(no subject)

[fajrdrako]

A nice day, on the whole. I slept late. Well, actually, the alarm woke me at 6:45, because I'd turned it off improperly last night and simple changed it from radio to buzzer. I went back to sleep. I woke up again about 8, when the men working on the balconies were having morning coffee and chatting about six inches from my head. I went back to sleep again and woke up when the budgies started calling again, wondering why they were still covered at 1 a.m. Meanwhile I was dreaming that I was hanging a tablecloth on a clothesline in rosiespark's back garden in Malta. Now, it happens that rosiespark doesn't have a back garden, and her clotheslines in on her roof, but that's probably the last time I actually hung clothes on a line.

Then maaseru and I went for breakfast at McDonald's. Ate overlooking the trees on the Rideau River near Billings Bridge. We saw a lovely monarch butterfly flying among the trees - haven't seen one in years. In the course of our conversation, she pointed out I have been being obsessive... Maybe I should have asked her more what she meant by that? I do tend to be obsessive but I'm not sure what facet of my obsessiveness she was talking about. Should have asked.

Then we dropped in on maaboroshi to see her new coloured fountain, from which tendrils of steam waft. Very dramatic. I expected it to look like something out of Harry Potter, but it was really much more Merlinesque. She as a colour-changing desk cube, too. Impressive.

Then maaboroshi showed me her new Myst game and I was enraptured. Now, I don't play video-games. I don't like video-games (much). I got stuck halfway through the first version of Myst and never went back to it; I only got through Riven because I was playing along with maaboroshi as a sort of sidekick. But I loved it. And this Myst has more mysterious tunnels, undecipherable writing and numeric systems, glowing lights, polished levers, unexplained pulleys, architectural marvels (lots of gates and domes) and bridges and walkways and stairways curving like ziggurats. I love pulling the virtual levers and turning the virtual doorhandles and discovering what's around each corner... I'm not good with puzzles, but I love the graphics and the style of this game.

Then I went and completely cleaned up my living room. Beulah and I had a little oneupmanship chat on the phone yesterday about which of us currently had the messier apartment. I decided I really didn't want to be the winner there, and so did something about it. While cleaning, I listened to the audio recording of The Stone Rose, a Doctor Who novel by Jacqueline Rayner. Now, I had expected the reading to be delightful, and it was - David Tennant's lovely, expressive Scottish voice, at its best when he was reading the Doctor's dialogue. I love it whenever he says something like, "Yes - welll, I mean no..." or vice versa.

Didn't expect to enjoy the story quite as much as I did, though. Light reading, yes (just the right kind of thing for housework), but the plot was fun, and set largely in ancient Rome - a setting I like.

Then, exhausted, I did some more writing, but my apazine deadline was met and I got an extension on the fanzine story.

Beulah and I bought a take-out supper at the Green Door (a vegetarian restaurant not far from my place), then came back to my apartment to watch the episode of Smallville that opened the sixth season, Zod. I'm not entirely sure how I felt about it, except to think that Michael Rosenbaum makes a sexy villain and I love his Zod-coat. Smallville just doesn't have the tone I used to love.

A few things I liked:
- decisive action by Martha
- an embrace between Martha and Lionel - I guess I'm a shipper for that pairing, I always enjoy seeing it
- Chloe looked wonderful, and I liked her role
- the bleak landscape of the Phantom Zone, like something out of Star Wars, all jagged blacks and masking whites
- Zod/Lana pseudo-sex and Clark kneeling to Zod
- a few Kryptonian characters, and a scene of Jor-El saying nice things to Martha - is that a first?

A few things I disliked:
- Jimmy Olsen. I took against him from his first second - was it the smarmy smile or the pointless dialogue?
- Clark Kent remains aimless and undirected. Martha says it's because he's young - but he isn't fifteen any more. He has superpowers greater than anyone else on the planet and he's hanging around his mother's farm worrying about his lack of purpose in life. I find that something less than admirable. Unheroic. Wussy.

Then the apa collation. It went well till after the apa was collated, thank goodness. StarWolf showed me a cool Fantastic Four anime and a funny clip about Marina Syrtis. (I was embarrassed to have forgotten who Marina Syrtis was.) But there are issues concerning the central mailership of the apa that certain people in the apa are upset about, and when that subject was raised, tempers exploded - including mine, but I was already angry about the issue from a chance comment the instigator made in e-mail during the afternoon. So there was a major shouting match, during which StarWolf spoke very intelligently and reasonably and others lost their cool big-time. (A pity this had to happen at Tasia's place.) The instigator tried to apologize to me for the raised voices and I probably raised mine a little in my reply to him, which didn't let him off the hook - there'd be no trouble if he wasn't making it. He was unrepentant. It's all an ego-game masquerading as a matter of principle. Faugh. I hate that.

Comments

the Monarch butterfly!!!

[maaseru.livejournal.com]

remember the lonely Monarch flittering near the river?

Re: the Monarch butterfly!!!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - that was so wonderful to see!

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

- decisive action by Martha

A rare thing... and very nice to see indeed.

- an embrace between Martha and Lionel - I guess I'm a shipper for that pairing, I always enjoy seeing it

You know, I didn't used to, but I do adore Lionel, and lately I've come to rather like them together. Plus I just like that it gives him more screen time :)

- Zod/Lana pseudo-sex and Clark kneeling to Zod

Kneeling = fun. Lex/Lana isn't bothering me quite as much as I thought it would... but I honestly stopped liking her a long time ago. I think that had as much to do with Clark's idiocy and whining than with her, however. It may just take awhile to shake the stigma. And he needs to put a lid on the bitching.

- Jimmy Olsen. I took against him from his first second - was it the smarmy smile or the pointless dialogue?

Aaron is not as good an actor as his brother... and I'm really just not sure about him yet. We'll see.

- Clark Kent remains aimless and undirected. Martha says it's because he's young - but he isn't fifteen any more. He has superpowers greater than anyone else on the planet and he's hanging around his mother's farm worrying about his lack of purpose in life. I find that something less than admirable. Unheroic. Wussy.

GOD YES. You've hit the nail on the head perfectly. It's not good when you spend half your time hoping the hero will fall into a vat of kryptonite and save us all the pain of listening to him try to sound deep. Clark's pretty - but he needs to get a grip, grow up, and take a little responsibility.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I do adore Lionel

Me too. Very much so.

Plus I just like that it gives him more screen time :)

Good point! Any excuse will do. I liked his last scene in the episode.

I honestly stopped liking [Lana] a long time ago.

I was going to say that I never liked her, then remembered that I had quite liked her in the pilot and in Metamorphosis, way back in season 1. Not since. The tattooed-witch stuff with her was the worst; I'm finding her more palatable now (though not by much). I have always particularly disliked her with Clark - I find she's interacting with Clark less, and was always at her best with Lex.

Who is Aaron's brother?

It's not good when you spend half your time hoping the hero will fall into a vat of kryptonite

No! I want to admire and like Clark, and I can't. I have to make excuses for him, and that isn't good.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

Aaron's brother (twin brother) is Shawn Ashmore, who had a one or two ep stint on Smallville (the guy who got Clark's powers thanks to kryptonite and electricity for one ep) and played Bobby Drake in X-Men.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks for clarifying this for me. I did think the actor looked like Shawn Ashmore, but wasn't him - nice to know it isn't just a chance resemblance. I like Shawn better than Aaron and I don't even like Shawn much.

I find it hard to actually dislike anyone who's been an X-Man!

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

hehe I like Shawn. Not a brilliant actor, but he's got that cute, sweet thing going on. I want to protect him and keep the world from hurting him.

...which really doesn't show considering how mean I've been to Bobby in some fics, but... ;)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've never actually written about Bobby Drake but I might some time. I've always thought he had potential in varous ways - and I've read some great fic featuring him. I must confess, though, he's never much interested me in his own right... Which is okay: I have enough X-Men I'm mad over.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

In the comic he did nothing for me. In the movies, however, he made a great plot device for my fic - er, I mean, was a really nice guy. hehehehe

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

We use 'em as we see 'em!

There was the occasional story with Bobby Drake that caught my interest. Did you read the Amalgam comic where he was flirting with teh alternate-universe Gambit? that was fun.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't! That *does* sound fun :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It was brief, but cute. I always think Bobby has potential that hasn't been used much; no one seems to have a sense of what to do with him (except in fanfic) so he gets sidelined. Too often he has been the 'boy next door' type, or, worse, the 'nerdy boy next door' type, which isn't very interesting. I like his interactions in the comics with Emma Frost.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Not only do I not have a back garden, I don't own a tablecloth! Unless it's a prophetic dream, in which case I'd consider it worth my while to acquire a tablecloth if it meant the garden behind the house would be mine...

I was a bit disappointed with The Stone Rose, to be honest. The Much Ado with DT, OTOH, just gets better every time I listen. *dreamy sigh*

I have a confession to make - I haven't managed to get any further with betaing your fic. I went to the PO late yesterday morning to pick up a registered letter/package, expecting it to be the VM cds from you or some stuff from Marna, and instead it was a whopping great tax bill. I've spent most of the weekend digging out stacks of documents, including unfiled tax returns for most of the '90's, and this afternoon Frans, who is an accountant, came over and we tried to make sense of the IR's claim that I owe then Lm227. *sigh* Very stressful. But at least it looks like I don't actually owe them more than Lm130, and that only if it's too late to object to their inflated estimate of what I was earning in one of the years for which I, um, failed to send in my tax return. I know, stupid of me. Actually, recently I've been really good about it - the trouble all stems from last decade. *heavy sigh*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, in my dream it was a very English sort of back garden, with grey stone walls and willow and oak trees, and an old wooden wheelbarrow sitting against the wall. Very pretty, actually - ! But as unlike Malta as it was unlike Canada.

Don't know where the tablecloth came from, either. A big, off-white damask one - nice looking, but unwieldy to hang.

Silly dreams. Let me know if they come true.

Much Ado is perfect, absolutely perfect. I don't know if I'd listen a second time to "The Stone Rose" but it was a delightful distraction while housecleaning and I do love Tennant's voice.

Tax letters - how awful! "Taxman" is now running through my head - The Beatles version. What a horrible hassle. Greedy government! Like all of them. Painful to get that when you were expecting a Marna package.

Anyway, just beta my story when you get a chance, I'm working on other stories now and won't get back to that one for a week or so. Next weekend maybe. I'm planning a Doctor Who videoparty - don't suppose you could pop up to Ottawa for the weekend?

[waltzie.livejournal.com]

AMEN TO THE ZOD COAT!

I also loved the Phantom Zone--it looked like the Pitch Black landscape...I was waiting for Riddick to pop out. The phantoms were also REALLY cool. And of course I love the whole power of the House of El thing.

I'm also with you on a kind word from Jor-El. I got a little teary. Martha is such a strong lady, I think. Or at least one with a lot of integrity and that's so nice to watch.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that Zod coat really made the episode. I want to see more of that coat.

I thought of Pitch Black when we saw the Phantom Zone, too. It was nice seeing the place have features, rather than being just the amorphous limbo it was in the comics, where pirsoners could look out but had no apparent environment of their own.

You know what I wish? I wish Clark had met up with Mon-El - the hero who was stuck in the Phantom Zone for a thousand years. But I suppose that would be a paradox, since it was Clark who put him in the Phantom Zone in the first place, to save him from dying of lead poisoning. If Clark never did that, he couldn't be there. Too bad. I want a Mon-El story!

I like to see Martha as strong and having integrity. Last two seasons she's been much less herself - maybe being a Senator tired her out? Or maybe it's grief over Jonathan. In any case, it was great to see her being the way I like her again.