Fanart, Fanfiction and Fangirling

I feel like I should write more, but I always get lazy. Things are awfully busy at work, with official visits and poor management decisions making things worse, so I don't really want to sit down in front of a computer in the evenings. But I've been working on something non fannish lately, hopefully I'll be able to finish it.

I could write about my holidays. I spent 10 days in Sicily and had a wonderful time. It was my first time visiting Sicily and I loved every minute. The food was delicious, the monuments and historical sites beautiful and the sea was so blue and clear it looked fake. I walked so much my feet hurt every evening, but it was worth it. I visited the Western part of the island, starting in Palermo and the surrounding area, with a day trip to Agrigento to see the Greek temples, then I moved to Trapani. The week before I arrived the temperatures had been extremely high (up to 45°C) and there were some pretty bad fires, but luckily by the time I got there things had gone back to normal.

Other than that, I've been following the women volley European Championship and writing some Nick/Greg drabbles I'll probably use for the advent calendar. Yes, I know it's still August, but I'm not going to turn down inspiration just because December is still almost 4 months away.

Oh, and Die Ärzte announced a small autumn tour out of the blue a few days ago! Of course I can't take any days off in September (our worst month) and not even in early October, which is usually a kind of dead period at work, but not this year. The Saturday shows are all in very inconvenent places, so no more DÄ for me this year. But they also announced 2 concerts at Tempelhof for next year, so I guess I'm going to see them there. Those silly old men, doing everything they can to inconvenience their fans...

Thank God I was able to take a week off last week, because this summer is turning out to be even worse than last summer. I really can't do this anymore, I just can't. And on top of the work craziness, I also had some family emergencies and that's just too much.

Anyway, here's some fanart I drew for the Mini Harringrove Week over at Tumblr that I forgot to post here.

Day: July 30 - Prompt: Working at the Car Wash

Also posted on AO3.

While I was on holiday I also got an idea for a CSI ficlet, we'll see when I'll have the time and mental energy to clean it up and post it.

So many pictures and quotes and general fandom squee from Sherlocked. I'm sure if I'd gone, I would have spent a small fortune on pictures. Not on photo shoots with the actors (I always look awful in photos), I mean I would buy ALL THE PROMO PICS. Especially these. Predictable? Who, me?

In other news, I survived the first week at work! \o/ I may add more in a locked post, but for the moment I'll just say I'm happy. Oh, and we had ice cream after a meeting on Friday. Yep, it's good to be back. :P

Okay, I've come to the conclusion that, to avoid getting mad every single day at work, I'll just have to assume that everyone is an idiot. Everyone. The latest example: students who enroll for a school year or semester in the USA need to send us a copy of their immunisation history, we translate it and forward it to our American partner. Said American partner informed us that some schools may want to see a paper copy of the certificate, so students should bring a copy with them. So I sent an email saying "Please bring a copy of your updated immunisation history with you." My boss made me add "Please bring a copy with you in the USA, do not send it us." I thought she was exaggerating.

Today I receive a reply from one of the students: "Here is my certificate, it's attached."

If you heard a thud a couple of hours ago, it was my head hitting the desk.

So, yeah, I'll just laugh about this. And look at the pretty new pics of Scott out and about in LA looking adorable with a bit of white in his beard.

( Two pictures here )

These PHD comic strips pretty much sum up my life.





Source: here and here

The last panel? That's me every other day. I'm not a teaching assistant but I have to fight with students and parents (especially parents) to have all the paperwork we need before the deadline. The latest case was a girl who took ages to make up her mind and decided to enroll after the final deadline. We usually have a couple of weeks of flexibility, but that means families have less time to complete the application.

When I created her account and sent her username and password I specified that she only had two weeks to do everything and I wrote the deadline in bold. I got no reply, so I called them to make sure everything was okay. The mother told me they had everything and they would start working on the application the next day. After a week the application was still completely blank (we can check the status), so I called again, I spoke with the student and she said they had gone on holiday, but she would start working on the application asap. Two days before the deadline, I got an email from the father saying they never received username and password. I saw red. I called them asking why they didn't tell me before, since we spoke on the phone three times. I said I would send the username and password again but they had to hurry up because they only had two days left. In the email I pointed out again what the deadline was.

And you know what? The mother complained with my boss because she "didn't like the tone of my email". Which had been read and approved by my boss before I sent it, by the way.

This is what I have to deal with every day. This and people who come up with the most ridiculous excuses to avoid paying us. The richer they are, the worse they behave. Excuse me if I'm stressed out.

Man, this week has been hectic. And it's only Wednesday! D: But I did almost everything and even found the time to watch the latest H50 episode. I had to do everything in a hurry to be able to find those 40 minutes, but I really didn't want to wait until Friday night to watch it.

I've been super busy because I had to work some extra hours and I'm going to a workshop organised by the Australian Consulate later today. And isn't it typical that in the week when I have less free time I also have to write twice as much as I usually do? *headdesk* I write my articles for the newspaper in my free time, so less free time = more stress. Also, finding the people I need to talk to can be quite tricky when I can only call them during lunch break or in the evening.

Whatever, I'm almost done. And I find it funny that this workshop + cocktail is held in the same place where we do our USA pre-departure orientation meeting. It's a small world indeed.

Day 1 of Hell Week is over and done with. Just pray that I survive until Friday evening and everything will be fine.

Also, I'm so excited that posting is open over at kissemdanno! This was exactly what I needed to kick my muse back into gear and finally draw that Steve/Danny pic I've been meaning to draw for weeks. Wish me luck!

Comment of my boss in regard to something I did yesterday:

"Well done, Watson."

I almost laughed in her face. XD

Oh, man. We've just received new merchandise from one of our Australian partners:

- little plush koalas
- koalas holding a surfboard key rings - with tiny flashlight included!
- rugby ball-shaped stress balls

Can you get any more cliché? (Well, they could have used kangaroos holding boomerangs.)

But they're so damn adorable, I want to take everything home with meee! :3

They took forever to arrive because the packages got stuck at customs for suspect toxic contents. Did they think the rugby balls were capsules full of cocaine? They were sent by the Queensland Government, for fuck's sake! XD

PS And I'm using my shirtless Alex icon simply because he's Australian. Not because he's half-naked and glistening and I wanted some eye-candy. Not at all.

Today's pre-departure meeting went very well. The last couple of weeks have been awfully stressful, with a lot of parents panicking about visas and a few calling to ask when they will receive their placement (we still have 7 students waiting for a host family), but today everything went smoothly: no one complained, a girl who just got back from the US gave a little speech (and OMG she sounded so American, it was actually quite sweet), students were happy, parents were happy (thank God) and, even if I was bombarded with questions and quite exhausted at the end, I was really satisfied. It had been ages since the last time I could say I was actually satisfied with my job, so it was a nice change. :)