EugieFoster.com

I debated whether or not I should post this, as I’m still hoping the problem will just go away, but decided in light of new information I’ve discovered, that I’d post it with a “friend’s only” lock.

The LJ user abdulsharif is stalking me. I have reported him to the LJ abuse folks, and am awaiting their response.

On Monday, 7/22/2002, this individual was apparently trolling through LJ and happened upon my journal. He then proceeded to post an insulting reply.

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=eugie&itemid=15458

mouseferatu posted a reply, coming to my defense, as did I. We both banned him from our respective LJs, and I disabled anonymous posting.

He then went to mouseferatu‘s LJ and posted anonymous abuse there, but Mouse tracks IP addresses and was able to identify abdulsharif as the poster. (Mouse deleted the offending post, but you can read about the lengths that abdulsharif went to from Mouse’s comments on my LJ.)

Since then, abdulsharif has identified what LJ communities I’m a member of from either my journal or my user info. He surfed the community until he found a comment that I had responded to. It wasn’t even a main thread so it would seem that he was hunting for something from me. He then proceeded to post more abuse, including vague accusations of plagiarism. (Of what, I have no idea.) I have contacted yakdog, the moderator of the community and he has since deleted the offending post.

abdulsharif also got my homepage URL from my user info and posted more abuse on my guestbook.

Please keep in mind that until this week, I didn’t even know this guy existed.

As soon as the LJ abuse folks have given me the all clear, I’m deleting the nastygrams he’s posted on my LJ and my website’s guestbook.

I discovered today that I am not the only person whom abdulsharif has stalked and harrassed on LJ. xxsuigenerisxx posted a heartfelt thank you to her LJ friends on her journal, and abdulsharif accused her of plagairising it, which of course, is completely ridiculous. She thanked her friends, with her words, from her experience with them. He then tracked her LJ friends and went to delphizyx and posted more defammatory, libelous comments about xxsuigenerisxx there.

This person is a stalker. He’s displaying classic obsessive behavior. He’s also an asshole. May his testicles become leprous and his penis fall off.

Thanks for listening, y’all.

Glah. Drinking a lot of (uncaffinated) herbal tea is not at all beneficial after a bout of insomnia. Screw the decaf, gimme some coffee!

Writing stats:

I had three, or was it four more critiques of “Running” trickle in from Critters after I mailed off my final draft to a market. No biggie, the macro comments had been made in the previous critiques, except the very last one found a leetle, bitty, itty-eenie typo that all of the 24 or so previous critters (and myself after a gazillion read throughs and my first reader on his two passes) had missed. AGGGHHH!!

It’s tiny. I dropped a letter in the middle of the name of one of my secondary characters. It doesn’t impact the story and odds are the editors/first reader won’t even notice. But . . . dammit. Fume.

Better news:
2500 words into “Two Minds.” I actually outlined this one (*gasp* high fantasy and outlined! What is the world coming to?) It’s likely that it’ll crest into novelette length as well. Hmm. I’m writing longer works recently. Wonder why.

Pet the muse. Nice muse. Would musey like a cookie? NO, she’d fucking like some coffee! NOW!

Eep. You heard the lady.

I was dwelling on the nature of sleep and insomnia, which is ironic right now, since, hey, 5:45 am and bing. Actually, early morning insomnia is less of an issue these days since we got Hobkin. Crepuscular critters are more than happy to romp and play at 5am. Insomnia hardly feels like a problem when a person’s got a fuzzy beastie frisking about at one’s feet, begging for attention :).

Or, err, begging for breakfast.

*feeding the fuzz-head*

Anyway, Matthew saw a show on sleep mechanisms the other day on the Discovery channel. I’ve always been fascinated by sleep, even when I was just a wee undergraduate with dreams of electrodes and Freud dancing in my head. So even pop-science blurbs rivet me.

Them scientist types have found that there’s a chemical responsible for sleep. That is, a chemical in the brain which shuts down all your “waking” impulses and sends you off to nappy-time. This, in itself, is fairly old news. But what they didn’t know until recently is that it’s always cycling through your system. It doesn’t get released at certain times, it’s always there. What does get released is another chemical that overrides it, and thereby allows you to wake up. Stimulants like caffeine and amphetamine don’t mitigate the “sleeping” chemical, but rather they stimulate the suppressing, “wake up” one.

Neat huh?

There’s more. Insomnia, that red-eyed demon of the night (or in my case, of the early morning), is when the suppressing chemical gets outta control, and it triggers even when you should be sleeping. However, researchers now think that insomnia is actually a survival trait. Under times of stress and danger, it was advantageous not to fall asleep. Which makes sense–big bad carnivore stalking your tribe. Probably not the best time to get overwhelmed by a fit of the yawns. Hence, those people whose sleep suppressant mechanisms were hyped up had an advantage. Of course, now, triggers for insomnia are more esoteric than a big, hungry claw-fangy. Doesn’t do much good to lie awake at night worrying about taxes.

But still, isn’t that cool? Makes me want to brush up my ole researching skills and dig a little deeper for the actual study write-ups. Hmm. Well, actually, probably not. But there’s a story in there, I think. Definitely something for the ole idea file.

I really need to do the laundry. Actually, I needed to do it last week. This morning, while getting ready for work, I seriously considered how well my co-workers would handle it if I showed up in a black vinyl corset and mini-skirt. It was that or a pastel print blouse that makes me look like an 80’s reject in the Barbie and Ken world (it was a gift from well-meaning, but fashion defunct, relatives). Plus I think they’d handle the vinyl better than the French Maid ensemble.

Routine maintenance chores are getting a bit of the shaft while Matthew’s convalescing. Hmm. Weekend looks like a big time for housework. Blick.

But, on an up note, handling my con-wear reminded me that I’m so looking forward to Dragon*Con. I’m missing the feel of vinyl and corseting and stiletto boots. My fetish fix from is fading fast (whoa, check out the alliteration!)

Erm, when I logged in, I meant to post my writing stats. But my brain went fwoop instead.

So:

“Running On Two Legs” (formerly titled “In the Voices of Innocents”) received 23 critiques on Critters as of this AM. Re-write complete and story away into the marketplace and to Ann Crispin for the Dragon*Con advanced workshop.

Rejection received from the Vivisections anthology on “Reign of the Wintergod.” With some extremely complimentary comments. But, still a no. This will be a hard story to place as it’s extremely visceral and explicit. Most markets won’t touch something this graphic. Damn.

Threw “It’s Only Springtime When She’s Gone” up into the Critters queue.

1000 words start made on “Of Two Minds in Lanais” (working title), which will be one of my rare high fantasy efforts. It’s something of a writing exercise for me more than anything else.

I did a tally. I’m four rejections away from my one hundredth one. Wonder if I should throw a party when I get it. Hurmph.

Do you ever get that sensation where you’re pretty sure you’re going insane, but the little men in the walls have set up detour signs so the guys with the straight jackets never make it to you?

Just wondering.

I think I’m exempt from professional courtesy, but maybe there was a statute of limitation that no one told me about?

Coffee will fix it. *twitch* Coffee makes everything better. *fzzt*

Just found out via the LJ grapevine that dawnmarie died last week from a fatal seizure. I didn’t know her well, but we’d exchanged banter in passing at the last two Fantasms. I’m speechless.

Matthew’s asleep in the bedroom, looking quite charming all nestled in with the pillows, and Hobkin’s curled up on my lap, occasionally stretching his paws out in a stretch, skunk-purring, or otherwise doing cute. I’m taking a break from a critique-a-thon for Critters to write this LJ entry; I always try to earn an MPC every time I use one so I’ve got one in reserve in case of “emergencies” (I don’t know what an “emergency” critique situation is, but I use my MPCs regularly, so hey, six down, four to go). And I’m playing some Sting-does-jazz on the computer speakers.

Three stories written and in various states of polish in short order, Matthew on the mend, work a distant Monday morning concern, sleeping skunk oozing tranquility on my lap. For the first time in weeks, I actually feel relaxed, unstressed, basically at peace with the world. Ahhhh. Or should I say “ohmmmm”?

This is nice. I need to get more “nice” moments going on.

It’s such a load off my mind, Matthew’s surgery being over and whatnot. These last few weeks have been just plain Hellish.

I just found out that my work folks want me to fly back to Illinois in the middle of August for some training so I can transition to a new project. Sigh. I hate going back there. It’s so dull and ugly. But on an up note, I do get to visit some dearly missed friends.

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