Anthronical

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Criminey

I want to write a really long post, but I don't think I can. I haven't been able to for a while now.

I have this thought that I sort of started, but I can't articulate what I want. I start and lose my words.

I don't know.

Work is getting moving toward more frustrating. My job description changed a bit a couple of months ago so I focus on the DEU work for two month then I rotate with someone. Well, that someone told me today that she wasn't going to do it. That means the DEU position will probably be eliminated. The DEU stuff isn't fun, but it's better than the regular work and I'm usually left alone to do my job.

Christ, I hate my job.

A Thought

It occurred to me last night, while watching Nickelodeon (HA), that I am part of The Present, not The Future.

Shower

Heels sent me an e-mail the other day inviting me to her baby shower on the 8th. (Which I am going to be at.) And in the e-mail she wrote, "I know it's a long drive for you." Which it is, 3.5 to 4 hours is a long drive.

But last night I got to thinking, and I realized that for her (and Mr. Logic's) last baby shower I traveled over 2000 miles. Oh, sure, it happened to be a coincidence that the show was the same weekend I could visit them in Pittsburgh, but still, compared to that, this trip is nothing.

not sure it it's an appropriate comment to put on somone else's blog

He's sure going to love the internet, isn't he?

How's this for screwy?

Today's high is supposed to be 94. Tomorrow, 91. Wednesday 77. Thursday, 67. And Friday, 63.

Guess I'll be breaking out the box fans tonight and putting them away on Wednesday.

Jeez.

Long Term Plans

This weekend, go shopping because Easter threw me off a week.

Next weekend, do laundry and go shopping to get back on schedule.

Do laundry and go shopping every other weekend from there on out, when possible.

Memorial Day (USA), hopefully go and seen Spamalot in SF with Wings.

Early to mid-June, see Wicked in SF with parents

July 4th weekend, head up toward Cowtown for grandparents' 50th anniversary.

July 31st, drive to Oregon for brother's wedding the next day then drive back day after that.

Mid-September, "celebrate" finishing fourth fucking year of this job.

12AM Friday 9th, fly out of Cowcity for visit with brother and girlfriend in Baltimore. Do stuff there. Get back on 19th

Thanksgiving, go somewhere to eat turkey and mashed potatoes with people I like.

Christmas, see entry for Thanksgiving.

New Year's Eve, climb into bed by ten and fall asleep before eleven.

Tea Bagging!

I must thank Mr. Logic for this:

And if you watched it and didn't find the funny, check out the Urban Dictionary's definition.

Still, It's Upsetting

Once again, cross-posted from What's Distracting Us?

The Amazon thing I posted about was an error:

Amazon managers found that an employee who happened to work in France had filled out a field incorrectly and more than 50,000 items got flipped over to be flagged as "adult," the source said. (Technically, the flag for adult content was flipped from 'false' to 'true.')

"It's no big policy change, just some field that's been around forever filled out incorrectly," the source said.

Some questions were answered here:

Q: Was the problem with a French programmer? Can you illuminate what you think happened?

Daisey: Someone was editing the category systems inside of Amazon.fr, made an error, and that system is global, so it propagated everywhere. I have no insight as to anyone's nationality, or whether it was a language gap, or anything of that nature.

As one who helped to blow it more out of proportion, sorry. Still, to know that one employee making a mistake (or a "mistake") can effect thousands of titles is disturbing.

To Amazon or Not to Amazon

This is cross-posted from What's Distracting Us?

Looks like Amazon is discriminating against GLBT material when it comes to their ranking lists.

Authors such as Jaci Burton, Maya Banks, Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler have reported that since being stripped of their sales rankings, their titles are no longer found in searches on Amazon.com. MetaWriter is also compiling a list of titles that have been stripped of their sales rank.

When pressed for a reason, Amazon.com’s customer service department told YA author Mark Probst:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

There's an ever growing list of books at Meta Writer of books not listed.

BeaukoupKevin wrote a letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, on his blog.

Me, I'm seriously disappointed in Amazon, but I'm sure the paltry amount of money I spend there wouldn't even be missed. Still, I won't be ordering from them for a while.

EDIT 9:58AM: I read that Amazon is calling it a "glitch" in the system. Of course it's a "glitch" that's been around since February.

Leisurely

I tried to write about work, but it's a lot of the same things I've written before. When situations don't change, why should the stories about them?

We've been offered overtime on Saturday. (I know. I know it sounds crazy that we get overtime when there's a huge budget crunch going on.) I'm coming in for it. I could use the money. We're getting here at 7AM. I plan to push straight through to 3PM for my 8 hours then leave my apartment for my parents' place at four. Easter's on Sunday and I like Easter the way my family celebrates it.

So I don't have to rush back here, I'm taking one of my two mandatory, unpaid days off on Monday.

Yes, I am quite the man of leisure.

NewBones

So, the NewBones line that I was concerned about is much better in context:

Music, TV, Other Stuff

I put my headphones on and listened to myPod earlier this afternoon and caught myself thinking, "Damn, I have good taste in music." That led me to not be surprised because of course I'd like the music I've filled myPod with. (Although, I do find that the older I get the less I enjoy listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Cranberries, with the exception of a few songs from each of these bands.)

For the last several days I've been thinking about songs I'm missing, though. I don't have "Tainted Love" or "99 Luftballons" (in German or English) or "Tom's Diner" or so many other songs that I've enjoyed, and still enjoy.

In another part of my psyche, I have a history of enjoying TV shows that I'm both too old for and not the target gender, like Lizzie McGuire. Recently, I've really been enjoying iCarly. It's stupid, but it makes me laugh. So, there's the most recent TV show in that category.

During my working hours I am sometimes obsessed by a game called The Space Game. When I start, I find it hard to quit playing the game.

I keep thinking about mint chip ice cream cake. Those are so very tasty.

Fools'

Furlough days have become "self directed," but we still have to use them within the month, so I took my second one for March on Monday.

Tuesday was Caesar Chavez Day here in CA to annoy people who wanted to use state services. If we were really celebrating Mr. Chavez, shouldn't we all go and pick artichokes, or something, for the day? 'Course I wouldn't drive down to Monterey, but it's a thought.

I ain't gots nothin' else to write today. Jus' thought I'd 'splain where I was.

Xtranormal

Heels pointed it out.

Elex made one.

So, I had to make one, too:



Visit Xtranormal and make your own.

The Great War

As part of my birthday gift from my brother and the fiancée, my brother drew on the box.

Since I have delcared myself his biggest fan, I share with you four of five sides he drew on. Be sure to click to see better detail, and pardon the changes in shadows and color, I'm not much of a photographer.

Also, it reads from left to right, top to bottom all the way around the box.

Whatever

I've been trying to figure out what to write.

It's not that I have nothing to say. Work has been not great and I have concerns about coming times. Songs from The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein have been swirling through my head even though I haven't listened to any of the songs since Saturday. And there are other things that could be considered interesting, but I doubt I'd share here anyway. Or there always my opinions on Joss Wheadon's new show, Dollhouse.

Mostly, it's that I don't want to put anything down, I think. Part of my hatred of March.

An odd thing happened yesterday, both my brother (well, one of them) and my mom wrote me e-mails at almost exactly the same time telling me to watch out for early birthday gifts in the mail. Strange. I think I know what the one my mom (parents) sent me is.

What else... I don't know.

I suppose that's it.

glup

Got the "save the date" for my brother's and his fiancée's wedding. Now I just need to know if my family's going to share a house up there or if I should book a room. Maybe I should just book a room and then cancel it if my family ever makes up its mind.

Also, I really hate March.

Suffering Stupidity and Pain

I go shopping kind of early so I don't have to deal with crowds, about 8:30AM on Saturdays. So, I don't expect there to be many check lines open, but like I wrote before, there aren't crowds that early on a Saturday, but there's at least one for people like me who are lazy and like to think that if we go to a check line run by a person we can discourage those shitty self-check lanes.

Well, I went shopping at a local story, Lucky, this Saturday. They had some good sales and I wandered up and down the aisles picking up extra stuff that I wanted but didn't necessarily need, like molasses. When I arrived at the front of the store, finished with my shopping, I was surprised to find that none of the check stands had a person there to check me out. I was forced to use the self-check lanes.

Now I've used the self-check before, but it's always been for a few things, never more than four, during crowded evening. It's easy when you have so few things, you scan, listen to the damned voice, put your stuff into a bag, and repeat until your out of stuff.

It's not quite as easy when you have a cart with many things. First, the computer lady doesn't like you skipping putting stuff in a bag. (But why would I want a bag for a five-pound bag of potatoes?) The computer doesn't like it any more when you just fill the first, of three, bag and immediately pull it and put it in your cart without filling the other two. Oh, and trying to find the right veggies in their list by picture, a real pain in the ass. Paying is easy though.

I decided that the next time I stop at that store I'll scout out for a checker and if there isn't one I'll ask the self-check guard and if I'm told there isn't going to be one during my trip, I'm leaving.

In other news, I finally know what it's like to have food poisoning. It's why I wasn't at work yesterday. Mostly, I worked the sickness out during the night, but I didn't sleep much and thought staying on the floor in my apartment watching TV and napping would be best.

When I worked in a sandwich shop, when ever my boss had a stomach ache, he'd call it food poisoning. For years I figured that if food poisoning was just a stomach ache then it's no big deal. I know better now.

Calvin & Susie & Hobbes & Fans

It's 1:35 PM and I'm sitting at the back computer scanning and I've been here since 11:30ish this morning.

I've finished more than half the stack I started with. Only forty more documents left to scan. 'Course each document is between ten and a hundred pages, so it's longer than I want it to be. The real bitch of it is waiting for the damn documents to compile and separate. The more you have the longer it takes, but it's not a linear progression, but an exponential one; so, I'm limiting each scan group to ten documents.

I've been thinking about the nature of fandom a lot today. Mostly, what's okay for fans to create based on the things they like.

It started with me finding a post at Robot 6 where they linked to this picture (calling it too sweet) and this picture (which they think is creepy).

After reading that, I cross posted the pictures to What's Distracting Us? to see if those who look there thought the second one was creepy. Up to now (1:55), Otis and Heels have responded and both think it's creepy.

I don't. Maybe I've just read (or actually skimmed) too much really harsh slash fan fiction, but to me the strip was kind of sweet and an interesting comment on growing up. I understand why people think it's creepy; it just didn't effect me in the same way.

When I read Heels's response I then asked if this picture is creepy. She said:

I wouldn't say creepy, necessarily, but I still don't understand the point. Why do we need to see them all grown up? Why do we need to make presumptions about the futures of fictional characters? I'd rather not.

Which I hadn't thought about at all. Should we, the people who enjoy stories told in different media, not think about what happens to the characters after the end of the book (or book series), after the TV show gets pulled off the air, when the movie ends, or when the creator of a comic strip (or the creator's assistant) stops making new strips?

What happens to Will Parry after he returns home in The Amber Spyglass? How well did Lindsey's trip to see The Greatful Dead, at the end of Freaks and Geeks, go? Will the city, from Dark City, survive for long without The Strangers? And does Marcie make a move on Peppermint Patty in high school or simply pine away?

I've thought about answers to all of these questions, and many more, since I was little. (Sometimes, I still wonder if Sam and Gus are friends or what happened to the dog that kept asking if other dogs liked her hat.)

Heck, the fan fiction boom started with people wondering about the crew of the Enterprise did after the series ended. (Sure, it soon turned into stories about the love between Spock and Kirk, which gradually became more explicit, but that's not the point.) Some people wanted to explore the lives of intriguing characters, like the Romulan commander who tried to seduce Spock.

(Finally back at my desk. It's 3:54.)

I'm not saying that the endings out there aren't satisfying because, for the most part, they are. What I'm trying to say is that the best endings, for me, are the ones that make me want to know the future of characters. Whether it's the near future or the further future depends on the character. Maybe it's just me.

A commenter at Robot 6 wrote:

Ultimately for me, if Watterson didn’t draw it, it should be considered sacrilege. If you’ve got something you want to say about growing up as an artist, create it yourself. Don’t co-opt the characters you used to love... .

While it's hard to argue that people shouldn't create their own art from the ground up, I think that poster missed the point. None of these images would have been half as strong as they are if they hadn't used characters from Calvin & Hobbes. In pop-culture, Calvin & Hobbes is shorthand for the highs and lows and pure weirdness of being a kid. Without that shorthand, the first image and the comic strip wouldn't have the growing up impact that they have.

Other people out there just have a problem seeing beloved childhood characters doing grown-up things. At least they're drawn as teens, though, right? I mean I would think it was creepy if Susie and Calvin were kids in the strip. I never would have posted the picture and have tried to wipe the image from my mind forever. This one, with them at that age, I think is sweet.

At least, that's what I think.

In going through all of this stuff, I guess I can really appreciate that fans are as diverse as people are.