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RL rambling.
The snow is GONE!!! \o/ This morning the pavements were still like uneven ice-rinks, but when I picked up the girls from school there were only a few lonely squelchy bits left. Oh to be able to just walk without having to worry about the next step sending you flying. :) Also, I spent far too much time yesterday being COLD, and not being frozen solid after two minutes outside is also a definite plus.
Today I went to the dentist - for the second time in two months :( - and since my appointment was early afternoon I had a *plan*, which worked beautifully. After the dentist visit (my dentist is lovely, btw, and looks a tiny bit like a pretty Sarah Jessica Parker) I went to Caffe Nero, bought myself a cup of hot chocolate and a very soft slice of lemon sponge cake, and sat down with my Christmas cards, which I had brought with me. See, I HATE writing Christmas cards. Well I'm fine with the nice simple ones with a cheery greeting, but I hate those to family and friends abroad for whom the yearly Christmas card is the time to update on what's been happening over the year. And since I am near incapable of making my actual life sound in any way interesting or entertaining I hate writing about it. To be honest I'd much prefer to just write a letter on the computer, but since I'd have to do it in three different languages it would rather defeat the whole 'making it easier' thing... (My family is LOVELY btw. Couldn't wish for better. I'm just a rubbish letter-writer.)
Ah well, I've got all the difficult ones out of the way now, so I feel very virtuous and relieved. And since Darcy has been very innovative and crafty this year, we even have quite a lot of the presents sorted...
Today I went to the dentist - for the second time in two months :( - and since my appointment was early afternoon I had a *plan*, which worked beautifully. After the dentist visit (my dentist is lovely, btw, and looks a tiny bit like a pretty Sarah Jessica Parker) I went to Caffe Nero, bought myself a cup of hot chocolate and a very soft slice of lemon sponge cake, and sat down with my Christmas cards, which I had brought with me. See, I HATE writing Christmas cards. Well I'm fine with the nice simple ones with a cheery greeting, but I hate those to family and friends abroad for whom the yearly Christmas card is the time to update on what's been happening over the year. And since I am near incapable of making my actual life sound in any way interesting or entertaining I hate writing about it. To be honest I'd much prefer to just write a letter on the computer, but since I'd have to do it in three different languages it would rather defeat the whole 'making it easier' thing... (My family is LOVELY btw. Couldn't wish for better. I'm just a rubbish letter-writer.)
Ah well, I've got all the difficult ones out of the way now, so I feel very virtuous and relieved. And since Darcy has been very innovative and crafty this year, we even have quite a lot of the presents sorted...
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Anyway, yes I learned English at school, along with German and French. Or rather - I spent 3 years learning not a lot of German, and then I spent the next three years learning very little French and forgot all my German. *shrugs* At least my English was OK. :)
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on the languages...
Being a huge fan of Norse sagas from the earliest of ages; one of the things I attribute my love of SF (I was also into things like the Mabinogion & The Mahabharata), it's always been a regret that I have no ability to pick up languages, as I would love to speak Icelandic (the closest living language to Old Norse) & French (because of my love of French Cinema.
Imagine me turning Green with envy right now :-)
Still under Willow & Tara's spell,
Ray.
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But yeah, I was brought up with sagas. Well mostly Faroese stuff, obviously, since that tiny country is overflowing with Culture.
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Caffe Nero; their staff, and their Grande Mocha (No Cream; extra shot of Espresso) are part of the joys of life for me.
Forced to quit until the 17th though. My leccy went this morning; have no money to top it up & no prospect of getting a crisis loan until Monday at the earliest.
Which means, when I head home from the library... no radio; no DVD's AND no light to read by.
But I shall be thinking of that Mocha now; looking forward to smelling it when it's sat on the table in front of me.
:-)
Still under Willow & Tara's spell,
Ray.
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All electric. You know what though? Don't care. After the year I've had all I have to do is think of you and the friends I've made; Holly's new baby, and the fact that I have a new, and genuinely so, male Tv hero in Rory Williams, and I just thank the Goddess that I'm still here to sppreciate that Mocha when I can afford it.
Still the 17th can't come soon enough :-)
Still under Willow & Tara's spell,
Ray.
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Yikes! I hope the snow has decided that it's had enough up your way too, so at least it won't be -10 or whatever it's been recently.
I feel I should knit you socks or something. Except I'm not very good at knitting...
All electric. You know what though? Don't care. After the year I've had all I have to do is think of you and the friends I've made; Holly's new baby, and the fact that I have a new, and genuinely so, male Tv hero in Rory Williams, and I just thank the Goddess that I'm still here to sppreciate that Mocha when I can afford it.
Aw, this puts a smile on my face - and I hope that you get plenty of Mocha when the 17th comes round!
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here's a prezzie to thank you for your kindness. I listened to it earlier this year, and again this morning; probably I'll listen to it again before Monday evening. It's very, very beautiful; very powerful... and I can imagine Rory & Amy listening to it in front of a warm REAL fire; the kind I remember before my parents had an electric one put in.
Ahh, that's what real toasted bread should taste like :-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007jnsq/Spoonface_Steinberg/
An autistic girl comes to terms with her extraordinary life. Lee Hall's play about faith, love and death. Stars Becky Simpson.
available until 4:02AM Tue, 14 Dec 2010
Hope you get to listen & enjoy. If Miss M gets to listen I'd love to know what she thinks.
Still under Willow & Tara's spell,
Ray.
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We still have snow here but they said snow or rain tomorrow when I have to drive.
And next week cold again so no clue if the snow will vanish. .....
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And good luck with getting rid of the snow. Here it looks like it's going to stay OK - a touch of frost at night, but above zero during the days! *crosses fingers*
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Where are you residing? Faorse? Denmark or England?
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I could *possibly* do this with Danish, but I'm not sure it'd be worth the effort since I know I'd go through it, checking every line... And anyway, it would entail writing something longer than what I can fit on a Christmas card, so... not worth it overall I suspect.
Where are you residing? Faorse? Denmark or England?
I live in England, and have for many years now. Only came here in my gap year for a few months, but then I fell in love...
Btw did you see my essay?
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But from quick scan - I do agree with what you stated and it is well done. The gaps are the problem, I think. Not that there weren't always gaps in Whedon's works - there are, but here...the gaps are wide enough for an adult to fall to their death through. (Sorry, Mind the Gap or Watch the Gap is a slogan at the place I work, people are always falling into the gap between the platform and the train.)
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Oh no worries, I know what that's like.
But from quick scan - I do agree with what you stated and it is well done.
Thank you.
but here...the gaps are wide enough for an adult to fall to their death through. (Sorry, Mind the Gap or Watch the Gap is a slogan at the place I work, people are always falling into the gap between the platform and the train.)
It pleases me IMMENSELY that you caught that, because it is indeed a direct reference to those kinds of warning signs. I lived in London for three years, and everywhere on the underground you see these signs:
It struck me as a nice title.
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It's also an apt description regarding what is wrong with the comics. I think it has always been a weakness in Whedon's writing - it's his attempt to hide a plot twist from the reader or audience or fool them as if that is the most important thing. He's so busy trying to fool his audience, that he fails to lay the groundwork, and instead of showing, often tells. I noticed this in S4 (Cordelia's arc - which the big plot twist was Cordy as the Big Bad), S6 (Spike's soul search and Willow's magic addiction, he goes over board with the misleads, to the point that he loses half the audience and they do not buy what happens (I did but the vast majority did not) ), S7 (the whole Scythe thing came out of nowhere and it suffered from pacing issues as well), and finally S8 -where the writer is so concerned with hiding who Twilight is, that when Twilight is finally revealed - the reader is sort of ambivalent and then confused. Instead of enjoying the ride...we're too busy minding the gap.
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And I've never been to NY, but from what I've heard I'm sure I'd love it. As for Paris, then Darcy and I went there on our honeymoon, so it'll always have a special place in my heart. :)
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Sigh. True of NYC too, unfortunately.
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*beams* In London they have it on it on repeat on the tannoys on the stations with the biggest gaps (and some of the older ones have serious gaps): "Mind the gap." [pause] "Mind the gap." [pause] "Mind the gap."... I'm so pleased it made you laugh! :)
It's also an apt description regarding what is wrong with the comics. I think it has always been a weakness in Whedon's writing - it's his attempt to hide a plot twist from the reader or audience or fool them as if that is the most important thing. He's so busy trying to fool his audience, that he fails to lay the groundwork, and instead of showing, often tells.
Now this is an excellent insight. Yes, I think you're right. RTD has a similar thing going on, usually - not so much that he's fooling the audience, but that he has a big stunt that he wants to pull off, and rigs the plot to support it, which it is often unable to. Death of the Doctor would be the perfect example of this, but I don't *mind* the stupidity of the plot, because the characters are so lovely... And tying that back to Joss, then I usually feel the same. I don't mind the stupid tricks, as long as they pay off and are in character. The problem with s8 is that it's all tricks and pulling puppet strings, and no characters stuff whatsoever.
Say Spike's soulquest... There was a huge mislead (and yes, that was pretty badly handled), but once he got his soul I remember this huge 'OMG! of course!' It made every kind of sense. Just like Cordy's horrible OOCness was explained by her actually being possessed. With the reveal of Angel as Twilight, we were left with an overwhelming sense of 'WTF?' that was never really explained. Angel-who-became-Twangel is an unknown entity. We quite literally don't know where or when he came from, so how can we judge his choices? Like you say, we're minding the gap, more than the story. At least a lot of us are, because to us the gap has not been bridged in a manner that allows us to follow the characters.
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Agreed. Both Cordy and Spike's stories at least tracked.
You could go back in the text and see it. It made logical sense and was organic to the character. Cordy's vain choice to be elevated over going to Angel to declare her love for him, then her equally proud, although in this case for less selfish, choice to help in
The House Always Wins...allowed Jasmine to possess her.
But it doesn't make any sense that Angel would cause a situation that would destroy his son or put his son at risk, unless his son is dead or erased (but we are never told that). Why would Angel put the welfare of an ex-girlfriend, one who put him through hell literally speaking, and he's not exactly been in touch with for a very very long time ahead of his son? Particularly when Angel is obsessed with Daddy issues? Regardless of whether or not you like Angel or think positively of him or for that matter he was eventually possessed by Twilight (much like Cordy was by Jasmine), Angel's choice to do it only makes sense if you ignore his son, and everything that happened in LA. You can't say this is the same as what happened in Not Fade Away - because in that he really did not know exactly what WRH would do, also we were shown over the course of that season exactly why he did it and what lead to it. Here, it feels like the writer is changing the character to fit his purpose and providing little explanation outside of a pat - "well, Angel is a sucker for prophecies and can't change and only cares about Buffy" - all evidence to the contrary.
In some respects RTD had more leeway with Doctor Who, because the story is less serialized and looser than Buffy. That said, I agree there's a similar tendency there. I see it in a lot of writing, mainly television and comic book writing - which is a difficult medium to write well in. Both are too fast. You have to write quickly. There's little time for much editing or fine-tuning. So what we get is often a very rough first draft. And plotting is close to impossible - due to the fact that external factors keep changing. You never know when it will be canceled, who will be available, etc.
And length of the project - a series that has lasted for years, has a lot of back-story. While the fans may know it by heart, the writers most often don't, even the original writers...they tend to forget and often don't have the time to go back and re-read it. (I can sort of relate - I don't like to re-read and re-read and re-read what I've created either. And I tend to forget it.)
So in part this may be just the nature of the beast.
And I'm fairly forgiving of it - overall (obviously or I wouldn't have read and bought the comics or any comics for that matter), but in the Buffy comics, unfortunately...the missed details and oversights began to pile up until it finally reached a point in which the comics as a whole ceased to make sense from a logical perspective and all I saw where gaps.
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You could go back in the text and see it. It made logical sense and was organic to the character.
*nods* And with Cordy you can see the difference right from the moment she first gets her powers - it's quite subtle, but it's there. Her attitude changes a fair bit (people complain about how she becomes 'Saint Cordy', but it can be attributed to her powers very nicely, if they work on her underneath everything else.
Here, it feels like the writer is changing the character to fit his purpose and providing little explanation outside of a pat - "well, Angel is a sucker for prophecies and can't change and only cares about Buffy" - all evidence to the contrary.
Word to everything. Really, I was just nodding along.
In some respects RTD had more leeway with Doctor Who, because the story is less serialized and looser than Buffy.
Absolutely. And having read 'The Writer's Tale' the sheer pressure of getting everything together is insane. However, Doctor Who has another advantage - it's an ongoing show, and those in charge are fans, with fans love and loyalty, and the knowledge that they might be building castles, but the sandbox isn't theirs, and they have to take care of it. When it's someone's *creation*, the picture is very different. (See Douglas Adams again.)
And I'm fairly forgiving of it - overall (obviously or I wouldn't have read and bought the comics or any comics for that matter), but in the Buffy comics, unfortunately...the missed details and oversights began to pile up until it finally reached a point in which the comics as a whole ceased to make sense from a logical perspective and all I saw where gaps.
Same here. I am a self-proclaimed Pollyanna, but in this case there is no way I can overcome the problems. :(
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And sponge cake & Hot Chocolate sounds yummy. Mmm. And go, you on the cards! I gave up a few years ago. People get email cards from me. I know, I know.... I just never seemed to get them all written and stamped and mailed....
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Yup, we've got steep hills too. Thankfully we're on a busroute, so the road itself gets gritted, but the pavements...
And sponge cake & Hot Chocolate sounds yummy. Mmm.
'Twas delicious. Mmmmm.
And go, you on the cards! I gave up a few years ago. People get email cards from me. I know, I know.... I just never seemed to get them all written and stamped and mailed....
You are a wise woman.