wherein Liz would like to be fighting her story, but has to fight research and the internet first
You know the most frustrating part about researching the US Army to a fare-thee-well? Only about five percent of this information will be visible in the finished story. The rest is just there so I know what I can and can't have the characters do, where and when they can or can't go to various places, and other invisible logistical matters. Like, which military occupational specialties (MOS) are open to Ana and which ones aren't. How postings and transfers work. What potential restrictions are for active duty soldiers at overseas postings using Skype to communicate with civilians in America. Stuff like that.
Also, I keep having to watch the stupid movie again, with subtitles on, to catch little details that are dropped in quick throwaway lines of dialogue. Like, okay, Duke was scouted for GI Joe four years ago in a bar... but where was the bar? And Netflix streaming video has not been cooperating with me the past few days; it keeps freezing up and taking at least half an hour to load and buffer every time I try to fast-forward or rewind. (But I have to watch it streaming because I already have a movie out on hard copy DVD -- Mysterious Skin -- which I need for research for my Femgenficathon story. *headdesk*)
Nrgh.
This is why I vastly prefer working from text-based canons (and yes, I count manga as text-based; it's on paper and it stays put) to working from audiovisual canons. It is so much less of a headache to look things up in a book than it is to pin down the relevant sections of a movie or a television episode.
...Sometimes, I honestly don't know why I bother. *sigh*
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In other news, this weekend was the annual Apple Harvest Fest in Ithaca. Naturally, the weather was awful -- rain, more rain, drizzle, mizzle, precipitous temperature drops... the usual, in other words. (Ithaca has plenty of lovely weather. Just not on festival weekends. I think it's a law of nature or something.)
I bought a pair of cheap $2 beaded earrings, a bottle of wine, and a funnel cake. I only ate about a third of the funnel cake, which is okay; that was all I really wanted, and I am willing to pay the full price to get my small portion, even if none of my coworkers wanted to help me finish it.
Speaking of my coworkers, PB (the new guy) seems to be working out well. I have now closed with him three times -- last Wednesday, last Sunday, and yesterday -- and will close with him again tomorrow. Each night I have been turning more of the tasks over to him while I stand back and correct him, instead of doing them myself while he watches. Tomorrow I think I can shut down my register at seven instead of eight and essentially let him run the store for two hours while I do maintenance and hover discreetly in case he needs help. Here's hoping that works out!
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Also, I keep having to watch the stupid movie again, with subtitles on, to catch little details that are dropped in quick throwaway lines of dialogue. Like, okay, Duke was scouted for GI Joe four years ago in a bar... but where was the bar? And Netflix streaming video has not been cooperating with me the past few days; it keeps freezing up and taking at least half an hour to load and buffer every time I try to fast-forward or rewind. (But I have to watch it streaming because I already have a movie out on hard copy DVD -- Mysterious Skin -- which I need for research for my Femgenficathon story. *headdesk*)
Nrgh.
This is why I vastly prefer working from text-based canons (and yes, I count manga as text-based; it's on paper and it stays put) to working from audiovisual canons. It is so much less of a headache to look things up in a book than it is to pin down the relevant sections of a movie or a television episode.
...Sometimes, I honestly don't know why I bother. *sigh*
---------------
In other news, this weekend was the annual Apple Harvest Fest in Ithaca. Naturally, the weather was awful -- rain, more rain, drizzle, mizzle, precipitous temperature drops... the usual, in other words. (Ithaca has plenty of lovely weather. Just not on festival weekends. I think it's a law of nature or something.)
I bought a pair of cheap $2 beaded earrings, a bottle of wine, and a funnel cake. I only ate about a third of the funnel cake, which is okay; that was all I really wanted, and I am willing to pay the full price to get my small portion, even if none of my coworkers wanted to help me finish it.
Speaking of my coworkers, PB (the new guy) seems to be working out well. I have now closed with him three times -- last Wednesday, last Sunday, and yesterday -- and will close with him again tomorrow. Each night I have been turning more of the tasks over to him while I stand back and correct him, instead of doing them myself while he watches. Tomorrow I think I can shut down my register at seven instead of eight and essentially let him run the store for two hours while I do maintenance and hover discreetly in case he needs help. Here's hoping that works out!
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)