(no subject)
Nov. 10th, 2013 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bobcatmoranWhoa, it's been quite awhile since I posted here, hasn't it? I'm afraid I'm mostly on Tumblr these days. Not my first choice of blogging tools when it comes to interacting with people, but that does seem to be where the arm of the Les Mis fandom that I hang around is. I'm crap at actual interaction anyway.
Anyhoo, I weathered the government shutdown with minimal panic attacks/going stircrazy, and Congress approved backpay for the furlough. It's been mostly back to Your Regularly Scheduled Program at work, although the Big Boss from the state side of our joint fed/state program tried to implement some procedural changes "because it worked fine when we did it this way when the feds weren't here." Which … um … okay, those temporary changes were made because nearly all the data management folks are on the fed side, and now that the feds are back, we can go back to working off of current maps/property information in the field, yes? Fortunately, after two weeks, most of the changes have been nixed, because they were, quite frankly, stupid and inefficient and were resulting in angry calls from homeowners because, "You idiots have been here twice already, what sort of incompetence are my tax dollars paying for?!"
And I went to my first-ever fandom meetup a couple weeks ago, which was a bit nervewracking at first — I've kept my fannish and real-life identities VERY separate — but a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure the waiter at the diner we went to thought we were nuts, though, especially when we wound up ordering an entire cake. I mean, we had enough people to eat it all, but it was obviously not a request they got very often. Or ever.
And I've also gotten hooked on Sleepy Hollow. Watching the show helped motivate me to pay a visit to the actual town of Sleepy Hollow during the shutdown. I took tours of Washington Irving's house and a nearby mansion that had been owned by the Rockefellers. Quite worth it, both of them (the tour guide for the Rockefeller mansion had grown up on the grounds, and she had some great stories), and there's certainly enough to see up there that I could easily take another day trip. Alas, I was too late to get tickets to the crazy huge jack o' lantern display they have during the Halloween season. Maybe next year, as I hear it's spectacular.
Also, a meme: This one's going around: Post a line from each of your active WIPs. No fandom, no context, nothing. Then people can ask you about them. No spoilers for holiday exchangesbecause I haven't even started on them yet. Self, what are you doing working on these instead?
Three guesses as to which fandom has eaten my brain, and the first two don't count.
1. It had been raining for nearly three days straight, turning the world into a morass of mud and puddles, which Etienne Combeferre would have loved to explore (rainy days were the best for catching frogs, he found). However, his mother, fearing for his nice visiting clothes and perhaps a bit tired of her eldest bringing home amphibians, had forbidden him from playing outside when they went to visit the Enjolras family.
2. "Don't fret about it, Enjolras," Courfeyrac said. "He is doubtless running on Prouvairian time — that is to say, that of one who left his watch at home, either out of forgetfulness or some new notion that time is but an illusion."
3. Jehan bent towards the mug. "What is it you have there?"
"Some of that tisane we picked up on Ganymede," Grantaire said.
"We still have some of it? I thought it was all gone," Jehan said.
"I don't know why you two seem to like it so much," Musichetta said. "It tastes like dirt and makes your tongue all pins and needles."
"It's probably just Jovian moon dust, swept into packets for unsuspecting tourists," Joly added. "Really, it can't possibly be wholesome."
"I don't care what you say, I think it's lovely, and I am going to get myself some," Jehan said loftily.
Anyhoo, I weathered the government shutdown with minimal panic attacks/going stircrazy, and Congress approved backpay for the furlough. It's been mostly back to Your Regularly Scheduled Program at work, although the Big Boss from the state side of our joint fed/state program tried to implement some procedural changes "because it worked fine when we did it this way when the feds weren't here." Which … um … okay, those temporary changes were made because nearly all the data management folks are on the fed side, and now that the feds are back, we can go back to working off of current maps/property information in the field, yes? Fortunately, after two weeks, most of the changes have been nixed, because they were, quite frankly, stupid and inefficient and were resulting in angry calls from homeowners because, "You idiots have been here twice already, what sort of incompetence are my tax dollars paying for?!"
And I went to my first-ever fandom meetup a couple weeks ago, which was a bit nervewracking at first — I've kept my fannish and real-life identities VERY separate — but a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure the waiter at the diner we went to thought we were nuts, though, especially when we wound up ordering an entire cake. I mean, we had enough people to eat it all, but it was obviously not a request they got very often. Or ever.
And I've also gotten hooked on Sleepy Hollow. Watching the show helped motivate me to pay a visit to the actual town of Sleepy Hollow during the shutdown. I took tours of Washington Irving's house and a nearby mansion that had been owned by the Rockefellers. Quite worth it, both of them (the tour guide for the Rockefeller mansion had grown up on the grounds, and she had some great stories), and there's certainly enough to see up there that I could easily take another day trip. Alas, I was too late to get tickets to the crazy huge jack o' lantern display they have during the Halloween season. Maybe next year, as I hear it's spectacular.
Also, a meme: This one's going around: Post a line from each of your active WIPs. No fandom, no context, nothing. Then people can ask you about them. No spoilers for holiday exchanges
Three guesses as to which fandom has eaten my brain, and the first two don't count.
1. It had been raining for nearly three days straight, turning the world into a morass of mud and puddles, which Etienne Combeferre would have loved to explore (rainy days were the best for catching frogs, he found). However, his mother, fearing for his nice visiting clothes and perhaps a bit tired of her eldest bringing home amphibians, had forbidden him from playing outside when they went to visit the Enjolras family.
2. "Don't fret about it, Enjolras," Courfeyrac said. "He is doubtless running on Prouvairian time — that is to say, that of one who left his watch at home, either out of forgetfulness or some new notion that time is but an illusion."
3. Jehan bent towards the mug. "What is it you have there?"
"Some of that tisane we picked up on Ganymede," Grantaire said.
"We still have some of it? I thought it was all gone," Jehan said.
"I don't know why you two seem to like it so much," Musichetta said. "It tastes like dirt and makes your tongue all pins and needles."
"It's probably just Jovian moon dust, swept into packets for unsuspecting tourists," Joly added. "Really, it can't possibly be wholesome."
"I don't care what you say, I think it's lovely, and I am going to get myself some," Jehan said loftily.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-12 03:36 pm (UTC)DO WANT all three of these, really, though.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-14 12:47 pm (UTC)Plus it still isn't done yet.But hey, now I know there's at least one person who will like it when/if it ever gets finished! ^_^no subject
Date: 2013-11-14 02:20 pm (UTC)Still, maybe you'll prompt a resurgence of the ridiculous TARDIS AU! One never knows.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-14 02:26 am (UTC)"What's Fandom?"
*entire table of 12 people bursts out into laughter*