Notices by GeePawHill (geepawhill@mastodon.social)

About once a month, I get an SMS message that isn't spam. (I often miss them, cuz I get a dozen SMS messages a day, no matter how many numbers I block and report.)

About once a week, I get a phone call that isn't a scam. (Usually my wife, who is three hours late, telling me that's she running a little late.)

Capitalism creates amazing technologies, then sets about immediately to turn them in to useless shit.

But one night, wife and I were sitting at a bar, I strapped on my genitalia, and I said to her, "Baby, do you . . . do you think . . . do you think we could maybe make B an honorary grandkid, and bundle him in with all our celebrations?"

She looked at me.

She frowned.

She put her head down on the bar.

The plot is fucking *thick*. Incredibly intricate, with at least 4 major *teams*, not just individual players. That's a very grown-up thing to do.

It's not always just-in-timed. I think they tried, but I think that just-in-time-ing an intricate plot is a very very hard thing to do, and they didn't always manage it. The first season, in particular, has stuff where you don't have the slightest clue what is going on, but not in the *good* way.

There are spots of writing, here and there, that are rather lovely.

Amos & Averserala(sp?) scenes are just chef's kiss, for instance, as are, in fact, Averserala and her husband.

Bobbie Draper develops slowly, but there's no denying our affection for her.

Camina Drummer (Cara Gee) is so fucking *tight* in her role that I will watch the rest of her career no matter what. David Straithern opposite her is some of the best stuff in the series.

Right at the outset, I have to say, it's not juvenile trash, like most of science-fiction TV. There is definitely an expectation from its makers that the audience is (emotionally, intellectually, culturally) over the age of 13. Maybe even over the age of 25.

That's not faint praise. I know of no other sf tv that could garner it.

So. When I asked y'all what the best sf tv was, nearly everyone said "The Expanse".

I have finished "The Expanse" tonight.

In the context of our ongoing culture wars, I loved the representation. Homosexuality is just a thing. Polyamory is just a thing. They both are just part of the story, as if they were normal events, not special plot points, and I appreciate that *greatly*.

One day, I might've been 15 or so, my mother was very angry with me, and she approached me lookin' to hit.

And I raised my own arm, lookin' to hit back.

No hitting took place.

But she called my (divorced) father, and he came around and picked me up, and we went our usual route, to the liquor store for beer and Canadian Mist.

And he said, "Son, I know how hard it is with her."

"I *left* her cuz of how hard it was with her."

"But I have to tell you, I hit her, once or twice, myself."

"But it didn't work."

"And it won't work for you, and it will make you feel awful, and after all, she's a good person who has raised you up this far."

"Please don't hit your mother."

And he handed me a beer, and then the bottle, and we hit it, and we were sitting there.

This was a *decade* after their divorce. He and I'd only become close in the previous two years, after he discovered me around age 13.

And he brought me back to the house, a slug or two of whiskey in me, maybe a second beer, and we parked outside the house.

My back sproinged rather badly overnight, and I took a muscle relaxant and a tramidol around noon--after 12 hours of sleep--which led me to spend most of the afternoon and early evening in bed, dozing some of the time.

Back is better, thanks.

But the problem is, it's only 11pm here, and I am wide awake, and possessed of a large quantity of beer and a *massive* quantity of whiskey.

Prolly your best bet is to mute me for a day, cuz I'm liable to say what I actually think.

The thing I really like about Larry Ellison is how much he embraces the *look* of a Bond villain.

I am a "yes". The novel was John Irving's first huge splash, _The World According to Garp_.

I read it shortly after it hit mass-market paperback, and then I tore it apart and put it in three different trash cans.

Irving's a gifted writer, w/o question. The book is enthralling, a page-turner. (He's written better since, too.)

I destroyed the book because not a single line of it made me believe he cared about even a single character in it.

I don't generally use the word or concept of "evil" any more. I guess I've seen too many awful things done by good people since then.

But at the time, I believed it was a horrible thing.

It's a long and very dark story, but then, so is Mistry's _A Fine Balance_ or Styron's _Sophie's Choice_. I didn't throw those away, cuz their author's loved their characters greatly, even as they went through the hell of the story.

...do you remember...

...the twenty-first night of September? ...

And their food supply is very closely related to their energy. And, I repeat, they're starving. So these totally innocent sweet child-like *enormous* hornets will suddenly drop out of the air of my lit-up deck, on to me.

They have no problem with this.

But if in my movements I *squeeze* them, they're like sting you nine times in the same spot.

Worst stings I've ever had in my life.

Owwie for a week, itchy for a month.

Nights are cooling down. I haven't seen any European hornets yet. But I am on the lookout.

The only true hornet in North America, the European hornet is, I hesitate to introduce a technical term here, "big as a muh-fucker".

They are solo-ists, and quite pacific to big animals like me. But they hunt at night, by light. And as the cool closes in, they hunt close to the light, cuz they're starving, cuz few bugs left.

@emilymbender Professor Bender...

It is my habit, theoretically once a week, realistically from time to time, to tell someone on mastodon that their content makes my life better.

I cite your work many times a week, and recommend your book and your youtube channel, and as far as I'm concerned, you're a rockstar.

Tag, you're it. :)

Totally just sent my wife a blackmail email about finding her missing dark chocolate cherry almond bar.

"I am prepared to negotiate. Wear something curvy."