Ouch. My son and d-i-l were both sick last week, suspected COVID. So, yeah, sick season is upon us. Hope you all get well soon. I got my shots a week and a half ago, both flu and COVID.

Toho Studios, who released the original Gojira (Godzilla's Japanese name) in 1954 and all Japanese Godzilla films since (all the American ones, including the current Legendary series, are made under licensing deals with Toho) have announced Godzilla Minus Zero, a sequel to 2023's Godzilla Minus One. Minus One was a fantastic Godzilla movie so have high hopes for this one.

Another metal artist I follow who is releasing a solo album is Swiss vocalist Melissa Bonny. It's a different situation from Alissa, though, since Melissa's two current bands were both started by her. In fact, Ad Infinitum, her main band, was supposed to be a solo project at one point. So no breakups happening over this one. Here's the latest single, a pop-leaning ballad. In general, Melissa seems to be moving away from metal in this solo project, leaving it for her bands.

And from the "awww, that's sweet" file, the drummer on this as in her band Dark Side Of The Moon is her husband. Not sure how that works out for touring, though, since I know the band he normally plays for is touring early next year.

Fresh coffee is on and teas are refilled. Cold drinks are looking good. Fresh yummies are laid out.

How's things? Wrestling with that story I mentioned. Still haven't got the "something" parts filled in yet and that's kind of got me stalled now. I've introduced the characters and setting but no idea where to go from there.

Kind of grey and yucky here, though there was some blue starting to show a while ago. Driving in was like twilight the cloud cover was so heavy.

Experience comes from doing things.

Footie, I think, though I am not sure which of our sport channels has Premier League. Mostly watch interational matches like the Euro and World Cup.

Fork or chopsticks for Chinese/Asian food?

Quote by gillianleeza
No snow here, it's been pretty nice for November.

We still have the odd patch where there was a snowbank, but it's mostly gone. Rain today so that might finish it off. At least until the weekend when it gets winter-y again.

Started a new fantasy story kind of out of the blue. Not sure of it, yet, but there's potential. Just need to figure out some loose ends in the story. I have two leaders of rival peoples (basically one is human and the other is some kind of ogre or troll but I don't call either species by those names) meeting about ... something. And something happens. I think they discover common ground and work to resolve a crisis of some kind. Maybe it could be a Christmas-y thing? Hard to tell right now. All I've got right now is the human leader meeting and reacting to her counterpart from the other people.

License required for many professions.

Too quiet. I'll get a fresh pot of joe going along with some Earl Grey and English Breakfast teas. Washed up the pitchers and put fresh iced tea and lemonade in the fridge. Hot chocolate and a kettle along with minimarshmallows are on hand since colder days are here.

Just raked my lawn which feels so weird given I've shovelled my driveway twice and there's still a few small patches of snow in the front. Nice day for it, though, sunny and no too cold, just chilly.

How's everyone else?

Goodies:

Alissa White-Gluz is an artist in transition. She and the band she has fronted since 2014 have parted ways, but she dropped the first single from an upcoming solo project. We Arch Enemy fans will miss seeing her with the band but I am excited by what I see here and look forward to the solo album.

(Yoiks.😲 Interesting vermin to have, though. 😋)

I raked a pile of leaves. My back hates me.

Quote by Meagananne1986
the Blue Ridge

Nice country. We drove the parkway on one of our last vacations with our son before he went fully on his own.

I tend to believe in the layering approach. Bundle up but with two or three layers so you can take layers off if you get too warm (For instance, I was out doing yardwork today and wore a hoody under a lined coat. In the end, never did take any layers off. It's cool and there's a chilly breeze.)

Play a friendly game of cards or have some stakes on the line?

Necessary things must be obtained.

Leaf peeking. I'm a terrible skater.

See the colours locally or travel somewhere (around here, that would be Central Ontario c. mid-October)?

Disagreement need not cause fights.

Contemplating ideas for my long gestating longer story. There's a "weird alien" in the story that is not really working for me anymore so I want to replace them with something more ... relatable. The idea I have in my head is an amphibious hominid. Not merfolk with fish tails. I want something that feels more mammalian and, more importantly, is amphibious, i.e. can function both on land and in water. Traditional merfolk can't do that without magical transformations. So maybe more like a pinniped (seals, sea lions, walruses) x human hybrid. Basically human but with adaptations allowing them to stay longer and be faster in the water than normal humans. What might that be? Well, I am still thinking that through but so far I've got.

Either hairless or covered with short, fine hair that lies flat to the skin (let's face it, Ariel's long red hair looks great but has to be hell for her hydrodynamics).

Sleek, fairly muscular body, esp. hips and downwards, for better hydrodynamics and more powerful swimming

Either a greater lung capacity or more efficient distribution system for storing and distributing O2 in their body, enabling them to spend maybe 15-30 minutes submerged*.

Eyes adapted to seeing in both air and water, probably with compromises in both.

Small ears flat to the head. Flat or small nose.

Feet that are flipper-like, making them better in the water than humans but less efficient at running on land

Male genitalia and female breasts minimal, maybe retractable for the men. Again, for hydrodynamics.

Generally naked (it's a tropical environment anyhow) since clothing would be a liability in the water.

Technology somewhat limited due to living partly in water, maybe a very sophisticated neolithic level.

Footnote:

*By comparison, humans have done this but (a) with pre-oxygenation (hyperventilating pure O2) and (b) they were static, i.e. just sitting on the bottom of a pool. Without pre-oxygenation and swimming, the record is something like 11 minutes and most people can do a minute and a half tops. These pinnipeople would do half an hour routinely and be actively swimming while doing it. Static and with preparation, they could probably do an hour or more.

As for the adaptations, there are islanders capable of long submersions who have larger spleens to produce more red blood cells. Aquatic mammals often have more myoglobin, a muscle cousin of haemoglobin, than land mammals, too, which stores more oxygen and is less affected by the acidity that builds up during long immersions.

Blech

The fact that files about a dead pimp (I can't really think of a better, or more polite, description based on what we know about the creep) seem to be determining the future of one of the world's largest nations, and it's largest economy, is scary as f**k. I hope wisdom prevails but that seems to be in short supply everywhere these days.

But glad to hear your daughter is doing better. Apparently my kid and his wife may have everyone's favourite virus beginning with "C". At least their symptoms apparently line up with that better than just a bad cold.

Wrestling with so many things right now and I did not sleep well last night which isn't helping. Woke for a leak at 4am and struggled to get back to sleep which kind of messed me up.

That just makes my head spin to read. Growing up in Canada with basic healthcare covered, I can't conceive of paying that much. Even the premiums Ontario sneaks into our payroll deductions aren't anywhere near that.

That said, our system has its problems, too. The wait for cataract surgery was so long that I exploited a loophole to get it done quicker (laser eye surgery for cataracts isn't covered by OHIP, only the older ultrasound-based technique, so can be done privately). And there's ongoing concerns around waitlists for other surgeries, too.

But at least the ongoing blood tests related to my diabetes, regular consultations with my doc, and such are covered as was my hernia surgery a couple years ago.

Enough about healthcare and its woes on both sides of the border. Snow is going away again here (until the next time) and I finally have my winter tires on. That's kind of doing it backwards but such was the waitlist at my garage. I won't mind if winter now goes in hiatus until, say, January when it should arrive. Early-mid November is way too f-ing early to be shoveling.

Last Dinner Party

Pacifica

Orbit Culture

Visions of Atlantis

Beyond the Black

(all ones I have listened to in the past week or two)

Fatigued

You didn't leave a new one. 😊 I'll just answer my own.

Mostly MP3 these days. We do still have one CD player in the house (a small stereo system in the kitchen) but I don't use it much.

Clear snow yourself or pay someone?

Collectibles can be worth money.

Oo, one more. Dracula Beyond Stoker is basically Dracula fanfic, so stories about the characters of the classic vampire novel but outside the main plot. Currently looking for stories about Dutch physician turned vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing.

Author's Publish has a list of 30 genre markets. And it's quite a mixed bag, too. There's a magazine for children's and YA fantasy. There's one that encourages twisting, breaking, and combining genres (for that dark fantasy western crime story you've got in your drafts folder). There's Escape Artists, a podcaster and publisher who have casts for fantasy (PodCastle), s-f (Escape Pod) and horror (PseudoPod). Cliffhangers sounds cool, taking old time pulp adventures set in the real world without weird or supernatural elements. So Indiana Jones without the weird stuff. And so much more. So what's your genre(s)?

» 30 Magazines Accepting Genre Fiction

New Monday, new week, new 4-5 inches of snow. 🙄Yeah, we got dumped on again (and it's still coming down as of 8am). That's twice with 2 weeks left to go in November. This is either going to be a hellish winter or we'll get most of our snow early and then it will either be a brutally cold one (if it's really cold, the lakes freeze and we get less snow) or a wet, miserable one. Okay, let's face it, I'm not really a fan of winter. The skier I know (he used to compete and now coaches teens alongside his daughter) will be happy, I guess.

Putting on fresh coffee. Some dark roast Blue Mountain from Jamaica (sending vibes there, they got a rough ride from the last major hurricane) is brewing. Teas are Scottish Breakfast and Yorkshire Gold. Hot chocolate mix is out along with mini-marshmallows. Pitchers are washed and filled up with fresh iced tea and lemonade (hey, someone might want a cold drink, you never know).

And some goodies are out for those needing their blood sugar replenished.

Vibes on both the loss of your friend and your daughter's complications. Hope she recover

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not one of those grumpy old Gen-X'ers who go on and on about how much better music was in my day. Pop music, maybe. But there's tons of good music lurking out there if you look. I also love finding new artists and bands that I can follow and see develop.

First up, Pacifica released a new video today and it's kind of special. They are donating anything they earn on it to type 1 diabetes research and running a donation button on it as well for the same cause. Bassist Martina Nintzel has type 1 diabetes (you can sometimes see the glucose meter on her arm in videos) and this is not the first time she has used her burgeoning music career to promote awareness and fundraise for diabetes research. She's the dark-haired woman with a blue guitar in this video.

And Serena Belle has been around for a while doing covers. She mostly does TikToks/YouTube Shorts which means snippets of songs rather than full songs. She has a lovely voice which makes this kind of frustrating for me but all is forgiven today. She released her first full-length video of an original song and ape like much.

Not sure. I'm inclined to self-publish but if I had something I thought might go over, I could try publishers. (PS. This is Would You Ever? not This Or That😀)

WYE make a decision based purely on a dream or vision?

Stars must often sign autographs.