missizzy

Trump campaign ads have now invaded YouTube, and while the first ones were long enough you could skip after five seconds, the new ones are not. I still mute them, but you still have to wait through them. And all the same scaremongering one about Biden defunding the police. That would be painful enough even he would or could do it. And now I'm left worried, because how many idiots are going to fail to realize he ain't that guy, and also, that ain't done on the national level anyway?
But I am not letting that keep me from my Vox Machina. I've now started episode 43, and I've started getting hit in the feels hard by these characters. I'm now pretty much in love with Vax, because Liam definitely knows how to create 'em. He's so deadly and so determined and also so noble and he loves his sister so much and he loves Keyleth so much and he cares for everyone he cares about so much and I could go on a while. I'm probably going to write something Vaxleth very soon, though part of me things I should watch further first.

Today was the first day of the year when the temperature in the DC area hit 90. Not that the locals can't force themselves to function in that heat if they actually have to; that wasn't going to stop the protests. This afternoon, we even briefly believed our boss had just resigned, although it seems he hasn't done that just yet. Still, I have my doubts of how long Trump will tolerate his reluctance to cross the lines he started striding across Monday night.
Really, tonight, we're expecting an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which will be doing a variation of ye olde "Should time travelers kill Hitler?" debate, and I know it was all filmed months ago, and you have to assume the Chronicoms know what they're doing and if they succeed it'll be Very Bad. But even so? At this point, I'd say do it, and roll the dice on the damn timeline. Yes, it's still possible for things to be worse than they currently are. We've spent recent days in dread of them becoming so, after all. But what are the odds they would be?
It's good the charges against the George Floyd's killers are on the increase, but the fact remains we've seen charges before. The real question is if any of them get convicted. And having a jury willing to do it may really require societal change. At best, that's a long hard road away.

Everyone's been wondering what's delaying the little money they decided to give all of us, but honestly, to any federal employee right now, that answer to that would be obvious: because they'll all got to be processed by a bunch of Treasury employees, the rank and file of them people who are just trying to do their jobs and survive having Trump as their boss, probably long reduced in number too much, who are now all trying to do a massive amount of work from home, a lot of them on laptops and such that are no doubt often malfunctioning, needing to work on a network that sometimes goes slow. It would be slow under any circumstances. Though obviously Trump insisting today on inflicting his name on our checks is going to give all these people a whole new headache. But I would've been amazed to have gotten them at this point.
Much more put out at Amazon. Mom actually ordered a bunch of masks from them at the beginning of March. The estimated date range of their arrival went to today, they still are not here, and the information of exactly where they are is shamefully scarce, because Amazon can't even be bothered to use a shipping service that provides that. And meanwhile we're gonna need those masks to get food, and they're probably sold out everywhere. Mom and I have three, so we'll be fine this week, but I don't know how we'll get more after that.

Yesterday was quite literally a long day, starting at 5 AM so I could east and wash and dress before going out to vote, and ending with an art class and I even stayed up for Talks Machina It was a nicer thing to pay attention to by then. I am furious over Warren, but I would've settled happily for Bernie at this point. But it seems we can't even get that. And I think Biden could actually win in November, but if he does, then what happens in four years' time, when the current backlash against the Republicans will be long faded, and then they'll probably nominate an outright Nazi?
Meanwhile my mom has a cold, and I think I'm catching it. The probability of it being anything besides a cold seems pretty low, but I really need it to be gone before it's time for me to fly to Montral for Worlds. If my tickets ever arrive; that's another worry at the moment.

We've been aware for most of the year that there are things horribly wrong in pairs skating especially, the kind of thing that rape culture facilitates in that kind of setup especially. Still, yesterday was a painful blow. At the beginning of the day, Morgan Cipres, Sylvia Fontana, and John Zimmerman were people everyone liked. (John Coughlin, at least, had had one black mark on his record already.) Now we know them to have done the unforgivable to at least one girl, and probably more. And who knows how many more people in skating have done such things. There will likely be more painful truths to come. At least we must hope for them.
Of course, that wasn't the biggest news yesterday. Except that for all the talk of history happening with the articles of impeachment, it was now the inevitable next line in a drama that must now play out. I've heard the criticisms the Democrats should've charged Trump for all his crimes, but I think that would've been all too easy for the Republicans to use against them after the acquittal, if they can use them to overwhelm people's minds and make them doubt the truth. With possibly the future of humanity itself at stake, you can't blame Pelosi for remaining calculating.
Current participating in the YouTube boycott. It's relieving not to watching any skating right now anyway, though it does mean I'll have to wait to Saturday to watch even the end of the opening battle of the latest Critical Role episode. On the other hand, I have given in and bought Disney+. Watching the first episode of the The Mandolorian was a sweet relief after a very long day.

It seemed to take an eternity for Daylight Savings Time to end, especially in its final days, when I was going out before the sun was quite up in the mornings. But now we have the opposite problem, which is actually harder, to know when the bus has reached my stop in the dark. Yesterday when I voted after work that also meant walking home from my old elementary school in the dark. I don't think turnout was the highest in my precinct, if only because our area is so blue that in all three contested races the Republicans didn't even bother putting anyone up. Still, I was glad for the results from elsewhere went in our favor. It greatly increases hope for the future.
And it's still another month and a half of the days getting shorter. Though at least once the holidays lights go up they'll help. As far as I'm concerned, my neighbors can be as tacky as they like, and the houses on my bus route even more so; the latter especially helps me.

Catching up with the news this evening, on an evening that proved one of my latest arrivals home yet, I fetl as if the apocalypse had started, with the ruler screaming he was the messiah and the images of the Amazon on fire finally spreading out to the world's notice. It makes it practically relieving I'll be in France for the next few days, where at least I'll be away from the center of all this madness. And since it's a night flight, I'll even be able to watch the first day of the new skating season before we head for the airport.
That'll be nice to watch when I'm going to miss at least part of Dancing with the Stars this fall, and I don't even know if I'll tune back in whenever Sean Spicer's been voted out. I used to just grit my teeth through the right-wing contestants, but that was when for most of them, their sins at least hadn't reached what everyone who has actively enabled Trump is now guilty of. They keep making these kinds of stupid decisions, things will fall off for their show, and it will serve them right.

About half an hour ago, when the electoral picture had gone downright bleak, I attempted to deactivate my Facebook. I've been thinking about doing so for a month, and really think I should. Couldn't figure out how to do it, though.
Even now, I'm trying to figure out how I'm really going to survive the next two years, or possibly still more, provided, of course, I'm actually allowed to. I may have to flee Twitter permanently for my sanity. Or if I should start prioritizing some things over others, and some writings over others, because of the chance I won't be allowed to, and also the all too high chance humanity won't survive all that much longer either. I used to dream of my writings surviving, being cited in historical collections of 21st-century fanwriting, or even getting a novel published. But if we don't have descendants to read those, maybe I'd better stick to the stuff that'll get read before the end. That's not nothing.
I've been contemplating quitting Ani & Izzy as well. If I was more certain my time was limited, I absolutely would. It takes up too much of my weekend, and I haven't been able to track down where the stats are these days, but I have doubts about how much of a readership we have. (As it is, I don't think I'll bother blog about Papadakis & Cizeron's withdrawal from NHK, when I'll have to then be blogging about the event itself anyway. If I don't quit this week.)
I might also have to turn away from the news just to preserve my mental health. It's a bit cold-hearted of me, but I don't know how much more I can do and still function. Set up the same biweekly donations I've been sending to different organizations to regularly go to four I still think will do good, and call that done.
At least after voting this morning, I got to put in a request for a comics cameo. Maybe my goal will be living long enough to actually see it.

When I agreed last week to go on a date on Saturday up in Silver Spring, it didn't sound like a bad idea. It'd been years since I've been up there, and I figured that while I'd probably get there too early, I could shop for a new summer work top, since I kind of need one. That, of course, did not reckon with the nonstop pouring rain all day. I broke out the raincoat I haven't worn in years either, but the umbrella I took got damaged en route, and I couldn't close it properly, which was a pain. I wasn't able to find a good top anyway, and I ended up hiding out in the mall until the date happened. That was actually good; the guy was okay, and I'm definitely hoping for a second date. But then there was getting home, and with most of the streets turned into streams by the final stretch. I don't think my shoes have been entirely dry since. Getting caught in another rainstorm while getting the groceries Sunday didn't help.
Is Newt Gingrich now just sitting around writing pro-Trump books? Today I found myself having to catalogue the second one that's come from him. Sean Spicer's book is currently sitting by my desk, since it arrived today but we can't circulate it until tomorrow. Published by Regnery, which means he did not turn on him in it. Now I'm really tweets about Russia possibly sabotoging out electric systems, and thinking about the fact that we've had way too many power outages in the past few weeks. Though of course two of them had their causes accounted for.
At least I enjoyed most of the news and trailers coming out of ComicCon. Except I'm mad at Fantastic Beasts once again, actually putting Johnny Depp out on stage the day after Marvel fired James Gunn for far less?!

So the day started with the news that Trump had discovered he and evil North Korean dictator have a lot in common, and now I feel even more like all the world's evil rich powerful people are allied against the rest of us. And it's ending with the news that there is now a Nazi running for the Senate in my state, and apparently he's got a real chance of winning. And yet in between, when I got off the bus to vote, two guys went with me, and there was an actual line to sign in. For a muncipal primary for most of us, since that was all that was on the ballot for Democrats, and there aren't many Republicans in this town. We're all trying to do something, but will that be enough?
For six seats on the city council, twelve Democrats ran. So did one Republican. They're probably figuring the only way they'll get someone on the council is if his opponents are all splitting the vote and he isn't.