acchikocchi | the usual mishmash (life, television, books)

Warning: this post is all over the place. And I haven't been keeping up with my flist or comments or anything at all -- please forgive me. D:

Things I Have Been Doing:

Enjoying a really good haircut, which for me is no easy thing to find. It's amazing the difference that makes to your self-image! *swishes shortish hair around*

Wondering why two days of classes were cancelled for weather-related reasons this semester, when I can't actually benefit from it. XD Wondering about that weather in general, actually -- okay, I returned from Texas to be greeted by a low of -25F and a week of temperatures in the negative teens in general. And then it warmed up, which was great! And kept getting warmer. And warmer. And today the high was around 45F and there's a half-inch of water over the ice. As well as being stormy and dark. Needless to say, I haven't spent much time outside. This has been the strangest winter. XD;

Twitching over the last fic, the one for

je_ficgames. I feel like there's something I have left to do about it, or to it, only I don't. This is the same feeling I had after

jdrama_remix was over, too. I would say it was a result of having it posted anonymously -- the long period between finishing the fic and seeing it posted, and then between posting it and claiming authorship, so that it just results in a constant feel of waiting -- only I feel totally fine about the

je_holiday fic. So that's two out of three Weird Unfinished Nervy feeling, one out of three perfectly normal. Results inconclusive. Similar breakdown for Doing Best Work Under Pressure, actually: two out of three vying for pieces I'm proudest of (

jentfic_remix's Can't Go Home Again and

je_ficgames' The Sky Above, The World Beneath), one out of three fine but not special (

jdrama_remix's Waiting). I really should just do one of those end of the year fic memes instead of going off on these tangents. ^^;

Things I Have Been Watching:

Doctor Who until it comes out my ears. I'd seen up through... 1x05, I think, before I left on vacation, and watched the next three episodes on the plane. (And let me tell you it was really fun watching Father's Day sitting next to complete strangers and trying to not look like I was crying. XD Fortunately I think by that point most of the plane was asleep.) Then literally the day I got home the friend who'd fed me the first few episodes ages ago emailed me wanting to know if I was still interested, as she was in the mood for a rewatch. So we watched the rest of Season 1, Christmas Invasion, and 2x01 over the week.

...and then all of the rest of Season 2 plus Runaway Bride over a 24-hour period!

Um.

Thoughts: My friend has that You Never Forget Your First Doctor shirt, and it's true. I feel all prickly over everyone going DAVID TENNANT IS THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD YOU'LL LOVE HIM when I was quite fond of the Ninth Doctor, thanks! It's not that I dislike Tennant -- I enjoy what I've seen of him a lot! -- he just has a lot of hype to live up to. A lot. Although I thought the same thing about Jack Harkness and that ended up more or less one shot straight to the heart, game over. Ahem. (that is to say, Jack. ♥___♥ More, please. I was so miffed when they ran off from Satellite Five without even a proper goodbye, omg.)

Things I Have Been Reading:

Diana Wynne Jones' House of Many Ways, which I quite enjoyed, as I expected to. Howl never fails to entertain. Although I really could do without the current juvenile/YA publishing trend to make moderate-length books HP-sized by manipulation of font, margins, paper quality, etc. I realized something was wrong when I was reading multiple pages a minute, and I'm a fast reader but not that fast. XD;

Several Mary Stewart novels, both new to me and rereads. This Rough Magic still takes the cake, though The Moonspinners is close and I have always been inordinately fond of Wildfire at Midnight. (I never got the huge appeal of Nine Coaches Waiting or The Ivy Tree, though. I liked them both all right but in Ivy Tree I never really warmed up to Adam and Mary was much more interesting before you found out *spoiler*, and in Nine Coaches I was very fond of Phillippe -- I always like Stewart's children/teenagers, I adored Colin in Moonspinners -- but the Gothic romance model just doesn't do it for me, I guess.)

Parhelion's Hurrah for Hollywood quartet, which I have always been inordinately fond of. Do I ever love Angelo Gerello, omg. The whole point for me of reading the quartet's final story, which I never really warmed up to, is always the final scene cameo (Angelo's "alarming version of a smile" ♥), as well as the various other references to and appearances by first-three characters. (Sid! Will! Nigel! Edwards & Schulman, my second favorites!) Has anyone else read these...?

Not entirely coincidentally, a large pile of nonfiction related to golden age Hollywood (if one wants historical background for the above quartet, William J. Mann's Behind the Screen is a good place to start), interwar Britain, Noël Coward, and Lorenz Hart. I read by chronological era, I suppose? XD;

Approximately a metric ton of Torchwood fanfiction.

Things I Will Be Watching Tomorrow:

BSG!!!

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Shaznay Lewis - Never Felt Like This Before (Phones Volt Version)