alexwearspants

I'm feeling very restless but too headachey to do anything about it. I resent this a great deal. Also bought a bag of almonds tonight with the express intention of sitting down and eating it a lot, but had to give up after only a few. Almonds, I will give you this, you are a very filling nut.

Also watched SJA, which was delightful! It has been some time since I watched SJA, for reasons which I shall not go into, and I am so glad I got to see these two particular episodes. I found out a while ago that many respectable and awesome people do not in fact watch SJA, which is sad and slightly shocking, as they do not have my reasons, merely the Fear Of Spinoff. At the time I wrote a whole thing about why they should which essentially boiled down to:

- It has Sarah-Jane goddamned Smith.
- It has K9.
- It has the motherfucking Brig.
- It has great character chemistry, continuity and dialogue.
- Speaking of continuity it handles Classic References supremely well, see:
a) That time SJ randomly referenced Peladon in casual conversation in a way that was relevant without alienating (please take this on board, New Who. Mythos can be both created and reinforcing Classic w/out having to take a dip in the Exposition Ocean. Check also: 'I Have A History That Is More Than Just Showing You My Faces In Order'.)
b) In a move very similar to Dalek, SJ, who is consistently 'no we don't use guns, we never involve the military, this is not our way' aaaalll S1, flipping the fuck out upon meeting the Sontarans and calling up UNIT. For people who've never seen Classic you can just go 'ooohhhhh these are bad bad guys'. For those who have? The part where she was horrifically tortured by a Sontaran makes the instinctive terror and lack of mercy kinda understandable.
- Did I mention it has the motherfucking Brig?
- It has Ten. (This is not so much of interest to me but you know. To others I guess?)
- And now it has Eleven and Jo. Fffffffffffffffffffffffff yes.


Now I want someone to rant with. *sadfaces about*


( SJA - 'Death of the Doctor' Spoilers. And boy did they ever get long and rambly. )


So also my headache is not hugely better and I wanted to/still want to do some writing but can't because of restless energy and achey pains, but am going with it so whatever. Also I really wish I had a turntable. I want to play that vinyl of Three singing lullabies that I have now. I want it so hard.

Perhaps some Three, and then sleep.



Also I have been very shoddy at answering comments lately (read: always.) I will try to get on that (read: most likely will fail.)

So. Con is over and was fabulous. I am halfway through writing up an account from scattered notes and footage taken from over the weekend, but essentially, it was fabulous. And terrifying. And fabulous.

I spent travelling time during the weekend re/listening to Gallifrey Season One, which I'd slept through parts of before, and it was love. Which admittedly was more of a confirmation than a revelation, but still. And then when I got home I watched Invasion of Time. Which was silly and rather sadmaking, in that context. And a lot of fun, still. It's one of the serials I have the most vivid imagery-rememberance of from my childhood, so the weird doubling and prediction/adaptation process of rewatching it did take away a little from what otherwise might have been quite emotional. Which is probably good because I'm only just really catching up on sleep. Baaaaaarely. Overinvested? Yes. Yes I am.

Internet is still sort of buggered, which is frustrating, but we're working on it. Showed stepmother Partners In Crime today (yay Donna!) and watched a lot of fascinating exerpts from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Exciting stuff. And now, I think, I sleep. Or something.

It's been a weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek. Recently mostly of awesome. To veer wildly into TMI, I can generally tell just how I'm feeling (even when I don't want to acknowledge it) by how many showers I take a day.* When I'm anxious, I shower a lot. When I'm depressed, I tend not to shower at all (I ... did say TMI.) On Monday I showered four times.

This has led to me taking a week of rest and relaxation and also plenty of other stressful and problematic things because life won't actually not throw things at your head just because you've decided you need some you time. But there's been lots of awesome stuff too. We went mulberry picking and Princess(age 7) made her first ever dinner for the family and there were walks and Dad fixed up the carrier for my scooter (on the downside the carrier for my scooter broke again, but only on the weaker fibreglassed joints so I'm not too concerned) and we played with the dogs and saw family and I rewatched a lot of Bones and started to read another Ben Elton novel(why do I do this to myself?) and talked to people and had good food and wrote a bit and finished half of this Shalka vid (not so good, but cracky-kinda-fun) and generally had a good time of it. Which was nice. Then there was other less-nice stuff. But I don't want to talk about that.


Anyway some fun and interesting stuff has been happening on the internets, and whilst y'all are cool-cat types who have no doubt seen all this I am going to relink it here, for my own further perusal if nothing else.

This article about gender sterotypes plays to many of my biases, and therefore does not require me to think at all, which is nice.

karenhealey is about the coolest person on LJ (and possibly all of Melbourne, but then there's Tripod, who are after all one man with three bodies), and she wrote an awesome and interesting and mildy terrifying review of the anti-vaccination movement.

Maureen Johnson, who is also pretty awesome, wrote about the dearth of Boy's Books in a way that made sense, and wonderfully articulated a lot of things I didn't even know I wanted to say whenever this tired discussion comes up. If you've never encountered it before, or even if you have, give it a read. She's funny and awesome and also you should read her blog. Sometimes, there are pictures.


And on a completely different note, this is the coolest Doctor Who/Sense and Sensibility crossover ever. And it doesn't drag and isn't too long and doesn't leave you with nagging questions (thus demonstrating it isn't too short either). You really should read it. It's simply delightful.


Also I've been listening to a bit (for me a lot) of Katy Perry. At least
mezzopianoforte will be happy. *sighs*






*And god, god, I know, this is the most enviromentally unfriendly stress-relief method ever I am so so sorry planet ilu I will be rich and plant lots of trees oh dear. (I ... I am not trying to say this is an entirely controllable thing though. Which is not to excuse myself, more just. This is a reaction I've noted in myself, not something I'm necessarily choosing to do.)

So, we finally have a government in Australia, after nearly three weeks of vote-tallying and negotiations. This is of course old news, it happened Tuesday and a week is a long time ... well, you know the rest. I have mixed feelings about the result. I'm glad that Labor will lead the minority government, for all that neither Labor or Liberal are the parties of my heart. I'm curious to see how this minority government will work out, and if it will lead people to cling more tightly to the two-party system that's dominated, or to explore further possibilities.

There's a strange divorce between looking at things from a strategic viewpoint (really a foolish thing to attempt, considering the already utilised adage) and from a personal. For example most people consider it likely that the incumbent government, whoever they ended up being, will be even more vulnerable to attack and likely lose the next election. This might prove true, but that's no reason for me to sacrifice my time now for a potential future bonus that might never eventuate.*

I'm sad that once again we haven't actually voted in our first female PM, that she's maintained her position, much as she attained it, through wheeling and dealing. I'm still proud that the election wasn't really run on the fact that she's an unmarried childless athiest. On the other hand, the election wasn't run on much at all. It was a bit of a shambles all around.

It's an exciting time for politics, though. I'm desperate for the government to prove it can work, at the very least to last til next year when the Greens** will hold the balance of power in the Senate. I really want people to see what the Greens can do when you put your trust in them. I want to see what they'll do when we put our trust in them. I hope that the responsibility will curtail some of their more ... out there ... policies whilst demonstrating that most of what they advocate is doable and deliverable.

A final thought is that I advocate compulsary voting. ...Strongly. I. Yes. I don't really know that I can go into this without accidentally insulting someone so I'll let the statement stand. But I'm in the interesting position of being in a safe seat. I don't believe my constituency has changed hands in ... oh I'll wiki it. .........Ok. So. Some time later, I am somewhat boggled to learn that my constituency has never changed hands. It's been a Labor safe seat since it was created over a century ago. Well. No wonder we get screwed so often. Which, to relate tangentially to the first statement, means that I can vote to my conscience, if I like, and not have to worry about it because it doesn't have an effect. Nothing I do will have an effect. It's depressing but freeing which is something I worry about considering my claims to caring.






*.......I'm trying to say I'll be happy if the Liberal Coalition never gain power. Ever. Never ever ever. Both major parties may tend towards conservative policies but I'd rather the one thats working-class oriented, thanks.

** Some clarification, because it was pointed out to me that the Australian Greens Party doesn't seem to operate in quite the same way that other Greens parties do, the AGP is not a single-issue party. They have policies on a range of issues from light rail to sustainability to equal rights for same-sex couples and so on. Basically for all that the Australian Labor Party is the Left and the Liberal/National Coalition is the Right, if you really want to vote Left in Australia you vote Greens. Bob Brown, to show my bias, is my hero.

Ok, so, a long time ago x_los was bugging me about Who-related lists and how I should have them, and more recently tardiscrash posted a list on his fandom journal, and I was reminded how many moons ago I attempted to buck the trend by yes, making a list, but instead of Who eps focussing on BFAs. Except I stole that from aralias.

Still, here is my bigass list of the first 40 BFAs and general (sometimes spoilery, to the extent of 'IT'S GOT DINOSAUR SKELETONS') descriptions/reactions of the sort that are useless to anyone who's listened to them already. It's weird now to look at what I thought then, because this was when I'd only first really started to discuss this aspect of fandom with other people and I wasn't really doing relistens. So I've got updated thoughts, for what they are, in bold, but even then they're less thoughts and more ... squee and snark. At some point I'll keep updating this list as I'm well past the episode 40 mark, but for now, here we go.


bold is for amazing
strikethrough for terrible
and italics is for completely forgettable

( Bigass BFA List Wot I Have Listened To )

General conclusions? Six grew on me rapidly, Eight is swings and roundabouts, Seven gives me rose coloured glasses and BFA still don't really seem to know how to write for Five. There. I've just saved you ten minutes of your time.

I sometimes wonder what it means for their development and futures that when told "I love you" Monstar Sibling says "I love you too" and Princess Sibling says "I know".


Generally then I remember that this is the kind of thing that only adults worry about, and probably isn't important at all.

( Slightly spoilery stream-of-consciousness type thoughts. )


Oh and in not-a-spoiler? Having seen van Gogh's work adds a whole other layer of depth and meaning and beauty and appreciation to this episode, I feel, and also, having actually seen it and loved it, to life. I <3 Vincent van Gogh.

Dear Self,


You have every intention of going and doing shopping in about an hour. It's dark out. You're in the house alone. Do you think that watching Vampires in Venice is a good idea?

...

Of course not, but you're going to do it anyway aren't you? Well, don't come crying to me when it all ends it tears. You still need milk.

Frustrated love,

Self

Ok so I am doing a semi-liveblog to this, in that.... I am finally watching it. And I'll need to stop multiple times because I get scared.... Well. May as well take advantage of that to rant.


( Spoilers )


Annnnnd done. Looking at next week's trailer and ignoring all the.... stuff.... that carries over from this week's ep, all I can do is squee and shout out 'Helen McCrory YAAAAAAY' :D.