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shadowkatDidn't do much today, needed a break from people - well except for landlord and a brief shopping excursion (okay took an hour and a half, so not that brief). Spoke and spent time with landlord regarding the mouse problem. We've decided it's not mice, it's a mouse - a very clever mouse who is ignoring the traps we've laid for it. Jerry - 10, Landlord and me - 0. (Yes, I've named him Jerry after the vintage cartoon mouse.) LAndlord laid down a bunch of sticky traps - where basically the mouse gets stuck, is visible, dies, and I have to dispose of him. So, I find myself oddly torn, part of me is hoping the mouse evades the sticky traps. I just want him to magically disappear - not a fan of killing things. Also have a new downstairs neighbor, a 30 something guy, who works for ESPN and is gone most of the time. (Preferable in some respects to young couple who parked shoes and bikes in the hallway. Also brought mice and roaches...and left them behind, dang them.)
Also watching tons of Farscape. Made it up to the brilliant Thanks for Sharing... which makes the somewhat annoying bridge episode Eat Me worth it. Also, as an aside, is it just me or does every tv series have at least one really whiny annoying character that you wish would die? It works best if they aren't the leads, which they aren't, thank god, in Farscape. It works best if they are disposable supporting characters that eventually die or disappear - which was the case in Farscape. The annoying characters were short-lived, and barely focused on. Also, Farscape does something in the third season, I've only seen happen in fanfic - they "double" the lead character, Crichton. And they explore all the angles and problems with doing it. There's a brilliant scene with the two guys facing each other, doing rock paper scissors and always tying - that wordlessly gets across that they are duplicates in every way. This is why I don't have to read fanfic for Farscape - the writers actually were willing to take risks and break rules that other writers never do.
They do point out in the commentary that because Farscape was filmed in Australia and not in the US or Canada, they were able to afford a higher, cinema quality production value that you just can't do in the US. Farscape has the CGI and cinema quality F/X, makeup, costumes, direction and set design that you don't see outside of films in US.
The only other tv series that come close to this level of production value and makeup may be Caprica and BSG, which were filmed in Canada. So you can also do it in Canada.
Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, and Firefly were all filmed in US and had cheap productions, unfortunately. Star-Gate was also Canadian - yet not nearly the same quality for some reason. The effects and set design on this show continues to blow me away - and it is so pretty and pristine on an HD TV, DVD. (Much better than on my old tv, with bad reception.) Plus, as a bonus, all those European scenes that were not shown in the US, because Europe, doesn't have as many commercials (this, ahem, explains a lot!)
In Farscape - there's two annoying characters, who do not share the screen and serve more or less the same purpose. The first is Zhan..who started out as a really cool character in S1, but took a turn towards the increasingly grating in S2, then get somewhat less grating, although not completely, just in time to well, leave in a melodramatically satisfying manner. Only to get replaced by Jewel. While Zhan was old, wise, jaded, and mystical priest, not a scientist. Jewel is young, innocent, brilliant (intelligent), niave, arrogant, and a scientist/doctor. While Zhan healed people with magic, plants, and mystical means - Jewel does it through science, and medical means. While Zhan had an excellent bedside manner, Jewel really does not. Also, Jewel is a screamer. Her high pitched scream can melt metal. I'm starting to miss Zhan. Zhan also screamed - although it was called a chanting sing - and let's just say a lot more pleasant and a lot less often. While Zhan was bald, Jewel has loads of hair that sheds. She's also physically speaking the closest to Crichton or human, species wise. The series in the third and fourth seasons - switches from magical mysticism to science. It also deals with an interesting moral theme - with Crichton - who is a scientist, he came up with the experiment for the Farscape project and has the ability to decipher the wormhole technology.
He's a problem solver. In My Three Crichtons we see the three sides, logic, emotion, and the one in between. The logical scientist - is the one who is willing to sacrifice everything to find a way home and study the wormhole technology, it's his dark side, the emotional side who feel empathy and wonder - is not. We see the dichotomy explored in a way that you don't normally in tv shows or sci-fi. Because Farscape does something I've only seen happen in fanfic, it doubles Crichton. In Eat Me - a criminally insane scientist (the villians in S3-4 are increasingly scientists and researchers - shadows of Crichton himself), who has figured out how to double someone - creating two perfect unique individuals with same memories, same dna. They are both Crichton. Does it to Chiana and D'Argo first -but the insane guy kills one of them. Not so with Crichton. This provides the show with the ability to literally split the casts - half goes with Talon (Moya's son) and Crais. The other half goes with Moya. So you have Crichton's relationships with D'Argo, Chiana, Pilot, Jewel, and Moya explored (the non-romantic side) and Crichton's relationship with Aeryn, Rygel, Crais, Talon, and Stark explored. It's brilliant, and sets up an odd love triangle between Crichton and himself. As he states - my other self took everything - my notebook, Winona (my gun), and Aeryn. I've never seen a tv show explore this or a book. Only fanfic writers are brave enough.
All the squeeing over River Song on my flist - makes me think I'm going to love the last five episodes of Doctor Who. I first fell in love with the Doctor during a River Song episode - way back in S4, before the specials. And totally with River. I adore Alex Kingston's portrayal and that this gal is portrayed as an equal to the Doctor.
In fact my two favorite episodes are the River Song arc - where she wears an astronauts suit the whole time. No one else mentioned her. I had to join a river song fan community - to get more on the character. Now, all of a sudden, I see her icon popping up on flist and all these posts that I can't read, for fear of spoilers, about her? Since this did not happen during the Time of Angel's arc, I'm guessing something really cool happens with the character at the end? Cool! Something to look forward to. And no, don't spoil me!!! Off to change my icon collection.
Also watching tons of Farscape. Made it up to the brilliant Thanks for Sharing... which makes the somewhat annoying bridge episode Eat Me worth it. Also, as an aside, is it just me or does every tv series have at least one really whiny annoying character that you wish would die? It works best if they aren't the leads, which they aren't, thank god, in Farscape. It works best if they are disposable supporting characters that eventually die or disappear - which was the case in Farscape. The annoying characters were short-lived, and barely focused on. Also, Farscape does something in the third season, I've only seen happen in fanfic - they "double" the lead character, Crichton. And they explore all the angles and problems with doing it. There's a brilliant scene with the two guys facing each other, doing rock paper scissors and always tying - that wordlessly gets across that they are duplicates in every way. This is why I don't have to read fanfic for Farscape - the writers actually were willing to take risks and break rules that other writers never do.
They do point out in the commentary that because Farscape was filmed in Australia and not in the US or Canada, they were able to afford a higher, cinema quality production value that you just can't do in the US. Farscape has the CGI and cinema quality F/X, makeup, costumes, direction and set design that you don't see outside of films in US.
The only other tv series that come close to this level of production value and makeup may be Caprica and BSG, which were filmed in Canada. So you can also do it in Canada.
Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, and Firefly were all filmed in US and had cheap productions, unfortunately. Star-Gate was also Canadian - yet not nearly the same quality for some reason. The effects and set design on this show continues to blow me away - and it is so pretty and pristine on an HD TV, DVD. (Much better than on my old tv, with bad reception.) Plus, as a bonus, all those European scenes that were not shown in the US, because Europe, doesn't have as many commercials (this, ahem, explains a lot!)
In Farscape - there's two annoying characters, who do not share the screen and serve more or less the same purpose. The first is Zhan..who started out as a really cool character in S1, but took a turn towards the increasingly grating in S2, then get somewhat less grating, although not completely, just in time to well, leave in a melodramatically satisfying manner. Only to get replaced by Jewel. While Zhan was old, wise, jaded, and mystical priest, not a scientist. Jewel is young, innocent, brilliant (intelligent), niave, arrogant, and a scientist/doctor. While Zhan healed people with magic, plants, and mystical means - Jewel does it through science, and medical means. While Zhan had an excellent bedside manner, Jewel really does not. Also, Jewel is a screamer. Her high pitched scream can melt metal. I'm starting to miss Zhan. Zhan also screamed - although it was called a chanting sing - and let's just say a lot more pleasant and a lot less often. While Zhan was bald, Jewel has loads of hair that sheds. She's also physically speaking the closest to Crichton or human, species wise. The series in the third and fourth seasons - switches from magical mysticism to science. It also deals with an interesting moral theme - with Crichton - who is a scientist, he came up with the experiment for the Farscape project and has the ability to decipher the wormhole technology.
He's a problem solver. In My Three Crichtons we see the three sides, logic, emotion, and the one in between. The logical scientist - is the one who is willing to sacrifice everything to find a way home and study the wormhole technology, it's his dark side, the emotional side who feel empathy and wonder - is not. We see the dichotomy explored in a way that you don't normally in tv shows or sci-fi. Because Farscape does something I've only seen happen in fanfic, it doubles Crichton. In Eat Me - a criminally insane scientist (the villians in S3-4 are increasingly scientists and researchers - shadows of Crichton himself), who has figured out how to double someone - creating two perfect unique individuals with same memories, same dna. They are both Crichton. Does it to Chiana and D'Argo first -but the insane guy kills one of them. Not so with Crichton. This provides the show with the ability to literally split the casts - half goes with Talon (Moya's son) and Crais. The other half goes with Moya. So you have Crichton's relationships with D'Argo, Chiana, Pilot, Jewel, and Moya explored (the non-romantic side) and Crichton's relationship with Aeryn, Rygel, Crais, Talon, and Stark explored. It's brilliant, and sets up an odd love triangle between Crichton and himself. As he states - my other self took everything - my notebook, Winona (my gun), and Aeryn. I've never seen a tv show explore this or a book. Only fanfic writers are brave enough.
All the squeeing over River Song on my flist - makes me think I'm going to love the last five episodes of Doctor Who. I first fell in love with the Doctor during a River Song episode - way back in S4, before the specials. And totally with River. I adore Alex Kingston's portrayal and that this gal is portrayed as an equal to the Doctor.
In fact my two favorite episodes are the River Song arc - where she wears an astronauts suit the whole time. No one else mentioned her. I had to join a river song fan community - to get more on the character. Now, all of a sudden, I see her icon popping up on flist and all these posts that I can't read, for fear of spoilers, about her? Since this did not happen during the Time of Angel's arc, I'm guessing something really cool happens with the character at the end? Cool! Something to look forward to. And no, don't spoil me!!! Off to change my icon collection.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 03:52 am (UTC)I used to have a great humane mouse trap, it was called a Tin Cat... you caught the mouse alive and could release it at some distance away from your place (so it becomes someone else's problem): http://www.victorpest.com/store/rodent-control/m310
I wasn't happy w/the spring, or the glue traps, they can both be really messy....
the tin cat is more expensive but it can be reused forever.
River Song
Date: 2010-07-04 12:36 pm (UTC)and