esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

Today I:

Called Paul Ryan's office to say I supported the ACA. I know people who would have died without it. Repealing it without ensuring those people can get care is tantamount to murder. Period, full stop. You can not be pro-life, and actively support the deaths of people. Repealing the ACA will kill people.

Called Kamala Harris' office. The mailbox was full, so I sent an email instead.

Did some work, too. Oof.

Over the weekend:
I don't really know what I intended for the weekend, but:
I cleaned a bunch of things out of the garage and moved them into the shed. In so doing, I made it so C's bike can actually be parked on the ground instead of laying on top of some other stuff. Paint, empty storage bins, all the winter holiday stuff, and so on. Garage is still too full, but it's less full than it was, and a bit more organized.
Despaired a little that the shed doesn't have power. It'd make a nice work space. Extension cords to the rescue.
Knitted a hat base for my brain hat for the science march, whenever that happens.
Drank more mimosa than was good for me.
Emailed Feinstein's office to oppose Sessions for AG.

Today:
Still have tech challenge meeting with my team. woof.

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

One of the shows we've picked up this season is Timeless. It's not the greatest show, but it is a decent show. One of the main protagonists is played by Malcolm Barrett - a black man - who I loved in Better off Ted.

The primary protagonist (Lucy - Abigail Spencer) is female! She's the 'mission director', as it were. She had a fairly typical life leading up to this point.

Barrett's character is also super smart - his entire job is to make it so the mission can even happen, and ensure everyone can get home. He's the navigator. He ALSO has a fairly typical life; he's got a full family and everything. At the end of the day, he goes home and does stuff... with his family.

The third protag (Wyatt - Matt Lanter) is a white guy; he's the protector - his job is to keep the other two alive. He's the one with the sad backstory. As a character? He's probably actually the least interesting. He's good though, and he's nice to look at :D

Anyway, there's a few reasons I am watching - the writing is... not awesome sometimes. There are kind of dorky/cheezy places. I'm not completely sold on Spencer's performance, but she's trying. Lanter *sells* his character, though, and Barrett is just fun to watch.

Barrett (Rufus) - given that he's black, and these folks are time traveling - he sells the "Are you people fucking kidding me" damn well. It's not an act, it just IS. "You want me to what? In this time period? Are you kidding me?!" It's a reminder that HELLO SKIN COLOR IS AN ISSUE without actually yelling it in your face. And while some people really could use a good yelling in the face, I'm glad to see TV continuing to more subtly play that in a way that might make people go "Oh yeah that's a problem" without immediately rejecting it because it's being yelled at them.

There are also plenty of secondary characters who are not white guys. Most of the characters we deal with regularly are non-white. It's kind of awesome.

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

It's no secret that we're a device heavy house. The kids get more screen time than they probably should but HEY, I am pretty bad about it myself sooooo.

But in order to get the kids headed towards bed, devices are down at 8:30; it's a half hour of quiet activity time, and then reading time. It's doing some good things for the kids; they're definitely relaxing more before trying to get to sleep, which is a good thing.

It's working well enough for R that he is getting upset when he *doesn't* get quiet activity time. In fact, he's started asking if he can put his device down sooner and have quiet activity time.

Quiet activity time is stuff like coloring, playing with toys (also means at least 5 minutes of cleanup time), other small non-messy crafts, etc. Last night I pulled out one of the puzzle mats one of the kids got at some point, and got out an easy jigsaw puzzle. Apparently this was a GREAT IDEA. It was the right size to take about a half hour for the kids and I to put together (mostly because they still don't grasp the basics of how jigsaw puzzles work.)

I may have to keep doing puzzles - maybe one night a week or something. We have puzzle storage mats! We can store uncompleted ones and everything!

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

I failed to do a lot of things I'd intended to last year. I never made it back to the dojo. But I've washed my gi! So now it's clean and I don't have any other excuse besides "I'm tired, meh!"

I have declared that 2017 is the Year People Will Put Things Away. The children are thus far not impressed with mom's insistence that "You will put either toy A or B away before you get out toy C." and "You used the crayons with your homework. put them away. Also the scissors. And all the pencils." We're half a week in, we had a new year's eve get together, and the house is still cleaner than it was for significant portions of 2016.

I feel pleased and dumb at the same time. I've been struggling with places to put the kids' clothes. They have school uniforms. Turns out there's a shelf in the closet. C's uniforms pretty much all fit on the shelf. CRAZY. I get my third laundry basket back. WOO.

I finished Dragon Age Inquisition for the second complete time (I've got 3 other mostly complete playthroughs) and I told myself that once I finished this playthrough, I'm allowed to play games a bit, but I need to do more crafting and creative stuff. Mass Effect: Andromeda comes out March 21, and I plan to play the EVERLOVING HELL OUT OF IT. So I need to take some steps back from the games for a bit until then.

I definitely stuck more with the knitting - I didn't knit as much in 2016 as I did in 2015, where I'd resolved to craft at least 15 minutes a day, but I still did some stuff. I also attempted to read more in 2016, but that pretty much fell off about a quarter of the way through the year. I aimed for 25 books, I think I read maybe 12.

I saw a therapist for several months in 2016; anxiety, ADHD, stuff like that. I have more coping tools now; turns out that I'm an anxious type person, but I know that THAT is my normal and I'm better about dealing with it.

I was going to craft tonight. Then I figured out the closet thing. HAH.

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

So there's a post I've seen a few times today on Facebook that says:

We need to care less about whether our children are academically gifted and more about whether they sit with the lonely kid in the cafeteria.

And my immediate thought?

FUCK YOU. FUUUUUCK YOU. FUCKITY FUCK YOU, you sanctimonious, KNOWLEDGELESS, inexperienced, ass. Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow, etc.

Seriously. Go fuck yourself.

That lonely kid in the cafeteria? GOOD CHANCE IT IS THE GIFTED KID.

GUESS HOW I KNOW.

The gifted kid? Often the kid with other issues like anxiety. Difficulty relating to their peers because they're academically advanced and either they're bored to death and either space cadet or act out. Nobody wants to talk to the space cadet, or be associated with 'the bad kid'. Kids also are often jealous of the gifted kid if that kid actually is lucky enough to have their abilities recognized and get any sort of special help (guess what, kids with learning problems get special attention too, but gosh, that's not a problem, is it?) Gifted kids also often have learning issues. Sensory processing problems. ALL KINDS OF THINGS.

That makes them the lonely kid, because they're weird. So maybe shut up about how gifted kids getting extra attention because they need it to keep school from being state mandated fucking daycare. I work hard to ensure my gifted kid (likely kids) treat people like people, and be respectful, and polite, and friendly and to judge others on their merits. Maybe everyone should be teaching their kids to treat each other like people and worrying less about my gifted kid's academics.

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

And now it's june. Well, tomorrow anyway.

I've stayed pretty steady on the weight.

I've failed to get back to the dojo.

I've signed the kids up for Ice skating lessons.

I went to a glass blowing class!

This past weekend we went to Kublacon. We took R with us for the whole weekend this time. He did pretty well!

We played Epic roll. The kids both beat the boss, and got t-shirts. This is a pretty simple dice-based game with a small board, and an RPG sort of flavor that takes ~20 minutes to play. Bought it, because the kids both enjoyed the hell out of it. The guys at the booth were AWESOME. If you happen to go to a con where they're at, stop by the booth and give the game a try. Even if the game isn't your style, they were awesome with the kids and I want to support people who do that.

Bought No Thank You, Evil! which I didn't realize was a kid-oriented RPG, but it's cute and we played an adventure and C loved it.

GemPacked cards - point-taking, building game. Cute and pretty straightforward. The kids liked this one too!

The Siblings Trouble - Given that I've already liked two of PencilFirst's other games, I'm sure we'll like this one too, we just haven't had a chance to try it yet.

The Kublacon staff was, as always, fucking fantastic to us. I can not say enough good things about the Young Players' room and the staff and their handling of kids.

The Hyatt kind of left a bit to be desired, but maybe next year once the remodels are done it'll be back up to snuff.

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

Holy shit!

There's been sickness and food and food and family and holy crap the amount of fondue has been ridiculous by SO TASTY. Also bread pudding with homemade bread you DONT EVEN KNOW.

Anyway. The holidays are officially over, and 2016 has started. I figured I should get back on a number of bandwagons. Or something.

So, last year I said "back to the martial arts oh and craft 15 minutes a day".

So I utterly failed at the getting back to martial arts. But R is old enough to start studying now and so... once neither of us is sick (cold WILL NOT GO AWAY), then I will take him down there so he can start. Because he needs focusing and burning of energy holy crap. C is being MEH about the idea, but she's also been doing the couch -> 5K program and I have allowed that as long as she's doing that program, she doesn't have to go back to studying martial arts. Once she's done with it though, BACK IN SHE GOES. She needs the exercise too.

As for the crafting? I did so much better last year! I didn't actually manage 15 minutes every single day, but I probably averaged it overall. Some days I got none, some days I did for hours (traveling and watching football will do that). I made 3 dolls, some hats, 6 or so pairs of socks, a tea cozy, and maybe a couple of other things during the year. I got partway (1/3ish?) through a shawl, and I did some other things as well.

This year no seriously I need to get back into the dojo. I'm going to keep crafting. I have a pair of socks on needles now, and I have 3 projects, 2 of which I should get done sooner rather than later. C wants new mittens, I need to do a surprise gift for a baby and C also wants a new hat 'for sleeping in'.

I also want to read more; I haven't ready very much in the last several years. Young kids will do that to you. I'm behind on my Jane Yellowrock, so I'm starting with rereading those. Goodreads is doing a reading challenge., so... why not? I can read and knit at the same time. BOOYAH.

I'm also doing the 100 pushups challenge (100pushups.com). Because I managed to earn a brown belt a while back and I have kinda sorta kept up with pushups, I'm not hopelessly inept, and I was able to start day 1 at rank 2. I MIGHT have been able to start at rank 3, but I figured rank 2 was probably going to be challenging enough. My arms hurt today, so I clearly wasn't wrong on that count.

After the indulgence of the holidays, I also got back on the 'exercise more, eat better food' wagon, and I did some walking and I'm watching my food intake again. I hit over 180 lbs last year, and it was causing problems; I was super uncomfortable sitting, it was affecting my breathing, and stuff like that. With some minor effort on my part, I got rid of 15 pounds, and I'm a little under the weight I was at when I got pregnant with Charlotte. I hope to get rid of 15 more this year. It's a reasonable and doable goal!

I've never been a fan of resolutions, and I don't think I'm picking up anything new and crazy here - just recommitting to things I've let slide a little (or a lot). I'm ready.

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

So I went to GaymerX 3 this past Saturday. It was pretty fun! At first I had some anxiety about it. Earl was off doing his own thing, the kids were at Dickens' faire... I COULD BE AN IRRESPONSIBLE ADULT ALL BY MYSELF WHAT WHAT.

LAM had been poking at me to go for uh 6 months. Because Jennifer Hale was a BoH (Boss of Honor) for the con and COME ON JENNIFER HALE. Then I found out Brianna Wu was also coming and so FINE FINE FINE I bought a ticket.

So I got there around 10:30. Holy cow, I am so not used to things being that damn quiet in the mornings at a game con. There was freakin NOBODY there. I'm used to cons where by 11 am everyone is out and playing and doing a billion things.

So I hit the 'Unheard voices' panel, because I was there and the room opened. It turned out to be a pretty interesting panel with 5 different podcasters who talked about different aspects of gaming and gaming culture and why they podcast. I'd have to look up everyone's names.. AH! http://gx3.sched.org/event/4IOq/unheard-voices?iframe=yes&w=&sidebar=yes...

I don't listen to podcasts; I don't really have the opportunity to. I can't work while I listen, and ..anyway. It was still really interesting.
I hung out in the room because I wanted to see the Diversity in Games panel (http://gx3.sched.org/event/4N1E/diversity-in-games-whats-next?iframe=yes...) and because David Gaider from Bioware was part of it. WOOHOO. I got to meet him briefly afterwards and that was nice.

I also went to the "Trans in Gaming" panel, because that was Brianna's panel and I got to meet her YAY. And she even recognized me! =)

Sadly, by the time we got out of her panel, the line for the voice acting panel was HYOOOGE and we didn't get into it. So we went and hung out (after a couple of mishaps) and then got into line and got to meet Jennifer Hale. EEEEEE. EEEEEE. EEEEEeeEEEeeEEe. She was also super nice. EE Ee eeeeEEEEEe. She signed my hoodie and my copy of ME3.

As for the con itself, it was fun. It was definitely not my normal crowd; which put me a little out of my comfort zone. I rolled with it as much as I could. I butchered one person's preferred prounouns (you got a ribbon at registration he/him, she/her, they/them, or blank that you could write whatever), and apologized profusely. Especially embarassing because I HAD READ HIS RIBBON AND STILL SCREWED IT UP. He was very gracious about it, thankfully.

It was definitely a little more flamboyant than other gaming cons I'm used to - no surprise there, but it kept making me pause. I haven't been to GenCon in nearly 10 years, and KublaCon is not a cosplay or video game type con. There was a lot of nifty art clearly aimed at Audiences that Weren't Me, which was cool. I saw some nice stuff that I could enjoy and be aware that it wasn't my thing, but it was good for other people. I was happy to pass on that and enjoy some of the stuff the same artists carried that was my style. One booth had a lot of (mostly male) superheroes eroticized, which some people really like, but I'm meh on it - it hits me in the same place fanfic usually does, but the same guy had a REALLY nice drawing of Jessica Jones that I seriously considered buying. I wasn't alone - when I swung by to take one last look at it, she was gone :D

There were a ton of Mass Effect and Dragon Age fans there. One really nice Grey Warden mage, and a Red Templar, and of course Josephine :D

it was fun. If it's local to here again next year, I'll probably go =)

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

I'm horrified by the events in Paris this evening - as any sane person should be. I've been fortunate enough to visit Paris. It's an amazing, beautiful city, full of history and art and culture and holy fuck amazing food.

How the fuck could anyone want to damage such a place.

It's not my place to say, but I'm still going to say I hope each of you slime gets exactly what you deserve.

esmerel

Originally published at Esmerel's blabber space. You can comment here or there.

It's September 11. Fourteen years after I woke up to my alarm clock radio telling me the second tower had collapsed. I remember.

But I think Jeremy said earlier today - he's avoiding media in general today because WE REMEMBER and we dwell on death.

I remember. I also remember where I was when the Challenger exploded. (8th grade, first period concert band.)

I remember.

But instead of dwelling on that, today I'm going to remember other things instead of dwelling on death.

I remember walking down the path with my brother in his zoot suit, up to marry my husband (13 years?!).
I remember sitting on the kitchen floor in our rented house in a sports bra and shorts while the 3 guys I lived with stripped out of shirts because we had the little AC unit in the window and it was the only room in the place that was below 100 degrees and HOLY COW SO HOT.
I remember the smile on my daughter's face as she walked into her kindergarden classroom for the first time.
I remember holding both of my children for the first time, welcoming them to this crazy, mixed up, insane and still awesome world.
I remember my son, SO EXCITED to get his new glasses, just like his big sister.
I remember 3 little girls sitting in a row, belting out "Let it go" at the tops of their lungs in the back of my car.
I remember how my son likes to make sure everyone's hug meter is at 100% and that squeezy hugs are worth 20% of your battery.
I remember traveling around Europe with 3 guys in a borrowed car, finding that every Chinese restaurant had a McDonalds next door (bring on the McFu meal!)
I remember Colleen pulling out the fake tears talking to the harbor authority the morning of her wedding because some yacht club was going to be setting off FREAKING CANNONS during her wedding ceremony. (totally oscar-worthy on her part)
I remember my friends cartwheeling home through the sprinklers, losing their shoes =)

Sure - these things don't shape the collective consciousness of an entire country, but they shape MINE.

Maybe if we all remembered more of these, we'd let the others shape us a little less.