Poetry: The Girl on Stage

This poem was first published in the Medium publication The Brain Is A Noodle (TBIAN), for the prompt 'What do you feel when you or your favourite musicians are on stage?' set by Lucy Dan (editor of TBIAN)

The Girl on Stage

Nerd Church - National Mourning Is Not The Same As Private Mourning

A reporter approaches someone laying flowers outside Buckingham Palace...

"...I'm just devastated!" they howl. There are genuine tears on this random person's face.

The reporter says something about the whole country feeling the loss deeply, being in mourning, grieving, everyone's lives being touched by the late Queen - really laying it on thick - and... nah.

Just, no.

The Queen died.

That's not a happy thing. And my thoughts are with her family and those who knew and loved her.

They lost someone they loved, so yeah, I feel for them.

But I am not mourning. Not personally, as an individual.

I saw her once, when I was a kid, and strangely pro-Royal (but then, I was like nine or ten, and she was an actual Queen,) - I was one of those kids they bus in to line the route and wave flags as she passes in her car, y'know?

Yes, they actually bus local kids in for that - I got selected and everything, check me out! Lol. 

And we got Welsh flags as well as British ones, because dragons rock.

Friday Fics Fix - This Fic Understands Mental Health Problems

Warning: this post discusses eating disorders, general mental health problems, and realted symptoms and themes

'Normally, when Mac had a problem, all it took was some spare parts and a Swiss Army knife...'

I thought, before reading this, that I wouldn't ever end up recommending it.

Honestly? I figured from the syopsis and tags on AO3 for this fic, that it would probably be trauma porn - which I've been known to indulge in when the need arises, but wouldn't y'know, recommend to anyone. 

Not least because trauma porn is often really poorly written, exploitative, and gratuitous.

I was wrong. This fic is freaking amazing.

And the fic author saying this was the first fic they started... wow!

Comics Wrap-Up - I'm All About Those Existential Crises

It's Thursday, the UK is on its fourth prime minister in six years (anyone for a fifth?), let's get us some comics-y superhero-y goodness!

Month In Review(s) - August 2022

(Warning: this post briefly discusses mental health problems)

August was... OK, I guess.

And for me, this year, OK is freaking fantastic!

So, it was still too hot, but it was cooler than July which -

 - yes, please, thankyou, more of the lack of heat melting my brain, if at all possible, thanks!

I do not function in the heat. At all.

Frighteningly, we now have an official drought in much of Wales. 

If you don't know Wales and our verdant, fertile, valleys all that well, you might wonder why that's frightening.

Basically - you know the stereotypes that the rest of the world has about it always raining in London? Yeah? Well, I would consider London to be quite a dry place.

And we have drought.

(And now London possibly wants our water - but if I start getting into the long and exploitative history of water politics between Wales and England, we will be here all day.)

Climate change is real, and it is here.

Nerd Church - Constantly Consuming Content

 

'We've got mountains of content
Some better, some worse
If none of it's of interest to you, you'd be the first'

- Bo Burnham, Welcome to the Internet

There's a lot of content out there, a lot of media, a lot of art, a lot of whatever you wanna call it.

There's a lot of it.

My TBR is over 900 books, and I've given up ever taming it. 

My web bookmarks and favourites can only be described as chaotic. 

My Netflix, Disney+, Sky box, and YouTube are overflowing with things I want to watch, only to get distracted by something else on the home page and end up watching that instead.

There are so many excellent people whose work and art I wanna see on blogs, socials, whatever...

Friday Fics Fix - Bucky Isn't the Problem In This House

 

'“Huh,” Sam said. “You’re the ghost.”'

It seems like I'm drawn to gothicky SamBucky lately.

Not sure whether this is my fault or just the way things are... nah, let's be honest: it's my fault. I am trash. 😅