Falling behind; must blog

[gwendolyngrace]

Well, it seemed like it was an interesting day for everyone today.

We heard this morning that someone discovered a dead body in a lab at the NRB. Male, in proximity to a hazardous chemical, but there were signs that it was either auto asphyxiation or foul play.

No more details. I may check the Globe website later.

Last night I went to the Publick House (by T for the first time, it was easy!) and met iterum, his LJ friend bluerosesgirl and her sweetie, Greg. I had a chewy stout and we had these amazing fried artichokes with a fabulous dip, and then I ordered pumpkin ravioli and they were TO DIE FOR. Bliss on a plate.

I got home at 8:45 and watched the rerun of Supernatural, including the totally squeeful promo for the episode in two weeks. (Took preliminary action collection while it was airing, but of course I need to go back with the download so I can stop/start/reverse.)

This afternoon, however? I left work a little before 4:30. Waited for a bus. The first one to come along was a 65, so I took it to Kenmore. Got on a train. Packed train. Conductor: "Attention, passengers, we're standing by. There's a disabled train ahead. We'll be the first train to move once they've cleared the track."

Wait. Train fills up more. Wait. Decide that I can get home by an alternate route if I take the 57 bus to Watertown and then a 70 or 70A along route 20. Longer walk home, but maybe home before 7 PM. So I duck off the train, go back up to the street. Wait for 57. Get on 57. About a block later, I think, "Dummy. The 57 connects to the 47. You can take that to Central like normal." So I get out at BU. Wait for 47. Go to Central, thence to Harvard, thence to 73 and home like usual. I got on the 47 at 5:06. I got home at 6:06. But man, it felt like a lot longer with all those transfers.

Meh. Home. Dinner was uninspired. I just made cookies and didn't leave them in long enough; they were more like slightly gooey, warm cookie dough. Somehow I didn't mind.

Tomorrow I shall go to Trader Joe's, get the few fresh groceries I need for my private turkey dinner, with the fixings the way I like them. There will be fic, too, or at least, writing, and I will likely post something.

Whee. Now: Babylon 5. Man, I have missed having this show.

BTW: regarding all the SPN wank? Don't really know what's going on. Don't really care. Been there, done that with Harry Potter. I'm not taking sides; I'm just going to sail through with my own little t00by love for my show. My mantra: "They're all nice folks." If you're batshit insane, dangerously psycho, or feel the need to make your drama mine, please, move along. If you want to discuss SPN, fandom in general, or meta about the dynamics of large, online groups, I can work with that.

Incidentally, dodger_winslow posted about the limitations of LJ when it comes to holding actual discussions about issues that might be controversial. So, I will say this much: I'm brave enough to host controversial *discussion* here, provided it remains civil. Meanwhile, my experience is that the best way to discourage wank is to ignore it.

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

There's wank?

...Actually, no, don't tell me. I don't want to know.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

I kind of have a third-hand, hazy sense of what's going on and I've made really no effort to clarify myself.

People are asshats, basically.

[zsof.livejournal.com]

Please esplain for me, Lucy.....what's SPN?

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

The CW's Supernatural, which is an AWESOME TV show and full of brotherly snark and the pretty and if you have not yet discovered it you totally should.

So there.

Just, apparently the fandom is undergoing a growing pain.

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

I spent most of my lunch hour and a goodly chunk of time last night putting together (in Word) a loooong post about lack of respect for others - and then decided not to post it, because regardless of what my intentions are, it'd likely bring a firestorm down on my head. Mostly because (as it seems to me) there's a hideous lack of respect for others happening these days, and the anonymity of the Internet just encourages it. I'm considering dropping out of a number of comms, at least for the time being, and just sticking with the personal journals of people I know reasonably well, so that my Friends page isn't larded to the gills with stuff that bugs the hell out of me.

Yes, perhaps the best way to react to wank is to ignore it, but the "elder stateman" in me gets horribly upset that the offensive stuff does get ignored, and is therefore allowed to proliferate. Dodger and I have an ongoing chat about what used to be a minority in fandom is now a majority, and that just spins our heads around. But what to do about it? The people responsible won't listen to dissenting opinions. They're willing to take no kind of a critical look at what they're doing. Which I find terribly disheartening. The weeds are taking over the garden. That gets tough to ignore.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Oh, believe me, I get that. In the HP fandom, I'm in a (couple different) positions of relative authority, relative because really, how can one be in "authority" over a fandom where anyone can pick up and go start something new, but in my case, there's real money and contracts and people's scope of participation involved, so there've been times when I or my associates *HAD* to get involved and wade in hip-deep in order to preserve even our corner of the intarwebs.

I've also been standing slightly to the side of ground zero on a couple HP wanks of disproportionate size, and it's NOT FUN. Even though the actual subject matter doesn't apply to me, I've been judged by association--in one case over something someone *didn't* do and in one case over something people *thought* someone did and in one case over something someone *actually did*--and it's, well, it's easy to get dragged into the middle.

Especially when trying to be the voice of reason.

But y'know? Ultimately even the people who "are taking over" will be unable to sustain their dominance. It strikes me that *most* wank (not all, but an astonishing lot) centres around cults of personality, whether invited or not. In my experience, there's usually one or two people who are at the centre of the wank and are either trying to gather up defenders and adherents or they're wildly trying to protect a damaged reputation over some perceived slight.

It's unfortunate that very often, the *sane* people are the ones who wind up going away before things are over, because, well, let's face it, we don't have as much tolerance for the insanity. We get tired of it and we have the sense to go in out of the rain, as it were.

But pretty much every time that happens, the sane people kind of stick around or at least keep an eye on the weather. Sometimes we wind up carving out a new niche. Sometimes we just stick to the neutral areas and ride out the storm. Sometimes, as is the case with my particular HP-related sites, the whole administrative team as a body is smart enough to say, "Not our problem; moving on" and by being the people who ignore the collateral damage, *become* the haven where people wind up going. Or at least, if not the haven, enough of a constant that people know what they can expect if they go there. And some people don't come back, and no matter what, some people will decide that Site A is OMG Horrible and Site B is OMG Wonderful and whether or not they're right, that's the perception they'll perpetuate.

Watching the collateral damage mount up and the body count climb is really, really hard. But here's the other thing about that: Generally speaking, unless someone is already one of those central players, the only way to become a casualty in a wank war is to fire a volley or respond to a salvo.

In other words: "The Only Winning Move is Not To Play."

And once again, everything I need to know I learned from the movies. Where's Dean?