too many things make a post
You know how it is. You have nothing to say for a couple of days, or a week, and suddenly: you have too many things to say, and you are probably not going to remember them all. And by you, I of course mean me.
1. STAR TREK TONIGHT! Finally. Although I don't feel bad about not having been able to read your reaction posts, because I can sort of tell that most of you thought it was pretty good. :-)
I was never a Trekkie or a Trekker, but during the early 70s I managed to see reruns of all the episodes of the original series. Mostly at my best friend Irene's house, because the TV in my house was only used to watch the evening news. One fond childhood memory is of talking with Irene and her mom in their kitchen while Star Trek was on in the next room, and I don't recall exactly what about, but Irene said to her mom, "But what about [Isis]?" and the response came from the TV: "She's dead, Jim." I don't think we stopped laughing for ten minutes.
TNG corresponded to me in grad school with no TV, so I have only seen a very few episodes of that. In the 90s, my husband and I tried to get into the habit of watching Deep Space Nine, but we failed to be very consistent or fannish about it; I think I watched a total of maybe six episodes of Voyager, and I honestly didn't even know Enterprise existed until Connor Trinneer showed up on SGA. I have seen all of the TOS-related movies, and none of the others except for Generations.
So the Star Trek of my heart is Kirk and Spock and Uhura and the rest, and so I am unreasonably excited and yet sort of nervous about watching this new version.
2. I have completed 2 of my 3 assignments for remixthedrabble (and on DW that's not going to show properly as a community, is it. Bah) and am happy with them! Now, on to the third. I'm tapping my foot anxiously awaiting sign-ups for the next RemixRedux. And - I'm dithering on midsummer2009. I mean, I love the C6D Midsummer Fest! And yet...I am not entirely sure that I can come up with enough requests, or offer enough things that I will really want to write. And I still have unfinished things hanging over my head I must finish.
3. There is an anonymous feedback meme sprouting like an infestation of cockroaches all over my flist, and we hates it, Precious, yess we does. Look, people: if I've commented or sent feedback on any of your stories, you know what I think of your writing. And you know what I think of your writing, so you know exactly how much weight to put on that opinion. (And if I have never commented or sent feedback on any of your stories, and you know damn well that that bitch Isis reads in that fandom and has recced other people's stories which aren't nearly as good, so screw her - well, you probably know what I think of your writing, too.)
I know that concrit is hard to come by (although I agree with
msilverstar that the place for it, really, is in beta). But do you really think that what you're getting in one of these anonymemes is actual, worthwhile concrit? I suspect most people (of course, not the people on my flist, whom I shall charitably consider momentarily deluded) are just fishing for "ooh, I love your work" squee. And of course they get it. But, you know, if you want to give me feedback on my stories - I figure you have already. And if you haven't, feel free. You can even be anonymous by using the feedback form and declining to supply an email address, or by making an anonymous comment. I do weight concrit by its source, in that if I respect you as a writer (which has nothing at all to do with respecting you as a person) I will consider your suggestions about my writing more thoughtfully.
3.1 This makes me think that maybe it's time for another of my not-very-periodic rounds of offering to read your stories and tell you What I Really Think. I need to think about constraints on this, but I'll make a post when I do. ETA: This is my post from the last time I did this, just so you can see what I'm talking about.
3.2 And it also reminds me that I have been thinking about posting about negative feedback (not just concrit, but not flames) and the culture of not saying anything if you can't say something nice. Which again, deserves its own post. This is just a Note To Self (and preview of coming attractions, for the non-selves).
4. Another thing I'm intending to post about is Dreamwidth, and how my DW circle differs from my LJ flist. I will say that I am now leaning heavily toward making my DW journal my primary journal - but only after some of the beta bugs are worked out. In particular, I really need my reading filters, because I like to organize my flist into "associations" which are partly fandom-related and partly "how I know this person" and partly other stuff, and that way I also don't have to go to skip=lots. So I am holding off adding most crossposters to DW. However, if you seem to be primarily reading me at DW, I will read you there, too.
4.1 One thing which is sort of weirding me out, though, is seeing posts on LJ by people who have crossposted, and all the username links are DW-style snowmen instead of LJ-style heads, but sometimes the snowmen don't go anywhere (that is: the DW username doesn't exist), or the context is, "And then I read this fabulous story by username" except that "username" is a DW link but "this fabulous story" is a link to LJ, and it hurts my brain. I admit I go through and edit my crossposts so this doesn't happen.
5. Changing subject entirely: I am currently listening to Cormac McCarthy's The Road on audiobook, mostly because mlyn pointed me to the trailer of the movie, which features a very shaggy Viggo Mortensen. And I just discovered a few days ago that our library has started (recently) offering a new downloadable audiobook option through the "Across Colorado Digital Consortium" and they have a whole bunch of stuff I can't get through Netlibrary.com, and I gleefully zeroed in on Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral...and the stupid system doesn't recognize my library card number, and our library people said, when I called them, "oh, we've noticed that nobody seems to be able to log in, huh, isn't that weird?" and I want my audiobooks dammit!
5.1 Also, when I finish my current interminable dead-tree book, am going to read Patrick O'Brian's The Far Side of the World, which I think is the next one in the series I haven't read, but I'm not entirely sure. So it might be a re-read.
5.2 Also, the Sherlock Holmes trailer fills me with unholy GLEEEEEEE.
...um, I should probably quit writing this entry and post it now, huh?
1. STAR TREK TONIGHT! Finally. Although I don't feel bad about not having been able to read your reaction posts, because I can sort of tell that most of you thought it was pretty good. :-)
I was never a Trekkie or a Trekker, but during the early 70s I managed to see reruns of all the episodes of the original series. Mostly at my best friend Irene's house, because the TV in my house was only used to watch the evening news. One fond childhood memory is of talking with Irene and her mom in their kitchen while Star Trek was on in the next room, and I don't recall exactly what about, but Irene said to her mom, "But what about [Isis]?" and the response came from the TV: "She's dead, Jim." I don't think we stopped laughing for ten minutes.
TNG corresponded to me in grad school with no TV, so I have only seen a very few episodes of that. In the 90s, my husband and I tried to get into the habit of watching Deep Space Nine, but we failed to be very consistent or fannish about it; I think I watched a total of maybe six episodes of Voyager, and I honestly didn't even know Enterprise existed until Connor Trinneer showed up on SGA. I have seen all of the TOS-related movies, and none of the others except for Generations.
So the Star Trek of my heart is Kirk and Spock and Uhura and the rest, and so I am unreasonably excited and yet sort of nervous about watching this new version.
2. I have completed 2 of my 3 assignments for remixthedrabble (and on DW that's not going to show properly as a community, is it. Bah) and am happy with them! Now, on to the third. I'm tapping my foot anxiously awaiting sign-ups for the next RemixRedux. And - I'm dithering on midsummer2009. I mean, I love the C6D Midsummer Fest! And yet...I am not entirely sure that I can come up with enough requests, or offer enough things that I will really want to write. And I still have unfinished things hanging over my head I must finish.
3. There is an anonymous feedback meme sprouting like an infestation of cockroaches all over my flist, and we hates it, Precious, yess we does. Look, people: if I've commented or sent feedback on any of your stories, you know what I think of your writing. And you know what I think of your writing, so you know exactly how much weight to put on that opinion. (And if I have never commented or sent feedback on any of your stories, and you know damn well that that bitch Isis reads in that fandom and has recced other people's stories which aren't nearly as good, so screw her - well, you probably know what I think of your writing, too.)
I know that concrit is hard to come by (although I agree with
msilverstar that the place for it, really, is in beta). But do you really think that what you're getting in one of these anonymemes is actual, worthwhile concrit? I suspect most people (of course, not the people on my flist, whom I shall charitably consider momentarily deluded) are just fishing for "ooh, I love your work" squee. And of course they get it. But, you know, if you want to give me feedback on my stories - I figure you have already. And if you haven't, feel free. You can even be anonymous by using the feedback form and declining to supply an email address, or by making an anonymous comment. I do weight concrit by its source, in that if I respect you as a writer (which has nothing at all to do with respecting you as a person) I will consider your suggestions about my writing more thoughtfully.
3.1 This makes me think that maybe it's time for another of my not-very-periodic rounds of offering to read your stories and tell you What I Really Think. I need to think about constraints on this, but I'll make a post when I do. ETA: This is my post from the last time I did this, just so you can see what I'm talking about.
3.2 And it also reminds me that I have been thinking about posting about negative feedback (not just concrit, but not flames) and the culture of not saying anything if you can't say something nice. Which again, deserves its own post. This is just a Note To Self (and preview of coming attractions, for the non-selves).
4. Another thing I'm intending to post about is Dreamwidth, and how my DW circle differs from my LJ flist. I will say that I am now leaning heavily toward making my DW journal my primary journal - but only after some of the beta bugs are worked out. In particular, I really need my reading filters, because I like to organize my flist into "associations" which are partly fandom-related and partly "how I know this person" and partly other stuff, and that way I also don't have to go to skip=lots. So I am holding off adding most crossposters to DW. However, if you seem to be primarily reading me at DW, I will read you there, too.
4.1 One thing which is sort of weirding me out, though, is seeing posts on LJ by people who have crossposted, and all the username links are DW-style snowmen instead of LJ-style heads, but sometimes the snowmen don't go anywhere (that is: the DW username doesn't exist), or the context is, "And then I read this fabulous story by username" except that "username" is a DW link but "this fabulous story" is a link to LJ, and it hurts my brain. I admit I go through and edit my crossposts so this doesn't happen.
5. Changing subject entirely: I am currently listening to Cormac McCarthy's The Road on audiobook, mostly because mlyn pointed me to the trailer of the movie, which features a very shaggy Viggo Mortensen. And I just discovered a few days ago that our library has started (recently) offering a new downloadable audiobook option through the "Across Colorado Digital Consortium" and they have a whole bunch of stuff I can't get through Netlibrary.com, and I gleefully zeroed in on Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral...and the stupid system doesn't recognize my library card number, and our library people said, when I called them, "oh, we've noticed that nobody seems to be able to log in, huh, isn't that weird?" and I want my audiobooks dammit!
5.1 Also, when I finish my current interminable dead-tree book, am going to read Patrick O'Brian's The Far Side of the World, which I think is the next one in the series I haven't read, but I'm not entirely sure. So it might be a re-read.
5.2 Also, the Sherlock Holmes trailer fills me with unholy GLEEEEEEE.
...um, I should probably quit writing this entry and post it now, huh?