Blah.

[tabaqui]

I'm just kinda...bummed.
Over half the journals i check regularly haven't been updated in AGES. And i mean ages.
None of the stories i'm currently following have been updated.
I'm not seeing new updates in a bunch of journals because i marked the journal to follow a story but didn't 'friend'. And now i'm skeered to friend 'cause my flist is so big!
But what am i missing!?? Aaaahhh!

And, the damn computer headache is back! I assume that's what it is.
Is it better to computer in a room WITH light or WITHOUT light?

Nothing seems to help, and when my head pounds and i feel woozy every time i move my eyes, it's NOT GOOD.

I think i need new glasses, too, damnit. Why can't i win the lottery and just get new eyes cloned?

AND...the worst thing...
I have this MarySue fic in my head. Won't leave me alone. Me and my *fictional* money and wit making it possible for the bois to get together.
I mean - gah!
I have it all plotted! I have a house! I don't have a name 'cause no way would i use my own, but....
Somebody please, please tell me that this is a BAD idea and i should stop now.

*grumble*
Stupid cats. Why can't they use the litterbox without scattering litter in a huge fan all over the floor?
Sheesh.
:)

Uh, just 'cause no journal update is complete without a link... Here is the website of one of my very favorite authors who happens to write slashy sub-and-not-so-sub-texty plots in her stories. And is, i believe, gay. Or so the rumour mill goes. Which is cool, 'cause she lives with another really good female writer.
Anyway.
C J Cherryh

Edited to add that this link, apparently, wasn't working, but hopefully now it does!
Go, be amazed!
:)

Comments

[amejisuto.livejournal.com]

Well it can't be me that doesn't put stuff up, cause I annoy everyone with my stuff! LOL

Tabatha would be a neat name for your Mary Sue, shortened to Tab. What kind of job, how do you get them together? Can I encourage you some more? Will you be putting yourself in as a filling of a Spander sammich?

Staples and Radio Shack sell these screens that you can hook onto your computer to reduce glare. Pet Smart has mat thingies that catch the gravel when the cats kick it out. Or you can be lazy like me and use newspaper.

Oh and if you're really lucky like I am today, you too can go to Krogers and get a gallon of chocolate milk for a $1. Course I had to drink it all since it's near the bad by date!

:bounce, bounce, bounce:

[tabaqui]

HA! Tab would be so amazingly, ego-centrically MarySue i'm not sure i could stand it.
Heh.
And i've never seriously checked out one of those screens. Maybe i should.
And my cat manage to get litter in a damn three-foot ARC around the litter box, so a mat probably wouldn't help, but it's worth looking into.
And you are NOT FUCKING HELPING, insane-o girl!
You're supposed to tell me MarySue are BAD!
Evol and Wrong!

*pipe down, kid, the old man's hung*
Hee.

[amejisuto.livejournal.com]

Awww, here I am all set up to make you the bartender in my demon bar in WKBK. Mary Sues are okay, as long as they are written well and I can't see you writing anything bad.

The screens aren't that much money and they do help, I have one.

And I'm not insane, I'm just drinking chocolate milk and coffee at once! 8-}

:bounce bounce bounce!:

[tabaqui]

BWAhahhhaha. I would make a lousy bartender - i don't drink!
Hee.
chocolate milk + coffee = bad.
See? Insane.
:)

[amejisuto.livejournal.com]

I don't drink either, but I know what goes in Monkey Cum. Probably is an asset, a bartender that doesn't drink, don't have to worry about profits. Or would you rather be a waitress?

[tabaqui]

I've BEEN a waitress, thank you very much.
We will not speak of it agian!
*ptooey*!!!
:)

Why do drinks have to have such stupid names? What's wrong with a 'jack and coke'?
*sigh*
Better make me a bartender, than i can ridicule the drunks and cut them off arbitrarily and...and...do whatever else it is bartenders do!
:)

[amejisuto.livejournal.com]

One cynical bartender coming up!! No froo-froo drinks for you. LOL

Personally I think people get really drunk trying to come up with new recipes, hence the weird names.

[tabaqui]

Ah. Very possibly.
Wow - sleeeepy. The monitor is all...dancing. :)
Lurve the 'Summer of Spike' icon - must get me one, too!
'Night!
*bounce*
*gonna be inna fic!*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

{{{hugs you}}}

If I have a 'computer headache' but am stubbornly refusing to move away from the monitor, I find that low lights work better than none at all. And if the light source can be behind you, but not glaring on the monitor, then that's even better. Got a lamp you can throw a scarf or something over to mute it? Or maybe you can dial down the brightness on your monitor somehow?

Flists - terribly addictive things. If half of the journals you've got friended aren't updating, then there's no reason not to friend the others is there? ::evil grin::

I always seem to add a couple of new friends every week, and I dread getting to 100. I have no idea how some people deal with flists of 350+. How can you read that many journals?!

Mary Sue? Uhoh! Maybe you could write it to give yourself a giggle? You can always post it for it's entertainment value... ;o)

[tabaqui]

oh, hugs!
:) Thanks!

I have an overhead light in here, and that's it. Blah.

I know! My flist is so long already, although not unmanageable 'cause i read damn fast...
But still!
I may have to break down and just DO IT.
Grrrrrr.

Ummm...Stoppit!
Don't encourage the MarySue. I'm plotting dialogue in my head! It's wrong, i tell you, WRONG!!

:)

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Do you have a lower wattage bulb anywhere that you could swap out for the one in the overhead light? Even that might make a difference.

Oh! Just remembered what I resorted to one major headache time... sunglasses. I sat at the computer in sunglasses to cut the glare. Hee!

Dooooooooooooooooo iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. ::evil cackles::

You have so much angst in your fics atm (and well done on that, btw!) maybe you need the silliness of a MarySue?

[tabaqui]

Well, it's pretty low-watt already, but Elf has to have light to see her keyboard. It's the three-computer Computer Room!
:)

HEh, sunglasses! You prolly looked coool. :)

Damn.
*ponders*
Never set out to be an angst whore. Where did my mum go wrong?!

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Hee! Last time Mommie Dearest visited, she looked at my collection of erocit novels and said 'I expected you to have written at least two of these by now'. She'd be quite proud if I was an angst whore. She's very good at creating it herself. ;op

[tabaqui]

HA!
I blame it all on mum, too!
Although, she's NOT an angst whore, either.
I mean, i HATE fics and books and movies where the 'heros' are in this hopeless situation that NEVER GETS BETTER or where they're in love or unhappy and five minutes conversation would fix it but THEY WON'T... I mean... ACK!
Is that what i'm doing? Making people miserable for no reason?
*ponders*
Say it isn't so!!!
:)
*scampers off to work on next part of 'Credence'*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Is that what i'm doing? Making people miserable for no reason?
*ponders*
Say it isn't so!!!

It really isn't so, sweetie. You make the boys hurt so you can make them fall in love and get better. You create angst with a happy at the end.

::stern look::

There is going to be a happy at the end, right? Several happies? One for each fic...

[tabaqui]

Yes, there is!
I am not one of those writers who ends things on a horrible, depressing, 'everyone is sad/mad/dead/alone forever note. I just don't...GET that sort of thing.

So, no worries!

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Good to know. Now I can sit back and enjoy their pain. ;op

[ponders-life.livejournal.com]

And, the damn computer headache is back! I assume that's what it is.
Is it better to computer in a room WITH light or WITHOUT light?
With light, so long as your computer monitor is the brightest thing in your field of vision. It's good to have another low, indirect light in the room, if only so you can see the top of your desk :).

Nothing seems to help, and when my head pounds and i feel woozy every time i move my eyes, it's NOT GOOD.
I think i need new glasses, too, damnit.
Yes, you might need new glasses. I'm extremely near-sighted (and over 40) -- I now have two pairs of glasses: one for reading and computer work, and another for driving. My eyes are much happier now, and I don't get headaches nearly as often.

When you get your eyes checked, make sure you tell the eye doctor that you spend a lot of time in front of the computer.

[tabaqui]

Glasses is a major yes. I'm know i need new ones. But i have terrible, terrible eyesight - an awful astigmatism - so my glasses are expensive.
So they have to be plotted for.
Blah.

Yeah, i'll tell him. See if he thinks i need something new.
Gods, i hope not.
Thanks!

[entrenous88.livejournal.com]

<----------- is nosy

What stories are you waiting on updates for? Just curious to hear what WIPs other people are following.

[tabaqui]

Oooh..ummm...
*looks around nervously*
I almost don't wanna say. But then, i don't think they read my LJ, so...

Um. Willa's EvilSplit!Xanders verse, and Lilac City, and about four things Ladycat777 started but, i think, are lost causes *cries*
and Protocal and Pet and Alone Again or... and... Ummm... The Gay Bar thing that shannon is doing, and Rediscovery and Affected and the shameless_rpg and the fragment_rpg and the coming-soon rpg that's been annonced at 'the swimming hole' and just today the tagged story over on SecondVerse's journal and *Higher Education* and....and... Fuck, a half-dozen more my needy, carboyhydrate-craving brain can't currently think of.

And it's not like these people *and you!* don't update pretty regularly, it's just that a lot seem to do it from work and of course, a lot don't post as much on the weekend and i'm just looooooonely and neeeeeeeeedy and a little bored, so.
:)
Whaaa!

[entrenous88.livejournal.com]

Lilac City is a good one to want updates from since they come so regularly. I recognize most of the titles and am reading most of them also (and we should all do fanfiction book-club type things, but that's another topic). Still have to start Protocol, but I'm looking forward to it especially after hearing great reviews from many people.

Of course, the nature of fanfic is that some of it goes onto the shelf unfinished and stays that way. I'm disappointed about some of them, of course, though it's the worst when you know that the author has *left* fandom and not only won't finish their WIPs but also won't be producing anything else.

Hee! Weekend posting is tricky (though I did post two fics myself this weekend) because people seem to do more personal posts, and fic gets lost in the mix. I know that when I posted the latest part of the mpreg on a Sunday, it took a long while for it to get any responses at all. I worried (and I'm still *slightly* worried) but then smacked my head and said "Of course! Sunday!"

At any rate, maybe the weekends are a good time to catch up on the reading list of things you've been meaning to get to -- though it sounds like you're completely on top of everything you mentioned so...hmmm. No good advice then. But thanks for letting me know what you're reading -- fun to learn about that. :)

[tabaqui]

Book-club! Oh my.
*gibber*
I'd be reading all day!!!
*happy sigh*

Yeah, there are a few out there that seemed to have stalled out completely and i really, really WANT to see the end. The 'Sands of Time' series immediately comes to mind. So frustrating!
And, like i said, about half of ladycat777's stuff, and...
*sigh*
Don't wanna go there and get all bummed. :)
I should use the weekend to get going on the next 'Changes' chapter, but i usually end up following links and reading books on the couch, which is GOOD...
Heh.
Actually, i don't have much to complain about. And yet, i still do!
:)

[druffine.livejournal.com]

Hey!

Best is you get your eyes checked as fast as you can.
Check your monitor for the frequenz, put it up as much as it can manage.
Set the contrast down and reduce the brightness.
If you write in word with white background, make the font a light grey and bigger, double space the lines and lean back as much as you can.
Sometimes even to adjust the direction you look at the monitor helps, it's most relaxing to look slighly downwards on it. Look for exercises to relax your neck (a not even feelable ache there can make you get headaches).
Eat some chocolate, good for the nerves and the brain.

About the Mary Sue... I would rather you not start it coz I am waiting for updates on Hero, Changes and Credence but it it keeps nudging you, write it... there is no way around it.

Hope that helps. *hugs you*

[tabaqui]

Ummm. Light grey text would drive me nutso. I really, really wish i could have somebody build me a custom desk that had my monitor LOWER than the desktop!
That IS the best way.
:)
I'll look into the frequency thing.

The Mary Sue wouldn't keep me from updating the others, for sure, but it would make me a little more of a nutball.
Heh.
Thanks for the suggestions!

[saifai.livejournal.com]

Ironic. I'm over here with a dozen things to read through.

I can understand that though, in that there's always the ones I want to read most that don't update as often.

And cats can suck sometimes. The litter all over the place drives me insane. Even with the mats on the floor, they still manage to track the stuff everywhere...

[tabaqui]

Heh.
Luck of the draw, really.
I need to read MORE, obviously, and then i have a better chance of any one or two fics being updated all the time!
*bounce*
Yes! that's the plan!
Read more!
:)

Cat's are eeevol spawns of satan. Why i have three i don't know.
*hate them*
*hate their mothers*

[paperk8.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

And I do much better with low ambient light in the room, straight monitor light drives me bonkers.

And I can't help you with the MarySue, 'cause I like strange and wonderful things like popomo~badfic!ennui~pr0n.
*shrugs*

And if you write it, I'll want to read it because... well you tend to turn all my joints to jelly and make me want to go writhe in the bunk for days.
:P
*snogs you quick and bounces off cackling*

[tabaqui]

AAAAH!!! Pr0nEnnui!
That's hilarious.
:)
And...ummm...wow.
Bunk time? Me?
Heeee....

Damnit, not that i don't lurve you telling me that, but i really really wanna know what a gay man thinks of all this pr0n!!!
I should break down and ask my friend Clarity but...i'm afraid he'll look at me funny forever more!
*looks around and sees only cats are watching*
*snogs you back*
*scurries away to put final touches on next 'Credence'*

C.J. Cherryh

[anelith.livejournal.com]

I'm actually responding to the second half of your post -- I like Cherryh's books but haven't read much recently. I loved her Chanur novels. See how far behind I've gotten? I did read the first one of her Foreigner series, liked it a lot but due to a huge backlog of other SF stuff didn't keep up with the series. If I was to start on any of her most recent stuff would that be the place to start or would you recommend something else?

One thing I find interesting about Cherryh (and sometimes frustrating) is that her characters have a habit of speaking elliptically. Sometimes I love it and sometimes I'm left screaming, "Can you just please say what you MEAN!!!" I'm not a subtle person so it can take me several chapters to catch up to these very clever characters... What a pleasure it is to have characters who are smarter than me, though!

Re: C.J. Cherryh

[tabaqui]

Oh my, oh my. She has written SO MUCH STUFF since then... The Foreigner series is wonderful - up to six or seven books now, and utterly amazing and hilarious and thought-provoking, of course.

If you want to read a trilogy that's a total mind-fuck, read the 'Cyteen' series. Very heavy talk about cloning and 'making' people and how minds can be tweaked and made and unmade... Scary and engrossing. 'Forty Thousand in Gehenna' touches on the same subject but veers off in another directin and is a personal favorite.

For some lighter stuff, try 'Merchanter's Luck' or 'Rimrunners'...

She also wrote a book called 'Angel with a Sword' which was then turned into a shared world series that's a mix of fantasy and scifi set in a Venice-like city. Excellant first book and wonderful series with some really good collaberators.

Speaking of fantasy, if you like that... the 'Tree of Swords and Jewels' and 'The Dreamstone' and...
Ah...
There's SO MANY.
Check out her site and just browse around. Click on the 'Universe:SciFi/Fantasy' link and you can see all her work with little synopsis.

I'm a huge fan of hers, but it's rare to find other fans. Weird, considering she's won awards and sells tons of books. :)

And yes, her characters are VERY smrt, and somtimes i have to re-read 'cause she's damn smrt, herself.
But it's all worth it.

Re: C.J. Cherryh

[anelith.livejournal.com]

Hi again Tabaqui, thanks for the rec on Forty Thousand in Gehenna! May I blame you for the hours of unsociability and neglecting my children and husband? Nah, it's Cherryh's fault. Anyway, it was good. Thanks. Have you ever read any Rebecca Ore? Specifically, her series that starts with Becoming Alien? I think you might like her.

Re: C.J. Cherryh

[tabaqui]

Oh, you're welcome!
*bounce*
You liked? Wasn't it cool?
Don't you want her to write the story of WHAT HAPPENS NEXT??
Heh.
Ore sounds so very familier... I'll have to check, 'cause maybe my brother has it.
Thanks!

oww...maiiiii eyieeeeeees is burniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing....

[perfectwhorl.livejournal.com]

Um, i say use the 'puter in a good light, and definitely *not* with a window behind the monitor. Maybe more regular breaks (she suggested *quietly* for fear the fics slow down)...go rest your throbbing eyeballs on nature? :P

>Light grey text would drive me nutso.

I cannot stand B+W for any length of time, I gotta muck about with the colours too; i find a medium grey text on a dark bloody red sometimes works, and not on other days - sometimes a yikky grey-brown background with a light blue text. I change the colours from day to day too, sometimes. It seems to 'rest' the eyes a little.

>I really, really wish i could have somebody build me a custom desk that had my monitor LOWER than the desktop!

Ummm...what about a glass topped desk? You could type close to the body, and look through the desk, past your knees at the monitor, heheheh - might work
XXXXXX 'whorl

Re: oww...maiiiii eyieeeeeees is burniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing....

[tabaqui]

Oh dear gods.
Sometimes your color choices make me reel back from my 'puter screen.
:)
But it's okay, i then change it all to black and white *well, greyish white and black* in Word.
Heh.

Ummmm...taking more breaks would be good 'cause then i would actually get my HOUSEWORK done, but...but...not type?
All day?
*flexes fingers*
That would be WEIRD!
:)

[chriself.livejournal.com]

You've got cats, I've got Birdies that like to watch me run the carpet sweeper every FIVE MINUTES to get the seed hulls they fling everywhere! Maybe they are really smart pan-dimensional beings running experiments on us. Only instead of mazes, they make us clean up their messes instead.

Plot for the new glasses Now! I know the dread. My specially tooled contacts are mucho dinero. And not covered by health ins. I always dread the time I need new ones.

I am a Cherryh fan as well. Wonderfully descriptive and emotional prose. Just picked up new volume of collected short stories from the library. Yay!

I thought I was the only one scripting Mary Sue dialog in my head. The more I try to ignore it the longer and more involved it gets. Maybe I'll post mine to LJ if you post yours. We'd get to know each other better if nothing else and we can make fun of our lameness. Plus anyone in a Spike and Xander sammich....Yum.

[tabaqui]

Heee.
I think you're right - aliens!

Yeah, Cherryh rocks. I'm so excited to get her new stuff, but it won't be out for a bit, yet. Time to back and re-read the whole series so i can be all prepared!

Oh man. MarySue will kill me.
But no! No sammichs. I don't wanna sleep with the bois, i just wanna snark with them!

Mary Sue is tempting me...
*holds fingers up in a cross shape*
Help!