thearchiveduniverse

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes--Andor Edition

Took a photo of the house across the street and moved the camera at the same time. In 1977, at nine years old, I fell in love with Star Wars. My mom and I stood in line for a long time to see The Empire Strikes Back, only to be told it was sold out. (Mom and I also waited in long lines to see Star Trek movies.) Mom even had a Star Wars board game, which is sadly long gone. I have seen all the…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes & Stories

The last few weeks I’ve been taking part in Story-a-Day May. My theme? Monsters, Romance, and the End of the World. (You don’t have to pick a theme. Heck, you don’t have to follow any rules. Don’t like prompts? Don’t use them. Kind of like the prompts? Change them. Can’t actually write everyday? Make your own schedule. Nobody cares! Do what you want.) I like a theme for when I sit down and…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes: Talking to Spirits

Picture taken at an Austin Seance event last October at the Haunt Happy Bookstore in Lockhart, Texas. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I love them anyway. Doesn’t make sense, I suppose, yet it’s true. Humans believe a lot of things that make no sense, and I’m no different. In any event, it’s Mother’s Day as I type this, so here is my Mother’s Day post. My mother, my sensible, brilliant, talented…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes on the Weekend

I often feel that as a responsible human, I should stay informed about my fellow humans. Yes, injustice and depravity have always existed, but…damn, y’all. Cruelty feels ramped up to terrifying levels. This may certainly be because we have access to news 24/7 from hundreds of streams. We are so flooded with nightmare fuel, we could burn up our souls for a millennia. If we last that…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes Back on Track

You know when you’ve tried hard to do what you believe is the right thing, but it blows up in your face? There’s a mess, and it looks impossible to clean. But I’m trying to get back to using my time for art and writing. I’m going to be selling my wares at the Violet Crown Festival on May3rd. I’ve ordered two new prints for the day. and I might order another print or two. Maybe. But I will have…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes, What a Week.

You know when something happens that you very much didn’t expect and don’t want? It’s been a painful week. These days it feels as if the bullies are winning everywhere, on the world stage and in the private rooms. I’m exhausted and sad and angry and several other emotions besides. But as they say, the only forward is through. And this too shall pass. It’s still hard. I realize this is vague,…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Честита Баба Марта

sunflowers in Bulgaria Happy Baba Marta! Happy Grandmother March! If you click on the link, you can learn more about the holiday. Unsurprisingly, I was fairly pleased to learn of a holiday with my name in it, even if I wasn’t a grandmother. The tradition of giving someone a martenitsa on March 1st, and then placing it in a tree upon seeing a stork or swallow. As the month of March progressed,…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes and Nurses Everywhere

Mom died suddenly. She was there, and then she wasn’t. An aortic aneurysm killed her at 45. Now Dad is 89. He’s not sick and bedridden, but currently, because of a fall, he’s in a skilled nursing center, and there are many things he loves to do that he is not doing. Perhaps Mom would’ve lived longer if she’d been able to see a doctor. Oh, there was a doctor, but he was on vacation, and she…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes again, and what a week.

This week began as usual. The country’s dumpster fire continued apace. Papers needed grading. Appointments waited. Then Dad fell again. It’s his second fall. If you’ve taken care of an aging parent, you know the problems falls bring. So we headed to the ER. Papers didn’t get graded. Appointments got booted down (or off) the calendar. The dumpster fire, unfortunately, took no note. As I type,…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Head in the Clouds (Weeknotes)

I don’t think my head has actually been in the clouds–metaphorically or otherwise. I’ve been too grounded in the news. Or sucked into the news like a 1970s tv character into quicksand. Except the news is real. No director is going to yell cut and end the scene. If only… But between the destruction and horror, I’ve been getting my students to create a newsletter! I’m not sharing the newsletter…

[thearchiveduniverse]

January on Fire (Weeknotes)

Literal and metaphorical fires are burning everywhere, and I do not have a sufficient water supply. Who does for this conflagration? But what is community for if not to bring those buckets together–those heavy buckets, rusty buckets, buckets with holes, buckets without handles, all the buckets belonging to those with sense and decency to know that we aren’t saving the world for ourselves if we…

[thearchiveduniverse]

It's Still January. Weeknotes.

Well, I used to like Neil Gaiman. But I never read Sandman, and the first book of his stories I read, I only partially liked. I particularly enjoyed a story about an old woman who bought the Holy Grail at a thrift shop. A few stories I didn’t like at all, and most of the others were fine. Before I read the book, I actually came across a video of Gaiman speaking at Google. It was some series the…

[thearchiveduniverse]

It's still January. Weeknotes

Well, I used to like Neil Gaiman. But I never read Sandman, and the first book of his stories I read, I only partially liked. I particularly enjoyed a story about an old woman who bought the Holy Grail at a thrift shop. A few stories I didn’t like at all, and most of the others were fine. Before I read the book, I actually came across a video of Gaiman speaking at Google. It was some series the…

[thearchiveduniverse]

What-a-Week Weeknotes

One friend is in the hospital. I don’t want to say much about it because her situation is ongoing and I don’t want to throw her business too far into the internet. And really, there’s a lot I don’t know about her situation anyway. We message each other almost every single day, and something was clearly wrong when she didn’t respond to my messages. She always responds. ALWAYS. So, suffice it say,…

[thearchiveduniverse]

30 Days & Drawing (Weeknotes)

You know what I don’t need? Probably one of the same things you don’t need! Another obligation. But not all obligations are equal, obviously. For the last year-and-a-half (with no sign of abating) I’ve been letting obligations smother and strangle my writing and art. It’s not been pretty. Well, for a while, I’ve been a free subscriber to Wendy Mac’s substack. And like a lot of other things I…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Oh Dear January (Weeknotes for the start of a year.)

Oh, dear January!OrOh dear. January. Punctuate as you see fit. I suppose it makes sense that everything I like about January is everything I don’t like about January. The month’s name come from the the Roman god Janus, the god with two faces, protecting gates and doorways, looking into the future and into the past. I like January because it is the beginning of the year–a time to contemplate…

[thearchiveduniverse]

Weeknotes--Organizing Stories Edition and Our Sweet Sadie

‘Tis the season for clearing out and organizing, is it not? Sure, there’s spring cleaning, but end-of-the-year clear-outs and New Year’s Resolutions are everywhere. One sign, in case you needed one, was the wall display at the grocery store. Gone were the Christmas dooddads and baubles! Instead were the very tempting storage containers. I don’t know what the evolutionary impulse is to make my…