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Birthday Spots
Dec. 3rd, 2024 10:00 am
It was Snepperboo's birthday yesterday! He's taken the whole week off work to just decompress after Thanksgiving, so he spent much of the time playing video games and petting Biscuit, our rabbit. The celebration was effectively a game-time decision, and he ultimately landed on an izakaya/sushi place nearby. Great cocktails, and their izakaya menu is definitely worth multiple visits to try everything. I had this salmon tartare dish with avocado, micro-greens, and this crispy rice brick that was just heavenly. The sake nigiri was so smooth and buttery, and they had even more decadent cuts of salmon available. The price was...quite high, but I'll definitely keep this place in mind for a celebration spot.
We came home to watch "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" in the evening. Solid horror flick with good atmosphere, though I'm not sure I'd call it actually scary. Dracula was a pretty impressive monster, but knowing that the crew is mostly/all doomed takes the air out of it a little. I think horror works best when there are still questions to be answered within the story, and this one played it a little too straight for that I guess. We know it's Dracula, and we know he survives to London, and we know the crew is doomed to either perish or become his servants. There's value in playing that out, but it becomes a different story at that point.
For Snepper's present, I finally bought him what he had been asking for -- a massage gun. I want to make sure I'm buying something quality, so I tried looking up review sites and got taken in by a Google ad that spoofed Consumer Reports well enough that I took it on faith without paying much attention. The order process was...sketchy enough for me to do a little digging, and that's where I discovered my mistake. According to their customer service, the order should be cancelled, so that's a relief.
Except it looks like I'm now the victim of credit card fraud. My issuer caught it pretty early so thankfully it won't be a big hassle or anything, but it also means I'll need to wait for my new card to be issued before I can make any other purchases. At least I can get my Christmas gift list in order before then, so I'm ready to go when the new card gets here.
This month I'd like to write and edit "Swiftie's Intergalactic" so that it's ready to go on the Patreon in January. I've been noodling around with it all year trying to find the "hook" of it, and what drew me to the original story all those years ago. I think it was the idea that this lonely fellow could have such an easy good time with several hot giants, all of whom seemed equally lonely in their own way. The largest giant, to me, felt lonely mostly because of his size -- there was this gentleness in their interactions and it gave the entire story this cozy yet bittersweet vibe. At the end of the night, you got the feeling they would go their separate ways and never see each other again. Yet the experience shifted something inside them that made facing their lonely paths a little easier. Like, ultimately space is full of people just seeking connection despite their differences.
I think that's the spirit I want for this story, the essence of it. Deimo, the main character, wants to connect with others but is just too frightened by the bewildering differences in alien physiology and culture. Maybe he's afraid of admitting that he's aroused by the much larger beings around him, or has no idea how to flirt without feeling like a weirdo. This is something I can definitely relate to, so it falls within 'writing what I know'.
The conflict becomes one of trust, then. Can you trust this stranger when they say they're into you and want sexytimes? Can you trust yourself not to blow up the situation by saying something wildly weird or inappropriate? Can you trust that you'll have a good time if you allow yourself to be vulnerable, open up to someone else? These are the things I honestly struggle with, so Deimo feels like a good avenue to explore that.
I think the story is about what happens when you open yourself up to new experiences and learn to accept the new discomforts they give you. I imagine Deimo working through social anxiety, poor self-esteem, and being physically overwhelmed to go after this thing he's always wanted; and while not all of it is the fantasy he imagined it being, it's still an experience worth having.
I'm hoping that once the story is done I'll have a better idea of where to go next for February's story. Maybe going back to the Br'er idea and writing a set of stories there might be the thing to do. It would be neat to make this world of sapient but non-verbal furries forced to deal with mysterious transformations and what-not.
Or maybe I could try my hand at a Lit RPG story; I've always wanted to try that.
Either way, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Finishing the short story first takes priority.
We came home to watch "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" in the evening. Solid horror flick with good atmosphere, though I'm not sure I'd call it actually scary. Dracula was a pretty impressive monster, but knowing that the crew is mostly/all doomed takes the air out of it a little. I think horror works best when there are still questions to be answered within the story, and this one played it a little too straight for that I guess. We know it's Dracula, and we know he survives to London, and we know the crew is doomed to either perish or become his servants. There's value in playing that out, but it becomes a different story at that point.
For Snepper's present, I finally bought him what he had been asking for -- a massage gun. I want to make sure I'm buying something quality, so I tried looking up review sites and got taken in by a Google ad that spoofed Consumer Reports well enough that I took it on faith without paying much attention. The order process was...sketchy enough for me to do a little digging, and that's where I discovered my mistake. According to their customer service, the order should be cancelled, so that's a relief.
Except it looks like I'm now the victim of credit card fraud. My issuer caught it pretty early so thankfully it won't be a big hassle or anything, but it also means I'll need to wait for my new card to be issued before I can make any other purchases. At least I can get my Christmas gift list in order before then, so I'm ready to go when the new card gets here.
This month I'd like to write and edit "Swiftie's Intergalactic" so that it's ready to go on the Patreon in January. I've been noodling around with it all year trying to find the "hook" of it, and what drew me to the original story all those years ago. I think it was the idea that this lonely fellow could have such an easy good time with several hot giants, all of whom seemed equally lonely in their own way. The largest giant, to me, felt lonely mostly because of his size -- there was this gentleness in their interactions and it gave the entire story this cozy yet bittersweet vibe. At the end of the night, you got the feeling they would go their separate ways and never see each other again. Yet the experience shifted something inside them that made facing their lonely paths a little easier. Like, ultimately space is full of people just seeking connection despite their differences.
I think that's the spirit I want for this story, the essence of it. Deimo, the main character, wants to connect with others but is just too frightened by the bewildering differences in alien physiology and culture. Maybe he's afraid of admitting that he's aroused by the much larger beings around him, or has no idea how to flirt without feeling like a weirdo. This is something I can definitely relate to, so it falls within 'writing what I know'.
The conflict becomes one of trust, then. Can you trust this stranger when they say they're into you and want sexytimes? Can you trust yourself not to blow up the situation by saying something wildly weird or inappropriate? Can you trust that you'll have a good time if you allow yourself to be vulnerable, open up to someone else? These are the things I honestly struggle with, so Deimo feels like a good avenue to explore that.
I think the story is about what happens when you open yourself up to new experiences and learn to accept the new discomforts they give you. I imagine Deimo working through social anxiety, poor self-esteem, and being physically overwhelmed to go after this thing he's always wanted; and while not all of it is the fantasy he imagined it being, it's still an experience worth having.
I'm hoping that once the story is done I'll have a better idea of where to go next for February's story. Maybe going back to the Br'er idea and writing a set of stories there might be the thing to do. It would be neat to make this world of sapient but non-verbal furries forced to deal with mysterious transformations and what-not.
Or maybe I could try my hand at a Lit RPG story; I've always wanted to try that.
Either way, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Finishing the short story first takes priority.
