I’m quite busy after winning a contract to write transport justice policy for the second largest city in the country, due end of Q1. Career wise it’s a fantastic step that finally allows me to work on the topic of my thesis and academic paper, time management wise it’s a challenge. Teaching myself Magic the Gathering. There is a parallel universe where teenage me did not have bad first impressions of fantasy novels & card games. It feels like I missed out because Magic is already more fun than I ever had being peer pressured into collecting soccer cards back then. Or that one time a classmate tried to teach me YuGi-Oh and proceeded to trample all over me in my first games. There’s also a Harry Potter TTRPG that I am planning on running. The idea that we came up with is that there’s a magical European Union that was created to ensure there would never again be another Voldemort, which is an endlessly entertaining idea to work out the (geopolitical) consequences of.
Have a cold. Whole family has a cold. Kid's been sick since Friday. Battery died on Sunday. Had to borrow the wife's car to go grocery shopping. Decided to buy a battery while I was out. Pull the battery. Close the trunk because it's outside and looks like it's likely to rain. - The battery is in the trunk. - Which is electrically-actuated. - If the battery is dead, you can attach a jumper cable to a little pull-out thingy in the fuse box, which is down by the driver's left knee. - If the battery is removed, no circuit is formed. HAVE NO FEAR THOUGH! There's a manual release cable! - First you get your lug nut key out of the trunk. - Then you get your jack and jack handle out of the trunk. - Then you jack up the front of the car and remove the right front tire. - Then you pull four grommet nuts and four T20 torx screws. - Then you pull the fender well out of the way. - Then you go fishing. Or, you know, you do complicated shit with your arm and shoulder because duh that wheel ain't comin' off bro hope you like contortion. So great. You tugged and you tugged and despite the fact that the fine folx at Rennlist insist you need to use a bent coat hanger, you got it open. And you got the battery in. And you went with an H8 because an H7 has made the thing start like it's half a battery down since new, and although you've got holes for H5 H6 H7 and H8, the H8 one doesn't have a nut welded to the back because of course it doesn't, so you zip-tie the hold-down for the moment. And now's where you discover that the trunk release cable, which hasn't been pulled on since the car was factory new, is just as happy to stick in trunk OPEN as it is in trunk CLOSED so now you need to take the front fascia out so you can reset the emergency latch mechanism to the point where you can actually close your goddamn trunk. If I were of sounder mind I would have left a post-it note under the battery that says "if you can read this WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T CLOSE THE TRUNK" but after three hours in the growing dark with a head cold? Good thing I need to take it back out again to put in a 10mm nut I don't own yet. Clever, clever Hans and his magic trunx
New Zealand article of the week: Waiheke's Surfdale Sausager Personally, I'd have called him the Waiheke Snag-Slinger. Anyway some bored person has been leaving sausages in people's mailboxes for a while now. This is kinda funny because Waiheke Island is a notoriously rich-person place and picturing wealthy indivuduals fucking perplexed at finding sausages everywhere just tickles me. At the end of the article though... The Mad Butcher, a dude who has made his living of sausages, is on the island and yet to be targeted. Surely he's the prime suspect. Surely he'd stuff a snag in his mailbox just to throw off the scent. Anyway. I got a suspiciously hefty pay this week, about $600 more than I normally get. I queried with Payroll, because some of it has already gone to my student loan and if it's an error I don't want to be left holding the bag of responsibility. Turns out with the pay increase I was meant to be backdated from last year. I thought it had happened. They said it hadn't so.. Thanks! I put some of the money towards Dramfest - a whiskey festival happening in March this year. Gonna drive up with some friends, sample whisky for two days. Might eat some food too, who knows? Oh. I think I've finished one of my writing projects. Start to finish, it's completed as of last night. About 90,000 words, started around October when I was absolutely stuck in the middle of another project. I wanted a distraction and never stopped. Funny, the previous project was stuck at 90k words as well, but it had taken me almost a year to get there. I knocked out the same amount, and a complete story no less, in half the time. Will it be shit? Fuckin' probably, but I've had so much fun doing it and now I just want to write other stories. Onwards.The Mad Butcher - Sir Peter Leitch, who is a Waiheke resident - says he has never heard of the incidents and has yet to be targeted himself.
There is so much snow right now, it's beautiful. Things are looking up. Still not drinking, seeing friends and family a lot, my place finally feels like it got to a clean and organized state with only a couple tweaks left. I'm almost done making my yearly recap photo albums for the last 2 years. I've been watching lots of movies, going on art expos and reading books. I feel that i'm in a good place right now.
any favorite movies from what you've been watching?
Playing the game again of where can I get citizenship through descent. Currently focused on Czechia.
what's going on [not marvin gaye] - things with me and girl are effectively in a detente, haven't seen her since the 15th, got a message from her for the first time in a few days last night, pretty removed/not very personal message. it's clear she's put me on the backburner while she dates around, even if she hasn't necessarily stated that. she has stated i'm someone she still wants to date/see/talk to occasionally, so for me, balls in her court. i still really like her, i know what i want with her, but it ain't gonna happen right now, and im not going to put my life on hold. - SO i am, uhhhhhh, definitely not taking advantage of the fact that i'm an attractive, desirable person by going on two dates last week (no 2nd date with either, for different reasons), and going on a date tomorrow and saturday night, and planning dates with 3 other people... - canmore next weekend through the weekend after that. i'm getting really nervous for that trip! panic buying gloves in case it's cold as shit.
we see you. we hear you. your thoughts have been recorded. your time is appreciated. thank you for doing your part.