Two recs and a ramble
I'm sitting in janicechess's house and I should be working. And I am if your definition of working is yelling at my computer as I read emails from my boss. Swear to god, that woman wouldn't remember to breathe without me there to pat her hand and remind her about the concepts of in and out.
I really do not want to go back to work. When I get back, I have payroll to process, projects to get caught up on, the month of September to close the books on and our annual audit to spearhead. I'm going to be working the entire weekend so the more I can finish now, the less I have to do later. Yet I cannot think of anything I'd rather do less than work. Ok, maybe there are a couple of things but srsly. I hate my job. I hate that my boss is so incompetent and attached to her two or so hour lunches that she schluffs all this shit off on me like it's no biggie. I'm on vacation and I'm stuck staring at spreadsheets and trying to do work where I don't have the full picture because I don't have access to my work computer.
Oh speaking of the work computer, I'm stuck with a new computer when I get back, too. That'll be brilliant as it probably won't have everything on it. I've had to justify every piece of random software on my computer to someone who has no concept of what I do and is fairly new to the organization. He's a nice enough guy but I don't think I should have to explain to him just what it is that COBRA administration software really does and why I need it and why I can't just type up the letters every month. Sorry but true.
I just think my boss sets me up for failure time and time again. I mean - srsly. There are a few hugely important things that I do on a monthly, biweekly and annual time setting and all three things are converging on Monday so what does my boss do? Change out my computer two business days beforehand. What sort of moronic bullshit is that? Who does this shit?
Anyway on to non-work related shit - I think there's a karmic rule about fandom and fic searches - only the worst stories ever get searched for (and having seen a couple of my "bad" fic get searched for, I fully embrace and participate in this philosophy). I normally click the link anyway cause I cannot stop myself due to my overactive trainwreck syndrome. I've been pleasantly surprised a few times and this time was one of them as I encountered some stunning Remus/Sirius. The fic search sounded ridiculous and I was totes ready to laugh and spork but, instead, I ended up with biting back tears at the way that the canon between these two was handled.
Being an Historical Record of Events Surrounding the Unfortunate game of Truth-or-Dare Game of February the Twenty-Second And Consequences thereof is the first. It's got a few SPAG errors, a couple moments that made me think "chick with dick" but, honestly? Don't let that fool you into not reading it. It's got quite a good sense of poignancy and beauty there, the way that they fumble around one another and slowly build into an interesting take on the fanon trope of how and why Sirius leaves Grimmauld Place.
I see a Darkness is the second part and just about broke my heart. It doesn't start where Being an Historical... stops. Instead, it's got a disparate timeline that weaves everything together in a broken misshapen lump of a relationship that works even when it doesn't. The author does a great job of getting everything out there, whether positive or negative. You can feel the way that Remus reacts to everything and it is an amazing piece of work.
geekerypookery is the author and I'm currently trolling her journal looking for more R/S because I love her dynamics of these two so much.
Moving on to the ramble, I love fic searches. I really do. I think that they introduce a lot of people to some fandom classics that people assume are so classical that others already read them or whatever. Or they introduce people to new and exciting authors whether those authors are good or bad in my opinion. The best part is that it's my opinion whether the authors are good or bad and you can have your opinion and love the story equally as much as I want to spork it. Regardless of opinion on skill, they wrote something memorable enough that it stuck with someone so much that they want to experience it again.
In my opinion, they're like a different version of fandom squee. We post graphics and recs and links and lots and lots of other things. Fic searches are a way of someone saying "I read this story and I'd love to read it again and again so please help me find it!" It's a way of having someone answer back with "I read this story too and enjoyed it so much that I remember exactly where it is". It's a way of people connecting in mutual squee over a story. Whether they love or hate the story, they remember it and they connect over it.
It might be part of my wook-centrism where I am, obviously, the end all and be all of the world and fandom and the number 42 but I just cannot get why people get so annoyed with fic searches and why they can't see that even fic searches are a moment of squee and communal connection between fandomers. I get that we get annoyed with the real life bits of it. I get annoyed too as I really do not need to know that someone just broke up with their boyfriend or that they are having a fight with their girlfriend. But honestly? How hard is the fucking scroll bar to use? How hard is it to skip past them just like you skip past other entries that might contain similar information on a personal journal?
And all of this ramble is with the assumption that the community allows fic searches. If it doesn't? That's an entirely different ramble about people who don't read the motherfucking rules and then add in something annoying like "mods, delete if not allowed". I'll leave that ramble for another day.
I guess what my ramble is really about, though, is to say that posting fic searches provide a service just like linking to Tom Felton's new album, posting graphics, posting icons, posting stories, posting art or any of a thousand and one other things that we all do and are accepting of.
/thoughts on searches.
In other less rambly stuffs and postings - I'm working through my hp_yule_balls assignment. It's a tough slog (no offence to the mods or the recipient as it isn't their faults). Mainly it's a tough slog because I'm so wishywashy about whether or not my idea is a good one and if it's a good fit. So I'm being one of those tedious participants who need constant handholding and reassurance.
I'm also working on a story that currently has the summary of "the story where Remus is a street musician and Sirius is a stockbroker and Peter likes Tom Jones while James has his head up his arse and it works just don't ask me how or why or where this came from".
There are also my three non-HP claims at slashfest. I've about 5k into a Wolverine/Gambit post-X3 story and about 1k in to a PWP with Christian/Ollie at Verbotene Liebe. I have nothing into my Nightrunner claim but a good idea.
I really do not want to go back to work. When I get back, I have payroll to process, projects to get caught up on, the month of September to close the books on and our annual audit to spearhead. I'm going to be working the entire weekend so the more I can finish now, the less I have to do later. Yet I cannot think of anything I'd rather do less than work. Ok, maybe there are a couple of things but srsly. I hate my job. I hate that my boss is so incompetent and attached to her two or so hour lunches that she schluffs all this shit off on me like it's no biggie. I'm on vacation and I'm stuck staring at spreadsheets and trying to do work where I don't have the full picture because I don't have access to my work computer.
Oh speaking of the work computer, I'm stuck with a new computer when I get back, too. That'll be brilliant as it probably won't have everything on it. I've had to justify every piece of random software on my computer to someone who has no concept of what I do and is fairly new to the organization. He's a nice enough guy but I don't think I should have to explain to him just what it is that COBRA administration software really does and why I need it and why I can't just type up the letters every month. Sorry but true.
I just think my boss sets me up for failure time and time again. I mean - srsly. There are a few hugely important things that I do on a monthly, biweekly and annual time setting and all three things are converging on Monday so what does my boss do? Change out my computer two business days beforehand. What sort of moronic bullshit is that? Who does this shit?
Anyway on to non-work related shit - I think there's a karmic rule about fandom and fic searches - only the worst stories ever get searched for (and having seen a couple of my "bad" fic get searched for, I fully embrace and participate in this philosophy). I normally click the link anyway cause I cannot stop myself due to my overactive trainwreck syndrome. I've been pleasantly surprised a few times and this time was one of them as I encountered some stunning Remus/Sirius. The fic search sounded ridiculous and I was totes ready to laugh and spork but, instead, I ended up with biting back tears at the way that the canon between these two was handled.
Being an Historical Record of Events Surrounding the Unfortunate game of Truth-or-Dare Game of February the Twenty-Second And Consequences thereof is the first. It's got a few SPAG errors, a couple moments that made me think "chick with dick" but, honestly? Don't let that fool you into not reading it. It's got quite a good sense of poignancy and beauty there, the way that they fumble around one another and slowly build into an interesting take on the fanon trope of how and why Sirius leaves Grimmauld Place.
I see a Darkness is the second part and just about broke my heart. It doesn't start where Being an Historical... stops. Instead, it's got a disparate timeline that weaves everything together in a broken misshapen lump of a relationship that works even when it doesn't. The author does a great job of getting everything out there, whether positive or negative. You can feel the way that Remus reacts to everything and it is an amazing piece of work.
geekerypookery is the author and I'm currently trolling her journal looking for more R/S because I love her dynamics of these two so much.
Moving on to the ramble, I love fic searches. I really do. I think that they introduce a lot of people to some fandom classics that people assume are so classical that others already read them or whatever. Or they introduce people to new and exciting authors whether those authors are good or bad in my opinion. The best part is that it's my opinion whether the authors are good or bad and you can have your opinion and love the story equally as much as I want to spork it. Regardless of opinion on skill, they wrote something memorable enough that it stuck with someone so much that they want to experience it again.
In my opinion, they're like a different version of fandom squee. We post graphics and recs and links and lots and lots of other things. Fic searches are a way of someone saying "I read this story and I'd love to read it again and again so please help me find it!" It's a way of having someone answer back with "I read this story too and enjoyed it so much that I remember exactly where it is". It's a way of people connecting in mutual squee over a story. Whether they love or hate the story, they remember it and they connect over it.
It might be part of my wook-centrism where I am, obviously, the end all and be all of the world and fandom and the number 42 but I just cannot get why people get so annoyed with fic searches and why they can't see that even fic searches are a moment of squee and communal connection between fandomers. I get that we get annoyed with the real life bits of it. I get annoyed too as I really do not need to know that someone just broke up with their boyfriend or that they are having a fight with their girlfriend. But honestly? How hard is the fucking scroll bar to use? How hard is it to skip past them just like you skip past other entries that might contain similar information on a personal journal?
And all of this ramble is with the assumption that the community allows fic searches. If it doesn't? That's an entirely different ramble about people who don't read the motherfucking rules and then add in something annoying like "mods, delete if not allowed". I'll leave that ramble for another day.
I guess what my ramble is really about, though, is to say that posting fic searches provide a service just like linking to Tom Felton's new album, posting graphics, posting icons, posting stories, posting art or any of a thousand and one other things that we all do and are accepting of.
/thoughts on searches.
In other less rambly stuffs and postings - I'm working through my hp_yule_balls assignment. It's a tough slog (no offence to the mods or the recipient as it isn't their faults). Mainly it's a tough slog because I'm so wishywashy about whether or not my idea is a good one and if it's a good fit. So I'm being one of those tedious participants who need constant handholding and reassurance.
I'm also working on a story that currently has the summary of "the story where Remus is a street musician and Sirius is a stockbroker and Peter likes Tom Jones while James has his head up his arse and it works just don't ask me how or why or where this came from".
There are also my three non-HP claims at slashfest. I've about 5k into a Wolverine/Gambit post-X3 story and about 1k in to a PWP with Christian/Ollie at Verbotene Liebe. I have nothing into my Nightrunner claim but a good idea.