What’s going on with me lately

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

- Lately looking at the computer screen has really been making my eyes sore. Not good since I basically look at one all day at work.

- I’ve also been re-reading my looong X-men fanfic and really getting into X-men, especially the Northstar/Iceman pairing. However, reading this fic after work is not helping my eyes much.

- So I have fallen behind on my emails to people. Sorry. I will try to rest my eyes and catch up.

- I am thrilled to see a pretty active Northstar/Iceman following on LJ though. There are sooo many fanfics I need to catch up on reading. I know it's silly but I think of myself as one of the first fanfic writers to pair these two up (I might be wrong on that, but still) and now there are LJ communities dedicated to them and lots of fanfic as well.

- Oddly, I’m not as into Spiderman as I was just a couple weeks ago. When I think of writing fanfic now, I think of writing more X-men again instead of Spiderman. Weird.

- The X-men fic I want to write is basically a re-write of my long X-men trilogy. I
want to do it, but what’d be the point? I feel that I should cover new ground, but then again I do have some cool ideas for my re-write so it might be worth it.

- One sad thing is that I haven’t been reading much lately, other than fanfic. Normally I’m in the middle of 2 or 3 books at a time. I put 2 library books aside that weren’t hooking me and am slowly reading a really boring book that I bought, and nothing else now for days. That’s unusual for me. I guess it’s mostly because my eyes are sore, I don’t have much free time, and I’m reading X-men stuff now. I’m sure I will get back into reading again.

Comments

[invisibleshrew.livejournal.com]

Hey, I remember Northstar from Alpha Flight - goodlooking go fast Canadian, yes? And he came out some time after I stopped reading regularly as well? I'm so happy that you're thinking writing thoughts again, whatever the fandom!

Ouch about your eyes - and that pull between wanting to read and to rest them.

And I hear you about reading fewer paper books. I've mostly been reading litfic and non-fiction for so long that it was a revelation when I read a couple of Elizabeth Bear's novels and remembered how wonderful it is to read something which was written with entertainment as its prime objective. Something other than fanfic, I mean. *g*

[stormer1-1.livejournal.com]

Pardon me whilst I proclaim: well, damn. I was looking forward to some well-written Spiderfic - and potential slutty (smutty/slashy) fic, no less - but damn also if I don't feel yer pain. It's all good.

[loopeleigh.livejournal.com]

I heartily second they you writing more X-men fanfic. But then I'm hopelessly biased :)

One the rewriting of a story - I've read many stories that have been rewritten, and overall I normally find I prefer the 1st version. It has more honesty somehow. But I'd be interested to find out what you ideas are.

If you're interested in X-men fic:

for R&R x-men fic, then I have to recommend this trilogy. Its one of my all-time favourites (and Valerie started writing again last year after a 5 yr hiatus. I was ecstatic.I literally bounce every time she updates :)). Not only does it have a great Rogue and Remy, but a fantastic Bobby. And I even like this Scott :) In order: Looking at a women (http://www.gambitguild.com/library/lori_mcdonald/looking_at_a_woman.html); Thick as Thieves (http://www.gambitguild.com/library/lori_mcdonaldvalerie_jones/thick_as_thieves.html); and then Blind sight (http://www.gambitguild.com/library/valerie_jones/blind_sight.html)

for Bobby/J-P, the one I enjoyed most of late is Caffeine and Saccharine (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1910216/1/Caffeine_and_Saccharine)

[loopeleigh.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot to ask: what type of monitor are you using? CRT (old big clunky ones) or LCD? CRTs have a bad glare, which causes a lot of eye fatigue. You can get anti-glare screens for them that help a lot (used to have one at work before I got a LCD)
Also, try reducing your brightness level.
What we software geeks often also do is invert to colours on our applications. Make the backgrounds black and the text light yellow/cream/white. This is easier on the eyes when reading lots of text. Some applications let you set this under their customisation, but if you change it in Windows Display settings it does it for all applications. If you want to try, right-click on your desktop, Select “properties” Go to the Appearance tab and select “advanced” button. On the dialog, select Window from your items dropdown and select the colours you want to try. One warning, sometimes this has strnge effects on applications were they have only half customised there settings (you should either set the colours of everything or nothing) e.g. they explicitly set the font of a label to black, but leave the background to be controlled by user settings, and if the user changes the background to black, you can’t see the label. If this happens. You either need to change this back or change the background to blue.

Monitor-fatigue continued :)

[loopeleigh.livejournal.com]

(it seems to be my day of long cmments :) )

Last, but not least, try doing eye exercises. One of the reason that your eyes get sore is because you are staring at the same focal point all day. Its always about the same distance from you eyes, and you don’t shift your eyes over a large area. Our eyes weren’t meant to stare at one thing so long. Try this: Turn so you facing a relatively open area (doesn’t have to be big, just significantly bigger than the space between you and your PC). Pick a focal point far away from you, stare at it for about 5-10 seconds. Then pick one mid way. Stare. Pick one close to you. Stare. Really close to you stare. Look all the way to the right (don’t move head). Stare. Slowly move to all the way to the right in the same fashion (there should be 5 stare points in total from left to right). Repeat this over a few times. Speeding up a little (but not so fast that you don’t focus properly at each point). Mix it up a little too. Right, far forward, nose, mid left, , far left, etc, etc. The bigger the area you can scan, the better. Do this a few times a day. Being near a window helps a lot, cause you can just spend 5 minutes actively scanning/watching the outsides world and feel refreshed (my favourite is to count and classify cars – it helps me work through problems too. Lets my subconscious find the answer will I’m focusing on a menial task. Works for me somehow.).

And finally take breaks from the PC if eyes start feeling strained. Even if its just a walk to get a cup of coffee.

Hope these help. Cause I can feel your pain (literally, also had to much PC time today). It’s a big problem in my line of work we’re slaves to the PC (or Mac  ).

Last comment of the day, I swear :)

[loopeleigh.livejournal.com]

So I just had to tell someone (who actually might care :) ).

Seeming I went to the trouble of turning on my home PC, and using it for something other than charging my ipod, I browsed through my folder from my old PC. And what did I find? Half of the next chapter to my fic (really rough) and the notes for that chapter and the next! Yay! I remember where I was going next (not overall :( ) So that mystery solved. :D