Sidious, Snoke and Salacious B Crumb’s Sarcastic and Sassy Situation Saloon (Fanfic Social Thread)

Which is exactly why I'm replacing my laptop now. I don't want it to completely fall apart and become useless the day before a major project is due or the day of a virtual job interview.

 

I have one story where there are a lot of typos because one entire vertical row of my laptop would not work. I kept having to keep an alphabet of text open when I used my computer for my professional work. I now have a laptop that is fully functional and am so happy.

One week from today is release for my new anthology. I’m so nervous about it being well-received.

 

Fair enough. All my work stuff is on Google Drive (so worst comes to worst I would just have to go into work every day to work on the ancient PCs there) and I've gotten better at backing up my fanfics to dropbox so I can work on them on my phone so it would be far from devastating if/when this laptop dies suddenly (I forgot to add, the speakers are going, making zoom meetings even more annoying, the screen occasionally does a weird flickering thing AND only one of the USB-C ports actually works for charging). I have money set aside for a new laptop, I just dont want to spend it if this thing is going to keep going for another few months, or years.


Blah. Normally I do like to practice room compartmentalization - so I only work in my office, relax in my living room and sleep in my bedroom - it's helped me keep sane and productive when working from home. But today I had a hard time getting out of bed (I woke up with just the slightest hint of a headache) and I am working from my couch because I feel so lazy, and pretty much nothing is getting done.

 

Yep, because you know that's exactly what would happen. This is the way.

Mom and brother are fully vaxxed! Well, technically they have to wait their two weeks still but second doses are acquired. I'm so relieved! Now to convince them about moving out so we can actually afford a place and have a shot at being happy again.

 

Yeah, some people can just log into their Google Drive or Dropbox on another computer and be able to work immediately, but I can't. As a software developer, I have lots of tools that need to be installed on any computer I do such work on. It takes me an entire day usually to set up and configure a new laptop because I have to get my code editors and compilers and various programming language tools installed and configured correctly.

Oh, I would love to practice room compartmentalization, but I live in a studio apartment. The best I can do is work outside of home (usually in the library or a study lounge somewhere on campus), and reserve *lying* in bed for sleeping. I really should clean of my couch so that I can sit on my couch to relax instead of on my bed, but I'm too lazy to do that.

 

I had a straight A in a class and had just turned in my final paper when my roommate moved out. She had the file on her computer and was halfway back to San Diego when my professor called and said he’d accidentally lost my paper and could I print it out again? I burst into tears and he gave me an extension to rewrite it. So I find that scenario above plausible. Ah, the days when I didn’t have a way to back everything up to Google drive or drop box.

 

See? It happens.

In other news, I took advantage of the free legal services provided to students at my university today (well, "free" if you don't waive the $11/semester fee on your tuition bill) to draw up a last will and testament. I expect to never marry or have kids, so I am leaving 25% to each parent and the remaining 50% to a list of charities, with each parent's share added to the charities' share if (probably when) they die before me. Pretty simple. Then I did a bunch of schoolwork, then came home and did more schoolwork.

Tomorrow though, I'm joining campus recreation for an afternoon hike a short distance away. I've realized that I'm going to spend most of my life staring at a computer screen, so I've decided to try to disconnect more often, and the outdoors is great for that.

 

My piano is going to my nephew who loves to play. My string instruments will go to schools in need. My life insurance will go to the next nephew or niece going to college. I have more plans for bequeathing stories than personal goods.

 

An interesting fact about wills: it actually becomes void (in Canada at least) if you do get married after making it. I only know this because when I made my will, I knew it was unlikely I'll ever get married or ever have kids, but just by rare happenstance it happened, I would want them to get everything and not my siblings (I just skipped the parental step since one is already dead), but the lawyer told me it was pointless since I would have to re-do it anyway (my family is very conscious about death planning).

This oddly came up again when my uncle died in a car accident the week he sent my aunt divorce papers (they had been separated for years and were finally making it official). He had signed them but my aunt hadn't (she was 2 provinces away). It was easier for my aunt to stop the proceedings of the divorce and have his will remain "valid" than it would have been for the government to get involved (my aunt ended up giving everything to my cousins anyways... it was just easiest not to involve the government).

Enjoy! My own hiking trip is coming up and I have to start preparing and packing. It's mostly volunteer firefighters who will be hauling me up a mountain, but my former-coworker is also coming. His new job is basically in a cubical staring at a screen all day so I think he's more excited than I am.

Today it's my plan to do laundry and tidying up (my place is still fairly clean, but it's one of my greatest peeves to come home from an exhausting trip to a messy house). I also have to search for my spare building fob. I'm like 95% sure my sister has it because I'm sure I gave it to her and it's not where I keep all my other spare keys. I need her to feed my cats one day while I'm gone and she wants to borrow my car . Worst comes to worst, I can give her my fob and let myself in with my cellphone, but thats kinda iffy and would prefer not to.

 

Great idea! You (and everyone else) should also do medical power of attorney/advance directives. I can't tell you how many people (young and old) who didn't have it and things went crazy. It's generally your next of kin, but if there is more than one it can get really ugly. I've seen one parent/sibling/family member crying that the person wouldn't want something and the other(s) insisting it be done.

I actually need to take my own advice and redo mine, I don't think I've done it since I lived in Massachusetts and that's been a bit.

I always try to do that before going on a trip because you are right, it sucks to come home to a messy house. But somehow it never works out no matter how early I pack/how prepared I am, I still manage to make a mess. There's nothing like dishes in the sink or anything, just looks like a tornado came through.
Your trip sounds like a lot of fun!!

 

100%. There were some pretty intense moments between my mom and her siblings when my grandmother got extremely sick and wasnt expected to make it. And my mom is still upset about my dad's funeral. They were divorced, but still got along great and she knew exactly what he wanted, but she had no power so my grandmother did what she wanted to happen (my dad was always very clear that he wanted to be cremated but he was buried in a grave that now no one visits because it's so out of the way). My sister and I have discussed exhuming him but know he'd rather us not spend the money or the time.

My sister has power of attorney and medical directives. She was there when I did my will and the lawyer had to ask all sorts of very dark questions... I ended up just turning to my sister and telling her to pull the plug and donate whatever organs are viable. Right now, I'll be cremated, though I think I'd like my body donated to medical students first. When/if I revise it, I'll likely add that in.


THOUGH I AM CURRENTLY REGRETTING GIVING MY SISTER POWER OVER ANYTHING. She 100% has my spare key and fob. I know because after looking everywhere it could be here, I remembered she let herself in when I locked my keys in my car a few months ago. She insisted she doesn't have it but I'm pretty sure it's in her boyfriend's truck.

HOWEVER, I was also given a mystery key when I moved in and had no idea what it was for. I tried it out on the building door and it worked (good to know I guess) so she can take that.

Yeah... it's particularly hard when you have to leave at 5am! I'm usually pretty good at preparing the night before, but I never have the time/energy after packing to really make it spotless. Packing always takes longer than I anticipate.


Even though I got a late start and was sidelined by key searching (I even popped down to my car to look in the glove compartment even though I know there was no logical reason for it to be there), I still got most everything done. It's not the cleanest ever, and I have to do the dreaded garbage/recycling duty tomorrow but if I can keep it this way, it'll be livable for when I get back

 

I did set up a living will while I was there and signed the papers to be an organ donor. The lawyer asked me about medical power of attorney, and I considered it, but didn't do it because I really don't know who to give that power to.

 

I think doing an advanced medical directive is an extra fee but something you could look into. It's a bit different than medical power of attorney - the lawyer basically lists common life-sustaining procedures (intubation, remaining on a ventilator after x amount of time, tube feeding, dialysis, etc) and you basically decide if you want it or not and it can be then used as a guide if you have no medical power of attorney or next of kin (or to give your medical power of attorney forced guidelines).

Edit: Nevermind. We dont have living wills here so I wasnt sure what it was, but it sounds like an advanced medical directive (but I think those are a bit more in-depth)

 

A living will, under Ohio law, is basically a legal document that says "if I'm permanently unconscious/in a vegetable state with no hope of normal life again, let me die rather than keeping me alive indefinitely by artificial means". It doesn't do anything beyond that. Advanced medical directives are indeed more in-depth than a basic living will.

Also, in Ohio at least, a living will overrides the medical power of attorney in case of a disagreement between them (i.e. if the person with power of attorney wants to keep you alive for a long time, they can't because the living will trumps their wishes).

 

Big victory! Wishing you all the best in everything going on for you right now

 

What is it about packing that makes me procrastinate so hard when it comes to doing it? I'm not even going that long, nor do I have the restrictions of plane travel or a crowded vehicle!

 

My hospital said it is mandatory for employees to get vaccinated or be fired. Boy, there is a lot of whining and gnashing of teeth. Luckily almost all the people in my small department are vaccinated. I got my two shots, so I'm good.

 

I love travel, but I hate packing. I always wait until the last minute to pack. For my whitewater rafting trip that I had to leave at 8am on a Saturday morning for, I didn't even start to pack until 11pm Sunday night, and finished at 2am Saturday after many stops and starts (all just to fill a single school-sized backpack).

Yay for mandates! Don't worry about the complainers; they'll be gone soon and you won't have to deal with them for long. Let them dig their own grave.

In other news, I'm livid. I swear that if any private landlord had as many water outages and elevator failures as my university apartment building has had over the past year-plus, there would be riots. We have an average of two to three water outages per month, because apparently to do any work on the water system anywhere in the building, they have to shut off water for the entire building, but now they're becoming emergency shutdowns. We also have about one elevator failure per month, which is frustrating because I live on the top floor of a four-story building. The frequency varies; in August, we had four elevator failures in a single week. According to people I've talked to that have lived on this campus in the past, these issues are nothing new and have been a constant problem for many years.

Today it was a sprinkler malfunction in the sprinkler room that led to a large water leak into the hallway, so now the carpet outside the sprinkler room is soaking wet. While they've managed to restore water, since the elevator is adjacent to the sprinkler room, the elevator panel suffered water damage and so the elevator is now out of order for who knows how long again. Of course, this happens right when I need to do laundry, for which I rely on a wheeled cart that isn't compatible with stairs (and certainly not three flights of them). So now I have to postpone laundry and grocery shopping (for which I use the same cart) until the elevator is fixed, and depending on how long that takes I may be reusing used underwear because I simply refuse to lug two weeks worth of laundry up and down three flights of stairs.

 

I hate when that happens. I lived in some old buildings where there was just one main shut off valve. One time when I lived in a barracks my shower valve broke and I couldn't turn off the hot water. This was Friday night. I called the after hours maintenance people. They asked me if the water was going down the drain? I said, "Yes, but the bathroom is getting all steamy and it is now raining in the bathroom from the condensation on the ceiling." They said it could wait until Monday. I asked them to shut off my water then and they said there is just one water shut off and it would impact everybody in the building. So all weekend I put towels down to keep the water from going under the bathroom door and into my room.

What was funny was these barracks were on the second floor and there were offices on the first floor. All weekend this water that I was keeping inside the bathroom by using towels was leaking to the offices below. I don't know how bad it was but the water was turned off a few minutes after those offices were opened. By the end of the day I had a new shower valve.

 

You really have had a lot of issues with that place, JC. I know it sucks to move, but it might be a relief when you leave!

Good! It's not like hospitals don't require other vaccines to work there. The people treating the sick should absolutely be vaccinated. My job also made it mandatory, which might be the one decent thing they've done. We couldn't do our jobs without it anyway, basically all hospitals have made it mandatory for vendors to have it before they can go in anyway.

I'm hoping to get a booster sooner-ish. The early studies are showing that if you get the vaccine when pregnant the baby has some antibodies, so hopefully that is the case with a booster too.

 

My doctor's office texted me that booster shots are available. I want to see if my workplace will give me the shot though. Either way I get it free, but if I get it at my doctor I have bring proof to Employee Health which is in a different building from where I work. I do want the booster.

 

Anybody wanting to try to go professional? If so maybe this could be a way Become a Published Warhammer Author With Black Library’s Open Submissions

It's not SW I admit but they are asking for submissions

 

Wills...I really need to make one. Not that it would be complicated, since I'm not married, but in my state, if you die without a will the state takes a HUGE chunk of whatever is left.

And ITA about the walks/hiking...being outdoors is a fabulous anti-depressant! Took a long walk after the 2016 election... I think the Japanese call it "forest bathing"? I'm due.

 

First exam finished

 

Hope you did well! I have one this afternoon.