bookish dreamer

I have keyboard back! My keyboard went out last week sunday, and let me tell you, the internet is lame with just a few letters. (all of my most typed letters went out, so i lost most of the vowels first. :( but at least if this happens to you, you can have it fixed too!). The great part about it was that I found a repair person who works out of his house, so he'll come and pick up your computer (and drop it off) from your house! He was also kind of cute, and we kind of were awkwardly flirty with each other at drop off and pick up. If i could afford it i would actually consider having him clean up my computer system just so i could see if it was just situational flirtation or not.

In LJ Scrapbook stuff - I guess there has been a discussion about LJ overhauling Scrapbook and somehow simultaneously reducing the amount of storage space one gets? There's some problems with that message:

1) I've had a paid LJ expressly for the scrapbook feature and I've never had more than 2GB space (you have the option to buy *more* if you want, but it's an additional cost).

2) And look, I also may be unpopular in saying this, but LJ's scrapbook needs an overhaul like burning. I have hated it ever since I started using it -- the upload interface is terrible (srsly, uploading files one file at a time? ugh), the administration interface is clunky, it took/takes a million clicks to get to the perma-url for your uploaded pics, the automatic 'post to journal' formatting is ucky and has bad choices, even the design and presentation of the photos in folders is dated-bordering-on-foul. The only good part about the functionality for me was if you moved photos from one folder to another they didn't change their permalink, so reorganization was possible without breaking links. (but even photo and gallery management within the interface is just ... ugh). It's easier to arrange photos on tumblr, and I consider their photo arrangement to be so limiting that it discourages creativity.

The problem with all of this is that there is NO way they can retain the old system and 'upgrade' it. I can tell it was built on old code that was never intended to handle images the way we daily do on the web. Remember at one time that a 50kb image was, like BIG? I mean, I just bought myself a 1.5 terabyte hard drive. I remember a time when 1.5 terabytes of storage meant you had a ROOM of hardware. And LJ's scrapbook just isn't set up for the kinds of ways we use it, even with people who just want to upload one pic for a post. So in order to put something in place that is better they *have* to break the old system. HAVE TO.

Now, I'm assuming that whatever they put up in its place isn't going to actually work well for someone who is like me (or used to be like me) as a graphics person on LJ. Because they're probably going to go with something that mimics photo hosting services for other social media. Part of the reason why I've kept paying LJ and kept my scrapbook was it was the choice I was used to out of a lot of sucky choices for photohosting, especially for a million little 100x100 px icons - NO ONE does that well anywhere on the internet (if you know of someone who does that well who hasn't custom designed their system on their own paid webspace, SHARE NOW DAMMIT I WANT *grabby hands*). I don't expect the new system to not suck too in new and exciting ways. If I knew how to code and I could design a system myself I'd *still* have trouble knowing what to design/how to design for it.

But perhaps LJ's new system won't suck in the old and lame ways anymore?

Onto better things:
In the most awesome convergence of fan and stuff I (occasionally) study, there is fucking HEIAN period FANFIC. Yes, there is a tag for it over at AO3, and there is even Sei Shonagon/Murasaki Shikibu fanfic. I make no promises about quality since I haven't read it yet, but honestly, this just makes me happy in a "fandom, you are awesome in all the best ways" kind of way.

And one last rec:
The Sensation of Falling as You Hit Sleep by greywash
Sherlock BBC // Sherlock/John (with John/FC at first) // NC17 // 80,000 words

Post-Reichenbach, angst but in all the best ways. With the additional tag "well now that everyone on this show is canonically a fourteen-year-old-girl" which I love, but is a bit belied by how fabulously this does John trying to move on and Sherlock somehow *not* letting him. It's a train wreck with saved people at the end, and has a much smuttier (WIP) sequel that is 1 part away from being completed too. Just *emotionally tasty* in the way Post-Reichenbach fics are going to have to be for me to like them.

Now, back to correcting papers!!