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And I know just where I stand
So I missed Pi Day and the Ides of March. On the day on which the United States celebrates their long history of supporting terrorists, I was at my sister's apartment, playing with Librarything and watching the new Dr. Who.
(And silly lj posts aside, I didn't drink *nearly* enough Bailey's to explain being suddenly and tidily sick twelve hours later after we got up. I'm blaming it on the pineapple, mushroom, and Cheddar cheese pizza that she made me.)
was *amazing*. I'd seen a few episodes already by way of the magic of the Internet and of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dreamsquirrel, but not the ones that were on SciFi on Friday. The pilot was good. The second episode was *awesome*. What this series is doing amazingly well - probably better than any other SF television show I've ever seen *ever*, is worldbuilding. The worldbuilding is sheer *brilliance*. The previous Dr. Who series, and other shows I love like Star Trek and Stargate, built up huge and fascinating worlds by weight of sheer backstory, but the individual elements too often seemed to be based on one-note worldbuilding. (This is the candyland planet, these are the robots that want to be human/ the humans that want to be robots, this is the metaphor for racism.) Or the ones with no worldbuilding at all, see BSG 2003.
With this Dr. Who, I really get the impression that the worldbuilding comes *before* the story - 'This is the really cool alien/future/society, how can we turn it into a plot?' And they make good stories out of that, too, unlike some people (see: Douglas Adams) who let the cool ideas interfere with telling a good story. Maybe it's partly that they're dealing with the huge mass of backstory, and so it comes out in these little mythological dribbles that give it verisimilitude, but I'm reasonably familiar with the old Dr. Who (although not the novels, which I *really* need to fix sometime soon. Hmm. Library!) and none of the coolest bits were at all familiar. But it makes be believe that *if* this universe really was as wide and amazing as the Doctor sees it as being, this *is* what it would be like. It's *real*. (And I don't mean the special effects, either, because nothing beats out the original Dr. Who for special effects.) I'm just a sucker for good worldbuilding.
I still think that the concept of "The Last of the Time Lords" is a violation of basic logic, however.
Also, Rose Tyler + John Sheppard + the London Eye would equal Love. I'm just sayin'.
Then we bought some Catoctin Kettle Corn and came home and went to the church dinner and I drew a picture of a Schreibit and then we went toenemy_anime's and watched the last (ever! Wah!) of Justice League Unlimited (which didn't have nearly enough Bruce/Amanda in it this season) and ate kettle corn (which is like crack).
Then I had Sunday School in the morning, and my student alternated between being absolutely horrid and the most adorable thing ever, at about two minute intervals, as usual, but was completely exhausting the whole time. Afterward I did my taxes and then curled up in a sunny spot by the fire and took a nap (whenever my family wasn't bugging me awake, anyway! I have real sympathy forstellar_dust's cat now.) In the evening I occupied myself productively by making myself a new pair of shoelaces.
My life is so exciting. No, really.
Today I am on spring break, so I took a job substitute teaching art at one of the schools on base. I was almost late, because I didn't stop to think that what with the major offensive going on, and the war anniversary, and, you know, DEFCON 1, I should budget time for having my car searched on the way in.
It's very sad. The base used to be such a friendly, family and community-oriented place. Not that it isn't still friendly - the people doing the security checks were so friendly that I suspect that any cutely flustered white girl could sneak a dirty bomb through in her glove compartment, no problem. And everybody at the school was wonderful, with the occasional exception of the kids. But back in the day, and by 'back in the day' I mean during the height of the Gulf War, we'd visit once a month, at least, to go to a rummage sale, or attend a free public concert by one of the bands, or just go for a Sunday drive or a walk around the base. I learned to *drive* there, cruising slooowly past the depots and the NSA headquarters, with lots of stops and starts and going in circles and peering at things and erratic behavior. Some of those trees growing up around your guard posts are probably ones I planted when I was nine, Mr. Nice MP.
Now, I don't think I'm ever going to take a job on base again, as nice as the school was, because if I make a wrong turn one more time, Homeland Security has to open an investigation. And you know how often I take wrong turns. I'd be either really scared or really pissed off or both right now if I hadn't had the reassurance of being a cute white chick, the only type of American citizen that can still generally count on being presumed innocent.
Actually, you know what? I'm still really scared and really pissed off right now. *This* is what Mr. Bush's war has done. It's taken the safe, happy summerland of my childhood memories, and turned it into, well, into an *armed camp* right smack in the middle of my town, a place that I'm scared to even drive by. Do you really want to do that, Mr. Bush? Do you really want to ruin a poor young girl's childhood? Because I don't think that's that the sort of thing you stand for.
Anyway. During my one good class today, I let some of the kids play with some origami supplies I brought, and now I'm determined to play around with six-sided origami until I've figured out how to fold a paper Atlantis.
Also, they paged Samantha Carter up to the office about three times, poor girl.
(And silly lj posts aside, I didn't drink *nearly* enough Bailey's to explain being suddenly and tidily sick twelve hours later after we got up. I'm blaming it on the pineapple, mushroom, and Cheddar cheese pizza that she made me.)
was *amazing*. I'd seen a few episodes already by way of the magic of the Internet and of
dreamsquirrel, but not the ones that were on SciFi on Friday. The pilot was good. The second episode was *awesome*. What this series is doing amazingly well - probably better than any other SF television show I've ever seen *ever*, is worldbuilding. The worldbuilding is sheer *brilliance*. The previous Dr. Who series, and other shows I love like Star Trek and Stargate, built up huge and fascinating worlds by weight of sheer backstory, but the individual elements too often seemed to be based on one-note worldbuilding. (This is the candyland planet, these are the robots that want to be human/ the humans that want to be robots, this is the metaphor for racism.) Or the ones with no worldbuilding at all, see BSG 2003. With this Dr. Who, I really get the impression that the worldbuilding comes *before* the story - 'This is the really cool alien/future/society, how can we turn it into a plot?' And they make good stories out of that, too, unlike some people (see: Douglas Adams) who let the cool ideas interfere with telling a good story. Maybe it's partly that they're dealing with the huge mass of backstory, and so it comes out in these little mythological dribbles that give it verisimilitude, but I'm reasonably familiar with the old Dr. Who (although not the novels, which I *really* need to fix sometime soon. Hmm. Library!) and none of the coolest bits were at all familiar. But it makes be believe that *if* this universe really was as wide and amazing as the Doctor sees it as being, this *is* what it would be like. It's *real*. (And I don't mean the special effects, either, because nothing beats out the original Dr. Who for special effects.) I'm just a sucker for good worldbuilding.
I still think that the concept of "The Last of the Time Lords" is a violation of basic logic, however.
Also, Rose Tyler + John Sheppard + the London Eye would equal Love. I'm just sayin'.
Then we bought some Catoctin Kettle Corn and came home and went to the church dinner and I drew a picture of a Schreibit and then we went to
enemy_anime's and watched the last (ever! Wah!) of Justice League Unlimited (which didn't have nearly enough Bruce/Amanda in it this season) and ate kettle corn (which is like crack).Then I had Sunday School in the morning, and my student alternated between being absolutely horrid and the most adorable thing ever, at about two minute intervals, as usual, but was completely exhausting the whole time. Afterward I did my taxes and then curled up in a sunny spot by the fire and took a nap (whenever my family wasn't bugging me awake, anyway! I have real sympathy for
stellar_dust's cat now.) In the evening I occupied myself productively by making myself a new pair of shoelaces.My life is so exciting. No, really.
Today I am on spring break, so I took a job substitute teaching art at one of the schools on base. I was almost late, because I didn't stop to think that what with the major offensive going on, and the war anniversary, and, you know, DEFCON 1, I should budget time for having my car searched on the way in.
It's very sad. The base used to be such a friendly, family and community-oriented place. Not that it isn't still friendly - the people doing the security checks were so friendly that I suspect that any cutely flustered white girl could sneak a dirty bomb through in her glove compartment, no problem. And everybody at the school was wonderful, with the occasional exception of the kids. But back in the day, and by 'back in the day' I mean during the height of the Gulf War, we'd visit once a month, at least, to go to a rummage sale, or attend a free public concert by one of the bands, or just go for a Sunday drive or a walk around the base. I learned to *drive* there, cruising slooowly past the depots and the NSA headquarters, with lots of stops and starts and going in circles and peering at things and erratic behavior. Some of those trees growing up around your guard posts are probably ones I planted when I was nine, Mr. Nice MP.
Now, I don't think I'm ever going to take a job on base again, as nice as the school was, because if I make a wrong turn one more time, Homeland Security has to open an investigation. And you know how often I take wrong turns. I'd be either really scared or really pissed off or both right now if I hadn't had the reassurance of being a cute white chick, the only type of American citizen that can still generally count on being presumed innocent.
Actually, you know what? I'm still really scared and really pissed off right now. *This* is what Mr. Bush's war has done. It's taken the safe, happy summerland of my childhood memories, and turned it into, well, into an *armed camp* right smack in the middle of my town, a place that I'm scared to even drive by. Do you really want to do that, Mr. Bush? Do you really want to ruin a poor young girl's childhood? Because I don't think that's that the sort of thing you stand for.
Anyway. During my one good class today, I let some of the kids play with some origami supplies I brought, and now I'm determined to play around with six-sided origami until I've figured out how to fold a paper Atlantis.
Also, they paged Samantha Carter up to the office about three times, poor girl.
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An admission of guilt! :O
Do you really want to do that, Mr. Bush? Do you really want to ruin a poor young girl's childhood?
Wasn't that part of his 2004 RNC speech, of which "4 more years of ruining poor young girls' childhoods" was the title?
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I really loved the bit with the plumber, though.
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In fact, that used to be one of the things that made me proud to be an American: Look, I can drive ten miles from my house without having to stop at a roadblock and show my identity papers to the military police, unlike those poor people in Israel and East Germany and North Korea!
Now, not so much.
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