shadowkat | Random ramblings and a tech/website question

Current Mood: procrastinating

Random ramblings and a tech/website question

Just spent some time at tea at the ford, a lovely new site featuring Buffy and Angel essays - if you haven't gone there yet? Do. It has some of the best fanboard essayists on it - plin, alcibades, sanguine, elz, amongst others.

Here's the url:

http://www.teaattheford.net/about.php

Yes, I'm continuing to break my new year's resolutions - I'm supposed to be researching corporations, working on resumes, and applying for jobs - not visiting Btvs/ATs fansites and reading posts. Or posting for that matter.

To give myself a little credit - I did redo my job alert agents in NYTimes emails and did print off two HR jobs that I'm going to try and figure out how to apply to - tomorrow so not all was wasted. Will also contact Wale's former temp agency tomorrow. My friend Wales after five years hunting a permanent job finally got one - with a law firm as a legal secretary. Go Wales!! (Not my cup of tea, secretary stuff - can barely type 20 words per minute, but Wales is a whiz.)

Also spent a few hours reading Dunnett's Disorderly Knights and it's really getting good. If you liked Angel S2-4 and like the historical period of 1540-1558, you'll love this. Lymond the central character reminds me a great deal of Angelus/Angel - in the previous books he'd reminded me of Spike, but now...in looks maybe, but in personality? He's a lot more like Angel/Angelus in some ways. There's this female in the book - Oonaugh O'Dwyer whose older than him and is a lot, I mean, a lot, like Darla. Plus a Holtz-like villian, complete with religious conviction. It's not the same of course - no vampires or supernatural, but it parallels the Angel/Darla/Connor/Holtz story very closely, even has a Wes in the mix. Can't wait to finish - so I can write a comparison. Reading Dunnett has given me a new appreciation for the character of Angel.

Other time was spent on, well, breaking another new year's resolution - reading fanfic.

I blame automatedalice for this - although it's more my fault than hers, I did not have to click on her recommendation. Dang it. She keeps referring me to enticing AU fanfic, which are works in progress, I get hooked and the frigging writer never finishes the work. The last one I got hooked on was redrover's Summer Son, which she stopped at 29 chapters. Ugh! Last update was 11/15. That was one intriguing fanfic - I really couldn't decide if the characters were anti-heroes. It was so dark and agnsty and interesting. Flawed perhaps. But, to be honest, most of the books I read this holiday season were seriously flawed - and those guys were bestselling writers, paid, and published. The only book that I've read recently that wasn't flawed was Disorderly Knights - and Dunnett went back and revised that one after it was published. (Want to see flawed - go check out the sample chapters of my book - which should still be up at my site, because I lost my web designer and can't figure out how to remove them myself, ugh. Talk about something in need of serious revising.)

Now...thanks to alice and my own lack of self-discipline, I seem to be getting into More Than Strangers. (Which isn't quite as good as Summer Son or Half-Gifts plotwise, more sex than story is just one of the problems, but it has potential - I keep hoping s/he'll come up with a nice twist, have the hero do a hostile corporate takeover or something. Give a reason why the two male characters are rivals and doing this to each other. I even came up with a slashy twist. This is what happens when I let myself read fanfic, I start coming up with variations and it distracts me horribly from what I should be doing!) Plus automatedalice hasn't finished her own really good fic - Half Gifts, which I liked even better than the other two. (It's AU after S6 - and I sort of like her story better than ME's S7. She does some interesting things with the Watcher Council and I like the fact that SouledSpike hooked up with Willow and Giles first - that was an interaction I craved in S7 and never got.) All this after I'd successfully sworn off fanfic for the hundredth time, Summer Son was the last one I read, - b/c all the ones I find interesting, so interesting I start writing my own portions in my head, no one finishes! It's like watching a tv series that gets cancelled half-way through or a film trilogy that never gets completed. Note to self - do not read WIP's. No good can come of it. Actually I probably shouldn't be delving into fanfic again ...no distractions remember? sigh. Must discipline myself this year. Next thing I know I'll be writing another Angel essay and posting it on the boards (Already came up with two in my head - on the plane ride home I thought up one on puppet metaphors and now reading Disorderly Knights? Got one comparing Angel to Lymond in Dunnett's works.. Also came up with something on Spike and how he thinks women only want him for sex, nothing else - see? Baaad!!) ...when I should be doing something a tad more constructive - such as writing a publishable short story, reworking cover letters...researching companies. Must keep myself focused. Must not give in to the desire to distract myself.

(I know, I'm a bad fanfic reader - I never give feedback, but part of that is well, I'm a little wary of influencing the writer or pushing buttons and the other is not the best
critic. When you write something? That's your baby sitting there - you get edgy when people criticize it, even if you need criticism to get better. Horrible catch-22. Ugh. Hard being a writer. Harder being a critic. I also get embarrassed admitting I read fic - silly, I know, but true. I make no sense. ;-) )

End of beating myself over the head repeatedly with a stick rant.

Movies - didn't see that many this year, but from what I saw?

1. American Splendor (far and away the best film of the year, flawless)
2. Return of the King (the best fantasy film I've seen)
3. Finding Nemo (very enjoyable surprise and hilarous)
4. Kill Bill (innovative and filled with interesting layers)
5. X-Men 2 (not bad for a super-hero movie - exceeded the first one)
6. The Mighty Wind

(I saw other movies, but cannot for the life of me remember most of them. Pirates of the Carribean? Amusing. But overall? I found it disappointing in places and it drug towards the end. Can't for the life of me understand why everyone loved it so much. First half was sort of fun. But then I'm not a huge Johnny Depp fan, he just doesn't do anything for me (I know I'm in the minority on that one, but there it is.) so that may have had something to do with it. Saw it with Wales, who is completely enamored with Johnny Depp (don't get this at all) - but didn't like the movie - so maybe that didn't have anything to do with it? Matrix Revolutions? Not as good as Matrix Reloaded also dull in places. Matrix Reloaded? Okay. Was a tad disappointed. Bad Santa - funny, but couldn't make up it's mind what it wanted to be. Neither could Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions for that matter. The Hulk? Same problem. (Hmmm...this may be a trend.) Also a tad confusing for the eye - demonstrated to me why you shouldn't literally try to transfer the comic book form to screen - American Splendor did a far better job of doing this. Swimming Pool? Felt a tad empty. Also couldn't make up it's mind on what it wanted to be. That's all I recall.)

Television

1. Angel the Series S4-S5
2. Joan of Arcadia
3. Coupling (the British series on BBCamerica not the horrible American rip-off)
4. Nip/Tuck (best new drama this year)
5.Buffy the Vampire Slayer ( not great in 2003, but better than most shows on)
6. The Practice revised with James Spader, the episodes that took place after the Chris O'Donnell/Sharon Stone arc
7. Arrested Development
8. Two episodes of The OC - Christmaskhua and the one before it
9. Alias (not great, but did have it's moments)
10. DreamKeeper - the Native American Miniseries that aired right before New Year's.

Books

1. Queen's Play by Dorothy Dunnett
2. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
3. Shards of Honor by Lois MacMaster Bujould
4. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
5. Perfume by ?
6. League of Extraordinary Gentleman by Alan Moore

Fanfiction (quilty pleasure - these are from what I remember reading in 2003)
1. Half-Gifts by automated alice
2. Subleties by eliade
3. When in Rome by ?
4. Summer Son by redrover
5. Rose petals? by fresne
6. Hard Candy by ??
7. Heliotope by gwynr

Have a question - for the tech people out there?
Does anyone know how to get into a geocities website?
I apparently lost my website designer who kindly posted all that stuff on my site and can no longer post anything or remove anything. Can anyone advise?
The site is www.geocities.com/shadowkatbtvs
I'd like to post my Fatals essay, the Cordy one, and
the Pitfalls of Television - and take down the sample chapters, but I don't know how to do it.

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I can't answer your question completely, as I know nothing about Geocities specifically, I do very little actual uploading to the internet, and I'm not on my home computer on which I can try things out and then tell you what was successful, but I will try. You can upload and remove pages from most websites by using an FTP program -- I use WS_FTP, which you can search for at download.com (it's freeware). I found FTPing surprisingly easy and self-explanatory. However, you're going to need the password for the site. If you cannot contact your website designer, you're probably out of luck.

Thanks! I hunted through my email archive and did find the information she'd sent me on the password and getting into the site. I'm going to try some of what she suggested - it was way back in 2002, and see if it works. If not, I might bug you - if that's okay? ;-)

That would be fine. I do suspect that someone who actually knows what she is talking about might come through here sooner or later and render me useless, though.

If you get stuck, email me ATPoLittleBit@aol.com

I used to have several sites on Geocities that I designed and managed and I don't think they've changed the process that much.

I know Hard Candy is by Annie Sewell-Jennings and wisteria (guh, love that series so much! I pimp it all the time).

Btw, sparked by your comment on Half Gifts and souled Spike going to see Willow and Giles... have you ever read Rachel Anton's Geek the Girl series? Beautifully written character studies of Spike/Willow, a pairing that makes a lot of sense in her universe.

Tried to reply to this post several times yesterday and livejournal wouldn't let me - so will see if it works this time. ;-)

I haven't Rachel Anton's series - but may check it out since I trust your taste in fanfic. (Course I am trying to stop reading fanfic and focus on other things at the moment...;-) ). I tend to stay away from fanfic concentrating on Willow though - a little wary of it, for several reasons - the main one being that most writers just don't seem to know how to write her - she either comes across as "too cutesy" or a bit of a harpy. They also seem to have troubles with the character's sexual orientation. Also the S/W pairing doesn't really work for me as anything more than friendship - not sure why, could be that I see Willow as more gay now than bi, or the characters are just too similar in certain ways? Not sure.
It's just never really worked for me. The only non-cannon pairings for Spike that work for me oddly enough are S/X and S/A...which is incredibly weird, but may have to do with some of the homoerotic innuendo/subtext that the writers placed in certain episodes of BTVS and ATS which hit me a certain way? (Hush, Beneath You, LMPTM, Doomed for S/X and Innocence, Becoming II, Lover's Walk, In The Dark, Destiny, Just Rewards, Fool For Love for S/A). That said, I might still try it...when I find the time.

Oh dear, I am being a bad person and tempting you...

In general, I like Anton's characterization of Willow. The series starts sometime in mid-S6, and I think she handles the addiction storyline a lot better than ME ultimately did. That said, the last installment (Diary of Geek the Girl) definitely gets to the sappy side, although once I was sucked in, it was hard to stop reading. The first three can function as pure character pieces emphasizing similarities and friendship instead of romance, imho.

Huh, I never quite got S/X, probably because I saw S6 and S2 before S4, so the Xander in my mind virulently hates vampires and hates Spike. But then I guess that could turn into some sort of Krychek/Mulder thing. S/A I'd like to think is practically canon now ;).

There's very few S/X fics that work for me. Only two actually and one is a dream sequence and very brutal, the other is AU fic that takes place five years after S7, and Spike didn't die - that's Subleties by eliade and the characters really are AU. Other than that? Most of them fall flat for me.

S/A? God, I think I've become an S/A shipper - I was reading More Than Strangers the other day and found myself writing a chapter with sex between Spike/Angel in my head.
(The person writing it is a B/S shipper not S/A, so clearly she did not intend for me to go there.) That said?
Show-wise, I hope they never show us anything and keep it
on a pure subtext level, focusing instead of the brother relationship between the two - which is actually more interesting than a romantic relationship would be. On ME's shows I almost prefer the friendships/family relationships to the romances. The only romances that really intrigued me where the dark ones: Spike/Buffy, Spike/Dru, Angel/Darla, Wes/Lilah, Faith/Xander, Cordelia/Xander. Yes, I'm a weird and slightly sadistic shipper, I know.

I keep hearing about Subtleties! But I haven't read it yet -- it's the S/X thing and the fact that I didn't like her Season Noir as much as most people seem too, sadly.

Nyargh, definitely don't want S/A onscreen, because eventually there'd be a breakup and bye-bye Spike! Or something of that sort, since ME doesn't seem to believe in building long-term romantic relationships, as opposed to their very good familial/friend ones. The angsty ships are the ones that hit me hard in the guy. Actually, that's not true -- it's the ones in which you know it's a car wreck about to happen that hit me in the gut. I love those. S/B, Spike/Dru, Angel/Darla, Wes/Lilah esp. I think I just never got into Sydney and Vaughn on Alias because they never started as a dysfunctional couple.

Huh, this is a slightly disturbing trend.

Huh, this is a slightly disturbing trend.

LOL! Actually I think so many people confuse what they or others may want in fantasy with what they want in real life. For me, at least, the darker more angsty stories in fiction are more interesting than the happy ones - partly because no relationship is completely happy and partly because there's more chemistry between characters when they are at odds with each other - it shows up on screen more - it's the anticipation of that kiss which may or may not ever happen, the desire to seem them embrace, to see her admit her love for him or vice versa that captures us. In real life? It's just annoying - no one wants to sustain that tension forever or even deal with it. But onscreen or in a book - where we get but a brief snap-shot? It's enthralling. I was watching part of Gone with The Wind with my mother over the holidays - and she pointed out that part of the appeal of the Scarlett/Rhett relationship is you are dying for her to tell him she loves him - but know she never will until it's far too late. That tension between the two of them is why the romance has been popular for over 50 years. In reality? Shudder.

I agree the problem with Syd/Vaughn is the conflict between them isn't based so much on the characters themselves a la Rhett and Scarlett, but on outside forces or events that have just interfered. They'd be together if he didn't think she'd died and had remarried. That's not true conflict - so much as contrived conflict and it gets dull after a while on screen at least for me. Much more interesting is the relationship between Jack and Irina, who love each other, but whose personalities and allegiances get in the way, or even Sloan and Emily - where it is Sloan's own interests and flaws that cost him Emily. That's more complex. Same is true in BTVS - B/A only had Angel's pesky curse keeping them apart, how dull.
B/S had so many other murky issues - such as Buffy's romantic ideals, Spike's mother issues, etc...you could write five to six essays and still not cover everything - this gives the writer far more story to examine. It's something worth keeping in mind as a writer, I think - if you create a romantic relationship between two characters make sure the relationship gives you something interesting to explore in each character and doesn't stagnate them. I think JJ Abrahms discovered this with Vaughn/Syd being together and happy last year - which is why he split them apart. The problem is the split is still a contrived one...the audience knows if Lauren were to betray Vaughn or leave, Syd/Vaughn would be back together. They need something more for it to be unpredictable or interesting, as it stands Lauren has unfortunately become, in some fans minds, nothing more than a hated obstacle.

Actually I think so many people confuse what they or others may want in fantasy with what they want in real life.

I very much agree -- reminds me of the people who say that the coercion fantasies in romance make real women look for abusive relationships, like the readers can't actually tell the difference between fiction and reality. I love messed up relationships on TV, but I ended up dating the fuzziest, nicest guy ever, go fig ;).

That said, I kind of wish there were more long-term romances on TV. I think the problem is that either relationships are angsty beyond all belief because of the car-wreck quality, or because of some sort of fate intervening when the people are "meant to be" (B/A, Syd/Vaughn). And if they aren't angsty beyond all belief, they're beautiful and happy and perfect (the feeling I get from Riley/Buffy). So then the producers decide angsty is better.

That's one thing I really loved about Firefly -- Zoe and Wash were a great married couple. They didn't have angst by the dozen, but there were nicks and twists in the relationship, and yet, they dealt with it like actual people. I particularly love the moment in War Stories when Zoe shoots Mal and asks the guy, "What, you wanted me to choose between then?" or something to that effect.

Poor bitched about and unliked Lauren =(. I've taken to her rather strongly, but then, I wasn't that into S/V to begin with. Actually, I wish Vaughn would cheat on her so she could dump his lying ass.

That said, I kind of wish there were more long-term romances on TV. I think the problem is that either relationships are angsty beyond all belief because of the car-wreck quality, or because of some sort of fate intervening when the people are "meant to be" (B/A, Syd/Vaughn). And if they aren't angsty beyond all belief, they're beautiful and happy and perfect (the feeling I get from Riley/Buffy). So then the producers decide angsty is better.

I wonder sometimes if network execs and tv producers fall into the same traps as romance novelists and romance novel publishers - they just can't figure out how to show a real relationship with all its ups and downs effectively. Those of us who have had relationships know there has to be more going on their chemistry for it to work. The two people need a commonality of interest - they need to be able to actually have a conversation that lasts more than 20 minutes. And they have to be able to accept each other at their worste and their best. B/A - really doesn't work b/c the two characters never have a conversation that isn't sappy or confrontational - we don't see them as friends. Buffy even says as much in Lover's Walk. It didn't have to be that way - it's how the writers chose to write it. Same with B/R - which we never really see developed as anything other than a romantic - heavy on the sex- relationship - which writes Riley into a corner. Compare this to Firefly which doesn't show the sex between Zoe and Wash, but does show these two interacting. (Actually B/S in S3-S5, beginning of S6, and S7 got that across as well - when they weren't into kissing or sex - was when we got a far more interesting interaction, in fact you see a more evolved relationship develop sans the sex or making out onscreen.) Whedon in his commentary to the Pilot of Firefly, mentions how he deliberately refrained from showing a closeup of Zoe/Wash's sex scenes, he was interested in showing that in another way. I think this is a trend in Whedon's work actually - he sees onscreen sex as being impersonal - possibly exploitive, so has characters pay for it or only shows it when it is meant to be impersonal or exploitive - ie the B/S sex in S6, the W/L in S4 ATS, the Inanara sex with her clients. Yet when you get a true connection between characters - such as the B/A scene in Innocence or the B/S scenes in Chosen that are subletly referred to - we don't see much skin. The writer may be stating that when I show you the act - it should disturb you because you are a "voyeur" and peeking in on something intimate. When I don't - that's the far more meaningful act - b/c you don't see it. Interesting film technigue that goes back to the 1940s, 50s thrillers and westerns - you knew the leads were romantically involved, but kisses/sex were alluded to not shown, unless the characters were meant to be seen in a derogatory way.

Sort of a long-winded way of agreeing with you on Firefly.
In rewatching the pilot - I realized how much potential the show had and really miss it. Interesting tid-bit, by the way, the network objected to Zoe and Wash being married. They wanted everyone single - believing that generated more conflict. Whedon fought them on it and sort of won.

I feel that's exactly it -- they've got the friend thing or the hot sex and angst and whatnot thing, but the networks all seem to think that a long term relationship will fall prey to the Cheers syndrome or Moonlighting or whichever it was. I just think it happens because the writers lose interest in the couple once they've formed and stop exploring any sort of relationship development there, which is kind of silly. It's like they come to the conclusion that people can't talk about anything but the relationship once they're having sex (ala Buffy and Spike). I'm so glad Joss kind of won that battle with Firefly to have Zoe and Wash as a married couple.

Sigh... I need to rent Firefly from Netflix soon to see the unaired eps!

Ahh, tut tut tut! You're rushing, girl! You might want to hold off on that Angel/Lymond essay.

There are so many glorious and terrible things still to happen in the Lymondverse! If you think you see parallels now, just wait until you've finished Pawn in Frankincense and Ringed Castle. Big honking parallels to Angel (S4) and also in other respects to Buffy (S7). Great, great stuff.

Alice (but not Automated!)

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Random ramblings and a tech/website question

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LOL!

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Lymond, Angel, Buffy