dira | (no subject)

Swiped from a bunch of people on my flist, and I figure I didn't quite go anywhere but other than fic updates I've been pretty quiet, so...

So what have you been up to?

I'm just about three months into being on the Adderall, which has been super helpful although not miraculous and not, like, magically removing all constraints on my ability to accomplish things. ALAS.

So: I've been up to writing, mostly, a lot by any sane standard but still not as much as I'd like given how many irons I have in the fire.

Also, thanks to the slow accumulation of flist people's mentions of using treadmill desks to knock some of the sedentary rust off, I finally accepted that my preferred mode of exercise is Pretending I'm Still On My Couch. I can't actually manage a treadmill desk right now--shared apartment, logistics, etc.--but I got myself a gym membership and have started popping over there about six mornings a week to walk briskly while playing games on my phone or reading ebooks or fic, etc. And, hey! That whole "excercising gives you more energy" thing turns out to be true! I just... had to be on Adderall for a month before I had the starting energy/general wherewithal to find that out.

Oh and I joined OKCupid. I have this sort of baseline desire to get into some sort of romantic relationship, but I hate Going Out And Doing Things With Strangers, and I kept feeling bad about failing at that part and finally realized that I don't like going out and doing things with strangers and there are, theoretically, other more efficient ways to meet compatible people who want to do dating-type things.

Mostly this has demonstrated to me that I am already operating at full capacity to deal with other human beings. *eyes unanswered OKC messages* So... that's good to know?

Oh and there was VividCon! ...which also demonstrated to me that I am already operating at full capacity to deal with other human beings. I had been feeling vaguely anxious and stressed about the con beforehand, which is... not usually how I feel about VVC, and then I got to the con and felt stressed and overwhelmed and signally failed to hang out with all the people I wanted to hang out with, and finally wound up hitting the Introvert Wall late Saturday/early Sunday and bailing out early (after

iulia took charge of my Sunday afternoon volunteer shift and told me to just go home).

Oh also I tested positive for strep throat on Wednesday and had a couple of days off work. Hooray antibiotics!

Major life changes? Same old same old?

Writing for money! Writing for money has been kind of a large feature of the last few months, coinciding pretty strongly with the arrival of my constant sense of being overwhelmed and operating at full capacity for dealing with other human beings. The extra disposable income is really nice, but it turns out that having what amounts to a second job takes up time/energy/spoons/writing brain. WHO KNEW.

There are further major life changes on the horizon--Iulia is expecting her first child in October, which means I will be a godmother! And also the only vaguely local extended-family-ish person my godchild has around, so I expect some delightful life upheaval there.

And not unrelatedly, I am at long last getting Really Quite Serious about relocating to the greater Chicagoland area, hopefully in the first half of 2016.

With all of that going on/on the horizon it is... perhaps less surprising that the new Cap 3 promos were legitimately upsetting to me this week as a reminder that my fannish territory is also going to be undergoing an upheaval soon.

What fandom are you in/do you spend most of your time in?

Marvel/Cap 2! I have fallen especially into the Hydra Trash Party corner of the fandom. Content aside, it's one of the most old-school-fan friendly parts of the fandom in terms of being able to connect with a community of fans--there's a chat room, a DW kinkmeme with a chat post, and an identifiable group of writers and artists who are pretty reachable via Tumblr.

But, you know, also making Bucky cry is fun, even if it leads to things like, "Man, I am eventually going to post 25k of male lactation fic with a complicated pairings situation and alarming set of warnings to the AO3." Could've been worse, really.

Where do you hang out online?

Twitter, Tumblr, trash chat, that other chat room I've been hanging out in since 2005, Skype IM which is apparently a thing (I'm dsudis on there), and AIM/YM/etc.

What are you reading?

One of the exciting things about extra disposable income is that I feel okay casually buying ebooks--I use the Kindle Cloud Reader & Kindle phone app, and virtually the only books I've finished since May have been short-ish romances: Sarina Bowen, K. J. Charles, Alexis Hall. Right now I'm reading Courtney Milan's The Duchess War, and then I need to read a book that was made into a movie for my staff summer reading competition at work. I might just read The Martian for the third time.

And also fic? I haven't been reading huge quantities, but there's a pretty steady accumulation in my AO3 bookmarks.

What are you watching?

Every scrap of promo media related to The Martian! :D :D :D

Oh and I just started on Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which is DELIGHTFUL and reminding me that I am 100% an easy mark for canon het. Phryne/Jack!!!!!

What are you making?

My desktop note that I use to track WIPs currently has ten items on it:

Original/for money: Vampire novel that I am waiting for edits on from Less than Three (Dira Lewis); ridiculous tropey gay werewolf ebook (Dessa Lux); sequel to vampire novel (Dira Lewis); tropey het ebook (redacted).

Fanfic: Aluminum Bastard/broken dick epic; Babyfic prequel to the trash kidfic; trash kinkmeme fic; more different trash kinkmeme fic; Spy Game post-movie fic; sequel to that fic I wrote where Steve's wearing a pink silk chemise.

So... I need to write faster. In conclusion.

What are you squeeing about today?

Well, literally today is Iulia's baby shower, so: impending godchild!

A little more generally: The Martian, Miss Fisher, Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie's most recent press appearances (THEIR FACES. THE BELT GRAB.)

If you could rope old fandom friends into a new fandom, it would be...

THE MARTIAN!!! READ IT. JOIN ME IN BEING EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE FOR ENTIRELY NON-SEBASTIAN-STAN-RELATED REASONS. JOIN ME IN JUDGING PEOPLE WHO INTEND TO SEE THIS MOVIE FOR SEBASTIAN STAN.

I should really watch/read/dive into _______ and then come talk to you about it!

THE MARTIAN. It's a quick read! There are adorable/hilarious promo videos!! I CAN TALK ABOUT THE MARTIAN FOREVER.

What else is on your mind?

I really need to trim and file my nails. And also I need to see if I can lure Iulia and her husband to the Original Pancake House for giant apple pancake breakfast tomorrow morning before we trek back to our side of the Lake with all the baby shower loot. Hmmmm.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wow! That's a lot of stuff. It makes complete sense that you'd be at your interaction limit, and I'm glad you can say that to yourself. (I also really like the treadmill, and treating it like it's your desk/couch seems like a good idea.)

Yeah, I had not quite put together how much this is legitimately A Lot Of Stuff To Deal With until I was writing this post, and then I was like, Okay! I guess I have a reason to feel a bit frayed at the edges!

And, yeah, in terms of my daily schedule, morning treadmill time has directly replaced morning sitting-on-the-couch-eating-breakfast-and-poking-around-the-internet time, and it seems to be working pretty well. :)

A lot going on! Good luck with the writing for money thing! And the godchild thing! *g*

Thank you! :)

I loved the book the Martian and I can't wait for the movie to come out! :) I kind of want to warn people away from the audiobook version, two people I know heard the audiobook and said Mark isn't all that sympathetic.

Huh. I know at least one person who liked the audiobook, and I'm a little confused about how Mark could come across as unsympathetic. That is some powerful voice acting, if so. *g*

I was a bit confused too, but when someone tells me that the character comes across as sexist and unprofessional, I'm not going to argue with their interpretation when I've only read the book once.

MARK WATNEY MARK WATNEY
MARK WATNEY MARK WATNEY MARK WATNEY MARK WATNEY MARK WATNEY
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARKKKKKK!!!

(so right there with you)

also, gosh, I haven't been on tumblr at all lately, and in fact only just remembered dth exists. by which I mean to say Mackie and Evans' having a shared personal bubble just slayed me to death.

(Almost enough to not comment on the ADHD, but not quite: I'm glad the adderall is helping at least a little. My jealousy is at sky-high levels, I'm still not done with the diagnosis process despite starting it in March, and am now in a waiting phase for my final appointment, where possibly it may be decided that I might be eligible for some sort of treatment. Sometimes the American health system rocks harder than the European ones, yo - I'm really glad you got something that's useful!)

MAAAAAAAAAAARK :D :D :D

And just in the last 24 hours I've seen people on Tumblr lamenting the absence of a decent commenting capability and calling for people to use Tumblr AND Dreamwidth in a complementary fashion so... fandom is everywhere! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE MACKIE & EVANS ADORABLENESS.

(uffff, I am so sorry this is dragging on so long for you! fingers crossed that your final appointment results in some help.)

The Martian! :D It's so nice to run across someone on my flist/circle who actually liked it, because most people who've read it seem to be vocally hating on it and/or can't stand Mark, but I really loved it. It's very much a throwback to the old-style problem-solving sci-fi that I grew up on, and I thought it was super fun and all the characters are great ... for fluffy SFF values of "great". :D

And congrats on the godbaby!

Oh, how weird, I have almost universally encountered people who enjoyed it! (Aside from a post I saw circulating on Tumblr complaining that that's not how potatoes work but WHATEVER THEY'RE SPECIAL FUTURE POTATOES IT'S FINE.) And yeah, it's just such classic can-do people-working-together solving-problems-with-science SF, I love it to bits. :D :D :D

And thank you!

I LOVED this book and the only people I've run across that read/listened to the audiobook couldn't stand the character. :( I'm currently blaming the reader for not doing a better job.

Whoa, that is really 'a lot' a lot of stuff going on, daaaamn. And congrats on kicking ass with the writing both fannish and original, yo. :D

And omg, so looking forward to the Martian too; I loved the book. SO GREAT.

Thank you! :D

And omg October is SO SOOOON. BUT WHY IS IT NOT *NOW*.

I read The Martian a few weeks ago and promptly flung it (er, metaphorically) at

inmyriadbits, who finally sat down and read it. I've been enjoying her constant giggling over Mark for the past few days. :D It was kinda fun reading it after they'd cast the movie, because I got to read it with Matt Damon and everyone's voices in your head and get excited over how ridiculously well-cast the whole thing is. *bounces*

I was persuaded to read it by being at a con with

iulia the weekend she started reading it; she got about halfway through before I said I'M GOING TO READ IT STOP TELLING ME ALL THE GOOD BITS. :D

Heh, that sounds familiar. I made the mistake of reading it when Lindsey had already gone to bed, so I was stuck muffling my giggles until 3AM.

I'm glad for even my few minutes with you at VVC! And I am in a better location in Chi-Town myself, so I can visit you & iulia more I think. (<3 babiez <3)

Feel free to chat me up (ha ha ha) any time - I spend a lot of time on gchat. Or, you know, don't. I don't judge. :)

Yay! I will look for you on gchat, I think I'm realname on there. :)

Yay for helpful meds and incredible productivity and impending godbaby!

I'm sorry VVC ended up being more stressful than fun for you, and I'm glad you withdrew to give yourself the space you needed. (And I'm speaking both as your friend and as volunteer coordinator here; I'm grateful to you and Iulia for arranging to have her cover your shift, but even if she hadn't been able to, it's OK to let me know that you're sorry but you just can't. The con will be OK, and we want you to be too.)

In conclusion, I need to read faster!

Yeah, part of the very sensible stuff Iulia said to me was "I will go tell Shoshanna (or, as I think it wound up turning out, Melina) that you need to leave and IT WILL GET WORKED OUT, now go." Which is one of those things that I knew, logically, but I wanted to be A Responsible Volunteer etc. *g*

VALKOMMEN to Chicagoland, when ever that imminent happens. :D

And I think your bookmark recs converted me to The Martian, so good job.

Well hello there! I hadn't realized you were in Chicagoland, though I know there are a fair number of fanpeople around. :D

And, ha! I think Lanna's is just about the only Martian fic I've bookmarked, so it's all due to her. WELCOME. DID YOU SEE THE LATEST ARES LIVE VIDEO???

I've seen the first two, the meet an greet and the... other one... um, and I saw the Neil Tyson video.

The Neil deGrasse Tyson one is the latest, and I am still all a-flail over the people making this movie getting him to play along on this! :D