A Comedy of Errors

So today, after surviving three freeways at rush hour, I really did not think my undoing would come at the virtual hands (so to speak) of iTunes -- the savior of electronic music online, courtesy of Apple. I downloaded iTunes sometime ago but have never quite done anything with it until today, because until you've spent 3 hours driving across an endless landscape you don't realize that Sarah Brightman does not have a greatest hits collection. This is a problem because I was thinking the other day that if I had to recommend a CD, which one would it be? And I do have my particular favorites, but even the ones I'm not especially fond of have moments of absolute brilliance on them. I thought that perhaps Classics would be a good way of solving the dilemma, but in general, that compilation CD mostly features Sarah's operatic pieces and doesn't highlight anything else.

So, what's a girl to do but take matters into her own hands? So, with able assistance of Bjorn on the telephone, I proceeded to rip 21 songs from eight CDs. Bjorn, who uses iTunes himself, was kind enough not to laugh at me. I really had no earthly idea of what I was doing and I don't believe in reading help files. The end result was me screaming and Bjorn saying, "Well, hold on a second..." I'm amazed the boy didn't hang up on me; I would have hung up on me.

To give you an idea of just how utterly clueless I was: I couldn't figure out how I got the first three songs off The Andrew Lloyd Collection. I mean, somehow I clicked my way through the CD and the songs appeared in the iTunes main window. But when I went to duplicate my efforts with Harem and just could not do it. I was like, "There's an import button around here! Where did they hide it?" In the meantime, XP was being its usual helpful self saying things like, "You have inserted a CD into the CD-rom drive. What would you like to do with it?" Unfortunately, "rip songs into iTunes" was not an option. But somehow, I got a few songs off "Harem," and by the time I started on Dive, I'd located the "import" button.

When I ripped the songs from the CDs, they came across with descriptive names like "Track 02" because I couldn't figure out how to name the songs. I couldn't get CD info from the database because you have to be online to do that and I had Bjorn on the phone, so I couldn't get online. And at first, I was like, no big deal -- but then I realized that I had multiple tracks called "Track 02" and no way to differentiate "Unexpected Song" from "Anytime, Anywhere." I clicked all over the frelling thing, and could not figure out to how to do this.

Because I was slowly going insane, I started to write down the playlist in the order that they appeared on my screen so that I could differentiate one song from another. Example: "Track Three - In Winter Light," "Track Three - Just Show Me How To Love You." etc. Finally, Bjorn reminded me you can rename songs easily by just double-clicking them (well, duh, Seema).

So then after the naming-of-the-song drama, came the whole creating a playlist drama, and finally I had like six playlists because I really am that incompetent. I'd like to say that the playlists reproduced on their own, but that is not the case. Folks, after using a PC since 1986, I've been finally forced to accept the fact that I cannot drag and drop to save my life or double-click properly.

Anyway, the end result is that an hour and 44 minutes later (according to the log on my phone), I finally had a "Sarah Brightman's Greatest Hits CD" or perhaps, it should have been more aptly titled "Seema's Favorite Sarah Brightman Songs" because I omitted "Nessun Dorma" and "Nella Fantasia". But it all burned properly and it plays in my CD-alarm clock, if nothing else, and so life is good. I, however, am exhausted. I don't trust Mac people any more. There's nothing easy about iTunes, nothing at all.

The trouble with semantics

It's an election year so the rhetoric is flying fast and furious. I admit I'm a bleeding heart liberal -- have never made such bones of it in the past, but I hope my comments here do not make any readers uncomfortable or that I'm insulting people or their beliefs. That is never my intention but I'm very aware that many of you who read this blog do not know me well or at all.

Because of the variation in audiences, I try to keep my politics to myself. I may occasionally go off on a rant on something, but in general, I hope I'm not being hypocritical here by saying current affairs stay mostly out. However, if you are looking for treatises on long dead English men/women, this is the blog for you.

All of this is leading up to the point where I admit I read a few conservative blogs and I'm about to stop doing so. I think it's fair and necessary to read opposing points of view, to see where the other side is coming from. I don't think it's enough to rely on one source for the news media, though I admit I prefer CNN to FOX News for obvious reasons. But what gets me about the few blogs I have been reading is the obvious dislike and judgemental attitudes coming back at me.

I read the blog of a person I know and respect in RL and was amazed to read exactly what she thinks of those of us with pro-choice philosophies (read: not pro-abortion, but rather allowing the individual to make the choice best for her without the interference of religion or other belief systems and believe it or not, most pro-choice people are individually pro-life; but our choice is not the same for everyone). To read the diatribe in the blog about Planned Parenthood, about the 'evil and immoral' pro-choicers (actually she used the word 'murderers') made me absolutely furious.

She's talking about me, someone she knows. Granted, it's her blog and she's welcome to use any kind of language, any kind of philosophical statement she may want to make there. But at the same time, using that kind of language draws me further away from her position. When she calls me 'evil and immoral', I have no desire to read further; there may be good points in her blog supporting her position -- I do not want to read. There may be more insults hurled in my direction.

Such language -- from both sides of the arena -- only serves to divide, not faciliate dialogue in any way. How can you possibly expect to sit down at a table and have a coherent conversation with people of opposing viewpoints have already decided you are the enemy and think you are 'evil'? Note, I'm not just talking about conservatives; we liberals don't hold back either when it comes to mud-slinging. What is the matter with stripping a subject away from its emotional core and talking about it that way? I've always said the world would be a better place if more people used bulletpoints; imagine how much quicker things would get down and how much less the possibility of insult.

So if you do ever hear me insulting another viewpoint, however inadvartently, please tell me. However, I still reserve the right to mock Brannon Braga mercilessly.

The Hours

I rented The Hours from my apartment complex on my birthday, mostly because I wanted to indulge in seeing a movie in the middle of the day. However, I didn't finish watching it until last night. "The Hours" is a very quiet, subtle and nuanced movie, with seeming inaction. There's a lot of walking, for instance, and long silences as well. But still the movie fascinated me, mostly on the strength of the acting from the marvelous troika of Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman. Ed Harris was also spectacular in this movie as Richard.

What got me though, while watching this movie, was just how character-driven it was through all three time-lines and there are only a few 'big' moments in the movie, which I won't spoil here, but in general, we're not talking about an action-packed movie, or one with an obvious "boy meets girl" plot. Instead, three timelines are woven together and the editing is marvelous as the parallels between Kidman's Viriginia Wolf, Moore's Laura Brown, and Streep's Clarissa Vaughn are shown. Three very different women with three very different issues.

This movie had heart. I talk about 'heart' in writing a lot because it's an elusive, intangible quality to writing and it's not always there. There are some books/stories that are proficiently and technically good but when push comes to shove, there's no identification with the characters, no realization of who the characters are, and why the story was written.

I briefly mentioned 'walking' above and while I was teasing about DWS' comments about walking in stories, I know he's perfectly right. It's not enough to move a character from room to room, from scene to scene, and expect it to be a story. My definition of a story is when the character in the first paragraph has changed or has discovered something new about himself by the last paragraph. As my writing teacher once said, "If there's a gun over the mantel in act one, it'd better be fired by act three."

There's a scene in "The Hours" where Clarissa is breaking and separating eggs. This is a scene I remember clearly because it's so ordinary -- a woman breaking and separating eggs. But it's the way she does it, cracking the egg on the rim of a pottery bowl, of flipping the yolk from hand to hand while the whites drain between her fingers, and finally gently putting the yolks in a smaller orange bowl. Now that scene had a lot of heart. The action was ordinary, but the way the action was performed, you could see clearly what was going on in Clarissa's head; her agitation, her nervousness, her unhappiness -- all of that in an ordinary gesture.

Movies can show us this and skilled actors like the ones in "The Hours" have an uncanny ability to bring us into their lives. Moore's bright artificiality, for instance, or the way Kidman's Wolfe never quite met anyone's eye -- this tells us about character. The more we know, the more we identity and care for what's going on with the character. When you make a reader care, there is heart in a story, or more precisely, oomph.

So, write about breaking an egg. Talk about what it feels like in your hand. Is it cold? Is it slimy? How are the hands doing? Are they shaking or steady? What does the kitchen look like? Is it messy or clean? And after the character breaks her eggs, how does she feel? Satisfied because she's one step closer to finishing her cake or irritated because a sliver of egg shell made it into the yolk and now she has to fish it out?

There's no magical formula to inserting 'heart' or 'oomph' into a story. Many stories simply don't have that quality because it is so hard and there's really no clean-cut definition as how to get there. I now know that DWS is right and that walking simply pretends at character-action; what's important is what's below the surface, the little details, not the big ones. And more importantly, if one writes from the heart, the reader will surely notice. I noticed the heart about "The Hours" and hereby give it two thumbs up.

Geek stuff

I just re-enabled bloget for those of you receiving this blog via email. I have no idea how long the connection was down, but it should work now. If you have an LJ, this blog is syndicated and can be friended here. If no LJ, but you still want to avoid the drudgery of checking back here every day, I've got two different RSS feeds and if you use the approriate reader, this blog will be downloaded into them. The feed powered by myRSS updates once a day and can be found here. If you're interested in up-to-date info on Seema (ha!), the folks over at RSSify can help you out here.

Of course this is all conceit, that people actually are reading.

If I stand starry-eyed

Ah, tonight finally came and I saw Sarah Brightman in concert. For those of you in the know, I'm a total fan girl, but I was put to shame by some serious hardcore fans at tonight's concert. First of all, I had the best possible seats. I was seated about 100 feet from the stage at worst, in the row right behind the people who forked over $125. I owe thanks to Liz for that, because after talking to the people on either side of me, I learned that we all bought tickets on the very first day available and Liz was the one who convinced me to get my ticket that day; hence, our very wonderful seating. Also, seated in front of us was Frank Peterson, Sarah's producer. Two of the hardcore fans got his autograph, but I managed my dignity. I can spare no love for Frank, when there is Sarah.

The show started about 15 minutes late, and after a musical interlude, Sarah appeared on the stage, dressed all in white. The crowd went insane and even I felt verklemped. I was sitting close enough that I could see her face very clearly. She opened with three songs from "Harem": Harem, Beautiful and It's a Beautiful Day . On stage with Sarah were eight female dancers, dressed in black charara-type outfits and dancing in Hindi filmi style.

After these three songs from "Harem," she abruptly changed gears and performed one songs from "Eden": Dust in the Wind (apparently this is the first live performance, despite this song having been two albums ago). Then it was back to "Harem" for two back-to-back love songs, " The War is Over, in which Sarah played the piano, and then Free, which has to be my least favorite song on the album, but performed live, I did like it a lot. I thought "The War is Over" was spectacular, especially with Ari Ari Bach (?) who performed with Sarah. From "Eden," she performed Anytime, Anywhere. Then it was back to "Harem" for A Stranger in Paradise (from which the title of tonight's blog entry is taken).

The music for Nessun Dorma (found on both "Classics" and "Eden") had barely begun before the crowd erupted and people were on their feet. It was Sarah's first standing ovation of the night. Again, not a favorite song of mine, but her vocal strength, the ability to sustain a note for long period of time, the richness and emotion -- I can see why this is a crowd pleaser as well. The same is true of another standard of Sarah's, Nella Fantasia. The only song she sang from "La Luna" (my favorite album) in the first half of the concert was La Luna itself. From her bestselling "Time to Say Goodbye," she also included No One Like You and the very first non-Phantom song I heard of Sarah's, Who Wants to Live Forever. That took us into intermission.

During intermission, I struck up a conversation with the people around me and learned that they were serious fanboys/fangirls. I thought me, who owns every Sarah CD from Phantom on, and has watched every PBS special, I thought I was hardcore. But this one guy, he buys the American/English/Canadian/etc versions of her albums, just because every album is slightly different. Another guy was on his fourth concert. A girl went and got Frank Peterson's autograph and I was completely befuddled: why would you get the sound guy's autograph anyway? The girl's mother explained to me that it was Sarah's producer and her daughter, who looked about 16 or 17, had been into Sarah since 7th grade.

The second half of the show was much more visual. I'd say the first half had some neat special effects, some nice lighting, but the second half was when things really fell into place. "Harem" was on the menu once again with Arabian Nights and a electronica version of What a Wonderful World -- which featured Sarah singing in a swing. Also, another song from "La Luna," was featured in this set, A Whiter Shade of Pale. When the heavy beat of Phantom of the Opera began, the crowd went absolutely insane. Along with a brief excerpt from "Angel of Music" and "Little Lottie", Sarah sang "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" in full. Somewhere in there, I think there was Lascia ch'io pianga (off of "Classics" or "Eden"). It was one of the operatic classics, in other words, and most of them -- with the exception of "Nessun Dorma" and "Nella Fantasia" get jumbled up in my head.

The alleged last song of the evening was my mom's favorite Sarah tune, the blockbuster hit, Time to Say Goodbye. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. And we were on our feet, yelling, screaming, clapping and it took a good 2-3 minutes before Sarah came back to do an encore with my favorite song from "Harem," The Journey Home, written by the incomparable A.R. Rahman. Shweta Shetty, a Hindi pop singer, backed up on this song. We then called for a second encore, which turned out to be another favorite of mine, A Question of Honour (from "Fly"). During this last song, Sarah actually flew through the air, the lights were flashing and confetti streamed down from the ceiling. I'm fangirl enough to admit that I grabbed a few pieces of confetti as I was leaving the building.

All in all, a very good concert. It's just amazing how good her voice sounds in person. She can go from a little girl voice to a deep, powerful operatic soprano all in the same song. The lighting and special effects were cool as well and the Middle Eastern/Indian theme carried well, even with some of the older songs like "Time to Say Goodbye" and "No One Like You." I thought the back-up dancers were good, but the band/orchestra/ could occasionally be overpowering.

I was mildly disappointed that Sarah didn't perform my theme song (but that would have been a stretch anyway, since it's a 'hidden' track on "La Luna") and I was really hoping for Music of the Night from her "The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection", but alas, that did not happen.

I was surprised to see so many selections from "Eden," and only a couple from "La Luna." The ones from "A Time to Say Goodbye" were true classics and of course, the emphasis was rightly so on "Harem". No songs from "Dive" or "The Unexpectes Songs" were performed and only one from "Fly." However, even given all that, it was a good mixture of new favorites with old. In sum, I enjoyed myself thoroughly and consider myself a very happy fan girl tonight.

In the morning, after I've gotten some rest, I will tell you about my driving foibles. But for now, this fan girl is going to sleep, but will leave you with a few last lyrics from "The Journey Home" (which, btw, samples from "Taal"):

The journey home is never too long
When open arms are waiting there
The journey home is never too long
There's room to love and room to spare

Mysterious Days

Less than 23 hours to go! For those of you interested, I have already plotted out my route, scoped out a parking spot, and have planned what tomorrow's dinner will be so there will not be a minute of wasted time.

And in honor of tomorrow night's event, I quote:

Not every boat you come across is one you have to take
Now sometimes standing still can be the best move you ever make

Anyway, I won't be around tomorrow evening. I'll blog on Thursday morning.

ETA: I updated my links page with new recs. Enjoy!

Much ado about nothing

I don't have much to blog today but only to mention that there is less than forty-eight hours left in my countdown. Of course, some of you, most notably T'Other Liz, know exactly what I'm counting down to. A few others of you are thinking my countdown is referring to another event entirely, one that comes around once a year. I assure you, I'm counting down to the first event, not the second, and a full detailing of the event shall be chronicled here in the blog on the morning after.

Speaking of the morning after, I've taken the day off from work to celebrate that once-in-a-year event and plan to indulge myself shamefully. And I mean shamefully. I spent way too much time at work today researching area spas. I'm thinking, at the very least, a facial and a massage, but a manicure and pedicure might be in the works too. I might even catch a movie as KC noted earlier today, I haven't really been doing the movie thing as of late. Who knows? Also, just got off the phone with V and we'll be meeting for dinner after my day of utter and shameful relaxation.

Also, V and K are moving across the street from me. This is very good news. Currently, they live about 10-12 miles away, but with the intense traffic, it takes nearly 45 minutes, if not more, to travel that distance. So we either meet on weekends or we meet at a restaurant halfway. Because we both work in downtown, when she's in town (she's a consultant), we have lunch together. Also discovered A works in my building on the 26th floor and so he called me today and we had lunch. Very nice. We were joking that it took us five months to realize we worked in the same building and only discovered it last week because I was very, very, very late to work and he was, um, on-time.

Also, jemima has a thing or two to say about contests and while she's more scientific about it than I am, I agree with every not-so-snarky word she writes.

Headlines addendum

I'm not reviewing Nicholas and Alexandra, as I'd hoped to. I'd rented the movie over the New Year's holiday from the library and seeing as it was two tapes long, I figured two weeks was ample time to watch and mull over the movies and then review it here. I've only gotten through the first 40 minutes and have decided to call it quits. It's not so much that it's inaccurate as much that it's a disjointed, badly-paced mess. I have no idea who half the characters are in the movie without falling back on my Romanov history. I can only imagine that the average viewer who knows little to nothing about Tsarist Russia would feel completely lost.

On a positive note, I think central facets of the title characters have been well-captured and detailed. Nicholas's absoluteness in his conviction that a douma or Parliment is detrimental to the people of Russia, Alix's religious fanaticism and devotion to Rasputin, and of course, their deep and abiding love for each other. Some well-known figures of the Bolshevik revolution make an appearance early on: Lenin, for instance, marching on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (which ends in a horrific massacre), Trotsky running a subversive newspaper calling for a douma in the echo of England's monarchy. So while it is tempting to see the sad trainwreck that is the last of the Romanovs run its course, I'll recommend instead the Robert K. Massie book upon which this movie was based. You'll get more out of Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra and also, his follow-up to the truth behind what really happened to the last Tsar and his family, The Romanovs: The Last Chapter.

A word of caution the latter: it is highly scientific, very provocative, and disturbing all at the same time. In fact, it should not be considered light reading. "Nicholas and Alexandra" is a biography, very well-researched and well-written and the same is true of "The Romanovs: The Last Chapter." However, "The Romanovs: The Last Chapter" is dedicated to the murder of the family and all of the gruesome details. In other words, if you've read the last few chapters of "Nicholas and Alexandra," consider "The Romanovs: The Last Chapter," published in the last decade, to be a fluid extension of the first. But know that it is a scientific and investigative book, which doesn't focus on the pomp and circumstance, but rather with ashes and bones.

***

I have food. Amazing amount of food. I'm practically overwhelmed by the quantity and the choice. I had to pretty much get everything from staples like butter and orange juice to frozen veggies and fresh ones as well. I was also out of potatoes, eggs, and frozen lunches to take to work. I'm not a big snacker, but I did get some jello mix and microwave popcorn just for fun, as well as my usual snack food of choice -- chips, salsa and chedder cheese to make nachos. Now I'm good to go until next weekend. So you people no longer need to worry about me wasting away because I was too lazy to brave traffic and go to the grocery store.

***

And ooh, I forgot the countdown in my earlier post: 3 days, 3 hours, 10 minutes. Squee!

Headlines

I'm wearing a wool sweater. A red wool sweater. This is so many degrees of wrong I can't even begin to tell you. Of course, the Northeast has it worse, definitely, and they probably think I'm a big baby (okay, so I am!), but good God, wool sweater? Here? Now? Bah, I say, bah!

***

I may be changing my email address, I'm not sure. I'm getting tired of weeding through the spam mixed in with real mail. The Top Sekrit Addy is still spam-free for the most part, but I'm not ready to give that out to the masses at large. I'll keep you posted.

***

I almost missed the US Women's National Figure Skating Championships yesterday. It was only by a fluke I saw that it was on. To avoid spoiling, the results are here for anyone interested.

***

No food in my house. Absolutely none. My brother and J tided me over for one more day thanks to bringing me Thai food yesterday, but now, between dinner and lunch, it's all gone. I only have half a bowl of rice left. One would think the logical thing would be to go shopping. Oddly, I've done many boring and mundane things today like cleaning the inside of the microwave and vaccuuming, yet these chores are more interesting to me than grocery shopping. But my stomach is reminding me that I cannot, cannot put this off a minute longer.

Now, the decision is which grocery store? I could probably waste another hour or so just pondering that question.

To the moon and back

George W. Bush wants to initiate a permanent American presence on the moon. We were talking about that at work yesterday and I said, "Why would anyone want to go to the moon? That place has no atmosphere."

And I got lots of blank stares. ::le sigh::

I'm chalking it up to the fact that I have a very cerebral and dry sense of humor. Way too subtle for normal people to get.

Or least these are the lies I tell myself.

It's funny joke, isn't it? Isn't it?

Or to quote Dana from "Sports Night": "I'm a lot funnier than you ever gave me credit for.

Countdown: Four days, nine and a half hours to go. Squee!

Update

One week. Seven days. One hundred eighty hours. Ten thousand, eight hundred minutes. Six hundred and forty-eight thousand seconds.

Until....

In other news, no dent in email. Email just accumulates. It's amazing. Especially since I've unsubbed from so many lists and since I don't respond to email quickly, I have no idea where it's actually coming from. I am, however, mostly caught up on answering FB. There are maybe 2 or 3 notes I haven't answered yet.

And speaking of FB, I always find it oddly flattering when I fangirl over someone else and then they, in their response to me, fangirl over me? Now that's where the email exchange always breaks down for me. Do I respond and thank them for their squeeing? Do I suggest we form a mutual admiration society? Do I ignore the email as it's been an even exchange -- I squee, you squee, we all squee for fic? I go for the first option more often, but I always feel slightly dorky in cases like this as if by sending FB in the first place to random author, I was trolling for FB myself. It was much, much easier, I think, when no one knew my name or read my stuff (and this is making the incredible leap of faith that people do indeed know my name and actually read and like my stuff).

I'd also like to note that once again, the temperature is in the 30s, with a windchill in the teens. Any minute, I expect white stuff to come falling out of the sky.

Still seven days to go...

Score one for the straight people

From this article:

"It was just crazy, man," the 22-year-old told "Access Hollywood" in an interview at his home Monday morning. "And we were just looking at each other and said, 'Let's do something wild, crazy. Let's go get married, just for the hell of it.' "

See, it's not the gay people we have to worry about undermining the sanctity of marriage; the straight people are doing a hell of job themselves. I think it's interesting that the blame for the undermining of marriage in our society is placed on the very people who cannot get married in the first place and here you've got people getting married with about as much thought as one would utilize to buy a tube of toothpaste.

Sometimes a picture says nothing at all

I went to the Museum of Modern Art yesterday for the last showing of a very famous exhibit, featuring works by Monet, Sauret, Picasso, Chagall, Warhol, O'Keefe, Matisse and Dali. The place was packed actually and it was very hard to see some of the more famous works, like Van Gogh's Starry Night, which was virtually impossible to see as many headphoned people clustered and refused to move, so moved they were by the painting.

Also on exhibit were some lovely works by Sauret -- up close, you could see each dot and backing away, the beautiful painting that resulted. There was only one painting by Monet on display, much to my dismay, and that was the famous Waterlilies. Up close, amazingly, I wasn't as blown as I was by Sauret's work.

I'm not a fan of Picasso. I hate to say it because the admission reveals my secret philistine, but while I'm at it, I'll also say that I'm not particularly fond of Matisse either (I did visit his museum in Nice last summer), who had a version of Notre Dame on exhibit. I saw much of Picasso at Reina Sofia in Madrid, particularly the very famous anti-war statement, Guernica. I remember seeing all of the guards and video-cameras keeping watching, but I was strangely unmoved. Discombulation and angles don't speak to me the same way flesh and blood do.

The whole exhibit had that same effect on me -- I was not moved at all. I could not discern beauty in the lines of Piet Mondrian and perhaps there was a smile or two at some of Warhol's work, but in general, it's hard to conjure up a reaction to a canvas done up completely in black (even if the artist has claimed to use different shades of black).

I left longing for the timelessness of the Prado and the Louvre. I love and appreciate the clean bright lines of the Classical era, the light and slightly out of focus landscapes of the Impressionists, the deep feeling and emotion of the Romantics, and of course, the dark, rich portraits of the Renaissance. I'll take detail, color and vividness any day over a stark red line painted on a white background.

I am queen of the world or so I tell myself

I played a long game of Civilization this afternoon. I get into these kicks every now and then when I just have to play. I've been playing Civilization since high school and we're on the third variation of the game now. I'm still no better at it than I was in high school but I consider it a victory if my civilization is still on the map, come mandatory retirement in 2050.

Today though was probably my worst possible performance. I only founded 6 cities, absorbed a 7th (the English town of Brighton) by cultural prowess, and then picked up an eighth, Novograd (Russian city), but ended up losing it back to the Russians after my new assimilees decided my culture sucked big time. I had a good start, but got behind thanks to wandering barbarians and my own inability to deal with the issue. After losing about 5 settlers and 3 workers, I got smart and sent an archer after the barbarians. Problem solved, but then I was 100 years behind Abraham Lincoln and Queen Elizabeth.

I also don't ever click on the "Big Picture" screens. My method of going through technology is somewhere along the lines of "Hmmm, what can I learn in the shortest amount of time?" Well, that never gets you to the Manhattan Project, but it'll certainly get you the Hanging Gardens of Babylonia, simply because everyone else is busy building towns and infrastructure while my civilizations are invariably twiddling their thumbs and raising taxes.

This time though, I built a huge military. I never build huge militaries. This time I did. I even built a nuclear submarine and a bomber. That was kinda a cool. I usually never make it past upgrading my armies from warriors to spearman. Then when the Germans or French roll through with their tanks, I'm usually history. This time, I wasn't history because they were all freaked out by my large, mostly useless army that cost an enormous fortune (200 gold/turn) to maintain.

I also became kind of an arm-twister. The French were scared of my tanks, so I managed to wheedle money and technology out of them. The Persians were good for ivory and silk, while I went after the pesky English for iron and saltpeter. But despite my new military prowess and cunning acumen, I still managed to score my lowest score ever in my decade of playing this computer game.

If it wasn't for the fact that I have no food in my house and thus, need to go grocery shopping and get some food, I would honestly give it another go and this time, see what happens when I declare war on everyone instead of sitting in a corner building the biggest possible stick I can carry. Kudos to anyone who knows what the reference to "big stick" is

Bruce Almighty

I rented "Bruce Almighty" from the apartment's main office this afternoon, since I wanted to test a DVD on my new DVD player. The good news is that a) the DVD player works beautifully and b) I didn't actually spend money on "Bruce Almighty." The bad news is "Bruce Almighty" is ninety minutes of my life I will never get back. My verdict on Jim Carrey being one of the most annoying actors around stands. Throughout the whole movie, I was thinking, "I should have gotten Chicago instead." Heck, they even had X2 and even the fifth time through that movie would be more amusing than the first time through "Bruce Almighty."

The thing about "Bruce," it mostly features Jim Carrey (now abbreviated as JC) making facial contortions at the screen. At best, motivations are weak, self-serving and there's a lot of leap of faiths and moments of "where did that come from?" I didn't laugh once. Not once. The dog joke? Not. Funny. JC? Not funny. Making faces at the camera doesn't constitute good acting and certainly cannot lift a weak script up. Even Jennifer Aniston was not as good as she could have been (I kept wondering what her character, Grace, was doing with a goofball like JC's Bruce -- I'd have knocked Bruce on his keister already, he was so annoying). Catherine Bell was also there, starring as the co-news anchor, and maybe it's just my current "JAG" phase, but she was the least annoying member of the cast. Along with Morgan Freeman, he was okay starring as God.

The problem with Jim Carrey is when he attempts to play serious or deep, you can't take him seriously at all. I expected, during his 'reformation' period in the film, to pull some kind of gag or facial expression. Maybe that's the point that he doesn't, but it's like, he's got this image so completely sewn up that if he tries anything else at all, even if he wants to be sincere, he doesn't come across that way.

Definitely a thumb's down movie.

History

Most of you who read this blog regularly know that I'm a history buff and an absolutely stickler for accuracy. I've been watching a miniseries on Elizabeth I from the BBC, rented from the library, and so far so good. Yesterday though, when I walked to the library, I decided to forgo getting the next tape in the Elizabeth series and got Nicholas and Alexandra instead, the 1971 version of the Robert K. Massie book with the same title. So far, the reviews seem okay.

In movies, I'm better with inaccuracy than I am with books and I'm not quite sure why that difference exists for me. For instance, I adore the movie Anne of the Thousand Days, a biography of Anne Boleyn. Granted, it's highly inaccurate at the end. For instance, Henry VIII never came to see Anne in the Tower before her execution nor did Anne ever have a dream that her daughter, Elizabeth, would ever be queen. There was no reason for Anne to tell Henry that Elizabeth would be queen . Anne already knew (or suspected) that wife number three would be Jane Seymour, and she'd already seen what had happened to daughter number one, Mary, so she could hardly expect better than that for Elizabeth. So those two things at the end of the movie were highly inaccurate -- Henry coming to see Anne and then Anne's proclamation that Elizabeth would be queen. Also, the scene where Mary is at the deathbed of her mother, Catherine of Aragon, is also untrue; once the King's Great Matter began, mother and daughter were separated and never saw each other again. And I won't even say anything about a dark-haired actress playing Mary, as portraits clearly show Mary as a blond in early life and then hair darkening to a nice chestnut brown; indeed, both Henry and Catherine had blond/reddish hair. But. Still, I very much enjoyed the movie and both Richard Burton and Genevive Bujold (the original Janeway) did a fabulous job.

I also thought the movie Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett had its historical inaccuracies, but not being as up on Elizabeth (other than the fact I'm pretty sure Robert Dudley was not, in fact, anything more than a platonic best friend) as I am on the travails on Henry VIII, I let some of those go as well.

I'm currently rereading Margaret George's " The Autobiography of Henry VIII and it's funny how a little extra knowledge can taint your reading experience. The first time I read this, I had no idea about Richard III and what he was all about. So I accepted the Tudor view that he was a Bad, Bad, Bad man. However, reading a second time through, it's harder for me to accept that view. However, it is accurate for that time period, so I can't quibble with George about that. However, despite rereading this book, I have not forgiven her for what she did to poor Mary Magdalene.

"Nicholas and Alexandra" is two videos long so it'll take me all weekend to watch this movie. I'm going to make an attempt to enjoy it on its merits, as a film for a mass audience, and not to look too deeply into it. Other than the Tudors, the last Romanovs are another family I know much about it. So we'll see how this goes.

And to you and you and you...

A very happy new year!

::lifts glass of virtual champagne::

Hee!

The X-Files Etiquette Handbook.

Nostalgia

This be ye olde house in Vermont. Miss the house, but all that snow... man, I don't really miss shoveling that driveway, gotta say.

My coworkers are missing. Again.

That is all.

Geek license renewal

KC threatened to take away my geek license when I told him that I didn't have a) a DVD player or b) a digital camera. Well, I now have a DVD player, courtesy of my brother. It's sooo cute. It's long, flat, silver and very Star Trekkish looking. So far, I've gotten it out of the box and put the batteries in the remote control. Go me.

I'm not quite sure where my DVD player is going to go -- currently, it's on the floor and that's probably where it'll stay. My old TV cart that I got rid of had room in the cart for both the VHS and DVD and a dozen tapes because the back of the cart was missing. This cart has a slot for the VCR and that's it. I thought about putting it into the cabinet below, but that won't work because there's no way to connect the wires through the back (unless I suddenly become very handy, purchase a drill, make some holes -- you get the idea. Mostly though, the cabinet of my cart is home to JAG tapes, Babylon 5 and Sports Night; but I digress).

So I got all excited about hooking up the DVD player yesterday. Then I read the instructions which say specifically not to hook up through the VCR. Instead, since my television is an older model with only a coaxial antenna thingy on the back, I have to buy a gadget called the RF Modulator to attach to the back of the television so I can get the DVD player to work. Bjorn suggested purchasing a new television. However, since a new television is not in the budget, I've gone shopping for the elusive RF modulator, which apparently can cost anywhere from $15 to $150, depending on what you need it for. For $150, I can get another 19" television set, so I'm inclined to go cheap and hope for the best. However, the sheer quantity of RF modulators available is making my head spin. So I've sent an SoS to the person responsible for my current quandry; he knows what's what when it comes to television-type stuff so perhaps he'll have a good recommendation for me. One would hope.

I'll keep you posted as I geek my way through strange new (digital) worlds.

I think this holiday doodle is sooooooooooooo cute!

It's amazing...

How everything comes down to the very last minute. I thought, "Wow! Five days off! Whatever will I do with all of that time?" Quite a bit, as it turned out. A few lunch dates, a few parties here and there, a couple of trips to the store and my vacation is nearly over. I have one last lunch date with Sarah today and then it'll be heading back to the Big City to the East, hopefully before 3 pm. The skies look vaguely threatening and I absolutely abhor driving in the torrential downpours this state is famous for. When I came back from the beach in September, that was probably the most miserable 6 hour drive of my life -- zero visibility, unfamiliar roads. So hopefully that will not be the case today.

I'm sure Virtual Life will pick up again tomorrow as people return to work. In fact, I'm amazed it's been as active as it has been in certain areas. Email, though, has been dead, but apparently spammers don't observe any kind of holiday. My spam has been more over the last five days. I'm inclined to do a study of just how much spam a person gets in relation to 'real' mail. This morning, I got one real mail and 30 spam. There's only one conclusion -- spammers love unprofitable me more than real people do.

The Da Vinci Code

Link of the day: The Da Vinci Code Game

It's been a long time since I've read a book that's grabbed me by the neck and refused, absolutely refused, to let me go. "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown is hands down one of the best books I've read this year, if not the best (I'm debating between this and "Life of Pi"). "The Da Vinci Code" is the "it" book this year, and there was even a special on ABC (hosted by Elizabeth Vargas) about some of the ideas in the book. After my recent experience with Mary Magdalene fanfiction, I was apprehensive on taking up another book on the subject.

But...

From the first page to the last, "The Da Vinci Code" refuses to let go. If you're a fan of mystery thrillers, this is a good one. The sum of all the action takes place in less than 24 hours and this novel has some of the best pacing I've seen in fiction. Nothing drags and the action moves along very, very quickly. Just when you think you've gotten to the absolute climax of a moment, bam! Here comes something else to mess things up yet again.

"The Da Vinci Code" stars Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, who is studying the sacred feminine. He interprets literature, art and architecture to derive clues about the truth about the Bible. His (literal) partner-in-crime is Sophie Neveu, a French cryptologist. Drawn together by the murder of the curator of the Louvre, Sophie and Robert embark on their own journey to discover the truth behind one of the most fascinating quests in history. They are joined along the way by Leigh Teabing, a Royal British historian, and Remy, Teabing's manservant. Bezu Fache, an ambitious and powerful officer in the French Judicial Police, is hot on their heels. Throw in a secret Catholic society, an albino monk, and a top-secret French brotherhood whose members include Leonardo Da Vinci and Isaac Newton, and you've got the makings of the next mall-movie blockbuster.

What saves this book from being the next John Grisham though is its intelligence. Along with a well-paced mystery thriller, the book does a superb job of interweaving architecture, literature, religion and suspense. The author has done an amazing research job, pulling out obscure facts from various artistic disciplines, and no doubt, there are many who will disagree with his interpretation of those facts -- especially the religious angles (there's no doubt that Brown's view on Jesus Christ is revisionist). The religious emphasis is on the sacred feminine in the Bible and lest you think Brown is making this stuff up, he backs up all of his theories with historical/Biblical fact.

Every detail -- from architectural descriptions to those of the famous "Last Supper" -- is artfully written and history well-explained. Despite the mass quantity of information (Brown doesn't shirk his responsbility as an author and make the reader do the work), Brown always manages to shake things up so it doesn't feel like an info dump. On a slightly negative note, the book spends so much time on explanation that you don't really get a feel for the characters. Teabing is the most colorful and most developed, while Sophie and Robert are mostly there to provide information and brainstorm the clues provided along the way by the murdered man. Both Sophie and Robert are competent people, but you never really get to know them.

All in all, a compelling read all the way through. If you've always been wondering what exactly it is Mona Lisa has been smiling about all of these years, this book holds a potential answer to that question.

Happy Holidays to all! Just a quick note to wish you all safe and happy travels, if indeed you are heading out. And if not, even so, have a safe holiday at home.

There's a blog called snarkfest which basically laughs at television. My kinda blog.

Tis the season

potentially offensive entry to follow

The airwaves are alive with the sound of Christmas carols. I admit, I like Christmas carols as much as the next person. O Holy Night is probably one of my favorites -- mostly because when I was learning how to play it on the piano, I really enjoyed the part that begins with "Fall on your knees." There was a cool fingering technique going on there so it was fun. But in sum, I generally enjoy Christmas carols (in small doses -- those stations that go 24-7 right after Thanksgiving? No thank you).

But. It's the inexplicable popularity of The Christmas Shoes that gets me. This maudlin, depressing, "no shirt, no shoes, no service policy" of a song has inspired not only a book, but also a television movie starring Rob Lowe and Kimberly Williams.

For me, songs like "O Holy Night" or "Come All Ye Faithful" or "Joy to the World" are more about the Christmas spirit than this tear-jerker of a song. I know I'm supposed to be moved by the image of a dirty little boy counting out pennies to buy his dying mother a new pair of shoes "just in case she meets Jesus tonight" but the logician in me wonders why not a bowl of soup? How about some medicine? Maybe a doctor? Why new shoes of all things?

Then you've got the guy who helps the boy out. I don't know what his story is, but obviously he hasn't got the Christmas spirit until he finds himself guilted into giving the little boy the rest of the money to buy a pair of shoes for his Momma. Frankly, I'd take this guy a lot more seriously if he offered more assistance than just buying a pair of shoes, which according to the boy's sob story, are basically useless to this poor family (other than the joy of making Momma look beautiful for Jesus, I guess).

My other question is, how did this boy get to the store? Did he walk? Did someone drive him? And why didn't the nice man who gave him money to buy the shoes give the child a ride home? And I don't buy that the guy now knows what Christmas is all about. He assuaged his guilt a little by handing over a few bucks, but really, what did he learn? That in order to meet Jesus, you have to have new shoes? That's not Christmas spirit; that's just materialism rearing its ugly head once again.

KC has jumped on the blog bandwagon and started his own journal here.

X-Files rambling

Because of my headache yesterday, most of the day (when not baking) was spent in bed or playing Literati. I tried to do some editing, but couldn't think quite enough to get through it. I've finally succombed and taken medication because I hardly slept last night because of the headache. I really don't like this medication -- it makes my hands shake and basically, I feel like I'm crawling out of my skin. But I digress.

Part of yesterday's activities involved watching The X-Files. I taped Saturday night's episode, "Eve", a season one ep which I watched while baking, and then watched last night's, a season eight ep called "The Gift." I haven't seen most of season one and I queried RJ about "Eve" on Saturday so I admit to going into the viewing a bit biased based on what RJ said about it. In retrospect, I would have never been an XF fan if I'd tuned in during season one; season 4 and 5 is where it's at, baby, and let's throw season 6 in there for good measure.

I had seen a season 5 episode earlier in the week when I still had SCIFI network and it was interesting to contrast it with "Eve" (I don't have time to look up the ep title, but it was the one with the black oil, Cassandra Spender, the alien abductions and burning bodies. Alex Krycek and Marita K were both in this episode and Mulder didn't believe, but Scully did. It was a two-parter).

In "Eve", Scully was actively trying to debunk Mulder's theories about ET abductions. She was very business-like and while not quite humoring Mulder, she was pretty darn close to it. Scully in this ep was also kickass, taking charge when it came to protocol. Maybe my vision of Scully is forever tainted by the travesty that was season 9 characterization, but this was a Scully-view I'd never seen before. She was fiesty, not quite tempered by Mulder yet, and you get the feeling that she's really just biding her time until she could get off the XF. There was no real interaction with Mulder other than case discussion. They verbally sparred, but absolutely no chemistry, mho. Possibly the one thing that I've seen all along (and think is so cute) is the way Mulder steps aside to let Scully go out the door first and he always has his hand on her back.

The writing in "Eve" wasn't as clever or as tight or even as suspenseful as later episodes. In fact, I was so incredibly disappointed by the cop-out in the middle of the ep, when it turns out that there is indeed human intervention, rather than ET. For me, the XF was all about not explaining anything and letting the viewer decide what happened. So "Eve" in general was a disappointment. The acting was so-so -- you get the feeling David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were both still trying to figure out who Mulder and Scully are -- and put that with a not-so-good script and it was a non-remarkable 43 minutes of television.

But things can only get better from there, and honestly, once the XF writers hit their stride, it became one of the most clever and intelligent shows on television. Scary and spooky and memorable, yes, but still very intelligent, and mostly because whatever lack of chemistry GA and DD demonstrated in "Eve", by later seasons, they had so developed it. I remember one Chris Carter saying that 1013 writers like to write for Mulder, but they were secretly in love with Scully. It always amuses me to watch just how Scully develops over nine seasons, how she goes from steadfast and straightforward to wavering and finally, a true believer. We won't even talk about how her hair goes from red-brown to very, very red by the end (g) and oh yes, on an equally shallow note, her wardrobe gets better and better by the season.

As I said, I really like season 4 episodes onward and the black oil ep is a prime example because it really highlighted their friendship, I think. Scully is more mild-tempered, and gotta say, Gillian Anderson's acting really hits a high point during those middle seasons (no, non-stop crying in season 9 doesn't count as good acting, mho!). Even David Duchovny, who is a strong actor in his own right and probably started out much more skilled than GA, is more nuanced. What I've always liked about mytharc eps is that it's about Mulder and Scully. I have NO idea what actually happens in mytharc episodes or what they mean, but I watch because the Mulder and Scully dynamic is always the most passionate part of the episode. It's when they are most honest with each other and especially during the cancer arc, most open about their feelings.

"The Gift" featured Doggett. I'm one of the few people who actually really likes Doggett. He's got an intensity that rivals Mulder and Scully and I like his dedication to finding Mulder. So you put Doggett on a case like "The Gift" and he has no choice in the end but to believe, like Scully ended up doing in the black oil ep mentioned above. I thought in general "The Gift" wasn't the most wonderful episode ever, but Robert Patrick proved he could carry an episode all on his own (with some assistance from Mitch Pileggi). IIRC, DD carried a couple of cases on his own when GA was out on pregnancy leave and GA did a fabulous job on "Never Again" and "All Things". But even so, it was quite the risk given that RP was a new character to the show, some of us were still mourning DD's non-appearance in season 8 (well, he was featured in this ep) and there was hardly any Scully at all if you don't count the brief flashbacks Doggett has in the beginning of the episode.

I'll probably skip next Saturday's ep because it's another first season ep "Fire," but Sunday is season eight again and it features a monster in the Boston subway system. There you go, jemima -- yet another danger you must be aware of when riding the T. A monster trolling the tunnels. But you obviously knew that already.

jemima isn't taking my flouncing seriously.

I'm hurt.

But on the other hand, I had samosas tonight. Good ones, with just the right amount of spice and lots of potatoes and peas. And the lady fried them on the spot just for me, so they hadn't been sitting out, getting soft under the heating lights. It doesn't get much better than that.

I'm still flouncing. Seriously.

Watch me go... I'm going, I'm going, I'm gone...

jemima has already backed out of our joint resolution to retire on January 1. She says I'll back out first, but I have every intention of keeping this particular retirement. I've been delaying the inevitable for long enough. This will be my last year as ASC Awards coordinator, last year participating in the Awards, and generally. I really don't intend to keep writing fic. If I hadn't already committed to Awards this year, I probably wouldn't participate at all, except maybe to cast a vote or two here and there.

The retirement decision was fairly easy to make. I realized it when I was staring at my WiPs and had absolutely NO desire to work on any of them, but it wasn't that I didn't want to write, I just didn't want to write these characters any more; the plot bunnies and enthusiasm have been alive for other projects and other ideas. It's been fun, but time to move on.

DWS has left the building

Ah, for those keeping vigil with me or for themselves, it all came to an ego-crushing blow late last night when the SNW 7 winners were announced. As a friend said, it was unnecessarily cruel of Marco Palmieri to have posted that note so early and to deprive those of us with delusions of grandeur of the joy and anticipation and hope of getting in. Fie on you, Marco, fie, I say!

But I got validation from Siu-Ling, whom I've finally caught on Y!M last night, and even though she doesn't like Trek at all (is downright resentful of Trek, btw, from our college days) and has never read my writing, she says I was robbed and my greatness unappreciated. Another friend suggested that when the rejection letters do finally arrive (and I'll have 3 -- 5, if you count the 2 from last year), that they ought to be used as wallpaper of some kind. After all, if that woman on "Trading Spaces" can wallpaper with moss and newspaper, rejection letter wallpaper can only be the next big thing.

Though, in all seriousness, congratulations to the winners. I see some familiar names on the list, including Jeff Jacques whose fic I've enjoyed for many years now when he still actively posted to ASC. I see an ASC name or two, but since I'm not sure if the authors wish to remain anonymous or not, I'll just congratulate them from afar. If they read this blog, then yes, I'm talkin' to you -- good on you for making it in (g).

As I told a friend last night, I was more disappointed in not making it than I thought I would be. Last year, I didn't expect anything and I got my hopes up a little with the reaction to "Blink" this year. But in general, I never put a whole lot of stock into my chances. Which could be a confidence problem, I suppose, but I also was realistic about the quality of my submissions this year. I've said it before that my stories for last year were of much higher quality than the ones I submitted this year. I wrote this year's story in about 10 days, coming on the heels of a move and a new job, and also late at night. It had its moments, and then it had many more non-moments.

But I'll be honest. I was looking for validation. I wanted something to say, "Hey, this fanfiction thing isn't stupid and you aren't crazy for writing about characters created by other people." I wanted something to say that seven years of doing this thing was meaningful and not a waste of time. I judge my time in fandom by the way my writing has improved and by the friendships I've made. Those are intangible assets, ones that non-fannish people can never -- and won't -- understand. Getting in SNW was my form of validation, a way I could say, "Look, I worked at this and this is what I got for my efforts."

So I didn't get in this year. There's always next year. I don't anticipate writing any more Trek in 2004 (no, I'm not making any promises, I'm just sayin' (g)). Once I get my plate cleared of WiPs, I really have no plot bunnies or motivation to continue on in this particular fandom; if you've lost the enthusiasm for the source material and the characters, it shows in the writing and I think that was the basic and fundamental problem with Riley -- I forced the whole story out and it never did quite have heart or oomph in it. But if the muse does strike, there is always next year. After all, you miss 100 percent of the opportunities you never take and this is an awesome opportunity.

As it is, my goal for this coming year is try to enter at least one contest every quarter. I've got some good material coming out of my writing class and with motivation of the writing group, I think I can buckle down and have the discipline to keep submitting. I've got a list of literary fiction contests for original fic and I'm just going to go down the list and try to send something in, using my friend Jodi in DC as inspiration; she got a poem in a literary magazine a year ago after relentlessly submitting. She had dedication and perserverance and I'm definitely motivated by her example.

Yeah, rejection letters suck. It reminds me of when I was looking for a job in '97 and '98 and the pile of rejection letters kept building. I had a shoe box full. My favorite rejection letter though was from Very Big Insurance Company -- sent two weeks before they made an offer.

In which I whinge... a lot

Link of the day: snopes.com -- go here before passing on that 'warning' letter you get in your inbox. Chances are, it's a hoax.

I'm feeling vaguely belligerent and I think I'm going to have to write letters. Or rather, I wrote one, and I am trying to figure out what to say on the other. On the first letter, I wrote to my radio station. This morning, they read a version of this letter on the air. So of course, as a one-woman crusade to stop the proliferation of bad information, I had to send them an email. Or rather, my alter-ego sent them an email :-).

I'm also thinking about writing to my cable company but I don't know what to say. See, my miffedness with them is sparked with the end of my free preview yesterday. Granted, I knew it would end eventually, but the X-Files ep "Leonard Betts" was on yesterday and "Memento Mori" today. I guess the logical, non-immature response would be to call the cable company and sign up for the package so I could see X-Files to my little heart's content. But I never said I was going to be mature about this.

My true unhappiness comes from the fact that I signed up for a package that included the local stations and a few other stations like ABC Family and TBS. My cable company has taken that package away and has replaced it with "More Television Stations You Can Ever Watch" at over triple the cost. In other words, if I want more than just 3 local stations, then I've got to pay through the nose. Which makes me wonder why I didn't just get an antenna in the first place.

I'm not a huge television watcher and rarely does my VCR come into play to help cope with the viewing schedules as the only time it really gets used is if I'm not going to be home for some reason. "JAG" is usually what gets taped since for some reason, it's Fridays I'm usually out on.

But I digress.

I haven't figured out what I want from the cable company yet. Oh wait, yes I do -- the original package I ordered 4 months ago at the cost I ordered it at. The problem is calling them is a pain in the butt. It once took me over a week to get someone on the phone to talk about a billing issue. A few times, I've called in, I'm told to call back and the phone hangs up. Every time it rains, the reception cuts out (it's actually satellite television, not cable). One night, we didn't have reception for an entire night and on one Thursday, it froze all of the local stations but not the other 3 gazillion stations. Another time, I got a wide message splashed across the bottom of my screen, effectively blocking off most of the picture; when I called for help, there was no one available to assist because it was the weekend.

So this is my irrational grievance and basically what I want to write: Dear DirectTV Company, Your customer service sucks, your packages are not customized for your customers, and you deliver a product that's not much better than over-the-air service or cable. In addition, you charge an installation fee which cable companies do not. The only advantage I could see with staying with your company is getting the five extra channels along with local service. I am contemplating cancelling my service. I would like you to reconsider -- some of us do not watch enough television to justify 100 channels or spending over $30 a month -- taking away the smaller Entertainment Plus package. Sincerely yours, Seema.

Hmmm, what do you think? At any rate, thanks to Yahoo, I've discovered the X-Files comes on the CBS affiliate here late on Saturday and Sunday nights. So I am not completely berefit.

Let it snow

Just to prove there's no easy way out of anything, I've been talking about redesigning my site for some time now. The little button Liz Barr made (go see Liz's site and check the buttons at the bottom of the page) for my site has Gargemel (sp?) on it so it made me think, "Oooh, smurf theme!" Which might lead people to think this was a page about smurfs, and it's not. There will be an occasional comments about smurfs, but I'm not necessarily referring to little blue people.

But. I digress.

So I thought I'd dress up the site for winter by making it snow, a la the Canadian Gas Association. Bah. To quote Sarah (the one from Big City to the Northwest), everything got dorked up. Pretty snowflakes, bad for tables. It took me nearly 45 minutes to get my index back to normal.

So my site is still bland. Still boring. And I'm open for suggestions. CSS implementation, after struggling with tables this evening, cannot come too quickly.

DWS still hasn't called; according to thread, the happy news won't be delivered until after the new year. In the meantime, my delusions and I are doing just fine, thank you for asking.

Non Perciptation Statement.

Public service message brought to you by KC. So now you know and you can take cover.

I am keeping vigil for a phone call from DWS. As of today, I (as well as various other ASCers) have not received an email/phone call/snail mail. I'm pretty sure DWS has already programmed my phone numbers into his speed dial -- he just hasn't been able to reach me because I'm always at work. He doesn't want to leave messages, you see, simply because he wants to hear my voice.

I never said I wasn't delusional.

I'm already convinced that I'm not getting in this year. My fics have too much walking in them. According to this thread, DWS abhors walking. I say it's a natural part of every day life, even in the 24th century, but to each his own.

For those curious, I wrote one new story this year for the contest. The story is about everyone's favorite Texan (and Chakotay abuser), Riley Frazier, and the battle of Wolf 359 (see Unity). Riley walks a lot and vaccilliates between being a super hero and a wet blanket. She annoyed even me. No wonder she gave Chakotay a headache.

The other two stories I sent in are old stories from 2001. One is a slimmer, less mean version of A Season in Between. Picard is less evil -- or rather, clueless -- in this version and it's also lost about 6,000 words from the original. And oh yes, less of the ensign (Christy Barrows), whom Christine found freaky in the original.

The second story was merely cleaned up for typos etc and edited for sentence structure etc, but it's basically the original of The Absinthe Heart (I'm still amazed no one has noticed the pun in the title). This is my second person Quark fic, set seventh season, where he muses on Jadzia and Ezri.

If I had to pick, I'd go with the Quark story. There's no walking, though there's some gratuitious Hemingway bashing. It's second person, focuses on a character most don't write about, and it tackles the issue of having to deal with two different women who, well, are different reincarnations of each other (or rather Dax, but I don't have time to go into it). But there's no violence or real action in the Quark story.

All of the action goes in the Riley story, which has a battle and Borg! How can you not love a story with Borg in it? The Crusher story has very little action and is more cerebral/subtle, mho -- the punch comes at the end, so that could be the downfall for that story. But then again, last year's submission Blink made the second read pile and I'd consider that in the same vein as "A Season in Between"; a conflict between two characters, one canon and one OC, with verbal sparring and the ultimate resolution decided in the last two paragraphs. My one saving grace is that none of the stories I submitted this year are quite as boring as last year's Sand and Water (which received a "didn't hold my attention" from DWS).

So it's been 20 minutes. DWS still hasn't called. I will keep you posted on this nail-biting, seat-squirming process. Surely the genius of various ASCers will be recognized this year.

Whee!

I love FedEx tracking. On Saturday, I ordered a Christmas gift for a friend of mine in Longmeadow online. It was from Casual Corner (and yes, Liz, I got them in red, because that's such a nice, festive color) and the site said that if I hadn't ordered it by noon on Friday, there was no guarantee it'd get to Longmeadow by Christmas Eve. So of course I worried. See, every year, I'm notoriously late with Sarah's gift (this Sarah is not to be confused with Sarah in the Big City to the Northwest). Sarah, on the other hand, is not only early, but really thoughtful.

One year, she sent me a French day-by-day calendar because I was, y'know, going to France, another time it was crossword puzzles because the two of us used to do puzzles together at UMASS, and once a t-shirt from our favorite eatery, Bueno y Sano. Anyway, Sarah is thoughtful and I'm the heel that y'all always thought I am.

Anyway, why I'm feeling the FedEx love. Casual Corner is headquartered near Longmeadow (Enfield, CT, for those of you really curious) so I was like, "I could fly to Hartford, pick it up and drive it to Sarah's house quicker than the FedEx will ship it." I mean, they're telling me eight days! To get from Enfield to Longmeadow! That's less than an hour distance, iirc.

But today, my faith in FedEx is restored. Casual Corner delivered the package to FedEx in Hartford at midnight on Sunday and then the gift hung out until that evening, waiting to be scanned. Twenty-four hours after it arrived, the gift departed for beautiful Springfield (I'm being sarcastic, jemima and Bjorn!). The FedEx truck left to deliver the package to Sarah's house at 5:28 am this morning. So she will have it when she gets home from work (I really, really hope FedEx didn't wake her up at 6 am).

So whew! For once, I came in under the wire and I have FedEx to thank for it. I would have, however, been very disappointed if it had taken eight days to get from Enfield to Longmeadow, because, yo, that's just wrong.

Hmmm...

Word on the internet news media is that we've got Saddam. It'd be nice, y'know, if you could nab someone who is, y'know, actually the person behind 9/11. But then again, 75 percent of Americans think Iraq is behind 9/11, never mind that 15 of the highjackers were actually Saudi Arabian. Never doubt the value of American propaganda; we do it just as well as other countries, despite the claims of unbias and free speech.

I still don't understand how people miss the whole Saudi connection. In my mind, Saudi Arabia is a bigger terrorist threat than Iraq ever was. Yeah, Saddam is not a nice guy. I'm glad he's out of power so he can no longer torture his citizens relentlessly as he has in the last two decades. But even so, the act of preemptively attacking without provocation is so incredibly disturbing to me. Why doesn't it bother anyone else? Why doesn't it bother people that many of the alliances with long-time allies have been strained due to the Iraq issue? Is what we've gained in Iraq really worth the lives of the 500+ soldiers, American and coalition (who, other than Britain, is actually a full-force in the coalition?) both, really worth it? And that's not even counting the tremendous cost to the Iraqi civillians.

Gotta say, as a smoke tactic, Mr. Bush stumbled on a great one. He beat up on two Middle Eastern countries, one with reason, one without, and in the meantime, ignored problems here at home and pissed off everyone overseas. But even with Saddam captured, there's still the Al-Qaeda problem, because Saddam does not control Al-Qaeda, never has. So that leaves the million-dollar question -- where is Osama?

The more you know

"I think what we're seeing is a natural response to concerns about a serious flu season," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said Friday on NBC-TV's "Today" show. "But we also need to remember that for almost everyone, flu is not such a serious disease.

It's that last part of the sentence that's important; the flu is the flu. It comes around every year; it's like taxes -- a debilitating fact o' life. It's 5 days of misery at the minimum, but unless you're a small child or elderly, it's probably nothing more than severe, painful, awful discomfort. Sending/persuading your coworkers to go home when sick, washing hands regularly, using Kleenex, etc, these are all things you can do to avoid the flu. So as usual, I'll be avoiding the long lines for flu vaccinations and rely on a handy bar of Dove soap to keep me healthy.

Complete article here.

Wanted: A new job

That is all.

And oh yes. I'm back from Florida.

Now how much did you miss me? Show me the love!

Gone to Florida. I don't anticipate emailing or AIMing. See you on Wednesday when I get back.

Crabby, crabby, crabby.

That is all.

Happy Birthday, Lori!

May your day be blessed with poolboys picking up quarters and handing you margaritas... and oh yes, you're not allowed to do homework on your birthday either. And no writing papers either! Or reading! Or anything school-related!

The rush to wrap things up before vacation is always crazy. I haven't gotten to either editing project yet and it's after midnight. Instead, I spent the evening cleaning the apartment because I have this "thing" about coming home to a dirty place. And then I wrote holiday cards, which are mostly all done. I just need to track down two people's addresses and I'll be done, done, done.

I don't even want to think about my writing projects -- all of which have various deadlines of December 21, December 31 and January 31.

It's hard work being a writer. It's pretty much a full-time, all-consuming passion. If I'm not writing, I'm editing. I do it at home, I do it at work. Don't get me wrong -- I do enjoy it and occasionally, I can even say I love it. But it's still a job, and it's still a chore. It requires discipline and motivation and with very little reward coming back at you.

At any rate, I didn't mean to get all morose, mostly just contemplative. My goal is to finish the two edits currently in my inbox before I leave on Saturday.

Go now!

To Google and type in the words "miserable failure."

Deeper and deeper goes the fan girl

I'm seriously contemplating splurging and keeping my current channel line-up just because of the "X-Files." The maternal unit suggested buying episodes of "The X-Files" but they cost $80/season on DVD. Which is two problems: a) $80 and b) I don't own a DVD player.

Dang Sci Fi for showing "X-Files."

I'm such a pathetic little fan girl.

Also, DS9 season 7 is apparently available on DVD now. Also lots and lots of money. Season 7 isn't my favorite though, but I think I fell in love with Kira during season 7. Now season 5, now that was kick-ass Trek. Poor Gene Roddenberry. If only he'd seen what had happened to his beloved franchise, just how good it could be with friction, continuity, war and angst. Yes, we all hunger for world peace, but every now and then, you gotta stir it up. Without conflict, there is no story. DS9 had lots of conflict, lots of stories and terrific characters. And it's underappreciated.

So for that reason, December is International DS9 Month. Do something to celebrate. Watch the show, read the fic, talk about your favorite episodes, write fic, make icons, send FB for your favorite DS9 fic, just do something to celebrate the darkest chapter of Trek.

Nostalgia

I've been watching "The X-Files" on Tuesday nights on Sci-Fi and I realize just how much I loved that show. It's a pure case of not knowing how much you miss something until it's gone. Admittedly, I didn't see most of season 9 -- season 9 doesn't really exist for me except for the season finale, which I just now finally understand thanks to an XF ep I saw last night dealing with the shooting death of Scully's sister, Melissa.

The acting, the intelligence, the wit, the imagination, the creativity -- this is what made XF so good and on occasion, soooo scary. There are a few episodes that have completely scarred me for life, including one that took place in Mumbai, with a amputee pushing himself on a little cart; I've never quite gotten over the creaking noise since then. And then there was an ep with a freaky dog and I remember my mom pointing out a dog to me and saying, "Isn't that the XF dog?" And yes, I practically hyperventilate now at the sight of a dog I don't know, so having the XF on top of that, well, not entirely good for the psyche.

Yesterday was mytharc -- Krycek and the black oil. I've never quite understood the mytharc, but I don't think the viewer is supposed to. For me, the mytharcs tend to be more 'shippy than the regular Weirdness of the Week episode, and so I just watch for Mulder and Scully. I have a serious straight girl crush on Scully and Mulder, well, don't even get me started on just how very cool he is. Very few television shows have characters whom I'm fallen for so completely.

Yes, I like individual characters on various shows -- Kira on DS9, Lindsey on The Practice, Tom Paris on Voyager, Mac on JAG -- but very rarely do I like all of the leading characters. With Scully and Mulder, I needed them both. This is why season 9 didn't work for me. There was no Mulder. Yes, I like Scully a lot, but I like Scully with Mulder. It's like "JAG" -- I prefer Mac and Harm together, if not romantically, then at least socially and professionally. It's the dynamic between the characters that I enjoy as much as the writing etc.

I did like Monica Reyes to an extent, and John Doggett more, but it wasn't the same. To me, the XF were about Mulder and Scully and without Mulder, it wasn't the XF (not to mention, Weepy!Scully in Season 9 was really, really annoying). Watching these old eps have made me realize this much -- it is possible to write intelligent, likeable characters with a sizzling chemistry and sometimes, have them carry the show even when the show itself makes absolutely no sense.

Math A Go Go

I passed the math test. With flying colors. And apparently, was the first person to pass the darn thing in weeks. Types of questions included finding surface area of a cube (easy!), figuring out how much money Joe spent on a watch and camera if he had $50 left over (more Algebra and fractions than I've done in years), and a few other "huh?" type questions that involved drawing three-dimensional pictures and using lots of Xs and Ys. Also included was a question on what years did the Civil War take place, how many traffic lights are there in this city and what are the five most populous states in the Union, listed in order.

There were 17 questions all together -- I got 14 correct. I'm amazed that I only got 3 wrong -- my former teammate had taken the test last week and he was the financial brains on my highly dysfunctional second semester first year team (well, none of us were number people really, compared to other classmates, but he and I took the lead there and he was better than I was) and he didn't pass the test. So of course I freaked out. If an engineer can't do it, what hope is there for a marketing person?

Due to the public nature of the blog, I'm just putting the test results here -- those of you who know why I took it understand what came next :-)

RSS

This blog is now officially RSSified and can be syndicated onto friends' lists for livejournal users. The myRSS feed is still available as well, though it's only titles for this blog's entries; the new feed will include not only the titles, but the entire post for your consumption. Y'know, because you can never get enough of me!

Your name in lights

The odd thing about submitting stories to various publications is that you do and then you forget about them. It's best to let it go, not think too hard about it -- the most you do before sending your babies off into the void is to mark it down on the spreadsheet that this story went to this publication on this date and then maybe a brief note if there is a follow-up. But then, after that, it's best to forget that you even sent it out; if you have memory like mine, this is very easy to do.

I came back this weekend to find a story of mine in print. Since I'm big on following my own advice, I'd forgotten even sending it in. It's always nice to find the magazine and your name right there below the story title. And it was even artistically decorated. With fish. And no surprise to some of you, but I couldn't remember the story either. So I was reading along quite nicely until I tripped right over a typo.

You know me. I'm the typo queen of the western world. In fact, I'd like to say it's an expression of just how my brain moves compared to my fingers. Or I could say it's some kind of experimental kind of writing -- how many words can I leave out and still have the reader 'get it'? So you see, really, there's an art and intelligence behind my typos.

This is what I tell myself.

Anyway, so there's this typo and I stared at it and then put the magazine down. I haven't read to the end of my own story so I really don't know how it ends, it's been so long. But it was nice, very nice, during this long pin-prick wait for SNW results to come back, to see my name in print for something other than work.

Note for Alex Voy

Alex, I got your email about your problems and just in case you don't receive my reply, I'm putting the gist of it here: I finished your beta and sent it back on Wednesday. I'll send you another copy on Sunday evening when I return home. Let me know what email address you'd like it sent to, or I can always upload it somewhere for you to download. Whatever works best for you.

Holiday Cheer

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday! I'm wrapping up some stuff here on my end -- betas, some emails, that kind of thing -- before heading out on the roads tomorrow, along with 3 million other Americans. I may or may not be online intermittantly this weekend, we'll see how it goes. Right now, the schedule is completely jam-packed with activity and every free minute is taken up with something of some kind. Which is the way I like it. So if I don't talk to you this weekend, see you on Monday!

Oh for the love of all that's holy and good, but subtext and text? Does it or does it not exist? Is interpretation valid or no? Does a dead horse rise? I refer you to bulletpoint number 9 here.

Baby, it's cold out there

I didn't mention that the temperature dropped about 20 degrees yesterday during my adventures in shopping. This morning, it was 30 F when I woke up. 30 F! Damn it, Jim, but this state just lost its competitive advantage!

Luckily, I remembered to turn on the heat before going to bed, so I wasn't completely frozen this morning, but like last February when the mercury dipped below freezing, I didn't have a jacket today and let me tell you, a sweater set just doesn't cut it. It made me think I really should have splurged and bought that lovely black pea coat from the GAP yesterday, instead of just settling on three pairs of trouser socks. But on a positive note, thanks to the super duper elastic of new socks, my legs are very nicely warm.

Yes, I know you are all thinking, "But you're from Vermont! You shouldn't be cold!"

Hey, I was cold in Vermont too and in Massachusetts as well (ask Bjorn). And I had polar fleece for those icy days! Never underestimate the power of polar fleece!

Other than the cold, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. The sky is a very nice faded blue, almost white on the horizon, rather than that ickle line of brown smog I see so often. And the freeways below us are practically clear of traffic. It's as if everyone has already taken off for Thanksgiving. Me, I get to be here until Thursday morning.

Today has been a FB morning. I'm cleaning out my stories folder and wow, there are some old things in there, such as fic written post-"Nemesis". But my credo is better late than never, yes? And I was feeling bad because I was slacking off on the FB lately and there have been superb stories posted in recent days.

I should probably get back to work...

Unexpected shopping took me out and about today so I didn't get the things done online that I'd planned to do. I spent way too much time in toy stores and baby stores and came up empty. My grand purchase after all of that time was three pairs of trouser socks. Which I very much needed, but I drove nearly 30 miles for three pairs of trouser socks (not counting the 6 miles to the first shopping center where I was out-classed and then nearly suffocated by the aromas in Victoria's Secret).

And then there was that incident at the Mexican restaurant, when the waiter thought I was my 24-year old cousin's mother.

::dies::

In other words, I'm so unbelievably far beind in email. What I need is a secretary.

BTW, for those of you receiving this blog via email, I re-enabled the subscription service so you should be once have updates delivered to the convenience of your inbox once a day. Sorry about taking so long to notice that there was a problem. Feel free to drop me a email if you have any questions about the email subscription. Any questions about the RSS feed should be directed to jemima.

Jerie has requested a renewal of hostilities in a blog near you. Please watch this space for further developments in the exciting and thrilling Blog War . Who will make the next appearance on Gilligan's Island? Will the pool boys continue to deliver margaritas? Will the Mods run out of quarters? Who will take the wheel of the Great Intergalatic Minivan? Will whip cream radically change the ecosystem on the desserted island? More importantly, will doctors finally discover whether Chakotay have a pulse? Will Mulder and Scully ever discover what's really out there? Stay tuned!

I do have another unpopular opinion -- cliques are good. Cliques are fun. Cliques are understandably 'elite' to the people who don't belong and do want to belong. Everyone, for the most part, is part of a clique of some kind. In high school, there are cool cliques and not so cool ones. Fandom is the same way.

I'm not sure of the right adjective to describe my clique, known either as Mod Squad or Mad Chatters -- I only know how it makes me feel -- the idea that someone's got your back. It's a very nice and safe feeling and I understand there might be people who don't like that idea or us -- either specifically or generically. In the end, what others think doesn't matter, because this group of ladies, we just clicked for a variety of reasons and we enjoy chatting and emailing and occasionally, talking on the telephone. We get along great, we're there for each other when necessary, and we respect each other. That's really what's important.

I promised jemima I would come up with 10 unpopular things, despite my great dislike and the fact that the last time Liz Barr, who apparently is to blame for this, published her manifesto, I got flamed. Well, RJ got flamed along with me, so there's some consolation in that. But first, a little anecdote from work yesterday. A co-worker asked me how much it was to send a regular-size letter. The conversation played out as followed:

Me: 37 cents

Him: So this is enough? (holds up envelope with two stamps on it)

Me: That's more than enough. You bought a round-trip stamp. (I start giggling). It's going to get there and come on right back. (more giggling)

Maybe you had to be there.

****

As promised, 74 cents worth gives you 10 Unpopular Opinions:

Note: the word 'you' is used generically and is not meant to refer to any particular place/person/thing/vegetable/animal/fandom/story/mailing list/message board/email.

1. I don't prefer slash fic. Not choosing to voraciously read and write slash fic doesn't make me homophobic.

2. I don't like Fuhq Fests. Really. I don't. For me to accept a pairing, I have to at least see some signs that the characters know each other. If it's not canon that they know each other, then the author has to have a logical and compelling set-up. If not, then it's just original fiction that just happens to featured trademarked names for the characters.

3. Fandom grudges are silly. Please. It's not important enough to get upset over. Don't like something/someone? Move on. No need to spend time and energy flaming etc. The amount of time and energy that goes into perpetuating some of these hate fests could go into writing more fic!

4. Drabbles and flash fiction are killing fandom. Whatever happened to stories at least 1000 words long? And while I'm on the drabbles, most of them aren't good. Just because it's only 100 words doesn't make it good. You need to have a beginning, middle and an end, just like all regular 100+ word stories. And since I'm casting stones, I might as well admit that with one exception, my drabbles aren't any good either.

5. FB is not a requirement of fandom. It's a perk of fandom. This is an important distinction. If you're writing for the promise of FB, you're writing for the wrong reasons.

6. Read FAQs and list rules. If you mess up and get chastised because you didn't follow the rules, that's not anyone's fault but your own. Deal with it.

7. Muses exist. They talk. They move fingers on a keyboard. They just happen. Mine doesn't have a name like jemima's does, but I know what it feels like when she's here.

8. Beta readers are good. It doesn't matter how talented a writer you are or how much wonderful FB you get, beta readers can make you better. Don't post without one. And yes, grammar/spelling/punctuation does matter. Believe it or not, if you cannot take the trouble to correctly spell the characters' names, I can't be troubled to actually read the story.

9. Meta? So 2001. I really, really don't want to read an essay on why you write slash or why original fiction is so much harder to write then fanfiction and style versus substance, ad nauseum. We like nothing more than navel gazing, but heck, thanks to the bellybutton dance of Glass Onion and Zendom, has anything been said or ranted about we haven't already heard? Chances are if you think it's an original take on a subject, take another think: it's probably not. The next time you want to meta, fic instead!

10. Fandom is like high school. It's inherently unfair. The trick is to find a part of fandom that feels the least unfair to you and stay there. In other words, yes, the social strata exists, and some will be BNFs and others won't be. There's no need to meta on forever on the inequalities forever and ever. Accept it and move on.

After the meme of Ten Unpopular Opinions swept blog-land, is it any surprise that now it's Ten Things I Love About Fandom is the new black?

Why yes, I am feeling particularly snarky today. Shhh, don't tell!

Happy Birthday, jemima!

For the record, I really, really, really dislike that '10 unpopular opinions' meme that's going around. It seems like another reason to be inconsiderate/rude -- especially on fannish 'unpopular opinions.' The Mad Chatters already know my opinions on things fannishly related. There's no reason for the rest of the world to know. Though, gotta say, I'm in such a mood, there are definitely a thing or two I'd like to say to some people, but I'm practicing what I don't often succeed at: restraint.

Also. I wanted to play a computer game today because, well, I did, and I apparently have none. So I was on Yahoo losing at Literati once again, when I saw a download of the Lemonade Tycoon Game. Which I played as a kid. So I downloaded that, played for about an hour, sucked lemons, and just when I thought I got the hang of it, Yahoo informed me my free trial was over and I needed to hand over $19.99 if I wanted to keep playing. This was probably a good thing. I could see myself losing hours of my life screaming at sim people walking by my lemonade stand, "Why oh why won't you buy my lemonade?"

For an MBA, I was very, very, very bad at this game.

In my defense, if Yahoo had let me play for just another hour or so...

Nothing to see here

This poor man got fired from Evol Corp for blogging.

For those of you who are concerned about my current blogging, I am at home and on my own machine. While I'm about to blog something semi work-related, it's not really so. Just that my boss said I could have January 15 off. Which makes for a really fun two days -- Sarah Brightman on the 14th and then a day off on the 15th. Hopefully, this little paragraph is not a firing offense.

Link of the Day

Provided by who else other than world-class surfer Bjorn? The Nigerian Scammers get a taste of their own medicine ici.

Quiz


You are Timeless!
Literally, an air of ageless elegance surrounds
you, and you're well-loved by everyone because
you simply don't go out of fashion (and that
smash hit "Time To Say Goodbye" might
have something to do with things). You're
classy, dignified, and more than a little bit
regal. You're also famous the world over, but
you're still quite personable, benevolent, and
easy to love.


Which Sarah Brightman Album Are You?
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