Three small lessons from three small losses

OH! Before we get to that: My plan for fixing the NBA All Star Game:

Fans vote on the top offensive stars AND the top defensive stars. No duplications.

Then one team is composed of the Offensive starters and the Defensive bench (the O’s) and the other [the X’s] is composed of the Defensive Starters and the Offensive bench.

The Defensive stars are obviously motivated to prove they belong. The Offensive stars will not want to give up anything to the defensive players.

Let’s do this! Or abandon the silly All-Star game. which I missed, for reasons.

We now start the blog-blog

Because the best stories are triads.

I lost a myth.

A few years ago, when I concocted a draft for a Go Action Fun Time episode set in the prehistoric Congo (a time and place I generated randomly, I believe) I stumbled upon the myth of Lokundu and Llankaka. Lokundu was an ancient shaman of some sort who desired the hand of young Llankaka, a girl who could work magic. He won her hand by performing miracles, but eventually, the tribe grew fearful or jealous (not sure – lost the story) and drove the couple out into the forest.

I got this from a website, which I dutifully recorded, except now that website no longer exists.  I have been unable to find it elsewhere. [http://www.abikoyeolufemi.com/2014/05/10/congo-folktale-myth-history-mongo-nkundo/ – which goes to a 404]

Africa, even central Africa, even the African Congo Basin does not have a unified folklore. There are a lot of tribes, and my notes said “Pygmy”.

Pygmy is a European term (from a Greek myth – which I found) for any number of tribes originating from the jungles around Congo River, or the dryer savannahs to the south.  That term is still in use, partly, I suspect, because no one can agree on a replacement., but it won’t get you to our magical couple. They may be Bantu – which is a completely different tribal group.

I can tell you that Lokundu, or its close cognate, is a language group, which very much mucks up the search results. Further, I am not certain I have the spelling correct. There may not be a correct spelling in English.

And that is partly why I often cram science fiction elements into GAFT episodes from the past rather than sticking with the folklore. I would want to get the folklore correct, and that is not always possible with time and resources at hand. The SF elements I can fabricate with impunity.

I really just wanted an excuse to make teen-age superheroes row their canoes through a river full of hippos. It kinda worked as written.

This is the last time I am going to post this illustration on this blog. I promise…

I lost a car payment.

I paid off my car, the 2015 Subaru Forester called Ruby Vroom But I did not disable the auto-pay to the credit union, and that went out today. Oops. I don’t believe that money is gone. I still have a token account with  that credit union. But I won’t know until banker’s hours tomorrow. I’ll update here.

I am very fortunate that this is a nuisance rather than a crisis.

Ruby Vroom in her natural habitat.

I lost a day.

I had a bunch of things I wanted to do Saturday, and they all fell apart for various reasons and I ended up idle and bored. This does not happen to me very often. I always have something to do; sometimes its tedious, but I am rarely idle.  So I decided to embrace it.

I farted around in an unrestrained ADHD-Autistic way for the entirety of Saturday, because there was no consequence other than I might not make word count.

Then a thing I thought had dissipated Saturday, came together on Sunday and fell upon my head. I have been pitching from behind ever since.

Three lessons:

1. promises made to yourself are inherently negotiable.
2. The key to success is not so much avoiding mistakes but recovering from them.
3. I lost whatever the third point was going to be.

An Armadillo writer has a book out:

https://www.amazon.com/Poltergeist-Dead-Winter-James-Strickland-ebook

I’m not your ordinary gumshoe.

My name’s Nina Cohen. Born: 1898, died: 1912. I’m a poltergeist in a human body. I work from home as a private investigator. I watch entirely too much TV, and I talk to my cat. Say hello, Djinn.

Meow

Word Count:

Since last Thursday:

I edited [500 words] and ran the Go Action Fun Time Episode “Blistering Death in the Congo” [1000 words].

I wrote and posted  a description of Los Lomitas Trail in Are We Lost Yet? [1000]

I finalized and formatted the revised (shorter) Go Action Fun Time Cast Directory for Drive Thru RPG. [1000 words].

Basically, I cut out the package deals. They are now in the Show Bible. Which is coming…

UPDATE: The old version is still up. I’m not sure what happened. So if you buy that version right now you get the package deals ahead of the Show Bible – but with fewer entries and more typos.

Still the same cover.

Thursday Night Armadillo Group [500].

This very blog post. [1000].

Wait a minute. That’s 5k on the nose.

How bout that. Whiskey.