Pick Your Poison
For those not in the know, I like to write long posts. It's just in my nature. I keep things inside until I can no longer contain them, whereupon they come out in this huge mess. For easier reading I'll keep them all behind lj-cuts and give you a nice Table of Contents.
Real Life Weekend
I've been having a few of those off days, as I like to call them. Y'know...those days when you feel like your blood runs like molasses through your veins and your world is encased in a thick fog. You can't do anything and everything you do try to accomplish turns into just another reason why you absolutely fail at everything. It's one big downward spiral of doom.
However, I'm doing better. I've slept a lot recently, napping on and off throughout the day and taking my time with it all. If I have no where to be, then why not enjoy my sleeping time? It is a 180 from my attitude last week which is easily explained by my period which, yes, has come to visit me. Ah, the one week where I continually curse my body and believe with every fiber of my being that I was born in the wrong body. It's a grand fucking time. The only good part about it is that, after this week, I'll feel refreshed. I just have to get through the week.
Otherwise, things have been pretty good.
The family reunion over the weekend was much better than I previously anticipated. In fact, I rather enjoyed myself and had fun talking with my various family members.
For the record, this was only my mother's side of the family. She's one of six so when we all get together, including most of the children, we fill a house. This is what happened Sunday and Monday nights. Sunday everyone came up here to visit my mother, sister, and myself. We rented out the Condo activity house and had a barbecue. It was great. I even got in the pool after numerous taunts from my cousins. Lots of fun. Even the southern belle (who is gaining a lot of weight) was tolerable.
Monday night was much of the same. We just had fish and steak instead.
I wonder though if maybe, someday in the future, I'll have the guts to bring home a girlfriend to the collective family. No promises.
I also spent a lot of time with family members that were rather self-absorbed. My sister is the classic example. She's so self-centered that when she heard about our step-mom's wedding to her BF (not my father, for the record), she immediately asked "will I be in it?" *facepalm* My cousin is another example and she just wouldn't shut up about the environment and the doom-and-gloom prophecy she had of the future. Yes, I care about the environment, but I don't think we're all going to die in the next decade. And, if it were to come, I wouldn't survive. If I somehow did survive the immediate chaos I sure wouldn't the next part. I'm not strong, and I'm a woman, so do the math. That's ok though, we all die sooner or later. It's the one constant in life.
The moral of the story: it's no wonder that I'm a bit reserved about myself. I can't contend with my family members. Oh well.
Harry Potter Movie
Went to see if Sunday night with my cousin, the environment nut, and had a good time.
Unfortunately, driving the Saab and eating the buttery, kettle corn popcorn was the highlight of the trip. The movie was lacking and left me disapointed by the end. So many things went wrong...so many. Perhaps I'm just a lonely old cow but all of the romance just got to me. Hermione pinning after Ron made me sick, Harry and Ginny's budding relationship had me rolling my eyes, and Cormac pinning after Hermione was cringe worthy. And I know the story is about Harry Potter but the amount of testosterone flying around on-screen was wearing on my nerves. I want to see more Hermione and Luna, thank you very much! Sigh.
Then there was the ending with no big battle and botching up the whole Harry behind the invisible cloak. It totally took away the gravitas of the moment and made Harry look like a twat for not doing something, anything to save Dumbledore. Whateva.
Overall, not my cup of tea. I mean, the books are fun to read but I'm no avid follower of them all. I actually never wanted to read them until one of my old girlfriends told me to try it. Bah.
Comfort Books
Monday afternoon, on my way to the family reunion, I got a bunch of BookMooch books in the mail, including Douglas Adams A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Simon Scarrow's Under the Eagle. One's a sci-fi classic that I keep meaning to read whereas the other is just for fun. I know the Roman history inaccuracies will drive me crazy...it'll be good for me, in the long run. Letting go is a skill I'm working on.
Then, Tuesday afternoon I took a bunch of my so-called comfort books downstairs with me and curled up in the big chair, the one with the ottoman, and read by the window. I brought down copies of Appian, Plutarch, Polybius, and Euripides with me. Roman history and Greek tragedy always make me happy, it's a technique I use that never fails. I ended up reading Euripides' Hippolytus, a great tragedy. Not my favorite (my love always goes to Aeschylus and his Orestes trilogy) but still a good read.
I should really take a day and read some Appian and Plutarch. Both of them remind me of my favorite professors and reading for her class. Yeah, I suppose I had a bit of a crush on her, never mind that she is probably forty years my senior, but I love her anyway.
Oh, and on Monday, in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, I broke out my old spaceflight history books and read those throughout the day. I used to be a space nut, reading every book I could find as a kid, even going so far as to read Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon when I was in sixth grade. He was my Dickens. Anyway, broke out those books and ended up reading more about the Russian space program and Apollo 13 than Apollo 11. Meh.
BSG Mini-Series
I finally, finally, FINALLY got my mother to watch the BSG mini-series with me on Tuesday night and, halle-frakking-lujah, she liked it! Haha! I told you so! Of course, she liked the characters more than the action, just as I told her previously, and there is a chance she might actually get into the series as a whole. :) Happiness.
Seeing as this was my nth viewing, I could pay attention to some of the more subtle effects like music and camera angels. I fell in love with Cmdr. Adama all over again when, during the prep for the big fight against the Cylons at the end, you see him standing in the CIC, a determined look on his face. Tigh is in the background, that ever present support for Adama. Those two had some of my favorite moments of the series, their love and devotion to each other evident from the very beginning. Heart warming, really. I loved it.
However, as I was watching the mini-series, my brain started to hurt. The time errors that I started to realize were glaringly obvious. If the first Cylon War was over forty years before the mini-series than characters are much older than I first thought. Adama is at least sixty, probably close to 65, and I think the general consensus is that he's 69 (according to the awesome wiki). Yikes. 69? I never would have thought that. Near sixty, yes, but near seventy? Alright, RDM, if you say so.
Then I went to Admiral Cain, who I figured to be mid- to late-forties. Adama first called her a "young" admiral "on the fast track" so she would need to be under fifty (the average age of admirals is around fifty-three or so, I looked it up). If you were promoted to rear-admiral five years ahead of schedule, that's good. But a fast-track I would consider something along the lines of ten years early. That was my first thought when I saw "Pegasus" all those years ago (ok, three years ago). But if she was a teenager during the first Cylon War, as evidenced in "Razor" flashbacks, she'd need to be fifty during the show and only if we're being generous. Fifty is not a "fast track" and, by many definitions, not "young". Sorry, doesn't work that way. Oh well. Trying to make sense of these things in a series is akin to shooting yourself in the foot. So Cain will always be mid-forties and Adama early-sixities in my mind.
And how old are Apollo or Starbuck? What about Doc. Cottle (who I assumed was the old geezer of the bunch)? Oh RDM. You are great but you are most definitely not wise. I still, and always will, contend that a series needs a fan-fanatic on their show for continuity errors like. Sigh.
Favorite First Episodes of a Series
All of this BSG talk got me to thinking. The number of shows that had a decent first episode are few and far between but the ones with re-watchable first episodes are even rarer. I'll recount my favorites, and why, just for shits and giggles.
Worst First Episodes
How about the worst ones? Ugh, too many to really list, so I'll just do the ones I can think of off the top of my head. It's a wonder how these shows ever lasted past their first season, let alone go for 6+ years.
Video Game Happiness
I've done a bit of video game playing, including a refresh of the Final Fantasy obsession I have every now and then. Recently I've been into FFVIII and V, playing them on my PS2 and DS respectively. FFVIII keeps me going by playing those stupid card games (I got the Seifer card today!) and FFV keeps me going by...well, grinding, I guess. Actually, the story is boring me a bit. I'd kinda like to have some more female characters in my party right now. But Palom and Porom just sacrificed themselves for Cecil and, to my great surprise, I actually felt a bit of emotion for them. It was all very Star Wars-ish, what with the walls compacting in on our heroes, but the self-sacrifice was a nice touch. Sigh. I liked them as spellcasters. Now all I have is lame Tellah, who has a mana pool the size of my little toe. Ugh. I can't cast Cura enough with that guy. Stupid old man.
There's also a FF marathon going on at Speed Gamers. I've watched it on and off throughout the day. It's only FFIX right now, VIII being up next, so I might tune in again. Makes me want to start up IX again....
The other game I started was The Darkness on the PS3. It's a video game based on the comic of the same name. It's actually pretty good. I played it last night for a while until I started getting sick from the horrible controls. Console controls suck for FPSes, I don't understand how so many people can be so good at them, much less excel. The controls of a mouse and keyboard are better than anything a silly console can come up with. If you haven't noticed, I love my PC.
But The Darkness was good. Eating out hearts of your dead enemies...yum.
OOC Music Happiness
I don't talk about my music preferences a lot; I feel like it's a very personal matter. Even when I was in a relationship I was loath to reveal what types of music I liked or listened to. Really. I can't do it. Even my signing up for Last.fm was for personal reasons, I like to keep track of my music like any OCD nut.
In light of this, I will give you a little taste of what's in my ears right now.
A few lines have gotten me as of late. The current line is from Strata, from the song Dotted Line.... A line from the song states "somebody's kissing me like it means everything". Now that's a kiss and a great way to describe it. I loved it so much I used it to create one of my most recent FF drabbles (which I will post immediately after this).
Another song I'm loving the lyrics to is from Evans Blue, a band I recently discovered. From Possession: "to hold you down, kiss you so hard, I'll take your breath away". Yup, another kissing song (stupid hormones), and the emotion behind those words...mm, perfect.
This next lyrical happiness is also from Evans Blue, a song called Over, and has nothing to do with kissing. It goes: "I say burn, all of your bridges, while you still have control of the flame". What a nice turn on the usual saying. It gets me to thinking those deep thoughts that make my brain hurt. I'll leave that for another time, huh?
Something semi-related: I want the BSG Season 4 soundtrack right frakking now. This waiting game is killing me.
THE END
So sorry for all that. I'm sure most people will just give the tl;dr response, which is all well and dandy, although this was the sole purpose of me including so many lj cuts. Read what you want, discard the rest, or digest it in pieces. I'm flexible. Next time I'll do a smaller post. Promise.
- Real Life Weekend
- Harry Potter Movie
- Comfort Books
- BSG Mini-Series Rewatching
- The Good First Episodes of a Series
- The Worst First Episodes
- Video Game Blabble
- OOC Music Squee
- THE END
Real Life Weekend
I've been having a few of those off days, as I like to call them. Y'know...those days when you feel like your blood runs like molasses through your veins and your world is encased in a thick fog. You can't do anything and everything you do try to accomplish turns into just another reason why you absolutely fail at everything. It's one big downward spiral of doom.
However, I'm doing better. I've slept a lot recently, napping on and off throughout the day and taking my time with it all. If I have no where to be, then why not enjoy my sleeping time? It is a 180 from my attitude last week which is easily explained by my period which, yes, has come to visit me. Ah, the one week where I continually curse my body and believe with every fiber of my being that I was born in the wrong body. It's a grand fucking time. The only good part about it is that, after this week, I'll feel refreshed. I just have to get through the week.
Otherwise, things have been pretty good.
The family reunion over the weekend was much better than I previously anticipated. In fact, I rather enjoyed myself and had fun talking with my various family members.
For the record, this was only my mother's side of the family. She's one of six so when we all get together, including most of the children, we fill a house. This is what happened Sunday and Monday nights. Sunday everyone came up here to visit my mother, sister, and myself. We rented out the Condo activity house and had a barbecue. It was great. I even got in the pool after numerous taunts from my cousins. Lots of fun. Even the southern belle (who is gaining a lot of weight) was tolerable.
Monday night was much of the same. We just had fish and steak instead.
I wonder though if maybe, someday in the future, I'll have the guts to bring home a girlfriend to the collective family. No promises.
I also spent a lot of time with family members that were rather self-absorbed. My sister is the classic example. She's so self-centered that when she heard about our step-mom's wedding to her BF (not my father, for the record), she immediately asked "will I be in it?" *facepalm* My cousin is another example and she just wouldn't shut up about the environment and the doom-and-gloom prophecy she had of the future. Yes, I care about the environment, but I don't think we're all going to die in the next decade. And, if it were to come, I wouldn't survive. If I somehow did survive the immediate chaos I sure wouldn't the next part. I'm not strong, and I'm a woman, so do the math. That's ok though, we all die sooner or later. It's the one constant in life.
The moral of the story: it's no wonder that I'm a bit reserved about myself. I can't contend with my family members. Oh well.
Harry Potter Movie
Went to see if Sunday night with my cousin, the environment nut, and had a good time.
Unfortunately, driving the Saab and eating the buttery, kettle corn popcorn was the highlight of the trip. The movie was lacking and left me disapointed by the end. So many things went wrong...so many. Perhaps I'm just a lonely old cow but all of the romance just got to me. Hermione pinning after Ron made me sick, Harry and Ginny's budding relationship had me rolling my eyes, and Cormac pinning after Hermione was cringe worthy. And I know the story is about Harry Potter but the amount of testosterone flying around on-screen was wearing on my nerves. I want to see more Hermione and Luna, thank you very much! Sigh.
Then there was the ending with no big battle and botching up the whole Harry behind the invisible cloak. It totally took away the gravitas of the moment and made Harry look like a twat for not doing something, anything to save Dumbledore. Whateva.
Overall, not my cup of tea. I mean, the books are fun to read but I'm no avid follower of them all. I actually never wanted to read them until one of my old girlfriends told me to try it. Bah.
Comfort Books
Monday afternoon, on my way to the family reunion, I got a bunch of BookMooch books in the mail, including Douglas Adams A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Simon Scarrow's Under the Eagle. One's a sci-fi classic that I keep meaning to read whereas the other is just for fun. I know the Roman history inaccuracies will drive me crazy...it'll be good for me, in the long run. Letting go is a skill I'm working on.
Then, Tuesday afternoon I took a bunch of my so-called comfort books downstairs with me and curled up in the big chair, the one with the ottoman, and read by the window. I brought down copies of Appian, Plutarch, Polybius, and Euripides with me. Roman history and Greek tragedy always make me happy, it's a technique I use that never fails. I ended up reading Euripides' Hippolytus, a great tragedy. Not my favorite (my love always goes to Aeschylus and his Orestes trilogy) but still a good read.
I should really take a day and read some Appian and Plutarch. Both of them remind me of my favorite professors and reading for her class. Yeah, I suppose I had a bit of a crush on her, never mind that she is probably forty years my senior, but I love her anyway.
Oh, and on Monday, in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, I broke out my old spaceflight history books and read those throughout the day. I used to be a space nut, reading every book I could find as a kid, even going so far as to read Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon when I was in sixth grade. He was my Dickens. Anyway, broke out those books and ended up reading more about the Russian space program and Apollo 13 than Apollo 11. Meh.
BSG Mini-Series
I finally, finally, FINALLY got my mother to watch the BSG mini-series with me on Tuesday night and, halle-frakking-lujah, she liked it! Haha! I told you so! Of course, she liked the characters more than the action, just as I told her previously, and there is a chance she might actually get into the series as a whole. :) Happiness.
Seeing as this was my nth viewing, I could pay attention to some of the more subtle effects like music and camera angels. I fell in love with Cmdr. Adama all over again when, during the prep for the big fight against the Cylons at the end, you see him standing in the CIC, a determined look on his face. Tigh is in the background, that ever present support for Adama. Those two had some of my favorite moments of the series, their love and devotion to each other evident from the very beginning. Heart warming, really. I loved it.
However, as I was watching the mini-series, my brain started to hurt. The time errors that I started to realize were glaringly obvious. If the first Cylon War was over forty years before the mini-series than characters are much older than I first thought. Adama is at least sixty, probably close to 65, and I think the general consensus is that he's 69 (according to the awesome wiki). Yikes. 69? I never would have thought that. Near sixty, yes, but near seventy? Alright, RDM, if you say so.
Then I went to Admiral Cain, who I figured to be mid- to late-forties. Adama first called her a "young" admiral "on the fast track" so she would need to be under fifty (the average age of admirals is around fifty-three or so, I looked it up). If you were promoted to rear-admiral five years ahead of schedule, that's good. But a fast-track I would consider something along the lines of ten years early. That was my first thought when I saw "Pegasus" all those years ago (ok, three years ago). But if she was a teenager during the first Cylon War, as evidenced in "Razor" flashbacks, she'd need to be fifty during the show and only if we're being generous. Fifty is not a "fast track" and, by many definitions, not "young". Sorry, doesn't work that way. Oh well. Trying to make sense of these things in a series is akin to shooting yourself in the foot. So Cain will always be mid-forties and Adama early-sixities in my mind.
And how old are Apollo or Starbuck? What about Doc. Cottle (who I assumed was the old geezer of the bunch)? Oh RDM. You are great but you are most definitely not wise. I still, and always will, contend that a series needs a fan-fanatic on their show for continuity errors like. Sigh.
Favorite First Episodes of a Series
All of this BSG talk got me to thinking. The number of shows that had a decent first episode are few and far between but the ones with re-watchable first episodes are even rarer. I'll recount my favorites, and why, just for shits and giggles.
- Star Trek: Voyager - A decent first episode. Lots of action, lots of decent character introduction, and the beginnings of a nice premise. The only problem with it is the lack of follow-through from the show in general. It had such a great first episode that made me excited for the rest of the series, which just fell through. And as much as I hold a torch for that damn show, and Janeway in particular, I do admit it failed more than most.
- Battlestar Galactica - It had a first episode/mini-series that is completely re-watchable and a self-contained universe without the follow-up series. I fell in love with that mini-series within the first hour and if there had never been a tv series to follow I would have been just as happy. That thing is amazing and, even if it is three hours long, I've watched it a number of times. It just makes me happy. And Starbuck's hair is still short. :)
- HBO's Rome - Wonderful first episode that included all of the gritty details of Roman warfare and life. Sure, Caesar and Pompey were never, ever co-consuls together (and why did Crassus just get ignored?!) but I can overlook it's glaring historical inaccuracies in the name of a good story. The rest of the series wasn't great, it got lost when Caesar stopped being so important), and don't even get me started on the second season, so at least I had a great first episode.
- Band of Brothers - Amazing. 'Nuff said.
- The L Word - I was speechless when I first watched it. I thought it was the greatest thing since computers and immediately bought the whole first season. After the first season is where things get yuck, imho. I didn't finish the second season because of...well...bad things and the other seasons I just heard about through the online grapevine. I'm glad I didn't watch the rest of the series. Where, or where, did this show go wrong?!
Worst First Episodes
How about the worst ones? Ugh, too many to really list, so I'll just do the ones I can think of off the top of my head. It's a wonder how these shows ever lasted past their first season, let alone go for 6+ years.
- Stargate SG-1 - So, so, so bad. I know what you were trying to do with Sam's whole I am woman hear me roar speech but it was just over the top. Really, it hurts!
- Star Trek TNG - Not really awful (Q was great and the set-up for the last episode is a redeeming feature here) but it lacked direction really. I felt like the show and actors were trying way too hard to make it work, to make it good and believable, that it corrupts everything. Sigh.
- Xena - The show can be downright horrible at times (their Greek mythology makes me weep) and the first episode is pretty bad. The whole first season was bad. It goes in the pile of "watched it once, never return". Actually, that goes for the majority of the damn show. You have to watch for those diamonds in the rough...and be prepared to go digging.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Should we consider the movie, the un-airied pilot, or the actual first episode? All bad, in descending order.
Video Game Happiness
I've done a bit of video game playing, including a refresh of the Final Fantasy obsession I have every now and then. Recently I've been into FFVIII and V, playing them on my PS2 and DS respectively. FFVIII keeps me going by playing those stupid card games (I got the Seifer card today!) and FFV keeps me going by...well, grinding, I guess. Actually, the story is boring me a bit. I'd kinda like to have some more female characters in my party right now. But Palom and Porom just sacrificed themselves for Cecil and, to my great surprise, I actually felt a bit of emotion for them. It was all very Star Wars-ish, what with the walls compacting in on our heroes, but the self-sacrifice was a nice touch. Sigh. I liked them as spellcasters. Now all I have is lame Tellah, who has a mana pool the size of my little toe. Ugh. I can't cast Cura enough with that guy. Stupid old man.
There's also a FF marathon going on at Speed Gamers. I've watched it on and off throughout the day. It's only FFIX right now, VIII being up next, so I might tune in again. Makes me want to start up IX again....
The other game I started was The Darkness on the PS3. It's a video game based on the comic of the same name. It's actually pretty good. I played it last night for a while until I started getting sick from the horrible controls. Console controls suck for FPSes, I don't understand how so many people can be so good at them, much less excel. The controls of a mouse and keyboard are better than anything a silly console can come up with. If you haven't noticed, I love my PC.
But The Darkness was good. Eating out hearts of your dead enemies...yum.
OOC Music Happiness
I don't talk about my music preferences a lot; I feel like it's a very personal matter. Even when I was in a relationship I was loath to reveal what types of music I liked or listened to. Really. I can't do it. Even my signing up for Last.fm was for personal reasons, I like to keep track of my music like any OCD nut.
In light of this, I will give you a little taste of what's in my ears right now.
A few lines have gotten me as of late. The current line is from Strata, from the song Dotted Line.... A line from the song states "somebody's kissing me like it means everything". Now that's a kiss and a great way to describe it. I loved it so much I used it to create one of my most recent FF drabbles (which I will post immediately after this).
Another song I'm loving the lyrics to is from Evans Blue, a band I recently discovered. From Possession: "to hold you down, kiss you so hard, I'll take your breath away". Yup, another kissing song (stupid hormones), and the emotion behind those words...mm, perfect.
This next lyrical happiness is also from Evans Blue, a song called Over, and has nothing to do with kissing. It goes: "I say burn, all of your bridges, while you still have control of the flame". What a nice turn on the usual saying. It gets me to thinking those deep thoughts that make my brain hurt. I'll leave that for another time, huh?
Something semi-related: I want the BSG Season 4 soundtrack right frakking now. This waiting game is killing me.
THE END
So sorry for all that. I'm sure most people will just give the tl;dr response, which is all well and dandy, although this was the sole purpose of me including so many lj cuts. Read what you want, discard the rest, or digest it in pieces. I'm flexible. Next time I'll do a smaller post. Promise.