Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

[kungfuwaynewho]

For some reason I got it into my head that I couldn't post until I had finished my edit of Part One, because to do otherwise would somehow admit defeat?  I didn't think of this literally or articulate it to myself, but every time I thought of a post, I would think, "no, I'll be done with the edit soon, I'll post then."

I am actually done with the edit now!  I ended up feeling that I needed an epilogue of sorts, instead wrote a full chapter, and had to go over that enough that I felt it was as polished as the rest of Part One.  But it is, in fact, done now.

(Of course, not posting has nothing to do with why I haven't been reading my flist.  I get the weirdest social media-related anxiety and issues sometimes, I don't even know.)

One of the major things that stalled my progress was the absolute glut of video games I either received or purchased for myself around Christmas.  I hadn't really been playing games much the last few years, and I'd forgotten what it was like to come home from work (or, in earlier years, school) and just sit down and play Civ for like five hours straight.  (What is it like?  It's great, except you start feeling like you haven't showered in a week, even if you did, in fact, just shower.)  I think I've gotten it out of my system, but for about three weeks there, I wasn't doing a whole lot else.  It was kind of sad.

Randomly this last week I have found myself actively missing fandom, specifically B5 fandom circa-2010, and landcomms, specifically scifiland, a whole lot.  I've been saying for over a year now that I was going to make a new fun B5 comm that was going to be like half-meta, half-landcomm, and I've never gotten around to it, so it's hard to whine about there not being anything going on when I'm not even attempting to be active myself.  But 2010-2011 was like a great period of time fandom-wise and I really miss it.  :(

And here is my favorite gif from the last month:

Comments

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

The first cold wasn't so bad, as it was over and done with in four days. This one has been in the lingering stages for almost a week now! At least I have energy today. Energy is very exciting.

I love Parks and Rec. Even when it's not a laugh-out-loud episode, it just makes me content to watch it. I'm doing a rewatch of 30 Rock right now, as there are a ton I've only watched once, but I might swing around to Parks and Rec some time this year.

A pretty good Christmas, though unfortunately the single present I actually asked for I didn't get, which is kind of par for the course. (I said "I don't want anything else, just get me a turntable. Get both of us a turntable and nothing else." Well, my parents hate the idea of getting just one present, let alone one joint present, so instead of spending all our allotted money on a good turntable, they got a really basic one with built-in speakers, and it was just too shoddy, and we had to return it. So now I have to buy myself a turntable, IDK.) I actually had more time off for New Year's than for Christmas, the way our work schedules turned out, and it was very nice to have some time off (to play aforementioned video games!).

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Eww, yuckers. Yeah, 4 days isn't too bad -- mine usually last at least a week. There is some nasty stuff going around. Both my roommates have been sick in the last couple weeks, but thankfully I haven't caught anything yet. *fingers crossed.

It took me a number of attempts to get into P&R -- I just didn't think it was funny at first. But I love it now. :) It's so happy!

Uggh, that is a pain. My mom (standing in for both parents) is pretty good at presents -- she at least tries really hard. Although I send her links to the exact item as often as possible. I didn't have much time off around the holidays, either. I mean, I actually took 2 wks off from work, but I spent most of it applying to grad programs, none of which I now think I actually want to attend. So I feel cheated out of Christmas, out of vacation time, and out of all the money I spent on applications. Not fun.

Happy with the award show noms, wins, etc? (Are you going to do an oscar write-up at some point?)

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my department here at work has just been passing this cold around for two months. I think 5/8 caught it in December, and now there's been 4/8 with it this month. And usually at least a couple people have it at the same time. So we kind of sound like a death ward here, and I feel bad for the patrons who come up with books and just hear a chorus of blowing noses and coughing.

The first season of P&R is really not good. And it takes a little while even in S2 to hit its rhythm. I don't know how far into it you are, so I don't want to spoil you, but there's a certain event that to me is really the turning point from when it moves from amusing sitcom to something that really works on all cylinders.

Oh, my parents try very hard, make no mistake. They are deeply committed to making all of us happy. But no matter what we say otherwise, they are convinced that what will make is happy is lots of presents, because that's what makes little kids happy, and no matter what we say, they cannot bring themselves to just buy one or two presents and be done with it. So I told my sister after this that from now on, if I want something "big," I'll just have to get it for myself. Because it upsets them far more than it upsets me when a present doesn't work out; my dad is STILL grieving over the turntable thing, seriously.

Which grad programs did you apply to? Are you saying you don't want to go to those schools now, or those specific programs, or to grad school at all? That sucks, though - grad applications are a lot of work, and the money lost, for sure.

I am going to do an Oscar write-up! Probably closer to the ceremony. I was going to do a nominations prediction post, but I never got around to it. I actually haven't watched many of the nominated films this year, so most of my opinions are based on who I like and don't like for mostly arbitrary reasons. Which isn't uncommon.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Ugh, not fun. Is there hand sanitizer at the work stations or anything?

This is unrelated, but do you yourself still check out patrons' books manually? Our library system has a no-longer-particularly-new self-checkout system in place, but in the last year they've made it so you can *only* check books out that way. A librarian friend told me it's literally because they want it to appear in the numbers that enough people are using it so it was worth spending all the money they did on the machines. Which, I, just... *headdesk* My roommate teaches autistic kids and she can't take them on socialization outings to the library anymore because they simply cannot use the systems, and the librarians won't/can't make an exception even for special needs kids.

Yeah, I wasn't crazy about the first season (but at least it was short). I'm just about caught up to s6 -- I watched a chunk of s5 w/my roommate before starting over at the beginning and I'm in early 5 again, so there's just a few episodes here or there in 5 I haven't seen yet, plus all of s6, which Netflix doesn't have yet. I'm going to be very depressed when I'm done. Which event was the turning point for you?

Awww, your poor sweet parents. Trying so hard!!!

All literature programs, mostly MAs, some PhDs. Decided I don't want to do them because a) I realized I don't actually want to be a lit prof, at least not enough to go through all the shit it takes to maaaaybe get there if I'm lucky, b) during the app process I remembered how much I hate writing papers, and how not-self-motivated I've become c) I'm not sure if it'll help me get a better publishing job or not (I need to do some research) d) I don't want to end up unemployed at the end of it without better job prospects than I have now. ...Super sucks.

Oscaaaaaaars. :D

I need to upload some non-bsg icons. BAM.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Oh, we have hand sanitizer, and most everyone ends up washing their hands a dozen times a day. (When my cold was at its peak and I was blowing my nose like twenty times an hour, I had to wash my hands every time, and I swear just walking back and forth to the sink was enough to wear me out, LOL.) I think it's just that we handle so many books every day, and we all work on the same computers, and no matter how careful we are about wiping things down, if there's something going around we're going to end up catching it.

We do still check out books. We have two self-checkout machines, one by us at the main circulation desk and one in children's, and people use both. Most people choose to check out with us, especially our older patrons. And yeah, there are so many adults who can't figure out how to use the machine, I can't imagine making it the only option. That's such terrible decision-making. It actually makes me a little angry, because that has nothing to do with helping patrons and everything to do with justifying what was probably some bureaucrat's ill-informed decision.

Ah, okay, you're almost caught up! I think the show really came into its own when Brendanowitz left. He worked as the straight-man character in S1, when Leslie was more like a Michael Scott-esque buffoon, but when they shifted tone in S2, there was really no reason for him to be there, and the whole love triangle thing between him, Ann and Leslie just bogged a lot of the season down for me. And him leaving brought us Chris and Ben, who are perfect.

(d), man. Fucking (d). Lately I've been really bitter about screenwriting and the whole stupid male-dominated film industry, and while grad school was a wonderful experience and I learned so much, and I still love writing dearly, I do sort of cry when I look at my student loan bill every month and realize I work for peanuts at a library because it was the only job I could find. But honestly, I think those are all valid reasons. Any one of them would be valid, but altogether... *hugs*

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

I figured. Just... worth checking. There are so many strange, bad bugs going around this year. Not fun. :/

Yeah, it makes me very urge-to-kill-rising. I just hope my friend was exaggerating or didn't know the full story.

Yep, I think I'm caught up now. WANT SEASON SIX. Yeah, I didn't like Mark much, and Ben and Chris are *litrally* the best.

Sucks. Stupid money why?? I would absolutely be off in art school right now if it weren't for silly things like money and employment.

...If it makes you feel remotely better about or more proud of your job, in order to obtain an equivalent position in GR, you'd have to have a masters in library science and have been lucky enough to beat out the intense competition for a shelving or phone-answering position, then beat out the competition to work your way up the ladder, eventually becoming a legit librarian who gets to [not] check people out if you're very lucky. Library shit's competitive around here.

I mean, I realize that probably won't *actually* make you feel much better. When I remember the competition there was to get my job I feel a *little* bit better, but only a little. Doesn't turn it into what I actually want to be doing with my life.