I have no content for you today, just a general desire to lie on the floor together and make soft, soothing sounds. In lovely news, I’m finally able to get trained as a remote dispatcher for my local mutual aid group, which I’m so excited about. Also if anyone knows how to find Zelda in the castle in A Link to the Past, let me know.
I've been reading your own work for many years. The day I learned you would be the new Prudence I smiled and smiled and did a little dance. I anxiously await your every post and every podcast. I find every word you put to air or paper a kind of heedless, effervescent, ethereal genius. The impact you've had on me as a writer, and the impact reading your advice has had on me as an adult cishet trying to move through the world with as much empathy and grace as my genetic and cultural limitations allow, are both significant and considerable. And so, with every burning ember of the impassioned fires of my ginger heart: the first time you go into the castle she's in the basement, from the entrance you go left (or right), up, and then right (or left), and then down the stairs, throuth 1B and 2B, and she's in 2B at the far end. The SECOND time you go into the castle, you need to go up on the roof and break the magic seal with your master sword, in the entrance, left (or right), up the stairs, and out.
this is a masters guide. talk about giving a gift back to the gift giver (danny gave us gifts in the form of Words, but this is a moment for gamers to rise up)
A. why can I only write tweets and not anything else, anywhere else / B. why can't I hire an editor to download all my tweets & make a book out of em / C. why's my cat not love me enough. everything is very difficult
I always used to read stuff like 'time has no meaning anymore and nothing matters lol' as just fun, performative exaggeration, but, uh. Not being able to form a coherent concept of even a near future has really collapsed more of my selfhood than I realized. There's plenty of meaningful indoor things I could be doing, but I'm so painted into the Distraction corner of my brain that I usually can't even remember what those are. Thank goodness I at least have a cat around.
A little kid who apparently knows him came up to the window earlier asking 'Myow-myow? ... Myow-myow?' and he definitely heard, and looked with interest out of a different, nearby window blocked by bushes, but he did not go.
today is a good day, because my cabbages (MY CABBAGES!!) are sprouting! I haven't grown anything from seed since, oh, second grade, and I was just sure it wouldn't work. and I already know what I want to make for sunday supper, even. so im doing laundry, trying to get into a new book, and journaling a lot.
glad you're able to help out your mutual aid group, it's really grounding to be part of something that's Helpful right now -- it's a special feeling. hope you get to use the training soon!
there are many princesses and many castles and we can’t keep track of all of them, not on a 16-bit architecture. ever notice that princesses stopped getting lost in the early 00s? that’s modern technology in action
I'm drinking chai and eating fancy cookies today. Later, we are doing an online Drunk Ted Talk™ where a friend explains anime to us. I took my dog outside to play with my 4-yo neighbor and got to watch the two of them sprint around a chase bubbles while on a meeting about cloud computing. My awesome big brother is taking care of a lot of the particulars to help out with an upcoming move.
Somehow, the stomach dread-pit is still there? Please explain.
The kid is super cute! Both our households have been isolating so I feel it's reasonable for us to occasionally connect. She comes and knocks on our backdoor at like 8am on weekends. I'll usually give her some tea and baked goods then draw and chat with her for a few hours so her parents can get a break. It's been nice, her mom will usually come out around 11 and we'll get some adult conversation in, facilitated by googling words we can't figure out how to say to each other since they only moved from Korea a couple years ago. The weather's been so idyllic too that it's really kept me sane!
please let us know what you learn about anime, it's confused me for what feels like eons. good luck with moving!! and i think the dread-pit might have moved in while we all weren't looking :(
if you get lost inside the castle, go “left, up, right” when you walk into the castle to find the path to the dungeons. She’s in there!! She’ll follow you around and lead you both to sanctuary!
I’m working and listening to pop music to ward off the stress. the company I work for was featured on Bloomberg in an article about how WFH has been making people work more - this is the culture!!
I would also like to be lying on the floor with people, Danny!! I'm working, by which I mean "working" because my intentions are much better than my output. I need to figure out something to do this weekend to make it feel different from a weekday... it's going to be nice outside tomorrow, does anyone have any suggestions of little things that have felt special lately? Depression is making it hard to remember what's enjoyable
I like to go look at flowers growing around my neighborhood while I take a walk. like, really stop and look. sometimes i choose a favorite (but i love them all equally, they know that). or I just try to notice things about them "oh, this flower is very symmetrical, the other one has different coloring all over"
other things that have felt special for me lately are - washing my big blankets and then they smell all clean-laundry-y, sitting in the sunshine while NOT looking at my phone (difficult but rewarding), and eating food i know i like (eggs! my stalwart friends)
I have unmedicated ADHD (because I was waiting until “after the holidays” to make an appointment to get back on meds), and it is exhausting tending to my own brain.
I'm also having struggles, which seem more like ADD every day (work! how do people do it during a pandemic??). Solidarity on the brain exhaustion <3 I'm having to treat mental health like a second job and it's just A Lot.
I bet you are doing a really good job, and this internet stranger is very proud of you for all the tending you've been doing! hope it gets easier pronto
Congratulations on getting trained as a dispatcher- that’s wonderful! Hope you and Grace are very well, physically and otherwise; my college semester just re-started, remotely, and I got my first curt email about deadlines today, which was... reassuringly familiar, at least. And I’ve been offered the chance to work on a project at my university over the summer that might contribute some useful research to the pandemic, so that’s where I’m getting my feeling of usefulness from at the moment. Also: I have started watching Frasier, at last, and been able to go back and read your collected works on it with joyful recognition instead of confused awe; so thank you so much for that!
it has been delightful, I am trying to convert all my friends to it (with little success, we are all 20 and the show is undeniably... of its time in certain ways), and the pitch "but Niles!! he's my perfect fragile son!!" has not proved persuasive for some reason
in this mutual aid group, they coordinate various requests (someone needs money, a grocery delivery, gloves for home aid workers, etc) with prospective volunteers trained in making safe deliveries, matching people up and ensuring everything gets delivered in a timely way, etc
it's been so nice to have a chance to feel useful! and i've been sick (non-covid, luckily) for about a month know, which has been really dispiriting and i can't see a doctor, but i'm so glad there's something i can do to help that doesn't require leaving the house.
Congrats on the training!! I decided to finally see Pride & Prejudice (2005) last night and watch a man who owns a bust of himself be desperately bad at flirting for two hours. It was a good decision; and it is hard to convey the inner celebration I experience every time someone says "Lady Catherine de Bourg." It just rolls off the tongue!
Hi Daniel — I'm a big fan of The Shatner Chatner and I just bought your book, "Something That May Shock and Discredit You" and I'm so so excited to read it! My bff and former roommate Rae MacCarthy (author of "Squad" and fan of you and Grace) turned me onto your work and I've never looked back. Sometimes we text each other when a new Shatner Chatner comes out and we gag :)))))
Here are things that are up with me:
I recently changed my name. IT IS WEIRD. How was it for you when you changed your name, uh twice now in rapid succession? It is weird? I just changed my first name but maybe I'm going to change my last name too. So my name is kind of...transitioning, lol. Wondering how that whole process has felt for you. It was Izaiah who changed his name (or, rather, had God change his name) to Jacob in your book, right? Rae read me that passage over the phone and then we both laughed and then cried.
Also, I'm experiencing a whole lotta heartbreak because my gf and I are on a break while she emotionally convalesces with her family many states away, during this period of quarantine. Recent life events have hit her very hard. We will try again when we are both in the same state again in the fall. I don't think I have ever felt this cut up in my life. Hoping for any solace you have to give to a heartbroken lil' tran.
if you go to the left or right, there's a hallway that leads north.
that hall way will curve around the top of the castle, with a staircase down to the basement in the middle.
the basement features a long, winding path south, then to the west, finally curving north.
in the room to the north of that, there will be a knight, who unlocks the room to the right. in that room, there's another, along with a treasure chest and the a key that lets you continue on to the north from the previous room.
at the far north west end of the basement, there are stairs down to the 2nd basement, which is a single room containing a mini-boss, and your princess!
i'm copy-pasting from a thread above: "they coordinate various requests (someone needs money, a grocery delivery, gloves for home aid workers, etc) with prospective volunteers trained in making safe deliveries, matching people up and ensuring everything gets delivered in a timely way, etc"
I've been reading your own work for many years. The day I learned you would be the new Prudence I smiled and smiled and did a little dance. I anxiously await your every post and every podcast. I find every word you put to air or paper a kind of heedless, effervescent, ethereal genius. The impact you've had on me as a writer, and the impact reading your advice has had on me as an adult cishet trying to move through the world with as much empathy and grace as my genetic and cultural limitations allow, are both significant and considerable. And so, with every burning ember of the impassioned fires of my ginger heart: the first time you go into the castle she's in the basement, from the entrance you go left (or right), up, and then right (or left), and then down the stairs, throuth 1B and 2B, and she's in 2B at the far end. The SECOND time you go into the castle, you need to go up on the roof and break the magic seal with your master sword, in the entrance, left (or right), up the stairs, and out.
this is so, so kind and means so much to me -- thank you
this is a masters guide. talk about giving a gift back to the gift giver (danny gave us gifts in the form of Words, but this is a moment for gamers to rise up)
I am going to buzz my head today!!!! Wish me luck and hope with me that my ears aren't very sticky-outy and that my head is an okay shape!!!!
it is a PERNICIOUS LIE that only some heads/face shapes can handle a buzz cut!!!
You are correct because I did it and it looks fuckin great!! Ahhhh so happy!!!
I would like to put in that sticky-outy ears are attractive, actually. Worry not!
Ahhh thank you that is reassuring to hear!!!
it's gonna look great, I just know it! good luck!
Luck!
I assume it will look great, and if you don’t like it it’ll grow back! No downsides at all to trying.
AAAH HELL YES!
today is full of questions
A. why can I only write tweets and not anything else, anywhere else / B. why can't I hire an editor to download all my tweets & make a book out of em / C. why's my cat not love me enough. everything is very difficult
/nodnodnod if my discord chats could only have been work chats, I bet I wouldn't be so far behind
I always used to read stuff like 'time has no meaning anymore and nothing matters lol' as just fun, performative exaggeration, but, uh. Not being able to form a coherent concept of even a near future has really collapsed more of my selfhood than I realized. There's plenty of meaningful indoor things I could be doing, but I'm so painted into the Distraction corner of my brain that I usually can't even remember what those are. Thank goodness I at least have a cat around.
i'm so glad you have a cat! I relate to being painted into a distraction corner in the EXTREME
A little kid who apparently knows him came up to the window earlier asking 'Myow-myow? ... Myow-myow?' and he definitely heard, and looked with interest out of a different, nearby window blocked by bushes, but he did not go.
Online quizzes are back. The gay cowboy quiz gave me Outlaw Cowboy.
Please tell us where this quiz is
Don’t mind if I do https://uquiz.com/quiz/WY53Q5?p=309414
I am a SOFT COWBOY :)))
SAME
SOFT AS ANYTHIN'
today is a good day, because my cabbages (MY CABBAGES!!) are sprouting! I haven't grown anything from seed since, oh, second grade, and I was just sure it wouldn't work. and I already know what I want to make for sunday supper, even. so im doing laundry, trying to get into a new book, and journaling a lot.
glad you're able to help out your mutual aid group, it's really grounding to be part of something that's Helpful right now -- it's a special feeling. hope you get to use the training soon!
my plumber friend says your princess might be in another castle
there are many princesses and many castles and we can’t keep track of all of them, not on a 16-bit architecture. ever notice that princesses stopped getting lost in the early 00s? that’s modern technology in action
I'm drinking chai and eating fancy cookies today. Later, we are doing an online Drunk Ted Talk™ where a friend explains anime to us. I took my dog outside to play with my 4-yo neighbor and got to watch the two of them sprint around a chase bubbles while on a meeting about cloud computing. My awesome big brother is taking care of a lot of the particulars to help out with an upcoming move.
Somehow, the stomach dread-pit is still there? Please explain.
I feel like the stomach dread-pit is sticking around for the long haul :( love the story about your dog and neighbor kid <3
The kid is super cute! Both our households have been isolating so I feel it's reasonable for us to occasionally connect. She comes and knocks on our backdoor at like 8am on weekends. I'll usually give her some tea and baked goods then draw and chat with her for a few hours so her parents can get a break. It's been nice, her mom will usually come out around 11 and we'll get some adult conversation in, facilitated by googling words we can't figure out how to say to each other since they only moved from Korea a couple years ago. The weather's been so idyllic too that it's really kept me sane!
please let us know what you learn about anime, it's confused me for what feels like eons. good luck with moving!! and i think the dread-pit might have moved in while we all weren't looking :(
Somehow I doubt my capacity for retaining the info... but I will report back with whatever tidbits I capture.
There are hidden stairs to the right of the castle in the garden. You’ll find Zelda ... and win.
i found the stairs but i keep going in circles!!!
if you get lost inside the castle, go “left, up, right” when you walk into the castle to find the path to the dungeons. She’s in there!! She’ll follow you around and lead you both to sanctuary!
I’m kirby with a sword so I know Nintendo.
For soft, soothing sounds, may I suggest Lullatone? "Finishing Something You Worked Really Hard On" is a great track to get into them.
I’m working and listening to pop music to ward off the stress. the company I work for was featured on Bloomberg in an article about how WFH has been making people work more - this is the culture!!
ooo i wish i could dislike "wfh has been making people work more" >.<
I tried playing A Link to the Past a while ago and couldn't find Zelda at all so I'd just like to express bad-at-Zelda solidarity.
I would also like to be lying on the floor with people, Danny!! I'm working, by which I mean "working" because my intentions are much better than my output. I need to figure out something to do this weekend to make it feel different from a weekday... it's going to be nice outside tomorrow, does anyone have any suggestions of little things that have felt special lately? Depression is making it hard to remember what's enjoyable
I like to go look at flowers growing around my neighborhood while I take a walk. like, really stop and look. sometimes i choose a favorite (but i love them all equally, they know that). or I just try to notice things about them "oh, this flower is very symmetrical, the other one has different coloring all over"
other things that have felt special for me lately are - washing my big blankets and then they smell all clean-laundry-y, sitting in the sunshine while NOT looking at my phone (difficult but rewarding), and eating food i know i like (eggs! my stalwart friends)
Thanks Lani! That's a good idea - I bet there are some good flowers in my neighborhood, or at the nearby cemetery :)
I have unmedicated ADHD (because I was waiting until “after the holidays” to make an appointment to get back on meds), and it is exhausting tending to my own brain.
oh, I'm so sorry. it is SO exhausting
I'm also having struggles, which seem more like ADD every day (work! how do people do it during a pandemic??). Solidarity on the brain exhaustion <3 I'm having to treat mental health like a second job and it's just A Lot.
I bet you are doing a really good job, and this internet stranger is very proud of you for all the tending you've been doing! hope it gets easier pronto
Congratulations on getting trained as a dispatcher- that’s wonderful! Hope you and Grace are very well, physically and otherwise; my college semester just re-started, remotely, and I got my first curt email about deadlines today, which was... reassuringly familiar, at least. And I’ve been offered the chance to work on a project at my university over the summer that might contribute some useful research to the pandemic, so that’s where I’m getting my feeling of usefulness from at the moment. Also: I have started watching Frasier, at last, and been able to go back and read your collected works on it with joyful recognition instead of confused awe; so thank you so much for that!
jesus christ that's dispiriting!! deadlines are OVER! but i'm so glad you're drawing strength from Frasier
it has been delightful, I am trying to convert all my friends to it (with little success, we are all 20 and the show is undeniably... of its time in certain ways), and the pitch "but Niles!! he's my perfect fragile son!!" has not proved persuasive for some reason
I'm in a zoom lecture and dyyyyyyying
ZOOM IS EXHAUSTING
This professor is exhausting, the material does not translate well online, and I need wine
What’s the training like? And what does a remote dispatcher do?
in this mutual aid group, they coordinate various requests (someone needs money, a grocery delivery, gloves for home aid workers, etc) with prospective volunteers trained in making safe deliveries, matching people up and ensuring everything gets delivered in a timely way, etc
Congrats on getting trained!
it's been so nice to have a chance to feel useful! and i've been sick (non-covid, luckily) for about a month know, which has been really dispiriting and i can't see a doctor, but i'm so glad there's something i can do to help that doesn't require leaving the house.
I plan to do biiiiiig sixties eye makeup, take a picture, then go back to reading in bed.
Congrats on the training!! I decided to finally see Pride & Prejudice (2005) last night and watch a man who owns a bust of himself be desperately bad at flirting for two hours. It was a good decision; and it is hard to convey the inner celebration I experience every time someone says "Lady Catherine de Bourg." It just rolls off the tongue!
Hi Daniel — I'm a big fan of The Shatner Chatner and I just bought your book, "Something That May Shock and Discredit You" and I'm so so excited to read it! My bff and former roommate Rae MacCarthy (author of "Squad" and fan of you and Grace) turned me onto your work and I've never looked back. Sometimes we text each other when a new Shatner Chatner comes out and we gag :)))))
Here are things that are up with me:
I recently changed my name. IT IS WEIRD. How was it for you when you changed your name, uh twice now in rapid succession? It is weird? I just changed my first name but maybe I'm going to change my last name too. So my name is kind of...transitioning, lol. Wondering how that whole process has felt for you. It was Izaiah who changed his name (or, rather, had God change his name) to Jacob in your book, right? Rae read me that passage over the phone and then we both laughed and then cried.
Also, I'm experiencing a whole lotta heartbreak because my gf and I are on a break while she emotionally convalesces with her family many states away, during this period of quarantine. Recent life events have hit her very hard. We will try again when we are both in the same state again in the fall. I don't think I have ever felt this cut up in my life. Hoping for any solace you have to give to a heartbroken lil' tran.
Love,
Halo (they/them)
Are you talking about this section of the game?
https://www.zeldadungeon.net/a-link-to-the-past-walkthrough/hyrule-castle-tower/#c5_2
if you go to the left or right, there's a hallway that leads north.
that hall way will curve around the top of the castle, with a staircase down to the basement in the middle.
the basement features a long, winding path south, then to the west, finally curving north.
in the room to the north of that, there will be a knight, who unlocks the room to the right. in that room, there's another, along with a treasure chest and the a key that lets you continue on to the north from the previous room.
at the far north west end of the basement, there are stairs down to the 2nd basement, which is a single room containing a mini-boss, and your princess!
I’m taking an intensive drag workshop over Zoom, so just really circling the Norma Desmond center of gravity in an ever-tighter orbit.
Oh yeah, might as well add that your new book is amazing!
happy and rooting for you in all things - would you be willing to say a little more about the role of a remote dispatcher in a mutual aid group?
i'm copy-pasting from a thread above: "they coordinate various requests (someone needs money, a grocery delivery, gloves for home aid workers, etc) with prospective volunteers trained in making safe deliveries, matching people up and ensuring everything gets delivered in a timely way, etc"