onomatoblog

Note: this text is a little long for me, and very very rambly. It has been crossposted from my private private blog, and I am less strict with my writing there. Apologies.

Star Trek. In some ways, it becomes necessary for me to see it from three points of view: as a (sci-fi) movie among others, as Star Trek, and from a feminist point of view.

As a movie? It rocked. I am so weak for space, for things blowing up, for good-looking fights and grunge-and-smoothness mixed up, love it. That being said, it was a bit… I am not sure choppy is the right word, but around the beginning and the end, it felt like they were trying to squeeze in more things than there was room for, and the narration suffered for it. Explain red matter? (of course not, it’s Abrams) Show, not tell, Spock Prime’ story? Perhaps narrate Kirk’s personal background a little better than that inane wee!Kirk’s car scene? Ten more minutes could have given a lot.) Still a lovely, pretty, otherwise well-paced and terribly captivating story about a bunch of interesting people. I could certainly be seen non-Trekkies who are open to scifi (do they exist?) like it, although the space element the time travels element obviously would scare off the rest. I would love the make my mother watch this on DVD, but then I would be annoying as hell to hear her commentary.

And as Trek? I honestly only have one complaint: explanation. I know people have had opinions about the “feel”; i.e. smoothness, effects/location, the changed transporter look… essentially everything that didn’t look just like TOS and the movies, and I honestly can’t care. It worked. Granted, I haven’t watched TOS in a few years, but it seemed obvious from the start that Abrams was going to try to catch a non-trekkie audience, and I think he managed to make it general enough without playing to fast and loose with the source material. It looked good. It felt good. It felt mostly Trek, with one exception: explain to me what is going on! Give me made up technobabble to explain things that couldn’t possibly work. My coworker Joe had opinions about both the Red Matter and the ejecting-the-antimatter scenario, arguing that an explosions couldn’t provide anything else than thrust, and thus couldn’t possibly outwarp warp. I argue that an uncontrolled antimatter explosion could very well warp space time more effectively than an engine, but that’s not the point. The point is: tell me how. Trek is the goddamned poster child for Science Fiction as the Idea that the World Can Be Understood; tell me how it works, even though the laws of proper physics don’t apply. It just need to follow its own laws. This, mister Abrams, is no time to be mystical, much as I know you love it. Trek is a lot of things, but mysticism was never a part of it.

Oh, also? the water scene? Loved it but it wasn’t Trek. Skip the sidekick, save time for narration.

As for the casting… I was unspoiled, but because I mind spoilers (I don’t, I relish in them), but because I hadn’t realized how soon the movie was coming. I knew exactly this: some dude from Heroes (that I haven’t watched) was playing Spock, and this made a lot of people upset, and Simon Pegg was playing Scotty, which made Lucas really happy and excited. I was honestly half-thrown out of my seat when I realized Karl Urban was Bones (obviously, as long as there are geeks of any kind, he’ll never have to worry about getting laid Ever Again), but the summary can pretty much be I loved [x] as [y]. Seriously. Zachary Quinto was spot on as a almost-but-not-quite-solidified-Spock, and I didn’t actually want to strangle Chris Pike’s Kirk (unlike Shatner’s) (mainly because other people did it for me, perhaps? Can we rename this movie “James T. Kirk hangs off ledges and gets strangled a lot”? or perhaps because he was more fucked up, got sat on more. I liked it.)
But the feeling was there. The optimism, the thrill, the grandness and good fun combined. And the chemistries, even when not-there-yet; I can see how this universe came to be the one to result in slash (I am not ignoring Spock/Uhura, I am just assuming it will peter out slowly. So there.) “subverting our cultural icons with complete disregard for decency and the law” indeed. Love it. Maybe I’ll go download Amok Time now .

But. How about the feminist perspective?
Okay, let’s just say that the problems there can come from two directions: from the original, and from the new writers. Some things that irked feminist reviewers are the very reasons I don’t watch TOS; the uniforms, the lack of female officers. I honestly think the writers did what they could there; switching out more would have fucked with the fans too much. Uhura was given a personalty and a reason to be on the bridge other than that of a glorified secretary. They could have done a genderswitch a la BSG, but that wouldn’t have gone over well, plus messed with the time-travel idea. Still, I would have loved to see Uhura actually throw a couple of good punches in the bar brawl; I don’t particularly care who she’d hit.
But… the underwear scenes? The two cases of refrigeration? (from “the woman in the refrigerator”; killing off a female character for the sole reason of eliciting a reaction from a male character; in this case Amanda Grayson and Nero’s unnamed pregnant dead wife.) The fact that Winona Ryder six years older than Quinty and plays his mother? Rotten, you guys. Why not bother with giving Amanda a personality, or bother saying anything insightful about the value of emotions asde from “yadayada I’m so proud of you always yadayada”? Why not bother showing Kirk’s mother doing something else in life in giving birth to him? Supposedly she’s an officer in this universe, why not give her a title and a throwaway reference from Pike? If Romulans had female military, why not female miners? I know it’s based in a rotten sort of time period, but the revamp people made it worse in some respects, and that bothers me.

That’s all I can think of right now.

I had such an amazing breakfast Sunday that I can’t not mention it; nevermind that it was at 2 p.m. We’ve been meaning to try La Boulangerie for a while now, as it’s on our way to the freeway and we pass it regularly.

And. Oh. Man. The owner must be baking 24/7, because the (tiny, tiny) cafe is stocked full of delicious French pastries and breads. I had a raspberry croissant, and Lucas had a pastry of some kind, and were both so delighted we thought we’d just about melt. The coffee drinks were delicious, too; my moccha (short, automatically double-shot) was served in a rustic-looking cup and tasted like heaven – not like chocolate, not like coffee, but like something heavenly in between. We would have brought some of the bread with us home too, but we were short on cash (credit cards aren’t accepted) and it will have to wait. Maybe next time, and then we’ll be there earlier and perhaps just order the rustic rolls and some jam. And yesterday’s bread is half off.

Cons? No hot chocolate, and tacky-looking fridge. But the former can probably be accomplished by special order, since both chocolate syrup and milk is available.

La Boulangerie, 2200 N 45th St Seattle, WA 98103 (I-5 exit 169). Bread, pastries, coffee, juice, chocolate.

Before I forget: A client of mine from a while back; Custom Sensor Design. They do pressure sensing.

Like I said, this post is irellevant for everyone but me, but once I am done with the new layout for here, and tatortstimotej, and have build dave’s zastica, I want to freelance again. It’s fun.

I was a little worried that just being so upset, worried and nervous that I felt like I was going to be sick wasn’t reason enough to stay home from work.

But then I was sick.

(Any positive thoughts you can send me about the immigrations process would be both needed and appreciated right now.)

I don’t know if this chemistry.com thing is any better, but this commercial is awesome

I went on a shopping spree this weekend, obtained large amounts of clothes and was rather happy about it. Basically, I found that much of my wardrobe was about as much fun as dirt, and if some guys at work can wear band shirts and old jeans, why should I be limited to button-up shirts and slacks, hmm? Hence the purchase of a few fun dresses, colorful tights and tanks to fit. Yay, etc.

I wore the black mod dress most of the weekend, and had planned for a gray-and-black-striped dress, with a tank underneath and a henley on top, for today (Tuesday.) Said and done, clothes laid out (clothes have to be laid out the night before; I have neither the time nor the light to pick them out in the morning). Only once the dress was one and I had walked to the bathroom, I saw the flaw in fitting rooms: they don’t allow you to walk around. I had only taken a few steps, and my lovely mid-thigh dress had became a mini-dress. Ooopsie. I don’t think anyone would say anything, but mini dresses that almost how off one’s butt aren’t generally considered work-appropriate unless one’s job involve four-letter wording. Luckily I had presence of mind enough to sprinkle water on the black mod dress, throw it in the dryer with a sheet and let it spin until it was time to leave. Crisis evaded!

And the black dress really, really wins. And I want these.

This spring I was all manners of disappointed with my shopping experience at the US La Redoute website . Since then, I have placed two orders, and I have to say things have got a lot better. The first time, nothing had really changed, it was just that things were working out and going smoothly – but with no greater than usual effort from them, or from me.

This time, things have changed, and for the better. My favourite feature of the new website – aside from the forwarding from the simple laredoute.com – is that when items are added to the shopping cart, it will warn you if the item is backordered, and for how long. Genious! Since LR doesn’t offer free shipping for things that have to ship separately, this is a brilliant way of avoiding buying things until they are in stock. Let’s just hope they keep the databased up-to- date, or this feature will be pointless.
I also like the fact that you no longer have to deal with the coupon for the next purchase in the shipping confirmation email – it just appears on login on the website. So far, so good.

But it’s not flawless. For example, according to the website, you can “track your order, minute by minute.” The truth? Orders have three statuses; “Not yet processed to ship”, “Currently processing to ship”, and “Processed to ship” (the latter is LaRedoute-speak for shipped, by the way.) After that, you can track your order with USP (one would certainly hope so, for the shipping price charged) but standard shipping is not very fast – I would like to see free or discounted shipping for orders over a certain number.

I shall return with a more definite opinion after my next order is placed, once that sweater is no longer backordered.

Let it be known that I am wearing the ugliest sweater in the world today. Well, perhaps not ugliest, but easily the most boring.

Let me put it this way: it’s a cardigan. An lightish brown cardigan. With empire waist.

I look like a pregnant librarian.

Alright, I am not going to actually review the place here, because that wouldn’t end well.

We (and by ‘we’, I mean at least half of the people at my workplace) all went for lunch at the opening day – perhaps, in retrospect, not the best of ideas. We arrived around noon, and waited a bit in line before ordering – but not too long, considering it was lunch hour. . I ordered an American style with veggie burger, a chocolate malt, and fries. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. I know it was opening day, I know they seemed to be short on staff, but over an hour for a burger? Not so much fun. Food was OK, worth the money if not the wait. I’ll wait a few weeks, have Kevin go back for lunch, and if he’s liking it, come back later. Then I’ll review.

But, like Joe says, there were free cookies. Albeit peanut.

Hooray for our bathroom!

No, honestly.

We have been wanting to un-yellow it for quite forever now. I would show pictures, but none quite made the horrible justice. It was a bad color to begin with, and a matte one that soaked up water and let go of pigment and looked terrible with just about everything. Said and done, Saturday morning we went to Daly’s for paint and that other, less pricy, place for buckets and trays and whatnot. Fortunately we had quite a bit of supplies left since last time – the price was upped a bit by having to buy whole extra quarts of the colours we have in the living room (and C2 isn’t cheap shit) for some very minor touch-ups, since that was the smallest size it came in. Oh well. Once the walls were scrubbed down and the industrial-strength fan Lucas had brought home from work was in place it was time for a very appreciated delivery pizza, and then the painting ensued.

I did the majority of the painting, with Lucas helping with running to get me thing and with the tallest parts. What surprises me is that it took three full coats to cover the yellow – white is normally the most opaque of pigments. I suppose it could have to do with the quality of the paint – the that I am comparing to C2 is one of the absolute better brands. In any case, our bathroom is now white and lovely, the floor is very dotted, but I want to do something about that anyway, and there’s enough paint to do the window sills in the living room if I really feel like it. Additionally, the touch-ups went smooth, which means that the dent in the hallway wall caused by me being upset at something (honestly, American walls! You’d think that in a wall vs. glass fight, the wall would win) is gone gone gone, and the lines around the accent wall are much smoother. Hooray for painting.

In conclusion, I’d like to give the following advice for to-be-homepainters:

  :: See if you can somehow get hold of a really strong fan- borrow, rent etc. It helps enormously with drying time and smell.
  :: Don’t be stingy with the tape – the blue stuff is really good, pay extra for it. Using the cheapo tape is not worth any money.
  :: Spackle will apparently kill you, so gloves, face mask, wet sandpapering. And do that extra round of spackle-and-sandpaper. It pays off (the kind with color-indication is good, too.)
  ::More layers. Don’t stop until it’s good enough.