sundries

[rm]

In case this isn't clear: You don't fuck with my family. Not my partner. Not my creative collaborators. Not my friends. Not my ex-lovers (because while there are a few who can happily stay way the hell away over there, I don't actually wish bad things upon them). My ability and willingness to make your life unpleasant in completely legal ways is higher than you might suspect. God, I am pissed off at people's shit this week!

With three minutes to spare, I did get those two essays done. Not my best work in the sense of the magic I do with cadence, but clear, entertaining stories with emotional points on topics not previously addressed. I can live with it. I AM A GOD OF ADEQUACY.

Some luxury travel mag came in the mail last night probably because of the cruise we've registered for. It contained: a good feature on NYC with some restaurants I now want to try (yay), a feature on Wales (oh god, I really want to fucking go now, but god help me for wanting to stay in this hip little place with entirely white furniture and awesome textures in fucking Penarth), and a piece on luxury camping which yielded one vacation idea for Patty and I, and one plotbunny.

Gotta get groceries tonight. And do laundry. And deal with the dry cleaning. Food and fabric are both infinite.

Patty sent me pictures of a mass stingray migration yesterday. It's been all over the net, so you've probably seen it, but I fucking love rays, and she remembered that and I was tickled.

Today I am doing work about Tibet.

I am loving the cracktastic AfterElton Torchwood episode summaries.

Interesting movie thing maybe going on for me.

I really thought I was going to be crazy into ST:Reboot fic, as I thought the movie was so sexy and great and loving towards the original and fannish sentiment. However, I find I do not care. I am slightly sad.

Privatization might be next for USPS. It's worked well in other countries, but I'm not sure it would here. In fact, I think it would probably suck. http://naamah-darling.livejournal.com/410499.html

I can deal with people disagreeing about how to achieve universal access to health services, but I can't deal with the people who think that healthcare, the basic medical maintenance of our existence, isn't somehow a basic right. If we say people with more money have more right to health and normal life-expectancy we're getting into some very scary territory. I hate my tax burden, but am glad to pay more, both so my neighbor can get care, and also so that I am not complicit in a serious of illogical and amoral decisions about who is worthy and what has the best ROI. Of course, there are a hundred other things wrong with our healthcare system too, like a focus on non-critical drugs for non-critical ailments that produce lots of side effects and have no efficacy. The whole thing is such a fucking mess and makes me very, very angry.

Being female, I like to say sometimes I was never mine, and this is what I mean: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-marie-roth/is-a-woman-in-labor-a-per_b_242307.html More infor here via browneyedgirl65.

When does whatever the big Doctor Who/Torchwood news we're expecting come out of Comic Con? I'm actually sort of tense about it, because there's one thing I'm really hoping it's not, as it will send me off into a deep-end of professional crazy I'm not in the mood for.

I tripped over some stuff yesterday and fucked my knee up but good.

I am having thinky thoughts lately about the current state of the fencing thing (and there's an essay that I have to write relatedly), various BDSM stuff and my crappy disease. All unrelated to each other. Whether I get around to posting any of it is another matter entirely.

I've been eating scads of garlic bread lately. Granted, it's sort of lame celiac garlic bread that involve gluten-free toast topped with vegetable oil butter-like spread, garlic powder, oregano and paprika, but it's still pretty good.

FUCKING SQUIRRELS ripped off more vegetables. FUCKING SQUIRRELS.

Still have a cold, but kinda sorta almost feel human.

I was really hoping my new suit would be here in time for WriterCon, but unless I hear from Seyta today, I'm pretty sure that's not happening.

Looks like the Taco Bell chihuahua died.

Apparently the Save Ianto Jones thing has now made the media. I am charmed by this, even as my feelings are mixed. I'm sorry he had to go, but he was always going to have to go, and I do feel the character, who was so much a kid who thought he was ready to die finding reasons to live (and still not being less about the ready to die thing), got to do everything he needed to, although not everything he wanted to and knew it. And yeah, part of me would love to have him back -- Ianto was the most organically and serendipitiously written character on Torchwood -- everyone admits his arc was never what anyone intended, but I also think his death served the larger narrative about Jack that took place not just in CoE, but across Torchwood thus far and, particularly, what we learn about Jack's future in Doctor Who. Also, writers write what they write for a reason. Sometimes those are reasons of craft; sometimes those are reasons of personal neurotic fixation; usually it's a combination of the two. The idea of anyone petitioning or lobbying to change the stories I need to tell freaks me the fuck out, so the whole petition thing, aside from being, I think, futile, makes me slightly uncomfortable. But I am also so charmed! It makes me feel so good as someone who is crazy about fictions in every possible way to see someone who's real in a different way than you or me so loved. And man, what a fucking kick this crazy ass shit must be for GDL. I'm tickled. I'm also feeling bad for the wave of misery that's going to be showing up tonight with the American broadcast.

Something I've never seen a good writer in Torchwood fandom tackle is Ianto's first time with Jack, if this whole being into men thing is actually news to him (as he claims to his sister, but canon tells us Ianto is a lying liar who lies). I've seen shitty writers do it as a way to address their own experiences of losing their virginity, but seriously? Not relevant and the "sex isn't meaningful unless there's penetration" shit is annoying. I'd like to see a writer do it well, with all that weird, awkward, scary first time stuff, but write it still recognizing that Ianto is a goddamn adult - one who is sexual, determined and compulsive and, my god, has Jack's fucking attention. Someone? ANYONE? If there's an awesome story I've missed somewhere, please let me know.

Comments

[annablume.livejournal.com]

Squirrels are rats with PR. They'll burn your house down, those.

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

Word.

If I didn't know any better I'd say the ones that hang around my house are plotting a massive takeover of the house, or at least the attic.

[cruentum.livejournal.com]

In regards to saveiantojones, I share your mixed feelings, mostly because I'm fine with CoE and fine with the character development and fine with writers writing their stuff,

but 1500 pounds raised for Children in Need - that is a good thing and channeled things into a good direction, I think, so for that - yeah, charmed.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Regarding your first point: I hope everything is okay!

Ianto is my favourite character for a variety of reasons and everything you said here: "who was so much a kid who thought he was ready to die finding reasons to live (and still not being less about the ready to die thing), got to do everything he needed to, although not everything he wanted to and knew it." - was exactly what I was telling my GF. Yeah, we're still talking about CoE.
We're currently debating in circles whether Jack leaving honours Ianto or not. I'm with you on Jack's arc and how Ianto fits into his story. What you wrote about Jack and his brand of heroism very much fits the way I view Jack as a character - someone who enjoys playing the hero, but doesn't really see himself as particularly honourable, I don't think. My GF is miffed that Jack would be willing to just "up and leave" and not stay and fight in Ianto's name.
Seeing as he actually fought in the Doctor's name in neither here nor there, and I haven't mentioned it to her... She doesn't like the Doctor.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ianto was, in a way, sort of an unassuming guy. I think he'd roll his fucking eyes at Jack fighting in his name.

I've added yet another fic to the fic queue, this about Jack hooking up with a widower when he's roaming about the earth in the time between Ianto's death and when he takes off for the stars.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

1. ...I won't ask what prompted this comment.
2. yay!
3. plotbunny from a luxury magazine is good, I guess.
4.[re: ComicCon] that's what I want to know!

[unicursal.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, both SDCC pannels are on Sunday - DW at 11, and TW somewhere about 2:15? They are the only two panels I will likely attend, and I will be tweeting @unicursal

[rm.livejournal.com]

Cool! And I am so jealous. I've had the opportunity to do panels at SDCC for the last two years, but it's always been bad timing or not really worth my while, so I haven't gone, and both times it's caused me to miss AWESOME stuff.

[miep.livejournal.com]

quit editing your posts and adding lots of new information that gets stuck way down on my flist. :P

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

Also, writers write what they write for a reason. Sometimes those are reasons of craft; sometimes those are reasons of personal neurotic fixation; usually it's a combination of the two. The idea of anyone petitioning or lobbying to change the stories I need to tell freaks me the fuck out, so the whole petition thing, aside from being, I think, futile, makes me slightly uncomfortable.

Thank you for putting into words something I've felt for quite a long time. It always seems that when a character dies or is irrevocably changed -- Sirius, then Remus, in HP, and Donna in Who, plus many more -- my fellow character-fans start lobbying to Bring Them Back or just Ignore That Part Of Canon... and I find myself defending whatever event it was that I didn't even like in the first place. I guess it just boils down to what you said: the storytelling comes first.

[rm.livejournal.com]

To honor the character, I have to honor the story, even if I think the story shortchanged the character, feeling like I have their back, instead of wanting to change the canon story, is how I honor the character.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I am...kind of wanting to duck and cover because of Day Four airing tonight. The whole hostility thing and I are Not Getting Along. I just don't want to interact with it.

OTOH, like you say, the crazy is sort of splendid in its way.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I hate the anger, but I think the passion and love about it all is fucking glorious.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I was really hoping my new suit would be here in time for WriterCon, but unless I hear from Seyta today, I'm pretty sure that's not happening.


Sadface! *fingers crossed that Seyta just hasn't contacted you yet*

Also, w/r/t health insurance/universal health care, this was linked from my friendsfriends and encapsulates a lot of how broken the system as it stands feels to me. And I'm one of the lucky ones.

[regyt.livejournal.com]

That last is a fic I would love to read. If I wrote fic ever, I would try to tackle it. I'm sort of tempted anyway!

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

I can't deal with the people who think that healthcare, the basic medical maintenance of our existence, isn't somehow a basic right

Word. I can't wrap my mind around this, either. I mean, where do you even *start* with someone like this?

Sorry to hear about whatever's going on in #1. Hope it's resolved quickly.

The Huffpo article omitted a good deal of information to the point of becoming misinformation. I'm still uncomfortable with the entire case but there's a lot more going on than "just" refusing a C and being argumentive: http://tinyurl.com/ljuxtm Parts of the court case itself are quoted at the end of this.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh cool, I was hoping there would be more info -- I know C-section is a topic that provokes a lot of agenda-based ranting from all sides.

[marita-c.livejournal.com]

Ianto is a goddamn adult - one who is sexual, determined and compulsive and, my god, has Jack's fucking attention.

My thoughts on this (started writing the fic a while back and abandoned halfway through): Ianto was in a difficult situation; He was desperate to save Lisa, the only way to do so was to get into Torchwood, and (in his mind) the only way into Torchwood was through Jack's pants. So, on one hand, he considers himself heterosexual, and the mere thought of going at it with another guy scares the shit out of him. On the other hand, he has ONE CHANCE, and he absolutely HAS TO GET IT RIGHT. Add to that his compulsiveness and perfectionism, and the solution I came up with is that he probably went out and found a random guy to practice on - to make sure he'll 'get it perfect' with Jack. I'm thinking that that practice session was probably AWFUL. Eventually, I WILL write it.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Do write it, because I'd love to read it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

I can think of five options for your squirrels:

1. shoot them
2. poison them
3. trap them
4. fence them out
5. remove the food

The first one presumably isn't an option in NY.
The second is nasty because poison is never a nice way to kill anything, and would require some expensive equipment - a proper squirrel bait box - but would be effective.
The third is kinder if you have some means of killing them humanely after you've caught them. An air-pistol will do if you are a good shot and are steady enough about killing things to go through with it. A rabbit trap is fine for squirrels as long as you check it regularly.
The fourth will be very, very difficult. They can eat through any sort of wire thin enough to make into affordable netting, so you are basically looking at building Fort Knox.
So the fifth is probably your best option. If your pots are reasonably mobile your best bet would be to move things indoors as soon as they are approaching ripe. If anything is completely immobile then you will have to pick it unripe and try to ripen it indoors - tomatoes for example can be ripened from green if you stick them in a bowl with a banana.

Unfortunately you can't just hope the problem will go away - now they have found you as a food source they will keep coming back. So whatever you do, do it soon. They get up earlier than you do and have more incentive to think of ways round your defences.

(edited because apparently I can't count)

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Arggg! That c-section case infuriates me. Stuff like this is eaxctly why I homebirthed twice. Unfortunately, my midwife was persecuted by the IL medical establishment and no longer practices, so other IL women do not have this option much anymore. The American way of birth is beyond fucked and not even close to what they do in countries in say, Europe. It's no wonder we're 35th in inafnt mortality. "Best healthcare in the world" my ass.

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

What's the big news we're expecting to come out of Comic Con? Maybe I've had my head too far up the whangst since Day 4 and/or the virtual season and WIAD, but I wasn't expecting anything from Comic Con other than reports of people being idiots to RTD (so anyone trying to make a rational case to revive Ianto looks bad, but we know the bad behavior is all that will get reported).

[rm.livejournal.com]

DT is about to leave DW, so why bring him (who has never done a con before) to Comic Con? There's been rumours of a big announcement for a while and the speculation is that it's a Ten movie and/or a Ten movie that includes some resolution for Jack (since JB is also at Comic Con) post his departure of Earth in CoE.

Ianto a kid who thought he was ready to die & the rest.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

My sister and her family just did the day of orientation with the CAF, for families with people going to Afghanistan. I *think* I will see my nephew once more before he leaves. It's a complicated sort of thing, but for our family, also very basic:sometimes there's a war, and someone has to go, and there is no real reason for it to not be Us.(No conscripts in our family:we volunteer.)
He's trained for three years for this, because training is what Canada has, so it's not a sudden thing. But it's large as the ocean, and implacable as winter, and you can never be matter of fact about it, though you are.
You hope and you hope, but you know they go to die, because that's the job.
So, yes, I'm very glad to know that Ianto is so well loved by real people who care about him, but I would never seek to change his story. It's him. It's who, and that gives us the what, and the how is up to him.
*Tears*

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

Re: the end of CoE and the Save Ianto Jones campaign: I generally agree with you that his death served a larger narrative, and that it would cheapen his death were he to be brought back for fan service purposes. I think that the sticking point for me, personally, is RTD's statements suggesting that there could be a viable Torchwood TV show following the deaths of most of the principal characters. To me, Ianto's death doesn't just serve a larger narrative-- it marks the end of it, for a couple of reasons. First, because the death (and CoE more generally) mark a severe turn from the silly, campy sci-fi TV show I grew to love in the first place. And secondly, because while the narrative is important, I think most of us watch Torchwood for the characters more than the narrative, and the death of a character whose stature in the show grew so organincally, marks the end of a show where those characters are the main draw. I'm slowly getting through my Ianto mourning process, but dammit, I don't want there to be a fourth season after this-- I think RTD has already said all there is to say within this show about the bleakness of the human condition, and any further stories would strike me as the televisual equivalent of beating a dead horse.

(I wouldn't be able to get through a fourth season anyway. I could barely get through the fifth episode of CoE. I personally don't give a damn if Torchwood saves the day if Ianto's not there to comment dryly on the world-saving process.)

That said, I try to avoid fandom during plot explosions like this, because they always rehash the same old tired debates over the role of fandom and/or the creator(s) in the popularity of a TV show, and I don't think those debates ever resolve or help anybody. Not that I've fully managed to avoid it this time around. In particular, I'm really wary and upset about a lot of the pop psychology going on in Torchwood fandom right now, diagnosing RTD as a self-loathing gay man for killing Ianto off. It's too simplistic, and I can't help but wonder about the kind of unconscious homophobia going on in TW fandom, which enables people to assume that because RTD is gay, he's particularly susceptible to that level of psychologizing.

Sorry. I know; TL;DR. I will stop ranting now.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Not it's very fair. The homophobia debate about CoE and RTD is upsetting to me, because I liked the way they used homophobia in the landscape of the world to show Ianto's processing the series, and I didn't think it was self-loathing on RTD's part or offensive and I don't think Ianto died because he was fucking a man, I think he died because he was fucking Jack and anyone fucking Jack is going to have a nasty end, especially if they are also a Torchwood employee. People want everything both ways and it doesn't work like that. I find it troubling.

[svollga.livejournal.com]

I've always supported the position of 'story goes first', and never understood the 'undo it' and 'forget it' mentality - I consider myself a canonist, writing all my stories INTO the original storyline and it's details, rather than changing anything. But now I'm part of Save Ianto Jones campaign :) It isn't a controvercy for me - I love CoE, and I am a devoted fan of RTD and his works, and I would never in the world want to change the CoE ending.
On the other hand, I love Ianto, and I think that in *this very universe*, these *is* a possibility to get a character back without disrupting anything. And it will be interesting possibility to tell yet another brilliant story of his comeback, and see the reaction of all the characters involved (ecspecially Jack).
If it were a book, or a single movie, or something controlled mostly by the decisions of one person (or a small group) only, the whole petition thing would make me uncomfortable, too. But Torchwood is made by a lot of people, and decisions are made not only because of artistic reasons - they also are based on money issues, on time issues, on thousands of different things that the creator has to take into consideration. So, I think that maybe, just maybe, RTD (as the main creator of all Torchwood) can take into consideration fan's love for Ianto Jones (as he possibly took into consideration that everyone is scared of the Daleks, or that people love Sarah Jane), and maybe it will inspire him to write a story of Ianto coming back.
Anyway, I will watch Torchwood with or without Ianto, so my main contribution was not a request to make him come back, but a way to honour and remember him - the fundraising project. It shows the people's love so well!

[rm.livejournal.com]

See, this I love. This is rational and lovely and clear and persuasive, and I wish there were more (and louder) voices involved with the thing, regardless of my own wibbly-wobblyness about it, that were as articulate and gracious as yours.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

About the first paragraph - I was about to as "What is WRONG with people?" - then I realized it would take the whole internet and a hundred years to list all the things wrong with people.

I don't think I've ever heard of a case where an internet petition resulted in any change at all. If it makes the people signing it feel better, great, but I think it's futile.

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

I can deal with people disagreeing about how to achieve universal access to health services, but I can't deal with the people who think that healthcare, the basic medical maintenance of our existence, isn't somehow a basic right.

Seriously. There's so much judgement wrapped up in that, too, about whose lives are important and whose aren't. Like you don't have the right to medical treatment, and therefore your life is worth less, your loved ones would miss you less, your contributions at work are less, if you are fat/can't afford it/used drugs/owned a motorcycle or whatever.

Now I want garlic bread. I still am searching for a GF bread that I enjoy. Any brands you like?

[rm.livejournal.com]

The only ones I like at all are store specific:

the sandwich bread from Whole Foods is very good (must toast, but VERY good) and the rolls at Legal Seafoods rock.

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

a feature on Wales

Hahaha Don't believe the hype.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Being from New York, I'm a really strange traveler, in that I tend to love random ordinary second city type places, so the the anti-hype is sort of the hype for me.

R.I.P. Ianto Jones

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Much as I love the character (and oh god, my stomach has been one big knot all day), I have extreme reservations about the Save Ianto Jones campaign.

1. His death, wrenching as it is, makes sense on the emotional level. Ianto has arguably been living on borrowed time since Canary Wharf; at least now he got to die knowing he was loved and fighting for a just cause.
   
2. If he does come back it threatens to make him another Daniel Jackson from Stargate: SG-1, a character who spends so much time yo-yo-ing between planes of existence that the cycle of die, revive, repeat becomes a joke.
   
3. As you may have figured out from my recent posts, the more I consider Children of Earth from a plotting standpoint the unhappier I become. Frankly, I’m not sure I’d trust RTD et al to script Ianto coming back without fucking it up.
   

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

Looks like the Taco Bell chihuahua died.

That made me so sad when I saw that. We have (somewhere in my house) a little plushie of that dog and if you squeezed it's paw it said "Yo quiero Taco Bell". It provided hours of entertainment for my mom.

RIP Taco Bell chihuahua

[snakeling]

I don't like the petition thing :/ I love Ianto, but I was never under any illusion that he would die of old age. And his death made sense, in Jack's character development. I hope they don't handwave it and resurrect him; there are already too much of this on Torchwood. And I feel that if you really want Ianto to live, there's fanfic. (After all, Ianto is hardly the first beloved character to die in canon and live in fics.)

Not sure whether you'd consider me a good writer, but I wrote something in which the awkwardness and wtf am I doing? is addressed :)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh, that looks like fun. Thank you for the link!

[better-late24.livejournal.com]

When does whatever the big Doctor Who/Torchwood news we're expecting come out of Comic Con? I'm actually sort of tense about it, because there's one thing I'm really hoping it's not, as it will send me off into a deep-end of professional crazy I'm not in the mood for.

You know, I was relying on you to relay that information when it happens. You tend to know things while I'm twiddling my thumbs in the corner, or something. I've been hiding from the comms, too, so now I'm out of options!

Also, did not realize there was some big news pending. And am vaguely terrified of what you think it might be.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

there's a possibility of a dw movie with ten and jack
or that's the rumor i've heard