Since my last entry:
Last fall/winter, I went to Metatopia with Stoic and tried some fun WIP games, and offered what I hope was useful feedback. I got mini-splits/heat pumps installed at my house, replaced the crappy old masonite siding with vinyl, which cost a lot, but there was a significant state rebate and an interest free loan for the HVAC improvements, which seem to have cut my electric bills 30-50%. In an attempt to be fiscally prudent, I trimmed a couple hundred bucks a month off my pattern tab, but it's creeping back up as I find new stuff.
I also underwrote the fall fund drive for Valley Free Radio again, which I'm happy to do, but playing 'wealthy community benefactor' continues to feel weird. Do other rich people spend much time worrying about using their wealth ethically? I'd love to find a support group, but I can't even find a therapist who will return my calls.
I finished writing a superb Doctor Who story (that I wish would get produced but only certainly never will), which is
posted on my fic journal. If only I'd finished it BEFORE Jodie Whittaker left the show....
More recently, Stoic and I made the trip to Morristown for Dreamation (back for the first time since Covid. Such a great con) and a made quick dash to Cleveland to stay with my dear old friend B and his wife and two ADORABLE black kitties so we could see the solar eclipse on April 8. I didn't have a transcendent experience, but it was very cool, and I'm so glad I got to reconnect with B and stay in their lovely home on a gorgeous spring weekend in Berea.
Apropos of rich guy shit, Moyra Turkington, who I met a few years ago at Dreamation playing in an incredible LARP inspired by LeGuin's
The Tombs Of Atuan, has created new LARP called Lumberjills and was trying to get it funded on Kickstarter. I heard about it a week before the deadline from a post by Avonelle Wing on FB, checked it out, pledged, and noticed that it was only a couple of grand shy of hitting its target.
Avi is, I think, something of a figure in the game development/conventions milieu, and one reason for that is she's really kind and works hard to include and welcome people in the best geek culture fashion. Since she'd shouted Lumberjills out as worthy and struggling, I sent her a message promising to cover the outstanding balance, if any, on the last day. I didn't realize that it was Mo's game, so I was especially pleased to reconnect with good news.
But, geez, is it just a pleasant accident that $2,000 is a big deal for almost everyone, but not for me? Or is it a sign of just how broken our society is? I think the latter, but it's really playing into my tendency to live like I'm safe in the balcony and not sat on stage with everyone else.
Last weekend, Sydneycat and I went to see Elliot Page live at the Academy of Music, in conversation for an hour with the director of Transhealth in Florence. The Lt. Governor was also there, and I'm so glad that MA has elected leaders who care about helping people. I was stunned to learn that within a week of opening up, they had 2000 people on their patient waiting list.
I have started checking my blood sugar levels because I don't want diabetes (I seem to be OK), and FINALLY started going back to my trainer.
I'm still doing Civil Politics on VFR, which makes it about 10 years now. I wish we weren't watching a creeping car crash in Ukraine, Gaza, the US election, and the climate crisis.