Sidious, Snoke and Salacious B Crumb’s Sarcastic and Sassy Situation Saloon (Fanfic Social Thread)

I'll suggest that to my manager. Though I'm not sure I want to be rescued from a spa. Just leave me there and forget about me.

Also, so I just ordered 3 pints of ice-cream from a local shop (they were buy 2 get 1), because I just need anything at this point to perk me up before I end up a lump in the middle of my bed for 3 weeks.

 

I'm between dentists right now, but my private insurance ran out and I'm waiting for Canada Post insurance to kick in once I gain permanent status (I honestly joined at the perfect time. Due to corona, vets are taking the opportunity to retire like never before, and temps like me are being bumped up to permanent in months, not years. I heard that they're even hiring people to permanent over on the Lower Mainland. I'd go but I can't afford to leave the Island just yet.)

 

May the pints help.

I’m having a lucky week where my depression is concerned, which is good, since I have a deadline to meet by Monday. I’m co-writing a paper for the Tolkien Society’s February seminar and we want to have the draft done by Tuesday so we can get everything agreed upon and flowing smoothly before we send it to our betas for nerdy or grammatical proofreading.

I don’t know if I’m jinxing myself by thinking it’ll go okay. But I write papers for fun, my coauthor has a master’s degree, and we have 8 months of completing each other’s sentences on the topic we’re writing about behind us. (Lessons in hospitality from The Hobbit.)

 

Frankly, if I were at the spa, I'd be furious at anyone who thought I needed to be rescued!

Oh yes. Heaps of those especially in Crete (which I recommend as a holiday destination for everyone after the pandemic is over, it's really one of the nicest islands that I know of). A non-negligible chunk of the Cretan population have these strong Mediterranean features (olive skin, black hair etc) with eyes so blue you'd think they're fake. It's especially striking on old men who wear the full traditional Cretan getup up to and including the giant Cretan moustache, although there are fewer and fewer of those as time goes by.

I find TikTok weird, but I actually think that of most social media platforms. The only one I use is Twitter and I think it's because I got on board early enough to build a timeline that curates local and international news for me, so I don't see a lot of what people post "socially". My youngest research assistant has everything (Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, you name it) and I don't know how she can keep up with all that and still have an attention span worth talking about.

 

I don't understand TikTok either. I've seem some cool things being done with it though, like an opossum rescue charity has done some opossum education videos that have been shared to facebook. It's long enough for a good overview on a specific thing, like opossums not having rabies, but it's not so long that you can include multiple things in one video, which can be too much.

 

I pointedly avoid TikTok. At first it was simply because I thought it was dumb, but then I learned it was actually owned by the Communist Party of China, and is being used as an intelligence-gathering system, so I avoid it for security reasons.

 

Especially if it was being run by a Hutt.

I am an absolute Luddite. Don't even have a Facebook page. These boards are the closest I come to social media. Just don't trust it.

No other news from this front. Dentist appointment was okay, but uncomfortable. And overdue; between shutdown & hospital visits, I think it's been nearly a year.

 

On the eyes thing. Master Six has white blonde hair and very, very pale skin. To top it off he has eyes so blue and piercings we get stopped on the street occasionally by people commenting on it. He’s also tiny and elfin and looks like a strong gust of wind would knock him over. We secretly joke he’s actually fae and the hospital stuffed it up.

I have hetrochromia (two coloured eyes) which is a brown circle at the centre followed by a larger blue ring. People only notice when they are up close. One of my asd kids freaked out last year when he noticed. He thought I needed to see a doctor.

One week until I go back to work and I’m dreading it. I get panic attacks thanks to the lingering effects of PNDA and I’ve had two almost ones in tow days. It’s not boding well for the start of the school year.

 

I loved going to Crete. I was there for my birthday in 2019 and, as someone who enjoyed studying Greek history and literature in school, it was great to visit.

 

And now for something completely different...

 

Weirdly adorable.

 

That's adorable!

So today was brought to me by poor decisions by coworkers. We took the company van up to the ski/snowshoe resort for our volunteer training... and didn't even make it to the resort. This van is so old and there are winter tires on it, but they aren't exactly great and the roads were REALLY icy. We got stuck going up a hill, tried to turn around ended up blocking traffic both ways for a half hour. We managed to get to a driveway off the side of the road. Called a tow truck and were told it was better just to wait for the sander to go by because the tow company wasn't sure if they could handle our big van on the road. So I spent most of my work day sending emails in freezing cold van and making jokes about being a charity case (it's funny because we're a nonprofit). THE ANNOYING part is we have a company truck with much better winter tires but SOMEONE decided he didn't want to unload the van to load the truck

 

Today, I got the most interesting news for a while. For context: I took an assignment half an hour away to burn through my temp period so I wasn't relying on the call-in system. For a while, the depot right near where I live had been sufficiently staffed with its own temps, but today the supervisor where I'm at came to me and said they're looking for people, want me to see if I can send you? I excitedly said yes, because that usually means overtime and then I'm just 5 minutes from home. Here's the kicker, the primary reason I work for Canada Post is my ex-girlfriend's father is a supervisor at that depot. I applied when we were together, but got hired after we'd broken up. I didn't even get to meet him until I started training (thanks, corona [mod edited for content]) but we've built our own rapport in that time, and have a lot of respect for each other. It's just that the proximity is a reminder of my lost love, especially with our anniversary coming up in a month's time. So, that's been my day.

 

So it's a week before school starts back (less than that now) and I feel completely and totally overwhelmed. This year I'm teaching four subjects by myself (as in no-one else to rely on) and in a rather toxic work environment. I started to create a new Unit for my 10s and now I'm doubting myself as to if they'll like it, if it's on topic, if they'll engage - which is followed up by the "why am I bothering" self-talk.

On top of that I have 4 Year 12 Units that I have to make (because I've never taught it before) and a Year 11 Unit to rewrite because lockdown made for some terrible classroom resources last year.

Then there is all the fanfics I have outstanding, or half done, or dropped (I counted it's seven). I would love to be writing but my brain is so concentrated on work that I can't actually get the energy or inspiration to put fingers to keyboard. Also haven't read as much as I would like.

Sorry for the massive emotional dump. Just frustrated. My husband keeps telling me that I just need to let stuff go and be happy with that decision but I find it almost impossible to do.

Is anyone else like this? Just end up with a list of half completed things a half mile long and not nearly enough time to do it all in?

 

Story of my life!

I have to say though that the pandemic helped me review my priorities. In the first lockdown I did the field work in refugee camps and I lived in constant terror of introducting the virus to the camps or bringing it home, so I isolated from my family, and then I had a lot of alone time on my hands, so my brain kept whirring and preventing me from doing anything joyous or entertaining, so I ended up writing reports and reports and more reports that weren't due for several months and... well, let's just say that it ended in complete burnout.

After all this, the top item on my priority list became "me, myself and I", and while it's not very nice or altruistic and it probably doesn't make me a better person, I certainly feel better and I think that there should be no shame in that (hint hint @Kit')

Also, unfinished fics are the least of your worries. It's not like we're going anywhere, if you end up writing them in a few months we'll still be around to read them

In other news, we got Chyntuquita's test results and she doesn't have anything in terms of nasties crawling around her gut. She also feels a lot better, but still unwell enough to be in the mood for constant cuddles, which is something I'm not complaining about

 

No shame. On the airplanes, they say put your own oxygen mask on before you help someone else. Especially if you need to take care of others, you have to make sure you're in shape to do that first.

I'm definitely in that mindset. I had a LOT of health issues last year, none Covid related... 4 hospital stays, 2 surgeries, so with the lockdown I've been out of the office more than I've been in it. With all of that plus watching the political maelstrom, I've been stress eating and gained all the weight I lost in the hospital. And after spending my days online for work, I am less inclined to open up the computer to write fanfic or anything. Mostly on the couch reading (cannot recommend enough Theodora Goss's Athena Club series) or binge-watching TV.

So, shall we start a self-care challenge? Pledge a few things to do every month to improve our physical & mental health? I'll pledge:
1) Drink one glass of water every day on rising & before going to bed
2) Short walk outside every day that it isn't raining
3) Stop looking at my phone after 8 pm
4) Minimum 5 servings of fruits/veg every day (I know it's supposed to be more, but I'm setting the bar low & can raise it when I succeed)

 

I pledge to play piano 5 days a week, make myself a dessert every weekend, and walk in the sunshine more.

 

It's totally okay to need emotional dumps and to be frustrated. I was feeling so frustrated at everything last week and much of this week. I had stuff to do but little physical and emotional energy to do it. I think most of us are feeling the same things.

I agree with others that self-care right now is super important!

Honestly I haven't been eating the best lately but sometimes you just have to think about mentally surviving the short term.

I'm glad her test results came back good. I'm sorry she's still feeling unwell but the idea of constant cuddles is just adorbs!

I've been feeling the exact same way for the past 2 weeks. My muse is active (not gnawing at me or anything but definitely not dead) and I'd love to be writing, but so many nights I've just not had the energy to actually write. I just want to sit on the couch with my Squishmallows and watch TV.

I love this idea. Ill have to think about mine.

 

I’m the same with my muse for fanfics, but one story is in the middle of very stressful political turmoil and the other is right after the battle of yavin, so expressing myself about strife has been a non-starter for eight days.

On the other hand, for my original stuff, I just remembered this week how doing a tarot reading in my first book taught me a lot about the rest of the plot and helped me with decisions. A fanficcer here gave me a deck and taught me the basics and I wound up including the reading in the book itself because it was actually helpful to the characters. So, with the book I’m currently struggling with, I’m going to sit down with my deck and ask a question and see what the cards tell me. On the other hand, I need to just sit down and write drafts of the twelve 2000-word stories due by March for the scifi holiday anthology scheduled for November.

 

In the past week the US has been CRAZY!

But I don’t want to talk about politics.

Work has recommenced on the house, the people helping us are also farmers so they can’t help us during the Spring, Summer and Autumn and they were working on a different project, and they discovered that five of the six receptacles/outlets in the room my husband, son and I live and sleep in weren’t properly grounded. That was unnerving, especially seeing that we were using them.

But the TV is now mounted freeing space on Evan’s dresser for other things.

They’re coming back tomorrow to make sure that the receptacles get properly grounded. They are also going to put a ceiling fan in as we don’t have a ceiling light, we have been using lamps for light, and make sure that the light switches aren’t tied to any receptacles like they are now, fix a receptacle in Lauren’s room and see if they can put a new one in her room as she only has two. Switch out the light in the dining room for a ceiling fan and reconnect the hot water to the upstairs bathroom sink.


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YES YES YES to the self-care challenge!

My plan includes:
1. I'll get my doctor appointments done (ophthalmologist, dentist, etc.) after postponing them for nearly a year because of Covid,
2. Every other book I read must be printed rather than electronic,
3. I'll do something every day to get the house in order after The Move™ (cartons of books and summer clothes everywhere, you get the picture),
4. I'll rebuild a jungle on the balcony here just like I had upstairs.

I just got started on #4 by ordering pots, sand and soil. It'll be all cacti and succulents because climate change yada yada and we need to use less water. Next time I'll go out I'll buy some plants (or maybe I can just raid the municipal garden for cuttings )

@Mistress_Renata One really useful thing we have here for good fruit and veggies is individual farmers or cooperatives that bring you a box of fresh produce every week. The added bonus is that it's all produce that's in season and therefore considerably tastier, the downside being that you don't get to choose. However, when I see the definition of a "serving" of fruit or vegetables in the US the size is so ridiculously small (I mean, have a look here) that the only way not to get them is to eat all meat, all the time. As long as you make sure that you're getting a decent helping of fruit or veggies with every meal, you'll be eating a lot more than 5 servings.

Also, I'm seeing that for some mysterious reason in the US beans, chickpeas etc. don't count as vegetables. We Greeks who eat the much-vaunted Mediterranean diet assure you that they are absolutely veggies

... which reminds me to go and check on the chickpea stew that I have in the oven right now, because that's what we're having for lunch!

 

Thank you. I just felt like there was a tidal wave of stuff about to come crashing down. Today I actually managed to find my focus for the most part (except when dealing with getting a parcel posted to the US). This weekend I'm not going to do any school work and instead focus on playing with the kids, reading the Pratchett book I need to return to the library on the first day back at school and maybe making banana bread. It's going to be hard to switch my brain off, but I'm going to try

That's such good news. Stomach bugs suck, but nasties in your stomach suck even more.

Have been speaking to my other half? He's been pushing that for a while now. It's something I've been getting better at, but it's a long journey.

The eating part has got me too. I've tried to be better and I was great until today when it fell apart a bit, but I keep reminding myself that tomorrow is a new day and it's going a while before I see results.

I've never done that before. I think I'll try that tomorrow night.

Uh, that's not good. We once had our house almost burn down because the wire coming into the house had worn though and was touching a piece of guttering. Turned out our house guttering was live...

Guess who put a metal ladder against the metal guttering during a rainstorm? Luckily at the opposite end of the house so the electricity had dissipated a bit, but still.

That's one of the things I did today for me. Pot bound house pots all replanted, now waiting for husband to go back to work on Monday so I can sneak them inside (he likes plants, but he also likes them outside the house for the most part).

My pledge:

Try and exercise every day, but not beat myself up if I don't manage it
Be kinder in my self-talk when I make a mistake or something doesn't work the way I think it should have.
Finish jobs, so that everything is away and I don't feel that pang of regret when I walk past the half-done project

Edit: Just wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you for just being amazing and supportive. I really appreciate having a wonderful, kind and caring space I can come to and share stuff.

 

I'll have to go over to the recipes page and solicit some Mediterranean non-meat main dishes, like a chickpea stew! I think because of the protein, most folks here think of them as a meat substitute. I've been pondering doing a more Med diet after the great gastro meltdown of 2020, but a lot of the recipes I see are for meat. Which is fine, but I was under the impression that fruit/veg play a more prominent role. I've gone to "Meatless Monday" and "Fishy Friday", but it's hard to think of main dishes for the first. There is only so much stir fry tofu a woman can eat!

Scary about your electrical outlets, @Lady_Misty! If they are like that in just one room, are they like that in the whole house? Especially the kitchen, have your friends check. Just yowzer.

I ran into a snag with no phone after 8pm... The IMDB Lookup issue. As in, you're watching TV and thinking "what have I seen that actor in before?" so you grab your phone. On the other hand, I was good and didn't pull out the phone for a last scroll of the news before bed. I pulled out a nice, old-fashioned book and read a few chapters about a fictional murder in a cozy English town, which didn't raise my blood pressure.

My colleagues & I are still really worried what will happen the day of the Inauguration, but it seems like the FBI crackdown has some running scared. I know they are arresting a lot of people. It is terrible, though, to see the news with so many barricades and guardsmen for what is usually a day of celebration, no matter who is being sworn in. Even though it was always going to be scaled way back, due to the virus, it feels as if it has been tainted or diminished. And maybe that was the plan...although I suspect there was no plan, just big talk that went a lot farther than anyone expected.

Well. Today I have off for a Dr. appt (the last of the checkups!), and I hope to take a walk in a park somewhere before it starts to rain. Then I'll do a bit of grocery shopping and come home to read, nap, or do a jigsaw.

 

Well we know that one receptacle in the Kitchen is trash as we can’t run the dishwasher on it without blowing a circuit.

My MIL shared with them how she’s had to move the desktop computer twice because it wouldn’t start on the receptacles it was plugged into.

The husband said that at the box it looks like whoever last did any work on the electric made it look like it was good when it was borderline unsafe and could become unsafe.

This didn’t surprise my MIL as there’s a crack in the shower pan of the shower in the downstairs full bathroom that the previous owners slapped a patch and/or covered with a shower mat; they discovered the problem three-six weeks after buying the house when water came into the living room.

They lied about the age of the roof but got away with it because they said it was eleven years plus old instead of just saying eleven.

And we learned that they didn’t have the septic tank pumped before selling it, but seeing that it was December and there was snow on the ground it would have been hard to do and they didn’t tell them where the septic thing was to empty it.

I hate this house some days.

It’s an 1890 farmhouse for those curious or needed the reminder.


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@Mistress_Renata Here's a useful tip for pretty much any legume stew: 1 normal main course portion = 100g dry legumes (or 200g drained if you buy them canned) + 100g onion + 100g veggies of your choice + 1 tbsp olive oil. Multiply that by however many portions you want to make and add whatever you fancy to make it tasty/aromatic (salt, pepper, lemon juice, herbs, etc.)

For instance, for the chickpea stew we had for lunch I put 500g dry chickpeas (soaked overnight), 500g chopped onion, 5 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and the juice of a couple of lemons in a clay pot, added enough water to cover + 1 cm, covered the pot with the lid and baked them until done, then I added 500g chopped spinach leaves and baked some more until the spinach was done too. I like to bake this the slow way (i.e., 7-8 hours in the oven at 120°C), but you can also amp up the heat and be done in a couple of hours. Or you can make this on the stovetop without any extra steps, or in a slow cooker if you have one. And if you put only 400g of onion or 350 g of spinach it'll be just as good.

My second favourite legume after chick peas is lentils, and it's exactly the same except that I put chopped carrots and celery stalks instead of spinach, dill instead of oregano and vinegar instead of lemon. I'm sure that if I open my freezer right now I'll find a couple of portions of that somewhere in the back.

You really can't go wrong with dishes like this, unless you forget about your food while it's cooking on high heat and let all the water evaporate. Bonus: these freeze really well, so get portion-size tupperware boxes to make a big batch and have food available for the days when you don't want to cook.

There's a caveat here: if you have gastrointestinal issues, legumes are known not to be particularly kind on the gut. A partial solution to that is to add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the soaking water, but it's not foolproof.

@Lady_Misty An 1890 farmhouse sounds like an aesthete's dream and a practical nightmare – although in your case it also sounds that the people it was bought from were dishonest about its condition. You don't have any recourse on that front?