rusty_halo

Another stressful day. Last night I was on the phone with my dad and brother from about 8pm to 1am. Turns out the way my brother installed Windows XP (way back when he set up my computer) prevented me from downloading Windows updates, which prevented me from installing the patch to fix the security vulnerability. So I had the worm that everyone else has (msblast) and apparently another one on top of that. So the hours of familial tech support involved: getting rid of the worms, changing my whole configuration to allow me to get Windows updates, trying to get the updates and discovering that one worm was still there, finally actually getting the updates, then running Norton and having it say no viruses. But the worm is still there. Gah. *kills Microsoft, and Norton, and virus writers everywhere*

I'm going to download the Symantec removal tool when I get home. *crosses fingers*

Then when I came in to work today, my boss announced that our biggest web client is going to leave us. It's not our fault; they've got some fancy new program to integrate their website with their entire book database and have it all in one place, so they won't need us for anything except design. (Right now we run their whole site from our own database). So my boss was all upset, and talking to me about what we can do, and what if all our publishing clients move on to programs like this, blah blah blah. I had some suggestions, but basically I think he just wanted to complain. It makes me particularly nervous because my coworker is gone all week, so I have to deal with my boss alone. And because if we keep losing clients, I could lose my job, and that would, y'know, suck. (I think we should move into other areas--yeah, publishers might not need us, but plenty of places still need database-driven websites.)

The new roommate came by yesterday and dropped off her deposit, so that's a relief. (Please let this work out!) I'm glad I don't have to keep putting up ads everywhere. Although she's really strange: she's all dour and suspicious and she doesn't smile. But then, I usually don't smile either, so I guess I shouldn't complain. (But I was trying to be all friendly and stuff, and I know I'm not that good at it, but she could've at least tried to smile back.) I don't think she's the type who wants to be friends; she's obviously just in it for the location and the room. That's okay; I'm not really looking for a friend either. But it would've been nice to be friendly, like I am with my current roommate. We don't hang out, but we say hi when the other one walks in the door, that kind of thing.

And I'm really, really worried about school starting in September. And graduating, and maybe finding another job, and maybe having to move. But I'm really trying not to think about that right now, because it'll make my brain explode if I dwell on it too long.

Anyway, I know it could be worse. In much better news, I've been compiling a big list of stories to archive, and I just contacted a bunch of the authors, and now their confirmations are coming in. Which means I'll have a whole ton of good stuff to archive in the next few days. The new server has been going fine, so as long as it stays that way (*knocks on wood*) I should be able to get a lot done. Speaking of which, I need to go send out my "daily update," that I haven't sent in like four days.

While I was reading fic, I had such difficulty deciding what to archive. I think I've gotten so into fanfic that I can't tell what I'm doing anymore, like what's good and what isn't. Like, is this a PWP, or a beautifully written character exploration? I've read so much fic that I'm losing all perspective as to what's 'in character' or not. It's like, I'll think something is a reasonable extrapolation of the character, but then I've probably read hundreds of other fanfic stories that built up that possibility in my mind in a way that someone who's only seen the show wouldn't see at all. Like, I imagine

jaydk reading it and being horrified at the out-of-character-ness. (She's a stickler for canon). Or I imagine my mom stumbling across it and going "Oh my god, this doesn't make any sense at all! And it's porn!" (My mom recently went back to Indiana, where I grew up, and saw my best friend from when I was seven, who's a really serious Christian now, and gave her my website address). Anyway, it's weird. I'm not sure where to draw the line. But I do tend to be infinitely more forgiving when the language used is beautiful or interesting.

And now, back to work ....