Spontaneous Musings

Taking it easy today, fighting a headache, cramps, the usual monthly period orniness. Have however managed to completely avoid, so far, the flu bug that seems to have hit half my flist, my brother, his wife, their kid, and my mother. My brother and his wife have had it for nine weeks. They took the entire family to the doctor the other day to get antiboitics. The other brand they were using was making sisinlaw vomit.

For myself - still dealing with my landlord's renovation hell. Which would be less hellish if I would see the benefits. But no. They are varnishing the downstairs apartment - the fumes smell like gas and wafted all the way up to my apartment. This was Tues, Wed, Thurs last week and Thurs again this coming week. Damn them. They turned off the heat for two nights because of the varnishing. And no there's nothing I can do about it, except move, which isn't happening anytime soon. By the time I find a new apartment - they'll be done. [Oh well, at least they are only doing it one day next week and not on the weekend.] Wish I had my own place. Wish I didn't live above a rich art director in his early thirties with girlfriend. Very nice, but I miss the old landlord.

Oh well, must concentrate on the positive. Work is going well. Looks like I might actually get a four percent raise increase. And will not lose my job, they seem to need me. Also enjoying the pottery. Made three things this semester and got two free items that my teacher had made and didn't want - a really nice small vase and a lovely blue and lavender mug. And my writing is coming along. Plus if I work at it, I might be able to find a new place - no rush, landlord is nice enough, rent isn't that high, I'm not being told to move, just a little renovating aggravations which will be over all too soon. Landlord is recaulking my tub tomorrow morning (ugga bugga) because the first round didn't take. But have to do laundry, so not a biggie. And Sunday mornings are good days to do laundry.

Saw the premiere of Dr. Who on Sci-fi last night. Have a confession to make, never much liked the original - which played on PBS when I was a kid back in the 70's - of course at that time I didn't like most sci-fi - it contained mostly monsters and I was probably far too young to appreciate the stories. I just saw the monsters and the cheesiness. This version is more interesting, also I like the guy playing the Doctor, although I recently read that I shouldn't get too used to him, he's going to be replaced in season 2 by another actor. (Apparently it's not Doctor Who if you don't have more than one actor playing the part.) Also you do not need to know any of the back-story, the point of view in the introductory episode is exclusively Rose's. You get in the Doctor's pov in the next one. I've not seen Christopher Eccleston in anything before, although he feels oddly familar, so maybe? At any rate - he's fun. Irreverent. At times goofy, at times serious. A nice balance. Rose, the other main character, played by Billie Piper, is equally interesting. Very Buffesque. But not as skinny. A plump, normally proportioned heroine - nice change of pace over the Kate Moss wannabes that I usually see on Television. She provides a balance to the show - or rather a rep for the audience, without devolving into a Mary Sue. Liked the second episode better than the first. Particularly the villian, which is wonderful commentary on the societal focus on cosmetics, plastic surgery and thinness - or rather vanity and all its ills. Thought-provoking and fun. Nice change of pace.

Listening to The Lost Boys in the background as I write this. Will have to log off soon. Run errands, fix lunch, maybe write. Sorry haven't been around much on lj - combination of being busy and having a poor internet connection. Took me an hour this week just to order three things from Amazon - all of which I got today, using a birthday gift certificate. I got: Spirited Away (yes, finally), Tell Me Lies - a Jennifer Crusie ( a writer that has been rec'ed by two people on my flist that I trust (rah and ang). Also it's a romance/mystery - not much of a fan anymore for pure romance, I need more story, I get bored if the only story is whether they'll get together or not. And finally John M. Ford's The Last Hot Time - I wanted Dragon Waiting, but it's out of print. A bit of good news, The Iron Dragon's Daughter is being re-released this summer, ie. coming back into print. YAY! This means I can get it finally.
(Of course I could do the buy "used" bit via Amazon and am considering it for Mary Gentle's "Ash" series, and "Dragon Waiting" - both unavailable other routes.) Wish someone could explain why the more formulaic/traditional fantasy serials by prolific writers seem to always be available (Robert Jordan, Ann McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, Laurell K Hamilton, Mercedes Lackey) while the offkilter, interesting, difficult to pigeon hole books never stay in print and are impossible to find. This is why I began writing in the first place, and why I may never get published, I like off-kilter stories, things off the center, hard to find. It's not that I think the Piers Anthony, Robert Jordan, Ann MCaffrey, Terry Brooks, Terry Prachett, Laurell K. Hamilton, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Mercedes Lackey novels are poorly written - they aren't. Or the stories aren't interesting. They are. Just that they don't seem new or interesting to me. I've grown weary of them. And they've each written so many books, that you read the backs and feel as if you've read it already. The hero's journey...sigh.
I think what I liked about the movie The Lost Boys was it took the vampire film/motif to a new place. Played with it a bit. It's also why I'm enjoying The Finovar Tapestry another incredibly difficult series to find, but takes fantasy to a new place. Or the Stepen Donaldson books about the Leper who was a healer in another world. I did not like any of Donaldson's other books though. Or CJ Cherryth's series about the Cat people in outter space, which I can't remember the name of - one was The Kif - it dealt with racism and issues of interracial romance in a new and interesting way. Or Octavia Butler's twist on the time travel novel with Kindred which explores slavery and effects of it on a nation's consciousness in a way I hadn't considered before. Or even Philip K Dick, a prolific novelist, who brought sci-fi into the realm of noir fiction.

I'm just about finished Finovar, and may try Charlain Harri's comic vampire romance mystery novel, Dead To The World, next. The books I enjoy the most, I've discovered, are much like the tv shows/movies I've loved the most, impossible to pigeon-hole. They blend their genres. It's why I adored Whedon's shows, he was a master of blending different genres, not sticking with one. And it's what I like about BattleStar Galatica - a blending of genre. Playing with things. I like things that you can't neatly fit in a box or category, perhaps because in my working life my job is often feels like just that?