Friday 5: Mind Your Peeves and Qs

Image courtesy Gunilla Granfalk on Unsplash.

What’s one of your language-related (that is, something people say or write) pet peeves?

Editors are supposed to have an endless list of these, right? So the stereotype goes. We are the gatekeepers of language and so on and so forth. And I guess we all do, probably. But if you look at the layperson's language pet peeves ("they're/there/their"! "your/you're"!) and the editor's pet peeves, the overlap would probably be quite small.

My personal ones these days are: The New Yorker's bizarre house style guide (coöperation? no thanks) and The New York Times's practice of referring to heads of state with honorific titles instead of, simply, their names.

Not what you were expecting, maybe!


What’s one of your dining-out-related pet peeves?

It's nobody's fault, but somehow the waiter always comes over to check on you just when your mouth is full of food. Or maybe they do this deliberately so as to avoid getting sucked into an actual conversation with someone who wants to nit pick the seasoning of the vegetables.


What’s one of your technology-related pet peeves?

Windows updates.


What’s one of your television-watching pet peeves?

Romance. Any time a show (or book or movie, for that matter) features a close friendship or even working relationship between a man and a woman, romance almost inevitably gets shoehorned in. If not outright romance, then something like Will They Won't They. It chafes for a lot of reasons (lazy way to add tension, heteronormativity, implying that the only possible relationship between men and women is romantic/sexual) but I think this one hits me personally because most of my inner circle are men. (Not for "women are just too much drama!" reasons; it just seems to have happened.) The close friendships I have with women are also way different than how they're portrayed in media (much more random weirdness, much less obsessing over shoes and sex) but at least they're not wholly misrepresented as some kind of waiting room for romance.

This is, incidentally, why I love Elementary so much. Sherlock and Joan are #FriendshipGoals to the extreme. Of course, now that I've said that, I've cursed the show to fall victim to exactly this trap. Sigh.


What’s something you do that you know peeves others?

Swedish has an expression: tidsoptimist. This is someone who lacks a solid grasp of how long it takes to get to places and (the implication is) is usually late.

I've been here for five years and I'm still a tidsoptimist. I still operate by American car-owning convenience and fail to take into account that I'm not leaving whenever I like, but according to public transportation's time table. I'm stricter about this with clients, or with traveling, but socially? All bets are off. I get there when I get there. (Maybe this is why I don't have many Swedish friends?)

Friday 5: Aloon Again, Naturally

With which Looney Tunes character do you have the most in common?

I didn't care much for Looney Tunes as a kid. The physical humor that's inherent in the genre has never been my cup of tea. I'll cheat and say Shirley the Loon from Tiny Toons.

Who or what are your metaphorical Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote?

I don't think I have a Wile E. Coyote (I hope not!). But we all have a Road Runner, don't we? Mine is a totally stress-free vacation. One day...

What’s up, doc?

That's all, folks!

When did you last hear some opera music?

I listen to a lot of classical music while I edit and translate. That doesn't usually include opera, since I find vocals distracting, but the Fidelio overture came up in my playlist yesterday.

What’s a good life lesson you learned from Looney Tunes?

You can't always get what you want, and often when you do, it's not as good as you hoped it would be.

101 in 1001, Round 3

As of the end of March, I finished up my third 101 in 1001 list. The final count is currently available on my 101 in 1001 page, but since that will be scrubbed in a few months, I'm memorializing it here, after the jump because it's a bit long. First, the commentary.

Proudest Moments

Out of all three lists, this one feels the most accomplished so far. I cleared around 60 goals completely, and I attempted a fair amount more. I'm not sure how that compares to past lists, since I don't feel like going back and comparing at the moment, but I did power through two pretty significant items:

1. I finished my modified TIME Top 100 novels list, a goal I've had since I first started this in 2009 (!).

2. I ran a goddamn 5K. I ran multiple 5Ks. This was a goal I'd set for myself on previous lists, then invariably take off the list in favor of something else because it felt too ambitious. And then I accomplished it by accident? Life is weird.


Moments of Reflection

1. I like the old-school Dr. Who, I really do, but we got up to the French Revolution story line and Lord Xenu kind of lost interest in it so we stopped watching. I don't really watch much TV or movies on my own, either, so if he doesn't want to watch something, I just won't watch it. (On the other hand, he's often quite keen to watch MST3K.) I'm torn between A) still including this because I like Dr. Who, or B) not including it because I'll probably fail at it again. I might just compromise and scale down the attempt (like, just finishing the French Revolution story line from the first series, or just finishing the first series, rather than the first two Doctors).

2. There were a lot of political things that got tacked on this list because The Election happened midway through. But I did a bad job counting them and an even worse job being consistent. I might scale it back, or figure out how to find my rhythm.

3. How much do I really care about that IMDB list? I don't know. But even though I failed pretty spectacularly on foreign movies and documentaries this time around, I do care about those, so that goal will definitely continue to stay on.

4. Now that running is a well-established habit, the next thing to tackle is strength training. I like yoga, but it's not the most efficient strength training route. The RCAF 5BX (or rather the adapted version here) seems like it might be a better option. I might also incorporate a planking challenge as an item? I don't know.

For the Next List

1. The reading goal is shaping up to be a combination of this Modern Library list and some books recommended in this post.

2. I might have to up my Swedish reading game, since I'm no longer in Swedish class. (Lord Xenu uses English with me so it's not like I get that much practice at home.)

3. I have some hard travel choices I'm going to have to make. After being invited to vend at last year's WorldCon (in Helsinki), it occurred to me that...I might do really well at WorldCon? It'll be in August 2019, which is sneaking up already. In addition to bulking up my Etsy stock, I would have to get a proper show table and display ready. On the plus side, one of my best friends (founding member of the Austin Feminist Science Fiction Book Club) got in touch with me about attending WorldCon in Dublin, fond as he is of the city (and, I hope, of me...!). The other horn of the travel dilemma is a wedding in Seoul, South Korea in March, which is less than a year away! Neither my sanity nor my budget can afford both (probably), so...

Talky Tuesday: What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Days 15 and 16: Albany, NY

Day 15

We're up early to see L  out the door to work. A makes some eggs and toast for breakfast, and we have some of the Söder to go with it and wake up from the late night. After some art and doodles, the oldest wants to have a puppet show, and I keep both boys distracted for long enough with Monkey the Dentist and Giraffe the Doctor that A  has time to jump in the shower and have a few minutes to herself (until the youngest gets some serious separation anxiety and I drop him off to be in the bathroom with Mom).

I also have a fun time reading to the oldest, because I love reading anything, even if it's kiddie picture books for the five thousandth time. I chat with A  over the boy's head when he's deeply involved with a book himself, though we never get back to the topic of friendship and time. Once in a while he wants some quiet, or he wants attention, and he yells at us: "Stop talking!" After numerous incidents, A lectures him a little about having patience and waiting, and that's the last "Stop talking!" for the rest of my stay.

We also read through a book about dragons, and at the end it mentions Komodo dragons. One of my students has family in Sri Lanka and has visited on and off, and told me once about seeing a Komodo dragon on temple grounds, where it was allowed to just hang out and be a Komodo dragon because you aren't allowed to kill anything near the temple. I bring up the story with A,  and she mentions that oh yeah, when she worked at the zoo she got to get up close and personal with a Komodo dragon, close enough to touch it.

Cue the meltdown from the oldest.

"NO MOMMY DON'T TOUCH THE DRAGON"

All the days I'm there, he doesn't go down for a nap in the middle of the day, so as the afternoon drags on he gets a little overwhelmed and fussy (which makes dinners a little rough going, but we bribe him through with alternating reading pages and having bites of food).

While the youngest (still an infant) is down for a nap, I go out for a run in the park across the road.

I jump in the shower to wash off the sweat and grime when I get back and air out my workout clothes on the porch. A offers to wash them with the family clothes, but I figure they'll be fine with some fresh air. A smart move, as it turns out: a stray crayon ended up in the wash and while nothing was ruined, it made the process a little more stressful than usual. It stressed A enough already; if a guest's clothes had been involved, it would have freaked her out even more.



But the big event, in between books and arts and crafts and puppet shows, is the oldest's favorite TV show: "the moon show." "The Moon Show" is just his name for it, of course; can you guess why he calls it that? A hint:

"Do you know what Miss Koba's favorite TV show is?"

"No, what?"

"The Moon Show!"

I don't understand what about MST3K can possibly appeal to three-year-olds but there you have it. We don't make it through the entire episode before L gets home and it's time to start getting ready for dinner, but enough that I'm satisfied. After dinner and baths and bedtime books, the three of us sit down to a classic MST3K episode (a fond Hamilton favorite: Eeegah!), which ends up being background noise while and I (with input from A) break down how the new season compares with the series and give voice to our assorted little nitpicks (I think Jonah comes across as really nervous in the host segments; A misses how cheap the props used to look). We don't make it through the entirety of Eegah!, either, and this time everyone heads to bed much earlier.

Day 16

L has taken a half day off work the next day so he can be home and hang out with us a bit, and also talk to the guy from the solar panel company who's coming to evaluate the best place to put more solar panels. That means he's also home in time for lunch, which is pierogi, one of my absolute favorites. I'm touched that A remembers—especially when she has absolutely no way of knowing that I haven't had any in ages. What Sweden calls "pirogi" are really pirozhki and now if I want any I have to make them from scratch myself instead of getting an acceptably tasty ready-made version. I read a bit more from Her Smoke Rises Up Forever during the afternoon, while L plays with the oldest. We also putz around outside on the slightly crooked swing set.

Dinner is a bit of a hassle, again thanks to lack of an afternoon nap, but "eat, then read" bribes (tonight's book is The Missing Piece Meets the Big O) get the job done. Everyone is a little rushed because we're expecting my high school friend Fox, along with her boyfriend, for company and board games, so it makes the oldest's fussiness a little extra trying. But everyone gets shuttled off for a bath and bedtime stories successfully. Instead of helping with bedtime stories like I did the last couple nights, I set to work sweeping up veggie burger bits and washing dishes.

Fortunately, Fox and her boyfriend are running a little late themselves, so we have plenty of time for snacks and board games and adult company. This even though L and I have an early morning tomorrow: a four-hour drive to Maine the day off the wedding. We won't have a lot of margin for error!

Trek Thursday: The Orville

Confession: I've never been a fan of Seth MacFarlane. I mean this both in the "I literally haven't watched any of his shows" sense and in the "I'm understating my active dislike of this putz" sense. I hate the art style of Family Guy and American Dad so much that I don't know if the humor is for me (except I will say the long-running gag about how Meg is fat/ugly/whatever is unfunny to the point of being cringe-inducing); his bit hosting the Oscars years ago with "I saw your boobs!" was ill-advised and, again, unfunny to the point of being cringe-inducing; when he's actually appeared on other shows I've watched (he had I think at least two interviews on The Daily Show?), he just seemed pretty bland.

So why do I love The Orville so damn much? Did MacFarlane suddenly surround himself with actually funny people? Did his prefrontal cortex finally finish developing? (Welcome to adulthood, my dude, I'm glad you finally joined the rest of us.) Does he just do sci-fi better than straight-up comedy? ("It's not a parody of 80s Trek," one of my friends commented. "It IS 80s Trek.") Is it just that Star Trek: Discovery is SO UNBELIEVABLY NOT TREK-LIKE that I'll take what I can get?

I don't know, but I'm glad it's out there to scratch my Star Trek itch after Discovery dropped the ball. (If I can mix metaphors a bit.) Let's just forget Discovery ever happened and let it flop along with CBS's weird streaming thing they're trying to tie to it, and then fold The Orville into the Star Trek canon. Discovery and the J. J. Abrams retoolings can have their own little awful bubble of "AU bullshit for people with no attention spans."

Friday 5: Mornings Are for Coffee and Contemplation

Why are waffles better than pancakes?

Are they, though? I'll sit down to a stack of chocolate chip silver dollar pancakes anytime—plenty of fond childhood memories there. Of course, I also have fond memories of 3 AM Waffle House runs, but those aren't the same kind of fond memory.

I admit, however, to liking Swedish pancakes better than American pancakes.

American pancakes // Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash

Swedish pancakes are essentially crepes, and an excuse to have dessert for breakfast (or lunch, or dinner...I don't think they're a solid breakfast food here?).

Swedish pancakes, basically. // Photo by andreeautza on MorgueFile.com

Swedish waffles are materially identical to American waffles, except in shape.

Swedish waffle // Photo by Pietro De Grandi on Unsplash

American waffle // Photo by Joseph Gonzalez on Unsplash

What’s something you remember about being 11?

Middle school? Sixth grade? Lockers? It's a blur, truthfully.


What experience do you have with role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons?

Middle school is when I got started, though not with Dungeons and Dragons. Online play-by-post RPGs were kind of my thing; I didn't play D&D proper until college, with a weird mix of people who were really into getting into character and people (like me) who were more meta-gamer about it. Player groups shuffled and changed and settled as social groups shuffled and changed and settled, and now when I spend time with the final line-up (so to speak), it's not unusual to go for a casual one-shot, just for funsies.


How do you feel about carnival rides that make you go upside-down?

Not great? I don't like carnival rides in general. They feel so pointless.


You’ve seen Matthew Modine in more films than you realize (which he famously admitted during his opening monologue when he hosted Saturday Night Live in 1988) (filmography here). Which have you seen, and which was the best?

I might have seen him in more films than I realize, but that doesn't mean I've seen him in a lot. The only movies I've seen in that list are Full Metal Jacket, The Dark Knight Rises, and Stranger Things (not a movie, but still). Those are all really good, but I think Stranger Things might be the best? And I'm not just saying that because these questions are very obviously based on Stranger Things.

Friday 5: Questions to Make Your Hands Clammy

Apropos as fuck for our fishy-ass new commander-in-chief.

Who’s been a ray of sunshine lately?

My English students. In Cure, Marchant cites a study about how spending just an hour with kids every week can keep the elderly from slipping into the worst pits of old age: depression, dementia, aches and pains, etc. Even though it involves waking up early on a Sunday, the three hours I spend with my students does a lot to affect my mood. They don't always want to study, but they're always happy to see me and having the time to play and chat with them afterwards makes it all worth it. The weeks where I don't have any tutoring appointments are the weeks I end up feeling the crappiest.

Hah, crappy!

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

When do you next expect to be stuffed to the gills?

Tonight's pizza night, so in a few hours?


Among people you know, who can really tell a whale of a tale?

Back when I was a cave tour guide, one of my coworkers was the most ridiculous compulsive liar ever. It took me a little while to catch on—I'm naive—but things just spiraled out of control. It wasn't anything related to our job, so it didn't really matter, but he was just so OTT.


What’s something you’ve been herring good things about?

One of my friends just recommended The OA, so JV and I will probably start watching that soon.


Which of the S.S. Minnow‘s passengers or crew do you think you’d get along best with?

I don't know. I haven't seen a single episode of Gilligan's Island. Weirdly enough, JV and I only just got around to watching the MST3K episode The Space Children, featuring the professor as a drunk child beater! (It also had Uncle Fester as a rocket scientist.)

Trek Thursday: Netflix!

All of the Star Trek you could ever want (and more) is finally available on NetFlix! (Also, JV and I got with the times and got NetFlix.) And which version are we currently watching?

The Animated Series, natch. The one that everyone either trash talks or pretends doesn't exist, and the only incarnation to be less popular than Enterprise. (I mean, that poll is hardly scientific, but I don't think it's controversial to say that everyone dumps on Enterprise.)

Maybe I'll do an episode ranking, or maybe I'll just episode reviews as we watch them. Who knows? But oh man, I love that janky-ass 70s animation!

A Very Special Trek Thursday: Happy Birthday!

Image courtesy Ryan Hutton

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first air date of Star Trek. It's hard to find words for it, though mostly because I am hella busy and not because I'm emotionally choked up. Otherwise there would have definitely been a marathon of my top 5 TOS episodes today.

Confession: I first got into Star Trek after the J. J. Abrams reboot. I won't say because of the reboot—it had been on my "to watch" list for years by that point, since I had missed it on TV in syndication but was geeky enough to know that it was a thing and to know that I would probably like it—but seeing the movie reminded me that I really did want to see the TV show, so I can't say there's no connection, either. (I hear your cries of "ZOMG FAKE GEEK GIRL" "NOT A TRUE FAN!" and idgaf.) I went back and watched TOS in all of its mid-century campy glory and loved it; I rewatched the J. J. Abrams reboot and actually kind of hated it.

For all of the cool whiz-bang tech, for all of the cowboy heroism, for all of the green-skinned space babes, what makes TOS really special for me is the philosophy of it and the willingness of the writers to sit and stew over moral dilemmas. (To an extent. You can't do much stewing in under an hour and still have cowboy fights and green-skinned space babes. But you can do some.) I studied philosophy in college because I liked to think and because I wanted to get at the heart of things; science fiction does much of the same. And not just in the hackneyed "philosophy and pop culture" sense (though considering they've subtitled that one "The Wrath of Kant" I can't even be mad), either. The genre, at its best, tackles real metaphysical (How do we know what exists? How can we objectively measure things like space and time?), epistemological (How can we be sure that we even know anything? What limits are there to what is knowable?), ethical (Are there any truly universal moral imperatives?), and aesthetic (What does art look like in the face of technology? Is there anything like a universal standard of beauty or perfection?) questions. It's kind of why I prefer the older term speculative fiction instead of science fiction. It denotes a little more reflection; boundaries that are a little looser.

Did TOS always live up to that promise? Not always. At its heart, it's an action show, and arguably the whiz-bang of J. J. Abrams is actually a completely appropriate and updated version of the franchise. But TOS certainly held much more space for those questions than the new movies do, and that's why it holds a special place in my nerdy heart.

Friday Five: Television

This week I'm borrowing from the old school Friday Five again! This time, the theme is television.

Image courtesy DuBoix

What TV series have you watched every episode of?

This is probably going to be a short list. There's:

• Trick
• Jonathan Creek
• Community
• Jikou Keisatsu
• The Queen's Classroom
• Star Trek: The Original Series
• [a whole crapton of anime I can't be bothered to remember right now]

Conspicuously absent from this list is....Mystery Science Theater 3000! Yes, that's right: I have yet to see every episode! There's like 190+, though, so I mean, it's a lot of work. (You'll note that most of the series on my list are fairly short.) Especially since I only started watching during Season 8, and there's new RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic episodes to watch as well. But every once in a while JV and I like to relax with an MST3K episode neither of us has ever seen, so I'm making progress. One day I'll cross that goal off my 101 in 1001 list!

What are your favorite instrumental and vocal TV theme songs?

I think the Community theme song is really good! I need to get a hold of the full-length version and put it on my mp3 player.

I also really like the theme from the US version of The Office. I only watched a few seasons before I lost interest, but the show has a special place in my heart, set as it is in Scranton, PA. I'm not from Scranton—from where I grew up, it's a shorter drive into New York or Philadelphia than it is to Scranton, but Scranton is probably closer than either those ~culturally~, if that makes any sense. (Closer than New York in that regard, that's for sure.) I also drove through/by it on my way to and from college. (Yes, filmed in California, but nonetheless...!) Here's a full-length version for your consideration:

And finally, I like the first theme song (of many, probably) for Detective Conan. I was not at all surprised to hear that the band who performs it (The High-Lows) includes two guys from The Blue Hearts, who are awesome. (Linda Linda! Linda Linda Linda~~~~!)

What’s a TV series you stuck with even when it got bad?

These days I will ditch as soon a series as soon as it loses my interest or jumps the shark. The only exception is if I'm close to finishing the series, because in my heart I'm still a completionist. That said, I watched way more Boys Over Flowers than I enjoyed, really.


What supporting TV character would you like to have seen featured in his or her own spinoff?  If you’re feeling creative, what would be the premise of that series?

Spinoffs aren't really my thing, but I would love to see what Troy and LeVar Burton got up to on their boat trip!


What is the single funniest moment on TV you have ever seen?

I watch a lot of comedies so it's really hard to pick.

In retrospect it's not that funny, but one Saturday morning I was watching MST3K in the family room while Lawyer Mom sitting with me, folding the laundry. I still don't know if she particularly likes the show, but as long as it wasn't the dinnertime news hour she relented and let my brother and I, both huge fans, put it on the only nice TV in the house. (This was when it had two Saturday time slots on SciFi: 9 - 11 in the morning, and 5 - 7 in the evening.) The episode was the classic Space Mutiny, and there's a line that Tom Servo delivers as someone hobbles away from the firefight:

"Stay together, cheeks! Stay together!"

And Lawyer Mom and I looked at each other and couldn't. stop. laughing. I don't laugh that hard at the joke now, but it never fails to remind me of that moment with Lawyer Mom. Not funniest moment, but certainly the most memorable.

Five Fandom Friday on Saturday: 5 Fandoms I Couldn't Get Into

Image courtesy Katelyn Jade

5 Fandom Friday is a weekly meme hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick. This week's prompt is 5 Fandoms I Couldn't Get Into.

The short answer is all of them. In following lots of lovely people from different "geek blogger" groups, I've learned that I'm just not that much of a geek these days, or at least what seems to be the Internet's idea of one. There are a lot of reasons at play in that, but the biggest one is: I have less than zero interest in fandom. Fandom as a concept bothers me and has bothered me for years. It's not because I'm on the geek hate train, either. There's something inherently consumer capitalist about fandom and about how it makes the core tenets of someone's identity based around consuming, whether in a literal sense (collecting ALL THE THINGS) or in a more metaphorical sense (i.e. media), that puts me off.

But I can give a long answer, too! Be prepared: I probably hate everything you love.

1. Harry Potter

The breathless claim that "Harry Potter is getting kids to read again!!!!" was never true for me because I already read a lot. I only picked up the series at age 14 to see what the fuss was about, and walked away very thoroughly unimpressed. (This was in 2000, so my entire Harry Potter experience ends at Goblet of Fire.) That was when I learned I was allergic to hype, and I've only become more cynical as I've aged.

I wouldn't have even minded the series so much if I didn't hear endless gushing praise over it. What started as a dispassionate indifference—"It's just not for me."—became a burning hot rage of righteous indignation—"There is so much better fantasy out there! Why this one?"

This is the point where I will probably lose a chunk of what few readers I have, but I'm standing by my unpopular opinion: even if J. K. Rowling is a really cool, progressive person, she's a mediocre writer at best and Harry Potter deserves maybe a fraction of its accolades.

2. The Hunger Games

I had a lot of thoughts on this one.


3. Literally any superhero you can name

There is a soft spot in my heart for Batman, especially 1960s campy Adam West Batman, but otherwise I'll take a hard pass on traditional superheros and traditional superhero stories. Exception granted for experimental work or clever reimaginings, a la Mark Millar's Red Son or Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol. Otherwise: not my bag.

The ensemble superhero titles like Justice League or Avengers are even worse. I can buy one superhero, if you play your cards right. An entire cast? No way. At least X-Men has the "superpowers come from random genetic mutations" conceit, which makes sense and explains why there are so many. Also, at least X-Men has a history of being a morality story about acceptance and tolerance. I'm never going to get into the series, but I'll give Stan Lee credit where credit's due.


4. George R. R. Martin

Other people have picked apart both the original novels and the show for its treatment of women, so I'm not going to add anything. But I will say that Martin is a boilerplate, pedestrian writer and I gave A Game of Thrones my best shot (at the recommendation of people whose taste I trusted) and could. not. do it. Even if he were the best, most unproblematic progressive-minded author in the world, he would still be a dull-as-dishwater writer.

5. Joss Whedon

Every heroine he writes reminds me of the legend of Pygmalion: these are characters crafted not to be interesting or well-rounded, but because Whedon can't stop compulsively creating his own perfect vision of womanhood. Since she happens to be a ~~~strong female character, he gets heaps of praise for it. The Mary Sue covered it better than I could, because I can't bring myself to watch that much of anything Whedon.

What fandoms do you just not get?

Five Fandom Friday: Media You Hold Dear But No One's Ever Heard Of

Image courtesy Katelyn Jade

5 Fandom Friday is a weekly meme hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick. This week's question was originally 5 Fandoms You Hold Dear... but I changed it a little because I'm not much of a fandom person. Anyway, moving on!

1. The Abhorsen series

Image courtesy HarperCollins

Remember when Harry Potter kicked off a mania for fantasy adaptations? On the one hand, we got The Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, but on the other hand, it's too bad they never made a movie adaptation of The Dark is Rising and the disaster (though hilarious RiffTrax) that was Eragon. It took ages, but we even got a mind-blowing miniseries adaptation for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. But no one ever has made a film or even TV version of Garth Nix's Abhorsen books. Whenever I bring up this one, it's like only super YA/fantasy nerds have heard of it. This breaks my heart, because it's miles ahead of Harry Potter in world-building, consistency, characters, and overall quality of writing, but it's JRowls who has all of the cash and acclaim and mindshare.

Life isn't fair, guys.


2. Jade Empire

Courtesy EA/Bioware

The day Bioware got bought out by EA was a dark day indeed for this original IP inspired by kung fu movies and Chinese mythology. Bioware built an entire world for this title and seemed keen to expand on it, but then Dragon Age and Mass Effect happened, not to mention some Star Wars games, and I suspect EA will be pumping them for sequels to those forever. I think I'm the only person who remembers Jade Empire these days. :( RIP best, most elegant fighting system in an RPG ever.


3. Sliders

Image courtesy St. Clare Entertainment/Universal Television

When people even remember this gem, they usually rag on it for being a poor man's version of Quantum Leap or Stargate SG-1, but those people are ignorant haters. The show definitely took some weird turns under Fox's overmuch control in the middle seasons, and Wade is the obnoxious token woman who just whines and moons after the hero, and Rembrandt might be a bit of an awful stereotype, but still.


4. The Dungeons and Dragons movie

Image courtesy Sweetpea Entertainment

I remember the trailers for this when it was first out, though I didn't see it until it was already on video. I don't remember what I thought of it back then, except that I knew it had gotten terrible reviews. But rewatching it as an adult, you know what? It's not that bad. I kind of wish it had become a full-on franchise, like every couple years we got another goofy swords and sorcery story set in a D&D campaign. Like the Dragonlance novels, only self-aware and funny. But I guess the golden age of 80s/early 90s swords and sorcery movies was over by the time Dungeons and Dragons came out.


5. Standard Action

Image courtesy Rob Hunt/Critical Success Productions

Speaking of goofy, self-aware swords and sorcery stories set in the D&D universe, how about Standard Action? Most web series are cringe-inducing, and even this one has its rough spots, but I laughed more than I groaned. Start with the first season and you'll have a few hours of binge-watching ahead of you.


Bonus self-aware D&D fantasy indie movies: The Gamers

Image courtesy Dead Gentlemen Productions

Bless Dead Gentlemen Studios, they seem to have built a pretty credible success out of their indie college production, The Gamers. I still haven't seen Humans & Households, Hands of Fate, Curse of the Blind Swordsman, or Natural One, but The Gamers and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising are fantastic.

Five Fandom Friday: Things You LOVE But Didn't Think You Would

Image courtesy Katelyn Jade

5 Fandom Friday is a weekly meme hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick. This week's theme is: fandoms you love but didn't think you would. But I don't do fandom so instead I'm just going with media in general.


Hot Fuzz

It took me a long time to see Hot Fuzz, and I was convinced that it was going to be overhyped. I had heard too many people rave about it, and when too many people rave about something, it ends up being Harry Potter or The Hunger Games or Frozen and...yeah.

Now, I'd already seen Shaun of the Dead and really liked it. I wasn't expecting to like Hot Fuzz better than Shaun of the Dead but I did! The movie was a pleasant surprise and definitely has rewatchability.


Ulysses

People complain about Ulysses being a really difficult book and I get where they're coming from but it's also...gorgeous? Granted I'm reading it off and on (since I'm reading JV's copy), so I haven't finished it yet, but that's not because I'm not enjoying it. When I was in middle school someone once told me that this was the worst book ever written in the English language. For the record, Jay, wherever you are: there are definitely worse books than Ulysses!


Fallout

As I've mentioned before, for a long, long time I was convinced that the Fallout games were hardcore shooters. I don't know why or how I labored under that misconception for so long, but I'm glad I finally rectified it. (No, I still haven't gotten around to Fallout 4 yet. #PatientGamer)


Steven Universe

This was another one that was getting way too much hype, but I took the trusted advice of a close friend and gave it a shot, and....amazing.


The Turkish Delight novels

Courtesy Serpent's Tail Publishing/Penguin Books

I randomly found one of these novels on GoodReads somehow, and immediately alerted my book friend in Turkey that she had to read it because Turkish! transvestites! detectives! She couldn't find a copy in Turkish, but managed to secure on in English and then passed it on to me, and it was actually really fun! It's not great literature but it's a goofy beach read. Also, they've been translated into Swedish, which is good news for my language practice. There aren't that many books in the series (yet?) but the Swedish library has most of them.

Five Fandom Friday on Saturday: 5 Favorite Womances

Yes, I'm late to the game on this one, but since I have no opinion about cupcakes* I'd rather go back to the prompt I missed: womance.

I love a good story about the Power of Friendship (TM). I think I like them even more than love stories. I don't know why, except that I've never seen a love story that mirrored my own or even felt genuine. But I've seen my close friendships modeled in stories relatively often.

In no particular order!


1. Jane and Daria (Daria)

I talk about Daria and Jane so often I'm surprised I don't have more images of them uploaded to Blogger! The show holds up to rewatching, and one of the things I appreciate about it is that even though Daria and Jane are outsiders, they're not really bullied or harassed by the popular ("popular") students. Other popular students (Jodie and Mack) even seem to like them, despite their differing social roles and attitudes about the high school social world in general.

I guess this might be a controversial opinion, as I'm not naive enough to believe that bullying doesn't happen in American high schools. But I was our school's Daria and no one ever harassed me about it, even if they didn't really get me, either.

But I love Daria and Jane. I just do. Not much to say about that.



2. Becky and Enid (Ghost World)

I need to go back and re-read Ghost World (it's been over ten years, so it's been long enough) but I remember really liking it. Becky and Enid are essentially a proto-Daria and proto-Jane. Again, even if they're outsiders, they're not really bullied about it. The one thing that I didn't like about the story (which also happens with Daria and Jane) is stupid drama over a boy.


3. Mikey and Margalo (Bad Girls)

Courtesy Scholastic

First of all, can you handle that 90s realness in the cover? This was the exact copy I had and loved when I was a kid.

This is a little obscure, maybe. Voigt won a boatload of awards for novels in her "Tillerman cycle" of novels but this one seems to have gone largely unnoticed. In fact, I didn't realize there were sequels to Bad Girls until I was an adult. I might pick them up one day, when I just want something distracting  I can burn through in a day or two.

Anyway, Bad Girls is about the budding BFF-ship between Margalo and Michelle (who goes by Mikey). They're both smart and loners and, if you want to stretch, budding critical thinkers. A lot of their story is about their critical engagement with social norms, mostly gender roles. And they're just fifth-graders! If you find this somewhere, pick it up.


4. Sal and Phoebe (Walk Two Moons)

Courtesy Scholastic

This one was one of my elementary school favorites. I read the next few books by Creech (Chasing Redbird, Bloomability) but they seemed like pale imitations of Walk Two Moons. While the story is mostly about Sal and her history with her mother, there's a good deal of backstory with her and Phoebe. Even if they're not exactly BFFs, I liked the two of them together.


5. Everyone in Linda, Linda, Linda

If you haven't seen this movie, you need to. It's time for the end-of-year festival at a Japanese high school, and an all-girl punk band (tribute to iconic Japanese punk band The Blue Hearts, whose song "Linda Linda" is the inspiration for the movie title) might not be able to perform. They enlist the help of a Korean exchange student at the last minute and work furiously to get everyone ready for the big show.

There's a lot more to it than that, really, but it's all about high school nostalgia and friendships: maintaining them, growing them, and breaking them.


This was a harder 5 Fandom Friday than I thought it would be! Shout out to The Babysitter's Club, Anne and Diane (Anne of Green Gables), and Bridesmaids as honorable mentions.

What are your favorite womances?


*Fun fact: Swedish has gone many years without distinguishing between muffins and cupcakes; the advent of the word "cupcake" has been very recent.

Five Fandom Friday: 5 Favorite Late to the Game TV Shows

Image courtesy Katelyn Jade

This week's 5 Fandom Friday is going to be a stretch for me because I kind of really hate television, hah. But let's give it a whirl!


1. Star Trek

Yes, despite my undying though nonetheless critically attentive love for Star Trek: TOS, I missed out on it until my mid-20s. You can't blame me; I never caught it on syndication and my parents somehow didn't love it enough to own any copies on VHS or DVD. It took the J. J. Abrams reboot for me to think, "Hm, I should probably actually watch the original series." By that point, I knew all the jokes and tropes (Kirk's sluttiness, "live long and prosper," the fate of most redshirts) just through cultural osmosis, so it had never felt super urgent to watch.

Next up is The Next Generation, but it will probably be a while before we finish that one, for reasons similar to the next  item on the list.


2. Red Dwarf

This is one of JV's favorites, so it was only a matter of time before we sat down and watched it together. Unfortunately, since we were streaming it from less-than-reputable online sources, sometimes the stream quality sucked, and then it happened so often that we put aside the series in favor of something else. When we finally thought we should maybe get around to finishing the series, we realized we had no idea what season or episode we were on. We were quite far in (far enough that Krachanski was now part of the crew), too. We better get it sorted soon, though, because two new seasons are on their way!

I feel like one day I'll probably unload a whole critical analysis on the series, but today is not that day.


3. Q.I.

QI first aired in 2003 but I knew nothing of its existence until 2009? 2010? There was a glorious period when I had so! much! backlog! to catch up on, but that period of binge-watching is over and now I'm stuck waiting for new episodes just like everyone else. The UK has a real knack for great panel shows, but I think things may have reached a saturation point. In any case, much as I love Would I Lie To You? and 8 of 10 Cats (Does Countdown), Q.I. is forever the superior panel show (in my view). There was even a short-lived Swedish version of it, which was great fun for practicing my listening, but after season 4 (series "D"), SVT didn't want to buy any more episodes and neither did anyone else. I'm pretty sure my Swedish listening comprehension has suffered as a result.


4. Jonathan Creek

Speaking of Q.I., this list wouldn't be complete with Jonathan Creek! If you are hurting for some tricky whodunnits solved by a short-tempered savant and can't wait for more Sherlock (or, like me, had to go through a messy break-up with Sherlock because Moffat is garbage), this might be the methadone treatment for your TV heroin addiction. This was a series we picked up to watch in between new episodes of Q.I. and I was mostly pleased with it, though the second pretty lady sidekick was a goddamn trainwreck. Alternatively, if you're already a fan of Jonathan Creek, you should check out Trick!


5. The I.T. Crowd

Are we noticing a pattern yet? I didn't even learn about this one until years after it had been canceled (though before the concluding special in 2013, which I don't think I've seen yet...!). Sorry British TV, somehow I'm really slow on the uptake on most of your good television. It's still a tragedy that there isn't more of this show. Four seasons with only six episodes each? That's essentially one season of TV. One! But we have so many wonderful reaction gifs to show for it...

What's some great TV you were late to the game for?

What I'm Going to Read/Play/Watch in 2016

Since this is the last Wednesday of 2015, I thought it would be appropriate to vary my theme a little bit and focus on my media consumption hopes for the upcoming year!

Reading

First of all, without a doubt I am definitely going to read Mrs. Dalloway. I've been a member of a Facebook-based book club, founded by one of my bookish friends, since October and Mrs. Dalloway is January's book. I've already read this one in school, but it's been ten (!!) years since I read it and I liked it enough that I would read it again anyway.

February's book is The Price of Salt, which I very much want to read. The question is whether or not I'll be able to find an English language version at the library. It's a timely read, considering a film version was released last month!

Speaking of the library, my big book goal for the year (aside from the book club) is to finish the TIME Top 100 list. For realsies. There are only 14 left. According to my GoodReads records, I read 36 books this year (probably a little more, but GoodReads is wacky when it comes to tracking re-reads), so I should be able to finish this list once and for all. The books that are left are:

• An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser (though I may substitute in Sister Carrie by the same author, as I have a free copy of that on my Kindle app)
• The Berlin Stories, Christopher Ishwerwood
• The Day of the Locust, Nathaneal West
• The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen
• Falconer, John Cheever (this might be one that gets bumped off for something else, judging by the summaries I've read elsewhere)
• The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowler
• Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin
• Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
• The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
• The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
• Native Son, Richard Wright
• Play it As it Lays, Joan Didion
• Possession, A. S. Byatt

So hopefully they will turn up here on the blog next year!

Then I went on a WILD AND CRAZY BOOK-BUYING SPREE and came home from SF Bokhandeln (Stockholm's premiere SF/F bookstore) with a whopping two books. I know, I know, someone should stop me! But I am excited about what I picked up: Queen of Shadows and Nimona. I was not expecting Queen of Shadows to be such a door-stopper, so I doubt I'll finish it before the new year. But finish it I will!

Playing

I will definitely be playing a lot of Fallout: Lou Bega in the upcoming year, along with Fallout Shelter. Beyond that, it's hard to say. Will this be the year I woman up and beat Demon's Souls? (So I can move on to Dark Souls.) (I know that Demon's Souls and Dark Souls aren't related. Don't care. It's the principle of the thing.) My boyfriend also just bought the original Japanese Soul Calibur and Powerstone for his Dreamcast (holy shit does anyone else remember Powerstone????) so we might just spend a lot of video game time beating each other up. Virtually.

I never got around to finishing Papers, Please. And so unless I sit down and treat myself to a depressing, dystopian couple of days before the new year, I won't finish this until next year.

Otherwise the video game schedule in 2016 is wide open!

Watching

Hook & Ladder Firehouse Company. Photo by Philip Ritz

There is only one movie I care about seeing next year: Ghostbusters! I AM SO EXCITED I HAVE TO USE CAPS. If you're going to complain about Hollywood's endless sequels and reimaginings as opposed to new content, you have a point and I won't disagree. If you're going to whine about pandering to SJWs by making it an all-female version, I'm going to roll my eyes.

As far as television goes, I assume we can expect the new season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 to hit the airwaves in one form or another in 2016. I have a lot of feelings about this, which are probably best saved for another post.

Otherwise, my television viewing is largely behind the times: I'll probably watch a lot of Poirot and Columbo (holy shit y'all I fucking love murder mysteries) (also David Suchet as Poirot is essentially my uncle with a smaller and more fastidiously groomed mustache, it's crazy!). Maybe we'll figure out where we left off in Red Dwarf and finish it (in time for the new series coming out!). The only contemporary show I'll be following is Steven Universe, which is clearly the best thing coming out of Cartoon Network these days.



What's on your agenda for next year?

Five Fandom Friday: Favorite Halloween Episodes

Image courtesy Katelyn Jade

Since it seems like Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick have left this spot blank, I can just continue on my week-delayed 5 Fandom Friday posts and then next week I'll be on track. All right!!

So, my favorite Halloween specials, then. Truth be told, I don't watch a lot of TV. (I feel like I bring this up a lot in 5 Fandom Friday, but it's true.) So allow me to reach a bit:

5. The "Treehouse of Horror" episodes (The Simpsons)

Image courtesy Mrfebruary / Wikimedia

I'm not enough of a Simpsons fan to be able to sort all of the "Treehouse..." episodes from memory, but I always like watching one if it's on! I like that the one-off nature of the episodes lets the writers do crazy, off-the-wall things with characters that are otherwise well-established and hard to kill, and I also like when they reference classic gothic, horror, or science fiction stories.


4. "Epidemiology" (Community)

Image courtesy Keith McDuffee

Community's take on zombies and zombie tropes is, as usual, dead on. Pun intended.


3. The Twilight Zone

Really, isn't every episode of The Twilight Zone a Halloween episode, one way or another?


2. "Catspaw" (Star Trek: The Original Series)

Witches of Pyris VII, courtesy Memory Alpha

As far as Star Trek TOS episodes go, "Catspaw" is pretty meh. But once you know what to expect out of it (hint: it's not great science fiction or drama), it's goofy and fun. So much camp. So much.


1. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I mean, come on. It's the Great Pumpkin! Though I never understood who the awful adults were that kept giving Charlie Brown rocks. That's just a bridge too far! Poor Charlie Brown.