well then

[faeriemaiden]

Talked to parents about The Great Escape last night; it went both better and worse than I expected, but the best part is that it's over and I don't have to think about it (or panic about the bit where I have to talk to people on purpose about a specific thing, which sends me into fits of terror no matter how benign the subject or how intimately

Comments

[aohdwyn]

I actually did both the plasma donation (totally worth the time, as you can sit and read while you donate, and (in my experience, anyway) one doesn't feel faint afterward, having gotten one's red blood cells back. The only unpleasant bit (depending on how you feel about needles) is how COLD the saline they suspend your blood cells in is when they stick them back inside you. Bring a sweater, no matter how warm the day is. I always spent a few moments shivering violently, during re-insertion.) and the trying-out-medical-experiments bit. Well, I only did the one, and it was totally easy, and I didn't experience any weird side effects, at all (of course, for all I know, I was on the placebo...) It was a pill for stomach problems (I was having a lot at the time, I'm pretty sure stress triggers my IBS) if I felt stomach pain, I would take a pill. Every evening, whether I had taken a pill or not, I would log on to the website the researchers had set up and fill out a short questionnaire. This was for, oh, a few weeks? Anyway, at the end, I

[lady_moriel]

Wait, you have IBS too? Not that I should've known that, I guess, since we only have mutual friends and haven't actually talked, but...y'know.

[faeriemaiden]

My father donated plasma when I was about six, which is why it came to mind... of course it was a lot more humiliating for him, as he was in his mid thirties with a family and we were so desperate for money that he turned to desperate things. (I've learnt a lot about weird, especially temporary, jobs from my father, whose willingness to do whatever it takes to keep his family safe and fed kind of awes me -- scientific studies, delivering phone books, selling promotional crap on street corners... the older I get the angrier I get -- he has a freaking MASTER'S DEGREE! Which he bloody well earned by being intelligent and hard-working! Quit screwing him over, universe of employment!)

Looked on Boston Craigslist, and the job market is definitely better than in my town, especially in the ratio of "jobs available" to "jobs I can/will actually do" (here, there's a lot of factory work, some fast food but not much, esp. as two restaurants just burnt down in May, so everyone from there needed new jobs, some educational stuff I'm not qualified

[aliseadae]

If you do decide to start submitting poetry Duotrope is a good site to find markets and Goblin Fruit is an excellent market. (http://duotrope.com/ and http://goblinfruit.net/).

[faeriemaiden]

I have been thinking about that, thanks for the recommendations! I'd like to write some marketable short stories, as well, but I've been working (albeit not so diligently) at that for years and haven't really got very far. I've considered shaving serial numbers off some fanfiction (I nearly always write minor characters, fortunately enough!), and there are stories I never get around to writing that perhaps I finally will -- having a computer is tremendously helpful with all of that, though. As much as I love notebooks and paper and resent the Machine Takeover (Kindle? NO GOD NO PLEASE SOMEONE KILL IT), my scattered brain takes much, much kindlier to neat words on a screen. And I'm really enjoying reading through Goblin Fruits' website! Thank you again!

Funny thing -- I tend to unconsciously think of myself as a child writer, unmarketable, not ready. Then I realise that I am a year from twenty, and quite a lot of people are starting their Careers by this age... o.O