Dear Sweet Filthy World

Sunny again today, but still with some clouds. Our high was, and presently is (so our high so far), 87˚F, with the heat index at 92˚F.

I woke at six this morning, which was earlier than I'd intended. But what the fuck, I'd gotten to sleep by midnight, so I figured I'd get up, have some breakfast, then get to work. And, instead, I fell the fuck back to sleep and woke at 8 a.m. Because I am a creature of excruciating habit, or excruciatingly a creature of habit, this threw the whole day into a less than productive tailspin. I finally gave up and played Guild Wars 2 and tried not the think about the words I did not get written today.

What am I writing? Fuck it, I'll tell you. The novel is called The Night Watchers, and it is essentially a new and more supernatural incarnation of the novel that would have been Interstate Love Song (based on the short-story of the same title). I really like it, all of it that's in my head, and that's a lot of it. If I can quit fucking around, it could be done by the end of the summer. The print and ebook versions will be published by Subterranean Press, and hopefully there will be an audiobook. Likely there will. It's set mostly in and around north-central Alabama, but spans many, many decades. The title is borrowed from Peter Straub's Ghost Story, one of my favorite books of all time, ever.

But you knew that about me and Ghost Story. I mean, if you are one of those Constant Readers.

But I gotta admit, balancing the fiction, no matter how much I like the novel at hand, with the sudden and marvelous paleontology opportunities is a challenge. But. Fiction keeps the rent paid and the lights on and food on the table. Paleontology just, you know, makes me feel like I'm doing what I was put on earth to do. And it's all sort of ironic. For me - as frustrating as I might find it, as much as I would usually rather be doing something else - writing is easy as pie. On the other hand, paleontology is fucking hard work – and I'm not talking about physically demanding fieldwork and fossil preparation. I'm talking about the intellectual rigor, discipline, and plain ol' smarts involved. So, I'm going to be busting my butt to do the fairly easy thing that pays the bills to earn the luxury of busting my butt to do the very hard thing that pays not one red cent. Irony. But, that said, I am just grateful for both opportunities, at this point in my life and at this point in history.

By the way, SubPress has announced Vile Affections (and the accompanying chapbook Cambrian Tales), and you may see the cover. In fact, you can now place preorders! Right here. Note: Only those who bought the signed numbered edition of Comes a Pale Rider may preorder the signed numbered edition of Vile Affections at this time. Anyone may preorder the trade hardcover.

And here's some crap I posted today to Twitter and Facebook:

I'm just waiting for one of these anti-COVID vaccine yahoos to realize that, in effect, every time they use any medication they are – in the eyes of pharmaceutical companies and medical science – essentially guinea pigs or lab rats or Rhesus monkeys, FDA approval or no.

~ and ~

Fact: When you are so afraid that you can only win an election when fewer people vote, so you try to make it harder and harder for folks to vote, especially those whom you suspect won't vote for you, you've failed democracy.

~ and this, which someone else said and which I retweeted ~

Let's perfectly clear...Democrats do not want to de-fund the police. Dems want to demilitarize and de-brutalize the police.

I leave you with my level 80 holosmith (an elite engineering specialization), Mandy J. Wolowitz (née Hansen), at Timberline Falls. Yes, she has a lightsaber.

Later Tater Beans,
Aunt Beast




3:50 p.m.

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Yeah, so...much warmer today. After a chilly night, dipping down to a very unseasonable 37˚F, today was sunny and 64˚F. We should make it to 73˚F tomorrow and be in the eighties next week. Finally.

Two weird days. My mom contacted us about a house in Leeds that's just gone on the market, and...well..it's a very strange story I'll tell once I know how it's going to play out. But I led to considerable chaos today, including my having to cancel a zoom conference two paleontologists, Drs. Tony Martin (Atlanta) and Ashley Poust (San Diego), with whom I have been discussing a collaboration over the last couple of weeks. Needless to say, I didn't really get any other work done, either. Mostly, I've been "sitting by the phone." Yeah, I know that phrase no longer means what it once did. Wish us luck, kittens.

Yesterday's movie was James Cameron's The Abyss (1989), which wasn't nearly as good as I'd remember it being, though Ed Harris gives it his all. Today was Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), which has aged very well. I will quote my original LJ "review," from the 9/18/04 entry, because I said it well enough way back then:

It is with great, great delight that I can honestly say that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is one of the most spectacular films of the year (or in recent memory, for that matter). A dizzyingly diverse mixture of influences are brought into play: Flash Gordon, the Fleischer Brothers' Superman cartoons, MGM's The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, The Lost World (1925), Metropolis, Terry and the Pirates, various 1940-'50s serials including Commander Cody and King of the Rocketman, and numerous film noir classics -- and still, I suspect that's just a beginning. This is a beautiful, amazing film which manages to do what George Lucas did so long ago with Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but has failed to do more recently. It takes the past and makes something new and brilliant and breathtaking from it. Some might mistake this for camp, but Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is emphatically not camp. Which, I fear, will make it even more unfathomable to many of today's moviegoers. I think Gene Shalit has best summed it up: "If you don't like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, you just don't like movies."*

Kerry Conran's direction is spot on, and his script is, by turns, tight, suspenseful, humorous, bold, and minimalist. The casting could hardly have been better. Jude Law has just the right kind of good looks to pull off the role, Gwyneth Paltrow is the plucky reincarnation of a hundred lost movie goddesses, Angelina Jolie's "Frankie" Cook is a perfect mix of sexuality and no-nonsense airwoman, and Bai Ling's presence dominates much of the film, though she never utters a single line. Are the SFX good? They are beyond all expectation. They are such a seamless fusion of Fritz Lang's Bauhaus/Deco sensibilities with a CGI/post-Matrix paradigm one finds it hard to believe the marriage wasn't there all along. I know a lot of film critics are giving this one the boot, but trust me, they're wrong. See this movie. Please see this movie. But don't see it with a chip on your shoulder. You know what I mean. That, "Okay. Here I am. Entertain me." bullshit. Allow this movie to show itself to you on its own exquisite terms. It's a film that more jaded, cynical film goers will never get, because many of them have forgotten that it's okay to have fun at the theatre and spend 107 minutes smiling until your face aches. Without reservation, I adore this film. Oh, and Crimson Skies** geeks, you might love it the most.

It is a great shame that Conran never made another feature film.

* Yeah, I know. Not exactly a great movie critic. But even a doofus is right every now and again.
** Still one of the best Xbox games ever.

---

Still reading the Harlan bio. Also read "Deconstructing the Gestalt: New concepts and tests of homology, as exemplified by a re-conceptualization of 'microstomy" in squamates" in the Anatomical Record.

Not much else to report. I'm gonna go sort Pleistocene cave matrix until dinner. I'm almost done with the second batch.

Later,
Auntdiesel Decobeast




1:53 p.m. (and these days, pretty much all the photos are Kathryn's)

The sun came back today. I woke to it, and it's always easier waking from my nightmares to bright sunlight. But the cooler weather is slow to leave; we only reached 66˚F, and it's currently 52˚F.

I was able to work today, to really work, for the first time in weeks. I did some good paleo' writing. Hopefully, tomorrow I can do some good fiction writing. I see articles about how, in the face of Covid-19 and in the stress and worry, the uncertainty and all that is happening, how we should no fear to be unproductive. We should not be shameful if we are not working. But I do fear being unproductive, and I am shameful of the times I cannot work. I'll always be that way. And there are bills to be paid, and there are stories owed.

Anyway, later I played GW2 and Black Desert Online with Spooky. I must say, Black Desert Online is a visually stunning game, and it's possibly the most satisfyingly visceral game I have ever played. But it's written for shit. I'm pretty sure this is what happens when bad Korean writing is translated badly into bad English writing.

Later, we finished Part One of Season Six of Vikings Episodes 6 and 7 are genuinely, heartbreakingly beautiful. Even if I haven't enjoyed all of the series so far, it would have been worth it just for those two episodes.

---

Last night, the Alabama Department of Public Health counter hit 999 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and...locked up. I suspect that whoever wrote the code never imagined we would need four-digit numbers to tally the stricken. Finally, it started ticking off cases again this afternoon, though I don't know if it any longer reflects our knowledge of the infected in Alabama as well as it did before it stopped last night. As it stands, the ADPH reports 1,108 confirmed cases in the state, with 305 in Jefferson County and 89 in Shelby County.

I was able to speak with Jun Ebersole this afternoon, and that helped some. I am missing Jun and McWane and my work in the lab terribly. And Winifred the tylosaur. Her, too. Okay, her most of all.

Later,
Aunt Beast




1:36 p.m.

A day that was, by turns, very foggy and very rainy. A fog so dense the other side of the street was hidden from view. And heavy rain and thunderstorms, a flash flood watch that became a flash flood warning. Currently, it's 60˚F, and our high today was 66˚F. And the world out there is turning green; spring is only an inch away.

Most of my day was spent at my doctor's office, or so it seemed. Doctor's visits have that affect on me. They seem to devour entire days, no matter how much time I actually have to spend on them.

But finally we came home and played a little bit of Guild Wars 2 and a lot of Black Desert Online. It wasn't a bad day, all in all. It was surely my best day since last Thursday, and that's even taking the doctor's office into consideration.

Please have a look at our current eBay auctions, which include a copy of Dear Sweet Filthy World. A substantial check from a publisher is very overdue and all that crap. When you make your living as a freelance, this is how the world works. People are allowed to pay you when they feel like it.

You know, it would go some way towards alleviating my hatred of the present if we'd stop referring to presidential candidates by their first names.

Anyway, tonight we finally saw Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit (2019), and wow. I'm amazed this freakishly adorable, terribly sorrowful, and profoundly wise and humane film was actually made. It's a brave piece of cinema. It's wacky and sweet and monstrous and funny and beautiful. See, I'm not a film critic. You can tell by the way I just recklessly toss all those adjectives around, by the way I merely tell you how it impressed me, just tell you how a film made me feel, instead of droning on about rebuttals to "European exceptionalism" and whatnot and what have you. Also, I think Sam Rockwell is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. Anyway, please see Jojo Rabbit.

Later Taters,
Aunt Beast




1:53 p.m.

Rain, rain, rain. And still three more days of rain to come. Already, all the local river and creeks are in flood, with Spooky aptly described as looking like a raging torrent of Yoo-hoo. The flood warning continues all night, with a watch all day and night tomorrow. Currently, it's 59˚F.

Really not much to say about today.

But Spooky and I are giving Black Desert Online a try. I tried to give is a try back in 2016, but the Asus just wasn't up to it. The Dell I got in 2018 is doing much, much better. It's a gorgeous game, but the learning curve is...steep.

The cough continues.

Tonight we finished Locke & Key, and it stayed watchable to the very end, even though it became increasingly afflicted with stupidity. I think the target age group for the series ought to be about thirteen, even if the show's creators were aiming for twenty somethings.

Later Taters,
Aunt Beast




7:39 p.m.

Another better day, despite the damn rain. I just stayed inside and didn't look out the windows. Currently, it's 46˚F, with a windchill of 44˚F.

Today, I addressed my Christmas cards, then went back to work on "Seven Dreams" (and I have got to find a new title) and did 1,108 words. Also, I went back to work on the glyptosaur paper and read "The taxonomy, chronostratigraphy, and paleobiogeography of glyptosaurine lizards (Glyptosaurinae, Anguidae)."

And then Spooky and I played the Winter's Day stuff in Guild Wars 2, and then I had RP, and then a rather late dinner, and...god, I'm a nerd.

I know. Just shut up and look at the dolyaks.

Later, Said the Nerd,
Caitlín




4:40 p.m.

Currently, it's 50˚F, with a windchill of 47˚F.

Not much to say about today. I had a doctor's appointment this morning, and it was about 2 p.m. before I got home. I think they drew about a gallon of blood. Anyway, that sorta killed the day, so far as getting work done was concerned.

But Chapter One of the current "living story" in GW2 went live today, so we gamed for a couple of hours this afternoon, and then tonight we started the final season of The Man in the High Castle.

This morning, I started rereading The Shining.

Later,
CRK




1:53 p.m.

A hot, hot day. I'm not sure what the actual high was, but I know the heat index made 102˚F at one point. Currently, it's 85˚F, with the heat index at 91˚F.

Today, I worked on the glyptosaurine paper, mostly studying the six osteoderms we have and reading or re-reading relevant papers, such as Chris Beard's 2008 "The oldest North American primate and mammalian biogeography during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum" and Robert Sullivan's 1979 revision of Glyptosaurus. And I played GW2, which I started playing again a couple of days ago, after a three-week break. And I watched Mythbusters and a documentary about the exploration of Mars.

Tuna sandwiches and fries for dinner.

Tonight, we watched Mad Max: Fury Road for the fourth time (counting the two times in the theater). Last night, we watched a documentary about Alexander McQueen.

Spooky's making the creepiest puppet....

Oh, but first, please have a look at the current eBay auctions. Good stuff, which I will sign and personalize. And it's still not too late to have a look at Spooky's birthday wishlist. Just click the link. Thank ye.



Later Gators,
CRK




5:13 p.m.

Yeah, so...Game of Thrones E70, "The Long Night" (DON'T WORRY! NO SPOILERS HERE!)...good goddamn. I saw that one of the creators (I forget who) said they set themselves the goal of outdoing Peter Jackson's take on the Battle of Helm's Deep. Well, they did that, and then some. The Battle of Helm's Deep, turns out that was a fucking cakewalk. E70 was, all in all, perfect and beautiful and horrifying and sublime, and I almost cried twice.

It was quite warm here today. Our high was 81˚F, and it's still 71˚F. But the real heat is coming later in the week.

Today, I wrote 1,375 words and finished "Metamorphosis C."

And then I fucked off and spent the afternoon playing GW2 with Spooky, because every now and then we deserve a day like that, but we very rarely take them.

We've started watching Warrior on Cinemax, which is sorta Bruce Lee in 1870 San Francisco, in a style very like that of Peaky Blinders. With Kung Fu. I think Warrior might turn out to be good, and it has certainly gotten my attention.

My grateful thanks to the winning bidder on the illuminated Houses Under the Sea: Mythos Tales ARC. I'm decorating it pretty for you.

Later,
CRK




4:07 p.m.

Another very fine and sunny spring day. We reached the mid seventies again.

And it was a decentish day off. I had a little email this morning, and then Spooky and I ran errands – Walgreens, Target, the market (I got a new laundry hamper, whee). I played a lot of GW2, and made my twentieth toon (!), a new engineer, human, named Mandy Hansen, and leveled her to 15. I watched some really bad TV. Ate cornflakes, then a can of Progresso soup for dinner. And that was my day off.

Tomorrow, it's back to work.

Later Po'Taters,
CRK




5:57 p.m.