caerula's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- of Trolls and books I think we may have actually gotten rid of The Troll on List. She/he/it wrote Friday to various list members, all of whom want nothing to do with her, and Phelps forwarded it to me, recommending that it was time for me to step in. I was happy to do so, as I was really start to think that EgoBoy was handling the matter much too politely. I wrote a rather blunt note stating that none of us wanted anything to do with her/them, and received a typically incomprehensible response that basically culminated with, "we don't want to talk to you anyway, so there." Of course, we've thought we got rid of her before, and she just keeps popping up. And EgoBoy got his panties in rather a twist about it, as he was in the process of composing a logical and rather long argument in response to their last note but one, and I sent my rude little message off without clearing it with the other moderators or letting EB know. I guess he feels like I stole his thunder, since we'd agreed to let him handle this, and I suppose that is somewhat justified. But since all he was doing was prolonging the irritation, I really thought someone needed to be more direct. I did tell him to go ahead and send his letter; it couldn't hurt, really, and will serve as back-up and reinforcement for mine. I do hope that has appeased him enough that he doesn't start ignoring me again -- not that I mind all that much, but it makes things uncomfortable. I was quite glad that Phelps referred the problem to me. I've been feeling somewhat out of the loop, as I was on hiatus for nearly a year with various heatlth problems and couldn't keep up with moderating a list of this size. Phelps is better at it than I am, honestly, and while I know that no one has intended to leave me out at all, several really close friendships have formed while I was inactive, and I missed a bunch of hoohah, like The Troll in her original form, and it just sort of all conspires to make me feel like a fifth wheel. Ok, that's more than enough self-pitying and whining. I'm still reading Artemis Fowl, but I'm not sure I like it. It's clever and interesting, hypothesizing a modern fairy subculture with advanced technology and a Recon squad, and a 12 year old human criminal genius who kidnaps one of said fairies. But I'm about halfway through, and so far none of the characters are very sympathetic, and the kid is particularly annoying. So this morning over breakfast I started another of my library books, The Fifth Elephant by Pratchett. People on List had been recommending Pratchett for a long time, and I finally gave in and read several; I'm glad I did, because they are some of the funniest books I have ever read, and I need laughs right now. The man really is a comic genius; his send-ups of modern society are absolutely brilliant. In this one, there's a plot about the crowning of a Dwarf king, who most be crowned on the Scone of Stone for it to be legit. That's right, an ancient pastry. And I just finished The Last Continent, which is basically a big send-up of Australia. My favorite touch was the town called Didjabringabeeralong. I'm still trying to get into Lord of the Silent, but since I have a whole pile of library books I feel like I should read those first. I also recently very much enjoyed Fast Women, by Jennifer Crusie, who I think is a great writer, and very funny. There's a description in the beginning of FW of a woman who's gone in for a job interview, and manages to wear a hole in the carpet, break the chair she's sitting in, crack a window, and destroy the blinds. It had me in hysterics, because, for one thing, I could totally put myself in that woman's place. It is so something that could happen. Other recent discoveries are that Diana Wynne Jones has it all over J.K. Rowling (although I do enjoy Harry Potter, still), and that although romance novels are as a whole as stupid as ever, some of them are quite readable. I should really be working now. 7:56 a.m. - 2001-06-11 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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