Random Observations

1.  I spend an inordinate amount of time sorting things.  Most of my job involves sorting and organizing.  When I get home, I have to sort laundry, silverware, groceries, etc.  I am just a biologically based sorting engine.

2.  Free time escapes faster than work time.  If I sit down to work on something at work, chances are I will finish in a fairly timely manner. (Phone calls and meeting room bookings notwithstanding.)  If I sit down to work at my desk at home, a million other squirrels will appear and need to be chased. 

3. Working out really does feel good.  Not so much when you first start, but by the time it's done, you feel a lot better about yourself.  Like you accomplished something.

4. Laundry expands so that you never really get done with it.  Laundry is an ongoing battle.

5. When we are resolved to eat healthy foods, the grocery list becomes longer and more complicated.

6. I admired James Spader's acting even before he started doing the Blacklist, wherein he wears a Fedora a lot.  (Did I mention I really like Fedoras?) (And though I am OVERJOYED that Ron Perlman will be on the Blacklist next Sunday, WHY has there been no Shatner?  Shatner and Spader play off one another SO well.)  (Hello, Boston Legal?)

* Ron being on the Blacklist is what has motivated me to start catching up on the episodes I have missed.  Thanks again, Mr. P, for helping me find a good show!

7.  Stay away from Pinterest if you are on a diet.  People persist in posting really good-sounding, EASY, decadent dessert recipes.  I have tried a few.  They ARE good, easy, and decadent.  And they will make you fat.

8.Even among geeks and nerds, I'm a misfit.  I and my obessive fandoms do not fit neatly into anyone's idea of what a geek girl is like.  I have MANY areas in which I have a generous amount of knowledge and experience, (like baking, cross-stitch embroidery, Star Trek TOS, gardening...) I do not specialize in one category of geek behavior.  Also, I can interact with Mundanes without anxiety on either side. According to the book Geek Girls Unite!  I am even atypical in my music geekness.  I like a wide variety of stuff, from grand opera to Sinatra, to bluegrass, to Scottish folksongs, to some current pop music.

9. Once you start collecting Pop vinyl figures and Gipsy Danger figures, you can't stop.  There are now three Gipsy Danger figures in my office, and Two Groot figures, as well as a Rocketeer, a Clay Morrow Pop vinyl, and action figure, and a Pop vinyl Iron Giant.  (Of course, my husband has the 18" Gipsy Danger, and she's in the living room!)

10.  A random tweet from someone you admire can brighten your whole day.  Even if they tease you about your typos in said tweet.

11.  A hug from Matthew can fix almost anything.  And he can nearly ALWAYS get me to smile, and laugh, even.

12. Some people are so organized that they really are ready to file their taxes in January.  This is why they get upset that we have no tax forms at the library until February.  I don't even have my W-2 forms yet, people, nor the interest reports we will need.  (Also, if I'm going to pay, I'm gonna keep that money earning interest in MY bank account as long as I can before I send it to Uncle.) We do have an accountant, and she's worth her fee, because we have gotten refunds most years that are more than her fee.  (Also, her fee is cheaper than a penalty if we screw up)

13. I am reluctant to number any substantive point in this post 13.  I guess I have a bit of latent Triskadecaphobia.  

14.  My obsession with office supplies must mark me as a partial Luddite.  I love technology, and use quite a lot of it, but I sit here in an office that has no less than two mugs full of pens, half of them fountain pens, and two mugs full of pencils, half of them drawing and colored pencils.  (Oh, and one pencil has a pewter dragon sitting on top of it, with its tail curled around the pencil, and one has a plastic Garfield on top, and another has Odie.)  There are also styli that go with my touchscreens hiding out in at least two of those mugs.  There's another mug full of bookmarks.  I do an awful lot of my reading on my tablets now.  Ebooks.  No bookmarks needed.  Yet, I have a collection. As for other office supplies, there are drawers and shelves filled with paper, stationery, card stock, paperclips, ink, stamp pads, decorative stamps, tape, and calligraphy pens. 

15.  No matter when I start these blog posts, I never seem to finish them until fairly late at night.  On rare occasions they will get themselves written earlier, but not often. 

Miscellaneaous Day

Today has been very miscellaneous.  A lot of my days are.  
Today was about cleaning the house in a hurry before work.
It was also about getting my walk in so I would at least have SOME exercise to my credit today.  Besides, it was beautiful out this morning.  My walk was as usual, a very uplifting experience.  This is just a typical middle-class neighborhood, maybe verging more on working class, but it's nice, most places well kept, and many have lovely gardens.  Many people wave to me and smile.  They see me all the time, after all.  Some even remember me from the library.
I have a large collection of music I listen to when I walk.  This week I added three volumes of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits to the mix.  Now I have more to think about when I walk whenever one of his comes up on the mix. 

Work was busy, as we are only in the second official day of Summer Reading Sign Ups.  Lots of kids, parents, grandparents.  Lots of things checking in because this is also fine forgiveness week.  Lots of people paying off old fines to get a fresh start for Summer Reading Season.
Lots also coming in with Friends donations.  Guess it's also the beginning of Permanent Change of Station moves for the military, and a lot of the tornado victims are moving back into rebuilt homes.  So, a lot of very interesting books are coming in for the Friends to sell.  I found several today that appeal to my eclectic interests.  1,000 Places To See Before You Die , Office Haiku , Oxford Hachette French Dictionary , The New College Latin and English Dictionary , Street French , The Book of Courtly Love , and The Intellectual Devotional .  Earlier this month, I found a copy of  Star Trek Lives , a book about fandom and conventions and one fan's experience that I read years ago.  It's great fun.  Also found an antiquated little book called The Story Of Scotland , by F. Fraser Darling  It was sold at the Burns Cottage gift shop.  Beautiful illustrations. 
So, I have gained a few treasures this week, some I went in search of, and others that I happened upon. 

I have also had some fun conversations in the last few days.  Some on Twitter, some face to face. 
The door to the staff work area was left open yet again, and my desk area is right there.  Two of the photos Ron Perlman autographed for me are facing toward the door.  (The Beauty and the Beast photo, and the photo of Ron and me from Dallas Comic Con.)  A customer had  called in the door to see if one of her hold books had arrived yet, as it was not on the hold shelf, and I happened to be right there.  She smiled and said "I love your pictures.  Especially the top one." ( Beauty and the Beast photo)  She's another BATB fan.  Not really into fandom per se, and hadn't even tried to find Ron or Linda on social media.  I told her about the pages I know about. Told her there are great BATB fan sites out there if she hadn't found them yet.    I also told her that yes, Ron Perlman is a sweetheart to his fans.  Especially those of us who've been fans for  a long time.   She said that she's always heard that about him. 

The photos I display at work are copies, by the way.  The originals are safely framed and on the walls here in my office.  I like having the photos at work to remind me that dreams do come true! 
(Also gives my boss something to tease me about.  He calls my work area "The Perlman Shrine.")

The problem with miscellaneous days like this is that my mind wanders off in all sorts of odd directions, especially if I'm trying to write.  This is rather short, and rather disjointed, but today felt very short of time and very disjointed.  Lots of stuff done, time flying by. 
Many things I think about doing and never get around to.  At least tonight I am writing, and listening to some music I really like, getting ready to go read a bit more, perhaps. 

Thanks for reading.  I do seem to have a few of you who read pretty regularly. 

The Most Fun I've Had In Years

This past weekend, I had a chance to meet some people face to face that I only interact with online.  The fact that one of them  is my favorite actor was icing on the cake.
There are about a dozen or so of us Ron Perlman fans who follow Ron on Twitter and talk to each other all the time.  He tweets us back sometimes, and it's fun for all of us.
Three of us girls met up in Dallas for the Dallas Comic Con Fan Days.  Ron was appearing at the con.  It was so much fun to meet in person and get to put voices with the faces and words we see on the screen.  (I mean, we all know what Ron sounds like, but now he knows how we sound and we know each other's voices now.)  Not that we had much time to talk to Ron, but he made what time he could for us.
Anyway, for us girls there was lots of laughter, staying up late and talking, wandering the Dealer's Room and getting separated and either DMing or calling each other to get back together.  There were little happenings that became jokes, and it was just like being a teenager again for three days. 
My poor, long suffering spouse was our "handler", keeping us from walking into people, Daleks, Hulks, and zombies.  Unfortunately, he couldn't protect Mary from Kelly's Damn You Autocorrect moment involving a certain penguin.  (You don't want to know, trust me.)

There was pizza, and a hash tag game, and way too much silliness.  It was a blast.  I laughed so hard my sides hurt, and my cheeks hurt, and my abs got a real workout.  Kelly and Mary had never been to a con before, and Matt and I hadn't been in about 30 years.  My, how technology has improved things!  The last time we went to a con, there were only a few PCs, and they were dumber than the average microwave is these days.  There were no cell phones, no tablets, and certainly no Internet. This con was a lot bigger than the last Creation Con we went to in L.A.  It was also less hectic and crowded, which is odd, since there were a LOT of people there.

In the Dealer's room, I primarily focused on acquiring buttons for my library lanyard.  (Gotta keep my Geek Girl cred current, you know?)  I got several and some to share.  I also got some movie posters. I even found an insulated cup for coffee that is cobalt blue and has the Star Trek TOS command insignia on it.  It's really neat!  Matt got a couple of really nice books and had a large Pacific Rim poster sent home.  (We didn't want it to get ruined.)
 Of course all of us girls got Ron to sign our photos.  I got one signed for a young man who works with me who is in Basic Training for the Oklahoma National Guard as I write this.  I told him I would get it for him and frame it for him so it would be safe until he got back from Basic.  He is really excited about it.  I scanned the picture and posted it to his Face Book page.  I got lots of DMs  from him, and he tweeted his thanks to Ron, also.  Hope it cheers him up when he gets bogged down in PT and training and being away from home. He won't have Internet access while he's there.  Guess I'll have to write him actual letters once they tell us where we can send them.  (It's OK, when I was really into Fandom, the U.S. Mail was the only way we had to communicate and share "text files".  These letters and stories often required extra postage, which on a typical fan's restricted budget was a bit of a burden.  This spawned many buttons and stickers that said "The Post Office is a Klingon Plot!")

The main thing I take away from this weekend is how interconnected this world has become.  Never before would it have been possible for fans and their favorites to be able to communicate like we can now.  Not all celebrities are going to be comfortable with social media, but for those that are, they can really get a sense of who their fans are, and why they are fans.  Good things to know.
I also had my good judgement confirmed.  I just knew Kelly and Mary were great people, just from conversing online.  I was right, they are great people, even more fun to talk with in person.  It's also good to have it confirmed yet again that Ron Perlman is every bit as warm, witty and charming in reality as we always suspected he was.  I cannot find the words, which for me is a bit unusual, to say how much it meant just to spend a few minutes chatting with him, and being able to tell him in person how much his online presence has cheered me up in the midst of all the stuff that has gone on this year.  Because of Ron, I have a group of friends all over the world, which means when I'm up late worried about something, SOMEBODY will be online to talk to, somebody who cares.   I have a pretty good support group here locally, but I hate to bug people with my random midnight anxieties.  Online, there's usually someone already there who won't mind chatting, and these gals usually cheer me up.  Would be great to meet all the "Perlgirls" in person.  Maybe someday. It would be one HELL of a party!

In other news,  my cell phone was in the process of dying during the con. (REALLY not a good time to have a cranky cell phone!)  It was upgrade time anyway, and so the last two days have been consumed by a learning curve for a new device.  I also have to get ready to go to my Mom's for a week.  Leaving on Saturday.  A whole week with no WiFi.  No fun.  At least my phone package is good enough that I can check my Face Book and Twitter and email regularly.  I plan to hit the library for the free WiFi when I can.  We are primarily going to do Mom's heavy yard work and to visit with her and Aunt Margaret, of course.  Geez, I may lose even more weight while on this trip.  Sure hope we can find stuff to eat that's healthy.  I can't do a bunch of fast food again.  I just bought a bunch of size 8 Levis.  I want to still fit them.
Some pictures from the weekend follow.

Thanks again, Ron, just for being your fabulous self!  We all love ya, big guy.  

 

Me and Mr. P.

Three very happy ladies and one really awesome guy.

The Penguin Picture.

(And that's all I'll say about that.)

Yeah, we're cool.

Waiting for the fun to start.

The fabulous Star Trek coffee cup, buttons, and earrings.

The picture that was signed for my coworker.

Fan Behavior

No,  I don't mean fan like ceiling fan, or exhaust fan, I mean like fanatic, faithful follower, adherent, enthusiast, groupie.
There are fans of all sorts of things out there.  Sports fans, fans of TV shows, genre fans, music fans, fans of authors, you name it.  All of these fan groups are supportive of the objects of their interest.  They buy tickets to games, movies, concerts, events where their idols appear.  They buy memorabilia, pictures, t-shirts, toys, cds, dvds, books, just about anything to support the team/show/star they are fond of.  Go to any social media site, and you will find all sorts of fans in groups, or individually, either on Face Book pages, or following their idols on Twitter, or haunting websites and chat rooms about their favorites.
Fandoms are the separate little kingdoms of each type of fan.  Star Trek fandom is probably one of the largest and most active out there, but Doctor Who fans, also known as Whovians, are a very large fandom, also. (These also overlap, Trek fans also being fond of The Doctor in many cases.)  Star Wars has a large fan base, and they are also pretty active.  Most of these fandoms are fun to participate in, and most people are nice, at least in the Star Trek fan groups I have associated with.  That being said, there are trolls everywhere.

Fandom tends to fall into two general camps overall.
FIJAGH, or "Fandom Is Just A Goddam Hobby"  - Mostly folks like my husband and I that enjoy our enthusiasm, but do not base our ENTIRE life upon the fan experience.  (Though we DID meet in a Star Trek fan club...)
and
FIAWOL - Fandom Is A Way Of Life.  These are the die-hards, the fans that live and breathe for their favorites.  Some of these people's zeal would put the most earnest missionaries to shame.  They are the fans that go to EVERY convention, the ones who have ELABORATE costumes, the ones who get a little scary to talk to sometimes...
But most people in BOTH camps are kind, generous, and caring, especially of fellow fans. 
Perhaps the kindest, most dedicated, and most true to the tenets of the program they admire are Classic Beauty and the Beast fans.  These are people who, more than 25 years after the show first aired still have an annual convention, still write and share fan fiction, are very active online, and the best thing of all, they raise money at their conventions and at Winterfest Online for charity.  Each convention chooses a worthy local charity, one that exemplifies the principles of the show, and they raise money through the dealers' room and the silent auction and straight donations to support that charity. I have not ever heard of a group of fans doing something like this with such regularity, and so generously.  This is NOT a really large group, and yet, they raise decent amounts to donate.

 I have come across few fan groups that are openly antagonistic, but you will , as I said, find "trolls" or troublemakers in almost any group.  You will find "snobs" who think THEY are more dedicated fans and therefore will not associate with "lesser" fans, but I haven't found any of those in BATB fandom.  There are a few Trek fans like that, especially  when you get proponents of different types of Star Trek together.  I like the Original Series best, but I do not DISLIKE the other series that came later.  Some of the later fans openly detest the Original Series, which to me is a bit like hating your grandparents.  You came from them, you better have some respect, 'cause everything about you started there...
Since I have been on social media and finding some of my favorite actors on line, I have seen some fans who perhaps know these actors from other roles, who are downright nasty both to the actors and to other fans.  Now, how can you call yourself a fan and be rude and disrespectful to that person?  Doesn't seem logical to me.  A fan is a supporter, someone who enjoys the work of an actor, musician, artist, or sports star, not a critic.  Your job as a fan is to be SUPPORTIVE, to show your appreciation.  You are not a critic, and really, if you disagree with someone, just stop reading the posts, or don't say anything if you can't say something nice. (Basic manners you should have learned from your Momma.)  As for attacking other fans, hey, the social media page isn't a place for you to vent your cruelty.  I know of at least one star (William Shatner) who has blocked and banned people for being rude and crude to others on his feeds.  He shouldn't have to be enforcing such discipline, as though his fans were a bunch of unruly recruits at StarFleet.  It is to his credit that he does, though.

Some fans, myself included, have been quick to encourage when people we follow are seeming to be down or discouraged.  One celebrity thanked all of us who had sent him encouragement and support, saying he was overwhelmed by how much we cared.  I, for one, responded that hey, that's what fans are FOR!
True fans don't rub it in when you have a setback, they don't desert the team when it loses, they stick around and keep believing.  Sports fans are perhaps the best example of this.  True Sooner Fans will always root for OU, no matter what.  The Sooners could be playing the worst football EVER, and Sooner fans will still come to games, still cheer, and still love their team.  I have seen it over and over since we moved here.  (And we are only about 7 miles from Norman, our best friends are OU alums, as are many, many other people we know.)

So, to the actors, writers, and musicians that I admire (ahem, Ron Perlman, Elton John, William Shatner, Rod Stewart, Michael Ornstein, Wil Wheaton, Anne Lamott, Kurt Sutter, Katey Sagal, Josh Groban, to name a few) know that you have my support, and I will still root for you no matter what.  I appreciate your talent, and I will be here.
 To my fellow fans, I will support you, also, and as long as you are willing to play nice, so am I.  If you are going to be mean, though, you will be ignored and blocked.   Life is too short to waste energy feeding trolls.
Love to all my fellow PerlGirls, ladies, you are the best!

Katie