PSA- Shall be gone for a month!
Jul. 13th, 2006 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmiaHey all, thought I oughta tell people (ehehe) that I will be gone for about a month, I'm not entirely sure yet. I leave July 19th by Amtrak (whee trains) with a couple day stopover in San Antonio to visit a friend, then from the 23rd til the end of August I will be in New Orleans.
I'll be volunteering there, with the People's Hurricane Relief organization. Maybe office work, maybe organizing in the community, maybe construction, maybe all of the above. The super spiffy Tasia and Mary Rose will be there too. I haven't bought the return tickets yet, but I'll be back before or at the beginning of September, I reckon. Anybody gonna be in the area while I'm there? Gimme a call on my cell, perhaps I can visit at the end or something.
Meanwhile- I've been knitting and packing and wasting time on the internet with fanfic (what else is new?) and also rewatching this old sorta-kinda telenovela I'd watched during high school called Destinos, specifically designed for a Spanish-learning course. It's great, and incredibly addicting, hehe.
Also I've been doing some reading. Did you know Diana Wynne Jones wrote a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle? It is, like many of her works, well paced, with witty dialogue and really neat, fleshed-out characters. It's called Castle in the Air.
Watched the first two and change episodes of Stargate SG-1. (can you tell I've been to the library recently? hehe) The pilot was a decent bridge between the movie and the series. Hee hee, tissue box. O'Neill was well played, a man who is not Too Bitter, yet full of Irony. Jackson's all right. I can see where Teal'c's character is going- the strong silent type, who shall be Stoic and Warrior Chic. Carter makes me wince, because she, well...is kinda a classic example of Western White Feminist. I mean, I accept that she has to be forceful and in-your-face to get anywhere in the armed forces, I have no problem with that. But something about the way the actor plays it is kinda...off.
Second ep was all right, though gruesome. Third ep, just reading the *synopsis* made me wince. "On the planet of Simarka, whre the fierce race of Shavadai mistreat females, Carter challenges their misogynistic ways in a thrilling battle of wits that may bring women equity or forever keep them as second-class citizens." Uh huh, right. I decided to give it a chance, since synopses, like book covers and blurbs, usually are a poor reflection of what actually happens. I only made it five, ten minutes. Then had to stop watching. Wah, the scenario was just wah on SO many levels. Ehehe, college has refined my view of representation so much. The Shavadai (in looks and dress) are like Mongolians. O'Neill and co are clearly gonna get placed in the role of Kindly White Folks Freeing the Brown Women From the Savage Brown Men, it's all very Edward Said and removing of the veils and whatnot. Just a bit too painful to watch to want to stick it out. Not sure I want to get more SG-1 dvds, I realize it's just first season, someone needs to convince me I think. Yes, I can be a very opinionated, hyper-aware person. :P
Over the weekend I went to the San Jose Museum of Art with my mom. some cool exhibits, including shiny lights and computer manipulations projected on walls. One neat bit on globalization had 27 globes with light shining through inside, and various data points, I really liked. It catalogued things like internet, tvs, places it's unsafe to drive, stunted growth, G8 (and G177 opposing it), outsourcing, rainforest past and present, world languages, lots of neat things. Another exhibit was the sound of the internet- screens and sound, where a comp trawls chat rooms for specific phrases, and displays them on little screens and speaks them, like a symphony. Pretty cool.
Also went with mom, bro, aunt, uncle and grandma to Napa Valley, to wander around the (free) parts of wineries new and old. Very hot, but not too bad. Tried some wine, went in a cellar (oooh cool literally and figuratively), ate lots of watermelon. Proved that I can indeed read a map, although coordinating that with Mom's driving means lots of yelling and pointing and such, since Mom's a great driver but she hasn't been to Napa in years, hehe. Finished with delicious dinner in Chinatown, SF.
that's all for now, all my love ^_^
I'll be volunteering there, with the People's Hurricane Relief organization. Maybe office work, maybe organizing in the community, maybe construction, maybe all of the above. The super spiffy Tasia and Mary Rose will be there too. I haven't bought the return tickets yet, but I'll be back before or at the beginning of September, I reckon. Anybody gonna be in the area while I'm there? Gimme a call on my cell, perhaps I can visit at the end or something.
Meanwhile- I've been knitting and packing and wasting time on the internet with fanfic (what else is new?) and also rewatching this old sorta-kinda telenovela I'd watched during high school called Destinos, specifically designed for a Spanish-learning course. It's great, and incredibly addicting, hehe.
Also I've been doing some reading. Did you know Diana Wynne Jones wrote a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle? It is, like many of her works, well paced, with witty dialogue and really neat, fleshed-out characters. It's called Castle in the Air.
Watched the first two and change episodes of Stargate SG-1. (can you tell I've been to the library recently? hehe) The pilot was a decent bridge between the movie and the series. Hee hee, tissue box. O'Neill was well played, a man who is not Too Bitter, yet full of Irony. Jackson's all right. I can see where Teal'c's character is going- the strong silent type, who shall be Stoic and Warrior Chic. Carter makes me wince, because she, well...is kinda a classic example of Western White Feminist. I mean, I accept that she has to be forceful and in-your-face to get anywhere in the armed forces, I have no problem with that. But something about the way the actor plays it is kinda...off.
Second ep was all right, though gruesome. Third ep, just reading the *synopsis* made me wince. "On the planet of Simarka, whre the fierce race of Shavadai mistreat females, Carter challenges their misogynistic ways in a thrilling battle of wits that may bring women equity or forever keep them as second-class citizens." Uh huh, right. I decided to give it a chance, since synopses, like book covers and blurbs, usually are a poor reflection of what actually happens. I only made it five, ten minutes. Then had to stop watching. Wah, the scenario was just wah on SO many levels. Ehehe, college has refined my view of representation so much. The Shavadai (in looks and dress) are like Mongolians. O'Neill and co are clearly gonna get placed in the role of Kindly White Folks Freeing the Brown Women From the Savage Brown Men, it's all very Edward Said and removing of the veils and whatnot. Just a bit too painful to watch to want to stick it out. Not sure I want to get more SG-1 dvds, I realize it's just first season, someone needs to convince me I think. Yes, I can be a very opinionated, hyper-aware person. :P
Over the weekend I went to the San Jose Museum of Art with my mom. some cool exhibits, including shiny lights and computer manipulations projected on walls. One neat bit on globalization had 27 globes with light shining through inside, and various data points, I really liked. It catalogued things like internet, tvs, places it's unsafe to drive, stunted growth, G8 (and G177 opposing it), outsourcing, rainforest past and present, world languages, lots of neat things. Another exhibit was the sound of the internet- screens and sound, where a comp trawls chat rooms for specific phrases, and displays them on little screens and speaks them, like a symphony. Pretty cool.
Also went with mom, bro, aunt, uncle and grandma to Napa Valley, to wander around the (free) parts of wineries new and old. Very hot, but not too bad. Tried some wine, went in a cellar (oooh cool literally and figuratively), ate lots of watermelon. Proved that I can indeed read a map, although coordinating that with Mom's driving means lots of yelling and pointing and such, since Mom's a great driver but she hasn't been to Napa in years, hehe. Finished with delicious dinner in Chinatown, SF.
that's all for now, all my love ^_^
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-13 11:19 am (UTC)Um, my advice for SG-1 is actually to skip the first season, and perhaps the second...or just get my list of highlights (the only S1 eps I'd recommend are the pilot, "Hathor" and the season finale). Otherwise...eh, not really worth it. SGA had a MUCH stronger first season.
Also, Teal'c is the strong silent type. And also, the you are all idiots type. As well as the you just don't understand my humor type. Teal'c is...so much more wonderful than the early episodes indicate. Also, he's much cooler than Ronon (actually, Teyla reminds me a little more of Teal'c than anyone else...)
Cheers on New Orleans, send me a postcard!
no subject
Date: 2006-07-14 06:28 am (UTC)I dunno if I can force myself to watch the rest of that ep. but if you send me your "to watch" list of SG1 eps, then I'll see if the library has them and give them a chance. Send me a postcard from India, yo. :P
no subject
Date: 2006-07-13 04:01 pm (UTC)Do you have your New Orleans address yet? I can send my postcard to you there instead of home if you do.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-14 06:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-15 03:02 am (UTC)I wish you lots of luck and protection against the horrible southern humidity! ;) Duo baozhong!
*hugs*