burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

I didn't go to the Harvard Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer Women's Lunch today -- both because I am antisocial and because I am overly committed to my job (I have a wicked "Just in case").

***

Yesterday afternoon, Jeff emailed the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance book group:

Hey everyone!

    Greetings after such a long break! I think we've been apart for too long, and even though the trans day of remembrance vigil is friday, let's get together for our next installment of zen.  Let's read at least the next two chapters and go from there. See ya then!

Jeff

Sent from my iPhone

Yeah, I winced.  It took until tonight for me to email him back.  I read (okay, mostly skimmed) a bunch of stuff today (see list below) about representation etc., and while I was on the phone with Ari I was thinking about what a position of privilege I'm in that I could even be debating whether to say anything.

sage_theory: This is why I don't watch Heroes anymore...
seeksadventure: [links] feminists and disabilities links
fox1013: If you're on Heroes, I GUARANTEE your Christmases will be white! Also male. JSYK.

In talking with Ari tonight, I realized that CWM hadn't announced anything about the TDoR vigil this Friday or any of the related events this week.  I suspect this is because Tiffany was still recovering from being sick and also had a memorial service that same day and Marla and Sean were at Boston Common in case any students got arrested* and Jordan wasn't there and yeah.  I still think it is a bit o' fail for us, though.  Christ the King Sunday is next Sunday and now I am thinking about trying to combine the two in my sermon.  (Full disclosure: I haven't looked at the lectionary readings yet.)

*College students are sleeping out to protest their dorms being powered by dirty electricity, and in Boston they're sleeping on Boston Common on Sunday nights and lobbying legislators Monday morning, and summons were handed out the previous Sunday.

Original Airdate: 09/22/08
Available Until: 10/28/08
http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/video/categories/season-3/679102/

( notes )

Weeks ago, Kring talked to Entertainment Weekly about what they've done wrong in Heroes S2, and I forgot to post about this bit I didn't like.  ( excerpt )

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just_katarin comments on the Maya and Alejandro storyline: ( spoilers through last week's episode -- 2.08 )

---

comics ( #57-59 )

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( this week's episode -- running commentary, as per usual, with some after-the-fact editing )

( some follow-up commentary on last week's episode )

****

comic ( #54-55 )

***

( This week's episode. )

Hi, GoogleAlerts ForTheWin. Someone asks in a Heroes discussion thread what the words are to the song Alejandro sings to Maya in the previous episode, and a respondent cited my post (which they found from a Google search).

Oh, ann1962 posted: "A small collection of links about Mayan culture, twins, South American deities and how I go in circles."

And last week I debated whether Caitlin's a Mary Sue.

---

[comics] ( #52-53 )

---

( Tonight's episode. )

Work continues to be busy.

Things that made me happy today included listening to OMWF songs ("Rest in Peace," "Walk Through the Fire," and "Standing") on YouTube.  I am now listening to the bootleg Ally (not to be confused with Allie or Aly) burned for me back when the ep first aired -- which I far prefer to the official one as it actually includes relevant dialogue bits.

( gym )

I made actually dinner for myself tonight.  Winnar.

***

I remember seeing at least one entry on someone else's flist linking to an article about translating Harry Potter into Hebrew, and I was telling my mom about an excerpt from it, but I hadn't actually gotten around to reading it, so I did tonight.  ("When Harry Meets Hebrew")

( the excerpt in which I learned new stuff about connotations of British food )

*

From whedonesque:

Amber Benson's "Death's Daughter". Amber lands a three book deal with Penguin, and this will be her first release.

From the press release: DEATH'S DAUGHTER, the story of a young woman trying to make it as a young urban professional in NYC who slowly comes to realize that her father is actually the Grim Reaper and that she must rescue him after he's kidnapped by unknown forces in order to save her entire family (not to mention the world.

I'm definitely interested.

*

The weather was beautiful today and we ate lunch outside and Eric joined us and we talked tv.

I told him about the adorable pictures of the girl who plays Molly Walker (Adair Tishler) from the Emmys [though IMDb doesn't have this one] and we swapped casting news for the JJ Abrams Star Trek (okay, he already knew mine -- which I of course got from Vik -- but whatever).

He apparently loves Eureka (which makes me laugh, because all I know about it is jennyo talking about how femslashy it is) and is upset that he doesn't have the Sci-Fi channel (he got the first season on DVD).  I live in like the only town in the Boston area that has RCN rather than (as well as?) Comcast.  He says Comcast is buying RCN?

I feel like all the TV starts back up again next week.  [Note to self: catch up on Heroes online comics this weekend.]  And somehow I'm supposed to get enough sleep and also do the readings for my class?  *tries to remember what this felt like last semester*  I'm basically not adding any new shows to my schedule -- so if there are any new shows you think I absolutely must watch, this is the time to convince me.

Monday
HIMYM @ 8:00 [CBS] (I'm lending Eric S2 when it's out 'cause he liked S1 but hasn't seen S2)
Heroes @ 9 [NBC]

Thursday -- taping because of small group
CSI @ 9 [CBS]
WaT @ 10 [CBS]

And, midseason replacement:
Sunday
The Sarah Connor Chronicles @ 9 [FOX]

Eric's S1 Heroes DVD came today, so since MaryAlice was out he suggested we watch the original premiere episode (i.e., the one shown at Comic-Con last year).  ( spoilers, duh )

The DVD started with Previews, the first of which was for Bionic Woman.  I mentioned that I refuse to watch it because they hired IW.  The conversation about that got me thinking about how there aren't any new shows this coming year that I'm planning to watch and also how I can't actually remember how/why I decided to watch Heroes last year, which I find interesting.

After work, I returned books to the div school library and decided instead of heading back to Harvard Square directly I'd wander a bit.  I made my way to Beacon St. and ended up following to back to close to Porter Square, at which point I decided to just take Oxford St. back to Harvard.  To my surprise, I encountered RA-Claire on the way.  She was heading to her last Urban Rebounding class, so we didn't chat long, but this is her last week (shamefully, I actually thought she had left much earlier this summer) so she said we should get together for coffee or ice cream or something, which would be nice.

University Health Services is once again reminding me that I haven't had a PAP smear.  I haven't had a physical in I don't know how many years, so I suppose I should get on that.

I'm also flirting with the idea of actually learning to drive.

***

I think my flickr photos are as organized/tagged/described as they're gonna get.  ohmigod, why is there no mass edit tool for changing privacy settings?  I had everything Private so I could get it all sorted, but then I had to go back and mark each one public when I was done.  (I had really good hair at WriterCon.  I'd forgotten that.  Looking at those photos also made me miss Lorraine and company.)

Anyway, Europe photos.

(I should probably also do a combined-and-abbreviated set for slideshow when I see my grandma in a couple weeks, but that can wait a bit since it is over a week away -- though yes, I'm sure you all would appreciate it as well.)

***

mosca posted a link to this thing that generates "cat macros."  Despite being fairly indifferent to the cat macro phenomenon, I was curious and tried it for my LJ.  I was actually jarred by the results because it just plunks the Subject Lines onto pictures of cats, so I found myself with this expectational disconnect because it didn't lol-speak-ize the text or anything.  Huh.  Interesting.

( some of the results I was fond of )