L.J. McLean's Blog
May 18, 2024
New Snippet Story
Hey, folks.
This is just a quick post to say that I published a new Mana Pool Snippets story over at my Royal Road profile.
I haven’t had the chance to announce it here while life got hectic after posting it.
There are a lot of things I want to elaborate behind the scenes. The space station and the characters have been in the planning stages for a long time, almost as long as Ghost Factor’s initial planning over twelve years ago (good god). Maybe make a blog post just in my process or the setting/characters.
Anyway, go read it. Let me know what you think.
Later.
April 9, 2024
I Moved In, Now What?
I’m still here.
Three months it’s taken–or a little more too–to feel somewhat calmed down from the last three months last year to move into the condo. Content that I have a roof over my head, I had to spend time to get the low of the land. It is at this time, the bookshelves are put together and all my books are not in storage boxes anymore.
Rainstorms came and passed, the most rain I’ve seen since I left California, even a rare moment of having hale, actual hale, pelt against my roof and flattening the clover ground cover in the patch of dirt on my patio.
I’ve settled on three coffee shops I can escape to for reading and/or writing.
Signed up for a gym membership, but I need to change it since I couldn’t get away from the news channels (the unsavory kind).
Grocery shopping is plentiful. I can get to two Trader Joe’s and five grocery stores, including an Asian market for ingredients most don’t have.
I marked several campsites to overnight camp at in the future. Two of them are just south of Palomar Observatory, an installation I unfortunately didn’t know about until I browsed Google Maps one day. Sometime in May, I’ll do one night. Not sure about the next few months.
Roosters crow every morning in the neighborhood. I’m sure someone has a chicken coop in the backyard somewhere for fresh eggs.
It took me about two weeks to finally feel comfortable cooking in the condo. I made sourdough bread two weeks ago and am about to make another loaf this week.
I joined a local writer and illustrator group meeting once a month and even signed up to volunteer for them. This marks the first time being part of a real writing community since I abandoned DeviantART and Nanowrimo’s recent controversies.
I’ve visited two yoga studios out of five on my list, deciding where to go for the rest of my time while lining up with my schedule well.
That is just a sliver of me settling down.
Granted that the driving time is something to deal with. Where I am I’m 20 minutes away from my third place. I still haven’t driven around the lake, drive through Main Street or downtown near the minor league baseball stadium, or the Mexican grocery stores (I know I’ll go nuts shopping there). It’s one of those growing pains that still needs time to settle in me.
So here’s the state of my writing.
Right now I’m redline editing a new Snipped story. Don’t tell me how long it’s been. A small note: this idea was brewing during Ghost Factor’s inception. Ten years ago really. I now have a direction for it. If time and patience are on my side I’ll have it on Royal Road by April 20th. But this is a good distraction from my slow progress on Ghost Factor’s next chapter.
But besides the writing, slowly finding my groove again after so long in survival mode paying rent, this question came up in the back of my mind: what now? What comes next?
Over the years, there were dreams and goals outside of writing. Yes, finishing that darn book is one of them, but what else to do, to learn? There were times I’d just feel petrified about what to do. To better explain it, it’s like watching the roulette wheel, and you have one chip signifying your next chapter. You make a bet/choose your next path. The ball is a massive chance to not fall on your chosen path, meaning it’s a failure. The worst part is I imagine the beginning, the end, and the multitude of failures within several minutes of thinking about it.
Like playing chess with high stakes.
This is what’s in my mind right now. Don’t ask me to explain it, it’s hard for me to say it anyway. Reading through The 4-Hour Workweek is answering some of these questions.
But right now. I have a story to write and publish next weekend.
January 27, 2024
Life Update
I’m still here. I’m finally mentally capable of publishing this post after what felt like a year of stress scrunched down to four months.
The last time I spoke, I mentioned REDACTED. Well, pretty much time to get it out of me.
No, it’s not writing or Ghost Factor related. Hence the stress.
I got a condo.
I have moved back to California!
Originally I wanted to find a solid home back in my birth state—familiar grounds—ever since I was pushed out to Nevada two years ago. Had to wait out the crazy housing market atmosphere first. Of course, I wrote and published Ghost Factor chapters, but still had this aching feeling to be in a place I know too well. I deeply missed green hills, tall trees and frickin’ campgrounds. Making new friends outside the usual haunts (wine bar, coffee shop, cafe, speakeasy bar, yoga studio) was difficult for me. Grateful for the friends I did make and the experience gained, but still, straight desert life isn’t for me, especially those four months when you’re in 100+F degree hell.
So late spring, along with my mom’s help, we looked.
By late summer we selected the top condos in SoCal, the cheapest and closest I could get to family. To be honest, it was a small pool to work with. Not to mention my limited needs: a garage, a patio, and a bathtub (number one priority). Didn’t matter how many bedrooms or whether or not it had a fireplace.
We had an agent who’s also a family friend of ours. She got married at the B&B when I was just in first grade. And she knew her stuff.
At that time, not much on sale was in my price range. Any more, say 100k, would put me closer to the Pacific coast, like an hour by car. So it came down to Lake Elsinore. Literally 30 minutes from Temecula, CA on a good traffic day.
I don’t want to share details of the first two. The third choice was instant.
How the whole house-buying process was all new and fascinating to me. My brain just gobbled up all the interesting legalese. Doc signage was all done digitally. Everything was smooth… except the waiting part.
And boy oh boy, was waiting the emphasis of my stress.
From the sale, the closing, to dropping myself in the bathtub day one soaking for three hours internally crying the stress out, it took three months to move in while dealing with the lowest and poor communication from the seller I have ever experienced. I’m not comfortable talking about the seller on this platform, but geez, I was snippy. Like ready to punch something snippy. In between moving out of Las Vegas, placing my stuff in the storage unit, and sticking with a great family friend during the holidays, my mind was awol. No time or mental capacity to be present to celebrate the holidays with family. No amount of hot yoga pulled me from the funk. Taking a weekend trip to Avalon took a slight edge off. Not even feeling grateful and say, “Holy shit. I have a house. I have a home. No more rent or kitchen sharing.”
My brain was stuck in limbo and the only thing it said was “I’M NOT IN MY HOME!!!”
Well, I did earn my ham radio technician license to fill some gaps. But still…
And the worst part was I couldn’t speed up the process. Even legally. I was at the mercy of time and patience while my mind screamed that and generated the most nauseating worst-case scenarios that could fill a horror movie’s script vault or something last for five years.
So yeah… lesson learned. Hard.
And then I moved in. Chaotic was the word. I had to do it within two days with help from family and friends. Amongst new furniture deliveries, my job, adjusting back to paying separate house bills, and just one week of consistent nightly bathtub soaks to drain out the pent-up stress, like I said, long enough to blog something of my life.
Ten years, living away from my childhood home, in this “nomad” kind of existence, to finally settling. No. More. Renting.
Right now, as I handwrite this post first before transcribing, the condo is quiet. The furniture is in its place (except the bookshelf, coat rack, and TV unit; need to fill cash bins). Internet is unlimited. I’m close to Temecula for wine and book research. And no roommates.
I am now content.
Thank you, Mom. Deeply. Thank you.
Now back to writing and upgrading my career.
October 18, 2023
I’m Still Here
So yeah. Again. A long time absent from this blog. Literally three months since.
I know. My time away from updating this blog with my life or small writing progress annoys me as much as you, but I got to share something anyway.
Like a bear going into hibernation, I did the same when it was the summer in the Nevada desert. Continue working from home while hugging the A/C, then only spending a minute outside between building a car and vice versa, drive to places with stronger A/C such as coffee shops, necessary stores, and the gym. Just guess the electric bill. And the high level of cabin fever I dealt with.
I did manage to publish Ghost Factor’s Chapter 8 amongst the high amount of mind work for my day job. One scene was left out. That wasn’t ready until a few weeks later. You can check the updated chapter here.
Once the monsoon storms and Hurricane Hillary rolled in a cooled down the desert (a bit), I flew to Seattle for a weekend. Did things a little differently than eating well at Pike’s Place Market. I took the ferry to Bainbridge Island to soak in the green trees and the small coastal town. It gave me strong hope to one day live up there. Then by fate when booking my flight and hostel, the Northwest Tea Festival was happening that same weekend. After visiting MoPop for the Hidden Worlds exhibit by Laika Studios, I went and felt shocked there are tea nerds in this world. I got a new travel tea set, an assortment of free and paid tea, including this well-known cinnamon black tea from a shop tucked inside Pike’s Place, and witnessed a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
After that, I got home to rest for a few days before packing up again to drive back and stayed at Mom’s place in Orange County for the last two weeks. One reason was to catch up with her while she was in Alaska for the tourist season. And the second reason was… well…
I can’t say.
I literally can’t say anything about REDACTED without jinxing it. It’s not related to writing, but it will benefit me in the long run. It’s the waiting game that’s aggravating me.
That’s all I have for now. I need to rest from all the traveling and get my usual schedule back in order.
Later.
July 15, 2023
Life After Vacation
Hello, all.
So it’s been about four weeks since I got back from vacation. Ten days on the Pacific Ocean with no land in sight. Just me, the cruise ship, clouds, and deep, blue ocean waters. Five days on land with four days at each Hawaii port: Hilo, Honolulu, Lahaina, and Nawilliwilli, with a stop in Ensenada before embarking at Los Angeles.
No wifi. No social media.
Refreshing.
God, I needed that.
Oh, and I’m now 36. Happy birthday to me.
Being on that ship, familiar routines kicked in. Get up, have three meals a day (two when I felt like not wanting to eat a meal to rest my gut), she the evening show with Mom, be in the gym almost every morning. Meet new people. I think this is the 18th cruise in my life. There were times it was almost ruined, like on the third day, rolling my right ankle on the stairs while wearing new flip-flops. Didn’t break bones but the muscle sprain was a bitch to deal with. Thank goodness it didn’t cripple my foot entirely.
Wait. Back that up. I had no internet connection on the ship (too expensive), but whenever the ship docked, cell service was there. Had to keep track of some financials and see how the WGA strike was progressing, which was nowhere (I’ll have to talk about that eventually). And… yeah. Had to check social media, but briefly. Really briefly. There were more interesting things to do besides doom-scrolling the day away.
After the cruise, and a couple weeks dealing with post-travel depression, stuff is happening. Like diving into Python programming again. And writing.
Hope you read the latest chapter of The Ghost Factor. A long time coming for this particular chapter. A never-ending movie in my head, finally on paper. Or text editor.
But it’s one scene short. I didn’t have much time to write it with the first two done. The draft is written. Just need to rewrite it to the level I’m happy with.
Now, lately, I’ve been looking into website options. Changing WordPress themes, or just managing it, is beginning to make me tired of it. I’ve recently looked into Substack as an option, created one just to park my name there. Nothing at all… yet. Or not. I don’t know. Within me, I want to simplify things. But that can lead to losing current followers, rebuild it.
There’s also the paid subscriber side. Patreon is already my tip jar these days. $1 is a start, but it just irks me that $5 a month is the minimum for Substack—paid content only—that I don’t post enough to justify the price. An annoying trade-off, even for an amateur like me, can’t seem to get past the negative and see the positive. Not to mention the heat Substack got in recent weeks, stuff I don’t want to link to or feel comfortable discussing. And how infrequent I submit writing.
Who else thinks Substack for writers is the way to go these days?
Anyway, back to writing fiction. This weekend is going to be the hottest to date. Hugging the A/C anywhere I go is high on my list for mental comfort.
Later.
July 7, 2023
Mana Pool – The Ghost Factor – Chapter 8 Now Available
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/49638/mana-pool-the-ghost-factor/chapter/1270185/chapter-8
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May 28, 2023
Catch Up and Vacation
Notice the new website theme? That was a recent change. Spring cleaning, sort of. Since the new WordPress full-website editing aesthetic is in full force, my old Karma theme I thought about going back to is unavailable. Took me a couple of hours to find a theme that doesn’t put the Featured Image in an awkward position on the full post page.
Still, I’ll have to find time to modify the theme to my liking.
So, what have I done since my last post last February? A bit actually, mostly just living and not panicking most of the time.
I hiked in the desert finally. A Meetup group I frequent had one set for the Railroad Trail near Hoover Dam, starting from the Hoover Dam Lodge to the government checkpoint before entering the protected national park. Three different tunnels, two stories from my estimation, when steam trains pass through to carry supplies and workers to Hoover Dam. Now it’s a footpath with great views of Lake Mead.
Last March, I traveled back to Orange County to see Mom. She just finished volunteering at the Iditarod gift shop but had to stay past her birthday before coming home. It was both family time and running some errands, like seeing a doctor for my physical and blood work. Just recently, the boss from the Iditarod gig (the same one where Mom was in Skagway for the Alaska tourist season last year) offered her a job to work on one of three Princess cruise ships selling homemade artwork and jewelry sailing the southern Alaska cruise routes.
Plus after the doctor’s appointment, I finally donated blood for the first time in nearly a year. I still don’t trust Nevada’s state of health care, let alone the Red Cross stations. Still used to familiar places I trust.
I started going to the gym, literally every weekday after clocking out from my remote day job. I’m not there to gain muscle, not by a long shot. Mostly walking for 45 minutes on the treadmill, do a one-lap cool-off on the indoor walking/running track, and soaking my legs in the hot tub. It ain’t worth walking outside when the summer temps are slowly rising. I’m not touching the weight machines or free weights at all. Strength is not my goal. It’s to slowly remove this weight I’ve been holding on to since I was eight years old. And progress is showing. I made a personal goal to be healthy enough to go on a backpacking trip next year in Colorado.
Plus the people lifting at the gym intimidate me.
And before all that I switched back to iPhone. I’m now fully integrated with the iOS ecosystem for the better. Plus got an Apple Watch just for the fitness tracking stuff.
So yeah, that’s pretty much all that’s happened recently.
As I said, I’m doing more to stay mentally in the present while being aware of the bad habits and patterns still corroding my life. Still not much writing-wise. I think with everything happening, with the day job, the gym visits, the upcoming vacation prep for my day job, and what little personal time I have between the gym and bedtime, I think my fiction writing average is down to 10 words per day.
Not enough to get something worthwhile to publish. Seriously, my brain and mental space is so backed up with everything and pulverized to oatmeal, writing Mana Pool stories is the last thing to think about.
So, here’s the thing. Starting June 1, I’ll be on a cruise ship heading to Hawaii and back for two weeks. This will be the longest vacation in my life (three weeks counting Memorial Day weekend), the first cruise I’ve been on in over a decade, and the first trip to Hawaii since my teens. And no internet, social media, or YouTube binging. My phone and laptop will be on airplane mode the entire time. I’m quite nervous about it; my brain is thinking of so many life-threatening scenarios that visiting the gym regularly helps silence them. Stupid consistent FOMO.
Anyway, the desert weather is getting hotter.
Talk to you later.
February 14, 2023
My Keyboard Journey
Figured much that from all the doom and gloom of my life, I decided to write something fun this time. So, let’s talk about keyboards.
Mana Pool was written on an Apple Keyboard (before it became the Magic Keyboard, but still with a cord), my 2008 MacBook nicknamed The Heat Sink until I upgraded, and an old full-size Logitech keyboard used on my old iMac (the first one, in blue). Afterward, I stuck with the Apple Keyboard through college and after moving to Tustin.
More keyboards came through my life, including my bad luck and family deaths. With my day job, I moved to a Logitech solar keyboard I liked and bought a used one. It was a bridge between my Mac and my Gaming PC/Hackintosh/Linux test bed. And then later down the line, I discovered mechanical keyboards, an anxiety-inducing rabbit hole leading to an identity crisis as a writer. What a mouth full.
I got one from Corsair, I think, with Cherry MX blue switches. Can’t remember the name. In truth, I hated that switch. It hurt my fingers, but also too… dang… loud. No amount of o-rings under the keys could dampen the sound. I swapped that for a hybrid mechanical-membrane keyboard, the Razer Ornata. I liked it was low-profile, but the switches were not working out. Pretty much decided I dislike loud, clicky switches reverberating through my finger joints.
Next was going straight to linear switches with a Corsair K63, before it went wireless. Red backlight and Cherry MX Red switches. The typing speed was fast. It had this pinging sound when I bottomed out, too much air in the metal chassis, so using o-rings did some help. What I grew to dislike was the keycaps being too thick, the travel distance to press a key being too long, and the keyboard’s cable getting in the way when I want to move the keyboard to the side to write on the laptop sometimes.
The Corsair keyboard and the solar keyboard swapped places for a few years. I added the Logitech K38 Keyboard to write on the iPad. So from 2019 to last year, that’s three keyboards in my possession.
I added on the Corsair K65 RGB mini keyboard when living in Lake Forest for a year, this time with Cherry MX Speed switches. I loved how smooth they were, and quiet, I still had to use o-rings, and then later add a silicone layer in the body for more silence. I liked I can unplug the cable from it. But it was tall. Had to use a wrist rest for that one.
I once tried a Logitech MX Keys keyboard, the big one, for a week, but I returned it to MicroCenter thinking, This is a pandemic. What am I thinking?
So before the move to Nevada, we have the Logitech Solar Keyboard, the Logitech K38 Keyboard for the iPad, and the Corsair K65. Yeah. Talk about indecisiveness.
Moving to Nevada, I saved a little more and bought the MX Keys Mini to replace the Bluetooth one. I just like how solid it was compared to the big one. The other two are still with me.
So why this journey? Why keep searching for the “right” keyboard? This is all part of this perfectionist journey to nail down my writing setup. Having fits with my chair placement, my desk height, writing on the floor with a coffee table, or just the laptop on top of a Lapdesk while in bed. My arm placement. Upper back pain if I don’t crack it at some point. Just continuously looking for that right writing setup to not feel uncomfortable all the time when home. Just sucks having a high awareness of everything. With all the stuff happening around me and in my head, I had to find comfort from the pain. A good keyboard is one of them. And don’t get me started with handwriting and writing stories longhand. That’s a separate can of worms to deal with.
So here I was, in Nevada, and with a recent tax refund from California, I put in an order for another mechanical keyboard. And I believe I found the right one: the NuPhy Air75 with Cherry MX Brown switches.
I had this for a week now, both using it for my day job and writing. This keyboard has been on my wishlist for a year, and there were times when I had serious doubts this will not fulfill my needs. A lot of them. There came a time when I say, fuck it, I can return it to Amazon if I don’t like it for a week.
Got the one with low-profile Gateron brown switches. Had to be sure that this switch was for me from a bunch of Reddit posts. I like how strong the spring is, the low profile, and the short travel distance with the keycaps attached. It’s like a membrane keyboard but not.
I can use a single USB-C cable to my USB hub, or go wireless with up to four devices. It came with a radio dongle, but I don’t feel like using it right now.
I can turn off all the RGB lighting. It just feels like a gimmick to me. If there’s a need in the future, I’ll turn them back on.
The best part is the switches are hot-swappable. If a switch fails, I can buy a set for cheap and swap it out with the tool it came with. Or replace all the switches if I want to.
I’ve yet to use o-rings, but the travel distance is growing on me. Somehow I’m not having a problem with the sound when I bottom out.
It came with removable tilt feet. I have them on most of the time. The tilt height is not much. It’s a preference thing.
Last, and I just found this out, I can plug this into my iPad. The iPad recognizes it. I’ve read before I needed Apple’s splitter or something similar from Amazon. No. Just one cable from the keyboard to iPad and I can type as normal. Just not with a mouse. That means I can put away the Logitech K38 Keyboard and stick with this when traveling. That is when I’m in a quiet room. I’d be annoyed if I whip out the NuPhy at a coffee shop and get some annoyed glances my way.
So now, it’s down to the NuPhy keyboard and MX Keys Mini. The rest are to be donated soon. Sure hope this will be the end of my search.
January 8, 2023
Ending 2022
Do different things.
The simplest New Year’s resolution I could come up with for as long as I could remember. Last year was a life changer. Up until the holidays, it felt like it was the day after the move. Some insidious Groundhog Day in my subconscious. Visceral. A constant tick on my neck. It never went away, no matter how many times I meditated or practice yoga, or crank the music up to dislodge the constant worry from the outside world. It never settled for a few months.
Cabin fever went up several notches for the second half of the year. I found ways to manage it. Talking about them will take some time to share.
For Thanksgiving one weekend, then a company Christmas party and a broadway show with Mom another weekend, I drove from my new home to my Mom’s place in Seal Beach. In the dark. Driving through southern Nevada and California desert has a different feeling than daytime driving. The landscape was pitch black with no moon in the starry sky. Only the car head- and taillights on the highway lit the way. Towns and rest stops turn into havens in the darkness. It takes about four and a half hours to travel on average. For any stops at rest stops, gas stations, roadside attractions, major cities, or sudden road work, the arrival time varied. If I leave home right at 3:10PM. Arrival time is between 7 to 9 at night. Best to bring music, podcasts, people, or a radio station.
After all the traveling, I got sick. A royally bad sinus flu overcame me two days after coming home. I turned into a mouth breather for two weeks. The number of tissues in my waste basket was horrible, yet somewhat impressive in a weird way.
Then my Mom came to visit.
This was pre-planned she’d spend Christmas weekend with me. We stayed off the strip at The Orleans. And this was new territory for both of us. Our family never traveled on Christmas to major destinations, let alone go anywhere with huge crowds during the holidays. We adapted quickly by going to old restaurant haunts, showed her places I frequented, watched Blue Man Group at Luxor, slept a lot, and discussed some stuff.
The annoying bit was before I picked her up at the airport, I discovered I had a pack rat attack. The little bugger chewed through one of my ignition cables and attempted to work on another one while packing around them with furniture foam from somewhere I do not know. Luckily the EV motor wasn’t affected and I drove it to the dealer to repair the damage. $700 out of pocket. I didn’t let it bother me since I had savings AND rented a Camry for a night.
With all the craziness of that plus the whole year for both of us, I appreciated having Mom with me.
So here’s what I’ll have to say about 2023: yes, do different things, but stability is number one. Starting with my living situation. I need a permanent place to live. A true home base. Wood fireplace, balcony/patio, garage, and a big bathtub. Oh, and cable or fiber internet. But prices and interest rates are still high. Some say it might be in the middle of summer or late in the year for prices and/or rates to finally balance to affordable levels. I wish that to happen.
Ain’t gonna let another living situation-related panic attack happen to me ever again. Ever.
So, big goals this year, among other long-standing goals after this decade of depression. Hopefully, find a woman to be with me. Who knows, but I’ll make an effort.
November 12, 2022
Screw Cabin Fever
Hello, all.
So uh… it’s been a while, hasn’t it?
I will say this: living in a desert-only community than a coastal/desert community is a big difference. One I had to adjust to very slowly.
Since I last spoke, the heat became bearable, but I became an A/C hermit for the rest of the summer. Yoga and meditation kept my sanity in check. I pushed out chapters, but the lifestyle change held my writer’s block high.
I spent like ten to fifteen minutes a day in 100 to 110F heat (high 80s or low 90s during the night) just for going from house to car, car to grocery store or drive-thru, car to the coffee shop or cafe, and car to yoga studio. Any movement I made while the A/C stayed at 78F made me sweat. The summer months are also the monsoon months here. There will be like a day or two of rain and thunderstorms, which I loved, and enjoyed the ten-degree drop and moisture and lightning in the distance, but was aware of the floods. It’s all bare bedrock here so water doesn’t soak into the ground. All of it turns into raging rivers in certain places, which flood channels around the valley to control and collect the water.
It’s also known that Lake Mead’s water level is dropping. That’s worrisome for me when I visualize mass migrations when the Colorado River fully dries up and puts six states in jeopardy. Las Vegas has the most advanced water retention programs in the U.S., but I still have deep seeded doubts. I lived in Big Bear. Seeing the lake dry up isn’t easy to forget.
Not visiting the Las Vegas Strip a lot is okay with me. I think I did three or four drives just to see what’s changed, which is not much from my usual haunts. The Pinball Hall of Fame moved next to the airport and the Las Vegas sign. A rooftop brewery is opening across the Park MGM. A lot of concrete guard rails on the sidewalks. One or two new hotels I don’t see myself visiting. How much they charge parking, especially for Nevada residents, still turns me off from walking from Mandalay Bay to the Wynn in the cold after New Years. Plus years living in the hospitality business made me…spoiled, but not in a splurge kind. Just an “I’ve seen it” kind of spoiled.
With that, I picked my usual haunts. I visit Boulder City every weekend or a day off early morning to sit and read or write at a coffee shop/bookstore, then later have breakfast at a famous cafe down the street. I visit one coffee shop in Henderson occasionally, filled with nerd memorabilia. I’m a Trader Joe’s fan now, going for some groceries and during my lunch break. I sometimes visit The Writer’s Block bookstore in North Las Vegas (I never EVER visit North Las Vegas unless it’s something very important.) I visit three restaurants every week, for having a margarita or a hearty breakfast. Seriously, I think I drank more margaritas here than ever before moving here. I found a great yoga studio ten minutes from the house, but it’s still shocking that most studios here offer hot yoga. During the summer. [image error]
Now, what I was very psyched about was the weather change. Heavy winds happened in late October and all that heat just disappeared in two days. Thirty to forty-degree drop. People were telling me to understand the change, but really, I know what 40 and 50F temps felt like. I’ve visited Alaska and grew up in mountain winters. I’m built for cold weather.
Mt. Charleston and Zion National Park are the closest camping places to visit, but I’ve yet to pick and weekend for that, not to mention go out for a hike. I’ve noticed the mountain just got snow.
I have more stuff to say but I’ll save that when I can share it.
As for writing, yeah, writer’s block is still high. Haven’t written much since I’ve been so busy with work. One thing after another to keep tabs on. And YouTube and social media getting worse. Twitter’s umpteenth midlife crisis and DA’s art AI screw-up is make me develop more trust issues. Just started poking around and reviewing Mastodon but haven’t pulled the trigger to use it. I’ll have to talk about that in the future. Not sure when, though.
Later.
