Life goes on

Ici DJ io

I’m still here. Still djing. On Sundays is my “oh sheeeet” day. Black Ort is finally doing his show again, and we have a contest almost every week,.

Almost.

Between 6 and 7 pm SLT/PST, there is “guess the musical theme.” I have done themes like animals, a specific person, the group of us, and other, harder themes, such as “songs with misheard lyrics,” “four chord songs,” “songs to do CPR to.”

The first person who guesses the theme as close as possible to the correct one wins 500L. The next two win 300L and 200L respectively.

Yes, they have threatened me with being lynched if I make it too hard. But if I make it too easy, I’m just giving money away.

Black is back up and doing his show. I can hear a difference. It’s not his fault. Life has dealt him some hard cards for him to hold in his hand. He’s still on O2, but only for sleeping, and for driving because he needs that little bit extra brain power.

I need O2 too – when I am sleeping. My O2 level drops in the evening and even more so when I sleep, so the biomedical engineer that I married figured out how to set it up so that we both get O2 with our Cpaps.

I had bronchitis in February. I think it was more than bronchitis because my taste for spicy foods has changed. I was never sick enough to need anything but a single round of antibiotics, and I was never officially tested for Covid, yet there was a chance I might have had a variant that would not have come up on the home tests. There was a nasty variant flying around then and vaccinated people were not coming up positive except for the super dooper hospilization tests.

So, that’s at least the third time since 2020 when I could have had Covid.

In the last few weeks, the writers’ strike in Hollywood started. This is a great time for all the supporting unions to join the strike. Lots of businesses are going to be hurt because when shows show up, they do support the area’s economy. Caterers, local restaurants, supply depots, electrical generator rentals, and so many other little bits and bobs that a film crew need.

The writers are striking because of how the contract currently is set up. It has not kept up with the cost of living, nor has it kept up with streaming revenue. While the streaming services collect revenue, they claim poverty and are not paying the residuals they should be paying.

Not only that, but multi-million dollar movies short change the writers. It is a “perk” for the writers to be on the set while the movie is filming. Except it’s not a perk. They work on the set for little to no pay doing re-writes and helping the actors improve their character development. The perk isn’t for the writers. That perk is for the production crew. If the writer is on set, they can immediately answer any and all questions anyone in the production has about the story, script, their character, why something is happening, and all sorts of other questions.

Last time I checked, unpaid labour is called “slavery.”

Then there’s the entire AI issue. AI is going to destroy creatives of all sorts. Art work by AI is already unable to be copyright protected. I hope scripts and books will soon follow. AI work is not work. It has no soul or heart and without that, it’s only words, and not an actual story.

Black Ort and I both support the WGA. We have our reasons, and there are more than the ones listed above.

However, one of the reasons is getting to meet Erik Patterson. He has written a lot of stuff, and has had several movies. I’ll link his Amazon books later. I found him on tiktok. I met him on the strike like and he signed his two prompts books. He gives out prompts when he’s live on tiktok and has given me several.

Which has hit me hard in the “must write story!” sort of way. Expect twiddles. Lots of twiddles. Maybe even the novel that’s been purculated for over 30 years.

I am alive. I continue to learn about my heart issues. I am now on an insulin, and have nitro tablets for emergency, but I am no longer on a beta blocker.

On the one hand, I feel like my wheels are spinning and I am getting nowhere and imposter syndrome is hitting me hard. On the other hand, I am feeling extremely creative, in more than a yarny way.

I have a piece of advice for producers out there. There is a huge market that has been missed. Women from 30-60 who were never allowed to fly their geek flag. Sure, we can find geeky clothing for men in all sorts of men’s sizes. Trying to find the same thing for women, especially larger sizes, is a joke. Yes, there’s Torrid and Hot Topic, but a simple shirt? Pajama pants? Socks? Loungefly has backpacks and bags. There’s a huge market out there for geek women who want to fly their geek. Give us stuff that isn’t aimed at little girls. Transformers. Star Wars. Star Trek. Babylon 5. Pokemon. The list can go on for days.

Why can’t we love the stuff too? Why do we have to grow up years before we have to grow old? It is far better to stay young of heart and be able to show your love for something you enjoy.