Half-Resurrection Blues
Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 21:14 on 21 November 2020
This is the first book of the "A Bone Street Rumba" series. I picked up the book after a second recommendation for it, one from Claire and one from the XOXO slack. One of the strong recommendations from both was, "listen to this book." The book is read by the author, whose voice caresses the listener as it takes the listener on a wild ride.
So, I listened to this book more than I read it. The audio version recommendation? Totally worth it.
In this book, we are introduced to Carlos Delacruz, an in-betweener who is half-alive, half-dead. He worked as an agent for the New York Council of the Dead, a vague power group who directs its people to reap souls to keep the dead in the underworld, and the living out of the underworld. We learn about Carlos as he vaguely recalls things. He doesn't recall his life before his resurrection. He follows the rules of the Council. He leads the dead back to the underworld, or reaps their soul for the second death or some such.
At the beginning of the tale, Carlos meets up with another inbetweener, wait what, there are others? and kills him, per the order of the Council. Turns out, on his dying breath, the guy Carlos kills asks Carlos to watch over his sister, Sasha. Another wait what? She is also an inbetweener. And apparently very very hot. Of course they hook up. But what is this pull and what are all these ngks? Well, the ngks are tiny, exercise bike riding spirits with a hive mind contracted to kill an old spirit in order to open the entrance between the Underworld and the real world. They're kinda mean, too.
So, Carlos uncovers his past, Sasha's past, what the ngks are, who is orchestrating the opening of the Underworld, and just how meh the Council is. The book is a fun read, worth reading / listening to.
"At first? Chaos. The hungry dead will pour through the gate, scatter out into the world in their vast multitudes. The living will wander in. There is always a painful period of absolute crisis at the pinnacle of any great change.”
Page: 257
Thoughts on a California Curfew
Blog kitt decided around 23:17 on 19 November 2020 to publish this:California went into curfew tonight. All non-essential businesses must be closed between 10pm and 5am for purple (the worst) rated counties (most of us) for the next month.
On the news, we hear people interviewed saying, "This is stupid. What the virus is going to be more active from 10pm until morning?"
Which shows just how much our country lacks any type of critical thinking skills and any form of creativity. It also shows just how disrespectful people are, which is one of the many reasons were are in this mess in the first place.
Heaven forbid people could actually speculate on what is actually happening. Heaven forbid people would actually try to understand the reasoning for a measure, or understand why the curfew would be considered a helpful measure.
Allow me to, once again, think for the people who choose not to think, and speculate for just 3 minutes. I set my timer for three minutes and...
1. Curfew means that traditionally late night venues will need to be closed. Said late night venues include bars and strip joints, both places where people drink alcohol. Drinking means no mask, which means higher transmission rates. Alcohol also means lowered inhibitions which means people are more likely to engage in risky behaviors leading to the spread of the virus. Curfew reduces these vectors.
2. Curfew forces people back into their homes, if they have one, early. This means that people will leave whatever (stupid, idiotic) larger group they may be in and in a place where they can be sheltering. Curfew breaks apart larger group that may happen in the evening.
Wow, typing this up, and I'm only at one minute and forty five seconds so far.
3. Curfew means that law enforcement and health workers have a chance at a break, a moment to breathe, before needing to care for the idiots who are not sheltering during the day. Wouldn't that be nice?
4. Curfew is an experiment to see if we can reduce transmission rates by altering this part of people's behavior.
Meh. Rather than complaining about the rule, maybe the irresponsible person being interviewed could, you know, show some curiosity and find out WHY the rule went into effect.
Oh, I just found out the interviewed person I quoted above is a Republican. OF FUCKING COURSE. Republicans are the group of irresponsible people who like to believe you can wish away an organism that is LITERALLY KILLING US. Explains his response: he wants to fight reason, fight science, manipulate people to keep power.
Good lord. I hope he catches Covid-19, has it very bad, and survives.
What am I eating that I'm going to regret?
Blog Instead of being asleep at 18:39 on 13 October 2020, kitt created this:I have a number of food items that I often wonder about. Like, are these foods that I'm eating to improve my health going to be items that in a couple hundred years people are going to think, "What the hell were they thinking, eating that thing? How stupid they were!"
I mean, take Lewis and Clark. They regularly consumed mercury-laden pills to help with constipation. While, sure, they managed to purge their digestive system quickly, they also poisoned themselves in the process. I use magnesium for this process, am I slowly poisoning myself?
Or the protein supplements I consume? I suck at consuming protein, hence the supplement. Am I slowly poisoning myself with mercury in the marine-sourced supplement? Or destroying my kidneys with a protein overdose?
I don't know.
I wonder frequently.
Well, That Was a Waste
Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 22:11 on 12 October 2020Today was not so great.
I took Chase to the expensive vet today for them to figure out what is wrong with him such that he isn't eating. Yesterday wasn't good, and today didn't appear to be much better, but we were unsure what the vet was going to do, so we didn't encourage any food this morning.
His drop-off appointment was "around" 10am. When arrived "around" 10am, which is to say, I arrived at 10:10am, I was told that the wait was an hour to drop off Chase. I was honestly unsurprised, given cars were double parking in the lot as I arrived, from which I inferred I'd be waiting for a while.
I wasn't expecting as long as I waited, and my original day plans were pretty much shot, but doggo, and what's good, what's bad, who knows...
Eventually Chase fell asleep, on my lap no less.
One can see how exhausted he is to have fallen asleep while waiting for the vet.
I managed to make my work meeting, which was okay, but not enough to distract for the rest of the day. With the ongoing knee injuries and honestly low motivation, I managed to stand during the day, along with some shoulder exercises, and not much else for movement or productivity (well, not exactly - managed to hit flow state with a couple bugs and a new feature, so there's that).
Unsure how much not-worrying-about-things-I-cannot-control one can be expected to do in a day in this year of JFC just be better already. My house didn't burn down today at least.
The vet called around 6pm. They found nothing. They ruled out cardiac issues. They ruled out cancer returning as far as they could see. They didn't tell us anything we didn't already know or believe, and sent us home with the dog, antibiotics (tried that), anti-nausea meds (tried that), and appetite stimulants (tried that). None of this helped.
Chase avoids cold foods.
Chase approaches food as if he is interested in eating it, but turns away from the food without eating it.
Chase likes soft, bland food.
I'm still convinced this is sore teeth or a stupid foxtail stuck in his throat, and not all the things all the vets keep testing him for.
What a waste of time and money today was. Lots of time, lots of money, and in the end, we are still tasked with tormenting the dog by shoving pills down his throat to force him to be hungry.
Network Effect
Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 21:34 on 11 October 2020
Finished this one in two days and, unsurprisingly, adored it as much as I enjoyed the previous four books. I picked it up when my frustration with The Making of a Manager grew too large, and Ginsberg's My Own Words would not sooth the agitation of the previous book. Sometimes you need an adventure to cleanse your palette of the crap that is incompetence and surveillance, and even RBG can't do it. Enter Wells and Murderbot.
Following Exit Strategy, Murderbot is in the employ of The Preservation, and is off on a full-length adventure that lasts more than one short mystery (read: novella) solution. He (It?) is tasked with taking care of Mensah's daughter on her first expedition, which goes sideways (because Murderbot).
This book is just so delightful. We have mystery. We have emotions (shock, even from Murderbot)! We have a plot that just doesn't stop, absurd situations that are, as ART says, "unreal," and laugh-out-loud deadpan humor that I love.
Basic plot: Murderbot is on an expedition with Amena, who didn't originally like Murderbot because said SecUnit interfered with a tryst that was going to go bad, but Amena being young didn't realize was a con by a Corporate spy. Of course, bonds forged by trial, aliens, spaceship attack, and all, and Amena and Murderbot like each other. Along the way, that asshole research transport returns, we go off to find its crew, a few more Preservation crew show up, along with a few grey men, and hilarity ensues. No, really, the hilarity in the writing of the Murderbot dialog and thoughts is fantastic. None of the quotes I pull out are amusing when isolated, and hysterical in context.
I enjoyed these books so much. I'm glad there's another book following.