Gonzai Gallery

I've spent much of yesterday and today binge-watching 'The Pacific' (on Ep 9 now). I think the dogs are planning a mutiny. The rats might help.

Sorry, critters, but war movies are hell.

I write fanfics that crossover Daredevil with Pushing Daisies. I really should get help.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4080325

Part of why I dragged myself back to LJ (and the entire reason I broke down and got a Twitter account) is that I haven't gone all in on a fandom since 'Serenity'. Nothing has risen to the level of obsession/fanfic writing/fanart creation since then...and then Daredevil happened.

The first thing I notice is that I don't like binging. Maintaining a discussion about a show works a lot better when there's an episode a week and everyone watches it at roughly the same time. While right now binging isn't a logistical problem for me (obviously, since I've watched Daredevil in its entirety three times in addition to certain episodes repeatedly) if/when I get a job binging will be difficult.

The next thing I notice is - I can't find more than one or two places for fanfiction, fanart or fanvids. I'm still in a bunch of LJ groups that do fanvids, but nothing's coming through the pipeline, and I don't know where else people are putting the things. (It's bad enough I've gone to Twitter; I flat out refuse to Facebook.) I know of a whopping two places to post fanfic - FFF, which I hated 10 years ago, and An Archive Of Our Own (AO3), which is where I'm doing all my fan reading/posting. Fanart seems to be Twitter/Instagram or bust. Am I wrong about this? Am I just failing to find the right places/sources? Or is Facebook the only game in town?

In any event, I'm hoping to do some Daredevil fanart if my hand will permit. (Big if.) And I wrote my first fanfic in 10 years, which I posted at AO3, an alternate take on the aftermath of Daredevil Episode 9 entitled 'Turn Right' (a play on the Dr Who ep 'Turn Left'). http://archiveofourown.org/works/3970270/chapters/8906503 BTW, the last fanfic I wrote was a short piece for Firefly, and I can't find it. I thought I had copies of everything I wrote, but I can't find that one anywhere, and the site I posted it to no longer exists. If by some miracle someone remembers it/where it was and can point me to it that would be most excellent.

Last year, I barely managed to be at Balticon because of Mom issues. So I was promoted from volunteer to staff. Go figure. This year, I managed to rack up 30 hours on the job in the art show. Except, that's all I did. One pass of the dealer's room, two panels (one of which was in the art show room), never set foot in the west side of the hotel much less in the game room. Just art show and trooping back and forth between the show and the bathroom/registration desk for three days. The con debuted a new computer system which...didn't work as planned...and only one guy knew how to fix it. I swear, my primary job all weekend was to go to registration and drag said guy back to the art room.

Meanwhile, I have only two weeks of unemployment left and no prospects on the horizon, so my purchasing consisted of the con t-shirt (which is gorgeous, BTW) and two inexpensive prints. And breakfast from 7-11/Royal Farms each morning. That's it. A cheap, hard-working weekend. I did manage to trade 'trade secrets' with the Art GOH, Ruth Sanderson, regarding scratchboard, and I went to a sci-fi trivia competition, was teamed with someone I've never met at random, and we creamed everyone. She knew books & anime, I knew TV, movies & games, we rolled.

Next year - for them's haven't heard, it's Balticon 50(!), the GOH is George R.R. Martin and Balticon is headed to the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Baltimore, right on the Inner Harbor. And I'm the 'co-Art Show Director'. My co-director has already told me she prefers pre-con prep to the con itself, so I'm pretty much in charge of the art show. Meep.

Did what was probably my last transport for a while (unemployment runs out in a couple weeks, I don't think I should be running up a gas bill at that point) and went to Flintstone, Maryland. Actually, I went all the way to Frostburg, aka my alma mater. By the time I got there it was pouring rain and time was short, so I didn't make it as far as the college campus, but I went in far enough to see things haven't changed much. The crap movie theater is still there and still crap. Fox's Pizza is still there (I didn't like their pizza 25 years ago!). Driving through LaVale and Cumberland, they haven't changed either. Cumberland was dead 20 years ago and it still is. What did change is that now there's a state park and a casino between Cumberland & Flintstone. Quite the setup they have there.

I picked up a white boxer named Sugar Baby (yes, really) who had supposedly just been neutered (he wasn't) but was wearing a cone anyway (much hilarity ensued.) He only had to go to Hagerstown. The other was a mutt named Skeeter who just became a tripod. His entire leg was removed, including the hip joint. Poor guy. He was a sweetheart, if I'd thought for a second CJ would accept him I'd be interested. He rode down to DC after I dropped him off in Baltimore.

I have a couple days this week to try to finish cleaning the laundry room (my mother's dumping ground), bathe the dogs and clean the house before I have a mini-job fair and then...Balticon.

Since I've been gone from LJ so long, there is much to update. Earlier we caught up on four-legged additions to my household. I can also update that Aimes, the dog I transported a couple weeks ago, was adopted just days after arriving in Baltimore; I did another run to Hagerstown last weekend, moving a Brittany Spaniel named Ash (who likes Mountain Dew) and a puppy of unknown origin, possibly mastiff or Rhodesian Ridgeback, named Coop (he snores). Coop has also been adopted already. I'd love to take Ash but I think CJ would go on strike if I got another critter.

One of the big changes that has really sucked: in December, I finally lost my job. It seemed like there might be layoffs at many points the last few years, but in December, the boss decided to just plain close up shop entirely. He started by sending me on my way (and telling me how I could use the office equipment to help in my job search while conveniently failing to mention there wouldn't be an office in a couple weeks) and promising me a severance check, so I didn't commence my job search right away since I wouldn't be eligible for unemployment until after the severance. If you guessed that he never gave me the severance, you're right. Cost me two weeks of unemployment benefits, which are meager enough. Ten days of I got the boot, so did the office manager. The only other employee, the other attorney, quit the following week when she was told she had to answer the phones. Just brilliant all round. Merry Christmas to us.

As I had gotten myself certified as a veterinary assistant, I've been trying to find jobs at vet's offices and pet supply stores and other animal-related ventures. No dice, as it were. I've gotten few calls and no offers; not even nibbles from PetSmart or Petco, where I applied for cashier/stocking jobs. I have applied, less often, for secretarial and clerk positions, trying to avoid law offices, but I've had a whopping two calls for non-animal jobs, both law offices and both rejections. Unemployment has 3-4 weeks left. I'm already depressed; I suppose when the payments end, I'll end up delivering pizza. If I can get hired for that, which seems unlikely if I can't even get a cashier job. The only bright spots are that the car and the house were already paid for. Otherwise, this sucks.

So I've been watching a bunch of TV shows and movies lately...a LOT of them...and I've concluded that there are three things I really, really can't deal with seeing on film.

1. Cruelty/violence to animals
2. Heights and the view therefrom
3. Decapitation.

Which begs the question - why in the HELL do I watch Game of Thrones? 'tis a mystery.

(And dang it, Daredevil hit 2 of the 3)

There are times when I've wanted to post to LJ, just because I had to say something. Invariably these times are when I'm driving/trying to sleep/otherwise not in a position to post. But most of the time I just have nothing to say. The last couple of years have sucked donkey balls and they do right now as well, which really discourages me from wanting to write or post. I want to be better about this. I will start small, with what I did today.

I have been doing the occasional transport for a dog rescue, and today I drove out to Hagerstown for the first time in 8-9 years to pick up a huge, hairy & pretty loopy Great Pyrenees named Aimes. I wanted to eat at my favorite restaurant in Hagerstown (awesome sushi) but it turns out they close between lunch & dinner, so I drove around a while. Hagerstown has not changed. Same stores, same stadium, same crappy rundown factories, really identical to last decade. I had meant to go up early and visit Antietam because I never have been there, though I've certainly been close, but I overslept. Boogers. In any event, Aimes was a gentleman and now he's in foster care waiting for his forever home.

The reason (well, one of them) I overslept is because for the first time in ages I'm having a fandom attack. I binge-watched the new Marvel series 'Daredevil' in 3 days and I am now quite obsessed. Always did like that comic, but wasn't expecting to become obsessed. Maybe it's because the show is the epitome of hurt/comfort genre, or maybe just because I forgot how amazing Charlie Cox's lips are. Especially with some scruff. Yummy, yummy. Need fic. Need vids. Need Charlie for my very own. And for some odd reason I like the black ninja outfit better than the red leather one. Go figure.

I have agreed with Antonin Scalia twice in two weeks. Either I've lost my mind or he has.

Now if we can just keep the VRA and ditch DOMA...

Channel surfing this evening post Warehouse 13 (freakynese - awesome!) I discovered Pushing Daisies is still on tv! It's on Chiller, of all places. I have it on DVD but I don't have the time to rewatch these days, not with stuff I haven't watched the first time. I forgot how much fun this show is, guaran-dam-teed. (If you haven't seen the show, watch the episode 'Power & Water'. You'll get it. At least this post.)