What I've Been Up To

I have been working on Part Deux of what I'm referring to in my head as "A Week in the Life" since...well pretty much since I put up Part the First in...(checks blog) oh my God, January?! Yikes. In my paltry defense I have been having a doozy of a time with the ending to Part the Second (tentatively titled "Monday's Minotaur" which...yeah). I've re-written the pivotal transition scene five times and I'm still not satisfied. It starts out on a bus and I want to keep the action on the bus in order to keep the story condensed, but (in typical Cell fashion) the characters have gotten all carried away and now want to do things like "walk around the city" and "pretend they're detectives" and...ugh.

So, I'm onto my sixth attempt at finishing this piece and I am thisclose to just crashing the bus they're on and being done with it. "Rocks fall. Everyone dies."

In the meantime I've been doing other things, paramount among those was the reformatting of my computer which was infected with Loki's Own Virus and needed to be completely wiped in order to be useable. The fun part about the "Google Redirect Virus" (also known as "Alureon" which is an awesome name for a craptastic thing) is that it doesn't let you use Google. You go onto the site, it doesn't recognize your Google ID, then when you click on links, it takes you to some scam pages. The virus also disguises itself as a driver and hides in your registry, pushing out little tendrils of evil into your machine and just really mucking everything up.

So. Full-on reformat it was. A three day process. But it's done now and I can finally get back to work. Or, you know, as close to work as I ever get. So, rather, Endless Procrastination and WoW.

What I was doing prior to deciding I needed to write something this Spring Break.

I've also been watching movies and TV Shows because, why not. So. A running list:

•  Chronicle: the found-footage movie about teenagers getting super powers and then Screwing Everything Up. I saw this with the Captain on Valentine's Day this year and it was very, very good. I thought I was getting tired of the found footage movie but this one was masterfully done and the story was so engrossing that I was riveted the entire time. Although (spoiler) I was kinda upset that the black guy died first...as usual. He looked like the famous Jett Jackson so, bummer.
• Sherlock: the BBC series with Benedict "Voice of Smaug" Cumberbatch and Martin "I'm F-in' Bilbo" Freeman. So amazing. They've thrown Sherlock Holmes into the modern era complete with Google searches and cellphones and all the problems those bring to a retelling of Sherlock Holmes. Yet the raport between Watson and Holmes is excellent and the show shines even as it exists in the murky shadows of London's streets. Plus:

Look at this excitement. A murder's just been announced, after all! ;)

• Being Human: the BBC version. I watched the first three seasons of it on Netflix last year while I was wracked with insomnia and enjoyed it tremendously. The show is pretty much everything I like wrapped up into one foul-mouthed, gory show. Urban supernatural? I'm all over it. Well-acted? Done. Character development and plot-driven story-telling? And how. While season 4 is a completely different animal (now there's a Prophet Child and Plans for World Domination) at its heart, even with a new cast, there's still just enough of that "three supernatural friends try to make it in a world that doesn't believe in them" that I'll keep watching. And there's the fact that it's very often hilarious:


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• The Woman in Black: I saw this in the theater with the Captain and I'm pretty sure I gave him a bruise. I don't scream in scary movies, instead I gasp and cut off the circulation of whomever I happen to be sitting next to. When Bilbo turns into evil, troll Bilbo in Fellowship of the Ring, I squeezed my brother so hard, he had little finger-shaped bruises on his thigh for days. But yes, this movie was everything I like in a horror movie - it had the Victorian gothic sensibility, the creeping fog, the over-bearing air of Evil and the threat of Terror around every corner. Plus a few fun mind games and creepy children. Mixed into all of this was a more modern horror element and the mix of the traditional and the new worked together to really make this movie absolutely wonderful. I'd watch it again. Preferably with the lights on, though.
• Downton Abbey: oh this show. I'm so addicted and I have my mom, sister, and dad hooked on it too. With a little time and judicious application of the war scenes, I'm sure I can get my brother into it, too. Little did I know when I heard the guild whispering of it on Thursday nights that this show would take over my brain as it has. Attempting to describe it is like trying to describe that book Ishmael. The one about the talking gorilla? You say that and people automatically tune out even though the book is excellent. Explaining that it's essentially a soap opera set at the turn of the 20th century in an English manor house and what happens to the family and the servants is a really good way to turn people off. But. It's amazing. First season's on Netflix. :) Also? Dame Maggie Smith. You can watch for her alone:
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• The Adventures of TinTin: I missed the first part of this movie, but I really loved the part I did see. It's so pretty and the story is rollicking and I just had so much fun. Completely awesome. I'll have to procure it at some point in the future so I can see how it starts, but regardless, it was really entertaining.
• Immortals: I have a color-theory about this movie that is very long and needs its own blog post to describe, but I enjoyed it. A gorgeous movie in the slow-mo style of 300 and that ilk. But though the story isn't quite up to par, it's certainly worth watching for the pretty. (And the color theory) (And what they're saying about man and bestiality and the horror of war). Umm... I only enjoyed this movie because I analyzed the heck out of it, apparently...

I've also been to the ballet to see the ballet I'm named for ("Giselle") and now I want fanfiction...I know, I'm a horrible person. And, in other news, the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament is back. I'm probably going to get around to writing out the rules for those in my family who refuse to believe it has any.

So that's what's been occurring in my life these past few months. I am utterly failing at New Year's Resolution number 3 (keep to a blog-writing schedule) but I'm going to do my very best to do better.

Until next time when I'll (hopefully, please God) be bringing you Part Deux of The Story That Isn't Working.

Back I go... to the pain...I'll let Elijah speak for me:

Let's Talk About Rugby

Rugby might be more fun to watch than American football. I'm sorry, America. Really I am.

In the scrum of my heart, I will always hold a special place for the game who's rules I learned at my mother's knee (American football...it's a complicated story). But learning about Rugby slowly over the course of the BBC's coverage of the 6 Nations tournament this year has really opened my eyes to the awesomeness of the game.

Before BBC America's coverage this year, my only exposure to rugby was listening to my cousin back out of our WoW raids because he had to go to his roommate's rugby games. And there was the one time we stumbled on a game in progress in Stanley Park in Vancouver...but that ended... interestingly...

Anyways, BBC America did us all a favor this year and played some of the games for us Yanks. What a treat.

The captains for this year's 6 Nations Tournament

My main problem with American football has always been that the game just takes way too long. The players spend a lot of time standing around on the field, waiting for the game to start, or restart, or for a referee to explain a penalty, or for the kicker to get his stuff together, or for an injured player to get up, or for the quarterback to make up his mind.... Basically there's a lot of standing around.

This is what a football game looks like. People standing on the field.

I've always wished that football games would just play all the way through. Rugby does this. None of the 6 Nations games I watched this year went over their 80 minute running time. The players roughed around on the field for a 40 minute half, took a break, and then finished up with another 40 minute half. 80 minutes of non-stop action. Beautiful.

Even when there are injured players on the field, the game doesn't stop, they just play around them.

Rugby is essentially the brutal older brother of American Football. The brother that doesn't screw around with protective gear or elaborate rules, he just likes to pound on people and run around with a ball. The first game of rugby I watched had a guy jump in the air and put his cleats in another player's face. The cleated guy was bleeding all over the place as they walked him off the field, the game continuing behind him, and the player who did the kicking? Kept going and I'm pretty sure he scored.

Cleat. To. The. Face.

The reined in feeling of American football is a detriment to the sport. These are powerful men who should be able to bludgeon each other. The game is essentially an evolution of the gladiatorial sports where people used to kill each other in front of crowds. It's stylized war on the field. But it's a war with its teeth removed, hampered by the addition of so many rules, so many penalties, and so many pads.

So many.

Rugby is the less evolved version of this, its basic features apparent in our dearly beloved NFL, but its evolution seems to have stopped right after "killing is wrong" but before "let's put on so many pieces of plastic we no longer feel the hits."

If this seems to be a disservice to our football players, it's because it is. If our players ran at each other during a kick-off instead of away from each other, I think we'd be closer to the game's potential. But right now watching a game of professional football is just watching grown men who are being paid a lot of money run around encased in plastic. Sometimes they get to touch the ball. Most often they stand there and watch as the ball is set up for another down. And another. And another. The monotony is tiring and ultimately boring.

At least in rugby everyone jumps on the man with the ball and when the ball moves to the next guy, it starts over, a slow painful crush of men making its way down the field. But at least it's a crush of men in constant motion. And their little shorts are a lot cuter than those football cropped leggings of awful.

See? Shorts.

Not that there's nothing wrong with rugby. It's really disorienting to watch what seems to be a slapdash game when you're used to the slow march of a professional football game. The announcers, rather than explain what's going on, seem to just comment on the team's standings or on what the referee has said in the past rather than give poor, clueless me an idea as to the strategy of what's going on or even just an overview.

I learned more from the few post-show reviews tailored to us American viewers than from watching each of the games in its entirety.

Ultimately, I won't turn down watching a game of football. It's a part of my heritage and I do like that I at least know what's going on. But after the season is done, I will definitely turn over to the rugby league and watch as men pummel each other down the field.

Plus, the eye candy is so much better when they're not wearing helmets. :)