Moe Lane's Blog, page 683

08/15/21 Snippet, RESCUE.

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They say you can smell trouble on the wind, but I was too green to have the nose for it. Too green to ask why the crew kept watching the horizon, too. Or too full of myself: even I could tell there was a storm coming, out there on the Arabian Sea, and I thought me quite the sailor for feeling it ahead of time.

Ha. Any damned fool could have felt that bastard of a blow coming. It rolled in from the south, the black clouds reaching out above us to shoo away the sun, and with it came the howling rains. Smacked the ship like whips, they did, and from every direction. That storm tried to scour us from the water, and it came damn close to succeeding.

It almost scoured me. The Captain called “all hands on deck,” and when I saw where we had to go out into — that Hell of screaming spray and bastard waves, towering over the Paulie Girl — I almost pissed my pants. Or maybe I did. Five minutes out there on the deck, any piss would be sluiced away, and maybe us, too. The work had still to be done, so we did it. Oh, I had my line clipped to my belt, sure enough, and I always kept one hand for the task, and one hand for the ship. I was green and I was dumb, but I wasn’t stupid.

I was unlucky, though. A snapped cable: a single crate busting free and shredding its way down the deck; and a metal splinter as thick as my thumb, neatly slicing through my line and almost my belly. And almost me, lost to the sea.

The LOKI Honest Trailer.

I am, like, so behind on stuff.

Having had some time to digest it, I think I like LOKI the best of the Disney+ shows so far. Mostly because Tom Hiddleston loves playing this character more than any other MCU actor, with the possible exception of Chris Hemsworth. I’m definitely looking forward to the second season.

Moe Lane

PS: MOAR GATOR LOKI.

Patreon Microfiction: ‘Getting Used To It, The Other Side.’

100WS-Getting Used To It, The Other SideDownload

This is a companion piece to “Getting Used To It.” How fancy of me! Maybe I should write this out further…

‘Under Pressure.’

Under Pressure, Queen

Welp, back to normal-ish tomorrow.

School starts in a couple of weeks – one hopes – and things must be done before that. But I think I can skip the acetaminophen from here on out*. And in a few days, my wife might even let me pick up things! Bliss.

Moe Lane

*I dropped the opoids as soon as my pain tolerance would let me, of course. Never mind the worry it might be habit-forming: the gas I was getting ended up being worse than the ache. Or is that over-sharing? I might be over-sharing.

Book of the Week: To End In Fire (Crown of Slaves).

To End In Fire (Honor Harrington universe, in case you’re not familiar) is in pre-order, but that’s what E-ARCs are for and I don’t care who doesn’t like those. I love E-ARCs. I’ve always loved the idea of E-ARCs, and I cheerfully spend money on the concept.

It’s also nice that David Weber and Eric Flint are starting to wrap up this story. I buy ’em and I continue to buy them, but no sense in having it last forever, right?

I’m gonna try to start up everything again Sunday.

I’m feeling a good deal better, except for the soreness (and itching from where they shaved me in unusual places, not that you needed to know that). But there’s a bunch of low-key stuff going on otherwise and I should spend another day taking it easy. I have a good excuse, methinks.

Moe Lane

PS: I did rack up a few Good Parenting points tonight, I think. Discussing writing stuff with Eldest (he’s gotten into it lately), and I was struck with the happy thought that he and Youngest (who is himself pretty solidly into drawing*) could collaborate on a project or two, for the benefit of grandparents. The kids even seemed reasonably enthusiastic about the prospect! Now I just have to make sure it doesn’t crush their spirits.

I could stand for a drink.

Unfortunately, I shouldn’t have one for at least a few more days. Nobody said anything*, but it feels right to avoid booze until the gut’s a bit more healed. Just as well, really: I’m in a mood.

Moe Lane

*They’d undoubtedly tell me not to drink, but that’s because far too many medical practitioners are moon-faced assassins of joy.

Cast revealed for the live-action AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER…

…and, shockingly, they seem to have cast actors who look at least somewhat like the animated characters. Look, I don’t beat the representation drum overmuch, myself. But if you’re going to make a show that draws on Chinese/Japanese/Inuit/East Asian cultures as much as AVATAR did, the least you can do is not cast, you know, blonde people. I feel that this was a reasonable objection to make about the live-action movie. I am sympathetic to it.

Water. Fire. Air. Boomerang.

Introducing the first of the cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender. pic.twitter.com/XC7Zyk7rCF

— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) August 12, 2021

Gordon Cormier in particular looks like a really good casting choice for Aang, and Dallas Liu should make a good Zuko. Kiawentiio and Ian Ousley aren’t bad, mind you (they’ll look better when they get proper haircuts and costumes), but the other two stand out to me. Put me down as ‘cautiously optimistic.’ But only cautiously. So, so many things can still go wrong…

Ups and downs the last day, mostly ups…

…but not exclusively so. I should be more or less okay by the weekend; but I ain’t thirty anymore, either. But no major complications, which is the important thing. Glad I didn’t wait on this, though: going through recovery even two weeks from now would have totally sucked.