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the new molarity
Oct. 4th, 2009 07:15 pmIt's been a little more than 2 weeks since I had my wisdom teeth yanked. It went fairly smoothly, taking a bit less than an hour. I had a minor infection which lingered at one point, but I think it's gone now. It laid me up more than I had expected, but it wasn't so bad. It still feels strange to have only 28 teeth, though.
Since coming back from DragonCon, I have been mostly doing the same old same old of the past few years. I have been running D&D games at the store as a regular event, and that's been fun. I joined an LJ community of crazy BSG fans, because they'd been nice in person.
While I was lying around recovering from surgery, M and I started watching Babylon 5 Season 1, because we had the box set on hand. (We also have Season 5, for whenever we get around to it.) Starting from the beginning, and watching it again after 10 years, it's fresh again. The CGI, which was good enough that I was able to accept it and move on without much trouble, now looks distractingly fake, at times. 1993 was, I guess, several generations ago in computer terms. Michael O'Hare really is a cold fish in the lead role, though I enjoy his sardonic wit and bluntness. The tone of the show in Season One is more languid, and establishes a business as usual baseline off of which the later events of the series can branch. I like the way the Straczynski establishes a mood and tone and then messes with it. It creates a sense that anything can happen, that the show makes no guarantees about where the story will go, or what the stakes will be, or what the characters will have to do, or even if they will survive. And, of course, knowing that OHare leaves the show only adds a layer to this.
One other thing I like, though, is the friendship between Sinclair and Garibaldi. It's not, as the term of the moment would have it, a bromance. They are simply two people who genuinely know and trust one another, and one of the great things about it is that they acknowledge that. When Sinclair tells Garibaldi about his returning memories of the Line, and asks him to investigate, Garibaldi says 'thanks for trusting me.' When the Mars Riots start, Garibaldi tells Jeff that he's sick with worry about Lise Hampton, and doesn't know if he's more afraid of calling her and having her tell him it's over, or having her tell him she wants to see him again. It's a very human moment, and it's not overplayed by either of them, and they have lots of other things to do, but it really works. I love seeing that, and I think B5 does this well throughout the series, but we'll see as we go. It's a nice change from other stuff I have seen on TV, though that may just be a function of not watching broadly enough.
Our friend Lurker asked us to come along to the Big E last week, so for the first time in 16 years, I made the trek. It was a fair, I guess. A Midway with rides, lots of food and drink stands selling expensive and mediocre fried food and sugary things like zeppoli and funnel cake, naturally. (I wish I'd spotted the one selling Indian food earlier, though.) The rides ranged from ferris wheels to tilt-a-whirls to merry go rounds. No roller coasters that I saw. It had gotten rather chilly, though (we went in the evening and it had cooled to the 40s) so we passed on that. There were lots of cash sucking games to play, like throwing balls at plates, or pitching quarters, or guessing where a 14-sided die would land. The best one was a shooting gallery with a compressed air gun firing bbs, and we had to completely shoot out the red star on the paper target to win a prize. Very fun, but at $5 a go, we didn't do it much. Lurker came the closest.
What I didn't expect was the rest of it: the building with animals and produce from local farms on display, and all the vendors selling...stuff. Lots of stuff. Swimming pool installation. Jacuzzis. Scooters. Garden sheds. Dead butterflies. Hair clips. Alpaca fleece stuff. (I bought M a hat at the last one. It's very soft, and she looks sooooooo good in it. :) Pavillions representing countries (at least, there was one for Ireland, complete with Cei Li circle), and god only knows what else. I didn't see all of it, and I'm not sure what to make of it. It was like an SF or gaming con for the general populace.
In other news, Our friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_usakeh_ came out to visit twice. First time for an afternoon, and she showed us this great BBC miniseries called State of Play. Watched the first episode, and I look forward to seeing the other five, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm enjoying the anticipation of it, for now. She came again for the evening on Thursday to see Vienna Teng perform at the Iron Horse. I was going to join them, but I had to run a D&D game at the store when 8 people turned up to play. I wound up completely missing her, so I didn't get to hand over the books I owe her. Next time, I hope.
Coming up next, a long weekend in NYC with my brother and M. I insist upon visiting the Natural History Museum. Other activities TBD.
Since coming back from DragonCon, I have been mostly doing the same old same old of the past few years. I have been running D&D games at the store as a regular event, and that's been fun. I joined an LJ community of crazy BSG fans, because they'd been nice in person.
While I was lying around recovering from surgery, M and I started watching Babylon 5 Season 1, because we had the box set on hand. (We also have Season 5, for whenever we get around to it.) Starting from the beginning, and watching it again after 10 years, it's fresh again. The CGI, which was good enough that I was able to accept it and move on without much trouble, now looks distractingly fake, at times. 1993 was, I guess, several generations ago in computer terms. Michael O'Hare really is a cold fish in the lead role, though I enjoy his sardonic wit and bluntness. The tone of the show in Season One is more languid, and establishes a business as usual baseline off of which the later events of the series can branch. I like the way the Straczynski establishes a mood and tone and then messes with it. It creates a sense that anything can happen, that the show makes no guarantees about where the story will go, or what the stakes will be, or what the characters will have to do, or even if they will survive. And, of course, knowing that OHare leaves the show only adds a layer to this.
One other thing I like, though, is the friendship between Sinclair and Garibaldi. It's not, as the term of the moment would have it, a bromance. They are simply two people who genuinely know and trust one another, and one of the great things about it is that they acknowledge that. When Sinclair tells Garibaldi about his returning memories of the Line, and asks him to investigate, Garibaldi says 'thanks for trusting me.' When the Mars Riots start, Garibaldi tells Jeff that he's sick with worry about Lise Hampton, and doesn't know if he's more afraid of calling her and having her tell him it's over, or having her tell him she wants to see him again. It's a very human moment, and it's not overplayed by either of them, and they have lots of other things to do, but it really works. I love seeing that, and I think B5 does this well throughout the series, but we'll see as we go. It's a nice change from other stuff I have seen on TV, though that may just be a function of not watching broadly enough.
Our friend Lurker asked us to come along to the Big E last week, so for the first time in 16 years, I made the trek. It was a fair, I guess. A Midway with rides, lots of food and drink stands selling expensive and mediocre fried food and sugary things like zeppoli and funnel cake, naturally. (I wish I'd spotted the one selling Indian food earlier, though.) The rides ranged from ferris wheels to tilt-a-whirls to merry go rounds. No roller coasters that I saw. It had gotten rather chilly, though (we went in the evening and it had cooled to the 40s) so we passed on that. There were lots of cash sucking games to play, like throwing balls at plates, or pitching quarters, or guessing where a 14-sided die would land. The best one was a shooting gallery with a compressed air gun firing bbs, and we had to completely shoot out the red star on the paper target to win a prize. Very fun, but at $5 a go, we didn't do it much. Lurker came the closest.
What I didn't expect was the rest of it: the building with animals and produce from local farms on display, and all the vendors selling...stuff. Lots of stuff. Swimming pool installation. Jacuzzis. Scooters. Garden sheds. Dead butterflies. Hair clips. Alpaca fleece stuff. (I bought M a hat at the last one. It's very soft, and she looks sooooooo good in it. :) Pavillions representing countries (at least, there was one for Ireland, complete with Cei Li circle), and god only knows what else. I didn't see all of it, and I'm not sure what to make of it. It was like an SF or gaming con for the general populace.
In other news, Our friend
_usakeh_ came out to visit twice. First time for an afternoon, and she showed us this great BBC miniseries called State of Play. Watched the first episode, and I look forward to seeing the other five, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm enjoying the anticipation of it, for now. She came again for the evening on Thursday to see Vienna Teng perform at the Iron Horse. I was going to join them, but I had to run a D&D game at the store when 8 people turned up to play. I wound up completely missing her, so I didn't get to hand over the books I owe her. Next time, I hope.Coming up next, a long weekend in NYC with my brother and M. I insist upon visiting the Natural History Museum. Other activities TBD.
