Sooner Or Later

Time is such an odd, odd thing. Right now, I'm simultaneously thinking "How the hell is it the end of September already?!" and "How the hell is it only 9:30?!"

I Watch More TV.

So, I just saw the season premiere of Dollhouse. And, I dunno... The show did improve massively by the end of the first season, and the dialog is displaying a bit more of Whedon's trademark wit these days, but it's still seriously marred by the fact that I find pretty much every character on this show (or at least every character with an actual personality) deeply unpleasant. And not in a fun love-to-hate or intriguingly-messed-up kind of way, either. It's very, very difficult to concentrate on evolving storylines or philosophical implications when I'm constantly distracted by thoughts of how much I'd like to see these people die in a fire.

Aaargh, I just still honestly can't decide whether I want to keep going with this show or not. It seems like it could become something I'd like enough that one day I might look back on my current reactions and laugh, but that whole die-in-a-fire factor is just really hard to get past.

I Watch TV.

As usual, there is very little on the new fall TV schedule that looks to be worth my time. (At least, not until some subset of the lineup has been on for a couple of seasons and people adventurous enough to have tuned in at the beginning start telling me that, no, really, shows X, Y and Z are great and I should watch them on DVD. Since that's what usually seems to happen.) But I did catch the premiere of Flashforward, because the premise seemed really, really interesting, although I couldn't quite see how you'd get an entire series out of what seemed to me to be very much a miniseries-sized idea. Having watched it now, though, I can certainly see how it could work, although probably not for more than a season or two, even if the TV time/real time ratio drops below even Lost's. I will say, I wasn't too sure about it at the beginning; for quite a while I felt I was being introduced to too many characters to keep straight and given too few reasons to really care about any of them. This, however, is kind of inevitable in any show with a large cast and a complicated storyline, and by the end of the episode I was beginning to be able to keep them all straight. Bottom line, it's definitely intriguing enough that I'll keep watching, at least for now.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaah! I Need Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

Dear Body/Brain,

You know what would be really, really helpful in my attempt to switch myself over onto night shifts? Not waking up at the crack of fucking dawn.

Keep this up, and I swear, I am replacing you the instant the technology becomes available. I don't care if it's the first step towards a galaxy dominated by Cybermen.

No love,
Me

Pop Cultural Random Links

The 2009 Fall TV Preview Starring Jonathan Coulton: Geeky music dude Jonathan Coulton offers previews of new fall shows based on nothing but their titles. Personally, I think his versions are almost all way more interesting than the real things. I would totally watch the show about the bored ghosts. And the transhuman family drama. And maybe the Ren Fair one...

The Ten Rules of Time Travel: Handy things to keep in mind before embarking on your temporal travels.

25 Greatest Cult Shows Ever: There clearly weren't enough of these lists in existence, so here's Entertainment Weekly's take. It's actually a fairly interesting list, featuring some old standards, a surprising number of shows I've never even heard of, and a few bold choices of which I wholeheartedly approve (go, Team Venture!). And I cannot argue with their selection for the #1 slot.

Cranial Capacity: 10 of Fiction's Biggest Brains: Also a nicely imaginative list, but, following up on my thoughts on that last link, I do see one glaring omission. I would happily put money on the Doctor vs. any of these dudes. Well, OK. Maybe not Sherlock Holmes. Somehow, I just don't think he could bring himself to take down Sherlock Holmes.

Do Truly Erudite People Even Do Stupid Internet Quizzes?

Your result for The Are You Truly Erudite? Test...

True English Nerd

You scored 82 erudition!

Not only do you know your subjects from your objects and your definite from your indefinite articles, but you've got quite a handle on the literature and the history of the language as well. Huzzah, and well done! The English snobs of Boston salute you.

Take The Are You Truly Erudite? Test at HelloQuizzy

I wish to point out that the person I stole this from got a (presumably respectable) score of 71 and was told "You may have missed a few questions, but if you keep your studies up and stay away from genre fiction, we'll have you ready for Stanford in no time!" Well, screw you, English snobs! Genre fiction got me where I am today!

Performance Review

Mr. Coffee, while quiet and polite, is very slow about his business.

Things In My Life

Thing one: I have a new sink! It is much better than my old sink. Which is a damned good thing, as it ended up costing me a lot more money than I was initially planning on. I seem to be spending way too much money on way too many things lately; I'm trying to think of it as my single-handed, superheroic effort to shore up the US economy.

Thing two: I seem to have agreed to participate in a Star Wars RPG in the near future, despite the fact that I haven't really done any gaming in many years and the fact that I'm not really a Star Wars fan. But it's with a good group of people, and it should at least get me out of the house... which I have to keep reminding myself is a good thing to do once in a while.

Sinking

So, the plumbers came to replace my faucets. I also asked them to switch the hot and cold water lines on the kitchen sink, which have been connected backwards since I moved in. But to do that, they also wanted to replace the shut-off valves, which were all corroded up and, in one case, missing a handle. Which was fine, and not entirely unexpected. But then they got the old faucet off, revealing the fact that my 50-year-old ceramic sink is well advanced in the process of slowly crumbling to pieces from the faucet holes on out.

My faucet replacement has thus turned into a sink replacement. Sigh. Why do these things always tend to snowball like this? Oh, yeah. It's because I bought a cheap house, that's why. I keep forgetting that.

And One More Picture, Offered Without Comment

Cat House

OK, you guys have to see the new thing I got for my cats:



That's way bigger and more elaborate than the one I had before, and, surprisingly, it was also less expensive.

So, the cats will love me forever now and stop throwing up in the wrong places and stuff, right? Right?

Yeah, maybe not. Especially as, after I moved the thing into place but before I'd finished tweaking it, Happiness came up, looked it over... then went to the old one that I'd moved aside to dismantle, climbed up onto it, started purring like crazy, and made a point of swiping at me with her claws whenever I walked past.

Sigh. Cats.

And Then There's This.

Current clothes: Blue t-shirt with a vaguely tie-dye-ish sort of pattern. Blue jeans. White socks. Gray sneakers.

Current mood: A little "aargh, I've got stuff to do today and I'm not actually getting up and doing it!" Must rectify that as soon as I'm finished here.

Current music: Not much lately. I was listening to stuff from The Darwin Song Project on YouTube last night.

Current annoyance: Oh, there are so many small but annoying things... Like, I broke the carafe to my coffee machine yesterday, and apparently it's impossible to just buy one to replace it. I had to make do with a "universal" carafe that's got a huge attachment that screws onto the lid to make the automatic stop thingy work, but the damned thing cost half as much as the machine, and it's horrible. I spilled water all over the counter this morning. Clearly, I'm going to have to buy a new coffeepot. (And, yes, I'm definitely going to go with a brand that offers more replacement parts. And hopefully also has a more accurate clock. Seriously, how hard is it to put a decent clock on something in the 21st century?) This bothers me not just because it's costing me attention and money, but also because the obvious end result of this kind of thing is that America will eventually become one giant landfill full of perfectly functional coffeemakers.

Current thing: My current "thing" is supposed to be taking action on all kinds of stuff -- mostly home improvement and health-related -- that I've been putting off forever. But it's going pretty slowly. It is going, though. Today, I've got plumbers coming in to replace the bathroom and kitchen faucets, since the former is all corroded and the latter is a bit leaky. I'm also going to put together the new cat tree thingy I just got. It took the cats about four years to destroy the old one. I'm kind of hoping this one lasts longer.

Current desktop picture: An artist's rendering of wall-to-wall bookshelves that a co-worker stumbled across and immediately passed on to me. Again, I have no idea why he thought of me. Heh. It's really cool, but I don't know where he got it from, so I can't link to it.

Current book: Alien Hand Syndrome and Other Too-Weird-Not-to-Be-True Stories by Alan Bellows. I got this for free from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. It's basically a collection of strange and interesting stuff: medical oddities, freakish disasters (natural and man-made), historical curiosities, etc. I have to say, it's one of the best examples of this sort of thing that I've read, on or off the internet. I'm enjoying it.

Current song in head: "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" by The Killers.

Current DVD in player: Disc 3 of season one of Burn Notice. This is one of those shows that I always kind of meant to tune in for and never really got around to, but I've finally started watching it on DVD. I pretty much fell in love with it right from the very first line of narration in the very first episode, and am now devouring episodes as if they were M&Ms.

Current refreshment: Nothing. I should go make some tea to fortify myself for assembling cat furniture.

Current worry: Eh, all the usual crap.

Current thought: But there's a cat on my lap! I can't get up and do stuff if there's a cat on my lap!

Just A Few Random Links

See? Just a few.

The Venture Bros. Season 4 Trailer: I am so looking forward to seeing this! Although Hank's hair is kind of freaking me out. (Note: the video probably won't play outside the US. Annoyingly.)

Neil Gaiman's Bookshelves: This is one of those links that multiple people felt the need to call my attention to. Gosh, I can't imagine why. But, oh man, these photos make me drool. I want to go and live in Neil Gaiman's library forever.

Fake But Funny NASA Press Release: NASA has a little fun with a press release concerning the treadmill they named for Stephen Colbert.

Well, At Least They Keep Life Interesting

Dear cats,

If you absolutely must throw up, there are good places to do it, such as on the easily cleaned tile floor. There are bad places, such as on the carpet. And then there are OMGWTF?! places, such as in your water dish.

For the love of catnip, could you please, please try to avoid those last two?

Frustrated affection,
Me

(Man. I thought I was long since done being grossed out over cat vomit. Gaaah.)

I Know I've Remarked On This Phenomenon Before, But I Think I Bears Repeating.

You know, I was all set earlier to make a blog post about what an incredibly annoying day I've been having. But then, over my long-delayed lunch, I sat down and watched an episode of Farscape. (I've been slowly re-watching it and have just hit the end of season 1.) Man, that show always makes me feel so much better about my own life. Sure, I had to do some yardwork today, and it was hot and tiring and left me with trembly muscles. But, hey, it didn't involve exposure to the vacuum of space! Yes, I had to run a bunch of errands, but none of them ended with people shooting at me. My house may need a gazillion repairs and my car may have had battery problems again, but neither of them is psychotic... or pregnant... or on fire. Lunch may have been delayed, but at least I had more than crackers to eat. I may still have the remnants of a cold, but it's nothing compared to that plague that makes your skin slough off. No one is trying to kill me, enslave me, or dissect my brain. And none of my mortal enemies have moved in with me. Heck, I don't even have any mortal enemies.

Contemplating all this has now made me feel downright cheerful. I honestly do think that this is one of the important functions of fiction.

Wait, It's What Now?

How did it get to be September? I'm not sure I'm really ready for it to be September yet. Even if it does mean I get to buy more books.