What I’ve been up to lately

[rusty_halo]

* Went to DragonCon in Atlanta.

* Went to Istanbul for the Dunnett Seige of Constantinople.

* Went to Las Vegas for work (ugh, ugh, ugh).

* Went to Rio to visit chenanceou for Thanksgiving week–was so lovely to see her.

* Am now officially sick of traveling.

* Worked incessantly at an extreme level of stress. Achieved a major milestone in a project I’ve been working on for a very long time and got nothing but grief for it. Realizing that politics is more important than skill. Really, really stressed about that.

* Had a terrifying health scare with my cat Angel, which I don’t want to talk about. She is doing much better now. Sitting on my lap as I type.

* Fannishly: am trying to keep up with DW, LJ, and certain Tumblrs. Not succeeding. Occasionally reading Loki fanfic. Still haven’t watched this week’s episode of SPN.

* Listening to Nick Cave and Coil.

* Pretty much all my thinky thoughts are about work, because I’m there constantly and it’s what I spent all my time and energy on. Even almost all of my social relationships are with work people now. There’s a ton of meta I’d like to write about how office culture, about power, politics, image, the blurred line between personal and professional. About how I’m struggling to navigate it, what I’ve learned, what I’m stuck and can’t figure out.

I’m scared to write about it, even behind friends-lock, because this job is serious business and being found out would equal being fired. I really miss you guys and wish I could talk to you about it.

* I’m supposed to be working right now. (It’s 10pm on a Sunday). Time becomes so precious when you have so little of it. Fixing typos and editing my writing takes a backseat. But my inner grammar fanatic cries every time.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[rusty_halo]

Thank you!

Istanbul was really interesting. I didn't love it like London or Paris, but it had amazing aspects. The basilica cisterns with their medusa head columns were beautiful and eerie, and the archaeological museum had amazing Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art. The history is fascinating and everywhere--the old city walls, the ancient streets, the hippodrome, the mosques at every turn.

Negatives were the lack of safety regulations, the animals roaming freely, that in many areas I felt very self-conscious as a woman alone, lack of decent vegan food at the group events (it was fine striking out on my own), and (recurring theme) not really knowing anyone in the group. (Some were really nice and made an effort, which I appreciated. Some not so much--one woman basically told me "that's just because you're young" every time I spoke.)

For a Lymond group, there was very little actual Lymond talk. The tour guides hadn't read the books, and most of the people seemed burned out on actually discussing the novels after all these years. The fannish culture clash was also unpleasant--someone told me they don't use tumblr because they're not "techie"! These days my fannish experience is all based around fic, vids, gifsets, picspams, squee, and meta--a fandom based in YahooGroups feels like the dark ages.

[alpheratz]

Wow, sounds like a mixed bag. It's good that the destination itself was someplace worth going just for its own sake, not just because of its connection to a book series.