vilakins | Various things

Entry tags:

real life

Various things

Cold...
I still have my cold. My nose and sinuses are pretty much cleared up, but I've got the usual cough. Sigh. I exhaust myself coughing; you'd think I was a smoker. And it's just embarrassing getting a coughy fit in a coffee bar like I did today. Bleah. I have a weak chest like Vila and like him I've discovered that the only thing that seems to help is brandy. I need a metal hipflask like his so I can take the occasional swig at work. :-P

...but getting warmer
Spring is on the way though. I have a beautiful bright bunch of daffodils in a blue glass vase on my desk at work. They were left over from a big meeting and they make the place look sunnier just by being there. :-)

Too many things...
NaArMaMo is almost over and I'm a bit relieved. It's been great practising and getting more confident, but it so eats up your time! I can't exactly relax next month though because there are two big ficathons looming, not to mention various birthday ones. Eep.

...and two fewer
I've got rid of two commitments though. I got an e-mail from a theatrical_muse mod to tell me that kerill and daynamellanby haven't responded to the last four challenges and must do one of them and prove it with a link. [rolls eyes] It used to be OK if I posted at least once a month. Bah. The whole anal checking up and 'three warnings and you're out' thing just got to me, so I said, "Fine. Remove them." I'd rather jump than be pushed. Why do some mods make it so hard on themselves and people who just started out wanting to have fun? Being treated like a naughty schoolgirl being threatened with expulsion just gets right up my nose.

I'll keep vila_restal going though because I know some people read him. I'll probably respond to the occasional topic for Kerril and Dayna just to keep their LJs active and you never know: someone other than Vila might be lurking. I doubt it though.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I do not understand the anal mod thing. It's difficult to keep all the rules for the different challenges I do straight (hell, it's hard enough to keep the different 'verses I'm writing straight!) "No fake cuts," "Must use cuts," "Put the prompt # in the title bar," "Post at least once monthly." I can understand the posting requirements if there are people waiting for a claim...although I'm not 100% on why one has exclusive/limited claims either. (Well, in some groups, it's to limit the amount of Orlando/Viggo RPS, but people aren't exactly lining up the block to do Kerill!) They seem to lose track of the important things - to have fun and write new fics.

Of course, they don't rule against/enforce the important things...so that people sign up for 10 challenges and use the same fic to satisfy all of them. (Not just occasionally, when stuck on a prompt, but as a matter of course) What is the point? S/he who dies with the most banners wins?

They seem to lose track of the important things - to have fun and write new fics.

Do they ever! On

fanfic100, they're weeks behind on... putting all the stories into memories and get shitty when people post more than one story a day. I ask you. Why bother when it's self-operating, with the participants tagging their own entries.

people sign up for 10 challenges and use the same fic to satisfy all of them

Admittedly that one would be hard to police.

Sod it. I'm so tired from coughing, I'm having some brandy and going to bed.

Oh and TM now has that "Put the prompt # in the title bar" thing. The warning e-mail I got said that Kerril and Dayna had to answer the last four, giving the numbers. Numbering must be a recent development--Vila got a warning on his post about it--and it's just all too anal for me. If it gets any worse, Vila will jump ship too.

yay for the daffs, the best flowers in the world :0) Hope your cough goes soon x

Me too. I just had another bad fit of it. Crap.

On a phonetic level, a coffee bar is a fine place to have coughy fits. On a serious level, I hope it goes away soonest.

That's why I used the word coughy! :-)

Yeah. I'm so tired from coughing all day and evening and my throat's raw from it. Time for brandy and bed.

I hope the cough gets better soon, even when I was a smoker it was the one thing I didn't suffer from. Sinus infections on the other hand.....

I'm taking brandy to work with me today. It's the only thing that helps and coughing for five minutes at a time is just embarrassing and yuck.

I'll keep vila_restal going though because I know some people read him. I'll probably respond to the occasional topic for Kerril and Dayna just to keep their LJs active and you never know: someone other than Vila might be lurking. I doubt it though.

I lurk, and enjoy, on both Kerril and Vila an would have been lurking on Dayna had I known you were doing her. Ive not posted any thing much because I wasn't a character.

Am thinking evil thoughts at mod.

The whole thing gets turned into an onerous duty instead of fun like

b7friday is.

People don't have to be characters to comment, but OTOH readers don't have to comment anyway. I think all Dayna's 'friends' were

neneithel's characters and she seems to have left LJ.

Touch wood, not so much lately, but sometimes I get coughs that settle and won't go away. After I had one a few years ago that involved quite violent coughing fits for several weeks, I went to my doctor, who said it was an "asthmatic-type reaction" caused by over-sensitised passages, or suchlike, and he gave me an inhaler, which I use when I get recurrences. (Now that's made me think of Roger again, because of Intal!)

I thought

kerrill was quite regular!

jarriere could never do those questions, he looks at them occasionally and says "I canna tell them that!" (

kerill appears to be Russian, though.)

Roger?

Eep. I had a cough for three months once. If I can stop the urge with brandy, I'm sure I'll get better.

My lot could never do all the questions. With each one, the character who most wanted to answer it did, and it worked fairly well.

Kiril is Russian for Cyril; perhaps it's a variant spelling in Roman letters. A colleague has a little boy called Keryl which I find odd for a boy, esp the spelling.

I keep expecting to get an eviction notice from the mods, as I don't think I've done a

thetrical_muse entry in a couple of months. I haven't, though, and the last time I checked, Stark was still a member of the community, so maybe he's been overlooked. I just can't seem to work up any interest in most of the questions, though, and neither can Stark. So many of them either seem completely pointless and irrelevant, or else they evoke the same kinds of responses from him over and over, and it gets boring. Of course, it probably doesn't help that, what with

fanfic100, I think I'm actually starting to get tired of writing Stark ficlets.

They have different mods for different sets of fandoms. Your mod probably isn't as strict as mine.

Yeah, I find some of those prompts hard, and a lot would make Vila go over the same old things too. I either ignore those, or [used to] get the others to answer them, or twist the prompt somehow. But this sort of silly rule-making just makes me want to take my toys and leave.

BTW did you know that you have to put the prompt number in the header now? Vila got a warning about that. Sigh.

They have different mods for different sets of fandoms. Your mod probably isn't as strict as mine.

I'm pretty sure we're both under misc. TV, although there might be more than one mod for that. I did get a couple of warnings in the past... I strongly suspect I've just fallen through the cracks for the moment.

I either ignore those, or [used to] get the others to answer them, or twist the prompt somehow. But this sort of silly rule-making just makes me want to take my toys and leave.

I've tried to get kind of creative with some of Stark's answers like that, but it eventually started to seem like too much work for too little reward. The rule that did me in, actually, was the word limit, which they said they were going to start cracking down on. Sometimes Stark just didn't have 150 words to say about something. Sometimes I'd have very short, very clever answers, but I wouldn't be able to use them, because they wouldn't count. Bah. It's much less fun when you're doing it because you're more worried about being kicked out over insufficient word count than because you have an answer that's actually worth posting.

BTW did you know that you have to put the prompt number in the header now?

No, I hadn't heard about that. WTF? OK, that makes me feel even less inclined to see if they'll let me stay in...

Yeah, Vila got a comment telling him so.

Why don't we both just answer the fun ones on their LJs and make it as long or as short as we like? Play it our way, not theirs.

I was thinking I might do that... assuming I can be bothered.

Some could be fun and we could respond to each other's.

Yeah, except most of 'em are seriously lame. I'm half tempted to suggest coming up with questions of our own. :)

Yeah, except most of 'em are seriously lame.

They are. I shall have to try to do one in four now, not just post at least once a month. Oh well, at least I'll only have to check on Vila.

I'm half tempted to suggest coming up with questions of our own.

We could do! Stark and my lot could take turns. :-)

Mind you, I know how hard it is thinking up topics for

b7friday. I have an idea for this week's which I must do when I get home. And do a birthday pic and fic for

snowgrouse. Lucky I'm fairly well caught up on TV. :-P

[smiles at your icon] I do love that one.

Mind you, I know how hard it is thinking up topics for [info]b7friday.

I find thinking up topics infinitely easier than writing for them. :)

Eep, is

snowgrouse's birthday coming up already? I'd love to do a fic for her, but I really just don't think it's going to happen.

[smiles at your icon] I do love that one.

I don't use it nearly often enough. :)

And I should go and catch up on TV, myself... I'm falling behind on my DVDs again.

Her birthday's today for me, tomorrow for you (the 30th).

I'm up-to-date on normal TV and waaaaaay behind on DVDs. And I keep buying more. :-P

And I keep buying more. :-P

It's an addiction! And one I'm only managing by forbidding myself to buy DVDs at all, except in special circumstances, and sticking with Netflix. Not only is it cheaper, but because I can only have four discs at once, I can never fall farther behind than that. Well, not in terms of unwatched discs physically in my possession, anyway. My rental queue is well into the triple digits...

BTW I turned off my custom comments. They looked nice but you have to go up to the top to leave a new comment amd that annoyed me too much.

Huh, I hadn't even noticed that on mine. I wonder if it annoys people? It doesn't annoy me, but then it's not like I'm going to use it on my own comments page.

I've decided I really like the look, though.

Yeah, me too. I should see if I can tweak the style to get that link at the bottom too.

I'd consider trying some other styles but then I'd lose all my customising if I came back to Punquin, and I do like the simple elegance.

If you figure out how to do it, let me know!

I considered changing my style for about half a second, but, y'know, I kind of hate change. :)

I like change, but Punquin works well. It's simple and clear and has links; not all do. And it's quick to load; some of those heavily-customised ones are slow and don't work well on use browsers.

BTW did you notice that you can set the navigation bar to your choice of colour now? Have a look at mine or Vila's. It's a nice feature because it reverts to the dark or light grey on LJs where they haven't customised it.

I did! I changed my to a very pretty shaded blue. Erm, does it show up when you look at my LJ, or am I the only one who can see it?

No, I can see it! That's nice. You get to see any customised ones, and otherwise you see as default the dark or light grey you originally selected.

Yay! What a surprisingly sensible way of doing it. :)

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised!

I'd already rebelled against one autocratic and tedious dis-organization, and found little to recommend TM over the Federation. When they informed me that I was too succinct for their needs I agreed and left them to their own devices.

Sometimes the answer is 'no'.

I gave them some short answers a couple of times and they didn't seem to mind. But I never wanted a job and this is getting too much like one.

Hip flask! You should have one. :)

And agreed on TM. With their size, I'd think prolificity would be more of a problem than sporadic posting. (I totally stopped reading anything of theirs, when I realized that the LotR peeps tried to overwhelm the universe.)

I hope that your cough soon goes, But what's a "weal chest"? Presumably it's not a real chest belonging to someone who can't pronounce the letter R. :)

Bah. My brain is gummed up too. Corrected.

I hope your cough eases soon. As well as the embarrassment, it can be just so *tiring*, having a bad cough.

It is! I just can't be bothered doing anything physical.

Well, you know, I never did get into the actual TM community, because I wound up having access issues AND health problems after I signed up. I just do the questions as I can.

I think the reason they insist on participation at a certain level is because somebody else might be wanting a chance at the character. It isn't really fair to claim a character just to let it sit. You wouldn't think that would be much of a problem with Kerril and Dayna, though, as they're less popular characters in a small fandom.

I always read Vila and Kerril when I sign into Bayban (alas, only about once or twice a month - keeping two browsers open makes me crash too much). Sometimes I remember to read Dayna too, though not as much.

It occurs to me now that I should have Bayban's friends friended on my own journal; then I'll know when he needs to respond to something. ::goes off to do just that::

I just do the questions as I can.

Yes, I think that's what I'll do from now on. I'll try to keep Vila going in case someone decides to do him, but I don't mind if someone wants to do Kerril or Dayna, unlikely though they all are.

I've got all the characters friended on Vila's LJ. At one time there was a lot of traffic, but most seem to have been abandoned. :-(

I find coughs hard to shake as well... I know if I breathe air that is too cold, I get wheezy straight away (not good). I hope you feel better soon - and at least it's starting to feel like spring!

It is, though I was fooled today. I didn't take a jacket to work because I thought it was quite warm, but I froze on the way home. :-(

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Various things

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject