DesertBus is over the for the year. They hauled in a very modest 132,067.94 over 5 days and some-odd hours for Child's Play, an amazing jump from last year's total. Their livestream was pretty much all I was watching/listening to the past few days between the hours of sleep and work. It was fun.

All right, I need to go back to bed and try to get a few more hours to sleep. Tonight into tomorrow morning is going to be loo~oong, and I need me some ZZZs.

Am going in at 2000 tonight, because if last night was any kind of indication, I need to go in early just so I have time to help pull the bags so I can have everything broken down and counted before L-- comes in at 0430-ish. I absolutely have to be done by then because L-- has to be finalized by (preferably before) 0700, and Be-- and I have to start pulling excess cash from the registers at 0630. And everyone who works out on the floor has to be ready and in position by 0200; so early lunches for everyone.

So, going in 2 hours early, and I have no idea when I'll be getting off. I'm glad overtime is approved this week.

Oh yeah
Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Article I read over at the Escaptist whilst streaming DesertBus the other night. The sad truth about Twilight's popularity is that it didn't have to happen.

Oddly enough, maderr and I had a slightly similar conversation regarding readers of slash and why they're so willing to throw down money on even the bad publications--ones that they know are bad, admit are bad, but will pay good money to support anyway. Writers aren't held to any kind of standard or expectation; hell, they mock and hold in contempt those like me who stand by the standards set by het romances and hold m/m romances to those same standards. And they'll feed you every line in the book by way of justifying and excusing themselves, most of which are pretty half-assed.

So many of the m/m stories out there receive similar reactions and acclamations as Twilight, yet when you read them, all you find is a lot of drivel posing as plot mixed in with a lot of graphic, btdt sex scenes, and let's throw in a totally irrelevant argument and/or rape scene just to really mix things up and keep things interesting. Stories that boast character-driven plot that turn out to be little more than sex-romps. Authors lauded as brilliant writers, who can barely manage to string an unfragmented sentence together. Stories hailed as original and provocative, but it's just the same as every other vampire, pirate, or sex-slave/harem story that's out there.

Are m/m readers really that desperate for validation? Do we need it that badly that we'll support every writer and every book, no matter how poorly written or executed? No matter how trite or substandard the plot? When do we start holding our authors to account? Why don't we already?

Being a reader and lover of m/m romance does not mean you have to purchase, read, and support every m/m author and book out there. There are het romances I will never read, authors I refuse to read because their stories or writing were horrid, and books I have quit halfway through because they were godawful and not worth my time.

I do not see this same prejudice for m/m fiction. Every book is wonderful and amazing, every author brilliant, every story original and insightful and just a great read. That's no less naive a sentiment than Twilight fans who think Stephanie Meyer wrote the goddamn book are vampires, and sparkly vampires are the shit, and ZOMG there are werewolves! That's totally an unforeseen plot twist, ooh...

Do not be content to accept whatever pitiful scraps are tossed your way as the best there is. Readers need to have some standards, authors need to be held to some sort of account. Call bullshit when you read it, and don't be afraid to write a bad review. The genre will be a lot better for it.

Caught Nickel and Bitbit skulking by the pantry door - and then I realized I could hear the sound of something dropping, over and over, like they kept picking something up and dropping it again. Except, the cats didn't have anything. When I opened the pantry door, I saw a pretzel by what we always suspected was a mousehole. It had been trying to get the pretzel into the hole while the cats were wishing they could get into the pantry to get the mouse :3 I shall have to leave it open from now on, to see if they can get it. The mice went away for a bit, but I guess they're getting cocky again. Nickel and Bitbit will take care of that.

Dear computer,

You know what would be awesome? If, when I put you to sleep, you'd actually stay asleep for more than five fucking seconds before deciding that you'd rather not be asleep and pop yourself back into wakefulness--without anyone striking a key or pressing a button or moving the mouse (which I turn off to avoid such a scenario, anyway). Just please for the love of god, stay the fuck asleep so I can go to sleep.

Annoyed,
Sam

Back in Cincinnati ^___^ With jolena, yay \o/

Now we chill a bit, then we begin to figure out Thanksgiving and proceed with shopping! ^__^

Desert Bus for Hope started their run last night just before I had to go in for work. I've been viewing their live stream intermittently since the kick off. That the game was ever created is insane; that these guys will keep it rolling for 103+ hours to raise money for Child's Play is awesome and wonderful. One day I shall have enough to donate more than my piddling few dollars.

Oh. My. God.

They.. they.... they modernized Rainbow Brite!

x_________X

I think the new dolls might actually be even worse...

ahaha! I've been trying to find someone who sells these freakin' things for forever. I should've just tried ThinkGeek first.

Also, Ronnie Milsap has the best version of O Holy Night.

ahaha! I have unearthed my mother's big-ass binders of CDs. So many hours I need to spend ripping CDs. I think I'll start with the Christmas music, since that's what I'll mostly be listening to for the moment, anyway. Anyone want I should upload and share? My collection is not insignificant.

What annoys me is, I have all these Christmas CDs, and all these Faith Hill CDs, yet not a single damn one has the song Where Are You Christmas. What the fuck, yo?

Also, it is beyond ridiculous that my mother owns a copy of The Eminem Show. Just absolutely beyond. Right next to Dolly Parton, no less. ^_^

Kenny Loggins and Jimmy Buffett are not to be found amongst the ruins. These makes me sad. They both had very good Christmas albums. "Ho, ho, ho! And a bottle of rum!"

Completely un-Christmas related, I'm also missing my Best of Country Sings the Best of Disney album. Seriously, Diamon Rio sings a version of Beauty and the Beast that is to die for. And Little Texas totally rocks Kiss the Girl. (I am a country fangirl at heart; this I do not deny.)

I absolutely hate The Christmas Song. Utterly, completely, and totally. Why must everyone insist on including on their albums? -_-

2.99 gigs of Christmas music, and that's without Mannheim Steamroller and Transiberian, which I still need to dig out and rip. woo

Okay, I was in a totally shitty mood, but someone on ff.net said my DwtD reminded her of the Nero Wolfe - especially Archie Goodwin. It's not true, I'm not even a tenth that good, but it was really fucking neat to hear anyway ^_____^

I am way too obsessed with the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I finally had to make myself pretend to forget all about it, so I totally missed the new movie poster and the new trailer *_* I don't give a damn what anyone else thinks, this movie and variation on Holmes & Watson looks fucking kickass. Argh, Christmas, you are still entirely too far away.

1. Finish Addison's story
2. Transcribe epilogue of Huntsman that's been sitting in notebook forever
3. Finish setting up Embrace for print
4. Finally read The Dome. It's been sitting in the living room taunting me forever, and I really really want to read it, and argh if I can get the rest of it done, I finally can.

And hopefully in the next month or so I'll have the Midsummer stories up, and maybe find time to fix the Wick stories. And maybe finally actually write something I can put up as a freebie, since my every attempt at something cute and short and perfect winds up 50+ pages long and better off sold x.x

Can someone please tell me how to make stupid Internet Explore stop telling me that IE is operating with add-ons disabled every damn time I open a window or a new tab or refresh a page or follow a link or basically anything that does not involve leaving it sit on the same damn page and doing nothing. I nix the stupid bar, but it keeps fucking coming back, and I can't find anywhere in the options to disable the stupid notifications, and I wouldn't even be using this dumbass browser if my netbook did not insist on crashing when I open Safari.

/glower I hate this stupid fucking browser...

ETA
Yes, I know about Firefox. I used it before I switched to Safari. I'm not looking for a new browser. I just want this dumbass pre-installed IE standby to stop irritating the piss out of me while I try to make Safari be useful to me again.

I'm very curious to know why I am receiving voicemails from leftist lobyists trying to garner my support for dumbass socialist healthcare and the public option. I'm an official member of the RNC. I don't want my representatives voting for this stupid ass bill. I don't like this stupid ass bill.

If Congress is that insistant on making that my Christmas present, I'd rather just have the coal.

Stop trying to socialize the country and focus more on not turning Afghanistan into Vietman. That'd be a nice stocking stuffer.