The Corner of Madness

Writerly Ways

cornerofmadness — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 03:45:23 GMT

I'm feeling pretty awful (stomach) but I think I can bang out the silliest little writerly ways. I'm calling it naming shit is hard.

I need to edit that mermaid story and naming everything in it from a completely alien point of view but still need to make sure the reader knows its a dolphin, a whale etc. I almost hated that story by the end.

I just finished two stories in the past 2 weeks, the mermaid and a ghost story. Neither have titles. Why? Say it with me, naming shit is hard.

In Ezio's story I don't change most names but then I'm thinking would they really call it vaudeville? What would I call it if I change it? If I did call it something new, would the readers know it's vaudeville?

Also half my stories have character names and place names that are just XXX placeholders. Why? Say it with me. Naming shit is hard.

Do you find naming things hard? If so, how do you get around it?

Open Calls

Brink Literary Magazine Theme: Invitation
Genre: Hybrid Writing / Cross-Genre / Literary Fiction / Nonfiction / Poetry / Translation

Space and Time Issue 154. Theme: Prepare to Advance
Genre: Speculative Fiction / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror / Weird Fiction

Horrific Scribes Submissions Challenge Theme: Liminal Spaces
Genre: Horror

Exquisite Engines. Theme: Steampunk
Genre: Steampunk / Speculative Fiction

The Submission Pit June 2026 Window Theme: Open speculative fiction
Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in June 2026

Thin Places: Now Seeking Submissions

30 Magazines Publishing Hybrid Writing

From Around the web

Six Reasons I Ask Questions As an Editor I've found point 3 to be important

One Way to Tell If a Publisher Actually Has Distribution

Jewish Demons: The Annoying, the Bad, and the Devilishly Adorable

Cutting Unnecessary Words in Fiction

Point of View Is a Contract with Your Readers

From Betty

Understanding Conflict & Tension

Creating Rites of Passage

Crafting a Winning Title

Seven Ways to Create Rifts Between Close Characters

How to Create a Character That Represents a Group

7 Ways to Make Readers Believe the Improbable in Fiction

Three Ways to Lose a Romance Reader

Want a Twist Readers Will Love? Make Your Protagonist Wrong.

90 Or So Things I Did In a Year To Promote My Book

Jane Yolen, Author of 450 Books Including The Devil's Arithmetic, Dies at 87

The best strategy for sending query letters

Why Writers Should Enter Contests: 6 Lessons That Build Writing Success

How to Choose the Right Character Arc for Your Story

What We Write About When We Write About Grief, Part Two

7 Ways to Make a Small Story Feel Substantial

Why?

Could be I'm overly sensitive but I doubt it

cornerofmadness — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 03:15:35 GMT

okay I am a little.

1. overly sensitive to cold milk: I highly doubt that there is more milk in an iced latte than a hot so I'm thinking heating the milk changes the sugar enough that I can tolerate it. I'm noticing iced lattes nauseate me far more than hot ones. Yes I'm taking my lactaid. No I don't want plant milk. I don't care for almond milk (or the unsustainable farming of them), oatmilk is so fatty it triggers my gall bladder issues and soy milk is an estrogen mimic and my cancer is estrogen sensitive (there isn't good data about whether this would be a real issue but it IS enough to help menopause symptoms)

2. Overly sensitive to heat. By the time I hit the library and Kroger I was so overheated (plus that iced latte) that I was far too nauseated to go to the little pride festival going on. Sigh

3. Overly sensitive to toxic male bullshit: So I sailed past Autozone on my way to the coffee shop this morning and I wanted that fix a flat. (my tire pressure is still up) No problem because there is advanced autos on the way home (literally there are three auto parts stores, two side by side (one built out of divorce revenge) and one across the street). I go in, can't find the fix a flat with the tire stuff and get in line to ask. the three people are busy. One guy gets finished. He looks at me, makes a face, turns his back and waits on a guy who had just come in.

Well fuck you too. Sorry there's a woman in the auto parts store. I walk out and go across the street to Autozone. Fix a flat is right where it's supposed to be and I'm out of there in 2 minutes.

Unfortunately I've been rather unwell all day so I did not get much done today not as much as I wanted BUT I was dealing with my ridiculous coffee table. Can anyone tell me why a prayer card from my grandmother's funeral in 1997 is on it? Can anyone tell me why THREE copies of my birth certificate are lying there in an envelope. Because I have no fucking clue. Also I need to get a little fire safe for some of these things just in case. But seriously why was that stuff there? Last I seen either they had been in my jewelry box in my bedroom. I am baffled because I have no idea why they'd be in the living room on the coffee table. I know I have the birth certificate because of my passport (which I need to check the date on. It might be time to renew that) but I did that years ago so why? Do I sleep walk and do shit in my sleep? Sometimes I swear. (also slept like crap)

Rocket now prefers the neighbors to me. Good. They're going to watch him all summer for me.

And hey look I can do a science saturday again. It's been a bit.

Scientists discover 5 million-year-old whale graveyard stretching for hundreds of miles in the Indian Ocean

2 long-vanished 'super Earths' once orbited near Neptune in our outer solar system, new study hints

2,000 years ago in Scotland, people removed a corpse's brain and fashioned the arm bones into tools

Complete skin of an adult horse found with 10th-century woman and newborn in rare Siberian burial

Genetically modified worms can now produce and deliver drugs inside a living body, scientists say

'Geminid Symphony' and 'Galactic Gandalf': See the breathtaking views of our home galaxy from the 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year contest

How eliminating sugar may alter the gut microbiome: mouse study It's not good. You know once I get my DexCom situation fixed, I want to see what happens if I do use table sugar for my tea instead of a substitute as that's about the only place I use sugar for.

Does the Mediterranean diet hold the key to longevity?

Vitamin C may help preserve brain gray matter volume as we age

If the theory we're nothing but a simulation in an advanced computer game

cornerofmadness — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 03:32:22 GMT

I want to speak to my programmer I have words for them.

Did I mention my tire pressure system alerted last night? So I went out there this morning and all FOUR tires are low. The back ones are minor. the front two are horribly low. Fan-fucking-tastic. I struggled to wake up this morning as is and I don't need this. I call Rio Tire, they're so slammed they can't work me in. That leaves Wal-Mart. They're doing reno so it might take 1-3 hours. But what choice is there?

I get up there and while they're working I try to talk to the pharmacy but they can't run my insurance to see the cost of the dex coms without the prescription so that's no help (meanwhile I can't call cleveland clinic or edwards health or any of the other calls I need to make) Another guy comes in while I'm writing (I came prepared. I was not prepared for plastic grade school chairs and nothing else in the waiting room) and he has been here for FOUR hours while these people try to put on tires. They couldn't even remove his lugnuts. He had to do it himself.

I was going to take my car back at 2:30 after 2 hours of sitting there and give Rio Tire a try anyhow as a walk in and I can walk to my office there and get some work done. But they took my car in and in less than a half hour it's done. 'We replaced all four tire stems.' that seems impossible. I make them repeat it. They charge me 19 bucks...there's no way they did ANYTHING.

Talked to Dad. He looked it up. The stems (with the tire pressure stuff) are 45$ a piece. So you put in four new ones plus labor for 19? Who are we fucking kidding. You put air in my tires and blew some up my ass. If the tires aren't flat again tomorrow I'll drive up to autozone for fix a flat and shove that in. I just need it to last to get home to Costco as these are under warranty.

I don't get home til almost 5 pm. I got nothing done other than the writing. Only to find I wrote the open call's submission dates down wrong (or they closed early). Sigh. Well I have another open call this would fit but it pays much less.

And let's get on to the Fannish 50

Vivziepop has confirmed Valentino will be the spotlight Vee in S3 of Hazbin. I am not surprised by this at all. I just hope Arackniss is in this season (I know he has a voice actor but could be S4 but since the theme of S3 is family I have high hopes) I keep hoping that she's going to announce that they got more episodes like Helluva Boss is. Speaking of which another HB short is out tomorrow.

And here are the Friday Fannish 50 fandom recs

Lines of Data - 50 Sentences of Vox Hazbin Hotel

Blood Ties Hazbin Hotel

stars Hazbin Hotel

Whiskers Hazbin Hotel

using a word he hadn't uttered in over ten years Hazbin Hotel

Stumbling Into Something FAKE

Unending Hazbin Hotel

Learn To Piece My Parts Together The Amazing Digital Circus

creatures hiding in the dark Hazbin Hotel

Swimming Lessons Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins & Final Fantasy XII

To Breathe Easy Supernatural

the Love Songs of the Urban Borahae Bird
방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS

Navigational Skills Bergerac

Always Follow The Recipe Bergerac

Professional Courtesy Bergerac

New Friend, Old Friend, Best Friend The Professionals/due South

Your Princess is in Another Castle Hazbin Hotel

Siren's Song Hazbin Hotel

Ageless Eyes Torchwood

Hazbin Academy Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss

Cuteness Aggression Hazbin Hotel

Concealer Hazbin Hotel

Threatened Hazbin Hotel

The Aftershow The Amazing Digital Circus

Searching for Guidance The Sentinel/Numb3rs

Gently in the Darkness Inspector George Gently

In the 90s

cornerofmadness — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 03:08:00 GMT

Both heat and humidity so naturally this is when I'm getting together with my friend MKF. I'm so hot I'm too sick to eat.

But before that I get the laundry done, talk to the newish neighbors whom Rocket loves and they'll help with him. 'I thought he was on your porch yesterday then realized he was with me. It was a raccoon.'

Fan-fucking-tastic

Figured out why my sweeper wasn't sweeping, the hair has bound the beater bar. I fixed it.

I got the recycleables ready and thought about it. I had my missing camera on the arm of my chair where I read the mail and throw it in the recycle bag. Has my camera fallen into the recycle bag? Yes, yes it has.

I head for Walmart in my sandals and sleeveless sun dress. Do I have a bra on? No I do not? Do I care I can kick my boobs out of my way? No I do not. I'm going to Wal-Mart. I'm still the bougiest person in there at this point. Only I realize I don't have my insurance card. I must have left it on the computer so I can't talk to the pharmacist there.

Didn't expect to talk to MKF for over four hours but it's been a while since we've seen each other (March and she was working rathacon so we really didn't get to talk) That was nice. When I go to pay for my tea, I realize I DID have my insurance card. For some reason I out it behind my credit card. Why did I do that? I have no idea.

I stopped for my brisket sandwich but it was SO late and they were sold out. I had to get a KFC sandwich. pouts

Community rec- summerofthe69 is starting up again. I'm not sure I'll be writing for it this year. We'll see. I've had fun with it but I've been very busy with the original writing and I don't want to do any sexy scenes for this book.

If this is the humidity we're going to have all summer

cornerofmadness — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 03:27:40 GMT

then I'm ready for October. If I wanted Florida, I would have stayed in Florida. I do not like Florida type weather (okay it's tolerable in Jan/Feb) Ugh. This is why I'm thinking the SW to Snowbird to when I'm older.

Today feels like I accomplished nothing. I cleaned the computer room more. Dropped the task chair on my big toe and made it bleed. Cut the base of my left thumb open on god knows what. Cleaning sucks.

Got rejected from one vampire open call. Plan to look this one over and send it to the new vampire one. It's historic and I think that is really a hard sell in a lot of places.

What I Just Finished Reading:

Our Sisters Keeper - a very weird own voices black magic setting in the 1920s, has some serious creepy vibes

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End vol 1 - A lot of my friends love th is so I did buy vol 2 even though I was kinda bored with this. It's a neat idea. Frieren is an elf so she is going to way outlive her adventuring partners and she is trying to find a way to connect...I guess. I dunno. I didn't much like her so...

Sleeping on Paper Boats (Kami no Fune de Nemuru) I just happened to get drawn in by the cover and for a second I was going to pass because as much as I love queer fic I am NOT a a BL fan and this is BL based on the manga line SuBLime manga. Ha. My problem with BL is how hard SO much of it leans into the ABO omegaverse stuff. I dislike ABO, hard. Also as someone who has had it happen more than once with a NO being heard as a yes I find that shit triggering.

That said this was really interesting to me. It's horror/romance and I am looking forward to getting the next volume.

What I am Currently Reading:

The Death Card - currently struggling to get into it

Cloak and Dagger Club - a post WWI mystery that I'm enjoying so far

What I Plan to Read Next: some of my looming arcs and things for popsugar

Comment Bingo summer edition

cornerofmadness — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:24:27 GMT

from comment_bingo I'm excited

fanart	a work inspired by art	art on AO3	a work from your newest fandom	fancomic
a work set in an AU	a work from a science fiction/fantasy canon	a work that made you sad	a work that inspired you	a canon divergent work
a work by a creator you're subscribed to or following	a work from a fandom with a closed canon	FREE SPACE	a oneshot	a fic that's under 1k
an art you go back to	a work with an impressive/eye catching title	a fic that's over 5k	a work from a drama canon	a work you've left kudos on
a work from a movie canon	a fic with multiple chapters	a podfic	a work with under 10 comments	a fic you first read over 1 year ago

I'm worn out mentally and physically

cornerofmadness — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 03:44:27 GMT

Cleaning does that to me. I did get part of my computer room cleaned, not entirely but it's under control now and that makes me happy. I have three bags of books that need to go for donation. I had taken them to work but no one wanted this batch. In the process I found the missing parts of my cosplay. I didn't find my damn camera. Really?

Called the Cleveland Clinic and my estimation of them has fallen greatly (well not of the doctors there but god the staff) the call triage people leave so much to be desired. They claim they only called me on the 4th. Dudes, I called you back FIVE times in May. And how can the call center NOT know the damn phone number for the gastroenterologist department. All I want to know is do I need new testing before I come up there (I'm betting yes, already been looking for a doctor. Can't find any)

Called my insurance because I'm locked out of my web page. They get me back in so I can use the chat to ask my question about dexcom (I love that because I then copy and paste ALL of it to keep it to use against them later) They said call CVS and here's a number if they still get the 'there's no authorization' for it and it is a 20$ copay. I call CVS they're not blocked this time but it's 150$ that's 75$ a piece not 20. I tell them not to fill it and tomorrow I have to call all the by mail places UHC gave me because I can't tell what the prices will be. I'm so over all this shit and this fucked up insurance. (Seriously those on my list who aren't American, I know several countries are talking about going from state supported to privatization like America has. Fight as hard as you can. This is a nightmare)

Sent pictures to my landlord of my broke ass porch. No one has responded.

I did do something fun. Adagio offered me a free tin with my picture on it (Yes sadly AI generated) I took the free one, ordered a big tin of it (since it was an earl grey blend and I love it) I paid for the two little sample tins. I know it's silly. I know I shouldn't because it's AI generated. But it's going to be rough birthday and I wanted something fun. (so rough apparently I'm crying just thinking about it).

And now on to the fannish 50 portion of this post

As a reminder I'm using Buffy the Vampire Slayer for this set of questions

Day 6: Least favourite male character. This one is easy. I didn't want to use a one off. And yes sometimes it's Xander but he's more of an annoyance than anything. I know a lot of fans would have put Riley here but I had no issues at all with Riley at first (he was annoying later).

No, it's Andrew Well that I absolutely hated. Yes Warren (and sadly Jonathan who had been a decent side character) were part of it but those two didn't become a recurring thing. Andrew Wells in no particular order, begs and pleads to get a shot at raping Warren's ex, wants to help to turn Buffy into a sex slave, kills Jonathan, tries to kill Dawn and Xander.

And then suddenly he's a fucking Scoobie. He gets into the fringes of the friend group. He ends up a spokesperson for Buffy and Giles and the Watchers. He gets to mock Spike and Angel twice.

This show wanted me to cheer for a would be rapist/murderer.

Worse, fans DID! Because he was funny. Do you want to know how many times I heard that excuse in the heyday of Buffyverse? I wrote a lot of Connor fanfic. I thought this character had (wasted) potential. People gave me shit about writing Connor fanfic. Often the same people would write Andrew in a good way (versus the scum bag he is) and while I'm usually a live and let live fan, write whatever you want but if you come at me and your excuse for a rapist as YOUR character is that 'he's funny and Connor isn't' just don't engage with me about this.

You can tell I had a lot of anger about it. Shockingly I still do. Maybe more than I realized. I didn't even like Spike on Angel so much (though it was better than I expected it to be) but I had nothing but pity for them after dealing with Andrew. And all the other characters dropped a notch (even my well loved Giles) for letting Andrew in. I believe in second chances but I also believe in atonement of which Andrew did nothing

Day 1: Favourite season

Day 2: Favourite episode

Day 3: Favourite female character

Day 4: Least favourite female character

Day 5: Favourite male character

Day 6: Least favourite male character

Day 7: Favourite friendship

Day 8: Favourite romance

Day 9: Least favourite season

Day 10: Least favourite episode

Day 11: Best SFX / most woeful use of SFX

Day 12: Favourite villain

Day 13: Favourite guest character

Day 14: Character you relate to the most

Day 15: Character who didn’t get enough screen time

Day 16: Best use of a hoary old trope

Day 17: Two characters you wanted to get together that never did

Day 18: Favourite Liberator moment (change for other shows-how about Favourite unlikely friendship?)

Day 19: Favourite Scorpio moment (change for other shows- how about Favourite rivalry?)

Day 20: Favourite outfits

Day 21: Favourite fanon/headcanon

Day 22: Favourite audioplay

Day 23: Favourite cliffhanger

Day 24: Funniest moment

Day 25: Moment when you knew you were caught

Day 26: Favourite fanfiction

Day 27: Favourite scene

Day 28: Favourite quote

Day 29: Your song/fan mix for the show

Day 30: Would you like to see a modern remake?

Chillicothe was a mess

cornerofmadness — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:37:02 GMT

They are tearing the main artery out down to bare earth so there is the world's biggest traffic snarl. My car is okay (took it in for oil change) my brakes aren't. BUT shhh I'm going to trade Gojyo in so here's hoping the brakes will last me to Pittsburgh in the next weeek.

I ended up at the Italian restaurant down town. Wasn't planning on it. I checked the hours on the Japanese place in historic downtown. It should have been open. It wasn't. That's okay I wanted to try that Italian anyhow. It was very good.

Somehow this took all day but it was a good one. Right now though, that substernal pressure is back. Can't help but notice more fiberglass has blown up thru my air ducts. I'm beginning to wonder if I have some kind of inflammation going on here as a result (swear to god if this place gives me lung cancer or copd I'm going to become a wrathful spirit)

It's music monday 30 weeks of music. This week's prompt is #29 a song with food or drink in the title

Always thought Joe was rather cute

here's the whole prompt list

30 days of music
1 a song from your childhood
2 best song from High School Years
3 a song that tells a story
4 a song you like that is covered by another artist
5 A Song by someone Who has Passed away
6 A song you like from a movie soundtrack
7 a song you like with no words
8 a song from your first concert
9 a song you could exercise to
10 a song you know all the words to
11 a song with a long title
12 A song from the 90s
13 has a really good music video
14 you enjoy that’s in a different language
15 was number 1 the week you were born
16 a song that calms you down
17 A song that got you into this artist
18 a song that makes you smile
19 A Song from the 00s
20 A song from the year you were born
21 An 80s song
22 a song that describes you
23 A song that reminds you of your favorite season
24 A song with a one word title
25 A song from your pre teen years
26 A song from your favorite band
27 A song you discovered from a tv show
28 A song that makes you feel empowered
29 a song with food or drink in the title
30 A song in a different language

Writerly Ways

cornerofmadness — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 03:47:22 GMT

So pretty soon I have to dig into the dev edits for my 1980s monster hunting story and thought that is also the perfect time to start writing the synopsis. I'll be going through this novel chapter by chapter so what better time to work on the synopsis as well. My first links will be of synopsis writing but I'm curious for my friends who have done this, how did you approach it? It's been a few years since I've even tried. I remember going chapter by chapter and summing it up in a couple of sentences per chapter.

Open Calls

Solar Punk Magazine Solarpunk Horror

Otherside Unthemed Speculative Fiction & Poetry

Tails of Terror Animal attack horror centered around pets from Rosco’s Pet Emporium

Last Girls’ Club: Fall 2026 Hive Collapse / Cascade Event

Sideshow Circus sideshow horror / carnival horrors / strange attractions

Ten Publishers Open to Direct Submissions in June 2026

From Around the web

How To Write A Novel Synopsis (With An Example)

How To Write a Book Synopsis: Complete Guide & Examples

How to Live with a Fictional Universe in Your Head

The US Horror Writer’s Guide to Quarterly Taxes and Self-Employment Income

Make Every Sentence Sing

From betty

Six Bad Arguments Against Social Justice in Speculative Fiction

Four Questions to Ask When a Character Is Clever

Six Reasons I Ask Questions As an Editor

What Is a Power Fantasy?

Should Your Tale Start With Dark Backstory?

Literary Pathways for Microtension

The Unreliable Narrator: How to Deceive Readers Without Losing Their Trust

Interiority vs. Visceral Reactions in Deep POV

Charting Your Course #3: Self-Publish Online (Part 2)

The Blueprint that Sells Books

When Deep POV Revisions Feel Flat (And What To Fix Instead)

Marketing, Algorithms, and Tropes

The Crime Fiction Evolution

How Universal Fears Pull Readers into the Story

How to Generate Better Story Ideas Using the Ones That Don’t Work

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Cultivating Trust.

Five Truths I Learned Editing Hundreds of Books That Might Change Your Life

8+ Ways to Signal Your Character’s Fear to Readers

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Visualization

How to come up with good comp titles for your book

How to research a literary agent

Tending Your Story: How Writers Build a Lasting Writing Habit

How Writers Can Handle Criticism Without Losing Confidence

Why Writers Procrastinate at the Blank Page—and How to Quiet the Mental Chaos

The First Steps to Self-Editing Your Manuscript

How Writers Can Restart Their Writing Routine After a Creative Lull

How to Write Mythic Fiction: Stop Borrowing Old Myths and Start Creating New Ones

What Makes Human Storytelling Human

Anything Is Possible.

A Draft With a Will of Its Own

A little Giles tribute

cornerofmadness — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 19:38:50 GMT

I have written a lot of Giles stuff. Not all of it is on AO3 but I sorted through the stuff that is on AO3 already where he's the star and/or big supporting character. Also holy shit some of this has been on AO3 for a very long time, coming off of FFN before I tagged things. I need to reread some of these and tag them up. Also there are some Buffy things for challenges where the challenges put stuff up for me (also not tagged). Some I know were written for summer_of_giles and others for other challenges. Lots of Giles/Jenny in this but the first one up is a long fic set in the 1970s with Ethan and a few OCs

Hope you enjoy.

Transitive Nightfall of Diamonds

A Night at the Museum . This is crossed with Angel the series and set at the house on the rock with tons of photo hyperlinks (I took the pics. I used to live in the area. I miss it!)

CATalyst This is crossed with Angel the series, part of my Hyperion's Son story (Giles plays a decent role in that but I didn't link to it as it's more Angel and Connor but you can navigate to it from this story. It's novel length)

One for Sorrow

Worry With a Side of Tea

An Amble Through the Zoo With You

Tomorrow's Getting Harder

A return to Huntington

cornerofmadness — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 03:42:45 GMT

So today I had tickets to see The Amazing Digital Circus's finale in the movie theater. But if I had to drive 65 miles down there twice in three days I wanted to do something else. I had decided on the art museum as I have not been there in eons (once to see some of my friend's art that was there, once with another friend) So I wanted my camera....and I can't find it.

I know it made it home. I had it on the side of the chair and I remember picking it up so I wouldn't trip on it and I swear to you that I put it on the desk top area but it's not there. Nor is it by the chair. Or in my bedroom. So where the fuck is it? All my KC pictures are still on it. Yay....

Now it's a full hour after I wanted to leave. I give up. I'll use my phone. I get all the way to the top of the road and realize oh right, my flashdrive with music isn't in the car because I took it to KC but ironically I wasn't able to use it because new cars have the itty bitty ports (eye roll, wtf for?) The flash isn't in my purse. I come back home. It's not in my lap top case (I remember putting it in either of those places leaving KC) I have another musical flashdrive on my desk next to the computer. It's not there. Nor is my box of flash drives. UGH. I take my big flash drive but it turns out unlike the newer car my 10 year old one can't figure out document folders from music folders so now I'm stuck with radio,

I knew that the art museum was not downtown but I had forgotten the country road that makes you swear you are nowhere near one of the biggest cities in WV. And I apparently forgot everything about this museum. And I never knew it had a plant conservancy too. in fact the only one IN WV (how is that possible?!?)

ticket lady - you didn't know?

Me - not until I looked it up last night. It's been a long time since I've been here.

ticket lady - must be. It's been here since the 70s

Me -(in my head) how the fuck old do you think I am?

It's not a big museum but I love that they have a section that is the art from the people who come take classes there and one whole room is juried art from the area (which my friend had been in in the past) There was a section of cool guns, a section from a local Iranian (Turkish?) doctor and his wife and then there is the large, multi-room Daywood collection. It started with a wedding gift of art but somehow ended up enough art to have a rotation collection in one full half of a small museum.

Boy that was good for a haunted object story. Imagine being able to curate a private collection donation like that? Imagine ending up haunted.

The conservancy is small. It's about two of my university's green house. They did have poison dart frogs (none visible), two axolatals in another tank, Glowstick who has the jellyfish gene and another one (no name that I saw) who was upside down on the bottom (He's not dead. He's blind). I was chased by a female turtle. They have no males and the girls are running around trying to find one.

But since this was out in the middle of a freaking woodland there was no lunch. Fine. I'll get it at the mall where the movie theater is. No, I won't because I can't find a parking place. So I get a panera bagel (in theory toasted, in reality handed to me toasted but already fucking cold) and shove it in my purse to eat in the movie theater.

You can tell I'm old. I'm nervous about sneaking in food and drink (because damn it in the 80s and 90s they checked your bag) so I have it layered and hidden at the bottom of my purse and my ticket in my pocket so I don't have to open my purse. I go in and there is no ticket person. You buy it from a kiosk but I have mine. I get in the popcorn line. I don't want it. I want the movie exclusive popcorn bucket. They don't have it so screw the popcorn. I go toward the theaters. No movie ticket taker. I can see the TADC theater but I'm like...do I just go in. I go back to the popcorn people and ask. They say just go in.

WTF? I could have just not bought a ticket and strolled in like I belonged there. How is this a system? So I go in. Now the first two days the theater was sold out. I expected mine to be sold out and I was thrilled that there was no one in my seat that I had picked out online. I sit. And...no the theater isn't sold out. Good. BUT there is a couple two seats down from me and a group of friends right behind me.

And I'm quickly reminded why I don't go to theaters. So this release was episode 8 of TADC plus the hour long finale. The idiots behind me unwrap snacks thru ALL of E8 and most of the finale. Now most of the audience has seen E8 so naturally the people behind me wait until E9 (which no one has seen) to start talking while they unwrap twizzelers and wtf else they had in god damn wrappers. And then one of them keeps sneezing and saying I hate allergies (well sweetie, right now I hate you)

THen halfway through the finale the guy next to me starts snotting and hawking and snuffling (and as we're leaving he says 'as soon as those people behind us left my nose cleared up') and if that's not that bad I look over and he's blowing his nose IN HIS SHIRT. It's too dark for me to get up and move (and there is enough people it won't be easy). I wanted to throw my tissues (in case I cried) at him but I didn't want to get any closer.

I stay to the end to get the QR code for movie exclusive TADC merch (because I can't resist merch) only to learn my purse charms have somehow slid in between the chairs and are stuck. Fan-fucking-tastic. I get it free but Husk is gone. I sit back down and feel around. He's lodged in the chair housing. I do manage to pry him out unharmed (other than the jump ring) This on top of my Kinger pin that I put on in the car and was poking me by the time I found my seat. The back is gone. I put him on the purse and nearly lose him again. OMG why?

The theater had a claw machine filled with ALL the Glitch shows plushies. I can't work a claw machine to save my soul so I gave it a pass. it was hard. I did come home (my phone can't do data right now) to open that link and bought merch I don't need but wanted. I'm kinda glad they didn't have the popcorn box. I thought it was supposed to have Jax/Kinger/Pomni on it but it was Pomni's head and you ate out of her mouth. Ew.

Took back the used lotion they sold me at Home Goods. Went for dinner at my favorite mexican place there but they gave me rice instead of elote (boo) and the black beans tasted honestly spoiled so the entire basket of chips and salsa was my sides . At least my pineapple/avocado/shrimp tacos were good. AND I beat the storm home, one so bad it was on the emergency alert.

So here are my spoiler rich movie thoughts under a cut

My biggest thought about the finale was hey I was right about who they really were and man the Jax haters are going to be SO pissed about this finale. Do remember several weeks back Gooseworx was actually getting death threats because she dared to say Jax and Pomni were the main characters?

On the other hand I do think that maybe it was a bit heavy on them and I didn't quite get everything I wanted about Gangle/Zooble/Ragatha but I got enough to be happy.

Things that worked for me: Jax actually abstracting and Pomni being able to go in and see all the lies he told about himself to himself.

Getting to see Ribbit (and to a lesser degree Kaufmo) and finally getting Jax's backstory. I was glad it wasn't as horrible as some fans thought. I was right. Jax wasn't running because he hit a child. He was a child escaping (well 16 year old at any rate) He was an emotionally/mentally abused kid and hurt people hurt people does really happen.

I liked finally seeing why Jax has issues with being hugged.

Caine's epiphany and apology were very good. (and I had missed during the opening of E8 when I saw it online that the red AI kept making wonky shapes and the blue AI kept making normal ones) but there was something missing. I'll talk about it later.

Kinger- Pomni interactions. I'm there for all of them.

That everyone was reduced to tears

I loved the explanation that they were literally just brain files and their real selves are out there living their lives. That was my hypothesis because I couldn't figure out how anyone could get sucked into a video game for real. I know it's a big subgenre but I don't like it usually.

That Caine turned the circus over to them.

The ending with the bus stop was cute.

The ending in general was sweet and satisfying.

Things I didn't like:

Gangle's guilt. I couldn't figure out WHY she was feeling it was all her fault, including Jax abstracting

Caine's inner self. It's not that I disliked it and him ejecting it (was that Bubble?) I just thought we didn't quite get enough of what happened there and why is Caine less powerful without him.

Things I wished could have happened:

Them learning how to restore the abstracted people, not just Jax, all of them, Queenie especially. I liked that they kept Jax in a huge blanket fort and that they turned the cellar into a dark aquarium for the other abstracted people and Kinger could watch Queenie. (I did love we got confirmation Kinger is a girl dad) I was hoping that they could have pulled an Owl House to reverse the bad things.

Things I'm glad didn't happen: That fan theory Jax killed a kid didn't happen. That fan theory Jax killed gangle didn't happen

Overall I'm happy with the ending. Looking forward to rewatching it in a couple weeks without food wrappers, talking and people using their shirts as a snot rag

saw the eye doctor

cornerofmadness — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 02:44:57 GMT

btw how is it already friday? I blinked and the week was gone.

He saw nothing wrong with my eye. To be fair I COULD read at 20/40 with that eye today (which is about all the better I ever get) It could be transient inflammation which sucks because unless I go in as an emergency that day (which most docs won't do) how will they see it? ugh. I may still go see the specialist.

I finally wrote. It has been tiny bits here and there for the last two weeks but fair enough I've been traveling for almost two weeks.

But the kick to the head is the mermaid story. got it typed in. It is 400 words too short. Usually I'm 500 words too many. Sigh.

And I was SO saddened to learn Anthony Stewart Head has died Earlier this week I was clear how much I loved Giles as a character. I have recordings of Tony doing The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This one hit me hard. Not to mention we've lost 3 Buffy main cast in a year (and Michelle and Nick were young).

Have the rest of the stories that have built up in my inbox for fannish50's fandom recs starting with this animatic I stumbled over. The art is great. Staticmoth

Blonds Have More Fun Torchwood

Art; Search For The Hale Relic Teen Wolf

Search for the Hale Relic Teen Wolf

Growing Pains Stargate Atlantis/Marvel Cinematic Universe

Do You Remember? Hazbin Hotel

Not Indestructible Torchwood

If Wishes Were Horses The Fantastic Journey

don't even bother with the ukulele Hazbin Hotel

Soft Hazbin Hotel

Thursday Afternoons with You The Owl House

Chat with Tommy The Hunger Games

Decoupage The Hunger Games

Things that Didn't Happen The Professionals

Rescue Mission Stargate Atlantis

Puzzle Box Stargate Atlantis

Threats Torchwood

Out Of Shape The Fantastic Journey

Quirky Hazbin Hotel

New Friend RWBY

Bodie to the Rescue! The Professionals

The End of the World. due South

Hazbin Hotel as an 'Under The Sea' Parody Hazbin Hotel/ The Little Mermaid (Disney Animated Movies)

Burnt Coffee Torchwood

Precious Hazbin Hotel

Meet-Cute / Cute-Meet The Owl House

Echoes of the Dead Stargate Atlantis/The Sentinel

Peaceful Rest Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening

Mistletoe The Owl House

Cosmic Frontier The Owl House

An Evening at Rosings Pride and Prejudice

Screaming Safewords into the Void Hazbin Hotel

Another Opinion to Set Beside One's Own Pride and Prejudice

A Herm Without Earrings is Like a Cake Without Sugar Vorkosigan Saga

Garden Range Hazbin Hotel

Rebirth The Owl House

Chaos The Owl House

Going After Kate Argent Teen Wolf/FBI

I will miss the gas mileage

cornerofmadness — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 03:20:36 GMT

That little Jetta got almost 50 mpg but it's back with Enterprise rental.

My psychiatrist upped my meds.

Got my receipts in to the office.

And somehow that was nearly my entire day.

I did go to Jackson's color with happiness first thursday affair. It was meant to have 90 vendors. As predicted not that many showed but there were a couple blocks worth. Too much homemade bread for 15$ and little beaded things. I did find one holiday gift. I need to start writing this stuff down so I don't have a repeat of last year's overbuying. Naturally it was the hottest it's been in forever. I did get to try the x-terrestrial Taco food chuck but now I'm SO hot I can't eat. Luckily I cooled down in the car on the way home. Those birra tacos are literally better than any I've had in any restaurant around here and to the dimbulbs in front of me in line, when the dude offers you a sample, you standing there going but I don't know what it is so why would I want a sample is not helping move the line along. Get out of my way. I know what i want (it wasn't a food allergy issue, his wife was about ready to slap him into next week)

Community recs. I'm doing bad at this. I know one of my friends just started a Buffyverse kink comm but I can't remember which one...(gah I need to start writing this stuff down) so let me just mention comment_bingo is open for a new round.

Good news

cornerofmadness — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 03:19:23 GMT

Not only did I get the you're fine see you in six months go-ahead from my cancer doctor, I also lost those 10 pounds I gained and my BP was 112/57.

Now considering I ate a lot last week I'm surprised and I think there is something to what's been knocking in my head. My increasing weight and blood pressure might be related to stress and cortisol levels. This isn't something we really test for often (more when we suspect adrenal tumors) now I'm off work a couple weeks and everything is going back to normal (for me)

I wasn't going to go to the mall since I'll be back on Saturday (the theater is at the mall) but my appointment was at 1 and I was back in my car at 140. I hit the comic book store and finally walked to this Chinese restaurant I've been wanting to go to for years (no parking but I always have to park in the garage and it was a good day to walk). And....it was closed for the week. Sigh. I went to the German place instead but it's still not even 3 pm so I go to the mall to Home Goods and now I have to take something back on Saturday. The clearance body butter. I assumed that was packing tape on it. No, I got it open (which is weird because I wasn't going to open it. I don't usually need it unless the heaters are on) and someone had broken the seal and dug a finger's worth out of the cream. Yep, no thanks.

On my drive home that cardiologist I don't like called me. This is the second time his office has done this. Last time it was his NP, this time it was him, just checking in with me. It was unexpected. How are you feeling? Did you know your holter monitor study was normal (yes we already talked about this but obviously you didn't put it in your note) When will you be coming back to see me? August (unless I change that)

What I Just Finished Reading:
The Faraway Inn - a cozy fantasy (portal) set in Vermont. a really sweet YA cozy fantasy. I enjoyed it to pieces

The Gay Disaster Detective Agency - one of my arcs. I usually like Lev AC Rosen but this isn't working for me. Yeah there are better gay books out there for Pride month. Go read Rosen's Evander Mills series instead (but it is post WWII so it's not exactly happy gay stuff)

The Kindness of Strangers - another arc that wasn't for me

What I am Currently Reading:

Our Sisters Keeper - a very weird own voices black magic setting in the 1920s, has some serious creepy vibes

The Death Card - currently struggling to get into it

What I Plan to Read Next: some of my looming arcs

May's Reads - I didn't read as much as I would have liked to. But as always if you want to talk about any of them, please let's do it.

Dungeons and Danger cozy mystery

That Which Feeds Us Sapphic horror (set in Hawai'i)

Hooked on Murder cozy mystery

The Colour Out of Space Horror manga (Lovecraftian)

We Burned So Bright dystopian (with mature gay couple)

Death al Dente mystery

Lumine Volume One fantasy graphic novel

Impure Blood Volume 1 steampunk graphic novel

How to know I'm too tired

cornerofmadness — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 04:06:37 GMT

I was planning to go put in my travel expenses but I'm not getting my rental car paperwork until Thursday. I was too tired to think about that last night when I made a decision.

So I did laundry, got some groceries and somehow the whole day was gone.

Did call Capitol One, I was at my limit (Forgot all about being in Louisville two weeks ago and running up a big bill) Paid it all off because they don't deserve any interest after trying to tell me my limit wasn't lowered ever.

Here's my fannish 50 stuff

As a reminder I'm using Buffy the Vampire Slayer for this set of questions

Day 5: Favourite male character - This was harder than it should be. I guess push comes to shove it's still Rupert Giles. I know, I know, why not Spike or Angel. Here's the thing I like all three men almost equally and they all failed me in the course of this show. I think what I liked about Giles was smart didn't mean he was useless in battle like so many other places. His various choices weren't my favorite but over all I really liked him. I very much like Angel too and of course Spike but season 6-7 took care of that.

Day 1: Favourite season

Day 2: Favourite episode

Day 3: Favourite female character

Day 4: Least favourite female character

Day 5: Favourite male character

Day 6: Least favourite male character

Day 7: Favourite friendship

Day 8: Favourite romance

Day 9: Least favourite season

Day 10: Least favourite episode

Day 11: Best SFX / most woeful use of SFX

Day 12: Favourite villain

Day 13: Favourite guest character

Day 14: Character you relate to the most

Day 15: Character who didn’t get enough screen time

Day 16: Best use of a hoary old trope

Day 17: Two characters you wanted to get together that never did

Day 18: Favourite Liberator moment (change for other shows-how about Favourite unlikely friendship?)

Day 19: Favourite Scorpio moment (change for other shows- how about Favourite rivalry?)

Day 20: Favourite outfits

Day 21: Favourite fanon/headcanon

Day 22: Favourite audioplay

Day 23: Favourite cliffhanger

Day 24: Funniest moment

Day 25: Moment when you knew you were caught

Day 26: Favourite fanfiction

Day 27: Favourite scene

Day 28: Favourite quote

Day 29: Your song/fan mix for the show

Day 30: Would you like to see a modern remake?

and some fandom recs because I was too tired to do it on Friday. Still exhausted so I'll finish this all up on Friday

I Miss You Hazbin Hotel

Kaleidoscope Hazbin Hotel

Lost And Forgotten Torchwood.

One Step at a Time Stargate Atlantis

The Baby Hazbin Hotel

Settling Into the Future Teen Wolf

Dealing with Frustration 911

If I Should Die Torchwood

Rescue Mission Stargate Atlantis

Made it home

cornerofmadness — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 03:04:14 GMT

Evil Little Dog and I had a leisurely morning and then I took off. over 100 miles on I-64 and not a single rest stop. Not. One. Had to stop at a Pilot truck stop. Finally north of Louisville KY there was a rest stop. It was closed.

I got off the road to find food twice only to see no restaurant anywhere. Dudes if your restaurant is more than a mile off the highway DONT be on the highway sign. Finally found a rest stop just outside of Florence KY (Meaning I'm nearly in Cincinnati) and in there was a mom trying to get her daughter to take a picture talking on the pay phone. Yes you read that right, there was a living pay phone.

Finally found food in a freaking sit down Skyline chili (it's now like 330) and then I realized I'm literally 20 miles from Jungle Jim's in Cinci. I was going to stop there but I was already not getting home until 730 and I'm like are you really up to shopping (I just wanted the cheese) If I had realized I was almost there, I would have skipped Skyline and stopped there to eat.

On the negative side, I realized that my eyes were tired so I shut my left eye and things went bad. The right eye, the one that has been inflamed twice...I could barely see through it. Couldn't see the cars in front of me, not the road signs or the billboards. I mean I could see them but they were unreadable, like everything was smeared with vaseline. I thought it has gotten a little better and the eye doc said he saw nothing wrong but this was worse than I realized and when I was on 32 which has relatively few cars, I played with it more just to prove to myself this was real. Sadly it was. I have another eye doc appointment on friday. If he STILL says there is nothing wrong with my eye when it is demonstrably worse (and frankly it was when we did the eye test) I'm going to find an eye specialist because I'm not fucking around with my sight. Did that inflammation damage my cornea? Has the cataract gotten bigger? Because there is no way being unable to see anything but blurry shapes with one eye is normal. And I'm honestly scared about it.

Also my card got declined at breakfast. I figured it finally had enough. But I got a text later in the day saying I'm at my limit. I thought I had a 10K limit on this card. I'm hoping to hell they lowered the limit and didn't tell me because there is no way I spent 10K in a week.

Rocket is fine. Being here has sent my anxiety up and I hate that. There are things I need to fix because I can't have my home be a place of anxiety.

It's music monday 30 weeks of music. This week's prompt is #28 A song that makes you feel empowered

But I have to pick one and since The Owl House was on when I got home you can get the song with a TOH amv

I regret everything about today

cornerofmadness — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 03:26:14 GMT

It stormed all night and I was afraid it was going to storm the whole way home. I ran down and got the egg/bacon breakfast burrito. The flour tortilla was welded to the paper but the worst of it was it was 90% potato and I don't like potato. But later I found the breakfast buffet that we saw on line but it was only on Sunday so that's why I didn't know about it and it didn't start until 9 after I already choked down that burrito. By the time I left the rain had stopped.

And off the jump the GPS says 9 north's exit is closed. Yeah, no shit, we've been going around it for the last 3 days but you never noticed it was closed then. God I regret NOT going to Union Station because from downtown to 70 E is a short trip. So my GPS tries to go around the closed road or so I think. I figured we were looping around downtown since we don't need to go there.

I couldn't have been MORE wrong. The detour added THREE hours to my 6 hour trip. I was getting ready to pull over and put the address back in for evil little dog's place only to finally see 70 East was my next turn nearly 70 miles away. so it took me nearly 200 miles out of my way. I have no idea why. It's set for either fastest route or shortest but this was neither. It took me 9 hours to get to ELD's place

So I'm too tired for a writerly ways so you get some links

Open Call

Exquisite Undead vampires

10 EXTRA Writing Calls and Opportunities for JUNE

the reckoning ecojustice

FUN IN THE DARK small town weirdness

The Book of Demons Demons, daemons, evil spirits, supernatural entities, possession, trauma, addiction, folklore, and infernal mythology

Tractor Beam: The Water Issue Water, ecosystems, agriculture, migration, drought, island ecologies, and anti-apocalyptic futures

Baneberry – A Literary Horror Annual Literary horror and psychologically rich dark fiction

Baffling Magazine June 2026 Window “Gossip” theme plus open/unthemed speculative submissions

Sley House Patreon June 2026 Window Ecopunk

58 Literary Journals that Pay their Authors

From Around the Web

The Author Who Cannot Write (About Themselves)

How Could You Do This to Me? When Characters Betray Other Characters.

Writing Away From Yourself: How to Fictionalize a Character

The Elements of Horror: Building Suspense and Tension in Your Writing

Notes from the Editor’s Desk: May 2026

Writing Stakes Without Raising the Volume

I believe Betty is traveling this weekend too so no links from here.

Spent the morning in Prohibition

cornerofmadness — Sun, 31 May 2026 04:16:01 GMT

This was the first morning here that I was awoken by noise, thunder I think at 6 AM and I did fall back to sleep only to wake up an hour later when it sounded like a drawer slammed in my room. It didn't of course and I'm at the end of the hall so not sure where it came from.

Even waking up early I was late getting out of here in the pouring rain which wasn't fun especially since there was no time for breakfast. Worse I forgot my list of addresses in the hotel but luckily GPS can also find things by name. I did get to Union Station in time and they had the same coffee shop chain as here so I did get breakfast after all.

The Gangster Tour wasn't as expected. In spite of all my worry I was the first person on the bus. The driver and the tour guide were both in 1920s period dress (okay for men that's just a suit (pinstripe) and fedoras. It was a mix of the guide's patter/info dumps and a tv screen with a news reporter, Johnny Holiday's (our guide) brother or his girlfriend so it looked interactive. Really nice info about John Lazia and Tom Pendergast the underworld crime boss and the political boss respectfully. Pendergast apparently never found a thing he couldn't turn into graft (like literally everything his cement business was involved in) and yet oddly he was also a friend of Harry Truman even after his corruption (Pendergast's) was exposed. Learned a ton about various buildings (including places Al Capone partied and where Pretty Boy Floyd was in theory involved in a massacre outside the Union Station. It was almost a 2 hour tour so worth the money.

After lunch in the Union I headed to the Steamboat Arabia museum (which is closing down at the end of the year) but it is in some artist market district with nothing but food traffic and zero parking other than on street which was never going to happen. After circling around for several minute (and thinking I could try tomorrow morning) I gave up and said fine, WWI memorial museum it is...right back at Union Station but up the hill.

SO...every road to the parking garage was closed. After circling it three times I gave up and since it was still raining off and on I decided no zoo. I went back to the Nelson Atkins art museum. I could have gone to the Kemper Modern art museum but I think it was 20$ and I am not a huge art fan.

Revisiting the other museum is good call. Found a whole wing I missed the first time. Found my hotel mate there too. I rode up in the elevator yesterday with a lady who liked my Huskerdust shirt. Found her again at the Red Lotus Asian restaurant (in the casino) and found her again at the museum. Told mom watch me see her again tonight.

And I go to the sports bar at the casino and who's there, my hotel mate sitting with an African American woman at the 6 seater table, the only thing open in the place. She said sit with us. She's Marta (Mexican American from CA) and Melinda is her table mate, retired today. They were also happy to see me because the two trainee waitresses kept ignoring them but responded to me. On our way out, Marta said she wondered if there was a racial component in addition to the two waitresses being new to the job and bad at it and got better when I showed up. Yeah...probably

Slot machines gobbled my money and I came back and after fighting for days to get my room to cool off, now it finally is (and almost too cold) and looking outside the street lights look like shower heads its raining so hard. Figures because I'm driving towards home tomorrow. And ooooo that was big lightning. Gonna be a fun night

Fishies!

cornerofmadness — Sat, 30 May 2026 04:54:50 GMT

So I went to Sea Life Aquarium which turns out to be IN Crown Center, down the block from the Sheraton and I could have always snuck off to see this. Snort. It's geared more to kids and is side by side with Legoland (which does not allow adults without kids in it) it was a nice (if a bit pricy) aquarium. It had sea dragons and jellyfish so I was happy (and bought an axolatol plushie I didn't need)

And it turned out this place is there with the Hallmark visitor center museum thing so why not, right? I had no idea that JC Hall started this with gathering up pre-done postcards and sending them to retailers and hoped to get paid (it's practically a scam) And did you know his first greeting card with sound was in 1924? I sure didn't. Didn't know it wasn't called Hallmark until 1954 either (it was Hall Brothers before then) Loved the display of Christmas trees. Mom loves ornaments so I wasn't leaving here without one. All the gift shop had was baby's first Xmas, first Xmas in our new home and a creepy baby's first xmas sonogram) maybe because of mother's day. So I went into the big three story mall complex to the big hallmark and they only had the same one with a couple of birds and butterflies. Got one of a peep in a egg, dumb, tiny but I have it.

From there I went to the Museum of Kansas City. It was a private residence Corinthian Hall, but only used from 1910 to 1934 and became a museum in 1940 (seems rather a waste) The ground level was preserved as it was when the Long family lived there (hope to get the pics up in the next few days) They allow no photo shoots but I could take pics with my cell phone no flash.

Me - can I use my better camera with no flash?
Them - no, just your cell phone camera
Me - um...okay, why? they're both cameras
Them - we don't allow camera cameras

I let it go because what's the point in arguing with stupid? The upstairs was modern art (including from the Native people and African American communities) One was a recorded (I think, maybe entirely AI) talk with a former Polish Jewish woman who was in one of the camps and you could ask 'her' interactive questions and the AI would find the bits to play in the prerecording (or make shit up, who knows)

It was now after 3 so I'm like yeah, not trying for another museum for less than 2 hours. I went back to Elmwood cemetery now that I have a map in my head of where Leannah Loveall (prostitute turned Madame turned religious pillar) and I found her instantly. Must have driven past her 5 times the first time I was there.

I went to historic Union Cemetery (which has well put together historic literature for you to go on a scavenger hunt with), not a lot of impressive stones but it was super inner city now and reminded me of my college dorm, with the headstones right up to the apartments (You could have slapped a headstone from my dorm room window). One had this pool side full of hammocks and loungers with a view of the cemetery. You know there's a story in that.

Came back to the casino, played Voodoo Jackpots and accidentally dragged my finger over the touchscreen, jumping my .66 cent wager to 6.60$ without me knowing it until I hit bet. And hit a free spin bonus and won 225$. I wanted to stay for more but I did the hard thing and walked away without trying to hit another one and losing it all.

here's my intoabar rough draft Hazbin Hotel/The Amazing Digital Circus. It's not ready yet to post there but I also wrote it for spikesgirl58's 6 word challenge and that's due tonight. I'll edit it and post it once I get home. Also too tired to do the fannish 50 fandom recs. I'll do that on Tuesday

the six words were Pneumonia Achieve Company Smooth Ensure Gallery

But Not For Me

Pneumonia Achieve Company Smooth Ensure Gallery

Kinger glanced up at the large Vegas-like hotel with glittering lights and bizarre inclusions like a broken train track, carousel, and a ship. “Where did Caine come up with this?”

“Why is everything on fire behind us?” Pomni stared back toward a city clocked in smoke and ringing with screams. She looped up at the red sky, her jester bells jangling. “And why the hell is there a giant pentagram in the sky?”

“It could be we’re in hell again.” Kinger fiddled with the dark goggles Pomni and Ragatha had designed for him. They didn’t fit well but they were helping to ground him.

“If Baron Theodore Mildenhall is here, I’m noping out. I’ll sit right here until Caine gives up on this adventure.”

“I don’t think that will work. We might as well go into the hotel and see what this is all about.”

She sighed and nodded, following him. “What does Caine hope to achieve with these adventures?”

“Engagement.” Kinger suspected that was right. The longer he stayed in the dark, the more he thought about Caine and his motivations.

She snorted. “Could be worse. The portal he tossed Ragatha and Jax through looked wet and cold. They’ll come back with pneumonia.”

“Not sure that’s possible but I’m glad we’re not wet.” Kinger didn’t know why Caine had separated them again. This might be better than the loud noises- flashing lights zone Zooble and Gangle had been consigned to.

He pushed open the hotel door and stopped insider before Pomni could even fall in step with him a little woman -?!?, he wasn’t entirely sure – in a blood spattered maid’s apron raced up to him wielding a huge knife. He put himself between her and Pomni, drinking in the mad glint in her solitary eye. She pulled up short and looked them over.

“Oh, new blood and one of them might be a bad boy,” she said excitedly.

Pomni failed to stifle her laugh. Kinger looked down at her. “What? Jax is the bad boy. You give off Dad energy.”

“I like that’s how you see me,” he replied but the one eyed woman scowled. “Hello, I’m Kinger and she’s Pomni. You don’t need a knife for us. We’re not here to hurt you.”

She shrugged. “I’m teaching the rats a less.” She brandished the knife.

“Rats?” Pomni shuddered.

“We have a lot of them. I’m Niffty.” She spun on her heels and shouted. “Husk! We have company.” Niffty looked over her shoulder at them. “Alastor is supposed to greet guests but he’s…” She frowned. “I need to give him another roach gift.”

Pomni mouthed ‘roach gift.’ Kinger shrugged, not sure where any of this was going or if they should be following a child-sized cyclops covered in rat blood. He’d say this was rather violent for Caine but after the whole Mildenhall Manor adventure who knew? Can was getting more erratic.

Niffty led them down a hall. They passed a gallery of photos of odd looking people, typical Circus bodies. The people looked happy at least. They lead up to a huge portrait of a snake man in a Navy-like uniform surrounded by Humpty Dumpties. She gestured to a bar where another Cyclopean woman sat in far sexier clothing, he supposed. It wasn’t his idea of sexy such as he remembered it – Oh Queenie – but he recognized the effort. A cat man with wings was behind the bar and a tall individual with multiple arms and a neon pink bustier on, showcasing a pink heart on their white fluffy chest They had one set of hands resting on the back of a little pig sitting on the bar.

“Just when I thought we were over all the noobs,” the cat said.

“Sorry, Charlie isn’t here to greet you,” the woman said.

“Want a drink?” the cat man shot them a decidedly grumpy look.

“God yes,” Pomni breathed and Kinger nodded. “You don’t want another corn cocktail do you, Kinger?”

“I ain’t making corn shit.” The cat flapped the bar rag at them. “I just mixed up a pitcher of Harder Daddy’s for this fool who better get his damn pig off my bar.”

“Harder Daddy?” Pomni asked before Kinger could.

“My signature drink and life motto,” the white and pink multiarmed fellow said. “Hi, I’m Angel Dust, he’s Husk and she’s Cherri and Fat Nuggets is waiting for you to give him a bowl of snacks, Huskie.”

“That pig is not going to spend all evening gobbling my nuts,” Husk snorted.

“Husk! We’ve talked about this! Don’t say it that way. Nuggsy is little,” Angel Dust covered the pig’s ears.

“I want some nuts,” Niffty said, climbing up a bar stool.

“Did I hear your name is Kinger?” Angel Dust leaned closer to him. “I’ve never had me a king before, just a lot of chumps who thought they should be treated like royalty.”

Kinger’s eyes popped straight out and the strangers all jumped as he shoved them back in place. The googles had been stretched by the wild take and barely fit. The bright neon lights started worming into his brain.

“Angel, behave,” Husk said, hanging Niffty a small bowl of nuts. “Yes or no on the Harder Daddy’s?”

“Why not? Kinger?”

“Say yes,” Angel Dust said.

Niffty pointed her rat knife at him. “He still might be a bad boy. That makes him mine.”

Angel Dust held up all four hands. “Not going to argue with you in this mood, Niff.”

“I’ll try one. What is this place? We’re trying to determine why Caine sent us here,” Kinger said.

“Caine? Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.” Husk poured two pinky-red cocktails that had obvious glitter in them.

“You are aware of Caine?” Kinger couldn’t help the shock in his tone.

“Adam’s kid.” Niffty shrugged. “He’s a weird one.” She popped a nut into her mouth and pushed the bowl to Kinger.

He waved his hand, fending her off.

“This is smooth,” Pomni said appreciatively after taking a big drink of her cocktail.

“Husk mixes a mean drink,” Angel Dust replied.

“I should get the recipe for Zooble,” Pomni said.

“And since you asked, the hotel is designed to redeem sinners and get us into heaven,” Cherri said.

Niffty snorted. “Probably boring.”

“So we’re in hell, really?” Pomni sounded part defeated, part scared.

Kinger fussed with the googles which had begun to slip and even more light was fuzzing his brain out.

“You don’t know you’re in hell, Toots. You must be higher than me.” Angel Dust laughed.

“Not possible,” Niffty said and Cherri snickered.

“So how do we get to heaven?” Kinger asked, hoping to make progress before he lost his center again and left Pomni on her own to figure things out.

“You’d have to ask Charlie,” Husk replied. “She thinks she has a plan to ensure we get into heaven.”

“Didn’t work for me,” Angel Dust said mournfully and Cherri rubbed his back.

“It involves therapy sessions, half the time with me as if I have the patience for that.” Husk rolled his eyes.

“Therapy makes sense,” Kinger replied. “Caine likes that.”

“It’s never helpful,” Pomni said.

Husk pointed a finger at her. “Exactly.”

Kinger jumped as Niffty stabbed her knife down next to his hand, pinning a roach.

“Okay, I think I’m done.” Pomni shuddered. “Let’s play therapy and get out of here.”

“We don’t play therapy,” a new voice said. They all looked over to see a tall blonde woman in a red circus ringmaster themed outfit with a short woman with pale hair and a short man in a white ringmaster outfit. “We do therapy. Hi, I’m Charlie. And this is my dad and Vaggie.”

“They’re Kinger and Pomni,” Angel Dust said. “They’re looking for their path to heaven, I think. It’s hard to tell.”

“Yes, we are,” Pomni said.

“Killing rats is better therapy than talking,” Niffty offered.

“Let’s call that plan B,” Kinger replied. The band snapped as he fiddled with the goggles. They fell away from his bulbous eyes. Kinger sighed.

“And…there goes therapy. With all this light, you’re not going to get sense out of Kinger unless you put a blanket over his head.”

“I can make that happen,” Angel Dust said. “I have plenty of them.”

“Ha, you into him, Angie or is it just the fancy robe? You like those,” Cherri said. “I mean, his eyes did fall out of his head, not your usual type.”

Angel Dust shrugged. “Not the weirdest thing I’ve seen all day. Val found a new costar for me who cums in technicolor.”

“Angel!” Charlie cried.

“Wait? Can you say that here?” Pomni asked.

Kinger pushed his glass to Husk. “I’d like a corn cob blitz.”

“What the fuck is that?” Husk glared. “I’m not doing special requests.”

“You can swear? Didn’t think Caine allowed that,” Pomni said.

“Really? That doesn’t sound like that little brat at all,” Charlie’s dad said.

“You know what, we should just go,” Pomni slipped off her bar stool and took Kinger by the hand.

“Are you sure? We could help,” Charlie said.

“If we can’t get out of here, I’ll give it some thought.”

“Pomni,” Kinger started but the thought fled as fast at it occurred.

“I’ll show them the door.” Niffty jumped down and ran ahead of them.

Kinger let Pomni move him along. Niffty opened the front door.

“Bye bye!” She waved to them.

Kinger blinked when intense light stabbed at him and they were back in the circus. Ragatha sat on a chair, wringing out her hair. Jax was flat out on the floor coughing up water. Kinger inched past them and crawled into his pillow fort. As the darkness settled him, he thought about the weird adventure where they didn’t actually do much. It didn’t seem like something Caine would do. What was his current preoccupation with hell? Kinger didn’t know. It bear thinking on. If only he could manage to do so.

Jam packed day

cornerofmadness — Fri, 29 May 2026 03:43:46 GMT

Seems like this post needs Husk as I'm now at the casino/hotel (and have already had cocktails and lost money)

So I got to sleep in some today because nothing opens before 10 AM. I checked out of the Sheraton and rolled out for Independence MO. Now if I knew this nearby town was so stinking cute I would have picked a third place (or at least planned to take the horse drawn carriage thing).

I went to Vaile Mansion It's a gorgeous home (that popped the dream bubble of owning an old home when I saw the 1.5 million dollar repair bill it's working on). Vaile was a lawyer/vinter whose wife (as these stories almost always go) died moving it here and he never finished the third floor billards/ballroom. It went to a lady lawyer next, his friend because his family tried to break his will giving it to a girl's college. It took so long to break the will his family was out of money and sold this house for a buck.

And SO much like Marietta's The Anchorage, they kept it up as a sanitorium for the wealthy and then a nursing home until the mid 1980s and unlike The Anchorage it didn't sit vacant long.

This place is filled with chocolate marble fireplaces, every ceiling is a painted mural. Sadly all the original furniture is gone (sold to pay that lady lawyer) but they tried to replace it as close as possible (the auction list was in the house so they knew what was there) There were tons of hair memento Mori in the house from the hair museum which I had wanted to go to but couldn't find times. Turns out even though the webpage is still there, the museum is not. The owner died in her 90s after covid and her daughter has sold off all the hair pieces. I didn't want to leave this place.

From here I went to the historic jail
. It's in that stinking cute down town and what fun was this? It's thought the limestone prison was built in the 1870s but they're learning it's probably the 1850s and the brick part is 1907. They have a little one room school house that was moved there years ago and every 1st grader in their school district goes there for a field trip to do class like they would have then. Sounds fun. The brick part of the jail is a little museum of local h istory (I need to look up what the priests of pallas was).

The jail was interesting. I was getting the cold, ghost chills standing there only to find out I was directly under where they dropped the prisoners to hang them (not a lot of hangings there mind you but still). Jesse James' brother had been imprisoned there but he was so well liked/folk hero status that they let him Al Capone that prison cell (before Al was probably even born) filling it with his personal stuff and he had it to himself. Most of the people were jammed in there 3 to a cell.

However during the Civil war, they had up to 11 women jammed in per cell. Most of my civil war travel (which is min.) has been in the north. Until I was in Louisville and now here, I didn't realize that the Confederate sympathizers had their land grabbed and they were imprisoned if they didn't leave. Tried to get my dad a book on this but the only one they had was a skull buster that even I couldn't see the print. Did get me a ghost book and some true crime book because I need books and make good choices. Also the kid running the cash register saw my Hazbin purse charms and he was very excited.

From there I went to the John Wornall Majors house but I missed the tour and didn't want to wait 40 minutes for it since I wasn't feeling it. I did walk around and read the placards. I did appreciate they were honest about the house's entrenchment in slavery (also ditto the jail which was built by slaves)

But since it was only like 230 I didn't want to go to the hotel because I couldn't go in for another 2 hours so I went to Nelson Atkins Art Museum. Turns out if you have a handicapped tag you don't have to pay the 20$ to park. Woot. So I sprung for the Alphonse Mucha exhibit which I really wanted to see (but if I had to pay for parking it would have been a 45$ ticket for it all)

The Mucha thing was SO nice but since my camera has a light (not a flash) I couldn't take much in way of pics because the docent was right up my ass. The flash is off, I swear. Wanna see?!? So I didn't get a shot of this but I'm putting it here, they had a bronze light fixture of Sarah Bernhardt's head he'd designed. To be honest I know very little about Sarah and had NO idea that she played several male roles including Hamlet.

I'm also not sure I knew just how much of Mucha's work was for calendars and ads. They had a whole room with 60s-70s rock album cover art inspired by his work (Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd) and I didn't know about the Slavic Empire set of 20 paintings he did at the end of his life that were hidden from the Gestapo because they inspired Slavic patriotism

From there I went to the main art area (the whole wing was closed where Mucha was except for that) This is the largest art museum I've been in I think. It was one little room after the other. I was so happily lost in this place. It was getting on 430 so I hit the gift shop wondering why people were still checking in when everything closes at 5. Had a gorgeous mucha umbrella and scarf (45 and 75$ respectively hard pass) and went for the car only to realize Wait it's thursday! It's open until 9 so I go back up to the second floor that I hadn't had time for. But there is art in here from Egypt to early 20th century (I assume the rest is in the Kemper modern art museum)

I head off to find the casino. I didn't realize it was SO far to the north west. I'm sure it wasn't super far (I remember google directioning all of this so I wouldn't make a bad choice) My GPS tried to murder me in a roundabout repeatedly. Americans suck at round abouts. I pulled out, no one was there (I have sensors on this car soo I know that there was no one there) and this guy comes whipping around SO far he nearly hits me and the guy in front of me while he's blowing his horn like he's not the idiot. When the GPS tried to make me go around a third time I said fuck it, I'm going straight and you find me another way there. It did and I have no idea how it didn't figure that out from the get go.

The argosy is done up like a roman street. Nice room, fancy bathroom BUT the shower is designed for wheelchairs so water runs everywhere, the rain shower head is the only one that works and so far I can't get it to be hot water. eye roll. I hit a little jackpot put it all back in and now I'm quite tired. no pictures yet. Maybe tomorrow.

The end of the conference, the beginning of vacation

cornerofmadness — Thu, 28 May 2026 04:09:11 GMT

Today was only a half day. We used to do two full days of workshop but not only was it a lot so many faculty had to leave half way through the last day to return to work (and some are still taking their suitcases with them on the bus today) so a few years ago we went to this.

Workshop #1 was definitely one I wanted to go to but I'm not sure if my students would go for. It's about scrapbooking your successes in class and/or using it to outline a tricky problem you think you've conquered (also I loved the study tip of quiz yourself, highlight what you know, look over the unhighlighted stuff and self quiz again). I could at least give it a shot (for credits)

Workshop #2 was all about gaming and not only that unlike all the other gaming ones he put links in to make your own game resources AND other games for sale. I'm really gonna need to check that out.

Workshop #3 canceled. AGAIN. I went to my second choice which was to build a brachial plexus from pool noodle vertebra and pipe cleaners. It was fun but I don't go into that level of detail.

It was only 1 when I got back to the hotel. I went to the American Jazz Museum . Didn't think I'd get there because the road to it was closed but I got there. And I got lucky. I'm not sure if they do this all the time or if it's all the time but they had high school bands playing the whole time I was there. Yay! The museum chose depth over breadth. It's 90% about Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald. They have it done up well, lots of interactive reading things, plenty of ads and other stuff on display. I knew that KC was big in Jazz but I didn't realize it was more important (or at least AS important) as NYC and Chicago. They had a mocked up Blue Room (that does concerts almost nightly). I didn't know much about Soundies, basically music videos that you could find in the 30s=40s in nicklelodians and things that like and there was a Columbus OH lawyer John H. Baker who gave his collection to this museum. they have literal miles of footage this guy preserved and tons of archives (and i suspect no space to expand the collection)

When I left it was after 3 and since most things close up at 5 I decided now would be the time to go to Elm Wood Cemetery Neat, rather small cemetery with cool stuff. I missed Leannah Loveall's grave (a famous madam) and my phone is crap so I couldn't use find a grave or download the map. (turns out she's not on find a grave but now I've seen the map. I can always go back)

Came back saw one of my compatriots and she told me there's a freaking Hallmark museum at the end of the block. I could have come and did that. Ah well (might still try to go)

Also thought about what someone told me about the roof pool here. From my room I could see no steps, just ladders but she had mentioned a tunnel. I couldn't see a tunnel so I trundle over and there it is a little room with the towels and a tunnel and there are steps doing to the tunnel (I can't do the ladder) I run back, get my suit and put in about 40 minutes of water aerobics. I'm the only one there.

Indulged in Jack Stack BBQ again, turkey and lamb ribs this time. They were amazing. packed everything up. Tomorrow I go to the casino (because the price of this place is going to shoot way up).

What I Just Finished Reading:
The Antique Hunters Guide to Murder - this was pretty good

What I am Currently Reading:

The Faraway Inn - a cozy fantasy (portal) set in Vermont. I'm enjoying it.

Our Sisters Keeper - a very weird own voices black magic setting in the 1920s, has some serious creepy vibes

The Gay Disaster Detective Agency - one of my arcs. I usually like Lev AC Rosen but this isn't working for me.

The Death Card - currently struggling to get into it

The Kindness of Strangers - another arc and I'm not sure this is going to work for me

What I Plan to Read Next: some of my looming arcs

The workshops were...different

cornerofmadness — Wed, 27 May 2026 02:09:26 GMT

I had a hypoglycemic event last night so of course the correction left me over 300 this morning and for some reason my phone did not go off when I set it. It went off when I was getting up the last two days so I was cranky about getting to the breakfast with barely time to get to the first workshop.

It was an oddly laid out place with workshops all over the damn place (I did not bring my cane. I will bring it tomorrow) My first workshop was moved all the way across campus so I went to the one next door. Not really a topic that interested me that much but I did get some helpful things from it for the syllabus.

Work shop number two was canceled. Boo. I wanted to do the dungeon crawl case study escape room thing. I went to the one next door. This one was interesting, talking about how out dated some of the graphics and concepts we still use are and I was wondering why some of it hasn't been adopted.

The lunch hour was something else. I have been going to these off and one for 16 years and this is the first time the line was insane (I was literally in a different building) They had one table of food and RAN OUT. There is no real excuse for this because they know how many people have registered, not sure who messed up. Luckily more food was cooked up (didn't go with the rest of it mind you). I got my food 10 minutes before the afternoon session started.

That was a case study one by a former doc turned teacher (similar to my story) and...for the first time I used ChatGPT to create the case studies and I was a bit terrified at how fast it did it and relatively accurate too. In talking to a few others I might remove the extended responses from my exams and put in simple case studies (as the nclex for the nurses are all going to those). Also it made me very sad to write this case study as a SOAP note (even though I am relieved I no longer have to write SOAP notes any more, the medical record a doc writes every time they see you).

My last workshop was a bust. No one showed up. I moaned not again. I don't want to sneak into another workshop late again. And my table mates say why bother? Let's just go get on the bus and go home. And so we did.

Also at lunch I brought out my heavy ass laptop because the blaster box for Hazbin Hotel was dropping at noon (10 minutes late as it turns out) it's their new card set and it will sell out. I managed to get it...twice over because I fat fingered my touch screen and it would NOT let me empty it out probably because it sold out in minutes and I'm like fine, I'll buy it because I can either sell it whole or more likely get the cards out and sell them separately. These cards have been selling out in under 5 minutes and people are reselling them for hundreds. I won't do that but I can sell it for easy 10-20 a card if I wanted to. I can recoup this and each one has an ultra rare and rare and other specials. Those I'll keep. Have I mentioned I love cards? I've been collecting them since 1977 with Star Wars (I even have the 70s era Planet of the Apes tv show), I have shit tons of Buffyverse and Fullmetal Alchemist cards. I have the entire Sandman set including chasers (probably worth a lot less now that we know how skeevy Gaiman is)

Dinner was chicken speidini at Garozzo's, yummy but I almost wish I had ordered the other chicken dish (they're credited from turning the traditional beef speidini to chicken) because I didn't like the pasta that came with this. I would have enjoyed the garlic/olive oil one with the other dish. I haven't eaten the tiramisu yet.

I also DID buy my Kansas City Gangster tour ticket for Saturday at 10. All the afternoon ones were sold out but you know what I don't mind. I have been getting up early for days now and once I get that over with I'll have time to do my afternoon stuff. Now to sit down and figure out my tourist days. I know what I want to do Thursday but now for the rest of the weekend.

Have fannish 50 the questions, I'm using Buffy for this

Day 4: Least favourite female character. This was much harder than it should be. I decided I wasn't going to use any one off characters and using Joyce or Dawn felt too easy. I didn't hate them. Joyce made a lot of bad choices that annoyed me and Dawn was...supposed to be younger than who was cast so I don't actually blame the character for being off.

I went with Kendra. She was a poorly drawn character. I liked that they went with the naivete/lack of social awareness because she was never a girl. She was just a weapon to be used until she was killed. That was a nice contrast to Buffy's wild side. Maybe it was that she came off as rather...dumb and that the one character of color on this whole show (other than Giles' girlfriend and Mr. Trick, a villain) was there really to make the white characters look better. It was uncomfortable. She was there to die (so much for the traditional training).

Day 1: Favourite season

Day 2: Favourite episode

Day 3: Favourite female character

Day 4: Least favourite female character

Day 5: Favourite male character

Day 6: Least favourite male character

Day 7: Favourite friendship

Day 8: Favourite romance

Day 9: Least favourite season

Day 10: Least favourite episode

Day 11: Best SFX / most woeful use of SFX

Day 12: Favourite villain

Day 13: Favourite guest character

Day 14: Character you relate to the most

Day 15: Character who didn’t get enough screen time

Day 16: Best use of a hoary old trope

Day 17: Two characters you wanted to get together that never did

Day 18: Favourite Liberator moment (change for other shows-how about Favourite unlikely friendship?)

Day 19: Favourite Scorpio moment (change for other shows- how about Favourite rivalry?)

Day 20: Favourite outfits

Day 21: Favourite fanon/headcanon

Day 22: Favourite audioplay

Day 23: Favourite cliffhanger

Day 24: Funniest moment

Day 25: Moment when you knew you were caught

Day 26: Favourite fanfiction

Day 27: Favourite scene

Day 28: Favourite quote

Day 29: Your song/fan mix for the show

Day 30: Would you like to see a modern remake?

cornerofmadness — Tue, 26 May 2026 02:49:14 GMT

the conference portion of the con is over and now it'll be two days of workshops which are always so invigorating. I almost wish this was the end of July/beginning of August so I could roll into the new semester all fired up.

We had the celebratory cocktails and it's usually appetizers but today it was make your own ramen bowl. Wow. (kimchi and spicy tofu were so in my bowl). Expecting not much, I had already ordered dinner from a BBQ joint (highly recced) it had a menu like none I've seen. So beef burnt ends and beef ribs with a pool of smoked beans it is. Delicious. I mean I don't usually eat meat but when I do go carnivore, it gets ridiculous.

Finally met my mentee who didn't much need me (as expected) as he's a retired family practice doc just moving into teaching. got a mug from holt anatomical. Didn't win a single door prize. Didn't murder any kids but the urge was there (they were screaming in the halls until 130 in the morning and several other Hapsters did complain. I had to turn them in when I went to heat up my lunch. they had trashed the microwave, food and wrappers all over the floor. You know, I've BEEN a kid at a hotel with school functions and I never did this

I did find a few things that no one but me will be interested in but I'm putting them here so I remember. A study contract for students (how long to study, what days, what's in their way), having them do a group eportfolio of their dissections, collaborative testing before exams to build confidence, using the guess who game to do histology quizzing (and others if you build it) and gee I've already forgot a few.

I watched a giant chunk of The Pitt (they had the whole season on) today. It is easily the most accurate medical drama I've ever seen and there was some real ptsd on a few of those scenes for me. Shudders. And then I saw The Bride (part of it) WTF was that? Easily the worst movie I have seen in years. Also thanks for the multiple sexual assault attempts in it.

dinner

new mug

It's music monday 30 weeks of music. This week's prompt is # 27 A song you discovered from a tv show. I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

From Inspector Morse

From The X-Files

From Buffy the Vampire Slayer

From Lucifer

From True Blood (even though I didn't like the show I loved this song)

From What We Do In Shadows

here's the whole prompt list

30 days of music
1 a song from your childhood
2 best song from High School Years
3 a song that tells a story
4 a song you like that is covered by another artist
5 A Song by someone Who has Passed away
6 A song you like from a movie soundtrack
7 a song you like with no words
8 a song from your first concert
9 a song you could exercise to
10 a song you know all the words to
11 a song with a long title
12 A song from the 90s
13 has a really good music video
14 you enjoy that’s in a different language
15 was number 1 the week you were born
16 a song that calms you down
17 A song that got you into this artist
18 a song that makes you smile
19 A Song from the 00s
20 A song from the year you were born
21 An 80s song
22 a song that describes you
23 A song that reminds you of your favorite season
24 A song with a one word title
25 A song from your pre teen years
26 A song from your favorite band
27 A song you discovered from a tv show
28 A song that makes you feel empowered
29 a song with food or drink in the title
30 A song in a different language

How is this so exhausting?

cornerofmadness — Mon, 25 May 2026 03:27:46 GMT

I mean I'm just sitting in lectures and walking around one exhibitor hall but I feel like I've worked 36 hours without a break.

I fiddled with a few things and tonight I can get into LJ. I have noticed that hotels do not like this site (due to their vpns etc and this being a russian owned site) so if I'm out of communication it's that

Okay had to stop for a second after three loud explosions. Not lightning. Not fireworks. No clue. Pool people were looking around too but maybe it is a storm, just one I can't see lightning for. But it was nice all day. Weird.

All the little kids are gone but now there are new ones in this hotel (it's huge, 40 floors) and they're doing the same thing, running floor to floor taking up the elevators and screaming down the halls. eye roll (seriously I had a focus group today, left a talk I was enjoying early to give myself 15 minutes to get upstairs for my lap top and back again only to still end up 5 minutes late. Slow elevators. We also have an Indian wedding going on with all their beautiful finery (one of the boys was talking to me in the elevator, he was the sweetest thing)

Speaking of sweet, man it's a matter of outside perspective isn't it? I was SO disappointed in my not-violet hair color but people have commented about how nice it looks but between last night and today like a half dozen strangers have come up to tell me how much they liked my purple plum hair one young professor (grad student?) told me that it matched my plum flower shirt perfectly and even my hair style reminded him of flowers. And here I thought people would think it was ugly because it wasn't the color I had originally wanted.

I learned a few things in the update seminars today including the huge role of vitamin A in craniofacial deformities (cleft lip, cleft palate etc). Planning a child? Get some A in your life. And while I knew that pigs were very close to humans physiologically (more so than mice but I don't normally talk animal testing because of people's feelings about it), I didn't know we were looking at them in terms of fertility. Nor did I know that male fertility has dropped 52% in the last 50 years (so 1% a year which doesn't sound like much until you really see the math) I missed why they think it is other than endocrine disruptors and environmental health, like pesticides nor did I know we had transgenic pigs with the glowing green jellyfish gene that they are using to test a few theories about breast milk which is another cause of lowering fertility, immunologic health and probably more. Breast milk has more than colostrum and fats/sugars in it. They have EVs (extracellular vesicles) which they're tracking with those transgenic pigs but we do know be it human or pig, breast milk leads to the healthiest of babies, cow milk is a close second but formula and plant milk are way behind (sorry vegans) Soy milk especially has the ability to be an endocrine disruptor because it's an estrogen mimic (this I knew and I don't eat much tofu any more or drink the milk at all because my cancer is estrogen sensitive and why risk it)

The focus group I was in was interesting but way harder than I thought. It was on escape rooms and I mean it was HARD. It took me and my partner a half hour and some hints to get out. It's not available to buy yet but I think it might frustrate my students because you really have to not only know your stuff but solve puzzles too. It is a virtual game, fantastic graphics etc and like a true professor on a labeling exercise there were more than you needed to get it right (and it took me a second to realize that randomly capitalized letters were the code for getting a lock open) some things you really had to know your shit or you were staying locked in there. My students are never escaping (and hell I barely made it past the match the emoji string part but mostly because I couldn't see it on the labeling part, too small, I'm too old) I think the overall feeling was shorter ones with just key systems would be good versus trying to tie multiple systems together this was tough enough to be a final exam prep (I'd have to give them major points) I think it was fun and if it was reasonable I would consider it. However, with all due respect to the very cool VR tool another vendor let me use 1000$ a student to use it is not reasonable. A full lab would cost me 25K (but it's only 3K in years after that. Per student? Per class? Don't matter, that's the entire budget for my entire department.

I never met my mentee. We just played phone tag. I did have a great idea handed to me at breakfast (there was that explosion sounds again wtf IS that?) one of the profs is sharing her pintrest and what she does is collect AI generated anatomy stuff, much of which is wrong and she prints it and makes the students fix it.

And yeah no writerly ways other than links (because I'm just sitting here watching Insidious while eating dill pickle corn puffs and whatever that sound is, it's shaking the windowpane. It seems mechanical almost like a train track.) I did make progress on my merfolk story and the sapphic divinity story crapped out today (mostly because I have a character and a setting and no plot and I don't know the Rifreddo Witch festival. I need to research it more)

Oh it IS Fireworks. I can't see them in the sky because my view is wrong but I can see them reflecting on the glass building across from me. Probably some baseball game or memorial day celebration.

and as I wrap this up it's nearly 1130 and people are running and yelling in the hall and I am not amused

OPEN Calls

81 Publishing Opportunities for Historically Underrepresented Writers (keeping in mind this isn't just people of color, LGBT, disability etc count for some of them)

28 Journals with Fast Response Times

Fun In The Dark. Small town weirdness, uncanny communities, strange local traditions, unsettling suburban or village horror

The Submission Pit May 2026 Window Open speculative fiction

Spookane: A Spokane-Based Horror Anthology Horror stories connected to Spokane, Washington and nearby regions

The Monstrous & The Divine This is the one I'm trying to write for once I do more research on that witch festival in Italy

Crooked Spine Issue 1 Open horror / debut issue horror fiction

Movie Horror Themed Anthology Horror centered on movies, filmmaking, or watching films

From around the web

YouTube Is Crawling with Pirated Audiobooks Made Using A.I. This is behind a pay wall but the title tells you all you know. I did find someone (real) reading classic short stories and after listening to a few of them I am FLOODED on YT with AI readings of all the classics plus I'm sure if I clicked on it AI pirated books. Can we just not.

How and Why I’m Creating a Physical Archive of My Writing

Association of American Publishers Applauds Sweeping Default Judgement Against Notorious Pirate Site Anna’s Archive

Authors Guild Wins Default Judgment Against TouchPoint Press.

The Ghost in the Machine (Inherited Creative Blocks).

How to Pace Your Prose for Greater Impact another one for the current book

From Betty

Anatomy of a Fable.

Five Surprisingly Successful Characters and Why They Work

Giving Your World Fantastic Skies.

Should Your Tale Start With Dark Backstory?

Literary Pathways for Microtension

How to Spot and Plug Plot Holes

Revisited: “Your Brain on Writing”

The Kind of Short Stories People Really Want to Read

Why Writers Should Never Make Smart Characters Act Dumb

How Writers Can Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic and Build Long-Term Visibility

Why Consistency Matters More Than Ever for Author Email Newsletters

Do Authors Really Need a Book Launch Team? What Every Writer Should Know

Do Authors Really Need a Book Launch Team? What Every Writer Should Know

What to Do When Someone Writes ‘Your’ Book

Thoughts on How the Marketplace Is Shaping the Stories We Tell

The Weird Editing Habit I Can’t Write Without

A Plot Twist with a Twist

Why Research is Important when Writing Fiction

Your Voice Is the Point. Stop Toning It Down

The Art of Withholding Information I need to contemplate this one for my current novel

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Visualization

Please drive in the center of the lane

cornerofmadness — Sat, 23 May 2026 03:34:09 GMT

Yeah lane assist, I'd do that IF I could see it. It rained for 335 miles from my door to evil_little_dog's. Some places I couldn't even see. From Cincinnati to Louisville I'm not sure we ever got above 25 mph.

Luckily it was mostly uneventful (lots of accidents none near me) and the Jetta gets surprisingly good gas mileage.

have some recs for fannish 50

Undeserved Mercy Torchwood

Through The Ring Stargate Atlantis

Live! Starsky & Hutch

Musical The Owl House

Soulmate The Owl House

Protocol Torchwood

All Roads Lead To Haven Hazbin Hotel

Childhood The Owl House

Opposite Hazbin Hotel

Gambler's Fallacy Hornblower - C. S. Forester Hornblower

Unwritten 镇魂 | Guardian

Recuperation 9-1-1

Handyman Teen Wolf

Flyer Derby The Owl House

Picnic The Owl House

Play Time Teen Wolf

captivated captive Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates

Horror (Movie) The Owl House

Seasons The Owl House

Cozy Evening Stargate Atlantis

Before The End Torchwood

Human Realm The Owl House

Fairytale The Owl House

The Salvage Yard The Trixie Belden Mysteries - Julie Campbell Tatham & Kathryn KennyThe Three Investigators | Die drei

Bedridden Teen Wolf

Normal-ish Hazbin Hotel

Learning to Compromise Teen Wolf