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Month: May 2021

Imagination. It’s Great!

One night when I was somewhere around seventeen, I was visiting my best friend. I was friendly with her mom (who shared my love of Guns’n’Roses, which best friend decidedly did not) so when best friend wanted to go to bed, I hung around in the living room talking to mom for a few minutes before heading home. The big old console TV (remember those?) was showing one of the Critters movies. I was, as I said, around seventeen. But home was a half mile away, and it was a dark (but moonlit!) night. And I lived in the country, did I mention that? It was an empty half mile, with no streetlights, no houses, and probably not a single car passing me. And there were dark patches on the road. Yes, I knew they were spots where the gray asphalt, sparkling a bit with mica chips, had been patched with tar. I’d seen them on the walk to best friend’s house. I’d seen them, walked over them, ridden my bike past them, probably a thousand times. I knew exactly what they were, and I bet I could have mapped them with my eyes closed. That night while I told myself exactly what those dark patches were, I walked wide around them anyway, keeping an eye on them even once I was past, in case one of them tried to come after me. More than being scared, though, I was annoyed. Let’s face it, even in the 80’s, these weren’t…

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Lessons from the Lenormand Scythe Card

First of all, eagle-eyed readers will notice that this post is up on Saturday instead of the usual Tuesday. Yeah. It’s the usual problem. I got busy again. Two huge projects. Two tight deadlines. I actually remembered, guys. Then I freaking forgot. We had a Turtleduck meeting this afternoon and I had a brainwave. “Wait…is this third week of the month? Did I do my blog post? I DIDN’T DO MY FREAKING BLOG POST! CRAP!” So here we are, 7:35 pm on Saturday, with my blog post. At least I didn’t skip it altogether, I guess. And you aren’t missing the knowledge I am about to impart to you today. So I’m pretty deep into Lenormand. If you recall from previous blog posts, it’s similar (and quite different) to Tarot in that they’re cards with pictures on them that you read. Thirty-six of them. The pictures are more simplistic and the method is completely different and quite complex. So I’ve been learning it now for almost six months. (Has it been that long? It feels longer). So anyway, there’s this one card that’s scary as hell: The Scythe. In some decks, like my first deck, it’s pictured with the Grim Reaper (pictured at left – small so no one has a heart attack). Yikes! The meanings are pretty scary too: a cutting, an ending, swift, quick decision, harvesting, final. So predictably, most readers, including me, get really jacked up when this card comes up in their spreads. I’ve gotten it…

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Productivity! Or Not

Sorry I didn’t post this yesterday! I blame blood loss. (I gave blood, don’t panic.) They say that people who have more to do are more likely to get things done–the idea being that you expand your activities to the time available to you. If you only have one thing to do all day, you will do that one thing at the very last minute, and if you have 16 things to do, you will probably only get 10 done, but you’ll still have done 10 things. Something. I don’t know. I try to fill my days up with lots to do and it does work to some extent, but I find that it tends to be a few smaller things and maybe one bigger thing, and then, recently, the rest of my time has been taken up by Discord trivia. (There is Drama is the trivia world, which is ridiculous, but it goes to show that everything will eventually include drama.) Anyway, the drama is over, for the most part, but now I’m used to the trivia and whenever some starts a game, there I am. (I’m ranked 16th so far today, which is especially bad because I said I was going to stay off Discord this morning. And then didn’t.) Anyway, it’s a bit infuriating, because I’m not really making progress on more than one thing at a time. I had a word picked out for this year–Polish–where I was going to finish things I’d been working on…

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Unfurling

Last month, I wrote about needing rest, and getting a little and realizing how just much more I needed in order to not feel exhausted anymore. Since then, I’ve been focused on taking it. That four-day weekend over Easter. Two extra days off the following week. Friday afternoon the week after, and again the week after that, and I’m plotting to take another day in the very near future. I’m finally starting to get a little more energy and willpower back. Hard to say how much of that is from the time off, how much is from having a slower and less stressful month at work (which also means the days off are easier to take), and how much is from the change in seasons…but the difference is noticeable. It’s not steady progress, for obvious reasons. I still have nights of sleeping poorly, days of exhaustion or or anxiety or despair or rage (we’re still in the throes of the third wave here, thanks in part to a really slow vaccine rollout…). I spent a month trying to write a 300-word flash fiction piece and had to give up when it just wouldn’t gel by deadline. But…I’m gradually starting to do yoga again, without dropping the near-daily nature walks that have been keeping me sane. I’ve found tiny bits of energy for non-routine “adulting” things like researching and buying a new mattress. (If you’re anything like us, a mattress is one of those things you don’t think about until it…

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All’s Fair in Love and Vampires

All’s Fair in Love and VampiresKit Campbell Even chocolate started to taste bad after the third bar. Sophia forced herself to swallow the last of it anyway, said, “Right,” and went out into the dark streets. The chill seeped through her coat as she kept to lonely alleyways and forgotten corners. “C’mon,” she murmured. “I didn’t make myself sick for nothing.” “You smell divine,” purred a voice from behind her. “I do so miss being able to taste food—especially chocolate.” Finally. Sophia reached under her coat, then froze as she sensed movement off to her left. “What’s a sweet thing like you doing in a place like this?” said a second voice, then laughed. Ugh, even the undead were crap at pick-up lines. So, for future note, three bars were too many. Sophia tightened her grip on her stake—her only stake. “Back off,” said the first one. “I smelled her first.” “Come on, bro,” said the second. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you to share?” Well, served her right for being unprepared, but she’d be damned if she didn’t go down fighting. Sophia spun, pulling the stake out as she went. She lunged at the first vampire, who hissed and danced out of her reach. She cursed under her breath. She was out of her element—normally she waited until they were on top of her before she struck. But with two— “Not cool, dude,” said the second one. “That’s not playing nice.” His voice sounded closer, but Sophia couldn’t pick…

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