anke

Hello!
I'm still alive
RE social media, I'm mostly active on Mastodon/the Fediverse these days https://social.scribblers.club/@Anke

Last week I learned:

• Windows 10 can do multiple desktops, and you can switch between them with keys win + ctrl + arrow left or right
• With the win key and arrows, you can position the active window (to docked positions or back where it was) or minimise it
• It's a good idea to pay attention to the position of skillet handles. Right above a frying pan is bad, because it gets the handle a) hot and b) covered in grease.

I met my writing goals this week. Actually wrote over 5000 words rather than just over 1000, but eh. I'd be happier if original fiction didn't still feel like a chore? Anyway, it's a success.

Also managed to do at least a bit of drawing on three days since last Sunday. ^_^

oof. Bad brain times, particularly last week. I had considerable help from a local friend to get out of it, and this week started better.

I survived another year.

I'm having appointments to see how things will continue with therapy and stuff.

Between COVID still not being over, and aforementioned appointments, I'm not doing anything special for my birthday.

I repaired a thing!

I have a bedside lamp with a rocker switch in the cable, and while it still rocked, it didn't switch the lamp on and off reliably. After I complained on Mastodon that the switch wasn't screw-on and easy to replace, someone offered help and pointed out that I could just cut out the switch and add a new, screwable one. So I went to the hardware store and got a switch, and did that, and it works!

Someone made a post on tumblr how some days “making coffee” is one step, and sometimes it’s 14.

I wrote up a similar list based on my experience of taking out the kitchen trash…
Good day:

1. Take out the trash
2. Put new bin liner in the trash bin

Regular day:

1. Take trash outside
2. Double-check which of the curbside bins it’s supposed to go in, and put it there.
3. Find roll of empty bin liners of correct size
4. Put new bin liner in

Bad day:

1. Go to the kitchen
2. Try to remember why you went to the kitchen
3. Repeat 1-2 a few times, until what your brain spits out is “take out trash”
4. Pick up your keys so you don’t acidentally lock yourself outside
5. Take trash outside
6. Double-check which of the curbside bins it’s supposed to go in.
7. Make sure you won’t drop your keys in the curbside bin along with the trash
8. Drop trash bag into correct curbside bin.
9. Go back inside
10. Forget about the bin liner
11. At a later point, try to put something in the trash, but find the basket liner-less.
12. Put trash on kitchen table.
13. Turn around to get a bin liner.
14. Repeat 10-13 a couple of times. Trash is accumulating on your kitchen table.
15. At SOME point (probably because you really need some space on the kitchen table), get the roll of bin liners in the appropriate size, and put one in the basket.
16. Put the roll of bin liners back where it belongs, or you’ll never find it again.
17. Maybe you’ll remember to collect trash around the kitchen and put it in the freshly-lined basket. Maybe it’ll be enough that you might as well take out the trash again...

Between 1 and 17, several days, in extreme cases several weeks, may have passed…

Well, that was a month. I'd kinda like to list newsworthy stuff that happened, but it's kinda overwhelming.

In personal news, I agreed with my current employer I'd leave - going to stay until February, so I have a BIT of time yet, but really need to get started looking for new jobs.
I also wrote about 16k words of fiction, very nearly all of it fanfic. I... got really obsessed with Once Upon A Time? Or Hook in particular, to be honest.

Let's see what happens

Oh my god.

I just read a fic with the following setup: Two people plan to get two of their friends together. Each of them lures their respective friend to a meeting place under false pretenses. There, their victims are told they are supposed to stage a fake date so one of the instigators can do a photoshoot of it. To post online.

Now I'm having a low-key anxiety attack over how fucking fucked up that is.

- Ignoring the wishes of the victims - at least one had explicitly said they didn't want to date
- The inherent arrogance of the "I know better what'S good for you than you do"
- Lying to the victims, who thought of the planners as friends
- The arrogance of just deciding the victims will play along
- Wanting to treat their victims as fucking PROPS to get likes for their instagram

What the fuck! I can't even!!!

Oh yay, I only have to go back to work-work on the second of January. Did I mention YAY!

I’ve recently come out of a more depressive phase, so I have lots of dishes, tidying, and cleaning to catch up with. There will be visiting of family, so I have to plan/prepare for/around that, too, but yeah, starting with catching up on the usual: laundry and dishes. Dishes are my kryptonite, somehow. _@

Yesterday evening I stacked boxes to cut apart for recycling all in one place, and cleared the ironing board of clutter so I’d have a place where I could fold laundry.

Today so far I got grocery shopping out of the way, and started a load of laundry.

I guess next up is folding last weekend’s dry laundry so I’ll have room to hang stuff again.

And dishes.

So many dishes.

aaaaaaaa!

I can do eeeet!

Genre: leaning towards the mythology/fantasy corner of fantasy

Words: ~420

---

While one Season took care of the world working as it should during their season, the others retreated deep below the earth, to not confuse things. In winter, Spring and Autumn shared Summer's warmth, often passing the time with games. Spring, though, always kept one green-edged rabbit ear turned to the wider world, eager to take her turn. So it was she who one year noticed Winter had gone quiet.

"It's nothing", Summer said, sorting the cards in her hand. "Maybe he is concocting a deep freeze, and it took his attention away from whipping up storms. I'm just glad we have enough earth above us it can't reach us. Your turn."

Spring laid a card, Autum taking the trump, but she did not stop listening.

When the next morning brought no sound of wind or hail, not even the hiss of softly settling snow, Spring climbed out of their hiding spot to check what happened.

She found the sky blank blue, the air icy cold. The snow on the ground grew thicker where it lay in shadows, sprouting tiny fern fronds of frost.

She raced to the mountain Winter usually chose for his base, and found him asleep. Puzzled - the Seasons did not need to sleep, and she had thought it was just a means to pass time off-season - she looked at him for a long time, shifting her weight from one foot to the other every now and then.

He seemed calm. Even breath, unlike hers not fogging the air. No smell nor other sign of magic or illness around him.

Eventually Spring approached him and poked him in the ribs. "Brother, wake up!"

He snorted and sat up, looking around wildly. "Spring? Is it time already?"

"Not at all! You have months to go! Why are you not at work?"

"Aaah, you know." He sat up straight and rubbed phlegm from his eyes. "You know how many creatures sleep through winter? I could not resist giving it a try."

"Oohhh brother. There is no proper winter if you don't make it!"

"I would like to put that to the test."

Spring didn't want to waste time arguing, now. They could do that at one of the turns before next winter. "How about next year? All four of us should talk it over first. What could go wrong, what should we do?"

Winter looked like his favourite food would never again be made.

"How about you keep watch?"

"That will just confuse things further."

Moss and tiny flowers were already sprouting in small cracks in the floor and walls, and she indicated them with a wave of her hand.

"Ah, all right, then. I'll stay awake."

---

Based on the prompt "What happened when winter took a nap?" by aldersprig .