Curio City

Here you'll find the flotsam and jetsam from the collisions between my interests and the Internet, a bit of cosmic debris, and the small, crunchy bits that collect in the gutters of my mind.

[mkhall]

Nestled in the Comforting Bosom of My Stuff

Nestled in the Comforting Bosom of My Stuff

I was discharged yesterday and released to my own devices. Aside from the 97-page Discharge Summary list, of course. The surgeon came by, said that everything looks great, and removed the drainage tube. All that remains now is tomorrow’s final consultation with the surgeon, wherein he will remove the 15 black metal staples from my neck and end this sojourn. Anyone want to see my gruesome state of…

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[mkhall]

Lost Time Warp (Again)

Lost Time Warp (Again)

On Tuesday at approximately 9am I entered the pre-op suite at the hospital. We made sure that all the paperwork was in order, and then I was introduced to the anesthesiologist. They asked me if I’d ever been under total before, and I reminded him that almost exactly a year ago I was having my cardiac ablation.

(Note to self: Adventist Hospital is a fantastic place with great staff and service…

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[mkhall]

Our Story So Far

Our Story So Far

[This combines a couple of bits posted elsewhere, so it’s a bit long. If it triggers your tl;dr reflex, just don’t read it.]

I’ve debated with myself quite a bit about posting this. Contrary to the opinions of some, I am not a huge fan of carrying on about the sordid details of my life as if they were actually important. That said, I have been reliably informed that this actually does qualify…

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[mkhall]

Unresolved

I don’t start cooking something and then walk away from it, leaving the meal to fester and rot on the stove. For a similar reason, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions.

That said, in no particular order, here are some things I hope to accomplish in 2017*.

Eliminate 20-25% of my possessions, mainly books and comics and old electronics.

Rid my house of the current plague of gnats which is making it…

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[mkhall]

Holiday Spirit

It was the end of December, and something was missing. I wasn’t the only one who’d felt the absence. Several friends had mentioned the lack of that special December-y soamething in the air. I’d initially chalked it up to the lousy economy, but even the people I knew who still had money noticed it. The jaunty sleigh-bell tunes were tinny, the sonorous hymns flat, the winter wonderlands dismal and…

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[mkhall]

Why (Still) Hallowe'en?

Why (Still) Hallowe’en?

Hallowe’en is my most important holiday. I am not a pagan, born-again or otherwise, although I have nothing against members of those ancient and venerable (or new-age and invented) orders. However, my sentiment has nothing to do with any religion, organized or not, so we can safely leave those discussions out of this particular story. No, my love of All Hallows Eve is a little more personal. When…

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[mkhall]

Ghosts

​Sometimes I go to sleep too early, and with too much on my mind. Then 3am comes, and I wake with unquiet ghosts clustering around the room.

They stare at me, wordless accusations in their hollow eyes and terrible grimaces. Did you make the right choices, they ask? Have you done all you can? Are you leaving the world better than you found it? 

A freight train moans through the distance; a car’s…

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[mkhall]

Opportunities

I’ve had a housefly problem this year. I’m not sure why — the leading theories at the moment are (1) an adventurous rat traveled from the outdoor trash cans where they nest and into the walls of my house, whereupon he expired, (possibly due to a poor navigational sense similar to my own); (2) some unknown animal crawled into/flew down my only partially-sealed chimney, whereupon it expired; or (3)…

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[mkhall]

bang

Last week an apartment building near my house exploded. I was still awake when it happened — a frighteningly solid thump around midnight, as though a car rammed into a brick wall. I got up and stumbled around the house, looking to see what the cats had knocked over this time, but other than looking around with some confusion (not at all uncommon), they were placid. I looked out back, and to the…

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[mkhall]

Talking to Girls

This weekend I read the comics adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Locus award-winning short story, How to Talk to Girls at Parties. The gorgeous watercolor illustrations are by the genius Brazilian brothers, Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, and are simply breathtaking.

It’s been one of my favorite Gaiman stories since I first read it back ten years ago – weird, dreamlike, lyrical, and yet grounded in the…

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[mkhall]

Reboot

From the rubble of my various sites, it appears that I have managed to get Today running again. Let’s see how long it lasts.

Here in the American Capitol we’re experiencing a dangerous heat wave. While today’s temperatures are only projected to be in the mid to upper 90s, the absurdly high humidity puts the heat index at about 110° F. This is, of course, the weekend I had planned on a lot of…

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[heartsnmagic]

[veganlove]

[dizzyotter]

when i first saw this i thought the kittens were the lawyers

[mkhall]

I don't know that I'd trust a cat lawyer.

[mklopez]

Hope this doesnt happen at #FLSupercon

[prepgoth]

ideal body type for myself: corpse

[mkhall]

GPOY

[wilwheaton]

Hypothetically, what would you do if you lived in a swing state, and you desperately don't want to vote for Hillary, but also definitely don't want a Trump presidency?

In that case, I look at the consequences of each outcome, and I vote against the one that I believe is worse.

In that case, I look at Clinton as slightly regressive but mostly status quo, and I look at Trump as an absolute catastrophe at every level. 

In this hypothetical case, I would vote for Clinton, because I want the swing state to NOT go to Trump. 

Non-hypothetically: while I’m not enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton as president, I know that my real choice will be between her and Trump. In that case, I not only want Trump to lose, I want him to lose in an historic, humiliating, record-breaking landslide, and I want him to take as much of the Republican party down with him as possible.

[tanaella]

Well done!

[neil-gaiman]

Henry Selick just sent me this…