Happy July-birthdays-so-far to tiyanath, ezagaaikwe, adelynne, diachrony, hellopoe, hermionesviolin, and on-time today, sandy_s! And let's wish a happy tomorrow birthday to dettiot for good measure, since the chances of me posting tomorrow are slim-to-bupkiss.

Whew! I wish I could promise that I won't get this far behind again, but I will. Let's be real for a minute, shall we? The end of May through the end of July looks like this, in my world:

Sister's wedding, backpacking in Africa, CONvergence, Remix, Apocalyptothon with bonus mod duties, interviewing people at work, Writercon.

When (many of) you see me at Writercon, I will be exceptionally wrung out, but also ever-so-happy that all the busy stuff is over and I can finally, I don't know, make jam! Bake bread! Sleep in (when cold meds aren't conspiring to screw up my sleep like today)! Participate in LJ!

Oh, and for those of us who haven't had time for an hour of tv a night this week, please keep cut-tagging those Torchwood reactions. I have all the eps. I just won't have time to watch them until my Remix is done. (Why yes, I started it Wednesday. WHAT? See the above list of crazy-making. And the assignments came out while I was in Africa. I may have been crazy to sign up, but... REMIX.)

FINALLY ZOMG. We finally get our second senator!!!!!!!! Minnesota is no longer the half-represented state!!!!!

Now, let's fix health care.

First day back at work after Africa, and all day I looked at my new desktop wallpaper and wished I were back there. ( So instead, have a small picture that's a link to the full-sized picture! )

Mosi-oa-Tunya. The Smoke that Thunders. Victoria Falls. One of the most beautiful places on earth. Why can't I teleport there just by wishing it so? Where's a TARDIS when a girl needs one?

In other news, today is notable because it's the birthday of rusty_halo, co-chair of writercon, creator of awesome websites, and writer of insightful meta on topics from David Bowie to Jaime Lannister. Happy birthday, Laura! :)

First time below the equator in 3... 2... I wish it were that fast. Actually, I'm three hours away from walking out the door to fly from Minneapolis to Atlanta (2.5 hours) and then Atlanta to Johannesburg (15 hours). I'm still waiting for scientists to invent magic, or at least teleportation.

Carry-on baggage only, baby! After compressing clothing in baggies, everything fits easily in ironchefjoe's 30L daypack. Fully loaded it's a bit over 16lb, and probably 4lb of that is guidebooks I'm just bringing to study on the plane. And my little brother said that his backpack isn't full, so he can take some of the "crew gear". (I packed assuming that he would do zero planning; this was an accurate assumption.)

I did decide on a book; despite knowing the general plot I've never read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and that seems like an oversight it's time to correct.

( Packing pics )

The route is in flux, and we may not hit every country in the region, but between Joburg, the Western Cape, and the Victoria Falls area (hopefully on the Zimbabwe side), I think it's safe to say that it will be an interesting two weeks. We have one reservation for a backpacker hostel on the first night in Joburg, and after that it's all up in the air. I've never travelled like this. I'm a little weirded out by not having a set itinerary, but I think it will be amazing.

While hostels supposedly have internet, I doubt I will be spending much time using it. If you need to reach me, contact ironchefjoe or wait until the weekend of June 27-28.

I'll miss you guys! Don't break the internets while I'm gone, or if you do, compile lots of detailed linkspam about it. ;)

Tags: leaving on a jet plane

So, I get home from ESL to find ironchefjoe watching TNG. Oh, man. I remember why I've always disliked Trek: I was mostly exposed to TNG. All the preachy bellyaching about "should we do X????" instead of actually doing anything... gah. *clings to reboot*

In other news, we recently watched the end of Babylon 5 Season 3. Sheridan! Delenn! Londo! G'Kar! Ivanova! So much love! (Except for Marcus. Stupid Marcus.)

I've always argued that my preference for B5 is based on the gritty realism of dockworker strikes and corrupt EarthGov versus the shiny happy awesome of the Federation, but it's not really a fair comparison since I never watched DS9. At least New Trek made things a little darker, though I still really would have liked ( more stuff about the women )

I want them to be as developed as Ivanova (which I guess gets back to my problem with movies... they are just too short.)

So, I was going to post about my weekend (omg busy) but then I looked at the news.

( Cut for profanity, yelling, feminist rage, and recovering Catholic/pro-lifer sentiment )

*stabbity*

Tags: stabbity

Seven Supernatural drabbles, because the women need more fic...

Jenny
( Spoilers for 1x09 )
Jo
( Spoilers for 2x14, AU )
Ellen
( Spoilers for 2x22 )
Missouri
( Spoilers for 4x03 )
Kate
( Spoilers for 4x19 )
Anna
( Spoilers for 4x20, wincest )
Ruby
( Spoilers for 4x22, Sam/Ruby )

I'll give you one guess as to what motivated these (besides writercon100). And in related news, I've done my annual fic site update, posting last year's Doctor Horrible, Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Supernatural fic. Now Remix can happen! *anticipates*

Thing the first: I had three different back-to-back meetings today which went from 10am to 3:30pm.

Thing the second: Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles is cancelled.

The first one is Real Life Aggravating, but the second is Fandom Aggravating. DAMMIT. Why can the world not arrange itself in a manner more pleasing to me?

( Supernatural 4x22 )

Okay, apparently it's been like a month since I posted about any TV not Supernatural. Time for some catch-up.

Dollhouse finally got interesting and addressed some of its issues head-on, which means Fox will be canceling it in 3...2...1... At least ( Season 1 finale Dollhouse Spoiler )

Finally got around to watching Obama's speech from the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Haha! "Let's go to Iowa and make it official." Apparently Barack's Political RPF couple is himself/David Axelrod.

Castle has been a sleeper hit for me. I checked it out because of Nathan Fillion, but he's not the main reason I keep watching. The supporting cast is surprisingly well-developed, and the warm moments of humanity and family are way more than I expected from a paint-by-numbers mid-season procedural.

I realize that I never posted about Being Erica 1x13. ( Being Erica 1x13 spoiler )

So apparently we have to wait for the rest of Kings. Stupid NBC. *sigh* As ironchefjoe put it, that show was too smart for TV.

Still watching The Office and 30 Rock, but I have so little to say about them. I can pretty much sum it up with "meh" and "I wouldn't bother, were the boy not watching them". I catch a few minutes of 24 and even fewer minutes of Lost from time to time, but I'm pretty much confused. Oh, wait, I have one thing to say about 24: ( Spoiler for most recent 24 ep )

When I first heard about Caprica, I wasn't sure I cared. What do you know... Caprica in the decades before the fall was actually a really interesting place. While some of the characters didn't really work for me, it was fascinating seeing more of the full-fledged society that led to the BSG we know and love.

Checked out the Glee pilot on the recommendation of several flisters, and enjoyed it more than I thought I might. It's pretty funny, although the overall message seemed to be that working at a high school is even worse than attending one. I don't see this having much staying power for me, though, unless the female characters get some more layers. ( Glee pilot spoiler ) SPN fills my guys-are-the-only-fleshed-out-characters show quota.

On the other hand, after watching all of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Passes the Bechdel test and then some. Main characters are strong, varied women with agency (and an Agency!). The lead is a woman of ample size who has a positive body image. All the villains are POC... but then so are all the heroes, and in fact nearly all the characters we even see on screen at all. ( Episode 1x06 (S1 finale) spoiler )

And finally, not TV, but: surprised the heck out of myself by loving the new Trek movie. I've always been more into Babylon 5, but I think the Trek I hated was the smug "we're perfect" of TNG. These TOS characters are actually pretty cool (and not horribly smug). (Man, do I hate Picard.) I would very much enjoy some fic about Uhura/( Trek reboot movie spoiler ) Can't wait to see what JJ does next. For this, I may actually forgive him for Alias Season 5. (Not that I've watched more than a few minutes of it. Grr.)

So, I've been commuting by bicycle pretty consistently this spring. It's about 2.5 miles one way, so it's a nice bit of exercise. But carrying clothes and lunch containers in a backpack was getting really old. And with warm weather coming, I needed a better solution.

Freewheel had a rack and panniers sale, so I picked up both a rack which ironchefjoe wrestled onto my recalcitrant frame and this adorable bag woven from plastic juice-boxes. It's study and roomy and all sorts of useful, and works just as well slung over my shoulder when I get off the bike.

To be perfectly honest, I picked it because it was cute and looked recycled. The fact that some proceeds go to a women's non-profit co-op in the developing world makes me even happier. :)

What other stuff have you found that's both responsible and awesome?

Tags: two wheels are better than four

( Supernatural 4x21 )

I could have lived my whole life without hearing Trey Wingo quote Whitesnake. Oh, Trey. You may no longer be Extreme Self-Tanner Orange, but you continue to be a huge spaz.

And then there's Rachel Nichols on Favre apparently not joining the Vikes: "Surgery has never been Brett's favorite thing." NO. Really? Wow, these are some quality reportings.

Happy belated birthday to poohmusings, mpoetess, undeny, and zimshan! And happy on-time birthday to janedavitt and sockkpuppett! Hope all of you enjoy either the Holy Day of Supernatural... or a happy Thursday. ;)

ETA: ESPN is reporting on Brett Favre's lawnmowing. God. Can minicamp start already so there can be real news???

ETA #2: Ooh, looks like I have one Dreamwidth code left. Comment and tell me if you want it. :)

I was erasing the whiteboard and chatting with the last student as he packed up his stuff.

"I really should learn some Spanish."

"Come to my Spanish/English conversation circle."

"If I come, will you laugh at me? Because I will sound really dumb."

"White people are smart," he said nonchalantly, like it was a fact of life.

"No," I said, heart aching. "I'm going to write this word on the board, because it's important."

PRIVILEGE

"White people who grow up in America have schools and books. Often they have money and involved parents. People treat them differently because they are white. This means that society gives them advantages they did not earn. It is not fair. But white privilege doesn't mean white people are smart."

"Privilege. Huh." He glared at the word on the board like it explained a few things.

"I'll come to your conversation circle and you can teach me some Spanish."

"Okay." And he smiled.

I've laughed, I've wept, I've been awed, and that was just the first half. This man is an amazing performer. And he said from the stage that the last time he was here was 1993. So glad he's here now.

( Supernatural 4x20 )

Tonight features a new episode of my favorite show, Barack Hussein Obama Is President of the United States of America. It's tivoing while ironchefjoe is at guitar lessons, but I may have just looked at cnn.com and spoiled myself. ;)

Tickets for Africa have been acquired*. I leave June 11th and while my return ticket says June 25th, I won't be back until the 26th. I am thrilled beyond measure. It's awfully difficult to concentrate on Things Not Africa, but concentrate I must. *vibrates with excitement*

*My parents insisted on paying for them, saying that me taking unpaid leave is quite enough, and saying they are grateful I'm going to be keeping an eye on my brother. I scoff at the idea of me being the voice of sanity, but I'll swallow my stubborn pride and take the tickets because damn, they aren't cheap. I can assuage my guilt by remembering that my dad turned down going along on this trip and my mom's worried about the crazy boy and his globe-trotting ways.

Happy belated birthday to cindergal, 433, & fishsanwitt, and happy on-time birthday to nikitangel!

In "Move On might want to double-check their mass mailings" news, here's what I found in my inbox this morning:

Can you drop by your senator's local office today or tomorrow to tell him or her to stand up for a public health insurance option that would guarantee coverage and reduce costs by up to 30%?3

Here's the office closest to you (or at least we hope so; see the P.S. for other options):

Sen. Vacant Vacant's District Office
2550 University Ave., West, Suite 100N
St. Paul, MN

Yes, I'm well aware that Norm Coleman is a sore loser and as a result Minnesota has only one senator. Do they really have to rub it in?

Tags: underrepresented

( Supernatural 4x19 )

Last night, our new recycling bin came. It should encourage us to separate out paper waste, and it will hold more bottles/cans than our previous solution. The actual trash container is smaller than our old one, but since I'm planning on ordering some stacking vermiculture trays, that should be less of a problem.

( Immunization: shots and pills! )

Because of having to zoom to the travel clinic, I had to drive today (boo, hiss). Hopefully I will be non-aching enough to bike tomorrow. Also hoping not to see the asshat photographers who keep setting up their tripods in the middle of the bike path on the Stone Arch Bridge. I understand you want to take pictures of the falls, folks, but people are trying to commute! Might I suggest the pedestrian path instead? Much easier for them to walk around or over the legs of your tripod.