"I asked my ex, now good friend, if she would ever have an open relationship and she said, 'No, I don’t think I could do that' then after a pause and a smile, 'but what about love affair friendships?' 
She went on to describe an impenetrable fortress of female friendship, her own group of best mates who’d known each other since school and had supported and loved each other through almost all of their lifetimes. They sounded far more bonded to, and in love with one another, than their respective husbands. It struck me that we don’t have the language to reflect the diversity and breadth of connections we experience. Why is sex the thing we tend to define a relationship by, when in fact it can be simple casual fun without a deep emotional transaction? Why do we say 'just friends' when, for some of us, a friendship goes deeper? Can we define a new currency of commitment that celebrates and values this? Instead of having multiple confusing interpretations of the same word, could we have different words? What if we viewed our relationships as a pyramid structure with our primary partner at the top and a host of lovers, friends, spiritual soul mates, colleagues, and acquaintances beneath that?" —Rosie Wilby, “You’re More Polyamorous Than You Think”

(originally shared by Kylie, thanks!  I guess the ol clickbait stream can be good for =something= sometimes...)

Been slacking off on blogging lately, heh.  Maybe I should do a little bit of catchup?  Just came back from FNW, which was pretty decent this week.  Not crazy good or anything, but not bad either!

Lots of music commission stuff going on lately--I did two commissions this past week, one for Copy Girl and one for CarlyontheMoon.  Both went pretty well, so that's great!

I should take this opportunity to mention that I always really appreciate the personal messages that people send in sometimes with their bandcamp orders, or just random emails of support.  Sometimes I wonder whether I should reply personally to each one (maybe??), but regardless, those are always really nice to read.

Christmas letters are..eh.  Behind, of course, but I guess that's par for the course when you think about it.  I've got 6 done so far, hopefully I can get some more done this weekend?  I don't know what I'll be doing yet this weekend actually.  Been missing C, K a lot, even Y, who I haven't seen in quite a while.  Maybe I've kind of been holing myself in a bit.  I had a great chat online with P though, that actually felt really wonderful!

Work has been tough at times, not in the long hours way, but in the difficult way, and also needing to get a bunch of stuff done.  I think I'm getting on the right foot at the moment though, which is good; hopefully I can keep it up!  I feel like I've been talking about work with everybody lately, I guess it's been on my mind.

SF3 cabinet at work is theoretically getting sanwa JLFs installed this weekend, so I guess cross your fingers that that goes well!  I bought some octagonal restrictor gates to put in in case people don't like the square one.  I want to say I should get used to a square gate but I'm not 100% sure that I can =X

BFZ drafting has been going alright...I went 3-0, followed by 0-3, then 2-1, haha.  I think I'm at least starting to get a handle on what cards to take and such, but somehow I find that playing the format itself is just super demanding and challenging and I'm making mistakes everywhere.  Well, maybe not necessarily =mistakes=, but bad judgment calls.  Trying to decide whether to offer trades, whether to trade damage, and all that stuff is somehow really difficult.  Ugh!  MTG is just really hard =P  But I think sometimes, I gotta just loosen up a bit and concentrate on having fun too.  In 3rd Strike too, I feel like sometimes I let myself get too frustrated by my mistakes, though I try my best not to show it.  Sometimes you don't play perfect, you know?

Waltz feels so awesome!  Gah!  WCS is super cool and amazing and all, but nothing beats the feeling that I get when I'm having a good waltz.  When I'm dancing with someone who understands momentum, pressure, rate of spin, tracking, and how to line each other up for the "catch", it's great.

2/3rds of the way through Tale for the Time Being!  It's been fun so far, hope to read through more of it soon.

I finished watching Gakkou Gurashi...I actually got quite emotional at the end, I feel like it hit some poignant moments that really reminded me of things that are important to me.  The part with Kurumi "coming back", and Rii-san seeing her again, hit me really hard, actually--it's that dream that you (I?) have, of being able to get back something that you thought was lost forever.  Of reuniting with your past.  Even the part about the dog made me sad; it made me think of "Chalk", and loss.

Caught up on episodes of Steven Universe too!  Some of those episodes were super super good...can we just make this show mandatory viewing for all kids and parents?  They handled some really important issues, I feel like...parent-child relationships, how to cultivate healthy trust, all that stuff.  Just, really good.

We played Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, which was a blast! (pardon the pun)  Definitely much fun, I'd recommend it highly.

Got one more week to go, of wandering through life like this.  Let's hope that I can try my best this week.

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Oh, I almost forgot!  I tried cooking "jerk chicken" the other day, roasting it in the oven.  It came out pretty nicely and I'd definitely try it again!

It wasn't =really= jerk chicken though; it came out much wetter and moist, and doesn't have that really brown caramelized coating.  I tried to improvise a lot -- I threw in a shallot, and some cumin and oregano, and didn't have any nutmeg, allspice, or cloves.  Also replaced the peppers with the only pepper I had on hand which was a thai bird chili.  I probably could have stood to leave it in the oven for a bit longer, too.  But roasting chicken in the oven is great and I will definitely have to try it more...the only other chicken stuff that I do right now is stirfry/saute pieces (usually thigh), and then coke chicken wings (which I have been having slight difficulties with lately, it ends up making my stomach feel a little weird =/).  Looks like I will have to expand my spice cabinet a bit! :D

I will go and watch some videos and read up on it a bit (seems that serious eats has some writing on it too!), but if I had to do it again I would try to use less of the "chunky" ingredients (shallots, green onions), or try to mince them more, then maybe use a bit less liquid?  And cook it longer.  Maybe even brown it in the steel pan I have and then transfer to the oven.  Man, I really need a cast-iron pan!  ...and an instant-read thermometer.  And to sharpen my knives....and some good red wine.  These are all wishlist items...Oh!  I should also score the chicken next time so that the marinade penetrates deeper, I think that's a thing...

Anyways it ended up coming out pretty good regardless, even if it wasn't actually real jerk chicken.  Yay, success!  This is a dish I've had twice recently -- once at this "coconut caribbean" restaurant out in palo alto near FNW (it was pretty dang good!), and once as dinner at work, and both times were pretty good, so I decided I should try it myself...