(no subject)
Still alive.
I know I've been quiet, but it's partly because I've just been busy. I go in early, I run, I work, I get the kids, we go to Scouts or soccer or swimming, I make dinner, we get the kids to bed, I fall over. :P On the bright side, life is definitely good, but it does just leave me drained. Plus, my computer died. I've been using the kids' computer, but it limits my writing a bit.
I also feel like this has always been a fannish thing, and... well, I sort of feel like I don't know where I fit in fandom anymore. I don't really have a canon I'm fannish about right now. I like the Marvel universe and Shield is my current favorite show, but I don't feel like writing for it. And I'm not getting to see Age of Ultron soon (more on that later :P) I've tried to get into Hunger Games, but it seems like the only way I can do that is crossovers. (I would still like to finish the Dee&Tom Hunger Games fic, but the start is on my other computer.) I've also toyed with writing The Bodyguard Diaries and writing a Princess Diaries story from Lars' point of view, but I haven't really been motivated to do that.
Fandom has also changed. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad change, but some of it is. Everything about fandom is about outrage now. Some of these things need to be said, but I so rarely see anything positive in fandom anymore. Because fandom isn't about content anymore, it's only about representation. A great example- there was a post going around Tumblr about why people should watch BSG and it listed a bunch of tests it passed. And while these are good and I do appreciate that BSG did a lot of things really well, 1.) it's not perfect, but 2.) the post never mentioned that you should watch BSG because it's good. Nothing about how compelling the writing and the characters are or how it makes you feel things, only that it passes these particular social justice tests. I can totally get not wanting to watch a canon because it DOESN'T pass some of these tests, but just because it does is not the only reason to watch something, you know?
. I'm also just frustrated with the all or nothing approach. Example: Joss Whedon. I still like the guy's work. I don't know much about him because I don't read interviews often, but I love Firefly and Buffy and Dollhouse. I in no way think he's a feminist god brought to this earth, but then, I never did. He's a guy who writes stuff I like, and sometimes he's going to write things that I think are great and sometimes he's going to write stuff that doesn't connect with me and sometimes he's going to be an idiot. And I'm not saying other people need to continue liking him, but it baffles me that fandom is turning on Joss and ready to burn him at the stake when there are so much worse offenders out there. Does that mean people shouldn't speak up when he makes mistakes? No. But the outrage and hate I see directed at Joss seems like overkill. There is no forgiveness for Joss, because we as a fandom loved him once. Therefore, he must die. Or something like that. It's not the reaction that bothers me- it's the extremity of it. The black and white nature. The disallowance for the fact that we're all human and there's potential for change, especially from a person who's previously expressed that their goal is to be a decent human being.
I've seen it with other things, too. People apparently now hate Schindler's List. Terry Pratchett is the devil. JKR is evil incarnate. If you don't subscribe to certain headcanons, you're racist/ablest/transphobic/whatever. I realize that it's not always that unthinking, but the mass of voices on Tumblr and the only action LJ/DW gets seems to be anonmemes, so it all becomes one voice. I feel out of step with fandom because I'm too tired for outrage and besides, I seem to have misplaced my pitchfork. I don't feel like fandom needs to change for me, but I do think it means I need to move on more and more. Although I really, really miss being excited about writing.
(And truthfully, my BSG issue is just I've told most of my stories. But that's that specific fandom.)
Other things:
Still running. No marathons this spring, but I am doing halves. I opened the season with the Valley Forge 5 miler, which is a nice race, but didn't go so well for me. I started out too fast. I thought I could because it was a 5 miler, but I really started out fast, and my hill training hasn't been existing. I wasn't that unhappy with my time, but I felt really physically not-so-great at the end of the run. Oops.
Last weekend I did the Broad Street 10 Mile Run. It's a huge race in Philly and super hyped, but I've never done it before because it's a huge race and super hyped. 40000 people- eek. But my company pays for entries for it and you get to bypass the lottery, so I ran it this year. It's funny- on paper, I ran it about the same pace that I ran Valley Forge, but I paced it much better, so I was much, much happier with it. My time wasn't as fast as I wanted but wasn't as slow as I feared it would be, so I was okay with that. It was a fun race, but the logistics of getting home were miserable- it took longer to get out of Philly than it did for me to run the race, and unfortunately, that's not an exaggeration. On the really bright side, the way they do corporate teams is that there are 5 people per team, and they combine the three fastest times for the team time. (So if someone has a really bad day it doesn't bring it all down? If someone gets hurt or DNF or something? I'm sure there's logic for this, but it's always been how running teams are scored.) Anyway, I was #3 on my team, so my score counted, and my team placed third in the Corporate Women's Master's division. I placed at Broad Street! Pretty cool :)
Other runs on my horizon- I'm still debating about doing the Charlie Horse Half in a few weeks. Depends on how my run today goes, I think. I am also planning on doing the Half Sauer Half Kraut with afrakaday. A few years ago we ran the marathon associated with it, but I think both of us agree that that's not an experience we need to repeat. It's a nice race, but the emphasis is on the half, and the marathon is really the half course repeated twice. I'm glad I ran it back then, especially since it got me into doing multiple marathons in the same training cycle, but I wouldn't run the full again unless I needed a super-long training run for something. But the half is fun and reasonable and we both really like this race company (although I really don't need any more cuckoo whistle medals), so it should be a fun, relaxed day.) Then maybe in July the Pottstown half, then Lehigh Valley Via full, Wineglass Full, Hershey Half, and probably Philly full, although I haven't registered yet.
The big thing is I am really trying to drop some weight to get my running going again. I've gotten higher than I want to, and I would run so much better if I could shed some. IT's very slow going, especially because weekends screw me up but good. I hate weight loss, but such is life :P
I was going to post some stuff about the kids, but I think I will wait and do that later. I really need to get out for my run. Hope you all are doing well, and that everyone's having a nice weekend.
I know I've been quiet, but it's partly because I've just been busy. I go in early, I run, I work, I get the kids, we go to Scouts or soccer or swimming, I make dinner, we get the kids to bed, I fall over. :P On the bright side, life is definitely good, but it does just leave me drained. Plus, my computer died. I've been using the kids' computer, but it limits my writing a bit.
I also feel like this has always been a fannish thing, and... well, I sort of feel like I don't know where I fit in fandom anymore. I don't really have a canon I'm fannish about right now. I like the Marvel universe and Shield is my current favorite show, but I don't feel like writing for it. And I'm not getting to see Age of Ultron soon (more on that later :P) I've tried to get into Hunger Games, but it seems like the only way I can do that is crossovers. (I would still like to finish the Dee&Tom Hunger Games fic, but the start is on my other computer.) I've also toyed with writing The Bodyguard Diaries and writing a Princess Diaries story from Lars' point of view, but I haven't really been motivated to do that.
Fandom has also changed. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad change, but some of it is. Everything about fandom is about outrage now. Some of these things need to be said, but I so rarely see anything positive in fandom anymore. Because fandom isn't about content anymore, it's only about representation. A great example- there was a post going around Tumblr about why people should watch BSG and it listed a bunch of tests it passed. And while these are good and I do appreciate that BSG did a lot of things really well, 1.) it's not perfect, but 2.) the post never mentioned that you should watch BSG because it's good. Nothing about how compelling the writing and the characters are or how it makes you feel things, only that it passes these particular social justice tests. I can totally get not wanting to watch a canon because it DOESN'T pass some of these tests, but just because it does is not the only reason to watch something, you know?
. I'm also just frustrated with the all or nothing approach. Example: Joss Whedon. I still like the guy's work. I don't know much about him because I don't read interviews often, but I love Firefly and Buffy and Dollhouse. I in no way think he's a feminist god brought to this earth, but then, I never did. He's a guy who writes stuff I like, and sometimes he's going to write things that I think are great and sometimes he's going to write stuff that doesn't connect with me and sometimes he's going to be an idiot. And I'm not saying other people need to continue liking him, but it baffles me that fandom is turning on Joss and ready to burn him at the stake when there are so much worse offenders out there. Does that mean people shouldn't speak up when he makes mistakes? No. But the outrage and hate I see directed at Joss seems like overkill. There is no forgiveness for Joss, because we as a fandom loved him once. Therefore, he must die. Or something like that. It's not the reaction that bothers me- it's the extremity of it. The black and white nature. The disallowance for the fact that we're all human and there's potential for change, especially from a person who's previously expressed that their goal is to be a decent human being.
I've seen it with other things, too. People apparently now hate Schindler's List. Terry Pratchett is the devil. JKR is evil incarnate. If you don't subscribe to certain headcanons, you're racist/ablest/transphobic/whatever. I realize that it's not always that unthinking, but the mass of voices on Tumblr and the only action LJ/DW gets seems to be anonmemes, so it all becomes one voice. I feel out of step with fandom because I'm too tired for outrage and besides, I seem to have misplaced my pitchfork. I don't feel like fandom needs to change for me, but I do think it means I need to move on more and more. Although I really, really miss being excited about writing.
(And truthfully, my BSG issue is just I've told most of my stories. But that's that specific fandom.)
Other things:
Still running. No marathons this spring, but I am doing halves. I opened the season with the Valley Forge 5 miler, which is a nice race, but didn't go so well for me. I started out too fast. I thought I could because it was a 5 miler, but I really started out fast, and my hill training hasn't been existing. I wasn't that unhappy with my time, but I felt really physically not-so-great at the end of the run. Oops.
Last weekend I did the Broad Street 10 Mile Run. It's a huge race in Philly and super hyped, but I've never done it before because it's a huge race and super hyped. 40000 people- eek. But my company pays for entries for it and you get to bypass the lottery, so I ran it this year. It's funny- on paper, I ran it about the same pace that I ran Valley Forge, but I paced it much better, so I was much, much happier with it. My time wasn't as fast as I wanted but wasn't as slow as I feared it would be, so I was okay with that. It was a fun race, but the logistics of getting home were miserable- it took longer to get out of Philly than it did for me to run the race, and unfortunately, that's not an exaggeration. On the really bright side, the way they do corporate teams is that there are 5 people per team, and they combine the three fastest times for the team time. (So if someone has a really bad day it doesn't bring it all down? If someone gets hurt or DNF or something? I'm sure there's logic for this, but it's always been how running teams are scored.) Anyway, I was #3 on my team, so my score counted, and my team placed third in the Corporate Women's Master's division. I placed at Broad Street! Pretty cool :)
Other runs on my horizon- I'm still debating about doing the Charlie Horse Half in a few weeks. Depends on how my run today goes, I think. I am also planning on doing the Half Sauer Half Kraut with afrakaday. A few years ago we ran the marathon associated with it, but I think both of us agree that that's not an experience we need to repeat. It's a nice race, but the emphasis is on the half, and the marathon is really the half course repeated twice. I'm glad I ran it back then, especially since it got me into doing multiple marathons in the same training cycle, but I wouldn't run the full again unless I needed a super-long training run for something. But the half is fun and reasonable and we both really like this race company (although I really don't need any more cuckoo whistle medals), so it should be a fun, relaxed day.) Then maybe in July the Pottstown half, then Lehigh Valley Via full, Wineglass Full, Hershey Half, and probably Philly full, although I haven't registered yet.
The big thing is I am really trying to drop some weight to get my running going again. I've gotten higher than I want to, and I would run so much better if I could shed some. IT's very slow going, especially because weekends screw me up but good. I hate weight loss, but such is life :P
I was going to post some stuff about the kids, but I think I will wait and do that later. I really need to get out for my run. Hope you all are doing well, and that everyone's having a nice weekend.