(no subject)
This is just a random-babbling-while-at-work entry.
Some fic that I remember discussing at the con:
1. "Chain" by irfikos (who, obviously, now has a LJ; everyone go friend her!). This fic is dark and creepy and has the best Spike internal voice I've ever read, as well as excellent Trio voices (especially Warren).
2. "Old Blood" and "Enemy of My Enemy" by Nan Dibble. Some really great writing and a unique interpretation of the characters. Nan makes the SITs palatable, gives us the meaningful Spike/Dawn friendship that we were cheated out of after "Bargaining," gives believable Spike/Buffy that doesn't gloss over the complications of the relationship, and gives a really interesting interpretation of what it means to be a vampire, vampire relationships and rituals, and Spike's relationship with Angel in particular.
3. "Roundabout" by devilpiglet. Can you believe that jaydk has never read this?! It's late season six Spike/Dawn friendship, Spike/Buffy, dark and smart and wonderfully written. If you're one of those who somehow missed this story, go read it now and check out all of Devil Piglet's other work as well. She's brilliant.
4. "Pyrrhic" by _flaming_june_. Kita said that flaming june is one of the rising stars in Buffy fanfic, and I have to agree. This piece is beautifully written and perfectly characterized. William/Angelus, related to wiseacress's "Incandescence," which you should probably read first.
5. "Bag of Bones" by shadowlass. One of the best Spike-returns-post-"Grave" fics, in which Spike arrives home to discover he's being cursed by someone in Sunnydale. It was just completed, so if you've been waiting, now is the time to go read it.
A couple of website-related-issues that were raised at Vulkon:
1. Sometimes people go to All About Spike, and see no new stories, and freak out. Don't worry; I haven't shut down the site. I'll tell you in advance if I ever do, so that you can save everything you want. (Though I also plan to keep the archive available long after I stop updating). When you see no stories, it just means that the database that runs the site is having technical problems. This is an ongoing issue that I'm working on fixing. If you happen upon an error, wait a few minutes, then reload the page. The database is rarely down for more than 5-10 minutes.
2. If I've never asked if I can archive your stories, it seems like I'm snubbing you. I feel awful that I sometimes give this impression. I like to read all of an author's work in advance before I contact her, and if the author has a ton of stories or some really long stories, it might take me a really long time to get through her work. Or if she's writing a WIP, I might want to wait until it's finished. Or I might keep putting it off until some time when I have a lot of free time to really focus. This is part of the reason that I have the recommendation form on my site; it lets me know who is interested in having her work on my site, which means I'll get to her quicker and won't have to worry that I'll read through all her work and choose what I like only to discover that she won't allow me to archive it.
I haven't been updating my LJ as often as I used to. I see a few reasons for this:
1. I don't have anything interesting to say. I'm sick of talking Buffy (and I'm sure people are sick of hearing me ranting about how much I hate the title character), so until AtS starts airing I won't have much to say on that front. Meanwhile, my life is incredibly dull; it consists of working all day, then reading/archiving fanfic until I drop, then sleeping for about three hours. Lather, rinse, repeat. And due to the aforementioned lack of sleep, I don't really have the time or feel like putting in the effort to talk about fic. I think I do my part by finding stuff for my website, where hopefully lots of other people will read it and then do the talking about it for me.
2. I'm still feeling kind of awkward about online fandom after that whole "a whole bunch of strangers suddenly hating me" thing of a few weeks ago.
3. I'm just uncomfortable with the concept of journaling in general. My mother reiterates what a spoiled brat I am every time I see her, so I get this feeling of guilt every time I write an entry, like I'm being horrible and self-indulgent. Whenever I look over anything I've written in the past, it takes a lot of effort to resist deleting it. I was actually about to close my LJ entirely shortly after I obtained it, but then jodyorjen got me a paid membership and I couldn't repay her generosity by not using it. I kept a diary from the ages 9 to 16, but I stopped precisely because I felt so self-indulgent and stupid. (It took a lot of effort to resist burning my diaries a la Dawn in "Blood Ties," but I did frequently go through them and scratch out stuff that embarrassed me in retrospect.) So I just kind of have this underlying feeling of rottenness every time I post an entry, which is part of why I haven't been doing so as often. (Incidentally, this does not reflect in any way upon anyone else who keeps a LJ. I love reading your entries and I think you're all so interesting. Keeping a LJ is a great way of keeping in touch with old friends, meeting new friends, expressing your views, practicing your writing, and learning more about yourself as you reflect on your life. The it's-so-self-indulgent thing in my brain only applies to myself.)
Total Randomness:
I wore my new shoes to work today. It's a 15 minute walk, during which time I obtained some awful blisters. Stupid new shoes. They felt comfortable in the store. I'm glad I didn't wear them at Vulkon.
I ordered corn chowder for lunch, and it's got clumps of goo in it. Apparently they put cornstarch in the soup to thicken it, but some of it stuck together and created these little globs of slime. It's disgusting, even though I know in my brain it's just cornstarch.
I hate the new LJ styles with the tiny pastel fonts on pastel backgrounds. Pretty web design is very important, but the NUMBER ONE RULE of any website that you want people to read is that it should be EASY TO READ. I don't want to have to squint and highlight the text and enlarge the font size on my browser settings. For heaven's sake, use a decent-sized font on a readable background (I strongly recommend Verdana, a font designed to be readable on the web, at at least size 2 or 12px).
If you haven't read mustangsally78's account of her interaction with James at Vulkon (he signed her Spikebot), go do so now. She's also got photos here.
Last night I dreamed that I was traveling on a rowboat with a bunch of Buffy fans to a deserted island, upon which rested an ancient fort. We crawled through a hole in the stone wall of the fort where a block was missing, and made our way into a tiny room. Inside we sat at the far end, where we squinted to see a blackboard that was across the room, upon which was written spoilers for next season's AtS. We were allowed to copy down what we saw, and then we left. One of the spoilers was that Spike would return as a human, and I knew I was supposed to be really upset, so I half-heartedly started breaking stuff in the room. But then I realized that I really just didn't care anymore, so I stopped. I went outside, where I discovered that a huge amount of Buffy fans had gathered on the island, outside the fort. It turns out that this was a secret way of getting spoilers to us without getting caught by Mutant Enemy. It was sort of like a con, since we were all hanging out and talking. I knew that wiseacress was there, but I didn't know what she looked like, so I was looking at a bunch of people trying to guess which one was her. (Yes, I too have jumped on the dreaming-about-wiseacress bandwagon).
Some fic that I remember discussing at the con:
1. "Chain" by irfikos (who, obviously, now has a LJ; everyone go friend her!). This fic is dark and creepy and has the best Spike internal voice I've ever read, as well as excellent Trio voices (especially Warren).
2. "Old Blood" and "Enemy of My Enemy" by Nan Dibble. Some really great writing and a unique interpretation of the characters. Nan makes the SITs palatable, gives us the meaningful Spike/Dawn friendship that we were cheated out of after "Bargaining," gives believable Spike/Buffy that doesn't gloss over the complications of the relationship, and gives a really interesting interpretation of what it means to be a vampire, vampire relationships and rituals, and Spike's relationship with Angel in particular.
3. "Roundabout" by devilpiglet. Can you believe that jaydk has never read this?! It's late season six Spike/Dawn friendship, Spike/Buffy, dark and smart and wonderfully written. If you're one of those who somehow missed this story, go read it now and check out all of Devil Piglet's other work as well. She's brilliant.
4. "Pyrrhic" by _flaming_june_. Kita said that flaming june is one of the rising stars in Buffy fanfic, and I have to agree. This piece is beautifully written and perfectly characterized. William/Angelus, related to wiseacress's "Incandescence," which you should probably read first.
5. "Bag of Bones" by shadowlass. One of the best Spike-returns-post-"Grave" fics, in which Spike arrives home to discover he's being cursed by someone in Sunnydale. It was just completed, so if you've been waiting, now is the time to go read it.
A couple of website-related-issues that were raised at Vulkon:
1. Sometimes people go to All About Spike, and see no new stories, and freak out. Don't worry; I haven't shut down the site. I'll tell you in advance if I ever do, so that you can save everything you want. (Though I also plan to keep the archive available long after I stop updating). When you see no stories, it just means that the database that runs the site is having technical problems. This is an ongoing issue that I'm working on fixing. If you happen upon an error, wait a few minutes, then reload the page. The database is rarely down for more than 5-10 minutes.
2. If I've never asked if I can archive your stories, it seems like I'm snubbing you. I feel awful that I sometimes give this impression. I like to read all of an author's work in advance before I contact her, and if the author has a ton of stories or some really long stories, it might take me a really long time to get through her work. Or if she's writing a WIP, I might want to wait until it's finished. Or I might keep putting it off until some time when I have a lot of free time to really focus. This is part of the reason that I have the recommendation form on my site; it lets me know who is interested in having her work on my site, which means I'll get to her quicker and won't have to worry that I'll read through all her work and choose what I like only to discover that she won't allow me to archive it.
I haven't been updating my LJ as often as I used to. I see a few reasons for this:
1. I don't have anything interesting to say. I'm sick of talking Buffy (and I'm sure people are sick of hearing me ranting about how much I hate the title character), so until AtS starts airing I won't have much to say on that front. Meanwhile, my life is incredibly dull; it consists of working all day, then reading/archiving fanfic until I drop, then sleeping for about three hours. Lather, rinse, repeat. And due to the aforementioned lack of sleep, I don't really have the time or feel like putting in the effort to talk about fic. I think I do my part by finding stuff for my website, where hopefully lots of other people will read it and then do the talking about it for me.
2. I'm still feeling kind of awkward about online fandom after that whole "a whole bunch of strangers suddenly hating me" thing of a few weeks ago.
3. I'm just uncomfortable with the concept of journaling in general. My mother reiterates what a spoiled brat I am every time I see her, so I get this feeling of guilt every time I write an entry, like I'm being horrible and self-indulgent. Whenever I look over anything I've written in the past, it takes a lot of effort to resist deleting it. I was actually about to close my LJ entirely shortly after I obtained it, but then jodyorjen got me a paid membership and I couldn't repay her generosity by not using it. I kept a diary from the ages 9 to 16, but I stopped precisely because I felt so self-indulgent and stupid. (It took a lot of effort to resist burning my diaries a la Dawn in "Blood Ties," but I did frequently go through them and scratch out stuff that embarrassed me in retrospect.) So I just kind of have this underlying feeling of rottenness every time I post an entry, which is part of why I haven't been doing so as often. (Incidentally, this does not reflect in any way upon anyone else who keeps a LJ. I love reading your entries and I think you're all so interesting. Keeping a LJ is a great way of keeping in touch with old friends, meeting new friends, expressing your views, practicing your writing, and learning more about yourself as you reflect on your life. The it's-so-self-indulgent thing in my brain only applies to myself.)
Total Randomness:
I wore my new shoes to work today. It's a 15 minute walk, during which time I obtained some awful blisters. Stupid new shoes. They felt comfortable in the store. I'm glad I didn't wear them at Vulkon.
I ordered corn chowder for lunch, and it's got clumps of goo in it. Apparently they put cornstarch in the soup to thicken it, but some of it stuck together and created these little globs of slime. It's disgusting, even though I know in my brain it's just cornstarch.
I hate the new LJ styles with the tiny pastel fonts on pastel backgrounds. Pretty web design is very important, but the NUMBER ONE RULE of any website that you want people to read is that it should be EASY TO READ. I don't want to have to squint and highlight the text and enlarge the font size on my browser settings. For heaven's sake, use a decent-sized font on a readable background (I strongly recommend Verdana, a font designed to be readable on the web, at at least size 2 or 12px).
If you haven't read mustangsally78's account of her interaction with James at Vulkon (he signed her Spikebot), go do so now. She's also got photos here.
Last night I dreamed that I was traveling on a rowboat with a bunch of Buffy fans to a deserted island, upon which rested an ancient fort. We crawled through a hole in the stone wall of the fort where a block was missing, and made our way into a tiny room. Inside we sat at the far end, where we squinted to see a blackboard that was across the room, upon which was written spoilers for next season's AtS. We were allowed to copy down what we saw, and then we left. One of the spoilers was that Spike would return as a human, and I knew I was supposed to be really upset, so I half-heartedly started breaking stuff in the room. But then I realized that I really just didn't care anymore, so I stopped. I went outside, where I discovered that a huge amount of Buffy fans had gathered on the island, outside the fort. It turns out that this was a secret way of getting spoilers to us without getting caught by Mutant Enemy. It was sort of like a con, since we were all hanging out and talking. I knew that wiseacress was there, but I didn't know what she looked like, so I was looking at a bunch of people trying to guess which one was her. (Yes, I too have jumped on the dreaming-about-wiseacress bandwagon).