Morning brings another empty day

More from the interview meme - today's questions courtesy of orac_zen

1. Are you only into DS9? What about the other Trek series?
DS9 is my favourite by a long, long chalk, but I've enjoyed all the series. TOS is second on my list - it's hard to say anything really intelligent or insightful about it, because I haven't really seen many episodes since I was a kid. But I have the DVDs on my soon-to-be-rented list at Blockbuster, so I'll be reacquainting myself with them in the not too distant future, yay!

Voyager comes next. It had great characters, a great premise, some great episodes, and the glorious Kate Mulgrew - it didn't make me want to be absorbed into it as DS9 did, but I never fail to enjoy it. (Except "Fair Haven". That was just plain bollocks.)

TNG I've rather gone off these days. It blew my mind in the 1980s when I first saw it, but the characters seem so smug, bland and humanocentric and the plots so hackneyed now that I find all but a few episodes (Chain Of Command springs to mind) virtually unwatchable. It hasn't aged well. I value it nonetheless, for establishing the modern canon and for keeping Trek alive.

Enterprise annoyed the hell out of me when it first started - I thought (and still think) that a prequel was a step in the wrong direction, and it annoyed me even more that TPTB seemed to want to divorce themselves from canon - but I still enjoyed watching it, and the characters started to grow on me, and Season Four was such a huge leap forward in quality and continuity porn (I loves me some continuity porn!) that I've grown to love it dearly - I'm truly, deeply sorry that the leap forward didn't come in time to save it from early cancellation.

2. What the heck was that "J/C forever" sig about??? :P
That was from the Rear Admirals' Lounge Truth or Dare thread. KimC made me do it. And I must admit, I would have liked to see them get together, though I'm a long way from being any kind of a 'shipper...

3. Is there any particular place you've always wanted to go/visit?
There are many - the Pyramids, Macchu Picchu, the Falkland Islands, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, the Grand Canyon, the redwood forests, the Painted Desert (after captain_ice posted some pictures in whichever Lounge I was in at the time). Possibly the top of my list is a place I've already been - the mountains in Rasht in the north of Iran where my father's side of the family originated. I have a taste for extreme wilderness...

4. I think we all know how you'd react if Spike were to become human. :D What about Squish?
That's a tricky one. I believe I would love him - he's handsome, he loves me, he's both cuter and more demonstrative than Spike, he's more intelligent than he looks and he does have a sense of humour. Unlike Spike, though, he has some habits that grate on my nerves and the unreachable, wild-animal part of his brain is a very large part of his character. Spike always has one eye on me, whatever he's doing or thinking - Squish gets an interesting scent up his pretty black nose and everything else drops out of his brain. A human Squish would be a charming, loving, entertaining companion and (assuming the transformation included a castration reversal) a desirable lover - but unlike Spike, who I'd probably marry, we'd piss each other off too often to actually live together.

I'd still want to keep them both, though.

5. I'll run this one past you, too - what's the one thing about human beings that annoys you the most?
Their consistent refusal to think about or take responsibility for how their actions impact the lives around them, and their insistence on seeing things the way they think they should be instead of making an effort to see things as they are. There are, of course, many honourable exceptions.

I'm enjoying this meme a great deal. I notice captain_ice has posted it as well - I'll be watching with interest to see if you follow through, dear... you sometimes don't. *coughTruth or Darecoughpoemcoughcough*

I have a thing for reading Chinese authors lately. I've been on a long Amy Tan kick, and yesterday my sister dropped off the last of her books I've yet to read (The Hundred Secret Senses) and also Empress Orchid by Anchee Min - this one has blown me away in a big, big way. I only didn't finish it last night because it dropped from my lifeless fingers when I finally fell asleep at 4am. I can't recommend it highly enough. I was already slightly acquainted with Empress Yehonala from George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman and the Dragon... Empress Orchid tells the same story from the other side. Fascinating, simply fascinating.

Very little other news. Squish continues to improve - I have finally impressed on him that it isn't necessary to bark his idiot head off every time he sees another dog when I have them out on the lead. It's taken some time - his communication skills are a long way below Spike's - but once he understands what I want from him he's eager to please, and the more he learns, the better he gets at learning. In only two days he's begun to understand that I want him to keep his big marrow bones on the mattress on the living room floor rather than dropping them off the side of the couch (I had a conversation with my downstairs neighbour - I feel bad that I hadn't realised before what a marrow bone dropped two feet onto a concrete floor with no carpet must sound like from below). I've been skimping a bit on the off-lead/long line work, but I've been doing a lot of on-lead walks - at least an hour every day - so they haven't been too deprived, and I've promised them some proper running today.

I've also made a couple of friends - there's a coffee kiosk in the lower level of the Castlepoint car park, and the girl who either runs it or works there took a liking to the dogs. I have to walk past it every time I walk over to Mum's, so we've been talking every day. This makes me happy.

Morning brings another empty day

More from the interview meme - today's questions courtesy of orac_zen

1. Are you only into DS9? What about the other Trek series?
DS9 is my favourite by a long, long chalk, but I've enjoyed all the series. TOS is second on my list - it's hard to say anything really intelligent or insightful about it, because I haven't really seen many episodes since I was a kid. But I have the DVDs on my soon-to-be-rented list at Blockbuster, so I'll be reacquainting myself with them in the not too distant future, yay!

Voyager comes next. It had great characters, a great premise, some great episodes, and the glorious Kate Mulgrew - it didn't make me want to be absorbed into it as DS9 did, but I never fail to enjoy it. (Except "Fair Haven". That was just plain bollocks.)

TNG I've rather gone off these days. It blew my mind in the 1980s when I first saw it, but the characters seem so smug, bland and humanocentric and the plots so hackneyed now that I find all but a few episodes (Chain Of Command springs to mind) virtually unwatchable. It hasn't aged well. I value it nonetheless, for establishing the modern canon and for keeping Trek alive.

Enterprise annoyed the hell out of me when it first started - I thought (and still think) that a prequel was a step in the wrong direction, and it annoyed me even more that TPTB seemed to want to divorce themselves from canon - but I still enjoyed watching it, and the characters started to grow on me, and Season Four was such a huge leap forward in quality and continuity porn (I loves me some continuity porn!) that I've grown to love it dearly - I'm truly, deeply sorry that the leap forward didn't come in time to save it from early cancellation.

2. What the heck was that "J/C forever" sig about??? :P
That was from the Rear Admirals' Lounge Truth or Dare thread. KimC made me do it. And I must admit, I would have liked to see them get together, though I'm a long way from being any kind of a 'shipper...

3. Is there any particular place you've always wanted to go/visit?
There are many - the Pyramids, Macchu Picchu, the Falkland Islands, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, the Grand Canyon, the redwood forests, the Painted Desert (after captain_ice posted some pictures in whichever Lounge I was in at the time). Possibly the top of my list is a place I've already been - the mountains in Rasht in the north of Iran where my father's side of the family originated. I have a taste for extreme wilderness...

4. I think we all know how you'd react if Spike were to become human. :D What about Squish?
That's a tricky one. I believe I would love him - he's handsome, he loves me, he's both cuter and more demonstrative than Spike, he's more intelligent than he looks and he does have a sense of humour. Unlike Spike, though, he has some habits that grate on my nerves and the unreachable, wild-animal part of his brain is a very large part of his character. Spike always has one eye on me, whatever he's doing or thinking - Squish gets an interesting scent up his pretty black nose and everything else drops out of his brain. A human Squish would be a charming, loving, entertaining companion and (assuming the transformation included a castration reversal) a desirable lover - but unlike Spike, who I'd probably marry, we'd piss each other off too often to actually live together.

I'd still want to keep them both, though.

5. I'll run this one past you, too - what's the one thing about human beings that annoys you the most?
Their consistent refusal to think about or take responsibility for how their actions impact the lives around them, and their insistence on seeing things the way they think they should be instead of making an effort to see things as they are. There are, of course, many honourable exceptions.

I'm enjoying this meme a great deal. I notice captain_ice has posted it as well - I'll be watching with interest to see if you follow through, dear... you sometimes don't. *coughTruth or Darecoughpoemcoughcough*

I have a thing for reading Chinese authors lately. I've been on a long Amy Tan kick, and yesterday my sister dropped off the last of her books I've yet to read (The Hundred Secret Senses) and also Empress Orchid by Anchee Min - this one has blown me away in a big, big way. I only didn't finish it last night because it dropped from my lifeless fingers when I finally fell asleep at 4am. I can't recommend it highly enough. I was already slightly acquainted with Empress Yehonala from George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman and the Dragon... Empress Orchid tells the same story from the other side. Fascinating, simply fascinating.

Very little other news. Squish continues to improve - I have finally impressed on him that it isn't necessary to bark his idiot head off every time he sees another dog when I have them out on the lead. It's taken some time - his communication skills are a long way below Spike's - but once he understands what I want from him he's eager to please, and the more he learns, the better he gets at learning. In only two days he's begun to understand that I want him to keep his big marrow bones on the mattress on the living room floor rather than dropping them off the side of the couch (I had a conversation with my downstairs neighbour - I feel bad that I hadn't realised before what a marrow bone dropped two feet onto a concrete floor with no carpet must sound like from below). I've been skimping a bit on the off-lead/long line work, but I've been doing a lot of on-lead walks - at least an hour every day - so they haven't been too deprived, and I've promised them some proper running today.

I've also made a couple of friends - there's a coffee kiosk in the lower level of the Castlepoint car park, and the girl who either runs it or works there took a liking to the dogs. I have to walk past it every time I walk over to Mum's, so we've been talking every day. This makes me happy.

"This is going to get interesting"

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

"This is going to get interesting"

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!