Yet another one of those prairie dog posts

[thedeadlyhook]

A Saga of Scheduling Woes: Back in spring, when I took on these last couple of writing/editing projects, I thought, "oh, of course I'll be done with all that by the end of June! Plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the summer, free and unimpeded, dancing through the tulips, la la la!" You may now fill in your own hysterical laughter here.

Long story short, I'm still loaded down with work. Probably will be throughout the summer. I won't be done with it all by Writercon - drat - which I was hoping I would be, if only for my stress level's sake, not to mention the fics I wanted to finish. Gah, publishing. I used to work with predictable deadlines - "I can't book a summer vacation! It's tradeshow season!" - and now I have unpredictable ones. But such is the freelance life, I guess. Sigh.

As Toys put it the other night, when catching episodes of Meerkat Manor: "I thought that a show about meerkats would be happy and fun. (pause) In the Kalahari desert. Surrounded by predators."

Truly, folks, you'll need tissues to get through that series. Pathos!

Depression!: So I didn't get downtown for Pride Parade yesterday, which, color me sad, because that's always fun. For extra Pacific Gas & Electric is punching holes in the concrete in front of our apartment building today (drain flushing, pipe replacement, rooting for treasure, who knows?), and fandom in general seems unhappy. HP scandal shockwaves aside (and has anyone beside me read the entire MsScribe debacle and thought that hello, I've seen that same type of saga play out in places other than fandom lately, such as in our current Federal Government?), I'm gettting the impression from my hurried skimming that moods are overall low, andthe_red_shoes seems to have deleted her journal. I'm hoping will turn out to be a temporary rather than a permanent absence, but.... still. The stars in bad alignment? The air just feels... wrong.

Maybe I worry about nothing. There are bigger worries in the world, but... I hate seeing my flist seem so down. Please tell me that at Writercon there'll be hugs all around? Or at least spirited sparring? Passsion? Fandom shouldn't be a sad place.

Paranoia!: Like others who've been worried about possible unwelcome changes to LiveJournal, I started a GreatestJournal account. Unlikely as it might be that someone would rush to claim-jump my name... hey, why not. So far, it's just an exact clone of this journal, right down to the obnoxious Kodak-yellow background, and I've no real plans to move over there unless an LJ exodus becomes a reality, but there's been a certain fun to starting up something new. A blank sheet on which nothing has yet been written. Hmmm, feel that potential.

Stress!: Sure, like everyone, I've had the school-related stress dreams, the work-related ones, the ones where you walk out of the house naked and start hoping that no one notices, but my current stress-related dreams all seem to revolve around appliances. As in a string of weird mini-dreams about blenders or other gadgets with complicated computerized interfaces that I have a lot of difficulty working. Multiple menus with animated screens, and buttons that activate other devices instead of the ones you want. I have to assume some of this is computer-related worry. My latest laptop has been steady for some months now, but just yesterday, I had a no-warning screen blackout, which is an ominous sign. Time to back up the files. (I say this in the tone of that old commerical, about the guy who had to get up pre-dawn for his bakery job: "time to make the donuts," he'd groan. Over and over.)

Competency Issues!: And... writing is going badly right now. Which is not a good in just about every way, professional and personal. See above for the deadline saga. Why won't the words just come?

Groan.

Okay, this was all too downbeat. I give you pictures of baby animals.

Comments

[zerographic.livejournal.com]

What (possibly negative) changes is LJ contemplating? I haven't heard these rumblings...

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

There's been some talk from the LJ end of MySpace-ing up the place, changing the way the user profiles display and whatnot, which doesn't per se bother me, but the way LJ has started to sound in some of its news posts (check the LJ front page (http://www.livejournal.com/) for a sample) does kind of send up a signal flag. At least to me, who has not-so-distant memories of the Internet Startup Bubble, and the type of sell-speak you heard a lot of then. Essentially, it sounds like Six Apart would like LJ to be a more teen-oriented space, and would like the fuddier duddies among its users to toodle off to its new service, Vox. Which is why I think the GreatestJournal talk started up - after all, if you're going to move anyway...

But it may turn out to be nothing. I just signed up for the account as insurance. All my friends are here. As long as they're still here, so am I.

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

Please tell me that at Writercon there'll be hugs all around? Or at least spirited sparring? Passsion? Fandom shouldn't be a sad place.


Hugs, snuggles, joyful dancing, passion all over the place! Whoot!

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Hee! Okay, I feel better. I'll bring my rave whistle. : )

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

As Toys put it the other night, when catching episodes of Meerkat Manor: "I thought that a show about meerkats would be happy and fun. (pause) In the Kalahari desert. Surrounded by predators." Nods. Nature is red in tooth and claw. Poor little buggers.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

I know I should've known better, too - I mean, I watch Animal Planet a lot, it's just the sort of thing one has on in the background (I'm particularly fond of "Most Xtreme!!"), but... still. Meerkats! They're just so cute. (sniff)

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

PG&E is cutting wide swathes through the streets in my neighborhood too. It has yet to hit my block, but I think it will next month, and I am not looking forward to the noise.

As far as fandom's general mood goes, I haven't seen much negativity on my (admittedly isolated and largely blissfully sane) flist, but it does seem like the lull when most shows are on hiatus has meant lots of hate memes and drama and rubbernecking at drama, and that's always wierd. (Although anyone who doesn't want to rubberneck at the msscribe thing is made of stone. STONE.)

Best of luck with the workload. Freelancing can be so feast-or-famine.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

The working crews seemed to have knocked off early today, and hopefully that means they're done rather than they'll be back at the crack of dawn tomorrow... I'm hopeful. Sort of. I'll let you know what kind of duration to expect. We seem to be on a program of one hole drilled in front of each building on the street.

My flist is usually drama-free too, so most of what I hear tends to be secondhand. Which might in itself explain a lot of the sort of downbeat tone. At least when you're in the middle of the wank, it's a passionate issue. On the sidelines, it all just sounds nasty and dispiriting. (Although I have to agree on the whole MsScribe thing - this is probably the second really serious fan horror story saga I've read, and man, it's riveting. Dang.)

And thanks for the ganbatte - I've been feeling so drained and uninspired. Every little bit helps. : )