wombat_socho

Well, since I got back from the Not-Balticon Excursion, there really hasn't been a lot going on. I put on a lot of weight while I was out there and have been struggling to get it off, and over the last week or so I've been making good progress on that. I may even be under 390 by the time the convention rolls around next month. BP and BG have mostly been good. 

Speaking of which, we've had a trickle of memberships come in, a couple of T-shirt orders, some ideas for programming, and as usual no response from DoE or various nuclear industry folks. We'll just have to do without them, I guess. 

Speaking of doing without things, it is with great displeasure that I discovered the Pahrump Valley Times had closed their Tonopah office and with it the only copy shop for a couple hundred miles. Good thing I'm going to Las Vegas this week for an NSSAB meeting, because not only do I need to mail out con flyers to Jolie at Libertycon but my zine for StippleAPA to Jeanne. Well, I should have plenty of time before the meeting on Wednesday and on my way out of town Thursday to attend to those matters. 

I've been Ingressing a little but mostly just recharging things from the recliner; been doing my dailies and picking away at the current FGO event, and attempting to win a Planet of the Mongols setup in Civ5. Also continuing to reread Behold! Humanity! while also slogging through Mimi & Toutou Go Forth as well as the Fate: Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya manga omnibus. The former may convince me to give Conrad's Heart of Darkness another go. 

troika called me this morning for Father's Day and we hung out on the phone for about an hour talking about stuff. It was good. 
 

After three days, a fair amount of sleep, and occasional ibuprofen, the pain in my lower back around my right hip is mostly gone. It might have to do with weight loss, too, though my scale is still telling me I'm too fat. I can believe it. 

Management never did come around to inspect the apartment, but that's OK; I needed to bag up a bunch of garbage anyway. Tomorrow I'll chuck it in the bins before I head for the post office to see what's waiting for me besides junk mail. 

Am continuing to make my way through the Spiral Arm novels and currently I'm beginning On The Razor's Edge. I'm also browsing through Travis Corcoran's Escape From The City, which despite being aimed (seemingly) at people moving to New Hampshire or other states with lots of woods has a lot of useful advice regarding septic tanks/fields and other necessities of rural life. 

N'APA 276 arrived today; I skimmed through it, and the amount of political BS has reached the annoying level. I shall have some harsh words for a few folks and moderate corrections for others. On the positive side, apparently there is now a Las Vegas APA in existence. I'll have to reach out to them and offer Son of Silvercon as a meetup & collation space, maybe even join up, although three APA might be stretching it. Speaking of which, I converted my zine for StippleAPA to a PDF and sent it to Jeanne. Have to write her a check when I get some money. 

Making progress in Lostbelt 6.5. I've decided to just abandon Azur Lane. I have enough 2d boobs to stare at without it. 

It took most of the month to find out what was keeping me from doing the state tax certification exams in Block Academy; it turned out that Edge's built-in popup blocker was keeping link to Blockworks Online Practice Mode from working. So far I've done Arizona and California, and will do at least Colorado, Idaho, and Utah over the next couple of days. So far all I've had to do in the way of work is make a few phone calls to clients, one TPR return, Carlos' return (which I discounted to a token $1 plus tax) and my own, for which I'm still waiting on a W-2 from the county and a 1099 from the treasury. Doesn't look like I'm going to get much of a refund, since the NOL from the convention drowns out all my earned income and then some, so basically I only get my withholding back. 

Alt-Hero Q volume 1 finally showed up, after a few years of waiting on printing and shipping and stuff. I also bought the sequel to The Romanov Rescue by Kratman & Co., The Romanov Rising, which so far is entertaining. 

Jeanne sent the current issue of StippleAPA, which has some of the people I remember and several that I don't. I think I'll do my copies here and mail them to her, since I suspect it's cheaper here than there and will be less work for her. I have already completed my zine for #370, which will be collated next month.

Weight is hanging around the low 390s, with BG and BP normal. Now I'm off to do laundry and have dinner via the Raley's, where I need to get laundry detergent  and more tea with my SE bucks. Going to put on the ushanka because it's a bit chilly in the wake of the inch or so of snow we got overnight. 

The Senators were .500 this week, taking two of three from the Phillies before losing two of three to the O's. 

I celebrated finally finishing my pre-season training by sleeping in until after 1300 today, going down to BK for some burgers and O-rings, and then proceeding to the Post Awful to send off the box of Kerlix and related items to Ralts. Much to my annoyance, the postage on the 8-pound box was almost $70, but at least it'll be there in a couple of days because it was too big to go by ground mail. The postman at the window kindly advised me to grab a few of the large priority mail boxes and pack them full of Kerlix instead of sending hueg boxes through the mail for 3x the price. This I then do, which will help clear a couple of boxes out of the bedroom, hallway, and trunk. In the meantime, I have to go back to the post office and get whatever waits for me in the parcel locker, which I was too burdened to pick up today. 

Meanwhile, Amazon sent me a bunch of stuff that wasn't supposed to be here until tonight, but the local USPS folks are efficient and it was all ready for pickup TODAY. This included a copy of The Burning Mountain, which is a horror story disguised as an alt-history war novel, two new/reconditioned headsets from Koss, a pile of lebkuchen, and most importantly a new HP kibo to replace the awkwardly sized Onn kibo that got pressed into service when the previous HP kibo's left-shift key died and it started having other weird problems. New kibo has the home/end, insert/delete, and page up/page down keys arranged weirdly, but I suppose I'll get used to it. 

Went out Tuesday to Raley's and bought a bunch of dairy products as well as salt, baking soda, and some other staples, because I intend to make some Irish cake over the holidays. And some normal bread, too. Since store-bought bread is approaching $3.50/loaf even when it's on sale, it behooves me to save a little money and put the bread robot to work. 

Carlos finally got approved for VA disability, just in tie for Christmas. Still going to send him the biltong on general principles. Also sent gifts to James & the ex as well as Kathy & Patsy, and will soon be sending a few other things out to deserving people. 

That was what my Aunt Maureen (my godfather's widow) said as we were talking about the death of my Aunt Pat, who passed away quietly in her sleep Saturday morning. It's true; all of my father's siblings are dead now except for Uncle John, whose mind is incomplete, though at least one of his adoptive daughters is caring for him in his twilight, so he's got that going for him. I thought I might be able to be there for the memorial and interment, but the cousins scheduled it for Black Friday, and the airfare to Manchester & back all by itself was over $1000, and I just don't have the miles, credits, and/or cash to make it. Kathy says she understands and it's okay, but I still feel bad about it, because Pat was my favorite aunt on that side of the family, the O'Malley's are my favorite cousins, and it hurts that I can't be there for them. 

In other news, I passed the AFSP exam pretty handily, but it looks like I need to knock out eight more hours of Federal CE to get AFSP certified with the IRS. Guess I'll do that this week. 

I see there's a community Thanksgiving dinner at the Convention Center. Dunno if I'll be social and go to that, or just get a small turkey from Raley's along with the usual trimmings. 

Currently reading Grandeur and Misery of Victory, which is not so much Clemenceau's memoirs as a riposte to Marshal Foch's memoirs, which apparently took some shots at the former PM. Also rereading Alliance Unbound. 

So I finally got in to see Dr. Kletzky around 1700 - they're really working the poor guy to death in terms of patient load - and we talked some about my kidneys (he thinks they're OK) and my complaint regarding shortness of breath when I get back to Tonopah from the flatlands. He finally agreed to prescribe me an albuterol inhaler, and we'll see how well that works. 

According to various e-mails and texts, I guess that I'm considered to be working out of Damonte Ranch (virtually) which puts me under Lindsay Desmond as MTL, and she seems confident that I'll be at least getting into the fulfillment network, which is good, because if I have to rely on dropoffs I'm not going to do jack shit this season in terms of productivity and commission. So that's good. I'll put in some time Saturday to get the AFSP done, and maybe another short course if I have any energy left after the AFSP. Lindsay also said that since I'm out here in the rurals, she won't be expecting me to show up for any in-office stuff. 

The temptation to stay at Santa Fe Station and check out Shoney's was huge, but I scored an Elite King at the Stratosphere on Priceline for a ridiculously small amount, so that's where I went. Took on fluids at Sonic and also benefitted from a BOGO deal on entrees; had a foot-long chili dog and another plain foot-long, and topped that off with a couple spicy hate chikuns and a free frosted lemonade from CFA after resting a bit in my room. 

Since I missed the Lake Mead Walmart on the way into town and was too late for the pharmacy at the one on Charleston, I headed for the Lake Mead store after grabbing brunch at the Jack & fuel at the Lake Mead Blvd. Maverik. Spent a lot more than I expected on groceries, but at least I have plenty of (cheap) English muffins, honey ham, and water additives to get me through until I pop down on the 14th for lymphedema and wound care appointments. I forgot the various dairy products I was going to get, but I did get the test strips, Claritin-D, and melatonin I needed, even if the OTC stuff was a pain in the ass since it was all locked up. Shoplifters need flogging or sentencing to the chain gang. 

After that, I got a couple more Route 44 Sprite Zeros at the Sonic on Rancho as well as a couple of corn dogs, so I was pretty well set. Made good time getting home, since I only stopped in Indian Springs and Goldfield for urination, but by the time I got stuff sorted out and scanned it was too late to do catchup blogging. 

I probably ought to fill out my ballot and drop it off at the clerk's office tomorrow or Monday. I like the local post office folks well enough, but I am not a trusting soul and prefer that my vote go straight to the ballot box. 

After re-reading Alliance Unbound, I am anxious to reread the rest of the Alliance-Union books that focus on the merchanters, but weirdly none of them are on Kindle. So I ordered used paperback copies of Finity's End, Tripoint, Hellburner, and Heavy Time; I'll wait until tomorrow when my checks drop to order dupes of Merchanter's Luck and Rimrunners.  I would have ordered the omnibus Devil To The Belt, but it's out of print and used copies are insanely expensive, so I settled for the component novels. Once I have them all together, I'll be poring over them to compose an up-to-date "history" of the Hinder Stars, and see if I can figure out if Signy Mallory is Tom Mallory's kid off the Miriam B. There are no coincidences, after all. 

Classical reference.

I was going to do the ethics course this weekend, but I didn't. There's always tomorrow, and I expect I'll tend to the AFSP on Tuesday or after I get back from Minnesota. 

My new pants showed up on Saturday as expected, and of course the newest Komi Can't Communicate manga. Also, the Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League book came, and it was a surprise. I had been expecting a graphic novel, but I misread the listing on Amazon - what I got was a veritable doorstop of a book, written in the same wild style as the original BB movie novelization. Also surprising was the monthly shipment from Boca Java, which USPS had been telling me all week was going to show up Tuesday...unless those notices pertained to my incoming Barbasol razors. We shall see.

Speaking of wild style, I finished the first of John C. Wright's rewrites of the Disney Star Wars disasters, Starquest: Space Pirates of Andromeda, and it is every bit as good as those were awful. Flash Gordon meets Doc Smith, with liberated droids, psychic powers, awful weapons, mystical legends...honestly, if I hadn't read some of his other novels, I wouldn't have believed anyone could pack this much coolness into the first of twelve books. Can't wait for #2 to be released - and I see there are already books by other authors in this Expanded Universe. 

Still waiting for cash from the VA and the DoE. Still waiting for Lois to say yes/no to a visit. Also waiting for various friends in Minnesota to let me know if they'll be available for a get-together Saturday night or whenever while I'm up there. 

I suppose I could also describe this as a report on the state of my fandoms, and it will probably wind up on the Substack in somewhat altered form... 

"In the beginning, there was the Word." So it is with me; I have always been an avid reader, preferring SF, historical fiction, military & naval history, and biographies to other genres, though I did go through a stretch where I was reading a lot of mainstream fiction. Gave up on it because most of it was depressing and/or tales of awful people doing awful things or living awful lives. (See Bright Lights, Big City or The First Deadly Sin.) I still do a lot of reading and have the Kindle and physical libraries to prove it.

Reading SF eventually (inevitably?) drew me into science fiction fandom. I attended conventions in the Baltimore/DC area and elsewhere from 1974 (Discon II, the Worldcon in DC) until 1983 when I got married and moved to Minnesota. There I became more active in traditional fanac: I pubbed a perszine, joined and dropped out and rejoined Stipple-APA, became involved in media fandom thanks to Space: Above & Beyond and the 59th Ready Reserve Squadron, went to a few Minicons, more Convergences and Diversicons and Arcanas, volunteered and served on staff for some of those, and eventually became heavily involved with anime fandom at Anime Iowa, so much so that I was one of the founders and chairmen of Anime Detour, which I remained on staff with until I left Minnesota for Virginia in 2007. I returned to Anime Detour (and continued to volunteer there) after moving to Virginia and Las Vegas, but eventually the staff there did my son dirty, and I severed all connections with them. I'll be going to Anime Fusion in Minnesota this year for my son's 40th birthday, but purely as a spectator. I dropped out of Stipple-APA after descending into abject poverty in Virginia, but after moving to Las Vegas in 2015 I became involved with the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F), sporadically contributed to N'APA, and eventually became treasurer along with wearing a few other fezzes. I am currently the chairman of Son of Silvercon, a small relaxicon in Las Vegas that aspires to become a mid-sized regional convention. 

Fandom led me into historical boardgaming/wargaming, which was a big thing in the 1970s and 1980s before TSR bought SPI at bankruptcy and gutted the hobby. I was a D&D dungeonmaster and a Traveller referee; I was also interested in several other RPG (Twilight:2000, Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green) but never actually played them. Wargames are still around, but it's a lot harder to find opponents, and games, like everything else, have become a lot more expensive thanks to inflation and the fact that it's a niche hobby now. Mostly I play video games like Civilization and Hearts of Iron IV, which have some of the flavor of the old monstergames. I used to be involved with EVE-Online as part of Goonfleet, and was there when we broke Band of Brothers, lost Delve and fled to a new home, reorganized under Commissar Mittens and grew to be a great power in the game again, but I don't remember clearly when I stopped playing. Probably in 2018, when I got horribly sick and was homeless for a couple of months. Everyone I used to know in GF is out of the game now, and I don't feel any strong urge to go back. Aside from the aforementioned strategic video games, I also play Fate/Grand Order and Azur Lane on my phone, the former more than the latter because Azur Lane's story is confusing and silly by turns. Played Cookie Run for a while but it wound up being more grindy than cute, and Girls Frontline just didn't hold my interest. I should probably get out and play more Ingress because the walking would be good for me. 

I came very late to baseball. As a kid, I was a fan of the Washington Senators, who moved to Texas in 1972 and took my interest in baseball with it. My now ex-wife was a Twins fan, though, and between her interest and Rotisserie baseball, I got back into it. For a few years I scored games at home for STATS, Inc. and published a newsletter on the independent minor leagues (which caused some road trips to towns like Aberdeen, Austin, Duluth, Fargo, and Madison) but that fell victim to Anime Detour, which pretty much ate my life from 2003-2007. I played fantasy baseball on Yahoo for a few years but dropped out of that; I was also involved in a Pursue the Pennant league until it fell apart in 1992. Nowadays, I casually follow the Nationals, Twins, and Red Sox, and am managing the Senators in a Dynasty League Baseball league run by fellow blogger Pete (Da Tech Guy), but Major League Baseball's current commissioner has alienated me with his woke stupidity, and I'm not much interested in seeing the A's when they move from Oakland to Las Vegas in a couple of years. 

I don't watch a lot of TV or movies. Used to watch a lot when I was married, but that went by the wayside in favor of watching anime, and these days I watch very little because Hollywood isn't making a lot of stuff that interests me, and I find video games more rewarding. Someday I'll probably finish watching Fallout, because it's on Amazon Prime and the first five episodes, which I saw while visiting Stacy McCain this spring, seemed pretty decent. People tell me I should watch The Expanse, and maybe one of these days I will. Webcomics fall under this heading; I was really really interested in Girl Genius, Megatokyo, Erfworld, and a couple of other webcomics, but I fell out of the habit of following them (probably around the same time I stopped playing EVE-Online, for some of the same reasons) and I can't think of any webcomics I follow at all, with the exception of Terminal Lance, Clinic of Horrors, and occasional postings by Merryweather Media. 

Not sure where this really fits in, but thanks to my Dad's final assignment with the JCS, I acquired an interest in nuclear weapons and power, which has led me to a seat on the board of the Nevada Security Site Advisory Board, a group of citizens who provide oversight to the Department of Energy's ongoing cleanup and monitoring work at the former Nevada Test Site. I don't get paid for it, but they do reimburse me for my travel expenses, which is nice, and the work is interesting, with a lot of callbacks to some weird history. For example, they're currently demolishing & cleaning up Test Cell C, which is where testing of NERVA rockets and Project Pluto went on during the early 1960s. Coincidentally, there's some discussion of nuclear rockets again in connection with Elon Musk's ambition of going to Mars. 

Packing up to head down to Vegas for tomorrow's Low Level Waste Stakeholders Conference. I'll be at the Stratosphere for a couple of days since the conference lets out at 1500 tomorrow and traffic will be horrendous at that hour. I'll also be meeting a model after the meeting for a casual shoot and maybe some sushi. We'll see how that goes.

I'm behind on the packing despite rising at 0800. Need to sort out the pills, pack up some insulin with syringes, throw clothes and cables in the backpack, and then head up to Love's for some (relatively) cheap gas before doing the long run down 95. 

Picked up Devon Eriksen's Theft of Fire, which is up for a Dragon Award this year; I am splitting my attention between that and The Cardinal of the Kremlin, which I found in the library of the property manager's office. I'll probably get back to Pack Dynamics after I finish one of those. 

At long last I finally got reimbursement for travel from the VA, and it added up to a little over $500. In PFCU, of course. I threw most of it at the credit cards after putting $400 of it in NSB, then went to El Marques for nachos & guac before stopping at the post office. My copy of Ghost of the Badlands was there, as were the ABD pads I ordered from Amazon. So I can change bandages tomorrow. My three claims from April and early May have apparently already been processed and are in the pipeline for payment. Whoo-hoo!

While I was at NSB, I talked a bit with the manager about getting a loan for Coaldale, and she brought up a couple of things I wasn't aware of but am definitely going to look into. Like, for example, the lack of potable water on the property. Lots of things to discuss with Mr. Ylst, once I get a postcard or a functioning printer.