So, this week the CW is having a VAMPIRE DIARIES MARATHON. Two episodes every night for the whole week (thus burning through all currently aired episodes) in a bit of marketing blitz for their new ~*~top earner~*~. I approve of this. SO HARD.

I approved even more of how they showed a promo for the new episodes in January after the pilot and 1x02 tonight.



( I AM HAVING SOME FEELINGS )

So many feelings omg.

I am thinking of actually acknowledging the fandom's existence (such as it is) omg help me. ONCE I GO THERE IT CAN NEVER BE UNDONE.

Okay, I found out about The Sing-Off kind of at the last minute, mostly because The Boston Globe today had an article that my beloved Tufts Beelzebubs were going to be on tonight.

Check it out: Tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday (the live performance finale is on December 21) NBC is hosting an a cappella competition!

Yay!

It appears that NBC is attempting to cash in on the Glee-mania (not that there's anything wrong with that), and I have to admit that this is a good way to do it. My one big complaint, the zillion or so commercials. I started DVRing a good half-hour after the program started and I caught up with the live stream 15 minutes before the end of the two-hour block. GAH! How is that possible? How?

Anyway, the judge's panel was actually knowledgeable and helpful for the most part: Ben Folds (who recently put out a CD called University A Cappella which was a collaboration between himself and more than a dozen university a cappella groups), Shawn Stockman from Boyz II Men (who actually does seem pretty knowledgeable about a cappella), and Nicole Scherzinger (singer for the Pussycat Dolls, she was the weakest of the judges).

In any case, the Beelzebubs are still in it! I'm so excited! Yay!

Other spoilers profiling all 8 a cappella groups are under the cuts.

First up: The first round of 4 groups.

( The first group of four: NOTA, Voices of Lee, Noteworthy, and Face. I call bullshit on the elimination. )

In any case, I think the first grouping was just out-and-out odd. With the exception of NOTA, the other three groups in this round were I think the weakest performers and had the weakest stage presence. I also thought it was weird that both of the a cappella groups from the religious universities were in this group instead of split between the two rounds.

And now the second group of four, which mostly the stronger groups overall.

( The second group of four: Beelzebubs, Maxx Factor, SoCal, and Solo. Although I'm sad about it, the right group was eliminated. )

So, that's my judgment for tonight's Sing-Off on NBC.

I can't wait to tune in tomorrow.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!

ETA: After re-watching the performances, I'm going to state who I think should've gone, and rank the remaining groups.

( Rankings by Moi )

So, there's my ranking, for what it's worth.

God, I'm so sad.

I have been watching TV for quite some time now, so you would think I would know better than to speculate on mytharcs. It only leads to pain and disappointment.

( And yet )

Ooops.

Realized today that I started Grail about 130 pages too early, and, in fact, the first scene is the scene I wrote today. Alas, the life of the working writer.

Howeveer, I may be able to recycle some of that earlier stuff. I just need to remember that in an interesting novel, terrorism comes before politics, rather than politics before terrorism.

On the other hand, that route was a 5.10a, and I sent it again today. Also got a new one I think is a 5.8, and while I did not get a hold higher on the sky wall monster, I did get unclipped today. Wednesday, the goal is two holds higher. Dammit.

Completed: a scathing review of a contractor's draft report. Seriously, scathing. Also incorporated comments by two other parties, one of whom recommends never hiring these people again. As I used to work with the contractor's PM at ye olde jobbe, we ought to get some entertainment value out of this. (Seriously: "keeper's quarters" in this context doesn't refer to a gardener, people. Oy. Also, "I couldn't get into the building so I just didn't write about it." WTF.)

Not completed: a phone call to an eager non-profit guy, whom I will have to tell he can't do the awesome thing he wants to do. Sorry, dude!

Completed: first pass of beta for the first of my Yuletide writers. pene, it's coming! I should have it to you tonight.

Not completed: My apocabigbang story. Don't even have a complete outline, although I do have about 1500 words of a rewritten first draft. Turns out Jack O'Neill is no longer speaking to me, the cranky bastard. And this even though I'm considering getting him laid! The ingratitude!

Completed: all of my holiday shopping except stocking stuffers, which I can pick up at Cost Plus over the weekend.

Not completed: holiday cards, which must be addressed & mailed out before the first of the year at the very latest.

Completed: Laundry. And I finally cooked and ate the rainbow chard last night before it became a smear of green-and-orange slime inside my refrigerator. (Chard boiled for five minutes and then sauteed with olive oil and garlic is crunchy and wonderful. NOM.)

Not completed: neither the duct-vacuuming, nor the carpenter's repairs are done. ::sigh::

Completed: the chocolate cake I got on my birthday is finally gone.

Not completed: the carrot cake I got for my birthday yesterday is on my counter.

Completed: Graceling, by Kristen Cashore. Which I liked, although I didn't adore it. I liked the magic system, although the rest of the world-building was fairly pedestrian and cliche'd (aside from the rings, which were kind of cool). I liked Katsa, although she was rather implausibly self-possessed for her age (from a political/social pov, if not a romantic one). I liked the women all over the book. I didn't think the writing itself was all that and a bag of chips, but I would happily read another one.

Not completed: any of the other stacks and stacks of TBR materials, including The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss. See above, re: writing.

Completed: I have watched the Glee mid-season finale. I think the only way I can make sense of all that is to assert that the competition of itself was meaningless, and what was important was how the students pulled together. But the less said about Emma/Will, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Not completed: I have tried to watch Men of a Certain Age and couldn't get past Andre Braugher looking way older than 47, and Ray Romano running over, and over, and over, a possum. I don't think this show is for me.

I have also gotten about 1/3 of the way into Alice, that SciFi re-invisioning of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, and I'm enjoying all the cameos. Teryl Rothery! Tim Curry! Colm Meaney! Kathy Bates! Connor from Primeval! And the girl who plays Alice looks like she could be Claudia Black's baby sister at some angles: she's got a nice profile. I have no opinion on the actual content so far, except to note that once again Matt Frewer is playing someone totally insane. Casted to type, I wonder?

Now I'm going to try to unbury my desk. Wish me luck!

Crossposted from DW, where there are comments; comment here or there.

Well, that's 1800 words for the day, and a third of a book by MS word count. And I appear to have finally found the plot, so if I can make the 150 pages of setup the readers will have to get through interesting, I may have a publishable book here eventually.

Mean things: epistemology, mind control, social tyranny, toxic memes, minority rule, oligarchy. The usual, really. I need to blow something up.

Maybe tomorrow, or Wednesday.

In any case, now time for a little nap or something before massage therapy appointment, food, and climbing.

tea today: market spice
temperature this morning: 34 degrees
teacup today: cat in a filing drawer

33100 / 100000 words. 33% done!

166 / 400 pages. 42% done!

This is a current jdrama about a brain surgeon who mysteriously and accidentally travels back in time to the Edo period. I looked it up since anenko had been mentioning it, and one episode in, I think it's quite promising. Like many dramas, this is not a subtle piece of storytelling, but it hangs together. And while I knew Jin goes back in time, I did not realize until I was watching that he ends up in ( spoilers )

ETA - PS: For those of you who like to joke about things in jars, this show has an excellent example of that trope!

Crossposted from rilina @ Dreamwidth.
leave a comment | read comments | link

i hope you are all enjoying hanukkah, even if you are not jewish.

here is my question for today.

periodically, when someone's behavior or public persona annoys me, i think: would i feel this way about this person if s/he was the opposite gender? in other words, are we more or less tolerant based upon unconscious feeling/expectations/&c?

what do you think?

p.s. i realize this doesn't include various non-binary gender options, but let's not muddle things.

p.p.s. this tuesday is very important. can you guess why?

Wishing you (a day late for the beginning) a Hanukah filled with celebrations, blessings, and light!

Watching old episodes of Mythbusters totally makes me appreciate why women date supervillains.

Just sayin'.

Happy birthday to tammypierce, coffeeem, and the Giant Ridiculous Dog.

(Ace is four, if you were wondering.) 

And now, time to get ready to go haul wood for my mom. It's December, I hear.

Last night, I realized that Grail needs an antagonist to get me through the early chapters, until the actual conflict kicks in. Well, drat that, anyway. Antagonists are so... 19th century.

I've been watching World War II movies, because, I don't know, because actually there's a whole lot of them, especially recently. (It would seem that the fall of the Iron Curtain was a big boon for filmic treatments of recent European history.) And because I discovered at one point that I'd probably only ever seen one or two WWII movies that weren't American, or at least American-backed (which covers Is Paris Burning?, because otherwise Kirk Douglas would not arrive suddenly and absurdly, halfway in). And American movies are all about the winning parts.

( Katyn (2008) )

( The Counterfeiters (2007) )

( Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005) )

( Miracle at St. Anna (2008) )

Well, there you go. Carbon footprint justified for another day, sort of, as much as it ever is.

Man, it's a good thing the inside of my head is posted private property. Some days, I have more in common with the Grey Wolf than evolution would prefer.

Or, as Lyda Morehouse once said of me, "This woman is not on our side."

Mean Things: Eschaton; cultural relativism; words that don't mean the same thing you think they mean.

31300 / 100000 words. 31% done!

159 / 400 pages. 40% done!


I think tomorrow might be a Day Off. I kind of need one.

Links
Sadie @ Tiger Beatdown, I Like My Scars: The Dollhouse Recaps Begin
aycheb, Dollhouse 2x05-2x07

( Spoilers want to be inside your head )

Commencing work this morning with a dog who says the floor is much, much, much too cold, and can't you please turn on the summer, monkey?

Tea today is a nice Assam from Upton (Mokalbari East); teacup today is an autumnul Chinese cup with leaves and berries and cherry blossoms.

Temperature this morning: 24 degrees.

Apparently, les smice have been eating my pie overnight:



I did not know that les smice used forks, however.

Not actually sure what work is getting done today--I think I'm going to go poke at Grail and see what happens. Having a third of it drafted is very reassuring: the end seems so much more attainable from here than from zero: I mean, 250 pages is little enough room that I start worrying about running out of space rather than how on earth am I going to fill this with interesting narrative?

And in conclusion, a dog loves you.

Dear Congresscritter Larson & Sen. Dodd (any you, too, Joe, you useless sack of paranoid hypocrisy);

Darling Fascist Bullyboys,

Earlier this week while attempting to return to his native soil, Canadian citizen Dr. Peter Watts was pepper sprayed, beaten, detained, and dumped in his shirtsleeves in the sub-freezing cold of a Michigan snowstorm by Port Huron crossing border guards. These guards, in what I believe to be an attempt to cover up their malfeasance, have charged him with assaulting a federal officer. A police report that directly contradicts Dr. Watts' account of events (and the reasonable timeline of events--why would a Canadian who had already been in America for some time be entering the US?) has been filed. Apparently there are video tapes, but they--and the police report--have been withheld from the press.

Dr. Watts is a colleague and a personal friend of mine. He is a marine biologist and a distinguished and critically acclaimed author. I know him to be a gentle and civilized human being, an intellectual, and someone I would without hesitation trust with a key to my home. He is and has for many years been engaged in feral cat rescue; I have seen him stop on the street to give a homeless man money--and an argument, because with Peter, everything comes with an argument. While he is a gentle man, he is not meek.

The sin that "provoked" this gross abuse of power was apparently Dr. Watt's continued questioning of why American border guards were searching the car of a Canadian citizen returing to Canada. As you are no doubt aware, this is not standard procedure.

I believe he questioned the authority of the border patrol, and that is why he was beaten, thrown drenched and under-dressed into a cold holding cell, and eventually dumped at the border.

There are those that will say he asked for it; that he should have cringed more. That he should have been meek in the face of authority, and anticipating the abuse of it. That he should have been cowed.

But do we wish to become a society that enforces meekness in the face of abuses of authority on pain of physical abuse? There are other societies that have enforced the rule of law through terror. I do you the dignity of assuming that you do not need reminding of their names and infamy.

Or do we wish to be able to say proudly that our society is one of free citizens consenting to be governed, and is strong enough to stand up to a few hard questions? The Quakers, a venerable and peaceable American institution, have a saying: "Speak truth to power." Benjamin Franklin--a venerable and perhaps somewhat less peaceable American institution--famously said, "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

This time, Dr. Watt's abusers made a mistake--this time, they chose to batter an internationally known and respected author with friends and fans on six continents. But how many other individuals have suffered this kind of savagery?

My friends who are foreign nationals are afraid to come to the United States. They are afraid of the consequences. I have heard so many tales in the past few days of harrassment, cruelty, and outright abuse from American customs agents--both against foreign nationals traveling on legitimate business and American citizens returning home--that I wish I sould say I was appalled. But the fact of the matter is, it came as no surprise to me.

I have had some delightful experiences with American border guards. I suspect most of them are professionals in a hard and scary job, charged with a great responsibility and inadequate resources, doing the very best they c an. But I have also met a few who I easily believe would haul a middle-aged former college professor out of his car in the middle of the night and brutalize him.

Terrorism is, by definition, the evil art of waging war by inflicting terror. By cowing the enemy. Are we terrorists? Are the innocent citizens of our friendly and allied neighbor enemies to be cowed?

The charges against Dr. Watts must be dropped.

The US Customs Agents guarding our borders must receive adequate training and support, and those who abuse their authority must be weeded out.

This is wrong and it must stop.


Love,

me

---

ETA I'm Creative Commonsing the text of this letter. Feel free to swipe, revise, remix, and use any bits you like as a model for your own communications with your elected representatives.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Since my birthday is over, I can now begin celebrating Christmas (it's a thing). So I happily share this, yet another example of the Muppets being cheerfully insane. Also, if you click on the Halloween video, and watch it to the end, you Farscape fans will flap your hands with glee.

In other news, Jack O'Neill is being a difficult bugger. Cameron Mitchell, however, is willing to play. ::kicks Jack into the woodshed:: Let's see if I can make this work. 10,000 words. What was I thinking?

::whimpers::

However, I did manage to find the Terminator Wiki timeline of SCC, which is useful.

Now, back to it, before I eat more chocolate cake.

Crossposted from DW, where there are comments; comment here or there.

( I saw it! Uh...very vague spoilers. )

Someone talk to me omg.

ETA: Spoilers in the comments now folks!

ETA2: HALSO, if you want ~serious examination~ and not just me squealing over the characters, etc. this post right here was what I read before I saw it and after seeing it I agree 100% with everything it says!

Oh the things we do for kids and animals. Out in the backyard with the flashlight in the 24-degree night, throwing the ball for the dog so he can have his supper after.

One of the nice things about having Chaz Villette in my head is that his stress response is to cook. Not only am I becoming a better baker, but I get to eat his cooking. (Some of my characters are a little possessive of my headspace. Ahem.)

So tonight I made whole wheat chocolate cherry muffins (with black cocoa) (which needed more sugar, I think)



And a key lime pie.



Come over. Help eat.

...all right, time to head upstairs to pay attention to the cats and get some work done on Grail. Since I got 2K on "The Unicorn Evils" this morning and afternoon.

Now the burning question? Tea or beer?

...tea, I think. I know, I'm a failure as a bad influence sometimes.