Zeph 🐿️ @chaognostica@witches.town

@gourgou Thanks so much! I'll add these to the list.

Good morning! Sleepy morning, but good.

Card of the day: 9 of Cups

Means: Emotional stability, comfort

A couple days ago my card was the Lovers reversed, and I did actually experience some of that tension yesterday. Trying to make changes and get some more work done on the things that stress both me and my partner out. Hopefully that will lead to the stability and relief that this card suggests.

Ok one more on "normal" hours and then I have to force myself to go to sleep.

And that's...basically the thing. I *like* nighttime hours. I've been able to adjust to daytime hours because that's the job that hired me, but I liked working at night and the relative solitude that came with it. I'm a night person. It's really hard for me to make myself to go bed before about 2 am. My body and brain just do not want to do it.

But I have to, to take part in these "normal" hours and do my job safely. And the fact that it makes all my doctor visits and other appointments easier helps. But I wish there was more variety and not such a stark separation.

@Mycroft Grr, the more I think about it the angrier I get.

It's better for me now so I shouldn't complain too much, but I remember having so much trouble when I worked 3rd shift. Like I know part of the reason it's like this is that normal and predictable business hours make things convenient. You know when to call to make appointments and such.

But that just means the people doing those non-business-hour jobs are left out. Trying to be awake during normal business hours to call a doctor or schedule an interview or *anything* was such a disruption.

It's like they forget we're people and just want us to function magically and invisibly.

@Mycroft One forces the other, too. As long as "normal" means having weekends and evenings open, those are the times people will want to do things like shop or will need things cleaned and re-stocked, etc. And they get annoyed when things they need to do aren't available to them. The outrage I get when I have to tell people we're closing...sheesh.

So the more people we have working those "normal" hours, the more people will need those isolating jobs and face those problems. It does seem to make a lot more sense to just make "normal" more varied and stop the separation of "good" jobs and necessary ones and how we treat the people who do them.

Throwback Thursday time. This is both my first and my most recent deck, called the Celtic Dragon Tarot. I got it the first time my freshman year of college, then panicked and got rid of all my witchy stuff when I had to go back to my parents' house.

Finally found it again last year and couldn't wait to use it again...unfortunately, I think it changed. I swear I remember it larger, the material very very smooth and almost plastic-like. Those were the things I loved most about it, so I rarely use this anymore. But the art is still very pretty. Yay dragons.

@kara_dreamer Excellent, thank you! I've added both of those to my watchlist and I'm glad to hear they're good choices.

More info - I haven't seen/read many espionage stories at all and am assembling a list for research for writing. At this point I probably have more things bookmarked than I will actually ever have time to watch/read/listen to.

But I want to prioritize things that people actually like and especially things that are good for my and other marginalized communities. So asking for favorites or "wow, I would love to play in this sort of story" sorts of things, really.

@gourgou That sounds fun! I will definitely give them a try.

Re: Jack Reacher - I haven't read them. Or much else espionage-related, really. I have the James Bond books and have seen most of the Connery Bond films, the (new) Ocean's movies, Archer...there are probably some I'm forgetting, but basically I'm pretty new to the genre and absorbing as much as I can now for writing research.

So far I've got about 6 Netflix shows/films and a bunch of podcasts.

Hey who has some cool espionage-themed books/comics/shows/movies to recommend for me?

I already have quite a list but if there are any recommendations, especially ones that are particularly queer and/or feminist, I'd love to hear about them.

I finally brought out my own Tarot decks instead of just using an app!

As I mentioned a couple days ago, I don't really do reversed cards and am actually pretty careful about keeping all the cards in the same direction. So when I chose a deck and looked at the cards, I was surprised to see 3 upside down. So no random draw today.

Today's cards: 2 of Wands, The Star, The Emperor.

Which means: Time to figure out what I want to do and move forward with it. I'm in a really good place to actually make things happen right now.

I was trying to remember the title of a book I read when I was a kid and finally remembered to look it up. "The Fairy Rebel" by Lynne Reid Banks. I remembered weird details like blue hair and wasps being totally terrifying, completely forgot the fairy protagonist is a cool jeans-wearing fairy.

I loved this book so much. Does anyone else remember reading it?

@creatrixtiara
- A friend posted about it on Twitter.
- No
- No.
- That it's so queer-friendly, has so many witchy types, that I feel most of my identities are not only welcome but commonly shared here. And just in general people are so nice and committed to being open and building good communities here, makes it feel safe and fun.

Daily Tarot Card: The Lovers, reversed

I don't have anything to say about that rn, I'm about to punch in at work. Just want to keep up the habit of daily readings and sharing of them.

@benhamill Yeah, like that! Exactly.

Or like those optical illusion rabbit/duck or young woman/old woman things.

Yes. This now seems perfectly reasonable and I want to do it. Or want someone else with better art skills to do it. Whichever happens first.

Idea for tarot deck (that's probably really difficult and unreasonable): Reflective images with minor changes so when the card is reversed it more obviously illustrates that meaning (while still looking like the same card).

I don't even know if that description makes sense but it seems cool in my head.

@kel To be honest, I just haven't made the effort to learn reversed meanings yet. I only use decks with full images on each card and rely heavily on interpreting the image, and reversed versions don't seem to match as well.

So that's a goal I have for future learning and it's cool if (as in this case) it tells me the standard meaning. Just not something I can do yet.

Today's tarot card draw: IX of Swords, reversed.

I don't really do reversed cards when I use my own decks, but this comes from the Golden Thread app and tells me I'm getting worked up over little things and become nervous and negative now.

I actually think it's the opposite? I've been pretty chill. Anxiety meds help with that a lot. But I do tend to get more irritated with minor work frustrations than I used to, so I'll be on the lookout for that.

Also I'll try to remember to move my own decks downstairs tonight and use one of them instead tomorrow.

I was told this weekend that I'd probably get out of work very early today.

...

I hope so. I mean, I got enough sleep and I can handle a full day, probably. But I'd rather come home and sleep more. And also get chores done. But mostly sleep.