strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
I was at work from 10 to 6:23 today with one half-hour break. Tomorrow the company's new software goes live and I have been encouraged to come in "a little early".

Tomorrow I was scheduled to come in at 7 AM.

In conclusion, my feet hurt, and I hate the everything.

ETA: 6:45 - 5:11, with a 45-minute break. I am accidentally tech support.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
The company switches to a new software system on Monday, with bonus additional hardware, and it is going to be a mess. WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO'S GOING TO HAVE WHAT SECURITY LEVELS YET.

Also, I deserve a bonus, but will not be getting one, because Atwoods does not actually give a shit for employees.

In our store, not counting managers, 24 people needed to be trained to use the new Point-of-Sale software. Five of us have been sent to training sessions at corporate. Of the remaining 19? One I will be training tomorrow if the managers approve me staying an extra hour (she doesn't get on until after I get off) and one someone else will be training Thursday (I'm not staying an extra two and a half hours to train someone who's almost definitely going to fuck it up anyway; Mandy or Deetra can bite that bullet, thanks). Two have been trained by someone else. I HAVE TRAINED THE REMAINING FIFTEEN, WHAT THE HELL. And also gave one of the managers a review session.

Now I am just hoping they don't shame me in front of the support team we'll have in-store for the first couple days. This last week I've just been having visions of all of them doing something weird and then saying I told them they were supposed to do that. And worse, visions of them telling the truth when they say that. I am going to have a tiny psychotic break and yell at the support team about how their training software is BROKEN and UNHELPFUL and EVERYTHING LOOKS LIKE IT'S BEEN BROUGHT HERE FROM 1995, WHY DID YOU NEVER THINK TO INVOLVE A GRAPHIC ARTIST IN THIS AT ANY POINT?, I just know it.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (enterprise - sucks)
Went to lunch with my mom and my brother and it ended with my brother storming out of the restaraunt and me bursting into tears and it was awesome, guys, really. 1) I am thisclose to being done with that kid's crap; the best I get from him is "amused tolerance" and he only calls when he wants something and it's just really hurtful at this point. 2) I am way too accustomed to driving while weeping.

Took a six hour nap because I still felt sad. Just woke up.

In between, I somehow fell back into reading Naruto fic. Well, "somehow" being saw a rec for Inception fic by [archoveofourown.org profile] thehoyden, saw new Naruto fic on her works index, decided to re-read her other Naruto fic, decided to read ALL the Naruto fic apparently. Any recs? I'm especially partial to Naruto/Gaara and Kakashi/Iruka, but I'll also read Naruto/Sasuke and Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke.
strina: t-rex from dinosaur comics caption "i am definitely flirting w/ freaking out right now" (t-rex - freaking out)
A) That was totally gross, B) I am pretty sure that's not how that's supposed to look in a healthy system, so I'm now going to have ohshitohshitIthinkmyuterusisbrokenohshit on a loop until I get a doctor's opinion, THANKS, and C) your timing is suspicious and disquieting (see Thing B re: loop of doom).

Menstrual TMI. )
strina: text mostly caption "should i use my invisibility to fight crime or for evil?" stick figures of angel & demon (invisibility)
I keep thinking about things I want to say and then thinking "I don't have enough to make a whole post" and screw that, so.

Does anybody watch Saving Grace? Because I would actually like to see it (shows are never set in Oklahoma!), but I have a problem: Holly Hunter is too white to be playing someone called Grace Hanadarko. I live near Anadarko and it gives me cognitive dissonance to hear the name/see a blonde. Does the character at least have some kind of Caddo heritage? Or did they just co-opt the name? Also, I am a little leary of their handling of the Murrah bombing, which is apparently an ongoing plotpoint.

I have a total kink for stories where everybody knows the canon's big secret (declassification of the Stargate Program, Sentinels-are-known AUs, etc.). The glimpses of a powerful, organized, and public Slayers and Watchers Council are a big part of why I love I Am What I Am so much. Unsung heroes getting fame and recognition = WOULD LIKE MORE FOREVER, PLEASE.

This is me.

I'm working on a mix. It's going to be called Go Into Your Emo-Corner: The Overidentification Mix and full of songs that I can't put on playlists because if they catch me in the wrong mood, they cause uncontrollable weeping or leave me screaming along because IT IS A SONG THAT SPEAKS TO MY SOUL. OR, Y'KNOW, MY EMO. WHICHEVER. Also, "get into your emo-corner!" is a line from a Transformers fic about Starscream emailing a domestic abuse center and it makes me laugh and laugh. Because domestic abuse isn't funny, but Starscream giving himself etchings because Megatron doesn't love him anymore and lets Soundwave badtouch him with tentacles is HILARIOUS.

Spoiler for Prince of Persia movie )

So [community profile] ladiesbigbang is going to be a one-off for me. Finding 150 stories that are a) awesome and b) at least 75% lady-focused is hard when I can't predict what fandoms I'm going to be into during the creation period. Like, if I could manage to revisit HP or bandom for more than a couple days at a time, this would be much easier, but fannish ennui is not really something you can arrange to suit a schedule. Working from backlog, I should be able to swing this round (I will be personally disappointed if I can't manage more than 150 just from backlog), but another round? Extremely unlikely.

I am terrible at answering comments and I'm sorry! I read them all and appreciate them and try to respond eventually...you just might be getting that reply notification a few days/weeks after you've forgotten about the original post. There's a whole thing in my brain about how replies should be substantive and so I wibble around trying to meet an imaginary standard and it's, like I said, a whole Thing.

I am kind of burnt out on profic? Everything feels the saaaaaame.

Next year, fuck it, I will go to another state to attend a fandom con. The last couple scifi "fandom" cons have just not really done it for me. This last one was especially poorly run - panelists openly admitted to having no idea what the topic meant, panels had zero description anywhere so there was a lot of guesswork, panels ran completely off the rails ("Great Bubbas in Science Fiction" turned into "Trials and Tribulations of Running a Small Independent Press"...within the first ten minutes). The arguments for attending Oklahoma cons were always cost and the chance to meet people I could have regular meatspace interaction with and since the second's never worked out, I might as well say fuck it to the first and just start saving now.

I remain totally sad that more people don't watch/love Rollerball.It is a totally shitty movie with one of the most CATHARTIC ENDINGS OF ALL TIME. Like, Chris Klein and his character are basically incidental to the point of it, which is that if you push the common people too far, they will FUCK YOUR SHIT UP AND SET IT ON FIRE.

And thank you fandom, I am now totally likely to accidentally use the word "amazeballs" at work.

If I have to pretend to smile while one more jackass says "Don't mark that [bill], I just made it this morning! Hur, hur, hur!", I will CUT SOMEBODY. Also, if we check it, and your bill is counterfeit, we will not "take it up with the bank, 'cause that's where [you] got it!" We will take it up with the cops, because we are not detectives or investigators of any sort; we are a store, not the Secret Service.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
From [community profile] thefridayfive:

1. When is your usual bedtime? Between 11 pm and 4 am; I don't have a set schedule at work, so I might need to be up as early as 6 or as late as 11.
2. How many hours of sleep do you need? Need is about 3 1/2. If you want me to be reasonable and not whiny, 4 1/2 to 5. But given the chance, I've slept up to 19. It all evens out?
3. Do you usually remember your dreams? I remember maybe a dozen dreams a month.
4. How many pillows do you sleep with? I...don't actually know. I kept adding things until I turned my bed into basically a nest. Of what I can see, 7 full-size pillows and 12 throw pillows.
5. What is the wildest dream you've ever had? The half-grizzly, half-panther monster I was trapped with in a giant subterranean lake was pretty crazy. Or on the other side of the spectrum, I have orgy-themed sex dreams every couple of months (much more fun).
strina: comics panel caption "wow, that's got to be an everything-went-wrong speed record!" (comics - speed record)
I have the next two days off, which WOULD be awesome, except I am currently rocking the I DON'T WANNA, I HATE EVERYTHING mindset. Blargh.

I NEED ANGSTY DELICIOUS IDFIC. I AM STARTING WITH ATLAS. WHO KNOWS WHERE I SHALL END UP.

ETA: Also, FYI, I will be mostly offline Thu - Mon. Housesitting for my mom, who has no computer, let alone Internet, and I have 2 desktops, 0 laptops/mobile devices of any kind.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (tbbt - r-p-s-l-s!)
Bad news: Juggled my schedule today and I am now working SEVEN days in a row instead of six.

Good news: Being off next Saturday instead of next Thursday means I get to go to SoonerCon - 2010: A Bubba Odyssey. Confession: I totally decided to go when I saw all the Trek panels. Okay, and also "Redneck Hall of Fame: Great Bubbas in SF/F" and "Zombies vs. Bubbas"; I am sensing the influence of Yard Dog Press and I heart it. I'm actually disappointed not to see "The Merlene Show" on the program; that shit is hilarious.

I just really hope it's better/more fun than Conestoga was last year, and that I can maintain this "I WANT to socialize!" mood that long. I want more meatspace friends (I am kind of baffled as to how adults usually make new friends? Like, the one person at work with vaguely similar interests is a raging homophobe, so, NO).

Anybody else gonna be there?
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (creepy cartoon girl)
...Oh, this is awesome. Apparently I am in a manic phase! Restless + can't concentrate on any one thing + increasing panic responses = soon there will be the depressive phase, with the inexplicable and panicked weeping and the hiding from all social contact. Especially fun since I started the job consisting of nothing but social contact! Goddamn genetics.
strina: reboot kirk falling down ice cliff caption "fml" (kirk - fml)
Atwoods can suck my metaphorical dick. I was at work from 8:30 am - 6:41 pm and I CALL BULLSHIT. Because, except for my lunch, that WHOLE TIME was on my feet, at the service desk, dealing with a 60/40 mix of idiots/rational humans and resisting the urge to scream*. Thumbs down, do not want, and it was UNNECESSARY. He could have scheduled someone else who could run the service desk and he just chose not to! Including me, we only had three cashiers; we had to pull three girls off the floor and throw them on registers**. The store ran $29,000 today; $12,245 was through my line.

I AM OUT OF SPOONS.

*Someday, there is a big post coming about There Are Four Jokes About Counterfeiting Money, And We Have Heard Them Already: A What-Not-To-Do Guide For Customers.

**Gendered job roles: another of Atwoods's lovely traditions. All female sales associates learn to run a cash register and all male sales associates learn to perform customer load-outs. Girls may perform load-outs, but boys never have to run registers (okay, our male assistant manager can, and will, but he is the only one out of, like, 12).
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (books - stacked)
...But now I am forced to admit: I HAVE TOO MANY BOOKS. And oh, some of you are now denying there is any such thing, BUT OH, THERE IS. "Too many" is not "my room overflows". "Too many" is not "in my bathroom, there are books on the windowsill and books in the linen cupboard and books in the Secret Dedicated Cabinet of Bathtub Reading". "Too many" is not even "I have reached the point where it is easier to buy another copy than to find the book I want". No, I reached "too many" today, when I went looking for a particular, much beloved poetry textbook inherited from my father and looked first in my room, then in my car, then in the garage, and then went into the Cave of Books and Lawnmowers*, aka, my dad's shop. A cursory search there revealed two dedicated poetry anthologies and six literature textbooks for classes I've never taken (twice in my life, my schools have given away books for free without imposing a limit; this either ended very well for me or not well at all, considering current circumstances). I say cursory because my search had to be abandoned 20 minutes in when I was almost killed in a LANDSLIDE OF BOOK CARTONS.

THAT is the tipping point; WHEN FERAL BOOKS BEGIN DEFENDING THEIR TERRITORY, you have TOO MANY.

*Sometimes we call it Dad's Batcave. There really isn't a reason for him to have a shop, it's mostly there was a lot of yard and then suddenly, he was commissioning a building, and now there are like 30 cartons of my books, and like six lawnmowers/lawn tractors in there.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
1) I admitted today that my grandma was right, I am totally ridiculous about food.

Backstory: I live in the middle of nowhere. You have to drive seven minutes to hit the ege of town. A formative theme in my life? If you're going to town, it'd better be worth it. Aw, we get home and McDonald's gave us the wrong food? Fuck it, I'm not going back to town. You left you book at your mom's? Fuck it, I'm not going back to town.

So today, when I had to go to the library, all the way across town (a whole five minutes extra drive, but whatever), I ended up hitting up five different places for food. Drinks from Sonic, muffins from TK's, cookies from Subway, sammies & salad from Quizno's, and breadsticks from Little Caesar's. This is why I'm always the one who picks up the food.

2) There is a (slim) chance that I may get a better job/escape the Atwoods hellhole. Good thoughts?

3) I am...losing all patience with Atwoods. Do you know how fucking sick I am of having to bite my tongue about customers' rude/inappropriate/racist/liberal-bashing jackassery? But Atwoods is a farm store that caters to a conservative customer base and they make you sign a thing when you get hired that you understand that and no, of course you don't have a problem with it (it's in the handbook; you sign a thing agreeing you've read/will abide by the handbook). So I had to just suck it up and move on when a locally influential asshole joked about cut because I WISH I COULD HAVE CUT THAT FIVE MINIUTES OUT OF MY LIFE ). ALSO TIRED OF PEOPLE - 99% OF THEM OLDER MEN - ASKING ME PROBINGLY IF I KNOW THAT JESUS LOVES ME, OR WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I WENT TO CHURCH. I DO NOT CARE IF YOU MEAN WELL, KEEP YOUR CULT OUT OF MY WORKPLACE.

3b) PLEASE STOP MAKING ME WATCH YOU PERJURE YOURSELF. Do not ask me "should I sign my name or his?" IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE YOURS. YOU CAN LEGALLY ONLY SIGN YOUR NAME, FUCKWAD. And NO, your Shih Tzu's cans of Science Diet/your daughter's $50 Ariat shirt/your wife's $200 Ferrino boots/your ornamental trees are NOT "for farm use, take the tax off". Farm tax exemptable items must be DIRECTLY USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF AGRICULTURE. Every time you use your exempton, we give you a little piece of paper SAYING THAT and you sign it and YOU ARE IN HERE EVERY WEEK, HOW HAVE YOU NOT READ IT AT LEAST ONCE.

3c) I am pretty sure a disabled veteran's tax exemption is for the veteran/veteran's immediate family, not veteran/wife/children/grandchildren/cousins/friends/former sons-in-law!

4) Wow, that got kind of ranty. Sorry? I also spent a chunk of today thinking about how ridiculously awesome my grandma is? No, guys, she is so funny and mean and amazing that the most common reaction to meeting her is "why can't my grandma be like that?" We got in a slapfight once while driving! Jeannie, Atwoods employee voted Most Likely to Fucking Throw Down, freely admits that my grandma is scary and could kick her ass. Her reaction to open heart surgery? "Screw that, next time just let me die." She cooks better than everyone! She's the one who got me hooked on NCIS and House and CSI: New York and about 15 other shows

5) My yard is SO PRETTY. Dad went crazy one year and planted like 25 trees on top of the ones that came with the house when we bought it?* So there are more trees than anyone's ever counted (the yard is like, an acre-and-a-half, maybe?) and there are seven redbud trees clustered right in front of my north window (which runs basically the whole north wall of my room) and three or four mulberry trees out of my east window (right above my bed). Plus we're on a hill and have pasture (not ours) bordering us to the south and west and basically it is MADE OF GREEN AND GORGEOUSNESS AND PRETTY FLOWERS/WEEDS.

*Hilariously, at least some of this appears to have been so he could later chainsaw the fuck out of them when he's cranky. WE NEVER RUN OUT OF FIREWOOD.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (eggs)
So, it turns out I accidentally scheduled my week off IN BETWEEN ICE-OCALYPSES. Terrible ice storm last Thursday/Friday - the entire town lost power and oh yes, Atwoods stayed open - we only got power back Saturday night, and no internet until Monday (and it was incredibly slow and tempermental). Then the power went out 10:00 am Tuesday, came back on at 10:45 pm - I was asleep and then BAM, bright lights! water running! terrifyingly loud hallway vent-of-death! fire alarm!...it was awesome - and went out again this morning and came back this afternoon. At this point I kind of feel like I'm being toyed with. Also, it's supposed to storm tomorrow, just as bad as, if not worse than, last week.

I give up replacing groceries.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
VACATION, all I ever wanted, VACATION, had to get away! VACATION, wish it would never end!

(As heard on my inner soundtrack today, infinite loop.)

VACATION!!

Oct. 19th, 2009 01:37 pm
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
So, from Saturday the 24th through Sunday the 1st, I am OFF WORK. NINE DAYS, NO ATWOODS, YAY. It's the first vacation I've had in two years. And it's unpaid, which is going to SUCK in a couple weeks, but if I don't take some time off from people, I am going FLIP OUT on somebody.

I'm not going anywhere. I am mostly going to hide in my house and revel in not having to be polite to morons. Like, I am open if anyone wants to do something Saturday/Sunday/Monday? But after that, I am going hermit. And possibly nocturnal.

I'm gonna read lots of fic, watch lots of TV and DVDs, and actually cook my own food; I have steaks, pasta fixings, and pork chops. (Note to self: remember to get butter, white bread, wheat bread, english muffins, cream cheese, potatoes, oil, swiss, ham, turkey, cheddar, havarti, stuffing, PIE.)

IT IS GOING TO BE AWESOME.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (wf - booknerds)
At this point, I would PAY someone to organize these files for me. Imagine the sheer amount of stuff accumulated over the roughly five years I have been saving and hoarding basically every fic I have ever read/wanted to read/saw and thought "hey, maybe I'll be in that fandom someday, and when I am, won't I be pissed if I don't have anything to read?" (my SOP is apparently to assume fandom as a whole may someday trundle off to the Undying Lands or some shit and leave me behind with only my archives to fall back on? IDK, early in my fannish development there was about a month where every site/author I loved most disappeared from the face of the internet; I have TRAUMA, okay), plus all the blog posts and rec lists and episode reviews and primers and fannish etcetera. Those 4000-mumblety fics I've recced? DROP IN THE BUCKET.

Then remember that this hoarding has been spread over three computers (not counting new-computer), one external drive, and four memory sticks (when back in the year+ of No Internet Access, I had to use a public computer, save everything down that I could, and dump it, sight unseen, onto my desktop at home; repeat near-daily), all haphazardly combined on this one (buggy and increasingly eccentric) machine (which has no functioning search option...yeah).

It all = I could have the best story since the Sacrifices Arc saved somewhere on this thing and never know it. And I'm afraid to delete anything because I know for a fact that several dozen of these stories are no longer available online.

!!!!!!!

Okay, and on another note, it's a little weird for me that Beautiful Garbage has become my favorite of the band's albums, when I owned it for more than a year before I even listened to it all the way through.

Also, HEY, does anybody have any Sentinel recs? Especially Sentinels-are-known AUs, they are like delicious candy that has been rolled in crack. Possibly candy made from tears (most sadistic saltwater taffy ever?), considering how often they are also "horrifying dystopia and/or slave AUs". NEED MORE BLESSED PROTECTOR, PLEASE. Like, I'll read episode-related fic? But I have seen all of an ep and a half (...I had to see the spirit-merge for myself - and shockingly, it was somehow even more homoerotic than you guys had described; basically, I recommend watching just those five minutes, becuase, WOW). But I really love the nuts-and-bolts examination of Sentinels and Guides (hi, LOGISTICS).
strina: gashlycrumb tinies illustration caption "n is for neville who died of ennui" (neville - ennui kills)
I am dissatisfied. With the world, apparently. I'm looking at things that excited me yesterday and today all I can muster up is a resounding "eh". Thumbs down, self.

My cat is oddly quiet? Like, he purrs a lot, but he vocalizes less than any other cat I've had. And when he does make noise, it's weird noise. Most frequent vocalization being "ah-AH-ah" - "I would like to eat him/that/you!".

In other news, [livejournal.com profile] hsmbigbang started posting today - with femslash! - and [livejournal.com profile] oz_big_bang is supposed to go live tomorrow. [livejournal.com profile] rpf_big_bang has been posting for several days, but so far hasn't coughed up any of the stories I'm really excited for. The ones I am anticipating: )

On that note, I love it when the summary/claiming posts are left unlocked; it is a quick and awesome (if not 100% accurate) way to judge how excited I should be for a partic. big bang.

ETA: Also, in the last hour, I have watched two videos - one a mainstream pop vid and the other a Tampax ad, of all things - centered on fanfic cliches. And not even "also popular in profic" cliches! Mpreg and "woke up a girl"!
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
New-computer enacted a dramatic death scene @ about 4:30 this morning:

Power down! to attract attention.

Loud popping noise! to shock and alarm.

Crackle and smell of burning! just to rub in how thoroughly you have just been fucked.

Am now on old-computer, and fervently hoping it doesn't suicide in solidarity. Also, feeling inappropriately smug because see, Dad, I was totally right to keep them both, because of shit like this.

Cross your fingers that it's an easy fix like the power supply and not something with the hard drive.
strina: (gk - nice things)
When a plumber walks out of your bathroom giggling, that's probably not a good sign.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (creepy cartoon girl)
Emo. )
strina: white silhouette of woman holding gun to kneeling man's forehead against a blood splattered pink background - textless (love is a gun)
Updated the Doomy Index of Doom and apparently, there are now two sections that will only be available on DW, because I have now recced too much RPF for it to fit into a single LJ post and I refuse to break a single fandom into multiple posts. That shit is just waaay too much trouble. Individual pairings are ordered by number of stories, so I'd constantly have to be juggling pairings betwen posts and, just, no. Also updated the information in the index.

I spackled at work today. What job description?

Also spent twenty minutes earlier fantasizing about fanfiction for Nora Roberts's Three Sisters Island trilogy, in the form of a "fourth" novel where Mia realizes that 1) Sam is well-intentioned, but a douche and 2) the curse's manipulations (Mia's relationship exactly mirroring Fire's) totally kept her from realizing she's a lesbian. But now the curse is gone! That could be the entire story and I'd be onboard, but what would be even better? If she seduced Nell away from Zach (or there was Mia/Nell-Nell/Zach where everyone was okay with it, but I do not see Zach going for that, so much). I spent a lot of Dance Upon the Air thinking about Mia's protective/slightly patronizing girlcrush (also? she was in total repressed!teenage!love with Ripley).

Slashing romance novels = emotionally satisfying, but at the same time, disappointing; no one's ever gonna write me that.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
I hatehateHATE my job. )
In better news, my cat remains freaking adorable and clingy and so spoiled. Most of my time at home now is spent with a cat napping on my boobs. Earlier I was taking a bath and reading an old Hannah Howell when he decided to join me in the tub, although this time he actually dangled his tail and feet in the water, instead of curling up in the middle of my torso like usual and clawing the crap out of me when water dared to be wet.

I am actually thinking about driving to Duncan tomorrow for the "World's Biggest Garage Sale" - probably a misnomer, but I am in a garage sale mood after last Sunday, when I got a silver rune necklace at one for 10 cents, chain and all, plus a bunch of old Avon bottles, including one that looks like a mermaid (it is awesome, I totally want to fill it with glittery bath salts and just keep it on a shelf).

Fandom is still my happy place, though, so: [livejournal.com profile] bandom_hc has hit a tipping point for me; I have now submitted too many prompts (38 - yes, I totally did have to make a list just to keep track of which ones I'd posted so far) to be embarrassed by the over-enthusiasm. All I can do now is shrug and blame the mod for making a challenge so very suited to all those stories I've been wanting people to write me for the last year and change. I have suggested threesomes 6 times so far (Brendon/Katy/Travis! Brendon/Pete/Ashlee! I never knew I wanted those!), and GSF thrice, plus the one with the space harem. Totally my favorites, though? The slightly retooled Brendon Urie: One Man Band and the one where a bunch of bandgirls get drunk and form the supergroup Haters to the Left, which they use to mock misogynist assholes.

And did y'all know there is a big bang for Tony Stark/Steve Rogers, aka Iron Man/Captain America, aka the OTP I accidentally caught from [livejournal.com profile] elspethdixon's Resurrection, Reconstruction, and Redemption 'verse? Because I did, but I did not know it had gone live.
strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)
So I am reading the terrible-Xander-crossovers girl again and oh, wow. The I'm straight-I'm straight-I'm straight-kiss me, I'm gay thing is still very distracting. Like, I don't think you can spend 300+ K of the story talking about how he loves women and then give him not one but two boyfriends. Not and have me buy it. Also, you cannot combine "I fight a secret war against the darkness, bitches! Respect me or I'll cut you!" with "I just met you, let me tell you all my secrets, up to and including the deep dark angsty ones!" Telling your boyfriend, yes. Telling his random coworkers/boss/nemesis, no. But they have the bones of good stories! It's just, the execution, not so much at all. But after I spend a few days reading her, I will be much more impressed with any goodfic I read.

I now have two fully-Internet-capable computers! And it turns out Dad hasn't been just wandering off with company property; he gets to buy it for a pittance. Desktop computer with monitors, two mouses, keyboard, and speakers? $75. WIN. It's pretty nice, except it has no sound. I fixed it once, then it unfixed itself and now I am Baffled. But! I can surf on this one and stream on the other.

strina: comic panel caption "sweet! let's go, buddy! time to get our nerd on!" (comics - nerd on)
And Kari Sperring's Living with Ghosts had me at line one of the blurb: "Gracielis, the failed assassin priest turned courtesan and spy..." There is Tragic Gay Love, but with heavily hinted sequel possibility! I don't know, I'll tell you more once I've, y'know, read it, instead of just sneaking the ending. And then I bought some romance novels, because some happy endings would be ace right now, and a couple YA books, including one, Graceling, that - brace yourselves - appears to feature a platonic friendship between male and female heterosexual teenagers.

Fred the Killer is a tiny, adorable moron. I came home Saturday to find him stuck to a glue trap in the laundry room. Like, completely. He apparently pounced on the thing? I don't know how else he was attached to the middle by all four legs and the tail.

In fandom news, I read Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell this morning and I blame ALL OF YOU. Entirely. I have never seen a single episode of Idol! Goddammit. Stop getting your Jonas brothers and your Idol contestants in my bandom; I don't need more fandoms, yet I cannot say no when you tell me about international roadtripping and best frenemies and my new favorite boys' name of all-time, Bonus Jonas.

In conclusion, send Simon/Ryan recs, please. Or stage an intervention. Whichever.