Audience of Strangers

Okay. General catching up.

I still like the new job.

The not-hating my job (and the time to sleep, and the walking forty minutes a day) seems to have reduced my stress levels a lot, and I'm not writing. I'm not even really playing video games. I'm knitting and watching TV and reading, and I'm not unhappy, but apparently I have dived hard into sources of relaxation that require me to make absolutely no choices whatsoever.

(I have asked around and apparently this is kind of a normal reaction having a source of stress suddenly removed, but no lie that it's been a bit weird.)

I'm hoping it goes away soon, and in the meantime reminding myself that I am having a good time even though I'm not writing.

(I sound cool with it. I mostly am cool with it. This is still totally the kind of thing that I'm going to bring up in therapy.)

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I watched The Umbrella Academy, and I am very engaged with it. It does something that is not-quite a superhero narrative pretty much the same way that The Wire does something that is not-quite a police show, and has the added detail of (almost) every single character charging headlong into deeply deeply understandable but horribly flawed choices.

(Plus it has a fantastic soundtrack.)

Also I'm... maybe eighty-three percent sure that the one thing that I absolutely didn't expect, that was a genuine surprise, was telegraphed in a kind of quiet in-joke way in the first episode, and I love that.

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I also watched Weird City, and that was an entirely different thing, but still a lot of fun. And I found a horror author who wrote a short story that I like so much that I promptly went to buy his collection from Amazon, which is an option I generally skip if I can do anything else.

Speaking of horror, I sat down and watched Velvet Buzzsaw. It's interesting - the idea of horror spreading that way is fairly rare. It's not unique - you can see similar stuff in The Ring and In The Mouth of Madness and Smiley - but it's rare enough that that I don't really have a vocabulary for it yet. I'll think about it some more and maybe come back to it.

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I inked up the fountain pen that I bought with the gift card from my sister - the Monteverde Invincia Nebula. This thing is a brick - everything is steel and brass and glass, everything screws firmly together instead of snapping into place. It weighs nearly three times as much as my Lamy Safari, and while it's not uncomfortable to write with, I definitely notice it.

Okay. So we're just catching up on Game of Thrones--watching the last two episodes tonight, in fact--and as you might expect it's being an HBO show, with a lot of sex and it's just dawning on me that I think they haven't actually shown any sex that's consensual or uncreepy since Jon and Ygritte. Four episodes ago.[1]

They haven't even talked about it, unless Ygritte talking to Jon about his technique was three episodes ago instead of four. Instead we're getting Joffrey and Mero talking up their plans, and then there was Littlefinger trading Roz to Joffrey for a snuff session, and...

I am bored, and mildly grossed out.

Gonna back to cheering Sam, now.
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[1] As I was about to hit post, I remembered that Robb and Talisa actually got a few minutes of cute naked screentime last episode. My mistake. So we are averaging one scene every two episodes over the last month, whooo.

So. Sat down to watch TV tonight, and the only thing we had that I was in the mood for was Justified. Which is good, because we were actually a couple of episodes behind, but it got me thinking.

I would like a show that isn't heavily driven by a/the protagonist's angst and/or lostedness (The Mentalist, Lost Girl), does not involve people regularly getting killed (Castle, Criminal Minds, The Mentalist), is not grimdark (Criminal Minds, Walking Dead, Bates Motel (which I am so giving up on)), is not strictly a comedy (Community, Scrubs, Modern Family), is not so dense that I cannot fairly step away for a moment or two (The Wire, Doctor Who (you can argue this, but frankly I'd rather you not argue it here, thanks much), House of Cards), and which I have not already seen in its entirety (Leverage, Justified, The Wire).

Suggestions? I'm down to Alphas, here...

Well. Leverage is over, and I went through way more books than I expected to this year (96, and still time to finish one if I focus). So while I still don't like to dwell on how many books I am in possession of that need reading[1], I figure my turnover is pretty good, and I will need some recommendations for next year.

What TV should I be watching that I'm probably missing (if it's not Doctor Who or an ensemble cop/crime-ish show, I'm probably missing it)? What books should I take a look at (you may consider Night Circus and everything by both ChiZine and Innsmouth Press to be on the to-read list) that I probably haven't?
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[1] Hush it's not very far into three digits.

From Maxim interviewing nearly everyone about The Wire:

It was real to the point where crackheads would come up and try to cop. I had fake money, and they would come over, and an exchange would go down. I would think they were part of the crew, and I’d make the exchange. Then security would come around and be like, “No! No! No!” and break it up. I was like, “Oh, shit! That’s really a crack-head! I’m sorry! I’m not really a drug dealer!”

Seriously. Cannot think of a better TV show.

We are watching the latest Game of Thrones. And you know, occasionally we glance away for a moment, pet the cat, pour a drink. We don't talk over it or anything, but we're not staring at it with hypnotized glee.

I say this to establish that when we both went "Ooooh" at the same time, grinned, and then promptly grabbed for screenshots, this was not the reaction of people who would squee over just anything that happens to show up on the screen.

It's a beautiful depiction: Harrenhal.

...I swear to god I had something to write and it's gone right out of my head.

Anyway. Was going over my top five TV shows last night and I think they are (in no particular order):

* The Wire
* Deadwood
* Doctor Who
* Leverage
* Breaking Bad

I suppose a good sort of way to figure out what you like is figuring out what shows you'd pick to stay on the air if you could only pick one... Doesn't help as much with shows that are completed, though. (Can I mention how much I would love to see more of The Wire? 'kay. Just getting that out there.)

What're yours?

I just saw The Girl Who Waited. The Doctor Who episode. Yes, I am behind.

I had been forewarned.

It did not help in the slightest. You know that heartfelt crying when it seems like your head is full of seawater, and you can smell salt even though your nose is entirely stuffed up?

So. Yes. It was a wonderful episode and I am very glad I saw it and I would recommend it as introductory viewing and I'm thinking there will be be a Hugo nomination and oh god I cried.

Much love, even in sorrow. Yes.

(John has put the next one on and pegged it as "BBC does The Shining." Will not dispute.)

In Sault Ste Marie. This is okay. Had to wait at airport for my sister. This is okay. (This is less than as good as okay, since (half?) her flight got cancelled and she had no sleep, but right now she is catching up.) Last room had a ton of fruit flies, so moved to this one. This is okay.

The state of the hotel wifi?

Not.
Okay.

Anyway, I might be able to get a connection to stick around, if I put the laptop on the chest of drawers and hunch. Am reminding miyself that downloading and installing Fallout: New Vegas out of spite is a petty thing, and I should not do it.

Getting picked up in forty minutes. Need painkillers. At least it's a fast change.

Keep itching to fire up DW--Dreamweaver, not DreamWidth--and poke around with site ideas. Will not have time, I know. Maybe after the reception or tomorrow morning.

May drop on an episode of Mifits or something, not sure. Am torn between being comforted by and being annoyed at the sameness here. It sort of highlights the monoculture in Babbitt, which I am currently reading through and which is making me wince rather a lot.

Hoping the chance to actually be in a space that does not have a lot of other people in it will help me unwind before the wedding.

The cat was found; Public Health got in touch with his owners. He seems fine. Quite relieved.

And in news on Leverage, I think Nate was actually just rendered speechless. The chocolate episode. I think I may need an animated icon, but I'm not sure what events would be astounding enough to warrant it.