asta77

I apparently posted too soon yesterday. My computer woes continued today. I suspect it was a virus. Not the computer killer type (Thank You!), but a very annoying one. I had to reinstall my virus protection - which failed while I was on vacation, of course - and it appeared to detect something and fix it before I had to do my *third* hard reboot. I've had the computer running for six or so hours now and it seems to be working faster, so I'm crossing my fingers that the worst is over. I'm running additional spyware programs just to be sure though.

I called my doctor's office back today. Turns out a) they didn't call about my blood sugar and b) it wasn't anything I had to worry about. Thanks for the panicky message other nurse. When I skimmed through the three page letter I received breaking down my blood work (and only about half of it I understood), the thing that jumped out at me was how low my Vitamin D level appeared to be. It turned out it threw up a red flag for my doctor as well. I live in Michigan. We get very little sun in the winter and I am not an outdoor person so it's not a shock that my levels were low. I do take supplements and try to work Vitamin D into my diet, but obviously not enough. I'm getting a prescription to boost my levels and have to have another blood draw in a few months, etc. Interestingly, when I looked up symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency there were a few, subtle symptoms I've seemingly had for awhile. And there could be a connection between the lack of Vitamin D and my sugar levels. Though I probably do eat too much sugar. ;)


Curse you, 50mm! A few thoughts on Legend of the Seeker.

So, 50mm lamented she had no one to talk to about Legend of the Seeker and, in a rare moment of being nice, I said, 'Hey, we could watch some of the show in our room' in lieu of watching Dante's Cove, which was being shown at the con, for the third time.

I was somewhat familiar with the series, having caught bits and pieces of episodes as I channel surf on the weekends. I knew Richard was the Seeker and the guy who was often shirtless, or being tortured or being tortured while shirtless. There was Kahlan, the Confessor, who was good with knives and could hold her own in a fight. And she and Richard are in love, and, in an interesting twist, know it, but can't have The Sex. (I'm still not entirely sure why, I think that may be explained in the next episode. I'm just thankful it's not a virus. If you dared watch any of Season 2 of Dark Angel you know of what I speak.) Then there is Zed, part crazy wizard/part Obi Wan and Richard's grandfather! That last bit wasn't really surprising. I've seen TV before.

I hadn't seen the pilot before and was amused to see large parts of the story ripped off from Star Wars (which, yes, I know, ripped off other material). Richard comes to the rescue of Kahlan, sort of fails, and she's pretty sarcastic about it. Richard is sent to find the crazy old man who lives in the mountains, Zed. Zed then relates to Richard he was taken from his dying mother as an infant, he's special, has a destiny and is given a lightsaber Excaliber a glowing sword. Richard then runs off. At which point, danceswithwords and I pretty much said at the same time, "And this is where Richard goes home to find Uncle Owen his father dead." Thus begins Richards journey to defeat Darth Vader Darken Rahl, who somehow hasn't aged a day in twenty-three years. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that Darken went all Biblical and had killed the first born son of every family in a village when he heard the Seeker was among the male offspring.

My thoughts so far are is Richard (Craig Horner) is very, very pretty and *almost* my type. ;) But he can be rather dumb. Hence my frequently using the phrase, "Oh, Richard." Kahlan is also very, very pretty, but also very smart! And not only can she take care of herself (Quite the feat in those outfits!), but she also, frequently, saves Richard's ass. The acting is better than I expected. And the show is beautifully filmed on location in New Zealand.

The Dominatrix Cult, or whatever they are actually called, has yet to show up. I'm looking forward to that. It means the introduction of shirtless Richard torturing. :)


So now you know what we did in the room during the convention. There was also a viewing of the Doctor Who premiere with simplystars amusing commentary. I can still hear, "Stripper!"


Looking back at the con itself, I didn't attend that many panels. I'd say I fail, but if I missed a panel it was to hang out with friends and there was The Puplet on Saturday! And adorable babies will trump a panel any day. Unless that panel has Jamie Bamber. He's pretty adorable too.

The worldbuilding panel was both informative and fun. danceswithwords, brynnmck, simplystars and two other people whose names escape me (sorry!) created a concept that SyFy would pay big bucks for and would by HUGE in Region 5. Worldbuilding would end up being the only writing panel I attended, though "OTWhee! The Resurgence of Polyamory in Fan Fiction" I found helpful. Until White Collar I was largely oblivious to the concept.

My favorite panel was "Fandom is Part of My Life, Too". I'm not just saying that because it was modded by sdwolfpup and brynnmck along with minim_calibre. Really! Under their guidance some great discussion was generated. I didn't contribute as I was too busy taking in the thoughts and experiences of everyone else. The person who spoke about the pressures of running a comm especially struck a chord with me. And I appreciated hearing various individuals talk about how much they choose to share (or not) of their fandom lives with friends and family, how some feel they need to stay 'in the closet', while others just don't want to be put in the position of having to constantly explain fandom to those unaware. I wish the talk could have gone on longer. It was all very informative and helped relieve me of some of my own fandom guilt.

The vid show put on by trelkez was fabulous. I saw many vids I now very much want to download and a couple which made me want to check out the source material. I'll share more thoughts on the vids as soon as a list is posted to the con comm.

"Pimp my Fandom" was entertaining and convinced me to check out Durham County, a series I had heard of, but was unaware was Gothic horror and created, written and directed by women. Woo!

And, I must say, while I am fully capable of seeing slash and enjoying slash, not every show is slashy. During the pimping for several shows I wondered if we had watched the same series.

Most of fandom Pictionary flew by me and much of it I can't repeat without a warning label. :O I now have an image of Rodney McKay and Wolverine that I Do Not Want. I believe I have china_shop to thank for that. ;p And, I swear, The Puplet had a "WTF is with your friends, Mom?" expression during most of the proceedings. Hee.

I'm sure I am missing things. If something comes to me, I shall post, but I also know me and if I don't post something now I never will. (See fandom guilt.)


By the way, I have given danceswithwords with a new nickname, Bones. This is the Brennan Bones, not the McCoy Bones, in honor of a weekend of me mentioning actors (primarily poor Tim Matheson who has been around FOREVER) and getting, "I don't know who that is." :p