I hate teeth and in-laws.

My tooth is apparently abscessed. To deal with the pain, i am taking vicodin. As a result, I don't know when I'll be able to update my fic(s). It's very difficult to write when I'm all disconnected from reality. Can't afford to fix it. Oh well...will put it on the credit card, like everything else. *sigh*

So I went to my inlaws for lunch today. We do this every saturday, and sometimes Tuesdays too. John likes to cook for us, and I like to let him. I've never liked him very much for lots of reasons, but we get along well enough and he's a good cook. One of the reasons I never liked him was because he was an alcoholic. That in and of itself is nt enough t omake me dislike aperson. The hell he put my Jaime through though...that's more than enough reason. A few months ago, he was kicked out of the house because he wouldn't stop drinking. Darla took him back though and he's been sober ever since.
Well, in a sense. He's not drinking anymore.
Apparently, he's been abusing pain killers for the past few months. I didn't even notice, until today. He was moving very slowly. Painfully so. He wasn't talking, or when he did try to talk, he only spoke in half sentences. It took him 15 minutes to slice a dozen eggs in two for the deviled eggs. Meanwhile, me and Jaime look on in awkward silence. Darla left the house in tears. I was completely confused and freaked out.
Anywho, it was extremely freaky and uncomfortable, and I do not want to be put in that situation again. *sigh* I'm supposed to meet the inlaws on Wednesday for lunch and a trip to the museum. Jaime assures me that John does his bestto "be well" when he's around me, so I guess I'll give it a shot, on the condition his mother drives. I don't want to deal with him by myself though. I don't wantto deal with it at all.

My Most Recent Rant on the State of Fanfic.

You know what bothers me? When I read a fic that comes highly recommended or has glowing reviews, and it sucks. A lot. For a long time, this completely baffled me. Was I so out of touch with what is considered good?! I mean, I consider myself fairly well-read. Not as well-read as some, but I'm no slacker. I'm an English major, and I'm doing splendidly in my classes, thankyouverymuch. I'm not saying this to be a snob, but to point out that I literally live to read and write. Really. It's what I want to do with the rest of my life. It's all I do with my spare time. Metaphors make me all hot and bothered. A book rich with symbolism is like porn to me.
So what the hell was I missing? What the hell am I missing still?
Because there is still mediocre fic being lauded out there, even by people I respect. I mean, there are some fanfic authors more popular than "real" authors--and I just don't think they're that good....my confusion abounds.
Now, I have a working theory, but that doesn't apply across the board. My theory is mainly for all the awful fic on FF.net. Quite simply, the majority of the people who read and post there simply do not read a lot of non-fanficfic. They don't know what is well written. They don't know what a story should be or could be. They just don't have the education, and so really can't be expected to write great stories or recognize great stories.
But that theory doesn't really apply to every fanfic writer and reader, right? Of course not. So what else is going on?
I have another working theory. In this theory, the author only needs to write one good fanfic. This fanfic needs to be so good that even the big readers are suckered in. This fanfic needs to be so good that readers feel that the author is a kindered spirit--somehow said author captured something beautiful and elusive and shared it with the rest of the fans and they all responded. And it was a wonderful thing. Now, the ones who also work within my first theory are also suckered in, completely and utterly bowled over. So then the author has a huge fanbase, who will keep coming back. They will keep coming back even if the followup efforts don't knock them on their ass. Why? Because there's always a possibility that the author will write something amazing, truly amazing, again, and they want to be there when it happens.
So then I come along, and hear that this new story is absolutely amazing. I read it, and I'm less than impressed. And because it's the first one I've read by that author, I miss the intial rush. ANd because of that, I'm less forgiving than everybody eles. Or alternately, I catch the initial rush, but it's simply not enough to keep me interested when the following fics just aren't up to par.
I guess what I've just described is a cult of personality.
And I'm not impressed.
Especially when authors start relying on their popularity to carry them through, and give up turning out work of quality. People are going to read it anyway, right? why keep putting the effort into it...Why indeed.
Ok, that's my ramble. Hope it made sense.

New Video

Well, this is my first video since installing my DVD rom. I'm kinda just experimenting, so all the source is from Restless. The song is "Other Side" by the Chilli Peppers.
Hope you enjoy it.
http://www.pepperverse.net/vidlist.htm (It's the first vid on the list)

A Step by Step Guide to Ripping Source From DVDs.

I thought I'd write something up for those interested in doing this.
http://www.pepperverse.net/ripping.htm