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

We unfortunately have extremely hard water in this area, hard enough that without a water softener (which my apartment building doesn't have), post-faucet filtration is not really effective enough. So I have to buy my water from the store. Meijer (where I do all of my grocery shopping) offers both "purified drinking water" (i.e. tap water that's been filtered and treated) and "spring water" (i.e. water taken from a natural spring somewhere) for the same price. I specifically buy the spring water because it tastes way better.

Lugging it home is not really an issue, as I bought a folding shopping cart off of Amazon soon after I moved in. I toss it in my back seat when I go to the grocery store and then load it up out of the trunk when I get home. Then I can just push the cart into the building and elevator, and then into my apartment. It's also useful for taking the trash and recycling out (I usually do that when heading to the grocery store to reduce the number of trips up and down) and shuttling my laundry between my fourth-floor apartment and the first-floor laundry room (which I need to do this week).

Speaking of the fourth floor (in a four-story building), my apartment is also south-facing, so yesterday, with the outside temperature at 51°F, I had to turn on my air conditioner because the inside temperature with the heat off was 77°F and still climbing. Today it's 65°F outside and I forgot to turn the A/C on before I left this morning, so I'm expecting to come home to a furnace.

French toast!

 

As I kinda predicted, the government is temporarily dropping the COVID requirements to enter Canada from the US for the areas affected by the highway outages. So what is normally a 4-hour drive is now a 9-hour drive through Washington... but it's better than the 36-hour + 2 ferry journey it would have taken yesterday (and one of those ferries only run twice a week) .

Hopefully this will help the panic buying and my grocery order on Friday wont be filled with creative substitutes.

 

There's a local news station that uses this to predict the severity of winter storms... the French Toast Index! Of course, I do remember a few bad blizzards from when I was growing up where it took literally 2-3 weeks for the stores to be restocked. The National Guard had to be called out to clear the roads and provide security at some grocery stores to prevent riots when supplies of bread & milk made it back through.

I haven't seen one this bad since the 90s, and I don't know whether to attribute it to global warning or better preparation on the part of the road services people. But I suppose enough older people remember these.

 

I need to be doing a homework assignment on graph theory. It's not a hard assignment and shouldn't take long to work everything out. I just don't wanna do it. The problem isn't completing the assignment, it's the will to start it. Does that feeling ring a bell for anyone?

 

Yup. Procrastinating because you know it won't take that long and/or be that hard so the "fear" motivation to start is at like 0%

I'm just kinda done. I've had a headache every day after work this week. Only like a 1.5 - 2 on the pain scale but its enough to prevent me from doing anything fun like sewing or writing (and my wrist pain has been acting up again which sucks). A state of emergency has been declaired because of the flooding and highway issues.

But it did snow today... which is probably just going to add to the problems, but its pretty to look at.

I think I just need to find a great series to binge-watch and hibernate for the weekend while eating nothing of nutritional value because that's all there is.

 

Big yes I know it needs to get done...and I'll need to do it eventually but..I don't wanna because
1) it'll take too long
2) it's boring, or
3) it won't take too long so I can easily leave it at the last minute but THEN IT ENDS UP TAKING LONGER THAN EXPECTED AND IT'S DUE TODAY NOO.

So at the end, I think what works is a reward system much like you would do for a dog/cat. "If I get a, b, c done today or start on it today, I will reward myself with a [insert a thing you like here]"

 

I've had a lot of people tell me to do that and I always tell them that I've tried it in the past and it doesn't work for me, because arbitrary rules that are under my control are merely suggestions to me. Which means that I'll ignore them without a second thought and reward myself anyway for nothing. Likewise with self-imposed deadlines: if there aren't consequences outside of my control for missing the deadline, then it's meaningless.

 

I hear you--I'm the same way. I'll reward myself first and just not do the thing anyways and continue procrastinating. In that case...I have to force myself to do the thing.

I've started a "To Do" list as well where I absolutely need to do the thing for 15min or so and then stop. Or I just start on a thing but take small steps (ie, for a document, put the title first and then just don't look at it for the next 2 hours... hey, it's a start! ). Not sure if any of that is helpful....

 

I had to use "potty training" methods to motivate me through my dissertation. Every time I completed a chapter, my friends would take me out for dinner

I use the timer method for cleaning. I put on a timer for however long, clean, and then when the timer goes off, I dont have to clean anymore. It won't get my entire place spotless but it will put a dent in it. I might have to use it today. I'm hoping to get my place fairly clean this weekend (it's actually not that bad so it shouldn't take me too long) because I'm kinda thinking about decorating for Christmas next weekend. Sacrilege, I know, I used to be so adamant about not doing anything Christmas related until December 1 (I used to work at a Christmas tree farm - I had to remain sane somehow) but I think this year it's excusable. I bought myself a LEGO gingerbread house and I'm really excited to start building it!

I also pulled out my sewing for the first time in months last weekend so I really just want to sit and work on the project that has been in a box for the past 12 months.

 

Because I'm Gamiel and since Thanksgiving is comming:


From the Archives: Thanksgiving Comics | FoxTrot Comics by Bill Amend

 

My last big worry outside of school was lifted off my shoulders today. I applied this morning for an apartment and was approved this afternoon. The apartment is mine as long as I sign the lease agreement before move-in, which is a little over a month away. It's a nice one-bedroom apartment on the second floor with a balcony and a courtyard view. The rent is a bit higher than others I was looking at, but it's billed as a luxury apartment home and it's within my budget.

With the job hunt and apartment hunt out of the way, the coast is clear to focus on school alone for the next three weeks. 19 days until graduation!

 

Congrats JC! that's such awesome news! Does it have in-suite laundry

Life continues to be... interesting here in the Land Stuck in the 2020 curse. They managed to open 2 of the routes to Vancouver for essential traffic... but one is already shut down due to a mudslide. People continued to panic buy so my grocery order on Saturday was... interesting. I'll be living on chocolate soy milk, apples and canned goods for a bit. But they have since put restrictions on how much people can buy so I might try running into a grocery store tomorrow for some milk and cereal. BUUUUT the added suck is that my meal-prep service is out of Vancouver so I wont be getting that this week.

I bought myself a pile of Lush products and some face-masks as an early Christmas gift. Who knows when it will get here, but god damn I need a serotonin boost. I'm putting up my few sad Christmas decorations next weekend and no one can stop me.

 

Just hookups (I have to provide my own units), but yes. The only other appliance I have to provide is a microwave.

 

Congrats, JC!! Hopefully this place is better managed than your current place! You are so close to graduation, you've got this!!

See my issue with Americans putting up Christmas decorations too early is that they are trying to skip Thanksgiving and since it's my favorite meal of the year, I don't like people overlooking it! But since you did your Thanksgiving last month, you don't have that problem. Also, next weekend is after American Thanksgiving so it's fair game either way!!

 

Makes sense. I always had a thing against putting up Christmas decorations/watching Holiday specials before December 1 because I usually get fairly sick of it all after about a month, PLUS my family owns a Christmas Tree farm I had to work at in high school... so it has always been my way of controlling the chaos (IDK, my brain is weird). And yeah, we dont really have that 'holiday season start date' with Thanksgiving like Americans do. But this year, with everything that has happened, and with how busy my December is likely to be, I'm giving myself a pass to start a weekend early this year

Plus, I'm kinda in-between having a series to binge-watch right now. I kinda love Holiday specials because most are entertaining enough to watch, but not so complicated that I have to pay attention, so they are perfect background noise for writing, sewing, etc.

 

For anyone who is a musical theater fan, Tick TIck... Boom! on Netflix (at least in the US) is amazing! I didn't know that Andrew Garfield could sing, much less sing very well!

That makes sense! I worked at Sears Portrait Studio when I was in college and I was done with Christmas music about the time December showed up. Thankfully that was the only time I worked retail around Christmas, though working as a bank teller at that time of year wasn't a ball of laughs either.

 

I'm not a HUGE musical theatre fan, but I do like a couple. I watched Tick TIck... Boom! the other night (again, I'm in between having a series to binge so I am much more receptive to just watching random movies) and I really enjoyed it.

I can imagine. At least I was in control of the music at the tree farm. The Chipmunk CD got skipped every time.

To make it worse, I was also in concert band in high school and the (main) instrument I played (glockenspiel) is fairly prominent in a lot of Christmas songs - I cant remember how many years in a row the band director forced me into a solo during Carol of the Bells (my favorite Christmas song still, somehow). And the Christmas sheet music usually came out in mid-October.

 

The Christmas music discussion reminds me that my graduation party is coming up on December 12. And my mom, who annually begins listening to exclusively Christmas music the instant SiriusXM activates their holiday channels (i.e. November 1), is planning to play Christmas music in the background the whole time, despite my objections, because she says it will be the "least objectionable" to everyone. I'm sorry, but there is an objection from the guest of honor (i.e. me), and that's the only opinion that should matter. But she continues to insist.

I think I'm going to take some time over Thanksgiving break and create my own custom two-hour playlist of apropos songs. Then during party setup, I'll unpair the Bluetooth speaker that she bought from her phone and pair it to mine, then tell her to deal with it. I will literally walk out of and abandon the party if she tries to force Christmas music on it.

 

Hey, didn’t know you and I shared an instrument. I learned glockenspiel at my mother’s insistence in 6th grade, but mostly used it for holiday music when I wasn’t playing piano or being in the string quartet.

 

Ugh. That's annoying. I can see where your mom is coming from, but just because an event is in December, doesn't mean you need to play Christmas music - especially if the guest of honor doesnt want it.

My grad party for undergrad consisted of me and my mother going out for dinner... then my MA grad party was me ordering a pizza alone. If I ever do end up going back to school, I want an epic party.

I played pretty much all pitched percussion (including the timpani - THAT was fun), but for some reason, glockenspiel was just the one I most used (especially in holiday music). In the Hall Of the Mountain King was one of my favorites to play.


I was so very productive with work this morning, but I have just hit a wall.

 

I love glockenspiel and first played it when my orchestra needed someone who knew piano and could pick it up within a week of 3-hour rehearsals. I much prefer the less-intense expectation of “do you think you could compose a descant for glockenspiel in the next hour” that is my mother’s MO. Right now, piano is my main musical focus, since I spent so many years not getting to do much of it and I just stopped being the choir pianist at church.

I’m off until Tuesday and am determined to get a chapter up of something.

 

I also played piano as a kid so I just picked up the glockenspeil pretty quickly in concert band. But it's been years since I played either. I did kinda miss playing the piano during all the lockdowns, but in general, I just don't have the time or the space.


Hope all you Americans had a good Thanksgiving.

I'm currently doing something I think I've done like once since working from home became a thing. I'm working in my pyjamas. I woke up this morning not feeling great so I just kinda ate something and started work (I'm currently waiting on a huge video file to download so I can do some simple edits only to upload it again). Part of me thinks I should probably get dressed so I can feel kinda productive... but I also only have to work a half day before my hours are up.

I'm not sure if I'm going to have the energy or the motivation to decorate tonight, but I at least want to do the dreaded task of getting my Christmas decorations out of my storage locker (god that place is scary!).

 

I’ve worked in my PJs before. My work rarely needs me to be in office dress, so while I usually dress as if I need to meet a client, I give myself some grace.

Yesterday was my birthday and I saw Encanto and the new Ghostbusters with four vaccinated friends. I cried at Encanto and also enjoyed playing the soundtrack for my mother. She lived in Colombia for a year and a half and when she heard the cumbia music, she started dancing cumbia in my kitchen. I had shown her the steps I was taught by Central American friends and she learned something closer to merengue, which I learned in high school.

I got two incredibly soft blankets. My friends have this one blanket that they got for Christmas one year and I use it when hanging out on winter nights. My roommate, remembering that, got one with a dinosaur print in a size that swamps me from toes to neck and one with a snow on tree branches print they I can use at my desk.

 

Happy belated birthday, @DarthIshtar !

 

Thanks!