mistressofmuses

Last set of show photos through stagelights for a while. :P We were spoiled for shows this month!

This time Covenant, with our friend Mark and his project Voicecoil opening!


The show flyer.


Obligatory venue sign. Taken after the show. The little white dot at the top of the sign is the moon.


Voicecoil opening!


Covenant! (Mostly Eskel)

Mark got to make a very exciting announcement, too: Voicecoil has been signed to Dependent Records! They're a German label who have released things for a LOT of pretty prominent artists within the scene, including Covenant, so that's extremely exciting news. (He actually told me and Alex about it several months ago while things were still being ironed out, but it's official now!)

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- Patrick, a friend I JUST SAW playing at the Voicecoil show a week ago, had a heart attack yesterday. He was flight-for-life'd down from the mountains into the metro area and was in the ICU as of yesterday, but doing better. No update today. If we can find out whether he's allowed (and wants) visitors, we'll try to go visit him. He's only in his 40s. He's younger than Alex.

- As always, I'm beyond ready for my workweek to be done. Today was a mildly rough day. Not a bad one so much as busy. I kept it together pretty well and got a lot of things done that could have gotten out of hand. (Customer Care was super busy, and had 20-some that hadn't been answered from yesterday, I was the only one who returned any online support voicemails, I had a single-day class that was at-capacity, AND helped sort-of facilitate a pseudo-retirement party for our Lead Instructor, for whom today was the last day in the role - she's joking about how she's excited to finally drop down to full-time.) It felt a little nice that the mildly high-maintenance (but not badly so) instructor for the single-day class gave me a hug and told me to please never leave because I'm the only one who makes the class go smoothly, haha.

- Writing is going all right. I didn't manage any last night, but most nights this week I did. I'd hoped to finish the rewrite by the midpoint of the month, and that won't be happening, but the progress has been steady enough that I'm not too upset. Maybe I'll get a bit more done once my weekend hits, though we'll see what if anything we wind up going to do.

- My dad is going to be in town for part of next week, so we'll probably get together for breakfast. I hope his trip isn't cut short by covid this time.

- I've had a frustrating thing happening lately, which I suspect is some sort of mental fatigue. But I've been having a very hard time both typing and writing, mostly because I keep transposing letters. When typing, it's primarily that my hands seem to be operating at just slightly different speeds, so if I try to type at full speed, one hand's letters get typed faster than the other's, which makes the words a bit of a mess. It makes less sense when it comes to handwriting - but for the last week or so I've been struggling with that as well, again, mostly swapping two random letters mid-word.
It's pretty mild, and today it was less of an issue than it has been the rest of the week. The night before last when I was working on writing I was ready to chuck my damn laptop across the room because I was getting so frustrated by it. If I slow down some, it's less noticeable.

- Vaguely related (or not) to the above, early this week I had a lot of frustrating hand weakness. That's something that's been a thing ever since I was a little kid - particularly if I laugh (or when I was a kid, sneezed), my hand loses ALL strength, to the point I can barely hold a pen, and *definitely* can't write.
A few years ago, I heard about this (hand weakness specifically when laughing) as a symptom of narcolepsy. I don't think I have narcolepsy, lol, but it was very weird to hear ANY mention of the symptom. I complained about it as a kid and never got anything more than "well that's weird" and "maybe you need to do some exercises to build up muscle tone." Of course, I can't find much mention that ISN'T related to narcolepsy. It's not serious enough that it really bothers me anymore, and I can go many months without it, but it was also happening early this week, which was weird and annoying. But the human body is fucking weird.

Boy it sure is something to hear about what seems like garden-variety fandom BNF flounce-drama, passing distantly... and then to actually find out that ah, this shit is way wilder than I thought.

How many BNFs turn out to be abusive wannabe cult leaders who are also convinced of something that makes them better and more spiritually and uniquely special than everyone else out there in the world?
Like... I'm sure the real answer would shock me, but I feel like any number greater than 0 is a problem.

Fucking yikes.

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We are about to head out to our friend's album release show. Fingers crossed it all goes well. Alex seems... like he doesn't really want to go, but I'm hoping he has a good time once we do. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, but I'm also still pretty anxious about it. Haven't tried to get together with people like this since before Covid.

An acquaintance of mine, her wife, and their art partner have a kickstarter just about to end:



The Weirdeer and Wildlife of Mohaine National Park

Following along the "weird, cryptid-filled, paranormal National Park" genre of stuff, they've designed some pretty neat not-quite-normal deer, as well as some additional types of weird wildlife for the fictional Mohaine National Park.



The kickstarter has been doing very well (and I was delighted when a couple weeks ago someone dropped their backing of a limited reward level, and I was able to grab it!). They've unlocked a lot of fun variants (I really like all the "Whitefire" variants, as well as the Version 3 variant for the "Eye Spots" deer.)

It closes tomorrow, and I'm really hoping they get an extra $320ish (and no one drops) because I really want them to hit that stretch goal.

Because this guy:



will unlock at that point, and I really like this design!

I'd love for them to hit the further stretch goals too, of course. There's three critters yet unlocked, and a variant set for them too. But really, I super want the damn dopple hares, haha. A couple days ago that was looking unlikely, but now in the home stretch it's starting to seem like it will happen!

[No pressure to join the kickstarter or anything; I'm just genuinely excited that it's gone pretty well for them, and I've got my fingers crossed that it hits another stretch or few in the last day.]

Still sick. Cough was worse today than yesterday, and my general head congestion is also worse. I think I slept better last night, waking up less frequently with the bad coughing fits.

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Work was still hard. It was another kind of useless day on my part, though, because...

My manager got a job offer. :( It's to be the academic dean at a technical college, and it pays 85k a year, so I'm thrilled for her! But she doesn't want to announce she's leaving until she's sure the job is official (still has to pass their background check and a drug test) and that nothing will fall through... but they want her to start a week from Monday. So... she basically won't be able to give much of any notice.

As thrilled as I am for her, I'm also SO SAD for me and for our center. She's kept this center (and the other three she manages, ours is just the largest) running so well, especially as other regions have been falling apart. She works her ass off to make sure it works, and I appreciate how many times she's had my back and the backs of the other people who work for her. She's pretty demanding, but is a GOOD manager, and I'm going to miss her.

She also had some mixed feelings, though I think she'll settle on positive. I know she likes the job itself, and the group we have in our center, but the clashes come from upper management and how disconnected they are. Those issues just... aren't going to get better, and if she can get a job that pays half again as much, of course she should take it.

I feel like it's unlikely they'll find anyone else who both fits in well and can keep everything running the way she does.

(Also, I'm now the only person doing online support on Saturdays for the foreseeable future, which is something I very much hate, lol. They're "looking for someone to train.")

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One of my internet acquaintances just found out today that they have colon cancer, and are stuck waiting for further tests and procedures to determine just how advanced it is. This was probably caught early, through a fortunate series of medical coincidences that led to the test happening. It's one of those things where it's definitely too soon to panic, but I'm still worried for them.

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Day 12 of NaNo: 1828 words. [Vincent returns to Erik and Alina; they invite him to stay longer.]

Easier time writing tonight, which surprised me. I anticipated it being a struggle, but it went pretty smoothly.