incidents and accidents, hints and allegations

Because, reallly, my life has been boring lately. A summary: blah blah work-work-work-work blah blah acid reflux blah blah holiday prep blah blah work-work-work-work. See? I told you.

So have some links instead:

• An effectively-perpetual Borders coupon, via Inner Bitch.
• Via julesjones, a ridiculously easy way to get your LibraryThing catalog onto any Palm device running OS 3.0 and up: PalmThing.
• Our Christmas tree, and the first of a series of pictures of science-themed ornaments.
• Why Tamora Pierce is cool, via liviapenn in a comment to coffeeandink's post about comics, manga, and sexism.
• For Saiyuki fans, via rilina: "How are you feeling today?": One, two; and, some pretty Minekura pictures.
• For Firefly fans, via I-don't-remember: Notes on a Fridge.

And now, back to work (-work-work-work).

(Really weekend in review, like many previous ones, but usually the week proper is just work, which is either boring or not for public consumption.)

I spent a lot of time this weekend reading the new Diana Gabaldon out in the backyard; fall's earlier sunsets have been hitting me hard this year, so I've been trying to really store up nice weather against winter while we have it. This morning, for instance, I had an appointment to donate platelets but couldn't, again—this is the third time in a row. Disappointing, but on the other hand, hanging out in the backyard with the dog and a book and a short nap was a much nicer way to spend the day.

(The quality of my afternoon, while sleepy, was much improved by the Pats game not being on TV here, as they got shellacked; as the quickie post-game story led off, "Injuries finally caught up with the New England Patriots." Uh, yeah. OTOH, the Giants won quite handily, so perhaps we're into zero-sum football karma again.)

We saw Serenity last night, of course; my reactions are basically the same as to the preview (posts: no spoilers; spoilers). I don't quite agree with Chad that I would have liked it better if I hadn't seen the series; the changes from the series bothered me, but the lack of familiarity with the characters might have been more difficult. Hard to say, of course. Additional non-spoilery things: still love the pre-credits sequence quite ridiculously; also love the credits sequence after noticing (thanks to some reviews) that it's just one loooooong unbroken camera shot. Cool. Another thing I noticed is the way it could switch instantly between tense and funny and back again, which is really impressive. Overall, not perfect, but I'm glad I saw it and I think it's worth seeing.

And I am still sleepy from staying up late talking about the movie with colleagues of Chad's who we bumped into at the theater and getting up early for the ill-fated blood donation appointment, and I seem to have hit a temporary wall on this legal research, so it's definitely past time for me to head to bed.

The SciFi Channel is broadcasting the entire run of Firefly, including the three episodes that Fox didn't air, starting with the first hour of the two-hour pilot on this Friday, July 22, at 7 p.m. (6 Central). (It appears that through August, they'll be airing one episode a week; I don't know if they'll speed up in September, because at that rate, they won't be done for the movie's premiere.)

(If you miss tomorrow's airing because I was so late in getting this post up, the first half of the pilot will also be shown next week at 6 p.m., so you could watch the entire pilot at once.)

Hence this post: why you should watch Firefly, starting this Friday (or rent/buy the DVD set—no commercials!). There are two reasons:

1. Because the characters are great.
2. Because you should go see the movie Serenity when it comes out September 30, and it will be more engaging if you already know the characters.

   (I realize this raises the secondary question of why you should go see Serenity—that one's easy, because if it doesn't make a bunch of money there won't be more Firefly movies, and I want more.)

( More details on what it is, why to watch (and why not), and which episodes are key )

I have collected a huge number of links to Firefly commentary and have been slowly organizing and annotating them. The top-level table of contents presently looks like this:

• Commentary on specific episodes
• On the whole series, including DVD features
• Characters
• Worldbuilding
• Miscellaneous

The section of episode-specific commentary is done (and has been for a while). The rest is not, and probably won't be for some time, because I want to finish listening to commentary tracks before I go into the rest of the commentary.

(I also intend to do a "what Firefly's all about, and why you might want to watch it" post closer to July 22, when it goes into re-runs. Hell, that's next Friday. Arrgh.)

Just for the novelty, I give you, my potential readers, a poll!

[Poll #530555]

I have seen Serenity, thanks to a kind benefactor who saw my plea on the Browncoats board. I'm cutting my general reactions for the super-paranoid; there are no actual plot or content specifics. Spoilery comments and questions will follow in a separate post.

( Big Damn Movie )

Vanishingly unlikely, I know, but I find myself in Boston rather than Albany this week—anyone have a single spare ticket to the Boston preview of Serenity?

(Have also posted on the Browncoats forum.)

We watched these a week ago Sunday. Alas for the end of the series; I'm listening to the commentary tracks, which will be a separate post, and browsing for good commentary and fanfic, but it's just not the same. Oh, for September 30 or preview screenings in our area . . .

( Firefly 112, 'Heart of Gold', and 113, 'Objects in Space' )

[Edited 5/31/05 after re-watching "Objects in Space."]

Another weekend, another couple of Firefly episodes. Also, the debut of my (slightly lame) homemade Firefly icon. (The "Also, I can kill you with my brain" icon is more of a mood thing (and probably even lamer, but I've no talent for this kind of thing). Stop me before I try to make a "too pretty to die" of the whole cast . . . )

( Firefly 109, 'War Stories,' and 110, 'Trash' )

We watched four Firefly episodes Saturday night, "Our Mrs. Reynolds," "Jaynestown," "Out of Gas," and "Ariel." Yes, kind of a major tone shift there, so I'll write them up two at a time.

First, ( a note on airing order: )

( Firely 105, 'Our Mrs. Reynolds', and 106, 'Jaynestown' )

Well, while I'm in TV-writeup mode, I might as well say something about the other two Firefly episodes we watched this weekend. Episode numbering borrowed from FireflyWiki.org's Episode Guide.

( Firefly 101 and 102, 'The Train Job' and 'Bushwacked', plus pilot deleted scenes and general thoughts )

[ ETA next morning: misia has posted some pointed criticisms of "Bushwhacked." I don't disagree with them, but they're within, or close by, the world-building bits that I'm ignoring. ]