2012 is not looking bright

So I am not looking forward so much to like, existence for the months of January through March. Our current build just started prelim testing (testing is now in three separate testing stages, not one, don't ask, it makes me cry) but at the same time we got those assignemnts two weeks ago, we got the ones for the build after that. The one that, I think, is releasing in May.

...it is never a good sign when preliminary assignments go out that early. It is a much worse sign when during that time--preliminary--your assignment list is already long enough to qualify for your normal number of assignments, but you are told that no, it's not done yet. It is a red fucking alert when you are assigned as planner support on two of them along with your other assignments, because the three assignments (so far) is so huge that it will belong to two to three (that's 2 to 3) people and they require support planners.

It is much much more horrifying when the requirements list--that's a list of everything we need to check in this particular assignment in this build--is over 140 pages. Seventy of which are the actual list of requirements to check. Survey says, for one assignment out of probably about 120 to 200 assignments, there will be close to 200 tests.

Context: the build we finished last week had a total of 900 tests in (roughly) 120 assignments (SR or service requests). The largest was far, far less than 200. The most I ever wrote for a single huge SR was seventy (ish) last year in August when I was planner support. It was one of the largest we ever did (this doesn't include automated testing and reports testing, since those are weird adn can have tons of tests but are very short and done in bulk, not by hand one at a time).

Also, I cannot find the Acer tablet or the Lenovo tablets that I wanted to get for Child. He wants a tablet, I will break my credit card getting him one that will make me destroy civilization if he breaks it, and why did they all vanish when I went to buy them? My day, Christ.

So my zen:

Apocalypse Week in The Big Bang Theory updated with a new chapter. How did I not notice this was in progress? My day got exponentially better, though I see 2012 will not go well.

Also, the Christmas Bears are now on display. Pictures are forthcoming. I can now say comfortably I am on my way to being the Crazy Bear Lady, like the Crazy Cat Lady, but I spend less on cat food and they do not mind being stored in boxes, which I understand would not be appropriate for cats.

books: a woman's estate by roberta gellis

Reading Roberta Gellis' A Woman's Estate, book five in the Heiress series, set during Napolean Mark I.

Okay, overall the series is uneven and not nearly as fantastic and fun as her medieval, but that fifth book is just--and I say this as a Romance novel reader--there is some terrible pre-feminism in here. I don't object at all to anachronistic feminism and anti-racism. Even when it's done awkwardly or badly, I give points for good intentions or making a decent effort because even handled badly, they're trying desperately to handle it in a genre that is not really easy to pull it off in and most people don't even try to integrate it at all, much less make a sincere but awkward effort at it.

IDEK what was going on with this one, but it was really hideously awkward attempts at pre-feminism backed against invisible-to-the-author misogyny that's not used deliberately. Gellis had an earlier book where in her notes, she made reference to blaming women for the fall of women's rights in medieval europe, so haven't read that one again, but her Roselynde books are so strong in women's lives and etc that I can just ignore that one. It was weird and the few good points (noting law that made a woman stop existing when she married; that was genuinely unsettling to read, even though I was aware of it, detailing it out like that was very well done) but then it's offset with the story's supporting the idea that her wanting to not marry again or wanting freedom or etc was all about lacking trust in her husband and a mania, which fuck no.

There was a lot of mixed messaging here, is what I'm saying, and I can't give points for what she did do because the entire thing was based on HEROINE DOES NOT TRUST MEN AND WHY. And later, how she acknowledges her own foolishness, because hello, her goddamn points were valid even in--especially in--a happy marriage. I mean, that's what made it work. EVEN IF YOUR HUSBAND WAS LOVING AND RESPECTFUL, HE COULD AND DID DO THIS SHIT IN THE SPIRIT OF LOVE AND RESPECT AND THAT SHIT WAS STILL WRONG.

(Though it did have a genuinely touching, subtle moment with the hero questioning his mother and her responses were wonderfully drawn of a woman who had a perfectly happy marriage but also the small embarrassments/discomforts of the fact that as a married woman, she was owned by her husband and could own nothing herself; all belonged to her husband on his sufferance.)

I can't figure out why she bothered with the proto-feminism at all when the text itself was arguing against it or fighting it so hard. I think she made a stab at racism, but I won't swear to it because that was just weird and awkward and uncomfortable in a bad way. Your text should not argue for the purpose of proving that feminism is awesome, but with a good husband, not so much necessary.

Stick with the Roselynde series or the Royal Dynasty series, is what I'm saying.