TV, Books and NaNo notes: Watch this, don't read that.
I have very little to say about House this week. *sigh* Shark-jumping confirmed. I miss Thirteen. Seriously. I think Olivia Wilde is my girl crush, and I miss her. And this whole... sleeping together thing? I just... IDK. And Chase is a male slut now, or something.
Color me disappointed. I used to like Chase.
Bones was a nice way to spend my Sunday morning, though. I learned a new word: Freegan, which as near as I can tell means you only eat things you can find for free, i.e., food in dumpsters that is not really bad but has been thrown away by convenience stores or restaurants or whatever because it is not "fresh" anymore.
Unfortunately, when you dumpster-dive, you sometimes also find body parts. ICKY!
What was absolutely totally awesome about this episode, though, was that David Alan Grier guested as Bunson Jude, the Science Dude who is so obviously a shout-out to Bill Nye the Science Guy, who - as previously mentioned - I adore. I was a happy ball of giggly geek for the entirety of this episode. YAY making science fun for kids!!
I loved that Hodgins loved the Science Dude and used to make his show a drinking game in college - that is so the kind of stuff your favorite shows are good for when you're sitting around not wanting to study. I love Hodgins doing fun experiments, which I think hasn't quite been the same for him since Zack left - he's adorable the way his face lights up about the potato gun. I loved Bones calling Dr. Jude "Dude" all the time, even when "Dude" wasn't around.
Then once or twice she said "The Dude" which made me think of The Big Lebowski which made me think of Jeff Bridges which made me think of TRON which made me think of Bruce.
PROFESSIONAL HELP: I NEEDS IT.
There was a moment when I completed this train of thought, though, that I was like, "Bruce is such a geek. I bet he'd do well to guest on this show."
I liked the end, too, where Bones was trying to justify the murder as an accident and Booth is all, "Bones, she cut off his head and hands. That was not an accident." And Bones, because she's Bones and I love her, says, "I have no response to that."
NaNo - I continue to struggle with the actual conflict part of the story in that I can't decide what the actual conflict would be. It would be fair to say I've developed a concept but pretty much lack a plot. I really, really hope this does not blow up in my face. I do not DO failure.
Books - So after I read The Shadow Within, which was relevant to the story of B5 and provides some background on Morden and Anna Sheridan and what went down on Z'ha'dum and was pretty good, I picked up To Dream in the City of Sorrows, which I also enjoyed pretty much and will do a review of for beyond_the_rim in December. Then ufgator1977 sent me Out of Darkness, Book III in the Legions of Fire trilogy - again, relevant to the story of B5, fills in some holes regarding the future-stumble scenes in the War Without End eps, gives us some background on David Sheridan and on the Sheridan family as a whole - and provides resolution to Vir and Londo, which is also great. All in all, again, pretty good.
All three of these books had in common that they tied out loose ends of things that were already in the series, things that were already canon. They are relevant. They play on knowledge we already have. I should have taken this into account at least a little before I picked up my next book - Clark's Law.
I am less than 100 pages into this and I'm uncertain whether I will finish it. It's bad. It's -- you know, here's what it's like. It's like somebody wrote fanfiction -- and not even good fanfiction, but they just did it for funsies, and they just happen to have the right connections to get it published. There is way better fic out there on the interwebs written by people who'll never see a dime for it, including people right here on my f-list. Seriously. Last night I read two pages about a crane crashing into the side of the station in zero-G which I'm sure if it was televised would be pretty cool, but on paper? It sucked. It sucked hard. I was looking for something to put me to sleep - it worked.
And there is Franklin dealing with his stim problem which - two things. His MedLab staff are apparently totally aware of his stim addiction and yet they do nothing about it and also, it's set at the end of Season 2, when I'm not really sure anyone knew Franklin had a problem. I'm not even sure he had a problem yet. I know it certainly wasn't as bad this early as it comes off in the book.
And finally - some TV I think everyone should watch.
Mythbusters. A cute girl, a couple of pretty boys, two special FX experts - all doing fun science that quite frequently results in big, huge, giant-ass explosions. What more could you want? They are all so adorably geeky that I can't even wrap my brain around it. Also, if you pay attention, you can learn a lot of things about, you know, sharks and movie FX and why things couldn't possibly happen in real life the way they do in the movies - but just for fun let's see how much C40 it would take to make that big of a boom. Awesome.
Color me disappointed. I used to like Chase.
Bones was a nice way to spend my Sunday morning, though. I learned a new word: Freegan, which as near as I can tell means you only eat things you can find for free, i.e., food in dumpsters that is not really bad but has been thrown away by convenience stores or restaurants or whatever because it is not "fresh" anymore.
Unfortunately, when you dumpster-dive, you sometimes also find body parts. ICKY!
What was absolutely totally awesome about this episode, though, was that David Alan Grier guested as Bunson Jude, the Science Dude who is so obviously a shout-out to Bill Nye the Science Guy, who - as previously mentioned - I adore. I was a happy ball of giggly geek for the entirety of this episode. YAY making science fun for kids!!
I loved that Hodgins loved the Science Dude and used to make his show a drinking game in college - that is so the kind of stuff your favorite shows are good for when you're sitting around not wanting to study. I love Hodgins doing fun experiments, which I think hasn't quite been the same for him since Zack left - he's adorable the way his face lights up about the potato gun. I loved Bones calling Dr. Jude "Dude" all the time, even when "Dude" wasn't around.
Then once or twice she said "The Dude" which made me think of The Big Lebowski which made me think of Jeff Bridges which made me think of TRON which made me think of Bruce.
PROFESSIONAL HELP: I NEEDS IT.
There was a moment when I completed this train of thought, though, that I was like, "Bruce is such a geek. I bet he'd do well to guest on this show."
I liked the end, too, where Bones was trying to justify the murder as an accident and Booth is all, "Bones, she cut off his head and hands. That was not an accident." And Bones, because she's Bones and I love her, says, "I have no response to that."
NaNo - I continue to struggle with the actual conflict part of the story in that I can't decide what the actual conflict would be. It would be fair to say I've developed a concept but pretty much lack a plot. I really, really hope this does not blow up in my face. I do not DO failure.
Books - So after I read The Shadow Within, which was relevant to the story of B5 and provides some background on Morden and Anna Sheridan and what went down on Z'ha'dum and was pretty good, I picked up To Dream in the City of Sorrows, which I also enjoyed pretty much and will do a review of for beyond_the_rim in December. Then ufgator1977 sent me Out of Darkness, Book III in the Legions of Fire trilogy - again, relevant to the story of B5, fills in some holes regarding the future-stumble scenes in the War Without End eps, gives us some background on David Sheridan and on the Sheridan family as a whole - and provides resolution to Vir and Londo, which is also great. All in all, again, pretty good.
All three of these books had in common that they tied out loose ends of things that were already in the series, things that were already canon. They are relevant. They play on knowledge we already have. I should have taken this into account at least a little before I picked up my next book - Clark's Law.
I am less than 100 pages into this and I'm uncertain whether I will finish it. It's bad. It's -- you know, here's what it's like. It's like somebody wrote fanfiction -- and not even good fanfiction, but they just did it for funsies, and they just happen to have the right connections to get it published. There is way better fic out there on the interwebs written by people who'll never see a dime for it, including people right here on my f-list. Seriously. Last night I read two pages about a crane crashing into the side of the station in zero-G which I'm sure if it was televised would be pretty cool, but on paper? It sucked. It sucked hard. I was looking for something to put me to sleep - it worked.
And there is Franklin dealing with his stim problem which - two things. His MedLab staff are apparently totally aware of his stim addiction and yet they do nothing about it and also, it's set at the end of Season 2, when I'm not really sure anyone knew Franklin had a problem. I'm not even sure he had a problem yet. I know it certainly wasn't as bad this early as it comes off in the book.
And finally - some TV I think everyone should watch.
Mythbusters. A cute girl, a couple of pretty boys, two special FX experts - all doing fun science that quite frequently results in big, huge, giant-ass explosions. What more could you want? They are all so adorably geeky that I can't even wrap my brain around it. Also, if you pay attention, you can learn a lot of things about, you know, sharks and movie FX and why things couldn't possibly happen in real life the way they do in the movies - but just for fun let's see how much C40 it would take to make that big of a boom. Awesome.