Driving back to the Mountains just now was like driving onto a Hollywood movie set, wherein the set has been lit and dressed for maximum nighttime atmosphere. Fog. Frozen fog, hanging low, illuminated by headlights. And in my driveway, I parked and walked to the mailbox to check the mail, and as I did, I heard some seriously wiggy sounds right above my head.

Crispy crackly crunchy grindy squeaky sounds. For a paranoid moment, I thought there was, like, a mountain lion or a bear or maybe even a chupacabra in the trees above, rustling, positioning itself so that it could fall down onto me and chomp me into tiny bits.

And hey, I live in the mountains, so while unlikely, it's within the realm of possibility. I was spinning around, looking for the source and meaning behind these sounds that were seriously freaking me out and I realized it was Spike, the weaponized tree, glowing ghostly white in the light of the front porch.

Spike's limbs and giant thorns are coated in frost, still, and in the breeze, they were rubbing and squeaking and grinding against each other, creating a creepy symphony I have never ever heard before. And am not keen to hear again.

::shudder::

I missed a couple week's posts. Felt poorly about gaining a few pounds. Which I figure was due to starting some mild strength training. And having more dried fruit rather than (out of season) fresh fruit. Fucking winter. Fucking, fucking winter.

Still working on the camera app. Very, very close now. Just minor polishing. I need most importantly now to get the documentation written so I can put it in the hands of testers. It's that moment of uneasiness in a big project where one wonders, is anything important missing? Is it as good as I think it is? I know the work has been worth the months of effort because I love the resulting app, but it would be very nice to make some money from it too, and I don't know if that's just a pipe dream.

In other news, I'm applying for an arts residency in Newfoundland. If I get it, I will be away from home for up to 3 months ( hopefully in the summer) focusing on my photography. Yes, being apart from my beloved and my cats and my home and my habits for months will suck. It will also be exciting, wonderful and enlivening. It will be an adventure. I really hope I get it. 

Today I listened to a lot of Stuff You Missed In History Class. 

To make a long story short, this exists, and it comes from a place of kindness and curiosity. 

Unrelated: I just started reading Brainwashing by Kathleen Taylor. It's all scientific and stuff. 

Too rainy for a lunch walk. 

Setting reminders for myself to do things tonight. 

The Punch Brothers' new album is really good. 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hanging out with three marvelous OPWistas in person. And I got a well-deserved yet gentle and loving earful about some longstanding requests I haven't seen to after many moons.

So last night I hit a few tickets:

1. You can now edit your comments! Frickin' finally. Enjoy. There is a little "edited" label next to comments that have been edited. That's to be fair to people who replied to the original comment; their remarks might otherwise seem excessive after the original commenter makes changes.

2. You can change your blog name via "Account Settings." That is to say, I could change "/boutell" to "/grumpycat", if I wanted. If you do this, be aware that your old URLs will not redirect. This is mostly meant for people who made a typo when they signed up.

3. Visible "undo/redo" buttons in the text editor. It was pointed out to me that OPW has no undo and redo buttons for text edits. Yes, the common keyboard shortcuts work, but there's no reason to assume we have them if we don't advertise them! Now you can find these features right on the toolbar. This will save you from grief especially when editing on mistake-prone devices like phones and tablets.

4. Edit: no more losing comments by accidentally leaving the page! My first take on this didn't work for iPhones, so I changed up the fix. If you have unsaved text in a comment, you'll now get a confirmation prompt if you accidentally mash a link that would take you away. Also, that pesky "posting as Dr. Whackadoodle" link is no longer an actual link in new comments. It was very easy to tap it by accident on a phone.

More is coming! The next most passionate request seems to be a way to tag posts.

The comment-saver feature isn't perfect. It can't stop you from accidentally hitting "back," for instance.

Probably the best thing about partner dance is that everybody needs a dance partner. Being pretty good is almost as much fun as being the Best In The Whole Friggin' World, and even being "enh" usually still means you get to dance.

Playing and writing music is different; we all have the option to listen to the Best In The Whole Friggin' World, and generally we take it. If you want an audience, you'd best find a niche, or start scaling that Best In The World mountain. Even your best friends are going to be... exactly as meh as you are, when it comes to listening to anything less. And that's only fair. Admit it, you hardly ever click when your friend posts an audio recording either.

But who says an audience matters? These things can be satisfying in their own right.

Operation Get Ted To Celebrate Responsibly and Happily With His Community was a huge success. 

Shelle & Houser let us tag along with them and Captain America. Ted stayed on the sidewalk with other costumed adults while the kids did the candy ritual. 

We sang "Grim Grinning Ghosts" and "Headless Man" while we walked. A few people recognized him from The Media Theater, and greeted him kindly, which made me really happy. It was also surprising, considering Ted's heavy disguise, 

The boys got tired and it was time for ghosts and heroes to call it a night. I asked Captain America if he wanted a hug or to slap me five, and he didn't answer, so I held out my palm and he slapped me five. 

As I turned away, I heard a tiny voice say, "I want a hug." 

Oh, the creaking down on one knee hurt, but the heroic hug was gold. 

Let's get this party started!

Archer and I were disappointed by the Muppet Show reboot.  In fact, we almost stopped recording it, but we decided to give the second episode a try ... and we were still not thrilled.  The third was a bit better, but we were still not enthused, and we're HUGE Muppet fans.  Come on, Muppets, give us something!  We're your biggest fans!  We're oscillating over here!

In Episode 4, Pig Out, they gave us something. That something is glorious and totally worth waiting for.  You don't have to slog through the first three episodes if you don't want to (though episode 3 has some charming Kermit and Fozzie moments), because you have your humble Muppet curators to present the best part of Episode 4.  It's not the bear.  I've had bunions that were funnier than that bear! Heh heh heh.

It's the Swedish Chef karaoke-ing "Rapper's Delight".  The video's only 55 seconds long, and they may be the best 55 seconds of your day!

Lear's done. It was a tough week with not much sleep. House was very disappointing; maybe 24 the first night and at most fifty the second. Contributing factors I suspect the choice of venue (hidden in a University campus where parking isn't free), lacklustre marketing, it being a "staged reading" (though we did fully stage it with movement), and it being Lear (which is not a happy evening). Still, it was a good show and it would have been nice for more people to have seen it.  

Good people to work with. Didn't really connect with them much, which is kind of disappointing. The rehearsal cycle was too short to really bond with people, and we're all from such disparate groups it will probably take a serious expenditure of energy to see them again. Maybe I'm wrong. It did feel a lot more like "bye" than "later" after the last show though.

Still tweaking the toning algorithms in the camera app. I am wanting to break down and put an editor in for the toner, rather than just present a couple hundred procedurally generated options. It would be better to not do that, however, and make it something for an upgrade to the app for later. And yet because the app's for me, why shouldn't I make it do what I want?

"Winter" is settling into my mood and it's not a good thing. Social activity is more important now than ever and yet I'm feeling pretty cut off. There's an audition for another staged reading this week, which I'll go to, but a couple days doesn't stave off four months of dark.

That's about it.​

Ever watch a video and think, "They captured my essence in this short film!  This right here is the expression of my soul!" I felt that way when I watched the following video, which you should watch, especially All of You.

Herein we shall all be unsurprised that my soul is pretty violent and loves books.

Safe for work with headphones.  Safe for older kids but not little guys.