Misc fannish squee & Mini-hiatus

[amatara]

Various reasons for squeeing:

- Just started watching season 4 of New Who, and I already love Donna to pieces. That silent exchange between her and The Doctor in Partners in Crime, pulling faces through the glass.. *can't stop grinning*. And I love that, despite the fact she's been looking for him for ages and wants to travel with him more than anything in the world, she's not at all the weak one in the relationship. Donna does not take the Doctor's crap, no she doesn't! *cheers Donna* Also, the ending of the Pompeii episode, "Just save someone!" - just perfect. Incidentally, I am finding Ten less and less sympathetic. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the hell out of watching him, and I'm still impressed by DT's performance, but - getting whiny over how brilliant Martha was, and that he'd destroyed half her life? Cowardly move, Doctor, for one who's supposedly so brave. You could have told Martha that, just once, couldn't you? *is still fuming a little*

- Also watched the first episodes of Farscape, and the pilot of Stargate Atlantis. Love the atmosphere of Farscape: very psychedelic in a way, the music, the décor. Love Zhaan, Aeryn and John, and the others are growing on me, even though I haven't quite reached the point yet where I stop seeing Rygel, Pilot and the others as puppets. Atlantis I wanted to try because it seems to be one of the top fic-producing fandoms these days - despite many of the fans claiming half of the episodes are bad bad bad, which is a little puzzling to me, I must admit. :) I'm pretty neutral about the pilot: it wasn't bad at all, yet I'm not super-tickled to continue looking either. Not yet, anyway, I guess we'll see.

- Bought Torchwood: Children of Earth, and will probably watch it once we've finished New Who s4 - I'm not sure the two will mix well. My main reason for buying it right now, rather than waiting a little longer, being: I was planning to go to FedCon (a yearly convention in Bonn, Germany) and Gareth David-Lloyd aka Ianto Jones will be there. So I figured, unless I want to get spoiled all over, better watch the thing now. Except I now realized I won't be able to go to the con as it's smack in our April South-Africa holiday. Pity and shame (not the holiday, of course, but missing the Con) as I was hoping some other European LJ-ers might be there too...? Anyway, there's always next year!


In me news:

Health has been a bit sketchy of late, which the control freak in me does not like at all. I don't think it's serious, just impractical - mainly a case of having funny spells at weird moments, for no obvious reason.

Yesterday, for example, I pretty much ruined our 5th-anniversary-as-a-couple Thai dinner by getting dizzy halfway through the meal, thereby forcing husband to finish his curry in record time in order to get me outside. We got home without much trouble and I'm pretty much fine now, but it was a creepy moment. Not to mention embarrassing. You know, the kind of moment where you think "if I get queasy now, I can't even make it to the bathroom without toppling facedown onto the floor"? Any of you who've had this will surely know the sort of panic I mean. *g* And not too long ago I had to elbow my way out of an overcrowded train to avoid either fainting in my seat or losing my lunch all over the person opposite me. Which can certainly be termed as "impractical". *sheepish grin*

All of the above leaves me, um, slightly spooked. I'm usually the last woman standing, even when the whole department is out with stomach flu or some other contagious bug. But anyway, I think the likeliest explanation is not some exotic virus but plain dumb lack of decent sleep. So far I've been operating under the premise that combining
#1 work-related stress over Neverending Project of Doom
#2 home-related stress over the decision whether or not we'll let company X build a house for us for what we both believe to be too much money
#3 Getting enough sleep to still be capable of #1 and #2
with the amount of writing and online interaction I like to indulge in, is perfectly within any healthy person's capabilities. I'm not quite sure anymore, though. The fact that I usually start writing the moment my husband crawls into bed, and he barely gets enough sleep, may not be too good a sign.

Conclusion: I, um, may need to take it easy for a little while, fandom-wise, until I'm back on my feet. Seeing as both work and house-hunting are pretty much obligatory now, the only thing that's left for me to exchange for sleep is online time. *sniffles* I'll keep on reading and interacting and maybe posting some smaller stuff, but I'm going to try and lay off on fics and bigger stuff for a while. Meanwhile - send me virtual chocolate and fic recs? *shameless*

Comments

[mithen.livejournal.com]

*hugs* That sounds awful! (I mean, not the Who and Farscape stuff, of course!) Of course you should see a doctor and maybe have your thyroid checked out? But I can't blame you for trying to cut back in the areas where you can minimize stress. I'm hoping to start on a Londo/G'Kar fic soon (I've ordered the David books because I can't stand not knowing them any more, and hope to start after I finish them!) and will drop you a PM if I finish it while you're still hiatused. :)

[amatara.livejournal.com]

*hugs back* Don't worry, it's not nearly that awful. So far I haven't actually been sick or anything; it's just the feeling of not being in full control of myself that is very frustrating. And once it's happened a few times, especially in public places, you automatically start getting afraid it will happen again, you know? Anyway, I've had my blood works done just a few weeks ago (I've had some problems with iron deficiency before, so I thought it might be that) and everything checked out just perfect. So I really think the cause is obvious - it was an illusion to think I could suddenly get by on less than 6 hours of sleep a day, where before I changed jobs I needed at least 8. Typical stubbornness of a person refusing to admit she's not as young as she once was, maybe? ;) But I'm not planning to drop off the face of the earth altogether - I don't think I could, seriously. :)

The prospect of more Londo/G'Kar is all kinds of cheering! *g* I meant to drop you a line on your Londo/G'Kar shipping meme answer, telling what heartbreaking thing Peter David does to Londo/Timov in the books - but you'll find out soon enough, then! (Btw, in my opinion, it was the good kind of heartbreaking, and also one of the things the novels did exactly right.)

[maspalio.livejournal.com]

*sends virtual chocolate* Take all the time you need to rest and have fun on the trip.

Funnily enough, I'll be in south Asia at approximately the same time and miss my favourite local anime Con, Polymanga. Travelling to exotic places is marginally better than conventions, yes? I still felt better before you made me realise that Gareth David-Lloyd and Ed Wasser are going to be in Europe and I won't. Oh well.

Also, Donna Noble is made of win.

[amatara.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *clutches chocolate* And you enjoy your trip as well - south Asia sounds all kinds of wonderful. Until recently I wasn't too sorry about FedCon as the guests this year are mostly BSG, and I'm not quite as enthusiastic about BSG anymore since seeing the final season - but the con being hosted by Ed Wasser... Damn. And I wouldn't have minded seeing Michael Dorn and Terry Farrell either. (Incidentally, the stupidest fact in my Con history is that some years ago I was on a Con where both Bruce Boxleitner and Peter Jurasik were guests - but I didn't know B5 yet. I vaguely remember arriving in the auditorum at the end of Peter Jurasik's panel and seeing the audience go wild over a guy who supposedly played a courtier with a ridiculous hairdo - I was confused as hell. *facepalm*

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

Donna Noble is the single best thing about New Who so far. And Ten got on my last nerve by the end.

We're halfway thru S1 of Farscape. Zhaan is definitely my favorite, with Aeryn second. John annoyed me for a long time, but I liked him in the last one we watched (I, E.T.). Good OCs in that one too.

I haven't read any of the B5 books, but I did buy 1 and 2 of the Centauri Prime trilogy. #3 is completely unavailable here in the US (except occasionally for outlandish prices.) I haven't heard much good about it, and I've been rather avoiding them while I write up my own versions. The events around WWE are some of my favorite story fodder.

Sorry to hear about your health issues. Have your ear-nose-throat checked; inner ear problems can cause dizziness and nausea. Lack of sleep can too (I really, really know this.) Good luck with the hiatus. Get some rest!

[amatara.livejournal.com]

Donna is fantastic! And it's all kinds of refreshing not to have to deal with awkward Doctor/Companion UST for a change.

The Centauri Prime trilogy - I managed to buy it secondhand via Amazon, for a price that was still high enough but not ridiculously so. I'm in two minds about it myself, to be honest. On one hand I really needed to have some kind of resolution to that storyline, and there are things the novel does quite well (it paints a lovely Vir & Londo relationship, tells us a lot about Vir's role in events leading up to WWE, and brings in Timov as well). But then it also botches a lot: it tries to handle the storyline of David and the Keeper in the urn, but David stays pretty one-dimensional throughout, and in general I think it's a bit too much of an angst-and-torturefest. After the 5th instance of Londo being tortured by the Drakh, one becomes somewhat immune - and then there's Vir unrequited-love angst, David misunderstood-teenager angst, etc etc... All in all, I'm still glad I read it, though.

[(Anonymous)]

I suppose eventually I'll read the trilogy, but it just doesn't sound as appealing as my own ideas (that sounded right pretentious, didn't it?)

I'm thinking about a Drakh story right now...fascinating creatures, as undefined as David Sheridan. Does the trilogy go into their background at all?

[amatara.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know what you mean: one of my own big dreams fandom-wise is to rewrite the trilogy so it feels more "right" to me. :) I'm quite sure it'll remain a dream, though - I might poke at little bits and pieces of it, as I've done a few times before, but the whole thing is rather, um, daunting.

A Drakh story sounds all kinds of interesting! As to background mentioned in the novels - in terms of their origin and link to the Shadows, not that much, alas... There is some explanation about Drakh society and a few nice bits written from the point of view of the Drakh both the Regent and Londo came into contact with, but not much more than that, as I recall.

Not to rush you or anything, but - how is your Delenn and Londo story going? :)