An open thread — well, a semi-open thread — for all of those needing a respite from the news. No trolls, no arguments, no discussion of depressing stuff. Adorable animal pics encouraged.
If you have personal stuff to discuss that is more serious, there’s a separate thread for that here.
Email me if someone misbehaves here.
Congratulations, magnesium. I’m going to grad school at 32, so I can sort of sympathize. It’s hard to break yourself out of a comfortable routine and take on risk and the unknown. I’m sure you’ll do well. Anecdotally, in my TA work, I’ve noticed that older students that have actually experienced real life a little are way more professional and effective students.
Here’s an IcySpicyLeoncie video as a poetv secret handshake (ashtar.) No one can be in a bad mood watching Leoncie.
I just took my bf for a long weekend in the Whitsundays. We stayed on a small island and there were cute little wallabies hopping around. They would come right up to us when we were sitting outside our room. this kind of wallaby – http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r4ENBtHEYCg/T4ppCCbBBrI/AAAAAAAAF_c/4MB88cOpxr4/s1600/agiles1000IMG_0473.JPG One of them was just a baby.
We also went diving out at the reef (was my bfs first time!) and the coral looked so healthy and colourful. Was a relief to see that some of it doing ok at least. This is where we went -> http://www.australiantraveller.com/the-whitsundays/001-hardy-reef-qld/ Though we were on the outer edge aka as The Drop Off! (by me anyway)
Oh, nice! Are you an editor, then?
Um, that was @ cloudiah
I think Katz was one of the people in that conversation.
I’m back from the UK. Had to cut the trip short for less-than-happy reasons, but I enjoyed what time I did spend in England and Scotland. We expected there to be rain, but my mom and I had sunshine every day wherever we went! One of the other people on the tour bus jokingly said, “Maybe you brought the Hawaii sun with you.”
I’m going to a friend’s place soon. She has a sick horsey 🙁 But the horse is getting better and better and I’m gonna be there to help her treat the pretty thing.
She also has the most adorable finnhorse / arabian x estonian pony (with some akhal teke further down the pedigree) cross that is just the sweetest silliest thing. Also, KITTIES ! Three of them ! All adorable. Gonna have a day full of hard work, but also horses. And kitties.
^ Truth.
I have a job interview tomorrow! I’ve been unemployed since last July, and this is the first call back I’ve had. I’m super excited!
@selfie
I used to. I try, but everythings been harder since depression.
@children of the broccoli
Good luck with your interview! 😀
Finally did a new blog post, prompted by some of katz’s artistry in this very thread. I still owe it to you all to post about some of the tremendous poetry we’ve created here.
@selfie
i think the conversation was in the thread with the title “the battle against feminism….” and stufff i can’t remember. but yeah, lots of people here to write.
@children of broccoli
good luck!
Oh @Selfie, I’m not an editor, nor do I have any editing skills, but katz was kind enough to send me a draft to read. I’m about 3 chapters in!
Yay, children of the broccoli! Hope interview goes well.
I am making koiugn amman for tomorrow’s breakfast. First time with this recipe (tried another I wasn’t happy with). Will probably be edible regardless (basically, caramel croissant. There’s only so much room for bad there).
I write pretty much constantly. Been too busy since November, sadly, to do anything of note. But I’m going to try to jam out another manuscript this summer. If they all keep getting better and better, which I happen to think they are, maybe someday I’ll even get published. 😛
I’ve been trying to write more, but depression’s been hitting me and making hard for me to even write in my journal. 🙁
Ally, been there. There’s big portions of my journal that just have cryptic entries like ‘I don’t want to write today, and I don’t know why.’ (because my method to make sure I at least wrote was to make a rule that I had to write daily, even if only to say that I wouldn’t be writing and why)
And I don’t know how to beat that. I know how I beat that–I found a therapist who helped me be okay where I was and pushed me to excel where I could. And he was really awesome. But therapy doesn’t always work.
I hope you’re able to get through the depression.
@ally
what kind of stuff do you write/would you write if your depression wasn’t yucky?
re writing
i used to want to publish a novel, and have written some, but i’ve recently accepted that i can’t focus on that and school at the same time. right now i’m writing/drawing a webcomic that updates once a week, because it’s a lot lower stress for me.
@cloudiah
well, editing/reading for mistakes is hard work (even if you’re not like an official editor). XD tho i imagine katz’s novel is awesome and that would make it fun.
I write, when I’m able to get past my fear and perfectionism. Hillary Rettig is helping me with that: http://www.hillaryrettig.com/books/the-7-secrets-of-the-prolific/
Yep, I’ve written scads, although Among the Red Stars is the first in a long time that has really felt ready for the big leagues. Although out of my first 29 queries I’ve got 9 rejections and 1 request for a first five, so maybe I’m overestimating myself.
Anyone who isn’t reading Fade’s webcomic should be.
I love the idea of positive pranking. Here’s one where they brought a 5-star restaurant experience to a homeless shelter:
tho i should mention, for my comic (that katz linked to) content notes: violence, gore, guns.
This happened just now and made me laugh.
http://fromafar2013.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/kitty1.png
My dog thinks she’s a kitty.
fromafar: Is the cat in the dog’s bed?
Lol, since the dog bed is technically the entire couch, not at the moment. ;D
Don’t know why, but she won’t budge! I’ve been laughing at her and taking pictures and she just looks up at me innocently, like, “Wut? What’s funny?”
I have just discovered that dommes in Weimar Germany wore color-coded boots indicating their specialties, and this makes me happy. Imagine the hilarious misunderstandings involving gold laces.