All right, you intrepid fans of Star Wars! In my travels here in Central New York, I found my way out to my friend Doug's house for a rather fun Star Wars party, which we have been planning to attend together for several weeks. We decided to go as what my good friend Adam referred to as: "the greatest Star Wars couple ever."

Was it Han and Leia? Han and Chewy? Luke and Yoda? Ghost Yoda and Ghost Obi-Wan?

( No, silly. The GREATEST Star Wars couple ever. )

Well, folks, in two weeks and change, I'll be starting at the faire again. May has been crazy, (really, really, incredibly, ridiculous insanely crazy!) though, and lots and lots of things are happening.

( Like what, you wonder... )

I stumbled across this article today, and I feel that the author very plainly articulated my views on drugs in this country:

Commentary - Legalize Drugs to Stop Violence: CNN.

I used to have a very live and let live attitude about illegal drugs, despite that my interest in them is, at best, zero. Never tried it. Never want to. When I was twenty two, a graduate student in my program was killed. Wrong place, wrong time. He walked in on a drug-related robbery while delivering for a pizza shop in Syracuse. His name was Simeon Popov.

I'm temping at the Crime Victims' Center of Chester County until faire time rolls around again. As I work on letters and mailing for the upcoming Homicide Vigil and get further into this world, I remember him. We barely knew one another, and it still made such a profound impact. I can't know what it was like for his family, or for the families we serve, but at least I can understand what it is to have someone ripped so harshly out of the fabric of your reality.

Friends, Romans, and Fellow Denizens of Nerdonia, welcome to my sporadic rant and/or rave about television. This week marked the end of one of my newer obsessions, Battlestar Galactica. It also marked the sixth episode of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, which I have been watching with my usual and predictable devotion to Joss Whedon. After watching certain developments in this last episode of the new show it seems like a good time to weigh in on the show so far.

By the way, I'd officially like to apologize to Adam for playfully mocking him in 1999 for his Buffy habit. I didn't know. I do now.

Okay, so, There Be Spoilers Here. Don't read if you want to be untainted. Use your willpower and your self-restraint and don't click through. It will all be here later, when you are all caught up. BSG is available through netflix, I-Tunes, and a few are streaming on the internet and on demand. Dollhouse is on Hulu like aliens are on flying saucers.

Behind this cut, my thoughts on the end of the journey for the end of the human race:
( Battlestar Galactica )



Under this cut, my thoughts about the series Dollhouse so far. Clicking on the one that reads Dollhouse will cut you below the BSG stuff so you will be highly safe, so long as you and your mouse behave. Savvy, Mickey?

( Dollhouse )

Welcome to Tuesday's post, where, having finished a large portion of my workload for today, I give details about: the fifteen scariest minutes of my life.

( In recent history, anyway. )

Hello friends and fellow livejournalists.

I am currently in the airport in Phoenix, hanging out on an open wireless signal. It's filtered for indecency, so some things are unavailable to me. For example, g-mail is perfectly acceptable, but yahoo is entirely off limits. Also accessible to me: CNN, xkcd, Hulu, whedonesque, and livejournal. OKcupid...not so much. I find it funny.

Time to board. Here's a rundown of the what's what, thus far.



( Arizona, Part One )

Today was supposed to be an intensely song-writing day, but as it happens, I just had a conversation with my client (and former boss, though now the relationship is different and better) which tells me it might be good to wait. Apparently, there is already a script! In this process, the songs usually come first, but if there is going to be a script, that can better inform the musical to make it one big coherent piece. There are still some writerly things I can do today, and I'll get to them, but this gives me a few minutes to put down the guitar and collect some thoughts about the weekend.

You see, this weekend I lost my Roller Derby Spectator Virginity.

( That's right. )

Attention Internet!

Behind the cut, I am talking about Battlestar Galactica, Season 4, Episode 11: Sometimes a Great Notion.

There are spoilers. Big hairy nasty spoilers. If you don't like them, and you click on the link, and then get mad at me for putting them here, you are a doofus. Yep. A big doofus. I said it.

( SPOILERS AHEAD. Alert! Alert! Alert! )

I just finished watching Chocolat in the background of the other six thousand things I've been working on this evening. This is probably one of my favorite movies, as there is a lot about it that is very whimsical and beautiful. My favorite thing about it, though, and the underlying message of the movie is given in the form of an Easter sermon towards the end. It's relevant to our country as we know it, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Wanted to hold on to it. Wanted to share.

(Thank you, Internet Movie Data Base for your help.)


I'm not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be. Do I want to speak of the miracle of Our Lord's divine transformation? Not really, no. I don't want to talk about His divinity. I'd rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life, here on Earth. His *kindness*, His *tolerance*... Listen, here's what I think. I think that we can't go around... measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think... we've got to measure goodness by what we *embrace*, what we create... and who we include.

Yes. It is wise to be realistic about the legislative abilities of President Obama. Still, I have some difficulties not being pleased and inspired by the fact that he hasn't been at work for three days, and he's already made good on a pretty huge platform of his campaign: Closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Go on, Mr. President. Now, he just needs to sign the order for it to rain Skittles, and for money to grow from trees, and for the world to get along, and everything will be perfect! Oh yeah. Taste the rainbow.

Bush got on the plane and left. Obama took the oath. It's really real, and it's on CNN and people are FREAKING out. He gets out of the car and the crowd literally goes wild. Our president, at least for a little while longer, is very much like a rock star.

A few observations of the day:

-I watched the beginning of the luncheon in Statuary Hall and I thought "man, Ted Kennedy looks like he should be in bed right now." And then he collapsed. Hrm.

-Watching Bush get on the helicopter and leave actually made me a little teary eyed. I am THAT excited about the regime change.

-Michelle Obama has got to be cold. It's January and windy and freezing and that coat does not look nearly heavy enough. Yes, her dress is pretty, but DUDE. No amount of photographs can convince me to choose the misery of being freezing for the benefit of fashion. Add it to the list of why I'll never be First Lady.

-Is Jill Biden the Second Lady? Or the First Lady-in-Waiting?

-CNN really likes to show off their touch-screen toys. It's like they want to get mocked by Jon Stewart. Maybe they do.

-Joe Biden on parade is kind of adorable. He looks pretty excited. Maybe he is.

-As I watch the sun going down on this parade, I am so glad I am not in the crowds and the wind and the cold today. I am happy to be among the millions watching on television...I really think I'd be miserable if I were out there today.

Happy Inauguration Day, livejournal.

New year. New town. Old friends, and a couple of new ones, too.

Went to Baltimore with another load of things, and one lovely Adam Kapp. He and I, and Nate's cousin the merchant marine, went with Nate as a plus three to a party that was heavy in physicists and astronomers. It was quite prudent to be at a house party; it was damned cold on New Year's Eve. I wore the best dress lately (it's not the best dress ever; that would just be silly, but it was good, nonetheless). A perfect collision of my latent ladylike sensibilities and eight year old geek boy tendencies. More on this later, if I ever upload. At the party, it was fun watching some of the boys play beer pong, talking to a whole mess of people who were mostly new to me. I spent a lot of the night talking to women I had just met, which is pretty unusual for me; way outside of my comfort zone, but it went well. A pretty girl leaned down and kissed me sometime after midnight, and I think that all the boys missed it.

Nate was courteous enough to drive, so he was sober, and the cold walk to the car and then to the house sobered me up pretty considerably. The others were in a much deeper state of inebriate/happy, I suspect. We got back to the house at a semi-reasonable hour, considering it was New Year's, and all parties were tucked in by about 3:30. For some insane reason, I was wide awake in my new room on the tiny pull out chair at about 6:30. The east-facing windows had no curtains then, so I laid there for a while and I literally watched the sun rise on 2009. From my window, I can see the water. Ships. Commerce. It occurred to me as I lay there that I was actually living on a harbor. My inner pirate is thrilled and proud.

It was also a really beautiful sunrise. I am so glad last year is officially over.

I dozed off again a little before eight, and then had a pretty good, but busy day. That night, there were fireworks; Nate and I sat in my room and watched them. Apparently my room has kick-ass sight lines.

I didn't make any serious resolutions, but I certainly have some good ideas about how I want things to go this year. I want to continue my annual trend of eating better. Last year it was about bumping up the vegetable intake. Maybe this year, I'll further cut things I've gotten into the habit of avoiding all together (basically, anything that's on a label that I think shouldn't be in what I'm eating). Once I get settled and find part-time employment (craig's list gave me hope, earlier), I'll take a class of some sort, I think. I'd like to find something really difficult for me. I seek struggle for my amusement while I seek ease for my employment. There is something really funny about this, I'm sure.

As I get closer to actually being in my new physical space, I start to mourn the few little things that still delight me about West Chester and Philly. At least it won't be too far away. Tomorrow, I work, and then I will come home to a couple of sweet little boys. I will miss my nephews so badly when I cannot see them two and three times a week. It still feels right, though. It still feels like time. I did watch the sun come up over the New Year, and that was something good.

Resolution. That's a really interesting word, now that I think about it.

I win at gingerbread.

Pictures to come soon.

My pancreas hurts just looking at the thing...

You know what I say? Leave your livestock alone.

I'll admit that this post starts with a quote from Grosse Pointe Blank because I knew that a certain former co-worker and long time Nintendo partner of mine would greatly appreciate it, especially in light of what I hear he'll be doing this weekend...

It's the ten-year high school reunion for the class of 98. My class officers always insist on doing these reunion things over Thanksgiving weekend because they assume more people will be in the area, visiting home. That smacks of a decision made by people that never moved during any of their formative years, but whatever. I'll be at Dickens, getting my Christmas on. Some of my best friends will be representing and the reunion, and I expect stories. It will be interesting to hear where some of the folks have been for the last decade. I've certainly had a hell of a ride.

But, covering the last ten years is something too long and beautiful and painful for me to consider at this exact moment. Covering the last year shall suffice.

( On with the show: self-reflection ahead. Run for your lives! )

John McCain is giving his concession speech.

This is really happening, and decisively so.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's a President Obama. Pass the cigars (or in my case, the sleepytime tea).

Let the countdown to 1/20 begin.


added a little later

Seeing Florida turn blue on the map has actually warmed the cockles of my heart.

It seems like at last, Americans have realized that the only way to create this kind of change in the system is to go out and actually vote for it. Barack Obama has mobilized the previously apathetic and the uninformed.

So far, the democrats have 56 states in the Senate, and 204 in the House. The pendulum seems to be swinging rapidly back from the far right, where it has lived for far too long for my tastes.

Will anything really and truly change? I think so. I think that the people in this country are inspired by Obama. I know that the world responds positively to him, and I'd much rather have someone like that representing me on the world stage. I am eager to see how the world press covers this, and what smarter people than me have to say about all of this.

I think I am going to collapse soon, but not before the victory speech. Sleep well, my friends.