As predicted, No Man's Sky has derailed writing for the moment, but I do have plenty of time to get the novel done before the end of the year. I've been having a lot of fun building ships, but there is SO MUCH I wanna do,and I hope they add more parts and features to fulfill my greedy desires.

In other news, The world is on fire (duh) and I'm teaching myself to turn Blusky and Tumblr off and just look the fuck away from time to time to maintain my sanity. It's never actually as bad as it looks- it's just that we're currently exposed to a neverending stream of horrible from companies who believe the only thing that sells is disaster. Bleh.

Wednesday of ths week I'm getting my vaccinations (Covid and Flu), and Iexpect I'll be flattened as usual by the Covid shot...Or because of getting two shots at once. Either way I'm gonna get whammed. Next Monday, I'llbe getting a physical and renewing, finally, my inhaler. I aim to get two at a time so Ihave a backup and a travel inhaler. That's two things down on the medical front. I still need to get a dental appointment for a cleaning and checkup, and an eye appointment. I'll get the info from Dave for the doc he went to.

We're doing a short(ish) Daggerheart campaign on Fridays, and so far it's been fun; it takes getting used to the initiative system (mostly we all need to take turns more fairly), but overall it's fun. The Saturday group is back, and weekly now too- and we're hitting the same issue. It'll be easier on Fridays,I think, to resolve things, but both groupswill get it sorted.

The Sunday group is still on hiatus til mid-October, but on October 5th we'll likely be doing a Gaslands session just to get back together. Then, Soon (tm) we'll be back to Shadowrun. I need to finish the 'interim story' for Hoof, as well as 'Welcome to Clancy's', the story of how shew got all bio'd up.

My comic collecting isn't increasing much, thank goodness,and the comic companies are apparently doing 'series' releases rather than constant, long-form comics these days, which means a title ends after, say, a year, and a new book with the same title starts with the next story. Kindagoofy, but I guess it satisfies the goobers obsessed with getting #1 issues. (Hint, dummies- that ain't what makes something valuable. It's scarcity...)

I kan haz savings! And this means I WILL likely be attending Fur Squared in Milwaukee. This'll be the first travel-con I've done since... god. 2012 or thereabouts. Whenever the chlorine attack happened at Midwest Furfest- that was my last out-state con. I might be rooming with Lycanos, or with Sylvan/Dave, if he gets gainfully employed by then. Or hell, maybe both; rollaways are a thing!

I have a fiew things artwise in progress- one by FortunataFox that's been delayed due to (apparently) health issues and familial and pet drama, and one from Nerior, likely delayed by being in a fucking live-fire zone (hes's in Ukraine).

And that kinda sums stuff up. I'm looking forward to more gaming, more art, and hopefully conveniently targeted and timed asteroid strike... But that won't happen, sadly.

Debt has been defeated... So far. I have a savings account set up now, and will be dumping $250 or so from every check into it, both to save and to pay for things like conventions and such. Aside from that, I'm (as mentioned previously) back into collecting comics. The latest issues I've targeted are the 2015 starting-date series of Ms. Marvel, this being the Kamala Khan Msw. Marvel. I have the first 12 issues en route, and I'll get the rest soon. I've no idea how many there are, but it isn't a huge number. During that run, the Marvel Universe went blooey. It was part of Civil War too, namely the period of time when I got the fuck out of collecting.

Funnily enough, if I'd found Ms. Marvel then, I might've kept on collecting. O well.

The novel is currently backburnered, as I'm doing a bunch of reading, mostly relating to comics. I'll be getting back into the project pretty soon though. I'm considering whether I should combine two of the three short stories directly into the novel; it'd deal with about half the word-deficit I have (current 'novel-length' is roughly 100,000 words), but the first takes place when my lead character is around 8 years old, and the second about 4 years before the events in the novel. So, not easy to wedge in.

Life also continues, with training for work being dealt with- I did the online portion, but there seems ot be a glitch of some kind- I might have to re-do that part, which would suck. I have the 'live' portion of the class on Thursday, which is why groceries and comics will be dealt with today.

Lastly, Dave's birthday is Thursday, so we'll be doing that in the evening. Busy effing week.

Trellis-vine-thing at the back corner of the house is gone save for the chunk where it comes out of the ground. It had to go being as it was risking a power line; me and Paul (my brother) got it down, and I dragged the remains to the back yard. There, I'll chop it up to fit in yard bags, along with the scrub trees I'll be cutting out in the morning. If I'm really lucky, I'll finish tomorrow, but no bets on that.

I'm taking a short break on the novel-work as well, doing some reading instead. I read 'All the Marvels, a analysis of the reality and impact of the Marvel legacy, as well as an overview of the story told therein. To prepare for it, the author read ALL the Marvel comics, excluding war comics and those (like G I Joe and Transformers) that really were there just to sell toys, from 1961 to 2017. Something like over 22,000 issues, read over a span of two years.
Now I'm reading American Comics: A History, which is exactly what it says.After that it'll be Marvel Greatest Comics, which covers the 'Greatest' 100 comics to the point of its publication.

So yeah, back into comics for real.

Okay. I just got the last sections of Bear False Witness into Word. I'll go over them for general fixes and corrections, then the fun begins- determining what stay, what goes, and how to expand it to roughly 100,000 words as opposed to the current roughly 68,000. I've a goal of getting it finished and sent to an editor before the end of the year, and hopefully presented to publishers.

My idea is (I don't know if this will work) is to present the three short stories for publication, one at a time for the months before release, as well (with the publisher's okay, of course) as the first chapter in a magazine.

I have other writing going on as well- continuing to work on Harun, my Swords-and-sorcery story, and in general looking into further improving my ability.

Comic collecting continues, and there are a few books I'm waiting on. I scored a NM copy of New Mutants (Series 1) #1 for about $8, not counting shipping. I've seen it anywhere from $5 to $40, so not bad.

I now have the four-volume collection of the Walter Simonson run on Thor. Woot. Also, I've a few comics to sell- mostly doubles or things I just have no interest in.

In general life, I took last night off from work, burning a sick day. I'd not slept well for two days straight and simply felt awful, so I needed it.

Sylvan's shot-run of Daggerheart continues to roll twards a start this Friday- last friday, we got characters banged out for the most part, and I was happy to have my 'most favored' idea work out. Theron, who is a Faun (think: Satyr) Ranger. The initial idea had been a Rogue, butRanger works better, I think. I even got the copper arm, eye and horn. :)

Lastly, Fergus and Fiona has their yearly vet-visit, and are doing quite well healthwise. I'm contemplating getting them dental cleanings later this year, but that's $1500. Ouch. I might consider a gofundme or Ko-Fi to build funds and either cover it all or lessent the impact.

Tugrik, real first name Tor, passed away. I don't have details, but I guess it wasn't that long ago, probably in the last few hours. He was a fixture in the Furry fandom and community for almost the entire time it existed, and with Revar created the MUCK called FurryMUCK. It was there that I 'met' him, and was at least a friendly acquaintence.
I only met him in person one time, at Anthrocon. If I'm remembering correctly, it was the last year at the Adam's Mark in Albany, and he'd been doing photo shoots with the fursuits, and I think general convention photography. Right at the end, I got to give him a hug.

Tho we never really 'hung out', even on FurryMUCK, I liked him, and he was a friend. Rest easy, Big Blue. Beef (his long-passed cat) will be there to keep you company.

Last night about 8:05 PM Central time, the power went out at home. The cause was a fairly potent thunderstorm, but the direct cause was the transformer that detonated near us because of the storm. No idea if it was a lightning strike, or just a cracked casing that let water in. Either way, ZZZZZZFFFFFBOOM.

As I was leaving for work, I saw an Xcel service truck in the alley, so I have some hope that we'll have power when I get home. If not, I can try crashing in the basement. Sadly, the only other two options are a friend's place in Bloomington and my Mom's house- neither of which are dark enough. The chaos at Mom's would pretty much preclude sleep anyway.

Regardless, I'll live. If the power is still out when I get home, I'll run over to one of the grocery stores and get foam coolers and ice for the perishables in the fridge. The freezer stuff will be fine if we don't open the damn thing. The freezer on the fridge, however, might be an issue.

ONE good thing happened though- Me and my brother went to see Fantastic Four. MOST excellent film! Definitely see it- like Superman and Thunderbolts*, it does something that heroes should be doing in EVERY supers flick- SAVING AND HELPING PEOPLE.

Right now, hope and belief in good is needed, badly.

First off... I AM DEBT FREE. WOO.

Next:

All bags and backers united. More than 100 comics bagged, and a huge number sorted. Hundreds of comics to sort and bag left.

Scones made, kitchen counter cleaned, dishwasher emptied, loaded and run.

Trash & recycle taken down to the alley.

What's left:
Catboxes
Cleaning myself.

My back hurts. :P

I'll finish the bloody comics tonight, and I think I may eliminate the metal bookshelf in my closet. I think I can box-and-store much of what's on it, or get it onto the main shelves by the bed.

Also tonight I'll see if I can't track down the remaining missing issues of the new comics I'm collecting now. I found a few a couple weeks back, so I think I can locate the rest. There aren't too many. There are a few older books I want to get, to comolete older sets, but fortunately there aren't many there.

Last, I still have to find my missing Moon Knight issues. I have them, it's just a matter of where...

Ugh.

I should get my car back today, finally. The AC went out about a year and a half back, really not all that long after I got it- I think it died in winter and so I didn't notice right off. Anyway, it took til now to finally get the damn thing into the shop. It's gonna be a $1400 sting, but given Mom decided to dump money on me and my brother, not a big deal.

Better yet, I'll be able to kill ALL my debt, and start saving instead of spending everything from each check, so woot.

And, because dammit, I'm gonna splurge just a lil bit. Up to maybe $250. no more than that, and probably less.

After that, likely sometime around Xmas, unless my current one dies before then I'll get a new La-Z-Boy. :) With luck I'll hit one of Slumberland's 2-for-1 sales on recliners.

Okay, I think I've decided the right look is canid. Not quite wolfish, but definitely not jackal or hyena. And BIG. Like 6'6" tall for Harun, and 6' and taller for others of his kind. Mostly I needed to decide for descriptions in the story. When he first encounters humans... He's pretty gross and crusty from wounds.

So, I'll work the details in; I think that'll help me get rolling again. I still have to decide the details of the weird murders...

I have of late (the last 6-8 months or so) been getting back into collecting comics. Which, of course, means caring for and storing them. So, I ordered 200 bags and boards and started in.

This was a VAST understimate.

I have one box that is almost EXCLUSIVELY Avengers, from my older collecting days. And I KNEW I had a full short-box from back then... And found that I had around ANOTHER short-box worth on shelves.

Holy crap.

What's worrisome is that I KNOW I have more. Specifically, I have the full Bill Sienkiewicz run of Moon Knight from the eighties and ninties. I haven't re-found that yet, but they're here. Somewhere.

Just those alone is like 50-75 comics.

I have lots of 'traditional' comics (Marvel & DC), Furry comics (Albedo, Fusion and others), Weird stuff (collections of Vaughn Bode'), and more. Now that I've restarted, I'm trying to do it right- get the series complete, finding missing issues before they get to be unattainably expensive.

So far, so good.

I'll at least get all the stuff I have out now re-boxed, and I'll have about a third bagged. That considers the Avengers box, which ate most of my bags right there.

It IS a bit of the ol' 'creeping doom' in that as I'm getting more books, I'll need more bags, boards and boxes. But at least this time around, they're all acid-free, and the paper is MUCH better than the seventies.