more of the same.
My sleep schedule is appalling. Got home from work at four yesterday, having been lectured and feeling terrible about it. Cleaned up after Christopher (he is not doing well--but he's still eating, and he's overdue for his shot anyway, so hopefully that will help). Talked to my aunt. Had something to eat. Toppled into bed at seven; woke up at two in the morning. Great idea!
...I did go back to sleep at about eight, whereupon I slept until one in the afternoon. Some part of my brain is still not entirely sure what day it is. Hopefully sleeping at a more usual time tonight will fix that somewhat.
With all that sleep chaos, I didn't accomplish much today. In fact, my greatest accomplishment...was making cat macros and icons. Sigh. Nevertheless, I feel the need to show off the cats.
I feel a terrible need to make more. It's a sickness.
The icons aren't particularly impressive, but I did upload a few, including a new default; slowly I become more satisfied with my own personal collection of icons. This batch included an abused Sokka and an adorable Rydia from the new FFIV DS remake trailer. I want that game so very badly. Of course, first I need a DS.
Gathering screencaps for Avatar icons did turn up something amusing, though. You see, AvatarSpirit.net has an interface which lets you search its screencaps. You can search in many ways, but these include "by character" and "by emotion." I decided to play around with some combinations of these two and see what I got.
Sokka + angst = 0
Aang + angst = 18
Zuko + angst = 71
Sokka + embarrassment = 31
...I'm not sure who to feel sorrier for, Zuko or Sokka.
I'll try to watch more Avatar tomorrow, but the Wire has eaten my brain again. Thanks, Season 4. >:( It's especially painful since I have to wait for my mother to be available to watch more, and she has a meeting tomorrow night. Augh. So in the meanwhile, I ramble. I've been thinking, you see.
One thing that's made me kind of sad about the Wire is knowing that it's more about a city and a society than its individual characters. As David Simon has said (I'm paraphrasing), no one is above the story. I've sort of assumed that this means character arcs can be cut off at any time by death or otherwise being removed from the story, because generally, that's what that sort of thing means. All the plot/"greater story"-driven series I know have in some way sacrificed character development; all the character-driven series I know have in some way sacrificed plot and sometimes theme. And I was worried, because I fear what they'll do to Omar in S5.
But I sat down to think about it, and I realized: The Wire doesn't do that. All the characters who have been removed from play (either by death, jail time, or simply having the focus shifted away from them) had a finished character arc. It wasn't necessarily finished happily, but they had closure. This is kind of amazing to me, that this show can keep the greater story together while still caring for every character.
But there's still a nagging little part of me that says: Omar isn't there to have a story arc. He's just there to be cool, to be archetypal and all that. They were originally going to kill him off after seven episodes; only Michael K. Williams's fantastic spin on the character made them keep him.
And you know what? If this were any other show, I'd believe that. I'd think that I was imagining some of the depth I saw, or that the creator had intended it but didn't care enough to follow up on it. Not this one. With this one, I can't help but believe that Omar is intended to have a character arc dealing with the conflict between his pride, the degradation of institutions in which he refuses to take part, and the joy of community from which his pride cuts him off. The growing sense of him being driven closer and closer to a dead end he's unable to escape; the hand Bunk offers him in S3. I'd like to think I'm not imagining it. And for once, I think I'll believe myself.
And...I have a shameful admission to make. I really, really want somewhere more to RP Omar. I still feel weirdly wrong RPing such a serious business character from such a serious business show, but damn do I need it. I'm even considering LJ RPs, if people will help show me how to RP in them. Thoughts? Recommendations? Slaps upside the head?
...I did go back to sleep at about eight, whereupon I slept until one in the afternoon. Some part of my brain is still not entirely sure what day it is. Hopefully sleeping at a more usual time tonight will fix that somewhat.
With all that sleep chaos, I didn't accomplish much today. In fact, my greatest accomplishment...was making cat macros and icons. Sigh. Nevertheless, I feel the need to show off the cats.
I feel a terrible need to make more. It's a sickness.
The icons aren't particularly impressive, but I did upload a few, including a new default; slowly I become more satisfied with my own personal collection of icons. This batch included an abused Sokka and an adorable Rydia from the new FFIV DS remake trailer. I want that game so very badly. Of course, first I need a DS.
Gathering screencaps for Avatar icons did turn up something amusing, though. You see, AvatarSpirit.net has an interface which lets you search its screencaps. You can search in many ways, but these include "by character" and "by emotion." I decided to play around with some combinations of these two and see what I got.
Sokka + angst = 0
Aang + angst = 18
Zuko + angst = 71
Sokka + embarrassment = 31
...I'm not sure who to feel sorrier for, Zuko or Sokka.
I'll try to watch more Avatar tomorrow, but the Wire has eaten my brain again. Thanks, Season 4. >:( It's especially painful since I have to wait for my mother to be available to watch more, and she has a meeting tomorrow night. Augh. So in the meanwhile, I ramble. I've been thinking, you see.
One thing that's made me kind of sad about the Wire is knowing that it's more about a city and a society than its individual characters. As David Simon has said (I'm paraphrasing), no one is above the story. I've sort of assumed that this means character arcs can be cut off at any time by death or otherwise being removed from the story, because generally, that's what that sort of thing means. All the plot/"greater story"-driven series I know have in some way sacrificed character development; all the character-driven series I know have in some way sacrificed plot and sometimes theme. And I was worried, because I fear what they'll do to Omar in S5.
But I sat down to think about it, and I realized: The Wire doesn't do that. All the characters who have been removed from play (either by death, jail time, or simply having the focus shifted away from them) had a finished character arc. It wasn't necessarily finished happily, but they had closure. This is kind of amazing to me, that this show can keep the greater story together while still caring for every character.
But there's still a nagging little part of me that says: Omar isn't there to have a story arc. He's just there to be cool, to be archetypal and all that. They were originally going to kill him off after seven episodes; only Michael K. Williams's fantastic spin on the character made them keep him.
And you know what? If this were any other show, I'd believe that. I'd think that I was imagining some of the depth I saw, or that the creator had intended it but didn't care enough to follow up on it. Not this one. With this one, I can't help but believe that Omar is intended to have a character arc dealing with the conflict between his pride, the degradation of institutions in which he refuses to take part, and the joy of community from which his pride cuts him off. The growing sense of him being driven closer and closer to a dead end he's unable to escape; the hand Bunk offers him in S3. I'd like to think I'm not imagining it. And for once, I think I'll believe myself.
And...I have a shameful admission to make. I really, really want somewhere more to RP Omar. I still feel weirdly wrong RPing such a serious business character from such a serious business show, but damn do I need it. I'm even considering LJ RPs, if people will help show me how to RP in them. Thoughts? Recommendations? Slaps upside the head?