Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

The Homespun Ceilidh Band will be performing at Chessiecon in Timonium, MD, this coming Saturday, 28 November, at 13:45. I hope a bunch of you folks attending the convention will come hear us!

I'm also on a panel there on Friday, "Disability and the Starship", at 17:30.

Between a week going between migraine and migraine-aura, a longer spell in a fibro flare, and a lack of gas money, I haven't been getting out much. I look forward to seeing people! I'm probably going to have to be careful of my spoons, but I'll be there.

The post I've been procrastnating and dreading. Ugh. I need help. Again. Still. I have not made much progress on longer-term solutions yet, and in addition to Charles' crowdfunded project to get me a washer and drier and maybe some paint, I could use help with stuff that's due and stuff that's overdue and stuff that's run out, if folks have a bit to spare...

High on the list are cat litter and cat food. (I should schedule the annual veterinary checkup too if possible, but that can be put off a while.) IIRC, there were some offers of cat-funding help if I ever needed it, when Perrine showed up twelve and a half years ago (wow, that long already?) and I wasn't sure I could afford a cat, and I'll quite understand if some folks want to earmark gifts as specifically for cat upkeep. (I know a three pound bag of Nutro Max Cat Indoor Adult kibble and a dozen of the tiny cans of Fancy Feast last about a month, but I need to track how long a carton of clumping/scoopable clay cat litter lasts.)

Also at the top of the list, my ISP bill (I'm $60 behind with another $50 due at the start of next month), the ~$150 I owe Sheepie for groceries she got me before I realized just how tight money was about to get, and gasoline to get to gigs and rehearsals and doctors.

Donations of (vegetarian) food and Prilosec (and paper towels and toilet paper) would be most welcome as well, though I can get by a little longer on the non-diabetic-friendly stuff in the house and baking soda for the tummy issues, I'm already beyond what I feels reasonable to ask for.

Relatedly, I'm looking for things I can do to earn cash -- the fibromyalgia makes my body too unreliable to do much on a fixed schedule, or guarantee as many hours a week as most regular jobs demand, but on average I could probably manage around fifteen hours a week, doing projects that can be worked on a bit at a time at home. (Some weeks I might be able to put in thirty hours without hurting myself; during a flare I might struggle to do anything useful for an hour a day.) I'll post more thoughts on that subject when I'm not all frazzled from finally forcing myself to write the plea above.

"The creative process is like music which takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity." -- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (b. 1840-05-07[*], d. 1893-11-06[*])

[*] In the calendar in use at the time: b. 1840-04-25, d. 1893-10-25. The Gregorian calendar was adopted by Russia in 1918.

I wrote this tune a while back -- an ominous twist on a childhood classic. More recently I put words to it. Even more recently than that, I posted it to Facebook and forgot to post it here. main web page for it / MIDI / PDF of sheet music prettier than the PNG below

Comet, Comet, Shining Bright
variation on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (or "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman")

copyright 2015 D. Glenn Arthur Jr. 

 creepily, 50-55 bpm or thereabouts

Comet, comet, shining bright,
What news do you bring tonight?
Do you portend civil unrest
Or is it time for me to invest?
Comet passing in the sky,
As mortals below you live and die,
Omen foul or omen fair,
I am glad your kind is rare.

I have another new tune (a more interesting one, I think) coming Real Soon Now. (The last 10% of the tune is taking 90% of the time.)