Currents of Time

Hey, uh, people who make the television shows? Far, far be it from me to tell you how to do your jobs, but, uh.

If you're going to remake a show?

REMAKE IT.

Don't just recreate it with ~~AMERICAN ACCENTS~~


American Life on Mars: adventures in déjà vu.


Well, at least I don't need to watch it (yay, not losing another hour to television), since I already know everything that happens. Right down to the dialogue.


I'll admit, the supposed original premiere that was shown during the summer? I wasn't too impressed with it. But you know what? My main problems with it were what it lifted and stuffed back in directly, and the fact that cop dramas and I usually don't get along. I was glad that they weren't straight out copying it, because I knew they wouldn't be able to match the original. I wanted it to be good on its own.

And... instead they do this.

(Being fair, it isn't completely straight copying. The whole scene with Neil? Doesn't happen. The scene on the roof? Doesn't happen. There's more added to the Colin/abducting girls storyline. But it's still about 99% copying...) (I'd say more on this, but then I'd go into spoilers for the ending of the original Life on Mars, and I don't want to accidentally ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it. And I'm too lazy to put in a cut.)



p.s. the phone joke was better with "mobile"

There is no hot water. There is no hot water until Monday. Misery. I have enough clean clothing to last that (I scheduled Tuesday as wash day, then I'll pack Wednesday), but there's still that bathing issue.

I ... may or may not have packed my carry-on already. aha. ha... (No! It isn't finished! Because I'm going to print off or write out pieces of my Works in Progress so I can work on them, but I still have almost a week to work on them before that, so making hard copies now would be really silly.)


I get new glasses on Tuesday! I am so excited. I have needed new lenses for the last year, but it's become bad enough that I've only barely been able to see the board in classes, and I sit near the front. Oh, eyes, why do you betray me so?


We had our group presentation in one of my classes today! Two of us turned up, but the third - he wasn't around last week, either - wasn't in. Apparently he informed the teacher this morning that some stuff had happened and he was actually out of state, and that's fine, I do understand that these things come up. I do wish he'd let us know, though. Walking into class on the day of a presentation to find out a solid third of your material isn't going to be there is a little disconcerting.


I was totally going to say something about Life on Mars but it's potentially spoilery and mostly jesting on my part, so I won't.

We subscribe to The Week. It generally shows up on Mondays, when I am the only one home and so fetch the mail. Being one of the sort to read anything with words on it that finds its way in front of me, I read it!

It is largely political. (That is just a statement, not a complaint or something.)

But this week's The Week had two articles that really caught my attention. The first was about a short bit about "the world's first truly functional underwater car." Apparently built by a Swiss company. My immediate reaction was to hope that this somehow ends up on Top Gear.

I miss Top Gear! It should be new episodes time now. Or at least April. I'd settle for April.

Anyway, the magazine. Then on the last page, Top Gear actually showed up! Barely. The television page tells us it will be on Monday (so, er, yesterday) at 8 on BBC America (which, of course, I do not get, and anyway, they cut content, which is no fun. And it's just the most recent stuff, so it's not even anything I've not seen). It also reminds us that a "U.S. version is in the works."

It will not be as excellent. In a similar vein, the Life on Mars adaptation has supposedly been pushed back to autumn. I still don't think I'll watch it, because I am so worried they'll mess it up.


...


I SOUND LIKE SUCH AN ELITIST. I don't mean to! ACK! I just sincerely worry! Life on Mars is perfect as it is! I don't want them to feel they need to change things and make it less perfect because SPOILERY SPOILER SPOILY SPOIL SPOIL and all!



Though, after reflecting on it a bit, I wonder if my want of more Top Gear is part of why "GT" offshoot plot ideas keep attacking me.


Now I go to bed! But if my schedule holds, I will be able to catch up on everything by tomorrow night. That'll be a nice change. (How can I have time to update my journal, if I haven't time to properly read and comment on other entries, or keep up with websites I check? Well, I can type fairly quickly when I know what I'm typing, but I tend to reread entries five or six times before working myself up to actually leaving a comment. YES I AM AFRAID TO LEAVE COMMENTS I DO NOT WANT TO OFFEND OR MAKE A COMPLETE IDIOT OF MYSELF BY MISSING THE POINT COMPLETELY. I manage to do one or the other of those things most of the time I comment, anyway, though, don't I? LAAAAAME AND ALSO SHUT UP. No, er, I keep meaning to make some sort of announcement/entry thing about that. I SAID SHUT UP, SELF. GO TO BED NOW.)


Edit:
On the extremely off chance that anyone was looking for them, all three parts of "Depths" have been locked. I've never been happy with them, and I've finally hidden them away so I can work through them and hopefully make them at least passably decent. They'll be back, I'm just not sure when. And I am quite possibly lying through me teeth.

Cat seems okay so far. He was brought back home yesterday (he was stressing and the vet said it'd be better for him to be somewhere familiar) and was walking mostly normally, my brother said. One hind leg was still a little "off" - I guess he had a limp or something. Anyway! Very glad for that. The cat's owners have been calling here a lot the last few days, understandably. Stupid embolism, ruining their vacation and nearly killing their cat.

( And then she talked about Transformers again. -or- Fandom, /please/, I'm begging you. )

Perhaps one of the best indications of changing weather patterns occurred yesterday. We had a tornado warning. What?

Vermont. Had a tornado warning. WHAT?

Also, there's a possibility of snow on the mountains tonight. *boggles*


I am considering buying a notebook! Not for writing, I have about ten thousand of those. No, no, it is a letter notebook! No one wants me to write letters to them, so I have resorted to writing them to myself. I do not mail them, obviously, it's just that I really like writing letters but have no one to send most of them to. I am aware of how utterly pathetic this makes me. Oh, well.


Saw again somewhere that Life on Mars is going to be adapted by David E. Kelley. Not too unhappy with that, since he does some good stuff, actually. Still, it'll be really, really weird for Sam and Gene to not be John Simm and Philip Glenister.

Okay, so, only one episode of Life on mars remaining. Woe! I haven't been rambling about this series much, have I? I assure you, it is not because I dislike it! I am repeatedly reduced to incoherency by it! It is glorious.

( Pre-Ending Musings )

I finish this series tomorrow!


Blast it all, I can find most all of Top Gear 7, 8, and 9 (heck, I, er, have most of 9), but 6? Forget it. And 6, of course, is when Mirage the GT came in. Oh, it figures.

Argh. I've no idea what happened then, and it's really starting to bother me. It's also preventing me from writing the beginning of this ridiculous crossover. Aggravation. Aggravation, I say!

My laptop's almost completely full. Time to back-up and delete a load of files. This is, I suspect, going to hurt. A lot. I think a lot of it is screenshots saved from Final Fantasy XI and those are my memories! yes, yes, I know I am pathetic. I think I can lose most of the random party screenshots, but I am keeping the Linkshell adventures.

Now we talk about television that we watch on our computer!

( Only two episodes left. )

Because I am a firm believer in abrupt and nonsensical changes in the topic of conversation, I am now going to talk about one of my original characters.

( Because, really, why not? )

I actually put Okame through Silent Endtil Hill once. It suited her well (she is so crazy), but I don't think she'll ever forgive me for it. (Though the few people who've read it seem to think the story itself was fairly decent, which is very surprising to me. I have low self esteem. Can you tell? ^__^ ...I'm not asking for praise or comfort or reassurance or anything, I'm just putting it out there. I'm aware of it and I try to ignore it. Sometimes it even works, somehow.


Anyway, so. My department's assistant manager seems to have come to the conclusion that I have no idea how to close the bakery, despite having been there for ten months and closing by myself for nine and a half of those. I should like to think that, were I forgetting something, someone would mention it. One does not need to leave me a note telling me to put the muffins in the case. Really. I know. Maybe she secretly hates me and wants me to know but doesn't want to get in trouble with the store managers for it. Oh, yeah? WELL, IT WON'T WORK! I HATE YOU, TOO!

... SO THERE!

Six-inch titanium Rodimus obtained! He is delightful!

( Brief 'Life on Mars' ramblings... )

There is a skunk that lives under the barn. It is not rabid, and the cat likes to go out and play with it. They seem to get along fairly well, and if you're careful, it doesn't care if you wander about while it's in the yard.

... The dog is not careful. The dog chases things in "his" yard. This doesn't go over so well with the skunk. I'm sure you can figure out what happened there.

He reeks. Ugh! We washed off his shoulder and collar using a mix of stuff (I don't remember what's all in it), so it's not as bad as it was. We can stand to let him in the house now, at any rate. If he doesn't smart up soon, it's going to be a long and miserable rest of the year.