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Got some good advice from a weird source - an ex-reality tv star doing a column in the Metro. She suggested in her column - that if you (generally not specifically of course) feel depressed or dragging this season - perhaps December and the Winter months are the time to decompress, to re-evaluate what you are doing, where you've been, what worked for you last year, what really didn't and what you wish to change about your life, behavior etc - start small though.

Hmmm. Maybe cutting out the two chocolat bars at work?

Got a project finished and in boss's inbox. Saved the company a whopping $91,000 or thereabouts. Can I get a cookie? (No, not when other people save it over a 1M.)

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I'm a little buzzed so more likely to write things will later regret. Did the vodka tonic after work. The work I do...sigh, so many people drink to take the edge off.
People kid about it at work. Want to know something?? My essential tremor completely disappears when I drink alocohol or if I smoked. I don't do either at work. I take medication instead. Thanks to a doctor I met on the ATPOBTVS board who informed me when he met me that you can get medication to take care of that. It's genetic. And frustrating - because everyone associates it with nervousness or anxiety, except for the best boss I ever had, who sits across the aisle from me. I hate her politics, but she is an amazing person. Proving to me at least that the Archie Bunker's of this world can be the most amazingly giving people. Don't make assumptions and don't generalize. NEVER do that. And when you do, slap yourself upside the head. Every time I do it? I'm proved wrong. My former boss? A ultra-conservative Republican, loved George W. Bush, and makes incredibly politically incorrect statements, but she has a heart as big as the world and she would give her left arm for you. How do I know this?
She did it for me. She's done it for co-workers. And I knew a guy who was a liberal,
that I politically agreed with, and he was scum. He hurt me more than anyone. He drove me into unemployment and a depression with clever and manipulative serial bullying. So...I learned the hard way, that political views, television interests,
etc? DON'T MATTER! The only thing that matters is the values of the person, whether they care about others. That's it. I guess I am lucky that I learned this lesson, a lot of people never do.

In other news...MD has advised that I read the Help, which she believes is much better than the movie. Emma Stone was miscast in the lead role. MD by the way is black. I only mention this because it is important to realize that there are black people who liked The Help. MD is from the Caribbean Islands. CW who is also black but never read the Help and is very conservative, is offended by it. While MD is not.
Proof that you mustn't generalize in regards to people. I've decided to read the Help for myself and make up my own mind.

I've found that I can't watch violent show any longer. I don't know why. Fringe is okay, it's weird violence. But I'm not sure how I will deal with Justified and Game of Thrones next year...will wait and see. Vamp Diaries doesn't bug me. It's cartoon violence. Nor does True Blood. Supernatural on the other hand, I may have to give up on. Along with American Horror Story. I've turned a corner.

Want to know what brought me to my Unitarian Universalist church? This weird quote:

"All who have stories? Bring them here." Or something to that effect. I remember thinking, I've come home. Because for me? It's all about the stories, it always was.

Musing on Favorite Genre Characters Off the Top of My Head

I think what draws me to a character is either a flaw I identify with or resonates on some level or a surprise, they surprise me, do something unexpected, yet makes total sense. I don't like black and white characters...or simple ones. It's hard to pigeon hole though.

When I think of my favorite genre characters, it's usually because they hit some weird unexplainable chord inside. It's deeply personal and woe to anyone who begrudges me my right to adore them unassailed. (ie. Like a momma tiger - I will bear my fangs and rip you to shreds, often going after your favorites to protect my own. Although, I think I've matured over the past ten years...and am less likely to do it now. I actually shrugged off an anti-(one of fav characters) post on my flist this past week. And have multiple times in the past. Because while it is lovely when people agree with us, most of the time they don't. That's when it is tough. Not letting well-meaning but annoyingly opinionated friends harsh on your squee. )

Favorite Characters...Male, Female and what have you...

* ( Spike )

* ( Angel )

*( John Crichton )

*( Scott Summers (Cyclops)/Lee Adama (Apollo) )

*( Aeryn Sun )

*( Tyrion/Jamie Lannister/Starbuck and Nolan and Veronica Mars )

*( Doctor Who )

*( Doctor River Song )

*( Frodo )

*( Diane and Alicia Florek )

What I need in a good character is complexity, but also something that rings true, feels real, hits me inside. Makes me want more. To see what happens next. Rialyn(sp??) in Justified, the lead character played by Timothy Olyphant...is not what you'd expect, he's not the black and white marshal of the Western landscape. And his best bud and outlaw who makes his life hell at every turn, continues to mesmerize. Or in The Wire, the chaotic good cheer of the charming Det. Jimmy McNulty, played beautifully by Dominic West in an unrecognizable Baltimore accent. He mesmerizes...with his desire to buck the system, but more often than not devastated by the results, stating in hollow pain..what the fuck did I do..far too late for it to matter. While there are certainly more outlandish and memorable characters...such as Butters or Omar, McNulty haunts me the most...because he is in effect a cautionary tale much like Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings...no Harry Potter or even a Bunny Colvin...McNulty is interesting because he fails not because he wins.

It is often those that fail...and fall that are the most interesting to me, for they are the most real and human. Not the anti-heroes who kick people and then die bloody, too easy I think. Or the irreedeemable anti-heroes who start out as jerks and well only give a hint at being redeemed, only to be jerks again. No...it's the good blokes, the people who are good at heart, who try, and try hard and fall...that resonate the most and seem the most real. Then get up and try again. The Lee Adamas, Scott Summers, Spike, Angel, Aeryn Sun, John Crichton, even Buffy Summers...who look at the man or woman in the mirror, stare them in the eye..and try much like Jimmy McNulty and Frodo...or even poor old Veronica Mars, to somehow make sense of it all.