{"id":279,"date":"2008-03-25T21:19:31","date_gmt":"2008-03-26T04:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=279"},"modified":"2017-09-13T21:29:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T04:29:56","slug":"updates-quandries-and-other-noises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"Updates, quandries, and other noises"},"content":{"rendered":"

I noticed it had been a while since I posted.\u00c2\u00a0 And I basically left people hanging on a dark note there.<\/p>\n

Catz, catz, catz!<\/u>
\nA frequent refrain in our household.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually mine.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Lilith has actually improved.\u00c2\u00a0 We can’t afford chemotherapy for her (it sounds nasty, but reportedly cats respond to chemo much better than humans do), so we went with more conventional medication.\u00c2\u00a0 Shortly after I posted my lament of woe-squared, we got some prescriptions for her,\u00c2\u00a0 an antibiotic and a steroid, that are supposed to boost her immune system.<\/p>\n

We chop the pills to the right dosages and fit them together into gelatin capsules.\u00c2\u00a0 That way, we only have to ram one big pill down her gullet while she’s spitting and clawing her way out.\u00c2\u00a0 We got used to her being so weak, offering no resistance.\u00c2\u00a0 Now we wrap her up in a thick towel.\u00c2\u00a0 The minor — but many — bites and scratches snapped us back to reality.\u00c2\u00a0 Bactine:\u00c2\u00a0 the sweet nectar of success.<\/p>\n

Well, that and seeing her.\u00c2\u00a0 Her coat and her eyes shine.\u00c2\u00a0 She talks more than ever, not so much “meow” as squeak<\/i>, cranky squeak<\/i>, and terrified squeal!<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0 She jumps around like crazy, bumping our legs, bounding across the apartment, maintaining her regular security patrols, and watching birds from the window sill with laser light intensity.\u00c2\u00a0 In short, she’s acting like a kitten again.<\/p>\n

But sometimes she lets out a loud violent sneeze.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s enough to stop my heart for a second.<\/p>\n

I keep thinking about a line from Blade Runner<\/a>, probably the most important one:\u00c2\u00a0 “It’s too bad she won’t live!\u00c2\u00a0 But then again, who does?”<\/a><\/p>\n

LJ Uber-drama<\/u>
\nI’m sure everyone else has heard about this by now.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly lots of blog postings out there.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of them are even useful<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to get into all the back-and-forth, the horribly translated Russian interviews with the Powers That Be, the yay’s or nays (deliberate word choice) regarding the big boycott on Good Friday, or any of that.\u00c2\u00a0 My understanding of the whole thing boils down to a few simple things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. LJ intends to close up the no-cost, ad-free Basic Account level.<\/li>\n
  2. They didn’t intend to let anyone know about it.<\/li>\n
  3. They were also caught censoring user interests, rendering them invisible on key listings.<\/li>\n
  4. They have now fostered a hostile relationship with their customers — and their content — for several months.<\/li>\n
  5. There’s no sign that it’s going to stop.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    On the first point… sad, I guess.\u00c2\u00a0 But it happens.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a business.\u00c2\u00a0 They have to make money, yadda yadda.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a fair complaint.\u00c2\u00a0 If they had just said so, and not resorted to item number two, people would grump, but eventually deal.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at DeadJournal<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I bitched, but I moved on.\u00c2\u00a0 And they’re still around.<\/p>\n

    But it’s the last three items that give me and Jamie pause.\u00c2\u00a0 And how many times has LJ gone to war with its customers over content — two times? three?\u00c2\u00a0 — in the current management’s first 100 days at the helm?<\/p>\n

    Content issues are a big deal for us.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not just a hobby for us.\u00c2\u00a0 This is our business.\u00c2\u00a0 We have to make money too.\u00c2\u00a0 We do an audiodrama show that’s clearly, loudly, proudly not for everybody.\u00c2\u00a0 How long will it be before LJ has a problem with us?<\/p>\n

    We’re really busy now.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t need this kind of grief now.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m working on several scripts, some of the Willamette Radio Workshop, some for Afterhell.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m mixing a new episode fast as I can, when I’m not writing, collapsing from fatigue, fielding family emergencies, or trying to medicate cats.\u00c2\u00a0 Deadlines are looming close behind.<\/p>\n

    So we’re left with two choices.\u00c2\u00a0 Pray that LiveJournal never comes after us.\u00c2\u00a0 Or take Afterhell off of LiveJournal ourselves.<\/p>\n

    We’re preparing to move the Afterhell blog.<\/p>\n

    I’ll be cross-posting this elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I noticed it had been a while since I posted.\u00c2\u00a0 And I basically left people hanging on a dark note there. Catz, catz, catz! A frequent refrain in our household.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually mine. Anyway, Lilith has actually improved.\u00c2\u00a0 We can’t afford chemotherapy for her (it sounds nasty, but reportedly cats respond to chemo much better than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,6,27],"tags":[84,35],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-livejournal-postings","category-offtopic","category-personal","tag-lilith","tag-livejournal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}