Sat, Mar 20th, 2010 -- 10:14 am

Chicago always does this.

All week it's been gorgeous, so I've been slowly packing up winter stuff and putting it away, taking one of the THREE BLANKETS off my bed, finding my summer clothes and shoes, and leaving windows open at night.

Today, it's snowing.

CHICAAAAGOOOOO! *fistshake*

Fri, Mar 19th, 2010 -- 11:02 pm

Well! I am home from the theatre.

I saw Remy Bumppo's production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which was very long but held my attention and made me laugh, and that's not something most films do, so well done them. It's a difficult play to do badly, in some ways, because the dialogue just clips right along and unless you just plain have bad actors, it's hard to make it boring. Still, Remy Bumppo is a reliable source for good theatre, and I've yet to see a bad play by them. One can't give the script all the credit.

I will say that previews are tough to attend sometimes, not so much because the play is still rough around the edges (it was; that's expected, and actually relished a bit) but because I forget that there is a...shall we say a certain sort of older person who attends previews and Sunday matinees. They were the bane of my existence when I worked for the box office and now just annoy me by talking, eating chocolates, reeking of Old Spice -- and walking all over the stage, which makes me insane. GET OFF THE FUCKING STAGE.

Also, god save me from ever being That Guy, the one who sees bare tits on stage in the first act and spends all of intermission giggling about it. Jesus. You'd think by the time they hit sixty most men who are interested in breasts have seen a few and could move on.

The set, which is always closest to my heart, was -- well, it was workmanlike. It did what it was supposed to do and didn't get in the way. Sometimes I guess that's all you an ask. There was a lot I would have done differently, particularly the floor, which was painted with a fair amount of skill and precision but so darkly that nobody noticed or cared. It looked like a mat floor for a dance troupe. Still, nil desperandum, one doesn't go to the theatre to look at the floors.

I always forget what an excellent play Les Liaisons Dangereuses is (though difficult to spell). Not just as a play, either; I could deconstruct the meaning of it and the various interpretations I've encountered, but it's fairly straightforward and more fun just to watch and experience. The thing is, it's also a good play from the standpoint of a professional: it's easy to make the sets and costuming interesting and it has a lot of really juicy parts for women while requiring very few men, which is not only fairly rare but quite desireable given the balance of women to men in the theatre today. You do have to have a good Valmont, but then they did. I'm sure I've seen him in other productions -- I think he was Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, which was my first Remy Bumppo play.

At any rate, if you're in Chicago and looking to see a good show, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a hot ticket and playing for the rest of March and all of April at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse on the north side. Good play, nice space, comfortable chairs with lots of leg room.

Fri, Mar 19th, 2010 -- 09:12 pm

Play is awesome- can never sing Remy Bumppo Theatre's praises enough. About to go into second act!

Fri, Mar 19th, 2010 -- 09:08 am

I HAVE DECLARED A DOONA DAY.

I have diagnosed myself as "too goddamn tired" and called in sick to work, and that allows me to take a nap this afternoon before I go to the theatre tonight. Sushi and the theatre. It is my favourite kind of night.

I don't know much about comics or pretend to be anything resembling a comic-book fan; I like comic books, but I tend to read trades and can't follow superheroes generally as closely as I can follow single-run franchises. Too many spinoffs and such, I get confused easily. But I do read MightyGodKing, who writes mostly about comics, because he also writes incredibly intelligent posts that are aimed at comics but have a much broader application. I suspect you guys may find his article On Reboots as interesting as I did, given that rebooting is a fad lately.

I'm laughing at myself today, because I've been working on a long sequel to the Lo Boeshane story, telling a little more about Jack's early life after leaving Boeshane and before becoming a Time Agent. I was having fun building the world and laying out the setup, but I was worried because I didn't have "a plot" to speak of. A couple of people made suggestions that I kind of cobbled together into A Plot...and then totally ignored to write an entirely different plot. Because apparently outlines and I really don't agree.

But anyway, I've got one now. Hurrah for my brain. :P

Thu, Mar 18th, 2010 -- 05:26 pm

I keep meaning to make a post and then stopping and thinking to myself, you know, I'm just not that interesting today.

What I am is exhausted, and I have been exhausted all week without realising it, and I'm not really sure why. I come home and just want to sleep, all the time, and I keep blowing off really quite simple errands I could run on my way home in order to get home and collapse faster. I don't think it's the medication; I don't know what's up with me.

I did find some interesting tidbits about fandom today. I stumbled over a series of Doctor Who fanzines, "The Frame", that someone had kindly scanned in as PDFs. They're from 1989, but luckily 1989 was the year that The Frame started a series on the origins of Doctor Who fandom, which is something I've been rummaging around in out of curiosity and coming up essentially empty-handed. So I started laughing when I read about the contents of the old 1960 fan club newsletter...

There was quite a healthy letters section (mostly with comments on recent stories), fan artwork (often more enthusiastic than technically proficient) and stories sent in by members.

Wow, fandom SURE HAS CHANGED, hasn't it.

Oh, all right, there's probably more porn now.

One of these stories, printed in 1968, was by Ray Downey and his sister. "It was called The Ice World and was, I think, really inspired by The Ice Warriors, Which had just been shown. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria landed on a giant sheet of ice which cracked up, and the TARDIS floated away. They spent the rest of the story trying to get back to it. It was rubbish, really..."

I am so sad that none of the reprinted pages of the old sixties fanzines had fanfic in them. But at least I have confirmed, as long suspected, that it existed.

Wed, Mar 17th, 2010 -- 06:06 pm

I called Mum when I got home today, because I was still a little shook up about calling security earlier, and while I know my mother loves me and will say exactly what I want to hear, I still get to hear it, which is nice.

Incidentally, I checked with the lobby desk on the way home and security did grab the guys and escort them out of the building. We are lucky to have really good security officers in our building -- they're courteous and fast and they take pride in their work. I'm sure it helps that most of them know me personally, and know that there will be candy in the candy dish for them tomorrow.

Anyway, I told Mum about what happened and how all I really wanted to do was curl up in bed and watch Doctor Who, and she said OH, ALARM CLOCK.

Beg pardon? I asked.

She told me that she'd been on the BBC website looking at DVDs and found a link to a Doctor Who alarm clock: "It's an alarm clock! With Doctor Who on it, and it does things!"

To which I immediately replied, without thinking, "Does it go ding when there's stuff?"

(This is my absolute favourite line from New Who. IT GOES DING WHEN THERE'S STUFF. It's surprisingly useful.)

Needless to say, my mum is not a science fiction fan and was a bit stumped by this question, but she said she'd send me the link. I can't wait to see what she found...

Wed, Mar 17th, 2010 -- 03:07 pm

I just had to call security on someone in my lobby for the first time. Jesus, that's not entertaining at all.

You get used to business solicitation in big high rises; reps for print companies, temp agencies, tech agencies, whatever, I get maybe two a week. Usually I just say "I'll save you the speech, we don't accept solicitations" and they say "thanks" and go on their way without wasting any more of my time.

These dudes just would not quit. They kept trying to explain what they do, as if I was somehow not getting it, and then one dude started wandering off towards our offices like he was going to find someone else to talk to. Uh, no.

So I said, if you don't leave, I'm going to call security, and they called me a few names and left, and I called security.

And I'm sure I'll stop shaking any minute now.

Tue, Mar 16th, 2010 -- 04:23 pm

Apparently my doctor's office is down a tech and cancelled me fiercely...and without telling me. Argh.

But, as all my medical care is at Northwestern Medical Center, that did put me in a prime position to have a late lunch at Mburger, the new "fast food" place by the executive chef of fancy Chicago restaurant Tru, located around the corner.

I am baffled by Mburger.

I kind of get the concept. High-end chef opens fast-food joint around the corner from his super-gourmet, super-expensive restaurant. He offers high-quality cheap food quickly, which I'm sure is a huge draw to the staff of the hospital nearby. It's had tons of buzz in the Near North, especially since during its first few days it regularly had to close down because they'd run out of food. It only has eight seats (one counter and two two-seat tables) so it's mostly for take-away. I definitely get the eight-seats thing; scarcity causes interest. I think it wants to be like Mighty Fine Burgers or Five Guys Burgers, high-quality comfort food served without frills. The problem is, it's just not very good.

I came in during a down-period, so it's not like there were a lot of people there; I even got a seat after I placed my order. The service was super-friendly but the actual food service was really too slow to be considered proper fast food. The service-and-dining area is about the size of my kitchen, and the music was WAY too loud for such a small space; the cashier couldn't actually hear my order, and I couldn't hear her response. I almost missed my number being called when my food was ready because Counting Crows was screaming at me.

The food wasn't really an improvement. For eight dollars I got a small, dry fried burger on a wonderbun, bland lukewarm fries, and a sort of average chocolate shake -- Hershey's syrup blended into vanilla ice cream. I could get a better hamburger, much better fries, and a soda for that at Byron's and still get change.

Mburger is too small to be a good diner (and closes too early for the lateness of the hour to excuse the quality of the food) and too hostile to leisurely dining to be a lunch joint. Thinking about it, the whole place reminds me of a burger stand at an amusement park -- mediocre food that you have to eat because there's nothing else around. The thing is, this is Chicago. There is food everywhere. Mburger is literally across the street from Elephant & Castle, where for eight bucks you can get a grilled burger and fresh fries and probably not wait as long, if you go during Mburger's peak hours.

The best way to put it is that no one part of the experience makes up for any other part. If the food were better, the service were faster, or the ambience less annoying, one could excuse the rest of it, and you'd actually get the feeling of knowing some awesome secret lunch place that's somehow "authentic". But it's just not, which is not really to the credit of the chef and owners of Tru, who gave up their pastry kitchen to install it.

And Elephant & Castle is right there.

Tue, Mar 16th, 2010 -- 12:24 pm

I have the day off! Ooooooooff.

So I got up, I went to storage, I sorted for a bit, I came home. This afternoon I have a doctor's appointment, which is actually the reason for my day off; it's easier for me to take a day and have a temp come in than try to find someone who can sit at my desk for the last three hours of my workday. One of the few disadvantages of my job is that it's very hard to get time off without everyone knowing and everyone remarking on it.

Couple of links for you -- a cafe member is running a marathon to raise money for farming and nutrition research and could use sponsors; another is looking for Gluten-Free recipes. (As much as I love my gluten-free homies, please post recipes there, not here.)

Also, someone asked me for links when I mentioned male fashion blogs. Directly after I answered it, Get Kempt linked to a Styleite post that lists the best male-fashion bloggers across a variety of genres.

I don't actually read many of the blogs anymore, though I used to read A Suitable Wardrobe and a few others listed there. I began to develop some issues with the way they approached style and appearance; I learned a lot, but I also felt like they could be teaching without being dickwads about people who enjoyed casual dress as well. Sometimes I just want to wear a t-shirt, and I don't think that makes me declasse.

So I read Get Kempt because it links to all the really vital stuff and also frequently to pictures of naked women, which is nice.

Mon, Mar 15th, 2010 -- 06:33 pm

My laptop has returned!

JESUS THIS SCREEN IS HUGE.

It is so nice to have all my photos and files and programs back. You are the prettiest laptop, yes you are! And they cleaned your screen and keyboard!

Excuse us, we need some time alone to re-bond...

Mon, Mar 15th, 2010 -- 04:11 pm

Not that I bill myself as some kind of connosseur of sex tapes or something...

Okay, as an aside, I waffled about putting the below under an LJ-cut, but the hell with that, I link you guys to porn all the time, so whatever.

Not that I bill myself as some kind of connosseur of sex tapes or something, but as far as I'm aware very few celeb sex tapes contain footage of a woman getting head. Or holding the camera, for that matter. Am I wrong? You can tell me anonymously if you don't want to admit you shelled out for Paris Hilton or Russell Crowe. We don't judge here. (Okay, maybe we judge a little.)

My point is, a) very little cunnilingus on celebrity sex tapes, and b) they're usually not called gross.

Gross Details about the John Edwards Sex Tape in which John Edwards is seen performing oral sex.

Point one: Classy, Gawker. Ick, ew, ladyparts! I mean, it's not like it's my favourite thing to do (sorry, women, it's just not) but seriously.

Point two: I realise this is an asshole being unfaithful to his wife, but I find it sort of endearing that a sex tape of him surfaces and it's footage of him showing off while he pleasures his girlfriend. It's oddly sweet.

I wish I could talk this coherently about actual news, but I get all my information from R, my flist, and male fashion blogs. Which is how I know next to nothing about the troop surge in Afghanistan but I can tell you pretty much anything you want to know about Eric Massa's ticklefights with his junior staff.

(Wow, how inappropriate are ALL MY ICONS EVER when I post about oral sex?)

Sun, Mar 14th, 2010 -- 06:53 pm

R: So I'm thinking of having a Wheel dinner party on Thursday.
Sam: I can do that.
R: I want to make a stew. Or...okay, I ask you this because I know I can do it now...
Sam: Yes...?
R: Could you find me a recipe...

At this point I was wondering, a recipe for what? A recipe for stew?

I know better. I know better.

R: Could you find me a recipe and I could follow it?
Sam: You think you can...follow a recipe?
R: Yeah! Don't you think so? If it has tips and things.

Note to self: find very, very simple recipe. Maybe a beverage recipe.

Sun, Mar 14th, 2010 -- 06:14 pm

I am at R's place hanging out, when he turns to me and says, "So have you heard of this website where you can publish your own books? Like...real books, with covers and everything."

This is much like the time he was so excited he got sixty hits on his MySpace.

Cue a ten-minute attempt to explain internet self-publishing and the concept that no, really, you don't pay anything up front. Nothing at all!

He's still baffled.

Extribulum has a long road ahead of it....

Sun, Mar 14th, 2010 -- 03:17 pm

Normally, when he's not travelin', my Travelin' Jack Harkness lives with a wooden elephant figurine on my bookshelf. (Don't judge him!)

Today, HE MADE A NEW FRIEND.



They look rather wary of each other, actually, but I'm sure they'll get on fine once they've compared guns.

(Don't worry about the elephant, he's gone back to hang out with his elephant buddies at the Ganesha shrine on my windowsill.)

Sun, Mar 14th, 2010 -- 10:37 am

I am supposed to go to Storage today but oh how I do not want to. Headache, rare attack of allergies, and I am TIRED...dreamed last night that someone was trying to fill up my bathroom with toilets. I shudder to think what it means.

I'm having an interesting discussion with tzikeh in comments to my White Collar finale wrap up, about character emotional reactions, and I realised I'd put my finger on something that really bothers me about my fannish canons and in some sense drives some of the writing I do. I thought I'd shine up one of the comments I made and post it, so. Spoilers for the end of Ender's Game and the season finale of White Collar, the end of Children of Earth, and some discussion of books five through seven of Harry Potter.

( Giving concrete form to immediate grief. )

WELL. THAT WAS A SHIT TON OF META.

Sat, Mar 13th, 2010 -- 10:39 am

Dell called me this morning to let me know that my computer had been repaired and was being shipped back to me. I was reasonably \o/ about this until I checked the tracking information they gave me and realised that it had, in fact, already shipped, and was IN CHICAGO as of this morning. It should be delivered Monday.

\o/

COME HOME TO ME BABY. I WILL TREAT YOU RIGHT.

I cleaned the flat today, put up the curtains that have been insulating the windows all winter and opened a few windows. This is a guarantee it will snow tomorrow, but whatever, it feels good to get some light and air into this place. I love winter, I love hunkering down in a dark warm cave while it snows outside, but the cave starts to smell a bit after four or five months.

Fri, Mar 12th, 2010 -- 06:11 pm

Apropos of nothing, I would pay good cash money to see ATARI: THE MUSICAL!

Someone should pitch that to the Penny Arcade boys.

(The Pong dream ballet would be heartbreaking.)

Fri, Mar 12th, 2010 -- 12:08 pm

I got a letter in the mail this week telling me that I will get a letter in the mail next week about the census.

This is, btw, a huge waste of paper, money, and time -- the OMG CENSUS INCOMING letter, I mean, though in some ways I think the Census itself is given more weight than it should considering its information-gathering techniques. At any rate, I'm planning to Queer The Census (via synecdochic, thanks!) and if you're in America and receiving a Census form, you should do the same.

Among many other issues, if the government wants to tell you who you can marry, it should know just how many people it is depriving of the right to marriage and how many people are angry about it. The FAQ at the Queer The Census site has information on how to fill out the census -- including little factoids about data management, like how legally married gay couples can indicate that on the form itself, and how the race of the person designated "head of household" is the race the entire family will be designated in the Census data tables.

There's a petition which takes about two seconds to sign, and a free sticker available that you can seal your census envelope with, which includes checkboxes for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Straight Ally. My sticker is already in the mail to me!

Fri, Mar 12th, 2010 -- 10:47 am

Hey guys, bluejeans07 has joined the ranks of the Lulu Fabulous and self-published a sketchbook. She's a professional artist and the sketchbook itself is gorgeous, including reprints of her awesome pinups for Girls Drawing Girls. You can preview the sketchbook and it's available for purchase; she wanted me to let people know she'll also be selling it next month at Wizard World Anaheim.

I have a vested interest in Jean's success, because she promised to draw me doing the Barrowman fistshake I love her work. *solemn*

:D

Fri, Mar 12th, 2010 -- 08:20 am

Someday, I am going to write a memoir entitled Admins Should Have Kill Rights.

In this memoir I am going to include a transcript of the voicemail I got yesterday morning, which I wish I could post to you guys but could get in serious legal trouble for doing. In essence, a grandmotherly-sounding woman called in with a request for contact information for a client we supposedly serve, which is not so unusual, but from there it turned into some kind of bizarre comedy sketch, where she ranted with increasing rage about two women who had maybe stolen her identity or maybe were trying to sell her drugs or hook her up with strange men, and ended by her denouncing them for using her ID not because it was illegal but because they hadn't paid her for the use of it.

Anyway, she left her phone number. I've been told to pass it down the line to legal, so I don't have to get involved, but I will admit I googled her number. No wonder people have been ripping her off; the very first hit when you google her phone number is her full name and address. Googling her name brought up her LinkedIn profile with her educational and employment history and home address; googlemaps showed me her house.

Nobody knows better than I do the delicate dance of internet privacy, but I'm always astounded by just how much information I can gather about a person with a few mouse clicks and a phone number.

Out of curiousity I googled my new phone number, which thankfully has no associations, and my real name (Starbuck is not my surname). Fortunately my surname, while not exactly common, is shared by a few other Sams who have much more public facebook and myspace accounts than I do....