graculus: (Default)
So, September. What is time anyway?

Since last post (in May, sorry about that for anyone who's actually still reading these things - hello out there!), I've guesstimated some exam grades for people, then done pretty much nothing except eat, sleep, read books and watch TV. I fell heavily down the rabbit hole that is Chinese and Korean drama despite the many many long episodes of both and boy, there's some good stuff at the bottom there.

I'm currently watching Nirvana in Fire, long after fandom found it, and have so many shows lined up I had to start a proper list (on a very helpful website called MyDramaList) to keep track of them all. Historical costume drama is my main bag, to be honest, mostly because of the excellent hats - somehow a lot of the modern day stuff just doesn't have the same pull unless it's something utterly ridiculous like Guardian.

Lots of comfort eating and not much exercise over the past few months - sadly, no stabbing people since March! - mean I've put on a good bit of weight and feel like a tub of lard. My knees dislike running, even if I didn't think it utterly pointless anyway, and I only managed to finally get hold of a bike a few weeks back. The gym has reopened, at least, but it's feeling a bit of a struggle at the moment. One of my fencing clubs has reopened partially but I haven't even dared try on my breeches, since I know they're not going to do up, so I'm not there yet.

That's another source of annoyance. The club I'm on the committee of, I have to restrain my usual impulse to be the boss of everything and everyone but some of the other people are all so vague about everything. We just found out our usual venue won't be re-opening till at least January, so not only are we vaguely thinking about how we can re-open at all (in line with both government guidance and our NGB's rules, so we're covered by insurance), we're now vaguely thinking about somewhere else to do it. *headdesk*

Anyway, work is also looming. I'm currently doing assessments for new learners, which is fine, but when actual classes start it's all still a bit up in the air. My usual classes are 12-14 people but the size of our rooms = 5-6 + me as a maximum number. Which means, I don't know, alternate weeks in class? Online stuff and paper-based stuff for people to do at home? Some learners are going to be fine with this, others I really worry about, and I have the privilege of teaching the people who are the most able in terms of their English. Meanwhile our processes around getting funding from the government, showing learner progress and putting people in for exams are all still very paper-based with signatures from me and them - already a nightmare if people call in sick, how much worse if we know people aren't going to be in every week? Watch this space for more incoherent flailing...

Other than that? How was lockdown, I was asked the other day - well, I live on my own, so that but for much longer, was my reply.
graculus: (oh please)
To literally no-one's surprise after a sunny weekend where a load of absolute numpties treated the seaside and public parks like there was an unexpected holiday, gatherings of 3 or more where they don't live together have been banned in the UK. There's also been a lot of problems with people who have second homes in the countryside taking off there, regardless of the fact those rural areas already have close to zero infrastructure for the people who live there all year round. Likewise people in campervans heading for Scottish islands etc. with the same issue, not to mention possibly bringing the virus to new areas because they're infected already but asymptomatic because of the incubation period for the virus. *headdesk*

At least we don't have someone actively telling people to get back to work for the good of the economy and not to worry about grandma dying, it's a sacrifice she's surely willing to make for shareholder profits!

Anyway, I'm fine and just staying at home - for those of us who are antisocial introverts, this is just what we've been training for all our lives. I already had a load of food because of growing up poor and anxiety over making sure that you had enough to eat if things went down the pan. I haven't ventured out since last Thursday, apart from a brief trip to the local shop on Monday to buy milk. I have milk powder at home but want to save it in case I do come down with the virus and can't get out at all. Have to admit, I felt a bit rough and shivery yesterday morning but feel fine again now, but teachers have a low-grade cold thing going on for most of the academic year so it was probably that. I might head out to the supermarket on Friday, if I feel like it.

In other news, I'd been planning to fix two panels in my fence but this got delayed by the weeks and weeks of wet weather we had. Now my neighbour has replaced them anyway, which to be honest he should have done when they first started to fall to bits because it was mainly his stuff leaning against them which broke them in the first place. I could say he's a hoarder but that would be an understatement - he has two broken-down cars (one a Range Rover) at the bottom of the garden and hasn't done anything with them for literally years. He used to make a bit of money on the side buying up cars, fixing them and selling them on, but these ones haven't been touched for maybe 5 years now? Anyway, the fence thing has saved me some money, so that's something.

As far as work goes, we've been asked to see if we can send stuff to our students for practice while we're closed (with a hope of re-opening w/b April 20th as planned after Easter) but that's not massively realistic for some of our folks. I have email addresses for a lot of them but not all, while I know some won't have easy access to the internet or will have significant childcare and other commitments. I'm working on something to send them, with links to stuff online, so we'll see. We've also been asked to fill in a survey in respect of our skills so that people can be asked to help out in other areas - I've been brutally honest about the likely mental health impact of added stress and the fact I'm currently menopausal on top of that. Our union has been quite clear about the fact nobody should be required to do anything different to their usual job in order to make sure they get paid if they can't work as usual - voluntary cover is different but I'd like to know what I'm being asked to do before I volunteer for it.

I'm trying not to watch too much TV in one sitting, but in case anyone is interested I'm currently watching season 1 of a fantastic Korean show called Kingdom as season 2 has just dropped on Netflix and I couldn't remember what had happened in it. It's a historical drama with a zombie plague ravaging the country, which may or may not be your thing at the moment. If you don't fancy that, a couple of other recs also on Netflix: Russian Doll (black comedy where woman keeps dying and tries to figure out how to stop it) and Hilda (fantastic animated show where girl runs away to an enchanted forest). Happy to rec more stuff if people are interested! What are you watching at the moment?
graculus: (coffee)
We're pretty much at the end of the academic year and I suddenly realised that I haven't posted for 2 months, so here goes. Not that there's much to say, to be perfectly honest - life revolves around work, fencing and not a great deal else.

Work is going pretty well, though I've been very annoyed to have an observation which included our new quality assurance manager. She's full of all the usual QA buzz words and little else, from what I can see. Apparently they were happy with my lesson but still handed me a 16-point action plan, so I'm not sure I'm convinced. My manager also teaches one class and has been observed too, with apparent expectations that she's going to receive something similar from what she told me.

I'm teaching 3 classes, two at the same level and one supposedly the level below. Sadly the folks in the lower level are really only just at that level and not very strong at all, so it's a lot slower progress than it would otherwise be. Most of this term has been about boosting their confidence so they will try stuff that's harder as we go along and it takes a lot of energy on my part to do that. You also get folks who have hit a bit of a natural plateau and it's hard to see how to get them past that, especially if they can see they're stuck too.

This is going to be my last academic year of teaching Saturdays, as it's had too much of an impact on the competitions I want to do and I've done it for 4 years. I've also been teaching a class that's 12.30-3, so I have to have lunch at about 11.30 or starve, then another from 6-8.30, which means a late dinner. I very much like having a day off in the week, though I've not been very good at actually using it properly to do stuff. Maybe if I get my weekends back properly I can do something about that?

Fencing is going pretty well - I'm settled into a routine of fencing twice a week and have my competitions planned for the season. I'm currently comfortably in the top 200 in the country but you lose the points from the previous season after 12 months, so I need to do well in the next couple of competitions to maintain or even improve that. Another attempted routine thing is going to the gym to help with this. I was fencing a teenage lad last night and, while I could push him hard for a while at the beginning (and boy, he really didn't enjoy that!), I just didn't have the stamina to keep that level of intensity going for an entire fight.

Other than that, I've been reading a lot and watching a bunch of TV shows, while wondering how people manage to keep up with everything. Nothing that sparks any fannish desires, though. On Netflix, I'm currently watching a French show called Black Spot (Zone Blanche is the original title), where police procedures are just things that happen to other people, and a couple of Korean shows: Tunnel, about a detective who travels to the future to try and catch a serial killer, and Prison Playbook, about a baseball player who ends up in prison. The only downside with Korean shows is that each episode is movie-length and they usually have loads of them, partly because the pacing is quite slow compared to shows from the US or the UK.

I'll have to do a proper end of year post about TV shows, I think - there's been some really good stuff this year, with the highlights probably being Russian Doll (weird black comedy) and Kingdom (another Korean show, this time a historical one with zombies).
graculus: (coffee)
We're in the last throes of the academic year, with exams to mark and just 2 more classes to teach then that's it for the summer. We're supposed to be doing mandatory CPD stuff next week but I have already reached my hours for the year and also there's absolutely nothing being organised that is of any interest or relevance to me - there's stuff via the internet I can log which will be much more useful in the longer term, I'm sure.

I have my timetable for September onwards, so I've been able to start planning exactly what I'm doing in terms of both work and generally. I'm still teaching on Saturdays but have told my boss this is the last year for me, as this will be my 4th year and it feels like it's someone else's turn to do that. It's also been a bit of a pain to try and organise around competitions, as any Saturday I book off is just added onto the end and we also have weekends we're not allowed to do for various reasons - it's technically possible to get cover but I like things done the way I want, so I've never even tried to do that. I'm still in the good books though, as I've agreed to take on an evening class (another thing many people don't want to do).

I still have planning to do for September and really want to at least make a start on it this month so I can have August off completely. However, as I am the queen of procrastination, it might not happen! At least I've organised my trip to Ireland, with WorldCon in Dublin and then a week on the west coast, which I'm really looking forward to. At the moment I'm not taking any books for signing as I don't think anyone I want to fangirl at is going to be there except for people I've already done that with. This makes the weight limit on the flight much easier to achieve!

Had another good survey at Easter, with fantastic weather every day - makes spotting much easier if the seas are calm and you don't have rain blowing into your face! Some great sightings, including minke whales closer than I've seen before, but one of the highlights for me was on the way back into port when a white-tailed eagle flew right across in front of us. I'd seen them at a distance but never really thought about how bloody huge they are till I saw one about 15 feet away lumbering across the Sound of Mull. Taking a break that way was definitely the right decision.

It did mean I missed the regional championships, which was a bit annoying, as it was also a qualifier for one of the national competitions. Next year, then! However, I did fence quite well at the British veterans nationals and am now really working towards the new season from September. Unexpectedly, this weekend I got a call-up to the regional squad for a long-running national team competition and got my regional badge (which you can only get by being selected). This competition is often dominated by folks in their teens and twenties but we lost a few fencers to a national achievement camp so I got asked this week if I was available. We did really well as a region, considering the panicky last-minute nature of the call-ups, finishing 4th out of 11 teams overall. I only ended up fighting 4 bouts and just managed to win 3 of those 12 fights but they were all against people ranked higher than me, including one woman who's just been called up for the GB veterans world championship team. :P

So now I've sewn my regional badge on to my jacket as I continue to prepare for the veteran's version of the same competition, which is in September - I've already been called up for that one and had thought that was the only one of these I'd ever get to do, since it's a bit more self-selecting!

In other news, I've been working my way through the Hugo bundle and reading all sorts of stuff. There's nothing fannish which has particularly grabbed me lately, although I recently binged my way through the 3 seasons of Versailles, which I missed first time around. I was dragged into it by Tumblr, I must confess, with the promise of an OT3 which very much lived up to what I wanted from it and therefore does not generate fic ideas at all. Boy, that theme music is massively annoying though, with the whiny vocals. *shudders*

I've also been getting back into podcasts, even though I don't really drive as far as I used to - there's some really excellent ones out there and I think I'll do a separate post on them in the next couple of weeks, in the hopes this account doesn't get left to lie fallow all summer. No promises, though!
graculus: (oh please)
In work news, I am counting down to leaving my current employers, as it's looking more and more like they're about to go down with all hands. Got some of my pay the day I was supposed to, though it was looking touch and go at one point as to whether anyone would get anything, the rest arriving in my bank account 2 days later. And then the director is sending snippy emails telling people to 'stop the chit chat' about the fact they haven't been paid/have little confidence they will and get on with their work. Looks like only a matter of time before they go under, if that performance is anything to go by...

In ferret news, poor Monty (had I mentioned I had to name at least one of the Lads, as he was off to the vet a while back and I didn't want to try and explain they didn't have names?) has suspected adrenal disorder and will be back at the vets on Wednesday for blood to be taken and a skin sample too. He's got a little monk tonsure now, with the bit of his head between the ears all wrinkled and bald - I'd noticed his head was warm, but hadn't put it down to anything other than the weather and then suddenly, no hair!

After going through the surgical side of things with Lily a few years back, which only really gave her another 6 months, I'm much more inclined to go non-surgical this time around. Research has moved on since then, with a hormonal implant usually used for chemical neutering being used to treat the symptoms of adrenal as well. It's not a cure, but at 5+ and with an already enlarged spleen, he's not the best candidate for surgery anyway - not sure if my vet would even want to operate, given it's still not particularly common and last time round I had to scour the Midlands for anyone who'd done the operation previously.

All of this will have to wait till after WorldCon, as I'm off down to London next Thursday for that. I've picked out a few panels etc. that I really want to attend but am still trying to not over-commit (which would be incredibly easy to do).

In non-fannish TV, Great British Bake Off is back! Is it wrong of me to want something to go horribly wrong? I was delighted last season (or was it the one before?) when someone used salt instead of sugar in something and next week is free-standing biscuit tableaux. Something is bound to fall over/collapse, though the likelihood of tears has dramatically reduced after the first exit of the series. I'm making a long-range prediction that Nancy is going to win, so we'll see if I'm right...
graculus: (Default)
Because I need new TV shows, clearly, I tried out two new contenders for the watchlist with varying degrees of success:

Fargo

I love the Coen brothers. I didn't love this. Not really sure why, except that I don't really find Martin Freeman all that interesting an actor any more (if I ever did) as all I can see is John Watson with a funny accent. Ho hum.

Turn

Came for Jamie Bell, stayed for Jamie Bell and Burn Gorman and incredible amounts of snark from a character called Simcoe who is played by a guy called Samuel Roukin. For someone who's spoilers for episodes 1-3 )

Since it's set in the US revolutionary war, there seem to be more Brit actors in it than not and so far it's managing to avoid the cliché of British-bad and American-good.


Oh, and Orphan Black is back and what Felix is wearing for most of the first episode of season 2 is well worth the price of admission on its own! ;)
graculus: (Default)
Best shows of 2013 (in no particular order), all back in 2014:

  • Orphan Black - just two words for why anyone should watch, those words being 'Tatiana Maslany'. Can't wait to see what season 2 has in store for us!
  • Hannibal - an unexpected addition to the list, helped immensely by how awesome Bryan Fuller is, looking forward to seeing where we go next...
  • Sleepy Hollow - it's a crazy idea for a show but the (beautifully diverse) cast is great, even if Orlando Jones' involvement with fandom scares me a little!
  • Almost Human - I love Michael Ealy, so this was a no-brainer and I'm really enjoying this show so far.
  • Elementary - more great performances from a fantastic (again nicely diverse) cast, looking forward to the rest of season 2!
  • Person of Interest - I want to be cross with TPTB, but I love what they're doing anyway, so I can't be too mad with them...
  • In The Flesh - great little zombie show, season 2 is on in March, highly recommend!

    Shows that didn't live up to their potential/hype:

  • Agents of SHIELD - alas, poor show, you had so much to give but ended up being 2-dimensional white folks and their angst with occasional Melinda May awesome crowbarred in.

    Gone but not forgotten:

  • Happy Endings
  • Fringe
  • Go On
  • graculus: (Default)
    So, after the most recent (apparently unfounded) panic over on LJ, I have finally taken the plunge and backed up my account over onto DW - who knew I had posted 1500 times, though that's probably a drop in the ocean compared to some folks? Now it's time to see if this cross-posting palaver actually works or not and tell you all the exciting things I've been getting up to.

    *watches tumbleweed blow across*

    Okay, so maybe not that exciting!

    I spent yesterday afternoon getting inducted into my new job, so I am now legally allowed to offer to take people downstairs in the special chair if there's a fire or other need to evacuate the building. It was quite entertaining watching the university students milling around on the stairs as we practiced. My proper shifts start next Monday and I'm not sure if I'd mentioned previously that I'll be working (mostly) nights? It's been a while since I've done that but hopefully it won't be too bad once I get used to it - it may just be easier on the whole to go nocturnal, though some of the weekend shifts are daytime so we'll have to see how best to approach it.

    I'm still keeping an eye out for other jobs, but at least this takes the pressure off a bit financially and also gives me a) a foot in the door (at the university and generally in that line of work, if this is where I end up going) and b) someone else other than my former manager to give me a professional reference if needed. Though I'm not sure if my new employer even contacted the folks I'd given as a reference this time around (two former colleagues, both of whom liked me and despised my former manager).

    I'm also enjoying the adult teaching course I've recently started, so I'm not committing myself yet to any one particular direction - most of what I might want to do, however, requires further training/qualifications and that means a significant cash investment so I'm keen to get it right before I jump in...

    In other news, thanks so much to my participation in fandom for making me no longer able to consume unthinkingly. Really, thanks for that. Life was so much easier before I was primed to notice things like the preponderance of white actors in shows or dodgy representations of women in general, not to mention other minority groups/cultures/sub-cultures. Or clunky writing and poor characterisation.

    It seems to end up being something of a bargaining process with the shows I'm currently watching - I'll take your overall positive casting/good writing of non-white actors in major roles but balance it against your specific dodgy representation of a particular minority group. Yes, Sleepy Hollow I am looking at you. I am still mostly enjoying the hell out of you and you have lived up to my hopes more than other shows - also congrats on getting a season 2 order only 3 episodes in! - but carry on with the (mostly) good stuff or else.

    In returning shows news, I am enjoying the heck out of both Elementary and Person of Interest, the latter being helped immensely by the presence of Shaw as a returning character. Some of the fandom seems quite ambivalent about her and it's always interesting to see the double standard well and truly in action where female characters are concerned. On the one hand, there are obviously folks out there who don't like Shaw because they perceive her as a 'threat' to Carter, both in terms of overall screentime and any potential romantic entanglements with Reece, but it's also quite possible to dislike a female character because you dislike the character, not just because she's female. In this case, imo, you'd be wrong but them's the breaks. ;)

    When it comes to Agents of SHIELD I'm an equal opportunity disliker, both of Skye and Ward so far, in both cases because I don't think they're particularly well-written or acted. That could change, for either or both, or the show could just drop off my watchlist completely? At present I am certainly watching for (in order) Melinda May, Coulson and the science twins, so who's to say what might happen as the season rolls on?

    Day 30

    Sep. 30th, 2013 09:50 pm
    graculus: (Default)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 30 - Saddest Most infuriating character death

    Either way, no contest but that it's Daniel Jackson - first off, you have PTB who can't stand that the character involved has a massive amount of fans and so when it comes to writing him out of the show for reasons, there has to be an element of spite that you give him a painful, lingering death of radiation poisoning that has his insides turning to soup while none of the characters who supposedly care for him can touch him.

    Still bitter? If that had been the end of things, I probably would be, but we all know how that little tale turned out... ;)
    graculus: (UNCLE)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 29 - Current TV show obsession

    While it's true that Tumblr is excellent for enabling anyone's obsession, I think I've managed to avoid getting completely sucked in by anything in particular. Part of that is comparing my viewing/engagement with shows to how I was with Stargate SG-1 and also wondering whether the fact I'm not writing for any of these shows (yet, I have to always say yet, just in case) helps with that.

    There's something different about a show you write for, I think, in terms of the engagement you need or the engagement it makes you have, I'm not sure which. You might, after all, need to know exactly how someone's apartment is laid out or just where the characters were standing in relation to one another in a particular scene. That sort of devotion to detail sets up a real obsessional feedback loop if you're not careful. In comparison, getting dialogue or character names right is much easier, all there at the click of a search engine.

    So, current obsession? Nothing like it - there's a lot of shows I like, some I really like, but obsessive? No way.


    Three fics uploaded on AO3 for [community profile] trope_bingo so far:

  • Maker - WWW fic, prompt 'au: apocalypse

  • A Proper Sense of Decorum - Mag7 WIP, prompt 'rivals to lovers'. I've wanted to write Nathan/Rain/Ezra for some time and I've got a plan to make it work. ;)

  • Hinterland - Man from UNCLE, prompt 'mind control'

    I'm currently working on finishing the WIP, still writing my 1930's UNCLE AU (now almost 21,000 words!) and no actual sign of anything resembling a pattern on my [community profile] trope_bingo card in sight! :P
  • Day 28

    Sep. 28th, 2013 07:56 pm
    graculus: (geek love)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 28 - First TV show obsession

    While my first TV show love (and certainly longest lasting!) was Man from UNCLE, I have to admit my first TV show obsession was Stargate SG-1 - it is, after all, the show I have to blame for being in online fandom in the first place. It was a search for information about season 2 when season 1 was first airing in the UK that led me onto the internet, then down the rabbit hole of fanfic. Let's not talk about my first experience of slash, which it also gave me, since I'm lucky it didn't psychologically scar me for life. ;)

    It was that show that has given me a wide range of experiences over the years, not to mention online friends who I've also had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with face to face on two continents. It taught me about the power of denial, as well as making me write thousands of words about characters I came to know better than I know members of my own family and certainly like a great deal more. And now, even if there are episodes of the show I'll never see that don't actually exist and I don't feel I have any further stories to tell about those characters, I can't deny the effect it's had on my life.
    graculus: (Snape)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 27 - Best pilot episode

    A solid pilot episode is a must for me - if I can't even make it through that, then I'm never going to watch the show. I think I'm going to have to go with Person of Interest for this, with honourable mentions for White Collar and Life - it does a really nice job of setting up the characters of Reece and Finch, as well as their relationship, while teasing for some of the things we now know about them and the world they inhabit.


    In other news, I had a trip out earlier this week for what was supposed to be a job interview but was more an informal guided tour of a possible workplace, leaving me really uncertain about whether or not I'd hit the right note with the guys I saw. However, I just got a call from the agency who were arranging this to say that I've been made an offer and so I should be starting work mid-October!

    Basically, it's student wrangling in one of the libraries of a local university - the money's not great and the hours are crazy, but it's a foot in the door if I decide I want to go into this line of work in general as I need practical experience for the MA I've been looking at. It's also experience for applying for similar jobs with better pay and less crazy hours, so we'll see how things work out as we go along.

    Meanwhile, I've also started that preparatory adult teaching course (which is 14 weeks) and there may be the possibility of some work via someone I met there too. Because it's shift work, we'll see how knackered the odd hours leave me and go on from there...


    In other, other news, I've also just purchased my ticket for Loncon next August, so I'm sure I shall see some folks from my flist there - this year is the first since the very early years of me being in fandom proper that I haven't been to a con and I don't like it. How could I miss going to an actual WorldCon when one's so close(ish) to home? Meanwhile, regardless of that, this con will be made possible by a substantial and extremely unexpected cheque from my former employer, who apparently has to pay me for the annual leave I didn't get to take... ;)

    Day 26

    Sep. 26th, 2013 10:42 pm
    graculus: (Snape)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale

    Oh, so now it's 'season' is it? Make your bloody mind up.

    *thinks* I think it's probably going to be Grimm for which the season finales have seen respectively spoilers for season 1 ) and spoilers for season 2 ). Both developments, and others, done with a significant degree of apparent glee by TPTB.
    graculus: (Snape)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)

    In this case, it's new rather than old, with an honourable mention for Almost Human (Michael Ealy, how are you so fine?) but top of my current list is Masters of Sex, a Showtime series about the sex researchers Masters and Johnson. I was already intrigued by the idea of this as the basis for a drama and then they cast Michael Sheen as Dr William Masters and I was definitely sold. US premiere is Sunday 29th September, UK premiere is Tuesday 8th October.


    In related other news, so far I have watched the pilot epiodes of The Blacklist (since I love me some Spader) and Agents of SHIELD as well as the first two episodes of Sleepy Hollow and while this view may get me actively shunned, I think Sleepy Hollow does the better job of introducing the characters and getting you to engage with them.

    Spoilers for The Blacklist )

    Spoilers for Agents of SHIELD )

    Spoilers for Sleepy Hollow )

    Day 24

    Sep. 24th, 2013 10:58 pm
    graculus: (sarcasm)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 24 - Best quote

    "No man is free who works for a living. But I'm available." Illya Kuryakin, 'The Bow-Wow Affair'.

    Day 23

    Sep. 23rd, 2013 11:20 pm
    graculus: (Snape)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 23 - Most annoying character

    Chances are, if I find a character that annoying it's probably enough to make me not watch/stop watching something or other but then it also depends on why they annoy me.

    The main reason I'll find a character annoying is if it's clear that TPTB have a hard-on for them and yet there's no apparent reason for it in terms of either how interesting/well-written the character is or the quality of the actor's performance - a case in point, Rachel Zane on Suits, about whom I have previously ranted at length. It got to the point when my liking of that show was on the wane, for me mostly because of that character, that I couldn't even tolerate pictures of her turning up on my Tumblr dashboard. That's when I know it's time to pull the plug.

    Day 22

    Sep. 22nd, 2013 08:34 pm
    graculus: (sarcasm)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 22 - Favourite series finale

    Hmm. Stuck here on whether this means 'series' finale (as in the end of the show completely) or 'season' finale (as in the end of a part of a show that then returns for another 'series', as US-ians call it).

    If it's season finale, I'm not really sure I have a favourite; often shows get canned and don't know it so they don't get to wrap everything up and that's really frustrating, but when it works well... okay, I have to admit that I've been impressed with both the mid-season and end of season finales from Grimm this year, complete with faux-apologetic end credits. Guys, we know you're not sorry to do this to us, so don't pretend you are, okay? Can't wait to see how season 3 works out now spoilers for s2 of Grimm ).

    Day 21

    Sep. 21st, 2013 07:53 pm
    graculus: (sarcasm)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 21 - Favourite ship

    Oh, this is an easy one, it has to be HMS Surprise. Though I have a soft spot for that old scow HMS Polychrest, 'the carpenter's mistake'.

    Day 20

    Sep. 20th, 2013 10:33 pm
    graculus: (sarcasm)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 20 - Favourite kiss

    Say what now? Struggling with this one to even think about television kissing scenes, since I have been known to fast forward past those bits and on to more plot... so, pass. Sorry. Next question?
    graculus: (sarcasm)
    The fandom meme )

    Day 19 - Best TV show cast

    At the moment (though ask me again tomorrow and my answer could be different), I think it's between Elementary and Orphan Black for this one, though I guess the presence of multiple Tatiana Maslany characters could balance things out a little too far in other direction?

    What I really like about Elementary is its non-tokenistic diversity, the fact that they've managed to cast a trans-sexual to play a trans-sexual, that Lucy Liu's portrayal of Watson has her character easily punching at the same weight as Holmes rather than being the bumbling sidekick and then there's Clyde. Oh, and Alfredo, whose actor has been an absolute revelation to me, having also enjoyed him very much in Copper.

    Where Orphan Black is concerned, even once you take away Ms Maslany's performance(s) you still have the awesomeness that is Jordan Gavaris as her foster brother Felix, a real scene-stealing turn from him and a bunch of solid supporting performances from everyone else we come across.


    Meanwhile, in other news I am still looking for work, which I fully expect to be the state of play for some time. Given that I was last actually unemployed in 1991, it's fair to say that things have changed a little when it comes to both dealing with the job centre and looking for jobs, though I wish there was a bit less duplication across the various websites I've been told to use. Been sending stuff off as directed but no joy so far except that...

    I got an unexpected phone call late this afternoon after I sent in a CV this morning and am off to sign up properly with that agency tomorrow, after which I should apparently expect a proper interview with actual employers. It's for a job at one of the local universities so I can see why they'd want someone in post asap and hopefully that someone will be me! *crosses fingers* ;)

    March 2021

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