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bojanus · 5 months

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What's my biggest fantasy? Well I think it'd have to be... when my coworker messages "Can we start doing X?" even though I SENT HER the new workflow for X that just NEEDS HER APPROVAL (because IN THEORY she's supposed to own/direct X task and I'm just supposed to implement it) and every time she asks I reply to my own message saying "here in this very chat, right here, I sent you this new workflow. We cannot move forward on X until you review and approve it" and she goes like "Sorry I'll get right on that!" and then days later she messages me again asking "Can we start doing X?".... in my deepest darkest fantasies I tell her "scroll up in this very conversation and rephrase in your own words what I have messaged you so I can see that you have read my words and understand them".

And bonus whenever she sends me an urgent ask about a separate task/thing I need to fix I deeply, fervently fantasize about saying "Before I go drop everything to fix this, can you pause for a moment and read the message I sent you asking for your feedback on X that you left on read? Like you opened this chat, the message must be in front of your eyes, but clearly you did not pause to think 'oh before I ask this person to go do another task for me maybe I should look at the latest message in this chat to make sure I am not completely ignoring the ask they made of me that I keep somehow forgetting to do while still somehow remembering to ask 'can we start doing X' every few days'."

#bojanus chats #she's rapidly becoming a work nemesis #im venting so hard here #i try to respond very professionally IRL #but sometimes i want to call her #and then screenshare #and then go through our entire chat #and say 'this is where you ignored me #and this is where I asked for clarification and you did not read #and this is where i asked again #and you eventually said you 'thought you replied' to approve X #so can you please point to that reply???#because I scrolled through twice just in case #and still have not found it'#she is supposed to own this project!!!!#and yet is SO disorganized!!!!!!#She's clearly invested bc she keeps asking when we can do X #but she's not doing her part!!!#she used to be my comrade through awful spreadsheets!!!#I used to love her like a brother!!!!#I once resisted an 'as per my last email' opportunity towards her #in order to not embarrass her on an email thread #with our bosses #but i should have cast 'as per my last email'#when i had the chance #i swear im not a hardass ppl miss things sometimes it happens #but so many times in a row is just insulting at this point!!!!

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bojanus · 8 months

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The Touch of the Sea reviews

My roommate snagged me a short story anthology that she called "A collection of gay mermaid erotica." Say no more. Turns out most the stories were NOT erotic (most made some reference to sex but some were only a few lines or fade to black) but there was plenty else to enjoy in this anthology edited by Steve Berman. Individual story thoughts below the read more.

Time and Tide by 'Nathan Burgoine

A man returns to his hometown for his father's funeral, and has to confront his ex he left behind when he originally left and his own heritage/powers. This one was super sweet, I found it nicely grounded and healing in a "returning to the hometown and finding peace" way. The ending brought a little tear to my eye. The powers/gifts were somewhat underexplored, but that makes sense for a short story.

The Calm Tonight by Matthew A. Merendo

Sea men go up to land every 200 years to choose a mate, and always bring back a woman who magically is able to live underwater with them thanks to magic. Our main character, however, falls in love with a man, and is hesitant because the magic may not protect his love the same way, and so he must choose between the sea and his love. Made me somewhat sad, but I'm staying hopeful despite all the evidence otherwise. I choose to believe they got their happy ending.

The Bloated Woman by Jonathan Harper

Not a fan. A man stays by the shore to help take care of his aging professor, has a tryst with a married man, and runs into a random woman's body on the beach. Just kind of felt like "Ooh sad/brutal things happen". The narrator also spoke about others in a mean way sometimes that I'm not sure if it was intentional characterization or just the author kind of being a dick. The mystery aspect was intriguing but didn't really have a satisfying payoff for me.

The Stone of Sacrifice by Jeff Mann

This was a breath of fresh air, especially the first half where a man just finds this random cute guy swimming in the middle of a storm. I will say the Scottish accent of the sea-guy was something I'm not used to reading and it made for a bit of a silly contrast for me during the heavier erotic sections... but I was delighted the whole time. The ending got a lil worrisome, but overall I'm a fan.

Air Tears by Damon Shaw

After a kiss, the main character finds himself unable to breath air but able to breath underwater. Short, and I think that fit as the compelling part of it was the snapshot concept of a man underwater, crying tears of air that bubble up to the surface.

The Grief of the Seagulls by Joel Lane

A man recalls how his lover died thanks to corporate greed for oil along the shore. Sad but poignant, the corporate greed destroying safety felt all-too-familiar, but at least in this story there is a little closure given for the grief. A really thoughtful work.

Ban's Dream of the Sea by Alex Jeffers

People who colonized an abandoned island full of architecture have been having sexy dreams and disappearing. I enjoyed the relationship between the two main men in this, the descriptions of architecture (and the use of the tower near the end) I think would appeal to anyone who loves buildings and such but otherwise... the racism I think was intended to be period accurate, but there were various lines about how "savages couldn't have made architecture that advanced/organized/beautiful"... which again we are in the POV of the colonists for that line so it makes sense they say that, but there was so little depth or acknowledgement of the natives culture (or like, what IS the natives architecture then?? If it's not that?) and the randomly tossed in bonds(wo)men just felt like turning a whole group of people into set dressing... It left a bad taste in my mouth that the cool magic concept couldn't quite overpower. Lovecraftian in many ways.

Night of the Sea Beast by Brandon Cracraft

A delightful romp through the making of a monster movie in the McCarthy era with cultural hysteria around homosexuality stoked high... but more importantly, someone or something keeps killing the lead actress of this monster movie. This story was by far the most fun, somewhat silly at times but with a nice core concept and in the spirit of a B-movie horror film. There was also a really strong theme of community, not just among queer folks but also among allies who love them; people continually showed up and helped each other throughout and the very ending scene was so sweet. The exposition was a little heavy-handed at times (everyone's always dropping their relevant backstory notes at the drop of a hat), but I think that's in the nature of the short story (this was among the longer in this anthology, but I would gladly read a longer version with more time spent with the characters and the twists and turns of the mystery).

Wave Boys by Vincent Kovar

This story follows the Wave Boys, a specific sea-faring group among many others that all have their own traditions and cultures. Seeing the Wave Boys traditions, those of other groups, and the larger culture surrounding all of them was interesting and well constructed. Fun with really interesting/engaging cultural worldbuilding, though I got confused at times trying to keep track and figure out what everything was. I especially enjoyed the traditions around storytelling.

Out to Sea by John Howard

One of the more happy stories, where a guy just decides to go and visit some islands he has been interested in for a long time. Didn't particularly stick with me, but was a nice change of pace from some of the sadder/ambiguous stories.

Keep the Aspidochelone Floating by Chaz Brenchley

A vessel gets hijacked by the pirate queen, and a particularly famous sailor decides to join the pirates as a cook. He ends up in a romance with a cute young guy, and there's various shenanigans along the way, including some whaling. If you like Moby Dick then you'll probably enjoy this one. The characters were all strong, especially the pirate queen who I adored. I wish everyone could have had a happy ending, but overall I think the final scene was wonderfully dramatic and full of action and twists. Plus the love interest was adorable.

Overall

I'm not an experienced short story reader, like I don't really do anthologies, so I think it was challenging for me to read stories where there wasn't a lot of time to get into the characters and plots. Plus there were a lot of sad/ambiguous endings, which I generally avoid... but I'm glad I read through and tasted some new things and stuff that's interesting to check out but I might not want a whole book about. My top four were: Night of the Sea Beast, The Stone of Sacrifice, Time and Tide, and Keep the Aspidochelone.

#review #book review #short story review #bojanus chats #reviews

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