I'm back. Sorta.
May. 21st, 2003 06:06 pmLong story short, because the long version is just boring:
So, I was sick. Yes, too sick even to get on the computer. Like I do anything by half-measures?
Then, I got sicker. Don't laugh. Or, okay, laugh, but you're laughing with me, right? Sick enough that I was trundled off to mum & step-dad's, the better to be cared for.
So, finally, an unlikely number of medication adjustments later, I get to go home again. There's a truly terrifying amount of fic, gossip, and even (despite my general success in getting people not to send it) email for me to catch up on. Somebody even emailed me her phone number, so I could call and let on I wasn't lying in a ditch or something, but... it was the wrong frelling number. I read a couple of stories, was tired, and took one of those sneaky naps that kidnaps you straight through to the next day.
The next day, the computer began acting funny. So, brilliantly, I closed all the open programs and rebooted. The computer responded by deciding to stop working altogether.
Okay, Jack said to Jackself, I have an emergency fund. I will use it to get a new computer. Jack found a used computer that the emergency fund would cover (hey, it's not the size of the emnergency fund, it's how you use it -- and it's new to me).
The n/ewsed computer arrived, in its good time, and appeared to be working. But of course I had to hook up a zip drive, and a less-annoying mouse, and in general looked fate in the mouth or some other atrociously mismatched metaphor, and... important parts of the recently-arrived computer stopped working. Like, the modem, and the cd-rom drive, without which said computer is really a glorified calculator and general waste of perfectly good deskspace.
And funny thing, when the emergency fund is empty, there's no funds for things like repairs. Admittedly, I'm afraid to even get a quote, cos how does it look if they say 'it'll cost X much' and it takes me a couple of months to come up with that? Plus, they might be like the unscrupulous auto mechanics who won't give your car back until it's fixed but keep tacking on storage fees as if that'll help you pay the bill faster.
Paranoid? Me? Who said that?
At the moment I'm at a public library terminal, which I'm finally well enough to get to. Unfortunately public terminals have all these drawbacks, like not being right there in my flat, and limiting users to 30 or 60 minutes online per day, and the fascist damned Fatherland Security Act giving our 'friends' in the dark suits access to my every keystroke, and I can't access my regular email account. But I figured, okay, I have an hour, I can use it to try to speed-read as much slash and such as my brain can absorb, or... I can let everyone know I haven't been in a ditch.
So... I'll be in and out as I'm able. Believe me when I wail piteously how much I've missed you all. (And that I'm really, really sorry that the abovementioned messes kept me from fulfilling several commitments I've made to different people.)
Meanwhile, hm. I've been watching more TV than I used to, and discovered that Detectives Munch and Tutuola of Law & Order: SVU are so doing it. And The Authority is finally back, which means you should all head to your local purveyor of comic books and ask for [Vol. 2] issue #1, just out this month.
And, again, I miss you all.
So, I was sick. Yes, too sick even to get on the computer. Like I do anything by half-measures?
Then, I got sicker. Don't laugh. Or, okay, laugh, but you're laughing with me, right? Sick enough that I was trundled off to mum & step-dad's, the better to be cared for.
So, finally, an unlikely number of medication adjustments later, I get to go home again. There's a truly terrifying amount of fic, gossip, and even (despite my general success in getting people not to send it) email for me to catch up on. Somebody even emailed me her phone number, so I could call and let on I wasn't lying in a ditch or something, but... it was the wrong frelling number. I read a couple of stories, was tired, and took one of those sneaky naps that kidnaps you straight through to the next day.
The next day, the computer began acting funny. So, brilliantly, I closed all the open programs and rebooted. The computer responded by deciding to stop working altogether.
Okay, Jack said to Jackself, I have an emergency fund. I will use it to get a new computer. Jack found a used computer that the emergency fund would cover (hey, it's not the size of the emnergency fund, it's how you use it -- and it's new to me).
The n/ewsed computer arrived, in its good time, and appeared to be working. But of course I had to hook up a zip drive, and a less-annoying mouse, and in general looked fate in the mouth or some other atrociously mismatched metaphor, and... important parts of the recently-arrived computer stopped working. Like, the modem, and the cd-rom drive, without which said computer is really a glorified calculator and general waste of perfectly good deskspace.
And funny thing, when the emergency fund is empty, there's no funds for things like repairs. Admittedly, I'm afraid to even get a quote, cos how does it look if they say 'it'll cost X much' and it takes me a couple of months to come up with that? Plus, they might be like the unscrupulous auto mechanics who won't give your car back until it's fixed but keep tacking on storage fees as if that'll help you pay the bill faster.
Paranoid? Me? Who said that?
At the moment I'm at a public library terminal, which I'm finally well enough to get to. Unfortunately public terminals have all these drawbacks, like not being right there in my flat, and limiting users to 30 or 60 minutes online per day, and the fascist damned Fatherland Security Act giving our 'friends' in the dark suits access to my every keystroke, and I can't access my regular email account. But I figured, okay, I have an hour, I can use it to try to speed-read as much slash and such as my brain can absorb, or... I can let everyone know I haven't been in a ditch.
So... I'll be in and out as I'm able. Believe me when I wail piteously how much I've missed you all. (And that I'm really, really sorry that the abovementioned messes kept me from fulfilling several commitments I've made to different people.)
Meanwhile, hm. I've been watching more TV than I used to, and discovered that Detectives Munch and Tutuola of Law & Order: SVU are so doing it. And The Authority is finally back, which means you should all head to your local purveyor of comic books and ask for [Vol. 2] issue #1, just out this month.
And, again, I miss you all.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-21 04:13 pm (UTC)I have missed you so much the past few months. I'm so glad that you are okay and not dead or involved in some horrific cult or other bad things that I have been hoping against.
I would hug, but I'm not sure if random groping would be a good thing right now after so long.
JACK!!!!!!!! Eeee!!!
no subject
Date: 2003-05-21 04:19 pm (UTC)::bouncing round hugging Erica hard enough to pop her::
:: hugs ::
Date: 2003-05-21 04:29 pm (UTC)Hope things start to look up...
no subject
Date: 2003-05-21 04:59 pm (UTC)*hugs you* Glad you're better. Glad you're back!
no subject
Date: 2003-05-21 05:31 pm (UTC)*hugshugshugs* God, it's good to have you back! *hugs* And thank God you're okay.
*more hugs* I'm so glad you're okay.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-21 05:49 pm (UTC)I'm so sorry that you were so ill. I hope you are all better now!
no subject
Date: 2003-05-21 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-21 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-22 01:19 am (UTC)*squeals*
I missed you so much! *hugshugshugs*
So sorry you've been poorly. Hope to catch you online soon.
*squeeze*
no subject
Date: 2003-05-22 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-22 09:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-22 11:14 pm (UTC)Please to give me your address so that I can mail you that thing we discussed way back when - B and I have found the perfect one to send you. If you can bear to send email, that would be excellent, as between our sporadic onlineness at this point, I don't know when we'll run into each other. Once I get net at home again tho, I'll be lurking online constantly for the chance to pounce on you. *g*
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:04 pm (UTC)Anyway, thanks for saying hi & ::hugs:: back atcha!
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:09 pm (UTC)So... is there yet more Luthorcest over at your LJ for my reading enjoyment? Or, ::hopeful smile:: at least, might there be some there by the timec I might have a chance to actually swing by
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:12 pm (UTC)It's good to [sorta] be back! ::hugs::
::huge honking buggerhugs:: And I'm so glad that you're not mad at me, or at least, are saving it up for one big 'you abandoned me!' guilt trip.
::hug hug hug::
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:15 pm (UTC)It's so nice to hear good wishes from everyone!
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:17 pm (UTC)Man, do I need to get a computer up and functional in my own home...
Re:
Date: 2003-05-28 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:24 pm (UTC)I will gladly IM or even [gasp, horrors] email you sometime, once I again have access to a computer from which it is possible for me to do so...
Meanwhile, hrm, I was considering possibly going to Boston Pride this year, which possibility came to mind when I saw your comment... though... would you be interested in going yourself? Are you in or merely near Boston proper at the moment? What's with the cute little I LOVE COCK icon? Blah blah blah?
::pause for breath and continued hugging::
70s Porn Star Buddha says: Must one be gay to be queer?
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:40 pm (UTC)::big Canada-sized hugs::
I would not have objected to snail mail from my most favourite purveyor of second-person prose, oh, no. And speaking of such things, how is Cooper? Has he had more stories to tell?
And definitely, much Apollo/Midnighter squeeing must take place. Watch this space [well, actually, my LJ main page, but, you know] for my lengthier gushing about Vol. 2 Issue #1 available NOW at your friendly neighbourhood comixshop. Meanwhile, what precisely have you read? To wit:
- The Authority [vol. 1], 29 issues
- Stormwatch (prequel title; Apollo & the Midnighter were introduced in vol. 2, issues 1-11, Jenny & Shen rather earlier)
- Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority [5-issue miniseries]
- Authority: Kev "one-shot" August 2002
- Authority: Scorched Earth "one-shot" December 2002
- Stormwatch: Team Achilles (guest appearances by the Authority in several spring 2003 issues)
- The Authority: High Stakes (three-part miniseries printed as "back-up" stories within three other Wildstorm titles)
- Vol. 2 Issue 1
Yes, as a matter of fact I do have all of them. ::grin:: I even have the Apollo & Midnighter action figures, who are delightfully conducive to illicit positioning...
So. Rectify away!
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:43 pm (UTC)[sorry, but more punctuation than that just seems unseemly]
I hope you'll catch me online soon, too, but that'll be difficult with my computer situation. If I can, I'll try to snag some time on a computer with IM access this week-end.
::hugs::
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:48 pm (UTC)And I've missed you and your wonder-filled writing, too! Even Le Guin and Delany pale by comparison to a new jewel of poetic prose from our Penelope.
Can I perhaps hope for some fresh [heh] Luthorcestfic from you, since Jul hasn't been so moved?
Thought of you when I was at a Greek-culture festival a few weeks ago, with food and dancing and bas-relief and Cretan labyrys earrings I nearly spent entirely too much on.
::hugs and hugs::
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:49 pm (UTC)And I just love that little terrorist gopher icon.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:54 pm (UTC)And, by extension, B! ::hugs all round::
I've been missing you terribly, too, and thinking of you both often. So much to catch up on!
As for the thing previously discussed, well, with my memory being what it... um... I was saying something... anyway, I've no idea what you're talking about. But, I love surprises (actually, I hate them -- but I do love presents). I would actually subject myself to the email route if I could get at my mail from here! In lieu of other alternatives, Jess
::hugs huggery huggestness::
And I'm looking forward to being pounced on with fond anticipation...
no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-28 07:47 pm (UTC)70s porn star buddha is a wise, wise porn star.
<3, sam
Re:
Date: 2003-05-29 06:05 am (UTC)Yes, the rodent-with-RPG really appealed to me. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-06-06 11:48 am (UTC)Lots more.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-09 08:42 am (UTC)I'm glad you're better. But I think we all like you best when you're bad.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 05:13 pm (UTC)Wait. Minders? Minders? Minders!?!
::jumping up and down hugging long-lost stalker::
Yay!!!
How is the TWoP Ten List these days?
no subject
Date: 2003-06-17 06:41 am (UTC)But now everyone has these Nice Shiny LJ's, so I got one too, and you came back the same week, so I feel better.
(Wish I'd read the rest of the comments more carefully -- I live in Boston and wanted to go the parade but didn't wanna go by myself!)