Memes, RL, and West Wing
3 months ago: This meta post on the relationship(s) between canon, the source text, and the AU which I thought was a brilliant conceptual analysis of the terms and didn't so much as cause a drop in the meme pool. I still think its the most well-done meta I've meta-ed, but oh well.
6 months ago: I didn't have an LJ six months ago. Wow. It seems like I've been doing this for longer than that. Of course, I was around in LJ-land before that, reading wisdomeagle's, karabair's, and hjcallipygian's flists and leaving anonymous comments signed "Alixtii."
Yesterday: A friend of my roommate came over to use our TV to watch Charmed. This is the guy who tried to start a Buffy student organization last year. I can't be sure how far he's fallen, since I've only watched a single episode (while I was in London, home of 5-channels-one-of-which-is-in-black-and-white-the-reception-is-so-bad), but I've heard mixed reviews. As in mixed, because this guy who came over last night likes. Otherwise, they'd not be mixed. You do the math.
We made plans to see Serenity this weekend. Hopefully it'll be showing here in Hamilton or else in Oneida, but if not we'll drive to Utica or Syracuse. I didn't want to make that type of drive, but if I'm not alone it won't be so bad. I still haven't figured out anyway of finding out which theatres are showing it and which aren't. Hopefully as the date gets closer that type of information will be made public.
Anyway, I was going to watch the show with him to be social, but I found out yesterday while driving to the campus store to get my weekend editions of the New York Times (thank Goddess for my car's radio!) that yesterday was the season premiere of The West Wing. So I watched that.
What was the point of the teaser? To remind us that people were running for president? Even for potential new viewers (who would not have found this episode engaging or even clear, I don't think), it seemed very superfluous and pointless (just like my second adjective in that pair, since superfluous says what it needs to quite well, thank you).
Kristin Chenoweth sounds just like she does on my Wicked soundtrack.
Just like everyone else, I found the Josh/Donna scene heartbreaking. I wonder what will happen next, though. Since Joss Whedon isn't running the show, I'm assuming that the fact that J.M. is still in the opening credits indicates she will still be involved somehow. (And who am I kidding? Joss wouldn't kill Donna until after he finally got Josh and Donna together. Possibly the episode after, but after. Just saying.)
So, the meat of the episode as I saw it--C.J. For the entire summer, I just assumed C.J. was the leak, but this episode seriously had me wondering at points. Which had me torn--having her not be the leak would be such cheap storytelling, but I don't want C.J. to get in trouble. By the end of the episode it seemed pretty clear that she was indeed the leak, though, which makes me wonder what all that misdirection was about. We'll see how that arc continues, too. (And was it just me, or did A.J. look seriously different? Younger or something. I had difficulty even recognizing her as C.J.)
I wanted to see more about Vinick. The way that he emerged as a completely wonderful and sympathetic Republican challenger was one of the strong suits of a last season, I thought. I was torn between wanting Vinick to win and wanting a Dem to win, and this episode didn't do that for me--mainly because the episode completely forgets Vinick exists for the most part.
As a whole? The episode did a good job of moving the plot(s) forward, but it didn't seem to have much of a thematic or organic unity. It was just history--one damn thing after another, broken up by commercial breaks and with credits at the end. Now I found it one incredibly engrossing and engaging damn thing after another, but I don't think it would be that way to someone not already invested in the show. If I were a new viewer, I wouldn't watch again.
Maybe new canon will inspire me to write that WW/BtVS crossover I've been thinking about. I'm still not sure I can get the WWers' voices right yet, though. But I love West Wing so much, and I'd love it so much more if it had vampires in it.
While reading (in some cases re-reading) the posts referenced by wisdomeagle's version of the meme above, I came across an interesting meme that predicted your interests by looking at the interests of people who shared your rare interests. Now personally, I'm interested in finding out which of my interests counted as "rare." Dawn/Ethan and Mal/Kaylee, sure, but what about the non-fannish ones? Do people interested in German idealism, social construction, and showtunes all love Harry Potter. Or are they actually incredibly common and popular interests and I just don't know it? (I'm too lazy to actually check and find out.) What would the results have been like if it had taken my non-fannish interests (assuming that it didn't)? (One of these days I'm going to do that "10 interests" meme that's been going around, but that day is not tonight/)
Anyway, the results themselves aren't all that surprising:
Based on the lj interests lists of those who share my more unusual interests, the interests suggestion meme thinks I might be interested in
1. harry potter score: 51
2. reading score: 44
3. music score: 38
4. slash score: 37
5. fanfiction score: 36
6. movies score: 36
7. books score: 32
8. buffy the vampire slayer score: 30
9. angel score: 29
10. poetry score: 29
11. shakespeare score: 24
12. star wars score: 23
13. lord of the rings score: 23
14. anime score: 22
15. monty python score: 22
16. art score: 21
17. sex score: 21
18. buffy score: 20
19. fan fiction score: 20
20. oscar wilde score: 20
coded by ixwin
Find out more
The next chapter of Divine Interventions should be posted sometime tomorrow. I can't believe we're at the denouement already. I've never posted the denouement of a fic this long before. It's a bittersweet experience, because once I get to Chapter 16 the fic is over, and I need to actually write some more if I'm going to post. And with the exception of femslash_minis, I don't think I have the time to do that.
6 months ago: I didn't have an LJ six months ago. Wow. It seems like I've been doing this for longer than that. Of course, I was around in LJ-land before that, reading wisdomeagle's, karabair's, and hjcallipygian's flists and leaving anonymous comments signed "Alixtii."
Yesterday: A friend of my roommate came over to use our TV to watch Charmed. This is the guy who tried to start a Buffy student organization last year. I can't be sure how far he's fallen, since I've only watched a single episode (while I was in London, home of 5-channels-one-of-which-is-in-black-and-white-the-reception-is-so-bad), but I've heard mixed reviews. As in mixed, because this guy who came over last night likes. Otherwise, they'd not be mixed. You do the math.
We made plans to see Serenity this weekend. Hopefully it'll be showing here in Hamilton or else in Oneida, but if not we'll drive to Utica or Syracuse. I didn't want to make that type of drive, but if I'm not alone it won't be so bad. I still haven't figured out anyway of finding out which theatres are showing it and which aren't. Hopefully as the date gets closer that type of information will be made public.
Anyway, I was going to watch the show with him to be social, but I found out yesterday while driving to the campus store to get my weekend editions of the New York Times (thank Goddess for my car's radio!) that yesterday was the season premiere of The West Wing. So I watched that.
What was the point of the teaser? To remind us that people were running for president? Even for potential new viewers (who would not have found this episode engaging or even clear, I don't think), it seemed very superfluous and pointless (just like my second adjective in that pair, since superfluous says what it needs to quite well, thank you).
Kristin Chenoweth sounds just like she does on my Wicked soundtrack.
Just like everyone else, I found the Josh/Donna scene heartbreaking. I wonder what will happen next, though. Since Joss Whedon isn't running the show, I'm assuming that the fact that J.M. is still in the opening credits indicates she will still be involved somehow. (And who am I kidding? Joss wouldn't kill Donna until after he finally got Josh and Donna together. Possibly the episode after, but after. Just saying.)
So, the meat of the episode as I saw it--C.J. For the entire summer, I just assumed C.J. was the leak, but this episode seriously had me wondering at points. Which had me torn--having her not be the leak would be such cheap storytelling, but I don't want C.J. to get in trouble. By the end of the episode it seemed pretty clear that she was indeed the leak, though, which makes me wonder what all that misdirection was about. We'll see how that arc continues, too. (And was it just me, or did A.J. look seriously different? Younger or something. I had difficulty even recognizing her as C.J.)
I wanted to see more about Vinick. The way that he emerged as a completely wonderful and sympathetic Republican challenger was one of the strong suits of a last season, I thought. I was torn between wanting Vinick to win and wanting a Dem to win, and this episode didn't do that for me--mainly because the episode completely forgets Vinick exists for the most part.
As a whole? The episode did a good job of moving the plot(s) forward, but it didn't seem to have much of a thematic or organic unity. It was just history--one damn thing after another, broken up by commercial breaks and with credits at the end. Now I found it one incredibly engrossing and engaging damn thing after another, but I don't think it would be that way to someone not already invested in the show. If I were a new viewer, I wouldn't watch again.
Maybe new canon will inspire me to write that WW/BtVS crossover I've been thinking about. I'm still not sure I can get the WWers' voices right yet, though. But I love West Wing so much, and I'd love it so much more if it had vampires in it.
While reading (in some cases re-reading) the posts referenced by wisdomeagle's version of the meme above, I came across an interesting meme that predicted your interests by looking at the interests of people who shared your rare interests. Now personally, I'm interested in finding out which of my interests counted as "rare." Dawn/Ethan and Mal/Kaylee, sure, but what about the non-fannish ones? Do people interested in German idealism, social construction, and showtunes all love Harry Potter. Or are they actually incredibly common and popular interests and I just don't know it? (I'm too lazy to actually check and find out.) What would the results have been like if it had taken my non-fannish interests (assuming that it didn't)? (One of these days I'm going to do that "10 interests" meme that's been going around, but that day is not tonight/)
Anyway, the results themselves aren't all that surprising:
Based on the lj interests lists of those who share my more unusual interests, the interests suggestion meme thinks I might be interested in
1. harry potter score: 51
2. reading score: 44
3. music score: 38
4. slash score: 37
5. fanfiction score: 36
6. movies score: 36
7. books score: 32
8. buffy the vampire slayer score: 30
9. angel score: 29
10. poetry score: 29
11. shakespeare score: 24
12. star wars score: 23
13. lord of the rings score: 23
14. anime score: 22
15. monty python score: 22
16. art score: 21
17. sex score: 21
18. buffy score: 20
19. fan fiction score: 20
20. oscar wilde score: 20
coded by ixwin
Find out more
The next chapter of Divine Interventions should be posted sometime tomorrow. I can't believe we're at the denouement already. I've never posted the denouement of a fic this long before. It's a bittersweet experience, because once I get to Chapter 16 the fic is over, and I need to actually write some more if I'm going to post. And with the exception of femslash_minis, I don't think I have the time to do that.