OMG U GAIS HALP PLZ

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Ealasaid

I have a new fan obsession. It’s been a while since I had one this full-blown, but I do now and here he is:

That’s right. Loki. From “Thor” and “The Avengers.”

I mean, the Avengers movies are so friggin’ awesome already (they are, for the record: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor, and Marvel’s The Avengers”) and then he comes along and is all “O Hai, I haz a sad backstory and want to rule the world. Also, I wear sexy clothes and have long dark hair” and my inner fangirl is like, “OH MY GOD YES PLZ”

So now my Tumblr and my dashboard are full of  Loki and Tim Hiddleston (the awesome fellow who  plays him) and my ability to think coherently about anything else has been compromised.

Of course, you know the answer to that issue: fanly essays!

In the meantime, however, pity me. I won’t be able to watch either “Thor” or “The Avengers” again for HOURS AND HOURS AUGH.

Posted in Geekery | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Nine Things I Want to Rephrase and Then Tell Teenage Girls, and One Thing I’d Like to Tell the Author to Shove Where the Sun Don’t Shine : A Rant

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Ealasaid

Warning! This is a Rant!

If you don’t want to be exposed to strong opinions, mild incoherence, and occasional cussing, don’t read this. Okay? Okay.

Continue reading »

Posted in Srs Bznss | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Book 1 of 2012: Swan Song

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Ealasaid

Finished my first book of the year tonight: Swan Song by Robert McCammon. I’m kind of torn about it. It was a real page-turner, and I loved the characters, but at the same time, there was often a little voice in the back of my head complaining about how predictable it was.

This is a post-apocalyptic tale about what happens after an enormous nuclear war, and it initially seemed like there was a lot of research and realism in it, but it pretty quickly turned into the kind of story where everyone is Christian and a side effect of nuclear radiation makes your face show who you really are inside (ie, good = pretty, evil = ugly and scary).

Plus, the central conflict is between a young girl with the power to bring plants back from the dead and a shapeshifting baddies who may or may not be Satan, along with his recruited army of evil men who love looting and pillaging and war.

I have reached a point where that kind of thing both irritates and bores me. And yet, I couldn’t put the damn book down. The heroine is a well-rounded Chosen One, and I liked her. The rag-tag group of good guys who help and protect her are all believable people, and I liked them, too. So what’s my problem? I guess it bugged me to see people I liked railroaded into a plot that was such a mishmash of good sci-fi and cheesy-as-shit fantasy. 80% of my brain loved it. 20% of my brain was kind of disgusted by the twee simplicity of it.

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Hibernation and Permission

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Ealasaid

As an experiment, this year I decided to give myself permission to not do shit I don’t feel like doing during the winter misery season (roughly from the end of October until the Winter Solstice). I didn’t realize this was a good idea until a few weeks ago, but as soon as I did it, I felt a zillion times better.

All the “shoulds” went away. No more “I should go to Aikido, even though the  mat will be cold and I’m fried from work and my fibro is acting up so it will hurt.” No more “I should clean the apartment, even though what I really want to do is read a book.” No more “I should do holiday cards, even though what I really want to do is watch TV with Nate.” No more “I should be blogging every week, even though I can’t really think of much to write about and would rather play Borderlands on my XBox.” No more “I should go be social, even though the thought of being around people makes me want to bite someone.”

Admittedly, my inner Puritan was appalled (and still is), and has a whole list of things I didn’t do that is so long I am obviously the worst person in the world. Idle hands, etc.

But. I am coming out of the misery season way faster than I remember doing in past years. It’s not even January yet and my motivation is returning! I do kind of wish I’d done all those shoulds, but that’s okay. Maybe I will feel more up to them next winter. Maybe I won’t! Either way, that’s okay.

I’m actually kind of excited to get back to all those activities I’ve been letting fall by the wayside, and that feels a million times better than I would with a longass list of shoulds hanging over my head, or being exhausted from forcing myself to do them instead of sleeping more and just chilling out. Hell, I even have a handful of blog entry ideas!

Plus, I have finished a hell of a lot of missions in Borderlands. My sniper is level 62 now, and closing in on 63. Hell yeah!

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Lists

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Ealasaid

It will surprise nobody to hear me say that I am an overachiever.

This was really driven home for me recently when I was reading through the archives of In Good Company, a collection of stories about depression and anxiety. Continue reading »

Posted in Process | 2 Comments

Voting With Money

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Ealasaid

Tis the Season to be Shopping, and as usual, I have to make decisions on where to spend that dough. I’m doing my best to spend as locally as possible, and avoiding my list of Do Not Buy corporations. This came up in a Facebook discussion today, and I’m going to copy-and-paste from my comments there:

I choose to spend my money where I feel comfortable doing so. I do not feel comfortable supporting companies whose behavior I find appalling. I no longer shop at a long list of places (including Target, Best Buy, and Urban Outfitters) because of their policies. I can’t bring myself to reward shitty behavior. I’d rather buy fewer things from companies I respect than more things from a company whose policies I find abhorrent.

…

I have no illusions about affecting Amazon by taking my money elsewhere. It’s more about me being able to sleep well at night. I feel better when I support businesses that don’t do things I think are horrible. I recognize that it’s impossible for me to buy ONLY from COMPLETELY ethical sources, but I’m not going to stick my head in the sand and pretend I don’t know things when they fall into my lap like this.

As an addendum, an Amazon employee who was part of the conversation said that Jeff Bezos takes customer concerns seriously and that I should write him a letter. I’m planning to do just that.

Please note: I’m not saying you shouldn’t shop at any of these places. We all vote with our money, and you can vote as you like. I won’t harangue folks who patronize these organizations/businesses any more than I harangue my friends and family who vote for politicians I think are horrible (I do reserve the right to jump up and down and yell that said politicians are misogynist douchecanoes, idiots, etc., mind you. I just try to do it on my own internet space rather than the comments section of other people’s).

Y’all have the right to see things differently than I do.

OK? OK.

Continue reading »

Posted in Srs Bznss | 1 Comment

Things I Love: Defiant Edition

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Ealasaid

My GP says I probably have rheumatoid arthritis in addition to all my other health issues. The time of year is getting to me. I have a million projects and almost no time or energy.

So! I shall cheer myself up with a Things I Love list. Take that, chronic health problems!

I Love

  1. The Portland Japanese Garden. I have a ton of photos from it all over my cube in an attempt to trick my brain into thinking I’m not in the dead center of a fluorescent-lit cubicle maze.
  2. Aardvark Essentials Potions. They smell amazing and help my skin fight off the winter dryness I so often get. Plus, the unscented base is a friggin’ miracle cream for sensitive skin. I use it any time my skin is broken / upset about something. I think it cut my last tattoo’s healing time in HALF.
  3. The Playground. Even though I haven’t been there yet. I have one of the bright orange mugs and it makes me smile every time I see it. Also, Havi is awesome and her blog makes me happy.
  4. Mugley Things. Those two are on my desk right now. I’m tempted to buy more.
  5. My light box. Seriously, this thing is the BEST THING EVER. I have two so if I forget/run out of time to use it before I leave for work, I can use it once I get in.
  6. My little notebook. It’s the only one that didn’t sell from the last batch. Same size as a Moleskine, roughly, but covered in bright red cloth and with a little ribbon bookmark. Plus, well. I made it. I’m really enjoying using it. It makes tracking my aggravating symptoms and medications less depressing.
  7. Ibuprofen.

Seven is a good number. Yay for awesome things!

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Watch the World, er, Web(site) Burn

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Ealasaid

Periodically I get the urge to totally revamp my website (not this blog, I am in loooove with this layout. I mean my main site, ealasaid.com). Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don’t. Mostly I don’t, especially the last few years, because holy god do I have a lot of pages and sub-sites now.

It’s hit again in full force, though, and for once I am sufficiently irritable/tired to really want to just nuke everything from orbit and start fresh.

It’s a weird sensation for someone as dedicated to archiving and packrattery as me — I usually find myself wanting to hang onto my old fan sites, even though I haven’t updated them in about a decade an find their ancient design rather embarrassing. Now that there’s the Internet Wayback Machine, though, my inner archivist is far less clingy.

It’s a lot of work, redoing a site. But given the economic climate, having a spiffy personal site for potential employers to look at is probably a wise idea. Since I started using WordPress, I’ve been increasingly impressed with it, so there’s that, too.

So, yeah. This blog isn’t going anywhere (though I have a feeling my intermittent posting schedule is likely to continue to be erratic as fuck. Subscribe to the RSS if you want to make sure you don’t miss new posts!), but ealasaid.com is in for a major facelift.

Posted in Geekery | 2 Comments

November! WTF?

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Ealasaid

Wow, October flew right by. In spite of my efforts, it felt really hectic. Really, though, I should say that I’m glad I tried to make it less hectic – I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like if I hadn’t been trying to keep things simple!

My day job is really tying up a lot of my time, both physically (commute + work + commute = about 11hrs/day 5 days/week) and mentally (taking a lot of downtime to recover after work). It’s hard to get enough sleep, hard to fit in the things I like doing, etc. I have a lot of extra-jobular things I want to do, and it’s frustrating to find myself without the energy or time to do them.

But everything is a chance to learn and practice, right? So I’m trying to see this as an opportunity to practice self-care, and to work on staying centered in really stressful situations.

Comedy

I’m also watching really, really funny TV stuff to unwind. My favs currently:

  • Community – Oh. My. God. This show just keeps getting more and more meta and awesome and fantastic. It’s delightfully bizarre, and features characters I adore (and adore to loathe). My favorite is (unsurprisingly) Abed Nadir, who is basically a walking version of TV Tropes. He is an expert on all things TV / pop-culture, and a major outsider even in the central group of outcasts/weirdos that make up the main characters. Plus, he’s cute, and makes up half of my favorite bromance of all time: Troy and Abed. I was trying to find a pic to sum them up, but I totally failed, so here they are rapping in Spanish.
  • Parks & Recreation – This show is a very, very close second to Community. Every ep, it seems, just gets better and better. The characters are all ridiculous caricatures, but because they’re all like that, it works. The one quasi-normal guy is played by Adam Scott, who is a genius, and even he has a whacko backstory. I love it. Plus, Ron Swanson is the fucking man.
  • Party Down – This stars Adam Scott and is my go-to show for making me feel better after a shit day at work. No matter how shitty my job is, it will never be as bad as being on the catering crew the show is about. Never.

NaNoWri…No.

I’m not doing National Novel Writing Month this year.

The last time I had a November where I didn’t write 50,000 words of fiction was in 2000. I was in graduate school. If you’ve heard me gripe about grad school, you know how that went.

So far, this November is superior to that one. It does feel weird, though. The end of the year is supposed to go: Halloween, NaNo, Thanksgiving, NaNo, panicked-prep-for-Christmas, Christmas, New Year. Now I have all this time to get ready for the holidays, I’m sort of at loose ends.

It’s kind of nice.

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October

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Ealasaid

Well! I’ve been sufficiently busy that updating my blog fell off the bottom of my priority list, as did a lot of things.

For October, I want to make space in my life for those things. I’ve let my schedule get too hectic, and found myself unable to keep up. I moved at the end of August, and am still not done unpacking.

Since the dark half of the year is a time when nature is withdrawing, culling things whose time has come, and preparing to sprout new growth in the spring, I’m going to try playing with that in my own life and scheduling.

So! I hereby declare October to be a Simple Month (inspired by Erin over at Uncluterer). I’m not hardcore enough to make it SUPER simple, like Erin does, but I’m going to pull back, and work on gaining some clarity about my priorities.

My priorities for October are:

  1. Finish unpacking
  2. Make a simple morning routine that includes spiritual practice and exercise, and stick to it
  3. Get enough sleep

As it stands, I have very few weekend commitments in October, and I aim to keep it that way. I’m having an open house / housewarming near the end of the month, but it will be a VERY low-key affair.

Of course, I’ll still have work (both my dayjob and The Book Roadie), and Aikido. But beyond that? Bupkis. I’m going to get a lot of practice saying “no.”

Posted in Process | 1 Comment