where is my mind

[jmtorres]

I am habitually surprised I have no comments because I perceive myself as being fannishly active, even though I've been posting sporadically at best on fannish topics.

Things what I am reading/watching recently:

Vorskosigan: I've been rereading Civil Campaign and had to break out pen and paper to draw a family tree to keep the Vorrutyers sorted. davetheinverted spotted the tree outline in my notebook from several feet away and was all, "Oh God who are you making related now?" Heh. Heh heh. I'm banging around the plot for the V60 AU niqaeli and I have been not writing for a couple of years now and Danny and Illyan and ALYS are in my head on a regular basis lately. Have I mentioned I love Alys?

Eureka: I've caught up on the last several episodes mostly because niqaeli kept asking me if Jack was kissing his sister (he wasn't, but Tess and Lexi look a fair amount alike if you haven't been watching regularly, and also, there was that confusing bit last fall where she didn't know Lexi *was* his sister and was like, "Juls? ...who did Jack knock up?" when she moved in). We are consistently confused about how the memory block alternate universe plot line never comes back, even when they get a Kimbot.

House MD: In an effort to bond with echan, I watched the last four episodes of season 5 and the premiere last night. Bear in mind I have not regularly watched the show since sometime around season 2, I think, maybe, so most of my feelings on this are restricted to "House and Wilson, still pretty gay." (I kind of doubt that's a spoiler?) The premiere was interesting to us here at casa del crazy: echan had a lot to say on the accuracy of the, ah, environment. As usual I would prefer not to discuss the show's take on vicodin with anyone with an actual real life chronic pain issue, because I know the show is dumb and I'm sorry and trust me you don't want to know what they did now. Oh well. The character development was interesting, at least.

Merlin: Watched the series 2 premiere. Ow, the dumb. I kept thinking of plot twists and being like, "wait, no, the show is too dumb for that." Teenagers: pretty. Check. Uther: bad daddy. Check. Were we expecting anything else? I have a hilarious plotbunny in my head where Merlin and Arthur get tossed to present-day to look at "prophecy" in the form of eighty gazillion versions of Arthurian legend. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is probably the most awesome part of this plotbunny, although Arthur's confusion at how he ends up married to Gwen and "well duh" at her having the hots for Lancelot are fairly amusing too. Also future!immortal!Merlin reminiscing about how tomatoes went extinct in Europe and now everyone thinks they didn't appear in Europe until brought over from the Americas in the 1500s.

Being Human: recently rewatched all of series one in aid of making Annie vid. Is depressing vid. Am frustrated by my inability to work on it without feeling I am giving into depression. Damn, I wish I could find a song for the adorable threesome vid. I keep wishing I could write long plotty fic for Being Human but I can't find a hook I want to play with. The nearest thing I have come up with is "a stray cat follows Mitchell home; dislikes George on sight" with hilarious were-cat complications re scratching, biting, and hissing. Spent a couple of weeks reading every BH fic I could find, found some number I enjoyed...

Someone start a conversation with me?

ETA: probably spoilers in comments, yo.

Comments

[sasha_feather]

Well I do kind of want to ask about House and Vicodin even though you said not to!

ALYS. She is awesome.

[jmtorres]

He started hallucinating because of vicodin, so he goes to rehab and, uh, appears not to have any more pain off the drugs than on. Show states he has been using vicodin for his emotional pain, so now he's on an SSRI instead. That will totally deal with the physical pain, right? *headdesk*

Alys *is* awesome. Alys and Illyan double-teaming people is epic.

ETA for spoiler text. ...and an icon.

[sasha_feather]

AAaAAAAAAh!!! That is awful. Criminy. Doesn't that basically counter the canon established by the previous 5 years of the show? Actually I stopped watching somewhere around S3. But still. DO SOME RESEARCH, WRITERS. Clearly his pain results from his inner turmoil, and working on his emotions will HEAL him, or perhaps his pain is a METAPHOR. /sarcasm

[jmtorres]

I don't even know. I know they started pulling bullshit with oh House you don't really neeeeeed vicodin years ago, but apparently they flip flop on whether he needs pain meds at all or just like, magical brain surgery or jogging shoes. He is still using a cane at least? But someone sat in his lap to make out with him and I was like, "aaaagh OW?"

[niqaeli]

Here is the awesome thing. Regardless of his pain levels, they have consistently managed to forget that they established that he is MISSING A CHUNK OF THIGH MUSCLE. They excised MUSCLE.

In no pain whatsoever, emotional or physical, he still is not fucking physically stable. The fact that he collapses after a few steps unassisted is not because he is in so much ~~pain~~ but because his leg is physically incapable of carrying him stably.

This is what drives me nuts. I mean, even putting aside the massive chronic pain and painkiller issues, it STILL MAKES NO SENSE.

Sigh.

[jmtorres]

Here is a measure of how skience House is:

The Eureka eps I watched, more than once, used the same terms/symptoms and had similar treatment scenes.

[niqaeli]

*facepalm*

[kymellin]

I knew better than to highlight the spoiler, but I did. I am a bit behind in House - didn't watch much of last season much because of the Huntington's subplot (the ex- had it, and eventually the kid will test for it; I want to watch it on DVD so that I can turn it off and come back to it when I feel capable). If the spoiler lasts as an actual thing, I hope this is the last season of House before they do anything more stupid. I think the series should have ended about season 3, but I keep watching because of Hugh Laurie.

I've been enjoying Eureka, but I haven't seen the memory block AU episodes. So, even with a Kimbot, I just figured Jack's lingering looks on Alison, especially with her being pregnant, was a nod to that time...and move on. I liked the Kimbot; it gave us more Henry time onscreen, and I'm quite the fan of that.

[jmtorres]

House MD: House and Wilson are totally gay! Lalala do not need to care about plot, it are painful.

re Eureka--the memory block AU was, ah, "Once in a Lifetime" I believe? The first season finale. Only Henry and Jack ended up with any memory of it due to time travel future erasure (though properly they should have ended up with memories of different future AUs, since Jack came back in time from timeline B to stop earlier!Henry, who had back in time from timeline A, from instigating timeline B, right?) but THEN, Henry used a memory wipe doohickey on Jack so that he could be emo about being the only one to remember the future all by himself. Or something. It totally seemed like it was the first move in a plot to mess with time again except that then Henry didn't. As far as we can tell.

My favorite plotbunny was that there was someone else wandering around Eureka with spare memories, because Henry had a lab assistant at GD who got caught up in his time travel. *grins* Mmm, Zoe A...

[sasha_feather]

Because I am a pedant and I think about things too much, I want to say that sometimes antidepressants are prescribed for chronic pain: some of the same neurotransmitters are involved in depression and chronic pain; it's I think an off-label use of these drugs. And sometimes people who have chronic pain, naturally, get depressed and might also want to get treated for that. But I'm sure these are the kind of subtleties that the show ignores, because the show is not very good at being subtle, or even consistent in its un-subtleties.

[jmtorres]

As a treatment for pain it was not addressed at all, and also there was wacky funtimes where House was cheeking his meds and his doctor starting giving him placebos to test if he was actually taking his meds.

[echan]

They said in the show that after the detox they gave him a non-narcotic for the pain and that he thought it was working sufficiently well.

[jmtorres]

I don't remember that. Huh.

[copracat]

Damn, I wish I could find a song for the adorable threesome vid.

A Dark Congregation - The Hush Sound

[jmtorres]

Interesting. Do you have any further specific thoughts for this song?

[copracat]

No, I am a sad sort for vidding, but the conjunction of the happy, poppy tune and sweet vocals with the more grave subject matter, particularly these lyrics:

We are surrounded by all of the quiet sleepers inside the quiet earth
A fear that I cannot shape - you dared to kiss the face of the night

Our lips were cold as clay, we couldn't speak anyway


which combine ideas about each of their unique identities and their solitude from humanity, you dared to kiss the face of the night is George and it's Mitchell, too. we couldn't speak anyway is Annie.

*fails to be coherent*

[jmtorres]

*fails to be coherent*

No, this is all good and useful stuff that intrigues me further.

we couldn't speak anyway is Annie.

Innnnnnnnteresting. The angstwoe Annie vid I'm working on also has speak/can't speak thing in it. I thought you'd let me speak today. Of course in a way they're all bound not to speak about what happened to them; it's the only way to pass.

I wish there more more textual... if not threesome, well, relationship, in the lyrics. Lack of textual relationship, you know, puts it on me the vidder to make the relationship plain. I am sort of terrified it will come out angst gen instead of THREESOME YAY.

ETA for attempted coherence. YAY BOOZE.

[white_aster]

Were you the one who posted pimping Being Human a bit ago? :D I couldn't remember and by the time I watched some of it, it was too far to go back. Thanks, though! I've watched the pilot and the first ep and really like it! I kind of wish they'd kept pilot!Mitchell's actor, but I love George to pieces. :D

[jmtorres]

I posted the picspam of threesome yay if that's what you mean.

I didn't know about the existence of the pilot until after I'd seen and imprinted on the series, so my feelings about pilot!Mitchell run toward the wanting to punch him in the face. I have this problem when I'm reading fic: if pilot fic (and there's a fair amount, published any time in 2008) doesn't make me want to punch Mitchell in the face, is it OOC? *laugh*

One of the things I like about the series cast is that it makes the trio significantly less white. It might be hackneyed to metaphor their supernatural otherness with race, but it works for me.

[scy]

*nods* They are very much a trio, and some further textualization of that would be very very nice.

[rydra_wong]

I have this problem when I'm reading fic: if pilot fic (and there's a fair amount, published any time in 2008) doesn't make me want to punch Mitchell in the face, is it OOC? *laugh*

I was checking out some of the fics and realizing that, jossing aside, I could tell the difference between pilot!fic and series!fic pretty consistently and instantly based on the Mitchellvoice *g*.

I watched the "Being Human Unearthed" documentary last night and was interested to hear Toby Whithouse say that he and the other writers had decided that they weren't happy with the tone of the vampires in the pilot relative to other aspects of the show (too much the standard Gothic), and had consciously decided to reboot that for the series, whence the recasting of Mitchell (and Herrick and Lauren).

[rydra_wong]

Spent a couple of weeks reading every BH fic I could find, found some number I enjoyed...

*pounces*

(I've just discovered Being Human and raced through all six eps, so now I'm tearing round looking for the good fic and meta and vids. And anyone who'll discuss it with me.)

[jmtorres]

Now that you've seen all six eps of the series, you could go back and watch the pilot! (Trufax: not know of the pilot, the first story I wanted to read after seeing the series was "How did George and Mitchell *get* this house together?" The answer is enjoyably gay.)

I so very much want to write BH fic. But I can't figure out what to write!

[rydra_wong]

I've already seen the pilot, too *g*.

(Now I'm going to the Beeb website to watch the documentary.)

[jmtorres]

Heh.

I have watched bits of video diaries and things on youtube. They are quite adorable dancing and trading off partners among the trio.

[viridian5]

I wasn't talking to you about Being Human because I saw the first episode and a few other episodes and hated almost everything, then saw the pilot and realized that a lot of the things I hated were added to the series to "improve" the show and because some actors were no longer available. (Original Mitchell and Annie are love for me, and I preferred the vampires having their pilot plans instead of being vaguely Nazi EMS and undertakers.) I would have watched the show that followed the pilot's canon.

It seemed like sour grapes!

[jmtorres]

Woe! The gap between us is unbridgeable!

It's interesting to me that you saw the series then the pilot and preferred the pilot, because I've been tending to assume that people prefer whichever they saw first. It worked that way with me. I might have liked the pilot more except that I'd already fallen hard for the way they are and grow in the series, so some of the pilot characterization, especially Mitchell, was hard for me to take. I mean, he's funny at times, and I do wish there more snark in the series, but he's such an ass. But *laugh* it occurs to me that some of your favorite characters are snarky assholes. I shouldn't be surprised.

[viridian5]

We are so far apart! Woe!

Current Annie is so cutesy and "oh, did I do that?" ditzy. Ew. I liked the harder yet caring original Annie. Original Mitchell was so affectionate and feline-hanging-all-over George so his snarking at George came off as more friends while current Mitchell just seems nasty, constantly undercutting George and embarrassing him in front of people. To be, current Mitchell is the asshole.

[viridian5]

Uhm, that was supposed to be "To me, current Mitchell is the asshole." If only I could edit!