Fierce Rawthorne

( Work, yet again. )

Bennifer breakup yet again!! Sadness!! 900 million Matt/Ben references suddenly everywhere: rather delightful. Although I have no idea what that ask I got on tumblr was really supposed to mean.

I have zero brain for writing lately and I know it's a combo of all the working plus finishing the Stucky epic (currently in editing, when I feel like editing) - I plan to start posting it on the 20th a couple chapters a week so that I finish posting on October 20th, my WIP Big Bang posting date.

I also haven't kept up with my usual Yuletide possibilities spreadsheet since February and I feel very meh about it right now, but that doesn't mean I will still feel meh about it come signups, so I guess I should at least attempt some nominations. I rewatched The Martian twice in a row a few weeks ago so that's still floating around in my brain.

Lately my after-work shows have been House (only an episode at a time or I have weird medical dreams), re-watching season one of 9-1-1, and The Larry Sanders Show from the 90s. I see the House/Wilson but I'm also not sure I could actually write House in the right fashion. And 9-1-1 fandom just looks too insane to want to wade into any of that!

( Deep Water: There are SNAILS. )

ETA the next day: To sum up, I have definitely watched worse things for Ben Affleck, so this probably falls around the middle of the "things I have watched for Ben over the last 20+ years" ranking, but unless you need to see Ana de Armas topless, or you're intrigued by the snails, you're better off just watching Gone Girl. And I am probably going to end up writing a whole thing about what I would have fixed in this movie, because there's potential, but it didn't lean hard enough into the things that would have made it more interesting/less boring.

Hello, would you like a looping video of Ben Affleck walking by a pool with FLUFFY DOGS? Or an interview where MATT DAMON is doing the interviewing and he and Ben say many lovely things to each other about their FEELINGS (and George Clooney) and it was good I had a mask on while I read it because my face was doing SO MANY THINGS? Entertainment Weekly provides, y'all. There is also Zoom video but I think I might die if I watch it at work. It's 2022 and these dorks are out here like this, I can't. Stop making me have feelings!! It has been twenty damn years!! Why don't I have a Matt and Ben icon anymore? (Because, Lake, it's been twenty years.)

Tonight I bought a ticket to The Last Duel for Thursday night. I'm hoping I'm the only person in the cinema, so that I can livetweet every single ridiculous acting choice Ben Affleck makes. (The reviews are amazingly hilarious.) I'm so excited.

It's squash season again so I am eating spaghetti squash constantly, which I am 100% fine with. Why is it the most delicious non-pasta thing to eat with various tomato sauces and/or cheeses? I had a batch of turkey meat spaghetti sauce (made with half a bottle of wine, no way it couldn't be delicious) that made several meals' worth even though I scaled it back significantly, and thawed the last container of tonight to eat in a squash boat with provolone broiled on top. (I did zucchini boats with it last week - good but not as good as spaghetti squash.) Earlier this week I made a spicy tomato and zucchini sauce, and half got shakshuka'ed and half got put into half a squash - all delicious. I found a chicken meatballs in bourbon mustard sauce recipe that I want to make just as a sauce (with mushrooms added) and not form the chicken into meatballs, and put that over the squash, and also a saffron chicken ragu recipe I want to try. I ordered stuff to do the bourbon sauce in my next grocery delivery, so that will be first. I am trying to eat some sort of vegetable with every lunch and dinner, and mostly succeeding. We did have pizza for a co-worker's birthday today at lunch but I only eat pizza once or twice a month, so I will let tomato sauce and mushrooms count as my vegetables for that.

I have asked for my Admirals 21-22 season tickets to be refunded. Not only is their COVID policy COMPLETE shit (it's just "wear a mask if you want", not even "unvaccinated people must wear a mask"), but there's a new bag policy where you can't bring anything larger than a wallet - so no purses, and there's not even a clear bag option - and the closer parking lot is closed for the entire season due to construction. Fuck that, I can't freakin' walk from the further parking lots in the middle of winter when it's freezing! That right there would have been a reason not to renew if they'd said ahead of time that the lot would be closed. Anyway, the head ticketing guy said on Monday he wasn't trying to put off giving me a refund but that he wanted to have discussions around the office about the points I brought up, and would get back to me Thursday morning - aaaaand no one has gotten back to me. It doesn't take a week to decide if you're going to give me a refund, ticket guy! Now you're just ensuring that I quit your team entirely, dude, and never go to another Admirals game ever.

Work is... well, every week just feels long these days. There are always about ten students on COVID quarantine in the dorms. Everyone tries to act like it's a normal school year but clearly it's not. Also we were last in state schools for vaccination rates and - ding! - it was partially because our students just dgaf and didn't upload their vax info. Once there was a big push reminding them, our rate went up 12%.

I was looking at IMDb's news links for The Last Duel to see if anything mentioned the release plan (it's supposed to be out in October, is it theatrical first-run, or a dual release... nothing says yet) and found this article, and I quote:

“Finishing up this movie with you,” Affleck told Damon, “it’s so much more enriching to be working together, to be working with someone I know and love, and the fact I want to see and spend time with and hang out with [you]. Realizing that time goes by and how you spend your day defines what your life is going to be, and the quality of that time, is really important. And it contributes, I think, to the quality of your work.”

And then I died, because you know, Ben Affleck just dropping the l-word into his Zoom chat with Matt Damon. Which I found to be available here after some quick googling. I need to wait to watch it until I'm at home because I already had enough feelings just reading the above quote, I need to not be at work when I listen to Ben say it with his own mouth. It has been more than twenty years and this is still the thing my whole heart cares about the most.

AND George Clooney is currently directing Ben in his next movie. So eventually there will be press for that. ALL BEN AFFLECK FEELINGS ALL THE TIME.

Anyway, The Last Duel is sure to be some garbage that I would normally NEVER watch even if it is based on a true story - basically Matt's character (Jean de Carrouges) accuses Adam Driver's character (Jacques LeGris) of raping his wife (played by Jodie Comer) so Ben's character (King Charles VI) says they should settle it via duel - and everyone's facial hair looks horrific in the pictures I've seen but they're both there and they co-wrote the screenplay with Nicole Holofcener. So I'm sure it won't be critically-savaged Gigli-level garbage buuuut I generally do not care for things set before people had modern plumbing.

In other news: I have signed up for fandom5k but every day closer to signups ending is a day closer to me making drastic changes to my offers and ending up getting the Clerks assignment. Which I do have ideas for. I've been reading the requests as people sign up and taking notes on everything I think I could possibly manage to write five thousand words for, and now I have like eleven different ideas sketched out, lol. After March was an entire flaming dumpster writing-wise I've been feeling a little more with it this week, and having the deadline of "post the Venom Easter story on Easter!!" helped me get across the finish line with jelly bean surprise. Now I don't have another story in that series to finish until the 4th of July!