Don Iago's Den of Arrogance

Got what are presumably more modern HDMI cables than what I'd been using, the premise being that it would allow for better sound quality than what I was getting as well. I'm not entirely sure whether the new cables are really making a difference or not, but they certainly haven't made anything worse.

Over the weekend I went to see "Coyote vs. Acme", which I deeply enjoyed...perhaps more than I expected, and then saw "Spider-Man: Brand New Day", which was enjoyable in different ways. I did get home a bit late as a result, but I had nothing going on yesterday, and at least I went out and did something. I did invite the VT Furs to join me, to (predictably) no effect. Granted I didn't give them a ton of notice either, but nobody in the chats ever proposes doing anything, so I'm at least doing better than average.

Heard from Donukitsu last night, and it's kind of sad that a guy I met almost randomly via Nocturne at FCL is doing a better job of being a friend than Nocturne himself. DK even said he'd like to visit me at my new place one day, which was very flattering...and his credibility is certainly higher than Nocturne's right now as well.

Saturday I got the new jabs for flu and COVID, and then while grocery-shopping I became extremely hungry, which was unpleasant because I was surrounded by food but also because I was trying to find something my dietitian recommended and I had to abort on that. I also bought donuts I likely wouldn't have bought if I hadn't been starving. I'm not sure whether it was because of the shots or because I'd let too much time pass since I'd last eaten, but that was a dreadful experience. The shots on the other hand, I'm pleased to say I've had no meaningful side-effects.

August, a security guard at my office, is buying my old A/V receiver and speakers off me, which is awesome. I'm throwing in speaker cable because I might as well...especially since I originally said $50 but today she said $100 and I didn't correct her. It's still a decent savings.

Turned my old telecom equipment into a 6" chicken salad sub and a Rice Krispies Treat. Ah, the power of positive thinking! :p

Pride is this weekend. My enthusiasm for it is immeasurable. :p I did reach out to John though, to ask whether he might like to go and spectate with me. I don't think I'll have nearly the energy to march. Turns out he probably isn't free though, so oh well. And I just realized how incredibly disconnected I am from the VT Furs these days, and how little I care.

Shea confirmed that I'm all set to get keys in a week!

John said he can help me out with moving stuff over next Monday as well, which is helpful.

I've dropped off a literal shit-ton of stuff at Goodwill and Staples, and even got rid of two old monitors on Craigslist. So far no luck getting rid of an even older monitor, or getting rid of a pair of like-new boots that I'm asking $40 for. I'm not going to offer those for free.

Busy busy...

Job, pack, exercise...job, pack, exercise...

Got my electricity all set to transfer over. Called Burlington Telecom but had to leave a message.
Ordered a new bed. Hopefully it will arrive at a good time.

The CD storage boxes I ordered are now backordered until late August, so it's a good thing I bought mine when I did. I'm starting to think I have far more than 500 CDs though, even not counting my collections.

Late last week I signed, sealed and delivered my lease. I need to stop by the post office to formalize my address change. It's pleasing to me that I'm actually going to live very close to it.

Ezen messaged me about Eufuria last week, and we've chatted a bit since then. I'm a little surprised, and curious to see whether this will portend more communication between us.

I really wish it would stop being so hot, and especially so humid, outside.

Called Hannaford Saturday morning hoping I could pick up boxes that afternoon, and was a little put-off when they told me I should come by the next morning...however, when I did so I got roughly ten boxes that are larger than most of the ones I've had, which is really exactly what I've been needing to do more substantive packing, so I can't exactly complain.

I did laundry Saturday night, and then I watched "Pillion", a movie featuring Eric from True Blood hooking up with Dudley Dursley from Harry Potter...or rather, the actors who portrayed those characters. If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd see that, I never would have believed you. Ultimately a rather sad little film (though perhaps with a happy ending) that came across to me as a cautionary tale about the dangers of failing to set expectations. There was a nice commentary track with the two actors and the director, and I like it. It makes me wish I was still a part of GLAM so I could suggest it for a movie night and discussion afterward. Alas, my GLAM days are long behind me.

Picked up the boxes Sunday, and then loaded old kitchen appliances into the trunk of my car and set off for Goodwill...only to discover that while they are open until 6, they close for donations at 4:30. Fucking inconvenient. So that will likely have to wait until this weekend.

However, since it was a beautiful day, I went for a hike for the first time in far too long!!! Nothing too stenuous, but I was seriously out of practice anyway, and I do feel accomplished.

...and I'm not going to take it anymore!!!

I'm not really mad, but man, things went a bit crazy and intense yesterday.

Besides my normal afternoon dietitian appointment, I had a periodontist appointment and then a massage (oh boo-hoo!), which was kind of a lot for me. I thought the periodontist was just going to be a quick check-up, but it turned out to be measuring my gums (god I hate that) followed by a cleaning. In a development that was both hilarious, in a way, and kind of unsettling, I saw the son of my usual periodontist, who is also a periodontist, and a hot guy who looked to be in his last 20s or 30s. As a 51 year-old, it felt pretty surreal to have someone inspecting me who was that much younger than I am. Clean bill of health, though they want me back in February.

The massage was pretty great.

To my significant surprise, Khaki messaged me yesterday morning, but due to...everything...I didn't get back to him until yesterday night. To my greater surprise, he was kind of apologetic for the harshness and/or lack of clarity/empathy with which he'd rejected my earlier overture, and clarified that he does hope he'll get his own life under control enough that he can seek me out, and that he does like me. We didn't talk for very long, but the words we exchange were nice enough, and it did help. Still, we'll see if/when I hear from him again.

I was less-than-thrilled to hear that Pepper got drunk at Anthrocon and proceeded to make a proper arse of himself...appparently so drunk he had no recollection of it, and apparently this may have been the kind of act that was so unambiguously awful that even he has freely admitted he was an arse and publicly apologized for it.
With reservations, I reached out to ask him if he was okay, and because he was wondering why he's such a jackass sometimes, I kind of seized the opening and finally, after years, pointed out the ways I felt he'd wronged me in the past. I wasn't trying to heap more shit on him, but if he was going to question his own behaviors...well, I had some examples.
The conversation actually went a little bit okay, though he also said he generally isn't very responsive online in general these days, claiming it's because he's work-focused.
I'm not going to delude myself into thinking much positive change will actually come from this, but at least I spoke my piece.

And damn, between Nocturne, Khaki and Pepper, July really seems to be the month for releasing my long-term burdens. I wonder who's next... But seriously, I'm so glad I've finally said aloud the things that have been weighing on me for so long. At least people can no longer claim they didn't know.

Went to Amanda's on Saturday, which I probably wouldn't have done if Holly hadn't offered to drive, though alternately I might have offered to drive her. Point being, both of us ended up being glad we didn't go alone, which sets the tone for how this went.
The commute was nice enough. The weather was good, so riding the ferry was kind of a nice time, and I got a glorious picture of the lake reflecting the almost-full moon during the return trip.
Things didn't start until 5pm, which seemed strange except that Robert, the guy Amanda invited to join us as a possible match for Holly, had to work that day.
Honestly, I was having a pretty nice time just lazing on their porch and might have been content to keep doing that...but it was Not To Be.
We played two games, one involving magnetic words and one where the goal was less to answer questions honestly than to answer in the way you suspected other people were going to. I won a game of the second one. But I kind of wish we'd played something a bit more involving.
But afterward, Robert and Holly were talking, and I went over to join Amanda so that we might talk amongst ourselves...only to have the other two join us.
And then Robert started talking about hunting. Which is probably a bit of an odd choice when you're spending time with a furry, at least without having any idea how they might feel about the topic first.
He went on. And on. And on. Romeyn was busying himself with his phone, Amanda wasn't saying anything, I sure didn't have anything to say, and Holly was doing the verbal equivalent of smiling and nodding. To make matters worse, while Robert does make the most he can of his kills (he at least isn't hunting soley for 'sport'), he talked about having us over and cooking for us at some point...including testicles...and it was just, "Oh muffin, it's precious that you think that would ever, ever happen..."
I really wish Holly had been assertive enough to do a, "Well, it's getting pretty late..." And she really should have, because once she and I were in the car she made it clear that there was, to put it mildly, no spark between her and Robert. Not that I thought there was.
Well, at least I got out of the house. In retrospect, maybe I should be glad that the guy Amanda intended to try to set me up with couldn't attend. I was a little tempted to ask, rather crassly, "Is he a top or a bottom?" Heh.

Last night I watched "All of Us Strangers", which was unexpectedly devastating. It's written and directed by Andrew Haigh of "Looking", and features Andrew Scott from "Pride" and "Blue Moon" and Paul Mescal of "Hamnet". So, you can't go wrong. If you have any interest in seeing it, I recommend knowing as little as possible beforehand.

More surprisingly, someone in the FWG chat mentioned that they'd co-written a book with Khaki that was going to be published soon. The name of it rang a bell, so I did a little digging, and sure enough, I read it back in 2011 and, while I suspect I didn't do a full edit, I evidently did provide feedback.
This led to Alex and I talking a bit, and while it was a little hard to read his reactions, he seemed glad we were having a conversation.

Also, thanks to the wonders of Discord, late last week I ended up talking with Mercedes Lackey for the first time since I saw her in person at Anthrocon 2013. That was quite trippy.

Amanda's been talking about hosting a gaming night, but she lives on the other side of the (substantial) lake, so it's not an easy matter to visit. Her -actual- reason for this is because for some reason she seems to think if she gets Holly and a guy she knows in the same room then there may be sparks. Okay.
So she messaged me today to ask me about it...but she only brought up one specific weekend, and it's the weekend of Manchester Pride, and if Nocturne expresses interest in repeating last year...that's not even a contest for me, especially since it's not as though Amanda is trying to set -me- up with a guy (that I know of)...and frankly, I'm not sure Amanda really appreciates where my interests lie.
Anyway, I told her I couldn't commit to that weekend, and she kind of asked for permission to go ahead with her planning, which was nice of her...but it would have been nicer if she'd come up with more than one possible weekend to do this.

I haven't heard anything from Nocturne just about a week ago, so while I would like to know whether he's doing Manchester Pride (and wants me to come with), it's not an unreasonably long time since I last heard from him. I was a little surprised to find out that Dirigo may not be going since I kind of met him there last year, but he may go to a BBQ instead, which makes me wonder whether Nocturne would be doing the same, or...well, we'll see what we see, I guess.

To my significant (one might even say vast) shock, Scrap Yard Leather accepted my commission! They turned me down 2-3 times before, and especially with my upcoming move I considered not applying at all. I'd even mentioned in their chat that I vaguely wondered whether my commission just wasn't exciting enough for them to want to take it on....though they said it was just a matter of limited slots, I wasn't sure I believed them.
As it is, they only took on 15/130 applications, so I think I'm allowed to be surprised that they accepted mine!

On Monday night my landlady texted me to say she wanted to come over Friday (this) morning to check out the condition of my apartment. That was enough to spike my BP.
I called her Tuesday, which I needed to do anyway to make it official I was planning to move. I asked about the possibility of keeping the place through Labor Day weekend, which she rejected on the grounds that college kids were going to want the place at the top of September. That made me do a bit of a double-take, as I just don't see how she can flip my place around that quickly. Then I asked about the Friday visit and she assured me it's just to see what might need to be repaired and that she didn't care about clutter. I kind of tried to note that, since I am moving anyway, the later she waits to do that, the better shape the place will be in, but I didn't get any traction there either. She's a nice person, but...sigh.
In any event, I haven't gotten any phonecalls or texts today, so I'm guessing/hoping that means the visit went without incident (I'll be kind of annoyed if she postponed it), though for all I know I'll get home to a snippy letter or something. I'm not sure what she was expecting when she didn't even give me a full week to work on my place.

Because I haven't been nervous-excited enough lately, yesterday my boss's boss threw a "Quick Chat" with him and my boss on my calendar. That made me twitchy enough to upset my stomach, as I was kind of hoping it was about my much-anticipated promotion, but for all I knew I was about to get terminated.
He prefaced the call by saying he knows they've been dragging their feet on the promotion...but this call wasn't about that. A little disappointing, but at least he owned it.
Instead, he was calling about a special project that may involve up to a week's worth of travel (and maybe more) and detached assignment doing stuff for my boss's boss's boss! I actually got told that if there's a request for me to travel to just go ahead and book it, and if necessary to make up a list of the stuff I do so that it can be off-boarded while I'm busy with whatever this is!
I made a point of mentioning my upcoming move, because I ain't travelling anywhere in August, for instance.
I've heard nothing since that call, but still, exciting!

I'm in the office right now, because I sure as hell didn't want to be at home while Donna was looking around, but otherwise, I think I could sleep for a fucking week at this point.

Bad News and Good News

The Bad News is that I didn't put down a deposit on the Willow unit, meaning it's still a bit up in the air and the uncertainty is a bit maddening.

The Good News is that the reason why I didn't put down a deposit is that I met with Shea yesterday and she told me that Keen's Crossing is going to have a (somewhat secret, it seems) open house on Saturday morning, and that on that day the security deposit will be $500 rather than the roughly $2K it would ordinarily be. Which is kind of amazing. I'd also get my first month's parking free, but that's almost an afterthought by comparison. So, that's pretty huge...but it does mean I feel as though I need to get there early on Saturday, because I'll be beating myself up if I miss out.

Between this and Leo's passing, I do feel like I now have two strong indicators that it's time to move. Indeed, everyone who's heard about Leo's death has agreed that I should take that as a sign that it's time to pull up stakes.

If disassembling a big box that held my Corsair monitor counts as starting to pack, then I've started to pack!

Editing is going very well now that my PC is no longer being a whore. I'm so happy about that. I should be finished with this book by the end of June, clearing July to focus on packing.

No contact from Nocturne. I can understand that he might be busy, but if he was going to go incommunicado, he might have bothered himself to tell me that, especially given his recent ghosting of me? Sigh... Donukitsu has also been quiet, but at least I know he's moving to Japan, which is a pretty damn good excuse.

I'm a bit annoyed with Amanda and a bit baffled. It feels as though her empathy skills have been degrading, and I don't know why that would be or whether it's something I should confront her about.

That's about it...not that I'd really be able to handle much else.