Vik-Thor's Journal

 Well, got the email I've been expecting.

The Volvo EX30 is now DELAYED. They had hoped to be taking the actual orders by now, but several things have delayed it.
Seph and I actually put our deposits in on 08 June 2024. He canceled his a couple months ago at this point, but I sent my email in to West County Volvo (Manchester MO) just last week -17 June-. They didn't see it at the time. After got the email, called them, and got a better contact email.

I ended up getting a used Chevy Bolt EUV shortly before my Nissan Leaf lease ended. 2023 model year, and technically used (only had ~4000 miles on it.)

I am likeing it quite a bit.

We will be going over to Owensboro KY on Saturday 29 June. Seph wants to look at a panel van of some sort. (I might remember it if I wasn't so sleepy.)

How many times have I tried restarting this? We shall see if I keep it up this time.

 A very merry birthday to my 2nd great Grandma, Tabitha (Green) Rose!  She was born 23 May 1857, so she would be 166 years old today. :)

I didn't know anything about her until I started doing genealogy research.

I have seen documents with her name spelled as Tobitha as well as Tabitha.

at the Florissant Meadows donation center.
The Red Cross canceled my original appt (5PM), but I was able to make an earlier appt (11:45 AM)
Went as quick as usual.
Got Taco Bell on way back to Work.

After work, helped Seph on final cleanout of a storage unit he bought, and then we went out to eat @ Longhorn steakhouse, using up the last of a giftcard from Hank.
I ended up skipping the City Council meeting for dinner.

Ceaned Mimi's water bowl.

Watched couple episodes of ST: Picard 

 today's anniversary is Henry Arthur Lannom, who was born 13 May 1907. He was the husband of one of my grandaunts, Ella Agnes Moore. They had one son, who died at about 1 year old, in 1938. Ella died in 1940, so no direct relatives in that line. Henry remarried shortly after, to a Lyla (Fleming) Shadowens, it was her 2nd marriage also. Not sure if they had any children together, she had a son from her former marriage. (I wonder if they are related to the Shadowens who ended up buying the house on Casper Lane from mom? would be neat if so...)

There are a couple anniversaries today in my Rose line:

My great-grandma Grace Florence Gibbs was born on 10 May 1892 in White County, Illinois. She married my great-grandfather William Henry Rose on Halloween, 1908, in Hamilton County Illinois. She was only 16 at the time, to his 20... I would like to learn more about the timing of their marriage, since their first child was born less than 6 months later. My grandpa Rose was their 6th child. Grace ended up divorcing William in 1932 for abandonment and adultery. They had moved to East St. Louis (that is actually where my Grandpa was born, along with several of his siblings...) where William worked as a blacksmith for one of the railroads. She ended up back in Hamilton County, with the kids, and sued him for divorce. She actually named the woman who he "had carnal relations" with whom he ended up marrying shortly after the divorce was granted. 
Anyway, Grace remarried, to a William Edward Swallow (or Swallows) and had a couple more kids. She died in 1961, and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hamilton County, and I have visited her grave. 
I would like to get over to White county at some point, and do some research there, as several other ancestors are born there also.

the other anniversary is the death of her ex brother-in-law, my great grand-uncle Joel Rose, who died on 10 May 1958. I don't know much about him. He is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in McLeansboro Illinois, but I have not yet visited his grave. His gravestone on Find a Grave notes that he served in WW1.

Grace's link is to her entry on WikiTree.com , while Joel's is to his entry on FamilySearch.org. they are both collaborative family trees. FamilySearch has the document images, but WikiTree to me is more fun. To find out more about WikiTree, visit: www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:About_WikiTree

I don't think there are many stories about sentient trees, and the fact that I read one this week makes me want to wrote about it here. (I may try to do some fanfic based on it at some point... maybe.)

The book is The Wrath of Trees, (c) 2011 by Bard Bloom (aka Sythyry from LiveJournal.) This exists in the same multiverse as the World Tree RPG, or more specifically Sythyry's Journals. The main character of The Wrath of Trees is Melyl, a maraleni from the World Tree. She was sold into slavery on Kono (where this novel takes place) by Vae in Ambassador to a Monster: Sythyry's Journal V.2, for a used garden trowel. This exchange is mentioned in passing in Sythyry, when Vae gives zie the trowel to sell in Vheshrame. The exchange is described in the past in Wrath, in the beginning.

Maraleni are dioecious plants, with two types of fruit. The common type, when eaten, allow the maraleni access to the being's mind. She can talk telepathically if the being is sentient, otherwise she can somewhat control their actions. She can also cast some spells through her immara (beings who have eaten fruit.) Spells mentioned are: levitation, invisibility, quiet, illusions, talking using fur of feathers, healing. These spells do not seem to be cley based (as much of the magic of the World Tree universe is, but not all.) The common type do not have seeds so would not technically be fruit, but they are describes as such. The second type of fruit is reproductive, which Melyl describes but doesn't grow in the story, as she is the only one of her species on Kono.

Kono itself is an odd world. (Bard has a habit of dreaming up odd worlds.) Kono is a conical opening in a surrounding matrix (which is not described). There are patches of light on the inner surface of the cone, which rotate around the surface of the cone, faster as get nearer the tip of the cone. The bottom portion of the cone is comprised of a fresh water ocean of an unknown depth. There are at least 3 land masses floating on the ocean surface, along with Mount Myru in the center. Mount Myru is the hub of Kono, and is the tip of a tentacle of a vast being known as The Twisting Queen. It will periodically (centuries or millenia) reach out to another world and grab portions of it, setting it down on the main continent of Ozotta. Each time bringing new ecosystems, each with their own intelligent beings. There have been at least 4 separate 'kidnapping' events, with 4 separate types of life.

<img src='https://vik-thor.dreamwidth.org/file/787.jpg' alt='World of Kono, a conical world, showing the 3 landmasses and the various suns, with an inset of The Twisting Queen' title='Kono' />


The main beings that Melyl interacts with are the Lakku, a bipedal doglike species from the 3rd wave, that are currently the most common on Kono. Melyl ends up being a spy-master for one faction.

 Opals are some of the most beautiful gemstones.
Amorphous silica.
Some of the rarest are the black opals,
that hold rainbows within themselves
on a black backgrouns.

 I think I will try LJ Idol again.

OK, so my post from Dreamwidth didn't show up here. So will tis show up on Dreamwidth, Tumblr and Twitter? since I THINK I have those linked from here.

one thing I was going to mention last post and forgot:

I am thinking of getting a gaming console. Yes, I am one of the people who does not have a gaming console. The last one I had was an Atari 2600. (I wonder whatever happened to it? I had quite a few game cartridges also...)

I believe PlayStation 3 has the two games I want available on it.
I've been playing Amazing Katamari Damacy on my iPad, and think it would be neat to play the regular game.
( an upload of a Katamari from Amazing Katamari, cut because it's somewhat large )

Another game I would somewhat like to play is Kingdom Hearts.

I don't really like first-person shooter games, which seem to be what get most of the attention.

Here is a Katamari playthrough on youtube.

Anybody have any recommendations as to what console or games I should get? I don't see myself playing a whole lot, just occasionally.