the deep moans round with many voices

[Fic] Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 fills, part one

edenfalling — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 23:53:42 GMT

Batch the first, more to come. :)

All prompts drawn from the 2022 iteration of the Three Sentence Ficathon (post one and post two), hosted by the wonderful rthstewart. Come play with us!

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1. For kalira: any, any, tea makes everything better, written 1/15/22

Relevant Applications (100 words)

Fandom = The Magnus Archives

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"Tea most certainly does not make everything better," Jon snapped, "which is trivially easy to demonstrate: consider a stack of papers or an electronic device; under what circumstances would they be improved by the application of tea?"

"Oh that is hard, let me think -- no, wait, a toddler could solve it!" Melanie sniped back; "The relevant circumstance is when the statements and tape recorders are evil, just like the ones we handle every day but you won't let me destroy."

In the break room doorway, Martin paused, sighed, and turned around to gather more supplies; some situations also required biscuits.

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2. For anonymous: Any, any, children's hospitals and colour theory, written 1/15/22

Civic Responsibility (220 words)

Fandom = Addams Family. Nine sentences, oops! (Contains references to Covid-19)

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"Red is an ideal color for a children's hospital," Morticia remarked approvingly as she scrolled through the selection of gory and horror-themed memes that Pugsley had thoughtfully emailed to her. "Vibrant, eye-catching, and the way this design resembles a trail of spilt blood is a wonderful reminder that life is a constant, glorious battle. What better way to rouse a passion for renewed health?"

"A passion for renewed health is a little abstract for most people, but children haven't yet had their natural morbidity squashed into saccharine conformism and love to see their parents wrong-footed by reminders that life is inherently bloody and precarious," Wednesday said, her voice slightly flattened by the Zoom interface.

"All the better, then!" Morticia said. "There's never enough healthy morbidity in the world -- even now, surrounded by plague on a worldwide scale, the majority remain obstinately oblivious rather than taking the opportunity to indulge in a cathartic, years-long gothic swoon."

She tapped one glossy, ebon nail against her lips, considering. "Perhaps I should talk to your father about endowing some renovations or new services at the local hospital, on condition that we get full control over the interior design elements. I hear the staff are dreadfully overworked these days, and I'm sure they could use some support, to say nothing of a rousing color scheme."

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3. For syrena_of_the_lake: Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Cimorene, adventures in organizing a dragon's hoard, written 1/15/22

Delegation (210 words)

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The trouble with the King's Hoard (the Capital Letters were not only implied but pronounced) was, firstly, that it had been gathered over centuries and consequently had more time than any individual hoard for items to accumulate and to spoil (or have their spells start to fray, whichever was more applicable), and secondly, that it had been gathered and partially reorganized by multiple dragons during those centuries, which meant there was neither rhyme nor reason to be found.

Kazul's hoarding tended toward fancy weapons and rare magical items, but apparently other dragons were more interested in intricately woven carpets, or jewelry (Cimorene was unsure if the big gaudy items and the small delicate items came from two dragons or one with wide-ranging tastes), or silk paintings from Cathay, or fragmenting papyrus scrolls, or inconveniently large sculptures, or any number of mismatched themes -- many of which required special conservation skills that Cimorene did not have.

"We're hiring a director and turning the Hoard into a museum," she announced to Kazul at breakfast; "We'll pay the salary out of ticket sales, and trust me, once we publicize a list of what's in here, every scholar in the world will pay an arm and a leg for a chance to respectfully poke around."

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4. For rthstewart: Any, any, "no plan survives contact with the enemy", written 1/15/22

Cost-Benefit Analysis (50 words)

Fandom = The Magnus Archives

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"Of course we didn't plan everything," Annabelle said with a friendly smile. "Even the Mother can't control every variable, particularly when the other Dread Powers are in play; the effort would be far too costly and almost certainly doomed to failure."

"We prefer to focus on finding the right enemies."

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5. For elementalraven: Narnia/Journey to the center of the earth, any, Bism runs deeper and deeper still, written 1/15/22

Ouroboros (110 words)

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In another life, Rilian travels down: down from the Sunless Lands that were his prison for unknown changeless years, down through the fiery dance and pulsing joy of Bism, down through the deepest crevices where heat and light gush up through stone like blood, down past where anyone has ever traveled and returned.

In the deepest bend of the deepest tunnel, chasing the faintest glint of light, he swings his borrowed axe until he breaks through a shell of diamond to a sky of velvet black, bestrewn with its own living jewels who welcome him in echoes of his mother's voice.

The roots of the earth are nourished by stars.

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6. For scytale: any, any, no such thing as too many kittens, written 1/15/22

Roxy Lalonde's No-Frills, No-Fee Cat Café (165 words)

Fandom = Homestuck

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Listen, you have had a Very Difficult Year, and if defeating (or helping defeat) A) the alien fishqueen who destroyed your planet, B) an unbeatable universe-killing monster, and C) your own alcohol addiction, not to mention creating a whole new universe and recycling your poor battered homeworld doesn't entitle a lady to some choice rewards, you don't know what would.

And by rewards, you mean kittens.

Possibly slightly unwise numbers of kittens, but you are going to be a responsible cat owner this time around and get them all (well, mostly all) spayed and neutered at the appropriate ages, and make sure they have lots of space and enrichment and microchips to find them if they sneak out and get lost, and look -- you just want to make your home a comfy, welcoming place where all your friends can drop by whenever they want (or need) and there will always be fresh food, soft pillows, cool video games, and a purring cat for their laps.

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In more current writing news, am still hung up on the evil teacup story, but I have set it aside for the moment to percolate (I'm having trouble managing the tone shift from "this is a bad relationship" to "this is a supernatural horror story" and suspect I may need to add some more stuff to the lead-in) and am once again working on tiny fills. So, expect some more posts of this nature in days to come. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

small companies are weird

edenfalling — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 19:20:37 GMT

Niche skills I never expected to need: operating a freight elevator.

Niche skills I possess and have in fact used on multiple separate occasions, even though they have nothing to do with my job description: operating a freight elevator.

...

On a tangentially related note, I know how to gently re-humidify crispy tobacco, set snap-traps for mice, program a certain type of outdated electronic scale/label printer, remove old tape residue from glass surfaces, and inventory an entire store and plan six months of product orders entirely by hand in pencil, courtesy of my old job at the smoke shop. (I do not recommend the latter. Electronic inventory is a blessing upon humankind.)

Also the freight elevator does not like to move in 10-degree weather, and needs so much WD-40 on some of the moving pieces. *slumps wearily over desk* If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

ow

edenfalling — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 02:05:36 GMT

It is surprisingly difficult to sleep when you can't put pressure on half of your head or on your right hip.

(This post brought to you by the weird contortions and mangled pillows that finally allowed me to drift off last night. My poor pillow may never be the same, and it wasn't great sleep, but at least I got some rest.) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

carelessness goeth before a fall

edenfalling — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 19:30:19 GMT

So last night I said to myself, "I bet the front steps will be slippery tomorrow morning, since it's been nearly 40 degrees today and there will be a hard freeze down into the mid-teens overnight. I should salt them."

But did I put salt on the steps? No I did not, because I was in a hurry to make some soup and get ready for the Board of Trustees meeting. And then I'd completely forgotten by the time the meeting was finished.

Normally this would not be a problem, because normally I am cautious on the steps as a general point of policy. However, I was rushing this morning as part of my plan to get to work early and make up for yesterday's time lost waiting at Goodyear, and what did I do?

Slipped on the icy steps and went down like a sack of hammers.

My glasses flew off. I dropped my bag. And I banged the shit out of the lower right of my skull, my right elbow, and my right hip/butt.

Fortunately nothing broke, and I do not have a concussion! But I had to lie on the cold, snow-dusted brick and concrete for a couple minutes, cursing and trying to recover my breath, before I was able to gingerly stand up. (And able to salt the damn steps! *headdesk*)

I spent the morning at work typing left-handed while holding a freezer pack to my head with my right (gloved) hand and felt like I was recovering.

And then, when I was out grabbing lunch, I realized my house keys were missing.

...

...

I texted my neighbors, who hadn't seen them.

I then texted Landlord Dude to ask him to leave my front door unlocked after he finished unclogging my kitchen sink.

Fortunately, he was able to find my keys next to the steps where they'd flown out of my hand when I fell, and has left them tucked under my welcome mat.

So. All's well that ends well, I guess? If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

3 things make a post: car repairs, Board meeting, sink (lack of) repairs

edenfalling — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 02:08:27 GMT

1. The Goodyear staff fixed my car! It turns out that the front right corner of the under-engine shield had torn loose, so they trimmed off the useless part and refastened the rest with some zip-ties, as one does. Apparently the fender also got knocked a little loose, and couldn't be reattached with complete security because one of the connecting bits snapped off, but it's functional enough and fender replacements are expensive, so I will let it be for now.

I also got my windshield wipers replaced while I was there, because I had the money and they had gotten a little ragged, so why not.

2. Tonight's board meeting ran a bit long but not as long as we feared, and my minutes are in very nice shape if I do say so myself. I also helped formulate a long and complicated motion that we basically wrote in real-time... and volunteered myself for a project, which is less cool, but it needed doing and it's something I can do fairly easily (write a thing and give it to the administrator to send out to the congregation), so eh. I will manage.

3. Landlord Dude was unfortunately unable to come fix my kitchen sink today, but he promised to come tomorrow, so that's also manageable.

I intend to work 9am-6pm tomorrow to make up for being an hour late today (on account of car stuff), and therefore I believe I shall go fall into bed. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

not an ideal day, all things considered

edenfalling — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 04:22:34 GMT

Things that happened to me today:

1. Drove over a big chunk of ice that tore loose part of the plastic shield under my car engine. The plastic segment is now hanging down and scraping against the road when I drive, which makes a horrible racket and cannot possibly be good for my poor car. I have made an appointment with Goodyear to get it looked at tomorrow, and will get Mr. Geniality to drive me from Goodyear to work.

2. My kitchen sink clogged up again, the same way it did at the end of October. I dumped as much of the standing water as I could into my bathroom sink (which is draining fine), and have texted Landlord Dude to come unclog it tomorrow.

3. Found a dead mouse in the cabinets under the kitchen sink. *sigh* It had been there at least a day, long enough for its fur to separate from its belly and get solidly glued to the shelf by miscellaneous dried body fluids. The eyes were still intact, though, so it hadn't been too long. Anyway, I flicked it out into the snowy waste of the back yard (I didn't want to shovel my back steps just to dispose of a mouse), scrubbed down the shelf, and bleached the daylights out of the snap trap.

I will need to set a new trap after Landlord Dude fixes my drains.

...

In other news, the Three Sentence Ficathon fill that got away from me is now 2,075 words and counting. What even is my life. *headdesk* If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

6 inches of wet, heavy snow overnight

edenfalling — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 15:11:44 GMT

Okay, I dug out the front steps, the part of the front sidewalk between the steps and the driveway, the driveway, and my car. Also a good bit of the street in a bid NOT to have the snowplows build a rampart of snow I will need to shovel through when I return home.

I have mopped myself down with a cold washcloth, taken some ibuprofen and acetaminophen, put up my gross sweaty hair, and gathered my work supplies.

...

I mean, technically I have permission from Aunt Boss not to arrive until 11am, but I think I'd rather sit around getting paid to do nothing in particular than sit around not getting paid to do nothing in particular.

And so I am off to work. Here's hoping the hills have been plowed better than my poor street! If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

writing, argh

edenfalling — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 01:53:14 GMT

I was like, "I will write a tiny Magnus Archives fill for this prompt, in which an OC gets eaten by an evil teacup that is a joint manifestation of the Vast and the Spiral!"

Eight hundred words later, this turned into a story about work and dreams and toxic relationships and I am only just getting around to where someone finally gets eaten by the evil teacup, which is actually an evil hand-thrown mug and which I think has decided it likes its new owner and is going to eat her horrible girlfriend instead.

*hands*

Brains, man. How do they even work.

...

...

Also I did laundry, ordered some file cabinet drawer inserts, and baked a batch of Laddie's hotdish for dinner, because I could. Now I think I shall procrastinate again by putting new sheets on my bed. *wry* If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

3-Sentence Ficathon is live!!!

edenfalling — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 19:50:04 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 If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

the urge to point and say, "Look, I made a Thing!" is very powerful, okay

edenfalling — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 02:40:18 GMT

I really want to post some of the before-and-after floor plans I've been fixing up, because I am very proud of them. :)

I mean, I am sure the work would be very simple in a proper graphics program, to say nothing of an architectural drafting program! But I am working in fucking MS Paint, okay, based on slightly wonky JPEGs of slightly wonky old architectural drawings, and I made the JPEGs myself by pinning said drawings to a wall and taking a bunch of digital photos.

Also a bunch of the apartments have been altered to varying degrees since the drawings were made, so in some cases I am designing new stuff as I go, based on what I can glean from often inadequate photographs of the apartments in question.

...

I may actually do that this weekend, with the company-identifying information scrubbed out. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

there is tired and then there is TIRED

edenfalling — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 02:53:50 GMT

Things since my last post:

1. Plate count at church on Sunday. It was super exciting. We got a whole [redacted] dollars. Anyway, I wrote up a deposit slip and left it for the congregational administrator to deal with.

2. All four apartments in my house lost heat late on Sunday afternoon, but fortunately Landlord Dude was able to fix the boiler after a few hours. Nonetheless, I have my tiny space heater out of its box and ready to plug in, just in case we have a recurrence.

3. Dropped my car keys in a toilet on Monday as I was leaving the Collegetown rental office. *headdesk* What even is my life.

4. Another thrill-a-minute shift at Not the IRS on Tuesday.

5. My alarm went off Wednesday morning, tried to get up, and my body was like, NOPE. So I called in sick to the rental company and went straight back to sleep until 2pm. I then got up and did basically nothing (with the exception of a small walk to pick up a library book on hold) and went back to bed at 9pm.

I dunno what that was, but according to my home test kit it wasn't Covid. And today I felt much more human -- just ordinary tired instead of noodle-joints, a struggle to keep my eyes open for five minutes at a go, and a general inability to focus.

6. Relatedly, I did not attend the special church Board meeting last night, because see above in re: struggling to keep my eyes open for five minutes at a time and general inability to focus. But another Board member very kindly took notes which I will review tomorrow in preparation for our next special meeting on Saturday morning. *sigh*

And now, I think, it is time once again to fall into bed. If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

wherein Liz works with MS Paint and MS Photos

edenfalling — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 00:19:37 GMT

Things I have done this week:

1. The endless saga of photo editing continues. *flops disconsolately over desk* The problem with photo edits is that they are horribly, mind-numbingly tedious, and yet I can't just automate them by saying, "Kick up the light by 30, kick up the color by 50, increase clarity by 15" and so on, because every photo has a slightly (or strongly) different color balance and light-dark balance and so on. Also some of them are cockeyed. So I have to pay attention to every single one, but it's all fiddling with sliders and squinting doubtfully at my monitor in an attempt to determine whether changing the red-green balance or reducing highlights or whatever other alteration actually helps anything.

2. I continued prodding Mr. Geniality into recording voiceovers for the video tours we shot while his voice was gone. We have six left, plus one that I need to record myself because it was the second video I shot without him and the timing is deeply fucked up, so I figure that I will suffer through trying to narrate something useful. Also we recorded three more intro clips (one of us stands outside an apartment door and does a little "Welcome to such-and-such building, located [fill in place]. Brief description of building. Today we're going to see Apartment XXX, which is a [style of apartment] on the YYY floor. Let's head on in!") because while I kept a record of intro clips for apartments where Mr. Geniality did the tour, I neglected to keep track of apartments that needed intro clips where I narrated the tour. Whoops! But that is fixed now.

3. Last week I pinned a bunch of architectural blueprints to the wall in Mr. All Hat's unused apartment. (Insofar as I am aware, Mr. All Hat's company position is "brown-noser to Company Owner." As part of that, he gets a complimentary studio. We started using it for storage last year because fuck him, and after I cleaned up his mess (ewww) we also use it as a sample unit for tours.) I then took good digital photos of the blueprints -- both each floor as a whole, and every individual apartment -- and I have been using those to create nice clean floor plans for all the apartments that did not have extant floor plans, what the hell were they even DOING before I moved to the downtown office??? *headdesk* I can do about two a day, which I think is not bad considering my only graphics program is MS Paint. *double headdesk*

The thing is, I can't just clean up the blueprints, because they are not always up-to-date! So I need to check them against photos of the apartments to see what, if anything, has been changed, which direction doors actually open, and so on. If things have changed, I then have to draw new walls, move doors, delete closets, and otherwise rearrange things as needed, so there's a creative element as well as the general "turn a grainy, grayish drawing with occasional wobbly bits into a clean, readable, sharp-edged black and white diagram." It's more satisfying than photo edits, but equally tedious.

4. Prepping for a special board meeting on Wednesday, to discuss ministerial options and things we need to make sure get addressed in our meeting with a UUA representative next Saturday morning. The UUA rep was originally planning to come to Ithaca for the weekend and give our Sunday sermon, but given the Covid-19 situation, the UUA has imposed a travel ban on national staff. So our Saturday meeting will be on Zoom, and the sermon will be pre-recorded and inserted virtually into the service in whatever fashion makes most sense to the Celebrations committee.

5. Mom's birthday was Thursday! I sang her Happy Birthday over the phone. She has safely arrived in Minnesota and is staying with Nick. :)

6. Cat's birthday was Friday! I texted her Happy Birthday, and she said she had a great day. :) Hopefully the card I sent arrived today. (I should have mailed it at the same time I mailed Mom's card, but I was distracted and didn't remember until a few days later, oops.)

7. Mr. Geniality has decided to get back into a fitness routine as his New Year's resolution. I have never had a fitness routine, per se, and since I have had regular possession of a car, I don't walk nearly as much, which was previously my default exercise. Driving is really convenient so I don't think I'm magically going to start walking a lot again, but I do want to do some kind of activity.

What I really need is a gym buddy, but I have no idea where to find one. :/

And now I think I will go websurf a bit, because my brain is kind of fried from editing photos and floor plans all day. *wry* If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

wherein Liz does not actually do anyone's taxes (yet)

edenfalling — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:52:20 GMT

Today was my first shift at Not the IRS for the 2022 tax season, and predictably nothing happened. I was actually entirely on my own after the first fifteen minutes, but I was able to get the passcode to the doohickey where we keep the spare key so locking up was not an issue.

I didn't bother to close out the cash drawer because nobody used it all day.

My schedule had been fucked to hell and back for January peak (the back half of the month, when most people with simple returns get their W2s and are then ready to file) because corporate had overridden my self-reported availability and decided ON NO BASIS WHATSOEVER that I was available from 8am to 10pm seven days a week, and scheduled me accordingly, but I emailed Tax Boss and was able to get that fixed. I will have to do something similar for April, where corporate similarly overrode my availability and scheduled me willy-nilly, but we have a few months to get that worked out.

(Like. I have another job, you know? I have a proper FULL-TIME job. I don't actually need to do taxes at all, financially speaking. I just like to keep my hand in, and also working for a national company is fairly portable.)

Also I have apparently been signed up (without my knowledge or consent) to do some kind of internal resource tech thing??? My email forwarding got disconnected over the summer and I don't usually check my company email until January, so I had no idea that was going on and have missed all the training deadlines as well as a number of Microsoft Teams meetings. I dunno, I guess I'll try to finish the training anyway -- I don't have a huge client list so troubleshooting other people's nonsense might help fill shifts. But seriously, that is not how you organize and staff new programs! *headdesk*

This day has been a little weird all around, starting with the part where I attempted to reset my alarm by an hour and accidentally reset my actual clock instead and thus didn't get up until after noon. Obviously I needed the sleep! But waking to a clock that said 1:19 when I'd expected an alarm several hours earlier was a heck of an adrenaline shot, only slightly diminished when I checked my phone and it reported the time was really 12:19.

But I returned a library book, deposited a check and got quarters for laundry, sorted through my backlogged Not the IRS email, finished a work training task that I couldn't do out of office (...admittedly the program glitched on me partway through so I skipped the final two segments and bullshitted my way through the test because I have a knack for standardized tests, but whatever), bought groceries, and started reading a new library book about the Sahara Desert, so I think it's been a reasonably productive day. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

priority lists are your friends :)

edenfalling — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 05:11:34 GMT

Today I made a priority list for my remaining apartment photo edits. I don't know why I didn't make one earlier. I mean, I can hold a fair amount of information in my head, and even cross-reference it with other relevant datasets, but there comes a point where one needs to write things down in an easily editable and reorganizable form in order to properly triage one's to-do list.

Anyway, my list is now sorted based on the following factors:

1. Does the apartment have ANY photos from prior years?
2. Do I need to use the old photos for this apartment to double as a different apartment with no photos?
3. How high on the priority list is the video for this apartment?
4. Has the apartment already been rented for next year?
5. What quality are the old photos currently posted on the website?
6. Is the current set of furnishings drastically different from what's shown on the website?
7. What is the monthly rent for the apartment?

(The first three are, I think, self-explanatory. The latter four boil down to, how important is it that we heavily advertise this unit, and if so, how badly do the current, unstaged photos need replacing?)

That was my downtown office task for the day, along with a bunch of actual photo editing and responding to the emails that had collected over the long weekend.

For the Collegetown office, I checked in packages, processed parking leases and sublets, processed rent payments, and answered various emails and phone calls. I also searched a fitness room for a set of lost keys which should not have been in there because the fitness rooms are currently CLOSED ON ACCOUNT OF COVID, dammit. I found no keys and didn't feel like digging through the trash bin on the off chance the tenant had thrown them away. Blegh.

The weather was properly cold for the first time this winter. Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast warmish again, but after that it looks like we may finally be settling into proper winter.

And now to bed. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

my new year's resolution is to pay down my sleep debt, because yikes

edenfalling — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 04:44:42 GMT

Summary of the previous week and a half:

I have been so goddamn tired and I don't know why.

Anyway, Christmas was good, I got home safely, nothing weird there. I bought some cute otters-in-snow postage stamps and used them to send thank-you notes in a timely fashion as well, so go me! And I spent Aunt Cara's Target gift card on some more long-sleeve shirts, because reasons.

(I have become fond of Target's Goodfellow brand of shirts, which are intended for men and therefore have a sadly limited color palette, but which are amazingly comfy and also I think both a little cheaper and a little better made than their main women's shirt brands. They are also LONG, which is such a refreshing contrast to the general fashion for cutting women's shirts too short in the torso. But I also still buy some of their A New Day women's brand because goshdarnit I like colors.)

The week between Christmas and New Year's is always a weird, liminal period where time isn't real. That was not helped by working unfamiliar hours -- 9am to 3pm instead of 10am to 6pm -- at the rental office. I got through some video stuff and some photo editing, as well as a surprising number of rental requests, but my main achievement was taking photos of a whole bunch of architectural blueprints so I can now turn those photos into floor plans and building key plans.

I also got through various bits of paid training for Not the IRS, and will have my first shift on Tuesday afternoon. I must remember to punch in tomorrow in order to collect my payment for that paid training -- I tend to do it piecemeal in between other tasks, so I'm not usually punched in while I'm actually watching videos or taking tests.

Mom was going to drive up to Ithaca for New Year's, but cancelled due to weird throat issues (apparently not Covid, just unidentified winter gunk). Nick and Dad stopped en route to Minnesota and spent a couple days in Chicago to get some more medical tests, which I think are currently still inconclusive. However, I believe they made it to Minneapolis today.

Mom will drive out to Minnesota later this week to take over staying with Nick once Dad flies home. I have therefore mailed her birthday card to Nick's house. Fortunately I was on top of birthday presents this year and she already has her joint gift from me and Nick, which I will remind her to take with her on the trip.

I did basically nothing on Friday and Saturday, and today my main achievement was laundry. But, you know, I not only got all my clothes and linens washed and dried, I also got everything (well, everything that isn't air-drying overnight) folded and put away, so go me for efficiency. \o/

Tomorrow I'm in the Collegetown office, where I must remember to ask Mom Boss and Aunt Boss what the plan is vis-a-vis my scheduling, because without Miss California (whose last day was in December and has moved to Long Island) OR a functional new hire, that office is very short-staffed. And yet I can't just vanish from the downtown office, so... it is a puzzle. Hopefully they hire someone good soon.

And now I shall go to bed because I am getting really goddamn tired of being really goddamn tired. *wry* If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

[Fic] "All Roads Lead to Ragosa" -- The Lions of Al-Rassan

edenfalling — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 22:43:10 GMT

Yuletide reveal day!

My giftee this year was Dolorosa, and the fandom we matched on was The Lions of Al-Rassan, which is one of my favorite books ever, and one I myself have requested for Yuletide at various times in the past. :)

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All Roads Lead to Ragosa (1818 words) by Elizabeth Culmer
Fandom: The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Miranda Belmonte/Rodrigo Belmonte, Jehane bet Ishak & Ammar ibn Khairan & Rodrigo Belmonte
Characters: Miranda Belmonte, Jehane bet Ishak, Ammar ibn Khairan, Rodrigo Belmonte
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Reunions

Summary: Word of the ambush at Emir ha'Nazar gets out. Miranda moves the Belmonte household to Ragosa.

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I don't have a lot to say about this story, honestly? Dolorosa and I seem to share interpretations of and reactions to the book, so the prompts were exactly up my alley. The main challenge was finding a reasonable point to kick canon in the knees and get Miranda into the same physical location as the other three main characters, while also ensuring that the wider political situation is still careening toward disaster because sociopolitical forces are larger than any one person. I think I found a decently plausible solution for that!

If I'd had more time and energy, I would have liked to write a much longer story that would go into more logistical detail about Miranda's trip south, show word of turmoil in Valledo reaching Ragosa, do some blunt-hammer-meets-subtle-maneuvering politics with Miranda's formal introduction to King Badir, let Miranda actively get to know Jehane and Ammar, include Diego and Fernan around the edges, and possibly trace some of the political knock-on effects this would have as the tragedy of canon continues to unroll. Alas, this has not been a great year for me on the creative front. So I fell back on structure and wrote a tidy little four-perspective medley with the outer segments (Miranda and Rodrigo) echoing each other in their opening lines and the inner segments (Jehane and Ammar echoing a little more subtly as observers), and left the wider effects and relationship stuff as implications for the future.

In summary, it's not what I initially wanted to write, but I think it's a pretty good story nonetheless. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

[Fic] "And After That" -- original

edenfalling — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 04:58:27 GMT

Summary: The morning after their meeting with Agent Yurikaw Madranashkiyug, Laura and Aujae discuss responsibility and consequences. (A Utilitarian Virtue snippet.) [875 words]

Note: Written 12/31/21 in response to the fan_flashworks challenge: stages, as part of the December 2021 amnesty round.

As per the community rules, this post will just be a link to the fic text on fan_flashworks until the current challenge closes, at which point I will move the actual ficlet over here. But for now, a link: And After That

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Happy New Year to all, and may 2022 be kinder than 2021. If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

[Rec] my Yuletide gift!

edenfalling — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 02:04:30 GMT

This is tragically belated because life has been happening at me this past week. Still, better late than never, yes?

Anyway, you MUST go read my gift immediately!

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The Gift of Terrain (2557 words) by Edonohana
Fandom: Darkangel Trilogy - Meredith Ann Pierce
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Aeriel (Darkangel Trilogy), Eoduin (Darkangel Trilogy)
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Pre-Canon, harvest, Festivals, Fruit, Magic, Non-Sexual Slavery

Summary: Eoduin should be certain that she’d be chosen as Harvest Maiden. Who but the syndic's daughter should be the one to mount the stone step with her new kirtle swirling around her ankles and hold her giftfruit high for all to see?

But the syndic didn’t choose the Harvest Maiden. Terrain did.

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Basically, this is the pre-canon Eoduin & Aeriel story of my heart, which catches their weird, tangled almost-friendship in all its problematic glory. The worldbuilding is AMAZING, full of fruits and flowers and food, and lets you see both how Terrain is still beautiful and rich (despite Oriencor's draining of the world), and what Oriencor's slow poison has done to the people instead of to the land. If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

greetings from New Jersey!

edenfalling — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 03:22:57 GMT

I got up a bit later than intended, and then took a little longer getting ready to leave than intended, with the net result that I left at 12:15pm instead of 11-11:30am, but my drive was pretty smooth and I made it to NJ before sunset, so it's all good. I listened to the latest episode of Enthusigasm, and then several lectures in my current Great Courses series, which is called "Tocqueville and the American Experiment". (Political analysis courses are always interesting because they date very quickly. This one was recorded in 2004, and there are multiple portions that I am 100% sure would be different if Professor Cook were recording it anew today.)

My poor car is in desperate need of a wash -- there was intermittent snow from Ithaca through about the NY/PA border, and that means a lot of road gunk kicked up into the air which then insta-dries on cars -- but I stopped in Throop to wash my front and back windshields at a gas station, which helped somewhat.

I dropped by Susan's parents' house for a 1-hour visit and to exchange gifts, which was good. Susan's pregnancy is going well so far!

Mom and I had corned beef and salad for dinner and sampled some of this year's more experimental cookies. Then she and I set up and made the sofa-bed in my childhood bedroom (which is currently acting as a catch-all storage room), after which I wrapped a bunch of presents and caught up on some internet nonsense.

Tomorrow we plan to be at the local Verizon store about 5 minutes before 10am to ensure we are the first customers, whereupon I will upgrade my phone. I have preemptively logged into my work email because I'm not sure how my Microsoft Authenticator app will transfer over, and I need that to, you know, keep an eye out for disasters. *wry* I am pretty sure everything else should transfer fine, but security programs can get finicky.

After that I think we're doing some food and alcohol shopping, and then I will probably hole up and finish some paid training for Not the IRS which I have been putting off on account of being excessively busy.

And now, to bed. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

edenfalling — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 03:30:23 GMT

Things done today:

1. More photo editing. I am very tired of photo editing. I have so many more photos to edit. *slumps wearily over desk*

2. Wrangled Mr. Geniality down to the Commons to shoot an intro clip for an apartment he videoed on his own (probably on a Tuesday, which is my day off) during the period his voice was lost. He didn't tell me he made that video, so it wasn't in my spreadsheet (even though I apparently downloaded it from the iPhone to our office drive???), so it wasn't on my list of apartments that needed intro clips, and so we didn't shoot an intro when we slammed through several dozen of them in a week. But that is now remedied.

3. Further wrangled Mr. Geniality into recording another set of voiceover clips. And THIS TIME, I wrote the apartment names on a post-it and told him to aim the iPhone camera at the note so I could tell which videos went with which units! \o/

4. Did my own voiceover clip for a different apartment, and then wrote up the absurdly complicated instructions for our social media guy so he can edit the video clips into something functional. The problem is that I shot the base video back when I was just starting to do videos without Mr. Geniality, and I hadn't figured out yet that apartment videography works better if I narrate the tour, even if I'm just mumbling to myself in the expectation of a later voiceover. So the timing was a godawful mess, and I did the whole thing as a single 5:11 take. *headdesk

Anyway, I did the voiceover as four separate clips and gave Social Media Guy the best time markers I could in the instructions. We shall see if he manages to Frankenstein anything useful out of that disaster.

5. Filled my gas tank in preparation for driving to NJ.

6. Made a charitable donation on Susan's behalf as her Christmas present. On that note, I wish more charities had an option in their online donation flow to note that a donation is on behalf of someone else and my name should not be added to their mailing list -- I will not become a recurring donor and pestering me is a waste of their time and money. For example, I STILL get "to our sister in Christ" junk mail from the United Methodist Committee on Relief because of a donation I made in someone else's name almost five years ago. I'm not Methodist! I'm not even Christian!! *headdesks forever*

And now I think I shall go to bed, because I have a bunch of tasks left for the morning and I would prefer to be awake for them and for my drive. If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

Tuesday update

edenfalling — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 04:44:09 GMT

Stuff about stuff:

1. Current holiday plans are as follows: Nick has an MRI appointment tomorrow noonish, after which he and Dad will start driving east. They plan on three easy days to get from Minnesota to New Jersey, arriving late afternoon on Xmas Eve. Meanwhile, I will drive down on the 23rd. Beacon has decided to do a virtual Xmas Eve service, so we may or may not watch that. I will head back to Ithaca on Sunday, and Nick and Dad will take another 3-day drive back west to Minnesota at some point thereafter, with I think the goal of arriving on or before New Year's Eve.

2. I have purchased all my gifts (except a charitable donation that I need to make and print up a record to put in a nice envelope or something), and mailed all my cards, so that's dealt with.

3. Still doing endless photo editing and video tour review at work, though we are also slowly but steadily signing new and renewal leases, as well as processing sublets.

4. My Covid-19 test from this morning came back negative, hurrah! I was a little worried because there has been a distressingly high transmission rate among Cornell students, and my job by definition exposes me to a lot of Cornell students. Community transmission is also high in Tompkins County in general right now.

For example, Mr. Commercial, my annoying coworker who I fortunately rarely see in person, has caught Covid a second time, which I think is again his own stupid fault for not taking appropriate precautions at a church function. (I am judging his church so hard right now, you have no idea.) One of our Maintenance staff may or may not have Covid himself, but his spouse and kids all have it, so he's stuck in quarantine regardless. So that's been a thing.

...

I think I am going to buy some wax melts, because I am running out of those and this is going to be a long winter. If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

a full day

edenfalling — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 05:32:51 GMT

This Sunday I:

1. Ushered at the church service, which was in-person but masked and socially distanced and we checked everyone's temperature as they came in. Hopefully that was enough precautions. We have regretfully cancelled our Tuesday night Solstice ceremony, but the Christmas Eve afternoon pageant and evening candle services are still on for the moment.

We may have to swap back to virtual-only services in January, depending on how the Covid situation progresses.

2. Changed my linens and prepped for laundry, which I will deal with Monday night after work.

3. Bought groceries, including various baking supplies and some cheap plastic plates with a reindeer on them to serve as packaging. While I was at the grocery store, I found somebody's EBT card on the floor and turned it in to the customer service desk. Hopefully the person who lost the card was able to retrieve it!

4. Took a 1-hour nap.

5. Baked brownies, almond cake bars, and snickerdoodles, and then made up five plates to take to work tomorrow. They are for Mom Boss, Aunt Boss, Miss California, the Maintenance department at large, and Ms. Expansive (one of the concierges; the other, Ms. Fretful, is on vacation until January so I shall have to think of something else for her). Tomorrow I'll take in five more plates, for Mr. Geniality, Ms. Random Numbers, Ms. Rise-and-Shine, Lawyer Man, and the downtown Maintenance crew.

6. Collected my trash, took the bag to the bin, and then took the bin to the curb for pickup because it was finally full.

6. Made a list of people to whom I need to mail holiday cards. I will write the actual cards Monday evening, because I ran out of time today.

And now, bed! If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

various items make a post

edenfalling — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 01:40:33 GMT

Things and stuff:

1. Saturday was a slow work day -- I did some photo edits and some emails, and also got asked to help jump-start a parking tenant's dead car, which was a first for me. It also reminded me that I don't yet have any jumper cables, so that has gone onto my Xmas/birthday wish list.

2. Hospitality team work at church this morning, which mostly involved A) getting items from a drawer, B) sitting at a table and helping a few people with nametags, and B) putting items back into drawers.

3. Took an afternoon nap, which was lovely. :)

4. 5:30pm wine and conversation Zoom gathering with my parents and their friend Mary. Nick was unable to attend due to recent illness, alas.

5. Speaking of Nick's illness! We don't know what it is, though my money is on some kind of ear infection -- he has fluid in his inner ear, as well as weird migraines and an inability to deal with screens or bright lights. Also maybe some fever? Anyway, he has been to urgent care twice so far. Steroids have not helped much, nor has Dramamine, and now he is on antibiotics which will hopefully produce some results. He was unable to schedule an appointment with any specialists until January (they are all booked solid), and he's having a bit of an anxiety/depression spiral. :(

Dad flew out to Minnesota this morning and will be staying in Nick's guest room indefinitely. Our current hope is that Nick gets better enough fast enough that either Dad can fly home and Nick drives to and from NJ for Xmas as planned, or else Dad carpools to NJ with Nick, carpools back to MN, and then catches a rescheduled flight home. We shall see.

6. I am currently working through my NY state required tax preparer courses, all four hours of nonsense. I want to get this done tonight so I can renew my NYTPRIN on Tuesday -- it usually takes 24 hours for completion of the courses to transfer to the NYTPRIN registration system, because computers and bureaucracy are an occasionally absurd mix.

7. On a related note, I have now taken my annual sexual harassment training for the rental company (NYS requirement), and my broader anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training for Not the IRS (combination of federal requirements and state requirement). So that's a thing that has happened.

8. In re: Yuletide, I will simply say BEARS and leave it at that. *wry*

And now back to training. *sigh* If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

paid training and client data protection

edenfalling — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 03:20:06 GMT

Things done today:

1. Sent out a lease for a 1-bedroom apartment. I'm also trying to get the prospects who balked at street noise to send me a list of questions that I can send to the current tenants of a different apartment, because I am not going to hand out tenants' private data just because someone wants to ask questions about their unit. Confidentiality is important!

(We know so much stuff about tenants, seriously, it's ridiculous. I could probably pull identity theft scams on quite a lot of people if I were inclined to crime. I mean, I wouldn't, because what the actual fuck, but the point remains that I have access to a lot of personal and financial information and a responsibility to keep that information safe.

(Tax prep is similar in terms of confidentiality requirements, and do not even get me started on HIPAA. When I worked reception at the health garage, we couldn't even admit if we recognized people's names without a signed client permission form that named a specific person (who provided government-issued photo ID to verify their identity) as okay to receive that information, because a questioner might infer client status from that familiarity -- which, given that the health garage deals in addiction recovery, is information that many people prefer to keep private. *wry*)

2. Updated the downtown sublet form again and uploaded it to our website. Fixed some other stuff on the website while I was already poking around backstage.

3. Video review. Uploaded one finished video to YouTube and our website (as per Miss California's directions) -- I will get the other three tomorrow.

4. Paid training virtual seminar for Not the IRS. Also did some at-my-own-pace paid virtual training, so that's about 2 hours down. I'll see about doing another round tomorrow evening.

5. Wrote a grocery list and prepped to buy groceries tomorrow after work. Hopefully my prescription toothpaste will also be ready by that point, and I will buy gas once I'm done because my car is sending me mournful "low fuel" messages, poor baby.

6. Finished reading Nick's latest witch cozy mystery novel, which was a lot of fun and lays some groundwork for more character development stuff in the next installments, as well as some cool worldbuilding about the nature of magic in this universe. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)

Wednesday life update

edenfalling — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 04:08:25 GMT

Things done today:

1. Two apartment tours this morning. One was a person still clearly in the looking around stage. The other was a pair of roommates who were ready to rent... but who then got cold feet about potential noise issues, alas. I plan to email them Thursday morning and suggest a different apartment in a quieter part of the same building, so we shall see how that goes.

2. Updated our tenant list spreadsheet to account for sublets and a couple late leases/swaps. Then I used that list to send winter reminder emails to everyone -- basically, "Here is some general information about living in Ithaca during the winter, here is some important advice to follow if you leave for winter break/family holiday visits/ etc., and here is a little bit of information about driving/parking in an environment that includes snow and hills."

We try to send those around every year since we have a lot of undergrad tenants from warmer climates who don't understand how easily pipes freeze and burst, and also a lot of tenants who don't seem to grasp that if they have packages delivered to Ithaca while they're out of town, there is nowhere for those packages to GO. We are not made of infinite space! *wry*

Tomorrow I'm going to tape up some physical signs that summarize the main points of those emails.

3. Updated my PTIN information on the Not the IRS website, so that's one task out of the way. Tomorrow evening I have my next live paid training class, which I am sure will be exactly as boring and pointless as the first one. *sigh*

4. I need to pick a health insurance plan tomorrow. I should do that during my lunch break, probably -- I just need to compare my options via the rental company and via the state marketplace website.

5. It snowed a little overnight -- maybe 1/2 inch? Light and easy to sweep off my darling car. We had scattered flurries during the day, which didn't stick, but then the snow started coming down for real around 5pm and I'd say we got another 3/4 inch or so. It's stopped now and the streets and sidewalks have all melted clear once more, but I will have to sweep my car clean again in the morning. *sigh*

And now to bed. :) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently ( comments)