way down deep in the jungle

It's small fandom month on crack_van, and some silly insane person is recommending for Spooks / MI-5 for the first time.

For posterity, here's a link to the fandom overview.

Oh, yeah, that silly person doing the recs is me. It's a strange process, because I wonder how anyone (i.e. me) can be any sort of authority on this fandom when I've only been in it for six months, and the only selection criteria was volunteering. So I worry about the usual sort of stuff, hoping that I haven't missed anything really spectacular and won't offend anyone by having completely missed their awesome work. There's a whole gigantic genre (Ruth/Harry stories) that I haven't read and to be honest will not be able to read this month. There are stories I love and won't rec, because I don't want to rec more than one story per author.

But, hey, there are bigger problems out there, and if just one new reader finds a story s/he likes, I'll feel like I've paid back something for all the stories I've found through crack_van. I mean well, really I do.

And if you're stopping by because of crack_van, hope you'll let me know any comments, suggestions, or story recs!

Random reflections on two stories and one movie (none of which I’ve thought of for a long time)

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I’m almost done with Being Human Series 2 and look forward to thinking about that, as well.

Today, I saw an article in the New York Times about kidney transplantation and organ donation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/health/lives-forever-linked-through-kidney-transplant-chain-124.html?hp

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"Good for the Poet Who..."
Alexander Pushkin

( Adding some truth to many lies )

Hello all! How have you been?

Me, mostly I have Not Been on the Internet. Clearly. On the plus side, I have read actual books, including Connie Willis' Blackout/All Clear novels and Dorothy Sayers' Wimsey novels.

I've really enjoyed Connie Willis' writing since I first came across To Say Nothing of the Dog. Blackout and All Clear are set in the same universe of time-traveling Oxford researchers. Where TSNotD uses Victorian setting to comedic effect, Blackout and All Clear focus on the trials and travails of three historians stranded in WWII London during the Blitz. Understandably, the tone is more serious, though not without humor. Unfortunately, I think the pacing suffers from the somewhat excessive attention to historical detail, and the duology could easily have been one slightly longer book or two significantly shorter ones.

Still, Willis succeeds in bringing the past to life. I was very moved by underlying premise that it was the ordinary civilians doing extraordinary things who ultimately won the war. Without the young women ambulance drivers, air raid wardens, and fisherman turned into a rescue fleet, World War II would have turned out very differently, and the world would be a very different place. The books are a great tribute to countless people whose names will never be remember but nonetheless deserve a place in history.

As a side trip, I also read Fighter Boys, Patrick Bishop's nonfiction account of the pilots of the Battle of Britain. Less time travel, more history, also fascinating.

I started Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey novels after a bit of research revealed them to be the source of a significant proportion of the allusions and in-jokes in To Say Nothing of the Dog. They are, of course, thoroughly enjoyable. Hopefully, Sayers' works are getting a bump in popularity in these days of geek chic. I'm now in the odd position of eagerly awaiting the ones I haven't read (local library has some gaps in its collection) and wanting to delay the gratification, because after I read these there will, sadly, be no more new adventures of Peter Wimsey and/or Harriet Vane.

Next on the list are some biographies of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Cleopatra (long story) and Abraham Verghese's novel Cutting for Stone.

No time to post yesterday but how can I not say anything tonight? Torchwood season 3 / Children of Earth: Day Four. Spoilers through ep 4 and thoughts behind the cut.

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Have just seen the first episode of Torchwood S3/Children of Earth. It did not disappoint. I reserve the right to change my mind some point where I am not completely lost to fannish glee, but for now ... GLEE! in capitals.

For anyone watching on the US schedule, I have no spoilers below except for new character names and guest actors, but just in case:

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Fine, my conscience has forced me to add: there may be flaws, but if the rest of episodes are this good, I'm probably going to have to resort to handing out DVD's on the street to shill this show. Just not, you know, season 1 DVD's.

Some days I swear I have fallen into a black hole or time paradox or something, because the less I sleep, the faster the days go by. e.g. somehow I have not yet posted in 2009 and the end of residency is less than a month and a half away. So ... how's your life?

All of these concerns pale in comparison to a new and very worrisome problem: I have started watching Torchwood, and I am totally addicted. When the show first started a couple of years ago, I made it to episode 4 and gave up, but now I am partway through series 2 and will probably finish far, far too soon given my current level of sleep deprivation.  It is an odd experience being so sucked into the show. To say Torchwood season 1 is seriously flawed in places is sort of like me saying, perhaps I could use a bit more sleep, while nodding off if sitting down more than 5 minutes. But there are some absolutely brilliant moments, and by the end of the season, the writers must thrown away, or started taking, the good crack and turn out a couple damn good episodes.

I'm sort of embarrassed to like the show, because watching I can't help but think so much of this is crap. And then I get one of the erstwhile heroes  *smiling* before he headbutts a a creepy insane cannibal, and I realize it is hopeless. I have myself a new show.

I'm coming up on one of those blessed events, time off. Would appreciate any suggestions on reading material.

I may not have access to the internet for a bit (as if my guilt over not keeping up with people's journals was not already large enough) so fanfic is out.

Thanks!