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Showing posts from May, 2018
Lost Xyzzy yesterday. It was very quick. He was, so far as I know, asleep until just before lunch, when he started what sounded like a coughing fit. (He'd been having the same allergy issues, and therefore the same steady diet of Benadryl, that I have this season.) I fished him out of his house and went to go sit in the bathroom with a running shower, which helps when they're congested. In reality, he was probably having a seizure. He spent a few minutes jerking and batting at the air with his front paws, and when I was in the middle of emailing the vet for an emergency appointment, he gave out and died in my lap. Almost all of my rats have died in my lap, save the ones I had to take to the MSPCA. Most of the vets will sedate your baby while you hold him, but administer the final injection in the back room once they're out. I've never woken up to a dead rat, because the little plonkers live in my room, and my brain is so tuned to normal rat noises that I wake up and
I've managed to survive about 1.5 flamenco classes now without stepping on myself or anyone else. It's going... well, I think? The teacher says I'm doing "excellently", but Maestra is also Japanese, to the point where I have had to dust off my ability to Japanese-agree with something that is not a 'no' but also bears little resemblance to the thing I suggested, so who knows. [Side note: The heel thwack in flamenco is called "tacón". Maestra speaks perfectly fluent Spanish -- I can understand a fair amount of it -- but has a middling-heavy accent in both Spanish and English. "Tacón" comes out sounding like タコン, which sounds like it would be a Japanese onomatopoeia word for "the sound made by an octopus banging, or being banged onto, a hard surface". Very distracting.] Flamenco requires a serious gear shift. There are at least two other styles of dance trying to occupy the same space in my brain. The song we're using f

Update on the crazy things I am doing!

Phoebe officially announced the Mrs Hawking proof of concept film project at our Watch City show, so I can officially announce it here! We are actually still in the market for volunteer crew for the entire shoot, and volunteer extras for a ballroom scene shooting on June 19th. See the link for more details, or email mrshawkingweb@gmail.com . We seem to have finally been successful at hammering the importance of crowdfunding into Phoebe's head, so you will also notice a Donate link down at the bottom, just in case you can't join us but would like to throw a few bucks our way nonetheless. My wonderful brand-new dance company Found Objects has gotten an official time and place for our debut performance, as part of the Festival of Us, You, We, & Them : June 24th, 12-12:50 pm, on the patio outside the Dance Complex (536 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA). There will be six of us with vibrantly rainbow fan veils, five of whom have never tried using them before! Come see what a
I let the Eccentric talk me into going out dancing a couple of weeks ago. I don't like big loud rooms full of strangers trying to touch me, which is fundamentally what a dance club is, but I like him and I need practice, so I went. He says I do a pretty creditable job following strangers. He has no reason to be bullshitting me, so I believe him; he does generally mean what he says, although I have a policy of dialing whatever falls out of his mouth back by about 50% to account for the overflowing enthusiasm. In an absolute sense, I'm probably fine. I don't feel like a success with most people, though -- I feel laggy and uncomfortable, like I'm bluffing my way through the song and only getting away with it because I look confident and can sell whatever I'm doing as intentional. It's not so bad I won't keep at it for the practice, but it's not an experience I'd go seeking for its own sake. For the record, if I'm successfully following someone,