Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in copperbadge's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
3:34 pm	A few days ago I was researching a man we dubbed The Saddest Man In The World. I won't give you his whole biography, but the story of the Saddest Man In The World starts with his son dying of inoperable cancer and gets worse from there. Today, my coworker was editing my research report and she pinged me on my work chat. Coworker: quick question about [Prospective Donor] aka the saddest man in the world they had two kids, but their son died, right? Sam: Yes, two kids, son and daughter, son deceased. Coworker: I am just going to say one child in the Children section as you talk about the deceased son elsewhere Sam: I feel for his daughter, it seems like she gets a bit overlooked... Coworker: OH MAN GOOD POINT They just got elevated... to saddest FAMILY in the world Sam: I shouldn't laugh but it's so true Coworker: well then, that decides it, my life is okay. Researching other people for a living does give you a strong sense of perspective. (Comment on this)
1:47 pm	DAY. LONG. I'm taking the day off from editing Dead Isle -- I still have lots of comments to answer and will have more in the coming days, I'm sure. I'm trying to get stuff wrapped up at work, but it's all tedious, tiddly little stuff I've put off. Gah. Also, I appear to have mislaid my ability to write fanfic with plots. Comic book plots are difficult because within the universe, 99% of the plots involve someone kicking someone else's ass and that gets a) repetitive and b) boring to write about. I did do more work on the Agent Phil "Cheese" Coulson fic, but there is no plot beyond him being an administrative badass, and I am an administrative badass and that does not even interest me. (So, you know, if you have a plot, suggest it and I might write it. Emphasis on "might", but still.) We've all been discussing the Avengers at work because apparently it's huge outside fandom too? And I keep having to say "Well yes, I did like it, but not nearly as much as everyone else I've spoken to seems to." I mean...there are a lot of explosions, and the special effects are what you'd expect from a large special effects budget. It has some funny lines. But there's not really any character development, the plot's a bit hacked, and the villain spends over half the movie not actually being the villain. IDK, I have some issues. It's a good movie! Just...not that good. (Comment on this)
10:45 am	Someday I will remember the names of people who recommend books to me. Today is not that day. Someone did recommend to me "James Tiptree Jr: The Double Life Of Alice B. Sheldon" by Julie Phillips, but I can't remember who. Or, actually, why, because it's not immediately, visibly relevant to my interests. That being said, it is actually relevant to my interests in terms of my studies of masking, identity, and revelation. Which may be what my recommender intended, and if so well done them. Stand up and let me know who you are and I'll credit you! The book is the biography of Alice B. Sheldon, who wrote under the male pseudonym of James Tiptree Jr. in the tightly-knit science fiction community of the 1970s and 80s. ( Review below the cut! ) Final Verdict: In all, the book was a very detailed, very thoughtful and analytical look at Alice Sheldon's life, both under her own name and under Tiptree's. There's a lot of meat, but I got a little overwhelmed in the details, and in the end I don't know that I actually liked Sheldon all that much. It certainly gave me no desire at all to read James Tiptree Jr's stories, but then it's very up front about their bleakness and I'm not a person who particularly enjoys the bleak in fiction. So...the book's worth a checkout from the library, and perhaps worth buying for those with special interests in late-century scifi communities or mid-century feminism. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
11:50 am	I like how New Gmail is not only hideous but has begun hiding emails from me. It'll tell me I have two or three new emails in my inbox, but they won't appear until I log out and log back in. Also, it'll say I have thirty emails in a thread, show me five, and then only show me five more when I've deleted four of those. Stay awesome, Google, you just keep fixing things that ain't broke. But thanks to everyone who congratulated me on getting The City War picked up by Riptide :) Apparently, due to my inability to count past ten, I made a mistake when posting the Dead Isle index pages; I thought I had twenty six chapters plus epilogue, and it turns out I only had twenty five. SO! Chapter Twenty-Five is posted, and also The Epilogue is posted, because leaving that to its own day would just be cruel. And we're done! (Not really. If you still want to comment, please do; I'll be working on rewrites for a while yet.) Thank you all so much for all you've done in the editing process, and any crankiness on my part you may have had to put up with :) It's been awesome. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 14th, 2012
6:07 pm	Aaaand then I got an email from Riptide Publishing that they accepted my historical fiction manuscript (final of many titles: The City War). TIME TO PARTY LIKE IT'S B.C. 49. And given that it's Rome, there will be sex. Oh yes. And feasting. I'm pretty sure the story is about equal parts sex, feasting, and politics, which is the best venn diagram ever. If only my classics professors knew what they have wrought. I mean, I doubt they'd be shocked. Catullus is not for the faint-hearted. But my Roman Architecture teacher probably never intended my extensive knowledge of early Imperial country villas to be put to quite this use. On the other hand, I wrote a paper for him about the decorative use of the penis in Rome and he gave me an A, so maybe. Anyway, it's all very exciting. Or, in the latin, Huius cunctum accēnsus est. I think. (Comment on this)
1:15 pm	I AM GETTING THINGS DONE. I am up in ur office, managin' ur projeckts. Eatin' a granola bar. Posting chapter twenty-four of The Dead Isle! Making calming posters to pass out to my colleagues who are freaking the hell out about how they will get to work when the NATO summit is in town. And now I must go do more things. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
4:05 pm	I am not complaining, but time seems to be moving really slowly today. I have done epic shit. I have called my mother (happy Mother's Day, mothers! Yes even you in countries where it isn't Mother's Day!) and cleaned the kitchen and eaten a sandwich and edited Dead Isle and written some fanfic. And sprained my wrist opening a door. Shut up, doorknobs are fucking tricky okay? I put a heading pad on it and then realised I should ice it so I did that, and I've got it in an ace bandage, so it should be fine. If I need to brace it again tomorrow, I'll go with my usual explanation of "Ninjas did it". Also, The Dead Isle Chapter 23 is posted. I totally lied, the signed confession scene is in 24, but 23 is still really fun too. I am about 90% sure that the girl Dina who is introduced in 23 was originally the contribution of a reader; either that or the reader in question was just really fond of her. But I'm pretty sure Dina didn't come from me originally, and the details of her creation were lost in the Hack of 2008. If you came up with Dina and you're still reading, job well done, she is awesome and useful. :D (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 12th, 2012
6:02 pm	You guys, I am not going to lie. Chapter twenty-two of The Dead Isle is posted, and this chapter and the one I'll post tomorrow just plain make me happy. For the purely shallow reason that the prison scenes and signed-confession scene are some of my favourite work I've ever done. It's been interesting going these last few chapters, because I know they hold a lot of emotional impact for some readers, and a few have been remarking about the difference in themselves between the last time they read the book and this time. I've noticed it in myself too (more on this will be posted at Extribulum next Tuesday) so I'm fascinated that I'm not alone in this. Dead Isle was written years ago, and unlike the other books I've done this with there's been a huge, significant time gap between original posting and the rewrite post. The other really cool thing is that I realised I am MAKING CANON. ataralas offered the idea that Sylvia Bell and Elizabeth Jackson eventually meet and become kickass Suffragettes at some future date, and I was like "I like that idea I DECLARE IT CANON" and I could do that. It's not even headcanon! It's actual facts canon, because I say so. Guys, as a Maker of Canon, I am giving you my solemn oath, right here, right now: I promise never to kill the geeky well-dressed sidekick. For the record I am also totally cool with fanfic. Just, you know. In case you were wondering. (Comment on this)
Friday, May 11th, 2012
7:44 pm	I am 99% sure I didn't hallucinate the acrobats doing tricks on the vertical handbars of the El just now. Mainly because the person I was sitting with saw them too. I went out with some of my colleagues tonight for our (slowly becoming a) monthly drinks, gossip, and networking session. We're all theatre folk so we talk about what we're up to and new shows and stuff -- I found out about a few calls for plays, which means more deadlines, oh god -- and also talk about the SCANDALOUS things that happen at work, like terrible fundraising visits and the firing of our VP. And we drink! Mind you, we showed up at 4:30 and the bar was essentially empty, and we sat through two whole social shifts at that bar; around 5:30 the "We're very rich and work in downtown Chicago and wear a lot of black" crowd came in, which is when I tweeted that I was drastically underdressed for the bar I was in, because it's casual Friday so I was in a t-shirt and jeans. The solution seemed to be "have another martini!" so I did, and all the fancy people left around 7 and a bunch of people in Casual Friday Clothing came in, so the martini totally worked. It was a "root beer float" martini. I regret nothing. And then one of my colleagues and I got on a train to come home, and there was a guy with a gloriously waxed handlebar mustache got on and started juggling, and his companion did acrobatic tricks using the train architecture. It was amazing. Now I want a nap. (Comment on this)
3:20 pm	I love my job, I really do, but for the last four weeks I have found myself every Friday saying "I just have to survive today..." The worst of...everything is past, except for the Vegas trip, but it's a trip to Las Vegas with my mother, so it's not exactly going to be restful. I feel like I should take June off completely. I feel like I deserve to take June off completely. Especially since that would mean I would never have to leave the air conditioning. But I did get the Dead Isle edits done, and so Chapter Twenty-One is posted! (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
6:08 pm	THIS DAY. Training was good, but so long, and in a hot little computer room, and it took me an hour and a half to get home. I'd hoped I wouldn't have to do this, but I'm giving myself a night off from Dead Isle. I just can't think, let alone work tonight -- I knew I should have done this differently, but I didn't want to overload myself last night, either. One of the pleasant things of owing work to nobody but myself is I can do that -- one of the unpleasant things about it is having a commitment to not doing it unless it's unavoidable. I'm pretty sure tonight it's unavoidable. Then again, if this is the only day I get delayed, I'll be all right. Anyway, posting will resume tomorrow per usual. In the meantime I'm going to curl up in a ball and watch trashy television. I recommend all of you do the same. :D (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
1:50 pm	Every morning I go through all the Dead Isle feedback I get, respond to what needs response, and fix what needs fixing. Then I go through the new chapter I'm about to post and do any last-minute tweaks. Chapter Twenty has now been posted, and I count at least two random, kind of amusing in-jokes that I don't think were intentional when I first wrote it. See if you can spot 'em. :D Tomorrow's chapter will probably go up late; I have all-day software traning offsite, and while I can still access email/livejournal/etcetera, I doubt I'll have the time to do any editing. I have to actually pay attention, because I'm learning to use Microsoft Project, which I have never used before. It looks like Excel but acts like it's possessed, so I'm bringing some holy water just in case. (I am packing a lunch. The area where they hold offsite training is in an urban food desert, and I don't want to scavenge from the vending machines again.) Friday, I suspect I will end up trying the Breakfast Hamburger. For science. (Comment on this)
7:47 am	My building's cafeteria has something going called "National Burger and Egg Month" with the subtitle "Don't fear it!" The only concrete result I can see from National Burger and Egg Month is that they are offering a breakfast hamburger: An angus steakburger topped with hash browns, a fried egg, and cheese. Guys, I love hamburgers with a deep and abiding passion, and I like breakfast sandwiches. I like all the ingredients of this sandwich. I like putting strange things on my hamburgers, but I fear it. I do. I would totally eat it, but I don't want to spend my entire day at work trying to digest it. I'm not tilling the fields, I'm filing the forms, I don't need that kind of caloric intake first thing in the morning. I fear and desire it. The cafeteria has succeeded at creating a literary conflict inside of me. Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Man, Man vs. Self, Man vs. Breakfast Hamburger. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
12:53 pm	The Dead Isle Chapter Nineteen has been posted! Meanwhile, I am cultivating a reputation for being shit at writing things on greeting cards. It's not difficult, because I genuinely am. I'm bad at picking out gifts and I'm bad at writing things on cards, but I can be good at it if I expend disproportionate mental energy. And I could do that, but given we give people cards for all birthdays, anniversaries, and departures, and I don't know some of them very well, I'm going to stick with "rather terrible at this" and just allow people to assume I am doing the best I can. It's not that I don't care about them, it's just that I don't care about greeting cards. In other news, an informal survey of everyone I've spoken to this morning seems to indicate Chicago will not be sorry to see Marilyn Monroe shipped to Long Beach, though we are all quite unsettled by seeing her dismantled and sitting in Pioneer Plaza in pieces. Now begins the tense, wary waiting period where we speculate about what monstrosity J. Seward Johnson will next visit upon us. Elvis would be too predictable. He's done paintings and film; I bet next up is baseball. Like, Hank Aaron's giant head or maybe Babe Ruth eating a Baby Ruth or something similarly lacking in original thought. I really just have no patience for this man, and it bothers me, because usually I'm very much about accepting artists whose vision doesn't align with my own. Possibly it's because he has no vision. OH SNAP YEAH I SAID IT. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 7th, 2012
1:53 pm	Work may sometimes frustrate me, but I have to admit it has its balances. My weekly check-in with my boss was this morning and the first words out of her mouth were "Did you see Avengers?" Mind you, she watched it mainly because she has a gigantic crush on the actor who plays Thor, but still. There's a certain lack of shame in this office I find refreshing. We've spent most of the morning sending each other pictures of zeppelins (don't ask). Speaking of, Dead Isle Chapter Eighteen is posted. Everybody cheer! I keep forgetting there are only 26 chapters now and not 44. We're going to be done relatively soon, which will be nice, because all I do at the moment is work, fix Dead Isle, and listlessly watch frivolous television. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 6th, 2012
2:55 pm	I had a surreality attack this morning. I used to get them sometimes when I was in grad school and did most of my writing by hand during my less interesting classes. It's hard to explain what happens, but it's very much a moment of "Whoa, words are coming out of me and they make a story". There's a split second of objectivity where you aren't actually in your own life and you look at it from the outside and ask yourself, what the actual fuck? Guys, I gotta tell you, this isn't a bad thing, but there is an awful lot of my life that falls in the "what the actual fuck" category. :D I got a surreality attack when I got my first proof copy of Nameless in the mail, but I think that was the last time it happened. I think it's happening with Dead Isle now because Dead Isle has taken years to come to fruition, and when I originally wrote it I was just...fucking around. Nameless had a personal purpose, and Charitable Getting and Trace were both written with the intent that I'd publish them already in mind, but Dead Isle was never like that. So I guess it was more "Holy crap, this thing is going to be an actual facts book." It's going to be a large book. I'm a little scared. Anyway, Dead Isle Chapter Seventeen is posted. There's a bit of new stuff replacing a lot of old stuff -- this is one of the places I did the most cutting -- so we'll see how it works. And now I'm off to die of pressure-change induced sinus pain. Come to me, Sudafed.... (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 5th, 2012
5:08 pm	Good evening everyone! Happy Cinco de Mayo! I'd offer you a margarita but I have no seasonal margarita glasses. Dead Isle Chapter Sixteen has been posted, and I want you guys to know it was a HERCULEAN TASK. I almost gave myself amnesty for the day from posting. Today has been a day of not getting anything done with downright vigor. I just did the dishes, how are there more dishes? Also, I should not waste time writing fanfic nobody will understand because it's heavily based in one semi-obscure five-issue comic book run. It's just. You guys know that the unassuming hard-working omniscient incredibly loyal sidekick badass in a suit is my totem character, and the run was about 30% Coulson backstory where he is all those things, and also COULSON IS FROM CHICAGO. And swore like a sailor before joining SHIELD. Writing Coulson saying things like "It's all very the king is dead, long live the king; fucking feudal if you ask me" makes me smile. Really the five-issue runs seem to me to be the best. Battle Scars was outstanding, and so was X-Club. (I realise this means nothing to 90% of the people reading this. Sorry about that. All you're missing is Coulson swearing a lot and science nerds falling in love with robots and fighting Nazis, really.) Also I keep forgetting to link to the posts I put up on Wordpress, but I did post two this week -- there's one about etymology and telegraphs, and another about professional publishing and rejection. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, May 4th, 2012
1:16 pm	Someday I will blog about something other than work and The Dead Isle, but that day is not today. (Dead Isle Chapter Fifteen is posted!) Work is quieter after hell day yesterday, at least, and one of my coworkers finally seems to have noticed that while I am not actually here to wipe their noses, I have been filling that roll. Coworker: So I need to register for the conference. Sam: Yep! Let me know if you need my corporate credit card. Coworker: I hate doing that. Sam: *wearily* Well it has to get done today, that's not really optional and it's my ass who has to fix it if you don't do it today. So if you want me to do it, I need your username and password to log into the site. Coworker: Why...would I make you do that? I can do it, I just don't like it. You're not our dad. Sam: It's not explicit in the job description, but it's kind of implied. I'm expecting a gift for Father's Day next year. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
6:41 pm	Oh my god this DAY. Between feeding three departments, herding one into cabs, and having to go on a tour of a building I genuinely could not care less about which resulted in my getting home an hour late, I am beat. I did get to post The Dead Isle, Chapter Fourteen, if a little later than I liked. Fortunately it's short. I also did have a duck sandwich for lunch today. Om nom nom duck. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
11:53 am	Dead Isle, Chapter Thirteen is posted. Lucky thirteen. :D I just ran down some gossip for Awkward Coworker whilst fixing myself a cuppa, resulting in: Sam: So that's the story. Awkward Coworker: Thank you! Sam: No problem. It was an opportunity to get tea. (beat) Awkward Coworker: An opportunitea? Sam: Thank you for not making me say it. Not that we're not allowed to go get tea or anything, but people are so much more ready to confess information in a kitchen than at their cubicle. I feel a bit disingenuous about my work situation sometimes. I tend to take longer than necessary to get certain tasks done. I still get them done well ahead of deadline and I do them to the best of my ability, I just don't...always turn them in right away, or announce that I'm done with them. Thus maintaining not only a life-work balance but squirrelling away time to write. Fortunately two of my three Holy Shit Writing projects are now essentially complete, so it's all Dead Isle, and maybe once that's done I can get back to Exquisite and Tunnel and uh. That fanfic I'm definitely not writing about the people who live in my Nintendo. Talking of, what's a good Mario game for the Wii? I feel adrift without Mario. I should probably pick up whatever new Legend of Zelda game is out too, I think I broke Twilight Princess. Not the disc, the actual game. I've gone over multiple walkthroughs, and I can't do what they say I should do next, physically, within the game. That bit just doesn't show up. But if you can't beat the game, playing it to an irreconcilable stopping point is pretty good, I guess. (Comment on this)