Breaking the signal so it's totally unreadable

[sovay]

My poem "The Conversation" has been accepted by Not One of Us. It is about communication problems, among other things. I think one of the others is politics.

I would love this Wondermark even if I didn't also call my own cats "baby cat."

I haven't read any of the relevant comics or even seen Suicide Squad (2016), but last night I dreamed about Harley Quinn and some ambiguous fictional antihero (spent some time as a black dog, was neither a hellhound nor Sirius Black) trying to break into a university with a serious haunting problem. Two nights ago I had weird-ass dreams about tentacle pregnancy. Your guess is as good as mine.

Comments

[yhlee]

Yay the poem!

My last dream was about designing a card game. *facepalm* Also one of my old high school classmates was explaining to me, very earnestly, why it was necessary to behead someone (not me) with a very deadly-looking bastard sword. I don't know what's going around these days...

[sovay]

Yay the poem!

Thank you!

Also one of my old high school classmates was explaining to me, very earnestly, why it was necessary to behead someone (not me) with a very deadly-looking bastard sword.

As part of the game design? That sounds h*archate.

[yhlee]

I can't decide whether that would be a Shuos card game or a Kel card game, with that particular feature...

[davidgillon]

If you can't tell, it's definitely Shuos ;)

[yhlee]

*chokesplorfle* Touché!

I did do a speed game design workshop (four-hour session) at Gencon as part of my research for the h*archate, along with reading a bunch of stuff on game design, but I should probably actually try to interview real game designers the next time I try to write about this stuff, because a game designer I am not. :]

[davidgillon]

a game designer I am not. :]

Not convinced, Jedao's heresy game strikes me as a great game idea.

Yeah, the practicalities might need fleshing out, but a game that forces you to lose in order to win is a really strong concept

[sovay]

Yeah, the practicalities might need fleshing out, but a game that forces you to lose in order to win is a really strong concept

You could call it Suicide Hawk.

[davidgillon]

Ooh, {applauds}!

[yhlee]

Inspired by things like the misère variant of games like Sprouts, though. :p

I didn't go into details because I knew I'd get nailed by actual game designers and/or mathematicians, and the last time I tried to do actual game design for story purposes, it was a complete time sink.

[davidgillon]

I didn't go into details because

I think the art of it is to imply the details are there, and hang together, without actually going into them. Leave it to the reader to fill in the details if they want them.

[davidgillon]

My latest dream was perfectly predictable pre-travel anxiety. There was a better one a few days before, but the details fade so fast - ooh, just remembered I noted down a line that was ringing in my head when I woke, which I can't now find, but I think was: "There was a king who reigned in the Heavens"

[sovay]

There was a better one a few days before, but the details fade so fast - ooh, just remembered I noted down a line that was ringing in my head when I woke, which I can't now find, but I think was: "There was a king who reigned in the Heavens"

It's a good line! I hope you can do something with it while awake.

[davidgillon]

Thanks! No ideas so far, but now I've remembered it....

[yhlee]

I still get anxiety dreams of the form "I have been signed up for French all semester but have not gone to any classes and the final is tomorrow" (in real life, I aced French) / "My topology homework is due tomorrow and I haven't started it" (I turned everything in on time and got an A in that class) / "It's the first day of classes and I can't find my schedule."

...it's like my subconscious thinks I'm still in college. If only!

[sovay]

...it's like my subconscious thinks I'm still in college. If only!

I have nightmares about teaching classes. Somehow that feels especially unfair.

[yhlee]

Yikes! No kidding.

Despite the fact that I had some traumatic teaching experiences, my anxiety nightmares usually stick to casting me as a student--I think because I associate it with powerlessness.

[davidgillon]

Used to get a doozy while I was at uni that I should be doing another course but no one had told me. Still get an exam anxiety dream at least once a year, and it's 31 years since I graduated!

[yhlee]

Yeah, no kidding. I often get these weird melange dreams that are set in a mixture of my high school and my college. *shudder* I would trade them all to get nice, straightforward nightmares about getting shot in the hand with a blue laser (dream from 4th grade) or being stalked through the city by hostile mecha (a few years ago). I hate school anxiety dreams!

[davidgillon]

Absolutely! I've had a handful that are worse, but the anxiety ones are the ones that Keep On Coming Back!

[yhlee]

Yes, that's it exactly! If they were only once in a while that would be one thing, but anxiety dreams in school clothing? They just never go away. They're just so uncreative.

[davidgillon]

I managed to have an anxiety dream that got creative last night. Not only did I have to do an advanced maths exam without having revised, but I think there were actual questions. And then I had to apologise to Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS that I'd forgotten to revise because I was wrapped up in the case we were on. "Sorry, Boss"

Anxiety dreams complete with Gibbsslap?!

ISTR the 'case' was a missing person on a ski-ing trek(?!), but they'd gone missing because they were disoriented as someone had been pumping carbon monoxide into the lodge where they were staying, which was still slightly less imaginative than the dream that preceded the exam. That one featured hunting demons who could take on the form of family members. "The art is to only wing them with the first shot from the shotgun, just in case it really is your cousin"

[choco_frosh]

I would love this Wondermark even if I didn't also call my own cats "baby cat."

Sporrfle. Early- and late-period Wittgenstein.

[sovay]

Early- and late-period Wittgenstein.

It makes me so happy.

[umadoshi]

The Wondermark is delightful! ^_^

(We call Claudia "baby cat".)

[sovay]

(We call Claudia "baby cat".)

This really is a cartoon to which all cat owners can relate.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That Wondermark has SOVAY all over it. It's excellent.

And yay for "The Conversation"!

You, more than most people I know, would make a good parent to a discombobulated cephalopod who somehow ended up incarnating in a human.

[sovay]

That Wondermark has SOVAY all over it. It's excellent.

"When I got home an hour ago they were still debating whether reconciliation is possible between early- and late-period Wittgenstein."

And yay for "The Conversation"!

Thank you!

You, more than most people I know, would make a good parent to a discombobulated cephalopod who somehow ended up incarnating in a human.

I'm really honored by that!

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I have these conversations with Colqhoun fairly often. Congratulations! On the poem, I mean, not the dream of tentacle pregnancy.

:/

[sovay]

I have these conversations with Colqhoun fairly often.

I suspect many cat owners would recognize the phenomenon.

Congratulations! On the poem, I mean, not the dream of tentacle pregnancy.

Thank you! Yeah, I think dreams of tentacle pregnancy just kind of happen.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

And man, that is perfect cat-conversation comic.

[sovay]

Congratulations!

Thank you!

And man, that is perfect cat-conversation comic.

Everything about it delights me, including the fact that I may have to incorporate "my little small one" into my vocabulary.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

When Kestrell was first losing her vision, she experienced Charles Bonnett Syndrome and, like many such people, started seeing hallucinations of black dogs. I think black dogs may be wired deeply into the human brain somewhere...

[sovay]

she experienced Charles Bonnett Syndrome and, like many such people, started seeing hallucinations of black dogs. I think black dogs may be wired deeply into the human brain somewhere...

I had no idea it was common to hallucinate black dogs. The hallucinations in my family are lions.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

What with the general stigma against mental issues, not many people talk about these things.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Well done on the sale! That is an excellent comic.

...was the tentacle pregnancy horrific, or just weird?

[sovay]

Well done on the sale!

Thank you!

...was the tentacle pregnancy horrific, or just weird?

It was entirely normal within the dream, albeit a little logistically complicated, and then I woke up and looked at it and went, "What?"