This that and the other thing...

1. Over a hundred pages into new novel that I'm writing. Working title? "Not Another Valentine's Day". I'm basically subverting the contemporary romance trope that I've read. Flipping genders. The heroine is an African-American female veteran who dismantled bombs, the hero a night-club owner sex therapist specializing in BDSM. It's a second chance at love romance, except he doesn't know that she's his ex-fiancee who died in the war. I can't do the historical, because I don't like to research and historicals require a lot of research. Okay maybe not, but if I were writing them they would require a lot of research.

I don't know if I'll finish it or it will be read by anyone. At this point, I just want to get the story out. The quickest route to writer's block is worrying about readership.

2. Accomplished a lot this weekend. Wrote a Word Press blog post on Gun Control. Filed my 2017 tax return (ugh, it gets worse and more complicated every year -- took five hours to do the thing and I used Turbo Tax), filled out my union health benefit reimbursement forms, robot vaccumed by apartment -- basically I turn the thing on and wander around my apartment after it, monitoring it's movements and moving stuff out of its way. Did laundry. Made up my bed clean. Worked on book. Went grocery shopping twice to three different stores, on foot. (So basically walked two miles with twenty pound weights). Also finished watching the Olympics, which is bloody frustrating to watch by the way, they do not make it easy on you. I hard to work hard to see the figure skating. Too hard from my perspective, so I gave up on the pairs and women's figure skating and just caught the ice dancing and the men's figure skating.

Tired. Tomorrow? Go back to work.

3. Television?

* Last episode of Nashville until they pick up again in June and show the final six episodes, was actually pretty good. Best episode this year to date. Better songs, and the plot made a little more sense, not a lot but there were some decent moments.

This final season is not well-written. Possibly the worst of the series to date, which admittedly is saying something.

Poor Avery. I feel so sorry for that character.

* Winter Olympics

The commentary is annoying. Also way too many commercials, and far too much jumping about. I got frustrated. It requires a lot of patience to watch the Olympics, or a desire to use it as background chatter -- which I admittedly did for the most part.


* Riverdale

Yep, Twin Peaks for the 14-20 set. Still from a cinematography angle -- quite fetching. Also the characters are interesting. Luke Perry has not aged well and is rarely seen. Neither has Madchen Amick for that matter.

Everything else is on hiatus. And I've admittedly been writing more than watching. Same for reading, haven't read for pleasure at all lately -- mainly writing.

4. Cousin is posting a heck of a lot of information on guns and gun control on Face Book (he's liberal and into being informed.)

So here they are for the mildly curious...

* National Constitution Center - the National Constitution Center which is "The first and only institution in America established by Congress to "disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis in order to increase the awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people."

* Examining the History of the Second Amendment via the National Constitution Center

This is the amendment that grants people the right to bear arms, and is at the center of the big gun control debate for well about 50 some years and change.

* A Non-Gun Owners Guide to Guns

* Who Can Own a Full Auto Machine Gun

He also was educating on the differences between bump-stock guns and non-bump stock.

Here's a thread:

Mother's Cousin: I've been looking at gun laws and I was surprised that you *can* own an automatic weapon (multiple bullets fired with one pull of the trigger). But their ownership is controlled by the National Firearms Act originally started in 1934. So there are a lot of regulations to own one. After 1986 the NFA barred normal citizens from buying newly manufactured automatic weapons which made the pre-1986 prices skyrocket. There are about 240,000 automatic weapons owned in the USA, and only 3 crimes since 1934 involved automatic weapons.

Uncle: There is an interesting correlary to this since 1986 or so you cannot buy or sell a fully automatic gun, ie a gun you pull and hold the trigger and it just fires repeatedly. You can have a gun that fires as fast as you can pull and release the trigger. Which can be very fast. Not knowing what people think the definition of an assult rife is, but what is sold as an assult rifle looks menacing but is still one shot per pull of the trigger, no matter what the size of the magazine is. Now the correlary you can modify a gun with what is called a bump stock. The bump stock is a mechanism in the butt of the gun that as the gun recoils from a shot rearms the gun and fires another shot, so effectively gets you close to full automatic action. Guns are not sold with the bump stock feature but there are numberous aftermarket refits out there easy enough for most people to modify their guns getting the effect of a full automatic. Obviously while available at the moment, the government is working hard to control this loop hole.

Gun enthusiast: believe it’s called a “bump stock” and they should be illegal to make or possess.

Friend of Cousin: I am confused by the statement that only 3 crimes have been committed by automatic weapons since 1934. Aren’t the shootings (FL, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas ...) all accomplished by automatic weapons?

Cousin: No. They were all semi-automatic. But in Las Vegas, the shooter used a 'bump stock' which turns the AR-15 almost automatic.