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OMG this month has been killing me. My boss warned me I'd have a "very tough month" but fuuuuuuuuuuck. I went from being reasonably busy to being EXTREMELY BUSY and then a few crises fell on my head and oh my god.
The madness was supposed to end last week, but of course it's been extended until Dec 1st. On the one hand, I keep thinking - just one more week of this. But on the other I'm just so extremely over working my ass off and dealing with a new crisis every day and completely fucks up my schedule. And on top of it a very senior person asked everyone related to a project I'm working on to come in to the office for the first 3 days of next week (until Dec 1st).
I've been alternating office days with work from home days, and 3 in a row at the office is gonna be So Much. Ugh. I really hope he changes his mind/other people who've been at the company longer just ignore him and then I can feel OK doing it too.
Anyway, other than the sheer volume of work things have been going pretty well at work. A few random bad/good things that have happened.
1. I'm getting a work husband! LOL basically every person in my job is usually paired with someone from the more technical side of things, and together we make the magic happen. Until now I've worked on bits and pieces of things, or kind of sidetrack projects, but now that I'm a fully grown butterfly I get my own tech partner and he's a really great dude.
I feel like my predecessor and her tech guy were both the same sort of person, who worked super hard but were very chaotic and didn't really give a fuck and supported each other in not giving a fuck.
My tech guy and I are actually the opposite lolol we're both way too committed, both really organized, both believe in good leadership in the sense of taking all the heat and giving all the credit. I've been kind of crashing under the strain these past weeks and even though he and I just started working together he's been amazing at taking on some of my work without complaining or making me feel like it's not OK.
In general it's just great to work in a pair and have someone to consult and share with. I mean I technically work with a ton of people every day, but they're usually either above or below me in the hierarchy, it's really amazing to have someone who's a partner.
2. I realized that in almost every professional interaction I now have, I'm the only woman. Just... I can go a whole day having 7 different meetings with a dozen different people and in like, ONE of those meetings there'll be one other woman whose work isn't even tangentially related to mine.
3. After what felt like a period when I could not get a handle on work no matter what I did or how long I worked, I'm happy to say I now reach inbox 0 (as in, no new and unread emails) twice a day. I start going over everything while I'm having my morning meetings, and a few hours into the day I'm usually all clear. And then by the time it's time to leave and go home - again I reach zero.
That's HUGE for me because most of my work communication doesn't even happen over email, but through messaging platforms, so to be able to keep up with that AND keep my inbox mostly clear feels like a huge achievement.
4. I just... need things to calm down. I need to go back to the days when I could work from home and go for a walk in the middle of the day, or go swimming. I don't even mind that right now I have one set of early morning meetings every day, and then in the evenings, for a different project, I have phone calls with Canada. Like, I'll deal with that! Just let me have some chill time in between!
*
I haven't had time to write any reaction posts about media, so let's try to make it short and sweet.
1. Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - I LOVED this as a Marvel movie, I couldn't believe how amazing it was to see Tony Leung in a Hollywood production IN FRONT OF MY EYES being his amazing self, it was so perfect and delicious.
To me it felt very specifically like a diaspora/child of immigrants sort of story, in the framing and themes of it (I mean, those are literally the protags, but I mean more broadly in what the movie was and why). As a child immigrant myself, it definitely spoke to me in many ways on that front. If we remember all the general disclaimers about Marvel movies, this was definitely one of the best ones.
2. The Last Duel - LOL got free tickets to this so we went. Hoped for some history lol, did not expect a movie with TWO graphic rape scenes (I guess that's a spoiler? Sorry I'm OK spoiling people for that, EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW). Matt Damon and Ben Affleck made a movie about rape culture in the 14th century I guess???
It felt very random until I realized "the point" aside from how terrible rape culture is (a worthy point!) was that Adam Driver's character apparently just ~didn't realize~ that he'd raped a woman which makes everything ~complicated~. Except like, the movie IN NO WAY gave him any gray area by any reasonable metric??? Like even by the standards of the time that the movie establishes, it was obvious in Driver's perspective that what he was doing was rape.
So, not sure what to make of that one. It did have some hilarious accent bullshit (making Eleanor's grandmother from "Black Sails" speak with a US accent in a movie where half the characters are British was certainly a choice), and it took me a few minutes to figure out why Affleck took a supporting role instead of the other lead opposite Matt Damon.
This was Ben Affleck's "getting my groove back" movie where he looks young and hot again after becoming a laughingstock after his divorce, so his character just gets all the best lines and is shown as a great lover, the end lolol
3. Motherland: Fort Salem, season 2 - AAAAH I enjoyed this so much. It was still 50% cheesy and bad, but the other 50% were SOOOO GOOD. Such good character work, such fun worldbuilding, such good episode structures, such wonderful diversity in the types of relationships and family structures.
If we had 10 different versions of this show on TV it would be too little.
4. Invincible - I don't understand the hype about this show, and I'm still working up the courage to tell the friend who passionately recced it to me that it was absolute garbage lol. I mean, if you watch the first and last episode of the season ONLY I guess it's OK? the rest is either so boring my eyes were bleeding or is just plain horror storylines that don't work for me because I don't like horror. Also mixing superhero stuff with horror is really not that groundbreaking or interesting to me.
5. Narcos, season who knows which - the latest season of "Narcos: Mexico" dropped and I inhaled it as I always do with that show. It's long since abandoned its early truly subversive storytelling elements but it's still very much catnip to me and I would watch 10,000 more seasons of it.
6. Wheel of Time - I didn't read the books growing up (though am thoroughly spoiled for them) so wanted to see if the show worked for me on its own terms. Most of it so far has been "our costuming budget was a trip to Primark" and I'm very much watching it the same way I read Harry Potter. I don't give a shit about the younger characters and their drama, but I do enjoy the adult generation.
In other words - MOIRAINE. I know this show isn't something to hang my hopes on but I just want to enjoy the Moiraine/Lan relationship that defies neat categorization into platonic/romantic for ALL TIME or until the show decides to fuck with it and put boundaries and definitions in place.
I also consider Lan's canonic love interest as interesting as the 20 year old characters (she's closer to them in age!) and basically all my enjoyment is just the 10 seconds left before I'm forced to endure Lan's romance storyline instead of the lifelong partnership of witch/warrior that I'm here for.
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The madness was supposed to end last week, but of course it's been extended until Dec 1st. On the one hand, I keep thinking - just one more week of this. But on the other I'm just so extremely over working my ass off and dealing with a new crisis every day and completely fucks up my schedule. And on top of it a very senior person asked everyone related to a project I'm working on to come in to the office for the first 3 days of next week (until Dec 1st).
I've been alternating office days with work from home days, and 3 in a row at the office is gonna be So Much. Ugh. I really hope he changes his mind/other people who've been at the company longer just ignore him and then I can feel OK doing it too.
Anyway, other than the sheer volume of work things have been going pretty well at work. A few random bad/good things that have happened.
1. I'm getting a work husband! LOL basically every person in my job is usually paired with someone from the more technical side of things, and together we make the magic happen. Until now I've worked on bits and pieces of things, or kind of sidetrack projects, but now that I'm a fully grown butterfly I get my own tech partner and he's a really great dude.
I feel like my predecessor and her tech guy were both the same sort of person, who worked super hard but were very chaotic and didn't really give a fuck and supported each other in not giving a fuck.
My tech guy and I are actually the opposite lolol we're both way too committed, both really organized, both believe in good leadership in the sense of taking all the heat and giving all the credit. I've been kind of crashing under the strain these past weeks and even though he and I just started working together he's been amazing at taking on some of my work without complaining or making me feel like it's not OK.
In general it's just great to work in a pair and have someone to consult and share with. I mean I technically work with a ton of people every day, but they're usually either above or below me in the hierarchy, it's really amazing to have someone who's a partner.
2. I realized that in almost every professional interaction I now have, I'm the only woman. Just... I can go a whole day having 7 different meetings with a dozen different people and in like, ONE of those meetings there'll be one other woman whose work isn't even tangentially related to mine.
3. After what felt like a period when I could not get a handle on work no matter what I did or how long I worked, I'm happy to say I now reach inbox 0 (as in, no new and unread emails) twice a day. I start going over everything while I'm having my morning meetings, and a few hours into the day I'm usually all clear. And then by the time it's time to leave and go home - again I reach zero.
That's HUGE for me because most of my work communication doesn't even happen over email, but through messaging platforms, so to be able to keep up with that AND keep my inbox mostly clear feels like a huge achievement.
4. I just... need things to calm down. I need to go back to the days when I could work from home and go for a walk in the middle of the day, or go swimming. I don't even mind that right now I have one set of early morning meetings every day, and then in the evenings, for a different project, I have phone calls with Canada. Like, I'll deal with that! Just let me have some chill time in between!
*
I haven't had time to write any reaction posts about media, so let's try to make it short and sweet.
1. Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - I LOVED this as a Marvel movie, I couldn't believe how amazing it was to see Tony Leung in a Hollywood production IN FRONT OF MY EYES being his amazing self, it was so perfect and delicious.
To me it felt very specifically like a diaspora/child of immigrants sort of story, in the framing and themes of it (I mean, those are literally the protags, but I mean more broadly in what the movie was and why). As a child immigrant myself, it definitely spoke to me in many ways on that front. If we remember all the general disclaimers about Marvel movies, this was definitely one of the best ones.
2. The Last Duel - LOL got free tickets to this so we went. Hoped for some history lol, did not expect a movie with TWO graphic rape scenes (I guess that's a spoiler? Sorry I'm OK spoiling people for that, EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW). Matt Damon and Ben Affleck made a movie about rape culture in the 14th century I guess???
It felt very random until I realized "the point" aside from how terrible rape culture is (a worthy point!) was that Adam Driver's character apparently just ~didn't realize~ that he'd raped a woman which makes everything ~complicated~. Except like, the movie IN NO WAY gave him any gray area by any reasonable metric??? Like even by the standards of the time that the movie establishes, it was obvious in Driver's perspective that what he was doing was rape.
So, not sure what to make of that one. It did have some hilarious accent bullshit (making Eleanor's grandmother from "Black Sails" speak with a US accent in a movie where half the characters are British was certainly a choice), and it took me a few minutes to figure out why Affleck took a supporting role instead of the other lead opposite Matt Damon.
This was Ben Affleck's "getting my groove back" movie where he looks young and hot again after becoming a laughingstock after his divorce, so his character just gets all the best lines and is shown as a great lover, the end lolol
3. Motherland: Fort Salem, season 2 - AAAAH I enjoyed this so much. It was still 50% cheesy and bad, but the other 50% were SOOOO GOOD. Such good character work, such fun worldbuilding, such good episode structures, such wonderful diversity in the types of relationships and family structures.
If we had 10 different versions of this show on TV it would be too little.
4. Invincible - I don't understand the hype about this show, and I'm still working up the courage to tell the friend who passionately recced it to me that it was absolute garbage lol. I mean, if you watch the first and last episode of the season ONLY I guess it's OK? the rest is either so boring my eyes were bleeding or is just plain horror storylines that don't work for me because I don't like horror. Also mixing superhero stuff with horror is really not that groundbreaking or interesting to me.
5. Narcos, season who knows which - the latest season of "Narcos: Mexico" dropped and I inhaled it as I always do with that show. It's long since abandoned its early truly subversive storytelling elements but it's still very much catnip to me and I would watch 10,000 more seasons of it.
6. Wheel of Time - I didn't read the books growing up (though am thoroughly spoiled for them) so wanted to see if the show worked for me on its own terms. Most of it so far has been "our costuming budget was a trip to Primark" and I'm very much watching it the same way I read Harry Potter. I don't give a shit about the younger characters and their drama, but I do enjoy the adult generation.
In other words - MOIRAINE. I know this show isn't something to hang my hopes on but I just want to enjoy the Moiraine/Lan relationship that defies neat categorization into platonic/romantic for ALL TIME or until the show decides to fuck with it and put boundaries and definitions in place.
I also consider Lan's canonic love interest as interesting as the 20 year old characters (she's closer to them in age!) and basically all my enjoyment is just the 10 seconds left before I'm forced to endure Lan's romance storyline instead of the lifelong partnership of witch/warrior that I'm here for.
comments on Dreamwidth