Skewed Perspective

I'm still here!

I just, er, haven't been doing much, thanks to work and Tumblr and general apathy. But for those of us still stubbornly keeping this journal thing going, here's what's been occurring:

- Work still good, if occasionally intense; busy days go faster, though, and I'm on top of things. Summer appears to have been and gone already, but I can live with that, as my wardrobe isn't well-suited to hot weather and sun seems to bring out all the noisy people (as per being woken up at midnight by the remaining stragglers from next door's barbecue having a bizarre argument about the merits of putting mayonnaise on burgers). Absolutely bloody burned out on the fic front, which is annoying as anything - I still have the ideas, it's just nothing's coming out. I wrote a pinch-hit for Fic For Victory and it was both hard to write and personally unsatisfying when done, and that was with characters I really like, too. Probably just means it's rewatch time again.

- Talking of which, started rewatching Generation Kill, for the first time since I originally watched it back in... 2009, I think? Anyway, as I thought, immeasurably improved both by having read the book and also by putting on subtitles, which makes everything a lot easier to follow. It might also be having grown older and more cynical, or just inured to Marines and their ways, but I'm warming to the characters more this time round. Ray and Brad's old-married-couple bromance is still the best, but I also have boundless respect for Doc Bryan and I've never got why Garza doesn't get more love from the fandom; admittedly I've only ever puttered around the edges of GK fandom, but still, I never see him getting talked about, and that sucks, because he's great. Oh, and Trombley is still the prettiest, even if he does give me the shudders.

- Been to the movies a bit. Star Trek was great, even if I can personally take or leave Benedict Cumberbatch; really want to go and watch some of the TOS-based movies for comparison now. Behind the Candelabra also great for entirely different reasons. Haven't made my mind up about whether I'll see Man of Steel - I'm not a big Superman fan in general, but there are comics about him I've enjoyed (the original Siegel and Shuster stuff, Red Son, All-Star Superman); I've heard both positive and negative reviews.

- Oh, and last week I went on a date with a guy I'd been talking to on OkCupid. I've never been on a date before, but somehow I'm pretty sure I managed to not fuck it up! At least, it was successful enough that we're going out for dinner tomorrow. Early days yet, but this is an interesting and novel experience, and while I'm not entirely sure what he sees in me, I ain't gonna question it.

So somehow it's six days into the holidays already (I'm counting weekends), and it's just flown by in a vague haze of relatives and cake. So many relatives. So much cake.

The day itself turned out to be a bit underwhelming, which was entirely my own fault for spending so long getting all hyped up and also for never getting round to telling anyone what I might like, so present-wise all I really got was chocolate and money. Not that I'm complaining about either, mind you. It wasn't unbearably awkward and Christmas dinner was delicious, and that's the main thing. (At least as far as I'm concerned.)

Asides from that...


- Yuletide! I've barely even got started on reading and commenting on the bulk of what was posted, but I got really lucky and received three lovely stories this year - two for the Thin Man, one with zombies and one with Time Lords, both with all the wit and charm and sparky dialogue you'd expect, and also a wonderful, subtle, thought-provoking character piece involving Faiza Hussain, my favourite character from Captain Britain and MI:13 (plus some cameos from the Avengers!). All well worth your time, if you've not seen them yet.


- Christmas TV! Doctor Who was good fun (especially the Sontaran) and I'm intrigued by what's going on with this new companion, though bits of it very much seemed like things we'd seen before. Victorian London, check. Much-loved secular Christmassy thing turns bad, check. Unusually attractive, intelligent and fearless woman leaves Doctor bemused, check. Not that this last one is pre-emptive character bashing, I'm sure Clara/Oswin/whatever her name turns out to be will have facets that distinguish her from Amy, River and, indeed, Irene Adler (there's the souffles, for a start) - it's just Moffat certainly has a type, doesn't he?

Downton was, well, the usual mixture of nostalgia, charm, wry humour and shaking one's fist at the television that it usually is. WHY WILL YOU NEVER LET ANYONE BE HAPPY, FELLOWES. At least there was Thomas's continuing progress towards being a decent human being and Molesley's drunk dancing to make up for things.

And other than that, I don't think I've caught much TV, though I did watch The Nightmare Before Christmas and How To Train Your Dragon. Underwhelmed by the former, I think because I know so many people who love it and so went in with unduly high expectations; really liked the latter, though I was unnecessarily distracted by the fact the kids have American accents and the adults have Scottish accents. And they're meant to be Vikings. Okay, Hollywood...


- Hobbits! So I've seen the Hobbit. Twice, due to different friends wanting to see it with me. And, well... it's not LOTR (and what could be), but despite its silliness and CGI-heaviness and the fact it could really do with being half an hour shorter, I really did love it, and along with the LOTR rewatch I did in the weeks leading up to the release, it's rekindled my love for Tolkien and fantasy fiction in general in a big way. I'll no doubt talk about this more later, because right now I'm mostly still in a 'cheerfully incoherent flailing' sort of mood about the whole thing. (It's also nice that for once my mood appears to be falling pretty much in line with that of fandom, in that I loved Fili and Kili to bits, and Bofur kind of came out of nowhere and stole all the scenes he was in with his snark and ridiculous Derek Smalls-esque facial hair. Loved Thorin, too, although thanks to Robin Hood, I just can't quite ever take Richard Armitage seriously in anything.)

I'd like to write some fic, some time in the nearish future, but nothing's come to mind as yet, other than a faintly ridiculous WWII AU, and a few casual doodles I have of warrior dwarf Harry Welsh and elven bard Hillbilly Jones. But give it time, we'll see how it goes.


...right, that's about it for now, I think. And how have you all been?