the magic circle

1.
Requisite superbowl posting: I moved to Patriots territory as an adult, and that means that I find the constant chatter about them annoying and thus wanted them to lose and would've found it extremely funny if they'd scored zero points overall. They did score some points in the end, but they sure lost terribly anyway!

I have also now seen the only part worth seeing, which is the halftime show, which was very good! It just also made me think about how...

brief bit about USA Politics

There's this oddity to watching it and going "this looks like, and feels like it's for, the community I live in" (the town I live in is if not outright majority Hispanic/Latinx very close to it, and majority Puerto Rican within that), when it also feels like a political statement to have a Puerto Rican performer as the star and for him to sing in Spanish, celebrating that heritage, as a contrast to the constant background noise about ICE in Minnesota (and elsewhere; that's just the main area making national news, not the only place ICE is hunting).

I don't know that I have any coherent thoughts about that. Just, well. USA politics sure are something, and The Big Football Game is a platform for them.

2.
Talked to my dad on the phone yesterday for almost two hours. Got the Family Update from him, which is about what I expected: my mom is stressed, my grandmother is doing better, my twin is As He's Been with a lead on Doing More Stuff Actually, which is good.

It's interesting talking to my dad because it's very. Well. I talk to him and I see patterns of behavior that I exhibit manifest in him, in much the same way and for much the same reason. And I'm just like. Well, I sure am your child in some very specific ways, aren't I. It's never going to be one-to-one, of course, but it's... still nice to see.


3.
It is perhaps going to start being NOT HORRIBLY COLD in a day or two, with the metric of "not terribly cold" being "highs consistently above freezing", which is still cold but a lot more tolerable than the month of ARCTIC FROST we've been having. It means snow might slowly start melting! And that leaving for work at the coldest point in the day is going to be less "oh god I hate being outside even if it's only for a minute or two".


4.
in the continued vibe of "ah yes actually share bits of this as I write it", this is still mostly set-up!

I'm a bit, I could name the trading company something less on-the-nose about them being shitty, but consider: nah. That's something relatively easy to change later, and there is an island chain that'll eventually be relevant anyway, so...

“The Southern Chain Trading Company.” Ames didn’t see any change in expression on Vesta’s face, but her beard hid some of the subtleties. “I haven’t heard of them before, and was hoping you had.”

“Southern Chain.” Vesta frowned. “They’re… new here. If I thought you had any interest in business, I wouldn’t tell you more for free, but most of what I hear is that they’re building themselves up right now. They’ve only recently established a business house in Anaxa—they came up from the south, from Rakorran or Recharron or something like that—and are mostly trading southward, but they’ve bought a few things from Yscor—we’ve better prices for certain goods, even accounting for shipping down the river.”

Ames nodded thoughtfully. “That would explain why they sent me a letter.”

Vesta looked at him, dark eyes glinting under furrowed brows. Slowly, she said, “If they offer you something, don’t accept unless it’s more than Rhei would give you. I don't think they know the northern coast well enough to give you a good deal, and I know you don’t want to leave.”

“I know.” Ames inclined his head in half a bow. “I want to hear their offer. I doubt I’ll accept it.”