michelel72

Anyone want to talk characterization? I'm trying to figure out why a Welcome to Night Vale / Dresden Files crossover fic grabbed me so hard, because there are elements of the characterization of Carlos that I didn't think were really my thing, but they definitely work for me here. This is mostly just me trying to work something out for myself, so feel free to skip, but I'd love to chat about this stuff if anyone is interested.

The fic is Love Is All You Need to Destroy Your Enemies. I'm a fan of WtNV, but I don't know that I'd say I'm a hardcore fan or anything; I've never read "Dresden Files", and haven't really planned to, to the point that I've spoiled myself for numerous series developments. (I'm sure it's fine for the folks who like it; I don't mean to slam it or anything.) I try to avoid actual spoilers for the fic here, but there are some vague premise-and-characterization spoilers in my ramblings. ( Cut for rambling ... )

To my surprise, I ended up pinch-writing two stories for the SGA Genficathon. I wrote them well after the art deadline, so I had no expectations of art, but while the stories were still Anonymous, tridget chose one of them to create gift art for!

I'm all bouncy because this is only the second associated work for any of my fics, as far as I know. (The first was sophia_sol's lovely podfic of my Like Thermodynamics.) Yayyyy!

Be advised that the story itself involves a serious injury to one character, and the art does not shy away from depicting that. Bearing that in mind ... check it out!

Cover art for Clipped by tridget: At LJ; at AO3

What is this? I'm liking stuff? Who am I and what have I done with ... me?

Doctor Who 6x10 "The Girl Who Waited": (No real spoilers) I kind of hate the open (primarily for the false! urgency! and the brief appearance of the Idiot Ball), but other than that, this episode works for me. Interesting, fascinating character dynamics, bad-ass-ness and devotion in rewarding distributions, dark elements. My DVR choked on the recording, and I'm glad I managed to track this episode down regardless. (I always forget I have OnDemand, because it never seems to have anything useful ... until now.)

Eureka 4x11 "Liftoff": ( Cut for minor spoilers )

So, anyway. I liked stuff for a change! There may be hope for me yet!

I haven't been around much; I haven't had time. Most of that is work; I adore my job, but it's exhausting, and nights/weekends really aren't enough for me even to keep up with the day-to-day, much less reading (I haven't read half the SGA Big Bang archive; I haven't read any of last year's Atlantis Big Bang; I have over 400 fics, fic indexes, and other works tagged as "to be read"; the ReverseBang just went live and the GenFicathon is about to), much much less writing. Which is frustrating. I simply need more time than that to switch from programmer-mindset to writing-mindset.

( A brief (for me) whine about the State of the Writing. )

With reading and writing fic, as well as keeping up with my rlist/flist, I spend a lot of time on my computer. My ISP is Comcast, who provides Symantec's Norton Security Suite free to its customers, and I have to wonder what the hell they're thinking. Norton was once the gold standard for computer utilities, if I recall correctly, but it's been worse than a joke for years. Why in the world would Comcast encourage its customers to use a product that makes Comcast's service seem unusably slow? I'm not exaggerating — when my browser takes 48 seconds to process a simple page-down command (yes, I timed it, twice; yes, the response time is unmeasurably quick with Norton uninstalled), I may be savvy enough to blame the add-on software, but not everyone will be, and they'll blame Comcast's speed. Inexplicably stupid marketing/support choice.

Not much else to report beyond that, so I'll close out with a huge batch of …

( TV mini-reviews (and two bonus fic recs) )

And that's that.

When my mother and I visited Vancouver, we had downtime in our hotel room. She likes having the television on pretty much all the time, while I can't stand that; I want the TV on only when I'm watching something specific. It worked out, though; she wanted to get me into Criminal Minds, which was on all the time, so I got a nice hefty dose of a very good show. In addition, we also ran across a few other shows that didn't drive me insane; one of those was "Holmes on Homes", which I liked so much that — now that I've found it on US cable — I now record all episodes (new and repeats) for those times when I actually do want to watch non-narrative television.

( More about 'Holmes on Homes' (in short: yay!) )

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I bring this review forward now because it's become timely for me. A recurring theme on the show (and the spin-off "Holmes Inspection") has been "how not to run electrical wiring". They point out bad junctions, improper runs, inadequate cabling, hazardous placement near water sources, and the like. One tidbit they've mentioned is that side-entry electrical boxes have become the latest preferred standard. I found that interesting, but I didn't really follow the reasons, which they may not have mentioned; regardless, that observation stuck with me.

I now know why they're a good idea.

( Guess what's a bad idea to mix with electricity? )

I'm usually kind of a crankypants, so credit where it's due: This episode was actually pretty good! Actual competence from the various characters in their respective fields, the application of various kinds of intelligence, characterization for Kate for a change, reasons why they don't use what would seem to be the obvious resources, abundant red herrings to keep me guessing, even a seeming mistake that paid off late in the game. There was only one headslapper, and even that was only a matter of a delay in doing something rather than an outright omission. Kudos to writer James Thorpe. I'm actually glad I spent time on this one!

ETA: Plus, plus, Amanda Tapping "faking" a bad American-ish accent! Bwah! I love her so much.