Horses are good company -- The Witcher

First, a brief me-health update: I completely forgot to give myself my shots this week. I even forgot to pick up my Enbrel from the pharmacy. I only remembered just now because my knee started hurting. I really don't like forgetting things. I am also getting PT again, for my shoulder.

Second, Sorcha-health update. Twice on Sunday her back legs sort of gave out briefly and she staggered and caught herself. It looked like a drunken stumble. This was alarming and I took her to the vet the next day. The vet said she has a lack of reflexes in her hind legs. They offered me a referral to a doggie neurologist which I said I would think about. It doesn't seem that they did any blood work, which I may call back and request. It looks the medical term for this symptom is "ataxia". While she normally has tremors in her hind legs, they seem to be more pronounced lately, and happen while she is walking, not just while she is standing.

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Third, Reading Wednesday!

I am Currently Reading

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon.

Chapter One was definitely the slowest and densest. Still, I don't think I will finish this book before it's due at the library. It is also heavy and hard to carry around. I may purchase the e-book. This is not an activist book. It's chiefly about parenting and families. It's still quite good and wrestles with a lot of identity issues that I find fascinating. In general it includes a lot of first-hand accounts of parents and children.

Chapter 2: Deaf. A nice overview of D/deaf history and cultures, and the difficulties therein. The politics of this world are really complicated and fraught, and while they make some people's lives profoundly better, the politics can also stand in the way for others. A dense chapter with a lot of information.

Chapter 3: Dwarf. I definitely learned things in this chapter. One of the issues brought up is that this identity is considered humorous to the wider culture.

Chapter 4: Down's Syndrome. Briefly talks about institutionalization, independence, and mainstream vs. special education.

Onto the next chapter, Autism!

I am also reading:

Tangles by Sarah Leavitt. Graphic memoir. I love this so far. It's a funny and heartbreaking account of her mother's Alzheimer's disease.

I recently finished

I love Led Zeppelin by Ellen Forney. I think she is my favorite graphic writer/artist! This book is oversized and NSFW. Includes a handy how-to section, collaborations, and misc. comics. Interesting and fun.

I had a good day. I got up and went to a work class early, which while I had been dreading, turned out to be really good. The teacher was entertaining and patient, and since I already use the software in question daily, it was good to learn new things about it.

After working a little bit more, I decided to head downtown for the rally/protest against Governor Walker's proposed budget bill. This is the first time I've been part of such a huge protest. Thousands of people converged on the state Capitol, many with signs, many chanting. I took some pictures and posted them to Facebook and Flickr. Firefighters, many union members, high school students and teachers, many UW students and staff were there protesting-- people of all ages. Very thrilling! The Capitol here is an open public building, and people packed inside to chant and sing. I hear that some are still there for a sleep-in! And there is talk of a sick-out tomorrow for local schools as teachers go to protest. I stayed for a little while, until I got tired of the crowd and ducked out a side door.

I met up with F. and walked back down State Street. We ran into at least five people that she knew. So far, I have to say, it is nice to walk around holding hands with a woman. I could have gone back to work but I was feeling tired and stressed out by work so I hung around in the student union for a little while, then rode the free bus back to the parking lot (effing buses though, they are overcrowded and make me feel sick). I ducked into the Pharmacy school to use the bathroom and look around a little-- I love exploring campus buildings. I like having days where I am not rushed all the time, where I can walk around and look at things, talk to people, take photos, sit and do a crossword, attend a protest, have time to think. Most days at work are not like this at all! They are rush, rush, rush, which is part of why I get stressed and anxious. I need to remember to slow my pace and take things easier.

When I got home I felt extremely tired and I napped really hard. I still feel kind of sick.

Two words that should clearly enter common usage:

1. Textravert (n) (coined by badgerbag): a person (like me) who is more inclined to extraversion in textual format.

2. Dollhouse (v) (coined by takumashii:

To make excuses for the failings of a serial entertainment in the hope that those failings are going to be undercut any moment now, because they're just too stupid to continue as presented.

Usage example:

"I thought the last episode of Glee was kind of bad, but I'm Dollhousing it for at least a couple more episodes."

ION I am still extremely tired, and I promise to call the doctor tomorrow.

I have a cold or something. >:(

I have giant posts I want to make (drafts of which are in my notebook) but no energy to type them up. I hate not having internet in the house.

Well, aria did ask me and were_duck the other week when she was visiting, "What is it about Stargate Atlantis?" Aria's more of a Due South person, conversant in SGA, and we were wondering why one fandom really pings you when another doesn't. She posted her answers here in depth!.

Well, I'm tired and out-of-sorts, but I'm going to try and type of some of my own reasons. I will say that I'm in it for the fandom. I would never have invested much time in this show without fanfic, which is a good argument for how fandom is a promotional tool (I now own all 5 seasons and some action figures). I don't recommend the show to people who aren't interested in the fandom. But I do think there are some good episodes and good things about the show despite this.

*I love the setting: it's a place I can escape to in my head and easily imagine myself living. In this way it's similar to Deep Space Nine (another favorite show of mine) and dissimilar to SG1 (I hate that freaking concrete bunker). I like the color palette, all those greens and blues with hints of gold. I like the airy spires and the contrast of the deep undersea chambers. The set design is great. I mostly like the costumes too, except Teyla's outfits, obviously there are issues there. The people are gorgeous, too, obviously. I think I crushed on Rodney first! Even though he's not the most traditionally good looking. And then only later I realized, John, OMG, and it kind of went in sequence like that. What I'm saying is, there is a lot to look at here.

*I love many of the characters wholly: the team plus Zelenka and Lorne. I have passing fondness for most of the others (Weir, Carter, Woolsey, Ford, Keller, Carson). I don't hate anyone-- usually I reserve my hatred for the writers who write them wrong. I think they fail to write women well; for instance I like Cadman, who was in 2 episodes, better than Keller. Despite the fact that I am fond of Jewel Staite. So they had to work hard for me to dislike Keller. ANYWAY, I digress: I think fanfic can and sometimes does work to address these failings, the sexism, racism, and colonialism of the show. (Oh! I also love Halling.)

*I mainly read John/Rodney (McShep), but also OT4 (team), and other pairings. About John and Rodney in particular, I like their middle-aged-ness, that they are adults (but still boyish, bantery, fun). So many stories we are exposed to are about young love, and these stories are about adult love. McShep appeals to me for reasons I don't entirely understand; certainly fandom has worked hard to convince me that their love is epic, that it saves galaxies and exists across universes, that they are destined for each other. Something works for me in this pairing on a very deep emotional level.

*The fandom is fucking incredible!! I mean, just watch lim's vids or art by newkidfan or Speranza's fic, just as a beginning.

*I said to aria, that when I got into SGA, it was also me getting into slash. That is not entirely true: I had specifically been seeking out fantasy books with queer main characters, so I knew it was kind of my thing on some level. What was new for me was reading erotica.

(Tangent, I'd also been in Earth: Final Conflict fandom some years previously, and read fanfic that was G-rated, Taelon/human romance. And the Taelons were genderless. WHO KNOWS. Which leads me to my next point.)

*I enjoy the WTF quality of fandom in general, the wild creativity, the alternate universes. There's a lot of that in SGA. Some of it's based on canon-- there's time travel and AUs on the show.
I enjoy science fiction a lot and always have; I love the SF-ness of the show and the fandom. I have a time travel narrative kink; I love people meeting their alternate selves; I love biological weirdness, aliens, dire situations, sentient technology etc. I could go on. In fact I wish there were *more* and *weirder* aliens on most SF shows. Probably I should go back and finish Farscape one of these days.

*Clearly I have a lot to say about SHOW and FANDOM and there will probably be more of this later.