Tag: Personal

Life Update: 2022 Is Already A Bit Rocky

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Well. Hi. It’s been a while.

Almost two months in fact.

So, first, hi, I’m alive. It’s been a crazy start to the year. I know I said I wanted to do away with personal “rambly” posts, but I hope everyone will forgive me for this one time. There’s been a lot going on, and I want to just hit a bunch of it at once.

So, let’s start with the entire reason I stepped away. The day after I posted my review for Lone Star 3×02, I got an interview for a position that would have been amazing. And it went well! I was hired on the spot, pending human resources. I was warned that I probably wouldn’t hear anything for at least a few weeks, but to be ready at a moment’s notice. This position meant that I would need to step away from social media as a whole, which I started doing. Unfortunately, after a month of waiting, I got a letter from the human resources telling me that I had been disqualified from the position, due to a technicality. I had been warned about it, but it just ended up being bad timing. (The position ended up being eliminated a week later, so it honestly wouldn’t have mattered anyway.)

This honestly sent me in a massive downward spiral for a few weeks. I was so sure that I was about to start that I had done a lot to prepare for the role, and it just got ripped from me. It… wasn’t a good time. I credit the kind people on The 118 Discord for helping me calm down, and always to my immediate family for helping me get back on my feet.

I have another opportunity within a different department, one that wouldn’t be affected by that technicality, and I’m just waiting for a call back. But I don’t have my heart set on this one, so if I don’t get it, I’ll at least be okay.

That’s the biggest reason I’ve been away. I’ve also been suffering from some flareups from carpal tunnel, which I may have made worse by participating in both finishing up the 9-1-1 Bingo as well as Febuwhump. I’ll be doing full wrap up posts about both of those projects in the coming weeks (more information below).

And there’s the fact that my old headaches are back, which is an absolute problem. It’s made looking at a screen for long hours a bit of a problem, though I’ve come up with a few tricks to at least make it somewhat better.

I’m doing better now. I’ve resettled into a routine that allows me to take the time to write, but also sets aside the time I need to work, especially if I can land this new position. Which is why I’m back, because I hate leaving a project unfinished.

Something to quickly note. I spoke during my “Happy 2022” post about getting back into streaming. That’s still the plan, but I’m waiting a bit longer, until I truly know what’s coming next. Once I know for sure, the sidebar will be updated with new dates and times.

So, that’s the life update. But then there’s the fact that there are six episode reviews I haven’t talked about, along with a few book reviews, and some other posts that I’d planned on writing. And at least a good chunk of them needed to be done and posted before March 21st, because that’s when 9-1-1 comes back to screens and Lone Star moves to 9PM and my life is going to become even more busy.

That’s the plan anyway. My goal is to write my episode reviews (of which I have in short hand, just need to fully translate them into an actual readable state) every other day, starting tomorrow, March 6th. On the opposite days, I’ll be catching up on the posts that I’ve wanted to touch upon, whether they be book reviews, or updates to previous posts, or catching up on different challenges (or announcing a new one).

I don’t want to post twice in a day. I really don’t want to. The only time that might happen is if I get behind again, or if I finish a book before I have a space carved out on my schedule.

So. Yeah. Hi, Remy is back, things are slowly being figured out. Content is coming. I hope you’re ready to be along for the ride.

Until next time!

Happy 2022!

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Hello everyone! I hope 2022 has been treating you okay thus far.

I ended up taking an extra week to rest up after the Christmas holidays. It was a long break, but it was one that was well needed. I’m actually feeling better and stronger and feel like I can just back into things. I guess I just needed to completely step away for a bit. I’m in a good head space.

So. What can you expect from this year on this blog?

My goal is to put out some more quality content, not just me rambling about things that are just interesting to me. That means I’m going to try to do more episode and scene breakdowns, more book reviews, and, and more writing content. Three things I really want to work on this year. I also will do wrap-ups for the various writing challenges I take part in, including wrapping up 2021’s amazing writing year.

On a more personal level, I’m really trying to stick to a couple goals to better myself. One of my biggest goals is to cut soda, which was a goal from last year that failed miserably. Last year, I tried to go cold turkey, had a massive caffeine headache, and basically gave up after two weeks. This year, I’m doing it by cutting back every week, until by the end of the month, I should be off of drinking it completely if things go well.

On the reading front, I’m doing the same reading goal as last year. I ended up getting burned out half way through last year, and barely got halfway to my goal. This year’s goal is 52 books, which works out to roughly a book a week. I’m already on my way to this, as I have one book read, and my next picked. I will be once again posting reviews of the books I read here on my WordPress account, as well as on GoodReads, and (for the first time) StoryGraph. I’m not entirely comfortable with the last one yet, but we shall see.

The writing front is looking insane. Just this month alone, I’m aiming for at least five fics. Then there is Febuwhump, and of course there’s Whumptober later this year. That’s not including the bingo fics I want to write (and will write when the next card drops mid year). It’s gonna be crazy, but I’m looking forward to it. I also want to revisit some old fics that I haven’t touched in years, including my FusionFall fics that ended up just existing in an incomplete void for the past several years.

And of course, there’s gaming. I’m trying right now to get a trophy a day, which has been going pretty smoothly thus far. I have a bunch of cheap games that I can use to get a quick trophy, as well as some major games that I ended up missing over the past few years. I’m hoping to match the amount of platinum trophies I got last year, or even surpass it. But… with more quality platinums, not just vaperware.

And finally, let’s touch on social media. Last year, I let a lot of it lapse during the middle of the year, but I started to get better about posting things as the year came to a conclusion. I started using Tiktok to put up some book and Lego Games related content, and I’m feeling good about it. I’m hoping to increase my presence on social media, primarily on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, during this year. And not just with random messages. Good, actually through out messages. I think it’s time that I get serious about it.

This also includes streaming on Twitch. Now, I basically stopped streaming about midway through the year, when my headaches got worse. I couldn’t imagine doing it on a consistent schedule while feeling sick. Well, one of the biggest problems I discovered is because I had to have bright lights pointed at me to be visible on camera. Because this was making it almost impossible to stream, I gave it up and basically shut down both my twitch page (which I’ve only been using to watch a few different channels) and my associated discord. Well, my goal by the end of January is to start this back up, but without the camera. I’m hoping that if I do that, I’ll be able to play for longer amounts of time. Yes, I do know it’s harder to get an audience, especially as a female gamer, without a camera on. I’ll have it, mostly for unboxing streams with Owlcrate. But I want to give this one more try. If I don’t just do it, I’ll probably never do it.

That’s about it on the goals/update front. Now, onto my posting schedule.

Because I took that extra week to get mentally ready for the year, I’m actually behind where I want to be. So, I will be posting twice on Sunday (this one counts), again on Monday, and on Tuesday, before returning to my normal Tuesday/Thursday schedule I was doing before Blogtober and Blogmas. I may also add in an extra post during the weeks ahead, but that is something that I don’t want to commit to right now.

I will warn you ahead of time, prepare to get a lot of 9-1-1 Lone Star content coming your way. Unlike with the OG, the marketing team for LS is on fire.

Or, rather, on ice, considering the theme of the first four episodes.

Anyway, I’m back, expect updates, here we go into 2022. Let’s make it at least a little better than 2021 (or God forbid 2020).

Until next time!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Christmas has come and gone, and I am burnt out.

Daily posting here, on top of near daily posting for Advent, plus a 12 days of Christmas Tiktok thing, and planning and cooking two meals? Yeah, I’m about done for now. But let’s wrap up Blogmas strong.

At the top of the month, I said I was aiming to watch 25 movies in 25 days, the same thing I did last year. I didn’t do it, at all. I got to the end of December 1st and just already felt tired. Then December 2nd rolled around, then the 3rd… I just gave up on it. Instead, I think I’m going to try to watch 52 movies in 52 weeks next year, aka a movie a week. I’m not completely holding myslef to that, but I’m going to try.

As for Advent… I got to day 20 and the burnout hit. Everything is completely planned out, just not finished or published. My goal is to get them all done by the New Year, post some sort of New Year’s fic, and then take a bit of a break. They have gone over reasonably well, though I feel like the big issue of engagement is because of the saturation of Christmas fics. I’ll also be glad when it’s over.

(And I have some Bingo fics to post, anyway.)

But honestly, I spent most of today, when not cooking, playing Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I’m so close to the Platinum trophy, it’s not even funny. But it’s also been strangely calming. I’ll see how I feel if/when I have to do extra work to get the last couple combat trophies (why do they exist why are they not banned).

It was a good Christmas. And I hope that your holidays are wonderful and bright!

As will last year I am planning on taking the week off from posting. And honestly, don’t be surprised if January is a bit sporadic in posting as well. I need to step back a little bit. I will be posting every episode review for 9-1-1: Lone Star as they air, but I’m not sure about anything else. I may drop an extra post here and there, but it will probably be around mid-January to February before my normal posting schedule resumes.

Until then, be safe! Until next time!

An Uncomfortable Comment Situation – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

About ten days ago, I wrote a post about a comment that I had received on one of my fics. You know, a “This is good, but” type comment. This was for a fic that featured a tagged rare pair. I wasn’t happy with it, but I responded pretty politely, where I politely thanked them for the comment, told them I would probably be writing the pairing in the future, and to please not comment on any and all of my future fics, “lest they not like something else I write and write another rude comment”.

Well, I figured that would be that. I haven’t seen them comment again, nor have they shown up in my kudos. Which I was really happy about.

Until last night.

The other day for Advent (which I’m behind on, yikes), I posted a fic about Buck adopting a dog and helping train her to be a therapy dog for emergencies, you know, to make kids more comfortable after everything has gone crazy in their lives. It ended pretty open-ended, with me already privately planning to write a sequel for day 20.

It was very well received, getting a BUNCH of kudos and a good amount of comments. And then… And then they commented.

And what kills me is that their comment wasn’t rude. It just was trying to push me into writing a pairing that I wasn’t planning on writing. Not that there’s a problem with the pairing, it’s the main pairing in the fandom. But I hadn’t planned on it. Hell, I wasn’t planning on adding any pairings in any way. It was meant to just be friends and family.

But honestly, just seeing their comment made me want to throw up. I’d asked kindly for them to not comment, and yet they did. And they tried to direct my fic the way they wanted. And I’m not happy about that at all.

Initially, I was going to writing the sequel of the fic using the pairing that he didn’t like previously, but I just couldn’t do it. Not that I didn’t want to write the pairing, it’s just I didn’t want to write it while being spiteful. 

Instead, I am going with a different plan. The same exact plan that I’d come up with initially. But the other thing is, I’m going to be turning on comment moderation across the board. I know that turns off a lot of commenters, but I’m going to explain in the bottom author’s notes exactly why I’m doing it. No names will be mentioned, but it hopefully will be obvious. I’m just sick of getting these comments. 

So, yeah. That’s my plan. It’s been a weird day. And now I’m off to write a bunch more before dinner and watching the Hawkeye finale!

Until next time!

1,000 Movies and Not a Thing to Watch – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

So… about watching twenty five movies this month.

I haven’t watched one.

I know, I know. I really shouldn’t have said I was going to do something, then go back on it. But really, I had all the plans to do it! The biggest problem is, I’m doing Blogmas, the 118 Advent, as well as applying for jobs, and handling so much here at home. Carving out writing time has been bad enough (I’m three days behind on Advent, which is something I hope to fix tomorrow), and something had to give.

I’m changing up what I’m planning in regards to the movies. It’s something that I’ll be addressing in my Goals for 2022 post. I still want to do something like watching a bunch of my backlog, but I need to do it in a better way. Hence, the change.

I will say that I do have some fun ones planned, and I plan to talk about them. It just needs to take a backseat for a bit.

So, yeah. Not the best little thing. But taking it off of the schedule has actually done some good for my mental health, so… progress.

Until next time!

Hair Cuts for the Holidays – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a while since I got a hair cut.

Yes, that’s what this post is about, deal with it.

The last time I cut my hair was around June, when I finally got a hair cut for the first time in nearly a year. It had been a long time coming at that point, and I was desperate.

Yesterday, Mom and I decided it was time to get holiday cuts. I was starting to complain because the majority of my side swept bangs were ended up just settling into my eyes, and she was sick of the straight cut I gave her (out of desperation, because she’d been worried about the Delta variant at the time).

So we went. For context, this was me, before getting into the chair.

(Yes that is a .hack shirt. What of it?)

I really liked the style of the cut, I just needed it trimmed. And that’s what I asked for. Basically, what style I had was more… Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban style. Or, at least, just a shorter version of what I currently had.

This… this is what I have.

I look like a school boy.

Okay, for argument’s sake, it looks good on me! Especially in person. It’s just not what I wanted. I didn’t want to have my hair this short. It’s too short.

I’m not mad about it, but I am sad. I knew my hair would be shorter when I walked out of the salon, obviously. But this style isn’t something I wanted this time around. I wanted to keep my messy hair. This style being so short means that it basically just lies flat.

So, yeah. Short little update for you today. Tomorrow we shall return to our normal content, I hope.

Until next time!

Two Points of Annoyance – Blogmas 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

It’s not often that I get really annoyed at something.

Lately, I’ve been on an even keel. I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t given into anger, and I really haven’t snapped back at anyone, even when it would be totally deserved.

But two things have happened in the last 48 hours that basically broke that streak, and I need to get them out of my system so that I can move on and keep working.

The first? I dared write a fic that used a pairing that wasn’t traditional. In addition, I mentioned a scenario within the fic that wouldn’t be possible in real life. But this is fanfiction, so of course everything could be explained away. Right?

Well, wrong. The first comment I got on the fic was a sarcastic, “This is good, but” comment. Basically, a weak compliment, a massive complaint, and a sarcastic salutation. In short, I was wrong to write this pairing, and I was wrong to even suggest the thing that wouldn’t be possible in real life. Oh, and I should change it, because I’m wrong.

Now, I understand that not everyone likes rare pairs. I get it, and it doesn’t bother me all that much. Until I joined the 9-1-1 fandom, I rarely read the rare pairs in fandom. Instead, I would stick with the canon pairings, or whatever pairing was considered the most popular (Sterek would be a Teen Wolf example of the latter). Not everyone likes rare pairs. 

But I make a conscious effort to tag everything in a fic. That’s what I love about AO3’s tagging system. It’s so detailed. You can tag a little or a lot. I always make sure to hit main themes and anything that could be triggering. But I also make sure to tag the pairing. That way, if it is something I don’t want to read, I can scroll past it. 

For example, returning to Teen Wolf for this (since the only pairings in 9-1-1 I don’t like are ones that only have a story or two). There is a pairing for Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski (I can’t remember their pairing name). I’m not a fan of Scott, I think he’s a complete idiot and a terrible Alpha who puts himself first, his current woman of choice second, and the rest of his pack third (and half the time Stiles in last). So, I wouldn’t want to read any story that is based around the Scott/Stiles pairing. So, when I go searching for TW fic, I always exclude that pairing.

It’s so simple.

Now, I sat on that comment for a while. I didn’t immediately respond, especially since it came at 5AM, and I didn’t see it until 9AM. But around noon, I did respond. I was polite, but I know some fury came out. I thanked the person for their comment (because my mother raised me with class). I told the person that yes, I know what happens in the real world, but this is fanfiction, and I made a comment to it in the author notes. I also said that I would probably continue writing the pairing, and that I respectfully request that he avoid any and all of my fics in the future, lest he not like something else I write and write another rude comment.

But honestly, I was still seething. So I mentioned it on Discord. And one of the people there begged me to unfreeze the comment thread so that she could respond. She did so, in beautiful anger. And honestly the only reason I let her do it is because she is one of the major players in the fandom for that pairing, and I know she’s also gotten some heat for it. (It’s a pairing with consenting, over age adults, thanks so much. Nothing wrong here.)

It actually threw me for a day but I thought I got over it.

Until something happened on Discord last night.

So, someone put out a call to find out if our show had DVDs. I pulled up Amazon as I answered, as I knew that Fox had released season 1 on DVD, but couldn’t remember if season 2 had also been released (nope, thanks Fox you suck). I quickly typed out my response, and ended up scrolling on the page for the DVDs, down to the comments. And low and behold, I got annoyed.

The top comment gave the DVDs for the first season one star out of five. While I would be totally reading, as people are allowed to have their opinions on media, if the entire basis of their reasoning was because the show promoted equality. Seriously, the amount of homophobia in that comment was, in a word, sickening. They also took aim at the fact that the show was pretty open about sex, especially because it aired on a family network, therefore making it a family show. Dude, it’s 8PM on a weeknight on Fox. Shut up. But it was the homophobia that actively made me sick.

The fact that this was the top comment (and 13 people marked it as helpful) was disgusting. I reported it, but of course Amazon doesn’t let you write exactly why you think a review is abusive. Which of course means it won’t get pulled. 

So I mentioned on the same Discord thread that I wish Amazon still allowed comments on reviews, because I would love to comment on that one. Because it was a review written to be disgusting. The person I had been talking to agreed with me, and then we moved on.

Until someone decided that I was wrong to dislike the comment. Basically, I got told that if I didn’t like a review, tough luck. It was their opinion, and they were allowed to have it. That she (the person talking to me, not the commenter) was a book reviewer, and that’s just how the world was. That I was open to making my own review, but if I didn’t like theirs so much, I might as well not bother, as it would just open me up to being attacked for my own “beliefs”.

Well, I’m proud of how I responded to this. 

I commented back with basically this: “Sure. Okay, I’m stepping far away from this conversation. I don’t want to be rude and say something that I might regret tomorrow.” I then messaged one of the mods that was on and told them that I was stepping back, but that if something wasn’t said, I would be blasting the person come morning. I clearly had been talking about the blatant homophobia that was featured in the review, and that if this person was going to actively defend it, I didn’t want to be anywhere near them.

The mod did take care of it, but I’m still kinda annoyed. Yes, I became one of those people. I reported the comment for abuse, but I doubt the robot will agree with me. (Also, thanks Amazon for having a totally useless report button. Why can’t the reviewer have the ability to explain why the review is abusive and inappropriate?) I also tweeted at their help account on Twitter.

This just… set me off. I had to step back. And honestly, I’m glad that I did, because I’m in a much better headspace today.

Until next time!

I Took Part in a Fic Crawl!

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

(Sorry for the delay in posting this, I got hit by burnout real hard the first week of November. But I’m back to feeling more like myself now!)

When I joined the 118 Discord, I discovered a group of strong and passionate fanfiction writers in the 9-1-1 community, all banded together to help produce some of the best fics in the fandom. They are great to encourage everyone to write and to team up when ever you get stuck. Besides just working on our own projects, they encourage some major community events.

The latest one was a Halloween fic crawl! If you don’t know what a fic crawl is, that’s okay, because I had to have it explained to me day one. A fic crawl is when a group of fics are all written under a similar theme, usually 1-3k words. They are uploaded to a community on AO3, and released anonymously on AO3 on the specific date every 15-20 minutes. People take part by writing fics, but also commenting and kudoing every fic. After all the fics are released, people guess who wrote what fic.

The turnout in both writers and commenters was amazing. I was one of 15 writers, and I think there were at least that many people taking part in the reading/commenting/kudoing aspect as well. It was an amazing experience that I cannot wait to do again.

My Halloween-inspired fic was made to be fluffy and hilarious. I actually wrote the bulk of it when we were watching MindGamers on Discord. The basic premise is that Buck and Eddie are left to come up with a costume for Halloween after Christopher decides to come up with a costume to surprise them. Eddie goes with generic hip-hop dancer (Sean from Step Up Revolution, played by Ryan Guzman, who plays Eddie), Buck goes a different route. The reactions of the 118 were hilarious tor write. I also threw in some other references, such as Christopher dressed as Arthur from Merlin and Chimney as a Dodger player.

The reaction to the fic was great! I got a lot of comments (though not a lot of kudos, but that’s the AO3 algorithm’s fault). On discord, the thread for the fic was a blast. When it came time to reveal, no one knew it was me, and I was met with surprised laughter and screaming for the fic (especially because of the mental imagery of a well-built Oliver Stark dressed as Dylan from MindGamers, when he was less built…). I’m still proud.

I’m really happy that I decided almost at the last minute to take part and complete my fic. It ended up being a great experience from the beginning of the event to the end. If you ever have the opportunity to take part in something like this, go for it!

(And now I have to work on my holiday exchange fic, which I haven’t outlined yet and I really really need to…)

Until next time!

Happy Halloween! What Comes Next? – Blogtober 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ 1 Comment

What a Halloween… of doing basically nothing.

No, seriously, I took most of the day to relax and catch up on some of the fanfic I missed this month. No strain, no stress. It was worth the relaxation.

But that leads us into November. And the month is already shaping up to be just busy.

For one thing, I’m going to be attempting Nanowrimo again this year, but I’m not going to be stressing about it. My goal is to use the month to finish the planned sequels/second chapters for some of my Whumptober stories, as well as the holiday gift fic for the exchange I’m doing through my discord (which I really need to plot out). And hopefully I can knock out a few of my bingo squares as well. I do plan on working on an rewrite of an old fanfic as more original fiction, for the writing group that I’m now apart of.

Will I hit 50k? Probably not. And I’m okay with that. I’m not stressing.

Another goal for November is to finally finish a few of the shows that I’ve been putting off. Not really naming them, simply because I know if I do, I’ll watch anything but. I’m trying to take the month to completely destress.

Now, onto what November will entail for this blog. I’m going down to posting twice a week, simply because I’m almost burned out. I’ll be posting my traditional review of each 9-1-1 episode on Tuesdays, and something else on Thursdays. There may be bonus posts (probably around my birthday), but I’m not pushing it. I’ll be back doing daily posting in December, when Blogmas rolls around. And boy, do I have plans for that.

I guess I should make it clear that if certain things I’m hoping for actually happen, most of these plans will change. I don’t want to go into specifics just yet (don’t want to jinx anything), but… there may be some good hope coming down a pipeline.

Alright, thanks for joining me on this crazy Blogtober journey! I’m gonna go sleep for a we- shit, the hostage episode is tomorrow. Okay, ten hours it is.

Until next time!

Mental Health Day 2 – Blogtober 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Well, I’ve gone from just not feeling motivated to having one of those headaches from hell. I’m currently hiding out in my room with all the blinds drawn to keep out the light. I have my phone screen as dark as possible, just so I can type this.

Tomorrow. I promise. I’m starting to feel the damn thing recede, but it’s still lingering. So, tomorrow I’ll get a real post up.

Thanks again for understanding. Until next time.