Have you fainted yet?
Don't worry, there are smelling salts available for those who've passed out from the shock of seeing me post twice in six days. ~grin~ ) And since I'll be discussing personal and fandom stuff, I'm cutting this so that people who are interested in just the fandom stuff can skip the personal.
I'm the owner of a new desktop, necessitated by the demise of my old one. ~a moment of silence for the old workhorse, please~ I've named the new shiny, "Severus". Its powerful, and its fan whispers instead of roars, and it arrived dressed in stark black robes cover. So now "Hermione the Know-It-All Netbook" has a proper partner, and all is well in my fanfic computer world. Severus also arrived pre-loaded with Windows 7, and I have to say I'm impressed. Since I managed to hold out and skip Vista entirely, it's possible that someone who upgrades from Vista won't be nearly so enthused, but so far Windows 7 has been quick and responsive without being intrusive, so I'll give points to Microsoft for the time being. However, I am reserving final judgment until I see how it holds up in the long-term.
Kitty Boy has paid for his supper in a rather unique way. My mom and dad both recently purchased new recliners, and while they felt they got good deals on them, it turns out they received a much better deal on one chair than anyone realized. A couple of mornings ago, Kitty Boy went with me to check on my parents - something I do each morning - and Kitty Boy began to paw at something underneath my dad's new recliner. I thought Kitty Boy was pulling on a loose string, but it turns out it was the lead wire for the controls for the vibrator function of the chair! A little tug and the controls toppled out from under the chair, where we all blinked at them in surprise. No one realized the thing would vibrate; it wasn't even labeled as such. So it turned out that on top of the sales price my parents paid, they saved the extra $250.00 for which the chair would normally sell. Kitty Boy has been lavishly praised by my dad in particular. ;)
During my last post, I held something of a pity party for myself, and in responding to camillo1978, I had a minor epiphany. To quote myself, I said: "I think I've just been having a delayed slump brought on by the ending of the HP series and the reduction in fandom discussion of the books. I'd enjoyed having an open canon, and the loss of that just added to my pity party." I enjoyed discussing the books, speculating about what was going to happen and who would live or die, and now that canon is closed, I'm missing that aspect of fandom more than I'd realized I would.
So instead of speculating about canon, let's talk about fanfic. (At least in general terms.) After DH, post-war fics were my favorite. Anything that corrected those last few chapters of DH - you know the ones I mean - was like a cool drink of water on a searing day. I could barely bring myself to read anything that didn't incorporate at least some of DH, which I think was my way of re-aligning my thinking about that book. Slowly, though I've found myself returning to a broader scope of reading. Stories that entirely disregard DH or HBP or even OotP are now taking up huge chunks of of my fanfic reading list, which is a bit surprising to me. I'd always been one of those readers who secretly chafed when a story deviated too far from known canon. For example, after OotP, when a story presented Sirius Black as alive and well with no explanation, I found it jarring. Now, no problem. ~grin~ Was I the only one who had that preference? And if not, have your reading patterns changed after DH and the close of canon?
I'm the owner of a new desktop, necessitated by the demise of my old one. ~a moment of silence for the old workhorse, please~ I've named the new shiny, "Severus". Its powerful, and its fan whispers instead of roars, and it arrived dressed in stark black robes cover. So now "Hermione the Know-It-All Netbook" has a proper partner, and all is well in my fanfic computer world. Severus also arrived pre-loaded with Windows 7, and I have to say I'm impressed. Since I managed to hold out and skip Vista entirely, it's possible that someone who upgrades from Vista won't be nearly so enthused, but so far Windows 7 has been quick and responsive without being intrusive, so I'll give points to Microsoft for the time being. However, I am reserving final judgment until I see how it holds up in the long-term.
Kitty Boy has paid for his supper in a rather unique way. My mom and dad both recently purchased new recliners, and while they felt they got good deals on them, it turns out they received a much better deal on one chair than anyone realized. A couple of mornings ago, Kitty Boy went with me to check on my parents - something I do each morning - and Kitty Boy began to paw at something underneath my dad's new recliner. I thought Kitty Boy was pulling on a loose string, but it turns out it was the lead wire for the controls for the vibrator function of the chair! A little tug and the controls toppled out from under the chair, where we all blinked at them in surprise. No one realized the thing would vibrate; it wasn't even labeled as such. So it turned out that on top of the sales price my parents paid, they saved the extra $250.00 for which the chair would normally sell. Kitty Boy has been lavishly praised by my dad in particular. ;)
During my last post, I held something of a pity party for myself, and in responding to camillo1978, I had a minor epiphany. To quote myself, I said: "I think I've just been having a delayed slump brought on by the ending of the HP series and the reduction in fandom discussion of the books. I'd enjoyed having an open canon, and the loss of that just added to my pity party." I enjoyed discussing the books, speculating about what was going to happen and who would live or die, and now that canon is closed, I'm missing that aspect of fandom more than I'd realized I would.
So instead of speculating about canon, let's talk about fanfic. (At least in general terms.) After DH, post-war fics were my favorite. Anything that corrected those last few chapters of DH - you know the ones I mean - was like a cool drink of water on a searing day. I could barely bring myself to read anything that didn't incorporate at least some of DH, which I think was my way of re-aligning my thinking about that book. Slowly, though I've found myself returning to a broader scope of reading. Stories that entirely disregard DH or HBP or even OotP are now taking up huge chunks of of my fanfic reading list, which is a bit surprising to me. I'd always been one of those readers who secretly chafed when a story deviated too far from known canon. For example, after OotP, when a story presented Sirius Black as alive and well with no explanation, I found it jarring. Now, no problem. ~grin~ Was I the only one who had that preference? And if not, have your reading patterns changed after DH and the close of canon?