It’s been quite a couple of days. This is literally just me venting, be warned.
Work wise, a story that’s been in process for the last couple of weeks finally went live, prompting a social media breakdown for one of the sources for it — not because of anything he did, but because a promotional tweet for the outlet made it look as if he was the writer, meaning that he got an entire furore of fake outrage that should have rightfully been mine. (Yes, I feel very guilty, thank you for asking. I also feel a little relieved, which just makes me feel more guilty.)
It also got the company at the center of the story complaining that they’d been blindsided by it, and also changing policy but claiming that the changed policy had always been the case, it was just worded badly… except that the story was, in part, about how the original policy was a problem.
Yesterday was spent, in part, messaging both of the above parties to try and sort things out, while also messaging the editor of the outlet to fix things, make edits after the fact, and so on.
While all of this was going on, I was also writing a story that’s supposed to go live today that kept changing as I was writing it. (About the return of Warren Ellis to comics, via a new Image Comics series.) No sooner would I write a section than I’d have to either dump it or change it as new facts came to light, all while getting messages from sources either giving me new information or promising something would arrive momentarily, probably.
Suffice to say, my focus was scattered, and I’m not sure that anyone necessarily felt as if they were getting the proper attention they deserved. Worse, they were probably right, which just leads back to the feeling very guilty thing again.
Of course, that’s just work: on top of all of that, Portland is headed into a record-breaking heatwave this weekend, which has me all kinds of worried in addition to being all kinds of uncomfortable and clammily sweaty as temperatures already rise. I’m sure that (and the fact that it’s kind of ruining my sleep cycle) aren’t contributing to my feeling of being utterly overwhelmed by everything, right…?
Thankfully, the weekend is around the corner. Even with the heat, a break’s going to help somehow, right…? Right…?