Welcome to Dunwich Abbey

Well, it's been a calendar month since I got the keys here. Still need to a bunch of organizing and unpacking still. Did come up with a name for the place, Dunwich Abbey. Why this ? Multiple reasons. The abbey part is from my binge reading of M.R. James and other Victorian/Edwardian supernatural authors. There always seems to be a haunted cathedral or abbey or such. Plus I'm more than a bit of a Britophile, have been since I was a kid. Dunwich (pronounced as Dun-witch or dun-nitch as the spirit moves you) is either H.P. Lovecraft's creepy town of Whateleys, or the village in Suffolk that's slowly disappearing into the sea. I'm not giving up on Innsmouth and her Dreams, but I felt like a change. Plus, thanks to Charlie Stross, among others, there's a link between Dunwich and Innsmouth. So fish people all around. So Lovecraft, M.R. James, odd Brit history... works for me. Oh yeah, and I managed to snag the dunwich.net domain name. No idea what I'm going to do with it yet.

So I got everything moved, got the computers setup. Bookshelves are loaded with books, mostly not in any kind of order. My study is the most setup room in the place, some art on the walls, my various Lovecraftian knick- knacks on display. Favorite books, or fancy books are shelved in here. Bedroom is spartan, but that's fine, I basically just sleep in there. Library is basically the dumping zone, slowly whittling down the clutter, hopefully soonish I'll be able to add some more bookcases (3 died in the move) and start sorting and organizing the library. Kitchen is also fairly cluttered, but that's easier to sort. Still, this is going to be long bit of organizing.

Getting used to driving around here. I'm still firing up the GPS more often than not, unless I'm going to work or the store. Internet is as good as the old place. Neighbors are quiet, mostly. I get weird looks, but that's alright. They get some weird looks back. Haven't had any guests over yet, partially it's the chaos, and partially it's my hermit habit. At some point I'll see about inviting people over. Have a shopping list of things I want to get for here, but that will take time. Need to get what I have sorted before I bring too much more stuff in here.

So welcome to Dunwich Abbey.

Moving update

I've been moved into the new place since Monday. Slowly unpacking and organizing. There's been some issues, some with me and some with the apartment. Specifically issues with the heating system. Which normally isn't a big deal, but it's actually cold in Texas. And while I can cope during the day, at night there's a fine line between "I'm comfy and cool" and "I'm cold and my legs hurt."

Took today off as well, original plan was to be back at work today. But between lousy sleep and stress, I extended my PTO one more day. Got a bit accomplished, a bunch of boxes unpacked and books shelved. One computer is up and running, I just haven't been in the mood to set everything else up, and I can't find a bunch of cables that are in a box 'somewhere'. Oh well, it will all get done, eventually.

I know moving is the good thing, and this will be a nice place. Just with all the change, and lack of sleep, I'm not doing my best.

The stars are setting on Château Innsmouth

As of yesterday I have the keys to my new apartment. I've moved some token books and art over there to claim it as 'mine'. Tomorrow Spectrum is moving my internets over to the new place. I'll move some more stuff, including clothes and some kitchen stuff, since I'll be splitting my time between the two places til Monday, when the movers move my stuff. This weekend I'll be moving my computer gear myself, along with some more Mythos stuff (some things I don't trust to movers). Sunday I'll be finishing up the packing/move prepping and staying the last night here. Monday they move my stuff, then I start putting things together. Tuesday is recovering, and probably driving back here and getting things left behind. Wednesday is back to work.

I'll be getting new bookcases, the number depends on how many of my old ones survive the move (some of them are old, others aren't terribly solid), and some other furniture and items depending on how the moving budget looks after well, moving. Then it's get my stuff out of boxes and in place, and make it into a home. We'll see how that goes.

I'll be mostly internet-less after tomorrow morning til either I get my rig set up, or until I fully move. I plan to do a bunch of reading when I'm not actively doing move related stuff. So wish me luck, hopefully my next post will be from my new location, nickname has yet to be determined. Laters cultists.

Welcome back to the roaring ’20s

Well, it's 2020. The holidays are done (at least the standard ones of US folks). It's been a rough time for me, I ended up with a really nasty sinus infection on Cthulhumas eve. I've mostly spent every day since in pain, and really screwed up mood wise. Really missing Jessi, in some ways losing her was harder than losing my Mom, she had a full life, and I had years to ready myself for when she passed. *sigh* I miss you sis, every damn day.

So I'm behind on packing, so after talking to my boss, I'll be take a couple extra days off, so I can work on packing. The living room is 80% done (that's where most of the books live), but the bedroom is a major project unto it's self. I need to throw all that stuff into boxes (or into trash), then I need to start going through the computer rig, figure out what I'm trashing, and what needs to be kept.

I'm not doing a 'decade in review', or even a year in review. I'm not up for that much introspection. 2019 was the year I hit peak (for now) Lovecraft with visits to both Necronomicon and the HPLFF. Got to meet a bunch of folks I've only talked to online. Reaffirmed that I love both Providence and Portland, even if I can't move there at the moment. I don't have much traveling in mind for 2020, most of my discretionary income is going to the move, but I will manage yet another trip to Portland for the film fest. It's the 25th one, so it's bound to be one for the history books. But besides that, my vacations will probably be 'staycations' putting the new place together.

New years resolutions. I usually do them on my spawning day, but I didn't this year. So I think I'll do a small set, Big thing will be 'survive move, and get new place put together, with some others related to health, and keeping track of my reading again. And with that, I'm calling this a post. I've been writing it most of the day in dribs and drabs. So here's to 2020. Please let it not suck so badly.

Welsh, closets, and fixing workstations

Well it's been a few days on the new meds, I see a difference, but that's probably the placebo effect of having done something. This is so far from my first rodeo, I even have the non-physiological foo mapped out. Work week was...goofy. Office moving around was a pain. Got a ping today that one of the dev boxes we hid in a network closet wasn't responding. So I drove up to the office to fix it. (I'd just finished the movie I was watching, so it worked out well. Needed some arguing, and some labeling and cable mishmashing. Came back home after that.

As I said today would have been Dad's 95th spawning day. So when I wasn't working on cleaning out the closet in prep for moving, or driving to work, I've been watching movies I remember watching with Dad. 'In the Name of the Rose', 'Hunt for Red October' and now, 1 Million Years B.C. (aka Raquel Welch in a fur bikini). It's been fun, not many sad thoughts. Didn't get as much moving labor done as I wanted, but I found multiple boxes of Mom stuff and that took some of the wind out of my sails. I decided to just keep it boxed up, move it to the new place, then I'll work on sorting through it. Or not.

Not much else, I don't think I've mentioned it, but I've been using DuoLingo the last 3 months to actually study Latin. I know a lot of words, but I have little to know idea on grammar or structure. Sadly, I can't say I'm much better at it, but it's fun to try. Today, kind of on a whim I fired up Welsh, since I keep running into Celts in my reading. A lot more material, since Welsh is a living language, and I'm better than listening/saying the basic words than I am at Latin. (seriously, I rather just read it). So we'll see. I don't think I'll ever be more than a how to ask nicely for the restroom, and sorry I don't speak $language, do you speak English ? But who knows, maybe something will click. And I'm having fun.

31 days til I get the keys to the new place. I need to get services moved over, and I need to figure out some other new place stuff. As well as finish packing/organizing. Holiday BS is pretty much being treated as just BS, I really ain't feeling it this year. Oh well, a little over two weeks and it's done. Then moving, then Cthulhu knows. Right now it's still day by day. Which is about all I can count on. Night all.

A week later… still a snot fountain

Well, still sick. Not shocking, bronchitis whacks me hard, and I end up coughing and feeling off for a long while afterwards. We'll see how it goes. Worked from home all week, been a frustrating work week. Apartment foo is setup, 59 days and change til I get the keys. Can't wait, even if I'm anxious about all the prep work I need to do.

I also had computer foo, but I didn't mention it last week. Dagon had been having overheating issues, and finally started randomly rebooting. So I made a hard cut over to Asenath, the new PC I've meant to use for months. Same basic OS and desktop, just instead of 16.04 it's 19.10, so a lot of new quirks to work out or find a better way of doing things. After a week or so, I've mostly got everything working the way I want, or worked around. I still have some changes to make.

Not much else, the holidays are coming up, and I'm really just not in the mood for either Turkey Massacre or Cthulhumas. I've been highly hermit-like, and it's hard to want to get out of the habit. I need to, just hard to want to. Might be easier if I stop feeling lousy and wanting to hack up my lungs.

Ok, going to call this a post. I've got Lovecraftian audiobooks, and apartment nicknames to ponder. *waves a tentacle*

All the news that’s fit to the squint

Well, good news and bad news. Bad news first, I have bronchitis. Felt kind of off yesterday, been coughing more than usual. So I decided last night that unless I felt loads better today, I'd go to the doctor. So I went to the doctor. Long visit, Saturdays are crazy, and the plague is in town. Came out with a load of 'scripts, and a referral to a cardiologist because when they did the chest x-ray to make sure I didn't have pneumonia, the radiologist didn't like the size of my heart. Guess I need to be more grinchy this holiday season. So hopefully I can shrug this off quickly.

So that's the bad news out of the way, so here's the good news. I found a new place. I've been looking for a couple of weeks, and I found a near perfect place. I'll move out of Château Innsmouth by Feb 1st, and into "Nickname to be determined later". Actually I take possession of the new place on Jan 15, so I'll probably take some PTO to move during the week, and get organized, and use the weekends to draft my local friends into helping me build bookcases. *grin*

Details, it's up by the new Carcosa Corp offices. It's a two bedroom, one bath 1st floor apartment, 900 square feet. The living area is one big room, so no one will be surprised when I line it with my bookcases (and new taller ones). The smaller bedroom will be a bedroom, the bigger one will be my study. Art, stuff on shelves, the computer horde, A cross between the Matrix and an Edwardian Occultist's lair. Nothing amazing with internet access, but it's the same company as I'm currently with, so it's the evil I know. Kitchen is big, but I'm not much of a cook so it will probably be mostly a place to store food and microwave it. Bathroom is also pretty basic, but that's ok. It will be really good to get out my current location, and build out a new lair according to a plan, vs the organic disorganization I currently live in.

So that's the big news for right now. Going to call it a post. Wish me luck getting healthy.

A Year of Lovecraft

It's definitely been a Lovecraftian year. Tons of new books, audio and art. Also the Cage/Stanley adaptation of 'The Colour Out of Space', and not 1 but 2 Lovecraftian conventions for me. Yep, I've decided to go to Portland for the HP Lovecraft Film Festival this year. I managed a decent costing flight, and a cheap hotel stay for a Thurs-Sunday visit. So I get to see my Innsmouth West pals, visit certain favorite bookstores, and get a second dose of Mythos Community. It shall be glorious.

Besides the Portland trip, the local film festival is doing a showing of Re-Animator as well, which I may attend. Plus there's my spawning day in a little over a month, which should count as pretty Lovecraftian. Plus, I have some friends who've mostly convinced me that I want to go camping in later October. (yes, you can start gasping in surprise now...) And while camping isn't what I'd call directly Lovecraftian, you all know I'll make it at least a little Mythos-y. Maybe I should go look for a Cthulhu flag or banner?

After that the year winds down into Cthulhumas, then 2020 starts with hopefully a nice upgrade to the cult lair/library. I'm kind of thinking I won't be doing much traveling next year. The move and furnishing upgrades I'm thinking will eat a good chuck of funds, as well as PTO. But we'll see, for all I know I'll swing a good bonus again and that will cover the move, but I'm not counting on it til it's in my hot little tentacles. And who knows what else may come up. I'm a nut for planning and plotting in advance, but other than moving I have to leave 2020 as a series of question marks, at least for now.

So that's my thoughts on the subject. As with everything, this is subject to change. For now, I'm trying to avoid the siren song of book hunting, and/or the urge to order in a carb heavy pizza or Chinese food. Two doctor visits this week, one for my diabetes/blood pressure meds, and one with my hematologist to discuss the quality of my blood. Should be fine, if a little stressful. Catch you all later.