Things and words
Jul. 14th, 2009 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
healingmirthVotey things: NCIS_LFWS round 6 voting (4 entries, 2x500 word stories) and ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nano_writers What a Character voting.
Last night was the first Monday night I've been at home since I've been up here. It was boring. I can't remember the last time I sat down to watch a sitcom that wasn't The Office. What's good now?
Speaking of good, I'm finally watching the Slings and Arrows DVDs I've had forever. It's sort of awesome.
My thumb is much improved. I still can't pick up things or grip, but at least it doesn't just hurt, all the time. Also, have a stylish green bruise. I should find my camo shorts so I can coordinate. Actually, I should find my camo shorts. 85% of my summer clothes are packed up, out of state, with the contents of my apartment. It seems not worth the effort to retrieve any of them now.
I think its going to be at least another week before I can go back to play volleyball, and if I'm smart, I'll take a month off, because I know I'm going to be an idiot and reflexively try to set the ball and reinjure it. Hrmph.
And, in conclusion, some much-belated words-about-words.
kate gave me die hard 4 slash, televised dance competitions, Schrödinger's peanut butter, concrit, and being multi-fandom:
Die Hard 4 slash:
I really need to keep, like, a fandom diary, where I write down the first story I read in a new fandom, and when it was, because I feel like I should remember these things. (It was probably That Guy, which I apparently read last November, so I don't think I can even blame epic_recs for this one.) I'm pretty sure that I saw the movie on the big screen, and am also pretty sure I was into Veronica Mars and probably Stargate: SG-1, which is to say Logan/Veronica and Sam/Jack, which is to say I was, for the most part, blindly following the instructions of the show's writers in my shipping. Also possibly The Office and Jim/Pam, natch. Although I don't remember having thoughts on the subject, I'm going to assume I didn't walk out of the movie saying "omg John and Matt are in looooooooooooooove." But I should have, because, seriously, John McClane deserves to be happy.
I like to think that, movie marketing aside, McClane is not an antique. A little rusty, maybe, but if Matt's there to, uh, polish him, I'm sure he'll catch up, mostly. McClane at the beginning of DH4 is not the train wreck he was at the beginning of DH3. He's in a holding pattern, and who better to shake him out of it than someone who's life has literally just exploded. And no one else even remotely interesting survives the movie, so...
televised dance competitions:
I'm not really sure why I'm still watching Dancing with the Stars. It's not great, and the segments are overproduced to the point of pain, and I usually haven't heard of half the celebrities, and care about watching even fewer. Also? Not a big fan of most of the professional dancers.
On the other hand, I pretty much love everything about So You Think You Can Dance. I even have a fond tolerance for Mary Murphey. I'm a little bewildered that I have opinions about choreographers, because, seriously, I am the least qualified critic ever. It makes me feel a little guilty that I don't spend money going to see ballet or something. This is a theme in my life, feeling guilty that I don't actively spend money on things. This is totally unrelated to dancing, but while I'm on the subject, here's an example. I don't want to subscribe to newspapers, because I don't want to waste the paper, but I would totally pay to read them in an easily-navigable format online (if you have a local paper that has a decent website, I envy you.) But, for instance, the New York Times website is free, so... yeah. Although they used to have some sort of reader program that you could subscribe to that gave you the paper in page format. Not sure if they still do that.
Schrödinger's peanut butter:
I'm not a scientist, but I play one on my journal. I went to a science college, majored in a science thing, graduated, and promptly forgot nearly everything I'd supposedly learned in the previous 4 years. I took two years of physics, including introductory quantum mechanics. I could do the math. I understand, in the vaguest meaning of that term, what it means that something can theoretically be both a and b until you collapse the wavefunction and you have either a or b. Now? It is less Schrödinger's cat and more Schrödinger's cat macro.
There was this article in the New York Times about a recent survey which, in a nutshell, said that as a country we are far less scientifically proficient than we used to be, as well as less educated than people think we ought to be.
I feel like I ought to do better, like I need to set some sort of Math Example in the community to keep people from transferring their refusal to learn scientific things to their children.
concrit:
So, while I was busy taking all those science classes in high school and college, I was totally not taking English classes. I can't remember the last time I took a class that was in any way about the structure of fiction - elementary school creative writing, probably. I don't know most of the vocabulary. I'm selfishly interested in learning which parts of my own writing work or don't work for people, (and there's a side-discussion about beta-reading there that I'm not going to get into) but I find it at least as useful reading critiques of other works, particularly discussion between the author and the commenter. I also love DVD commentaries of fic for this reason, though I don't read as many of them as I ought.
being multi-fandom:
I am really, really bad at being a fan of source works. This is also a theme of my life, being a jack-of-all-trades, or a butterfly. I'm quite fond of a number of things, and I know a little bit about a lot of them. I watch things once, for the most part.
To pick a fandom at not-all-that-random, I love the new Star Trek. I thought it was fantastic, and I'll probably keep reading fic for some time. But I really don't particularly care about the actors, or the multitude of promotional interviews they've done, or what JJ or whoever has said about sequels. I'm vaguely tempted to go rewatch TOS and maybe TNG, but I probably won't. Someday, there will be a trailer, and then another movie, and I will be excited again. I consider myself a fan, but not a fan. Which means that I wander a bit.
I'm sure that my writing, and probably my reading, suffers a bit from my less-than-total immersion in the source material. There's totally nuance that I don't get, in some cases there are major canon events or quotes that I don't pick up on. But there's so much awesome stuff out there, I have a hard time immersing myself in just one thing.
Want to join in? Leave a comment that says "Five Words" and I'll hook you up.
(also, because I have a genetic predisposition to change the rules of memes, feel free to give me words in a comment, too)
nano_writers What a Character voting.Last night was the first Monday night I've been at home since I've been up here. It was boring. I can't remember the last time I sat down to watch a sitcom that wasn't The Office. What's good now?
Speaking of good, I'm finally watching the Slings and Arrows DVDs I've had forever. It's sort of awesome.
My thumb is much improved. I still can't pick up things or grip, but at least it doesn't just hurt, all the time. Also, have a stylish green bruise. I should find my camo shorts so I can coordinate. Actually, I should find my camo shorts. 85% of my summer clothes are packed up, out of state, with the contents of my apartment. It seems not worth the effort to retrieve any of them now.
I think its going to be at least another week before I can go back to play volleyball, and if I'm smart, I'll take a month off, because I know I'm going to be an idiot and reflexively try to set the ball and reinjure it. Hrmph.
And, in conclusion, some much-belated words-about-words.
kate gave me die hard 4 slash, televised dance competitions, Schrödinger's peanut butter, concrit, and being multi-fandom:Die Hard 4 slash:
I really need to keep, like, a fandom diary, where I write down the first story I read in a new fandom, and when it was, because I feel like I should remember these things. (It was probably That Guy, which I apparently read last November, so I don't think I can even blame epic_recs for this one.) I'm pretty sure that I saw the movie on the big screen, and am also pretty sure I was into Veronica Mars and probably Stargate: SG-1, which is to say Logan/Veronica and Sam/Jack, which is to say I was, for the most part, blindly following the instructions of the show's writers in my shipping. Also possibly The Office and Jim/Pam, natch. Although I don't remember having thoughts on the subject, I'm going to assume I didn't walk out of the movie saying "omg John and Matt are in looooooooooooooove." But I should have, because, seriously, John McClane deserves to be happy.
I like to think that, movie marketing aside, McClane is not an antique. A little rusty, maybe, but if Matt's there to, uh, polish him, I'm sure he'll catch up, mostly. McClane at the beginning of DH4 is not the train wreck he was at the beginning of DH3. He's in a holding pattern, and who better to shake him out of it than someone who's life has literally just exploded. And no one else even remotely interesting survives the movie, so...
televised dance competitions:
I'm not really sure why I'm still watching Dancing with the Stars. It's not great, and the segments are overproduced to the point of pain, and I usually haven't heard of half the celebrities, and care about watching even fewer. Also? Not a big fan of most of the professional dancers.
On the other hand, I pretty much love everything about So You Think You Can Dance. I even have a fond tolerance for Mary Murphey. I'm a little bewildered that I have opinions about choreographers, because, seriously, I am the least qualified critic ever. It makes me feel a little guilty that I don't spend money going to see ballet or something. This is a theme in my life, feeling guilty that I don't actively spend money on things. This is totally unrelated to dancing, but while I'm on the subject, here's an example. I don't want to subscribe to newspapers, because I don't want to waste the paper, but I would totally pay to read them in an easily-navigable format online (if you have a local paper that has a decent website, I envy you.) But, for instance, the New York Times website is free, so... yeah. Although they used to have some sort of reader program that you could subscribe to that gave you the paper in page format. Not sure if they still do that.
Schrödinger's peanut butter:
I'm not a scientist, but I play one on my journal. I went to a science college, majored in a science thing, graduated, and promptly forgot nearly everything I'd supposedly learned in the previous 4 years. I took two years of physics, including introductory quantum mechanics. I could do the math. I understand, in the vaguest meaning of that term, what it means that something can theoretically be both a and b until you collapse the wavefunction and you have either a or b. Now? It is less Schrödinger's cat and more Schrödinger's cat macro.
There was this article in the New York Times about a recent survey which, in a nutshell, said that as a country we are far less scientifically proficient than we used to be, as well as less educated than people think we ought to be.
I feel like I ought to do better, like I need to set some sort of Math Example in the community to keep people from transferring their refusal to learn scientific things to their children.
concrit:
So, while I was busy taking all those science classes in high school and college, I was totally not taking English classes. I can't remember the last time I took a class that was in any way about the structure of fiction - elementary school creative writing, probably. I don't know most of the vocabulary. I'm selfishly interested in learning which parts of my own writing work or don't work for people, (and there's a side-discussion about beta-reading there that I'm not going to get into) but I find it at least as useful reading critiques of other works, particularly discussion between the author and the commenter. I also love DVD commentaries of fic for this reason, though I don't read as many of them as I ought.
being multi-fandom:
I am really, really bad at being a fan of source works. This is also a theme of my life, being a jack-of-all-trades, or a butterfly. I'm quite fond of a number of things, and I know a little bit about a lot of them. I watch things once, for the most part.
To pick a fandom at not-all-that-random, I love the new Star Trek. I thought it was fantastic, and I'll probably keep reading fic for some time. But I really don't particularly care about the actors, or the multitude of promotional interviews they've done, or what JJ or whoever has said about sequels. I'm vaguely tempted to go rewatch TOS and maybe TNG, but I probably won't. Someday, there will be a trailer, and then another movie, and I will be excited again. I consider myself a fan, but not a fan. Which means that I wander a bit.
I'm sure that my writing, and probably my reading, suffers a bit from my less-than-total immersion in the source material. There's totally nuance that I don't get, in some cases there are major canon events or quotes that I don't pick up on. But there's so much awesome stuff out there, I have a hard time immersing myself in just one thing.
Want to join in? Leave a comment that says "Five Words" and I'll hook you up.
(also, because I have a genetic predisposition to change the rules of memes, feel free to give me words in a comment, too)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 12:25 am (UTC)And I have opinions about choreographers too. Why not? It's not like you have to be an artist to have an opinion about art. <3
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 12:45 am (UTC)Okay, I've never seen any movies in the Die Hard franchise. Should I start with the first or can I skip to the slashy one -- or are they all slashy? Yes, yes I am that shallow.
Oh man, science. I'm definitely one of those people who's behind in the science department. Though I did take that Pew research quiz earlier today and got them all right, so that's something. *gives self gold star* I like science fine ... except where it overlaps with math, which it tends to do quite frequently. And math is the bane of my existence. Even counting is iffy with me. Really, I'm a moron.
I'm sure that my writing, and probably my reading, suffers a bit from my less-than-total immersion in the source material.
Your life is probably the better for it. :P
I have trouble maintaining an interest in a fandom long term. And my attention span seems to shorten the longer I'm in fandom. Sometimes I think I'm just writing the same fic in different fandoms (this is including the scores of half-finished fic on my hard drive).
(and there's a side-discussion about beta-reading there that I'm not going to get into)
If you ever do get into it, I'd be interested to hear what you have to say. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 12:50 am (UTC)I think I feel conflicted about judging the choreographers because they're trying to create something with impact in 2 minutes of performance and no context. Some of them do it brilliantly, and then there's the 300th routine about a troubled relationship. Ooh, will this one end with someone walking away, stoically, or with them curled up on the stage?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 01:17 am (UTC)I think everyone should see the first Die Hard. Everyone. It's got Alan Rickman being awesome as the criminal mastermind, and Reginald VelJohnson being awesome as a buddy cop, and Paul Gleason from The Breakfast Club being typecast, and Kolya, if you're a Stargate: Atlantis person. I don't think anyone should see the second, for more reasons than I can list in even a Dreamwidth comment. I think Die Hard with a Vengeance is good backstory if you're going to read fic, as well as being a decent movie, but you can totally watch Live Free or Die Hard without seeing it if you're short on time or impatient.
I like science fine ... except where it overlaps with math
I was never going to be a mathematician, but the science is definitely easier for me with some math attached. I nearly failed high school physics because it just didn't make any sense. Freshman year in college, I took calculus-based classical mechanics, and seriously wanted to call my physics teacher and yell WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY IT WAS THE DERIVATIVE?
And my attention span seems to shorten the longer I'm in fandom. Sometimes I think I'm just writing the same fic in different fandoms
The key for me is to rotate through things with really different character dynamics. I'm about done with anything written in twenty-something vernacular right now.
The short version of the beta-reading ramble is "do as I say, not as I do." The more I write, the more I'm convinced that I'm just doing it for my own amusement, and not at all for other people to be able to read it, and that's not conducive to creating quality stuff, on top of being totally hypocritical. If I ever get around to writing the Die Hard fic I signed up to do, it'll be the first thing that I'm going to ask for a super-picky beta on.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 12:56 pm (UTC)Ah, see, I don't think having an opinion about art is judging the art; no one can actually judge art, I feel, which is a little bit why I think critics are sort of utterly useless. All you can judge is your own reaction to a piece of art, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. (And this is what I try to keep in mind when I post a piece of fic or when I read one that's not to my tastes. It's harder in those instances.)