Unsolicited Advice

Fandom frightens me sometimes. Often, if we're honest.I've been digging around for the Sherlock Holmes project I mentioned before, and one of the things I ran into is The Johnlock Conspiracy. For those who don't know, this was a movement among fans of the BBC's 2010 series Sherlock who contended that the series was building up to a Big Damn Gay Kiss between the leads at the end, which was theoretically the conclusion of series 4. Lots of people contributed, but this particular lady seems to have been the biggest and most thorough, having contributed a 40-some-odd episode analysis of the show, via YouTube.Shit like this terrifies me.There's nothing wrong with her character analysis. Her take on the significance and motivation behind what the characters say and do on screen is completely valid. I think she's 100% right in some areas, particularly Moriarty. Jim Moriarty's obsession with Sherlock is both disturbingly sexual in tone, and disturbingly indicative …

Yet another rat needs a vet. Garion is pump-handle breathing and in evident distress. I cannot front for the appointment ($40-80) or meds ($50 probably) this time. He's on what decongestant and antibiotics we have available in the hopes that it's fixable pneumonia, but he really needs to see a doctor.Why do the rats keep catching things? Because there are mice all over the place and the owner of the house is a slumlord who isn't interested in fixing things. Everything I've brought up has been answered with "we did call him, he said he wasn't going to do anything about it". The first floor apartment was reportedly without heat for a week in the dead of winter last year, and he couldn't give less of a shit. To help, go here: https://www.gofundme.com/manage/ratapalooza-vet-visits-ain039t-free#

I have several things in the queue right now, which have been delayed mainly because online fandoms scare the snot out of me. Really. I will write that up later tonight and then maybe that will unstick them.I also had plans for video/streaming work that have been delayed because I have spent the past week arranging hospice care, then euthanasia, then funeral services for a rat who wasn't even mine. My housemate lost their oldest, fussiest, most care-intensive rat. Said housemate doesn't have great coping mechanisms at the best of times, and it was the anniversary of a family death to boot. Their vet isn't making any appointments, even for emergencies, until November, so we went through mine, where I'm grandfathered in because I have been bringing her fat, spoiled rats literally since she opened the clinic. My vet will also come outside to meet you (since they can't let anyone into the building) and let you sit with your pet until the end. So I spent that day doing …

I am stuck on a thing. Not because I don't know what to write, but because I have no idea why I'm writing it. I used to not care, but then Colbert said a thing in an interview about working "with intent" and now I feel wholly inadequate because that seems like an important step that I keep skipping.I also don't normally care about conforming to other people's processes, but everything I've seen of his is a terrifyingly accurate mirror of how I do these things. I tripped over this a while ago, which is a reel of BTS/raw footage from an interview he did (in character) when Jon Stewart was asked to host the Oscars. They clearly told him what they wanted to talk about when they called him up, but also clearly did not bother to hash out a script, so he's running the character improv. There's a bit near the end where he knows what the character's response would be, but hasn't quite settled on how to phrase it, so he just runs it over and over, t…

I woke up this morning trying desperately to remember what day of the week it was and whether there was anything special about it. As of this writing, it's Friday, and no. It has become clear that I have moved into a situation of grinding poverty. I knew when I got here that nobody was going to have any money. Literally everybody involved in this venture is disabled in some way, which in modern America means you are left to starve by default. What I didn't realize until I got here is that the other two kids in this apartment grew up in this kind of deprivation, without any useful parental figures of any kind.When I arrived, there was no bath mat. I assumed this was because everyone was skint and had better things to do with $8 than buy one. I probably had better things to do with that money, but I was tired of slipping on wet tile, so I went and ordered one anyway. They said thank you. I also ordered a wire shelf for the freezer, because I was tired of vegan "patties"…

Ratapalooza: Vet Visits Ain't FreeThe Turks are scratching themselves scabby. I dragged them three towns over on the T to see my favorite vet, who is cheap but not that cheap. They're going to need lice prophylaxis for a while, seeing as the bugs seem to be endemic in the neighborhood, and my housemate is about to take in a probably-preggers foster rat who might be a(n unfortunately itchy) reservoir while she can't be treated. Help keep me from having to choose between buying myself shampoo and buying them kitten Revolution!

[Addendum to the earlier note--]
Firstly, I would like to say, God bless the obsessive stans of the world. They save me from having to track down each and every individual goddamned piece of media one by one when I go on a tare. There is no project so obscure that they cannot give me enough information to find some chunk of it somewhere on the internet. I can't honestly recommend Exit 57 for entertainment value (it's recognizably in Colbert/Dinello/Sedaris' style, but, uh, they got better) but if you ever wanted to know how they worked their way up to Strangers With Candy, that'll definitely tell you.
The down side to this is that their laser focus sometimes gets a little too narrow. The hive mind tends to assume that anyone who's found their way down the rabbit hole already knows what's going on, or that nobody ever needs a reason for the "smexy", and they can edit things down to just the "good bits". This is aggravating if you're actuall…