the deep moans round with many voices

work stuff, other work stuff, tiny Yuletide squee

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 03:02:35 GMT

I got distracted by assorted things and am trying to catch up on my Not the IRS paid training courses. *sigh*

95% of this is the same damn stuff we learn/review every year, and it's extremely tiring. On the bright side, I do get paid for the slog?

I also have a handy-dandy sheet that tells me how long each course segment is supposed to take, so sometimes I do the courses and then just clock in and clock out to make sure my paid time equals the estimated time rather than tracking my actual progress. Shhh, don't tell!

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In other news, this week we're doing winter inspections of downtown apartments, which is annoying in a slightly different way from doing the same inspections in Collegetown. On the one hand, fewer apartments! On the other hand, a lot of really tall ceilings, which makes pressing the smoke alarm test buttons an exercise in massive frustration. *wry*

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I need to leave a proper intelligent comment on my wonderful Yuletide gift, which I will hopefully have the spoons to manage tomorrow. At that point, I will rec it to you in coherent words! (For now, though, if you like Meredith Ann Pierce's Darkangel Trilogy? Do go read The Heart With Which He Loved You -- you will thank yourself for following the link!)

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3-Sentence Ficathon is live!!!

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 19:50:01 GMT

Three-Sentence Ficathon 2022, courtesy of the amazing rthstewart!

I am at work and trying to actually Do Tasks, so I will not be participating just yet... but the moment I get home, I intend to dive in. :DDDDDDDD

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a day of chores, cooking, and conversation

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 02:22:16 GMT

Things about today:

1. Did laundry in the morning(ish), and successfully finished before the afternoon rain.

2. Zoom call with Susan and Cat at 1pm. It is really good to see them, even virtually! :D Also, Susan has okayed telling people, so I am pleased beyond words to announce (to you guys, who don't know her at all *wry*) that she is pregnant, with a due-date in mid-to-late May. BABY!!!

3. In the afternoon I did some kitchen chores, such as A) taking my kitchen compost out to the communal backyard bin, and then bleaching the compost container because wow it smelled rank, and B) chopping up a bunch of homegrown peppers that had been sitting in my fridge for a while because I didn't have the spoons to deal with them. (I then took all the pepper waste out to the compost bin as well.)

4. Listened to the Patreon release of the most recent Enthusigasm episode, which is about professional wrestling.

5. Vacuumed my apartment. UGH. There are not words for how much I dislike vacuuming.

6. Made a packing list for my Thanksgiving trip to and from Chicago.

7. Cooked a Hello Fresh meal for dinner. I believe I have previously mentioned that any uncollected/abandoned meal kit boxes become property of the rental office staff, yes? In this case, I got a full Hello Fresh box, which contained a cheeseburger meal, a chicken and pasta meal, and a pork stir-fry meal. Tonight I made the cheeseburger meal, which includes garlic roasted potato wedges and special sauce (for which I got to quick-pickle some diced onion in white vinegar), though I changed it up a little by adding some pepper to the grilled onions because onions and potatoes alone don't really count as a proper vegetable portion, you know? And I have so much pepper on hand anyway, so why not.

Anyway, it was delicious. I am sure the second burger will be equally delicious tomorrow night. :)

Now I think I shall go fold some laundry.

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[Rec] RemixRevival fic!

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 18:45:37 GMT

Hello all! Today the RemixRevival 2021 archive has opened, and I would like to tell you about the fic someone wrote for me. :D

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A Magical Mishap (or, Nephews and Nieces; the Aunts and Uncles remix) (1349 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Polly Plummer, Digory Kirke, Letitia "Letty" Ketterley
Additional Tags: Book: The Magician's Nephew, Magic, Remix

Summary: "As so many things did, it all began with Polly and Digory quarrelling." The tale of how Aunt Letty acquired two new apprentices.

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This is based on Aunts and Uncles, a tiny ficlet I wrote for this year's Three Sentence Ficathon. My mystery remixer has taken my idea and run with it to glorious effect!

I have many and various things to do today (not to mention I am still making my slow way through this year's NFE archive), but I poked at the Remix archive a little. There are dozens of excellent stories from a vast array of fandoms, and you should go check them out.

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[Rec] Narnia Fic Exchange gifts!

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 03:44:08 GMT

This is super-belated, because it has been A Week, but whatever, my gift is awesome and you must go read it immediately!

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we should take warning, we should forgive each other (4664 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Prunaprismia/Miraz
Characters: Queen Prunaprismia (Narnia), Queen Prunaprismia's Son (Narnia), Ramandu's Daughter | Liliandil, Caspian X (Narnia)
Additional Tags: Fertility Issues, Offscreen canon character death, Politics, Isolation, Grief/Mourning, Canon Compliant

Summary: "Instead we are opposite, we / touch as though attacking, / the gifts we bring / even in good faith maybe / warp in our hands to / implements, to manoeuvres."

Prunaprismia, rightful Queen of Narnia, lives a long life.

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Worldbuilding? Amazing. Character study? Amazing. Horribly inevitable conclusion you can see coming a mile away that hits like a freight train when it arrives? AMAZING.

This is a slow slide into self-created tragedy in all the best ways. :)

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You should go read the other 27 fics in the collection while you're at it: Narnia Fic Exchange 2021. As always, the quality of work is high and there are all sorts of interesting ideas!

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wherein Liz continues to be stressed by her job

Sat, 29 May 2021 00:23:47 GMT

Guess who has a THREE DAY WEEKEND!

ME! I DO!! I FINALLY GET NOT JUST TWO DAYS OFF IN A ROW, BUT A WHOLE, BEAUTIFUL THREE DAYS OFF IN A ROW!!!

(Look, my usual schedule is Sunday off, Monday on, Tuesday off, Wednesday to Saturday on. I don't mind working Saturdays, but in an ideal world I would get Mondays off in compensation instead of Tuesdays. This on-off-on-off thing is frustrating because the point of a weekend is to take one day to go AAAAAH and then the second day to actually do stuff, you know? It's not as effective to try compressing that into a morning of AAAAAAH and a productive afternoon.)

I had to rearrange a couple things I'd scheduled for Saturday before we all collectively twigged that hey, Memorial Day weekend is a thing, and stay 15 minutes late so a subtenant could pick up their keys one day early, but whatever. I HAVE THREE WHOLE DAYS OFF IN A ROW!

Also I finally got back on top of the inquiries and prospect applications, which is nice. I now have like a whole week of that to bash into my inquiry tracking spreadsheet on Tuesday, but eh, details. At least I answered all the people in a not too egregious timeframe.

The reason I was so behind, btw, is only partly that I was out sick on Wednesday. It's mostly that we are down to zero 1-bedroom apartments and just four studios (two of which are technically unavailable because of Current Tenant Issues (don't ask. seriously, don't ask)), so potential tenants are contacting us in droves. It's nice to fill apartments! But holy gods, it is EXHAUSTING to wade through the flood of moderately panicked prospects, and I think if I have to make a single phone call before Tuesday I will murder the person responsible.

I think once we can just shut down that particular type of inquiry with "nope, sorry, sold out," Mr. Geniality and I will recover a bunch of our currently eaten time. We should also have a temp assistant starting on Tuesday, which will also help relieve some of the load since they can take care of a lot of paperwork processing, routine phone calls, and apartment staging. Which means I will FINALLY have time to construct and update some spreadsheets that have been languishing for a while, and resume my attempt to untangle the disaster that is our inherited apartment key organization (utter-lack-of) system. *sigh*

But anyway, enough of that. MY THREE DAY WEEKEND AWAITS!

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[Rec] Podfic of "What's in a Name?" -- Murderbot Diaries

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 01:17:01 GMT

godoflaundrybaskets made a podfic of What's in a Name?, which is a ficlet I wrote a few days ago for the Three Sentence Ficathon 2021:

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[Podfic] What's in a Name? (42 words) by GoLBPodfics
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Amena & Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)
Characters: Amena (Murderbot Diaries), Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Asshole Research Transport (Murderbot Diaries)
Additional Tags: Gender, gendered nicknames, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes

Summary: "Do you mind me calling you Third Mom?" Amena said abruptly.

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Go! Listen! Comment!

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[Rec] Narnia Fic Exchange gifts!

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 02:12:42 GMT

A very belated rec for my two NFE gifts, both of which involve the mysterious Mrs. Lefay!

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First, the one that was written just for me:

Third Time's the Charm (4186 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Mrs. Lefay (Narnia), Andrew Ketterley
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Fairy Tale Style

Summary: To be a fairy godmother is a heavy responsibility, especially in an era when science is taking over from magic.

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And then the one that is a shared gift for me and for WingedFlight:

The Ladies' Spellcasting, Divining and Sorceress Hunting Society (5856 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Jill Pole, Letitia "Letty" Ketterley, Polly Plummer, Mrs. Lefay, Digory Kirke
Additional Tags: Magic, Treat, maybe background f/f

Summary: The Ladies' Spellcasting, Divining and Sorceress Hunting Society has a new recruit.

"I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faërie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold."
― J.R.R. Tolkien, Tolkien on Fairy-stories

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Go! Read! Enjoy! Leave feedback! :DDD

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NFE is live!

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 04:37:50 GMT

The Narnia Fic Exchange 2020 is live! Go forth to read, enjoy, and praise the writers. :)

I will make a post about my own two (!!!) gifts a bit later, after I have managed to comment on them (all I've done so far is leave kudos because I think I used up all my words yesterday in an intensive writing session, blargh) but for now, if you wrote one of them and happen to be reading my journal, please know that I love them and will say so at greater length and more coherently tomorrow. ♥

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[Rec] more Three Sentence Ficathon fills for my prompts!

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 16:27:06 GMT

I left a few more prompts over at the current Three Sentence Ficathon post, and two of them have been filled -- twice, each. An embarrassment of riches!

For Any, any, Come, my friends, / 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
-----a meta fill, by runespoor
-----a Doctor Who fill, by anonymous

For Any, any, "Both?" "Both is good."
-----a Fire Emblem Three Houses fill, by runespoor
-----a Naruto fill, by kalira

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[Rec] Three Sentence Ficathon Fills for my prompts!

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 19:12:43 GMT

I finally got around to leaving a handful of prompts over at the current Three Sentence Ficathon post, and the lovely and talented violsva filled two of them!

Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Kazul, child-raising

Tam Lin (Pamela Dean), Tina, a pink curtain problem

You should totally head on over to read all the other marvelous fills, and write some prompts and/or fills of your own. :D

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[Rec] "You and Me, Alone Together" - Books of the Raksura

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 02:19:19 GMT

I meant to do this yesterday, but I had social interaction comedown and ran out of spoons. So I will tell you about my Yuletide gift today instead!

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You and Me, Alone Together (1228 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Moon (Books of the Raksura), Fern (Books of the Raksura)

Summary: In a world where Moon wasn't the only survivor of the Tath attack, his Arbora sister still has nightmares.

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...And I still don't really have enough spoons to explain adequately why this is great and you should read it immediately, but trust me, okay, you want to go read this immediately. It is a wonderful character study and a simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful AU. ♥

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Happy Holidays and so-on :)

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 02:29:31 GMT

Brief Christmas summary writeup!

Nick arrived circa 5pm on Monday and let himself into my apartment with the key I'd left for him. We got takeout Thai for dinner and then did a bit of socializing and some reading together in the same room before knocking off to bed.

( cut for length )

Today we did breakfast at Friendly's, after which we packed up my parents' minivan and Nick's car, and they all drove down to New Jersey. Nick will leave for Minnesota on Saturday or Sunday, and I will drive down on Tuesday -- in both cases, so as to attend a New Year's Eve thingy -- so Nick and I said goodbye this morning, while I only said "see you soon" to Mom and Dad. Also Mom volunteered to wash Nick's linens and the two tablecloths we dirtied, which was very kind of her.

Then I spent the afternoon pulling my apartment back to normal-ish, taking a walk, and taking a nap.

And tomorrow it's back to work. *sigh*

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Dear Yuletide Writer 2019

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 03:16:40 GMT

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write a context-free sex scene, I'll be thrilled just to get a fic in one of the fandoms I asked for. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)

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( General Information )

Okay. On to specific fandoms.

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( The Darkangel Trilogy )

( Saga of the Skolian Empire )

( Books of the Raksura )

And that is that. Thank you again, and happy writing!

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on weather and weddings

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 19:21:59 GMT

I am trying to run a bunch of errands today.

It is pouring rain.

This is inconvenient.

...

In much more pleasant news, my friend Susan is engaged!!! She and her fiance haven't yet fixed a date or location for the wedding, but I have agreed to be a bridesmaid. (I may or may not have also jumped up and down in my kitchen and emitted embarrassing high squeaky noises of glee, but you will never know for sure. ;D )

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[Rec] "I want a howling hurt" -- Chronicles of Narnia

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 01:46:53 GMT

The 2019 Narnia Fic Exchange is live! Go! Read all the stories! :DDD

But you should start with the one that a lovely anon wrote for me, because lo, it is amazing.

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I want a howling hurt (5516 words) by Anonymous
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Aravis Tarkheena, Rabadash (Narnia), Aravis’s “Dead” Older Brother, Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Calormen, Pre-Canon, Backstory, Calormene Wars, Brothers

Summary: Aravis doesn't wait for her freedom. Rabadash finds a brother in a strange place.

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This is a response to my prompt: I would like a story in which Aravis meets Rabadash prior to the events of HHB. Maybe he comes to Calavar for some reason. Maybe they attend the same party at the Lake of Mezreel. Maybe we go a little AU and Aravis tries to follow her brother off to the western rebellions, where Rabadash is leading part of the army. There are many options! I just want to see them interact in Calormen at a time when Aravis has no reason to think ill of him, and am fine with any pretext you can come up with to make that happen.

The writer went with the western rebellion option, and the results are glorious in all the best bittersweet ways. ♥

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yay job!

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 15:45:06 GMT

Got my seasonal hiring offer from Not the IRS! \o/

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[Rec] PODFIC of "Crowning Glory" -- Chronicles of Narnia

Wed, 29 May 2019 21:20:39 GMT

I seem to have lost this notification in the depths of my inbox for a week, whoops. *sheepish*

But! Please allow me to direct your attention to the following podfic by the wonderful Thimblerig:

[PODFIC] Crowning Glory (66 words) by Thimblerig
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Edmund Pevensie & Susan Pevensie
Characters: Susan Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie
Additional Tags: Podfic & Podficced Works, Hair, Hair Brushing, Sibling Bonding, Slice of Life, Family Fluff, Golden Age (Narnia), Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Long Hair, Family Bonding, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: Ambient Noise

Summary: Edmund combs Susan's hair. (A plotless bit of sibling fluff.)

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[Rec] "White Rooms" - Daredevil (comics)

Thu, 27 Dec 2018 04:52:29 GMT

So, I'm going to take a minute and squee about my Yuletide gift, for truly, it is an excellent gift.

...Actually, I'm just going to post the link and then quote bits of my comment at you by way of advertising, because I don't have the spoons to write up a separate rec post. *wry* But seriously, go read it!

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White Rooms (10654 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Daredevil (Comics)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Milla Donovan/Matt Murdock, Matt Murdock/Karen Page, Matt Murdock/Elektra Natchios
Characters: Karen Page, Milla Donovan, Elektra Natchios, Larry Cranston
Additional Tags: Character Death Fix, Mental Institutions, Prison, Resurrection, background rape, Mind Control

Summary: Karen Page, resurrected by Elektra, withdraws from the world until she learns of Milla Donovan's fate at the hands of Mr Fear.

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I love this! Elektra gives Karen a new chance at life, and then Karen takes that and gives Milla a new chance too. I really like Karen's perspective on Matt and hero drama in general, that it's this big sweeping thing where everyone has to be center stage and both she and Milla (and Elektra too, in a sense) were seen as interchangeable sacrificial pieces rather than people in their own right. It makes perfect sense that she doesn't go back to Matt but instead takes time to figure out who she is on her own, and who she wants to be. And the person she wants to be is someone who helps instead of hurts.

I like Elektra's ambiguity, and the way it seems like she feels responsible for what happened to Karen, the same way Karen feels sort of responsible for what happened to Milla, and Milla still feels responsible for shoving that poor man in front of the train. Even if they don't actually have direct responsibility, the emotion is still there and it shapes how they interact.

I'm also really proud of Karen for [spoiler], and of Milla for [spoiler].

Thank you so much for this gift! ♥

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Three Sentence Ficathon!

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 15:21:39 GMT

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Hey everybody! rthstewart is hosting a Three Sentence Ficathon right now!

The rules are pretty simple: people post prompts, other people answer them. All fandoms are welcome. So is original fiction. The only rule is that prompt fills should be no more than three sentences long. (And don't stress too much even about that -- people run over the limit all the time.)

The more people come play, the more fun we all have. You don't even need a Dreamwidth account to comment. So come on over and join in! :D

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Dear Yuletide Writer 2018

Sat, 20 Oct 2018 00:01:47 GMT

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write a context-free sex scene, I'll be thrilled just to get a fic in one of the fandoms I asked for. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)

---------------

( General Information )

Okay. On to specific fandoms.

---------------

( The Darkangel Trilogy )

( Saga of the Skolian Empire )

( Daredevil (Comics) )

( The Dispossessed )

And that is that. Thank you again, and happy writing!

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[Rec] "they will rush together" -- Chronicles of Narnia

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 02:48:43 GMT

The 2018 Narnia Fic Exchange opened on Sunday, and I INSIST that you all go read the wonderful story I received!

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they will rush together (6110 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Lucy Pevensie/Sea Girl
Characters: Lucy Pevensie, Sea Girl (Narnia)

Summary: Lucy becomes a Land Girl and finds a Sea Girl.

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I left a comment that was basically me saying EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! and promising to return and say more thoughtful things later, but I still have yet to get past that blinding EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! enough to be usefully coherent, so... I guess for now I will just send the rest of the internet to pay compliments to my lovely mystery author!

(And maybe I will manage coherence tomorrow.)

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college stuff!

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 01:41:49 GMT

I got 91.5% in my child psych class -- and this despite completely failing to turn in one short essay assignment because I got my due dates mixed up. (Whoops.) I am slightly annoyed that my grade isn't better, because clearly I could have done better if I'd been paying better attention, but even so. An A- is nothing to sneeze at. :)

I also got my most recent project grades back for English lit, and Prof. C liked my annotations even though I goofed up my citation slightly. (I copypaste them and tweak as relevant, but I forgot to tweak the pages numbers this time. *headdesk*) So, two deliveries of good news in one day!

I think I will now go to bed, since I have work in the morning and I don't really feel like dealing with any of my potential additional Tasks tonight. Mmm, sleep..

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a good thing :D

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 19:01:19 GMT

I will be getting Miss Cactus's old job! Which, in addition to an extra 9.5 hours a week, also comes with a small hourly raise!

This won't start as a regular thing for a while, because we don't have a replacement for me and anyway our June and July schedules are kind of weird with people's respective vacations and then the 4th of July and stuff -- in other words, I will still be doing overtime after I get back from my own vacation late next week -- but I have verbal confirmation, so. YAY!

\o/ \o/ \o/

(This resolves so many of my low-grade financial worries, you have no idea. I mean, I am still not remotely rich, or even middle-class, but WOW, that is a weight off the back of my mind.)

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college stuff, take two!

Mon, 21 May 2018 22:07:23 GMT

I wish to inform the universe that my anthropology class has now also ended, and I got 9.2 of 10 points on the final, 57 of 60 points for class participation/engagement, and a total of 94% overall. \o/

(Like I said, I can slap together a pretty decent essay in surprisingly little time -- which is actually a skill that anyone can acquire. See, my high school English department was bound and determined that every student, no matter what level English classes they'd taken, would be able to write a coherent and well-organized essay by graduation. And they hit that goal! When the school did "graduates come back to tell juniors and seniors what college is like" events, the one overriding theme was always, "Nobody else knows how to write an essay so all my professors think I'm a genius; thank you, MHS English department.")

I have ordered my summer course materials (one digital rental, one physical rental, and one thing I bought secondhand via AbeBooks because that saved me about $30 versus even the cheapest official rental option), I have my Pell grant in order, and I am ready to go on May 30th. :)

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