Sorting Out My Own Preconceived Notions

[itsallovernow]

1. I think I'm going to have to figure out this torrent thing because I suddenly find myself with an overwhelming desire to watch SG-1. I wasn't aware of my inability to wait until just yesterday:) Of course, me figuring out the aheming is probably going to be an exercise in frustration and futility because I'M A MORON with technology. I get that same feeling that I do when looking at tax forms and my 401K options, that sort of "I'm not even going to try and figure this out because just these words in this order make me want to cry in frustration" feeling. Snort, that's me. Phi Beta Kappa and afraid of the internets.

2. I am often brought up short by my own prejudices involving my sense of self as an American, and let me tell you how weird that is for someone who comes from the sort of social and political and academic background that I do. The delightful crankygrrl is looking at graduate schools in Canada and England (which makes sense based on her own citizenship and background), and I find myself sort of startled and surprised that she's not looking at schools in the US. Which has a lot to say about my own perceptions, as a US citizen, about the US than I would have thought. It's that kind of UScentric viewpoint that I'm often still surprised that I have. For the most part, I'm okay with it (I have the knowledge and tools to look critically at my country and government, make decisions about the rights and wrongs and ambiguities of things), but it's still a surprise to see how much I view the rest of the world through my lens. It's never a bad thing to have to re-interpret this for myself, to be made aware of my lens, my gaze.

3. M. still maintains that Titus Pullo cannot come live on our couch. Fucker. I say this with love because the other night, when I stumbled out of my room at 3:00 a.m. convinced we were dying of CO2 poisoning and that alarms were telling us this, and yet couldn't articulate what was wrong, he handed me a piece of fudge, told me it was just "Voltron" and sent me back to bed. The next day he said, "You just looked like you needed something, and I had fudge." which is as good a response as anything I suppose.

4. I kind of want to rub myself all over Season 1 of Rome like a cat. Even when I know bad things are going to happen (like have a degree in knowing those bad things), I still keep yelling at the TV in surprise. "No, no, Pompey. Don't do that!! Don't get off the boat man, never get off the boat." "Awww Caesar, don't be sad about the head of your enemy. No, really."
"Oh Marc Antony, you're just too pretty to be that much of an asshole. And Cicero, I'd watching your tongue. Hee hee. That's funny. And gross. Watch your tongue."

5. I'm having a hell of a time motivating myself to write fic these days. Sigh. I need some proper motivation! (Hell if I know what it'd be, though!)

6. And just for the record, I think Titus Pullo would be very, very happy on our couch!!! I stand by this assertion! So there.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Check your e-mail?

*waggles eyebrows*

And Pullo would do fine on your couch! As long as you didn't mind the occasional bloodied corpse lying around the place, he'd be no bother.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee. Hugs you.

And as long as he took the corpses out to the trash, I'd be just fine with it:)

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

And just for the record, I think Titus Pullo would be very, very happy on our couch!!!

Of course he would! I mean, he’s kind of living in a hole under Lucius Vorenus’s stairs (or ON Lucius Vorenus’s stairs sometimes) so a couch would even be better :P

I am SO loving rewatching S1 of “Rome” too – and I know exactly what you mean about the tension of our knowledge of what’s going to happen and yelling at the screen. (Like, Brutus saying he’ll never forget how Caesar has treated him and just … eeeee! COLD SHIVERS!)

And I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels really horrible for Pompey!

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I have always felt bad for Pompey, even before seeing his head in a bowl. Because they were all friends once upon a time, all allies, and I get so giddy and choked up when Caesar puts on his "Caesar" voice and annouces to Ptolemy the oh my god so annoying that Pompey was a Consul of ROME!!! I love him for that, for being that man, as well as being that politician.

And it's been fun to watch it with M. because he's sort of got the typical viewers understanding of the end of the Roman Republic and it's cool to see him get sucked into to this complex story, all of it's layers and explain to him that this is how I felt studying it - the thrill and excitement and heartbreak and how pleased I am to see it play out.

And dude, Titus Pullo would love our couch!! I'm just sayin'.

[denyeverything1.livejournal.com]

I've been Netflixing S1 of SG-1, but have sent all the discs back, or else I'd loan them to you. It was fun, and I wrote up notes and everything. Must look into posting those. I don't exactly feel fannish, but I am mightily *curious*, because it is such a big, sprawling sort of story and only getting it as bits and pieces has been frustrating. The first season contains an enormous amount of the backstory I want and a lot of foreshadowing, which surprised me.

And I'm Netflixing because, as you say, Of course, me figuring out the aheming is probably going to be an exercise in frustration and futility because I'M A MORON with technology. I get that same feeling that I do when looking at tax forms and my 401K options, that sort of "I'm not even going to try and figure this out because just these words in this order make me want to cry in frustration" feeling.

::::climbs into the frustration boat with you::::

I am *exactly the same way*. Well, with torrenting. And taxes. *sigh*

It's that kind of UScentric viewpoint that I'm often still surprised that I have.

I had this POV right up to 2004. 2000, oddly, didn't shake me. 2004 did. This country has changed in a way that I find both ominous and heartbreaking and I am no longer sure, as I always was before, that we have the means, the will, the way, or the intelligence, frankly, to save it. And I am utterly horrified to be saying that. I would like very, very much to be wrong.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

We will huddle in the boat together!! It's nice to have company here:)

And it's not so much that I, politically, feel Americancentric, but I'm often surprised how culturally centric I am (and I should so no better than to be suprised about my lens, but I still am).

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of my inability to wait until just yesterday:)

Heh. I had the same problem. I'm not sure how I went from "Oh, I'll just wait until March, it will give me something to look forward to" to "OMG I MUST SEE IT NOW" so quickly, but there you have it. I just sent you an email that may interest you, if you haven't gotten better information from someone else already.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Dude, thank you!!! Hee - I think if I didn't know there was somehow another option, I could have waited. Like, March didn't seem so far away, and then SUDDENLY the ep was out there and my desire to wait was non-existent.

(Unlike with Farscape, when we had to wait 9 months for the conclusion of S3 and I didn't even have the technology to have another option. And I refused to be spoiled because after waiting that long, I wanted the visual, giddy, cracked out joy on the giant screen:)

[scapeartist.livejournal.com]

Sorry! Titus Pullo is unavailable to live on your couch as he is currently living on mine! He's awful pretty...

Glad you are enjoying Rome! It's the only reason we ever got HBO!

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

So pretty. So, so pretty.

I knew that I would love Rome, and Kath even brought me the eps, and it's part of why we kept HBO, but for one reason or another, I wasn't ever able to watch until now.

And sadly, I've been staying up until 2:00 a.m. every night to watch on On Demand because I can't help myself!

Perhaps we could share Titus Pullo:)

[ropo.livejournal.com]

the other night, when I stumbled out of my room at 3:00 a.m. convinced we were dying of CO2 poisoning and that alarms were telling us this, and yet couldn't articulate what was wrong, he handed me a piece of fudge, told me it was just "Voltron" and sent me back to bed.

You're funny. The both of you!

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

We are like avant garde theater sometimes:) Unintentially hilarious:)

[raithen.livejournal.com]

you do realize one of the biggest reasons to avoid US grad schools, right?

GREs.

I rest. my. case.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

You don't have to take the GRE for most MA or MFA programs in writing.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

is now a good time to admit that pullo isn't on your couch because he's currently esconced in my arts & crafts rocking chair watching something odd on tv? ;)

and oh yes indeedy, rome. what an amazing show. i loved all of season 1, and am looking forward to eventually seeing 2. it's going to be very fine i think/hope.

as for sg1....here's an interesting post for you which i found very useful. ahem.: http://janedavitt.livejournal.com/642922.html?nc=16

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee:) It's nice to know that we all want him to no longer live on Vorenus' steps:) We're looking out for the big ox.

[vonniek.livejournal.com]

Reposted to fix the HTML snafu:

Torrenting is dead easy, provided you have a broadband connection. (And I'm talking as a technophobe myself.) If you only have dial-up, it's an exercise in frustration.

1) Download uTorrent, which I find to be the simplest and most intrinsic interface I've used so far.

2) Follow the instruction when you first launch the application to set the download speed.

3) The only setting you have to fiddle with is where you might want to store the downloaded files. Easiest would be to make up a couple of new folders like "downloads" and "torrents" (I put it under "My Video" under "My Documents") and go to "Preference" in uTorrent option and specify the location in "Downloads".

4) Go to torrent sites (I like mininova the best, but there are plenty more) and download the torrent file you want into your "torrents" folder and click on the file -- it'll automatically start downloading the video file into the folder you specified in 3). The rest of the interface is easy to figure out.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you!!!

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

(like have a degree in knowing those bad things)

Hee! I totally did the same thing. And I only saw the first two episodes! I really need to get the rest of the season...

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

It's really, really worth it.

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

I was very specifically discouraged from applying to schools in England - not because of any prejudice on the part of my advisor, but because of the system. Apparently a UK doctorate won't work as well to get you hired at US university unless you're originally FROM the UK. I still find it odd, but the opinion among every professor I consulted was exactly the same.

That didn't stop me from going to my advisor's office every few weeks with a copy of Gaudy Night and making puppy eyes at her. She sympathized, but remained firm.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee. I had a very, very similar experience:) Because I wanted to go to the Gaudy Night version of Oxford:)

Reality instead sent me to Western New York. Reality sucked, man.

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

2. I am often brought up short by my own prejudices involving my sense of self as an American, and let me tell you how weird that is for someone who comes from the sort of social and political and academic background that I do. The delightful crankygrrl is looking at graduate schools in Canada and England (which makes sense based on her own citizenship and background), and I find myself sort of startled and surprised that she's not looking at schools in the US.

I always seem to do this to you. ;) US schools want GREs and expect me to spend more time in classrooms and they're two-year programs instead of one year and, also, with the exception of SoCal, I have no interest in living in the US - spiritually, emotionally and politically, I'm far more comfortable in Europe that I am in the US. And, oddly enough, I feel less like an outsider in Rome than I do in LA.

Go figure.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

And, oddly enough, I feel less like an outsider in Rome than I do in LA.

Grins. So do I, most days.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

I hate torrents, mostly because I have an inconsistant internet signal and couldn't ever manage to set it up, let alone use it.

I think it is much, MUCH more straight forward (like, right click and save to desktop) to *ahem* your files by downloading from a private site. I'm happy to share my sources, secret-like (via email) if no one else has set you up yet.

G'luck.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you dear!!!

[woodface]

*thinks you will love the new ep*

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee. I'm thinking that very same thing!

[sevathediva.livejournal.com]

Looks like it's up on Youtube.com

seva

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee:) I love the internet. When I have a problem, it offers a solution:)