Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 09:26 pm
So, it's last Wednesday, and less than ten minutes after [livejournal.com profile] aelfgyfu_mead submits her fascinating Demons pre-Chaucer ME meta for [livejournal.com profile] redial_the_gate, our phone lines go dead.

And stay dead.

At 11 p.m., this can be kinda creepy.

We eventually discover that the phone company was working on the lines in the neighborhood and accidentally messed something up with ours. We'll have our phone lines back by morning, they assured us.

Well, we did. But what we didn't have was our DSL line back... until this afternoon.

I'm leaving tomorrow to go up north with the family for a six-day vacation, most emphatically internet-free. I'm unfazed by that. So why did these unexpected six days of no internet access drive me so insane?

Er, I'd probably prefer it if you didn't offer any hypotheses to that question. :)

But I logged on today and found 82 messages in my in-box, and skip=175 on my flist. And that's just a little too much for me. I'm going to bounce off and eagerly read Aelf's meta and the comments, and catch up on last week's discussion on Demons (including the hilarious segue into canon vs. fanon and Jack's knees, because some people have no patience ::bg::), and read this week's Redial post; but if you've posted something this week that you think I'll enjoy, please comment here with a link!

Now, I know that for some people, skip=175 is normal for a regular weekend, or even overnight. But not for me. It's another reason why I'm eagerly waiting for Dreamwidth to debut: the plan to split a "friends list" into two, a "watch" list and a "trust" list. I trust everyone who ever reads my posts, because I never flock posts to begin with. The only exceptions to that rule are the organization posts for the Sam and Hammond alphabet soups, and a few private mod discussions for [livejournal.com profile] redial_the_gate before we set up an admin discussion community. But I've always treated my flist as my reading list, and it's gotten too overwhelmingly long.

So, for the first time ever, I'm going to be defriending people. I hate the term, and I hope I've made it clear that it's not a question of trust or dislike; it's a question of my treating LJ almost exclusively as my Stargate fandom place. With very few exceptions, my flist consists of people who are active on the gen side or meta side of the fandom. I tend to be very mono-fannish, too. So while I cheer (and admire!) other people's ability to enjoy mutliple fandoms, I don't really have the time - or inclination - to read about it on my flist SG-1 reading page.

My profile page reads, "Friend and defriend as you will!" And I mean that. If I defriend you, it's not out of dislike or distrust - it's because your posts are either mostly non-SG-1 related, or relate to aspects of SG-1 that don't interest me. My own posts are always public, and I welcome anyone to read them, whether they drop by when they feel like it or comment (and argue) on every single post. If you think I've defriended you by mistake, and that you do post about SG-1 stuff that I enjoy, please drop me a line and say so. And while you're all more than welcome to stick around, I always grant full amnesty to anyone who gets a little overwhelmed by my rather single-minded brand of squee. :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 06:33 pm (UTC)
Eeep! Phone company wasn't very nice to you!

I was wondering why you were being quiet but figured it was just that "busy August" thing you alluded to earlier.

Have fun on your vacation though! We'll be excited to have you back again.

(and, yeah, I just did my own mini flist cleaning because I was coming home every day to skip=20 or 40 and just couldn't handle it. I understand).

[um, I finished my remix fic. It's here (http://abyssinia4077.livejournal.com/246727.html) but I'm not sure if you'd like it or not. It's Teal'c-based but is partially about his relationships with other Jaffa (Shau'nac, Drey'auc, Ishta, Va'lar) - totally not explicit but may or may not be your thing)

*dances dance of joy for Fig being back and sends you off for awesome family vacation. safe travels!*
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:24 pm (UTC)
Thanks for the links! I'll check them out, if there's time between packing and who-knows-what-else. :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 06:34 pm (UTC)
Um, I found the missing scenes from Season 7 and 8 (again...skiffy keeps hiding them to make my life miserable) and listed them.

And I found a funny team vid and rec'ced that.

And I whined about all my WIPs. And I gave up on trying to be caught up from my vacation, but I will get to your lovely Hammond fics someday...really!

Oh yeah, just try to defriend me. I stalk, er, spam, er, see! you all over the internet anyway. Heh.

P.S. We got a second redial meta for FiaD today! Whee!

ETA: Oh yeah, and safe and happy vacationing!!!!!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:25 pm (UTC)
Are these missing scenes also included in the DVDs, or only available from skiffy?

We will stalk each other all over the internet! And then there will be cake. Kosher. :)

Yay for more meta!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 09:18 pm (UTC)
Missing Scenes only on SciFi's website.

Have you not seen them before?! There's one of Arrom that you HAVE TO SEE! RIGHT NOW!!!! RIGHT NOW!!!!ELEVENTY!!!!!

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, I watched Continuum finally. Yay me!

Mmm, kosher cake!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 09:31 pm (UTC)
Oh, I'm pretty sure I've seen some of them. Arrom and story guy, right? And Bra'tac in the food line with the team? But making sure I get them all saved to my hard drive - well worth the effort, if they're not on the DVDs.

Continuum! Woot! :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 06:36 pm (UTC)
Wow - I went all of 6 hours with my internet and I became so twitchy, it was rather embarrassing. I applaud your ability to cope!

Have a fantastic time on vacation!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:26 pm (UTC)
I'm offline regularly Fridays and Saturdays. I think it was the involuntary aspect that drove me insane!

I hope I'll have a good time, too. :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 06:48 pm (UTC)
I can go a day, maybe two without internet - after that I'd start to feel pretty concerned. Six? No way!
What's this mean? "I never flock posts to begin with" I'm still not up on all the LJ talk...
(If my phone line went dead late at night, I'd probably end up sitting by the door with a baseball bat all night ; )
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 06:53 pm (UTC)
Down at the bottom where you post messages, you have the option to post the entry publicly, meaning any one and everyone can read it, Friends only, where only people YOU have friended (as opposed to people who've "friended" you) can read the entry, or post it privately. (There's also a custom version too)

When fig's talking about "flocking"--she means the post is "friends locked"--the friends only option. If you look at a friends locked post, you'll see there's a little padlock icon at the top of the entry.

I'm embarrassed to confess how long it took me to figure out flist was "friends list". I kept pronouncing it as one word and going what's a "phl-st"?
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 07:24 pm (UTC)
I'm embarrassed to confess how long it took me to figure out flist was "friends list".
Whew! I'm so glad I'm not the only one! When I finally figured it out, I did a total face-palm.
Thanks for the info! I wondered about the little padlock. I knew it did that when I posted things just for myself,for editing, but I wasn't sure how I was seeing other people's posts with a padlock.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:28 pm (UTC)
Really, it took me the longest time to figure out that "flock" had nothing to do with birds, so don't feel bad. :)
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 08:59 am (UTC)
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who had issues with the LJ language they seem to have going on here.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 11:53 am (UTC)
Thank you for explaining what flock means :) I'm always last to know.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 06:57 pm (UTC)
Have a great vacation! (I've just barely got caught up from a week away on vacation w/o internet, so I feel your pain!)

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:30 pm (UTC)
Thanks! :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 06:58 pm (UTC)
Welcome back! Forcibly deprived of internet is very different from voluntarily so, and that's just all there is to it. One is distinctly more like withdrawal than the other. *chuckle*

And keep me "friended" or not, as your need dictates. My flist is getting similarly unwieldy so I understand and sympathize!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:30 pm (UTC)
::nods:: I think that's it - the forced deprivation, vs. the voluntary absence. We'll see what I say next Tuesday, when I get back. ;)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 07:03 pm (UTC)
i feel your pain. do with me what you will. i'm facing the same issues myself.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:31 pm (UTC)
And miss out on "I heart fandom. That is all" and all your meta? ;)
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 02:58 pm (UTC)
hee hee! I'm glad you're around, too.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 07:14 pm (UTC)
Repeat after me: Filters are your friend! :D Seriously, I have my flist all split up into filters, so I can just read the icon comm, or just the military stuff, or just my "core" friends, or just the stargate comms...etc. It's especially great when I go on vacation and don't have time to read everything, but still want to stay in the loop on the important stuff.

But, you gotta do what you gotta do. I think everyone understands that!

Have a wonderful and relaxing vacation!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:28 pm (UTC)
Agreed; filters are win!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:32 pm (UTC)
The thing is, though, that everything I read would more or less fall into the same filter, so there's not much point. I did say I tend to mono-fannishness... :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 07:52 pm (UTC)
Aww man, I meant to post the link to my cranky medievalist meta on "Demons" when that post came up on Redial the Gate and I totally forgot.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:02 pm (UTC)
You can still do it on the fanworks! We'd love to have it!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:02 pm (UTC)
You have a cranky medievalist meta too? Can I see? Please?
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:17 pm (UTC)
Well, I just posted the link to the "Demons" post on [livejournal.com profile] redial_the_gate, but for even faster linkage, it's here (http://tarimanveri.livejournal.com/348592.html#cutid1). It's mostly concerned with deconstructing the comment Daniel makes about "if it weren't for the dark ages..." I'd better not get started or I'll revisit the whole rant.

Edit: Or oops, that rant was for Daniel's "dark ages" comment in "Enigma." Me=idiot. Still, it is definitely cranky medievalist meta.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:33 pm (UTC)
Thank you! As Abyssis says, there is no such thing as a deadline for fanworks posts. We're glad you added the link. :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 07:59 pm (UTC)
Wondered where you'd been! I'm glad you got Internet back, but that was an awfully long time to wait!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:34 pm (UTC)
The timing was just... ARGH. You'd submitted that great meta, I was waiting to get the all-clear from the other mods, chatting with mom and suddenly - poof!

Very happy to be back. Even if it's just for a few hours before wandering off again. :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:40 pm (UTC)
Yeah, come to remember it, I was really puzzled because I thought you were going to approve it and then...it just kept sitting in the queue (so I sent it through).

Which would be why there are four of us :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 09:52 pm (UTC)
Good thing, too. :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:25 pm (UTC)
Totally understand it :;hugs::

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:34 pm (UTC)
Well, with you, I get e-mail notification any time you post anything tagged as "gen." I'm not going to let those few-and-far-between gems of yours get away. :)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 08:43 pm (UTC)
I wish I could filter out flist postings that include a certain word or phrase--like, oh, "Doctor Who" or "Torchwood"--and show me everything else...
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 09:30 pm (UTC)
If you figure out a way to filter out certain keyword postings, let me know. :)
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 09:08 am (UTC)
Evil Phone company....

Enjoy your holiday, I know what you mean and how you feel with the enforced internet outtage. It always hurts more when you don't have a choice (I could go on about our dependency on online identities to help us cope with everyday life satisfactory or not... but I won't).

ADownloadable Client (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=158) might help with the FList issues, not sure as I don't use them.

I did nothing important online...
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 01:47 pm (UTC)
Dependency on online identities? Us? ::blinks innocently::

As for a client, I use Semagic exclusively for posting, but I have no idea how it could help me deal with my flist. But thanks for the link.
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 11:00 pm (UTC)
Oh and one of my flisters from a completely different fandom saw an episode of SG1, got completely hooked and asked where to go for some good fic.

I pointed her towards you and your rec's.
Thursday, August 28th, 2008 09:08 am (UTC)
That's got to be one of the nicest compliments ever. Thank you! :)
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 11:59 am (UTC)
Enjoy the holiday.
I wish I could write more confidently. I have the half finished fic but I get a bit scared because I don't want to Mary-Sue :(
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 01:51 pm (UTC)
Betas are your friend! Try [livejournal.com profile] fandom_betas if you're actively looking - their link for SG-1 betas is here. And good luck on your fic. :)