Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2004-09-12 06:57 am
thefourthvine) wrote2004-09-12 06:57 am
Entry tags:
Real Life Advisory
Because I worried a few people when I disappeared without warning during my last hiatus, I'm going to tell y'all what's going on in my life right now. But, hey, this isn't a personal LJ, so I'll completely understand if you want to skip right to the news about the future availability of smut, snark, and fannish obsessions in this space.
I am experiencing an on-going annoyance known as Real Life; those of you who have been using the internet for a while will recognize that chilling phrase all too well.
Real Life is what happens when you turn the computer off. It hardly ever features smut, or friends lists, or kindness to strangers. Real Life is a place where people play Minesweeper or Solitaire when they're bored at work. Real Life is where people spend more time watching television (or, hell, for that matter, sleeping) than they do in front of the computer thingie that they still vaguely fear. Real Life is where people pay for their porn. In other words, Real Life is filled with people so different from us that they're probably a new species.
When Real Life people go on vacation, they don't bring their computers. And they're happy about that; they don't miss them at all.
The rest of us, though, and I am of course included in that 'us,' don't go on vacation; they go on often-mandatory, painful computer deprivation adventures. In fact, they even sort of dread leaving the house, because you never know what people are going to post while you're working or buying groceries.
I am an internet person. But RL has come for me, smacked me around, made me lick its feet, made me apologize for thinking I could ever escape from it. In other words, thanks to the World's Most Evil Plumbing, I have once again packed up and moved away from my beloved computer. I'll be able to check my LJ mail and my deepbluesea at postmark dot net address, but I won't be able to spend any time browsing my flist. So please, if you post something interesting or hear about a new story I need to read, email me. I will love you forever.
Because, dammit, I could use a distraction or two from my endless internal litany of Things That Have Broken in the Last Three Weeks(air conditioner, garage door, garage electricity, washing machine, plumbing, including main line and sewer line, both of which will need to be replaced, which means we will soon have neither a garden nor a driveway. I won't even go into the allergy-related madness that impelled us to pull up two carpets and refinish the last of our hardwood floors).
So updates will be extremely sporadic for roughly the next two weeks - basically until we can, with luck, once again return to our house. I miss you all more than I can say; also, my fingers are veritably burning with sets longing to be rec'd. But, until the happy day when our house is ours once more, I will check in as often as I can, waving jealously at you in your freedom to roam this land we love. (Jesus I wish I still had a laptop.)
And so gloom descends on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thefouthvine, followed closely by self-pity, whining, and random bouts of crying.
(Hmm. Sounds we've got a superhero team on our hands! I want to be gloom. Do I hear a volunteer for self-loathing, cynicism, self-pity, one-up-manship, or schadenfreude? Let's get this team working, folks! We won't even have to fight baddies; they'll run after they take one look at us - Gothic Open Mic Reader Girl, Lady Who Explains Revolting Personal Problems in Detail and with Pictures, Laughing at Everyone Else's Misery Man, and, of course, The Whiner, whose voice has been known to cause seizures in the weak and sensitive. )
I am experiencing an on-going annoyance known as Real Life; those of you who have been using the internet for a while will recognize that chilling phrase all too well.
Real Life is what happens when you turn the computer off. It hardly ever features smut, or friends lists, or kindness to strangers. Real Life is a place where people play Minesweeper or Solitaire when they're bored at work. Real Life is where people spend more time watching television (or, hell, for that matter, sleeping) than they do in front of the computer thingie that they still vaguely fear. Real Life is where people pay for their porn. In other words, Real Life is filled with people so different from us that they're probably a new species.
When Real Life people go on vacation, they don't bring their computers. And they're happy about that; they don't miss them at all.
The rest of us, though, and I am of course included in that 'us,' don't go on vacation; they go on often-mandatory, painful computer deprivation adventures. In fact, they even sort of dread leaving the house, because you never know what people are going to post while you're working or buying groceries.
I am an internet person. But RL has come for me, smacked me around, made me lick its feet, made me apologize for thinking I could ever escape from it. In other words, thanks to the World's Most Evil Plumbing, I have once again packed up and moved away from my beloved computer. I'll be able to check my LJ mail and my deepbluesea at postmark dot net address, but I won't be able to spend any time browsing my flist. So please, if you post something interesting or hear about a new story I need to read, email me. I will love you forever.
Because, dammit, I could use a distraction or two from my endless internal litany of Things That Have Broken in the Last Three Weeks(air conditioner, garage door, garage electricity, washing machine, plumbing, including main line and sewer line, both of which will need to be replaced, which means we will soon have neither a garden nor a driveway. I won't even go into the allergy-related madness that impelled us to pull up two carpets and refinish the last of our hardwood floors).
So updates will be extremely sporadic for roughly the next two weeks - basically until we can, with luck, once again return to our house. I miss you all more than I can say; also, my fingers are veritably burning with sets longing to be rec'd. But, until the happy day when our house is ours once more, I will check in as often as I can, waving jealously at you in your freedom to roam this land we love. (Jesus I wish I still had a laptop.)
And so gloom descends on
thefouthvine, followed closely by self-pity, whining, and random bouts of crying. (Hmm. Sounds we've got a superhero team on our hands! I want to be gloom. Do I hear a volunteer for self-loathing, cynicism, self-pity, one-up-manship, or schadenfreude? Let's get this team working, folks! We won't even have to fight baddies; they'll run after they take one look at us - Gothic Open Mic Reader Girl, Lady Who Explains Revolting Personal Problems in Detail and with Pictures, Laughing at Everyone Else's Misery Man, and, of course, The Whiner, whose voice has been known to cause seizures in the weak and sensitive. )
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I promise to keep an eye out for all the new Sports Night fics while you're gone, though. :)
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Especially with the kind of life I've been having recently.
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(Which, you know, that could actually *be* what a circus is like these days. I haven't been since I was four, and maybe there's a reason.)
Thanks for the sympathy and the ego-boosting; I'm like a sponge for that right now. ("Hey, OK, my life is in boxes and my plumbing's a disaster and I'm living with my parents for the first time since high school, but at least people like my posts." See? It all balances out.)
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I'm glad you posted--I've wondered what was going on with you, plus which I *like* knowing more about the person behind the recs!
As far as the superhero team goes, can I be worry? ;-)
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Soon we'll be ready to take on the world! The cheerful part of it, anyway.
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And I volunteer to be schadenfreude.
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Coming soon to ruin a good time near you!
(We'll need costumes. I'm thinking that it's hard to wrong with basic black.)
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(Or in other words, arrgh, I'm so sorry to hear about all the crap going on, and wish you godspeed in returning to home, internet, and smut.)
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Thought that would make you quail. Pretty soon Girl Who Loudly Shares All Her Feelings will be here, and then any of you foul demons that haven't fled will be extremely sorry.
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Hope RL starts looking up for you soon. We miss you here!
*sends good porny thoughts your way*
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And you're absolutely right: porn is what I need right now. I need Fraser/Kowalski home repair porn. Because, really, sudden disastrous home repairs must be a) more sexy and b) way more dangerous when F and K are involved. Know of any home repair porn out there?
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*snorts*
Anyway, I've got an 'Ocean's 11' oneshot in the works, so there's that coming. Will drop a link here when it's done.
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(And don't your withdrawal symptoms kind of undermine the whole "she's not addicted; she can quit at any time" thing your family has going? I mean, if you're hurling your body desperately at strangers with laptops, begging for just ten minutes, it's somehow not so persuasive. Of course, you may behave with more dignity on your internet-free vacations. I'm just going by what I do.)
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And don't your withdrawal symptoms kind of undermine the whole "she's not addicted; she can quit at any time" thing your family has going?
See, I think of it as a yearly penance I have to do. Grit my teeth, hold my twitchy fingers under the table, and go for the week. That much suffering should make up for all my online sins:)
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Much sympathy for your RL problems!
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*gloomily prods RL problems with stick*
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I'll miss you, and hopefully, these upcoming weeks won't suck too much.
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(Love the moose, by the way. Are you a secret dS fan, or just a secret Canadian?)
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Er. Not so secret Canadian, actually :-)
And something of a dS fan, you know, as one is.
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Do I hear a volunteer for self-loathing, cynicism, self-pity, one-up-manship, or schadenfreude?
I will *so* be schadenfreude, if you need one. ;)
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Unfortunately, we already have a schadenfreude. But the team still needs you! If you have a hankering to be something unfortunate and Germanic, may I offer you sturm und drang instead? Or weltschmerz? Or bratwurst?
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We love you. It will be okay. I promise.
And then it will be done and you won't have to do it again for a long long time (possibly never).
And I want to be one of the superheroes, but I don't know which one...
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And you, my sweet, have a full range of profession-related superheroes to be. Nuisance lawsuit filer, for example. Or senior partner.
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Well, shit. Fucking RL. Email me and tell me exactly what sort of story you're in the mood for and I'll find five that fit the description, make them into Word files, and email them to you so you don't go into withdrawal.
xxxooo
And it's really too bad this didn't happen, say, two weeks from now when t'husband leaves for his work trip or you could come stay with meeeeeeeeeeee!
Home ownership. It sounds so goddamned good until it happens to you, and then it makes it really hard to appreciate your good fortune.
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And I will indeed take you up on your sweet and generous offer, because I am not one to turn down porn, ever, and especially not during a dry spell of this magnitude.
(If we're still homeless and living with my parents when VP leaves, I'm taking that as a firm invitation. I will appear at your doorstep with bells on. They'll be warning bells, actually, because by then I'll be completely crazy, but still.)
And, yes, I agree. Home ownership is wonderful. Except when it isn't, and then it sucks, as
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But I am an obedient slave; I will indeed have faith in Internet Telepathy. In fact, it's my new religion, and I'm now praying for a plumbing-related miracle. ("Gods of IT, heal this leaky pipe!")
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Of course I use my powers for evil. They are impractical in any other setting.
Mwa ha ha ha ha.
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Hmm. Sounds we've got a superhero team on our hands! I want to be gloom. Do I hear a volunteer for self-loathing, cynicism, self-pity, one-up-manship, or schadenfreude? Let's get this team working, folks!
It probably says something about me that when I read this, the first thing I though was "...this needs an icon."
Anyway, I want to be Person Who Does Small Jobs For You That You'd Really Rather Do Yourself...
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Sorry to hear about the suckage - but hardwood floors rule, so it's cool you have more of them now!
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Also: This recs LJ is wonderful to read -- well-written, inventive, and funny as fuck. A lot of times, I come here when I know I won't have time to dive into a piece of fanfic just to read the recs.
Just so you know that you're appreciated. :)