sundries

[rm]

We are currently in Spring Lake, NJ. We've just walked around to get the lay of things (the main town, the beach) and bought a bottle of wine. Now we're hiding out in the room a bit because we're tired and trying to decide on where to go to dinner. Everything is awesome. After dinner it's jacuzzi time followed by meteor watching.

I finished my WIAD story! On the train. That was a little scary. On the other hand, it occurs to me that I tend to do the Torchwood work I'm the most happy with when I'm traveling. I think it's the intersection of newness, memory and longing. Have I mentioned how excited I am to be heading to Chicago next week? I think that's where I first really, really got a handle on Jack, and to be frank it feels like home to that him/me, when I take my shoes off in Millenium Park at night and pace around in the grass. The terrible thing about writing of any sort is the way talking about writing makes everything uncomfortable in relation to everything else.

Every night, once we're in bed and the lights are out, Patty and I wind up having long conversations about our day. Often, we go over the same things we went over while cooking or watching TV or tidying up, but in the dark, the conversations are different. The day is surrendered and it's easier to talk about why it was annoying, than merely that it was. Last night, I tried to explain what Chernobyl seemed like in the media here when I was a teen. Lately, I've also been nattering to her about various fanfiction processes related to Jack.

In the dark, particularly (since I can do this whenever at at will since I am always, always telling you a story about something passing out of the world), my speech gets romantic, wistful, and I'll realize suddenly, I've just mused on Jack's loneliness to her for five or ten minutes. And it's all lovely and beautiful, but she's not even in the fandom. But she says she likes all my stories or all my talking to her about stories, and it feels so nice, not just because she is gentle with me and my obsessions, but with fiction writing is all we have. There is no other mode of affection or consolation that can be engaged in with characters. And so when she doesn't mind these meanders I get on to, I think I am doing it right, and it feels like a kindness all the way around.

I don't normally talk about these things because somewhere someone is wanking, but I write stuff, and I'm odd, and Patty's out on the deck studying for her comps, and hey, why not. My life is lovely, and the weird stuff I carry around with me is part of why.

Oh hey, she's done. Off to dinner. Have some links and stuff:

The Common Application, a group that facilitates college apps for hundreds of institutions (all new to me, none of this existed when I applied to uni), may add gender options on its application forms (in addition to biological sex choices required by the federal government, a move that could have a significant impact on genderqueer and trans students.

In Accra, Ghana, is a graveyard where computers go to die. People, often children, scavenge the dump for the valuable metals within the machines, often setting them on fire to aide in extraction. The soil is consequently filled with poisons.

I may be about to take a whole 'nother "rip it up and start over" stab at the Jack/Auggie fic, not because what I have can't be made to work (it can, which is new) but because I've got a new idea for the angle of approach on this thing and I want to see what will happen. Fucking A.

Comments

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

When I applied to grad school, there was one university where the options where Male/Female/Unknown. I never quite figured out how to take that. Were they aiming for 'Decline to State' and missed? Were they mocking people wanting 'Other'?

While I think there's great symbolic value in adding more options to the Common App, I'm having trouble seeing how it benefits students given that there's an 'additional information' section already. (There is also a preferred name question.) It might make housing easier, but housing only comes up after admission. It tacitly encourages people to list their legal sex, which only benefits the student inasmuch as it might save FAFSA headaches. (I'm not sure what happens if you tick one box on the application and another on the FAFSA. I think you may need to tick your legal sex on the FAFSA to avoid Selective Service headaches.*) Maybe it blunts the blow of ticking the wrong box, if you get to tick the right one immediately afterwards.

*Which you quite possibly get anyway.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Ooh, there's a meteor shower tonight? What time/direction?

We're home from Pennsic, and our apartment complex could be an excellent viewing spot. (Dark, park-like, grassy and comfy.)

[miep.livejournal.com]

are you sure there was no common app? It was old news when I was applying in '93 for the 94-95 school year... Perhaps not as old as I'd been given to think.

[rufus.livejournal.com]

I had it to, at least theoretically, when I was starting my applications back in 1993. I don't remember it being specifically old news, though, more like something that was gradually being widely adopted. I think a few of the schools I applied to MIGHT have had a Common App option, but most of them were still insisting on their own custom app.

[rm.livejournal.com]

There was no common app when I was applying in 1989 for 1990.

[miep.livejournal.com]

huh. I was given to believe it had been in use for a longer time than that.

[miep.livejournal.com]

It was there, but it was probably not being used by any of the school to which you were applying. Not all the colleges I was interested in used it, but I only applied to schools that did; all of them were smaller liberal arts colleges. more info here.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ah, I applied to Northwestern, Syracuse, American, GWU, Hampshire and a bunch of SUNYs. None of them used it at that time.

[rufus.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Spring Lake. My grandparents used to live there. I was so, so, sad when they sold that house. Have fun at the beach!

[bitsyrant.livejournal.com]

I used to vacation in Spring Lake all the time with my parents when I was younger. It is (was?) nice and quiet. I'm not a huge fan of crazy boardwalks, just serene beachy times.

I also do the late night musings on loneliness but I'm always talking about the Doctor. I can't imagine why...

[rm.livejournal.com]

Still nice and quiet. I have family who live and/or summer in the area (Bradley Beach and here) as we actually lived out here when I was a baby, but I don't remember it. Spent a lot of time here as a kid, so it's always slightly strange to be back here with Patty. But it's so civilized.

And so, so glad you get it, because there's only so much time I can spend being all "I AM NOT A SNAPE WIFE!" At least it's funny.

[skelody.livejournal.com]

RE: Common app -- I think I'm with the second commenter on that article, worried rather than hopeful. It seems like a juicy opportunity for colleges to quietly discriminate on basis of gender identity.

[natf.livejournal.com]

I think I may have missed something. Who is Auggie? An OC?

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's a crossover story with Covert Affairs.

[natf.livejournal.com]

Ah - that explains it. I have not seen that and so have skimmed those parts of your posts.

[wynkat1313.livejournal.com]

Don't know if your gluten issue go beyond food, but I just found a website that offers a listing of gluten free personal care products and thought you might be interested:

http://www.refreshinglyfree.com/Online-Catalog/Wheat-and-or-Gluten-Free-Products