Funky wallpaper in Disney World. It’s the little details that make it special.
Lance, Keith, and Winnie the Pooh?
Given that Lance (@gilove2dance) and Keith (@incaseyouart) jumped into an alien ship in their show Voltron: Legendary Defender (on Netflix now!), I think they would probably love to travel with the Doctor…especially since he can bring them home at any time.
But what is Winnie the Pooh doing there? (Dragon didn’t want to leave her favourite person: Keith)
Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette – Recommendation Thursday
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
One thing that I’ve said a lot on this blog is that I’m inspired by stories. Stories to me are everything; they frame our lives, they feed our minds, they are what humanity is based on.
Last night Jen and I watched Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s quite possibly the most powerful comedy show I’ve ever seen. I laughed a lot, I learned a lot, and I cried a lot. Hannah is a brilliant comedian and public speaker, but most of all, the writing of the show is beyond anything I’ve seen. The writing is perfectly paced, beautifully self referential, and exquisitely done. This is a writer at their peak and anything she does after this I will follow.
Go watch it!
Obvious warning: It’s a comedy show for adults so there’s swearing, sex, violence, and feels.
Have you seen the show? What did you think?
Éric
PEI and Anne
One of my favourite books, both when I was growing up and now that I’m older, is Anne of Green Gables (and the rest of the series). Did you know that they found a bunch of Montgomery’s writings recently and published them?
Needless to say, I have wanted to visit PEI for a very long time, to walk in Anne’s footsteps. The tourism PEI website was incredibly helpful in planning a 3-day itinerary. I’ll only include a bit of it here – you should go to the website to check it out.
Day one – Cavendish, Avonlea, and New London. Visit Anne’s beginnings, with Green Gables Heritage Place, the town where Anne lived, and where Montgomery grew up.
Day two – Green Gables Museum, a carriage ride, Bideford, and Lower Bedeque Schoolhouse.
Day three – Charlottetown for the musicals. Yes, there are two. Personally, I would stay an extra day just so I can see both. Anne of Green Gables – The Musical plays at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, has matinees on Wednesday and evening shows on Mon, Tues (except Sept 18), and Sat, until September 22. After that, the dates and times change and are not on the website. Anne & Gilbert plays at the Guild, and plays during the summer on every day except Saturday in a matinee or evening show, and in September/October on every day but Monday and select Sundays. Please note, the Guild does not allow children under the age of 4.
Are you interested in travelling to PEI? Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel .
*Update* The Grocer’s Shop / Alimentation L’Epicier Inc. – WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
So last October I wrote a post telling our experiences with The Grocer’s Shop / Alimentation L’Epicier Inc. To say it’s scathing is an understatement.
One of my references that was called, despite our asking differently, signed up with their Quebec branch. They had perfect service and love the product. This tells me that the Ontario side is probably the problem.
Yesterday at 11am I got a call from their head of Customer Retention. He was extremely nice and very polite and asked what he could do to win us back. He was polite, understanding, and repentant. He offered us some free samples and genuinely tried to win me over (the big telecom companies could learn a thing or two from this guy).
Near the end of the call he did ask if I could take the original blog down. This tells me that it might have been the reason for his call and not the official complaint.
I neither accepted any restitution gifts nor will I take down the original post, but I have to give them credit for trying.
Conclusion
Although I can’t recommended them I have heard good things about their Quebec branch and nothing but fantastic things about their product.
The act of reaching out to me (although 9 months latte), apologizing, and trying to make amends tells me that they are not as bad as I first thought.
What are your thoughts?
Éric
Top 5 Things I Never Thought I’d say – Toddler Edition
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
There are times in life where you say something and suddenly you’re hit with both the ridiculousness of the statement and the fact that you never would have guessed you’d say it. Toddlers are fantastic at bringing about these moments, or at least mine is.
5. She wouldn’t sleep so I…
Our child is not the same as other children. Here is a list of ways I’ve put her to sleep:
- Bouncing on knee in a more and more violent fashion in an Air Canada Lounge
- Watching Specter on Netflix and turning up the volume
- Loud music, including Death Metal, Opera, and Metal Covers of Classical music
- Yelling while holding her
- Being in the Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean Ride at Disney World
- Reading a horror novel to her
- Jumping in place while holding her
4. That is not Mum
The moment my wife isn’t in the room my daughter starts asking for her. It doesn’t matter where we are, she’ll randomly say MUM?! It gets extra weird when she looks at a person (Woman, Man, Biker, Person in an ad) and says questioningly MUM?! as if she couldn’t remember who her mom is.
3. We do not walk on …
She has a future in balancing on pretty much anything she can get her toes on. Electronics, books, pillows, couches, Grannie’s shins, my neck… etc
2. Are you Jelly?
Disposable diapers have two settings; dry (Where they feel like sawdust in a soft pouch), and wet (Where they feel like they’re filled with jelly). So I often ask if she’s jelly. The answer is always NO! since she hates being changed.
1. Not in your mouth!
Oh, if I had some sort of money for each time I said this… I’d be very very rich. My child is truly a Dragon and tries to eat everything.
Variations of this include:
- We don’t eat our toys
- We don’t eat our friends
- We don’t eat rocks
- We don’t eat walls…
What odd things have you said to your children?
Éric
Blush: PA safety
Anonymous Question
Hi! I’m considering getting PA piercing and I recently became sexually active. Is there anything I should know about safe sex with a PA?
Answer
Thank you for using our anonymous question box!
I’m going to take a wild guess here and say that a PA piercing is a Prince Albert piercing – where the piercing goes through the opening of the urethra and out the underside of the head of the penis.
You should definitely wait until your piercing has fully healed before any sort of intercourse.
Safe sex with any sort of jewelry is difficult, because jewelry has all sorts of sharp/hard edges to them. I’m actually finding conflicting information about what to do about condoms. Some are saying that you should remove the piercing before putting on the condom, but others are saying that you shouldn’t remove the piercing for longer than a few minutes because the holes might close up, and you should get a condom with a larger receptacle at the head. If you go the route of larger receptacle, lube the inside of the condom and the piercing itself to reduce friction. I had a hard time finding out anything about a plastic piercing, so that might be something for you to consider. Ask your piercer! They should know all about the risks and safety precautions.
There is a potentially higher risk of contracting an STI with a genital piercing, because there is a larger chance of the STI entering the bloodstream. Because of this, barriers should definitely be used.
I also found a recommendation to clean the pierced area with saline immediately after intercourse.
I also saw a suggestion that was interesting – get a dildo pierced. Then you’ll know what it looks and feels like during sex, and you can decide whether or not you want it for yourself.
References
http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SafeSex/Q8940.html
https://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/a19543667/prince-albert-piercing/
https://learn.condomdepot.com/2014/04/21/body-piercing-genital-piercing-braces-safe-sex/
https://www.webmd.com/sex/genital-piercings#3-7
If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.
2018 Resolution Redux
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
Since I’m doing so well with my resolutions. I decided to add some more and alter a few.
Oh my goodness… what have I done!?
Writing
Write 2000 words a week for The Mystery of the Dancing Lights
I will continue to try and reach this goal. Maybe I’ll catch up and maybe I won’t, but if I continue the way I have been I might fail but I’ll still have 2/3 of a novel.
Write a Monthly Serial Story
I’ll keep going at this and hopefully succeed. I can’t wait to see where this story goes. Go read it from the start.
Finish the new content for FADDS and playtest it
Play testing will continue until at least September and maybe end of year.
Pitch Everdome and the Super-Secret Project (Completed)
Nothing to do here until my publisher and partners get back to me.
Start getting a short story collection together (Completed)
This will still need to be edited but I consider it put together.
Write the Bookend Material for the Short Story Collection (NEW)
I’ve decide to submit the past 5 years of serial stories to my publisher with in between parts that are related to the Elizabeth novels. I’m hoping to call it The Coffee Shop Between the Worlds.
I need roughly 6000 words for the book ends and I might add a little to the serial stories to give people a reason to buy them.
Rewrite the introduction to FADDS (NEW)
The game is really close to ready but the first bit was written so long ago that it isn’t relevant to the game anymore. It needs a complete rewrite.
JenEric Designs and Coffee
Continue to ensure there’s content 5 days a week on JenEric Designs
We’ve been going for five years now with content every weekday on JenEric Designs and I’m very proud of that. Jen and I have worked hard not to miss a day. I’ll do my best to ensure we keep that streak going.
Test, Design, and Produce 2 new coffee flavours (Completed)
Done and done. Working on even more.
Look into pricing and interest in CoasteRPG (NEW)
I developed a super simple RPG and I need to find out if it’s worth printing it onto coasters and selling it. I’d like to get some prices, and check if any of the local gaming bars/cafes would be interested.
Editing
Edit and send Dinosaur Road Trip to a willing beta reader
I’m going to go through this and hopefully I won’t cringe while reading it.
Edit and Submit A Case of Synchronicity to my publisher by end of summer. (NEW)
It looks like my publisher is doing extremely well and that means they have more than enough books for the 2019 roster. That means that there might not be room for Everdome (if they accept it). I don’t want that to happen again so I’ll try and submit a little earlier. Hopefully there will be room for the next Elizabeth A Case of Synchronicity in 2020 and Everdome in 2021.
Pleasure
Read 30 books by authors I have interacted with (Amended)
I’m amending this one to books by authors I’ve interacted with or met. It’s forcing me to read all the awesome books by authors who I like as people but haven’t gotten around to reading their books.
Play more Videogames
I will continue to try and play more games. I’m hoping to get Detroit: Become Human for my birthday and spend a few days playing it on vacation.
Finish Star Trek: Discovery (NEW)
I didn’t enjoy the show much but I feel I need to give it a full season to make up my mind. There are interesting characters and ideas but it’s very dark and has made some really dumb writing choices. I have four episodes to watch.
Well that’s an intimidating list. Here’s hoping it goes ok.
Is 15 too much?
Éric