Day in the Life of an Idiot

...for What are You Reading Wednesdays?  If they do,  I can tell you that I'm listening to something that an article in the New York Times turned me on to. It's a podcast from 2015 or so called "Afroqueer Podcast"  I know almost nothing about the continent of Africa and so thought this might be an interesting way to celebrate pride month while also raising my own awareness about a part of the world that I'm astonishingly ignorant about.

I've listened to four episodes so far and it's difficult to say I'm enjoying it, since some of the content is difficult and painful, but I am definitely learning stuff.  And, of course, some of the stories are extremely heartwarming as well. 

Otherwise, it looks like the "why can't I see Lyda's pictures?" mystery has been solved. I also forgot I have a premium membership to DW? So, I will now attempt to avail myself of the photo uploading option that is native to this system. I don't have anything in particular that needs showing off, but I will test with a picture of my cat:



Image: snaggle-toothed, orange boy cat hanging over the edge of the rocking chair, giving the camera a slightly crazed glare.

Does everyone see it?

Sorry I've been away... we were up north. I'm going to slowly chronicle our vacation over the next several blog posts, because otherwise this would be huge and would probably take me another whole week to write (and y'all would think I was dead.)

First, though, Tate has updated UnJust Cause : http://www.wattpad.com/55131739-unjust-cause-part-12-the-innocence-of-dragons. I doubt a lot of you are going from here to there, but I feel the need to, you know, social media this so if it fails, it isn't because I didn't get the word out.

Secondly, I may also be punctuating my vacation travelogue with tidbits about the class I've been teaching at the Loft. Here's a post about how it felt: http://tatehallaway.blogspot.com/2014/06/well-that-was-flail.html and here's one that's about the thinky-thoughts that came out of my first session: http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com/2014/06/changing-times-and-importance-or-not-of.html. (Also, I have had both breakfast and lunch, so I'm ready for today.)

Okay, so the trip...

I'm sure I've told this story before, but, in case I haven't, here it is:

When Shawn and I started talking about all the things surrounding marriage, we brought up the idea of a honeymoon while we were all having dinner. Mason got this bright look in his eyes, clasped his hands together, and declared, "Oh! I've always wanted to go to Paris!"

So for us, there was never any question that Mason would be coming along on our honeymoon.

Perhaps you'll say we're doing this wrong. But, the truth of it is, Shawn and I had nearly twenty years of a honeymoon before Mason came along. And, really, at this point, it's not so much about snogging like bunnies so much as it is having an excuse to spend some serious money on a family trip.

We didn't pick Paris because that's a little out of our price range. Mason's other suggestion had been a long weekend at the Waterpark of America, but that seemed not quite "celebratory" enough for us. So, we went to Bearskin Lodge, just up the Gunflint trail, for a WHOLE WEEK. As part of that, we meandered our way along the north shore of Lake Superior and stopped at all the beaches and sights that interested us.

The first time we made the trip to Bearskin in 2010, we brought along a book Shawn had picked up from the History Center called "61 Gems on Highway 61." We brought that along again because it had steered us to some very lovely and memorable sights.

First stop was the break wall in Two Harbors.





Break walls/safe harbors are kind of fascinating. On a clear day, like this one, it seems kind of useless: a big long, somewhat ugly looking structure built out into the water. But on our drive back when the wind was crashing HUGE waves against the shore we stopped at the Grand Marais break wall and the difference was... astounding. One side of the wall was getting HAMMERED by the waves; the opposite side? The sail boats in the harbor barely bounced in the calm.

Science, man. It's kind of amazing.

Okay... that's not much, but all for this time because my internet is being wonky with the pictures. I'll have more for you tomorrow, though! Now I'm off to teach my second day of "More than the Zombie Apocalypse." Wish me luck!

I'd planned to post the last couple photos from Detour tomorrow, but I think I'll put them up today with the thought that tomorrow, I will attempt to deconstruct my con experience. Probably the funniest thing that happened today was when I was blearily standing in line for coffee in full Renji/shinigami regalia, I got a: "Finally, a Renji cosplayer!" and a high-five.

Here's me an a Ichigo (in bankai, obviously):




A very perfect little Toshiro (with a grumpy expression even, whom I ran after yelling, "Taicho! Taicho!")"


I also had a person stop and ask for a picture of ME, which FLOORED me. I think the lesson here is, the costume makes the man (not the tattoos.) My only other final thought is that I think I may start recommending to my fellow fic writers that they consider cosplaying in their universe at least one time. I learned a lot about walking in tabi and sandals as well as the excitement that is stairs and hakama (and mine were fake!) and ZOMG WTF escelators and hakama....

Interestingly, as I was telling empty_mirrors on email, I'd seen a guy at the Obon festival who was demonstrating an Aikido sword form who did this THING with his hakama, where he'd take a fist full of the material near his thigh and jerk it aside before going into seiza or shifting into stance, and I thought, that's odd. Is that part of the form? Now I think it must be. I found I natrually did a very similar thing when faced with shifting in hakama. This gave me a wierd sort of insight into daily life/walking around. Also, wearing my hair up with the headband/bandana, which is very much a Renji THING was interesting, physically, too. When I was feeling kind of wiped (not hungover because I very, very rarely drink at cons), it felt really comforting. Like a brain hug. I wonder if that (and concealing the balding/tattoos) is another reason why the character might consider wearing it, you know?

Interesting stuff all around. Will talk about panels and people interactions tomorrow.

Now... a nap.