sundries

[rm]

Yesterday felt like the day Patty and I never quite woke up. We both got done what we needed to do and not much more, and I assume it's from the whole walking and sun thing on Saturday. Annoyingly, I still feel a bit like that today, which is no good as I have an important audition.

I scraped through this round of WIAD by the skin of my teeth.

Anyone having problems with the most recent Blackberry software update? When I try to send outgoing gmail now, it just sort of sits there in the open message window. Is there a way to reboot or something?

USB typewriter.

thornsilver found this bit of dysfunction from Canary Wharf. Fun for Torchwood fen.

Two marines arrested after beating a gay man for winking at them.

A NYT editorial in support of equal marriage rights.

Gay best friends crowned prom king and queen at their high school, and for a change from recent news stories, most everyone was cool with it. via ginmar.

While survival rates for oiled birds and other wildlife is low, some argue that we must keep trying to save them.

If you were a sea turtle, what sort of video would you take? I am completely mesmerized by this.

Unemployed and looking for work? Better not let a potential employer know. Lots are refusing to hire the unemployed, regardless of reason for said unemployment.

Meanwhile, Arizona's charge to hate EVERYONE has been going on for a while, did you know they also rescinded benefits for domestic partners and their children?

I am struck, watching Angel, how drawn we (we, audiences? we, fandom? I am not sure) are to narratives of becoming. It's why Wesley's arc is so fucking satisfying. It's why the Snape arc fizzles in the 7th HP book (in book 4 and book 6 he steps up into more and frightening things merely hinted at... in book 7, snake bubble to the head and a discovery that he's solely living in the past) and it's why Ianto's death is such a fucking punch -- there was transformation and now we're never going to see into what.

So I sort of get the impression that Wesley and Lilah are actually quite fond of each other. I'm oddly charmed. OMG with the phone sex. Also, damn does Alexis Denisof have a fine body. I think those things a lot, but I don't say them because it's a little boring and a little weird, but damn.

And thank crap we got Lorne back. Am concerned about the Cordy amnesia plot.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Hee re: the USB typewriter - I saw mrtonylee's tweet about that and clicked through to the Mashable article; wonder if these will still be prohibited from that writers' room that forbade traditional typewriters?
/eta: and I didn't see that it's actually a hack that someone made using an Arduino, chip of choice for those who love to make their own computer peripherals.


Kudos to NYT for not only coming out in favor of equal marriage rights, but saying outright that DOMA's repeal is overdue.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

USB typewriter: and we come one step closer to realizing the world of Brazil.

I wonder how those Marines would respond if you asked whether a woman would be justified in beating them to the point of brain injury for winking at her. Assholes.

Augh, I read the Arizona story and now I want a shower to scrub the crazy off.

[dr-is-in.livejournal.com]

The Arizona source article is from almost a year ago. Its still a really messed up situation though. Some of our leaders need to go back to school to learn about the whole separation of church and state.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, the Arizona story (http://www.towleroad.com/2009/09/arizona-governor-takes-away-state-domestic-partner-benefits-says-god-has-placed-me-in-this-powerful-.html) is actually from last September, not a new development. I don't know why it just today got posted on ONTD_P.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've rephrased slightly to accomodate.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ditto, I've rephrased slightly to accommodate, as someone caught it just before you.

[dr-is-in.livejournal.com]

That sea turtle video is cool. It could almost be something out of a horror movie.

[syzygy-lj.livejournal.com]

I am struck, watching Angel, how drawn we (we, audiences? we, fandom? I am not sure) are to narratives of becoming. It's why Wesley's arc is so fucking satisfying.

It's also why Donna Noble's story arc is so unsatisfying. She grew and changed so much through her travels with the Doctor, and to have that all ripped away from her was a tragedy. It sort of makes Season 4 of Doctor Who hard for me to watch, because I know what's coming.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's ripped away, but we did get the whole process. I don't find myself wondering who she would have become, just sad and frustrated that she didn't get to stay there. Her arc has always struck me as a very sloppily executed Flowers for Algernon sort of thing.

[syzygy-lj.livejournal.com]

She got the whole process, which in a way makes it more tragic. For a short while, she was who she was meant to be, and then zap, RTD's Hammer of Epicness came down on her. Like you say, it was a poor version of Algernon. Only Donna doesn't get to even remember that she had this awesome life for a while. She starts from square one, like nothing has ever happened, and her loved ones have to shield her from the world in case the mention of aliens causes her head to explode.

I would almost have been happier if she had died, because then she would have died awesome and all her progress would have stayed with her to the end.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

I wonder if RTD intended Donna's fate to remind old-skool!Who fans of Two's final Companions, Zoe and Jamie, who were memory-wiped and put back where and when they came from by the Time Lords.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

That unemployment thing makes me nauseous.

Just what I need to hear two weeks before attempting the job hunt again... o_O

[sevendayloan.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm adoring reading your Angel updates, especially now that we're into season four. Wesley's arch is so tremendously satisfying - I think that even the people who preferred Rogue Demon Hunter Wes at least appreciated it.

So I sort of get the impression that Wesley and Lilah are actually quite fond of each other. I'm oddly charmed. OMG with the phone sex..

That's a big question of their relationship. Like Buffy and Spike, people tend to wonder how much affection is really there, who is using who, etc. Unlike Buffy and Spike, though, there's no obvious love from one of the parties, so the whole thing is deliciously ambiguous.

I tend to think that, while it started off as Lilah plumbing (heh. plumbing.) Wesley for information, real feelings developed over the course of their relationship. I'd even go so far as to say that she loved him. I'm less sure about how Wesley felt, though. I think he cared about her, and certainly grew fond of her, but I don't think it was love. But you'll see!

And thank crap we got Lorne back. Am concerned about the Cordy amnesia plot.
[thumbs up]

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Same here, and I've been unemployed for far too long.

And yes, Alexis Denisof is *yummy*!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm not at all convinced that Wesley and Lilah are in love, nor, I think, do I want to be. But I think they genuinely like each other, which for people like them may be the harder thing.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

The not hiring the unemployed story makes me twitch and want to bash things. So I guess brand new college grads are SOL, huh? Or those who've moved to follow a spouse/significant other? Or those who had the bad luck to get hired by a crap company?

I really hope that those companies reap what they have sown from that particular decision. If I worked at any of those companies I'd be considering jumping ship.

And Alex Denisof is totally swoon worthy.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I really, really hate the current idea that the only worth something has is financial -- the argument that attempting to save animals we have decimated isn't worthwhile because it's expensive drives me up the wall.

If humanity is going to create such terrible catastrophes we are responsible for at least attempting to put it right.

[sevendayloan.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you're only a few episodes in! ;) Naw, I'm kidding, you're totally right, and I tend to over-romanticize things.

And it's weird, but in this case, I kind of see a difference between 'loving someone' and being 'in love' with them. It's a matter of semantics, I know, but someone I think the latter implies a greater ... you know, I don't even know. I can't articulate it, but somehow I feel perfectly content arguing that Lilah loved Wes, but would never dream of saying she was in love with him. It's very odd. But anyway!

I do think it's harder for them to like, rather than love, each other. I mean, if it was love they could run away together or ... whatever, but if you just sort of like the person? Appreciate their company? It's more of a struggle to justify things.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

So I guess brand new college grads are SOL, huh?

That's documented as so, yes. Unless they have some kind of resource they can fall back on while gaining unpaid work experience, or unless they've been working while in college (really not a good idea if it can be helped), they're trapped in the double-bind of being indebted and unemployable.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen financial arguments against saving the birds, but I have seen ones saying that they just suffer too much and die in number too high to attempt cleaning them.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Also it's easy to turn love into a weapon against the self. Wesley knows how to do that. Arguably, Lilah does to. But liking someone often comes with fewer costs; and I don't think either of them get how to do those things.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I really, really hate the current idea that the only worth something has is financial - or quantifiable, I totally agree.

And yes, not only are we responsible for putting it right, it's likely that doing so will be to humanity's own long- or even medium-term benefit.

[sevendayloan.livejournal.com]

Oh, agreed, for sure. You know, I'd never thought of their interaction in this light, but I think it adds something to the flavour of their time together.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I really find that this plotline has my heart breaking for him, because he can't help but find small, nearly-normal joys in even his darkest, most cynical and self-destructive choices. He had Justine in a cage in a fucking closet, and he's still, vaguely, acting like a man with hope. That's not going to end well, and it's breaking my heart.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I've seen a couple of references to how it costs ... blah, blah (usually in the range of 500$ per animal) and most of them die anyway so why bother?

As someone pointed out, the long term survival for some oiled animals is not as good as non-injured animals but some of them breed and that, espeically for rare animals, is important.