I should be working on my fic right now

[ratbones]

1. Rattiekins is cold. Needs hugs. Or at least a blanket and some tea. It was 75 degrees here a week ago, and today's high was barely above freezing. I don't hate winter, I just want more autumn first. :(

2. Got a box from Bangkok this week: presents from my aunt! It included a notebook with a kitty on it, two pens with hedgehog-shaped toppers, and a shirt that both fits me and suits my tastes. Everything was wrapped in colorful paper and tied with curly ribbon. Am I too old to get hedgehog pens from my auntie for no reason? I'm glad she doesn't think so. Don't tell the rest of my flock of relatives, but she's my favorite.

3. The anxiety I had when I started posting Zombie WIP was that nobody would like it. The anxiety I have now is that several people like it and I must not disappoint them. I much prefer the second one, but it's still a thing, and now I also have anticipatory anxiety about what to do with myself and my words when I get to the end. These are good anxieties to have, though. These are anxieties about wanting to make sure that I and others continue having a good time. Since when do I get to worry about things like that? It's new.

4. According to my own schedule, I'm meant to post a chapter on Tuesday. That might not happen. I've never promised anyone I'll post a chapter on a certain day, but I've also not fallen behind my own personal deadlines since August, and that was for external reasons. This is just...I procrastinated a lot this past week? I have a little section here, prior to endgame events, where I just have to let the characters figure out how they're going to muddle through, but after the last three chapters, in which every scene had to happen exactly how it happened, I got a bit spoiled and now I don't FEEEEL like muddling. As soon as I have a chunk of time -- tomorrow evening, I hope -- I need to sit down and just bang out a few imperfect scenes and see what's going to work. I do recognize that the procrastination has something to do with the anxieties mentioned in #3.

5. Every item on the list got longer than the previous one, so I've made a short one at the end to prove that I can stop myself if I want to.

Comments

[ratbones]

If you ever happen upon (or invent) that teleportation system, lmk. Stop making me compromise, real world!

(Though I heard once of a couple originally from Lapland where the wife found a job on one side of Finland, the husband on the other, and they lived in the center. She thought a two-hour drive was all fine and dandy and quite short on balance.)
...Damn. That's a LOT. I somewhat enjoy a long drive, but only because I'm not required to do it often. For a few years, my mother had a 2-hour-ish commute every day, but it was by rail, so she could sleep through it (a cheat that only works if you're going between a city and another city.)

The great outdoors is good for you, but all the outdoors nearby involve walking past people.
Yep, that was my problem. Tremendously unhelpful to the mental health situation. And also the exercise situation, which just compounds things. Urgh.

[extrapenguin]

If you ever happen upon (or invent) that teleportation system, lmk. Stop making me compromise, real world!
*eyes science career in not reality warping* Well... If I see one, I'll let you know!

Long drives are occasionally okay, but even then at the 3h mark it becomes an annoyance. And commutes are much more enjoyable if one can sleep, it is true. Or if once can walk/cycle on a scenic route!

Tremendously unhelpful to the mental health situation. And also the exercise situation, which just compounds things. Urgh.
Yup. I just want to live in a scenic location in the forest with fast internet and zero neighbors and chill outdoors occasionally! Or at the very least at the edge of an unpopular trail into a forest. Sigh.

[ratbones]

It's never too late to make a career shift! Maybe you could work on some kind of relativity-based device for me and my aforementioned sleep/writing conflict while you're warping spacetime? Think of all the good you could do for the world. By which I mean me. :D

I just want to live in a scenic location in the forest with fast internet and zero neighbors and chill outdoors occasionally! Or at the very least at the edge of an unpopular trail into a forest. Sigh.
THAT'S THE DREAM. Yeah, I'd take the second option too, but that first one is a powerfully seductive image. I've contemplated full-on running away to the woods before, but I'm trapped in civilization by internet access.

(I'm trying to mostly avoid the current drama, but you can always honk into my PMs/email/whatever if you would like a sympathetic ear. I don't agree with you on everything, but I care about you and the last 24 hours have been...um...rough. <3)

[extrapenguin]

Think of all the good you could do for the world. By which I mean me. :D
You make a valid point! Hmm, relativistic rockets would make the commute short for you but not the rest of the universe. Back to the drawing board...

(I'm reminded of that Greg Egan? story where space travel happened via sending person-templates over the void at c, and there was one planet where all the residents went on "slowdown" when one person had to skip time via space travel to a nearby planet and back. Everyone altered their sensation of the passage of time so they'd experience the same subjective time onplanet as the traveler.)

I've contemplated full-on running away to the woods before, but I'm trapped in civilization by internet access.
I USED to live in almost-the-woods with super fast internet access as a young penguin, but then other people bought plots next to us and built houses and now my parents have neighbors, boo. It was the dream for a while.

Avoiding drama is a good call. Wading into the shit will only stir it up and make the mudpile grow. Let's hope it's over soon and everyone can go back to wanking about whether Shen Wei is best characterized as the hero or the heroine of a bodice ripper or whatever.

[ratbones]

I haven't read the story, but damn, that's cool. I like the question about, I guess, the ethical and pragmatic way to deal with people losing or gaining time relative to each other. The planet-wide slowdown is awesome but surely resource-intensive, although if they can shoot people-templates around at c, they've clearly got resources.

I USED to live in almost-the-woods with super fast internet access as a young penguin, but then other people bought plots next to us and built houses and now my parents have neighbors, boo. It was the dream for a while.
Ugh, your idyllic childhood! So jealous! I always had distant-but-visible neighbors (not enough trees), and we still had dial-up when I started internetting. I didn't discover fanfic till after we got DSL, fortunately.

Let's hope it's over soon and everyone can go back to wanking about whether Shen Wei is best characterized as the hero or the heroine of a bodice ripper or whatever.
Agree! I think Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan are both the heroine and they should rip each other's bodices. Fite me. :P

[extrapenguin]

IIRC the book was actually about something else entirely (I think it was the one where there was a new form of vacuum spreading through the universe at 0.6c?) and this was a character's backstory. Greg Egan has a lot of cool hard SF books with interesting concepts, but damn if I remember what any of them are called. (Except Diaspora and Dichronauts, both of which I enjoyed but neither of which is the book discussed.)

My idyllic childhood became less idyllic fairly rapidly, but it was a nice place to be (both of them - I moved as a kid). My parents had a good taste in houses. :P (Though I only discovered fanfic after the neighbors had arrived.)

I think Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan are both the heroine and they should rip each other's bodices. Fite me. :P
They are complex characters whose defining traits and archetypes aren't from the Western bodice ripper genre so reducing- Yes. They're both the heroines and should rip off each other's bodices. And other items of clothing. I'm sure Shen Wei can dark energy them back together for another round of ripping!

[ratbones]

Taking this as an author rec regardless. I'll look into his work! Thanks. I'd like to read more pro fiction but am sometimes overwhelmed at the number of options and things I "should" read, especially in such Serious Business genres as this.

They are complex characters whose defining traits and archetypes aren't from the Western bodice ripper genre so reducing- Yes. They're both the heroines and should rip off each other's bodices. And other items of clothing. I'm sure Shen Wei can dark energy them back together for another round of ripping!
actual real-life LOL. A valiant effort at disagreeing, but the truth cannot be denied! More ripping, more stripping, more fun. With interludes of mutual bosom-heaving (for maximum titillation)!

[extrapenguin]

Greg Egan is 100% an author rec! Diaspora and Dichronauts are also book recs, though the rest of his output is also well worth reading. (Including the short story collections. There was one with a super cool story about a person who lives in a different person's body every day, but again, damn if I can recall any titles. This is even worse than me not recalling which title went for which book for Frederik Pohl's The World at the End of Time and The Other End of Time.)

I'd like to read more pro fiction but am sometimes overwhelmed at the number of options and things I "should" read, especially in such Serious Business genres as this.
No problem! The "classics" are mostly readable, but a lot of them are very dated, so there's no pressing need to read them outside genre-historical curiosity. (Eg Ringworld is a classic, but sexist, so I'd give some other introduction to the Big Dumb Object subgenre.) And any genre is only exactly as serious business as you want it to be. After all, they were all set up by monkeys with delusions of grandeur! ;P (But seriously, feel free to hit me up for SF recs. I've read hard SF, milSF, and space opera, plus a bunch of the classics, so I can give at least some sort of rec breadth.)

More ripping, more stripping, more fun. With interludes of mutual bosom-heaving (for maximum titillation)!
Of course! Is it even a romance if there are no bosoms heaving? (...I'm now having flashbacks to the Blackadder episode where all the guys had obvious fake boobs hanging from their necks.) But yes, I bet Zhao Yunlan would absolutely love to rip off all of Professor Shen's layers to get at the skin beneath. Especially as the good prof seems to have wholeheartedly embraced buttcheek tailoring. And would no doubt love to return the favor.