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oh no, free time
Aug. 7th, 2022 10:31 am1) This will be the first weekend* in three months when I'm not working on the fic. (*Sunday-Monday is my weekend.)
It feels weird. I kind of wish I had a new fic to work on. I don't have any ideas yet, though, apart from maybe a short and massively depressing fic about Ed's mother, because when I was writing the big story I acquired head-canon about her life. Or, alternatively, I've found myself strongly tempted to take certain tropes I see a lot in the fandom and write something better than what I've seen elsewhere. But what I really want is another huge, hugely absorbing monster of a story, because while it was enormously hard work, it was so much fun!!
. . . Izzy? Izzy Hands, and how he got that way, and what happened next? He's the character who interests me most after Ed and Stede, and I definitely have ideas/thoughts about him. But, damn, my Ed fic is plenty dark already. An Izzy story would be like "yeah, let's wander down to the pit of despair and STAY THERE FOREVER, tormented and tormenting others. 'This is hell, nor am I out of it.'"
Stuff to contemplate, I guess. Meanwhile, my plans for the weekend involve further re-reading of the Aubrey & Maturin novels, and reading Alison Bechdel's Fun Home which I picked up a couple of weeks ago, and maybe re-watching OFMD again, and maybe trying out the Sandman series. I'm a bit nervous about that, because I think the comics were mostly great, sometimes transcendent, and I worry that the show will be less wild and weird, all tamed down a bit to be comprehensible to a mainstream TV audience.
2) I've rewarded myself for finishing the story with stuff. This ring, and some teas from Tea Source, whose shop I used to frequent when I lived in Minneapolis/St. Paul. (I got gyokuro, genmaicha, and some otsuka saemidori, which I've never had but which sounds intriguing--I love the brothy quality of some Japanese green teas.)
3) Still on the subject of buying myself treats, I've been wanting to try scents again. I thought about buying more BPAL stuff, and actually had a virtual cart full of samples (including some I've tried before that I wanted to see what they were like fresh--a lot of my old BPAL stuff came secondhand from other people--and how they would work on me now that my body chemistry has changed due to testosterone). But I couldn't get past the fact that I feel like BPAL is over-rated. The company's aesthetic, their general fan-friendliness in several senses, tends to overwhelm what I feel is the mediocrity of their fragrances. (By "mediocrity" I don't mean in any objective sense--I have no knowledge of perfumery whatsoever. I just mean that I've tried 30-50 of their scents, and while I liked some of them quite a bit, not one has ever made me go "wow." I've never loved a BPAL scent as much as, say, I loved Chanel No. 19 back in the long-ago day. Actually I've thought about re-trying Chanel No. 19, which is widely considered a unisex scent, but apparently it's been reformulated a lot since ca. 1988 when I wore it.) Also, my experience with BPAL has been that almost all their stuff skews very sweet and feminine, even when the promo text claims it's masculine/fresh/herbal/whatever.
Anyway, I ended up checking out Luckyscent and discovered that a lot of their samples of serious high-end fragrances are about the same price as BPAL imps. So yesterday I ordered some stuff, despite the fact that the 10% off coupon code I was promised in exchange for giving them my email address never arrived. When my samples arrive and I start trying them out, I'll post about it.
4) In vastly less self-indulgent news, I've been called for jury duty. It starts at the end of this month and could potentially last until mid-November. I am not delighted. It won't cause any financial hardship--my job actually makes up the pay differential for any normal working hours you spent on jury duty--but I will have to use my legal name, which I haven't used voluntarily in years. I don't want to out myself at trans to the whole goddamn court, so I'll have to go "girl mode," which will be interesting considering I don't own any women's clothes, my haircut is very masc, etc. I tend to be seen, correctly, as male these days at least until I speak, so the bathroom situation is likely to be interesting.
Plus, if I actually get placed on a jury, it'll likely mean working 6 days a week, since court days are M-F and Saturday is a working day for me.
No love for this. I guess it's a kick in the pants to finally get my legal name change?
It feels weird. I kind of wish I had a new fic to work on. I don't have any ideas yet, though, apart from maybe a short and massively depressing fic about Ed's mother, because when I was writing the big story I acquired head-canon about her life. Or, alternatively, I've found myself strongly tempted to take certain tropes I see a lot in the fandom and write something better than what I've seen elsewhere. But what I really want is another huge, hugely absorbing monster of a story, because while it was enormously hard work, it was so much fun!!
. . . Izzy? Izzy Hands, and how he got that way, and what happened next? He's the character who interests me most after Ed and Stede, and I definitely have ideas/thoughts about him. But, damn, my Ed fic is plenty dark already. An Izzy story would be like "yeah, let's wander down to the pit of despair and STAY THERE FOREVER, tormented and tormenting others. 'This is hell, nor am I out of it.'"
Stuff to contemplate, I guess. Meanwhile, my plans for the weekend involve further re-reading of the Aubrey & Maturin novels, and reading Alison Bechdel's Fun Home which I picked up a couple of weeks ago, and maybe re-watching OFMD again, and maybe trying out the Sandman series. I'm a bit nervous about that, because I think the comics were mostly great, sometimes transcendent, and I worry that the show will be less wild and weird, all tamed down a bit to be comprehensible to a mainstream TV audience.
2) I've rewarded myself for finishing the story with stuff. This ring, and some teas from Tea Source, whose shop I used to frequent when I lived in Minneapolis/St. Paul. (I got gyokuro, genmaicha, and some otsuka saemidori, which I've never had but which sounds intriguing--I love the brothy quality of some Japanese green teas.)
3) Still on the subject of buying myself treats, I've been wanting to try scents again. I thought about buying more BPAL stuff, and actually had a virtual cart full of samples (including some I've tried before that I wanted to see what they were like fresh--a lot of my old BPAL stuff came secondhand from other people--and how they would work on me now that my body chemistry has changed due to testosterone). But I couldn't get past the fact that I feel like BPAL is over-rated. The company's aesthetic, their general fan-friendliness in several senses, tends to overwhelm what I feel is the mediocrity of their fragrances. (By "mediocrity" I don't mean in any objective sense--I have no knowledge of perfumery whatsoever. I just mean that I've tried 30-50 of their scents, and while I liked some of them quite a bit, not one has ever made me go "wow." I've never loved a BPAL scent as much as, say, I loved Chanel No. 19 back in the long-ago day. Actually I've thought about re-trying Chanel No. 19, which is widely considered a unisex scent, but apparently it's been reformulated a lot since ca. 1988 when I wore it.) Also, my experience with BPAL has been that almost all their stuff skews very sweet and feminine, even when the promo text claims it's masculine/fresh/herbal/whatever.
Anyway, I ended up checking out Luckyscent and discovered that a lot of their samples of serious high-end fragrances are about the same price as BPAL imps. So yesterday I ordered some stuff, despite the fact that the 10% off coupon code I was promised in exchange for giving them my email address never arrived. When my samples arrive and I start trying them out, I'll post about it.
4) In vastly less self-indulgent news, I've been called for jury duty. It starts at the end of this month and could potentially last until mid-November. I am not delighted. It won't cause any financial hardship--my job actually makes up the pay differential for any normal working hours you spent on jury duty--but I will have to use my legal name, which I haven't used voluntarily in years. I don't want to out myself at trans to the whole goddamn court, so I'll have to go "girl mode," which will be interesting considering I don't own any women's clothes, my haircut is very masc, etc. I tend to be seen, correctly, as male these days at least until I speak, so the bathroom situation is likely to be interesting.
Plus, if I actually get placed on a jury, it'll likely mean working 6 days a week, since court days are M-F and Saturday is a working day for me.
No love for this. I guess it's a kick in the pants to finally get my legal name change?
