Evil Wrapped in a Fangirl Disguise

Last night the second, and final, part of Alice aired on SyFy (uuuugh channel). I really enjoyed it. Way more than Tin Man, which I also enjoyed but found overall fairly dull. And confusing. Alan Cumming was the best part of that thing.

Anyway. Alice was pretty solid. I never wanted to smack Alice around, not really, and Hatter was basically amazing. (And then I had to look him up and go, duh, that dude from Primeval.) But it's still leaving me all think-y with it's similarities to Tin Man.

( Really vaguely spoilery for both )

Sorry, Tim Burton, but there is NO WAY I'm going to love your Mad Hatter as much as I love this one. (D'aww. HIS FACE.)

In Things That Don't Make Me Really Happy news, Mom tells me that her boss finally came back from her vacation. She and her husband went on a cruise. When Mom asked her how it was, she said it was fine but she wouldn't have gone if she'd known there were going to be so many gays and lesbians there.

::facepalm::

So I am going to go write gay porn to counterbalance the stupid.

I'm really enjoying FlashForward so far, the balance of drama and humor, and the mystery of the whole thing. (Hi, Jack Davenport! On my TV! With your accent!)

I'm not sure about Eastwick, but I'm giving it a shot for Paul Gross and his voice.

( Supernatural - 5.04 )

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Meanwhile, ( the last two weeks of Project Runway )

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I really was an emergency sub at the high school today. Spanish I and II for grades 10 through 12. Because the sub that was supposed to be there, wasn't. Which is why I subbed that class last school year, too, strangely enough. Only this time, ( definitely because someone was flaky )

Since today started out pretty shitty, I'm going to focus on things that are good or amusing.

- brownies sitting in the kitchen

- the coconut-pineapple-chicken-curry thing we had for dinner (yuuuuum)

- puppies with their little wagging tails

- cats being long and lanky and affection and weird

- the 3700+ word fic roll I am on

- the feature I wrote that I think is really good

- the man in Spook who thought "that Leprechauns...were most likely discarnate humans."

- Spook in general. Except the whole ectoplasm thing freaks me out a bit, what with the emanating from mediums' orifices (like their vagina). Disturbing. (The bit about the woman giving birth to rabbits! Holy crap! Because, yes, sticking skinned rabbit bits up there is a good idea, especially in the mid-1700s.)

- texting with Dahlia and Natasha

- Bored to Death's opening credits

Yesterday an older woman came into the library and made me want to cry for the state of humanity. Or, I guess, for ignorance. And maybe not cry, but bang my head against the desk.

This woman came in because she'd gotten a notice in the mail that we had a book on hold for her. She didn't remember ordering anything and she wanted to know what it was. The last time I saw her in the library, she ended up checking out a book by David Baldacci. She was looking for something new to read and she'd seen his name a lot so she thought she'd give it a try.

Apparently since then she's been in and the regular librarian has ordered her several other books by him. The book that came was one of those.

She also had two books to return, but had forgotten them at home. "They're by him, too," she told me. "But I didn't like them. They were murder mysteries. Too gory for me. I want home-spun type stories. I don't like best-seller books these days. They're all filled with language and filth and whathaveyou. You know. Homosexuals and lesbians. I don't know why they have to put that in there. But I guess that's what writers do."

I just...nodded and smiled, basically. It's my job to help the patron, not to censor or judge in anyway. (Plus, I don't like confrontation and I'm not going to change the mind of some little old lady in a five minute library visit.) But, ooooh, I wanted to say things. Or would have wanted to if I hadn't been a little in shock.

I wanted to say, that's the world, lady. It's filled with different types of people doing different types of things. Media is covered with representations of heterosexual love and those images are forced on gay people all of the time. So what if one or two homosexuals show up in your books? There or so many other things to focus on or think about.

It also reminded me of something Hugh Jackman said in Entertainment Weekly in response to talking about playing Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz and kissing a guy:

I don't waste time or energy with it. I think there's far too much importance placed on people's sexuality anyway. I love sex, it's great, but it's not the measure of love or a relationship. And whether you like girls or boys, whether you like the light on or off: Who cares? I always find sexuality one of the least interesting things about a person.

Anyway, now I also want to know what she meant by "that's what writers do." Market "filth"? Sensationalize? Try to make it on the best seller list by being shocking?

I was annoyed. It wasn't until after she pulled out of the parking lot that I realized, wait, I write gay porn. Little does she know who she's talking to.

As per olivelavonne's suggestion, next time I see her I am going to think "the dirtiest, filthiest porn at her."


Now to go work on school board and other bits of writing. Those prompts gave me multiple ideas and I hardly know what to do first.

My poor mom is a creative person who does a creative job for people who do not understand the creative process.

Instead of ordering flowers from their usual, trusted provider, the boss-lady wanted to try someplace new. Because instead of getting bunches of daffodils (I think it was daffs anyway) for $1.75/bunch at one or two bunches, they could try this new place where they had to buy 20 bunches at $1.60/bunch.

There are several problems that have Mom upset. Since they haven't dealt with this provider before, they don't know what sort of product they'll be getting. Especially because local growers are behind this year due to the cold weather. The boss-lady also said that the flowers will be great for Jr. Miss next weekend. But these other people on deliver to the area on Monday or Friday. Friday will be to late and Monday is almost too early.

The quality thing really is a big issue for Mom. When you put together an arrangement, you want to use the best materials possible. She puts things together with the view, "Is this something I would buy?" Having to do an arrangement with crap materials reflects badly on her. Which then reflects badly on the store, which the boss-lady does not seem to understand. She just thinks Mom slaps stuff together and it isn't hard.

Something I think anyone who does something creative knows is completely and ridiculously untrue.

Mom had a bit of a rant this morning and I felt the need to...get it out there, too. Because it's frustrating and I feel for her. And really, why are people so dumb?

This originally started out as an e-mail to ginnith, but partway through I thought, hey, livejournal.

While I was at the library today, the latest ML paper was delivered. On the front page it says, "Royal City rejects bonds." At the preliminary count, they lost. Which means that the bond committee will have to look at the situation again and figure out what their options are.

It also means that 1) people don't want to pay more taxes (a fact that is not surprising to anyone), 2) people let their opinion of the superintendent cloud their judgment, and 3) the future of the children could be screwed.

I'm a bit annoyed. People kept getting stuck on the fact that the admin building would be redone. That was only a small percent of the project. Instead, they let the fact that they do not like the current administration move their focus from the big picture - improving the school and providing for current and future students - the small one.

At last night's city council meeting, the mayor said that we tend to not look past the one or two year future mark. We don't think about or like to think about what our plans now could mean 20 years down the road. (Which occurs to me now is maybe something to be worried about coming from a mayor.) What I see in this situation is people only focusing on the things they dislike now and forgetting that this superintendent won't always be a part of the district, but there will always be students at the schools. And if the town continues to grow, there are going to be more and more. Where on earth are they going to go in a building that became too small really quite rapidly? And how on earth is anything supposed to get done if no one will set aside personal dislike and take a look at the big picture?

This evening I figured I could either bitch about people or post fanfiction. I normally don't like to complain too much, but there are certain things going on here that I think I need to just let go and write about.

So. Vent now. Fic later.

Last night I attended another city council meeting. This was actually the shortest council meeting I've been to so far, running just over an hour. (The shortest meeting ever, though, goes to the last school board meeting. Fifteen minutes! It takes me that long to drive there. I wasn't even gone from home for an hour. Out here, that's really nice.)

But the primary subject at the council meeting was upsetting. There have been a serious rash of burglaries the last couple of months in the town and the surrounding areas. A couple of weeks ago, they caught a couple of teenagers. (And recovered a lot of property, though they're having trouble getting it back to the owners as no one knows what brand of DVD/TV/camera/etc. they own.) They've been released, but even then the break-ins continued. Most of these are happening during the day - before noon generally - and they're not even checking to see if the doors are locked. They just kick in the doors and do what they like. One family at the meeting last night had their house destroyed. Whatever the burglars didn't take, they trashed.

It's terrifying. Whoever is doing this is someone who knows the area. They're watching people's houses and taking advantage when they leave. Sometimes breaking in while they're at home. Many people have looked out of the window to see someone suspicious looking back. And the worst part is that a majority of people have a pretty good idea about who's doing this. They're just too scared to say anything. If a neighbor sees something suspicious going on next door, they won't call it in because if they do, and these people find out, their house will just be hit that much harder.

It's frustrating and understandable and scary.

Plus, I will be on my own in the house in a couple of weeks. I will be jumpy.

And that's not me bitching or venting. I just needed to put that out there.

But now I'll bitch a little.

The usual secretary/financial director was not at last night's meeting. The other secretary was. I've never met her before, and after the meeting I approached her with a small clarifying question which she either did not understand or thought I was a moron for asking. Her attitude, which I was not impressed with, came off a little of both, leaning toward "who is this moron?" I hate that.

These meetings are all recorded. Usually, since she works in town and it would be pointless for me to make an extra trip, my mother picks up a zip drive with the recording on it. We have had no problems with this. Today, though, Mom went in and this other secretary says, "Oh, I haven't had time to do that today. She can come listen to it here. That's what [the editor] used to do." Which doesn't necessarily come off as annoying when you write it down, but judging from the way Mom relayed it to me, well. I like having a copy to listen to at home while I'm in the process of writing the article. And I may be young and fairly new at this, but I've received plenty of compliments from community members over the detail and clarity of these articles. I'm going to continue doing what works.

I can't wait for the other secretary to come back.

So what I'm going to do this week is use my notes and call it good. That's what I do with all of the other meetings I go to. And thankfully this was a shorter meeting without so much technobabble and legalese.

There may be other stuff, but I've lost momentum now. Probably for the best. On top of everything, though, last night I started really feeling the winter blahs. Today has been shaded by that feeling you get after you cry - physically and emotionally - except there has been no crying. It's not fun. But tomorrow I'm working in Mattawa tomorrow, so that should give me something tangibly productive to do.

I am not going to feel bad about using the "people:idiots" tag. Because they are. Even if they scare me.

OMG, I want to kick Eddie in the head so hard.

I don't care that he works for Martha Stewart. I don't care if they're BFFs. I want. To kick. Him in. The head.

"Library" is a really funny word if you think about it too hard.

One thing that I dislike is irresponsibility. When I make an appointment, I do my best to keep it. When I schedule work, I do my best to be there. And when I'm there, I do my best to complete the job at hand. Most of the time anyway; we all have our off days.

Today was hectic at the library. They've been working to upgrade the circulation system since last Thursday, meaning that nothing can be checked in (boxes of returned items piling up) and all check-out is done by hand (off-line circulation being unreliable, imo). I was asked to sub, which I didn't mind because I've dealt with the system being down before and, really, if I can deal with finals week in a university library I should be able to deal with books and DVDs piling up.

That wasn't so bad. (I was three sentences past the beginning of this paragraph before I realized I'd written "That was so bad" while thinking "wasn't." Heh.) Especially since Shannon told me to keep trying the circulation system until it let me in. When it popped up with a box asking me if I wanted to upgrade, I said, "Sure! Bring it on!" And all seemed to be well.

No, what really pissed me off, and I'm willing to admit I was probably overreacting, was when the other sub who was supposed to come work four hours with me called and said, "Shannon said she'd leave a note if she wanted me to come in. Did she leave a note?"

"Well, no. Not really. But she did say she had a project you could help with. They want to incorporate the non-cataloged paperback juvenile fiction with the cataloged hardcovers..."

"Oh, yeah, we've talked about that. But that's not really important."

That really annoyed me. Because, what? It needs to be done but you're feeling lazy so I'm going to be the one that does it?

She then asked if the computers were still down and I said it was kind of iffy at the moment, though they seemed to be fine. She said, "Well, I don't want to show up if there's nothing there for me to do."

So I told her, "If you have other things you have to do today, you go ahead and do them. I can take care of this on my own."

She said some more things after that, and I just repeated that a few times. At one point she kind of laughed after I said it. I think she caught my fed-up tone. You know the one. Everyone has one. The one where you're not openly angry, but it's clear that you think time's being wasted and so you're being sort of...professionally nice. If that makes sense.

I feel a little bad about it now. Mostly I feel bad that I feel like I should feel bad. How's that for convoluted?

She did tell me that I could call later in the afternoon if I needed help. I could have used helped later (I could have used help then), but there's too much going on to go looking for a phone number and I like working alone. Plus, this particular person has a really grating voice. And personality. The first time she called this morning, after I hung up all I could think was, "I'm going to have to listen to that for four hours." But then, of course, she didn't come in.

And then there was the part of me that didn't want to call because I wanted to prove I could handle the big scary day all by myself. So take THAT.

I did have a slight moment of panic, though. I called the tech people because transit slips weren't printing when I scanned material that was supposed to be sent elsewhere. When they called back and I said I was using the system, she said, "You're using it? Did we walk you through the upgrade already? If we didn't, then everything you're doing isn't being recorded." I was like, "It asked me to upgrade, I clicked 'okay.' I thought it was all right."

When I called her back after dealing with patrons, she apologized for panicking and said that I was fine. When I told Mom this, Mom asked, "So you did something that they didn't think you were capable of?"

Sure. What I'm thinking is that I'm one of the younger people working there, ready and unafraid to click the upgrade option when a computer presents it. Not that the older employees aren't, but they're the ones that are benefiting from the tech/web related information sessions while I'm sitting there semi-bored because I'm already familiar with it.

So that ended well. I didn't screw anything up. And by closing there were many things to shelve, but it was all generally tidy and not completely chaotic. Which is a win in my book. Even if I am generally frustrated by some of the people involved.

I am going to use my "people:idiots" tag and not feel like a horrible person.

WTF??

Apparently the Powers That Be decided it would be a good idea to make an American version of Life on Mars.

This is just...a remarkably stupid idea. I know they've done this before and they always seem to think it's a good idea, but most of the time everything just flops. Like Coupling. omg was that bad. The American pilot was cringe-worthy.

I haven't seen all of Life on Mars yet. I'm saving the rest of it for a rainy day, because I'm kind of loving it a lot and once it's over, it's over. But I'm really kind of appalled that they'd even consider remaking it. Everyone in the original is just so spot-on.

Can't we come up with original stuff anymore? Or are we stuck in a reality television rut?

Ugh.