Torchwood! Man, I haven't written an episode reaction since - uh, the last Doctor Who special.

( Children of Earth: Day One )

A rare meme appearance! I grabbed this one from austen.

Inspired by Doctor Who's "Turn Left:" Pick one of my stories (here) and tell me a point in the tale that you'd change. Something tiny (e.g. "and then Fay chose silver glitter instead of gold") or big (e.g. "and then Rose was arrested instead of Jack") and I'll tell you how that one difference would have altered the course of the entire story.

I'm about to head off to bed, and I'm working all day tomorrow, and then there will be Torchwood (I still cannot believe that I intend to WATCH it), but I will get to this.

As I'm sure many of you have done, I have lost multiple chunks of my life to TV Tropes. The most recent chunk was at the Wild Mass Guessing page, which is a gathering of pages on different fandoms discussing fanon theories from the sensible to the insane. Many of them have an "X is a Time Lord" guess, and since Dollhouse, there are a lot of "X is a Doll" guesses popping up, too.

So! In my idleness, I have decided to pose this - I don't know, meme I just made up to you guys.

Name me a fandom I'm familiar with, and I'll tell you who's a Time Lord, who's a Doll, or both (probably both) and why.

Feel free to swipe and use this yourself, if you could stand to kill some time.

Wow, I have been with the fail at posting lately. I'm getting back into the swing of working after the semester, and it's been tiring. Also my manager sucks at life, but I don't want to get pissed off all over again talking about it, so I'm not going any further into that.

Instead, I want to talk about the upcoming new series of Torchwood. (. . . Yeah, I know I quit the show after "Exit Wounds." I am continuing to watch it because SHUT UP, that's why.)

( Spoilers, complete with speculation based on the fact that I have watched television before. )

I never do anon memes, either throwing my hat in or commenting (laaaazy, also if I want you to know something I will tell you it), but someone started a new one over on JournalFen, so what the hell.

Anonymous Feedback/Concrit Post is my thread. You should also hit up the post proper to add your name, especially if the LJ ones are too freakily big for you and you'd like to start out someplace a little quieter.

. . . wow, okay. So. You know what's a really good way to highlight Chuck's inherently juvenile and creepy treatment of women? Watching an episode of it right after tonight's episode of Dollhouse.

(Yeah, I've resumed watching the second season of Chuck after exasperation with the Buy More subplots chased me off when I was marathoning the show a couple months ago. Those subplots still suck. I'm tired of all those people and I have no idea why none of them have quit or gotten fired. But the actual interesting part of the show has proven worth sitting through the annoying and boring parts.)

Buuut anyway. See, Dollhouse has its issues too, many of which are FOX-induced, but it knows it. These past couple of episodes have deliberately ramped up the creepiness factor, with Joss making the entire premise as queasy as possible without actually causing people to vomit. It's made the show better, because it's thought-provoking and it won't let you settle down and choose a side, because EVERYONE is horrifying.

Chuck just - does it accidentally. And I gloss over that, probably because of internalized blah blah blah, but going into it with the mindset Dollhouse put me in ended up with me getting pretty pissed off.

I'm not really sure what my point is here. Don't watch fun goofy stuff with women issues after watching dark creepy fucked-up stuff with women issues, I guess.

I think it's time for me to sleep now.

* Dreamwidth codes. I got five two ONE of 'em. You guys can has.

* I am slowly but surely working my way along on the crossover challenge, commenting with finished snippets as I go. There's no way I'm going to finish all of them - some of them just aren't happening for me, or they're ideas I've already read and I can't get that out of my head to come up with my own take - but I'm working. I'll make a post with all the ones I finish when I, uh. Finish.

* . . . there would be more stuff, but I'm tired.

A few random WTFs.

* Fresh from 0-16, Detroit Lions adopts [sic] a fiercer logo.

*facepalm* Yes. Because. The logo. That was the problem. Superbowl next year for sure!

* I am so sick of my Shakespeare professor. You know what? I do not believe that every single syllable of every single play Shakespeare ever wrote has eighteen different meanings. I just don't. I think some of it is exactly what it looks like on the surface, and some of it BUT NOT ALL OF IT is a lot more complex, just like any other quality work of entertainment. Okay?

* I've been playing this great game called Human Age for well over a year now, possibly pushing two. I'm not sure. It's one of those very low-key game that only requires a few minutes of play every day, and I'm completely addicted and I love it. It's got a quirky sense of humor, which is compounded by the fact that it's a French game translated imperfectly into English - the translations are clear and always coherent, but some of the word choices add an extra layer of entertainment.

Anyway. In the Second Age, you can end up with a pet snake, whose venom you can harvest and sell. The game practically insists that you do this. When you do, it knocks off seventy-five percent of your snake's health (the game doesn't allow you to do it until the snake is over seventy-five percent, so you won't kill it), which then leads to text guilt-tripping you about your unhealthy snake. IT IS A VICIOUS CYCLE.

And yes, I named my snake Grahame.

* A word of RP advice: Be aware of the headache you are taking on if you choose to play a character that is meant primarily as a metaphorical construct. Because when you start treating the character as a character and trying to create something cohesive and playable, it turns out to be IMPOSSIBLE and you end up with stupid questions like, "If he thinks all religious figures tell one hundred percent of the truth one hundred percent of the time, and the Bishop of Digne says the silver was a gift, why the fuck does he think Valjean stole it anyway?" And you CANNOT ANSWER THEM and you end up hoping an awful lot of shit just never comes up in-game. Thanks, Victor Hugo.

Why couldn't I have picked Marius instead?

Last year, I issued a request for crossover challenges, and wrote snippets for them. I got damn near all of them done (I never finish every challenge for these things, I'm afraid; some of them just don't gel for me) and had a lot of fun. So I'm gonna do another round.

( The list is shorter this time around, but I think you guys'll manage. )

Ways in which computer/internet technology has progressed: I am no longer required to download a separate file in order to view Chinese or Japanese characters. No more rows of empty squares and question marks!

. . . admittedly, I cannot read Chinese or Japanese, so the characters make about as much sense to me as the empty squares and question marks did, but THAT IS NOT THE POINT.

So apiphile is hosting a kissing fic meme, which you should all go post in, and she asked, um - someone else entirely for John Winchester/Comedian.

I poached it and immediately fucked it up, because it failed to be slash. Yeah. that's right. I wrote something that isn't slash. Quick, get your smelling salts!

So here it is, a hastily written Watchmen/Supernatural crossover ficlet in which canons mesh almost too well and also I make no promises about the Comedian's characterization, since I'm not as familiar with WM as I usually like to be before I try my hand at fic. But for commentfic, that's allowed.

( John Winchester is surprised as hell to open his eyes and discover that he's not dead. )

So mostly, the "random" feature on MP3 players is random only to a point, randomly playing the same twenty-five songs over and over regardless of how many actual songs you have.

Every once in a very great while, though, it will really make my day. It did the other day, when I was walking home, by first cuing up "Bad Horse Letter" from Dr Horrible, which is short enough for me to post the (almost) full lyrics:

He rides across the nation
The thoroughbred of sin
He got the application
You just sent in

It needs evaluation
So let the games begin
A heinous crime, a show of force
A murder would be nice of course

Bad Horse
Bad Horse
Bad Horse
He’s Bad

The Evil League of Evil
Is watching so beware
The grade that you receive
Will be your last we swear

So make the Bad Horse gleeful
Or he’ll make you his mare . . .

Get/You’re saddled up
There’s no recourse
It’s Hi-Ho Silver
Signed Bad Horse

There was that moment of silence between songs. Then:

Javert: Listen, my friends, I have done as I said
I have been to their lines
I have counted each man
I will tell what I can.

Cue me, staggering along the sidewalk outside a hospital, giggling helplessly to myself.

NO, JAVERT. BAD JAVERT. NO BISCUIT.

(Random aside: Thanks to the Les Mis blooper reel, I nearly typed "I have been to their homes/I have watered their plants," which is, as far as I'm concerned, an infinitely superior interpretation.)

Yeah, so, I gave up. My computer is with a local shop for investigation and possible repair. I should hear back in a couple days about what needs to be done.

This means that the earliest I could possibly get it back, between my work schedule and their hours of operation, is Monday, and that seems pretty unlikely. I'll have some access on campus, but don't expect to see me around over the weekend.

In other news, a couple items of dorktasticness:

* In Spanish class on Tuesday, discussion of iPods turned to discussion of downloads, and my professor said, "I've only downloaded one thing. Anyone else heard of Doctor Horrible's blog?" I believe my approximate response was "EEE." And then we had a brief geek bonding moment.

* Then later, in my Performance Genre class, we were discussing A Doll's House, and the professor was talking about Nora's limited options after the end of the play. He asked, "Where could she go?"

I thought for a minute, and then I decided: The Doctor showed up and grabbed her as a companion, obviously.

Now I almost kind of want to write this. Nora would be an awesome companion, and the timing would be perfect. The Doctor could help her find who she is, and he needs someone after Donna and the terrible writing unfortunate circumstances surrounding her departure. IT WOULD BE GREAT.

* I just saw Taken again. Why did I do this, when I already knew it kinda sucked and would get on my nerves? Um. I forget. It probably had something to do with Milliways, as do many things these days. But hey, it was kinda more fun this time around, and I noticed at least one difference between it and the British release I downloaded last year. It would just an editing thing, but it happened to involve leaving out the single most cringeworthy shot. I appreciated this very much.

Anyway, I'm running down on the time I bought at the internet café, so I must flee. I'll keep you guys updated as best I can.

omg. Watchmen, you guys. Was so pretty.

( I only have a couple of thoughts, but obvs they go under spoiler cuts. )

* And a bit that doesn't need to be under a cut - I ♥ Jeffrey Dean Morgan. We all knew that.

(Also, seriously, so pretty. Regardless of what you think of the story, you have to admit it was all fucking gorgeous.)

Then after the movie I stopped off at a bar for a quick beer and ended up listening to part of a live musical set that included two Tenacious D covers. Geek night: complete success.

Emergency trip to mall today, as my computer apparently did not feel the need to acknowledge the connection to my cable modem. I optimistically decided that the problem was the cable, so it's constantly falling out of the jack on the laptop and I've figured for a while that it's kinda broken but have lacked interest in spending money on a new cable.

Bad news: New cable is even worse fit, which forces me to admit that the jack is what's fucked up (which I secretly knew while firmly ignoring it), and that plus the unresponsive CD-ROM and a host of random other things are really going to require a trip to get it fixed in the near future. (Shame I don't drive, iarwain, because otherwise I would totally use the excuse to make the trip out to Nashua.)

. . . or maybe I'll just look into getting a wireless router. Do I have to do that through my ISP, or can I get one and hook it up myself?

If I do THAT, I will not be like my neighbors and blithely leave my network unlocked and leechable. :D

Good news: I was drawn to Borders by the irresistible force of books, and located a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. (Yeah, that's right, I got it before you can order it on the Internets. Go, brick and mortar?)

The look on the cashier's face when I set it down was fantastic.

Occasionally, as an English major, one gets the chance to write something incredibly ridiculous. On Tuesday, I got to write and pass in a paper comparing Hamlet and The Fix. (This was my justification for paying actual money for that bootleg: "It's okay, it's for SCHOOL!")

I think my flist contains a few people as geeky as I am who might be interested in reading this paper, so I figured I'd throw it up here. It's not as thorough as I'd like - it came out to six and a half pages for a five-page assignment, and that was after skipping the comparison of Tina and Ophelia - but I think it's a decent overview. And it does contain a brief summary of The Fix (an incomplete one, but it has what you need to know for the paper), so if you're not familiar with it, it's okay.

( A closer examination, and strong familiarity with both plays, makes it clear that The Fix is in actuality an aggressively cynical retelling of Hamlet. )

My two favorite things about writing this paper:

* Srs Scholastic Discussion of fictitious gay incest

* The fact that my Works Cited contains a website entitled "Zombie Prom (A New Musical)." Guys, when you are writing about a work as obscure as The Fix, you take your outside sources where you can find 'em.

My two least favorite things about writing this paper:

* As you may have gathered, my professor has a Thing about the Oedipal complex theory; we read Hamlet for his class after reading Oedipus Rex, and also he teaches a class on Freud. I HATE the Oedipal complex theory as applied to Hamlet SO GODDAMN MUCH, but it happens to work in favor of my argument, so I went with it.

* This is my third paper on Hamlet in two semesters. (It should be my fourth, but I never did get my shit together on that assignment last semester.) Good thing I love Hamlet, right? Now can I please have at least another year before I end up studying the fucking thing again?

RP meme! Swiped from varadia:

Give me a character and I will give you at least three facts about them according to my own personal canon. This can range from their birthday, favorite color or even their earliest memory up to what they had last night for dinner.

Oh, man, I think I love my Western Civ professor.

Random Classmate: "How long do you want the answers to be on the test?"
Professor: "About eight minutes."
My Classmates: ". . ."
Me: *spends rest of class fighting off intermittent gigglefits*

And he spent the rest of class answering the question without in any way offering helpful information. He's kind of amazing like that. He can be really exasperating, but he does love the subject and he's pretty funny sometimes. I mean, on purpose.

I just wish I didn't constantly have the feeling in that class like we're missing the most important stuff that really ties everything together, but I can probably only expect so much from a 100-level Western Civ class. I'm only taking it because it's a prereq for the French Revolution and Napoleon class I really want to take, anyway.

(Which: I know this is in no way a news bulletin to anyone who has previously managed to take a halfway decent world history class, but I have not done that until now, so - French history is FUCKED UP. How that country even still exists is frankly beyond me right now. Holy crap.)

YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS.

I have, currently paused on my DVD player to as to avoid EXPLODING with glee, a full bootleg of the London show of The Fix. I did not even want to mention on my journal that I had purchased it, for fear of somehow jinxing it (things in my life tend to get screwed up by the stupidest details - in this case, I was afraid that my ancient DVD player would not be able to play a burned DVD, and felt strongly that this could be avoided by not talking about it too much; obviously I was right) BUT NOW IT IS HERE AND I HAVE IT AND IT WORKS OMG.

I never, ever thought I would actually get to see it. My glee, it is EPIC.

There is that and there is also the Milliways side of things: I CAN HAS CANON YOU GUYS. Time to see what-all I completely fucked up! And what new stuff I can use to torment Cal further! And FINALLY I will be able to resolve The Problem Of Tina.

OKAY I AM GOING TO GO WATCH NOW BUT I HAD TO COME SPAZ AT YOU ALL FIRST.

Yeah, that meme that's going around. I got mine from sotto_voice.

Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

( Really long works of literature )

( Obscure musicals )

( Red Sox woo! )

( Food service industry )

( Maaaaaaaine )