3 things before bed
Aug. 14th, 2012 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. True Blood is excellent this season. Best season I've seen. Possibly because there is no Sookie romance? And an insanely tight and cohesive plot that is well paced.
Best season. I'm glad I didn't give up on it.
*I think Ball, much like Ryan Murphy, sucks at heterosexual romance to be honest. Homosexual romance on the other hand he's quite good at.
Tara and Pam are inspired. So are Eric and Bill. Not to mention Newlin and Russell.
*Bill's obsession with Lilith and being chosen makes sense. He's always been painted as a bit on the religious and sanctimonious side of the fence. The character in both the books and on the tv series reminds me a little bit of Angel, Nick Knight, and the guy in Moonlight, along with Mitchell in Being Human - he needs some authority figure, some god, to follow. To bow down to. To empower him. He's too insecure to get it from himself.
Keep in mind he fought in the Civil War - not because he believed in the War so much as he felt it was his Duty. He's all about duty. And guilt. Yet, not really true remorse.
There's a difference between "guilt" and "remorse". Remorse is when you want to change, you feel you hurt someone and would like to find a way not to do it again. You feel remorse for what you did. But you learn from it. Guilt is when you feel you need to be punished for it, and you flog yourself and seek forgiveness, never choosing to change.
You just twist in a circle. I've met people who felt remorse, people who felt guilty, and people who felt neither...and it's a telling difference.
Bill wants to feel free. To give into his cravings. He doesn't want to change. He just wants to stop feeling guilty.
* I'll miss Tina Majorina (from Veronica Mars) who played the athesist techie and Eric's co-conspirator. I loved her. Dang-it. But fitting that they killed her with her own contraption.
* I think Eric may be faking. There's an odd glimmer in Skarsgard's eye.
* Great job of bringing the story threads together. The Shifters are running about like mice in the vampire strong-hold to rescue poor little Luna who is finally rebelling against Newlin, who fears his new pet will be eaten.(This I thought was hilarious). Tara and Pam's human helper have co-conspired to kill the new sheriff and fight for what is theirs. We aren't running Pam, we are fighting for this bar. Go Tara (who is still my favorite character and possible my favorite female vampire ever. Stroke of genuis pairing her with my other favorite character, don't you think?)
* Jason/Hoyt/Jess storyline was boring and drug. Was so happy to see Hoyt take off for Alaska. Hasta La Vista. Don't come back. That was the only weak plot-line.
* Does anyone else think Russel Edgington may be Warhol or Warhol will save Sookie from Russell. Possibly not. I'm waiting for those two stories to link together. So far the others have or they've wrapped them up. That's the only one that hasn't.
For a while I thought Warhol was Bill, but no, too early, and can't see him being Eric, Eric would have said something. If Russel is 3,000 years old. How old is Salome? I thought she was older? (As an aside, I'm tempted to see Denis O'Hare play the Baker in Into the Woods this summer in Central Park, but he doesn't quite strike me as the musical type.)
* Yay, Jason for finally figuring out that it might be something else underneath the bed and not just one box. I love the Jason/Sookie pairing. They are actually amusing.
2. Work got political, dang it. By political - I mean US politics not work related politics, although both give me hives, albeit in different ways. I try not to discuss politics at work. Too many ultra-conservatives. And it's not good for my blood pressure. But today my silly engineers decided to go there while I was trapped in a car enroute to tour a demolition site no less, and during the tour.
M: I'm voting for Mitt Romney - thought I'd throw that out there. Particularly now that he's running with Scott.
A: Scott? Whose Scott?
M: the Tea Party guy
A: don't you mean Ryan...
M: Oh that's right, Paul Ryan - he has a great platform
A: if you don't want medicare and want social security completely stripped.
ME: And if you don't mind that he is devout follower of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and looks at it like the Bible...which is disturbing if you've read Atlas Shrugged...
M: haven't.
Me: Trust me it is. (ATlas Shrugged does for Railroads what Fountainhead did for Architecture - with even more errors. Rand was definitely not an engineer nor an architect for that matter, and had no understanding of how complex systems work. Sort of like Paul Ryan. The irony? I'm talking to two railroad guys. Having not read the book and who can blame them...they failed to see the humor in my reference.)
M: If you want to stay unemployed -
Me: have a job.
M: Want to have troubles getting gas -
Me: Don't drive, don't care. Besides Romny won't change that.
M: Well Romney is more honest than Obama...Obama will rob you at the three card monty.
Me: While Romney will just rob you in your sleep.
A: And sleep with your wife.
Later...at the site.
M: I told her that I was voting for Romney over Obama, she didn't agree.
T: Well, Romeny isn't a liar -Obama said he'd change things - he hasn't...
Me: That's not Obama's fault, hello, Congress.
T: and besides things can't get any worse under Romney.
Me: You believe that, I have a few bridges I can sell you, dirt cheap.
Sigh. Save me from whiny upper middle class Long Island conservatives who make more money than I do.
The election must be coming soon. That's two things that turned political on me in one week.
3. Yet another traditionally published, professional contemporary writer whining about EL James 50 Shades of Grey. Go here: http://www. thepassivevoice. com/08/2012/ewan-morrision-strikes-fan-fiction-down/
These whiny writers and culture vultures get on my nerves. Yes, you got your book published. No, it's not a best-seller. That's life. Deal. Long ago and far away, a great teacher named James Yaffe gave his wet-behind the ears creative writing seminar students the following sage advice:
"Don't write if you want to be a best-seller or famous or Stephen King. It won't happen. That's rare. And has zip to do with talent and a lot to do with luck and things you have no control over.
Write because you have something to say. Because you are driven to it. Because you love it and at the end of the day it's what you do.
There are two kind of writers...those who have something to say and/or write to breath and those who think they'll make a lot of money at it. Try to be the first one."
And another bright man, named Loomis, an editor at Random House said:
"Everyone has their story to tell. John Grisham tells his story very well in his way. No one can do it in the same way that he does. And because we publish John Grisham and because he sells millions of books, we can afford to publish Emily Praeger's Eve's Tattoo."
The book that is making millions means millions of other books get published, one of them might be yours. Whining about that book is counter-productive. And silly.
Whining and saying fanfic is bad or evil is equally silly. Many of classic novels are fanfic. Many started as fanfic or were inspired by another work of art. Fanfic is only illegal when it violates the original artists copyright. This happens when the original artist wants to continue writing about the characters and the fanfic writer is publishing work with those characters themselves in a competing book. (EXample - JK Rowlings wanted to publish a work that was an encyclopedia of her characters and world, only to discover that a fan was doing it - she stopped the fan. Rightly so. She owned the copyright on her characters and world. And had not given him permission to do a derivative work. That's a loose paraphrase - I don't have the case in front of me and I may have remembered it wrong. Just citing an example.)
Fanfic writers don't publish for commercial gain. The books that originated as fanfic and have been published for commercial gain don't use the likeness and/or names of the characters or world of the original work. 50 Shades bears no resemblance to Twilight.
Twilight is a teen romance about a teenage girl and a vampire who are living at home, it starts in high-school. She gets married, has his kid, and wishes to become a vampire. And does.
50 Shades is an adult romance about two 20 somethings, 21/22 and 26/27 who are not living at home, are living on their own, working at jobs, and having lots of kinky sex.
There's no resemblance.
Best season. I'm glad I didn't give up on it.
*I think Ball, much like Ryan Murphy, sucks at heterosexual romance to be honest. Homosexual romance on the other hand he's quite good at.
Tara and Pam are inspired. So are Eric and Bill. Not to mention Newlin and Russell.
*Bill's obsession with Lilith and being chosen makes sense. He's always been painted as a bit on the religious and sanctimonious side of the fence. The character in both the books and on the tv series reminds me a little bit of Angel, Nick Knight, and the guy in Moonlight, along with Mitchell in Being Human - he needs some authority figure, some god, to follow. To bow down to. To empower him. He's too insecure to get it from himself.
Keep in mind he fought in the Civil War - not because he believed in the War so much as he felt it was his Duty. He's all about duty. And guilt. Yet, not really true remorse.
There's a difference between "guilt" and "remorse". Remorse is when you want to change, you feel you hurt someone and would like to find a way not to do it again. You feel remorse for what you did. But you learn from it. Guilt is when you feel you need to be punished for it, and you flog yourself and seek forgiveness, never choosing to change.
You just twist in a circle. I've met people who felt remorse, people who felt guilty, and people who felt neither...and it's a telling difference.
Bill wants to feel free. To give into his cravings. He doesn't want to change. He just wants to stop feeling guilty.
* I'll miss Tina Majorina (from Veronica Mars) who played the athesist techie and Eric's co-conspirator. I loved her. Dang-it. But fitting that they killed her with her own contraption.
* I think Eric may be faking. There's an odd glimmer in Skarsgard's eye.
* Great job of bringing the story threads together. The Shifters are running about like mice in the vampire strong-hold to rescue poor little Luna who is finally rebelling against Newlin, who fears his new pet will be eaten.(This I thought was hilarious). Tara and Pam's human helper have co-conspired to kill the new sheriff and fight for what is theirs. We aren't running Pam, we are fighting for this bar. Go Tara (who is still my favorite character and possible my favorite female vampire ever. Stroke of genuis pairing her with my other favorite character, don't you think?)
* Jason/Hoyt/Jess storyline was boring and drug. Was so happy to see Hoyt take off for Alaska. Hasta La Vista. Don't come back. That was the only weak plot-line.
* Does anyone else think Russel Edgington may be Warhol or Warhol will save Sookie from Russell. Possibly not. I'm waiting for those two stories to link together. So far the others have or they've wrapped them up. That's the only one that hasn't.
For a while I thought Warhol was Bill, but no, too early, and can't see him being Eric, Eric would have said something. If Russel is 3,000 years old. How old is Salome? I thought she was older? (As an aside, I'm tempted to see Denis O'Hare play the Baker in Into the Woods this summer in Central Park, but he doesn't quite strike me as the musical type.)
* Yay, Jason for finally figuring out that it might be something else underneath the bed and not just one box. I love the Jason/Sookie pairing. They are actually amusing.
2. Work got political, dang it. By political - I mean US politics not work related politics, although both give me hives, albeit in different ways. I try not to discuss politics at work. Too many ultra-conservatives. And it's not good for my blood pressure. But today my silly engineers decided to go there while I was trapped in a car enroute to tour a demolition site no less, and during the tour.
M: I'm voting for Mitt Romney - thought I'd throw that out there. Particularly now that he's running with Scott.
A: Scott? Whose Scott?
M: the Tea Party guy
A: don't you mean Ryan...
M: Oh that's right, Paul Ryan - he has a great platform
A: if you don't want medicare and want social security completely stripped.
ME: And if you don't mind that he is devout follower of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and looks at it like the Bible...which is disturbing if you've read Atlas Shrugged...
M: haven't.
Me: Trust me it is. (ATlas Shrugged does for Railroads what Fountainhead did for Architecture - with even more errors. Rand was definitely not an engineer nor an architect for that matter, and had no understanding of how complex systems work. Sort of like Paul Ryan. The irony? I'm talking to two railroad guys. Having not read the book and who can blame them...they failed to see the humor in my reference.)
M: If you want to stay unemployed -
Me: have a job.
M: Want to have troubles getting gas -
Me: Don't drive, don't care. Besides Romny won't change that.
M: Well Romney is more honest than Obama...Obama will rob you at the three card monty.
Me: While Romney will just rob you in your sleep.
A: And sleep with your wife.
Later...at the site.
M: I told her that I was voting for Romney over Obama, she didn't agree.
T: Well, Romeny isn't a liar -Obama said he'd change things - he hasn't...
Me: That's not Obama's fault, hello, Congress.
T: and besides things can't get any worse under Romney.
Me: You believe that, I have a few bridges I can sell you, dirt cheap.
Sigh. Save me from whiny upper middle class Long Island conservatives who make more money than I do.
The election must be coming soon. That's two things that turned political on me in one week.
3. Yet another traditionally published, professional contemporary writer whining about EL James 50 Shades of Grey. Go here: http://www. thepassivevoice. com/08/2012/ewan-morrision-strikes-fan-fiction-down/
These whiny writers and culture vultures get on my nerves. Yes, you got your book published. No, it's not a best-seller. That's life. Deal. Long ago and far away, a great teacher named James Yaffe gave his wet-behind the ears creative writing seminar students the following sage advice:
"Don't write if you want to be a best-seller or famous or Stephen King. It won't happen. That's rare. And has zip to do with talent and a lot to do with luck and things you have no control over.
Write because you have something to say. Because you are driven to it. Because you love it and at the end of the day it's what you do.
There are two kind of writers...those who have something to say and/or write to breath and those who think they'll make a lot of money at it. Try to be the first one."
And another bright man, named Loomis, an editor at Random House said:
"Everyone has their story to tell. John Grisham tells his story very well in his way. No one can do it in the same way that he does. And because we publish John Grisham and because he sells millions of books, we can afford to publish Emily Praeger's Eve's Tattoo."
The book that is making millions means millions of other books get published, one of them might be yours. Whining about that book is counter-productive. And silly.
Whining and saying fanfic is bad or evil is equally silly. Many of classic novels are fanfic. Many started as fanfic or were inspired by another work of art. Fanfic is only illegal when it violates the original artists copyright. This happens when the original artist wants to continue writing about the characters and the fanfic writer is publishing work with those characters themselves in a competing book. (EXample - JK Rowlings wanted to publish a work that was an encyclopedia of her characters and world, only to discover that a fan was doing it - she stopped the fan. Rightly so. She owned the copyright on her characters and world. And had not given him permission to do a derivative work. That's a loose paraphrase - I don't have the case in front of me and I may have remembered it wrong. Just citing an example.)
Fanfic writers don't publish for commercial gain. The books that originated as fanfic and have been published for commercial gain don't use the likeness and/or names of the characters or world of the original work. 50 Shades bears no resemblance to Twilight.
Twilight is a teen romance about a teenage girl and a vampire who are living at home, it starts in high-school. She gets married, has his kid, and wishes to become a vampire. And does.
50 Shades is an adult romance about two 20 somethings, 21/22 and 26/27 who are not living at home, are living on their own, working at jobs, and having lots of kinky sex.
There's no resemblance.
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 03:42 am (UTC)But... Romney isn't a liar??? Think this is possibly a short-term memory problem? Romney constantly makes statements that don't line up -- at all -- with other Romney statements. It's like performance art of something.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 10:36 pm (UTC)Romney changes his position every five minutes...he sort of has to with that insane party, he has to please the libertarians, social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, moderates, and loony right wing ultra-conservatives, not to mention the Ayn Randian Objectivists. That would require changing your position every five minutes.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-16 03:14 pm (UTC)Romney lies a lot. A pages upon pages of listing lie after lie:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/10/13221172-chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-xxix?lite
no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 10:39 pm (UTC)Always sucked at remembering or calculating dates.
So Russell must date back to BC?
no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 08:02 am (UTC)And I definitely think Eric is faking it.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 11:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 10:46 pm (UTC)Agreed. That's what I'm hoping for as well.
But don't forget Sam and Lily who are wandering about as Mice. They are bound to do something.
As I explained to a non-watcher, this season is particularly interesting because instead of one 'big bad' that you know they'll all fight in the end, this season is all about interpersonal relationships and power struggles that are slowly being drawn together.
Which actually works better for me than the big bads did. The problem with the big bad storyline is outside of being predictable, you have to find a way to pull everyone into a team to fight them - which gets a bit contrived and a lot of plot gaps or ex deus machina. Often it will make no sense, because the writer suddenly is faced with a logistics problem - how do I get all these people on the same page to fight the same big bad.
Here...it's not quite as necessary...so there's more flexibility and you don't find the writers trying to write themselves out of corners. Plus?
Less predictable. With a big bad? You know they'll defeat him or her.
But without a clear big bad...you really don't know what will happen.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 12:49 pm (UTC)I've felt free to be political here and on twitter... but I'm keeping it off my facebook account because four years ago it almost ended a decades long friendship. I figure if I give myself an outlet (like at lj and twitter) then I should be able to keep it off my fb account....
Luckily I don't have to edit myself w/most of my friends or any of my family.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 10:32 pm (UTC)(My parents are liberal, and many of my aunts and uncles are but others aren't. It's a mixed bag. And they are a contentious bunch.)
I have to keep restraining myself from telling people they are an idiot if they vote for Romney and will sentence our country to a very long depression.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-15 11:37 pm (UTC)Romney says that Corporations are people my friends
Ryan wants personhood for zygotes....
if they're elected and you're not a corporation or a zygote, you're screwed
no subject
Date: 2012-08-16 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-16 03:22 pm (UTC)This should scare the hell out of people!
But some people have such blind hatred for Obama (or are so trapped in the Fox News bubble) that they're willing to sell themselves out to have an oligarch in the White House.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-16 09:51 pm (UTC)So...when someone in the government threatens to remove Social Security, keep in mind they probably won't be affected by its removal. Not that you are affected by people getting Railroad Retirement Benefits - we're just no longer in your pool that's all, so that's the only affect.
Then..the whole medicare thing? Some people get full retirement benefits when they retire. Others don't. Those that do, don't want to pay for Medicare. Those that don't will be screwed. I'm amongst the people who will be on Medicare - so I care. Actually everyone should. But human beings generally speaking are incredibly self-centered and don't realize that the poor neighbor getting ill next door to them does affect them in various unforeseen ways. I've had these arguments with folks, they are woefully dense on the topic...after a bit, you give up. And wait for them to find out the hard way.
But some people have such blind hatred for Obama (or are so trapped in the Fox News bubble) that they're willing to sell themselves out to have an oligarch in the White House.
So true. Reminds me of another pointless argument I've had with co-workers...they insist the NY Times is lying and the root of all evil, but Fox news/NY Post/Wall Street Journal are telling the truth.
I said, honestly people, Robert Murdoch's organization had phones bugged and bribed government officials, and he came from a long history of yellow journalism in Australia. But they refuse to listen.
Apparently it destroys their fundamental belief system or something.
Yes, Fox News has become a cult. I can see why - Fox News tells them what they want to hear and makes them feel good about themselves, it's okay to hate people who aren't like me, it's okay to be a selfish ass hole, I'm still a good person! (sigh).
This...is why I don't discuss politics. LOL!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-21 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-21 09:44 pm (UTC)People don't understand RR. I barely understand it....
It's in three tiers:
Tier 1 - you get when retire (about same percentage as SS)
Tier 1A- you lose if you retire before 30 years of service or prior to the age of either 62 or 67. (an additional 20-30 dollars)
Pension - the pension is separate and about 3% of your salary and vests after 5 years, leave before then, you lose it. It's not SS and can't go into SS. Not everyone gets the pension benefit.
Sigh. We live in the age of misinformation. And evil marketing people.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-21 10:22 pm (UTC)Googling brought up:
http://thegazette.com/2012/04/13/railroad-fund-isnt-social-security-2/
http://www.goiam.org/index.php/tcunion/legislative-outlook/10044-rrbudget
But I really don't know. Haven't really looked into it.