seryn

I wasn't the axis at the center of the universe.

2011-04-26T21:25:43Z

In a comment response, I said, there's no magic epiphany moment when you become an adult and suddenly know exactly what to say or how to handle things.

I find it much easier to forgive people who angered me when I was a child knowing this from personal experience. I'm ~40 now, so all those other kids' parents who were awkward or offensive or rude or bizarrely nasty for seemingly no reason, I get it. And even though I was the one there, it wasn't always about me, which also makes it easier to forgive.

Doesn't mean it didn't hurt at the time, nor does it mean that I don't find that it still bothers me when I think about it too much.

comments

continuum between reality and documentary

2010-11-15T07:44:23Z

You know what's strange to me?

The difference between a documentary and reality TV.

The competitive reality TV programming where we see people making video diary type entries as if no one will ever see them really bother me.

But I love shows like the ones where they follow teenagers who join the Danish Merchant Marines and learn to sail on a wooden ship.

I didn't like the John Adams miniseries though.

I watched Ace of Cakes for a while, but it never records anymore and it's not available anywhere else. And now that there's been a gap in my viewing, I'm really wondering why I liked it after the latest round of stupid stunts.

I'm having a really lovely time watching Circus, the new miniseries on PBS about a small circus and the performers and staff that had to put a show together in just a few weeks.

I really enjoyed the various "time travel" shows from British TV, like the one where there was a family who were placed in an authentic house from the 1890s and expected to dress appropriately, and run their household authentically. That was really nicely done. The log cabin version (set in Montana) wasn't as good because the people kept cheating. I liked the one where they staffed a manor house in England and had people who were maids and footmen and everything...

These have all been the video diary kind of things.

But they're not stupid like the makeover shows. Or the Survivor kind of things. Or Jerry Springer's show. The point of the shows isn't to be catty. I thought I only liked the smart kinds of reality programming, the historical reinactment kinds of things or whatever. But Circus is about some low rank people in society (especially the ring crew) and it's not really teaching any kind of school type enrichment lesson. So why am I enjoying it? It's fun to watch. It's fun to see how much work goes into the entertainment that most people just treat off-handedly. And it's about real people doing real things. The point of what the people on Circus are doing is putting on a circus. The fact that there was a crew creating a documentary experience is never the real focus.

When I saw some of Big Brother, the whole point of what those people were experiencing was to film it as entertainment.

But I'm really not sure where the line should be. Somewhere between the hideously boring John Adams and the bug-eating contests of Survivor's ilk.

And if someone knows the name of that docu on the Danish Merchant Marines, I was sick when I saw it and I have no idea where I saw it.

comments

Goals, lists, and organization

2010-06-08T21:10:00Z

I think there are different types of goals and different types of lists.

As someone who has (or at least had and haven't acknowledged the change) a good memory, I don't usually need a list of every single thing I feel needs my attention. In fact, if too many things get onto my list, I get overwhelmed easily.

I do need a list to keep me focused on priorities so I don't lapse and do laundry when there's no milk. (Those tasks are incompatible because I cannot be in two places at once and the shared laundry room requires me being here so other people don't put their hands on my panties.) It also helps, somewhat, with scheduling. I have a good sense of how long things take and I will start on dinner at 4 if it will turn out better for a slow cooking. It also helps so I do things which will be easier for being done while everyone else is at work before 5pm.

Today I saw a posting about goal minimums. That is how I do my goals. If I tell you I'm going to read 25 books this year, I might read 50. If I said I was going to read 50, I'd be so far behind by now that I would give up and not read any more books at all. Most people seem to construct goal lists by looking at the maximum and aiming for that, otherwise they don't start until it's too late.

I hope the Google Tasks people stop sucking quite so much. I hate that you can't view more than one list at a time even in full-screen mode. I hate that you cannot have sub-tasks which are hidden until the main task has focus. I hate that they don't have schedule-able tasks. Like every Tuesday I'm going to wash sheets and every Friday I'm going to the grocery store so I don't have to go on the weekend. The current Tasks is like a really awkward interface to an electronic sticky note.

I would also like the kind of list where I can note things I have done and collect praise for them. It's 2pm and I haven't showered since I got up. (I did shower after midnight though, so that's "today" and I think it still counts; I'd rather shower after going to the gym.) I did eat lunch. It's not unreasonable if when I ticked off something I should do every day it puts up a little smiley face. There should also be space to add a note if something happened-- like yesterday I not only went to the gym, I measured myself and when I added that into the spreadsheet, I realized I'd slimmed down by an inch in the hip and waist both.

I want something where I can keep myself organized. So I could put down that the car was washed and then later I could find out how long it's been. Or better yet, there'd be a reminder added if I hadn't done that in N months. I'd like to have the ability to tell when we had tacos last, it seems like we're always having tacos but it had actually been almost a month.

But even if there aren't great organizational tools out there, I was glad to see the acknowledgement of "minimum goals" and seeing that other people get overwhelmed when the list is too long.

comments

xylophonic unicycles.

2010-01-21T00:02:50Z

I was awakened by a loud xylophone at my window. It turned out to be rain pinging against the sash so hard that it was raining in and bouncing off the miniblinds.

I was taking my towels and rags down to wash and in the elevator a neighbor, visibly younger than I am but not a child, apologized for cursing in front of me. I know other women get uptight about being ma'am-ed because it makes them feel old. But for me, I've always understood it as "miss" being someone under 13-15, a child. Ma'am is short for madam, which is a woman of marriageable age. So I never found ma'am to be offensive. I felt really old because the man felt like cursing was inappropriate in front of the "lady". If we could just get the kindergartners who curse the crossing guards to have the same attitude I'd be happy... but I'm not so old that someone saying "fuck" in a shocked whisper offends me. [I'd been explaining why I had a large basket of wet rags and suggested he might want to check under his own blinds.]

I took myself out for a nice lunch after dealing with all that.. where I was "miss"ed by the server. Someone really should standardize that nomenclature because I was actually a little offended while consciously realizing it wasn't intended to cause offense.

I spent the time waiting for my food wondering why bicycles come in that shape. The whole chain transfer of applied power to the wheels isn't all that whippy and the wide spacing between the wheels is bad for posture and "share the road". If the rider stood over the drive wheel, and some form of auxiliary wheels for stability (ie training wheels, but larger) we could have something much more portable. I guess steering would be a problem. But I think we should be looking into creating a stabilized unicycle concept.

I'm also wondering why sheets and blankets are so damned narrow. Every time I get into bed, the edge rides up and leaves a gap. But the blanket is about 3 feet longer than it should be because I don't use it as a bedspread. I've tried turning the blanket the other way, but the bedcovers I have seem to be mostly square. I have a king-size blanket, but it's ridiculously long and wide enough that it touches the floor, which is too much since it gets tangled and traps me.

I remembered, finally, to send off the rebate for my mixer.

Now. I need to re-make the bed and see about the nap that has been calling my name since the unfortunate musical concert this morning.

comments

Minimalism seems to mean erasing half the words and asking the viewer to fill in the blanks

2009-08-21T19:00:39Z

I think there are trends in a lot of things. I saw a discussion about the relative fit of men's clothing now compared to when I was a kid. Men wore tight pants "from the beginning of time *snerk*"; modern styles look really slovenly and unkempt in comparison.

One of the knitting blogs I read, which hardly ever seem to talk about knitting, often talks about staged productions as being superior because of minimalism in sets and costumes and props. I think that's rather cheap. I won't say that acting is a small component, anyone who's ever watched something on the WB or a SciFi Original Movie knows that bad acting ruins a show. But I don't see how one can have a professional production without any of the production. Of course this woman reviewing positively these "no effort made" productions gets her tickets free, and I too have lower expectations for free events. If you went without being her, you'd have paid $38 plus tax and handling and service charges and likely have driven hundreds of miles to be there. For that kind of effort on my part, I'm expecting a pageant-level spectacle.

I saw a minimalist production of Richard III a few years ago in Ashland OR (OSF) and slept through most of it--- there was this handicapped retard dude flailing and shouting at the audience from an empty stage. Random people in jeans and casual skirts would walk out and look repulsed and then leave without saying anything. I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying, even having read a summary of the play before going and knowing the hallmark speeches' significance... it was all just noise to me because there wasn't anything to pay attention to. Those tickets were $55. I later understood that the main actor was neither handicapped nor retarded and was not generally made of flail--- so he must have been a fantastic actor. It was totally believable that he was someone on a day-pass from the group home; that is probably a phenomenal skill level, but it was completely wasted because the rest of the set and props and costumes and actors were absent.

I thought it was a total waste of money. If I just want to hear random shouting I'll walk past the park and listen to the homeless people shouting at birds. If I'd gotten free tickets to that production of Richard III, I would have been a lot more tolerant of the zero-effort staging. I have been to a number of free Shakespeare shows and all of them have good actors. But even though those shows travel from venue to venue, they have sets and backdrops and props and costumes and makeup and crew. It looks like they coordinated in advance because people come onto the stage when they're supposed to be there doing something. The actors don't randomly walk on and off the stage for no purpose and without speaking like it's someone's living room and they've forgotten to bring the new bowl of popcorn.

I actually associate minimalism in stage productions with "cheap" and "unprepared" and "amateurish". Hiring great actors is no substitute for doing the rest of the work of putting on a play.

But we see a lot of minimalism lately. It attracts people who want to feel avant guard, the way black and white photographers tell people it's a more artistic medium and get all sorts of people convinced. The only place we're not seeing minimalism is in men's trousers! Unfortunately for me, it used to be the other way around, fancy productions, women's clothing that covered one's modesty, and men's butts were distinctly outlined through tight trousers. Now we have men wearing low-riding jeans so loose they have to be belted around the knees too--- or maybe that's the only belt and they're really walking around like they've just taken a dump and don't know how to pull up their own pants.

It used to be that fancy food places didn't want you to leave hungry and a meal would have a half-dozen courses. Now fancy food places serve whole meals that are the size of amuse bouches and look aghast that you might want dessert after.

I want stage productions akin to Cirque du Soleil, I want meals to have gravy, and I want to be able to ogle attractive men because they've put their bums on display. You can keep your minimalism if you give me back mine!

comments

There's too much Elton John in this.

2009-08-18T21:40:43Z

Something interesting and sort of thought provoking from yesterday. I was watching the first ep of the British Life On Mars.

My immediate reaction was, "Damn, people need to read more scifi." Because I know if I was suddenly 35 years in the past, I'd react better having read all the people with massive fail and flail.

Of course, seeing 1973 from my now perspective makes it obvious that no one would EVER have wanted to live then. Men were pigs and women let themselves be treated like doormats. People drank way too much... (though that might have been Manchester more than the 70s, I know someone who lives around there and whose twits are always about being piss-drunk on ludicrously over-priced beer.) The colors and music and decor were all ghastly. It's got way too much of the pre-sober Elton John music in it.

I think every pregnant woman in 2009 should watch an episode of the British Life On Mars so they know what feminists were fighting for and so they shut the fuck up about how they have their prissy needs which aren't being met. (I've never been pregnant, maybe it really is like being disabled, but I think it undermines all women's chances of having careers when some of them let their personal lives dictate corporate policy. Honestly... and Republicans were saying Sotomayor was going to be on the Supreme Court while she was having her period... pregnancy seems to be like having your period for 2 years straight.)

Also. Anyone who ever gives me anything olive green owes me an immediate apology. I'd almost forgotten the trauma of foot-wide green "flower" images on wallpaper. It's enough to put a person off olives, some of which are supposed to be that color.

But the most interesting part of this was my deep-seated belief that I would react better in a really bizarre situation because I read science fiction and fantasy. I honestly think my mind is more open. (The bitchy comments I get (elsewhere and via email) belie that belief.)

I remember when I watched an episode of the recent remake of the Bionic Woman. Bitch wasn't grateful to have been resurrected and just couldn't deal with the change in her reality. I think I would adapt to a changed reality better than that. Show got canceled quickly (because it was terrible in myriad ways) without resolving that. I kept thinking, if she hadn't been a useless bimbo who never read a book in her life, she might have had a brain limber enough to wrap around a new concept.

I'd like to see more shows where someone smart and mentally agile gets thrust into a weird situation and has to resolve it by thinking and applying actual skills. So you would think I might like this British Life On Mars more than I do after just seeing one episode.

[The American remake of LoM is horrible, since they omitted the quality sets and props, hired ridiculously bad actors, and decided to churchify the script so it would appeal to Americans who are used to having their thinking done for them and presented pre-chewed in Jesus flavor. Personally I prefer chocolate.]

comments