Dai Rogo

i was working at a little cafe where I could deny service over bad behavior, harassment etc. & mask mandates had just ended a week before & already people were being weird about me still wearing mine—an N95, the kind shaped kinda like a duckbill.

so this man walked in, looked at me sooo scathingly, laughed at me, and said “damn. never known a woman to choose…practicality over looks.”

And I just said, “oh. you can go, you’re not getting a drink.” And he said, “what???”

I said, “sir, you just walked in at 6 am & called women impractical and me ugly in one sentence.”

4 year old me: why must we do this

Fantastic old woman in the leopard print coat: "Why yes, my tooth IS real silver! Nobody ever asks me that. Do you like cats?"

Dear, sweet, Littlefoot, do you remember the way to the Great Valley?  I guess so. But why do I have to know if you’re going to be with me? I’ll be with you. Even if you can’t see me. What do you mean I can’t see you? I can always see you.

Thank you for your time!

I consider it a viable story idea once I have: - the main themes and setting (doesn't have to be a detailed setting, surface details related to the premise and plot are enough)

- the narrator's personality and voice

- How the climax will go and what the ending will be (can be rough; I don't need to know specifically what characters will be there are the end, just what the overall mood and conclusion will be)

Usually, by the time I start writing (because writing is a very slow process), I have more than this, but these are the elements that I consider critical before starting. I do not need to know every side character and subplot. I do not need to know every detail of worldbuilding, so long as I know enough to carry the central themes so I won't write myself into a plot hole. I started TTOU knowing who Aspen was and with a vague idea of exploring a bit about Arboreans, the Public Universal Friends, and a prison colony. I knew the basic layout of the ship and the chronostasis system, and I knew in *very broad terms* what they would find at Hylara (I won't spoil it here in case people haven't read it, but I had like, one sentence of knowledge about the place). I knew essentially what the first and last chapters were going to be. Everything else, including building the non-Aspen characters, came after I started writing.

I don't outline a lot at the start of a story, but once I pass about the two thirds mark I make a list at the end of my openoffice document of what I still need to cover and the order the events will probably go in. This is to help stick the landing without missing anything important; sticking the landing is massively important. Because I start writing without a lot of detail, I can't outline at that level of detail until fairly late in the process. Until then I just keep in mind the plot beats I need to hit for whatever I'm writing, which is an ever-changing list through the first two thirds.

My wife said that she just has an unshakable faith in our ability to fix things. And I guess we do often fix stuff and she has limited understanding of the variety of skillsets needed for that. So that makes sense.

I think probably it’s a common tho not universal image for young kids to have of their caregivers.

Anyways I think this should be used a lot more in stories about necromancy. Because if she brought me a dead pet or whatever and asked me to fix it and had just so much faith that I could do it, and I thought there was any chance I could do it it’d be “ok honey let’s go see if we can find some forbidden books at the library. Maybe we can get doughnuts after”

the fridge-freezer is in the kitchen. Not only are there dishes every day, not only are there food preparation surfaces of various kinds every day, not only are there crumbs and odds and ends that fall on the floor every day ... but the fridge-freezer is in the kitchen. The oven is in the kitchen, the food cupboards are in the kitchen, and above all THE KITCHEN BIN IS IN THE KITCHEN.

I mean, it's not like the bathroom is all sweetness and light, but seriously! Who in their right mind is choosing the bathroom?!?!?!?

The request is so urgent my boss needs it by the end of the work week. Which, y'know, is 5 PM on a Friday. So I have four hours to do it.

It's a forwarded request. Somebody contacted a member of the donation team asking for help, "I need a map from the Vietnam War to use for a presentation." It's somebody she's trying to coax into giving a five figure donation to the museum.

The request was asked to the donation team member, who then emailed my boss, who then emailed and called me urgently.

This map required:

North and South Vietnam in it

All four areas that South Vietnam was divided into for military purposes ('Corps') clearly delineated

Four cities, all of them horrifically misspelled, and only identifiable because I know what battle the requester is asking about (it’s in III Corps on the border with Cambodia) (the requester danced around the battle but I’m knowledgeable enough to identify it)

Has Laos and Cambodia in it

Has the Ho Chi Minh Trail in it

So. I was mad about the 'you have literally four hours to find a map with a lot of requirements.'

I was then mad at myself about finding a copyright free map from Texas Tech University within half an hour, proving her right for asking me to do it.

Then, after I found a map that perfectly met the requirements, I was equally amazed, baffled, and horrified when I read further into the forwarded email chain.

The donation team team member they were speaking to used AI to generate a map.

The above put half of North Vietnam in South Vietnam, made the Ho Chi Minh Trail a country, made 60% of Cambodia part of South Vietnam, put the DMZ extremely high up in North Vietnam, completely disconnected the southern tip of Vietnam, misplaced all of the Corps zones, etc etc

At the very last second the donation team member had a moment of divine clarity, remembering there's three historians on payroll to ask for this kind of thing from. So she contacted my boss while saying, "I had fun with this, but I decided I should check for accuracy before I send it to the donor! I need a fact check by the end of the day, then I send it"

My boss, while not the most knowledgeable on the Vietnam War, does know her geography. She took one look, and knew it was so off she called me to tell me how urgent it is that I look at the email and respond