Animals
I've been promising a website update for ages and the bulk of the work really is done: I actually caught up writing dozens of con reports and costume descriptions, but now I just have to actually enter them in my database and link pictures to them. Matter of an hour or two, but I just can't find even that much free time lately. Rehearsals for "The Merchant of Venice" are going well and I'm growing more and more satisfied with my role. Costuming for "Dancing Without You" is not as enthusiastic and getting impeded a bit but I'm finally starting to wrap my head around it. And the commission I'm doing for David is looking essentially all good and done, ready for Otakon.
So yeah no website but still a lot happened in the last several weeks. Perhaps among the most interesting are the two animals stories, one very good and happy, the other... alas.
THE HAPPY ONE
I was at Lisa's place a few weeks ago getting some beta-reading of "Felsic Current" done (which is going along well with plenty of good feedback and corrections from her) when we heard meowing. Soon after, a starving and wet black-and-white cat was traipsing through her house. She sent me with some money to go buy some cat food; I got lost along the way but I did find a flier on a post for a lost cat that matched the description of our little friend. We called the number and the owner came to collect him. His name was Biden. This story is happy end.
THE NOT-SO-HAPPY ONE
Today on my way back from the ATM, I decided to side-step and make a quick stop at the Botanical Gardens (gee, why would I have been inspired to spend some time there, I wonder? well, at least one person certainly knows. ^_~). I love that place. But on the way back to the office, I caught sight of an injured, twitching squirrel on a patch of grass in front of the Capitol. Poor thing was actually trying to scrabble away as it saw me, but looked like it had more than one broken leg and couldn't even move... I was so conflicted and clueless... But I decided: I made a note of the intersection, ran back to work, googled the Humane Society, called them, they re-directed me to Animal Control, who told me they'd send someone. A little later I got a call asking me if I could go back to that intersection and meet them there, to help them locate Spip. That was his name. Spip. It just had to be.
It's at moment like these I'm ever so thankful for having a cell phone now. As they circled around trying to locate me, I gave them my description. White man, 125 pounds, 5'8"~9" height, brown hat, blue shirt, brown suspenders, and orange traffic cone. Well? There was a discarded traffic cone in that patch of grass behind me and sure enough I'm pretty sure it's thanks to that that they found me. The man came, all too easily collected Spip who could not outrun him with two broken backlegs, and too him away. He surmised he might have gotten hit by a car and managed to crawl to the grass. To my great disarray, I learned Spip was to be euthanised.
I was so shocked and combative... Was all of it for nothing? Did I fight and worry that whole afternoon to make sure he'd be cared for only to be snuffed out without being given a chance? Well, I told myself that by being put down, he was being given a chance. A chance at a clean painless end. I mean, the man told me that he probably would've survived until tomorrow at most, and that the flies were going to finish him off. The FLIES! No creature deserves to be picked at to death by FLIES while you lay there in perfect agony! Well, unless you're another fly, maybe. But, no. I try to convince myself that Spip is looking down at me and thanking me. And every time I get choked up again. Who knows? He might even still be alive right now, high on amphetamines and content, waiting to be processed. I was even prepared to take him in and pay for his operation, but it's illegal to keep squirrels as pets... It's a very indirect way of saying it was illegal for Spip to live, essentially, but I don't see a need to turn angry activist about it at this point.
R.I.P. Spip. You sure would've given Alphonse a run for his money.
In other news, I finished writing my play, "Self, Inc." a couple of weeks ago. I took it to our 4th of July house party, where my LARPing buddies agreed to do a read-through, which was an unbelievably flattering experience. And they enjoyed it immensely, too! I took back tons of good feedback, made some modifications, added material including one whole scene, and now it's all good and ready to submit. I just don't know WHERE to submit it to now. Is the BPF really the best place?
So, yeah, no website update yet, but here's something to amuse in the meantime:
So yeah no website but still a lot happened in the last several weeks. Perhaps among the most interesting are the two animals stories, one very good and happy, the other... alas.
THE HAPPY ONE
I was at Lisa's place a few weeks ago getting some beta-reading of "Felsic Current" done (which is going along well with plenty of good feedback and corrections from her) when we heard meowing. Soon after, a starving and wet black-and-white cat was traipsing through her house. She sent me with some money to go buy some cat food; I got lost along the way but I did find a flier on a post for a lost cat that matched the description of our little friend. We called the number and the owner came to collect him. His name was Biden. This story is happy end.
THE NOT-SO-HAPPY ONE
Today on my way back from the ATM, I decided to side-step and make a quick stop at the Botanical Gardens (gee, why would I have been inspired to spend some time there, I wonder? well, at least one person certainly knows. ^_~). I love that place. But on the way back to the office, I caught sight of an injured, twitching squirrel on a patch of grass in front of the Capitol. Poor thing was actually trying to scrabble away as it saw me, but looked like it had more than one broken leg and couldn't even move... I was so conflicted and clueless... But I decided: I made a note of the intersection, ran back to work, googled the Humane Society, called them, they re-directed me to Animal Control, who told me they'd send someone. A little later I got a call asking me if I could go back to that intersection and meet them there, to help them locate Spip. That was his name. Spip. It just had to be.
It's at moment like these I'm ever so thankful for having a cell phone now. As they circled around trying to locate me, I gave them my description. White man, 125 pounds, 5'8"~9" height, brown hat, blue shirt, brown suspenders, and orange traffic cone. Well? There was a discarded traffic cone in that patch of grass behind me and sure enough I'm pretty sure it's thanks to that that they found me. The man came, all too easily collected Spip who could not outrun him with two broken backlegs, and too him away. He surmised he might have gotten hit by a car and managed to crawl to the grass. To my great disarray, I learned Spip was to be euthanised.
I was so shocked and combative... Was all of it for nothing? Did I fight and worry that whole afternoon to make sure he'd be cared for only to be snuffed out without being given a chance? Well, I told myself that by being put down, he was being given a chance. A chance at a clean painless end. I mean, the man told me that he probably would've survived until tomorrow at most, and that the flies were going to finish him off. The FLIES! No creature deserves to be picked at to death by FLIES while you lay there in perfect agony! Well, unless you're another fly, maybe. But, no. I try to convince myself that Spip is looking down at me and thanking me. And every time I get choked up again. Who knows? He might even still be alive right now, high on amphetamines and content, waiting to be processed. I was even prepared to take him in and pay for his operation, but it's illegal to keep squirrels as pets... It's a very indirect way of saying it was illegal for Spip to live, essentially, but I don't see a need to turn angry activist about it at this point.
R.I.P. Spip. You sure would've given Alphonse a run for his money.
In other news, I finished writing my play, "Self, Inc." a couple of weeks ago. I took it to our 4th of July house party, where my LARPing buddies agreed to do a read-through, which was an unbelievably flattering experience. And they enjoyed it immensely, too! I took back tons of good feedback, made some modifications, added material including one whole scene, and now it's all good and ready to submit. I just don't know WHERE to submit it to now. Is the BPF really the best place?
So, yeah, no website update yet, but here's something to amuse in the meantime: