Sarajevo town, Karuzo and War Tunnel with Mum and Julian.
The REAL mystery is: how does captain dangerman mcwhitedude keep a consistent population of ONE tribble on his desk??
Since I started thinking about nanowrimo, my brain has changed mode. It's like I'm listening on frequencies I haven't listened on for a long time.
To start with, there was nothing. It was horrifying. Where did story ideas even come from before? Have I lost the connection with that part of myself? Total static. An endless black page with nothing to write about.
A couple of days in - not specifically trying to think of ideas, but just having opened that door in my mind again - I started to hear sounds in the distance. Whispers.
Then I saw a place. Felt an atmosphere. Then I met my character. She introduced herself and showed me around. Very slowly, she has been feeding me tidbits about her life. Out of nowhere, when I'm wrapped up in something else - from yoga, to buying groceries, to writing bash scripts - I gain another little insight. She tells me something new about herself. She hints at what she's up to, and what might happen in the future. Just hints.
At the same time, I can feel echoes of things I have written in the past and media I am consuming recently, as well as things in my own life. I can really feel these influences painting the backdrop in a way I'd never noticed before.
It is absolutely thrilling to have made this connection. I used to have this all the time, when I wrote a lot. Non-stop, characters were chattering at me, spaces were inviting me to explore them. I got used to it I guess, and then didn't notice when it went quiet.
Now it's back, I realise what I was missing.
I have a person and a place, and a general sense of the world, but no plot. I get the feeling we're going to find out what happens together, in November.
I read, made notes on, and wrote a small literature review on some papers yesterday. Part of me loved it, it's been a while. Part of me suffered greatly from PhD PTSD I guess.
+ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41509402
Social media and even the Web are just a phase, and we're phasing them out again.
Last night I watched the original Blade Runner. I've definitely seen it before, but I didn't remember it well.
I was completely thrown by the rape scene. Not because it was necessarily out of character, but it was just a huge fucking unnecessary sidetrack from all of the other interesting things happening in the movie.
The first thing I did was search "bladerunner rape" to see what the rest of the Web has to say about it. There are a handful of posts by people who are shocked and appalled, and the rest is people defending it along the lines of:
*double take* .. *back up* .. I'm sorry, what?
Some of those people even went so far as to point out that "she initiated it" by playing the piano and taking her hair down.
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
Some people said if she'd said no he would have stopped. She literally ran for the door!
jfc
Some people pointed out that after he told her to say she wanted him, and she did (with pure terror in her voice) and then she said other sexy things without him telling her to that meant it was okay. His job is literally to hunt her down and kill her and every move she made after she realised she was trapped in his apartment (including staying here after he left) appeared to me to be out of abject fear for her life. That doesn't seem a whole like like consent, eh.
That is all.
A visit from Ishka.
My landlady is nice, but she's also a benevolent overlord who controls my heating and I can't figure out the pattern yet. Sigh.
(I can turn radiators off, but when they're on I don't know when they're actually going to emit heat. The last few days they were on in the evenings, but tonight not. Last week they started coming on at 6am which was loud and pipe-bangy and not ideal, and they were cold again by the time I actually wanted to get up).
Pita... and Sarajevo.
Celebrating Canadian thanksgiving with pancakes and chocolate banana bread.
Burgers and krompirusa
More annoying than "hey guys" is "hey guys... and girl."
(Traditionally I don't mind being incorporated in the "guys" because my last name is Guy so I can identify easily. But I know 99% of the time people aren't including me in that way on purpose. I know when they are because they say something along the lines of "ohhh see what I did there!?" which kind of ruins it. Also I take a stand against guys-as-gender-neutral on principle these days).
(In case you're stuck "hey everyone", "hey folks" or just plain ol' "hey" are actually not that challenging with practice. You can even get used to using them on rooms of people you think are all the same gender).
In most places, it's a pit stop. In Bosnia it's a pita stop. An hour out of Sarajevo, and the bus driver needs burek.
The bus from Sarajevo to Denmark, via a couple of hours in Berlin and a ferry, only takes two days.
Eating my way through my first evening in Copenhagen with Ninni.
A morning run around Copenhagen's lakes. Avocado rye toast.. I'd forgotten what it was like being in a real city. A wander around the city center and indoor and outdoor markets. Lunch at Bahn Mi.
Ninni had a party, then stayed out until 8am (I didn't). The last photo is: I fetched her a veggie burger and fries for 'breakfast' before she went to sleep.
I walked 12 miles around Copenhagen, through various parks, the Kastellet, the Little Mermaid, to Christiania for great vegan food, mega hippie vibes, and a walk in the woods, and back via Rosenborg Castle gardens.
Green Burger for Sunday dinner.
Monday wandering, from Zee's for breakfast, up the Rundtaarn for overcast views of Copenhagen; a couple of hours in the library and a leisurely lunch at Yellow Rose; the sky turned blue in time to wander through a park and watch the sun set; AYCE vegan Chinese buffet for dinner at Veggie Heroes.
The return bus via Berlin; two nights and a day.
A chocolate pear cake, anticipating Mum and Julian's 2am arrival in Sarajevo. This was the correct thing to do.
Flea market, old town, yellow fort, white fort, dinner at 4 Sobe, with Mum and Julian.
Climb to the bobsled track, lunch in Brus, with Mum and Julian.
Contributions to the Prana Yoga potluck. Aubergines stuffed with veggies and bulgar wheat, sprinkled with vegan cheese that my mum brought me from the UK. A sugar free beetroot cake with lemon cream cheese icing. The cake turned out a bit weird, but was enjoyed by people who already had weird diets.
Various comfort foods... chips, chilli, stews, mac 'n' not-cheese.
Well I just did five hours of unnecessary debugging because of a typo. How's your night going?
(Star Trek Discovery)
That was a really good episode. We were due a kooky time loop one of course to match previous series.
Ugh Mudd though. When he said "that won't be last you see of.." I was hoping he was addressing the audience not the crew, and meant his ToS episode.
Can someone explain to me why everyone is tooting about oats?
I joined #nanowrimo on Freenode but nobody is there :o Please nerds join me.
Wait people make plans during October? I forgot how this works. Did I ever plan? Doesn't ring a bell.
I should go to bed and deal with this tomorrow. I'm exhausted but somehow psyched. Argh.
