At this time of the year, I usually experience a panicked rush to get everything together so that I can renew Social Security and my housing voucher. This year, I thought I had everything together, but there was a slight miscommunication about the renewal paper work I mailed to my housing specialist. (It was resolved, but I had a minor meltdown. By which I mean “I sent frantic letters begging for clarification” about the situation instead of “screaming, crying and curling up in a miserable ball somewhere.
Some additional stressors included:
- I always run short on food toward the end of the month, and I can’t budget worth a damn. This was fixed by asking for a food box delivery from my SMI clinic. I asked on Friday, but had to wait until Monday for the box, because no one was available on Friday. This meant I ate even less over the weekend than I had in the past week! (I was only eating maybe once a day.) Monday resulted in me snacking in small amounts *constantly* all of Monday because I was extremely hungry.
- I was in a communication/interaction group cleverly disguised as a D&D campaign at the autism clinic! Unfortunately the caseworker/counselor absconded from the company and they are looking for a new caseworker/DM. It is going to be a two week wait. I also had to cancel the other group
- I was referred by my SMI clinic to a “community club house.” This club house serves the same functions as the SMI clinic: mental health and medical support, but it’s run by the patients and the caseworkers.. I was referred for their day program. I have been delayed in attending because of the previous stressors, and there’s been a fire at their facility. They seem to be very confused by why I’m going, apparently they thought I was switching services, even though my caseworker says that she specifically referred me for the day program. This is not a great feeling, let me tell you. I am waiting for the beginning of October before I start going, because this was a bad time for me to go.
Some positives:
- The situation with the housing renewal did get resolved. I was able to sign the lease renewal.
- I am continuing to connect with my younger sisters. I’m also making some contact with my younger brother, though not as much as my sisters. (I initially reached out to Middle Sister, and we talked through some stuff. Then I talked to Youngest Sister, and we have a chat channel on our mobile phone.) Talking to Brother is somewhat difficult.
- Maintained various boundaries!
- Got thing done and time!
- I have been playing a phone game called Rise of Castles. I am also interacting with the other players. (My previous tendency was to avoid talking to people. However I currently have a much more active role. (Okay, it’s just placing “alliance storage buildings” and joining in on various special events, but still.))
Things I would like to do:
- A major overhaul of the novel. I changed some names, and I need to work on the naming languages I’m using. (I am currently playing him from when he was twelve in a freestyle rp on Discord.)
- Get more original fic writing done. (And post it to Royal Road.)
- Poke at my fan fiction WIPs.
- Write more meta essays.
- Schedule meta essays and short fiction on Patreon so my patrons have Early Content.
The reading list:
- The Span of Empire by Eric Flint and David Carrico. This is my second read through. It is not a great addition to the Jao Empire series. I was annoyed by the coming of age Ekhat subplot, (It involves mass murder and pit fights. Because Ekhat.) and even more annoyed with the Japanese-coded fox-aliens. (I just in general hate aliens or lost colony humans who are following the culture of a different human era/culture. It is very annoying!) This time I am trying to be slightly more forgiving.
- 1636: The China Venture by Eric Flint and Iver P. Cooper. I do not like most of the 163X novels past the first few. This is because many of the writers are right-leaning and/or Libertarian. I do not vibe with Libertarians/right-wingers despite reading (and disagreeing vehemently) the works of many conservative sf writers. I do not remember Cooper’s philosophical/political leanings.
- Logical Fantasy: The Many Worlds of John Wyndham edited by David Dyte I am kind of ambivalent about Wyndham’s works, which includes Day of the Triffids, and The Midwich Cuckoos. I am still curious enough to check out this collection of stories though.
- A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys I really liked her Innsmouth Legacy books, so I’m going to check this one out. (Though I’m slightly hesitant, as it’s a “aliens come and offer humanity aid with their various failures.” Though this has the twist of “humanity is actually already trying to fix the mess, thank you.” (Or so the summary indicates.) I have disliked this plot because it often involves some kind of nasty twist.
- Storm Furies by Wen Spencer this is another book in the Elfhome series. I am hoping that it’s less confusing than Harbingers, which went all over the place and ended on an apocalyptic disaster of a cliffhanger.
- Mal Goes to War by Edward Ashton. An AI gets stuck in the body of a cyborg. The cyborg is dead, but was acting as a bodyguard for a “modded” girl who was hiding from terrorists. Things happen.
I am going to try to get book reviews written up for most of them. (But not Span. Because I have almost nothing positive to say about it.) This is all very ambitious! So it’s likely a lot of this just won’t get done. But I will keep trying until I am more productive.
writingupdate
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