Why hello there!

Thanks to aldehyde and deeplyunhip for your lovely cards! I found them waiting for me when I got in last night. That does mean I'm back in the east, happily settling back into routines. I missed you, eddoes and kolhrabi! (Could not find them on the west coast and it was sad.) I'm currently losing the jet lag battle, but give it a few days; I always have a harder time coming east than going west.

Though it wasn't all on what I should have been working on (ficathon deadline is starting to loom), I wrote some comment fic over the holidays. Riley-centric TSCC fic here, Martha-centric Doctor Who fic here, Torchwood Jack fic here and a little bit of love for Supernatural's Ellen Harvelle.

I'm not entirely happy with the Martha fic in particular; I'm far too wordy and maybe it's formality that I don't like in the tone, but I can't quite put my finger on the problem with it. I like the Jack piece best. I'm so much more comfortable with dialogue!

Oh Dollhouse, did you really have to go there?

Ramblings pertaining to the portrayal of disability below the cut. Spoilers for episodes 2x05 and 2x06. Some acting props and a tip of the hat to gender portrayal at the end.

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I'm watching "The Waters of Mars" (delightful, by the way) and all I can think is This is what happens when records management practices break down.

Glee :(

( Not really spoilers, but a squee harsher of an -isms discussion. )

I am way too old to be crushing on the bad boy, but it's clear that Dean Winchester's secret depths of emotional pain and pretty, pretty eyes have done me in.

I really want to get into Glee - give me a show about geeky choir kids, I say hell yeah - but even if the writing weren't weak to begin with, but I'm so distracted by the painful stereotyping. I get that a lot of it is intentional - jocks and cheerleaders and music nerds - and I love that there's actually a character with a disability in the main cast... but why is it that the white, straight, able-bodied teens have the lead singing and acting roles? The back-up singers are an east asian girl, a black girl (who seems to tick every stereotype!), a white gay male (who is so feminine he sings up into an alto range), and a white extra nerdy nerd in a wheelchair. Well done ticking the demographic boxes!

I wish I could be thrilled to see a character with a disability visibly present on a mainstream show, but he's the only character whose audition is skipped over, he is frequently shoved around - without consent - and crashes into things, and is never actually seen wheeling himself anywhere. (Because people with disabilities always need help like that.) The 'successful' song and dance number also doesn't feature him; he's off to the side playing guitar. Which is still pretty rockin', especially considering he brought the jazz band in on the affair (even if if was the straight white male lead's idea) and because he seems to be pretty good at it. Except that one of the other characters grabs his chair and starts moving him around without permission AGAIN and that this is the extent of his involvement in the singing and dancing, even if he is supposed to be a Glee Club member and not a part of the band. In fact, earlier attempts to choreograph the wheelchair into things are seen as purely comedic.

Also, seriously? Is "I Kissed a Girl" really that awesome a song that it was the one you had to choose to show a character as "edgy"? Because really, it's still more than a little bit offensive.

And these are just the teenagers. The adult cast wishes it were this diverse (Ha!)

(Ray is working at a keyboard, typing hunt-and-pick style. Ray is an American; Fraser is a Canadian.)

Fraser: That's a zed.
Ray: What's a zed?
Fraser: A zee. You meant to hit an 's'.

I continue to adore The Sarah Jane Adventures. Only four more episodes left this season, why, why?

( The 'Next Time' trailer. )

My health - I hope - bottomed out today. Whether I go to class tomorrow or not is still up in the air, though I'm leaning on 'No'. I need to stop applying bandaids if I'm going to have any hope of getting through the semester; six days of quiet rest would go a long way right now. That being said, I'll have to go out tomorrow or on Friday, or I'll be eating nothing but vegetable bean soup and beets all weekend!

PGSM continues to be adorably endearing (oh my god - Luna from episode 27 on did not help the cheesy factor, but it's so damn cute) and I'm working my way through it at a decent clip. All of the characters have been growing on me; it's a part of the Sailor Moon franchise, but this show has increasingly got a life and flavour all its own. And Vicki, you were a little bit right about Minako.

I also stumbled on this little gem, which is a fantastically epic Battlestar Galactica/Star Trek: The Next Generation crossover. You laugh, but it's a really solid piece of work that deals realistically with the politics and social problems of first contact. It has excellent characterization as well. Lee is still idealistic and still churlish, Tigh is a bully and a drunkard who commands respect all the same, Riker is slightly blowhard, and Troi is actually a surprisingly stand-out character. The author bills Going Native as Gaeta-centric, but it's actually quite a balance narrative. Great pacing too!

I've had a lot of time in the last few days in which I've been too tired to really wrap my head around words on a page, let alone anything academic, so I've been picking away at the Sailor Moon Live Action series on YouTube. It's... special. And utterly addictive. (Usage is excellent, but Makoto is so my favourite.)

Also, the 2008 Sense and Sensibility isn't all bad, even if watching British television is increasingly turning into a distracting game of "Why does he look so familiar? Which character did he play on Doctor Who?" :P In this edition, we have Mark Gatiss (or Professor Lazarus) as the bumbling John Dashwood and David Morrissey as Colonel Brandon, though he's more familiar for other projects he's done with Tennant. Props to Morrissey, though, for playing a totally different character; I'd look at him sometimes and think, no way that's the fellow who played Ripley Holden.