Corner of Bourbon & Division

Okay, so apart from being pretty frustrated with the end of BSG, can someone explain to me how, in a fleet of ships rapidly running out of resources and limping their way toward the end of civilization, all the characters seem able to take half-hour showers? With hot running water?

I mean, come on! Radioactive pigeons and swing sets in the middle of the forest are one thing, but showers? On a space ship? That's a little hard to take.

I know that it's a standard trope in TV and movies nowadays to have shower scenes to portray the vulnerability of characters, but give me a break. If the writers had taken thirty seconds to think about it, they'd realize it was pretty weak.

One of the things I really enjoy about Battlestar Galactica (the new series, not the old, which I am ashamed to say I have never watched), is the increasing moral complexity of the characters.

Yes, the story has some problems. Mostly, the directors of cinematography seem to do a lot of sacrificing realism for the shiny. For instance, flights of pigeons (doves?) on a planet where supposedly every human being has died of radiation poisoning. Umm, dude? There would be no birds. Also, playgrounds in the middle of the woods. Props that are very obviously taken from the American military.

I don't notice most of that, or at the very least, I don't care that much. I'm always in these stories for the story and for the character development.

The characters in BSG evolve in shades of grey, and they never ever fail to inspire and to break my heart all at the same time. They make mistakes, they grieve, they struggle to uphold their ideals in the face of despair and destruction. They cling to their faith, they cling to each other even while they tear each other apart. They flirt with madness, with forgiveness, with the divine.

TV shows are never perfect. They suffer from poor writing, from gaps in the story, from writers' strikes, from any number of things that can go wrong with a show. But BSG has never failed to compel me, to make me care very deeply about what happens to these people. I don't know how many shows have done that for me, but I can say that they are few and far-between.

I'm going to miss this show when it's gone, but I'm not sorry that it's ending with a bang instead of a whimper.

If there is one, I should be lighting a candle. Or at least, thinking about lighting a candle and then deciding to do it later. ;)

I got only one thing done today. Okay, no, more than one. But not nearly as many of the things as I wanted to get done.

I did go and get seed starting soil, and I shoveled the front and the back, which were in sore need of it. The front wasn't so bad, because I've been mostly keeping it clear, but there was another heavy snowfall since the last time I cleared a path to the shed out back, so that took some work. I'm hoping that by tomorrow the temperature will melt more of the remaining snow.

I'm a little frustrated with myself and my lack of progress here. I really want to start organizing the place properly, and I lack the time, money and energy to do any of it. I have a vague idea in mind, and it involves lots of various kinds of shelving. It's all going to have to wait until I'm back from Halifax, and the shed-organizing I want to do will have to wait until all the snow melts. There is no way I am lugging disassembled shelving through the snow and assembling it out there in the cold. There are limits to what I'm willing to do in the name of organization.

In the meantime, I've been keeping a vague eye out for some of that wire shelving that can be used to organize closets, but I haven't seen any. I'm hoping to find some later on.

That being said, I didn't get any cleaning or tidying done. The day is young, I know, but I'm tired and I don't feel like doing the rest.

I'm going to finish watching Star Wars instead. In a fit of pique because the FLVS didn't have the last two discs of BSG, I rented the trilogy instead. Maybe after that I'll be more motivated.

My sleep schedule is definitely wonky. I had this whole plan for getting up early, and that totally didn't work out.

My ASL test didn't go as well as I would have liked, but I'm pretty sure I passed. I have a LOT of trouble keeping track of what she's saying when she goes fast, and especially with finger spelling. Individual letters are fine, but spelling in my head to put them together into a word is hella tricky.

I started reading some Marion Zimmer Bradley, and realized that I am missing the middle book in the series. Bah! I am not one to be thwarted, so I ordered the middle book.

In the meantime, I am watching BSG 4.0, which arrived at my FLVS a while back (or so I assume), and so far it's interesting. Mostly I've watched Razor, which wasn't as awesome as I expected, but it's nice not to be a whole year behind in my viewing. No spoilers, folks! I'm not caught up yet. ;)

Everything is a bit disjointed in my head today. I think I may leave this entry alone before it comes apart at the seams. ;)

Have a nice day, all!

My recycling box is gone. Woe! Another thing I have to put on my to-do list. Poor recycling box, sacrificed to the gods of snow removal. It figures that something like this would happen just as I'm trying to be more environmentally responsible.

Had to get up stupidly early to move the car yesterday, only to have them *not* remove the snow. Got up stupidly early today for the same reason, but they appear to be following through on the snow removal thing now, which makes me feel better. I know they're overworked, but that doesn't make me any less tired for it.

At some point, when my energy comes back (hah!) I am going to start researching all my local government-type folk (municipal, provincial and federal) and start writing stern letters about environmentalism, social development, and all that sort of good stuff. I just have to figure out who to write to.

Just got happy election stuff in the mail. I am officially registered to vote in the upcoming provincial election. Too bad none of the candidates is one I feel comfortable voting for. Theoretically there's a green candidate in my riding, but he/she/it hasn't seen fit to even send out leaflets, so I have no idea who they are. Bah. I should go poke them, but I don't know when I'll have time to do that. Gotta make time, I suppose.

I have made cream of wheat this morning, and added apples and cinnamon. I think it ought to taste quite good. *tests* Yep. Excellent. Can't think why this didn't occur to me before.

I've noticed a trend among the more modern sci fi shows to have other humans as the worst kind of enemy. Been watching Battlestar Galactica right on the heels of Babylon 5, and thus can't help but see parallels between Clark and Cain. Part of me is glad that it's not just the aliens that are the bad guys (or the Cylons, who are alien by extension), and another part of me is thinking "Oh God, not again!" I think it's just because the kind of shows I watch tend to pose the larger questions, and so the same motifs return. I doubt very much that most of mainstream American television would make it very clear that torturing prisoners is a bad thing. I'm thinking, in this case, of 24, in which our heroes routinely turn to torture as a means of extracting information because they "don't have time for this."

I don't know where I'm going with that. I was just struck by it.

That's it for now, I think.