What Was I Saying...?

Source: ModernReston.com

Solarpunk – a plausible near-future sci-fi genre, [...] based on updated Art Nouveau, Victorian, and Edwardian aesthetics, combined with a green and renewable energy movement to create a world in which children grow up being taught about building electronic tech as well as food gardening and other skills, and people have come back around to appreciating artisans and craftspeople, from stonemasons and smithies, to dress makers and jewelers, and everyone in between. -Olivia.

The house is starting to take shape, although laurie_robey and I seriously need some downtime to just come together and work on it, as she's been doing most of the organizing herself by virtue of actually being here. The B&N job, while it has its virtues, has been an enormous time/energy sink, and I suspect it will not last once I get into training. It doesn't make that much more than commissions + book sales, but has made those harder to get done in a timely way.

Being back in Virginia is definitely a relief, and we've made a point of getting some walking around the neighborhood in. The neighbors we've met are all very nice and there's a good sense of community here, which pleases me. And of course, Reston was solarpunk before there was solarpunk, despite every developer in the world trying to turn it into another Crystal City for the past fifty years.

Fuck off, developers. :P Nobody likes you.

The cats have been loving the new place, once they got over the stress of moving. The wide open living room gives them lots of room to tear around when they play, and Dasher particularly loves to Tokyo Drift all around the hardwood floors. (He very clearly does it on purpose when he's happy and excited– when all he wants is to get from point A to point B he just takes the turn normally.) We're particularly happy to see Dasher being energetic and having fun, as he is starting to show his age. He's not processing vitamin B12 properly, so we have to give him a weekly injection of that, and he'll be off to the vet later today for a heart checkup. Given everything he's been through, he's still doing very well.

Also today I have a call with someone from the life coach training organization I'm interested in. I already spoke to one person there, an alumnus who I made contact with through my counselor and who has a very successful practice as well as still working with the training group. The person I'm speaking to today is actually one of her trainers, and I intend to get into a bit more detail about the nitty gritty of the actual program. (Hours, schedule, tuition costs, etc.)

It sounds quite promising. The program is designed to give you hands-on experience fairly quickly and helps you set up your own practice, find clients and referrals, and so forth. Some people (such as my initial contact) stay with the program or create a hybrid career combining clients of their own with program clients, while others simply strike off on their own after completing the course. And since part of understanding what life coaching is all about is having a clients'-eye view of the process, you get the services of one of the instructors as a coach yourself while you go through it all. (Given that I have been more-or-less acting as my own life coach for the past few years, it'd be handy to offload that task onto someone else for a while– not unlike the lawyer not representing themselves. ;) )

Seriously tho, once I started examining the idea of coaching, the more I began to think it was a good fit for me. I've basically been doing it for some of my friends for years (or decades) just by instinct, but it would be good to actually know what I'm doing. ;) (It would also be good to have a profitable line of work again, without going back to the code mines. I don't think I could successfully be an I.T. guy any more even if I wanted to, which God knows I don't.) I suspect the hardest part of the business for me will be the actual entrepreneurial aspect– i.e., billing, accounting, all that jazz– and part of the training program is helping you get that all set up.

Besides creating this as a new career, I'm also thinking about ways I can use the skills to help out the fandom(s) I'm in. I'm looking at creating a "How To Successfully Human" panel to run at furry cons, for instance. Plus anything that makes me a better businessman can only help with selling books and running my tables at conventions. If 2018 goes as I intend, I shall be well on my towards making a better future for myself and the world. :)

-The Gneech

I don't know why, but for some reason lythandra and I cannot be involved with a move without somebody flinging themselves down a staircase. This time around it was apparently my turn, as this morning when I was coming down for breakfast, my right foot decided not to stop of the step I put it on[1] but to head on down to the bottom, without telling the rest of my body first. Thus most of my weight ended up crunching the toes of my left foot curled under.

Owie. -.-

At first I was pretty sure that I'd broken either my toe or the bones of my foot. After several minutes of ice and cursing, I finally came to the conclusion that my foot is not actually broken, but that the top of the foot had become hyperextended. It hurts like heck, but hopefully it should not be permanent damage.

So once again, I'm gimping around on a cane. But, being forced to sit down means that I have a compelling reason to draw today instead of unpacking, so yay, I guess?

In other updates, the dishwasher has been repaired and we finally got the visitor's pass for our car, so progress is being made. :) We still won't have cable/internet until next week at the earliest, so we're still on hotspots and paying through the nose for it even with "compensatory data" from Verizon. But we are ubergeeks, and as such, internet is easily as important as things like running water. I've been wanting to sign on to LotRO all week, but I don't dare burn up the bandwidth.

The cats are acclimating well, although Inkygirl is terrified of the ceiling fans, much to our consternation. Apparently, this is a fairly common phenomenon, although Dasher doesn't even to seem to notice they're there. But then again, Dasher came to us as the result of apparently thinking a moving car would be a fun thing to play with, so, he's not necessarily a good judge of what is or isn't dangerous.

So, we're trucking along. Could be better, but could also be much worse. We're all right. :)

-The Gneech

[1] I blame carpeting on the stairs. This is something I've railed against before.

The fact that cats honor the laws of spacetime more in the breach than in the observance is old news. But what frankly astonishes me in regards to my own particular cats is that somehow, they poop out approximately double their own mass every four hours. Given that they are only given three ounces of food each in the morning and evening, this mass must come from somewhere.

It is therefore my theory that all that missing dark matter, presumably being sucked down black holes? Is actually reappearing in litterboxes across the universe.

It is, frankly, the only thing that makes sense.

-The Gneech

lythandra: Dasher is looking at you like "What the hell is he doing?"

ME: I'm just singing "Ow, ow-ow-ow, ow ow ow ow, OW-OW!" to the tune of "Fanfare for the Common Man." As you do when your back hurts.

-The Gneech ("Ow.")

I came home sick at lunchtime; you wouldn't think I could find three positive things on a day like that, but I think I have managed to:

1. I slept. A lot. And I intend to go sleep some more very shortly.


2. I did a piece of art I'm well pleased with: http://the-gneech.deviantart.com/art/Tanya-s-Rover-Promo-Image-inks-357777871 ...It's not finished yet, but it will be soon. It also doubled as the design process for Tanya's car, killing two birds with one stone.


3. Dasher's wound seems to be healing up well. :)

...that wasn't so hard. :) And I didn't even mention the beautifully sunny (if cold and windy) weather.

Anyhow, back to sleep for me! Gnite, world, and have an awesome tomorrow.

-The Gneech

Two and two for the morning workout routine, huzzah. :)

( Numbers hidden behind cut. )
Weight: 328 lbs

Ate a slice of bread w/ peanut butter before going in this time, which prevented the lightheadedness. I was pretty dang sore from Tuesday's routine going in, but able to function anyhow, and I added back in the Ab Crunch, which I forgot on Tuesday.

I also went ahead and signed up for Fitocracy, username "the_gneech" (shocker, eh?). I have no idea what to do with it yet, because I didn't have time to poke around. Still need to shower and dress-- but that cat's litterbox has to be emptied first. Sheesh, Dasher, what did you eat?

-The Gneech

Most cats have a “rake” reflex, i.e., if they have a grip on something, they’ll grab it with their forepaws and kick/scratch it quickly and repeatedly with their powerful hind legs. This is devastating to their prey and is one of their primary means of killing something they’ve caught (the other being to break its neck in their jaws).

Dasher, our big ol’ goofball of a redneck rescue cat, has a particularly strong raking reflex on a hair trigger. He usually takes this out on toys, but he’ll rake anything that gets near his belly … pillows, treats, the fleshy underside of your arm, you name it.

This can lead to trouble when he’s trying to groom his belly or back legs. All he has to do is get into the wrong position and Whap! he’s kicked himself in the head. When this happens, he has a tendency to stop and look around in bafflement, trying to figure out what hit him, then attempt to groom again. Whap! He then identifies the culprit as one of his back feet and attempts to bite the offender in frustration — which of course sets off the rake reflex again.

The net result of all this is that Dasher will sometimes sit for minutes at a time repeatedly kicking himself in the face as he attempts to bite his own feet off.

Man, there are so many other people I wish would do that…

-The Gneech

Originally published at gneech.com. You can comment here or there.

I'll sink into a funk if I let this continue. Time to remind myself of some happily-rescued cats.





Mah kittehs. :)

-The Gneech

...well! Apparently those "appetite enhancers" really work! It's been a long time since Buddha woke us up begging for food!

Poor Dasher's so confused he doesn't know what to do. He's never had so much food lying out and around that he just isn't hungry any more. He doesn't know what to make of it!

Yay, have some breakfast kitty! As for me, back to bed... *thud*

-TG

Well, B & D were a little weirded out by the peculiar turns of life last night, but on the whole are doing well. Dasher has pain medicine we need to squirt into his mouth periodically, which is about as much fun as it sounds, but as long as he gets food he doesn't mind.

Buddha was a little clingy last night; I'm sure being at the vet was giving him flashbacks to unhappier days, and he wanted some comforting and reassurance that he wasn't going to be ditched. I don't know who it was who left Buddha behind, but their loss is our gain. I just wish it hadn't left him so traumatized.

On the upside, Dasher's breath is much better now!

-The Gneech