(no subject)

[solitary_summer]

In temporal order:

# Rest of last week: things returned to normal, more or less, which is a good thing? Probably.


# Saturday: Morning run; actually quite tolerable afternoon with the family, albeit too much food. Bought a small wicker basket with three white hyacinths. Also a cactus. Which may not sound like a big thing (it certainly isn't a big cactus), but it kind of is (I think). I haven't bought any plants since I moved here. Most of my cacti died in/after move before this one, I killed two African Violets here, and then there's the Philodendron type plant that fell from the top shelf when I threw a blanket up to the bed and hit the pot. (Not counting the olive tree, because it's removed from my evil influence for more than half of the year) Gist of story, I never pretended to have a green thumb, but to suddenly turn into a serial killer of all things botanical seemed like bad karma. Between that and the whole depression thing, when having something living and growing around just didn't seem fitting somehow, I never even wanted to take home the plant my mother gave me two birthdays ago (which miraculously is still alive). So. i bought a cactus. I just hope I haven't already killed it in the process of re-potting.


# Yesterday: There should have been pictures. Really, there should have. Don't think I actually mentioned it at the time, but I finally bought the camera ten days ago, but only yesterday had the leisure to really try it out. To cut the squeeing short, ::major love::, even if I haven't got much beyond the simpler functions. Also bought a card reader to circumvent the not-having-OSX problem. That is, asked at the store if this would work, they said yes, and gave me this particular card reader. Had an aggravating hour or so finding out that no, it doesn't. Should work with Mac, or so a little internet research told me, even if if the package only said Windows, but apparently my system is too old. There's a driver to download on the company's website, but only for OS9.x. I have OS9.0.4. Stopped trying after my computer froze twice. ::sigh:: I guess I'll ask at the Apple store tomorrow morning; there must be a way to get the pictures out of the camera without buying a new computer just yet. ::pets iMac::

Stayed up too late watching S3 Angel yesterday, with mixed feelings. I love S3 until Darla's death, but then there are a few intolerably saccharine episodes where suddenly just about everything is about baby, romance or relationships. Between Angel/Cordelia, Cordelia/Gru, Fred/Gunn and the incessant cooing over the baby my teeth were beginning to slightly ache. I presume the intent was to lighten the mood, let the tension slacken a bit, before the angst & drama pick up again, show Angels's love for his son, the possibility of a normal life, to emphasise his rage when he loses him, & so on, & so forth, but it doesn't work for me. None of the relationships do. Trying to put a romantic angle on Cordelia/Angel seems pointless, what with the curse and anything; As for Gru, I assume either it's Cordelia's still-lingering inner cheerleader that makes her fall for him, or it's her way of sublimating her attraction to Angel, because as a character he has nothing much to recommend him to the woman Cordelia has become. He doesn't have much of a character, full stop. As for Fred/Gunn, I don't like Fred. Once she gets over her trauma, her character ceases to be interesting; she's smart and sweet, in whichever order, and that's about it. Smiles a lot. Her relationship with Gunn is, well, boring; perhaps sweet for a couple of episodes, but there is no real chemistry IMHO. Maybe the interracial thing is supposed to be sufficient to create an interest for the average US viewer; I wouldn't know. Maybe I'm just not romantic enough.


And then there's Wesley. Now I find Wesely fascinating as a character, but just like Angel he's not an easily likable one. I'm not going for an in-depth character analysis here, I merely wanted to make the point that I'm not a mindless fangirl before I go on to say What. The. Fuck. There are all kinds of good moments on Angel; touching moments, dramatic moments, tragic moments, but Angel trying to kill Wesley was the single most truly shocking moment for me. Trying to kill a man who is absolutely helpless, after calmly lying at least by implication to get into the hospital room, equally calmly making sure he understands that this is in fact Angel doing this, not Angelus... oh, wow.

This said, it was a good moment - shocking, but for Angel himself it was in character, perfectly in keeping with the very thin line between his personas. From an artistic point of view the scene itself was well done, what is more problematic IMO is that I think they've manouvered themselves into a corner getting out of which demands some major adjusting of the other characters. Because what I find more appalling than what Angel did is everyone else's reaction, or more precisely the utter lack thereof. It seems horribly out of character to me that they would just continue working there, apparently quietly adjusting, mostly by not mentioning Wesley's name. Fred is perhaps excused, she hasn't been around long, but Gunn who had been his friend since Wesley took a bullet for him and has always been protective of Wesley where Angel was concerned ever since? Gunn, whom Angel trusted to stake him if necessary? Cordelia, who never took any shit from anyone, including Angel? Lorne, who at least tried to talk Angel out of killing that W&H lawyer?

Maybe it's because I'm the type who tries to fix things on her own, and don't quite get the attitude prevalent especially in USian TV shows [insert accusatory, self-righteous & perhaps a little whiny tone] 'But we're your friends, you should have come to us, and since you haven't you 1) fucked up, 2) hurt/betrayed us and 3) deserve whatever happened to you' & so forth. Never mind they wouldn't have understood and most likely couldn't have helped. To go off on a tangent for a moment, this is exactly the same thing I found so irritating about the Buffy S2 finale/S3 beginning: There's this sixteen year old girl who puts a sword through the heart of the man she loves, fully aware of the consequences, and does this enormous thing, despite her pain, calmly, because it's her duty and there is no other way. And then she runs. Once she finds the strength to come back all her friends who apparently never wondered whether she might not have a legitimate reason for running, constantly bitch and whine how she's the one in the wrong and whatnot. /tangent.

Maybe it's because I don't have kids and don't particularly want any. Maybe it's all that cooing over The Baby, episode after episode after episode. But I don't see how what Wesley did (with the best intentions, after all; and the results might have been exactly the same without his intervention) was so horrible that his (former) friends quietly accept that Angel has something of a right to kill him. And not only in a spur-of-the-moment fit of rage, judging from what Fred said. Does a soul make that much of a difference? Does a child?

End of rant. Maybe the season finale will throw a different light on things.


Still feeling vaguely sick, slight cold, clogged nose. I'd rather stay at home, but will meet U. and R. for coffee and cinema. Ah well...