day. But I successfully put in a stop-gap solution before heading out for the night.

To Pismo for drinks on the beach with A., C., and others. Had a very pleasant time (and a surprisingly strong negroni). Grabbed dinner at Splash Cafe, which I'd been thinking about since 6/9 when Tuesday was in town. The line was too long then, but at the end of the evening, we got our food just fine.

Finished the evening watching Tokyo Gore Police on The Last Drive-In. Again, misrepresented in cultural osmosis. Nobody said there would be a watercolor flashback sequence.

I look at my journal and don't know where the time went. I traveled in June, and then picked up a bug a few days later, which still has me coughing. I'm traveling again in a week - going to San Diego for ComicCon, although I wasn't able to get a pass into the events. I'll go to some of the free things, and just generally soak in the atmosphere.

Work still keeps me incredibly busy, but I'm grateful that I get to do it from home. I know how privileged that is.

Here's some stuff I've been doing:

Books

• The Lies They Told - I get that this is an incredibly relevant and important book, but I found it insulting. I'm from Appalachia and I thought it was incredibly condescending to the people there. The author could not get the dialect correct, and it was so wrong that it was grating. I DNF'd it.


• Into the Narrowdark - this is the second series by Tad Williams set in Osten Ard. I adored the first series, one of my favorites ever, and a bit underrated in my opinion. This is the 3rd book, and things finally got moving. The first two in the series seemed like someone setting up a chess board. They were incredible long with multiple storylines. It didn't help that I took over 2 years to complete the first book. But it's going now, and I already have the 4th book ready to go.

I belong to two book clubs and I haven't started either book for the next go around. I'll have time in airports and airplanes to get them done though.

TV Shows

• High Potential - I finished season 2, and can't wait for season 3, which is not coming until September. Think Sherlock Holmes if he were a single mother living in Los Angeles working as a cleaning lady because her humongous brain gets her in trouble where she can't keep a job or a relationship. And he were Kaitlin Olson of It's Always Sunny fame. And also starring Daniel Sunjata from Rescue Me as her Watson.


• How to Get to Heaven from Belfast - I saw this as a recommendation from mekare, saw also that it was from the creators of Derry Girls, and gave it a show. Highly, highly recommend. This is a genre-defying show that I can't even describe, but really loved. It has a bit of Twin Peaks vibe. I hope it gets another season.

Video Games

I started Little Kitty, Big City last week, and while I have beaten the game, I'm going back and getting some stuff that I missed. I appreciate when games let you do that instead of just ending it. *cough*Zelda*cough*

GameStop had a three for two deal on used games, so up on deck:

• Tunic - I've wanted to play this for ages, so it's probably next. For the Switch.


• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - game of the year, and everyone I know who plays it is obsessed with it. For the PS5. I may wait until the weather turns to start this one.


• Pokopia - a cute game that might be more interesting that Animal Crossing. I'll probably get to this soon because it seems like a game that I can dip into and then back out without trying to remember what I was doing.

Also, I'm thinking about starting a gaming journal. Because I don't have enough journals yet.

My house came with a TV mount that I thought I was going to use at first, but then decided against. We took it down yesterday, and now I need to paint the wall behind it. I need to do general wall touch-ups anyway.

So that's me! Maybe I'll start painting today.

Turning the Page
The Librarians/Southland | Co-written with ghostalservice | Sammy Bryant/Flynn Carsen | ~22,200 words | Set post-Southland S5, goes AU from just after The Librarian movies; a mildly to moderately unhinged crossover.

Sammy Bryant has a Guard Card. Flynn Carsen has a Library Card. They’re both looking for a change.

Eat Your Heart Out
ER | Carter, Weaver Gen | ~1200 words | Episode tag for 7.05. Thanks to sheafrotherdon for audiencing.

(Also on AO3)

( Carter, Kerry, and the aftermath of the day. )

Absolutely unhinged finale of Dimension 20.

Missing focus today. Finished The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, started at the beginning of June. Moving on to Passing Strange in a Tor Pride collection of novellas.

Spent work trying to harvest test cases from live logs. AWS is the stumbling block, but working around it with time.

Watched some Ghost Files to see observe how someone reacts when scared of ghosts.

A combination of procrastination and anticipation, I purchased new glasses. The glasses I should've already purchased are the bifocals for my new prescription. I'm trying progressives this time, but I'm stuck without anything good for mid-range. Bad for reading a script while moving. Ahead of the ballgame getting cheap character glasses for the next show. Starting to get a collection of no-frills, kinda ugly backups.

Took a nice long walk after work with Psyche. Didn't take Barklee, who slows us down trying to sniff everything.

Vampire Lestat has another great episode. I love probing Psyche's memories of the series while avoiding spoilers.