Cleolinda everywhere

Okay, I want to run an experiment here. But first, a semi-unrelated explanation:

( It's a personality test! Everyone loves personality tests! )

ETA: "Hey, you know those Myers-Briggs tests?"

MY MOTHER: "YES!"

"Wow, okay. So I took one again, I'd forgotten what I was, and I'm an INFP."

MY MOTHER: "YOU ARE SO AN INFP."

"See? I'm saying."

MY MOTHER: "I AM AN ENTJ! I am like the epitome of an ENTJ. And that's why I work in HR."

"Oh, well. Okay then."



 

A Formspring question (yes, I do sometimes answer those still, although I have a backlog of 80+ now) that I don't know how to answer:

I don't usually get emotionally involved in fictional stories, but I have been strongly affected by the death of my favorite character. (The story is not Harry Potter, by the way.) How do I move on from this? I am feeling genuinely depressed about it.

I got really upset when Philip Pullman killed a character off in one of his series--but more because it seemed so incredibly senseless, and it was right the red hot second after a relationship had finally come to fruition. I didn't get depressed over it, though--I just refused to read the next book, because I was terrified (as a reader, I mean) what he might do next. I know people got upset over the Harry Potter deaths (MARK, YOU PROBABLY DON'T NEED TO READ THE COMMENTS), but--well, I'd already read the His Dark Materials trilogy Pullman also wrote, and all of these books together convinced me that he had no writerly mercy at all, and I just wasn't ready to put up with what he might do next. So maybe I'll go back and finish that series, I don't know. But it was genuinely I am afraid what he might do next rather than THAT WAS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER, GO TO ALL THE HELLS. So I don't really know how to answer the question of emotional investment. Thoughts?

(Yes, we can include the works of Joss Whedon.)

You haven't heard from me much because I have been really, deeply, severely depressed for the last couple of weeks. I tried to write up a huge entry describing what it feels like, and then... I got too depressed to post it. Maybe I'll polish it up and post it later, because I think it might be valuable for 1) people who might recognize themselves in it and 2) people who don't have depression, but want to understand what it's like for a loved one who does.

( Data storage question, writing, Black Ribbon, aromatherapy, BPAL )

Anyway. That's what's going on over here.

Reminder: The Final Lostnesday is on Sunday, and it's going to be a huge Super Bowl/Oscars-esque thing with a pre-show and then a 2-1/2 hour episode and then a Jimmy Kimmel post-show with the actors (and alternate endings? I don't know if these are parodies or real). I would love to liveblog it, but honestly, I'd rather actually pay attention.

I have a couple of other things to discuss, but I think they'd get lost in the rambling here, so: we'll do that later.

A college friend of mine is interviewing me for something he's writing, and I have reached a question I cannot answer:

Please describe (or link to) any incident where you are aware of your fans engaging in public participatory behavior inspired by your parodies. (I’m thinking of the report where someone shouted “fursplode” during New Moon)

For one, I'm not sure I can confirm that that actually happened. For two--do you guys do anything like that? Have you ever heard anyone else yell anything, or--I don't know, wear t-shirts or buttons or--I don't know! I don't know because I don't know! Help!

Note: For the purposes of this interview, he means behavior specifically referring to my work, not fan work in general. Which is why I'm having a hard time with it.

Sister Girl will apparently be able to keep her finger, although she assures me it was "barely holding on." They gave her a digital block (apparently this is supposed to numb the entire finger?) but it... kind of didn't work, and she felt all four stitches. (They offered DermaBond as an alternative. That's right: they offered to glue my sister's finger back on.) The doctor (who, if he was an intern as she had feared, was the oldest one on record) asked if he should stop or try something else and she said, "NO JUST FINISH IT OKAY JUST FINISH IT I JUST WANT IT TO BE OVER." Then, they put a Band-Aid on her finger, which is really so useless that I feel like it must have been cosmetic, or maybe just to keep the stitches dry. She then entered an outpatient treatment program of Taco Bell and OxyContin, and will be off work a couple of days while she is painkillered up.

Meanwhile, I forgot to mention that there's a new Made of Fail podcast up with MarzGurl from That Guy With the Glasses. (Guys, am I supposed to be on the next one this month? I can't remember.)

Meanwhile-meanwhile, over at Formspring: 175 anonymous questions answered, 75 to go. It seems to be glitching, though, and won't show anything when you click "more." Maybe I'll copypaste the answers somewhere else periodically. They better come back, though, because that's like 150 answers lost if they don't.

Also, barring unforeseen circumstances, I will be liveblogging the Oscars tonight. My understanding is that, due to a TV affiliate dispute of some kind in New York, some channels will not be allowed to carry the Oscars. You will be able to watch them streaming live (in theory. Good luck with that) courtesy of the AP.

The thing you have to understand about snow panic in Alabama is that it's not about the snow. Mostly, it's about us not being prepared for snow; a meager two inches is considered an epic blizzard. It's also about the side effects of snow--I live in a heavily-wooded suburban area full of giant, beautiful, old trees. Very old trees. And they all have dead branches here and there hanging on by a shred of bark, so when you have just enough snow to weigh them down, they break off and fall onto the power lines. Or worse, the entire tree is mostly dead and it falls across the road or onto (and usually through) your house. There was one Epic Two-Inch Snow that ended up with a three-foot-thick, forty-foot-long pine lying across our street (and in what used to be someone's sun room), while live power lines were sparking in the road. In fact, my mother reported last night that, as she was driving home, she saw a number of official-looking trucks on the side of the road, presumably stationed for speedy tree removal.

It's also about the ice. None of us know how to drive on it, because we don't get it often enough to figure out how and then retain that knowledge. One time there was a Special News Report on Safe Winter Weather Driving, and I am serious, it was, in its entirety, "Drive slow." And now, over to Jim with the sports! So basically, entire schools, businesses, and highways will be shut down for safety reasons while all of Chicago points and laughs. I am not even kidding: my sister may not be able to get to work on Friday--

Oh God. I just realized that if we are all iced in together for the next four days, a remake of The Shining is going to break out.


While we're here, a teensy bit of Twi-spam, because I am getting a lot of email about this, and also, I enjoy the progression of the headlines:

Attn. Jackson Rathbone: Missing something?

'Eclipse' Script Wasn't Leaked, Says Summit. 

Nikki Finke: Yes, That Leaked Movie Script Is 'Eclipse.' 

1. I don't want to read it. I'm to a point where I don't even watch clips of movies I know I want to see anymore. I get so bored in the theater if I feel like I've already seen the movie. 2. I suspect the wink emoticon in the script (as seen at the first link) is forced product-placement sarcasm from screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. 3. My dazzle is somewhat chagrined that (people tell me) the werewolf-vampire nose-fist bump is not in this version of the script, because, quite honestly, the Edward/Seth stuff is the only thing I find remotely likeable about Book!Edward. Also: COME ON! WEREWOLF-VAMPIRE NOSE-FIST BUMP! If there is anything funnier than that, I can't think of it right now.

Meanwhile, I am trying to work--I got a good bit of novel note-sorting and categorizing done yesterday--but am having a hell of a time. Lots of interruptions, and I can't concentrate for shit. Also, my new calendars (50% off!) came in from Amazon yesterday, but without the books I had bought for research, and then I realized I had forgotten to order a couple of other researchy things anyway, fnarr. Also-also, I bought another pair of fingerless gloves because I was concerned that my homemade recycled ones were fraying a bit from being worn so much, and I am really hoping they arrive before the cold snap is over. This is Alabama, after all.


OH OH OH I ALMOST FORGOT I have two questions to ask you:

1) How do we get e-books from my stepfather's Kindle onto my parents' computer? They can't figure out how.

2) Those identity protection/theft-prevention services, are any of them actually any good?

Peoples of the internet! I have another question. Stress relief methods: do you have them? Because my blood pressure is currently Not Happy, and I can tell it's an emotional thing--my doctor has told me that I have surprisingly good blood pressure usually, and the onset of this is sudden enough that--well. I won't get into the whole mess, but it's emotional, and I need to figure out a way to counteract that.

First of all: my mother and I are trying to decide on an e-book reader to get for my stepfather. His main problem is visibility--we hit on this as an alternative to large-print books, in that any book can become "large print" if you can adjust the font size. Portability is less of a factor, therefore--if one reader is larger than the other, that might actually be a bonus for us. I hear the Nook is sold out and kind of got crappy reviews along the lines of "Wait for the 2.0 version," but Mom thinks she might be able to get one anyway (she has Ways). On the other hand, the Kindle has a lot of advantages that I am vaguely aware of, but it's also got screwy DRM issues where it won't let you do things with, you know, the files you bought and paid for. So she says it would be nice to be able to have the e-books on the reader and the computer, DRM issues would be really frustrating, etc. So 1) ease of use and visibility for someone who is not a tech-head and 2) minimal DRM foolery, those are our main criteria. I know nothing about e-readers, except that I have the Stanza app on the iBella and don't ever use it. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Second: padawansguide needs a new host for her site, the movie-focused The Costumer's Guide (where I had tons of fun a couple of years ago trying to help identify all 60+ Marie Antoinette costumes. Good times); in particular, she says, "I would like at least 5-10 GB of disk space and at least 150 or more GB of bandwidth a month. With no weird [usage] caps they don't tell you about!" We discuss a couple of options at that first link, if you have any ideas.

Third, and not a question: New trailer for Iron Man 2.


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

Okay, problem: I am trying to move music from my computer to the iPhone (and vice versa, now that I think about it), and I'm not finding a way to do so without just doing a blanket sync. The problem with this is that I have music on the phone that I don't want to get wiped and would, in fact, like to transfer to the computer, but I also have music on the computer that I'd like to move to the phone. (Moving recently purchased music was not a problem. We are talking about music that iTunes does not recognize as purchased because it wasn't purchased from them.)

The thing is, I have moved music both ways before on the other computer, so I'm confused because I'm not seeing similar options on my setup. The help section did mention something about only being able to do whatever on one computer--if that's the problem, is there a way to, I don't know, "revoke" the doingness from the other computer and tell iTunes that Lizzie is the one computer my phone needs to sync with?

(OMG WHY IS THIS SO HARD)


ETA: YAY! EphPod/CopyTrans turned out to be a snap.


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

While we're waiting on the laptop:

1) Since I'm going to have to set everything up from scratch, I'm trying to remember all the programs and Firefox extensions I use. I mean, I'm sure as the need comes up, I'll think of them, and I'm not going to run out and re-download everything just for the sake of it if it turns out I'll never need it again at all. However, I will definitely go out to download.com (or other sites as necessary) and get Firefox, AVG (virus protection), Media Monkey (mp3 player), CCleaner, AdAware, Semagic (Livejournal editor), TweetDeck, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, the KMPlayer (for .flv files and screencapping), and LJArchive. And then there's also toolbar buttons for quick adding to Delicious and Google Reader.

I try to use as few Firefox extensions as possible, to keep the browser from dragging (well, but I do have more memory and a better processor now...), but I use NoScript, ScreenGrab, an expand-all function for JournalFen (LJ has it built in now), a video downloader (good on YouTube), and... something else, I can't remember what at the moment.

But I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Anything else you'd recommend I look at?

2) Can you help out sirius20_81 with any job leads? She's in the Indianapolis area, trying really hard to find work for months, has a young son, and is near eviction.